With Larian finally at the end of its journey with Baldur’s Gate 3, what do we want next from the new kings of the RPG?

Larian’s journey with Baldur’s Gate is officially over. Oh, I’m sure there’ll still be the odd bug fix, and who knows what might happen in the far future, but for now the studio is finally done adding free content to Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s no DLC or expansions coming, and it’s not making Baldur’s Gate 4.

So the question is, what comes next? And in the wake of one of the greatest RPGs ever made, what do we actually want next?

Details of what Larian’s working on now are understandably scarce at the moment, but here’s what we do know:

• The studio has two new projects in development.
• They’re not licensed projects like Baldur’s Gate 3—they’ll be Larian’s own IP.
• Larian’s building a “storytelling team” to work with its writing team to create narratives for future games.
• We can expect to see one of the two projects “before 2030”, and it’s “crazy ambitious”.

So what does all that suggest?

Something old?

Baldur’s Gate 3 was a revelation, and a huge breakout hit—but really, it was very much just another step along a path Larian has been walking for over a decade now. With 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin, the studio demonstrated how good it was at old-school RPG design, immersive sim-inspired worlds and systems, turn-based combat, and creative encounter design.

Original Sin 2 refined that formula and broadened its ambitions. Outside of its specific D&D connections, Baldur’s Gate 3 simply took the same ideas even further—more detail, better animation, more fully-realised companions, but very recognisably still an Original Sin follow-up at its core.

I think I speak for most Baldur’s Gate 3 and Original Sin fans when I say: I hope that trend continues. At least one of those two new projects should continue to iterate on what Larian’s proved it’s so good at and capitalise on this huge new audience for old fashioned isometric RPGs. And when you hear things like the studio building a dedicated “storytelling team”, it certainly seems to point in that direction.

Does that mean we should expect Divinity: Original Sin 3? It would certainly make some sense—though they weren’t successes on the same level as Baldur’s Gate 3, those first two games are very well-loved, and this could be an opportunity to introduce BG3 fans to that foundational universe.

Something new?

The thing is… this might be blasphemous to say, but much as I do love the Original Sin games, I don’t actually think their setting is very interesting. When I think about what’s cool about those games, it’s their systems and their style, not their setting. The actual world of Rivellon I don’t feel any connection to really, and I didn’t leave either game eager to see what happens next in the overarching lore.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Faerûn is a setting with so much accumulated history, that so many fans have a powerful connection to, both via tabletop games and videogames. It has all these distinctive features and quirks inherited from D&D—unique monsters, iconic character classes, a long-standing pantheon.

A follow-up set in Rivellon can only invite direct comparisons—and despite its own respectably long history in the Divinity series, I don’t think it can stand up well to that. Unless Larian does something really boldly new with it, it will just feel like a step down to a less appealing world.

In fact, I’d love to see the studio get away from traditional fantasy altogether. How interesting would it be to see Larian create its own sci-fi world? It worked for BioWare, when it created Mass Effect off the back of its own licensed game success with Knights of the Old Republic. It’s easy to imagine how futuristic technologies and alien powers could be used to add new layers to the game’s elemental interactions and layered systems.

Or perhaps it could even try a horror setting? There’s certainly enough Lovecraftian vileness and gore in Baldur’s Gate 3 to show the studio’s interest in the darker side of storytelling.

There being two projects in development opens up some interesting possibilities, too. If we accept that one of them is almost certainly another traditional RPG, then what’s the other? Surely even Larian wouldn’t develop two such games at once?

It seems likely to me that the second project is something smaller and more experimental. Given this is the same studio that once brought us an RTS where you fight in battle alongside your troops as a dragon with a jetpack, the possibilities there seem endless. Perhaps this could be how the studio returns to Rivellon, with some kind of left-field spin-off—keeping that world alive and showing off its stranger side, without committing to an entire 100 hour RPG in the setting.

What do you think?

There you go—that’s my speculation, and what I’d like to see. Do you agree? Disagree? What would you like to see them make next? Let me know in the comments—and you never know, maybe Sven will be reading.