Games you can't win (Spoilers within)

[Ryallen]

Most RPG Maker Horror games end up with the protagonist worse off than when they started the journey. One that particularly rustled my jimmies is Mad Father.

Spoiler: Mad Father

Basically, the little girl finds out that she was an experiment to create the perfect daughter and turn her into a doll and is about to be killed by her insane father with a chainsaw only to be saved by the ghost of her mother, who attempted to save her from her fate. When this happens, the young boy that you meet in the game, one of the father's victims, turns out to be dead and stays in the now burning mansion to destroy all of his research on this art. The young girl escapes with her father's assistant and mistress and they run away to try to live in peace. Several years later, the young girl has grown up and become a doctor known for treating people with no money and she starts to treat a young woman who came to her for help, only for the game to reveal that she found the book on doll making that her father wrote and has continued his work. The entire game was trying to keep her alive, and in the end, she was better off dead. What an ending, huh?

I really didn't like the ending of this game, as it's almost worse than an ending where everyone dies.

 

[Evonisia]

Silent Hill: Downpour doesn't really have an ending where you "win".

Spoiler

Either Murphy is:
Executed.
Ends up on the run all over again with no means of help.
Ends up on the run but causes Anne to murder that bastard Sewell
Begins the cycle again and is trapped in Silent Hill forever.

Basically, the best situation is slightly less crap than the other options. I suppose Shattered Memories is like this as well, except much more punishing to the feels.

For the record, I don't care what the game says. The best ending is the third one I mentioned in the spoiler. It's basically the same as the "best" ending except we get an ending to Anne's story.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

You could argue Mass Effect 3- if you by in to that whole "Ending is a dream sequence" part. None of the endings are particularly happy, even if you buy in to the endings are real cannon. You've averted a mass genocide (Or potentially caused one or two based on your actions) but have proceeded to fracture the entire galaxy in the process. I don't see that much sunshine and that many daisies ahead for the Milky Way.

Papers Please?

Don't think I've ever gotten an ending that I would consider as a "win".

There are one or two alright ones in Papers Please, I've also found the ones where they execute you but the rebels rescue your family to fall under the definition of acceptable.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

"Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm". As far as I'm concerned, you lose at the end because...

Spoiler

Sarah Kerrigan is still alive and in charge of the swarm, and Abathur isn't. I chalk that up as a giant loss.

Wait, what?

Spoiler

Seriously, when did that happen? I certainly can't remember this happening. And I first played through the SC2 campaign last week.

Are you sure you're thinking of "Heart of the Swarm" and not "Wings of Liberty" (ie. the Terran campaign)?

Here's the ending for "Heart of the Swarm", seems pretty clear cut to me:

 

[DoPo]

"Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm". As far as I'm concerned, you lose at the end because...

Spoiler

Sarah Kerrigan is still alive and in charge of the swarm, and Abathur isn't. I chalk that up as a giant loss.

Wait, what?

Spoiler

Seriously, when did that happen? I certainly can't remember this happening. And I first played through the SC2 campaign last week.

Are you sure you're thinking of "Heart of the Swarm" and not "Wings of Liberty" (ie. the Terran campaign)?

Here's the ending for "Heart of the Swarm", seems pretty clear cut to me:

Yeah, Abathur doesn't even show up there. And he definitely want even in Wings of Liberty. I'm confused.

 

[darkcalling]

I have never played it but I think some of the Drakengard games have just you lose endings but in different ways. One I really liked was Shadow Hearts 2

Spoiler: very brief summary of story

You are hit with a weapon at the start that is slowly killing you and you are told there is no way to stop it but you go on a quest to find a way. In the end you find that your death is inevitable just like you were told and die

Love that game.

Shadow Hearts is actually my favorite RPG series of all time.

However there are actually two endings. The one you're describing is the "bad" ending.

Spoiler: discussion of good ending

I forget some of the details such as how you actually get the good ending, since it's been a long time since I was able to play the game but the gist of it is that in the good ending everyone gets a final wish after defeating the final boss. We only get to see the results of two though. Karin winds up in a small town somewhere, Russia or Japan I think, and sees a man who looks suspiciously like Yuri's father, seen in the first game and i believe a flashback in number 2, cementing that she WAS falling for Yuri and implying to many that she may actually be his Mother.

Yuri meanwhile winds up on a train platform about to board the train where the first game began. Giving him another chance to save Alice. That Makes it maybe the biggest victory in a game I've ever seen.

Though to be fair the game kind of leaves things up to the player to interpret so none of this might be canon or all of it might be.

Shadowhearts 3, being as detached from the first two as it was narratively didn't ever provide concrete answers.

With all these remakes and sequels lately I'd preorder immediately if this series came back in some form.

 

[Autumnflame]

I'm going to be that guy again and say Mass Effect 3.

Unless you mod it, of course. Which you should.

Dem feel are still so strong after all this time.

Half Life 3.

 

[The White Hunter]

In Wolfenstein New Order BJ goes down with the death island at the end. Sort of. Cliffhanger.

I should play Old Blood...

