Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
depends. I'm a perfectionist like that. So I'll likely want to see each one...but
each ending should be unique and interesting and maybe even reveal a mystery. if all the endings are good, mix it up, maybe one characters "good" ending is bittersweet at best compared to the others.
if there are death endings, Does your character regret dying? is it suicide? murder? how do they die?
each ending should be unique and interesting and maybe even reveal a mystery. if all the endings are good, mix it up, maybe one characters "good" ending is bittersweet at best compared to the others.
if there are death endings, Does your character regret dying? is it suicide? murder? how do they die?
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
For me it depends as well, if I feel like the endings or the branching of the story is being redundant, then I'll stop going after the other endings. If a writer plans on writing a game with 20+ endings, each ending must give of it's own sense of uniqueness, thus making a player want to play through it again and again and again...
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
This question is pretty extremely subjective. My favorite VN has a total of about 22-23 endings, 12 of which are "good" endings and 10-11 or so that are "bad" endings.. I've played through about...17 or so of them thus far. The CGs are planned so that each of the good endings has a few completely unique CGs. You absolutely cannot get all the CGs without playing all 10 endings. To encourage you to also get the bad endings, you get a special item with each bad ending and cannot complete your inventory without getting all of the endings.
For games like Princess Maker and PPBB, there is a special picture for each and every ending...the only way to get them all is to keep playing. For those games, I'm cool with it.
It really depends on how well it's done.
For games like Princess Maker and PPBB, there is a special picture for each and every ending...the only way to get them all is to keep playing. For those games, I'm cool with it.
It really depends on how well it's done.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
What is your favorite VN? If you don't mind telling me ^_^
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
I like multiple endings...IF they're well done. Each needs to be distinct, be preceeded by long branches that differ from the alternates, and have endings that are true to the characters, storyline, and other factors throughout the game. I will go for them all IF the game was good. If the game leaves a somewhat lacking taste behind, I'll get the one ending and move on.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
Having lots of endings doesn't really bother me for a few reasons. If playing through many of the endings actually rewards me with something, like a special ending, then I am all for playing a game through multiple times. Or if the endings offer a different perspective by going through them, I like that too.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
When I have spare time on my hands I go for all the ending if possible but if it's like Bionic heart where the last ending is impossible to reach then it is annoying. ( I still want that last ending T.T *goes off to play it again* ).
But people love many endings if the story is really good.
But people love many endings if the story is really good.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
Multiple Ends are nice, but if they're going to be based on Minor playing style changes it loses its impact for me. Either make it so the branch paths are sufficiently different to be noticable or use the persistant data to have one of the already achieved ends inject something new into one of the branches.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
The purpose of multiple endings, IMO, is to personalize the experience. I play through once, making my decisions until I reach my personalized ending. And then I stop, because I've already reached my ending. The other endings belong to other players who made different decisions. Replaying to get the other endings is a almost a form of cheating to me.
Of course, there are games where I do end up replaying to get the other endings. For example, the first ending I got was unsatisfying, or I want to explore other parts of the story, or the game forces me to replay multiple times to get the "true" ending. However, at that point I consider the game's structure to be broken. I am no longer truly immersed in the story. I rely on walkthroughs and text skipping.
I don't want visual novels to encourage me to replay. I want them to offer me a complete experience, no matter what choices I make.
Of course, there are games where I do end up replaying to get the other endings. For example, the first ending I got was unsatisfying, or I want to explore other parts of the story, or the game forces me to replay multiple times to get the "true" ending. However, at that point I consider the game's structure to be broken. I am no longer truly immersed in the story. I rely on walkthroughs and text skipping.
I don't want visual novels to encourage me to replay. I want them to offer me a complete experience, no matter what choices I make.
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Re: Does Many Endings Encourage or Discourage Players?
I believe that it is best to have one set point where your story ends and a variety of small charater based endings within the story. Ideally as the player explores the world and interacts with the characters then he/she will unlock resolutions of that characters arc. That is how most of the games I am developing are like. I try to make my games different by adding gameplay that affects the flavor of the ending not the ending as a whole. For instance I am coding a emotion engine that modifies your interactions with characters depending on how you interacted with them in the past. If you are mean to one character his or her friend will be mad at you too (this is just an example). This allows different playthroughs flavored by different styles of interaction. If you are mean then people will have different dialogue for you, but that should only affect the ending in ways that are minor so the core structure of the story stays intact. Usually multiple endings puts the story on a shaky foundation.
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