7 Bad Endings That Were Harder Work Than the Good Ending

[@atomic3691]

The worst ending of Vampyr takes some serious work. You have to kill most of the civilians, turn all the districts hostile, and turn McCullum into a vampire.

[@adamsmasher9769]

Dude i stopped playing vampyr because i thought you would get the bad ending if you just did a little vampirism lol

[@timbrickner8129]

Yeah but super powers....

[@ayajade6683]

​@@adamsmasher9769at least you didn't run into the glitch where you can't talk to people at all even for quests. I haven't gone back to it since it happened on my pacifist run

[@KR555FAIZ]

You're joking, right? What's the hard work in killing everyone? The pacifist run is infinitely hard working.

[@atomic3691]

@anti-theistocles9879 You can get a good ending if you engage in just a little bit of vampirism (a couple of citizens), but to get the best ending, you need avoid drinking anyone's blood and do a couple of other things.

[@amokriinprolgiid3409]

Prey (2017) had a worst ending that was much more work than the good ending. The good ending, you just had to complete the game and choose to shake Alex's hand. The worst ending required you to hunt down each and every living human on Talos I and kill each of them by your own hand. If even one dies by any other means, you're locked out of the worst ending. And the 42 humans across Talos I aren't all easy to find. You've gotta ping some of them from security stations to find them. Kill them all, and you'll be rewarded by the game refusing to give you the final choice, instead replacing it with Alex telling his operators to "start over" saying that they failed, and then they presumably kill you without giving you a choice.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

2017, actually.

[@Jessie_Helms]

I can vouch, as I don’t think I ever managed to get this ending even after trying.

[@amokriinprolgiid3409]

@@michaelandreipalon359 you right, I edited it.

[@laurab6146]

I had a lot of fun with this ending since I combined it with the find everyone on Talos trophy 🤣

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@amokriinprolgiid3409 Thanks.

[@ryanmiller6303]

Getting the bad ending for Mass Effect 2 takes an incredible amount of effort where you have to get as few companions as possible, then ignore those companions skipping all their quests while still finding a way to progress the time line, refuse to up grade the Normandy at all, and then make every wrong choice you can in the assault. You have to work from the very beginning of the playthrough to finally get the worst ending where only Joker survives

[@puppetmasterey]

Piggy backing on that, rolling over a save file where only joker and Shepard survive. Then you sabotage the genophage, don't rescue the students at Grissom academy, get the Quarians killed then chose destroy is probably worse.

[@supervegito2277]

Indeed. Skipping recruitment missions might very well be mandatory, if you have the DLC characters, as if you recruit everyone, im not sure you can kill off enough people.

[@supervegito2277]

@@puppetmasterey You do need 2 squadmates to survive the suicide mission in order for shepard to survive as well ...but you can cut that down, if one of said squadmates is Zaeed, and you havent cleared his loyalty mission yet. Do that, then do his loyalty mission and you can literally just leave him to DIE...

[@Forestxavier20]

Arguably harder is doing the exact same thing for ME3 because you need to actively set up your ME1 savefile with the intent to kill off everyone possible.

[@ddsjgvk]

​@@supervegito2277how do I do that. Will Zaleed without Garrus or grunt be strong enough to make it to the ship to save Shep and whoever. I say tail just to side with the geth in three

[@funcoolfunfun]

Undertale's Genocide route definitely fits here. You have to go out of your way to grind encounters until literally no more show up in each area, and the two bosses you fight are harder than anything else in the game

[@SapphireDragon357]

All to get an ending that fully corrupts your files and keeps you from ever being truly happy ever again. .... Also changes the other game endings as well. :3

[@octochan]

I'm surprised it wasn't on this list - you have to be DEDICATED to get this ending

[@stellleo]

@octochan don’t you mean… DETERMINED?

[@shini183]

This was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the title. Was disappointed when there's no undertale in spoiler warning list. Don't they feel their sins crawling on their back??

[@octochan]

@@stellleo I'm ashamed that I didn't think of that joke

[@NicCageFan]

Getting the Possessed ending in Silent Hill 3 takes some work since survival horror normally encourages you to avoid combat, but for this you have to take a bunch of damage AND kick the crap out of your foes... and forgive an old lady.

[@deadcard13]

I can't believe you let that Boomer off the hook.

[@lilithium3940]

​@deadcard13 they gave no mercy to our ozone layer why should we give any mercy to their... life.. layer- I should've thought of a better joke

[@faerieknight2298]

The bad end in SH3 is just "be playing new game+ and defeat a bunch of enemies". Off hand, I think it's something along the lines of 300+ enemies. No "take damage" requirement, and no need to forgive anyone. In fact, I don't think you CAN forgive anyone in the game. The joke ending requires new game+, and defeating 150 or 200 enemies (I think) before you reach the apartment using either Heather Beam or Sexy Beam. I can't remember off hand which.

[@rockassassin64]

I thought in order to get the bad ending you had to not forgive her.

[@faerieknight2298]

@@rockassassin64 Nope, no forgiving of anyone in SH3. The only 'her' to forgive in the game is the person who murders Heather's adoptive dad about half way through the game, which triggers the trip back to Silent Hill to begin with. Homecoming has endings locked behind shooting the main character's mother or not and forgiving his father or not via a confessional conversation. SH3's endings are entirely based on how many enemies you killed during the game, and how you killed them. But first play through can only get the good ending.

[@Cuiasodo]

Heavy Rain's worst ending more or less requires you to make the absolute worst decisions the entire way through on purpose. You need to get two out of four characters killed, one of which has only one sequence in which that can happen, but also get all of the clues from the Saw-esque challenges that Ethan has to do, only to get caught by police during a chase sequence. Hard to do on accident and arguably harder to do if you're playing decently competently.

[@salad72057]

Which is funny that CallMeKevin got that ending since he did pick the worst options/fail qte's but didn't get the clues from the traps that Ethan had to get

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@salad72057 Oh? Where is that video? What's it titled?

[@dfp327]

I am not sure, since it was more than 10 years ago, but I do think I got the worst ending in my first playthrough and it was not on purpose. I just happen to suck at QTEs.

