How Baldur's Gate 3 Tricks the Player

different kind of video, thanks for watching!
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[@XPtoLevel3]

Use code FIREBALL50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month at bit.ly/48e8wSp

[@overdrive7349]

This was a great analysis video. Just found out the new rulebooks are going to come in September. What are your plans for it?

[@gabrielrippel5675]

i gotta say the meals you showcased looked more edible than the last time i saw you with a factor sponsor

[@Purple_Lilith]

Starts doing the math. Eh, I think I stay with the stores in walking distance.

[@snowvix8902]

@@Purple_Lilith for me, the money is worth not having to invest extra time into cooking on my work days.

[@andyv8624]

Alternatively, I died very quickly in Fallout New Vegas because literally everyone told me not to go north.

[@davidbonatz1275]

Yep... and I was like oh look at those small bugs, alright vermin rifle do your thing. *0.9 seconds later* My character is dead and I have no clue what happened.

[@crayondevourer2267]

"You feel a little woozy"

[@glassphoenix9095]

sounds like someone wasn't the meanest, roughest, toughest sonuvabitch in the mojave

[@Flufferpup]

This also has merit I feel. It's not a hard progression blocker, you can figure out a way around it with determination or a stealth boy. But if you do end up dying, you learn that the wasteland is a harsh place and that simply returning later is a valid option.

[@adfdasdfadfadsfareae]

​@@Flufferpupit's perfect. no invisible wall blocking you, no impossible challenge, just a really irritating deterrent to make you say "fine, I'll go around and do it the 'proper' way"

[@ethanbowman4748]

damn, the i just realized the real reason why I go to raphaels home in act 3, is because the dream companion tells me not to

[@ultrabigfella]

Fr, once we found out who Empy is I started doing anything he dissuades against.

[@symbiotesoda1148]

Oh I just did it because I had been wanting to kill him since I first met him.

[@gedox6523]

I just wanted a hard fight, nothing before him was a challenge on regular difficulty ^^ On honor i thought more than thrice about that decision now xD

[@TheKillaShow]

I went because I wasnt missing content just cause the very suspicious guy said it would be a bad idea.

[@helixmoss9957]

[SPOILERS] It's very strange, I got into The House of Hope all by myself with no hints, I had no idea about the hammer being kept there because I sided with the emperor and if there were hints about it I did some series of events that avoided them. I found the magic store with the golden fiends inside just by chance wandering around Baldur's Gate and picked up on the clues from the note you find on the shopkeepers corpse (I fought her because I tried to steal from her and then got caught). Upon getting the hammer, the Emperor told me "I broke his trust" for goingt here and getting the hammer even though I had no idea what it was even for. The whole reason I went to The House of Hope was because I wanted to kill Raphael for being a bastard

[@shadeshrike4205]

"So, how did you find withers" "I don't know I didn't find him" "Yo the baby owlbear was so cool right?" "I don't know I didn't find it" "Man the creche blowing up was cool wasn't it?" "I DONT KNOW, I DIDNT FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT"

[@DefaultSeaTurtle]

I missed the area with Withers, so he just appeared in camp with no explanation. I was like "Who is this man!?"

[@shadeshrike4205]

@DefaultSeaTurtle same I was like "ah so this is the games way of bringing back dead guys. Alright" DUDE HAD SO MUCH MORE STORY THEN I THOUGHT

[@tobiasbayer4866]

​@@DefaultSeaTurtle I first found Withers in his little side room while camping in the goblin camp. And even at other campsites hes usually a bit off to the side so I literally questioned myself If he had just always been there and I just hadnt noticed.

[@mentalkitty789]

I actually completely missed the underdark (like I didn't even find the entrance) on my playthrough and went into the mountain pass. It is hilarious to me how I missed a massive zone.

[@numnutsforever4115]

Meaning you figured out how to not blow it up actually

[@jaffarebellion292]

"Don't go there. It's dangerous" "I SEE THROUGH THE LIES OF THE JEDI!"

[@Darth_Sheepus_the_wise]

“I DON’T FEAR THE DARK SIDE AS YOU DO!”

[@jaffarebellion292]

@Darth_Sheepus_the_wise "I HAVE BROUGHT PEACE, FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND SECURITY TO MY NEW EMPIRE!"

[@DannyMakesVideosIGuess]

@@jaffarebellion292 Your new Empire?!

[@AdamLindgrenComposer]

@@DannyMakesVideosIGuess Anakin, your allegiance is to the Republic; To DEMOCRASAAAY!!!

[@darklone999]

​@@AdamLindgrenComposer If you're not with me... then you are my enemy.

[@dezdanna9297]

While I agree with the reverse psychology aspect, I don't understand the idea that players would be trying to "outsmart" the game, if a character that's giving me conflicting information tells me not to do something I personally don't think "hee hee the devs don't want me to do this" I think "So they're probably lying to me and I should check that out just in case."

[@ryanstewart2289]

People trying to outsmart the game is actually a vital component of game design. It's called QA testing.

[@kangazoos2083]

I mean, the end result is the same, it's just perspective that you're describing.

[@tinycatfriend]

oh yeah i think this too, but going against what that specific character wants me to do is just as fun, which is great game design. like yeah the game obviously wanted me to go to the house of hope, but yknow what i enjoyed most about it? going "FUCK YOU EMPEROR I DO WHAT I WANT!!!!!"

[@garjian0]

For me it's just that it's simple curiousity. There's content, so let's go and see what it is.

[@KaitouKaiju]

There are people who do nothing but look for ways to exploit or sequence break games

[@GerbyMcGerbs]

I nearly missed going that way because the message for the Underdark and the mountain pass are the same. Implying that I can not come back.

[@Tuskbumper]

YES this happened to me too lol

[@inmanis2924]

yup, same. i thought it was the way to the entire next Act and didn’t want to miss stuff. turns out i missed lots by not taking the pass LMAO. very badly worded and designed there

[@gedox6523]

Thats the neat part, would it have made the playthrough worse? If you would miss build specific items, maaaaybe, but missing something in BG3 often means you didnt even know it existed beforehand. There is a reason why we say Dumb but happy, what you dont know cant make you break your head over it ^^ This also gives you the chance to experience multiple playthroughs who are never the same, wich for such a huge game as BG3 is something very,very positiv ^^

[@inmanis2924]

@gedox6523 … yes, yes it does make your playthrough actively worse. you miss an entire section of content, including storyline that is KEY to lae’zel’s backstory and motivations. missing it ACTIVELY detracts from your understanding and experience of the game.

[@gedox6523]

@@inmanis2924 I disagree, since you wouldnt even know that without Laezel in your party. You wouldnt know you missed it entirely, and without knowledge there is nothing to worry about. Did i knew you can de-stone the guy in the hags room without him dying instantly on my first playthrough? No. Was i mad i missed the dialogue? No, since i didnt even know he could survive.. ^^ Edit: My first group didnt ascend Astarion since he was at camp 24/7 and i ignored him, missing his story made nothing worse, it made my 2nd and 3rd and 4th playthrough better even, since you can experience an entirely different story now.

