I'm lucky enough to be part of the patch 7 closed beta. New evil ending animations have been announced as part of that, but I was hoping against hope that there may also have been some tweaks to endings for good characters who aren't willing to kill Orpheus without trying to reason with him or let someone else (eg Orpheus, Karlach, Gale) sacrifice themselves when they can prevent it.
We've had threads critiquing the way that the plotting plays out with Orpheus and The Emperor and while I agree there are holes I'm not trying to reopen that debate here. And I'm sure there aren't going to be any significant changes at this stage.
But I do think that some relatively minor changes could make the end of the game feel just a bit less unremittingly bleak for a good, selfless character who has tried their best to help people. I know virtue is supposed to be its own reward and all, and I don't need a happy ending, but would appreciate at least a tiny glimmer of light or hope!
For me, the smallest possible change that would at least make me feel a little less like weeping at the end of my favourite characters' stories would be simply changing the ending animation with WIthers when a character chooses to ...
... kill themselves rather than live as an illithid so that we see them with their original appearance (ie their spirit form is no longer a mindflayer). Withers' spiel about there still being a story for the character after death could be hopeful, but in context it just feels like more punishment as after committing suicide rather than continuing as a mindflayer it now seems as though the character needs to suffer an eternity as a ghost illithid.
The next step, for a bit more work but still hopefully not much, would be if Withers could enable such a character to attend the epilogue party in spirit form. And, separately, if Withers would temporarily break a self-imprisoned mindflayer out to attend the party. That way we could at least get the satisfaction of seeing what our sacrifice has achieved for those companions whose lives we've saved.
What about you folks? Do you agree the good ending is grim, and do you agree small tweaks like the above could help at least slightly, or do you have any other feasible (ie minor) tweaks that could improve it? Or have you managed to find happier endings for your good characters? And if so please tell me your secret!!!
