Inspired by @fuckingshit's post, I'd like to know your opinions on games with really bad or disappointing endings. Sometimes games do great for almost all of it, only to totally ruin it at the end.
I'll agree with Mass Effect 3.
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I don't think it needs a happy or sad ending, but what we got was utterly disconnected from the previous choices. When they had the sidequest for Tali and you entered the Geth cyberspace, I thought it would be connected to the ending of dealing with the Reapers. It would've been satisfying and thematic to nonstandard ways of solving problems. It also lets the Quarians have a victory that shows that engineering and creating wasn't wrong. Hell, the Geth could've worked with them and patched their history. It would reward players who maintained good relationships with their crew and make the victory a shared one, fitting with the ideal of the Citadel.
Instead, it was a one-off quest that said nothing of the the game as a whole and there were no other big choices that affected the ending.
Anyway, what games had awful endings, and if you want, how would you have changed it?
In the spirit of preventing unwanted spoilers, could we tag them in this post?
Broken Steel somewhat patched it up, but yeah, what a misfire that was.
It literally could have been fixed by having their be some collapsed roof that separates you from your companions. Then you don't have to write contrived nonsense.
I just realized I almost never finish games. I'll get to like the last level and sort of stop playing, idk why
Some games just have bad endings, and for a lot of games with sidequests, they are ultimately more fulfilling. At the very least, you find things to do that are more fulfilling. Like I love the sidequests in New Vegas, but I've only finished it once.
If I were to try to look at it through the lens of capitalism, the ending could be bad for several reasons. Crunch, focus-group written endings, an ending that doesn't challenge the status quo for the sake of profit, or the gameplay itself getting more attention than the end of the story. With games increasingly online, they want people to play the same game for longer. That's just me spitballing though.
I also do this for some reason. I consider it a testament to the quality of a game when I actually follow through to the end.
Sometimes to save me from being too invested in something I know will make me miserable, I go on wikipedia and read the synopsis/spoilers, ripping off the bandaid.
Bioshock Infinite and Burial at Sea were so bad they retroactively ruined the original Bioshock. That isn't a spoiler as much as a warning. If you enjoyed Bioshock, enjoy the memory and stop there.
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The revolutionaries dismantling the flying white ethnostate do some violence in the process, so they're exactly as bad as the people they're fighting!
Bioshock Infinite was the first thing that came to mind for me too
What a clusterfuck
When I first played Infinite at like 14 I was like “Omg this is deep” and now I look back with nothing but cringe. “Overthrowing the flying genocidal white ethnostate is just as evil as being them” 🤡
Let's be honest here, the last gameplay stretch and ending of the original Bioshock were pretty crappy too
It wasn't great, but it was acceptable as minimum viable product. It didn't wreck my enjoyment of the rest of the game, or retroactively wreck the replay value of its predecessors the way Bioshock Infinite or Mass Effect 3 did.
System Shock 2 also had a wet fart of an ending, maybe it's a stylistic thing
It could have been a bare bones but acceptable hook for a sequel that hasn't happened yet.
It wasn't cool to have satisfying endings in that era. :shrug-outta-hecks:
Yeah, it goes downhill a lot once
Bioshock spoiler
Quark gets owned by the golf club
Disco Elysium.
I couldn't save everyone, or bring about the Revolution, or figure out why that church has a void in its heart. I was just one man, doomed by the currents of history, doing what little good I could do where I could. That's not the escapist entertainment I've come to expect!
That's literally why I haven't finished it though. Also because I can't be a girl
Just started it, but I'm already pretty much on that line as a person so...cool.
It's still good, but man is it disappointing when you complete New Vegas and everything you achieved is summed up in a sentence for each thing and then you're sent back to the menu or your last save.
Legit my favourite thing in Fallout 4 is that whichever faction you side with takes over tonnes of small checkpoints throughout the map after the main quest is done. It really feels like you expanded their reach. It also serves a gameplay purpose in making the world safer to navigate as well.
Luckily there are mods that remedy this and they're mostly satisfying.
It’s still good, but man is it disappointing when you complete New Vegas and everything you achieved is summed up in a sentence for each thing and then you’re sent back to the menu or your last save.
Crunch time "let's get this game on sale before it's ready" let's go
I wanna say as well with Mass Effect 3 is that there's a reason Indoctrination Theory is so popular.
The three choices you get at the end are:
Destroy - the thing you said you'd do the entire series
Control - the thing you've been told is impossible the entire series
Synthesis - the thing you literally just heard about as even being an option about a minute ago
Synthesis
Literally the thing that the reaper-controlled Saren in Mass Effect 1 wanted to achieve. He thought that if organics and synthetics melded that the reapers would pass them over. But this was a lie that the reapers planted in his mind.
And then control is the thing that the reaper-controlled Illusive Man wanted. But no, the literal incarnation of the reaper over-mind tells you that you, the player character, can succeed at those goals because Shepard is special? Most compelling part of the theory to me is that that was an indoctrination attempt, because otherwise it's terrible writing.
