Endings

Today I want to talk about game endings.  One thing I have noticed recently, though not to say this is a recent phenomenon, is how poorly structured many games' endings are.   A game will tell you a great story, immerse you in interesting and fun game play, and then right at the end, when everything is feeling great...the whole thing falls apart.  A bad ending spoils the rest of a game by leaving you with worse memories of the entire experience.

This is not limited to just games of course.  I recently read the Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, and the first 3700 pages of the trilogy were really fun and interesting.  The last 100 pages, ruined the entire story.  I would still recommend the series, but the ending saddened me, so I'm going to list off some qualities that I think all endings need.

1st:  A conclusion that does not sneak up on the player and comes out of nowhere. 

A game is not satisfying when the ending makes no sense in the build up of the plot, nor if the final area or encounter does not fit into the larger narrative.  Fans of Stephen King aside, a final boss, such as Necron in Final Fantasy IX, who was never referred to or surprises the player in a, Who on earth are you?, way makes the player feel cheated by the story. 

And 2nd: Don't have your story provide a meaningless choice at the end.

I recently finished Bastion, which again I will recommend others to play, but its ending saddened me.  Without spoiling anything, characters are given new motivations in the last half hour of the game, which do not really make much sense, and the player is given a large decision, which again is revealed quite quickly, and the result of the decision is just a different ending cutscene.  This does not make for compelling game play or interesting stories.  The game would have been better if the last minute plot twist had been introduced much earlier and the characters had discussed it more thoroughly. 

These are just two examples, but I think it is extremely important for a game to leave the player on strong satisfying note so they remember your game fondly.