I am so glad to see after all these years Day9 still sets up these incredibly eloquent and insightful discussions and does that literally last second quip that reminds you he's still a kid at heart.

Its insane to me that day9 can just video essay talk so organically about a subject on the fly

Baldur's Gate is a Legendary Land-Gate with the abilities T: add 1 colorless mana. Pay 2 mana, and T: add x mana of any one color, where X is the number of other Gates you control.

Making a deterministic system try to simulate the feel of non-determinism really makes you appreciate the infinite possibilities of short human interactions.

I can listen to Day9 explain and analyze things all day.

Day9 is like a nostalgia hit every time I watch him

Im almost 40 and BDG1 was incredible to me, it had 6 CDs man, 6!!!, the amount of content for the time it came out was INSANE, remember having to swap disks going from zone to zone, god the feels

Bruh. I LOVE Day9 when he gets into deep analysis of games.

Baldurs Gate 2 and the Throne of Baahl expansion are one of my favorite games of all time. First game I sank over 1000 hour into. Absolute gem of a game

Disco Elysium is the same concept. "No combat more narrative" pushed to the absolute. Never felt more like there was a DM catering to your intrusive thoughts as in DE.

1998 was broodwar. i see what you did there shaun :)

I haven't seen Day9 content in almost a decade with the Hearthstone era, and I want to thank BG3 for reintroducing this amazing guy. We've grown a bit older but still a fun and insightful time.

I am so grateful for these highlights. I don't have time to watch much day9 and I've always wished there was someone who could make highlights of Sean's explanations and advice. Thank you!

💖 I have been listening (on and off) to this man explain games and gaming since the days of Brood War, and I'm consistently floored each time I listen to him spill like this 💖

Day9 was the reason I started learning English 11 years ago (dailies). These days I work as a sales rep in English, and I love it :) I'm truly fascinated by speakers since then. G 9

Baldur's Gate -> Tales of the Sword Coast -> Baldur's Gate 2 -> Throne of Bhaal was the first time you could sit down and play through not just a table top like DnD experience, but sit down and feel like you played through an entire scenario pack or masterfully DM'd storyline from complete start to finish or in BG's case, from nobody orphan to possibly the new God of Murder himself, taking you from level 1 nobody to an epic level demigod/god tier being. The other notable RPGs of the time only gave you a single adventure in the life of someone or separate pieces of someone's adventures, not the whole thing all together in one like this. There were other masterful RPG experiences of the time, quite a few in fact. However none really had the scope and complete sense of everything that BG in its entirety managed to have. Honestly nobody have succeeded to this day in creating that same experience of taking the same exact character through so many stories and games, devs always end up pulling hard resets or fudging things even in the rare case they do allow imports across games. That said some modders have to get applause for pulling it off after the fact, like the mod to combine Might and Magic 6, 7 and 8 into one playable experience. It was also just a monster of a game to play. I remember the sheer real world effort involved in playing a series which at the time consisted of no less than 11 CDs! If you counted all the games and expansions. You had to change disks constantly especially in BG1 unless you had a really big harddrive for the time. Baldur's Gate 2 especially still ranks as one of my favorite videogame experiences, if not my favorite. I think Planescape Torment is a better storytelling game, but it sucks as a videogame in many ways, and there are certainly better RPG mechanics implementations than Baldur's Gate, but the complete package still remains on unmatched to this day as a complete package, I think. EDIT: Oh and I just want to mention, I got Baldur's Gate 1 on accident back then, as I was trying to buy Fallout 2, I bought a combo pack of Fallout 2, Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate 1 for like 30 dollars. I wanted Fallout 2 and got the cheapest package I could get it in, and additionally got two of the best RPG experiences ever produced alongside it. It was the best value game pack I ever got in my life in times of time vs money spent on it. Such a good buy. I enjoyed BG1 so much after that purchase that I bought the Collector's Edition for BG2 when it came out, it was the first game I ever bought a CE for.

