... Is That It? (Anti-Climactic Games)

[Edward_Elric]

In Persona 3 where you verse Nyx, not the Nyx Avatar with the 13 phases, but Nyx the egg. I expected so much more epicness from the bringing of the end and death, not a god damn egg surrounded by weird webbing. The idea of the protagonist exhausting his very soul to save humanity while hes able to hear the people supporting him is pretty epic, and done well in this case... but Nyx was an egg that shot shock waves at you. I know that a shock wave is all that it takes to kill a man, but really? Hell. Nyx was in Nocturne and she had a physical body, why change that, especially after the epic boss battle you had with the avatar?

[Remy]

@Nathan: I had an idea but the more I think about it, the stupider it sounds...

??? The credits rolled after that. Am I missing something? I've 100%ed the game according to the stats and the achievement ._.

Did you do the revenge part? A lot of people miss it so I presumed you may have too. I thought that part of the ending was awesome

In Persona 3 where you verse Nyx, not the Nyx Avatar with the 13 phases, but Nyx the egg. I expected so much more epicness from the bringing of the end and death, not a god damn egg surrounded by weird webbing. The idea of the protagonist exhausting his very soul to save humanity while hes able to hear the people supporting him is pretty epic, and done well in this case... but Nyx was an egg that shot shock waves at you. I know that a shock wave is all that it takes to kill a man, but really? Hell. Nyx was in Nocturne and she had a physical body, why change that, especially after the epic boss battle you had with the avatar?

Dude! The music was friggin awesome and the whole surviving on one HP before you own that mother in the end was epic enough to make up for it.

Nyx was kind of a wasted chance for an awesome monster design though, I agree.

[Glenn]

I hate to say it, but my favourite videogame of all time has an unbalanced ending.

You spend the penultimate level doing battle with the Soviet version of a Harrier Jump Jet inside a massive subterranean cargo elevator shaft, missiles flying everywhere and a minigun threatening to slice you in half every minute. It truly is exciting, dramatic and oh-so-overblown.

Then the final level is a relatively straightforward run-and-gun affair. When you reach the properly-final boss, it takes two shots to kill him. And you don't even have to do anything like dodge a counter-attack, you just shoot. Twice. With a rocket launcher. Done. And if that wasn't awful enough, the cutscene following that final battle (designed to conclude the story and wrap everything up nicely) is about twenty seconds makes almost no sense whatsoever.

But then who said James Bond had to make sense, eh?

[The Tenth Doctor]

Did you ever play the Futurama game? It just goes right back to the beginning of the story thanks to all the time travel. Darn, that game annoyed me. Love the series, not like the game.

Also Sonic Unleashed. QTE to beat the final boss. Look of annoyance.

Don't get me started on my least favourite game of all time "Fantastic 4, Rise of the Silver Surfer". You beat Doctor Doom and the Surfer says "I'll go stop Galactus". He flies away, your done. No explanation, no mission as the surfer, zilcho.

[Scott]

I can finally let this out....

Crackdown 2: After defending the Agent Tower from hordes of infected agents the game cuts to a CGI clip of some woman trying to attack the tower with a helicopter, so the Agent (you) uses the suit to glide down towards the helicopter to (wait for it...) get sliced up by the helicopter's blades, then it cuts to the woman in a lab, she goes to get something, revealing your choped up hand that her ass was blocking view of....The End.

Also, Halo 2, it was just shit, but IMO I see it as the worst halo game in the series.

[No more]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the GBA was a disappoint in the end with the Basalisk, you would expect a food boss battle but it was terrible and easy as heck!

[Thrippa]

The most anticlimactic computer game I've ever played was also my first : Adventure. (Sometimes called Microsoft Adventure, also referred to as Colossal Caves Adventure.) It may have been partly my fault; it took me so long to REACH the end that I blew it up into something it wasn't - but . . .

The guide explained the basic gameplay and noted that there were thirteen treasures to recover before reaching 'the end game'. It even announced that you would know you had reached 'the end game' when you saw the following on the screen (yes, it was a text game): "A sepulchre voice rings through the tunnels: 'The caves will be closing in two minutes.'" I could not find the last treasure. I knew what it was, knew (approximately )where it was supposed to be, and spent months trying to map out the maze of twisty little passages, but could never find the last treasure. FIFTEEN YEARS later I finally found a hint book in the store that had the map and revealed that in one single spot in the maze you could go diagonally. Race home, pop in the game, now copied to a 3 1/2 floppy since no one had 5 1/4-inch drives anymore - I'm FINALLY going to get to the end game! - dash into the maze, weave through to the right room and sure enough - the final step was northeast - and there's the treasure! I grab it, leave the maze and get the sepulchre voice! And . . . . And . . . I'm in a huge cave full of magic wands with rusty stars on one end, empty bird cages, and assorted non-treasure paraphernalia. The huge cave has two 'rooms', one end with rusty-star wands, and one with rusty-mark wands, no exits. By moving a rusty-mark wand to the opposite end of the cave, there's a big explosion and all the elves, dwarves etc. rush in and cheer. The end.

I spent several minutes staring at the screen, thinking "That's IT? That's 'the end game' I waited fifteen years to see?"

[Vertekins]

I thought that Sonic 1's Good Ending was underwhelming.

Sonic runs through GHZ surrounded by his little animal buddies until he gets to a specific place. He lets the emeralds into the air and what do they do? There's no fancy light show, no cutscene depicting Eggman's presence being wiped from the Island. Nope....

Flowers bloom into bud-like ones. And Sonic looks around as if it's the most shocking thing to have ever happened on South Island.

I was like "0_o;;" All those hard Special Stages just for THAT!? And a mildly amusing and gratifying shot of the Doctor jumping up and down on "END" in a bad-tempered way. The Game Gear's Good Ending made more sense because it clearly depicted the Island being cleaned of Eggman's pollution and the credits run was cooler because it showed Sonic singing Possible remnant of the Sonic Band that was supposedly intended to be included in the sound test of the MD version?

Fighting Majora's Mask with the Fierce Deity Mask was hilarious in it's anti-climatic-ness. You can beat the thing in less than a minute with Z-Targetting and a good few presses of the B Button. The credits run is only awesome if you've attained all of the masks because it depicts scenes including characters that are connected to specific masks. Without masks, all you get are black backgrounds depicting masks that you haven't attained yet.

[Saint Nathan]

Did you do the revenge part? A lot of people miss it so I presumed you may have too. I thought that part of the ending was awesome

I think that was what we was talking about, because that's the ending duel. The one before isn't a duel it's just a dead-eye section.

[Agent York]

Also, the final boss of Dead Space. Not that it wasn't amazing, but it just felt weird. You're about to escape, running for your life and then BAM giant necromorph better fight it

Dead Space 2 had a super kickass final boss, but DS1 was just "nerp guess we gotta do SOMETHING for the end"

I actually will disagree, partly because the giant Necromorph didn't just come out of nowhere. It is mentioned all throughout the game in files, in conversation, and is VERY important to the plot. That is the cause of the whole outbreak, it was sealed inside the planet and is the anti-Necromorph to the Marker. The Marker was sealed on the planet to seal that thing with it, and it attacking you at the end of the game is Isaac facing the source of the outbreak, the mother of those Necromorphs with wings that bring the dead back and was formed when scientist tried remaking the Marker. However, if you didn't pick up on this, I understand how you might think it's just a random giant Necromorph.

Recently FEAR 3 had this effect on me, the ending level, while a cool change of pace as a stand alone level, is NOT a good final level. I didn't even realize it was the final level or ending until after the credits were playing. The level was way to short and there weren't even any enemies (besides one that stalks you), the final boss happened randomly and was a big disappointment, there was several plot holes, and it just seemed to have ended abruptly.

