Bastion ending (obvious spoilers)

[hazabaza1]

Saved Zulf, revered time. Then I realised the implications of it, and I'm thinking about redoing another playthrough to set sail instead.

 

[Scarblade]

I saved Zulf and evacuated. I didn't see the idea in saving Zulf and then reversing time, that would make my action of saving Zulf void.

 

[Yeager942]

I saved Zulf and restarted the timeline. I really don't see why anyone wouldn't save zulf, as not saving him cheats you out of one of the most poignant scenes in the entire game.

 

[ultrachicken]

There isn't much reason NOT to save Zulf, because while the battering ram weapon is powerful, the drawbacks make it nowhere near as good as a fully upgraded normal weapon.

So, I saved Zulf, and then reset time. If I could get myself through another playthrough, I'd take the other option, which I should have done originally.

 

[Ickorus]

I saved Zulf and continued along the timeline, it just felt like the right thing to do.

 

[beefpelican]

Honestly I didn't like the giant tree trunk being used at the end by The Kid though. You go through the entire game, leveling up your weapons, and then in the last area the game says nah, you're going to use this one instead!

The thing I thought was good about it was how ridiculously effective it was. The Ura were supposed to be a challenge, different from the monsters you fight. They're interesting, they talk, their corpses don't fade after they die, making them very human enemies. With the ram you easily destroy them, turning an honorable battle into a massacre. I actually regretted killing them as I was doing it which isn't something I can say for every game I've played.

OP:I reversed time. I knew it wouldn't do anything, but still. So many people died that I felt like I had no choice but to hope that we could be different next time.

 

[uncanny474]

Yeah, I let Zulf die. And I don't regret it.

His fiance died, true. And that may have given him the right to kill Rucks. But neither me nor Zia had done anything to kill him, and the Bastion hadn't done anything against him either. He had no reason to attack all of us. He was being a rotten, spoiled, whiny traitorous bastard, and he deserved the fate the Ura gave him.

And I moved on. I would have reversed time, but the way Rucks said it, it sounded like nothing would have changed. Like the same mistakes would have been repeated over and over. Better to move forward than to endlessly repeat the past.

The Ura chose to fight me despite me personally never having done anything against them. They deserved to be slaughtered like animals since they acted like animals. The only people I had found worth saving in that world I had already saved. I did my best to keep the animals alive, since they were mindless, and deserved a new chance at life, but the rest of the world could go screw itself. I had Rucks, I had Zia, and that was all I needed.

 

[Alssadar]

Picked up Zulf-- he was my friend once. In a world that has lost all its shreds of humanity, why must I give mine up in anger?
As for the ending--I set up the time to go back. We might be separated, we might never see each other again, and the calamity may happen again, but there a thousands more people in the world, maybe a different outcome for them as well, eh?

The Ura were supposed to be a challenge, different from the monsters you fight. They're interesting, they talk, their corpses don't fade after they die, making them very human enemies. With the ram you easily destroy them, turning an honorable battle into a massacre. I actually regretted killing them as I was doing it which isn't something I can say for every game I've played.

Aye, the very same with me. I was also affected to when you go back in the dream and fight yourself, and the narration seems to say "You caused the calamity-you made all these people die-you are evil," I was literally speaking to my comp, "That is not me. I did not do that."

 

[GoodEyeSniper]

Saved Zulf - Moved on.

The only thing annoyed me about the game was that after I decided not to reverse time the narration implied that I'd done so selfishly in pursuit of adventure. In my own head I did it because I felt that the world deserved better than a species that could absentmindedly destroy it

 

[beefpelican]

Aye, the very same with me. I was also affected to when you go back in the dream and fight yourself, and the narration seems to say "You caused the calamity-you made all these people die-you are evil," I was literally speaking to my comp, "That is not me. I did not do that."

Word. I haven't been that affected by the end of a game since Braid.

 

[Jayse]

I left Zulf.

I saw no point in saving him. If anything I pitied him but the one thing I couldn't do was forgive him.

Also moved on. The past is there for a reason, I've no need to go back and relive it.

