Bittersweet Ending/Video Games: Difference between revisions

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** ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' ends with the undoing of the [[Stable Time Loop]] that necessitated the quest of the Light Warriors -- and as a consequence, nobody, even the heroes themselves, ever remember their deeds. Also, the main villain gets everything he ever wanted. He's alive, and apparently near to the Princess.

** Even worse than ''FFI'', ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' ends with Leon leaving the heroes, saying too much had happened, and that things couldn't go back to the way they were. Dawn of Souls furthers this by showing off all of the dead characters from the game watching over the still living characters. Not to mention most of the world population has been killed off due to [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|two superweapons]]. Lest we forget: the world is not irreparably damaged, and the population isn't all that bad off (only one city is well and truly destroyed). Sure, the psychological scars won't heal easily, but they never do.

** The original ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' ends with Delita becoming king, but he kills Ovelia in self defense after she attacks him and stabs him. He is left wondering if his friend, Ramza, came off better because he was free, while Delita is [[Lonely At the Top]]. Meanwhile, Ramza is still considered a heretic, and he and his sister are apparently dead. Olan attends Alma's funeral and thanks Ramza for all he did, and muses why he did all that despite he would always be considered a heretic by history. The extended cinema answers that by showing him riding in peace with his sister. Hundreds of years later, Olans writings are discovered, and Ramza's name is finally cleared, and his deeds are finally known to the world.

** The original ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' ends with Delita becoming king, but he kills Ovelia in self defense after she attacks him and stabs him. He is left wondering if his friend, Ramza, came off better because he was free, while Delita is [[Lonely at the Top]]. Meanwhile, Ramza is still considered a heretic, and he and his sister are apparently dead. Olan attends Alma's funeral and thanks Ramza for all he did, and muses why he did all that despite he would always be considered a heretic by history. The extended cinema answers that by showing him riding in peace with his sister. Hundreds of years later, Olans writings are discovered, and Ramza's name is finally cleared, and his deeds are finally known to the world.

** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' ends with an ambiguous ending where the characters aren't sure if they've succeeded or not. Rather, they've succeeded, but the question is whether they did the right thing. The ending makes it seem like Ivalice and the real world are two separate universes, rather than having them replace each other. Also, post-game content makes it seem like only Mewt went back to the real world.

** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' ends with the hero, Luso, leaving Ivalice for good, with all his friends behind. However, it's not explicitly stated that he can never return.

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** Adding to the bitterness of the ending, ''billions'' upon ''billions'' of people are dead on both sides, a good majority of Human colonies have been glassed, and it may take decades to rebuild.

** And by "good majority" we mean "virtually everything but Earth itself". By this point, the total human population in the galaxy is estimated to be around two-hundred million, down from ''tens of billions'' at the begining of the war. [[Word of God]] suggests that ''23 billion'' (out of 30-40 before the war) humans have died.

* [[Mother 3]]: Lucas was {{spoiler|forced to fight his [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead|reanimated]], [[Brainwashed and Crazy|mind-controlled]], [[Evil Twin|twin brother]], Claus, who he hasn't seen in four years. He and his [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|dead mother]] are able to wake him up, and he promptly [[Dying as Yourself|kills himself]].}} And then, {{spoiler|Lucas pulled the final Needle and woke up the Dragon, which ended the world and either created a new one or killed everyone in the game. [[Gainax Ending|The game isn't very clear on which.]]}}

* [[Mother 3]]: Lucas was {{spoiler|forced to fight his [[Back from the Dead|reanimated]], [[Brainwashed and Crazy|mind-controlled]], [[Evil Twin|twin brother]], Claus, who he hasn't seen in four years. He and his [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|dead mother]] are able to wake him up, and he promptly [[Dying as Yourself|kills himself]].}} And then, {{spoiler|Lucas pulled the final Needle and woke up the Dragon, which ended the world and either created a new one or killed everyone in the game. [[Gainax Ending|The game isn't very clear on which.]]}}

