Best Ending for a JRPG: Good One, or Sad One?

So, what are your thoughts about this?

For me, the most memorable endings on all JRPGs I played, even when were happy, had a bit of sadness somehow.
Just to mention some that marked me (no spoilers):

• Breath of Fire III ***
• Chrono Trigger (True Full Ending) *****
• Phantasy Star II ****
• Phantasy Star IV *****
• Terranigma *****

I prefer happy endings but I think bittersweet is the best balance between memorability and satisfication, with a few small sacrifices you achieve a happy ending.

Legend of Dragoon did this and although very classic, it felt satisfying enough to me.

I like happy endings, but it really depends on the tone of the story up to that point.

I'm mostly one for happier endings. Real life is depressing enough as it is.

Personal preferences aside, I've heard that it's better for games in general to have happy endings, just because it actually takes some effort on the player's behalf to get to the ending in the first place. Having a particularly hard game end on a downer could come off as a further slap in the face. How true is this? Well, the Soulsborne (Dark Souls + Bloodborne) games don't have the most uplifting of endings (though they are open to interpretation), and take quite a bit of effort to finish. Yet they're still well received on the whole. Take that as you will.

My own thoughts on the matter is that the ending should mesh with the game's overall tone. Having a super dark and serious game with a strong message of self-sacrifice end with laughs, sunshine, and rainbows would likely be a bit jarring, and vice-versa. Granted, downer endings don't have to be super sad all the time; a more lighthearted game could easily play it for laughs.

I also think an ending should be conclusive, regardless of the tone. Leaving an unanswered question here and there is fine and can actually do a lot for a game's reception if it gets the fan theories rolling. But ending a game on an inconclusive cliffhanger or sequel hook is not only a little irritating, it can come off as a little presumptuous because it assumes the game's going to be successful enough to warrant a sequel before it even gets out the door. If people wind up not liking the game and thus the promised sequel never gets made? The story's forever unresolved.

There was this one article I read a while back on the subject of downer endings, which argued that downer endings are better due to being more realistic, and also that a happy ending might preach a moral that the creator unintended. I disagree with that line of reasoning (for one, that seems to assume that people are going to take the happy ending literally; only a crackpot's going to look at a game where the evil overlord dies at the party's hands at the end and automatically equate that with the creator saying that all "evil" people are irredeemable and condoning violence solving everything. Metaphor is a thing that exists, you know), but it was an interesting read regardless. That article's here, if you care to take a look.

I kind of like endings that are a bit of a downer but only if it's truly meaningful. As a carryover from cinema, I don't like what I call "needless death endings" where one of the main characters gets killed off for nothing other than the sake of trying to make the story more profound than it actually is. It has to mesh with the story (Falling Down) and not just be tacked onto the end to try to jerk a few tears (Pay it Forward).

Nier ending A (when started playing Ashes of Dreams) and the last ending D, that ending was perfect and very bittersweet.

Radiata Stories is another one that will be forever in my mind.

Final Fantasy Type-0 holds the best ending from Final Fantasy.

I'm not a great fan of Deus ex Machina endings where something out of context happens to everyone end happy. I prefer my ending bittersweet. :D

I like bittersweet. Happy ending doesn't satisfy me much. Most of happy ending scenes in most of story I tend to forget. Sad ending is like feeling punished. So I don't want that as well. Bittersweet is the sweet spot between them. I can't get enough a story about some people sacrificing themselves so that the next generation or their friends live happily, even better if they remember the hero's sacrifice like building a monument or naming a place based on it.

Or in a less tragic bittersweet ending

But as I mentioned in the status update, all endings has to be conclusive, at least the problem presented by the story is resolved. Not left it hanged. Whether if they want to tease or introduce next conflict on the ending (for either cliffhanger vibe or teasing for the sequel), I don't care as long as current conflict is resolved.

I think there is no pure happiness in life usually, so the best and most believable endings are the most realistic ones, that teach us something about life, instead of just "you fixed everything, life is wonderful, you are amazing, everyone is happy forever".

I mean there are exceptions, obviously, for example if you're making a really light-hearted and comedic game, but even the happiest ending can often benefit from some realism.

Final Fantasy VI ending is both uplifting and darn depressing, for example, considering everything that's happened and what they had to do to defeat the villain.

FFX is pretty much tragic in several ways.

And I can't even call FFVII ending a truly happy one.

Nier Automata Ending E is the best video game ever.

I think it depends on a story. However, I'm tired of heroes trying to save the world and entering a happy ending where all is fine and dandy.
The most memorable ending for me was in Broken hearts, a game made by a Czech game maker. The main character, after getting trapped in Avalon, finally begun to realize the emotions and feelings that he'd ignored when he was just a dog of warfare. It made for a great bittersweet ending.