Ultima IV in 1985 was ahead of Wizardry and Bardstale as far as roleplaying. I remember giving the blind reagant/herbs shopkeep lady far less money than she was asking. This led to karmic issues with my character, and I couldn't become the Avatar. :(

Classic Day9 answer! People should ask him "what is this?" more often. XD

What set Baldur's Gate II apart from all other computer RPGs at the time for me was that you had the feeling of being part of a real party of adventurers, each with their own quirks and personality - that really made the game come alive.

This is my favorite kind of Day9 content. Asked a simple question. Uses it as a jumping off point for an hour long masterclass on the history and significance of the question

My playgroups used to save all exp for the end of the scenario, with the DM keeping track of exp in secret to that point, then people had untill the next session to decide how to level up. So yeah, an hour isn't a lot of time, we took a week (minus the time of a play session).

Baldur's gate 2 is easily my favorite RPG of all time. I played it when I was in middle school and it blew my mind. I've been playing BG3, and thus far it's been fantastic but it still has yet to hit that mark. I think it will, it really depends on if the story holds up all the way through the game

TLDR: It's a tabletop RPG made by a great studio using the DND framework. They have proper funding because the games industry and RPG fandoms are bow trillion and multi billion dollar industries versus having a collective market cap of a few million in 2000

Fallout 1 is great but ppl seem to be way too nostalgic about it when in fact Fallout 2 is leagues apart in both narrative, and scope. Fallout 2 is the de facto king of fallout imo, better than FNV too in fact.

didn't touch anything Dnd between bg1 and 2,icwD etc until like 20 years later when itmejp started playing DnD on twitch and I realised how much I missed it. Rollplay Solum and Swan Song was so good it's crazy

I got my best friend baldur's gate 2 when I was 9 years old for his birthday. The guy at the local mac store convinced me, which is pretty hilarious considering how not appropriate it is for kids lol. Great times though, we were absolutely blown away and played it excessively without a hope of ever getting close to beating it.

The Bard's Tale was great too!

"98 is when all the greatest games came out" he's talking about starcraft

Fallout 1 is to Fallout 2 what Bladur's Gate 1 was to Baldur's Gate 2. In other words: After Fallout 1 play Fallout 2.

I still play Fallout 1 & 2 and Arcanum every now and then to this day.

Fallout recommendation. 12/10.

Interplay had so many great Rpg's to their name Bards Tale 1&2, Fallout, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, BG 2, Icewind Dale 2.

12:25 I was waiting for Day9 to mention Fallout 1/2 and he didn’t disappoint

All that praise on DOS2 had me ready to roll my eyes, but then ya save it with Fallout 1 call-out at the end

BG was part of the Fallout/Ultima era when devs were allowed to be creative.

Another thing cRPG's did for us is that it took away our flawed perception of what the DM tried to instil in us through description and instead fed us the storyteller's vision graphically with so much more detail than we could ever get through classic pen and paper roleplaying. All of a sudden we have a more vivid atmosphere with ambient noise, character voices, night and daytime cycles. and so much more...We got professional (voice) actors to help draw us into these wonderful worlds. And in my opinion, no game did it better than Baldur's Gate 2. Sure, the Baldur's Gate 1 narator before and after our first encounter with Sarevok was awesome... but.. Irenicus and the torture, and the whole feel of the first setting of Baldur's Gate 2 was so masterfully crafted and so masterfully paced. Baldur's Gate is the one game you ought to get, even if you aren't a fan of RPG's because if any RPG is going to make you change your mind...

the intro to this video is KING. i feel like i had the exact same reaction to some of the kids at work- wanting to explain bg1 & bg2

I’ve only ever seen day 9 once, on a hearthstone event years ago and he was great. You are something else man, go you.

The thing with Larian and Baldur's Gate in relation to their original IP Original Sin games, Original Sin 2 was actually meant to be Baldur's Gate 3, it's what they pitched to Wizards/DnD folks to be BG3, but they were denied, so they just reworked it to be a sequel to Original Sin. Fast forward after Original Sin 2's enormous success, WotC/DnD folks turn back to Larian, gives them the greenlight to make Baldur's Gate 3, and here we are...

what a great explaination, day 9 crushed it here. I'mma instant fan

gonna answer this in a roundabout way.... launches 12 minute rant

what i like about this, is ive dipped my toes in these types of games, and I REALLY wanted to not just go fighter, i wanted paladin or something with magic. but for this first go, i went fighter, went ranged spec just to be a bit different and im gonna just shoot from the hip. at the hard difficulty whatever its called already lost at level 1 once, learned from that, still tossing up whether i multi class as i intended or stick with it im not gonna look anything up in terms of classes, im actually enjoying that i know im probably fucking up somewhere and will have to deal with it later lesgo

I fell totally off the gaming train, so this in depth and beautiful review is wonderful

It's like when my family played Monopoly digitally for the first time. It was so much faster and less arguing.

