Poll of the Day > What's the worst ending to a game you've seen (spoilers!)

(+) Yeah! (+)

At the end of Ocarina of Time, I kept thinking, after all that, Link is returned to his child state, and he and Zelda only keep memories of each other?

or at the end of 11th Hour, pick Marie

finally, if you think about it, every Super Mario title (except the American version of Super Mario Bros 2) - Peach cannot be kept safe under any circimstances.

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Star ocean till the end of time You are playing a game that's inside of a game.

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Most frustrating ending for me was The Witcher 3, not necessarily because of what each ending entails, but because the way that your ending is determined is completely moronic.

(Sorry for not using spoiler tags, I figured I didnt need them since I dont actually say what the endings are.)

Rather than taking into account your actions over the course of the game, it checks how you responded (or if you responded) to five specific events/conversations in the final act which dont even relate to the plot, but how you interact with a specific character. Basically, if you do anything besides affirm her character and decisions wholesale, you get the bad ending. This is frustrating because she spends a good chunk of this time acting like a petulant child, and, as a father figure, its pretty much Geralts job to challenge her on this stuff.
Getting the bad ending isnt the end of the world, but finding out afterwards that this was the metric for deciding that is a major slap in the face when youve invested so much in the story at this point.

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Danganronpa V3's ending ruined the whole series.

CaptainStrong posted...

Danganronpa V3's ending ruined the whole series.

I came here just to say this. Exactly this.

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Patrick Stewart doing the narration? A darker, bleaker interpretation of Castlevania? Movie-quality cutscenes and dialogue? Sign me up!

Then nothing happens. All of a sudden, there's this "growing darkness" inside of Gabriel. All of a sudden, he's Dracula. All of a sudden, it's modern day.

Nope. Done. Don't care. Never bought the sequels.

CaptainStrong posted...

Danganronpa V3's ending ruined the whole series.

How so? Just because they arent really kids killing each other to Dave their lives?
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ME3.



pastyD posted...

Most frustrating ending for me was The Witcher 3, not necessarily because of what each ending entails, but because the way that your ending is determined is completely moronic.

Rather than taking into account your actions over the course of the game, it checks how you responded (or if you responded) to five specific events/conversations in the final act which dont even relate to the plot

It kind of makes sense, though. Those dialogues are situations where you're literally either treating her like a child (in which case she kind of resents you) or dismissing her out of hand (which discourages her). Which means that, in the final battle, she lacks the resolve to survive the battle.

It makes even more sense when you realize that Geralt is essentially her surrogate dad - the more you act like her dad (try and cheer her up when she's upset, trust her judgement rather than undermining her), the more self-confidence she has, and the more likely she is to survive. It's like an anime where you can only win with the POWER OF LOVE.

When I played through I got the best ending completely by accident, without using a guide at all. The "right" choices are kind of blindingly obvious (except maybe the one where you either drink or snowball fight).
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Jake Johnson posted...

At the end of Ocarina of Time, I kept thinking, after all that, Link is returned to his child state, and he and Zelda only keep memories of each other?

Eh if he had just continued on as an adult the past 7 years wouldve still happened. Everyone who got killed, everything that got ruined etc. Would be a bit odd if Link and Zelda were just like fuck em when they could go back and prevent the majority of it.

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PaladinSaris posted...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Nope. Done. Don't care. Never bought the sequels.

As someone who liked the first game and didn't mind the ending, the sequel is an absolute dumpster fire

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hypnox posted...

Star ocean till the end of time You are playing a game that's inside of a game.

Tbf, that's not the ending, which shows they are indeed more than just 'video game characters' since even when it's deleted they still continue to exist.

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Mass Effect 3

This was like the worse, However that bad ending saved that game. People were too busy talking about the ending they didn't talk about all the other poor writing .

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When I read this question I thought of ME3 right away. The last 10 minutes are just like WTF...DUMB and ruined a whole series.

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Mass Effect 3. The first time I've ever seen an ending retroactively ruin multiple games. ME3 had a ton of terrible things story-wise as well like the whole Genophage thing. The more I think about it the more I realize it shouldn't have been such a black and white choice.

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Decoy77 posted...

When I read this question I thought of ME3 right away. The last 10 minutes are just like WTF...DUMB and ruined a whole series.

Honestly the ending wasn't even 1/4 of the reason that ME3 ruined the series.

