Jenevelle's Story is Brilliant

[女王 [Queen]]

Biggest highlight of the game in my opinion. Her story from Act 1 to Act 3 is excellently handled in my opinion along with her progression of character. It really does make me regret not picking her as my romance path not going to lie xD

[ChalkStorm]

I agree. She's one of the few NPCs (semi-NPCs?) that actually has an arc in a roleplaying game like this. It took a LOT of save-scumming to get the optimal outcome, but I'm really happy with how she turns out. There's a lot that I'm finding frustrating about the story overall, especially in how heavily it relies on contrived FR lore to tell its story rather than just...telling a story, but "Jenevelle" is what's redeemed it overall for me.

I can't remember the last time I was so attached to a companion in an RPG, where I realized that I cared about what happened to her. I don't think any game of the cRPG Renaissance (starting with Wasteland 2, then Pillars of Eternity) has actually accomplished this, at least not so well as BG3 has. Maybe Disco Elysium, but that's a completely different kind of thing.

Giving companions satisfying character arcs in combat-heavy non-linear games is one of the hardest things for narrative designers to do. I can only think of a few other examples: Morrigan and Alistair in Dragon Age being at the top of the list, Bastila in KotOR maybe, probably the characters in Planescape: Torment (but not really Tides of Numenera)--that's not to say that there aren't plenty more good characters out there, but that they don't really grow or change over the course of a story centered around a player's choices. And how could they? How can you write an arc, with a beginning and a middle and an end, that makes sense and is emotionally satisfying, when the outcome has to depend on player decisions? When critical scenes can be missed altogether? It's an immense task.

But Larian pulled it off. At least with this one character. I'm not as impressed by the others, but I haven't finished their stuff yet either.

[Zoopy]

I feel like I'm missing something here, but who the hell is Jenevelle? I can't even find anything related to that on google.

[ChalkStorm]

KEEP PLAYING THE GAME YOU'RE IN THE SPOILER ZONE

[ChalkStorm]

But if you don't care, it's Shadowheart

[Bastila Shan]

I played act 1 and still missed her

[Mister Magician]

Originally posted by Zoopy:

I feel like I'm missing something here, but who the hell is Jenevelle? I can't even find anything related to that on google.

Only 2 results in a search for "Jenevelle" baldur's gate 3, and both lead to a 4chan thread that says it's the real name of shadowheart.

[Zoopy]

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

Originally posted by Zoopy:

I feel like I'm missing something here, but who the hell is Jenevelle? I can't even find anything related to that on google.

Only 2 results in a search for "Jenevelle" baldur's gate 3, and both lead to a 4chan thread that says it's the real name of shadowheart.

My results led to 4chan, but didn't say that it's her real name.

[Mister Magician]

Originally posted by Zoopy:

Originally posted by Mister Magician:

Only 2 results in a search for "Jenevelle" baldur's gate 3, and both lead to a 4chan thread that says it's the real name of shadowheart.

My results led to 4chan, but didn't say that it's her real name.

use ctrl+f and search near the bottom of the page.

[女王 [Queen]]

Originally posted by ChalkStorm:

I agree. She's one of the few NPCs (semi-NPCs?) that actually has an arc in a roleplaying game like this. It took a LOT of save-scumming to get the optimal outcome, but I'm really happy with how she turns out. There's a lot that I'm finding frustrating about the story overall, especially in how heavily it relies on contrived FR lore to tell its story rather than just...telling a story, but "Jenevelle" is what's redeemed it overall for me.

I can't remember the last time I was so attached to a companion in an RPG, where I realized that I cared about what happened to her. I don't think any game of the cRPG Renaissance (starting with Wasteland 2, then Pillars of Eternity) has actually accomplished this, at least not so well as BG3 has. Maybe Disco Elysium, but that's a completely different kind of thing.

