Can an Ending Ruin/Save an Entire Game?

Antithesis

Paper Mario 2's ending wasn't bad (I had to youtube it and felt sad about myself) but the way the final fight worked was that there was a 10-minute unskippable cutscene halfway through that made you feel victory was inevitable, after which I would always die because I'd rushed through the final hour thinking that each fight was the final battle. D:



Ocarina of Time's ending was absolutely perfect to the point that I don't even care about the fiendish Water Temple now.

Clint Eastwood

This game's ending was so unbelievably bad that it obliterated my enjoyment of the two games in the series that came before it.

I don't think I've ever been so let down by a game before.

Big Classy

firewaterword wrote: »

I never saw all the awful people refer to in Indigo Prophecy, primarily because I never got past that god awful stealth flashback thing. Jesus that was so awful. Everything before that was great too, which makes it all the worse.

OH SHIT! That's where I got stuck the first time and gave up. Unfortunately I got nostalgic and decided to try again. Fuuuuuuuuuck

BlueBlue

Best ending

Spoiler:

Delivering the final blow to Meteos was
proving difficult until the meteos fused
into a giant fork! Using all of it's power,
the Metamo Ark cut up the well-done Meteo
like a delicious steak. Utter victory is
ours! Probably

Zombiemambo

The climax is one of the most important parts of any story, so yes, it can definitely save or destroy a game.

skace

While I'm never happy when a game has a sucky ending, I wouldn't say it ruins the game for me. However if I manage to stick with a crappy game and it has an absolutely amazing ending then I would think it might make the game for me, after all, I did play up to that point. With a really crappy game, I would never be playing long enough to see any semblance of an ending.

As for Fallout 3

Spoiler:

Everything in Fallout 3 was par for the course for Bethesda. The whole game is weak and only impressive as a testament to it's own engine (just like Oblivion). And also like Oblivion, I'm not sure why I played it all the way until the end other than nothing in it was so revolting as to make me want to completely quit. It's mediocrity exemplified in game code. The ending was not that horrid, it was basically just another one of many slaps in the face, in fact, the only reason the ending would be any worse is because you realize the game does in fact get the last laugh.

Vincent Grayson

Zombiemambo wrote: »

The climax is one of the most important parts of any story, so yes, it can definitely save or destroy a game.

A lot of games seem to have their climax a good bit before the actual "end".

AuburnTiger

You guys are such whiners. Fallout 3's ending wasn't that bad.

I actually liked it (the good ending; I don't play evil).

Morninglord

Renzo wrote: »

Bionic Monkey wrote: »

As long as a game has a fucking ending these days, I'm happy. That is the worst fucking trend the game industry has indulged in recently.

Here's a pro-tip for developers: You want to make a trilogy of games? A trilogy is three self-contained stories that tell a larger story when put together. It's not one story chopped up into three pieces.


Fuck.

I'm with you here. Star Wars is a great example. Each movie tells a story, but you put them together and you get a bigger story.

Indiana Jones and Back to the Future kinda work too, but with those it's really just 3 episodes involving the same characters.

Uh, no.

ESB didn't really resolve anything. It was a textbook cliffhanger ending.

Was a great movie, but it wasn't an ending. It was quite firmly a great big middle.

The easy way to spot it is: Can you ever watch (a particular film, series entry, etc) without ever having watched the other films and feel you could walk away from the series forever with nothing else needing to be resolved?

Because I got that feeling from 4 and 6, but I didn't get it from 5.

Nocren

Fiatil wrote: »

Burnage wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

LewieP wrote: »

Heh, no one has said Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy yet.

Such a big shame.

Yes, this game is pretty much the most perfect example of an ending/endgame ruining what was pure awesome up to that point.

Spoiler:

The real ending of that game is when you die in the theme park.

Believing this makes the game so much better.

Yeah, I mean I can look back on the early parts of the game and remember them fondly, but that ending was just buhhh. I just don't understand why that would ever happen to a game so awesome up until that point. I love Fallout 3 and Kotor 2 with their fairly rushed endings, but this was something else entirely. It doesn't help that the game runs with it for a few hours and doesn't just give us a quick merciful end.

I don't think I ever actually finished the game. I got to the theme park but then

Spoiler:

Your Ex (now current) girlfriend screaming for you to save her and then when you actually get up there to save her she yells at you for being so stupid and falling into a trap. I KNEW IT WAS A TRAP BITCH!

