Get Played - We Play, You Play: Baldur's Gate 3

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Matt, Heather and Nick talk all about Baldur's Gate 3. They talk about its impact on the future of gaming, minor frustrations, their wildly different play styles and more. ENDING SPOILERS BEGIN AT 2:13:00 Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. Check out our Anime watch-along podcast Get Anime'd and our complete Get Played, How Did This Get Played? and Premium DLC back catalogue only on patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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for sponsoring the podcast. Uh, guys, I think breaking into the Hells was a really bad idea. I think we should just get out of here. Uh, Raphael's gonna find out, he's gonna be really mad, so I think we should just go. Uh, Raphael's gonna be really mad. Ah, you to be really mad. So I think we should just go. Raphael's going to be really mad. You sound like a baby. You're a fucking baby, you baby.

Yeah. Yeah. Why are you scared of this place? What are you? You got your little panties like stuck up in the crack of your butt and you're like prancing around and you're like, oh, no, I'm scared. Nick, that's not how you wear panties. You're supposed to put them around your body, not up your crack. Yeah, you're like a piece of wet string cheese. I mean, so what if I am, all right?

This is scary. This is the worst place across all the planes. I mean, there's all these spirits here of the damned that are trapped, that are condemned. I don't want to be turned into a rat and have to live here for all eternity. Yeah, no shit. There's spirits everywhere, man. It's the fucking hells, dude. Okay? Yeah. What else is want to be turned into a rat and have to live here for all eternity i had no shit there's spirits everywhere man it's the fucking hells dude okay yeah what else is supposed to be down here well there's these crates what's in these crates we got crates to break we got stools to smash what is this a candelabra this place is dumb everything's dumb this place sucks

the hell sucks the hell sucks and so do you nick yeah you suck too you're right The hell sucks. The hell sucks, and so do you, Nick. Yeah, you suck, too. Sweats is the hell. You're right. The hell sucks. We should leave. We don't need to grab the gauntlets of a hill giant strength. We can just leave those there. We don't need to worry about that Orphic Hammer.

Just forget about it. I'm going to grab that Orphic Hammer. No. I'm going to grab those. No. What is that other thing you said? Gauntlets of hill giant strength. Shorts of oblivion?

I'll grab that shit. I'll give a fuck about any of this. I'm gonna steal so much shit down here. Please, we gotta get out of the vault. We gotta go. We just gotta leave right now. Look at me. I'm encumbered. I'm encumbered. I can't walk. I can't walk.

I really feel like something bad is going to happen. I really feel like there are going to be consequences. Oh, you think we're going to get in trouble for stealing down in the house? Shut up. Maybe if I shit long enough, I'll be unencumbered. Am I right? Maybe I should shit here in the path. Why don't we just go down this dumb hallway and see what's down this dumb hallway?

Yeah, probably a bunch of dumb hallway stuff down here in this dumb hallway. Oh, fuck. Oh, my God. Oh, fuck. This is so bad. This is so, so bad. Oh, God. Oh, no, no.

I told you we're in so much trouble. Wait, what's happening here? What is this? Oh, no. Oh, we're in so much trouble. Oh, my God. Oh, I're in so much trouble. Oh, my God. Oh, I'm regretting all of my choices. I was just kidding earlier.

It doesn't suck down here, actually. It's really good. I can't drop enough stuff. I'm still in comfort. I can't get away. Oh, my God. We actually weren't stealing. We were just actually going to clean it off.

I was going to lick off all the dust and gunk and shit. Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. I think dust and gunk and shit. Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. I think there might be a way out. Wait, let's go down over here. Oh, okay, okay. I'm working as a man. This way, this way. There's a portal here. Let's just go through this portal. Oh, thank God.

Okay, okay. I think we're safe now. I think we're away from that. That was a close call. You were right, Nick. That was a bad idea. We shouldn't have done that. Yeah, that was a terrible idea. I got to get this stool out of my pocket. I got to drop all these books.

Yeah, you're carrying a lot of just like corpses. You should probably drop those too. I got to get rid of these corpses. Your inventory is insane. I can keep this like one severed hand, right? Yeah, sure. Fine. Whatever.

It's a quest dynamite let's go 350 bones here let's just let's just go through this door i think we'll be safe in here okay here we go we'll just go go into here i think we'll be safe in here Oh, fuck. Oh, no! Oh, my God. No! Guys, the door is locked. The door is locked.

We should get out. No! We let a vampire spawn give us just a nibble and retrieve a clown's dismembered corpse as we play You Play My Favorite Game, Baldur's Gate 3, this week on get played so Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca.

Hello, everyone. here with our third host, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Premiere Video Game Podcast, where this week, we've played a game, and you've played a game, and Nick has played the game more than most people alive. It's Baldur's Gate 3 week, here on the We Play, You Play episode of Get Played. Yeah, we're going to be talking about this game at length. I mean,'s it's i guess i could just say now like i'm nervous because i'm just like i didn't want to over prep for this episode because i do love this game and i do want to do it justice but i also like don't want to forget anything you know that feeling like it's always harder to talk about something you like i feel like versus

something you don't like yeah and but also like i think there's like a there's a pretty good understanding of like how the game works like amongst the listeners and like people playing it so like i think there's there should be an understanding that there's no way there's just absolutely no way you could talk about everything there's it would be impossible yeah it's impossible to be truly comprehensive uh about this experience and then also just the other thing is so much has been said by this point, by so many people. Yeah. We've talked about it every week for two months.

Well, I do think that this is a good opportunity to sort of recap the stuff that we've been talking about. Cause I I'm sure this might be like, people might be like, Oh wow. Baldur's gate. I'll click on this.

I love listening to my favorite game, be discussed by these three strangers right and uh we've had very very different playthroughs nick's had more than one playthrough that's true so um i'm sure we've got stuff to talk about yeah we'll have more than enough to talk about uh there's something else to talk about is rochelle, our producer, is out today. Doughboy's MVP, Emma Erdbrink, is our in-studio engineer. Hi, Emma. Hi. Emma, so we've already recorded this, but it's coming out later.

You also, because Rochelle was out, engineered our Get Animated Pluto series finale. Yeah. So you are. Which you guys loved. You are witnessing. People here. So, yes, you are. You guys loved you are witnessing. You are witnessing or I guess having to endure two lengthy, detailed conversations about topics you have no understanding. You know, it's fascinating. Maybe it'll get me to play.

And also, Jamie is over here. Jamie, the dog. Great dog. And Jamie sort of sitting on the concrete floor. And I think we'll soon realize that it's not as good as sitting maybe next to a good new friend. Yeah, you have a snuggable spot. I don't know why she's hiding in the corner today, but she is. There's a snuggable spot on Matt Apodaca's chair that Jemmy is staying away from.

It'll happen. My own dog won't sit next to me. It's true. My dog, you know, dogs choose a favorite. And my dog has chosen my wife as her favorite dog or dog owner. Her favorite dog owner is my wife. So when Mary is not around, my dog will sit across the room and look at me like it's judging me and i'm like you live with me um yeah it's really it's it's tough it's tough being

rejected by a dog i don't think there's anything more emotional yeah yeah doesn't it make you want a potion of animal speaking so you can get into their heads not yet nick not yet we have to talk about other stuff for example i pray for the animal that you first have to talk to hey buddy it's me weiger oh god yeah i understand you played You played Baldur's Gate? We should, yeah, we have other things to talk about. Which is, first off, I think we can, we can, we're recording this on the day that the new Elden Ring DLC trailer came out. We've all watched that. Can I say that I was surprised by my emotional response to that trailer, which was similar to medical trauma.

I was like, oh God, it's this place. Like it wasn't like, I didn't have the feeling that I thought I was going to have like, oh, I can't wait to fuck these guys up. Because like the truth is as much as I love, a game is so fucking good. It's so good. And I really enjoyed my build. I felt supremely seen by my own build of my own character, like wearing that shit armor and carrying a bunch of horrible swords.

Yeah. But it was still so much work. It's a stressful game to inch your way through. And seeing those faces and those nightmare spaces, I was like, oh, God, that guy's wearing a mask, and he's on the back of a dog that's got a lion head on it, and it's throwing fire. I don't want to see that guy.

I don't want to get in there, but I think I might get in there. We'll see. I'm for sure going to get in there. My reactions were, wow, it's Elden Ring. I love Elden Ring. And also, what the fuck is all this? This is crazy. And then I was just like, was the game like this before?

So many of the new creatures and bosses they showed were like so yucky looking to me. But I guess, I mean, it was yucky. Games, yucky. Oh, yeah. It's a yucky environment. Yeah. Wasn't Elden Ring that had the like giant made out of sewage in the forest? Mm.

I can't. Some games I get confused with. Other games when I'm like uncomfortable and have to kill. That sounds like that. Right. That sounds like it could have been an Elden ring or like a story from your childhood.

I, I, I, the thing that I worry about is, um, the muscle memory. Cause I know it's not there for a game like that. I have to get,

I have to get back in there before June when the DLC drops so I can re-familiarize myself with the UI, with the controls, with all of it, so I can just know what I'm doing when I get back in there. I don't want to be a fool in front of the shadow of the Erdtree. No, I got to do the same. So I guess I'll have to finish up my fourth Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough before then you'll have to one finish Elden Ring first and that's true that's a great point

no well like Heather was saying it's like and and I honestly felt the same thing with BG3 of like at a certain point it becomes an obligation yes at a certain point it like requires willpower to force yourself through to the end game And you know that that as much as I loved Elden Ring as much as I enjoyed the to the 100-plus hours I put into that game at a certain point I was just like I've I've got I've got it step away from this But I owe it to myself to go back to it and finish it It's uh I think about it a lot actually every time i'm in between games i'm like should i dust off elden ring now i have an excuse to do it yeah because dlc is uh just only a few months away

you know but i i will be i'll be getting in there and reporting back for sure speaking of news here in the in a in a there's like news segment that we've never done but we're doing right now nintendo announced mother 3 for the switch online in japan which and they also announced like plush figures from the game and let me tell you nothing feels like more of a slap in the face than a celebrated re-release of a game they've never, ever bothered to bring here. And as if it wasn't enough, bringing out merch for that game feels like they know that it's lovable enough that people will want it in their space. And yet it is not, it's still not here. I know you guys have copies because I bought them for you and I think you threw them away.

Mine's in my analog pocket currently, actually. Most people don't get a chance to play it. And I'm, I'm frustrated. The other news article item that I wanted to bring up was that in my favorite current game, Fortnite, which isn't my favorite game of all time, but my favorite current game. They just announced that Lady Gaga is going to like a single shoulder uh piece of armor that

kind of evokes cloud and i feel like her her outfit overall doesn't evoke cloud but there's there's enough of it that i'm like is it is it like a like a like a little bit of a wink? And then that brings me to my personal news, which is that last week on the show, we watched Advent Children. That's right. For our episode release. And I got so Final Fantasy pilled that I bought Cloud's sweater. Wow. Look at that thing.

It's like it's his sweater. And it looks, when I put it on, I feel like I'm Cloud. Wow. Look at that thing. can wear it out i don't think anybody i mean people might be like oh it's it's cloud adjacent but it is it's clouds actual cording you know i'm glad that people exist who were like oh i want that sweater because then i can be like oh i want to buy it so i bought cloud sweater it's it's cosplay that you can uh pass off as something else. Functional. Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be great. I think when you're first back in studio, just come full cloud. Buster sword and all.

You have time to get a buster sword between now and then. I'll just walk down Sunset Boulevard from wherever I've parked as full cloud. Yeah, the sword magnetized to your back. Yeah, people who know me in the neighborhood will just be like, oh,ather what's up oh it's happening today huh all right was there something on the news that i missed oh i'll go home see ya yeah but i know that i'm safe because I guess Heather's on it.

Do we ever talk about on the podcast how like a guy in Italian parliament during like a government meeting accidentally shared like Tifa hentai? Do you remember that? Yeah, I do. Did that ever come up? I don't know if we ever talked about this one. The craziest news stories the the thing was that it was so adjacent to what you do to us on a daily basis that i don't feel like it was comment really news and it's also like of the news it's it's it is crazy it in a day became the least crazy like you know what i mean

like whatever the next thing was was like moved on so mean like it would be one i mean because it's i don't know people that people have access to things in a way that they didn't used to right it would be crazier if it was like george hw bush sharing tifa hentai like that's crazier to me sure like a new guy yeah because i guess you get that's the thing it was just like you can be of the age where like yeah you just know what hentai is and where to get it yeah and you would just be like but you'd also wear a person who holds a seat in like a uh as like a fascist member of italian parliament yeah yeah like uh god aoc plays like runescape or something or one of those types of games. And like that would have been so wild and crazy to me.

And now I'm just like, oh, yeah, like you got to, I guess, pass some time, you know, when you're on the floor during a filibuster or something. Do what you got to do. Or was it League of Legends or maybe it's both? League of Legends. I think it's what it was. Yeah. Future guest AOC. Oh, yeah.

And then there's that congressman who went to who went to prison because he was using campaign funds to buy things from the Steam store. Do you remember that? See, it's like you have to sort of take the good with the bad, right? Obviously, like one shoe, the world is bad. But then a congressman goes to prison for using funds to buy stuff at a Steam store. That's really funny. It's very funny. Gives a tearful apology at a steam store that's really funny it's very funny gives a tearful apology apology at a news conference yeah i'm sorry i bought honey pot with uh all the dlc all the

extra skins we we could watch because there is another news item that came out this morning as of record which is that borderlands based on the game of the same name, received a trailer. And I don't think any of us have seen it. We could watch it live and provide our feelings. Or we could skip it because none of us care about that game. Let's skip it for the interest of time. Yeah, I think Nick really wants to talk about

Baldur's Gate 3 for some reason. But we should talk about some other video games we're playing. It's time for What Are You Playing? You know, my New Year's resolution is to cut back on sugar and add more protein to my diet and stay on track with my fitness goals. And Magic Spoon makes that easier and more delicious than ever. Growing up, cereal is one of the best parts of being a kid. But as I got older, I had to watch out for sugar and empty carbs. And boy, let me tell you, I love cereal. So Magic Spoon has the amazing flavors you love, but high protein and less sugar.

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Wow. It's me, the Resident Evil merchant. That's coming in hot. That sounded like it hurt. What? That sounded like it hurt. Talking? Yeah, it does.

I'm here. I'm from the game Resident Evil 4, where I normally ask, what are you buying? But I got fired from that game and have been on eggshells here at Get Played as my follow-up job. But I come in every week. I am here every week every week right i've never missed an episode i think you missed like the last like three weeks yeah you actually miss episodes all the time i would say it's probably it's probably 60 40 you're not here yeah versus when you actually show up a lot of no call no show right i was locked in a gas station bathroom and lost track of time so i can see how i might have missed a few weeks honestly it was um those locked from the inside huh those locked from the

inside did you not figure out how to do the way they locked me in there okay from the outside they moved an ice machine in front of the door. Got it, yeah. Yeah, so I was in sort of like a solitary confinement drinking toilet water for a few weeks. The sink wasn't working? You went straight to drink the toilet water? Sink? Where?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Resident Evil. Okay, so let me describe what's in the bathroom to you, and maybe you can point out what item is the sink. Okay. So there's, like, toilets, which we all know. Yeah, of course. And then on the opposite wall, there was, like, a little hand towel. And then, like, a little microphone I couldn't figure out how to work.

And like a, it was like a. Microphone? Yeah, like a little silver microphone. That's probably is the nozzle, the faucet for the sink where you can, you know, wash your hands after you use the bathroom. Okay, I thought the toilet was an all-purpose water source. Okay, I thought the toilet was an all-purpose water source. Okay, so you're using the toilet, flushing it, and then rinsing your hands off in the toilet bowl.

That's extremely unsanitary. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's unsanitary if the toilet is not clean and if you're doing it with toilet stuff in the toilet, but I do want to point out that the water in the toilet is no different than any other water. Except that it's sitting in a place that also houses people's piss and shit. Yeah, it's not ideal. Yeah. I would drink from the top.

The top is a different story. You drink from the top, right? Yeah, you're going from the tank at least? No, this one didn't have a tank. It was one of those straight out of the wall types. Yeah, right. Those industrial toilets. That makes sense.

Yeah. Anyway, sorry I missed a few weeks. And also, I apologize for having lost track of time. But I'm here to ask you the question. What are you playing? I'm just glad you're okay is the headline for me. Yeah, and considering that you were drinking from the bowl of the toilet, you seem to be doing pretty well.

It's utterly revolting, by the way, having to listen to all that. It's just disgusting. I ate a couple of napkins. Not as bad. Hurts. Hurts to do it. Yeah, it seems like it does. That would hurt.

You didn't have like a loose like black bass in your trench coat or something like that that you were going to sell later? I was out. I had one green herb, one red herb. Okay, you can make a little something there. Yeah, I wasn't injured. Like what am I going to just like, you don't eat Neosporin when you're hungry. No, that's a great point.

Now I look stupid. You're right. Yeah, you do. Medicine is not food. It's not. I'm sick of having to repeat this over and over again. Medicine is not food. I'm the dumb one here.

Nobody's dumb. We don't judge here. We don't judge on get played but i what no i like i like the energy just coming out is very hot i am hot i'm i've been i've been stuck you know it's a small space yeah uh they uh they condemned the building which is the only reason i got out uh so wait i already asked you you already asked what are you playing what are you playing i derailed us i apologize i do actually have an answer here something other than baldur's gate three i've been messing around with a game that's an early access is from developer fun day games deep rock galactic survivor now you may know

deep rock galactic you may play deep rock galactic because this is this beloved uh co-op fps that people keep recommending to me that i've never actually played either of you have messed around with deep rock galactic i have not no no no i think it's a game that three of us could probably hop on and all play together and have just like the time of our lives from what i've heard of it it's it's people people love this game uh this is a spin-off game that is a vampire survivors like in the same universe uh so it is a bullet heaven game but with a completely different aesthetic to vampire survivors which is like you know this this this 8-bit pixel art that i find very appealing um but this is a 3d engine uh and it's running at 60 fps and at least that's what i'm running it as uh and it's it's really pretty it's it's just a it's

a gorgeous rendition of this type of gameplay um there are two gameplay differences versus vampire or a few gameplay differences more than two uh the vampire survivors based off of my time with the game uh first off there is a there is a much bigger emphasis on resource collection there are like when you kill enemies they're still like the the orbs that are dispensed that you pick up to gain levels that's that's mechanically the same but there is also like mining is a strong element like you're going around with a pick and you're mining resources and then related to that uh you know because kiting enemies is such a big part of these games like directing the the mob to with a pick and your mining resources. And then related to that, you know, because kiting enemies is such a big part of these games,

like directing the mob to where you want them to go so you can stay safe and survive and hit them with as many bullets as possible. You can carve like paths through rock. And, you know, obviously your movement is slower while you're mining, but you can, but like,

I found it really engaging to be like, oh, okay, I can kind of carve this sort of circuitous you know path through here this little like roundabout loop uh the mobs will follow me through this and as such i can kind of like gain ground on them um and also uh you know find a way to i could just basically kite them exactly where i want them to go um and uh that's really. And also it has discrete levels, you know, with a boss fight at the end of them. And then an escape pod arrives

and you've got to flee to the escape pod before the timer is up. So that gives you a little bit of an extra thing of like, first off, I've got this big, this big heavy I've got to take down. Again, the thing is

it's in Vampire Survivors, but it's represented a different way here. And then after I do that, like how I'm going to grab as many resources I can within the 30 seconds before I get back to my pod or else I'm trapped there and I fail my run. I've seen some complaints in the user reviews about the progression feeling flat, which if I spent more time with the game, maybe I would feel the same thing. But I do think it's very fun as is.

