Ending Discussion (Spoilers)

[SexyPanther]

Just beat the game, had a great time. I really liked the companion's and particularly the companion quests and how they were worked into the game's story. It was neat fighting alongside them in the end. What I didn't really understand was who the heck I was fighting at the very end. I mean, the first game made it quite clear you were fighting against the dealer himself. In this game, you have this epic questline taking you across a whole swath of different factions such as the northerners, the thieves, the corrupted, and the empire, and then you seemingly escape in the last mission, only to have this final battle against someone unknown. The battle itself was fun. Did I miss something? Did I not pay close enough attention to the game's texts? Can somebody clue me in here? In any event, feel free to post your thoughts. And thanks for the awesome sequel.

[Cheeseness]

Here's a quick summary:

The unknown person is Kallas, the protagonist from the first game, who is mentioned by the Dealer frequently throughout the game. Kallas deafeated the Dealer at the end of the first game and banished him. After finding his way back to the mortal realm, the Dealer sought out an apprentice (the player character in Hand of Fate 2).

Believing that Kallas would be making changes to the "Game of Life and Death" (the tabletop game that you play in Hand of Fate/Hand of Fate 2), the Dealer made a slew of changes to prepare his new apprentice for dealing with any changes the Kallas has made to the game in the Dealer's absence.

The Game of Life and Death explores the jumbled memories and life of its players. At the end of the Judgement challenge, the player escapes into the horse drawn caravan that the player has been sitting in with the Dealer up to this point - everything before that takes place in the past. Once the Dealer has trained up their apprentice (by working through HoF2's challenges), the caravan returns to the place that HoF1 was set in (now in ruins) to confront Kallas.

In spite of the Dealer's preparations, Kallas is only interested in battle, and chooses to fight the player instead of playing the Game of Life and Death.

Hope that sheds some light!

[SexyPanther]

Wow, thank you! I would not have known this had you not spelled it out for me. I can appreciate the game's lore much better now.

[Cheeseness]

There's a lot more stuff to find/pick up on if you pay attention. It's especially interesting to run challenges with the new companion and see what kind of remarks he makes in the encounter text!

[Garamoth]

Oh, so the final fight is in the temple where the first game takes place? So the throne Kallas gets thrown on is the Dealer's from the original Hand of Fate. I hadn't picked up on that.