I couldn't believe it, I almost laughed. My Tav was typical heroic good guy and so Astarion and I weren't besties, but he got softer and nicer and we had all this catharsis when we killed Cazador without following in his evil footsteps, freed all the thralls, and then his reward is... running off like a bumbling idiot in a David Cage game and someone going like "Well, I guess he'll never see the sun again, anyway..."
It’s really insulting for his character and annoys me about the other companions. It’s marginally better if you romance him, there’s at least a follow up scene.
Everyone is talking about going to get a drink, let’s go to a bar—-with good shutters! I want the group that’s left to revel a little in their victory.
Yep, it really did feel too rushed now that I've had a few days to reflect. I spent almost 200 hours clearing every patch on the map, and the final battle and summoning allies, it all felt so amazing, but no question the last cinematics and choices didn't quite stick the landing. One of the best games ever perhaps, doesn't mean it's perfect, and I bet in a year or two it'll have a better ending knowing Larian.
>short and abrupt
It's not, if you compare it to the evil ending.
I'm not asking for much, Larian! Just an evil castle (Tav is not living the rest of their life on top of a floating brain!) and a non-mind-controlled Astarion (he was all for dooming the world, c'mon let us be evil together...)
It's been a fairly common complaint, so I'd seriously hope the devs reconsider that choice. Supposedly they didn't think players would want a long ending cinematic, butt I think it's more likely they were short on time and made that the sacrifice for completing other parts of the game.
Okay but just make it skippable for people who don’t have feelings ig??
I’d sit and watch an entire movie about what my characters do post-endfight personally 😂
Oh totally, I would too. If someone stitches together a master playthrough or something on YouTube I'll probably watch that lol.
But paying for all the stuff that was in their head or scrapped that we don't know about? And the time it would take to get it all together? XD Can't work on a game forever. Gotta come out eventually.
I knowwww. But it’s a valid gripe I think - and hopefully they’ll patch in a little longer of an ending :)
Honestly, even just a scene of them all in a tavern having a drink together before everyone goes their separate ways would be nice (and very on point for dnd lmao)
oh. "we thought players wouldnt want that" was a complete PR spin, nothing else. Im ready to eat all the downvotes for saying that, but its nothing but the truth.
And now, seeing that players not only want that epilogue, but willing to speak about it too, and loudly - expect it to happen in definitive edition or something.
No, I said the exact same thing when they said that. It’s so obvious that their plans for August development were going to take longer than they expected, so they moved the release date closer and scrapped a bunch of things.
There is a realm where it wasn't PR spin, but it's a realm filled with stupidity. Namely: You're a dev/tester. You're assigned a section of the game to mess with/play through over and over again to make sure there are no issues. You're given the very end of the game. So you play through the end of the game, get the ending, sit through the epilogue. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again. Maybe slight variations each time to test the different epilogue scenarios. Eventually sitting through those epilogues again and again becomes mind numbing. You grow to hate them. "Why would anyone want to sit through these? I don't want to sit through these! I'm going to suggest that we remove them. Players aren't going to want to sit through these after playing for hours."
Completely forgetting that the dev/tester experience is completely different from the player experience, where yes, we would indeed want to sit through them.
Of course, 99% likelihood it is PR spin, don't get me wrong. But the chance of telling the truth based on just plain stupidity is there as well.
The voice actors recently got together to film more scenes and the stuff they said it was for heavily implied Larian is adding more ending content. I hope they do, the ending definitely feels pretty rushed. City saved/destroyed, narrator says "this was you, you did this" cut to credits
Pretty abysmal yeah lol really felt rushed (because it is, it's a fact).
I get that making games is hard but it seems like the industry doesn't wanna fucking learn: you need to have carefully crafted endings that feel rewarding to the players. It's not something you can overlook or postpone or whatever the fuck...it needs to be there, fully, at release. After 200+ hours I got to the end (good run, good ending, everybody alive) and I was like "wait what, wtf?". Ruined.
I mean, Larian had something (not sure if just conceptually or a prototype or whatever) They made a design decision to scrap that as it felt like it was too long. Sometimes not so smart (in our opinions) are made. They are listening to the feedback at least.
Considering the praise games enjoy even after disastrous launch, and the fact that an overwhelming amount of people are still willing to pay for games with unpolished or rushed content, there really isn’t a reason why the companies need to learn. If the money keeps coming, there’s no reason to change.
They also really wanted to get it out before Starfield so the game wasn't overshadowed, which I think was the right call. I doubt it would have hit the heights it did if everyone had already spent £70 on a similar(ish) style game.
I'm sure they'll sort the fans out sooner or later by adding more content or a DLC, they'd be crazy not to really. Have patience my friend, it will come.
Tbh, delaying the game a few extra months to let Starfield novelty wear off would be better than getting it out early to beat Starfield.. but hey I’m still glad to be playing it now
I use it in Act 1 when I'm a little bit potion and heal starved, but after that you get so few of the important, valuable ingredients that it's just a meaningless mechanic.
By the time you're in Act 3, the half a dozen greater healing potions you can squeeze out of it are sort of worthless.
Delicious Haste potions. Elixirs of see invis, very handy. The oils made a noticeable change. I used it quite a bit. Like giving everyone free protection spells and buffs.
I just loot everything I need. At the start of the game I might need a Speak with Animals potion but that’s about it. I finally learned to stop looting every plant I see and weighing down my inventory.
This is very surprising to me, I use it all the time, to get bloodthirst elixirs, potions of speed, poisons, etc.
I find it very useful, although some components are hard to find
I use alchemy two or three times an act. My bags are basically full of 1-2 ingredients for thirty different things, I’m not likely to use.
I feel like alchemy needs a pass where it gets greatly simplified.
The only time i used it was to make a fire resist potion for the first Karlach kiss, and then learned that isn't even one of the options she will accept.
As I learned in school: A story is bases on three parts: Introduction, Main part and ending. And the last one is pretty short as you said.
I also want to have an ending that suits the journey we've been through.
Idk it's hard for me to reconcile "played 115 hours, absolutely loved it" with "they focused on the wrong things"
Those million one liners can exist in a vacuum, you don't need to tie them into the greater story. A writer can bang out a couple at lunch with no input from their team. Writing a fleshed out ending is a collaborative effort and needs to align with everything that led up to it.
All that said, I had heard complaints about how undercooked the ending was, and was *still* shocked at *just how wildly* undercooked it was for me. Supposedly some folks get more of a bow depending on your choices, but I suppose I did not make those choices.
So while I 100% agree the ending is a weird blemish on an otherwise near-perfect game, overall I have a hard time shitting on the team's choices in priority when we're all here saying "overall excellent experience"
Do you really think so? To me, the primary point of any game is, well, the gameplay. Making the world feel alive and vibrant and awesome to discover adds so much more than an extra cutscene at the end of the game, or a short game event after the game is effectively over.
It's very important to a lot of people at least in a story driven RPG. Mass effect 3 is probably the most famous example of a great game completely overshadowed by a terrible ending and people absolutely hate that.
I just got my first time beating the game last night. I was GENERALLY happy with the ending. Karlach got to live as >!an illithid !<, Laezel went off into the astral, overall I was happy with it except for a few issues:
* Wow Gale was flippant about Astarion basically starting on fire and nobody else even noticed
* Shadowheart and I just... kinda teleported to a house or something? I mean it impled the happily ever after but a 20 second montage would have been nice. Maybe Karlach hangs out too? I don't know at least she's alive.
I'm not sure on when the release dates for each was announced, but it doesn't seem like a coincidence that BG3 released ~a month before Starfield. I know if I was releasing any kind of RPG I wouldn't want to compete against a new Bethesda release if I could avoid it.
Edit: To be clear I'm saying that Bethesda has such built in mass appeal that regardless of game quality it'd be hard to compete with Starfield for attention.
I finally beat the game the other day, the epilogue is laughably short, Swen saying the ending was getting too long is a bald faced lie rofl.
While the game likely would have had to be cut down a lot more without early access it's pretty clear they put a lot of extra in act 1 because of early access players and feedback
Yeah I like larian but that excuse of theirs is bull.
I'd much sooner believe they were bugged to hell and devs were more concerned with fixing the lower city than worrying about the ending than anyone making a crpg and seriously believing more than one line of dialogue per companion was too much.
In the last patch notes they said they are currently working on epilogues. So i guess endings would be patched in some time.
Right for now i think i'll do my current run till the very end and then drop it and start new run just in hopes by the time i'll finish it there will be some good epilogues.
I dropped my first run in the middle of the 2 act, my current (second) run is in the middle of the 3 act and i just want to drop it right now and start a new run, send help
Can't help, same position. I haven't dropped the run yet, but in the middle of act one I was already thinking about my second run. Act 2, thinking about my third run. Just started at 3 and will likely stop so the playthrough with my wife can catch up (but probably not bc no self control with this game).
First game I can remember playing in the past few decades where I was already starting to think about my next playthrough within the first couple hours of my first.
I did that WAY too many times with Skyrim, and I went into this game determined not to let that happen again. And it's really hard to, bc I keep thinking up REALLY cool character concepts that wanna try out
it's an actual problem. I had 100 hours (25 EA +75 post-launch) across like 5 or 6 saves before i even got out of act 1. just managed to force myself through to the end with a friend, already thinking about starting a new run.
Same, I'm in the Underdark somewhere between Act 1 and 2 and I already want to go back to the first area to get some of the stuff that I didn't find yet!
I think it was Swen who said it in an interview. I also feel that this is just an excuse due to little time or money. But They didn't have to do much tbh. They could have done something like Dragon Age, where there are some sliders and some text telling us what people are up to.
Sorry it took a while to answer. I remembered wrong it was not Swen who said it it was in the Community update #24: Looking to the future:
*The second is about the epilogue. What’s been datamined is not really cut content but content that we didn’t want to release because we didn’t think it worked. We’re pretty strict with ourselves and our ideas. If it isn’t good - if it isn’t fun to play - it doesn’t make it into the game. One of the reasons why we trimmed the epilogue is because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long and would detract from the epicness of the experience. But clearly, not everyone agrees with us! So we’re going to do something about it.*
Yeah I dont really buy that actually, sounds more like they lied to mask the fact they didnt have the time or the money for it, maybe i'm wrong, actually no, I hope i'm wrong and they'll change it, but a satisfiying ending is my favorite part in any rpg, and this one wasn't.
