My first 15 minute impressions as a Crpg newbie that just finished BG3

[Ron]

• These graphics are... manageable. Oh no, the game doesn't offer TAA, hello jaggies I guess.
  
• Why is the narrator not voiced? Its feels so jarring reading subtitles along the voice but it just skips entire sentences of narrator text because the narrator doesn't have a voice. So now I have to read the dialogue along the voice and when the voice actor finishes I have to scan all the text again to read what the narrator said. Its SOO BAD WHY DID THEY DO THIS?!
  
• Why is my portrait showing in dialogue even when I am not the one talking? Its so confusing.
  
• Jesus Christ those cut-scene animations are very rough.

Look, I understand Larian is a one-in-a-millennia thing and its unrealistic to expect most studios to reach that Larian level of detail and polish. But SO many times I have read that this game sits on par with BG3 or that it is even BETTER than BG3.... but jesus, these first impressions are so rough.

Maybe the story is better, I guess I will find out later. But BG3's cut-scenes and animations elevate the whole experience to another dimension. You guys need to stop setting unrealistic expectations, its hurts newcomers like me and it hurts the game.

[Razer]

Oh you're here to tell everyone BG3 is so much better. Uhuh. Well I hope you enjoy the game regardless. No one cares you enjoyed another game more though. There's really no point in coming here to tell us these things. Enjoy the game for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't.

[Ron]

Originally posted by Razer:

Oh you're here to tell everyone BG3 is so much better. Uhuh. Well I hope you enjoy the game regardless. No one cares you enjoyed another game more though. There's really no point in coming here to tell us these things. Enjoy the game for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't.

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

If you are going to do voice acting, you have to do both the character speaking and the narrator describing his actions. Surely you can understand why.

[pete3great]

Originally posted by Ron:

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

"I have to r-r-reeeead?"

Troll post.

[Razer]

Originally posted by Ron:

Originally posted by Razer:

Oh you're here to tell everyone BG3 is so much better. Uhuh. Well I hope you enjoy the game regardless. No one cares you enjoyed another game more though. There's really no point in coming here to tell us these things. Enjoy the game for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't.

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

If you are going to do voice acting, you have to do both the character speaking and the narrator describing his actions. Surely you can understand why.

Narrator has only a few lines in the game and they are all voiced. So not sure what you're referring to. As for lack of voice acting in certain parts. It's financial decision. Voice acting costs money. They weren't able to voice everything in this game. Same goes for every game out there. If there's lots of dialogue/text you're going to have to do without voice acting. I think BG3 is the only game ever where everything is voiced? I've not played it so can't confirm. But you can't put BG3 next to it and use it as a measurement. Pathfinder already has loads of voice acting. It does also have more than twice or thrice as much text/dialogue as similar games.

[Green Knight]

Thanks for sharing. Now go play BG3.

[Nosferatu]

Originally posted by Ron:

Originally posted by Razer:

Oh you're here to tell everyone BG3 is so much better. Uhuh. Well I hope you enjoy the game regardless. No one cares you enjoyed another game more though. There's really no point in coming here to tell us these things. Enjoy the game for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't.

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

If you are going to do voice acting, you have to do both the character speaking and the narrator describing his actions. Surely you can understand why.

Can't say I've ever been bothered by unvoiced lines. Having played cRPGs since the early 2000s, that just seems like business as usual to me. BG3 is unusual in the amount of voiceacting it has, and while it's kind of a nice, I don't think it's a particularly big deal.

[Razer]

Originally posted by Nosferatu:

Originally posted by Ron:

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

If you are going to do voice acting, you have to do both the character speaking and the narrator describing his actions. Surely you can understand why.

Can't say I've ever been bothered by unvoiced lines. Having played cRPGs since the early 2000s, that just seems like business as usual to me. BG3 is unusual in the amount of voiceacting it has, and while it's kind of a nice, I don't think it's a particularly big deal.

As long as its consistent. Voice acting can add a lot when it's done well. I just finished Rogue Trader and the voice acting there is really well done, except it's most prevalent in Acts 1 and 2. It becomes less and less during the later parts of the game. Even during companion quests a lot of it isn't voice. Which is a shame. I think consistency and expectations around it is key. If you're expecting voice acting at certain parts it may be disappointing to not have it. That's what it felt like in Rogue Trader for me. In WotR not so much. But then Rogue Trader has even more dialogue/text than WotR. So it kinda makes sense.

[Nosferatu]

Originally posted by Razer:

Originally posted by Nosferatu:

Can't say I've ever been bothered by unvoiced lines. Having played cRPGs since the early 2000s, that just seems like business as usual to me. BG3 is unusual in the amount of voiceacting it has, and while it's kind of a nice, I don't think it's a particularly big deal.

As long as its consistent. Voice acting can add a lot when it's done well. I just finished Rogue Trader and the voice acting there is really well done, except it's most prevalent in Acts 1 and 2. It becomes less and less during the later parts of the game. Even during companion quests a lot of it isn't voice. Which is a shame. I think consistency and expectations around it is key. If you're expecting voice acting at certain parts it may be disappointing to not have it. That's what it felt like in Rogue Trader for me. In WotR not so much. But then Rogue Trader has even more dialogue/text than WotR. So it kinda makes sense.

True, consistency is important.

[Damedius]

So what your saying is that it needs more sex scenes, maybe some bears?

[Echoside7]

Spend 5 mins on the internet and find the text to speech mod.
https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderwrathoftherighteous/mods/241
Made with love for those Gen Z's that find reading more then a sentence hard.

