A Half-Finished Final Act (Spoilers)

[Settings]

A link to a Redditor Who Compiled all the Cut Content

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15udnhh/compendium_of_cut_content_from_final_version_of/

Devs release a masterpiece of a game and then when you get to the end you realize they never finished the last 10% of the narrative because they had to rush to beat Starfield to market. Great game until you spend 150 hours only to realize that there is no conclusion to the story.

The first act, which is where most of the reviews are coming from, is impeccable. I mean a triumph of RPGs. Aside from a few minor UI glitches and T-posing Goblins it's fantastic. The combat is tactical and fluid, it allows you to make any choice you wish as long as you can handle the consequence, it provides RP for your race and class so that you feel immersed in the world and honestly it's one of the better RPGs out there.

Then you get to Act 2, still good, lots of content, but a lot more bugs start to show and suddenly a lot of narratives seem to glitch out entirely.

Act 3 is where everything unravels at the seams. Act 3 is maybe almost finished but it's damn near impossible to tell because the sheer volume of cut content causes what they left behind to glitch and bug and literally shatter your save game because it's not holding itself together with the missing content.

Just some bullet points of things cut from Act 3

- The largest portion of the titular city of Baldur's Gate.

- Karlachs last Act of story - she dies (or leaves or becomes Mindflayer) so they can Deus Ex her off screen while leaving a huge quest chain unfinished.

- Minthara's last act of story - Minthara being the last addition to the team suffers the most. They cut an entire subplot where she was meant to be pregnant during the events of the game.

- Most of the sidequests ending - There are a ton of sidequests still in Act 3 but a lot of them either have meaningless endings or no ending at all because they were cut for time. This has lead to people constantly trying to figure out what's going on.

- Dialogue Triggers - So many of them were cut that companions suddenly do a 100% reverse on their opinion of you. Companions that hate you are suddenly dear friends and will reference quest chains that you never even did, companions that love you will watch you die in the final battle with a glassy-eyed stare because they suddenly don't care whether you live or die.

- The Epilogue - They were meant to be there but now when you beat the game you get a fade to black and the game is just over. There is no continue, no new world state, no way to see if your choices mattered. It's just over and nothing happens.

- The Endings - They touted 17K ending variations. There are 5 endings and no variations at all. Either you free Person A and save the Town, don't free Person A and save the town, Become a mindflayer and save the town, or become a Mindflayer and conquer the world. Of course Dark Urge adds in a whole 2 extra endings! Either you dont become a mindflayer and conquer the world (same exact cutscene though) or Bhaal blows your head off. I mentioned a 5th ending, it's taking a deal with the Devil Raphael and it's a joke. You get a blank red screen where Raphael looks directly into the camera and monologues to the player about their evil plan before a fade to black. Again, there are no variations on these.

- The Illithid Worms - There was meant to be a system to reward or punish players depending upon how much they relied on the Mindflayer parasite eating their brain, this was cut. The exact same thing happens if you refuse to use the power ever as happens if you shove every parasite straight up your nostril and spend half the game tentacle-crushing every NPC you meet.

- Consequence of Choice - You find out in Act 3 there are none. Nothing you did before matters, your endings are all the same and every NPC you interact with basically forgets they ever knew you the second you get to the final battle area. Not that it would matter, because the lack of a continued worldstate means that you'll never see any of them again unless you start the game all over.

That's just the cut content of course, not mentioning the fact that Act 3 is corrupting saves, causing massive bugs, messing with people's questlines, and causing gear to randomly disappear for no reason.

I started looking into this and found that basically everyone in Act 3 was having the same experience, but every time it's brought up all you can hear is the praise for Act 1, which again is flawless. I looked further into it and found out this is exactly what Larian does with all their games. They're known for releasing a game without core pieces of it's ending and then releasing the game years later with the cut content restored and selling it for another $60. EDIT: It turns out Larian releases the Definitive Edition for free if you own the base game. So not another $60.

It's a terrible feeling to drop 150 hours into a great game only to have it draw the curtains in the final act and tell you "Good Job" while leaving the last bit of the story to your imagination.

A Few Edits: It's been pointed out to me that there are a couple of other things worth mentioning.

1) Jergel, a god of the dead, follows your camp for the entire playthrough in the guise of Withers. WIther's is there to ensure the defeat of the Dead Three and yet despite the fact you have one of the more powerful gods traveling with you this never amounts to anything for narrative sake.

