Baldur’s Gate 3’s Praised Writing Gets Called Overrated by Polygon Critic

Baldur’s Gate 3 has spent nearly three years being held up as one of the best-written RPGs ever made, but a new opinion piece is pushing back hard on that consensus. Writing for Polygon, critic Francesco Cacciatore argues that Larian Studios’ 2023 Game of the Year winner spreads its narrative so thin across branching choices that the story itself loses meaning, even as he praises the game’s actual gameplay.

The piece, published on July 4, 2026 as part of Polygon’s “Spicy Takes” opinion series, doesn’t dispute that Baldur’s Gate 3 is beloved. Instead, it questions whether the sheer volume of player choice that fans celebrate is actually working against the storytelling Larian Studios built around it.

Why Baldur’s Gate 3’s “17,000 Endings” Claim Draws Scrutiny

Cacciatore points to Larian Studios’ own well-known claim that Baldur’s Gate 3 contains roughly 17,000 possible endings, framing it as a number that sounds impressive but is misleading in practice. According to his Polygon piece, that figure counts every minor variation in outcome rather than meaningfully distinct story conclusions, which he argues waters down the emotional weight of any single choice.

He compares this design philosophy to older RPGs he grew up with, name-checking Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect 3, the Fable series, the first ten Final Fantasy titles and Chrono Trigger. In those games, he writes, player agency existed but the authored story still came first, whereas he feels Baldur’s Gate 3 flips that priority by chasing freedom over a coherent narrative through-line.

The Mind Flayer Ending and Origin Character Reactions

One specific example Cacciatore revisits from his own past writing is the option to transform into a Mind Flayer near the end of Baldur’s Gate 3. He argues that this dramatic, body-altering sacrifice barely registers with the rest of the party, and that even a romanced companion largely shrugs off the protagonist becoming a tentacled creature.

He extends the same criticism to the game’s darkest self-sacrifice path, where the player character can choose to die, noting that the fallout among companions doesn’t carry the reactive depth he expected from a game this heavily marketed on choice and consequence.

Romance Systems Compared to Baldur’s Gate 2’s Viconia

Romance is where Cacciatore’s argument gets most pointed. He writes plainly about his own experience: “In my limited experience (I ‘only’ finished the game twice, so I did not witness all the romances), however, these are better defined as ‘conquests’ rather than romances.”

According to his Polygon piece, Baldur’s Gate 3’s approval-based relationship system, where players complete a companion’s personal quest chain before being able to pursue affection, ultimately produces little further character development once the relationship is “won.” He contrasts this with Viconia, the drow priestess companion from Baldur’s Gate 2, describing a painstaking, slow-burn romance that required players to push back against her hostility with strength rather than kindness, reflecting her upbringing in a matriarchal drow society.

Cacciatore notes that Viconia also appears in Baldur’s Gate 3 itself, but only as a non-romanceable side character who receives what he calls a “character assassination” compared to her arc in the earlier game. He argues her Baldur’s Gate 2 storyline, which culminates in her willingly ending the relationship to protect the player from danger, delivers a payoff that Baldur’s Gate 3’s romance options rarely match.

Lae’zel’s Arc Held Up as the Closest Comparison

Within Baldur’s Gate 3 itself, Cacciatore identifies githyanki warrior Lae’zel as the companion whose personal journey most closely echoes Viconia’s, since both characters discover their faith and upbringing were built on manipulation by a false god. However, he argues Lae’zel’s romance route doesn’t meaningfully change her arc, since her disillusionment with her goddess unfolds regardless of whether the player pursues a relationship with her or not.

That distinction, he suggests, is the core of his complaint: when a companion’s growth happens independently of the player’s specific choices, the illusion of meaningful branching narrative starts to crack. For a game whose reputation rests heavily on player-driven storytelling, that’s a criticism likely to spark debate among the RPG community heading into the game’s third anniversary year.

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Whether or not fans agree with Cacciatore’s take, the piece lands at an interesting moment for Larian Studios, with a Baldur’s Gate television adaptation already confirmed to canonize one ending from the game’s sprawling web of choices. That decision alone may force a reckoning with the exact question Polygon’s opinion piece raises: which of Baldur’s Gate 3’s thousands of outcomes actually matters when only one gets to be the definitive story.