[@salad72057]

​@@DrawciaGleam02it's his Heavy Rain playthrough with the last video having the ending, it's a fun watch honestly

[@fergusdodd8235]

Both Jayden and Madison can die at multiple points?

[@Bikutolu]

LucasArts The Dig, in which you can instead of moving along and resolve the end of the game, can choose to do a lot of tedious backtracking to get your hands on some life crystals to revive your dead companion Maggie, only for her to immediatly undo your actions because you promised her NOT to revive her, leading to a more awkward ending.

[@MrGreenTiger]

Brilliant game that. Featured the t1000 as protagonists voice.

[@grogc6942]

Just a funny aside, I did not know that was a game until about a decade after I listened to the audiobook. By the time I got to it, I had essentially studied the player's guide. The ending makes me laugh these days. Paraphrased.... MC: "Door's right there..." Alien: "Right where?" MC: "Right there." Alien: "....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

[@frodobaggins7710]

For me, getting the bad ending to Sekiro was much more difficult than any of the others because it meant I had to kill Lady Emma

[@unbredstone7378]

Straight up no one talks about how hard that end double boss fight is absolutely kicked my ass

[@DILFDylF]

Is she your best friend irl?

[@leithaziz2716]

Emma is awesome. It was really painful having to kill her and old Isshin. Same thing with the Sculptor when he turns.

[@zach.hanford]

I've never done the Shura ending, not for lack of skill but for lack of will. I refuse to kill Lady Emma.

[@tomasdelcampo2]

What do you mean no one?

[@KefkeWren]

The ultimate case of working hard for a bad ending has to be in the browser-based game Fallen London, where you can seek the true name of Mr. Eaten. A questline so painfully difficult and unrewarding that the game straight-up warns you not to do it. What do you get for completing it? Your character is now completely unplayable, leaving you with no choice but to create a new account if you want to experience more of the game.

[@apinkchameleon]

And the developers asked anyone who finished the game to not share the ending for a VERY long time, probably because they knew most people wouldn't want to grind for literal years to get that ending if they already knew it lol

[@jimwormmaster]

Not only warns you not to do it, but pretty much epitomizes the "Stop it. Get some help." meme the entire way. Always nice to meet another Londoner.

[@ka-mai]

They covered it in another video, maybe the one about the extremely rare achievements that are not worth the fuss

[@apinkchameleon]

@@ka-mai Side quests that you shouldn't attempt I think

[@genericname2747]

I have been doing the sidequest for two years now. I love suffering

[@WolfyFancyLads]

Resident Evil Outbreak has three types of bad ending. The first known as "Zombie Chopper" just needs you to escape without using the vaccine on yourself without certain characters in your team, in this you turn into a zombie and kill the pilots. The second, known as "Despair" is easier to get, simply use the vaccine but don't carry a second on you when you beat the Tyrant (which can be killed with a single shot of the vaccine, so you might accidentally use it). In this, you escape alive but lament that there's no cure for the outbreak (which is shown to be false if you get the good ending in File 2). However, there's specific character endings for specific pairings that can ONLY be unlocked if you don't cure yourself AND have those characters in your team, which can be hard if you're playing single player as you can't pick your team (unlike in File 2). In these endings, you let yourself die to the nuke in Raccoon City. These include: George and Cindy embracing as they feel the virus taking hold, David and Mark fixing up a tank to fight a horde of zombies for a blaze of glory, Kevin defending Jim as the Tyrant wakes up and charges, and Yoko helping Alyssa spread the truth as one final report. Again, you need to actively be playing as a certain character with a second character randomly picked and put in your team AND ignore the vaccine (which means you now have to finish the level, AND beat the Tyrant who can instakill you with certain moves, with that still ticking down). Now, File 2, the bad ending is easy to get, you leave Linda to die instead of escorting her NPC arse to safety, but File 1? Way easier to get the good ending.

[@sterling7]

I'd argue the best end in Mafia III is the one where you manage to keep peace with your associates and take over the city. Sure, Mr. Morality Priest doesn't like you, but then, he'd also be okay with car-bombing you if he thought he'd get away with it, so...

[@chrismanuel9768]

I always took the story of Braid to be one complete story. You were researching the A Bomb and your relationship fell apart because of it. You were once madly in love with her, but you slowly let your love of the bomb overtake your love for her and, in the end, you lose her. The ending in which she gets taken away is the end of your relationship with the woman and the ending in which you finally capture her is you solving the mystery of the bomb, but they're the same level because they're the same event. You finally succeeded and you finally failed completely in the same moment. You became the villain of her story the moment you created the bomb.

[@KasumiRINA]

But did you actually get to use it? Or Gandhi campaign in Civilization is the hidden sequel...

[@brynduraz]

Luigi's mansion is not the first Mario series game to have multiple endings based on how much gold you acquire. Warioland 1(Super Mario Land 3), has 6 different endings where the worst is a Birdhouse, which is way worse than Luigi's tent.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

Yeah but each of those were fairly easy to acquire. Even the birdhouse ending was easy to get playing casually.

[@MrGreenTiger]

I think a birdhouse is fitting considering how Wario flaps his arms.

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

The remake of the original Dead Space has a secret bad ending that the player can get. Finding it requires finishing the game normally and then collecting the fragments of the Marker hidden throughout the game. Doing all of this will unlock an ending where after defeating the hive mind the protagonist Issac Clarke succumbs to the Marker's influence.

[@jardex2275]

That was added in the remake, I believe.

[@ssshjsssj5033]

Funny thing is that ending is actually the canonical one going by the events of DS2.

[@chexfan2000]

@@ssshjsssj5033i’ve seen the theory put forth that the new game+ with the “bad ending” is in fact Isaac being forced to relive the events like we see in DS2’s intro, the marker statuettes representing the information about how to build it, which is a cool idea.