I really wish I could kick-trigger my memory since I know there was way more of this happening to me, but I can't think of anything off the top.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Dusk Golem

[Swiss]

I'd also have to say that unfortunately, Ms. 'Splosion Man's final boss fight was very "is that it?".

The whole fight is an excellent throwback to Punch-Out!!, but that's it. I thought, "WOW, that was such an unexpectedly excellent intro to the final boss, now for the real thing...but no. The whole fight is literally 3 or 4 stages of Punch-Out!! style levels. Then the game ends.

[Saint Nathan]

I actually will disagree, partly because the giant Necromorph didn't just come out of nowhere. It is mentioned all throughout the game in files, in conversation, and is VERY important to the plot. That is the cause of the whole outbreak, it was sealed inside the planet and is the anti-Necromorph to the Marker. The Marker was sealed on the planet to seal that thing with it, and it attacking you at the end of the game is Isaac facing the source of the outbreak, the mother of those Necromorphs with wings that bring the dead back and was formed when scientist tried remaking the Marker. However, if you didn't pick up on this, I understand how you might think it's just a random giant Necromorph.

I thought the cause of the outbreak was The Marker itself?

But no, I actually do remember it being mentioned once, but I think I missed that part, yeah.

Still totally prefer the DS2 final boss though.

[\gunther]

While No More Heroes 2 isn't a what I'd call bad game by any means, it lacked some of the "oomph" that its prequel had, especially when comparing the final bosses in both games.

In the first one, the final boss was a match between two equals (

) It was an unexpected fight that was followed by a lot of twists and mindfucks. I liked it.

The second game's final boss was who you'd expect, no twists or anything, and his final form was just easy. Not to mention that the ending... wasn't as satisfying as the multitude of asspulls that the first game had.

Also, Bat Jr. didn't have a sexy Irish accent.

[Octarine]

If we're talking about endings as a whole and not just final bosses*, then Knights of the Old Republic II has to be the worst offenders I've encountered.

It's one of the more notorious examples of a game ruined by rushed development, I know, but most of the game is honestly not that bad. There are plenty of bugs and plot threads that go nowhere and a general absence of difficulty, but it's clear that a lot of love was put into it in the time that was available. The whole thing's a bit of a mess, but it's still one of my favourite RPGs ever... until the last tenth of the game, at least. A collossal amount of content was cut from KotOR II's ending, and the result, particularly the very final sequence on Malachor 5, is probably the most bizarre trainwreck of a conclusion I've ever seen in a game that wasn't trying to be weird on purpose.

When you crash-land the Ebon Hawk on the planet, your entire party disappears with no explanation and most of them are never seen again. The only way to glean whether they're even still alive is to grill the final boss about it. In fact, there's virtually no dialogue on Malachor 5 at all, leaving you basically no idea of what's going on except that Sith bad, Exile smash! Most of the gameplay consists of wading through bland corridors filled with hundreds of incredibly weak Dark Jedi, except for the bit where you're inexplicably forced to play as Bao-Dur's remote droid (imagine if Eggmanland included a segment where you have to play as Chip. It's kind of like that) and suddenly the game is the hardest it's ever been. There's also a subplot that comes out of pretty much nowhere involving HK-47 and G0-T0 having a showdown over whether or not the planet's going to be destroyed, which is kind of a big deal but has nothing to do with what the player character's up to. Once you've defeated the final boss, the suddenly-repaired Ebon Hawk comes out of nowhere to save you from the exploding planet (no indication of who's piloting it, of course), whereupon it flies off into the distance and the credits roll. What.

*On that note, though: while the last couple of bosses are actually fairly decent, Darth Nihilus is seriously pathetic. The guy's basically the most powerful being in all of Star Wars canon and the main feature of the game's cover; the Exile has a special advantage against him, sure, but he should be able to survive more than three rounds of combat.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Octarine

[SuperStingray]

My top 10 most anticlimactic games:

10. Dead Space - I don't feel like anything was accomplished. The marker wasn't properly returned, I was pointlessly betrayed (as games tend to do now), and everyone around me died. The rest of the story was good though, and at least the last boss was alright.

