History Main / EarnYourBadEnding

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredWarriors'': After beating the final boss, the invasion against Raia stops and the four heroes decide to work together in order to help rebuild the planet. If you manage to beat the game without using any continues (something ''pretty dang hard'' in a Beat'em Up) the characters find out that [[spoiler: The invasion was actually planed by the Earth military to leave Raia vulnerable and taking over. The main characters are disgusted by this and quit the military (in Justice's case, he is discharged from the Raian army) and each of them goes their own way. While each character has a fairly happy individual ending where they pursue a new life, the fact remains that Raia is basically in terrible state and now under control of Earth.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', finishing a Grand Prix in 4th or worse and not ending up on the podium is surprisingly difficult, as you cannot progress to the next race unless you finish 4th or better. To ensure you don't end up on the podium, you need to finish in 4th place as much as possible, which can be tricky since the margin for error is slim on higher difficulties and you might fail to qualify for the next race. In the former game in particular, failing to qualify results in the loss of a life, and if you fail to qualify too many times, [[GameOver you're done]].

** The Genocide Ending. It requires the player to [[GottaKillThemAll kill every monster]] — not just bosses, but all random encounters until each area runs out because everyone's either dead or actively running away from you. This takes more effort than simply moving through each area and killing whatever's in your path; you are LevelGrinding the area into exhaustion. For doing this, the game will punish you in a way only a game can: by [[FakeDifficulty not being fun]]. Instead of an exciting adventure, this path is a tedious chore. The combat is either [[ItsEasySoItSucks trivially easy]] or frustratingly hard with no in-between, and culminates in a fight with a boss who [[SNKBoss breaks the game's rules]]. All the while, you are reminded that you don't ''have'' to do this and encouraged to stop. The game's use of this trope serves to deconstruct HundredPercentCompletion; by performing every single possible action, even the most heinous, you make the game world worse. [[spoiler:And if you go all the way with it, [[EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce irreversibly worse]][[note]]not really though[[/note]].]] Of course, [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing it's the only way to play two of the most challenging]] boss fights. The [[WhatTheHellPlayer criticism of the player]] is hard to miss, as you will hear an extensive ReasonYouSuckSpeech from those bosses as they kick your ass.

* Getting the absolute worst ending in ''Videogame/ConquestsOfTheLongbow'', where King Richard finds Robin guilty of all his crimes and has him hanged, requires a ''lot'' of effort, as getting every CharacterWitness to hate you enough without outright getting yourself killed is tricky, [[NintendoHard seeing as this is]] [[TheManyDeathsOfYou a Sierra game]]. This also involves going out of your way to avoid getting any treasure or other points, and letting Marian die at the ''one'' point where the game doesn't immediately kill you for it.

* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTsu'' features a bad ending where Arle is unceremoniously booted out of the tower she's trying to climb. To do so, [[DoWellButNotPerfect you must beat all opponents in any floor except the last one, and at the same time not gain enough EXP (points) to move to the next floor]]. That being said, the game gives you an extra, secret opponent in each floor as a last chance to get the required EXP points, and if you still don't have enough EXP after beating the secret opponent, you get the aforementioned bad ending. Getting this ending is significantly harder in the earlier floors such as the first one, where you only need 30000 points and you have 8 opponents; if you somehow manage to not get 30000 points when even the simple act of manually dropping Puyos gives you points and the rounds where you lose give you EXP, the game "rewards" you with the TrueFinalBoss!

* Playing as a Chaos Knight in ''Videogame/{{ADOM}}'' is a trial in and of itself, since most of the {{Non Player Character}}s will be unfriendly or hostile to your character and not committing enough atrocities to stay Chaotic will strip your character of all their powers and constantly damage them. The "reward" for completing the main quest and closing the Chaos Gate? Since it was the source of your very essence, you immediately wink out of existence. The ending in question is dubbed "Most stupid follower of [=ChAoS=]".

* Creator/NipponIchi games like the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series ''love'' to reward the player for winning [[HopelessBossFight Hopeless Boss Fights]], though sometimes the reward comes in the form of a bad ending.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3}}'', one of the endings involves Mao and Almaz being trapped in their hero and demon roles respectively. They're unhappy and have the sense that something is very wrong, on top of which the real bad guy gets to continue operating behind the scenes. Getting it requires replaying a stage early in the game which spawns a boss monster with levels in the hundreds, making it practically impossible except in NewGamePlus.

