Understanding Kirby and the Forgotten Land's Multiple Endings

[Music] this is kirby and the forgotten land for the nintendo switch and it's the first kirby title to make the jump from a 2d side scroller to a full-on 3d platformer it's full of levels that are packed with secrets to discover hidden items to collect an in-game lore that tells a darker more human story than anything we've ever seen in a kirby title it's been a few weeks since forgotten land released and the critical reception has been very positive with many critics calling it the best game in the kirby series which is a claim that i personally agree with but what you may not know is how they did it how they managed to strike a near perfect balance between being accessible for new players while offering challenge mystery and rewards for more experienced players so how did they pull it off well if you ask me the secret to forgotten land success comes not from how the game plays but rather how the game ends because kirby and the forgotten land has not one or two but four potential endings for players to discover and i believe that each of these endings were designed with a different type of player in mind and so today we will be breaking down what each of these four endings are and what type of player they were designed for and if any of this sounds familiar to you well you'd be right hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] welcome to another ending the series where we explore the many ways video games come to an end and discover how the end is often just the beginning and today we will be exploring the post-apocalyptic endings of kirby and the forgotten land [Music] kirby in the forgotten land opens on a sunny day on planet pop star the home of our pink hero of course this is a nintendo published title and so kirby who is just out for a morning stroll is ripped away from his home by a devastating dark vortex when kirby wakes up he finds himself in a completely new world and he soon discovers that he was not the only one who took the wormhole to work this morning as we see waddle dees being captured and thrown in cages by the wildlife who inhabit this new world after a skirmish with some locals kirby meets elephant el phillon you know the dude with the ears and he explains that the waddle dees managed to build an entire town to try and settle and survive in this new world but they were eventually overrun by the fearsome beast pack a group of powerful and dangerous animals from the new world kirby and his new sidekick team up and set off to rescue the rest of the waddle dees and our adventure is officially underway as we explore this new world something immediately feels off the world in which we find kirby is like nothing we've seen before in a kirby title this new world resembles the real world not planet pop star it's a place that was seemingly shaped by humans and yet no humans exist here we discover a city that's been deserted and overtaken by nature we explore an abandoned shopping mall that is somehow more depressing than a real-life american shopping mall we even find kirby on what i assume to be an oil drilling rig in the ocean that is located dangerously close to a family beach resort the list goes on this is a game where the environment around the character does the storytelling there is a mystery here what happened to the people who lived here what caused them to disappear and it's this environmental storytelling that sets the early game of forgotten land apart from other kirby titles generally speaking the first parts of kirby games are pretty easy and when a game is too easy or too casual it can cause more experienced players to lose interest that's why setting this game in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is such a brilliant idea for a kirby game because even though these first few levels were a breeze i couldn't take my eyes off the world around me i wanted to see where it would go next and it kept me interested and as kirby continues to explore the forgotten land he defeats the leaders of the beast pack one by one saving the waddle dees and eventually we find kirby at the entrance of an abandoned research lab suspended over a volcano when we enter the lab a dark secret is revealed we learned that a creature known as fecto forgo invaded this world 30 years ago it was a creature capable of moving between dimensions in time and space and though it nearly conquered this world the humans who lived here managed to capture it and imprison it in this lab where they performed experiments on it they were trying to replicate the creatures interdimensional powers for themselves this of course begs the question who is the real monster here fecto forgo or the scientist who tortured and experimented on it for years it's probably the monster but you get the idea eventually the scientists were successful they were able to replicate fecto forgo's power and open a passage between dimensions and with their newfound power the people living here decided to leave their home and travel to a land of dreams when they left this dimension they left fecto forgo to rot in a cage and they left behind the animals who eventually claimed this world for their own we learned that the creature used its psychic abilities to control the animals left behind to resume its invasion of this world and theoretically find those humans who imprisoned it and exact some revenge kirby of course won't stand for this and fights the creature to save both the forgotten land and his own planet pop star and once this battle is over you will reach the first ending of kirby and the forgotten land or what i like to call the ending of the hungry hero to be a hungry hero you must complete every level in forgotten land's main campaign and defeat fecto elphalis at the top of lab discoverera when we do so we reach the game's end credits for the first time and we get a nice resolution to our story and there are a handful of new activities for kirby to enjoy back in waddle d-town as his reward the ending of the hungry hero was designed to be reached by the highest number of players you don't need to save every waddle d in the game just enough to help you get from one world to the next besides they all have the same name and look identical so no one will notice that you left a few dozen locked in cages this first ending is a very important one because it was designed to be accessible to newer players the last few levels of the main game do include quite a few boss battles but players are given the choice to purchase power-ups that make these boss fights