Heart-Breaking Moments that ruined the Video Game

[DiscipleofBob]

I'm not talking about well-done plot tragedies that make you tear up. Those are actually welcome in a video game in my book.

I'm talking about video games that you played, enjoyed, even loved, until one moment. Maybe it was just an absolute bull**** plot twist. Maybe a particular boss fight or level was just too ridiculous to continue. Maybe it was some horrible bug or game crash that made you so angry you couldn't continue with the game. Maybe it was some game mechanic which bugged you for awhile but you put up with it until a certain point. Whatever it was, because of that incident, you and that video game are no longer on speaking terms. What are some of yours?

Baten Kaitos - I wanted to like this game so much. Great graphics, art style, plot, WONDERFUL music. But why, why did it have to have a card-battle system? Especially one where various items in your deck would decary and become completely different? If this would've just used the traditional Fight, Magic, Item, Limit Break setup this game would have been one of the best RPG's of all time. I managed to play up until a volcano-themed dungeon, but I just couldn't put up with the constant deck maintenance any more.

Eternal Sonata - Another JRPG which was beautiful and had outstanding visuals and music. The voice-acting was annoying, but that could be fixed by switching to Japanese voice actors. No, my big problem was that every couple boss fights the game would suddenly just change the battle system mechanics. Not by a lot, just enough to really screw with you since you just learned the old system. I might try to actually finish this one.

Fallout 3 - I enjoyed the game immensely, and even managed to find all the bobbleheads, but there were two incidents for me. The first I can't really blame the game for, and you'll see why in a bit, the second ruined the game so much I don't know if I'll be able to pick up another Fallout game again. Incident 1: I exploited a glitch that allowed me to have as many companions as I wanted. In my mind, this didn't break the game or even break my suspension of disbelief. I still had to equip everyone out of my own pocket, recruiting some of them was a pain, and they could still very much die. But after Raven Rock, you lose all the party members and the glitch no longer worked. Okay, fine. I had my fun going around with my own misfit band of wasteland wanderers while it lasted, and the game designers didn't want me to be able to do that in the first place. No hard feelings. I'm about at the end anyway.

Incident 2: Spoiler'd.

So the final mission has you raiding the Jefferson Memorial with the aid of the Brotherhood of Steel. There are impassable barriers guarding the path to it which they need to send a giant mech to break down. So you, whoever you brought along, and a few Paladins follow the robot as it wreaks destruction and mop up soldiers in its wake. Meanwhile, the covenant is sending air raids down on your position causing completely random explosions that you can't avoid by keeping still or moving constantly. Okay, annoying, but I suppose it adds to the epicness. The constant lag doesn't, however, and I kept loading saves from my companions dying during the lag until finally I just sent everyone back to base. During one reload, however, the robot and all the paladins decided to go on strike. They didn't move. At all. There we were standing in front of the first barrier and the robot just stared at it with the paladins loitering at his feet. I got so pissed that I just shot the Paladins (who if you didn't know just regenerate any lost health at that point in the game) until I died. I don't feel like going back and replaying that game anymore, nor do I feel like giving any other Fallout game a try. If this were a PC version, I might be able to understand, but this was on a PS3. Console games have no excuse to be this buggy and laggy.

[Typewriter]

Personally I really loved the combat system of Baten Kaitos. I was a bit put off at first, but as I played the game and got better I really enjoyed it. Especially as it was able to make status effects more interesting than in other games.

That being said the game had the worst ending I've ever experienced in any form of media. That ruined the game for me :P

[Zorg]

Twilight Princess - Midna breaking the mirror right at the end... why!?


Other M - the whole bit from the line "Ok, confession time" to the point I switched it off.


Picking up an awesome looking game at the store and seeing it requires a constant net connection to play.


Picking up a cool game to find all the actually fun stuff is unlocks/based on leveling (almost any modern racing game, Space Marine especially).

[Duneyrr]

I know it's been played out already, but the first boss fight in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. UGH. Also:After the first attack had been resolved (the beginning of the game), I didn't realize I was supposed to think Megan was dead. When I spoke with her mom outside of the Sarif Industries building and realized that my character and everyone else thought she was dead and NOT kidnapped I thought I had either skipped a cutscene or that the game had done a really terrible job of faking her death.

[Clintodon]

Avadon: The Black Fortress

I like Spiderweb Software's RPGs. I really liked Geneforge 4. But one of the midgame plot developments in Avadon really disappointed me.

So, my group has been assigned to hunt down a creature which is obviously the result of forbidden magical experimentation. I track it down, beat it up and find that it has rudimentary intelligence and the ability to speak. I appear to have the option of taking it back to the Black Fortress for research and investigation, and I tell it that that's what I'm going to do. And then the local king's court wizard - who, I am certain, is the one responsible for this creature's creation - comes in and says he'll help me kill it. After I've already beaten it down.

And the solution is obvious - my party and the beast will kill the evil wizard, if anyone questions us about what happened we say that the wizard was killed helping us subdue the beast, and we take the beast back to the Fortress. It fits perfectly with the shades-of-grey moral choices that the game's been throwing around.

So I attempt to attack the wizard - and he's a friendly. And there's no way to attack friendly targets. :smallfurious:

This is discouraging, but I continue with the game. And then I'm assigned to check out this kingdom again. Because the wizard - who I wasn't allowed to kill earlier - is up to demon-summoning type shenanigans. That was about where I lost my will to keep going - I still haven't completed the game.

Short, unspoilered version: There's an Evil Guy in the midgame that you're not allowed to kill, despite having a PERFECT opportunity for both ability to do it and to get away with it after doing it, and then he comes back and causes more, larger problems later. Considering that Spiderweb games have plot as a strong point, that flaw was especially disappointing.

[factotum]

Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos: I really loved the idea of this game...it had flaws in execution, true, but space sim is a genre that I've loved since playing Elite many years ago. I could just about stand the ridiculous difficulty level of many missions because they generally seemed fair--e.g. I knew I was failing because of mistakes I made myself.

However, then came a massive mission where I had to destroy three heavily-protected enemy bases. Since you can't save mid-mission I had to fight through at least six times until I finally managed to get the trick of destroying all three bases, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the last one went up and I started on the journey home.

Then came a cutscene showing the game's Big Bad and about 300 of his friends jumping me and the other survivors of the base assaults. When I got control of my ship again I lasted literally about 2 seconds before getting blown to pieces. I just couldn't believe it--there was no reasonable way I could have survived that assault, and I wasn't about to play through the base destruction part of the mission another half-dozen times to try a different tactic at that point. I just quit the game, took the disc out of the CD tray, and threw it straight in the bin.