u/skippw

I think it's clear that one of the biggest flaws with the DLC is how confusing it is for a player to know if they have finished it. While the title card they added in an update (which shows at the end of the loop after meeting the Prisoner) helps a little to know that you've found the end of the content in The Stranger, it also potentially adds confusion in making you think you have finished the DLC, where in reality after meeting the Prisoner you have still not reached the end. So it's understandable that a lot of players will need a clue to help them figure out what they have left to do.

When it comes to spoiling the game, I have always considered that the solutions to a puzzle, or the how you do something, is much more of a spoiler than the what it is. Hence why when giving hints I never like to directly advise someone how they can solve a problem, but simply ask them questions that leads them to figuring that out.

So I find it strange that the default attitude in the community seems to be directly telling players that they should "do the base game ending again" or even specifically telling them that the ending changes after doing the DLC. The fact is that the additional ending content is part of the DLC, therefore, the ending isn't something you do "after" the DLC, but is the actual end of your DLC journey. So to me, directly telling someone that they should do that, is a major spoiler.

My experience of this was quite fun. I was playing with a friend, and after the Prisoner disapeared we were confused. It felt like we'd finished everything but we were unsure. We asked our flatmate (who wasn't interested in playing the game) to look up "what is the ending of Echoes of the Eye" and simply tell us whether or not we had reached the end. They simply told us "no, this isn't the end." and so we were left to scratch our head for a minute before asking the question "I wonder if the Prisoner will show up at the Eye."

Funnily enough, the very first thing I did after installing the DLC was to go to the Eye to check if anything had changed, so it was always something in the back of my mind, I suppose.

So if someone came to me asking if they have finished the DLC after meeting the Prisoner, the first thing I would simply tell them is "No, this is not the ending.", and I might go further adding "There's one more thing you can do."

(this is all assuming they've previously completed the base game).

If they need more of a nudge, I might add "What you have left to do is outside The Stranger", or "There is something you have done before which you may want to do again.", if they seem confused and wonder how many small things in the base game may have been changed because of the DLC you could specific, "something BIG".

At the furthest, I might ask them "Don't you wish you could talk to your new friend again? How might you do that?" -- at this point you are almost directly telling them that they will meet the Prisoner at the end game, but I consider this less of a spoiler than actually telling them the answer to what they need to do. Frankly, once a player realises they need to do the end game again, most likely they are going to guess that they will meet the Prisoner there. So our job, imo, shouldn't be to hide what they are going to find, but to get them to have the realisation that they need to go to the Eye again. The realisations of "ooh, I should try doing this!" are the best parts of playing this game. It's about testing therories and hoping that you get a different result. Being told what to do spoils this gameplay, so to be told what to do at the very end feels very wrong to me.

There's my piece, I am sure people will disagree, but I wanted to put this thought into the universe because it feels like something that people aren't considering.