That's not to say I'd be happy with a Mass Effect 3 style ending, but it doesn't need to be some earth shattering gameplay experience.
That's not to say I'd be happy with a Mass Effect 3 style ending, but it doesn't need to be some earth shattering gameplay experience.
Think about the Matrix series. The first Matrix film was iconic, the second was decent but sort of mid, the third was absolute drek and it taints the entire franchise as a result. I can't watch The Matrix any more without knowing how they fucked up the third film and without that slightly ruining the experience. The fourth I watched but I must admit that it hasn't really left any kind of impression on me.
Resolving at any cost is way worse than leaving something hanging.
I think it's why Firefly is so well regarded: it didn't last long enough to fall to enshittification. And when they did resolve it they only had a feature film's length to do it, so they had to focus and we got Serenity, which is excellent and how they resolved the origin of the Reavers is still a great piece of storytelling.
The only part I thoroughly enjoyed was when they meta-explained why they've made the cash grab.
For those who haven't watched: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10838180/quotes/?item=qt6078617...
Chefs kiss
> Resolving at any cost is way worse than leaving something hanging.
Also agree. Matrix, Lost, Game of Thrones (TV), How I Met Your Mother, they all lost "replayability" because you might care about the characters and the beginning of their journey, but if you know it's all moot or unsatisfactory there's not so many incentives to revisit it. I think GoT really made TV aware of how important it is to a series to have a good, consistent ending.
Game of Thrones' (the book series) fans have a theory about the "Mereenese Knot", a plot that became so convoluted that GRR Martin possibly just don't know how to advance the story in a consistent way, and it's stuck.