This was a wonderful video! Very informative!

That ending! Hahahahaha. Thanks for the nice explanation. ^^

In Larian fashion, in about a year or maybe two, there will be a Baldur's Gate 3, Definitive edition where they not only fix the bugs of Act 3, they also add in all the cut content they didn't have time for like the Upper City and Avernus.

Really good vid to watch mate%!!! So many of our age group were totally addicted to these set of games!!!! Bioware were GODS back then!!! Lol

I liked the video before even watching because if Day9 is talking for 12 minutes about any subject it can't be anything short than great

Beautiful description, excellent analysis, and a GREAT ending. 11/10 clip make.

An incredibly detailed and fascinatingly accurate explanation.

I really appreciate the deep dive. Thank you.

Damn, this is some fresh Day[9] concentrate.

I'm glad someone else recognizes what a God-tier year for gaming 1998 was. Like kids these days don't even understand: Half Life, StarCraft, Homeworld... SO many amazing games were released that year.

You're still so good at talking. Been watching you since the dailies :)

Dude I enjoyed your SC2 content so so very much

Excellent answer to a seemingly innocuous but laden question!

that Tyranny name drop. damn near the best 2/3rds of a game I ever played. STILL mad it stopped just as it was about to hit the logical third act point.

Brings me back to the days of WTF is? from totalbiscuit, good times.

Trying to imagine the whiplash going from BG3 to Fallout 1

you know something is historic when the 'Computer' part is specified

It's great to finally have a game that feels like it was made during the golden age. No live service, no pay-to-win, no corporate bs - just a polished and fun game that you can tell the devs put their heart into.

PC RPGs: Leveling up is easy! Talent trees: Hold my 🍺

"What is Baulder's Gate?" ... Baulder's Gate is a safe space for Day9 to experience and play out his D&D dreams, without the risk of getting mired down in drama or controversies that could happen if he played with other streaming friends.

chat: quick innocuous question Day[9], taking a deep breath: "let me answer that..." love it :D very well done

Bro I just found this after getting home from work and sitting down to eat a sammy and some macaroni. I've never eaten in so much peace before. I could listen to this man explain the popularity of the genre for hours.

I love you Sean. Awesome stuff mate. Thanks for the decades and i mean decades of content.

"alright that's cool and all day9, but what is baldur's gate?"

Great example why Day[9] is a legend.

Icewind Dale broke me. There were multiple towns, with multiple buildings, each with multiple rooms, each containing multiple pieces of furniture, all of which had to be searched for multiple items. Then you needed to manage which of your multiple characters would equip the things you found in their multiple equipment slots. Then there were the multiple NPCS, with multiple dialogs, some of which contributed multiple clues to multiple quests.

Another GREAT balders gate-style game is 'Pathfinder: Kingmaker'. Highly recommended. It has excellent mods too that add tons of playable pathfinder classes, races and items into the game. Can build just about any kind of character and team. It even lets you toggle between real time and turned based combat with team AI! (just Realtime and unpause gets though the easy fights faster)

An excellent talk. Just one point, I feel that he could have noted that it was the first Pillars of Eternity game that brought back the classic rpg experience -- before the divinity -- original sin series.

Day9 great as always If anyone cares, Wasteland 2 and 3 are "true" sucessors do Fallout 2! Wasteland 1 is what originated Fallout even, way back in 1988! Highly recommend

Yeah, late 90s early 00s was amazing for games (and movies for that matter), but maybe it's related to me being a teen with an appetite for both things at the time. But oh boy was it fun seeing the PC games and hardware becoming better and better at record speeds.

