Stories in games: Tragedies.

[Jang]

I was having an argument with a friend the other day. It was a chat about videogame stories, and I don't remember how we got into this exact topic, but he said that games never tell tragic stories. As in, stories with a sad ending.

I replied that you probably couldn't. At least not well. If the story has a sad ending, the protagonist has failed his task. Essentially, this means that all of his trials were for naught, and the player is left wondering "What the hell was all my effort for, if the bad guys won anyway?".

He argued that I was thinking to narrowly. Stories are not always bad guy vs. good guy.
Memento spoiler:

Spoiler

Memento ends with a plot were there actually isn't a definitive bad guy. If there is a villain it is actually the protagonist himself

.
And even if we are talking good guy vs. bad guy "The Dark Knight" is another example of a sad ending, where the hero still has quite a level of achievement.

So here I ask you, the escapians.
Is there a game with a sad ending that follows the following criteria:

- There are no multiple endings (If there were it would not be a definitively bad ending, as it is only *possible* to get a sad ending rather than certain as in actual tragedies)
- The *entire* story of the franchise has a sad ending. (If we have a trilogy were the first game has a sad ending, but everything ends up swell in the last game, then we are not looking at a tragedy in the big picture).

Supposing you can't think of any, do you have any suggestions for how a game could overcome this issue?

 

[AfroTree]

Missile Command?

I mean..you cant actually finish it happily..

 

[AwesomeFerret]

Hmm, well I want to say Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, but you said about any sequels ending well. Apart from that though, Crisis Core is a tragedy, its got the death of a genuinely likable main character, who dies but still achieves his goals, in a way which is necessary for the sequels to make sense. Part of the tragedy of the game is knowing what has to come, and knowing that there is nothing you can do about it. To be honest, despite what you said about the franchise being a tragedy overall, I still have to say Crisis Core.

 

[jakko12345]

I suppose halo reach has a solely tragic ending, and the whole franchise seems to depict humanity getting raped in general

 

[Kae]

Missile Command?

I mean..you cant actually finish it happily..

Yeah that is about the only one game that meets the criteria I think.

 

[baboon 101]

GTA IV ends with either your girlfriend or cousin dead, I would say that counts.

 

[Chrono180]

Planescape torment might count, as

Spoiler

while it may have two endings they basically are "You get sent to hell" and "You get sent to hell and all your friends die" so they both are bittersweet at best.

 

[Wyes]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Max Payne. Not quite so much in the first one, but the second one certainly. In fact, the beauty of the second one is that it is not only tragic, but it is a tragedy. We know right from the start that things will end badly, it's inevitable (and not just because it starts in medias res).

 

[ConvincingJohn]

Red Dead Redemption has at leat some of it. Man fighting against his own past, ultimately failing. In my personal opinion it does that about as good as possible bu a sandbox game.

 

[Irridium]

What about the first God of War? That most definitely counts. Its essentially a Greek Tragedy.

 

[higgs20]

red dead redemption? not the happiest of endings.

 

[Kortney]

Yeah that is about the only one game that meets the criteria I think.

Only? Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway? Red Dead Redemption? GTA IV?

I can think of a few games that end on a sorrow note.

 

[Delock]

Megaman Zero series
Metal Gear Solid Series (4 has it end on a depressing, yet somewhat light mood, while 3 will have you tear up or be enraged)
Red Dead Redemption (even more tragic when you play the epilogue and realize the one goal the protagonist wanted above all others fails)
The Darkness
Final Fantasy X (sure, for most people on that world it's happy, but...)
A lot of the Shin Megami Tensei games
Lost Planet (once again, good for the world but definitely a tragedy)
inFAMOUS (it doesn't matter the ending, because it's still not an upbeat one. The only difference is that one of them isn't tragic for the rest of the world)
Assassin's Creed series so far (not for the ancestors, but for Desmond)
Dead Rising
XENOSAGA (the series, because it was cut off halfway through... wow... there needs to be a word for how depressing that ending was)


