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[Chrono]

I just finished Metroid Prime (awesome... awesome... AWESOME GAME!!) And I was really looking forward for some cool cut scenes.

I mean damn it, I spent 17 hours in this game. The last boss was the bitchiest I've encountered (but cool ) and the fight took more time then expected to end. After all that, I wanted a bit more then just seeing

Spoiler

Samus watch the temple collapse and take off into space

. The only thing that made up the Metroid Prime ending was the great boss battle. I wish Zelda has fights like these.


(btw-- I finished with a 68% so I didn't get to see the "true" ending.. anybody know a site where I can d/l them? And yes I originally wanted to ask this question for the topic. Thanks. )


1) So what games disappointed you?

2) And what is your criteria for a good ending?


Mine are:

1) Great boss fight.

2) Great cut scenes... Like the ones of Hyrule in OOT for example or the play in Final Fantasy IX.

3) If the Game is story-driven, like an RPG, I'd want a satisfying (translation: NO SHODDY COPOUT) conclusion for the story.


I'd give the MP ending a B.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Nearly every game ending is a disapointment to me, because they simply don't deliver the kind of resolution we want to see to the story. A halfhearted FMV chronicling the next five minutes does not make a good ending. One likely culprit is the very business model of making every game into a series. Nobody wants to close up a story because they want the cliffhanger or at least the ambiguity to help the sequel sell.

Makes more sense to me to try and count the good endings.

Prince had a good ending, but a terrible boss. The last portion of a game is even more important to me, it is after all, the climax. Max Payne 2 was decent in both these cases, even if predictable.

Onimusha. That was a good ending, pretty traditional too (Samurai hero dies).

 

[demi]

Beyond Good & Evil

The climax/final battle were so awesome, music and all, but then afterwards....


Such a sad, sad, wide-open ending.

 

[SapientWolf]

A good ending wraps up all the loose ends, like Chrono Trigger. A bad ending just shows a quick, confusing clip and cuts to the credits, like Chrono Cross. A good ending must have closure.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Beyond Good & Evil

The climax/final battle were so awesome

See, I thought that the whole last section was lackluster, having so few enemies to sneak past, and that the boss was horribly unoriginal. All that plus the shameful excuse for an ending turned my enthralment sour quick.

 

[demi]

See, I thought that the whole last section was lackluster, having so few enemies to sneak past, and that the boss was horribly unoriginal. All that plus the shameful excuse for an ending turned my enthralment sour quick.

I suppose you're right, but the music did help a bit.


LOL REVERSE CONTROLS.

 

[AniHawk]

1. Great final boss (bosses), good dialogue and/or art direction while closing everything up. Doesn't have to wrap EVERYTHING up, but shouldn't ask more questions than it answers unless there's a sequel coming up (so games like MGS2 may be excused from this).

2. MGS2 and Beyond Good & Evil are games to have disappointed me in this sector. OoT really pissed me off as well since it left a lot of things unresolved.

 

[Eric-GCA]

Endings that don't tie up loose ends are the ones that bug me. Usually done so that the developer can leave wiggle room for a possible sequel. Of course, any competent designer/storyteller should be able to succesfuly wrap up a main story arc and add in something interesting to leave open.

Blizzard is the most guilty in this regard, as you know from StarCraft and WarCraft III.

 

[Scott]

A good ending wraps up all the loose ends, like Chrono Trigger. A bad ending just shows a quick, confusing clip and cuts to the credits, like Chrono Cross. A good ending must have closure.

Heh, funny you should put it that way, considering Cross was pretty much made to wrap-up what Chrono Trigger didn't.

 

[tenchir]

Heh, funny you should put it that way, considering Cross was pretty much made to wrap-up what Chrono Trigger didn't.

That would depend if it takes place in the right timeline. With Chrono Trigger, we only have 1 timeline, with Chrono Cross, we have 2 different timeline that could or not occur after Chrono Trigger. I have beaten CC before, but I can't remember if the two timeline issue was ever resolved(did they merge? or did one disappear? or which is the real timeline?).

 

[Kobun Heat]

For me, I think the perfect ending is still Link To The Past. It had everything - a climactic final boss fight, this really lengthy storyline bit that tied up all the various plotlines, then a really breathtaking credits sequence with beautiful music.

 

[tenchir]

My perfect ending is Final Fantasy IV. Pretty much wraps everything up except what happens to Cecil's brother and FuSoYa's people. I expected some sort of sequel to that game after I beaten it the first time..... I didn't know it was the 4th game of the series at the time because of it ackward numbering.

 

[fallout]

I always thought that Earthbound had a kickass ending because you actually got to go around and talk with people afterwards.

I'm also surprised that no one has mentioned "the cake" yet...