2) There's a meme ending where Gale can blow himself up to save the day, this results in a cutscene where your companions mourn Gales passing... Sadly the cut triggers cause the cutscene to glitch and leave Gale standing behind you to mourn his own death.

3) Wizards of the Coast pushed for a Bhaalspawn story, Larian pushed for Mindflayers. The end result is one in which Bhaal is somehow being linked to Mindflayers in a way that feels rushed and convoluted and results in the system where Mindflayers aren't reall Mindflayers they're just tentacled good guys with no negative Mindflayer traits.

Further Edits

Apparently a crafting bench was implemented at one point, removed, and then ultimately cut. It seems originally we were meant to be able to fully craft our own armor, weapons, and jewelry but that sadly didn't make it to release. We do have the left behind items though, in the form of ingots, gemstones, and other various material items that ultimately are reduced to vendor trash.

One dude called my specs into question because clearly I have a potato. Here they are:

Intel i7-11700F
RAM 64gb DDR4
GeForce RTX 4080
2TB Sata SSD (Gaming Partition Exclusive. My work is on an M2 SSD, my OS is on a 1TB Sata SSD)

I'm aware they aren't the best, but they're far and above anything needed to run Baldur's Gate 3.

https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/1691479778488909827?t=nU5VXengKi7SgPZJTT4ihA&s=19

Swen tweeted this out today. The current roadmap for BG3 post-launch is set as follows.

A) Hotfix 4 (Just a hotfix, likely to be small) EDIT:They broke everyones saves who played during Hotfix 4s 6 hour launch. That's roughly half a million people who lost several hours of saves temporarily
B) Patch 1 including over 1000 bug fixes and tweaks
C) Patch 2 including requested content from players.

It's impossible to tell what patch 2 would include at this point, but hopefully some restored cut content and ideally Karlach and MInthara's final story. Either way the fact that Larian claims to be working on a patch with over 1000 bug fixes and game tweaks already is huge and would go a long way toward making Act 3 potentially so much better.

I've been working on compiling cut content datamined from various sources:

1) The Upper City - The most obvious one. Swen himself talked about the "Affluent Upper City" just 2 weeks before launch and described as it being fully explorable and yet it's very noticeably absent from the final game.

2) Shar Worship - In EA the player was able to select Shar as a diety which game with it's own unique dialogue trees, especially when interacting with Shadowheart as a fellow Shar worshiper. Despite the fact that voice lines were datamined indicating this had functions well into Act 2, it was cut when the game launched.

3) Karlach's Ending - Datamined content shows that not only did Karlach have a full ending where her infernal engine was fixed and that she survived, but that most of it was fully voiced and complete. However it required triggers from the Upper City portion of Baldur's Gate and when that was cut, so was Karlach's Act 3 storyline. What we have behind have been confirmed to be Karlach's "fail state" endings which were meant to only play if the player neglected her quest chain.

4) Minthara's Story - Minthara was meant to have a much deeper story, including a pregnancy. These were likely cut due to Minthara being a late stage addition to our roster but dialogue lines remain in the games files that show that not only did Minthara have a lot more content for herself but your other companions had a lot more to say about it.

5) Halsin's Story - Another late addition to the roster, Halsin was originally intended to have a great deal more endgame content involving the Druid circle, but this appears to have been cut more early on than some of the other items thus far.

6) Raphael the Merchant - Originally Raphael was meant to be a fully viable option to remove your tadpole, in fact the "Soul Coin" items that you collect in game where originally meant to be a powerful alternative currency accepted only by Raphael in exchange for possibly retrieving your soul as well as a long list of incredibly powerful artifacts from the House of Hope that would be sold by Raphael himself.

7) Avernus - An entire area of the game. Avernus was meant to be fully explorable and of similar size to the Underdark Area of Act 1. It would be a source not only for Soul Coins but other rare materials, highly difficult fights, and special content for Karlach.

8) Tav the Dark Urge - A lot of people were both surprised and excited to see the addition of The Dark Urge origin as the Bhaalspawn/Evil option that was missing from EA. As it turns out, Tav was originally the Dark Urge and they were all one origin. Tav was meant to be Bhaalspawn and separating the two seems to be what caused the narrative divide between the Dead Three storyline and the Mindflayer plot.

9) Omeluum's Ring - In the EA version of the game this ring would block your Tadpole entirely. It could not grow, it could not grow stronger, and you could not use Illithid powers. In the launch version this ring prevents you from being charmed despite Omeluum still stating that it blocked the influence of the Elder Brain/Absolute.

