...That was it?
 

Inspired by this thread, what was the most anti-climactic point for you in an RPG? The moments with so much build-up that you just couldn't believe how lame they were in the end.

The most obvious example of this for me was the final boss of FF X. For all its faults I was still having fun with the game up until that point, but Yu Yevon was a complete embarassment. The entire world has been terrorized for 1,000 years by a glorified wood tick? Oh no, he's given all of our Aeons Lyme Disease! Not only that, but Square didn't believe that we could handle a freakin' tick after defeating numerous difficult bosses, so they gave everyone auto-life. No explanation like "Everyone in the world is praying for our success!" no sudden change of heart from a villain like Seymour showing up to help, and none of your party members giving up their strength so that your final party can fight on. Just random, unexplained immortality.

Tales of Symphonia springs to mind as well, but not for plot-related reasons. After barely escaping from the Asgard Human Ranch before it self-destructs, it seems like there's going to be a massive explosion to level the whole building. Instead, it cuts to the world map and there's just a very small puff of fire and the building collapses. Not so much disappointing as it was hilarious.

In ToS's defense all of the plot devices really maybe jump up and down and squeal excitedly in disbelief. Starting from when you find out:



I think Baten Kaitos comes to mind. Now I sold the game before I got to the most hyped plot twist at around the lava cave, but I still read and heard from a friend about what happened. Don't get me wrong


Disgaea's endings were too minimal, and I heard the same goes for Disgaea 2.

They really should have added some actual sprite movement or at least pictures to accompany it!

What about FFIX ? Necron, that pseudo I'M-GONNA-KILL-YOU-FOR-NO-REAL-REASON ... Kuja was already a joke, then that... thing...

Agreed. That whole thing was a joke.

Not to mention the surprise cameo of Deathgaze before the Trance Kuja and Necron fights.

The only game that gave me that incredible heart breaking "WTF that's it?" feeling is Suikoden IV. I don't even remember the end boss to even care anymore. All I remember is that there was almost no development near the end of the game and I felt as if there could've been at least 20 more hours of gameplay. After I beat the last boss, there was a really long story telling sequence, which I thought would end and I would pick up moving the character again, but noooo, when it went on to the credits I finally realized that the game had nothing else more to offer.

Disgaea also gave me that feeling, except I didn't hold quite as much attachment to that series than Suikoden.

The final boss of Suikoden IV was some kind of tree I think. You're right though, one of the many issues that I had with the game was that it was over so soon, whereas in other Suikoden games you can defeat an entire empire, in IV you only destroyed one lousy fortress, and that was it, you didn't even get to see the empire (laaaaame).

I have to go with Grandia II for this topic. All that work and the final boss ends up being a pretty pretty butterfly? Come on, that's just stupid.

The Grandia series in general was a letdown for me. There was so much hype when Grandia was only out on the Japanese Saturn; people went on and on about how great the music and gameplay was. When it finally came out on PS1, I thought the music was average at best, and the gameplay was ok, but not worth raving over.

Suikoden IV's ending in general was disappointing. I didn't expect the game to end the way it did, so my effort to recruit all 108 Stars seemed more interesting than finishing the game and watching the ending.

At the risk of invoking the wrath of some forum members, I'd like to argue a case for that moment from Final Fantasy VII:

As a character death, it always sat as being slightly awkward (and if you've read about the development of the game, it only came in half way though making the game, and the exact point at which it happened was moved several times during development). Consequently, despite the obvious build up, it felt rather rushed when the exact moment came, and there were no real consequences to that character dying. It was just -zip-deathbossfightburialEndofDiskOne.

It was a tree! You are right! But--it was a special tree. The leaves changed color so you would know which rune magic to use on it--if you could remember if Earth > Lighting...or was it Lightning > Earth? Oh, crap! What color was lighting again?!

In case you haven't guessed...this was my top pick.....

I'd rather have fought a crab again.....

Off the top of my head... the whole build up of Rinoa and Squall's relationship in FF8. Squall goes through all this trouble to rescue Rinoa and catch her in space. Then when they are in the Ragnarok and able to spend some time with each other, he still acts like a distant brat. I felt like it was all for nothing and I really wanted to choke him. Also, the big plot twist in Star Ocean 3 was ridiculous.

Fire -> Wind -> Earth -> Lightning -> Water -> Fire

You were right the first time. The game really forced you to remember those weaknesses in those naval battles. =/

Why didn't anyone mention Star Ocean 3?

I think most people were just like "LOL" or "What the fuck?" more so than "meh" at that point. At least I know I was, and the majority of people I knew as well. Way to make the previous two games seem insignificant, ya know?

Doesn't that make it all the more anti-climactic, then?

