A Great Ending...

[Joccaren]

i didn't really see what was so wrong with the original ending?

As there's a question mark here, I'm going to assume this is being asked as a question.

The thing is, most people weren't really upset about the downer side of the ending; Shepard and Anderson dying and all that. Most would have liked the option for a happy and successful ending too, following what the rest of the series had done, but it wasn't on top the priority list.

There were 4 major things that people found wrong with the ending:
1. Star Child
2. Lack of Choices
3. Space Magic
4. The rest of the game

The Star Child was a poor idea. It was something thrown in to try and get the players to have an emotional attachment to the game with that kid in the first scene, and is the bluntest, most heavy handed "This is a form you should care about, so trust it" figure at the end. Additionally, having him spew out a bunch of exposition that didn't always make sense, and be the solution to the problem, the one who solves and stops the war - not Shepard - was a bad idea. Take Star Child out, and have the crucible activate normally, and a lot of people would have enjoyed the ending better.

Bioware originally promised a lot of choices in the ending, where everyone's ending would be vastly different, and even said "You won't be able to say you got ending A, B or C". What did we get? Endings A, B and C - or Red, Blue and Green if we're being specific. There was nothing like in the suicide mission where you commanded forces, and made decisions that decided whether they'd live or die. There were no choices to be made outside the game that influenced the end - only War Assets that could be grinded from multiplayer. Then the choices that you were given were... poor at best. Destroy the Reapers, which arbitrarily kills all synthetic life but doesn't damage anything else. Control the Reapers, killing yourself and becoming a Reaper God. Fuse all Synthetic and Organic life, bringing peace and happiness and knowledge and understanding for all eternity, but you die.
Now, come on. Do those choices sound at all even? Bioware seem to have done there what they did post-EC with the refuse ending - tried to force the ending you'd choose by arbitrarily making the others worse. Why choose Red? 'Cause you're a Renegade Shep that wants to survive at all costs. Otherwise, the other options are always better. There is no loss of allied life, and either you control the Reapers and tell them to run away, or you bring about the Galactic Golden Age of peace and prosperity for all. And even then, synthesis is painted as the best through how it brings about such a golden age with no problems. This is also backed up as that is the order they unlock - Red, Blue, Green. Were it not to be tied to an arbitrary score counter, and instead some actual choices, I might have discounted that last point. However, as it was not tied to choices and instead to what is, quite literally, a score counter - yeah, that's the order Bioware ranked the endings, and it shows in how they presented them.
Offer choices with a tangible effect, that were even, and that were somewhat fitting and decent, and a lot of people would have been happier.

Space magic was rife in the endings. For a series that had, until then, largely kept itself grounded in its sci-fi [It explained everything thoroughly as to how it worked, using slightly flawed RL scientific principles in doing so. Admittedly in cutscenes especially in ME2 there were things that didn't make sense - like breathing in space without a space suit, just a tiny ME field around your mouth...], the endings just went haywire. It was literally "Magic Red/Blue/Green light comes about and solves your problems". Two of them arguably made pseudo sense. Control could feasibly have been a signal that overwrote the Reaper's minds with Shepard's, but then why did it explode the Relays? Red could have been a large EMP that destroyed technology, but then why only sentient technology? Why not ships, cars, even guns? Green... Green just made no sense from any standpoint. Fusing DNA with synthetic... So... They become plain organics? They become Cyborg Organics like the Quarians? No, some magical new form of life that doesn't even make sense? Alright, I'll look past that, how the hell does it do this? A green beam of magic light. There is no feasible explanation for how it does so. It just does.
Another big pot of space magic is the Crucible itself. Its better in that we understand that it is a machine that will win us the war and do stuff, but outside of that... How does it work? NFI. It just does. Add to that that it really is just a device shoehorned in as an instant win button, and people were pissed off. They didn't want a Deus Ex Machina ending, they wanted to earn their victory. Instead, we pressed a button, picked a colour, and won. Whoopie!
Remove the crucible and add a believable solution to the Reaper problem, and a lot of people would have been happier.

The rest of the game... Where to begin. On top of being the most linear game of the series, with missions happening in a very set order... It was just poorly made. Planet scanning made its return, but in a stupid time wasting way. It wasn't there with some mechanics like it was in 2, it was there as a way of... filler? Whilst it told you exactly where to scan. Pointless. Choosable dialogue options were a rarity, when they were one of the key things that made ME unique, and one of the reasons people loved it. Space Ninjas with plot shields, need I say more? Acquiring sidequests by standing around and eavesdropping on people? Great... The journal was a mess. The story fell into that category of "Looking at it for the message it tries to send, its alright, but looking at it for entertainment? Its crap" category, with the message it tried to send being basically the opposite of what the rest of the series had been. Combat and levelling were improved, but outside of that things largely went downhill. This culminated with the ending as a breaking point for a lot of people, where their frustrations with the whole game came out against purely its ending.
Fix the rest of the game, and a lot fewer people would have cared about the ending.

