Just finished book iii (the ending...)

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Rocier
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Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Rocier »

I really enjoyed it, as i did the previous ones. However it was a bit short and dint feel all that epic. Everything just kinda jammed in the last 5 minutes of the game...

Now, i was never that invested in the story, matter of fact, i didnt remember ANYTHING of the story except i was looking for a stone from the previous 2 games. But good thing, that doesnt matter! Cuz the entire story is dumped on you in the last 5 minutes. What were they THINKING with that ending?! Its so incredibly hackney! Sorry, buddy, this isnt inception! In a movie like that you can walk out satisfied with either ending, because the story as a whole (the parts you bare witness to) is unaffected. NOT an 80 hour game saga whose entire point is leading up to that one moment! Why bother with a story at all? Seriously? there is absolutely no point.

I really hope the expansion corrects this mistake. Like I said, i was never invested in the story until the very end, but I found this choice so bewildering I had to comment on it.

Still, good game experience overall
timothypfox
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by timothypfox »

The ending came completely without warning. And how come you can never encounter that wizard in person? Erubar is always in your head or animated at the end. There's always that rude lady who keeps giving you messages from him. I want to see the wizard wandering around as an NPC sometimes.

I expected more game play at the end. Again - it was extremely sudden. I had several quests I hadn't finished, but was trying to finish exploring the Astral Rift before heading back to Moonrise and also to wrap up the Curious Case of Edgar. So, I was disappointed, irritated and let down when I was suddenly forced into the battle scene. It also wouldn't let me escape even when I blew a hole in the fence to go north, and it certainly wouldn't let me leave to go to the Wanderer Plane.

Big problem with the last battle. If you just sit around doing nothing and avoiding conflict, everything will kill each other except the enemies big eye will be floating around almost dead. You just have to 1 hit it and the game is over and you've "won" the battle --- much, much, much too easily.
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by SpottedShroom »

timothypfox wrote:And how come you can never encounter that wizard in person? Erubar is always in your head or animated at the end. There's always that rude lady who keeps giving you messages from him. I want to see the wizard wandering around as an NPC sometimes.
This at least can easily be addressed by playing Book I and/or II. You can also kill him in both, should you so desire, which may be why he's not a "real" NPC in Book III :)
Bob the Thief
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Bob the Thief »

Playing book III was great. There are enough challenges and so forth to make it interesting and keep me playing for many hours.

However...
[+] SPOILER
I also found the ending of book III to be a bit of a let down. Once you encounter the dragon's lair the game is pretty much over. It doesn't matter which side you pick. Either way you have a battle and the game ends. What happens to your character is unimportant and there is no right choice. The issue of whether you should stop the cataclysm or not (and all the information you've encountered along the way about what could happen to the Eschalon world and why each case is good or bad) is immaterial. The battle itself is pretty easy. Since it is the end of the game, there is no benefit to doing well in the battle (killing lots of things and getting the experience) or not. You just have to keep out of the way and let most of the uglies kill each other. Once the last baddie is killed you just get a bunch of screens saying what the end result is. To me the whole ending was sort of "Huh?"

As I recall the end of book II was more satisfying. You had to do it just right (at least for my character) to survive the final fight. It took me a number of tries to figure out how to succeed. When I did finally get to the end it was much more rewarding.
That all being said, I still enjoyed the playing game and look forward to next one. Keep up the excellent work.
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Evnissyen
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Evnissyen »

Rocier wrote:NOT an 80 hour game saga whose entire point is leading up to that one moment! Why bother with a story at all? Seriously? there is absolutely no point.
Remember this an indie game. BW doesn't have a huge team and lots of money to work with, so it's not necessarily reasonable to expect a really long game that achieves expansive proportions.

I was okay with the ending, personally. I actually liked the fact that I got to take part in an actual battle, after the first two Eschalons were all about one person taking on the world... I agree it was sudden, though on that I'll just go back to "it's an indie game."

...Though I also agree that the battle was way too easy and was itself too short. It does seem like the ending was maybe rushed, but I don't know.

Still, I thought on balance it was the best game of the series, I thought it was a little better written. Unless I just don't remember the other two well enough to draw a good comparison. I do remember feeling that Book II suffered a lot from all that emptiness -- lots and lots of wilderness and no people. This one didn't feel deserted, to me.

...And I don't mind ambiguous endings, either. I actually prefer them over "You win the world!" type endings.

It took me a little while before I started playing it seriously (which is odd considering how long I'd been looking forward to this game), but once I did it was lots of fun. (I built a crappy character, at first, too, so when I restarted the game with a new character (mage) it was much more fun (well, easier as well, but I made better choices the second time... it's been a while since I played Book II).)

(Prismatic Maelstrom's frustration noted, too... It's always satisfying to be able to kill major figures I develop a hatred for -- for whatever reason -- by the end of the game.)

Anyway... moving on to other games, now, until the expansion comes out! Looking forward to that.

Never found Bittersting or figured out how to get into the family tomb, so maybe I'll figure those out next time I go through it. If I do, I'll probably play an ax-wielding nefarious Ranger. (Not that there's any effective difference between playing a nefarious ranger or a nefarious fighter.)
Certainty: a character-driven, literary, turn-based mini-CRPG in which Vasek, legendary "Wandering Philosopher", seeks certainties in a cryptically insular, organic, critically layered city.
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Ssschah
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Ssschah »

^Not to give your hopes up, but I seem to recall BW saying somewhere that if an expansion will be released, it won't be for a while, as they need to move onto their next game to keep up with the loss of income from book 3. Don't quote me on that, I certainly hope I'm wrong, but that seems to be the likely course of action they'd take after the awful game release (in no part due to Basilisk Games, just the server hosting company).
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Cypress
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Cypress »

Finished the game a couple of weeks ago. I liked it but i liked Book II better. But the ending... well that just left me ”WTF, is this IT?”
It would have been nice to fight the dragon.
One does not simply walk into Fathamurk...
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Ssschah
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by Ssschah »

Cypress wrote:Finished the game a couple of weeks ago. I liked it but i liked Book II better. But the ending... well that just left me ”WTF, is this IT?”
It would have been nice to fight the dragon.
I concur, Book II was better. The game was more vast, the ending more intriguing... Then again it was right in the middle of a trilogy so its ending could take more of a beating. And better yet, there were no giant brick walls preventing you from completing the last hour of the game! (though, that was partially due to my over thinking things).
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Just finished book iii (the ending...)

Post by SpottedShroom »

Shameless plug time! Try my mod, which adds two additional ending options. You don't get to fight Malkur, Erubor, or Karamiklan - none of that will be possible without enhanced mod support - but I tried to make them a little more epic in scope than the official one.

http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/vie ... =34&t=9333
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