Nostalgia Thread - Best (And Worst) Endings

[Jasede]

I think the best part of the RPG Codex are threads were you fondly remember old games, and games you played as a kid. Being 21 I'm almost still a kid, but even I remember joyfully the games I grew up with.

So here's the thread, inspired by DU's recent newspost: what RPG had a really satisfying ending? And why? Which one had an awful ending? Does having a good or bad ending ruin a game? Feel free to go off-topic and discuss what makes an ending good, and what endings these days are lacking. To avoid nasty "what's an RPG" debates, feel free to include games like Deus Ex, System Shock and other maybe-RPGs like The Witcher (hehehe). jRPGs too, if you have to. They're not all bad. (But that's like saying not -all- nazis were bad people)

Being the OP, I will, naturally, go first:

Planescape: Torment
I don't think I need to elaborate much on this one.

KOTOR 2
Well, this game basically ends like PS:T, except they had to remove a lot of the lead-up. Still, KOTOR 2 definitely has one of my most favourite endings ever, even though I am sure I'm alone with this opinion - well, except for Higher Game.

KOTOR 1
I don't -like- KOTOR at all. But I think there's something... I don't know, incredibly fitting about a game ending with a victory scene that reminded me of the movies; as well as the music that was tailored for it. Not very memorable, but, I think, well-presented. And incredibly tacky.

Honourable mentions: Bloodlines, Fallout, Quest For Glory 2

Looking back, I don't mention many old games in this list. KOTOR is pretty new as far as I am concerned, and so is PS:T. I don't know if it's my bad memory or my inexperience, but I don't remember an old game with a satisfying ending. Not any Ultima I played, not any Wizardry, no Might & Magic. Maybe I just forgot their endings? Or they weren't very memorable.

I find that the "slides" ending of a Fallout doesn't do much to me. Oh, make no mistake- I liked it up to the part where you're sent out into the wasteland, with that last shot, but I don't like the parts where you're told of your consequences. I think it might be either the fact that I'd rather see these consequences in-game or that just text on a slide, in an ending, doesn't do much for me. I can't remember a single game with a "slide-consequences ending" where I liked that ending. Maybe if one turned them into engine-rendered little cutscenes that indirectly describe your consequences?

 

[Trash]

Doom. You fought your wat to hell and back and get a picture of a few bunnies and some pleasant music. All seems well, untill the picture starts moving. Slowly the picture pans to the left and you see a rabit's head on a stake and a burning city while the music turns into pumping heavy metal. I loved it.

Fallout. During the entire game you strive to save the fault. Then they thank you by kicking you out. I loved it. I also thought that the ending slides were extremely kick ass. Finally a game were the things I did had a meaning, even after I finished it.

Terra Nova. This game had the best ending I ever had the pleasure to see. Incidently it's also one of the best games I ever had the pleasure to play, but that's an other story. The entire game you battle an invasion force, with the final mission culminating in you planting a nuke in their last base. The mission is extremely hard, and when you finish it you get treated to your squad making a hasty retreat. A wounded enemy crawls towards the bomb and is defusing it when you enter your dropship. While you hurry away you see the frantic enemy try to defuse the bomb untill the counter reaches zero, following with a massive explosion. It was epic.


EDIT: As a bonus. The worst ending ever was in Deathwish 3 on the msx. You're entire goal was to eliminate all the gang leaders. As soon as you did this you got a small message that all was fine on the streets, but for how long? A little while later a whole bunch of new gang leaders spawned. I'm still not sure wether it sucked, or wether it was the best and deepest philosofical ending of a game ever. As an 8 year old I felt rather cheated though.

 

[Jasede]

Terra Nova was epic win. One of the best and most underrated games ever. Looking Glass made pure gold every time they made something. Shame people seem not to appreciate good things - Terra Nova sold awfully.

 

[Trash]

Well, you needed a monster pc to get it running. But yeah, the game was awesome. Like everything Looking Glass made.

 

[RK47]

Jagged Alliance 2
I was quite happy to be rewarded for holding and saving those HE rockets for the finale. Reaching the throne room and just blowing everything to bits was the way to go.

