Worst Ending in a Videogame (Spoilers! duh)

[Teoskaven]

As for a worst ending, Final Fantasy 13-2. God that game infuriats me.

 

 

 

The girl you freakin go though the first game to save, ends up dying, and Time is basically destroyed. FF13 didn't need a sequel as it was, but this just pissed me off. I worked my ass of playing 13-2 only for the bad guy to win?!Ugh.

 

Also Super Smash bros. Brawl was pretty bad. You just beat Taboo, and that's it. Nothing really afterwards.

 

I have to agree: i had fun with the game until that moment and the characters constatly said "Yeah yeah, we will be ok because power of love and shits like that". So when the ending arrived, it stabbed me in the back completely out of nowhere: i liked Caius, but this ending was not only sad, but even terribly executed.

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Chronicles.

 

Let's see. Ix was a complete anti-climax of a final boss as was using Super Sonic, being a battle that was practically un-losable and which only required one crappy series of touch screen inputs...

 

 

And then not only did I see this ending coming a mile off considering the characters were morphed into complete morons who invested full trust in Eggman despite other games pretty consistently making it clear that quite a lot of them (Sonic in particular) don't trust him as far as they can throw him, therefore shitting all over any impact of any 'twist' or 'sting' it could've theoretically have provided by making it completely predictable and therefore Eggman's accomplishment not being the least bit convincing because it's idiotic writing that put him there, the game completely violates the logic it sets up concerning the rate of timeflow inside the Cage compared to the rate of timeflow outside it by presumably having Eggman still alive when much time would logically have passed. If he's dead and the message set up for them was pre-recorded then oh noes! No Eggman in the potential sequel, no possibility of the characters gaining the satisfaction or the Eggman-engineered challenge of taking out him and his empire.

 

The game also disregards the logic it creates by having them bring Shade along as it was established that her suit has limitations regarding the bubble of twilight space it creates around it's wearer being temporary, making her continued existence outside of the cage impossible.

 

Cliffhangers will always be a misguided form of ending to media without a guaranteed chance of a conclusion. Chronicles not only had a completely bad, predictable ending that was completely bereft of any shock value and only came to fruition as a result of rampant stupidity on part of the characters but it leaves loose ends with practically no chance of conclusion and that contributes to it being a bad ending.

 

You didn't even mention the credits. Look, I don't mind game credits that break the fourth wall for the sake of comedy, but there's a difference between medium awareness and having a hard-on for the company and being a giant plug-in for other games that aren't related in any way. Not only that, but the credits weren't funny and made you scroll through them manually to get it over with. 

[Autosaver]

 

Seriously? This is a great ending with a ton of thematic meaning.

 

Don't get me wrong, I actually did say it's not a bad ending. I said it was a 'WTF' ending. I know the connection but it's still weird to me. People who come across it (the hundreds of Youtube comments) also were surprised by the ending.

But yeah, like I said, it's not a bad ending. Just one that makes you truly think about it after getting it. It's far from you expect. Merely posted on the fact that it was very special and was not just the typical 'yay'.

Edit: As said here.

 

 

While it's not the worst ending.. I believe it's one of the most "WTF" endings.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2013 by Autosaver

[Mogtaki]

Don't get me wrong, I actually did say it's not a bad ending. I said it was a 'WTF' ending. I know the connection but it's still weird to me. People who come across it (the hundreds of Youtube comments) also were surprised by the ending.

 

But yeah, like I said, it's not a bad ending. Just one that makes you truly think about it after getting it. It's far from you expect. Merely posted on the fact that it was very special and was not just the typical 'yay'.

 

The title of the thread is "Worse Ending in a Video Game", though. That means it has to be bad i.e. "the worst".

[Autosaver]

The title of the thread is "Worse Ending in a Video Game", though. That means it has to be bad i.e. "the worst".

Ha ha, yeah. I wish this thread was more broad with "Favorite, Worst, and most surprising." I'd put Braid in the surprising/weird category. It would pull in more discussion too and broaden what could be posted.

[Nintendoga]

Completely agree with the OP on Assassin's Creed 3's horrible ending. That made me just drop the franchise (unless AC4 is somehow GOTY).

