I lovingly refer to her as “Shady”.

Welp, I gave in last month and got BG3 when it was on sale. I was getting a little tired of ESO and Skyrim and wasn't in the mood for reinstalling Oblivion again. So I wanted something a little different.

Never played a straight D&D RPG before, just the TES games (which I understand play fast and loose with the D&D stereotypes).

First character I rolled (before I knew anything about how the game works) was a half Wood Elf Druid. She ended up romancing Wyll though Shadowheart, Lae'zel and Gale all expressed interest in her. Phae felt bad for Astarion, but could never quite fall for him romantically. As we played through the storyline, it got more and more interesting, and I actually ended up falling hard for Karlach. Just loved the way her boisterous yet sweet hearted personality just shone through the voicing and the animation, just like someone I once knew years ago.

Made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot in that first play through. Found the final battle a bit tough, and after the twelfth or thirteenth try in that final fight, gave up and went for the nuclear option. Couldn't help feeling that my build and that of my companions weren't maxed enough to take on the fight effectively.

Now in my second play through, playing a Druid again, but this time a pure Wood Elf. Like Phae, she is older (older even than Julian in OHDH!), and this time I went with Circle of the Moon (Phae was Circle of the Land) and respec'd the companions as soon as I got Withers. This time around, after having played through the whole story, a lot of the mysterious things he said clicked and I was like a-ha - my initial suspicion from the epilogue in the previous play through was confirmed.

The fights are better, and I'm a bit more effective in how I use my character's abilities and those of my companions. Already we are at Level 6 and just starting the Underdark trek toward the Moonrise Towers. And Lyll (my character) and Karlach are already an item!

To sum it up, while I'm not a fan of the top down isometric gameplay (it is not as immersive as the player centric camera view I'm accustomed to) or the turn based combat, I do admit the characters are immersive (I love Jaheria's sarcasm and found myself trading barbs with her and both of us enjoying it), and the animals - from Scratch and the Owlbear Cub to a certain Miniature Space Hamster - are terminally adorable. The storyline absolutely left me gobsmacked, and finishing it left me feeling sated and yet emptily sad, because there is no more "what's next?"

Well, apparently Divinity is what’s next from the studio that made BG3. They walked away from doing any DLC for BG3 or the next Baldur’s Gate title because they “weren’t excited about it”. To me that really doesn’t pass the smell test, BG3 brought them more acclaim than any of the Divinity games ever did, so I’m thinking something happened behind the scenes that turned them off of the IP. Either that or they don’t get excited by raking in big piles of money or getting praised all over the internet for their work.

BG3 is a great game. Glad you enjoyed it, for the most part.

Haute, it sounds like we both had pretty much the same experience. The game was a struggle at first as one gets used to the system. It helps once you realize that you can change the classes of the NPCs if you want, and take them in very different directions. For example, I always respect Shadowheart as cleric of a different subclass than Trickster. I was just not impressed with that. But she's really impressive as a War subclass, and an awesome healer as a Life subclass.

Wyll can likewise be cross-classed with Paladin, which synergizes well with his Warlock class.

And the Paladin/Sorcerer combo is just over the top as a combat monster. I discovered that my first playthrough by pure chance, as that most fits January.

I also felt much the same for the NPCs, especially Karlach. She is just so honest and earnest in the way that she embraces life with all of its trials and heartaches, that I can never fail to fall for her.