* In ''[[Betrayal at Krondor]]'', the Great One Makala and real [[Big Bad]] is not evil as much as doing his best to fulfill his duty to protect the Empire of Tsuranuanni from what he misguidedly believes a threat, while being rather colourfully pragmatic in typical Tsurani Great One fashion. And the moredhel (dark elf) Gorath, the [[Noble Demon]]/[[Anti-Hero]] who's lost and sacrificed the most without even the barest complaint, even going as far as joining the sworn enemy of his people in an effort to ''protect'' them, and arguably the actual hero of the story, has to be wastefully killed in a heartwrenching [[Kill Us Both]] moment by the very human he has befriended against all odds. Had he survived, he would have been free to live the rest of his days peacefully in Elvandar with the light elves, or return to what still remains of his clan and try to put the pieces back together, and perhaps even start to lead the moredhel people to adopt less murderous, saner ways. It's a loss alright.

* ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' ends with the heroes defeating the [[Big Bad]]... but then finding out that rather than being evil, Dhaos was just trying to keep his world alive. In which case the heroes are feeling slightly less heroic than they'd thought.

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** ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation 02]]'' actually kills off an important playable character. The kind and good [[The Federation|Earth Federation]] was secretly overthrown and replaced by jerks. Also the Inspectors where only a part of an alien menance starting with "Zu-" that the Guest are a part of meaning they will be back. Even Worse? Banpresto made some more Super Robot Wars games meaning that they will adapt even more games into Original Generation games.

*** No, the "even worse" part is that Sony's policy of requiring games released in America to have English audio tracks has [[No Export for You|stonewalled all effort to bring the sequels to the United States]]. The conflict does get resolved, but Dark Brain is only letting the Japanese be privy to the truth.

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'''s ''best'' ending is as follows: you have regained your mortality, learned your true name, and brought your friends [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead]]... And now all your hard work pays off, as you get to die and go to hell to be punished for the crimes of the First Incarnation. (Of course, the entire point of the game was to figure out a) who you are and b) how to die... Which you just did. Just too bad the person you are is overall an irredeemable bastard.)

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'''s ''best'' ending is as follows: you have regained your mortality, learned your true name, and brought your friends [[Back from the Dead]]... And now all your hard work pays off, as you get to die and go to hell to be punished for the crimes of the First Incarnation. (Of course, the entire point of the game was to figure out a) who you are and b) how to die... Which you just did. Just too bad the person you are is overall an irredeemable bastard.)

** Any other ending is much worse, though. The worst is you learning nothing of yourself, killing the [[Big Bad]], leaving your friends' dead bodies behind in a lifeless fortress stuck in an endless void...And ''then'' going to hell to be punished for the crimes of the first incarnation.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Sacred Stones'' ends up with Eirika and Ephraim defeating the Lord of Terror with the help of their companions, but not before the twins' beloved friend/bitter antagonist Lyon dies in front of them. The last CG of the game has the twins recalling the day they met Lyon. Not to mention the whole issue of Grado falling victim to a catastrophic natural disaster... just as Lyon had predicted and fell into darkness trying to stop. Several charas have to stay behind and help reconstruct the Empire.

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* If you don't find the all the pieces of the title artifact in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer'', you have a choice between staying forever on the Fugue Plane to seal away the Spirit Eater or curing yourself and returning to Faerun, but leaving the Spirit eater free to ravage Rashemen.

** There's an additional one if you got One of Many instead of Okku, and you romance Zafiya. It generally follows the good one, but with one major difference: After you marry Zafiya and return to Faern, One of Many kills her and consumes her soul. In revenge, you hunt him down and eventually kill him as he pleads to spare his life in Zafiya's voice.

* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'': Neo Arcadia is destroyed with heavy casualties, finally freeing humans and reploids of its tyranny. [[Big Bad|Its leader]] [[Complete Monster|Dr. Weil]] is killed as his [[Kill Sat]] burns up in the atmosphere. The war is also over, with the humans and Reploids finally reaching an understanding, breaking the [[Fantastic Racism|boundaries]] between the two races. But Zero couldn't escape Ragnarok in time, because [[Heroic Sacrifice|he chose to stay behind to finish off Weil instead of evacuating the satellite]]. With Zero's tendency to come [[Back ~~From~~ the Dead]], we're treated to a scene of his helmet lying broken on the ground signifying that this time he's [[Killed Off for Real|really gone]].

* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'': Neo Arcadia is destroyed with heavy casualties, finally freeing humans and reploids of its tyranny. [[Big Bad|Its leader]] [[Complete Monster|Dr. Weil]] is killed as his [[Kill Sat]] burns up in the atmosphere. The war is also over, with the humans and Reploids finally reaching an understanding, breaking the [[Fantastic Racism|boundaries]] between the two races. But Zero couldn't escape Ragnarok in time, because [[Heroic Sacrifice|he chose to stay behind to finish off Weil instead of evacuating the satellite]]. With Zero's tendency to come [[Back from the Dead]], we're treated to a scene of his helmet lying broken on the ground signifying that this time he's [[Killed Off for Real|really gone]].

* In ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 3'', MegaMan.EXE sacrifices himself to stop the [[Big Bad]] of the game, although the post credits show him returning to Lan/Netto. Of course, since everything was [[Status Quo Is God|back to normal in the next game]], it's obvious this one didn't stick, and was obvious even at the time of release because [[Late Arrival Spoiler|Battle Network 4 had already been announced with the same cast.]]

* If you ignore the stuff that happens after the credits roll in ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]] 2'', it's pretty depressing. Your character basically gets erased out of time because the planet didn't go into paralysis (so no one from the future could have come back, including you) and after your companion returns and tells everyone, the last shot you see is them crying on a friend's shoulder at the place you first met, in pretty similar circumstances too. Except he's all grown up. Considering everything you went through, and the fact that this scene takes place a good couple of months after everything's restored, it's pretty jarring.

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* ''[[X-COM]]: Terror From The Deep'' - Defeat the boss alien and you save the world, but the alien city explodes and takes all of your soldiers with it.

** It's even worse, because canon dictates that when it exploded, it sent a crapload of pollutants into the atmosphere and basically caused much of the world to need to be abandoned. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].

** The trend for bittersweet endings in continued in ''[[Wild ~~Arms~~ XF]]'', where victory costs the lives of Princess Katrina and King Hrathnir via [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to win the day, and Felius is missing and possibly dead after he sacrifices himself to save the world.

** The trend for bittersweet endings in continued in ''[[Wild ARMs XF]]'', where victory costs the lives of Princess Katrina and King Hrathnir via [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to win the day, and Felius is missing and possibly dead after he sacrifices himself to save the world.

* ''Prey'' ends with Tommy defeating the Mother and destroying the Sphere. However his grandfather and his girlfriend, the only people he felt any connection with, are both dead. Neither seems terribly bothered by this and her spirit tells Tommy she will be waiting for him, so it's not so bad.

* At the end of the final mission in ''[[~~Starcraft~~]]'' Tassadar sacrifices himself in order to destroy the Zerg Overmind, but Auir is a smoldering ruin and the central Terran government is led by a [[Complete Monster]]. The expansion ''Brood War'' on the other hand has an outright [[Downer Ending]].

* At the end of the final mission in ''[[StarCraft]]'' Tassadar sacrifices himself in order to destroy the Zerg Overmind, but Auir is a smoldering ruin and the central Terran government is led by a [[Complete Monster]]. The expansion ''Brood War'' on the other hand has an outright [[Downer Ending]].

** Brood War also, fairly early in its plot, turns the Bittersweet Ending of the original into a Downer Ending by having a new Overmind be created to rule the Zerg until Kerrigan's rise to power, basically rendering Tassadar's heroic sacrifice ultimately futile in the long run.

** [[~~Starcraft~~ II]] has this; Kerrigan has been deinfested which has accomplished three feats a.) breaking the Zerg and ensuring that billions of lives will be saved b.) ensuring that Kerrigan is no longer a [[Complete Monster]] and can now start working for redemption and c.) humanity no longer has to fear the Zerg. The bad news is that Raynor had to shoot Tychus (his best friend), Mengsk is still in power, and the [[Bigger Bad|Dark Voice]] is still working to jump start the apocalypse; the only difference with his plans is that humanity has a chance to stop him rather than being wholly boned.

