Every game has cut content. In an alternate universe, we played a version of Red Dead Redemption 2 that let us explore a land inspired by Mexico. Sometime in our alternate childhoods, there exists a version of Fable 2 with unarmed environmental combat. In these alternate histories where budgets stretch, deadlines bend, and nothing meaningful ever gets left on the cutting room floor, both players and devs enjoy the most fleshed-out versions of the games we love most. Alas, we are stuck in this timeline—enslaved to deadlines, capital, and profit. You are confined to this timeline with me. And I regret to inform you that Baldur’s Gate 3 has been hit by these shackles in a way that feels almost personal to me and hundreds of fans.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is my favorite video game of all time. This fact remains constant across every timeline. Somewhere out there, another version of me is experiencing a different Baldur’s Gate 3 one where relationships don’t just culminate into romance, but into something softer and more layered. That version of me is still making questionable decisions and flirting with vampiric disaster. However, she’s also going on a platonic date with Shadowheart. That version of me is thriving. Meanwhile, in this timeline, I’ve just learned about a version of this game that almost existed. In this timeline, I’m writing about it because I’m not taking it well.
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Baldur’s Gate 3 Had a Multi-Layered Out Romance and Friendship System That Got Killed By Time Constraints
In a recent conversation with Edge Magazine, Baldur’s Gate 3 writer Kevin VanOrd spoke about all things fandom (safe for work and not safe for work): fanfiction, fanart, and other expressions of creativity. The interview naturally touched upon the source of inspiration for this art. Baldur’s Gate 3‘s romances have fueled almost three years of fandom-driven content since launch. However, most fans do not pause to think about what could have been. The game, after all, has been lauded as one of the most complete romance systems in modern RPGs. Few RPGs have inspired the same level of attachment and, frankly, obsession. What could be missing?
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The interview touched on cut content related to the game’s romance system. VanOrd confirmed that the version players received wasn’t the full vision. Time constraints ultimately forced the team to cut several ideas that would have expanded relationships beyond romance—ideas that, in hindsight, feel like missing pieces. Here is what was lost to time constraints:
- The romance mechanics in Baldur’s Gate 3 would have had a platonic counterpart.
- The friendship system could have had special events like platonic “dates.”
- Camp companions would have had romances with each other outside the player’s influence.
None of these ideas diminishes what Baldur’s Gate 3 accomplished. However, it hurts to learn that there was almost a near-perfect version of something even more ambitious.
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The loss of intimacy in Baldur’s Gate 3 is strange. A lot of people first heard about the game thanks to BG3‘s viral bear romance, including me. The game has no shortage of raunchy scenes. Yet, many players know that some of the best character moments in-game are those where camp companions bear their burdens to the player. During some narrative branches, like Astarion’s romance, the hottest thing a player can do is actually reject sex. That trust unlocks the best intimacy the game has to offer.
Baldur’s Gate 3 oozes vulnerability, both sexual and platonic. So, to have cut content in places where the game shines most stings. Because this isn’t just a cut NPC or inconsequential side quest. It’s a shift in how anchoring relationships function. And in this case, ignorance might have been bliss.
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The idea of companions forming bonds outside a Tav or Durge almost physically hurts me. That could have changed so much. Characters like Astarion, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart feel alive in ways that few RPG companions do. To have let them pursue relationships independently would have pushed Baldur’s Gate 3 beyond player-centric storytelling into something more dynamic: something that exists with or without you.
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I understand why all of this was cut. After all, Baldur’s Gate 3’s branching narratives have the power to constantly reshape the party. Some companions may leave. Others experience permadeath. Most can find love with your characters. The sheer number of variables already stretches the game to its limits, so layering a fully reactive friendship or companion-to-companion romance on top would have been a staggering technical and narrative order.
Still, it’s hard not to imagine what could have been… a version of the game where companions updated you on their own lives. During BG3′s Epilogue, they could have told you about growing closer, falling out, or even quietly choosing one another. The texture to camp life would have been rich.
There’s actually a glimpse of it in the game now. In certain endings, Karlach teases a possible relationship with Wyll. It makes the world feel larger and reinforces the fact that these characters have lives that did not begin and will not end with Tav. Now, we have an excellent product. We have a version of the game where everything, in some way, will always come back to Tav or Durge, and that’s great. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most emotionally resonant RPGs ever made. Yet, somehow, it was so close to feeling even more real, as hard as that can be to imagine.
Baldur’s Gate 3
9/10
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
