bad endings are good if there's a good ending you have to work *really hard* for, nopt just finding all the secrets, but also killing like five different superbosses, learning all the lore, and beating an extra form to the final boss that is hard as hell. i like to earn my good end.
@TheMiscGamer I'd tend to agree, but people here seem to sort something like Bastion's ending in the "Bad End" category, when it really isn't one per say. It at least has more sweetness than B.B's ending for sure.
Fuck bad endings just for the sake of having a bad ending. It's not original, or innovative, or whatever buzzword they might be spouting at the time. It's a middle finger to the player.
@Kim Chaussin: "Bittersweet" isn't the same as a bad end. What people are mad about is when you have an ending where nothing you did seems to matter. Walt died, but his actions had consequences for his family. If he died and all the money got stolen and all the bad guys got away, THAT'S a "bad end".
I've played my share of games where the ending was as bad as if I've had thrown the player character out of a cliff the first chance I got, making it all pointless. But some games do it right, like Undertale. The ending is just a result of your actions.
I have to agree with Jo. No matter what is meant to be the story, it can be forgotten that the player is a participant. If what they are trying to do is not taken under consideration, why is it a game and not a movie?
2/2
My point is, how the hell would hotline miami have ended otherwise? Main character probably killed alot of people. Would he go to rehab? Would he even make it to court, police tend to shoot first.
The ending of a story is based on what story is being told.
Is it the story of someones fall and their ascent to greatness?
Is it Romeo and Juliet?
Is it a story of human nature and:
our ability to overcome
how much we destroy eachother
@Nerf NOW!!: You expected hotline miami to end well?
I've never played the game and I expect the ending is the character you play as killing themselves or something.
Bloodborne did it right with good bad and true triangle
as for indie games... i'ed say i prefer good ending
it's just a 2D crappy game, it better have some nice end
I agree Jo. I still want that Win. Even if it's a little bitter sweet I want my Win. I want to have succeeded. with all I worked for. FC3's "Choice" at the end is stupid. go off with my friends and GTFO, or kill them? wtf. I literally up until the last second spent all my time trying to save them.
end on a stinker.
Doesn't mean that a bad end is, by nature, better than a good one. They're just different tool meant for different jobs, and if we must complain that one is "cliche", well, endings to are cliches, why not just get rid of them and have games that don't end just to be original? 3/3
"Oh would you look at that! Walter's exposure to chemical cured him of his cancer, and his family understand why he did what he did, and now he'll retire from the meth business and live happily ever after", I'd feel super cheated.
Tragedies are a legitimate medium and sometime, they need to 2/
So, I feel compelled to sorta defend bad endings. To me they can be a powerful tool for engagement, and depending of the sort of stories you tell, they might be the only endings I'd find appropriate.
I mean, for example, if, at the end of Breaking Bad, the show suddenly went all 1/3
@Otter: You're falling for the common delusion of just assuming someone you disagree with would do the opposite of what is reasonable simply because it's convenient for what you believe.
Oh please... If every game had a good ending then the bad ending haters would complain about "How cliché it is" and "Played that story a million times".
In better games, there is a lot more to "sad endings" than trying to be edgy.
To The Moon comes to mind, which is both happy and sad in the end.
I mentioned it in a previous comic: I hate tragic endings too. What's wrong with a "rescue the princess" ending? What's wrong with seeing all your hard work pay off in the end? Bad ends are stupid and pointlessly edgy except in games with multiple endings, and those have their own problems IMO.
but what if a game did that, but gave you a code after sitting through the end credits to put into a website that gave you the ending based on the choices you made in-game? that would be pretty neat imo
what about a cliff-hanger ending? where there are multiple ways it could end but it doesn't? and i don't mean like Asura's wrath where you gotta pay money to get the ending, that was bullshit, but like it has multiple obvious ways to end but stops before it can end. that would be maddening i am sure
If anything, bad or melancholic endings are the norm. I'm sort of glad we're getting over the "EPIC TWIST!!!" phase where every fucking story needs some amazing twist, but I'd rather see the hero struggle against hardship and overcome it in the end.
I feel the similar way. Point of plot of the game is to make you invested in game world's fate and encourage doing something to make this world (or at least protagonist's life) better. IF advancing plot change game world for the worse, then what's the point of doing anything?
You must've enjoyed Paths of Destinies back when you've played then. It was an endearing game, but the ending was just simple and good. Didn't had the patience to get all the endings, but the true ending was quite entertaining.
@What The Hell: +1, I'd really like to know as well.
Skipping games just because of their endings really seems like a waste... depending on your definition of a "bad ending", you might end up skipping complete masterpieces like Hollow Knight, for instance.
Was the ending/s of Bastion really a "Bad" ending? It seems to me the time loop ending implies that if it happens there is at least a tiny chance of the calamity not happening and the credit stills imply that the characters would have a happier life that way anyway.
@What The Hell: Not upset, I played Hotline Miami and knew what I was signing for, but I found playing yet another indie game with a "vague / deep" storyline very cliché.
