New update:
Following up. Havent progressed since the last time, story-wise, but a few hours in side quests later i cleaned up and stumbled through the crossroads blight quest into the revenant dragon boss. Was able to get everything in order of my location. BUT after defeating said boss, its chest wont let me open again. So it might be gate related after all since this was the last gate OR big ho bar boss related. 🤷♂️ Might save this gate last. Will reload right before.
POSSIBLY big hp bar boss related. Reloaded autosave where gates are opened but boss was not beaten yet. Left to check an altar (i keep one around now for checking this bug) in a different map and it still works. 🤷♂️
..or maybe not. I just came from the formless one before revenant. So cross that off. 🤔🙋♂️
Update 1:…maybe rapidly spamming an ability button causes an input issue..? 🤔🤔 i do get mashy with the high tension sometimes. 😵💫🤣🤔 on a controller i spam the face buttons for any spell available during high tension panic moments. 🤔🤔
Update 2: welp. I tried the boss again being extra mindful not to spam too much stuff and same thing. Chest wont open. Altars froze. Same stuff as before. So i leave this boss last with the gates open since it doesn’t trigger the bug this way (and quest list remains clean). 🤷♂️