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It hasn’t even been released yet, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is already a gift that keeps on giving. Because it appears that the game and its developers are aiming to set the bar a lot higher for RPGs in several departments, actually make that all departments, because Baldur’s Gate 3 bear sex is quite the innovation for video game romance.
And it’s not the bear sex that’s the most important part here—bear with us, please; rather, it’s the idea Baldur’s Gate 3 presents to the gaming industry as a whole. This daring and imaginative new approach to mature video game romance depiction can become the new trendsetter.
Back in the ‘Panel From Hell: Release Showcase,’ Larian Studios, the developer in question, revealed some of the key aspects of what you can expect in Baldur’s Gate 3 and its full version. Viewers were then shocked (possibly among other things) by the inclusion of one of the romance scenes, the legendary and notorious Baldur’s Gate 3 bear sex.
As is tradition with most AAA RPGs (roleplaying games), there has to be a dating sim gameplay. But on top of the vanilla hetero/homo options that have been the standard for RPGs for decades now, Baldur’s Gate 3 also showed a technical beastiality where a pre-made vampire character named Astarion enjoyed a sex scene with a druid character who shifted in his bear form. Dungeons and Dragons players should be familiar with this.
Most of what was shown was still suggestive, by the way (and perhaps thankfully). There’s mostly no explicit display of lower-body genitalia and penetration. Just clever use of camera angles and symbolism.
If you want to learn more about Baldur’s Gate 3, here’s a quick primer. As for how Baldur’s Gate 3 bear sex notions can improve the gaming industry’s portrayal of romance, read on.
AAA Video Game Romance Has Been Stale As of Late
Back in the 2000s, it was the Mass Effect trilogy that rocked up the RPG scene with its intergalactic and interspecies (though still undeniably humanoid) sex scenes. In the 2010s, it was The Witcher 3 that took the crown and introduced the Game of Thrones equivalent of sex scene vividness to the video game industry.
Since then, video game romance has entered a lull, with a lot of big studios just brushing off the prospect of fun displays of maturity, even in their M- or A-rated games.
Some attempts were made, particularly with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey but for the most part, previous RPGs have been there, and they’ve done that. Both Mass Effect and Dragon Age have already explored LGBTQ+ romance, while The Witcher 3 has already presented the smoothest and most dedicated sex or romance scenes in gaming.
There is Cyberpunk 2077 (the same creators as The Witcher 3), but its romance and sex are rather lackluster and unimaginative for its cyberpunk setting.
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For a lot of other RPGs, their romance scenes might even feel tacked on or rushed to fulfill a checklist or standard set by prior titles; let’s face it, no one wants that kind of stale sex– even in a digital space. RPG titles have seemingly turned into a template, and stale RPG romance and sex were some of the symptoms.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Rose to The Challenge With Their Vampire x Bear Romance
There had to be innovations in the AAA space for RPGs, just as how other titles in different video game genres kept evolving even in just certain gameplay aspects.
Hence, Baldur’s Gate 3’s reveal of a vampire and a bear in their happy little intimate space with the ‘birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees’ was the studio going above and beyond to push the genre to greater heights, as silly as it sounds.
We’re not saying other games take the technical beastiality as an example here of what a good RPG is capable of—especially in depicting one of the most common human needs and pastimes, but this kind of passion in presentation and creativity is a great standard.
Let’s look past the specifics here because there’s no way a bear can satisfy without some claw and tooth-related accidents (apologies for the mental image). It’s not about bear sex or even the octopus, giant spider, or velociraptor form of sex that the druid might be capable of; it’s the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 and its developers see sex as fun and varied.
In doing so, they made sex in Baldur’s Gate 3 not just a hook meant to sell something to a specific demographic of horny gamers but something that the NPCs and all the other creatures in the game world engaged in.
In other words, it’s great world-building. It helps these creatures feel more alive or organic, and in a setting that’s growing generic and sterile (let’s face it, Dungeons and Dragons’ Faerun is getting dry), creatures having fun and celebrating the fruits of existence is a much-needed breath of life.
This kind of liberal approach to sexuality is rare in video games, and Baldur’s Gate 3 bear sex might just reinvigorate or inspire other RPGs and video games in how they approach their romance. Though it will be hard to top bear sex as far as fantasy ideas go.
The World Isn’t Quite Ready Yet for Baldur’s Gate 3 Bear Sex
Sadly, there was a vigilant hyper-fixation on vampire x bear sex rather than the idea it represented for the gaming industry and for RPGs as a whole.
A few vocally disgusted reactions exist, as expected, but the most violent so far was a TikTok ban for Larian Studios after the bear sex reveal. That’s not too outlandish, perhaps? But it’s maybe somewhat unfair, considering the sexual trends that have spread on TikTok like wildfire and how the platform has become a lurking ground for sexual predators (a topic for another time).
There are those who are more tolerant of the idea (it’s consensual, anyway) and have chosen to live and let live. Baldur’s Gate 3 actually soared to the top of the Steam charts after the bear sex reveal, possibly giving RPG fans an inkling of the freedom and choices you can make in this grand RPG.
And frankly, there’s no need to worry here for those that fret that the game is promoting bestiality. Why would they even be– are they worried that their orientation might change and they might require the ‘bear’ minimum from now on? Take a paws to think about it and tame that beast.
