Asmongold TV - Baldur's Gate 3 Is Proof That We're In a Golden Age for RPGs | Asmongold Reacts | Asmongold

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

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Baldr's Gate 3 is proof that we're in a golden age of RPGs. In early August, Larian Studios released Baldersgate 3 after a lengthy period in early access. It quickly became one of 2023's breakout successes, garnering rave reviews, and hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam. To some observers, it seemed like an upset that an unapologetically dense in old-school RPG like Balders Gate 3 should find such mainstream success. I actually don't think it has anything to do with the RPG I think it has to do with the scope of what you can do.

I think, though, Baldersgate 3 is more proof that we're in the midst of a new golden age for one of gaming's oldest genres. I don't think so. I actually, I think that people love RPGs, but the reason why Baldersgate 3 is so successful is because it's a fundamentally good game. It's the same reason why, for example, Street Fighter 6 is very successful. Because before Street Fighter 6, I feel like fighting games really successful. weren't very popular for a while. But Street Fighter 6 comes out and it just blows everything outside of the water and now people are really excited about fighting games again. That's how I think things go. Is it if a good game comes out, there are a lot of people that will try to play it.

Bad Take Asma revitalizes the game. Are we really going to pretend that Street Fighters, I feel like this is my perspective, okay? I feel like Street Fighter 6 has had a much bigger splash in like general gaming than any other fighting game in probably the last five or ten years. It has been massively fucking popular. Led by Studio. Smash. Smash isn't a fighting game. It's not a,

it's a fighting game, it is, but it's not a traditional fighting game like Tekken, Soul Calibur, um, street fighter, Tekin, etc.

It's not the same thing. It's like CD Project from software, Bethesda, and now Larion Studios, the role-playing genre has lately managed to infiltrate virtually every part of the gaming consciousness. Baldur's Gate 3 and Diablo 4 are 2 of 2023's biggest games. Xbox is seen fit to acquire no fewer than three dedicated RPG developers

in In Exile Entertainment, Obsidian, and Bethesda with Blizzard potentially on the way. The Lords of Hell are coming to devour our world. Even games that have next to nothing to do with RPGs can't resist borrowing from the genre in order to bolster the gameplay bonafides a bit. Developers I've spoken with have ascribed the genre's success to the rise of streaming, pointing out how the variety of outcomes... I think streaming is a huge factor, and streaming games,

like, there are some games that get completely made by YouTube videos or by streams. I think a really good example of this is Among Us. Among us is massive, and the reason why it's massive, is because people started streaming it. And then more people streamed it and more people streamed. Yeah, soda. Right? And Fall Guys is another one.

Only Up. Vampire Survivors. Lots of these games happen. And they blow up because of streaming. That's why these companies pay streamers like $50,000 an hour to play a video game. It's because sometimes it pays off. In any given RPG makes for good content. Others point to the way that World of Warcraft mainstreamed color-coded loot making it easier for players to step into more complicated experiences.

One way or another, though, we seem to have entered a unique period for RPGs, one I wouldn't have predicted a decade ago. Back in 2014, I interviewed Obsidian Entertainment Director Josh Sawyer about Pillars of Eternity, a then-upcoming revival of the isometric RPG subgenre that had been greenlit as part of the first wave of Kickstarter projects. Sawyer recalled the chilly reception afforded PC RPGs in the mid to late 2000s. Isometric RPGs just died for a very long time, Sawyer said at the time. The consensus in that period among Western publishers was that old school RPGs were too dense and esoteric for the average gamer.

Mainstream developers... It's also, I think, because the scope of them was not interesting. Like, I think the reason why Baldersgate 3 is compelling for people is because you can fuck the characters, kick squirrels, and fuck bears. You can do whatever you want in the game. That's why it's interesting. Like BioWare stripped out RPG elements from Mass Effect 3, while older developers simply faded away. Some developers claimed that RPG elements, as we know them today,

were relics of a bygone era and that genres were growing up. It wasn't until the advent of Kickstarter that classics like Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2, and Shadow Run began to find their footing, thanks to the backing of dedicated fans who never really went away. Out of this period arose another developer, little known at the time, but making major waves today, Larian Studios. I had no idea that Divinity was actually a Kickstarter. That's crazy. As someone who's been writing and podcasting about RPGs since 2009, I can't point to any one turning point, but I will say that things have felt different since The Witcher 3 made it big in 2015.

