The art seen in the thumbnail and title card, and the background music heard in this video past the intro and were done by artist Azuma Yasuo and musician Jembei. Check them out in the links in the description!

Having the CEO wear metal plate armour to official gatherings explains a lot.

It's hilarious how AAA companies said "Baldur's Gate 3 can't set the new standard for games". Now everyone knows it's set the standard for a good AAA game because it is **actually** good, rather than a superficial vehicle for profit.

16:58 "Shoudn't have wished to live in more interesting times."

I love how bg 3 gives you such a wide range of methods to kill members of your party.

At least for me there are two reasons why BG3 is so huge: 1) It's a game in a genre that has been neglected in the mainstream for ages. CRPGs never went away but they became their own niche, so by learning from the years of genre development BG3 hit like a truck for those who do not keep up with the genre. Last time we've had such a highly influential CRPG was 2019's Disco Elysium and that might as well be last century in gaming terms. 2) It's an RPG first, second and third. Not a hack and slash RPG; looter-shooter RPG; adventure RPG - it's pure RPG RPG and that was sorely missing. An actual, honest to God, RPG with no tacked on "action" mechanics to make it palpable to a wider audience. You had to meet the game on its own terms and what it wants to do, thus delivering something concrete. On a nostalgic note: It reminded me of the days when mainstream gaming was a grouping of tons of different genres and you'd be popping from an RTS to a first person shooter to ... yes... a CRPG.

This man gets it. I've been telling everyone for the last 15 years that Bethesda's open world slop isn't the way. Now the truth is self-evident. Now that Bethesda is in the gutter, where it was always supposed to be, we can get back on track where Black Isle and old-time Bioware left.

"How one game introduced me to the genre I never knew I loved" Basically "goal achieved", because according to Swen (interview to DnD channel), that was THE goal: through AAA production quality, presentation and cinematic experience, and going overboard with it, while still maintaining a cRPG experience (RPG driven by systemics and interactivity and systemics intertwining with the story and affecting the narrative) draw the new the audience that doesn't usually play this type of games for various reasons, but just didn't know that this type of game was meant for them, and maybe they liked it all along.

Bg3 is probably the best game I have ever played it’s insane how much time vanishes when you play

This was the first game that got me thinking about my next playthrough before the first one was over. I've never started a second playthrough that deviates from sorcerer or wizard or spellsword. Im perfectly fine sticking to that box, but other games dont really convince me that playing other classes will be substantially different. When I saw what was possible just with the socreror, I knew I had to play a bard. Still getting the hang of it. Next, I'll probably see what the warlock class is like.

It says a lot when everytime I see footage of this game I see some encounter i missed even tho i swear to The Absolute i looked every corner of each map

I hope you watched the DOS2 documentary on just how close Larien Studios came to going bankrupt, but Swen believed in the game and refused to compromise or get a publisher.

BG3 was a game I left on my steam library untouched for months after i was gifted it by a relative. Decided to play it one day, and was thrusted into a universe full of wonder like I'd never seen in a game before. It truly taught me how to love a game, to get involved with lore, listen to the soundtrack, seek to find every crevice to be explored within it. The dice roll mechanics in a video game is fantastic, and reawakened my love for DnD, whilst the overall mechanics awakened a love for CRPGs.

i slept on BG3 and now that have played it the standard is set, the bar is raised. no wonder AAA studios felt the pressure

That Mizora on the thumbnail seems to have two big differences from the one in my game 🤔 🤣

Baldur's Gate 3 changed my life, i love this game and his characters so much, for me is so hard roleplaying as a evil character for that, they feel so alive..

I was eagerly awaiting the release of Starfield. I had preordered the premium edition, and took a week off work for it. After 70 hours of the game, I quit playing before even finishing it. Upon recommendation from my brother n law, I got BG3. 3 characters created and close to 1,000 hours later and I’m still having a blast with it. BG3 is the game that I thought Starfield was going to be. Meaningful choices and consequences, great storytelling and character development, incredible world building, deep gameplay mechanics, etc. I love BG3 so much

Completed my 5th playthrough a couple of days ago. One of the best - if not the best - games I have ever played.

