Well i just finished Pop :- warror within , just to find out that it has an alternate ending which requires me to collect all 9 health upgrades. Though personally i do belive that a player deserves to be rewarded for say an activity such as "collecting all health upgrades" , "unlocking all artwork" etc ........i dont belive this should lead a player into missing out a more important aspect of the game such as the ending , especially if its leading into another brainchild at some point of time. I belive the guys were a bit harsh on creating the alternate ending based on some activity which a casual player will miss out on !! I personally prefer choices which were offered to neo , zion on left / trinity on right , or was it the other say round, something like Deus Ex had to offer. Though this is based on my experience of warrior within , what in general do you guys think ?? On a positive note , the alternate endings do increase the replay value of the game , your suggesstions ?

I agree--the collection of health upgrades is not a good criterion to base an alternate ending.

The existence of any different endings must be obvious to the player--that is, it must be clear that the player's actions/choices will have an impact on how the game's story unfolds (and hopefully gameplay will change depending on the player's choices).

That's the worst reason for an alternate ending that I've heard of yet. Why not an alternate ending for never rewinding time? I rarely used the feature ;P

I think giving a bonus to hardcore players is fine, though. They deserve something special for devoting months of their lives to mastering a game. It's also a nice incentive for casual players to play again.

Ever played Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? Remember to feed that dog, the galaxy depends on it!

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Original post by Jiia I think giving a bonus to hardcore players is fine, though. They deserve something special for devoting months of their lives to mastering a game. It's also a nice incentive for casual players to play again.

How about a T-Shirt that says I mastered this game and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.

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Original post by Nokturnal Well i just finished Pop :- warror within , just to find out that it has an alternate ending which requires me to collect all 9 health upgrades.

Seriously? i did not know this?
In what way is the alternate ending different from the 'normal' ending?

..this would explain the confusion i had with all the stuff i read about the next Pop.. it just didn't fit with the ending i saw in pop 2

Regardless of the criteria the developers picked to trigger the alternate ending (yeah, that was arbitrary...), you have to ask yourself this: was the ending you received inherently unsatisfying (be honest), or do you feel that way only because you learned there was a "better" ending you didn't get. Was it really essential to your enjoyment of the game that you got that "perfect" ending?

If you are in that last case, you might not actually be a casual gamer, and your position essentially becomes an appeal to emotion ("Think of those poor casual gamers! They're not experiencing the game to its fullest extent"). You should consider whether the casual gamer would really care.

I do consider myself one and, to be honest, I've stopped caring long ago that I would never achieve, say, a 100% score in less than one hour in Metroid Zero. I still play the game, am happy if I find a "secret" I missed, but I don't feel cheated. I believe "no, casual gamers do not care" because that's why they are casual gamers.

By my definitions, "hardcore" gamers, on the other hand, are those who are into the meta-game of unlocking everything, getting perfect scores, etc, and whose enjoyment of the game does depend on that. They're the people who will play a game segment over and over again until they pass it without a scratch. They're also probably the ones who will enjoy the "extra material" the most.

Is seeing the alternate ending that important? Not if the "normal" one is satisfactory. Since it's the one most gamers will see, it should be the one that receives the post polish; as you said, the ending is an important aspect of the game. Now, if the ending indicates that you "failed" the game, then yeah, you - both the player and the character - probably should work a bit harder. But generally, the bar is set low enough that one can get it on his first pass through the game (short of losing midway). Additionally, I believe that a bittersweet less-than-perfect ending can be much more satisfactory than a perfect happy end. Too low a bar devalues achievement.

Endings were fine in pop, but most ppl didn't knew there was a second one. Moreover if you played to end, you can still get all hp upgrades as you can travel anywhere, just load your last save and do the stuff.
If you had to collect all chests, that would be another story.

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Original post by _Madman_ Endings were fine in pop, but most ppl didn't knew there was a second one. Moreover if you played to end, you can still get all hp upgrades as you can travel anywhere, just load your last save and do the stuff. If you had to collect all chests, that would be another story.

Actually, there are a couple of health upgrades you can't get. And one you can get, but then can't get back to anywhere useful from (though you can save in a couple of places since the point of no return) - which is probably the worst of the several bugs in the game.

On the other hand, the game does at least have a counter that tells you how many upgrades you've collected - in the Hourglass chamber, there's a ring of glyphs inlaid into the floor, each of which lights up when the coresponding upgrade is obtained.


Final Fantasy X-2 has alternate endings that require you to perform certain unintuitive actions at points during the game - most notably a cutscene during which you have to press X several times for no apparent reason (there's also some effect from the % story completion that the game tracks for you)


A game that does bonus ending fragments well is Majora's Mask (Zelda) - there, there are a number of scenes, each unlocked by having obtained the appropriate mask in-game. If you don't unlock the scene, you instead get shown the missing mask, which at least tells you what you need to get for it.

I liked the ending in Fallout. The major event was always the same, but the fates of the various locations were tied to your decisions and success rate in-game. You can save the world, doom it, or anywhere in between.