Hello all!
Firstly I wanted to thank the creators so much for this amazing gaming experience, even despite the obvious problems it's encountering right now, I believe in the months to come this game will be a marvelous and polished gem. Once again - thank you to all at Larian and everyone who worked on this fantasitc project!


As for my suggestions and observations... well, as a person who loves telling stories and writing characters, and also a Game Master of few years I have to say that I was quite disappointed not with exactly the lack of cinematic epilogues, but with the lack of closure to the various choices we made during a game and consequences of those, lack of tied ends. My experience as a storyteller and also as just a lover of good books showed me that when you introduce your reader to something in your story, this "something" can't be coincidential. It's supposed to have a grander purpose and the reader will wait for that to come out in the future, in the right momentum.

For example when I introduced owlbear cub in my game some years ago, my players decided that they wanted to raise it even though they had to journey through almost all of the Sword Coast for many months to come, to some big cities along the way, and this was a quest of itself. With that beast it wasn't supposed to be an easy trip. From the start to the end that owlbear cub wasn't there just for being cute in their camp during the travel - it was there as something they had to take care of and build relations with so it could become a potential final battle ally. Or if they mistreated it or have forgotten about it, the beast would have simply tried to move away at the closest opportunity. As far as I like that you gave the player that owlbear cub in BGIII also, I think unfortunately for most of the game our interaction with it becomes empty and by act 3 you as a player start treating it just as another thing in the camp you don't really have to interact with. At the end of the game, at least for me and my friends, its usefulness felt like an incident, not like a reward I worked hard for. Instead, even though you could say less unique, I felt more engrossed in interactions with Scratch. Why? Because him being here had a purpose. Because he was his own doggy with a lot to tell and a personality to show. He had a coherent story and he had a purpose in our camp, even bringing these foundlings. He felt more alive and important than the poor owlbear, and unfortunately, there were a few other characters/items/events/choices that seemed to be important points for Tav, forming their future even but lost meaning, purpose and consequence along the way just like that, puff. In the end, they did not matter like that little Mol questline which I personally carved for as a rogue character and her patron, but she could just as well died along the way because in the end, her being there has no meaning and purpose for Tav... I would make a list but others arleady did threads on those in this section of forum, so...

The thing is if you show a character with a name, or a special personality and make him seen in even just one scene - the reader(or player) will always wonder what happened to that person, if there could be more. The same goes for minor places, items and animals, for the buildup of events(looking at you tadpoles!). My players would be so disappointed and dissed me if I would just end our campaign with the owlbear cub after the final battle without talking with them about what happened afterward, not only to their heroes but also to various nonplayer characters. I'm not joking - they have a caravan of around twenty "people" that they formed during an almost year-long journey in-game. All those NPCs were there for them to be used in the final battle and they only chose seven in the end after a really serious talk about who should come with them. They cared and feared for their safety. And, to be fair, this kind of companionship where characters you met during the journey do not become expendables but something you want to preserve, to cheer them on their future, is what you achieved in the final moments of BGIII but then also mercilessly crushed when you decided to cut the epilogues and did not showed the consequences of our choices.

In truth, players do not get angry about just a lack of cinematic epilogues of companions. They talk about this because they were cut from the closure of also seeing how all those NPCs, that they worked so hard for throughout the game, fare. How Tav's story and choices changed their lives and ultimately because of this - also the world around them. Origins are solid fillars for the story, but ultimately all those bricks around them are as important. But also do not think I'm saying that the open end is bad for the story conclusion, no, it's great for players to imagine. Which is why I don't actually think the game needs additional hard cinematic epilogues if you think they would be too much and too long(although they would be nice). Instead, you could make the credits more interesting and kind of movie-like. The credits could roll and in the meantime, the player could also watch images, look-a-like postcards from various characters post-ending lives based on choices you made during the game with maybe some short, written dialogues or commentary. I will give some examples of what I mean and have in mind(there will be serious end-game spoilers so be wary if you mind them!):

