Did the ending feel quite rushed to you?

[n8-karl]

I was ok with the ending I got though a bit to simplistic for a huge epic game. But what bothered me the most is the endgame where you're basically just playing in a parallel universe and it felt empty regardless of the hundred side-quests still left for me to do.

Like this game is pretty good at capturing your emotions, and I actually invested a lot 'emotionally' getting to know the characters and immersing myself like reading a good novel. I felt really empty and sad after the main quest that I decided to stop playing the game overall until I get over it.

It felt to me like the devs just 'romanced' us gamers and after they finish--- 'kthnxbye....thank you for playing'

I was expecting once I get to the endgame I would be teleported to a quiet little hut with my Yen where I can romance her infinitely, go fast travel to places continue the side quests and visit my friends maybe for a drink or game of gwent. Or try to visit Ciri and request for her audience to ask how she's doing, maybe do some activities with her like horse race etc.....Then when I'm tired killing monsters or travelling, I can just teleport back to Yen and romance her more. These are just my thoughts.

I was hoping for an endgame that is more alive and living.

 

[OutgoingHermit]

I don't know if it was rushed or not. I do know that most folks seem to feel that it was. I also know that if you look at it from the traditional dramatic structure, it is sorely lacking in the 'denouement' or resolution arc.

It's funny, because I think CDPR is a victim of its own success here. A lot of people are playing the game for 100+ hours, loving it, and then saying that they weren't satisfied with the ending because it feels like it's rushed, and that the 'post game' world has some issues that make it very unsatisfying. Putting aside the post-game issue for a minute, I think the criticisms about the game's denouement are actually pretty valid.

You have spent the entire game -- for a lot of players, the last THREE entire games -- as Geralt. It's his story, his struggle, his choices. You have been introduced to a horde of major and minor characters along the way, from the villainous to the tragically saintly. And at the end of it all, your brief epilogue is about someone else: Ciri. You get resolution and closure for relatively minor characters appearing in just one game: the Baron, Keira, and Whoreson. What happened to Dandelion, Zoltan, Triss and Yennfer? The former are not even an afterthought, while the latter are reduced to non-existence if Geralt didn't choose to spend the rest of his life with them.

In a weird way, I actually think that the 'bad' ending some players have complained about is a much better realized ending than the good endings. In the "Ciri dies" ending, we are seeing the denouement of a tragedy. It's a time for death, sorrow, and a bitter feeling in the pit of the audience's collective stomach. And that's exactly what you get. But in the good ending, it should be -- especially given that our narrator is Dandelion -- more like the resolution of a comedy, and the game really doesn't offer any of the satisfying closure for the major characters that you would want to get there.

So yeah, I suppose the ending does feel 'quite rushed.' You have played this game for over 100 hours, plus whatever you played in the previous games, and then once the game's climactic battle is resolved, you get about another ten minutes of gameplay and exposition. That's a real drop.

Personally, I think this game needs the Witcher 2 EE treatment far more than the Witcher 2 ever did, and it's a shame that its unlikely to get it.

 

[Zeroscape]

Personally, I think this game needs the Witcher 2 EE treatment far more than the Witcher 2 ever did, and it's a shame that its unlikely to get it.

Yeah basically this. I agree with everything else you say and I have said similar things in other threads too so I'll keep it short here.

Geralt's ending is woefully lacking which is causing people to scratch their heads. Result of a "rushed" ending? Maybe, impossible to say. It does need another pass or there needs to be more dialogue earlier in the game (likely Act 3) which will wrap up Geralt's relationships in a more substantial way.

The game is already really good and it wouldn't take much to make it substantially more fulfilling. Whether the devs feel the need given its critical success, that's another question. We'll just have to see what their stance is after the dust has settled.