Obsidian studio head Josh Sawyer has revealed which features from Baldur's Gate 3 he'd love to riff on and transplant into a theoretical Pillars of Eternity.
Obviously, Obsidian isn't working on Pillars of Eternity 3 - it's all in on Avowed. That hasn't stopped Sawyer from repeatedly being asked about the possibility of a third game, though, only this time, in the video below, he's taken the time to outline which features from Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 he'd love to use in Pillars of Eternity 3, should it ever get made.
"As a game developer, a lot of times when I look at games, I can't really play them without trying to break down why they're doing what they're doing, and a lot of the success of BG3 is very good execution," Sawyer begins. The Obsidian head believes these things in Baldur's Gate 3 are elements that we've seen before in other games - they're just executed very well in Larian's RPG.
"The things that I think do stand apart in BG3 that I'd like to incorporate into a party-based fantasy game are movement, the way movement works and the jumping, the ability to fly, basically to be able to move through the terrain and more than just walking around," Sawyer continues.
The reasoning behind this is that is "adds a lot not only to the feeling of the world," but also the options the player has for approaching situations and solving problems. It's true: I've seen countless Baldur's Gate 3 player simply jump through or around problems, not to mention quite literally jumping through the entire game in speedruns.
"There's just a very dynamic world, so the fact that the world has so much dynamism in it mechanically," Sawyer continues. "So there's a lot of different things you can do with properties, things being wet or burning or what have you. The ability to pick up so many objects and move them around or break them, that sort of dynamism is very cool."
The Obsidian head reasons that Larian has nailed elements like this in its latest game, because it iterated on them from work on its past games like Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel. With practice comes perfection, so it's not like a new team of developers could just pick up Larian's neat concepts and replicate them perfectly in another game.
Sawyer has previously said he'd love to make Pillars of Eternity 3 - it'd just take a Baldur's Gate 3-sized budget to convince him. If you are after more Pillars of Eternity-shaped action though, then Obsidian's new game could very well be the cure you're after: Avowed is set in Pillars of Eternity's world, and pulls things like spells from the older CRPG into the new experience.
Head over to our upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look at all the other exclusives alongside Avowed that you should be keeping an eye on this year.