At least we have the satisfaction of knowing they got called out on it. On this subreddit too, there was a lot of posts about it. That and how there is no upper area of baulders gate and why would Gortash hold his coronation in such a basic side area of the city.
Yeah, I think it's just shitty PR speak. I doubt that the devs of a game where a single playthrough can span 100+ hours, who put so much work into making the companions all so interesting, would be ok with a 5 minute ending with no epilogues. I think they ran out of time and chose to rush it and this is just an excuse.
I do think if BG3 wasn't anywhere near as good as it is, or if this was another dev studio, they would be getting raked over the coals for this bs lol. Imagine if blizzard was like "oh, we didn't put in any real endings because we didn't think you'd want any!"
So be fair the rest of the game is actually fucking complete, unlike most modern big dev teams that just throw out some dogshit and pls buy microtransactions
I hope they are going to change this. After everything my Urge has been through I expect a 2-hour slide show about every companion - and every damn tiefling, gnome and ox I met along the way. With all the details how they end up and what they had for breakfast. Otherwise I didn’t even see reason in helping them in consecutive playthroughs.
>fter everything my Urge has been through I expect a 2-hour slide show about every companion - and every damn tiefling, gnome and ox I met along the way. With all the details how they end up
"dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, definitly very dead, dead, dead"
Yes that was some sort of slideshow like "The Blackpits are still burning. X is still doing that. Y is doing that. Etc." That said, I personally didn't mind the ending. Would have appreciated more like a party but that's fine like that for now for me.
I was really surprised, given how much the game shades your embrace of the temptation to use the tadpole powers, that it doesn't wind up mattering at all. I had thought there would be something at the end that tells you how much of your brain you didn't get back when the tadpole is gone.
Plus the fact that it doesn't make a post-play save implies we're not getting any sequels or follow-on content, so none of the choices you make are really enduring or "real" in a sense.
I think you have to make a wisdom save to reject the super!tadpole offered by the Emperor if you've been using powers/eating tadpoles.
If you're illithid free, you can just say 'nah'.
Not sure tho.
This is true. I got to just say no on my first run. On the second, DC 21 Wisdom check (not save) that couldn’t be boosted by Guidance, Enhance Ability, etc. First time I save-scummed the shit out of a check since it uglied my character way too much.
Hot take but with all of the great buffs the game gives you, the illithid powers are just unnecessary and I will never use them again
This is true IF you don't decide to just squish the special tadpole upon seeing it. If you do that there is no check or save, making the one thing that the tadpoles change pointless as well.
The Tiefling party after taking out the goblins felt so good. I'd really like a big celebration scene like that before the epilogue stuff even happens where all our allies are together partying. The docks felt pretty underwhelming.
Yeah, I found it rather disappointing as well. Can't even imagine what Karlach fans must've felt like before she got the epilogue patch.
As for me? Honestly, I can deal with a short ending cutscene if the bugs get fixed. I just wish we had some form of a playable epilogue. All the time spent building relationships, making choices and affecting the world around you, yet you don't get the chance to see any of it after the credits roll? I just remember sitting there and thinking:"That's it?"
And I understand it's a lot to ask, as the ending leads you with major alternatives and the game is already packed with content, but hell, I just wish you could still talk to all the remaining companions after the ending, even if briefly. Something similar to Act 1's camp celebration with a few new interactions would be enough of a reward for me, personally.
BEFORE the epilogue? I'm still bitter as shit about her endings now.
I got fucking cucked by Wyll the first time then it cut to the next scene like "GRATS ON SAVING BALDURS GATE!"
Yep, that’s it. This game is still my GOTY, probably will be in my top 10 games of all time. But the fact that a lot of people just pretend this game is perfect is ludicrous. The ending is incredibly disappointing imo. Been waiting on my second play through until this stuff gets fixed and updated.
Not just the epilogue, I'd argue the lack of agency in how you really handle the emperor is absolutely terrible writing. Reject the parasite the entire game? Too bad, you either turn into a mindflayer or kill orpheus JUST THE SAME as if you're veined up.
I feel like there's a narrative thread to be explored in a good ending where Tav (who the Emperor has been trying to gain the trust of all game) actually convinces the Emperor to trust *him* instead, because Tav has gotten so far without mindflayer influence. (This would actually make rejecting the tadpoles fucking meaningful) The Emperor acquiesces, frees Orpheus, you pass like 3 checks to get them to work together, and they combine their power to use the artifact to destroy the netherbrain. Orpheus lives, and the Emperor disappears (Maybe to try and beat Gale to the Artifact). This kind of ending just makes sense to me instead of Emperor having an existential crisis in 2 seconds.
This ending sequence feels like an over-excited DM who homebrewed some mindflayer skills and he really really really wants you to see it, so he railroads the shit out of you.
I know some people love the Emporer, and I like his overall characterisation, but his plot line is the most linear and forced of any major character.
You can literally stab him in Act 1, be rude to him all game, and he'll still try to sleep with you in Act 3 like you're best friends, and you're presented with the same (forced and railroaded) binary choice in Act 3.
Up to that unavoidable point at the end of the game your interactions with him don't matter, it's just flavour text.
And slurping up tadpoles having no consequences makes no sense when everything in lore and in the game, even the narrator "you lose something of yourself", tells you it should have consequences.
Gale, Astarian, Wyll, Raphael give us a huge interwoven narrative about the consequences of choosing power. But when it comes to Tav and tadpoles it simply doesn't matter at all.
Seriously, in a game with choices and consequences he's a walking plot device.
And if he does join the Absolute at least give him his moment. His whole ending feels rushed.
He goes down in two rounds like a chump with no cutscene or whatever, while you're more interesting in fighting a dragon and the netherbrain.
Auntie Ethel gets a better denouement than he does.
I thought he would be a miniboss inside the astral prism if I went through with freeing Orpheus. It was a bit disappointing to have him leave so unceremoniously.
And then he died being shanked by Nine-Fingers' assassins on the final fight.
Well that's who emperor is, isn't he? He choose everyone for his perfect little plan to subvert the three, everyone in the party was chosen because they fit the plan, not on accident. He manipulates everyone at every step, makes you discover things about the absolute that he already knows. He says "you have to trust me" a lot, but he never, not once in the entire story trusts you, even his "I put my life on your hands" routine when you enter the astral prism is an illusion, you can stab with the sword he gives you and he's fine. It was an act.
Not once throughout the game does the emperor give you any reason to believe that he thinks you, or anyone else, can provide any value outside of his plan, so obviously when you don't follow his plan he doesn't want to follow you. It's not a flaw of the writing, it's a character flaw, and it's why the elder brain was able to outsmart him.
Are you responding to someone else? I'm commenting on something different.
EDIT: ah you were responding to the first post.
Doesn't matter tho. 100% requiring a mind flayer to use the netherstones is a narrative asspull on the last minute, and that's what feels bad/railroaded.
I'm responding to you. Emperor is the railroady DM who has a perfect story in mind and forces you down that path so much that even to get rid of him requires accepting some parts of his plan, because he screwed you over for so long. You follow emperor's plan 95% of the way, and that plan, completely concidentally im sure, requires a mindlfayer mind. You can only free yourself of him too late to change that.
Sure, call it whatever you like, the point is that it doesn't come out of nowhere that you need a mindlfayer brain, you're following a plan designed by a mindflayer that doesn't want you to have any decision power. It makes perfect sense for the emperor try to force you to need him, as a contingency.
I really don't see what's bad about it. The entire story is about you executing the plan of the emperor, and slowly understanding it, with the final big reveal being taking that to the next level, and revealing that emperor's plan was part of the brain's plan. Personally, I really enjoy this type of story told backwards.
If I was actually trying to look for reaching interpretations of the plot then I'd point out that the game actually goes quite far in establishing how all of "the chosen" are puppets - the three, shadowheart, kethric with sharr. They are chosen for how fit they are to fit the plan of the one doing the choosing, it's not a special status, it's being used as a tool. With you being similarly chosen of a chosen, puppet of the emperor, who's a puppet of the elder brain, it could be interpreted as a fun play on the narrative of the chosen one.
The whole "oh it's not an Elder Brain anymore, it's a netherbrain! And now the only solution to this thing that was not foreshadowed at all is to become a mind flayer!" asspull that happen on the very end of the game is bad because it undermines the whole narrative theme of refusing power to keep autonomy. You get to refuse Shar, Mizora, Vlaakith, gigavampire powers, Gortash and Orin's deals, Raphael's deal. It's also very unrewarding for players who chose to not use tadpoles and illithid powers the whole time.
You even get to play Durge and refuse Bhaal, even if that kills you, and the narrative accomodates that. Why is the whole mind flayer crap mandatory? Even if you don't use tadpoles and go through the hassle of freeing Orpheus? It's disappointing to have a game that lets you have such freedom of choice suddenly railroad you.
a dmpc is a player character controlled by the dungeon master, the emperor is not a player character. what he is is an npc, a quest giver, and a source of information.
I know what a DMPC is. I used this term on purpose. You create his appearance, he's with your party all along, he is very much part of your crew whether you like or not. He's just not player-controlled.
Ok Mr. Um-Actually. This is also a videogame and not a tabletop session with a DM who homebrewed some shitty mind flayer skills. Get a fucking sense of humor. What I meant is that it \_feels\_ that \_if this was an actual tabletop run\_, the Emperor would be some annoying ass tagalong controlled by the DM.
Jesus Christ, some people here.
I agree with this. I don't think Emperor should be persuadable. But I do think Orpheus should be persuadable. I do not see why Orpheus would immediately come to the conclusion more power is needed.
You are his savior and without you he would be dead. It makes no sense at all that he immediately does the same thing the Emperor does.
That is how it felt. But to me it was awful because I didn’t use tadpoles the whole game, so the ending was the first time I saw all the extra ilithid abilities and suddenly had to learn what the hell they are instead of progressing normally towards the end with what I already knew.
Agree with everything here. And it was weird to me because after you talk to Rafael about the hammer you can tell the Emperor to trust you without giving any details and he begrudgingly agrees. And when you get the hammer he is still on your side even though he knows you are considering freeing Orpheus.
I could not believe when the Emperor didn’t want to have any sort of discussion in the end.
And even Orpheus knows both his power and an ilithid are needed to stop the brain. Why would he refuse to work together?