Yeah, we're probably agree with that. Yeah. Prior to the Witcher 3's release, CD Project Red was perceived in the U.S. at least as a cult developer that focused on niche RPG experiences. Yeah. It blew up in part. Was it a big turning point? Yeah, I think this one was fucking huge, man. Like, of course.

I mean, everybody knows The Witcher. Because it was released on consoles as well as PC, going on to sell a staggering 60 million copies. The Witcher 3 strengths are well documented. It was huge, bigger than almost any open world game at that time. And it was beautiful. It was a choice-driven experience with a multitude of memorable and multi-layered side quests. Most important of all, it tapped into the hunger for a deeper open-world experience that was on offer at the time. That girl was such a thought.

I read about what happened in the game. What a thought. Wow. That's true. Players didn't just want to roam a beautifully realized fantasy world. They wanted to be part of it. It's an experience embedded deep in the role-playing genre's DNA. As far back as the 1980s, RPGs were striving to create a sense of total immersion through fully reactive worlds.

Ultima 4 featured a free-roaming choice-driven experience that in hindsight felt far ahead of its time. Later, Bethesda would try and capture that same type of a free-roaming experience with its own games before finally breaking out with Skyrim. Another highly influential RPG, often spoken of in the same breath as The Witcher 3. Yeah, I would say even Skyrim is probably, I would say like it might be more influential than The Witcher. Because like Skyrim came out in like 2011 and people are still playing it. And also like you've got to keep in mind that Skyrim, like Oblivion, which is the game that came

before that, Oblivion was really popular too. But it's like Skyrim just took it to a completely new level. And Marowind was well known too, yeah. This is where I quit. Yeah, I quit the game here. I said this shit's taken too long, I'm tired. And one that has now been officially released on basically every platform ever. Along with Dark Souls and a handful of others,

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Skyrim and The Witcher 3 are two of the most influential games of the past decade. Since then, we've seen a remarkable explosion of RPGs of all types. Avant-garde experiences like Disco Elysium have driven the genre forward, while Fire Emblem 3 Houses has proven that term-based tactics RPGs still have a big audience on platforms like the Nintendo Switch. One thing that makes turn-based games good is that you don't have to have any level of dexterity whenever you're playing them. So, like, if you're a 31-year-old boomer and your hands don't work anymore,

well it's okay because you can play a turn-based game and you're still a winner yeah it's all strategy yep strategy and finder wrath of the righteous yakuza like a dragon elden ring final fantasy 14 and path of exile have all found creative and financial success of their own elsewhere the likes of genchin impact and honkai star rail continue to be big business i think that's why by the way people are interested though like it's like you have a lot this too. I think also like a big factor is I think anime has gotten way more popular in like the last five or 10 years. And I think that that type of genre of anime stuff has also gotten way more popular. So like in the different way that like people are more willing to consume content for like

anime about stuff like this, they'd be more willing to play games like this too. It's becoming mainstream now? Yeah, exactly. RPGs fit well into what I might call gaming social media era. Despite their focus on single player, they practically beg you to share your characters and choices with your friends in the world. Oh yeah. They feel meaty and worthwhile in a world of $70 games. Filled with secrets and lore that can fill pages and pages of wikis. By the way, check out IGN.com's wonderful guys on Baldr's Gate 3.

And oh, they're horny. So very, very horny. And that's, again, going back to Genshin-Enpacked and Honkai Star Rail. Iron Blum Three Houses alone yields some 44,000 matches an archive of our own, a popular fan fiction site. In a medium where success is so often dictated by how thirsty players are for any given romantic pairing, RPGs are king. Baldersgate 3 is in some ways the embodiment of all these trends, and in other ways, it's a unicorn. It has the type of densely written, choice-driven quests that made The Witcher 3 so popular, and it's horny to boot. It prizes open world exploration, and it's the most beautifully presented big budget isometric

RPG since Dragon Age Origins. Crucially, though, it's not an open world action adventure game like so many of the other games I've mentioned to this point. Baldur Skate 3 is a classical RPG in the truest sense of the word, an adventure built firmly. Yeah, I mean, this is like basically, I remember games like this were super popular in like 2001 and stuff. 2002. There were so many of these games.

on the genre bedrock of Dungeons and Dragons. Circana analyst Matt Piscitella notes that most CRPGs, even big successes like Divinity Original Sin 2, have to work hard to crack the list of the top 50 best-selling games. Clearly, Baldersgate 3 has broken into the mainstream in a way that no other CRPG recently has. Even when titles like Baldersgate 2 follow-out and Never Winter Nights were a bigger part of the gaming landscape, I'm not sure we saw a breakout quite like this, at least so far.

