Current Events > Why did everyone, including me, bitch about Mass Effect 3's ending again?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember it was the shittiest ending ever to a video game and I just beat ME3 a couple days ago and I fucking loved ME3 and didn't even think negatively about the ending. I forgot what the big fuss was all about.

The original ending, where the mass relays all exploded, was a terrible, horrible ending that basically killed all life in the galaxy.

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Because people bought into a fan theory, and really really wanted it to be canon. And they got all pissy when it wasn't.

Also they wanted to have 1.7 million different endings, to account for every single permutation and decision you made throughout the series.

But don't worry, I'm sure they'll be cool with Bioware making one of the endings official when the next game comes out.

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loafy013 posted...

Also they wanted to have 1.7 million different endings, to account for every single permutation and decision you made throughout the series.

Or maybe they were expecting a little bit more than three color-coded endings after BioWare had said during development that the game wasn't just going to have three color-coded endings.

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the starchild thing was just dumb

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Sackgurl posted...

the starchild thing was just dumb

(its the wrong game for that. right?)

I didn't play the original ending, but even then I didn't really like the later more developed one, because any sort of potential mystery or lore development was just thrown out in lieu of "fuck it, just build a big magic bomb".

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-Starchild is dumb
-color coded endings
-past choices didn't matter, beyond some flavor text
-ending is legitimately space magic, not even well written
-if you refuse, you still lose despite your army doing incredibly well against the reapers and you actively slaughtering them with upgraded weaponry and the best possible choices

And more, but those are some bullet points.
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The Extended Cut improved on it a fair bit. The original ending was shockingly bad.

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Slayer_22 posted...

-Starchild is dumb
-color coded endings
-past choices didn't matter, beyond some flavor text
-ending is legitimately space magic, not even well written
-if you refuse, you still lose despite your army doing incredibly well against the reapers and you actively slaughtering them with upgraded weaponry and the best possible choices

And more, but those are some bullet points.

All this. Fuck Bioware for that shit. Especially because they flat out lied about the ending in the run up to release.

My biggest problem with the ending was that it gave you three options, none of which Shepard would have chosen based on his attitude up to that point.

Then when they patched in the refuse ending, it was basically a deliberate middle finger to the fans who asked for it. Plenty of us were okay with the Galaxy losing the fight, but that ending was quite literally "you're an idiot for choosing this"

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The ending's pretty bad, but I also found that the journey there was good enough that I couldn't be bothered to leave hate mail on Bioware's forum.

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I didn't bitch. I just shrugged and said "Okay then."

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DarkRoast posted...

My biggest problem with the ending was that it gave you three options, none of which Shepard would have chosen based on his attitude up to that point.

Then when they patched in the refuse ending, it was basically a deliberate middle finger to the fans who asked for it. Plenty of us were okay with the Galaxy losing the fight, but that ending was quite literally "you're an idiot for choosing this"

It legitimately paints Starkid as Harbinger ffs! The fact that you lose no matter how perfectly you played the game or how well everything went during the cutscenes(you know, where the army is absolutely fucking up the reapers and tearing through them like tissue paper), you're just left with the concept that somehow, all your work was for nothing and you lose.

Are you trying to tell me that when I: gained the support of the rachni, allied the Geth and the Quarians, saved the Krogans, and brought the entire fucking galaxy together...we still lose because 'oh, you didn't pick the ending we wanted you to pick'.

Ugh.
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It was an absolute slap in the face from a series that said your choices would matter over 6 years. The update made it slightly less trash but still trash nonetheless.

The whole game is about coming together and overcoming your differences and the solutions are to say "fuck that" no matter what you choose ultimately.

I never wanted to "win perfectly" and genuinely wanted a hard won ending with lots of sacrifice, but when the themes of the game are tossed aside to force an ending through it leave a bitter taste.

I still love the game and won't let the last 10 minutes ruin it, nor do I support those who harassed the devs/writers.
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My only issue was the lack of a final boss fight. I wanted a final battle against Harbinger, or at least against the Illusive Man.

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I was gonna post a huge rant but I think the posts itt cover pretty much everything. The endings also fucekd up the ME universe beyond belief, like it was so bad that the next shitty game they put out had to take place in an entirely different galaxy lmao. I wish it and the remaster tanked but since it didn't they're going to continue to dance on ME's corpse in the future.

