One of the most unspoken desires in any and every RPG is for the game to have good hair options. You’d be shocked at how few games actually deliver in this regard (looking at you, Dragon Age: Inquisition). And while it isn’t “game-breaking” for an otherwise good game to have terrible hair options, it’s awfully disappointing, to the point where one of the most popular game mod types is hair mods. A good head of hair helps give your character more character, and at its most basic essence, one wants to be able to enjoy looking at the character they’re about to spend countless hours with. To quote Fleabag: “Hair is everything!”
Thankfully, Larian Studios, the devs of Baldur’s Gate 3, understood the assignment. Since Early Access, I and other looks-conscious players have been impressed with the hair options available, and Larian has only continued to expand upon these options. First, they expanded our options so hair was no longer “gender locked.” Then, they simply added more hair.
Now, with the finished product, we have even MORE hair—and some of these looks are genuinely what I’d style my hair as in real life!
Once upon a time, this was the only cut I was willing to rock:
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It was everything I needed: androgynous and practical, yet still damn good-looking. I was the Patti Smith of Faerûn.
But then, they updated even further and gave us some twee to work with:
A little bit too Berries And Cream at the end of the day, but still, I liked that we had an option to be cute, without being, like, “fantasy” cute. You know what I mean? Many video games forget that some people just want to look cute, and they only make “lore-friendly” hair—as if a half-elf wouldn’t want to be cute, too!
Well, thankfully, Larian went even further, since we now have the following options:
ALL of these are new! Larian didn’t have to go above and beyond, but they did, and I love them to death for it! Look at how CUTE these options are, oh my god! I ultimately went with the last option, as it’s the closest to my real cut, and it feels so good to see a character that looks even vaguely like me running around. You go, miss girl, with your little bob.
Now, one of the biggest questions is whether or not this game also does a good job representing Black hair, as this tends to be a shortcoming of many games. I don’t feel as though it’s my place to definitively say whether or not the game accomplished this, but I will say this: I’ve seen more variety and diversity in this collection of hair, including the updates, than I have with most games. It truly seems like Larian went out of their way to make a game where you could look however you want, and I have to commend them for that.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I and my beautiful, beautiful bob have things to do.
(featured image: Larian Studios, via Madeline Carpou)
