This makes me a bit more concerned about what exactly to expect larian to do with karlach in future patches/a definitive edition. They could very well just streamline her journey of ''acceptance'' by adding dialogue for the gondians who say they cant help her, and then we get the same ending for her but now with extra angst on top and letting us know we truly tried everything this time. Some players have said theyd accept her fate if we were allowed to ask for help from others even if it lead to nothing, so i guess this change would make some happy lol. I just personally hope we can get something a bit more substanstial than just ''now you can ask the gondians for help and get told no'', but based on larians so-called improvements on beast i dont know if thats realistic to hope for.
But i dunno, maybe im missing something, did anyone here play dos2 before and after the DE release that can give any insights on this, am i misinformed on how beast got changed?
His problem was fundamentally different from Karlach's. He needed his questline to be more robust because it simply lacked content. It seems that's exactly what they did for him for the DE.
Karlach also lacks content but her problem is that she has no satisfying conclusion to her story, and a lot of loose ends lead to nowhere. There are three scenarios here:
1) They do nothing. They've already polished up the "ending she deserves". If they're happy with it, and most people are happy with it, then there's no need to spend money on a new questline or a rework of her existing one. So they decide to wholesale move on to bigger and better things.
2) They pad out her existing questline. After slapping us with the "ending she deserves", all they feel is needed now is to tie it up in a neat bow with some foreshadowing. And that's exactly what they decide to do.
They have the Gondians just flat-out tell us it's a lost cause and we'll have to take their word for it -- they're the experts after all. They can give us some plausible explanation as to why it's not possible. For example, they can tell us that any operation outside of Avernus on an unstable, experimental model like hers would be guaranteed to be fatal.
Giving us that context would add some much-needed meaning to saving them, rather than it being some optional thing you can do. It would give her speech that much more gravity and it would lend credence to all of her existing endings, making it truly "all we could do" for her.
3) They rework her questline. Despite polishing up her current "best" ending, Larian knows that's not what the fans want. They know they can safely ignore the minority, pocket their money, and just sweep it all under the rug. But that's not how they roll. Swen said so himself. So they decide to do right by the fans of the character.
They don't even have to do much to pull that off. All they would need to do is to give Karlach a few more scenes with the Gondians. Perhaps they ask you to fetch a really hard-to-get item that's needed to stabilize the engine long enough to perform whatever operation they deem fit. Doesn't even have to be in a new zone. Just a new or existing interaction modified just enough to allow for it to exist.
To keep things balanced, in exchange for her regaining her life on Faerun, the tradeoff could be that her lifespan has been dramatically decreased -- perhaps she has 10 years tops. Or perhaps she now has the wrath of Zariel hanging over her like a sword of Damocles, putting everyone she's close to in peril.
Whatever route Larian decide to go, they're a much different studio today than in the days of Divinity.