Well since most people took the obvious ones, um....I guess my first vote would go to Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (if that even counts)

My problem with the story is that they're all the exact same. I know it's meant to be like an Arcade style game with the story, but hell even UMvC3 had better unique endings for most of it's characters.

For almost every PSASBR character, the story goes like this

"I heard of a rumor. A gathering of some special people, whoever they are, they won't be any match for me..."

*WOOOSH*

*After final boss*
"Those people were special, but I was stronger. And now, with this new power, I'm going to protect/destroy this world.

*WOOOSH*

I dunno, I just wish some endings were more goofy or fun like UMvC3 did with some of their endings.

Another vote goes to this (hilariously) terrible ending from Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Yep. That's it. No credits, no nothing. Just a "The End". Either the worst or most blunt ending in a video game I've ever seen.

Last one I want to talk about is Metal Gear Solid 4

I know about the original ending Kojima intended with Snake and Otacaon turning themselves in and being executed. As horrible as that sounds, I would've really liked that ending.  But no, people didn't like it so he had to change the ending into one of the most tacked on, disappointing I've ever seen in a video game.

Snake shooting himself in the mouth, and everyone else moving on with their lives, that's a sad, but good ending. Something that would've shocked me, but in a good way. I'm not saying it's a perfect way to end the series, but I would've accepted it.

And it almost does end like that. But nope, after some fake-out credits, this fucker has to come in.

And he spends the next 30-40 minutes bullshitting his way though explaining all these plotholes no-one really gave a shit about. Not to mention how rushed and tacked on it feels (which is pretty obvious this was a last minute addition to the game). I love you Big Boss, but no, you were not needed here at all. Everything was going fine and dandy until you showed up and somehow made everything worst.

It's okay if there are still some unexplained things left in your series when it's the "final" game. The mystery and speculation of what really happened is the fun part about it. But no, you had to literally explain every single damn thing in the game, and in the process, you made even more plot-holes then you started with.

Every other MGS game (even MGS2) left me with a "Oh that was great!" feeling at the end.
But this one just left me with a "Oh god....that wasn't that good...." feeling.
Hopefully MGSV will fix that.

[Phos]

The MGS4 thing, 

Someone went to a lot of work to put Big Boss back together, always seemed kinda inconsiderate that he'd just go and kill himself by standing too near to Solid Snake.  

[Sean]

Mass effect 3

 

As much as everyone already seems to hate ME3's ending, it'd be appreciated if you elaborated a bit more since anyone could have said this.

[Candescence]

Anything to do with Mass Effect 3

This. Fucking THIS.

The extended cut does little to ease things because the Star Child is still there, it turns out he's blatantly defective and running on bullshit logic, and there's no way to give him the middle finger without getting what is basically a bad ending, no matter what your EMS is (which is entirely fucking worthless, btw). There's literally no ability to deny all the choices and try to earn your happy ending without using the crucible. Or, fuck, bypassing the Star Child and trying to use the Crucible in a different way. All the ending really is, is just Deus Ex: Human Revolution's multiple-choice endings except a hundred times more retarded (the EC even added an "everyone dies" fourth ending just like Human Revolution), except HR is a prequel and anyone who's played the original game knows what happens afterwards anyway so the choices are entirely moot.

When people started calling on Bioware in droves to change the ending, Bioware and the mainstream press tried to hide behind 'artistic integrity'. Except, they have no idea what the phrase actually means. Actual artistic integrity is the gall to stand up, admit that you fucked up, take on constructive criticism, and if given the opportunity, make things better. 'Artistic vision' means jack shit if said vision is absolute garbage.

Amusingly, Bioware did change things in the end to make it look like the whole universe wasn't fucked up to hell, but the rejection ending was a blatant middle finger to fans who wanted to do things their own way.

I won't lie, the Extended Cut does nothing to change my mind about the state of the series. I have nothing but apathy for it now. What the hell was the actual point of EMS? They could've actually used it to enable you to beat the Reapers without sacrificing any of the races (destroy) while also not resorting to hypocritical choices (control) or the absolutely retarded choice completely contradicts one of the core themes of the series (synthesis). I have literally no reason to care about Mass Effect anymore.