** [[StarCraft II]] has this; Kerrigan has been deinfested which has accomplished three feats a.) breaking the Zerg and ensuring that billions of lives will be saved b.) ensuring that Kerrigan is no longer a [[Complete Monster]] and can now start working for redemption and c.) humanity no longer has to fear the Zerg. The bad news is that Raynor had to shoot Tychus (his best friend), Mengsk is still in power, and the [[Bigger Bad|Dark Voice]] is still working to jump start the apocalypse; the only difference with his plans is that humanity has a chance to stop him rather than being wholly boned.

* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' ends with Tabuu defeated and the world restored...except for the Island of the Ancients (R.O.B.'s home in this game), because Ganondorf detonated too many Subspace Bombs there. [[Word of God]] [http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/modea/modea17.html confirmed it.]

** And R.O.B. is thus the [[Last of His Kind]].

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* None of the endings of ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' are 100% happy. Yuzu's ending is a straight up [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] [[Downer Ending]], but the rest are varying degrees of this. No matter how hard you try, everything inside the Yamamote line is more or less destroyed and hundreds of people die. The government will cover up the events of the game and God's next ordeal is inevitable unless you pick the Chaos ending (which allows the demons to overrun Earth) or the Law ending (which implies the protagonist went [[Knight Templar]] with the power).

* The ending of ''[[Don Pachi]]'', in which the player character joins the elite [[Super Soldier]] force DonPachi Squadron...after having completed training in which he is ordered to kill a massive plurality of allies posing as enemies.

{{quote|"In the end, we were not the ones who made this [[Training ~~From~~ Hell|'mission']] a success, it was the numerous soldiers who lost their lives that contributed to the creation of these super soldiers. Thus came about the elite combat force, [[Title Drop|'DonPachi']]."}}

{{quote|"In the end, we were not the ones who made this [[Training from Hell|'mission']] a success, it was the numerous soldiers who lost their lives that contributed to the creation of these super soldiers. Thus came about the elite combat force, [[Title Drop|'DonPachi']]."}}

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]''. {{spoiler|Sure, Jack gets revenge for John's murder, but that doesn't change the fact that the man he grew to admire and sympathize with is dead. Furthermore, Jack has become a wandering gunslinger and a broken shell of a man, exactly what his father didn't want for him.}}

* Both ''[[~~Act Raiser~~]]'' games have such an ending. In the first, [[God|The Master]] succeeds in killing <s> Satan</s> [[Bowdlerise|Tanzra]], ressurecting the world, and banishing evil... {{spoiler|and the people decide they don't need him anymore, and just turn their backs.}} The second borders on an outright [[Downer Ending]]. {{spoiler|The Master defeats Tanzra once and for all, freeing the world from evil. Unfortunately, not only do the people dump you again, but your Sky Palace is destroyed, all your angels are dead, and you're more or less trapped in Death Heim. The last shot of the game is your statue being overgrown with plants and crumbling to dust.}}

* Both ''[[ActRaiser]]'' games have such an ending. In the first, [[God|The Master]] succeeds in killing <s> Satan</s> [[Bowdlerise|Tanzra]], ressurecting the world, and banishing evil... {{spoiler|and the people decide they don't need him anymore, and just turn their backs.}} The second borders on an outright [[Downer Ending]]. {{spoiler|The Master defeats Tanzra once and for all, freeing the world from evil. Unfortunately, not only do the people dump you again, but your Sky Palace is destroyed, all your angels are dead, and you're more or less trapped in Death Heim. The last shot of the game is your statue being overgrown with plants and crumbling to dust.}}

* The [[Baldur's Gate]] Series has a few bittersweet endings for some of the NPCs.

** Each spoiler contains the epilogue for each NPC.

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*** Though this game also renders the endings of the first two Prime games a bit sweeter, as Tallon IV is recovering and the Luminoth's civilization is thriving again. So there's that.

