According to Ed Annunziata, the Ecco's game creator, that game ending was meant that way because it was planned a third Ecco game, where he'd travel to Atlantis at the time they were fighting Vortex and would help them win, defeating the Vortexkind there. Unfortunately, that game never hapened.
That larva is in fact meant to be the vortex queen. The larva is programmed to loop around areas, so the reason there's multiple is to give the allusion of you and her racing for the time machine.
I also found this ending to be sad and creepy when I was younger. I always figured it was a setup for the plot of Ecco 3 that never materialized - I think Ed Annunziata said Ecco was going to go back and visit the ancient Atlanteans in an interview somewhere, but nothing came of it. I always thought it was a shame that Ecco didn't get to have the life of triumph and relaxation that he earned after saving the world twice. I had a headcanon that the Queen's progeny eventually became crustaceans, which is why the crabs in the first game are so obnoxious to fight off - they have some sort of ancestral memory of "dolphin = threat" and go berserk trying to get rid of Ecco as soon as they see him. That might just be me trying to excuse my skill issue, though!
I know this vid was mostly about Ecco, but you really hit the nail on the head with the Mt Silver point. I really feel this in my soul! Everything about it just gives you this feeling of “why am I doing this?” and a bit of emptiness even… (but I mean it in a good way, somehow) The atmosphere of the area feels lifeless, like people used to live here but it got taken over by the strong Pokemon. The remakes are especially strong here with the wind blowing at the summit, and the long, winding path. You’d be travelling up it thinking “wow this goes so far up. Is the reward even worth it?” Then the wordless exchange, a battle with unreal levels compared to what came before, and an abrupt return down the mountain. I actually find that last part so interesting. Every major battle in a game would typically lead to more content, as though the following events are just as canonical as the ones before. But Red doesn’t do that. Beating him isn’t really that functionally different from losing to him (well lost money aside, but that could have happened from even a wild battle). There’s really no canonical winner. It becomes a personal goal. The game doesn’t care if you beat him or not. You’re doing this for yourself.
For the whole blowing wind making the ending seem creepier, it just makes me think of the Armageddon ending in Live a Live, with how the music grows quieter, then the bell is quieter, then it's just the wind, then nothing. Wind is just a pretty eerie sound.
Getting more characterization from Red in later games lessens the creepy factor of the encounter for me. Masters establishes that he goes super hard on trainers because he wants to teach them that losing isn't the end of the world. And his silent treatment is apparently because the bond he has with his pokemon is so strong he doesn't even need to speak for them to understand him.
Here I am imagining the Asterite doing an Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith. "You were the chosen one, Ecco! You were supposed to destroy the time machine, not use it!"
This is why fan games are made, when the devs give their characters these cliffhanger endings. This is one of those games where as a kid, I would have been surprised to play as something other than a humanoid character.
Red getting clowned on by blue for being quiet in later games is funny at least I saw him not speaking as a way to show he knows why you are here and there is no need for words just action. You can't accidentally stumble across mt silver
I 100% get this. It's also the kind of thing that raises a thousand questions. Why did Ecco go against the Asterite and not destroy the time machine? Did he know something the Asterite didn't? What if it's been evil all along? I was expecting you to reload and try nose bashing the machine instead of using your sonar. The fact that the game just silently continues *after* the supposed ending is also weird as hell. I can't think of any other games that have done that.
Now that I think about it, judging by epilogue, it looks like Vortex Queen got to the Time Machine first, and Ecco just had to follow her. The part with Time Machine is a cutscene, I think, so you as a player can't do anything about it. Also, Might&Magic RPG games, usually continue after main quest line is completed, as a semi-meta form of "life doesn't end after adventure.", also without much fanfare.
I might be wrong, but the way I interpret some of the epilogue crawl is that Ecco goes off on a one-way trip to the past to stop the Vortex Queen since he destroyed the time machine (I think). And knowing that Ecco does it for the greater good at the cost of his chance to live peacefully with his pod is probably the sad part to me. Plus, it doesn't really feel like a win - it's more like knowing the horrible truth to something you thought was true in another way. Unrelated note, glad to see you still trucking Git.
As frustrating as this game could be at times, I can definitely appreciate the atmosphere, visuals, and music. Especially impressive for a Genesis game.