 

[AniHawk]

For me, I think the perfect ending is still Link To The Past. It had everything - a climactic final boss fight, this really lengthy storyline bit that tied up all the various plotlines, then a really breathtaking credits sequence with beautiful music.

I never remembered that being in ALttP. What various plotlines? What lengthy storyline?

 

[Matlock]

Play Futurama, then you'll find a truly great ending.

 

[AeroGod]

Mafia had a fantastic ending. Exactly what you would expect...and then maybe not. That last...hour and a half is amazing right down to the final cutscene. The last boss fight is very movie-esque and challenging, perfectly fitting to the game.

Mafia on the whole is probably the best game ever, from a storyline/presentation point, keeping consistant with the general awesomeness of it from start to finish

 

[AeroGod]

I never remembered that being in ALttP. What various plotlines? What lengthy storyline?

LTTP hater!!!!!!!!

Hell, for a SNES game is was pretty damn long. What, 11 or so dungeons and some extras. 2 large worlds. Various plotlines. Okay, maybe noe "plotlines" as you would think from a standpoint in todays RPGs but you have...The Return of the King, the resurrection of the loyal sage, Sahasralah's coming home, desert returning to normal, the bully in the mountain, uncles recovery, the zora's waterfall, the witch and assistant, twin lumberjacks, flute boy revived, Venus returns to normal, the dwarven twins, bug-catching kids, the lost old man. Sure these dont add hour and hours of sidequests or major story changes to the game like some rpg sideplots do, but they are characters you meet and bond with on some level in the game and they are troubled and you feel bad for them. ITs nice to see everything back to noraml in the end.

 

[AniHawk]

LTTP hater!!!!!!!!

Hell, for a SNES game is was pretty damn long. What, 11 or so dungeons and some extras. 2 large worlds. Various plotlines. Okay, maybe noe "plotlines" as you would think from a standpoint in todays RPGs but you have...The Return of the King, the resurrection of the loyal sage, Sahasralah's coming home, desert returning to normal, the bully in the mountain, uncles recovery, the zora's waterfall, the witch and assistant, twin lumberjacks, flute boy revived, Venus returns to normal, the dwarven twins, bug-catching kids, the lost old man. Sure these dont add hour and hours of sidequests or major story changes to the game like some rpg sideplots do, but they are characters you meet and bond with on some level in the game and they are troubled and you feel bad for them. ITs nice to see everything back to noraml in the end.

I never felt bad for them. It was a cheap ending where everything corrects itself and is all nice and happy. Of course, it's Zelda, and it does this much, MUCH better than OoT did, but I'm glad they went a different way with LA and TWW.

 

[AeroGod]

OoT had the worst ending ever. A bunch of freaking morons dancing around a bonfire for 5 minutes. And then 2 year old Link and Zelda stare at each other for 10 seconds. Yay! -_-


How could you not feel bad for the lost old man. He was old and lost in the freaking mountain. You are insensitive. And those dwarfs got turned into damned frogs. I felt bad for them.

 

[AniHawk]

OoT had the worst ending ever. A bunch of freaking morons dancing around a bonfire for 5 minutes. And then 2 year old Link and Zelda stare at each other for 10 seconds. Yay! -_-


How could you not feel bad for the lost old man. He was old and lost in the freaking mountain. You are insensitive. And those dwarfs got turned into damned frogs. I felt bad for them.

I felt sorry for Ganondorf Dragmire and Daphnes Hyrule in TWW, and Link in Link's Awakening, but I don't give a crap about some minor NPC you happen to run across in your travels.

Guess that's why in KotOR it was so damn easy to force persuade that woman to give me that plate.

 

[Meatpuppet]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Eternal Darkness

Two games with their overall package tarnished by the worst pair of final bosses ever.

 

[Sinatar]

Best game endings ever all came from Black Isle:

Fallout 1/2. Totally dynamic endings that were 100% dependant on your actions throughout the game. Seemingly small things could change the course of the entire game world. Just absolutely awesome.

Planescape Torment: It had several endings, all very intelligent, cool, and mind blowing. They all culminated in that one final cutscene that was just... perfect.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I just posted a rather lengthy blog article about this.

One game I don't mention that deserves high praise for its ending is Shadow of Destiny. The game has this absolutely brilliant structure where each of the first four endings introduce a twist that changes your perception of the next playthrough, and obtaining all four endings reveals a fifth and final path with a final, powerful twist of its own.

 

[Tekky]

Nudity. Lots of nudity.

 

[mrklaw]

lots of replies and no ICO? I'll do the business then.

Only ending ever to make me cry. That is a good ending.

