SPOILERS (obviously)
TLDR:
1. Please add appropriate reactions/dialog if you speak to your companions immediately following Astarion and Cazador's demise. They shouldn't act as if nothing has happened.
2. For Controller users: make the Interact (A-button) option on Astarion default to Help so as to conform with other scenarios. Additionally, add it as an option on the X-button menu.
When heading into this fight and seeing how Astarion gets disabled, I immediately thought back to the Ketheric/Myrkul fight, and figured it would be necessary to use the Help action to get him back on his feet.
Yet unlike with Dame Aylin, when I got to him and pressed A (Interact), nothing happened. Similarly, when I pressed X (more choices), Help was not on the sub-menu either. This led me to think that perhaps there was some other way I was supposed to free him, right up until I got the "Astarion has permanently left your party" message, and only an ash pile with his gear was left behind.
While I knew I'd reload and try again, I finished the fight because I was curious to see what my companions (Gale and Lae'zel) would say. To my surprise, it was a big, fat NOTHING! They said NOTHING! I kinda feel like seeing one of your pals get reduced to a pile of ash should at least warrant SOME sort of reaction, no matter what sort of relationship they had.
Anyway, after googling how to free Astarion, my suspicion that we were meant to use the Help action was confirmed, so I reloaded to try again. Just like before, the Interact button still didn't trigger help the way it does in other obvious scenarios (companion making death saves, freeing Dame Aylin, etc). Instead, it was necessary to assign Help to a radial menu slot and select that. Failing a pivotal and emotional challenge because of a non-standard UI quirk doesn't feel great, especially since you should want to reward players for learning from prior scenarios.
Last edited by Larathiel; 06/10/23 03:42 PM.