[@nickeel8401]

For a good chunk of act 1 I didn't long rest at all cus all the characters were stressing the urgency of finding a healer in 3-5 days. So i bum rushed everything

[@quiestinliteris]

Yeah, I also had an issue with missing content because they kept telling me not to long rest. When I downloaded the Camp Event Alert mod, I was FLOORED by how much I hadn't seen. That damn notification was popping up like every half hour of gameplay in Act 1. Turned out my first three playthroughs I had missed roughly 70% of camp events. @_@

[@courier6960]

Yeah for me it was because Kagha says that they’ll complete the ritual to block out the teiflings by tomorrow, when it turns out there is no time sensitivity on this quest. It’s just another weird relationship this game has with time, and as such it makes it way more awkward, random, and annoying when something random DOES have time sensitive aspects.

[@quiestinliteris]

@@courier6960 Basically it simply won't happen unless you either specifically work to make it happen or ignore most of Act 1 completely and enter Act 2 without killing all the goblin leaders, investigating Kagha, freeing Halsin so he'll give her the third degree, stealing the idol... Basically just ignore the goblins and the Grove, and when you travel back out of Act 2, the Grove will be sealed. Also if you murder all the tieflings for Kagha, but I think most people on an evil run are more likely to attack everyone in the Grove with Minthara. Either way, I'm pretty sure it only triggers once you enter Act 2, not during an Act 1 long rest, but I'll have to test that.

[@benja1378]

Same, but it's honestly amazing for your next playthroughs ❤ I literally got to kinda play the game again for the first (actual second) time as I didn't even find the whole area with Karlach or the Mountain pass before :))

[@64bitrobot]

I also missed a ton of camp event content, not because I felt like I was in a time sensitivity, but just because I was trying my best to push my adventuring day as hard as possible. I wanted to do as much as I could between long rests as a challenge to myself. Unfortunate that I probably missed out on a *lot* because of that. It's probably better to just rest like a wizard; blow all your slots in one fight, long rest, and continue.

[@grudgebearer1404]

Nah, when i got to the mountain pass and saw the dragon i said "fuck it" and took the underdark. Reverse psychology isn't as effective with me

[@peachypet808]

That technically is also a wanted outcome. It all shapes your first playthrough and by extension the next

[@clothar23]

​@@peachypet808 Yeah OP sorely needs to realise these sort of things work no matter your choices.

[@jakob3044]

@@clothar23 Yes, they *sorely* need to realize that. That is quite vital. A really important step to a more fulfilling existence, for sure.

[@comyuse9103]

theres 'reverse psychology' and then there is 'putting a solid wall in the way.' dragon fights are a no no.

[@Doubleranged1]

@@peachypet808 but the game didnt steer you there. You can't ask head or tails and if someone picks something say: Haha! It was my intention for you to pick that! I disagree with Jacob in this video. Reverse psychology is not what made this game great. it is the opportunity to exercise your own creative freedom. The tag of reverse psychology is irrelevant.

[@jacka7275]

When the dream companion said “do not go to the githyanki” my first thoughthought was: why are you biased? Compelling narrative!

[@quiestinliteris]

They are canonically authoritarian, militaristic, imperialist lawful evil, so the assumption was fair. However, Lae'zel had already bucked tradition by being willing to work with a non-gith Tav at all, even to get out of an impossible situation, so I was working with the mindset of "Clearly not all of them are like that, but I only know that because of my extremely rare experience, so maybe the Dream Visitor will come around as they see more of me and Lae'zel working together." And then there was the reveal, and I was like "...oh. Guess that explains that."

[@drizzmatec]

​@@quiestinliterisSee knowing what I know about Githyanki lore from older editions I immediately trusted Lae'zel when it came to mind flayers because if there is a anyone in this ragtag band of misfits (and Asterions dead corpse because he keeps mysteriously falling onto my weapons after pulling a knife on me) who may have access to a possible cure to transforming into a illithid it's probably the lady whose entire species and culture has devoted itself to wiping out the mind flayers.

[@demnwarrior7]

​@@drizzmatec knowing that their entire culture is built around the killing of ilithids lead me to believe the cure they offer is in fact just them deciding to kill you, which circles back to me not trusting lae'zel.

[@KasumiRINA]

Nah, my first thought was that githyanki, an always evil faction of mass murdering imperialists that attack everyone on sight, will try to kill me - and they did. Everyone saying that going through Underdark would be easier is right. There isn't even a hard forced fight like the Inquisitor there.

[@KasumiRINA]

​@@quiestinliteris but githyanki in creche absolutely confirm that they are exactly how Dak'kon explained them: a group of gith who decided to roleplay as astral Hitler. There's ONE, literally just a single guy there who isn't a murder hobo as even githyanki kids get off on torturing animals. He clues on another faction within them and Voss (carefully protected by the game when he was working undercover) is leading it. But emperor was absoluty right, they WILL try to kill you if you show them the prism. What he doesn't tell you is that the protection in it is from Orpheus, until later.

[@travisdacon9480]

My favorite example of this is when Raphael offers you a deal in act three for a magic item, and everyone tells you to sign his evil contract cause you have no other choice, but you can just pull a Davy Jones key stealing maneuver and break into his house once he tells you where it’s hidden.

[@r0gueb3th]

Karlach gave me the idea to break in!! She mentioned something about us knowing where it is now because Ralphy got loose lips!! I literally love this game so much lol

[@Slowpoke3x]

I actually don't get why they put so much emphasis on Raphael. Your only forced to deal with him if your throwing every opportunity away because of paranoia. Like its incredibly easy to just not deal with him and be fine. Hell I didn't even really need to Hammer but I stole it just to make Lazeal feel good.

[@travisdacon9480]

@@r0gueb3th I never had Wyll or Karlach on my first playthrough :( I ended up with Laezel, Astarion, Gale, and my Character. I sided with Laezel after failing the check to stop her and shadowheart fighting, and I accidentally went to the githyanki area before saving halsin, so the grove got locked up, and I couldn't recruit halsin, wyll, or karlach. Still ended up being okay, cause I had a full party, but I missed quite a bit of stuff.

[@MsCrickBG3]

I've logged 1200 hours in this game and still haven't signed that contract yet. Someday... 😂

[@SebasTian58323]

​@@MsCrickBG3I signed it in my evil playthrough just to do and steal it back just to kill Raphael and ensure I was the only power in the sword Coast that mattered after I dominated the nether brain

[@99sonder]

10 IQ: outsmarting your players into a TPK 1000 IQ: outsmarting your players into feeling smart

[@Slowpoke3x]

the most clever shit Larian studios does was let you design your "Guardian" your secretly giving the game a great tool. A face that you trust and appeals to you specifically. It uses that against you , made it really hard to doubt your guardian. And turns out that was the master plan all along , to gain your trust and support. I thought i was creating a wifu, bbut how wrong I was.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

The first time a game makes you Catfish yourself

[@demnwarrior7]

Doesn't work so well when everyone I know who plays the game tells me the guardian creation doesn't matter.

