ending feels lackluster for an otherwise amazing game

[Familiar]

Finished the game and in one ending, everyone lives and you only get a cut scene of visiting your sisters grave. No mention of the kid or the fat cat, not even the poison man. But in the other ending where you die they get to have their own ending? this doesn't make sense.

This especially feels weird after learning what the ending of the game would be when returning to town one last time and the game taking no deviation from that to surprise you.

Game was an easy 8/10 but the ending lost me, anyone feel similar about this? should the endings have been shaken up some more? should they have been longer?

[Amble]

I felt the true ending was exactly what it needed to be. Yi sacrificing himself and his race for the future of the apemen is a perfectly fine culmination of his character arc, and the Solarians were past the point of saving.

I really can't think of many other ways it should have gone, the game is meant to make you understand that Yi and the Sols are terrible people, and the best redemption Yi can get is to tear it all down after obtaining a conscience and feeling remorse.

The normal ending is also fine, Yi refusing to face reality and continuing the same fruitless path as the other Sols. The others aren't mentioned in it because the ending is him continuing to see them as essentially livestock, a fitting end for playing the game in a way that ignores his friends in the same way he ignored his sister as a child.

Or at least that's how I see it all anyway.

[Familiar]

Originally posted by Amble:

I felt the true ending was exactly what it needed to be. Yi sacrificing himself and his race for the future of the apemen is a perfectly fine culmination of his character arc, and the Solarians were past the point of saving.

I really can't think of many other ways it should have gone, the game is meant to make you understand that Yi and the Sols are terrible people, and the best redemption Yi can get is to tear it all down after obtaining a conscience and feeling remorse.

The normal ending is also fine, Yi refusing to face reality and continuing the same fruitless path as the other Sols. The others aren't mentioned in it because the ending is him continuing to see them as essentially livestock, a fitting end for playing the game in a way that ignores his friends in the same way he ignored his sister as a child.

Or at least that's how I see it all anyway.

the true ending is better, but it leaves me to question why the other ending existed at all. I built a strong relationship with SS, helped the 9000 head, found the merchants brother, fed the poison guy all the poison but somehow me missing a single mini event at the village means Yi doesn't have to sacrifice himself and instead i get a lackluster ending?

i would have preferred the true ending being the actual ending with different cut-scenes exploring the world you leave behind, not just the human side of it. we could see the grave half of the normal ending with heng and yi as ghosts, reunited in death, just as heng said they would.

[Amble]

Originally posted by Familiar:

Originally posted by Amble:

I felt the true ending was exactly what it needed to be. Yi sacrificing himself and his race for the future of the apemen is a perfectly fine culmination of his character arc, and the Solarians were past the point of saving.

I really can't think of many other ways it should have gone, the game is meant to make you understand that Yi and the Sols are terrible people, and the best redemption Yi can get is to tear it all down after obtaining a conscience and feeling remorse.

The normal ending is also fine, Yi refusing to face reality and continuing the same fruitless path as the other Sols. The others aren't mentioned in it because the ending is him continuing to see them as essentially livestock, a fitting end for playing the game in a way that ignores his friends in the same way he ignored his sister as a child.

Or at least that's how I see it all anyway.

the true ending is better, but it leaves me to question why the other ending existed at all. I built a strong relationship with SS, helped the 9000 head, found the merchants brother, fed the poison guy all the poison but somehow me missing a single mini event at the village means Yi doesn't have to sacrifice himself and instead i get a lackluster ending?

i would have preferred the true ending being the actual ending with different cut-scenes exploring the world you leave behind, not just the human side of it. we could see the grave half of the normal ending with heng and yi as ghosts, reunited in death, just as heng said they would.

I will admit there's quite a lot of cognitive dissonance in the normal ending if you pick up some but not all items required for the true ending, but there's only so much they can do with a video game and limited funds. A second ending was already a crowdfunded stretch goal.

As for the true ending, we do see Yi reunited with Heng in the afterlife. And then the following credit song's lyrics are a conversation between Yi and Heng basically. There's not a lot more to show, the Solarian home was obliterated, all that remained was the afterlife of Yi and Heng, and the apemen on Earth. Both got the coverage they needed.

[Familiar]

Originally posted by Amble:

Originally posted by Familiar:

the true ending is better, but it leaves me to question why the other ending existed at all. I built a strong relationship with SS, helped the 9000 head, found the merchants brother, fed the poison guy all the poison but somehow me missing a single mini event at the village means Yi doesn't have to sacrifice himself and instead i get a lackluster ending?

i would have preferred the true ending being the actual ending with different cut-scenes exploring the world you leave behind, not just the human side of it. we could see the grave half of the normal ending with heng and yi as ghosts, reunited in death, just as heng said they would.

I will admit there's quite a lot of cognitive dissonance in the normal ending if you pick up some but not all items required for the true ending, but there's only so much they can do with a video game and limited funds. A second ending was already a crowdfunded stretch goal.

As for the true ending, we do see Yi reunited with Heng in the afterlife. And then the following credit song's lyrics are a conversation between Yi and Heng basically. There's not a lot more to show, the Solarian home was obliterated, all that remained was the afterlife of Yi and Heng, and the apemen on Earth. Both got the coverage they needed.

its a very good game and it turned out well for being crowdfunded. it kept me very engaged with the narrative on a high note but the end fumbled for me, left with an eh feeling, which is unfortunate but it is what it is.

I look forward to seeing more from this dev team, they are very capable.

[Fenix]

I feel the true ending was exactly what it should have been.
But to each their own.

[leo_gear]

True Ending: Yi takes responsibility for his actions. Remember, it was his idea to fly to the Pale Blue planet, subjugate the apemen and harvest their brains to run the soulscape as well as use New Kunlun to absorb the majority of the sun's light to fuel the root nodes. He even said he didn't consider himself the good guy. Stopping the whole plan while freeing the Apemen was the morally good choice.

Bad Ending: Yi flies New Kunlun back to Penglai to continue research on how to cure Tianhuo and save the remaining Solarians. It's implied that Kuafu returned to his soulscape to slow down his Tianhuo infection. We also see the brains they used to run the soulscape which implies they are still harvesting apemen for their brains. Basically, Yi becomes Eigong. Where Eigong's foolishly arrogant pursuit of immortality doomed all Solarians, Yi's foolishly arrogant pursuit to undo her mistakes have doomed the apemen to subjugation and death for the chance he can find a cure. He's also made Shuanshuan complicit in the subjugation of his own people which could come back and bite him and/or Yi in the future.

I sort of like the bad ending if only because it's fun to think of the implications of this choice and it leaves conflict open that you can mull over in your head and talk about. Will Yi ever find a cure or will his regenerative body give out before then? Will the Apemen feel slighted in this deal and some rise up against Yi? Or will the Apemen repeat the mistakes of the Solarians as they learn more, from the great conflicts and Fangshi inaction to the foolish pursuit for immortality?

The true ending is good though, just less left to think about. The only implications are maybe the Pale Blue planet was actually Earth around the latest Ice Age which was caused by New Kunlun blocking a lot of the sun's light...and maybe the origin of domestic cats comes from Kuafu messing with his DNA. All in all, a good ending doesn't always have to tell you everything and leaves it up to the audience to think more.