Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
With Diablo, after you kill the Lord of Terror, you cut to a scene directly afterwards, of Diablo returning to Albretch, and you jamming the Soulstone into your forehead (and then Cain's dark little speech of desperate hope). With Diablo 2 you got the logical conclusion to Marius' story (including a summary of what you just accomplished), and then the threat of Baal. And in LoD after you kill Baal you go to a scene with Tyreal still inside Mount Arreat, moments after you kill Baal.

With D3, there is no direct aftermath feel. It's just "Oh, and everything's all good now and I'm gonna become the Angel of Wisdom, 'cause that dude we mentioned maybe once is still out for coffee." I don't think this specific issue would have raised it's head for me if the cut scene had started at the Crystal Arch or something, starting where you ended things.

It also likely ties in to the feel of the ending, which to me, is just too hopeful. I get that it makes sense, that it's an ending and the good guys won, but that was the case for both the previous games as well. There is no bittersweet to this one that makes it feel much less like a Diablo game.
Again, I don't see a difference compared to D1 or D2. The ending is about equal in length and to me it is NOTHING BUT aftermath feel. It might be an aftermath that you do not agree with, but that is not the same thing.
Anyway regarding the hopeful ending... I really don't agree with you. Finally the "happy" ending I have fought for in three games happens. I admit I was rather disappointed finding out that my brave hero from D1 became Diablo in D2; it made the first game, story wise, sort of pointless.

So, now we are just waiting for the expansion where we get to fight and kill Imperius and Adria...