3:37 I think something similar happened in the JP version of Ecco I. In the final boss in the JP version, if the Vortex Queen eats you, you get taken to an easier and NOT auto-scrolling version of the Machine called "The Stomach", while the US/EU versions just take you back to The Machine. Shit. (Note: the JP Machine has 3 checkpoint glyphs! Nice! The downside: this is ONLY in the JP version.) I got this from the tCRF (The Cutting Room Floor) page for that game.
The real oddball is that those mechanical jellyfish never appear outside of those levels, which would've believed that these were recently created for the Vortex Queen to use...
Honestly, I just miss these early, formative gaming years in general. The technology was limited and it forced game developers to get creative with how they used it. I'm still impressed that Nintendo and Game Freak managed to stuff nearly all of Kanto (with cuts, of course) into the same cartridge that contained all of Pokemon Crystal. Fast forward to the present and the average game now wants 150-200GB of storage despite not looking that much better than games that only need 30-50GB. I wouldn't mind going back to Xbox 360 era graphics if it meant one game didn't eat up nearly half my storage space.
It was a great time, but sadly, games are incredibly expensive to make, and the competition is plentiful and fierce, which doesn’t allow for as much creativity
In FFIX, I always wondered if Terra would have still assimilated Gaia anyway after everything that happened with Necron appearimg after their crystal was blown away by Kuja. You know sometimes the endings were done so over the top in happiness, that the plot could have twisted again at some point during or some time after.
Ecco's entire vibe is creepy, which is why I've never really been enthused about trying out the games. There's actually another game that has an issue like this - a modern indie game called Aquaria. It's also set in a vast ocean, albeit a more fantastic one, but after you complete the game, you also get a short stinger sequence which envelops the main character, and leads to a scene afterwards that hints at the story not really being over. Which was supposed to lead into a planned sequel...that never actually materialized. And really, I think it's the exact same issue in both cases - they're outright telling you "this story isn't actually over", but the next part of the story was never told, so for all intents and purposes that's where we're left - with the hero having experienced a fate that denies them, and us, resolution forevermore. It twigs a primal fear that we have done something wrong that never can be set right, and we'll never be able to fix it. Red's battle in the Johto games doesn't quite have that same issue, but I do think it's a little unsettling in other ways. One, it's weird seeing a 'protagonist's experience' from the outside - Red just vanishing like that is akin to what must happen when YOU lose a battle - i.e. "you blacked out" and wake up back at your last Pokémon Center/heal point (admittedly I've blacked out few enough times that I don't really know the mechanics that well). But two, the way it's done gives an eerie sense of lack of accomplishment - you've just beaten the most powerful trainer you can come across, and it ends up feeling hollow because there's no real reward to it - not even words of congratulations. (End credits don't count.) It might sort of reflect how Red got there in the first place, maybe just there to train because his life doesn't have any other meaning...it makes you wonder about the whole "becoming the best" idea and whether it truly brings satisfaction, or just obsession. You can wonder that about a lot of Pokémon games, really, since usually the eventual goal is beating the champion, nothing really deeper than that - all the rest of the stuff in the story ends up more or less being sidequest. Two very notable exceptions are Black/White, where the climax of the story proper has you taking on the apex of the game's antagonist team, and Scarlet/Violet, where the whole gym challenge is just one plot thread taking you towards the final chapter. And I consider those two to have the strongest stories of the core games.
I had the exact same feeling with the ending being such a downer, and thought I'd done something wrong when I failed to destroy the time machine with the sonar blast. I always wondered if I should have empowered it with a charge thrust first, or just nose butted it into oblivion, but I could never bring myself to face those levels again. The Vortex Larva in particular creeped me out way too much to go back.
I remember playing this when I was super young like low single digits because older siblings had it. I couldnt make it ANYWHERE, like most games i would play until I figured it out. But this was basically a game I messed around with for 20 mins on the first screen and gave up everytime. I literally thought it was just a game about a dolphin swimming and jumping around. I didn't learn until MUCH later (honestly probably your video about the first one) that this series had fantastical elements. Imagine how shocked and horrified I was to finally see the final boss of the first game. Hearing the synopsis about a dolphin saving his pod from aliens and time traveling just messes me up 😂.
