The Worst Game Endings

[Pop]

It's in the BOMB-001 design doc. I'm just relishing putting my players in that situation.

[213374U]

Never read those.

 

Sounds very Fallout-ish, though. Except for the you-can't-stop-doomsday bit, that is.

[Tigranes]

Ooh, right. I actually did read BOMB-001. I remember thinking, totally damn awesome. Very similar to PST, actually - sometimes, there are just things you can't escape - or in thiscase, stop. Brilliant.

 

Now soemone needs to mod Gothic 3 for VB.

[Pop]

Now soemone needs to mod Gothic 3 FIFE for VB.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:D Maybe maybe. Most of the art needed wouldn't be available.

Edited January 8, 2007 by Pop

[mkreku]

So many bad endings.. I mean, I played games back on my Commodore 64. They had like 48 KB to use for the entire game, with graphics and sounds. How much of an ending do you think they stuck in there then? I vividly remember beating this stupid, ultra-difficult shoot'em up called Delta after months of playing it. The ending was the text "Well done" (I think) popping up on the screen for a few seconds.. before the game started all over, all 32 almost impossibly difficult levels again.. with a new music score playing.

 

The games on the Commodore 64 had some of the worst endings ever.

 

On the PC the game Hitman: Blood Money comes to mind when thinking about great endings.

 

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King has the best ending(s) of all games I've played on the Playstation 2.

[Pop]

A game I love and Josh Sawyer loves to bring up in regard to romance: Full Throttle. Great, great ending.

[Tale]

I really enjoyed FF7, but I personally think a lot of the "best game ever" status comes because it wowed people with pretty CG movies.

Best game ever status, from me, comes from the emotional attachment to Aerith. The CG movies and music probably were a big help in that, such as in the introduction and her death scene.

[alanschu]

So it's "the best game ever" because of a character that dies on the first disc?

[Tale]

So it's "the best game ever" because of a character that dies on the first disc?

That's the entire motivational setup!

 

And there are plenty of other great things about it, but that's the one that puts it over the top. The ability for a game to inspire emotion is a very incredible thing.

[alanschu]

It's been a while since I played, but weren't you already hunting Sephiroth? And weren't you already pursuing him because of Cloud's link to him? I remember it being a road block on the adventure, not the raison d'etre (especially seeing as you're already 20 some odd hours into the game by that point).

 

The thing that always bothered me about the whole situation was that the world was a world where death wasn't particularly permanent. I had already revived Aeris numerous times from death prior to that, but now that she's stabbed by a sword, I can't? Odd. Why could I not bring her back with some Phoenix down? Her wounds couldn't possibly have been worse than some of the crap she endured up until that point. It seemed too artificial to me. I would have preferred her dying some other way personally (perhaps falling into an abyss, where her body is actually gone).

 

I actually preferred Tifa the entire time (and that's who I spent my time at the Golden Saucer with), and I enjoyed the part where she was looking after Cloud after he lost himself more than Aeris' death scene.

 

The music of the whole Aeris scene though is excellent, and I think it played a huge part in making people like the whole scene.

 

 

I guess it's because it wasn't the first time I had experienced the loss of a companion in an RPG. I was shocked at Dupre's death in Serpent Isle, and the minor eulogy he receives at the end of the game put chills down my spine. After going through a lot with my friends Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre (both in the game, and throughout the entire series), it just seemed so empty not having Dupre in the party any more.

[astr0creep]

Aeris's death shocked me because it was the first time a major party member died in games for me and I never saw it coming. I was like "woah, Sephiroth is soo gonna get it now. Cloud will save her for sure. Then I thought the rest of the game would be about getting her out of the life stream.

 

However, like Alan, I was moved a lot more by the relashionship between Tifa and Cloud, especially during the scene when Cloud finds himself. The music in this scene is also quite fantastic.

 

As for bad endings...

 

Morrowind's "ending" sucked.

DOOM: I remember wanting to see this so bad but getting a huge disapointment. A skewered bunny. WTF?

X-COM<s ending was also quite crappy with one of the easiest final bosses I've ever faced.

 

As for best ones, I'd have to say FF7 tops my list. A 30 minute CGI movie depicting the end of the world and its rebirth. I mean... wow. With a little extra after the credits.

Then I'd say Metal Gear Solid, followed by God of War.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I never got into the whole Aeris thing mainly because the game kept dropping hints that she'd die, and because I'd been exposed to main characters dying in RPGs before. Ultima VII, Phantasy Star 1, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy IV through VI, Chrono Trigger... Aeries came off as a mere footnote after those.

[Dark_Raven]

Icewind Dale2

Kotor 2

[Wistrik]

So many bad endings.. I mean, I played games back on my Commodore 64. They had like 48 KB to use for the entire game, with graphics and sounds. How much of an ending do you think they stuck in there then? I vividly remember beating this stupid, ultra-difficult shoot'em up called Delta after months of playing it. The ending was the text "Well done" (I think) popping up on the screen for a few seconds.. before the game started all over, all 32 almost impossibly difficult levels again.. with a new music score playing. 

