To clarify, not which ending didn’t you like. Which protagonist got screwed the worst. For frame of reference, I think John Marston is my vote, however, the game itself fixes this in the ending of the game and makes it easier to take (therefore making RDR’s ending phenomenal). Who do you think?
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Zero from Drakengard. I’d elaborate but I’m scared of Trigger Warning plus it’s been a while.
Shepard from Mass Effect. All of those years fighting the reapers leads to a red, blue, and green decision which all lead to endings open to interpretation.
Wander from Shadow of the Colossus. Don’t get me wrong amazing story and ending but after all he went through my dude got borked…
Aerith. She had all my good white mage materia.
Noble Six, well all of Noble squad really, from Halo Reach. “Be the hero of the story that saves the pan… oh… well, be the hero that kills the bad gu… what? Well, be the hero that… watches his friends die then dies himself.
Wait….
Isaac Clarke who mostly got to just suffer and go insane.
Cortana.
All she’s been through in halo 1-5, going from a friendly ally to queen of the galaxy, then Infinite happens and whoops: she’s already dead, her empire crumbled, and it all happened before the game even started. Not even in a cinematic or a heart wrenching moment, just a holographic chat with Atriox and bam: she’s gone and replaced by weapon (who is her anyway, as though that makes it any better). What a load, she deserved to die better.
I’m literally still mad about the RDR ending. Everyone seemed to love it but damn was I hoping for a happy ending.
Maya from Borderlands. Fuck Ava
The captain from Return of the Obra Dinn got royally screwed.
Booker from Bioshock Infinite didn’t get a very happy ending, despite his sins he did try to correct them but fate ordained he would always be wretched.
Having Elizabeth baptizing him at the end just as he came upon the realization was pretty shocking to me.
Johnny Klebbitz in GTA V.
If we count protagonists featured in different games they are not the protagonist in.
Zero from Katana Zero. It’s a relatively underplayed indie game, so I’ll describe the ending he got.
He was a child super-soldier who was drugged with a special drug called “Chronos” that let him slow down his perception of time and see into the future- he could never lose a battle. There were a couple more like him, and they had a little band during the war. When the war ended, they stopped making Chronos, but like any other drug, Chronos had terrible withdrawal effects. Time would slow down, until eventually your perception of time completely halts. You can’t move your body, nothing moves at all, but you can still think. Even if you get more Chronos or someone kills you- once you’ve hit that threshold, it doesn’t matter, you’re still stuck for all of eternity, where nothing will ever happen. And since you were a child soldier, you’re stuck with your PTSD.
We never get a defined ending for Zero, or at least haven’t gotten one yet, but regardless, it’s either he dies alone in an alleyway, or worse, he goes through Chronos withdrawal and finds out how the monkeys paw grants immortality
V from Cyberpunk. No matter what you did, their path only leads to tragedy. The best you can do for them is help them go out with style.
The Fallout 3 protagonist who had Fawkes in their party. They literally INTRODUCE the character being valuable because Rads can’t hurt him.
And even when that ending concept was patched in, the actual post-game narration still mocks you for being a bitch about it.
V from Cyberpunk. there’s no happy endings some are just better than others.
Desmond Miles. He deserved to become a hero.
Got to be Desmond Miles. All that build up only to be flicked by Demeter and it never followed up on again because Ubisoft decided to go in a different direction for whatever reason
Alex Mercer from Prototype. Just a guy trying to figure out what the hell is going on and kill some corrupt people. Then you have to kill him as the final boss in Prototype 2. I was so disappointed.
Talion. He did not deserve to be forgotten and have his family slaughtered only to fight against the enemies of Gondor with no thanks or acknowledgement. Seriously, he deserved to become a Nazgûl and pull up on them for treating him like an outcast. Sure he was an outcast for being a Ringwraith, but he gave everything for them.
In the original fallout game you get outcasted from your vault after being the one to go and save the day. All because the overseer didn’t want people to know their was life outside the vault. That’s kind of a dick move to the guy that gave you water.
Professor Layton
Unwound Future is currently the last game for him chronologically, and that ending was unrelentingly brutal. Dude is just a kind, helpful gentleman, and the story crushes every ounce of happiness from his life. The game literally ends with him taking off his iconic hat and crying. Even the prequel series ends with betrayal and horrifying family revelations. Hopefully the new game finally gives our professor a break.
The Doom Slayer. Saves the entire universe, kills Satan, and his reward is being entombed for eternity.
The Hero of Kvatch in Oblivion. After everything they do to save Tamriel from being taken over by Daedra, their fate is to become a crazed Daedric lord themselves, and completely lose any of what made them them in their old life.
Master Chief didn’t deserve what 343 did to him..
Recently, Karlach from BG3, her ending is soo sad, she deserved soo much better!
Snake…had a hard life
Noctis from FFXV dude did not catch a break the entire game.
The protagonist in the original Diablo. You journey into the crypts of Tristram’s cathedral down into the depths of hell itself to slay the Lord of Terror himself, and [this is your reward](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRGxt2-7rc&ab_channel=EpicentrumDiablo). Sucks to be you.
Jeb in Kerbal space program.
Hawk from Dragon Age 2. Loses entire family, all of their closest friends, then sacrifices themselves fighting evil. Pretty rough life if you picked the dark timeline.
Soma.
Simon being left behind when he originally thought he was going to escape the underwater research facility was a real gut wrenching thing to see. But on top of that, he had an argument with his only friend throughout his entire journey Catherine, and she eventually got corrupted; leaving Simon stuck alone in the cold dark underwater remnants of the research facility they’re in.
It’s such a brutally depressing ending that humanity is now just AI and cloned minds living in a digital world endlessly floating space while in the background you see Earth as the floating burning hellscape it became.
Such a good game, but man I was down in the dumps when the credits started rolling.
The protagonist of Far Cry 5, had a ridiculous disconnect between what you actually do in the game and how it ends. During the game you are systematically dismantling the cult like a badass and then you end the game as the cult leaders little bitch, like WTF did I even do all that junk for in the first place