[@himedo1512]

Doesn't really work when its just like "who tf is this" and don't really bother customizing. Which, is the majority of experience with the guardian.

[@dennishallada890]

​@@himedo1512As a serial randomizer, I can confirm it doesn't really work like that for me

[@vexfidel4127]

Perhaps not a waifu to you, but-

[@erykjankowski6152]

Jacob: It's reverse psychology Me: There's a ton of XP there. I have no other reason

[@gedox6523]

I myself played BG3 for 600 hours now, finished 2 honor runs (both solo&grouped) and i am astonished about how my best friend tends to ignore so many things, since his character wouldnt interact with it. Like, once he started playing for 10 minutes, he gets completly involved and basicly gets warped into his character. He literally, reads every book,note,talks to nps 3X just for smalltalk reasons and even picks his longrest food. I adore him for this, he still sees this as something more than a game, he still sees this as an EXPERIENCE! (to lvl3) If u ever feel exactly the same, you do something right. I sadly lost this way of experiencing BG3, its the same when you look behind the DM's screen, you will lose the integrety on the experience. Dont do the same mistake as me, experience BG3 and get involved in it.. ^^

[@quiestinliteris]

He sounds like a fun guy to play with.

[@craigsutherlin5264]

😢😮😮😅😮😮😮😅😅

[@KasumiRINA]

I don't read EVERY book but I skim them and check them off, small talk dialogue depends on how I am interested in NPC: every guard? No. But the tomboy who's out of breath and acting funny in vault? Absolutely.

[@vintagedoctor7128]

i love how larian did raphael. the entire game hes been teasing u and reminding u of ur inevitable doom. he toys with u, sometimes saving u from danger and other times ignoring ur pleas completely. but in act 3, when u meet with him in sharess caress, he finally gives u the contract. at that point, players either r annoyed at the emperor for tricking them or maybe want to explore other possibilities before deciding who to save and who to kill. when raphael drops that the hammer is in his house of hope, the player feels like a million bucks with a plan in mind. u think a devil wouldnt dumb enough to drop where the most important maguffin would be but raphael is so egotistical that he does. players already skeptical of the emperor would want to explore other possibilities. now the player is hunting down ways to get into the hells bc damn it they want to outsmart fox finally. (if im remembering the quote correctly). once they finally get into the house of hope, everyone tells them not to touch the big glowy orb with the hammer inside but the player goes nuh uh and now u have best fight in the entire game to witness. u can even tell raph straight to his face he doesnt last long in bed, which finally makes him tick all this was bc u, the player, were frustrated at this devil always being one step ahead and were frustrated at being pawns in these otherworldly beings games. the game put u in this position but dressed it up as u coming to this conclusion. u were the one to talk to raphael in sharess caress, u were the one to spot his freudian slip, u were the one to hunt him down and steal the hammer. the game only gave u the tools to come to that conclusion. it laid the foundation and was confident enough to hide one of its best encounters in mystery and struggle. other rpgs would have made a big deal out of going to the hells and outsmarting a devil. but larian was confident that the players would find it themselves. they were confident that player motivation is stronger than any outward motivation any game could give. larian makes it personal and that is the best type of motivation. uh yeah anyways great video. i agreed with everything. larian is just so good at making games

[@quiestinliteris]

Not to mention the best damn boss score track. Plus, DID YOU KNOW that if you cast Silence during that fight, as long as Raphael is inside its radius, his vocals will be absent from the soundtrack? THAT is some galaxy-brain shit from the devs, right there.

[@Sina-dv1eg]

Well, unless Karlach is the one who tells you to hunt down the hammer, and unless Yurgir is the one to tell you about the diabolist

[@KasumiRINA]

At what point Raphael saved you from danger? Game just forces him on you and makes him unavoidable. (First cutscene is automatic). I literally did EVERYTHING to ignore the guy as I played enough D&D to know you never win with devils (there's examples of how they always lie in BG3 too): I told Rafa to sod off at the start, then in Last Light warned Mol to not sign anything, then in Shar's gauntlet I outright had to persuade Astarion to not leave the party, as I helped Yurgir kill the last Justiciar JUST so I can avoid even accidentally helping the devil. Which shown that you can't trust him further as he tricks the cambion. Then in act 3, I went to see Voss for another quest and lo and behold, Raphael is here trying to get me to talk... Voss and Lae'Zel are pleading for me to take a deal with the devil, but I refuse to even listen to him. Voss if furious and tells me about the hammer to free the comet frog guy, Lae'Zel threatens to leave because I didn't even bother listening to Rafa's offer. It's still in your journal. Forcing its way in. There is NO way to avoid Raphael's quest even if you do everything you can to avoid it. Now EVERYTHING in-game is pointing to the girl who opens the portal to hell even though I AM NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT HAMMER OR GOING THERE, it's just a very forced quest chain, one of very few who appear on their own and can't be avoided. I want to rest? Yurgir gives a quest to go to the House of Hope. I want to recruit Minsc? Mol is there having obviously made a deal with the devil. Walk a few meters? A random house has a book that talks how that Halda or whatever opens a portal. Out of all the forced quests in the game, only thing even more forced was "go to the Moonrise towers".

[@SuperUnnamedplayer]

The old saying about videogames "If you're facing enemies, you're going the right way" is all too true in BG3

[@Agisek]

It literally never occurred to me for a single second that I shouldn't go somewhere... I just went to Underdark, and when I was done with it I went to the Creche as well. And on second playthrough I just went to Creche first and then the Underdark... Why would anyone ever choose just one of them when nothing stops you from doing both quests? Open the quest log, do everything, that's how an RPG works.

[@JarrekAsF]

I, maybe stupidly assumed in my first playthrough that once I chose a way through there was no way to go back. I thought it was more like a branching path than an option I could still have, especially with the linear way it seemed the story was going

[@KasumiRINA]

When trying to complete the game under 100 hours I guess? I am at 160 and JUST going to get Minsc but I clear everything (and a few hours of those are leaving the game on).

[@KasumiRINA]

​@@JarrekAsF it does tell you that but Underdark clearly expects you to backtrack with Sussur Bark, if you found the masterwork weapons quest at least. Mountain Pass does nothing like that, you can ignore Creche and beeline to Shadow Cursed lands.

[@AhkmedTheLiving]

Also assuming you are just playing a game and not "role playing" a character. DMs do this all the time to entice the players with a risk vs reward sense of agency.

[@Iroquois_Pliskin]

"why would anyone.." Because it's an RPG and the player has the freedom to do a quest or not.

[@ColonelMustache]

I never personally interpreted it as a game of the developers and players trying to outsmart each other. When characters tell me that one path is preferable and the other is dangerous, I interpret that as the game telling me “you have two paths, and one of them will probably be harder than the other.” Of course characters can lie or unexpected things can happen, but I never really felt like I was pulling one over on the devs or whatever. It’s a game with a bunch of choices, of course they expect some players to pick A and others to pick B.

