The worst video game ending ever

[Hawki]

ME3 seems to be the elephant in the room, but haven't played it. I guess I could nominate the following:

-Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (in that it ends with a cliffhanger that's yet to be followed up, and may never be, not to mention that The Lost Age conspicuously didn't resort to such a tactic)

-The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (in that we skip right from the Pelannor to fighting Sauron's eye for some reason, and then end with a monologue from Gandalf. Not too bad, but it's telling how none of it factors into the actions of the characters, since it's re-using movie footage)

-Super Metroid (in that Zebes is destroyed, the infant is gone, Mother Brain is finally defeated, and...there's nothing to mark the event. Roll credits. Don't let the door hit you on the way out)

-Resident Evil Gaiden (in that we have yet another cliffhanger that's never followed up - granted, the game's absolute garbage anyway, so who cares, right?)

-Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (and yet another unresolved cliffhanger...gee, are you starting to see a pattern here?)

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. The gameplay was a bit clunky although serviceable, however the story was excellent, it had atmosphere and characters and really drew you into the intrigue of the world and all the different factions. But the ending, without outright spoiling, its like if the Dog Ending in Silent Hill 2 was the only ending in Silent Hill 2, it would've been fine as a joke ending but as the only ending in the game it was quite anti-climactic. It also seemed like it was intended to be the ending all along, as I doubt cut content would've affected the choice to put it in there, unless they made that ending first and planned to make the actual ending later.

Which ending are you talking about? Bloodlines didn't have one ending, it had five.

Spoilers for VtM:B, Scroll Down if you haven't played yet!!!

I mean any of the endings which involve

Spoiler

opening the Sarcophagus, and you getting blown up by the C4 set out by Jack. Which is either variation of LaCroix Ending, Independant Ending or Anarchist Ending. Kuei Jin is completely different (although annoying in its own way since you get thrown into the ocean inside the Sarcophagus), although Camarilla ending involves the Sarcophagus, but doesn't allow you to open it.

Kindly forgive my editing spoiler tags into your post. In the

Spoiler

Independent and Anarch endings, you aren't killed by the explosives; you're very clearly not even in the building. It's only the LaCroix ending where that happens.

Not to mention that throughout the game, nearly everyone including their pets tells you

Spoiler

NOT TO OPEN THE DAMN BOX!

I personally thought the game had fantastic endings, all 5 of them. And very fitting for your actions and decisions.

OT: My personal worst ending would be Mass Effect 3. Though I know it's fairly obvious and probably considered lazy to mention so. But everything I put in that whole trilogy man, it is in fact the biggest let down many gamers face.

So to make my response somewhat worthwhile reading, I'll add a number 2, which is XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Because it didn't even happen! By Firaxis' own admission! So screw you guys!

Ok enough jokes aside, basically all of Assassins Creed endings. They just feel very weak and put there to help ensure you buy the next in the series. Never been impressed with them, part of the reason why I put them down after AC3. This is also considering the fact that they have pretty strong stories amongst all that, IMO.

 

[MerlinCross]

Sudeki. Hands down.

So the game had this kinda interesting shadow puppet show at the very start of the game. For world lore and history, then it's onto the actual game. Maybe the puppets show up from time to time but it was basically kicked to the side for in game cutscenes with the character models.

UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME!!!

At the end of the game you beat the big bad guy, see the final cutscene and then...., Shadow puppets. Yes the puppets come back to say that Darkness has been cast out, that evil never wins and all is right in the world again. Credits.

Oh the characters you actually spent time with? Dunno what happened to them, watch the names go by. The ending was so abrupt it basically ran head first into a brick wall. At mach 5.

 

[Vykrel]

honestly, it would be tough to top Mass Effect 3. not only is it just a horrible ending in general, but it is the ending to a trilogy and it negates everything that was accomplished over the course of the three games. all of the players choices are rendered irrelevant and replaced with a simple three option, "please pick one" ending.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Obviously Mass Effect 3. But everyone wants to be original today, so, yeah, why not?

