So, I just completed Fallen God and the ending didn't surprise me too much, but I'll get to that. I won't be talking a lot about the gameplay because it's literally the same as the other two and the RTS gameplay still isn't the best. Spoilers for the entirety of Fallen God.
Nicolas Lietzau knows what he is doing and he's probably one of the best writers in the industry atm. He knows how to tell a fantasy story that isn't just pure nonsense and one made up scenario after the next. I finished Soul Harvest and Fallen God not because the game is super good but because I wanted to know what happens next in the story and because I liked spending time with the characters and was invested in their struggles. That goes double for Fallen God. If Soul Harvest was about trauma, Fallen God is about oppression and prejudice and what one must do and is willing to do to free oneself of them. The story reminded me a bit of Gideon from the Bible. The Fial Darg was used very well because you know the trolls are falling into a trap by resurrecting it if you are a fan of the series and have seen what the Fial Darg are capable of and are. You just know something bad is going to happen and want to scream at the monitor for them to not do it. I initially thought this Fial Darg is the one from Breath of Winter, seeing as how BoW takes place in Urgath as well, but it isn't. They tried to keep the stranger's identity a secret, but once they revealed he is a dark elf, it was obvious he was either Raith (especially since it was the same voice actor in German) or the other dark elven Circle mage, Zahaar the Snake. It's too bad they couldn't go for a more meaningful ending, seeing as how they are both married to and seem to dislike the idea of the established SpellForce lore. But I'll get to that in a sec.
What held everything together is obviously the characters and the troll tribe. All 4 of them had things to do in the story and none of them were superfluous. I especially liked Noag, but I was constantly afraid something is going to happen to him once the Fial Darg gets sewn together, either killing him in the process or the Fial Darg killing him after that because it's evil and untrustworthy. Surprise, surprise, he had to sacrifice himself to bring it back. I don't know how much your choices matter here because what happened is that I taught Noag to value the tribe and be gentle, so he chose to sacrifice himself even though I strictly forbade it and said it was because I taught him to do anything for the tribe. It would be cool if something else happens if you had taught him to be more selfish, but I doubt it, he probably gets sacrificed by force in that case. I saved as many trolls at the end as possible, though, I think. As for whether Mugwa exists, I don't think it matters that much, Grungwar says so himself, it is not gods who destroy walls and grant freedom, it's the people who believe.
What didn't particularly work in the story is basically anything that has to do with established SpellForce lore but the writers feel the need to constantly adhere to. Both 3 parts are so far removed from the lore, they don't feel like SpellForce games at all, it's only when its lore rears its head that you are reminded this is begrudgingly supposed to be a part of a franchise. This is why the ending is, as a whole, so flaccid. Yeah, it's the great we get to experience how the trolls create Nagnag, but the Fial Darg being defeated by what is essentially a deus ex machina feels bad. Maybe they wanted to explain why and how a Fial Darg protects Raith's tomb in Shadow of the Phoenix, but they didn't have to do it in this game. The reveal that the Masked Goddess is Tiara was also a bit flat, especially because you don't do anything to earn that info, you are just told Raith went away for a bit and read it somewhere. How the trolls became more and more desperate to resurrect the Fial Darg felt quite forced. What I would've done is make the Fial Darg or Raith subtly manipulate events behind the scenes in order to orchestrate the series of unfortunate circumstances that would ensure its revival. I didn't appreciate the time adivination/manipulation that was also used in Soul Harvest. It was quite restrained in SH, but it was a regular occurrence in Fallen God and was used as a means to dump exposition whenever convenient.
I felt there was something big missing in the narrative and that's discussion about the worth of animals and their lives. When Noag asks why the slavers and hunters enslave, hurt and kill the Moonkin, Grungwar says it's because they think the Moonkin are animals as if that justifies the whole thing. Nobody ever mentions that maybe animals don't deserve to be treated like this either. They even have tamers and are very close to those cute carrion birds they use in war. I thought it was a missed opportunity, especially because the trolls are shown to revere nature and live in a symbiotic relationship with it.
All in all, I thought Soul Harvest and Fallen God are one of the better written video games in recent memory even though SH3 butchers the established lore while creating its own problems/plot holes by trying to adhere to it. It's a shame the RTS gameplay is outright bad and repetitive, only the heroes salvage the gameplay. I'm not surprised it didn't work out as a multiplayer game, but it's passable for a single player game that you mostly play for the story and exploration. I would want to see more installments in this franchise, ones that focus more on the RTS gameplay and less on the heroes, as well as be more coherent within established lore. This trilogy didn't bring in anything interesting or noteworthy in terms of worldbuilding, whatever new it added was forgettable and unnecessary. The strengths of the narrative lie in the characters and themes, not the setting. Which is unfortunate because the universe of SpellForce 1 is endearing and creative for a "standard fantasy setting" filled with elves and orcs. We have Conquest of Eo, though, which disregards the more egregious schisms with the lore and we'll get DLC for it too.
Good vidya gaem if you like playing for the story and it's challenging enough on Circle Mage difficulty. Go play it.