Granted, a lot of the problems started in ME2, but for the most part it was overall an improvement over the original (except replacing the Mako sections with that horrible scanning and probe system, WTF?). But ME3 was basically Gears of War with horrible controls. Not to mention playing "Marco Polo" to find items and resources vs actually surveying planets. Or the fact that your choices from the previous games didn't matter one bit. "Oh, this character died and we have a large story-line that centers around them? Don't worry, we will just replace them with some other random person and change literally nothing else. "

Anyways, as far as really bad endings, I'll go with Dark Angel: Vampire Apocalypse. The whole game is bad, but the ending is basically "Oh cool, you beat the last guy, go ahead and just play the game endlessly now". Keep in mind, this is a game where you do nothing but level up for one in-game year just to fight the final boss. So the game rewards you with...being able to level up with no end goal.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

ME3.

It kind of makes sense, though. Those dialogues are situations where you're literally either treating her like a child (in which case she kind of resents you) or dismissing her out of hand (which discourages her). Which means that, in the final battle, she lacks the resolve to survive the battle.

It makes even more sense when you realize that Geralt is essentially her surrogate dad - the more you act like her dad (try and cheer her up when she's upset, trust her judgement rather than undermining her), the more self-confidence she has, and the more likely she is to survive. It's like an anime where you can only win with the POWER OF LOVE.

When I played through I got the best ending completely by accident, without using a guide at all. The "right" choices are kind of blindingly obvious (except maybe the one where you either drink or snowball fight).

I guess its difficult because, despite the Witcher series reputation for recognizing grey areas and the nuances inherent in different situations, this is a place where they really failed to do that.
Being a parent does mean encouraging your children, having fun with them, etc. But, if youre doing your job, it also means holding them accountable, being honest with them, and telling them when theyre wrong so they can grow in the right direction. It means recognizing whats correct, whats not, and how to think critically in order to make these decisions on their own once youre not around to help them.
The game separates these two essential elements (encouragement and accountability) and pits them against each other, and then it punishes you if you pick the one that they didnt arbitrarily define as the more loving option.
(plus, in case it muddies the waters a bit, I completely missed the snowball fight check in my play-through, so im not necessarily criticizing that one the same way as the others.)

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The last Professor Layton game.

Well, part of the issue is that the staff at Bioware underwent massive changes between ME2 and ME3. ME2 is the last game made by the 'real' Bioware, Dragon Age 2 has the transition point marked out beautifully (end of act 1), and ME3 was mainly the new staff. It's especially glaring once you know what the *ACTUAL* plot was supposed to be.

No need to mark spoilers since it didn't happen.

Basically, the Mass Effect was causing stars to destabilize. However it was the only way to travel faster than light as well. The Reapers were researching a solution while keeping the galaxy on a strict and tightly controlled fast-travel network. That way they could minimize the damage done to the galaxy while they looked for a solution and cull other races if they became too prosperous.

I've heard some varying accounts like that they had almost found the solution or that they'd cull other races to make new reapers to both preserve them genetically as well as increase their numbers to better finding solutions, but it's not consistent beyond that.

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pastyD posted...

I guess its difficult because, despite the Witcher series reputation for recognizing grey areas and the nuances inherent in different situations, this is a place where they really failed to do that.

Being a parent does mean encouraging your children, having fun with them, etc. But, if youre doing your job, it also means holding them accountable, being honest with them, and telling them when theyre wrong so they can grow in the right direction. It means recognizing whats correct, whats not, and how to think critically in order to make these decisions on their own once youre not around to help them.

I agree - but at that point in your relationship, she's already mostly on her own, and has been for quite some time with you unable to help. She's repeatedly shown that she CAN stand on her own, accomplish things for herself, and so on.

So you're kind of past the teachable moments part of the relationship. But you're very clearly in a stage of the relationship where she doesn't have all that much support, where she's desperately looking for affirmation and reassurance more than criticism. She wants you to be supportive dad, not lecture dad. While YOU may think that being lecture dad is better because it's teaching important lessons, you're still deflating her and leaving her in a funk that comes back to bite her in the end. Mostly, it boils down to your need to inspire her, to encourage her to be able to stand on her own, but to always know that you'll always be there for her.

