It's so weird that Swen says in multiple interviews that the game was designed with 170 hours of cutscenes to allow players to play a game that 'they' could feel is tailored to them. They write their own story. And then after 100 hours of gameplay, Larian crams Larian's preferred ending down the player's throats. And most of the choices made become, meaningless. The player can define the journey, but no matter how that journey unfolds, the ending is what it is. Mass Effect 3 had this problem (and still does).
Having bittersweet endings is fine for a movie, or a game with a linear story. But forcing such onto players in a game like this with massive choice, Larian needs to treat the endings the same as they treated the story. Check this:
Lae'Zel. You romance Lae'Zel. To the point where she says no matter what happens, she wants your Tav by her side (Source of her joy). Then, in an act to save Baldur's Gate and keep Orpheus in a position to help depose Vlaakith, RP out of love for Lae'Zel, Tav becomes a mindflayer to combat the netherbrain. Lae'zel dumps you like a hot potato afterward. It's Larian's vision at the end and not a reflection of the journey the player did. And 'if' Larian is going to introduce the Lae'Zel character acting inconsistent to her stated intentions, there should be a flag or option for the player to know that is a stake in the decision. Such as a dialogue option to Lae'zel:
"I'm willing to become a mindflayer to keep Orpheus intact and stop this threat, but I need to know that by doing so, you will still love me, etc etc" (THAT, would then be fair in making a decision of this magnitude instead of an arbitrary backfire that you have no method to weigh as a consequence of your decision. There is nothing in the game that alerts you to this possibility, just as nothing alerts you to the possibility Lae'zel will trash the romance if you encourage her to support Vlaakith. On both counts it's Larian asserting their preferred ending instead of respecting the player's journey)>
And it's the same with Karlach. No matter what you do, you cannot change her engine going to overload (Larian does not respect this journey either). So you're left with two options. She dies, or she goes to Avernus. I wrote the following on a couple other threads about a way to resolve this that requires no new game mechanics.
You befriend her, come to know her character, and depending on preference even romance her. She becomes a staple of 'your' experience in the game. You strive to fix her engine. You enlist Dammon's aid. And then Larian with Deus ex Machina comes in and says (Absolutely not, she has to die or go to Avernus, no happy ending for you). In a game that takes 100+ hours for most players, I suspect quite a few want to have the catharsis of riding off into the sunset. Some don't, and so the other endings exist. But many I wager (including me) want to live happily ever after.
Larian could even make it very hard to get to that happy ending. For example:
- Save Barcus at the windmill - Save Barcus again at Grymforge - Get Barcus to come to your camp and chat it up with him during a few long rests - Work with Barcus at Last Light Inn - Save Wulbren at Moonrise - Get Wulbren's support in Act 3 along with Barcus to destroy the Foundry via a Runepowder bomb - Rescue every single one of the Gondians in the Iron Throne - Destroy the Steel Watch Foundry - When Wulbren comes to finish off the Gondians after the Foundry is destroyed, use your persuasion to have him removed as the Ironhands leader and replace him with Barcus - Gondians and Ironhands reconcile
(By the way EVERYTHING above is already in the game, nothing there would be new programming)
Then, as a way to say 'thank you', the only new thing would be the Gondians and Ironhands jointly, best metalworking gnomes on the planet, have the knowhow to take Dammon's work to the next level and fix Karlach's heart permanently. So not creating any new game scenarios. Just adding a layer of reward on a very deeply threaded set of side quests Act 1 to Act 3 which at any point if the player messes up, become undoable.
If Larian wants the player to sweat bullets to help Karlach stay on the Material Plane, make them go through what was outlined. It's not as easy as it sounds, especially on Tactician. Not only do you have to avoid these gnomes dying as collateral damage, you have to find them in the world through exploration.
Instead, Larian is trying to remove player agency at the tail end of the game, not provide it. It's an odd dynamic. For those of you who have seen the series Supernatural with the Winchesters, (Also spoilerville), it's what God did to Dean and Sam. First 14 seasons of the show they seemed to have agency but then it's revealed that it was all working toward a specific ending God had in mind. And Larian is the same way (not playing god of course, but rather wanting players to have a narrow set of endings according to how 'they' feel it should end.) There's so many of these. Shadowheart's parents. Lae'Zel if she swears to Vlaakith while being romanced trashing 80+ hours of gameplay work on that goal, having no way to bring Ansur around to your side even though you've persuaded liches, demons, devils, and undead to do your bidding. And yes, the whole Emperor/Orpheus Mindflayer decision. It's a bunch of bad options only. It's a bunch of key story points where Larian deprives players of true agency.
The reason it doesn't work is when you play through BG3, it's your game, not Larian's. And therefore for 'your' story, you may want to do that happy ending. Not everyone, but some people. I hope in time they add more autonomy to players for working towards endings that are meaningful to them.
