End of the game has me a little mixed

I really, REALLY enjoyed like...90% of the game, and that's coming from someone who didn't really enjoy Rick & Morty. I thought it had a fun story, some good jokes (that teddy bear who made us keep coming back to 'die' was really funny!), and compelling gameplay.

But the last like...10% of the game? Man, it's...not great.

I feel like the problem really, fundamentally, comes after the fight with Nipulon (which was a really creative and fun fight, by the way!). I was kinda disappointed by how...anticlimactic the setup to the fight with Gargantuan was? Like, Lizzie and Gene gave these kinda...half-hearted goodbyes. And it was framed so weirdly too. Like, the way the house teleports in, just 'drops you off', disappears, and when you come back everything is the exact same? They're sitting in the same places and just give you like, a really lowkey, understated 'congrats!' There's not even unique animations or anything! I feel like having Lizzie fight off enemies to protect Gene, or Gene taking a shot to protect Lizzie, would've been much better growth for either and would've made you really feel the stakes. But as is, it just kinda feels unfinished.

Earth is really disappointing as well. It's just a straight path from start to finish, which is disappointing from a game that gave you a lot of side characters to meet and opportunity to roam a bit.

Gameplay wise, the worst part of the final level was Lezduoit. He is just...TOO strong. The power fantasy moment was really cool for the first little while, just blasting through and decimating enemies. But it also just feels like there's literally no challenge. I was playing on Normal Mode, but man, it feels like Easy. No danger, no actual risk. Just blast through with Lezduoit, give him ten seconds to recharge, rinse and repeat.

I was sort of expecting that they'd let you have a power fantasy moment, but then take him away for the final fight. But...nope! He's there the whole fight with Gargantuan too, and geez, does it kinda ruin the fight! Again, there's just no stakes to it. It's super easy to take him down; I didn't even realize there were Creature nests on the side of the arena to make the grapple bugs come out. I just dodged here and there and let Lezduoit handle it.

I know I could've just chosen NOT to use Lezduoit. But with the game screaming 'LEZDUOIT' to me every ten seconds, it really feels like I'm supposed to. Even if I could've given myself the challenge, it feels like a poor balancing decision for the game to even allow you to just cheese through the final boss fight so easily.

After the fight, going off what I said before, it feels like there's no resolution to any of the characters except Kenny. Lizzie and Gene give you a halfhearted congrats, and joke that the world will be the exact same and nothing will be different which, sure, fair enough, it's a funny haha meta moment, but that doesn't make it any less different when you go around and find literally everything the same. Our house isn't even back to Blin, it says on Gatlus, which feels more of a lazy dev decision since there's no reason they'd keep the house on that toxic planet.

I know the secret ending exists and I did do it. But I feel like it honestly makes the game feel even MORE underbaked at the end. Why did Chegg do that? Why did his sons go along with it only to betray him and then join you? The achievement correctly describes it as just plain old 'sequel bait', and that really is all it is. It doesn't make the game any more compelling, it just creates more holes.

I don't know. I really hate to be negative because, again, SO MUCH of the game was really really good! But the ending, man, it really felt disappointing. I'm going to try playing the Knifey DLC before I make a decision about whether or not to play High On Life 2.

Any thoughts from you guys, on the ending or otherwise?