Nobody really expects RPG's to be as big and deep as BG3, they just want a complete game that works without shitty microtransactions everywhere and always online for no reason. Plus, having interesting characters and storylines, quests that can be solved in more than one way, and gameplay that's actually formed by taking player feedback and listening to it is what people reacted well to, among other things. Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't even have Denuvo!
If there's one thing that I hope competitors learn from Larian and BG3, it's that respecting your players and giving them what they want leads to success. Similar to Elden Ring and from software, like that video mentioned. Now compare BG3 to Diablo 4 and Immortal, or the upcoming Starfield and you'll see why people love it. It's not about specs or scope, it's about designing a game to be actually FUN.
It's not about specs or scope, it's about designing a game to be actually FUN.
This is the key point that these publishers and studios are trying to avoid.
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on designing microtransaction psychologically manipulative money sinks (dark designs)?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on creating addiction in the player-base so that they keep playing the game (and spending money)?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on bullshit DLC (not actual new content)?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on bullshit to satisfy shareholders?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on shit the devs don't want, but executives do?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on bullshit padding for marketing purposes?
How much of most AAA budgets are spent on bullshit DRM?
And keep in mind, by budgets here, I mean both the dollar amount AND time spent by devs that could be spent elsewhere (which is part of the dollar amount since salaries, but I wanted to make it clear that time spent is also important).
Some of the absolute best games in the industry have literally none of that, and people still want to play and buy them years after release because gasp they're actually fun, but these publishers and devs don't want to compare to those, because they WANT the industry to be a bunch of "GAAS" bullshit that's basically a vacuum pushed into people's wallets, cause hey, if it worked for Candy Crush....
To summarize the actual tweets/comments/etc that these videos (there are multiple) are panicking about.
Smaller studios aren't going to be able to replicate the scale and complexity of BG3. So people shouldn't be using BG3 as the bar to compare future titles/RPGs from other studios going forward. Larian is comparable in size (or even larger) to Bethesda when they released Skyrim, and no one has been able to compete directly with Skyrim either.
Not all games and RPGs need to be as complex and long as BG3. Expecting open-ended, 100 hour-long RPGs for every future game/RPG isn't realistic. Not all games require that scope, it's rare to get such a budget for this type of game, and even if you did, most companies won't be able to replicate the game in a meaningful way. Just like how companies other than Rockstar would struggle to replicate the scale of games like GTA and RDR.
There, I've summarized multiple 20 min videos. Just without all the hand-waving and drama.
Nah, the game has plenty of flaws and design issues.
Example: defense. It’s completely different from most games that came after it and unintuitive (it works like in Diablo I). It rather works like evasion in newer games and it’s basically the defensive version of attack rating. Either it negates all physical damage or nothing. Not to be confused with chance to block. Which does the same, but with blockstun. Oh, and while running, your defense is set to zero. Which again isn’t explained anywhere (but you can check it by keeping your stats open and running). Walking is fine.
Hidden stats: so more defense is better, right? Not necessarily. First, you have the strength requirements which are visible; second, there are hidden armor classes that impact your character’s movement speed, which is why stuff like Archon Plate is so good.
So there are four resistances (fire, lightning, ice and poison). Just kidding, it’s actually six because physical and magic damage can also be modified in the same way (though that attribute is rare for players, but it exists). But they’re not shown on the resistances page, but rather under all stats if modified. This is how monsters gain their “immune to physical / magic” property.
Then the game doesn’t really explain itself most of the time. Take “Amplify Damage”. The in-game description is “Increases the amount of damage received.”. So let’s guess what it does: probably amplify the damage regardless of type and then apply resistance? You couldn’t be more wrong, it lowers physical resistance.
Talking about skills, the skill trees could use some improvements I think. I’m not a big fan of synergies because it can force you into dumping points into practically unusable skills.
Items are also a bit of a pain point. A lot of uniques are straight up unneeded because they’re only relevant when itemization doesn’t matter yet and then just fall off. Their effects are often not as unique as one would like. But this is excusable because the game pioneered a lot of this stuff.
Where it gets ugly is when none of the items matter (be it rare, set or unique) because of runewords. The biggest offenders are Enigma, Infinity, Insight, Grief and Spirit. Infinity and Insight usually go onto your mercenary, so they’re not competing with personal equipment slots. But just double Spirit is really good. Paladins, the first or second best class, can use this even earlier because they don’t need to wait for Monarchs; their exceptional shields can have four sockets, in addition to very good resistances. They stand above other classes with the sorceress. Or did until Mosaic was introduced.
Oh, and did you know that “+X% enhanced damage” behaves differently depending on whether it’s on a weapon or on another piece of equipment?
Still love the game to death. But it’s not flawless
I remember seeing people get downvoted for it too and apologists were like “acktually you pay for and own the license to play the game, not the game itself”
So many bad actors on reddit, I blame my own naivete for not realizing that so many accounts are being run by employees of major companies sent to defend the company’s interests.
It took me way too long to realize that the mods for game’s subreddit that I play way too much are actually the devs for the game
They were always extremely critical of any suggestions for improving the game that were actually genuinely good constructive suggestions
I thought they were just being a-holes, turns out they weren’t just a-holes
I will bet money this is Drag-On Dragoon with Gunnm as the setting: The DIANA android was created by the AI powering the lunar facility to observe and conquer Chikyuu.
This weird little persecution complex came out of nowhere. The post-gamergate crowd randomly latched onto this game thinking it's somehow gonna own the libs, and when no one gave them the reaction they wanted, they decided to declare themselves the winner of a battle nobody was actually fighting them on.
No one cares bud. Go play your game, whatever, have fun, no one's stopping you.
I have played a lot of Kojima games in my life, including Death Stranding 1, and I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen in this game… It’s great.
This is why Kojima makes the best games, he is always trying to create new experiences in both gameplay and story, his stuff is so unique when compared to many other videogame developers. I mean this is a game about delivering packages and it has all of this going on, I love it.
I don’t know about Kojima making the best games. All I know is Death Stranding 1 was a jumbled mess of barely coherent and oddly paced plots and I loved every minute of it. I must have more! When PC Kojima???
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