Baldur's Gate 3 Datamine Reveals More About The Game's Most Tragic Figure

screenrant.com:

A dataminer has revealed some surprising cut content around one of its most tragic characters. Time and time again, it's become apparent that the devil is in the details of . From major spoilers hidden in unassuming plain sight, to huge lore drops in unassuming flavor text, to backups upon backups that most players were never supposed to see, the attention to detail in goes impossibly deep. And hidden within the game's code, one player has revealed something groundbreaking, if not unprecedented.

While poking around in their files, Reddit user ElysiumTan discovered a line of dialogue suggesting that the tiefling bard Alfira was once supposed to be a recruitable companion. The line reads, "," which mirrors a common phrase that recurs whenever the player shuffles their party composition.

This isn't the first time players have found vestiges of a recruitable Alfira, either. Players like Reddit user Ok-Cryptographer1933 discovered that, when using a mod that shows how dialogue options impact companion affinity, Alfira's name sometimes appears with an approval rating.

So it appears that Alfira was once designed as a companion. Despite the myriad bards roaming the Forgotten Realms, and the general popularity of the class among players, there's not one recruitable bard in all of . That niche might once have been filled by Alfira, but she didn't make it into the final cut.

Both of the above Reddit threads suggest that Alfira might be added as a playable party member in a future update. While anything's certainly possible, the state of the game makes it unlikely Alfira will ever be restored as a companion.

Even in the current version of, there's evidence of a once-recruitable Alfira. She first appears in the tiefling settlement outside the Emerald Grove, when the player is actively recruiting party members. In fact, Alfira debuts just steps away from where they first meet Wyll. Their first interaction ends in a dramatic cutscene, complete with a full-length performance of her