It's why one of the decision points (if you take her to see her actual dad) is whether or not you accept the reward (which makes her feel like you only tried to find her because money) or refuse it (which proves you really do love and care about her). You're mostly trying to lift her spirits so she has enough DETERMINATION! to grit through the final battle and survive.

If she was still the child Ciri from the books, it would be more appropriate for you to be incorporating life lessons.

If anything, it's similar to a quest in Dragon Age 2, where you have to help a mage resist demons who have trapped him in illusions. Some of the dialogue options let you basically just tell him straight up that he's in a dream and nothing is real except for the demons, but the right choice is to give him hints and allow him to rationalize for himself what's going on. The blunt, more directly informative responses leave him afraid, but encouraging him to figure things out for himself allows him to better resist future threats, and it helps him survive.
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The Cursed Crusade for Playstation 3
I thought the game was somewhat decent, but that game literally has one of the worst endings I've seen. I was expecting at least one more major battle or something then the credits role.


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Bioshocks ending was disgusto el barfo

super anticlimactic

Probably Mass Effect 3.

I also (maybe controversially?) hated the ending system in the first two Metro games (I didn't play the third one but it's probably there too). There's basically a hidden morality system that tracks your behavior throughout the game, and if you don't get high enough it gives you the bad ending. Looking it up afterwards, I found it to be really strict and counter intuitive in terms of what it asked of you, I don't think you can get the good ending going in blind. Playing through the first game I didn't even realize my behavior was being tracked.

But I get that some people might like a system like that, to me it just felt like being unfairly punished.

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MICHALECOLE posted...

Bioshocks ending was disgusto el barfo

super anticlimactic

Speaking of anticlimactic, Rage's ending was very ho-hum

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Blighboy posted...

the ending system in the first two Metro games (I didn't play the third one but it's probably there too)

It is.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNUNLh2YF9Q

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The end of Dick Tracy for Sega genesis, I never beat that game because of how hard the last 2 levels are, but you would think you'd get a animation for a ending but no just a ..............................

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Spirit__Warrior posted...

Dick Tracy for Sega genesis

I think I saw AVGN play this...
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLJKm8g_8M

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The ending to MGS V ruined the whole series for me

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100% Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

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Back to the future nes

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I like the inclusions of 11th Hour (Marie) and Danganronpa V3 in this topic. Good choices.

ArvTheGreat posted...

Back to the future nes

That game was fucking horrible. The ending is great because the game is done at that point.

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CaptainStrong posted...

Danganronpa V3's ending ruined the whole series.

dr_burger92 posted... I came here just to say this. Exactly this.

Y'all being upset at the ending, reminds me of this shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuWkvyeAu0E

Super vague spoilers Just let a franchise/series die when It's done all that it can, instead of sapping more life out of a depleted creative talent.

Less vague spoilers The ending of DR2 was lackluster to 1 because it was practically the same thing. DR2 was fun because of the cast and the trials, not because of the ending. 3's ending was in a sense, feels like fanfiction/alternate ending, but it was the most fitting, unique, and meta ending it can be. Too often in media, fandoms pidgeonhole the direction that a work takes, killing the creativity and freedom from the writers/creators. Don't think I've seen any story that calls out how entitled fandoms are.

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Undertale's pacifist ending is the only time I can think of where an ending soured the whole experience of the game for me.

Cloudy989 posted...

Undertale's pacifist ending is the only time I can think of where an ending soured the whole experience of the game for me.

Really? How so? I thought it was cute and satisfying.

EDIT: I don't know what my pick for the topic question would be... my knee jerk reaction is ME3, but I'm sure there's much worse I've seen and just can't remember at the moment.

Ctrl + F

No "Drawn to Life 2"

Holy shit you guys don't know

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Magical Starsign's ending ruined the game for me after I first played it. I've made my peace with it nowadays, but man that epilogue went against tons of character development. Plus Miss Madeline died after all the effort you put in to save her.

I dunno if I hate Drawn to Life 2's ending but it is shockingly sad and out-of-tone with the rest of the game, with almost zero foreshadowing of what happens.

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Biggest one for me is still the original Mass Effect 3 ending. Someone should have clued the writers in to the fact that when you've spent three games controlling a character who is meant to be a future-analogue of you, it is not "clever", "groundbreaking" or "subversive" to provide three unchoices which only provide varying degrees of killing that character off. While also permanently destroying the infrastructure of the galactic population (blowing up the mass relays, because the Codex said that the distances between the inhabitants systems were uncrossable in anything less than decades without them).

