You really hit the nail on the head here. For days, I've been hesitant to progress my main story and kinda been doing my side-runs because the farther into mid-late Act 2 I get, the closer I am to Act 3 and I refuse to end this game the way it currently is. I wanna play it from the moment they eventually implement a continuation of the questline without having to re-do everything. But as it stands, I can neither accept letting her die, nor accept forcing her back to the place of her trauma just for her to live. Yes they're 12 levels higher than when she got out, yes there's up to three of them now, but even she says "remember, you chose this" as she nods off to Tav, as a peek to the fact it wasn't her idea even though she chose this as much as we did.
Ceremorphosis is just an end if we wanna do some chaos options and I don't mind it being there, just like I don't mind these choices IF A PROPER BETTER LIVE ONE EXISTS to begin with urghhh Larian please ;_;
She's so vibrant and witty, it's unreal. Sam made Larian reimagine Karlach for the better. Now we need to make Larian reimagine her story for the better!
You really hit the nail on the head here. For days, I've been hesitant to progress my main story and kinda been doing my side-runs because the farther into mid-late Act 2 I get, the closer I am to Act 3 and I refuse to end this game the way it currently is. I wanna play it from the moment they eventually implement a continuation of the questline without having to re-do everything. But as it stands, I can neither accept letting her die, nor accept forcing her back to the place of her trauma just for her to live. Yes they're 12 levels higher than when she got out, yes there's up to three of them now, but even she says "remember, you chose this" as she nods off to Tav, as a peek to the fact it wasn't her idea even though she chose this as much as we did.
Ceremorphosis is just an end if we wanna do some chaos options and I don't mind it being there, just like I don't mind these choices IF A PROPER BETTER LIVE ONE EXISTS to begin with urghhh Larian please ;_;
Just treat all pre-DE playthroughs as "practice" runs for the run you really want to play eventually. There are so many bugs right now that it's impossible to have that "perfect" playthrough anyway.
When i started playing this game, I made a few different Tavs and tried a few different origin characters, eventually settling on playing as Karlach (I loved her dialogue options and passive voice lines). I almost finished Act 1 when the Reddit PSA was posted about her story being unfinished. It was a gut punch, but I still really love the game so I switched to my favourite Tav and continued the playthrough on them.
If you wanted to romance her but you don't want to be sad, just do a playthrough where you send her to hell with Wyll and romance someone else on that run. Or even going to hell with her isn't the absolute worst ending (although it obviously still blows). Obviously none of this is ideal, but my point is to treat this as one of many playthroughs so you can still enjoy the game.
The thing about treating these as practice runs is that you lose your ability to experience the story for the first time. Those are emotions best savored with the real thing.
On a related note, did Larian get rid of feedback threads on the BG3 Discord channel? I remember there were huge threads for Karlach, Astarion, and Minthara, but I can't find them anymore (I tried searching for my posts). Obviously they won't glean any feedback from those threads (they're a mess), but they were a good place to keep the discussion going, and show what issues were most important to the community (based on number of replies). I guess this thread serves the same purpose, but Discord tends to be a more popular discussion platform these days.
On a related note, did Larian get rid of feedback threads on the BG3 Discord channel? I remember there were huge threads for Karlach, Astarion, and Minthara, but I can't find them anymore (I tried searching for my posts). Obviously they won't glean any feedback from those threads (they're a mess), but they were a good place to keep the discussion going, and show what issues were most important to the community (based on number of replies). I guess this thread serves the same purpose, but Discord tends to be a more popular discussion platform these days.
They deleted them. They said prior to that that they would gather any info they could from them and then delete them. You can still post feedback on the server, but you can no longer chat in your feedback posts.
We moved here because live threads were removed. Well, now the difference is that every day there is a Karkach thread on current feedback channel and those are usually the ones that get the most upvotes so the movement is still strong. But I miss the discussions on discord
Many pages of support. Glad to see the flame still burning.
Tell me about it. I go away for work and then come back to see people are just buzzing here!
