Often, what seems like the perfect, happy ending in a game can actually lead to the worst outcome. Some games cleverly disguise negative consequences within romantic storylines, where choosing the obvious romantic path – or making what feels like the right choice in a key moment – can secretly steer you towards a bad ending, a tougher penalty, or a path the game considers a mistake.
Far Cry 3
In Ubisoft Montreal’s open-world shooter, players face a critical decision: stay loyal to their friends or give in to the influence of the Citra cult. Choosing to side with Citra seems like a romantic path, but it ultimately leads to betrayal and the protagonist’s death in a ritualistic sacrifice, triggering the game’s credits. While rejecting Citra saves the protagonist and their friends and allows the story to continue, pursuing the romance still results in a negative ending.
Dark Souls III
The dark fantasy RPG from FromSoftware (published by Bandai Namco) features a hidden, unsettling ritual resembling a marriage with the character Anri of Astora. This involves using the Sword of Avowal to stab them within a tomb, and it’s a crucial step for achieving the ‘Lord of Hollows’ ending – a powerful but ethically questionable outcome. Details about this quest and its consequences can be found on various wikis and guides.
Silent Hill 2
In Konami’s original Silent Hill, the ending where you escape with Maria instead of being haunted by your deceased wife depends on how much care you show her throughout the game. Paying attention to Maria’s well-being leads to this finale, which is often seen as a sign of James’s emotional breakdown. The game’s creators cleverly tracked small actions, like checking on Maria or allowing her to get hurt, to guide players toward this outcome. Guides from the game’s release, and official PlayStation information, identified fulfilling Maria’s needs as the path most players consider the ‘wrong’ emotional choice.
Doki Doki Literature Club!
Team Salvato’s game begins like a typical dating simulator, but quickly subverts that expectation. Instead of finding romance by pursuing different characters, players who try to follow those paths encounter disturbing events, psychological breakdowns, and even character deaths. The game is designed to punish players for seeking a traditional romantic outcome, replacing happy endings with a meta-horror experience. Both official guides and player discussions consistently point to the romantic setup as a deliberate lure leading to these negative consequences.
Catherine / Catherine: Full Body
The game Catherine features several different endings, ranging from positive to negative, depending on your choices. These include clearly labeled “Bad” endings that are directly linked to your relationship with either Katherine, the traditional girlfriend, or Catherine, the succubus. Even choosing the seemingly safe and stable path with Katherine can lead to a bad ending if you’re dishonest or avoid commitment, which is a surprising twist on the usual successful relationship outcome. Detailed guides and wikis document these specific, romance-related bad endings.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
In Ubisoft Quebec’s role-playing game, players can develop a romantic relationship with Daphnae, a member of the Daughters of Artemis. However, completing her storyline leads to a fatal duel after the romance blossoms, resulting in a tragic end for her character. Ubisoft intentionally designed this quest as a test of the player’s morals – players are encouraged to complete her tasks, accept her conditions, and then witness their love interest’s unavoidable death. Online guides confirm that choosing to pursue the romance guarantees this outcome.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
In Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, if you pursue a romantic relationship with Randvi before she and Sigurd separate, it negatively impacts how Sigurd views you. Accumulate enough of these actions, and you’ll receive a less favorable ending when you return to Norway. The game keeps track of these choices, meaning romancing Randvi at the wrong moment can lead to a worse outcome. Ubisoft’s official help resources and player guides both confirm that this romance affects the game’s ending.
Alpha Protocol
In Obsidian’s spy RPG, published by SEGA, a romantic relationship with Madison Saint James in Rome leads to a tragic outcome: she dies in a museum bombing. This event significantly impacts the game’s story and future choices. Players can find detailed information online about how this romance path unlocks this specific, unhappy ending, while pursuing a non-romantic route avoids this fate.
School Days (visual novel)
Overflow’s visual novel is well-known for its dark endings in several romance paths. These ‘bad ends’ can be quite graphic, with some storylines involving jealousy escalating into murder and violence. Specifically, pursuing or attempting to balance relationships with certain characters can lead to these infamous outcomes, which have been thoroughly documented by both the developers and fans on wikis across different versions of the game.
Saya no Uta (The Song of Saya)
The horror visual novel from Nitroplus depicts a direct relationship between Fuminori and Saya, which, based on player choices, can lead to either worldwide infection or complete destruction—suggesting that love itself can be a source of disaster. The game’s ‘romantic’ route specifically results in either a global outbreak of spores or the death of both characters, both presented as negative and frightening outcomes. Official descriptions and player guides clearly explain the three possible endings and how choices affecting the relationship lead to the most disastrous results.
The House in Fata Morgana
Novectacle’s gothic visual novel (brought to English by MangaGamer) features several chapters where pursuing straight romances incorrectly leads to unhappy endings and stops the story. This design deliberately uses wrong choices in love to lock players onto tragic paths, preventing them from reaching the true ending. Online discussions and guides point out that many choices are specifically there to create these failed romantic outcomes.
Hatoful Boyfriend
Okay, so I’m totally obsessed with this game! It started with PigeoNation, but Mediatonic and Devolver Digital released it as this hilarious dating sim. What’s really wild is it has a secret ‘Bad Boys’ Love’ route, and some pretty dark endings. Seriously, if you go for certain guys – like the school doctor – on a straight path, things can end badly, like, murder bad! Once you finish the normal romances, it unlocks this whole other, darker story that makes you look at everything differently. The community has made awesome guides showing exactly how to trigger these crazy endings, it’s wild!
Katawa Shoujo
Four Leaf Studios’ visual novels feature different endings for each character – good, neutral, or bad – and making the wrong romantic choice can ruin a relationship. Some characters (like Hanako, Rin, and Shizune) have straightforward bad endings triggered by specific dialogue options. Online guides detail exactly which choices lead to these failures, helping players avoid them.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
In BioWare’s role-playing game (published by LucasArts), a male player character, Revan, can develop a romantic relationship with Bastila. If the player chooses the dark side towards the end of the game, Bastila will join them, and together they’ll take control of the Star Forge. This results in a definitively evil outcome for the galaxy. While the pair end up together, it’s not a positive resolution – it’s essentially a villainous, empire-building conclusion. Both official game information and player discussions confirm that Bastila sides with the dark side and that a romantic relationship is possible in this scenario.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
In CD Projekt RED’s game, Geralt can have straightforward romantic relationships. However, trying to romance both Triss and Yennefer will lead to a negative outcome where you end up losing both of them. Additionally, if you sleep with Keira Metz and then allow her to go to Radovid, she will be publicly executed, resulting in a tragic end for her character. These consequences are well-documented in official game wikis and guides.
If you’ve experienced the pain of connecting with someone only to face heartbreak, share your story in the comments below! Tell us what happened.
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2025-12-08 08:46