Multiple Endings: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"That's how it could've happened... But how about this?"''|''[[Clue (film)|Clue]]''}}

 

 

* The ''True End'', the primary plot ending of a game that has multiple endings. In many [[Dating Sim]]s, this ending may not be achievable if other endings are not achieved yet. It basically forces the player to finish the game with the "Good End", in order to unlock the path of the true story. When it is still locked, trying to get the "True End" usually results in the "Standard End" or "Bad End" below. The "True End" usually reveals most if not everything that happened in the other storylines, while some events remain mysterious even when "Good End" is achieved.

*** Apparently, there was supposed to be another Bad End for ''Symphony'', judging from some [[Dummied Out]] dialogue found by hacking the game, in which Maria would've been possessed by a Demon.

** ''[[Castlevania Bloodlines|Bloodlines]]'' had two segmented endings, one for each character that got longer depending on difficulty.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' had an [[egregious]]ly segmented ending, where the finale [[Cutscene]] was split into a number of short clips, each of which was unlocked by the possession of an appropriate mask, so that the entire ending could only be seen if you'd [[100% Completion|collected all 20 masks]]. Failing to collect a specific mask would simply give you a picture of the mask you didn't get rather than the scene, as the scenes were usually tied to the things Link had to do in order to get them. Aside from this, the moon smashing into the world might be considered a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].

** ''[[Spirit Tracks]]'' also has three different endings, depending on Link's answer to Zelda's question about what he wants to become after the adventure, which the player had to chose before the final battle. Choosing "Warrior" gives the player a scene where Zelda watched Link training in the countyard (and apparently hurting himself in the process), "Train Engineer" causes a similar scene, where Zelda watched him driving by the Castle and pulling the steem whistle. When answered that he's not sure, Link apparently leaves Hyrule after the game, leaving Zelda behind with nothing but a picture showing the two of them on the Spirit Train.

*** A third minor ending can also be found if you correctly answer all the questions, but lack the evidence needed to prove your points. The ending leads to a mix of the good and bad endings where everyone is either so-so (with alternative dialogue or fates from the good or bad ends) or still mad at Laura (as they would be in the bad ending). She still ends up killed, however, but the dagger is returned (as opposed to missing in the bad ending).

** ''[[Quest for Glory]] I'' gives two endings, which is decided at the Brigand Leader's office. If you don't take the mirror, you will immediately go to the castle to be proclaimed Hero of Spielburg by the Baron, and leave for Shapeir. However, since Baba Yaga remains, the valley remains cursed, and "terror will continue to rule the land". If you do take the mirror, you'll leave through the secret passage and can choose to return to the castle for the bad ending, or deal with Baba Yaga, driving her out of the valley and freeing it of its curse.

** In ''[[King's Quest IV]]'', Graham will either die or be healed depending on whether or not you brought back the fruit of life.

** In ''[[King's Quest VII]]'', you can either save Edgar with the extra life or leave him to die. The ending will have either Rosella courting Edgar, or have their families mourning his death.

* The [[Tex Murphy]] game ''Pandora Directive'' features ''eight endings,'' all based on how dickish the main character's behavior is throughout the game. (That is, obviously, at the complete discretion of the player). Those endings range from "Tex betrays the world but is blown up before he can do too much damage" to "Tex has kinky sex with the girl of his dreams."

* The 1996 [[Claymation]] [[Adventure Game]] ''[[The Neverhood]]'' let you choose the ending: You can either accept Klogg's offer to become ruler of the Neverhood (and become hideously mutated in the process) or take Klogg's crown and give it back to Hoborg, its original owner, which gets rid of Klogg and allows Hoborg to repopulate the Neverhood with more clay people.

* Indie adventure game ''[[A Tale of Two Kingdoms]]'' has five. The normal good end where you defeat the evil sorcerer, and the best end where you also save the princess and know the identity of the assassin. Then there's two bad endings (one where you get permanently stuck in faerie land, and one where you give up and go home), and one really bad (should you choose to team up with the evil guys).

* ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' a.k.a. ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' features three real finales and countless bad endings, since every single story point where you can get yourself killed/arrested/driven insane has its own ending narration ("And this is how my story ends..."). The real finales are determined by your performance in the final stand-offs against {{spoiler|the Oracle and the AI}}: the good ending sees Lucas {{spoiler|defeating both Clans, receiving the [[MacGuffin|ultimate knowledge]] from Jade, and literally becoming a god, yet choosing to live with Carla}}; in the bad ending, {{spoiler|Lucas kills the Oracle but loses to the AI, who proceeds to learn Jade's secret and attempt to continue the freezing of the world, even if there's a small ray of hope in Carla's pregnancy}}; in the last ending, {{spoiler|Lucas loses to the Oracle, the AI goes into hiding instead of joining the fight, and the Orange Clan continues running the world (like they always did), carefully avoiding Lucas, who now lives with Carla}}. Many players consider the latter ending the "true" end of ''Fahrenheit''.

** ''[[The King of Fighters]] XIII'' also has two endings: If your score is too low by the time you beat stage 6, {{spoiler|Saiki's plans fail and Ash leaves the scene without doing much.}} Otherwise, {{spoiler|you will have to fight Saiki and later Evil Ash, and get the true ending where Ash is [[Ret-Gone|RetGoned]].}}

** Several other SNK fighting games also have multiple endings: ''[[SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos]]'' has a true ending which can be achieved by beating the [[True Final Boss]]; otherwise, you'll get a generic ending saying that your character simply vanishes. Then, depending on how well you play, ''[[Neo Geo Battle Coliseum]]'' gives you four endings (and four final bosses) to choose from.

 

 

* In addition to the "slideshow" mentioned above, ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura|Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura]]'' has a more traditional approach to multiple endings: when you get to the [[Big Bad]], you're given the option of either destroying him (your original goal) or siding with him. {{spoiler|The latter leads to a bad ending where your character rules over a world now completely devoid of life.}}

* [[Nippon Ichi]] games such as ''[[Disgaea]]'', ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', and ''Disgaea 2'', which also include a number of [[Nonstandard Game Over]] endings as well. One of their earlier games, ''[[La Pucelle|La Pucelle: Tactics]]'', gave most chapters ''within'' the story multiple endings, but only one final end. Well, unless you complete all the optional dungeons, which grants Prier a unique change of character... (And may be canon, considering her cameo in ''Disgaea''.)

** It actually doesn't. There's 4 "quality" endings, dependent on how well you do with the store and how well you get along with the town populace, one for each secondary party member totalling 6, one for essentially getting everyone's character ending in one playthrough, one for being rich, one for making pies, and one for being an adventurer. That's a total of fourteen. However, only one of them can be gotten in each playthrough. It's quite a lot of work for Trophy hounds. The rest are essentially Game Overs.

* The ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' games.

** Also, ''Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals'' has three possible endings: the standard ending, the complete ending, and the best ending. The standard ending can be obtained by simply defeating Zephiel. If all the sacred weapons have been obtained, two extra chapters are unlocked, leading to the complete ending, {{spoiler|in which you defeat the dark priestess Idoun}}. The best ending occurs if {{spoiler|Idoun is finished off by Roy using the Sword of Seals, and it shows Idoun's soul being saved}}.

* Some of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games feature this:

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', it is possible to finish the game with only Celes, Edgar, and Setzer; any characters you don't have in your group don't appear in the ending.

*** {{spoiler|Terra}} will be forced into the ending regardless of whether you recruited her in the World of Ruin or not. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|There is an additional scene before the final battle to allow this scenario to make sense, even]].

