Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion The ending is a slap in the face [endgame spoilers within]

As far as I know, so correct me if i'm wrong, they added it as some quick fix because players kept whining. And they did that instead of doing something actually useful for the game, like fixing the bugged mess act 3 is

If they were actually fixing the endings Shadowheart would have been the first to get something, because she had and still has literally nothing. Second would be giving the player an option to react to what's happening with Astarion, because this is a roleplaying game after all.

Agree. I bought the game at the beginning of EA, so for me it didn't feel like a slap in the face at all, more like a slight let down after my play through: oh, game still isn't finished. I guess I have to wait another year.

Only that the time pressure is something that Larian is responsibility for. They set the scope of the project and the deadline, they should have a good idea about what they can handle and what not. And ultimately, if you publish a story driven crpg, make the story and the character interaction your priority (not the planned release date and not the percentage of players who do or do not chose to use the tadpole powers for example). Don't release it until both are satisfactory and sufficiently bug free (give your writers a veto right on that).

But as the things are now, Larian, just relax! We love your stuff. Take your time. Just make BG3 more stable with each patch, don't rush them. And eventually come up with a Definite Edition that provides a more satisfactory ending and adds some of the frequently requested stuff like more difficulty levels, custom party, QoL improvements, camera, DND implementation fixes...

Hey, if they publish a definitive edition a year from now... and they supply it For FREE to everyone who purchased the game, then sure... they'll get some marginal credibility back for that. It must be for free, because the deliverance of these elements will make the game an actually complete product, which is what folks paid for in the first place. A roleplaying game with a biblical plague worth of bugs, broken and missing quests, and completely missing and/or incomplete endings is not a complete product.

If someone is happy to pay for the game a second time, because the game isn't finished now contrary to how it was advertised and sold as, and they've got to wait a while until it is and then pay again for it at that time, well, that's great for that person... if you see them, let them know that I've also got a great deal on a bridge I could sell them, if they're interested.

As it stands, they 'released' an unfinished product, called it finished and charged full price for it, and have now spent the last couple of major updates (which by many accounts broke many much more visible things, and often more invasively than the things being fixed) cheering and self-congratulating over the fact that they released a 'finished' product with multiple thousands of bugs in it - and they cheer about that, and wave flags about just how many bugs they released their 'finished product' with... and for some ineffable reason receive praise for that, as though this were somehow a good thing.

If the rumors are true and they rushed an incomplete game out the door (knowing full well how much of a mess act 3 is + companions don't even have any ending at all) just to get in front of Starfield, that's just laughable, shortsighted, and reeks of incompetent leadership.



Completely agree. What we have now is not a full game. We have 2/3 of a game. I REALLY wish I would have stopped playing after act 2.

But I really do think they'll do the DE for free. That's what they did for DOS2. So at least that's good.

For some reason I'll take it as a given that there will be a Definite Edition and that it will be for free. Calling the game finished while it is clearly not is very unfortunate. But maybe that's just necessary for marketing or legal reasons.

And there's absolutely something off with their development process / QA. Otherwise story bugs would have been found by automated tests instead of users. And GeForce Now would be one of the standard environments in their regression tests (although I don't really know how testing works in the gaming industry.)

While I agree, they absolutely deserve the heat they are getting, it's not productive if the devs are feeling stressed out about it after EA / release. That's why I said "Larian, relax". They should focus on stability now and on story or game breaking bugs. The way they release patches currently (with loads and loads of low priority stuff and regular invention of new game breaking bugs) makes it seem they are pretty overworked and this is neither helping them nor the players.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for definitive edition, nor I care about it. Hell, why would I even want playable game that doesn't have memory leaks every five minutes to be called a "definitive edition"? I paid for the whole game, I'm not a beta tester and I skipped early access for that particular reason. If the game is such a mess, maybe it should be delayed, instead of rushed like month early or so?

Yeah. DE is most likely going to be free, otherwise there will be a lot of backlash. The reason why a lot of people are defending Larian right now is because some of us don’t want them to stop listening to fan feedback and turn them into yet another game company that don’t give a damn about what people want. People should word their criticism constructively or it’s just going to another headache for you and them. This and similar threads always seem to reek of entitlement tbh (no slight to OP). Just be patient.

Considering listening to fans gave us a blander Wyll and Shadowheart, Halsin as companion with all his kinks and Emperor instead of Daisy with consequence free tadpoles this might not be the worst thing to happen.

But lets be honest, this was done for mass market appeal...

Uh, no? That's not what people asked for even back in Early Access. No one here knows for certain what reasoning they had for a lot of their decisions. But sure, just bring up all the negative aspects and choose to present it as a consequence for listening to fans lol.

So, wanting to have a game that's not bugged mess with an actual ending is being entitled now? Act 3 was barely playable on release and now it's only slightly better. Unless you want to romance Minthara, then suddenly your whole romance can blow up, same thing with Gale. Not to mention fps drops, loading screens that take ages, interactions not triggering and many more. And people call it game of the decade

I really think everyone who's calling this game "best game of the year / decade / lifetime / I wish I could marry this game / etc..." haven't played through to the end. Otherwise they wouldn't say that.

Also I think most of these people are newcomers to Larian in general. The engine / ui / graphics / inventory / and lots more is identical to DOS2. When I first started playing bg3 I was laughing because I was thinking "did I accidentally install dos2 instead of bg3?" because it looks exactly the same and even starts exactly the same! LOL you wash up on a beach and explore around............!!! In my mind, this game is really just an unfinished dos3 with a bad d&d skin and story.

Lol, don't be putting words in people's mouths. I also want a better epilogue and recognize the game is still buggy af, but the criticism and the wording people use in most of these threads reek of entitlement and are very unproductive. I'm sure Larian is already aware of the issues you just mentioned. You want to criticize them for not delaying the game instead? By all means, that's a valid complaint, but what would that even achieve when the game is already released? Word of advice for people who actually want to see change: don't waste your energy, send a bug report/feedback form, move on and try to enjoy it for what it is until more stuff gets added to the game.

I don't know what that can achieve, maybe not calling something that's clearly unfinished and buggy a game of the decade? Is it wrong or unrealistic to expect game I paid for to be complete on release? We're not like Astarion or Karlach fans, they are entitled for wanting entire character arcs reworked, not us that just expect final act of the game to not crash or bug every two minutes

Astarion's fans want an ending scene that is not a joke. That's a little different from an entire character arc.

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 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?
You know what an ending isn't?
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.

You want to stop people from having opinions? Good luck with that lol. There is nothing wrong with expecting games to be complete on release, that is your right as a consumer, but you decided to buy the game without checking the proper reviews first so that's also on you. Whining on the forums isn't going to change anything and this is what I mean by being unproductive, but it seems to be what everyone is doing right now. Don't let me stop you. Have you tried reporting the bugs/crashes you're experiencing through the website? Clearly not everyone's game is crashing every two minutes, otherwise the online reviews would be much worse, so it's likely an issue with your setup more than anything.

Anyway, this is getting off-topic, I wholeheartedly agree with the title of the thread and only the title. The ending is disappointing. We don't know exactly they're working on right now and their lack of communication is equally disappointing, but it bears reminding other game companies have been so much worse with responding to fans and there are buggier games at launch which have not received any fixes at all. There is already word of Larian planning to rework the epilogues in the future so we have that to look forward to.

Well, here's the problem. I didn't want to spoil the game so I didn't go into details. But because of journalists, reviews and people like you (and their "opinions"), that said the game is masterpiece of a decade if not of all time I bought it. And you can be sure I'd refund it but unfortunately, the issues started in act 3 and it was too late for that

Or, conversely, Larian's leadership is extremely smart because they are able to "see the big picture" for AAA games, atleast in regards to releasing the game before Starfield takes the spotlight.
(An extreme amount of luck also helps too, which Larian seems to have in spades)

What I mean is statements like "no microtransactions" gets gamers extremely excited for the bare minimum and Larian generally gives off "We are for the Gamers" vibes too, like CDPR before Cyberpunk.
Then you have the whole discussion of how "this game shouldn't set the standard", that has been misconstrued to death now and will probably never recover from what it was actually about.

And then you the strongest part of the game being Act 1, which makes people think it'll hold up until the end, which would take most people 80ish hours to reach Act 3.
Which is further also exacerbated by journalists giving the game 10/10s across the board while not mentioning the performance issues of Act 3 and other elements like the rather average story, companions fall apart in Act 3, etc (Things that can be found all over this forum).

Now this could've been because of Larian's smart decision to release the review copies 5/6 days before release, which other developers have done to mitigate/hide the unfinished aspects of their game.
And given that DOS and DOS2 where also given extremely high reviews by journalists, which also had massive issues in the 2nd half, made this seem like a safe bet.
Meanwhile, other reviewers that give it less than the stellar 10/10, now get attacked by certain gamers, as seen from Eurogamer and countless other releases.

Then on top of all that, you slap in some popular internet sterotypes for characters/romances and then bam, here we are.
A game held up as a "shining beacon in AAA space, all alone in the night" when in reality it just follows the trend of release now, fix later. It's also hilarous, and disappointing, seeing people say that all future AAA games should follow BG3's standard.

The only way I can see that gets a fire lit under Larian, is if there is enough negative sentiment that journalists decide to start reporting on these issues, just like Diablo or Overwatch.
And as seen, all the news around the game's bug fixes are seen as very positive, wheras, people should be thinking "why was this game released with over 3500+ bugs and getting worse by the patch" . I don't think even Skyrim had that many.
Maybe some roadmap might come out early next year, but afaik, they didn't have anything like that during EA, so ¯\_(?)_/¯.

Also, just to add:

I mean Halsin's romance was a community requested feature (maybe not what people wanted out of it tho...) along with a more friendly Shadowheart.


The game has a 16% completion rate (for Steam) and there are some critics that must have and are still giving it 10/10s.
It's why I find this game such an anomaly, it's so weird considering such a "masterpiece" has so many issues.


I guess it's just people trying to hold AAA games, and/or just RPGs, to a higher standard and as such, it's a vain attempt to convince other people this game isn't some sort of masterpiece and/or shouldn't be used as a "standard" for AAA games.
That and probably just venting in general.


Ahem...
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=920230#Post920230

Please don't bring a fn' Cyberpunk to the discussion, it's garbage. It was horrible at launch but I decided to trust CDPR with at least story and was fed more garbage. And before you ask, I don't give a damn about 2.0, Phantom Liberty or whatever they call their next patch. I bought the game almost over 3 years ago and was given shit, that was the last time I bought anything from them and I couldn't care less what they did with this trash years later. Same goes for Larian and I find it absolutely horrifying that people will give 20/10 for the game that doesn't even have proper ending. And that's supposed to be "anomaly"? Something that shouldn't set standard? Are there even standards at this point?