Just wanted to highlight some stuff.
@Wandering Kole - About the FourthWall dialog, I think they've just... always been present throughout the patches, never removed (unless they were removed and I didn't know about it) nor placed back in, and that maybe people are just finding out about it now. That is if I'm interpreting you correctly. Maybe I should knock down English comprehension lower on my totem pole of skills
@Chlamydia - Regarding audio voice lines, been wanting to investigate the trueness of the claim that "there is an Upper City engine fix that is completely voice recorded but was cut last-minute" from that giant cut-content megathread. In the current game files, and if they do exist, they don't seem to map to any text dialog that I can find, and I'm not sure yet if they have any corresponding metadata to show that they're part of that fix. I'm planning to train a ML model as part of a larger plan to see if I can find some unmapped Karlach voice lines in the ocean that is the 180,000+ dialog audio files, and if they do exist that would be crazy. Not holding my breath though, as to me it would be unlikely, and sadly don't have as much time as I would wish to work on it. Regardless if I find anything of note or not, I think it's an interesting side project for me.
@NomTheBurritos - ooh interesting, thanks for the link!
About the Larian BG3 Discord... I should try to be more active there... just when will I have the time to catch up to such a huge BG3 server
Edit: Happened to notice that this thread is now >1,000 posts long!
I really dont know what to take away from this interview. On the one hand it sounds like she is happy with karlachs story arc and about *acceptence* being a part of her story. On the other it doesnt sound like she knows oersonally whats all made it into the game or not. So she may not know how much of her work is actually being presented? And cirrect me if im wrong. But it does sound like she is not *done* with karlach yet? And this was after the patch 2 release and *epilogue* recordings?
The interview was yesterday so it's post pstch 2 for sure. They sound obviously very impartial, objective in the way they refer to VO work as a job and not connecting too much to it (but obviously loving how much people appreciate it, and how big it's gotten). It's a mix between, can't tell cause NDA, but also agreeing that accepting a fate that despite everything, some things cannot be changed and it's okay (chronic disability/pain or terminal illness rep in a way) being a very powerful message and rep. They obviously wanted to say a bit more but Cessup hasn't finished Arc 1 so she wanted to keep it as spoiler free as possible.
I really dont know what to take away from this interview. On the one hand it sounds like she is happy with karlachs story arc and about *acceptence* being a part of her story. On the other it doesnt sound like she knows oersonally whats all made it into the game or not. So she may not know how much of her work is actually being presented? And cirrect me if im wrong. But it does sound like she is not *done* with karlach yet? And this was after the patch 2 release and *epilogue* recordings?
More like she's professional about it and doesn't get overly attached to the characters that she voices. It's not that she's happy or sad about it, but that it's just a job for her -- she'll work with whatever they give her and do her best.
She did confirm in the interview that the Patch 2 epilogue was implemented.
The interview was yesterday so it's post pstch 2 for sure. They sound obviously very impartial, objective in the way they refer to VO work as a job and not connecting too much to it (but obviously loving how much people appreciate it, and how big it's gotten). It's a mix between, can't tell cause NDA, but also agreeing that accepting a fate that despite everything, some things cannot be changed and it's okay (chronic disability/pain or terminal illness rep in a way) being a very powerful message and rep. They obviously wanted to say a bit more but Cessup hasn't finished Arc 1 so she wanted to keep it as spoiler free as possible.
Tough one.
She also can't share how she truly feels because everything she says could hurt her relationships in the industry.
She said that some have contacted her about our concerns, asking her to relay them to Larian and she said that was the quickest way to lose her career. She has to remain impartial for her own sake.
Still continuing to support a better ending for Karlach. Everytime I start up a new game run I just can't resist this amazing character.
Of course I eventually stop playing once I hit act 3 and all those doomer lines come out, a lack of a decent ending for her just sucks all the fun out of the game; until I start a new playthrough once again so I can enjoy the best girl in the game at her best.