** Being a game with a heavy emphasis on player choice, even the ''dungeons'' in ''[[Mass Effect (video game)|Mass Effect 1]]'' can have slightly different endings depending on what order you tackle them in and the choices you make in each dungeon. A good example is in Noveria, where the boss fight with {{spoiler|Matriarch Benezia}} will play out slightly differently depending on whether or not you have {{spoiler|Liara T'soni}} in your party, whether your brought her along with you, and whether or not you choose to save or wipe out the rachni. You also get an extra cutscene if you bring Wrex and decide to save the rachni, where he chews you out for saving an obviously evil bug race that the krogan dedicated themselves to wiping out years ago. And all that is just in ''the final act of one dungeon''. Let's not get started on [[Wham! Episode|Virmire]]...

*** The ending of ME2 can literally range anywhere from [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]] to the [[Golden Ending]] due to the absolutely deadly nature of the suicide mission. In addition, there's {{spoiler|keeping the Collector Base or not, sticking with Cerberus or not, the implications of not doing certain loyalty missions, particularly Samara's which has your ending leave an immoral serial killer on the loose, etc.}} Let's face it, the Mass Effect series and its game importing power take multiple endings [[Serial Escalation]].

* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' has three basic endings, details of which vary to some degree depending on the player's Readiness rating. Ultimately, the choice comes down to {{spoiler|annihilating the Reapers along with all other synthetic life in the galaxy, mind-controlling them and calling them off or fusing organics and synthetics into a new hybrid-form.}} The results however are very similar, {{spoiler|mostly in that the mass relay network blows up, Shepard dies, and the Normandy crashes on a jungle planet}}. This has ''not'' been [[Internet Backdraft|well received]] by fans.

** {{spoiler|It is possible for Shepherd to survive in the destroy the Reapers ending, if your military strength is high enough.}}

** ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has two endings: Mage ({{spoiler|Hawke sides with the mages, starts a revolution, and skips town}}), and Templar ({{spoiler|Hawke sides with the Templars, crushes the Kirkwall mage rebellion, and is crowned Viscount}}). [[You Can't Fight Fate|Regardless of your choices]], however, the overall outcome of the game is always {{spoiler|an all-out war between Mages and Templars across Thedas no later than three years after the ending, and Hawke ultimately disappearing (with love interest, if there was one)}}.

* ''[[Lands of Lore]] II'' had a Good ending and an Evil ending, depending on choices the player makes in the game. This game is one of the few cases where the Evil path is actually preferable—it allows you to skip one of the most difficult and annoying parts of the game.

* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' has several different endings. {{spoiler|[[The End of the World as We Know It|The Armageddon]] [[You Can't Fight Fate|happens in all of them]]}}, but some cross the line from [[Tear Jerker|heartbreaking]] into downright sadistic.

* ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' is a bit odd. It's possible (but not easy) to get a standard [[Game Over]]. You can get the [[Nonstandard Game Over|"C" ending]] by directly working against the instructions you're given, and the "B" ending by following them. But [[Guide Dang It|in the absence of a guide]], I challenge you to get the "A" ending. Hell, I challenge you to prove that the "B" ending ''isn't'' the "A" ending!

** Odds are good that there are players who figured it out on their own through sheer testing and playtime, just because the "B" ending is so completely unsatisfying.

* Like ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis'', ''[[Front Mission]] 3'' had multiple completely different paths through the game—two, this time. And like ''Fate of Atlantis'', the branching point was absurdly well-hidden, hinging entirely on whether or not you chose to go to a certain location during the prologue segment.

* ''[[Vandal Hearts]] II'' has six different endings (two of which were minor variations on two of the others). Only one really counted as the "good ending", and acquiring it definitely came under [[Guide Dang It]] territory.

* The ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games. ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' was rare in that, rather than the ending being determined by a few specific choices made during the game or via a simple [[Karma Meter]], the game tracked and judged your behavior throughout the game in several areas. For example, if you spent a lot of time fighting and running around with low health, you were more likely to get the ending in which {{spoiler|the main character commits suicide}}; if you paid a lot of attention to a certain [[NPC]] and protected her from harm as much as possible, you were more likely to get the ending where you leave with her, and so on. ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'' did this as well, but not to the same extent. ''[[Silent Hill 4]]'' went back to the old "two important events with two possible outcomes each equals four possible endings" formula. Interestingly (considering the tone of the games), there is a difficult-to-obtain comedy ending in most of the titles. For example, in ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', {{spoiler|the dog was behind it all}}.