Giving companions satisfying character arcs in combat-heavy non-linear games is one of the hardest things for narrative designers to do. I can only think of a few other examples: Morrigan and Alistair in Dragon Age being at the top of the list, Bastila in KotOR maybe, probably the characters in Planescape: Torment (but not really Tides of Numenera)--that's not to say that there aren't plenty more good characters out there, but that they don't really grow or change over the course of a story centered around a player's choices. And how could they? How can you write an arc, with a beginning and a middle and an end, that makes sense and is emotionally satisfying, when the outcome has to depend on player decisions? When critical scenes can be missed altogether? It's an immense task.

But Larian pulled it off. At least with this one character. I'm not as impressed by the others, but I haven't finished their stuff yet either.

I won't lie in saying Jenevelle is the definite highlight. However, Karlach tugs at my heart strings heavily as well, followed by Astarion. I think Minthara might also hold some serious tragedy too, but I accidentally offed her. I'd say for how big the world is and how many characters there are, the fact that even three are this well rounded, interesting, and well written is extremely telling of the game's quality. Though, I've yet to finish Karlach's storyline, Jenevelle def had the hardest fight in the game for me. Cuz jeezus christ, the blind spam and whatnot can screw off. Lol.

[女王 [Queen]]

I think in my 2nd playthrough I am definitely gonna go for Jenevelle as a romance path. Cuz whew, I hope Karlach's story climax is just as good

[Teddy]

Originally posted by .chr:

Biggest highlight of the game in my opinion. Her story from Act 1 to Act 3 is excellently handled in my opinion along with her progression of character. It really does make me regret not picking her as my romance path not going to lie xD

Who???

[ChalkStorm]

I find Karlach absolutely unbearable. I can't stand the way she talks. I really liked Gale and Wyll at the start, but Wyll just has no personality whatsoever. He does have motivation, which is good, but he's soooo booooring--I found myself skipping through his dialogue during Act II. The same is happening to me with Gale in Act III. Does every character need to have some lore-infused 1,000 year history that involves every faction in the setting and half of the gods? Really?

I do quite like Astarion though. I'm going to romance him on my next playthrough, and pick up Minthara. I murdered her, for that sick Drow armor, so I don't know if she's actually interesting or not.

Who else? Halsin? Boring. Jaheira? Gross. L'a'e'z'el? Well, I romanced Shadowheart, so we all know how that went!

That final fight against the Sharans is pretty crazy. I'm stacked with tons of AoE so I managed to nuke the room pretty quick, but it's an insane number of enemies.

[女王 [Queen]]

Originally posted by Teddy:

Originally posted by .chr:

Biggest highlight of the game in my opinion. Her story from Act 1 to Act 3 is excellently handled in my opinion along with her progression of character. It really does make me regret not picking her as my romance path not going to lie xD

Who???

If you dont kno, dont worry about it :3

[女王 [Queen]]

Originally posted by ChalkStorm:

I find Karlach absolutely unbearable. I can't stand the way she talks. I really liked Gale and Wyll at the start, but Wyll just has no personality whatsoever. He does have motivation, which is good, but he's soooo booooring--I found myself skipping through his dialogue during Act II. The same is happening to me with Gale in Act III. Does every character need to have some lore-infused 1,000 year history that involves every faction in the setting and half of the gods? Really?

I do quite like Astarion though. I'm going to romance him on my next playthrough, and pick up Minthara. I murdered her, for that sick Drow armor, so I don't know if she's actually interesting or not.

Who else? Halsin? Boring. Jaheira? Gross. L'a'e'z'el? Well, I romanced Shadowheart, so we all know how that went!

That final fight against the Sharans is pretty crazy. I'm stacked with tons of AoE so I managed to nuke the room pretty quick, but it's an insane number of enemies.

Hoooow! She is such a tragic baby who just needs love and physical affection <3
Tho I dont mind the lore dumpin, I like it. It makes the world feel alive for me though regarding that final fight, I had a fighter/paladin, warlock, paladin, and Jenevelle
so uh... it was tough lol

[Bastila Shan]

He just spoiled the game for you if you dont know who it is