I would say that 13-2's Paradox Endings were also quite harsh. Like Serah forgetting who Lightning is, or especially the one where the AI program turns her and Noel into mindless drones.
@@deazee2288 Because everything lightning did leading up to the end of 13-3 was for Sarah She was Etros champion and turned to crystal after the end of part 2 to protect Sarah's soul. When she was awakened by the creator, he stole Sarah's soul to to bully Lightning into becoming his angel of death. So for Lightning to go through all that shit to save Sarah, for Sarah to forget who Lightning was is a huge Slap in the face
The "normal" ending for 13-2 was pretty harsh as well, Serah dying and the world mostly ending with a time crash, one could say it's even worse than some of the "bad" paradox endings.
To add to Episode Ignis' bad ending. The thing that makes this ending scary. When it zooms out to show both Ardyn and Ignis, the scene is bright and the voices are clear. But when it shows from Ignis's perspective, the scene is darkened and Ardyn's voice gets more muffled. We are literally watching Ignis dying through his own eyes...
Final Fantasy Tactics has such a sad Bad Ending. Everyone ends up hating on Ramza, Orran is burned at the stake for trying to spread the truth, Delita is stabbed and then stabs Ovelia because she simply couldn't trust him (and arguably him her; though there's contention on that), Ramza and Alma have to go into hi--.... what?.... _What do you mean the game only has one ending?!_
I am surprised this wasn't mentioned. The characters literally go into hell to destroy Ultima and they were branded as heretics and the church covered up the entire event.
The saddest ending for me is definitely the 13-2 Paradox Ending, Test Subjects. Not only did Sarah and Noel die fighting a endless army, their data was used to create copies that became slaves to the AI that fought. The copies also had some memories of their real life but got erased and reset after their mission completed. Worst the copies are used to enforce the AI's rule, making them digital Fal'Cie.
I expected Final Fantasy 13-2 to be mentioned here as it has many harsh paradox endings despite the original ending, which is also harsh. Like all what Noel and Serah have done was for nothing, which led to the start of Final Fantasy 13 Lightning Returns
13-2 should really be the game on here. Sure Lightning Returns has a brutal alternate ending if you fail, but 13-2 has multiple awful paradox endings, and the actual ending that you can't avoid also sucks.
13-2 lives rent free in my head for the special scene after you collect al, the Paradox thingies. Is it a scene with some hope? Maybe a hint for the Future No it's the big bad sitting on a throne indirectly taunting us about thinking we could somehow fix this.
Friendly reminder FFXV dlc's were not free on launch. They either required a season pass, or buying them individually. They were only "free" with the Royal edition.
Had the Dawn of the Future wave been fully released I’d imagine a new Royal Edition would have been issued, but as things stand Episode Ardyn still needs a separate purchase.
And it should be noted that if you live in Europe or Australia the Royal Edition is literally the exact same disc as the vanilla edition and the "free" DLC for the Royal Edition are single use voucher codes, so if your code's invalid or you need to reinstall the game for any reason you're shit out of luck.
I platinumed it long before they released the first additional story. So i never went back and as far as i'm concerned they sold me a half finished game with Hollow characters... bar Ignis, Ignis was cool.
@@TheGreatAmarant72 Agreed. I actually think FF15 is a worse game than FF13 (barely). I bought Royal Edition because I heard it fixes the story but I haven't been able to bring myself to play FF15 again.
FFX pulls off one of the hardest ending of any story format. You will save the world, but you do so knowing you won't come back from it and all your friends have to watch you go. Also you never really existed
Yea when I first beat the game, I cried after that ending for a week. When Tidus started disappearing I started crying. One of the saddest game endings ever.
The combination of FFX and FFX-2 were so awesome when I first saw the conclusion, but then I listened to the story that was written after X-2 when it was revealed Tidus never really returned, but was just a lesser part of his total self. Yuna and he couldn't remain in a romantic relationship due to their feelings changing and his insecurity due to his limitations being only created by pyreflies and not actually Tidus. It destroyed me.
@@knghtbrd he was a dream of the fayth in the first game, which I believe is different than an apparition created by pyreflies, although I could have misunderstood that.
@@reiddutchess9955 nah, I agree with that. Being something made up of "magic" versus being created by other people's souls makes me think that they're different technicalities.
I remember Krile’s ending in FF5 hitting like a truck because she lost everything, her family, her friends, and even her world is left almost unrecognizable and all this is while she’s like 12-13 years old
Furthermore, apparently at some point she has a massive headache from receiving a mental message. Krile had almost no downtime at all in the events of FF5.