much more manageable and for the final battle kirby is given the choice of any copy ability in the game and some of these abilities make that final fight much easier than others these design choices are deliberate they allow the first ending to be reached by players of any skill level while allowing more experienced players to skip those optional upgrades and make the final boss a bit more of a challenge back in waddle d-town things are pretty chill the members of the previously evil beast pack are now cool with kirby and everyone in town is having a pretty good time going to the movie theater listening to live music watching violent gladiatorial combat in the coliseum really chill vibes but it's not all paradise if we pay attention to the end credits we can see that phectoalphalus has not been fully defeated a piece of that creature is still out there and we eventually learned that liongar liengar the lion man the leader of the beast pack has been lost in an alternate dimension created by the monster despite never having really met this lion man in his life kirby risks it all and dives head first into another vortex to save the lion on the other side of the vortex we discover the world of forgo dreams it's an alternate dimension filled with the memories of the forgotten land and the beast pack from a game design perspective these levels are remixed versions of levels we've already played but with much more enemies on screen at any given time and much more demanding platforming and puzzle sections these levels are also quite long compared to their originals and all of them end in a pretty challenging boss fight i should mention that we are technically here to collect the pieces of the lion man's soul but all you really need to know is that forgo dreams is like a hidden final world it's where this kirby title gets more and more challenging if you are able to overcome all of the trials and battles of forego dreams you will find yourself once again at lab discoverer but since this is an alternate dimension this final final boss fight plays out a bit differently first we face forgo leongar who is once again possessed by the monster but once he's defeated things start to get interesting by chance a red butterfly flies into the lab and crosses the path of forgot who absorbs the creature fusing his power with the form of the butterfly the resulting creature is known as morphonite and this battle is easily one of the game's best veterans of the kirby series will know that anytime we face off against meta knight or some meta knight like enemy you are in for a pretty good time unless you're playing against meta knight in super smash brothers brawl in which case you are in for a really bad time but in forgotten land this morphonite battle is like a reward it's for the players who push through the levels of forgo dreams it's a surprise from the creators of the kirby series for the dedicated players to discover and if you're successful in defeating morphonite you will reach the second ending of the game or what i like to call the ending of the dream night to be a dream night you must complete all of the challenges and boss battles within forgo dreams and if you're successful you will save liangar and reach the game's end credits for a second time the ending of the dream night was designed to give more experienced players a challenge much like the original kirby's unlockable hard mode to reach the second ending requires players to survive some pretty difficult levels by the kirby series standards and many of these final boss encounters forced me to pay attention to my health bar and wait for an opening to attack i couldn't just breeze through it and that's exactly what i was hoping for the ending of the dream night is a worthy one because it features some of the best platforming sequences and boss encounters that the kirby series has ever seen the second ending would be a very reasonable place for any player to stop playing to me an ending in a game is any point where the developers intended for the player to stop playing and they usually signal this to the player through things like end credits or by returning the player to the main menu at this point in the game we've already passed through two of these stopping points or two potential endings but as you may have already guessed there is more for us to uncover here once again the setup comes from the end credit sequence it's a blink and you miss it teaser but during the second credit sequence we see a ghostly form of fecto visible on screen and it seems like this creature is headed to the coliseum in waddle d-town this teaser is just enough to keep dedicated players interested and so kirby heads back to town to head to the coliseum to follow the creature what awaits us is the ultimate cup z a boss rush challenge featuring all of the harder boss fights from forgo dreams only this time around the challenge will be even greater because unlike the other coliseum battles the ultimate cup z offers no maximum tomatoes between battles so healing and recovering health is incredibly limited making things even more challenging is that this boss rush also features two new encounters first we face off against phantom meta knight which is basically the same as fighting regular meta knight except this one hits harder and works at a spirit halloween store after a few more rounds through this boss rush we find ourselves at kirby and the forgotten land's final combat challenge and the most difficult boss fight in the game chaos elfis at first the fight seems very similar to our first encounter with this creature but as you may have already guessed by the color swap this version hits much harder and gives kirby much less time to react between attacks eventually the creature reveals its final form a horrifying glowing ball that generates black holes and tries to consume everything this final final end game boss battle can be a challenge and i found it difficult enough that i actually needed to learn how to use kirby's dodge mechanics you see kirby can dodge incoming attacks at the very last moment which slows down time and gives the player more of a chance to mount a counter-attack and i find it fascinating that i had this dodge mechanic available to me the entire game and yet this final boss encounter was the first time where i felt like i actually needed to use it it's just another example of how this game was smartly designed for players of all skill levels and if you are successful in defeating chaos alphalus you will reach the third ending of kirby and the forgotten land or what