Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

Rajaah · Mar 16, 2023

Moving my CRPG blogging over to Rajaah's CRPG Blog

One more note on BG1: I think people are short-changing Neera a bit. For a Beamdog character, she was pretty awesome. A lot of fun dialogue-wise and I ended up inadvertently romancing her. Never really went anywhere but it added a lot to the game.

Grabbit Allworth · Mar 17, 2023

I've played and beaten 99% of iso-rpgs ever made, but I only played through BG I/II once when they were originally released in the 90s and this thread is making me incredibly nostalgic.

I'm very tempted to go back and replay the pair, but I'm deeply afraid that a replay could ruin the cast-iron, air-tight belief that they're the best iso-rpgs ever made.

TJT · Mar 17, 2023

Grabbit Allworth said:
I've played and beaten 99% of iso-rpgs ever made, but I only played through BG I/II once when they were originally released in the 90s and this thread is making me incredibly nostalgic.

I'm very tempted to go back and replay the pair, but I'm deeply afraid that a replay could ruin the cast-iron, air-tight belief that they're the best iso-rpgs ever made.

I've replayed them dozens of times.

Use mods, make it interesting. I 100% guarantee you missed a ton of shit and never realized it.

Seananigans · Mar 17, 2023

Grabbit Allworth said:
but I'm deeply afraid that a replay could ruin the cast-iron, air-tight belief that they're the best iso-rpgs ever made.

If you can get past the graphics and UI, there's no way this would happen. 90's un-woke story in arguably the best iteration of D&D ruleset can't be beat with modern garbage.

Ridas · Mar 17, 2023

Grabbit Allworth said:
I've played and beaten 99% of iso-rpgs ever made, but I only played through BG I/II once when they were originally released in the 90s and this thread is making me incredibly nostalgic.

I'm very tempted to go back and replay the pair, but I'm deeply afraid that a replay could ruin the cast-iron, air-tight belief that they're the best iso-rpgs ever made.

Nah, get enhanced Edition for a few qol changes and you are good to go. They are still the best around. BG1 is a bit slow because of the low levels, but it steadily ramps up until you become crazy powerhouses fighting even crazier stuff in ToB. And I like the Story. People fuck around and find out, because you are a bhaalspawn. No saving the World and all these tropes.

Rajaah · Mar 17, 2023

Grabbit Allworth said:
I've played and beaten 99% of iso-rpgs ever made, but I only played through BG I/II once when they were originally released in the 90s and this thread is making me incredibly nostalgic.

I'm very tempted to go back and replay the pair, but I'm deeply afraid that a replay could ruin the cast-iron, air-tight belief that they're the best iso-rpgs ever made.

I assume you also played ToB? If not, then do a replay including that. I'm sure you did though.

On an EE replay you could throw SoD in there. It's inferior to the other parts of the story but it's still an interesting addition. Only other time I can think of where a game got an "inter-quel" 15 years later was Final Fantasy IV on PSP. The PSP version also included the After Years sequel, plus a new inter-quel that they made just for that version that linked the two. This and BG are the only games I've ever seen do something like that with an inter-quel or a sequel-outta-nowhere a decade plus later.

I've read in a few places that Planescape: Torment is the best of the CRPG lot. That might just be the story/writing though, maybe BG1+2+ToB IS the best overall in gameplay/scope. Playing them all with a modern lens and no nostalgia (well, just a bit of borrowed nostalgia) might give me an interesting perspective on what's better than what, we'll see.

TJT · Mar 17, 2023

Planescape has an absolutely amazing story and many amazing sidequests. But you will need to follow a guide and you will need to be an intelligence character to find the real good ones.

The class system for it is weird and you counterintuitively will need to switch from caster to melee for various storylines and the game allows you to do this.

Grabbit Allworth · Mar 17, 2023

Rajaah said:
I assume you also played ToB?

I did play ToB.

Ridas said:
Nah, get enhanced Edition for a few qol changes and you are good to go. They are still the best around. BG1 is a bit slow because of the low levels, but it steadily ramps up until you become crazy powerhouses fighting even crazier stuff in ToB. And I like the Story. People fuck around and find out, because you are a bhaalspawn. No saving the World and all these tropes.

Agreed.

TJT said:
I've replayed them dozens of times.

Use mods, make it interesting. I 100% guarantee you missed a ton of shit and never realized it.

Absolutely, I did. In fact, it's been 25 years since my playthrough and I have a hard time remembering a lot of the details, but I'll never forget how amazing the two games were.

Seananigans said:
If you can get past the graphics and UI, there's no way this would happen. 90's un-woke story in arguably the best iteration of D&D ruleset can't be beat with modern garbage.

