The practice of leaving every season on a cliffhanger is ruining the immersive experience
Telltale has boasted about their practice of giving their games open-ended, cliffhangerish endings just in case they decide to revisit the series in the future and make a sequel. While I can see the business logic in leaving a game open-ended in an often uncertain industry, i feel like this practice results in a more unfulfilling experience than if they just aimed to make each season it's own complete story.
As a devoted fan to pretty much all of Telltale's games, this practice is infuriating me as a player and consequentally turning me off from playing future titles, let alone being able to recommend them to others in good faith.
Lately when I finish a season, i am not thinking about what a strong and emotionally resonant experience it was. I am thinking about whether there will be another season, because I feel unfulfilled and like the finale was missing a lot of well-deserved closure. Examples:
- Tales from the Borderlands: left open-ended. We dont get to see what's inside the Vault, Rhys and Fiona just disappear without their friends in tow, and the game just kind of ends. Now it's almost certain that there wont be a season 2 and i feel let down by the ending to an otherwise incredible experience. We could have easily gotten an extra 10 minutes just showing what was in the vault and where everyone ends up instead of leaving it up to the fanfics.
- Game of Thrones: left open-ended. Rodrik/Asher are mortally wounded and left with Talia and the other person, Ironrath always falls, no real payoff for a 6 episode long season. Telltale forces every player into basically the same ending for a sequel instead of actually giving different endings depending on choices. And now we know that GoT s2 isnt coming until at least 2019, possibly never.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: left open-ended. We just went through this long adventure of saving the galaxy, and after the credits there is a cliffhanger involving the villain we killed in the first 20 minutes of episode 1? Completely unnecessary and leaves more questions than answers. And GotG did not sell well at all so i do not expect to get any answers ever.
- Minecraft season 2: left (relatively) open-ended. We get hints of Aidan and the White Pumpkin returning. Why? Is there another season planned? Are they getting us excited for it? Or is it just another open-ended cliffhangerish thing to say, just in case they decide on a s3? I suspect the latter.
Seriously, how can i (in good faith) buy/recommend these games if I know for a fact that either a) there will be no real closure or b) it will be sequelbait? I'm incredibly forgiving with Telltale yet i still feel disappointed, how do you think more casual players will feel? The finales used to be the greatest episodes because they were built up to and they paid off well. Nowadays i feel like they are the weakest of the season, often much shorter in length and ending abruptly and with cliffhangers. Compare the length and quality of the first and last episodes of any recent Telltale game and you'll see what i mean.
So please Telltale, stop trying to bait people into the sequels. Tricking players into sticking around for an unfulfilling experience is not the way to do it. Delivering a season of consistent length and quality with adequate closure is the way to ensure that fans return for the next title.
Comments
You have a solid point. But Minecraft 2 is telltales worst selling game on steam, so don't expect a sequel. Batman 2 and Guardians are the runner ups in 2nd and 3rd place. Don't expect a sequel for any of these games.
So long story short, their recent titles aren't selling well. Exactly my point, players have figured out their tricks and gimmicks and they aren't falling for it anymore. They need to regain the consumer's trust by delivering high quality, self-contained seasons.
And the fact that we shouldn't expect sequels for these titles is precisely the reason they shouldn't end on cliffhangers. It is offensive to my intelligence and makes me question why i bought in in the first place.
Tbh the best kinds of endings are endings that are open ended enough for a sequel but satisfying enough to be a good ending. Something a lot of horror media is fairly good at, oddly enough. This is, however, something Telltale has failed in doing time and time again so I see where you're coming from.
You are right that a quick twist at the end, like in many horror movies as well as TWAU, can often leave players feeling shocked while still providing decent closure. Often these endings can also add more depth to the rest of the season. But many of the recent Telltale games leave countless plots and characters arcs unfinished, which is only effective in making players feel confused and let down.
I like cliffhangers, as long as it isn’t a huge ass wait for the next episode/season (I’m looking at you twd season 6 and tales from the Borderlands)
Don't forget on MCSM they also hinted about Soren returning.
Season 2 of Minecraft: Story Mode didn't have a cliffhanger. It concluded the story of the season and tried to wrap up character stories including your own. You had the option of either staying or leaving Beacontown. The bits about Aiden and the White Pumpkin if you stayed were just fanservice teases.
Eric Stirpe, the lead writer, has also stated that they wanted to provide closure to Jesse's story in the event that there wouldn't be a third season.
That is why i said it was relatively open-ended compared to the other series endings. It had references towards Aiden, White Pumpkin, and Soren but did manage to leave things on a somewhat finished note.
So your only beef with the endings are the fanservice teases?
No there are many problems with other series endings as I described above
No, I mean with the endings to season 2 of Minecraft: Story Mode.
I think it was unnecessarily teasing for them to reference Aiden, TWP, and especially Soren at the end of the game and to give hope for more content when they don't even know if it will happen. I also think it's weird that you dont get a final dialogue option with Petra if you choose not to go with her. I expected more from the finale But it was a decent feel-good sendoff.
I agree, there is no point, putting all these hints of Soren's books since episode 5 of SEASON 1 if they are not going to explain what happened to him or why he has all these books.
I sure they will explain all of that, if we get a season 3.
IF we get a s3. That is precisely my point, fans shouldn't have to tentatively theorize about the game after it is finished, let alone theorize about whether there will be another season to tie up loose ends.
This is telltale,they are known for doing this and they won't stop until they made a full game instead of just doing episodic games and this is one of the main problems with episodic games it always end in cliffhangers.
Tales From The Borderlands had the right ending for me. I didn't want to know what the treasure was. It's the Pulp Fiction briefcase. We aren't meant to know.
Leaving the games open ended is a result of creating a "season" of an ongoing IP. Comics don't end. Comic movies also end on cliffhangers. When you create a cinematic experience, you are a lot more likely to fall into these convictions. Granted, the games which step aside from their IP, like TFTB, MCSM, and Batman could just end. They could have just wrapped them up. Batman, like TWD, I believe was left open with full intent of going back(and they have... To both).
I can't say that I was bothered by any of the season ending episodes. That's me though, and I've let it known already that I'm more of a fan of the journey than the end.
An open-ended ending does not purely exist to 'bait' people into sequels, often times they're open-ended so that the fans can decide for themselves what they think happens. Apart from the Game of Thrones endings, there was not really any harm in the others. Although I will say that I liked how GoT handled it's endings, that hopefully means we won't have to put up with the shitty almost non-existant consequences of The Walking Dead S2 Endings.
Tales from the Borderlands - The Vault of the Traveler takes you to other vaults, it would've been unnecessary to see them in a completely different vault especially after all loose ends have been tied. The villain was defeated, the gang is back together and they achieved their goal, giving us more would've probably made the ending worse like Minecraft: Story Mode's Episode 5 ending.
Guardians of the Galaxy - An absolutely great game in my opinion and I don't really see it as ending in an actual cliffhanger for the game's own story, it was resolved, everyone's together and loving each other again, who's to say that end credits scene wasn't for another Marvel-based project for Telltale? If they wanted to, they could make Thanos the overarching villain of their own form of the MCU.
Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2 - I was personally content with the mushy ending, Jesse has gone through many adventures and then is practically forced to care for a town of people, now he/she gets the choice of keeping things the same or going back to his/her roots. I will say though that this episode was probably one of the most disappointing finales in a Telltale game, barely any of my choices felt like they made much of an impact and that extra stuff with Aidan and The White Pumpkin was probably just a callback to the Adventure Pass which had no relevance to this season. I'm still wondering what the Harper choice affected?
Even if the endings are meant to be indicative of sequels, there's nothing wrong with that. The stories still feel finished, we just get a taste of what may come. Similarly to the endings of every other Telltale game, and many other games/shows/books and films too. Also, you'll probably find that the final episode is often shorter because it takes the most account of previous choices, such as Episode 5 of The Walking Dead, which was an hour shorter than the previous episodes but there was allot of branching in it, more than another other finale of a Telltale game.
I'm fine with the endings, what I think they should focus on is making choices more impactful because there are allot of choices I would've loved to see the consequences to at least in the final episodes but I always end up feeling a bit underwhelmed.
It is unfortunate that many people don't even want Telltale to attempt branching endings/pathways after the way they handled TWD s2 endings in ANF (which was completely shameful).
To answer your question, Harper was originally supposed to be in s2 but due to budget issues they ended up cutting her from the game (along with a lot of other stuff, apparently).
I'd like to agree and disagree on this.
I don't think I've been disappointed by any season's ending, as I find that I am content with what I've experienced. The main story of Season X is finished, the conflict is resolved (or goal has been reached), and that is fine with me. Yes, it is unfortunate that sometimes it's not "completely over" by the time the credits roll, but I find those to be more of a signal that the world is not yet closed, and there are always more things to unravel. It's a real shame when those details are never revealed or built upon (lookin' at you, GoT), but so far we've been provided a lot of closure to whatever event that has occurred in most series.
Though I can say that Telltale doesn't completely shy away from "Complete Endings", as TWD Season 2 and MCSM S1's final episodes never featured any tease as to what may come next. You got one of five endings in TWD, and the rest is left up to the player's imagination (or at least that's how it should have gone). No sequel-bait, no tease, no after-credits scene. Just you and your ending. MCSM EP8 also featured a similar ambiguous ending, where you return home, everything goes back to normal -- almost -- and the heroes are either left running after Ivor or staying right where they are, eager for some semblance of repose. TFTB's ending is also perfectly fine. If they don't continue that, the ending won't be any worse. Right now it's meant to be an ambiguous end, and get the player's imagination running. The dialogue talks about what our characters plan to do next, and it comes full circle with the "It's the last one..." conversation from EP1.
Point is... I don't mind it -- as long as the ending is pretty ambiguous and easy to think about. If it's something as big as GoT, where the family is in ruins and our characters going every which way, that's too much to end on. Too much left out in the open.
I'm sure you'll get your wish for TWD 4.
Game of Thrones is only one that really stings for me.
I thought Tales From The Borderlands has the perfect ending. They wanted a vault and got it. All of the major plot points were solved. We don't need to know what happens next. Sure there are questions regarding the backstory of characters, but those answers aren't really necessary. We can very well never get a sequel to TFTBL; that ending is still very satisfying.
Potentially Controversial Opinion: if you look at A New Frontier as a spin-off that has a separate story arc that just happens to intersect Clem's arc (like many spin-offs do), then it's ending is also very fitting. You have (what's left) of your family, finally found a group to be with, are working with them to rebuild a city, Jesus is off to his people, and Clem is off to find her resolve. It's over; the story for that game is done. There are tons of open-ended questions, but they don't need to be answered to finish that story.
I like endings that don't resolve every question provided it's not important to the plot. It allows for discussion of ideas, leaves a bit of mystery that has me wanting more of that universe, and feels like a better ending than the happily-ever-after or everyone-dies type of endings. Open endings don't really work if a sequel isn't planned, points associated with plot are unresolved (i.e: some of TWD:S2's endings), or if the ending is done randomly to bait the audience and has not connection to the story. Other than that, I enjoy them.