 

[duchaked]

my first playthrough I just left him...I couldn't imagine how I was going to fight through hordes of enemies while dragging his backstabbing arse.
and then I decided to explore the world as it was. accepted it. epic...o brave new world

second playthrough (the one where I did what I wouldn't have chosen initially) I saved him and...wow. that was real touching (unexpectedly).
and I reversed the Calamity because...well I didn't before, though it fit in with this playthrough's prior actions anyway.

either way...I love Bastion :]

 

[shiajun]

First playthrough I saved Zulf and then moved on. I think I just felt that there had been so much death, and hate and destruction based on pure intolerance from both Caelondians and Ura that I could just no longer be a part of it. "I can be better" was my thought. Going back just felt like wish granting and not an actual ending to the conflict. Let the Ura live out their lives and just move away. The world has suffered too much, it's time to gather your losses and leave with those that have nothing left to lose, and that included Zulf. I think both of those decision points are some of the moments in gaming were I honestly had to pause for a while and ponder what my actions meant, and I was actually in a dilemma. Kudos, Supergiant Games, masterful.

Haven't gone back and reset time because of excess work. This holiday, yeah...do-over and then set sail.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I saved Zulf and was rewarded with one of the most memorable gaming moments in history.

Reversing time felt like starting the game over again and accomplishing nothing(Like it was all a dream... fuck that) so I never chose it. Also, there's a whole world out there, other countries and people to meet. I didn't want to reverse time for them too.

edit

I have completed Bastion four times now. And every single time after the first, I decided to go with a different ending than my first. However, every single time, I ended up saving Zulf, like I did the first time, and flying away, like I did the first time.

Somehow, every time I see Zulf there, lying on the ground, I can't help but pick him up, and carry him back to the Bastion.

Then at the Bastion, I'm standing there, at the heart, I talk to Rucks, listen to what he is thinking. Then I go to Zia, and hear her speak for the first time in the game (not counting her song), and every time I end up evacuating, even though I keep telling myself I should reset the timeline at least once.

Also, the first time I decided to fly away because I have watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya a while ago. The whole "reset the timeline" reminded me a bit of the endless eight, and I figured, resetting would just cause the same thing to happen again.

Ah, I'm not the only one who can't break out of that pattern. It's still amazing to me how saving Zulf affects me just as much as it did the first time, that's a real credit to the game.

 

[Fitzcaraldo]

I just finished this game today, and I loved the ending, just like a loved the rest of the game. For the record, I chose to save Zulf, and fly away from Caelondia on the Bastion. I've just started a second playthrough, and I'm thinking I'll make the opposite choices.

 

[rednose1]

Saved Zulf and reset time on my first playthrough. Sure, it implies that everything happens again the same way, but who knows? I just couldn't let everyone die and do nothing when I had the power to save it.

Second playthrough, still saved Zulf, but evacuated. I just can't let that man die. He had more crap thrown at him than anyone else, needed someone to have his back.

Bastion really is an awesome game, especially for the price. While I would love to see more DLC for it, I fear that if they start milking it, it will start to be less awesome than it is.

 

[Boggelz]

I decided to save Zulf because i felt bad for him. And i couldnt help but feel as if i had caused him so much harm. So i decided to pick him up and carry him out, needed someone there for him. I chose to restore the world, the world deserved a second chance i thought with everyone who lived in it.

Then i started a new game, always do in games like this, to see the alternate endings. I got to Zulf at the end and was about to leave him there and... whats this? i cant press the button? My own thoughts toward the character just made me not leave him there. He deserved a second chance. So i carried him out. And when i got to restore or evacuate i evacuated. Not even because it was the other alternative option, but because thinking of the characters, a new life can begin, hoping to carve a new world in the wake of what once happened.

So yeah... Bastion is amazing

 

[Thaius]

That ending got into my list of best endings for two reasons:

1) Saving Zulf. That was one of the better moments of interactive storytelling I've ever seen. Truly powerful to see how that plays out, and to be doing it yourself. Amazing.

2) The fact that the story is best told through two playthroughs. In that if you reverse time, it just happens all over again. If you start a New Game+, the narrator even has a few short lines he didn't before noting that he feels like he's said this before. Reversing time does nothing but perpetuate a cycle. It's not until you do that, then realize the endless nature of the cycle and choose to live on and make your way in what's left of the world, that the game reaches its true ending.