My first choice is always the one determined by the player's own choices.

Fundamentally I always prefer an ending brought about by my own choices over any given ending type. Whether it's being the shiniest of shiny champions or the absolute villain of villains, it's always more rewarding when it's a product of my choices as a player.

I am not saying it has to be of the complexity of a mass effect game, or that it must have "heroic" & "villainous" endings; it can still be a linear story with only one "true ending", but still have minor elements that are determined by player choices. For example, I remember playing a JRPG, you only had the "save the world" ending, but what you did after you & your team saved the world, was determined by your choices as a player, especially dialogue choices while talking with your party members.

So when the game ended, if you decisions were weighted one way, you & the rogue archetype go off to be treasure hunters. Another way & you ended up joining the knightly order your tank party member is a part of. Or another way, you ended up following your healer love interest. The game essentially ends the same way, with the defeat of the big bad, no matter how you play. But who your main chooses to be once the dust settles, is determined by culmination of your choices in the game.

However, whether the player's choices effect the ending, or if the story is effectively "on rails", it needs to stay consistent with the overall tone of the narrative. An ending the player chooses, is still a bad ending if it seems wholly incongruous with who the player character is depicted as being.

I'll always prefer a happy ending, but some kind of bittersweet ending can be nice too. I just don't like an ending that feels like my guy failed to do what he set out to do. I want my guy to have a positive effect on the game world, and have an overall positive end experience.

It depends on the story and atmosphere.

Even a game that has a dreary and bleak setting can have a happy fairy tale ending if the story is written well.

Personally, I like bittersweet endings.

Happy, maybe bittersweet, but not too bittersweet.

Dragon age had a pretty good simple bittersweet ending - you beat the final boss, but to kill them for good you had to sacrifice either your MC or Alistair I believe. Happy ending with a little sadness mixed in is good.

That being said some endings I've seen with a very "optimistic" tone work well too. FF6 is a good example - the bad guy's dead, but a lot of bad things are still going on and there's still a lot of work to do.

I guess the best endings aren't the ones that are necessarily "happy" or "sad" but the ones that are written well enough that they make you think about them long after you've experienced them.

You could actually avoid having either of them die, by doing a ritual with Morrigan, or convince Alistair to do it. Or by recruiting Loghain and having him die instead.

Anyways!
Onto actually answering the topic of the thread. Both sad and happy endings have their moments, but I think sad endings are a little bit more memorable. Maybe...

I've always loved final fantasy 10s ending. It legit makes me tear up every time. (Spoiler warning if you still haven't played the game but are planning on doing it in the future.)
By killing the final villain you also release the beings keeping Tidus, the hero, alive. And they die. Leaving Tidus intangible and fading away. And it's just so sad! He can't even touch the girl he fell in love with one last time before he's gone, no kiss or hug or even a freaking handshake and... He just walks through her and jumps off the ship and fades away and then you see his dad in the afterlife and they highfive and- But like it's still a happy ending. Because if they didn't do it like they did, Yuna and one other team member, would be dead, for nothing! Because the final villain would just regenerate in a few years anyway. Then Yuna gives that speech to the people left behind... And mentions him...
Sorry. I... kinda rewatched that scene just now to refresh my memory. I might be crying... Just a bit.

@Elissiaro Its too bad they ruin it later on by having Titus die again and Sin come back.

@CleanWater, according to best rpg ending is the one that surprise me. Please be consistent story because I will have a lot of questions to ask at the end of the game. Most of bad ending that I see in game likes to wrap things up like wrapping a box. For example, suddenly the big bad boss has been defeated, the end of the story and every things did not change.

For JRPG, I always prefer good ending. I don't wan't to invest hundred of hours only to see the bad ending or even bittersweet ending.

I feel that "Earn Your Happy Ending" is the way to do it. Even if a lot of bad or sad stuff happened to the protagonists along the way, make the ending unabashedly positive. Make it the brightest bright spot along the whole journey. Make the player feel good.

That's not to say that you should ignore, belittle, or disrespect the tragedies/hardships that happened along the way when you present the ending (this is one of my chief complaints about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which uses both its ending and epilogue to belittle the recent deaths of characters that meant so much to us along the way) - just that the events that happen after the player's final gameplay objective (usually beating the final boss) should be totally positive in both nature and tone.

If the main character has to sacrifice themselves in order to save the world after you beat the final boss, for example - you get that moment of hard emotional impact, and your story may be looked at in a more dramatic light, but you deprive your player of what they've been working for (a positive outcome for the character) the entire game. It's going to leave a bad taste in a lot of peoples' mouths.