 

[Morbo]

Off the top of my head (only occupies such prime mental realty because I finished it yesterday) is James Bond: Nightfire. It ends with the obligatory; Bond blows off MI6 to get some action scene. What bothered me though was what came next, a preview for... Nightfire. What's the thinking behind this? They want to build my anticipation for a game I just finished?

Wind Waker and BG&E both had disappointing endings too.

 

[J2 Cool]

end with a bang. Something must change drastically from where the plot was before the end. Also a great boss battle and answer the questions we've waited to be answered and finish what we waited to get to.

 

[djtiesto]

End with some sort of a crazy twist and/or lots of emotion - Phantasy Star 2, ICO

Or, a long, fulfilling ending, with lots going on, that really feels very conclusive - FF4 is perfect in this regard

Plus, the final battles need to be long and epic... Square games (most RPGs, for that matter) ever since FF6 have been plagued with some of the crappiest, anticlimatic battles ever... I miss the epic fights I had against Zeromus, ExDeath... that took a while and were actually challenging.

 

[MrPing1000]

Thief 2's ending was very short and bleh.

ThiefS ending was perfect brilliantly done and showed that they remembered the first 2

Thief, I haven't finished yet

 

[Kobun Heat]

My perfect ending is Final Fantasy IV.

"GOLBEZ! Now I will kill your ass."

"Wait, what? Hahaha! You thought I was the end boss? No, no, I'm your cousin! The end boss is that heretofore unintroduced amorphous blob over there."

"Oh. That's cool."

 

[dark10x]

Everyone seems to complain about MGS2's ending, but I loved it! It was lengthy and satisfying, if a bit odd at times. The last boss fight was rather cool as well...

Anyways, there are few games that really can provide truly memorable endings...but the type I enjoy usually provide excellent last boss encounters combined with a fairly lengthy and emotional ending. The two Klonoa games (especially the original) are great examples of this. The boss fights were solid and fun to play, but the endings were SO incredibly sad that it would be hard to forget them anytime soon.

On the RPG front, Xenosaga certainly provided a beefy ending, even if it did leave the door open. It lasted, what, 30 minutes or so? I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X's ending as well. Not only was it fairly sad, it also had some truly beautiful music (perhaps the best song in the entire game).

What else? Hmmm...

I really dug the ending to ICO. They managed to accomplish so much with virtually no dialog. The ending sequence itself was powered solely by the incredible imagery and music. What certainly made it even more special was the entire portion of the game leading UP to the end (from when you wake up in the rain until the last fight). The series of events and challenges (minor challenges) were EXTREMELY well done and left a great impression upon completion. The last boss of ICO wasn't particularly difficult, but it was an incredible encounter and was quite unique.

Another favorite of mine is the ending of Sonic Adventure 2. I loved the game already, but I certainly recognized its faults (the searching levels). However, the entire ending sequence not only presented each of the characters in a gameplay setting that they should have originally been a part of (Knuckles has a good stage?!?)...it also provided a great last boss encounter (with awesome music IMO) and a pretty good ending. Up until that last act, the story felt rather segmented and akward...but that final hour long section (or so) really brought everything together beautifully.

I see that Mafia was mentioned here, and I agree. The game had one of the best plot lines I have ever encountered in a game and had an absolutely AMAZING ending. God I loved that game!

Shenmue 2 is another one. The entire last disc was basically one big ending and it absolutely kicked ass! After the quick pace of disc 3, it was quite a change and really left quite an impact (unlike Shenmue 1's ending).

Breakdown had a fairly slick ending, I thought. As did Shadow of Destiny (well, it had many endings with lots of cool revelations that eventually came together to form a final ending). I'm sure there are plenty of others...but off the top of my head, that's about all I can think of.

There are plenty of disappointing finales, though...almost too many to list. I'll just name a few...

The original Splinter Cell had one of the worst endings I have seen in a LONG time. The last mission was quite cool (love that "ninja" outfit), but the finale was completely worthless and uninteresting. I did not finish Pandora Tomorrow for that reason (that and the fact that the game was way too linear).

Far Cry also springs to mind. I certainly can't say I loved the game, but some of the later missions in the game were fairly cool (from Boat onward). However, the final area was flat out AWFUL. I hated every fight along the way and the actual ending was completely worthless and stupid. I wish I had simply stopped playing before the Volcano level, as I might have been able to walk away with a better impression of the game...

Primal was disappointing. It wasn't an awful ending, but it didn't grab me like the rest of the storyline did. Primal had some of the best characters I've encountered in a game, and the story was good enough that it compelled me to finish the game (despite many gameplay flaws). However, the ending fights just weren't exciting (like the rest of the combat) and the final cutscenes didn't really close up the game very well. In fact, the last cutscenes I remember well are when Scree finally revealed who he was...which was awesome. However, I really can't recall the ending (outside of being disappointed by it).

