It's official: The companions in Baldur's Gate 3 are too intrusive due to a bug

We have all joked about the overly eager cast in Baldur's Gate 3, and as it turns out, we were right. In a conversation with our feature editor Eric Switzer at PAX West, game director Swen Vincke confirmed that romances were flawed at launch. This means that characters were pouncing on the player much faster than intended, especially the popular "down-bad" wizard Gale.

When asked about how "eager" Baldur's Gate 3 was at launch, Vincke quickly admits it was a mistake. He explains that the consent thresholds were set too low, making everyone appear too pushy. Vincke adds that some characters have already been fixed, but others are still being adjusted to avoid being overly intrusive.

"Also... it was a mistake," says Vincke, addressing the state of romances at launch. "The consent thresholds were too low when we released the game. That's why they were so pushy in the beginning. It shouldn't have been like that. We have since fixed it, at least for some of them. We are still working on some adjustments."

In a news that won't surprise anyone who has even breathed in Gale's general direction, it turns out that he is the one most affected by the mistake.

"It was not intentional," Vincke adds. "Especially with Gale. He shouldn't have been there right away."

Of course, the fans' reaction was not all negative. More "shagging" pleased many players, but that is not enough to stop Larian from fixing the mistake.

"There were many people who enjoyed it. But it was too fast," says Vincke. "It should simulate how real relationships are." He also states that behaving that way in real life would be "problematic." Which is very, very true.

Also, if you find that you have less success with the love stories in your second playthrough, it's not just your imagination. Based on what Vincke says, it sounds like we'll have to work a little harder for our romances on the PS5, which we've only just started, than the people on PC last month. Except for Gale, of course. I can confirm that one night at the camp was enough for him to pour out his heart to me.

The hope for Gale is not completely lost yet, as we can expect a variety of additional patches and hotfixes for Baldur's Gate 3. The next update is expected to address some issues on the PS5, as players have reported graphical glitches on the platform. At the moment, it seems that the best way to avoid them is by disabling the HDR mode and playing with lower graphical settings.