Deep Peace (Day 22)

For the most part, I've finished all of the character subquests in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. A lot of them were really interesting, but others felt rushed or unfinishing. It's an amazingly engrossing game, but reading about all of the planned quests makes me wonder just how much better it could have been. I would love to know more about some of the game's more underutilized characters. Minsc, that paragon of justice and space hamsters has not a single quest associated with him. Viconia, the evil drow cleric you have the opportunity to save from execution also has no quests. There's so much potential for storytelling there.

I read that there actually were quests associated with Viconia but they were cancelled. One involved her being afflicted with lycanthropy (werewolf), which seems a little strange and possibly inappropriate to the character. Another, however, involved the drow homeland of the Underdark, which would have been much more appropriate. Granted, Viconia is one of the three romance options for a male protagonist, but that doesn't stop Aerie and Jaheira from having other quests associated with them--and Jaheira has an incredibly long string of quests to complete that flesh out her personality and history nicely. 

Including romantic interests in the game was a really nice touch--and in Jaheira's case it is implemented very effectively. Despite some bugs (which are inevitable in any computer game), Jaheira's romance storyline is well fleshed out and interesting. The other female characters can't compete with that level of complexity, but at least they are included for variety. For female players, however, you only have one option in Anomen. Anomen is a pompous good-aligned character who, although interesting in some ways, reeks of being thrown in as an afterthought. It's troubling that female players are not afforded the same opportunities.

I've heard that there were more romance options for female players during development, but they were scrapped for whatever reason. Valygar, an interesting and criminally unexplored character, was reportedly originally a romance option. Personally, I would have vastly preferred him to the alternative in Anomen--but even then, that leaves us with two good-aligned characters as romantic interests. A third evil-aligned option could have been the hilariously self-absorbed and hyper intelligent mage Edwin, whose character quest would have made the romance very... interesting. 

I've heard that there's a mod called Unfinished Business that restores a lot of scrapped quests to the game, but I'm always wary of fan-created content. For some reason I can't enjoy myself as much when I feel like I'm not getting the "authentic" experience.