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XadePsyconic posted...

Really? How so? I thought it was cute and satisfying.

EDIT: I don't know what my pick for the topic question would be... my knee jerk reaction is ME3, but I'm sure there's much worse I've seen and just can't remember at the moment.

It was the way it handled a particular character (the final boss) and the writing around that. Felt completely at odds with how the main character behaved during that path of the game up to that point and the themes of the game in general.
The rest of the ending was fine, but that aspect of it was simply too much to overlook for me.

If we're talking about a game that was otherwise actually good, because there are plenty of games that are just plain bad, "Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright's" ending basically ruined the rest of the game.

It's basically the "it was all a dream ending", where you find out everything and everyone doesn't matter and was fake because everyone including yourself was brainwashed.

Also one of the biggest plot points in the story is the focus on disproving that magic is real, when 2 of the main characters possess magical abilities, and one of them regularly uses that magical ability to progress that plot, and the other doesn't use their magic for no given reason despite how useful it would be.

Then in the epilogue, the story makes fun of itself for not making sense, like that makes it excusable because the writers admitted their story didn't add up.
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DiScOrD tHe LuNaTiC posted...

Biggest one for me is still the original Mass Effect 3 ending. Someone should have clued the writers in to the fact that when you've spent three games controlling a character who is meant to be a future-analogue of you, it is not "clever", "groundbreaking" or "subversive" to provide three unchoices which only provide varying degrees of killing that character off. While also permanently destroying the infrastructure of the galactic population (blowing up the mass relays, because the Codex said that the distances between the inhabitants systems were uncrossable in anything less than decades without them).

It's not that it boiled down to just three choices; though that was a huge part of it. It's that it didn't provide any acknowledgement of the choices the player made in the prior games. Even with the extended cut things are woefully under-developed. For example...

One of the massive plotpoints throughout the series is the Krogan Genophage and the various implications and fallout it's had upon the Krogan. Players have to decide the fate of the Krogan during one of the main quests. This could easily play out with them either having learned their lesson and returning to galactic society as functioning members, not having learned their lesson and engaging in a whole new Krogan war that shatters the galaxy, or having to have the genophage re-introduced in order to curb them. There are other outcomes, I'm sure, but the issue is that no acknowledgement is made of the players choice. At best we're left to decide for ourselves if we made the right choice but that's not satisfying for an ending. It's also why it retroactively ruins ME1 and 2; because it takes all those choices made and boils it down to a number and a color choice. That the decision boiled down to three choices is just the final insult especially since none of them allow for any satisfaction or play-out for the choices made across the series. I'm not saying a 30 minute cutscene showing every little thing should have been done; but a follow-up for all the characters throughout the series and major decisions alone would have been nice. I want to have my little blue asari babies learning about the Shepard, not be left with basically an ending that is basically 'Conglatulations! Thank you for paying! New game?' in three different colors.

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DarkKirby2500 posted...

Also one of the biggest plot points in the story is the focus on disproving that magic is real, when 2 of the main characters possess magical abilities, and one of them regularly uses that magical ability to progress that plot, and the other doesn't use their magic for no given reason despite how useful it would be.

Though I kind of agree, I will say that Luke's magic power is treated more like a learned skill than magic in the games. Even though it seems more like magic. Where when it come to Maya, she's still in training at that point, I believe. And even in her games, she has trouble with it unless there's real danger... So, there is that...
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Press the button to select the ending you want. At least Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War made you actually do stuff to earn a particular ending.

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The Popo posted...

I like the inclusion of 11th Hour (Marie)

When you go to the haunted demon mansion to save your girlfriend, you probably shouldn't choose running off with the succubus in the end. It's probably not going to end well.



DiScOrD tHe LuNaTiC posted...

Biggest one for me is still the original Mass Effect 3 ending. Someone should have clued the writers in to the fact that when you've spent three games controlling a character who is meant to be a future-analogue of you, it is not "clever", "groundbreaking" or "subversive" to provide three unchoices which only provide varying degrees of killing that character off.

Everyone loved it when Deus Ex did it, though!

What do you mean BioWare can't just copy what Deus Ex did without actually understanding what/why/how Deus Ex did? That's just crazy talk!

