How do you decide when you’re finished with
a game—that you’ve done everything you want to do and are ready to move on to the
next one? For me, and I imagine for a lot of others,
the obvious answer is hitting the end credits. Occasionally I will have the terrible idea
to go for all of the achievements, but typically once the credits roll, I’m done playing
the game, regardless of whether or not there are more things I could do. While a game’s credits seems like a formality,
there is a fair amount of mechanical power to them. They provide a moment of reflection to look
back at what you just experienced. They signal that you’ve completed the main
content of a game—the stuff the developers viewed as the core experience. Hitting the end credits provides that sweet
satisfaction that comes from accomplishment, and seeing them roll gives me a nice final
hit of dopamine. However, the sense of finality that comes
with end credits makes it really hard for me to jump back in. Leveling up and getting new abilities feels
great when it is helping me progress to that main goal of taking out the final boss or
solving the grand mystery, but once that goal is reached, my drive evaporates. When I don’t have a clear goal I am aiming
for progression systems become meaningless. Yeah, I can do all these quests to get a cool
weapon, but why do I need it if I’ve already accomplished what the developers wanted me
to accomplish? As my motivation stems from the desire to
beat a game, continuing playing after doing so always feels hollow. And look, I’m sure a lot of people are able
to find motivation in just having fun with a game instead of needing to work towards
some goal, and there are also lots of folks who find tons of value in how much extra content
a game has, and ya know, good for them, but I’m not built that way. I need to be working towards something greater. And for the most part, I am fine with not
having the drive to continue with a game after beating it. Especially with more story-centric games,
there isn’t even that much to do after the credits roll except play it again, so I don’t
feel like I miss out on all that much. But sometimes games introduce what seems like
important content after the credits roll, and I always struggle with how to approach
it. Most recently, this came up with Pokemon Legends
Arceus. After the end credits, players are given an
entire new questline centered around capturing various legendary Pokemon. Of all the story missions in Arceus, about
a third of them happen post-credits, and while not every mission takes the same amount of
time to complete, this still makes up a huge chunk of the game. Between those missions and filling out the
pokedex, many players could easily spend more time with end-game content than the actual
game itself. Of course, as I am sure you’ve already guessed,
I didn’t do any of that stuff. There were new things to progress towards,
but they didn’t feel as important as what I had already completed. This isn’t inherently bad; having a substantial
amount of post-game content gives those who adore the game more time with it, and those
who have enjoyed it, but are reaching their limit an easy out where they can stop playing
yet not feel like they have left the game unfinished. It is understandable why they approached it
in this way, and I am not even convinced they were wrong to format it like this, especially
given the fact that the game is designed with kids in mind, many of whom may not have the
attention span to beat a 50 hour game but can manage something shorter. It also may be that the gameplay of the post-game
is designed with a more niche audience in mind and if they had made that content a part
of the main game, it would have alienated a larger portion of players by making the
core of the game feel like too much of a slog. Nevertheless, the choice to place it where
they did led to me and players like me who are motivated most by beating a game to miss
out on content, which is a bit of a shame as I have heard from multiple people that
the end-game of Arceus contains some of the most interesting story beats and moments in
the game—I just have no drive drive to do it, and I can’t help but think that I would
have had the credits not rolled when they did. Frankly, it seems a bit baffling that they
would put some of the most intriguing story developments after the game proper is over. Regardless of whether or not it was the right
choice for Pokemon Legends Arceus to roll credits when they did, it does highlight how
the point developers choose to place the credits can influence player behavior and satisfaction. It defines the core experience most players
will have, so developers have to be very cognizant of what they want that experience to entail. Take Sloclap’s kung-fu beat em up, Sifu. The game consists of 5 levels for the player
to work through, where they will take on hordes of enemies and tough-as-nails boss fights,
both of which take considerable skill to overcome. Sifu’s difficulty revolves around its resurrection
mechanic where every time the player character dies, they get older, and once they hit a
certain age, they no longer can be revived and the player needs to restart the level. On a first playthrough this will mean replaying
each level over and over again to master the mechanics and finish at the lowest age possible,
which is easier said than done. While playing, there were times I thought
I’d never be good enough to get to the final boss at a reasonable age, but I kept trying
and kept getting better, and after enough practice, I was able to not only get to the
final boss but I was also able to beat him. I felt that sense of pride and relief that
comes from beating a hard game and to be as non-specific as possible as to not spoil anything,
right at the moment I expected the credits to roll, a cutscene played that indicated
there was a slightly different way to approach each of the levels. And it set me back to the start again. Even though the story hit a natural and satisfying
conclusion, due to the credits not rolling, I felt like I needed to keep playing, so I
jumped right back in and went through all of the levels again. This time, instead of struggling for the slightest
bit of progress, I used everything I had learned from the countless times I had gone through
the levels before, and beat all of them with ease. After dominating the final boss, I felt like
a gamer god, and then I was finally met with the credits. The “true” ending of Sifu feels like the