I think there's also like clearly a cultural element of it too where people are saying like, well, you know, we're tired of battle passes and micro transactions. So a game comes out and it doesn't have that. I think that has like an intrinsic value for itself. It's the same reason why I think vampire survivors was partially popular. It's because it was a cheap game. It was simple and that's it.

Ella told me over email. But given the expansion of the video... I'm not saying that's the reason, but it's a component. Game markets since then and how popular other genres have become, it's refreshing to see a game like this get this kind of adoption and play. As you place your hand on the pod, you hear something. Her presence connected to the pod, commanding the person inside to change. It's fascinating to watch a game like Baldr's Gate 3 find genuine mainstream success.

I expected it to do well, but when I hear even non-gamers, what Baldur's Gate is all about, I have to sit up and take notice. Could this game have even been made in 2011? I'm not sure. I see it as a natural continuation of the shift that began a decade ago, where Indies crowdfunded games and some Japanese studios started pushing for experiences different

from the BioWare in Bethesda formats that dominated the 2000s, Muses Filippe Pepe, author of the CRC... Well, it's because they're more... Like, they're more unique. I think one of the big problems with like Western gaming is like it's not like woke stuff

or anything like that it's about things being extremely formulaic and I think people just get tired of that because if people can realize that they're inside of a formula there's like a degree of escapism that's removed like you no longer feel like you're part of a fantasy universe

if you can predict what's going to happen based off of what other games you played that are the same PG book Dark Souls XCOM banner saga FTL Shadow Legend of Grim Rock, Darkest Dungeon, and many others helped expand the horizons of what RPGs could be. Obsidians Josh Sawyer mentioned how Divinity Original Sin convinced them to put turn-based combat into pillars of eternity too. It's a conversation.

I don't think you could have successfully released Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleefer, or Balders Gate 3 back in 2011. I think also like back then being able to have a game that played like Dark Soul, was impressive and amazing on its own. Like, I think that you have to keep in mind that in, like, 2005, most computer games were fucking garbage. Same as in 2008. Most computer games sucked. Like, they didn't play well. The graphics were bad.

They weren't programmed properly. They were just shitty games. So, yeah. I think that, like, of course, back then, like, there was a value that was attached to just simply having a working game that plays like Dark Souls. But now people are more used to that. Wow was good? Yeah, Wow was good.

And that's why it dominated the market. That's a good example. That's what I'm saying. Is that wow was so good that I think that like one of the big reasons why Wow dominated the market for games is because of how well it played. It was massive.

Certain zeitgeist is necessary. However we got here, Balders Gate 3 seems like the sure is sign yet that RPGs are having a moment. Rarely has the genre felt this vibrant, this ambitious, this diverse. Baldur's Gate 3 is as old school as a CRPG can get, but it's also much more than a nostalgia play. And with so many great studios at the peak of their powers, it seems as if the best is yet to come. When the screaming stops and your mind is gone, the rest perhaps is...

For more on Balders Gate 3, check out our review currently in progress. And for everything you need to know about the rest of the video game world, stick with IGN. Does Squarespaceoft dominated JRP's 2? Well, yeah, of course it did. I mean, like, that's what I'm saying is that I think people want games that feel immersive and give escapism. And the more that games don't give escapism or anything like that, and the more that they're built around like battle passes and other things like that, not all games need to give escapism,

but the games that do give escapism have like that extra value. And I think that's what people want out of an RPG. People don't want a, like they don't want a battle pass in a game like Balders Gate. People don't really care about a battle pass in like Call of Duty as much because it's a completely different design.

But in a game where you're supposed to be part of like a completely different world and be separated from like the real world, I think that it matters a lot more whenever you have those real life connections. Things like a bunch of menus, a bunch of like weird, like, oh, go do this, like, you know, modern gaming innovations,

stuff like that. The immersion's really fucking good. Yeah, immersion matters a lot. People are looking for new experiences worth wasting their life over. Yeah, exactly. IGN's done good videos lately. Yeah, I think this was a good video.

Absolutely.