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We’ve already talked about how the episodic release schedule of Dispatch has been a huge advantage for AdHoc Studio and Critical Role as their debut game becomes a massive hit. However, it didn’t just allow them to create a series of watercooler moments for gamers to share – it also allowed them to make changes to the ending even after the first few episodes came out, thanks to some clever use of existing models and a quick call to Matt Mercer.

The ending of Dispatch can go a lot of different ways, depending on your choices earlier in the game. Many of those choices are recounted by Shroud, who is played by beloved nerdy-ass voice actor Matt Mercer, including who you chose to romance in the game. Nick Herman from AdHoc Studio explained during a recent interview with Popverse that this monologue was a chance to highlight how smart Shroud is. 

“Essentially, there's a moment at the end where we had like this beat where Shroud is, you know, he's got like super prediction essentially,” Herman told us. “And he's able to kind of like kind of know the move before you do, and he talks about like, ‘Oh, I knew you'd fall for Blonde Blazer.’ Or if you romance Visi, was like, ‘Ah, I knew you'd fall for Invisigal.’ And it's just kind of him rattling off all these things that you've done, and because it's a game, we can make it seem like he's super smart, and he predicted it the whole time.”

However, that monologue got a last-minute tweak to correct what Herman described as “a miss” on the part of AdHoc Studio when making Dispatch. “And right at the last second, we realized there was a playthrough that we had kind of, that we had, that we had enabled. Basically, we wanted to allow people to both romance no one, and also, there's a certain way you can play where both ladies are options, and if you take the bait, essentially, or if you do this thing that you think is a secret, because no one, you know, you're in a room with this person, and you do this thing, and Shroud can essentially call you out in front of everybody, which we thought was like, so fucking funny. That we could have our villain basically out you as a player.”

“That was added two weeks before it went out,” Herman said, which would put it around the release date of Episode 4 of Dispatch. “And we were able to do that because we were remixing shots we already had. And I'm calling Matt Mercer, going like, ‘Can you just record this one line, please? I can't get you in a booth. Can you just do it from home?'”

“But that was a, you know, as we were seeing players try to max out on relationships and like, ‘Oh, you know, maybe I'll be with Blond Blazer for the first half of the game, and then I'll pivot.’ Like, you know, they're like talking about how they're going to romance both characters. We were like, ‘Man, we should put something in that we'll call them out if they do this.’ So that's the kind of stuff, fun stuff you can do at the last minute.”

Shroud is not kind when he calls out the player for trying to create a superhero love triangle. “I’m telling you, it doesn’t feel good in the end,” Herman assured us. Not that you can’t blame us for trying.

Coninue to the story with our deep dive into Dispatch with a conversation with AdHoc Studios' two main developers. If you're still confused after that, here's the Dispatch season 1 ending explained and how they changed it at the last minute.