Worst Videogame Ending Ever

[Firefilm]

Worst Videogame Ending Ever

The guys debate which has a worse ending Grand Theft Auto III or Final Fantasy VII.

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[medv4380]

Nice you mentioned FFVII and its bad ending. However, you never mentioned why it was a bad ending. The reason was that wasn't supposed to be the ending. The game was running long and marketing demanding it be published soon. So they pick the latest boss they were working on as the final boss slapped the ending on and went to print. I wish I had the source for this because it was revealed in a inside look interview way back.

 

[oldtaku]

FF VII's was horrible because they ran out of time. Even if they hadn't admitted it since it's pretty patently obvious that it's a 'whoops, uh, here's an ending.' On the other hand, then it turned out to be wildly profitable for them since everyone was too busy looking at the graphics and then they could milk the non-ending for a dozen spin-offs and CG videos.

GTA III didn't offend me so much, it just surprised me. 'Wait, that was the last mission? The credits are rolling?' Then I went back to blowing things up.

I have to agree with Dan here. Actively hostile ending ('haw haw you played for 80 hours and here's your payoff') is worse than road-bump non-ending where I didn't care about the plot.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Nice you mentioned FFVII and its bad ending. However, you never mentioned why it was a bad ending. The reason was that wasn't supposed to be the ending. The game was running long and marketing demanding it be published soon. So they pick the latest boss they were working on as the final boss slapped the ending on and went to print. I wish I had the source for this because it was revealed in a inside look interview way back.

FF VII's was horrible because they ran out of time. Even if they hadn't admitted it since it's pretty patently obvious that it's a 'whoops, uh, here's an ending.' On the other hand, then it turned out to be wildly profitable for them since everyone was too busy looking at the graphics and then they could milk the non-ending for a dozen spin-offs and CG videos.

See, that doesn't make any sense to me, because where was the plot going to go that it didn't go? Was Square just going to include several more failed attempts to get into the crater? I don't feel like they left any questions unanswered, other than why Sephiroth wanted to "become a god." But that answer seems to be "because he's a JRPG villain."

 

[medv4380]

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See, that doesn't make any sense to me, because where was the plot going to go that it didn't go? Was Square just going to include several more failed attempts to get into the crater? I don't feel like they left any questions unanswered, other than why Sephiroth wanted to "become a god." But that answer seems to be "because he's a JRPG villain."

I'm not saying that what they did was leave a bunch of loose ends that weren't tied off, but that the ending cut scene and your fight with Sephiroth don't exactly mesh well. Now I'm basing it off of an interview where they said that marketing was pressuring them to actually ship, and if they said "finish this game we ship next week" then you're doing to make a best effort to at least make it look like an ending.

Think of it this way. The main thing I always thought was unresolved was the two remaining weapons that were activated by, what was it, the planets own defenses, and the ending cut scene where you see the city destroyed and in ruins. I couldn't figure out if the city was saved from meteor or not form that last scene.

Since they admitted that the ending was rushed I figure you beat Sephiroth, stopped Meteor, but the Planet wouldn't stop the remaining Weapons and the "Final" boss would have been the remaining weapons and or the Planet. Being rushed all they did was make the last two weapons Optional fights and turned Sephiroth into the last boss. Leaving the player to assume why the city was in ruins in the final scene.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

....

I just figured the ending made it pretty clear that even though the lifestream did... something to Meteor (I agree, the cutaway at that moment was a bad choice), Midgar still took quite a beating and was thus left in ruins.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I laugh when people tell me that Mass Effect 3 has one of 'the worst endings in videogame history ever' because they clearly have shorter memories than goldfish.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the first Tomb Raider game on PSX, Soul Caliber IV, Medieval II: Total War, KoToR II, X-Men Legends II, and that's all fairly modern games with unbelievably crappy endings.

And don't even try and argue that it was about ambiguity, because when it's another game that presents itself as more 'arty' you'll defend it to the death. What the fuck is actually happening at the end of ICO, or Shadow of the Colossus? Sure there are fan theories out there and a lot of supporting evidence for some of them in the games, but are we ever actually told what is happening?

Remember Metal Gear Solid 2? Remember the shit storm gamers kicked up over that fucking ending? Did that just suddenly get downgraded from 'most disappointing ending ever' because Mass Effect didn't give each of you an individual blowjob from Jen Hale and a congratulatory handshake from Casey Hudson?

