When Endings Go Bad

[cj_iwakura]

Persona 3:

Spoiler

You go into a permanent coma, preventing a dark god from returning.

Nocturne:

Spoiler

You go to war on Heaven as the general of Lucifer's army. I guess that might be awesome depending on perspective, but at worst, it's kind of unsettling.

Odin Sphere:

Spoiler

The world ends, and only two people survive.

To name a few.

 

[JC175]

I'd like to mention a game of my early teens that had a hugely sad ending - Conker's Bad Fur Day. Without going into too much detail for those that haven't played the game, after all the ridiculous action that comes before the finale of the game is a triumphant one, but it comes at a terrible price - marred even further by the fact that Conker could have acted to prevent the bad ending. As it stands, the ending of the game is painfully hollow, but for a game that focuses so much upon adult humour and gaming insanity, it somehow feels complete.

Sure, when I first completed the game I was convinced that there must be a secret "good" ending - it seems mandatory these days to erase the canoninical bad ending on 100% completion (see Max Payne 2 or Halo 3, for instance). But I believe that when utilised properly and in context with the content of the game that came before it, a truly sad or shocking ending can work not only to finish a storyline, but to further enhance the player's empathy with the central character. After all, it definitely works. Save perhaps for the Water ending in Silent Hill 2, nothing has brought me closer to tears than the downfall at the conclusion of Conker's Bad Fur Day.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

I don't think it's impossible to have a sad ending in a game, I think the problem is having it make sense in the context of the rest of the game. The protaganist can't be killed in a game where you've spent the last 15 hours sucessfully battling entire armies because it feels like the ending is a complete disconnect from the rest of the game and is liable to leave the player thinking "Well if you hadn't made that a bloody cutscene, I could have damn well survived it." That's why Fallout 3's ending was such a dissapointment.

Spoiler

Killed by radiation, when I've spent parts of the game wading through large amounts of it using, you know, radiation-proof clothing. Or, in some cases, actually having a radiation-immune character with you.

It's a case of having something sad happen that the player accepts they wouldn't have been able to stop even if they tried, otherwise you destroy the sense of interactivity and it just feels like a dick-move.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

i didn't fully like the ending of Resistance 2, sure it all made sence and had a feeling of closure (which amost NO games have these days), but the final boss fight was piss easy and well,

Spoiler

you die, it made sence, but still, your dead.

But theres your unhappy ending for you

 

[MarsProbe]

I guess he forgot "GTA 4". A complete downer by no doubt at all.

I found the ending of GTA 4 to be quite the downer as well, though still one of my favourite endings of recent times. After that, the usual feeling of having the whole of the city to cruise around in just didn't feel the same. The same with the ending for Lost and the Damned, I found that quite sad as well.

Despite the name, I bet we can expect a similarly downbeat conclusion to The Ballad of Gay Tony when it turns up.

I would also nominate the ending for Outcast (yeh, it's an old favourite) which wasn't altogether cheery, but seeing that this was they very last thing to happen in the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLhE1dNQ8TI

maybe not...

 

[pi8you]

No mention of Shadow of the Colossus? I've thought that was one of the more melancholic endings to be found (as is Ico if you don't stick around post-credits), so I'm a bit surprised it hasn't come up.

 

[AvsJoe]

That was a great article. Really made me think. I don't think I'd like a downer ending after all the time and effort I put into a game. Bittersweet is great if it fits the story, But the only way I'd love a downer ending is if the game had one hell of a story to tell (like on par with FFVII, a very bittersweet game).

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I don't care what the ending is, as long as it has a conclusion, and it's not completely retarded.

Though, I like what Fallout 3 did. You die, or something along those lines, but you end up saving people.

Sad for you, happy for everyone else. More of the everyone else than the you, so happiness over weighs sadness, in a way.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Small, independent devs can afford to make art but the big players - that is, the guys who fill the shelves at GameStop - have to make money.

That's interesting, I would've thought it'd be the other way around. Where the small indie guys have to follow the status quo as nobody would buy their stuff otherwise, but the big guys could make what ever they wanted and people would buy it just 'cause they've put their name on it. Kinda like if you slapped a Calvin Klein logo on a bag of shit people would still probably buy it.

Gamers don't quite work that way. If they did, a lot of Squaresoft flops would have sold a lot better. (Edit: Heck, I've even seen a couple cases of the "Final Fantasy" logo being met with low figures)

Basically, the big house developers are going to make games that they know will sell. They're pouring millions of dollars into the development of the game, so if you ask them to take a risk with something new that gamers may or may not like, then they'll give you a thumbs-down before you're even done with the presentation.

Meanwhile, Indy-level developers tend to make much more simple games, often with a development cost of just their own free time. Even the Indy developers that have an actual team they have to fund still have a very small cost to develop the game. It doesn't take a lot of sales for the game to turn a profit, so they're willing to take more of a risk to try something new with their games.