i like to call the ending of the chaos conqueror to be a chaos conqueror you must do what the title suggests defeat chaos alphalus which is the most difficult boss fight in the game you may be wondering what separates the second and third ending why does completing an endgame challenge in the coliseum qualify as a new ending well i'm glad you asked the final coliseum challenge is very much tied to the game's main story remember our little green friend with the ears well it turns out he was creative when an experiment on fecto forgo went south he and the monster are two parts of the same entity and it isn't until this final battle with chaos alphalests where we see them become one again we've beaten this monster at least three times but only now is the threat actually over making this moment at the end of the ultimate cup z its own unique ending from a game design perspective putting a final cut scene at the end of a difficult boss rush makes a lot of sense it gives more skilled players a chance to put all of their upgraded abilities to use or if you're a scrub like me a chance to finally master those dodge mechanics the ending of the chaos conqueror is here for players who want to face every challenge the game has to offer and in my opinion it is the closest thing that kirby in the forgotten land has to a true ending because the conflict between kirby and the interdimensional monster who abducted him from his home is finally at an end i think this third ending is probably the stopping point that would satisfy most of the dedicated players out there after all we've now faced the greatest combat test this game has and we've seen every world and every level in the game and yet something is keeping me here something is keeping kirby up at night ah completion percentage my old friend see even though we've bested each and every challenge the game has for us we are faced with a crushing realization that we've not a hundred percent completed the game for many game franchises this would be a non-issue but this is a kirby game and what does kirby do kirby consumes everything he inhales his enemies he swallows cars and vending machines and what did the creature in the lab want to consume this world and others like it and most importantly what happened to the people living in the forgotten lands well they consumed everything they created massive corporations which consumed all of the natural resources of the world eventually causing a climate crisis and made this world unlivable [Music] i legitimately cannot believe i am saying this but the meta-narrative of the forgotten land feels like a cautionary tale of what can happen if human consumption goes unchecked and if we've learned anything from the bigger themes of this story it's that there's no problem with putting the controller down now and moving on but should you choose to ignore this lesson and continue to inhale and collect everything you can there is a fourth and final ending for you to discover the ending of the golden void to reach the fourth and final ending of kirby and the forgotten land you must reach 100 completion on your file to do so requires us to find every item and check every optional box in the game some of the highlights include rescuing all 300 waddle dees complete every treasure road stage collect 300 pieces of the lion man's soul gamble at a casino and successfully beat the house collect all 256 gotcha machine figures work three shifts at a restaurant donate to local musicians catch a fish so big that you'll make your grandfather proud the list goes on but you get the idea to reach 100 completion you're going to have to perform all the tasks that were once optional and the further we go the weaker the rewards become after all what good are more coins if you've got nothing to spend them on what does kirby get for all of his hard work well if you've seen my video on breath of the wild or if you've played a few kirby games you probably know what comes next for all of your hard work you receive a jpeg an image that says congratulations from the developers for all of that hard work if this reward feels underwhelming to you it's okay because that's entirely the point kirby's journey has long been over we're just chasing that 100 completion percentage and while kirby's story in this game is your classic hero in an unfamiliar land saves the day type thing the larger more abstract narrative of kirby in the forgotten land is about consumption and the dangers that come with consuming too much with that in mind how does a game designer reward a player who spends all of their coins on gacha machines how do you reward a player who catches every fish in the pond how do you reward a player for consuming everything the answer is you can't this fourth and final ending may seem disappointing but i believe that is the point i see it as an acknowledgement from the creators to the players that your work here is finally done but it also serves to remind us of the themes of forgotten land a reminder to enjoy what we have and to try to make it last because once we do everything in this game and hit that 100 completion there is nothing left for us in this world this is kirby in the forgotten land it's one of the strongest kirby titles ever created and it's among the best games on the switch it's a game that stays true to the original mission of the franchise to invite new players in but also give experienced players a challenge to discover and overcome and i believe the key to pulling this off was designing the game around multiple endings each designated for a different type of player from newcomers to completionists kirby games have always featured more than one ending but in forgotten lands this idea becomes the centerpiece of its design and i for one hope we see more kirby games just like this one in the future thank you all so much for watching and coming on this journey with me be sure to let me know which of the endings you reached in the comments below my name is nick moe and it's good to be back i'll see you all again very soon

Channel: NIKMOE

Views: 901,444

Keywords: Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Ending, Game Design, Kirby, All Endings, Secret, 100%, Forgotten Land, end game, NIKMOE, Another Ending, theory, Multiple Endings, Kirby Forgotten Land, All Secrets, completionist, best switch games, kirby games, Switch, Kirby Lore, Kirby Theory, Kirby's Dreamland, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch Kirby, Best Switch Games, 2022

Id: fa9_yeNpRvw

Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Fri May 27 2022