Just my opinions and input! I loved the game and would adore seeing more of it!!!
Karlach
1. Deserves better endings.
2. Nothing shes perfect.
3. I have a feeling DLC will be our trip to Avernus so I am not too. upset? idk I have a good feeling. I want a whole DLC where I go save Karlach please and thank you!
ENDING
1. Collectively the choice of killing yourself, and the companions reacting NEEDS to be more fleshed out especially if you spend time doing all their quests and being their friend.
2. The conversation where Karlach tries to stop you from turning into a mindflayer should be more fleshed out. (Esp the first time) In my playthrough Dammon unfortunately died - and I had no idea who he was he just randomly was dead in the stables and I was like 'Wow sure hope hes not important bc idk wh the fuck that is.' Turns out, he is important. So In my playthrough, Karlach was fucked, not sure if this remains the same for everywhere else - that said. It was very powerful narratively, that she tries to stop you because 'Let me choose how I die, let me die a hero.'
2a. If Gale is in the conversation and you spend time telling him NOT to throw his life away to be a hero and he is in this conversation witnessing it - there should be a 3 way argument. That one meme image where 'NO ILL KILL MYSELF FOR THE WORLD, NO I WILL!' Etc, hilarious, but in this instance it made sense for me if that happened here. I thought a conversation should take place like this. Considering I spent the whole game convincing Gale to NOT kill himself bc other people basically said he's worthless otherwise. Only to see my character faced with the same concept, wanting to choose it - and then Karlach saying no, LET ME die a hero.
THIS NEEDS to be more chunky, it was way too light for my liking imo.
2acont. This is especially so because the ending of the story makes it seem like Withers basically said this was all preordained - kind of fucked that fate basically put us in a position where we are worthless and the best choice for everyone technically is that WE become the mind flayer. Annoyed that, Emperor was a little bitch and left imo that whole issue could have been resolved if he just shut his face and sucked it up instead of being a whiny baby not getting his way - and took reigns on the situation to basically be THE MINDFLAYER that helps stop the nether brain - but it's fine. I get it, he's a piece of shit.
TLDR 2a. More of a conversation needs to happen regarding your choice to become mindflayer, and being adamant about it. I was excited to see if Karlach would have that passionate feeling of telling Tav - NO, out of caring for them. And make an argument about it, I wanted it because after everything it made sense that Karlach would fight for your right to live a life she only dreams of having. After saying what she does in regards to you basically, being able to go off into the sunset. I wanted to see if she would basically have a 'gotcha' moment but she deflates and lets it be - which is annoying imo bc characters will DOUBLE CHECK if you DONT want to fuck them but won't double check if you are sure you wanna kill/doom yourself - LMFAO NSDJFNKDSF.
Very cool endings overall? I do think personally they were all lack luster, I think it would have been more impactful that they have their party and that was where everyone said goodbye to each other. The anticlimactic ending especially Astarion's gag ending when he's not ascended is kinda? I guess... Can we at least properly say goodbye to everyone? I spent 170 hrs attached to these stories for it to end like that was weird to me. the whole time: I GUESS!! THIS IS... IT.... yeah I guess. LMFAO.
There should have been a far grander goodbye but i can't tell if this was because the desire for open-ended - was to potentially leave it open for DLC. At the same time, could have been so much better. All that great storytelling to basically - end it at the port with some... Cut scenes about how things end... LIKE IDK MAN wasn't good to me.
'The bittersweetness' of it can be, well that's life but the whole point of fantasy and storytelling is that it's NOT. I wanted more, just one little bit more. To know when I talk to everyone, I can envision how things will be. I can't with this ending.
2b. GALE - Gale was the one who said 'STOP DONT' when my Tav as a Mindflayer went to stab herself. I was impressed and THAT actually made me emotional, bc in my head I was liek: Yeah the guy that I told not to do what I was doing, should be the one telling me to stop. But it was so quick, and the VA was amazing in that small strained moment. AGAIN I expected more. From the character, I spent A WHOLE fucking arc trying to convince his life was worth more than what a bitchy god wanted to make of him. What others thought of him, yet the moment Tav does exactly what she tells Gale NOT to do... Idk - like a whole amazing narrative plot point could have been detailed at that moment but instead wasn't.
Wyll
1. At the end I think that Wyll should want to suggest taking Karlach to Avernus regardless of whether or not you are there at the end. It is odd to me that he just is content with letting Karlach go, I think narratively him not give up on her when their whole meeting point was him needing to kill her. It just... Makes sense. I could be wrong - and it could be he can't when he is stuck with Mizora bc in my playthrough I broke his storyline and just contended with him repacting with Mizora. Or maybe bc of my karlach problem with Dammon maybe he does regardless if you are there or not - but I didn't have Dammon so...
2. I broke his storyline by doing Gortash last - I even skipped his bitch boy ceremony. SO towards the end I have literally done everything else in the game including the Iron Hall thing - when I finally got around to fighting him AND I BROKE HIM LMAO. When We went to knock out his father, his father died and the line I got hit with made me go ' OH SHIT OH NO.' Esp since it was Wyll who ended him LMFAO, so I ended up going back and just... Killing Gortash, picking his body up, making Wyll's father hold person, and booking it to where Mizora was npcing at by the bridge. After the wonky set of cut scenes happened, I spoke to Mizora and she began talking to me as if I didn't already save the prisoners and destroy the jail place.... anyway nothing about Wyll i just thought it was worth mentioning i broke him lol.
