So what ultimately happened storywise? (end spoilers)

[Glisskon]

I youst finished it. So the girl was your sister that you tried to revive by killing Claos but he was actually her dad and yours as well then but at the end with the hole in the wall it turned out that you where her boyfriend and Claos was still her dad but didn't want you to date her?

I mean was everything her dream then when you killed the evil that was haunting the island that took the shape of Claos she woke up into an alternate island dimension, and if that's the case how did you do anything inside her dream?


Can you unlock a secret ending otherwise if someone could explain what actually happened would be nice.

[Beyondgood]

The ending explain that the history of Inexistence is just the distortion of reality that imagines Hald, a world where he would have the courage to overcome his tyrannical father who hurt him and his sister.
I added a transition between the end of fighting and the final scene that can explain a little better the events.

[Glisskon]

Originally posted by jonathan.brassaud36:

The ending explain that the history of Inexistence is just the distortion of reality that imagines Hald, a world where he would have the courage to overcome his tyrannical father who hurt him and his sister.
I added a transition between the end of fighting and the final scene that can explain a little better the events.

So the actual events of the game are youst inside his mind.

[Beyondgood]

That's it! :)

[sourceofpain]

Originally posted by jonathan.brassaud36:

That's it! :)

Sounds like you should work on a sequel. Build on the fragmented mind of the traumatized boy. The engine you made this game on should either have a sequel, or you should make a user friendly editor so we can make our own campaigns

[sareks]

hi, I enjoyed the game but was a little
disappointed with the ending...

[GI Robot]

I just beat the game and that's what I thought happened, but I wasn't entirely sure. It could be better worded in the last cutscene. I really liked the game though.

[PBSaffran]

I really wonder why you didn't include the possibility of a good ending though. Kind of like an extra boss. I got all achievements in the same run and still got the "bad end".
The game was fun though !

[Beyondgood]

The end of Inexistence was written from the beginning, even before defining story. For me a game is better without multiple ending, only one, corresponding to the game. I like this kind of twist, I was inspired by Monkey Island 2. I understand that it may displease some people, as she affected many others.
Thank you for your interest anyway, that's cool to see people discuss about it!

[DarkFalzX]

"it was all a dream" endings are generally a bad idea to begin with, but when you combine it with "Surprise! Everything is terrible!", it brings down the whole experience.
Even if this ending is exactly what was planned, the game itself fails to earn it. It's pointlessly crass and jarring.
I am not saying that such a twist could never work, but it doesn't work in Inexistence.

Also, when you say "The end of Inexistence was written from the beginning", do you mean it was already a thing in Demo 1.0? How were you going to reconcile it with cute characters and a kidnapping plot?

The ending is Shyamalanerrific: )

[Kohmei]

Reminded me somewhat of Papo & Yo which was about his father's drinking problem and killing his sister. It differs in that that game was basically symbolic of coming to terms with it and moving on, whereas this game seems to have introduced us to the issue in the shoes of a character who is still very much in the middle of the nightmare, with no chance of escaping because now the credits are rolling and the game is over. Yikes

I liked it in a way because it's so uncommon for stories to end like this, but on the other hand it seemed out of place with the game. I don't think there was any kind of allusion to what was really going on.

[Shyao]

The problem with this ending is it doesn't feel very Metroidvania. Yes, Metroidvania games have bad endings, you can see the same in most Castlevania games, but they also have good endings for doing things in the correct order, having certain items/gear equipped during certain key battles, etc.

When a friend of mine did the game on stream, we were altogether disappointed with the ending and almost immediately hunted down every item, equipment piece, beat it on Hard, etc to try and get a better ending. Only to be disappointed when there was no better ending.

Here's a problem when you try for powerful messages in the ending of your game, something I hope the entire indie community takes note of because it's way too damn common these days; If it's an out of nowhere message, it feels heavy handed, conceited, and, most of all, completely unnecessary. It feels like we got robbed of an ending that fits the game. It makes the game feel unsatisfactory and, in your case, it fails to fit the theme of the game. It led to a very confusing ending that spoils the entire game.

Not to mention not everyone likes such endings. Word to the industry; Not everyone likes games that end with IMPLIED RAPE. And before the dev can say 'no, it's just abuse', think about the way you frame the ending. The father comes in, throws the son/boyfriend out, his attention only on the daughter. In her bedroom, keeping her at the bed. That doesn't imply abuse, it implies he's going to force her to have sex with him.

Dev, the biggest issue is this is now your reputation. If you make another game, you\re the Implied Rape Guy. The Abuse Guy. And it's going to color everyone's expectations of future releases. I know that my friend isn't going to buy from you again. I know I'm not going to. I know that his viewers from the stream aren't going to buy from you. In going for your one chosen ending, you have cost yourself lots of sales.

