Baldur's Gate 3 - The issues with Act III and its conclusion... (+Ending Discussion)

[@KainRaRPG]

For anyone watching in 2024 remember I made this video shortly after the game came out, since then they added the (((spoiler))) new Karlach ending and also the camp segment, which, while nice I don’t think fixes all the issues, but still cool of Larian to include an epilogue. Perhaps I’ll make a video on it one day :)

[@twistedelegance_]

The camp scene is amazing otherwise but there's no point to all the chests and gifts you get cause you can't use them anymore as the game is over. It's kind of stupid

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

I honestly hate what they did with the Emperor in the end. It’s completely transparent that the only reason he joins the Absolute is to force the player to either sacrifice themself or Orpheus. If the Emperor was 100% unwilling to spare Orpheus for whatever reason then he should have attacked the party in the Astral Plane, then he could have had a dedicated boss fight instead of playing second fiddle to a Red Dragon in the lead up to the final boss.

[@Peleski]

I would have had him mindblasting the player, stealing the stones and then running off to try and control the elderbrain. Could have had Orpheus using his powers to protect the player long enough to get the stones back. That way the final battle would have made sense.

[@sidecharacter7165]

Balduron’s entire plan there didn’t make much sense.

[@EremittV]

He joins the netherbrain to ensure his survival. If you free Orpheus he’s done for. If he joins the netherbrain he might break free once more later and live his life again.

[@Chancacaso]

Didnt care bout orpheous lol, sacrificed him and loved the ending! Dont judge the emperor.

[@Peleski]

@@EremittV flawed logic. If the netherbrain wins the sword coast is doomed. No way the E is ever breaking free again.

[@nemofish3504]

Astarion didn’t deserve that ending lol he literally gives up immense power to be a better person only to become a punchline at the end

[@DeadAugur]

I know right, like why is Gale so sure that's the last we're ever going to see of Astarion anyways? He literally was just expressing his excitement to go celebrate with everyone, why does him no longer being able to walk in the sun mean he's not in the gang anymore?

[@ninjificus]

If you romance him, you get a little more with him but it still felt empty to me especially after all his character has gone through and done.

[@abilawaandamari8366]

​@@DeadAuguryeah I was so mad at that too, why did Gale act like we're never seeing him ever again just like that. Also couldn't they like hangout in a tavern or something idk

[@asmalltalk]

that ending left such bad taste in my mouth that I’m not finishing my ongoing playthroughs anymore. what baffled me as well with the recent patches is that my character can run towards non-romanced Karlach and choose to go with her to Avernus while my ROMANCED partner Astarion runs away. do they reeeeally expect me to just abandon him? and the companion reactions-don’t get me started on that…the only one who is compassionate and nice is Minsc. sadly Astarion’s story due to cut content is one big skippable side quest and it shows.

[@BoingBoingBang]

My character was a literal fuckin' Drow and I didn't get an option to go to the Underdark with him. So weird, especially in a game filled with choices.

[@ninjificus]

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that in Act 1 the companions feel like they always have something going on and are talking but that slows down to a crawl over time. In Act 3 when they should have reactions to certain events especially if you romanced them there is just silence and it really takes you out of the fantasy and immersion of it all. They don't feel fleshed out anymore, even the ones that have the larger personal quests lines like Shadowheart and Astarion.

[@samuelrezendedel-ducca2450]

When I did the pact with Raphael all the companions had something to say, when I finally finished the quest killing him, no one had a single comment. It really broke the quest immersion

[@ToHonorKnowledge]

This is what happens when you spend 5 years developing an early access game and not a full game. Bg3 is most certainly a good game, but it has such high praise from people that only played act 1. Guess Larion wasn’t the savior everyone wanted

[@sofisaramew]

@@ToHonorKnowledgeplayed the game til the end three times back to back to back and it's absolutely a 10/10. Act 1 isn't even the strongest part of the game, and people are vastly undermining how good Act 3 is because of possible bugs they might've encountered. The companions were always reactive throughout the entire game.

[@ToHonorKnowledge]

@@sofisaramew and yet I can go to any random KZbin video and find a comment that says the exact opposite. Nowhere did I say the game is a 1/10 or anything if the sort. People are just biased fanboys like yourself

[@ToHonorKnowledge]

@@sofisaramew but here’s the thing, I’ve beaten the game 4 times, 2 solo (one good durge one evil durge) and 2 different friends games, currently playing thru again as a cleric. And in this 5th playthrough im gonna get to act 3 and quit. Because guess what, in MY OPINION act 3 is total garbage and since I already know all the endings, I don’t want to waste time running around a half finished city (remember there was supposed to be an act4 with the upper city, but that’s coming later when they actually finish the game). Which brings me to my final point. The game isn’t even finished. Larion had to release it according to WOTCs schedule so it didn’t interfere with other dnd releases.

[@DisappointingRooster]

I sided with Minthara. During the entire campaign she tried to convince me that when the time comes, we shouldn't destroy the Netherbrain but use it to dominate the world together. "Fair enough" I thought; so during the very last cutscene I knifed Orpheus and took control of the brain insted of killing it, only for Minthara to go: "Wait! What are you doing!?" Then my character did an evil smile, all my party members became thralls of the absolute (including her) and....fade to black. Credits. Disappointing.

[@DeadAugur]

I had the inverse experience with Astarion, going through his good route for him and resisting the Urge, only for him at the last second to go "I know what you're thinking... do it. take control of the brain and we'll rule the world together" as though his entire character arc just vanished... :(

[@vinny985]

⁠@@DeadAugur aw that sucks :( but it might have been just a bug, patch notes mentioned addressing characters either not giving the proper response or not/speaking when they are supposed to in certain scenes, like i had gale go nuclear on me for accepting raphael’s deal when i had just refused it in front of him. immersion breaking bugs are the worst

[@DeadAugur]

@@vinny985 I choose to believe and definitely hope it was a bug, it just felt so left-field after Astarion thanked me for talking him out of doing awful things for power at the end of his arc.

[@ChangesOfTomorrow]

I expected you'd be able to forge a new trio - Tav, Tav's romance companion and Gortash. Imagine my disappointment 😑 Such a small thing to add, whyyyyy?

[@sofisaramew]

@@DeadAugur that was a bug! that dialogue is meant to be ascended astarion only

[@lendial]

I just wanted a little tavern scene where I could talk to all my companions and some of the people whose lives I affected like Rolan. not a huge amount of voiced dialogue, but some small conversations or one liners, alternatively, if you were evil, some slides on how the sword coast eventually got over run and spread across faerun in a wave of horror all due to your actions.

[@oddassembler]

It exists now in the new patch

[@Optimusj1975]

Yes, Karlach has so many more satisfying POTENTIAL resolutions. The Gondians working EXACTLY with the tech on her for Gortash, or Hope taking over Raphael and needing a bodyguard, in a fortress that can protect both of them from Zariel, or even restoring a real heart to her.

[@1337penguinman]

There's actually a line if you talk to a steel watcher about them thinking she's a malfunctioning older model. And they direct you to the foundry where the Gondians are doing the slave revolt. Plus Dammon showing up in Act 3 to basically do nothing.

[@liachee]

I really like the idea of her settling into the House of Hope, protecting it while looking for a cure

[@Optimusj1975]

@@liachee Ironically that's not even MY idea. It's what Karlach comment about Hope if both survives Raphael's fight. That there will be a ton of devils trying to fool/fight Hope into giving up her new house and that she needs a bodyguard (which is Karlach's original career).

[@matthewrichmond6333]

The house of Hope felt like such an obvious ending for Karlach, like that's where the portal to the hells takes you anyway. So no idea why they would teleport to the house of hope, think naaaahhh, and fuck off to fight some random imps in the hell wilderness or whatever. A DLC centred around the house of hope as a base and looking for a cure for karlach would be a lot to ask but really well received by everyone I think.

[@PsyrenXY]

Karlach and Wyll being Doomslayers while protecting their base in the House of Hope while their surface friends research a real cure with the Gondians and Ironhands would have been perfect 😢

[@jaffarebellion292]

The scene at the docks should've been a longer scene taking place in a tavern. You and your companions would get to discuss all the various choices made during the game, as well as reflect on their own journeys, and where they're going next. Also, any scene that would remove your character from the story should happen last. I played a Gith and went to free my people with Lae'zel, so my character wasn't even present for Karlach and Wyll's character "resolutions."

[@christopherjones5700]

Dude i was a Githyanki dark urge, I flew off with Laezel and it immediately cut to me in a room all by myself as if I hadnt just done so.

[@jaffarebellion292]

@@christopherjones5700 Damn. Hell of an oversight.

[@christopherjones5700]

@jaffarebellion292 all I would have wanted would be a cutecene of us sitting together on the dragon with some romantic feel good dialogue right before we jump into slipspace, or even just us in a githyanki decorated room to indicate we're in the Astral plane

[@Reincarny]

after i defeated raphael i wanted to see what mizora would say, and lo and behold, nothing... act 3 is full of these kind of things, lack of attention

[@ninjificus]

That is my biggest issue with Act 3. The characters almost feel real and almost never shut up although it does start to slow down in Act 2 but by 3 they might as well not be there half the time. Either they have absolutely zero to say about some crazy shit that is happening (Harleep scene, durge revelations, other character's storylines etc.) or they have like one throw away line and back to business.

[@Qballiz2kool]

I did that EXACT same thing, I figured she’d be impressed I was able to slay a powerful devil like him but nope, not didly squat from her and that was VERY disappointing.

[@aaronhumphrey2009]

The quests are definitely quite varied and inconsistent in their quality ..In one take of the Cazador Quest ,Asterion gets imprisoned by Cazador and killed in the Ritual Afterwards, I killed Caz the vampire ascendant.. and return to Camp , the companions had absolutely No Reaction/ dialog about the death of Astarion..?!?..🤔..

[@Raptorworld22]

My problem with the end is that it didn't really feel like an end story-wise, Gale still had his orb and we could have gone on an adventure to find a way to remove it, Astarion stayed a spawn and I wanted to find a way to let him walk in the sun again, Karlach getting absolutely stiffed on a good ending and more. Act 3 made me feel like the game was meant to have like 4 or 5 acts, or at least that it should have had a playable epilogue, where you go back to the places in act 1 & 2 to see how things are going, and walk around the whole of Baldur's gate instead of just the lower town. It would have also given you a chance to finish any side-quests.

[@yeast7485]

if you help Astarion ascend he can walk in the sun no problem

[@Raptorworld22]

@@yeast7485 I'd rather help Astarion break the cycle of abuse, instead of helping him become an abuser himself.

