I don't mind the bugs and the technical issues - those can be fixed and almost certainly will be.
What I am most upset about is how towards the end of Act 3 the narrative ceases to matter, choices railroaded
eg: emperor 180, why do we need another mindflayer (and if we must why can't we use Omeluum) it's plain dumb, especially if you plan to use Gales bomb, companion dialogues and quests hinting at better resolutions that never occur (steel watch and Karlach, Book of Thay for Astarion),
suddenly we're all on a straight line to a finish that doesn't allow for player choice in a game which in Act 1 and 2 was full of meaningful player interactions.
So we get to the end and in all honesty it's the worst ending to a story driven game I have ever come across - because it isn't an ending.
An ending is the end scenes in Witcher 3 Blood and Wine, sitting in your vineyard with the love of your life (or your best friend) discusing plans and hopes when you already know the outcomes for your friends and the world you have interacted with from ending slides just prior.
An ending is the end slides from BG2 or even the party scene from Act 1 of this game.
An ending is knowing what your companions and friends plan to do next and whether or not you will be a part of it. Where are Scratch and the Owlbear and who is feeding them? We're the de facto guardian of a small child and her cat - who is looking after them if we are now Illithid or dead or swanning around trying to get killed in Avernus?
I'll give us 10 mins real time tops as soon as Zariel hears about it btw, In my game at least Wyll isn't the blade of Avernus as he is not pacted and in any case Mizura won't likely back him against Zariel, why on earth would she? So 3 normal, if skilled, people against the entirety of Zariels legions in a hostile environment? Come off it
You know what an ending isn't?
Watching your lover run off burning and not being able to go after him, we can't even react to it - all completely unecessary as it was sunset
2 minutes of nondescript and unromantic chat to your romance partner from 8 feet away - some time later.
And some random NPC saluting some random statue.
Ok so thats what I am concerned about. But to my mind at least some of that, at the least some ending slides, should have been in the game at release. I hope some of it will be in this mythological definitive edition but I'm not actually holding my breath.
My solution?
I just stop playing before the end sequence even starts so I don't have to deal with the soul crushing it generates because the love of my life in this game is unascended Astarion and the chances of Larian getting off their 'Poignant' streak and giving me a scene similar to sitting in my vineyard with Astarion (or equivalent thereof for Karlach or any other possibility we may have had as a love interest) seem to be non existant at the moment. I'm hoping I'm wrong but it is what it is, and maybe given time modders can take up the slack.
BTW I don't think complaining about a non existant ending is entitled in any way. It's not at all unreasonable to have expected a proper story ending in a story driven game you have paid full price for.
I'm sure Larian had their reasons for releasing the game when they did but perhaps the solution would have been an ending slide saying 'to be continued'? Just a thought.
