What will You Recommend to a Friend?
My friend Stephanie Yang speaks a little bit about what games she will recommend to a friend and how the ending will affect her choice:
“I’m a sucker for bittersweet endings. FFX, Bastion, and Sacred Stones – they’re all technically fairly “happy” endings, but there’s always some sort of a sad twist because of the storyline. I also like my tragic endings with a nice dose of hope – you get a good deal of that in Bastion and Sacred Stones, what with the whole “rebuilding a post-war/post-catastrophe world. Long or short, the ending is a final chance for a game to wrap up loose ends and bring the story to a close, so if I don’t like it, that’ll have a huge impact on whether or not I’ll recommend it to a friend.”
Now Let’s Touch Base, Only Slightly, with the Mass Effect 3 Ending
oprainfall member Devin Kotani:
“I think Mass Effect 3’s ending is fine now, with the extended cut. It was definitely awful before, though. Anyway, I don’t particularly care, as long as the ending fits with the the rest of the story. Using ME3 as an example; BioWare went out of their way to fill up this galaxy with detail, through the codex and all the numerous characters, conversations, ambient dialogue, etc. Then the ending decides to come out of left field and starts waxing philosophical, stripping away all the context from what was originally a story filled with context. The original ending was focusing on the concepts that the story was trying to convey, totally ignoring the actions and characters that bring context to the concepts. The Extended Cut, for the most part, added context to the parts leading up to, and following, the ending. I don’t necessarily LIKE all of what occurred in the end, but it made more sense, and tied everything together adequately. Compare this with a game like a Mario platformer. The story is generally bare-bones, so it doesn’t matter if the ending is similarly bare-bones.”When Mass Effect 3 was brought up a couple of people decided to jump in.
One opinion comes from oprainfall member Scott MacDonald who said:
“Well…I don’t think it’s entirely fair to judge a game solely by the ending…”My response to this was “It’s probably not.. but it’s my right to do so! I don’t want to spend hours and hours and hours doing something to be annoyed, irritated or downright offended by the ending. I want to enjoy every aspect of the game, and trust me if it happens I will be obsessed over the bad ending for a while.” This is how I felt throughout the discussion and even now I stand by what I said. Most of my experience would be ruined by a horrible ending. Maybe I am obsessive or maybe its just that the ending is the last impression you are left with for each game therefor it is what I am going to retain the longest.”
Do We want Our Endings to Totally Wrap Up Everything from the Game?
oprainfall member Justin Graham says:
“I like endings that wrap things up. If the overall story isn’t yet complete, I’d prefer that I get at least some closure with the cliffhanger, like how Xenosaga I ends with the destruction of Proto Merkabah. The day is saved, but there’s still the overall conflict that needs to be dealt with. I’m not fond of just straight cliffhangers, or games that purport to complete a storyline only to leave the door open for a continuation where there doesn’t need to be one.”Steve Baltimore replied to that with:
“Well Xenosaga wasn’t really finished it supposed to have had a 2nd story arc.”With so many opinions flying around I know I had a lot to think about. I was pretty sure where I stood but I am always willing to see the other side of things as well. I think that the game ending needs to fit with the game. I am going to want different endings out of different types of games.
Someone that agrees with me on this is Wes Saylor who says:
“ To be a good ending, it has to fit the game you are playing. When you throw in games like Final Fantasy, Nier, Fallout, or Skyrim you had better see an awesome ending that makes the last 40 to 100+ hours worth playing. It doesn’t have to be epic every single time but it had better wrap that story up and make me feel like it was worth the effort. If you are finishing up franchise mode on the new Madden, I am positive a 45 minute post game show with interviews is not necessary, at least for most of us. I want to see endings that reflect the game, if I spent hours and hours with these characters and came to like them, I want to know how it turns out for them, bad or good. A fun game that helped me enjoy a couple hours every now and then doesn’t need all that much for me to feel good about it. Orcs Must Die for instance, a great game but just let me know how it ended and why and we are good. To all those game dev’s out there, it’s okay to try something new, I might not agree with what you did, but I won’t hate you for it either. At least as long as it’s not a complete setup for your next title, Halo 2 anyone?”Bravo for saying what most of us are thinking! Don’t be afraid to try something new. This is going along a bit with what my friend Tyler Wise has stated. He brings on a new view entirely stating that:
“Endings are not up to us. There is no set kind of ending that fits perfectly for every game–each story is unique. An ending should close the main points presented, leave a few things open if there is more planned, and stay true to the style and themes of everything that came before. A good ending is one where the story runs a steady, meaningful course towards the end. I like endings that pay no mind to me and focus only on giving the best closing scene possible for each individual game. Maybe I won’t like the ending, but if it makes sense within the context of the story, who am I to complain?”Now, regardless if you agree with him or not he does have a good point. Endings are not up to us! Agreed good sir, agreed! I do think though that we have a right to expect a certain level of, lets just say finality, in our endings. Especially if you’re talking about the end to a series. I will most likely forgive a weaker, not tell all ending, if it is part 2 in a 3 part series.
