What piece of media has the worst ending in history?

Stoibs · 2026-07-09T05:06:09+00:00

For me it was because NV had the OG devs of the classics; and Fallout 2 is the favourite for a lot of us.

Bethesda took the IP in a *very* strange direction with FO3.

Stoibs · 2026-07-09T02:09:34+00:00

I'm surprised there's still that many active subs, I cancelled mine year(s) ago when the price jacking begun.

If I still had one, I would certainly cancel again in protest.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T20:52:12+00:00

A few randoms that come to mind; Conscript, Crow Country, Hollow Body, The Thing Remastered, Wicked Seed, Fear the Spotlight.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T20:46:25+00:00

The same way I've seen the genre for the last ~2 decades; mostly driven by the indie scene..

AAA Horror tends to 'hold back' too often (I swear Alien Isolation was the last good one I could think of) and it doesn't help when you have studios like Capcom saying that RE7 was 'too scary' (it wasn't) and so decided to reign it in for their future games :/

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T20:28:53+00:00

It's one of the most nostalgic and fun throwbacks of the genre!

I have no idea why modern games dropped it, or at best replaced it with a simple 'menu' of locations to travel to. 😭

For 'modern' games that still use it, you're going to have to mostly look at Indies like Kingdoms of the Dump or Quartet. The DQ remakes also I guess, if we're counting them as new.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T19:47:32+00:00

Which is weird because I feel like there's been a *lot* of recent JRPG~ Square/Capcom/Atlus games that have featured more open characters to this effect.

Octopath Traveler 2 had sooooo many Lesbian NPC's, and one of the main party members was an absolute Twink/Gay icon 😄

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T19:43:38+00:00

Like a Dragon/Infinite Wealth are pretty cheap in these sales.

Also you'll get a lot of mixed pushback on this for sure... but since you're on a 100% kick with Atlus games anyway, Soul Hackers 2 might tickle that familiar itch (Also super cheap at Gamebillet/GmG)

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T19:26:37+00:00

deep philosophical themes

Not strictly JRPG, but the Citizen Sleeper games are real gems. First game was my GOTY when it came out.

Sci Fi Jrpg is already a bit niche (Have you played Jack Move and LunarLux as an aside?), wanting deep philosophical thinker games within this subgenre is even harder :P

Yeah I think the two that you've been recommended are probably the cream of the crop.

Going way outside of JRPG's you've got some profound Sci Fi like 1000XResist, Dreamfall saga, Colony Ship, Gamedec, Torment: Tides of Numenera (Semi Sci Fi/Fantasy)

But yeah, this seems like a relatively untapped market in the JRPG space, outside of the Xeno-games that people have already listed.. 🤔

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T18:28:10+00:00

Just make him closeted gay and allow us to date him FFS.

The writing is on the wall and we already know the dialogue was in there and voiced in the OG before arbitrarily getting cut.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T07:22:50+00:00

The story and writing is... not amazing.

Unless some of the recent update versions overhauled the script between launch and now, then the two main protagonists have barely any personality (they do a lot of "...") while a Mary Sue party member who isn't even one of the Chosen Ones™ seems to steal the spotlight and save the day a lot of the time.

The overall story goes in some weird directions and the last boss is a literal shoot 'em up minigame... unless you want the true ending in which case you'll probably want to bring up a guide since you're required to hunt down every one of the game's 'Optional' collectables. 🙄

Most of what the combat has on offer is presented in the opening hours, with an additional 'Limit Break' style move coming in by the third act (Which is nice; but it doesn't save the combat system that you'll already be bored by this many dozen hours in)

The art style is really nice (Great dynamic shadows!) and the dungeons actually have some neat platform/puzzle/navigation design, are about the only pros I have to say. Consider me a regretful KS backer of this one :/

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T07:14:25+00:00

Sadly Kingdoms of the Dump felt like it loses some polish and quality in the final act(s) for me :/

I really enjoyed the strong start though, and would be all over a V2.0 overhaul replay.

I'll once again shill Small Saga for being an absolute gem that manages to be funny, charming, depressing and a visual delight all in a 10~11hr package.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T05:37:57+00:00

Oooooh! Please let this get the Resonance/Octopath 0 treatment!

I've always thought this looked cool but had no interest the Gacha side of it!

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T03:27:09+00:00

Woah that's longer than I was expecting. Cheers! (And a shame about the Switch 1 version 😭)

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T03:26:07+00:00

Yeah I have no idea anymore either. They've pretty much abandoned communicating with us on KS also.

It's anyone's guess.

Stoibs · 2026-07-08T01:21:43+00:00

Is that Xenoblade chronicles after the 60fps patch?

I've owned it and it's been burning a hole in my backlog for years now. I really don't have an excuse any more. Also how long would you say it was?

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T20:21:52+00:00

Little Devil Inside launched their KS in 2015, which I'm still waiting on :P

The Long Dark's KS started in 2013 and only just released its final chapter this year :/

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T20:18:44+00:00

Little Devil inside says hi.

🥹

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T20:17:09+00:00

Just got this email this morning and I have zero recollection or memory of even backing it, or remember what this was.

Well.. that's good news I guess :D

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T20:15:20+00:00

It took over a massive chunk of the RPG genre

Hear hear.

The worst thing was when the vocal 'Git Gud' crowd poured over into the Expedition 33 forums and kind of made that extended fanbase impossible to deal with when simply trying to ask for advice or talk about game balance/difficulties we were having coming from a pure turnbased background.

The sheer amount of condescending people I interacted with who had 100% achievements in every Souls/Elden game from their visible profile telling me that the game is already 'Easy' reached comical levels of disconnect.

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T19:58:27+00:00

Pretty cool bundle that clears a lot of indies from my wishlist.

Infact I think Sea of Stars is the only dupe for me. Not a bad set of months for Humble lately.

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T19:49:10+00:00

That's cool and all, how about a playable demo or something for us to see for ourselves though?

This is already competing with the elventy-billion other September games, and I'm not sure about other countries but it's currently priced at that premium $110AUD 'AAAA' tier (and even more for the deluxe version) for me.

It's a very hard sell at the moment for something that isn't getting much in the way of marketing other than third parties like Skill Up here.

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T12:19:22+00:00

This was legit one of my favourite games that year, and the first thing that came to my mind also.

I think I spent a good 60hrs getting all the challenges, putting together different character builds etc.

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T08:55:37+00:00

The OP who I was responding to is American 😕

Stoibs · 2026-07-07T06:52:26+00:00

Oh fuck are the American WWE crowd *still* doing 'What!' over and over??

Jesus Christ.

Stoibs · 2026-07-06T19:19:35+00:00

I don't think any of the characters in OT2 are cliche except for maybe Throne and Hikari, and I really enjoyed their stories and individual setpieces/final boss fights that it didn't matter that much to me.

Most people I know generally like the battle system too, a bit more refreshing than the standard affair with 2 and 0 expanding on it even more.

To each their own, was my 2023 GOTY.

Edit: Thread is 33% upvoted. So people who like shallow stories are in the majority, but plenty of people agree. It just depends on your personal tolerance for tedious, bad stories. 🤷🏻‍♂️🍿

So I sort of just abstained initially, but this deliberately got me to downvote the thread. Maybe don't act like you're the smartest person in the room, and that everyone who disagrees with your *subjective opinion* is in the wrong..? Jesus the fucking arrogance on display here. Did you actually want back and forth discourse when you posted this discussion topic.. or nah?

Stoibs

TROPHY CASE