There were, of course, other things people had problems with, but in general those were the major ones.


OT: The Witcher 2 ending was amazing. I also liked the Bioshock Infinite ending. Mass Effect 2's ending mission, though not the story side of the ending [And whole game], was epic. Outside of that... Its been a while since I've played a game with an ending, let alone a good one, so... Yeah...

 

[King Billi]

I actually really like the endings for all three Uncharted games. All of which pretty much just feature the various heroes getting up, dusting themselves off and disappearing into the sunset, nothing revolutionary to be sure but very suitable for the kinds of stories that preceded them. They always leave me feeling very content and cheered that the adventure had come to an end, though always with the possibility of another one just around the corner.

 

[Gatx]

I finished Spec Ops: the Line recently, that was pretty good. I got the

Spoiler

go home ending. I was pretty surprised that they would've let me shoot the rescuers but I opted to stop. I know the devs have their own "it was all a dream" interpretation, but to me it drives the theme of carrying and living with your actions more if Walker actually lives and go home.

Mass Effect 2 had a great ending as well.

Since when? I remember everyone complaining about ME2's ending as well, deservedly so as well. Sure the entire concept of the suicide mission was neat but the actual story part of ME2's ending was rubbish. I mean ultimately everything that happens over the course of ME2 was just filler and makes almost zero difference. If Bioware had eliminated the entire plot of ME2 is would have made few real differences. The collectors were just filler, their demise pointless, their plans nonsensical.

Hell the most important parts of ME2's story are as follows: Shepard blows up a galaxy, which is DLC a lot of people will never have even seen anyway, and the Illusive man gets his hands on some Reaper tech, which could just have easily have been explained with him getting similar tech from one of the other destroyed Reapers out there. Maybe he's where all of Sovereigns parts vanished to after it was destroyed? That makes sense. But otherwise ME2 was pointless. Not bad mind you, the characters and their missions were a ton of fun, but as part of an overarching story it can more or less be summed up with "The Reapers are taking forever to get here, so go fight these others dudes in the meantime.".

Hell, a good chunk of ME2's companions only make cameo in ME3 anyway so even that aspect of the game could easily have been removed without harming the overall plot.

In my mind, the one thing that would've made ME2 make sense would be if Shepard had actually died in that one moment in ME1. That way there's a much more immediate explanation for Project Lazarus than having him/her get killed in opening moments for some reason. ME2's would then have been to bring Shepard back into the series to do stuff for ME3.

 

[AidoZonkey]

Batman Arkham City had a brilliant ending because it was powerful and actually had some lasting impact.
Mass Effect 2's ending was great because again it had some lasting impact, only this time it was you who decided how it should end
The Walking Deads ending was fantastic because everything you had done up until that point comes back to haunt you in a way that was so moving and so effective that I am not afraid to admit I cried.
Portal 2's ending was again fantastic in both its execution and its lasting impact

The best endings to games are the ones that simply can't be undone and have changed the world for the better or the worse. Its the feeling of accomplishment that you have made an impact on this world that always leads to the best endings

 

[captnb2thep]

RED DEAD REDEMPTION!!!

My two favorite games of this console generation are The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption and its partially because of the GREAT ending that stuck with me long afterwards (I haven't played Bioshock Infinite yet)
In no particular order:

1. Red Dead
2. The Last of Us
3. Final Fantasy X
4. MGS 3 and 4
5. God of War 2 (got me so pumped for the next one as he's riding on Gaia with the Titans climbing up Mt. Olympus like "ZEUS, ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN!"
6. Knights of the Old Republic
7. Portal

 

[Avalanche91]

Ghost Trick has already been mentioned. Entire mystery gets wrapped up with one of the funniest plottwists I've ever seen. Worth it for that alone.

Persona 4, also already mentioned. Getting the true ending definitely made for a satisfying conclusion.

Walking Dead, to an extent. I hate cliffhanger endings, but as an ending to Lee's story it worked beautifuly.

Metal Gear Solid 4; Every loose plotthread gets resolved, the final battle looks great, and the final cutscenes take a hour and a half? Still one of the best movies I've watched.

Dragon Age Origins: A bit cliché, but it worked great. You either die or live a hero by beating the archdemon with all the forces you've gathered, get to talk to every important character to see what they plan next, leaving only the mystery of Morrigan's possible child.

