Baldur's Gate 3 designer says Act 3 tone shift criticisms are "valid", will try to be "less drastic" in future

rockpapershotgun.com:

Acts! It used to be just those old-timey theatre productions that had them, but as in many respects, videogames have nipped through a stage exit and stolen theatre's underpants. One act isn't the same as another, however: take the third act of Baldur's Gate 3, which many players feel isn't a patch, or indeed a hotfix changelog, on the thunderously well-received RPG's first two acts. According to senior RPG designer Anna Guxens, Larian have been following the reaction and are thinking about how they can handle act three's "drastic" tone shift better in future releases. It's a timely observation, because in separate news, Larian's CEO Swen Vincke has posted that he's "figured out" the first act of Larian's next unannounced project.

"Each act has its own flavour," Guxens told Gamereactor in a just-published interview following this year's Keith Awards. "Especially Act 2 specifically has a very strong closing moment that just shuts down a whole era of it and then starting off in Act 3, especially if you have so many hours running in the rest of the game, can feel like a much different tone and [a very drastic] change, right?"

"I think it's valid, because some people enjoy the tone of Act 3 the most, some people enjoy the tone of Act 2 the most," she went on. "I understand how this shift is something that's challenging to overcome especially, but give it a chance! And it's something that we'll be mindful of moving forward as well, just seeing how we handle this tone shift so that things are less drastic."

Larian have already made substantial changes to Baldur's Gate 3's final act, based on the post-1.0 feedback. The last major Baldur's Gate 3 update introduced a whole new epilogue boasting "some of the most complex writing in