I want to talk about the endings of four games I’ve recently played–more specifically, the last act of each game. Those games are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive); Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla Games); The Roottrees Are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.); and Paradise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works).
I have finished all of these games (along with several short detective games), and I have noticed a trend in the games I’ve played and finished. Most of them have endings that are way more melodramatic or ill-suited for the rest of the game.
The one exception was The Roottrees Are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.), and that’s because it didn’t really have a story, per se. I mean, there was a ton of information to unearth, but there was no mystery as to what happened. I just researched all the different members of the Roottree family in order to piece together their family tree (heh).
Funnily enough, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed that game, I dropped the bonus game like a hot potato about half an hour into it. Why? Because I was burned out on it. This is MY issue in that I get obsessed with a game and gorge myself on it until I feel ill. That’s what I did with The Roottrees Are Dead, and while I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, I did not want to play more of it. I may pick it upa again later–or not. Either way, it was a great experience, and I’m glad I had it.
I put it in this post because I wanted to provide an example of a game that ended strong. Granted, it was easier for them to do it because they just had to keep on doing what they’ve been doing the whole game. I will say that I was blown away with how intricate and elaborate the family tree was. It went DEEP, and I was inordinately proud that I figured out the top secret bit all on my own.
I was so disappointed by the last act of Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla Games), and I had a hard time finishing it. I won’t spoil anything about it, but it went from being a thoughtful and engaging point-and-click to a clumsy, heavy-handed, dreadful stealth/’combat’ that made me almost quit early. There was no reason for it, and I had a strong hunch that the devs just really wanted an extended combat section in their game for whatever reason. Maybe they wanted to show they had the chops, but it was a huge misstep in my opinion. I was hating the game by the time I finished it, which was not what I was expecting or hoping for from the game.
Next up is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive).
BIG sigh.
I have already vented my spleen about how dreadful I found the story and how I was gritting my teeth over it by about a quarter of the way into the second act. But the actual ending of the game was not terrible. I did not care for the binary choice I had to make, but I wasn’t expecting anything better from the game by that point. Does that sound like damning with faint praise? Well, it is. Or rather, it was me resigned to being severely disappointed by the rest of the game.
So in a way, weirdly, I was not upset by the end of the game because I was expecting it to make me cringe and wince (which it did). I was expecting it to be a hot mess that had holes in it so big, you could drive a semi truck (which it did), and I was expecting it to be overwrought and VERY melodrmatic (which it was), and I knew it was going to take itself way too seriously and think it was so goddamn meaningful when it was paper-thin (which it did/was/ugh).
How could the ending have been better? Well, completely redoing the second and third act would have been a good start. I’m not being snarky here. Prologue was solid, if a bit melodramatic already. Twist at the end of the first act hit hard, but then felt less and less earned, heartfelt, and impactful by mid-second act. I resented having my emotions manipulated, and once the story completely fell apart, that moment became hollow. I gave the story a 3 when I was rating the game, and I stand by it.
The other reasons I did not like the end of this game is because all the hard optional bosses were ridiculous. I was so wornout and tired by the time I reached the final boss, the idea of doing the three or four optional end game bosses the normal way made me want to curl up in a ball and never move again.
But, my OCD traits made it so it was hard for me to leave these bosses alive. Therefore, I did what I had to do–made the most powerful character in my party (universally considered the most OP character in the game) so OP, I could kill all these bosses in one attack. By the time I was done with her (and with help from online forums), I souped her up into a killing machine. At first, it was a few million points of damage per hit. By the time I reached the final three or four optional bosses, I was doing 50,000,000 points of damage in one shot. Which was enough for even the hardest of the last bosses.
And this was with the weapon of this character receiving a 70% nerf! It felt good to one-shot the last few bosses, and I felt no remorse over it. I keep saying I should have quit after the first act, but I really should have. I would probably have a much better feeling for the game if I had done so rather than seen it through to the bitter end.
As for Promise Mascot Agency, I was taken by surprise when the open world exploration game turned into an on-rails, you must do this then that then this without actually getting to do anything (pretty much a movie at this point, and what I loathed about the Yakuza game I tried to play. With that Yakuza game, I felt like I was just watching a movie for hours on end, and this was the very beginning of the game.
I would pick up the controller, thinking I was about to get to play, and then set it down with a heavy sigh when more watching of what was happening occurred. I found out this was very prevalent in the Yakuza series, and it turned me completely off the games.
In Promise Mascot Agency, there was a lot of dialogue, yes. There were times when I was mashing A as quickly as I could read. But then at the end, the game asked if I was ready for dealing with my yakuza mother–and this was at end of Act Three, beginning of Act Four. I was so surprised there was an Act Four because I just assumed there would be three.
Thus began a half-an-hour Act Four in which I got to do very little. It was mostly scripted, and the choices I got to make didn’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things. It was frustrating a bit, but it wasn’t nearly as irritating as that first hour of the Yakuza game I played. Why? I think it’s because I grew to love all the characters in the game (except the villains, obviously), and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. I was not ready to let them go, and I was perfectly willing to just watch them do their thing. Plus, I was still fast on the A button as I was during the whole game.
The ending was a bit too sappy for me, but I was mostly satisfied with it. I felt that the sappiness was earned, and I wanted everyone to be happy. In fact, that was my main motivation during the game. To make sure my gang of oddballs, weirdos, and cast-offs could survive and thrive. I loved that Michi cared about the dreams of each of the mascots and that he was willing to help them achieve said dreams.
He’s called The Janitor because he cleans up the messes of his family, but in his new life, I would probably dub him The Emotional Suport Person–in a good way, not bad. Or The Cheerleader, but one who is in the background more often than not. Michi is the stereotypical strong, silent type with a heart of gold, but he transcends that as a character.
I did get to make some decisions for him, but I don’t think they were game-changing or even that important. Still, it made me feel like I had some input into what happened, even though I knew it was not true.
I’m done. May write more tomorrow or just go straight to my official review for Promise Mascot Agency. We’ll see how I feel.