 

[Black Reaper]

The Sparks Liner High ending in Fate/Stay Night
It was pure manliness in visual novel form
It was so awesome, that instead of saying "bad end" like all other non-route ends, it just said "end"
There's a track in the game's Ost called Mighty Wind, and that ending is the only part of the game where it plays, they made that track just for that ending, that's how awesome it is

The other endings were alright, i like how none of the endings is completely happy, i hate happy endings
I particularly liked the Fate route ending, and the Heavens Feel normal end, both might have made me cry, i can't remember if they did but most likely they did

I also like Saya No Uta's endings, because again, there are no happy endings

Spoiler

You never get the girl in any of the endings, in the happiest ending, you end up in a mental hospital for the rest of your life

I also like Full Metal Daemon Muramasa's endings, because again, there are no happy endings
The game's basic premise is that a guy gets a sweet mecha called Muramasa, but his mecha comes with a curse, everytime he kills someone he hates, he has to kill someone he loves, i think you know where i am going with this

Spoiler: Muramasa's endings

Ichijou end:You have to kill Ichijou, the Justice-loving heroine of this route because of Muramasa's curse, in the final battle, you die, and Ichijou's mecha dies, so Ichijou makes a contract with your mecha, and so, everytime she kills an evil man in the name of justice, she has to kill a good man in the name of justice

Kanae end:Kanae(heroine) wants to take revenge on you for killing a relative of her in an early part of the game, and you want to take revenge on her for killing your father, if i remember correctly both of you die

Chachamaru end:You basically bring about the end of the world to give Chachamaru some peace, Chachamaru was like Superman in the recent Man of Steel movie before he learned to control his powers, so you both have a few moments of peace before the world ends

Muramasa End(canon):You find your true purpose in life, killing the shit out of everything in a way that makes people see the futility of killing the shit out of everything, in other words you promote peace by killing the shit out of everything
I like how this nd is the canon one

Janen Hen(sequel) end:Once you have run out of things to kill, you try to kill yourself, but you Mecha doesn't let you
As a guy in the internet put it:"Kageaki's(the protagonist) ultimate goal towarsd all of this is to spread the way of war to create peace. But peace can't happen with him in it. He knew he would have to kill himself... He was hoping for it, to join Hikaru again, or atone for this sins. So... when he isn't able to..."

And the final ending in Nier, you partner is dying, to save her, you have to sacrifice yourself, buy you don't simply die, you have to delete all your save files to see it

As crappy as all of my summaries were, those endings are all quite good

 

[Kingjackl]

The Walking Dead games ending would be my number one. I've played it three times now and it still makes me bawl. Red Dead Redemption is up there too, as are Bioshock Infinite, Metal Gear Solid 3, 4 & Peace Walker.

Since they're the elephants in the room, I'll get it out of the way; Mass Effect 1 had a good ending. Mass Effect 2 had an ending which is shoddy in theory but executed amazingly. Mass Effect 3 was the opposite.

 

[rob_simple]

The first three that popped into my head were all awesome, in part, because of the music, namely The Darkness II, Shadows of the Damned and Illusion of Gaia.

On a sidenote, The Darkness II is one of the most under-rated games of this generation, in my opinion; I think Far Cry 3 is the only shooter that came close to mirroring the level of enjoyment I had playing it. It didn't even feel like a chore picking up the rest of the trophies to get the platinum.

 

[The Madman]

Since when?

Since I decided it. The funny thing about opinions is that everyone gets to have their own. Including you, obviously, nothing wrong with disliking it.

Fair enough, just pointing out that as I recall when ME2 came out a good chunk of the discussion was 'what a lame ending, giant robot reaper baby lol'. It was hardly the most well received ending at the time, though I guess looking back in retrospect and after having seen how ME3 ended suddenly it seems a lot brighter.

 

[A Weakgeek]

The witcher series always had suprisingly good endings despite the sequel hooks. Then again, the story at large is also one of the best (if not the best in my opinion) in videogames.

 

[Nouw]

The Walking Dead, Spec Ops: The Line and the first two Max Payne games come to mind as does Bioshock 2. Yes, Bioshock 2. Not Bioshock 1 or Infinite, Bioshock 2. All of these games left an impact on me and also importantly, provided an appropriate conclusion to the story.

 

[Amaror]

Spellforce - The Order of Dawn had a great ending.
If you don't know it and don't care if you get spoiled i will put it in a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

In the intro sequence a mage starts an ritual described in an ancient book and known as the convocation. He gets interrupted by another older mage. The ritual turns into an Armageddon, which splits the world into small islands connected by magic portals. These get made by the older mage, named Rohan.
The younger Mage, also described as the dark one, is sure the ritual wouldn't have caused the Armageddon if he would have had time to finish the ritual and that it would have given him near unlimited power.
Because of this he tries to go back in time, to stop Rohan from interrupting him.
You work with Rohan, who gets killed halfway through the game, to stop him.
Although you manage to defeat all his armies, the Dark one still manages to get into the portal and escape to the past, with the ancient book about the convocation, however because he had to hury he arrives there a couple of years to early. He uses the time to study the book and finds out that the convocation was a trap created by dark gods and meant to cause the Armageddon. He then sets out to stop his former self from completely destroying the world. Turns out he's Rohan himself.