Metroid: Other M. The ending itself is boring, but what made it bad is that it interrupted the final battle (you don't even get to shot the final boss); making the later the most unsatisfying final battle I have played in an action game and a total letdown for a Metroid game.

Pfft Mass Effect 3 is the worst ending ever?

God of War 3 is way worse because it did not make sense and you feel like shit playing the game because Kratos selfishly destroyed the world just to kill Zeus. And yet they tried to frame it as Kratos still being in the right with the whole Hope and Fear bullshit.

Oh and there is also Ultima 9.

honestly, it would be tough to top Mass Effect 3. not only is it just a horrible ending in general, but it is the ending to a trilogy and it negates everything that was accomplished over the course of the three games. all of the players choices are rendered irrelevant and replaced with a simple three option, "please pick one" ending.

Mass Effect 3 has not topped God of War 3 and Ultima 9 for me.

 

[MetalDooley]

Ghostbusters on NES

On top of it being a terrible game all you get for beating it is a black screen with some misspelled poorly written text.To be honest you could put a lot of NES games here but Ghostbusters stands out

Oh and obligatory fuck Mass Effect 3

Remember how Fable 2 puts you in a small room with the main villain, your three allies and you have him at your mercy? He's talking about his motivation and what he would have done if you hadn't stopped him...then Reaver shoots him mid-sentence and makes a dumb quip? Thanks Reaver but if I reload and attack myself he...just...dies in one hit anyway. Then totally-not-Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2 stands in the middle of the room and is all like, "hey, you want a preview of Fable 3? Also have this outfit that's totally going to figure into Fable 3."

When I first beat Fable 2 I thought it was terrible as well. I mean one hit thats it and I don't even get to kill him myself if I wait too long WTF!!!

Looking back now at how many shitty uninspired boss fights I've suffered through since then I kinda think Lionhead were onto something though

 

[Dalisclock]

The original Dark Souls 2 ending. The game just sort of ended. It didn't really feel like I had achieved anything at all. People say that they changed the ending in the scholar of the lost sin DLC, but I haven't played that.

The big difference is now you get the choice to walk away instead of sitting on the throne if you went through the extra content.

So in a way, it's kinda like the choice in DS1. Commit or walk away. And neither one actually matters in the long run(or maybe it does, depending on how you interpret it).

Maybe not the worst but TLJreamfall is pretty bad. Nothing you did accomplished much more the delaying the bad guys and forestalling the end of the world, all of the main characters are pretty much fucked, from what we could tell considering almost nothing was resolved.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Ultima Exodus, at least the NES version.

The ending for all that grinding and dungeon crawling and end game random encounters with murdertastic dragons and balrogs roaming everywhere?

Spoiler

 

[rcs619]

With the release of the game "Inside" by the creators of Limbo, a lot of people have been talking about it. Specifically, they've been talking about the ending and how terrible they think it is, ruining what was, apparently, an otherwise flawless game.

And that got me thinking. I've seen a lot of games that have put people off simply because they didn't manage to hold to their high standards by the end, leaving players disappointed. So, what I'd like to know is this. What, in your view, is the absolute worst ending of any game you have ever played?

Drakengard.

Seriously, take your pick. It has five endings, which each somehow managed to be worst than the last. Then again, Drakengard was masterfully designed to intentionally hate on and troll its own players, so I don't know if it really counts.

But between everyone getting eaten by a swarm of demonic hybrid monsters based off your main character's sister, everyone being eaten by a swarm of 30ft tall eldritch space-babies, or your main character and his dragon being shot down by an F-15 after crashing through a rift in time and space into modern day Tokyo to do battle with the 500ft tall mother of the eldritch space-babies via a rhythm game... yeah, take your pick

Alternatively, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria.

I loved the first Valkyrie Profile, but the ending to its sequel manages to shit all over it by the ending which...

> Sees the first game's main character killed, after traveling back in time to help fight the game's main villain, who also traveled back in time after the ending of the first game.

> Well, technically she isn't "dead" but had her soul fused with the sequels super-lame main character into a new composite character. But she's still basically dead when you think about it.