[@forceofnature26]

I got one - at the very end of Tales of Xillia 2, you can decide "nah, I'm not going to sacrifice my dying brother to save the world" and instead fight and kill *every single one of your dozen or so party members* that you spent 60+ hours hanging out with. Then your brother dies anyway, because of the whole "dying" part It's hard physically and also emotionally

[@mar_speedman]

So if I rewatch this video a thousand times, will I get to see the bad ending where Jane takes over the world?

[@mikaelthomas1138]

"Bad ending" I, for one, would like to welcome our new Jane overlord

[@mar_speedman]

@@mikaelthomas1138 Well obviously it's a 'bad ending' the same way Streets of Rage's 'bad ending' is 'bad'

[@SantoAtheos]

Also you can't skip the ads.

[@Tabbyclaw]

Maybe the bad ending is exclusive to the Patreon.

[@Leith_Crowther]

In the bad ending, it’s Mike.

[@wolfskinchanger]

I think Drakengard deserves a mention here; five different endings, all but 'A' needing specific tasks fulfilled at specific points in the game in order to 'divert the timeline' as it were... and as I recall, 'A' is the least depressing of them by a significant margin.

[@OptimusSledge]

And that's without wanting to collect all the weapons. Yoko Taro hates completionists.

[@ichijofestival2576]

At this point, it's kind of the "given" example. It's been on so many of these lists, it's hardly worth wasting one of the slots. (Just imagine that entire"series" taking up like a dozen slots above #1.)

[@AmaranthOriginal]

To qualify, I think Drakengard would need a good ending, not just a "least bad" one

[@devonmcdaniel1176]

The first ending was the good ending, at least in my book. Ironically, the "True Ending" is the worst one, and the hardest to get. Obtain all weapons?! Sheesh, that's impossible without guides

[@_-Lx-_]

​@@devonmcdaniel1176 The best ending is the one where Drakengard 1 never happened, the final ending of Drakengard 3 is one of the only remotely positive endings in the entire series. The suffering is ended with Zero and her friends/enemies, the Flower is stopped, and the NieR universe is never created and our Earth is left as our regular IRL equivilant.

[@kytamura]

Are any of us really surprised Jane has thought about the best way for a crime boss to die?

[@OratoryJamesIV]

And, even more viciously...a scheme to steal Ellen's pizza.

[@firewizardrunepro]

Surprised? No not at all, you must be new here, thats pretty on brand for Jane

[@MrGreenTiger]

Are you saying she's part of a ... SYNDICATE?

[@oxfanblink4115]

Well she does play anti-heroine Prudence. Who has almost as much blood on her hands as Merilwen does 😅 And Zillah who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty when necessary either 😅

[@ZellyTheFangirl]

Getting the bad end for Tales of Xillia 2 is a special cocktail of pain and "are you REALLY sure you want to do this?". The story demands you have to kill your brother for plot reasons, but when the time comes you have the option to decline. Several options, actually, as the game asks about three times if you want to protect him instead know it would doom the world along with several alternate universes. Unfortunately your party members are rather attached to the world and living and so to earn your bad end you have to go 1 v EVERYONE and systematically kill all eight of your party members, starting against four with new ones tagging in whenver one falls. And it is HARD doing this solo as they have full access to all of their moves, support and combo attacks. You do not.

[@tyvulpintaur2732]

Fuga: Melodies of Steel. Getting the “no survivors” ending is hard because you have to have 11 of the children sacrificed before the final boss, which is hard since you’ll be at quite the disadvantage towards the end.

[@wesleyharris1723]

To be fair, everyone’s ending in Blazblue Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift(Extend) story mode is difficult to get.

[@askelephant9819]

The game is so difficult even the title required me to reread it a few times

[@redundantfridge9764]

​@@askelephant9819The title is only the beginning. Hearing specific moves, names and lore bits in-between fights sounds like I am undergoing a philosophy master course by Plato, and my Master Thesis is beating up Aristotle while he is talking about what defines a human.

[@evanlogan3595]

@@redundantfridge9764 Oddly specific, but cool.

[@DRCEQ]

I was expecting them to point our that Tsubaki's bad ending was made easy to get on purpose, as her Distortion Drive is intentionally easy to pull off compared to other characters, and the devs knew that gamers would go for the flashy finisher more often.

[@lethalty6055]

Maybe it's how often it gets used or as a KO finisher. I'm sure Tsubaki's Distortion Drive has an impact against her depending on how much it gets used because of its damage output.

[@Snacker6]

The Talos principle has one of these. There are stars that you can collect in every area, and that harder to get than the rest of the challenges in the game. They unlock areas behind gates that also have harder puzzles than the rest of the game, all to collect a code. This leads you to an area, where you are locked into a coffin so that your expertise can be called on to give unhelpful hints to other players. Very much are worse ending than the standard one

[@SapphireDragon357]

Fully agree! Completionism alone made me get that ending.

[@nina9565]

Not only that, it completely goes against the point of the game. I won't say anymore so I don't spoil a brilliant game to people who might not have played it.

[@SapphireDragon357]

@@nina9565 Agreed again. Considering how you have to break the rules of the game to get some of those extra bits, you'd think that would lead to the true ending for exactly that reason.

[@chriswest6988]

Oh you can actually become one of those bodhisattva type things? That's kind of neat. Definitely not ever getting that though.

[@roguishpaladin]

I think I disagree. Calling it strictly worse is to deny the value some derive from being an advisor, a teacher, or part of a system. There's nothing wrong with not being enough of an iconoclast to desire removal from that environment, especially if it is one's choice (rather than force) which causes it. It is a form of enlightenment.

[@rosskwolfe]

That pizza joke was sincerely one of the best jokes you guys have ever done. Bravo!

[@brandonp7503]

Right. "Joke." Lol

[@thegraydirewolf9325]

​@@brandonp7503ikr, it's like they don't understand the fundamentals of comedy.

[@chrisspiker5422]

I'm expecting either a good joke or the worst possible string of words imaginable.

