Baldur's Gate 3 lets you choose your genitals and flaunt unique underwear styles
Embrace freedom of expression.
Baldur's Gate 3 allows players to choose their genitals, and said choice will appear in the game.
The option was first revealed via the final Panel from Hell, but only default genitals were shown on screen.
Unlike other titles that allow you a choice, such as Cyberpunk, your character's genitals will be depicted in the game instead of just the menu. The character creator doesn't seem to have a size slider present for genitals, like in the game SCUM, but instead, options are noted as "Penis C" for instance.
According to a Kotaku interview with Larian's lead character artist Alena Dubrovina, not only can you choose whether to sport a schlong or fanny, there are also pubic hair options available that can differ slightly depending on race.
According to Dubrovina, the option has nothing to do with the inclusion of sex scenes but stems from the team wanting underwear as part of the equipment that can be customized and worn.
Because the team put so much work into undercrackers, the team wondered what would happen if the player took them off.
"At first we were like, ‘you know, maybe nothing’s gonna happen. Maybe we’re gonna have another underwear mesh under it. Who cares? But then I started thinking about it, talking about it, and we realized that for some players, it’s just another way to represent their identity," said Dubrovina.
That said, if you aren't keen on nudity, Baldur’s Gate 3 features the option to hide nakedness.
The genital option also makes the game more inclusive for players since the development team wanted to prioritize player expression for different pronouns.
"We were following what the community wanted and we were looking at what other games do," said Dubrovina. "We were looking at what’s being discussed online. There are a lot of things that evolved, and I feel like, yeah, generally games are trying to move towards increasing the amount of diversity they have. We definitely wanted to represent that. So we wanted to kind of give everyone the opportunity to pick from a wide selection.”
Larian's plan for extensive player expression allowed it to plan out voice line recordings to accommodate pronouns, which took extra development time. These options don’t affect gameplay, but will change the romantic scenes depending on the genitals you chose for your character.
"[The game] is very focused on your identity and the ultimate fantasy where you can be whoever, whatever you wanna be, and we wanted to have this represented," Dubrovina told Kotaku.
The character customization options in Baldur's Gate 3, in general, are rather extensive; however, some traits are exclusive to particular races. A few examples include horn customization for Tieflings, a certain pattern for your Dragonborn’s scales depending on ancestry, and elves not being able to have beards.
Your undergarments can also differ upon your race, but you can pick up and wear others throughout the game that are normally reserved for races outside your own.
So that is something to keep in mind when designing your perfect character. If you are a D&D purist, you'll want it to remain a bit canon, or a least somewhat, but the ability to shake up the norm is great. If want to remain canon with your character, you have that option, but if you want to go a bit out there with it, you can do that as well.
Baldur's Gate 3 is out on PC on August 3 and September 6 on PlayStation 5. While further out for Xbox Series X/S, the development team is working hard with Microsoft to iron out the kinks.