Netflix’s Stranger Things Season 5 has concluded after nine years with a two-hour long finale and a massive battle against the series’ villain, Vecna. While the series has long been inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, which features heavily in the show, the show’s finale was directly inspired by Baldur’s Gate 3.
Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe and adapts the game’s fifth edition rule-set with some heavy modifications. In fact, in a previous interview, we sat down with Skyrim lead and former D&D designer Bruce Nesmith who heavily praised the game’s sweeping changes to the tabletop game.
As the most popular Dungeons and Dragons video game ever made, Stranger Things directors The Duffer Brothers revealed in an interview with variety that BG3 was a major part of the show’s big final battle.
“We were thinking about D&D, and I was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time, and we felt it was very important that the only way for them to defeat it was for the entire party to work together,”director Matt Duffer told Variety.
“Everyone had fully realised — either through self-acceptance or they’ve resolved all their various issues — moving into that final battle, they’re absolutely primed,” he continued. “They’re the ultimate team, and it’s the party working all together to defeat this thing. And they each have their own individual skills, right? And that’s where I go back to Dungeons & Dragons, and something like Baldur’s Gate. Because that’s how you take down these monsters that seem otherwise unstoppable.”
While Stranger Things Season 5 does suffer from having too many characters that have nothing to do, the final battle does see everyone converge on the show’s Mind Flayer in a very similar way to boss battles in Baldur’s Gate 3. There’s a heavy focus on positioning, some of the “party” throw flammable oils while others light the enemy up with a Molotov cocktails, and there’s also a mix of ranged, melee and “sorcerers”.
Alongside the heavy focus on Dungeons and Dragons and Baldur’s Gate 3, the director explained that “lots of video game references were applied to that final battle”, although they didn’t mention any specifics.
While Stranger Things may have concluded—outside of the upcoming spin-off show—Baldur’s Gate seemingly has a future ahead of it. As Larian moves on to make its upcoming Divinity game, which has been described as the studio “unleashed”, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are looking elsewhere to develop an eventual sequel.
“Baldur’s Gate is an incredible game. And of course, we’re going to do a successor,” Wizards of the Coast president John Hight said last year as the company rapidly increases productions of video games based on its IP.