Have a look at Divinity Original Sin (already the first version): It already has a narrative with randomness - through you play rock-paper-scissors against NPCs (and even PCs!) to decide whether you can convince them. The change in BG3 was that it massively ramped up the production quality, used a well-known rule-system and world, and expanded on the impact of the different choices. So the concepts were there already (even in Divinity 2 Larian provided this freedom!), but they did not reach as many people. I found Divinity 2 *by chance* a few years ago, and it became one of my favorite games. So Larian has been building up for BG3 for at least 4 games: Divinity 2 gave the freedom, Dragon Commander pioneered the brutal social choices, Divinity Original Sin added the uncertainty of interaction, DOS2 built on that. And BG3 tied this all together in a production quality that enabled them to reach a mainstream audience.

Baldurs gate 3 was such a great game in my opinion.

This game has literally and single-handedly restored my faith in the industry... I could never imagine such a masterpiece coming out after so many flops... And not only a masterpiece, but seemingly out of nowhere, no cyberpunk hype, no 200 million starfield budget, just a good old school rpg made with today's standards... This game to me has an equal significance to the industry as the original baldur's gate had when it released 25 years ago

Unexpectedly brilliant analysis of why BG3 became so popular. And it didn't even take you an hour to say it.

Other AAA titles take you on a train ride on a set track, meanwhile BG3 tosses you the key to the car and tell you to have fun

On my first play through I actually missed seeing Karlach before getting to the Inn where the "Paladins of Tyr" we're so I had no reason to doubt them. But then I saw a dead body of their comrade in the back room. So I cast speak with dead only to learn the truth. So I killed then all them found Karlach which was funny to let her know I was already way ahead of her. In most games Karlach being the one to kill them would be a key moment for the character. In here it is but you can also have it play out differently which is amazing.

Kudos for peeling back the layers of the onion in such an entertaining, cogent and educational video. This is absolutely how other developers, studios and publishers should be looking at game development.

Seriously interesting and well-done video. Thanks for putting this up!

Yep, that's totally what makes BG3 specia - the freedom to choose different paths without compromising your goals. Meeting Balthazar in the Gauntlet of Shar, I thought this guy is set to become an enemy, better kill him now on my terms before he can start a fight on his terms. I only realized later that this lets you avoid the much more difficult fight against him in the Shadowfell.

As a writer and someone dealing with rigid people in my life, this was liberating to hear. Thank you.

It's frankly absurd how replayable BG3 is. A total masterpiece!

My heart stops everytime you drop a new video🫶🏻

You're one of the very few popular gaming video esseist on KZfaq who actually wants to add to the discussion and only makes videos when he has something interesting to tell. Most just want to perfectly fit into general consensus and gain as many views as possible (I know it's like that pretty much everywhere but on gaming side of KZfaq it's imo significantly huge problem.) Keep up the good work!

Amazing video, as usual. Keep em coming!

Thanks to the glowing reviews of the game, I spent 1,000 US dollars to build my first pc just to play BG3. A month later I spent another $2,000 to build an even better pc and gave my younger brother the first one and a digital deluxe edition so he could play. I finally beat the game after 150 hours, in the final run, and over 100 hours of attempts that went nowhere. orignal pc: 5600X / 6700XT second pc: 5800X3D / 7800XT I'm currently doing resist durge right now and just entered act 3. Will go full evil after patch 7 comes out.

Outstanding video! New subscriber for you. You really did find a way to express perfectly the important things that no one else was able to, especially the part where you talk about the impact in our life, which is absolutely right on. Just as much as Dragon Age Origins and Game of Thrones did an immense impact on how I see wars, relationships, power, famillies, enemies, duty and love.

My first playthrough I had no idea what I was doing so I killed Karlach, then realised 60+ hours later that she was a companion. I saved Barcus on my first playthrough, yet it still took me until my third to realise he has an entire questline connected to him. Every playthrough I'm finding new locations, characters, and storylines I'd missed even though I thought I'd been super thorough the previous time. This game is incredible.

Great Video. I had your "aha" moment aswell. Do much so thst i actualy quit and restarted the game playing how i wanted indtead of how i thought the gamd wanted md to. You pretty much explained it perfectly. And its funny since i for some reason didnt realize despite being pretty well versed in DnD.

Great comments thanks for sharing your thoughts and opinions.

Man i was disappointed how the static class skills in mass effect werent even used as combat oportunities in cutscenes. The legendary remaster changed nothing.