It definitely isn't the worst ending but I get depressed thinking about FFXV's main story and ending. Like you lose your dad right after you give him a hug and tell him you love him, you lose your fiance like a minute after reuniting with her for the first time in roughly a decade, get thrown into the future where everything's gone to hell, and ultimately sacrifice yourself to kill your gruncle from ancient times. Noct and Luna being together in the afterlife felt super hollow after all that.
I remember playing X2 (my 1st FF) Getting a bad ending Replaying the game to get the good ending Doing so multiple times Gave up and watched a YT video
X2 was the bane of my existence back then, thanks to the RNG fest that was the tournament where you could win the mascot dress sphere. I must've tried countless times before I finally grew too frustrated and just gave up entirely.
It was a fun game, but was literally designed to sell the strategy guide. Getting the best ending involved pressing X randomly during a cutscene where there's no prompt to do so, and getting particular endings to a handful of random quests. There's no way anybody would find it just by playing the game normally.
@@ninjaconor86I actually did so and was definitely confused. I only pressed the button, because I was annoyed of running around alone and talking to myself. After a lot of runs I had to look up the missing parts. For example the quest with the special chocobo was tough, nobody tells you to send different level chocobos to find item and they also must not run away. Definitely a complicated game to reach 100%, but I did it.
World of FF's Bad ending was so good. The story went from been good to been 10/10. If only the whole game's story was like that and not just the last bit. I never got the good ending for Type-0 it's my intention to get it when I come to replay the game.
I'm guilty of triggering the Type-0 bad ending, the choice was too tempting not to try it at least. Luckily I could come back to the decision not that long after, I'd be very sad if I had to go way back (and I guess I had a not-so-perfect ending in FFV too, but I wasn't aware of it until later)
With Type-0 ending isn't there an ending where they didn't die? I remember them asking for another chance or something to the lady ...... ugh it's been a while since I beat that game left and right. Also, didn't know that ending in FFV was a thing xO
I also triggered the bad ending, but my reason was different. I had learned beforehand that Rem was going to become a l'cie during the endgame, and immediately thought that the choice there was that moment. Turns out I was horribly wrong there.
Because these were bad endings, as in not the good ending. These were secondary endings made to make the good endings look better. FF7's ending was just bad overall
What about FF16's ending? I was left with so many unanswered questions and most of all... the Flower that Tomes conserved for Dion! That killed me inside, I wanted to see him deliver that Flower!
Fun fact with X-2’s Vegnagun ending. The timer DOES hit zero immediately upon the party’s wipe out and the scene play. Had that happen once when I did a Creature Creator only run and mucked up, ending up in that fight with the girls by accident. I managed to beat the fight before it, but exhausted all my revives in the process.
It logically doesn't make any sense. By the time you reach that point of the game its already over. If you don't successfully stop Vegnagun the world is doomed. It only makes logical sense that being defeated by Vegnagun will result in the same ending as if you ran the timer out.
I know this doesn't count for the list because it is the standard ending and there are not multiple endings. But the ending of Final Fantasy 9 haunts me. Not the ending itself, but the vague implication that the merger of Gaia and Terra cannot be stopped. That the Iifa Tree is going to keep doing it's thing and there is no way to stop it.
@@vigo2669 Yep. Some of the Genomes live in the Black Mage Village on disc 4. Terra's gone gone, so the Iifa tree is just. There now. Plus the boss you beat was the soul conductor, which is why Garland had to come in on the ship and do it himself.
I'm curious as to why FF Tactics ending wasn't included in the list. Perhaps it doesn't quite fit the criteria for the video, as it's not an alternative "bad ending." Rather it's the actual/canonical ending that would give these "bad' endings a run for their Gil.
Thank you for adding Type-0 I really liked that game. I used to cosplay as Ace for certain events. I should stream the XIII series sometime, I liked those games.
I actually used to play Class Zero Tribal in the TCG before it died in the States, just so I could pretend that there was a timeline where they got to live. I mean it was a fun deck, and a decent midrange strategy. But the main reason was because . . . I dunno, I just always felt they deserved a happy ending.
@@seand7042 oh for sure, I understand that. But I think the point of this video is that it focuses on standalone titles with alternative endings based on how the game was played, not holistically (like the FF7 universe)
The only bad ending I can think of is if Sephiroth threw Zack at the edge of the Nibelheim Mako Reactor, literally says: If Sephiroth throws you at the edge, it's game over
I’ll stand with you on that hill. I like 7 but that ending was just horrible. We don’t know what happened to everyone and just see meteor and Aerith clashing then it just cuts to credits. Post credit we then see Red running with his kids and look at a destroyed Midgar like if the whole world was ruined. We really didn’t get an actual answer for what happened to them for like 8 years when the movie came out.