10) Bhaal and Orin versus the Creche - An entire Act 2 battle was cut in which Bhaal's forces, led by Orin, attacked the Githyanki creche which led to a fight where you either sided with one or the other or had a massive 3-way fight on your hands.

11) Orin and the Dragon - Orin was meant to corrupt a Githyank red dragon, leading to a boss fight against a Slayer-formesque Dragon.

12) The Hag Coven in Act 2 and 3 - You may notice that accepting Auntie Ethels help in the first Act can lead to a negative effect when fighting Hags. You may also notice that despite Auntie Ethel having letters from other Hags in her basement, she is the only one you encounter. Originally there was meant to be a full three act story involving the Hag coven including the mysterious "M" who seems to have been their leader.

13) Epilogues - Full epilogue cutscenes have been datamined that varied greatly depending on your choices. These were the "17K ending variations" that Larian told us about, yet they are completely absent in the final game leading only to a fade to black scene at the end of the game.

14) Cazador's Story - Originally Cazador was meant to play a huge role in the Upper City of Baldur's Gate, including being a huge political power. Datamined content also shows that originally he was meant to be a potential ally in the final push against the Absolute.

15) Banite Cultists - The game features both Bhaal and Myrkul cultists rather heavily but Bane is reduced to Gortash alone. Despite the fact that they had full and finished assets for both armor, weapons, and some events the Banites were cut from the final game.

16) Act 1 Minsc - Minsc was meant to be recruited at the end of Act 1 but was cut and pushed back into the later game.

17) Dialogue and Events - Even from Act 1 itself, thousands of lines of dialogue and companion events were cut from the final game. Some of them were even fully voiced and ready to be implemented in game but also referenced other content that ended up on the cutting room floor.

18) Bhaal, Myrkul and Bane as Deities - Cleric's were meant to be fully able to select the Dead Three from the list of Deities. There were even special dialogues in game for player's who played as a Paladin and then multiclassed at least 1 level of Cleric on top and selected one of the Dead Three.

19) Daisy - It's not a secret that Daisy was cut from the game after the last EA release and replaced with "The Guardian." Originally Daisy was representative of the tadpole in your head, not the Emperor, and would attempt to seduce your character into staying in the meadow by the river with her forever. A happy life with an imaginary dream lover while your body underwent ceramorphosis and was lost to you forever. Daisy was such an important part of the plot that both of the games theme songs "Down by The River" and "The Power" are based entirely upon Daisy. Datamined content also shows there was originally an ending where players would embrace a romance with Daisy and give themselves over to the parasite, forever leaving their individual consciousness "down by the river" with Daisy.

20) Companions and the Illithid Worm - Originally companions were meant to accept or refuse Illithid gifts independently of the player choices. You could of course influence them through dialogue to decide who did and did not take the offered gifts, but ultimately it would be based on individual characters choices. This can still be seen in game as a bug when companions will awake after a long rest and claim to have received a gift from their Guardian and yet will have gained no actual power.

21) Romancing Jaheira - Apparently you were originally meant to have limited options to romance and sleep with Jaheira but these were cut last minute. It's unclear why.

22) Tadpole's and Consequences - There were originally meant to be severe consequences from using the Illithid powers too heavily and investing too much into the Tadpole powers. This seems obvious in game and yet ultimately in the release version goes nowhere as the ending is reduced to about 4 choices made in the last leg of the game. You can use all tadpoles or none and receive the same ending.

23) Act 3 Companion Dialogue - If you've noticed that companions have much less to say at the end of their journey it's because thousands of lines of dialogue were cut from companions in the final Act and all for various reasons. This also seems to be the source of most of the companion bugs that only appear in the final act as they're still trying to trigger events that simply no longer exist.

24) Multiple Cutscenes - There are multiple cutscenes that were present for Act 1 that are missing from the final game.

25) The Nautolid - A large portion of the Nautolid tutorial zone was cut in the final release, including cutscenes, dialogue, areas, and an optional fight with 2 injured Imps. This was likely cut for the sake of brevity more than anything.

26) Mol and Raphael - Isn't it odd how Mol will just escape from Raphael on her own and say it was "easy?" Well it turns out that's because they cut whatever the final leg of that quest was meant to be, instead they allow Mol to escape on her own which more or less skips to the end and around the cut content.

27) The Raven Queen - There was an entire second part of the storyline that was cut early on.

