So Shall you Reap ending - is it really barred by romance with Nyrissa?

[aramintai]

I've been having a discussion in another forum about this. People are saying that only by romancing Nyrissa and researching all curses will this ending be achieved - the ending about reversing Nyrissa's curse.
However, from a gameplay point of view, doesn't it make researching all those very time consuming curses a complete and total waste of time for players uninterested in romancing her or who completed a romance with a companion? If it's really blocked by her romance, isn't it a major design flaw? It's arguably the best ending you can get out of the game, so to be fair, it feels it shouldn't be designed so idiotically.

[Brian Sirith]

It is a flaw if you ask me. Or maybe it is not a flaw but I personally do not like it. The amount of time needed to research these curses is INSANE. I romanced her and still didn't get a good ending cause I failed to complete all 13 (my kingdom was falling apart, it was either stop with the curses or game over. For me. I'm not a good player what can I say.) If you read the results some of them are even useless "We found out that X is not related to the curse".

I understand that you may need Nyrissa's help to do "so you shall reap" but there's a lot of talented writters out there. Surely there could be an alternate option / quest where you find out the same info on your own or with help from other npcs (Nyrissa's cousin comes to mind).

Off to get all 13 curses now so I get an ending where I dont end up without a victory and without a partner cause I didn't complete all 13... mumble mumble grumble grumble.

[aramintai]

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

It is a flaw if you ask me. Or maybe it is not a flaw but I personally do not like it. The amount of time needed to research these curses is INSANE. I romanced her and still didn't get a good ending cause I failed to complete all 13. If you read the results some of them are even useless "We found out that X is not related to the curse".

I understand that you may need Nyrissa's help to do "so you shall reap" but there's a lot of talented writters out there. Surely there could be an alternate option / quest where you find out the same info on your own or with help from other npcs.

I think if it's indeed only available if you romance her then it's beyond stupid design choice. Not only does this mean that you can completely ignore all those very time consuming curse reasearch projects, but also that a very good ending is barred behind a so-so vague romance. Not barred because you didn't do something really important in the game, but because the green sprout is just not your type! They should expand this ending to reward all players who dedicated dozens of hours to do a completionist run and years of ingame research time with this kind of ending. I mean, come on, can't we help her remove the curse and make an alliance with her without hitting on her? How shallow is she?

[Brian Sirith]

Originally posted by aramintai:

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

It is a flaw if you ask me. Or maybe it is not a flaw but I personally do not like it. The amount of time needed to research these curses is INSANE. I romanced her and still didn't get a good ending cause I failed to complete all 13. If you read the results some of them are even useless "We found out that X is not related to the curse".

I understand that you may need Nyrissa's help to do "so you shall reap" but there's a lot of talented writters out there. Surely there could be an alternate option / quest where you find out the same info on your own or with help from other npcs.

I think if it's indeed is only available if you romance her then it's beyond stupid design choice. Not only does this mean that you can completely ignore all those very time consuming curse reasearch projects, but also that a very good ending is barred behind a so-so vague romance. Not barred because you didn't do something really important in the game, but because the green sprout is just not your type! They should expand this ending to reward all players who dedicated dozens of hours to do a completionist run and years ingame research time with this kind of ending. I mean, come on, can't we help her remove the curse and make an alliance with her without hitting on her? How shallow is she?

I don't know if its possible to get the quest and ally with her without a romance. Maybe you can say "I'm helping you but thats about it"? Maybe...

Still any major content in the game should have some sort of impact on the story. If the devs didn't want the curse removed unless you romance or ally with Nyrissa fine. But then there should be something you "get" for it.

- I researched the curses
- Ok
- So what happens?
- Nothing unless you took a very specific path
- Then why did I do it?
- Just because

Something needs to happen. Some effect. Anyway, just my take on this.

PS. I wasn't even hitting on her. I was just being nice. Somewhere in the end game I was like "Huh? Really? There's a romance here?"

[aramintai]

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

Something needs to happen. Some effect. Anyway, just my take on this.

Agreed. And it's called reward. Unrewarding games suck - they leave players with a feeling of wasted time, not an accomplishment.

[Brian Sirith]

Originally posted by aramintai:

Originally posted by Brian Sirith:

Something needs to happen. Some effect. Anyway, just my take on this.

Agreed. And it's called reward. Unrewarding games suck.

And for a project this big and time consuming I'd say a pretty damn big reward... lol

[Amnixx]

I researched the curses, romanced Tristan and was nice to Nyrissa. I didn't have to fight her gave her the Briar in one Play through and forgot to give it to her the 2nd playthrough but still ....then we teamed up to beat the Lantern King. Lantern King gave me choice to ally with him but I stuck with ally Nyrissa and married Tristan and became immortal. So, you do not have to romance her to get this ending you just have to be forgiving.

[shnelle]

Originally posted by Anmi2g:

I researched the curses, romanced Tristan and was nice to Nyrissa. I didn't have to fight her gave her the Briar in one Play through and forgot to give it to her the 2nd playthrough but still ....then we teamed up to beat the Lantern King. Lantern King gave me choice to ally with him but I stuck with ally Nyrissa and married Tristan and became immortal. So, you do not have to romance her to get this ending you just have to be forgiving.

Thats not the ending we are talking about. There is a final ending where when you give her the Briar she accepts it from you and has a huge bunch of dialogue where she starts to feel again. After that you finish another extra quest that allows you to COMPLETELY destroy the Lantern King not side with either one of them. If you only got the ending where you could side and get immortality with the King or Nyrissa you tried to give her the Briar but she didnt accept it.

I would like to be able to return Nyrissa's heart to her without having to romance her cause it means any time I want to romance someone else I can't destroy the Lantern King which is the ending I want on all my playthroughs. I've been looking everywhere if there is some way to destroy the Lantern King without romancing Nyrissa but it looks like its totally locked out. I find this very sucky.

[Shadenuat]

Curses are useful since they provide the pretty rare Arcane and also at least one unique building. I thought you can save her even without Romance tho just having high Relationship counter. If anything I think you can even end up romancing tiefling girls and Nyrissa lol. I'm pretty sure the dude who achieved this ending first wrote whole guide about it and also achieved it without romance too, and it was translated later on english.

And well, it's a secret JRPG harem ending for pure goody goods perfectionists. For all achivos you need all endings, not just that one. There is no best ending, only your ending.