[@Ykesha]

You can save Karlach by having her turn into the mindflayer at the end to use the stones. Her engine cools down once she turns and she ends up saving the day so is really happy that she is a hero and gets to keep living. Seemed like a good ending.

[@Raptorworld22]

@@Ykesha That's only a good ending if you're incredibly shortsighted, or don't know how mindflayers work. She will have to eat sentient people's brains to stay alive. As much as the Emperor tried to stay moral about it, it's still a terrible, murderous fate.

[@crobdog]

@@Ykesha that doesn't make sense lmao

[@masterpepin]

Absolutely agree, 100% I started to feel like things were a slog towards the later half of Act 3, and I think *part* of the reason touched on what you said about seeing all the EXP go to waste. It made me think, with some of the side quests "The only reason for me to do this, is the side story itself" and I wasn't too invested in them, so I ended up forcing myself to do them, which isn't a great feeling. I was pretty shocked by the ending being as it was...Very underwhelming. It just felt so abrupt. I think if I'd spent 10 hours doing a campaign and got this ending I'd still feel a bit 'cheated'? But for how long I spent going through the game, speaking to everyone, reading the books etc, for it to just end like that didn't feel great. Having said all of that though, I still loved the game as a whole and I'm getting ready to go back in for a second playthrough now! Thanks for the video!

[@walabixha1746]

I installed a level unlocker mod because it was bothering me too much and I ended up reaching lvl 15 , I had a lot of fun in act 3 leveling and all but in the end the endings were kinda disappointing, I was playing origin shadowheart and I went the dark justicar route , I was expecting an epilogue in the sharran temple but the narrator just said "you are a dark justicar and you'll show many people of lady Shar's embrace" while watching a random sunset

[@Jawesomness16]

I think the main problem for me in this act is just that I feel like I don’t know where to go. I know I have to explore, but it just feels like there’s a lack of direction after a while. I don’t know where to get certain things without looking them up, and a couple of the important things I need to progress aren’t labeled as key items, which makes me sell them by mistake. It might just be a skill issue with me, but I just need to have a little more help in knowing where I need to go next with the missions without having to look it up or wander into a random plot point/ crappy sidequest with no payoff

[@harvalite5737]

Here after the major datamining. I have over 900 hours, 650 was early access. I adore this game, it's one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. All that being said, if Larian doesn't have a Definitive Edition or at least drip feed the cut content (considering it was mostly cut due to bugs), they're absolute liars claiming that BG3 was a complete package game. So much of the cut content was vital to Act 3, and was even stuff they talked about just a few weeks before release. It's unfortunate, but clearly it wasn't ready and was rushed out to not compete with Starfield. The fact that the ENTIRE Upper City was removed is wild, dozens of quests with it, including Karlach's good ending. Avernus apparently was around the size of the Underdark, likely carrying a large number of powerful devils and giving more ways to use Soul Coins. The cut companions, throwing Minsc to Act 3 when he was going to be in Act 1, the fact that Jaheira was going to be romancable, Minthara having some pregnancy related story, Halsin having an Act 3 story tied to the Grove, SO much content that was almost completely finished and would've given so much more to Act 3 and given the characters who felt so one dimensional so much more love, it honestly hurts.

[@ChangesOfTomorrow]

Yes! It infuriates me how Larian is lying that the Upper city was never a thing - excuse you, where's Cazador's front door then? What makes more sense - that his spawns seduced 7000 avid wall climbers or that the devs struggled to find a place for the palace in the Lower city?

[@StarLord-jq4kv]

I hope most if not all the cut content comes in an expansion, by the way you talk about it, it seems like half a game worth of content was cut

[@bunnerkins]

@@ChangesOfTomorrow I recall clearly that Larian released a trailer where they hyped the meeting with Cazador, and in that trailer Cazador appears to be walking outside infront of (what I assume to be) his mansion. And now I can't find that trailer anywhere. I feel like I am taking crazy pills.

[@Johnniecash26]

Agreed... After you finish his introduction storyline, Haslin is pretty much useless from a story perspective.

[@bunnerkins]

@@Johnniecash26 Halsin as a companion was a gift to fans. He wasn't supposed to be available at all.

[@migri_19]

17k endings and I can't even save Karlach. Choices are she dies, becomes a mindflayer, and to go back to Avernus #JusticeforKarlach

[@danielkjm]

17k endings is a lie.

[@WhirlwindHeatAndFlash]

honestly with all the whining karlach does despite supposedly being a veteran soldier who spent years literally fighting demons in hell i stopped caring about her entirely at the end of the game Youd think a veteran soldier would have some sort of reasonable stance towards the inevitability of death but no. She cries all the time like a freaking schoolgirl.

[@davidstern5012]

Bro, there's no such thing as "thousands of endings" that is a marketing lie. There are only a few endings, with a lot of variables. Let's say in 1 playthrough I help the goblins and in another I help the grove. By their logic, I will have a different ending

[@juusovuolle8251]

@@WhirlwindHeatAndFlash Yeah Karlach and Astarion seem like school girls. Which is really jarring for me personally. Astarion is over 200 year old vampire spawn, who has gone through torture several times and has seduced countless men and women to follow him to his masters mansion only for them to be eaten alive in the same evening. Karlach is a war veteran of the Blood War. Mere visitors in hell find their thoughts perverted and corrupted by the evil influence. Yet Karlach acts and talks like a juvenile teen. Also why do all of your companions want to constantly initiate romance with you, is it some kind of wierd bug?

[@DeadAugur]

@@davidstern5012 To Larian's credit they never claimed there were 17k endings, that was a random news article that misconstrued 17,000 variations for endings.

[@nemofish3504]

Almost as soon as I entered act 3, my motivation to finish the game kinda dwindled. There’s so much hitting you right out the gate that it overwhelmed me. Also, they said act 2 was longer than act one and it felt short to me. I did almost every quest in act 2 except maybe one.

[@CatWithThumb]

act 2 felt long the first time i played it but on my second run i breezed through it so fast while completing everything available which i didnt do on my first run. i was so sure it was longer but it really is a painfully short act

[@saltoftheegg]

I just finished the game and I'm pretty sure there's still like three major locations still grayed out on my city map, I just wanted to be done so I smashed through the ending without even looking into certain quests.

[@Peleski]

I definitely think they could give more clues about disabling the steel watch, esp if you didn't save Walbrun. I was reallly stumped by that, and those robots are super annoying.

[@squirrel1226]

I finished the game as both Tav and Durge and genuinely feel like Acts 2 and 3 were disappointing. I feel like when you get to Act 2 there’s significantly less character interaction and in Act 3 it’s the same thing. I feel like they could’ve added more to Act 2 but it’s whatever. However, Act 3 was definitely the biggest disappointment. Everything just felt so crammed together. Like shortly after you arrive in the Lower City Orin will probably kidnap one of your characters, so everything has to be paused to go save them (if you care). Gortash and Orin weren’t that great when compared to Thorm (God, his boss fight was so cool). The endings weren’t super great either and I would’ve loved to walk around and interact with all my companions at the end instead of watching them say their one liners and ending the game. Overall I still thought the game was fun but it wasn’t as good as everyone was claiming it to be

[@GrimHeaperThe]

Same experience here.

[@YangBalanceYin]

Larian ALWAYS drops the ball in the final stretch of their games, no matter how great they are as a whole. It's been this way since Divine Divinity.

[@MrRagnarxx]

oh man divine divinity. that takes me back. i honestly couldn't handle playing their divinity series due to massive boredom and poor storytelling besides the original divinity game so i believed the hype and really went hard into bg3. massive dissapointment towards the end.

[@taigaaisaka6305]

Yeah, they clearly have a scope issue, and the awful way they go about Early Access only makes it worse. As in, they only release Act 1 in EA, as such, they NEED to add content to it constantly to justify people for buying 1/3 or even 1/5 of the game for full price. What ends up happening is: Act 1 ends up being huge, basically a full game on itself, then subsequent acts get worse and worse until your each the last act on which you can clearly tell they ran out of money and time so they rushed it. The exact same problem has happened with their last 3 games.

[@inevitableveganfuture3915]

I mean, it’s actually comical to suggest they “dropped the ball” on what is undeniably a contender for best game of the decade. ALMOST ALL GAMES create too much content and then prune it down to what works well. I’d argue the two best moments of the entire campaign are the final battle where get a send-off from of your allies, and the house of hope. Both act 3. Some character endings leave a little to be desired, and maybe we will eventually see them fleshed out in a future patch. Still one of the all time greats if they never issue another patch.

[@junkolover9518]

@@inevitableveganfuture3915 you either say they dropped the ball and scream, or you scream in their support. There's NO calm alternative in between. OBEY the hive mind of overreacting and overjudging, thrall.

[@xTunafishx]

Most game devs put less work in the final game than the start. Thats why a lot of games have bugs that appear at the end. But even Elden Ring just started to recycle bosses. Most people will never finish a game... I assume that's the reason....

[@RenzoTravelsTheEarth]

There was one point in my story that felt super weird. Wyll was in my team and there was a bit where I missed Mizora apparently she was in a mindflayer pod. But just as I’m about to face the boss Wyll turns into dust and nobody in my team says anything and they literally never speak of him again. It felt so weird having a main character die and everyone acts like nothing happened.

[@whatiswhat8061]

Weird bug. when i did that by accident karlach yells at me so i save scum right away

[@vinny985]

i swear they did poor wyll so dirty… his personal quest is already one of the worse ones *when it works* (because it’s also prone to completely breaking for no reason) , his writing is kinda terrible and he has the least amount of content among the origin companions, the end he got in your playthrough is tragically perfectly fitting for how the game treats him :(

[@Bleech606]

What I mean to say is, it just doesn't work from a narrative stand point. As you get closer to the final battle it should feel like it's focus sharpens towards that. Instead you have a 100 side quests with a bunch of quest icons over the map and you're helping your buds finish of their stories instead of focusing on preventing the end of the world. All that stuff should have been wrapped up on the journey, not at the destination. It just slows down the narrative when it should be ramping up by giving you a huge list of chores to complete in one area rather than spacing them out throughout the journey, lessening any feeling of climax, outside of rogering Mizori and the Drow twins. 😆

[@napstablook3935]

definitely feels like there should be an act 4 where we get to focus on the end better... maybe like one villain per act? ACT 1- Goblins, ACT2- Ketheric Thorm, ACT3- Orin and the lower city quests, Act 4- Gortash in the upper city and end game.

[@saltoftheegg]

Literally was just about to head to the brain, the city was shaking, people were turning into mindflayers, and then I saw this place I hadn't been to yet and remembered oh yeah I need to finish Shadowhearts questline so I did that real quick right before going to the brain

[@SmokingBirds]

Very good point.

