Skyrims ending vs ME3 ending.

[Chairman Miaow]

Skyrim's ending was worse, but it wasn't expected to be exactly 'epic' in the first place.

ME3 should be the ending worthy of a trilogy of beloved games, but instead it's just garbage.

I find it difficult to fathom, that mediocrity can be acceptable if its expected. (Not directed at anyone).
How is a game like Skyrim praised as it is, when a game like ME3 is crucified?
I mean, I don't think ME2 was all that flash. Which is why I haven't bought ME3. I did love ME1 how ever.

So for me, Mass Effect and TES are on a level playing field. I knew Skyrim was going to be iffy, but JESUS it was aweful.
I seen where Mass Effect was going at the end of ME2, so the controversy wasn't a surprise.

Skyrim's main quest ending was great. The build up the final showdown, fantastic. Why is it that you people expect its ending to give a sword/staff that instakilled that alduin had as a reward? It's all quite silly. You did your duty as the dragonborn and so that's it.

Do you expect every a-hole commoner to know that? A bit much right?

Mass effect ended by not even letting me know what I did after all my hard work.

Because Alduin could have been killed by anyone. The whole thing behind the dragon born is that he can absorb the souls of Dragons, thus destroying them completely. You don't absorb Alduin so what was the point?
You don't have to fight Alduin the NPC's are invincible and will kill him eventually.
You get nothing for killing him other then a pat on the back by the NPC's involved at that's it.
Then you get to run around the game LOOKING for closure and you get sent on a quest my one of the parties who supposedly helped you through the MQ to go and kill a character who IMO was the ONLY character to actually be usefull...

The whole thing is daft!

Dragonrend. I'm just saying...

OT: Mass Effect 3 ending sucked more. Skyrim was pretty badly executed, but the plot was perfectly fine, and it made sense, and kept its narrative in order.

ME3 failed on every front it is possible to fail on. No, wait, it had pretty colours.

 

[Hattingston]

Skyrim doesn't have an ending main quest ending =!= game ending, the game continues until you tire of it. Mass Effect 3 teleported you back in time to do additional stuff, meaning there was a definitive point where it was all over. Skyrim is one continuous never-ending timeline, there is not a definitive ending point. The closest you could argue is that Skyrim ends at some point prior to the next game beginning. Which doesn't mean much, since that's several hundred years (if previous games are any indication as to spacing) and still doesn't leave a definitive ending event.

 

[the_green_dragon]

The ending on ME3 was just trash. I went into it thinking "Ok, lets be reasonable and rational, I don't expect a 'happy' ending, I mean, come on reapers are OP, everyone is fucked"
The ending I got was.... cheap, like i found out my disc was faultly and the final cutscence had been erased or something.

Skyrim on the other hand was fucken awesome. Riding a dragon into the afterlife, entering the hall of viking and then defeating (albeit very easily) the soul eating dragon.

That was awesome. Sure, no-one knows about it but it fits in with the lead up and the story.


I hate ME3 so much......the ending was not consistant with the rest of the game, that is all.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Hey guys,

To start with, I've not played ME3 yet. I have played through Skyrim though and personally felt that the ending to the main quest was 100% utter shit.

So I'm just wondering, in the opinion of Escapist fans. Which ending was actually worse and why?

I felt that Skyrim's ending, wasn't an ending. The game just sort of stops and no one speaks of it again. There is no reward for it, there is no closure and the physical "boss" fight is almost mind blowingly bad.

What do you think?

It doesn't help that the two games you chose are completely different beasts.

Skyrim was all about spectacle, epic vistas, exploration and dungeon delving. You could do what you want, climb mountains, hunt, explore or go on a rampage in town. It also was a game where you could replace most of the NPC's with cardboard cutouts and not notice much.

Mass Effect 3 was all about a hero fighting tremendous odds with a chosen group of close allies, where the world is a mere backdrop against which you fight alongside friends which you have struggled together for 2 if not 3 games. It was a game who's major selling point was the people you meet and the story you wove.