28) The Voice of Bane - It's possible to have a brief conversation with Bane, but it remains incomplete as the dialogue is unvoiced for some reason.

29) The Wither's Epilogue - WIther's was meant to narrate an epilogue for the players, to what extent is unsure but instead WIther's is left with a single event in the entire game when post-credit's he can be seen revealing himself as Jergal and mocking a mural of the Dead Three.

30) Crafting - An early access build contained a crafting bench and it seems originally we were meant to have full access to crafting/enchanting gear of our own through certain systems. While these were cut, the items for them were not. This is why items like ingots, gemstones, woods, and other material items appear in game with no use other than vendor trash.

[Aron Dalentor]

Ninogan lähetti viestin:

I really enjoyed the game despite this but it's very sad to see what could have been.

yeah, i'm held back from playing as i'm convinced that the game in incomplete right now, and i want the full experience where every companion gets the same amount of content and story quality as Larians favourites SH, Gale and Laezel

[vuthanhchung2]

Seven of Nine lähetti viestin:

I must have been a one in a billion then- I experienced to major game breaking bugs in my playthrough, with that said, I followed through with all my quests when I kind of had to do them.

Regarding the disconnect between the Dead Three and the Illithid, I didn't experience such a disconnect. The Dead Three wanted to abuse the Brain, and the Brain ended up abusing the Dead Three. They actually meshed well together quite well.
Regarding the cut content - from my bug-free experience: I have no issue with it. I enjoyed my time and had a blast with it.
Going Shar or the Dead THree as Clerics - this is an interesting thing. You can go Shar by playing Shadowheart. With the way Act 2, respeccing to Cleric of Shar or even starting as one would I think kinda break the game - let's say SHadow decides to spare the Nightsong but the player character, being a Cleric of Shar would kill it causing too much mess with Act 2 - at times cuts / concessions like this are necessary for the stability of the game, like it or not. And with how things are: as a Cleric of Myrkul going against the Chosen of Myrkul... THe Bhaalist thing makes sense, they have been known for killing each other to become the ultimate Bhaalist / Bhaalspawn (See: BG1 and BG2). As for Bane the same applies as for Myrkul. So at the very least this is justified.

As for the other cut content : Hoping they'd reintroduce it to the game - at the very least for Karlach.

Regarding lack of decisions: I think the game does it well / right. The decisions you made along the journey aren't reflected in the ending as of now BUT! They influence what tools you have available in the final push - and I was happy to see all those faces show up for it, even if I didn't need to use them. There is not much you can do with the Elder / Netherbrain. It was a cosmic threat anyway. You could enslave it, and be the cosmic threat yourself - or kill it.

Honestly though, I don't know why people were expecting a bug-free release. Larian tested it, and the fact that I haven't encountered any major ground breaking bug shows they tested it. A game of this scope is guaranteed to have major bugs. And they are working hard now to fix them.

It's clearly not messing well since in Act 3 Orin and Gorstech stories has nothing to do with the Elder Brain, then suddenly it is all "Grand Design", and the brain become a NetherBrain. And their reasons is laughable, full of plot holes. Why the Brain can resist against us the player and not the dead three ? Why the Emperor need to consume the Prince in order to fight the Brain when the requirement is only to have a mindflayer using the nether stone. And the way Wither said at the ending of the game contradict that this is "Grand Design" from the Elder Brain but it was the Dead Three's plots.

About Shar deity, it's called good writing. in BG:O if you spread blood on Andraste's Ash your companion will fight you and you have to kill her. If you are Shar's cleric, you can A-persuade Shadow Heart to kill Nightsong, B-Kill hers yourself and kill ShadowHeart, or at least create conflict between party members, C-Renouch Shar yourself,..... . There are multiple way to write the story. Don't make excuse for bad writing.

To say your decision is all amount to some resource you can use at the final fight is amount to your decision to go shopping for equipment before the final fight. Every single choice matter RPG has an epilogue at the end, because that is a much. It's also especially grievous to not having a closer for all your Allies, what Shadow Heart will do ? What about Gale ? The only one got a satisfy ending was Lei zel, but her Arc is intertwine with the main story.

Feel free to apply your bug free logic to every game from EA/Ubisoft ,.....Also I am pretty sure no one expect bug free. They expect consistent, and the amount of bugs appear in Act2 and Act3 comparing to Act1 show Lairan horrible practice: Pushing 1st Act with extended players testing to wow people for review, then cut, lies, butcher the rest.

