Baldur's Gate 3 - Interview @IGN

IGN talked to Senior Writer Adam Smith about Baldur's Gate III.

For Smith, it seems to boil down to a trusty few factors - the first one being tone. Baldur's Gate always managed to blend a bunch of different styles together, rather than placing all its chips on one fantasy subgenre or another. "I see people talk about the darkness of Baldur's Gate," he says. "And it's absolutely something that we want to bring out. But Baldur's Gate was very, very lighthearted and strange and silly and bizarre in places, as well. And that's really a quality that I think separates it from a lot of other RPGs. It is tonally all over the place and it hits its beats so, so well.

"Occasionally it wants to be romantic, and it's very good at being romantic. Occasionally it wants to be darkly romantic, occasionally it wants to have fun. There are characters that are so cartoonish and strange, and they coexist alongside torture and horror… and getting all those things to sit well together, I think, is part of what Baldur's Gate is."

[…]

It is a relatively traditional fantasy setting, after all. Elves, for example, regularly live well into their 700s, so it's entirely possible that characters - even our own, given the options available during creation - would remember the Bhaalspawn crises, or that we'll see characters like Kivan or Coran or make a return in Larian's take on the Sword Coast. "One of the interesting things," Smith says, "is for some people that's ancient history, for some people, it's recent history… We're 100 years later, but that's not a long time for a deity."

More information.

“We want it to be the best game we've ever made, but we also want it to be the best Baldur's Gate game possible,” says Larian’s Senior Writer Adam Smith in a recent interview with IGN, explaining that to do so, the team is focused on not only modernizing Baldur’s Gate for new audiences, but pushing the boundaries current of RPGs as well, rather than just making another Baldur’s Gate with fancier graphics. “Baldur's Gate wouldn't have been the success that it was – critically, commercially, or in terms of reviving what a CRPG could be,” Smith says, “if it hadn't been looking forward. And so Baldur’s Gate 3 has to do the same.”

Usually when I read something like that I get the chills. Just look at BioWare when they mentioned the same thing about Mass Effect and Dragon Age. We'll see this time.

Disclaimer: Not a complaint so lay off the attacks as usual on these threads please.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Usually when I read something like that I get the chills. Just look at BioWare when they mentioned the same thing about Mass Effect and Dragon Age. We'll see this time.

Disclaimer: Not a complaint so lay off the attacks as usual on these threads please.

Good old Baldurs Gate, just with fancier graphics? Hell yeah!

Jokes aside, I have tons of concerns if Larian can make BG3 rigt. Most coming from what I saw in previous games and what I saw in several videos of BG3 gameplay. Also in interviews I alsways find sentences that scare me.

But Im clearly strongly biased and with this knowledge, I will try to stay aside and wait for release. Fearing the worst and hoping for best.

Tone? BG3 looks sickeningly garish to me, regardless of what RPG elements it includes.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato:
Usually when I read something like that I get the chills. Just look at BioWare when they mentioned the same thing about Mass Effect and Dragon Age. We'll see this time.

They just want to sell their product Musicians say similar things every time they release a new album: "this album is the best we have made to date". Can't really blame them for trying to sell their hard work, although I would appreciate something like: "This won't be as good as our epic classic, but, oh well, it will be decent anyways".

PS. I have a feeling that Larian will manage to pull off with what they say, but I am an optimist. Time will show.

Originally Posted by Falksi
Tone? BG3 looks sickeningly garish to me, regardless of what RPG elements it includes.

Do you mean the color palette? Or the story/writing that's been hinted at in trailers and gameplay?

I think what he said sounds good. I agree with the variation in tone being important, and that the party interaction is paramount. I have some hope that they will succeed, even though the story in their other games has been only semi good and quite forgettable. In my opinion of course.

Edit: I thought the companion quests were very well done and memorable in DOS2. I hope they expand on that for BG3 and that there is a way for background choices to impact as much as it did in DOS2. It was a brilliant idea, but with lots of companions in BG probably expensive and harder to pull off well.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
I think what he said sounds good. I agree with the variation in tone being important, and that the party interaction is paramount.

