I've always loved the idea of the circus as a setting for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. Between the real magic that exists in D&D's world and the fake 'magic' that circuses trade in, and the fact circuses are as dark as they are whimsical and are period-accurate to the pseudo-medieval time that Dungeons & Dragons games exist in, there's a lot of opportunities to use a circus in the tabletop world. There's even an official adventure that uses circus performers, with the magic and wonder of the Big Top featuring throughout Wild Beyond the Witchlight. That's why I was so happy to see one in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3, and so disappointed in what it offered.
Baldur's Gate 3 is not a game that does things by half. It entirely commits to whatever path you take, giving you complete control over every single scenario you find yourself in. You can fight goblins at the Goblin Camp gate to gain entry, or charm them, or threaten them. You can even smear excrement on yourself, which is a successful strategy. In return, you must commit to it. Want Minratha as a party member? That's fine, but you now need to kill the innocent refugees to get her onside. It's this commitment that makes Baldur's Gate 3 great, challenging its players to make their own fun as a DM would.
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Playing Baldur's𝓰 Gate 🗹3 with my less experienced wife, we've somehow managed to avoid the other co-op horror stories.
However, we don't see this as much in the circus. Instead, the circus exists as the set-up for a single quest, which while engaging in and of itself, is not actually much about the circus. As you wander around the circus, you will first be sniffed by a ghoul, can buy dyes from a mummy, or probably not buy a statue from a stone mason since their prices are so high. You can also play a wheel of fortune with a djinni, though you will always lose. He's cheating, and you need to pickpocket his ring to win and get his Legendary weapon, which admittedly is worth it.
For background goings on at the circus, that's kind of it. There are two more stalls of note, however. The first one is not all that circus-y at all, but to make up for it is excellent. You speak to Zethino, who leads you into a tunnel of love situation. You choose whichever companion you want, and answer three questions about them, designed to see how well you know them. Some of these responses are quite fun - you can accuse Shadowheart of farting on her enemies - but if played straight, they're an excellent chance to communicate deeply with your chosen beau. Zethino is actually Orin the Red, one of the central villains of the game, in disguise. However, it remains unclear how you trigger her transformation into her true form (which results in a brief cutscene and her suddenly vanishing), but that only adds more intrigue to the encounter. Not exactly classic circus stuff, though.
The second stall is Dribbles the Clown, the main attraction of the show within the world itself, and the main catalyst for your adventure too. Once you make your way around the circus, a cutscene begins where you watch Dribbles' show, which consists of him making bad jokes. Either by heckling or 'chance' you are called out of the crowd as a volunteer on stage, wherein Dribbles reveals himself as a worshipper of the Absolute, and attacks. When he's killed, it's revealed he is a shapeshifting beast pretending to be Dribbles, and you are then set on your adventure to find the real Dribbles.
This ends your time at the circus. I get that not every quest can be a huge, multi-layered event, but the circus is right next door to a church with a layered and twisting murder mystery, while the circus feels like a one and done affair. Baldur's Gate 3 can't have every side quest take hours and hours when it wants to keep you moving along with the main narrative, so it doles out some small stories here and there. The circus, to its credit, is an espresso - it packs a lot into a very small space. But I wanted it to be a trenta latte to drown in.
I have some vague ideas for a circus adventure of my own in Dungeons & Dragons, and I was hoping for some inspiration here, but there's just not much to it. There are already a lot of things in Baldur's Gate 3 I plan on drawing inspiration from (read: stealing), and I hoped the circus would have more for me to choose from. Most of my issues with Baldur's Gate 3 is that I want more from it, and that's a sign that it's doing something right. It doesn't make me feel any better about missing out on the circus, though.