Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Larian dropped the ball on endings - Why and how to fix it - (SPOILERS)

Imo I don't think the ending is the only issue, I think the brain being the big bad all along just felt like it derailed things and took focus away from the dead three.
We barely even interacted with them either, Orin is probably the one with the most interactions and she's fun but not really that interesting.
Gartosh probably had the most potential but barely has anything going for him and there's no real political intrigue.

I just wish the game had focused on them instead, the elder brain is just not interesting it's kinda boring and generic and there's not much else you can do with it other than destroy or control it.
When you're dealing with people there's so much more you can do, but with the brain it just turned into space alien invasion reapers from mass effect 2.0.

You know, all the way back when Larian first revealed Kethric Thorm in a trailer, people said he and the other three would be more like secondary villains, that Larian was spoiling them because they would be working for some big, true antagonist that's kept unrevealed. And they were right... and they were wrong. The "true" antagonist barely matters, the chosen three barely matter, I agree that the story problem is well beyond just act 3, it's a culmination of other stuff that started well before then.

Yes agree that the brain should not have been the mastermind behind all. It could have stayed a tool.
For me, the best villain was definitely Raphael
I really enjoyed his lines during the game, and let's be honest: We spend the whole game wanting to kill him and when we can finally do it that's cathartic! That's the definition of a great villain!

Or if you decide to side with him (which I haven't, but other people have), you can actually fulfill your part of the bargain and watch a cutscene at the end as he goes off to do his thing (though I hear it's a bit bugged at the moment). Siding with the Chosen who offers an alliance results in basically nothing.