You can also win battles through having a laugh with opponents or cheering them on.
For me:
Pyre
Tacoma
Obra Dinn (there are some survivors)
Subnautica
The combined story of Morrowind, Clockwork City and Summerset ended pretty happily
Reigns. The actual ending
Yoku's Island Express has a happy ending, the day is saved by the power of pinball, the God is alive and everyone is happy. I wouldn't say its an adult game, but its one with a happy ending.
I'm guessing Valkyria Chronicles 4 has a happy ending, I need to finish it first.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider I'm guessing will have a bitter sweet ending. I need to finish this game too, it is taking a while.
RDR2 will have a sad ending, its that sort of game.
Ni no Kuni 2, the world is saved and peace reigns forever. The President goes back to his own world with the same idea of bringing world peace.
de Blob, colour is restored to the world, bad guy defeated, party time.
Four Survivors living in exile in Morocco due to legal issues
out of Sixty to be a happy ending. The Titanic and Hindenburg had a better ratio of survivors. Hell, the Obra Dinn might be one the most tragic, unlucky voyages ever, fiction or not.
Honestly, I'm still curious how the Investigator convinced the Insurance Agency of the incredible events that befell the ship. I would think someone would be skeptical of such amazing claims with the proof of "Well, I saw it with my magical pocket watch, even the bodies no longer on the ship".
Well, I'm currently going through Subnautica. So now I know it has a happy ending and the answer to the thread question is "Subnautica, yesterday morning?" I understand the point about many games these days having a downer ending. But Dante Hicks had it right, "all Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets." A good "downer ending" or a bittersweet victory can be just as good or better than "everyone lived happily ever after." Its like, what was the justification for the downer endings to Far Cry 5? I'd posit the decision the player makes to go wholesale murder on a bunch of American citizens your character should be serving and protecting. I'm in the camp that says the murders were more fun, made it a fun video game... but that the player easily deserves whichever ending they got.
Its like, what was the justification for the downer endings to Far Cry 5? I'd posit the decision the player makes to go wholesale murder on a bunch of American citizens your character should be serving and protecting. I'm in the camp that says the murders were more fun, made it a fun video game... but that the player easily deserves whichever ending they got.
Far Cry 5 seems to have a general sense of "Fuck you" no matter what options you picked. Far Cry 3 had a downer ending and a less downer, though somewhat incomplete ending, but at least the downer ending in Far Cry 3 made some sort of sense in context, whereas it could be viewed as the culmination of Jason's descent into madness like Vaas and Citra before him and the only question is does he give into the temptation to free himself of everything he once cared about. And sure, it ends poorly for him, but anyone could have seen where this was going.
Far Cry 5 is has a choice between "Finish the Job, Nukes go off and Fuck you" and "Walk away, leave the final step undone and fuck you regardless" and niether one feels particularly satisfying. The Rookie in Far Cry 5 isn't destroyed by his/her flaws or giving into temptation, but rather the deus ex machina of the writers just wanted you to suffer and lose no matter what you did.
Technically not the only possible ending (it has two other endings, but they end the game way too prematurely), the last one I remember is Persona 5.
Johnny Novgorod said:
Because recently it feels like every game either has a depressing ending where you die or nothing you do matters or there's an ambiguous question mark and at best ends on an angry or bittersweet "the fight goes on/the real enemy is yet ahead" note.
If you reduce the sample to games with only one ending, OF COURSE it's going to feel like that! At least add the ones where the happy ending is the intended/canon ending...
I guess it would have to be A Hat In Time, though games with only a no-cliffhanger happy ending is really narrowing down the field. The saddest part is the adventure being over.
Because recently it feels like every game either has a depressing ending where you die or nothing you do matters or there's an ambiguous question mark and at best ends on an angry or bittersweet "the fight goes on/the real enemy is yet ahead" note.
If you reduce the sample to games with only one ending, OF COURSE it's going to feel like that! At least add the ones where the happy ending is the intended/canon ending...
Last happy ending I saw was just last weekend, actually!
The Messenger
The world is saved, all time periods are saved, yay!
Now, granted, the post-credits scene goes all meta and hints that the entire game was yet another one of the shopkeeper's hilarious stories, but that's just the game's usual sense of humor kicking in.
Ending is a happy one as far as I'm concerned.
Aside from that...It's been a while. Mostly because I haven't finished a game in a while.
I think the previous game I finished was Breath of The Wild and that was last spring. Also, incidentally, a happy ending.
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Speaking as a writer, who has also put out several RPGs as a hobby, I understand why a lot of stories avoid total happy endings these days.
It can often feel cheap. Like, to quote Sam "Sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy after so much bad had happened?". As the real world becomes more pessimistic and cynical, that gets reflected in our fiction as well.
Also, personally, since I tend to write more serious or dramatic or dark stories, I tend to aim for more bittersweet endings, where the characters accomplish their goal and grow as people, but sacrifice something important along the way. Unless the tone of the story is optimistic, or I REALLY make the characters WORK for their happy ending so that it feels earned.
Like, two of my hobby RPGs have bittersweet endings that lean hard on the bitter (It's dark fantasy, so that's natural), one is a total downer (it goes into uncomfortable Meta territory), one is an unambiguous happy ending (despite the gloomy setting, it's fairly optimistic in tone), and the big one I have in progress is going to also have an unambiguous happy ending (It's an optimistic and humorous story).
And I can't legally talk about the "real" game I wrote for yet, because it's not out yet. XD
Because recently it feels like every game either has a depressing ending where you die or nothing you do matters or there's an ambiguous question mark and at best ends on an angry or bittersweet "the fight goes on/the real enemy is yet ahead" note.
If you reduce the sample to games with only one ending, OF COURSE it's going to feel like that! At least add the ones where the happy ending is the intended/canon ending...
Because adult story-driven games try to be thoughtful/insightful, and giving an ambiguous/depressing ending is an easy way to appear it is so (having multiple endings is another easy way).
Four Survivors living in exile in Morocco due to legal issues
out of Sixty to be a happy ending. The Titanic and Hindenburg had a better ratio of survivors. Hell, the Obra Dinn might be one the most tragic, unlucky voyages ever, fiction or not.
Honestly, I'm still curious how the Investigator convinced the Insurance Agency of the incredible events that befell the ship. I would think someone would be skeptical of such amazing claims with the proof of "Well, I saw it with my magical pocket watch, even the bodies no longer on the ship".
If people were putting Subnautica on here, where you end up with billions in debt just becuase you survived, I thought Obra Dinn would fall in similar lines.
There is proof in the lazerette about what happened, and in the hold in the bow. Still, it would be hard to believe. Also, why is an insurance broker the first investigator? Why aren't the corpses removed for a proper burial?
Also, a monkey and cow's corpse was used. How does that work? If I squish a bee, can the watch use that? Do I get human vision or bug?
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