True. Didn't like turn based until persona 5 Didn't like fighting until Tekken 5 Didn't like strategy until XCOM Didn't like platformers until sonic adventure 2 battle Most importantly I didn't realize how important a narrative is in games until mass effect trilogy.
Goes the opposite way too , Liked service games until Warframe Liked card games until Yu-Gi-Oh Liked fighting games until soul Calibur 3 Liked platformers until that one shitty lion king game And I didn't realized how important the combat/gameplay was until games like doom eternal or ultrakill
This game is more about thinking what the best next tactical move is and managing your resources on higher difficulties, they even added an even harder difficulty (with 1 life) a few days ago. Somewhat like chess I guess.
Turn Based brings its own set of challenges to the game that I find fun, and at times it can be far more difficult than any action game. Yes, you don't need dexterity or quick reactions, but you need to have a more intimate knowledge of the game's mechanics and put a greater emphasis into tactics. BG3 is a good entry into the cRPG genre because I don't personally find it to be too difficult or complex. Games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, however, can really challenge a player to truly learn and understand the game from its mechanics, enemies, and class building.
I am 60 and this is my first time playing a game like this, I normally play "cosy" games. I got entranced by playthroughs on UA-cam and really wanted to have a go. I have owned it for almost 2 months, have over 450 hours under my belt and 8 games on the go (including a Dark Urge aagh). I found it hard to get the grasp of combat but am learning, I can't get out of "easy" mode ....yet, I find multiclassing very confusing but I will learn. My main game is in Act 3 but I can't decide how to proceed so just keep restarting with different classes (to try and get the hang of them) and cos I love Acts 1 and 2. The community have been very friendly and helpful without making fun of my age or inexperience. xxx
A friendly community always helps. And don't worry about inexperience, either. You get it by playing the game, and learning things as you go. Or you look up information online, but the fun part, and truly learning a game, is by doing it yourself and figuring out what works best for you.
I recommend going back to that first game and just finishing the story and only then going back to play a different character. It'll help you learn better when you see it from a different perspective starting over. It's similar to finishing the movie and then rewinding it rather than just replaying the parts you liked most and trying to rekindle the emotions you had the first time.
Heyyy, good for you! Congrats on getting out of your comfort zone and finding something new that's also fun for you too! Have fun and keep experimenting!
All that matters is that you have FUN. Doesn't matter if you restart it, play the first act again and again or fail at times! Play it like no one is watching because no one is watching :)
@@kubilayvurak8256 Thanks for this xxx I restarted again today, in Balanced mode and am doing surprisingly well (I think my multiple playthroughs are paying off). xxx I still don't understand multiclassing though lol
My wife is the biggest Baldur’s Gate fan I know. She grew up playing those games over and over. Seeing how much she freaks out while playing this game for all the love the new game shows for the old ones. Also she loves the new characters. Honestly it might be the best game we’ve ever played. This game deserves all the love it’s gotten!
My wife spent like 12 hours doing stuff in act 3 yesterday. We compare the decisions we made in our playthroughs so far all the time and critique each other lol. It's crazy how this one game in such a small amount of time has helped us bond in this sense.
Same with my wife. I played through it 1 1/2 times. She has 4 completed playthrus and 2 more half way in. She is a semi casual gamer, but absolutely loved BG3
This is the best co op game. I played my first playthrough with my gf and she had no experience with CRPGs while I’ve played.. basically all the big ones. She made some pretty drastic decisions I wouldn’t have made my first playthrough and it made it much more chaotic and fun
Starved BioWare fans is such a good point, KOTOR and Jade Empire are some of my favourite games of all time and a huge part of why I got into D&D to begin with, ultimately leading to Baldur’s Gate 3
@@OWlsfordshire Gate keeping “real fantasy games” because you don’t like a certain IP is super ironic. You do understand that defeats the purpose of fantasy, right? My main point was about Bioware and how well made their games were during their peak and how that lead us fans to D&D, just like he explained in the video. Not so much about Star Wars specifically. But go off king Space Fights is trash therefore opinion = irrelevant
I would rather see Asmon playing BG3 solo than with a group. It's a serious game that I feel would be better viewed without shenanigans being pulled between friends.
@@michaelsc78I would agree, whenever my friends ask to play my first statement is always have you done it solo first? I don’t want to ruin that first experience.
I started playing this game and less than an hour in I said to my partner "I have been waiting for a game like this for years". A lot of games nowadays (not all), are lacking any kind of in depth story REAL in depth story. I find nowadays that a lot of companies make what they "think" is popular along with getting them the most money. Online repetitive short story games that are at first addictive but get very boring very quickly. Bioware bringing out Anthem is a great example of this. Trying to bring out something that they believe will be popular rather than what they are known for and good at. I have always played games for escapism and to get lost in the story and it's hard to do that with a lot of games. I hope that Baldur's gate 3's success shows other developers and publishers that these types of games are still very much wanted 🙂
@@supermac8619 i havent played Starfield but i Played almost all Bethesda stuido's games. And the fact that there are procedural generated content and planets already disgusts me. I dont even wanna try it . Cause i Know bethesda i know what they are capable of. Bethesda and Todd Howard Himself galloped from one interview to another to "brag" about procedural generated planets. Thats all what I need to know about Starfield
It also proved that sad lonely gamers will buy literaly anything, even when it's plagued with far-left gender ideology and porn addicted Tumblr writing.
@@OilFreeFeathersthis guys brains got fried by the US elections he can no longer function as an individual. Many such cases. People willingly wearing ads for political parties on their forehead. They do it for free.😢
I'm so grateful for Larian. It's thanks to companies like them and Fromsoftware that helps me to hold on hope that the Gaming Industry isn't completely doomed.
@@lflintxWith very different Combat (You cannot compare DS1 to Sekiro rythn game speed or Bloodborne agression) With completley new enemies (Some are recycled I will give you that) With the best Level Design in the Industry with very different levels each time With very different good storys if you take the time needed to understand them With (Hottake) THE BEST Bossfights in the Industry and everytime the Bosses are unique in each game You are talking s#!t
@@lflintx I agree, and people don't seem to notice they create DS series and ER on basically 1% or less of the money they earn from those games, which is why they reuse so many animations, why they have so many extreme similarities, why there are almost non existent voice acting in all games (it's not a design choice, that's what they lie and say to you) Fromsoft are owned by Capcom which are one of the worst "big" companies in Asia as in greedy as hell, if you guys for a second think that Hidetaka is actually calling the shots (budget wise) you guys are kidding yourselves :P what we got with ER is the bare minimum of what Hidetaka can make with what budget his bosses allocated to his project. Again it's not his fault, but Larian made a game that looks 10x better, has 1000000000000% more voice lines and is pretty much comparable in both length, replayability and polish (at release). The reason why Larian did better (and they were not riding the 25+ million units that Fromsoft sold from all their DS series + BB + Sekiro) is because they are privately owned as mentioned in the video...Fromsoft are not :) Hidetaka will NEVER call the shots to make the games how he actually wants them.
Just bought BG3 last week. My God it's so much fun. I was putting it off because I'm not big on turn based games and I thought the game would be more linear for that reason. My expectations were blown out of the water. This game truly is a masterpiece that I can see myself enjoying for many many years to come.
Same, I actually never gave turn base a chance until I played this one. Now I purchased Divinity original sin 2 and Sea of stars so it opened a whole new door for me.
@JJsiN84 I'm looking forward to trying the divinity games. I remember I played a little bit of original sin when it came out, but I was too young to understand it. And also BG3 is a much more open world than I expected for a turn based game. It's amazing how many hidden places there are in each area.
Bought it right before going on vacation for Christmas. Proceeded to put 100 hours in on it on my first week. Over the past month and a half that I've owned the game, I've put in 270 hours total, run 8 different playthroughs, made 32 attempts at Honored, romanced Astarion, Wyll, Gale, Karlach, and Lae'zel, become a merciless metagamer, a master barrelmancer, and Foehammer. Not since I was 14 have I loved a game so much. Edit: Mistyped the number of hours I did in my first week.
@@pensandshakers 8 playthroughs in 270hrs? That..Doesn't sound right. Each playthrough is at minimum 20-40hrs even if you skip over a bunch of stuff. At that point it kind of nulls it.
same, I can play fast pace parkour platformer and fighting game that require lightning reflex but I also love cRPG for what the genre offer. (yes, may be we are pretty niche %)
That's what happens when you lose your own identity trying hard to catch that broader audiences. Also I think gamers generally just too tired of the same lacklusting genre. Too many games with similar genre that it's hard finding a game with their own colour. Everything starting to look the same.
seriously, i miss turned based final fantasy. I got ff15 for christmas the year it came out and it played like a poorly made arkham game, then when ff7 remake came out and i tried it out, it felt so janky and terrible which makes me sad cause ff7 is my favourite.
Meanwhile Yakuza did the opposite, changing from action combat to turn based for an entry in the series that ended up being so successful that those developers then stated the Yakuza mainline series will be turn-based from now on. I get when people or even devs themselves dont want turn-based, but all the crap about it being "outdated" is so stupid, as if action games aren't just as old
That's funny to see Bioware and Square Enix falling down right when they decided to spit on their fan's faces and seek for broader audiences. Serve them well
It's 11 months later, but I just want to say: it's not just that FFantasy ditched turn based combat, but it's also that they didn't replace it with something good. There are games which have successfully pulled of action combat or some variation of it, and FF has been trying and failing to do so since ff13
Never really played any turn based CRPG games, I usually play games like Elden Ring, Dragon's Dogma, Valheim But after trying BG3 I could barely turn it off, absolutely loved it and have now done several very different play throughs. The characters in the game are insanely well done and the game mechanics allow for some really satisfying creativity, in and out of combat. Absolute masterpiece! However, full party co-op multiplayer we had a lot of bugs.
I'm doing a co-op playthrough with a friend on PS5. We had minimal bugs until we got to Act 3, getting into Baldur's Gate itself, then all hell broke loose. But there's been a massive improvement since the recent patch. And I think that's a credit to Larian. They recognise an issue and sort it out ASAP. Any bugs disappear in the next patch. The game's already very good, but give it six months and everything will be polished to Avernus and back. Whereas with other games, bugs persist for ages, then there's more bugs that get added on top over time. Then the devs will patch the game but focus on fixing the dumbest shit ever. I've been a Destiny player for years, and Bungie are absolutely wank at fixing their buggy game. There's still bugs that are over a year old, the server is shite. But you can bet your right nut that the second a weapon or piece of exotic armour or ability breaks and becomes OP and everyone's having fun with it, they'll patch that shit the day of.
@@ramonandrajo6348 well you are the one missing out, cause of dumb American tags. No concept of woke exist here in India, loved the game for what it is, a beautifully made game, probably the best i have played in last decade. And that's the popular opinion.
i would NEVER play this beloved game MP, and im amazed people even try. i would only do it if i was playing with wife or children, aka im there to fuel their passion rather than my own.
Mass Effect trilogy is up there and trumps it imo. Yeah, it's not a sword&sorcery fantasy thing, but the role playing, story branching and characters are all there in all their glory and that's what matters. If you think about it, the game is basically gears of war with role playing, how cool is that?!
@@1InVader1 Dont remind me of the ME3 ending is all I can say, its 95% great just turn off the pc after the bum rush and read a fanfic ending or use that mod someone made for good ending slide show. There's a reason why DA is still alive and ME series got canned. And I really wanted andromeda to succeed but it really fell short and I hated the traveling. They couldn't have designed worlds more annoying to travel than what they made.
@@summer7603 Hell yes, 100% agree, ME3 is epic up until the last 30-60min of the game (copypasting Saren's arc to TIM for absolutely no reason was already a bad sign, then the starbrat ugh no). Altho, Bioware seems to be nostalgia baiting people into paying attention to their newest to be announced ME game... Trailers including Liara, geth head shaped crater, then a character wearing N7 armor... Is Shepard making a come back? Find out in a couple of years... ugh. Ngl, it makes me curious, but judging by the current shape of Bioware I am kind of worried. It can go right and can go wrong in so many different ways...
@@Nicottia Oh no... I did not know they were doing another ME... Considering EA is still just announcing stuff I hope they dismantle Bioware when DA:4 plummets. Embrace accelerationism because ALL the people who made the old ME series are gone, they will absolutely muck this one up as well. And considering they gutted Legendary edition scenes just to remove any Mass Erect or A$$ effect scenes/shots it made the game near boring to play because instead of cinematic and sexy shots of characters we got only talking heads everytime shepard talked to someone. Its like throwing milk all over the Mona Lisa and telling people its great because its still has color and they should buy it.
30:35 Personally, I think the squirrel was as much of a driving factor as the bear. The bear got more attention, but there are plenty of games that go harder than that and they don't get the same reaction. Having both of them showcased the breadth of the experience in a way that neither could have alone.
I would love to see Nevervinter Nights 3 released someday...I remember playing those in my childhood. NN 1 and 2 were great. And I still hope that one day this series will rise again.
3:43 I don't think this is why the game was successful but I think it really helped. Basically they designed a game where you can have a cup of coffee in your hand (or phone). A game that has more depth then most of anything else out there. And it's a game that reacts to your decisions not the other way around.
For any game to be huge you need alot of casual players to get involved as well. The hardcore audience will always be there it's the ability to crossover to the masses that gets you to that next level.