 

[shrekfan246]

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First, its hilarious that these two posts are right next to each other. Second, neither of you actually paid attention to what thread you're posting on, did you? This had literally nothing to do with Mass Effect 3 apart from small mentions in each argument's first paragraph.

OT: I've never really cared about Grand Theft Auto, and even less so about the stories in that series, but my eleven year old mind never really had any issues understanding Final Fantasy VII's ending. I always figured it had a typical "They saaaaaaved the world!" ending and everyone came out okay.

As for other games mentioned in the article, I'd honestly need to go with God of War as my own pick. The series had no reason to exist past its first installment, which was the only time Kratos was even remotely relatable. After that he was morphed into a cartoonish, psychopathic caricature of himself that only existed for once purpose and was, quite frankly, terrible at achieving that purpose. And the fact that yet another God of War game is being released just. . . really makes me sigh.

EDIT: Actually, while we're on the subject of Final Fantasy endings, I'd like to see an explanation as to how VII, which ostensibly ended with "The bad guy loses" is any worse of an ending than VIII's, which essentially threw nightmare-fuel at you and then said "Whelp, it's over!"

 

[EHKOS]

I do not see Psi-Ops or Republic commando. People who make cliffhanger game endings and then go out of business should be dragged from their homes and forced to finish the damn story!

 

[oldtaku]

See, that doesn't make any sense to me, because where was the plot going to go that it didn't go? Was Square just going to include several more failed attempts to get into the crater? I don't feel like they left any questions unanswered, other than why Sephiroth wanted to "become a god." But that answer seems to be "because he's a JRPG villain."

Sephiroth is one of those bosses you get just before the real boss. I'm fairly sure the 'real' ending would have involved fighting a gigantic Jenova incarnation. And would have showed just how the Meteor was stopped after you fought your way through a space dungeon. Probably on the space ship that Jenova originally crashed into Midgard on a few thousand years ago after Sephiroth re-launches it. That's just the way JPRGs rolled!

I think you can make a pretty good argument that the Sephiroth the party encounters is never the original Sephiroth at all (except in the flashback), just one of Jenova's incarnations, which also explains the drive to 'become' a god (he's an alien god's avatar). So this would have been revealed, cue transformed god-boss fight.

 

[oldtaku]

Actually, this whole FF7 thing reminds me that Knights of the Old Republic 2's ending (as shipped) was even worse. A whole tangle of carefully built subplots, characters, and relationships just tossed out the window because they ran out of time.

The only thing that redeems it is that they included the original ending scripts on the game disk and some very dedicated fans released a mod that restored it.

 

[Felipe Nurwandi]

The ending of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 was pretty bad.

All seriousness though; Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

 

[Easton Dark]

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the first Tomb Raider game on PSX, Medieval II: Total War

Those are all very, very bad. I don't think anything could take my mind off how bad the endings were when I played them.

blowjob from Jen Hale

Okay, almost anything.


OT: FF7s was ok, wasn't it? I'm disappointed with most GTA endings.

 

[hermes]

Neither (GTA 3 and FF 7) were that terrible, IMO. Rushed, yes... Terrible, no.

Games with awful endings are quite often... and no, Mass Effect 3 ending doesn't count. Anyone that says ME3 either: plays one game a year or, has been a game for 2 years.

You want awful endings? How about Borderlands, Rage, Ghostbusters, Bionic Commando, Ghosts & Goblins?

How about Half Life 2: Episode 2? You know what is worst than an underwhelming ending? One that was set as a huge cliffhanger, NEVER to be answered again.

Remember Metal Gear Solid 2? Remember the shit storm gamers kicked up over that fucking ending? Did that just suddenly get downgraded from 'most disappointing ending ever' because Mass Effect didn't give each of you an individual blowjob from Jen Hale and a congratulatory handshake from Casey Hudson?

Thanks.

 

[Arkvoodle]

Conglaturation!

You Have Completed A Great Game. And Prooved The Justice of our Culture.

Now Go And Rest Our Heroes!

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Well, with RAGE it took me a while to realize that I was actually watching the end clip. That was the moment I really did feel some rage creep up on me, and I thought that was really meta and artsy.

I expected some sort of DLC, though. It never came.

Most games these days seem to have crap and rushed endings.

Take Driver: San Francisco, a game I truly enjoyed -
Where does the guy Jericho freed go in Driver: San Francisco? All of a sudden, he did no longer matter and just went poof. BANG! GAME'S OVER. YOU WON! SEE YA!

