That probably means the epithets only happen during a Durge playthrough. It never made sense to me that I didn't notice them and geek out over them on my normal playthrough, anyway. So I'd have to do a good Durge playthrough at some point to see the rest.
While I actually quite enjoyed Act 3 eventually (mixing Jaheira and Minsc into my party helped a lot) it definitely started to wander compared to the first two acts. I can't get over how perfect the first two were, in fact. It sucks that so much of Act 3 was cut (Upper City stuff) and you can really tell how mashed together and borderline aimless everything gets. It almost feels like they should have shuffled things around to make Act 2 into Act 3 and have the Baldur's Gate section be Act 2. Ketheric and his fucked up family had a lot more screen presence than Orin or ESPECIALLY Gortash, for me anyway.
My first run ending: I freed Orpheus, I became the mindflayer and destroyed the crown. I then killed myself on the dock in front of everyone with a dagger to my gut. Karlach, my romantic partner, burned to death while crying over me at the end of the same dock. Laezelle, my bff, shrugged and flew off with Orpheus to enslave and rape the rest of the galaxy. Basically leaving my friendless un-ascended Astarion standing with his thumb up his ass and the sun rising. It was actually hilarious how each thing made my good ending more depressing as it unfolded.
I've actually been thinking about a third playthrough. I did absolutely nothing with Wyll ever so I need to see his story. Maybe I'll use mods and be a hobgoblin or myconid.
Yeah it seems there was a ton of companions I missed out on just from not knowing they could be one lol. Definitely would gear a second playthrough towards linking up with them although I think it'll be a long while before I pick this up again, too burnt out atm. Maybe by that time they'll have bolstered up the epilogues!
But yeah, Minthara I didn't (and couldn't) even speak to and just thought she was another boss; Jaheira I didn't try super hard to keep alive but she got decimated in the Towers battle so I barely spoke to her; Minsc I totally forgot you could knock people out instead of kill them but the thought didn't occur to me to keep this guy around anyway
Agreed about Act 2 feeling much more climactic. I do think Orin was the only good villain out of the big three, but the rest of the Thorms (and just how Ketheric is built up before you met him) and the oppressive atmosphere of the Shadowlands was great
Wyll starts out pretty boring but I really enjoyed his storyline towards the end of Act 1 (I assume you know what I'm talking about). He has some great quests in Act 3 too
Wyll spoilers
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the setpiece in the underwater prison was one of my favorite quests of the game, that was so cool. I assume most people are there to save the Gondians but I mostly cared about getting Papa Wyll out of there. For RP reasons I sent Wyll alone to where he was being held while the rest of us worried about other prisoners of interest (I also wanted to free the friendly illithid but damn he's hard to get to), it was a p cool moment seeing the Ravengards band together and battle down that hallway together (well moreso Wyll clearing the way for his weakened daddy)
I haven't set foot on (in) the Iron Throne yet. It is honestly the biggest reason I want to run through again; it being tied to Wyll and his pops is just happenstance. Gotta try to save my boy Omeluum. I hate the Gondians so I blew them up both times without a care lol.
And the only thing worse than the Gondians is Wulbren Bongle, that stupid little fucker.
Minthara
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I really like her but you have to commit so hard to evil to get her in Act 1 that it's wild how much gets sacrificed. That and all of her lines and stuff still aren't fixed, so she is but a shell of what she could be. That being said I LOVE her voice actor and she was a great companion on my evil run... until she started glitching in Act 3 and I'd have to routinely kill her and have Withers revive her so she would stop saying one single line of dialogue when spoken to.
You know it really can't be understated how underwhelming the endings are after the (likely) 100 hour journey you get sent on. Everything else feels arranged and created with the utmost care and then the climax is so fucking abrupt, it's wild. They may as well have been freeze frames with one paragraph of text.
I just saw that there's a new achievement for the new Honor mode, which disables save scumming and ends the run if you have a total party wipe.
I want to try it but I might spontaneously combust if I was 50 hours into the run and did something dumb outside of combat that caused me to void my run.
