8 MORE Video Games Where The True Ending Is The Bad Ending
The world goes on even if you fail.
In most media, your true long-term good guy vs bad guy story only ever works if the pair are evenly matched or can't do lasting damage to each other. The villain needs to come back next week with a new plan so they can never be outright defeated and the heroes may fall but they'll always get back up.
But what if that's not the case? What if, the hero's failure is all a part of the grand scheme and the bigger picture?
Some video games give players choices and very few of these use the more depressing events that follow to inform their sequels. Others reveal their true pathways depending on what you do or don't do, including even dying having major plotline ramifications.
It might make sense to you that the canon ending to a game is the one where the hero prevails and everyone goes home happy... but that's not always the case. Sometimes, evil wins. And sometimes, writers find far more fun building upon the darkest of scenarios.
This list looks at a few more examples where the worst endings possible just so happen to be what actually happens.
8. Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain
Whilst the Soul Reaver games are arguably the jewel in the Legacy of Kain crown, they only happen depending on certain events in the first title.
Blood Omen introduces the dark fantasy world of Nosgoth and stars Kain, a recently awakened vampire who intends to enact revenge for his murder and winds up part of a bigger plot over the balance of the land. At the end of the game, players are given a simple choice: either choose the side of heroics and sacrifice themselves to save the world or raze it and rule over the ashes.
If the player chooses to be a goody two shoes then vampires are vanquished from the realm. However, if they choose the canonical ending then they turn Nosgoth into a wasteland and become a megalomaniac.
Even aside from the tradition of saving the world in video games you’d naturally assume that sending Kain off into the afterlife after fulfilling his unfinished business might be the right thing to do but that’s not the case. In choosing selfishness, Kain becomes the antagonist for the next game in the series Soul Reaver and the ravaged Nosgoth becomes the setting for the whole franchise.
The future of Legacy of Kain literally only exists if you not only let evil win but become it.