[@SandCastor]

Luke and Ellen were both in the bathroom? At the same time? 🤩NEW HEADCANON LORE!😍

[@UniverseCity17]

Seeing the Angelus ending of The Darkness was definitely a lot more fun, but I would’ve preferred to stay in the hospital of lies than get stuck in hell

[@SigmaSyndicate]

At the final boss of Neverwinter Nights 2, if you have an Evil alignment, the final boss will offer you to make you his second-in-command... in exchange for killing all of your other teammates. At once. All 10 of them. By yourself. Only Bishop will join you, and only then if he's still alive. Depending on how well-equipped and levelled your party is, this fight can be harder than the final boss.

[@dearone1]

I feel like Mass Effect 2 kind of belongs on this list - it's easy to get a few squadmates killed on the final mission, especially on a first playthrough, but killing everyone AND Shepard takes some effort!

[@barrybend7189]

It's actually easy to get the bad end in mass Effect 2.

[@jasv49]

@@barrybend7189 I’m sorry but it’s only easy if you suck ass at videogames

[@dearone1]

@@barrybend7189 not for me, I had to really try to get literally everyone killed lol. Managed to lose one or two on my first time through

[@mar_speedman]

This is due to the DLC characters. Zaeed and Kasumi are extra members that make it harder to get the worst ending, because it depends on how many of your companions stay alive. Without the DLC, it actually becomes possible to get the worst ending without trying. But with it, yes. It takes more effort to get the worst ending than to get the best one

[@mar_speedman]

@@barrybend7189 It's easy to get a lot of people killed, but it's not easy to get everyone (including Shepard) killed. In the worst ending, only Joker survives.

[@JohnDoe-wg9sy]

You missed a particularly hard one! For mass effect 2, there is an ending you can get where sheperd and the entire team dies, but the mission is technically completed, and you get a save file that can be used for NG+. The ending cutscene just shows Joker by himself with a coffin for every team member including sheperd, and then Joker by himself staring out the window at the incoming reaper fleet. Achieving this ending is a monumental task because you have to perfectly calculate every team members required affinity so they hate or like you just the right amount throughout the entire game from the start, then do the final mission with the correct (Wrong) assignments to get everyone killed, but still complete the mission and then when sheperd is extracting there is no one to catch him when he leaps to the ship and so he falls to his death. It requires hard work from the very start and a save file dedicated just to doing it.

[@mewmew8932]

ngl would be kinda funny if NG+ with that save file gives you no resources

[@derrinerrow4369]

Fuga Melodies of Steel is one that requires some work for the bad ending. It's a turn based RPG where you control a giant tank with a group of antrhopomorphic kids. If the tank drops below half health during the boss fight at the end of each chapter you get the option of using something called the Soul Cannon, an attack that will instantly defeat the boss. Using it, however, requires you to sacrifice a child's life to power it. and there are 12 children total. It's also the only way to permanently lose a child. To get the bad ending you have to use the Soul Cannon in every boss fight. It's easy enough to beat the game without using the cannon, and if you keep using the cannon the options you have for your active crew keeps getting smaller (you can have 3 kids on the weapons and have them each be supported by another kid that gives them a passive buff) and at the end of the game you will only have 2 children left to fight through enemies to reach the final boss. And your reward for this is the final boss being defeated but the tank finally breaks down and empty and a slide show of the kids going back to their normal lives but they are scribbled out, showing the lives these kids won't be able to return to.

[@sasir2013]

Spoilers: Fighting against blitz normally:This is really easy! Fighting against blitz with only wappa:...Well, out of healing items, almost out of special ammo, and only won by a turn

[@GhengisJohn]

Surprised and happy to see a BlazBlue mention in there. I always liked Tsubaki and I'm happy they commended Christina V's performance as Noel.

[@Sayrden]

The Galf ending for the first Ogre Battle is tough because it's not about being straight evil. Instead, you have to go down the _good_ path and find the secrets that lead you to earn the holy sword Brynhildr. _Then_ you need to go evil. If you find the secret demon boss Galf and your reputation is bad enough, he'll offer to join you in exchange for the sword. When you finish the game, you'll see an ending where Galf possesses you and uses your body to forge an even more tyrannical regime than the one you just overthrew.

[@zapheil]

I’m really happy to see this channel featuring Braid in so many videos. It’s such a fascinating game, and its soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous.

[@jaomang]

The bad ending to this video would be watching the video so many times that they become multi millionaires from ad revenue and retire thus leaving so many lists unfinished.

[@PikaLink91]

Best ending in Farcry 4 literally requires you to do nothing. Bad guy leaves you unattended and asks that you wait for his return. You wait for 10 minutes he comes back and generously offers to take you to what you came to do: put your mother’s ashes to rest. Him and his men patiently wait for you outside the shrine, after which you join him to take out the rebels. Hey I did what I came to do 🤷‍♂️

[@ThePickledsoul]

I honestly think that's an allegory to "taking one's time is the best way to do things"

[@roguishpaladin]

Arguably, I'd say Far Cry 2, 4, and 5 all fit here. Ubisoft Montreal can really fall into a habit of discouraging you from playing their games because your actions will make the game world worse.

[@kotzpenner]

Arguably the best ending, considering the implications of the other ones

[@PikaLink91]

@@kotzpenner What do you mean?

[@salad72057]

​@@PikaLink91at least with Far Cry 5 the early ending is letting the villain go free, the alternate non-canon ending that ends with you being brainwashed and implied to kill your friends, or the real ending where you beat the villain only for nukes to launch and end up captured by the villain at the end

[@Shadowed7]

I feel like Star Wars: Jedi Academy is perfect for a list such as this. By going down the Dark Jedi route not only do you have to fight your former colleagues in the academy, you also have to fight against the Dark Jedi, who you have been dealing with the entire game. On top of that you still have to fight Tavion and THEN Kyle Katarn

[@mermidion7552]

Yeah but consider this...its a dark side ending....but not bad ending. as in ,you actually archieve what you set out to when you go dark side, you get the artefact and you become the defacto new leader of the empire remnants. Seriously ,the only bad part i would consider is that Kyle Katarn survives and can possible try to stop you in the future.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Won't lie, that outcome is one of the best times a video game series did justice with making a previous player character your enemy.