[@KimJungGooner]

When playing Act 3 the game makes you feel like everything is urgent and you need to not waste time, but ironically I spent the most time on Act 3, just wandering the Lower city and doing side missions ha ha.

[@nicholasrova3698]

Larian are good at interactive gameplay for sure, probably one of the best in the business. But their narrative chops are... less so.

[@pignebula123]

I agree with everything here. I also want to add that it really felt like there was supposed to be 4 Acts with Act 3 being focused on Orin in the Lower City and Act 4 being Gortash in the Upper City but that got cut and smashed together with the Lower City. It's like they were taking their time for Act 1 and Act 2 and then halfway through Act 3 went "Oh shit we've got no time, smash what's done in Act 4 into Act 3 and call it done". I also hate how railroaded the ending is ESPECIALLY with The Emperor. Could have literally written him out and just had the Artifact be a passive thing or have it be Orpheus trapped in it alone and he was appealing to us by being the Dream Visitor/Guardian the whole time and we have to free him after Vlaakith finds him and begins an assault like they do on The Emperor already. The Emperor really just didn't need to be and REALLY didn't need to be in the way that they wrote him, it was just straight up bad writing. Act 1: 10/10 - A real masterpiece and taking down the Goblin Stronghold felt great. Act 2: 8.5/10 - Felt great and much more cinematic but much of the map felt underutilized, could have had enclaves of people being corrupted more slowly or something to add content also the Last Light Inn didn't have enough quests attached imo. Act 3: 6/10 - Felt long and mashed together, The Emperor fails to be interesting and is poorly written, Gortash is clearly neglected, companion quests are left in a bad spot, the endings feel railroaded and the illusion of your choices mattering is broken. Some highlights here but also some major issues, not to mention the bugs in this act. A classic Larian move of having a trash last act to an otherwise fantastic game. Please Larian, I beg you. Go back and finish the game. Add the Upper City, Add Act 4, Make Gortash a real menace like he should have been, Increase the level Cap to 14ish, Finish the companion quests and their loose endings, Give us real choices for the ending (not using the parasites should be rewarded not ignored), Give us closure even with a slideshow narrated by Withers. Fix the bugs (goes without saying really). This game has the potential to be a near perfect masterpiece but you fumbled the bag on the last act, fix it please.

[@saskia8018]

Yes, I also fully expected Orin to be the focus of the Lower City and Gortash Upper City. I was super surprised when I learned we never get to explore the Upper City at all. And yes, I was a hardcore purist about not using the Illithid powers and really wanted that to be at least acknowledged in a sentence or something. Like I would've expected that undergoing partial ceremorphosis would mean something like losing your soul and then not being able to raise transformed companions from the dead or not being able to side against the elderbrain at all.

[@stevanhaire5300]

6/10 is wild lol. That’s like a game I wouldn’t want to play at all. launch of Fallout 76 scores. Surely it’s not that bad? I think they’ve done a lot to smooth out act 3 in the past few patches, we’ll see what tomorrows patch brings to the table.

[@pignebula123]

@@stevanhaire5300 Looking back I was probably harsh on Act 3. Now with some time I'd give it a 7-7.5/10. Good but room to improve. The negatives and the ending were more fresh in my mind in comparison to the positives of the Act. That and the performance improvements that I've heard are good (haven't tried them). Also to me a 6 is still a good game that is worth playing. Fallout 76 at launch would have been a 2/10 for me.

[@mason3111]

@@stevanhaire5300There is no way launch 76 is a 6/10 man, wtf. At best it’s a 2/10, 6/10 is above average but nothing special, which honestly isn’t that harsh for Act 3, personally I’d say 6.5. Some parts of it are amazing, but the downsides are pretty heavy too.

[@theposhdinosaur7276]

I am hoping this could at least be DLC content. I'd be happy to pay another 10-20 dollars for an act 4 and polish to act 3.

[@mitzee8621]

My main issue with the Dark Urge stuff in chapter 3 is the lack of interactivity after you have completed the quest. It definitely seems like the quest was intended to be one of the very last things you do in act III.

[@FlipDarkFuture]

Might be a spoiler depending on what you did, but if you choose to reject the dark urge, Withers basically shows up to declare you a hero and that the goal is now to save the city. So it genuinely does seem like going after Orin is a set up for the end game.

[@Cyromantik]

Considering the DUrge backgrounds was supposed to be the default player character test certainly tracks. I think the game was midway through development when Larian Studios decided people needed a more beginner-friendly customizable character to start with.

[@Shenanakins]

i think its supposed to be the last thing you do. the game tries to force you into it by having orin kidnap your companion forcing you to kill gortash first, complete all other side quests and then kill her last because once you have the third stone all hell breaks loose.

[@Ghost_in_the_machineworks]

Karlach deserved a better ending.... if anyone in this game deserved a good ending, it was her

[@KainRaRPG]

Wholeheartedly agree

[@Klyptic]

Once they add mod tools I'm sure they'll save us. Plus with AI voice mods the possibilities are huge

[@heyyq475]

!!!!BIG SPOILERS!!!! There is good ending option. Just get Wyll sign contract with Mizora(new one for saving his father), and he become blade of Averno. In the ending Karclach has new option to go back to hell with Wyll and slay demons. Also my friend has romance with her, and had option to go to the hell together with Karlach. ( sry for grammar mistakes I'm using Google translate)

[@Joenah5]

@@heyyq475 Karlach having to go back to Avernus at all is not a good ending

[@rarog4241]

Karlach... after act 2 start I went to google, seeking answers about how can I fix her and when I figured out that I cant and even cant go to hell with her because I choose human race - I was so devastated that basically lost the desire to play

[@yeast7485]

man oh man act 3.. big shift in tone and a lot of questionable writing, but the biggest problem is the bugs. Like I went to fight Gortash in the keep, and while fighting in the audience hall below him he and his friends would join the fight, but they cannot get down there. So now I had to wait 6 more people to do their dashes and stand around on the roof every cycle of turns while clearing the room below. I loaded a save 3 times and tried to do the fight below without aggroing him, but every time, after a round or two, somehow he would get aggroed..

[@retro3856]

They just fixed this bug today funny enough

[@boredasbored6274]

i had to use both side coves as you enter to avoid him pulling from the room above, you missed a bit of dialogue not much was said

[@yeast7485]

@@retro3856 well seems my bug report was read then, nice

[@Peleski]

Hah, I had that happen when the level 1 aristocrats down there were against me. I had to fly down and kill them all. Immersion breaking.

[@moosiemoose1337]

I thought they would have Fallout style slides at the end with different conclusions pointing out the different things you did. "In the end, the grove was saved and Halcin returned. They went on to continue helping future travelers after their encounter with the savior of Baldur's gate." "Although the shadow cursed lands were freed of their shadow, due to the damage inflicted, the lands remained barren...except for one enclave, the last light inn which the people used to stage the reconstruction." etc.

[@Mugthraka]

They did this for DOSII and people gave them shit Now they don't do it and people give them Shit. Make up your damn mind people...

[@KainRaRPG]

@@Mugthraka it seems like different people can have different opinions :D

[@moosiemoose1337]

Oh, I didn't know. I really enjoyed Dos 1 & 2, but stopped playing dos 2 after I got to arx.

[@johnnyawesome2533]

I liked it in DOS 2@@Mugthraka

[@imshail]

They've been datamined and seem to actually be in the game data, the game is just completely unfinished past act 2 so it seems like they've been cut out to rush the game out early, there's a very interesting thread on reddit cataloguing everything that was cut and act 3 is a shadow of what it should be, main reason why I'll wait until the definitive edition to replay this.

[@danielballinger9680]

i feel like they should have had the party go to the city in act 2 instead of act 3, being able to see what you will eventually be saving instead of feeling rushed to kill either of the two final shard bearers feels really bad, also Raphael boss fight is goated and should be revered by all who do it.

[@KainRaRPG]

I agree, the city could've been introduced earlier because the contrast of going from act 2 to 3 is very jarring. Also a shame we can't go back to the shadowlands and see if it slowly started to recover.

[@JackSpackProductions]

I had the similar issue with DOS2, but it's exemplified here. Where you've got a big area to explore, particularly a city, arguably the most interesting in the whole game in the climax of the game when you're rushed through the story. DOS2 at least had Reaper's Coast where you see some civilization. BG3 you go from a strong opening act which is kind of a Fort Joy situation, only then you go to Shadowlands, which I'd approximate to something like the Nameless Isle even if it's longer, before heading to Baldur's Gate, similar to Arx. It doesn't really have an equivalent to Reaper's Coast and so it feels weirdly late to have Act III's locale as it is, especially with how rushed it can feel. You don't feel like you can really take it in and appreciate it like you could the sometimes less impressive areas of Act I.

[@rupok90]

Raphael boss fight is probably one of the few best things about Act III

[@kraz007]

In terms of PACING, you are absolutely right that act 2 and 3 should switch places.

[@dirtyharry0191]

​@@JackSpackProductions >Strong opening act >Fort Joy

[@karambas4life108]

Companions just plummet in Act 3 Karlach despite all the things you can do to help just dies or goes back to Avernus with Will (doulbe kill from writers) Shadowheart's resolution in the House of Grief despite being bittersweet just doesn't feel conclusive, specially if you don't get a cutscene with her in the end due to oh so many bugs; Gale's story is completely inconclusive, man still has his orb and doesn't get the crown (that is if you don't let him go full kamikaze on the brain); Astarion either is written off as a joke if he's still a spawn or he's just ... there? if he's ascended; Minthara, Halsin, Jaheira, Minsc are just 0, like actually having them in your party or going solo against the brain makes 0 difference (Minsc inclusion is also somewhat fanservice-ish); The only one getting a real and good ending is Laezel, no doubt thanks to being a forefront for the game (as she's the only origin character we see in the cinematic). I guess that's something at least. The game starts very strong and Act 2 is also incredible when it comes to creative boss fights and fighting Ketheric feels genuinely amazing, but then the game takes a nosedive with some exceptions (Raphael fight is indeed GOAT)

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

Shadowheart's resolution in the House of Grief is especially bad, as it comes at the expense of a beloved companion character from the original Baldur's Gate trilogy. I didn't get any resolution to Lae'zel's plot in my playthrough because I got so fed up of the Alien Space Nazi™ being a complete worstcunt that I just let Shadowheart cut her throat.

[@CatWithThumb]

ik at least for the gale ending you get a much better conclusion if you play origin gale. you get an end scene with mystra where you get a few dialogue options but the fact you dont get any of that if you play your own tav

[@ninjificus]

All of Act 3 needs major polishing! The longer I have away from it even after replaying and beating the game like 4 times, the more I am just in disbelief that they released Act 3 the way they did.