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Considering I picked Control, I just headcanoned that I'd rebuild the relays.
Lo and behold the extended version gave me just that. Didn't cave to the stupid "bio and mech can't be friends" stuff.
I was ok with it. Can make a Shepherd body with my army of selfs for more personal talks.

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Yeah Control is the least shit with headcanon. No other ending is possible of being okay even with that <_<

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Destroy is the only acceptable ending.

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The real ending is the party at the end of the Citadel dlc

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Or maybe they were expecting a little bit more than three color-coded endings after BioWare had said during development that the game wasn't just going to have three color-coded endings.

Don't bring facts and logic here!

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MJOLNRVII posted...

Yeah Control is the least shit with headcanon. No other ending is possible of being okay even with that <_<

Control is one of the worst tbh.

The game hammers into you time and time and time and time and time and time and time again that you can't control them, but don't mind that MAGIC lets you do it real honest, no lying.

Really shoulda had that fuck you over big time for ignoring 3 games worth of reminders tbh.
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Funkydog posted...

Control is one of the worst tbh.

The game hammers into you time and time and time and time and time and time and time again that you can't control them, but don't mind that MAGIC lets you do it real honest, no lying.

Really shoulda had that fuck you over big time for ignoring 3 games worth of reminders tbh.

Yeah, Destroy is the only one that's at least consistent with the trilogy and even then they throw in some bullshit to try to make it not the best choice.

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Funkydog posted...

Control is one of the worst tbh.

The game hammers into you time and time and time and time and time and time and time again that you can't control them, but don't mind that MAGIC lets you do it real honest, no lying.

Really shoulda had that fuck you over big time for ignoring 3 games worth of reminders tbh.

The game also hammers in that peace between AI and organics is possible. Yet Destroy is the one that shits all over that.

Lets not even get into how fucked up Synthesis is.

All of the endings suck in different ways.

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You have to consider that when it came out, people had really high expectations.

Now that we know how it all played out, it doesn't sting as bad.

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I will say one thing I do "like" about the endings, specifically destroy, is that while it's a left field shittiness that the AI die in it, it also kind of makes me think about whether I've deluded myself this whole time when I've done the song and dance about the geth being people and their units having souls and whatnot. Because while it's sad (and again, pretty shitty) that they die, I push that button without hesitation every time.

But would I do the same if it was the asari instead of the geth?

I'm not actually sure. I enjoy pondering that question every time I play the game. My way of getting something out of the ending lameness, I guess.

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Funkydog posted...

Control is one of the worst tbh.

The game hammers into you time and time and time and time and time and time and time again that you can't control them, but don't mind that MAGIC lets you do it real honest, no lying.

Really shoulda had that fuck you over big time for ignoring 3 games worth of reminders tbh.

I mean this whole topic is shitting on the ME3 endings for ignoring 3 games worth of story, choices, and both organic/synthetic life banding together, so why should we choose to believe that the Reapers can't be controlled? It's clear Bioware doesn't give a shit about what we did and originally wanted to give us only those 3 endings(with the 4th being a middle finger to those of us who hated them). The fact that 3 starts with us developing a Deus Ex Machina should've been a sign tbh.

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What does color coded endings mean? I've never played Mass Effect.

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DeadBankerDream posted...

I will say one thing I do "like" about the endings, specifically destroy, is that while it's a left field shittiness that the AI die in it, it also kind of makes me think about whether I've deluded myself this whole time when I've done the song and dance about the geth being people and their units having souls and whatnot. Because while it's sad (and again, pretty shitty) that they die, I push that button without hesitation every time.

But would I do the same if it was the asari instead of the geth?

I'm not actually sure. I enjoy pondering that question every time I play the game. My way of getting something out of the ending lameness, I guess.

That's easy for me. I press the button because the other two are far worse. It has nothing to do with hypocrisy.

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Legato-and-Vash posted...

What does color coded endings mean? I've never played Mass Effect.

In the original pre-EC ending there was literally no real difference in the ending cutscene other than a color.

