So just what was Belial's plan there?

[MMAgCh]

I read that the idea was the player was supposed to really care about and for Leah, so when she gets screwed over the emotional impact is larger. Trouble is, you never grow any emotional connections with her. Part of it is her poorly written dialogue; part of it comes from how little interaction you have with her over the game. If she followed you all the time and had considerably more banter with you and your companion (especially along the lines of her dreams and ambitions), then the twist would have been meaningful!

Honestly, to me at least, her "death" was a bit of a downer in one regard – she's never going to build that little inn now. That genuinely did make me a little sad.

It's no Bastion-esque level of profoundness, of course. (To forestall any potential snideness: as far as anything related to a video game's story can ever be profound. Yeah, yeah.) My reaction to Adria's betrayal, for instance, wasn't "gasp! That nefarious wench would sacrifice her own daughter?!" but rather "a-ha, so that's why there's a fourth act!". Sure, in hindsight especially it's obvious how callous and poor a mother she is, but that still doesn't make me actually care. Hell, Cain getting bumped off didn't elicit more than a "huh" either, and he's a character who's been with us for the entirety of the series. I do, in fact, think I felt more of an emotional connection to the followers than I did to any of the story characters, which probably isn't the way it should be.

Then again, that could just be me being overly cynical rather than the game failing to establish its characters as individuals whose fate you actually care about.