Despite always preferring turn-based combat in RPGs, Pillars of Eternity designer Josh Sawyer thinks a lack of experience and opportunity meant the studio couldn't pull off a similar swing to Larian taking Baldur's Gate turn-based
When I spoke to Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer earlier this year, I got his take on the apparent ultimate victory of turn-based combat over real time with pause (RTWP), as well as why he thinks turn-based fell off in the first place.
This begged the question: With both Baldur's Gate 3 and Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity games serving as successors to the original, RTWP Baldur's Gates, how was Larian able to so successfully sell a turn-based pivot for the series, while Obsidian decided it had to stick to the original style?
"It seemed like more fans would have been upset by its exclusion if we had not had real time with pause [in Pillars of Eternity]," Sawyer said. This tension in Pillars' development between Kickstarter backer nostalgia and the team's own desire to push things forward was a big focus in a GDC talk Sawyer gave in 2016.
The Pillars team eventually did get a crack at turn-based design in a major post-launch update to the sequel, Deadfire, which added a turn-based mode to the game.
"I always have preferred turn-based to real time with pause," said Sawyer. "Especially with Deadfire, I think we did a really good job making [RTWP] more accessible, but I am glad that turn-based seems to be winning out. I would like to hopefully one day work on a turn-based game."
As for BG3, it's easy to forget now, but as a numbered successor to the RTWP Baldur's Gates, it did catch some flack from fans at its initial reveal and early access launch for going turn-based.
"I think they—I don't want to say 'got away with it'—but they eventually pushed through because Larian had done turn-based before, whereas Obsidian had not," Sawyer said. "I guess we did South Park [The Stick of Truth], but other than that, we hadn't done turn-based ever, really.
"It wasn't like we could say, 'Well, this is our tech, and our tech is built around turn-based.' Whereas Larian did have tech built around turn-based, and I think people maybe have more confidence, because they liked Divinity—Divinity: Original Sin 2 sold very well. So if you liked that, then, okay, you're probably going to get something similar."
Here's hoping that the Obsidian crew gets the chance to make the fully turn-based RPG Sawyer clearly wants to. In the recent past and near future, though, it's been all action RPGs like Avowed and The Outer Worlds, or bold experiments like Pentiment and Grounded. I'm not complaining either way.
For more from my interview with Josh Sawyer, you can read about why he thinks turn-based combat was eclipsed by real time with pause in the first place, as well as the one recent RPG he thinks nailed romance subplots—something he's usually not a fan of.