Part of what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so successful is how players can form friendships, romance, and learn about the different companions they meet throughout the game.
These characters accompany them on their quests, helping them complete certain key story moments and completely changing the game’s ending in some cases. Given how important this aspect is to the game, Larian Studios head Swen Vincke’s revelation that they had created even more companion characters probably won’t surprise fans.
The team removed some of them entirely while reusing and integrating others into the game differently. During an interview with IGN, Vincke revealed that the main villain of Act 2, Ketheric Thorm, was originally intended to be a companion that players could recruit.
“If you play the game and there’s a moment where you can convince him and you see that there’s a moment where he falters, that moment would normally lead to recruiting,” Vincke began.
He then gave more details. “We removed this when we redefined the scope of the game. It was part of fixing Act 2 when we were stuck on it. […] We planned for him to be in your camp while you interacted with Gortash and Orin. So he became a source of information on them, and he could trust you, you could participate in his narrative arc. He could have convinced you to follow him. So it was a great story, but there you go.”
Vincke also explained that the Baldur’s Gate 3 development team at Larian Studios had originally planned for a much smaller map. For them, this choice was the central point in determining everything else.
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