[@BrokensoulRider]

It's most likely they ran out of time to put what they wanted in. It's why the patches they've been giving us have been so intensive.@@ninjificus

[@TheLegend-dy2ux]

One issue I had was that EVERYBODY said don’t side with the emperor and then I ended up siding with him and literally nothing happened as a result, sure laezel was pissed but then I persuaded her and nothing else happened😭

[@lukesoddlife]

Lae’zel says she will murder and gut you, but roll a dice and suddenly she’s like “ok we are besties now :)” lol

[@harou7730]

I romanced and heavily focused on shadowhearts plotline for the entirety of my playthrough. When i finished the game her romance scene was overwritten with Karlachs conclusion with following Wyll to Avernus, so the only line she had left for me during the last scenes was that she wants alot of wine on the party. After how incredible it felt to return to camp after finishing act I and speaking to all the people celebrating in camp i guess my expectations were a bit too high, but i really needed something at least close to that to mentally wrap up my playthrough. I'm still very much sad i missed out on the Shadowheart cutscene, watching some other dudes recording of it or even replaying my savestate just wont feel as good. I think Act III's downfall really was just how incredible impactful decisions felt in I+II.

[@KainRaRPG]

Yeah Karlachs ending bugs out almost all romance scenes if she goes with Wyll. So the only way to see your post credits romance scene for now is to let her die :/ (or maybe become a mindflayer, not sure).

[@harou7730]

I believe they actually fixed it with patch 1 now! so it's definitely something.@@KainRaRPG

[@ninjificus]

@@KainRaRPG I beat it like a week ago with Astarion romance and let Karlach go with Wyll without me and still got the romance scene so maybe they either fixed it or it works with some romances?

[@Thz333]

Bro u simped hard in a video game

[@cripplingdepression2842]

This. Is a post credits party in the camp with a few lines of dialogue from my companions too much to ask? We could have a scene at the docks later when the party will finally decide that it's time to split up.

[@michaelkelly4533]

Rescuing all people in the iron throne in time on tactician should be an achievement. Was fun but wont be wasting my time rescuing all again. Wish the city was mid game. And act 3 was definitely unpolished. Not enough of the people you could rescue were impactful in act 3.

[@ninjificus]

All of Act 3 needs major polishing! The longer I have away from it even after replaying and beating the game like 4 times, the more I am just in disbelief that they released Act 3 the way they did.

[@Peleski]

I was surprised though that Omeleum doesn't appear if you gave away the Gith egg. He'd have to be excluded from any achievement. And frankly the achievement would be a bit broken with an priest using sanctuary.

[@SliceOfFish]

Especially since that gondian guy talks as if his daughter died even though you rescued her.

[@IamtheLexx]

@@Peleski I kept the Gith egg hoping I could maybe give it to Orpheus or something but nothing :( Was really hoping it'd pay off.

[@Peleski]

@@IamtheLexx It seems the best option is to give that woman an owlbear egg or just take the money and don't go back to her. It's one of those funny plots where if you do what the game tells you to do, you're penalised.

[@oddassembler]

There is no excuse for that inventory management

[@skrewball0]

Act 1 and 2 are amazing. Act 3 has made me play through act 1 and 2, 4 times. It’s really sad that act 3 is so broken. For me, the saddest part is I don’t know what is intentional or not anymore. As soon as I set up camp in wyrms rest, gale confronted me on accepting Rafael’s deal. All of my characters went silent as soon as act 3 came around. Even wyll is atrociously bugged for me. I beat ansur and now all he can say is , “poor ansur, we should go back to camp and tell father.” Even after I met his father he has nothing else to say. I slept with mizora and he still has nothing to say. Same with Karlach. Halsins only voice lines are bitching about city life, and shadowheart is doing shadowheart things. I love how much content there is but in some cases I have accidentally completed 5 side quests without reading anything and skipping the dialogue.

[@ToHonorKnowledge]

Don’t forget that in the dark urge story they tell you you were the first person with a tadpole in your head, but you still see the cutscene where the mind flayed tad poles you on the ship. So which is it? Did I get tad poked on the ship or did I have one already when I was put on the ship?

[@RuslanLagashkin]

Well, Orin is mad and her interpretation of events may be flawed.

[@ToHonorKnowledge]

@@RuslanLagashkin it’s not Orin that tells you this, it’s a random npc in the bottom of moonrise

[@jamiedavies3810]

A very well put together video. I finished the game on PS5 last night (actually staying up until midnight to finish it) and by the end I thought to myself: Oh, okay. No epilog? No actions to the choices we made? Just a scene on a dock and a very brief moment with Shadowheart. Cool. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I know that I felt very underwhelmed. I love this game, it's one of the best experiences I've had in gaming for years. It's very clear that Act 3 was rushed. And on god the bugs and glitches in the final act. I had no issues with Acts 1 and 2 for the most part, I just genrally ignored them as theu were not that immersion breaking. But Act 3 was something else... So many issues with textures, music not playing correctly, so much pop in and even some dialog bugs. I tolerated it for 95% of the act but at the final encounter and leading up to it? I stuggled to get through it. Again, I love this game and I kept an open mind as to how this game was going to be. No game is perfect after all. I'm still planning on playing again and testing out the other classes, I'm just glad I'm not alone with thinking that my experience was different compared to others.

[@Bleech606]

After act 1 and act 2, act 3 felt very theme parky with it's high density of quests and content all over the place (which is typically something I'm not a huge fan of). I feel like these kind of games should start off with a busy amount of side quests and options before funnelling you into a more linear direct for the final act, assuming whatever you have done in the previous 2 acts affects the linear direction you go in the final act.

[@GabrielPassarelliG]

I completely agree. There is an urgency sensation that gets lost when you give the players so many side quests. The only way that amount of content could've been great is if main story progress were timed and you had a limited amount of days/long rests.

[@lockpickrogue-yc5wc]

@@GabrielPassarelliG I was eager enough to rush through the game in my first run by cheesing combat and looking up every walkthrough whenever I got stuck. Also meaning, skipping any side quests for later. Because I wanted it to play on the "urgency sensation", my main goal being to rid myself of the tadpole. Then when I saw the ending, realizing I had to start a new character to play the side quests was a big punch in the groin.

[@nicholasrova3698]

The whole game felt theme-parky.

[@saskia8018]

I also hit the XP cap relatively early in Act 3 and wish all the XP would not just vanish into thin air which mainly contributes to my wanting to just get to the finish line. And yes, some of the bugs are annoying. I have a bug with not being able to meet Kith'Rak Voss to do spoilery things when this is the only thing I currently care about plotwise. They tried patching it in the most recent major patch and now at least he's there but it's still broken and I just can't do it :/ (I know there's a "workaround" by triggering the endfight but I would like to do it before the endfight, meh)

[@culpritgene]

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW 1. Emperor should not be willingly joining the Netherbrain, but rather be chased away from the prism by the Orpheous and getting mind controlled. Him and dream visitors should be a separate smaller encounter on the way to the brain itself, perhaps alternative to Voss and his crew (whom you probably would not fight if you saved Orpheous). Brain's mirror-class "antimeasure" spawns are much more interesting opponents than dream visitors anyways. 2. Road to the brain is abysmal and should be reworked, really. Those lvl 3 goblins with 9 hp taking in total about 2 minutes to make their turn consisting of mostly misses have no place in act 3 and only highlight limitations of the turn-based combat (though perhaps I had some hardware constraints regards to multiunit actions). 3. I understand that they needed to highlight the scale of the events but there are better ways than the annoying Nautiloid volleys. Even a couple more well placed cutscenes showing the Absolute's army attacking the city could do that. And you need to lead the heroes *through the parts of the city that were previously explored* now lying in ruins. Besides the emphasis on the level of destruction this gives devs a perfect opportunity to tie in some of the player's decisions made during ACT3. As a simple example Steel Watchers / banites / bhaalists / flaming fists / the Guild / etc, all can be placed here as minor encounters acting with/against the player or just adding to the chaos (bhaalists killing terrified innocents while turning into mind flayers themselves can look rather funny imo) . 4. The Brain itself is a disappointing encounter. Why did it get stuck somewhere in the ruins of the Upper City, grounded, anyways? Players should use a dragon (that can later become mind controlled) or some alternative means of levitation to get to it in the air rather than climbing its stem like some kind of hillbillies from the Jack the Brain Slayer fairy tale. The way the Brain interacts with the characters is also rather annoying - those HAL2000-just-before-sleep vengeful spitting commands are rather pathetic. I am not an expert on the Elder Brains Lore wise but perhaps its superior mind control / suggestive abilities can be highlighted instead? Like it would talk to you with illusions / images and perhaps try to charm you and your party members making you all more agitated and prone to attacking each other? 5. Lastly, the idea of "gathering your allies" can be reinforces not just in material combat but in the battle of the "minds" as well - at least as the ability to defuse any tensions heated up by the Absolute's influence on the road to its body.

[@KainRaRPG]

Great points and sum up.

[@saltoftheegg]

The part about hillbillies made me laugh out loud, thank you for that. I agree with all of this, larian should have hired you, but who knows if that's a good thing or a bad thing considering how devs treat their employees

[@ninjificus]

All of Act 3 needs major polishing! The longer I have away from it even after replaying and beating the game like 4 times, the more I am just in disbelief that they released Act 3 the way they did.

[@Raven7744]

Finding out Karlach wasn't fixable was so disappointing. Especially since if you talk to a Steelwatch with her around they tell her that she is malfunctioning and to report to the factory to be fixed.

[@dorianodet8064]

For me what broke Act 3 and is seldom mentionned is the level cap. You get to lvl 12 at the beginning of Act 3 if, like me, you've mostly cleared the previous act. Meaning that act 3 get very stale in the progression departement. At some point you just clear content for clearing content when you could just ignore everything and immediately rush to the end for more or less the same result (especially if you know where to get the gear you want to get ASAP). Act 3 would have been much much better if you still got that sweet level up moment after clearing a certain amount of quests

[@cozzbutt]

Thank you for voicing a lot of this, I had the same concerns. My first run through the game (shortly after release) was really great up until Act 3. The ending in particular got to me, I couldn't believe that shit about the mindflayer choice after avoiding using any worms the whole game. And my boi being used as a punchline like that? Heck no. He deserves better. (Also, funny how easy it is to forget Shadowhart doesn't even have an ending cutscene lol.) And of course Karlach also upset me. It'll be mended if she gets a DLC for Avernus, but don't forget Wyll gets scammed there too. If you're romancing him, he walks off with her to save her and you can't join him. The only way to marry him is to watch her die. Also, if you want him to be duke, she also needs to die.

