Game Ending (Spoilers)

[Turncoat]

Just my two cents and my personal opinion, but the ending isn't that bad. If anything it's already alluded through the lore journals you pick up, that the Barren Lands are spreading corruption, even with the Alliance of the Rose doing all they can stop it and the efforts of other hunters that have tried vanquishing the beasts in it. It's not enough and the source of the corruption won't end.

HOWEVER

The weakpoint and why I see so many people have a negative view, was the totem of souls popping up and just pulling a Scooby-Doo tier villan monologue about how you were totally oblivious to his ulterior goals and fooled by him. So now he's back at this random point in time by sheer coincidence just to transform into a eldritch beast and kill you? I know the story isn't the main selling point of this game but, yeesh, that was incredibly mediocre. As was his entire boss fight because with that LeMat Carbine you get it basically turns him to mush in under a minute, and I wasn't even using nitro rounds. I found myself being more worried about the Demons he would spawn than his actually attacks since they did so little damage.

It's also a real pain because the entire playthrough, all the hours of looting, grinding, stash sorting and collecting is all for naught because there is no NG+. Not even some bonus for completing it to be used in fresh start. Replayability outside of achievement hunting isn't there.

Games great though, it's the "We have Hunt Showdown at home" game, and I will likely log more hours onto it.

[Octanitrocubane]

Wait, he spawns demons? I don't think he lived long enough to do that for me.

[Turncoat]

Yeah, I missed my first few shots in the opening and after some breathing attack that coats maybe 1/4th of the arena in fire he summons a Demon. They really, really need to beef him up, health and dmg output wise. Shoot not just him but the rest of the game, Ch. 3 was ez mode with the artifacts and unique weapons you get.

[Razorhunter]

Didnt even lose a single point of FP before he died lol
to the NG+ aspect, would make no sense at all since you would likely never upgrade your gear if theres no new content and also not challenging at all

[Razorhunter]

Btw i found it absolutely awkward that the entire purpose of the cursed gold item got basically deleted in chapter 3, no totem means no debuff removal and no buff shopping. Super weird design decision.

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Btw i found it absolutely awkward that the entire purpose of the cursed gold item got basically deleted in chapter 3, no totem means no debuff removal and no buff shopping. Super weird design decision.

They can still be equipped to prevent curses.

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Didnt even lose a single point of FP before he died lol
to the NG+ aspect, would make no sense at all since you would likely never upgrade your gear if theres no new content and also not challenging at all

Most probably kept some in the stash, so you could use some relics for some interesting but not as practical builds.

[Turncoat]

Originally posted by Razorhunter:

Didnt even lose a single point of FP before he died lol
to the NG+ aspect, would make no sense at all since you would likely never upgrade your gear if theres no new content and also not challenging at all

NG+ in theory would buff the enemies since most ppl just breeze through the base game enemies like wet tissue paper. If the difficulty of the game won’t change then give me the dang option to blast through the game again just for the fun of it.

[Brother Boomhammer]

The ending WAS both cool because of the art and also a bit of a let down yeah, I'm hoping Hyperstrange give us a sequel because this can absolutely be one of those times where a games sequel refines and perfects the original formula

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by Brother Boomhammer:

The ending WAS both cool because of the art and also a bit of a let down yeah, I'm hoping Hyperstrange give us a sequel because this can absolutely be one of those times where a games sequel refines and perfects the original formula

Not unless they pick a lane of combat or stealth and stick with it.

[Pheex]

The ending was weird. So the totem's grand plan was to use our undead body for itself and possess it? But then it literally can transform itself in some Eldritch superdragon, if it can transform itself into that then what the hell is the point of needing a human body...??

[CHAVER28]

so how i see it the story was kinda pointless tbh, we get a bunch of cool weapons summon the final boss beat him but he didn't die anyway so it was all pointless in the end... great game ass ending

[Turncoat]

Originally posted by Pheex:

The ending was weird. So the totem's grand plan was to use our undead body for itself and possess it? But then it literally can transform itself in some Eldritch superdragon, if it can transform itself into that then what the hell is the point of needing a human body...??

Yeah I wondered that myself, it's seem like a rushed plothole that was almost an afterthought. It was Marvel-tier writing.

[Greedy Gnome]

Just beat the game, and while I would say the ending was more 'sequel/ DLC' - bait, I was thinking... What if it wasn't the totem we spoke to in chapter 1? Now, I'm not trying to pull off a GaMe ThEoRy here, buuuut...

The biggest clue the Totem is the big bad would probably be the personality flip it does in chapter 2- becomes much more rude, demanding, less patient. Also at the start of chapter 2, it mentions how summoning us is getting harder.

We know it is possible to hide oneself from the totem- it doesn't seem to sense Twen when we ask about her. This is due to Twen's doll most likely, which was made by her father, a shaman (likely the shaman from chap 1?) of the unnamed Indian tribe who lives in the Barren lands.

If the Totem wants the world to be destroyed/ devoured/ burned/ whatever, why have us kill such powerful entities like the Tree, or the lovecraftian giant leech-thing, and let the sun rise again?

What if the totems are just like a communication tool for sufficiently powerful spirits/ entities? I was thinking the game was going to go in a more religious direction, thinking that the skeleton of the great being at the bottom of the Silver Peaks Chasm was a nephilim or fallen angel, due to the "Angel Feather" artifact nearby. We see another such being in the ending cutscene, albeit leagues taller/ larger.

The powerful soul/ crystal is labeled as 'phylactery'- like what a lich uses. If this contained the totem's soul, how was it reaching out to us from the mountains to resurrect us in the canyon? Presumably, this would be a great distance.

One thing to be of note: I think the eldritch, fleshy wendigo-dragon thing was already there at the mountain top. There were bones scattered around the peak, true, but there wasn't a pile of bodies for the totem to form it from; it was straight up pulled from the ground. I bet this was an evil creature who was defeated long ago by the Indian tribe.

The Totem(s) only refers to itself as 'us' and 'we'- so there is more than one entity behind them, each with their own agenda, desires, etc. Perhaps a 'legion' situation?


tl;dr : The totems are just a communication tool for various powerful entities

[Bankai9212]

While an interesting theory I just think the devs didn’t plan out the story. I mean you kinda just appear in the swamp for no real reason.

[Sagez69]

I agree, a new game + mode AND harder difficulty AND randomised spawns would increase replayability a lot.