Dissapointing Endings

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I've just finished NWN and thought that after all the build up throughout the game, the ending was a bit pants. I've noticed this on a lot of RPGs. You get your bottom kicked a few times, figure out how to win the battle and then the end is...rubbish (BTW, how good am I at not using bad language?!).

Are there any games out there where you don't end up thinking 'Is that it?'?

 

Sure. BG2's ending was pretty good (both SOA and TOB.)

 

That's on my list of 'to play' games. I'll have a go at that one next I think

 

I think this problem is getting worse, as most games are automatically trying to set up the sequel rather than concluding the story nowadays. Though RPGs don't tend to suffer too badly as sequels are generally a completely different storyline anyway.

On a personal note the Breath of Fire 3 ending is one I'm really fond of. Superficially the story was your typical twee kids fairy tale but there was an awful lot of ambiguity contained in it for those old enough to get it. This was gradually hinted at during the game, climaxing in the end fight and the ending confirmed it in a few throwaway lines. I don't think spoilers are necessary at this stage but I might as well use them.

Spoiler

The game deals with the conflict between the godess Myria and the dragon people, of whom you are the last survivior following her extermination programme against them. It's gradually hinted throughout the game that her power may not be a god's magic but merely high technology. The locations get more high tech as you progress, culiminating in the final fight against her on an orbital space station. Her form occasionally splits to reveal wiring etc. During the ending Myria, alone, lets out a cry 'If there is a god answer me, what should I have done with the dragons?' This confirms the suspicion that Myria herself is not really a god. It also links into another ambiguity, was the genocide justified? From your butt-kicking prowess it's clear that the dragons were far more powerful than any other race. Not all of them were good like you, so what would their effect on the other races be if left to live. It's made clear that the dragons were easily powerful enough to stop the slaughter if they wished. Why did they allow themselves to be exterminated? Did your ancestors agree with Myria?

 

Knights of the old Republic 2 had a pretty disappointing ending in regard of the light side part. You fly away with your ship, the area behind you collapses. That's it.

The best ending of games I played through has Planescape Torment.
It leaves you with a feeling when watching the credits as if you've watched a great movie.

 

PST has got very good endings. Some are not as rewarding as others but that's perfectly justified design-wise. I thought all of the endings were satisfying in terms of the choices you make at the end and their consequences, but some are more bitter.

I thought BG2 had the best ending of the trilogy. It wraps things up nicely yet leaves a nice opening for the expansion.

Some of the most disappointing endings I've come across in otherwise excellent games are the first Eye of the Beholder, Pools of Darkness (a big, big letdown), Anachronox (doesn't really have one), Lands of Lore 1 & 2.

Some other great endings I can think of are Arcanum, Eye of the Beholder 2, Dark Queen of Krynn (SSI learner their lesson for these two), World of Xeen (both the Darkside ending and the final ending were excellent), Knights of the Old Republic, and I'm sure there's many others that aren't coming to mind.

 

Planescape: Torment's best ending is simply incredible and epic feeling. I especially like it with Fall-From-Grace with you.

 

Bioshock has an ok ending. But what made me hate it was the last boss fight. (no it was not hard. it was a cakewalk)

Fallout 3 has a horrible ending.

Diablo 2 (and its expansion) had fairly good endings.

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has a truly horrible ending as it leaves it open for the expansion, which was released for about a month before the company shut down.

I quite like the endings of the Devil may Cry series.

Dungeon Siege was pathetic.

I will not go on.

 

Award for most disappointing ending ever: Eye of the Beholder 3.

The final cutscene was so epic, it filled an entire 3.5" floppy disk. Sadly, the publisher decided it was too expensive to ship an extra disk with every game. Upon completion, rather than the intended sequence, you just dropped to DOS. Bathos, thy name is EotB3.

 

Actually, I like the idea of giving the player the emotional satisfaction of the win and rewarding ending then if the sequel comes out, draw up the early parts to "draw you back in" for another round. Max Payne did this well. The first game gave you the satisfaction of getting your revenge and taking the super nasty drug off the street. It even gives you back your name at the end. Then in the first scenes of the second one, it sends you into a scene where a tie to a "loose end" that you didn't know was still loose is revealed...

Diablo did that as well. After the first one, the Lord of Terror is vanquished and again imprisoned, only to have a horrific revelation part way through the second game that really sets up that sequel. And to enable an expansion, they leave one loose end open in the main game that you tie up in the expansion pack...

On a related note, Civilization has done that well from the beginning, by providing a synopsis of the game for your viewing pleasure, where you get to see your glorious rise to dominance!

The only real disappointment I ever faced was when I beat Street Fighter II on the easiest setting on a friend's SNES, and it just said "Next time, try a harder level"...

 

The MM7 Light ending was the worst waste of time I ever seen in my entire life. Not to mention that because of whining morons, this became the canon ending. The Dark ending was so much better -- and not to mention it was originally meant to be the canon ending. Until those morons whined, that is.

 

But where else is the satisfaction, when you actually beat it for the first time in the hardest settings (iirc it is 5 to 7)?
I liked the ending with Ryu .

 

I tend to forget the disappointing endings mostly (apparently, human memory is geared towards remembering mostly positive things), but the most recent game I remember with a disappointing ending was Halflife 2. It all builds up to a climax well enough, but it doesn't answer any questions. It leaves so many loose ends dangling that it makes you wonder if they're ever going to tie at least some of them up.