sort of thing that would normally be optional post-game content—there for dedicated players
who want an additional challenge, but easily skippable for those not interested. However, by holding off on the credits, Sloclap
made it a part of the main experience. As the credits rolled, I knew with complete
certainty that had they come after beating the final boss for the first time, I would
not have kept playing to see the true ending, and that would have sucked as I would have
missed out on the amazing experience of witnessing how far I had come as a player. To be honest, until this experience with Sifu,
I never really considered how motivated I am by reaching a game’s end credits, but
now I can’t stop thinking about it, and I find myself questioning whether or not I
would have stuck with certain games if they had rolled earlier. Like, would I have kept playing Hades had
the credits rolled after the first time I beat the final boss instead of the 10th? Would I have played the epilogue of Red Dead
Dead Redemption 2 if they had separated it from the main game? Would I have searched for more endings in
the Stanley Parable if there had been credits after every ending instead of just the Not
Stanley ending? I’d like to think I would have continued
with each of them, but given my track record, it doesn’t look great. Ultimately, where to place the end credits
ties into one of the great challenges of game design: determining which parts of a game
should be mandatory and which should be optional. And as it turns out, there isn’t an easy
answer. If developers opt to make most content in
a title mandatory, it could throw off the pacing, leading to a lot of bloat. Also, especially with less linear titles,
if nearly everything is mandatory, it may take away some of the joy that comes with
exploration. There is something special about uncovering
secrets—of finding things that not everyone will find. It rewards curious players with new things
to encounter and creates experiences unique to their playthrough. Of course, the downside to not making things
mandatory is that a portion of players will miss things, And sometimes they may be an
important part of what makes a game great. For example, let’s look at the ending of
Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight is a massive game with secrets
galore from items to areas to bosses spread throughout its world. On my first playthrough, I did some of the
optional stuff, but was more focused on beating the game than anything else. So, once I fought and beat The Hollow Knight,
and got to those end credits, I stopped playing. At the time, I knew there were more things
to explore as I hadn’t cleared the map, but I didn’t really know what those things
entailed. A lot of it seemed centered around collecting
enough essence to improve the dream nail, which seemed a bit tedious, especially as
I had already beaten the game. I had gotten my dopamine hit and didn’t
want to tarnish that, so I convinced myself that whatever was left wasn’t worth my time
as I was able to beat the game without it. And while I do think that The Hollow Knight
ending is fine, it doesn’t hold a candle to the true ending. The real final boss along with the steps it
takes to get there contain some of the most enjoyable and iconic moments in the game. When I went back to replay it last year and
finally did everything, it launched Hollow Knight from being a title I just enjoyed to
one that sits firmly in my top 5. The thing is, I would not have known that
there was more worth doing if people hadn’t told me about it. Obviously I understand that a lot of the blame
for that is on me for not exploring or being observant enough, but with optional content
in games, it can be hard to know what will and won’t be worth my time. So, I can’t help but wonder if I would have
sought out the true ending in my first playthrough if instead of rolling credits after beating
what I thought was the final boss, it had given a message like “yet the dream continues…”
and then set me back in Dirtmouth. Given the fact that I am so motivated by hitting
the end credits, I think that would have been enough to get me to do the things I was reluctant
to do in the first place. What’s hard is that on one hand I think
experiencing the true ending is essential to fully understanding and appreciating Hollow
Knight, but on the other, I think part of what makes it so special for many players
is that it was something they earned through their own curiosity without the game telling
them that they needed to. Withholding the credits in an effort to incentivize
players who didn’t do everything into pursuing the true ending could cheapen that feeling
for those who didn’t need the push. Of course, I suspect a fair amount of people
only learned about the existence of an alternate ending from external sources, which isn’t
ideal either And that’s one of the big problems. As a player, it is often difficult to know
what optional content is worth doing, especially when part of what makes it worthwhile is discovering
that it was worthwhile. I think I have just been conditioned over
the years to assume that a lot of optional tasks won’t have that special of a payoff
and the challenge is primarily there for folks who enjoy 100%ing every game they play. Operating under that assumption obviously
leads to me missing important things, but it also protects my time. All of this is tough to sort out because I
think there is something intriguing about a game whose designers seem unconcerned with
whether or not every player who beats their game experiences its best content; but also,
it seems like a terrible idea for designers not to do everything in their power to get
players to engage with the most important parts of their game. And I’ve never felt more conflicted about
this than I did after playing Nier: Automata NieR: Automata is a game that doesn’t really
begin until it ends. I would go as far as to say that if you’ve
only played through Nier: Automata once, you haven’t played Nier: Automata. And this seems to be a pretty commonly held
opinion as when I mentioned on twitter that I was finally playing it, I got tons of responses
telling me that I needed to beat it more than once. The first playthrough is satisfying enough,
and it does feel like a complete game; depending on how much you do, it will probably take
anywhere from 10 to 30 hours to beat, and while parts of the narrative will feel a bit
incomplete, it is serviceable. However, seeing the core of what makes Automata
