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Do You Prefer Happy Endings Or Bittersweet/More Realistic Endings?


LemiusK

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On 3/22/2019 at 5:42 AM, Acrylic7 said:

Personally I think any ending type can be good as long as it was done right. There should not be only one ending type that can satisfy us, especially since most visual novels or games or books can only have so much variations of the same theme story.

For example, 2 visual novels with the same theme can have different endings and both can be satisfying as long as it was done correctly.

I agree that true ending doesn't mean it is the best ending. For me, I prefer Suikoden 2 best ending in which Riou get Rune of Beginning and lead Dunan rather than Riou and Jowy going on journey together. 

The tricky part is having different heroines. What if you liked a specific heroine and she had a dogshit ending. She just left the protagonist because a difference in ambitions or some petty argument, while all the other heroines had relatively happy endings? Well, i'm pretty sure people would be dissatisfied with that heroine, and pretty angry if that was the heroine they liked the best. A typical moege or charage should thematically have the same type of endings. 

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I like the ending that makes the story feel complete without feeling like it cheated the reader by making up random stuff or by shortcutting to get to that ending. For example (Heavy grisaia series spoilers) 

Spoiler

[The Eden of Grisaia's "happy end" was in all honesty, really weird and felt inconclusive with every character living together on an island and getting along perfectly with no problems; however the "normal end" in which Yuuji becomes Heath Oslo, is much more satisfying and honestly fits the story a lot better.]

 

Edited by NoSanity
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17 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

The tricky part is having different heroines. What if you liked a specific heroine and she had a dogshit ending. She just left the protagonist because a difference in ambitions or some petty argument, while all the other heroines had relatively happy endings? Well, i'm pretty sure people would be dissatisfied with that heroine, and pretty angry if that was the heroine they liked the best. A typical moege or charage should thematically have the same type of endings. 

What I mean is 2 visual novel (2 different games), not the same game with different routes.

Anyway, based on my experience, no matter how many heroines visual novel games have, there will be the main one. And the story will give more weights for the main heroine. That's a given. Personally for me, if I don't really like the ending but I like the heroines, then I will just pretend that ending never exist. 

That's just for me. Everyone is different though. 

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On 19/3/2019 at 3:41 AM, Nandemonai said:

The entire point of Persona 3's story is how one finds meaning in one's life, given the inevitability of death.  That's why all the FES and P3P stuff about saving folks is non-canon.  That's why they might engage in shenanigans to allow the P3 protag to show up in (say) Persona Q, but they'll always arrange it to be temporary shenanigans.

Setting him free can never happen on-screen.  The closest they will come is setting Elizabeth on a path to gain her own Fool arcana, so she can become a client of the Velvet Room.  We know what she wants from such an arrangement.  She wants him back.  They can say 'Perhaps, someday, but the road will be long and arduous' and maybe even imply she'll succeed eventually.  But he will never just show up again saying 'Hi everybody!'

Letting him cheat death would cheapen the point of the story.

I really dont care about the point of the story. They made the answer to give some kind of closure to the cast but that doesnt include the many social link characters affected with his death, they get no closure so i want him back. Besides the series always talks about how humanity can improve, you can see that by demons coming back in P5 since humanity's conciousness improved which is why Shadows (The enemies not the ones representing a particular human) dissapeared or how the fog in the TV world (Part of humanity's conciousness) dissapeared, they can always use that to say that humanity's desired for death no longer makes Erebus bring Nyx.

I mean this is a series where reality can be shaped at will (Nyarlathotep making rumors real) or an entire new timeline can be created (Philemon creating a new universe to compensate for allowing Nyarlathotep destroying the current one). ATLUS seems to love pandering to their audience so im sure all of these setups are to bring him back.

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As for ATLUS, I would say that their pandering seems to related to the fact that their main company about to face bankruptcy back at 2013. So understandably they need to milk their franchise as much as possible, although in the end the main company still face bankruptcy though. It's good for them though now that they still can operate, although we may need longer time to see the Persona game where Persona 3 MC revived though.

For the topic, well it's depend. I mean the most ideal one would be that as long as the ending suitable in a way, whether it's happy or bittersweet. Then again, each writer did have their own set of standard so it's quite hard to judge here. By standard I man that each writer may hold different meaning of the suitable ending that the fans want, so the fans might not be agree of what the writer defined as suitable ending. As for Rakuen's ending, I'll try to talk about it below.

Spoiler

I think I can say that even their single heroines in Kajitsu would be more suitable for Yuuji here compared to Rakuen's true ending, regardless of what people think in regard of Kajitsu's heroines ending. The reason is simple, it's because Yuuji finally managed to live on contently to a degree in which it would be what Asako's wishes, while in Rakuen from what I see apparently Yuuji didn't really understand what Asako's wish there seeing that he's still thinking about ending his life after saving five girls. I understand that Yuuji's past is really messed up, but from what I saw in Rakuen Yuuji only focused on saving the girls and didn't have continuing to the romance, in which it's actually what did save Yuuji in Kajitsu's routes.

