Could Obsidian please clarify: Is the final boss "supposed" to optional, as some are now arguing? (endgame spoilers)

[Mallard]

There are a number of people reporting that the Guardian of Ukaizo is not appearing. It has consistently been referred to as an unintended bug...

 

However, at least one user has argued that is *not* a bug; the Guardian is apparently *NOT* meant to appear in some cases.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/9hkpyu/no_final_boss_spoilers/e6fmv5b/

 

 

• 1: If you save the dragon in the water temple, you will not fight the "final" boss whatsoever, this is a scripted event that happens because of something you did in the past.

• 2: If you dont save the dragon during the water temple, you can still manage not to fight the last boss by siding with one of the factions. (During the event the guardian attacks the faction you sided with instead, so if you dont help them, you wont fight the guardian, the option "Take us into the storm [stoic (Mountain)]" which promptly ignores the guardian fighting your faction, and since you dont help them the guardian will be busy fighting them instead and wont follow you into the storm.)

 

 

The misconception that people have is like thusly:

Before the beast of winter patch, no matter what you did or what you picked during the event, you fought the guardian no matter what, this was a bug that was fixed, nothing more.

It was fixed so you can actually skip the guardian if you want to.

 

Just wanted to clarify, is this the intended design?

 

If so, then my personal recommendation is to have the player fight at least some form of the Guardian, it helps to make up for the fact that the player cannot actually fight Eothas. It's a great fight, it would be a shame for players to miss out on it!

[Demnevanni]

I have to agree that I'd prefer the final boss fight not to be skippable "by accident", and I'm kinda glad the bug existed when I first beat the game. From what I see in videos on youtube or twitch, too, the reaction to Scyrioelaphas fighting the Guardian in your stead is less of an "awesome, I found a way to get around fighting the final boss" and more of a confused and slightly disappointed "wait, this game doesn't even have a final boss?". I think the reason for this is that you make the decision to free Scyrioelaphas many hours before the game ends, it's a "good guy" decision so most players will choose it, and it's not immediately connected to the idea of getting around the final boss battle. Player aren't aware that not having a final boss battle is a  direct result of their choice, and it feels anticlimactic. In my opinion, a better way to have freeing Scyrioelaphas matter would be to have the Guardian start the final battle wounded in that scenario.