And also, given the pedigree of this developer and that this is in early access yeah i think this is going to be awesome when it ships like that's the sense i get if like that's the sort of thing they'll figure out they'll figure out how to not not make it feel flat um how to make it feel like you know uh have life as you're spending more and more time with it um or or feel like it's it's sustaining itself uh you know, beyond just those initial few hours of gameplay. So yeah, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, I've really enjoyed my time with it so far. That sounds great. Yeah, I think Deep Rock Galactic was like a PlayStation Plus game at one point,

and I probably have it in my library because of that. But I'll have to check that out because the vampire survivors like of it all is more appealing to me, I think. Yes, it's a fun iteration on that. The one thing is, and Heather, I know you didn't respond to vampire survivors as much as we did, but as I was playing this, I was like, Heather would hate the quips in this game.

Because it's like Scottish dwarves going like, you know, oh, it's just a flesh wound. It's like that sort of stuff. And I'm just like, oh, man, these would bother Heather so much. There's a bunch of things that are on a T-shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's fun and charming,

but that's what I've been playing. Here's what I love about games is that we don't have to like the same things, but we can like games together, and that's what i've been playing here's what i love about games is that we don't have to like the same things but we can like games together and that's cool it's a great point when our likes overlap it's really fun um but yeah that doesn't sound like i'll be trying it out uh matt what are you playing um i'm back in um resident not resident evil excuse me um no that was a mistake it It was an absolute mistake. I apologize.

I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I meant to say Final Fantasy. He sprinted in here. Yeah, that was crazy. I don't know where he came from. I'm sweating. It was like he had been running.

Do you know what I mean? It wasn't a fresh sprint. It didn't start right sprint. It was like, it didn't start right outside. It was like, he came from far. I was at McDonald's. The one down the street,

you know, it's like a, just, it's down the street from the studio. Yeah. That's a good McDonald's. I've been there.

Yeah. It's a consistent McDonald's. The fish filet is the only weapon item. The only item on the McDonald's. Do you know that the fish filet is the only weapon item, the only item on the McDonald's menu with a steamed bun? That's interesting. There's a special drawer for it.

Yeah. Yeah. I've never had one. They have a special equipment just for the fish filet bun, which is gently steamed. You know, that's Trump's favorite McDonald's menu item is the fish filet, which he calls the fish delight. I personally like that drawer because I hate Trump, by the way. Wow, he's a shock hunter.

Other than that, I'm apolitical. You know, I don't think they're all. All right. I just don't like Trump. There's something about him Anyway I really like the fish fillet drawer At McDonald's because it's an excellent Place to clean your clothes

At night after The shop is closed That sucks to hear It's a steam cleaner You're wadding up A 3XL trench coat And putting it into A fist size alcove and steaming it? It's not getting cleaned.

No, it's a drawer. Oh, it's a drawer. Okay, got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should watch the TikTok. It's fascinating. I don't need to see the behind-the-scenes at fast food. Stop making TikToks about it.

I'm done. I don't need to see it i say keep them coming matt you were saying you're playing rather evil no i meant to say i'm playing final fantasy 7 remake i'm back on it after taking a uh a couple weeks off for uh balder's gate i knew i couldn't juggle both right um right? But by the time this comes out, we'll be only days away from Rebirth, and hopefully I'll be finished by then. Right now I'm on Chapter 13.

Wow. I know that there are 18 chapters in it. Yeah, you're close. I'm getting close. So that's going to be sort of my weekend homework. But I'm still really, really enjoying it. Something that I haven't talked about that I really, really enjoying it. Something that I haven't talked about that I really, really like in the game

is sometimes you'll be in an area where you haven't been, and you'll see a little alert of sorts that's three question marks and the music symbol, and you're like, I gotta find where they're selling this piece of music that I haven't unlocked yet. Right. And then I go and I,

I purchased the song and then it says what it is. I'm like, it's the song from the game from before, but like a new version of it. And I just like doing that. I like trying to collect all those, all those things. I did look at my quest log and I realized that because I've progressed

further than, um, where these quests are, I accidentally failed two side quests. I'm a little upset, actually. That's a bummer. That did really make me upset because I was making it a point to do all of them as they popped up. Yeah. But I accidentally failed two. Yeah.

And I don't think I'll play this game again, right? Because I'll be playing the next one. Unless I do a, you know, finish Rebirth, and then by the time the third one comes out, I want to go through all three again. Right. But I don't see myself doing that, because that seems insane.

But I really like, I just really love it, and I love, I like buying stuff for the other party members. Like, I'll buy stuff, I'll prioritize Cloud, because I use Cloud the other party members. I'll buy stuff. I'll prioritize Cloud because I use Cloud the most. Sure. And I know you can switch between the party members. I don't do it that much, though. I really kind of just like playing as Cloud.

He has the best moves, I think. Shooting as Barret is fun. Punching as Tifa is cool. And using magic and stuff as Aerith is fun but Cloud's my guy he's the guy he is the guy I did what I and I'd forgotten about the music

they're CDs right yeah they're little CDs you buy little CDs of the tracks from the game that is a fun little sub game I found as especially as the combat got harder that switching between the characters frequently was like the

best way to play through that game but it does get a little dizzying yeah because like the camera does this like specific like pause but it shifts over to the other to their character and I do

I do like their move sets and I like you know hearing what they're saying when they're doing hitting and and things like that but I just I just love cloud cloud such a good I love his sword I love it one thing I think they they do really well in that game is they make the buster sword uh viable for the entire game like it's just like you start with it and then you can keep upgrading it and you can just use that and you can just look like Cloud with his famous sword the whole way through.

I love, yeah, no, I really, really love that. I've been thinking a lot about, though, while I've been playing this Final Fantasy. I've been thinking a lot about Final Fantasy 16. Right? Because I was the one on the show that loved Final Fantasy 16. That's right. Nick didn't complete it, didn't bounce off of it, didn't really love it. Heather completed it,

did not like it. Would go as far to say maybe hated it. Close. Close to hating it. It's funny that, I mean, and this is like, you know, I know that Final Fantasy often is like a different,

it's always a different thing. Right. The first maybe five or six maybe five are all closer to the same thing than they are different. They're different but they're closer to the same kind of thing I think.

Yeah the NES ones through the Super Nintendo ones I get what you're saying. Honestly I'd even say up through 9. They're all pretty. They shifted to 3D and they added a lot of, you know, more cinematics. But it's fundamentally the same sort of design carried through. 9 goes back to like the creature type, like, you know, more fantasy rather than guys wearing normal clothes. like you know more fantasy rather than yes guys wearing normal clothes right and then 16 comes along and is like game of thrones kind of like that type of thing i wonder i kind of want them

to go for 17 if they do 17 hope it's not an mmo first of all i would like them to go back to First of all, I would like them to go back to old school classes, right? Like, not just like a bunch of guys or like a guy with like a sword. Give me a fighter. Give me a give me a red mage. Give me a red mage. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I could say it'd be interesting to see them try to revive a job system, see what that was like.

Yeah, but I, you know, I'm loving it and I'm eagerly awaiting rebirth. I'm very, very excited. Heather, what are you playing? Have I talked on the show about Fortnite before? Because I've been playing that. I think it's come up. It's come up uh we only talk about ballers gate 3 did i tell you guys about the statistic that uh was shared with me about

how many people in the world wear the skin that i currently wear in the game no so i play as Ivor from Assassin's Creed Valhalla, previous all-star game of the Get Played podcast. And apparently only four people in the world wear that skin. How did you find this out? What? There are websites that track what skins are most used and least used. So you can find out how many people are actively at any given time like wearing that skin or using that skin um and there's very apparent nobody nobody's wearing

that skin uh which made me feel like a sense of ownership over it kind of like a gentle like oh yeah i'm ivor um previous to that i was rocking the uh t800 from terminator just that metal endoskeleton love that skin um i'm playing here we're gonna talk about you know balder's gate and i've been playing a lot of balur's Gate. And what's nice about these two games is they are extremely complementary energies. It is a metronome of like Twitch physics and like instant responses and then thoughtful, exploratory, curiosity-based gaming of Baldur's Gate. And so when I am like, it rained a lot on President's Day and I had the whole day off, which was really nice,

because I've been recovering and it was really great to just like be able to sit in a gaming space for an entire day and flipping between those two games was so great. Because you'd play, like, three rounds of Fortnite, and you'd be like, okay, I have a ton of energy, but I want to take a break from this. And then Baldur's Gate comes in as the perfect counter-programming

for that game. They're fantastic games to play against each other. But, yeah, the season is coming to a close on Fortnite. They're doing a Ninja Turtles collaboration, which is excellent. The Shredder skin is great. The only thing about the collab that doesn't quite land is the music. But you can enter into all the sewer systems in the game and you get to see Splinter. I don't know.

in the game and you get to see Splinter and I don't know it. They really do excellent work when it comes to collaborations in that metaverse IP. It's wonderful. So yeah, that's what I've been playing. And I'm looking forward to seeing what they bring out next season. But mostly I've been playing Baldur's Gate. Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy, you want to eat well, but you don't want it to be a pain to prepare. Well, let me tell you, eating better is easy with Factor's delicious ready-to-eat meals. Every fresh, never-frozen meal is chef-crafted, dietician-approved, and ready to go in just two minutes.

You'll have over 35 different options to choose from every week, including Calorie Smart, Protein Plus, and Keto. We'll see you next time. prep, no mess meals, so there's no prepping, cooking, or cleanup needed. Get as much or as little as you need by choosing your meals every week. Plus, you can pause or reschedule your deliveries anytime. We've done the math. Factor is less expensive than takeout, and every meal is dietitian-approved to be nutritious and delicious. What are you waiting for? Head to factormeals.com slash getplayed50 and use code getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code GETPLAYED50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. Well, let's get into it. It's time for our We Play, You Play of Baldur's Gate 3,

which was released on August 3rd of last year, 2023. Developed and published by Larian Studios, directed by its founder Sven Wienke. It's an independent Belgian studio known for the Divinity RPG franchise, if people are less familiar with Larian or didn't know them prior to this game. It was in development for six years and in early access for three years. And I found this article from the site is called Navik, and it's entitled How the Stars Aligned

to Create the Success of Baldur's Gate 3. I'm going to read a short excerpt from this. The studio tripled in size to realize the ambition of Divinity Original Sin 2, their previous game,

from a team of 50 on the original to 150 on the sequel. The studio's ambitions for BG3 were even higher, and when the choice came to scale down the scope or scale up the team,

Larian decided to go all in and tripled in size once again. The BG3 team has about 450 members spread across seven locations around the world. The risk of having the biggest budget and the largest team was deprioritized in favor of the team's high aspirations for a Baldur's Gate sequel.

So they bet big on this game, a 450-person team and a huge budget, and it paid off. Sales figures have not been released, but it did sell 5 million copies on Steam at launch. And I've seen estimates as high as 22 million copies across PC and console. Hard to find out exactly what it sold, but it's sold like gangbusters. And also was critically acclaimed winner of the 2023 Game of the Year for the game awards the golden joystick awards the steam awards and a number of publications along those lines on metacritic it is currently the top rated game of all time across all platforms it has taken the top slot um from ocarina of time which occupied it for for many many years how can we not know how

many copies of this dang thing has been sold, but we can know how many people are wearing the goddamn Assassin's Creed skin and know that it is exactly four? And if Heather stops, it will be three. There's power in information. So let's address spoilers before we get

into it. I think what we have landed on is, first off, we are, well, before we even do that, let's just say where everybody is in this game. I'll go first. I've now finished the game twice. The first time I did it on Explorer difficulty, which is the story difficulty. And then the one I just finished was on Tactician, which was the hardest difficulty now is underneath honor mode, which was released in an update. I have 348 hours played in this game. So I have dedicated a substantial chunk of recent months to playing Baldur's Gate three. And I do plan on doing a third playthrough on honor mode. But that's where I'm at've i've finished it twice matt how about you i as of as of the rainy president's day have finished balder's gate 3 i've completed it saw it all the way to the end however many more ways i could fill in the rest um i did jump from a steam playthrough to a playstation 5 playthrough so my time is skewed in a certain way. It said like 64 and a half hours on Steam,

which feels wrong also, because I felt like at a certain point I had clocked 100. I was just playing it nonstop, just like we all were. But from where I left off on PS5, or where I left off on Steam and picked up on PS5, it was an additional 50-something hours, 60 hours.

So all told, it was like 100... I think all told, it was like 117 hours for the playthrough. Got it. Yeah. I have not beaten Baldur's Gate. for the playthrough. Got it. Yeah.

I have not beaten Baldur's Gate. I, you know, I've had a rough fall, which limited my ability to play video games. A rough autumn just to clear things up for people that don't want to hear more worse news. Yeah, I had a rough... No, I had a rough no i had a rough autumn um and so i i i didn't get to put as many because when when the game first came out i was playing it non-stop on my mac before i realized that my save would not transfer which was so fucking heartbreaking right you. You're playing, I think, an early access build, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So then I had to start all over again on PS5, which I did and have enjoyed. And I have not restarted my playthrough on PS5, which we'll talk about. But I've also played many hours in multiplayer mode with different characters. So my current playthrough of Baldur's Gate is, I think, 45 hours in on the save that I'm currently playing. But my grand total of played time in Baldur's Gate is somewhere around 70 hours. Wow. So it isn't,

it's not for a lack of, of love for the game nor exposure to the game. Yes. I just have not had a chance to beat it. But I'm really enjoying my playthrough. And this is one of the rare times where we do a WePlay you play and i will continue to play the game afterwards uh that's awesome here and and you are like story-wise you're like into act two is my understanding yes yes though i my entry into act two was very weird uh and a little messy and we'll talk about that also so to So to return to spoilers, what we're going to do since Heather hasn't finished the game and is we're we're not going to spoil the ending for her. We are going to record separately with just me and Matt talking about the end game. And then for anyone here who doesn't want that spoiled, that will be at the very end of the episode. end of the episode. So we'll do everything and then there'll be a little extra thing with a little extra warning about just talking about the back end of Act 3 and the end game specifically

at the end of this episode, the end game of this episode. But I think for our discussion, we're going to keep things pretty loose and open, but talk up through Act 2. So, you know, there will be some story and character spoilers throughout here through the first couple acts of the game. I think that's what we landed on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So fret not.

And, you know, if you do hear something that maybe you didn't want to hear, sorry. Yeah, yeah. I guess if you really absolutely don't want to hear anything about like the gauntlet of Shar or, you know, the night song, like if that's stuff don't want to hear anything about the gauntlet of Char or the night song, if that's stuff you still want to be in the dark about, then you might want to bail on this. You might want to turn the volume all the way down on the free feed of the podcast,

but keep it playing. Right. It helps our metrics if you get all the way through it. Yeah, I think you want to just listen to it all the way. You want to play it all the way through. Yes. You could at least do that. Yeah. We don't want to look like that Assassin's Creed Valhalla skin.

Yeah. Only four people finished this episode. God, if I found out, actually, I never want to see anything like that. No, I think we still will try to give a spoiler country warning if we start feeling like we're spoilering anything too pivotal in Act 2. But for the most part, we're going to talk pretty openly about Act 1 and Act 2. Oh, I should also note that we're recording in the aftermath of Patch 6, aka the kissing update, which has a number of consequential gameplay on UX UI fixes, including easy party member swapping, which is huge. Huge, huge update. That's a great one.

I didn't know it was the kissing update until I made my character's kiss. And I was like, wait, these are different. And the default player character is, for the most part, now the speaker in cut scenes, which is easy. I mean that, that, that, and that speaks to, I think a big part of this game is as it's continued. And as it's post release, rather, it has gotten a lot of support, a lot of substantial free updates, additional content,

and then just general like quality of life improvements. And I think that's a, there's every expectation that that will continue. So it's great that this game has been supported like that. I love this game. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, having, I did take some time away from it, right? Like to, and then getting back into it, it was, it was like,

you know, the, the, the tired phrase, like riding a bike. I got back in there and immediately was like, oh yeah, I love everything about this game. I love, I love just, I love my bike. I got back in there and immediately was like, oh yeah, I love everything about this game.

I love my characters. I love my party. I love my TAV. I love all of it. And I loved some of the late game powers and abilities that I got. Because I got all the way to, I'm not sure how possible it is to finish the game not

at the level cap which I think I believe is 12 I hit it like I feel like midway through act 3 on both of my playthroughs I did too but I think like getting to that and knowing that I was as strong as I could be was freeing in a lot

of ways because like sometimes early in the game I was as strong as I could be was freeing in a lot of ways. Cause like sometimes early in the game, I was like, you know, level five or whatever. And being like, is this even possible? Like for where I am? Uh,

and the game, most of the game is possible if you're, if you're clever and, um, and careful, um, you don't have to be so strong to survive a lot of encounters, but it does help.