[@derelictdragon2550]

So i think technically the best character to turn into a mind flayer is Gale, in his origin ending when he return to Mystra as a mind flyer, giving her the crown, she restores his souls to him and they go to elysium together, so best outcome for everyone npc and players alike, unless of course gale was your romance

[@terry5183]

Finally. It's not just me that has problems with that ending. Act 3 feels so... disjointed? I have just faced one of the chosen, on a map full of eldritch horrors, I fought devils, I explored the sacred temple of Shar herself... and now you ask me to... find a dismembered clown? To tiptoe around other chosen whose fights were... not great to say the least. Ketheric was a spectacle. Gortash was a joke in comparison and had a very annoying gimmick. Until I realized I can lob all the grenade right under his feet. And Orion? Hyped herself up the entire act 3 and was a diasppointment. Oh wow look at her, 10 invulnerable stacks? Well golly gee it would be a shame if I had magic missle... oh wait I do. I destroyed her in 2 turns, and only becaue I wanted to see what she can do. But there were some good things. House of Hope was my favorite. I will, however, not forgive the lack of proper epilogue and slides. WHERE ARE THOSE 17000 ENDINGS?! There are maybe 4. Who cares who I helped or who I recruiteed across the game. They just show up in fights if I call upon them and then disappear into the ether after the final fight. I was expecting consequences. Why did I stop myself from cosnuming tadpoles in my first playthrough? There is no reprecussion from gogin on them as far as I can tell. Now I am doing a Dark Urge playthrough, already got myself Minthara, she's great by the way but then again she is a paladin, and I am a goddamn tadpole gourmet. My dragon sorcerer is literally unstoppable with their powers. That one passive ability that insta kills enemies whose health is equal to your tadpole count is bonkers. I can literally magic missle all enemies and kill like 3 or 4 at once. Not to mention a free get out of jail card with that dash or even superior push and dont get me started on psyionic pushback everytime someone dares to use a spellm I killed distant sniipers with that plus the OP passive. Anyway, I heard Dark Urge has a special ending, I want to see what will happen with the Temple of Bhaal so I will push through the boring act 3 again, but act 1 and 2 are the best RPG material I found since WOTR.

[@moosiemoose1337]

Dude, the ending to act 2 was SO HYPE. I descended the moonrise tower, blood and dead bodies strewn about, kethric CONVICED to kill himself, avater of myrkel destroyed, and that damn music playing. It was SO good. I can't wait to do it again. Also, I'll do you one better, no only does avoiding consuming tadpoles do NOTHING. CHOOSING TO BECOME HALF ILLITHID HAS **NO** CONSEQUENSE IN THE STORY. Literally NONE. It all goes away after you beat the final boss.

[@KainRaRPG]

@@moosiemoose1337 I guess the emperor probing us on every turn to use the tadpoles were the developers way of saying use the damn things we made them on purpose and it won’t change anything :D

[@Mugthraka]

"Its disjointed"... So like a real DnD campaign?...

[@Sairento-kun]

One small thing you can do every boss in 1-1,5 turn, Katheric as well :v

[@terry5183]

@@Sairento-kun Sure, but I wasnt as OP back at Ketheric as I was in act 3. I did however 2 turned his second form with karlach on speed potion and berzerker frenzy

[@boredasbored6274]

cant say i dont agree with you, 140 hours just finished my first run, felt like i was just tieing up lose ends and rushing towards the end. All these points you made are my main issues with act 3. Ending with the githyanki is what i choose and just felt lacking.

[@thedamntrain3467]

upper city if it hadnt been cut would probably have had a political intrigue themed plot, aiding florrick in purging all the corruption while gathering supporters of ravengard

[@IcarusRizen]

My issue is that i have been lvl 12 for about 10 hours and i still have quests id like to do before i got to some major locations in this playthorugh...

[@excaliburv4332]

The more I think on it, the more I think Dragon Age Origins did set the standard for RPG epilogues for me. Just put me in a room filled with my companions and some of the important characters from the game, and let me have one last chat with everyone so I have some idea of what everyone will be up to after the credits roll. They literally set up your characters having a celebration after defeating the elder brain. Just spawn us in the Elfsong Tavern and fill it with all the NPC's we've gotten to know over the game.

[@johnnyawesome2533]

Thank you for the honest and realistic review. It does not have to be perfect to be great is a good message. Its cool to see someone with the same passion for this genre. Good content man, keep it up!

[@niklasunbubble]

SPOILER FOR EVERYONE NOT FINISHING THE GAME: you perfectly summarized my thoughts about act 3 and the ending. if I hadn't had strong final moments in the ending of their personal quests (Shadowheart and Astarion especially) I would have felt very disappointed by the ending, at least how it treats the side characters. I had a romance going on with Shadowheart for 120 hours and all I got after defeating the final boss was ONE line that was basically not more than "wohoo, we did it". also agree on the parasites. I anticipated the part where you can chose between becoming the absolute or destroying it would be dependant on your alignment (good/evil) and the amount of parasites you took. taking it all would leave you no other choice than becoming the absolute. not using them at all would stop you from even becoming the absolute because you are not illithid enough. and everything inbetween would leave you for having your last final roll with different difficiulties depending on how many parasites you used. I think this was the original intention but later dismissed for some reasons. I think people would be angry of having no other choice but turn evil if they just used some of those parasites... but I think it would stay true to the inherent most important gameplay decision: actions. have. consequences. there are so many warnings that using the illithid parasites could have some effect on you and let you lose control. but no. I agree with you.

[@KainRaRPG]

Yeah I think they didn’t want to lock people out of endings, since the use of tadpoles is shoved pretty heavily down our throats it could upset some people in the opposite direction that it kinda disappoints us non-tadpole users :D I didn’t expect any grand reward or even pat on the back but just a line or two with acknowledgement of our choices would’ve been nice.

[@Jefers1]

I think one solution woud be the Absolute trying to enthrall you, and the save to resist being a DC10 plus the number of parasites you absorbed.

[@saltoftheegg]

I didn't use a single one of the tadpoles in jars for the whole game because I was sure it was going to lead to some kind of consequence, so when all of a sudden I was playing as illithid Karlach I had no idea how to use her powers effectively... basically just spammed Black Hole

[@SmokingBirds]

@@KainRaRPGon the other hand all your companions heavily advise against using the powers.

[@Soyed_Boy]

I went full tadpole brain and mutated but then it just all poofed away. my poor rouge liked to fly around and black hole things, but fr thought that the astral tadpole change would at least be un reversible and like the punishment for using it would be being forced to become a mind flayer since the tadpoles ate my whole ass brain lol.

[@danielkjm]

Baldurs Gate 3 Score. Act 1 it was a 9/10 game of the year By act 3 it was a 7.5/10 soo many bugs, broken dialogues, Tposes, despawn of companions, romance bugs, ai enemies that did not act at all...

[@FJ_0609]

Act 1: I loved it, its you being a "Local Hero" and the region being great Act 2: Too much "Darkness" in my opinion and you went from "Local Hero trying to get rid of a Parasite" to figthing the Avatar of a God. The act also felt Shorter and a bit more barren Act 3: As you said was such a massive Damper you went back to "local Hero" to being this "Epic Hero" again and the ending was mediocre at best - Universially i didnt like how Many of my Decisions had little to no Impact, The tieflings i saved? Half of em Died in Act 2 and the interactions you got with them there was "please save them again" . Act 3? Felt like it didnt even matter that i saved them - Inventory Managment is a massive pain - I didnt like the Armors some look good and i liked them but the paintjob on some? Horrible - I personally expected more casual Romances - The Evil Path? sucked utter ass - Likeable Companions but the romances you have with them? at the end they are kinda worthless Overall? the game was Great and i liked it very much, so far its one of the few games where i did not mind replaying it. Imo It just needed a bit more time maybe like a few more months to flesh out act 2 and 3 since Act 1 is carrying the game very hard

[@louiesatterwhite3885]

You know you can change the paint job of armors with dyes, right?

[@FJ_0609]

@@louiesatterwhite3885 I know but they all suck 😭 I like Indigo though

[@ganondorf66]

I was really disappointed to find Alfira in act 3 doing absolutely nothing. "oh thanks I guess"

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

The Tieflings getting slaughtered off-screen after you've spent hours doing quests in the first zone just felt like it was done for pure shock value. Like a cheap death that comes out of nowhere in GoT.

[@FJ_0609]

@@dungeonsanddobbers2683 Which is why i just kill them off they have no Value

[@danielle_vandress]

One thing I really hated was how if you let Karlach make the transformation, everybody basically ignores your character for the rest of the game and treats Karlach like the hero. I get that it's a sacrifice and Karlach is a cool lady... But I really hate this thing where games basically give you the "sacrifice your character or get treated like a punk" type of ending. Like, c'mon... Don't blame me because I didn't want to be a squid, and the one squid we did have turned traitor because he hates solving problems with words As a Gith PC, my options were basically to allow the Prince of my people to get consumed by a manipulative mindflayer, turn into a mindflayer, or get written out of the game. Those are sucky choices haha.

[@Joenah5]

Love the game but Karlach not having a good ending felt like a massive middle finger from Larian

[@Just2Ddude]

Personally what they added is better than a "good ending".

[@GenericUsername-qp1ww]

@@Just2Ddude eh, not really. Karlach's engine getting fully fixed cut quest is a 'good' ending. I could legitmately see the Karlach ending we got would b the result of the engine being made stable but not fully fixed

[@Joenah5]

@@Just2Ddude ?? No

[@beingbeyonddat]

The Emperor had to join the brain because Orpheus wouldn't be happy to see the mind flayer that had been using his powers for his own purpose and keeping him chained for years. And the level 12 cap is on point! I've been using mods on my 3th and 4th playthrough that remove the cap and after level 14 you just don't feel threatened AT ALL. I also used mods to increase enemies powers, AI behaviour health and numbers, and still felt like my 7th level spells or 6 smites would solve any conflict. I understand a lot of the things you say in the video, but the good thing about this game is that you get to play so differently on every run. The endings are different depending on what you've done for you companions. In my second playthrough I did everything for Shadowheart and was my ''girlfriend'', but I didn't do the quest about her parents and she left me because she wanted to go and solve her own stuff. I don't think the game is perfect, but this is the closest we (gamers) are gonna get to ''perfect game'' for a looooooong loooong time.

[@quaft01]

Totally agree with pretty much all of this. Loved this game but act 3 and especially the ending just left me with a feeling of disappointment. It just doesn't feel finished.

