*EXTREME SPOILER* Do the ends justify the means?
 

Hmmm, a tricky question... Endings huh? I guess first we have to analyse what an 'ending' is.

v. end·ed, end·ing, ends

v. tr.
To bring to a conclusion.
To form the last or concluding part of: the song that ended the performance.
To destroy: ended our hopes.

v. intr.
To come to a finish; cease.
To arrive at a place, situation, or condition as a result of a course of action. Often used with up: He ended up as an advisor to the president. The painting ended up being sold for a million dollars.
To die.

I take this to imply that an ending is something that brings your actions to a conclusion of some kind. You know why you did something and what you have done.

The style of ending, i.e. whether it be happy or sad does not affect whether an ending is good or not. I wouldn't say the ending to FFX is particuarly happy (I thought it was quite sad to be honest) but I would say it was a good ending. Why? I had a sense of closure, completion - I knew why I had been doing what I did. The fact that there were questions left open does not mean an ending is bad.

For example, at the end of VII we are left wondering if the human race survived - this has no relevance to the story that preceded it - it merely gives us something to think about after the event.

A bad ending is one that doesn't tell you anything. A bad ending is one that makes you wonder what the hell you've just spent the last 50 hours doing.

To be honest, I don't think the ending has that much influence on spending 50+ hours on a FF game - the game itself has more relevance.

I though Final Fantasy VIII had a fine ending - for the whole part I was satisfied with the conclusion. The problem I had with FFVIII was the preceding 50+ hours. Whether it has a great or poor ending does not influence my opinion that it's not a good game.

Conversely I love FFVII - and a bad ending wouldn't change the fact that the 50 hours I spent getting there were fun and enjoyable.

I think an ending is the cherry on an Ice Cream sundae - it has an effect only if the rest is good.

- S

True, Spank, and the facts are, that in some cases, the endings havent been as good as the overall games in final fantasy. Unlike some, i actually enjoyed FF9 quite a bit, i thought the storyline and graphics were quite good. Any game that will have me spending countless hrs leveling characters to be able to take down the last few bosses needs to be good in general. I also enjoyed FF7, i spent probably a hundred hrs playing that game, and beat the toughest boss with only Squall(or whatever his name is) the last twenty minutes because the other two kept dying. I took a picture of my score after that fight on the tv because i wanted to remember what an experience it was, indeed... Yes, in the case of the FF games, the game is usually worth playing through. I didnt care for FFX, so unfortunately i have a feeling my FF game days are coming to a close... they need to work on new ideas for other games, i know Square can do it...

I've played every Final Fantasy game, though I've only completed VII, IX and X. Personally I loved the endings to them all, but for me IX had the most style (Zidane on the vines - Whoa!) and X had the best emotion (Yuna and Tidus saying goodbye and then Tidus being reunited with Auron and Jecht).

In retrospect, a three minute ending (however graphical) seems a little inadequate for 50+ hours work, so to me the best experience is the game itself. Sure I want to know how it all finishes, but I get the most enjoyment out of the progression of the storyline. Besides the endings can be a bit of an anticlimax, something I'd rather avoid.

So far, the worst ending I have seen is FFIV. I was going to level to the max level in IV because I couldn't even beat the final boss at level 79, I ended up using a gameshark. When I saw the ending I was thinking, "I was going to level up to 99 for this?!"

I thought IX and VII had really good endings, two of the best. For the majority of them I thought it was well worth the effort to beat the game. Also, I think there was a huge jump in the quality of the endings between IV and VII, but I haven't played V and VI.

VIII: I've always been biased towards 8, because it was my first FF. I liked the characters and story immensley, and thought the ending was emotional, funny and satisfying Well worth it as the only one i've seen on more than one playthrough...



Me too, kupo...my friend is trying to get me to play IX, although it just doesn't appeal to me as much

I've seen the ending to VII, VIII, IX and X-2.
I liked them all. I feel happy knowing that I've completed the game itself and gotten the chance to see how it finishes. I don't just play them to see the endings, I play them because I love them. My sister thought FFVII's ending was a bit of a let down. I thought it was cool. Kaolla Su is right, FFVIII's ending is funny.