@Wandering Kole - About the FourthWall dialog, I think they've just... always been present throughout the patches, never removed (unless they were removed and I didn't know about it) nor placed back in, and that maybe people are just finding out about it now. That is if I'm interpreting you correctly. Maybe I should knock down English comprehension lower on my totem pole of skills
Have you also found those voice lines in the Patch 1 pak, too? I haven't checked that one out.
It took place on Sunday evening, I was there watching it live. So yes this is post patch 2 and they talk about the epilogue as well as implemented changes. So all is up to date. And as many have said, Sam has to remain professional about it so that's the take-home message.
Like. On the surface you can KINDA say that the final choice is sort of structurally the same as with the other companions. Meaning that there's one route which the character was following anyway and one route which you can try and convince them to switch to (become Justiciar/reject Shar, worship the Queen/betray the Queen, ascend/do not ascend, etc etc etc). Sometimes your character influences that switch naturally through their actions. So TECHNICALLY it's the same with Karlach - she stubbornly follows the death route, unless you convince her otherwise in the very end and your previous actions support that change (i.e. someone can go with her).
That's technically.
But narratively? While (on a good playthrough) I'm dragging every other friend AWAY from their source of trauma (whether they realize it or not) - sometimes through killing that source, sure, but we still LEAVE...
...with Karlach my 'good' option is to PUSH HER BACK into the place where she can hardly freaking breathe (at that point it doesn't even matter if Zariel can or can't get her hands on her again, Avernus itself is poison to her)??? With some vague hope for a future escape which isn't even promised and I have to headcanon that part myself?
Yes, this. It drives me nuts when people dismiss this as “ah, every main character had a bad ending”. Like… seriously? Wanna swap, then? It’s an extremely unfulfilling and non-resolved issue. Also, some origins have multiple moments of resolution. Wild stuff.
Originally Posted by tarraxahum
(…) But with a badass soundtrack for a cool barbarian exit.
(…)
And the severely-lacking-player-effort-questline is of course a giant insult to injury.
The music feels quite forced. Like, SEE? This is COOL therefore GOOD. Uh. It could’ve fit in another context where she had had an actual resolution to her story, but as it stands it was… off.
Every time I open the quest log I feel offended haha. Why am I laughing, it sucks D:
Like. On the surface you can KINDA say that the final choice is sort of structurally the same as with the other companions. Meaning that there's one route which the character was following anyway and one route which you can try and convince them to switch to (become Justiciar/reject Shar, worship the Queen/betray the Queen, ascend/do not ascend, etc etc etc). Sometimes your character influences that switch naturally through their actions. So TECHNICALLY it's the same with Karlach - she stubbornly follows the death route, unless you convince her otherwise in the very end and your previous actions support that change (i.e. someone can go with her).
That's technically.
But narratively? While (on a good playthrough) I'm dragging every other friend AWAY from their source of trauma (whether they realize it or not) - sometimes through killing that source, sure, but we still LEAVE...
...with Karlach my 'good' option is to PUSH HER BACK into the place where she can hardly freaking breathe (at that point it doesn't even matter if Zariel can or can't get her hands on her again, Avernus itself is poison to her)??? With some vague hope for a future escape which isn't even promised and I have to headcanon that part myself?
Yes, this. It drives me nuts when people dismiss this as “ah, every main character had a bad ending”. Like… seriously? Wanna swap, then? It’s an extremely unfulfilling and non-resolved issue. Also, some origins have multiple moments of resolution. Wild stuff.
Originally Posted by tarraxahum
(…) But with a badass soundtrack for a cool barbarian exit.
(…)
And the severely-lacking-player-effort-questline is of course a giant insult to injury.
The music feels quite forced. Like, SEE? This is COOL therefore GOOD. Uh. It could’ve fit in another context where she had had an actual resolution to her story, but as it stands it was… off.
Every time I open the quest log I feel offended haha. Why am I laughing, it sucks D:
I just created another character and decided to go after Minthara. I don’t want to give Karlach empty hopes again.