[@Heartshapedbox81]

Good luck on the hardest difficulty because Kyle is going to beat that ass 😂 but I don't know if it's much more difficult because you can just be a complete I don't give a crap a-hole and ignore everyone on the way to the end, the game doesn't really enforce you having to face every enemy so even though every enemy is against you, you can get past them.

[@SilverSpectre266]

Man I remember loving BlazBlue so much when it first came out I went through an entire guide just to see every possible ending for every possible character. They arent joking. Reaching some of those endings was stressful and idk how people would have casually unlocked them without purposely trying. Because you could be going down a single route and then 1 thing and all of a sudden end up on another.

[@MatthewCSnow]

Surprised that Atomic Heart isn’t here, if chose to fight the final boss you get betrayed and everything gets worse. The only way to get some semblance of a “good” ending is by choosing to skip the final fight

[@mentaloon2521]

As far as I've seen, Outsidexbox didn't include AH anywhere, even where it's definitely fits >

[@KeithFraser82]

"A curious game. The only winning move is not to play."

[@Skycroft1000]

8:55 "I don't want to say pick a lane, but pick a lane man!" is unironically the best criticism of Braid lol.

[@Fertog1]

The Binding of Issac works well for this, as every of the many endings somehow manage to get worse then the last one and also you have to do increasingly harder stuff for these endings.

[@mewmew8932]

Every ending reveals that Isaac is more and more dead, love it

[@SolidSonicTH]

TVTropes calls this "Earn Your Bad Ending". Also it's not that you have to use no continues in House of the Dead but you need a continue value that ends in '0'. But that means if you die once you have to continue 9 more times to even have a shot at it again before having to die another 9 times. Most people won't bother.

[@chronigma75]

What about Elden Ring's Age of Frenzied Flame ending? Between the absurd parkour, a fetch quest you have to travel all across the game to accomplish, a semi difficult boss, AND figuring out you have to unequip all your armor to trigger the event necessary- It's a heck of a lot harder than most of the neutral endings, and only marginally more difficult than the arguably good ending, The Age of Stars

[@JakobLastname]

The Dungeaters ending isn't that easy either, and that ending is also kinda bad because it turns everyone into Omens. Frenzied Flame is arguably worse though. Cause you know. At least with the Dungeater ending the Lands Between still exist

[@madestmadhatter]

Geeze I can't believe they ended the video by having her get arrested, blowing her up in the police car and then playing a drawn put clip of the world ending, they really upped the production on this one, and that dramatic score was just over the top.

[@Aozame]

The alternate endings (both for the original game and the DLC stories) of Muramasa: Rebirth are much harder to get than the default ending and I don't think there's a single one where don't end up worse off.

[@AlainSTO]

Undertale was the top of my mind when it came to this list. You have to grind to their extinction and stay so headstrong in your path when asked questions about are you sure about what you're doing. You're absolutely, consciously, fighting for monster annihilation and then, well, there's that final boss.

[@drawingdragon]

And there's almost no pleasure in it. It's just grinding encounters: the game. Your reward? A brutal bossfight and then just a feeling of empty dissatisfaction. It's literally designed to make you feel discouraged. Brilliant game

[@stardustpie1992]

Not to mention that, if you choose to side with Chara after all of this trouble, they permanently corrupt your save files so that, if you ever try to get the good or true endings afterwards, they’ll interrupt right when everything seems like it’ll be okay and kill everyone, meaning that you’re permanently locked out of these endings forever.

[@GreyishBobbi]

I love the bit at the end where you keep safe from liability by adding in the 'right now' XD

[@Arceedos]

Friggin Undertale, lads! You gotta spend the whole of the experience walking around for far too long, and then it's punctuated with getting your shit rocked by Sans.

[@anarky1765]

You don’t have to get the underbosses to betray you to get the bad ending in Mafia 3. The option is always there no matter how many underbosses are still loyal.

[@spikefinney5384]

Dredge has a good ending that is easier that the normal bad ending. In the good ending, meet a dude and toss a book into the sea. Bad ending is way harder

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

The House of the Dead was a game that I really enjoyed playing in the arcade. It was alot of fun the farthest I got was the Magician. I didn't know at the time you had to shoot his fleshy parts.

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

Guess you didn't want to include it bc it's beating a dead horse at this point, but Undertale's Genocide route is sooo tedious and the boss fights are so hard that it really makes you question WHY exactly you are going down the route of wanting to kill everyone in the first place

[@m2pt5]

It's an intentional slog, and the two real bosses are hard and OMGWTF hard.

[@deadcard13]

Cool, I didn't have recommend this.

[@SkylerKPHDtrustmebroUNI]

So they die. Of course.

[@SkimpyJigglesJr.-ff2ib]

Since the intended path through the game _is_ the genocide run, it doesn't really fit this list. The player isn't supposed to know they can go through the game as a pacifist, it expects the player to just play the game like every other game they've ever played. That ending isn't the bad ending, it's neutral.

[@KefkeWren]

@@SkimpyJigglesJr.-ff2ib Gonna have to disagree. The intended path through the game is the neutral routes. First of all, because the player is expected to experiment with mechanics. Secondly, because to successfully complete a "no mercy" run, the player must go out of their way to do lots of tedious and unnecessary grinding in each and every area they visit. Basically the only way that you're doing it is if you're going out of your way to kill every last thing that it is possible to kill. You are very much _not_ expected to do that on your fist try.

[@Michael_Lindell]

7:50 It's okay, Luigi does it all for the a-tent-ion anyway...

[@Orphim]

Truly, the hardest bad ending to get is likely in Soul Nomad and the World-Eaters. Technically, anything other than the original ending resisting Gig is a bad end and most of them are so impossible that they can only be done in NG+ or later. Meaning in order to experience them, you have to experience the true ending first, so you definitely put in much more work to get the bad endings.

[@Blayne06]

There's also the Disgaea games, where the Bad Endings take a fair bit of work to get to. Disgaea 2 is a good example --- you have to grind 99 Felonies on Adell and get 99 Ally Murders, with Rozalin being among them. This unlocks a fight against a level 2000 foe (where the final boss is level 90), and winning it gets you what is easily one of the most disturbing endings in the whole of Nippon Ichi Software's library. Word of warning: the Japanese audio is much more graphic than the English audio for that scene.

