Is there a "best" ending?

[tukkek]

Just finished the game tonight - loved the last episode and the entire game overall was amazeballs! However, the actual ending felt a bit anti-climatic... I mean, the ending was great but then it just fades to black like in all other chapters, no "years later" or anything like that.

As a hardcore gamer I'm pretty used to games giving me a "minor" ending when I didn't finish the game the way I was "supposed to" - but I'm not sure if that's the case with LiS... I mean, that could have been just due to the episodic nature of the game itself, I don't know...

So is there any ending that is more "special" than the others?

[[ACPL] Jon]

It's up to your imagination. Many great things end abrupt and that's often to make you battle and rethink what you did and what it caused, instead of giving you a fixed closure.

No closure = more pain.

[talemore]

The sacrifice of chloe has one extra scene of Max kissing chloe and different notes in the diary.

[SomeoneSomewhere]

I don't believe there is a best ending. It's more about how your imagination sees things ending up. It's a moral choice that you must sit with:

If you saved Chloe, how does that make you feel about the town? If you save the town, how does that make you feel about Chloe?

But over all, no matter what choice you make, how does that make you feel about yourself?

Jon above says it pretty well: no closure equals more pain. Both choices have negative consequences, so you will feel pain no matter what.

[3cool5you]

Well if you sacrifice Chloe, there was really no point playing the game as the main objective in the game is to save Chloe but if you sacrifice Arcadia Bay, you feel great that you saved Chloe but then you think about all the people you just killed so it guilt trips you. In conclusion, they're both ♥♥♥♥.

[cz]

Pretty similar ending to "The Last of Us", for example. One of the best narrative games of all time, but just an abrupt cut to black after a bittersweet, ambiguous conclusion and no "years later". Honestly, the latter would have been pretty lame--just like a good book, a game should know when the story it set out to tell is over and not draw it out just for the sake of tying up loose ends or providing fan service a la the Harry Potter epilogue.

[Jeckenn]

I didn't sacrifice Chloe because her and Max were back together again, where they belonged. In life there is NOTHING that is more important then having someone who would actually die for you because they love you and there is no way I could possibly break that up and sacrifice Chloe to maybe stop the storm....

See all through the game each time Max used a photo to travel back in time to "fix" the past it ALWAYS ended up worse then what she was trying to fix, so why would/should it work this time?

Some will say that you are going back to the catalyst that started the storm in the first place, however those people forget that Max saw a vision of the storm well before her and Chloe met for that first time in the girls washroom at Blackwell, when Nathan tried to kill Chloe.

Max stopped him that time and in my opinion she is better off staying in that timeline and not creating yet another new one where she allows her best friend/lover to die because then the storm will still come and Chloe will have died for nothing. It might be a few weeks later, a month, 6 months, or more, but the storm will still come because time was altered yet again and THAT is what creates the paradox.

I could not take that chance and as I said there is nothing that is more important in life then finding someone that is your soul mate, someone you would not hesitate to die to save and they would do the same for you, life is all about love and without it....well it becomes just existing and not really living...

[Dev09Games]

Originally posted by Jeckenn:

I didn't sacrifice Chloe because her and Max were back together again, where they belonged. In life there is NOTHING that is more important then having someone who would actually die for you because they love you and there is no way I could possibly break that up and sacrifice Chloe to maybe stop the storm....

See all through the game each time Max used a photo to travel back in time to "fix" the past it ALWAYS ended up worse then what she was trying to fix, so why would/should it work this time?

Some will say that you are going back to the catalyst that started the storm in the first place, however those people forget that Max saw a vision of the storm well before her and Chloe met for that first time in the girls washroom at Blackwell, when Nathan tried to kill Chloe.

Max stopped him that time and in my opinion she is better off staying in that timeline and not creating yet another new one where she allows her best friend/lover to die because then the storm will still come and Chloe will have died for nothing. It might be a few weeks later, a month, 6 months, or more, but the storm will still come because time was altered yet again and THAT is what creates the paradox.

I could not take that chance and as I said there is nothing that is more important in life then finding someone that is your soul mate, someone you would not hesitate to die to save and they would do the same for you, life is all about love and without it....well it becomes just existing and not really living...

Having played both ending now, you just blew my mind with explanation. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeckenn]

Originally posted by DevDC:

Originally posted by Jeckenn:

I didn't sacrifice Chloe because her and Max were back together again, where they belonged. In life there is NOTHING that is more important then having someone who would actually die for you because they love you and there is no way I could possibly break that up and sacrifice Chloe to maybe stop the storm....

See all through the game each time Max used a photo to travel back in time to "fix" the past it ALWAYS ended up worse then what she was trying to fix, so why would/should it work this time?

Some will say that you are going back to the catalyst that started the storm in the first place, however those people forget that Max saw a vision of the storm well before her and Chloe met for that first time in the girls washroom at Blackwell, when Nathan tried to kill Chloe.

