Ending

[darkling235]

>Spoilers. Duh<
Did anyone else find the ending slightly underwhelming? I feel like not much was explained. We still don't really know what happened to Zora and what... happened between you and the voice in the end? Did she get rid of you? Did you merge? What were you all that time?
Maybe I didn't get the Good ending although I kind of doubt it since I was pure Good at the end and did all the sub quests I could find.

[kpr]

yeah, I finished the game 100% and being good. It seems that after water mirror scene, the Voice is now Yaga (as she speaks with Voice's voice, but is captioned as Yaga) and her domain is kinda led in aggressive way (a lot of dead gnolls, but also you can find dead fox there). I wonder if you finish the game as bad, your other part is presented as good. I doubt it, but let's wait for someone who finished the game as bad.

[sarroush]

I got the same ending too. Looking through youtube, I don't even think there are multiple endings?

I need someone to tell me what the Voice really was because everything felt too cryptic in the end. I expected some revelation that would make me go "Oooh! I get it now!" but nothing like that happened ._.

[darkling235]

I think we're supposed to believe that 'Yaga' was a mask, an alternate personality that the Voice was hiding behind. That's all that makes sense to me from that scene but in order for that to work, it would suggest that Yaga was doing tough stuff that the Voice couldn't. There's no psychological reason I can think of for the stronger personality to hide behind the weaker one so it really doesn't make sense to me.

[kpr]

Maybe you're onto something. Maybe there are hints here and there. I've made some screenshots throughout the game from key moments. Will go through them. Perhaps I will be able to gather sth from them.

My working theory is Voice represents potential Yaga was always able to achieve, who she should/could become. Her true self. Repressed, blocked by persona we know throughout the game because of living in fear, being a victim of bullies. Maybe Voice has something to do with Roots also. IIRC, it only starts showing after Yaga nicked herself in a Hut and she was assaulted by Volko. The nearer the end, the Voice is more often to speak to NPCs instead of Yaga. But then, why it went silent near the end? Yaga trying to suffocate truth one last time?

But what is a meaning of water mirror scene? Showing like two realities? Two moralities (but then what if you play as bad)? Two possibilities? Yaga literally choosing to separate from part of herself (but then again, what if you play bad)? Maybe because she doesn't need it anymore, because she has already learnt and such behaviour became a part of her? And scene on the other side of a water? Separate reality (is that why water hurts you, because you cannot physically cross this barrier)?

Similar scene was at the beginning of the game. And then Zora's voice was replaced by Voice. What does it mean?

True ending is clear though. It was all a gnoll's dream ;)

[Nemesis]

I felt the same, what the hell kind of ending was that, SO many questions!
And just to say the Sora had a "accident" and died... like COME ON!

And the mask did break a few times so how can Yaga BE the mask!?

Sure if the voice is the "real" Yaga but the way "Yaga" speaks she was the one fighting and suffering, so like another one said here why is "Voice" hiding?

And the voice did not exist until Yaga was at the hut the first time...
I was sure the Voice was the manifestation the true Hut or something, they said Gordana had a "power" over the hut that and kept it from spreading.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!
Another almost perfect game with a crap ending, this makes me so angry!
Please can a dev explain this!

[khenderson99]

I have to agree with the assessment that this is another good game ruined by a terrible ending. The whole "there are no heroes, no villains" to justify only producing one ending, and negating all your choices so that nothing you did in the game matters at all. It really felt like Mass Effect 3 all over again.

I think I also prefer the gnolls' "red pill" true ending. It actually made more sense than the real one.

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by khenderson99:

I have to agree with the assessment that this is another good game ruined by a terrible ending. The whole "there are no heroes, no villains" to justify only producing one ending, and negating all your choices so that nothing you did in the game matters at all. It really felt like Mass Effect 3 all over again.

I think I also prefer the gnolls' "red pill" true ending. It actually made more sense than the real one.

Now that I have been sucking on this sour thing I was thinking the exact thing about Mass Effect...
Not as bad as that tho... but this ending leaves bad taste, I really hope we can get some kind of explanation about it or is this going to turn out like the indoctrination theory they had in ME3...
Someone ate a bad onion and we got 20 hours of this...

[KnobberFan<3]

Originally posted by kpr:

yeah, I finished the game 100% and being good. It seems that after water mirror scene, the Voice is now Yaga (as she speaks with Voice's voice, but is captioned as Yaga) and her domain is kinda led in aggressive way (a lot of dead gnolls, but also you can find dead fox there). I wonder if you finish the game as bad, your other part is presented as good. I doubt it, but let's wait for someone who finished the game as bad.

