*SPOILERS* I found the main story's ending to be unfulfilling

[Dragon]

I just beat the main game.

I found the ending to be unfufilling for the following reasons:

1. Earlier in the game Thalya indicated a goal to take over AE's army for herself. I was expecting to see that idea further developed at some point in the game, yet it never was. The game should have followed up on this notion by either having Thalya abandon her plan, or try to do it and fail, or try to do it and succeed (although I don't think her succeeding would be a good option, since AE is the series' main hero/villain).

It's bad storytelling to introduce that idea, then have it go absolutely nowhere. This reminds of the similar letdown I experienced when playing Fallout 3's Mothership Zeta DLC. At one point you meet a girl who says she is looking for her sister who is lost on the mothership. Yet you can't ever actually find her sister, and the game just forget she even exists. IMO stuff like that, and Thalya's line about taking over the AE's army, should be cut out of the game, rather than to leave them in the game as incomplete story elements.


2. I would have liked to see the narrator and Thalya have a post-game chat about how they feel about their relationship with each other now that they've been through so much together. Are they friends, or enemies? Or are they frenemies?


3. I would have liked to hear how the narrator feels about me, the player, after having narrated my whole journey together.


4. I would have liked to hear the narrator tell me what he is going to do now that his narration duties are done. Like how in the tutorial he said he wants to have some wine and read a Marvel comic...something like that to close out the game too would have been great.


5. I would have liked to see some sort of final explanation of what is to become of Thalya's good side. Earlier in the game she seemed to have turned evil, but the story should clarify whether or not that is permanent and irreversible. And the story should also clarify if Thalya is going to continue to talk with her good voice sometimes, or alternatively, always talk with her bad voice.

Similarly, I'm not sure why exactly her good side turned evil and why she is happy about it. The game should have given more story exposition about this point.


6. I'd like more clarification about why the narrator sometimes indulges in evil, i.e. he tells you to sacrifice more heroes than necessary, and he says "fly and win!" in a hilarious way when you fire catapults at the heroes. So does he have a good side and bad side like Thalya? Or he is totally evil? How did the AE recruit him? Is he a personal advisor to the AE? These things I wonder, and I wish the game would shed more light on them.


7. Why did Thalya's good side disappear for a couple of missions in the middle of the game? And after that, the appearance of her good side randomly becomes far more infrequent compared to the early levels. The story should have explained why these things happened.


8. How does Thalya feel about saving some of the heroes in the later missions of the game? Does that mean she still has some goodness in her? Her bad side even says "you're welcome" to some of them after they thank her for saving them. So it seems like she still has compassion sometimes. But I want to know more about how that works, and how she decides when to have it and when not to.


9. I was always curious if the Shadow from the first mission permanently possessed Thalya, or alternatively, did it just enter her temporarily, and unlock her real self, and then exit out of her? Because if she was permanently possessed, then it begs the question about what, if any, responsibility she has for the evil actions she carried out during the game.

Since the game is ambiguous about this point, I'm not sure if she was acting out of her own Free Will, or not. If not, then she could be totally innocent for all the murders she committed.



In conclusion: having said all that, overall, I very much enjoyed the story of Dungeons 3. That's why I take the time & energy to think about all this stuff and to write out this post. So this post isn't to imply that story is horrible; rather, I'm isolating some points about it where it falters and the quality of the storytelling isn't as high as it could be in regards to those particular aspects.

[EdgarAllenPathOfExile]

The whole game was meant to be bad storytelling. Stop trying to find logic in it and slap some workers.

[Thats How We do action in Uganda]

For me story is just to laugh at memes, nothing more honestly.

[Dragon]

I understand the story is full of silly stuff, but that doesn't mean it can't be well-done and also adhere to good storytelling/character development principles, and still be silly at the same time.

The early parts of the game do exactly that. Then the quality of the storytelling drops off for no apparent reason in mid-to-late game.