Great analysis. I too wasn't looking for a turn based CRPG. Yet, I was completely blown away by BG3. On my fourth play through and I'm still discovering new mechanics and aspects of the story. 🤓

I used to ignore games like these because for some reason the isometric camera turned me off big time, but hearing all the wonders from this game and just how great Larian is as a studio? I want to give this genre a proper go now, I even bought DOS to play it proper sometime! Amazing video, making me look forward to when I get my hands on BG3 eventually!

I'm glad the game found you. I hope you enjoy DOS1 and 2 since they are the closest you'll come to it. BG3 has sold over 15 million copies according to Larian. Cheers

Fantastic video!

7:40 YOU MONSTER

The first time I failed successfully is with Guts. Failed all the check yet it come to the best possible outcome.

There will never be a game (BG3) like it ever again and that's okay.

Anytime I watch your videos about the games you discuss, I almost always want to try the game out for myself. BG3 looks like it can be a lot of fun, even if I have never played this sort of genre before.

As I've always said, put out a quality product and the money will flow naturally. BG3 is a game for gamers by a company that respects their customers. And they released what is considered by the industry as one of the greatest games ever made. If more companies used this philosophy, we could have another golden age of gaming.

There is a rising genre where failure is required part of progress. Roguelikes.

I bought it at release but I just started actually playing it the last week and a half and I'm 40 hours in on chapter 2. It's been so amazing and I definitely understand why it received so many awards. Radom; but I had a dream last night that I was transported to the world of baldurs gate and I was picking herbs and flowers to make potions lol it was so random but that's how much of a hold the game has over me.

Banger as Always Choom

Everything in this video is spot on and accurate. In my personal opinion. What makes this game truky special is that it cam be an entirely unique and special experience to any person who plays it. The amount of branching choices makes this more of a once in a lifetime set of experiences than a game. Ive echoed rhis in another video and it bears reoeatong here. Ive played 9 playthroughs, and i would have been more than willing to spend another 70 bucks on each of those playthroughs, so because each playthrough is such a unique and special experience. Games like this dont get made anymore, and we should praise development teams who have the courage to break the mold, and deliver on such awesome gaming experiences.

the main issue with the dice roll system comes when you come to a pivotal point in a characters story who you are very invested in, and the only way to get the option you've been aiming for the entire play through you have to get a natural 20 e. (spoilers vv) with shadowheart, i was choosing all of the "redemption options", all of the anti sharran stuff, and yet when you get to the important decision on whether she gives in or rejects shar, it was a natural 20 required, and so i had to sit there for 30 minutes save scumming to get the pay off that my entire game had been building to

If you put dedication and magic, who knows if you become the next game of the year. Love and freedom of choice, thats is what you need.

BG3 has so much freedom it can actually be overwhelming

Great video, i haven't thought of the more tightly integrated story and gameplay parts but its true. Also if someone dies in a combat or you just kill someone it will change the story. I played Starfield after bg3 and I was disappointed when my weapon shot right through the invulnerable npc at the start. I guess its much easier for developers to just make her invulnerable to damage, instead of making the game handle this a more fun way.

BG3 teaches you to live with consequences of failed dice rolls, by giving you options after that failure instead of making that random outcome an actual failure that punishes you. Once you figure that out, it becomes easier to accept those rolls of the dice instead of constant save scumming.

I haven’t played a game like this since KOTOR 1/2. I hope the devs remaking KOTOR learn from BG3.

Bro just casually showing major events in every game he’s talking about n all of act 3. Cmon

that last line was 🤌🏾

my second best ever played game. And after one year i m still playing.

I have bought this game 4 times: once on release, once for my friend so he can play it, once for my girlfriend so we could co-op (she has now played the game more than I, and I have 553 hours), and once when I ordered the physical copy for PS5. And I do not regret a single one of those

I'd have liked a mode that was no dice and inspirations just added +2, suddenly you have to play the character the way you built them, no save scumming anymore, you just experience the story of the character you made

You should really play Disco Elysium if you haven't already. It really leans into the aspect of failure you discuss in the beginning of the video, and (in my opinion) does an even better job of making failure a rewarding and interesting outcome than BG3. Failing a dice roll in DE is often more entertaining than succeeding and can even progress the story further. The game doesn't have the AAA presentation, total freedom, or sheer amount of content that BG3 has but it makes up for that with incredibly strong writing and beautifully stylized art.

