this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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The story doesn’t have much to say? Huh?
Yes, compared to Disco Elysium, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape Torment and Arcanum etc. the story really doesn't have much to say. Like it boils down to 'People are abusing their authority which is bad'. Which compared to the story and themes in other games is less impressive. Like I'm sorry but BG3 compared to those games really doesn't say anything, or at least anything controversial. Choices boil down to:
Do you help the refugees or side with the fascists and kill them all.
And almost all companions have the exact same problem of having to confront their superior being that fucked their life, and in three cases indoctrinated them to become a worse person. BG3 doesn't have much to say doesn't mean you can't enjoy it the story or the writing or the companions but yes in the end it isn't saying much.
lol, a hexbear user touting Disco Elysium as better than BG3 for the story. I enjoyed DE, but I wouldn’t say it was better than BG3. It was unique. What else would characters do, punch down on lesser beings? What fun that would be.
Dang did the tankie write something you dislike? I didn't even say the story was bad I said the story really doesn't have much to say, and it doesn't like their central theme of nature vs nurture is incredibly muddled and comes out incredibly weak.
Shadowhearts nature is to be good no matter how much suffering and indoctrination she went through her good nature always shone through.
The Emperors nature is to be deceitful and lie and be evil he keeps saying that and does it as well.
Karlach rejects her nature because uh well it's about nurture you see nature doesn't exist.
Lae'zel wasn't born evil, non of the gith are it's due to the careful indoctrination(nurture).
Again muddled if you are just vibing with the fun dialog and voice acting that's fine not everything needs to be a grand thesis statement but also that means that yes BG3s story doesn't have much to say.
Which we can now look at all the others I've mentioned what is Discos central theme? How the past influences us, and finding joy and meaning in a broken world, and it does that in a very tight package that doesn't overstay its welcome. Some anglo I believe has said 'brevity is the soul of wit'.
Pillars first ones central theme is funny enough again the past and how it shapes and influences our lives, colonialism, religion and eugenics
Pillars two colonialism again, also isolationism and traditionalism in face of that colonialism, religion and eugenics
Planescape Torment what can change the nature of a man? Wow look it's another game where you are haunted by the ghosts of the past, being a misery vortex and all that jazz maybe I just like those games or maybe they are just really good.
Arcanum, wow hey victorian era fantasy world, it's magic (feudalism) vs technology (capitalism) baby!!!!!!! Wow look at all that change the continent is going through, look how it reacts to this radical change oh shit phrenology, we also have some nihilism and Camus getting quoted.
I'm not even going all in here I've put out the more popular ones I can mention even more but I didn't want it to read like I'm going 'Stop liking BG3'
5-10% of the beginning of act 1 and 3 is about refugees and how they’re treated by local populations. That theme carries through the game with the Tieflings. Insert random Arabic war or the invasion of Ukraine and resulting refugee population here. The overall story is about mind worms being used by a central hive mind (the absolute), which draws a parallel with our current internet age and the sort of propaganda those with the resources can wreak upon a populace (thralls), but could also be interpreted more literally as religious zealotry, which is thematic throughout the game. There’s more, but the story is much more than just the individual characters’ loyalty quests.
My guy, my pal, my buddy.
Do you know why I mentioned the companions whole thing? Because apart from the main quest they take up most of the narrative attention, and if that is one of your chosen themes let me tell you it's weak, if BG3 was about it maybe it'd be more than window dressing in the third act it'd make up a central pillar of the theme of that act, you know when the refugees ARE in Baldurs Gate?
As for the other alright dipshit, it's called an elder brain, or netherbrain if we take what BG3 calls it, and the rest is just nonsense propaganda? zealotry? My guy, my baby boy, the game literally yells it at you several times AUTHORITY, like for fucks sake it's called the Absolute, it is about control and power and here you are going, 'Well it's about propaganda innit and like the stuff' just amazing, am I supposed to take whatever you say serious when you don't know what themes are? When it doesn't seem like you have any media literacy, and I'm somewhat convinced you haven't really played a lot of RPGs because you have nothing to say about any of the games I've mentioned, which just tells me that you are a baby whose opinion can be safely discarded.
Wow! Alright then.