  • The "what we do after the battle?" choice image - the player chooses that they go partying after the final battle? Let them see an image of their final companions and allies in some inn having a drink and being merry with maybe Gale(if he is alive xd) trying to say an anecdote from Yawning Portal again. They chose to go to Amn? Show them in the travel, the Baldur's Gate behind them on the horizon, maybe someone riding on the big owlbear. Just a picture, not cinematic.
  • Githyanki egg - the player made that choice to raise that little gith egg? Never sold it to SoB? Let them see their character in the picture with the gith kid, maybe teaching it? Maybe with the player character's significant other commenting on the player handling the little gith? Or the kid playing with the owlbear while the player's character and his SO rest in the shadow of a tree? Again, just an image composed of the models you already have.
  • Thaniel and Shadowlands future - if the player's character made a significant bond with Halsin, then why shouldn't we see what happened to that part of the world? Some pictures of the player's character playing with Thaniel, animals around and smiling Halsin in the background. Or if the player had simply chosen to travel around the world, show our characters observing how Moonrise Towers became something more than a ghostly place for example and in a different kind of way than what we saw after second act. Again - just unmoving pictures.
  • Romances post-ending - the player chooses for example that they would go and find a solution for Astarion's sun problem? Why not show the two characters in Lathander's temple in Beregost as a nod towards older BG games? Astarion could have a small written comment like "oh, so this is the famous Song of the Morning temple? I hope it's not really sunny inside!" and the player's character could have a small reply like "but we are looking for the sun, aren't we?" Another example could be a picture of a player's character reading a letter and next to it some words from a companion who decided they needed to sort their things out and left if you don't really finish their questline. Or a picture of dining with Shadowheart's family under the moon and stars if you made the right choices? A moment from the day your character marries Wyll with best wishes from some companions? Picture of Gale and your character sending invitations or resting in wizard's study with his tressym?
  • Companions and NPC - not every companion stays in Tav's life at the end of the story but it doesn't mean player is not curious about how they go on with their lives. Show us a picture of Lae'zel riding a red dragon in the battle, shouting for the Orpheus's dragons to attack and leading gith army, in tandem with Voss maybe? Image of Gale returning the crown to Mystra? Astarion skulking in the shadows or leading spawns in the Underdark? Karlach and Wyll travel through Avernus or fight and bond there? Show how deep gnomes are faring in the city after all is done? How the tiefling kids from the grove are building their lives in the big city? Maybe a player's character with Mol in their new guild place giving back the investment gold? Show Rolan in his new tower and maybe he took an apprentice? It could be Arabella even or is he teaching someone else? Picture of Alfira playing a song about the player and companions in the Elfsong Tavern? If Kagha is alive show an image of her with Halsin trying to clean shadowlands from the leftovers of the curse as part of her redemption? Gandrel guiding his kids on how to "eat" on animals, maybe even with Astarion's help? Jaheira and Minsc helping with rebuilding the city? Emperor making a new his little empire in Baldur's Gate? Picture glimpses of how all those characters fare to show the player all they did mattered and had consequences on their lives!
  • Evil ways - player decided on becoming the absolute and seizing minds of companions? Maybe some pictures of the companion's betrayal since this is something they would do if they were free even for a moment? Or some pictures where you can see the player's character tired of boredom on their throne, companions mindlessly doing the bidding. Random adventurers challenging an evil player? Gone being a vampire consort? Show the Evil Lord Vampire on the throne with the red glowing eyes of his spawn army piercing through the shadows and the player's character sitting on his throne's armrest. Had an owlbear? Add him to the picture eating some fresh meat(maybe from some dead companion?) in the background. Character embracing Bhaal could have pictures of killing companions or something akin to bloody sacrifice done using friendly and known faces(like that night with Alfira...). Those pictures should make the player feel that the choices they made were indeed guiding their character on the path of destruction not only for the world around them but also ruin for themselves.

I could go on, but I think those are enough examples of how you could still make the story conclusion open-ended, but show players how their choices changed the world around them and the characters' fates; making the player feel the difference in tone of story climax. Credits go for like thirty minutes, so there is plenty of time for showing those pictures without making the game longer(and to make them you already have all the models in-game). I think this would make the ending more movie-like, also probably encouraging more people to read those credits and the wait for the post-credit scene more enjoyable. It would be also cool if the player could save them afterward and for example, use them as desktop wallpaper later! This would be awesome after-game content and a reward for investing so much time into the game story! It would also make people want to replay more so they could get different images with their characters and NPCs. I know I would love things like this and surely I'm not the only one as I talked about it with a few people.

Of course, those are only suggestions and I believe you will make the most adequate decision for the best future of Baldur's Gate III! Thank you for hearing out the players and their feedback!