In the end, while I did talk about suitable ending here I would say that I prefer if the writer can provide the ending in one VN instead of multiple VNs, unless they did want to make it episodic or as the trilogy. As for my preference, I guess happy ending would be my preference here, although if it's realistic then I'm okay with that as well.

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It depends on the work.

Bittersweet endings tend to more memorable for me but there are sometimes that I don't want these.

Some works makes me like the characters so much that I want some Key magic to turn everything all right for them depending on the situation.

But there are works that I would like a lot more if they stick to the sad and beautiful ending.

 

This is kinda of a ironic example since I mentioned Key's magic, but I would love if Little Busters ended with:

 

The ending that only Rin and Riki managed to survive the explosion. Everyone worked so hard for them to grow up and be able to live without the Little Busters. It's sad, but it shows shows such a profound care and love for Riki and Rin, all of their friends wished so intensely for them to survive and being able to live a good life since both were so shy and dependent on the group that they basically created a parallel dimension just to make sure that they could get emotionally stronger. It's beautiful. I think that is much better than just suddenly rewinding the time and erasing Riki's narcolepsy in order to save everyone. But that's just my opinion and I know that I am alone on this one. Both are not realistic endings, but what's important is the message. I really love all LB cast, but I think that it would be a more meaningful ending without the extra true ending that everyone survives.

But I wouldn't trade for anything my Key magic in Kanon or in some situations on Inganock. It would break my heart. It has been a lot of years since I played it, so I won't enter in details since I don't really remember much.

At the same time I loved Saya no Uta and its melodramatic bittersweet ending made me think for a lot of time.

 

So, it really depends on the work and situation for me.

Edited by nekofuwafuwa
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  • 4 weeks later...

For me it depends very much on what I come for. If I come seeking a dark and gruesome story, then I expect a dark ending. If I come seeking something cute, then I expect a happy ending. I have only recently gotten into VNs, and I have been on a "happy romance" binge for a year, so almost all the VNs I have played have been happy love stories. I haven't played anything darker than Doki Doki Literature Club...

I mostly dislike bittersweet endings. They are just disappointing to me. There is enough disappointment in real life; I don't want that in my games as well. I prefer endings that are either super-happy or truly dark.

Examples:

If My Heart Had Wings

Spoiler

In her route, wheelchair-ridden girl Kotori finds new hope and purpose in life, finds love and multiorgasmic sex and achieves her dream of flying through the Morning Glory clouds - and on top of all that, she even learns to walk again. It is completely over-the-top happiness. And I loved it! I was eagerly lapping it up - largely because I love Kotori so much. From a happy love story, this is the kind of ending I want. :D

Nurse Love Addiction

Spoiler

 

The bad endings for Kaede and Nao are not THAT bad - protagonist Asuka just ends up in a dysfunctional relationship. The bad ending for Itsuki is awesome. Itsuki gets killed, and Asuka responds by taking Itsuki's dead body home, storing it in her freezer and eating it over the course of several days. :D

 

 

 

 

Edited by Spectrum
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On 4/1/2019 at 2:33 AM, nekofuwafuwa said:

It depends on the work.

Bittersweet endings tend to more memorable for me but there are sometimes that I don't want these.

Some works makes me like the characters so much that I want some Key magic to turn everything all right for them depending on the situation.

But there are works that I would like a lot more if they stick to the sad and beautiful ending.

 

This is kinda of a ironic example since I mentioned Key's magic, but I would love if Little Busters ended with:

  Hide contents

The ending that only Rin and Riki managed to survive the explosion. Everyone worked so hard for them to grow up and be able to live without the Little Busters. It's sad, but it shows shows such a profound care and love for Riki and Rin, all of their friends wished so intensely for them to survive and being able to live a good life since both were so shy and dependent on the group that they basically created a parallel dimension just to make sure that they could get emotionally stronger. It's beautiful. I think that is much better than just suddenly rewinding the time and erasing Riki's narcolepsy in order to save everyone. But that's just my opinion and I know that I am alone on this one. Both are not realistic endings, but what's important is the message. I really love all LB cast, but I think that it would be a more meaningful ending without the extra true ending that everyone survives.

But I wouldn't trade for anything my Key magic in Kanon or in some situations on Inganock. It would break my heart. It has been a lot of years since I played it, so I won't enter in details since I don't really remember much.

At the same time I loved Saya no Uta and its melodramatic bittersweet ending made me think for a lot of time.

 

So, it really depends on the work and situation for me.

I agree. While i liked the vn as a whole, i do think the heavy story it tried to tell us fell flat on it's belly with that ending.

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