If he's not along for the ride it definitely feels like something's missing. On my first Durge run I didn't realize that you could also choose to not bite his hand off. I just figured it was something like Gale wasn't available to record the Durge-y lines, so that was their work around. I thought for sure that decision would come back to haunt me, but it didn't really. Instead I just found myself missing Gale.
He's one of the most reliable companions and he really shines in the 3rd act, because Wizards at lvl 12 just bring so much to the table, plus he's got all the flying cats and whatnot. Even early on though, he's got some definite chops for story delivery. My Sorcerers wouldn't even know what's going on half the time, if Gale wasn't there to explain it for us. I love that he eats the artifacts. I love the first time when he dies and you have to do the whole crazy routine to resurrect him. What's a little weird is that in my last run I never got that one, but maybe that's cause he ate all 3 artifacts before dying or something? Not sure, but I did enjoy that quite a bit the first time around. I love all the book stuff and his running commentary.
Originally Posted by Ametris
Wow, I just saw this alternative outcome with heroic Gale and it's so sad! It's a shame the other companions in the group have nothing to say. The epilogue party plays out differently too.
And here I thought that Tav trying to kiss his projection and falling to their knees was the most depressing Gale ending.
I did that ending shown above for one of my Tactician runs, but I got a totally different sort of closer. This was a patch 4 playthrough. In that one my Sorceress had romanced Lae'zel, as tends to happen, so we sided with Orpheus and I transformed into the flayer myself. I got in the weeds for the last battle and it was pretty late, so I decided to give the ball to Gale and just go hail mary with it into the endzone. I loved that I still had that option at the end, and that Gale was there when we needed him most. Down to take it all the way.
He totally did the same speech as in the video above, except that after he detonated, instead of that lonely fugue plane afterparty, it skipped straight to the final Orpheus cutscene. Gale was alive again and I was alive again and everybody was there and happy chatting it up before we shipped off to the Astral. Somehow when the Gale bomb went off everything just worked out perfectly, as if by magic, which seemed apt. I mean except for my face, which still had the tentacles, but otherwise it felt totally worth it!
I guess maybe that was a bugged game ending, but it completely worked for me and put me in a great mood when that run concluded. Total hero move on Gale's part. I thought that was a rad outro. It fully made Gale into the MVP for saving Faerun when the chips were down, but like with none of the downside or bitter aftertaste.