I've finished the game as bad and got the same ending. The dev left a lot of room for interpretation because even though I was really invested in the story and the charachter of Yaga and Voice I was confused too that was the f**ck is going on actually in the end cutscene. Maybe it's a metaphor of growing up or developing as a character when you are going trough events that impacts your life but there's was no indication or foreshadowing that this will happen at the end.
My best guess is that The Voice is also Yaga and at the end when they face the past The Voice that represents a much experienced version of Yaga takes it's place and goes forward leaving behind the traumatized child that Yaga was in the past so she becomes just a memory of the past too.
I think there are no muliple endings so the choices you make on the road doesn't effect the outcome of the game. Even the cat is telling you that there are no villians nor heroes of this story beacuse we are all driven by things and goals that we crave. Maybe the DEVs added this beacuse they had limited budget and they could not afford to make multiple endings but despite that i really liked that line it's really thought-provoking

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by KnobberFan<3:

Originally posted by kpr:

yeah, I finished the game 100% and being good. It seems that after water mirror scene, the Voice is now Yaga (as she speaks with Voice's voice, but is captioned as Yaga) and her domain is kinda led in aggressive way (a lot of dead gnolls, but also you can find dead fox there). I wonder if you finish the game as bad, your other part is presented as good. I doubt it, but let's wait for someone who finished the game as bad.

I've finished the game as bad and got the same ending. The dev left a lot of room for interpretation because even though I was really invested in the story and the charachter of Yaga and Voice I was confused too that was the f**ck is going on actually in the end cutscene. Maybe it's a metaphor of growing up or developing as a character when you are going trough events that impacts your life but there's was no indication or foreshadowing that this will happen at the end.
My best guess is that The Voice is also Yaga and at the end when they face the past The Voice that represents a much experienced version of Yaga takes it's place and goes forward leaving behind the traumatized child that Yaga was in the past so she becomes just a memory of the past too.
I think there are no muliple endings so the choices you make on the road doesn't effect the outcome of the game. Even the cat is telling you that there are no villians nor heroes of this story beacuse we are all driven by things and goals that we crave. Maybe the DEVs added this beacuse they had limited budget and they could not afford to make multiple endings but despite that i really liked that line it's really thought-provoking

Except that at the end Yaga was more "mature" then the Voice, question still stands who is the Voice...
And also why do the Voice call her Princess all the time?
Like others said the best explanation would be that Yaga used the Voice as a alter ego that was the "voice of reason" but the voice knew things that Yaga could not know and at the end Yaga lets the voice take over.
But at the end you can see that the Voice say "See you around, Princess" line is spoken by the Voice as Yaga.

Could it be that the Yaga you play is the real alter ego, a young lost child that needs to know the truth?
The cat and the mushrooms know the face behind the mask as far as I can tell.

But that makes no real sense and opens up more questions...
So many questions about this story makes it really hard for me to like it and if the path did not matter there is ZERO replay value in this and that's kinda sad.

Hope they explain this mess...

[Esper]

yeah i hate the ending. Its just so vague and the assumptions it gives don't sit well with me. Yaga disappeared? was she the mask? an alternate personality? none of this is made clear and even if the answer to any of these questions was a "yes" I would still be disappointed, because it's not the kind of ending I wanted. I liked Yaga's character so much only for in the end she just walks away and is replaced by the voice who is nothing more than a less likeable character.
I also didn't like the fact that the new game + doesn't take place after the main story, because if so, we could find out more about what really happened. But still, a really good game and the story held me from beginning to end, only this ending I found horrible who knows why it was like that.

[Nemesis]

Originally posted by Reiji:

yeah i hate the ending. Its just so vague and the assumptions it gives don't sit well with me. Yaga disappeared? was she the mask? an alternate personality? none of this is made clear and even if the answer to any of these questions was a "yes" I would still be disappointed, because it's not the kind of ending I wanted. I liked Yaga's character so much only for in the end she just walks away and is replaced by the voice who is nothing more than a less likeable character.
I also didn't like the fact that the new game + doesn't take place after the main story, because if so, we could find out more about what really happened. But still, a really good game and the story held me from beginning to end, only this ending I found horrible who knows why it was like that.

Felt the same thing, this was one of those games that I needed to push to finish 100% because I wanted to know EVERYTHING, no stone left untouched but at the end I just feel lost...

[Nemesis]

And what about the roots!?
We kill Baba the demon version of Gordana, your mother and... then nothing is really explained...
Was Yaga (the one we played not the voice) suppose to take her mothers place as the "force" that keeps the hut in check?

At the end we just see bunch of dead things and the hut in the distance, no real closure here...

[Esper]

Originally posted by Nemesis:

Felt the same thing, this was one of those games that I needed to push to finish 100% because I wanted to know EVERYTHING, no stone left untouched but at the end I just feel lost...

