Your Saddest Game Ending [spoilers]

[The Madman]

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

Ragnar Tornquist just does such an amazing job creating believable and likable characters, which makes it all the more heart-wrenching when bad things continue to happen to them. That's also why The Walking Dead has such an effect on people; well written and likable protagonist. It's a commodity sadly lacking in the gaming industry.

Also credit where it's due, right up to the last moment where it shit the proverbial bed Mass Effect 3 had me totally enthralled. The final moments with Anderson are brutally sad, especially if you're playing as I had been without any romances and Anderson the closest thing to family Shepard has... then the game ruins everything, but still, most of what lead up to that point was good.

 

[Clowndoe]

This is my recollection from Planescape: Torment: Colons:

As I stood face to face with my own mortality (literally), I came to the realization that I had accomplished all that I could hope for, I was moments away from achieving closure after all this time. And yet, it I could not have felt worse at that time. All my friends, those who had traveled with me in a completely senseless quest for me to finally die were killed one by one when we entered this plane, and there was nothing I could have done about it. It would all be O.K. if I could just convince my mortality to just give up and join me once more. But I wasn't strong enough. I could not convince it to forsake the freedom it had had long to enjoy, to be one with me so that I may finally *know* death.

Before the final battle, it did offer me one thing: I could revive one of my companions so that they may live their lives where instead they had followed me to their dooms. Should it be Morte, the talking skull whose guilty conscience forced him to remain faithful to me for what may have been centuries for all I know? Should it be Dakkon, the warrior who I tricked into a life-debt many lives ago whence I was a much crueler version of myself? Or Fall-From-Grace, the succubus who left tortured servitude on a hellish plane and chose to follow me partly out of pity? Well at least I don't have to worry about Vailhor, that guy was *nuts*.

Well there was one thing that clinched it for me. All the souls noted above could at least have given me the comfort of knowing that their deaths brought some sort of closure to their tortured existences. But I couldn't say the same about my 5th party member, Annah. I'm actually not sure what exactly set her apart, maybe it's just because she was the one I fell for, but if I had to save just one member of my group, it had to be her. So I walked over and brought her body back to life, and after a heart-felt farewell, she was portaled off, leaving me to confront the spirit of my own mortality on my own.

Needless to say, this enchanting game pitted my stomach more than once.

 

[Launcelot111]

I literally just finished The Walking Dead three minutes ago, and then I stroll into this thread.

Shit, man...

 

[Kurt Cristal]

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.

Ragnar Tornquist just does such an amazing job creating believable and likable characters, which makes it all the more heart-wrenching when bad things continue to happen to them. That's also why The Walking Dead has such an effect on people; well written and likable protagonist. It's a commodity sadly lacking in the gaming industry.

This completely. Though the ending to TLJ was more disconcerting than sad, being told you're not all you're supposed to be and then shoved off, DF is just one endless parade of sad stories for all parties involved. Even looking forward to Dreamfall: Chapters, still not looking forward to being cheered up.

 

[GroovySpecs]

Can I say Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2? In the sense that it was so sad such a good game had such a poor ending?

 

[The Madman]

This completely. Though the ending to TLJ was more disconcerting than sad, being told you're not all you're supposed to be and then shoved off, DF is just one endless parade of sad stories for all parties involved. Even looking forward to Dreamfall: Chapters, still not looking forward to being cheered up.

Melancholy is the word I usually use to describe TLJ's ending. It builds up to this grand self-sacrificing finale and then... well, without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't played the games, it does not go as expected. It's only in retrospect when you look over the implications of it all that you suddenly realize how heartbreaking it is, especially when you see the fallout in Dreamfall: TLJ, which itself is another game with a sad ending.

Still I have faith Ragnar knows where he's going with this.

 

[Orks da best]

Halo reach, in fact cried several times towards the end of the game on the first few playthoughs. Yea I cry, anyone who doesn't cry at one point or another is made of stone.

 

[Lunar Templar]

"But, we did every thing we where suppossed to..."

Fidget said this, twice, and both times made me cry, hell, just typing it up is causing me to tear up T-T damn you Dust, you gave me feels.

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, all of my obvious ones have been taken already...

Kingdom Hearts. All of 'em.

In the words of some wise philosopher of our modern times following the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3, "I'm a fully grown man, why do I want to play this so badly?"

Right in the feels, every time, and not even for the same logical reasons that things like The Walking Dead or Persona 4 do it.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Well all the good options have been chosen, so hey I'll do something more unique. How about that Neverwinter Nights 2?

