Well, it shows that real-life impacted the game's development. Still, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and not because the ending is bleak. No, instead it's because the ending is dumb. Several attempts on your life, nothing's done. You have confirmation (several times, even) of who's working behind the scenes to sabotage everything, nothin's done. You even know that the queen herself is having doubts as to who she can trust, learn that she was planning on marrying MC and all, yet still don't try to take the saboteur down with her help.
That's just one thing but there's so much more. The gay couple, you get the choice to save them, then to later not to shoot at one another. Turns out it doesn't matter one bit, you never see them again. Same with the commander and the novel writer, hiring them does nothing as they disappear off the face of the earth. In the end you finally capture Kleo and nothing comes out of it. You can shoot another traitor during that scene, nothing comes out of it.
Worst of all, all those preparations you've made to gather soldiers and be ready to fight the horde? They hardly matter. Just have the tank instawin one side, send reinforcements to the other side and that's it. That's the "final battle". Everything else is just cutscenes. Even when you fight the leader of the horde, it's just a cutscene. I had 10k in bank, hundreds of people... none of it mattered.
Same with the choice of who to marry at the end. Only difference is one render. Nothing else, not even text. Now I can understand rushing the ending to get something out in case something bad happens IRL. But that still was a huge letdown. All this intrigue to be instantly brushed aside by the arrival of the horde. Yet despite that, despite repeated failures after failures, the queen still doesn't listen to MC's advice who, on the other hand, has achieved repeated victories and is clearly competent. She even acknowledges this, so... this just feels like tossing an Idiot Ball her way for the sake of moving the plot toward a certain grim conclusion. It doesn't feel satisfying at all.
Really hope that rushed ending gets corrected into something decent at least. Time will tell, I suppose.
