Like many of you, I first played Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) about a year ago when it first launched. I really didn’t know what to expect from Larian Studio’s game, aside from the fact that you could apparently have a romantic relationship with a druid (Halsin) while he was in bear form. Thankfully, I ended up playing the game on launch day and quickly fell in love with the sassy Astarion, blunt Lae’zel, and puppy-like Karlach during my first 80-hour playthrough. Not only that, I found myself thinking about the game and its characters long after I saw the credits roll.
It’s been a year since the game released (crazy, right?), and I love so many parts of it. However, it took me playing Dragon Age: Inquisition to put into words one of the things I love most about BG3. Namely, Larian Studio’s Dungeons and Dragon’s game provides a far more enthralling adventure than usual because it doesn’t use one of the most cliche and overdone storytelling methods in fantasy RPGs.
Nothing breaks immersion like the “chosen one” archetype
In preparation for the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I’ve been playing Inquisition on my ROG Ally X. In case you’re unfamiliar, this is the previous game in the Dragon Age series that released a decade ago in 2014. Overall, I still recommend BioWare‘s older fantasy RPG — it even feels a lot like a BG3 precursor in some ways. However, I can’t help rolling my eyes every few seconds with the game’s whole “chosen one” storyline.
The whole “chosen one” archetype is a horribly overdone mechanism that instantly breaks a game’s storytelling illusion. Why is that? Because it makes players feel like an outside entity rather than a normal part of the world. It also makes it painfully obvious that I’m not playing with real characters, but rather just NPCs tailored around making me feel special and powerful in an almost patronizing way. Regardless of what game you’re playing, this archetype makes the other characters treat you oddly and puts distance between them and yourself.
Now, you might be saying, BG3 makes you a special character. But the difference is that you are part of a group of infected individuals rather than being the only one with eye-worm powers. There’s nothing more special about your unique character than any of the others in your party. It wasn’t destiny that made you this way, just a crappy turn of events that you’re learning to cope with alongside the others.
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Every BG3 origin companion has their own baggage, and you could play as any one of them without completely changing the feel of the game (aside from the blood-lusting Dark Urge). Karlach was enslaved and now needs to remove something that’s killing her. Astarian wants to break free of his evil master. Lae’zel wants to prove herself to her people. While playing as these characters, the game gives you the freedom to choose whether you are the stereotypical hero, a villain, or something in-between. There’s no destiny. No putting you on a pedestal simply for being the human element.
In effect, what this does is make you feel like you’re more intimately part of a group because you’re muddling through each new scenario just like your companions —without being more special than they are. Sure, the game relies on you making the ultimate decisions when played in single-player mode, but you can literally make many of these choices as any character in your party who you happen to be playing as at the time. That’s one of the reasons why we build such strong relationships with Astarion, Shadowheart, Gale, Lae’zel, Karlach, and Will. It feels more like we are all in this together.
Larian made something truly special with Baldur’s Gate 3, since it manages to make you feel like part of the world rather than an outside entity. This is obviously partially due to the game’s expansive decision trees, but also because this D&D adventure makes you feel like part of a gang rather than an “other.” I hope other single-player fantasy RPGs take note.