You know what I would love is to hear, I think a great way into this, because it's such a big conversation to have, is to hear what your build was, and for Nick, multiple builds, and then sort of like your initial experiences uh because like again if people are dropping in and they haven't heard any of the previous times we've talked about Baldur's Gate I'd love to to refresh them or bring them on board so that we can talk

about what we did I'll go first for example um I played or I chose to play a half elf thief with a background of criminal because my favorite thing to do in a game like Baldur's Gate is to open doors, pick locks and pick pockets because I really want to see everything. everything. And what's funny about Baldur's Gate is I do think that being a thief prevents you from seeing everything as opposed to other games where I feel like being a thief breaks. Like you can go, you can get a key and open a door that you're not supposed to open. In Baldur's Gate, there is a bit of a story ramification. If you go into an area you aren't supposed to be in when you're supposed to be there. So I picked a thief because I'm like, I don't want to like it's also the reason why in like, say, The Last of Us, I spent the most of my what were they shivs? Whatever it was that you could use to open lock boxes like that's where I spent most of that weapon resource were they, shivs? Whatever it was that you could use to open lock boxes. Like that's where I spent most of that weapon resource.

Oh yeah. Because I always want to see what's inside of the box. So that's why I picked a thief. And then I wanted her to get like, you know, I wanted her to be happy when she was opening a box. I want her to be sad. So I gave her the background of criminal.

And I left her name as the default for Tav. How about you guys? I played, so my first playthrough, and I should mention that, and this is always the way I play like any sort of RPG with character creation. I always have a couple of false starts. So I messed around a couple of times,

got a few hours in and then restarted. And then my first full playthrough was as a half-wood elf bard, College of Lore bard, that kit, named Ori. And then this character played pretty virtuous all the way through it. And that was a pretty straight-ahead playthrough.

But I did miss a lot of stuff because I was playing without a guide. I was just sort of going through and making decisions and living with the consequences. There were were a couple things where I thought what was the clear good and virtuous choice uh when I looked it up later I was like oh wait no interesting like I what the game was was asking me to do was actually something different um and there were a few like like pretty major uh sub quests that I like just took different paths

through so I didn't see the back end of so for instance like the hag when I return to which continue starts in act one and continues all the way through act three I saw all of the hag story in my second playthrough but I missed that in the first one what wait

what that continues through act three the hag yeah I mean the hag keeps going uh what do you mean by that I mean there's no way to talk about this without giving it getting into spoiler

country so you can I mean here's the thing I think a non-spoiler way to say this yes you can continue the storyline or you could do what I think it sounds like Heather and I did. You could end that quest prematurely. Yes, there are different paths to that.

Well, I don't want to know. This is interesting. How do you talk about this without spoiling things? I guess we're in medium spoilers now. As soon as I found those two dudes uh who were like our sister or whatever the fuck they were talking about like our sister's been kidnapped i was like yeah sure i'll go get her for money and they're like fuck you yes i laughed it's like very consistently role-playing that I'll do anything for, for financial gain,

which just, I like that. It very rarely stops progress in a quest, but mostly makes the NPCs a little annoyed with you. Like they're like, fine. Yeah. Okay.

We'll pay you to do the right thing. And I'm like, all right, great. Um, but those guys were like, fuck off. Absolutely not. We are not paying you to do the right thing and i'm like all right great um but those guys were like fuck off absolutely not we are not paying you to rescue our sister so i followed them and they get murked by somebody i think you find that that happens off screen um and so i went into the uh

oh and i called out that hag on her bullshit because i you know used some skill to like process that she was deceiving them about how nice she was so when i show up at her house i i opened up on her because i was like oh this this lady's lying to these people and i think she just killed them um and then followed her down into her little chamber and like wiped out all those people down there and like kept following her and then uh murdered her saved the girl went into her like secret study used her spell to enter into the underdark and then like found myself in an area which i don't think you're supposed to get to until act two. Right. No, you can get I mean, you can get that's just one way into the underdark,

which has a bunch of different intro like introductions, a bunch of entry points. So, yeah, that's like a completely normal way to progress that. OK, great. So, yeah, that that's, you know, whether or not that that that quest continues. But the overall thing I'll say is that the, for me, is like my first playthrough, I did all the major stuff, and I got what I believe is the canonical ending, which we'll talk about later.

The second, my second playthrough, I did, I think, everything. And my second character was a tiefling Oath of Vengeance paladin. Oath of Vengeance paladin was a really fun class to play because oath of vengeance is specifically like it's not quite a lawful good alignment i don't know exactly where it lies if it's like lawful neutral or whatever but it's all about like avenging wrongs and so you will get these oath of vengeance prompts where it will be like

that person has has uh betrayed your. I will kill them for you. And it's like it's just like a really interesting sort of absolutist, you know, moral character to play. But I but I still overall played it very, very good, although there were a few times where it felt like Oath of Vengeance was pushing me towards like I've got to punish the wicked here. And that means that I've got to kill someone on someone else's behalf. You're playing like a Batman build.

Yeah, kind of. Yeah, that's cool. And and so and along those lines. This just kind of speaks to the scope of the game and one of the many things that that amazes me about it. They're not just paladin specific lines, but oath of vengeance paladin specific lines. So one of the three subclasses of one of like, you know, 14 classes or however many, 12 different classes you can choose from in the game had specific dialogue in missable side quests.

So just the idea that they went to the trouble of being like, we're going to have a, we're going to record individual VO for an NPC response to an Oath of Vengeance Paladin line for the 1500 people who will play it this way. You know, it's just kind of like how comprehensive they were. I just cannot imagine flow charting all this out and then to actually execute it. So anyway, so what I'm saying is that was a playthrough. I did. I also did it good again. I couldn't resist. I didn't want to be full evil.

I played through this virtuously. The combat was obviously much more difficult, but manageable. And then also, I did basically every side quest. I don't think I missed anything. Wow. That's insane. I did miss some side quests in in my in my playthrough i'm very aware of two very specific things that i missed wait and say just just tell let us know what your

character was again oh yes um my character was a um a wood elf barbarian i read that because i hadn't ever played one of these games before so i was like i need an i need like an easy on-ramp for for me to be able to enjoy this game and i'm really glad i did this and everyone said a barbarian is gonna be easy for like it's an easy class yeah to start with um and so i did i i was a wood a wood elf barbarian uh i kept the default name tav also because i did not know that i could change it um and i i you can pick like a when you're a barbarian you can pick like a type of animal to like rage as yeah and if you do a wild heart barbarian yes yes and so i i was doing that and um i uh i had carlack in my party also who had a so he is very similar to how i was playing my character um but i i made sure that our um our our rage animals were different carlacks was a bear and mine was an eagle. Sort of on my banjo kazooie.

Shit. But I didn't think about that honestly until just now. That's really funny. That rocks. But I also, I sort of played this game knowing that making the, I played virtuously as well. And I, because I can't help but just do what i think the game wants me to do sometimes in that way and that's not really like a role-playing exercise but i would also sort of my my tab was just like i'm just asking questions

kind of guy like i would i would see i would see an option to be like let me just see what this would get me yeah and then you know gail or option to be like, let me just see what this would get me. Yeah. And then, you know, Gail or whoever would be like, I don't think that's such a good idea and get kind of mad. And I'd be like, okay, okay. We don't have, we don't have to do that. I was just asking questions.

I like that. So you were just, you played, you role played as the annoying guy in the comments. I would kind of just be like, Hey, you know, like maybe we don't. You're like the Tucker Carlson of barbarians. Yeah. Yeah. Like maybe we don't. You're like the Tucker Carlson of barbarians. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe we don't do this in service of the god of magic or whatever. Right, sure. And then Gale's like, oh, well, wait a minute. What if we do this? I was like, oh, if that's what you want, I'm just seeing. I kind of would just defer to whatever the characters felt like they actually wanted to do. I would always just go with what they wanted. I actually love that about this game.

And, and there are a few situations where that, that isn't the case. And those kind of feel like, um, you know, notable because this isn't present, but like,

but for a lot of the major decisions, there are times when you can be like, step back and let shadow heart handle this. You know what I mean? Like, like, like you can let it, you can defer to a character. Say nothing.

Yeah, which feels like a way, like, if you're roleplaying it in a certain way, there are times when it's just like, oh, wait, no, this isn't my place to speak. I understand that I should defer to somebody else on this topic. Or this is their decision to make. I should let them make it. Or if you want to roleplay a different sort of character, a more domineineering sort you can just step in in those moments and make your voice heard but but i i do love that i do love that optionality that there are times when you can just like let someone else make their choice yes yeah because then it's like okay well that's the choice they made i can't there are certain things that i felt like i couldn't make that choice for them yeah because i also had just been, you know, you do weirdly become attached to your party.

Like, I was very, very fond of, I had, I rolled with Shadowheart, Karlak, and Gale. And, like, I switched Gale out for a little bit, but then Gale came back into the fold because I missed Gale. Who was doing your thiefly duties? I mean, me kind of, but, like, not very well. We were having a really hard time with lockpicks. I mean, me kind of, but not very well. We were having a really hard time with lockpicks and things like that. And then I would get to some doors sometimes that had a high, like a high dex roll.

And I would go through a bunch of thieves tools and then run out and be like, you can't unlock this. I'm like, I guess we're not unlocking this but if the often if the door was made of wood that door was coming down i was just attacking doors i do so that's that's the thing i do love i love that you just bust shit up yeah just you can just like and that's also the case for a lot of puzzles in general of this game not that the puzzles are ever all that difficult but like it's like also like i didn't want to you know like if you didn't change into cat form and, you know, read the hidden note in the banker's office to get the vault combination. Sometimes you can just take a big war hammer and knock that sumbitch open. very, you know, like this is a role-playing experience, but also it's just like, oh, this is interesting to have things

presented as obstacles, not as puzzles. And I know this is a thing that's been present in a lot of you know, I'm no stranger to RPGs, so I know this has been present in a lot of games, but it's very well presented

in Baldur's Gate 3. It's satisfying because there are things that you would want to do. The only frustration I have with the game is wanting to do something, knowing it's possible in the game, and not being able to figure out how to do it. Which, when you're doing a tabletop game with a DM, you just say the thing. You're just like, okay, I'm going to cast this spell and I'm going to do this and then do that. And like you roll for it and, and, and either achieve it or you don't. Whereas in this, there would be times where I'd be like, ah, okay. I, I know I can set this on fire, but I cannot figure out how to set this on fire. And I'm not, like it's wood.

I have flame spells. I have oil, but I don't know how to combine these things in a way that will allow me to set this thing on fire. Also, that's a funny example of something I want to do. Something on fire. But I do like the times where it's successfully implemented is like, okay, this fucking person is like, I'll give you the key when you finish this quest or like, you know, that there's like a barrier, a magical barrier in a room and you have to put something

into a fucking lock in order to undo it. And you're like, I bet this lady has this on her. So you leave the room, separate your party into two groups, reenter invisible, pickpocket her, and sure enough, it's in her pocket. And you can take it out of her pocket, skip all of her fucking missions that she wants you to like prove yourself

or prove your loyalty or whatever the fuck. And then walk in as a group put the thing in the lock and she immediately is like wait wait wait how did you why do you have that and the door is talking to you and the door is like oh you must be the chosen one come on in and and everybody in the room is upset, but nobody can prove that you've done something wrong, feels like a virtual implementation of your favorite moments of Dungeons & Dragons. Which, by the way, the movie captured very well. 100%. No, Honor Among Thieves is similarly, just like, this is the fun of what this experience is.

Yeah. I also think it's worth noting that a huge part of the story of the game is its reception in terms of like, you know, it's commercial success because like, that's a, that's a big part of this game is not just like it's doing these things, but it's doing things that have reached a point of mainstream awareness,

right? Like that's what, what takes this game. It elevates this game in terms of importance. And in terms of legacy to a game that kind of alters how, uh, alters gaming moving forward. At least that that's what I think is going to happen. I think this is on the level of something like a Skyrim or a Minecraft or a dark souls that this comes out and this has so much influence over the marketplace because the obviously developers are going are aware of this and, you know, that that's going to influence that level. But this is like commercially successful enough where publishers are like, we need to do this. And that's what leads to imitation at this kind of scale. And that's what that'll lead to iteration.

this and that's what leads to imitation at this kind of scale and that's what that'll lead to iteration and i think it's it's going to be a huge net positive for where gaming is going to go in terms of games that are going to try to to emulate this uh this approach to design at this scale and and like you know again it's that's the other part is like this is this has triple a production values yeah like this is yeah a lot of this stuff was present in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, or Divinity Original Sin, that franchise, Larian's previous games. Like a lot of that stuff was present. Fallout New Vegas has this stuff, but they were not as visible. They were not played by everybody, and they did not look and sound like this.

like this it is like i it it boggles the mind to just like stop and think about like the the totality of this game and like the opportunities that it like presents to you in game because like i just know that like we all saw completely different stuff like that's really crazy well i you actually had a nice transition point that we should go back to which you talked about what your core party members are and so you didn't have lazel which is which completely influenced your playthrough all the way through the end game which we'll talk about yes yes uh i uh so my core party for basically both playthroughs ended up being it's it sounds like a boring way to do it, but I just liked it so much that I went back to it. You know what I mean? Like, it's the, I think the big ones. It was

Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and Gale. And on my first playthrough, I was a bard, which I would advise anyone who hasn't played this game and is curious about it and doesn't know which class to play, play a bard. It's so fun. It has a bunch of class specific dialogue. It's also a very powerful class, both in and out of combat. And the most important stat in the game is charisma because so much of the gameplay is driven by conversations. And if you have a high charisma stat, you can talk yourself out of combat oftentimes and talk your way into solving situations. So I would definitely advise that for anyone. But because a bard has a slight of hand proficiency, that handled all of my lockpicking duties,

which are another huge thing in this game. And I'm amazed that you were able to get through it without a rogue in your party, because on my second playthrough, what I ended up doing is I took, at first, a couple levels, and then later reduced it just to one level of rogue for Shadowheart. And then put the rest into cleric so that Shadowheart was able to handle all of the lockpicking duties and trap disarming duties. felt like it tied into like the sort of,

you know, uh, trickery domain cleric, you know, char acolyte sort of, uh, trickster, uh, character.

So it felt fitting for that. So then I had that character since my, my main character was a paladin, uh, that character handled all that stuff. I, I, I do,

I do think I maybe played this game in an insane way, which was, was that I kind of just, I kind of just did everything. Like I, there was, there was that I kind of just did everything. Like, there was a couple of occasions where I would have somebody else do something else. Yeah. But for the most part, I would say 95% of the things I did as my player character tab.

I don't think that's unusual, and I think that's a perfectly valid way to play, obviously. I mean, hey, you got through the game. I did finish it. Heather, what's kind of your party you're running with? Well, I'm running with all the members of the world that are still available to me. I've got Shadowheart, Lae'zel, and Asterion are the only people I can bring anywhere because they're the only people. I mean, Halcyon is in my camp, but as far as I know, he's not available as a party member.

He just fucking talks to me. Um, maybe that's different. Maybe that changes. I don't know. Um, or maybe he's really upset at what I did to the Druid, uh, area. Uh, but those are the only guys who haven't either left in extreme disgust and anger at my actions or attacked me on site. And I didn't know they were possibly going to be a party character uh and then Gail left because he was like he lied to us about what what he who he was and I was like well

fuck you then like what I haven't lied to you So I told him to go fuck himself and he left. But I was like, none of the other, you know, Shadowheart hides that she's got like an item. But generally speaking, nobody's lying to you about anything. They're just like difficult people right like Asterion's like pretty fast is like I'm a vampire and uh Shadowheart pretty fast is like I got this item and I and I'm and it's pretty spooky and I also like this this evil lady and as soon as she tells you you have the option in dialogue to be like that's fine thanks for telling me or you can like have an issue with it. But Gail, like, see, like, he's like, I've made a pact with some, I don't know. I don't even remember the fuck he told us, but it pissed off everybody. And like, I talked to Shadowheart and I talked to LaZelle and he talked to Asterion and they were all like, I can't believe he hid that from us. And, you know, I was like, you know what? I can't believe that either. And went back and talked to him. And I was like, he's like like so do you accept me even though i've kept this secret from

you and i was like fuck no dude and he's like okay i'll leave um it's it's uh i again i love that you have that option to just like say you're out of my party and that you i also like that you chose it but like yeah but it's the kind of thing where it's just like they don're out of my party and that you I also like that you chose it. But it's the kind of thing where it's just like they don't have to have that in the game. Like there could have been a reality where they're like, it's certainly a much easier to design, much easier to QA a game where we know Gale is going to be in the in the user's party after a certain point. And they will always be present in the players camp. Like it's so much easier to have the the worst option be like you have betrayed me i don't know if i can forgive you for this but

they stay in your party but they have the option you can just kick him out get the fuck out of here and then you never see him again he's just not present for the game this character who is relevant all the way through the end game story wise like all that shit is fucking is fucking crazy. I've heard that you can that if you don't find a stereo, which I didn't do, I couldn't I didn't find him when I first played on my Mac. So I was stunned when I found him in the my second playthrough and he's really close to the beginning. Like I was like, oh, shit shit i just missed this guy yeah um but if you don't find him you do find him as a corpse later which is pretty grim it's very uh it's very elden ring um the uh very from the the the other thing is what you were talking about is like is like not all the party members have secrets i mean it's like you, I think will, who is another major character,

a major companion that, uh, you probably drove out of your camp because of your genocidal rampage. Um, he is another guy with a secret, like, and it's like a huge secret that comes out and is like a, a huge part of his character.

But he is also like the closest to like kind of a, a virtuous character, a fully like good character, uh, throughout. And, and so like, he's,

he obviously, he and car, like obviously aren't going to be a part of your, your playthrough if you're going the evil route, um, or the chaotic neutral. No chaotic neutral. Yes.

I never, ever, ever. And I'm a pretty deep into act two. And I've had, like, I've got friends in the world. Like, I've gotten far enough away from the initial act of terror that people are starting to be like regular.

Always telling when somebody's like, I have friends. It just took a while. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of the companions, and I think that this kind of- You were like canceled and then like waited a year and came back.

It's okay. I'll just make movies again. I'll just be a famous stand-up again. It's fine. Yeah, Tab's just back. Yeah, Tab's at the Hollywood Bowl. Isn't that crazy? It's sold out.

It's called the Truth Tour? Yeah, yeah. All right. All the companions, and this is my reading of it, but all the companion quests to me, they all seem like journeys of acceptance right like they are and that ties in with what's happening with with tav with the player character as well it's like you know astarian and will are uh controlled by abusers uh gail and carlax bodies are destroying themselves uh lazel and shadow heart were indoctrinated into death cults. All of these people's lives did not go as they planned and have been disrupted by this event.

