Complete a game and the reward is disappointing

[Coptur]

How many times have you played through a game to find out the final reward is something disappointing? The one that springs to mind for me is just getting a blue change of clothes after finishing Wind Waker. What are some other disappointing rewards you've seen when completing a game?

Edit: I may not have explained myself well enough. I do not mean game endings. I mean games where you get a reward, and the reward is something bad.

[DragonMaster Sam]

I remember beating Battletoads in Battlemaniacs... All that hard work, and a boring ending.

[markusman64ds]

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/2329/883169-a_winner_is_you_1024_super.jpg

[skaar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqZXzcqvwMY

1942, hands down.

[FoxNtd]

1942

Ah, beat me to it.

Well I've got another one. All the pain and suffering to clear Makaimura on FC twice just to see the true ending, which was written in the worst poorly misspelled English I've ever seen in a game.

[MasterJSP]

The normal ending to Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is pretty lame, although the special ending isn't much better either.

[wiggyx]

Man, expecting a "reward" for beating a game is such a new concept. Back I the day you were lucky to see the credits roll.


My example of worst "reward" would be Karnov for the NES. Doesn't get less rewarding than that.

[Aussie2B]

Do you mean a reward or do you mean an ending? Because they're not necessarily the same thing.

In terms of endings, if I'm disappointed, it's probably because the game as a whole was disappointing. If I enjoyed the game, just beating it is usually satisfaction enough, even if all I get is a "Congraturation". RPG endings can be a little disappointing sometimes, though, if I'm expecting something big and epic or if I'm expecting things to be explained and I get something short and/or vague instead.

As for rewards, like what you get for clearing a game 100%, I've always thought that the reward in Super Mario 64 is pretty lame. I love just about everything else in the game and will gladly collect 120 stars just for the fun of it, but, seriously, your triple jump is made sparkly, you get 100 lives, and you meet Yoshi? That's it? You don't even get to ride Yoshi, so who cares? And considering you've already done everything in the game, what good is all the extra lives? I don't know about anybody else, but getting all 120 stars is the point when I stop playing a file so the "rewards" are totally useless. They would've been better off giving me an alternate ending or letting me take the rewards into a "new game+" or something. The half-assed nature of the rewards almost makes me wonder if they had a lot more planned for the stuff. Maybe at one point they did intend for Mario to ride Yoshi.

[TonyTheTiger]

Donkey Kong Land. Congratulations + credit roll. Extremely jarring considering how long a game it was, when it came out, and what game it was a spinoff of. Some games you just know to have low expectations. Donkey Kong Land was not one of them.

Castlevania: SOTN and Vandal Hearts had shit endings, too, considering the way they baited you. SOTN implied "better" endings by getting progressively further in the game before completing it. But the value of the final ending was effectively nil, a needless cliffhanger that to this day was never resolved.

Vandal Hearts was even worse. The normal ending was a cliffhanger. So it seemed like by doing all the special quests (getting Vandalier) you'd get to see it play out to the full conclusion. The actual reward? The same ending + a splash screen telling you how awesome you are. What was it with Konami back then?

Mega Man Soccer. Holy. Shit. The game has an ending. It accidentally got dummied out of the game so you can't view it by normal means. Beating the game does nothing. This has a side effect of also rendering a secret unlockable character (Dr. Wily) completely inaccessible. That alone wouldn't be so bad...if you couldn't see him on the character select screen just sitting there barely out of reach forever taunting you.

I'm fine with no reward so long as I'm not tricked into thinking there would be one.


And considering you've already done everything in the game, what good is all the extra lives?

This is how I feel every single time I beat the uber impossible boss in an RPG that's far more powerful than the game's last boss and the reward is something along the lines of the ultimate sword of destiny. Really? In case you didn't notice, developers, there's nothing left for me to actually use it on. Hey, I get a gold chocobo for beating Ruby Weapon? How cute. Too bad I had to breed one myself to stand a chance in the first place, assholes.

[XYXZYZ]

When I finally finished Gradius for the NES, I was underwhelmed at the ending, and felt a little cheated. But it doesn't bother me anymore. I'm just happy I can finish Gradius. I've only done it twice.


