Games with the best multiple endings system (or choices overall)
- Thread starter josemlopes
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Kind of, but unless you knew the requirements for each ending, you would probably get 'leave' (though apparently it's not uncommon for people stingy with healing items to get 'in water'josemlopes said:
There were also some items - like the dog ending - that simply required you to get certain items an then go to certain rooms. One of these is my personal favourite and IMO, vastly ignored: 'Rebirth'.
Hmmmm, when it comes to multiple endings system I'll have to go with Virtue's Last Reward, simply because there are so many of them (even though there's only one "true" ending). You don't have input over what any of the characters say or do (ok there are a FEW dialogue choices in certain sections) for the majority of the Saw-like game you're in, you can only guide the protagonists hands in very crucial moments in the story, like if you will ally or betray or who you will join up with, which will take you to many different places and many different (mostly bad endings). The end destination may be the same, but because of all the different choices you can make, the journey is very different from person to person.
But when it comes to choices my favorite will have to be Mass Effect 2 (I haven't played ME3 so lets not go there ok?). It's amazing how you get to personalize your experience, at least if you transfer over your save from the first game to the second one.
Another game that doesn't really get talked much about in this regard, even though it has a good amount of choices that affect the game is Metal Gear Solid 3. Now I'm not talking about how you can use different stratergies for the stages, but how you can make choices in the game that affects events later. For example, remember that helicopter at the mountains? You can just blow that one up before it's even in the air when you're sneaking around in a small base the enemy has. Or how you can shoot The End in his wheelchair and skip his bossfight alltogether. Or how the experience you have with the Sorrow radically changes depending on how many you've killed. It doesn't change the ending but still, it's a nice, subtle choice system.
But when it comes to choices my favorite will have to be Mass Effect 2 (I haven't played ME3 so lets not go there ok?). It's amazing how you get to personalize your experience, at least if you transfer over your save from the first game to the second one.
Another game that doesn't really get talked much about in this regard, even though it has a good amount of choices that affect the game is Metal Gear Solid 3. Now I'm not talking about how you can use different stratergies for the stages, but how you can make choices in the game that affects events later. For example, remember that helicopter at the mountains? You can just blow that one up before it's even in the air when you're sneaking around in a small base the enemy has. Or how you can shoot The End in his wheelchair and skip his bossfight alltogether. Or how the experience you have with the Sorrow radically changes depending on how many you've killed. It doesn't change the ending but still, it's a nice, subtle choice system.
I cherish Suikoden II for its different endings. It has not many - only 3 or 4. But they fit the overall atmosphere of the game very well.
Two of those endings depend on a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer at the end, but they're still well made. A special 'good ending' can only be achieved by doing an insanely amount of stuff. Nearly impossible without a guide.
Also good endings: Fallout 3. Bethesda promised hundreds of different endings and they did that. You have so many choices and... nah, just kidding Fallout 3's ending is horrible.
Two of those endings depend on a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer at the end, but they're still well made. A special 'good ending' can only be achieved by doing an insanely amount of stuff. Nearly impossible without a guide.
There's even the possiblity to say at some point in the game 'That's it! I'm done with this war, I can't take it anymore'. And your character will just leave the place and the game ends.
Also good endings: Fallout 3. Bethesda promised hundreds of different endings and they did that. You have so many choices and... nah, just kidding Fallout 3's ending is horrible.
Mass Effect 3. Whether or not Garrus lives or dies decides the fate of trillions.
But in all seriousness I'd go with Dragon Age 2. Whether or not Anders lives or dies (he better die) decides the fate of nobody you actually see just text in a war table mission.
...
Lemme try once more.
Pokemon Blue. I mean DA: Origins/Inquisition. Yeah, just little epilogue blurbs but it did feel like every decision you made was the wrong one by the time you sat through it.
praisegrima
But in all seriousness I'd go with Dragon Age 2. Whether or not Anders lives or dies (he better die) decides the fate of nobody you actually see just text in a war table mission.
...
Lemme try once more.
Pokemon Blue. I mean DA: Origins/Inquisition. Yeah, just little epilogue blurbs but it did feel like every decision you made was the wrong one by the time you sat through it.
praisegrima
I like the Arcanum/Fallout endings. A little snippet about what happened to areas where you had influenced them through quests. I really don't like the convoluted super good or super bad endings with no middle ground that bioware churn out...my brain requires more than 4 year olds mentality.
