It’s been more than two weeks since the launch of Baldurs Gate 3 I had my fair shake playing this game and also dropped a review here earlier too. Now there is a bunch of evidence from multiple sources including data mining that shows us that Larian Studios actually cut out quite a chunk from the game release version. I presume some of this content is going to be patched in and included in their internal roadmap – but when that’s gonna be dropping is something that nobody knows as of right now. (SPOILERS INCOMING)
Baldurs Gate Upper City Removed Almost Entirely
Perhaps the biggest change that Larian Studios did was to remove the Baldurs Gate Upper City zone from the game and yes you are able to go into ruined area in the very ending battle, but this is not exactly what we had in mind here when it came to the expectation of the Upper city. This zone was originally mentioned in a quote by PC Gamer earlier before the game had been released, also a lot of other things are eluding that Upper City was going to be a pivotal area in the game.
Most prominent theories about removal have to do with performance expectations especially considering PS5 and the near future XBOX release of the game. Obviously, you can see that frames do drop a bit when you enter the lower city, it clearly has too many NPCs in it and i think they could have zoned it out more in chunks, I don’t mind an extra loading screen or two to get a better performance game.
Other Minor & Major Removals
The upper city was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came out of hundreds of lines of dialogue and voices that were removed from a bunch of different characters in the game. Luckily a Steam user Efiror Moot compiled a huge list of things that were altered from the Early Access phase or just removed from the current version of the game. (Note; just because they are currently removed, doesn’t mean Larian isn’t planning to add them later – whatever this will be in the form of an enhanced edition, DLC or Expansion pack remains to be seen).
- Shar Worship – In EA the player was able to select Shar as a deity which game with its own unique dialogue trees, especially when interacting with Shadowheart as a fellow Shar worshiper. Despite the fact that voice lines were data mined indicating this had functioned well into Act 2, it was cut when the game launched.
Karlach’s True Ending – Datamined content shows that not only did Karlach have a full ending where her infernal engine was fixed and that she survived, but that most of it was fully voiced and complete. However it required triggers from the Upper City portion of Baldur’s Gate and when that was cut, so was Karlach’s Act 3 storyline. What we have behind has been confirmed to be Karlach’s “fail state” endings which were meant only to play if the player neglected her quest chain.(Patched in Larimer)- Minthara’s Story – Minthara was meant to have a much deeper story, including a pregnancy. These were likely cut due to Minthara being a late-stage addition to our roster but dialogue lines remain in the game files that show that not only did Minthara have a lot more content for herself but your other companions had a lot more to say about it.
- Halsin’s Story – Another late addition to the roster, Halsin was initially intended to have a great deal more endgame content involving the Druid circle, but this appears to have been cut more early on than some of the other items thus far.
- Raphael the Merchant – Originally Raphael was meant to be a fully viable option to remove your tadpole, in fact, the “Soul Coin” items that you collect in the game were originally meant to be a powerful alternative currency accepted only by Raphael in exchange for possibly retrieving your soul as well as a long list of incredibly powerful artifacts from the House of Hope that would be sold by Raphael himself.
- Avernus – An entire area of the game. Avernus was meant to be fully explorable and of similar size to the Underdark Area of Act 1. It would be a source not only for Soul Coins but also other rare materials, highly difficult fights, and special content for Karlach.
- Tav the Dark Urge – A lot of people were both surprised and excited to see the addition of The Dark Urge origin as the Bhaalspawn/Evil option that was missing from EA. As it turns out, Tav was originally the Dark Urge and they were all one origin. Tav was meant to be Bhaalspawn and separating the two seems to be what caused the narrative divide between the Dead Three storyline and the Mindflayer plot.
- Omeluum’s Ring – In the EA version of the game this ring would block your Tadpole entirely. It could not grow, it could not grow stronger, and you could not use Illithid powers. In the launch version, this ring prevents you from being charmed despite Omeluum still stating that it blocked the influence of the Elder Brain/Absolute.
- Bhaal & Orin versus the Creche – An entire Act 2 battle was cut in which Bhaal’s forces, led by Orin, attacked the Githyanki creche which led to a fight where you either sided with one or the other or had a massive 3-way fight on your hands.
- Orin & Githyanki Dragon – Orin was meant to corrupt a Githyank red dragon, leading to a boss fight against a Slayer-formesque Dragon.
- The Hag Coven in Acts 2 and 3 – You may notice that accepting Auntie Ethel’s help in the first Act can lead to a negative effect when fighting Hags. You may also notice that despite Auntie Ethel having letters from other Hags in her basement, she is the only one you encounter. Originally there was meant to be a full three-act story involving the Hag coven including the mysterious “M” who seems to have been their leader.
Epilogues – Full epilogue cutscenes have been determined that vary greatly depending on your choices. These were the “17K ending variations” that Larian told us about, yet they are completely absent in the final game leading only to a fade-to-black scene at the end of the game.(Patched in Larimer)- Cazador’s Story – Originally Cazador was meant to play a huge role in the Upper City of Baldur’s Gate, including being a huge political power. Datamined content also shows that originally he was meant to be a potential ally in the final push against the Absolute.
- Banite Cultists – The game features both Bhaal and Myrkul cultists rather heavily but Bane is reduced to Gortash alone. Despite the fact that they had full and finished assets for both armor, weapons, and some events the Banites were cut from the final game.
