Of course, that's counting the adventures of all my characters (so far) - with Ashrah, I scored a little over 101h. There were quests I purposefully left aside ("Free the Artist", which I'm doing with my Bard and absolutely hating that house lol) and others I couldn't find the solution for. No matter. I have a "Before the Final Battle" save because I know I'll want to revisit this character sometime - like when Larian adds the beloved Photo Mode :D
I'll write some spoilers below, but for the spoiler-free "review": phew... what an ending! Loved it. I made some "mistakes" in this playthrough (e.g. not interacting much with Astarion and Wyll... not you, Halsin, you can go live in the forest and leave me the feck alone) - as expected from a first-time run -, but I felt extremely satisfied with what I accomplished and the relationships I developed even with those two characters I missed interacting more with. As I mentioned last Saturday (I think), the dialogue I got after completing Astarion's quest was one of the most rewarding in the entire game considering my character's story.
From a gameplay perspective, I'm glad to see a steady improvement. Apart from a few obstacles (one of which I was able to then beat more easily with my other character), I managed to win my Act 3 battles on the Balanced difficulty (I played most of this first run on Explorer) with ease, so I'm hopeful for a Tactician run in the future!
Ashrah is a Paladin, and it's still a bit early to say, but goddamn it, I love this class! My Dragonborn is also a Paladin (of Vengeance), and my Drow is Warlock/Paladin - so yeah, I really like being a Paladin xD The smites, especially Radiant Smite, absolutely wrecked the HP of so many enemies, even the big ones (she literally ended the Tyrant in one turn lol), it's delightful to watch! (As a curiosity, my second favourite class is probably Bard.)
Baldur's Gate 3 has easily become one of my favourite games of all time 😍
All right, for a bit of spoilers now:
So many emotions in that post-battle scene! I almost cried when Lae'zel got her dragons and the duty to liberate her people from Vlaakith's tyranny. I almost cried again when Astarion almost burned in the sun. Then I totally cried when I thought Karlach was gone 😭
Buuuuut! I saw some people criticising Karlach's storyline, and I can kind of see why (I don't know if the choices you get when not romancing her are the same), but man, Ashrah going to Avernus with Karlach is like, the most perfect resolution I could've asked for (and I'm sure they'll find a cure there!)! If you lack context, my character is based on Mortal Kombat's Ashrah in a post-acceptance phase: in other words, it's Ashrah (a demon who can take human form) after she found self-love and freedom by shedding the false idea of purification and embracing both the light and the darkness inside her. So, while there's no race for a demon/human hybrid, in the story I have in my head, Ashrah was born in Hell. I cried in joy when I saw an option to go with Karlach to Avernus, and man, what a fantastic scene followed (and deadly demon hunter outfits too in the prologue)! 🥹
The prologue was delightful too, of course. Only Minthara was missing :/ And she'll be missing from sweet Maëlys' camp too since the patch only arrived after my Bard went into Act 2 :/ And Alywyll's camp will be... rather empty.
But oh well, that's for the future! Today, I need a wee break from the many adventures that Faerûn provides me x)