** To get Ending A, the player must escort The Girl (a very weak character) all the way to the end of the game, including through several difficult boss fights and a punishing gauntlet full of traps and enemies. Should they succeed in this, [[spoiler:The Girl will transform into the God of Fear and Hunger]], one of the hardest bosses in the game. Winning the fight results in a special ending where the player's party dies anyway, [[spoiler:having created and released a malevolent force rivaling the Old Gods into the rest of the world]].

* It's easy to kill at least a few characters in ''VideoGame/TheQuarry'', but it takes a lot to disable every playable character before Chapter 10. You can achieve this by [[spoiler: killing Jacob, letting Emma get bit on the island, letting Abi get decapitated by wolf!Nick in the poolhouse, letting Dylan get mauled by wolf!Emma at the van in Chapter 8, letting Kaitlyn die in the scrapyard, and refusing to shoot Chris, resulting in Laura being stabbed and Ryan being bludgeoned to death. Nick is unplayable whether he gets shot by Laura or not, and Max is unplayable if Chris lives.]] Eliza, the HorrorHost, goes as far as to [[https://youtu.be/RR75BiJj2u0 comment that you had your chance and she can't help you any more]], and the ending sequence plays early, with no music.

* The worst ending of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'' (where both the LoveInterest and RivalTurnedEvil die) takes a lot more effort to get than [[BittersweetEnding the "normal" ending]], since it requires entering the final boss room in Castle B, which only opens if you have all of Dracula's body parts. (However, the same room is also the key to obtaining the GoldenEnding.) The final boss room in Castle A, which leads to the Normal Ending, can be entered the moment you reach it.

** "Sealed Siblings" is triggered by [[spoiler:getting all the criteria for the "[[GoldenEnding Dream No More]]" ending, but [[ViolationOfCommonSense not Dream Nailing the Hollow Knight once Hornet pins it down]]. If you wait long enough or attack the Hollow Knight with your regular nail, it shakes Hornet off, knocks her out and continues attacking you, until you defeat it and absorb the Infection. The ending is almost identical to the regular ending... except now Hornet is trapped inside the Black Egg with you, [[TheKeyIsBehindTheLock serving as the Dreamer keeping the Egg sealed]].]]

* The absolute worst ''VideoGame/XMenNextDimension'''s Story mode sees Jean Grey turning into the dreaded Dark Phoenix after Bastion callously murders her beloved Cyclops. Dark Phoenix is commonly considered one of the Marvel Universe's most dire threats and more than capable of wiping out all life as we know it so obviously the universe is plain screwed. How do you get this ending? By beating Bastion as Jean without taking any damage. Additionally you also need to have lost in the prior fight as Magneto in order to have Jean challenge Bastion.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pinobee}}'''s worst ending, where the Fairy disassembles Pinobee, is among the most difficult to get as it requires you to be a jerk in ''every'' level.
* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' [[EndGameResultsScreen ranks you based on your completion percentage]] after beating the FinalBoss and getting to the credits. Finishing the game with under 50% completion has Peppino cheerily say "YOU SUCK!" with both thumbs up. It's actually pretty tough to get under 50% accidentally, you basically have to skip playing some levels, get a D grade on every level you do play, not find any secret rooms, and actively avoid collecting pick-ups beyond the bare minimum needed to unlock the boss fights (for the record, the absolute lowest percentage you could complete the game with is 37%).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'', it's possible to sing the first three Overseer songs at their respective Spirit World entrances before the Bard is supposed to learn them, [[SequenceBreaking skipping the first three acts of the game entirely]]. However, [[DevelopersForesight there's a catch if you do so]]: [[spoiler:Skipping the chapters means that the Bard never helps anybody in the first three acts nor do they really get to know [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Miriam]]. The result is a slightly different story wherein the story grinds to a halt after [[BigBad Audrey Redheart]] slays the Nightmare King, and without enough people to help them, the game ends on a DownerEnding wherein the Bard and Miriam can do nothing but sit there helplessly as the universe ends before the game smash-cuts to silent credits.]] It's worth pointing out that there is no in-game indication that this ending is even possible to get in the first place, meaning the only way to achieve it is to know about its existence ahead of time and then get it on purpose.