[@TheSleepyGrove]

I‘m guilty of watching them but I absolutely hate these Baldur‘s Gate 3 related videos with meme music in the background and a title like “The devs thought we wouldn’t try this”. Yes… yes they did and that’s why your little maneuver worked, my guy…

[@KasumiRINA]

​@@TheSleepyGrove not only that, entire first act everyone is telling you go to the Moonrise, but the path to Shadow Cursed lands is full with signs that it's dangerous and that's RIGHT. They're not trucking you, and neither is Halsin who says the Underdark path is easier.

[@andiesmiley]

What I appreciate is that, as a player who sees a "Do not enter" sign and goes "okay, best not to enter" (and almost missed Gale completely because of it), Larian accounts for us by adding a good narrative reason to do the creche instead of it just being this big lure for players who want to see how powerful they are or see what's so big and scary. Lae'zel isn't beloved to your companions, but they counter the emotional issue by making what she's suggesting a very reasonable and informed solution to your problem - so instead of it just being "The game's telling me not to go, so there's no real reason for my character to want to go except to see what's over there, which will probably kill us if we try" it's a much more compelling "There seem to be a lot of reasons not to go, but Lae'zel has been more informed on this issue than anyone else we've met, and she's had a consistent plan that hasn't changed right from the very beginning" and you have to decide if you trust her more than the Dream Visitor and why. There's very few of those choices that aren't double-led in some way - the circus gets players who want the reverse psychology with the ghoul, and then everyone else by making your companions excited to see the fun. One of the only things I couldn't justify at all was my lvl 1 character with 0 skill in magic approaching a malfunctioning waypoint that looked like it would blow up any second!!

[@sephikong8323]

The thing with the waypoint is something that is changed from EA that I don't understand why. In early access, the cutscene with Gale triggered if you got close to the waypoint, not if you interacted with it, which meant that it was way less likely that you would miss him. I was actually a bit befuddled on release day when I approached where he was and the cutscene didn't automatically trigger

[@CaseyShontz]

Yeah I totally missed him on my first playthrough and near the end of act 2 I was like “shouldn’t I have found gale by now?” so I had to look it up, and the malfunctioning waypoint was still there 😂

[@KasumiRINA]

I just see that her personal quest points there AND game's main quest (heal thyself and remove the tadpole) also does. Originally, you have two leads: druid and gith. There's also goblin priestess and other guys like Volo (later, Omeluum), who offer to remove tadpole but at the start, you're directed to grove and creche, I was surprised it took that long to get to the machine that (doesn't) remove it.

[@Necro_fury]

Ah yeah, was basically my first time playing a crpg/dnd and it told me the portal crackling with dangerous energy or something and i just said nop. Till i looked up how to get gale

[@tadferd4340]

My only issue with the camera is that I can't change elevation. I can fly! Let my fly up to that ledge!

[@nickrubin7312]

it is weird, because you can with "O" (going completely vertical) and then scrolling through levels on Y axis, but you can't with the pseudo-isometric view

[@tadferd4340]

@@nickrubin7312 Even the O view doesn't work in some places.

[@Pingviinimursu]

I died once because I couldn't move the camera up. Had a time limit to leave, needed to go up blocked stairs. Could have flown up there, but had no way to click on the higher floor 😂 turns out it was still cool even if I died there

[@KasumiRINA]

I installed WASD mod and free camera on my second launch of the game. Took a while to learn you can switch between panning and moving modes with Caps Lock.

[@MLucaj]

For me, whenever I hear, or read, "Don't go this way!", I think, "I bet they're hiding all the sweet loot back there those bastards, well not on my playthrough you don't!" Never underestimate the drive to get the shinies.

[@Sillay-Goose]

Missed Laezel’s entire story line my first playthrough 😅 they all said “don’t go to the mountain pass” and I listened

[@kharnthebetrayer8251]

Something I love, is that you see a lot of examples of NPC's lying to you, or simply being wrong. A lot of people can fall into a trap of just believing everything NPC's say because 'well its the DM saying it so it must be true' But Larian made sure you find examples of NPC's being wrong, or giving bad advise. Right off the bat on the Nautiloid. Lae'Zel telling you to ignore Shadowheart. But you KNOW she's a companion. She's on the box. You MUST be able to recruit her. So it sets the bar early that NPC's wont always be telling you the truth, or even the best thing to do. So when you encounter things like the Dream Visitor, you aren't immediately trusting everything they say. When people tell you to go somewhere, you don't immediately assume that's a lead to interesting loot NPC's can and DO lie to you repeatedly throughout the game. Encouraging you to think things through on your own. Hell even the Narrator lies to you when you fail checks. So you can't even trust everything she says

[@quiestinliteris]

Lol, every human-people campaign I've ever participated in has established thoroughly that anyone who can appear in your dreams without your permission is Potentially Very Bad News, so the Dream Visitor already had their work cut out with me. I do wish, though, that my very first playthrough hadn't been with a very specific bug I've never seen anyone else mention - I couldn't turn off the option to show the DC for checks. I would much rather not always KNOW whether I succeeded or failed, especially things like insight or history. Of course, the narrator being like "You have no idea" would make it obvious, but I'd love for there to be occasions when you just wildly misread a situation or remember something completely wrong about an organization or artifact. Like IRL. If I fail an IRL insight check on my extremely hungry friend, I'm more likely to be like "Oh, damn, she's really pissed and it's probably my fault" rather than just being unaware there's even a problem. I wish the narrator lied to us MORE.

[@tinycatfriend]

@@quiestinliteris this wasn't an option until custom mode in patch 5, which was last november-ish. what a missed opportunity though, yeah

[@quiestinliteris]

@@tinycatfriend I first downloaded the game sometime mid-December, so it SHOULD have been something that worked if it was introduced in a patch. XP It did not work yet. I haven't actually tried to turn it off since; guess I was just cranky. I'm about to start Karlach origin run, though, so I should give it another shot.

[@brytheguy4515]

granted, the game still says when you fail a check. So technically you can have a meta-take that since you failed you're probably not getting important info. Similar to when you walk into a room and get 4 popups for failed perception checks, and you're like "hmm, I wonder if there's traps in here..."

[@elenalizabeth]

@@brytheguy4515 lmao that room at Withers temple where you go in with your team and you just hear 1000 dice rolls for the 20 or so traps in there. Like ummm… I’m beginning to think maybe this is a room we shouldn’t explore 😂😂

[@MsCrickBG3]

Oh my first playthrough, I went in blind as a D&D player who doesn't play many video games. I was low key panicked the entire game, missed several companions, and didn't even see half of Act 1 because every NPC told me I was going to perish at any moment. I learned those were dirty lies. Now, 1200 hours later, I'm still able to find things I haven't seen yet. It's the best :D

[@emmaallard5500]

This video just reminded me how eager Davvy is to kill dogs

[@emeraldjaco7357]

totally true but also there is nothing more cathartic than having all the NPCs saying "you cant do this" and then seeing them realize you can in fact do it. having a boss be all intimidating and confident only to realize you payed withers to respec your entire party into monks so you can hit him with 50 collective unarmed strikes before his turn is peak story telling.

