Skyrims ending vs ME3 ending.

[Soopy]

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?

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Thing is, I don't really think anyone was expecting much of a final fight in Skyrim anyways considering Bethesda's track record with endings. It's more about the huge open world and the little things hidden in it.

With Mass Effect 3, people wanted an epic conclusion that wrapped up a tale told over three games. What they got? Pretty much shit.

In terms of sheer disappointment, Mass Effect 3 wins by a landslide in my eyes, though Skyrim DOES kind of have a "worse" ending.

 

[Eddie the head]

All I have to say is Skyrim ends? News to me.

 

[Soopy]

All I have to say is Skyrim ends? News to me.

Well yeah, the main quest does have an ending.

 

[Loop Stricken]

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.

 

[Terminate421]

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?

Yes, the boss was just a slightly stronger dragon but it was all built up that he is the villain, and a Damned good one

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

 

[Eddie the head]

All I have to say is Skyrim ends? News to me.

Well yeah, the main quest does have an ending.

I know, I was kidding.

 

[Arcane_squirrel]

while i dont think mass effects ending was executed very well, it was much better in the strictest sense than skyrims ending which was just a dragon that ate too many nutrigrain bars. but i still love both games and the gameplay before the ending (and after in skyrims case) was amazing so it is just a little blemish to me

 

[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!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Personally, I think Mass Effect 3's ending was much worse. True, Skyrim's ending was nothing to write home about. I went, "That's it?" when it was done. But then I didn't think the story itself was amazing either. Still trying to figure out why Alduin attacked that particular town at that exact moment. Skyrim wasn't about the story so much for me as it was about wandering, finding things, and doing whatever I want, so I wasn't really geared up for a conclusion, though it was still a bit of a downer.

Mass Effect 3 was all about the story for me. Three games worth of getting to know characters, making decisions that affect countless lives, fighting an unbelievably powerful enemy...it was all there. And then they gave us that. I'll not go into details as I'm sure that everyone who cares has already heard about everything that was wrong, but that is was made Mass Effect 3's ending so much worse. I had my hopes built up, the series was about story and that was its main draw. Thus, the fall was so much more painful.

 

[Goofguy]

Don't care about whether or not Skyrim's ending was shite.

I got to see Sovngarde... nuff said.

 

[Loop Stricken]

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!

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

 

[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!

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

The same can be said for Mass Effect though. I played through the first two and they're not terribly long. Yeah sure, it took a while for them to be released but that's hardly time lost now is it?

Personally, I think Mass Effect 3's ending was much worse. True, Skyrim's ending was nothing to write home about. I went, "That's it?" when it was done. But then I didn't think the story itself was amazing either. Still trying to figure out why Alduin attacked that particular town at that exact moment. Skyrim wasn't about the story so much for me as it was about wandering, finding things, and doing whatever I want, so I wasn't really geared up for a conclusion, though it was still a bit of a downer.

Mass Effect 3 was all about the story for me. Three games worth of getting to know characters, making decisions that affect countless lives, fighting an unbelievably powerful enemy...it was all there. And then they gave us that. I'll not go into details as I'm sure that everyone who cares has already heard about everything that was wrong, but that is was made Mass Effect 3's ending so much worse. I had my hopes built up, the series was about story and that was its main draw. Thus, the fall was so much more painful.

This is a fair comment.

To me, it seems that both game's fail on an equally epic level.
Now, this might be weird or just completely wrong. But to me, the fact that there is such an outcry over Mass effect says that Mass effect was probably the better game over all.

I mean, it seems people just expected Skyrim to be shit

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Skyrims ending might be lacklustre and not really reflected in the post-end content, but at least it is a proper ending to the storyline of the game. Mass Effect 3 doesn't even get that but instead decides to pull something out of the blue that makes no sense logically, thematically or from a mood or internal consistency perspective.

Even comparing most other endings to ME3 is an affront to those endings.