And they are all kind of having to make peace with that. And over the course of this journey, you know, either reject or accept that. And you can go either way. And that so much is like thematically ties in with the with your own characters, a lithid parasite. And obviously, everyone's got a brain worm at this point. But you're you're a lithid parasite, which is like, you know, again, it's it's disrupting your plan. It's it's it's it's altering this character's fate and it's altering your body in a way

you can't control your brain and body in a way you can't control. And ultimately, how much do you want to fight against that or how much do you want to accept it and treat it as a strength? You know who also I think has the illithid parasite? A lot of our U.S. politicians. They have worms for brains over there. Emma and I are clapping in the studio. Yeah, I was shocked to get a clap from Emma. It's just straight up go off king it's funny that two of the major role-playing games of the last few years and i'm speaking about cyberpunk 2077 and bg3 sure uh have been about

having a terminal condition and what you do in the wake of finding that out uh that allows you to continue existing until this thing either destroys you like both of them also are about like well i have like i have this thing in my brain and it's going to kill me but temporarily it'll make me stronger so i'll i'll do what I can to live under those circumstances. Those are the parameters of existence. Um, and that feels a little bit like, and I'm going to say something big here that feels like what it feels like to be in America, which is that we all know this system is rotting and destroying itself. We can see what it's doing to like individual people through like wage, wage suppression, inflation, corruption.

Like it is squeezing us all to death and eventually we'll either destroy the planet or, or the system will explode from within and there'll be like a French revolution or whatever. But while it's here, we all have to make this pact with like, well, I mean, I'm going to buy a car. Yeah. And I'll use these roads. Like there's all of these like subconscious, you know, pacts we make with the system and with the country.

And for those of you who are listening in other places, because I know we have a lot of international listeners, I'm sure that you feel that way about your systems also, or perhaps maybe look at America and see it as sort of an indictment of the way we exist. But it feels like a specifically American theme, like. Fuck, this thing's going to kill us, but it feels like a specifically American theme. Like, fuck, this thing's going to kill us, but maybe for a little bit, we have a big military. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's why the, you know, zone of interest is the movie of the moment, because it's like we're it's just like, how can you live just normally amidst such horrors, amidst such atrocities?

And it's just like, well, that's just like living. That's just what life is. There's just like unspeakable horrors happening constantly. And there's and you're just going to I don't know, you're going to go record your video game podcast because that's what you do. Yeah. And and if you're if you're my tab, yeah, you're taking all this and you're like, God, this Tadpole in my brain is going to kill me. I better eat every single one that I find and have more. I can tell that we're playing similarly. Because not only did I eat them whenever I found them,

but I also convinced everybody else they might be good for us. Like through deception and charisma. I'd be like, I don't know this. I feel like this might be okay. And like, initially everybody's like, ha. And now everybody in my party party is like, yeah, put the worms in my brain. Let's do it. I, yeah, I convinced a couple, but a lot of my party was like, you're a fucking maniac. No, absolutely not. But it is a thing of, it is a, I think there's another thing that this game does interestingly, and I touched on this previously. Taking the, like using the illithid parasite in conversations and then also consuming additional parasites to

improve your powers. It just objectively makes you more powerful. Yes. Like the choice there is just is a purely moral one. Do I want to allow myself to become more mind flayer than person? The trade the the tradeoff is I'm more powerful, but I'm less human. But that's it. It's not like it's like, oh, well, now I'm going to suffer all these other negative consequences in the game. It's purely an advantage from a combat perspective. And some of the things that you get, like my favorite one was Perilous Stakes, I think it was called. Oh, yeah, yeah.

100%. it was called oh yeah yeah 100 perilous stakes is an illithid power that you basically you can cast it on an enemy and it like um it gives them the opportunity they're able to now be vulnerable to any type of attack but every time they uh get like they they every time they successfully attack and take damage or you're like uh you know or they hurt you, they gain health. So it's like, okay, is this really worth it? But if you're fighting some sort of enemy that's not vulnerable to a lot of things, it's very, very helpful. That's a great power. And there's so much burst damage available in the game that you can do that on an enemy and then kill them before they even have a chance to attack.

Yes. No, that and Black Hole. And I haven't looked at an illithid parasite tier list i'm sure one exists but like that those to me just seem absolutely next week's episode we're gonna rank all the illithid powers uh those those seem absolutely op because you could you can just completely control the board with black hole and suck all the enemies towards one point um which is, which is another one. And again, I really like, yeah, I really like stage fright.

Stage fright's great. Another great one. As a power. I enjoy that one. I like the idea of just making enemies frightened. Yeah. And generally speaking, my combat is against frightened enemies.

I don't know what it does, but I like that they're scared and I can see it on screen. It gives them disadvantage. That is so scary on screen. It gives them disadvantage on attacks. I like seeing them scared. There are so many status effects in this game. This is one of the things that makes playing through just absolutely daunting. Like, in a broader sense, it's amazing that this, that, I keep saying the word amazing, and I know that's annoying, but it's like, it's that Larian- It's amazing that the game works.

It's amazing that the game works. And it's also amazing that Larian was just like, we're going to not really make any compromises here. I'm sure some compromises were made, but ultimately we're going to put out the game we want to make and then to have everyone receive it and be like, we love this. Yes.

Like, that's such a miracle when that ever happens, where it's just like, hey, you know what? We're just going to make all the decisions we want. We're going to throw in a status condition of muddy

that you'll see in one combat encounter. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's just like, and we're going to have that in there, and you're just going

to deal with it. Wait, wait, wait yeah you can you can summon a an elemental that makes everything muddy and i like that elemental i i use that one yeah the mud it's like a mud goblin yeah throws mud that's really really good i when i played dnd i played a swamp druid so i was like a mud i was like a mud guy i love it the mud's funny it's great it is it's funny it's great but but it's it's just it's just so jam-packed with so much it's such a more is more approach yeah it Yeah. It also I think it celebrates how impressive the D&D system is. Sure. That these things have been dropped into a game and work that like you. There's not there's that generally it's like, oh, you can use this thing in a combat situation or you can use it in a conversational situation. And having that rule set. Implemented as a game system works is fucking awesome.

Yeah, that's why I like I'm just trying, you know, because I could I could find things that that bug me about this game that I could complain about. But I'm just like I'm trying to keep the conversation and I do have issues with it. And I do have issues with it, but I'm trying to keep the conversation so positive because to me it's more like, yeah, there may be things that bother me about the inventory system and there are, you know, you're looking at the hot bar and you, but there's also so many things like just that you can cast a spell like guidance or friends, something that helps your that helps your character during a dialogue encounter without popping out of that encounter or having to cast it in advance that you can cast it like from within the menu. Like that's thoughtful design that that's implemented like that. I,

I, I just stepping back to what you're saying earlier heather about like the this game about like like or the stuff about like just kind of living in in the living right now and and how in this game's comment on that i mean i think that also comes across in uh in terms of the absolute and the scheme that exists to weaponize the absolute, to essentially create a false god, to brainwash a bunch of bunch of of underlings into fighting a crusade on the behalf of the powerful. I mean, that's so much of just like a. You know, that feels like so much of a comment on just like how how people are mobilized into a wartime footing um and and the other thing i think it does is is it's just it feels like ultimately like a

rejection of utilitarianism like it's it feels like the the ends justify the means people in this game are such monsters they're such pieces of shit and they're fundamentally inhuman what the what come on that's what it feels like right here i'm right here what are you talking about but i think i do think it makes that point very effectively and i'm always in favor of like anytime i see something i see utilitarianism taken down a peg because it's usually monstrous i want because we've we've talked about again i'm just thinking about people who are tuning tuning in just for this episode i want to recap what happened to my character and why i only have four party members because i think that it is a celebration

of the game's strengths that i am so far into the game and it hasn't collapsed or that I haven't hit a dead end. Which is that in one of the earliest play areas, which is the Druid village. The Grove, yeah. Yeah. Playing as a thief, I opened a box that I was told. So there's a hidden passage that goes around the back of a storehouse. I went down the hidden passage, jumped on the roof of the storehouse, entered the storehouse. And there's a lady who's paralyzed. She's like, I'm stuck in here. I forget why. Don't help me. Don't do it. Get out of here. You're not supposed to be in here. I forget why. Don't help me. Don't do it. Get out of here. You're not supposed to be in

here. Who the fuck knows? But she's with all these boxes. And I searched the area and I start going through the boxes and she starts screaming because she's like, help. There's a thief in here. The door opens from the front and there's like a security guard who's like upset at me. And the security guard's like, we're going to take you to jail. And I was like, at me and the security guard's like we're gonna take you to jail and i was like no no you're not like i'm just looking like i haven't stolen anything uh so i thought maybe i could put that guy to sleep or like put like tie him in place and leave unfortunately uh i failed that check and he attacked me. So then everybody within viewing distance of him also attacked me.

And I was forced by like, imagine like a virus spreading through an entire area. The farther out people would get a role for initiative and turn hostile the people beyond them would then roll for initiative and turn hostile so i was basically fighting a horde of the entire village because i opened up a box and i killed everybody i the women the children i literally okay killed them all uh which is when uh will was like you're a fucking terrible person i'm leaving and that was the first time i was like oh wow this game has like consequences this is cool cool. And then I met Karlak in the wild and she attacked me on site and I killed her thinking she was just like some NPC and then lost access to Karlak's story for the rest of the game, not knowing that she was a playable like party member.

From that point forward, there were just ripple effects through the entire world where everybody I fucking walked into had heard or had a friend or something involved in that village and was either very upset at me or was super on my side. Like they'd be like, hey, you like the goblins were like, fuck, yeah, man. Right. Wow. You're working for us. I'd be like, I'm not fucking working for you. And then all the goblins fucking attack you.

But I've managed to play whatever, 40 or 50 hours of this specific playthrough. And I'm not complaining about the game when I talk about how insane it is that everybody everywhere because also I don't know how you do that in a save file I don't understand video game programming um but it is only now that I am you know past like past significant parts of act two I think that I'm finally encountering people who are like don't have awareness of the druid village and are just like engaging with me on their own terms. Yeah. When does that start happening? Does that start happening to you in the Underdark and the Mountain Pass?

When are you starting to be like kind of move past your. So the Underdark, my first entrance into the Underdark in Act One was with some kind of thief, some underground thief community. And they were upset at me about a different box that I opened on the fucking road. That happened to me on my first playthrough. I ended up having to kill all of them. Yeah, you have to kill all of them.

It's a quest where they want a treasure chest returned to them intact. And if you do do that, you get a substantial reward. My first playthrough, I had already opened the box, the treasure chest when I found it. And then I found the thief community. And they were like, you opened it.

You've killed us all. And then they attack you. Which I thought was great. On the second time, knowing what was going to happen, I brought the chest intact to them and played that way. So in the Underdark, like getting to the underdark all those thieves attack you and then you you by the time i got to the mushroom people they were not attacking me on site they were just like we're fucking mushroom people and i was like great i don't think they're capable of hating you i love the mushroom i love the myconidsids. It's also a thing where it's just like,

oh, you are just completely alien. It's like the mind flayers of like, it's not that you are immoral or have a different moral code. You just like, you don't understand the concept of morality. You function in a completely different way. And that's just like an interesting life form

to interact with. Yeah. I thought they were beautiful i loved looking at them they're beautiful interesting bioluminescence no the art direction this game is amazing yeah i think the game is looking at its best in in dark areas and where it can really have some you know uh uh just like a dazzling palette and some great lighting effects um and uh yeah that's one of the things the under dark is like those like, and the shadow lands are like the two best looking parts of the game.

I really like rotating your onscreen camera. I really like the way the stuff dissolves when it gets in between you and your player characters. I know that's a very basic effect, but it's like, characters i know that's a very basic effect but it's like it's almost like looking at a diorama that's made out of uh opaque glass because like if you view it from certain angles it it's totally tangible and if you rotate the map then or rotate your board then it's it disappears it's really and i know what i'm describing is so basic it happens in so many games i'm not stupid

uh i just think it's yeah we're not gorgeous no no yeah i'll just jump in there as well yeah we're not stupid i'm stupid like i'm also okay we're playing i'm playing my i don't know what the absolute is because i the player don't have enough invested in being told about it. So like when people are like, well, are you part of the absolute? I'm like, I don't know. Whatever, man. And I think I've been inconsistent

on what I am siding with because I'm just playing it literally conversation. But I'm like, do I like this guy? And if they're like, hey, we're from the absolute and that guy's cool. I'll be like, yes, me too. But if I'm with somebody and they're like anti-absolute and they're they're cool, I'll be like, yeah, fuck the absolute. I don't like that guy. Fuck that. so much and i love my weird tunnel compressed playthrough because it is so fun to role play it and it is so satisfying when you run into people and they're like i know what you did yeah i i have like a list of i i had a list of like 14 quests i wanted to touch on and we've gotten to zero of them um but i i we're we're not going to have time for these.

I just accept. But I do want to touch on a couple. And also, I want the two of you to chime in if you have any favorite quests or favorite characters, NPCs. And we talk about that a little bit. One that I really locked into, especially in my second playthrough, is Barkus Root, who is the gnome you first encounter who is tied to a windmill and goblins are taunting him.

Heather, I imagine you shot him with an arrow. No, no, no, I stopped the windmill. Okay, got it. So Barkus Root has an amazing story and is a character that starts off kind of prickly and I'm kind of like, this asshole, I wish I hadn't saved him. And I'm kind of like this asshole. I wish I hadn't saved him.

Or I watched some video where some people like, I watched a video where I guess you can do something with the windmill where I think if you stop it at a certain time and then restart it, he flies off of the windmill and into oblivion. And then he just dies. But he's being tormented by goblins you can free him if so you just you keep encountering him throughout the game uh and the next place you encounter him and you've probably encountered this already heather is uh in the underdark when he has been enslaved along with a lot of fellow gnomes um and forced to uh uh to work in the mine on behalf of the duergar and it's

and forced to work in the mine on behalf of the Dwargar. And if you keep following him and you keep keeping up with his character, he has such an arc to him. And this involves this other guy that he's got, this Wolbrin Bongol, who is like this friend of his. My reading of it is that he's in love with him. I'm not sure what your reading was, Matt. But he has this guy that he really cares about

who's also just like a dick to him. And so the story throughout and the way it evolves and the way you keep getting touched on with this character and also that every time you run into him, he has gotten himself

into some bit of trouble is just like it's really entertaining. And I think he's just like a really just an exceptionally well-written character. Is he in? Wait, is he one of the guys who's trying to clear like a rock slide? Yes, that's right.

Yeah. Ah. He killed him, didn't you? Yeah. Okay. I think he also might have accidentally died in mine as well. Yeah, I didn't attack him. The rock slide was a pretty fraught situation for me,

if I'm being honest. There was a lot going on. And then there was a poison as well, right? There was a poison gas. Yes. At one point, I left. And then I think I came back and then like the poison did what it did and like a lot of people died in there um i uh i did save the gnomes there

because that's a thing where you you can set you can either side with the gnomes or you can side with the captors or actually i guess true soul nair who is the guy who's trapped underneath there and based on your choices it's like they either all die or they're all liberated or everyone dies is another option but again it's like a thing where like depending on your choices some of this stuff

follows you all the way into act 3 and into the end game honestly I saved those gnomes because the guy who like I ran into a guy and he's like, boy, I hate that fucking eye that's following us around. I was like, me too. I don't like that thing. And they're like, blow that up. And I was like, you got it.

Like I went and blew it up and felt pretty good about myself. And then it was like you have dialogue. And I was like, oh, I recognize that's the guy who wanted me to blow up that eyeball. I'm on his side. Right. And then I sided with him and freed the gnomes. And I was like, oh, I recognize that's the guy who wanted me to blow up that eyeball. I'm on his side. Right. And then I sided with him and freed the gnomes. And it was great. But I think maybe that dude who you save from the windmill, he may have died in that.

Oh, wow. Scene, maybe. I mean, I didn't certainly didn't recognize him if he was talking to me. Yeah. Wow. Can I say one of my favorite quests? Yes, please. I really like the lady in the mushroom kingdom who's looking for her husband.

Yes. And her husband is just like downstairs. Yeah. He's like trapped in like a gas, like a horrible gas and you can you can just throw him a scroll of misty step and he gets himself out i couldn't fucking believe it yeah like i have no idea what the you know as soon as he leaves and he's like i gotta i'm gonna go back to my wife and i'm like ah then i could like light that whole gas area on fire blow it up and like go collect everything that was underneath the gas. That was so fun.

I loved it. And then I went up and talked to both of them. I'm like, I don't care what your story is. You guys are you guys suck. But generally, I like that the thing that you think you might be able to do, you can do in this game. For sure. And there's another thing, which is they're looking for the noble stock mushroom. That's the reason he put himself.

He put himself in that dangerous exploding fungus fungus that noble stock mushroom. If you find it, which was like is like a difficult thing. And like I had to use like mage hand to like grab it. And I didn't do this on my first playthrough. I did it on my second playthrough. Then you can give it to them. on my second playthrough. Then you can give it to them and then those two characters

reappear in their potion shop in Act 3 in Baldur's Gate and then they have like a new inventory and it's actually like a vital source of end game supplies or late game supplies. And so like, you know,

but that's just like one element of that quest. You also can just rescue them and just get the one reward. Anyway, if you but that's just like one element of that quest, you also can just rescue him and just get just get the one reward. Anyway, if you talk to the two of them. Their story is extremely dark, which is that he has he has basically gone senile. He's lost his mind. Yeah.

And she treats him like shit. And if you talk to her about it, you're like, hey, maybe be nicer to him. You know, he's doing his best. She's like, he was an abusive monster. And I'm glad his brain is rotten because he can't abuse me anymore. And every part of it is just like so depressing. But the thing that you retrieve, the noble stock mushroom has all sorts of uses. You can either give it to, you know, the potion shop owner. And then she she appears again in Act three and has noble stock mushrooms in stock.

Or you can apparently I look this up. You can as a single use item, you can give it to Shadowheart and she will remember something that she's forgotten because her memory has been wiped clean. Yeah. Or you can give it to the abusive husband who's gone senile. His brain comes back and he goes, aha, you're in for it now, woman. It's fucking like Jackie Cleason's her. Jesus Christ. Isn't that insane?

