Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A Million Endings

You know how Lord of the Rings had a million endings, and so did mgs4 and Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2? You know how the millions of twists to make the millions of endings undercut the original motives of the characters?

I'm used to that now. I think I'm starting to be ok with it. I don't like it, you could have made a much tighter ending, but there are a lot of things that I'm glad didn't happen at the end of Yakuza 2....so whatever. It could have been worse.

The honeymoon with that game has been over for a long time. It ended about halfway through. When every thing but the main story is spectacular, watching boring cutscenes with the tear-jerking up to 11 makes the whole gaming experience feel...ughh

4 comments:

JohnFuKennedy said...

1 ending motherfucker. They all have one ending... The part where the story actually finishes. I agree too many twists can result in a convaluted story but not everything has to follow the basic introduction, conflict, resolution formula. Ultimate goals can change given new events or information.

JohnFuKennedy said...

And that last comment was not meant to be spiteful... There's nothing but love here... Hetero life partner I love brody bromance love.

b_o_x said...

I want to rescind an earlier unfair comment, but still elaborate more on what I mean.

I'm talking, I'm talking...

In Yakuza 2, a character (Kim) sets a timed bomb on a roof to fulfill his duty as a member of a Korean mafia. You fight him to stop him from setting off the bomb, but you defeat him. Then his partner comes out of the shadows and says he (Taka) was the one who arranged everything, but now that's it's all arranged he no longer needs Kim. Taka shoots Kim. Kim gets all upset, says he never trusted Taka and at this point (you only find this out later), the fuse from the bomb drops out of his coat. Kim triggers the countdown on the bomb. Taka shoots Kazuma and is about to shoot lady cop, but the other dragon (who you fought before Kim) gets up after being identified as dead, and attacks Taka. He kills Taka while being shot himself. So, Kazuma and the other dragon are shot and the bomb is about to go off, they decide "Fuck it, let's fight one more time, to the finish."
Lady cop complains because the man she loves (Kazuma) and her brother (the other dragon) are now fighting to the death...again. Kazuma and the other dragon tell lady cop to leave, but she refuses. Kazuma wins the fight. Lady cop has not left. The bomb is still counting down. Kazuma and lady cop make out until the count hits zero.

Then the bomb doesn't go off. The characters say later that Kim must not have wanted to go through with it. WHAT THE FUCK, KIM? Who just plans to kill some guy, if not in person than with a bomb, and then decides "No...I don't think I'll go through with this..."

Alright, I'm thinking a little more about the Yakuza ending and it sounds a little bit more plausible, but fucking shit! Lady cop's brother is dead for no good reason. Or he might have survived too, I guess, they just didn't show him for some reason, but if I was fucking lady cop, I'd be mad as shit.

I think it was Saint's Row that made me start thinking the cutscenes in Yakuza were boring because the ones in Saint's Row were so super well-directed.

b_o_x said...

There's this other game that came out recently and by the end you learn the bad guy has been manipulating you into doing his thing for him, but the minions of the bad guy still attack you. Seem weird?