[@thefacts4440]

I must admit act 3 although the one I had most fun in deffo has its issues the ending is my biggest complaint feels like nothing you’ve done up to that point really mattered it’s just choose to become evil or choose to be the hero no choice comes to bite you or anything feels really rushed. And don’t get me started on karlach lmao

[@matthias_tonitz]

So much agree to your sentiment. Felt the same way - everything goes downhill in Act 3, and feels rushed and smushed together. Among other things, you realize in A3: Many choices don't really matter (i.e. if you use a tadpole or not). There is no time pressure at all (in the beginning, I was afraid to even long rest because I thought the tadpole would grow lol). There are only two endings: Control or Destroy, both underwhelming imho. Funny enough, it mirrors another game I played recently that had a similarly unsatfisfying conclusion: God of War: Ragnarok. The 2018 released, first game was truly great (for me), but it was supposed to be a 3-part series until they decided to combine parts 2 and 3, and that improvised ending was also a big letdown, similar as with the cut content of the upper city in BG3. I suppose there is a lesson here somewhere...

[@nickwood8306]

Good points all. The inventory/party/camp mechanics are definitely a bit tedious/time consuming and not that believable even. Swapping characters in and out along with their equipment is painful. Like you said, you should be able to manage chars not in the active party. I've spent 10 minutes just wondering round the camp trying to find someone. How do the party move all that camp stuff around? Why on earth would they camp in the city when there's 10K gp and a bunch load of inns, I don't know. Love the game, but it's not perfect for sure.

[@jakejohnson9563]

I camped in a penthouse not on the street like a peasant

[@NeroBurningRome]

I agree with you completely, still think it's my game of the year in a year filled with great games so that's saying something. I would also mention one thing that disappointed me that wasn't mentioned is the lack of diversity in the companions. We had too many regular sized human/elf variant companions. This struck me as really strange since this isn't a problem Larian had in DOS2, but here we have no dwarf or halfling or gnome or half orc or dragornborn companion which was really weird to me. Combine that with everything else you said and i am left feeling like the game has a lot of stuff that's unfinished. From companion endings, to certain plot lines, some things being rushed. I thought the Chosen 3 would have a much bigger role than they did in the end, like you said i was hoping Gortash would be much more involved, i liked Orin a lot but i played the good guy so her stalking me constantly was really awesome and the fight itself was great for me. So for me the 3 went Orin > Ketheric > Gortash. Was really expecting a lot more from him, a lot more political intrigue and machinations around the city. Still just like with DOS2 i expect them to add and polish a lot of stuff for the Definitive edition. Also i am crossing my fingers for an Avernus DLC, going to Hell to help Karlach seems like the perfect ending to her quest with facing Zariel as the final boss. Mizora who i thought was more interesting than Wyll can also be involved, so i am hopeful of this happening at some point.

[@KainRaRPG]

I loved the Ironhand Gnome we rescued in act 1 and I wish he became a companion like Halsin, he even stays in your camp. Maybe originally npcs like him and Alfira were meant to be followers but they put more than they can chew on their plate and ran out of time so had to cut some content.

[@NeroBurningRome]

@@KainRaRPG Yep, they actually seem to have cut a lot of content if you look over at the youtuber Chubblot he found a lot of stuff that is still in the game that they haven't completely scrapped like certain responses and interactions. So yea i wished the gnome guy was a companion as well... also how are you gonna have a CRPG without a dwarf companion just seems criminal to me...

[@BrokensoulRider]

Here's to hoping as the updates come through, these things all get added in. It feels more or less like they just ran out of time/got forced to release before it was fully ready. A La No Man's Sky, almost. I'm happy to see what they got. @@KainRaRPG

[@ZeeJohansen]

Super valid points for everything about the endings. It's so bad that I'm about ready to finish the game on my 2nd endgame playthrough as the dark urge, but the lack of story in the ending have just done that I kinda don't want to. And I've played closed to 300h of this game (most in act 1 with new characters)

[@lionmanasdfg]

I dont think that I have ever agreed more with a video. You have touched on every point that bothered me after I finished playing this awesome game. I had this weird gap in logic where I romanced lae zel and told her to go with her people but then spared minflayer orpheus and for some reason afterwards she said that she abandoned her prince to stay at my side. I can imagine how that would make sense however it was executed very akwardly and that kinda ruined the ending a bit for me. I have complete faith that a difinitive edition will be realeased and with it epilogues(the absence of which I felt was the biggest issue with the ending). An expansion going into the upper city, avernus to help karlach and dealing with the aftermath of the crown with Gale would also be imho very possible as these areas were cut content and most likely there are assets for them. All in all act 3 feels kinda cobbled together as it most definetely was, probably even in the last few months before realese as there are not a small number of things that were talked about on the last panel form hell like the upper city and most egregiously the 17000 ending variables that are flat out missing from the game. Still 8.5/10 game for me and probably 9.9/10 aftrer some patches, dlc, expansions etc.

[@OWlsfordshire]

Act 3 is alright if you skip 90% of the trash side content. Just kind of sad that the story is so bad and there's not much to do once you are fully leveled.

[@quanlinglingdingle6122]

This is why among 6 playthroughs i only managed to reach and finished act 3 twice Act 1 is still the gem for me

[@burezu9190]

I totally agree. I am not finished with the game as of now, because for one: I am someone who just needs to do every quest possible and the city is just way too overwhelming for that and second: With great games I always get anxious towards the ending, because I don't want to finish it (even though I am already planning the second run), same thing. The fact that act 3 is so dragged and just the same thing all around (plus more bugs than before) makes those two points just even bigger. It's kind of a shame that the place that gives the game it's name is my least favourite thing about the game.

[@FilSapia]

BG3 is not a 10/10 game, one can argue that maybe Act 1 and 2 are, but I just had way too many problems with Act 3 (including all those you mentioned). It's still 100% worth playing, but to call the game a masterpiece and perfect is simply a massive lie considering how much of a downgrade the last act was in terms of quality, pacing, balance and bugs. The incompleteness of the endings alone left a bad taste in my mouth after how good the first two thirds of the game were.

[@CouchCit]

OMG I think I gave this video 2 thumbs up; I could not agree with all your points more. You hit the nail on the head in so many ways. I love the game and I adored my experience with it, but it's far FAR from perfect, when most reviews make it seem like it is.

[@OWlsfordshire]

I hate massive cities in CRPGs as well. It's especially frustrating when you know the game is only 3 acts long and the city takes up 1/3 of the game just sending you on pointless side quests. Act 2 felt like things were getting more and more serious then the game just comes to a sudden screeching halt and never gets back on track.

[@eri_bb]

The lack of reactions from companions really shows at the end of the Dark Urge’s quest, too. Especially if you play redeemed Dark Urge and resist Bhaal, when he kills you for it, it utterly shocked me that the companions had *no* reaction to my Durge’s death. Like I had finished all their companion quests at that point, was romancing spawn Astarion - and I didn’t even get a gasp? Like sure, when Withers revives you they chime in and say “you’ve never been a monster” but I can’t help but feel like that scene should have been much more fleshed out. Tav is the *leader* of their group, is fronted with most of the major decisions on this journey, and they get one-shot by the god they’ve been tortured by this entire journey and no one bats an eye? This is worse if you missed the dream sequence in Rivington that reveals your heritage (I know some people don’t rest much there), because if you miss it, the companions have absolute zero reaction to your story in the Bhaal temple. I was lucky to have caught it and to have seen their reactions to my Durge being a Bhaalspawn in Rivington, but even with this, the interactions just feel so underwhelming in the conclusion of Durge’s quest. With more time in the oven I would have liked to see Durge’s ending be just as fleshed out as the other companion quests, because Durge literally feels like the canon companion for this group (Tav is just a random Joe off the street, but Durge actually has some depth and something to fight for/against). In fact, in act 3, only romanced Astarion has extra dialogue concerning redeemed Durge’s fears. You can attempt to break up with him out of fear that you’ll hurt him, and Astarion will fight for you. He’ll reassure your character that he isn’t afraid of you and that he’s got you; you’re in this together. No other companion has that depth concerning Durge’s romance - if you choose to break up, they let you. Which is fine but and they deserve just as much depth as this path with Astarion.

[@Vandalgia]

Larian Studio always have this problem with their game, if you played Divinity 2, the first few arcs was absolutely amazing and they ended the game with a low note. It feels like they have a great concept at the beginning and was extremely motivated to work on it and they put so much thought and care in the beginning, but decided to drop it at the end of the project, like they goes all "Come on, we just wanted to finish this and go home quick." I still think that act 3 in BG 3 felt way better than Divinity 2 though, but god, that ending felt really REALLY underwhelming.

[@Aerophina]

I couldn't agree more with these thoughts. The ending was extremely underwhelming, sort of hurts my ability to replay it knowing those choices you make mean little to nothing in the end itself. Which is something that most RPG's tend to suffer from. If you compare the ending of BG3 to something like the Witcher 3 it falls supremely flat. I still love this game and am just upset BECAUSE it grasped me so deeply. Even just being able to have a final camp party and maybe a sweet scene with my romance option would've done much to help. It felt like that should've been there but just got scratched, there was prime opportunity for them to have you at your camp with everyone you had recruited and saved up until that point. You could've just gone around asking people what's next and it would've felt better than "Kthnxbye" which is basically what ends up happening. Shadowhearts like "I'm gonna go figure stuff out about my parents" my character goes "Alright let's go" and boom that's it. No scenes of a happily ever after or anything like that. Then there's also all that crap with Karlach that doesn't get resolved but I think the newer update fixed some of that? Then there's how the Emperor's ENTIRE character basically just falls apart when he's just decides to derp off and join the netherbrain. It felt really out of character for him, despite how good it felt to kill him towards the end. I could go on and on but this game really just needs a definitive edition or an extended ending DLC.

[@Vandalgia]

I personally think Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has a great and satisfying ending. I prefer Kingmaker for the variations it has on the gameplay (building kingdom and city, managing the economy and the like). WotR has a similar gameplay but instead as a king, you act as a commander, waging a literal war against the force of evil and you have to command an entire army to a battle. Sounds exciting in theory but in practice, not really. It felt like a chore. But still, I really like both of those games. Try them if you haven't!

[@col.lessiedancer3357]

I loved the house of hope fight and the music was fantastic for it but the companions being quiet really made the third act feel much more like going from place to place. you could hear npc talk about the stuff you had done but it felt way too forced and not natural. it didn't feel as much like everyone had they're own shit to do and i was impacting it and more like I had shit to do and they existed to remind of my successes....

[@ninjificus]

Worst part of it it me. It's like they were almost real and said something about everything almost in the first act and slowly over time they just become place holders to maybe say one thing about anything that happens if they don't bug out and then back to being dolls again.