This ending is really fascinating to me, I wasn't expecting it to go in the way that it did. The Vortex Queen's fate is really interesting too, who knows how much the ocean itself has integrated with the unusual characteristics of the queen herself? Possibly not to the point of harm, but in sync. I'll definitely be thinking about this for a time. Thanks for the video!
This game terrified me as a child at the same time that it fascinated me and I loved it ❤️ I always loved the ocean, it is like a landscape from another world, eerie and beautiful, and this game perfectly nails that feeling with a sci-fi touch that suits it very well. I love when weird but creative concepts like this come up. but bro, it was difficult as hell Dx
I remember seeing a year or two ago some guy suggesting that the Vortex Queen, integrating herself with the life on Earth in the past, eventually evolved into humans, and therefore Atlanteans. The same who were fighting a losing war against the Vortex aliens in the far future.
I'm surprised these games haven't had a re-release or modern sequel. People love dolphins. They're beautiful. I can remember a few games like Ninja Warriors where the protagonist has to die or sacrifice themselves after defeating the main enemy, but this doesn't sound like there was any particular reason for it. Maybe Ecco was being kept on standby in case something like this ever happens again, in any time period? He's the timeless hero the ocean deserves.
Wonderful job at keeping the atmosphere within the video itself! The no text for the entire ending sequence was a great creeepy touch. (Also, I was expecting it to be a bad ending involving the secret password because I didn't know how the password system worked, so I was surprised too)
I thought you were going to touch upon using cheats in the game and getting the "Next time play without using Cheats" message. Even when i was older that scared the crap out of me. Unexpected 4th Wall breaks like that make me very uneasy. But yeah, I definitely feel that the ending feels melancholic...especially with the music (though I very much like the soundtrack). Such a weird game.
@whoisthisgit it's all good. It wad a great episode and honestly the way you talk about how melancholy the soundtrack is definitely tracks. Like even the first stage song seems much darker that it's prequel. The game is pretty disturbing at times. Nice analysis.
that bad future looks really dreamlike to me, maybe because i have had 2 separate dreams involving just going around in tubes (no idea either) anyways what a depressing song and ending jesus
Ecco's epilogue goes extra weird-creepy, once you think, that it's mostly about Vortex Queen. It's probably just me, but I see this as an antipode to final episodes of Gulliver Boy anime - they give a closure to some minor plot points, but mostly are means of saying farewell to heroes. Episodes are extra upbeat and comedic. This one instead give a form of closure to Vortex Queen, and extra sad and somber in atmosphere. It's almost like an entire game was about her and not Ecco...
I agree with the music, both this and the first game have a melancholy but also mystical feel. I think that combined with the graphics and the sea theme make it a bizzare trip. The way the ending is handled is also really weird! You're not the only one who finds it creepy.
honestly i agree with you on the ecco games having a melancholic atmosphere. the graphics help a lot oddly enough, the semi-realistic artstyle kinda amplifies it
The original series sorta ends there. If there was a third game planned, it didn't get made. The Dreamcast game is not connected to this story as it's a reboot where the Asterite is replaced with 'The Guardian' and the Vortex replaced by 'The Foe'
This game ending where Ecco disappears into the time machine may look like a bad ending on the surface, but it is 100% Hero's Journey archetype. Once the hero completes the journey and achieves the set goal after journeying into a new world, the hero becomes a master of two worlds, and even after returning, may disappear forever again into the unknown, since the hero despite journeying back into the familiar world where he or she came from, no longer is anchored into the previous reality of his or her home and has become as mythical as the challenge faced by the hero. It is pretty much what happens to Ecco at the end of this game.
