It seems Larian cut a lot of content from Baldur’s Gate 3, and while this is not a surprising thing when it comes to game development, it’s nonetheless an interesting peek into what could have been. Some of these things, if they were added would make the game much better with fewer broken narrative lines. Like for example, the whole epilogue was cut from the game, but seemingly still exists in the files and is fully recorded. You got to wonder what happened here. Time restraints, money running out, or maybe they just wanted to get the game out before Starfield? Who knows, and maybe it will be restored in the inevitable “enchanted edition”. We will see.
I’m going to reference some of the more interesting points from an excellent post on Reddit (yes, I know, horrible place). On this list, the user Vasgorath has listed curious information captured by datamining the files. Let’s begin!
The Upper City – The most obvious one. Swen himself talked about the “Affluent Upper City” just 2 weeks before launch and described as it being fully explorable and yet it’s very noticeably absent from the final game.
While I do not think this is too much of a loss since I didn’t find Act 3 that interesting myself. And having to explore even more of the city of we already got, well, I don’t know. It’s a bit tiresome as it is, already. However, it is weird how it was cut just a few weeks before the release, and as we will see, some quests tied into this area got cut too, which made the narrative worse in some places.
Karlach’s Ending – Datamined content shows that not only did Karlach have a full ending where her infernal engine was fixed and that she survived, but that most of it was fully voiced and complete. However it required triggers from the Upper City portion of Baldur’s Gate and when that was cut, so was Karlach’s Act 3 storyline. What we have behind have been confirmed to be Karlach’s “fail state” endings which were meant to only play if the player neglected her quest chain.
I didn’t care for Karlach that much personally, so I never finished the quest bit that could be finished in-game, but from what I understand Karlach just dies at the end, regardless of your investment. That to me comes off as bullshit, especially considering now that we can see that her quest was finished. It seems this ties into that the area required for her quest was cut, aka the Upper City that was mentioned before, which would explain why – but then leaving it like that? Why not restructure it in some ways, and give her a better send-off?
Minthara’s Story – Minthara was meant to have a much deeper story, including a pregnancy. These were likely cut due to Minthara being a late stage addition to our roster but dialogue lines remain in the games files that show that not only did Minthara have a lot more content for herself but your other companions had a lot more to say about it.
Well, this is just sad, as many have pointed out Minthara just stops interacting after a while and does not comment on current events. So, it’s disappointing to see being cut from having a role in the story. I guess, she was one of the easier companions to cut away from when you are running out of time, as you need to take the evil path to recruit her. It’s after all a path that most people won’t take.
Halsin’s Story – Another late addition to the roster, Halsin was originally intended to have a great deal more endgame content involving the Druid circle, but this appears to have been cut more early on than some of the other items thus far.
I do think Halsin had a pretty big impact on the story, in both Act 1 and 2, but after that, his character just dies. He does or says nothing, and I can’t even remember if he commented on recruiting Jaheira – a fellow druid. He is just as undercooked like Minthara, however, as seen, more stuff for him was planned.
Raphael the Merchant – Originally Raphael was meant to be a fully viable option to remove your tadpole, in fact the “Soul Coin” items that you collect in game where originally meant to be a powerful alternative currency accepted only by Raphael in exchange for possibly retrieving your soul as well as a long list of incredibly powerful artifacts from the House of Hope that would be sold by Raphael himself.
I really liked Raphael, so this is a bit sad to see, and I was wondering about the soul coins. When you get your first coin in the grove, it is stated that these coins are very valuable which indicates an important role for them later. I of course kept collecting them, but as it is, the only use for them is giving them to Karlach for some kind of weird boost in combat. Just one of the many minor narrative threads that get stamped out and made worse.
I also find it interesting that he was supposed to be able to remove the tadpole. If this was the case still, it would have made his proposition much more tempting. Now it just comes off as meaningless since the tadpoles don’t seem to have much weight through the story anyway. It’s such a waste of an interesting plot point, that should have been made much more crucial to the story.
Avernus – An entire area of the game. Avernus was meant to be fully explorable and of similar size to the Underdark Area of Act 1. It would be a source not only for Soul Coins but other rare materials, highly difficult fights, and special content for Karlach.
I’m a bit unsure how I feel about this since the game feels scattered already. With that I mean, it seems to include every kind of fantasy element under the sun already – from goblins to the Underdark to gods directly interfering in mortal affairs. Regardless, it would have been interesting to explore, especially if it was something you could do in Act 3 – to spice up the environments a bit since Act 3 is for the most part sewers or city landscape.
Tav the Dark Urge – A lot of people were both surprised and excited to see the addition of The Dark Urge origin as the Bhaalspawn/Evil option that was missing from EA. As it turns out, Tav was originally the Dark Urge and they were all one origin. Tav was meant to be Bhaalspawn and separating the two seems to be what caused the narrative divide between the Dead Three storyline and the Mindflayer plot.
