The lack of comical "Minsc-Quotes".
Heavyline
Member Posts: 108
I want to talk about Minsc here (again). The majority got way too focused in Minsc's GamerGate quote (which is getting removed). Personally, as fan of Baldur's Gate, I was overwhelmingly disappointed with Minsc overall in Siege of Dragonspear. The very first time I started playing Siege of Dragonspear, I started spamming Minsc. I wanted to hear what he had to say. Will we hear the classic lines differently or does Minsc have something new to say? That's what most people I did I guess. That's why the GG-line became so controversial. Minsc is a classic character that many people first think about when talking about Baldur's Gate. He is a "cult-classic", an icon to the series. Even if first Baldur's Gate had very few lines. Those were still memorable.
A little porfolio of Minsc;
Baldur's Gate;
Baldur's Gate II;
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
The problem with Siege of Dragonspear is how uninspiring and generic Minsc was compared to the classics. I don't know if he gets any better. I only played the expansion for 10 hours, but I wasn't very impressed with the character. Of course in Baldur's Gate there wasn't much party banter and NPC reactions like in BG2. But when I played Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time and met Minsc in Nashkel. I knew that it was a character that was going to stay in my party 'till the end. He was a powerful melee ranger and his voice was just amusing. Man I was excited when Minsc returned in BG2, in the very beginning no less. It's been a character I've always kept with me in almost every playthrough, even in evil ones. BG2 especially dosen't feel the same without Minsc.
I did not bring this up to rant about "GamerGate"-quote. That's like beating a dead horse. I came here to talk about my passion for this character and share my disappointment in how he was handled in the expansion. It felt like devs didn't know much about Minsc and what made him so special or weren't just very creative with his lines.
A little porfolio of Minsc;
Baldur's Gate;
Baldur's Gate II;
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
The problem with Siege of Dragonspear is how uninspiring and generic Minsc was compared to the classics. I don't know if he gets any better. I only played the expansion for 10 hours, but I wasn't very impressed with the character. Of course in Baldur's Gate there wasn't much party banter and NPC reactions like in BG2. But when I played Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time and met Minsc in Nashkel. I knew that it was a character that was going to stay in my party 'till the end. He was a powerful melee ranger and his voice was just amusing. Man I was excited when Minsc returned in BG2, in the very beginning no less. It's been a character I've always kept with me in almost every playthrough, even in evil ones. BG2 especially dosen't feel the same without Minsc.
I did not bring this up to rant about "GamerGate"-quote. That's like beating a dead horse. I came here to talk about my passion for this character and share my disappointment in how he was handled in the expansion. It felt like devs didn't know much about Minsc and what made him so special or weren't just very creative with his lines.
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Comments
The new den of stinking evil line, the 300 pounds of justice, his banters with the Rashemani pair, his banter with Safana, etc. He's got some really hilarious lines.
Safana, on the other hand...is just grating. After kicking her out in Baldur's Gate during my first play through, I've kept her up to the halfway point and she just doesn't get any more likeable. I don't have a problem with the writing so much as the VO – she sounds like Leela (Futurama) on Ambien or something.
"A den of stinking evil! Actually, this evil is not as smelly as it usually is. We come for you anyway, well-scrubbed evil!"
M'Khiin: "So all goblins look alike to you. That's what you're saying? Racist."
I think Minsc is too one-note to really enjoy, at least for more than a few minutes. His schtick was kind of funny and then it became grating and kind of pathetic. It's easy comic relief with no depth to it.
I guess this response really should have been in the unpopular opinion thread...
I admit that it's not as bad as R. A. Salvatore's use of the word "fascist" in his Icewind Dale trilogy. When I saw that, my first thought was that the poor guy simply doesn't know what he's doing.
And it isn't even close to as immersion breaking as "by your command". Battlestar Galactica didn't exist until 1978.
I liked the new Minsc content - it's almost an homage to the old stuff with the self-referential humor. My favorite new line is "Stings, doesn't it evil?" Short, simple, but so Minsc.
And your claim that "Pretty much every other word spoken didn't exist prior to the 20th century" is just wrong, even if you were exaggerating, which you were, of course.
Of course the Forgotten Realms is not about ye olde english. But neither should it be about words with overly modern and/or specific overtones. For instance, it is perfectly fine to describe someone as a "tyrant", because the word has all of history behind it. But describing that same person as "fascist" is a huge gaffe, because that particular word refers very specifically to Italy and the 1920s.
I agree that sometimes it's difficult to draw the line. But when something is wrong enough, it's obvious. "Racist" was a bad choice, doesn't fit the world at all. It doesn't ruin anything, game-wise, but it was a bad choice. I would have edited it out immediately - not for any political reasons, simply for linguistic reasons.
If you take a leaf out of Tolkien, and assume that the language of the Sword Coast has been translated, then "fascist" could be a translation of a word in FR common for which their is no direct equivalent.
Alternately, since some individuals, like Elminster, can planer travel between the Forgotten Realms and our world, one can assume they brought the term back with them (along with the grand pianos that are all over the Sword Coast).