[Xenomorph Kitty]

vuthanhchung2 lähetti viestin:

It's clearly not messing well since in Act 3 Orin and Gorstech stories has nothing to do with the Elder Brain, then suddenly it is all "Grand Design", and the brain become a NetherBrain. And their reasons is laughable, full of plot holes. Why the Brain can resist against us the player and not the dead three ? Why the Emperor need to consume the Prince in order to fight the Brain when the requirement is only to have a mindflayer using the nether stone. And the way Wither said at the ending of the game contradict that this is "Grand Design" from the Elder Brain but it was the Dead Three's plots.

About Shar deity, it's called good writing. in BG:O if you spread blood on Andraste's Ash your companion will fight you and you have to kill her. If you are Shar's cleric, you can A-persuade Shadow Heart to kill Nightsong, B-Kill hers yourself and kill ShadowHeart, or at least create conflict between party members, C-Renouch Shar yourself,..... . There are multiple way to write the story. Don't make excuse for bad writing.

To say your decision is all amount to some resource you can use at the final fight is amount to your decision to go shopping for equipment before the final fight. Every single choice matter RPG has an epilogue at the end, because that is a much. It's also especially grievous to not having a closer for all your Allies, what Shadow Heart will do ? What about Gale ? The only one got a satisfy ending was Lei zel, but her Arc is intertwine with the main story.

Feel free to apply your bug free logic to every game from EA/Ubisoft ,.....Also I am pretty sure no one expect bug free. They expect consistent, and the amount of bugs appear in Act2 and Act3 comparing to Act1 show Lairan horrible practice: Pushing 1st Act with extended players testing to wow people for review, then cut, lies, butcher the rest.

This just comes across as poorly worded rage.

But to try and answer some of your points.

The brain let itself be taken by the crown of karsus. It essentially pretended to let itself be controlled by the netherstones in order to further it's Grand Design. It even tells you this much during dialogue. Especially if you have Gortash or Orin with you when you confront it. The brain was pretending to be controlled all along. The requirement isn't only the netherstone either.

Orpheus is needed to be consumed, or released because in either scenario the Emperor or Orpheus is leaving the prism. You still need protection from the brain otherwise you'd transform. That protection only extended outside the prism while you carried it because the Emperor was inside it at the time. It was the dead three's plot to try and use the Crown of Karsus to control the brain and take over. But as above, the brain let itself be captured made everyone think it was under control.

The writing around Shar isn't bad either.

The decisions that lead up to the end game are also fine. If you're looking for a game that essentially has to write new content and story based on your decisions well we're years off from that kind of technology. And saying it's just a shopping list for allies, yeah, so what? Your quoted game of BG:O did that too, you could fight the dragon and throughout the cities with your gathered allies which again was just a button you clicked on your hotbar to summon them. It's the same thing.

Also, you didn't need to attack him over the bug-free experience. Because everyones experience is different. And some people got more bugs than others, some less. Some got none at all.

Attacking someone for that is silly. As for the rest of your comment, well it's just hyperbole and rage opinions.

[MASTERCHIEF]

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

Ninogan lähetti viestin:

I really enjoyed the game despite this but it's very sad to see what could have been.

yeah, i'm held back from playing as i'm convinced that the game in incomplete right now, and i want the full experience where every companion gets the same amount of content and story quality as Larians favourites SH, Gale and Laezel

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

[Settings]

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

yeah, i'm held back from playing as i'm convinced that the game in incomplete right now, and i want the full experience where every companion gets the same amount of content and story quality as Larians favourites SH, Gale and Laezel

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

I think of all characters that Lae'zel has the best all around story across all three acts. I could just be biased though because she is my favorite.

[goodbye_bonito]

ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ lähetti viestin:

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

I think of all characters that Lae'zel has the best all around story across all three acts. I could just be biased though because she is my favorite.

Completely agree, her story is tightly coupled with main game story and her character development is most impacting, she is the main character in mind flayers plot line, Durge is main character in Dead Three plot.

[Seven of Nine]

vuthanhchung2 lähetti viestin:

Seven of Nine lähetti viestin:

I must have been a one in a billion then- I experienced to major game breaking bugs in my playthrough, with that said, I followed through with all my quests when I kind of had to do them.

