Shadowheart, a fan-favourite cleric from Baldur’s Gate 3, was originally a much sassier character, but was “significantly toned down” after internal feedback.
Shadowheart’s sassiness and temper are two of her most defining traits that make her one of the most popular love interests in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it appears that at one point during the game’s Early Access period, she was downright nasty. GamesRadar+ had the chance to sit in on a panel at BAFTA’s An Evening with Baldur’s Gate 3 event, where director Swen Vincke revealed some key insights into Shadowheart’s early character development.
“Shadowheart was very cocky at first, but I thought it was great because our main goal was to create a group of people who distrust each other and then they start to trust each other.”
Vincke acknowledged that the writers went a little too far in making other party members distrust Shadowheart, recalling an instance where another developer (presumably lead writer Sarah Baylus, but unable to confirm as only her first name is used) said, “I don’t really like Shadowheart.”
The panel moderator asked for clarification as to whether Shadowheart’s cockiness had been toned down since then, to which Vincke replied, “Yeah, it’s been toned down a lot.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 was in Early Access for nearly three years, during which time Larian made a number of major changes for the final release, many of which were based on player feedback. At one point during the panel, Vincke recalled that Early Access players had been vocal about certain elements that they considered to be misses.
“The players were telling us: ‘This is wrong, you shouldn’t do this. Today 100 people are saying it, but tomorrow millions will be saying it, so fix it now.'”
Personally, I’d love to see an optional mode that lets me play the game with all of Shadowheart’s raw sassiness, but frankly, in that world, I’m scared to see how her relationship with Raezel would play out in this early stages.
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