Despite being released last year and winning the 2023 Game of the Year award, Baldur's Gate 3 is currently doing what very few other games have managed to do by having more active s in 2024 than 2023. Larian's constant updates and of its golden goose has certainly helped its ongoing popularity, and the game is so vast with more options than most RPGs can even dream of that it is practically infinitely replayable, especially with the recent mod . The still growing popularity of Dungeons and Dragons has certainly helped BG3 in 2024 too.

A massive reason for Baldur's Gate 3's continued growth and success is all the tiny details that Larian has put into the game. A lot of them are playful, breaking the fourth wall in a very retro, CRPG way, such as party talking to the player directly whenever they are clicked on. Plenty of tiny details are still being dug up to this day, despite the title being close to eighteen months old, and it means that the average player still has so much to uncover, even after half a dozen playthroughs.

Baldur's Gate 3 Detail Breaks The Fourth Wall In The Best Way

Party Don't Like Being Poked

Party , including a Tav custom character and Durge, will always have something to say whenever they are clicked on, such as Astarion insisting that the player shouldn't touch him. There are also specific lines when a character is clicked on repeatedly, which often involve party expressing their annoyance. What players might not know is that there are also specific voice lines when party are clicked on while in stealth mode, and the repeated clicking annoys them just as much here as when they are standing around idle, if not more so.

These voice lines, as shown in SuNStereO's video on YouTube perfectly encapsulate the characters saying the lines while breaking the fourth wall in a hilarious way that is in keeping with many other CRPGs, like the two Baldur's Gate titles that came before. Wyll will be polite as always, calling the constant clicking an itch, while Astarion will tell the player to shut up, repeatedly. On the other hand, Minsc will be completely off-topic, insisting that he is trying to surprise Boo on his birthday, before wondering how old hamsters can get.

Boo is allegedly a Miniature Giant Space Hamster, but according to Lae'zel, she has never seen a miniature one despite Giant Space Hamsters being a common meal among gith.

Although funny, keeping these voice lines in character, even while breaking the fourth wall, is important to making the game feel like it both takes itself seriously and can have fun with itself. Yes, there is the fun of Jaheira's sass, saying that she will take the player's toy away from them, but there is also Minthara delivering a threat right through the fourth wall, which fits perfectly given that she is constantly threatening everything. Halsin even manages to flirt with the player directly, deciding that trying to get with the avatar character isn't good enough.

Larian Ensures BG3 Uses Everything Games Can Offer

It Rarely Stops To Try To Be A Movie

Thanks to being a CRPG with a top-down view, Baldur's Gate 3 does have the advantage of not needing to hide that it is a video game. Of course, the title has cinematic elements and cutscenes, but with player choices, constant rolls, and characters whose fates almost entirely rely on what a player chooses to do, it isn't as though the game encourages people to keep their hands off their controller or keyboard. Being a turn-based game, everything can go at the player's pace, but it does mean that they have to always pay attention.

Larian has never been afraid to remind its audience that they are playing a game, using narrators that talk directly to the player in several RG titles, for example. Still, this doesn't affect immersion, especially in the resoundingly successful Baldur's Gate 3, because the little, whimsical details and line deliveries are always in keeping with the tone of the story at the time and the character saying them. The party having specific lines of dialogue when clicked on is a good example of this, but only one of many.

There are also voice lines for spam-clicking companions during combat, and these usually display just as much annoyance or cause the clicked-on character to lose concentration.

BG3 has proven that consistent tone and writing can be more important than keeping players in the world for immersion, especially as far as CRPGs are concerned. It allows Larian to write its games with enough whimsy by poking fun at the player, as is the case with the Divinity Original Sin 2 narrator almost constantly, while also keeping their players sucked into the worlds it creates. Larian games are unapologetically interactive and unafraid, or perhaps unashamed, to be video games.

Cinematic Titles Can Learn From Baldur's Gate 3

Interaction Is The Point Of The Gaming Medium

Of course, Baldur's Gate 3 is a RG through a through, rather than a cinematic title, even though it has many cinematic elements throughout. These cinematics were a big step-up for Larian, requiring the development of the Divinity 4 engine to look as good as they do, but an advantage these have is that the player needs to interact with them frequently. The player needs to pay attention to what is happening so that, when a dialogue option comes up, which they so often do, they can make the right choice. This only works because BG3 makes these choices matter.

In recent times, many AAA games have focused on cinematic elements in a way that can make them feel more like interactive movies than video games. Having long cinematics isn't always a problem so long as the player still has to stay alert and interact, and the Norse God of War games get around this by having quick time events along with some of the best modern action gameplay. Other games suffer from wanting to be a movie too much, and Death Stranding is an example that earned a reputation as a walking simulator occasionally interrupted by a movie.

It seems like an obvious statement, but games should be games and use the interactive environment to the best of their ability, telling stories in ways only games can. Plenty of games have cinematics that last too long without interaction or have gameplay sequences where the player is running from an enemy, but only has to push the left stick forward while watching things just happen on their screen. Games need to make sure that players feel a part of the story, rather than just tell a story, and Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best examples of this.

Source: SuNStereO/Youtube

Youtube | SuNStereO - Spam Clicking Companions While They're Sneaking in Baldur's Gate 3