Regarding the disconnect between the Dead Three and the Illithid, I didn't experience such a disconnect. The Dead Three wanted to abuse the Brain, and the Brain ended up abusing the Dead Three. They actually meshed well together quite well.
Regarding the cut content - from my bug-free experience: I have no issue with it. I enjoyed my time and had a blast with it.
Going Shar or the Dead THree as Clerics - this is an interesting thing. You can go Shar by playing Shadowheart. With the way Act 2, respeccing to Cleric of Shar or even starting as one would I think kinda break the game - let's say SHadow decides to spare the Nightsong but the player character, being a Cleric of Shar would kill it causing too much mess with Act 2 - at times cuts / concessions like this are necessary for the stability of the game, like it or not. And with how things are: as a Cleric of Myrkul going against the Chosen of Myrkul... THe Bhaalist thing makes sense, they have been known for killing each other to become the ultimate Bhaalist / Bhaalspawn (See: BG1 and BG2). As for Bane the same applies as for Myrkul. So at the very least this is justified.

As for the other cut content : Hoping they'd reintroduce it to the game - at the very least for Karlach.

Regarding lack of decisions: I think the game does it well / right. The decisions you made along the journey aren't reflected in the ending as of now BUT! They influence what tools you have available in the final push - and I was happy to see all those faces show up for it, even if I didn't need to use them. There is not much you can do with the Elder / Netherbrain. It was a cosmic threat anyway. You could enslave it, and be the cosmic threat yourself - or kill it.

Honestly though, I don't know why people were expecting a bug-free release. Larian tested it, and the fact that I haven't encountered any major ground breaking bug shows they tested it. A game of this scope is guaranteed to have major bugs. And they are working hard now to fix them.

It's clearly not messing well since in Act 3 Orin and Gorstech stories has nothing to do with the Elder Brain, then suddenly it is all "Grand Design", and the brain become a NetherBrain. And their reasons is laughable, full of plot holes. Why the Brain can resist against us the player and not the dead three ? Why the Emperor need to consume the Prince in order to fight the Brain when the requirement is only to have a mindflayer using the nether stone. And the way Wither said at the ending of the game contradict that this is "Grand Design" from the Elder Brain but it was the Dead Three's plots.

About Shar deity, it's called good writing. in BG:O if you spread blood on Andraste's Ash your companion will fight you and you have to kill her. If you are Shar's cleric, you can A-persuade Shadow Heart to kill Nightsong, B-Kill hers yourself and kill ShadowHeart, or at least create conflict between party members, C-Renouch Shar yourself,..... . There are multiple way to write the story. Don't make excuse for bad writing.

To say your decision is all amount to some resource you can use at the final fight is amount to your decision to go shopping for equipment before the final fight. Every single choice matter RPG has an epilogue at the end, because that is a much. It's also especially grievous to not having a closer for all your Allies, what Shadow Heart will do ? What about Gale ? The only one got a satisfy ending was Lei zel, but her Arc is intertwine with the main story.

Feel free to apply your bug free logic to every game from EA/Ubisoft ,.....Also I am pretty sure no one expect bug free. They expect consistent, and the amount of bugs appear in Act2 and Act3 comparing to Act1 show Lairan horrible practice: Pushing 1st Act with extended players testing to wow people for review, then cut, lies, butcher the rest.

You had both Gortash and Orin alive at the nether brain - that's immediately huge difference compared to mine. I killed both. I'm not even sure its possible, they both want each other dead, so that already sounds like a bug or less tested feature? A bug built upon possible previous bugs? No wonder your game got bugridden, I'd be too If I was a computer program :D . My point still stands - the two strands of evil were intervowen well. I felt no divide. The brain said, it needed just one chosen to die to EVENTUALLY break free. The Emperor also mentioned why needed to consume Orpheus.

There are other mechanics at play there regarding Nightsong. You possibly know those too. ANd there are tons more when it comes to worshipping Shar - you could just roll out 4 Shar Clerics and basically ignore the biggest challenge of Act 2, the Shadowcurse.
Act 3 has another Shar place - and you can't really give up your relic, as it was suggested hundreds of times during a playthrough.

Regarding decisions: How do I say - Act 3 decisions need to be more, or end-of-game decisions? I don't feel like you're right. As I said there is not much you can do with a cosmic threat to existence that is hell-bent on its Grand Design. You want it to reverse irreversible changes? YOu want it to pick one side over others or what? I haven't felt like my decisions didn't matter. An epilogue what happens to who would have been nice ... yeah... with all the bugs, I can see a bug consuming the multiverse of DND. I think Larian hit the wall with WoTC there: some of the character's story would change up a lot in official DND lore - this is Larian's first experience with in a way a publisher that demands certain things back, albeit that might not be the case, that's my most educated guess. For me all characters got an ending of sorts, or at least their fate was suggested if I played through the game.