[@Orphim]

@@Blayne06 Same makers, so I'm not surprised lol

[@crimsonchaos7224]

The original Duck Tales was also really stingy with its bad ending (natch). Basically a more extreme version of the Luigi Mansion entry, the game requires you to finish the game with literally $0, which is pretty challenge since sextuple digits at minimum is standard for this game.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Does Remastered keep that ending?

[@crimsonchaos7224]

@@DrawciaGleam02 As far as I've seen no, but upon further research Duck Tales 2 also has a bad ending with the same criteria.

[@matthewbreen1951]

The $0 ending also requires you do a trick to revive Scrooge which costs money.

[@crammaster88]

You guys reminded me of Nipon Ichi Software’s The Witch And The Hundred Knight. Where you have to kill 3 over powered bosses in order to receive the games Bad Ending that continues past the true ending. Which is weird that they call it the bad ending and the shorter ending the True ending.

[@tacohands4203]

2:42 How dare you say that about Nic Cage! He is a true god of movies! Everything he touches is gold haha love you’re guys videos

[@macross42]

4:46 That has got to be the least effective bleeping out of swear I've ever heard.

[@jaredcrabb]

Theyve goofed before.

[@molchmolchmolchmolch]

I always love your list videos and humour but especially this one. Mike was on fire 😂 Thank you for the great entertainment and sometimes solace 😊

[@GameHammerCG]

No Rule of Rose? Getting the canon "good" ending (which is so much worse than the canon "bad" ending and may actually have been the bad ending during development) requires you to "use" rather than "equip" a gun and "fire" it at a specific point during a fight. It's ridiculous and kicks you in the stomach with its revelations, turning the whole game on its head.

[@crescentmoonrising4852]

OutsideXbox is British and there was a whole (fake) scandal that messed up the European release

[@GameHammerCG]

@@crescentmoonrising4852 I'm British. I have a copy of the game. We can still play it and talk about it.

[@ecgameplayer]

Fun fact, in Luigi's Mansion, it's impossible to get below 5,000 as the final score in the game due to the final boss dropping a red diamond which is not only the worst treasure in the game, but you have to collect it in order to finish the game.

[@Empress-Sky-of-Brynn]

What about The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending in Elden Ring? Going through the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds with all those Omens, Gargoyles, and Giant Lobsters, then fighting Mohg (luckily not his full strength form), and trying to parkour down one of the worst platform sections in a From Software game, all to just have Melina leave you and you setting the world on fire. Not worth it imo

[@42thursday42]

Feels like every ending of Elden Ring can be considered "the bad ending," from a certain point of view :)

[@mar_speedman]

@@42thursday42 Also every ending can be considered 'challenging to obtain' lol

[@abydosianchulac2]

I actually appreciate the fact they didn't mention the three fingers ending; Elden Ring has been so prevalent in media the last year, it's nice that they gave a spot to a more obscure entry.

[@Empress-Sky-of-Brynn]

@@abydosianchulac2 That was the last achievement for me to get to 100% the game and that platform section alone was enough for me to quit Elden Ring for good, so that's why I brought it up

[@jardex2275]

Then there's the quest line to remove the frienzied flame...

[@WhiteFangofWar]

Similarly to Luigi's Mansion, the first Wario Land sees the Genie Wario just defeated grant him a new home based on the money he's collected over the course of the game, including the payoff for hidden treasures. You would have to be deliberately dodging coins to get the one where he's stuck with a birdhouse. D'oh, he missed.

[@Tis-I]

If I'm not mistaken with The House of the Dead, the good ending is if you get a score of 62,000 or more, continues don't matter, you'll get the good ending. The bad ending is when you get less than 62,000 and your score is divisible by ten (one continue gives you 1 point, so 10 continues, 20 continues, etc.) As long as you use multiplicitives of ten credits, you have a chance to get the bad ending

[@zayzay92]

NERD.....But honestly that's some indepth understanding of game and after reading your comment, I just know this random fact is gonna stay with me 😂

[@Tis-I]

@@zayzay92 What can I say, I love The House of the Dead

[@TheVillainInGlasses]

@@Tis-I I feel like it could REALLY use a VR update lol

[@Tis-I]

@@TheVillainInGlasses genius!

[@nickysimi9866]

Is it me? Or does she not even look any different as a zombie

[@fajarn7052]

Whooa, HOTD! Me and my sis were just casually playing the game when suddenly the screen which should've been greyed out stayed colored then suddenly zooming in very fast, revealing a Zombie Sophie. It was one of the scariest moment in my gaming history haha.

[@lukas8670]

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World is an entry for "Times you lived long enough to be the bad guy" Firstly, the antagonist for most of the game is the protagonist of the previous one, (until secrets happen). Then right at the very end of the game, this game's protagonist turns on the party and tries to kill his girlfriend in a cutscene, argues with his split personality for a bit, then tries to kill his girlfriend and the previous game protagonist in the second final boss fight of the game.

[@LungsOutJem]

11:12 😂 The pizza joke was solid. Kudos to whoever wrote that one. 😁

[@breakinggreens]

In I was a Teenage Exocolonist, there's two notable tricky bad endings, one is the 'Rebel' Career ending which requires you to only ever choose to perform rebellious actions, as well as avoid any of the major endings. Performing a single action that helps the colony will lock you out of the ending, and there's a lot of opportunities to help. The ending consist of you not only being arrested, but this colony implementing jail for the first time just for you. The other bad end is the 'Colony Destroyed' ending which requires most of the work of the slightly better "Array destroyed" ending, but giving up near the end for no reason. It requires a lot of set up in the expeditions you do, and then just leaving at the end of an already completed one which the game doesn't encourage you to abandon after defeating the first two phases of the final boss. To solidify the bad ending, your colony defence must be low, and you must fail both challenges, otherwise the colony would survive and you'd get a normal career ending.

