You'll Never Guess What Larian Used As A Reference for THAT Scene with the Emperor in Baldur's Gate 3...
What's the correct prop to use to create a...tender...tentacle scene? Larian Studios has the answer.
Baldur's Gate 3 fans, if you're like me, when you were propositioned by the Emperor in Act 3 to progress the relationship between the two of you he feels you've been inching toward, you were completely unaware of the fact that when you accepted his advances that you'd be awarded with an achievment in the game. Whether it was purely out of a healthy sense of curiosity as to how a romance scene with an illithid would work or you had an exact idea of how those tentacles could be put to good use, you're aware that the facial appendages are a crucial part of this scene, no matter how you specifically choose to approach it.
What that means is Larian Studios needed to find a way to properly animate intimate interactions with mindflayer tentacles, and the best way to do so is by finding a real-world object that can mimic the shape and feel of the appendages for one of the team members to stroke. In this specific case, the lucky person tasked with the job is Larian's Senior Cinematic Artist Elodie Ceselli, who found a way to make golden Oreos sexy.
Since we’re sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how Baldur’s Gate 3 was made, here’s our Senior Cinematic Artist, @HighLODLar, stroking a pack of cream-filled biscuits as a reference for the tentacle-stroking animation during the sex scene with the Emperor.
— Larian Studios (@larianstudios) August 22, 2024
Yes, really. pic.twitter.com/7AgmY66LDm
As can be seen in a video shared by Larian Studios on X (formerly Twitter) as part of the video game studio's recent push to provide some behind-the-scenes looks at last year's multi-award winning PRG, Ceselli opted to use milk's favorite cookie in a sleeve to stroke as a reference for the tentacle stroking the Emperor receives from his new partner. Now that I've seen it I can't unsee it, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at golden Oreos the same again. Will this make me think of tentacles everytime I'm holding a pack of Oreos, or will I think of Oreos every time I experience the romance scene with the Emperor from now on?
Time to load up another playthrough to find out...
It's nice of Larian to provide behind-the-scenes content for a game that is maintaining its consistent player base, with fans of Larian's incredibly nuanced, well-written, and well-designed characters eager for any additional details about them and their creation Larian is willing to provide. While they won't be making a DLC or a sequel to Baldur's Gate 3, they still have Patch 7 on the way to provide additional content for the game fairly soon.