 

The games on the Commodore 64 had some of the worst endings ever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks to having the ability to switch the ROMs and I/O maps out of processor view, the C-64 actually offered almost all of it's 64k of RAM to commercial software. Only BASIC programs had to contend with 32k or so of memory. And yes, endings were rather abrupt back then, usually with a final screen announcing you'd won, and that's it. The early games of the Ultima series comes to mind in that regard.

 

PC endings... well the Half-Life g-man endings always leave me somewhat disappointed, but I agree about Episode 1's ending being really cool.

 

Throne of Bhaal's ending was unimaginative, but it was just an expansion so I cut it a little slack. After all, the whole series hobbled my character so that he was less powerful than his non-tainted party members 99.9% of the time. Yay.

[alanschu]

The ending sequence of MGS was great. Escaping from the base in the jeep was great. I preferred the Otacon ending as well, with Meryl not making it. Made the scene where Snake finds Meryl more significant IMO. Though when you finally get to the final sequence, it is a bit lame that in the end it's just a Deus Ex Machina.

 

As for the 30 minute CG movie, I just thought it was kind of silly, when I saw it the second time. I know I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the 30 minute CG ending of Squall wandering through the wasteland (of his mind IIRC) and ultimately finding Rinoa. As a love story (which I think Square tried to do between Cloud and Aeris) I thought that Rinoa/Squall's was better executed.

 

But then again, people bashed FF8 for having people that actually looked like people....

 

 

I'm not sure what my favourite endings are. I remember getting chills when the Guardian screamed "Damn You Avatar!!! Damn Yoooooou!!!!" at the end of Ultima VII, as well as goosebumps at the epilogue of Serpent Isle when floating through the etheral void. Pandora Tomorrow had a neat ending, though I preferred the pseudo-closure of Chaos Theory, especially considering I loved the interactions Sam had with everyone, especially Grimmsdottir.

 

I really enjoyed the Half-Life ending, especially seeing as I never considered joining the Gman my first time playing, so I thought that the ending was actually supposed to be the bad ending!

 

System Shock 2 had a funny ending, and I thought that the Helios merging ending of Deus Ex was pretty sweet.

 

 

If I had to choose, I'd probably pick Fallout. The recap of everything, and the anticlimax of the encounter with the Overseer was great. Bonus points for the awesome end sequence, which was my confrontation with The Master.

[Niten_Ryu]

In days of c64 it was common just to get "game over" or "well done" if you finished some game.

 

From modern games both Obsidian games deserve "crappy ending" title. In cliffhanger or otherwise perplexing endings there need to be some certainty that there will be sequel. Half-Life 2 ending would have been total crap if they didn't announce that series would continue for sure.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Alanschu, I find the ending of Serpent Isle really memorable too, both for the loss of Dupre and for the big scary red hand. That was in the days when we accepted cliffhanger endings because we had confidence that a sequel would be made if the company said so. Even so, I think it was overshadowed by the scene with Batlin at the Wall of Lights.

 

It wasn't precisely the ending, because it occurs one puzzle before the end of the game, but the Gabriel Knight 2 opera is still the best cut scene I've ever seen in a video game. I liked the ending of GK3 as well, sad but fitting, and very true to the characters.

 

A lot of games have endings that are a bit of a let down, but I can't think of many that are truly awful. The ending of Quest for Glory V was a bit limp, and didn't do justice to the epic five-game journey you'd just been on. The celebration at the end of QfG2 was much better.

 

I'm afraid that Kotor 2 is the second worst I can think of right now, and only made worse by the fact that the rest of the game was really very good. Maybe the restoration project can erase the horrible memories...

 

The worst ever is Syberia II. At least Syberia 1's ending was redeemed by the very good game before it. Syberia II just left me sad at how pointless and emotionally empty the whole experience had been. I doubt Kate Walker felt much better.

[Hell Kitty]

Beyond Good and Evil was disappointing, because it was left open for a sequel that woill never come.

 

The ending I've most enjoyed in recent times is that in MGS3.

[Pidesco]

But that's not the game's fault.

[Hell Kitty]

But that's not the game's fault.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It is, kinda. No game needs an ending thats wide open. Thief 1 hints at a possible sequel, but raps the game up nicely. I really dislike the trend of games that don't finish the story.

[astr0creep]

But that's not the game's fault.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It is, kinda. No game needs an ending thats wide open. Thief 1 hints at a possible sequel, but raps the game up nicely. I really dislike the trend of games that don't finish the story.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Like KotOR2...

[Pidesco]

You have a point, although I think BG&E's endin wasn't that wide open. They manage to give a sense of accomplishment to the ending.

 

To me, what was most bothersome about BG&E's ending wasn't the way it was done, but rather the fact that by the end of the game I actually cared for Jade and her friends and as such, I didn't really want the game to end.

[astr0creep]

I need to play BG&Es...

[kirottu]

Lionheart.

[Shadowstrider]

Lionheart.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You played that game to the end?

 

You are a stronger man than I.