Baldur’s Gate 3 launched in 2023 and became a monster hit afterward, sweeping almost all awards in the calendar year. However, as players continue their adventure in the fictional world of the Forgotten Realms, they have started poking holes at issues they would love Larian Studios to fix in Baldur’s Gate 4.
Up until the 2024 update to the Dungeons & Dragons rules, characters’ species were called ‘race’. It is one of the features of games in this niche that determines their abilities and class. Although there is a long variety of species available in Dungeons and Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3 represented only a few.
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In classic D&D, the list of species includes dragonborn, drow, elf, half-elf, dwarf, githyanki, half-orc, halfling, human, and tiefling. Even though Baldur’s Gate 3 presented players with 10 companions, only six of the possible 10 species were represented.
Halflings and dwarves were surprisingly absent in Baldur’s Gate 3 main character lineups—despite being a mainstay in D&D. However, Larian did give players the opportunity to create their own characters in any of the other species not represented by the main characters.
The lack of variety in Baldur’s Gate 3 character lineup was likely due to technical limitations and the difficulty in translating motion-captured performances to characters with limited humanoid proportions.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has thousands of lines of dialogue which is already an enormous work to translate. Adding the translation of motion capture of an actor’s performance into a Dragonborn was likely going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Although Larian Studios has confirmed it won’t be making Baldur’s Gate 4, any developer who decides to take up the job should consider improving this feature and having more diverse character species.
Do you fancy a fourth installment in the Baldur’s Gate franchise? GameBaba Universe would love to hear your thoughts.
