:::Spoiler
Does anyone else think the Shadowheart showdown at the House of Grief ends oddly?
Talk to priestess: Does Shar know about this prism thing? “Nah”
Kill everyone. (Ok this part was expected, but a little disappointing)
Documents: Prism operatives are Totally Expendable.
Next room: Shadowheart’s parents are being personally tortured by Shar. This is right in front of the memory eraser, which seems like the temple’s money maker.
Tonally, this seems so strange. I guess it is part of the Larian design philosophy that gods must be directly involved, but it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense here.
:::
I’d say it’s about on par, in that the (bad guy) endings both feel kind of unsatisfying, largely because you don’t get a chance to enjoy any of the power you’ve nominally seized. Obviously there are plot reasons for this, but it ends up making the victories feel a bit hollow.
I don’t know if Larian ever had plans to implement class-based stronghold quests à la BG2, but some of the origin character quest lines seem well suited for it. If I had my druthers, there’d be ways for players to take over and run places like the Emerald Grove, House of Grief, maybe the Circus of the Last Days. Could be good expansion fodder, but I haven’t read anything yet about whether they’re working on one.