* In ''Disease hidden object'', the endings are sequential, and the good ending is a prerequisite for the worst one. The good ending requires finding hidden dolls in each of the areas and solving an extremely simple puzzle. The worst ending however requires doing that, and also finding a different hidden object in each area and solving a significantly harder final puzzle. Your reward for doing this is [[spoiler: the person you went to all the trouble to save sneaks away while you are asleep and goes on a murder rampage, killing anyone who is even remotely related to the people who imprisoned him, and then thanks you, the player for giving him the opportunity to do so.]]

** Repentance also has one of the most glaring examples in the fight against [[spoiler:Mother]]. To get to this ending you must go through all the alternate routes, collecting the first knife piece in Downpour/Dross, which requires using a particular flame that turns you into a ghost so you can go get it inside a mirror, and the second in Mines/Ashpit which requires pressing three switches in the level, taking you to a special place where you are stripped of all your equipment and have to go through a chase sequence. All of this to enter the secret boss fight with [[spoiler: Mom's Heart]] at the end of Mausoleum/Gehena, which opens the door to [[BrutalBonusLevel The Corpse]], where you get to finally reach [[spoiler:Mother]]. Your prize is to watch an ending that doesn't involve [[spoiler: the death of Isaac]], yet manages to be one of the [[TearJerker most depressing endings]] in the game.

* ZigZagged in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', as the DownerEnding is the only one available by default while the good ones are unlocked by performing certain questlines which you're likely to complete just playing the game normally. However, you have to actively ''try'' to lock yourself into a situation where failure is the only option.

** Later patches added in failure conditions for ByTheBookCop River Ward's storyline. If V declines to help him rescue his nephew from the SerialKiller's hideout, he ends up getting shredded by the automated defenses with both his sister and potentially Johnny giving you a WhatTheHellHero. If V doesn't put in enough effort to find clues, it's possible for the two to go to the wrong farm entirely and arrive too late to save Randy as a result. River's embittered by the whole situation and ends up getting arrested after a bar fight, begging V to bail him out during the end credits.

* The "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" quest of ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Dragon Age: Inquisition]]'' requires you to find a resolution to the conflict between Orlesian Empress Celene, her cousin Gaspard who is warring against her for the throne, and her elven spymaster Briala who is trying to win some power for the oppressed elves of Orlais. Forcing all three to reconcile their differences instead of choosing one side or the other is the most difficult ending to obtain, because it requires you to collect implicating evidence against all three of them ''and'' have sufficient approval with the court. However, the epilogue to the game implies that once you have beaten the BigBad, they just go right back to feuding, so you have solved nothing.

* The default ending of ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' is relatively upbeat, with a few other endings being considered even better for the world. The two endings which are completely bad requires one to actively go out of their way to achieve them. Their checklists both include following specific NPC questlines, going through a BrutalBonusLevel, and either completing an extensive scavenger hunt comprising all of the Lands Between, or beating a weaker version of a SuperBoss along with [[GuideDangIt solving a puzzle with some lateral thinking]] all within an optional room in said level. The quest-givers in both cases are also [[VillainsNeverLie completely honest about what their endings mean]], and in the case of one, your companion Melina will outright beg you to stop and argue that [[WorldHalfFull the world is half-full]] and doesn't deserve what you're going to do to it. If you talk to Shabriri or the Dung Eater and are unaware that they want very bad things for the Lands Between, you're either not paying attention to anything or your game has both the sound ''and'' subtitles turned off.

** Even without going the OmnicidalManiac route, making the Mojave the worst possible place to live requires some effort: sabotaging rockets to irradiate an area, dump some more radioactive materials on a Caesar's Legion base, leave your brain behind in ''Old World Blues'', finish ''Lonesome Road'' by nuking everyone, kill everyone in the Zion Valley (including MemeticBadass Joshua Graham), kill everyone in ''Dead Money'' (meaning no one will assist you in the end fight), raze a town full of friendly Super Mutants to the ground, get a pardon from the Legion, do their questline killing Caesar on the operating board pretending that it's not your fault so that Lanius gets promoted, and generally kill many minor factions. Many of these are legitimately impressive feats[[note]]notably, the aforementioned ''Lonesome Road'' basically consists in a single, difficult BonusDungeon serving as endgame content for high-level player characters. Completing it before getting the Legion pardon (a middle-game event from the main questline) is impressive because it requires the difficult feat of finishing it with a low-level character, or alternatively to grind until being ready for end-game content while actively avoiding the main quest.[[/note]].