 

[evilneko]

Hmm. Seriously?

I'm not even sure how one can make the argument that the end of the Skyrim main quest and the ME3 ending are even close to equally bad without some serious doublethink going on and probably ignoring all the things that make ME3's ending so horrendously bad.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Skyrim: The ending is atleast somewhat appropriate. It isn't depressing, and doesn't ruin the series, easy to follow, and have any of the elder scrolls game had good endings?

Mass Effect: It leads you up to think it's going to be the ultimate experiance, all your decisions reflected upon you, and all you got was 3 colors.
Confusing as shit, riddled with plot holes, and ruins any hope for continueing the series.
They said it was going to end commander shepard's story, not every story.

 

[Fr]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.

 

[mattttherman3]

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.

Man, I just laughed for 5 straight minutes at this...


Yeah ME3 was much worse, Skyrim never depressed me.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Personally, I think the ending of Skyrim's main quest was excellent. Yes it was mechanically kinda shitty but one cannot level such an indictment at some small part of a game. Skyrim is, like every Elder Scrolls, a mechanically shitty game.

I mean, you ride a god damn dragon to a high mountain fortress where you launch a one person assault on the gates of Sovengarde. Once there, you challenge and best a legendary gatekeeper and meet with ancient heroes in a stunning mead hall. The final battle has you walk in the company of the only other mortals that effectively defied the villain and slay what is easily the hardest dragon in the game (based purely on level of course).

It oozed atmosphere. The world building was fantastic. Thematically it's something only the greatest heroes of western myth have ever tried. You fight your way to the afterlife and cross that boundary while still alive. You kill a being as old as time itself. And then you walk right back out.

More to the point, it is easily the best conclusion of an Elder Scrolls since Morrowind. Yes, there were problems with that whole quest, most notably that there really isn't a lot you've got to do. You kill a dragon and find a map. You talk to a few old dudes which leads to a sassy lady who guides you to a silly old man. And then you talk to a dragon who says you need a mcguffin that isn't terribly hard to come by. It was brief and always seemed to have this air of inevitability about it the other games managed to avoid.

In Skyrim, after you kill the first dragon for keeps, it becomes pretty obvious that if you can hit them hard enough, you can kill dragons. The biggest and baddest dragon would simply require a nastier hit than the rest. Oblivion had you stamping out fires and barely holding in check an invasion from what is effective hell itself and at no point did your ultimate victory seem assured. In Morrowind, you are asked to kill a god and for much of the game this seems like an impossible task. Hell, even if you get those things you'd need to kill a god there's still the matter of the guy being one of the biggest badasses to ever work the earth when he was mortal.

I'd go so far as to say that once you beat Alduin that first time, there is no feeling that perhaps you would be unable to overcome him. You beat him and he runs to the one place you can't follow. All you need from there is a way to follow him.

Of course, I don't think you can really compare this to ME3. Mass Effect's problem is the stakes. Sure, Alduin was going to eat the world - that process could easily be held in check by bravery. Dragons can be killed if not for keeps. By contrast, ME3 must deal with a universe wherein the enemy possesses power of such incalculable magnitude that even holding the enemy at bay is a fever dream. The problem, simply put, is that ME3 starts at 11 and has nowhere to go from there and no way out of the problem that isn't a deus ex machina. Skyrim might have that feeling of inevitability, but that climactic sequence is one of the best in the game.

 

[Thatrocketeer]

Skyrim never cost at least $100 divided between 3 games to build up its story, didn't end with a fucking kid out of nowhere, and at least Sovngarde was a lot more colorful than any of the three explosions.

Nobody cared because nobody was there to see it anyways, I mean, if you told anyone that you just saved the world by going into a particular part of afterlife and killing a soul eating dragon, they'd think you're some kind of a loony pants, even if you're the dragonborn, and that's just how I like it.

Besides, who plays Skyrim for its story anyways?