At that point I had to return the game but both me and my cousin realized that it was pretty much good up to that point then dropped quickly downhill.

Doak22

I remember being frustrated towards the end of Braid, trying to get every last puzzle piece felt a little tedious, and I had to youtube two of them. The ending, though, changed the game from good concept to art.

Also, Mario 64 has a fantastic ending. And most of the Zeldas.

Zombiemambo

Vincent Grayson wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

The climax is one of the most important parts of any story, so yes, it can definitely save or destroy a game.

A lot of games seem to have their climax a good bit before the actual "end".

Some game developers have quite a bit to learn.

Mustachio Jones

System Shock 2's last cutscene was atrocious. Absolutely awful. Then again, the Rickenbacker was just copy-pasted textures and boring level design, so there's that, too.

Big Classy

BioShock is guilty of climax-ing too early. :winky:

Viscountalpha

Battletoads!

Spoiler:

You just beat the one of the hardest nes games out there! congrats! break out the soda an the popcorn.

Zombiemambo

Oh, and speaking of endings, Bioshock:

Spoiler:

If they cut out those last few hours with Fontaine...the game would have been near-perfect. It wasn't a particularly clever twist and the game lost all of its momentum after the big reveal. It had some good set pieces (I love the apartment warzone), but it's not enough to redeem it.

The_Scarab

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Oh, and speaking of endings, Bioshock:

Spoiler:

If they cut out those last few hours with Fontaine...the game would have been near-perfect. It wasn't a particularly clever twist and the game lost all of its momentum after the big reveal. It had some good set pieces (I love the apartment warzone), but it's not enough to redeem it.

Shift the tenements section pre-Ryan and cut the rest, especially the museum/become a big daddy part and yes, it would have been perfect.

The final boss was disappointing also.

But the tenements section was the best part of the game, impossibly atmospheric, creepy as fuck. Plus the little sister creation facility was twisted.

Hahnsoo1

Ugh. Indigo Prophecy. I like to think of the game as the entire Matrix Trilogy. It starts off pretty cool (first movie), then you get weird super powers which break the immersion (end of the first movie), but you hang on thinking that the game will be better (2nd movie), then the end is some sort of bizarre Supa Saiyan Dragonball Z duel which makes no sense (3rd movie). And the main character's love interest dies.'

The actual ending to the game itself is an appropriate denouement, oddly enough. But the last half of the game goes down the tubes, after all of the awesomeness of the first half.

Aroduc

While I think Terranigma had a very appropriate and fitting ending and I'm glad they went that direction, it also removed any desire for me to ever play the game ever again. I guess that counts as a bad ending, all things considered.

Still, I can't really imagine it having a 'good' ending either, but they really went the soul crushing route there.

Zombiemambo

The_Scarab wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Oh, and speaking of endings, Bioshock:

Spoiler:

If they cut out those last few hours with Fontaine...the game would have been near-perfect. It wasn't a particularly clever twist and the game lost all of its momentum after the big reveal. It had some good set pieces (I love the apartment warzone), but it's not enough to redeem it.

Shift the tenements section pre-Ryan and cut the rest, especially the museum/become a big daddy part and yes, it would have been perfect.

The final boss was disappointing also.

But the tenements section was the best part of the game, impossibly atmospheric, creepy as fuck. Plus the little sister creation facility was twisted.

The final boss was terrible. Really easy to kill, not at all challenging. The last few hours felt pretty rushed in terms of story and gameplay.

PolloDiablo

Bionic Monkey wrote: »

As long as a game has a fucking ending these days, I'm happy. That is the worst fucking trend the game industry has indulged in recently.

Here's a pro-tip for developers: You want to make a trilogy of games? A trilogy is three self-contained stories that tell a larger story when put together. It's not one story chopped up into three pieces.


Fuck.

It's great that Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed came out so close to each other, and they each perfectly illustrate this absolutely fucking vital point.

Mass Effect is a good game, with a self-contained story that can continue on into a satisfying trilogy. It ended with a great finale, and really gave you a sense of accomplishment and progression. I'm really looking forward to ME2.

Assassin's Creed was a horrible abortion of an ending, brutally cut off from the rest of the trilogy and left to wriggle and die. This awful first third of a story gives no closure; hell, they barely introduce what the hell's going on. I was even one of those that liked the game up until that point, but if that's the kind of terrible shit that passes for storytelling at Ubisoft, AC 2 and 3 can go fuck themselves.