[@quiestinliteris]

10/10, would pay extra for addition of "Oh... shit." facedrop animations inserted mid-combat if you're beating an encounter in less than the average number of rounds.

[@DustinDustin00]

"Your dream companion is telling you..." -- for a second there, I thought you were referring to Gale.

[@KiithnarasAshaa]

10:50 "I'm so smart!" [Literally misses a lever to open the gate right next to it, and the fact that sneaking doesn't trigger the light blasts]

[@kylekonop4801]

"I want to play in first person so I can investigate and interact with everything." "Do you want Skyrim? Because this is how you get Skyrim."

[@thefrank2364]

For me, it also baits me into exploring and interacting by inserting the dumbest dialogues "Sad-is-tic? What's a tic got to be sad about?"

[@Android_ELITE]

I learned about halfway through my first run that this game is smarter than I am. It opened up the ability to just, play it like an RPg instead of an rpG. If you get what I mean. You just do what you want and take comfort in that the game has something fun in store for you no matter what decision you make. I'm most of the way through my 3rd full run. I don't even make particularly different characters, no evil runs or anything, just different flavors of hero with different builds. I am going to do a 4th run. No one can stop me. And the game is ready to continue supplying a good time.

[@Jack_Wolfe]

11:48 that’s so cheeky. Everything is a door for blocking the way to urge exploration.

[@Lakeside80]

I like how Baldur's Gate 3 is basically one massive point and click adventure game, and I love it for that.

[@KasumiRINA]

It's actually a good point what makes a good CRPG: Look at best received Bioware game, it's Mass Effect 2. It has no stats, no loot or inventory, levels don't mean much, but the decisions matter. A good RPG doesn't feel like playing spreadsheets, it's supposed to be immersive and give you the feeling of adventure.

[@bigyoshi5170]

Exactly! It tries to trick me, by giving other romance options besides Karlach! *WHEN KARLACH IS CLEARLY THE RIGHT CHOICE AND CANON DAMN IT!*

[@ikarder]

You can romance Karlah? I just repaired her heart and didn't saw any signs of her willing to do something with player (except saying that she want a touch, but no dialogue options for this. Oh, stop, you said this. Jeez why they didn't make it?

[@oreledoria2537]

Wrong. It's Bae'zel, Frog Queen of my heart, mind, body, and soul and she punch so good during snoo-snoo.

[@JeoshuaCollins]

@@ikarder Dunno how you're playing the game. Karlach is normally hot to trot for my character immediately. "Gods, I wanna ride you until I see stars" is a literal line from the romance.

[@locococo8961]

@@JeoshuaCollins Its unfortunately a luck thing; I had romancing her in mind for my playthrough from the get-go, but never got the dialogue options for it. I tried. Just never happened. I think it was because I didn't take enough long rests (literally 0 for all of act 2) and got her half-way through act 1, so her approval wasn't high enough until act 2 anyways.

[@JeoshuaCollins]

@@locococo8961 ... and by that time you had almost surely triggered the romance of some other NPC. I getcha.

[@tinycatfriend]

i always read the game's "hey don't go in there" as the good game design that it is: to make me wanna go in there. and then i talk to other people who just listened and didn't go in there. my friend skipped getting gale for a long time because upon being told that the portal was dangerous, she went "huh, better avoid that", while i went "oh the game is screaming at me to check that out immediately". i'm not saying i'm smarter or anything, i've missed other obvious things my friends picked up on right away, i just think it's funny.

[@josephracette5448]

I love larian, even in Divinity Original Sin 2 the whole game is spent being told what to do by authority figures and literally gods, then you realize none of them have your best interest in mind so you just start swinging whether you're told to or not

[@quackkillerreal]

I feel like the original idea behind rpgs was “let’s try to make a ttrpg into something playable at any time” so this feels like the true evolution of early western rpgs

[@comyuse9103]

the original point of an RPG was to capture the player agency that is present in TTRPGs, yes. the west took that to mean narrative agency (and we can kinda see that as the winner now, i suppose) and the east took it to mean mechanical agency, hence the JRPG and CRPG split. although i do kinda think CRPGs do both better these days, most JRPGs i play are pretty static when compared to something like Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous.

[@theholypopechodeii4367]

I played with a Freecam mod + WASD walk and it was a straight up upgrade from the base game, I agree with the rest of the video.

[@maximilianbehrens3471]

Same, played on steamdeck and controller + free-cam was so much better for exploration

[@ForeverTraitor]

Your first point about limitation by design kinda rings hollow when I searched through hundreds of barrels and crates that Larian covered the map with only for them to be empty, every time.

[@tobiasbayer4866]

They really need to add containers being displayed as empty before you loot them for the first time. Would save a lot of unnecessary clicking.

[@nessa-parmentier]

That one is even worse for me because I played Divinity Original Sin 2, their previous game, and there were ways to get a random chance for a magical item at *every container you open* So now it's a reflex. I see container, i open container. But in BG3 so many are empty or useless

[@commanderwyro4204]

stack them. climb them and use them to get to places that are made difficult

[@quiestinliteris]

Vases. >( Just... freaking vases. There are like three in the entire game that have something in them, but those three had decent stuff, so now I have to compulsively check hundreds of vases. I hate that stupid glorpy sound effect so much now.

[@XPtoLevel3]

Valid, but in my opinion this real accentuates my point. You don’t *always* find something good, but at the very least you know it’s deliberate. You’ve been rewarded enough to know there’s a reward somewhere and it won’t be as easily obtained by *just* walking to something. I know I made the argument that walking and finding stuff = fun. But it’s even better when there’s only menial loot, only to find something really cool after a tough encounter or lockpicking a chest. Anyways, just how I feel.

[@MizuMing]

5:50 To be clear on the Boar, it is a separate Boar than the one from where you find and interact with Astarion for the first time. He sneaks off to hunt it on like- night 2. "But" how do you know its a different Boar I hear someone ask. Simple, you can kill and loot the original Boar. 🤷 The second Boar can also appear in different locations from one playthrough to the next, but always within a set distance from the Blighted Village, not near Astarion's Pod.

[@kharnthebetrayer8251]

With any other developer, you could think 'well they just might not have triggered the boar to not spawn if you kill it since they didn't think people would kill it for no reason' But Larian thinks of that. If you kill specific NPC's, they wont show up later. Even in Divinity 2, if you manage to kill The Hammer's pets. Then they wont be on the ship later at the end of act 1 Which is a ridiculous detail, because nobody playing normally will be able to do that. You HAVE to pull out insane cheese strats to accomplish it (like using fast travel points to get infinite turns). But they still thought of it, and made sure that they don't spawn on the ship, because you already killed them.

