Baldur’s Gate 3 has special dialogues. But you will only see these if you spurn all companions – and never accept them into your group.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, players enjoy almost complete freedom. While there are a few small things that have to happen and you don’t have a choice about, the vast majority of the game is shaped by the decisions you make along the journey.
But the larger this selection is, the more cases have to be taken into account – even seemingly completely unrealistic situations. For example, if you never recruit an ally.
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What was said? In an interview with GQ magazine, lead systems designer Nick Pechenin spoke about how this freedom had to be honored in all areas – no matter how absurd it was.
We pursue the feeling of absolute freedom. I got the numbers today that only half a percent of all players reached the final battle without ever recruiting a companion. There is no achievement for this. The game never suggests to you that this is a good idea, but our dialogue still needs to support it.”
What kind of dialogues are these? Of course, if you don’t have any other companions, the big story of the game doesn’t change, but some events run a little differently. Instead of consulting with the companions, you only hear the narrator repeating the hero’s inner monologue.
At the same time, there are also some NPCs that you only get to see. Since you can kill pretty much anything and anyone in Baldur’s Gate 3, important characters tend to die before they have let players in on the most important plot points. Adam Smith, the Writing Director said:
The hardest part is making sure our players always understand what’s happening in the big story. Because we don’t always want to slow them down and say, “Here, let me just bring you up to speed.” But sometimes we just have to do that and have a character say, “Do you understand?” But even then, it’s a Larian game and you can just kill him and move on if you want.
Is that even fun? For many, the companions are likely to be a major attraction of the game. Completely foregoing the story of Shadowheart, Lae’zel or Gale isn’t exactly tempting for many people. However, there are also RPG fans who want to work their way through Baldur’s Gate alone – either as a challenge or character idea. This “Solo Tactician” challenge in particular was popular with many streamers.
If you see it all the way through to the end, you won’t be successful – but you can at least count yourself among the 0.5% who simply didn’t need anyone by their side and will at least be recognized for it by the narrator.
But all this effort was worth it for Larian – because Baldur’s Gate 3 became the game of the year at the Game Awards.