*spoilers* Cutting the line from the intro video

Malygris

Quick and simple question: Why was the line, "There are others - I can show you" cut from the Enhanced Edition intro video?

Really digging the game so far, but this is something that I and several of my BG-loving friends are really curious about.

Malygris

Whoops, I may have mistakenly posted this in the BGEE bugs forum. Appreciation to whoever moved it. (Assuming that's what happened.)

Anyway, no thoughts on why the line was excised?

Silverstar

Been curious about it as well. It's not enough to ruin the scene imo, it's still a good one. I don't think they could just shovel it right back in though due to the pacing.

shawne

My guess is that it may have something to do with Adventure Y or some other DLC relating to endgame content - Trent Oster hinted that unlike the Black Pits, it would be integrated into the story, so they might be holding off on the Bhaalspawn revelation until then...?

Silverstar

That's an interesting theory shawne

Messi

shawne said:

My guess is that it may have something to do with Adventure Y or some other DLC relating to endgame content - Trent Oster hinted that unlike the Black Pits, it would be integrated into the story, so they might be holding off on the Bhaalspawn revelation until then...?

That doesn't really make sense considering Sarevoks "You will go first, and I will be the last" line gives away pretty much the same as the cut line.

Metal_Hurlant

They should have left the Nietzsche quote at the start and the entire dialogue sequence in the intro. Doesn't make sense to cut it out.

shawne

Messi said:

That doesn't really make sense considering Sarevoks "You will go first, and I will be the last" line gives away pretty much the same as the cut line.

Not necessarily - consider that in-game, you don't find out why Sarevok is hunting you until your return to Candlekeep. Without the "There are others" line, the player would have no real reason to think that the murder in the intro and his pursuit of you are connected...

Calmar

I don't know. Evil big guy murders some random dude, then seems to be after you, as well by hiring assassins and coming to get you in person, too.

Malygris

Yeah, I think the connection between Sarevok killing some dude on a building and Sarevok coming after you are pretty obvious with or without the line. It doesn't "break" the scene but it doesn't serve any purpose either, and I think it takes away from the feeling of desperation the "first" had as he was trying to save his own skin.

There has to be a reason. I'm really curious what it is.

smaller

The chanters in Candlekeep pretty much give away the plot with "The God of Murder shall perish, and in his doom he will spawn a score of mortal progeny." Be honest - did ANYONE not put two and two together after hearing that?

Dee

I didn't.

But then, I had already played BG2 by the time I picked up BG1, so the secret was already ruined for me.

My guess is the line was cut because it didn't flow as well in the context of the rest of it (this is the same reason I suspect the Nietzsche quote was removed), although I agree that there are other lines in the sequence that would have been better to cut.

(Also, I'm adding a "spoilers" prefix to this thread's title. The OP doesn't explicitly spoil anything, but some of the subsequent posts do. Carry on!)

Malygris

I thought it flowed very well. In the context of 1998, when all this was new and we really didn't know what was going on, it was brilliant foreshadowing. And regardless of that, are we really worried about such long-shot potential spoilers 14 years after the fact?

Dee

The short answer: Yes. Because even fourteen years later, players are just now coming to the game without knowing anything about it, and it would really suck to spoil the fun for those players.

(Also, it's third one down on the list of site rules I just posted. link)

As to the line's flow, I meant in the context of the new animation. Because there's less actual movement, the scene is more spartan--which means the dialogue needs to be spartan as well. (At least, that's my assumption; I don't know what decisions went into choosing what lines needed to be cut.)