 

[Azahul]

The Walking Dead, Spec Ops: The Line and the first two Max Payne games come to mind as does Bioshock 2. Yes, Bioshock 2. Not Bioshock 1 or Infinite, Bioshock 2. All of these games left an impact on me and also importantly, provided an appropriate conclusion to the story.

Oh, absolutely. I love Bioshock 2, and I feel it's a better game, with a better story, than the original. The ending is a large part of that. The good ending that I got the first time through has made me never, ever want to get the bad ending. Three playthroughs, and I've never killed a Little Sister. The original game, on the other hand... pfft. Saved them all, murdered them all, no real issue one way or the other.

Also agree with the OP. The Witcher 2, and the Witcher for that matter, stand as pinnacles of RPG endings. There's no attraction to having lots of choices if the ending remains the same, or if the only meaningful choice is right at the very end, or if it's a binary moral choice system. If you have something like the Deus Ex: Human Revolution ending (press one of these buttons to see which ending you want), you might as well not have any preceding choice. When it comes to binary moral choice, you may as well have the player select at the start whether they're going for the good or bad endings, and not bother with the other mechanics. But going through all the big (and some of the not so big) choices made by the player, and tailoring the ending to match each decision? Perfect.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Last of Us had an absolutely terrific ending. First time playing I was totally expecting a cheap twist to force even the thickest of gamers into an emotional reaction. Instead it actually makes the character of Joel come full circle and emplies a lot that people can interpret in many ways, whether positive or negative.

Journey had a flawlessly executed ending that's so beautifully structured, you'd be forgiven to think the whole thing is scripted. But you're actually in control throughout the entire sequence, making the experience even more dazzling.

The ending to Shadow of the Colossus was very good and very bittersweet, eventhough it was just one long cutscene. It's very open ended and leaves a fuckton to the imagination - I still haven't figured out how much of the ending is good or bad, and where it'll all go from there.

The Walking Dead would've been a very good ending if not for that unnecessary epiloge bit. Not that it ruins the main plot ending, which was beautifull, but it does devert you're attention from it a fair amount by leaving you with a strong feeling of uncertainty. Bad call, Tell Tale.

 

[Callie]

I like this question

When I first thought of this question, there was only really 1 ending which made the game for me. That was FFVIII. Being a massive FF/J-RPG fan, this is the best ending I can think of. It has the feels, romance, award winning graphical scenes, as well as not just showing how things changed, but also leaving the user in suspense and worry for that final blast of emotional bonding to the game itself.

I saw someone wrote FFX which I have to say wasn't the greatest ending in my eyes. Mainly because before the ending, you are told what will happen, and it does as it is meant to, so there is no surprise at all..

In terms of non J-RPG styled games, Max Payne came to mind before being slightly dismissed, as it wasn't so much the ending being memorable and moving as the game plot style itself being different.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Also Persona 3 because

Spoiler

The main character finally has the decency to die. >

I hated that ending, I hated the expansion for that ending, you go through the whole game only to be forced into a cutscene fight (one of the best ways to make your ending feel cheap) almost everyone forgets the game happened (for no reason) then they remember (for no reason) then fade to credits with no epilogue, the expansion is just filler that doesn't help to make the ending feel any different.

To be honest, everything about Persona 3 gets marred by the fact that your main character is an absolute prick throughout. In a game about friendship. Best.

The other characters are awesome, the overall story is pretty good, Aigis is Aigis, the romance between Junpei and Chidori was surprisingly well done and so on.

Then your main character makes a douchey remark and ruins everything as always.

Hey, if you think about it...

Spoiler

The fact that the main character dies was the thing that drove Aigis into becoming the main character in The Answer. So in a way, the fact that they even made the shitty expansion rests solely on his shoulders...

 

[SushiJaguar]

Ape Escape. Definitely. Oh and Dark Cloud/2.

 

[Zetatrain]

And me2 ending was a cliffhanger, which is never good. The only Mass Effect game with a good ending is me1.

How is the ME2 ending a cliffhanger? By the end of ME2 the games main plot (defeating the collectors) is completed. While we do get a glimpse of the impending reaper invasion that is an overarching plot so of course it wasn't going to get resolved by the end of ME2.

Even if you must consider ME2's ending a cliffhanger then ME1's ending would also be a cliffhanger, to a lesser degree, by the same logic. By the end of ME1 the main villain is defeated but the threat of even more Reapers looms over the horizon and Shepard leaves saying that he intends to be ready for them.

Also, if the endings for ME1 and ME2 are to be considered cliffhangers then the ending for Witcher 2 should also be considered a cliffhanger. The game's own story arc is completed but is also part of a much bigger story and it sets the stage for the next entry.