 

[Korgan]

Um, if we're not only talking CRPGs here, what about the tech victory in Civ & Alpha Centauri? Feeling that all the shit you've done was not in vain is always awesome.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Icewind Dale: The narrator himself turns out to be a major character in the story all along.

 

[luckyb0y]

Another World

nothing spectacular but really good

 

[Hory]

I bet you don't know that Another World has a short sequel .

 

[Texas Red]

KotOR 1 is the worst. You aren't given any surprises after the middle twist. It just goes on and on and ends just as you would expect.

 

[fastpunk]

So let's see. There were 3 games with endings that gave that "zero g" floating feeling.

Planescape: Torment, Knights of the old Republic II and Mask of the Betrayer. All three have very special end levels (The Fortress of Regrets for PS:T, Malachor V for KotOR2 and The City of Judgement for MotB) so I consider those too in my choice, not just the end movies or slides.

Then I'd mention Fallout (for the big surprise at the end) Unreal (after braving NaPali you end up in escape pod, in free drift) and KotOR (couldn't end it without my first role-playing game, there's a lot of nostalgia there).

I'm probably forgetting some game but... oh well.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Deus Ex and Bloodlines.

 

[Zomg]

KotOR2 having a good ending? I don't mind some pro-K2 revisionism, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and the endings of K2 range from completely fucking nonsensical to absent.

Anyway:

System Shock 2 has the worst ending to a good game that I've ever seen.

I love the scoring endings of games like Pirates!, Civ 1, and Colonization. It's a fun way to keep the game and narrative connected.

 

[ghostdog]

yep, Torment has one my favorite endings. It's great when a game ending simply deals with the character and his personal struggles and not with saving the world from ancient evils.

Bloodlines had a nice ending

Spoiler

it was fun to see that there is actually no Gehenna , no end of the world/evil awakening ending. Just the same old power games and political intrigue between factions. Also getting tied on a refrigerator and thrown into the ocean is always a great ending.

In Deus Ex I particularly liked the "dark age" ending. I always like endings where you can fuck everything up and nobody really wins.

Flashback had also a fitting ending http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CipJIY-h ... re=related
And does anybody know of OnEscapee? It was a flashback-style game, it was fucking great and it had a memorable ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_e-44NR-cc

And I surprised that nobody has mentioned Portal, the ending was brilliant, even if it was more like the ending credits and not the actual game ending.

btw, check this out for some lulz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyt1Xb3T ... re=related

 

[snowballdemon]

I loved the endings of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Two Thrones. They were both epic enough, stylish and had this little 'play again' twist to them.
And Another World, too. Awesome with the music, the flying thing disappearing in the distance and finally the words 'now go back to another earth' (or world or something, can't remember)

 

[Xor]

Fallout will probably always have my favorite ending in an RPG. It was just so jarring to see the first time. "You've saved us, but you'll kill us. You're a hero...and you have to leave."

 

[Annonchinil]

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eyrHhByfxY

StarCraft: Brood War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5ybRRz-vk

 

[luckyb0y]

I bet you don't know that Another World has a short sequel .

I knew that but haven't played it back then as it was sega CD only. I recently tried it on the emulator but I just couldn't stand the unforgiving gameplay. Both games look beautiful but are really hard, until you figure out what to do. I'm too old and impatient for this.

Beneath a steel sky had nice ending

 

[luckyb0y]

And does anybody know of OnEscapee? It was a flashback-style game, it was fucking great and it had a memorable ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_e-44NR-cc

Wow animation looks like a total Flashback ripoff. Might be a nice game but has nothing on Flahback art direction. This game was awesome in the european comic book way. The earth levels look amazing. One of my favourite action games.

 

[burrie]

I'll call Quest for Glory IV, but only if I could count the final battle into it. The music, the clever betrayal, the sacrifice, the incredibly silly but oh-so-QFG way in which you defeat the boss, and a glimpse of a character that had been eluded to throughout the series... it made for a really memorable ending.

