My friend was shocked to hear I spent about 10 seconds in the character creator in BG3 and exactly 0 seconds concerned with dying my armor to match whatever theme.
I just don’t see the appeal, it’s not like I see the character’s face all the time, and I’m constantly swapping armor around for different situations.
I’d rather be playing the game than spending ages on making my character look a certain way just to never actually see them in game for more than a split second on screen during conversations.
A game like Elden Ring I could get, but the player character gets a lot of facetime in Baldur’s Gate 3. Conversations/interactive cutscenes are a main pillar of that game.
Even if you wear a full helmet, of which there are relatively few compared to open face helmets, hats, circlets, etc., a lot of cutscenes still take place at camp or in other situations where your character takes off their armor and switches to casual clothing anyways.
And on top of that the game includes toggles to turn off headwear in cutscenes or always, which gives the character 100% facetime be they wearing a helmet or no. That’s more than what I’d call “split second” at least.
I recall seeing NPC faces a lot more in game than I saw my own PCs face, even with helmets hidden, but it’s very likely that is just confirmation bias on my part, since I invested nothing into the PC appearance, so nothing stuck.
But that doesn’t discount your point, and of all the games I could have named, BG3 is probably the worst example.
It is confirmation bias. Every interaction with a companion includes close ups on the face.
I’d rather be playing the game
You realize that character creation and stuff like armor dying are part of the game, right? Maybe those aspects aren’t important to you, and fair enough, but someone who spends loads of time engaging with that side of the game is still playing the game.
I’d actually argue that someone who engages with those systems fully, as well as the rest of the game, actually plays more of the game than someone who doesn’t.
That’s a fair point, someone took the time to code those aspects of the game, and if it adds to your enjoyment and engagement with the game, more power to you, it’s just not for me.
Thanks for replying, it does give some context to why my friend enjoys those parts of the game.