Dragon Age creator says Baldur's Gate 3's romances are "lovely," but feature the same mistakes he used to make

Baldur's Gate 3
(Image credit: Larian)

Dragon Age writer David Gaider has said Baldur's Gate 3's romances feel "like the work I was doing 10 years ago," but that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

In an interview with RPS, Gaider discusses the romance offerings in Larian's recently released RPG, explaining: "Sometimes it can be a little bit too overt. I'm playing through Baldur's Gate 3 right now. It's great, but it also feels like the work I was doing ten years ago, when I just started plonking away at trying to write romances. I was making certain mistakes."

The Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical writer elaborates further, adding: "It's like, 'Oh, this is very Romance for Games 101', from my perspective. Not that I mean to put it down, it's lovely and I've enjoyed it immensely. But that's the feeling I got." 

This isn't the first time Gaider has spoken about Baldur's Gate 3. Last month, the developer defended Baldur's Gate 3's least favorite companion, explaining that female characters tend to get less forgiveness than their male counterparts. 

Gaider, who worked on Baldur's Gate 2, has also praised the newly released sequel. Shortly after its initial release, Gaider called Baldur's Gate 3 "a worthy successor" and "monumental achievement" - which is high praise coming from one of the most recognized RPG developers out there. Surprisingly, Gaider wasn't aware that a character they helped create would make an appearance in Baldur's Gate 3.

Elsewhere in their chat with RPS, Gaider has explained that despite their work, they're actually not very romantic in their personal life. "It's incredibly weird for anybody who knows me that I've become the romance guy," the developer says, "I'm the least romantic guy. Especially when I get to the characters saying 'I love you' to each other…" 

As for how they got their reputation, Gaider adds: "Apparently I did it so well on Baldur's Gate 2 that James Ohlen kept handing me this stuff. And, god, I hated it so much."

Find out what else you should be playing with our best RPG games list.  

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.