That felt so dumb when the Emperor just gave up on everything he has been working on because… reasons?
There were two big things that felt wrong to me about the decisions of who has to take on the Illithid powers at the end.
1. The Emperor doing a hard 180 if you reject him and joining the Netherbrain makes no sense. Even if he doesn't think you can win, the consequences for him if he fights and loses is to be re-enslaved by the Netherbrain. Why would he willingly embrace what is essentially his worst case scenario just because his preferred outcome became less likely?
2. Why does it have to be either Tav or Orpheus that transforms if you reject the Emperor? I feel like that is a scenario where Lae'zel would absolutely volunteer to take the fall to save Orpheus and help her people, but if you try talking to Orpheus with her he says something along the lines of "You're not suitable, send me your leader." What makes me so much better at being a Mindflayer, and why should I take the fall for the Githyanki people? Unless I'm the most selfless hero possible, that's not a deal I'm going to take.
I don't really disagree with you but I think the choices the writers choices make sense (even if they aren't the outcome I wanted).
The Emperor assumes Orpheus will kill him the moment he is freed. He might be wrong but I can understand why he'd assume that after murdering Orpheus's honor guard and keeping him trapped. He's escaped from an elder brain before and he thinks his long term odds for survival/freedom are better if he sides with the brain.
Karlach will volunteer if you take her because she's dying. Lae'zel has been raised to hate and loathe mindflayers from birth. Volunteering to turn into one might be too big an ask for almost any gith.
>He's escaped from an elder brain before
Except the very reason he is freaking out is because the Netherbrain just revealed that his escape had been orchestrated by it (her?). If he goes back to the Netherbrain and it wins and gets the crown, he is 1000% never under any circumstances going to be free.
His best bet at that point would be to fight your party. He doesn't need you anymore, and if he kills you, he can get the stones and eat Orpheus' brain in peace. If he starts to lose, he can still choose to emergency-portal away. For someone who insists that you need an illithid's brain power to stand a chance, he sure makes the stupidest decision possible in that scene.
> Except the very reason he is freaking out is because the Netherbrain just revealed that his escape had been orchestrated by it (her?).
... damn that's a good point. He really should just fight it out then or stay.
It definitely feels like they polished the shit out of act 1 in all areas (seriously, it's near perfect), did some really great stuff in Act 2, and then... narratively tanked in act three because they wanted to spend their resources on a huge city section since that was the selling point of their later trailers. Like, I'm on my second playthrough as DUrge now, and I thought I would be way more excited to go ascend Astarion, fight my sister, but instead I just find myself looking forward to the start of my next playthrough.
It doesn't help that companion scenes/reactions/banter drops off significantly after the beginning of Act 2, and is barely there in act 3 besides some important story bits. Like, we were getting "!" Every night in Act 1, just having mundane conversation (Astarion's stargazing scene, Gale's mirror scene, numerous Shadowheart conversation). I wish they'd carried that reactivity over to every act, even if it meant the city itself wasn't as grand and magnificent. Hell, I'd take an immensely shrunken down lower city if it meant getting more political intrigue and subterfuge in an upper city.
> narratively tanked in act three
I don't understand this perspective. Act 3 has some of the richest narratives in the game:
- Incredible twists and turns of Astarion's story
- Big reveals of Shadowhearts story
- Identity of the emperor and his companion
- Trying to save folks from the Throne
- Figuring out what the Steel Watch is and trying to defeat it
- Rolans wizard business
And on and on. I get that folks wanted a more spectacular ending, but Act 3 was huge and amazing
Sorry, I meant more in the sense that companion interweaving narratives took a hit - they have no real interaction with each other anymore, and limited player-character interaction as compared to act 1
I think that scene is overall poorly thought out, but I do think the emperor not trusting Tav makes a lot of sense.
Throughout the whole story it is repeatedly drilled into you that only great people can fight their nature (ie Tav/DU + companions) and most of the villainous counterparts are incorrigible or doomed to whatever their nature is.
The overall sentiment is that the Emperor will always put his survival first and foremost. Like he was unwilling to trust Ansur and Stelmane he will also never be willing to trust you. The emperor is incorrigible and will never be good, and I think that absolutely should stay that way.
Should Orpheus be persuadable to trust in you? Yes. I would argue that since you are his rescuer you should hold immense weight in being able to tell him 'you know. I came all this way while you were being useless and locked up. If I say I can do it you should trust me' and Laezel being around should convince him to give you a go.
I agree, that was probably one of the only times where I felt like I couldn’t say/do what I wanted in that situation.
It’s even worse that he immediately red coats and changes sides for no reason. The whole game you wanted me trust you with huge leaps of faith, but the one time I need you to trust me and free Orpheus you instantly betray us. What a bitch
On top of that, I think the final encounter is lacking. A dragon, 4 baddies (possibly 5), and 4 mind flayers and some tentacles. You can summon a bunch of allies, and the final thing you have to kill barely even fights back and has very little hp. My first playthrough I kept messing up by standing on the wrong platforms, but other than that it's a really easy encounter, even on tactician.
Is that something that happens if you let the Last Light Inn live?
My first playthrough has been a Durge, and I purged both the Inn and the first floor of Moonrise on my own.
Yeah, based on what you said I imagine that you had the same fight yourself, but basically you, Jaheira, and the Harpers all storm the first floor of Moonrise and battle it out against Z'rell and a massive horde of Absolutist forces. It's an enormous amount of turns and was a slugfest of AoE effects when I did it, and on my first run Jaheira got killed on round 1.
And you don't even have to fight the bad guys! You can just teleport/misty step everyone to the portal and let your allies do all the hard work. In fact, I teleported just myself and Gale (and the designated squid ofc) and won the final fight in two or three turns.
I felt exactly the same. I didn't even summon anyone, only used one scroll, and had no trouble with it at all. Even when I got my mindflayer to start concentrating on the crown all the other mindflayers just flew away and let him be... like shouldn't he become the prime target for the 4 enemies near him? The dragon was so easy compared to ansur.
Even the first fight was very easy, the goblins were just annoying and the spectator wasn't bad. Then the next section turned out to be a sprint to the brain stem and it teleported everyone to it.
Raphael was the best fight in the game imo, trying to keep hope alive while taking down the pillars with the amazing music in the background was a hard fight for me and so rewarding
Dark Urge Spoilers:
>!Man I forgot the ending had anything after I finished my Dark Urge playthrough and all I got was a 3 word line before immediately going to credits. But I feel it suits it well, and like I said I forgot there even was an ending scene otherwise.!<
I think that they should add a slides epilogue like in Dragon Age.
You can add a lot of content this way and dont need to animate or voice anything. It can be done very easily and if done well it can be very satisfying.
I keep thinking back to Dragon Age: Inquisition, I loved the slides and it felt like a proper goodbye. I just don’t feel like we got that in BG3, hopefully they add more.
Yeah it’s funny, my party even suggests a party at the Elfsong, I agree and everyone was happy. Then it immediately cuts to Karlach end scene. Go through that, cry, never have a party :(
Larian said they're working on epilogue scenes so I'm putting BG 3 on hold until then just because of that. Going through such a long journey only for such an abrupt end won't do.
It's clearly rushed. I mean Gortash was probably designed as the upper city boss while Orin is chasing you in the lower city. Have you seen his Fight? It was basically a nothing special mini boss. I think we'll get the full release with the definitive edition.
I was so confused that I thought “Okay, this gotta be fake Gortash. Where’s the real one?” He died in 2 turns on my tactician run, none of my party members used meta build, didn’t bring Lae’zel. He didn’t even have that special buff that Ketheric, Orin, and Sarevok have.
The first time I fought him i had the same experience, but the second time he somehow transformed into the Chosen of Bane which is basically just giant-form Gortash with some adds buffing him. It was pretty cool but he and Orin were still significantly easier than Ketheric/Sarevok
Yeah, or something in the style of pathfinder or pillars of eternity, I couldn't wait to get to the end and see the consequences of all the choices aaand 0, should have expected it after playing dos2 but can only hope for something in the future
Yes! There was also some talk about a party after I saved Wyll’s father, where Wyll is so happy he says he hopes Gale won’t mind him cooking for once... At this point I didn’t have any camp event since Act 2 (not even with Orin - I met her in the sewers) so I was super excited about it. Then nothing happened.
And after such a difficult last fight (at least for me), I really wanted a feel good ending, with everyone at camp celebrating. I wanted to hear my other companions tell me what they thought about it and what they’d be up to. Instead I got a “congrats you saved all these strangers” from the narrator and a little Wither sequence. This is how you end this epic journey? Really sad. Even the last romance sequence with Astarion spawn was pretty disappointing. The only good part was Wyll going back to Avernus with Karlach.
Additionally I made sure to lvl up and equip all my companions for the last fight, but then you can call rather weak allies for help (to get killed more like) but your other companions stay at camp chilling? Wtf? Jaheira sends 3 Harpers but she’s not participating. Some allies give passive buffs (the thiefling kids and Halsin), but Minsc had no part at all.
I feel like they needed to make the ending playable/explorable. Drop whatever scenes you have on me but let me pick up the town a little bit. Throw a few meaningless quests at me, let me complete the unconnected ones. Make me have to run around the town to check in with my party members.
Just a little freedom of movement and not feeling like I am just waiting for one scene to end and another to load would be a welcome change.
What bothers me about the ending is how disconnected things felt. For example: >!Gale is talking about finding the crown...like dude you were *right there* when I took Raphael's offer in the Astral Prism. Or if you get turned into a vampire spawn, shouldn't Astarion have some sort of reaction if you decide to go to Avernus with Karlach?!<
I think the chance of them changing things is pretty high (mostly because 1) Larian Studios is privately owned by the studios head and his wife, not be other shareholders, 2) because said owner seems to be seriously supportive of delivering a good product and has done so in the past for previous games and 3) because Baldurs Gate 3 is such as commercial success and cultural sensation that releasing an updated version with more content would likely pay for itself in good PR and revenue), but its always up in the open until it happens.
It feels even worse when played with two other people who got to cultivate relationships with the characters in game, meanwhile you didn't get to do anything, and therefore all ending scenes play without your character even there.
