So I've been thinking more about the game's ending, and trying to grasp why exactly I found it unsatisfying. In addition to the thoughts in the prior post, it struck me that one problem is that the ending does not really offer the player the chance to resolve the philosophical argument that is -- or appeared to me to be -- the game's central conundrum, namely: What is the appropriate way to handle the powers of the past?
It seemed to me that the game quickly presented three major answers, which corresponded to the three cities and three noble houses: (1) take the powers of the past to make humans more powerful (Antidas/Teron); (2) seal up the powers of the past because they are too dangerous (Maadoran/Gaelius); and (3) worship the powers of the past because they are on a higher plane than we are (Meru/Ganezzar). (As a quick digression, one problem with this set up is that there is actually quite a bit more ancient technology being used and passed around in Maadoran than in Teron, and in fact you can get in good with Gaelius by reactivating the ancient smelting equipment, but let's set that stuff aside, and take the noblemen at their word.)
Absent extraordinary circumstances, the ending presents four options, but even though there are more options than there are competing philosophies, in fact the options only really cover one or two of the philsophies.
That's because three of the options are just variants on the Gaelius tack: you can kill the god; you can blow up the temple; or you can walk away (which I guess we could also call the Inferiae headwoman option).
The closest option to the Meru tack is to wake the god and agree to serve it, but in fact this option doesn't feel like a "worship" option at all because its posture isn't something like: "As terrible as the creature is to behold, mankind is walking the path to oblivion, and it is better to serve this creature in the hopes that it can lead us down a better road." Instead, it's, "Well, maybe I can advance my faction's interests and my own by siding with the god." Which is kind of like an Antidas option, except that Antidas was fixated on the physical artifacts of the past, and wanted control, not servitude.
I guess the main takeaway from the ending is that Gaelius was probably right, although maybe you need the ancient technology to defeat the gods, so some kind of hybrid approach would be right. But in any event, it seems like the ending should let the player come to his own view as to what the right approach is, and even if the ending subverts it and shows reasons why the player is wrong (every choice is a wrong choice, in some ways), at least then the player would be resolving the debate based on what he's learned and reflected on over the course of the game. As it stands, the player can't really do that.
If anything, the temple seems to repudiate the terms of the debate that started the game. There's no ancient technology to get, there's no god you can choose to worship, and the reason the world was destroyed in the past wasn't magitek WMDs but evil aliens. I mean, Gaelius turns out to be kind of right insofar as chasing technology brought the aliens into play, but that's not really what he was talking about.
While I can foresee arguments that it's brilliant to upend the terms of the debate, I'm not so sure. Like the map turning out to be irrelevant, having the final choice basic operate on a different axis from the framing debate means that the final choice doesn't bring the game to a conclusion so much as it just brings the game to an end. Especially when this is combined with the final choice not actually using any of the power or skills you've developed unless you went a lore-crafting or combat build, it makes it feel hollow.
It seems to me like the main temple choice could be adjusted in a fairly slight way and it would resolve at least some of my concerns. You could have plenty of magitek gear there -- huge machines that seem to have military use, but not personal weaponry. (Causing those machines to overload could take the place of the conveniently placed self-destruct button.) One option (or set of options) would be to bring word of that stuff back to the faction leaders. Then you could have Agathoth more actively seek to persuade the player to agree to go get a leader to serve him, rather than basically have the god already be sufficiently powerful that he can mindcontrol the world if need be. That way, the player enlisting a leader's help for Agathoth feels more like a volitional and important choice, rather than simply a slight acceleration of what inevitably will happen. Moreover, it makes it a meaningful screw-up by the player. For example, if the leader options became something like, "Meru, at last we have a god to worship!" and then the ending text is that he's a mind-controlling evil alien, to me that is a much better, "Look how fools repeat the errors of the past" ending, whereas currently it feels a little un-impactful (what a horrid word). Similarly, the pitches the player makes to other leaders could be predicated on the idea that Agathoth could be controlled and manipulated, again giving the player the chance to make the same mistakes as the Magi, rather than having him willingly shackle himself.
I might also make it a bit harder to get down to where Agathoth is, such that the player could conceivably be unable to get to him and be forced to jump ship beforehand.
All of the outcomes could still be depressing, but it seems like at least in that scenario, they would feel like conclusions of the themes that were set in motion at the outset.