FF16 needs an honorable mention here too. Character deaths and magic is permanently removed from the world and basically becomes a stuff of a legend. It's a super sad ending.
I've seen all of these but Ignis dying alone... If you make a list based on comments, well? You've included Bravely Default before, and Bravely Default II's second bad ending made me bawl my eyes out to the point that I had to put my controller down for a bit and let myself sob. It has two bad endings. The first is bad and I felt bad, but the second one hit me so much more viscerally. I don't wanna spoil anything about it, but IYKYK.
I think Type-0 's true ending was not really "heroic" but rather "human" . And I'm not trying to say they're not heroes, but watching them confront their inevitable death, crying and screaming its a cruel reminder of our own mortality. A beautiful ending regardless
I guess comments were turned off after an hour but reply option is still available. So I'll type here, I truly believe FFX Intermission belongs here as sin does come back resulting in a continuation of an ending that is inherently bad
Even the happiest ending in type 0 is still depressing. I just wanted them to be happy and live a normal lives! The whole conversation of what they'd do afterwards, despite them all knowing it was never gonna happen gets me crying like a baby every time 😢
Strong disagree. 15’s ending was great and the intended ending for the DLC was generic garbage. Especially bad because selling a "true ending" as DLC is awful business practice by default.
@@KenjiShiratsuki To be a tiny bit fair...it was very clear both Ardyn and Noctis were Jesus architypes, especially Ardyn 😂. I do wish the ending had allowed both to live, though.
The FFXIII Bad Ending is actually a good ending because XIII's world is trash. Didn't know X-2 had a bad ending because I had enough care for it to get 100%
Can't a character lost in the Void in 5 come back? My first playthrough saw Bartz KOd at the end and he was returned in a cutscene later. Is this not the case for all characters?
Oh, I thought this was gonna be about how some of the endings in the series are bittersweet at best, like 6, Tactics and 15. I mean, if you stop to think about it, the world is still basically screwed at the end of 6 - magic is gone forever, and the land itself is STILL dying, they just don't have to deal with Kefka accelerating the decay anymore. It's a Pyrrhic victory. Tactics was similarly gruesome in while Ramza is shown to have survived, he is completely forgotten while Delita is murdered for his sins and Olan is burned at the stake as the Church tries to hide the truth of it all leading to more wars. Can't forget 11 and 14 either, specifically Wings of the Goddess and Shadowbringers/Endwalker...
No, una vez muere kefka la tierra se regenera, se puede ver en los créditos como empiezan a surgir brotes. No será fácil, pero la tierra se recuperará.
FF X-2 was fun, but lack characters and when you find out your looking for someone who looked like Tidus but wasn't made me very upset. The gameplay is good and so are the characters but lacked a great story so I have only replayed once and maybe one day again but probably not after that. FF X was 10x better
You do find Tidus by the end but you must be able to accept that there are others who are hurting just as much as you. Or even worse. And amending it. Least Yuna got to live.
I skipped to V because some of these I haven't gotten to yet. Wow, all my characters lived in V and I never knew about the alternate ending. That caught me completely off guard.
Same... I've never actually experienced it and never even knew this was a thing. I'm always max level and stats by the time I get to the end, so I blew through the battles.
its different alternate endings, they mostly simialer, but it all dipends on who lives in the final fight. you can have Bartz, Lena, Ferris, Krile/Bartz, lena, ferris/Bartz Lena Krile/Bartz Ferris Krile/ Lenna Krile Ferris/ Bartz Lenna/Bartz Ferris/Bartz Krile/Lenna Ferris/Lenna Krile/ Ferris Krile/ Bartz/Lenna/Ferris/Krile. they all have differant endings.
Hot take: I prefer X-2's second-worst ending where Yuna gives up on trying to save Tidus. First off because 100%ing the game is a pain, and it means the awful audio drama never happens, but also because Yuna growing as a person and learning what she needs, rather than getting what she wants, and making her own identity that doesn't involve her imaginary boyfriend she knew for a couple weeks, is much more impactful to me.
I remember hating the normal X-2 ending as a kid, but as an adult I respect it much more now that I've lived through tragedy. The normal ending is just that: a decision to grow up and stop living in the past, which is exactly what Yuna needed.
I kinda hate when the main ending is the bad ending, like in the FF15 for example, this completely takes away players choice and don't reward our journey. FF kinda loves to pull of that crap and I'm sick of it.
If I recall correctly, the plan was always to release more episodes and then have a final one, which would be the True ending. However, due to the fallingouts, that never came to be.