For a game about a dolphin with star scars on his head, it's definitely got many, MANY disturbing moments. Ecco 1 & Ecco 2: Tides of Time, as well as the Defender of the Future has a LOT of Creepy Moments series material: Ecco 1: The waterspout/storm, the entire Vortex levels & music that goes with them, how Ecco defeats the Vortex Queen, the fact that Ecco can be eaten & digested alive by the Vortex Queen, & the fact she has already EATEN his pod beforehand, meaning if Ecco hadn't been there, or fast enough, they'd be digested by the Vortex Queen. Ecco 2: Fault Zone when Ecco loses his powers & can now drown, the entire Sea of Darkness level, the cutscene with the Vortex Queen curb-stomping the Asterite, Ecco potentially being eaten alive by the Vortex Queen (again) & going to that creepy level, nearly being ripped apart by your felliw dolphin allies in Fish City as a school of fish, & the bad future. Ecco: Defender of the Future: The Great White Shark boss that can instantly eat Ecco, the two giant eels in Four Ways of Mystery & Roaring Forces that can instantly eat Ecco. Then there's the bad futures: - Man's Nightmare (a dystopia where dolphins are slaves & have visible wounds on them, a baby dolphin being excited to do mining & they're possibly extinct in the wild & the ocean is full of pollution) - Dolphin's Nightmare (a future with literal N*zi Dolphins trying to kill off any dolphins that are different from them. Need I say more? No? Oh, they also use whales as batteries for machines & their bones as houses) - Domain of the For (the bad guys win & now the ocean is filled with parasitic aliens that can leech air from Ecco, & spit acid, there's a giant terrifying Foe Queen that will try to eat Ecco using her tongue, & the foe larvae in The Hatchery level can pretty much instantly kill Ecco if they jump out of the eggs. Oh, & the way Ecco kills the Foe Queen is disturbing, especially Seeds of Poison & Heart of the Foe...) Ecco: Defenders of the Future is home to a Creepy Time Limit series entry, too: Heart of the Foe, the final boss. If Ecco doesn't stop the Foe Queen's heart on time, he literally drowns in acidic red alien blood.
Super interesting video, you're a natural storyteller. Maybe it's just me but I think the Sega mega drive soundfont makes soundtrack so eerie and scary. I had the same feeling with "Rolo to the rescue".
Personally, I find the the Ecco 2 ending interesting ---an ending so ambiguous. How many kids games would forego the happy ending/doing what the hero was told---and instead going for the main character just kinda peacing out, seemingly?
I don't know if you're taking requests or not, but on the offchance you do take ideas or suggestions from the comments, have you considered covering any of the Compile Heart/Idea Factory games, such as Hyperdimension Neptunia or better yet, Death end re;Quest? The bad ending for Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2/Sister's Generation (Conquest) completely turns an already rather dark game on its head and somehow turns it into nothing short of nightmare fuel with how intense it gets. (By contrast, the Holy Sword ending from Sister's Generation is a wonderful candidate for Lovely Good Endings, but I digress.) Death end re;Quest and its sequel are basically, I can't make this up, "Bad Endings: The Game" and "Bad Endings: The Game: The Sequel" given how a core mechanic of both entries is filling out the events log with *every possible outcome, including death ends*, and is practically required to get the final true endings in both entries. I'm not sure if I posted this on another video or not, but either way, I highly suggest you give them a look.
I don’t know if this is 100% true, but I’ve heard a third Ecco game explaining what happened after Tides Of Time was considered, but for whatever reason never made (Not counting Defender Of The Future) Considering Sega has been on a big push to revive lots of their classic IPs, maybe we should see this third game finally being a reality
I've heard that, aside the Sonic Paramount movies. SEGA haves the idea of making a Comix Zone, Space Channel 5 and Toejam & Earl movies, but that's the only thing i've knew since. If SEGA is still wanting to make movies of their other IP, damn, Ecco is the perfect fit. The melanchoy, dark, but beatiful world that haves would be more than perfect. Heck, maybe in that case the fable Ecco 3 would finally happen. It's unlikely to happen, but yeah, would be cool.
Tides of Time has one of the greatest endings of any game. The fact that the cliffhanger was never resolved has created a way cooler outcome. Ecco throwing himself into the Tides of Time and it being left ambiguous as to why he did it, or where it was going to throw him is cooler than anything they could have written to follow up on it. As much as I respect Ed Annuziata's determination to get the rights back and finish the story, I think it's be too long at this point, and fans have already come to adore the way the series ended.
I would like to introduce you to the Bobbit Worm and the Sea Angel which look similar to the two different stages of the Vortex Queen and the Sand Flea which looks similar to the standard Vortex Aliens.
