Baldur's Gate 3 director was somehow "afraid the game was going to be too short," but like Elden Ring's Hidetaka Miyazaki is "very bad at judging the length of our games"
Aug. 16, 2024“You’d be surprised to know we actually had many more regions we planned”
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Baldur’s Gate 3director Swen Vincke was originally worried the absolutely gargantuan RPG was going to be too short.
It’s obviously staggering to hear that in hindsight, knowing a single playthrough can easily well exceed 100 hours and also knowing how immensely replayable the game is, but alas, in an interview withBAFTAVincke said this: “You would be surprised to know that we actually had many more regions that we planned to make. I was afraid the game was going to be too short originally, but I’ve notoriously always been very bad at judging the length of our games.”
Ultimately, the developers at Larian realized they were at risk of making an RPG that was “too big,” and thus they made some cuts to content that was originally part of the game. Specifically,Vincke revealed that Moonrise Towers used to be two towersbut was reduced to just one in the final version. At some point, there were also the ruins of the second tower in the game, but that got taken out too as Larian grew concerned over the size of the production.
Obviously, the designer’s instincts couldn’t have been more spot-on. It’s hard to say if it would’ve been better with more or less content, but as it is right now it feels incredibly ambitious in scope without ever feeling unwieldy, even for me as a new player who experienced the series for the first time with the latest entry. Don’t take it from me either; Vincke said in July thatBaldur’s Gate 3 won so many awards that it started to “affect development” and forced Larian to send “rotating teams” of devs to ceremonies.
Still, it’s hard not to think of the timeElden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki said Elden Ring would only take around 30 hours to beat, an estimate that was so far offhe later neglected to estimate the length of the Elden Ring DLC.
Save scummers, rejoice: this turn-based RPG is all about the dirty trick we all definitely didn’t abuse in Baldur’s Gate 3.
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.
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