Getting your items from the shop for the final battle: I see your point, yet it just made the ending that much better for me? Seeing everyone come to my aid against the brain was arguably one of my favorit moments.

Regarding your reply to my notion about bugs: Trust, me it's not the bugs that make me step away from Ubisoft and EA. EA is a different thing, they have plenty under their arsenal, but I've seen their corruption decimating studios I loved back then. Regarding Ubisoft... well: its not the bugs. It's the fact that all major Ubisoft titles are now the same chorefest, doesn't matter which AC you play, and ironically Ghost Recon felt like AC but in modern times.

Compared to that, Larian at the moment is a dream studio.

[MASTERCHIEF]

ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ lähetti viestin:

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

I think of all characters that Lae'zel has the best all around story across all three acts. I could just be biased though because she is my favorite.

I kinda don't like laezel. but you are definitely right. She does have the best content. I think wyll also has a good and finished arch.

[Aron Dalentor]

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

yeah, i'm held back from playing as i'm convinced that the game in incomplete right now, and i want the full experience where every companion gets the same amount of content and story quality as Larians favourites SH, Gale and Laezel

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

If Gale does not have enough story content then Karlach, Mintara, Minsk and Jaheira are questless mercenaries lmao

[goodbye_bonito]

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

If Gale does not have enough story content then Karlach, Mintara, Minsk and Jaheira are questless mercenaries lmao

I mean, Mintara is not better than Withers hireling, so you are not wrong

[Settings]

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

If Gale does not have enough story content then Karlach, Mintara, Minsk and Jaheira are questless mercenaries lmso

Jaheira kind of is. She feels added in to connect to past games. Like... you could replace Jaheira with any other druid character and probably wouldn't notice much of a difference.

[Zerasie]

I can kinda agree now that i am in act 3. Everything feels so....empty and rushed here compared to act 1. Act 2 was just so different than from act 1 also so couldnt really enjoy the switch from the different settings to a ghost story map...didnt really feel like the same game anymore

[MASTERCHIEF]

Aron Dalentor lähetti viestin:

MASTERCHIEF lähetti viestin:

gale does not have enough story content. SH is really good in act 2 (really important too) but in Act 3 some questions are left unanswered.

If Gale does not have enough story content then Karlach, Mintara, Minsk and Jaheira are questless mercenaries lmao

well, you are mostly right but let's give credit where it's due. gale has a lot of story dialogue and kinda is essential for an ending ( even though its troll ending lol). minsk has some of the best voice lines. and jahira is good for old fans I guess. she does bring back some nostalgic feeling dialogue and feels like a homely grandma.

[Nimr]

Seven of Nine lähetti viestin:

vuthanhchung2 lähetti viestin:

It's clearly not messing well since in Act 3 Orin and Gorstech stories has nothing to do with the Elder Brain, then suddenly it is all "Grand Design", and the brain become a NetherBrain. And their reasons is laughable, full of plot holes. Why the Brain can resist against us the player and not the dead three ? Why the Emperor need to consume the Prince in order to fight the Brain when the requirement is only to have a mindflayer using the nether stone. And the way Wither said at the ending of the game contradict that this is "Grand Design" from the Elder Brain but it was the Dead Three's plots.

About Shar deity, it's called good writing. in BG:O if you spread blood on Andraste's Ash your companion will fight you and you have to kill her. If you are Shar's cleric, you can A-persuade Shadow Heart to kill Nightsong, B-Kill hers yourself and kill ShadowHeart, or at least create conflict between party members, C-Renouch Shar yourself,..... . There are multiple way to write the story. Don't make excuse for bad writing.

To say your decision is all amount to some resource you can use at the final fight is amount to your decision to go shopping for equipment before the final fight. Every single choice matter RPG has an epilogue at the end, because that is a much. It's also especially grievous to not having a closer for all your Allies, what Shadow Heart will do ? What about Gale ? The only one got a satisfy ending was Lei zel, but her Arc is intertwine with the main story.

Feel free to apply your bug free logic to every game from EA/Ubisoft ,.....Also I am pretty sure no one expect bug free. They expect consistent, and the amount of bugs appear in Act2 and Act3 comparing to Act1 show Lairan horrible practice: Pushing 1st Act with extended players testing to wow people for review, then cut, lies, butcher the rest.

