After I loaded into Baldur’s Gate 3’s new epilogue, what I discovered was extraordinarily candy, virtually saccharine. After parting methods with my true companions within the OG ending, some seemingly going off to their deaths or assorted metaphysical torments, it felt like an actual “the Fellowship has failed” second.
Now although? All my buds got here again for a six-month reunion get together, and all people’s doing nice! Companions with dying sentences are on the street to restoration, and the nice turns I did on my quest all appear to have simply made folks’s lives higher. Spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Authentic Sin 2 forward.
As a self-serious, literary-minded RPG liker, I are likely to prize stuff that is darkish and unhappy and ambiguous: Planescape: Torment’s existential tragedy or Fallout: New Vegas’ intractable mire of post-apocalyptic ideologies. The factor is: Baldur’s Gate’s simply by no means been that sort of collection. Inexplicable Nietzsche quote apart, they’re video games that heart basic heroic fantasies, the place virtually everybody could be saved and a golden ending achieved if you happen to get every thing proper (aside from Viconia, and all people hated it).
You could be deliciously evil if you happen to’re so inclined, however it matches the heroism beat for beat in fantasy straightforwardness: whether or not you are embracing your murderous heritage as a baby of Bhaal within the authentic video games or siding with evil goblin cultists towards a bunch of refugees in BG3, it is at all times enjoyable and fascinating, however by no means terribly nuanced.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s epilogue offers you straight solutions: is letting Gale or Astarion turn into a godlike being a foul concept? Oh yeah. Is Shadowheart happier if you happen to hold her mother and father alive, albeit a bit of cursed? You betcha. Is it a foul concept to not get your Bhaal homicide mind problem sorted out because the Darkish Urge? No bonus factors for proper solutions on that one. These are all penalties that make sense, and whereas BG3’s epilogue removes ambiguity and clearly spells out what selections are proper and incorrect, the want achievement nature of its story and the best way it clearly telegraphs the implications of your actions make this really feel like the suitable match for the sport.
Bummer summer time
I completed two different massive RPGs between Baldur’s Gate 3’s launch and the discharge of this revised epilogue: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and a replay of Larian’s earlier hit, Divinity: Authentic Sin 2. These are video games the place not all people will get to win, and the implications of your actions aren’t at all times clear.
Phantom Liberty nails this kind of narrative: it is a noir story the place well-intentioned, likable characters are pitted towards one another with no room to work issues out, and also you’re finally confronted with an excruciating selection the place each choices betray somebody who put their belief in you.
The growth’s megaton bummer endings match that story. What’s extra, CD Projekt Crimson was confronted with an identical narrative drawback to Larian, in that each Cyberpunk and BG3’s launch endings depart you with questions whereas additionally introducing sufficient potential character deaths and established order adjustments to be tough to handle in a follow-up story.
Everyone’s all like ‘Hey, I feel you picked the incorrect ending.’ Screw you man, I like my ending!
The place Baldur’s Gate 3 rapidly happied up its ending, even going as far as to tease the story’s continuation within the new epilogue, Cyberpunk doubled down, setting Phantom Liberty in the midst of the principle sport and introducing a brand new alternate most important ending, The Tower, that’s in some way extra bleak than any of the others. 2077’s endings have been as a lot about theme and message as they have been offering satisfying conclusions and tying up character arcs, and I admire CDPR’s dedication to leaving them untouched.
Divinity: Authentic Sin 2 stumbled in making an attempt one thing related: it is a sport with a comparable heroic tone to Baldur’s Gate 3, however its endings all have a discordant, bittersweet word to them that comes out of nowhere. No less than one companion romance will inexplicably and abruptly break off, and after a complete sport depicting deities as merciless, capricious beings which have ruined the world, the one “good” endings for the setting see you assuming divine energy for your self or investing it in one of many sport’s most important villains.
I at all times choose the anarchic pinko ending the place you break up divine energy equally between all of the folks of the world, and this nets an epilogue the place everybody’s so egocentric and highly effective, the world devolves into everlasting warfare. Throughout the playable denouement, all people’s all like “Hey, I feel you picked the incorrect ending.” Screw you man, I like my ending!
Group edit
All of which is to say, I like endings which might be grown up, ambiguous, and desolate, however it has to suit the story, and Baldur’s Gate 3 simply is not that kind of sport—it solely makes you’re feeling such as you tousled if you happen to miss clear indicators or determine you need to be intentionally evil. Feed into your companions’ insecurities as a substitute of serving to them, aspect with the marauding goblins as a substitute of the peaceable refugees, signal your soul away to a homicide cult: these selections end in predictably grim conclusions.
In the event you flip your most important character or Karlach right into a Thoughts Flayer in the course of the endgame sequence, it is made fairly clear that they’ve turn into a monster, and no matter’s left of their earlier persona has been basically altered. Gale, empowered with the Crown of Karsus, has fairly clearly gone mad with energy. Ditto for if you happen to sacrifice like, 200 youngsters to show Astarion into an Ascendent Vampire. And do not even get me began on what occurs if you happen to fail to remedy the Darkish Urge. Do bummer stuff, get a bummer ending—it simply is smart.
The ending I received was fairly mushy and candy, however that additionally tracks—I saved the rattling day each time! In the event you select to show Baldur’s Gate 3 right into a extra darkish and morbid story, it adjusts accordingly. A downer ending, very similar to a cheerful one, needs to be earned by the story lest it really feel low-cost or abrupt, and Baldur’s Gate 3 enables you to take your choose of both excessive or a bittersweet mixture of the 2. It doesn’t matter what, it follows out of your selections.