Mass Effects ending got so many riled up because they bought the game for the story and it's ending. Skyrim avoided that due to

1: Having a somewhat plausible ending. (ie no Starchild systematically ass raping canon and the whole story itself with a big rusty pipe made of plot-holes)
2: Having a massive world in which to mess around in after killing the Big Bad Guy.
3: Not being sold as a ending to a widely acclaimed series and being promised to have a unique ending for each play-through.
4: Having its main selling point being a world where you can do what you want (within limitations ie no killing kids, unless you download a mod.)

 

[Maxtro]

ME 3 ending was much worse. Absolutely no closure at all.

With Skyrim, the only question left is if Alduin is truly dead and that's talked about in a conversation with he Greybeards.

anc[is]Skyrim's ending does not involve a talking sweetroll rolling up to you in Valhalla saying that dragons exist because at some point a horker will kill a human, and the only way to stop that is to destroy the world; so to stop this you can either turn every living thing into a half horker abomination, or kill all the dragons but in the process destroy all magic because of reasons. That is why it is better.

Ah, so you found the secret Sheogorath ending.

 

[Dandark]

Skyrim's ending was alright, wasn't anything that great but then I wasn't expecting it to be a incredible ending to a story based trilogy of games. You know like I was expecting mass effect 3 to be. Yeah ME3 kinda sucked so i'd say Skyrim wins easy.

 

[Apollo45]

Honestly, Skyrim's was a better ending. The entirety of the rest of the main quest was worse, but the ending itself was better. It kept with the themes of the story, it solved the major problem, that quest line built up until that point and then finished off with - for that game - a big fight against the main enemy, climaxing with you killing it and that questline being completed. It felt like you actually did something. It wasn't excellent by any means, but it was consistent and kept with the flow of the quest line and the game itself.

Mass Effect 3 did almost none of that successfully. The game built up to what we all expected to be this massive, epic ending, and then right as the climax of the story hits it descended into twenty minutes to a half an hour of limping along corridors and listening to dialogue. During that it tossed aside many of the themes that were central to the series and pulled a Deus Ex Machina out of its ass to wrap the whole thing up for you, but really didn't even bother to wrap anything up. Then there was (another) set of cutscenes with different colors depending on what you picked and a message telling you to buy DLC at the end. It's not just that there wasn't any closure to it, it' that there was almost no gameplay at all. It was like getting on a roller coaster, riding up to the top of the first hill, then when you're about to be dropped the train stops and you have to get off. There wasn't a drop, and there wasn't any sort of true climax or falling action, just a contrived ending to an otherwise good game.

Overall Skyrim's story is much worse, but ME3's ending manages to take the cake here, partially because it was such a letdown and partially because it really was that bad.

 

[Rawne1980]

I find it difficult to fathom, that mediocrity can be acceptable if its expected. (Not directed at anyone).
How is a game like Skyrim praised as it is, when a game like ME3 is crucified?

Because Skyrim wasn't ever going to be a story based game. ME is all about the story.

With Skyrim we all knew what we were getting because all TES games have been the same. It's about the exploration and the fun little side quests not the main story.

Mass Effect is a story based game and we expected a good ending to a trilogy.

 

[thahat]

Skyrim's ending was worse, but it wasn't expected to be exactly 'epic' in the first place.

ME3 should be the ending worthy of a trilogy of beloved games, but instead it's just garbage.

I find it difficult to fathom, that mediocrity can be acceptable if its expected. (Not directed at anyone).
How is a game like Skyrim praised as it is, when a game like ME3 is crucified?
I mean, I don't think ME2 was all that flash. Which is why I haven't bought ME3. I did love ME1 how ever.

So for me, Mass Effect and TES are on a level playing field. I knew Skyrim was going to be iffy, but JESUS it was aweful.
I seen where Mass Effect was going at the end of ME2, so the controversy wasn't a surprise.

Skyrim's main quest ending was great. The build up the final showdown, fantastic. Why is it that you people expect its ending to give a sword/staff that instakilled that alduin had as a reward? It's all quite silly. You did your duty as the dragonborn and so that's it.