Absolutely. IN WoW currently the last survey showed almost 70% of players have never even attempted to raid. and 50% play "mostly solo" These people are rarely on the Battle Net forums or sounding off about build balance on IcyVeins or wherever. They just get up - and play the game. But without them the game would lose most of its audience and subs. The silent majority.
@@PaulRoneClarke Yeah I'm probably one of those. Started in TBC, on and off each expansion, always just questing to level, dungeon pugging, maybe some LFR, sometimes PvP, most of the time fishing or farming transmogs. Levels every class to max level then takes a break for months, only character with reasonably endgame gear is the Paladin because it can do every role. There's no one reason players like me take a break from the game, but multiple factors all come together into the conclusion that "the game isn't as fun/cool as it used to be" without being able to single out anything. I'm sure if I sat down I could pinpoint what turned me off, but frankly I don't care enough about the game to seethe over it. I'll just play something else.
That's because the majority of video game "teams" are just soulless corporate monkies who want to do the least amount of work for maximum benefit. High quality people who put out high quality shit are seen as overachievers because they're actually passionate and not just trying to make a paycheck
I’m betting the PoE2 stuff is so good because the same developers have been working on that gameplay -the same artists, designers, sound guys, everything -from the beginning over a decade ago. In software, experts can get so much done so effortlessly when they’re in sync. The PoE guys are the most experienced developers in the world at that precise genre. Same reason BG3 was so good.
As someone who has played Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3 and WoW, the succes comes from how well a game is polished and how much interaction there is in the world.
I think "polished" is not something I'd put on bg3. Because after 200 hours...that has not been my experience. However, I think it's about how well they filled out the world in a meaningful way. It drops off after the third act and I wish they had done as much for it as they did the 1st act. However it still doesn't feel empty. And it doesn't feel like a gigantic open world with nothing to do. Which is why Witcher 3 was also so successful. I also think "polished" is too cliche. It's a catch all for whatever people want it to be, and whatever their bias is. And polished does not equal good, imo.
@@MekarePI can 100% agree, I've pumped almost 500hrs so far and I'm having a blast, but there have definitely been performance issues especially on the ps5. However I think what really does it for me is just the amount of freedom I have in the game. It allows so much creativity and as a DND fan that doesnt have time to play anymore, its honestly extremely close - at least as close as you're going to get in a videogame. The game rewards you and is in my opinion best enjoyed when you play as your character, not as yourself, and it will take you places and give you experiences you'd otherwise never see.
@@MekareP No game is %100 polished, I played games where the character I play as would glitch through the floor once or twice. Take the Metro series as a example aswell all three have one or two glitches where there's a invisible enemy or a enemy glitches in and kills your character instantly if you fall behind. As long as the glitch or bug doesn't hinder gameplay and you know how to avoid that glitch or bug there isn't really a major issue.
"Turn-based is popular because you don't need dexterity." *Me watching the seventh time my best friend has mistargeted her Eldritch Blast and accidentally killed a civilian:* ...
The reason BG3 rocketed to success is bc it doesn't syphon your wallet dry with loot boxes, useless microtransactions, or battle passes. Which is a rarity these days
Lots of games don’t do those things if you’re looking in the right places. BG3 blew up because it’s an incredible game that made other devs feel bad about how mid their games are in comparison to
@wardvandecotte9253 If you only play good games then you wouldn't play a game where the devs skipped adding endings but claimed to have 17,000. The entire 3rd act was a mess and not even complete. Act 2 should have been the 3rd act, but it was rushed and too short.
@@OWlsfordshire No it wasn't. Game of the decade. Watch next Thursday, Game of the Year awards, it's gonna blow the competition away. If you like it or not. Happy gaming.
Although Eldon ring is a masterpiece, it is frustrating at times because you feel like you keep dying to the same thing. Implementing different strategies is limited. In bg3 I’ve never really felt frustrated in combats because there are countless strategies and even things you can do way outside the box to beat something.
Baldur's Gate III remains true to its Tabletop RPG roots, where taking the time to strategize and plan is a major component. Everything else, its accessibility, the fact that it is an amazingly well done game, the way the setting was built for the players to see and enjoy, it what made it big.
@@TheDeluche Elden Ring follows the Soulsborne formula, which is based off of old school games, save for the fact that the difficulty is largely fair. And being a fan of Soulsborne games since Dark Souls, that is a frustration I am well familiar with. Interestingly, I have found that putting the game down for a few days or weeks (and sometimes months) helps there, as I come back in without the frustration causing me to make the same mistakes. Frustration is as much your enemy in that game as the bosses are.
I might be old but I like turn based games because I enjoy strategy. Not every game has to be a reaction speed vs reaction speed (or scripts) but try and tell that to a generation raised on TikTok and fortnight.
that right there. i love turnbased coz its not about speed but actual strategy. you get to think to PLAN! and more importantly enjoy when things go according to plan :P.
40 years old and LOVING every minute of BG3. Most fun I’ve had on a game in years. Complete D&D/ turn-based noob so had to contend with the learning curve, but it was so worth it! Nearly done with my first play through and idk what I’m more excited for; completing my playthrough or starting another one.
haha tell me about it. Sometimes the excitement of trying new classes and races and making different decisions makes me more excited for a new run than finishing my current one 😭
@@sylvie333 I started a School of Lore Bard Tactician run. Trying to do any/every quest I can so really just taking my time through act 1 atm. Just did the Emerald Grove raid last night and I’m torn..! Part of me loved exploding the Minthara raiding party with oil and firewine barrels, but the other part of me is actually wanting to do an evil playthrough and befriend that sexy drow!
Just judging the chr's look by other games, I thought the vampire spawn guy was just a goody noble guy that sings or something like that. I was like I don't want to play that guy. I actually left him on the road a bit until i realized I needed a rogue. Put him in the party a bit and he turned out to be my fav character :)
Astarion can literally single handidly beat nearly every encounter in the game on its (not the newest difficulty) tactician difficulty level. That boy be bussin' fr fr no cap n wutnot n theens
You can literally feel the brain drain in later games of beloved franchises when the studio transformed for the worse over time. BG3 is an example of what games can be when you retain talent in your studio over the years.
3:25 this is so true. I can jump in and out easily if i need to do something in my house, i dont need to tryhard to improve my reaction time and if someone talk to you in a crucial moment you wanna spal their face because they broke your focus... At least you enjoy every part of it and can focus more on the overall strategy. Its really enjoyable for me.
I can play while I work because I don't get phone calls all night but if I do when I am in the middle of a fight, I just switch over until I deal with my job and move on. My boss knows I do this and has no issue with it. I don't know of any game I can do that with as well.
@@staskozak8118 real time with pause felt very different to me and the AI had to be babysat a lot more, like the old divinity games. This doesn’t feel anything like those games to me.
its the story for sure....the graphics are really good, the combat takes time to get used to but you get so engrossed in the story....so many options its unbelievable
I was one of those players that was starved for an RPG with choices in story that have meaningful impact or actually change an outcome of an event. Most "RPG's" today give the illusion of choice. Use Fallout 4 for example, most choices boiled down to Yes, Sarcastic Yes, ask for more info (leading to yes), or no (but still doesn't meaningfully impact anything, or still ends up being railroaded into yes).
I never got into turn based games, ever. But I tried BG3 and it's amazing. Everything is so amazingly done. You can literally do whatever you want. You want to massacre every person you see? Sure thing buddy, go ahead! You want to be a good person? Good! There's hidden stuff EVERYWHERE. You see a cracked wall, smash it and there's another area. There's buttons to open walls you didn't know can open. It's just so well done man, nothing but respect for everyone involved.
I feel the problem with the industry rn is there isn’t enough imagination… everything seems recycled. Like we’ve seen it before in a different setting. Feels like gaming company’s are just going with the tried and tested method instead of taking risks and pushing boundaries… there isn’t much innovation going on anymore imo… everything about the $$$$$$. To sum the industry up in one word I would have to say ‘STALE’.
BG3 was one of my favourite games in the past decade, simply because i felt seen by larian. They care, they really care. They want the players to have a good time with a good product.
I think people underestimate the importance of being a private company when it comes to decision making. Public companies are beholden to a board that only demands one thing, profit.
It's all about RPG truly cinematic experience with good characters, romances and sense of freedom and nothing else. Just cut cinematic experience from this game and suddenly it would be just another Divinity... I have hope that Larian won't end like BioWare - pushing more and more lower quality stuff and poor writing...
@@timrim9405I think we can comfortably assume larian wont end up like BioWare, considering that larian IS the best devs from BioWare that left because of the direction the company was going. Larian is the best that BioWare had actually.
BG3 turned the voice actors into famous people as well, they did a lot of voice actor table top podcasts and the voice actors showed up to events! This game changed the lives of the voice actors, they now have a following and can be independently wealthy.
Ngl, I'm a fan of heavy story talking choice games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. After I finished those games, I don't know what to play and I saw Baldurs Gate 3 gameplay where it has this similiar element in the game. At first I was a bit skeptical because I never really played CRPG games but I gave it a try anyway. I ended up having a blast, altough it still has a optimization problems. I think I would play Disco Elysium next.
The steep learning curve is sadly the price paid for the mechanical depth of the games. They may have been able to make it smoother but then again likely not.
@@NkenKenY as much as I love owlcat's games, this is 100% true. The games have so much stuff in it. Yeah it's cool but holy fuck is there alot and it turns so many new players away or they do like you and play story mode because theres just way to much dumped on the player.
I've been playing Souls likes for the past 6 years, and even speed ran DS3 for about half a year, (20 years old atm) and guess what I love Crpg's and turn based games just as much. From the likes of DOS2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Mass Effect trilogy, or XCOM2 to yes, BG3. Asmon is right for all the wrong reasons.... yes it's good that it's turn based, but not because you don't have to be dexterous or have quick reactions. It's good because turn based games are amazing, just like how high intesity games like Elden Ring/Armored Core or even modern day shooters are fun. Just because the games combat is slower doesn't mean that oh... it has to target older people as it's target audience and that it automatically is an easy game, what kind of wierd backwards thinking is that? BG3 is not hard by any means, even with the new Honour Mode the game lacks any significant challange if you actually put in time to understand the games mechanics (which doesn't take that long if you played any remotely simmilar games before). But it is also not a cake walk, you can fck up... badly, and some times it might seem like there was nothing you could do, but unlike in some other games, usually you could have done something different, and at the end of the day you messed up. Turn based games focus is on tactics, combos, action economy and efficency, risk assessment and a big bucket of creativity. Don't say that it's a genre for Old man and peole who have no reaction time or just want to get high on weed while playing. Just because it's good for all of the above doesn't mean that thats the target audience.
I think what he means is that you can focus on the actual game rather then just reacting and using more intelligence to determine what the right play is instead of just spam dodge roll when the wind up comes wich is what makes it fun for people who want tma fmgame were they need strategy to win
Disagree, most turn based game don't have a system quite as robust as BG3's. Most of them have boring combat systems. There's no other turn based game that has this many environmental interactions, down to even calculating the force and damage from falling objects based on height, weight and size class. iirc even DOS is just doing different coloured explosive barrels, although with the different elemental effects interacting with each other. BG3's combat system just has so much more depth and it makes all the difference. Compare that to the average turn-based RPG system - something like what Shadowrun trilogy has. I love that game series, but it's night and day difference.
I think you are spot on. I could never finish Elden ring or any similar games because I just don’t have the attention span to try for hours. BG3 is perfect for me cause I can chill as much as I want, I can hyper focus when I feel like it too.
I think people forget about how important word of mouth advertising is, when it comes from a friend or trusted source there’s a really high probability that you will take the advice and buy the game, that’s what happened to me. Never even heard one advertisement for baldurs gate 3
My wife is the biggest Baldur’s Gate fan I know. She grew up playing those games over and over. Seeing how much she freaks out while playing this game for all the love the new game shows for the old ones. Also she loves the new characters. Honestly it might be the best game we’ve ever played. This game deserves all the love it’s gotten! 101
Hahahaha he got me. I AM a starved Bioware fan. 😁 Btw Larian just released huge patch for BG3 that adds interlogue after every ending and bunch of highly requested things.
@@fenharel2137 I dunno I tried on all my characters and they triggered for me. They need to go way back to the very start of last mission and complete convos with all companions in order to trigger it. That is for people with saves. People who start new game now and finish it will have those epilogues no matter what.
Dude, same. I am a MASSIVE Mass Effect and Dragon Age fan. Before BG3 I didn't really like turn based games, though the only turn based game I know of is Final Fantasy from the 90's-00's. 😅
@@PinkMarshmallows and KotOR. Man, Bioware was huge before EA sucked life out of it. KotOR is the game that made me fan of Star Wars universe. Before that I only watched some of the Original trilogy as a kid. After KotOR I bought all movies and binged, instantly became huge fan. Now I have movies on bluray (except Sequels) and books, toys, comics... a single Bioware game made me Star Wars fan. If you think about it it's crazy.
BG3 is easily the best game I've played in a long time. If you like CRPG, I recommend to give Disco Elysium a try, as it is a very good. Refreshing setting and in my top favourite list of RPGs , with a unique style and good writing and world building. Good voice acting and character and world design. It shows the love that went into it.
My issue so far is the combat is such a slog. There are SOOO many enemies in these early fights and with my characters missing attacks so frequently, it feels like I'm just re rolling the encounters for a lucky seed. Which is... Poor design in my estimation.
@@mikeyj.philly are you making use of the "Advantage" state over enemies or in that respect avoid disadvantage. I admit I was struggling with hit rate of my bg3 party at the start as well. Especially if you're not super familiar with dnd 5th edition rules. But there's a ton of video material out there on how to improve chances to hit
@@grischag5616 I appreciate the help and may check that out, but as a rule I generally don't play games that don't teach you how to play them. There's a difference between handholding and baseline instruction imo
@@mikeyj.philly I agree learning the do's and don't of combat and understanding stats is quite the learning curve, reminds me of when I was learning how to play chess. I still only really play on explorer because I struggle on balanced in certain fights.
I'm a 53-year-old who played and loved both Elden Ring and BG3. Having a varied diet is good for you! Focusing on one experience will burn you out on it eventually. It's healthy to balance game pizza against game broccoli.
Solving crunch by having a team on the other hemisphere ready to go is not only genius, but the sort of prolific thinking we need to dodge the incoming crash in the industry.
14:48 "The big thing with BG3 is that it's one of the first times we've seen the level of triple A quality resources go into a genre like this..." Lol have you heard of Bioware? They did this way back in 2009 with Dragon Age: Origins.
Its not so much that turn based games remove the need for player dexterity, its that it makes the combat more engaging. Asmon is talking about how CRPG players are old and braindead, meanwhile hes button mashing in ARPGs.
@@ramonandrajo6348 you know if you wanna use the term "woke" you could just use an 0 instead of an o. Also woke in this game at least feels more real because the characters are characters first, then heir sexual orientation. Woke actually doesn't mean "everything under the LGTBQIA+ banner" but "appealing to the LGBTQIA+ banner first, then doing everything else with their motivation and everything they do fall under the banner and not being part of the banner". Learn the difference instead of xenoshaming games like that (xenoshaming meaning to shame something you are scared off and don't know it, coming from the latin term xeno meaning strange/alien/different).
I just discovered BG3 for myself 2-3 weeks ago. I enjoy it so much, that I don't bother with SoD at all for now. Took me a while to get used to the camera controls though. ;)
I was never a turn based player its about the phenomenal story and lovable characters and the immersion as well as allowing you to basically do whatever you want without forcing bullshit onto you with no shit monetization needed for battlepasses and pay to win type of content which allows us to have the feeling we all had to make us fall in love with gaming.
Industry: People must have a craving for cRPGs that we didn't know about! Gamers: Man.... I guess I'm willing to even play a cRPG if the game is that good.
Sorry old can be a misunderstood concept, Assi. Details are important. You don't see most of the creatures in the game, there's one mimic, the Goblins are meant to destroy. Even tho a lot of them I would have liked to hang out, n drink and gamble with them, as well as have a f** jam sessn with them. Pissed me off. The lead Cast is streaming the hell out of the game BG³ And act like kids, in the candy store, it's so much fun to watch as well as play. Slap a drunk Goblin over the cliff, so much fun, especially the sound effects, are awesome. The rise of chillin music as the Narrator comes in and makes you fear what step, your about to take, too late, you just lost your entire party, in a bomb enfused area. Old my Gran loves Astarion, he's just cheeky and won't let you get away with being stupid, and she adores the sarcasms.And 4th wall breaking. F***yeah!! 👩🏻🚀🐶✨🌜✨❤️🩹🗡️🗡️ Everyone wants to Smash!! TAV YOUR CHARACTER THANK YOU❤️🛡️ASMO.
Wow, you mean an incredible, fleshed out, feature-complete and great game without microtransactions and developed by passionate developers turned out great and people loved it? I'm shocked.
@@SuperCatacata You are correct, the video goes into some of the reasons why but realistically as a corporation you cannot survive having one or two stellar hits every several years, you have to keep the treadmill going and have numerous teams, contracts, partnerships, licensing contracts, etc. Sure it is great when we see something like BG3 become a reality but the video and numerous interviews have shown and stated it was an incredibly difficult journey for them. Now imagine that but for a public corporation that by law has a fiduciary duty to their shareholders.
8:14-8:23 This is what makes a great studio, not the games or the individual dev/exec, it takes actual effort from the entire studio to compound on what you do best and the courage to keep doing your best with each installation. Larian did the best they could to bring everything to the table, not like Bethesda who has wasted two decades of time with a stagnant mindset towards their franchises and fans while wrapped in an iron clad ego or like Bungie so absorbed in making endless money and doing the bare minimum that they let their greed consume their passion. Larian Studios makes game development an art again and it's been far too long since we've seen this in triple A gaming and the RPG/Open world genre.
I hated turn-based games until I became a parent. Now they're the only thing I can actually play. Less about reaction times, more about being able to set down the game and go deal with a child riding the cat
I'm 50. I have 300 hrs in BG3, was a diamond player in Overwatch, was a top ranked raiding Druid Healer in WOW and have completed a no-death run through Elden Ring. The too old thing is just a cop out.
I started my first playthrough beginning of october. Spent 2 weeks on it before I decided to scrap it because I didn't like the decisions I made. So I rerolled and now a month and a half later I'm still trying to finish it. Probably average like 12 hours a week on it if not a little more but good god it is so jam-packed with fucking content it's amazing.
Definitely, the characters and their stories made a huge difference. Especially in replayability. I do wish that tactical was more difficult but the story certainly makes up for it.
It's the strategy of a turn based that is intriguing. I beat Elden Ring at level 1 and did many challenges to where it got too easy. I am a huge Dark Souls fan. But I L O V E BG3 and have almost 1k hours put into it, which is almost catching up to Elden Ring for me. Point being, it is meant for a more slow pace audience who don't have fast reactions but at the same time it's meant for players with quick reactions as well. It can keep the attention of all types of players and as Asmon stated, all the characters are relatable and the story is immersive.
When they talked about how BG3 fans who "don't normally like these types of games" are starved BioWare fans, I felt that. That made me realize how long I've wanted something that reminds me of the first two Mass Effect games.
Regarding the reasons of BG3 being turn-based. IMHO, D&D rules-based games are also just not really fit to be played in real-time. Take a look at BG2. It has an implicit real-time combat round counter behind the scenes, and it's very awkward when you try to battle optimally, because you'll have to pause all of the time if you want not to lose opportunities attacking, positioning the party members or spellcasting. I've played all of the Infinity Engine-based games, and I would really prefer if they had fully turn-based combat (but then perhaps they would need to have less, but somewhat tougher fights, I suppose?).
And BG3 become too easy. And now battles with trash mobs takes MUCH more time (why the fuck i cant even skip enemy run animation???) for no reason. Realtime with pause made it possible to kite, shift the monster's aggro, attack several characters at the same time. Much more tactic evolved than in BG3
@@staskozak8118ok but dnd was never really supossed to be hard even in the ttrpg form. There was always a 90% chance you won most of the time unless your dm was an ass or your party were masochistic and liked playing meat grinders. thats just how the game works and its better off that
@staskozak8118 so what you're saying, you exploited the failures of the BG2 AI. And let me remind you that the enemy gets an attack of opportunity each time you disengage, by D&D rules. I have an impression that you just like ARPGs more, frankly, and expect D&D to play like diablo. I do agree that BG3 is often too easy even on Tactician - but I think that questions of game difficulty balance are beside the point here...
@@namethefifth7315 , you say it like it's first realization on desktop. I have no problem if game easier, but "Tactician" without tactic needed is a disappointment
Larian turned me on to turn based combat. I used to avoid it like the plague, but I gave DOS a chance and now I love the combat. It is not easy. In fact it is much harder than Elden Ring. Turn based is more like solving a puzzle, playing chess etc, at least on the hard difficulty settings. Tactician mode is so hard in BG3 that I often turn it down a notch despite having 500 hours in DOS1 and 2.
Really? i found the balanced and tactician difficulties quite similar only exception was the engagements i didn't have in previous playthrough. and usually i play on those normal difficulties at most.
Well, Larian has some of the best implementations of turn based combat I have played. I've been playing turn-based games since the 90's. Turn based games are usually better when they have a tactical aspect to them where you can strategically position yourself and effect terrain and such. I think it is much more engaging than simply attacking, healing, and defending for an all-out attack. I love how tactical turn based games are like chess. You would probably like Into the Breach or the Advance Wars/Fire Emblem series.
It really isn't. Like a lot of D&D/D&D adjacent systems the difficulty is entirely front loaded. At about level 5 you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever unless you're massively outnumbered. Even for people who have never played the system, martial classes are just point, click, dead. This is especially true in 5e where a level generally gives you hit points, occasionally a new passive ability, and if you're a caster a very small selection of spells (that you don't even need to prep a certain number of anymore). Even feats have been massively toned down. If you can read, you will have no problem making a character in a 5e setting because of how little interaction there is with leveling up. @@MatiasMaldona3
There's actually been a LOT of great CRPGs. To name a few: - Shadowrun Hong Kong (and Dragonfall, or so I've been told) - Divinity Original Sin 2, obviously. - WH40k: Mechanicus (probably the second best Warhammer PC game of all time, and my own personal favorite.) - Wasteland 2 and 3 - Jagged Alliance 3 - You could probably count XCOM 2 in this genre too, but maybe not. - I've also bought Miasma Chronicles and Colony Ship, but haven't played them yet. Still everything I've read about both makes me think they're great. Several of these predate Disco Elysium, so I would argue that while it's a good example of the genre, it did not start some sort of renaissance. CRPGs have had a constant string of hits over the years. What Disco Elysium did is generate a lot of press with the likes of Kotaku and Polygon because it didn't include a combat system, which appeals to certain values they have there. The game is good in its own right, but to me, this isn't why it's good. It's good because it's well written and the game world is very deep and easy to lose yourself in. The lack of combat is a feature I, and I would wager most gamers, are very indifferent towards, so it got attention from certain outlets. It did deserve that attention, but not for the reason it got it.
So as someone who has been pretty involved in the bioware fandom for a long time, pretty much everyone who was making or talking about dragon age content is now making and talking about baldurs gate content.
I think its a good game because its turned based but not because it doesn't require dexterity and lets you walk away and get snacks and old people are slow. Its because turned based allowed it to go fully into story and meaning mode all the time.
Not to mention we keep getting hotfixes and patches nonstop, the last patch was 30gb, compare that to any other game which takes AGES to fix anything at all while also being jam packed with microtransactions.
If KOTOR was released today, everyone would be praising it too, because the gameplay is good for turnbased and the choices you make are planet changing. similar to baldur's gate with the direct DnD inspiration but it's Star Wars.
Honestly one of the best games I have ever played. I havnt beaten it yet because there is so many different ways you can play and I keep restarting and wanting to try different runs!
Tencent owns a % of every big video game company because its literally necessary for any multinational company to have Chinese investors/owners in order to legally sell anything in china. Also it legally required by Chinese law for the government to have free access to all information these companies use, there is no such thing as "private" information in a Chinese company. This is why people justifiably label anything Chinese owned as spyware.
No micro transactions are a bigger part of it than mentioned simple because you remove all temptation. Pay for convenience creates the incentive to slow down and ruin the pacing of the game. Pay for power creates the incentive to create choke points or have the most powerfully fun stuff paywalled. Even pure cosmetics create the incentive to limit the aesthetics of the characters and equipment. Tuning all those dials to find the right balance between making more money and not hurting the game is hard. Not having any dials to tune keeps you free to just focus on the game.
Then again, there's also that the moment you see micro-transactions in a game you KNOW it won't be too concerned with in-depth plotlines and character development... they are milking machines, not art pieces created with love.
Started as a kid with games like empire, battle isle, Dune 2, C&C, Starcraft, Diablo, up to Heroes of M&M, HOI ... turn based games often have a more strategic approach. Action based games are mostly boring in my opinion (even though i played some of them too of course).
For anyone who doesn't know, Larian just added a new epilogue bit ("6 months later...") to the end of the game. Didn't give me everything I wanted, but it still gave me lots of feels and made for a much better note to end the game on.
It makes tge dummies thinking squidlach was the best ending for karlach and not the hell ending because she tells you they found a cure to her hart problem so she may be able to leave hell soon
I wouldn't say it's mostly about ability. Action games are cool but also kinda boring in the long run when we have no variety . It's the same all over again. Hit the right buttons fast. A turned based system allows much more options because you are not limited to a certain number of buttons that can be pressed fast. Both, action and turned based are good. It's just different styles with different options.
its like we need more programmers and gamedevelopers being ACTUAL gamers instead of just learning it by the books so that they lack the empathy for creation something with a heart and soul basically!
So, the moment I knew this game was an absolute gem, was not when my best friend who I game with (when we have time) who does not like cRPG's decided he enjoyed it, but when my non gamer girlfriend decided she liked it. My girlfriend (as said before) doesn't play or really LIKE videogames, but she will consistently play the game we have going and openly says she enjoys it for the following reasons. She isn't rushed in combat, meaning her poor gamer reflexes aren't punished. She can invest in the story because she has started to see how some decisions will impact the whole world we inhabit (she made the entire starting grove hostile towards us). We can save scum so if she provokes an animal that she doesn't want to kill into combat we can retry. And she can express herself pretty easily with both the character she builds, and the companion she brings along with her. That's when I knew this game was something special. Made a non gamer enjoy it despite being a videogame. Easily deserves every ounce of praise levied at it.
Other great early access experiences of mine have been Hades and Rogue Legacy 2. Got them well ahead of release and they were good but just got better and better. Definitely shining examples of how to do it well.
18:30 i had never even heard of baldurs gate at all until the bear thing blew up and i found out about the series. Bear seggs probably made the game reach way further than it would have without it.
first day of early access I payed €19.99 for this. Played it twice and had some feedback send in. Everything I wrote came to be. (obviously it wasn't me who made the changes with my feedback) but seeing ppl feel the same and the Devs actually listening and implementing those things, it feels nice and makes u feel a part of it. Played the full game D1 and 2 months later and 140hrs imgame time, I can definatly say it's GOTY and a game like this comes around only once every couple of years. Instant classic and will do a playthrough again next year. All this for €19.99.
In my experience and friend's opinions , what really brought them to the game wasn't the turn based at all, they actually fucking hate turn based games even if they play D&D sometimes, but the story and amount of meaningful choices was a big selling point for them, ppl just want to be able to do things as they wish without feeling like they are being restricted by game limitations in every corner, but even then we all agreed that if it wasn't turn based it wouldn't work as well.
The one thing I'm most impressed with in BG3 is the playability for everyone. It's a good entry-level game, but it also meets the needs of experienced gamers, especially on character building and questing. For example, some puzzles are really easy, but there are so many difficult puzzles and some very unpredictable secrets that even the most die-hard gamers might have problems finding, and you can just follow your suggested character build, but you can also spend days min/maxing your stats and gear... Edit: Also, Tencent might own 30% of the company, but the 62.04% percentage above it, is the owner of Larian Studios. He still owns most of the company himself...
it looks like you belong to the first category. This game is one of the worst in terms of builds. The 5th edition of DnD (truncated, only 12 levels from 20) is used here, and it is VERY simplified. VERY. And the game itself is very simple and does not require any minmaxing at all.
@@staskozak8118shure its not required (though it is kind of on hardcore and honor mode) but you can and it makes the game fun for doing so. Also simplifying dnd was one of the only things 5e got right. It was way to needlessly complecated in erlier edditions. Thats why they they made 3.5th eddition because 3e was to complicated and convoluted with how many source books it had and 3.5 ended up with the same problem
I dont agree with Asmon with some of his arguments related to Baldur's Gate 3 popularity and furthermore Im gonna provide my version why BG3 got so popular 1) CRPG isnt popular genre for a wide audience of gamers. Asmon said that CRPGs are popular but they arent. There are tons of Turn-based RPGs with great stories and good written characters(same level of writing and even better than in Baldur's Gate 3 ) The reason why they arent popular cause their Fan-bases are on the verge of extinction. Quite pretentious , but its true. Typical Gamer today is thirsty for action. We want blood we want fire and big Explosions OR in short Good graphics and cinematics. Baldur's Gate 3 IS THE FIRST CRPG fantasy since Dragon Age Origins with an Epic adventure which includes good-written characters and etc. (Inquisition sucked Lets be honest) Overall, BG3 has amazing cutscenes and animations. typical CRPGs consist tons of text without any voice acting(Pathfinder, Tyranny, Pillars of eternity all of these are good games but lack graphics and cinematics to appeal to typical modern gamer). Overall BG3 combined turn based gameplay and Dragon age level cinematics/action/epicness and even better. 2) The Game is just great! Amazing right? Developers didnt add any unnecessary encounters or gather 50 toilet papers to unlock "Common sword +1" There isnt any kind of boring activity. You dont have to gather 15 parts of some sh*t to unlock another sh*t so you can use that sh*t to do sh*t. NO. Every encounter with enemies in this game is INTERESTING.Every encounter challenges you TO THINK, TO ADAPT, TO OUTSMART. Game design is PHENOMENAL. Its a sandbox with its own pack of rules and tools which you can abuse anytime. Im gonna give you an example. I've met a bunch of Assassins who can turn invisible. Obviously my warrior or Rogue cant find them. But my BIG BRAIN Mage knows that Call Lightning spell can damage multiple targets if you hit only one of them. lightning beam spreads killing invisible assassins. Its just 1 example, but there dozens of ways dealing with every task. Game lets you outsmart itself. Game wont say things like " Hey, Anon, You cant just rob all traders stealing super useful gear" And my rogue with 20 Agility says "NAAAAH" If you outsmart the game then its FAIR. 3) Genius advertisement. Yep, its THE BEAR Seriously! Before "Bear accident" only fans(and small number of just gamers) of CRPGs were aware about the Release of Baldur's Gate 3. Majority of people got interested only after "Bear accident" Of course they got interested cause they started asking questions like "If you can let that Bear f*ck you? What else CAN YOU DO?!" And ooooh boy. 4) Oustanding Voice acting. Voice actors did amazing. Every character has its own thoughts, feelings, personality and you can affect their personalities consequently changing their Fate. Astarion's personal quest one of my favourites. And you will cry(or at least sob) at the end of his questline. 5) There werent any Managers at Larian who demanded adding stuff to just extend your playtime so they can brag about those results to their shareholders. Baldur's Gate 3 is THE game made by players FOR players. As a player I hate when game just throws at me bunch of quests to gather 15 something, Larian hates it too, I hate when in a RPG game my choises dont matter, Larian hates it too. And its just a short list why BG3 is a great game. I can continue up to 100
Honestly 3 was probably the biggest launchpad. I knew about the game beforehand but once that scene hit public eye people started chatting about the game
55:45 if you put red wolf of radagon and sif next to each other, you will realise that they share 80% of their movements and attacks. So yeah, you dont have to constantly invent new shit. Just make sure the shit you do make is good.
Asking that question is like: How many DMs have you played with that actually work with you on making your character as a part of the narrative? One. My friend did it. And ONLY ONE. None of my other D&D games have a DM that actually has Session Zero with some pre-campaign sessions building up the backstory of the characters nor a balanced adjusted battle encounter which didn't result to a party wipe. There are unicorns out there. They are just that RARE! 😂 I am glad I caught a unicorn, he-yah! 🤣
I am running Tomb of Annihilation for my group in January after we finish up Strahd. I created the Campaign on DDB and posted up character creation rules and stressed the exotic jungle and unique opportunity to play non standard races, from which I have a water genasi paladin, a firbolg fighter, a goblin druid, an eladrin Cleric, a kobold sorceror and a drow ranger. The Fighter and the ranger being the only two non-native races. I worked with the players to find out about their characters and give them all relevant side quests (the kobold wants to become a dragon, so I am hooking him up with an NPC dragonsoul sorceror with a pet pseudodragon with the means to grant his wish but her own agenda. For the Eladrin, I am homebrewing a temple already in the game to be an ancient temple of Selune that has been taken over by Grung, I am also homebrewing a link to The Great Modron March in that same swamp that links thematically to the final dungeon. The Ranger works for a necromancer so I'm giving him quests related to The Zhents who run mining operations who have reports of Red Wizards on maneuvers. Session 0 will be next year when we will finalise Characters I will discuss themes (finality of death, enslavement etc), safety tools (had that go wrong before) , and fine tune the game systems nitty gritty (con checks Vs Exhaustion, tracking rations) or adventure serial (Indian's Jones red dot across the map and now you are in the Himilayas!) Two different versions of the same game. I also want to do an historical one shot where they take on survivor level 0 characters and have to escape from a city under seize from the undead. If they survive I'll make them NPCs in the Campaign. If they die, then they died. I plan to call back to that event in the first dungeon and I want them to get the "aaah" I know what that is (because I was there) which let's me intro a significant NPC early keep some element of mystery around them but let the players know he's important. It cam be done, I know this world back to front at this point so my joy is in making it accessible and interesting for my players. Starting at lvl 2 I'm not going to trigger the plot until maybe level 3-4. I want them to feel invested in the world before I start trying to destroy it.
@@richardhealy Just an immediate thought: How would you direct the group with all separate goals with such distinguished differences to not PART WAY with one another? From experience, that sounds like the group might have to split and part ways to close up loose ends of their own. Assuming the plot will be linear and based on what I know related Tomb of Annihilation, in order to reach all those personal goals, the party might have to take a longer route than usual under a time restricted campaign. If I may suggest a change, depending on whether the group will continue as a group further, I will stretch the kobold to dragon personal quest till the beginning of next campaign as a reward/inspiration; or to delay the ranger's job for necromancer for another campaign (the whole campaign is about one big bad necromancer already, having another secret plot twist might be too much for a good execution). The temple and the link to the final dungeon seem like great ideas, the integrations should work well given the map design and the possible paths taken (also considering the guide by default). Knowing how time will affect everything in this campaign, I probably will use those personal quests as replacements for the original side-quests set in the book so as to save time while keeping the pursuit for personal goals achievable during the campaign. Cramping too many personal quests into one campaign is what my friend had tried and it obviously backfired despite the detailed arrangements. D&D is primarily impromptu gameplay, which means what you have in mind as DM might never go as planned sometimes (unless we are playing partially scripted/edited like Critical Role). It could be a nat 1, it could be the character is a bit off the path you expected, it could be the other character might have a different goal in mind. Or there are players like some of my friends who design characters for mischieves and laughters, they could easily derail the progress unintendedly. Before I ask any further, would the campaign be run in text/voice? I usually play via text and it seems like the least popular option available everywhere... (XD, no worries on spoilers or player knowing information regarding the campaign in advance, I can pretty much switch that off) If the campaign will be run via voice, just leave a LIKE as a reply, I understand the difficulties.
turn based or not, if a game is good you'll adapt and learn to play a new genre. That's what great games do
True.
Didn't like turn based until persona 5
Didn't like fighting until Tekken 5
Didn't like strategy until XCOM
Didn't like platformers until sonic adventure 2 battle
Most importantly I didn't realize how important a narrative is in games until mass effect trilogy.
Goes the opposite way too ,
Liked service games until Warframe
Liked card games until Yu-Gi-Oh
Liked fighting games until soul Calibur 3
Liked platformers until that one shitty lion king game
And I didn't realized how important the combat/gameplay was until games like doom eternal or ultrakill
This game is more about thinking what the best next tactical move is and managing your resources on higher difficulties, they even added an even harder difficulty (with 1 life) a few days ago. Somewhat like chess I guess.
Turn Based brings its own set of challenges to the game that I find fun, and at times it can be far more difficult than any action game. Yes, you don't need dexterity or quick reactions, but you need to have a more intimate knowledge of the game's mechanics and put a greater emphasis into tactics. BG3 is a good entry into the cRPG genre because I don't personally find it to be too difficult or complex. Games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, however, can really challenge a player to truly learn and understand the game from its mechanics, enemies, and class building.
bg 3 is my very first crpg. liked it so much i was looking for the next game in that genre so i will play divinity 2 next :D
I am 60 and this is my first time playing a game like this, I normally play "cosy" games. I got entranced by playthroughs on UA-cam and really wanted to have a go. I have owned it for almost 2 months, have over 450 hours under my belt and 8 games on the go (including a Dark Urge aagh). I found it hard to get the grasp of combat but am learning, I can't get out of "easy" mode ....yet, I find multiclassing very confusing but I will learn. My main game is in Act 3 but I can't decide how to proceed so just keep restarting with different classes (to try and get the hang of them) and cos I love Acts 1 and 2. The community have been very friendly and helpful without making fun of my age or inexperience. xxx
A friendly community always helps. And don't worry about inexperience, either. You get it by playing the game, and learning things as you go. Or you look up information online, but the fun part, and truly learning a game, is by doing it yourself and figuring out what works best for you.
I recommend going back to that first game and just finishing the story and only then going back to play a different character. It'll help you learn better when you see it from a different perspective starting over. It's similar to finishing the movie and then rewinding it rather than just replaying the parts you liked most and trying to rekindle the emotions you had the first time.
Heyyy, good for you! Congrats on getting out of your comfort zone and finding something new that's also fun for you too! Have fun and keep experimenting!
All that matters is that you have FUN. Doesn't matter if you restart it, play the first act again and again or fail at times! Play it like no one is watching because no one is watching :)
@@kubilayvurak8256 Thanks for this xxx I restarted again today, in Balanced mode and am doing surprisingly well (I think my multiple playthroughs are paying off). xxx I still don't understand multiclassing though lol
My wife is the biggest Baldur’s Gate fan I know. She grew up playing those games over and over. Seeing how much she freaks out while playing this game for all the love the new game shows for the old ones. Also she loves the new characters. Honestly it might be the best game we’ve ever played. This game deserves all the love it’s gotten!
My wife spent like 12 hours doing stuff in act 3 yesterday. We compare the decisions we made in our playthroughs so far all the time and critique each other lol. It's crazy how this one game in such a small amount of time has helped us bond in this sense.
Same! I love the first 2 games, and the Divinity series. BG3 is an absolute dream!
Same with my wife. I played through it 1 1/2 times. She has 4 completed playthrus and 2 more half way in. She is a semi casual gamer, but absolutely loved BG3
This is the best co op game. I played my first playthrough with my gf and she had no experience with CRPGs while I’ve played.. basically all the big ones. She made some pretty drastic decisions I wouldn’t have made my first playthrough and it made it much more chaotic and fun
Lucky men.
Starved BioWare fans is such a good point, KOTOR and Jade Empire are some of my favourite games of all time and a huge part of why I got into D&D to begin with, ultimately leading to Baldur’s Gate 3
Nobody cares about star wars nerds. We are in it for the real fantasy games.
@@OWlsfordshire Gate keeping “real fantasy games” because you don’t like a certain IP is super ironic. You do understand that defeats the purpose of fantasy, right?
My main point was about Bioware and how well made their games were during their peak and how that lead us fans to D&D, just like he explained in the video. Not so much about Star Wars specifically. But go off king Space Fights is trash therefore opinion = irrelevant
@@OWlsfordshire eww what a dork don't be that guy.
I would rather see Asmon playing BG3 solo than with a group. It's a serious game that I feel would be better viewed without shenanigans being pulled between friends.
lol I can tell you take yourself way too seriously
For first run solo is always best. And thats not just for Asmon, but everyone.
I kind of agree. But a group of friends playing together is very hilarious. It’s a very funny game even solo. It’s goated
@@michaelsc78I would agree, whenever my friends ask to play my first statement is always have you done it solo first? I don’t want to ruin that first experience.
Playing this game with the boys was the most fun I've had with video games since college
I started playing this game and less than an hour in I said to my partner "I have been waiting for a game like this for years". A lot of games nowadays (not all), are lacking any kind of in depth story REAL in depth story. I find nowadays that a lot of companies make what they "think" is popular along with getting them the most money. Online repetitive short story games that are at first addictive but get very boring very quickly. Bioware bringing out Anthem is a great example of this. Trying to bring out something that they believe will be popular rather than what they are known for and good at. I have always played games for escapism and to get lost in the story and it's hard to do that with a lot of games. I hope that Baldur's gate 3's success shows other developers and publishers that these types of games are still very much wanted 🙂
damn, Asmongold milking Baldur 3 without playing the whole game, nice!
Yep, and people are swearing Starfield is a masterpiece without playing the whole game. See? I can be irrelevant too~
Asmon inspires me.. My parents said if i get 70K followers They'd buy me a professional camera for recording..begging u guys , literally
Begging...
@@namantherockstar stop begging. Looks bad.
@@joemomma534it's a bot don't even reply
@@supermac8619 i havent played Starfield but i Played almost all Bethesda stuido's games. And the fact that there are procedural generated content and planets already disgusts me. I dont even wanna try it . Cause i Know bethesda i know what they are capable of. Bethesda and Todd Howard Himself galloped from one interview to another to "brag" about procedural generated planets. Thats all what I need to know about Starfield
Larian proved to the entire gaming world great games still exist and creativity isn’t dead
People have playing the wrong genres of games. There loads of good CRPS. Years and years worth.
It also proved that sad lonely gamers will buy literaly anything, even when it's plagued with far-left gender ideology and porn addicted Tumblr writing.
@@OilFreeFeathersthis guys brains got fried by the US elections he can no longer function as an individual. Many such cases. People willingly wearing ads for political parties on their forehead. They do it for free.😢
@@OilFreeFeathersBG3: Gay people exist, thefore it makes sense for there to be some gay characters.
Conservatives: REEEEEEEEE
@@OilFreeFeathers you’re just throwing words together that this point. I suppose it’s technically a sentence, so good on you for that.
I'm so grateful for Larian. It's thanks to companies like them and Fromsoftware that helps me to hold on hope that the Gaming Industry isn't completely doomed.
The game is woke AF and I'm guessing you're talking about that.. on the other hand, From is a very different type of company...
@@lflintxWith very different Combat (You cannot compare DS1 to Sekiro rythn game speed or Bloodborne agression)
With completley new enemies (Some are recycled I will give you that)
With the best Level Design in the Industry with very different levels each time
With very different good storys if you take the time needed to understand them
With (Hottake) THE BEST Bossfights in the Industry and everytime the Bosses are unique in each game
You are talking s#!t
cringe
@@empty-gs4op
@@empty-gs4opI'll take the bait, explain what is woke about it
@@lflintx I agree, and people don't seem to notice they create DS series and ER on basically 1% or less of the money they earn from those games, which is why they reuse so many animations, why they have so many extreme similarities, why there are almost non existent voice acting in all games (it's not a design choice, that's what they lie and say to you)
Fromsoft are owned by Capcom which are one of the worst "big" companies in Asia as in greedy as hell, if you guys for a second think that Hidetaka is actually calling the shots (budget wise) you guys are kidding yourselves :P what we got with ER is the bare minimum of what Hidetaka can make with what budget his bosses allocated to his project.
Again it's not his fault, but Larian made a game that looks 10x better, has 1000000000000% more voice lines and is pretty much comparable in both length, replayability and polish (at release). The reason why Larian did better (and they were not riding the 25+ million units that Fromsoft sold from all their DS series + BB + Sekiro) is because they are privately owned as mentioned in the video...Fromsoft are not :) Hidetaka will NEVER call the shots to make the games how he actually wants them.
Just bought BG3 last week. My God it's so much fun. I was putting it off because I'm not big on turn based games and I thought the game would be more linear for that reason. My expectations were blown out of the water. This game truly is a masterpiece that I can see myself enjoying for many many years to come.
Same, I actually never gave turn base a chance until I played this one. Now I purchased Divinity original sin 2 and Sea of stars so it opened a whole new door for me.
@JJsiN84 I'm looking forward to trying the divinity games. I remember I played a little bit of original sin when it came out, but I was too young to understand it. And also BG3 is a much more open world than I expected for a turn based game. It's amazing how many hidden places there are in each area.
I've never played anything I wanted to complete over and over again. It's a remarkable game.
Bought it right before going on vacation for Christmas. Proceeded to put 100 hours in on it on my first week. Over the past month and a half that I've owned the game, I've put in 270 hours total, run 8 different playthroughs, made 32 attempts at Honored, romanced Astarion, Wyll, Gale, Karlach, and Lae'zel, become a merciless metagamer, a master barrelmancer, and Foehammer.
Not since I was 14 have I loved a game so much.
Edit: Mistyped the number of hours I did in my first week.
@@pensandshakers 8 playthroughs in 270hrs? That..Doesn't sound right. Each playthrough is at minimum 20-40hrs even if you skip over a bunch of stuff. At that point it kind of nulls it.
I beat Elden Ring and i absolutely love BG3. The reasons i like each game are completely different.
Same
Love Asmon but imagine him playing it on hardcore 👀ツ
same, I can play fast pace parkour platformer and fighting game that require lightning reflex but I also love cRPG for what the genre offer. (yes, may be we are pretty niche %)
Zach needs to expand his horizons
@ramonandrajo6348 lmao you must really be triggered to keep making comments like this under every post
The fact that FFantasy ditched turn based and was dwarfed by a turn based RPG is ironic
That's what happens when you lose your own identity trying hard to catch that broader audiences. Also I think gamers generally just too tired of the same lacklusting genre. Too many games with similar genre that it's hard finding a game with their own colour. Everything starting to look the same.
seriously, i miss turned based final fantasy. I got ff15 for christmas the year it came out and it played like a poorly made arkham game, then when ff7 remake came out and i tried it out, it felt so janky and terrible which makes me sad cause ff7 is my favourite.
Meanwhile Yakuza did the opposite, changing from action combat to turn based for an entry in the series that ended up being so successful that those developers then stated the Yakuza mainline series will be turn-based from now on.
I get when people or even devs themselves dont want turn-based, but all the crap about it being "outdated" is so stupid, as if action games aren't just as old
That's funny to see Bioware and Square Enix falling down right when they decided to spit on their fan's faces and seek for broader audiences. Serve them well
It's 11 months later, but I just want to say: it's not just that FFantasy ditched turn based combat, but it's also that they didn't replace it with something good.
There are games which have successfully pulled of action combat or some variation of it, and FF has been trying and failing to do so since ff13
Never really played any turn based CRPG games, I usually play games like Elden Ring, Dragon's Dogma, Valheim
But after trying BG3 I could barely turn it off, absolutely loved it and have now done several very different play throughs.
The characters in the game are insanely well done and the game mechanics allow for some really satisfying creativity, in and out of combat. Absolute masterpiece!
However, full party co-op multiplayer we had a lot of bugs.
I'm doing a co-op playthrough with a friend on PS5. We had minimal bugs until we got to Act 3, getting into Baldur's Gate itself, then all hell broke loose. But there's been a massive improvement since the recent patch. And I think that's a credit to Larian. They recognise an issue and sort it out ASAP. Any bugs disappear in the next patch. The game's already very good, but give it six months and everything will be polished to Avernus and back.
Whereas with other games, bugs persist for ages, then there's more bugs that get added on top over time. Then the devs will patch the game but focus on fixing the dumbest shit ever. I've been a Destiny player for years, and Bungie are absolutely wank at fixing their buggy game. There's still bugs that are over a year old, the server is shite. But you can bet your right nut that the second a weapon or piece of exotic armour or ability breaks and becomes OP and everyone's having fun with it, they'll patch that shit the day of.
try the Neverwinter nights 1 and 2 both are fantastic games too.
@@ramonandrajo6348 Outside of genital customization and pronouns at the beginning of the game, what actually made the game woke?
@@ramonandrajo6348 well you are the one missing out, cause of dumb American tags. No concept of woke exist here in India, loved the game for what it is, a beautifully made game, probably the best i have played in last decade. And that's the popular opinion.
i would NEVER play this beloved game MP, and im amazed people even try. i would only do it if i was playing with wife or children, aka im there to fuel their passion rather than my own.
I think the Bioware market gap is a good point. It was definitely a big factor for me. Dragon Age Origins was the last rpg I got obsessed with.
Imagine making DA origins. And then never being able to simply copy that game for the sequels.
Bioware is such a sham. Absolute garbage.
Mass Effect trilogy is up there and trumps it imo. Yeah, it's not a sword&sorcery fantasy thing, but the role playing, story branching and characters are all there in all their glory and that's what matters. If you think about it, the game is basically gears of war with role playing, how cool is that?!
@@1InVader1 Dont remind me of the ME3 ending is all I can say, its 95% great just turn off the pc after the bum rush and read a fanfic ending or use that mod someone made for good ending slide show. There's a reason why DA is still alive and ME series got canned. And I really wanted andromeda to succeed but it really fell short and I hated the traveling. They couldn't have designed worlds more annoying to travel than what they made.
@@summer7603 Hell yes, 100% agree, ME3 is epic up until the last 30-60min of the game (copypasting Saren's arc to TIM for absolutely no reason was already a bad sign, then the starbrat ugh no).
Altho, Bioware seems to be nostalgia baiting people into paying attention to their newest to be announced ME game... Trailers including Liara, geth head shaped crater, then a character wearing N7 armor... Is Shepard making a come back? Find out in a couple of years... ugh. Ngl, it makes me curious, but judging by the current shape of Bioware I am kind of worried. It can go right and can go wrong in so many different ways...
@@Nicottia Oh no... I did not know they were doing another ME... Considering EA is still just announcing stuff I hope they dismantle Bioware when DA:4 plummets. Embrace accelerationism because ALL the people who made the old ME series are gone, they will absolutely muck this one up as well. And considering they gutted Legendary edition scenes just to remove any Mass Erect or A$$ effect scenes/shots it made the game near boring to play because instead of cinematic and sexy shots of characters we got only talking heads everytime shepard talked to someone. Its like throwing milk all over the Mona Lisa and telling people its great because its still has color and they should buy it.
30:35 Personally, I think the squirrel was as much of a driving factor as the bear. The bear got more attention, but there are plenty of games that go harder than that and they don't get the same reaction. Having both of them showcased the breadth of the experience in a way that neither could have alone.
Its like adding "hahahaha" on a joke punch line. Squirrel was us.
Squirrel reaction is what it makes so funny
Some people click the safe option and bam not what they were expecting.
guys I think they're talking about the OTHER squirrel you obliterate.
@@wobblysauceDo you mean the version where he doesn’t transform back into a bear? If so, yes, I didn’t expect what followed. 😂
I would love to see Nevervinter Nights 3 released someday...I remember playing those in my childhood. NN 1 and 2 were great. And I still hope that one day this series will rise again.
dungeon siege
dude imagine that being their next or after next game
I love when Asmon talks about BG3, his favorite game
3:43 I don't think this is why the game was successful but I think it really helped.
Basically they designed a game where you can have a cup of coffee in your hand (or phone).
A game that has more depth then most of anything else out there.
And it's a game that reacts to your decisions not the other way around.
I can finally eat while gaming
Kinda unfair and untrue that he says its easier though. Its like saying chess is easier than DS.
For any game to be huge you need alot of casual players to get involved as well. The hardcore audience will always be there it's the ability to crossover to the masses that gets you to that next level.
So similar to what happened with the release of Monster Hunter World?
Absolutely. IN WoW currently the last survey showed almost 70% of players have never even attempted to raid. and 50% play "mostly solo"
These people are rarely on the Battle Net forums or sounding off about build balance on IcyVeins or wherever. They just get up - and play the game.
But without them the game would lose most of its audience and subs.
The silent majority.
The EA definitely helped in creating and expanding on those types of players before launch.
disagree.
@@PaulRoneClarke Yeah I'm probably one of those.
