[Spoiler] Act 2 to 3 transition makes no sense

[Supply Side Jesus]

Emperor character makes no sense. Turning into a mind flayer erases host’s personality, yet he is able to remember most of his previous life AND go back to BG? You have no alternative but to side with this character that was lying, continue to clearly lying, and telegraphing that his about to set you up. Yet your character and party doesn’t even acknowledge this is the case.

[robinseyinht]

I mean, what do you want from them? Good writing? That's a bit much in our times.

[WeirdWizardDave]

It is a little railroady I'll grant ya. Your choices are basically trust them or pretend to trust them. To be fair this is because you really have no choice due to the mcguffin the plot has setup. Still a bit more flexibility here would be nice.

[Ranpo]

Multiple times you can say you don't trust the Emperor to his face, you can choose to sidestep him and free Orpheus.

[ACS36]

The story never really makes sense. Players only tolerate it in act 1 because that's the introductory stage of the game. I stopped playing during act 2 because the game just kept getting more nonsensical and ridiculous and never really gave you a sense of motivation or purpose. The entire story more or less devolves into "what the ♥♥♥♥ is happening to me? and why should I care?" but never answers why you should care other than 'because you might turn into a mind flayer' at some point.

The story alone knocks the game down 1 to to 1.5 points on the 10 scale. Then the game loses another 1 points for other design decisions. Games 8/10 at best and 7/10 is completely believable. People giving it 9's or 10's have a very low bar for entertainment.

[Bonky]

Originally posted by Supply Side Jesus:

Emperor character makes no sense. Turning into a mind flayer erases host’s personality, yet he is able to remember most of his previous life AND go back to BG? You have no alternative but to side with this character that was lying, continue to clearly lying, and telegraphing that his about to set you up. Yet your character and party doesn’t even acknowledge this is the case.

This isnt the only "hole" in the story, remember that the actual protection comes from orpheus and not actually the emperor? Well how come we cant just kill the emperor the first time we see his illithid form during act 2 ( if you do the absolute turns you into a mindflayer which also doesnt make sense considering its actual plan to become free)
But somehow during the finally in act 3 the emperor can leave us with orpheus and we arent turned, even though he switched sides!
Its either that Orpheus aura/power protect us or its the emperor and either way its all conflicting on itself.
Other this i find the story to be rather okay.

[Supply Side Jesus]

I didn't expect the story to match BG2, because that was a high bar to clear, but nonsense overflows past suspension of disbelief way too often.

[MASTERCHIEF]

I believe the emperor was a very late addition to the story. playing my 3rd play-through and I believe it should have been Orpheus all along who helped us (before the emperor was introduced). and early access had totally different story soo.