 

Edit: Also, in addition, speaking of contradicting themes, it utterly mystifies me how whoever wrote the endings somehow forgot that one of the core themes throughout the franchise has been multi-racial/cultural unity. It was all about uniting a squabbling galaxy towards a common cause, and then the last ten minutes comes up, the Star Child says inexplicable bullshit about how organics and synthetics will always fight (except you can totally unite the Quarians and the Geth peacefully), and you have no opportunity to counter his argument. And the Synthesis ending is basically "hey, here's a good idea, let's homogenize the entire galaxy because of some bullshit reason!" Seriously, what were they thinking? It boggles the mind.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Shirou Emiya

[Jix Hedgehog]

X

Edited August 14, 2015 by Jix Hedgehog

[iDEATH]

Pacman, I mean come on what is that? there's not even a boss fight....

 

Edited May 13, 2013 by Jake Bird

[Teoskaven]

Since i've experienced literally some hours ago, i'm going to tell you about the Astonishia Story ending, but since the game itself is very unknown, i have to tell you about it before:

 

Basically an underage knight named Lloyd is entrusted to escort a group of veterans that are holding a magic sceptre, precious for the empire that Lloyd is working for: naturally, after 5 minutes into a forest, the group is attacked by evil elves and the sceptre is stolen, with only Lloyd as a survivor. Fron now on, his quest is to retrieve the sceptre and during this he come across some stereotyped but overall funny characters: a dwarf who is flat as Gimli in the LotR movies, the obvious love interest consisting in a young mage named Ylenne, a Gandalf/Dumbledore wannabe named lezail, a Final Fantasy typical monk name Roudog, an annoying kid with a claymore named Hataik, a Morrigan-esque like creature named Akra and a young always cheerful female elf named Janis. With them, Lloyd has some sort of character development and he think that is better save the world first: in fact, after a while the real goal is revealed to basically kill the elf queen that is holding the sceptre and wants other artifacts in order to summon a wargod and -you guessed it- take over the world.

 

 

So, with all these elements, how can this game could possibly end? Well... not in the way you can expect.

 

First off, Hataik leaves the party literally 30-60 gaming minutes after you recruited him because stupid reasons. Then, Lezail (wich is technically the more OP character in the entire game) is killed in a stupid reason. And then, after the group finally managed to defeat both the elf queen and the dragon she summoned at last minute and that we should care about, Lloyd just go totally stone-face and decides to take back the sceptre to his empire (even if the entire world told him that is dangerous to do so), leaving the others to their lives, including Ylenne that hasn't anymore an house (burned by a random dragon) and Akra who is apparently dead right when she was starting some sort of relationship with Roudoug.

This ending leaves a bitter taste after the fact that the story was starting to be more interesting and basically chops in half both the plot and the characters development.

 

I'm sad people actually payd for this game. And i'm still asking what in the world was in Ubisoft's mind when they decided to resurrect and old forgotten korean RPG.

[JaidynReiman]

Its hard for me to find a good mention here that wasn't already stated.

 

 

I'm going to up and mention Star Ocean: The Second Story here. Yes, I know there's like a million endings (exaggeration), but the base ending is a huge letdown. I was expecting more revelations to it, but I was seriously disappointed when I finally did get it. It didn't explain anything at all.

 

I didn't get any of the pairing endings except perhaps one of Claude and Rena's (in Arlia) where they do absolutely nothing. I did get Ashton and Celine's special endings, where they do... absolutely nothing. Nothing special is learned about the main antagonist either or why he's trying to destroy the world; he's just so generic (well, unless you read through the Secret Reports, of course, which I did do, but he certainly doesn't feel like anything special in the ending).

 

There are probably better endings in the game, but the ones I got seriously disappointed me. Not the WORST persay, but its one of the worst new ones I can think of that's not listed here.

 

 

EDIT: On that note, I have the EXACT same complaint about Star Ocean: Till the End of Time's ending as well. This is probably a huge, huge reason as to why I'd like a new Star Ocean game to take place after Till the End of Time. I'd like an explanation of what actually happened to the world. Cliff's endings are the only ones that really explain anything, and even then, they barely explain anything.