I'm not going to lie and say that I am not a little bit spoiled by the fidelity of modern Iso-RPGs, but the story/gameplay is what's most important to me. Also, you're absolutely correct that 2e is arguably the best edition. I started with 1st edition, but 2e is where I really cut my teeth. 2e was my personal favorite as a player, but 3.x is my favorite edition as a DM because of the ridiculous volume/quality of resource material.

You've all convinced me. I'm going to buy the EE editions, install a few QoL mods and run them back. My body is ready for the combined 150+ hour playtime.

Aaron · Mar 19, 2023

Borzak said:
Icewind is a real dungeon crawl, but it's light on the story compared to BG1 and 2.

True, it's a great game for just murder-hoboing your way through a campaign.

Rajaah · Mar 19, 2023

::takes notes::

Save...murder-hoboing for...Icewind Dale

Alright, got it.

Rajaah · Mar 19, 2023

Edit: Moved to a more appropriate movie thread. Here, have a hot Icewind Dale woman:

TJT · Mar 19, 2023

Rajaah said:
::takes notes::

Save...murder-hoboing for...Icewind Dale

Alright, got it.

I'm murderhoboing on my dos2 lone wolf run. Pretty much need to do anything to survive. Stealing shit constantly and I'm actually using the crafting system a ton now. It's great.

bolok · Mar 20, 2023

TJT said:
I'm murderhoboing on my dos2 lone wolf run. Pretty much need to do anything to survive. Stealing shit constantly and I'm actually using the crafting system a ton now. It's great.

Those games in particular really reward you for using buffs, items and zone items to setup chain bullshit. It's both exhausting and glorious.

Rajaah · Mar 20, 2023

Doing some early-morning Siege of Dragonspear and I'm actually murderhoboing a bit in this. I'm kinda trying to just get it done, so I'm booking it through some of the areas and not really going out of my way to help anyone. Some guys show up wanting me to do a quest for them so they'll let me pass, I just fight them instead. A group of giant Drow spiders tell me if I find their lost son they'll let me live, then I'm like "cool bro" and just START BLASTIN.

TJT · Mar 20, 2023

bolok said:
Those games in particular really reward you for using buffs, items and zone items to setup chain bullshit. It's both exhausting and glorious.

I am playing an archer kinda build but I realized that magic arrows actually scare off of finesse and not off of int like it does if you run Elemental Archer.

So I scavenge around for shit to make fire/poison/water arrows and such now I'm firing cruise missiles. Extra LOL is I can carry around a poison barrel for both infinite crafting mats for healing potions and poison arrows for undead Fane.

Tuco · Mar 20, 2023

Rajaah said:
Doing some early-morning Siege of Dragonspear and I'm actually murderhoboing a bit in this. I'm kinda trying to just get it done, so I'm booking it through some of the areas and not really going out of my way to help anyone. Some guys show up wanting me to do a quest for them so they'll let me pass, I just fight them instead. A group of giant Drow spiders tell me if I find their lost son they'll let me live, then I'm like "cool bro" and just START BLASTIN.

reavor · Mar 27, 2023

started playing NWN enhanced edition, although doesn't look any different from how I remember. it's just really clunky with laggy pathing and difficulty targeting items/individuals easily. definitely remembering now why I only played through once. also really ridiculous how every house is a dimensional fold, looking small as a shoebox from the outside, and huge as a castle on the inside. BG and those games had the same issues but not at the same scale.

TJT · Mar 27, 2023

I never replayed NWN so I don't seem to remember that. I remember that it was a good game but I disliked that you could only have 1 companion. I always had that lol kobold bard.

Rajaah · Mar 27, 2023

reavor said:
started playing NWN enhanced edition, although doesn't look any different from how I remember. it's just really clunky with laggy pathing and difficulty targeting items/individuals easily. definitely remembering now why I only played through once. also really ridiculous how every house is a dimensional fold, looking small as a shoebox from the outside, and huge as a castle on the inside. BG and those games had the same issues but not at the same scale.

If you want to while you're playing it, I'm totally fine if you talk NWN shop in Rajaah's CRPG Blog. Made that so I wouldn't be pulling the BG3 thread off-topic any more than I already did, and I'll be getting to NWN before too long most likely. I probably should say in the original post of it that it's for general CRPG discussion, not just me blogging about the games.

At this point the main BG3 question (for me) is how much of my CRPG list will I knock off before BG3 is out? At the very least I'll have the other BGs down, so BG3 can be a launch play when everyone else does. It dropping right before school starts (or right after depending on the college) is a bit of a cruel joke for people who are still in school. Ten years ago I'd be pissed-off at that launch date.

YttriumF · Mar 27, 2023

Damn ... Collector's Edition going for ~$270.00 USD

Baldur's Gate 3 - Collector's Edition

Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

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