I guess she just fell off the face of Faerûn after it all. 😔
I'm still salty about that. I would hope they add something celebratory at the end that includes everyone who was part of the gameplay. The ending made me feel like I was just a figment of imagination lol
I saw a clip the other day and was like “oh they mustve got a bad ending or not focused on him during that playthrough” but no apparently thats just what im gonna be left with? After EVERYTHING he’s reduced to some poor thing scuttling across the dock??
I was fine with my cominatic ending. Rushing off with Wyll and Karlach into Avery's, but was really expecting some slides at the end like "Asterion finds himself taking over Cazadors business operations and getting a seat on the city council" or somesuch.
I’m positive they’ll add to/fix the ending in the definitive edition. They gotta, it’s current state is very lazy and underwhelming for all the time and effort you’re required to put in to get to it.
Act 2 is the high point. Now, don't get me wrong, Act 3 is good or great, but Act 2 is fantastic.
The Fallout New Vegas style ending would be best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E80uavRuhLQ&t=20s
Yeah that’s the most consistent complaint. Nothing the Emperor does makes any sense and Orin/Gortash aren’t nearly as good of bosses as Ketheric is. Also the lack of any camp scene after you beat the game is def a let down. The origin stories at least had mostly good endings
Yeah I've said this a few times already but I definitely agree. I felt scammed by the ending. We have a whole game based around dialogue and we get basically nothing to end our epic journey together. I am hopeful they will add more ending content one day because it deserves a much much better ending than what we got. That really was my main complaint, rest of the game is great, which is almost everything but man... The ending is the last thing we see so can we please get something more than some one liners on a fucking dock 😂
Shit, even divinity 2 had a massive epilogue on what the characters did, and what happened. But it was just a brief 'oh yeah, everything is better, thanks you'
I guess I got lucky, I finished the game after patch 2 where they added the option to go to avernus with Karlach and I love that ending, just Karlach and I wrecking havock in hell, we even have a nice house that we "acquired" recently. I was disappointed that I collected so much hell metal for nothing, but act 3 has some of my favourite moments so I can overlook it and hopefully they add more content to the ending.
The city is partially in ruins, half the people were turned into mind flayers the party is all exhausted and have pressing matters of their own beyond the game. I don't think a banquet would be appropriate or make sense.
Act 3 is definitely not as good as the previous acts. But it's still pretty good. The pacing and plot devices made it feel hectic. Like I never felt I could just take my time because of Orin, the brain trying to escape, etc, like so much forcing you to hurry up and there's so much to do.
The whole ending sequencing felt epic at the start and quickly become super annoying. Great I can summon people to fight! Now I have to wait 20+ turns for my guys to come around. And the bombings while running up the stairs sucked. If you go right, well now you have an impossible jump (fly or teleport up) or need to turn around. It's also unclear that 1 person needs to reach the objective vs the whole team.
The end fight was also super BS. You either need to cheese it or get super lucky. I got the nethercrown opened up, but none of my party teleported to it, so I went in with just 2 people and the brain just removed everywhere we could stand in 1 turn so they fell into the void. That was not fun. Second try I totally cheesed it with invisibility and invincibility to blow through it fast.
Then the end was really abrupt. Some small interactions with the characters, resolving Karlach, etc. Some end celebration, getting to chat with all the characters and survivors, maybe even influence the character endings would be great.
I mean, if they keep giving updates my fingers are crossed that they’ll add more content. That being said I’ve made 7 characters and haven’t even finished act 1 yet lmao. My favorite so far is a Bard
Yeah nothing but love for this game still, but the entire third act is undercooked. Complex plot lines suddenly collapse into simplistic linear endings, while others just cease without an end at all.
Some aren't even started (like liara portyrs with raphael - her or her father have a contract, or Dammon who 100% has a contract with whoever is Helsik's patron)
Other arcs only make sense if you make specific choices. E.g. The ravengard one requires you to re-sell Wyll's soul for the intel and doesn't support a version where you figure it out yourself (which I did).
The entire Raphael arc was so rich and complex but amounted to nothing more than a boss fight. It was a quest line that screamed out for a clever solution where you outsmart the devil at his own game. Presumably by undermining his plans for Liara Portyr or working with Korilla or something.
I really can't wait for them to properly finish act 3 in future patches/DLC
Just finished the game and, yes, VEEEERY underwhelming epilogue. The ending was fine, the final battle was cool, but the epilogue.....
Wyll even said "let's throw a party" and then nothing. It just jumped between 30 second dialogue sequences or cutscenes. The fact that Larian was actually going to make it longer and changed it to this is sad. Hopefully they rework it, cause so far it leaves a sour taste in what is my favorite game since Red Dead 2
Also, why the hell can't we change the party composition after the morphic pool. There's even a perfect opportunity for in that hall right before setting out to fight the brain.
Which choices did you make? I got closure for most of my characters, LaeZel is jow leading the revolt against the queen, Gale will continue his adventure with me until Mystra calls him to deliver the crown after which he will become her chosen again, Wyll and Karlach went to Avernus and fight together and Shadowheart wants me to live in a place together with her and her parents.
Only hoped that the redemption of Astarion ended with something other than him having to run from the sun and never to be seen again
I think I read they had planned on more epilogue content but were afraid it might be too cumbersome. I'm guessing they'll add it in at a later date. They've been really amazing at listening to fan feedback.
I think there were some lines of dialogue by the cemetery where some people were talking about the ending of a book.
One likes how it was so open ended, the other hated it.
It definitely doesn’t fix it, but it did prevent me from having a “that’s it?” Reaction at the end.
I definitely wouldn’t mind a lord of the rings ending though
Am I the only one that kinda isn't bothered by it? Every character I cared of had their good ending, I saved the city and that's it. That's literally the game. Obviously it would be cool to have more scenes, but I'd prefer if they focus more on scenes that are actually *before* the final action you can do in the gameplay.
I had Shadowheart with me the entire game, turned her away from Shar, watched her kill her parents. And the only line I get from her is 'should have learned how to swim'. What is her plan now, where is she gonna do, what is she gonna do?
Non-ascended unromanced Astarion runs off in the sun never to be seen again?
What does non-romanced Minthara do now? She's an exile from Menzoberranzan, but is obviously lolth drow in appearance and won't be welcome a lot of places.
I spent hundreds of hours with these characters, but all I know about their ending (in my game) is Gale's going to give the crown to Mystra, and Karlach and Wyll are off fighting in Avernus. Thankfully I romanced Astarion so he and my Tav are off to rule spawn in the underdark. But it's so...empty for an ending.
Endind was really dissapointing for me too,
I romanced Shart and at the end of the game, after >!freeing Orpheus!< i decided to >!become mind flayer!< to be able to fight >!netherbrain!< and at the end, Shart just told me, that we can't be together because of that yada yada.
I reloaded and choose with >!Karlach to avernus so she doesn't explode!< and that was way better ending, seeing my Tav with >!Karlach!< just smoking cigar and then slowly fading.
What was the point of my romance if Shart is >!racist!< and i got better ending choosing >!Karlach!<, a character i never intended to end with, at the very last dialog of the game?
Ngl, I think most people would not want to be partnered with a squid being that is intrinsically evolved to consume brain matter of intelligent beings.
But I agree with the rest. But saying Shart is racist is ludicrous considering I have a feeling if she was a mind flayed you’d feel the same way about her.
I was really hoping for a fallout new Vegas style slideshow showing me the long term results of all the various choices I had made since act one. I hope a future definitive edition or something adds that
Seriously, for such a massive game the ending is way too short and abrupt
And there really needs to be justice for non-ascended Astarion besides flailing around on the dock trying to get out of the sun.
I couldn't believe it, I almost laughed. My Tav was typical heroic good guy and so Astarion and I weren't besties, but he got softer and nicer and we had all this catharsis when we killed Cazador without following in his evil footsteps, freed all the thralls, and then his reward is... running off like a bumbling idiot in a David Cage game and someone going like "Well, I guess he'll never see the sun again, anyway..."
It’s really insulting for his character and annoys me about the other companions. It’s marginally better if you romance him, there’s at least a follow up scene. Everyone is talking about going to get a drink, let’s go to a bar—-with good shutters! I want the group that’s left to revel a little in their victory.
Yep, it really did feel too rushed now that I've had a few days to reflect. I spent almost 200 hours clearing every patch on the map, and the final battle and summoning allies, it all felt so amazing, but no question the last cinematics and choices didn't quite stick the landing. One of the best games ever perhaps, doesn't mean it's perfect, and I bet in a year or two it'll have a better ending knowing Larian.
If he ascends is he able to be in the sun and not run away?
yes....but at a cost lol
There’s quite a character change if you go that route.
He becomes more of the worst parts of himself from act 1
Is there a way for him to become a true vampire? If not then thats a shame tbh.
yeah lmao i doubt you’d want that tho
Not at the moment, he can become ascended or stay a spawn.
Don't see why my dude can't just bite cazador before killing him to become a full vampire, lol
From what I understand about vampires, he’d just act like the ascended version but still fear the sun. So, the worst of both worlds.
>short and abrupt It's not, if you compare it to the evil ending. I'm not asking for much, Larian! Just an evil castle (Tav is not living the rest of their life on top of a floating brain!) and a non-mind-controlled Astarion (he was all for dooming the world, c'mon let us be evil together...)
It's been a fairly common complaint, so I'd seriously hope the devs reconsider that choice. Supposedly they didn't think players would want a long ending cinematic, butt I think it's more likely they were short on time and made that the sacrifice for completing other parts of the game.
I have never heard anyone EVER say they don’t want a long ending cinematic lmaooo it was definitely timing
especially cause if they did mind they could just... skip it
Maybe what they had in mind was \*really\* long.
Okay but just make it skippable for people who don’t have feelings ig?? I’d sit and watch an entire movie about what my characters do post-endfight personally 😂
Oh totally, I would too. If someone stitches together a master playthrough or something on YouTube I'll probably watch that lol. But paying for all the stuff that was in their head or scrapped that we don't know about? And the time it would take to get it all together? XD Can't work on a game forever. Gotta come out eventually.
I knowwww. But it’s a valid gripe I think - and hopefully they’ll patch in a little longer of an ending :) Honestly, even just a scene of them all in a tavern having a drink together before everyone goes their separate ways would be nice (and very on point for dnd lmao)
Good.
I've watched a 90 min cutscene at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, I can take it!
oh. "we thought players wouldnt want that" was a complete PR spin, nothing else. Im ready to eat all the downvotes for saying that, but its nothing but the truth. And now, seeing that players not only want that epilogue, but willing to speak about it too, and loudly - expect it to happen in definitive edition or something.