I suspected this was the case from the start, and I would have made the custom player character so much better – to have a direct connection to the plot, which would have made you unique among your companions and have your own personal story beat to resolve.
Omeluum’s Ring – In the EA version of the game this ring would block your Tadpole entirely. It could not grow, it could not grow stronger, and you could not use Illithid powers. In the launch version this ring prevents you from being charmed despite Omeluum still stating that it blocked the influence of the Elder Brain/Absolute.
Another indication that the tadpole/illithid infection had a much larger impact on the narration. It makes no sense at all now when you get the ring because the quest giver dialogue has not been changed to accommodate the loot change. Another indication that the interesting parts of the tadpole have been cut from the game, sadly.
Epilogues – Full epilogue cutscenes have been datamined that varied greatly depending on your choices. These were the “17K ending variations” that Larian told us about, yet they are completely absent in the final game leading only to a fade to black scene at the end of the game.
This is probably one of the biggest issues with the game – how Act 3 just ends after defeating the big bad. For a long and big game like Baldur’s Gate 3, you expect a proper epilogue, but the game as it now gives you the absolute minimum. It’s very disappointing, which also makes me think many reviewers never finished the game before slapping a 10 out of 10 on it.
Act 1 Minsc – Minsc was meant to be recruited at the end of Act 1 but was cut and pushed back into the later game.
It’s odd how late he pops up in the story, all the way at the end, which makes picking up a new companion and using him highly unlikely. The only reason I brought him along for a mission or two, was because of his legendary status from past games, but I felt it wasn’t enough. I had no real equipment for him, and I didn’t feel like learning a level 10 character/class that late. However, if he was part of the early game, he would probably be an important part of my crew.
Daisy – It’s not a secret that Daisy was cut from the game after the last EA release and replaced with “The Guardian.” Originally Daisy was representative of the tadpole in your head, not the Emperor, and would attempt to seduce your character into staying in the meadow by the river with her forever. A happy life with an imaginary dream lover while your body underwent ceramorphosis and was lost to you forever. Daisy was such an important part of the plot that both of the games theme songs “Down by The River” and “The Power” are based entirely upon Daisy. Datamined content also shows there was originally an ending where players would embrace a romance with Daisy and give themselves over to the parasite, forever leaving their individual consciousness “down by the river” with Daisy.
I feel like Daisy would be a much better alternative than we got, however, I’m not sure if it would have a bigger impact, as in tricking the player. Most players would suspect this entity regardless – at being the tadpole manipulating you into making bad decisions for the character. It would thematically make more sense, though, than having a random mind flayer communicating with you from a mystery box, and eventually wanting to have sex with you.
Tadpole’s and Consequences – There were originally meant to be severe consequences from using the Illithid powers too heavily and investing too much into the Tadpole powers. This seems obvious in game and yet ultimately in the release version goes nowhere as the ending is reduced to about 4 choices made in the last leg of the game. You can use all tadpoles or none and receive the same ending.
You get the impression that the tadpole and its powers (while useful) will have consequences down the line. I played my wizard as a seeker of knowledge and the arcane, so I of course consumed the tadpoles and gained power – fully expecting this to bite me in the behind at the end. The only thing that happened was that my face got messed up, and I started to look like someone who had used crack for years. Beyond that, nothing happened, and in the end, I was cured of it. The companions didn’t even react to my face starting to rot away.
Crafting – An early access build contained a crafting bench and it seems originally we were meant to have full access to crafting/enchanting gear of our own through certain systems. While these were cut, the items for them were not. This is why items like ingots, gemstones, woods, and other material items appear in game with no use other than vendor trash.
I picked up a lot of different bars of steel and the likes, waiting for something to use them on, but it never happened. I guess, this is just another aspect that was cut, but not fully removed. It makes for another disappointing aspect of the game. While it doesn’t matter too much, it would have made for an interesting addition to camp interaction.
As you can see, both important story beats, and gameplay were removed, and I suspect it was done for hitting a specific date for release. The worst part of the cut content is that the story got way simplified and dumbed down to what could have been. Especially everything involving the tadpole and its effects. If you check out the list by yourself, you can see there is much more that was cut away. Lots of dialogue and other forms of events. Now, we just have to wait and see what the enchanted edition will restore. An issue though, is that many of us have already experienced the game. I know I would have liked to go through Baldur’s Gate 3 will the full story in effect, and not have to wait for sloppy seconds for the true experience.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Addendum:
The original poster over at Reddit removed his post for some reason. But thankfully someone over at Larian Forum copied the content. You can find it here.
Tom's Gaming Vault 