[@GrndAdmiralThrawn]

I remember Streets of Rage was featured in a list of “bad endings that are better than the good ending”

[@butwhataboutdragons7768]

At least a couple of the Oddworld games had bad endings if you killed a certain number of your Mudokon friends instead of saving them. The difficulty came in finding them, as quite a few are well hidden. Alternatively to get the best ending you had to save almost all of them instead. The vast majority of players are going to get the regular endings of course, and I think those are actually canon anyway.

[@genericname2747]

But in the first game you get a cool weapon if you kill all the Mudokens

[@codapplesvenhands]

My man at 4:30 hit that table at mach 10 absolutely 0 frames between hands and table

[@brandonp7503]

I'm pretty sure Hideo Kojima is going to confess in his will that he created BlazBlue under a pseudonym.

[@artbk]

Did it feature nanomachines?

[@brandonp7503]

​@@artbk I'm pretty sure it's implied that nanomachines are involved in Nu, Mu, and Lambda's weapons, since they disappear, reappear, change shape, etc.

[@patrickholzer6415]

First thing that comes to mind here for me is Heavy Rain. It has a trophy for getting the worst possible possible called 'perfect crime', for which you need to jump through several hoops and also mentally and physically destroy one of the main characters so he actually gives up on saving his son...

[@SuperLlama42]

Faith Chapter II has the Initiation Ending, where there are 3 cryptic things you have to do at specific points in the game, and doing all 3 gets you the ending where the cult visits you at your house and you possibly get taken over by the UNSPEAKABLE to become it's new host.

[@JayBagnallDrums]

The bad endings of Shenmue 1 and 2 literally require you wait for them.

[@kajnicholson241]

Streets of Rogue has 2 tricky bad endings. Normally the game ends in you becoming mayor and a big dance party (it’s a silly game), but If you kill everyone there can be no dance party. The second bad ending is to throw the mayor’s hat into the void (it’s harder than it sounds) and send the city into chaos!

[@MrGreenTiger]

Ahhhhh! I just got past the park and unlocked Downtown! Like yesterday! Don't be telling me there's a fancy hat I have to not wear! How will I stop myself!!!

[@kajnicholson241]

@@MrGreenTiger only if you want the bad ending. Wearing the hat is literally part of how you win the game! Put on the hat!

[@MrGreenTiger]

@@kajnicholson241 I put on the hat as the soldier and frankly expected more of A Rambo Ending. Was right about one thing. "Nothing is Over! You can't just turn it off!" 😭

[@NerdKing2nd]

@@MrGreenTiger The corrupting power of bacon cheeseburgers can never be understated

[@kajnicholson241]

@@MrGreenTiger the cycle continues. Corrupt and dance are eternal.

[@malcolmelliott3471]

Love outside xbox and outside xtra. Been watching since outside xbox started out and followed by outside xtra

[@OptimusSledge]

That was the good ending of Mafia 3? Man, I am apparently not a good person. I thought "Takes over the city's crime empire so it's never run by a racist traitor again" was a better ending than "Spends the rest of his life on the run from an incompetent FBI agent."

[@rickimaru915]

Whether it’s a ‘bad’ ending is a matter of opinion, but in Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne to get the True Demon ending (where you completely forsake your humanity and become the general of Lucifer’s army) you have to complete a very difficult, optional dungeon which then eventually leads to a true final boss fight againt Lucifer which requires a lot of planning and grinding to beat

[@chaoswingsandleaves9349]

Well it is the only ending that results in the complete destruction of the world so…

[@rickimaru915]

@@chaoswingsandleaves9349 Which is arguably a good thing in Shin Megami Tensei, as it means that YHVH’s eternal cycle of suffering is broken

[@TheBlackSeraph]

And it *is* hard - not only do you have slew of optional super bosses, but you can accidentally lock yourself out of it. Last time I played I had done everything along the TD path but take down Metatron. I decided to grind outside of the Labyrinth not realising that taking one step in the final dungeon locks you out of the True Demon ending.

[@browncoatkevin]

That's a fun ending because of the debate over whether it's the game's best or worst ending. Sure, you irrevocably wreck creation in the most Chaos-aligned ending of the series, but you ascend to Lucifer's right hand in the most powerful ending of the series, with the promise of obliterating the villainous YHVH.

[@g4cky]

Not only is blazblue my fave underrated fighting game series, but tsubaki was my main in the games she was available in! Love it

[@SharkQuake]

The first Force Unleashed has one, too. After fighting Vader, you have the option to fight the Emperor for the good ending or fight Vader to the death for the bad ending. The second fight is grueling, but you get some cool armor, at least.

[@DMBLaan]

If they do a part 2, may I recommend Mass Effect 2's Everyone Dies ending.

[@Eddiember]

Remember in Duck Tales for Nintendo, where you get the worst ending in the game by having 0 money at the end of a game literally about getting as much money as possible.

[@VeryClassyDemon]

I’m surprised Mass Effect 2 wasn’t on the list, to get the bad ending of that game, you have to be as incompetent as possible via not doing loyalty missions and picking the most random squadmates to do specialist jobs (and it’s generally believe ‘everyone lives’ is way easier than ‘everyone dies’

[@SapphireDragon357]

So what I want... is for outsidexbox to reupload this video, but exactly the same, so we all watch it, like a newgame+. AND THEN, reupload again with an actual bad ending attached, so that we've all had to watch this video 3 damn times to get the bad ending! :3

[@M_M_ODonnell]

There are a few bad endings for *I Was A Teenage Exocolonist* -- and one of the worst involves just about the shortest playthrough, but several different playthroughs' worth of setup. In a game where each run is usually between 3 and 10 hours.

[@RedSpade37]

I've not heard of that one, but it sounds interesting...

[@jardex2275]

​@@RedSpade37One of the main mechanics is the ability to recall memories between playthroughs. The first loop has a few fixed events that you can't prevent, along with several others that you probably won't have time to prepare for once you find out. The second loop onward opens up more conversation options, plus has your knowledge of future events. The idea is to use all this to aim for the golden ending. You can use that same logic to screw with events as well.