** Minor example in the Festival of the Hunt in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX''. Zidane, Freya, Vivi, and a number of irrelevant [=NPCs=] compete in a monster hunt, with points scored for each victory. Zidane (who the player controls) winning nets you a decent pile of money for that point in the game, Freya winning nets you a nice equippable accessory, and Vivi winning nets you a nearly-worthless Tetra Master card. The only way for Vivi to win is if you get into a fight with Zaghnol (which sees Freya join the fight) and both Zidane and Freya are KO'd (Freya cannot be KO'd otherwise, and she is the default victor if Zidane doesn't score enough points or is KO'd anywhere else.)

* In ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'', achieving the worst ending where every child dies is arguably even more difficult than getting the GoldenEnding where EverybodyLives. The Soul Cannon lets you win boss fights in one shot, but using it actually weakens you in the long run, as it gradually deprives you of people to man your turrets as well as their special skills -- so while you can still beat bosses, actually ''getting to them'' becomes much more difficult, with the last few chapters leaving you with not enough people to even use all of your turrets.

---> '''[[spoiler: Sans]]:''' i know your type. you're, uh, very [[ArcWords determined]], aren't you? you'll never give up, even if there's, uh, absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever... no matter what, you'll just keep going. not out of [[BlueAndOrangeMorality any desire for good or evil]], but just [[TheUnfettered because you think you can]]. and because you "can"... you "have to".

* The Bad Ending in ''VideoGame/YsVIIILacrimosaOfDana'' can only be feasibly attained if you go out of you way to be a dick to everyone by treating them poorly, refusing their side quests, refusing to defend the village during monster attacks etc, and given how the rewards for doing all of this range from handy to downright crucial, it's almost impossible to get the Bad Ending unless you're actively hunting for it.

* In the Dynamix/Sierra game ''VideoGame/AlienLegacy'', there are multiple bad endings present in the game, from getting assassinated to everyone dying from the plague to the entire solar system blowing up. The earliest bad ending can be had by simply doing nothing for a long enough period of time at the very beginning of the game. The easiest way to do this is to send the CALYPSO to Cronus on a Probe mission and set game speed to max… and wait for your Science Officer to call you incompetent and take over.

** ''[[VideoGame/ZettaiHeroProject Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger Vs. DarkDeath EvilMan]]'': After each chapter, the protagonist faces off against [=DarkDeath=] [=EvilMan=] in a one-on-one battle and gets his butt kicked. Beating him before getting the EleventhHourSuperPower (something that can only be done through ridiculous grinding or NewGamePlus abuse) will cause [[spoiler:a character from Disgaea to appear and destroy the Earth themselves in a cutscene. A different one appears for each chapter]].
** ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'' has the Demon Path, a full alternate VillainProtagonist storyline available on a NewGamePlus that pits you against much stronger enemies as you use Gig's powers to terrorise the world, and should you win the final battle, ends with you [[spoiler: causing the apocalypse [[ForTheEvulz for your own amusement]]]]. However, it has an even more apt example in the [[spoiler: Median]] ending, accessible only through buying a [[MoneySink ludicrously expensive]] item on at least your third playthrough. This allows you to [[spoiler: travel back in time to fight the legendary king Median and his armies at the peak of their power]], all of whom are easily thousands of levels above any enemy found in either storyline, including the {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s. If you do manage to come out on top, you'll learn that [[spoiler: you're now trapped in the past with no way of returning to your own time, and to twist the knife further, both you and Gig die of illness shortly after]].

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' games are famous for this. You have to go through a lot of trouble to get the extra endings, which vary from {{Downer Ending}}s to the [[GainaxEnding outright bizarre.]]
* The normal ending of ''Videogame/SlenderTheArrival'' is abrupt and ambiguous. Finishing the game on hardcore adds an extra scene which seems to make it very clear your character does not survive. The Steam version of the game has an altogether different extended ending, although it's equally as dark.

