Mood breaking modernisms and Americanisms in BGEE
Just want to complain a bit. Neera's jokes at the face of her death are RP-breaking. Some of the modern words she uses are mood-breaking. Same goes with some other aspects of BGEE characters. For example, Dorn's quest is named "Bad Cop"... There are so many little pieces of dialogue that are out of context of lore.
Additionally, Neera claims she was born with "gift of magic" or something like that. However, no one except sorcerer class people are born being able to use magic. There's a reason her main attribute is intelligence - because her magic relies on magical knowledge/insight.
Yet another thing, when Neera died in her quest, that fat guy acted like she's standing over there. She is so easy to be killed in that battle with AOE spells, yet it is not counted as a probability.
Dorn and especially Rasheed I find somewhat better than Neera. I did not do any Rasheed quests yet, but his dialogue lines sound good enough.
Sad to say it, though, but even though I did not believe it when others said it at first, now I can confirm it myself that BGEE is not a big improvement over original BG. There's aplenty of quality mods for original BG. Luckily, some of them are available for BGEE as well. I'd say the largest improvement of BGEE is the UI.
Additionally, Neera claims she was born with "gift of magic" or something like that. However, no one except sorcerer class people are born being able to use magic. There's a reason her main attribute is intelligence - because her magic relies on magical knowledge/insight.
Yet another thing, when Neera died in her quest, that fat guy acted like she's standing over there. She is so easy to be killed in that battle with AOE spells, yet it is not counted as a probability.
Dorn and especially Rasheed I find somewhat better than Neera. I did not do any Rasheed quests yet, but his dialogue lines sound good enough.
Sad to say it, though, but even though I did not believe it when others said it at first, now I can confirm it myself that BGEE is not a big improvement over original BG. There's aplenty of quality mods for original BG. Luckily, some of them are available for BGEE as well. I'd say the largest improvement of BGEE is the UI.
16
Comments
Although I am going to nitpick one claim and that is your "gift of magic" explanation. What if someone with a gift of magic, was trained to be a fighter instead of honing their magical ability? Wouldn't they be considered a fighter instead of a sorcerer? They were still born with the gift of magic, they just chose to ignore it due to the limitation of the rule set. It is impossible to be a sorcerer/XXXX, so claiming everyone who was born with a "gift of magic" is a sorcerer can be consider stereotypical.
Now what if someone with that gift of magic, was taught the "proper way" to cast spells? Would their "gift of magic" override their rigid studying and make the spells they cast more powerful or by chance chaotic? Could her attitude of saying "I can fake this," be that "gift of magic," that sorcery coming to fruition and conflict with what she had studied? Perhaps she was born with the gift, and was forced to ignore it. It still exists though and a wild mage is born.
Perhaps, if her teachers were not so rigid in their thinking and beliefs, she would have became a powerful sorcerer in control of her powers. Instead, chaos.
But yes, the writing is pretty weak overall. Story content was less of a priority during development than the technical aspects, and you can tell certain things were rushed that really shouldn't have been.
In the original games it was kind of subtle and I'm sure quite a few people didn't notice it, or didn't think about it.
Even the dialogues with people like Lord Foreshadow or Galio in BG1 are written in a way that it makes sense from a roleplay perspective.
I haven't done the BG2 quest for Rasaad yet, and I only did part of Neera's BG2 quest before I couldn't stomach it anymore. I did Hexxat's so-called "romance" of serial one-liners just for the sake of seeing it through to the end, and Dorn's was so corny and over-the-top that I couldn't take it seriously. I wouldn't have been surprised if something like, "We're so badass," made it into their conversations with the PC.
The good thing about the NPCs and new content is that they're completely optional, allowing us to play the vanilla versions with all of the EE improvements if we so choose. (Incidentally, I loved Dorn's epic Lunia quest in TOB).
I felt sorry for Neera's voice actor having to recite such terribly written dialogue such as, "Come, let us continue this journey together." You can tell she didn't really know how to make it sound authentic, so she just read it. I can't really blame her.
