[spoiler]Based on what you said, I’m gonna guess that you haven’t been up Mt. Gagazet yet. If I’m wrong, correct me. Anyway, once you get to Zanarkand, it becomes pretty obvious that Auron is as central as Tidus or Yuna–in fact, you could make a case that he is the central character of FFX, the romantic aspects of Tidus and Yuna notwithstanding. In fact, the more I think about it, the more inclined I am to agree with this. Remember, cycles are at the heart of FFX (Spira -> spiral, yes?), and Auron was involved the last time Sin was defeated.
While the other four characters are definitely important to the plot, they aren’t as important as the main three. And while Kimahri may not seem important, he played a major role in events that happened before Tidus came to Spira.[/spoiler]
The main character you play ends up dying at the end of the game. And to top it all off of the two humans who manage to escape the ship one of them harbors the artifical intelligence SHODAN who you’ve gone through all the trouble of destroying.
Marc
I really wish they’d come out with another System Shock game.
They still might make another, just not anytime soon.
I don’t remember the main character dying… the bit with SHODAN was a real aw crap moment though, 'specially as I’d been following Tommy and Rebecca’s escape throughout the game.
King Quest VII- If you don’t give the extra life to the Prince (you have some seconds to do it), his soul leaves his body and he’s dead for sure. Instead of a happy ending movie with the Prince asking Rosella to marry him, you get Titania and Oberon saying to Rosella and Valanice that they will send them back home, and the carriage is a black swan…
Never played Torment, but the premise of an immortal character fighting for th right to die was used nearly a decade ago in an obscure Sega Genesis platformer called Chakan: The Forever Man. I only remember the game because of the great setup.
True, but it wasn’t meant to be. He was a hunter of evil and she was pocessed by an evil spirit and the leader of a huge crime syndicate. As sad as it was, the greater good was served.
I don’t remember the details, but the Super Nintendo beat-'em-up game NinjaWarriors Return end with your character overthrowing the bad guys … only to see the folks you helped return to power eventually become just as corrupt and evil in their place.
Classic old game for the old black-and-white Macintosh: Beyond Dark Castle. At the end of the last level, you face the Dark Knight. If you defeat him, your character is then transformed into the new Dark Knight.
FFX was a downer. But I’m really glad Square had the balls to do it. I figured out what was going to happen, and I was really, really hoping that Square would follow through with it.
I was so angry at the end of FFVII—we played all that time and that’s what we get? That was the big pay-off? It made me so angry that I won’t replay it (I replay every game, I love replay).
BTW, both Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger have multiple endings–some better than others.
The expansion (Opposing Force) was worse. You don’t even get a choice. You defeat the bad guys (the end boss was pretty cool, although anti-climactic), and then you’re left floating out in the interdimensional void for all eternity. Wee.
Actually, the whole Diablo series has a sense of Pyrrhic victories. Not only does the hero of the first game harbor, and eventually lose himself to, Diablo, but at the end of Diablo 2 you’ve killed two of the brothers, Mephisto and Diablo, and allowed the third to escape. You finally nail him in the expansion set Lord of Destruction, but even then the Worldstone has been corrupted and must be destroyed, and the fate of Sanctuary is left pretty much up in the air. Tyrael gets some pretty cool music, though.
Silent Scope 2 - Not only have the snipers still not worked out their differences, when they go their separate ways, Laura has to pick one right then and there. And that’s it. We never find out if Falcon’s getting back with her, if Jackal’s finally going to relent and accept “legitimate” work, etc.
Klonoa - He saves the world he’s sent to, becomes a hero…then is whisked away, never to return. We don’t even have a clue as to why this happens.
Riven - After spending an absolute eternity opening pathways and learning the endless minute ins and outs of this world (whoever came up with that asinine number system should be shot), and finally saving Catherine and the Riven people…the entire world of Riven perishes. And you NEVER have any use for ANY of the information you learned EVER AGAIN.
Police 911 - The crooks are only arrested, meaning that they’ll live to wreak havoc another day. (“Damn these new politically correct guns!”)
Aero Fighters - Utter humiliation, an ungrateful public, a horrible mishap, frustration, pain, or death. Take your pick.
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time - If you get anything but the best possible result, Agent Carson dies violently. Plus Europe is now in the grip of evil.
Dynasty Warriors - Soon, a multitude of foreign powers will kick the stuffing out of China and carve it up like turkey, so in the end, all these petty internal squabbles don’t amount to a hill of dim sum.
…okay, so I’m not a huge fan of downer games. So sue me.
[spoiler]Actually, I’m about to try to enter Sin - for the second time. This damn game has too many ‘no save instakill’ spells. Bad DMing.
Yeah, I know Auron’s every bit as important as Tidus and Yuna. And I can completely understand your selecting them as the Big Three.
What I’m disagreeing with is the idea that Wakka, Rikku and Lulu are less import than them. Just a difference of opinion, probably aided by the fact that Lulu and Rikku are my favourite characters in the game (Followed by Yuna and Auron, then Tidus, then Wakka and Khimari.) So, my suspicion that Auron the Unsent was, in fact the other one to go byebye (along with Tidus the Non-existant), was correct, then?
Oh - and I don’t think Khimari really was that important just due to his acts before the game opens. His most important act, IMO, was bringing Yuna to…crap…Wakka and Lulu’s town, whatever it was called - but he did that at Auron’s suggestion, and you could easily re-write that bit to make it Auron himself that did it.
after flying all over everywhere, you do a kamakazi dive into the moon. which solves all the world’s problems. derr… mabey not a good message “crashing planes into important buildings will fix things”
After working your ass off to dig a water chip from the radioactive decayed ruins of another vault, after fighting off bandits and raiders and slavers and eventually defeating an entire army of mutants, after all the misadventures and people you had to kill and let die to save your society -
the Overseer decides that you’ve become “corrupted by the outside world” and kicks you out into the desert. Thanks a lot.
Wing Commander 1 ends with you in disgrace, doesn’t it?
Diablo 2 (before the expansion) ends up with the guy who told the story begging forgiveness from someone who he thought was an angel. Instead its a demon, who kills him.
Syndicate. For its time of release, one of the most impressive introduction sequences a computer game has had. A satisfying swath of ultraviolence taking over the entire world, and an astonishingly frustrating usually-final mission (although technically, you didn’t have to hit the Atlantic Accelerator last). And the reward for defeating every other syndicate was…the exact same shot of your control blimp over a cheering crowd welcoming their new overlords, that faded to grey and credits.
System Shock 2 was disappointing primarily because it simply clinched the feeling that they’d really fumbled most of the ending arc to the game. I had never even thought of being disappointed in FFVII, because taking out Sephiroth with omnislash-as-coup-de-grace was so viscerally satisfying.
Quest For Glory 4 ends with your enemy Ad Avis, killing your other enemy (Katrina) enemy, who repents at the last second to save you. Then, the wizardess Erana sacrifices herself to finally banish an evil demon. God, thats one of the best games ever.
Quest For Glory 5 has a bunch of possible endings:
You sacrifice yourself, this Frankenstein with a heart of gold sacrifices himself, or one of a few other heros, including the newly resurrected, hugely powerful wizardess (Erana) who you can love, sacrifice themselves. Or, this is my favorite: you can cast a spell which detonates a thermonuclear explosion. I’m not making this up.
Hitman 47 ends with you killing a clone army of yourself and your creator (you’re a clone too) and then leaving. Nothing upbeat about it.
Phantasmagoria ends with your husband being possessed, and you have to kill him. That game sucked!
I really wish they’d come out with another System Shock game.
