When Baldur’s Gate 3 launched this summer season, its ending was one of many uncommon moments the place reward for Larian’s tackle the world of Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t united in effusive lauding. Abrupt, slightly messy, and missing in closure to characters gamers had simply spent a whole lot of hours with, it was each attention-grabbing and filled with friction in equal measure. Ought to we ever know all the pieces a few story’s finish? What must be left to creativeness?
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Whereas followers have spent three months fascinated with that story themselves—what the lives of their “Tav” (the default title for a customized participant character), their lovers, their pals, and even their foes had been like after the credit rolled—this week Larian determined to supply one thing slightly extra definitive. The shock headlining information of this week’s fifth main patch for BG3 was a model new playable epilogue, with 1000’s of strains of latest dialogue, new interactions, and extra all tailor-made to weave collectively hours of participant decision-making right into a kinder, hotter, extra sentimental conclusion to the sport. The brand new epilogue—which might take about an hour, at most, to work by way of—does precisely that, providing a captivating probability for Larian to revisit Baldur’s Gate 3’s instantly iconic and lovable characters by way of the lens of participant response after launch, after these all these months of fan artwork and tales and interactions with the actors behind them. It’s full of pleasure and love, and the twinge of remorse that you’re really saying goodbye to its story and its characters for one remaining time.
However additionally it is in some ways one thing that looks like a celebration of taking part in D&D itself, and a promise: simply as pal teams come to the desk to journey collectively, after which drift again aside within the hope that some day sooner or later they may collect as one and enterprise forth, this isn’t the time to say goodbye to Baldur’s Gate 3 perpetually. There may all the time be one thing extra, ought to time and destiny align (and, in a splendidly jokey nod to the herculean job of getting a bunch of adults to kind their very own schedules out to play D&D repeatedly, a synchronization of myriad private calendars) that brings us again to this specific imagining of Faerûn.
Screenshot: James Whitbrook/io9, Larian Studios
Though you begin taking part in it instantly after credit first roll on a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3, the epilogue is ready six months after the conclusion of the primary story, and extra particularly after gamers select the ending path that sees them destroy the sinister Netherbrain, releasing their pals, and the Sword Coast, from the tadpole-wriggling grip of the Mindflayers and their reborn Illithid Empire. Choosing up your character and their liked one through an invitation from Withers—the traditional mysterious undead entity that, it seems in BG3’s unique finish, was an agent of the gods working in opposition to the machinations of the Lifeless Three, Myrkul, Bane, and Bhaal—the epilogue takes place on the very first encampment your occasion got here collectively in through the occasions of the sport, the sentimental stage to host a reunion feast for individuals who, for probably the most half, all went their separate methods after saving the day.
Relying on the numerous, many, many decisions you remodeled the course of your recreation, the place these characters all come from, and even who’s alive to return within the first place, will likely be completely different. I performed the epilogue on my very first “Tav,” Lhukesh the Dragornborn Paladin, so I bought to study that, whilst the unique recreation noticed them briefly half methods with their lover, the Elven Druid/Notable Bear Halsin, they’d in reality reunited shortly thereafter, retired from the heroic life, and constructed a household life for themselves taking care of refugees and orphans displaced by the Mindflayer disaster. I bought to see the ramifications of lots of the alternatives I’d made with Baldur’s Gate 3’s occasion flourish, for probably the most half.
Screenshot: James Whitbrook/io9, Larian Studios
A japing jab with Jaheira, the perpetual grandmother of the solid right here, a heartfelt thanks there from the likes of Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae’zel, for the affect Lhukesh had on bettering their lives for the higher and widening their worldviews from their brusque, egocentric origins. A few of it was bittersweet—Gale the Wizard, for the instance, apparently perished perpetually after I didn’t persuade him of the hubris of taking part in with the traditional magics that had been utilized by the Lifeless Three to manage the Netherbrain for their very own ends, abandoning a magical hologram of himself to say a remaining goodbye and apology. A few of it even felt prefer it bordered on undoing what may’ve been perceived as a tragic ending from the unique recreation—like Karlach and Wyll gleefully telling me that, after months of combating within the hellish planes of Avernus, they’d discovered a technique to repair Karlach’s infernal engine, a plan in thoughts to undo the dire destiny that just about kills her by Baldur’s Gate 3’s unique climax.
