10 Video Game Endings Where Nothing You Did Matters

10. Shenmue III

Shenmue III, man, it still hurts.

Though franchise creator Yu Suzuki made it clear that the belated sequel was never intended to be the end of the story, fans nevertheless expected the ongoing narrative to gain some forward momentum.

Instead, the action-adventure threequel ended with Ryo Hazuki more-or-less in the same place he was at the end of the Shenmue II - once again chasing the coattails of his father's killer, Lan Di.

Shenmue III concludes with a "boss fight" - and we're using that term very liberally here - against Lan Di, where the player spends 30 seconds punching air as Di blocks all of their attacks, before a cutscene shows him escaping once again. The End.

For fans who'd waited almost 20 years to see some sort of story progression, this felt like a slap in the face - an almost hilariously perverse refusal to give fans what they wanted.

And given that Shenmue IV is rather unlikely to ever get made, that nothingburger of an ending stings all the more.