System Shock 2 is one of my favorite PC games of all time, but the ending left me disappointed the first time BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK!!! The codecs for playing movies in the dark engine are very fragile under WinXP...and the ending cutscenes and credits did not play. The tribute to Shock 1 was AWESOME, of course...but it is quite a blow when you finish the boss and the game kicks you to the main menu. So, the ending wasn't really bad...but my initial experience with it was.

 

[Vlad]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Eternal Darkness

Two games with their overall package tarnished by the worst pair of final bosses ever.

Those have to be some of the weakest final bosses I've seen in quite some time. They're so similar to, in that after all the buildup, the fight is basically a guy walking around and whacking at you with a stick.

The sad thing is that there was so much potential for both of those games to have absolutely awesome final encounters. I kept expecting the Vizier in PoP to become possessed by the sands or something and turn into some sort of super sand demon. That said, the ending of the game was pretty clever, and the area leading up to the last boss was also an interesting twist on the gameplay. I really wish that they would give you that last sword for the whole game on a second playthrough, though...

Eternal Darkness was even more of a letdown, though, due to the fact that at least the PoP boss made sense in the context of the story. In ED, you were fighting a character who, according to the game itself, has far more power than you do, and all he does is walk around really slowly, swing at you with his staff, and cast the same damn spells that you've been casting the whole game.

I've also always been bothered by the last boss in the original Quake. After all that fighting, the last boss is just a big squishy thing that you have to telefrag? Bleh.

I've noticed that I can forgive a bad (or nonexistant) ending if the final boss is really, really impressive, as in the case of the first Serious Sam. By the end of the game, I was getting a little burned out on it, and the hordes of enemies, while still impressive, were starting to get a little repetitive. Sure, facing a swarm of of those bulls charging at you is intense the first few times, but after a few hours of it, it just starts to feel monotonous. But the reveal of the last boss, and the sheer size of him, still managed to wow me.

 

[FortNinety]

As it's been touched upon by others, I don't consider the game's ending just to be that last cinema after you defeat the last boss. I also include the last boss encounter and everything that transpires, and even the last ending at times.

Funny how the original poster points to Metroid Prime as being a real disappointment (you won't hear me argue that) since I found the last parts of Super Metroid so amazing. It's still my favorite ending of all time; the actions of the Baby Metroid simply made my jaw drop when I first saw them.

I also liked the last level of Rez. Yes, the "ending "was a very brief clip, but you had to literally build towards it.

Same goes for the ending of Panzer Dragoon Saga, especially how the other two games are directly referred to right before the final showdown.

But if you want a "traditional" ending, one which you sit back and watch after defeating the final boss, I have to go with Link to the Past...

Hell, for a SNES game is was pretty damn long. What, 11 or so dungeons and some extras. 2 large worlds. Various plotlines. Okay, maybe noe "plotlines" as you would think from a standpoint in todays RPGs but you have...The Return of the King, the resurrection of the loyal sage, Sahasralah's coming home, desert returning to normal, the bully in the mountain, uncles recovery, the zora's waterfall, the witch and assistant, twin lumberjacks, flute boy revived, Venus returns to normal, the dwarven twins, bug-catching kids, the lost old man. Sure these dont add hour and hours of sidequests or major story changes to the game like some rpg sideplots do, but they are characters you meet and bond with on some level in the game and they are troubled and you feel bad for them. ITs nice to see everything back to noraml in the end.

Which is exactly why I can't stand most RPGs. You do all these side quests for a bunch of side characters, and granted you almost always get some useful item for your troubles, but there's often very little sense of cohesion for all your actions. Link to the Past on the other hand gave you a sense of closure, in a very tight, effective manner.

 

[Guzim]

Final Fantasy VIII had a great ending.

 

[Tabris]

Final Fantasy X.

Minus the last scene unless meant to be symbolic, which it wasn't, due to Square milking it for a sequel.

Besides that, it's the perfect ending. Resolution to the main character. The game was "His story" and at the end, his story came to an end.

Most games have bad endings in my opinion. They act more like a reward than the end of a story. That's the problem, if a movie had an ending like ALTTP, none of you would like it. We're stuck in this "ending needs to be like a reward" phase.

 

[D2M15]

Thief: DS ending was perfect brilliantly done and showed that they remembered the first 2

Heh. I thought it was almost insultingly bad - much like the final section of the game - but then there was probably nothing they could have done that would have made me like it.

You should definitely finish* the first Thief: it's a really classy closing cutscene.

* or just open the .avi in Media Player.

 

[jett]

Chrono Cross.
Metroid Prime.
Zelda: Wind Waker.

They all had crappy endings.

BTW, my definition of and ending: everything that happens AFTER you kill the final boss.