That's so crazy. Oh, I remember what I like doing. Horrible. No. If it brings anybody any comfort, I accidentally blew him up in that field. And went back, was like, ah,

he's dead. She's like, all right, oh well. But, but I, that like just that all those options exist just speaks to like, yeah,

they're, they're thinking from a design perspective. I don't know how much this is coming from the designer, the top level design, how much is coming from, you know, iterating through QA and through early access, but at a certain point they're like,

they're realizing the player will want to try this, so we better include functionality in case they do. Yes. And so we'll make this an option and we'll have some consequence to it. Two of my favorite quests in the whole game were in Act 3, and maybe it's recency bias and maybe...

You know what, though? I actually really liked um in act two um getting the meeting that big spider guy oh the drider yeah meeting the big the drider and then i double crossed him he led me through the the what is it called? The Shadowlands. He led me through the Shadowlands to a point until I met these other guys, like the archer type people. The Harpers. The Harpers.

Yeah. And I was like, okay, they seem good. I'm gonna guess that this spider guy is not on the up and up. I'm double crossing this guy. And then attacked him with them and then got to meet the harpers and that's where then i encountered jahira uh at the at the last light in i like that that whole sequence was awesome was really really great yeah the last light in it is great and uh the

but but it's it's interesting because my approach was different because I emerged from the underdark. And so I came across the Harper's first. OK. And so the drider was a thing where in my first playthrough, I just discovered him and took him out. And he has the the, you know, the moon lamp or whatever that that helps you avoid the darkest parts of the challenge. But on my second playthrough, because I'd already been established at last light in, they in they were like hey we're going on a mission to hunt this guy down and then so interesting so you join up with some harpers to go chase after him and then you stake out a point and you can ambush him and you get an advantage on the combat encounter uh also apparently that there's all sorts of lore involving what a drider is and how they're kind of like exiled uh drow men uh that

have betrayed the spider god lulth and have been transformed in this abomination so like even there it's like one of those things where again it's kind of a from soft thing where there's just like elements of rot to everything like there's so much stuff where it's just like well even this guy uh you know that this knight that i'm fighting on a bridge is grieving his dead son. You know what I mean? It's like there's always shit like that that you'll find in one of those games. It's the same sort of thing here.

It's just like this guy who's like this evil spider guy actually has some sort of tragic backstory that's heavily implied by his nature. So you can get through, you can get to act two ways. There's maybe more ways, but there's two very specific ways. There's two ways. And this is the thing. Actually, you know, I do wish the game conveyed it a little bit better. I think it will. I could expect this being a content update

at a certain point just to clarify exactly what's happening. But Halcyon, the druid, tells you you have a choice of two ways to get to the Underdark, either the Mountain Pass, or I'm sorry, to get to the Shadowlands,

either the Mountain Pass or the Underdark. And he pushes you to go towards the underdark either the mountain pass uh or i'm sorry to get to the shadow lands either the mountain pass or the underdark and he pushes you to go towards the underdark and it feels like okay i'm just making a choice i do one or the other and i didn't realize that no you can go back and do the other one after you get to the shadow land so this is what i did yeah well i basically got as far as i could in the Underdark without getting to the Shadowlands because I think there was something going on where I was confused about where I was supposed to go next. It feels like you're about to hit a point of no return. Yes.

But you're not. I left and it went through the Mountain Pass. So I got the entire experience of the Underdark, basically. And then the reason I was avoiding the Mountain Pass was there was that big fight right outside of it, basically, that I was like, I felt under-leveled

for, and just kept getting smoked. The Githyanki with the dragon? Yes, and so I went back, I was like, okay, I'm not doing that, I'm gonna go to the Underdark. And then got to the point in the Underdark where I was like i don't know where i'm really supposed to go went back to the mountain pass and then just continued through there after until i was like a little more like either like one level higher or i just knew better about what i was doing

basically um so i got to i got to do both but all say, there's two. One that we talked about over text that I think maybe we'll talk about a little later. A quest later on in Act 3 that I was like, this is like the most fun I've ever had in a game. Like, I loved it. Wait, I want to go back to this because you're just talking about the mountain pass there. And that is where, you know, the Githyanki crash is. And that's like a huge Lae'zel thing. And Heather, I know you just you had played through that pretty recently. We could talk about that as well, but, but remind us why Laizel is not present in your party. So, okay. So, so Laizel in, uh, in my playthrough in my, on the, on the jump. And I don't know if it's because it was like a new thing or I just didn't like her attitude.

I had beef with Lae'zel from the jump, like just immediately. Right. I don't know if it was that maybe I picked an answer that she didn't like and then we started beefing. But we basically got through the prologue of the game, basically, the first thing you have to do. And then split ways she was like i'm done like you know then it was me and shadow heart from then on because then you get shadow heart after you after that thing crashes i couldn't figure out how to get her out of the pod before before it crashed and she was not happy that i didn't get her out but she did stick with

me yes um and and i i critically failed on uh on That on my second playthrough I seriously thought I was like knowing the game I was like is Shadowheart just going to die On this ship yeah and the prologue But no she recovers on her own Which would be such a fascinating choice because Of how important she is in the game Right

So Lae'zel leaves it's me and Shadowheart I find Astarion right away I find Gale pretty quickly as well. Then it's just the four of us. Then at the mountain pass where the Githyaki Geish and the, is that what it's called? I can't believe how wrong you said that. Githyanki Gresh? Okay, so this is the thing.

This is the thing that you have to understand. They were basically not in my game at all. Yes. Like, because, because of a laser, not being in the game, uh,

I basically didn't experience them at all. And every time they would come up, I would just be like, well, I don't even know you or what your guys' whole deal is. I'm working with this other stuff. Back the fuck off. And at a certain point, they were basically almost all dead until the very end.

Where I feel like I can't say what happens yet. Right. But yeah, you can hold off on that. But what you're saying is that you basically had you played played through the game without really the Kith Yankee having a presence. There was an entire race of people that I ignored completely, which is horrible. It's like saying I had a playthrough of Star Trek with no Vulcans. It's like, wait, this huge thing you missed out on. Yeah.

Yeah. It was so crazy. I just didn't, because she died in that encounter. Yeah. And I was like, okay, well, I guess she's just dead. And I didn't know that, maybe based on her attitude, I was like, okay, well, I don't actually care this bad. But then I found out, I guess I should have known

based on the cover art that she's pretty involved. But so I just ignored her and was like, whatever and then i just i just also didn't know really about like reloading saves and things like that but like that's the whole thing that's a that's what makes it uh you know an interesting compelling role-playing game is that like there are some choices that you you can undo if you want if you want to sort of reload a save and re-engage an encounter i know that i saved gail several times from a battle a death battle you know where he died right gail probably died the most for me for some reason um did you did you play it out after Gale dies?

As soon as a party member would die in a battle I would reload the battle Oh, because you can Yeah, you can resurrect them If they die Yes There are some times where I didn't have the scroll But then But you can talk to withers

You can talk to a skeleton Oh That would have saved me a lot of time But anyway, I was going to say I also basically ignore Anybody ugly, I was like I'm out of here This time. But anyway, I was going to say that I... Also basically ignore... Anybody ugly, I was like, I'm out of here. This is crazy.

Oh, man, you got to talk to Withers. Withers is my guy. I think what both of you, the way both of you played this is the way that someone should play the game. I actually applaud both of you just committing to your uh insane playthroughs because it's it's a it's awesome that you didn't reload it and you're just like oh i'm just gonna live with these consequences and see what's what's going on i think that's the most fun way to experience this game yeah there's a temptation to be like i failed this role let me let me reload it

i don't think i i would not advise anyone to do that devil lady is on the cover art, but she's so far in the background and she's kind of talking to Wynne, I think. So I just thought she was like, whatever. You're talking about Matt's best friend that you just killed with a poleaxe on site. No, she attacked me. Oh, she attacked you. Sorry, you had no choice. Yeah, I get it. I think she attacked me too, but like sorted it out opens up like i didn't even i thought she was like

just some monster on the road like she's just like some monster i'm gonna have your head yourself but she's so far in the background of the of the cover art that i didn't have the lazel experience that matt did it wasn't until i talked to you guys that i even realized she was a character like and you were like that's carlack and i was like what yeah like that's that's incredible the game is it's not look it's not my favorite game but it is such a masterpiece that it's kind of astonishing that that's that's that's my big thing here is just like the my it's it's astonishing that this exists and functions the thing about carlack that i really need you to understand heather yeah she would be your favorite character she would ah

that's what yeah i could see heather getting a carlyle tattoo after a second playthrough I could see Heather getting the Carlyle haircut I could see all of it Look I thought I was going to go through this game With Shadowheart being my favorite Because you know She's pretty and she seems sad And you kind of want to help her out

But the farther into the game I've gotten What? She's also mean which I like She's mean? What are you talking When is Shadowheart What? She's also mean, which I like. Didn't have to repeat it because she said what. She's mean? Yeah. What are you talking? When is Shadowheart mean?

She's so sweet. She's a little stern. She's sort of like a, she's very quick to tell you, I didn't like that. What? Yeah. She's so sweet. Is that,

are you guys doing a bit? No, no. No, no, no, no. No. Well, she's just like constantly like, I hate to be agreeing with Nick in this moment, but. Every time I talk to her, she, no, no, no, no. Well, she's just like constantly like, I hate to be agreeing with Nick in this moment, but. Every time I talk to her, she's like,

we've had really nice times. And at first I didn't believe in you, but boy, oh boy, you've really made my life special. Like that's why she's fucking talking to me. Try doing something she doesn't like. Yeah. Once she disapproves, it really cuts like a knife. Yeah.

No, she's like, I worship this thing. And I'm like, okay, good for you. And she's like, really worship this thing and i'm like okay good for you and she's like you're able to ask her about her religion see how that goes i did i totally did and she told me about it and i was like that's fine and she's like really and she's been another bit sweet and then once i find like if i find like a dark just just a car armor or something i give it to her and she's like oh my you, you saw this and you thought of me. This is great. I love it.

Like I gave her a fucking statue and she's like, Oh, this is, this is my girl. I love this girl. And I'm like, good. Go have your fucking,

she's great. She's so sweet. But she's sweet. What I was going to say is that I thought, I thought she was going to be my favorite, but the farther and farther into the game I get, the more I like Lae'zel. Let's go.

And the more I'm like, fucking Lae'zel is so good. She's so straightforward. Lae'zel rocks. And when she starts having emotional turns, you're like, oh man, I'm going to fuck people up on behalf of Lae'zel. As soon as I see who's responsible for the pain that this woman is in i'm gonna i'm gonna

lay waste to those people whereas asterion's been pretty straightforward about like a vampire made me he's mean and i'm like ah well we'll see how we play that when we get to it but lazel's been like i'm hurt and i'm like i got you girl fucking got you i think all the character quests have really satisfying resolutions. And, you know, I think, you know, Will kind of gets, I feel like, backburnered in the conversations just because there's

just so many characters. But I think ultimately where his story goes is like so engaging and so well executed in the backstretch of it. But Lae'zel is my favorite. Lae'zel very much became my favorite NPC.

And also I would say, I think the most useful party member just is an absolute force on the battlefield. The battle master fighter is just such a strong subclass. And I was especially feeling that in Tactician where three attacks at max level plus the ability that lets you get an extra move that's unique to fighters. I'm forgetting the name of it right now.

Action surge or something. That combination, like I was taking out Act 3 bosses in one turn. Wow. With a buff Laisel. and so it's just she is such a potent force but also just like an unflappable moral code which is so interesting to have in a character

of just like this is what I believe and these are my principles and these are what I live and die by and I am your ally only up to the point where you make me betray my nature and my core beliefs and isn't that the way of the Githyanki?

Jesus Christ. Heather's going to have a Karlak haircut and Matt is going to have a Lazelle t-shirt in like a month. Yes, yeah. Okay, so I'm about to play through it. And you know what? It's correct.

Not enough talk of the emperor, but there's lots to talk about. There's so much to talk about. Just to touch one thing on the emperor. I think we should all give our thoughts on the emperor. I know we're approaching the two-hour mark, and I know people have things to do, and also this studio is not ours indefinitely. Yeah. Wait, I don't know the emperor.

So we'll save our thoughts on the emperor okay yeah so then i got the emperor okay we'll follow up on that later definitely a character my thoughts changed on across the different playthroughs i i think we should just wrap this up with any with any final thoughts. It's just impossible to touch on on anything. And then and then Matt and I will go into a little spoiler country

special edition after we hear everybody else after we do the Ryu crew. But but any other thoughts on this game? Any other things we want to touch on?

I love the I love the menu screen or the screen that pops up when you're rolling the dice. And I love the sound of that dice roll they absolutely nailed i love it absolutely nailed the dice i love it i love that so satisfying um i you know this is a game i don't play a lot of games a second time unless

it's kingdom hearts 2 um but i could i i did immediately I started I started a bard character as a second as a second playthrough and I think I think I'm gonna stick with that now knowing that he's pretty tough actually but and I'm gonna do

my best to keep Lae'zel in the party because I want to experience I want to experience the things I didn't get to experience. There's other characters that we haven't talked about that I didn't even get to really interact with. We barely touched on Astarion, who I saw his character quests through to the end in both my playthroughs. But I didn't really use as a character because I didn't really have a need for him. And I'm like, on my next playthrough, I'm just gonna have to have Starring in my party the entire time I'm just gonna commit to that to just get all of his

dialogue. Cause I liked his I did all the character quests for the characters that remained alive and that I didn't accidentally kill there was you know Halzin left my party

left my camp at a certain point. And there's a drow woman character. Oh, you recruited Minthara? Yeah. Well, I didn't. I killed her. Oh, okay. There was a battle where I think either she died or I killed her.

At a certain point, I had her gear. I'm sorry. Different drow woman, an NPC. No, Minthara. I had her gear. Yeah, but you mentioned a drow woman. I'm sorry. Oh, I thought that's who that was. Is she a different drow woman, an NPC. No, Minthar. I had her gear. Yeah, but you mentioned a drow woman. I'm sorry. Oh, I thought that's who that was.

Is she not a drow? We're saying the same thing and not realizing we're saying the same thing. This is my fault. I apologize. Should not have interrupted. Who is on first? What is on second? And I don't know who's on third.

Do you think if somebody saw that for the first time today, they'd be like, this is fucking funny. This is good. Aren't you? You're waiting for an Abbott and Costello clip to resurface on TikTok. And a bunch of like 17 year olds are like, this is the best shit I've ever seen. I actually, you know what? Should I go home and make that? Like just one of those TikToks where I'm in the front of it and then i kind of step away and i'm just like pointing at it like it's fucking good

that's kind of funny maybe i will do it that's really funny point to follow up where you're like whoa abin costello met frankenstein that was a fucking movie yeah and actually they established the big guy, little guy thing. There's like three major characters that I didn't get to really interact with that I'd love to learn more about in another playthrough. And I know that there's a complete area that I didn't see that I think we talked about months ago. There's like water people. I didn't see that I think we talked about months ago with like, there's like water people. I didn't see them at all.

I'm having trouble. Oh, I think I know what you're talking about. Yes. I didn't get to them. By the time I got to them in Act 3, I guess a lot had happened on their end. There's like an area. I mean, we'll talk about it.

It's not too crazy. But then there's also another thing I think that you talk about it yeah it's not too crazy but then there's also another thing I think that you can see in act three that I did not see um but because I guess I would just be like with certain side quests I would do or I'd start them or in the case of like those uh that little goblin guy if there was if it didn't seem like it was worth my time from staying away from the story I'd be like well i'm not i'm not gonna do that but i now i know later on having played a hundred hours of it or whatever that everything everything in the game is worth doing no i kind of played my first playthrough i kind of played like you were you're playing now and and it was the same sort of thing of just like i was like i

you know i'm gonna abandon some side quests yeah i'm not this i'm not gonna follow up on a melu oms potion or whatever like that not realizing realizing that all these things have consequences that can last all the way through the end of the game. Yes. And which is, again, just another amazing aspect. Heather, any any final thoughts? I. I love the way that I am seeing this game, because when I get to play it again, it's going to feel like DLC. when I get to play it again, it's going to feel like DLC. It's going to be like, what if the Druid Village lived? Like, I'm going to get to see so much content in a different way

that I really feel like the playthroughs are going to be so radically separate that it will feel like a new version of this game that I already love. And that is something so remarkable, so upstanding about Baldur's Gate. I don't know. Then again, Final Fantasy VII Part II is coming out in a week. So maybe none of this will happen and I'll never see the end. It's so funny to call both of these things role playing games because you don't choose hardly anything in Final Fantasy games. Like you don't choose. Nothing of consequence is on your shoulders. They're all things that you're propelled through the world, like the world propels you through these circumstances in this story and you're propelled through the world, like the world propels you through these circumstances in

this story and you're there to read it and to enjoy it, but you're not affecting it. Like Sephiroth is never going to be a good guy. Whereas I feel like in Baldur's Gate, you can be like ally to trolls and like goblins and shit. And they'll, they'll be like, like you, I got some object from some dude and he's like, blow this horn. Like some dude in the goblin camp really early on. And he was like, blow this horn and,

and I'll come to your aid no matter where you are. And I was like, wow, cool. And I forgot about it. And then much later in the game was in a, like a combat scenario. I think at the gift Yananki crash and i blew the

horn and those dudes showed up yeah and i was like wow that's awesome and i'm pretty sure they're bad guys because i think you can attack them when you enter the goblin camp like what a what a remarkable experience it is. It's so good. It's so good. That's my final thought. It's a really fucking good game. Those ogres, yeah, they're great,

and it's a great, that you can either talk them into or bribe them into being your ally, summon them with a horn. I will say, when I did that in my first playthrough, summon them with a horn, where I was also had NPCs, and they started just attacking NPCs as well. Oh my god. That's where I was also at NPCs and they started just like

attacking NPCs as well. Oh, my God. I realize they're going to be so indiscriminate. But yeah, their their their moral code is just like I kill things and I get to eat them. That's great. I will reiterate that this is just an incredible piece of narrative art. And I'd remain astonished that it even exists. The writing, which if I haven't made it clear enough, I just find to be incredible, both in quantity and quality. And I feel this is one of the best video games ever made and my favorite game of all time because it plays to the unique strength of the medium, interactivity and consequential player driven decisions. And this will sound trite at this point

after we've all said this in different ways, but you can miss things. You can miss major things, and accepting that that's a big part of the experience and that's a big part of what makes it so incredible and so unique among AAA games. It's also just an approach to game design that I really like, which is, look, I love a AAA game that's a sequence of gameplay interrupted by a cutscene

that advances the story. I'm very into that approach. I love a game that's presented that way. You complete the level to earn the movie. But this game is not that this game, like the cut scenes remain interactive. You retain your agency as a player all the way all the way throughout. And again, it's a big part of what makes it feel so specifically like a game and not like, you know, something that could be so easily translated into a prestige TV series or a movie or something like that, if that if that makes sense. Like, yeah, like in terms of adapting this, it's like the Persona 5, the anime problem of like the player character, the protagonist does not have a clear identity.