As for what all these are

Spoiler

-MMZ: The series ends with you crashing to earth with the final boss. The very last scene is that of your helmet's remains on a ruined landscape.
-MGS4: Snake is going to die soon. Sure the world is safe, but he's now going to live out the rest of his short life in a few months
-MGS3: Everything was just a bid for money, including making the Boss, a woman who spent her life fighting for her country, into a traitor that would be forever remembered in infamy. In order to make it seem like she was actually a traitor, they had her apprentice kill her. They will then go on to exploit him as well, leading to the rest of Metal Gear's saga
-RDR: You are killed after going about erasing your past. Your son, the person you wanted to protect from the life you used to live, goes on to become a criminal himself.
-The Darkness: It is revealed that the more you kill, the more The Darkness takes over you. You end up losing control on the final mission, getting to see just what it can do. You go on to meet the man you've vowed to kill, the man who has made your life hell, and after you pull the trigger, the Darkness laughs and the screen fades. You then see Jackie (your character) resting on the girlfriend-whom-you-were-forced-to-watch-be-killed-in-front-of-you's lap, saying that they only have a moment to be together. The scene ends with her tearfully telling you to wake up.
-FFX: Tidus is only a dream, created by beings forced to sleep forever. In order to break the cycle created by a vengeful man who even after the end of the game is probably still worshiped as a messiah, he must kill his own father, who was trapped in the cycle. In doing so though, he will wake up those who are dreaming of him, erasing him from existence. He ends up saying goodbye before jumping off the ship so no one sees him disappear completely.
-SMT: I don't have time for this...
-Lost Planet: In addition to several characters dying, Wayne ends up erasing his entire memory in the final battle to save the world, and Earth along with it. Who know what the effects are because THEY NEVER MADE A PROPER SEQUEL. They did however advertise for one. I wonder if it got shelved.
-inFAMOUS: The main enemy was you from the future, whose powers awoke naturally, but who ran away from the monster who was to destroy the world (and who seems suspiciously like Alex Mercer, but that's another story). When his family is killed, he realized he should have never run, and that he could have killed the Beast before it became too strong. He ends up travelling to the past with one purpose: making sure you are ready. To do this he destroys most of the city, kills the woman who would become your wife, creates several dangerous supervillains, and faces you in a battle where you implants his memories into yours. You either then try to be a hero who is on the run from the government (I think this path also makes it so you end up without your best friend, I can't remember which one that was), or you're a conqueror who will be worse than the Beast.
-AC: The first game has you alone in the enemy's base looking at the bloody messages of the previous occupant of the room. The second has you on the run, now thrust into the conflict completely. And the third ends with you stabbing Lucy, the only one who's been there for you.
-DR: You end on a tank with zombies closing in, no hope of rescue, and the only one who knows the truth.
-Xenosaga: In addition to the fact that the lower plane of existence is ending due to a combination of an Eldrich horror who doesn't know what they are doing and the rapid spreading of beings just barely in our dimension that reject reality, you end with a few main characters dying on you while they attempt to hold the line for your escape. You only have one giant robot left working (the system powering them was destroyed), and it's badly damaged. Earth has been lost a long time ago, and now is the central factor in the universe's fate, so the remaining party members set out to find it. Oh, and you've killed the guy who kept resetting time to prevent the end of the universe on the hope this last effort will succeed. Basically, the series ends on the darkest night with no hope of the bright dawn conclusion.

 

[LorisBoi]

It was a pretty shit game from what I can remember, but Apocalypse for the PS1 had a pretty glum ending. You can guess what it is.

 

[Thaliur]

What about Beyond Good & Evil?

Admittedly, the ending was not tragic, but there were several very tragic scenes which actually made me cry. People who played the game might know which scenes I'm talking about.

 

[octafish]

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, oh sweet baby jeesus, there is no winning, only losing in the most human way. Harlan Ellison, no I don't ever want to meet him.

 

[Kae]

Yeah that is about the only one game that meets the criteria I think.

Only? Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway? Red Dead Redemption? GTA IV?

I can think of a few games that end on a sorrow note.

Ok, I never finished GTA IV nor Hell's Highway (only played a demo) and I didn't play RDR, so I wouldn't know, well anyway what I should have said is that Missile Command is the only one that I know that fits the criteria.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, oh sweet baby jeesus, there is no winning, only losing in the most human way. Harlan Ellison, no I don't ever want to meet him.

Oh, I've heard great things about that game but I have not found it anywhere, and after hearing the premise I have no idea how I forgot about it.

 

[The Madman]

The Longest Journey and its sequel Dreamfall.

When the series is continued, and I choose to believe it *WILL* be continued because for it not to be would be one of the greatest tragedy in gaming, I'm actually hoping for a bit less of a bittersweet ending this time. April Ryan has been through enough, give her the happy ending she deserves!

 

[The Night Shade]

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, oh sweet baby jeesus, there is no winning, only losing in the most human way. Harlan Ellison, no I don't ever want to meet him.

Totally great game

OT:MGS 3 has a very depressing ending,MGS 4 has another