Do you expect every a-hole commoner to know that? A bit much right?

Mass effect ended by not even letting me know what I did after all my hard work.

Because Alduin could have been killed by anyone. The whole thing behind the dragon born is that he can absorb the souls of Dragons, thus destroying them completely. You don't absorb Alduin so what was the point?
You don't have to fight Alduin the NPC's are invincible and will kill him eventually.
You get nothing for killing him other then a pat on the back by the NPC's involved at that's it.
Then you get to run around the game LOOKING for closure and you get sent on a quest my one of the parties who supposedly helped you through the MQ to go and kill a character who IMO was the ONLY character to actually be usefull...

The whole thing is daft!

aye. it is. and then you find out there is this wonderfull thing called mods that make you NOT kill your friendly neighbourhood dragon friend and change it to be a better ending.
( or, for shits and giggles, add the space sphere from portal to the game shouting SPAAAAAACe as it crashes down )
skyrim is moddable. ME is not. Me3 has all the reasons to be worse than skyrim because of what all the other have already said. i say, modding fixes a lot of this. but Me3 wont let you mod. so one more minus @ Me3's tab.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

TES is not so much about the story as much as it's about the world, freedom and being your own character. Mass Effect is all about the story. At least fans thought so. Apparently it's about multiplayer now. But yeah, because Mass Effect was supposed to be about the story, the ending is infinitely worse.

 

[Soopy]

Honestly, Skyrim's was a better ending. The entirety of the rest of the main quest was worse, but the ending itself was better. It kept with the themes of the story, it solved the major problem, that quest line built up until that point and then finished off with - for that game - a big fight against the main enemy, climaxing with you killing it and that questline being completed. It felt like you actually did something. It wasn't excellent by any means, but it was consistent and kept with the flow of the quest line and the game itself.

Mass Effect 3 did almost none of that successfully. The game built up to what we all expected to be this massive, epic ending, and then right as the climax of the story hits it descended into twenty minutes to a half an hour of limping along corridors and listening to dialogue. During that it tossed aside many of the themes that were central to the series and pulled a Deus Ex Machina out of its ass to wrap the whole thing up for you, but really didn't even bother to wrap anything up. Then there was (another) set of cutscenes with different colors depending on what you picked and a message telling you to buy DLC at the end. It's not just that there wasn't any closure to it, it' that there was almost no gameplay at all. It was like getting on a roller coaster, riding up to the top of the first hill, then when you're about to be dropped the train stops and you have to get off. There wasn't a drop, and there wasn't any sort of true climax or falling action, just a contrived ending to an otherwise good game.

Overall Skyrim's story is much worse, but ME3's ending manages to take the cake here, partially because it was such a letdown and partially because it really was that bad.

Good post.

I do genuinely have a better understanding of the reasoning behind the disgust with ME3 now.

 

[Soopy]

Skyrim's ending was worse, but it wasn't expected to be exactly 'epic' in the first place.

ME3 should be the ending worthy of a trilogy of beloved games, but instead it's just garbage.

I find it difficult to fathom, that mediocrity can be acceptable if its expected. (Not directed at anyone).
How is a game like Skyrim praised as it is, when a game like ME3 is crucified?
I mean, I don't think ME2 was all that flash. Which is why I haven't bought ME3. I did love ME1 how ever.

So for me, Mass Effect and TES are on a level playing field. I knew Skyrim was going to be iffy, but JESUS it was aweful.
I seen where Mass Effect was going at the end of ME2, so the controversy wasn't a surprise.

Skyrim's main quest ending was great. The build up the final showdown, fantastic. Why is it that you people expect its ending to give a sword/staff that instakilled that alduin had as a reward? It's all quite silly. You did your duty as the dragonborn and so that's it.

Do you expect every a-hole commoner to know that? A bit much right?

Mass effect ended by not even letting me know what I did after all my hard work.