Max stopped him that time and in my opinion she is better off staying in that timeline and not creating yet another new one where she allows her best friend/lover to die because then the storm will still come and Chloe will have died for nothing. It might be a few weeks later, a month, 6 months, or more, but the storm will still come because time was altered yet again and THAT is what creates the paradox.

I could not take that chance and as I said there is nothing that is more important in life then finding someone that is your soul mate, someone you would not hesitate to die to save and they would do the same for you, life is all about love and without it....well it becomes just existing and not really living...

Having played both ending now, you just blew my mind with explanation. Thanks for sharing.

You're welcome :)

[Shinzou]

@Jeckenn,

after playing through twice to see both endings (first sacrified Arcadia Bay because how could i let Chloe suffer again after all that?, then sacrified Chloe on second playthrough) and i came to the exact same conclusion as you did. In fact i was just about to post my thoughts about this when i found your post in this thread. The save Arcadia Bay ending is absolutely more heartbreaking, and it doesn't even fix many things. Like there will still be no epiphany about bullying (since Max probably did not need to safe Kate, or maybe you did need to anyway. She is alive at the funeral, but weirdly stands next to Joyce, not Max her friend and savior? Also why is Victoria at the funeral?)

There are also several instances where Max needed to use her rewind anyway, after saving Chloe, that would probably still be necessary even if she didn't save her to accomplish her goals. Or even if she didn't, her knowledge of how things play out would still be potentially creating problesm. For example talking to Taylor about her mother, or comforting Kate with the right words so that she doesn't think about suicide anymore, comforting Dana about her pregnancy, and many more. So unless Max forgot about all that (and she surely did not), then the changes have already been seen/done/said, and going back to that moment really just makes things worse again, expecially for Max herself.

I think at the end it is about accepting destiny, and Max's destiny is to safe Chloe and be at her side, as a friend or a lover (depending on how you played Max).

Apart from that, we are not actually told what happens to the others in Arcadia Bay. The destruction seemed bad, but certainly survivable. If we are not explicitly told that Kate and Joyce, Warren, etc are killed by the storm then i believe they have survived indeed. In fact, we are not told all that much how this final timeline played out, and what actual changes were made (did Jefferson still kill Nathan, or did Max in this timeline also warn David Madson and lead to their arrests. Did Kate still attempt suicide and Max talked her out of it? And many more questions are left open).

[#NEOИ]

Originally posted by Jeckenn:

I didn't sacrifice Chloe because her and Max were back together again, where they belonged. In life there is NOTHING that is more important then having someone who would actually die for you because they love you and there is no way I could possibly break that up and sacrifice Chloe to maybe stop the storm....

See all through the game each time Max used a photo to travel back in time to "fix" the past it ALWAYS ended up worse then what she was trying to fix, so why would/should it work this time?

Some will say that you are going back to the catalyst that started the storm in the first place, however those people forget that Max saw a vision of the storm well before her and Chloe met for that first time in the girls washroom at Blackwell, when Nathan tried to kill Chloe.

Max stopped him that time and in my opinion she is better off staying in that timeline and not creating yet another new one where she allows her best friend/lover to die because then the storm will still come and Chloe will have died for nothing. It might be a few weeks later, a month, 6 months, or more, but the storm will still come because time was altered yet again and THAT is what creates the paradox.

I could not take that chance and as I said there is nothing that is more important in life then finding someone that is your soul mate, someone you would not hesitate to die to save and they would do the same for you, life is all about love and without it....well it becomes just existing and not really living...

Im with you, for me there is no other ending then saving Chloe.
All the game is about to save her,not to kill.
Why the ♥♥♥♥ the universe or who else wanna see her dead and give you the power to prevent this ?!?!?

I dont go with the theory .....blah, see her friend last time, spend a good time with her, have some great last moments ...blah, blah
When Chloe died she think shes alone and all people she had love abandoned her... ....seriously WTF?
Is it to let suffer Max and live with the secret she can never tell anyone......screw this !

Max & Chloe....thats it...... lalalalalalalala

[maniacal<1>]

Probably not what you're asking for, but meh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soKNTq9SAtU&index=4&list=PLIB2nYKpiN-z4iFYd8ovu13ddvzWTaHhb

[tukkek]

Hey, I didn't get that very last tidbit where Max comes home again to Chloe. I wonder why? Maybe because I didn't make Chloe my love interest during the playthrough? That would explain not having the kiss but that final scene doesn't seem that related (unless you assume they're living together as a couple but that doesn't seem to be overly stated or mandatory for that scene to work out, being so short).

[LordSith]

It's a fan made video so it's normal you did not see it.

[Jeckenn]

The video is amazeballs! Thank you so much! It made me cry again I just love that ending so much, thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Alt0153]

Originally posted by maniacal<1>:

Probably not what you're asking for, but meh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soKNTq9SAtU&index=4&list=PLIB2nYKpiN-z4iFYd8ovu13ddvzWTaHhb

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this is awesome, pricefield forever