Truly a game of a kind, this. I bought it initially "for the meme" which I'm not going to bother explaining because it's very stupid humour and it was only between me and 1 other friend. I played it for maybe 2h, didn't like it all that much, put the game down and forgot all about it. Then I randomly remembered it when 1.0 released and... I'm in love with this fucking game! I have never once in my life played a D&D game before, so this easily was the best introduction I could have ever wished for. Bah! I don't even like turn based combat games. I tear up just thinking about the music in BG3 and all the beautiful, sad and FUCKING EPIC moments I had. I have never enjoyed the company of in-game followers as much before. I'm 400h into the game as of right now, starting up new playthroughs, trying different builds and classes all the time, and I STILL continue to find new content and stuff I have missed. I still get surprised by some creative ways to do things in this game, like covering a heavy box with grease to make it easier to move if it was too heavy. Why? Well, because you can lol Usually I stray away from magic in games, but here I use all kinds of it all the time, and eldritch blast still makes me cream every single time I use it. It still blows my mind that I paid for the game once and... Heh, got the WHOLE game, instead of having small, stupid instalments spoon fed to me with a little price tag attached. I have never cared about GOTY awards, but I was pumped to see Larian win in nearly all the bloody categories xd Baldur's Gate 3 is for me a game that I would wait for the sale to go away so I can buy it at full price instead, and I'm happy to have lived to see a game like this come out, especially in days like this, with all those games coming out the way they do. Bless these absolute fucking legends.

Hello for your Discord DX

Imagine if BG3 also had a fully voiced player

I bought the game, once I realized how much work the devs and voice actors and the rest put into it. Just out of general principle. Larian also raised the bar for other devs, and proved that it is possible to sell a game. As is. And make it work. Oh, and I can recommend Divinity - Original Sin 2 from the same developer. It is an older game, but great fun.

congrats on selling me on a game that's not a first-person shooter. great video as always brother!

how do we get the pics in your intro they’re awesome

Ok fine i will Start my third play through

I really feel that BG3 just showed what actual freedom of choice is, and other companies hated that because it requires more work. Besides that there wasn't anything special.

94 views now, 100k views 1 week later.

I have long thought nothing could unhorse oblivion and mass effect trilogy as my favorite of all times. Bg3 did it.

since i didn't see any footage of it, have you played Pillars of Eternity? It's along side Pathfinder, Divinity and Baldurs gate one of my favorite crpgs.

Baldurs Gate 3 definitely pushed the limits of what can be put into your games. Even if that also includes interspecies romances and 10 sided dice being simulated.

Masterpiece.

After playing the game in multiple runs, it's amazing that you can still find new things to do, many other variations that you haven't even expected, so I think a lot of us won't be able to say that our boots have seen everything 😉 Honestly though, I freaking love this game. BG3 was what pushed me to finally give DND a try, and now I found new friends because of our campaign 😁

I still yearn to play BG3 after playing some more ARPGs and JRPGs (Final Fantasy XVI, Persona 3 Reload, currently on Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance) and having played a little bit of D&D in person with friends a few years back. Hopefully the physical edition rollout will do well enough. P.S. I still enjoy your 2077 video and keep wondering if you'd ever do an addendum on 2.0/Phantom Liberty? Your writing and video design is already top notch from the 2077 video and going back and PL's narrative is something that I still think about from time to time.

Yeah layoffs hamper studios a lot. Hell, they do the same for anything software related. I work at a company and we keep having the issue of new devs coming in, taking months to familiarize with the codebase, get laid off, get new devs because it turns out we dont have enough people, they take months to familiarize with the codebase... except it gets worse because people who built certain things got laid off or left, and theres no documentation so it just becomes worse. I bet my ass this is even worse in gamedev hence the insane development times. And why both Larian and FromSoftware can pump out games.

I love how bg3 is the game i did not pre purchase for once but knew i would be interested since i beat pwotr missed out for a good month 😢

I watched the video mainly because I wanted to hear how you justified the title, how BG3 actually changed the industry. Because I haven't seen any evidence for that. And in the end you say yourself that we aren't there yet. Regardless, I enjoyed this video a lot. Your explanation on gameplay vs narrative was really interesting!

