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I'm too lazy (I admit it ) to go back and play through the entire game to see it, and I also can't bring myself to watch such due to my own doing, having adored the happy end since it was so uplifting.

So would anyone be willing to tell me/show me a YouTube vid and/or screenshots of the sad ending?

The sad ending if you don't save Chalassa is that your end up fighting her and killing her. But she said she would rather have fought no one else and that she was sorry.

It irks me this outcome is more or less determined by the gender you pick at the beginning of the game than anything else. It feels really forced. Would've been more natural if her demise had been better foreshadowed or at least if you were told up front you'd lose the best (imo) character in the game because you picked wrong as a newbie.

Actually that is because originally there was no way to save her at all. The romance was doomed. During testing that didn't go over well with the players so an alternative ending for the romance was created. From a story perspective she is supposed to die.

Yes remember that game was written back in 2013 (then I coded it in 2014). During the long testing (lasted over 6 months!) there was a sort of "peaceful riot" in forums because there was no possibility to save Chalassa in the original script.
So together with the writer I decided to change this, to offer the chance to save her, but of course this lead to other problem like the one you mentioned.
Live and learn they say! One thing I've learned is that despite how much people say it's unrealistic, I will go with bisexual characters in future games, especially when there are "so few" (like 4) romanceable

I have to agree with you on the bisex characters. When there is only one romance per orientation, odds are high that it won't work for a large percentage of players. So in terms of writing efficiency, making everyone bi is the least time consuming way to increase the romances available to everyone, and if done well it isn't necessarily noticeable in-game that every romanceable character is bi. Not every NPC is going to wear their orientation on their sleeve.

Yes exactly. Unless specifically mentioned in the game story, just because in THE GAME the character is bisex, doesn't mean that IN YOUR STORY is.
Otherwise what happens with all the other branching possibilities? Is Mesphit alive or dead? since he can be alive or dead. The companion of Loren is Saren or Elenor? Or in SOTW, is Chalassa alive or dead? etc
The same thing/rules should work for sexual orientation. It's the best way to keep the number of romances high without having my writer go nuts or having to wait 4 years for each game

But we can count on characters who need for some reason to be saved to be possible to save regardless of what orientation they are in future games, right?

(I ask since poor Chalassa couldn't be saved by Shea.)

Yes for sure, this was a particular case because originally Chalassa couldn't be saved at all

There really are two sad endings with Chal too.