So you just have to make that choice and make that decision. And that completely alters what this thing is saying. Yeah. So it this is in its best form is as this game. And I just I can't do it justice verbally because you'd have to you'd have to do the Baldur's Gate three of podcast episodes that I'm just unfortunately not capable of doing that. But this is this is an incredible game. Well, well, here we go. Hey, those were were our thoughts at least some of them uh matt and i will be back in the back end for a special spoiler country epilogue where we'll talk about act three in the end game but right now it's time for the you play of our we play you play it's your review crew the reu crew hello ken i thought for sure you were queuing up maybe we were wrong because you went well well, those were our thoughts, but I was like, oh man,

are we going to read negative reviews of Baldur's Gate? It's turn-based. It beats Spider-Man. Shut up. All right. This first one is from Moldy Bread on our Discord, discord.gg slash getplayed. And Moldy Bread writes, fuck around and fight out simulator 2023, 10 out of 10, 108 hours played and haven't made it out of act two.

I love that. Fuck around and fight out is absolutely a good way to think of it. 100%. Puffin Stuff writes, I bought a nice dagger for a starion, went into battle, then immediately had it disarmed and thrown into a chasm never to be seen again. 10 out of 10. Total Chaos writes, as someone who played the originals, this was a trip back to what I loved when I was 14.

Also, I learned that I'm still a save scumming piece of shit. 11 out of 10. I just want to comment on this because I don't think I said it at any point in this episode. I did play Baldur's gate one and two uh i never finished either of those games but i put a lot of hours into them um and i i do absolutely feel like this is like this is the natural evolution this is the this feels very much like those games that i remember and you know planescape torment i've listed as one of my favorite games of all time. Also another Infinity Engine game derived from the spiritual ancestors, the Bioware Baldur's Gate originals.

And yeah, this absolutely does justice to all those. I have Baldur's Gate 2 and Divinity Original Sin 2 on Steam. Yeah. And they're both playable in my Steam deck. I wonder if it'd be worth, it'd be probably more worth booting up Divinity Original Sin 2 than it would Baldur's Gate 2 at this point. That's the more

much more modern game. I'd be curious. I've thought about returning to at least Baldur's Gate 2 after playing through this and maybe trying to finally make my way all the way through it. It's an awesome game. Total Chaos, you're not a safe-going piece of shit. Play how you like to play.

Do what you gotta do. This next one's from Oddbod. Oddbod writes, 160 hours to finish, and I didn't even need most of the allies I gathered along the way because I just had Gale do his thing to the... I will redact that part.

I'll give it six months more for patches and then play again. Nine out of ten, minus one for bugs and weirdness even after multiple big patches. Hey, that's fair. Definitely buggy. After this latest patch, it crashed on me twice. I got some crashes in the trading,

the revamped trading screen, which looks better, but I i got some crashes in the in the trading the revamp trading screen which looks better uh but i did get some crashes there yeah after uh the update i finished a quest and the object just didn't appear in my inventory and had to do the entire quest again which was like up until then had never occurred to or happened to me i i think like that this is that those sorts of things are just baked into having something so complex and ambitious, but it, but it's absolutely an issue and it's,

it's going to ruin some people's experience. This next one is from Laffenstein and Laffenstein writes BG three is a masterpiece. Having never played the TTR PG or video game predecessors, it managed to pull me in after getting accustomed to its mechanics. The more time I spend playing it, the more I realize there is to uncover. 500 hours and 7 playthroughs,

I see new content every time. If Blazell ever let me break up with her, I could even see new romances one day. Wow. What a hero. That's who I aspire to be. Yeah, that's absolute Chad shit.

That's incredible. This next one is from Unagi Roll, and they write, the game has everything you could possibly want. Horny wizards, horny Githyanki warriors, horny tieflings, horny doppelgangers,

a horny angel, lots of horny devlings, horny doppelgangers, a horny angel, lots of horny devils, and also a miniature giant space hamster. We didn't talk about Minsc at all, because that's Act 3, but... Minsc rocks. That's another Baldur's Gate, a previous Baldur's Gate character. Baldur's Gate character.

This next one is from idoko18. One of my favorite games of all time. Completed it six times, including Honor mode, and it still surprises me. My favorite part is either when you can meet the fish people, the Kuatua, in the Underdark, or going to the circus in Act 3. I didn't go to the circus. Matt, you missed the circus? I missed the circus.

You might want to circle back to the circus. I didn't know that the White House was in the game. Oh, man. Emma didn't applaud that time because she fell asleep. No, Emma is understandably doing something more important. Also, Minthara is the best companion, and I'd do anything for her. 10 out of 10, masterpiece. And then there's an emoji of a natural 20.

Oh, I love that. And finally, this next one, this last one is from Kiro Seta. And they write, I played the game with a group of friends when it first came out in early access two years ago. We had a blast with it, even though it was buggy as hell. Then when it came out in full release, I jumped back on it and played a single player. I got to the near end of Act 1 and was really enjoying it. I'd say, as someone

who's been playing D&D on and off for about 25 years, it is the closest any game has come to ever feeling like actual D&D. It's like someone took Planescape Torment, spent millions of dollars remaking it, and tossed it through a 5e upgrade. 10 out of 10. RPG of the year, hands down. What a great comment to go out on. Hey, that's this week's Get Played. Our producer is Rochelle

Chen. Yard underscore underscore Sard on social media. Our music is by Ben Prunty, benpruntymusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design, duckbrigade.com. Also check out our paywalled show, Get Animated. Matt, what's this week? We're watching the finale of Pluto,

episode eight of Pluto, just a couple days after you hear this to the Patreon, patreon.com slash getplayed. And then we'll be moving on to the next series, TBD.

We don't know what we're watching yet. We'll announce that on the upcoming episode of Get Animated and we'll announce it next week on Get Played. Available along with our entire pre head gum back catalog of get played episodes

only at patreon.com slash get played uh and jemmy if i did have that potion of animal speaking i would give this to you the dog asleep in the office and hear your thoughts on balder's gate three but unfortunately that does not exist in our reality it It's only in Faerun. So, Jemmy, I hate to do this. You got played. I'm not okay with that. Hey, buddy, it's Weiger. I am here with Matt. So we are going to talk about the end game of Baldur's Gate 3.

We're about to head into spoiler country. So if you don't want this spoiled, now is your time to exit the freeway and resume your life. And we're going to play. That's a natural way to say that. Yeah. Get back to your life. Why don't you? That's a natural way to say that.

Yeah. Get back to your life, why don't you? We're going to play a few seconds of Bard Dance by Borislav Slavov from the soundtrack. And after that happens, then we will be full on in spoiler country. So you've been warned. All right. Yeehaw. We are back here in spoiler country. Yeehaw. Matt, you'll find this out as playing a bard, but, you know, bard dance is one of the songs that you can play as a troubadour.

If you come across another bard playing a song, you can join in with them and duet playing a song. This game rules. It rocks. That's so good. It's so good. There was a I know we're in Act 3. I don't want to jump straight to the end game. Yeah. But there's a, I guess it's fine.

Yeah, it's fine. When you get to the camp at the end game where you're like reuniting with everybody at the end of the epilogue at the end, the epilogue, there's this like different bard there. That's like playing a music and you can go up to him and talk to him. My tab was like, who the fuck are you? What are you even doing here? And he was like, oh, I was just like famous. I'm like a famous guy.

I'm like a famous musician. I'm like a famous musician. And then, you know, I couldn't pretend to know that. So I just picked the option that was like, oh, that's good. Good for you. That's nice. Thanks for being here. Wow. I mean, it's an honor for you to be here.

So I didn't talk to him the first time through the game. And this time I was like, I talked to him as another thing is like, oh, I didn't know you could do that. Yeah. And I don't know the character I mean I wonder if it's like a little bit of an easter egg if this is a character that's like established in in D&D lore like a Volo uh you know who's like oh this this this character has some sort of history and and if you know who they are you get you get that little extra thing but it's just like one of those things was like they didn't you didn't have to be

able to talk to the bard at camp who was giving background music for your reunion party um and they also didn't have to give him a backstory no no it was such a funny like he was so offended that i asked who he was and i was like that's this this is just a all like to the to till the end of the game yes i it was just like full of surprises and fun so act three you're in the city of Baldur's Gate yeah act three is huge and uh you know as much as I love the game I can admit that this that it feels a little bit bloated at this point there's just so much to do it is so sprawling and I think also the end game is kind of you know emblematic of that it's just like another thing of like it just kind of keeps going and going um that final fight and it's maybe a little bit over scoped but still it's all just like amazing

that it's all there and so many of the quests in act three i really loved i mean i referenced it up top but dribbles the clown uh retrieving his body parts is just like it's so grim but also the so you this is the thing you missed because you didn't encounter the circus. I missed that, but I, like, found body parts, like, throughout the game. So you're just finding body parts and not knowing that they're part of a clown. And just, like, having them in my inventory the entire, like, I just, like, I was very bad about, like, discarding things that I had in the end game, which was that I thought for some reason I didn't have Ketheric's Netherstone. Yeah.

Because I hadn't seen it in so long that I was like, did I sell this or toss it or something? Because I don't know if it's a... Will the game let you toss it? I think you need it. The most recent patch added a thing where quest critical items if you leave them at your camp and you're in like a certain you know part of the game you

can retrieve them i believe that is a thing that's in patch six but yes prior to that you could get stranded and in fact i had to replay you know that first part of the end game so you go you go into the um uh you go into what's it called it's not the mythic pool i can't remember what it's called yeah but i know what you're talking about uh you go into that's it called it's not the mythic pool i can't remember what it's called yeah but you're talking about uh you go into that under that underground area and uh near where oran's lair is and you progress through that whole thing and it's like an hour of gameplay and you have the the encounter with another brain uh and then you get transported to uh inside the astral prism yeah and if you're doing my playthrough, my style of playthrough, the way I did it,

which you didn't do, because I went through all the Githyanki quests, I went through all the Lae'zel quests, part of what you do is you go to the hells to retrieve the Orphic Hammer, and then you use the Orphic Hammer to liberate Orpheus. Yes.

I had forgotten to bring the Orphic Hammer with me. And so I had to reload from before uh that first part of the encounter yeah because you can't go back to your camp at that point like and you couldn't go back to your camp at any of my saves up to that so i just had to replay all of it now they've included a thing where that you you can i guess retrieve those items i was really morally um confused by that the quest to get with the hammer um because you're making a deal with the devil and i did do this um i like talked to him first of all i'm getting at this brothel and i'm like what am i gonna do not explore see what's going on here is caress yeah of course yeah i gotta see what's

going on um and uh exercised every option that i had until they were like go be free don't come back um and then i you know i met with uh with uh rafael right his name and he's the devil in this you know a devil in this game and he's giving me you know know, a very devilish option. You can have this, you gotta get the, I'll give you this hammer, you take this, free Orpheus, but that crown is like mine, basically, is like his thing. And I'm like, I don't wanna help this guy. He's like helping me a little bit right now, but no.

And then, what I did was I saved outside of it before I went to go talk to him again so i could reload it in case i didn't like yes what happened and i said yes and my entire party was like what the fuck are you doing we just signed a deal with the devil right and i was like no i didn't and i like reloaded my save because I'm not gonna make anybody mad but then it seemed like the quest when there's a quest marker there that's something to go back to like that's something you sort of like not necessarily like implicitly have to do but that one wasn't going away right it kind of wants you to go down to the hells I didn't get I don't think I got down to the hells it sounds like yeah I and and I think you'll probably if you do a subsequent playthrough all the way through like that will be a thing you want to explore because it is an awesome area.

And there is it does have like really, you know, pivotal story importance. Because, yeah, I don't know. You do have the option of making the deal with Raphael in exchange. He wants the crown of Carsus. I actually have not investigated what happens if you get to the end game. You've made that deal and you haven't undone it and you just have to hand him the crown i guess yeah uh but and i don't know what what how what the ramifications are but i can't imagine it's a positive thing because as it stands where you were we were i sort of branched off to start

this conversation yeah you get to the the the what is it called the realm the um you get inside the astral prism in the astral prism where orpheus is locked up can we just talk about how great that reveal is what the astral prism actually is it's really really good or the artifact as you know it at first yeah because it's like i thought this was just going to be a mcguffin this will be like a jj abrams style mystery box and whatever it's just an artifact but then you actually learn what it is and you actually learn it's like some men in black shit yeah that it contains a universe within it's really cool also let's talk about i mean this is a good time to talk about the emperor right because the emperor is also there in this option

so the emperor the the uh you know at first you encounter the emperor as because the emperor is also there in this option so the emperor the the uh you know at first you encounter the emperor as the dream visitor who is just like this figure who is coming to you at night uh while you're sleeping uh and is as a based off of a design that you create i guess the implication being like this is a thing that was the emperor created to appeal to you. Yes. And. And so that eventually reveals themselves to be a mind mind flayer, a mind flayer in disguise, the emperor who has an incredibly interesting story and a bunch of interactions, a bunch of choices you can make. My first time through the game, I did like I was just like completely with the emperor. I was like, you know what, this guy, I think maybe what this game is trying to say is that, hey, the Mind Flayers

aren't so bad after all, and hey, you're turning into a Mind Flayer, you know what, that's maybe okay. Maybe we've been too quick to judge. I thought it was maybe making some sort of comment like that, and that the Emperor was just a figure of good. And then, obviously, as it progresses, you start to get a sense that, oh, wait, no,

maybe there's something else going on here. He is kind of like a neutral evil figure. I don't know. I can't claim to know enough about the granularity of different alignments to particularly sign him. He is a guy who acts only in his own interest, purely as utilitarian calculus. And on my second playthrough, I really felt that And on my second playthrough, I really felt that because on my second playthrough, I kept pushing back on him. And for instance, there is a moment where

you can fuck the mind flayer. You can fuck the emperor. I did that on my first playthrough too. Everyone is disgusted. Everybody was really mad. Everybody was really so mad at me every time I would stray from my shadow heart.

You also like smell bad, which is the thing. It's like a stench that follows you. So anyway, so the second time I rejected him and what's amazing

if you reject him, especially having been like romanced by him for the first time and you have this experience and the game tells you it's the greatest experience of your entire life.

Yeah. Like you were at one in complete psychic unity in a sexual encounter. Yeah, exactly. I slept with a squid. That was my highlight. I loved it.

My second playthrough when I reject him, he immediately is like, yes, that's good. You passed the test or whatever. He's just kind of like, or just like, yes, it's probably good not to mix work and pleasure. Just completely moves on. And your character has a moment of like,'re affected by how how immediately he shifted. And it just really hammered home like, oh, this is all pure manipulation. This guy is doing everything he can to try to to just get you to accomplish what he wants to accomplish, which is for him to, you know, him to eat Orpheus's brain and then to claim the power of the nether brain.

So I think throughout the game, I don't know if I made like morally consistent choices. Yeah. Because with me not doing the quest To get the Orphic hammer I'm confronted with And I've spent a lot of time with the emperor

So I'm sort of like I guess this guy's like my friend He told me that he Revealed that he wasn't who he said he was I guess I can trust him now Then I did that side quest Where there's like the undead dragon He like revealed that he wasn't who he said he was. I guess I can trust him now, right? Then I did that side quest where there's like the undead dragon answer. And you then learn that the emperor is Baldurin.

Yes. And this is answer. There is the undead dragon. Again, this is stuff you can completely ignore. This is completely optional. Because also, the way to get into his lair, well, I had to look it up because I was like, I don't know how to get past this fucking wall.

Yeah. And then you have to use a thunder spell on two candelabras, and then it's like, there you go, now you can go in. I was like, how in the, I mean, I guess if I read the, the things like, you know, the tomes and things like that, pay more attention to that. It probably tells you. And I think that's maybe part of why my playthrough, even my first playthrough took like 15 hours more than you is like, I cannot resist reading every single book in its entirety.

And there is a book that has like that, that spells out how that works. But then also, if you in terms of how you sequence it, if you rescue Will's father, Duke Raven Guard, right? That's the name. You rescue Duke Raven Guard from the submarine. This game sounds like nonsense. If you've not played it. I came down to the hills to do two things. I can confirm it sounds like nonsense. You rescue, if you rescue him from the submarine,

he gives you more context. And I think he also tells you partly how you're supposed to discover. I think with some of those guys, I was like, all right, shut up, dude. I saved you. Leave me alone. But so you get down there,

you learn that the emperor is Baldurin and he is the founder of Baldur's Gate. So I was like, okay, he's like not that bad. Like he's maybe like a kind of, but you know, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Right. So like you have to then think about how he has become, he's chosen to become a mind flayer at this point or, you know, and then he's like, strong, and he wants, he wants the crown for himself, so he could be, he could rule over, uh, everything, and you could either choose to, join him, or, or not join him,

or you could do what I did, which was, which, this is where I was saying, this is morally inconsistent. I let him, basically kill Orpheus. Yes. Sacrifice Orpheus sacrifice Orpheus horrifying

absolutely just a horrifying choice an insane choice an accidentally consistent choice with my choice to ignore the Githyanki completely yeah for sure yeah

no you had it the great liberator of the Githyanki people unjustly imprisoned you let a monster eat his brain i told i told nick that i did this and he texted me you basically gave up githyanki nelson mandela and i was like i was i wasn't really looking into it as closely as i should have at that point um but i let him do that so then he's in my party now as like a fifth guy

and i'm like okay well this is actually really Good because now I don't just have four guys I have five so we're going Into this you know guns blade You're sitting pretty And so now you know we're doing The thing where we have to get to the To get to the crown

And that was a that was a bitch and a half That was really hard for some reason You mean you mean this When you're in the city or when you get inside the, uh, getting past the city was like, not, that's basically nothing, but was hard. That's basically just like a, a sprint through it. You run through the city, you get from point A to point B, you climb the brainstem and then you are fighting the nether brain. Yes.