Huh. Hmmm, I thought FF4, TAY's was gonna include Golbez too. Cause for years I heard that if you don't have the correct party he dies against DK Cecil at one point in the final chapter. The ending would be the characters at his grave after going through everything else without him. Something like that. Makes me wonder if anyone's posted it online over the years.....
I appreciate the use of glitches to defeat ex-death in the footage, but I do have to question the addition of FF5 here at all. No matter who gets left behind in the void, they return in the end.
I didn't even know the Nuke Ending in FF X-2 existed, that's INSANE Also I kinda wish we would've gotten to see all the cancelled DLC for FF15 (and that FF15 had been a complete, well written game with no hastily conceived ending arc on launch) i bet episode Luna would've had some real tearjerkers for the bad endings from what the novelisation had, it's a shame that the team wasn't given enough time to actually complete the game and the crunch drove tabata to leave the company, causing squeenix to just cancel the rest of the planned DLCs
Thought would of added 6's a little. Worlds basically screwed after the guy gains ultimate power. True atlest kill him but the worlds lost like 80% and you could loose cid i think was and watch the girl drop to her almost death.
Honestly, the worst thing about 15’s endings is that even with all the dlc, dawn of the future didn’t become the true ending. The in game ending leaves everything so bitter.
The first (and only) time i finished FF15 i felt like i missed something and got the "default" ending you get when your lazy and dont look for anything. When i learned that was the only ending, i didn't feel like going through the game again.
it drives me crazy that im the only one who can see the nuance at the end of final fantasy 7 making it the most tragic and beautiful ending you could ever ask for. i dont care that it blew up in popularity to the point they had to retcon their heavily implied yet not spelled out to you like a baby ending so they can turn a quick buck on fanboys like me. the fact is, all humans died at the end of final fantasy 7. 4 big reasons for this. 1 - it was mentioned in the final cutscene that the planet would have to decide whether or not to keep humans around as a species. 2 - the only character you see after the credits is the only non human character 3 - midgar has seen no human presence for hundreds of years. such an important city would have some reconstruction. 4 - *the most definitive piece of evidence i have* there is a developer for the game in an issue of egm that stated directly that all humans died. i have been fighting this battle for almost 30 years. i dont know why its so hard to understand. yes they made later shit but none of that is cannon to the original final fantasy 7. having the ending thats heavily implied, thats some really really deep and heavy stuff. i dont think any game or movie has had such and impactful ending.
i've played & completed FF X - 2 over *11 times over* & i never got the Destruction of Spira Ending from the game not telling about the invisible countdown timer before u reached & went after VegnaGun. i mean yeah u *were spoofed* that it had 1, but it *kept it well hidden* before u knew it.
Who cares about canon? They dont call these endings true endings in game and most of these games dont have sequels or developer interviews stating which ending happemed so theres as much evidence they are the true ending as well.
I've cried at the end of two video games: Kingdom Hearts as an 8 year old and Type-Zero as a 22 year old. Granted, Persona 3 hit me so hard I couldn't even cry.
After FFXVI, I was actually a little bit angry at the dev team of SquareEnix. It felt like they were piling tragedy on tragedy. If I have one critique after over two decades of amazing games it’s that I’m tired but sadness. This is just my sentiment of course. FF games likely wouldn’t be Final Fantasy if they were different. So fair is fair. 😅 Here’s to a more cheerful FFXVII whenever it may come. 😋
On one hand, yes, all the leaders were vying for power or were driven mad (including Clive and Ultima). On the other hand, nothing was really solved save the fact that humanity lives beyond Ultima’s magic system.
@@iantaakalla8180Magic being off the table means the class system that disadvantaged Branded is gone, and people at the Hideout have been working on ways to live without the Crystals. Yes, society will need to be overhauled but the centres of power have already been toppled and leaders eliminated, so it was on the cards anyway.
@@jbcatz5 I don't disagree that the people who were branded may have a better life for a time, but usually, sadly, humanity has had a tendency to fall into the same sort of trap every time, using a group of people they consider lesser as their "slaves" until it suddenly is changed, and the tables are turned, and that often leads to the ones who were slaves to become slavers of their own kind as well. I hope and pray that we are or will be beyond that soon enough, but that is an interpretation of humanity that I currently hold.
crisis core my guys ;--; you KNOW whats going to happen. its inevitable otherwise FF7 wouldnt happen. but they still make you go through it anyway. and its such a horrendous desperate solo battle while you watch your limit break start to deteriorate and glitch out as the fight continues against an endless supply of enemies. they coulda just given us the usual offscreen cutscene they usually use for this particular piece of lore...but no. square enix wanted to be extra sadists XD