[@MizuMing]

@@kharnthebetrayer8251 I wouldn't say it was for no reason. It was to grab extra camp supplies. 😅

[@nickrubin7312]

I like the rarest scene when you don't longrest for a while and Astarion just reveals he is a vampire spawn during exploration, and not in camp at night sneaking on you

[@MizuMing]

@@nickrubin7312 Haven't had it yet. Sleep regularly to trigger other scenes. 😅

[@gedox6523]

I never, in 600 hours, even saw that boar. Either i missed a trigger point somewhere or when you are in the 3rd or more playthrough you tend to ignore/skip stuff or even entire environments ^^

[@piraterubberduck6056]

One thing I really love about this game is that you get comfortable with doing the thing you are told not to do and being in control, then you try playing as The Dark Urge, and that whole idea is thrown on its head. You are not in control anymore and no matter what you do, you can't avoid bad things happening. It is so well done.

[@transient_moonlight]

Ok, but who the hell actually thinks that an NPC telling you to not go somewhere is the same as the game telling you to not go there? If the devs designed the area, they obviously want you to go there sooner or later

[@quiestinliteris]

Yeah, sitting here as an author, as a former kid-way-too-into-choose-your-own-adventure-novels... Creating anything is work. Unlike IRL, nothing in a fictional work exists independent of the creator's intention that the audience experience it. If it exists, it exists SOLELY because you're supposed to go check it out at some point, even if that point is that you made a poor decision and died tragically - that is still part of the story that was written, and that is one potential ending.

[@Gshadin]

Tbh i thought the mountainpass wasnt a real area you could go to until i saw it on youtube

[@transient_moonlight]

@@Gshadin then you definitely didn't think "oh, the game doesn't want me to go there, so I shall defy its expectations snd go there"

[@KaitouKaiju]

Plenty of games to do exactly that to keep you from going somewhere before you're supposed to. For example, cyberpunk 2077 has characters tell you that Watson is on lockdown to keep you there during the prologue

[@hugofontes5708]

I've heard similar complains directed at dark souls. "NPC said XYZ but actually ABC, game misleading game bad". As if it was a carnival ride instead of a interactive and dynamic narrative/environment for you to play with. Also, some people assume when things like that happen it's a gotcha moment just placed there for them to die and they choose not to go to not water time. Personally, I normally do go check but if it really is just an insurmountable gotcha then I may start to think about what the devs had in mind for better or worse

[@inducedopamine]

Fallout 4 has a much more direct version of "CHOOSE ONE. What did you pick? I don't care, you're doing this now"

[@PierriScot]

In a nutshell: BG3 is so good because we can be reckless and make stupid choices. Like me and my friends playing D&D.

[@JRTIntervencion]

Hey cmon, I went to the mountain pass cuz I was romancing Lae'zel. No reverse psychology no Sir, just a broken heart ❤😂😂😂

[@ecamville2928]

I love all of this, even though it wasn't necessarily reverse psychology in my first playthrough. I was a bard (...often am.) and the ghoul telling me NOT to go into the circus was like a taunt. You tell ME??? The PURPLE AND PINK TIEFLING BARD that i'm NOT ALLOWED in the CIRCUS? Excuse me????? I AM the circus.

[@TexMeta]

I prefer "How Baldurs Gate 3 is a rich world full of engagement rather than a vast, empty, walking simulator hellscape just so the company can add "open world" to the game description." Because every game needs to be that for some damn reason, since so many players demand that without understanding what they're asking for.

[@hentaimage95]

Bg3 is on the opposite side of an empty open world, its an emprty corridor. But since all the content is packed into a corridor it seems to you like the game is full of stuff. Another one got tricked by larian.

[@Nikkidafox]

3:24 yooo don't hate on the Hingle my Dingles quest! When I hingled the hollyphant dingle, my dingles were hingled. Truly one of the hingles of all dingles.

[@nickrubin7312]

Finally (in Nere's creepy voice)! Someone is talking how cool are map and quest design in the game. It is like an amusement park, which was already the idea in DOS, but everywhere it is the illusion of age/height/whatever else restrictions that you're not actually restricted to bypass at all. And then hearing everyone saying "I'm not supposed to be here, hehehee, I'm breaking it, hehehee"

[@Techn9cian123]

We’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, lead astray, run amok and flat out deceived

[@torenchao]

Larian is one of the very few games that actually made me CONFLICTED about a character. I never learned the emperor's full backstory (I only got the one he tells you outright) and by the end of the game, I still couldn't figure him out. Normally with characters like that you can just go 'oh they're morally grey/secretly good/evil etc' but he's actually complex. It feels realistic because while I can tell there's good intent in there, how much of that is kindness on the emperor's part, and how much of that is self serving? does it even matter if it turns out well in the end? DAMN IT LARIAN STOP MAKING ME THINK SO HARD tldr: the characters are stupidly well written

[@muatra3651]

Was playing the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC but I immediately stopped what I was doing to watch this.

[@Xdgvy]

The end of this video really sums up why I DM. It's not to force players to enjoy "my story," it's to watch them form their own as they try to move toward a goal that we've all seen before. I've never successfully gotten them to follow "my" plot, but I think the stories we tell about what they've gotten up to in the meantime have been worth every moment.

[@exantiuse497]

I must say I can't relate with the "I'm going where I'm not supposed to"/outsmarting the game attitude described in the video. On my first playthrough I only once though I wasn't supposed to be somewhere yet - in the underdark the minotaurs kicked my ass - and my reaction was the opposite of yours - I went back and leveled up before returning there because I thought I was underleveled. For the rest of the "gatekeepers" I immediately assumed that this is where I'm supposed to go, it's such an intuitive game concept to try to find a way in when the path is blocked that I didn't even consider not going there

[@shawnwolf5961]

Same, I really don't get this rhetoric. BG3 is a great game, but not because of things telling you not to do things. That's just basic conflict building, which is essential in any story and every game does this to an extent.

[@soupstoreclothing]

i love that small clip of the exec in full body armor. i forgot his name. corporations are heartless and evil, but larian at least is a small diamond in the rough. they're still a corporation and embody all of that which it entails, but if we have to choose the lesser of several evils, at least they have something resembling integrity and genuine interest in their craft. i fucking hate the corporate apologists crying about how larian has set an impossible new standard. this is how games SHOULD be made. this is how they always should have existed if not for greed and incompetence. not thank god for larian (they prove easily enough not to thank god for anything), but thank the developers for actually caring about more than just money.

[@ultrabigfella]

6:15 This is literally Skyrim.

[@mertyldrm7299]

This reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman buys a failing amusement park just to deny everyone entry and all of a sudden everyone wants in.

[@OrangeCat371]

Where is chat plays baldurs gate? Is the series over for good, or are you planning on creating some more narf narf violence soon?

[@reffa2858]

There is alot of "illusion of choice" in the game. With multiple dialogue options and pathways to certain places that all kind of lead to the same destination.

[@Juniper_Rose]

larian understands the D&D player mind. DM: Don't do this thing. Players: hey let's do the thing. DM, who prepared the thing for several hours over multiple weeks, fighting back tears because she wanted you to do this for 3 sessions: Ugh, you guys are killing me alright let's go that way.

