I've always been an "its about the journey, not the destination" sort of guy, but Baldur's Gate 3 definitely made me feel how a great buildup could leave you feeling deflated with an unsatisfying ending. This entire post will be mostly spoilers, so if you don't want to read them turn back now. That being said, I thought 98% of the game was phenomenal, loved almost every minute, minus a few immersion breaking bugs in Act 3, and well, the entire ending sequence. I have 2 major gripes.
1. We can go to Hell with Karlach, even if we don't romance her, but we can't fly off on a dragon with Lae'zel even if we have had a deep and fulfilling romance arc, after we turn her savior into if a squid immediately after we free him from his eons of captivity? Going off to help her on her quest to dethrone a would be god seems like the least we could do, if we are still ourselves at the end of the game. Also these would both hopefully be obvious setups for sequels and DLC's, where we follow Lae'zel to the astral plane to take the fight to Vlakith, or to Avernus to free Karlach from Zariel's yoke once and for all.
2. The leadup to the boss fight seems like it funnels everything down into 4 Channels. You save the world as a (whatever you rolled), or a mindflayer, or you become the absolute, as as your PC or a mindflayer. This seems like it does a disservice to all of the reactivity to everything we do, and it results from the fact that we apparently *need* a mindflayer to win. This makes absolutely no sense to me, and I'm not an expert on forgotten realms lore by any means, but aren't Mind flayers designed to be controlled by elder brains? Aren't the Ulitharids the only ones with any degree of autonomy? And them only because they eventually become a new elder brain? Also, is there ever any explanation as to how Orpheus just opts to transform? was he holding his own infection in check all along? Did he pickpocket our astral tadpole?
As the ending stands it seems to me inherently unsatisfying on both fronts. If you are good, you have to either become a mindflayer, destroying your soul (not exaclty "good"), or force someone else, orpheus or a party member to do so, which seems profoundly selfish and unheroic. Even if you can pull an Orpheus, and turn and then fall on a sword at the end of everything, which would be the most "good" you still have to erase yourself to get to that point. If you are evil you spend the entire game accruing power only to find that you can't be powerful enough to get the job done without 1) destroying your identity (and as Minthara so adroitly puts it, what good is power without freedom?) or rely on some dupe to carry the load that is too heavy for us to the finish line, so that we can dart in like a rodent and run off with the cheese at the last minute.
Possible Solutions: We have numerous ways for characters to become more "evovled." The Dark Urge Bhaal avatar, wielding the Netherstones should have the divine horsepower to weild the stones without become a squidface, or having to rely on tentacled lacky to do what you couldn't to slide in and take their place at the end. Similarly, if Astarion becomes ascendant, those 7000 souls behind him should give him a similar advantage (this could lead to interesting endings based on whether or not you are playing as Astarion or he is a companion and how much he likes you). Lae'zel could be similarly positioned if she is empowered by Vlakith, which would maybe lead to Vlakith ultimately becoming the absolute? Who wouldn't want a Netherbrain thrall to turn on all the other lesser elder brains in your eternal war? These characters seem to fit the bill right off the bat. Gale could be potentially expanded to find a way to use the Karsite weave fragment already inside of him to be able to harness the power of the stones, as currently his quest consists of eating some magic items and then finding a book. Wyll is in a similar situation, as least if you save Karlach, his quest turns into just saving his father, which you would probably do regardless of whether Wyll was in your party. He could potentially embrace his hellish transformation, maybe seize the House of Hope and find some way to seize power either from keeping Hope captive in true devil style, or perhaps, even better, chaining up Raphael and siphoning his power for eternity in his own house.
I realize those all consist of evil or at best evil-ish solutions. While personally, I'm not necessarily opposed to this, as part of being the good guys means being willing to sacrifice for the greater good. But as many of the millions who bought the game are likely to be unsatisfied with this, let's not forget we can also recruit the progeny of a god into our camp, would the immortal daughter of Selune not be able to leverage some Netherese magic to bash an elder brain apart?
Anyway, still loved the game, just wanted to share some thoughts and suggestions about the ending after waiting and hoping for this game to materialize for the last 2 decades.
Last edited by Fatpaddy4; 06/09/23 04:34 PM.