> Also several key characters are killed and the world is left royally fucked up in a way which will actually prevent the events from the first game of ever being able to happen.

So yeah, it's a sequel that manages to completely negate the original game and kill off the original main character through a stupid time-travel plot.

 

[Grumpy Ginger]

God of war 3 just for the BS attempt to redeem Kratos after he caused the apocalypse if 4 is actually good I'll pretend that 2 and 3 never happened and Kratos eventually wandered off fed up with his godly duties to start a new life

 

[Bad Jim]

Fallout 3 doesn't have the "worst ending ever", but it is the only game I've ever played where I was super invested and excited about the ending, only to get a senseless "you die but whatever things are cool.

The original Fallout was a bit like that. "Thanks for saving the world and all but go away and never darken our doors again" Fortunately it is possible to shoot the Overseer.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

To get the 'good' ending, all you have to do is...

Spoiler

Not be a dick to Ciri, and be a dick to everyone who would, in turn, be a dick to Ciri.

Actually blew my mind when I got the good ending on my 'first try,' I was absolutely certain the game was going to break my heart.

Ahh, it sounds so simple, I must have been too lenient to her aggressors then, as I treated her like one of my own! You just can't please them all. Thanks for the heads up. Maybe there will be enough woolly jumpers for everyone this time.

No! You put that mic back down. That was the correct answer, don't talk yourself out of the correct answer!

Half-Life 2 Episode 2 is what basically stopped me from trusting Episodic games. Why in the hell would I risk money on a game that I might not get to finish when there are so many games I can play that are currently finished? Telltale is the only one that I have bought a series of before they were all released because of their track record (and even then, it took a few times around before I did that); all others I have always waited until the entire series is out before I spend money.

Also, Fable 3. Here is my dramatic telling of the ending...

We have 365 days to prepare for the incoming invasion men! I expect you all to make the sacrifices necessary for us to win!

Day 1: I had my picture taken!
Day 7: Did some jobs to get some money to fight the incoming hoard
Day 15: Put some of that money into some investments, hoping for something good to happen there
Day 30: The investments are paying off. This is perfect! As long as there is not some kind of incredibly stupid bullshit like a giant time jump, I'll have everything I need to save my country
Day 366: Why didn't you prepare!?!?! NOW WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!! Oh, also, your game autosaved because Fuck You, if we're gonna giant time jump your ass, we're gonna make sure there isn't dick you can do about it!

Awwww ok *sheepishly picks mic up*
There is something incredibly annoying about the way half life ended with a "here's a little peek, a taster, look how much of this amazing universe and potential lore you are not going to see possibly ever again!" Then slams the door shut in your face. I am still waiting, half life...out here in the freezing cold rain in my dark, lonely room. Staring wistfully through the keyhole, or trying to since they closed the shutter on it.

Fable 3, oh fable 3, what a way to peter out the ending. The last level was bland as anything too. The "darkness" ...always the damn darkness, what has every game got against darkness? No wonder racism has been so conditioned into many people's subconscious! How about fighting the light for once? It sits there smugly upon its' illuminated moral throne judging everyone, time to take it down God of War style.

Anyway, to distance myself from the expectations of the hive mind; Mass Effect 3 didn't bother me with the ending, I guess it was the opposite of over hype, where all the Internet bitching made me expect some horrid slap in the face and piss in the cornflakes ending. But no, just a Deus Ex style thing, nothing insulting really, endings are usually a disappointment, that ending was... marginally above average. Though i found it harder to stay invested as my particular Shepard starting annoying me the more he was overplaying the model leader where almost every convo scene with his team comes off as a weird atmosphere tainted with incessant smugness that pulled me out of the experience as it felt horribly unnatural and cheesified, kind of like early Joss Whedon work.
I think people hype themselves up far too much with these things. They trust marketing blurb too much, overreact when things don't go to expectation. The world is made of lies, mistuthes, sugar-coatings and misunderstandings. Anything else is a sweet blessing. So very sweet. (Not a cynic, a realist!!)😇

 

[Blitsie]

I'm gonna go out and pick Metal Gear Solid 5's ending, so much so that it pretty much killed off my love for the franchise.