** The first, in ''Justice for All'', is achieved if the player fails to convince Shelly de Killer that [[spoiler: Matt Engarde]] had betrayed him ([[spoiler: if he is convinced, he'll release Maya, whom he was holding hostage on Phoenix defending Matt]]), which results in the innocent Adrian Andrews being convicted in place of the real killer, and Phoenix giving up lawyering in despair. It also requires ignoring some fairly obvious hints that [[spoiler: the evidence you need was the videotape, because it contains the blackmail recording Matt made]], and/or presenting it to anyone ''other'' than the obvious obstacle in the way of the correct ending.

* In ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'', the [[EverybodyDiesEnding Annihilation route]] can be accessed on your first try, but you won't be allowed to complete it until [[OmegaEnding you've gone through every other possible ending]], and once you've gone through all ''those'' you'll finally be able to access the GoldenEnding which [[DownerEnding Annihilation]] directly ties into. If you're confused keep in mind this series [[CreatorThumbprint shares a creator with]] ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape''.

* The [[SoleSurvivor Sole Survivor]] ending of ''VisualNovel/FadingHearts'' takes a great many steps to take in order to acquire it that it's practically a GuideDangIt route in and of itself since the smallest misstep in major choice/possibility can result in not getting this elusive ending and instead getting either the Glitch, Death, or an ending in which Alex, Claire. and Ryou get free vacation tickets, and whilst enroute to their vacation destination they receive word via cell phone that their home city they were recently in a few hours ago was annihilated in a massive explosion. And getting it makes you wonder if it was really worth it, since after Ryou escapes he immediately feels a massive degree of [[SurvivorGuilt survivor's guilt]] with Claire dead, Alex being found dead clutching a mobile game device in his hand, and the obvious hint that Mystica is also most likely gone… [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]] possibly, especially given the prior events of Ryou refusing her letter earlier to meet with her as she needed vital assistance only he could provide. The aftermath concludes with Mimi and Alice, Mimi hit especially hard by it, and they even reach the deduction that the External Gazer ([[spoiler:You]]) '''wanted''' this to happen, which is pretty accurate when you think about it, especially those that enjoy such circumstances.

** The iOS version of the game instead has that choice lead to the otherwise unattainable Syringe ending, where said betrayal plus the fact his actions lead to the rest of the group [[spoiler: not discovering Snake's corpse until they come back, Clover concludes he committed the murder and tried to cover it up, jabs him with a sleeping drug and throws him in the flooded stairwell to drown.]]

--> '''Anthony''': [You had so many opportunities to prevent this outcome. You could have left me alone in the Dungeon, but no. You could have treated me with dignity, but no. You could have taken my bargain when it was offered, but no. You're going to get the bad ending that you worked so hard to achieve.]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', God Tier players cannot permanently die unless their death is either "Heroic" or "Just". The former is a HeroicSacrifice. The latter? [[spoiler:You have to die in the middle of doing something with horrific consequences which only your death will prevent, generally by unleashing something terrible on your co-players which your own divine power cannot stop. You also have to actually reach God Tier, a major feat in and of itself since it requires dying in a very specific location.]] You pretty much have to be trying to be a game-ending asshole to earn a Just death. [[spoiler: Or, of course, BrainwashedAndCrazy.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac''[='=]s standard ending isn't particularly happy ([[spoiler:or at least it is at first, until it's revealed that it was AllJustADream, and Mom is still hunting down Isaac]]), but some of the endings you get for progressing even further in the game get even worse. Some of the items you obtain after beating [[WombLevel The Womb]] come with cutscenes like [[spoiler:finding a rope in a chest and hanging yourself with it, transforming into a demon, and having Mom's hand bursting out of the chest and dragging Isaac into it]]. Beating [[BonusDungeon Sheol, the Cathedral, or The Chest]] each comes with their own unique bad endings. ''[[UpdatedRerelease Rebirth]]'' ups the number of bad things that happens to Isaac when he obtains an item from the chest in The Womb, and adds two more unique bad endings (both requiring the clearing of even more {{Bonus Dungeon}}s and {{Optional Boss}}es than the previous endings). Its expansion, ''Afterbirth'', adds two more. The expansion to ''that'', ''Afterbirth+'', adds another two — including the Final Ending revealing that [[spoiler:nothing in the game actually happened — it was all Isaac's DyingDream]]. ''Repentance'' finally, '''finally''' averts this, with the true final ending where [[spoiler:nothing in the game actually happened — it was all just Isaac and his dad making up a story]] being either a BittersweetEnding or an outright happy ending depending on your interpretation.
** WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:the events of the ending still happened--his dad talking to him is his dying dream, making it still a bad ending.]]

