Image: Larian Studios
Larian Studios has promised a new Karlach epilogue amid rumours of cut content in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Larian Studios published a new blog post this week to discuss ongoing rumours of Baldur’s Gate 3’s cut content, as well as the next big patch which brings performance fixes and an all-new epilogue for Karlach. The post also dives into the future of Baldur’s Gate 3 post-launch, and what the studio plans to do to improve the game.
Now that more players are starting to hit Act 3 in Baldur’s Gate 3, criticisms of the game’s ending sequences have started to make their way online. Some are concerned with the way companions like Karlach get their storylines wrapped up, hastily while others note that large portions of the game seem to have been left out entirely.
What’s added fuel to the fire are multiple datamines over the last few weeks, which have revealed that areas like the Upper City were cut from the final version of the game. Other major characters like Karlach and Minthara had their storylines cut short, and full epilogue cutscenes were also found to be missing from the game. All of this content certainly doesn’t make the game short by any means - players are still sinking hundreds of hours into the game without issue - but it does result in some story discrepancies.
In the blog post, Larian has promised that the tiefling companion Karlach will at least get her ending fixed, as the game’s next big patch brings, “better closure to the story’s final act in the form of a more fleshed-out ending for Karlach - something many of you have been asking for.” This epilogue will be, “fiery, poignant, and gives her the ending she deserves,” and will be the first of more expanded epilogues coming to the game.
Larian proceeded to explain that some complaints of cut content are actually due to bugs that prevent content from triggering, but a fix for that is being worked on. Additionally, the developer affirms that the Upper City was always meant, “to be an epic, cinematic epilogue bringing the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 to a close. But we didn’t talk about that in advance because it would have been a major spoiler.” However, players have noted that this doesn’t line up with Larian confirming that the Upper City would be its own playable district in past community updates.
Larian then goes on to say that it feels, “confident that there’s enough content in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the city itself, clocking in weeks-long playthroughs at a time,” and that, “It’s just important to know that what ultimately shipped was planned long ago, in function primarily of making Baldur’s Gate 3 fun to play, not for us to close development quickly.” It sounds like the developer is satisfied with the content that shipped with the game’s launch version, even if players have their own issues with it.
Larian’s Patch 2 for Baldur’s Gate 3 is “around the corner,” with no firm release date yet. The studio is also working on a feature that lets players change the appearance of their characters during a story campaign, and remove co-op characters from their party.