Poll: Games with multiple endings...

[Johnny Novgorod]

The subject has been on fire ever since Mass Effect 3 and you know what. What we have here is nothing new, though. Nintendo's Metroid, released in 1986, was the first (or one the first, at any rate) to feature multiple endings. These endings were determined by the amount of time the player took to beat the game, and boiled down to whether Samus's true identity was revealed, and how much the character stripped for you. Really more of a bonus, an incentive for replay value.

In time, though, multiple endings diversified and so did the means to achieve them. Anything and everything can add up to one of many multiple endings - the survival of an NPC, a moral choice, your performance during That One Mission, how much of that 100% you go for. Sometimes these odds are calculated invisibly, so there's no knowing nor keeping track of which ending you'll get. Nowadays it's pretty common to have either a "good" ending or a "bad" ending (and all shades in between). Star Ocean: The Second Story (1999) has as many as 86 possible endings. Go tackle that one, completionists.

Which ending do you go for? Do you want the canonical ending (based on Word of God or the sequel?), and if the canon ending isn't the same as the "best" ending, which one do you choose? Do you load an old save if you don't get the ending you want the first time? Do you replay the whole thing until you get That One Ending? Is the experience ruined if you don't get it the first time (or ever)? Or do you just not care?

 

[TehCookie]

I get whatever ending I get, I don't aim for an ending I like to see how my choices affect it. I will replay it to get the canon ending, but other than that I don't bother unless I love the game and want to see more.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I usually just take the ending that I've been given. But if there is a reward for getting a certain ending, like Silent Hill 2, then I'll go for it after the first playthrough.

I usually get very close to the golden ending on my own, though. Like, the only thing that went wrong on the Suicide Mission was that Tali got shot in the head, and I shot Menendez when you weren't supposed to in BO2.

 

[Snatcher]

I always go for the ending I deserve, not the one I need.

 

[scorptatious]

I guess that kinda depends.

With Katawa Shoujo, I always aim to get the best possible ending in each of the girl's arcs. I got the neutral ending for Hanako and ended up loading a previous save to pick a different option. Didn't regret it.

With Fallout: New Vegas, there are various amounts of endings, and I tend to experiment and do different things in each playthrough to see what happens to a particular group. I could either kill most of the Great Khans, forcing them to retreat from the Mojave and rebuild themselves again like they did in Fallout 1 and 2, I could convince them to leave peacefully and tell them they have potential to be great, so they end up becoming an empire, or I could tell Papa Khan that his tribe is worthless and end up destroying the Khans from the inside, causing them to disband and lose any trace of their history.

 

[hazabaza1]

I just do stuff and then the credits roll.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

I always go for the ending I deserve, not the one I need.

That's deep.

OT: I tend to stick to my gut when it comes to games with multiple endings. I make choices as if I myself were actually making these choices in real life. I find it makes a rather more hearty gaming experience.

Then, I live with my choices. If I want to see another outcome, tough shit.

 

[Snatcher]

I always go for the ending I deserve, not the one I need.

That's deep.

Then, I live with my choices. If I want to see another outcome, tough shit.

You can't go wrong with quoting/copying Batman!
I may not want an the Evil ending, but I do deserve it if I play like an Evil bastard.

Also, not washing your hands will directly give you the Evil ending!

 

[BoredAussieGamer]

"Could care less"?!?

http://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw

But back to the OT, I go for the best one. Especially in some of the darker games, where a bit of levity would be appreciated.

(Ok I'll be honest, I haven't a clue how to embed YouTube videos)

 

[KINGBeerZ]

I often play a game through several times if i really like it, often the first I just make whatever decisions that I would make in reality and see what ending I get, and the second I try to create a character and achieve the ending which would suit that character.

 

[00slash00]

if its one of those "save everyone and find all the secrets to get the best ending" thing, then i go for that, assuming i can do it all in a single playthrough. if the game has a morality system, i will go for whatever choice i would make if i were in that situation. in any case, i play a game once and then i look up the other endings on youtube. nier is the exception. i played that 4 times to see all the endings. nier was fantastic

 

[Fractral]

I normally just play through, take the ending I get and move on. Like with Cave Story, I got the bad ending. I know that you can go on to get the good ending from there, but there was this retarded platforming sequence where you lose all of your weapons and I really couldn't be bothered to finish it after that, so I took that ending and played a different game.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

It really depends on the game. When there's a multitude of endings based on choices, actions and gameplay then I usually just play and have the ending I get. However when there are only say two or three set endings based on alignment, I'll do a playthrough for each.

 

[veloper]

I play to win.
So the best ending probably. That should offer the biggest challenge usually.

 

[Innegativeion]

I'll shoot for the ending I feel the characters deserve. If the game has done a good job of making me identify with the protagonist, that usually means overcoming the odds to get the best ending possible, screwing destiny, defeating the big bad, and all that.

 

[Guffe]

I really couldn't care less....
Last game I played with multiple endings was Pandoras Tower... and I didn't know there were multiple endings until I had finished the game. So I just looked the others up on youtube. First reason was that I really didn't like the game itself but I also am very, very bad at replaying games so to play a game 4 more times?
Yeah, no thanks...
Mind me, there are games I've replayed but most are old ones, that I barely remember from my childhood like some Mario and Zelda games, why replay a game when I know what's happening? Same with movies and books for me, have to be very special to have me rewatch/reread more than 1 time.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Depends, if the game is fun to play as a total bastard in then I wil probably go for the bastard ending. If I genuinely like the characters in it I would go for the good ending. Sadly I can only name two games that had more then one character I cared about.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I like to get as many endings as I'm able to unless I'm just completely against the ending. When it comes to ME3, I will only ever take the red ending since that's the only one that settles the entire point of the trilogy (ie: kill all Reapers). For the sake of 100% completion I may go for all endings too but this doesn't always happen with me.

There are some endings that I just can't ignore for how horrible they are. The fact that Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 exists as it is at all feels like a slap in the face to people who liked the canon ending of FU1.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I usually go for the ending that is best suited for my character.Since in all of the RPG's I play I tend to be a goodie to shoes although bit rebellious when it comes to the rules (chaotic good and all that).

I tend to do whatever is neccessary to get the best possible good/happy endings in my games.

 

[Strelok]

Depends on if the game is interesting, Like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I went through all 7 of them, and not an easy task, just making sure you are not over the required money for one of the bad endings was hard enough. Others like Metro 2033 I really wanted to see the enlightened ending. Really it is just a matter of whether the game is interesting enough to play again.