** The remake keeps Chris' situation with Rebecca the same, but getting Barry killed in order to set up for the bad ending is easier. When Jill steals Barry's gun and questions his motives, Lisa appears and Barry will demand his gun back. Answer no and you get to watch Lisa smack Barry off the edge and into the abyss below. Barry can still get smacked off the edge during the boss fight, even if you give him the gun back. (The same can happen to Wesker if you're playing as Chris, but he shrugs it off and still shows up in the finale.)

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' already has a pretty depressing ending, but the unlockable "paradox endings" [[spoiler:are even worse, ranging from Noel and Serah dying in an impossible battle against an army of Atlases, to inadvertently causing a TimeCrash even worse than the one Caius was trying to pull off]]. And to top it off? Collecting all 160 fragments (which includes completing all 12 of the paradox endings) unlocks a bonus scene where [[spoiler:Caius Ballad reveals that you've played right into his hands and that your actions have brought an end to all possible timelines. Oops]].

* In ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'', achieving the worst ending where every child dies is arguably even more difficult than getting the GoldenEnding where EverybodyLives. The Soul Cannon lets you win boss fights in one shot, but using it actually weakens you in the long run, as it gradually deprives you of people to man your turrets as well as their special skills -- so while you can still beat bosses, actually ''getting to them'' becomes much more difficult, with the last few chapters leaving you with not enough people to even use all of your turrets.

* Although many of the endings in the ''VideoGame/OgreBattle'' series can hardly be said to be "good" endings, it's safe to say that some bad endings are much harder to find than others. ''Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis'' is particularly infamous, as it takes a speed run to receive the secret ending, [[spoiler:showing you set Golyat ablaze in the opening of the original ''Tactics Ogre'']].

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX3'' has two endings, one slightly worse than the other: either [[spoiler:Zero steps in to save X from Virus Sigma after Kaiser Sigma is defeated and stands with him in the ending shot, or the reformed Dr. Doppler [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] to destroy Virus Sigma, with X being alone in the ending]]. Which ending you get depends on whether or not Zero lost all of his health while playing as him throughout the game, which isn't hard to affect. However, if you follow the secret path to get the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Z-Saber]] for X (requiring you kill Vile Mk. II with his weakness by finding him early via one of the game's hidden teleporters, then swap to Zero in the second Doppler stage to kill a new mid-boss that appears, even though Zero normally can't fight bosses), then you're unavoidably locked into the bad ending, since Zero gets injured at the last stretch of the game and hands the Z-Saber to X.

* While none of the endings in ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' [[DownerEnding could be considered good]], three of them come from the game's epilogue. The best ending happens if you [[spoiler:surrender to the rescue squad]], while the other two happen if you [[spoiler:try to kill them instead. One happens if you die, and the ending in question happens if you manage to kill them all]].

* In the Fighting Fantasy book ''Literature/LegendOftheShadowWarriors'', defeating the Big Bad in combat is far more difficult than purifying him. It is also utterly futile and will lead to an ending where the book mocks your efforts and the forces of death win.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac''[='=]s standard ending isn't particularly happy ([[spoiler:or at least it is at first, until it's revealed that it was AllJustADream, and Mom is still hunting down Isaac]]), but some of the endings you get for progressing even further in the game get even worse. Some of the items you obtain after beating [[WombLevel The Womb]] come with cutscenes like [[spoiler:finding a rope in a chest and hanging yourself with it, transforming into a demon, and having Mom's hand bursting out of the chest and dragging Isaac into it]]. Beating [[BonusDungeon Sheol, the Cathedral, or The Chest]] each comes with their own unique bad endings. ''[[UpdatedRerelease Rebirth]]'' ups the number of bad things that happens to Isaac when he obtains an item from the chest in The Womb, and adds two more unique bad endings (both requiring the clearing of even more {{Bonus Dungeon}}s and {{Bonus Boss}}es than the previous endings). Its expansion, ''Afterbirth'', adds two more. The expansion to ''that'', ''Afterbirth+'', adds another two — including the Final Ending revealing that [[spoiler:nothing in the game actually happened — it was all Isaac's DyingDream]]. ''Repentance'' finally, '''finally''' averts this, with the true final ending where [[spoiler:nothing in the game actually happened — it was all just Isaac and his dad making up a story]] being either a BittersweetEnding or an outright happy ending depending on your interpretation.