Started in TBC, on and off each expansion, always just questing to level, dungeon pugging, maybe some LFR, sometimes PvP, most of the time fishing or farming transmogs. Levels every class to max level then takes a break for months, only character with reasonably endgame gear is the Paladin because it can do every role.
There's no one reason players like me take a break from the game, but multiple factors all come together into the conclusion that "the game isn't as fun/cool as it used to be" without being able to single out anything. I'm sure if I sat down I could pinpoint what turned me off, but frankly I don't care enough about the game to seethe over it. I'll just play something else.
I think what it is is that BG3 reminds us of the amazing RPGs that came out in our childhoods while also providing an almost immaculate experience.
It's always sad to see whenever a game become a hit alot of devs in the industry becomes bitter and starts nitpicking
That's because the majority of video game "teams" are just soulless corporate monkies who want to do the least amount of work for maximum benefit. High quality people who put out high quality shit are seen as overachievers because they're actually passionate and not just trying to make a paycheck
I’m betting the PoE2 stuff is so good because the same developers have been working on that gameplay -the same artists, designers, sound guys, everything -from the beginning over a decade ago. In software, experts can get so much done so effortlessly when they’re in sync. The PoE guys are the most experienced developers in the world at that precise genre. Same reason BG3 was so good.
Random, but check out the recent POE2 stream. Shit looks amazing
As someone who has played Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3 and WoW, the succes comes from how well a game is polished and how much interaction there is in the world.
@@ramonandrajo6348 oooooh nooooo not woke!!!
I think "polished" is not something I'd put on bg3. Because after 200 hours...that has not been my experience. However, I think it's about how well they filled out the world in a meaningful way. It drops off after the third act and I wish they had done as much for it as they did the 1st act. However it still doesn't feel empty. And it doesn't feel like a gigantic open world with nothing to do. Which is why Witcher 3 was also so successful.
I also think "polished" is too cliche. It's a catch all for whatever people want it to be, and whatever their bias is. And polished does not equal good, imo.
@@MekarePnailed it
@@MekarePI can 100% agree, I've pumped almost 500hrs so far and I'm having a blast, but there have definitely been performance issues especially on the ps5.
However I think what really does it for me is just the amount of freedom I have in the game. It allows so much creativity and as a DND fan that doesnt have time to play anymore, its honestly extremely close - at least as close as you're going to get in a videogame.
The game rewards you and is in my opinion best enjoyed when you play as your character, not as yourself, and it will take you places and give you experiences you'd otherwise never see.
@@MekareP No game is %100 polished, I played games where the character I play as would glitch through the floor once or twice.
Take the Metro series as a example aswell all three have one or two glitches where there's a invisible enemy or a enemy glitches in and kills your character instantly if you fall behind.
As long as the glitch or bug doesn't hinder gameplay and you know how to avoid that glitch or bug there isn't really a major issue.
"Turn-based is popular because you don't need dexterity."
*Me watching the seventh time my best friend has mistargeted her Eldritch Blast and accidentally killed a civilian:* ...
The reason BG3 rocketed to success is bc it doesn't syphon your wallet dry with loot boxes, useless microtransactions, or battle passes. Which is a rarity these days
Lots of games don’t do those things if you’re looking in the right places. BG3 blew up because it’s an incredible game that made other devs feel bad about how mid their games are in comparison to
And because it's an excellent game
@@ramonandrajo6348 I don't give a shit about 'woke'. I play good games.
@wardvandecotte9253 If you only play good games then you wouldn't play a game where the devs skipped adding endings but claimed to have 17,000. The entire 3rd act was a mess and not even complete. Act 2 should have been the 3rd act, but it was rushed and too short.
@@OWlsfordshire No it wasn't. Game of the decade.
Watch next Thursday, Game of the Year awards, it's gonna blow the competition away. If you like it or not.
Happy gaming.
I enjoy the turn base as you can strategize and plan in detail on each encounter, how your party is only as strong as your balance etc.
Although Eldon ring is a masterpiece, it is frustrating at times because you feel like you keep dying to the same thing. Implementing different strategies is limited. In bg3 I’ve never really felt frustrated in combats because there are countless strategies and even things you can do way outside the box to beat something.
Baldur's Gate III remains true to its Tabletop RPG roots, where taking the time to strategize and plan is a major component. Everything else, its accessibility, the fact that it is an amazingly well done game, the way the setting was built for the players to see and enjoy, it what made it big.
@@TheDeluche Elden Ring follows the Soulsborne formula, which is based off of old school games, save for the fact that the difficulty is largely fair. And being a fan of Soulsborne games since Dark Souls, that is a frustration I am well familiar with. Interestingly, I have found that putting the game down for a few days or weeks (and sometimes months) helps there, as I come back in without the frustration causing me to make the same mistakes. Frustration is as much your enemy in that game as the bosses are.
I might be old but I like turn based games because I enjoy strategy. Not every game has to be a reaction speed vs reaction speed (or scripts) but try and tell that to a generation raised on TikTok and fortnight.
that right there. i love turnbased coz its not about speed but actual strategy. you get to think to PLAN! and more importantly enjoy when things go according to plan :P.
i like when i have something that lets me go slow cause fast game are fun and all but some times i just want to chill @@TheRufas24
as someone who is almost 18 i feel like fortnite/roblox/tiktok has made my younger siblings into troglodytes
@@Konyyaan If you are that young and dodged all these attention span withering bullets ... respect.
well i didn't have internet for like 10 years of my life so i grew up reading books unlike my siblings lmao @@eilonz3333
40 years old and LOVING every minute of BG3. Most fun I’ve had on a game in years. Complete D&D/ turn-based noob so had to contend with the learning curve, but it was so worth it! Nearly done with my first play through and idk what I’m more excited for; completing my playthrough or starting another one.
haha tell me about it. Sometimes the excitement of trying new classes and races and making different decisions makes me more excited for a new run than finishing my current one 😭
@@sylvie333 I started a School of Lore Bard Tactician run. Trying to do any/every quest I can so really just taking my time through act 1 atm. Just did the Emerald Grove raid last night and I’m torn..! Part of me loved exploding the Minthara raiding party with oil and firewine barrels, but the other part of me is actually wanting to do an evil playthrough and befriend that sexy drow!
Just judging the chr's look by other games, I thought the vampire spawn guy was just a goody noble guy that sings or something like that. I was like I don't want to play that guy. I actually left him on the road a bit until i realized I needed a rogue. Put him in the party a bit and he turned out to be my fav character :)
Astarion can literally single handidly beat nearly every encounter in the game on its (not the newest difficulty) tactician difficulty level. That boy be bussin' fr fr no cap n wutnot n theens
Yeah, he sings (to himself) as he slits your throat in the night.
@michaeldeaton should I try honour mode?
You can literally feel the brain drain in later games of beloved franchises when the studio transformed for the worse over time. BG3 is an example of what games can be when you retain talent in your studio over the years.
3:25 this is so true. I can jump in and out easily if i need to do something in my house, i dont need to tryhard to improve my reaction time and if someone talk to you in a crucial moment you wanna spal their face because they broke your focus... At least you enjoy every part of it and can focus more on the overall strategy. Its really enjoyable for me.
I can play while I work because I don't get phone calls all night but if I do when I am in the middle of a fight, I just switch over until I deal with my job and move on. My boss knows I do this and has no issue with it. I don't know of any game I can do that with as well.
@@mkeller7881 , like every previous crpg, because they have pause function.
Hehehe, spoken like an old baka
@@staskozak8118 real time with pause felt very different to me and the AI had to be babysat a lot more, like the old divinity games. This doesn’t feel anything like those games to me.
its the story for sure....the graphics are really good, the combat takes time to get used to but you get so engrossed in the story....so many options its unbelievable
I was one of those players that was starved for an RPG with choices in story that have meaningful impact or actually change an outcome of an event.
Most "RPG's" today give the illusion of choice. Use Fallout 4 for example, most choices boiled down to Yes, Sarcastic Yes, ask for more info (leading to yes), or no (but still doesn't meaningfully impact anything, or still ends up being railroaded into yes).
Also "No." (Actually means yes, but not right now if you want to progress).
Play more CRPGs then. There have been lots that provided this. Stop playing AAA
I never got into turn based games, ever. But I tried BG3 and it's amazing. Everything is so amazingly done. You can literally do whatever you want. You want to massacre every person you see? Sure thing buddy, go ahead! You want to be a good person? Good! There's hidden stuff EVERYWHERE. You see a cracked wall, smash it and there's another area. There's buttons to open walls you didn't know can open. It's just so well done man, nothing but respect for everyone involved.
I feel the problem with the industry rn is there isn’t enough imagination… everything seems recycled. Like we’ve seen it before in a different setting. Feels like gaming company’s are just going with the tried and tested method instead of taking risks and pushing boundaries… there isn’t much innovation going on anymore imo… everything about the $$$$$$. To sum the industry up in one word I would have to say ‘STALE’.
BG3 was one of my favourite games in the past decade, simply because i felt seen by larian. They care, they really care. They want the players to have a good time with a good product.
Some people will always create passion projects and be happy with "a lot of profit" without destroying their game and demanding "ALL the profit"
I think people underestimate the importance of being a private company when it comes to decision making. Public companies are beholden to a board that only demands one thing, profit.
Just started playing this a few weeks ago and holy moly it’s on another level. I’ve never felt so immersed in a game before this.
It's all about RPG truly cinematic experience with good characters, romances and sense of freedom and nothing else. Just cut cinematic experience from this game and suddenly it would be just another Divinity... I have hope that Larian won't end like BioWare - pushing more and more lower quality stuff and poor writing...
@@timrim9405I think we can comfortably assume larian wont end up like BioWare, considering that larian IS the best devs from BioWare that left because of the direction the company was going. Larian is the best that BioWare had actually.
BG3 turned the voice actors into famous people as well, they did a lot of voice actor table top podcasts and the voice actors showed up to events! This game changed the lives of the voice actors, they now have a following and can be independently wealthy.
Ngl, I'm a fan of heavy story talking choice games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. After I finished those games, I don't know what to play and I saw Baldurs Gate 3 gameplay where it has this similiar element in the game. At first I was a bit skeptical because I never really played CRPG games but I gave it a try anyway. I ended up having a blast, altough it still has a optimization problems. I think I would play Disco Elysium next.
Man I hope this new popularity in the genre gets Owlcat and the Pathfinder games more attention. They're criminally under exposed
they are way more overwhelmly than bg 3 i did play wrath and kingmaker fun game but i was overwhelmed and played on the easiest game mode
The steep learning curve is sadly the price paid for the mechanical depth of the games. They may have been able to make it smoother but then again likely not.
@@NkenKenY as much as I love owlcat's games, this is 100% true. The games have so much stuff in it. Yeah it's cool but holy fuck is there alot and it turns so many new players away or they do like you and play story mode because theres just way to much dumped on the player.
I've been playing Souls likes for the past 6 years, and even speed ran DS3 for about half a year, (20 years old atm) and guess what I love Crpg's and turn based games just as much. From the likes of DOS2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Mass Effect trilogy, or XCOM2 to yes, BG3.
Asmon is right for all the wrong reasons.... yes it's good that it's turn based, but not because you don't have to be dexterous or have quick reactions. It's good because turn based games are amazing, just like how high intesity games like Elden Ring/Armored Core or even modern day shooters are fun. Just because the games combat is slower doesn't mean that oh... it has to target older people as it's target audience and that it automatically is an easy game, what kind of wierd backwards thinking is that? BG3 is not hard by any means, even with the new Honour Mode the game lacks any significant challange if you actually put in time to understand the games mechanics (which doesn't take that long if you played any remotely simmilar games before). But it is also not a cake walk, you can fck up... badly, and some times it might seem like there was nothing you could do, but unlike in some other games, usually you could have done something different, and at the end of the day you messed up. Turn based games focus is on tactics, combos, action economy and efficency, risk assessment and a big bucket of creativity. Don't say that it's a genre for Old man and peole who have no reaction time or just want to get high on weed while playing. Just because it's good for all of the above doesn't mean that thats the target audience.
I think what he means is that you can focus on the actual game rather then just reacting and using more intelligence to determine what the right play is instead of just spam dodge roll when the wind up comes wich is what makes it fun for people who want tma fmgame were they need strategy to win
Disagree, most turn based game don't have a system quite as robust as BG3's. Most of them have boring combat systems. There's no other turn based game that has this many environmental interactions, down to even calculating the force and damage from falling objects based on height, weight and size class. iirc even DOS is just doing different coloured explosive barrels, although with the different elemental effects interacting with each other. BG3's combat system just has so much more depth and it makes all the difference.
Compare that to the average turn-based RPG system - something like what Shadowrun trilogy has. I love that game series, but it's night and day difference.
I think you are spot on. I could never finish Elden ring or any similar games because I just don’t have the attention span to try for hours. BG3 is perfect for me cause I can chill as much as I want, I can hyper focus when I feel like it too.
They did an actual good job and didn’t care about the money.
They care about money, they just aren’t greedy like most gaming companies.
@@ralphralph5990 basically what that means
Yeah, and it was a kickstarter too
@@danielisbored97753 years of beta testing too and had plenty of people jumping in for early access
@@danielisbored9775 I know I was about if the kickstart.