All the pain and suffering to clear Makaimura on FC twice just to see the true ending, which was written in the worst poorly misspelled English I've ever seen in a game.
To me, that's the most awesome kind of ending. Good quality Nihonglish is rewarding on it's own! VICTOLY!

[nouserever]

Black and white 2, there was suppose to be a sandbox mode unlocked when you beat the game... there wasnt

[Aussie2B]

Haha, all that stuff about Mega Man Soccer sounds so hilariously stupid that I'd think it would be hard to be mad at it.

As for Donkey Kong Land, just the experience of playing through the game was enough to successfully lower my expectations for the ending, haha.

[SparTonberry]

My example of worst "reward" would be Karnov for the NES. Doesn't get less rewarding than that.

Maybe the Japanese version had a real ending. It at least had a plot that got cut from the English version.

[wiggyx]

And considering you've already done everything in the game, what good is all the extra lives?

Also, the idea of extra lives in Mario 64 was and is totally pointless, even before beating the game. When you run out, continue and no progress is lost. It's like having extra lives in Zelda. But, Nintendo isn't gonna give that one up, seeing as the 1up 'shroom is beyond iconic at this point, even if it's pretty much useless for the flagship Mario home console games (64, Sunshine, Galaxy).

[sheath]

Action Fighter and Shinobi on Master System struck me like this. I remember Revenge of Shinobi getting panned in EGM for having the "worst ending of the year". I never figured that one out though, two separate endings based on how the final boss fight goes is way better than a "congradurations" screen.

The game that totally blew me out with its non-ending though is Final Fantasy VII. Did all of humanity get wiped out or not?! Why lead up that question so much if they weren't going to answer it?

[Kitsune Sniper]

Maybe the Japanese version had a real ending. It at least had a plot that got cut from the English version.

I fan-translated the Japanese version of Karnov.

So yes, it DOES have an ending. Three.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/karj.htm

I'm not even sure why they used my patch as if it were official but whatever.

[treismac]

Also, the idea of extra lives in Mario 64 was and is totally pointless, even before beating the game. When you run out, continue and no progress is lost. It's like having extra lives in Zelda. But, Nintendo isn't gonna give that one up, seeing as the 1up 'shroom is beyond iconic at this point, even if it's pretty much useless for the flagship Mario home console games (64, Sunshine, Galaxy).

There are still halfway points that make 1-ups not completely useless.

[Aussie2B]

I fan-translated the Japanese version of Karnov.

So yes, it DOES have an ending. Three.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/karj.htm

I'm not even sure why they used my patch as if it were official but whatever.

Hahaha, holy shit, that's amazing. Karnov is such a freakin' badass.

[SparTonberry]

I fan-translated the Japanese version of Karnov.

So yes, it DOES have an ending. Three.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/karj.htm

I'm not even sure why they used my patch as if it were official but whatever.

I believe VG Museum's only rule is that it has to be in English.

[Clownzilla]

The endings to the early Tekken series drove me crazy. I guess they were cool to see on a home system at the time but they really didn't do anything for the character's story (with an exception of a few). I would of prefered them to add more characters with the space saved from rippng out the CGI crap.

[BlastProcessing402]

Man, expecting a "reward" for beating a game is such a new concept. Back I the day you were lucky to see the credits roll.


My example of worst "reward" would be Karnov for the NES. Doesn't get less rewarding than that.


Oh man, back in the day when me & my friend finally beat Karnov it was utterly soul crushing how bad the "ending" was.

[Aussie2B]

So I'm guessing the US version of Karnov didn't have the Japanese endings because of all the god stuff and Nintendo's policy of removing anything having to do with religion back then?

[The 1 2 P]

The endings to the early Tekken series drove me crazy. I guess they were cool to see on a home system at the time but they really didn't do anything for the character's story (with an exception of a few).

Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament were two of my favorite fighting games but the endings made absolutely no sense. But fighting games have always been more character driven than story driven so I suppose I can forgive them a bit more than other genres.