 

[snekadid]

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First, its hilarious that these two posts are right next to each other. Second, neither of you actually paid attention to what thread you're posting on, did you? This had literally nothing to do with Mass Effect 3 apart from small mentions in each argument's first paragraph.

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EDIT: Actually, while we're on the subject of Final Fantasy endings, I'd like to see an explanation as to how VII, which ostensibly ended with "The bad guy loses" is any worse of an ending than VIII's, which essentially threw nightmare-fuel at you and then said "Whelp, it's over!"

Did you not see the constant references to ME3 through out the video? It was clearly aimed at qualities of the ME3 ending without coming out and saying it.

I remember really liking the ending to 7 and was confused when it was called bad in the video. I think he just missed something. Personally i loved FF8, never understood the hate, with the exception of selphie all the characters are both balanced yet flawed giving them greater depth then 7's characters. The story becomes overly complicated like most FF games but it innovated in game play and the card game was fun. The game was balanced too<with the exception of the "armageddon fist" combo of zells>, staying challenging without making me scream foul.

O.T. wait... what was the topic again? o yea.... GTA 3's ending was worse then FF7's.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Not sure what issue people took with FFVII's ending. Made perfect sense to me. Aerith's death was not in vain, Cloud can move on......until that movie sequel came out and had to fuck that sideways. 200 years later, Midgar is covered in forest, showing that the planet would survive.

The severity of an ending depends on the build-up involved. This is the core reason for Mass Effect 3's controversy, five years is a long time.

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And here we see the another aspect. It depends how well invested you were in the story and how good you thought it was.

The way I see it, me and others were willing to forgive Bioware's gameplay hiccups as long as the story was good. I recall after ME2 I said to myself that Bioware was the best of Western videogame storytelling. But obviously not everyone felt that way, there were those who felt it was "just another sci-fi game."

Of course in today's videogame market, expecting a good ending from any game is akin to hoping that gravity will go away. ME3 was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

For the record, I liked MGS2's ending and would take it over any recent game ending.

 

[nothingspringstomind]

Regarding the whole FF7 issue:

The ending is unfairly ambiguous around a plot that already confuses the hell out of me thanks to wonky flashbacks, and to cap it all off I genuinely cared about the characters, only to have zero resolution. I don't give a crap whether the planet survived. I didn't just play an 80 hour game because I had a deep connection to the planet. I didn't spend hours level-grinding the planet's abilities. I didn't watch the planet get stabbed and then told I couldn't go kick some ass for another two discs. Getting rewarded with a time-skip that says "Well, at least the planet is alright" isn't anywhere near satisfying. And if you're under the theory that it was meant to be open for interpretation, then why make so many spin-off games that slowly answer all the questions I was left with?

Here's the thing. FF7 was a Squaresoft title. All those FF7 spin-offs, sequels and prequels? They're Square-Enix titles. They were made ten years after the original game came out, when Hironobu Sakaguchi and a whole load of other developers who actually created FF7 had either been sacked or simply left Square to form their own studios cough*Mistwalker*cough

I remember even years after it had come out, playing FF7 and being wowed by the entire spectacle of the story, ending included. It wasn't until about 3 or 4 years after I'd played the game that Advent Children began the avalanche of FF7 spin-offs, and I was pretty late to the party anyway. Square managed to get all the way to FFX/XI before deciding to turn around and start making more FF7 related media. That, to me, doesn't come across as a group of artists deciding to further elaborate on their original artistic statement. It comes across as a corporate entity wanting to, and succeeding in making a lot of money cashing in on the nostalgia of older gamers, a suspicion I think borne out by the somewhat middling quality of the spin-offs themselves. So, to answer your question, money dear boy. The fact that it was Squenix, not Squaresoft themselves who felt the need to release more FF7 media point to it being less a dying need to make a further artistic statement, and more a somewhat cynical exercise in money-making.

Now, regarding the ambiguity of the ending itself... I'm pretty sure that most, if not all, the characters in FF7 had their resolution before the final battle.

Spoiler

Cloud's worked out his trauma and mental issues and patched things up with Tifa, making the both of them actually able to function as human beings. Barrett has committed himself to protecting Marlene and to fighting for a better future. Cid's come to terms with the fact that his planned space mission was a failure, and even got the chance of another trip to space as karmic compensation, Cait Sith's been outed as a mole but has decided to work with the Scooby gang for reals this time, Red XIII has learned the truth about his father and decided to try and live up to his legacy and protect Cosmo Canyon...

Hell, before they even go to North Crater, Cloud tells everyone to go off and find what it is they're fighting for, and to make sure they're absolutely committed to fighting the good fight.