So yes, it's that, that's the encounter where there's a red dragon in the center um there's a bunch of tentacles that spring up the the dream visitors i do think actually this is an awesome moment that hits is that all is that dream visitors spawn uh four of them yes and in my case gail goes uh the figure from my dreams yeah it's like oh everyone's had dream visitors this whole time the emperor's been manipulating everyone in the party i just had no i had no idea this was happening and so those guys i guess they're not really dream visitors they're like uh i guess the in mine it's i don't know if it's explained exactly like that but they are like um what are they called they're called are they called thralls or something where they're like basically copies of yes my party yeah

And so like if Gale was casting a spell and the Gale copy was nearby he would counter spell it I'd be like well this I hate this so you got yeah, that's interesting because I had not explored this version yet So you get a different version of it because what's happening with when they turn the dream visitors on you because you're it's because you're fighting the Emperor if you refuse to hand over orpheus instead you liberate him and then orpheus joins your party and then the emperor is an enemy in the final encounter and instead of those thralls it's the uh the dream visitor yeah so because like so in mine he uh he has the the three nether stones and he's going to to use that to take down the crown, to break the barrier on the crown, so that you can open a portal. It sounds crazy.

So you open a portal, and then you can fight the brain, and the brain is not hard. Once you get to the brain, you're basically done. Yeah, for sure. It was very, very easy to take down their brain Because everything else up until that point Is pretty challenging I died a lot on my way To the crown

Because there's a complete strategy You can't really go On the path where the brain is Because that's where the tentacles come up And that's going to fuck you up There's a dragon that's at play But the dragon sort of, everybody kind of really only attacks who's closest to them.

The dragon will do big area attacks that you can survive if you're careful, but getting to the crown was hard for me. But once you beat the nether brain, I'm really interested in, because you said the ending I got would shock me or something. And I was like, save it to tell me later.

I'm going to tell you basically what happened in my game. So I sacrificed Orpheus. I teamed up with the Emperor to destroy the Mother Brain. And then now, based on who was in my party, based on finishing these story, these character quests this is what happened to everybody. Karlak went back to Avernus with

Will because she was going to explode and I gave her the option of like do what you want to do. She was willing to basically explode and explode in my arms. Even though she was not in my romance. We were very, very close. I love that. She was like, she told me that she loved me. No, she told me she ad not in a romance. We were very, we were very, very close. I love that. She was like,

she told me that she loved me. And no, she told me she adored me. Wow. And that made me feel like a million bucks. Yeah. I loved it. And then Will is like,

we can go to Avernus. You're not going to be sick there. We can then, you know, have some more time to figure out what's going on. Yeah. That happened to my first playthrough too. So they left together. Two of them teamed up,

which is cute. Asterion, Asterion, it looks now, oh, oh, cause this is what happened. I skipped a major point. We they left together. Two of them teamed up. Which is cute. Asterion, oh, because this is what happened. I skipped a major point. We defeat the brain

and you have the option of giving it to the Emperor or you taking it yourself. Yeah. Or destroying it. The Emperor really wanted me to give it to him and I did not like how he was telling me that. So we did destroy it.

So that was where I think it was really morally inconsistent. I did so many things to partner with the emperor up until that point, and then I was like, his vibe is kind of weird with this. Yeah. He kind of wants this too much. I think there's a very moral reading of what you did, which is that you just kind of played his own game. You like you did the same sort of manipulation and, you know, pragmatic calculations to achieve your end, which was destroying the crown and freeing the city and destroying the nether brain and getting rid of the mind flare menace. And you were you you partnered up with this guy because it was convenient, not because you were actually allied with him. Yeah, I do think that was sort of like

the driving force throughout the entire game because I was like, oh, well, I get these powers. Okay. Oh, he's going to help me? All right, sure, whatever. And then of the three options, I felt like siding with the emperor or taking the crown for myself

was going to make my friends really mad. And I couldn't sit with that. I was like, that's not right. That's not what I'm doing in this playthrough. I really love my friends. So because of that and everybody's illithid powers vanishing after the mother brain is destroyed for good,

Asterion, no longer able to be in the sunlight, is now a regular vampire again Runs away And you did not ascend him right? I did not ascend him no And I'm not really sure what happened with Uh Jahira and Minsc They seemed fine

I feel like because Jahira's main quest is to get Minsc She was like Okay this is fine I don't really 100% remember what was going on with them Minsc is Just to touch on him real quick And I didn't really 100% remember what was going on with them Minsk is by we just to talk touch on him real quick I didn't finish Minsk's quest I think okay Minsk is like was like a fan favorite character you know for the original Baldur's Gates and it's I it's it's such a fun way they thought of how to bring him back because he has a human lifespan and this takes place like

what a hundred years later so like well I get he gets petrified and everyone thinks he's a statue and then he comes back to life um but you know he's manipulated into being the stone lord this figure of the underworld his dialogue is so funny he's hilarious this is the kind of thing of just like man this this game is amazing because it's just like the level of writing is this is this high quality where this guy just has like solid jokes consistently but it's just like the Level of writing is this is This high quality where this Guy just has like solid jokes consistently But it's all coming from his character And he has a little

Hamster that he talks to yeah boo Is really fun um Well he's actually like a miniature giant Space hamster to be clear um And so They seemed okay Gail Gail went off because gail his whole thing was uh minstra mister mister yeah mister uh like the god that he worshipped was basically like bring

me the crown and we can like you know i could fix stuff and like or you know use it to my benefit and things like that and he saw through that and was like i what if i just take the crown and i was like i don't yeah he i could not convince him not to do this yeah by the way because we got into some like arguments in the late game he was like i think we should go we should go up there and you should give me the crown And I was basically like I don't I don't know man that sounds crazy Was he also lobbying to use the orb

Was that another thing he was doing He was like very anti the orb For some reason I would pitch the orb and he'd be like I'm not doing the fucking orb I think what happened did you see where you were in terms of Your relationship with him He liked me everybody in my party really liked me up until like i mean i didn't check at the end but um basically what happens to gail is he goes

after the broken crown he's like with the nether stone i can repair it and then i can become a god so in the epilogue i see him he's fucking he's fucking silver now. And he's a god. He's got glowing eyes. He's like, yeah, I became a god. I'm a god of, ah. He's like the god of inspiration or something, or something like that. And so he helps people. He basically helps people with the things that they care about the most, which is cool.

Which is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. But my tab dialogue options were like, all right, I'm really happy for you. If you're happy, I'm happy. At the reunion, Karlak was like, can I have a hug? And they got to hug. And I was like, this is incredible. I love this. Shadowheart, my romance option in the game. At the end of the game, after destroying the mother brain, was like, hey, I have to go serve Lady Shar. And I was like, you're killing me?

Wait, so did you kill the Night Song? Yeah. Matt, this is wild. We not only killed the Night Song, Shar, look, Shadowheart did kill the Night Song song and she also killed her own parents in front of all of us and then char made her forget about it and we're all just like

we all saw that like my whole party was like i guess it's good that she can't remember what she just did uh because then you get to this temple or this this like this place where oh it's the it's the house of house of grief you go to the house of this place where, oh, it's the House of Grief. You go to the House of Grief, and the House of Grief is a place where your memories are wiped completely. And this is why she can't remember anything. Because Shard, not unlike any other of these powerful figures in this game, is just manipulating everybody to serve what they're doing. Which I guess I didn't really realize until I got to this point And then you get to the point where Shadowheart's parents are

Captured and they're of a different Religious sect They like are like What are you called The Saluna Basically the opposite god The light god And so you learn that they're

Her parents I think it's the moon god. Doesn't matter. And all this dialogue is happening. All these dialogue options are happening. Yeah. And I'm just picking, I'm staying out of this because I'm like, this definitely feels like something I shouldn't get in the middle of. But if I, I guess I was like, i don't know what i can stop here this is really

crazy because char is like you have to kill them to you know to ascend like to like to become closer to me you have to do that and shadow heart's like what do you think i should do and i was like i guess just do whatever you think is good. And she's like, okay. And then just kills her parents like it's like nothing, basically. That's wild. And yet I still love her with all my heart. It was like a really crazy thing because then I talked to Karlak and Gale afterwards and they had dialogue options for like, I guess it's good. Some things you're not supposed to remember. And hopefully she never remembers this.

But like the in-world logic there is they'll always remember that. They'll always remember that their friend killed their parents in front of you. Imagine seeing that Jesus Christ. And then them just being like, I don't know what happened here, but I feel really close to my, my God now.

Um, and so she leaves me at the end and, um, comes back, uh, to the reunion and, um, comes back, uh, to the reunion and is now like basically in charge of like the religion. Like it's like, is like the,

like basically like one of the head people in, in, in, in the house of Char. And, uh, we still got to kiss though. Uh,

it's interesting because, you know, I, I was was i was trying to do uh goody two-shoes playthroughs both times yeah and talked shadow heart out of killing the night song my first playthrough the second playthrough i let her decide she throws the spear over the side and into the into the abyss wow um and rejects char and ultimately comes to embrace Saluna by the end game. And the whole thing there is that what to do with their parents is like. You still have the unspeakable choice of whether like you let them live or you let them die. But the what happens in that version is that the parents are asking for death because they've been so tormented and they know that that she will always be haunted by the pain that she gets from her wound.

Char will forever punish her until she does that. She makes the choice to interest kill her own parents. So it's like it's like a crazy thing. I mean, the game calls it an unspeakable choice. choice yeah but it is like that the character basically flips and like her character ultimately is like realizes that that she's been brainwashed um uh based on a lie and that she needs to escape this thing that's entrapped her and uh and so as such you don't uh you you free the night song um you kill balthazar uh who was the guy who tasked you with killing her or was tied into that mission

with Ketherick Thorne, and then the Night Song becomes your ally and fights on your side and is at your camp. I wish I'd known that because that is cooler, because I also here's the thing, I went through the trouble of killing Balthazar,

which was a hard battle. I was through the trouble of killing Balthazar. Yes. Which was a hard battle. Yeah. I was having a lot of trouble with that. And yeah. And then I just, as soon as that was done, I was like, okay, you come here dead. Like just like kill, kill the night song immediately after doing that, like without really even thinking about it. So here's what happened with my end game.

The first time through, I got what I think is, I did what I opted to, what I think is meant to be the canon ending because of all the choices you can make it within the astral prism. This is the one that gives you an achievement. And also the way my second play through played out when I made a different choice, I was like,

Hmm, they're very much, it feels like the game is pushing you towards this one. It's like, this is the way that this is whatever the most moral of all the paths that are available to us. To you. You reject the alliance

with the Emperor. The Emperor goes and fights on behalf of the Nether Brain. You use the Orphic Hammer to free Orpheus. It's a very funny scene because if you fucked the Emperor free Orpheus. It's a very funny scene because if you fucked the Emperor, Orpheus comes out out of this, you know, eons long

imprisonment and looks at you and is like, you fornicated with a mind flare! And I was talking to a friend of the show past guest, Eva Anderson, who also experienced the same thing. She was like, it's so funny. It's the first thing he said. And then also, if you think about it, he witnessed this.

You did it in front of him. Yeah. That's so funny. From his perspective, he's just like chained up watching like, you know, a humanoid do the nasty with this fucking squid monster. Can't even jack off. That's his issue but also if you if you like uh evolved your illithid parasite or whatever he's like you stink of mind flayer and then he he basically scolds you and he talks you into or he he he basically says that what you the you didn't do the moral thing.

You did exactly what the emperor did. You just prioritized your own survivability. If you actually were acting morally, you would have surrendered to my honor guard. They would have freed me. They would have killed you. And it would have been a noble end. So he tells you all this, but ultimately is like, I will ally with you anyway, because this is my only choice at this point.

How many allies did you have in like, in the end game? I'm not sure how many you can have. I feel like I had everybody, but then again, I'm like, I think I haven't looked it up. I mean, I had, I really had a huge, when they have that Avengers thing of everyone saying they're with me. Yeah. It was like 10 minutes. Really?

That's so long. I had, so yeah, I had like, I jahira and minsk in the harpers right i had um shadow hearts denizens uh whatever they're called the like the shaharan yeah whatever the shaharans yeah i had them i had mizora that like she's a drow right yeah yeah no mizora is the uh there's two that look similar uh mizora is will's devil yes so i had her i had her and um and then i had just some like plain guys like like some like uh like probably people that i saved like early on right you get like some foot soldiers who work for the, uh,

I can't remember the name of the, uh, fire faction. That's like the, the flaming, the flaming fist. Yeah. And I was just like,

okay. Like, and I used all of them basically until they are presumably dead. Yeah. Cause they did not make it to the, they did not make it to, um, to see the end of the,

the game. I think Missouri, not, uh, Jahira and Minsk did I didn't see I didn't see Mazora again so I had Volo yeah Volo Volo Just kind of gives you a boon I mean if Halston's still around he'll give you a boon as Well and then you can get a bunch of them

I mean it depending on which tieflings you save Some of those can show up The the the gnomes They can show up So The gnomes, they can show up. Didn't have any of them. So I had a whole bunch. But here's the thing. I feel like that final encounter, it's just the characters you can summon are kind of just cannon fodder.

Yes. And whatever. I'm sure that's by design. I do wonder if that encounter is going to be rebalanced or rethought at a certain point. But it's like I kind of wish it was more just Pure power fantasy I kind of wish it was More just like you know what all my guys are here This is going to turn into dynasty warriors

For one encounter and we're just going to Absolutely wreck house we're just going to sprint All the way through the you know through the gates Of the city and get to the nether brain Then I'm cleaning things up but you can but I also Had like the night song was available and then do you remember your gear uh this is the guy that you talk you can potentially talk into killing himself yeah um to overcome that boss encounter a few things have to go your way but in my second playthrough i taught i you know i i

defeated him there he returns in the hells as raf's ally. Wow. And then in that encounter, you can also talk him into betraying Raphael and fight Raphael on your behalf. And then after that, you can follow another. Yeah, exactly. You can persuade him endlessly. After that, you can do another persuasion thing to get him to fight for you in the final battle. And he is a fucking monster. That rocks. He's great.

There's also, did you follow up with a strange ox? Do you remember that character? I did. And I lost track of him at some point. So yeah, he shows up again in all the acts and you can keep talking to him. He ends up being a shapeshifter. And if you bring him all the way into the city, then he fights on your side and he's another guy.

He can just like shapeshift into a minotaur or spider or whatever. And just like, that'd be so funny if he was like, I can only do a cow. So, so anyway, to continue what I was saying. Yes.

So that happens with Orpheus. You free Orpheus. Then he's like, but here's the thing. The emperor is right. We need a mind flayer in order to confront the nether brain. That's the only person who can wield the nether stones. Yeah. So you need to become a mind flayer in order to confront the nether brain that's the only person who can wield the nether stones yeah so you need to become a mind flayer and on my first playthrough

that's what i did my my character turned into a mind flayer and it's it's it's one of those things you don't realize how jarring it is and how attached you are to a player to to your character that you created that you've played for like 100 hours to just be like oh your fit your entire physical form is going to change your abilities are going to change you're going to have you're going to just be a completely different character and it's presented as a sacrifice and it is like you as the player have to sacrifice that um but it is presented as like the most morally just option i think the game is pointing you towards that the whole time like especially with the evolution of your illithid parasite with how objectively more powerful your character gets

once you do that yeah and then also i just think thematically so much of this is just like accepting this thing you can't control and following it to its end point and realizing that you are going to be completely different, but you can continue to exist, you know, as this different creature. But ultimately, someone has to do it. So that was in the first party. By the way, in my postgame, I also romance Shadowheart.

Shadowheart and the Mind Flayer were still together, which is crazy to think about. That's wild. They were like roaming the wilds together. In my second playthrough, I just wanted to make a different choice. I was like, all right, I saw this one. And i thought maybe i was gonna i was gonna have gail use the orb but ultimately use my boyfriend and i said i wanted to see what the romance epilogue was although i think there is one even if he does blow up when the orb

imagine that's the one thing that's not in there like i don't know he he he went he went home i guess so the emperor uh is willing to turn into a mind flayer to me that is just like a really uh you know to me that's almost a more repulsive option than killing him that he has to like transform into the thing that he hates yeah he has to surrender his physical form after being you know released from prison for the first time um he has to give up his soul or whatever and he's willing to do it but Carlock volunteered to become a mind flayer yes so I let her do it and Carlock is a mind flayer and this Matt your jaw is a gate this is what I knew you're gonna be shocked by Carlock was a mind flayer my endgame now what made me think

on the second playthrough that like this is not you know that they're directing you towards doing this with the player character is that there would be moments in there where like orpheus or like the people of balder's gate uh or you know or lazel would be like you're the hero you sacrifice for all of us and they're talking to carlack and i'm like oh they're this is now the central character in this story uh this party member of mine who selflessly was like well my heart is going to fail anyway. I'm going to die. At least I can go out as a hero.

At the epilogue, Karlak returns as a mind flayer and it's Karlak's voice actor, but talking in kind of a mind flayer way. Personality has completely transformed. It's still saying like, hey there soldier, but it's talking about like snacking on the brains of criminals to for sustenance And it's it's just like it's just a crazy thing. I honestly felt Very guilty after I did it. I was like man. This is this is this was a selfish act to force this on to

onto one of the party members I so in I could have had either had the Emperor do it, which is what I did. Yeah, I could have either had the emperor do it which is what I did yeah I could have become a mind flayer yes I also had the car like option

yeah I worked so hard to convince her not to do it yeah there's like a couple of dialogue options you go through

it's like two or three things where she's like I'm just gonna do it I'm gonna die anyway she wants to do it yes yeah and I was like no stop stop stop

no no no no no because there was an instance earlier where I texted you guys this. When I was finishing up her character quest and she realizes there's not a cure for this

that I can do right now. And then she kind of accepts her fate. She goes back to the camp. Sort of like distraught that she's like, you know, ultimately going to succumb to, you know, her heart explodingumb to uh you know her heart exploding this is the moment where you kill gortash yes and and she gortash was like her captor basically and just like you know and she hates him and so she finally gets vengeance and

then it's kind of like what i don't feel any better what was this so i've already been you know really attached to carl ike at this point and then talking to her and then hearing her accept this reality i'm getting like choked up i got like tears in my eye and i'm like the video game's never done this to me and then we get to the end there which is like i'll become a mind player and now i'm like really fighting them back i I'm like, no, you will not do this. And I did not let her do it. Yeah. Because I just like couldn't, I just couldn't.

