On the quantity: it is leveraged well to serve the quality and the games goals. It's all about the focus. There's such a vast difference between reused quest templates in a run of the mill open world game, and BG3s meticulously written quests and choice paths, with different characters, relationships, and interactions cascading into your outcomes and general experience. The quantity in BG3 took time, effort, and creativity, in a way that cannot be rivalled by a lazier game design approach that could technically qualify as larger quantity, but fails to provide satisfying variety and depth of expression. The quantity in new Ass Creed feels quota/tickbox driven, just trying to get people playing enough to invest funds, not truly value their time and entertainment quality. Will be interesting to see what Larian decide to do next. With such a culmination, it might be too much to simply iterate on BG3. I'm wondering if they have an idea to experiment elsewhere or focus on something new to bring to the table, like FromSoftware kind of had AC6 and Sekiro as side outlets to the mainline Souls stuff, where Sekiro's focus brought new mechanics to their Soulsline, and their time on Souls brought some vaguer design philosophy to their old Armored Core franchise to give it a new spark.
I think the care and effort that goes into all the side content, and how all of it feels meaningful and memorable, is one of the biggest highlights of the game. As you said, the content there serves a purpose, and its all fun and entertaining, rather than what happens in a lot of Ubisoft games these days (Not just Assassin's Creed). I'd argue a lot of open world games do the check box thing, and its simply because Game length seems to matter more than the quality of the experience to a lot of people. As for what Larian does next, I do think its going to be a cRPG on the size, scope and ambition of BG3. I don't think they can or should go any bigger, but I think they'll do some interesting and unique, smaller advancements. I see them more like Studio Zero, that iterated with Metaphor Re:Fantazio after Persona 5, then I do FromSoftware (who have said they want to tackle smaller more experimental projects).
Great Video and Points. I think also BG3 is as good as it is because Larian could learn from their other games and the player feedback in early Access that was 3 years. Chapter 3 feels like a other game since it was not in early access.
Oh that is interesting. As someone who actually didn't play it in early access, I'm surprised how much they put in after their Early Access version. Chapter 3 is HUGE.
It's crazy that this Video has no comments and almost no clicks. What makes BG3 special is in fact the isane amount of choices you have an different outcomes and consequences. Why can't other studios replicate BG3? Because if a project fails, a lot of people will get laid of. All the experience is gone and they have to start from scratch.
Really appreciate the kind words! I think the Algo just didn't pick this one up. Agreed on the level of choice. That was something that previous Larian Studios games had as well, but I think the level of production value and detail on display here really impresses. That said, I think Larian, From Software and Nintendo have all argued that good games come as a result of developers that have job security and are allowed to take risks, so agreed on the talent drain that seems to happen waaay too often in the industry. Having gone to GDC a couple of times, I've got some real horror stories on that end.
On the quantity: it is leveraged well to serve the quality and the games goals. It's all about the focus.
There's such a vast difference between reused quest templates in a run of the mill open world game, and BG3s meticulously written quests and choice paths, with different characters, relationships, and interactions cascading into your outcomes and general experience. The quantity in BG3 took time, effort, and creativity, in a way that cannot be rivalled by a lazier game design approach that could technically qualify as larger quantity, but fails to provide satisfying variety and depth of expression. The quantity in new Ass Creed feels quota/tickbox driven, just trying to get people playing enough to invest funds, not truly value their time and entertainment quality.
Will be interesting to see what Larian decide to do next. With such a culmination, it might be too much to simply iterate on BG3. I'm wondering if they have an idea to experiment elsewhere or focus on something new to bring to the table, like FromSoftware kind of had AC6 and Sekiro as side outlets to the mainline Souls stuff, where Sekiro's focus brought new mechanics to their Soulsline, and their time on Souls brought some vaguer design philosophy to their old Armored Core franchise to give it a new spark.
I think the care and effort that goes into all the side content, and how all of it feels meaningful and memorable, is one of the biggest highlights of the game. As you said, the content there serves a purpose, and its all fun and entertaining, rather than what happens in a lot of Ubisoft games these days (Not just Assassin's Creed). I'd argue a lot of open world games do the check box thing, and its simply because Game length seems to matter more than the quality of the experience to a lot of people.
As for what Larian does next, I do think its going to be a cRPG on the size, scope and ambition of BG3. I don't think they can or should go any bigger, but I think they'll do some interesting and unique, smaller advancements. I see them more like Studio Zero, that iterated with Metaphor Re:Fantazio after Persona 5, then I do FromSoftware (who have said they want to tackle smaller more experimental projects).
Great Video and Points. I think also BG3 is as good as it is because Larian could learn from their other games and the player feedback in early Access that was 3 years. Chapter 3 feels like a other game since it was not in early access.
Oh that is interesting. As someone who actually didn't play it in early access, I'm surprised how much they put in after their Early Access version. Chapter 3 is HUGE.
It's crazy that this Video has no comments and almost no clicks.
What makes BG3 special is in fact the isane amount of choices you have an different outcomes and consequences.
Why can't other studios replicate BG3? Because if a project fails, a lot of people will get laid of. All the experience is gone and they have to start from scratch.
Really appreciate the kind words! I think the Algo just didn't pick this one up.
Agreed on the level of choice. That was something that previous Larian Studios games had as well, but I think the level of production value and detail on display here really impresses. That said, I think Larian, From Software and Nintendo have all argued that good games come as a result of developers that have job security and are allowed to take risks, so agreed on the talent drain that seems to happen waaay too often in the industry.
Having gone to GDC a couple of times, I've got some real horror stories on that end.