*Spoilers* Endgame Frustrations

[Voidfarer]

I just finished up and I'm feeling pretty conflicted. Everything after Barb left felt off. The story felt rushed because of the lore dumps about gods is coming in at the very end (in fairness, there were some hints, like the stag on the regime leader's flag before the civil war). But at the same time the post-Barb story quests were tedious and feel like a time sink more than anything else.

The pacing and order of events combined with the distances you need to go without fast travel are irritating. I have to wonder if it's designed as an inside joke; that only *really* dedicated players should get the ending.

I just want to briefly go over the quest *structure* from the time Barb leaves.
* Barb leaves so you teleport to The Thicket for a cutscene (no fast travel from here).
* Go to Winterberry and meet Cian. To proceed you need to cook 3 soups.
* Go to Whitestone and meet the bats. To proceed, you need to cook 3 cobblers.
* Whitestone doesn't have a kitchen, so you need to travel to a place that does to cook.
* Fast travel to sawdust, move a screen left to Darkgrove (no fast travel)
* In Darkgrove, go to the cave system and find a feather
* Walk back to sawdust and fast travel to the bats
* Fast travel to sawdust, move a screen left to Darkgrove (no fast travel)
* In Darkgrove, go to the cave system and find vlad
* Vlad wants 3 beet chips
* Walk back to sawdust and fast travel to Winterberry (beets only grow in the greenhouse)
* It's totally possible there won't be enough beets to make all the chips at once, requiring multiple visits.
* Fast travel to sawdust, move a screen left to Darkgrove (no fast travel)
* In Darkgrove, go to the cave system and give vlad chips
* Walk back to sawdust and fast travel to the bats
* Fast travel to sawdust, move a screen down to Thicket
* Mom wants tea, but there's no kitchen anywhere near this screen
* Walk back to sawdust and fast travel to a kitchen to make the tea
* Fast travel to sawdust, move a screen down to the Thicket
* Give mom Tea
* Walk back to sawdust and to Darkgrove
* In darkgrove, go in the cave and find the onyx door
* Lore dump
* Walk back to sawdust and timber crossings
* Talk to Oliver
* Find the Onyx Prison
* Lore dump
* Okay. Now that's out of the way, get back to guest management.

You need to make food for NPCs 4 times in the finale and only 1 of those characters is on the same screen as a kitchen. Not only that, but you need to go to Darkgrove *and back* 4 times without fast travel. That's 8 trips to the screen total. There's nothing of interest in Darkgrove; it's an empty lot with only one resource and by the late game you shouldn't be cooking for guests anymore. Again, it feels like a joke.

In addition to this, the endgame has nothing to do with the overall management gameplay. You can stop booking guests as soon as Barb leaves and suffer no negative repercussions so long as you have enough money for all the food and the Jeweler's Kit at the end. It's not just a test of patience, it is disconnected from the core gameplay loop.

As effective as the beginning sections are, it feels like Barb's departure marks the crossing from Management Sim to repetitive adventure game fetch quest.

[ZakTheFallen]

It's made worse by the fact that you get only small bits of lore until then. After the introduction and tutorial, Hank's friends do nothing to help with the story or gameplay. It all happens in the finale, which is a bit weird. It certainly does feel rushed, like the finale's content should have been spread over 2 or 3 chapters/areas.

[Ladybug_Sarah]

Yeah, I finished the game and was genuinely confused about whether or not it was completed. Like... it was super abrupt. I get that Barbara left, but I feel a real lack of closure. I'm also upset about Fin-- what happens there? Idk, it was otherwise a really good game and the way it left all the loose threads at the end has me bummed out.

[cattyh28]

I think story wise Barb leaving to go and work for Fin on Silver Valley probably indicates that the two things are meant to be taken together. The adventure fetch could be better timed, and a bit chunkier yes, it does feel like a race at that point, and then for myself I still had management things to finish at the same time which I am guessing are the ones people were complaining about a few months ago because they are waiting quests, as in get 20 five star ratings etc.
It does feel a bit as if it could be fleshed out quite a bit more, and a few more luxury goods would be helpful to bulk it out a bit. The special items vendor isnt very special after about level 3, for example.I considered stuffing the resorts a bit more to see if I could push the prestige, but since the heating would have depleted the number of rooms, I don't think it is worth the time, so for the last bit of waiting, which for me is pinefall, I am just upgrading the remains of the hotel furniture to see what score it ends up with. Prestige six was pretty uncluttered, so was interested in seeing if Prestige seven would be doable, but I don't see how they would still move around easily unless I cover every inch of wall with crap, basically.

[cattyh28]

Also is it normal to have no level 2 or 3 boiler? And why is Jaxx so incredibly expensive if he cannot bring the resort up to a reasonable temperature?

[NobodysHekatonchires]

I just finished it and yea...the lore was mega interesting, I liked the gods! But they're just gone now or?? I wanna know more, can we fight Thyrne? It feels unnecessary to continue, I just need to upgrade Pinefall to top level items now

[Winterhearted]

There are some good points, but I dont know...it depends on what other stuff you are still doing. I had many places still left undone so I played all those main quests bit by bit and not all at once. By the time I completed the last Pinefall quests, I completed the main game as well, so it felt pretty good and I think that was the way the devs "wanted" it to be. I actually liked the ending.

My biggest complain is probably in the beginning when Mom-bear asks you to find some stuff and I went on to my journey. Then after many days I went back to the Thicket to check on some things and there I talked with Mom-bear (she had nothing special to say). Then I went back to the Timbers Crossing and right after that I went to the Thicket again, because I advanced in main quest. And Mom was like: "Oh, you have been away for so long, many days!! etc. etc." I just met her and talked to her couple minutes ago

[Voidfarer]

Originally posted by Winterhearted:

There are some good points, but I dont know...it depends on what other stuff you are still doing.

In my playthrough, I completed all the quests at other properties before moving to Pinefall. I wasn't necessarily *trying* to do them, but when the quests are things like "Get 30 5-Star Reviews" you're just playing the waiting game until it happens so there's time to do all the other side quests.

By the time Barb disappeared -- again triggered by a bunch of good reviews --, my Pinefalls was mostly done and the story quests were all I had left to do. I'd do the quests and the only time I'd stop would be to open the pager and assign guests for the next day, then keep going. By that point I had so much money and resources that nearly all of my rooms were optimal in terms of decoration and comfort.

What I'm trying to say is that by the time the final questline was open to me, it was all I had left to do. On top of that, I think there is no excuse for structuring the questline to make you go to Darkgrove and back 4 times without fast travel.