It seems like a cool way to do it. But then you immediately become second banana in the game that you've been spending. That's what it feels like. Something hours in. And also it feels like, you know, again, it's just like the, to me it it i i don't know there's there's there's no there's no the truth is there is no canon ending there is no canon romance there is no correct thing to do they're just options but i did everything right but um but it feels like you're they're pushing you toward this and it feels to me like the the most moral of the available

uh again unspeakable choices every like at some at certain point, is to self-sacrifice, is to surrender your own physical form and to accept the annihilation of your own soul so that everyone else can live. Earlier in the show, we were talking about our favorite quests and two of mine were in Act 3 that I didn't get to say. I didn't want to spoil it for Heather or the audience,

but mostly for Heather. If you're listening now sorry um there's a mission they're both involved gortash actually yeah so there's the one where you go you're down in the in the sewers of balder's gate and you're this, you know, you kind of just find stuff sometimes. So you find this area that has like a submersible, and then you talk to this guy, and he's like, yeah, I'm taking this submersible down to the Iron Throne, I think. That's what the submersible is called, or whatever,

or the secret base. They're like, okay, let's go down there. You get down there, Gortach is like, what the fuck are you doing over here, man? And I'm like... You take this episode one underwater vessel. It's like a really cool design. There's always a bigger fish.

Yeah, yeah. By the way, I think I'm going to go see that in theaters when it comes in May. I'm 100% going to see that in theaters. Are you kidding me? We'll talk about it later. You're going to miss the Phantom Menace in theaters. I saw it in 3D when it came out years ago. I'll go about it later. I've seen it. I'm going to miss the Phantom Menace in theaters. I saw it in 3D when it came out years ago.

I'll go see it again. But you get down there and he's like, what are you doing here? Also, he looks like Clive from Final Fantasy 16. He does. He does have Clive vibes. And almost down to how he's dressed and everything, too. But he's getting me mad. He's like, go back up and we'll just forget all about this.

And I'm like, I'm not going to go back up and just forget about all this. I know the Duke's down here. I'm going to save the Duke. And so then he's like, okay, I'm going to basically blow up this underwater ship. And then you have like eight turns or something In easy mode Or whatever, explorer mode To get, I think it's Is it eight or five?

Well in tactician I think you have five Okay so I think it's eight And the first time I attempted this Karlak was so far back At turn one I was like she's not gonna make it And then the thing explodes and I was like Karlak's fucking dead dude I had to reload because I was like carlack's fucking dead dude i can't i had to

reload because i was like i need carlack i just need her i can't i can't play this game without her at this point in another playthrough i think i'll let the chips fall or they lie in with things like that because i think that's that's interesting and that sort of makes it like um makes it fun but at that point i was not ready to say goodbye to her well that's what honor mode is for i mean you can always play that that you get one save and you just live with whatever oh interesting okay um because i saved everybody well the i bring i bring this mission up because saving everybody on that on that sub including um that one mind flayer guy yeah and a mellow um yeah and the duke i was like this is having played some dnd i was like this is the type of shit

My friends and I would get into In our campaign Yeah This is the most fun I've had so far It rocks That section rocks That section rocks And then

The section where you have to blow up The foundry Where those big mechanical Like soldiers are built Yes Also a fucking banger And you get the And the The iron hand gnomes right Yes They rebel and they're on your side Yes like soldiers are built. Yes. Also a fucking banger. And you get the, and the,

the iron hand gnomes, right? They, they rebel and they're on your side. You have to keep them alive. I don't know if there's an achievement for keeping them alive, but because like, I almost kept all of them alive.

Yeah. And then on, on like one turn, I just had, you know, two of the steel watch left, and one of them, like, leapt away from melee with my martial characters and went over and just, like, just hammered, like,

just fucking pole-axed one of the gnomes and killed him. I was like, oh, well, there's that. It is funny to think that I saved all of them in the sub, and then they did all die in the factory. Like, this was not... So you saved their their family because their families are on their subs Yeah, and it is cool. Like I I almost saved everyone on the on tactician I almost saved everyone on the sub to except for one gnome and what it was. I told you this map Two of them were in front of the ladder on the last turn. Yes And I had I had a game this out, and I had, you know, Will and my party and Gale and my party, they both had the Dimension Door spell, which lets you teleport yourself in one adjacent character.

So some of those gnomes, you know, I could go to the distant cells and transport them closer to the escape hatch. Two of them were in front of the ladder. One of them, I guess, goes first and maybe their escape route is blocked by the other gnome's positioning. I don't know exactly what the pathing issue is, but they look at the ladder, they turn away from the ladder, look back at the ladder, turn the other direction, and then just run in the opposite direction of the ladder. He's like, I forgot my phone. He's like, are you fucking kidding me? You both could have escaped. And the other one goes up

the ladder. And then so I had all but one gnome um on on tactician which was a bummer i think yeah i left behind like two randos uh but i got like the two like i got basically the people that were like come save my family at the factory and then the family died and then uh the two like named characters yeah um and i loved i loved that mission and i loved i loved what the reason i loved the blowing up the factory was you get a really cool um cinematic of everybody running out of the factory as it's exploding and i was just like this is like the movie i was like this is this is i love this uh did you have the big bomb or did you have a different way of destroying the factory i had to work with like a blind um okay so you're gonna bring that guy down so like i if you uh and i wish i could remember the name of the other gnome

faction um uh the under dark gnomes that you that you run into but but if you keep Wolbrin, Bongol, and Barkusroot alive, they give you a bomb that can detonate it so you can skip the thing of bringing that guy down with you, the guy who's been blinded. I wish I had that, because he was a bit of a hindrance, this guy.

Yeah. I had to really keep him alive. I think they've been buffed in the most recent update. Just to talk one more thing about the epilogue, just to return to that real quick. That was a thing that was added in the update. And if you think about completing this game without having the epilogue, without having that little bit of space to sort of breathe and just sort of like decompress from this, this, you know, hundred hour thing that you just committed to.

It would have felt very abrupt. And so I love that they added the epilogue. It's just such a great, you know, come down after this, after this journey. As far as as far as a third act quest for me, one thing I'll touch on. Did you talk to Biscotti the dog? No. as far as third act quest for me um one thing i'll touch on did you talk to biscotti the dog no i talked i used uh talk to animals on like every single cat i could find and there was like a cat that i think had some more things going on but i couldn't keep up with did you talk to the the the noir cat no there's a cat who's just sort of like a hero enters the enters the city he meets his companion you know like i did talk to him and failed uh failed like a hero enters the city. He meets his companion, you know?

I did talk to him and it failed like a roll or something. Like there was like something that I failed. There's a part like there's only one question. Are they up to the task? Yeah. And then I think if you say yes, he's like, he failed the first test. He was too trusting, you know, or whatever. Yeah, I think that's what it was.

It's really fun. It's a nifty piece of writing. I talked scratch too i didn't realize is great uh i love scratches like a companion dog that you have at at your camp and he'll bring you um little things that he finds and i i spoke with him and i i really enjoyed his his voice his voice work as well they do a great job of characterizing animals in the writing biscotti is a fancy little dog uh who is owned by one of the refugees and uh if you talk to him he's basically he's like is he gonna say it are you gonna say it oh please please say it and then if you're like who's a good boy he's like oh yes you said he's like so happy it's really really funny Anyway, as far as quests go,

this was a big change versus my first playthrough. There is a Githanki egg in the creche that you can steal. The first time I was like, this is going to displease Lae'zel. I don't want to do this, and this feels like this is going to have consequences for this faction I'm possibly going to ally with. The second time through, I was like, I'm going to steal this fucking egg

because I didn't do it the first time. Let's see what happens. You steal the egg. You give it to someone who's affiliated with a society of brilliance. That's who a mellow one works with the mind flayer and the hobgoblin. So if you don't do that, you can get to the society of brilliance and it's this like Mensa like institution of geniuses that can help you and can tie into some of the quests in Act

3. If you give them the egg, when you get to Act 3 and you go to the Society of Brilliance, everyone is dead. The egg hatched, a Githyanki emerged and killed everybody is ultimately what happened. And so it's just a thing. I was just like stunned. I just walked in and was like, oh my God, it's just a thing i was just like i was just like stunned i just walked in and was like oh my god it's just a fountain of blood in here there's just corpses lying all over the place and this guy who was very alive in my previous playthrough i now have to use

talk to the dead on him to hear what happened i didn't steal the egg and i killed that lady who asked me to do it i i mean i think that's fine too you know she was like mad at me and I was like I just not stealing because I don't even know you uh anyway that was awesome the other one was I yeah I do really like retrieving dribbles account the clown's corpse I think it's fun um but but the hag survivors like that's another one where I I didn't follow up with a hag on my first playthrough in the second playthrough there's so much you can do with the hag did you do this in act three i like lost track of the hag at some point like there was it's easy to miss yeah yeah yeah so basically what you can find is there's a group of people who have all been cursed by hags and they're trying to fight against hags um but they themselves have

like kind of now gone into exile because the consequences are so dire marina who is the woman who was entrapped by the hag in act one for her, she was pregnant. The reason she was being force fed is because she was pregnant and the hag is going to steal her baby to turn into another hag. So you find her, she's been polymorphed into a sheep. You have to de-sheep her. And then once you do, you find out that the hag is still in the city. You go track down the hag and then you fight do you find out that the hag is still in the city you go track down the hag and then you fight with the hag again uh and it has this whole like you know resolution to it but it's one of those things where it's like i can't believe how much of the game this thing is spanning that feels like a one-off quest that you're just doing and uh with this transformed

anti-ethel in the first part it's really it's really cool i loved like the detective stuff that you had to do like yeah that's fun too. In Act 3, solving this, who's doing this murder? And then, of course, Orin. Yeah. The queen of murder. Orin rocks. Orin's such a fun... I didn't love Ketherick because I thought J.K. Simmons was bad.

How dare you? I always think he's good, but I thought his voice in it was not great. I was just like, I don't know, maybe I was reading too much into it, but it kind of, to me, sounded like he didn't know what he was saying. I think it's maybe not the most locked in he's ever been. But I always love him. I always think he's great. I think it's funny and cool that he's buff.

I think it's great. But I liked Gortash because I liked his missions the most but I loved Orin because she was just she was the most Heather Ann Campbell character in the one of the more

Heather Ann Campbell characters in the game yeah I was like who's the most Heather character is it Orin is it Shovel who we talked about yeah um uh who's the the assumable character who just yells profanities um or is it the hag is it the hag or is it the option that i think did you meet the i don't remember what her name is but she's just like scary big lady that like eats gold and she she's like, give me your gold. yeah,

yeah, yeah. One of that's, that's one of the thorns that's in that the, uh, the cursed lands. Yeah. I think that's a pretty strong contender for a Heather character.

Uh, I, I have two more things that I'm, that I'm going to say. Um, and then I, and if you have any other thoughts, but we should,

we should wrap this up. We've gone way too long, but I, the, the, the one thing I wanted to say, and to hammer home how well the emperor is characterized. So much of the game is you manipulating other people through conversation. Persuasion checks are so common.

Deception checks are so common, like intimidation checks. These are things that are happening throughout. That's so much of what the game is. These are things that are happening throughout. That's so much of what the game is. The Emperor is doing that to you the entire time and that they were able to manipulate not a fictional character in the game, but you, the player, into doing what the Emperor wants. I don't know. It's just like a really cool reversal and like a bit of a mindfuck when you think about what the game is doing to you. But I think that's really effective. The other thing I want to talk about is Withers, which we were texting about this, but Withers seems pretty clearly to be Jurgle, the god of death, who is or the lord of the end of everything is his proper title, but like a more powerful death god than any of the ones that are being, you know, facilitated by the chosen three.

Yes. And it's really interesting to think of his role, especially that that portion of the epilogue when he's looking at the painting of the three defeated, you know, gods Bane, and Merkle, and effectively scolding them. Merkle's all, did I do that? I wish I'd ever heard that. Just thinking in terms of like, oh, everything he was doing behind the scenes in terms of helping you and facilitating you just so that you could help that you could. It's another figure who is like it was omnipresent, who is who is changing the courses of events, who is directing you towards doing what what facilitates their aims.

So it's I don't know. I like that that revelation as well. And that seems very strongly supported by a bunch of text in the game and also like, you know, some data mined assets or what have you. I would love, and I don't know how impossible this would be

because it seems like I'm about to ask for perhaps the thickest book alive. Yeah. I would like a lore book of specifically Baldur's Gate 3. Like this, like, you know, I could could probably just read like we were talking about this we could probably just read like uh you know one of the dnd books or whatever right you know the character manual like to get context for some of the characters or you know but not all the characters are in

yeah um but i I would just like to know more information and maybe on my second playthrough I'll just read the little pieces of paper and most of my inventory is books and paper by the way I'm just like picking up everything that I see and just being like I guess I'll read this later

but I I can't yeah I can't wait to start another one uh start another playthrough uh i feel like even though we've gone long there's still a million things we haven't even talked about that's the main issue is like oh i'm gonna talk about or in a bunch of like we're just completely yeah here how about this orin's cool we like orin did you did you kill the murder council or did you uh kill the holophant i did both

i accidentally i accidentally killed the that little like elephant guy yeah who i loved yeah i think i must've, I think I selected the wrong like thing or something like not like, oops, I clicked the wrong thing. I maybe clicked one that I thought was going to give me a different result. I was like, I guess he's dead.

But then I was like, I don't like that. They made me do that. So I'm going to kill these guys and killed all them. So when I went to, you know, the, the, the hall of, you know, the, the,

the hall of, or the, yeah, the different murder organization, murder factions, I just like got to like walk on through basically. Cause they're like, Oh,

he killed the, the three. I do. That's what I was going to say is I do really like when they're just like, um, what, like what is your proof? And you can hand over the bag of hands that you get or whatever uh from the dwarf who's killing people but you can also just say like

i killed the murder council and they're like unorthodox but yeah welcome in but oh and so something else too about withers that was great was that we were texting a little bit about how there's so many things like you know wish i could have done differently or like things i could have seen in this first playthrough that i didn't get to see or really experienced or follow through all the way to the end. And I think this is a good way to wrap up the conversation. Cause withers is basically like, Hey man,

you're not going to see everything. And don't, don't worry about the things you didn't see, like celebrate the things that you did do. It's a dialogue. It's so great. It was perfect. I was like,

it made me so happy and immediately like alleviated all the stress i had about finishing the game i was like you know what withers thank you thank you withers um and yeah just what a what an incredible experience and um you know i know that we just did an episode about it but i'm sure we'll And, you know, I know that we just did an episode about it, but I'm sure we'll continue to talk about it for the rest of our lives on the podcast. But what a what a what an episode and what a what a what a game. Yeah, what an episode. The episode's good.

I'm going to call it now that the episode's good. What a what a big boy. What a big boy. Yeah. Yeah. This is a huge this is a this is a huge episode for a huge game. Yeah. is a huge uh this is a this is a huge episode for a huge game yeah um anyway uh that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of get played for our we play you play of baldur's gate 3 um and yeah i i just

i hope we did this game justice people are gonna be mad we definitely did not do this game justice Hey, buddy, it's Wyger. Okay, I know this is getting ridiculous, but I asked for something specific on our Discord, which was reactions to the ending. And I wanted to read a few of these because some people had some good thoughts. Also, I meant to, earlier in the episode, shout out one of my favorite random NPCs in any game who is the Dragonborn who wanders around the lower city loudly complaining that they took the puzzle section out of the newspaper.

Love that character. Oh, and I meant to say that Saravok from the Murder Tribunal is the antagonist of Baldur's Gate 2 and kind of goes down like a chump in this fight. But, you know, no big deal. Anyway, here are some of these. I guess we'll call it a some some bonus DLC for the Ryu crew. OK, first up, this is from P. Fafulis, Luigi Mane. Thought all of it was amazing. I freed Orpheus, turned on the Emperor,

became a Lithid myself. After the battle, I broke up with Bazel so she could go save the Gith. Karlak exploded and I committed suicide. 10 out of 10, I'm playing again. I had saved almost everybody, so I had a lot of choices for support, which was also nice.

Really satisfying ending. It actually mattered what I had done. Everything paid off well. Hoogizoo writes, I finished the game a couple of weeks ago. I loved the ending I got. I became an illithid. I freed Orpheus earlier. He was going to become an illithid, but I told him I would do it so he wouldn't have to, and was able to save almost everyone except for Karlak. Somehow I had screwed up or just totally missed some part of her quest line, so after we defeated the Elder Brain,

she went up in flames as I held her. I was sobbing my brains out and was a total mess for a solid hour after the credits rolled i knew there was some kind of post-credit scene but at the time my eyes were too tear-filled for me to even see what was happening wow that's rough i hope you're hope you're hanging in there at this point. Traumatic. Katie writes, I've heard that could happen with Karlak, and yeah, thankfully I avoided it in both my endings. Katie, I've seen a few different endings,

and overall I like how there is no perfect ending. You cannot save everyone, and I feel like it plays into the themes of the game where even the good choice comes with baggage. For example, it feels like Shadowheart doesn't really get a good ending. Astarion's best ending is he's still a vampire spawn and loses all his tadpole immunity to the sun. I love how many different ways things can play out and it's a big reason why I played through

the game two times, have multiple tabs, and just generally can't get enough of this masterpiece. Well said. Finally, Beatnik Bedlam writes, I romanced Karlak and went with her and Will to Avernus after killing the Netherbrain. I was very thorough about making sure everything went right on my playthrough, and I felt like I was really rewarded in the endgame with allies showing back up, etc. The epilogue was extremely satisfying. It felt like the exact right amount of downtime to cap things off, and I didn't feel like there were any big lingering threads that I wanted to get solved.

But I can't imagine playing a version of the game without it, especially if you chose to not have Astarion ascend, because he just fucking catches on fire and runs away. Gameplay wise, it was fine. They weren't my favorite fights in the game, but they were pretty cool, and it was very funny to just use my monk's step-of-the-wind dash to completely bypass that gauntlet

where the nautiloid shoots at you right before the final fight. This was in the House of Hope, but it's basically the same trick. And they link to a video of that. And yeah, it's it that that does see it basically. I mean, it's in the game, but it basically seems like an exploit how much ground you can traverse with this monk ability. I haven't played as a monk. Maybe I'll try that anyway.

Thank you, everyone, for writing in. Thank you to Emma for guest engineering the super long episode. And also special thanks to Rochelle who is editing this episode. I think on vacation. Sorry, Rochelle. Oh, I also meant to mention that I earlier in the episode said that there were

three paladin subclasses, but of course there are in fact four if you count Oathbreaker. So you can't yell at me because I already corrected myself. And if you've already yelled at me without hearing this correction first, you got played. Thank you. That was a HeadGum Podcast.