Cliffhangers are not acceptable when someone has to wait four years and shell out $60 for the next installment.

Fuck.

Big Classy

No Soul Reaver mentioning? The games in this awesome series were all fantastic and each ended at just the right moment leaving you enough information that you're satisfied but still left wanting that little bit more. Until Defiance.

They totally rushed that. The story felt so condensed that I felt it was a huge let down on the entire series.

Morninglord

Huh?

Soul Reaver 1 had closure?

Nobody told me.

It was the first game I'd ever played to the end that left me feeling unsatisfied.

Big Classy

Morninglord wrote: »

Huh?

Soul Reaver 1 had closure?

Nobody told me.

It was the first game I'd ever played to the end that left me feeling unsatisfied.

Yeah it was probably the first game I'd ever played that didn't just finish..... But, because it took me so long getting there I was pretty happy to wait. Ofcourse, I can see a lot of people being pissed at havng to not only buy the secnod game.... but also the PS2. Its the equivalent of Assassins Creed 2 coming out on the Xbox 720.

Oronis

Anyone remember beating the Buck Rogers RPG on the Sega Genesis?

unknownsome1

An ending doesn't save or ruin an entire game for me. There have been games that I liked that had endings that didn't match the quality of the rest of the game like Onimusha: Warlords and FFVII.

Also, am I the only one here that actually liked the good ending to Bioshock (haven't yet gotten the evil ending) and thought the final boss fight was pretty cool?

DiannaoChong

Endings can definitely effect how I feel about a game. FO3 soured my mouth so much that I cant play it anymore. Startropics was well worth all those weeks of hard work. Prince of persia, until after the credits, moved me and actually caused me to think about what you just did, and what it means. Then you play after the credits and that effect was ruined for me.

The following is required for any thread revolving an ending.

Path of Neo spoilers. Quite a good game to start with, and then you hit this.

How to save your game, and make it awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TLJb9NZN0I

How to realize how fucking ridiculous that just was, and push it to the limit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sen5svoZE4


Also guys, remember, cliffhanger ending != bad ending. I felt HL2 was an excellent ending, even though it was a cliffhanger.

Terrible endings? Fallout 3. Besides the obvious: Why is there a fucking dog in every photo? I know the answer to this(I never got him though), but this stumped both my friends who dont follow games, as they never knew that you could get him. They literally thought bethesda was fucking with them. One friend thought it was (midgame spoiler)

Spoiler:

the spirit of his father

. No friend, its just terrible design.

useless4

My wife and I enjoyed the actual ending to Blue Dragon, but damn that last battle was sooooooo anti climatic.

We had fought King Poos after all that would hand us our ass in literally .5 seconds of the first round AND won... but the final battle we didn't even get hit if I remember right. After all that epic questing to get there and just fight like nothing it was just ---- after the battle was done my wife just sat there like her childhood pet passed away. it was just shock and disappointment. so at least the ending story was good enough to rebound.

Spoit

Talking about the other end, one series that has good endings is the quest for glory series. While you have pretty good puzzles spread throught the game, they're usually only one or two skills at a time, but the last 20 minutes or so are pure application and combination of all the class specific skills you have. And what's better is that the ending is the one part where you really get the benefit from replaying as each of the 4 different classes.

mrsnackroad

Zombiemambo wrote: »

The_Scarab wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Oh, and speaking of endings, Bioshock:

Spoiler:

If they cut out those last few hours with Fontaine...the game would have been near-perfect. It wasn't a particularly clever twist and the game lost all of its momentum after the big reveal. It had some good set pieces (I love the apartment warzone), but it's not enough to redeem it.

Shift the tenements section pre-Ryan and cut the rest, especially the museum/become a big daddy part and yes, it would have been perfect.

The final boss was disappointing also.

But the tenements section was the best part of the game, impossibly atmospheric, creepy as fuck. Plus the little sister creation facility was twisted.

The final boss was terrible. Really easy to kill, not at all challenging. The last few hours felt pretty rushed in terms of story and gameplay.

Y'know what would've been great? What with the "choice" thing they beat you in the face with?

Spoiler:

Being able to say "fuck it" and leave Rapture in Fontaine's hands. For all of the "A Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys" that got thrown about, you go from blindly following Atlas to blindly following the doctor lady, and... pah, that's more than just the ending I've got complaints about.