** There is a joke ending that isn't considered canon (relative to the rest of the series) by its creator. In the original version, the player had to find an out-of-place secret doorway and then fight an extremely hard BonusBoss. In newer versions, this was changed; now the player must either win the HopelessBossFight in Chapter 3 (believed to be impossible) or defeat the FinalBoss with brute strength (which actually is impossible within canon, but is possible, although brutally difficult, in this fangame).

* If the player completes ''VideoGame/FaithTheUnholyTrinity'''s second chapter without completing any optional objectives, they get ''Ending I: Go Forth With [[TitleDrop Faith]]'', which sets up a SequelHook regarding the summoning of a powerful demon that the protagonist must stop. If the player does at most two of [[spoiler:creating a pentagram of blood in the woods where you start the game, sacrificing a child to a demon in the confessional booth in the abandoned church, or killing the couple on the bridge near "Candy Tunnel" while turned into a demon]], they get ''Ending II: Road to Redemption'', which is similar to Ending I but with the implication that [[spoiler:the protagonist has been partly corrupted by the Satanic cult and that the cult is stalking him to finish the job]]. If the player does ''all three'' of the above, they get ''Ending III: Initiation'', in which [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins the cult successfully corrupts the protagonist]] and gets a demon to possess him]]. Note that the first two prerequisites to Ending III require the player to fight two [[BonusBoss optional bosses]], and the third prerequisite to Ending III is [[GuideDangIt rather counter-intuitive]]. [[labelnote:Explanation]][[spoiler:During the sequence where you are turned into a demon, you have to enter the screen with the couple on the bridge, but go back the way you came (instead of going under the bridge and turning back into a human) and climb the wall that you can't climb as a human. Then, you have to kill both members of the couple on the bridge; if one of them gets away, it doesn't count.]][[/labelnote]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' has a secret equivalent of ''Undertale'''s Genocide Route in Chapter 2, but it's much more difficult to undertake than the one in ''Undertale'', requiring specific character interactions, significant backtracking, buying and equipping a special (very expensive) item, and only using one attack repeatedly in every battle, on top of being a tedious grind and causing the otherwise [[DenserAndWackier mostly whimsical and goofy story]] to do a 180 into NightmareFuel territory and [[PyrrhicVictory end on a very sour note]] wherein the day is saved but [[spoiler:one major character is heavily implied to be dead and another major character (the one who killed them at [[YouBastard the player's]] insistence) is irreparably scarred for life by the whole experience]]. The use of a guide is basically mandatory to get it right, since it's virtually impossible to stumble into it accidentally and very easy to mess up (because you can't normally kill enemies in battle and it requires numerous decisions which are not possible in a standard play-through).

* Some of the endings in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' qualify, given that most of them are nearly impossible to get without a NewGamePlus.
** Ditto ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', with the standout bad ending being [[spoiler:the Dragons deciding to KillAllHumans]].

* ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'': The worst possible ending requires all three Player Characters to be killed off before "Battle of Detroit", which is especially hard to do in Connor's case given his repeated use of a BodyBackupDrive throughout the game; Connor essentially has to fail at finding Jericho so thoroughly that [[spoiler:he's decommissioned by Cyberlife]]. [[spoiler:This causes a NonStandardGameOver where the android uprising collapses, androids are reprogrammed with fail-safes to prevent any future deviants, and Elijah Kamski gives an interview about the dangers of his creation.]]

* The [[spoiler:Accomplice Ending]] in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}: [[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'' requires you to [[spoiler:not only rise Adachi's Social Link to as high as possible before a specific date(specifically Rank 6 by November 5; the remaining ranks are done in story scenes if you get that far), but also choose a specific set of answers where [[WhatTheHellHero even the villain doesn't believe how stupid you are for actually doing that]]. To be specific, you have to choose Adachi as the culprit, which is the correct choice, then choose to protect him.]]
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' handles death in an… unusual fashion; every time your player character dies, he comes back to life (both in-story and in terms of gameplay). There are, however, a few ways to get a GameOver, but most require doing something '''[[ViolationOfCommonSense stupid]]'''. Some ''Torment'' fans make a point of finding everyone. Some of the possible ways to lose the game for real: