Defeat...

[Abazur]

What if we for once didn't beat Diablo in the end?

Imagine this:

In the last act (of D3 vanilla) you have managed to open a portal to hell and you are now finally going for big D himself. However as you initiate the fight with him it becomes obvious that you can't defeat him (early act) and you are forced to flee from him while he sends legions of demons after you. The new objective of that act then appear: Escape hell and Diablo's wrath.

I don't know what you think of this, but I think that would be way more interesting than the classical "Awsume Hero slays everything and wins the day"

So... Do you like the idea or not? If not, how should it end according to you?

[Technomancer]

I personally think that would be totally awesome and more original, but...

"Awsume Hero slays everything and wins the day"

...is what they'll probably go for. They want the player to feel unstoppable I'd imagine.

[fromtheshadow]

i like the idea, I also think they should leave diablo for the last act boss of the last expansion, truly end diablo series with diablo.

another thing they could do to make fighting diablo cooler is to add npcs that also attack diablo (angels, other soldiers who have also reached diablo) this way the fight seems much more epic and it does diablo justice in that even the player can't take on diablo alone and needs help from angels and other heroes.

they also need to make a few of the major demons recurring, in the respect that you see them through out an act, not fight them multiple times, that way you get a better sense of purpose and forthcoming climax of an end act boss.

[Abazur]

another thing they could do to make fighting diablo cooler is to add npcs that also attack diablo (angels, other soldiers who have also reached diablo) this way the fight seems much more epic and it does diablo justice in that even the player can't take on diablo alone and needs help from angels and other heroes.

I would like that
However, if they (the developers) insist on you killing diablo by yourself it better be doable only because he (diablo) allready is severly weakened, because he's the frigging DIABLO, not a buffed fallen

[Zeek]

I like the idea of having to run from Diablo. Ending D3 in a tragic way with hell pouring out into sanctuary would make the expansions pretty sweet.

I'm guessing they'll do something lame like have 2 expansions where in D3 we kill diablo. Expansion 1 ends with him being revived. Expansion 2 ends with another final battle with a supped up diablo.

Edit: Another possibility is we defeat diablo at the end of D3 only to find out it wasn't really him. Just Belial disguised as Diablo. Then we hear a booming voice laughing at us saying, "Did you really think I would be so easy to defeat?" and get a cinematic of the real Diablo entering Sanctuary with an army of demons or something.

[fmulder]

What if we for once didn't beat Diablo in the end?

Imagine this:

In the last act (of D3 vanilla) you have managed to open a portal to hell and you are now finally going for big D himself. However as you initiate the fight with him it becomes obvious that you can't defeat him (early act) and you are forced to flee from him while he sends legions of demons after you. The new objective of that act then appear: Escape hell and Diablo's wrath.

Great idea

There was a mission in Starcraft 2 where the player has to escape form a base while being pursued by an indestructible creature. Anyone played it?

[Technomancer]

Great idea

There was a mission in Starcraft 2 where the player has to escape form a base while being pursued by an indestructible creature. Anyone played it?

Yeah, that was pretty intense! I really liked that level and thought of that too when Abazur was describing his idea.

There's also the end of the first Zaratul mission where you have to escape the swarm. That may be a pretty good prototype too, where you have to sneak behind enemy lines to recover some object or info and have to escape within an inch of your life! That would be fun!

[Crudesash68]

I like the idea of having to run from Diablo. Ending D3 in a tragic way with hell pouring out into sanctuary would make the expansions pretty sweet.

I'm guessing they'll do something lame like have 2 expansions where in D3 we kill diablo. Expansion 1 ends with him being revived. Expansion 2 ends with another final battle with a supped up diablo.

Edit: Another possibility is we defeat diablo at the end of D3 only to find out it wasn't really him. Just Belial disguised as Diablo. Then we hear a booming voice laughing at us saying, "Did you really think I would be so easy to defeat?" and get a cinematic of the real Diablo entering Sanctuary with an army of demons or something.

This is how I think they'll end the 1st game, and possibly twist it for the 2nd Xpac if they decide to go for a 3rd.

1: We kill who we believe is Big D, turns out to be another demon, say Belial, chaos ensues as we unwittingly allowed Diablo back, as you described.
2. For the 2nd Xpac, Belial closes out the act (just a little bit of tweaking, really), and Diablo closes out the added act. We are near killing him, when the ground rumbles and he vanishes, and Mephy or Baal take over...
3. Now, we have a sixth act (?), so with Belial and Meph/Baal as act bosses, we finally get to really kill Big D.

Lore wise, it is fun to speculate...but will players enjoy the anti-climactic ending, not once, but twice? It will be interesting to see how they get Big D real face time in all the expansions, without exasperating the player base too much.