I totally agree. I got the "bad ending" and it truly feels that I was punished for making common sense choices. I understand the part about accepting the Emperor's coin, but regarding accompanying her to talk to the lodge and not letting her destroy the lab? also I did take her to see Skjall and fight at the Sabbath event (those seemed like clear cut ways of supporting her emotional struggle, the other ones not so much).
Also I was expecting to see some of these changes due to my choices reflected IN the game not merely in the final epilogue. I wish I could have seen these changes happening as I reached the end of the game and be able to interact with them somehow. Also my memory is fuzzy but I recall helping Djsktra and Roche kill Radovid and still at the end I had Radovid ruling Novigrad. Dunno how that happened.
Overall great game but yeah I wasn't really satisfied with the ending for most of the reasons described in this post.
---------- Updated at 05:22 PM ----------
I must say though that as a person who doesn't necessary likes happy endings I think the "bad" ending is not problematic in itself because of the fact that it's not a happy one. It's problematic because many things are left unresolved. I romanced Yen for instance yet in my "bad ending" nothing at all is said about our relationship. It's as if I end up in that hut alone waiting to die and nothing is said about what Yen feels regarding this. Does she hate me for having lost Ciri? I'll never know because it's unexplained. The ending is just unsatisfactory, it's not the fact that it's sad, I love sad endings and realistic endings where things can actually go wrong, I don't like over simplistic endings though where matters are not fully developed and explained.
Also I was expecting to see some of these changes due to my choices reflected IN the game not merely in the final epilogue. I wish I could have seen these changes happening as I reached the end of the game and be able to interact with them somehow. Also my memory is fuzzy but I recall helping Djsktra and Roche kill Radovid and still at the end I had Radovid ruling Novigrad. Dunno how that happened.
Overall great game but yeah I wasn't really satisfied with the ending for most of the reasons described in this post.
---------- Updated at 05:22 PM ----------
I must say though that as a person who doesn't necessary likes happy endings I think the "bad" ending is not problematic in itself because of the fact that it's not a happy one. It's problematic because many things are left unresolved. I romanced Yen for instance yet in my "bad ending" nothing at all is said about our relationship. It's as if I end up in that hut alone waiting to die and nothing is said about what Yen feels regarding this. Does she hate me for having lost Ciri? I'll never know because it's unexplained. The ending is just unsatisfactory, it's not the fact that it's sad, I love sad endings and realistic endings where things can actually go wrong, I don't like over simplistic endings though where matters are not fully developed and explained.