To flip that around, I loved the ending to Earthbound.

"You've just saved the ENTIRE WORLD from alien invasion! Go check out the world you saved!"

And you see characters you've helped, people in the towns you've saved, and their lives are BETTER for your involvement, and damned if I don't have a goofy smile on my face by the end of it all.

Djiem

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

Ugh. Indigo Prophecy. I like to think of the game as the entire Matrix Trilogy. It starts off pretty cool (first movie), then you get weird super powers which break the immersion (end of the first movie), but you hang on thinking that the game will be better (2nd movie), then the end is some sort of bizarre Supa Saiyan Dragonball Z duel which makes no sense (3rd movie). And the main character's love interest dies.'

The actual ending to the game itself is an appropriate denouement, oddly enough. But the last half of the game goes down the tubes, after all of the awesomeness of the first half.

Well, that depends. There are three endings. The human victory ending is a proper denouement, but it doesn't make up for the awful endgame.

Spoiler:

The second the ex died was when the game took a quick dive into shit to me. And then, when the bugs reveal themselves to be some Matrix-like computers? What the fuck?! And the necrophilia! God, the necrophiliac sex! UGH. Strangely enough, there's a tiny part that's good in the shit-section of the story to me, and that is running to get the autistic girl before the purple and orange clan.

Another game whose "best" ending I hated: Dead Rising. It's not conclusive enough, and too negative.

I also hate every single story where the protagonist dies. If he's going to die, even in a sacrifice, I feel like all the time I spent playing the game is wasted.

useless4

mrsnackroad wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

The_Scarab wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Oh, and speaking of endings, Bioshock:

Spoiler:

If they cut out those last few hours with Fontaine...the game would have been near-perfect. It wasn't a particularly clever twist and the game lost all of its momentum after the big reveal. It had some good set pieces (I love the apartment warzone), but it's not enough to redeem it.

Shift the tenements section pre-Ryan and cut the rest, especially the museum/become a big daddy part and yes, it would have been perfect.

The final boss was disappointing also.

But the tenements section was the best part of the game, impossibly atmospheric, creepy as fuck. Plus the little sister creation facility was twisted.

The final boss was terrible. Really easy to kill, not at all challenging. The last few hours felt pretty rushed in terms of story and gameplay.

Y'know what would've been great? What with the "choice" thing they beat you in the face with?

Spoiler:

Being able to say "fuck it" and leave Rapture in Fontaine's hands. For all of the "A Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys" that got thrown about, you go from blindly following Atlas to blindly following the doctor lady, and... pah, that's more than just the ending I've got complaints about.

To flip that around, I loved the ending to Earthbound.

"You've just saved the ENTIRE WORLD from alien invasion! Go check out the world you saved!"

And you see characters you've helped, people in the towns you've saved, and their lives are BETTER for your involvement, and damned if I don't have a goofy smile on my face by the end of it all.

That was the part of Blue Dragon that made up for the last battle, every single character down to the BD version of slime (poo snakes) got resolution...

BubbahotepI

I loved Indigo Prophecy

But then the last few hours it started going downhill, Until it got to the end and then i was pissed at how hard I searched for it. It was maybe 5-8 hours of gameplay i beat it the second day i had it.

But i still enjoyed the first half of the game, Before it got all crazy and Sci-fi

I cant wait for Heavy rain, Its going to be everything i wanted indigo prophecy to be, Only better

RockinX

Doak22 wrote: »

Also, Mario 64 has a fantastic ending. And most of the Zeldas.

Ocarina of Time isn't one of them, IMO.

Spoiler:

I mean, come on. Zelda takes you back to your own time and it's like Link went to all that trouble for nothing. When I first beat it, that what I thought. Then when Master Quest came out, I learned thanks to the Spirit Temple that the Ocarina of Time had the power to make things that happened in the future stay like that in the past, and thus making Ganondorf stay sealed in the past after going back.

But still, couldn't she have done that from the beginning to avoid all that trouble? Although, the Triforce of Power may have prevented that, but we don't know that.

I don't find that ending satifactory in the least bit. At least Majora's lame was satisfactory because

Spoiler:

All the good deeds you did in the main game actually happened after all that time-travelling and you could see everyone happy together.