Elanee gets crushed by rocks.
Qara if she didn't betray you "didn't stand a chance against a boulder that split her skull"
Construct gets crushed by rocks.
Grobnar throws himself over the construct to protect it and gets crushed as well.
Casavir tried to use his body to hold up rocks to let the others escape. He managed to survive being crushed and was immediately thrown indefinitely into a dungeon in Luskan(where torture is commonplace.)
Bishop is either murdered by the player, or gets crushed by rocks. Then the gods put him into the wall of the faithless where he is punished eternally for his sins.
Amon Jerro has his soul stolen and his granddaughter dies.
Zhaejeve's fate is never told so it could go either way.

Pretty much only Khelgar, Sand and Neeshka escape the final boss alive.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Jak and Daxter... I think it was more just because of how cutesy and comical it was, and then to find that the journey was futile.... made me sad!

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Sure it's been said but...

Bioshock Infinite:
The entire game is really centered around Elizabeth and the fact that she is a victim of Booker's destructive personality, no matter which iteration of reality you land on - be he Zachary Comstock or Booker Dewitt. Slowly throughout the course of the game, Booker (and the player) come to this realization, and we all figure it out at the same time. The scene where the multiple Elizabeth's appear at the end and drown Booker in order to ensure that there can never be a Comstock brought tears to my eyes. Here was a man who had spent his whole life, no matter which reality, running from everything about his past, and finally accepting responsibility by allowing the many Elizabeths to 'baptize' him.

That's how I interpreted it, anyway. I suppose it resonated well with me because of my sad relationship with my own father. It really got to me.

Of course, Red Dead Redemption also had one of the saddest endings I've seen in a game.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

The endings of the first Shadow Hearts games.

The original Shadow Hearts had a good and a bad ending - and the bad ending really was pretty damn sad. To make it even more depressing, when its sequel came out, you would find out that the bad ending was also the true ending.

Said sequel - Shadow Heats: Covenant - also had a good and a bad ending, however, in this case, both of them are sad. Hell, if you think about what happened to the protagonist's mother in the first game, the good ending really is pretty harsh. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but those who have played the games know what I'm talking about.

When we're talking about a sadness that is less intimate, less personal, I'd say Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne) takes the cake. The entire world is more or less destroyed and literally turned inside out, waiting for someone to recreate it with his/her ideals. But then there is the True Demon ending and, well, it's pretty much an "abandon all hope"-scenario.

 

[Smashingpass]

The Walking Dead. Sorry for being unoriginal, but The Walking Dead.

Fallout 3. Come on, that ending slideshow with the narrations and everything that sums up your travels of the wasteland so emotionally.
'So ends the story of the Lone Wanderer, who stepped through the great door of Vault 101, and into the annals of legend. But the tale of humanity will never come to a close, for the struggle of survival is a war without end- and war... War never changes' Holy shet that's good.

Really? I think you mean Fallout: New Vegas' ending, where it provides a (kind of) epilogue to the Wasteland. It explains what becomes of the various people, groups and locations you interacted with over the course of your adventure, as opposed to "so ends the story of the lone wonderer, who saved everyone because he is the tenth incarnation of Vishnu/killed everyone because be was a shitlord."

You can read them, here

 

[Grape_Bullion]

"She was a real hero. She was a true patriot."

"This is good... isn't it?"

Cry if you cry like Snake every time ;_;7

 

[Shodan1980]

Can I be unoriginal as well and go for The Walking Dead? That entire final scene had my crying. Come on Season 2 already!

Beyond that, Final Fantasy X so bloody sad and not at all lessened by the fact you know its coming for about half the game. Only bought Final Fantasy X-2 because I heard you could fix that.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Really? I think you mean Fallout: New Vegas' ending, where it provides a (kind of) epilogue to the Wasteland.

Nah, I didn't find that one as good. It went into detail about every single person, place and thing you interacted with in the Mojave, and got really boring fast. I liked Fallout:3's because it was more vague, implying that the story was already in the 'annals of legend', and giving a Mad Max-esque feel of uncertainty.

 

[solidmetal]

Silent Hill 2: in Water Ending (best ending in a game ever)

 

[Severian]

The Walking Dead was pretty amazing. Games or movies don't really pull at my heartstrings too much but The Walking Dead was something else. The Last of Us is supposed to be pretty phenomenal. Will find out soon enough.

 

[StormShaun]

I have quite a few sad endings I want to share but I'll only add one.

Fallout 3 without the Broken Steel DLC.

I had a damn good connection to the Lone Wanderer more then The Courier (Unless I put in my thought on how they are the same person), especailly since I thought that Fallout 3 was much more better then New Vegas in terms of characters and story. It twas sad at that very final moment, and definitely the ending slideshow.

Plus a honorable mention goes to many, MANY moments of that game. (Some even came from mods. 0_o)

Spoiler: Fallout 3 spoiler

And then came the Broken Steel DLC. Sure it removed the sadness and made me happy again, but just remember that I finished it BEFORE that DLC came out, so I was still sad. T_T

... I want a Fallout 4. T^T