Games that lock the last level / ending behind tedious bullshit

[Imran]

THIS.

I couldn't believe when I found out I had to get to the top of the flags with EVERY character. Even doing this with 4 joycons at the same time was a chore.

3D Land is almost as ridiculous.

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Finding out I not only had to get the top of the flagpole, but get it with every character, oof...

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You don't. I think you got trolled by someone on the internet or didn't have complete information. You only need every flagpole, the vast majority of which you get along the way of just playing the game. It doesn't matter who touches it. It only matters for stamps.

 

[NightmaresHunter]

There is nothing worse than buying a game but you never able to finsh it without DLC

These are Asura's wrath and Dead Space 3

 

[Mr. Poolman]

valkyrie profile true ending route

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To this day I believe that ending was leaked on guides or something. Nobody could figure out the exact method, even less stumbling into it at random.

 

[Roxas]

kingdom hearts secret endings tend to have you go through some bullshit, unless you play on higher difficulties

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I think that those endings are usually teases for what's next, I wouldn't necessarily classify them as 'true endings', except in the case of Birth By Sleep, where the best part of the game is locked behind that.

OT: in recent memory, I know I'm gonna get hated for this, but Dragon's Dogma II

Spoiler: spoilers ahoy!

It may have been me and my stupid insistence on going through the entire map from start to finish, but I sure grew freaking tired of fighting the same enemies over and over again, and alas, if you want the 'true ending' you have to go back and kill yourself, which to my knowledge wasn't explained mechanically (Yes, I understood narratively it made a lot of sense, but I still had to youtube how exactly to kill myself. After that, you're treated to a pseudo Dead Rising 1 overtime mode where you have to finish a number of quests if you want to get to the true ending, while fighting the same enemies you've been fighting but more powerful, AKA: longer battles of the same enemies. I have to say that the fact that the game has the balls to drop the 'Dragon's Dogma II' title card ONLY ONCE YOU REACH THIS POINT is commendable, I applaud the game for that honestly even if it did piss me off.

Also OT, and I know it's only the final boss, but if you tell me you figured out the secret to Bloodborne's secret ending on your own, you're either lying or you're Hidetaka Miyazaki's ERA account (that one may have been explained on the plot, but I sure didn't get it, so I'd say this is more of a joke post to some extent)

 

[Vibed]

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is one I'm experiencing right now, because you have to do 80% of the challenges like "Beat this level in x seconds" or "Beat this level with an s rank" with BOTH characters to unlock the secret ending scene, which is both tedious and hard.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

Im right in December of P5R and haven't touched it in a few months because I really dislike the whole "true" ending BS. I'm pretty sure I have what I need for it but just the thought of "lol you played 80 hours but didn't do a couple things 25 hours ago so sucks to suck" bugs me.

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I mean, it's not a arbitrary as it sounds.

Story revolves around a character. Story doesn't work if you don't talk to that character.

The whole "I have to do all this just to unlock this" just makes it sound more complicated than it is. I get the complaint on principle, but it really does push you throughout the game.

 

[Lilification]

Fucking sonic advance 2, collect all the chaos emeralds with every character, fuck off

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God yeah, this one is horrid. I actually got so frustrated with this one so much I threw the cartridge at the wall and somehow it broke the game in a way that whenever it was turned on it had everything unlocked, but I couldn't save at all. It was the weirdest thing and I've never been able to figure out how it happened like that.

 

[OozeMan]

The true ending is what a normal player experiences on his own. Anything more than that is a bonus (read optional) ending imo.

Thank God for Youtube.

 

[Giga Man]

DK64. I could never beat the original version of DK in the factory level.

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Was gonna post this. I couldn't beat it when I was a kid, but I came back later as an adult and finally beat it. What an awful way to gate progression: forcing you to play a completely different game than what you've been playing the whole time.

At least Jetpac was fun and easy though.

Fucking sonic advance 2, collect all the chaos emeralds with every character, fuck off

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Holy shit, I forgot about this! Yeah, fuck Sonic Advance 2 for this. I never got a single Chaos Emerald in that game because A. collecting those stupid Special Rings during a stage is way too much to look out for with how fast you're encouraged to move about the game, and B. the actual special stages fucking suck. I entered one once and couldn't figure out how to get through it.