 

[Grayjack]

Persona 3 had a pretty bad ending.

Spoiler

The Main Character sacrifices himself to keep Nyx sealed.

Persona 4 also had a bad ending if you made the wrong choices.

Spoiler

Nanako dies, and fog covers the town.

 

[whyarecarrots]

I'd also like to add another game to the pile of those with downer endings: the Game-Maker made Iji [http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php].
You really should download and play through it, as it is awesome, but for the sake of discussion:

Spoiler

After earth is invaded by an alien force the games titular character, Iji, an ordinary human enhanced with captured nano-technology in an attempt to fight back, (in the ending you get from an aggressive playthrough at least), successfully convinces the alien's leader to retreat from the planet. However, the planet had been rendered a desolate wasteland by the initial orbital bombardment, and the final image of the game is your character looking out over the near-lifeless planet she has just fought through vast hordes to save: a moment of wonderful poignancy made only more moving by the game's simple graphics

And personally I think that more games need endings like that, and I hold out hope that the HL2 (IF WE EVER GET EPISODE 3!!!1) and Mass Effect series will avoid the obvious cliche of the happy ending in favour of something greatly more impactful.

 

[Kelbear]

The reason is that games are built around reward systems. Getting loot, gratification from exploring, unlocking new portions of the story, leveling up, overcoming obstacles. When a gamer completes anything, the structure of a game is such that you win. Gaming on a fundamental level is about winning (though there are other tangential benefits).

A player gets pissed off when they're punished for reaching the end. This runs contrary to all expectations, and though it is a suprise, being suprising doesn't make it "fun". L4D developer commentary mentioned the same thing at the end of the "No Mercy" campaign, originally the helicopter was doomed to fall b/c of an infected pilot.

 

[BarefootGamer]

I don't mind a downer ending if it fits in with the storyline. Sometimes a story is better when it doesn't have a happy ending, when the hero doesn't get the girl, or when the villain wins one once in a while.

There is one ending to the original Silent Hill, the one with Harry in the car, that is very "Jacob's Ladder" and makes you rethink everything that happened in the game before it. It's my favorite ending for that game. SH2 had some good bummer endings too.

 

[NeutralDrow]

*flashes back to Akiha's route in Tsukihime*

Yeah...there's at least one gaming medium that doesn't really shy away from bad endings. And getting, say, Mizuki Kirimiya's happy ending in the visual novel Yume Miru Kusuri only barely dampens the pain of getting her bad ending.

I actually like "downer endings"

Not to the degree where I prefer them to happy ones. I dunno I just like both and don't see the problems or why everyone lashes out when a game ends on a "downer." Especially when that could always happen in a realistic situation

Although I will admit, my idea of a "downer ending" isn't the character just dying. That usually comes off as a cheap move to create some sense of emotion which doesn't always work. Except Fallout 3, I think that was the only character death ending I actually liked.

Depends on just what one means by "downer" ending. As long as a game(/movie/book/etc.) ends on a slightly victorious note, even if it's clearly a Pyrrhic victory, I'll probably have the appropriate emotional response. These are bittersweet endings that are very heavy on the "bitter" aspect, and I can feel free to be sad, disturbed, guilty, etc., because at least something was accomplished during the story. The protagonist dies, but strikes a mortal or damaging blow to the antagonist or enemy organization. The protagonist doesn't accomplish anything but their own survival. The resistance is crushed, but there's a hint that things might not remain as bad as they are now...those sorts of things, I feel free to enjoy in dark ways.

A downer ending, on the other hand...nothing good happens. Successes are incredibly short-lived, even if they don't lead to greater, permanent horror. The protagonist doesn't survive, and in fact no one does. The world is destroyed, the antagonist is successful beyond their wildest dreams...

In other words, absolutely nothing is accomplished. I have only one response to those sorts of endings.

"Thank you for wasting my fucking time. I could have spent those hours doing something productive with my life, like hugging cacti, but thanks to you, I just feel barely-restrained disappointment and anger. I hope you're fucking happy with yourself, and I wish you fun times until such time as the meteor hits your house to balance out the world's karma."

 

[Rodger]

The obvious answer, of course, is multiple endings. And none of this morality-based multiple endings malarky either. As a recent example, Valkyria Profile: Covenant of the Plume. A rather easy game (assuming you have a road map to figure out which route was easy, I didn't and after several hard battles due to a lack of characters to sacrifice I was met with an unwinnable fight midway through the game to get a bad end) and the easiest route gives you the worst ending. Or if you just suck/take the hard routes unknowingly, you get the early assrape ending like I did.

Another example, Disgaea 2. In one premature ending you come up against an unwinnable boss fight, which CAN be won under certain conditions. The end result is the boss getting pissed and deciding to destroy the world. That's an alternate bad end thats more comical than anything. There's a REAL bad ending, though, in which the main character, now possessed, decides his younger brother and sister look absolutely delicious and eats them. This is not played for laughs at all, quite the opposite. And even in the original Disgaea, the normal ending you get is bittersweet at best.

In another game by the same company, an optional boss shows up to try to take your spot as main character. They show off prior to the battle by destroying the world. After you beat her, she laments that she can't be the main character now. Another character quickly points out that, because she destroyed the world, neither can they.

Long story short, the best way to have a bad ending would be to make the player earn their happy ending. Make the "normal" ending you'd get be pretty much a downer, or bittersweet. The "bad" ending can be an outright "you failed, big time". Good ending could still be bittersweet or just finally a happy ending. And you can have any variation between them or alternate routes for different endings, without invoking moral choice. Don't make the player have to collect all the macguffins or whatever to earn the happy ending though. Maybe there's a few things they have to do along the way to trigger it? Maybe there's a specific character they have to keep happy? Maybe there's just some series of decisions and you make the wrong ones, resulting in key characters dying off or not following you as a result, or not getting a specific something-or-rather? I could probably go on listing potential ideas. Heck, both the Disgaea games I mentioned give you a special ending for losing to the comic relief villain. Its essentially a game over that counts as an ending.

 

[sgtshock]

It's kind of already been said, but what makes most downer endings suck so much is that it undoes everything you worked for. Especially if the character dies. Then all you're essentially working towards a slightly more cinematic death than the hundreds of deaths it took to get there. The best sad endings let you finish what you set out to do, but still deliver the tragedy, like MGS3 or GTA4.

 

[Nunka]

I actually like "downer endings"

Not to the degree where I prefer them to happy ones.

I do!

And I seem to be the only person alive who wants to see all his heroes' efforts go to waste, every single time. I love watching everything go up in flames. Negative emotions are so much easier to exploit! I understand why game developers don't do it often, but I wish they would. The game industry needs more unhappy endings. Maybe if this industry didn't cling to the children's superhero happy fantasy ending all the time, we'd get some recognition from those "games aren't ART!" folks.

 

[SinisterDeath]

Alot of people don't like endings that don't wrap up all nicely with a bow tie. I believe they dont' like it, because it makes them think, it makes them evaluate there own Empathy. Its something they are afraid of, specially given that these are all just actors in a story. Why does a 'downer ending' hit you harder in a video game or a movie, then watching news for a day?

As for video games, all you need to do, is look at the games that had great reviews, but poor sales.

I forgot about the shadow hearts trilogy. When I beat Shadow Hearts 2, I was stunned at even the 'best' ending wasn't that good.. I mean even to this day you have to make a decision, and its a tough one, a REALLY tough one. Its so tough infact, that it is by far the best arguement to this date about the whole 'coma brain dead, put em out of there misery, vs let them rot in a bed for all eternity.

A little known game,
Legacy of Kain.
Your mission is of revenge.
You get it within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Now what?
Okay, follow some orders, by a ghost to go kill the people who are corrupting the world, its a rotting, filthy vile land that needed to be purged from evil.

The Good ending, you Kill your self to save the land.
The 'bad ending', you live, since your are the last being corrupting the land, the land withers and dies away, while you wage an unholy crusade for vampire kind. ITs not a downer ending, but its definately not the 'well, he's gunna live in a cabin and tend to a little garden until he dies!'.

Breath Of Fire III
You have to kill your best friend to save the world, and by save the world your letting the world destroy its self in 5 years instead of slowly rotting away in 500 years. Infact, you have to kill a 'god' to achieve this.

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter, during the final fight, you use more and more of your limited dragon power, and you use up all of it (In this game the more you transform the closer your % gets to 100, when it reaches 100% you die.) The main character Ryu tells the rest of the party that he'll follow them up to the surface they've been fighting there way to before he dies. And they grieve.

When I played it, I coulda swore he wasn't 'revived' but wiki claims you are 'revived' at the ending. I'd like to say there are multiple endings but thats not the way I remembered it.

Oh,
Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core.
You know what was going to happen.
You didn't want it to.
You wanted it to stop, you wanted to prevent it.
You wanted to change the past so the people in Final Fantasy 7 didn't have to go through all the pain that was caused by the ending of Crisis Core.
But ultimately, it was destiny. IT HAD to happen, but damned if you didn't fight your hardest to prevent it. And after playing that game, And if you play FF7 right after it, you might understand a little more of Clouds anger.

 

[FistsOfTinsel]

C'mon - nobody mentions Braid?

 

[Quaidis]

I don't mind an ending that is sad so long as it does not suck - nor make me feel like I wasted my time. That is, there are plenty of games without happy endings through history, yet a large percentage are not done right. Players want to feel finality, yet they also do not want to feel as if they have wasted their time. Ie, "The Princess is in the Other Castle."

Two games I can recall with bitter endings that were still fine were Shadow of the Colossus and - though much older - Lufia 2. Bloody well, if anything Lufia 2's ending was beautiful.