Because Alduin could have been killed by anyone. The whole thing behind the dragon born is that he can absorb the souls of Dragons, thus destroying them completely. You don't absorb Alduin so what was the point?
You don't have to fight Alduin the NPC's are invincible and will kill him eventually.
You get nothing for killing him other then a pat on the back by the NPC's involved at that's it.
Then you get to run around the game LOOKING for closure and you get sent on a quest my one of the parties who supposedly helped you through the MQ to go and kill a character who IMO was the ONLY character to actually be usefull...

The whole thing is daft!

aye. it is. and then you find out there is this wonderfull thing called mods that make you NOT kill your friendly neighbourhood dragon friend and change it to be a better ending.
( or, for shits and giggles, add the space sphere from portal to the game shouting SPAAAAAACe as it crashes down )
skyrim is moddable. ME is not. Me3 has all the reasons to be worse than skyrim because of what all the other have already said. i say, modding fixes a lot of this. but Me3 wont let you mod. so one more minus @ Me3's tab.

Mods aren't a legitimate answer to this though. Mods are user created and not cannon. The same would be said if it were possible to mod Mass Effect too. Just because someone somewhere made something that changed the end of the game, wouldn't make it the actual ending.

IMO, a game is what the Developers release. If that game is poor, no amount of mods can make it good. Especially if we're talking about purchasing full price AAA games brand new.

 

[thahat]

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Mods aren't a legitimate answer to this though. Mods are user created and not cannon. The same would be said if it were possible to mod Mass Effect too. Just because someone somewhere made something that changed the end of the game, wouldn't make it the actual ending.

IMO, a game is what the Developers release. If that game is poor, no amount of mods can make it good. Especially if we're talking about purchasing full price AAA games brand new.

kinda have to disagree with you there, mods can DEFINITLY save a game. Sins of a solar empire for instance is a good example. with a great concept and gameplay...exept it keeps exploding after a certain time because the creators never optimised it. then there was the TSOP ( the sins optimisation project ) by modders cutting the games heavy footprint down so much you could play it on a calculator. these kinds of mods can be saving graces to otherwise good games ruined by one big thing. in the case of Me3 or skyrim, some story parts. the only difference between Me3 and skyrim is that Me3 cracks down on modders and bans then ( srsly, WHAT? ) and skyrim/bethesda embraces them like a friend and gives people the tools to make their game BETTER/longer lasting. hell have you seen some of the mods? some of em make an already prety game even pretier, or add hours of extra content to the gameplay.

all in all. mods CAN make a shit game good, and a good game great.

 

[Soopy]

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Mods aren't a legitimate answer to this though. Mods are user created and not cannon. The same would be said if it were possible to mod Mass Effect too. Just because someone somewhere made something that changed the end of the game, wouldn't make it the actual ending.

IMO, a game is what the Developers release. If that game is poor, no amount of mods can make it good. Especially if we're talking about purchasing full price AAA games brand new.

kinda have to disagree with you there, mods can DEFINITLY save a game. Sins of a solar empire for instance is a good example. with a great concept and gameplay...exept it keeps exploding after a certain time because the creators never optimised it. then there was the TSOP ( the sins optimisation project ) by modders cutting the games heavy footprint down so much you could play it on a calculator. these kinds of mods can be saving graces to otherwise good games ruined by one big thing. in the case of Me3 or skyrim, some story parts. the only difference between Me3 and skyrim is that Me3 cracks down on modders and bans then ( srsly, WHAT? ) and skyrim/bethesda embraces them like a friend and gives people the tools to make their game BETTER/longer lasting. hell have you seen some of the mods? some of em make an already prety game even pretier, or add hours of extra content to the gameplay.

all in all. mods CAN make a shit game good, and a good game great.

Oh yeah for sure, don't get me wrong. Mods are a good thing. But, I don't feel that its fair to compare games based on the fact that one can be modified. It's a little unfair. It's a certainly a plus, but if someone asks me if a game is good or not, I can only comment on what the game actually is.

Which is to say, with the current comparison that, Mass Effect is the better over all game, by a long margin.
Yes Skyrim could be better with certain mods. But in the same token it can also be a damn sight worse with the wrong ones.

