10 Video Games That Butchered Brilliant Endings
Sticking the landing is always the hardest part.
When it comes to video game endings, there are very, very few that reach the realms of legendary. Red Dead Redemption and Bioshock Infinite nailed their finales with resounding success, which is nothing to scoff at. Getting a game's ending right is incredibly difficult, with most games only managing to stagger to the finish line with a passable end.
More often than not, even the greatest games come crashing to an abrupt and unsatisfying end. Managing to wrap up everything in a succinct ending is damn near impossible, and can completely derail an otherwise perfect game.
And some games even have the annoying aspect of having a good ending in mind. Sometimes, the presentation botches what could have been an incredible climactic finish. Whether it is due to being rushed, or simply not being well implemented, games can often squander the potential that they had. It can be incredibly frustrating to look at a game and see the threads and ideas that the developers clearly had in mind being buried behind lacklustre mistakes.
The promise of what could have been, being forever ruined by what we got.
10. Demon's Souls
The final boss of the legendary Demon's Souls is... a slug man. Not only a slug man, but a slug man with a Greatsword taped to his forehead. Needless to say, the ending of Demon's Souls is incredibly anticlimactic and suffers from a poorly presented idea. Because the intent is very clear.
Digging through the lore, you learn that the posthumous slug man is meant to be weak and unthreatening. His power is drained and he is a shell of the former King he once was. It's a symbolic boss that is meant to impose some degree of emotion upon the player, which could've been incredibly interesting if done right.
Unfortunately, the entire game builds up to the idea of descending to face the Old One. You are meant to be fighting the big bad demon, but you are presented with a slug man. Had your quest been to find King Allant, then the moment of discovering the shrivelled failure of the King would have been more impactful. But as it is, slug Allant is a sour note to end an amazing game on.