 

[Kyrian007]

Once upon a time that was the default "mode" of video games. You could never "win." Pitfall springs to mind. Galaga, Space Invaders, Pac-Man... they never ended. So that really doesn't count. The one from that era that does is the one where never being able to win, was the point. Where the point of the game is that the only way to win is not to play. Missile Command.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I have never played it but I think some of the Drakengard games have just you lose endings but in different ways.

I've only played the first. I'm told 3 actually has one good ending.

The first sort of depends on perspective. There are actually a couple where arguably you win. Ending A is the best (interesting that, with the possible exception of E, they all get progressively "worse"), while ending C gives Caim something he wanted to begin with. It's a "lose" state for the world and for the player, but arguably a win for Caim, who actually has a smile on his face....

I mostly commented on this because it was sort of my first thought when I saw the thread. Wasn't sure what "can't win" entailed at that point, though.

Tangentially related is Ending D in Nier (as far as I know one of the endings in one of the Drakengard games leads into Nier's story).

Spoiler

Your character is completely erased from existence, and to drive the point home the game deletes all of your save files.

 

[Halla Burrica]

The Walking Dead series by Telltale fit that description very well, it's not even about "winning" but surviving. You're not some legendary hero, you're just a guy trapped in a situation with tons of shit that you have no control over happening, so you just have to try and make the best of a very bad situaton. Spoilers: It ain't easy.

 

[Chessrook44]

I just wanna comment that the few who suggested X-Com, based on X-Com 2, doesn't count. Yes, the Canon ending is that Humanity lost, however there is still a non-canon ending in that case where you WIN. Winning is still possible.

 

[Silver Patriot]

Halo: Reach

Spoiler

Despite your teams best efforts, Reach falls. You stay behind to secure an exit for the Pillar of Autumn. Then you die taking as many enemies with you as possible.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

2. Dark Souls. You either create the world devoid of fire and warmth, or you simply delay the inevitable.

Could also say that this is a recurring theme in every one of From's Souls-style games as well. Nothing ever ends on a decidedly happy or optimistic note, except for arguably Demon's Souls. Maybe. The best you get otherwise is a feeling of "maybe this could POSSIBLY mean that something good will happen very far down the road." But it probably doesn't make up for all the fucked up shit you had to experience to get to that point.

The Corpse Party series also seems pretty appropriate since even the 'good' or 'best' endings in those games leave whoever survived likely scarred permanently from the experience. And the source of the series' conflict isn't solved either. Every character that dies (and many can and do) suffers eternally.

 

[Vedrenne]

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Spoiler

{Zach+Cloud get kidnapped by the guys they were working for, experimented on. They manage to escape, but Shinra soldiers catch up and Zach gets into an unwinnable fight, dying to save Cloud.You go through all the heartache with Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth. You level Zach up, get him all the materia, all the summons and all the friend roulette things. But, in the back of your mind, you know it is ultimately futile, because we know Zach dies at the end. It makes it all the more poignant when the moment comes.}

 

[Something Amyss]

Tangentially related is Ending D in Nier (as far as I know one of the endings in one of the Drakengard games leads into Nier's story).

Ending "E" led to it, which was kind of funny but irritating after getting all those weapons. Since I never played Nier, I only know this through reference, but....

Spoiler

Your character is completely erased from existence, and to drive the point home the game deletes all of your save files.

I can't decide if this is awesome, terrible, or both.

Is this the final ending, or does it screw you over in the process?

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Tangentially related is Ending D in Nier (as far as I know one of the endings in one of the Drakengard games leads into Nier's story).

Ending "E" led to it, which was kind of funny but irritating after getting all those weapons. Since I never played Nier, I only know this through reference, but....

Spoiler

Your character is completely erased from existence, and to drive the point home the game deletes all of your save files.

I can't decide if this is awesome, terrible, or both.

Is this the final ending, or does it screw you over in the process?

It's been a while since I played it but as I recall you get ending A then B then have the choice of C or D (C and D are both proper final endings whereas A and B are just the bits leading up to them) so it's possible to choose D without seeing C.

However

Spoiler

The game does warn you before it deletes your files, giving you a chance to back out. I actually think thematically it would've been awesome if the game just did it without warning. But of course that would most likely have resulted in a lot of enraged players.

 

[Schadrach]

Sorta-kinda 'Planescape: Torment":

Spoiler

No matter what you do, your character is still dead at the end. Except that dying is the point of the game, because your character is immortal, so that's good, because now you're re-united with Deionarra...unless you now love Annah, in which case it's bad. You also go to hell, which is good because your character must pay for his many sins, but bad because, well, you're in hell. Whatever, go play "Planescape Torment".

Heh, I'd argue the other ending was the better one. The one where that doesn't happen because you simply cease to exist by force of will. Fuck the blood war, I'll take sweet, silent oblivion. Wis > 24 required.

 

[Dalisclock]

In Wolfenstein New Order BJ goes down with the death island at the end. Sort of. Cliffhanger.

I should play Old Blood...

Well, it was sort of happy because he got Deathshead and managed to rescue the resistance. It just required

Spoiler

BJ to sacrifice himself