This is Owlcat's second game that was crowdfunded and also their first game as independent studio. That your biggest complaint is they don't have full game voice acting is pretty minor in the scheme of things.

[mk11]

If I get this right. BG3 is good because it is fully voiced. Except BG3 was only fully voiced in English. I guess it flopped in every non-English speaking country.

[Deo]

I saw many Wotr streams and walkthroughs (and Rogue Trader as well) - from a kickstarter supporter of Owlcat to a completely new player. And ALL of them were skipping dialogues. I think most players doing just that - they will read a bit, maybe 2-3 sentences out of 10, then skip.

I respect Larian for the effort they put into voicing even secondary dialogue lines in their games - it all adds up to immersion.

ZA/UM (Disco Elysium developer) made voiced dialogue lines in their Final Cut version. The game feels and plays totally different and more immersive compared to original version (imo). You can also disable voiceover, to compare if you feel like it.

Fully voiced dialogues hopefully will become a new standard for future RPGs.

[Soul]

Originally posted by Ron:

Originally posted by Razer:

Oh you're here to tell everyone BG3 is so much better. Uhuh. Well I hope you enjoy the game regardless. No one cares you enjoyed another game more though. There's really no point in coming here to tell us these things. Enjoy the game for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't.

Even if I never played bg3, the voice acting / narrator text issue is just bad game design that no reasonable person would defend.

If you are going to do voice acting, you have to do both the character speaking and the narrator describing his actions. Surely you can understand why.

I have BG3 and still havent been bothered to really play it.... voice acting or no... ive just completed its prologue is as far as I got....

and people like me are just fine with how they did things in here with the voice acting.... so yeah there are people who will defend it...

but you also apparently dont know a lot.... like you mention Larian studios who has had a few games under its belt already and had funding.... it was already a fairly large company with a good budget behind it....

this developer.... went independent.... and in doing so they lost the rights to kingmaker.... which makes this game technically their first game as a independent company.... which was funded through kickstarter funding... their size at the time when making this game was like around 1/4th the size of what Larian went into BG3 with....

which.... in comparison.... this game has like over 200 character classes and subclasses.... 13 advanced classes.... and 10 mythic paths that has a lot of impact on the games story.... you also reach level 20 alongside mythic rank 10.... which is effectively like having a level 30-40 character.... or go legend and be a level 40 character...

what does BG3 have in comparison.... a lower level cap of 14.... 12 base classes.... and while it does have subclasses for those....

things like the wizard subclasses are just school choices... which are just default options in this game.... this game has actual wizard subclasses that completely change how their played....

or take sorcerer for instance.... in BG3 it has 3 subclasses... dragon, wild magic, storm.... in this game sorcerer has 8 subclasses.... and 21 bloodlines to choose from.... meaning you could do some combos like picking a subclass like crossblooded and pick 2 bloodlines like blue dragon and air elemental.... making you able to do more damage with electricity AND convert all elemental damage to electricity on top of it...

basically BG3 might have better graphics and voice acting.... but it severely lacks in content.... as in high endgame content.... which is also a very difficult thing to balance out... higher level spells for instance hit a lot harder and are nastier... BG3 took the "safe route" by limiting the level cap...

[Vertigo]

I'll never understand why people feel the need to engage if they think it's a troll...

I think you might like the Dragon Age series. While older than BG3, it has a lot that went into the voice work as well.

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Ron:

These graphics are... manageable. Oh no, the game doesn't offer TAA, hello jaggies I guess.

Nonsense. They're fine for the purposes of telling a story and playing a game.

Why is the narrator not voiced?

Because it doesn't need to be. Voiced narration is just a pointless waste of valuable hard drive space. That is why BG3 is a disgustingly bloated monstrosity that takes 18 hours to download and isn't even remotely worth it. Get used to reading. The game is better this way.
Frankly I wish some of the characters weren't ever voiced as there are some rather nasty accents unfitting for a fantasy setting... but limited budget due to crowdfunding and all that. It is forgivable.

Why is my portrait showing in dialogue even when I am not the one talking? Its so confusing.

The NPCs you're talking to are generally portrayed on the right. Your portrait is also there generally to indicate you are a participant in proceedings.

Jesus Christ those cut-scene animations are very rough.

You can press Space to skip through cutscene dialogue. The game doesn't tell you that though.

Look, I understand Larian is a one-in-a-millennia thing and its unrealistic to expect most studios to reach that Larian level of detail and polish. But SO many times I have read that this game sits on par with BG3 or that it is even BETTER than BG3.... but jesus, these first impressions are so rough.

BG3 is utter sewage. It is a contemptible, overrated wreck of a game that I wouldn't even wipe my boots on after trekking through a swamp for fear of making them dirtier. I sh!t out more creative works into the toilet bowl than BG3 on a daily basis.
Most games in existence are better than BG3. It is more unpleasant than dental surgery without anaesthetic. I could go on this way for hours, but I've wasted enough hours of my life on that garbage already.

The point is that if you're comparing things to Baldur's Gate 3, you've set the bar so low that it is buried underground.
This game, unlike BG3, is good. I've not even seen half of it yet, but I'm actually able to enjoy it. The characters can move at a reasonable pace, combat flows smoothly rather than being 50% visual representation of D20s rolling and 50% awkward wastes of movement quota due to bad clicks, the characters aren't disgusting lore-violating Marty Stu monstrosities on account of the devs having a tentacle fetish, the quests explicitly warn you when they have upcoming failure conditions, past locations can be revisited if you didn't manage to loot them the first time, some of the companions are actually appealing rather than exactly none of them, and most importantly..... it isn't just another disgusting parasite plot.