Games with Satisfying endings! *Possible spoliers... maybe?*

Hey Duders!

I find that I am disappointed in how most games I play end.

Storytelling in games isnt often the best, but more often then not, even in games I tend to enjoy the story in I find myself often disappointed with how it concludes. Often I find video-game endings to be very abrupt, often with a quick cut-scene that magically wraps up your 10-40 hour experience in mere moments what took you days to build to.

I was curious what some of you consider to be games with good, great or even excellent endings! What do you think?

Personally I feel games often miss one of the most essential steps in story telling design; and that is after the climax you need falling action before reaching your ultimate conclusion. This falling action gives you a moment to catch your breath, reflect on what you experienced with the story or its characters before preparing yourself to disconnect and step away from the tale. I'm not saying games need massive epilogues, but something more then a 20 second cut-scene you cant interact with is essential I think in concluding with a satisfying ending.

An example of a game I thought had a very satisfying ending was Dragon Age: Origins. You defeat the big bad, and depending on your choices you receive a generous cut-scene or an interactive ceremony where you get to revisit some characters from the very beginning of your journey and several others you encountered along the way. Then after that is completed you're treated to lengthy series of epilogue screens that in some detail explain the events well after the conclusion of the story. By the time Origins wrapped up I remember feeling very content with the experience.

The Last of Us is another example of a game I thought had a satisfying ending without needing to be overly long or exhaustive. You complete a pulse pumping action sequence trying to reach Ellie, the climax of the story occurs when you rescue her and then you get that nice little final game-play experience of returning to the Dam while you're guts are churning as you reflect upon the morally ambiguous decision of the protagonist. The Last of Us doesn't end on a happy note, but it has a very definitive and final end.

An example of a game with an unsatisfying ending? Dragon Age II I think is a prime example. An ultimately character driven game, the ending has anything but as you all of a sudden fight the big bad who only turned out to be the big bad in the last few moments of the game, there are some clear plot holes and then the book snaps shut raising more questions then it answers and what it does answer doesn't feel very worth it.

Often times I see ambiguity used a lot in endings, I for one love mysteries and all of the questions they raise but I think there is a clear -if a bit hard to define- line between piquing the players interests and blatantly stringing them on for the hopes of a sequel. All three of the games I mentioned had unresolved story threads and asked some unanswered questions but I think the first two executed them with far greater success by giving you just as much as they weren't.

What do you guys think? Do you agree, disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Final Fantasy X has a fantastic ending. Bittersweet and short, but effective in communicating the state of the world as you've left it.

Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 4 both have really good endings. 4 especially meant a lot to me as it seemed to wrap up everything that had started with MGS ten or so years prior.

Okami's ending is really good, knowing Ammy did what she had to do and that Issun will finally accept his role as a herald (or whatever).

The end of Legacy of Kain: Defiance has some of the ambiguity you talk about, but does it well. The whole Blood Omen storyline is hard to wrap your head around, but it ends, literally, with hope, and I think it's a great way to send off a great series (the less said about Blood Omen 2 the better).

I do feel that a lot of games, especially more modern ones, have really weak endings. Look at Shadows of Mordor, that was such a huge letdown in terms of ending, and a good ending would have been so easy. Of course Mass Effect 3 is the poster child for garbage "ambiguity is best" endings, but that thing was and is just a muddled mess even without just talking about the 3 choices cop out.

While the story as a whole didn't feel especially riveting to me, the end of Metal Gear Solid 3 really came together beautifully compared to its predecessors. So many awful things happen to Naked Snake throughout his missions in Russia, and you really feel the impact of all of them in the end. You destroy the Shagohod and complete your mission, everyone calls you a great American hero -- and everything is awful.

EVA's monologue at the end just feels like a punch in the gut, especially during the scene at The Boss' grave. That's the boiled down version, but you really see where things started going so wrong for Big Boss.

For me, I have to say it was Darksiders, ME2 and Okami.

The first Darksiders cliffhanger ending had me cheering. The game's length was perfect, had interesting characters and really dug the universe as a whole. Darksiders 2 however turned out to be quite meh in terms of storyline. Such a pity.

I managed to have everyone of my crew survive in ME2, the ending was pretty great.

Can't really remember the ending to Okami. All I remember to this day was the song playing by the end. Okami was an amazing game. Got attached to the characters, especially Ammy and the sidekick. The journey from start to end was such a beautiful tale, the characters went through so much and ended right when it had to. One of the most perfectly paced games for me. The ending had such a finality to it that I felt sad that there would be no more interaction with the game characters (apart from playing it again of course)

Journey, ME1, DA:O, Stroker, Binary Domain, Asura's Wrath DLC, MGS1-4, BioShock Infinite, Last of Us, Arkham Asylum, Guitar Hero 2

Anyone who says Red Dead Redemption is wrong personally, ending is bad but not satisfying.

Personally I've always felt that if you're looking to a game's ending for satisfaction, you're doing it wrong. The satisfaction comes from the journey itself, it's the whole point of the whole 'interactivity' thing.

That said, I've found very few games to have truly satisfying closing moments, I'm talking the whole package, satisfying end boss/sequence, satisfying end to the story (or unsatisfying if that was the deliberate intent) and the game itself hadn't either ended too early or outstayed it's welcome.

Personally there's just a literal handful of games that fall into that category, Fallout 1 and 2, Resident Evil 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Deus Ex, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto 5 are about the only ones I can think of right now that did that for me. And Demon's Souls/Dark Souls, but those don't really 'end' so much as you are given an excuse to NG+, I found the prospect of testing myself and my newfound abilities against harder versions of the earlier bosses to be so enticing I hardly cared how it ended.