Of course, when BG2 came out, they were ahead of everyone regarding the party interaction, but IMO games that followed have done it better. The scripting options were limited in 2000 compared to these days. Was it just me but in BG1 I found the best part to be the wandering in the forests? Such forests were never done in computer games before, the atmosphere was unique, graphics great, and the forests felt dangerous due to the low-level characters. Diablo nailed the similar type of dangerous atmosphere in dungeons the year earlier and the dungeons in BG1 did not feel particularly memorable to me but those forests were great!

Originally Posted by largh
Was it just me but in BG1 I found the best part to be the wandering in the forests? Such forests were never done in computer games before, the atmosphere was unique, graphics great, and the forests felt dangerous due to the low-level characters. Diablo nailed the similar type of dangerous atmosphere in dungeons the year earlier and the dungeons in BG1 did not feel particularly memorable to me but those forests were great!

Absolutely agree. If there's one thing I'd like to capture in an RPG, it's that low-level exploration in the woods and ruins that BG absolutely nailed. I've literally studied all the elements of it, from the sound design and music, to the layout and pacing. For me, the early part of BG was absolute magic, and completely captivated me.

Alas, the young girl's cat was dead.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Absolutely agree. If there's one thing I'd like to capture in an RPG, it's that low-level exploration in the woods and ruins that BG absolutely nailed. I've literally studied all the elements of it, from the sound design and music, to the layout and pacing. For me, the early part of BG was absolute magic, and completely captivated me.

Yes, absolutely. I hope Larian leave space for this kind of low level exploration and don't dial up to "epic feel" straight away. It's nice to be a bit of a nobody for a while in a low level RPG.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
Do you mean the color palette? Or the story/writing that's been hinted at in trailers and gameplay?

Colour palette specifically. Just too bright & colourful for my liking.

Originally Posted by Falksi
Colour palette specifically. Just too bright & colourful for my liking.

Eh? Doesn't seem overly colorful to me especially compared to their past games.

In fact, I even think it looks kind of dull and washed-out. It reminds me of Dragon Age which isn't really a good thing. The quality of the footage could be a factor though.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Eh? Doesn't seem overly colorful to me especially compared to their past games.

Compared to previous BG games it does

Originally Posted by Falksi
Compared to previous BG games it does

No, not really. BG 2 was pretty dark, but BG had quite a bit of color in a lot of places.

Originally Posted by JDR13
No, not really. BG 2 was pretty dark, but BG had quite a bit of color in a lot of places.

I'll be thinking of BG2

There's no way they could live up to the nostalgia for this series, so I'm hoping they take it in their own direction and start a new series. What I've seen in the previews thus far looks good.

Originally Posted by rjshae
so I'm hoping they take it in their own direction and start a new series.

It's a little hard to start a new series when they've already taken the name. I still wish they had used a subtitle rather than calling this Baldur's Gate "III".

Originally Posted by JDR13
It's a little hard to start a new series when they've already taken the name. I still wish they had used a subtitle rather than calling this Baldur's Gate "III".

I disagree, but perhaps my meaning wasn't clear. I'm hoping they take the revived setting in a whole new direction, with a minimum of reference to the previous episodes. Thus far the illithid plot line looks like a good start, and the spelljammer ship is intriguing.

Originally Posted by rjshae
I disagree, but perhaps my meaning wasn't clear. I'm hoping they take the revived setting in a whole new direction, with a minimum of reference to the previous episodes. Thus far the illithid plot line looks like a good start, and the spelljammer ship is intriguing.

Well a revived setting isn't the same thing as a new series to me, but I think I get the gist of what you're saying.

Yeah, I hope they don't overdo the references to the older titles, but that might be a no-win situation for them. Too many references and people will feel like they're overplaying the nostalgia card. Too few and people will cry that it's not a true sequel.