Baldur's Gate 3's latest hotfix is causing some controversial romance rejections - sadly it's Minthara again
Why’s it always got to be you at the moment, Minty?
Ok, so another Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix arrived yesterday and, well, I’m sorry to say that it and its predecessor, hotfix 20, don’t seem to have marked an end to the string of little issues that've plagued poor Minthara. In fact, this latest update looks to have enacted a change to her romance arc that players are desperately trying to rationalise.
Yep, following the arrival of patch 6 and all of its new stuff - some of which was related to kissing people right on the bonce - it’s been a tough time to be a big stan of the companion I simply refuse to stop referring to as though she’s toothpaste (Larian did it first, to be fair). What’s up this time? Well, they’re all having a Bhaa-d time working out why they’re being rejected by the posh Drow.
Seriously though, hotfix 21, the full notes for which you can find here, seems to have tweaked poor Minthara so that she’ll instantly end it with any Dark Urge character she’s dating if they choose to reject Bhaal and redeem themselves. That said, in a weird twist, at least one person seems to reporting that they can still kiss the companion after she’s straight-up told them in no uncertain terms that she’s done with them, the romance is dead, and there’ll be no bed sharing any more, as you can see in the clip below.
“You rejected glory, and I reject you.” Oof, tell me how you really feel, Minty. That, ironically is exactly what the change has made scores of Dark Urgers take to BG3’s subreddit to do, with the big issue being litigated out being this - is the change out of character for Minthara, or could even possibly be the fixing of a bug that was stopping her from following through on what’ve always been her true feelings?
There are threads on both sides, and you can tell people are serious because someone’s decided it’s necessary to copy and paste the description of Bhaal from the D&D wiki into theirs. The crux of the issue seems to be whether - as she seems to suggest in her little speech - the idea of pursuing power means so much to Minty that she’d be willing to overlook all of the stuff that could stop someone from wanting to side with Bhaal and maybe be a bit of hypocrite.
Who’s right here? I don’t know for sure, as it probably depends on your personal interpretation of Minthara’s goals, but it does seem like Larian might want to consider giving those poor redeemed Durges a chance to persuade her not to leave their sorry bottoms as soon as they pick the path of redemption.
In other BG3-related news the game's recently been nominated for a bunch of categories at the BAFTA game awards.