 

[danm999]

imo with P5 Royal (and all Persona games honestly) you need to consciously commit to doing one of two things on a playthrough

1) taking it easy and accepting you won't see everything in a single playthrough, and doing a New Game + to see the True Ending
2) following a guide and playing optimally so you can see the True Ending in a single playthrough

I don't think it's a good experience to try and take a casual approach and try and 100% it. There's so much stuff you can't plan for and that you won't know about that eats up your time.

 

[Juraash]

Arkham was one that came to mind where I thought, "yeah, no, just not gonna bother with that shit".

I liked Jet Force as a kid though. I definitely saved every single one of those bears.

 

[Astral]

I honestly can't believe I suffered through Shadow the Hedgehog's bullshit. Man I had all the time in the world as a kid.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

imo with P5 Royal (and all Persona games honestly) you need to consciously commit to doing one of two things on a playthrough

1) taking it easy and accepting you won't see everything in a single playthrough, and doing a New Game + to see the True Ending
2) following a guide and playing optimally so you can see the True Ending in a single playthrough

I don't think it's a good experience to try and take a casual approach and try and 100% it. There's so much stuff you can't plan for and that you won't know about that eats up your time.

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The true endings on Persona 3-5 don't require you to do play optimally, just do/finish certain things and pick certain choices at key moments. They don't hinge on 100%ing the game. You can just look up how to ensure you get them without committing to following a guide.

 

[Rhomega]

Would I get stabbed for saying the Chozo Artifact hunt in Metroid Prime?

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I think people would complain more about the keys in Metroid Prime 2. At least in the first, you could get the Artifacts as you went along.

 

[Dopply]

Rare was very bad about this, as several examples in this thread have shown. DKC2 and DKC3 are also good examples (thought admittedly it was pretty cool to have a whole extra 'world' unlocked as a reward).

 

[danm999]

The true endings on Persona 3-5 don't require you to do play optimally, just do/finish certain things and pick certain choices at key moments. They don't hinge on 100%ing the game. You can just look up how to ensure you get them without committing to following a guide.

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you have spare time if you're perfect but a lot of things can trip you up like picking suboptimal dialogue choices, or not prioritizing less readily available social links on Sundays

I did P3R a couple of weeks ago and I only had a few days left over following a guide, it was kinda tight. I reckon you'd miss stuff if you didn't use one to plan.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

you have spare time if you're perfect but a lot of things can trip you up like picking suboptimal dialogue choices, or not prioritizing less readily available social links on Sundays

I did P3R a couple of weeks ago and I only had a few days left over following a guide, it was kinda tight. I reckon you'd miss stuff if you didn't use one to plan.

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What I meant is that the conditions for the true endings don't require you to do that kind of minmaxxing.

For P3R, you simply have to make the right choice between 2 options regarding Ryoji's fate. That's all.

 

[Glio]

The Pantheon of Hallownest (to get those two new endings) in Hollow Knight retroactively soured me on the game. Re-doing the easier first waves became so tedious.

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When I saw what it's need for the true ending was when I thought "I don't like Hollow Knight enough for this bullshit"

 

[Elfgore]

Didn't spot it, but Middle Earth: Shadow of War! It started off as a tedious grind to totally push you towards microtransactions to make it less painful and time consuming. Turns out, even after they "nerfed" it when the store went away, that entire part continued to be painful and time consuming. Just a poorly thought out ending segment that didn't properly account that grinding the same ten or so missions for hours is not enjoyable content. Nor does it make the Nemesis System shine. It makes you abuse it.

The ending isn't even all that good really. It's not bad, got some good music. But it just continues shitting on Lord of the Rings canon.

Xenoblade 2 Torna require you to do (almost?) all sidequests or you're not unlocking the way to the final part of the game.
I wouldn't call them tedious per se, but some people absolutely despise doing sidequests.

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Don't worry, I got you. They are tedious.

Joking aside, I get it thematically. But damn if I just didn't want to finish the fucking thing and move onto 3 at the time. I feel like Future Redeemed did a much better job of balancing everything out.

Arkham was one that came to mind where I thought, "yeah, no, just not gonna bother with that shit".

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I was game up until the point where the Riddler fight started, then abruptly ended with him going "Find all the shit I left around the city, Batman! Then I'll fight you!" I said no immediately.

 

[Vito]

No Nier or Nier: Automata yet? Having to redo a section can be an interesting storytelling device if done in moderation, but especially the first game overdoes it a lot with the repetition.

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Automata is fine?

I always viewed route B like the Separate Ways of the game.

My vote goes to MGS Peace Walker.

 

[danm999]

What I meant is that the conditions for the true endings don't require you to do that kind of minmaxxing.

For P3R, you simply have to make the right choice between 2 options regarding Ryoji's fate. That's all.

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Oh yeah true, that is different to Royal.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

I ran into the shivers check near the end of Disco Elysium and had to load an old save.

 

[DazzlerIE]

I was gearing up for the final boss in skyward sword when the game instead decided to send me on one last round of fetch quests.

I quit the game and never went back

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

Oh yeah true, that is different to Royal.

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Even in Royal, it's a bit more work, but it also doesn't require you to 100% it. It's definitely something that the average new players wouldn't know to do without looking it up, but once you know what to do, it's not really "tedious". Just a bit more restricting of your time since you have to focus on doing certain things instead of anything else whenever they're available.

 

[Niklel]

Arkham Knight, of course. Locking the true ending behind doing all side objectives makes a lot of sense story-wise, and I had fun doing all of them…
But I totally understand people who are angered by this.

Like above said, Arkham Knight, so basically to finish the game and get the ending you have to capture all the villains, one of these villains is Riddler, on his quest at the end you end up fighting him but halfway thought the fight he makes some shitty excuse to hide claiming you can only fight him after you find all his stupid trophies, that are all over the world on the most obscure corners and inside buildings so trying to get all of them is so ridiculous

Imagine if you had to get all the Korok Seeds to end the last two Zeldas

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The comparison with Korok Seeds in recent Zelda games is an unfair one, though. It's not even half as tedious. The world map is smaller, there are way fewer things to collect and iirc the game slowly reveals you locations of the collectables under certain conditions (after completing certain activities).

 

[IamPeacock]

All the stuff you have to do to get the true ending for Final Fantasy X-2.


The Ghosts'n Goblins series of making you play the game twice to see the ending. When I was younger and had nothing better to do, I did it, but I don't think I could do that anymore without save states or something. 😅

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Didn't you keep certain weapons and armor? Making the second replay faster and easier? I just played the Genesis one, so not sure if this is in every game.

 

[Linus815]

Shadow of War.

To get the actual ending cutscene for the story you need to do tons of sieges, and they were much harder than the ones prior in the story. Basically it was a way for WB to push their lootbox economy.

The game eventually, after a few years got patched so that you only needed a few siege wins to unlock the ending but frankly the bad taste remained.

Arkham Knight.

Well, another WB game.... I never bothered with this one. Needs all side content to be completed. A ridiculous requirement in a batman game IMO.

 

[IamPeacock]

never again...

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Haha that last level was so infuriating. Took me probably more than a 100 times. It's like EPD was curious to see how far they could go with the fanbase. If I'm not mistaken, all final levels in future games were alot easier.

 

[calder]

Fuck outta here with this shit.

 

[IamPeacock]

Currently playing this and now I don't know if I should continue lol

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It's actually not that bad. You can use the parrot to see which things you missed on the map.

 

[TheChrisGlass]

You all come back after beating Bomberman 64. I only see weakness here.

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Thanks for the painful flashbacks. Even using the GameShark to cheat, it was a pain in the ass.

 

[shadowman16]

Didn't you keep certain weapons and armor? Making the second replay faster and easier? I just played the Genesis one, so not sure if this is in every game.