Halflife did this as well to a degree, but at least then you had the satisfaction of knowing you stopped the invasion from the borderworld.

Spoiler

In HL2 you manage to push a brewing rebellion into all out guerilla warfare and ice Breen while managing to trigger a nuke-like explosion in the middle of the battlezone, but that didn't really accomplish anything other than adding to the general devastation.

You still don't know who is behind the 7 day war, except maybe for that flash of a giant maggot that Breen was talking to. Plus, we still don't know who or what the **** the G-man is.

It seems like they deliberately left the ending so wide open in HL2 as to give themselves plenty of leeway for working on the episodes that followed the game.

Bioshock didn't have a very good ending either. All you get is a short vid of what you'll be doing next, where the good ending makes me reflexively spit to get rid of the flowery taste in my mouth. The bad ending was sort of funny, though because the choice of which ending you get is solely based on how you treated the little girls in-game, I never really felt like I had done so many bad things to justify that degree of evilness.

@Gnarff:
I don't think that's what Silvery originally intended with this topic. What you're referring to is a game that has a proper ending, not referring once to a sequel, and the sequel picks up with threads that appeared tied up or that you weren't even aware of and continuing with these.

What Silvery, and myself also, think of are games that don't really end so much as leave you hanging on a cliffhanger, teasing you with a future continuation of the story, which may or may not actually happen. I've not played the game, but apparently Halo 2 did this very noticeably. In my above example, HL2 did this as well, though I suppose many people were satisfied with just taking out Breen and seeing the G-man explain nothing once more.

Other disappointing endings could be considered Call of Duty 4, which basically ends in the middle of a fight, not giving you any ending or closure at all.

Maybe an unusual choice, but I've always found the endings you could get in the original Command & Conquer very satisfying. Apart from having multiple endings, the ending movies had their share of awesomeness as well (Ion Cannon taking the Nod temple down, anyone?) which made me feel good about having finished the game.

 

But even if the sequel is being thought about before development is finished on the first one, the ending of the first should be complete and the sequel should build upon that...

 

Most endings are a real let down. BG2's ending really bugged me. ToB's ending was appropriately epic. I actually felt pretty satisfied with Morrowind's ending.

Probably the only ending that really felt "right" for me was KOTOR's, after the shocking twist and everything. The Star Wars music helped. You really felt like you were in a classic Star Wars movie. The wookiee grunts, someone pumps their fist, then *bam* that classic SW music and credits roll. Now that's an ending.

 

Kotor 2 had the worst ending in my book. In fact, the last third of that game was horrible. Felt like I was playing an unfinished game (wish i actually was). Baldur`s Gate had a very good ending, despite the fact that throne of bhaal sucked ass. Compared to Bg 1 and 2 anyway. Was like a diablo version of d&d, in a way. Also, as pointed out above, MM7 Light side, had a horrendus ending. After struggling so much through the entire game, one would think you would get an appropriate ending. No such luck. The ultima games kind of lacked in the ending departments as well. But all in all, for me, Kotor 2 was the worst.

 

Exactly. But the entire reason for this topic is that regularly games do not give a proper ending to a game and only leave you with a teaser for the next game.

One of the few games that actually made a reference in their endings to a sequel and still felt like it had an appropriately satisfying ending, was Prey. They give you the ending you've been working towards for the entire game, and roll out the credits, and finally, after the credits, you suddenly see one of the characters from the game again, inviting you into a next adventure. This is ok because the game itself has been tied up properly, and by adding the little bit about a sequel after the credits, they make it separate from the actual game, basically only saying that they're thinking of making a sequel.

 

You were. KotOR II is right up there with Bloodlines in terms of games most outrageously butchered to meet the publishing date. I wish Team Gizka would finalize their restoration project..Let's just say it seems there were more scenes cut than released, at least in the latter part. Still, I found the light side ending bearable - kind of like the "riding into the sunset". I need to put it back on the CD and do a Dark side run - I aborted my first one around the middle as I was not playing it on my own PC. A dark side exile can really be a magnificent bastard. Anyway, I think the light side ending was setting things up for a sequel, that's all.

BTW, speaking of Bloodlines, its ending (at least the Anarch/Independent one) was very good, and really drove home the point of how badass the PC was becoming. I think the Camarilla one was quite decent too, in a more typical WoD "some secrets were not meant to know" way. The prince or kuei-jin ones are, well, less satisfactory - depending of how you view them - but still delightfully ironic. Seriously, that game might have been underdone, pre-released and seriously underrated, but the final part was one epic showdown after another.

As for M&M VII... I actually played a light side crew and I don't remember the ending. What was it, anyway?

 

I agree with The Magister about the Fallout 3 ending being horrible. I was really enjoying the game and I'd played through a lot of the side quests (but not all of the them) and then I chose to continue the main quest and the damn game just ended. Kind of like walking along a sidewalk on a sunny day and then having a piano fall on you from a void in the sky. Or maybe I can compare it to thinking you have a full bottle of wine to drink but after pouring yourself a little your realize the the bottle is made really thick glass and there is hardly any liquid inside. OK enough analogies - Fallout 3 ended way to quickly and abruptly for my tastes and so was very disappointing.


I just re-read the opening of the thread and realized that Silvery was asking if there were any games with endings that aren't disappointing. ... Personally I'm sure there are but I can't think about it at the moment because I'm too worked up about the aforementioned bad ending.

 

Nyah, forget about it. The way things are going now is much more interesting!