Nailed it!

ah yes the history of game design and digital CRPGs began with...DIABLO... Not taking that bait.

Pls tell me there will be more gameplay highlights - as someone who can’t watch the streams, I stay subscribed just for the miraculous highlight every now and then

You've just witnessed the world record in drawn out stating "RP is very hard in computer games"!

What is Balder’s Gate, well kids it all happens when i met your father as a bear.

I’m an extremely casual gamer. But I like listening to people who witnessed gaming history. I’m more interested in story time than playing.

uncle sean with the lore!

I think there should be a footnote highlighting the strangeness that was the critical and audience love for Disco Elysium bringing attention back to the crpg genrr as an asymmetric rpg that was narrative first, systems second that made people excited just as this game was in early access. It felt like a lot of goodwill went to BG3 as a sort of, "You looking for your next great one of these? Here's one that's already playable and will be fully released before too long.".

Freaking awesome is what it is.

Mr plott. Great story telling. I wish I could get you a beer and burger and talk games. And 9 gate you

Growing up I couldn't appreciate OG fallout, but they're SO GOOD now! I think a lot of us gamers have grown up and have the maturity and focus to appreciate these games more. As a kid, I loved RPGs but I can't pretend I wasn't drawn to the flashing plasma and power armor of Halo and the satisfaction of dropping a Chopper Gunner in COD MW. Now, I live for hard number systems and play games like Zomboid and Civ, lol. You've been consistently on point with your game flavours my whole life

That thumbnail makes it ook like Day9 aged 30 years. I mean you can def imagine what hes going to look like when hes 50.

"What is Baldur's gate?" noun 1, A series of fantasy role playing games based in the Forgotten realms campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons. 2, The largest port city on the Sword Coast of Faerun

I can still remember the first time I played Shadow of Amn

I would highly recommend Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Now thats a literal translation of tabletop to PC game done right. 25 classes and over 160 subclasses.

It is the gate that Baldur owns.

I think the C in CRPG, should stand for custom now. You create a custom character through the character creator, dialog and discissions. That should result in a custom experience.

I'd say Larian wasn't really the one who brought cRPG to the masses. They just did it the most recently post-2020. The title belongs to Bioware with Mass Effect and Dragon Age in the sense that the emphasis was on the role playing. They just put a different, more action focused combat system on top of it. What people were starved for right now wasn't so much a D&D game, as much as it was a Bioware style RPG with fully voice acted and animated dialogues and cutscenes as well as a massively branching "play-your-way" story. For that matter, Baldur's Gate 2, even thought it's considered by many to be the best RPG of all time, was fairly overlooked at the time, because the early 2000's were all about 3D games. If a game wasn't 3D, it wasn't worth even looking at, sadly, unless that game is Diablo 2, which at least had a streamlined user experience. Infinite Engine games most certainly were anything but a streamlined experience, they still required you to read the manual.

As a game developer (and gamer) who loves larian's games, I'm extremely excited for AI because I think creating a truly fleshed out narrative with infinite possibilities could actually be possible using AI generated scenarios. The problem is that AI isn't advanced enough to make those scenarios interesting, but it might be possible during our lifetimes. Streamlined games are extremely easy to have coherent stories in by comparison because the options that the player gets doesn't matter. In many games, and even in Baldur's Gate 3, it's easy to see that many of the choices you make in dialog (through save-scumming, or just multiple playthroughs) don't matter. You sometimes get one extra line of dialogue, then it goes right back into the intended story. The illusion of choice. Unfortunately this is really the only way we can emulate this type of dynamic today, but again, AI might be able to change that in the future.

It was gloomhaven for me that got me into a dnd-ish style game for the first time

My first thought: "it's a city in Faerun"

As a 90's kid he explained this perfectly

"Take an hour to level up on a table top game" yeah freakin right. Even in 5e I would END a sessions informing players to level up in their own time and be prepared BEFORE the next sessions and always someone would come back without doing the work and end up spending half the session trying to go from level 5 to 6.

My friends take 1 hour picking 1 trait and sometimes they get multiple per level up :D.

The gems in the streams... nailed it.

Sean has a new webcam? Or is it just a different light setup?