I mean it was just terrible writing, I'm not an IT truther or anything. I just like to pretend it's true. In the same way there's a version of Attack of the Clones that only exists inside my head and is an incredible film. A neo-noir mystery spanning an entire galaxy of weird aliens, a Romance, a War movie, and a political thriller about the rise of fascism all at the same time? What's not to love? It's just that somewhere in all the terrible dialogue and pacing all those things go to shit. I don't know how to write it so it's good, if I did I would have. I'm not sure if anyone could, at least not without it being longer than The Irishman. That's why it only exists in my head, illusory.
There's this weird quirk in the final Mass Effect cutscenes which remains unexplained except by the indoctrination theory, where Shepherd's eyes have the sharingan thing in them that signals that a person is indoctrinated on both the synthesis and control endings, but not in the destruction ending. That's lame in its own way though, since it implies that the ending choice is actually just a multiple-choice test that you can pick the wrong answer on, but it's something.
The writing is literally so bad that you have no choice to believe that it's true. It's easier to believe in IT than it is to believe that someone could write that bad of an ending.
It's one of very few viral nerd freakouts in the last decade that wasn't unjustified.
It literally destroyed any warmth I had for the series whatsoever. I completed ME3 once and have never played any of the games since.
You're right but just wanted to say that it might be worth a second chance today thanks to a number of things.
-The extended cut ending expansion provides a lot of closure and resolution to open plot points and fates of the factions.
-the citadel dlc provides a great denouement and genuinely wonderful sendoff to shepard and the crew.
-the modders have used these assets to basically remake the ending in a way that purges the thematically revolting elements and places these things as an epilogue.
Lol I ran up to the energy pillar and accidentally triggered an ending. I watched as things were happening and didn't bother to reload a save to correct it. It was so so so bad.
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The ending changes the colour of the wave that destroys the relays. With a high enough war score they're functionally all the same. There are some ending cards that change I guess but they're nothing special.
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Castlevania SOTN if you didn't unlock the inverse castle. I'd imagine gamers back in 97 were like, damn this sucks, what a short game and a lousy ending!
Ooooh, I already knew about that because I was spoiled briefly, but losing half the game would be quite the shock. Nowadays though, everything like that is expected. I think it's good, but sometimes I like the surprise of running into a bad ending only to realize later that there was more to it.
Indigo prophecy starts strong and about halfway through starts worsening until a rushed nonsensical ending hits you
That's literally all of David Cage's games. His idea of storytelling is throwing a bunch of tropes he likes into a blender, reducing them to soup, and making someone else do the job of reconstituting it into a "Space Age" meal. They taste like everything and nothing all at once, and there's so little actual gameplay you barely have to chew.
In other words, David Cage's games are Soylent.
I remember loving omikron but i didnt even get close to the ending. Also played heavy rain but i found that lame all throughout, it was like a bad movie just longer and interactive. Im sure i will play his other games at some point, the blender approach that you mention can lead to interesting or funny stuff
Detroit Become Human is somewhat like Heavy Rain in that Sony was actually paying attention when he wrote the script, so he was obligated to not fill it with psychic karate zombie ghosts the second he got bored. HOWEVER, Connor is probably one of the funniest android characters I've seen in recent memory, and the game would be way better if he were the only player character. Kara's scenario is a long string of awkward content warning shit, and the third guy seems like he would be compelling but he's almost a blank slate.
Yeah and even then, you've gotta be really careful when using nonhumans as an allegory for marginalized groups.
Kara's story could've been good if it wasn't all overdramatic torture porn.
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The bear synth in the rich guy's house
is the kind of gonzo stuff that David Cage likes to throw in, but tempered by, as I said, being watched by a team of editors capable of saying No once in a while.
That part about Heavy Rain so fucking true lmao definition of failing upwards.
I'll still play the slop though, the wacky formula works somehow.
Kara's story is completely ruined when they reveal that Alice was a robot the whole time. I saw it coming from the carnival, but thought these writers couldn't possibly be that dumb.
Suddenly it goes from all these androids risking their lives to protect a child to a bunch of androids needlessly endangering themselves.
They could just turn off the child's temperature meter off at any time (and later on, they do).
Also it raises the question what the kid does every time you give her food. Does the game cut out the parts where she's like "What the fuck do you want me to do with this? You and everyone in this room knows I don't eat."
It's funny though if you play badly on purpose. Like the chase scenes.
Persona 5 Royal
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Persona 5 has such a great ending, then Royal had to come along and lib it up.
Maruki did nothing wrong.
I was wondering what things would change in Royal. I played 5 and I'm still early in Royal. I'm in too deep to drop it anyway, but there's always something in the Persona that really bothers me. At least it's pretty and the music is catchy.
