LogInAlso, Larian thought about introducing multiple narrators, and one of them could be Matt Mercer.
Image credit: Larian Studios
Baldur's Gate 3 could be very different from what we know and love now. Larian Studios shared some curious details about its original vision for the game at GDC 2024.
Astarion lovers might be surprised to learn that the high elf was originally a tiefling sporting black hair and horns. As you can see in the picture below, he had a different outfit, but you can still recognize his charm I think.
This is not the only noticeable change in the game. Larian's CEO Swen Vincke shared that the team considered using multiple narrators to guide players through the adventure. However, they soon realized this wouldn't work.
"It was clear that if we were going to do it this way, it was gonna become incredibly expensive, because every single scene would have to be edited to mix the Dungeon Master and the actors," he said (via PC Gamer). "And what's more, we actually wanted to have multiple dungeon masters narrated by multiple people. So we had Matt Mercer on our minds already back then. But we said, you know, probably not going to work."
Matt Mercer is a familiar face for players. He narrates the Critical Role D&D series and has voiced a range of characters in video games and animated movies, including Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 6, Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Kurtis Stryker in Mortal Kombat 9, Cole Cassidy in Overwatch, and Minsc in Baldur's Gate 3.
"So we were looking for something easier to do," Vincke continued. "We found it in full-body performance capture. So the idea was that we were going to capture the actors. And doing everything, including their faces. And we were going to in this way, make better and engaging dialogues because we will have all of that nonverbal communication, the performance capture worked out, we actually did look for a long time at doing face capturing also, [but] that didn't work out."
He also confirmed that Larian is done with Baldur's Gate and D&D, so don't expect any DLCs or BG4 from it.
So which Astarion would you prefer: the elf or the one with horns? Find out more here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
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