“I know we made them too thirsty,” jokes lead writer Adam Smith about the companion characters in the role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3. “We know about it. The Internet told us.” As part of the PC Gamer Chat log podcast, journalists from PC Gamer spoke with Smith, where he shared his thoughts on the nuances of party relationships in Baldur’s Gate 3.
“One of the reasons why I think they stand out is because we wanted them to be the ones who come to you,” he says, describing Larian’s approach to romantic relationships between players and their party members. “We wanted them to be the initiators in most cases, not you saying, ‘I bring you things, and that means I want to sleep with you’.”
In role-playing games with romantic relationships, the usual approach is to give an approval meter that you fill by partially saying all the “right” things in dialogue, and partially by repeatedly giving favored items. After a sufficient amount of correct dialogue options and gift-giving, a confession appears (sometimes with a sexual scene). Congratulations, you’ve started a romance!
Baldur’s Gate 3 has something similar: an approval tracker and plenty of opportunities to influence it in dialogue, with gradual notifications of “Astarion approves” and “Karlach disapproves”. But, according to Smith, Larian pays less attention to sticking to the same formula for each character. Definitely, there are nuances in how all relationships start: Lae’zel starts by being impressed with your warrior abilities, Karlach has starved for touch after years literally spent in fire, Wyll is a complete simpleton compared to her, and Shadowheart is more cautious about her true feelings.
“It all always starts with the story. Who is Astarion? How did he become like this? You see people saying, ‘I can fix him. I can fix him!'” says Smith. “And we joke about it, and I love making jokes and being silly. But they have traumas, many of them. And I hope that when we get to the end of their stories, you’ll see how they unfold in most cases.”
Astarion’s story is especially dark. He hints at his history right from the start: he was a slave to the vampire who turned him. As a result, he has complicated relationships with sex and intimacy, as we also learned from an interview with Neil Newbon, the actor voicing him.
“Hopefully, we have a bunch of different versions of what a good romantic scene is,” Smith explains. “Sometimes you start with sex and end up with a hook. Because you’re actually breaking down barriers. Sex isn’t the goal, it’s just sex. For some people, it can be very significant. For others, it’s not the most important thing. For some, the most significant thing is when you say to them, ‘I will never abandon you’.”
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