2a. I had to choose between let wylls dad die and be free for Wyll, or doom Wyll's life and apparently his dad would be safe. I went with option 1 first, then that lady that asks you to save him tried to kill me so I went back and just... Went with - keeping his dad safe and Wyll being doomed... But it made me laugh bc im like... Mizora... idk how you gunna keep him safe but ok. w.e. Permanently was stuck with a "!" on his head and a broken quest ndfjgnksdfg.
ROMANCE
alright lets do the elephant in the room because lmfao. Let me start out by saying I can understand why the romances were rushed because there really isnt time to do things like that but imo anytime you go to bed there should have been more dialogue to have with characters to establish that build up and romance should be locked until about act 3 in BG. I also think that characters like astarion, him wanting to sleep with you right away makes sense bc his story so my only complaint is not at him - but at everyone else? Yeah. what the fuck lmfao.
1. Let me start by saying I somehow got swindled into a relationship with Astarion - had NO IDEA WE WERE DATING? He was always the kind of guy that came off to me as calling everyone sweetheart or darling. And between him and shadowheart having the option to talk about 'us' as well as haslin like??? I did not think anything of it. HOW DID I GO A WHOLE ACT NOT REALIZING WE WERE DATING UNTIL SUDENLY WYLL STARTED DANCING WITH ME and i was like, oh wyll is handsome and cute let me kiss him. T OSUDDENLY ASTARION IS LIKE "I WAS ASSLEEP LAST NIGHT BUT BTW I KNOW U BOTH KISSED SOARE WE OVER?" BRO I WAS SO CONFUSED ITS SO FUNNY?? TO ME?? I HAD NO IDEA? IM LIKE SINCE WHEN WERE WE DATING? WE FUCKED YES? AND I TOLD U IT WAS NICE? BUT THAT WAS IT??? the options were not apparently evident enough lmfao.
I let my character date wyll for a bit... Saw nothing special about it, felt forced, felt onesided and just... Decided I would romance NO ONE, because it was way too much for me and way too sudden like - maybe this is just proof that DEMIACE sexuality is a thing bc if people irl get this easily swindled into relationships like. Okay maybe now i understand why divorce rates are so high? lmfao. ARE YOU PEOPLE OKAY????? who wrote these romances LMFAO.
I think there needs to be a 'do i want to be romanced, or not?' option because the romance was bad. I felt more romanced by my dog (which is disgusting in retrospect to make this joke but like I dont know how else and will explain more as I continue), then I did the rest of the characters. It was VERY one sided. I cant imagine playing this as an ACE person, excited to talk to the characters at the party and start building the foundation for a relationship to suddenly - HEY WANNA FUCK? Like bro that made me white man blinking gif so hard.
2. Shadowheart asks you to hang out at the party, i was excited. then astarion asked me to fuck him so i said yeah, then i went back to shadowheart and she seemed to be like oh i see : / nvm! have fun, we can have a drink another time. Like i did not realize she was going to hit on me, I dont understand why we couldnt just hang out and talk? I wanted to talk to her and learn more about her??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
3. I love Laezael i love it for her shes so straightforward, she doesn't have to change she knows what she wants.
4. dog comment - i think the fact that scratch gives you presents sometimes to be so cute - WHY DO THE ROMANCE OPTION SNOT DO THIS LKMFAO??????????????????????????????????????????????????? I think you need more romance options just openly coming to you and wanting to gift you things, talk to you, and just interact in general. There was none of that when i was apparently with astarion (had he done anything i would have realized sooner) or wyll.
5. One sided - It deff feels Tav pursues who they want and not, this is a romance story. If you want to write a romance story, pace it better unless i am the insane one and its normal to meet someone you know nothing about they could be a murderous VAMPIRE for all you know and kill CHILDREN god FORBID!?!? And suddenly you are apparently in love lmfao.
comments constantly given to me: yeah but you can tell them no?
You have to often tell them no repeatedly and often in a mean way, like wtf @ mizora lmfao. I think just outright giving players the option makes it easy for those who wanna just play the game for romance vs those who just wanna play the story for character interactions. Leave some of it the same because it is vital to their character, and imo shows you how they are but the rest of it is unnecessary lmfao. Honestly, there is no build-up into them asking you, it feels really forced and sudden I would recommend pacing it better with platonic interactions and then as the story progresses. Make the more intimate gestures - I feel there was an attempt at it but I really think you should actively, be pushing intimacy towards the end not at the beginning.
Romance endings
I think they are a bit lackluster IMO but also still really good. I think in general the ending lacked luster.
OVERALL
LOVE THE GAME!! Would buy more, 170 hours well spent. May play more maybe not, i am more interested in story/lore/dialogue now so I may be better off just watching videos on YouTube and dissecting stories that way~!