Was the Bobbit Worm the final boss in Tides Of Time and not the Vortex Queen? Because I could never figure out why she went from a giant floating head to... What she was in Tides Of Time.
Man. That makes this more emotional huh, never understood it because i was still a child back then. In anycase related to creepy bad endings i wonder if Ace Combat has been done on this channel before, theres 2, 3 or more games with bad endings in it. While actually most of these are just mission failures, still ends up as a bad ending. [Spoilers Below.] Ace Combat 2: One of the missions have you tasked to chase a SLBM before it hits the City of St. Ark [iirc], if you failed to destroy it, you get to witness the SLBM split into multiple missiles and destroy St. Ark Ace Combat 3: Now i don't really know about this one, i can't tell which are neutral or bad, except the UPEO route is basically the Happiest the game could get. As far as i can remember the game has a true ending for completing all 5 paths. As for the creepy bad ending? It would probably be General Resource or Ouroboros [Electrosphere as the final mission]. Ace Combat 5: The final mission has you tasked to destroy the Strategic Orbital Linear Gun [SOLG] before it hits the Capital, Oured. Yet again if you fail, Oured gets annihilated as the SOLG contains a very powerful WMD. Ace Combat 6: This game has 2 BAD ENDINGS actually. 1 - Gracemeria Patrol // City Lights, another missile chase sequence, miss too much and Gracemerias is basically gone. 2 - Chandelier // To All Things, cliché-ish final mission with destroying the superweapon Chandelier, let it fire too much Stauros shells to gracemeria and it's game over.
Honesty, since Ecco "Dissapeared" instead of explictly going back home, and the fact the Dreamcast game doesnt pick up from this at all, fuck it, I'm gonna say it. Echo died/faded from existence. Theres no proof either way
I never played the Ecco games, but every time I've seen someone talk about them online I found them creepy, and this video is no exception. I guess they meant to make another sequel that never came to be, and this ending was a set up for it, but as it is, with the sequel not having been made, it's so unsettling. And I agree with you about that Pokemon "ending" being creepy too! At least in how it's presented. Cause you know, no need to fear Red.
I don't care what people can say, that was one of my favourite game as a kid. I was like 7/8 but i felt the poetry of the game, the art direction, the music, the colour. It was rare for the kid I was to feel that
I hated how AVGN reviewed this game; it seemed like it wasn't his own opinion & was scripted. If he had got to the aliens part & played the sequel & the Dreamcast universe game, his reaction may have been different. Regardless of that, I enjoyed these games!
Speaking of Heart Gold / Soul Silver, there is an unlockable event in the game that sends you a short bit back in time to when Team Rocket takes over the radio tower, but places you in the cave between Johto and Kanto. There, you encounter Giovanni. Having heard his team calling for his return, he prepares to leave, but you're in his way. When you defeat him, though, he leaves the room, accompanied not by the normal step noises associated with you or NPCs leaving a room, but with a splashing noise, implying he leapt into the waters just outside the cave....
As a kid, this ending made me hyped/hoping an Ecco 3 so hard. But sadly, Defender of the Future was a complete reboot and the original story would forever end on this cliffhanger/letdown. And that was a big deception for me back then. ...But I guess in the end, it didn't tarnish my opinion of Ecco 2 that much, despite this epilogue/second ending, it's still one of my favorite Genesis games.