special requires playing through it multiple times. The issue is that the game doesn’t do the
best job of making it clear that they should. After the end of the first credits, it does
encourage the player to continue playing with a message from the development team saying
there are new perspectives to explore and story beats to see, but to be honest, if I
hadn’t been told before hand that I needed to beat it multiple times, this would have
felt nearly the same as when you beat a Mario game and it tells you that you can play as
Luigi. A reason for some players to come back, but
not one for me. This is amplified by the fact that the second
playthrough is very similar to the first, so it isn’t immediately obvious that it
is worthwhile to continue. In order to see how many players reached the
true ending, I looked at achievement and trophy stats from Steam, Xbox and Playstation, and
consistently across all three platforms, of all players who finished Ending A, less than
half of them reached the true final credits. The biggest dropoff happens between Ending
A to Ending B, losing about a third of players who finished the first ending. It’s a bit mind boggling to me that so many
people ostensibly finished the game, but will have a fundamentally different understanding
of its story, characters and themes than those who reached the actual final credits. Putting that much important content behind
a credit roll is wild, and it is hard not to think it is a bad idea. In fairness, many folks in NieR: Automata’s
target demographic were familiar with the game’s director, Yoko Taro, so a large chunk
of players almost certainly would have been aware that this is how every game he makes
operates, but for those going in without that knowledge, the most important stuff in the
game is so easy to miss. Had there been no credits after Ending A,
I imagine more players would have kept playing and eventually reached the final credits. Of course, the fact that so much of the game
is hidden behind a credit roll is a part of what makes it interesting. It breaks down typical video game conventions,
and I won’t get into specifics as to keep things spoiler-free, but it does some unique
things with its various credit rolls that justify there being so many of them. Also, given from what I know about Yoko Taro,
I don’t think he cares whether or not people stop playing because they couldn’t get on
board with his creative direction. He seemingly makes the games that he wants
to make, and would rather do something interesting that loses people than compromise his vision. Of course, what I view as the intended or
optimal way to experience a game, almost certainly is not universal. There are surely players who loved Ending
A, but hated every playthrough after that, ones who adored Hollow Knight up until reaching
the White Palace, and folks who resented having to play through Sifu an additional time to
get the credits to roll. Ultimately, when it comes to determining what
to make optional versus what to make mandatory, developers are deciding between presenting
it in a way that will make it more likely for every player to experience it, even though
it may not appeal to all of them or presenting it in a way that leads to fewer folks engaging
with it, but those who do will be far more likely to enjoy it as they are the type of
players who search for that kind of content. And, I find myself not really knowing what
the right answer is. To be honest, when I started writing this
script, I firmly believed that most games, especially ones with important optional content
like Hollow Knight and NieR: Automata, would benefit from delaying their credit rolls. At the very least, this sort of thing would
be good for me and players like me as it would be more clear when to engage with certain
aspects of a title. However, as I got further into actually working
on this piece, it became hard to shake the idea that there is value in being able to
miss something—there is value in an experience being scarce. It makes it a mystery that people have to
work towards whether it be on their own or as a community, and it rewards players with
something substantial for their extra effort—effort not every player wants to put in. There is value to Sifu’s approach of making
players prove they have mastered the game to be rewarded with the credits, but there
is also value in titles that withhold their most important moments and only share them
with those willing to look. With every game though, there should be a
purpose behind the choice. Where a title like NieR: Automata aims to
say something through its structure, one like Pokemon: Arceus seemingly just wanted to have
a lot of post-game content and made a shortsighted decision by placing important moments after
the credits. Frankly, I wish I was the kind of player who
was driven to find every secret in a game in the hopes that it will lead to something
incredible, but I’m not, and I expect to keep stopping games after hitting the end
credits. It’s just who I am. So while I do hope to see more titles find
ways to push me to engage with content I’d probably enjoy but would be likely to miss,
with many games I’ll most likely have to keep relying on people telling me what and
what not to pursue in them. As odd as it may sound, I could talk about
end credits all day. They are an aspect that we often look at as
separate from the game itself but it can have such a huge impact on pacing and presentation. In fact, this script was originally far longer,
but I realized that a lot of what I had was less about when to roll credits and more about
credit sequences I really liked. So, I decided to take a lot of the stuff I
cut from this script and create an extra video about my favorite credit sequences in video
games that you can watch right now on Nebula. Nebula is a streaming service made and owned
by creators, me being one of them. It gives us a place to post our work without
having to worry about demonitization or the algorithm, and it gives viewers a place to
watch some of the best creators out there. With pretty much every script I write, I end
up cutting a lot of interesting ideas that don’t fit the topic, and more often than
not, I never do anything with them because I don’t have time and they don’t make
all that much sense to post on my main channel, but with the help of Nebula, I was able to
get this one made. And yes. That video will talk more extensively about
NieR: Automata. What’s even better is that we’ve partnered
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