...of course, Deus Ex spent most of the game to that point establishing an overarching theme, which the entire story ties in to, and your final choice is essentially choosing how you respond to that theme - whereas ME3 is mostly just desperately ass-pulling for something that seems deep after they released they'd forgotten to come up with a worthwhile overarching theme in the previous games. And ignoring the fact that two of the three choices are literally the embodiments of the franchise's villains.
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Unbridled9 posted...

It's that it didn't provide any acknowledgement of the choices the player made in the prior games.

This is most typified for me in the final conversation you can have with the Catalyst. Especially if you've generally been playing Paragon:

"Every single thing I have done over the last three years disproves every single claim you've made, every single argument you defend your point-of-view with. At best, you're an obstinate fool who refuses to adapt when new evidence is presented to you, at worst, the entirety of your logic and assumptions are the result of program error. Because you have refused to ever allow anyone to disprove your hypothesis, you claim your hypothesis cannot be disproved. You've engineered conditions in a way that cannot help but prove you right, then wipe everyone out before they can ever prove you wrong. Even your own creators disagree with your methods, and your motive. You are nothing more than a mistake."

That's the sort of thing my Shepard should have said to the manipulative little AI shit. Instead, they basically sit there and nod as the bastard spoon-feeds me the official party line two writers decided was super-deep after they'd watched too many episodes of Battlestar: Galactica. You're given no real opportunity to dispute, disprove, or present evidence to the contrary. Even when you say no, the AI mostly just dismisses you for being an idiot and moves on with his rant. And even your contradictions are presented more in the vein of "I'm not going to do that" as opposed to "I think you're objectively wrong".

Which is why I never hesitate to blow that fucker and all of his minions into atoms.
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The Last of Us

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Jake Johnson posted...

At the end of Ocarina of Time, I kept thinking, after all that, Link is returned to his child state, and he and Zelda only keep memories of each other?

or at the end of 11th Hour, pick Marie

finally, if you think about it, every Super Mario title (except the American version of Super Mario Bros 2) - Peach cannot be kept safe under any circimstances.

My gripe with OoT is being sent back into the past shouldnt that mean ganondorf was technically never beaten? In child links timeline anyways.

But for me any ending that equates to it never actually happened. Like it was a dream. And if the theory that mgs2 was all virtual reality was confirmed it would ruin that for me.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

This is most typified for me in the final conversation you can have with the Catalyst. Especially if you've generally been playing Paragon:

"Every single thing I have done over the last three years disproves every single claim you've made, every single argument you defend your point-of-view with. At best, you're an obstinate fool who refuses to adapt when new evidence is presented to you, at worst, the entirety of your logic and assumptions are the result of program error. Because you have refused to ever allow anyone to disprove your hypothesis, you claim your hypothesis cannot be disproved. You've engineered conditions in a way that cannot help but prove you right, then wipe everyone out before they can ever prove you wrong. Even your own creators disagree with your methods, and your motive. You are nothing more than a mistake."

That's the sort of thing my Shepard should have said to the manipulative little AI shit. Instead, they basically sit there and nod as the bastard spoon-feeds me the official party line two writers decided was super-deep after they'd watched too many episodes of Battlestar: Galactica. You're given no real opportunity to dispute, disprove, or present evidence to the contrary. Even when you say no, the AI mostly just dismisses you for being an idiot and moves on with his rant. And even your contradictions are presented more in the vein of "I'm not going to do that" as opposed to "I think you're objectively wrong".

Which is why I never hesitate to blow that fucker and all of his minions into atoms.

I can't help but wonder how different the trilogy would have been if A, Karpyshyn hadn't left BioWare; and B, Walters hadn't decided to ignore most of what Karpyshyn had set up so he could come up with his own ideas (supposedly, in Karpyshyn's plot, the Reapers were going to be using dark energy somehow, which is hinted at in Tali's mission on Haestrom).

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Lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring on the gameboy advance.

you go on an rpg-like quest to destroy the ring and defeat sauron.
just as your journey is really getting underway you climb a hill.
sauron sees you.
game over, you "win".

it's like playing a demo, you're not even halfway into the actual journey and you're presented with what's basically a "buy the game to continue playing" screen without having accomplished any real goal.

I cant think of any games I thought had bad endings.

Frasier had a bad ending in the way of TV shows.

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