Something I've noticed about a lot of the narratives in this game is that not many of them actually feel like they have a proper resolution. Half the time, after finishing a quest, I was just left standing on the street thinking "...is that it?". Which is a real shame, because I think a lot of the quest storylines are so close to being great, and then they just fall short at the last minute.
To give some examples...
- Dream On: You uncover the big conspiracy and get the choice to either keep Jefferson in the dark or tell him the truth, and it seems like it's building up to be an important choice that could mean life-or-death for him and his wife... but then the quest just ends. The only thing your choice affects is the call you get from Jefferson in the credits, and even then there's no real resolution. I don't mind leaving some things ambiguous, but when you leave this many unanswered questions in one quest...
- Sinnerman (& associated quests): You spend the entire questline talking vague philosophy for a while with Joshua, and the game implies to you that your conversations with him might have some kind of an impact on his decision at the end. They don't. Either way, he gets crucified, and absolutely nothing happens afterward. This quest basically turns you into a passenger while the game tells the story it wants to tell, which would be tolerable if the story in question actually went somewhere. It doesn't, so it just ends up feeling like a huge waste of time.
Alternatively, If you carry out the hit job on Joshua as planned (which the game REALLY tries to force you not to - shouldn't it be encouraging player choice?), you get to make a pretty satisfying call to Wakako in which she congratulates you for your professionalism. At least here, you actually get an ending. But again, there are no real consequences here, and no matter what you do, the client can't be saved. Oh well, I guess?
- Happy Together: If you get the good ending, the cops reconcile with Barry. If you get the bad ending, he dies. Either way, he disappears from the game and you can never interact with him again.
- Violence: The definition of a zero-sum quest. Lizzy Wizzy murders her boyfriend and then NOTHING. HAPPENS. AFTERWARD. Literally just an excuse to put Grimes in the game.
- Heroes: Jackie's Ofrenda is sweet, but after it's done you get the option to talk to a few people (extremely briefly) and then the game just expects you to take the Irish Exit - you just leave early without saying goodbye to anyone. The same happens at the end of the Samurai gig in A Like Supreme, you talk to Kerry for a minute and then you just leave. No after party with the rest of the band or anything. These are only minor complaints but they still felt a little jarring.
- ALL the romances basically hit a dead end after their respective sex scenes. You can call in at Judy's, but only say the same two things to her. You can't do anything with River after his quests. I haven't done Kerry's but I hear it's much the same. Panam, admittedly, gets some extra content if you go for the Nomad ending, but otherwise you can't really spend any time with her.
- On the topic of Judy, the whole debacle with Clouds feels like a total waste of time and effort. Judy's plan backfires and Clouds goes to shit... fine, I didn't really expect it to all go peachy. But this is all relayed through dialogue with Judy and you never get to see any of it, or speak to the survivors, or get revenge on the Tiger Claws. The game kinda acts like sleeping with Judy is your reward for the quest and that you shouldn't care about Clouds anymore after that.
- The entirety of the main quest. I won't go into why the endings are so disappointing, since there's already an 800-page thread on that topic - which speaks for itself, really. All I'll say is that there is no point of offering multiple endings if they're all just going to effectively reach the same conclusion. Even the "secret" ending doesn't actually change anything!
Any other quests or plot threads that you felt didn't go anywhere?
To give some examples...
- Dream On: You uncover the big conspiracy and get the choice to either keep Jefferson in the dark or tell him the truth, and it seems like it's building up to be an important choice that could mean life-or-death for him and his wife... but then the quest just ends. The only thing your choice affects is the call you get from Jefferson in the credits, and even then there's no real resolution. I don't mind leaving some things ambiguous, but when you leave this many unanswered questions in one quest...
- Sinnerman (& associated quests): You spend the entire questline talking vague philosophy for a while with Joshua, and the game implies to you that your conversations with him might have some kind of an impact on his decision at the end. They don't. Either way, he gets crucified, and absolutely nothing happens afterward. This quest basically turns you into a passenger while the game tells the story it wants to tell, which would be tolerable if the story in question actually went somewhere. It doesn't, so it just ends up feeling like a huge waste of time.
Alternatively, If you carry out the hit job on Joshua as planned (which the game REALLY tries to force you not to - shouldn't it be encouraging player choice?), you get to make a pretty satisfying call to Wakako in which she congratulates you for your professionalism. At least here, you actually get an ending. But again, there are no real consequences here, and no matter what you do, the client can't be saved. Oh well, I guess?
- Happy Together: If you get the good ending, the cops reconcile with Barry. If you get the bad ending, he dies. Either way, he disappears from the game and you can never interact with him again.
- Violence: The definition of a zero-sum quest. Lizzy Wizzy murders her boyfriend and then NOTHING. HAPPENS. AFTERWARD. Literally just an excuse to put Grimes in the game.
- Heroes: Jackie's Ofrenda is sweet, but after it's done you get the option to talk to a few people (extremely briefly) and then the game just expects you to take the Irish Exit - you just leave early without saying goodbye to anyone. The same happens at the end of the Samurai gig in A Like Supreme, you talk to Kerry for a minute and then you just leave. No after party with the rest of the band or anything. These are only minor complaints but they still felt a little jarring.
- ALL the romances basically hit a dead end after their respective sex scenes. You can call in at Judy's, but only say the same two things to her. You can't do anything with River after his quests. I haven't done Kerry's but I hear it's much the same. Panam, admittedly, gets some extra content if you go for the Nomad ending, but otherwise you can't really spend any time with her.
- On the topic of Judy, the whole debacle with Clouds feels like a total waste of time and effort. Judy's plan backfires and Clouds goes to shit... fine, I didn't really expect it to all go peachy. But this is all relayed through dialogue with Judy and you never get to see any of it, or speak to the survivors, or get revenge on the Tiger Claws. The game kinda acts like sleeping with Judy is your reward for the quest and that you shouldn't care about Clouds anymore after that.
- The entirety of the main quest. I won't go into why the endings are so disappointing, since there's already an 800-page thread on that topic - which speaks for itself, really. All I'll say is that there is no point of offering multiple endings if they're all just going to effectively reach the same conclusion. Even the "secret" ending doesn't actually change anything!
Any other quests or plot threads that you felt didn't go anywhere?