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You dont really keep anything in GnG, certainly not armor if you get hit, its gone. The challenge in the second run is getting the special weapon which is needed to reach the finale boss level, without it you'll be booted back a level (thankfully its easy to get it in this level).

The issues with Ghouls can be:
Getting the special weapon early on isnt too difficult, you do need to get the armor upgrade first but there's plenty of chests in stage 1 to do so. And the special weapon is good... until it isnt.

See stage 4 is a fight against a creature which has a number of weak spots, and a couple are insanely hard to reach with the special weapon since range is limited on it. Makes the entire thing harder than it should. So honestly you either wanna swap weapons on this stage, or wait until stage 5 to get the special weapon.
Either way, its really not that bad, I felt the GnG games got a bit of a bad wrap for this in the early days, the games arent long and I didnt think any were THAT bad to clear. Now dont get me wrong, Super GnG has one annoying bit at the end with Asteroth due to, yet again a short ranged special weapon you need (no way round it this time like in GnG), and the latest game (Resurrection) is just legit hard on its second run through, but you can at least power up nicely as you go there...

But oh how I detest the original "best ending" in Ulimate GnG for the PSP. Basically, clear the game once, no problem (well, assuming the difficulty doesnt crush your bones). Second time round? Basically a "screw you, find all the hidden collectibles". I hate hidden collectibles lol. Its a pretty big game as well, especially as you need certain armors to reach certain places, and no guides really existed at the time to tell you where the darn things were... Still need to go back to that...
Thankfully Capcom themselves realised how shit it was so when Japan got Ultimate GNG Kai (an updated edition on the PSP), they basically remixed the entire game, tweaking difficulty, enemy spawns, and yes even the collectibles so you no longer needed them, rather just do the usual two loops. And it made the game so much better.

 

[Radline]

It has already been mentioned, but collecting all of the Tribals in Jet Force Gemini. Exploring new areas even after being told about it is fine, but I will never finish that game because the process is mind-numbingly tedious. That game is probably why I tend to have a disdain for most of Rare's collectathon games, excluding the first Banjo-Kazooie game.

For Sonic Advance 2, I never even got a single emerald in that game. The concept of going around and collecting all of the special rings sounded so ridiculous to me that I just never bothered until years later, only to find myself trying it once and realizing it wasn't worth doing at all.

 

[northnorth]

Like above said, Arkham Knight, so basically to finish the game and get the ending you have to capture all the villains, one of these villains is Riddler, on his quest at the end you end up fighting him but halfway thought the fight he makes some shitty excuse to hide claiming you can only fight him after you find all his stupid trophies, that are all over the world on the most obscure corners and inside buildings so trying to get all of them is so ridiculous

Imagine if you had to get all the Korok Seeds to end the last two Zeldas

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Even with the like GPS coordinates from guides, those things were such a bitch to get to. Some places had like six levels and trying to get into the right one was so frustrating. I should have just watched the ending on YouTube.

 

[Kain]

I was panicking while playing P5Royal to get the damn third semester. Atlus should do these things better

 

[Shopolic]

To fight the final boss of Sea of Stars, you have to "beat" the entire game once, beat multiple superbosses, do a full quest chain, complete all the solstice shrines, complete all the arena challenges, and collect all 60 rainbow shells hidden around the world.

Some people say the boss is an "optional secret boss" or something, but it is the only way to fight the main antagonist of the game and get the canon ending.

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This.
I really loved Sea of Stars, but I wish it was easier to see that ending. Worst thing was collecting all those rainbow conches. :|

 

[Jetsun Mila]

Still my answer to the thread is Beyond Good and Evil, and the reason I never finished it. At least with P5 you can get *an* ending.

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Huh? Beyond Good and Evil doesn't have any big requirements to finish the game. There is one not really optional part on the top of the black Isle where you get tons of pearls but it's like 10 minutes

 

[shadowman16]

Huh? Beyond Good and Evil doesn't have any big requirements to finish the game. There is one not really optional part on the top of the black Isle where you get tons of pearls but it's like 10 minutes

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I took their post as meaning the giant cliffhanger ending which has never been addressed. Even the sequel (what little of it that's been shown) doesnt really seem like its picking up from it.

