In Baldur's Gate 3, you get inspiration through your deeds and dialogue choices. This comes with a comical title in a pop-up menu. But HGXIV co-creator Dividus spotted something more behind one of these jokes--a Final Fantasy 14 reference.
Early in Act 2, Dividus got a folk-hero-only inspiration called "A Smile Better Suits...", which is a nod to Haurchefant Greystone's death in Final Fantasy 14. His last words are, "Oh, do not look at me so. A smile better suits a hero..." Given that FF14 fans adore Haurchefant (to put it lightly), this nod expectedly tugged at the heartstrings.
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP," Dividus tweeted, attaching a screenshot of the inspiration pop-up. Curaga quote retweeted, "Oh that's just MEAN". D3gausser added, "IS NOWHERE SAFE?!?" And Black Metal Vampyre simply said, "That's fucked up, man".
While plenty fell back into 2015 as though the wound of Haurchefant's death is still fresh, being prodded at with hot irons by a completely different studio in a game you'd expect to feel safe in, others have taken it as a cue to try Baldur's Gate 3. "Guess I gotta play BG3 now..." Jordan Brown quote retweeted. "I NEED THIS GAME THAT'S IT", ShoddyBox said. "Okay, I want to play Baldur's Gate 3 even more now," TheBluestLime commented.
It's not just Twitter that has noticed the nod, either, as it was highlighted on the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit by waterseraphim. Their screenshot reveals that you get this inspiration by offering "a hopeful response to Alfira's inquiry". If you fancy seeing it for yourself, there's your ticket. But keep in mind only a folk hero can do this, so you'll have to live (read: feel pain) vicariously through these screenshots otherwise.
It's not the only nod to other games, and it likely won't be the last. Over the weekend, it came to light that the "miniature giant space hamster" had also appeared in Mass Effect. First appearing in Baldur's Gate 2, Minsc and Boo became instant fan favourites, loved so much by developer BioWare that there were nods across Mass Effect and Dragon Age, with Boo even appearing in ME2. It wasn't by name, but BioWare included a species called the miniature giant space hamster with one you could pick up--they're definitely Boo.
So, of course, Larian Studios included a nod, seeing as it picked up the torch and continued the series that birthed Boo. As for why it referenced FF14--I'm choosing to believe it's because it wanted to catch a few fans off guard. And it worked. Painfully so.