But I don't want to just be a negative nancy, so I'll try to be constructive with my criticism as well.

1) Pick a unified theme and stick to it. A game where everything's a day dream or fantasy usually only leaves people feeling ripped off. So, stick to your theme and do not deviate from it, not even for the ending. A unified theme will feel altogether better than a game that's half-assed.

2) Character development. No one likes a character that doesn't change, so make sure the adventure you're making has some purpose for existing. If your hero at the end just blindly accepts life's difficulties and doesn't change for the better, you have written a bad character. People like characters who grow and change, becoming better people. In your case, this could have saved the ending if you'd just made a slight alteration to the ending; Hald standing up to the father. "Get your hands off her!", a simple line at the end and fade to black. You wouldn't need to have an additional boss or an extended ending, or even what we could call a 'good' ending. Just Hald showing a little courage would have gone a long way, ESPECIALLY if your player bothers with;

3) Have some impact for 100%/higher difficulties. If your reward for 100% is just another item, it feels like you wasted your time to some extent. So many games do story changes or character development or even unlock new endings for doing 100% or beating the game on the hardest difficulty; embrace this. People expect more out of their games, not less.

4) NEVER HAVE A FINAL BOSS THAT INCLUDES PLATFORMING WITH KNOCKBACK. You know what other game had this? Dracula X. You know what else should be known about Dracula X? NOBODY LIKED THAT BOSS BATTLE! So, lessen to be taken moving forward; DO NOT EVER DO THAT AGAIN!

5) Do not EVER put bottomless pits in a Metroidvania game. Metroidvania is all about exploration, checking every nook and cranny for items and more. When you put bottomless pits into the game, you violate the very thing that makes Metroidvania Metroidvania. Bottomless pits in a exploration-based genre just leads to inconsistency and annoyance since there's no way to play around it. Save your game, jump in hole, die, reload. When you want me to explore, especially when you tease me with hidden goodies like puzzle pieces and equipment, every area should hint at it's results.

Here's an example. Shantae is another game that plays out Metroidvania style, with upgrades and hidden items. Some pits lead to hidden stuff and some are bottomless; but you can tell them apart because the bottomless pits have skulls floating up and dissipating like a mist. This tells you the pit you see is bottomless and will result in damage. The pits without these can be dropped into safely. It's a little quirk that allows the game to have it's bottomless pits, but also have exploration be the core engagement of the game. Simply because WayForward made sure that everything hinted at it's consequences.

6) Thou shalt not make cutscenes unskippable. ESPECIALLY boss introduction speeches. Seriously, the ability to skip cutscenes has been mainstream since 2003. There is no excuse to have such a simple tool for convenience be missing. Sure, it prevents newbies from skipping cutscenes by accident, but it makes for something pretty frustrating when you have to sit through the final boss' speech each and every single time you fight him. Especially when you keep having to fight him because he knocks your butt into a bottomless pit in the second phase AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Seriously, don't ever do a boss like that again. That goes for EVERY developer, not just you.

7) Balance your basic enemies. A player grinding levels and going pure Strength build should be able to rip and tear through every basic enemy in a matter of two or three hits. If I'm playing a berserker style and it's still taking me quite a while to beat your basic enemies while said enemies can rip me in half in two hits, you need to rebalance your enemies' statistics. The point of a system that lets you choose your own build and develop your stats as you wish is that you can build to your playstyle. My friend and I typically play berserkers and we felt underpowered throughout the whole game, even while grinding levels. It's okay for bosses to be unbalanced; they're bosses, they should be stronger than normal. But when a basic zombie is able to two-shot me and it takes me five hits to take it down, your zombie needs to be rebalanced something fierce.

Hopefully, those seven things will give you food for thought and something to consider for when you make future titles.

P.S.; Before anyone decides to get indignant or say 'that problem doesn't exist', keep in mind that this feedback is based on the pre-release game; not the fully released game.

[Tokeeto]

I loved it!
Well... in the sort of "Woaw, everything went from 0 to Dark(!) in a 1 second flat" way.

[Seph]

That was... disturbing. I think it's implied that his sister was sexually abused and he was powerless to stop it.

As for clues that it was all a delusion, there's the fact that Hald wears modern clothing while living in a fantasy world.

[Bodock]

Uhm, not to CRITICIZE your choice
But me too didn't liked the incest/(sexual) abuse of the ending

It was your choise, so i'm ok with it!
just it wasn't a good experience :) neither what i was looking for

[Seph]

It'd have been fine if there had been the option for a true ending where the protagonist gets over his powerlessness through the power of his fantastic experiences or something, and could then help his sister. But oh well.