funnily enough, i don't think act 2 is that amazing.
Let's just say, I find the whole shadow-cursed land to be extremely goofy from beginning to end. The weird in-universe concept of whole settlement dedicated to Selune, then Shar (right next to a major city, on sword coast that is a melting pot of sorts, where all sorts of religions should mesh together all the time), the whole idea that there's this little town on top of this gargantuan temple (who built it, what for, if sharran worshippers mostly end up just killing each other \ dying anyway, in general, Shar having such bombastic presentation never made sense to me, wasn't she supposed to be this niche\fringe goddess?).
I dunno, it can all be explained away with magic, or "it doesn't matter", but whole setting of Act 2 feels extremely rushed and out of place to me, much like a lot of things in game. Fun on surface, very pretty, very entertaining - but falls apart if you think about it a little too long.
Now, I don't like going cinema sins on my media, so I'm not gonna say it's BAD for it, but I can't help but wonder - how come we have those 3 unique looking bosses related to Kethric, and they are never even remarked upon by your companions? You'd think they are freaky enough at least for NPCs to have a reaction, but they really are those sideshow attractions in a bubble that really feel divorced from the rest of the world... much like many other quests do.
i still enjoy it very much, but there's really a lot throughout the entire game to pick apart in terms of overall writing\story\setting. I dunno! I might be alone in it, it just feels goofy to me, can't shake it off.
You are not alone at all! I found Act 2 to be my favorite because it feels like the act where, despite the setting issues, you have the clearest direction and it's where gameplay and story feels the most in tune rather than fighting against each other like in acts 1 and 3, but the story of it is in fact as all over the place as every other part of the game. The setting of act 2 gets even worse when you consider that apparently there's always been a mindflayer hive under there and nobody noticed. I think that the main plot of the game is just a mess from beginning to end, held together by string where it's held together at all.
I also cannot tell you how gratifying it is to hear someone else bring up those mini-bosses. I think you're underselling how strange their presence is, even. Because they aren't just mini-bosses, they're all specifically Kethric's family. Be they children (one of them definitely is) or more distant relations, their presence makes Kethric's whole deal and the themes there weaker. Family is supposed to be everything driving this guy, yet we can kill his three surviving family members and nothing gets said about it at all. The game doesn't even ever ask you to go to them either. No quest directs you to meet them for any reason, you can just avoid them and it's fine. It's like they were leftovers from an earlier draft of the game that were written out, but Larian thought they were cool enough fights to not actually remove them completely. It's bizarre.
