The Guardian and all three main villains, and the actual ending were terribly underwhelming and nonsensical.

The Guardian is the *worst*, for all the reasons mentioned above. And more.
Frankly, I *hate* that he is who he is. It would explain why he wants to save the city or somesuch, but that's not his motivation at all. Unless you ask him to, then it's fine.
But the whole tadpole thing makes no sense. You're being enticed by the Guardian, who clearly isn't your friend, to become more and more flayer, you get the narrator saying; 'You lost something you never get back' and so forth....

My first playthrough I freed Orpeus. He's mad, because the first time there I killed his monks. He would've done better than Guardian. Fair enough. 2nd playthtough. I attack Guardian the second I can, I assume these monks can break the cage without the magic hammer, that's literally what Guardian is telling me. What you do you think? No. No, you're not allowed at this time, because you're still protected by the Guardian, and without him, the Absolute makes you a thrall. Even though it's *actually* Orpheus that's protecting me and he *clearly sees everything the Guardian sees*.

.. But it doesn't matter if you use the tadpole at all. I went my first run completely tadpole-free, always stating 'I want a cure' only to have the Guardian at the endgame go; "You know what would be good? If you were a mindflayer now!" - Piss off, game. In Early Access this was *way* cooler, where you got these weird evil powers only if you went that route, and the dream visitor just 'keeping you safe' and seducing you and all that. Way, way cooler. It also makes no sense that we're still asked to customize that character. He only comes on to you once the cat's out of the bag, anyway and in Flayer Form.

Maybe Raphael is the only sure-cure-way, I haven't done his deal yet. So far Raphael is the only true major villain I enjoy from start to finish, though. Next time, I'm giving him a McGuffin to play with.

Because the rest of them got a raw deal:

Thorm
He has three scenes. You meet him, and think that this dude is really interesting a villain. He looks awesome, portrayed by a great actor, yes please - give me more!
You find him in his lair, he has a few lines... You beat him. Never to be mentioned ever again. Okay. Unto Chapter Three, I guess.


Orin
She has nothing going for her. She's into Bhaal and is a Doppelganger. We knew that from the trailers. But there's nothing else. She has no plot, no clever scheme, no cool backstory or anything... Just, a maniacal shapeshifting killer. You can bee-line straight for her and get it over with. On my first playthrough I accidentally did that. I mean, that Temple entrance was a little TOO obvious, and she herself is a pushover. Yeah, okay. At least you meet her a lot, her shapeshifting shenanigens are pretty fun and on different playthroughs I had entirely different scenes for her. That was nice. But other than that, there is nothing to her.

Gortash
He has again, three scenes.
You see him in Act 2, You meet him in Act 3, and he hails you aboard the USS Enterprise. That's it. Kill him and be done with him. No politics, no scheming, no Bane cult to overthrow and give the city back to the rightful rulers or something. Just. Kill the boss.


And that brings me to the ending.
The final battle to the Absolute was fun, you're so overpowered now that it's fun to fling Mindflayers and Gobbos around like ragdolls. The Absolute is just what it is, a huge monster. Fine. Kill it.
Next time, I'm going to let the Dragon do something. First time around, I just charged it with Lae'zel, not optimized, never respecced, just a straight up level 12 Battlemaster. Dragon died before it got a turn. That final battle was such an easy fight, I was skipping turns waiting for more reinforcements to show up. Come on, invasion, you can do better than that.

Anyway, big fat monster, it dies.

But then what, for those 17000 endings, we're just standing on a pier? ANd that's that? After a hundred or so hours deciding who lives and who dies? No mention of Gnomes that I've been saving from the windmill all the way to Act 3? The fallout with the [tadpoled] Absolute's Forces? NO mention of the Shadow Druids and the Grove? How the Tieflings fared? The Sharran sect? The Owlbear Cub? The Selunite couple? What Tav will be doing after these events? What about the Duke that I rescued or not? The Shadow Curse? Who is ruling the City now? What's the situation like in the Underdark? Did it matter that I killed every Githyanki in that temple? Did the murders continue if I didn't investigate? Did the Gith Egg hatch to become a dentist or something? Heh. Doctor Yanki! What about the Zentharim and the Harpers and the Guild?

None of that.

Last edited by The Red Queen; 30/08/23 07:46 AM. Reason: Added spoiler tags
Fear my wrath, for it is great indeed.