Interview with Ed Annunziata Epicenter: Is there any sort of backstory about the Asterite? If it was supposed to be native to the Earth or an alien life-form, where it came from, et cetera? How did it tie into life on Earth (was life created by the Asterite? It almost seems implied, given that it is DNA shaped.) Annunziata: The Asterite was the first lifeform on the earth. The first strand that all life unwound from. Its origin or biogenesis is a mystery. Epicenter: A very obvious question, no doubt everyone wonders about. What was Ecco's reasoning behind using the time machine at the end of the second game, rather than destroying it as the Asterite instructed him? Annunziata: He went to join the atlanteans -- there are specific reasons I reserved for the 3rd game - I may still make that episode so I'll keep that stuff to myself. Epicenter: What was the reason for the Vortex Queen's change in appearance from her insectlike form resembling a beetle on Vortex, and her more amorphous form attached to the machine on Earth? Annunziata: The vortex evolved a special characteristic that makes them very dangerous: they evolve very fast. The can adapt to any environment and absorb other lifeforms and use them to make new creatures. The Vortex is kind of like an organic BORG from Star Trek Epicenter: The Dark Vortex Future is very empty, and the only things that are alive there seem to be scavengers, like the amoeba-like blobs. Had the Vortex race migrated somewhere else after killing off most life on Earth? What were the "magic arm"-like creatures in the Vortex Future that had the long spiked black tails and metallic looking heads? I noticed in the prototype version, Earth oceans were full of them in the Present and Good Future, although they were Crabs then. ;) Annunziata: We liked that algorithm and the way the sprites looked lifelike - so we used them as enemies. There are other creatures and snake like things that use variations on that theme. Epicenter: What were the Magic Arms? Vortex lifeforms of some sort, or something terrestrial? Annunziata: A genetic mix of terrestrial and extraterrestrial Epicenter: Were Trellia and Ecco related or was Trellia Ecco's 'ancestor' being descended from modern day dolphins? That would insinuate, if Trellia was Ecco's direct ancestor, that he did not vanish into time as the ending suggests. I have a theory that a second Ecco was left behind when Ecco travelled into the past to save his pod in the first game, and that Ecco may have removed himself from the time stream to stop further splitting, and left behind the 'original' Ecco in the process. Perhaps that second Ecco is the know-it-all dolphin who drops in to tell you about teleporter rings and Ecco losing his powers in 'Fault Zone'? .. Annunziata: Trellia is from the future making Ecco her ancestor. My lips are sealed regarding the split time streams. Epicenter: Why was the Dark Vortex Future in the sky? Did the Vortex have a practical reason to build in the air, when they seem to be primarily water-dwelling? Annunziata: Life in general reaches out in all directions. Even the Dolphinkind built structures into the sky. Like we do with our sky scrapers and space stations. Life has a fill the entire universe tropism, including the Vortex. Epicenter: Why do Vortex drones bring Ecco to the Dark Future, seemingly helping him? Also, would they not have had to COME from the Dark Future? Perhas it has something to do with how the Vortex Drones seem to blow up when they come too close to the surface in Dark Sea-- sensitivity to sunlight? Annunziata: Those particular drones are deep sea drones that are "built" for the extreme pressure of the deep Epicenter: Had a third title been developed (like the fabled 32x/Saturn games that never came to fruition), did you have any sort of story in the works? I'd love to hear it if you did. Annunziata: I have a full notebook, filled with ideas and some decisions not yet made. As I mentioned above if there ever is another ecco (that I make) I will pick up the story from the end of Tides of Time. Epicenter: You mentioned a while ago, that you wanted to be able to feature the dolphins' migration to the ocean and if I recall correctly, to in some way incorporate the land-dwelling dolphin ancestors in the game. How did you envision them? I'd like to know what you would have done had this idea been implemented more thoroughly in the games. Annunziata: I saw some paintings of what they may have looked like during my research. ... I just took some time to find some of those images but could not. I guess you have to use your imagination. Epicenter: What was the symbolism if any, behind the marks on Ecco's head-- were they a map to Vortex, resembling a constellation? I do not immediately recognize a pattern. Annunziata: Its the constellation Delphinus, "The Dolphin", located just west of Pegasus. The planet Vortex by the way is in the constellation Pegasus. www.dibonsmith.com/del_con.gif Epicenter: A friend noticed some runic symbols from a long, long time ago in Atlantis, and was reportedly able to read some of them; something about the closing of one path, opening of another? (the tube, and travel through the time machine to vortex?) Are these runes indeed hiding bits of the story? Did you design that or is it something Zsolt slipped in? Annunziata: I don't remember so your Zsolt theory is a