That said, a huge number of my favorite games of all-time would fall into the 'disappointing ending' category for most people. Way worse than a lot of todays modern game ending sequences. System Shock 2 for a start, absolutely amazing game that I will replay many times, but that ending sequence? Yeah fuck that sequence, it was garbage. But nobody remembers how bad it was because A) most people didn't finish it, the game was really hard and B) people remember the bits they did enjoy, which was the entirety of the journey between the opening and the ending.

That's not to say I don't think story is important in games, it absolutely is very important, but I think disappointing endings being such a big thing nowadays is symptomatic of just how little 'freedom' players are given in the modern AAA video game.

Edit: World of Goo and Little Inferno. Seriously people, play those games and play them to the END.

Darksiders!

The Dragon Age: Origins ending is memorable for me personally because the game crashed half way through it and I didn't really want to go through the final battle again, so it was an extremely unsatisfying ending for me, just in a way that wasn't really the fault of the writing etc :P I've kind of felt like replaying the game recently though, since I've been wondering why I don't really care at all about Inquisition, despite the fact that I enjoyed Origins quite a lot.

Here's a controversial one. I actually like the ending to Killzone 2 a whole lot! Sure, Rico sucks REAL bad, but that's what makes the scene work. The whole thing is such a great "Holy shit, what have you done?" moment. A really great downer ending.

The ending of Shadow Of The Colossus is a quite melancholy way to end a beautiful game that ends up actually having a greater impact because of your implicit involvement as the player. In a medium where story and gameplay can often be at odds if the player doesn't want to strictly roleplay (see all the talk of ludo-narrative dissonance in games like GTAIV etc), SOTC is a shining example of using the unique quality of the medium, ie interactivity, to actually strengthen the storytelling.

Really?

I will say that the final mission in ME2 is fantastic. Without a doubt. But the actual ending? It was a pretty big bummer. I actually think it is easily the worst ending of the three. It's just 'Hey, do you want to destroy this infant Reaper or study it? Destroy it? Okay then, the Illusive Man isn't going to like it, but we'll cut to credits immediately after that so it doesn't really matter either way'. It wasn't even a little bit satisfying. I have to say I didn't mind it to much, because the mission itself was so spectacularly awesome.

I have to say even though I didn't enjoy the game an insane amount, I thought Gears of War 3 had a pretty good ending. I also thought Tomb Raider's end was pretty decent. South Park The Stick of Truth had a good ending in terms of story set up. Final Fantasy X had a really good ending. Pure closure.

Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Uncharted 2, Portal

I don't think that a lot of games have really satisfying endings as they're always leaving wiggle room for sequels, a lot like films nowadays

The only one that springs to mind is Red Dead Redemption. I think that The Last of Us has a great ending, but I don’t know if I’d call it satisfying. Same with Modern Warfare 2. I mean pulling a knife out of your chest and throwing it into the bad guy’s eye was insanely satisfying, but then the actual ending’s just a set up for the next game.

I think that endings to modern games are usually kind of weak and my memory’s not working well enough at this moment to remember older stuff.

The ending to Red Dead Redemption is perfect.

Infamous 1 had a great ending, Infamous 2 also had a pretty good finale. One of the few series that can tell a good story without real cliffhangers.

I love the ending to Bastion, absolutely perfect.

I think my favourite ever ending was Dead Space 2, but I feel like I was a special case. I played through the game for the first time on hard. By the end I just couldn't handle the enemies any more, so the ending became just a desperate, struggling charge through an overwhelming force. It really hammered home the fact that Isaac was on his last legs, and it took ever ounce of effort just to get to the end. The story told by the gameplay began to overtake the actual story, partially by accident. I think it was just that moment where everything aligns, and the game comes together to become more than the sum of its parts.

I also really liked the ending of Mass Effect, starting with the Sovereign conversation, it really captured the feeling in being in the finale of a kick ass action movie. From driving the Mako through that worm hole, to shooting your way up the side of the citadel, to redeeming Saren at the end. The series could never match the first game, in terms of story. I also have to mention MGS3, for the reasons already discussed.

I agree with you for the most part, although I don't think games need a playable epilogue to make the endings good. But I agree they need a decrescendo.

Games I thought had great endings, were Deadly Premonition (probably the best part of the game to me), Silent Hill 2, Knights of the the Old Republic, and Bioshock Infinite. Silent Hill Downpour also had a good ending, as Silent Hill 4.

Damn... Ninja'd in the second post.

I came here to say Okami, as well. The ending of the game is not only satisfying, but uplifting as well. That game was simply beautiful.

Oh great call on Deadly Premonition! Even though there are lots of dark bits, it's also just so silly throughout that I was genuinely surprised that the ending carried the emotional weight that it did.

Metal Gear Solid 3.

The Last of Us.

Maybe some obvious ones, but endings I remember loving:

• Portal & Portal 2
• Red Dead Redemption
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Persona 3 & 4
• The Last of Us
• Journey
• To the Moon
• Nier (final ending)
• Memoria
• Sleepy Dogs
• Spec Ops: The Line
• Probably bunch of adventure games I forgot about.

MGS1-3

Old JRPGs hit the nail on the head. They're basically 20-minute long, "and everyone lived happily ever after"s. I'm a sucker for that shit.

I remember Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom having a pretty good ending.

I'll say the ending to the shareware version of Doom 1 was fantastic too, but can't say the same for the end of the full game.

Dragon Age Origins. Even though it had text boxes and some art, it did feel like a nice ending.

I'm probably the only person, but there's just something about Final Fantasy 9's ending that just really got to me at the time. It's one of the few times where I was truly satisfied with the ending!

I found both endings to Saints Row the Third to be satisfying.

SMT NOCTURNE.

TRUE DEMON ENDING.

Go big or go extinct. Shijima is for bedwetters.