* The original ''[[Resident Evil 1]]'' has seven different endings with additional variations in the [[Game Cube]] remake: two endings where only one of the two main characters (Jill or Chris) survive alone, an ending where only Jill and Chris survive, two endings in which one of the main characters escape with their partner (Jill with Barry or Chris with Rebbecca), and two "best endings" where Jill and Chris escape with either Barry or Rebbecca. According to the sequels, all four of the main heroes escaped the mansion, which is impossible to achieve in the game since Barry goes missing during Chris's game after the opening intro, while Jill never meets Rebbecca in her game.

*** In ''RE2'', the ending you get is determined by the order in which you play both characters' storyline. You can see the standard ending by completing the first half with Leon and then see the complete ending by finishing the second half with Claire or vice versa.

*** In ''RE3'', the choices you make throughout the game will determine how the story will unfold, but ultimately there are only two endings that are barely different from each other. The standard ending has Jill and Carlos escaping on their own, while the second ending has Jill and Carlos escaping with the help of Jill's old partner Barry, [[Deus Ex Machina|who just happened to flying his helicopter near the area]]. The artwork on the result screen will change depending on which ending you get.

* In ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]'' there's three endings depending on how the player finishes the final confrontation. {{spoiler|If you allow the boss to escape then it's the bad ending. If you send Agrippa's head through the portal then it's the best ending (even though Daniel dies he's sent on to another "life"). If you just destroy the portal then it's the good ending and Daniel dies.}}

* ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clock Tower]]'' has this in spades. The first game has nine endings, the second ten (five for each character), and the third ''thirteen.''

* Each of the ''[[Fatal Frame]]'' games have multiple endings. Usually, the more tragic ones are considered canon.

** The first game had three endings: one gotten on Easy/Normal, where {{spoiler|only Miku escapes, Mafuyu choosing to stay behind}}, one on Nightmare: {{spoiler|both Miku and Mafuyu escape}}, and one on the [[Xbox]] {{spoiler|where Kirie is reunited with her lover.}} Only the first one is canon.

* ''[[School Days]]'' is known for its more unique multiple endings compared to other visual novels. But when that's said, no one cares about the happy endings, this game is [[Memetic Mutation|infamous & notorious]] for its [[Downer Ending|bad endings]] in which someone will always get grotesquely killed some way or another. Otherwise, there's those orgy-crazed endings which make the main character look more of [[Jerkass|a douchebag than he already is]]...

** The ending picked for the anime is worse than any of the bad endings, and comes directly as a result of Makoto acting like a [[Jerkass]] to pretty much everyone he was romantically involved with.

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'': The multiple chapters are connected, but each one has its own ending that neatly wraps up the storyline. Every chapter happens during the weeks leading up to the same disaster, and as it turns out, {{spoiler|it's a pseudo-[[Groundhog Day Loop]] involving alternate universes created by the local deity, who keeps pressing the [[Reset Button]] hoping [[Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory|that the one character who remembers what happened]] can find a way to prevent the cataclysm that keeps killing everyone in the village. Most of the endings range from [[Bittersweet Ending]] to [[Tear Jerker|soul-crushingly depressing]], but each season finale culminates in a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] due to [[The Power of Friendship]] and [[Earn Your Happy Ending|unshakable determination]].}}

* Following ''[[Higurashi]]'', ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' has multiple self-contained "episodes" in which things happen differently, but end in disaster for the characters involved. {{spoiler|This time, the different episodes are different "what-if" scenarios set up by a Game Master, who exists in a "Meta World" along with "other selves" of the characters on the "game board" [[And Zoidberg|and witches]]. Events from across the episodes are used by the said "Meta-characters" in debating and arguing about the identity/ies of the culprit(s) behind the killings.}}