Beat the game!
Beat the game!
I don’t know how to do the spoiler stuff, if it’s even possible on Voyager, so please be aware of SPOILERS!!!
So, this weekend, I finally beat the game. I clocked in at 123 hours, and did as many side quests as I could. Wyll’s sidequest was the only one that got borked for me, and I missed out on his and Karlach’s exchange after the final boss.
So, I did two different endings because I wanted to see the outcomes. For further backstory, I played the game as a good guy (my true role playing pleasure, since I can’t save the world/people in real life like I can in games) and saved every single person the game allows you too. Every. Single. One.
Now, the endings. Again, please be aware of SPOILERS!!!
I did the bad ending first, because my curiosity got the best of me. I killed Orpheus, who was in his Illithid form, while he was focusing on the brain. My character stabs Orpheus to death (quite gruesomely) while my party members (who I remind you, have watched me ONLY do good guy things for our entire journey!) are freaking out and even Astarion asking “What in the hells are you doing?!” “I’m doing what I planned to do from the beginning.” Is how I answered. The scene goes on to show my character snapping his fingers and turning my entire party into thralls, and claiming the Absolute’s Throne. When he sits down, he is smiling in a way I hadn’t seen the entire game. He looked menacing, and pure evil. As he sits atop his new throne, he looks into the camera and says, “In my name.” As I had done nothing the entire game but challenge the gods and their chosen, because gods and devils play too much with mortal lives.
This ending, was actually weirdly REALLY satisfying. I spent the entire game being THE good guy. THE champion. I saved countless souls. My entire party had nothing but faith in me. I successfully took every member of my party through their entire arc (except Wyll, damn bugs!) and gained both adoration and respect from every single one. What did they, and the rest of Faerun get for their loyalty, support, and adoration? Thralls. Every. Single. One. It was such a twist to even myself that I was in awe, and was excited to get my good guy ending!
So, I reloaded my quick save at the final options and did the good ending. While it gave some slight satisfaction, I can’t help but feel like the evil ending was way more interesting. While I’d still choose the good guy way always, it was quite fun they allowed me to subvert all expectations and pull an M. Night Shyamalan and give myself a twist ending.
Fantastic game, and I hope some of you will even regale me with your own stories you made in game! Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Good day. 🙏🏻
My favourite "good guy" ending was during my 2nd playthrough as a half-orc berserker with Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Wyll in my party. I severed Wyll's contract and saved his father so he became Blade of Avernus, turned Shadowheart from Shar and made Lae'zel abandon Vlaakith for Orpheus. I of course proceeded to murderize our favourite charming cambion and acquire his hammer, freed Orpheus after telling Emperor to fuck off, like I have been for the entire game, and turned myself into a mind flayer. I killed the Netherbrain and at the end, after Orpheus gave me his heartfelt thanks and flew off with Lae'zel to free their people, me, Wyll and Karlach went to Avernus to kick ass together.
The respect both Orpheus and Voss shows you for sacrificing yourself to give their people a chance for freedom really makes the choice worth it, and going to Avernus with Karlach gives you plenty of guilt-free brains to eat and even if you do ultimately loose yourself to your new form, at least you are trapped in the Hells and away from Faerun.I did much the same, except that my drow ranger / cleric of Eilistraee felt that the only choice that would be safe for faerun would be to take herself out before she ran the risk of turning into a danger to them.
She had seen how even a "good" mindflayer like the Emperor still had such an alien perspective that peace was effectively not an option.
I (and therefore she) legitimately forgot about Omeluum, so I have no regrets about the choice made except that Bae-lach also ended up taking her own life shortly after. Oops.
Haha! I’d helped Omeluum escape the underwater prison and still forgot about him… I am not a smart person…
I love it! Thank you for sharing! When it came to Wyll, I had already gone into the Wyrmway to kill Ansur, before I had even met with Gortash. I destroyed the Steel Watch area before even meeting him. I killed Orin before it too. I am seeing now that I probably broke Wyll’s quest myself because Gortash and his ilk attacked me as soon as I entered the castle to go and speak to Gortash. I used non-lethal attacks on his father right before I finished Gor off, so I thought I was going to be able to save him right then and there. Nothing happened. I got the last stone, and that was it before shit started hitting the fan with the brain. So, Mizora is like offering Wyll his father, but I talked him into breaking it off. I felt really let down with that moment because I went out of my way to attack Ravengard with non-lethal attacks. All it would let me do was loot him as if he was dead. It made me feel silly for even doing that.
When it comes to Orpheus, my thought process was that I had gone this far without even using any of the tadpoles, so I again refused to turn into one when I felt like it was more of Orpheus’ right thing to do. If it makes anyone feel better, I did talk him into not dying and being able to watch his race triumph from afar. Also, might be a spoiler so proceed with caution…
I didn’t know you could make Karlach turn into an illithid since her engine is basically going to kill her anyway. (I didn’t try to convince her to go back to Avernus because I wasn’t truly thinking she’s really going to die right here. I was wrong…
I love how yours turned out though, thank you for sharing! :)
Also just beat the game right around 120 hours. We got the good ending but my wife really wanted to control the brain and assume ultimate power. She pressed 1 and 2 at the same time because it was a toss up. We freed Orpheus and she became an illithid, so she was pretty hapoy with the ending.
We weren't able to save Karlach though, she burst into a pile of ash on the dock. We must have missed a quest for her.
I felt kind of let down that the only option Karlach got was to die basically or go back to being a slave for war. I let her perish, thinking ultimately, it was for the best. (In the moment)
I’m glad you two played it together and she was into it! Thank you for your comment and story! :)
It's also explicitly what Karlach wanted - she said multiple times she'd rather die among the things she loves than spend one more day in Avernus. I stayed with her while she died, having succeeded in saving the city. A bittersweet ending, and of course it's tempting to save her, but this was what she wanted, and I had to respect that.
In our playthrough my buddy was the one playing Karlach, and she was the one that went full illithid. That choice ended up "saving" her and she had a special note of dialogue at the end about having the opportunity to live now.
Did the first one too, but I planned on turning on everyone from the word go. Machiavellian warlock, most definitely chaotic evil, most definitely sociopathic. Helped Karlach, Wyll, Shadowheart, and Gale get their stuff sorted, and turned cloak in the last possible second. Kept putting off being an evil PoS until the chips started to fall into place. Then only took the evil options but by then it was too late for everyone. They liked me too much to see what was going wrong. Then to get the ick off I did a good durge run and it was even better.
Hahaha! I love it! I should do a good Durge play through, as I hear it is possibly the “canon” in the games trilogy, right?
Yeah Durge calls back to the previous games and Good Durge definitely feels like the canon ending. I would recommend it for a run.
Lost the game =(