Spoiler

So the whole theme of this game is the downfall of Big Boss, which is huge as his more 'evil' actions practically set up the whole second half of the goddamn franchise. So you keep playing with this inner hope that the events finally transpire which lead to Big Boss becoming ev-oh hey turns out you're not Big Boss, you're a random medic who shielded him from the rocket blast in Ground Zeroes and got plastic surgery and hypnotized to look and act like him.

Literally EVERYTHING, all those 100+ hours of stuff you did in the game, amounts to nothing as instead of witnessing whats supposed to be some of the biggest moments in the entire franchise, you find out your whole existence is to just draw attention away from the real Big Boss so he can do the actual important stuff, and this just randomly happens and the game ends abruptly after, with anything story related being presented through text and audio files afterwards, as in, the cool stuff you thought you were going to experience through gameplay you have to read and listen to.

After all these years, and going through all the MGS games, and knowing this is Kojima's final rodeo with the series; for it all to end on a note like this? I don't even have words

Jesus Konami, I can't even.

 

[DementedSheep]

Fallout 3 prior to the DLC.

Dreamfall, wasn't too happy with this game overall but that ending just pissed me off. It's ok to have some loose threads for sequel baiting but it didn't solve much and left every character in dire straits.

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. The gameplay was a bit clunky although serviceable, however the story was excellent, it had atmosphere and characters and really drew you into the intrigue of the world and all the different factions. But the ending, without outright spoiling, its like if the Dog Ending in Silent Hill 2 was the only ending in Silent Hill 2, it would've been fine as a joke ending but as the only ending in the game it was quite anti-climactic. It also seemed like it was intended to be the ending all along, as I doubt cut content would've affected the choice to put it in there, unless they made that ending first and planned to make the actual ending later.

Which ending are you talking about? Bloodlines didn't have one ending, it had five.

Spoilers for VtM:B, Scroll Down if you haven't played yet!!!

Spoiler

I mean any of the endings which involve opening the Sarcophagus, and you getting blown up by the C4 set out by Jack. Which is either variation of LaCroix Ending, Independant Ending or Anarchist Ending. Kuei Jin is completely different (although annoying in its own way since you get thrown into the ocean inside the Sarcophagus), although Camarilla ending involves the Sarcophagus, but doesn't allow you to open it.

Edit: Added appropriate spoiler tags

Heh, I actually loved that ending.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

I'm gonna go out and pick Metal Gear Solid 5's ending, so much so that it pretty much killed off my love for the franchise.

Spoiler

So the whole theme of this game is the downfall of Big Boss, which is huge as his more 'evil' actions practically set up the whole second half of the goddamn franchise. So you keep playing with this inner hope that the events finally transpire which lead to Big Boss becoming ev-oh hey turns out you're not Big Boss, you're a random medic who shielded him from the rocket blast in Ground Zeroes and got plastic surgery and hypnotized to look and act like him.

Literally EVERYTHING, all those 100+ hours of stuff you did in the game, amounts to nothing as instead of witnessing whats supposed to be some of the biggest moments in the entire franchise, you find out your whole existence is to just draw attention away from the real Big Boss so he can do the actual important stuff, and this just randomly happens and the game ends abruptly after, with anything story related being presented through text and audio files afterwards, as in, the cool stuff you thought you were going to experience through gameplay you have to read and listen to.

After all these years, and going through all the MGS games, and knowing this is Kojima's final rodeo with the series; for it all to end on a note like this? I don't even have words

Jesus Konami, I can't even.

You get the feeling Kojima was trolling us again?

 

[bradleydavis69]

Fallout 4 had a pretty big let down ending for me, mainly because of New Vegas. New Vegas had an ending slide show that covered every faction, companion, and decision you made. Fallout basically said yup you won.

Final Fantasy IX was the only FF game I beat where I didn't know that I beat it. I wasn't enjoying the game but I wanted to complete it. When went into the final boss fight with basically little or no prep, not thinking it was the end boss. Killed it and was a bit surprised.