I never figured out the multiple ending system in Silent Hill 2. I thought I had, but the second time I played it I got a totally different ending (which felt completely unwarranted by the way), and then I hadn't done much different between both playthroughs.
There're a six endings. The first three are the "organic" regular endings and you get one of them based on your overall behavior around certain characters and items that is INCREDIBLY vague and hard to gauge. The other three you can only get if you follow very specific instructions during a replay, and at least 2 of them are joke endings (which include the dog one).
I did a mini cue card guide for this but like I said, the regular endings are hard to predict.
It's the only Silent Hill game to do multiple endings "right". Every other game has you either trigger a specific event or choose X over Y during a Plot Twist, adding up to a predictable result.
In the first game it's all about whether you save Cybil and do an incredibly unintuitive sequence of events known as the "Kaufmann sidequest".
In the third and fifth (Origins) games you get the canon ending first time, and a bad/joke ending on a replay if you perform X. Silent Hill 3 is easy to gauge, you have to score X points by killing X enemies.
In the fourth game it's based on whether a certain character dies during the final boss fight, and just how fucked up your apartment is at this point. That's two variables, so you get one out of four endings.
Homecoming and Downpour do the Crucial Choice thing several times.
Shattered Memories is the one that comes the closest to an organic multiple ending system. While you can force the ending through a set of Crucial Choices, these are completely masked (and feel quite random). I think the questionnaire you fill in at the beginning also makes some sort of impact. Actually the system is super weird. There're three kinds of endings, and then after one of these plays, you get one out of four possible "epilogues". I think Round 1 of endings was easier to predict than Round 2. Then again Round 2 doesn't have much narrative impact on the story, basically a home video plays to let you know what kind of life the protagonist led up to that point.
There're a six endings. The first three are the "organic" regular endings and you get one of them based on your overall behavior around certain characters and items that is INCREDIBLY vague and hard to gauge. The other three you can only get if you follow very specific instructions during a replay, and at least 2 of them are joke endings (which include the dog one).
I did a mini cue card guide for this but like I said, the regular endings are hard to predict.
It's the only Silent Hill game to do multiple endings "right". Every other game has you either trigger a specific event or choose X over Y during a Plot Twist, adding up to a predictable result.
In the first game it's all about whether you save Cybil and do an incredibly unintuitive sequence of events known as the "Kaufmann sidequest".
In the third and fifth (Origins) games you get the canon ending first time, and a bad/joke ending on a replay if you perform X. Silent Hill 3 is easy to gauge, you have to score X points by killing X enemies.
In the fourth game it's based on whether a certain character dies during the final boss fight, and just how fucked up your apartment is at this point. That's two variables, so you get one out of four endings.
Homecoming and Downpour do the Crucial Choice thing several times.
Shattered Memories is the one that comes the closest to an organic multiple ending system. While you can force the ending through a set of Crucial Choices, these are completely masked (and feel quite random). I think the questionnaire you fill in at the beginning also makes some sort of impact. Actually the system is super weird. There're three kinds of endings, and then after one of these plays, you get one out of four possible "epilogues". I think Round 1 of endings was easier to predict than Round 2. Then again Round 2 doesn't have much narrative impact on the story, basically a home video plays to let you know what kind of life the protagonist led up to that point.
I might be missing something because I haven't managed to play any BioWare game to completion outside of the Mass Effect games, but I'd hardly call their endings nothing more than choosing between a "super good" or "super bad" ending.CannibalCorpses said:
Anyways, normally I don't make a big deal out of alternate endings. I get one, get attached to it, and then hardly ever go back and play the game because I know that it will just ruin the attachment I have to the original story I had. There are exceptions (e.g. Mass Effect), but that tends to be the way things are. Not to mention, normally they are just based on recounting the events of the game. This can be done compellingly (e.g. Fallout 3), but a lot of times, it just feels like they are talking down to me as if I can't remember what happened or that they are patting themselves on the back for how clever they were.
I guess if I had to choose, though, it would be Mass Effect 2. Knowing that anyone who went on the suicide mission could have died just made the choices I made throughout the game feel far more worth it, and it made me cherish my time with those characters in ME3 even more.
Ah, ninja'd so I'll just add Witcher 1. Both were pretty good when it came to the endings system.RedDeadFred said:
Another thing I appreciated about Silent Hill 2's ending was the fact that the most prominent conclusions (namely Leave and In Water) both had emotional weight to them and held up a central theme of the story. Most Silent Hill games have definitively good or abruptly bad results, but SH2 (and arguably Shattered Memories) still follows through on its tragic character arc, whether it's for better or for worse.Casual Shinji said:
Yeah... Even after someone told what to do, I think SH1 took me three replays to get the best results.
