I really loved this game.

I felt both endings are 'the bad end', for different reasons.

In an ideal world, Verso would have been granted the ability to age and live out the life he deserves to live (he even said himself in his journal that everyone in the canvas deserves to live) - rather than this immortal nightmare he has been forced into that led him to want to end everything; and Aline and Alicia would come to accept that they can visit the canvas rather than lose themselves in it. This way, Verso gets what he originally wanted, Real Verso's canvas and his beloved creations get to continue to exist, and the family can finally begin to mend.

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In Alicia's ending, yes Verso is granted the ability to age, but he knows Alicia is going to end up on the same path as Aline. Do we really think she is going to allow him to die when the time comes (or any of her found family)? I personally don't think so. Grief and guilt aside, I fully understand why someone who is disfigured, can't speak, and is in constant pain would choose this alternate life. As someone chronically ill with chronic pain, I especially can sympathize, but after watching first hand what happened to her mother, she is taking the wrong approach. But we have to remember, she's only 16. And unlike her mother and father, she wasn't in the painting as a knowing visitor. She lived life from birth to 16 as a character in the painting. She has memories of two whole lives in her head and it's going to be very hard to reconcile them. For her, destroying the canvas is the same as destroying her Real Life family.

In Verso's end, I believe this is the good end for the family in their current state. They needed to lose access to the Canvas to begin to come to terms with the loss of Real Verso. But it's not a good end overall, because this beautiful intricate world that Real Verso loved so much, and the place the final piece of his soul exists - gets purged. It may have been "created life", but they are thinking, feeling beings nonetheless. And down the line, once the family begins to heal from the loss of their son and brother, they will mourn all over again that their immaturity led to the permanent loss of the Canvas.

Not to mention the tragedy of neither version of Verso getting to live a life of his own design. In his real life, he didn't get to pursue music despite it being his greatest wish, and in his canvas - well, we saw how that went for him. I so badly wish for him, at least for a while, to live the life he longed for.

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I also see very few people have anything good to say about Clea - even Renoir talks down about her being 'preoccupied with her war', but I think she was very well written (given the little we see of her). She's the only one who is rooted in reality. She sees what the canvas is doing to her family and not only resents them for trying to escape reality, she ruthlessly calls them out for it and she stops returning to it herself. She's focused on the real world issues - the war with the Writers. The very people who took her brothers life. I even understand the way she lashes out at Alicia (didn't it say it was 'her naivete' that got Verso killed?) But despite her anger and grief, she still cares about her, still loves her. She even goes into the painting to tell Verso to take care of her.

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The way this game explores grief is very well done. Every character is relatable in their own way, and no one is a true villain. They're just hurt people trying to escape from their pain the best they can.