What ending is more meaningful: pragmatic or sentimental in this RPG?

[AlexanderNL]

I just finished my first playthrough of the new RPG and I'm genuinely torn about the final choice the game gave me. I went with the pragmatic option to secure the city-state's independence, but now I'm watching my friend play and he chose the sentimental route to save the companion character, and his ending cinematic feels so much more meaningful. I keep wondering if I made the wrong call for the story's emotional payoff.

[Logan91]

I went pragmatic too, and the ending felt sturdy but a little cold. The city-state is free, sure, but the cinematic with the companion didn’t land for me the way it did for my friend.

[AlexanderIJ]

Watching my buddy pick the sentimental route, the scene looked heavy and earned. I get why people pay that price, just not sure it sticks in the long arc when the next quest chain rolls in.

[Daniel83]

Maybe the real problem isn’t which ending hits harder but whether the game invites you to live with that hurt. I kept wondering if independence is worth the cost, or if the emotional peak was designed to upend your next choices. Do you think the problem is the ending's emotional payoff or the game's overall themes?

[Samuel_P]

I did notice the lighting shift in the final screens, like they wanted a memory rather than a verdict, then I snapped back to thinking about how many hours I spent balancing loot in the last dungeon. It makes me second-guess whether the game was tugging at mood more than meaning.