 

[Vampirolol]

Hollow Knight, couldn't stand that bs for the real ending.

 

[ajoshi]

Sonic Adventure 2, the entire game is just a mental weapon against the player until you earn the right to Live and learn

 

[shadowman16]

Sonic Adventure 2, the entire game is just a mental weapon against the player until you earn the right to Live and learn

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And even the true end is tame compared to the requirements for unlocking the hidden Green Hill Zone. Never did manage to do that legit... getting the best ranks for every challenges was a nightmare I just gave up on. Maybe one day Ill try again...

 

[MoonlitBow]

FF13-2 was pretty bad about the hidden extra ending scene because it required 100% completion of the game and I completely forget what all that entails but I recall having to explore every zone and doing a bunch of tasks, but one task in particular that stood out was having to play a slot machine until you got an item you needed but there was no method or skill involved, it was only a matter of waiting until you got it and whether or not you were doing well didn't matter to speed up the process. It was literally just holding down the button and waiting until it happened, and it could take hours.

All that for a scene that was only a few seconds long and didn't really add anything to the ending.

 

[BackwardCap]

Every single arcade cabinet ever.

 

[Blue_Toad507]

You all come back after beating Bomberman 64. I only see weakness here.

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I didn't even know there was a secret final boss/ending in that game when I was younger. And when you get there, it is ridiculously hard.

 

[shadowman16]

Every single arcade cabinet ever.

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Not quite every arcade game... I find stuff like Strider plenty fair (and is incidentally one of those games I can 1CC), but you did remind me of something 80s arcade games would do that would qualify:

Take Shinobi or Contra for example, you fight your way to the final level. And... you get a game over, and it turns out you cant continue in this level! So back to the start of the game for you!

I was never a fan of this approach, or just not having continues in arcade games as standard. Something like Contra I can over come (Ive gotten half decent at it), but Shinobi is still a bit of a pain (but certain ports fixed this, I think the recentish Switch version did, for example.

Rainbow Islands has 3 hidden worlds behind getting all the big gems to that point. Its actually fairly doable and while the game is certainly no pushover, this is far from the toughest thing to achieve. But then like Shinobi in the optional worlds, you cant continue... and that sucks.
Thankfully the newish Arcade Archives release for the game has dip switches/cheats to fix this, making it far more bearable.

 

[TheMadTitan]

A4kham Knight is the first and only game where I watched the true ending on YouTube because fuck those trophies.

 

[Daysean]

People unironically saying Persona 5 Royal when its "tedious bullshit is literally "hey level this particular confidant that the game actively tries to nudge you towards unlike any other confidant"
Anytime someone misses it, their reasoning is always "oh i didnt care about the character" and its like, oh you didnt care about the content that the game goes out of its way to emphasize over literally any other confidant? yeah thats on you
Compared to something like FF X-2, where if you play it without a guide? Yeah you're ending up with a 30-40% completion rate buddy, and we're aiming for 100% here.
Like sure, I totally get the logic of "why would I think this confidant would unlock a new section of the game?" totally fair, who would guess that.....but why are you disregarding a character that the main cast actively interacts with on their own time? Like when I saw them doing that I was like, maybe I should hard focus on this guy in particular, he might unlock some super cool perks since the game really tries to make him closer to the cast as a confidant.
Yes, the same rule also applies to Mishima but ill say to be fair, Mishima isn't hanging out with each party member in 1v1 cutscenes

 

[Grunty]

I may be one of the only people in the world who actually liked The Wind Waker TriForce hunt 😅

 

[Sword Familiar]

Death's Door does this. I used a guide for it though, so it wasn't that bad.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Man, y'all must love these games going through all that bullshit to get an extra few minutes/seconds of cinematics. Think the only one I ever did these for are Persona 4/5, and I did all the endings for Nier Automata, but I was having a blast with those.

But if you're telling me I have to keep replaying levels, looking for 1000 items, or just playing any more shit-tastic Arkham Knight in general, fuck that. I'm going to YT for the ending lol