It was all a dream?

[xtheman]

What do you think of game that are really just dreams? I feel it is just a lazy way to end a video game. It gets me so annoyed to have a games where you lived through all that happened just to find out it was all a dream. Make such close relationships with the characters and none it of to happen.

 

[FAST6191]

It is my second most hated ending after things were sorted with the power of love.

 

[zoogie]

You could say all fiction is a dream. A daydream. ;p

 

[xtheman]

You could say all fiction is a dream. A daydream. ;p

You can say life is just a dream. You can say anything is a dream. In fact you can say anything that happens is proof that it is just a dream

 

[zoogie]

You can say life is just a dream. You can say anything is a dream. In fact you can say anything that happens is proof that it is just a dream

Welcome to GBAtemp philosophy club. XD

Sorry I started it.

 

[Deleted User]

I've never played a game that's ended with "it's just a dream bro", but it sounds like an EXTREMELY lazy way to end a game.

 

[xtheman]

I've never played a game that's ended with "it's just a dream bro", but it sounds like an EXTREMELY lazy way to end a game.

You haven't played super mario bros 2 then. It was just a dream

 

[Deleted User]

You haven't played super mario bros 2 then. It was just a dream

SMB2 BELONGS IN THE TRASH

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

There aren't too many games that end this way (at least, that I can name), the only two I can think of that I've played is SMB2 and Link's Awakening. I guess FFX is another, though if you want to get technical it didn't so much take place in a dream as it was a couple characters and a location were a "dream".

 

[Hells Malice]

Yeah this isn't really a common thing that happens. SMB2 had no story so who cares if it was a "dream."

I can't think of a single game that actually had a story that ended like that.

 

[Taleweaver]

I voted "Never played a video game that was just a dream", but I have to stress the word "JUST" in that sentence. And before I get to explain myself, I'll have to link to this small list that really should've been in the OP (thanks, google).

Now...I did play SMB2 (though only a few levels), as well as Link's awakening, so I guess I should explain my answer:

-I've only learned in this thread that SMB2 is actually a dream. Since I've played quite a bunch of other games I never finished, I could've played more games like that. But as it's already mentioned: SMB2 isn't exactly a story-heavy game. And you can toss and turn it how you want, but no matter how lame "it was all just a dream" is to reset the board, non-story driven games don't suffer from it. In fact, if you think about it, there are plenty of game where the story is so tacked on it's funny when you think about it (notorious example).

-on the other hand, you have dream levels in games like batman: Arkham Asylum. Or in Bart Simpson's arcade game. These sequences are awesome, and anything but tacked on. Heck...I guess the parts of silent hill where you fight enemies are sort of dream sequences. I take it we don't want to get rid of those either, right?

-and then there's Link's awakening. Yes, as a child, it came as somewhat of a surprise when I discovered that in that shrine about five or six dungeons in (or ten hours or so...I wasn't that good at gaming then ), but it's not like there weren't hints just about EVERYWHERE. It didn't made the relationships with the people on the island less engaging afterwards. More the opposite: it made them more valuable exactly because the time I spent with them gave it meaning, no matter if it was a dream or not (of course this would've been totally different if all those hints were absent and the dream-thing was only revealed at the end).

So...in the end, I haven't played a game that turned out to be a dream in the tacked-on fashion that you describe. I play lots of abstract games that could very well turn out to be dreams. It won't affect my mood, as I'm not roleplaying. And I haven 't played FF X, so I can't comment on that (well...aside from a "it's a final fantasy game...this sort of convoluted soap series bullshit is exactly what you like in this sort of game...right?")




ending note: say...isn't the entire assassin's creed series build into dreams? The cutscenes somewhat try to camouflage it by throwing difficult words and technology around, but it basically comes down to that.

 

[Cyan]

last one I played was A Witche's Tale.

Spoiler: end event! don't read if you want to play that game :P

You play the game, and at the last boss you see two unknown people saying "yeah, the simulation seems to work with that character, let's her play the adventure for real now!" and you don't see any ending because .. you didn't really kill the boss or played the game ?
I never played the game the second time, because

 

[smileyhead]

What do you think of game that are really just dreams?

LSD Dream Emulator?

 

[Taleweaver]

Can I change my vote? As it turns out, I have played a game that turned out to be a dream in a "let's explain all loopholes in a few lines of text" kind of way. Not only that: I've finished it as well.

The game is called nightsky. You play a ball that has to traverse a platform-filled world. A minimalistic, but actually pretty relaxing and fun game.
It's certainly not a story-driven game. In fact, it has a couple still images with text at the start, and a few at the very end. And apparently, it's sort of the plot how you are a random person finding the ball on the beach and taking it home. Since then, you dream of these minimalistic landscapes. So really: it can't be more tacked-on.


And really: I like it. Yes, it's a (very) lazy way to basically flatten all questions one might have about anything that relates to the game. But it frees up time the developer(s) of the game can spend on the parts that actually matter for the game. For me, that is rarely the story (and the fact that nobody gave a clear example of a good story-driven game that goes this way plot-wise probably means that there isn't one).

 

[smileyhead]

nightsky

I love that game! Never finished it though.

 

[TamDanny]

I remember that I used to play a game of the Klonoa series on the GBA (I don't remember the name of the game right now) when I was just a kid. The cartridge was actually a bit broken because it could never actually save the game, so the only way to finish the game was to play it all in one go.
I loved playing those puzzle levels (and the hoverboard ones too, they were so much fun) but I never actually made it to the end, because silly young me would always get tired or stuck in a level. My little brother actually managed to finish the game, and I was eager for him to tell me how the game ended. When he told me that it ended with it all being a dream, I got kinda annoyed that it ended like that, because I expected something more than just a dream.
I guess it's understandable since the game actually revolves around the idea of dreaming (or rather, the right to dream), but ending the game like that just didn't felt right to me.

 

[Edrian]

Put in one way, saying that it was all just a dream is sort of a horrible ending especially is just slapped on the game.
Put in another way, then a game ending as a dream would probably be good. Like if you notice all the different aspects that transpired in the game. (For this, my example would be like Link's Awakening :3)

 

[Flame]

in Mass Effect 4 you find out that Mass Effect 3 was all a dream....... NO NO... nightmare.

 

[Chary]

It's definitely a lazy way of writing up an ending, but I think that trope is more common in movies/TV than it is in games?

Iirc...these few following had dream sequence endings

Spoiler: Spoilerino

One of Chrono Trigger's endings, Link's Awakening (But really, it didn't have much of a story...) one of the Silent Hills, and FFX

Nothing too flagrantly bad about any of these endings.