Like an athlete who begins focusing on one sport at a young age and develops into a legend at the game. Were they born with "a gift" for that sport (as many reporters and fans would no doubt argue), or did they simply take their natural athleticism and focus it toward one goal? That's what I take the "gift of magic" to mean in Neera's case. She's focusing on wild magic because she has a natural talent for it and because it interests her. That she's having to work at it seems clear enough even in BGEE. Her side mission is entirely about learning to master wild magic (unsuccessfully, of course). A sorcerer wouldn't need to learn anything, they'd simply be able to bring forth the magic innately.
As for whether or not the writing was successful overall, I can't really judge that. I, personally, enjoyed the new content and liked Neera in particular. Others didn't. The difficult task for a company like Beamdog is to separate the personal feelings from the constructive insights. Was the new content written poorly, or did some people just not like it? There is a difference. Thankfully, I don't have to make that decision. I just get to enjoy the games.
That said, you may be right that this isn't a matter of opinion. Perhaps those of us who enjoyed most of the new content are simply enjoying a flawed creation (I haven't encountered a creation yet that wasn't at least a little flawed). So be it, it certainly wouldn't be the first time I liked something that many others found to be lacking.
The "gift of magic" thing is really poor example though since it could really be interpreted in so many ways. Overall for me the main problem is that the tone difference of Beamdog writing vs. BioWare writing is glaringly obvious on way too many occasions.
However in my opinion this doesn't mean BGEE isn't a big improvement over vBG. The NPCs are completely optional and BGEE adds tons of small and big improvements that simply aren't available as mods. Not to mention the ease of use BGEE has compared to managing a pile of mods.
Any other setting and I would absolutely agree that the anachronisms and americanisms were fourth wall breaking and annoying but given that Forgotten Realms is a Kitchen Sink Setting and already HAS those anachronisms and americanisms as part of the base setting?
Go complain to Ed Greenwood about that buddy not Beamdog, or Bioware.
one thing that bugs me no end is that the new npcs are basically impossible to avoid its super frustrating that I always trigger Hexxat (who I cant stand) and then have to break rp in order to avoid her quest. I really wish you could turn them off at the menu
I really don't get that.
It bothers you that you have to tell Fake!Hexxat no? What about Nalia? Nalia also accosts you in the Copper Coronet wether you want her to or not; do you also have to "break RP" to say no to her?
I am utterly uninterested in the Hexxat character - she isn't the type of character that appeals to me. Seems too EMO imo. But at no point did I feel that saying no to the bonkers fake version of her in the copper coronet seem RP breaking to me.
I’m getting curious here, not to mention starting to wonder if my game was bugged. Does Hexxat only force you into dialogue one time in your game? The same as Nalia does? In my games she did it many times, even after I told her no. It seemed like every time I walked near her she was forcing me into conversation again.
I am however going to go into my BG2EE right this second and double check.
EDIT:
Having double checked this does not happen for me. She spoke to me once, I said no, and nothing since.
It seems to me that you are saying that you do not like the Hexxat character (either of them) and thus don't want to have anything to do with them...
Which is the same as me, so thats' fine. But I don't follow as to why you disliking the character means its breaking roleplay to say no to her?
because my characters wouldn't say no to her.
If I was behaving in character I generally wouldn't turn her down, I would try and help. The decision not to help is made by me as a player in order to avoid her content as I both dislike it and feel it is terrible for rp.
The game is forcing me to behave in a manner contrary to that of my character thus breaking the rp and I feel it really sours the experience of an rpg for me
If I could totally avoid her it wouldn't be such an issue (id still hate her ofcourse) as my character simply would never encounter her.
If you need an in-game justification for why a party of Good (or even Lawful Neutral) adventurers would turn down Hexxat in the Copper Coronet, have someone cast Detect Evil. Problem solved: an Evil person is trying to get you to go into a tomb no one else has even heard of.
Refuse, or kill her, and move on.