 

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is quite a bit better in that regards as it does explain a number of things in the endings. The two secret endings are a bit hit-or-miss,

especially Crowe's. Unless you saw a PA with Meracle earlier in the game where she's talking about her favorite book series, though. The implication Eleyna makes in Crowe's ending doesn't make any sense unless you watched this scene with Meracle earlier, where it starts to come together.

 

 

I was VERY disappointed in the ending of Tales of the Abyss as well mainly due to the fact that it doesn't explain a thing about what happens. Actually, that's a lot like how I felt about the Star Ocean: The Second Story's ending, too. It was an awesome game with a very sad story through and through (kinda spoilers; the game is bright and cheery at the start... then rips your heart out and tears it to shreds by the end of the first Act). The ending, though...

 

Luke stays behind to free Lorelei, promising to return as everyone escapes. He has a brief convo with Lorelei and he catches the Asch in his arms. The two fade away, there's a skip to a year later and you see Luke... or Asch... or both... appearing with no explanation as to who it is, and NOTHING ELSE says ANYTHING about the state of the world after the ending. You don't see anyone except the main playable characters, and barely a word is spoken about what's going on in the world.

 

 

For another one, this one already mentioned, I definitely will say that, although I did actually kinda like XIII-2, its easily one of the worst video game ending's I've ever seen. A lot of classic video games have very bad endings too that just abruptly end for no real reason, while other endings don't explain what happens after the end of the game. But this...? This is seriously a downer.

Yay we saved the world! No, wait, nice job breaking it, player, we actually destroyed everything instead. AND our main protagonist died.

 

 

Sonic Chronicles, I loved the game, but I do admit that there are a few inconsistencies I didn't like, and the ending... was a huge letdown. For an RPG the game was also incredibly short and had pretty much no replay value.

 

Despite this, I am enjoying one thing. I'm absolutely loving the fact that MY video was used in this topic. xD Granted, Sonic Chronicles vids may be kinda hard to come by... not sure... I haven't paid too close attention to that. (Yeah, this is UltimaHedgie, I haven't changed my username on that Youtube account, but I have changed it here.)

Edited August 30, 2013 by JaidynReiman

[Teoskaven]

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is quite a bit better in that regards as it does explain a number of things in the endings. The two secret endings are a bit hit-or-miss,

especially Crowe's. Unless you saw a PA with Meracle earlier in the game where she's talking about her favorite book series, though. The implication Eleyna makes in Crowe's ending doesn't make any sense unless you watched this scene with Meracle earlier, where it starts to come together.

 

Technically, Crowe's secret ending explains facts and people of the first game, Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Adventure/First Departure: it basically says not only that Crowe and Eleyna are Roddik's ancestors/grandparents, but that the 2 laser swords that in the first game are given to the gruop in Astral City are actually the weapons Crowe had.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Teoskaven

[JaidynReiman]

 

Technically, Crowe's secret ending explains facts and people of the first game, Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Adventure/First Departure: it basically says not only that Crowe and Eleyna are Roddik's ancestors/grandparents, but that the 2 laser swords that in the first game are given to the gruop in Astral City are actually the weapons Crowe had.

Crowe's ending makes absolutely no sense if you miss out on that PA with Meracle, though (which isn't required to get his ending). His ending does technically explain a few things, but it doesn't explain them very well on its own. The most notable thing is Eleyna's indication that she's just going to outright marry him, which makes no sense and he would have no reason to do that.

 

Things become a bit clearer through Meracle, though. Its obvious that Meracle is from the future, and her favorite book series actually chronicles what happens to her and Eleyna when she's stuck in Roak's past. A PA about her books earlier in the game explains that Eleyna finds Crowe, he runs off somewhere later and eventually they reunite and do fall in love, it just doesn't happen right away.

 

This makes a lot more sense in context, and knowing what happened in that PA with Meracle earlier makes Crowe's ending way better, but its very easy to miss and isn't required for his ending either, Guide Dang It. (Annoyingly I missed Meracle's ending in my latest playthrough, so I also missed Crowe's Ending. I already knew Crowe's Ending, though, and I did catch that scene which made his ending much clearer overall.)

 

The laser swords are an obvious note, although I was under the impression there was only one in First Departure.