[@emris2697]

On my first ever playthrough when I reached act 3 I felt super overwhelmed to the point of actual stress. Like, suddenly all this content is here, while I have this nagging sense of “No, I don’t have time for this, the end of the world is near and I gotta focus on the main mission.” But then not knowing where to go for said mission, and coming across side quest after side quest, while searching, really really stressed me out.

[@OxOOOO1337]

act 3 itself is acceptable, but what happens after the point of no return is just awful everything you said about endings and character outcomes matches my thoughts for 99% spoilers below Emperor is just stupid in the end, my bro surrenders to empire because what, he afraid to die? The founder of Baldurs Gate, the bronze dragon's friend, renegade Illithid who lives hundreds of years is afraid to die? And It's not even a fact that the prince would have killed him, he didn't even try to talk in the end! His life is FIGHTING against brain, and this is how it ends if you want to free prince? Jesus fucking christ. Netherbrain fight is huge MEH compared to Kethric or Raphael, and fight before brain is AWFUL BAD. The Prince's desire to kill you makes no sense, given that the netherbrain's death gets rid of the maggot, why the fuck you even need to die then? Because he's afraid a half-dead worm will jump out of the hero and crawl up his arse? Even the classic "last speech" is just about the dullest of any game I've ever played, and for me it was bugged as fuck. Everything is so fucking STUPID, the game felt like it turned into a terrible fanfic in the end, and it's just makes me sad, because I liked the rest of the game a lot, and even the third act had great, like, THE GREAT moments (like the end of the Dark Urge or House of Hope) Not many people will get to the end, but in my opinion the end is the most important part in any game, and Larian just... I don't even know what to say. I don't think they can fix it, and they don't need to i guess, considering that only 20% at best of those who bought the game will go through the end, same thing with divinity or pathfinder or whatever crpg. Thank you for this video.

[@louiesatterwhite3885]

To be fair, the story had already establishes Emperor was afraid to die. He killed his dragon friend who was attempting to mercy kill him. Also depending on your choices, you don't even need to fight Orpheus

[@WhirlwindHeatAndFlash]

I thought some parts, like sidequests with minsc, volo and house of hope, of the last act were quite good. My main gripe with the last act is that i walked to both of the final villains ignoring their questlines (didnt disable the steel guard etc) and i could just faceroll both of them without even trying. Honestly Orin was even weaker than gortash, if my caster would have won initiative she would have died on turn 1 (missile to strip the DR buff). Even without that she died on turn 2. If you can kill the final bosses, ignoring their mechanics/storylines on the highest difficulty then there is a balancing issue. All of the combat near the end felt really lackluster tbh. Just too easy. Edit: I also didnt get a SINGLE tadpole power.

[@TrueKingofOoo]

This is a long one but here it is... I am disappointed there is no post main campaign gameplay what so ever. My friends and I kept joking "Balder's Gate proper isn't in the game" and would laugh because there would be no way right? RIGHT?... and well, it's not. We get a goodbye scene at the end and that's it? Not even getting to see the celebration if you chose it?! I was super hyped to at the least walk around a party and talk to everyone and converse on our decisions and just hang with everyone like we do at the end of Act I. No getting to explore the city we just saved and getting to see the Gate proper? No getting to see how our romance plays out or make choices on how we will chose to live out our life together? Not even a kiss or embrace after facing the big bad and winning? All Shadowheart and I would talk about was "What do we do if we win?" followed up by "Maybe a farm and a family. We will talk about it when we win, love, for now let's just enjoy ourselves."... We won and you don't even get to talk to her afterwards short of "let's celebrate" or "let's help rebuild". No seeing what comes of Wyll and Karlach working together and her having to go back to Avernus? Or just being able to save Karlach and letting her live in BG again? Getting literally zero closure from your allies or commentary on everything that lead up to the end (I love Nightsong and wanted to see her after we won the day). I also thought we would get some sort of dialog for never calling them in for support. I didn't even call them in for support for fear of one of them dying and not getting to see them again... Only to never see them again anyway. Never getting to see what comes of Gale and his hubris, trying to become a god to defy them? No getting to see what happens to Balduran (The Emperor) and what he chooses to do next? I had so many questions for him to all going to go unanswered. No getting to see what comes of Astarian and his new found powers/rule on Vampires? No getting to see the fall of the Queen with the knowledge of Opheious made public?.. And so much more. I was fully expecting to get to explore the city and do random sidequest, maybe join a guild, become an assassin for the 9 Finger's. Just super chill generic post campaign stuff. I know I'll probably be in the minority because the game is getting almost universal praise, but I was very let down after investing so much time in all these well written characters only to get a wave goodbye and a pat on the back. The game is amazing. It's DnD brought to life in the most perfect way. But fuck me it feels incomplete. Please don't come at me with "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey." or "It's meant to be what you make of it." There is just way too much left open-ended. The ending(s) feels super rushed. So yeah I just beat it a few hours ago and have a massive case of narrative blue-balls. We go from twist, twist, reveal, reveal, to roll credits in the span of a few hours (less than an hour ignoring turn-based combat) with no closure other than "yay we killed the Elderbrain". The whole dock scene felt like an afterthought. It feels like I just watched an entire 8 season show only for it to end on the episode before the series finale. If you got this far I love you and thank you for hearing me out.

[@KainRaRPG]

I read almost all comments and I agree with most of your sentiments. Small note on Gale, his epilogue is a bit more satisfying when you play as him (and that goes for most of the Origins I’m guessing) but it still needs a lot of work to feel complete for most companions.

[@napstablook3935]

they could pull a dragon age inquisition type ending with Amelia narrating the endings and validating our choices like readina a book with some nice illustrations of the characters and where they ended up at

[@cwesley2005]

Main problem with act 3 is that theres no clear direction and its difficult to find the final quests. By act 3 i dont want to investigate any murders i want to close up story lines

[@vinny985]

yeah it felt terrible to have this feeling of finally being where you’re supposed to be but running around like a headless chicken doing random stuff, it’s baffling the game gives you more sense of direction and continuity when you’re in the middle of fuckass nowhere in the wilderness or the underdark rather then in the big city at the peak of the story

[@thedamntrain3467]

i hated how astorians arc resolves... i guess ascending is actually the "good end" for him, even though at the end of his companion quest it's obvious that he's happier for stopping the ritual and not ascending.

[@adnaP_esreveR]

If you romance him you get another scene with him which makes it slightly better. Though had I chosen Shadowheart like I originally intended to, I might have been very disappointed. He deserved some more concern from his companions and a "where are they now?" ending slide or SOMETHING.

[@PsiKenji]

Man, everything you said was exactly what i had to complain, love the game still, but, i waited 3 years in early access playing and testing, a wait of three or four more months were nothing to me. It seems they cut a section of the game of the upper city? Everything seemed to be resolved there. I too did not use the ilithid powers during my playthrough, and when i had to choose to become willing or not my prior choices did not matter, where are so proud 17 000 endings? There were only 4.

[@opethmike]

Act 2 is my favorite act; it's too short though

[@KarolAltus]

Even in BG1 there is the need to turn back from the city of Baldurs Gate to visit old locations. Whe should have that here. We have got no map of the sword coast that can show us where we are. This game is big but in microscale. The plot is ok ,really nice. I hope that BG3 will get content creator module and Dungeon Master mode to create own adventures.

[@crazyelf1]

Originally it seems there was an elaborate upper city than even Sven mentioned. Based on the data mines, it seems Karlach would be able to get a permanent cure. Also, yes, there should be an option to save Orpheus and the Emperor.

[@CatWithThumb]

when i heard about the issues with orpheus/emperor i thought oh its because he becomes controlled by the brain and leaves you or something like that. then on my second playthrough i freed orpheus instead and the emperor just leaves? willingly? it makes no sense as someone whose spent so much effort trying to defeat the absolute and be his own person even though he's illithid wouldnt just turn himself back over to being controlled

[@janbertguerrero6988]

@@CatWithThumb AGREED

[@vinny985]

the main point i see ppl making about the orpheus/emperor plot is that emps thinks there’s absolutely no way he can work with orpheus and he’s just going to “drop” his protection and attack you, so joining the netherbrain seems to have the higher chances of surviving this whole world ending event. i still don’t fully agree cause 1) you don’t even get to TRY to convince him with all the info you gathered, it’s either emperor or orpheus 2) i’m not even sure orpheus can just drop his protection at will 3) not only orpheus reveals himself to be very forgiving of your illithidness, but emps already has all the cards to talk him into collaboration since he’s the only one who can wield the netherstones, i’m sure anyone would want to avoid ceromorphosis given the chance. Honestly they could’ve made it into a series of checks, convince the emperor to free orpheus and then convince him to not slay emps on sight, if you fail to recruit orpheus once he’s free you would get a dope bossfight and a very pissed emperor.

[@crazyelf1]

@@vinny985 I think that there should be a high roll "say a roll for 30" to convince the Emperor to release Orpheus.

[@Peleski]

@@crazyelf1 I don't think saving both should be an option, otherwise it would be the only way to play. I think having him turn against you, steal the stones and try to control the netherbrain himself would be feasible.

[@GamingWithRicky97]

I would love just letting us keep leveling up, feels bad to complete missions and get 0 exp...

[@CaYuuki7]

Finally someone talked about the ending. I was so sad, specially with my romance chars, that didn't said nothing different... so sad

[@snyperheadshoot]

Having finished the game 2 times already, I agree wholeheartedly, the endings and the last act as a whole, were a let down. SPOILERS Having to choose between Orpheus and the Emperor feels bad, more precisely, the fact that the Emperor can't be convinced, in order to have them both in the end, is not believable, if they made it so he needs him to also survive, it would make sense, but not like this. I've also done a quick evil playtrough with Wyll and there is nothing new for playing an origin character, I ended up also recruiting Minthara, which was very much worth it, I love her character, but when I got to choose to control the brain, the game just ends, so disappointing, after I've guided all my characters to be evil and have them all agree that controlling the brain should be the way, you have no reward for it, I wanted to see how Minthara, Astarion and Mizora sit next to me, as we control everything, but you just get the credits, not to mention that Gortash simply dies after you confront the brain the first time, you don't get anything for siding with him, just minus content for not having to fight him. The best ending decision for an evil playtrough is still to destroy the brain, as you get more content after, but still nothing I could see that would make me feel the choices I've made until then, Minthara and Astarion were of the opinion that controlling the brain is the way to go, but none of them mentions anything of it in the end, sad, I wanted to at least see Wyll as the absolute ruler of Baldur's Gate, but I only got some text of what would you do next and nothing after. Some epilogue with slides, like in Fallout NV would have also helped. Still the best game since Mass Effect, for me and above Mass Effect in terms of the gameplay, I love the fights, casting spells is so satisfying, with the verbal incantations, the House of Hope is S tier, as are the first 2 acts, also, having so many solutions to fights and to the missions feels so good, don't let my comment be a letdown, as I've said best game since Mass Effect for me.