I came for the Silent Hill commentaries and received the best news of the year so far. Thank you!Scars Unseen said:
Edit: By the way I'm legally obliged to mention Nier. Not the best endings system, but one of the most interesting ones, definitely.
I wouldn't have thought that having your savegame deleted would hurt so much
Chrono Trigger did it really well.
If you are a foolish enough person to have no played it, essentially in the game there is the option to go and fight the final boss pretty much any time. You won't be able to beta it of course, it's still the final boss, you need the best equipment etc in order to kill it. So you essentially have like 2 actual endings you could get your first time.
But then in New Game Plus of course, you have all your stuff and are still a high level. So you CAN actually beat him any time. So there are a total of I think 12(?) endings you can get for beating him at different story points. Some are legitimate, the rest are essentially jokes or bonuses. One of them is two of the female party members commenting of the quality of the guys in the game in a huge game of bang/wouldn't bang in some universe of their own creation, and ends with the silent protagonist speaking. It's the best.
If you are a foolish enough person to have no played it, essentially in the game there is the option to go and fight the final boss pretty much any time. You won't be able to beta it of course, it's still the final boss, you need the best equipment etc in order to kill it. So you essentially have like 2 actual endings you could get your first time.
But then in New Game Plus of course, you have all your stuff and are still a high level. So you CAN actually beat him any time. So there are a total of I think 12(?) endings you can get for beating him at different story points. Some are legitimate, the rest are essentially jokes or bonuses. One of them is two of the female party members commenting of the quality of the guys in the game in a huge game of bang/wouldn't bang in some universe of their own creation, and ends with the silent protagonist speaking. It's the best.
Vampire the Masquerade
Most of the choices did not come across as you playing the paragon of goodnees vs kicking puppies like so many games with choices.
Often it was a choice between faction, power, or humanity.
The two main factions were not directly at odds with eachouther and was a choice between freedom or order and security rather then a Good vs bad thing. It also had the option to just say fuck those guys or put a 3rd faction in power(that were outright dicks).
Most of the choices did not come across as you playing the paragon of goodnees vs kicking puppies like so many games with choices.
Often it was a choice between faction, power, or humanity.
The two main factions were not directly at odds with eachouther and was a choice between freedom or order and security rather then a Good vs bad thing. It also had the option to just say fuck those guys or put a 3rd faction in power(that were outright dicks).
When I think of multiple endings, first thing that comes to mind is venerable "Contra: Hard Corps" for Sega Genesis.
First of all, you'd never expect the game like THAT to have like... SEVEN endings, I think?
It's not just the endings, mind you, the game changes it's second half-ish completely depending on your choices(first part is has a few variations as well). New levels, new bosses, everything. Even a gag, hidden ending is available.
I can't think of any other game since that pulled it off.
Fun, fun, fun.
edit: Yeah, VtM:B is certainly up there, sadly it was such a diamond in the rough.
First of all, you'd never expect the game like THAT to have like... SEVEN endings, I think?
It's not just the endings, mind you, the game changes it's second half-ish completely depending on your choices(first part is has a few variations as well). New levels, new bosses, everything. Even a gag, hidden ending is available.
I can't think of any other game since that pulled it off.
Fun, fun, fun.
edit: Yeah, VtM:B is certainly up there, sadly it was such a diamond in the rough.
I think you would always get a different ending then the one you got before. So, say you got the 'In Water' ending during your previous playthrough, then the game would almost automatically choose a different ending during the follow up playthrough. Unless it was the 'Dog', 'UFO', or 'Rebirth' ending. I don't know exactly, but I seem to remember it being something like that.Johnny Novgorod said:
Nobody mentioned Planescape:Torment? I thought it was pretty cool all the different ways that you could finish the game, even a couple well before the story end. Not to mention the story was simply fantastic and all the endings were icing.
That's probably it. I got 'Leave' the first time I played it. I knew about the endings but didn't go for any in particular. Second time I played it I went for 'Leave' again (because I'm a sucker for happy endings, if you can call it that way), stressing all the little things that are supposed to swing you in that direction. I got 'In Water' instead. Even though I never so much as examined Angela's Knife once, and re-read Mary's letter at least 20 times.Casual Shinji said: