Persona 4
When a game takes 100+ hours to complete, there’s going to be some sore feelings when players get the bad ending. There are multiple ways to get the bad ending in P4, and only one way to get the true ending. If you want to see how the game is really meant to end, you need to answer questions on a specific day with 100% accuracy, and that’s only if you’ve basically figured out the game’s twist ahead of time.
And it gets worse. At a later date, you’ll need to visit all your friends — the game will ask if you want to go home multiple times, but you have to say no each time. We’re trained to say ‘Yes’ when we get questions like that in video games. It’s nice way for developers to say “You’re done now. You can move on.” — in Persona 4, it’s just a dirty trick.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
The Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a casualty of the extreme era of gaming — when Ubisoft decided only sex and violence sells. Warrior Within makes the Prince a darker character, and you’ll be fighting bigger bad guys like the unkillable Dahaka, a time-devouring monster that stalks the Prince throughout the game.
If you want to earn the true ending, you’ll have to defeat the Dahaka. Most of us, like me, had no idea that this was even a possibility for a pretty basic reason — unlocking this ending, the only remotely good and satisfying ending — required getting all nine life upgrades. And at least one of the Life Upgrades can be glitched, making it impossible to reach. Worse, the Life Upgrades are missable! When you return to areas you’ve been before later in the game, you still can’t access the life upgrades if you missed them the first time. Why? Getting these hidden items is pure jank in a game that’s already riddled with game-breaking bugs.
There are so many more agonizing, annoying requirements for true endings in video games! We had to cut so many — but I still included two bonus entries just to fit more in. Maybe this is a topic we’ll revisit in the future.