9. Amnesia: The Dark Descent - The villain was a frightening, looming threat for most of the game, so revealing him as a floating, naked old guy killed by knocking down the magic artifact of the day kind of takes away the tension.

8. Shadows of the Damned - It's actually kind of the opposite problem most cliffhanger games have in that all the actual story happens at the end- most of the game is a linear obstacle course between point A and point B. You can't say there isn't any build up since the bad guy's castle is looming over you the whole game and visions of your damsel in distress haunt you, but 95% of the story's presence is just build up, so it just couldn't living up to that, kind of like the sixth season of Lost.

7. Halo 2 - The devil who started this mess of abrupt, sequelhook endings. I don't anything against cliffhangers, but the game's story has to at least stand on its own. Empire Strikes Back has the luxury of being able to get away with having no real beginning or end because important things to the greater story happen in it. The Halo Trilogy is more like a cross country train ride from LA to New York, the most important parts being in the first and last thirds with the middle being nothing but corn and Christianity. Yes, 2 prophets die, but the third is the only one that matters. Yes, a Halo is destroyed, but you destroy the rest in the third anyway.

6. Sonic Chronicles - The game was insubstantial already. At least the subtitle indicated it was going to be a part of a series, so I could forgive it for a cliffhanger, but a series usually involves more than ONE GAME.

5. Vanquish - I'm torn on saying the ending was a disappointment since there wasn't any real story to begin with. You learn more about the characters from their expositional text on the loading screens than the actual game or even cutscenes. But whatever, the game kicked ass, so I can't complain.

4. Dark Void - Same as Vanquish; no build up, an abrupt conclusion. I feel like there's so much in the game universe they wanted to build on but didn't get the chance to.

3. Duke Nukem Forever - I'd be more lenient if not for the fact it should have been out 10 years ago. I understand that it couldn't live up to all those years in development, but they could at least have made the ending conclusive rather than just leaving on a helicopter ride and a sequel hook. And it was just salt in the wound that the last boss was just a rehash of the first with virtually no change other than a different environment and a different set of weapons. Seriously, the nerve.

2. God of War II - Same problem. In fact, Yahtzee put it best that God of War III only existed because God of War II didn't end right. It could have all ended then and there if Zeus didn't kick Kratos off Olympus. Not that GoW III wasn't fun, but it didn't need to be a trilogy.

1. The Conduit - It was a mediocre game overall, but it didn't even really have an ending. You leave a room, and the credits come on. That's really as anticlimactic as you get.

[Edward_Elric]

Dude! The music was friggin awesome and the whole surviving on one HP before you own that mother in the end was epic enough to make up for it.

Nyx was kind of a wasted chance for an awesome monster design though, I agree.

[Shiluku]

I'd also have to say that unfortunately, Ms. 'Splosion Man's final boss fight was very "is that it?".

The whole fight is an excellent throwback to Punch-Out!!, but that's it. I thought, "WOW, that was such an unexpectedly excellent intro to the final boss, now for the real thing...but no. The whole fight is literally 3 or 4 stages of Punch-Out!! style levels. Then the game ends.

[Remy]

Thankfully the true final boss in P4 was way better and you could actually die from it.

Yeah, that thing was crazy in P4. So epic.

Nyx Avatar is really the "last boss" when you think about it, the egg fight is basically a glorified cut-scene

[Sean]

Nyx Avatar took me well over an hour, I really didn't want another proper fight after that.

[Remy]

Nyx Avatar took me well over an hour, I really didn't want another proper fight after that.

I think it was more time consuming then difficult, too. As long as you have a decent set of Personas it's not like you're in any real risk of death.

still love the game