Unfinished Games

[SoulBlazer]

You know, I can deal with games with bad endings. At least you get SOME sence of closure with them. And not every game has or needs a great plot, which means you often get a weak ending. But nothing ticks me off more then EXPECTING a game to have a ending and then not finding one. :angry:

Now, of course, you may be asking "But you must have known about that beforehand." Well, in most cases, yes. For example, I bought Xenosaga and the .hack games knowing FULL WELL that these games were just chapters in a much larger book. How did I know this? Well, they said so right on the cover. :) It was also easy to go online and see a listing of other games in the works allready for the series, and there was no risk of spoiling anything by checking a listing of games in the series on something like GameFAQ's.

But if none of this applies -- if there's no warning anywhere on the case or in the manual, if no other games in the series are being worked on, and you're afraid to check a walkthrough or review because of the fear of spoilers -- then you fully expect a ending. Sometimes they suck (Final Fantasy VII comes to mind, as much as I like the game and the series) but at least you get SOME kind of closure.

Where am I going with all this? One of the games I got with my used XBox about two weeks ago was Shenmue II. I played it for about 10 days straight, loved everything in the game, was really enjoying it and looking forward a final climax battle at the end aganist the chief bad guy.....

And what the frig do I get? A "To Be Continued" :angry:

AUGH!!!!

And I can't even find confirmation that Sega is even MAKING a third one in the series either! x_x

Brother. I still have good things to say about the game, but if I had known THAT before buying the game (and the hint guide) then that's about $30 that would have stayed in my pocket. :(

Okay, rant over. I just really HATE when companies do that to games.

[Ed Oscuro]

You wouldn't play a game you enjoyed just because there's stuff left unfinished? Now there's nothing wrong with that, but I think people are requiring that their games "tie things up neatly" like, say, the last episode of a sitcom (I hear there's a bit of that going around lately...) I know you qualified that with a "they're not making a sequel," but man, I play games for the experience. An old 1997 issue of Nintendo Power (the Xtreme G 2 cover issue) covers this topic and a lot of folks seemed to say the same things, so it's not just a result of the PlayStation popularizing CGI games (though the PSX was in the states almost two years before this issue, sure). I think it's neat, actually, because it shows that the game developers have done a lot right for people to actually care about stuff like this. For myself, I really couldn't care much. I hate it when a favorite game series drops a friendly face I've guided through many levels in favor of somebody new, but that's about it. Reunions are okay, but I'll take each Phantasy Star game by itself, see.

I suppose part of my general apathy concerning storylines is due to having followed the fiasco that is Konami's Official Castlevania storyline. With a popular franchise like that, it's more about "me first, me first, I got here ten years too late and didn't have an original idea in my head anyway, but I can make the first and last games in the series!" Not to detract from anybody in particular; I think the director I'm alluding to has done great with the series in a couple installments and just fumbled or been undercut by upper management on a few others. The problem is I'm not into gaming for the silly drama that some folks employ to advertise or add mystique to their games.

It's the difference that makes Apogee's Rise of the Triad great (at least shareware and multiplayer, heh heh) and Daikatana suck. Apogee spoke little and focused on making their game great fun to play. John Romero, ironically for somebody who's got so much knowledge of the arcade industry, was led astray by wily marketing advisors and the glittery promise of "an overarching story." RotT's levels are awesome with their crazy Wolf-3D-meets-DOOM-and-pinball style look and arcade action; the original plan to actually make the game the sequel to Wolf 3D was scrapped but nobody really cared - they just kept on with their progress and decided they could make a game and focus on the story only when it provided camp value. Daikatana left many people cold. Simple.

I'm not a big Shenmue II player, but the promise and development of cinematic fight scenes is very alluring. Yes, it's very hard to develop that sort of game and Sega had a bit of tough luck with that. They made a very sincere effort to take what makes action fans snore in Final Fantasy games and turn it into something that both camps could appreciate. It's amazing that they got so much right that the lack of a sequel is a big issue, and you have to admit that. Their work remains "very commendable, very commendable," to borrow a phrase from Stonewall Jackson :P

So yeah, to each their own, but I felt like harping about this woefully underappreciated event in gaming history LOL

[Oobgarm]

But did you enjoy playing the game while it lasted? Sure, the payoff is a good thing, but if you enjoyed yourself all the way up to it, why complain? I'm not trying to be a dick here, so don't construe it as such. :)

I thought it was common knowledge in the gaming community that Shenmue is a multi-part series?

[chadtower]

I love how it takes Ed a half hour to express a 4 line opinion. It makes me sound so concise. LOL

[Daria]

Then again it's not really fair to compare a game with no ending to one like Phantasy Star that has an ending but just happens to have been sucessful enough to spawn sequals.

SoulBlazer's referring more to games like Shining Force 3 senario 1 that end with a cliff hanger just as the story gets good. And hey let's face it with story heavy games like Shenmue you want to know how it all turns out in the end.
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[Garry Silljo]

I knew full well Shemue would end on a cliffhanger and I knew the same for 2 as well. Sega made it no secret that this was to be a minimum 3 part story from the very begining. I get your point, but dont think Shenmue 2 applies. It falls into the xenosaga/.hack category you mentioned before.

[kainemaxwell]

I suppose part of my general apathy concerning storylines is due to having followed the fiasco that is Konami's Official Castlevania storyline. With a popular franchise like that, it's more about "me first, me first, I got here ten years too late and didn't have an original idea in my head anyway, but I can make the first and last games in the series!" Not to detract from anybody in particular; I think the director I'm alluding to has done great with the series in a couple installments and just fumbled or been undercut by upper management on a few others. The problem is I'm not into gaming for the silly drama that some folks employ to advertise or add mystique to their games.

Whatcha mean?? And on a related note wouldn't Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver fall into this catagory too?

[calthaer]

So does this mean you wouldn't play Pokemon games if you couldn't get Mew or Celebi?

[Ed Oscuro]

I love how it takes Ed a half hour to express a 4 line opinion. It makes me sound so concise. LOL
Yeah yeah, nobody's paying me to write this stuff. Every word has its own feelings and whenever I delete one a cry from the depths of hell pierces my very soul, or something.

I also felt like mentioning some titles from the PC side. I often do get terribly redundant, but at least I was bringing up new stuff! Jeez, I can't win. :o

@ Kaine:

I don't know about Legacy of Kain; I'm talking about real-life shenanigans surrounding the CV series in recent times, with Igarashi editing games out of the storyline he didn't create.

[Lone_Monster]

No ending for Shenmue II???? NO!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, who cares. I love this game anyway.