It has come to my attention lately that, while I love the stories in almost all video games and play mostly to experience them, I am disappointed with almost all endings. "Bad" in the title doesn't mean evil, but simply not satisfactory. Does anyone else feel the same way, and what are the possible reasons? Are there just not many games with a good ending? Or is it somehow that reaching the end of the story disappoints one?
To further clarify what I mean, an example of a game I played lately: Neverwinter Nights 1 (+ SoU + HotU).
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD
People seem mostly not to like the story of the OC, while SoU is considered good and HotU one of the best stories ever written.
Personally I loved the story of the OC. There are things I don't like, e.g.: "Here my little level 1 trainee, you must save everyone in the city while I, a hero of Neverwinter and Right Hand of the regent, will stand here and... well, you know, have some fun." But mostly I liked uncovering new schemes, new parts of the puzzle of the plot, always leading forward, to a bigger understanding of what's going on and what has to be done. The twists were ok, but somewhat predictable since there were too many hints leading up to them.
But then: the ending. You defeated the evil queen. Now there would be two possibilities: Finish there and give a nice ending sequence, or let you talk to some characters from the plot. In this game the latter is chosen, and who are you able to talk to? Some lizardwoman, which you only encountered shortly in the last two acts, all dialogues with her not even taking 10 minutes. Not some characters where you actually worked with for almost the whole game. And what does that woman tells you? That there are even greater dangers to come in your life (greater than some ancient race who can not only threaten the world you live in, but parallel universes where even your own gods have no power?). And in the addons you play another character, in terms of the story.
And the HotU ending? While the story leading up to it is really good, the ending is somewhat meh. You killed the evil guy, but he's not really dead and will do vengeance someday, because he's too mighty to be killed here. At least you saved the day and your kobold bard friend is awesome. I have not played the "evil" ending of HotU yet, so I can't tell anything about that.
And another part of the ending: Aribeth the Twin-Souled. If you kill her, the ending of the OC seems quite ok. If you play a male character and choose to romance with her, before going to the final fight she says: "Well, I maybe love you, kill that bitch who threatens all and we'll talk later." Which obviously does not hold true, and is not even mentioned in the ending sequence. In HotU then you can aquire her spirit as a follower and romance with her (again with another character). And, in the ending, you spend the rest of your life and the afterlife together. You, the character B who has spend a trip through one act of one addon with her, where she was already dead and her spirit saved. Not you, character A, who has spend at her side the whole OC, clinged on to her as she was your worst enemy, been there for her and saved her.
This is just one example, but there are many out there (the Mass Effect trilogy comes to mind, though I haven't played the 3rd yet). Not all endings in all games are bad, but somehow I feel that most of them just don't do right to the story leading up to it. Thoughts?