Inter_d

Djiem wrote: »

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

Ugh. Indigo Prophecy. I like to think of the game as the entire Matrix Trilogy. It starts off pretty cool (first movie), then you get weird super powers which break the immersion (end of the first movie), but you hang on thinking that the game will be better (2nd movie), then the end is some sort of bizarre Supa Saiyan Dragonball Z duel which makes no sense (3rd movie). And the main character's love interest dies.'

The actual ending to the game itself is an appropriate denouement, oddly enough. But the last half of the game goes down the tubes, after all of the awesomeness of the first half.

Well, that depends. There are three endings. The human victory ending is a proper denouement, but it doesn't make up for the awful endgame.

Spoiler:

The second the ex died was when the game took a quick dive into shit to me. And then, when the bugs reveal themselves to be some Matrix-like computers? What the fuck?! And the necrophilia! God, the necrophiliac sex! UGH. Strangely enough, there's a tiny part that's good in the shit-section of the story to me, and that is running to get the autistic girl before the purple and orange clan.

Another game whose "best" ending I hated: Dead Rising. It's not conclusive enough, and too negative.

I also hate every single story where the protagonist dies. If he's going to die, even in a sacrifice, I feel like all the time I spent playing the game is wasted.

I recall reading about indigo prophecy a few years back and how it was supposed to be trilogy of games. you'd have it like the matrix i guess but with the Proper amount of escalation. then of course it was the case of development getting halved and the other two future installments to get canned so they had to can a trilogy worth of stories into one title and the result was the weird fucked up mess we had. it could have been great and some of the elements were definitely awesome but then the story just...had some sort of seizure.

Spoiler:

Seriously??? lady cop you don't even know this suspected murderer and all of a sudden you love him and are going to have his baby??? that's what pissed me off, it came out of absolutely no where. well, that and the hobo underground spy network...sheesh

Jurg

Contact was a crappy game, but it had one hell of an ending.

My personal favorite in a videogame, actually.

SageinaRage

Indigo Prophecy had lots of pacing and plot problems beyond the ending. Let's just leave it at that.

edit:: Contact? Really? I had kind of shelved that permanently, but if the ending's really good, I may have to drudge it back up.

Bionic Monkey

DiannaoChong wrote: »

Endings can definitely effect how I feel about a game. FO3 soured my mouth so much that I cant play it anymore. Startropics was well worth all those weeks of hard work. Prince of persia, until after the credits, moved me and actually caused me to think about what you just did, and what it means. Then you play after the credits and that effect was ruined for me.

The following is required for any thread revolving an ending.

Path of Neo spoilers. Quite a good game to start with, and then you hit this.

How to save your game, and make it awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TLJb9NZN0I

How to realize how fucking ridiculous that just was, and push it to the limit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sen5svoZE4


Also guys, remember, cliffhanger ending != bad ending. I felt HL2 was an excellent ending, even though it was a cliffhanger.

Terrible endings? Fallout 3. Besides the obvious: Why is there a fucking dog in every photo? I know the answer to this(I never got him though), but this stumped both my friends who dont follow games, as they never knew that you could get him. They literally thought bethesda was fucking with them. One friend thought it was (midgame spoiler)

Spoiler:

the spirit of his father

. No friend, its just terrible design.

Wait, wait, wait... are those the honest-to-god, un-edited endings for Path of Neo? I've had that game sitting in my backlog for a couple years now, but if that's the actual ending, I have to play that now.

Jurg

SageinaRage wrote: »

Indigo Prophecy had lots of pacing and plot problems beyond the ending. Let's just leave it at that.

edit:: Contact? Really? I had kind of shelved that permanently, but if the ending's really good, I may have to drudge it back up.

How far are you? The game really isn't that long.

The ending is kinda trippy pseudo-philosophy, but I eat that shit up.

Basically, when playing the game, you can tell that they had a lot of ambition, but failed at execution. The ending is the ONE thing they got right.

SageinaRage

Jurg wrote: »

SageinaRage wrote: »

Indigo Prophecy had lots of pacing and plot problems beyond the ending. Let's just leave it at that.

edit:: Contact? Really? I had kind of shelved that permanently, but if the ending's really good, I may have to drudge it back up.

How far are you? The game really isn't that long.

The ending is kinda trippy pseudo-philosophy, but I eat that shit up.

Ahhhh.....let's see....in the pyramid area, somewhere. After the military base, where you get the air outfit.