Keiya’s Favorite Game Endings

SPOILER ALERT! An article about game endings naturally spoils the endings to games. I know that there are more that should be mentioned, but there are quite a few games that I have never played, finished, or just don’t remember enough of.

  • I like endings that to some wrap the story up to some extent.
  • I like endings that rren’t complete brain fucks (I love you like my own flesh and blood FFVII, but your ending was….yeah)
  • I like endings that are a culmination of these 3 qualities: The game’s story, context, and what the player has experienced.
  • Game endings don’t always have to be happy and cheery.
  • Game endings don’t always have to be depressing esoteric shitfests (anime ending syndrome).
  • I like game endings with epic music. Of the favorites listed below, I vividly remember Mega Man 3, Final Fantasy VIII, and Portal because of the music. Epic epic music.


Mega Man 3
This ending touched me as a young child. This is significant because I swear that most of all NES endings consisted of nothing more than a spash screen with “THE END” written in coloful letters. Protoman redeems himself in the end, saving his brother from the debris, Mega Man gazes at Proto Man’s sillouete in the sky…beautiful! Not to mention the music, the music is delicious.

Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII is the red-headed runt stepchild of the Square universe. But, despite whatever you may feel about the game the ending is awesome. It’s my favorite Final Fantasy ending by a huge margin. It wrapped up the story with a touching 15 minute FMV sequence. The orchestrated version of Eyes on Me and the Final Fantasy theme were perfect.

Silent Hill 2
This game has no heroes. People don’t get sent to Silent Hill because they were being good… James is a sack of shit who murders his dying wife, not out of mercy, but out of his own selfishness. I know that there’s a happy ending, but the In Water ending feels most canon to the story. A tragic yet appropriate end to one of the finest game stories ever told. Oh: and some of the other ones are just fucking funny (YouTube the dog and alien ending).

Metal Gear Solid 3
A poignant ending that sets up Big Boss as a villain. Big Boss saluting The Boss’ grave as a single tear rolls down his cheek, so sad OMG. Snake succeeds in his mission and is rewarded with medals/titles despite the fact that he has, effectively, lost everything. You are forced as a player to execute The Boss, who has been a mentor and a mother figure to snake for over a decade. Despite her vision and her sacrifice, she dies a traitor in the eyes of both the US and Soviet Union, for nothing. A true patriot.

Portal
Oh my God. I don’t think a more perfect ending exists. Anywhere in any media genre. I mean, that song...There’s no reason why any of you should not have played Portal.

Metal Gear Solid 4
I am still fawning over this game and cannot give a fair opinion without gushing fangirl goodness. The microwave corridor…the Ocelot fight depicting all four games…you don’t know how hard I mashed the triangle button in the corridor. I am a huge sucker for cheesy wedding endings so screw all of you who didn’t enjoy it! I would be lying if I said that I didn’t tear up when Otacon says, “Snake…had a hard life” OMG so sad ;_;. Big Boss CQC’s Old Snake into a hug, aknowledging him as a son.

Other special moments
Additional fond memories.

  • Call of Duty 4: The slow-motion sequence right before the ending as Captain Price, with his dying breath slides his gun over to you. The playable epilogue was also awesome.
  • Metal Gear Solid 1: The alternate ending when Snake and Otacon ride off into the Alaskan sunset gay cowboy style on a snowmobile (and yes, I submitted to the torture and didn’t get the Meryl ending either *sadpanda*).
  • Final Fantasy VIj (FFIII US): The music. The character vignettes. I really love the ending music. My second favorite Final Fantasy ending.
  • Metroid: The good ending that is. The original video game surprise ending!
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: The actual ending was mediocre but the events leading up to it were epicly strange. The Arsenal Gear freakouts lmao: “I need scissors! 61!”
  • The Half-Life series: I know how most everybody feels about cliffhangers, particularly those that setup sequels, but these are well done. A cliffhanger shouldn’t feel like the developers chopped the story in half at some arbitrary point. It should, to some extent, wrap up the current story while leaving you in suspense. Though possibly a bit underwhelming, the HL endings do this well.
  • The Sims 2: Well not really, but indoor barbequeing is always a good way to end a sim family.

Cable Management

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The Signum cable management rack from Ikea is the best thing ever. I finally got around to installing it and rerouting most of the wiring around my desk. No more dangly cables everywhere, huzzah! I need to do a better job of sorting out cables and tying off slack.

It would be nice to route some of the power cables near the wall socket around my desk leg so that they remain hidden. Unfortunately though, a few are short. I might try to prop and tie the power strip to the rack. Not sure if the giganormous power bricks will fit though. I Also bought a drawer unit to store all of my stupid USB cables, device chargers, guitar cables, PlayStation controllers, adapters, etc and any miscellaneous junk laying on the floor.

Playing: July 28th

I have interest in tinkering with this site again, hehe. Entering a general gaming lull: there’s not a whole lot new or interesting releases coming until Fall. WoW wise, I think expansionitis is setting in for half the server o_O. I want a beta key!

Resistance
At some point I might pick up Resistance Fall of Man whenever the Playstation 3 greatest hits come out. The viral marketing for Resistance 2, its sequel piqued my interest (well, partly because the videos feature Katee Sackhoff, aka Starbuck from the most awesomest show on Television). It sounds intriguing and seems to have been reviewed highly. I find most console shooters and their cludgy controls a turn off though.

…continuing my Metal Gear fixation
I find MGO interesting though I haven’t played it a whole lot. It’s not quite a shooter and integrates some of Metal Gear Solid’s stealth elements into the online gameplay.

Errata
I have this… inability to play full screen games for long periods now without having to check my email, check my news feeds, IM’s, guild forums, etc. That is, unless they really grab me. Windowed games (like WoW) as well as console games are nice because they don’t require full focus of my computer.

Playing: July 14th

I feel like blogging again.

Super Stardust HD
SSHD is an arcade style shooter (destroy anything that moves, collect power-ups, dodge anything that moves and isn’t a power-up) available on the PSN. Oh God it’s crack…and has over the past week or so, admittedly occupied more of my free gaming time than I care to admit. I miss this game genre.

Shadow of the Colossus
I was reading an interesting discussion earlier this week on games with sad plot lines and this title came up multiple times. I know that it has received extremely high regard when it was released in 2005, but I never picked it up for whatever reason. It’s only like, $15 used at Gamestop; Might pick it up this week.

Metal Gear Solid 4
I have a huge strictly metaphorical gamer hard-on for anything Metal Gear. I consequently adore all aspects of the game/story, including the parts that make abso-fucking-lutely no sense. I was going to type out a lengthy afterthought review but I’m sure that at this point, anything that I could possibly ever say regarding the gameplay and plot has already been covered a hundred times over.

Among all installations, 4 by far has the best gameplay and control scheme. They really polished and streamlined it to the point where it is *gasp* actually valid as an action game. But that said, you really do have to play through all of the previous Metal Gear Solid games in order to fully appreciate and understand MGS4.

WoW
*Thinking about going to BlizzCon this year* I am, to be honest, not really much of a convention goer though…