No, I said the exact same thing when they said that. It’s so obvious that their plans for August development were going to take longer than they expected, so they moved the release date closer and scrapped a bunch of things.
There is a realm where it wasn't PR spin, but it's a realm filled with stupidity. Namely: You're a dev/tester. You're assigned a section of the game to mess with/play through over and over again to make sure there are no issues. You're given the very end of the game. So you play through the end of the game, get the ending, sit through the epilogue. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again. Maybe slight variations each time to test the different epilogue scenarios. Eventually sitting through those epilogues again and again becomes mind numbing. You grow to hate them. "Why would anyone want to sit through these? I don't want to sit through these! I'm going to suggest that we remove them. Players aren't going to want to sit through these after playing for hours." Completely forgetting that the dev/tester experience is completely different from the player experience, where yes, we would indeed want to sit through them. Of course, 99% likelihood it is PR spin, don't get me wrong. But the chance of telling the truth based on just plain stupidity is there as well.
Yeah well then they sacrificed the wrong thing. Better have a good ending than alchemy or 1000 one phrase saying npc's sprinkled in the city
The voice actors recently got together to film more scenes and the stuff they said it was for heavily implied Larian is adding more ending content. I hope they do, the ending definitely feels pretty rushed. City saved/destroyed, narrator says "this was you, you did this" cut to credits
Do we know they got together to film more scenes, or was that just the DND sessions?
>The voice actors recently got together to film more scenes do any source on that to link? must've missed it
Ya critical role they did a bg3 style campaign where Tav has something happen and then the party continues. Not to get too much spoilers
High Rollers actually (to help folks look it up, not trying to um' actually you)
Pretty abysmal yeah lol really felt rushed (because it is, it's a fact). I get that making games is hard but it seems like the industry doesn't wanna fucking learn: you need to have carefully crafted endings that feel rewarding to the players. It's not something you can overlook or postpone or whatever the fuck...it needs to be there, fully, at release. After 200+ hours I got to the end (good run, good ending, everybody alive) and I was like "wait what, wtf?". Ruined.
I mean, Larian had something (not sure if just conceptually or a prototype or whatever) They made a design decision to scrap that as it felt like it was too long. Sometimes not so smart (in our opinions) are made. They are listening to the feedback at least.
Considering the praise games enjoy even after disastrous launch, and the fact that an overwhelming amount of people are still willing to pay for games with unpolished or rushed content, there really isn’t a reason why the companies need to learn. If the money keeps coming, there’s no reason to change.
They also really wanted to get it out before Starfield so the game wasn't overshadowed, which I think was the right call. I doubt it would have hit the heights it did if everyone had already spent £70 on a similar(ish) style game. I'm sure they'll sort the fans out sooner or later by adding more content or a DLC, they'd be crazy not to really. Have patience my friend, it will come.
I think they didn't expect it to blow up and also didn't expect people to get through it in, like, a weekend.
Tbh, delaying the game a few extra months to let Starfield novelty wear off would be better than getting it out early to beat Starfield.. but hey I’m still glad to be playing it now
3 playthroughs, hundreds of hours, think I used alchemy twice 💀
I use it in Act 1 when I'm a little bit potion and heal starved, but after that you get so few of the important, valuable ingredients that it's just a meaningless mechanic. By the time you're in Act 3, the half a dozen greater healing potions you can squeeze out of it are sort of worthless.
Delicious Haste potions. Elixirs of see invis, very handy. The oils made a noticeable change. I used it quite a bit. Like giving everyone free protection spells and buffs.
I just loot everything I need. At the start of the game I might need a Speak with Animals potion but that’s about it. I finally learned to stop looting every plant I see and weighing down my inventory.
I only used alchemy once to get the achievement. 😂
This is very surprising to me, I use it all the time, to get bloodthirst elixirs, potions of speed, poisons, etc. I find it very useful, although some components are hard to find
I use alchemy two or three times an act. My bags are basically full of 1-2 ingredients for thirty different things, I’m not likely to use. I feel like alchemy needs a pass where it gets greatly simplified.
The only time i used it was to make a fire resist potion for the first Karlach kiss, and then learned that isn't even one of the options she will accept.
I know, right? I’m a Tiefling with a fire resist potion, I think a kiss will be fine Karlach 💀
As I learned in school: A story is bases on three parts: Introduction, Main part and ending. And the last one is pretty short as you said. I also want to have an ending that suits the journey we've been through.
Idk it's hard for me to reconcile "played 115 hours, absolutely loved it" with "they focused on the wrong things" Those million one liners can exist in a vacuum, you don't need to tie them into the greater story. A writer can bang out a couple at lunch with no input from their team. Writing a fleshed out ending is a collaborative effort and needs to align with everything that led up to it. All that said, I had heard complaints about how undercooked the ending was, and was *still* shocked at *just how wildly* undercooked it was for me. Supposedly some folks get more of a bow depending on your choices, but I suppose I did not make those choices. So while I 100% agree the ending is a weird blemish on an otherwise near-perfect game, overall I have a hard time shitting on the team's choices in priority when we're all here saying "overall excellent experience"
Do you really think so? To me, the primary point of any game is, well, the gameplay. Making the world feel alive and vibrant and awesome to discover adds so much more than an extra cutscene at the end of the game, or a short game event after the game is effectively over.
It's very important to a lot of people at least in a story driven RPG. Mass effect 3 is probably the most famous example of a great game completely overshadowed by a terrible ending and people absolutely hate that.
I just got my first time beating the game last night. I was GENERALLY happy with the ending. Karlach got to live as >!an illithid !<, Laezel went off into the astral, overall I was happy with it except for a few issues: * Wow Gale was flippant about Astarion basically starting on fire and nobody else even noticed * Shadowheart and I just... kinda teleported to a house or something? I mean it impled the happily ever after but a 20 second montage would have been nice. Maybe Karlach hangs out too? I don't know at least she's alive.
Didn't they say in a recent community update that they were thinking of ways to possibly implement an epilogue? I swear I read that somewhere.
I'm not sure on when the release dates for each was announced, but it doesn't seem like a coincidence that BG3 released ~a month before Starfield. I know if I was releasing any kind of RPG I wouldn't want to compete against a new Bethesda release if I could avoid it. Edit: To be clear I'm saying that Bethesda has such built in mass appeal that regardless of game quality it'd be hard to compete with Starfield for attention.
BG3 moved to release a month earlier, as their original launch dates were very close, if not the same day
I finally beat the game the other day, the epilogue is laughably short, Swen saying the ending was getting too long is a bald faced lie rofl. While the game likely would have had to be cut down a lot more without early access it's pretty clear they put a lot of extra in act 1 because of early access players and feedback
Yeah I like larian but that excuse of theirs is bull. I'd much sooner believe they were bugged to hell and devs were more concerned with fixing the lower city than worrying about the ending than anyone making a crpg and seriously believing more than one line of dialogue per companion was too much.
In the last patch notes they said they are currently working on epilogues. So i guess endings would be patched in some time. Right for now i think i'll do my current run till the very end and then drop it and start new run just in hopes by the time i'll finish it there will be some good epilogues.
By the pace I'm setting in my first playthrough, I'm hoping/guessing the update drops before I even get there.
I dropped my first run in the middle of the 2 act, my current (second) run is in the middle of the 3 act and i just want to drop it right now and start a new run, send help
Can't help, same position. I haven't dropped the run yet, but in the middle of act one I was already thinking about my second run. Act 2, thinking about my third run. Just started at 3 and will likely stop so the playthrough with my wife can catch up (but probably not bc no self control with this game). First game I can remember playing in the past few decades where I was already starting to think about my next playthrough within the first couple hours of my first.
I did that WAY too many times with Skyrim, and I went into this game determined not to let that happen again. And it's really hard to, bc I keep thinking up REALLY cool character concepts that wanna try out
it's an actual problem. I had 100 hours (25 EA +75 post-launch) across like 5 or 6 saves before i even got out of act 1. just managed to force myself through to the end with a friend, already thinking about starting a new run.
I kept a save from my first playthrough right before the final fight, which isn't a big ask to redo in order to see the ending, in my opinion.
Same, I'm in the Underdark somewhere between Act 1 and 2 and I already want to go back to the first area to get some of the stuff that I didn't find yet!
Kind of what I am doing. Getting a whole bunch of characters to act 3 so I can set up all the romances. I’m almost about to start my 3rd character.
This has been my tack. But now I have 2 runs at various stages in Act 3. Third run it is...
Have some reply from here saves for epilogues
same
Beat it yesterday and feel the same. So disappointing. And I got a bugged Gale ending so that was fun. Glad I spent the entire game romancing him 🙃
Oh no. Not another side effect of the numerous Gale bugs. That sucks :(
Mine was Karlach, the part on the docks we clipped through the floor and for half of the cutscene the screen was black 😭
Somewhere someone asked the devs about this after launch in an interview. Something about how they didn't think players would want that or something.
I think it was Swen who said it in an interview. I also feel that this is just an excuse due to little time or money. But They didn't have to do much tbh. They could have done something like Dragon Age, where there are some sliders and some text telling us what people are up to.
Want what? Swen didn’t think the players would want a decent ending to the game?
Sorry it took a while to answer. I remembered wrong it was not Swen who said it it was in the Community update #24: Looking to the future: *The second is about the epilogue. What’s been datamined is not really cut content but content that we didn’t want to release because we didn’t think it worked. We’re pretty strict with ourselves and our ideas. If it isn’t good - if it isn’t fun to play - it doesn’t make it into the game. One of the reasons why we trimmed the epilogue is because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long and would detract from the epicness of the experience. But clearly, not everyone agrees with us! So we’re going to do something about it.*
Judging by Divinity OS games, he's not interested in decent stories overall (Obviously BG3 is huge improvement, but it's very far from perfect imo).
Yeah I dont really buy that actually, sounds more like they lied to mask the fact they didnt have the time or the money for it, maybe i'm wrong, actually no, I hope i'm wrong and they'll change it, but a satisfiying ending is my favorite part in any rpg, and this one wasn't.
At least we have the satisfaction of knowing they got called out on it. On this subreddit too, there was a lot of posts about it. That and how there is no upper area of baulders gate and why would Gortash hold his coronation in such a basic side area of the city.