I think people forget about how important word of mouth advertising is, when it comes from a friend or trusted source there’s a really high probability that you will take the advice and buy the game, that’s what happened to me. Never even heard one advertisement for baldurs gate 3
My wife is the biggest Baldur’s Gate fan I know. She grew up playing those games over and over. Seeing how much she freaks out while playing this game for all the love the new game shows for the old ones. Also she loves the new characters. Honestly it might be the best game we’ve ever played. This game deserves all the love it’s gotten!
101
did you just repost the top comment?
@@Evilriku13
Pretty sure that's the case.
Hahahaha he got me. I AM a starved Bioware fan. 😁 Btw Larian just released huge patch for BG3 that adds interlogue after every ending and bunch of highly requested things.
Too bad they don't even show up lmao a lot of people are complaining about not being able to trigger these new epilogue scenes
@@fenharel2137 I dunno I tried on all my characters and they triggered for me. They need to go way back to the very start of last mission and complete convos with all companions in order to trigger it. That is for people with saves. People who start new game now and finish it will have those epilogues no matter what.
Dude, same. I am a MASSIVE Mass Effect and Dragon Age fan. Before BG3 I didn't really like turn based games, though the only turn based game I know of is Final Fantasy from the 90's-00's. 😅
@@PinkMarshmallows and KotOR. Man, Bioware was huge before EA sucked life out of it. KotOR is the game that made me fan of Star Wars universe. Before that I only watched some of the Original trilogy as a kid. After KotOR I bought all movies and binged, instantly became huge fan. Now I have movies on bluray (except Sequels) and books, toys, comics... a single Bioware game made me Star Wars fan. If you think about it it's crazy.
@@DarkSpells87i just had to load my save before i killed the last boss and got the new stuff so.
BG3 is easily the best game I've played in a long time. If you like CRPG, I recommend to give Disco Elysium a try, as it is a very good. Refreshing setting and in my top favourite list of RPGs , with a unique style and good writing and world building. Good voice acting and character and world design. It shows the love that went into it.
My issue so far is the combat is such a slog. There are SOOO many enemies in these early fights and with my characters missing attacks so frequently, it feels like I'm just re rolling the encounters for a lucky seed. Which is... Poor design in my estimation.
@@mikeyj.philly are you making use of the "Advantage" state over enemies or in that respect avoid disadvantage. I admit I was struggling with hit rate of my bg3 party at the start as well. Especially if you're not super familiar with dnd 5th edition rules. But there's a ton of video material out there on how to improve chances to hit
@@grischag5616 I appreciate the help and may check that out, but as a rule I generally don't play games that don't teach you how to play them. There's a difference between handholding and baseline instruction imo
@@mikeyj.philly I agree learning the do's and don't of combat and understanding stats is quite the learning curve, reminds me of when I was learning how to play chess. I still only really play on explorer because I struggle on balanced in certain fights.
I'm a 53-year-old who played and loved both Elden Ring and BG3. Having a varied diet is good for you! Focusing on one experience will burn you out on it eventually. It's healthy to balance game pizza against game broccoli.
Hey, we older folks aren't THAT slow- 67 for me, I have been gaming since pong.
Solving crunch by having a team on the other hemisphere ready to go is not only genius, but the sort of prolific thinking we need to dodge the incoming crash in the industry.
as of right now, baldurs gate 3 is still maintaining 91,000 players on steam alone.
14:48 "The big thing with BG3 is that it's one of the first times we've seen the level of triple A quality resources go into a genre like this..."
Lol have you heard of Bioware? They did this way back in 2009 with Dragon Age: Origins.
Its not so much that turn based games remove the need for player dexterity, its that it makes the combat more engaging. Asmon is talking about how CRPG players are old and braindead, meanwhile hes button mashing in ARPGs.
part of what makes BG3 so good is that it's a turnbased game that feels fast paced
@@ramonandrajo6348 what?
@@ramonandrajo6348 you know if you wanna use the term "woke" you could just use an 0 instead of an o. Also woke in this game at least feels more real because the characters are characters first, then heir sexual orientation. Woke actually doesn't mean "everything under the LGTBQIA+ banner" but "appealing to the LGBTQIA+ banner first, then doing everything else with their motivation and everything they do fall under the banner and not being part of the banner". Learn the difference instead of xenoshaming games like that (xenoshaming meaning to shame something you are scared off and don't know it, coming from the latin term xeno meaning strange/alien/different).
I just discovered BG3 for myself 2-3 weeks ago. I enjoy it so much, that I don't bother with SoD at all for now.
Took me a while to get used to the camera controls though. ;)
I was never a turn based player its about the phenomenal story and lovable characters and the immersion as well as allowing you to basically do whatever you want without forcing bullshit onto you with no shit monetization needed for battlepasses and pay to win type of content which allows us to have the feeling we all had to make us fall in love with gaming.
Industry: People must have a craving for cRPGs that we didn't know about!
Gamers: Man.... I guess I'm willing to even play a cRPG if the game is that good.
Sorry old can be a misunderstood concept, Assi.
Details are important.
You don't see most of the creatures in the game, there's one mimic, the Goblins are meant to destroy. Even tho a lot of them I would have liked to hang out, n drink and gamble with them, as well as have a f** jam sessn with them. Pissed me off.
The lead Cast is streaming the hell out of the game BG³ And act like kids, in the candy store, it's so much fun to watch as well as play. Slap a drunk Goblin over the cliff, so much fun, especially the sound effects, are awesome. The rise of chillin music as the Narrator comes in and makes you fear what step, your about to take, too late, you just lost your entire party, in a bomb enfused area.
Old my Gran loves Astarion, he's just cheeky and won't let you get away with being stupid, and she adores the sarcasms.And 4th wall breaking.
F***yeah!!
👩🏻🚀🐶✨🌜✨❤️🩹🗡️🗡️
Everyone wants to Smash!!
TAV YOUR CHARACTER
THANK YOU❤️🛡️ASMO.
No matter how many times I play BG3 even if it’s the same main story each time. I just can’t stop playing it
I mean its littleraly just a high quality co-op story heavy rpg game. The genre gamers crave.
Wow, you mean an incredible, fleshed out, feature-complete and great game without microtransactions and developed by passionate developers turned out great and people loved it?
I'm shocked.
When I was a kid this is what the future of games was. Good graphics, play how you want with so many options. I was beginning to lose hope.
There is 0 reason to keep hope in the AAA industry btw.
Games like BG3 aren't most games.
@@SuperCatacata You are correct, the video goes into some of the reasons why but realistically as a corporation you cannot survive having one or two stellar hits every several years, you have to keep the treadmill going and have numerous teams, contracts, partnerships, licensing contracts, etc. Sure it is great when we see something like BG3 become a reality but the video and numerous interviews have shown and stated it was an incredibly difficult journey for them. Now imagine that but for a public corporation that by law has a fiduciary duty to their shareholders.
8:14-8:23 This is what makes a great studio, not the games or the individual dev/exec, it takes actual effort from the entire studio to compound on what you do best and the courage to keep doing your best with each installation. Larian did the best they could to bring everything to the table, not like Bethesda who has wasted two decades of time with a stagnant mindset towards their franchises and fans while wrapped in an iron clad ego or like Bungie so absorbed in making endless money and doing the bare minimum that they let their greed consume their passion. Larian Studios makes game development an art again and it's been far too long since we've seen this in triple A gaming and the RPG/Open world genre.
I hated turn-based games until I became a parent. Now they're the only thing I can actually play. Less about reaction times, more about being able to set down the game and go deal with a child riding the cat
I'm 50. I have 300 hrs in BG3, was a diamond player in Overwatch, was a top ranked raiding Druid Healer in WOW and have completed a no-death run through Elden Ring. The too old thing is just a cop out.
I started my first playthrough beginning of october. Spent 2 weeks on it before I decided to scrap it because I didn't like the decisions I made. So I rerolled and now a month and a half later I'm still trying to finish it. Probably average like 12 hours a week on it if not a little more but good god it is so jam-packed with fucking content it's amazing.
Definitely, the characters and their stories made a huge difference. Especially in replayability. I do wish that tactical was more difficult but the story certainly makes up for it.
They added more difficulty options and a hardcore "honor mode" for those wanting something beyond Tactician. Just the other day!
It is a fact and I dare anyone to try to prove me wrong that, When money is your main motive, shit doesn't go right for you😂😂
It's the strategy of a turn based that is intriguing. I beat Elden Ring at level 1 and did many challenges to where it got too easy. I am a huge Dark Souls fan. But I L O V E BG3 and have almost 1k hours put into it, which is almost catching up to Elden Ring for me. Point being, it is meant for a more slow pace audience who don't have fast reactions but at the same time it's meant for players with quick reactions as well. It can keep the attention of all types of players and as Asmon stated, all the characters are relatable and the story is immersive.
When they talked about how BG3 fans who "don't normally like these types of games" are starved BioWare fans, I felt that. That made me realize how long I've wanted something that reminds me of the first two Mass Effect games.
Regarding the reasons of BG3 being turn-based. IMHO, D&D rules-based games are also just not really fit to be played in real-time. Take a look at BG2. It has an implicit real-time combat round counter behind the scenes, and it's very awkward when you try to battle optimally, because you'll have to pause all of the time if you want not to lose opportunities attacking, positioning the party members or spellcasting. I've played all of the Infinity Engine-based games, and I would really prefer if they had fully turn-based combat (but then perhaps they would need to have less, but somewhat tougher fights, I suppose?).
I do agree that many more people would prefer turn-based combat, vs the real-time one, in the first place.
And BG3 become too easy. And now battles with trash mobs takes MUCH more time (why the fuck i cant even skip enemy run animation???) for no reason.
Realtime with pause made it possible to kite, shift the monster's aggro, attack several characters at the same time. Much more tactic evolved than in BG3
@@staskozak8118ok but dnd was never really supossed to be hard even in the ttrpg form. There was always a 90% chance you won most of the time unless your dm was an ass or your party were masochistic and liked playing meat grinders. thats just how the game works and its better off that
@staskozak8118 so what you're saying, you exploited the failures of the BG2 AI. And let me remind you that the enemy gets an attack of opportunity each time you disengage, by D&D rules.
I have an impression that you just like ARPGs more, frankly, and expect D&D to play like diablo.
I do agree that BG3 is often too easy even on Tactician - but I think that questions of game difficulty balance are beside the point here...
@@namethefifth7315 , you say it like it's first realization on desktop. I have no problem if game easier, but "Tactician" without tactic needed is a disappointment
Mass Effect and Dragon Age were mentioned but where is Kotor?!?!??!
Larian turned me on to turn based combat. I used to avoid it like the plague, but I gave DOS a chance and now I love the combat. It is not easy. In fact it is much harder than Elden Ring. Turn based is more like solving a puzzle, playing chess etc, at least on the hard difficulty settings. Tactician mode is so hard in BG3 that I often turn it down a notch despite having 500 hours in DOS1 and 2.
Really? i found the balanced and tactician difficulties quite similar only exception was the engagements i didn't have in previous playthrough. and usually i play on those normal difficulties at most.
Well, Larian has some of the best implementations of turn based combat I have played. I've been playing turn-based games since the 90's. Turn based games are usually better when they have a tactical aspect to them where you can strategically position yourself and effect terrain and such. I think it is much more engaging than simply attacking, healing, and defending for an all-out attack. I love how tactical turn based games are like chess. You would probably like Into the Breach or the Advance Wars/Fire Emblem series.
Man your brain must operate at the pace of dripping molasses if you found anything in BG3 hard. Go play Pathfinder WOTR on Unfair and come back.
@@grit1bruh cmon, game's hard first playthrough specially if you play without looking stuff online nor have u played a game similar to it before.
It really isn't. Like a lot of D&D/D&D adjacent systems the difficulty is entirely front loaded. At about level 5 you shouldn't have any problems whatsoever unless you're massively outnumbered. Even for people who have never played the system, martial classes are just point, click, dead.
This is especially true in 5e where a level generally gives you hit points, occasionally a new passive ability, and if you're a caster a very small selection of spells (that you don't even need to prep a certain number of anymore). Even feats have been massively toned down. If you can read, you will have no problem making a character in a 5e setting because of how little interaction there is with leveling up. @@MatiasMaldona3
There's actually been a LOT of great CRPGs. To name a few:
- Shadowrun Hong Kong (and Dragonfall, or so I've been told)
- Divinity Original Sin 2, obviously.
- WH40k: Mechanicus (probably the second best Warhammer PC game of all time, and my own personal favorite.)
- Wasteland 2 and 3
- Jagged Alliance 3
- You could probably count XCOM 2 in this genre too, but maybe not.
- I've also bought Miasma Chronicles and Colony Ship, but haven't played them yet. Still everything I've read about both makes me think they're great.
Several of these predate Disco Elysium, so I would argue that while it's a good example of the genre, it did not start some sort of renaissance. CRPGs have had a constant string of hits over the years. What Disco Elysium did is generate a lot of press with the likes of Kotaku and Polygon because it didn't include a combat system, which appeals to certain values they have there. The game is good in its own right, but to me, this isn't why it's good. It's good because it's well written and the game world is very deep and easy to lose yourself in. The lack of combat is a feature I, and I would wager most gamers, are very indifferent towards, so it got attention from certain outlets. It did deserve that attention, but not for the reason it got it.
