SoD: What ending were you hoping for? (Spoilers)
Permidion_Stark
Member Posts: 4,861
The first time I played BG2 I was really annoyed when I discovered that somewhere 'off-screen' my whole party had been ambushed and abducted. I remember sitting there thinking "How the hell did that happen? How come I didn't put up a fight?"
So I was really hoping that SoD would address this. And before I played it I was pretty sure I knew how it would be done. Me and my party would have defeated the Big Boss and the adventure would seemingly be over. We would have one more map to travel to so I would click on that and expect to get there. But we would never reach our destination because the doom-laden words: "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself," would come booming out and we would find ourselves in the middle of a path like this:
Only it wouldn't be bandits surrounding me it would be a whole host of enemies that I couldn't possibly hope to defeat. But I would of course fight them, hoping against hope to win even though I knew it was futile. And somewhere over the din of battle I would hear Irenicus's voice shouting: "I want them taken alive!".
It would be a titanic struggle (and I would of course earn experience for every enemy I managed to kill so the fight would have some meaning and replay value). But one by one me and my comrades would be beaten unconscious until everyone of us was out of the fight. And then, and only then, Irenicus would reveal himself. He would stride out onto the battlefield, where the corpses would be lying in mounds around me, and say: "Now you are mine child of Bhaal!"
And the screen would go blood red and the music would swell forth and a voice would say: "To be continued in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn."
Anyway, that's what I thought was going to happen.
I was a bit disappointed to be honest.
So I was really hoping that SoD would address this. And before I played it I was pretty sure I knew how it would be done. Me and my party would have defeated the Big Boss and the adventure would seemingly be over. We would have one more map to travel to so I would click on that and expect to get there. But we would never reach our destination because the doom-laden words: "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself," would come booming out and we would find ourselves in the middle of a path like this:
Only it wouldn't be bandits surrounding me it would be a whole host of enemies that I couldn't possibly hope to defeat. But I would of course fight them, hoping against hope to win even though I knew it was futile. And somewhere over the din of battle I would hear Irenicus's voice shouting: "I want them taken alive!".
It would be a titanic struggle (and I would of course earn experience for every enemy I managed to kill so the fight would have some meaning and replay value). But one by one me and my comrades would be beaten unconscious until everyone of us was out of the fight. And then, and only then, Irenicus would reveal himself. He would stride out onto the battlefield, where the corpses would be lying in mounds around me, and say: "Now you are mine child of Bhaal!"
And the screen would go blood red and the music would swell forth and a voice would say: "To be continued in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn."
Anyway, that's what I thought was going to happen.
I was a bit disappointed to be honest.
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Comments
For a long time player, I find the transition fitting. You fall a long way down and have to start all over again in a foreign place, a nobody, a prisoner.
There is no turning back into safety - there is only the way forward. You must face the next chapter of the story.
I'll again quote Andrew Foley, this time on the subject of the lack of the final battle.
"Whether or not the Hooded Man should make an appearance and how best to present the Bhaalspawn's Fall in the final seconds of the game was a major debate in the office.
At various points in the development it was a fight with the initial attackers that couldn't be won and a cutscene. I pitched the idea of making the initial attack extremely difficult but winnable, with the Hooded Man showing up if the initial attackers lost, taking out the PC & Co, and a familiar voice saying something like "Bring the Bhaalspawn and any others that survived--They may prove useful to me" as the scene fades to black.
A number of factors went into the decision to go with a cinematic.
The Hooded Man attacking wasn't mentioned in the opening of BG2EE and we wanted to avoid contradicting it (even though I still think it would've been a cool thing to have for someone that managed to beat an incredibly difficult initial attack wave, like a 1 in 200 chance of beating the attack).
A cut-scene would take control away from the player, which could be frustrating if the party responded in a way the player would consider out of character.
And as a general it's not a lot of fun for players to be faced with a battle the characters have absolutely no way of winning, regardless of how narratively or canonically correct the loss is.
Ultimately, the Bhaalspawn had to fall for BG2EE to happen. A cinematic seemed the best option to give the moment maximum drama and entertainment value to a moment few designers want to end their game with: a no-win situation for the player. That cinematic was among the last elements to be inserted into the game."
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/745655/#Comment_745655
And as a general it's not a lot of fun for players to be faced with a battle the characters have absolutely no way of winning, regardless of how narratively or canonically correct the loss is.
But in a way that already happened when you were apprehended after standing over Skies body and the trial gives you very little control over anything, it's a smaller version of the luskan trial in nwn 2.
And it's a bigger issue when the slow fade-out is directly in odds with the BG2 intro. Which makes it seem like a blurry, but at least chaotic ambush.
"You killed your brother, sending his taint back to Bhaal. You were the hero of Baldur's Gate, but some suspected you shared the same lineage as Sarevok.
You departed soon after, under circumstances much darker than anyone would have believed.
They came as you rested, figures cloaked in mist that clouded your thoughts, blurring the lines between consciousness and dreaming.
There was no malice or hatred, no mention of an old score, only a quick capture and the promise of grim deeds to come..."
Playing it this way in EET, the ambush, your attempt to battle the thieves, your party slowly losing consciousness and then the BG2 intro and your slow awakening in Irenicus dungeon.
It fits. I can't swear that EET may not have tweaked it a bit to fit but I don't think so.