I would say that also Choice 5 makes sense, especially considering the books and their depiction of Ciri's ending journey of reward and retribution.
I always spoiled Ciri, she'd led a hard enough life when young, never really having a childhood or what other kids would think of as a normal upbringing. So I always chose the indulgent option, give her a little respite from running between worlds and being the chosen one of destiny, so for me when I got the Empress ending it fit. Only thing I did "wrong" initially was go with her to the Lodge meeting, not gonna leave her with those fucking cutthroat shrews.
It also had a nice little moral dilemma between choosing to help Ciri or staying true to Geralt's principles. On my second playthrough I beat up one of her friends, which was kind of a shitty thing to do and made me feel like a real asshole, much more so than not visiting Skjall's grave for example, yet it amounted to pretty much nothing in the end. Wonder what the thought process behind that was.
I didn't feel bad about that asshole. I tried to give him every other option, including paying for the horses myself, but no, the game forces you into a corner, so I had to refuse to become a horse thief and so the cunt attacks you! Felt good to beat him to a pulp.
It's not necessarily the best or most thoughtful possible set-up (you probably should at least have a "do what you want, I'll stay out of it" option instead of things instantly escalating like that), but I feel it's initially a more interesting choice than some of the actually meaningful ones, a moral choice between Geralt's principles and Ciri's wishes that also has a clear build-up to it instead of just coming out of the blue. On the other hand the Skjall choice is pretty much just about whether you want to be an asshole or not (it's not like there's any real urgency anywhere in the game) whereas the Lodge and laboratory choices are rather poorly set-up and ambiguous, so it's weird that the circus choice was the one that carried no consequences whatsoever.That scene felt VERY idiotic and railroaded. Steal the horse or be a dick to Ciri, no middle ground. Hurr durr.
Another minor thing about the ending (kind of): have I just missed it or is there really never any mention of what happens to the Radovid - Philippa Eilhart situation?
I gave Radovid the thing I found in Philippas hideout, so he should be somewhat able to locate her.
I did not finish the quest where I should assasinate Radovid.
So in the end Radovidania won.
But as far as I remember Eilhart isn't mentioned once in this regard.
Philippa's crystal just screams "cut content" to me, kind of like many other things about the ending slides. Even if you give the crystal to Triss or Yen and never mention it to Radovid, he'll still act later on like you gave it to him by saying something like "hope you have something better than a crystal this time". The Lodge does pretty much nothing except give a reason for doing a few end-game filler quests (which are nice but feel rather lazily connected to the main plot) and play a role in one choice regarding Ciri. Aside from Philippa there's Dandelion, Zoltan, Priscilla, the Baron and his wife and a bunch of other characters that are kind of just forgotten on the way and get no closure either. I'd expect them to improve on that with the inevitable Enhanced Edition or its equivalent.
If you import a savefile in which you sided with Iorveth, do you actually get to learn anything about him/Sile (if you decide not to kill her)/the whole Scoia'tael movement? I understand the whole 'there's an actual war going on, fuck the Scoia'tael' thing, but I still can't fathom the fact that the devs actually left out one of the major plot points of the previous two games.
In the scoiatel camp in the wilds near Novigrad or Oxenfurt or wherever you can hear the elves say Iorveth is dead shot by arrows. That's all. If you import a savefile where you had let Sile live, you'll encounter her when freeing Margarita Laux-Antille. Sile will also be in that prison.
but only for a short cutscene ending with her dying.
I only used the "simulated Witcher 2 save" option, where you tell yourself what choices you've made in W2. It turned out as I've described above. I don't know if actually importing a savefile functions properly at all.Good to know, because I didn't find her in the cell; if I add to that the fact that I couldn't find Letho during that witcher contract/sidequest, it means that my imported save file didn't actually work, and that somehow I got an alternative w2 ending scenario. Good thing that the 2nd game has that branching storyline which offered me a different and enjoyable experience for my 2nd playthrough, because that savefile was literally the only reason why I wanted to replay the game to begin with.
I only used the "simulated Witcher 2 save" option, where you tell yourself what choices you've made in W2. It turned out as I've described above. I don't know if actually importing a savefile functions properly at all.
FINALLY!
Finished the game for a second time and saw the happy ending. Slay dem cockatrices for me, Ciri dear!!