How about the final boss to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest? You can kill him with a freaking revive. :mad:

FF VIII Can't be anti-climactic becaause it was awful.



I side with FF IX as most anti-climactic. End boss with no connection to the game for no good reason. Bah.

I have to admit, Ninja Gaiden had to be the most disappointing in my opinon.



Just remembered Shenmue 2 ending. ARGHHHH!!! I think when i played it through on the Dreamcast, I got to disc 3 and basically you did nothing but walk around the house and then it was all cutscenes, there was no actual gameplay, no fighting, no quicktime events, it started very realistic then all of a sudden somehow they turned it into a fantasy adventure :twitch: .

The Bouncer was pretty short. I was surprised to beat it in an entire evening.

The game was quite fun, but replaying the same thing over and over to unlock the story seemed pretty lame. Really short game there.

You mean Zeromus? :tpg:

I was thinking more along the lines of the ST:TNG episode I had just seen myself.....

Additional Spam:
I didn't really even bother trying to get all the story on that one. It was just too "obvious" you know?

I agree with what Deni said. FFVIII was anticlimactic in the sense of an awful "plot twist" (I liked it when I played it, say, 6 years ago...not now); and FFIX in the sense of the final boss. I really disliked the entire ending to FFIX (basically from when you escape from Terra). It all felt a tad uninspired to me.

FFX is also of note due to the aforementioned final final boss. Makes me queasy just thinking about it. >=[

Heh, funny how the only games I mention here are games from the FF series. There are others...but I feel like mocking FF at the moment.

Don't you mean "contrived?" It would have been nice if things were left up in the air--you know? And if Necros never existed.

I did. ¬.¬ Anyway, I think that pissed off a lot of people. The plot wasn't all that great to begin with, but that killed it completely. I played through the entire game anyway since it was so fun to play and Cliff kicks ass.

Ain't that the truth on both accounts. XD

Star Ocean 3 was so lucky it had such stellar gameplay or I would have never touched it again after that horrible twist. I'm sure pretty much anyone who continued after it felt the same way though.

I quit the game when that plot twist happened. I was so pissed you wouldn't believe it. What a copout!

You mean, forcing ourselves to continue for completion purposes?

I'm one, but I'm in no great hurry.

The idea behind the plot twist was nice, but it never should have been done. The message the game was trying to convey could have been done differently.

I stopped playing SO3 after the twist. I really couldn't face an entire disc more of the game if that was the kind of idea they were coming up with.

In a sense, yes...but in a realistic sense, I was exaggerating. I can get carried away when it comes to Final Fantasy and exaggeration. :eagletear: (The plots seem exaggerated some of the time, anyway...I've been influenced!)

Ah, yes. In a good world, it wouldn't have existed. But alas...

Muzza--FF plots exaggerated--surely you jest.....

But, come on, you have to admit, with FFIX "What happened to Zidane?" would have been much better than what we got.

Uh-huh, I jest. Just satirizing my sense of exaggeration. And I agree whole-heartedly regarding the Zidane thing. But that would have never --and never will- happen, specifically in a FF game, when the main character is concerned. Can you imagine the tumult that would transpire on FF-fan-forums? Catastrophic.

While there are worse examples which have already been mentioned in this thread, Chrono Cross definitely comes to mind. The game had a decent buildup, a fairly challenging second-to-last boss (which could have very well been the last boss)...



Honestly, that just kinda made me go...why? It had virtually nothing to do with the plot, and on top of that, it was an INCREDIBLY easy boss. After I beat the game and started a New Game+, I managed to go back and beat him using Serge alone. It's pretty sad that you can defeat what should be the most difficult enemy in the game with a single character...hell, they might as well have just forced you to only use Serge in the battle by default. And while the "real" ending at least somewhat wrapped everything up, it still felt like a letdown.

Oh, and actually going back to the topic creator's point about FFX, wasn't the auto-life thing because of the Faith? At some point earlier in the game, one of them tells you that when you finally do face Yu Yevon that they would be helping you, and I think Yuna even mentions that she wondered what he meant after that, so I assumed they were responsible for the whole invulnerability thing.

To be fair, You can do that in Chrono Trigger too.

SO3 actually had me playing for most of the game and enjoying it up until the big plot spoiler.

Tales of Legendia was somewhat similar, but not exactly the worst. Just that the ending was soooo drawn out was essentially the worst part IMO. And EVERYONE had to put in their own two cents. Repeatedly.

Definately gotta agree with the others, that Star Ocean 3's infamous plot twist got to me.

If Star Ocean 3 was a stand-alone game, then I wouldn't have mind it so much, but unfortunately the games are connected, as pathetic as those connections are. Since it pretty much means that the first two games were just a joke. It didn't mean anything at all.