You had both Gortash and Orin alive at the nether brain - that's immediately huge difference compared to mine. I killed both. I'm not even sure its possible, they both want each other dead, so that already sounds like a bug or less tested feature? A bug built upon possible previous bugs? No wonder your game got bugridden, I'd be too If I was a computer program :D . My point still stands - the two strands of evil were intervowen well. I felt no divide. The brain said, it needed just one chosen to die to EVENTUALLY break free. The Emperor also mentioned why needed to consume Orpheus.

There are other mechanics at play there regarding Nightsong. You possibly know those too. ANd there are tons more when it comes to worshipping Shar - you could just roll out 4 Shar Clerics and basically ignore the biggest challenge of Act 2, the Shadowcurse.
Act 3 has another Shar place - and you can't really give up your relic, as it was suggested hundreds of times during a playthrough.

Regarding decisions: How do I say - Act 3 decisions need to be more, or end-of-game decisions? I don't feel like you're right. As I said there is not much you can do with a cosmic threat to existence that is hell-bent on its Grand Design. You want it to reverse irreversible changes? YOu want it to pick one side over others or what? I haven't felt like my decisions didn't matter. An epilogue what happens to who would have been nice ... yeah... with all the bugs, I can see a bug consuming the multiverse of DND. I think Larian hit the wall with WoTC there: some of the character's story would change up a lot in official DND lore - this is Larian's first experience with in a way a publisher that demands certain things back, albeit that might not be the case, that's my most educated guess. For me all characters got an ending of sorts, or at least their fate was suggested if I played through the game.

Getting your items from the shop for the final battle: I see your point, yet it just made the ending that much better for me? Seeing everyone come to my aid against the brain was arguably one of my favorit moments.

Regarding your reply to my notion about bugs: Trust, me it's not the bugs that make me step away from Ubisoft and EA. EA is a different thing, they have plenty under their arsenal, but I've seen their corruption decimating studios I loved back then. Regarding Ubisoft... well: its not the bugs. It's the fact that all major Ubisoft titles are now the same chorefest, doesn't matter which AC you play, and ironically Ghost Recon felt like AC but in modern times.

Compared to that, Larian at the moment is a dream studio.

The main problem with act 3 is that the level of interaction and reactivity from previous acts is not present. It's good, don't get me wrong, but is not at the same level as the beginning.

Another big issue in my opinion is that companions like Minthara and Halsin are very underdeveloped, especially the first. You could pick a hireling and you wouldn't notice any difference. No comentaries, no reactions, just approval.

Karlach's case is insane, despite being a fan favorite her personal quest is finding two infernal irons and killing Gortash in the end. Very underwhelming.

And the ending is quite forced. The emperor just refuses two work with Orpheus and sides with the netherbrain, which doesn't make much sense at all. Is a poor reason to basically sacrifice somebody during the final step. There shouldn't have been a way to unlock an option where Orpheus and the emperor work together to stop the brain.

And let's remember the endgame, just two arenas with repeated enemies. The final boss is just like a minigame where you have to kill it as fast as posible.

I hope that in the future Larian adds Karlach´s original story, fixes de end to, at least, give us some exposition about our companions and other character (like new vegas) and, let's hope, introduces the upper city in order two give all villans their proper time and development.

Basically, there are issues, but still, BG3 is an amazing game.

[maniacal<1>]

This topic outlines precisely why they continue to do ♥♥♥♥ like this: because they can get away with it.

People ( I refuse to call most of you 'gamers' ) don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about promises or honesty, because all they want is that temporary endorphin rush. I'm an OG ( original gamer ), I REMEMBER when I paid for games I got a finished product that didn't try to charge me two or three more times, and didn't require a whole other year to be patched to a 'complete' state. I remember, even as a total gaming nerd, still juggling my time between family, gaming and socializing outside. The three didn't typically converge, and I didn't need to sacrifice one for the others.

New, younger generations are different. They are beaten down with constant addictions to abuse via social media and the state of the country around them. All aspects of their life converge together on social media. They are used to being fed life one five-minute clip at a time, and they are NOT used to sticking with something for extended periods. They don't care about a game being finished because they know they'll back out long before they ever get that far for the NEXT big thing. That's why this game is getting such insanely positive reviews, yet 60-70% of the player base has yet to get past Act 1.

Millennials suck.