This could deserve a topic of its own...

As I said in the other topic, I think games tend to have more of an emotional impact on me than other forms of entertainment. In theory, I don't have a problem with sad endings. Link's Awakening had a bittersweet ending, and I thought it was perfect. Secret of Mana had a similar situation, but it didn't sit as well with me for some reason. But, I still find it acceptable.

The problem I have with Hell's ending (and here are more SPOILERS) is that you cannot prevent the death of one of the characters, and that character's death is essentially a unnecessary. He/she dies attempting to crash the Hell program from within its virtual reality space, but it doesn't work. Within a few days after that, the characters come up with a way to crash it externally. And then you're at the very last part of the game. It just seems frustrating for both of your characters, who are trying to stay alive, to come that far and to lose one of them unnecessarily. It just doesn't sit well with me, and there's no way to achieve an ending where you can keep them both alive. It doesn't help any that when the remaining hero takes on the villain, the fight is really cheesy and anti-climactic, so you don't really get much of a sense of vengeance.


The Dreamcast Lodoss War is another story. Lodoss War didn't have a sad ending so much as a stupid ending.

I guess one rule of thumb I would have for sad endings is that they can't just be sad to try to make me feel sad. They can't be sad just for the hell of it. The sadness has to be there for a reason - perhaps, to make me think about something.
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