10 'Emotional' Video Game Endings That Fell Completely FLAT

Final Fantasy XVI's ending is what happens when someone tells a writer "less is more", only for the cloth-eared scribe to hear it as "death is more". As a result, the latest entry in the Final Fantasy series concludes with not one but three major characters kicking the bucket in a contrived attempt at wringing emotion out of the player. 

Which makes it all the more embarrassing that none of these deaths land. At all.

Let's start with the first fatality. FF XVI ends with a triumvirate of heroes engaging big baddie Ultima in a climactic clash, and the first to fall is Dion. Sadly, by this point in the story Dion is so extraneous to narrative requirements that he may as well have gone to battle wearing a red shirt. Sure enough, he's the first to fall, having fulfilled his remaining duty of "guy who dies to show off how strong the big bad is".

Next up is Joshua, the brother of protagonist Clive Rosfield. Despite excellent acting from Ben Starr (Clive's VA), Joshua's death fails to live up to its potential. The death itself happens too quickly, and there's barely any time to dwell on the emotional fallout before the rousing final battle music kicks in and you begin the process of knocking Ultima's block off.

And then there's Clive. The older Rosfield brother's death comes out of nowhere, as Clive suffers from ye olde anime trope of having his body slowly disintegrate after using too much power. It's so abrupt that the only emotion it evokes is ironic laughter, leaving the player shaking their head in disbelief that such a ham-fisted conclusion made its way past the first draft.

Three deaths, zero tears. A pitiful conclusion to a polarizing game.