Dragon’s Dogma 2: Should You Fight The Dragon Or Sacrifice Your Friend?

screenrant.com:

The final major decision in requires every player to choose between sacrificing their best friend or fighting the titular Dragon. The game requires many choices, from the simple selection of classes in to its pivotal story decisions. While every decision has its consequences, the ending a player sees is entirely determined by their choices around the confrontation with the Dragon. The right answer may seem obvious, but even the most minor decision in these final scenes can have devastating consequences.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for every ending of Dragon's Dogma 2.]

During what may be the final quest, "," players must fight their way up Moonglint Tower, surviving an assault by Phaeseus and the Sovran until the Dragon appears. The Dragon will then address the Arisen directly, and demand their answer: will they sacrifice their closest friend, or meet the Dragon in combat? This is the first in a series of choices that affects, among other things, how ends, which of its NPCs live to see another day, and how much play time remains in the game. In other words, it's not a decision to be made lightly.

During the quest "," if the player chooses to sacrifice their friend, they'll be locked into the bad ending for their current playthrough of the game. They'll walk away from the fight, and whichever NPC they have the highest affinity with will die at the Dragon's hands. They'll walk away knowing they've prevented the apocalypse by appeasing the Dragon, but they've done so at a great cost.

NPC affinity is affected by quest completion and gift-giving. Players will always know which NPC the Dragon will kill if they choose to walk away; they'll appear prominently in the cutscene.

What follows is a short, but sobering cutscene. The Arisen will ascend to the throne as Sovran of Vermund, but the death of their friend will cast a grim pallor over the ceremony. The game ends on a sour note, and the player is booted back to the main menu. They're then encouraged to load