[@gizunoglunmig0801]

In the become the absolute ending you enthrall your allies so astarion def prefer the other one. he even gets shocked when you decide to brainwash them. also the emperor is super untrusting and jumps to conclusions throughout the whole game him overreacting isn't out of character. and orpheus could prob forgive the main character for not freeing him but no the ilithid what knew he was in it for much longer and didn't do anything.

[@snyperheadshoot]

@@gizunoglunmig0801 Well, the game made me (and I'm not alone in this) believe that you could control the brain and not have to brainwash your party, it should at least be a choice and not having an epilogue for it, also, just adds insult to injury.

[@theobell2002]

Act 3 wasn't just a let down. It was torture. Never have I had a more frustrating gaming experience with the amount of bs fights in act 3. The bugs also didn't help.

[@GenericUsername-qp1ww]

"Some epilogue with slides, like in Fallout NV would have also helped." the better sentence/parralel would be "Some epilogue with slides, like in Dragon Age Origins would have also helped." as the game is the DnD equivalent of it (except the endings) and the final battle is literally the battle of Denerim 2.0, it even has summons too!

[@sojinnn]

I wish there was one more act. Weird how so much crazy shenanigans go down within just like, three blocks of the lower city. And then there's hardly any reaction from the public after that.

[@hinkelstein1494]

That were my thoughts exactly. Im glad someone has the same problems as me. Act 3 really is a slight led down. I posted on Reddit the exact same line on Gales plot lmao.

[@moosiemoose1337]

IT'S SO BUGGY! The final fight was almost unplayable. I love the rest of the game. I think act 2 was my favorite part of the game though

[@shd0_]

I was bugged and was soft locked on several quests and have to load an old save on act 3 specifically lol

[@NoName-ym5zj]

I cast hold monster on Orin and melted her with Eldritch Blast. It was hilarious, especially after the Butler told me I should've prepared more lmao

[@tmaxim2651]

I agree. I think if they can add a few more new companion scenes (similar to act 1), add a few more options for the endings, add a small epilogue (I’d love to be able to travel around the whole map and talk to some of the npcs about the events) and make some of the side quests more impactful that would make a huge difference. I do also wish there was a more neutral option regarding the grove in act 1.

[@Xhanatos]

You don't need to always apologize if you did not like something in the game

[@BloodoftheStarMoon]

Orin was a fast fight in my MP play through. I was playing the party wizard and rolled low on the initiative behind Orin. She jumped me when I was next to a chasm. All I did was break her buffs with magic missile, chug a speed potion then thunder wave her sorry ass off the cliff killing her on turn one. Was hilarious.

[@dbspurge]

Great video and I agree with your take on the game - Act 1 was amazing and Act 2 was really good but at times a bit redundant. Act 3 was a let down and the end was completely lackluster with basically no satisfaction of knowing what happens to any of your companions basically outside of Giselle. Or for that matter groups that led support to you for the final battles. I would have really liked something even like a credit reel that gave some written narrative that gave some context of what everyone went on to do. I had the same ending with Gale and I was so confused as to why he just ditched me and the emperors about face was totally out of character to whom he had been the whole game. How is it this can be my favorite game I have ever played but also my least favorite ending at the same time? Wonderful video thank you so much for making this so I had some place to commiserate!

[@joseveliz218]

The emperor has said many times about doing things to survive. At that point his best chance of survival was to join the brain. At least that’s how I saw it.

[@MikeTsa7]

Summed up my thoughts as well, act 3 was definitely my least favorite and the ending was underwhelming. Played the classic hero Tav, explored everything saved everyone, never used any illithid powers, did the "good" endings for all companions and felt that there was no real payoff for most of my choices. __________SPOILERS___________ Emperor turned out not making a lot of sense, especially if you did the Ansur quest (SPOILER Turns out he was Balduran, the founder of the city and a legendary adventurer/hero SPOILER) and as you said he could have just joined us with Orpheus, turning like that if you were friendly and followed him the whole game just seemed weird. The whole thing about using illithid powers felt so bad, I refused them the whole game, Karlach offered to turn herself to save everybody including herself so I let her because apparently you have to have 1 mindflayer ally or you can't win. Really hoped there was an option not to have any mindflayer ally with Emperor leaving. Karlach options sucked all around, staying alive out of Hell as a soulless brain eating mindflayer is not a good ending to me. To make matters worse when I entered the room with everybody I save throughout the whole game they treated me as a mindflayer even though I wasn't and all speech options were mindflayer options, hope that was a bug because it really bummed me out. Companions were a big disappointment in general, I had 9 and from them with the exception of Lae'Zel, Gale, Astarion and Shadowheart everyone else was just there. Even from the 4 that had something in the ending only Lae'Zel had a good ending for me. I wish there was more like an epilogue, slides , something. All that said I still loved the game, I already started a second playthrough as the Dark Urge. Can't say I care about companions and saving anyone anymore though, I'll go all in in illithid powers too, minus turning to a mindflayer.

[@OxOOOO1337]

so true bro

[@chrisblack6258]

Completely agree with you. I really hate how they wrote the emperor at the end.

[@MrCrazymmogamer]

[MAJOR SPOILERS INSIDE] Agree with everything you said. People are comparing BG3 endings with Mass Effect 3? Like seriously? IMO its much worse to be totaly honest. Each of the Mass Effect 3 endings from Legendary edition is at least 14 min long. For the contrast here BG3 become Absolute ending is 2:50 long. The bear sex scene is longer and more polished than one of the main endings to epic 100-200h story xD In each of Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition endings you got few minutes long narrated animated conclusion of state of the universe after your final choices. You got all of your live party members in a cutscene at the tomestone with all characters which died. You got that sweet father/son scene where father tales a story of a man who saved the galaxy. And if you have putted the work and did some correct choice you even have 30 sec of secret ending scene which hints that your character could actually survuved. So yeah Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition endings are way better than BG3. In Mass Effect 3 you also got Omega DLC, where you have a party in a home with all your friends which survived to this point. With alot of funny and heartwarming small interactions and mini quests. Its amazing if you decided to do it just before you head to the finall battle. It felt like a proper faerwell to all your party members. Yeh Karlach endings where the one that i dislike the most. Lazel have like basicly all good endings tbh even if you work with Vlakith lazel gets what she wanted, so no matter what you do she got basicly 3 good endings. Where Karlach have 3 bad and 1 super bad like wtf? They could easily make some use of all those soulcoins we gathered in game so we could buy her freedom or something, we had dunderians which we saved in Iron Throne and than another Dunderians which we saved in Steelwatch foundry which basicly invented this fkn engine and they couldnt do anything as well? :D We had two fkn Devils in game who could remove your inremovable tadpoles with the flick of their fingers (Raphael and Mizora) and they both wanted from as something badly and non of them could offer us a chance to remove the heartengine from Karlach? We had a fkn god of Magic itself, Mystra itself which can remove a nuclear bomb from Gales chest but couldnt do it for Karlach? :D Its not like all of them would do it for free. They all, including Mystra wanted something from us, the Crown. Also how come Karlach lived so long outside Avernus? So maybe she could go back there to chill the engine and than go back to material plane for another month and so on?:D As you said she was the most likeable companion from our party, and she had the worst story arc. To be honest she didnt even had story arc at all. And what about her friend from avernus which gave her soulcoins and a letter in moontower? Its obviously rushed and unfinished, probably added her to the game at the last stage of production and made a mistake to make her most adrorable so pissed alot of players :D Yeh the tadpole in BG3 is basicly a Unforgivable spells in Hogwart Legacy i cant belive i felt for it again. In both cases you basicly strip yourself from additional content and your character power just to find out that both games have nothing to offer instead :D So about the replayability. Is it there? Well, yea its obviously bigger than in most games out there. Will i play BG3 again with different choices? Not until they do something with all those things i'v wrote above. Its was and Epic 200h journey and atm its time to move on i think. Good that we have a Starfield on the horizon. 10/10 epic journey with 2/10 unsatysfying ending.

[@PartofHistory214]

Tbf, all of that stuff was added long after Mass Effect 3 came out. I would say BG 3 and ME 3 at release had pretty similar quality (no quality) endings.

[@KenanTheFab]

Mby its bc of how insanely down horrendous for Karlach but... yeah. There is *so* much setup for fixing her engine Act 1 - Dammon straight up identifies the problem by just listening to the sound and starts working on a solution. He has experience with infernal iron. Act 2 - Dammon continues working on a solution and eventually allows Karlach to cool down so much she can touch someone as much as she wants without harming (or killing) them. He says he will continue working on it. Dammon also talks about a possible solution regarding magical water cooling bassically. Act 3- Literally the biggest sin of all acts Dammon, again, is still working on it and trying to find a solution for Karlach. There are several moments you or others can suggest returning to Avernus *temporarily* Before you even meet Dammon- let alone even get to the lower city- a steelwatcher *recognises* Karlach as an older model and tells her to go to the steelworks factory to be upgraded. When I first got to the factory and all I thought I was missing smth because there was *nothing* in regards to Karlach in it. No matter how many gondians you save you cannot ask any of them anything in regards to Karlach. There are instructions everywhere in the factory, some of which are even fitted with braille for the blind Gondian to read. The gondians work on steelwatchers literally 24/7 without stop. None of this matters and the only reason to take down the factory is only for worker's rights or to make Gortash's fight easier.

[@joaoholz1010]

totally agree, just act1 has important decisions, later dont matter

[@eldebo99]

You verbalized so many of my thoughts and attitude towards the final act and the game as a whole.

[@JuanUprise]

There is a massive missed opportunity for act 3.5. Let me run around the world, go back to every area, SEE how things have changed, talk to EVERYBODY who is important, hang out with my shoadowheart BAE and see our farm. I don’t even need combat encounters or anything. I chose that were all gonna party after, give me something at the elf song like the Druids Grove party where I can mingle and talk to the homies. 10 hours or so of pure narrative content like that I would be SO happy.

[@JunjiItoDougWalker]

the fact that there's no post-game realm to go back to is enough to make me stop playing. Why have an open world area like baldur's gate if I can't return to it and tie up my loose ends?

[@jijianji1]

Have not finished the game yet, but could definitely tell something dropped the quality of the game at act 3. Learned afterwards about the cut content. It explains quite a bit, plus the usual game not being finished at release. Glad I got the heads up as I expected the upper city to open up, so it saved me the disappointment. The studio is lucky or, rather, they played their cards well. 10/10 reviews certainly don't include the third act (it already takes plenty of time to properly go through acts 1 and 2).