So as someone who has been pretty involved in the bioware fandom for a long time, pretty much everyone who was making or talking about dragon age content is now making and talking about baldurs gate content.
I think its a good game because its turned based but not because it doesn't require dexterity and lets you walk away and get snacks and old people are slow. Its because turned based allowed it to go fully into story and meaning mode all the time.
Not to mention we keep getting hotfixes and patches nonstop, the last patch was 30gb, compare that to any other game which takes AGES to fix anything at all while also being jam packed with microtransactions.
The point Asmon brings up on funny or good stuff happening quickly so it’s great for socials is such a good point.
If KOTOR was released today, everyone would be praising it too, because the gameplay is good for turnbased and the choices you make are planet changing. similar to baldur's gate with the direct DnD inspiration but it's Star Wars.
Honestly one of the best games I have ever played. I havnt beaten it yet because there is so many different ways you can play and I keep restarting and wanting to try different runs!
Same
Tencent owns a % of every big video game company because its literally necessary for any multinational company to have Chinese investors/owners in order to legally sell anything in china.
Also it legally required by Chinese law for the government to have free access to all information these companies use, there is no such thing as "private" information in a Chinese company. This is why people justifiably label anything Chinese owned as spyware.
No micro transactions are a bigger part of it than mentioned simple because you remove all temptation. Pay for convenience creates the incentive to slow down and ruin the pacing of the game. Pay for power creates the incentive to create choke points or have the most powerfully fun stuff paywalled. Even pure cosmetics create the incentive to limit the aesthetics of the characters and equipment. Tuning all those dials to find the right balance between making more money and not hurting the game is hard. Not having any dials to tune keeps you free to just focus on the game.
Then again, there's also that the moment you see micro-transactions in a game you KNOW it won't be too concerned with in-depth plotlines and character development... they are milking machines, not art pieces created with love.
Started as a kid with games like empire, battle isle, Dune 2, C&C, Starcraft, Diablo, up to Heroes of M&M, HOI ... turn based games often have a more strategic approach. Action based games are mostly boring in my opinion (even though i played some of them too of course).
For anyone who doesn't know, Larian just added a new epilogue bit ("6 months later...") to the end of the game. Didn't give me everything I wanted, but it still gave me lots of feels and made for a much better note to end the game on.
It makes tge dummies thinking squidlach was the best ending for karlach and not the hell ending because she tells you they found a cure to her hart problem so she may be able to leave hell soon
Time to go replay this then
I wouldn't say it's mostly about ability. Action games are cool but also kinda boring in the long run when we have no variety . It's the same all over again. Hit the right buttons fast. A turned based system allows much more options because you are not limited to a certain number of buttons that can be pressed fast. Both, action and turned based are good. It's just different styles with different options.
I think another reason for the success of Baldurs gate is people just want good games and games that feel different then what they usually play
its like we need more programmers and gamedevelopers being ACTUAL gamers instead of just learning it by the books so that they lack the empathy for creation something with a heart and soul basically!
So, the moment I knew this game was an absolute gem, was not when my best friend who I game with (when we have time) who does not like cRPG's decided he enjoyed it, but when my non gamer girlfriend decided she liked it. My girlfriend (as said before) doesn't play or really LIKE videogames, but she will consistently play the game we have going and openly says she enjoys it for the following reasons. She isn't rushed in combat, meaning her poor gamer reflexes aren't punished. She can invest in the story because she has started to see how some decisions will impact the whole world we inhabit (she made the entire starting grove hostile towards us). We can save scum so if she provokes an animal that she doesn't want to kill into combat we can retry. And she can express herself pretty easily with both the character she builds, and the companion she brings along with her. That's when I knew this game was something special. Made a non gamer enjoy it despite being a videogame. Easily deserves every ounce of praise levied at it.
Other great early access experiences of mine have been Hades and Rogue Legacy 2. Got them well ahead of release and they were good but just got better and better. Definitely shining examples of how to do it well.
18:30 i had never even heard of baldurs gate at all until the bear thing blew up and i found out about the series. Bear seggs probably made the game reach way further than it would have without it.
first day of early access I payed €19.99 for this.
Played it twice and had some feedback send in. Everything I wrote came to be. (obviously it wasn't me who made the changes with my feedback) but seeing ppl feel the same and the Devs actually listening and implementing those things, it feels nice and makes u feel a part of it.
Played the full game D1 and 2 months later and 140hrs imgame time, I can definatly say it's GOTY and a game like this comes around only once every couple of years.
Instant classic and will do a playthrough again next year. All this for €19.99.
In my experience and friend's opinions , what really brought them to the game wasn't the turn based at all, they actually fucking hate turn based games even if they play D&D sometimes, but the story and amount of meaningful choices was a big selling point for them, ppl just want to be able to do things as they wish without feeling like they are being restricted by game limitations in every corner, but even then we all agreed that if it wasn't turn based it wouldn't work as well.
Developers loved the game that they are making so they made a good game
Shadowheart can call me a stupid donkey, and I feel that and respect that opinion and love her for it.
The one thing I'm most impressed with in BG3 is the playability for everyone. It's a good entry-level game, but it also meets the needs of experienced gamers, especially on character building and questing. For example, some puzzles are really easy, but there are so many difficult puzzles and some very unpredictable secrets that even the most die-hard gamers might have problems finding, and you can just follow your suggested character build, but you can also spend days min/maxing your stats and gear...
Edit: Also, Tencent might own 30% of the company, but the 62.04% percentage above it, is the owner of Larian Studios. He still owns most of the company himself...
it looks like you belong to the first category. This game is one of the worst in terms of builds. The 5th edition of DnD (truncated, only 12 levels from 20) is used here, and it is VERY simplified. VERY. And the game itself is very simple and does not require any minmaxing at all.
@@staskozak8118shure its not required (though it is kind of on hardcore and honor mode) but you can and it makes the game fun for doing so. Also simplifying dnd was one of the only things 5e got right. It was way to needlessly complecated in erlier edditions. Thats why they they made 3.5th eddition because 3e was to complicated and convoluted with how many source books it had and 3.5 ended up with the same problem
20:12 are my fav part. Gosh i love Asmon
I dont agree with Asmon with some of his arguments related to Baldur's Gate 3 popularity and furthermore Im gonna provide my version why BG3 got so popular
1) CRPG isnt popular genre for a wide audience of gamers. Asmon said that CRPGs are popular but they arent. There are tons of Turn-based RPGs with great stories and good written characters(same level of writing and even better than in Baldur's Gate 3 ) The reason why they arent popular cause their Fan-bases are on the verge of extinction. Quite pretentious , but its true. Typical Gamer today is thirsty for action. We want blood we want fire and big Explosions OR in short Good graphics and cinematics. Baldur's Gate 3 IS THE FIRST CRPG fantasy since Dragon Age Origins with an Epic adventure which includes good-written characters and etc. (Inquisition sucked Lets be honest) Overall, BG3 has amazing cutscenes and animations. typical CRPGs consist tons of text without any voice acting(Pathfinder, Tyranny, Pillars of eternity all of these are good games but lack graphics and cinematics to appeal to typical modern gamer). Overall BG3 combined turn based gameplay and Dragon age level cinematics/action/epicness and even better.
2) The Game is just great! Amazing right? Developers didnt add any unnecessary encounters or gather 50 toilet papers to unlock "Common sword +1"
There isnt any kind of boring activity. You dont have to gather 15 parts of some sh*t to unlock another sh*t so you can use that sh*t to do sh*t. NO. Every encounter with enemies in this game is INTERESTING.Every encounter challenges you TO THINK, TO ADAPT, TO OUTSMART. Game design is PHENOMENAL. Its a sandbox with its own pack of rules and tools which you can abuse anytime. Im gonna give you an example. I've met a bunch of Assassins who can turn invisible. Obviously my warrior or Rogue cant find them. But my BIG BRAIN Mage knows that Call Lightning spell can damage multiple targets if you hit only one of them. lightning beam spreads killing invisible assassins. Its just 1 example, but there dozens of ways dealing with every task. Game lets you outsmart itself. Game wont say things like " Hey, Anon, You cant just rob all traders stealing super useful gear" And my rogue with 20 Agility says "NAAAAH" If you outsmart the game then its FAIR.
3) Genius advertisement. Yep, its THE BEAR
Seriously! Before "Bear accident" only fans(and small number of just gamers) of CRPGs were aware about the Release of Baldur's Gate 3. Majority of people got interested only after "Bear accident" Of course they got interested cause they started asking questions like "If you can let that Bear f*ck you? What else CAN YOU DO?!" And ooooh boy.
4) Oustanding Voice acting. Voice actors did amazing. Every character has its own thoughts, feelings, personality and you can affect their personalities consequently changing their Fate. Astarion's personal quest one of my favourites. And you will cry(or at least sob) at the end of his questline.
5) There werent any Managers at Larian who demanded adding stuff to just extend your playtime so they can brag about those results to their shareholders. Baldur's Gate 3 is THE game made by players FOR players. As a player I hate when game just throws at me bunch of quests to gather 15 something, Larian hates it too, I hate when in a RPG game my choises dont matter, Larian hates it too.
And its just a short list why BG3 is a great game. I can continue up to 100
Honestly 3 was probably the biggest launchpad. I knew about the game beforehand but once that scene hit public eye people started chatting about the game
55:45 if you put red wolf of radagon and sif next to each other, you will realise that they share 80% of their movements and attacks. So yeah, you dont have to constantly invent new shit. Just make sure the shit you do make is good.
Asking that question is like:
How many DMs have you played with that actually work with you on making your character as a part of the narrative?
One. My friend did it. And ONLY ONE. None of my other D&D games have a DM that actually has Session Zero with some pre-campaign sessions building up the backstory of the characters nor a balanced adjusted battle encounter which didn't result to a party wipe.
There are unicorns out there. They are just that RARE! 😂 I am glad I caught a unicorn, he-yah! 🤣
I am running Tomb of Annihilation for my group in January after we finish up Strahd. I created the Campaign on DDB and posted up character creation rules and stressed the exotic jungle and unique opportunity to play non standard races, from which I have a water genasi paladin, a firbolg fighter, a goblin druid, an eladrin Cleric, a kobold sorceror and a drow ranger. The Fighter and the ranger being the only two non-native races.
I worked with the players to find out about their characters and give them all relevant side quests (the kobold wants to become a dragon, so I am hooking him up with an NPC dragonsoul sorceror with a pet pseudodragon with the means to grant his wish but her own agenda.
For the Eladrin, I am homebrewing a temple already in the game to be an ancient temple of Selune that has been taken over by Grung, I am also homebrewing a link to The Great Modron March in that same swamp that links thematically to the final dungeon. The Ranger works for a necromancer so I'm giving him quests related to The Zhents who run mining operations who have reports of Red Wizards on maneuvers.
Session 0 will be next year when we will finalise Characters I will discuss themes (finality of death, enslavement etc), safety tools (had that go wrong before) , and fine tune the game systems nitty gritty (con checks Vs Exhaustion, tracking rations) or adventure serial (Indian's Jones red dot across the map and now you are in the Himilayas!) Two different versions of the same game.
I also want to do an historical one shot where they take on survivor level 0 characters and have to escape from a city under seize from the undead. If they survive I'll make them NPCs in the Campaign. If they die, then they died.
I plan to call back to that event in the first dungeon and I want them to get the "aaah" I know what that is (because I was there) which let's me intro a significant NPC early keep some element of mystery around them but let the players know he's important.
It cam be done, I know this world back to front at this point so my joy is in making it accessible and interesting for my players.
Starting at lvl 2 I'm not going to trigger the plot until maybe level 3-4.
I want them to feel invested in the world before I start trying to destroy it.
@@richardhealy Just an immediate thought:
How would you direct the group with all separate goals with such distinguished differences to not PART WAY with one another?
From experience, that sounds like the group might have to split and part ways to close up loose ends of their own. Assuming the plot will be linear and based on what I know related Tomb of Annihilation, in order to reach all those personal goals, the party might have to take a longer route than usual under a time restricted campaign.
If I may suggest a change, depending on whether the group will continue as a group further, I will stretch the kobold to dragon personal quest till the beginning of next campaign as a reward/inspiration; or to delay the ranger's job for necromancer for another campaign (the whole campaign is about one big bad necromancer already, having another secret plot twist might be too much for a good execution). The temple and the link to the final dungeon seem like great ideas, the integrations should work well given the map design and the possible paths taken (also considering the guide by default). Knowing how time will affect everything in this campaign, I probably will use those personal quests as replacements for the original side-quests set in the book so as to save time while keeping the pursuit for personal goals achievable during the campaign. Cramping too many personal quests into one campaign is what my friend had tried and it obviously backfired despite the detailed arrangements. D&D is primarily impromptu gameplay, which means what you have in mind as DM might never go as planned sometimes (unless we are playing partially scripted/edited like Critical Role). It could be a nat 1, it could be the character is a bit off the path you expected, it could be the other character might have a different goal in mind. Or there are players like some of my friends who design characters for mischieves and laughters, they could easily derail the progress unintendedly.
Before I ask any further, would the campaign be run in text/voice? I usually play via text and it seems like the least popular option available everywhere... (XD, no worries on spoilers or player knowing information regarding the campaign in advance, I can pretty much switch that off)
If the campaign will be run via voice, just leave a LIKE as a reply, I understand the difficulties.