10 'Emotional' Video Game Endings That Fell Completely FLAT

2024's Astro Bot has many gifts, but storytelling is not one of them. Indeed, the Astro Plot (sorry) is mostly AWOL from the game, right until the conclusion tries to force emotion into the story with all the grace of an angry toddler trying to jam a star-shaped puzzle piece into a square hole.

Astro Bot's conclusion sees the eponymous android being dragged into a black hole by his nemesis, only for the robots he's spent the game rescuing to collectively grab his hand and try to pull him back from the brink. Astro, however, decides to let go and sacrifice himself to the void to ensure the other robots' safety (don't worry, he still survives).

Astro's sacrifice is clearly meant to be a sombre moment, but it's more eye-rolling than tear-jerking as it makes the other robots look absolutely useless. Astro has spent the entire game rescuing them, and this was the game's chance to show that good deeds come back round - just as Astro saved them, they can now save him. But no, Astro has to play the hero one last time, like a diva superstar insisting the spotlight shines on them at all times. Yes, the robots do contribute parts to his repair job, but by then the moment has passed - they had their chance to save the hero, they blew it, and was only dumb luck that he survived.

Given that the other robots are all based on characters spread across thirty years of PlayStation's history, Astro Bot's ascension to Astro Messiah is even more self-aggrandizing. Essentially, the developers are stating their character is superior to all those who came before him, inadvertently turning the adorable android into an arrogant Mary Sue.

Frankly, the the ending would have been more satisfying if it simply consisted of the titular bot turning to the player and saying "I am Astro Bot, and that's your Astro lot".