Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 seems on track to be one of the most epic classic RPGs in a very long time, and in line with that, the D&D-based adventure will apparently have a mind-boggling 17,000 ending variations. Granted, being the follow-up to what are considered some of the best CRPGs of all time, BG3 has some high expectations to meet, and the developers seem to be striving to reach that bar. There is so much content, in fact, that Larian estimates it could take 18 playthroughs of Baldur’s Gate 3 to experience everything the game has to offer for a single character.Some other developers have actually complained that Baldur’s Gate 3 is setting an unfair standard for RPG studios that may not have the funding, extended development time, or huge team that Larian does. However, most gamers will recognize that Baldur’s Gate 3’s 174 hours of cutscenes is more an exception than a rule and is not to be expected from most other RPGs in the future.Along with that impressive number are the 17,000 endings that apparently exist in Baldur’s Gate 3. One of the writers has spent about six months working primarily on the end of the game, and Fextralife had a chance to sit down with her and ask specifically how many variations of the ending there were, to which the writer responded approximately 17,000. This doesn’t mean there are thousands of different story endings, but rather variations that take into account all of the different choices a person has made throughout their Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough. This number was somewhat confirmed when Larian’s director of publishing tweeted, “Oh no they found the 17,000 number.”
As for the main, overarching story endings in Baldur’s Gate 3, the writer did not have a number when asked by Fextralife, meaning it’s either not an easily quantifiable number — like Elden Ring’s six endings or Cyberpunk 2077’s five — or perhaps Larian simply hasn’t decided yet. It’s also not clear how the 17,000 possible variations will impact what is viewed onscreen at the end of the game.
Whether or not Larian Studios is being overly ambitious with its upcoming game as some devs claim, if the company manages to meet or even exceed player expectations, Baldur’s Gate 3 may indeed raise the bar for other RPGs like Mass Effect 4, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf , and the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. And unlike smaller studios, BioWare and CD Projekt Red feasibly have the means to meet the challenge. In that sense, Baldur’s Gate 3 could give gamers and developers a glimpse of what to expect of epic RPGs in the future, and even if it takes a while for competitors to rise to the fore, Larian’s offering will provide plenty of replayability in the meantime.
Baldur's Gate 3 comes out on August 3 on PC and September 6 on PS5. An Xbox Series X/S version is in development.