[@Spike2276]

Larian knows that every player has gone through the situation of walking down a dungeon and seeing split path then thinking "what's the optional area with the cool loot?", and they came to the conclusion that the best way to make the player go everywhere is to advertise every path as being the "optional" path.

[@AzraelisHorny]

I've never played a CRPG and I'm addicted to this game, thanks for explaining why I'm so obsessed with this dangling carrot

[@zoefezius6615]

I find it just incredible how many solutions they offer for their "do not enter" problems... besides the repetetive Main Story line, which is often kind of flawed of you don't follow the obvious path they want you to go, there are so many options you don't even think of. Alone the options to get Pass the guards at the gate in Rivington. That's what makes the game alive to me, that they dont only have a "here is a problem - find the solution" but most times they have "here is a problem - find one of 1.000.000 solutions" the priest one, or the druid one, the rogue one, the smart one, the explorer one the brutal one, the being kind one, the mage one, the silent one, the wise one, the slaughtering one the charisma one, the strength one, the sleight of hand one, the mind reading one, and if all fails, the illithid one. .. this makes feeling the game so unique in every playthrough to me. And when i get to a fix story element, i allways think, can't be that that's the only solution, last problem i know 5 different ways, what could be a new way here...

[@FPSTav]

I found a spider cave, and found a way into the under dark.

[@kenanjabr1992]

The thing I love about BG3: 10:48 has a lever literally to your right, and the devs give you a more ingenious way of getting past besides just... pulling the lever that you missed xD

[@Sunspear25]

The spells did it for me. The effects were so powerful and impressive. even at lower level spells and cantrips come off as these amazing abilities. The interactions with the environment also tickled the create part of my brain.

[@Vyctor__]

This is more dependent on personality type. In my first time playing the game, I: - did not meet Gale because the narrator said the warped portal looked dangerous - did not go to the mountain pass because only Lae'zel wanted to go there - did not use any tadpoles because everyone except Astarion said it was a terrible idea - did not go to the burning inn because the game seemed to be telling me it was overly dangerous - did not explore the underdark tower because the turrets were a pretty clear "stay out" message - did not mistrust the Emperor at all - did not go to Raphael's house at all Pretty much every time the game told me "don't do that", my answer was "okay I won't". The first time I played The Stanley Parable I literally just did what the narrator said I would because I just wanted to know what would happen. I wanted to know what the story was that the game seemed to be wanting to tell me. Why would I mistrust it by default? Being mistrustful of the narrator isn't really outsmarting the game, like you said you're literally doing what the devs want you do to. It's just a different expression of curiosity. I was curious what the game wanted to show me. You were curious what the game was "trying to hide". In my second time playing I did do all of these things, because of course we all get curious about what would have happened and the internet is full of spoilers. This contrarianism is especially fun because there are interactions where you should absolutely listen to the game ("PLEASE stop insulting my queen" -a certain githyanki moments before disaster) and in a lot of cases the NPCs give genuinely good advice.

[@00Clank]

I'm sure this helped influence the order in which I did some things here and there, but the main thing that ensured I explored both the Underdark and the Creche was my literal decades of VideoGame training where if I catch even the faintest whiff of 'main story progress This Way!' I do a complete 180 to make sure I've done all I can in the areas leading up to that point and only then proceed. This viciously came back to bite me when I finally reached Wyrm's Rock Fortress. Reaching the mess hall, Mizora is there and tells you 'Psst hey, you really should go upstairs!' which let me know FOR SURE that I should NOT go upstairs. I already wasn't planning on it. Gortash is up there, one of the two people I'm here to deal with! Attending the coronation is SURE to be a world-altering moving forward of the story and I haven't explored the city yet. Obviously I need to go past it, explore the entire city and talk to everyone so I can compare what everyone thinks of the Super Duke afterwards. On my way out Mizora appears a SECOND TIME to further insist, 'No, seriously. Go upstairs. You should go upstairs Right Now.' I wag my finger and smirk, 'nice try game, but after 25 years of being trained by just about every videogame ever made to not touch main-story progression triggers under penalty of lost dialogue and side-quests I won't be so easily fooled!' Turns out this cost me a unique cutscene, massively important personal questline stuff for Wyll AND Karlach, the path toward an entire secret area of puzzles and enemies, a huge boss fight and a couple legendary items.

[@Mr.Despair.]

I feel like Matt Mercer actually does something similar on CR. He basically says "Oh.., that's gonna be difficult to do, but if you really want to, good luck!" Then the players proceed to dig a tunnel ACROSS THE CONTINENT into the most dangerous area they know! It's a great motivator for sure!

[@mesaprime4368]

I have come to call this phenomenon "The Cookie Jar Effect". If you tell someone not to take the cookies out the cookie jar. You have told them there is a cookie jar, theres cookies in the jar, and not to take them, but you didnt tell them why. Human curiosity will kick in and ask why. And if you wont tell me, ill find out on my own

[@JBuckley1997]

This video is just an essay on why it pays for game developers to have a psychologist on board to help trick players into doing exactly what you want them to do.

[@JoshuaEFinley]

I like how the devs have added things to the game based on people like me. I jumped from the base of the tower to the top and Ketheric was just like "Who the hell are you? Where did you come from?" The game couldn't find an instance of interaction since I snuck in there and was never spotted in the Goblin camp either so the game actually accounted for it... But it didn't originally so it gives me credence to play through the game again to see if they fixed it.

[@5az2]

Game told me to NOT ATTACK GORTASH WHILE HE IS STANDING THERE TAUNTING ME. 3h later and multiple reloads I finally lured him out of the keep and killed him on the balcony. Now the whole castle is hostile and I can't move forward to the lower city. I had to strategize, use my limited brainpower and use most of my consumables to fly around the keep while invinsible to get there. It was amazing.

[@posermatt1293]

i was the target audience for the big twist in the astral prism. my first play through i spent 20 mins making my guardian, and i believed them bc i thought it was a cool twist on the disembodied narrator that a lot of games have. i had no reason really to doubt it besides thinking maybe they were working for the absolute themselves (which i thought i could easily handle if it went south). set me up for failure in the best way possible.

[@sugreF_YT]

The difference is that with a game, you don’t feel bad for avoiding the perceived intended content that the DM probably put a lot of work into.

[@e.s.r5809]

I assumed the door on the beach must have a key you get later, accidentally nat 20'd the roll, and went "I wonder what they don't want me to see yet!" And that's how I had to fight all those skeletons as solo Astarion, level 2, Tactician. Except I'd looted them all before finding the button because, well... free stuff! And then they had no weapons in the fight! Man, it's the little details.

[@Jules_Diplopia]

I hadn't actually thought about it, but you are right. The game is so often telling you NOT to go here or there. Brilliant.

[@DeathKnot137]

Loving this new type of content, keep it up jacob!

[@meemdic8682]

this backfired in a sci-fi savage worlds campaign i am playing with, funnily enough. The GM really wanted us to go visit an important PC's wedding, to which we had to transport her from an isolated system after all getting collectively shipwrecked there. But the people who were waiting for said PC and were arranging their ceremony didn't let us onto the starliner, since we were supposed to just transport her and get paid, in their view. And while i definitely suggested that we should probably care about this, it might be important, there might be more context, etc (and my character is inherently obligated to be nosing into other people's business), i was outvoted 2 to 1 to just leave it be, as the others have shown no interest and i didn't want to split the party even more than it was already. So that's how we missed a lot of important exposition and didn't end up meeting a number of npcs.

[@lucaskuyava1289]

This is such a well thought video. BG3 made me realize I might be too suggestible in video games. I was on the tutorial beach and found the portal where you meet Gale and my character said “that rune looks unstable” and I immediately walked past saying nope I’m not fucking with that. I do think I’m the minority of course but they utilize everything you said so frequently and it’s so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out. Great video

[@TheDuchessFox]

Larian is also great because it rewards you for "breaking the rules" and asking more questions of your environment instead of punishing you for leaving a predetermined path

[@Dan-px8gk]

Plus there is the ancient rule of RPGs, "optional, difficult area = top tier loot". The Githyanki Creche and House of Hope are the two places you are constantly warned not to go, and they both have a large collection of the most powerful items in the game. You are heavily rewarded for doing objectively stupid, dangerous things.

[@NicaNicu31]

9:37 Some people talk to the Ogre outside the Shattered Sanctum and interpret his dialogue a denial of entry and never try to enter the Sanctum through the main door... A friend of mine did literally this. I couldn't stop laughing when he told me.

[@ecamville2928]

Also this strategy is quintessential to the source material for Baldur's Gate! DND (and ttrpgs in general) works best by letting the players feel like they outsmarted, outclassed, outmaneuvered the GM. When you're GMing, the best way to get your players dead-set on opening a door is by telling them that it's locked.

[@Addrum]

As the great Himmel the Hero said, you should always look up every corner of the dungeon before progressing to the next level. There might be some tressure laying around.

[@Emmelmpau]

*final boss flashbacks intensifies*

[@soupstoreclothing]

something i wish was a part of this game is the fact you can pick up really discreet, important informational documents and books, but they're not marked as quest items so you can sell them. you can sell invasion plans to the opposite faction with literally no consequence. i really wish the game mechanics would reflect in the dialogue more sometimes. i know there's limitations, as expected, but i can imagine nearly every player loots as much as they reasonably can and sells whenever they have the opportunity. the fact you can sell such valuable information to any old motherfucker ought to carry more weight than it does imo.

[@braxinIV]

Gotta slightly disagree with the camera angles. Pretty confident Larian DID balance the game with both the top-down and third person cameras in mind because I’m about 200 hours in and the only time I go top-down is during combat. All my exploration is done in third person and I’ve yet to miss anything major. If anything, I can actually SEE more in third person because I can change the angle in which I’m looking at things. Caught a bunch of secret entrances hiding behind crates that I would never have seen with top-down. Also being a matter of immersion and appreciating the details of the game up close.

[@quiestinliteris]

Gotta slightly disagree with you, because while the native camera angles have usually been sufficient for me, there is like a 5° window where you can figure out how to get into the Baldur's Mouth Gazette without using any of the heavily guarded doors, and I only found it with a tutorial after missing it in five different playthroughs. Also apparently there are at LEAST five places you can meet Tara on the rooftops, and I haven't been able to figure out how to reach more than 20% of the rooftops in Act 3. LET ME SEE THE DAMN ROOVES.

[@MyUsernameIsGoofy]

8 intelligence character's thought process (Me): Character tells you do go somewhere - Ok, I need to go there. Character tells me not to go somewhere - Ok, if they don't want me to go there, there must be danger. And if there's danger, there's loot. Let's go there!

[@nessa-parmentier]

I know it's not the main point but I've again seen people say 1st or 3rd person camera would be better... no ? It's a tactical, turn-based RPG where you play a party of 4. How in the world are you supposed to play that efficiently with a subjective camera ? At least without dumbing down the tactical aspects, which are so important to the game and level-design as well as the fact that... you know it's based on 5e rules, which basically lock the genre into turn-based tactical.

[@braxinIV]

Top-down only really works for the combat. Third person works better for the exploration and immersion.

[@The_Sharktocrab]

​@@braxinIV that is utter nonsense

[@braxinIV]

@@The_Sharktocrab work on your bait, mate. you can’t seriously look me in the eye and tell me a top-down camera perspective is more immersive than third, and DEF not more immersive than first person.

[@The_Sharktocrab]

@@braxinIV you don't even know what you're saying, trying to explore an environment in 1st or 3rd person that was designed for an isometric type perspective would be a chore, which is literally detailed in the contents of this video

[@braxinIV]

@@The_Sharktocrab Well it’s a good thing BG3 isn’t just an isometric game. What the hell are YOU talking about?? You can play the ENTIRE GAME (minus combat) in third person view. The whole thing. And I did just that. 200 hours of it.

[@helflower2025]

One if the greatest compliments I’ve gotten as a DM was when one of my players told me that Gimblebock & friends were NPCs I would’ve made

[@keithcurtis]

Excellent insight, Jacob. I'll have to try translating that strategy to the tabletop.

[@TheonlyNuclearFox]

Something i notice when people talk about Baldur's Gate is, some dont realize its a video game representation of a tabletop rpg, and not being able to see the whole map vecause in D&D, theres this thing called fog of war where if your character isnt in the area and cant see it, you the player cant see it. The only person that knows whats at the far end of the map is the DM. So the "i wanna see everything" or have fps camera is calling for it to not be D&D as a video game. (I haven't gotten far in the video just 3 minutes in as of this comment)

[@ducknosis]

I love brain-worms.

[@sadeknight9112]

10:49 there’s a lever in that room to open the gate. You can see it in the footage by the candles. The escape attempt is on par with players not opening a door for 4 hours.

[@Bzuhl]

It also implement nicely the Player/character paradox (Character want all of this BS to be over as soon as possible with the least effort, player want challenges to overcome and mistery to solve). In the beginning EVERYTHING is just about getting healed, then they hook you up on all of the further plots organically.

[@Alzhaer]

Nothing tells the party they want into a door more than an elaborate lock. Most of us went to the bank in act 3 for the wrong reasons, not for the story.

[@icasticasticast]

with coop, i think that's true, it also depends on what kind of player everyone is, and how much they know the game so far. with my friend, he would always be concerned about minmax, he knew where everything is, and he'd just get there, speedrun everything, hoard all the loot and all of a sudden he is asking me to come help in this fight in god knows where, after rushing through act 1, i was just done with coop, and went to play on my own, taking 150 hours-ish. and I'm glad i did. 2nd time we played it was way more fun. This game is not for experiencing the first time with friends, you end up missing out on dialogue and decisions. Or I could be wrong and it's literally because I have autism and he's got ADHD, so I can't keep up with him trying to observe every detail, and he gets bored easily.

[@Person-py1wy]

I want to do a playthrough where I never go somewhere i'm not told to go now lol, this video is awesome. I've been had.