 

[thahat]

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Mods aren't a legitimate answer to this though. Mods are user created and not cannon. The same would be said if it were possible to mod Mass Effect too. Just because someone somewhere made something that changed the end of the game, wouldn't make it the actual ending.

IMO, a game is what the Developers release. If that game is poor, no amount of mods can make it good. Especially if we're talking about purchasing full price AAA games brand new.

kinda have to disagree with you there, mods can DEFINITLY save a game. Sins of a solar empire for instance is a good example. with a great concept and gameplay...exept it keeps exploding after a certain time because the creators never optimised it. then there was the TSOP ( the sins optimisation project ) by modders cutting the games heavy footprint down so much you could play it on a calculator. these kinds of mods can be saving graces to otherwise good games ruined by one big thing. in the case of Me3 or skyrim, some story parts. the only difference between Me3 and skyrim is that Me3 cracks down on modders and bans then ( srsly, WHAT? ) and skyrim/bethesda embraces them like a friend and gives people the tools to make their game BETTER/longer lasting. hell have you seen some of the mods? some of em make an already prety game even pretier, or add hours of extra content to the gameplay.

all in all. mods CAN make a shit game good, and a good game great.

Oh yeah for sure, don't get me wrong. Mods are a good thing. But, I don't feel that its fair to compare games based on the fact that one can be modified. It's a little unfair. It's a certainly a plus, but if someone asks me if a game is good or not, I can only comment on what the game actually is.

Which is to say, with the current comparison that, Mass Effect is the better over all game, by a long margin.
Yes Skyrim could be better with certain mods. But in the same token it can also be a damn sight worse with the wrong ones.

you make a fair point there. its a risk/reward choice thing in that, and i also have to admit that indeed, all in all, Me as a series is actualy a bit better cause, well, skyrim is FUN and all its just not as GOOD as Me. unfortunatelly we are derailing the thread XD can we agree on taht Me3's ending is more crap ?

 

[Lorien077]

Okay I didn't play Mass Effect 3, but I can understand why the ending upset people.

Skyrim's ending... honestly I think objectively is worse. Its not really an ending of much of anything; the impact on the world is very minimal, and while I like 'the world goes on' as an aspect its still pretty frustrating how little that all seemed to change. Heck, I'd even be happier with not being able to continue after completing the main quest line, perhaps after entering Sovngarde the character cannot leave there, sort of a heroic sacrifice?

Mass Effect's ending may have sucked but at least it was an ending. -_-

 

[Freechoice]

Skyrim is not the culmination of hundreds of hours, and physical years, of players' choices and gameplay, unless you're incredibly slow.

Iunno. If you follow the lore in TES, it's more likely you've dumped hundreds or thousands of hours into the series with just Morrowind or Oblivion before you'll put more than a couple dozen into the ME series.


OT: Skyrim's ending wasn't that bad. At least there was more than three colors.

OH HO!

 

[Soopy]

Skyrim is not the culmination of hundreds of hours, and physical years, of players' choices and gameplay, unless you're incredibly slow.

Iunno. If you follow the lore in TES, it's more likely you've dumped hundreds or thousands of hours into the series with just Morrowind or Oblivion before you'll put more than a couple dozen into the ME series.


OT: Skyrim's ending wasn't that bad. At least there was more than three colors.

OH HO!

Hahaha, I dunno. Black, blue and red in Sovngard.

Uh, and green.

I can understand completely how ME3's ending is frustrating. But I'm still not convinced it makes any less sense then Skyrims.
Not helped by the fact that Skyrims entire story makes little sense. Given that there is never really any stated motivation of the antagonist. He's just doing shit be cause he can.
(I have followed the Lore a fair bit, but the part that makes Alduin make sense was retcon'd into derpageddon)

 

[PurePareidolia]

In Skyrim's ending you accomplish not much then carry on doing fun things. In Mass Effect 3's ending, you kill EVERYONE then die.

So yeah, ME3's is worse.