[@nat9504]

I kinda felt that Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana's "bad" ending (they're all fairly similar, but the "bad" ending gives you the least amount of closure as to the end of the game whereas the true ending gives you the most closure) was honestly harder to get than the normal ending.

[@MrGreenTiger]

In 'Life is Strange 2', the very first ending my wife unlocked was escaping down to Mexico. If you decide to teach your little brother right from wrong, he may end up on the road alone and the protagonist gets killed or jailed in the States.

[@Mulbert]

I got the ending where my wee brother jumped out the car to distract the authorities to let me escape to Mexico by myself. It was a bit bittersweet (especially because he seems to end up on basically house arrest!)

[@MrGreenTiger]

@@Mulbert with his grandparents, at least, I hope? *Spoilers ahead* Both brothers werewolfing it down to Mexico certainly seems to be the best ending even though you have to telekinetically carve a path through a police blockade to get just be left alone. The whole game is a really good mix of realistic emotions, melodramatic reactions and the quiet, natural beauty of america contrasted against absolutely horrific things for children to have to deal with. Somehow it's warning of what seemed like cartoony racism in '16 has aged like fine wine.

[@Mulbert]

@MrGreenTiger He was with his grandparents yeah, and I was with Cassidy in Mexico which was nice. I think if you choose romantic options with Finn you can be with him instead, being queer I usually go with the gay option lol but I was annoyed with him for trying to involve Daniel in the robbery I think, I didn't even bother talking to him in the hospital. It was a good game and very ambitious to have it being this pilgrimage across so many different locations but I don't know if I'd replay it, like you said the racism and other things the brothers had to go through (Mushroom 😭😭) made it quite dark and intense, far more so than the other games in the series.

[@JohnDoe-df7bl]

What about the genocide ending in undertale? That thing takes hours of grinding, a mind wrecking fighf with a skeleton, and mountains of emotional damage.

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

Related to the Luigi’s Mansion one, the first Warioland game also had multiple endings that were, iirc, tied to how many gold goons you collected throughout the game; at the end of the game Wario wishes on a genie for a castle of his own (after Mario took his back from Wario in Six Gold Coins), with the best ending being getting the Moon, and the worst being a birdhouse.

[@prowlingmonkey]

The (true) Braid ending didn't get spoiled for me when I got it, so when she blew up it took me so by surprises that I felt like I nearly had a heart attack. A bit like the ending to the 2013 movie 'Enemy'

[@JanuarySnowstorm]

When you beat Drakengaard on the PS2 for the fist time, and your companion sacrifices herself to seal away evil, you probably figure that's the bad ending, but the more effort you put into the game the more you find out that the other six endings are only increasingly more bleak and insane.

[@shayanzamanpoore2744]

Right before the world ends, someone is going to make a comment saying: " 18:17... Well that aged poorly"

[@archellothewolf2083]

How is Mass Effect 3 not on this list? It's so difficult to get the worst ending you almost HAVE to set up and import a save from Mass Effect 1 and 2 in order to do it. And even then you have to put a lot of effort into specifically making all the worst choices or you're still going to be at the minimum for one of the regular endings.

[@aaronskuse2207]

I had a cordial and well-worded counter, but KZbin fucked up as usual and deleted everything I typed before I could post it, so here’s the short idea. ME3 only had one single ending, and it’s the bad ending with the Reapers winning. Literally the only choice you have is choosing the backdrop color.

[@imperiallarch7610]

@@aaronskuse2207 It's hard to imagine that the Reapers would consider the ending where they (and every possible trace of their programming) are completely obliterated to be "winning." They can't prune back galactic civilization every 10,000 years (or however long, I forget if that's the exact cycle length) if they don't exist to do it.

[@normalhuman9878]

I feel like Undertale should be the Textbook example of this, if there was a textbook about games that have bad endings you have to work harder for. You have to grind enemies until they stop spawning and it adds in several harder boss fights, only for you to be rewarded by having your game tainted forever as you can never truly achieve the best ending again.

[@gamemasteranthony2756]

Surprised Undertale didn't make the list. Especially given that the Genocide ending requires a bit of work given how difficult some of the fights are, specifically Undyne the Undying and Sans.

[@gamemasteranthony2756]

@@SimuLord Precisely. So, not only is it more effort, it turns out to be not worth the effort altogether.

[@Multibrawlr]

I've played House of the Dead for over 20 years and could probably count the number of times I got the bad ending on one hand. You have to take the worse-scoring paths, ignore hostages and bonus items, and avoid getting headshots to ensure you're scoring under the threshold. All while surviving on one credit. If you die then you'll have to kill yourself 9 more times so the ones digit is 0 again (unless you want to start over from the beginning). Side note: House of the Dead is freaking awesome, thanks for including it in this video. Really fun franchise that more people need to experience.

[@permberd4185]

The original DuckTales NES game has a bad ending that fits this really well. To get it you actually have to have 0 gold by the end of he game wich is really hard! Especially since avoiding all the gold isn't enough you have to deliberately get rid of the gold that you earn from items you get at the end of each level.

[@lpfan4491]

The best part being that getting rid of all your cash is not always enough either. If you accidentially get an odd amount of money, you cannot deplete it to 0. It's a true troll ending.

[@mrmusickhimself]

The worst ending in Ducktales for the NES was so hard to get that we wouldn't learn about it until KZbin arrived.

[@EnbyOfTheBorealValley]

Shocked elden ring isn't on here, considering how what's often considered the worst ending where you essentially just set the world on fire, can only be done by navigating the worst area (subterranean shunning grounds) and doing an annoying parkour section with a bunch of enemies that can one shot you

[@Darkprosper]

Agreed, although surely the worst ending is the Dung Eater ending. Though it's not nearly as hard to get.

[@Karak-_-]

​​@@DarkprosperIn that ending, people get to _live_ through the suffering.

[@chrispysaid]

I hope Jane wakes up every morning feeling like she's enough.

[@ivansobubblehead]

Does this video count as having a good ending when Jane doesn't get to conquer the world?

[@YuBeace]

Not to forget Dead or Alive, where the evil antagonist company hosts a fighting tournament.