The almost iconic setting of the first Baldur’s Gate could have been included in Larian Studios’ excellent game, which could have been a good reference to the past.

The location in question is called Candlekeep. This is the location of the introductory side quests (e.g. healing a sick cow, finding a book in a haystack, killing rats in a warehouse) that could have been carelessly skipped, even though they would have earned XP in this library-like area, which was then revisited in Baldur’s Gate chapter six. This location could have made it into Baldur’s Gate 3, and Adam Smith, the game’s lead writer, explained in an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun why we couldn’t play it.

“I had a lot of ideas for it. I think it’s a good setting, partly because it goes back to where it all started. So that was always compelling. But also because you get an academic dungeon, and there’s something interesting about that kind of library dungeon. It’s vast, you know, within the lore. And the idea of having this place where you have to go to do research or something, or you have to go down into it. And then you also say, well, this is where the Bhaalspawn was raised, you know, it’s very, very attractive.

So there’s a place in the Forgotten Realms, or the D&D universe, I should say, called the Far Realms. And some of the lore says that’s where the Mind Flayers started – it’s the place of cosmic horror, you know. So I had this whole idea that you’d have this seer who’s sitting at the bottom of Candlekeep who’s basically staring into the Far Realms, you know, and he’s gone completely insane, and you have to go down there and find out what he’s seen. I still think that would have been very cool. And you know, there’s a point where it becomes, well, is this content for content’s sake? I hate the word “content,” but you know-is it actually adding to the story and the journey that I’m on, where I’m at in my adventure? You can have too many climaxes. They’re also exhausting. I’m not going to talk about sex again,” Smith said.

So the extra location would have hurt the pacing of the game, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is already a big…

Source: PCGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun