Considering the sad news at today's final game event, I may as well finish my thoughts regarding these endings. Also thank you Ametris for your kind words.

Without any Patch #7 spoilers;

As the final addition to the original post I wished to express what an evil player would expect an actual proper conclusion for the evil story to be, through one of my favorite main characters - the Emperor.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

When it comes to the Emperor for example; the motives and ambitions that drive his character are wonderfully established during a good playthrough. Unlike the other illithids he has no interest in fulfilling the Grand Design, his primary purpose in life is survival at any cost, even if it means giving up his freedom for it. Ultimately the only reason why he goes against the Absolute and helps us in return is because it threatens his very existence, which is why even at the end of the game although he considers taking control of the Absolute, he ultimately does not because then he'd be forced to go to war against the powerful Githyanki Empire. All he wants is to ensure his survival, be free and go back to the shadows in order to continue being the Emperor of the underworld, enjoying the intricacies of local diplomacy and the shadowy manipulations of its events.

During an evil playthrough on the other hand if the player convinces him to take control of the Absolute in order for them to rule together; neither the original cliffhanger nor the extended cutscene actually establish any character ambition to explain his motives for becoming the Absolute. The extended cutscene is intentionally as ambiguous as it can be of any further character development, failing to portray what he ultimately wants to accomplish beyond the cliffhanger, because the true purpose of these extended cutscenes isn't to conclude the story properly, but to cinematically portray our characters in the most comically cartoony mustache-twirling-smirking evil ways in order to just visually impress the audience; "You're evil! Evil I tell you! Pure evil! Do you see how evil you are?! Are you impressed yet?! Let me show you some more! More evil!"

That's why they're visually impressive cliffhangers, but terribly lackluster in substance and therefore not proper story conclusions. The good playthrough also had visually impressive cliffhangers at launch, yet despite that half of the story being significantly far more developed since it was prioritized throughout development, the community was not satisfied with mere cliffhangers. It took revisions, a proper epilogue and a post-credit scene to properly conclude the good journey in a satisfying way by actually showing character ambitions beyond the dock scene and what each of them ultimately accomplished.

An example of a proper evil story conclusion based on the Emperor's character ambitions;

The game fades to black after the visually impressive extended cliffhanger and then opens up with the cinematic mural of the Grand Design transforming into an actual in-game rendition of the Illithid Empire in full motion as its epilogue cutscene. Showing the ambitious Emperor having established a safe and thriving Illithid Empire with all kinds of races in absolute unity, and our main character at his side as his non-illithid Empress (if romanced), surrounded by our illithid companions as advisors before the credits ultimately roll.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

To accomplish this ending, the player would have to;

  • Romance the Emperor
  • Persuade him to take control of the Absolute at the end

Through this his romance becomes elevated by having an actual satisfying endgame outcome (instead of just being a pointless hentai sexual kink with an achievement) and provides an ending in which the player gets to see the Emperor's ambition realized and their character ruling at his side (like Minthara/Astarion are supposed to rule by ours). This is what respecting player's time and effort actually looks like, and with just a tiny bit of imagination and care the evil story could've been beautifully salvaged and drastically improved.

Despite this outcome originating from an evil choice, it's not trying to cinematically portray the most cartoony mustache-twirling-smirking evil through our characters. Instead it's just an evil choice with a morally ambiguous outcome resulting in an interesting fate for our main character, our companions and the entire cosmos. Ultimately leaving it to the player to ponder just how negative or positive it may be. It's open to interpretation while providing an interesting conclusion.

Unfortunately we will never get to see these kind of proper endings. Evil players are unfortunately out of luck due to official announcements made months in advance stating no more content will be coming and to make matters even worse the community's feedback on these endings got drastically segregated with this Closed Beta (as is evident wasn't even publicly discussed until I kicked the hornet's nest).

These extended cliffhangers should've been in the game since launch and Update #7 should've been our proper evil epilogues where we get to see evil ambitions properly realized. This is a story rich RPG after all. As someone who plays both sides of the story, actually tries to enjoy its lackluster evil side and pays attention to all the lore with 1200 hours invested into the character of Dark Urge and a significant amount more into the evil side of it trying to improve it (as is also evident by my signature documenting all issues regarding Dark Urge & Minthara on an evil playthrough, which these endings are supposed to enrich)... I would expect a story rich RPG to provide equal content for the evil side of it and a proper conclusion when pouring 150+ hours into every single playthrough.

But alas, we ain't getting it anymore. That ship for us evil players has way in advance prematurely sailed in its very infancy without even giving us a chance to provide proper feedback on it. I was hoping for at least the Chosen Dark Urge ending with Minthara/Astarion romanced to properly be addressed, since that one is literally dismissing previously established character motives and completely disregarding player agency because it's too rushed trying to visually impress, rather than properly concluding the story in a respectful and satisfying manner.

It's too late now as the update arrives next week.