When Larian Studios’ role-playing smash hit Baldur’s Gate 3 launched, it escaped no one’s attention how up for it most party companions in the game were. For once, the term “romance options” really was the euphemism it often sounds like. These people were horny, and they seemed less interested in getting to know you than in… well, getting to know you.
This seemed consistent with both the general vibe that greeted the game’s release — a delighted and amazed sense limitless possibility, plus a lot of Astarion thirst — and its marketing, the most memorable beat of which, let’s remember, featured quite a lot of bear sex. So everyone just rolled with it.
But it was not meant to be this way. It was, in fact, a bug.
That’s according to Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke, who told TheGamer that approval thresholds in the game’s romance system had been set too low for some characters — especially the, um, irrepressible Gale.
“So… it was a bug,” Vincke said. “The approval thresholds were too low when we shipped. That’s why they were so horny in the beginning. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. We’ve fixed it since, at least for some of them. We’re still fixing a few of them.”
Vincke did not reveal which characters still needed a cold shower in patch form, but he did single out Gale as the most obvious offender (not that many were offended). “It wasn’t intended,” he said. “Especially Gale. [He] wasn’t supposed to be like, instantly there.”
Not all players will be happy to know that Larian has turned Baldur’s Gate 3’s sex dial down from 11. But Vincke pointed out that coming on so strong in real life would be considered “problematic,” and that the game’s original intention was to simulate interpersonal interactions a little more realistically.
“There were a lot of people that enjoyed it. But it was too fast,” he said. “It was supposed to simulate how real relationships are.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 launches on Sept. 6 for PlayStation 5 owners, who are going to have to work that little bit harder to knock boots. Tough break. An Xbox version is due before the end of the year.
