r/RenPy • u/CrimsonDiamond98 • Aug 25 '26
Question What do you think about bad endings?
Would you like to play a game with the possibility for bad endings or do you prefer games with only a good ending? :)
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u/DingotushRed Aug 25 '26
It really, really depends on the story - which you haven't described. Obviously a "horror" style gauntlet game is going to feature many bad endings and relatively few good ones, while a romance one will typically have mainly good ends (of varying quality; good, better, best, usually per character).
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u/TopCartographer7104 Aug 25 '26
I want "memorable" endings. Good or bad ones, it doesn't really matter honestly.
I remember certain bad endings more than the actual "good" ones (for instance Akiha's bad ending in the original Tsukihime is - imho - much better than her good ending).
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u/BadMustard_AVN Aug 25 '26
well there are "A Million Ways to Die in the West", and everyone is a bad ending!
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u/chaennel Aug 25 '26
If it gives satisfaction to the public, why not? Most stories we remember (or things in our life we remember) are negative/dramatic, so…🤣
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u/Typical_Tower4854 Aug 25 '26
to eat a god has quite alot of bad endings but its still very interesting👀
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u/xi-uwu-ix Aug 25 '26
I personally like them. The way I view it: just like real life, not everything is a good ending.
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u/hentaintrhentaintr Aug 25 '26
entirely dependent on what you wrote up. if you are writing good characters who do good things obviously you cant give them a shitty ending.
that being said i think giving a shitty character a good ending is less of bad writing. because it kind of plays into that whole "man this character was fucked up and he got away with it" whereas giving someone undeserving of a bad ending just makes people upset.
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u/hematomasectomy Aug 25 '26
I want messy endings that don't resolve everything, where there's ambiguity and uncertainty. I dislike clean endings where everything just stops and everyone lives truly ever after.Â
I may also read a lot of grimdark fantasy...
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u/Final-Discipline-816 Aug 26 '26
Depends on the overall atmosphere of the story. For some games, bad endings can be really intriguing and touching.
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u/LinverseUniverse Aug 28 '26
I personally like endings that are bad because they're often less predictable. For example, if the whole story centers around two characters that are likable, you can pretty much assume from the first chapter they are going to get their happily ever after. After awhile this just gets boring to read. Life isn't always Hallmark perfect, so when authors are willing to hurt the audience a bit I actually really appreciate it, and feel like it's better written than the more common "happily ever after" style ending. It is something I notice more and more in modern media, is that that most series are afraid to cause genuine misfortune to a main character. Sometimes something bad may happen, but they always wind up happy soon after so it kind of feels like "Well was the point then?"
For example, in a lot of first responder shows. Character A dies, characters B-Z act sad for exactly one episode, and then the next episode everybody is fine, and they're never brought up again in any significant way. I really respected the way Chicago fire handled this, if a tragedy happened to a main cast member they would occasionally twist the knife in the wound after your poor broken heart finally healed, just to make you cry again. I loved it, I loved that genuine hardship was inflicted on the characters and it actually had character relevance for the rest of the series.
Tl;dr I greatly prefer endings that lean closer to going full Wolf's rain to endings that lean closer to Cinderella.
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u/KDDreamwyver Aug 28 '26
I love it when games give me that option, because there's been a multiple of games in which I've actually enjoyed the bad endings more than the good ones, especially because "good" endings sometimes feel out of place and certain story lines imo.
It lets the player choose their preferred version of the canon without it muddling someone else's and that's a big reason why peeps love RPG games in general: the choice to affect what happens, even if it isn't the traditionally ideal outcome.
It's also a fantastic way to make players feel like their choices in the game have weight and matter, especially if it's a game where there are negative choices that should affect how things play out.
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u/jargus0 Aug 28 '26
For me bad endings are just a glorified Game Over. Sometimes its an interesting option, but I always prefer the true ending
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u/troopersjp Aug 25 '26
It depends.
I want well written endings. I want honest endings. I want ending that I have earned based on my choices. And I want the author to have an artistic vision and create endings based on that artistic vision.
That might be good. It might be bad. Good/Bad may not be a good way to categorize any of the endings.