It's still a great game, but yeah I know what you mean
No, because nobody ever reaches the end. Once you've advanced far enough you just restart with a new set of mods.
maybe people would reach it if it weren't so underwhelming. Like if there was something better than a little event popup to celebrate finishing such a massive grind.
My last HOI4 anarchist Spain run on ahistorical. I'm bad at the game, but was just about to defeat the Chinese-led 'Free Commonwealth' faction, which would have given us control over most of China and Africa, as well as the momentum to carry the revolution worldwide. Then the game flipped control of the Chinese State to Yunnan and dragged in literally every country in the world against us, except a 97% capitulated Soviet Union and its already capitulated Comintern allies. Universal liberal capitalism post-1945 ending :stalin-stressed:
Metal Gear Solid 5 obviously, because the game was unfinished because it went over budget or something.
Also any game that has multiple endings. This trope is so common it's completely pointless.
I played through Witcher 3 and inadvertently got the "bad" ending, and it just made me depressed lol. What's the point of that?
Who's gonna replay an entire game to get another 5 minute cut-scene or whatever?
Dishonored games are kinda different because each decision fills in part of the ending, which is cool. But it does still water down the game's ending.
Almost every game that has a single ending has a more powerful one than if it is has multiple, because the story can be focused on a lot more.
I'd forgive the multiple ending thing more if they explicitly state when you reach a point of no return. You can even toggle it if you want to be surprised (and devastated). Like in Morrowind when you kill a plot essential character. Or something where the ending let's you reload at a pivotal scene to get the better ending.
But even then, you're right. It's pretty rare for multiple endings to be worth it. They're usually good, bad and best/secret.
I liked Divinity: Original Sin 2, but having to plan around for an ending early on felt frustrating. And even then, the best ending in my opinion was really frustrating.
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You can take the power of divinity for yourself and become a godlike being, you can refuse to take it and let the villain get that power because you let your guard down, or the one I liked - you divvy up the godly power for everyone in the world. In this ending, they did the neoliberal thing of saying equality is bad but not explaining why. And it's like great - I get a collectivist option and I get lectured for giving too much power to people. But I still got to keep my husband so fuck 'em. I've got headcanon.
You should have waited for the Bill Gates call to know what to do with all that Source. :so-true:
Brb, gonna patent the source so that it integrates into the economy without disrupting it.
Metal Gear Solid 5 obviously, because the game was unfinished because it went over budget or something.
Hard disagree. MGSV's ending was a little rushed, but it hit all of the notes it meant to. There was a planned DLC called Lord of the Flies that went unfinished where you would deal with Liquid and the other war orphans after they steal Sahelanthropus, but that was never meant to be the end of the game. The only thing really missing from the ending is the ultimate fate of Liquid Snake and the Diamond Dogs, but that is the plot of original Metal Gear - MGSV focuses on how a bunch of guys with guns on an island grow increasingly paranoid and jingoistic, mirroring Japanese nationalism.
i think it said most of what it wanted to, but the enormous dangling thread of the stolen metal gear, plus the resolution just coming out of nowhere after an arbitrary objective completion meter is filled, plus the general pacing issues a massive open world game trying to tell a directed, cinematic story almost inevitably will have, really made it feel like something was missing (yea yea i know Never Be Game Over, it's the Phantom Pain, i get it, sure, but to me that's :cope:)
how about Detroit: Become Human? the game spends the whole time berating you for any kind of retaliatory, revolutionary violence and essentially gives you two paths:
one in which
you spend the entire game organizing peaceful protests and watching your comrades get killed in cold blood before your eyes until you realize that both sides are bad and forgive the people who oppressed you for your whole life
another has you
violently rebel against your oppressors and fight back which leads to main characters being killed off in front of you while other characters literally tell you the blood is on your hands for organizing the revolution. the ending has every Android essentially segregated inside Detroit while the rest of the world decides to simply go back to human slaves, I guess
okay that part and the battlefield part were so deeply unsatisfying, especially after having to endure all that abuse as Kara. like she was literally there to drive home how disgusting and unfair the system was but then they scream and cry angry tears when you decide to set a firm boundary of giving people autonomy
It's actually incredibly batshit insane. The main character at the point of the fight has died and been resurrected, he's fighting against the Internet in human form, also there's some super-powered houseless people who've been fighting against the internet for decades. There's some ancient mayan ghosts doing wacky stuff in the background.
I watched a let's play of this 14 years ago on SA forums and boy the nosedive from the interesting; murder-mystery-where-you-play-both-sides, beginning to the; Matrix-fights-against-the-internet, ending is a sight to see.
I actually love this game because of how shit it is lol. The terrible voice acting, awful story, "sanity" system that makes you commit suicide (or go to Florida) if you so much as look at the wrong thing, it's great. I especially like how David Cage, to show how not racist he is, put in a black character that is an offensive caricature and played hip-hop music every time he was on screen.