Far Cry 3 was a let down as well, mainly because I thought the morality choice was dumb, plus the boss quick time events. "Hey, you know that goal you've been trying to accomplish the whole time? Yeah, you can either do that or burn it to the ground and piss all over it for no reason."

 

[BrawlMan]

I beat DmC for the second time yesterday. The story is bad, the ending especially. The way Vergil verbalizes his real motives before you turn against each other is so forced and awkward. Probably didn't help that I took a very long break (eight months) before finishing it. Once you finish the fight, it just ends quietly, like there was more that needed to be said or done. A stark contrast to the ending of DMC3, in which Dante and you and Lady continue slaying demons to the theme song, in the spirit of the game. Instead, after the unsatisfying ending you're shown narcissistic videos of the devs (and these gross looking try-hard punk rockers) trying to look cool, one developer flipping off the camera while walking away finally.
Pretty mediocre game. But it didn't have much to aspire to. The genre is lame.

Seconded. It was worse than the DMC2 ending. the developer flipping off was the last straw. It made me not want to touch any of Ninja Theory's games again (not that was a huge fan of them to begin with). There newest game, Hellblade, looks like shit.

As much as I loved ?Enslaved: Odyssey to the West? with its absolutely fantastic characters and acting despite the game being largely a mindless "Devil May Cry"-esque beat-?em-up, the ending, while cohesive enough for story purposes, was god-awfully executed. You spend several hours of gameplay watching animated cut scenes, then they wrap it all with live video of Andy Serkis expositioning in what appears to be a utility closet or something?!? Not only did it not fit well with the rest of the game, it looked like they put all of 12 minutes into its production, like they met Andy in his garage and told him to read his lines into a hand-held camera. My guess is the animation staff went on strike a couple months before launch and that?s the best the producers could come up with.

That's seems to be a running theme with them. The only game they done, so far, with a proper ending was Heavenly Sword; and even that game was just an average God of War clone.

I'll throwin Streets of Rage 3 (US version). If you are playing on Easy (which is Normal in the original Japanese version) you can't get the true good or bad ending. The problem was that SOR3 was obnoxiously difficult, even back then. Enemies were given absurd amounts of life on anything other Easy, and was difficult for the wrong reasons.

Dead to Rights, both the original and remake for different reasons. The 2002 version didn't have any loose end and wrapped perfectly, but almost every person Jack Slate and his dog, Shadow, comes in to contact with dies, foe and allies alike. The only other characters that survived are a news anchorman & Preacher (a decent guy who is implied he's about get out of prison). Apparently the latter's backstory was him being framed for crime that he didn't commit. You never find out what it was. Also, Jack fakes his death so he come out as a scapegoat for the feds; and leaves the vity.


This leads to a cliff hanger ending that promised that we would see more of Jack's exploits outside of Grant City. Does Namco ever follow up on this? No, we got a sequel-prequel, a crappy PSP port, and a reboot that preformed even worse than the original. And speaking of the reboot, the ultra grim dark Gearsesque setting did not work and made the "there's always a bright tomorrow ending" stick out even more.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Chrono, Cross. To this day I have yet to see an ending to a game that frigging pretentious and unwilling to tell you anything.

 

[Trunkage]

I just mean that when you save the world at the end of Morrowind, everyone actually acts like you're a big deal.

As opposed to Skyrim, where you get congratulated for every small thing you do

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I don't know what the worst ending is, but an ending that really annoys me is the ending of Oblivion. You spend the whole game doing all the work, then Martin...dies, which causes Akatosh to Deus Ex Mehrunes Dagon and Martin gets all the credit.

In Morrowind and Skyrim you get the credit. Though Morrowind did it better because afterwards everyone goes "OMG You're the Nereverine! OMG OMG!"

I actually didn't mind the ending to Oblivion. After all you are still heralded as a champion for the role you did play even if you didn't take down the big bad yourself and you get rewarded with the Dragon Armour and what not. Also there was the cool ending cutscene. Now Skyrim on the other hand, that was a disappointment. The battle with Alduin was a let down and there was no ending cutscene, just Parthonax going "Good job you beat Alduin."