Garrulous Glaahk Meri20098 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I just finished the Geneforge series on a full rebel standpoint. I don't know why but when I watched the ending it felt empty and anticlimactic somehow. What did you all think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I think you're feeling what happens when a rebellion is focused on bringing down the establishment without thinking what comes after. Serros 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Triumph Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Which faction did you join? G5 really has three "rebellious" factions / endings (Astoria, Litalia, and the Drakons). They all require anti-Shaper reputation, so you can remain consistent to your view in that sense, but maybe you'd be happier casting your support behind a different leader than whichever one you chose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Meri20098 Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 Astoria . I remember in g2 how if you killed the leaders of the factions it was very good and the council was pleased. I wish in G5 you could have done the same thing but Astoria said if I killed Rawl she would come after me. I wish we could have a G6 to bring it full circle instead of just reading it and not getting to "experience" it. You know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Astoria . I remember in g2 how if you killed the leaders of the factions it was very good and the council was pleased. I wish in G5 you could have done the same thing but Astoria said if I killed Rawl she would come after me. I wish we could have a G6 to bring it full circle instead of just reading it and not getting to "experience" it. You know? The situation is a little different in G5 because most of the faction leaders are Shaper Council members. No matter what disagreements they have with each other, they're going to see somebody who's able and willing to kill one of them as a threat to them all. You do have the option to kill off the Shaper Council by working with Ghaldring, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgeoning Battle Gamma Catoblepas Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I found the G5 endings rather anticlimactic as well. Perhaps its because I never really felt like my character has much at stake in the outcome of the war, unlike with earlier geneforges. You never really got the chance to build up friendships/rivalries with other characters. I kinda feel like player agency in the endings could have been stronger, particularly considering it's the last game in the series. The loss of the canister tracking feature being the biggest omission, IMO. I think the game began to unravel after crossing the mountain range. There was a plot about regaining your mind and body, and there was Rawal as a clear antagonist. But after crossing the mountains those plotlines are rather quickly dropped and the player is quietly shepherded towards joining one of the factions and then the endgame. I just feel like the first half of the game had more going for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I found the G5 endings rather anticlimactic as well. Perhaps its because I never really felt like my character has much at stake in the outcome of the war, unlike with earlier geneforges. You never really got the chance to build up friendships/rivalries with other characters. I kinda feel like player agency in the endings could have been stronger, particularly considering it's the last game in the series. The loss of the canister tracking feature being the biggest omission, IMO. I think the game began to unravel after crossing the mountain range. There was a plot about regaining your mind and body, and there was Rawal as a clear antagonist. But after crossing the mountains those plotlines are rather quickly dropped and the player is quietly shepherded towards joining one of the factions and then the endgame. I just feel like the first half of the game had more going for it. I don't think those "plotlines" were ever actual plotlines that were intended to be resolved -- they were just a way to draw you into the setting. Compared to the rest of the series, Geneforge 5's endings are less about the player character's personal story and more about what happens to the world, and I think the game was designed in such a way as to set up for that. It sounds like you didn't like the decision to shift focus in that way, but I do think it was probably deliberate -- the endings are less a conclusion to what's happened in G5 in particular and more a conclusion to what's happened in all five games in the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brainless Void Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I wish there was an option for an unaligned, factionless ending. Like those lone hero save-the-world-on-your-own types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 There is.......but it's an instant death ending. adc. and Brainless Void 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 I tried to get Jeff to add another ending where you joined the Sholai, but Jeff didn't want the extra work. Brainless Void and Triumph 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slawbug Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Another Aodare ending would definitely have been great. And a fitting way to end the series, too. Triumph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 The endings all fit the Geneforge world. Nobody comes away completely happy, and the winners either have internal conflicts or are so repugnant that you should probably feel pretty conflicted about working with them. —Alorael, who felt satisfied with the Astoria ending. You're working with a Shaper for the good of the shaped. The immediate aftermath to the game is better than the present, and there's at least hope that things can still improve. Or at least room for another game or two! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brainless Void Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Or at least room for another game or two! If there is a possibility for a G6, I'd like to see a factionless ending, and a new faction of the Ornks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Goldengirl Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Moreover, most of the endings are pretty similar. The stalemate, built up after ~20 years of war, never really breaks. Things just get to an equilibrium where one side is powerless to really pose an existential threat to the other. In the hardcore Rebel ending, the Shapers still get the far coast. In the hardcore Loyalist (Alwan), the Rebels more or less get to keep the Ashen Islands. In the moderate (Astoria) ending, Terrestia is pretty equally split. No one gets their grand, total victory. Even in the more ideological, extremist routes, between Taygen and the Trakovites, neither get their ultimate ideological cleansing of the corruptions of Shaping. They just get an uneasy ending to the war with limited reforms. Serros 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Even in the more ideological, extremist routes, between Taygen and the Trakovites, neither get their ultimate ideological cleansing of the corruptions of Shaping. They just get an uneasy ending to the war with limited reforms. the trakovite ending does state that shaping is eventually abolished altogether, although it's a one-sentence side note in the middle of a paragraph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Triumph Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Moreover, most of the endings are pretty similar. The stalemate, built up after ~20 years of war, never really breaks. Things just get to an equilibrium where one side is powerless to really pose an existential threat to the other. In the hardcore Rebel ending, the Shapers still get the far coast. In the hardcore Loyalist (Alwan), the Rebels more or less get to keep the Ashen Islands. In the moderate (Astoria) ending, Terrestia is pretty equally split. No one gets their grand, total victory. Even in the more ideological, extremist routes, between Taygen and the Trakovites, neither get their ultimate ideological cleansing of the corruptions of Shaping. They just get an uneasy ending to the war with limited reforms. I'lll have to disagree completely. No one gets "grand, total victory," in G5 only if you define "grand, total victory," as absolute extermination of the other side. That's not typically how anyone defines victory in war, though. Wiping out all major leaders of the other side, defeating all military forces of any substance, and banishing or trapping the enemy remnants in very limited territories of your choosing, while achieving unrestrained control of all other territory formerly controlled by said enemy, seems like a pretty total victory to me. I'd say Ghaldring, Alwan, and Taygen all achieve pretty definitive victories in their paths. Litalia's ending is kind of atypical - the Trakovites achieve a pretty major victory, but it's more of a philosophical victory than a military one. Only Astoria achieves an ending that fits your not-total-victory model, with something of a Wilsonian peace-without-victory ending (we can only hope it works out better than Woodrow Wilson's utopian misadventure did). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk adc. Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 I wish we could have a G6 ANYTHING for it, I want a G6 so bad that Jeff can already harvest the salt from my tears to make his own dead sea. Serros and Meri20098 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Level 1 Hermit Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Climax occurs before endings. Endings are more "Happily ever after" or "Total destruction". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Artila Star Sage Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I made a whole big topic on what I would have done with the endings, along with a few other things, but as for the question this topic proposes, I will agree. Due to the other games being more about what you do to shape the world, and game 5 being more about the world itself, the endings feel lackluster at best. I will add that the endings don't really have nearly enough variation to them. I understand that there is a budget for time and money that can be used, but it really made the endings feel....samey compared to previous games. Game 1 you got three very different endings, and several variations off those. Game 2, it was moved up to 4 endings, and again, variations. Game 3 had only 2 endings, but they were so different in tone, and the fights to get up there were so different, that it felt even more diverged than previous. Game 4 upped the ending count to 3, but again, altered the circumstances enough they they felt different. Game 5....well, it really only has 2 endings, fight the shaper council, or fight the drakon for one of 4 different reasons. After that, you get a short text recap that is decent, but has far too many repeated parts between the endings, even if you take the fighting shaper council which still ends similarly. Now, I understand why this happened, again, Jeff wanted us to know there was peace, at long last, but it kind of made that peace feel hollow. Serros 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Meri20098 Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 Agreed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mechalibur Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Another Aodare ending would definitely have been great. And a fitting way to end the series, too. What's the Aodare ending? I remember he was in G2, but I thought he didn't really have much significance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 What's the Aodare ending? I remember he was in G2, but I thought he didn't really have much significance. He suggests that you should resolve the situation in G2 by killing everyone involved, which you can in fact do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Mechalibur Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Huh, I actually remember doing that on my first playthrough. I killed Eass as part of the story, killed Barzahl because he was a jerk, and killed Zakary at the end because he was complicit in everything. I would have let Pinner live, but I accidentally left a stash of goods in her office, then blew up the magus complex. Is that ending significantly different than a regular loyalist ending? I remember in that one The Shapers kill Zakary anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slawbug Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 It's mostly the same. When they find out you killed him too, they nod approvingly, and then gush about you for a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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