Divinity Will Make Failure “More Interesting” to Address One of BG3’s Biggest Problems

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During the several-hour AMA in the r/gaming Subreddit, various members of the Larian Studios team responded to a staggering number of questions for fans. Some responses were more vague hints than anything concrete, like the affirmation that Larian “is thinking about “will consider” Switch 2 for Divinity, or that it’s bringing in an obvious mechanic that was missing from its prior games. However, fans did get a few interesting new insights into Larian’s most ambitious game to date. And that includes how Divinity will avoid a Baldur’s Gate 3 pitfall that led many players to save scum their way through the game.

Larian Takes Lessons from Baldur’s Gate 3 To Make Divinity‘s Story Even Better

Image courtesy of Larian Studios

Few would argue that Baldur’s Gate 3 was anything other than a massive success. The Game of the Year winner has become a pop culture touchstone since its release in 2023, and it looks poised to be one of those RPGs that stand the test of time. But that doesn’t mean Larian’s beloved Dungeons & Dragons game is 100% perfect. In fact, the developer has taken a few lessons from its last big game into consideration as it works on Divinity. And that includes giving players a reason to explore every branch of its choice-driven narrative.

One of the things that made Baldur’s Gate 3 so compelling was its complex storytelling. Your choices, and the results of your dice rolls, could massively change the direction of the narrative. But one downside to this turned out to be that not every storyline was quite as compelling. In particular, some players felt like failing certain checks could cause them to miss out on the best story options. This was one of the reasons that save scumming, i.e. saving right before a big moment so you can reload and retry if it doesn’t go your way, became so common for Baldur’s Gate 3. In response to the feeling that failed dice rolls could lead to more “boring” story options, one player asked Larian how they plan to approach this same element of Divinity. And the answer is pretty promising.

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Larian’s Writing Director, Adam Smith, assures fans that the studio is working to ensure failure will be more interesting in Divinity compared to BG3. Specifically, he notes that “there are already a couple of situations in the game where I think the most exciting – and extensive -outcome comes from ‘failure.’”

For those who enjoy stories where you don’t always have to do the “best” or “right” thing to wind up with a compelling tale, that’s great news. This also tells us that Divinity will bring back complex, choice-driven narrative, with different outcomes depending on a player’s actions. With Larian’s history, that was probably a given, but it’s nice to be reassured that the studio is actively thinking about how to build out a narrative where every choice leads somewhere players will want to go.

We still have a long wait ahead of us before we’ll get to see Divinity‘s “interesting” failure in action. No official release window has been confirmed, but it’s likely that Early Access for the new RPG will arrive in 2027 at the very earliest. For now, at least we have a bit more insight into what Larian is thinking as it approaches this ambitious new game.

Were you guilty of save-scumming your way around bad rolls in Baldur’s Gate 3? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!