Baldur's Gate III Interviews
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Baldur's Gate III, Larian Studios' next title, was announced in early June, but it's still mostly shrouded in mystery when it comes to anything gameplay-related. However if you'd like to read a few fairly extensive interviews with Larian's Swen Vincke and Dungeons & Dragons' Mike Mearls anyway, you can now do so.
The interviews go over the tricky nature of adapting tabletop rules for a video game, the partnership between Larian and Wizards of the Coast, the importance of reactivity for Baldur's Gate III, the game's storytelling tone, and even a few questions about Divinity: Fallen Heroes, Larian's spin-off project developed by Logic Artists, here and there.
If that sounds interesting to you, you should head on over to Metro:
GC: [laughs] I really enjoyed the combat in Divinity: Original Sin because of the obvious XCOM influence, but because it’s an adaptation of existing rules does that mean it’ll be very different in Baldur’s Gate III?
SV: Yeah, that’s the one that I’m not answering. [laughs] I will tell you what the idea is though. So, the reason why I’m not saying anything is because combat is something that is so sacred in this, when it comes to Baldur’s Gate, so we want to show it to people rather than just talk about it. However, I can tell you what the idea is.
When you play D&D you get thrown challenges that you need to overcome. Some of these challenges require you to go into combat. And to ensure player agency you have to give the player a whole bunch of systems so that they can use them in any way they want to overcome the challenges that are thrown at them.
That’s what we did in DOS2 because in DOS2 people come up with craziest ways of winning, unwinnable combat. That’s also what we’ll do in Baldur’s Gate III. You’re going to see combat that is very easy and you’re going to see combat that is hard. You have an entire toolbox at your disposal, which goes beyond just a rule set. It also depends on your imagination, so that you will overcome situations in a variety of ways.
GC: There’s always a sort of rule of thumb for me, for a good RPG, and it’s whether you can resolve a conflict – a major story set piece, not necessarily fighting with grunts – outside of combat.
SV: Yes!
RPG Site: Will players without knowledge of either Baldur's Gate or even Dungeons & Dragons be able to jump into Baldur's Gate III blind?
Swen Vincke: Yes, and this is something I think the teaser trailer actually really does a really good job of. If you don't know anything of D&D, you still seem a guy transforming into an alien creature, and then hints of an invasion on a city coming from the sky. You still have a suitable understanding of what's going on. But if you've played Baldur's Gate, you will recognize the city and its landmarks such as the Blushing Mermaid, which is a nearby tavern. You'll recognize the armor as that of the Flaming Fist, and the creature as a Mind Flayer but you'll also notice that the transformation is happening in minutes rather than across seven days. So in both cases, you get a clear story understanding, but one will have more depth than the other. Our job will be then to explain these sorts of things to players without that background.
RPG Site: If I wanted to play any one title before Baldur's Gate III in order to prepare, which one would it be?
Mike Mearls: Well, as it happens, we're actually releasing a new campaign for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game: Baldur's Gate: Descent in Avernus, which is coming out on September 17 this year. It's the perfect place for the world lore, and also tells what's happened since Baldur's Gate II. It also comes with a writeup of the city, a map showing who's in power and important characters in town. It's a campaign that goes from level 1-13 that starts in the city but then leads into the Nine Hells. Players will get a say whether or not Baldur's Gate is redeemed or damned to annihilation.
And WCCFTech:
Q: Before jumping to Baldur’s Gate 3, let’s talk about Divinity: Fallen Heroes. Now that you are working on Baldur’s Gate 3 as well, is that going on hold?
A: We’re not putting it on hold because it’s being made by an external team, Logic Artists from Denmark. They are working on it fully and we’re just looking at the milestones and giving them advice. We are involved and we have people checking out how they are incorporating elements from the other games but it’s really their game. They’re making it.
Q: Fallen Heroes’ battle system is very similar to the one seen in Original Sin 2…
A: Yeah, except that it’s switched to team-based initiative. And they changed quite a lot of stuff so that it would become more tactical, it plays differently than Original Sin 2. To be honest, I think the combat is actually better.
Q: Is it going to feature any multiplayer mode or other features like Game Master mode?
A: Fallen Heroes is a tactics game, it’s like Dragon Commander meets Divinity Original Sin. Its focus is on strategy and the combat system. In the game, you have a hub where you meet characters, you make decisions, you upgrade your troops, your veterans, your heroes. You buy stuff, artifacts, so it’s a different type of game that doesn’t leave much space for these features.
