I created this account only to concur! I am glad that in this thread I have finally found "my people"
Since finishing the game I've manically googled "news updates on Larian fixing the ending" and talked to others about this specific issue in the largest bg3 Facebook groups, on bg3 tumblr and in my gaming discord with all the other Astarionmancers.
They did us dirty with this ending. The game is a 10/10 and the best RPG I've ever played, which just makes the pain even worse.
When I reached Act 3 the romance story was so compelling I did the Cazador story first thing I possibly could, underleveled. My mistake, since after that amazing well crafted story line there is very little romance content aside from a depressing brothel scene where Astarion dissociates from trauma and him slut shaming me for sleeping with Haarlep. Also the long rest scene-stacking bugs gave me the Mizora scene after another cutscene so the dialogue with Astarion was skipped, deleted and never seen again as I was put into combat out of camp instead.
I played through the whole of the long Act 3 brutally starved for romantic content, but I powered through because I WAS SURE you would get something amazing in the end! A final romance scene, closure with your love, of course. I mean, these kinds of games always have that, right?
When the game ended, and Astarion just ran off burning as Gale taunted him and said it was most likely the last time any of us would see him (like what, that's my romantic partner, what do you mean Gale?!) I was utterly confused.
Then came one final cutscene, with three (!) lines on the themes of "Let's adventure", "Do you still want this" and "That'll be fun" said in the least convincing manner. No hug, no kiss, no consolation, no expressed love. And then it was over.
That left me with a Mass Effect 3-ending type empty darkness. Devastating. The game gave me an epic cutscene with Karlach in hell with a full on cool soundtrack and cigarrs, and lots of time with Gale who I almost only had in my camp where we could talk about his plans for the crown, but they couldn't bring me any emotional closure with my full on romance after more than 400 hours of play through?
WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS LARIAN?
Is their point that Astarion is incapable of love and so scarred that he would rather remain friends than your love interest, and every profession of love in the rest of the game is just some insecure lie not to lose you, and you as the player must be punished for trying to romance such a scarred character? Or what point could this ever be trying to make?
For weeks I didn't want to touch the game, there is no point bringing a character to the end of it when there is no end.
I have read everything I've found on cut ending content, watched ending videos on YouTube, scoured discussions and forum posts.
I saw someone say that spawn Astarion got a cute scene at the High Hall and new voice lines during the final battle where he is self sacrificing in a cute way. And I was like HA, that's what I missed, there's the romantic closure!
So I reloaded to talk to my companions during the High Hall-scene. It was only more depressing. You're like "This can be our last moment alive, let's make this kiss count!" followed by the most chaste unromantic peck on the cheek possible...
Nothing. After the ending of the Cazador quest you really get nothing if you go the redeeming route.
I reloaded and turned myself into a squidgirl for the Emperor and even then Gale still taunted Astarion in his completely tone deaf out of character and narrative way, but after that I actually got a conversation with substance, emotion and content, where Astarion half breaks up with you for being a squid but in a very beautiful way, talking about your time and love together, bringing that important game ending closure...
This thread needs to be bumped into eternity, the "good ending" needs to be fixed.
Like many of you have pointed out they don't have to so much, just:
- Leave his burning and taunted scene for those who have low approval, no romance and who mainly just left him in camp.
- For those with high approval or romance 1) remove the "That's the last time we see him" taunts (wtf, friends or lovers don't abandon their friends or lovers just because they have to hangout indoors with curtains or during party nights out now) 2) put his burning scene last and make the PC able to choose going after them to console them, either as a close friend or love.
- Add emotional closure to the final dialogue scene; some kind of physical closeness like hand holding, a hug or a kiss, and actual talk of your future, past struggles and especially what you feel for each other. Assurance that there is love. Not just three lackluster lines and cut to credits.
- When they say "make it count" in the High Hall, actually make that kiss count, make it convey desperate love in the face of danger, make it a real kiss.
This is needed for the ending not to be broken.
For extra credit however they could:
- Actually put in that celebratory party they talk about on the docks into the game and have you able to talk to your companions. Actually let you leave the party to have a final nigh of love with your romance (just copy paste the Dragon Age Inquisition ending ).
- Add some more potential romance during long rests in Act three, it could just be a short voiceless or voiced cutscene of your romance coming to sneak down into your bed rolls and cut to black, that's enough to keep the romance feeling like it actually exists during all those nights without long rest events.
(The whole conflict thing where the game mechanics and certain timed quests make you want to not take long rests but where the story wants you to and how this makes the cut scenes stack and cancel out and bug each other if you don't take enough long rests is a discussion for another time.)
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk, sorry for the wall of text but man it's not cool to let me put hundreds of hours into a game that builds this intense relationships with uniquely amazingly written characters and have it end in that traumatizing a way.
Please, Larian, we know you have some of the best writers, animators, actors and game makers in the world on your team, just patch this piece of the story please <3
