What if the party wasn't so cowardly?

[theundeadhero]

A dying world with all the playable cast dead, but Kefka also dead.

[Roogle]

What if they had thrown an epic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night type twist in. If you just play through regularly you end up confronting Kefka on the floating continent, winning and getting a crappy ending. If you did do an optional side quest before confronting Kefka you get the masterpiece that is the WoR.

Is that what Castlevania: Symphony of the Night did? If you didn't complete a sidequest, the game would end prematurely at a certain point? I mean, maybe if it is well done and the player has an indication that he might have missed something, then it would be okay, but I could see the amount of angry gamers who didn't know that they were supposed to do something optional and ended up thinking that really was the end of the game.

[theundeadhero]

In Castlevania if you haven't completed a certain percentage of the game (somewhere around 86% I think) then after you fight what you're lead to believe is the last boss the game ends. If you have completed enough then the game doubles in length by allowing you to play the second half of the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

^ No usually it's an item is required. At least that was the way in SotN, and the titles set in the 2000s A.D. When you reached what you thought to be the final boss, you equipped a specific item and were able to see that said boss was being controlled by another force and beating the manipulator unlocked the true ending.

[theundeadhero]

Depends which of the four endings you want to see