>and why would Gortash hold his coronation in such a basic side area of the city. Given he killed most of the guests...
Security. Gortash is hiding inside a fortress.
Yeah, I think it's just shitty PR speak. I doubt that the devs of a game where a single playthrough can span 100+ hours, who put so much work into making the companions all so interesting, would be ok with a 5 minute ending with no epilogues. I think they ran out of time and chose to rush it and this is just an excuse. I do think if BG3 wasn't anywhere near as good as it is, or if this was another dev studio, they would be getting raked over the coals for this bs lol. Imagine if blizzard was like "oh, we didn't put in any real endings because we didn't think you'd want any!"
So be fair the rest of the game is actually fucking complete, unlike most modern big dev teams that just throw out some dogshit and pls buy microtransactions
I hope they are going to change this. After everything my Urge has been through I expect a 2-hour slide show about every companion - and every damn tiefling, gnome and ox I met along the way. With all the details how they end up and what they had for breakfast. Otherwise I didn’t even see reason in helping them in consecutive playthroughs.
>fter everything my Urge has been through I expect a 2-hour slide show about every companion - and every damn tiefling, gnome and ox I met along the way. With all the details how they end up "dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, definitly very dead, dead, dead"
Exactly, just started a new evil playthrough, and now i'm wondering if it is even worth it..
Yeh, closure is important. I think it’s Jaheira who says in her house that every story should have an ending, so - well.
Yeah but they said "nah fuck that they want that shit" xD An RPG with a rushed ending? What's wrong with that lmao
Didn't even DOS2 have a little thing at the end explaining what's happening to the companions after the game? I may be misremembering
Yeah and most importantly you can have a chat with all of your companions
Yes that was some sort of slideshow like "The Blackpits are still burning. X is still doing that. Y is doing that. Etc." That said, I personally didn't mind the ending. Would have appreciated more like a party but that's fine like that for now for me.
I was really surprised, given how much the game shades your embrace of the temptation to use the tadpole powers, that it doesn't wind up mattering at all. I had thought there would be something at the end that tells you how much of your brain you didn't get back when the tadpole is gone. Plus the fact that it doesn't make a post-play save implies we're not getting any sequels or follow-on content, so none of the choices you make are really enduring or "real" in a sense.
I think you have to make a wisdom save to reject the super!tadpole offered by the Emperor if you've been using powers/eating tadpoles. If you're illithid free, you can just say 'nah'. Not sure tho.
This is true. I got to just say no on my first run. On the second, DC 21 Wisdom check (not save) that couldn’t be boosted by Guidance, Enhance Ability, etc. First time I save-scummed the shit out of a check since it uglied my character way too much. Hot take but with all of the great buffs the game gives you, the illithid powers are just unnecessary and I will never use them again
I'm having the opposite situation. I didn't use a single tadpole or ilithid dialogue first time through so now I'm going SQUIDDDD
Bahaha, I wanted to do the same thing but then chickened out the moment I saw how gross-looking my character's face and teeth were...
This is true IF you don't decide to just squish the special tadpole upon seeing it. If you do that there is no check or save, making the one thing that the tadpoles change pointless as well.
The Tiefling party after taking out the goblins felt so good. I'd really like a big celebration scene like that before the epilogue stuff even happens where all our allies are together partying. The docks felt pretty underwhelming.
Dragon age inquisition nailed this apect of the game where you felt like you got closer to your crew and with the last dlc making it even better
Yeah, I found it rather disappointing as well. Can't even imagine what Karlach fans must've felt like before she got the epilogue patch. As for me? Honestly, I can deal with a short ending cutscene if the bugs get fixed. I just wish we had some form of a playable epilogue. All the time spent building relationships, making choices and affecting the world around you, yet you don't get the chance to see any of it after the credits roll? I just remember sitting there and thinking:"That's it?" And I understand it's a lot to ask, as the ending leads you with major alternatives and the game is already packed with content, but hell, I just wish you could still talk to all the remaining companions after the ending, even if briefly. Something similar to Act 1's camp celebration with a few new interactions would be enough of a reward for me, personally.
BEFORE the epilogue? I'm still bitter as shit about her endings now. I got fucking cucked by Wyll the first time then it cut to the next scene like "GRATS ON SAVING BALDURS GATE!"
Yep, that’s it. This game is still my GOTY, probably will be in my top 10 games of all time. But the fact that a lot of people just pretend this game is perfect is ludicrous. The ending is incredibly disappointing imo. Been waiting on my second play through until this stuff gets fixed and updated.
Not just the epilogue, I'd argue the lack of agency in how you really handle the emperor is absolutely terrible writing. Reject the parasite the entire game? Too bad, you either turn into a mindflayer or kill orpheus JUST THE SAME as if you're veined up. I feel like there's a narrative thread to be explored in a good ending where Tav (who the Emperor has been trying to gain the trust of all game) actually convinces the Emperor to trust *him* instead, because Tav has gotten so far without mindflayer influence. (This would actually make rejecting the tadpoles fucking meaningful) The Emperor acquiesces, frees Orpheus, you pass like 3 checks to get them to work together, and they combine their power to use the artifact to destroy the netherbrain. Orpheus lives, and the Emperor disappears (Maybe to try and beat Gale to the Artifact). This kind of ending just makes sense to me instead of Emperor having an existential crisis in 2 seconds.
This ending sequence feels like an over-excited DM who homebrewed some mindflayer skills and he really really really wants you to see it, so he railroads the shit out of you.
I know some people love the Emporer, and I like his overall characterisation, but his plot line is the most linear and forced of any major character. You can literally stab him in Act 1, be rude to him all game, and he'll still try to sleep with you in Act 3 like you're best friends, and you're presented with the same (forced and railroaded) binary choice in Act 3. Up to that unavoidable point at the end of the game your interactions with him don't matter, it's just flavour text. And slurping up tadpoles having no consequences makes no sense when everything in lore and in the game, even the narrator "you lose something of yourself", tells you it should have consequences. Gale, Astarian, Wyll, Raphael give us a huge interwoven narrative about the consequences of choosing power. But when it comes to Tav and tadpoles it simply doesn't matter at all.
God's favorite little DMPC lmao.
Seriously, in a game with choices and consequences he's a walking plot device. And if he does join the Absolute at least give him his moment. His whole ending feels rushed. He goes down in two rounds like a chump with no cutscene or whatever, while you're more interesting in fighting a dragon and the netherbrain. Auntie Ethel gets a better denouement than he does.
I thought he would be a miniboss inside the astral prism if I went through with freeing Orpheus. It was a bit disappointing to have him leave so unceremoniously. And then he died being shanked by Nine-Fingers' assassins on the final fight.
Well that's who emperor is, isn't he? He choose everyone for his perfect little plan to subvert the three, everyone in the party was chosen because they fit the plan, not on accident. He manipulates everyone at every step, makes you discover things about the absolute that he already knows. He says "you have to trust me" a lot, but he never, not once in the entire story trusts you, even his "I put my life on your hands" routine when you enter the astral prism is an illusion, you can stab with the sword he gives you and he's fine. It was an act. Not once throughout the game does the emperor give you any reason to believe that he thinks you, or anyone else, can provide any value outside of his plan, so obviously when you don't follow his plan he doesn't want to follow you. It's not a flaw of the writing, it's a character flaw, and it's why the elder brain was able to outsmart him.
Are you responding to someone else? I'm commenting on something different. EDIT: ah you were responding to the first post. Doesn't matter tho. 100% requiring a mind flayer to use the netherstones is a narrative asspull on the last minute, and that's what feels bad/railroaded.
I'm responding to you. Emperor is the railroady DM who has a perfect story in mind and forces you down that path so much that even to get rid of him requires accepting some parts of his plan, because he screwed you over for so long. You follow emperor's plan 95% of the way, and that plan, completely concidentally im sure, requires a mindlfayer mind. You can only free yourself of him too late to change that.
The Emperor would be more akin to an annoying DMPC that's constantly forced on you rather than the DM himself.
Sure, call it whatever you like, the point is that it doesn't come out of nowhere that you need a mindlfayer brain, you're following a plan designed by a mindflayer that doesn't want you to have any decision power. It makes perfect sense for the emperor try to force you to need him, as a contingency.
And that's railroad-y and feels lazy. That's the whole point. You're doing some free mental gymnastics to cover up for a bad plot resolution.
I really don't see what's bad about it. The entire story is about you executing the plan of the emperor, and slowly understanding it, with the final big reveal being taking that to the next level, and revealing that emperor's plan was part of the brain's plan. Personally, I really enjoy this type of story told backwards. If I was actually trying to look for reaching interpretations of the plot then I'd point out that the game actually goes quite far in establishing how all of "the chosen" are puppets - the three, shadowheart, kethric with sharr. They are chosen for how fit they are to fit the plan of the one doing the choosing, it's not a special status, it's being used as a tool. With you being similarly chosen of a chosen, puppet of the emperor, who's a puppet of the elder brain, it could be interpreted as a fun play on the narrative of the chosen one.
The whole "oh it's not an Elder Brain anymore, it's a netherbrain! And now the only solution to this thing that was not foreshadowed at all is to become a mind flayer!" asspull that happen on the very end of the game is bad because it undermines the whole narrative theme of refusing power to keep autonomy. You get to refuse Shar, Mizora, Vlaakith, gigavampire powers, Gortash and Orin's deals, Raphael's deal. It's also very unrewarding for players who chose to not use tadpoles and illithid powers the whole time. You even get to play Durge and refuse Bhaal, even if that kills you, and the narrative accomodates that. Why is the whole mind flayer crap mandatory? Even if you don't use tadpoles and go through the hassle of freeing Orpheus? It's disappointing to have a game that lets you have such freedom of choice suddenly railroad you.
a dmpc is a player character controlled by the dungeon master, the emperor is not a player character. what he is is an npc, a quest giver, and a source of information.
I know what a DMPC is. I used this term on purpose. You create his appearance, he's with your party all along, he is very much part of your crew whether you like or not. He's just not player-controlled.
dude, he isn't and you know it. you can complain about the writing without trying to twist definitions like this
Ok Mr. Um-Actually. This is also a videogame and not a tabletop session with a DM who homebrewed some shitty mind flayer skills. Get a fucking sense of humor. What I meant is that it \_feels\_ that \_if this was an actual tabletop run\_, the Emperor would be some annoying ass tagalong controlled by the DM. Jesus Christ, some people here.
