Larian's Next Game?

[Nilbog]

Whatever it is, I really hope its not DOS based, I tried so hard to like those games, but bounced off them really hard every time, the writing didn't flow and the system used didn't resonate with me.
I'm sad its not going to be a D&D based game as the lore seems such a good match with Larians system, I guess Larian feel they can't really expand on what they've done on BG3 without repeating things, due to the limitations of the 5e framework.

As for I'd like them to do next, well either something based on Golarion or something steampunk-esque, like an updated version of Arcanum

 

[wicked cool]

I want fantasy as sci-fi doesn’t work especially space travel (Bethesda)
I hope they just improve on bg3. Didn’t they say it wasn’t d3 and you can forget critical role warhammer or another ip
If i had to guess it’s a new original fantasy but much bigger than bg3. I think he’s already written act 1?
I loved Sven’s writing although I do prefer this version of Bg3 vs the initial version we could have gotten in early access. For me Bg3 compares to dragon age origins and is one f the top rpgs of all time

 

[MarkB]

I want fantasy as sci-fi doesn’t work especially space travel (Bethesda)

Except when it does (KotOR, Mass Effect).

 

[wicked cool]

Except when it does (KotOR, Mass Effect).

True but those were just a few planets and limited areas.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

True but those were just a few planets and limited areas.

That’s not a reason not to do a SF game, it’s a reason to focus on a relatively small number of worlds.

 

[MarkB]

True but those were just a few planets and limited areas.

Which is pretty much what Larian specialises in - smaller, content-rich areas strung together in chapters rather than Bethesda-style open worlds. None of that precludes a sci-fi setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A Doctor Who crpg. Larian’s fondness for impovised weapons and combat trickery would by right on brand. Throw a bottle of grease to make the floor slippery then shove the Dalek off the cliff.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

As announced last week, Larian Studios is moving on from Baldur's Gate 3 and is now focusing on the development a new game (they will continue to patch BG 3 however).

They have indicated there are two games they'd like to make next, and that they would differ in tone and style than their past games:

Larian's next game will have different "tone, style, way of doing it" to Baldur's Gate 3, but won't "dwarf" it

If interested (and I know there are plenty of folks on these boards that don't really have an interest in what they do next if its not related to D&D/BG), what kind of RPG game would you like them to create? Let's assume its another RPG for the sake of this thread.

I for one would love to see a Sci-Fi RPG that evokes Traveller. Open world, starships, explore strange new worlds, establish trade routes - something similar to The Outer Worlds (which I really liked).

Thoughts?

What do I want them to do next? Change their mind and do BG3 DLC and BG4. Otherwise I have no opinion given its won't be another external IP or DOS3, so I don't have anything to go on.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That’s not a reason not to do a SF game, it’s a reason to focus on a relatively small number of worlds.

I really hope we see a bit of a move away from "huge open worlds" in RPGs. Even BG3 was impacted by it, because the reason the devs abandoned a ton of more exotic locations (the Astral plane, Candlekeep, etc.) was that they wanted to focus on larger more open-world-like areas. I think we'd be looking at an even better game if they hadn't done that (especially as they lost so much work in the process).

But if you look at RPGs over the last 15+ years, many of the most persuasive and effective have been those which didn't go for "huge open worlds", and several games with supposedly huge open worlds very clearly showed up how empty and pointless those can seem - SF RPGs particularly. For example, Mass Effect Andromeda - the few bits of the game which were genuinely good (and there were some) - were all tight, indoor segments like the classic ME games. Most of the big zones were just tiring and empty-feeling. The Outer Worlds was similar - the open world there didn't really enhance the game - it wasn't well-used like Fallout:NV to provide a really complex and engaging playground that directed you towards interesting stuff, it was a big empty space full of nothing. And the we have the ultimate big empty space full of nothing game - Starfield - 1000 planets, 99.5% of them completely bland and empty of anything but extremely repetitive and limited procedural generation content that makes No Man's Sky look alien hypertech by comparison. Similarly DAI - it was a vast overreaction to criticisms of DA2 - and so we ended up with tons of huge zones, most of which was just full of the world's most boring "pick up the items" quests, and indeed one beautiful, amazing, high-effort-feeling, wild zone - the Hissing Wastes - which doesn't even really feature in the story and has like one brief companion quest in it! Just pure wasted effort.

 

[Parmandur]

I really hope we see a bit of a move away from "huge open worlds" in RPGs. Even BG3 was impacted by it, because the reason the devs abandoned a ton of more exotic locations (the Astral plane, Candlekeep, etc.) was that they wanted to focus on larger more open-world-like areas. I think we'd be looking at an even better game if they hadn't done that (especially as they lost so much work in the process).

But if you look at RPGs over the last 15+ years, many of the most persuasive and effective have been those which didn't go for "huge open worlds", and several games with supposedly huge open worlds very clearly showed up how empty and pointless those can seem - SF RPGs particularly. For example, Mass Effect Andromeda - the few bits of the game which were genuinely good (and there were some) - were all tight, indoor segments like the classic ME games. Most of the big zones were just tiring and empty-feeling. The Outer Worlds was similar - the open world there didn't really enhance the game - it wasn't well-used like Fallout:NV to provide a really complex and engaging playground that directed you towards interesting stuff, it was a big empty space full of nothing. And the we have the ultimate big empty space full of nothing game - Starfield - 1000 planets, 99.5% of them completely bland and empty of anything but extremely repetitive and limited procedural generation content that makes No Man's Sky look alien hypertech by comparison. Similarly DAI - it was a vast overreaction to criticisms of DA2 - and so we ended up with tons of huge zones, most of which was just full of the world's most boring "pick up the items" quests, and indeed one beautiful, amazing, high-effort-feeling, wild zone - the Hissing Wastes - which doesn't even really feature in the story and has like one brief companion quest in it! Just pure wasted effort.

Big open workds are best for mechanically complex action games, IMO, not narratively deep RPGs.