- Act 1 Minsc – Minsc was meant to be recruited at the end of Act 1 but was cut and pushed back into the later game.
- Dialogue and Events – Even from Act 1 itself, thousands of lines of dialogue and companion events were cut from the final game. Some of them were even fully voiced and ready to be implemented in-game but also referenced other content that ended up on the cutting room floor.
- Bhaal, Myrkul & Bane as Deities – clerics were meant to be fully able to select the Dead Three from the list of Deities. There were even special dialogues in the game for players who played as a Paladin and then multi-classed at least 1 level of Cleric on top and selected one of the Dead Three.
- Daisy – It’s not a secret that Daisy was cut from the game after the last EA release and replaced with “The Guardian.” Originally Daisy was representative of the tadpole in your head, not the Emperor, and would attempt to seduce your character into staying in the meadow by the river with her forever. A happy life with an imaginary dream lover while your body underwent ceramorphosis and was lost to you forever. Daisy was such an important part of the plot that both of the game’s theme songs “Down by The River” and “The Power” are based entirely upon Daisy. Datamined content also shows there was originally an ending where players would embrace a romance with Daisy and give themselves over to the parasite, forever leaving their individual consciousness “down by the river” with Daisy.
- Companions and the Illithid Worm – Originally companions were meant to accept or refuse Illithid gifts independently of the player’s choices. You could of course influence them through dialogue to decide who did and did not take the offered gifts, but ultimately it would be based on individual characters’ choices. This can still be seen in the game as a bug when companions will awake after a long rest and claim to have received a gift from their Guardian and yet will have gained no actual power.
- Romancing Jaheira – Apparently you were originally meant to have limited options to romance and sleep with Jaheira but these were cut last minute. It’s unclear why.
- Tadpole’s and Consequences – There were originally meant to be severe consequences for using the Illithid powers too heavily and investing too much into the Tadpole powers. This seems obvious in the game and yet ultimately in the release version goes nowhere as the ending is reduced to about 4 choices made in the last leg of the game. You can use all tadpoles or none and receive the same ending.
- Act 3 Companion Dialogue – If you’ve noticed that companions have much less to say at the end of their journey it’s because thousands of lines of dialogue were cut from companions in the final Act and all for various reasons. This also seems to be the source of most of the companion bugs that only appear in the final act as they’re still trying to trigger events that simply no longer exist.
- Multiple Cutscenes – Multiple cutscenes were present for Act 1 that are missing from the final game.
- The Nautolid Cut – A large portion of the Nautolid tutorial zone was cut in the final release, including cutscenes, dialogue, areas, and an optional fight with 2 injured Imps. This was likely cut for the sake of brevity more than anything.
- Mol and Raphael – Isn’t it odd how Mol will just escape from Raphael on her own and say it was “easy?” Well, it turns out that’s because they cut whatever the final leg of that quest was meant to be, instead, they allow Mol to escape on her own which more or less skips to the end and around the cut content.
- The Raven Queen – There was an entire second part of the storyline that was cut early on.
- The Voice of Bane – It’s possible to have a brief conversation with Bane, but it remains incomplete as the dialogue is unvoiced for some reason.
- The Wither’s Epilogue – WIther’s was meant to narrate an epilogue for the players, to what extent is unsure but instead Wither is left with a single event in the entire game when post-credit he can be seen revealing himself as Jergal & mocking a mural of the Dead Three.
- Crafting – An early access build contained a crafting bench and it seems that originally we were meant to have full access to crafting/enchanting gear of our own through certain systems. While these were cut, the items for them were not. This is why items like ingots, gemstones, woods, and other material items appear in-game with no use other than vendor trash.
- Helia – The Halfling Werewolf that I sadly forgot was cut from the game.
- Belts – There is an item slot in the game for belts, not a single belt is present in the game as an item.
- Exhaustion – A 6-tier debuff for player exhaustion was found in the game after players noted a Bluejay with the debuff/status effect exhausted. This was meant to be a system in place force players to rest more often but was removed despite being left over in an Act 2 portion of the game. This also explains the constant comments from the PC like “I’m exhausted, I need a good long rest.”
- Dragonborn Guardian – The last race to be added is the only race that is not available as a Guardian due to time constraints. You can clearly also see that there are no big NPCs that are Dragonborn sadly in the game.
- Lone Wolf Mode – should be coming in the future according to the Q&A
This is what has been collected so far in the steam thread. I’m sure there is some other information out there and we can keep you up to date with some other stuff once we get it, if you happen to be a data miner please drop an email to putachicontact@gmail.com if you got intel to share!
More Updates Probably Soon
I’m not betting that Larian will make a public roadmap about updates they are going to do for the game, but I think once new patches surface for the game especially V1.0 its somewhat expected we are going to see a lot more content added in. All the questions related to DLC, enhanced editions, expansion packs, or just FLC updates are up in the air and we don’t know what will happen – but I am sure there would be higher quality mods in the making from the current offerings (which aren’t super drastic, to be honest).
UPDATED – added new findings from different sources.
UPDATE #2 – Some grammar fixes and mentions of the stuff they added since this article was published like epilogues for instance
