Multiple endings

From TheAlmightyGuru
Jump to: navigation, search
The video game OutRun has five different endings.

Many forms of media feature multiple endings where the specific ending that is reached is affected by something during as the media is being experienced, typically, decisions made by the audience.

Personal

In game books, I remember reading branching-plot game books when I was in elementary school, but not really liking how the endings, even the good ones, varied so wildly. To me, they made the stories seem less-real because everything was up for grabs. When my mother bought my brother and step-brother the first two Lone Wolf books, and I discovered that they featured a single good ending, it felt much more like a real story to me, and I much preferred how they handled it. In film, I don't remember which was the first I saw, but they gave me the same sense of unrealness. I think it really only works in films that don't take themselves too seriously. For video games, the first games I remember playing with multiple endings were Metroid and Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story, but these have only minor differences to their endings, and, since I was still too inexperienced to ever see the good ones, I only ever saw differences by using someone else's password.

In general I like the idea of multiple endings in video games, but I don't like when you have to go through a lot of effort to see them. This could be like having to git-gud at Metroid to see the best ending, or, having to replay the entire game in Chrono Trigger where even when using the new game plus feature can still take hours to see a new ending. If I have to go through a lot of effort, I expect some serious changes in the game, like those seen in Undertale which does a pretty good job at it. Otherwise, I would prefer the multitude of endings to be viewed after only a few additional minutes of additional game play, like in games like The Stanley Parable or (I Fell in Love with the) Majesty of Colors. For those games that do require a big investment to see alternate endings, and I actually care enough about the game to see them, I almost always just watch a compilation video of them online.

Types of Media

Multiple endings can exist in various forms of media.

Books

Books appear to have originated the idea of multiple endings with examples dating back to the 1930s. Multiple endings are especially common in game books, particularly those which feature branching plots, but even a few novels have incorporated the concept as well.

Films

Due to the nature of films, when multiple endings are present, the viewer rarely has any control over which ending they see. For example, when it was first shown in movie theaters, the film adaption of Clue would randomly play one of three possible endings. Others, like the Wayne's World films, have multiple endings, but they're all shown in sequence. Only a handful of films have been made which actually take input from the viewers into account, primarily because it's difficult to poll a large audience in real time.

Video Games

See category: Multiple Endings.

Due to their interactive nature, multiple endings are popular in video games and game designers have come up with numerous creative ways to incorporate them. It could be argued that every game which uses a game over mechanic and an ending technically has multiple endings, but this is rarely what is thought of when multiple endings are considered.

A very common tactic in video games is to award more impressive endings based on how well the player does. Most of the games in the Metroid series do this. There is some debate as to whether very minor changes should be considered as a "different" ending, which is also true for the early Metroid games, where a "different" ending consists only of minor graphical differences.

Some games, like The Stanley Parable allow the player to chose their path to a specific ending in a manner similar to branching plot game books, others require the player to play the game multiple times with the content of the game changing in each successive play through, like the Zero Escape games; some games combine the two, like Undertale.

Games which allow the player to choose between various playable characters, like with the Street Fighter series often have multiple unique endings for each playable character.

Types of Endings

As fiction began implementing multiple endings, it became popular to categorize them. Below are some of the more popular types of endings.

Good Ending

A good ending is one in which things work out for the protagonists; they overcome their problems, accomplish their goals, and so forth. Typically, when multiple endings exist in a form of interactive media, a good ending is the goal. It's common for game books and video games to have multiple good endings.

Bad Ending

In contrast to a good ending, a bad ending is one in which things do not work out for the protagonists. Often the characters you're rooting for fail to accomplish their goals or die trying. Game books often feature multiple bad endings. In video games, bad endings are often synonymous with a game over, however there is usually a big enough difference as to not classify them in the same manner.

True Ending

A "true ending" is the ending which fits the author's vision for the work's proper ending. In media without multiple endings, the only ending is necessarily also the true ending, but, in media with multiple endings, only one of them can be the "true" ending. Sometimes, the author doesn't say which is the true ending, and it's up to the person experiencing the media to try to figure it out, although it's often obvious for those who understand the work. Some fiction will only have one good ending which usually doubles as the true ending, or, may have multiple good endings, with the true ending being one of them. For those writers who aren't afraid to end on a down note, they may create media where a bad ending is also the true ending.

Neutral Ending

Neutral endings are less common, usually because they're not very satisfying. In a neutral ending, the little bit of good that occurs is off-set by some bad as well. The major goals are met, but the villain doesn't prevail either. Because of this, some people view neutral endings as bad endings. Neutral endings act to remind the reader or player to try again and make better decisions next time.

Links

Link-Wikipedia.png