** Super Metroid - Samus has killed Mother Brain, but has lost the closest thing she has yet had to a child, as well as her childhood home in the process.

** [[Metroid: Other M]]: {{spoiler|The Bottle Ship, and its evil (or misunderstood) [[AI Is a Crapshoot|AI]] are destroyed, but at the cost of the lives of Adam, and most of his men. And the people who made this bioweapons lab mostly get away with it.}} On second thought, that may be more of a [[Downer Ending]].

** [[Metroid: Other M]]: {{spoiler|The Bottle Ship, and its evil (or misunderstood) [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|AI]] are destroyed, but at the cost of the lives of Adam, and most of his men. And the people who made this bioweapons lab mostly get away with it.}} On second thought, that may be more of a [[Downer Ending]].

** Metroid Fusion - Samus has destroyed the X parasite, by blowing up a space station and [[Colony Drop|the planet it orbited]], but openly admits she's probably a fugitive, for destroying federation property.

* ''[[Freedom Fighters (video game)|Freedom Fighters]]''. Sure, [[La Résistance|the resistance]] forced the [[Dirty Communists|Russians]] out of New York. But in the process, they blew up the infrastructure of most of the city. And it's not like [[Sequel Hook|they won't come back]] [[Cavalry Betrayal|with more forces.]]

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* [[Stolen]] has this for an ending. Breeze is (likely) dead, Richard Killian has been arrested for murdering his own goon Night. The previous mayor is back in power. Louie, Anya's partner, puts a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on the trope by saying that nobody is better off, but nobody is worse off either. Louie and Anya's apartment has been blown up, and so the two of them take off on a motorcycle, perhaps to go on vacation.

* In [[The Witcher]] series, though the first game can end on a somewhat hopeful note, the second game ends this way no matter what you do. On one hand, Geralt is reunited with Triss, has recovered much of his memory, and knows Yennefer might still be alive. Unfortunately the seeds of chaos have been sewn across the Northern kingdoms, and [[The Empire|Nilfgaard]] is planning on marching in. Just about everything accomplished in both games has been rendered effectively moot.

* ''[[LA Noire]]'' has Cole Phelps drowned in the sewers saving both Jack Kelso, his not-friend-but-not-enemy, and Elsa Litchmann, his love interest. The game ends with Jack attending Cole's funeral with Elsa and Cole's ex-partner Biggs. While the Suburban Redevelopment Fund is finished, the corruption endemic in the LAPD and Mayor's office, that chewed up and spat out Cole, is allowed to continue, and Roy Earle, Cole's crooked Vice partner and SRF bagman, [[Karma Houdini|gets to deliver Cole's eulogy]]. That Noir for you.

* ''[[L.A. Noire]]'' has Cole Phelps drowned in the sewers saving both Jack Kelso, his not-friend-but-not-enemy, and Elsa Litchmann, his love interest. The game ends with Jack attending Cole's funeral with Elsa and Cole's ex-partner Biggs. While the Suburban Redevelopment Fund is finished, the corruption endemic in the LAPD and Mayor's office, that chewed up and spat out Cole, is allowed to continue, and Roy Earle, Cole's crooked Vice partner and SRF bagman, [[Karma Houdini|gets to deliver Cole's eulogy]]. That Noir for you.

* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' has Alex having destroyed the nuke to save New York City, but he is [[Awful Truth|unhappy with the truth]] that he ''is'' the Blacklight Virus having unleashed by the [[Complete Monster|real Alex Mercer]], his sister is in a comatose state, his ex-girlfriend has betrayed him, and the virus is yet to be stopped.

* ''[[Dead Rising 2]]: Case West'' has good news, best news, bad news, and worst news. The good news is that Frank and Chuck escape with proof that Phenotrans is responsible for the Fortune City outbreak and evidence to clear the latter's name; the best news is that the evil company is going down. The bad news is Marian Mallon, the head of Phenotrans, refuses to release the permanent cure as she [[The Social Darwinist|sees only the strong ones will get it]], and escapes with Isabela; the worst news is that nobody will believe of what happened to Phenotrans.