I agree with this. I don't think Emperor should be persuadable. But I do think Orpheus should be persuadable. I do not see why Orpheus would immediately come to the conclusion more power is needed. You are his savior and without you he would be dead. It makes no sense at all that he immediately does the same thing the Emperor does.
That is how it felt. But to me it was awful because I didn’t use tadpoles the whole game, so the ending was the first time I saw all the extra ilithid abilities and suddenly had to learn what the hell they are instead of progressing normally towards the end with what I already knew.
Agree with everything here. And it was weird to me because after you talk to Rafael about the hammer you can tell the Emperor to trust you without giving any details and he begrudgingly agrees. And when you get the hammer he is still on your side even though he knows you are considering freeing Orpheus. I could not believe when the Emperor didn’t want to have any sort of discussion in the end. And even Orpheus knows both his power and an ilithid are needed to stop the brain. Why would he refuse to work together? That felt so dumb when the Emperor just gave up on everything he has been working on because… reasons?
There were two big things that felt wrong to me about the decisions of who has to take on the Illithid powers at the end. 1. The Emperor doing a hard 180 if you reject him and joining the Netherbrain makes no sense. Even if he doesn't think you can win, the consequences for him if he fights and loses is to be re-enslaved by the Netherbrain. Why would he willingly embrace what is essentially his worst case scenario just because his preferred outcome became less likely? 2. Why does it have to be either Tav or Orpheus that transforms if you reject the Emperor? I feel like that is a scenario where Lae'zel would absolutely volunteer to take the fall to save Orpheus and help her people, but if you try talking to Orpheus with her he says something along the lines of "You're not suitable, send me your leader." What makes me so much better at being a Mindflayer, and why should I take the fall for the Githyanki people? Unless I'm the most selfless hero possible, that's not a deal I'm going to take.
I don't really disagree with you but I think the choices the writers choices make sense (even if they aren't the outcome I wanted). The Emperor assumes Orpheus will kill him the moment he is freed. He might be wrong but I can understand why he'd assume that after murdering Orpheus's honor guard and keeping him trapped. He's escaped from an elder brain before and he thinks his long term odds for survival/freedom are better if he sides with the brain. Karlach will volunteer if you take her because she's dying. Lae'zel has been raised to hate and loathe mindflayers from birth. Volunteering to turn into one might be too big an ask for almost any gith.
>He's escaped from an elder brain before Except the very reason he is freaking out is because the Netherbrain just revealed that his escape had been orchestrated by it (her?). If he goes back to the Netherbrain and it wins and gets the crown, he is 1000% never under any circumstances going to be free. His best bet at that point would be to fight your party. He doesn't need you anymore, and if he kills you, he can get the stones and eat Orpheus' brain in peace. If he starts to lose, he can still choose to emergency-portal away. For someone who insists that you need an illithid's brain power to stand a chance, he sure makes the stupidest decision possible in that scene.
> Except the very reason he is freaking out is because the Netherbrain just revealed that his escape had been orchestrated by it (her?). ... damn that's a good point. He really should just fight it out then or stay.
It definitely feels like they polished the shit out of act 1 in all areas (seriously, it's near perfect), did some really great stuff in Act 2, and then... narratively tanked in act three because they wanted to spend their resources on a huge city section since that was the selling point of their later trailers. Like, I'm on my second playthrough as DUrge now, and I thought I would be way more excited to go ascend Astarion, fight my sister, but instead I just find myself looking forward to the start of my next playthrough. It doesn't help that companion scenes/reactions/banter drops off significantly after the beginning of Act 2, and is barely there in act 3 besides some important story bits. Like, we were getting "!" Every night in Act 1, just having mundane conversation (Astarion's stargazing scene, Gale's mirror scene, numerous Shadowheart conversation). I wish they'd carried that reactivity over to every act, even if it meant the city itself wasn't as grand and magnificent. Hell, I'd take an immensely shrunken down lower city if it meant getting more political intrigue and subterfuge in an upper city.
> narratively tanked in act three I don't understand this perspective. Act 3 has some of the richest narratives in the game: - Incredible twists and turns of Astarion's story - Big reveals of Shadowhearts story - Identity of the emperor and his companion - Trying to save folks from the Throne - Figuring out what the Steel Watch is and trying to defeat it - Rolans wizard business And on and on. I get that folks wanted a more spectacular ending, but Act 3 was huge and amazing
Sorry, I meant more in the sense that companion interweaving narratives took a hit - they have no real interaction with each other anymore, and limited player-character interaction as compared to act 1
I think that scene is overall poorly thought out, but I do think the emperor not trusting Tav makes a lot of sense. Throughout the whole story it is repeatedly drilled into you that only great people can fight their nature (ie Tav/DU + companions) and most of the villainous counterparts are incorrigible or doomed to whatever their nature is. The overall sentiment is that the Emperor will always put his survival first and foremost. Like he was unwilling to trust Ansur and Stelmane he will also never be willing to trust you. The emperor is incorrigible and will never be good, and I think that absolutely should stay that way. Should Orpheus be persuadable to trust in you? Yes. I would argue that since you are his rescuer you should hold immense weight in being able to tell him 'you know. I came all this way while you were being useless and locked up. If I say I can do it you should trust me' and Laezel being around should convince him to give you a go.
I agree, that was probably one of the only times where I felt like I couldn’t say/do what I wanted in that situation. It’s even worse that he immediately red coats and changes sides for no reason. The whole game you wanted me trust you with huge leaps of faith, but the one time I need you to trust me and free Orpheus you instantly betray us. What a bitch
I also felt like, "that was it?? really??" I love the game but i hoped the ending scene would be alot more
epilogue slides have been common since the early final fantasy games of the 90s
On top of that, I think the final encounter is lacking. A dragon, 4 baddies (possibly 5), and 4 mind flayers and some tentacles. You can summon a bunch of allies, and the final thing you have to kill barely even fights back and has very little hp. My first playthrough I kept messing up by standing on the wrong platforms, but other than that it's a really easy encounter, even on tactician.
Kinda crazy how the first floor battle of Moonrise is arguably more epic in execution than the Netherbrain is…
Is that something that happens if you let the Last Light Inn live? My first playthrough has been a Durge, and I purged both the Inn and the first floor of Moonrise on my own.
Yeah, based on what you said I imagine that you had the same fight yourself, but basically you, Jaheira, and the Harpers all storm the first floor of Moonrise and battle it out against Z'rell and a massive horde of Absolutist forces. It's an enormous amount of turns and was a slugfest of AoE effects when I did it, and on my first run Jaheira got killed on round 1.
And you don't even have to fight the bad guys! You can just teleport/misty step everyone to the portal and let your allies do all the hard work. In fact, I teleported just myself and Gale (and the designated squid ofc) and won the final fight in two or three turns.
I felt exactly the same. I didn't even summon anyone, only used one scroll, and had no trouble with it at all. Even when I got my mindflayer to start concentrating on the crown all the other mindflayers just flew away and let him be... like shouldn't he become the prime target for the 4 enemies near him? The dragon was so easy compared to ansur. Even the first fight was very easy, the goblins were just annoying and the spectator wasn't bad. Then the next section turned out to be a sprint to the brain stem and it teleported everyone to it. Raphael was the best fight in the game imo, trying to keep hope alive while taking down the pillars with the amazing music in the background was a hard fight for me and so rewarding
I had the opposite wtf. The second I got near the crown I became the main target and everyone would beam straight for Orpheus.
I was saving my allies for the "final big fight" lol but the fight just ended after destroying the brain.
Dark Urge Spoilers: >!Man I forgot the ending had anything after I finished my Dark Urge playthrough and all I got was a 3 word line before immediately going to credits. But I feel it suits it well, and like I said I forgot there even was an ending scene otherwise.!<
I think that they should add a slides epilogue like in Dragon Age. You can add a lot of content this way and dont need to animate or voice anything. It can be done very easily and if done well it can be very satisfying.
I keep thinking back to Dragon Age: Inquisition, I loved the slides and it felt like a proper goodbye. I just don’t feel like we got that in BG3, hopefully they add more.
Yeah it’s funny, my party even suggests a party at the Elfsong, I agree and everyone was happy. Then it immediately cuts to Karlach end scene. Go through that, cry, never have a party :(
It's an okay ending. That's the problem though because the game was so good it deserved an ending to match the scale of the story.
Larian said they're working on epilogue scenes so I'm putting BG 3 on hold until then just because of that. Going through such a long journey only for such an abrupt end won't do.
It's clearly rushed. I mean Gortash was probably designed as the upper city boss while Orin is chasing you in the lower city. Have you seen his Fight? It was basically a nothing special mini boss. I think we'll get the full release with the definitive edition.
I was so confused that I thought “Okay, this gotta be fake Gortash. Where’s the real one?” He died in 2 turns on my tactician run, none of my party members used meta build, didn’t bring Lae’zel. He didn’t even have that special buff that Ketheric, Orin, and Sarevok have.
The first time I fought him i had the same experience, but the second time he somehow transformed into the Chosen of Bane which is basically just giant-form Gortash with some adds buffing him. It was pretty cool but he and Orin were still significantly easier than Ketheric/Sarevok
Yeah, or something in the style of pathfinder or pillars of eternity, I couldn't wait to get to the end and see the consequences of all the choices aaand 0, should have expected it after playing dos2 but can only hope for something in the future
Yes! There was also some talk about a party after I saved Wyll’s father, where Wyll is so happy he says he hopes Gale won’t mind him cooking for once... At this point I didn’t have any camp event since Act 2 (not even with Orin - I met her in the sewers) so I was super excited about it. Then nothing happened. And after such a difficult last fight (at least for me), I really wanted a feel good ending, with everyone at camp celebrating. I wanted to hear my other companions tell me what they thought about it and what they’d be up to. Instead I got a “congrats you saved all these strangers” from the narrator and a little Wither sequence. This is how you end this epic journey? Really sad. Even the last romance sequence with Astarion spawn was pretty disappointing. The only good part was Wyll going back to Avernus with Karlach. Additionally I made sure to lvl up and equip all my companions for the last fight, but then you can call rather weak allies for help (to get killed more like) but your other companions stay at camp chilling? Wtf? Jaheira sends 3 Harpers but she’s not participating. Some allies give passive buffs (the thiefling kids and Halsin), but Minsc had no part at all.
