Your Least Favorite Moment from any RPG

[Wolf Kanno]

This was a question that popped up in my panel this last weekend so let's hear your thoughts.

Before we start, no smart ass answers like when the game ended, or knowing I paid money for it. Likewise, no personal examples such as trying to beat a hard boss only to have the power go out kind of stuff. I'm talking about narrative choices.

[Spuuky]

The moment when you meet Lymle in Star Ocean 4

[Lord Golbez]

When Namingway asks if I want him to change my name. WTF? No, you weirdo. That's sort of a narrative choice... it's choosing tongive a sort of narrative reason for character name changes and I don't like it.

[Slothy]

Sazh not killing himself. Not because I wanted him to because he's the only likeable character in ffxiii but because it was pretty much the only chance the game had at creating a potentially genuinely compelling moment for me and instead it's the usual cheap "did he or didn't he?" thing. Except when you're asking did he or didn't he about suicide in almost anything the answer is pretty much always "he didn't but we want to create a false sense of drama and anticipation so we're not going to show you until later."

[Example]

Any scene in Crisis Core with Genesis.

[Vermachtnis]

Tales of Graces f. This is the single dumbest cast of characters. Between the six of them they share two braincells. And by that I mean, they keep them away from Asbel and Sophie. There's this one point you just finished a fight with the main antagonist. He's all, "WARG I hate Sophie and you and friendship! ARG!" And Asbel's trying to talk him down and it's getting through a little. And then Sophie tries to hug him and it sets him off again and flies away. He doesn't hop in an airship or anything. Just propels himself through pure anger.

[Rez09]

I hate picking on SO4, since I do generally like the game, A LOT, but, man, the first time I hit that area and I realized where they were going with the story and last boss? No. Absolutely $#$%^% not. There has never been a bigger and more disappointing narrative waste than where TA went with the end of that game, and the UPPP deserved far more respect than, 'oh noes, if you make other people smartz then big bad boogie mans will come out of nowhere and eat you all!'. The SO series as a whole has had issues ending their stories, but that one in particular, bleh.

[Jessweeee♪]

I would say Bravely Default if you don't end it early and take it all the way to the last chapter:

(SPOILER)When Airy reveals her true nature and everyone is just shocked. It's so bizarre. They know already! Especially Ringabel, saying "I ought to have seen through you!" He saw through her the most! They all knew!!! It makes me wonder if it's just a huge translation error, like maybe in Japanese it was more like they were still holding out hope their suspicions were wrong. The last four chapters are a bit of a chore doing the crystals over and over, but you expect the characters to make something of it, and their reaction kind of just makes it all a waste. The better ending is to just do it when Ringabel starts asking questions, but then you miss out on the Eternian forces side quests which I do like. I like to describe the plot of this game as being two lines of dialogue away from being great. Also if you read Ringabel's journal it's clear that the scenes we see are just a condensed version of what is canonically happening, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Also, Bravely Second when I learned that in the Japanese version all of the asterisk side quests have four endings each. (SPOILER)No matter what you choose the first time over, you get that choice's bad ending. The second time around you get the good ending of whatever side you choose. In the English release, all the bad endings are cut and you get the good ending both times. Aside from just the lost content that I would have liked to have seen, it seemed like it was for Edea's development of not looking at things in black and white, and now that is missing.


In Persona 4 (SPOILER)why didn't the protagonist just put his damn hand into the detention room TV so Dojima would believe him? I mean, surely putting one hand in would be ok.

[Fynn]

Speaking of Bravely Second, the story in general is a hot mess, but God damn that final chapter was frustrating. It was basically like, "okay, we wrapped up the main plot, so now we need to put all that lore we hinted at in the first game - you know, the actual sequel hook we had?"

Like Jesus Christ, it made me feel like the entire game was just padding in preparation for something completely unrelated. Say what you will about the first game's story, but at least it was actually cohesive. Bravely Second in general feels like a complete mess, but the final chapter just puts the nail in the coffin.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sazh not killing himself. Not because I wanted him to because he's the only likeable character in ffxiii but because it was pretty much the only chance the game had at creating a potentially genuinely compelling moment for me and instead it's the usual cheap "did he or didn't he?" thing. Except when you're asking did he or didn't he about suicide in almost anything the answer is pretty much always "he didn't but we want to create a false sense of drama and anticipation so we're not going to show you until later."

I was originally going to say the ending to XIII, but on second thought, this right here was the moment that pretty much ended all investment I had with the story. Whereas every stupid thing after it was just more trout that furthered soured my feelings about the cast and plot. This moment, along with the sequence with Hope's dad and subsequent dropping from the narrative, pretty much embodies everything wrong with XIII's narrative as it tries to be interesting and edgy only to retreat back to safety and cheapening any good will I may had for the story. God I hate this game.

[Slothy]

To this day I have no idea what the ending of xiii even is. My PS3 died, the save was gone, and no way was I going to replay it to find out how it ended. Couldn't care less at that point.

But I do blame it for killing the PS3 so I guess that's my ffxiii ending right there.

[Fynn]

Now that I'm playing it again (again), I have to say the moment you reach the Dwarven Kingdom in FFIV always kills the momentum for me. Sure, there's cool stuff there, what with Rydia joining at the last minute, but just the prospect of getting down there and trudging through that castle fills me with dread.

[Spuuky]

To this day I have no idea what the ending of xiii even is. My PS3 died, the save was gone, and no way was I going to replay it to find out how it ended. Couldn't care less at that point.

But I do blame it for killing the PS3 so I guess that's my ffxiii ending right there.

It's fine, I finished the game and still have no idea how it ended.

[Fynn]

aggressive lesbianism turned the world into the logo

it doesn't matter anyway because the sequel just undoes everything


EDIT: yeah there was this one tumblr post that really did a great job summarizing these games:

FFXIII

Serah and Snow: Let’s get married!
Lightning: No
Serah: *crystallizes*
Vanille: *compulsive lying*
Fang: *aggressive lesbianing*
Hope: *teen angst*
Sazh: *side-eye emoji*
Barthandelus: You will destroy the world
Lightning: No
Fang and Vanille: *saves world with aggressive lesbianing*
*Leona Lewis starts playing*

FFXIII-2

Serah: Lightning where u at
World: she dead
Caius: Fight me
Lighting: smurf you
Noel: Let’s save the timeline!
Noel: *breaks the timeline*
Yeul: *dies*
Caius: *dies*
Lightning: *dies*
Serah: *dies*
Noel: Haha smurf

[Jinx]

Seriously, no one's going to say the Kalm flashback?