I'm not invested in any ending personally. Chances are literally everyone reloaded their save to see all three endings anyway. It's all meaningless to me. The choice barely matters. The EC added further context where they're all happy endings that fit your Shepard anyway.

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Legato-and-Vash posted...

What does color coded endings mean? I've never played Mass Effect.

You're presented with one of 3 choices at the end of the game inside the Deus Ex Machina. This child talks to you for a bit saying that your choices up that point were worthless and that the only way to break the Reapers cycle is to pick one of these 3 endings. Each one has the DEM send out a Red/Blue/Green energy blast across the milky way, and then it just kinda ends right there before Bioware added some small, worthless scenes explaining how they ruined the setting.

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Sackgurl posted...

the starchild thing was just dumb

This. I still think me3 overall is great game. But the ending was pretty stupid

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i didn't think it was so bad.

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Control impossible?
Maybe for the weak willed.
I'm Shepherd damnit!

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Another thing to note is that Starchild turned Harbinger from this imposing presence that made you think "oh shit this Reaper is going to be a real bitch to take down" into something that was just a puppet for Starchild, no different from all the other Reapers. So all that build up for him in 2, the final DLC for 2, and the ending run all amounted to nothing.

Starchild was just a straight up terrible idea for a character.

I still wish they would have done the opposite of the 'extended' ending and just completely cut out the Starbrat cutscene.

Shepard pushes the button, device fires, galaxy saved (ish), cut to credits. I'd be perfectly happy with a bittersweet somewhat-ambiguous ending over the horrifically written deus ex machina bullshit.

Srk700 posted...

Another thing to note is that Starchild turned Harbinger from this imposing presence that made you think "oh shit this Reaper is going to be a real bitch to take down" into something that was just a puppet for Starchild, no different from all the other Reapers. So all that build up for him in 2, the final DLC for 2, and the ending run all amounted to nothing.

Starchild was just a straight up terrible idea for a character.

In general that's a retcon of the reapers themselves in 3. In 1 and 2 reapers were malignant forces that clearly hated organics and viewed themselves as superior. In 3 they're essentially a force of nature with a dickish attitude.

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Although it's not relevant now, let's not also forget that in order to get the "best" ending you HAD to play their multiplayer mode in order to increase your TMS rank to 100% because it wasn't possible to get that with just single player.

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s0nicfan posted...

Although it's not relevant now, let's not also forget that in order to get the "best" ending you HAD to play their multiplayer mode in order to increase your TMS rank to 100% because it wasn't possible to get that with just single player.

True, they also changed that with the extended cut.

Post number 2 nails it, basically.

It's an incredibly bleak and depressing ending, which would be fine if that's what they were going for, but they presented it as if it was happy, people smiling and stuff. It's a prime case of the artist/writer whatever not fundamentally understanding what they're even writing. They legitimately were unaware of how bleak it was, and were presenting it as if it was fine.
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MJOLNRVII posted...

Yeah Control is the least shit with headcanon. No other ending is possible of being okay even with that <_<

I literally had a 100% completely Paragon Shep from all three games (and all the DLC) and yet I chose Destroy because it was the only choice that fit any version of Shepard.

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because it was a great game with epic moments that ended with a great big wet fart.

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Casey Hudson is a liar, thats about it.

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I just finished it with the legendary edition. I originally stopped after losing my save file in ME1 and not wanting to slog through the mako shit again. I got to the ending and think it kind of fit. I dont really see why its so universally hated. I see hated but not universally so.

I do think that uniting the galaxy to fight the reapers should have had a chance at winning. It established that this cycle was unique and I think they should be able to overcome reapers even with significant losses. Even the Geth united with organics. I thought the ending was a bit subpar but it was always going to disappoint some. Maybe I have a different perspective because I played them back to back this time.

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DarkRoast posted...

I literally had a 100% completely Paragon Shep from all three games (and all the DLC) and yet I chose Destroy because it was the only choice that fit any version of Shepard.

Genocide and the horrific Synthesis ending don't fit with Paragon/goody two-shoes Shepard imo.

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MJOLNRVII posted...

Genocide and the horrific Synthesis ending don't fit with Paragon/goody two-shoes Shepard imo.

Controlling the reapers when it was LITERALLY just made clear to you that the Reapers control you, not vice versa, is not something Shep would ever consider.

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