One the one hand, the sentimentality feels earned. The epilogue may be playable instantly after the primary recreation concludes, however for lots of gamers that is going again after months away from Baldur’s Gate 3 in a single kind or one other. And whereas Larian’s post-launch assist of the sport, by way of new content material, high quality of life updates, and bug fixes has largely been exemplary, this epilogue feels just like the developer saying, for probably the most half (outdoors of rudimentary bug fixes), it’s achieved including new issues to the sport: Baldur’s Gate 3 is as Baldur’s Gate 3 is on this second. It was good, nice even, but it surely’s time to choose ourselves up and bid it farewell. That vibe is suffused all through the epilogue, as characters, virtually hesitant to a whisper, attempt to acknowledge that this may be the final time they’re all collectively. As you wander across the celebrations each character is burdened with this unstated rigidity: let’s inform one another how a lot we imply to one another, let’s hug our pals, let’s kiss our family members, let’s promise to all the time be there for one another even after we’re aside, simply in case that is it.
Screenshot: James Whitbrook/io9, Larian Studios
Nevertheless it doesn’t should be. After all, metatextually, a participant can revisit Baldur’s Gate 3 each time they need, replay outdated saves, begin new run throughs, create new characters and take a look at new courses. It’s a online game, it’s not going to poof into the ether the second you’re achieved taking part in. However the epilogue additionally acknowledges this throughout the textual content itself. If you’re achieved catching up along with your occasion, talking to Withers to convey the epilogue to its conclusion sees the undead collect you throughout the desk to boost a glass in celebration of one another—that you just all got here collectively to beat inconceivable odds and defy the machinations of the gods themselves. Crucially, nonetheless, Withers is way much less definitive about this being the Finish as a lot of your folks had been in dialog. As a being keenly conscious of the threads of destiny, and the wheels of future ever turning, Withers plainly tells you that this evening may result in extra—not simply future reunions, however future threats to cope with, new adventures to be hand that brings the newest batch of heroes of Baldur’s Gate collectively as soon as extra.
Many gamers have taken this as a tacit acknowledgement from Larian that, opposite to prior statements, it’s not as achieved with Baldur’s Gate 3 because it first mentioned it was after launch. This tease, it’s believed, may come within the type of expansive DLC, or even perhaps a Baldur’s Gate 4 down the road. Neither could be stunning, given the overwhelmingly constructive reception Baldur’s Gate 3 has loved. However as a lot because it does really feel like a touch at extra to come back from this world for them, it additionally simply feels just like the perpetual promise of TTRPGs themselves, D&D or in any other case. TTRPGs are all in regards to the tales and characters you weave on the desk, sure, however they’re additionally intrinsically in regards to the gamers behind these adventures. Their connection to one another, the expertise of coming collectively to create one thing distinctive and significant, after which drifting aside. They won’t get the prospect to do it typically as actual life and commitments interrupt, they won’t get to do it once more in any respect. They may get to do it repeatedly for years and years to come back. However the potential for a return and extra is all the time there, and all the time so fascinating, irrespective of if it’s in the end the eventual consequence. The tales can go on perpetually, develop and evolve and take new varieties, or create new ones completely, however the connections made alongside the best way can all the time be reforged irrespective of how a lot distance or time comes between them.
Screenshot: James Whitbrook/io9, Larian Studios
It’s a becoming sentiment to conclude Baldur’s Gate 3 on, and a 2023 that has seen Dungeons & Dragons itself climate a dizzying array of highs and lows. A farewell and a farewell-for-now in equal measure, it’s additionally a celebration of that promise of taking part in TTRPGs within the first place: bringing folks collectively in, as you increase a goblet to as Baldur’s Gate 3 fades to black one final time, well being, wealth, love, and above all, issues value fixing.
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