Baldur's Gate 3 devs promise to give Astarion the kissing animation he so clearly deserves

Baldur's Gate 3 devs know Astarion's kissing animations are bad right now, but they're working on a solution.

Earlier this month, a new Baldur's Gate 3 patch gave Karlach and Halsin fans great news via brand new kissing animations. However, Astarion fans were left out in the cold - there was no remedy for the character's somewhat botched smoothing animation.

Now, developer Larian has acknowledged the problem with Astarion. "We are aware of an issue with kissing animations for Astarion, and are currently working on a fix. We expect this to be released in a future update," the developer said in a new set of patch notes earlier today, November 17.

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The problem seems to be that, rather than getting an overhauled kissing animation like Karlach and Halsin, Astarion's kiss is sometimes simply represented by a peck on the cheek. If you know how down-bad Baldur's Gate 3 players usually are (read: very), you'll know Astarion's lovers want a lot more action than this, hence why the animation disappoints many.

Elsewhere, the latest Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix saves Gale from a black void during his romance animation and lets you take a shower with some actual soap. Sadly, though, no remedy for the PS5 issues with Baldur's Gate 3's Act 3. For the past week, players have been reporting that the final chapter is borderline "unplayable" on PS5 thanks to glitches, crashes, and characters not responding to certain prompts like conversations. Here's hoping fixes for those issues are coming in another patch further down the road.

If you're a bit tired of waiting around for Astarion, you should check out our Baldur's Gate 3 romances guide for a look at all the other characters you can smooch.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.