Old BG1 and BG2 had also that kind of freedom, complexity and maturity that went above what every other game showed us till far. I expected other RPGs to follow its steps but no, it was not possible, Icewind Dale, although great, was flat when it came to characters. Neverwinter Nights was mechanically good, but again, no complex interactions with characters, story was a straight line from point A to B, and so on. There was no other game in years to come to claim that kind of story and complexity. Massive Effect in some ways came close, but not enough. I feared that BG3 will follow the industry standards and be good, but not exceptional. How wrong I was. They really took all what was awesome about old BG games to the newer, even higher standard! However, like with old BG's, this will be a unique game series and no other will be close to that. I want to be wrong, but the kind of effort to build such a game is just too high to be an industry standard. This is the game one per decade or rarer.

For me it was Divinity original sin 2 that introduced me to CRPG's and i'm really glad it did.

Swinging a sword in morrowind as a mage is letting chance take me down a path, sometimes a worse one. It always sucks. I think it’s just about how the game makes failure fun sometimes, which didn’t need a whole deep dive.

The existence of failsafe characters and events blew my mind even after hundreds of hours and countless playthroughs. This makes it almost impossible to soft-lock the game no matter what you do because they already expect nearly everything you could and would do.

one of the best games and my all time favorite games

Honestly the number of people (like myself) who have poured hundreds of hours and multiple replays into this is so telling of how refreshing this game is!

Recently i often think about how less progressive the industry feels nowadays compared to a decade back. in terms of graphics there are some steps to be seen but technically and mechnically there isnt much stuff anymore that lets you think "WoW thats fun". In BG3 i was amazed about the insane amount of possible outcomes, choices while the characters were all fully voice acted with cutscenes. Its kind of a revolutionary game, becasue there was no CRPG which had that before, especially in this scale. I hope something changes and I can be amazed a dozen times in the upcoming years :)

I still think about dragon age origins.. It was totally entertaining, i cared about the npcs and..the world i was in.

This might the best breakdown of BG3 I have seen. Everything I have wanted to say was covered. The one thing I would add is that developers, Board members and anybody else directly involved must listen to what the people want. Yes, make your money, but do it in a base game that is done with excellence out of the block. Bethesda, Activision, EA, 2K and whatever the has been company that made Diablo 4 is called(yes, sarcasm), start respected the gamers and do the right thing by listening to its consumers and do the right thing.

I've been playing D&D since 1979. I have watched the progression of crpgs from the 80's SSI games to BG3 and have enjoyed playing the majority of them. This game is the best version of the game since I'd say Neverwinter Nights, pretty sure you can still play NWN online with Persistent Worlds created by players. It would be great if they could create the same thing as NWN with BG3. I have almost 700hrs of BG3 playtime.

That thumbnail's gonna make me fail NNN

Me, an XCOM Ironman Mode player laughing throuhg the whole section of the video about "The Importance of Failure" as if Baldur's Gate 3 was the first game ever to make players deal with their mistakes. (Also Disco Elysium did most of that 4 years before)

holy shite, the thumbnail though

I wholeheartedly agree with the 'freedom to fail' sentiment, but oh boy, it feels bad not to see Disco Elysium mentioned. Every skill check failure in the game surprised me with so much new stuff that wouldn't otherwise show up.

Great stuff. Insert comment about wanting a Disco Elysium review... the other greatest CRPG ever made.

When you were talking about the importance of failure and narrative mechanics I started to think "oh this guy just isn't very experienced with CRPGs" as there are plenty that have done such to the same level of quality. I'm glad I stuck around to the end of the video though because you really hit the nail on the head once you started talking about the presentation. This is really where BG3 breaks new ground. No previous CRPG titles with this same level of choice and consequence has ever included the level of presentation that BG3 achieves. In the past it's mostly been one or the other, never both. The ability of Larian to bring it all together into one satisfying game is where BG3 stands head and shoulders above it's forebearers.

Guns and roses starts playing. Oh you’re a villain (CRPG) alright… just not a super one What’s the difference? Presentation!!!!

I'm afraid BG3 won't set up the new standard. In the current gaming era we still do get an exceptional game from time to time that raises the bar of what games can achieve. But none of those games managed to make a proper impact and make the devs (and their higher-ups) decide to actually focus on making a good game rather than cutting corners and sacrifice quality for profit.

Drow Warlocks own!!!!