With all that said and done, what was there really left to explore about the characters? They've worked through all their trauma, they've uncovered all the lies and falsehoods about their pasts, they've united themselves against a common foe and decided to fight him together... what would an extra ten minutes of ending really have brought to the table? Do we really need to see Barrett looking after Marlene to believe he was sincere in his promise to be a father to her? Would the ending really have been that much better for seeing Red XIII return to Cosmo Canyon with our own eyes?

It's my belief that FF7's ending serves as a wonderful summation of the game's environmental themes. By the time the credits roll, all the relevant character stuff has been tied up, and the main antagonist has been resoundingly defeated. The actual plot got its resolution the second Sephiroth got beaten down by the player. Where it remained ambiguous was on the stuff that was bigger than the characters, the actual world. We see Meteor heading towards planet, we see the Lifestream manifesting to defend the planet... then we see the ruins of Midgar 500 years later, overgrown with trees and plants.

If you look at the ending without bearing in mind the themes of the story, then perhaps it will come off as a bit of a crock of shit. But then, that could also be said about War And Peace, Citizen Kane, and any other great story told in the last 200 years. When watching the ending to FF7, you have to remember that the crux of the story is based around themes of environmentalism. When you do that, then the meaning of the ending becomes entirely clear: No matter how badly we mistreat it, the planet will always eventually recover, and it will always defend itself. But when it does respond to the pollution and the abuse that we have put it to, it may well decide (symbolically of course) that humanity is no longer welcome, and in defending itself it may well wipe us out. That is what the ruins of Midgar stand for. The planet is still there, and it is still alive, but it may well be that while the planet was able to survive, humanity was not.

When you look at the impending threat of climate change, the melting of the ice caps and the rising of the sea levels, the increase in drought and famine across the world, then it is easy to see the poignancy of the game's message. It would be the simplest thing for Planet Earth to wipe out humanity in the course of responding to the pollution and stripping of the environment we are responsible for, and such a cataclysm becomes more likely every day that we leave these environmental issues unaddressed.

The character themes in FF7 were always secondary to the themes of the planet itself, and it is those primary themes which the ending addresses.

EDIT

See, that doesn't make any sense to me, because where was the plot going to go that it didn't go? Was Square just going to include several more failed attempts to get into the crater? I don't feel like they left any questions unanswered, other than why Sephiroth wanted to "become a god." But that answer seems to be "because he's a JRPG villain."

I thought the implication was always that he wrongly saw himself as the son of a Goddess. He believed Jenova to be the last of the Ancients, and saw her as a divine power. He also believed she was his direct mother. Putting two and two together, he ended up seeing himself as also being divine, and wanted a way to manifest that in himself.

I mean, it's pretty batshit, but then again I'm pretty sure Sephiroth was meant to be portrayed as a few spanners short of a toolbox anyway. Out of all the videogame villains who try to justify their insanity, I think Sephiroth is one of the ones with a better case. Let's be honest, what would you do if you were a super soldier who found out you were the genetic offspring of a weird tentacley thing that fell from the skies?

See, i always believed that, by the end, Sephiroth was perfectly aware of his true origin and what he was trying to accomplish. Sure, he went mad in Nibelheim, but after that he was merged with the Lifestream.

He had access to all the information the planet had ever accumulated and made the conscious decision to carry out his "mother's" original plan.

In my eyes, he was the epitome of a genuinely Evil character, with a capitol "E", in the fact that he was fully aware after his blending into the Lifestream, despite his insanity beforehand.

The Lifestream cured his mental instability, and he decided that he would attempt genocide regardless.

You raise some excellent points, and i only quibble with my personal opinion.

God, i love geek chat

 

[SageRuffin]

And here we see the another aspect. It depends how well invested you were in the story and how good you thought it was.

The way I see it, me and others were willing to forgive Bioware's gameplay hiccups as long as the story was good. I recall after ME2 I said to myself that Bioware was the best of Western videogame storytelling. But obviously not everyone felt that way, there were those who felt it was "just another sci-fi game."

I admit, I'm definitely part of that camp. For me, ME is done. Outside of achievement grinding and going through the game to get a final "canon" playthrough, what's done has been done. Besides, there are far more holes in the ME mythos than just the ending to the 3rd game (like the whack-ass in-game reason for that thermal clip nonsense). So it was fun for what it was, but I don't have the same level of emotional investment that you or some others have (that goes to Jade Empire).