I was enjoying the main story so much that I rushed through it all and decided to leave the rest for after I beat it. But the ending sucks so bad that left me unmotivated to explore more

[Stone]

Interesting ending when there are so many ideas about what it's about, almost worth it just for that. Not everything in life is clear cut.

[lilbinva]

Ok warning this is gonna be a lot of explanation. I'm by no means an expert, I just really enjoyed this game and this is my interpretation of the ending.

I didn't mind the ending as much. Thought the ambiguity, while understandably frustrating for those of us who want clear answers, really fit one of the main themes of both the game and the source folklore of Baba Yaga which is the duality of people. In particular, in the folklore there's no clear answer as to who Baba Yaga really is. She's ambiguous in both identity and character. She has many forms- snakes, birds, forest witch, earth goddess, death goddess, etc. and depending on the story can be good or evil.

In the same way in the game, the Voice and Yaga are both valid aspects of the same person. When the Hut (which was basically Yaga and Zora's birthright- their ancient, like possibly at or before the beginning of time, family line seemed to have the role of monitoring the Hut/protecting the world from the roots stemming from it) reacted to Yaga's blood, her powers awoke but she wasn't ready to embrace or understand them yet. Trauma from the years of abuse as a witch from the village had made Yaga believe she was a weak and timid person. She was desperate to find Zora not only because she loved her sister, but also because she felt she couldn't survive without her. The Yaga we play as was a "princess" who needed to be saved/protected. In order to fully control her abilities and fulfill her family duty, she had to grow past this persona.

The Voice is the fully realized Yaga who has moved on from being a "princess" and has now become a warrior and a "Queen". She is a "Favorite" among the forest creatures for different reasons, and is a "Specialist" in that she fully understands not only her fate and abilities needed to carry it out, but also fully understands the world around her. Because she understands her role(s), she can be decisive, straightforward, a tyrant, kind, etc. She's who Yaga needs to become, but wasn't ready to be. This aspect appeared to protect the not ready Yaga from being overwhelmed by her awakening abilities and to guide Yaga to her fate in picking up where her family left off with the Hut and stopping her mother Gordana whose spirit had been corrupted by the roots and been turned into "Baba".

But Yaga is a valid aspect as well, and the Voice didn't want to harm her either. Before she was Baba Yaga, she was a normal girl who loved her sister, had a crush on a boy, and hung out with her friends. She had already been through so much once the villagers started blaming her as a witch for the misfortune caused by the roots. Of course this giant fate put in front of her would be too much at first, but it had to happen.

There are very few hints of this transformation happening. The titles for one are clear markers of growth disguised as game mechanics. The most obvious hint is that the black cat (who if you free the rats in his maze, you learn has existed well before the beginning of everything and is the first being to live in the Hut before Yaga's ancestors appeared as guardians) really only wants to talk to The Voice. He needs the guardian to come back, not the young and timid "princess" aspect she was before she was ready. He does seem to have a soft spot for Yaga, having watched Gordana suffer so much and seeing her daughters struggle, but the world needs her. The Voice is Baba Yaga. All the knowledge and guidance The Voice offers is knowledge inherited through the guardians/the hut that Yaga needs to have to fulfill her role as Baba Yaga.

So in the end, we see Yaga almost completely give up on herself and try to throw away her mask (metaphorically could be symbolic of denying her fate as Baba Yaga due to the pain that this role has/will put her through - look what happened to Gordana) before realizing she can't run away from it and be happy with the outcome. Instead she embraces her destiny and defeats Baba, freeing her mother & sister, while also freeing/damning her old friends. This was the last role that she would play as "Yaga". Now she has to be "Baba Yaga". So in the water scene, we see Yaga remove her mask not to deny her identity but to embrace it. She's not hiding from her fate/"true self" anymore (if you're a fan of the Persona series, then you're already familiar with this concept). She's become Baba Yaga, so "Yaga" can rest now and The Voice can fulfill her duties as the next guardian, being as good or evil as the role requires. Yaga will always be a facet though of Baba Yaga so we see Baba Yaga affectionately say goodbye/ see you around.

Zora's fate is a little more disappointing in that yeah we really don't get closure on what she went through/how she died, just that her soul was being imprisoned by Baba. Just an accident is all we're told. In the folklore, there are sometimes multiple "Baba Yaga" sisters so chances are Zora was also awakening to her abilities but died before she could attain them, so we'll never really know. meh. She seemed to at least have some knowledge of what Yaga needed to become which I why I'm assuming that she had also inherited/discovered the truth from the hut or some other source in her travels.

Overall, a beautiful game and a stellar way to end the year. I'm really impressed with this studio and can't wait for what they come up with next. Once again this is just my interpretation of the ending coupled with some cursory research into Baba Yaga folklore. I think a game based on this character so ambiguous by nature could never really have a very clear cut ending, so leaving room for interpretation is perfect imo.