 

[Azrael the cat]

1. PS:T - not exactly a controversial choice. For me it (and FO) cements my belief that tragedy is massively underused in game plots compared to all other semi-literary and literary artforms. Tragedy moves the player in a way that generic 'you beat the bad guy' plots never can. And I don't mean modern emoish definition of tragedy (although there are plenty of modern movies and books that still use the classic notion of tragedy, they just aren't often called tragedies anymore) - I mean the classic/greek/shakespearean tragedy, where you still get to beat the bad guy, or your own inner demons, or whatever - you still get the big gaming 'I achieved something victory', but there is some personal, moving, cost brought on by your own nature or own actions. PS:T and FO exemplified that perfectly - you defeat the foozles, set the world as right as you can infuence it (given that in PS:T it isn't about saving the world), but that's too big a victory, too important a move, to be achieved without some personal cost, whether that be your immortality or your home.

2. Azrael's Tear - underrated adventure game with a really really good ending. Twists, interactivity and a good dose of kickass.

3. A Mind Forever Wandering - maybe it's just nostalgia, but it was a rather sweet ending following off from what for the time was a nice twist.

4. HL2. Yep I disagree with the guy that wrote the article before - I liked it despite its 'nothingness'. Maybe it just felt right for the series and the style of storytelling. HL universe has always been about subtle storytelling that you can run right past - cutscenes are and should in that game be kept short. It was ambigous, keeping to the spirit of the first game, and did exactly what a HL ending should do - give you some solid info, but not much, and leave enough open to start tantalisingly annoying fanboy flame wars about what actually happened.

5. Dreamfall (TLJ 2) - another controversial one - liked it for similar reasons to HL2. Only reason why I rate it lower than TLJ (and I'm familiar with the standard criticisms, not going to both arguing it - I can understand why most people disagree with me) is because we're not likely to get a conclusion any time soon.

6. BG2. Some love it. Some hate it. I'm in the former crowd, despite hating everything else Bioware did. Epic story, and by the time I fought Irenicus for the 5th fricken time, now with us both in demon form - I thought it rocked.

7. Doom original - loved the bunny on the spike at the end of the cutscene.

 

[Caveman]

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eyrHhByfxY

LOL
Hideo Kojima is worst story writer ever.

 

[MetalCraze]

Bloodlines - ending for Quei-Jin (or whatever was their name)

as you remember vampires can't die in water. it even doesn't hurt them a bit. so...
LaCroix is defeated and that chinese bitch Ming Xiao comes to the sarcophagus with PC. it turns out that she betrays PC but says: "you helped us, so I will let you live"

the next scene - Quei-Jin dump the sarcophagus into the sea, and PC is tied to it with chains - dooming the PC to the eternity of mad hunger underwater.
that was some really big WTF moment there.

 

[Binary]

Honourable mentions: Bloodlines, Fallout, Quest For Glory 2

QfG2 just as an honorable mention? Please don't call yourself a classic RPer anymore kkthxbye

My votes:

QfG2 for the reward sequence, not the ending. The ending is slightly better on QfG3

World of Ultima 2: Martian Dreams: the ending (battle with the "foozle") is something absolutely brilliant. Who had that idea should get a statue

Wizardry 6: Before all this multiple ending fashion, D.W. Bradley had done it in 1990. In a fantastic way (you get a particularly excellent one that wraps all the loose knots in the story, if you dropped the silver cross...)

The Summonning: First multiple ending ever? The choices were interesting.

One of the Heimdall games had a nifty ending - don't remember which one :-(

Worst endings:

Betrayal at Krondor: not because it's bad, but it's a bit anticlimatic comparing to the rest of the game

EoB2: run around on a 2x2 room swinging at a dragon. boh-ring

Oh gosh , I could go on forever on the "worst endings" side

 

[AzraelCC]

Fallout, PS:T and Deus Ex were great

Bloodlines had a much subtler ending, but good.

Starcraft Brood Wars was just epic and sinister... the mission briefing for the final mission where Kerrigan says that she's "the queen bitch of the universe" was already a wonderful capstone at that point...

Monkey Island 2 had the best funny/disturbing ending combo I've seen.