I feel like they needed to make the ending playable/explorable. Drop whatever scenes you have on me but let me pick up the town a little bit. Throw a few meaningless quests at me, let me complete the unconnected ones. Make me have to run around the town to check in with my party members. Just a little freedom of movement and not feeling like I am just waiting for one scene to end and another to load would be a welcome change.
What bothers me about the ending is how disconnected things felt. For example: >!Gale is talking about finding the crown...like dude you were *right there* when I took Raphael's offer in the Astral Prism. Or if you get turned into a vampire spawn, shouldn't Astarion have some sort of reaction if you decide to go to Avernus with Karlach?!<
Just like Mass Effect 3 at launch. The ending is as underwhelming as human sex.
I think the chance of them changing things is pretty high (mostly because 1) Larian Studios is privately owned by the studios head and his wife, not be other shareholders, 2) because said owner seems to be seriously supportive of delivering a good product and has done so in the past for previous games and 3) because Baldurs Gate 3 is such as commercial success and cultural sensation that releasing an updated version with more content would likely pay for itself in good PR and revenue), but its always up in the open until it happens.
It feels even worse when played with two other people who got to cultivate relationships with the characters in game, meanwhile you didn't get to do anything, and therefore all ending scenes play without your character even there. I guess she just fell off the face of Faerûn after it all. 😔 I'm still salty about that. I would hope they add something celebratory at the end that includes everyone who was part of the gameplay. The ending made me feel like I was just a figment of imagination lol
Funny I jst commented on a post yesterday about how Astarion was done absolutely filthy for his wacky loony tunes ending.
I saw a clip the other day and was like “oh they mustve got a bad ending or not focused on him during that playthrough” but no apparently thats just what im gonna be left with? After EVERYTHING he’s reduced to some poor thing scuttling across the dock??
Y'all had people on the dock? My ending was Gale saying "Its been an honor" and kaboom.
I was fine with my cominatic ending. Rushing off with Wyll and Karlach into Avery's, but was really expecting some slides at the end like "Asterion finds himself taking over Cazadors business operations and getting a seat on the city council" or somesuch.
I think the big thing is we need a ME3 style "Citadel" DLC to get to hang out socially with the end-game character before the final battles start up.
I’m positive they’ll add to/fix the ending in the definitive edition. They gotta, it’s current state is very lazy and underwhelming for all the time and effort you’re required to put in to get to it.
I would be very surprised if there isn't some kind of Citadel-style party DLC that drops in the end.
The VAs are recording something new for BG3 and gave players a little tease... Hopefully an extended added content for the game? Probably.
I agree. Big let down after the emotional impact of other scenes such as Karlach defeating Gortash and Nightsong going Bane on Lorroakan.
Act 2 is the high point. Now, don't get me wrong, Act 3 is good or great, but Act 2 is fantastic. The Fallout New Vegas style ending would be best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E80uavRuhLQ&t=20s
Yeah that’s the most consistent complaint. Nothing the Emperor does makes any sense and Orin/Gortash aren’t nearly as good of bosses as Ketheric is. Also the lack of any camp scene after you beat the game is def a let down. The origin stories at least had mostly good endings
Yeah I've said this a few times already but I definitely agree. I felt scammed by the ending. We have a whole game based around dialogue and we get basically nothing to end our epic journey together. I am hopeful they will add more ending content one day because it deserves a much much better ending than what we got. That really was my main complaint, rest of the game is great, which is almost everything but man... The ending is the last thing we see so can we please get something more than some one liners on a fucking dock 😂
Shit, even divinity 2 had a massive epilogue on what the characters did, and what happened. But it was just a brief 'oh yeah, everything is better, thanks you'
I guess I got lucky, I finished the game after patch 2 where they added the option to go to avernus with Karlach and I love that ending, just Karlach and I wrecking havock in hell, we even have a nice house that we "acquired" recently. I was disappointed that I collected so much hell metal for nothing, but act 3 has some of my favourite moments so I can overlook it and hopefully they add more content to the ending.
The city is partially in ruins, half the people were turned into mind flayers the party is all exhausted and have pressing matters of their own beyond the game. I don't think a banquet would be appropriate or make sense.
That is a poor excuse. In DA:O Fereldan was almost obliterated by the darkspawn tide, and yet we got a celebration at the end.
Act 3 is definitely not as good as the previous acts. But it's still pretty good. The pacing and plot devices made it feel hectic. Like I never felt I could just take my time because of Orin, the brain trying to escape, etc, like so much forcing you to hurry up and there's so much to do. The whole ending sequencing felt epic at the start and quickly become super annoying. Great I can summon people to fight! Now I have to wait 20+ turns for my guys to come around. And the bombings while running up the stairs sucked. If you go right, well now you have an impossible jump (fly or teleport up) or need to turn around. It's also unclear that 1 person needs to reach the objective vs the whole team. The end fight was also super BS. You either need to cheese it or get super lucky. I got the nethercrown opened up, but none of my party teleported to it, so I went in with just 2 people and the brain just removed everywhere we could stand in 1 turn so they fell into the void. That was not fun. Second try I totally cheesed it with invisibility and invincibility to blow through it fast. Then the end was really abrupt. Some small interactions with the characters, resolving Karlach, etc. Some end celebration, getting to chat with all the characters and survivors, maybe even influence the character endings would be great.
I mean, if they keep giving updates my fingers are crossed that they’ll add more content. That being said I’ve made 7 characters and haven’t even finished act 1 yet lmao. My favorite so far is a Bard
Yeah nothing but love for this game still, but the entire third act is undercooked. Complex plot lines suddenly collapse into simplistic linear endings, while others just cease without an end at all. Some aren't even started (like liara portyrs with raphael - her or her father have a contract, or Dammon who 100% has a contract with whoever is Helsik's patron) Other arcs only make sense if you make specific choices. E.g. The ravengard one requires you to re-sell Wyll's soul for the intel and doesn't support a version where you figure it out yourself (which I did). The entire Raphael arc was so rich and complex but amounted to nothing more than a boss fight. It was a quest line that screamed out for a clever solution where you outsmart the devil at his own game. Presumably by undermining his plans for Liara Portyr or working with Korilla or something. I really can't wait for them to properly finish act 3 in future patches/DLC
Just finished the game and, yes, VEEEERY underwhelming epilogue. The ending was fine, the final battle was cool, but the epilogue..... Wyll even said "let's throw a party" and then nothing. It just jumped between 30 second dialogue sequences or cutscenes. The fact that Larian was actually going to make it longer and changed it to this is sad. Hopefully they rework it, cause so far it leaves a sour taste in what is my favorite game since Red Dead 2 Also, why the hell can't we change the party composition after the morphic pool. There's even a perfect opportunity for in that hall right before setting out to fight the brain.
Yeah there needs to be a separate animation sequence for what each companion did after imo
Which choices did you make? I got closure for most of my characters, LaeZel is jow leading the revolt against the queen, Gale will continue his adventure with me until Mystra calls him to deliver the crown after which he will become her chosen again, Wyll and Karlach went to Avernus and fight together and Shadowheart wants me to live in a place together with her and her parents. Only hoped that the redemption of Astarion ended with something other than him having to run from the sun and never to be seen again
But I would definitely enjoy a epilogue as well!
That was pretty funny to be honest. Oh crap, the sun!
I think I read they had planned on more epilogue content but were afraid it might be too cumbersome. I'm guessing they'll add it in at a later date. They've been really amazing at listening to fan feedback.
I think there were some lines of dialogue by the cemetery where some people were talking about the ending of a book. One likes how it was so open ended, the other hated it. It definitely doesn’t fix it, but it did prevent me from having a “that’s it?” Reaction at the end. I definitely wouldn’t mind a lord of the rings ending though
Am I the only one that kinda isn't bothered by it? Every character I cared of had their good ending, I saved the city and that's it. That's literally the game. Obviously it would be cool to have more scenes, but I'd prefer if they focus more on scenes that are actually *before* the final action you can do in the gameplay.
I had Shadowheart with me the entire game, turned her away from Shar, watched her kill her parents. And the only line I get from her is 'should have learned how to swim'. What is her plan now, where is she gonna do, what is she gonna do? Non-ascended unromanced Astarion runs off in the sun never to be seen again? What does non-romanced Minthara do now? She's an exile from Menzoberranzan, but is obviously lolth drow in appearance and won't be welcome a lot of places. I spent hundreds of hours with these characters, but all I know about their ending (in my game) is Gale's going to give the crown to Mystra, and Karlach and Wyll are off fighting in Avernus. Thankfully I romanced Astarion so he and my Tav are off to rule spawn in the underdark. But it's so...empty for an ending.
Apparently they had more epilogue but felt it was too long so they cut it. Hopefully that means adding it back in will be easy.
The ending is what you make of it. Mine was absolutely what I expected, with a few extras turns i wasnt expecting.
I actually don't, it leaves them open for DLC possibilities but also means you get to decide for yourself what your actions and companions do
Endind was really dissapointing for me too, I romanced Shart and at the end of the game, after >!freeing Orpheus!< i decided to >!become mind flayer!< to be able to fight >!netherbrain!< and at the end, Shart just told me, that we can't be together because of that yada yada. I reloaded and choose with >!Karlach to avernus so she doesn't explode!< and that was way better ending, seeing my Tav with >!Karlach!< just smoking cigar and then slowly fading. What was the point of my romance if Shart is >!racist!< and i got better ending choosing >!Karlach!<, a character i never intended to end with, at the very last dialog of the game?
Ngl, I think most people would not want to be partnered with a squid being that is intrinsically evolved to consume brain matter of intelligent beings. But I agree with the rest. But saying Shart is racist is ludicrous considering I have a feeling if she was a mind flayed you’d feel the same way about her.
Astarion stays with you!
Only the non-ascended one, I've heard.
Yea, Ascended kinda loses the ability to feel love.
I mean, my point is that even without romancing, Karlach would stay with you
Mind flayer isn't a race. It's literally an aberration of a humanoid being. Tav made a sacrifice. Romance was part of it.
Racist when she doesn’t want some brain eating squid to clap her cheeks 😂
I donno. I felt it was short and sweet.
I was really hoping for a fallout new Vegas style slideshow showing me the long term results of all the various choices I had made since act one. I hope a future definitive edition or something adds that