When I saw the title of this thread the first thing that came to mind was Halo 2. That game had such a disappointing....wait a minute, that game didn't even have an ending!! Doesn't get any more disappointing than that. But the game itself was pretty damn awesome.

[Blitzwing256]

Japanese versions of Kid Icarus (and coincidentally the new 3ds remake of it) as well as Metroid, they have the same endings per say, but the new game plus options are not in either game, so you don't get a chance to play through the undeerwolrd in kid icarus with all your gear, nor do you get the space leotard scantily clad version of samus like you do in the us version. you also can't save your game once you beat medusa in kid icarus, once you try to load the game over you start all over with absolutely nothing. lame.

[Tanooki]

I would really think anything from the NES that was probably an arcade port or games modeled to be like that stuff. Capcom was pretty bad for it like all the work into Ghosts n Goblins and really nothing much but engrish to show for it.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The endings to the early Tekken series drove me crazy. I guess they were cool to see on a home system at the time but they really didn't do anything for the character's story (with an exception of a few). I would of prefered them to add more characters with the space saved from rippng out the CGI crap.

Only a few endings were canon. They figured they could have fun with the rest. :)

[Flashback2012]

The arcade version of Magic Sword springs to mind depending on what choice you make.

[Nz17]

SOTN implied "better" endings by getting progressively further in the game before completing it. But the value of the final ending was effectively nil, a needless cliffhanger that to this day was never resolved.

Actually that isn't true... in Japan. Sadly unreleased outside of the "stuff just for us" country ;), there was an Internet drama (radio play) celebrating the tenth anniversary of the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In this 2007 audio play which was eventually sold on CD for $30, it is revealed that Alucard and Maria actually did hook up and have been living in a little cottage ever since. There is a bit of a story to it, but basically two years have passed and Maria is worried that Alucard doesn't truly and fully love her, but then some bandits and other baddies show up, cause trouble, and true love blossoms as the one rescues the other. I can't remember where I read a nice summary of it all, but this YouTube video has a fan-sub of the first part (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttHbB7pq-rs).

[Coptur]

I may not have explained myself well enough. I do not mean game endings. I mean games where you get a reward after doing a lot of work, and the reward is something bad.

Not all games have rewards like this.

[Coptur]

As for rewards, like what you get for clearing a game 100%, I've always thought that the reward in Super Mario 64 is pretty lame. I love just about everything else in the game and will gladly collect 120 stars just for the fun of it, but, seriously, your triple jump is made sparkly, you get 100 lives, and you meet Yoshi? That's it? You don't even get to ride Yoshi, so who cares? And considering you've already done everything in the game, what good is all the extra lives? I don't know about anybody else, but getting all 120 stars is the point when I stop playing a file so the "rewards" are totally useless. They would've been better off giving me an alternate ending or letting me take the rewards into a "new game+" or something. The half-assed nature of the rewards almost makes me wonder if they had a lot more planned for the stuff. Maybe at one point they did intend for Mario to ride Yoshi.

This is a good example of what I mean.

[TonyTheTiger]

Actually that isn't true... in Japan. Sadly unreleased outside of the "stuff just for us" country ;), there was an Internet drama (radio play) celebrating the tenth anniversary of the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In this 2007 audio play which was eventually sold on CD for $30, it is revealed that Alucard and Maria actually did hook up and have been living in a little cottage ever since. There is a bit of a story to it, but basically two years have passed and Maria is worried that Alucard doesn't truly and fully love her, but then some bandits and other baddies show up, cause trouble, and true love blossoms as the one rescues the other. I can't remember where I read a nice summary of it all, but this YouTube video has a fan-sub of the first part (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttHbB7pq-rs).

Yeesh. Makes me wish I had gone on believing it was never resolved.

[AceAerosmith]

I think the lamest reward for finishing a game is the unlocking of the "Impossible" difficulty.

Hey, here you go. Now, you can play the game and just die faster. This is really just a pointless move meant to get you to play a game again to get all the Trophies/Accomplishments/Gamerscore bullshit. I've gone through many games on "Normal" difficulty and hated them, so giving me the chance to play the game with a worse chance of survival isn't exactly a reward.