good one :) Epicenter: Who had what roles in the design/completion of the games? I know the team's basic roles but it would be interesting to know how you guys came together to work on them, who wrote out message screens, implemented what, designed what, et cetera. I know, that's really vague. Sorry about that. ;) Annunziata: I really defended the game in terms of NOT adding humans and fishermen and whalers and oil slicks (all marketing suggestions) we all worked together as a team to bring the game together creatively. I had the easy job for sure. Epicenter: What inspired you to come up with the (amazingly creative) ideas for the story? e.g. A dolphin as the main character, the Vortex, Asterite, the Atlanteans and their history, so forth. Annunziata: Books: Lightning by Dean Koontz The Sounding by Seals (inspired the Seeing with sound idea!!!) Center of the cyclone - by John Lily also other lily writing. The terminator movies HR Geiger Epicenter: A friend of mine found these sprites in the final versions of Ecco 1 and 2, but they're unused. Do you happen to recall what their purpose was, or what the seemingly snakelike creature was meant to be? (images) Annunziata: I don't remember Epicenter: I found some odd text in the game ROM by picking around with a hex editor. Right above where the Asterite's speech is, is the line "PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME ECCO". Do you recall who was meant to say this? I also found some weird things that look like easter eggs, they read "HELLO WORD", "HASTA LA VISTA BABY", "OPERATING SYSTEM", "WILCOMMEN IN DER" and "STAFF ROUND ONE FIGHT". I suppose one of the programmers left these? Was there any meaning behind any of them you can recall? ;) They just sound like jokes. Annunziata: Inside jokes, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US Epicenter: When Ecco 2 was first being developed, were the 3D jump through the rings' stages meant to be for time travel instead of for long-distance travel? I ask because I noticed that in the early prototype, the rings don't actually take you forward (the scenery doesn't change and enemies don't vanish). A magazine article I saw called them "Temporal 3D stages", which would suggest time travel, and in the Game Gear version you use a 3D stage almost every time you travel through time. If so why did it change? Annunziata: I don't remember. Epicenter: I know you had nothing to do with the Game Gear version. But was the Game Gear team working from a prototype given to them as reference? After playing through Ecco 2 for GG, I noticed there are almost no levels that aren't in the extremely early pre-alpha build of Ecco 2 for MD/Genesis, the weird glitchy aspects of the prototype are often present, and some other strange similarities-- like how the bloblike segments that made up the Queen's tongue in the prototype, are what the Queen spits at you in Ecco 2 GG. It almost seems like the GG team used the MD version as reference before the game was even done. ;) Annunziata: Can't remember :( Epicenter: Thank you very much for all of your time and effort! Annunziata: No problem. web.archive.org/web/20060623182023/www.ecco-darksea.com/int_annunziata3.php
Ecco was actually brought back in the hit SEGA Pico game Sonic wacky worlds. Where in the boxart, we can see Sonic the Hedgehog painting Ecco and bringing her back to her own world
Nope, the ancestors of dolphins are in the 1st game, just not visible. In one of the Jurassic levels, there's two hidden dialogues where if Ecco sings upwards to the walls, there's someone wondering if they can live in the sea & how they will try.
according to ed in his interview with darksea, the vortex ended of becoming all forms of crustaceans after the queen went to the past. and ecco went to join the atlanteans. no mention of why. would be nice if felip provided a source for that claim of helping the atlanteans fight the vortex.
I miss Darksea, it was such a great Ecco fansite. Same with Arkonviox. Caverns of Hope is still up, I think (CoH focuses more on the Dreamcast universe, though, but OG Ecco stuff is there, too).
i suppose that ecco the dolphin in this ending, his friends and family in his pod will never see him again, also how disturbing would ecco's friends if they see the fish turn back into ecco's dolphin form be that they almost ate him if they didn't fully do so before?
i think because as your fan(i see all your videos) because we have similar fetish on bad endings as me.. you associate the sound of wind to games like chrono trigger(future world) or the bad ending in live a live (armageddon ending). wind makes a scary memory
"Getting past this section without losing a fish would be a good achievement" While this is a game supported in RetroAchievements, that particular task is not part of the set.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Creepy Bad Endings # 113: ruclips.net/video/0A5nvVQTMtQ/видео.html
According to Ed Annunziata, the Ecco's game creator, that game ending was meant that way because it was planned a third Ecco game, where he'd travel to Atlantis at the time they were fighting Vortex and would help them win, defeating the Vortexkind there. Unfortunately, that game never hapened.
Considering that arthropods are the predecessor to species like dolphins. Wouldn't Ecco just cause a paradox that would kill al life on earth?
All because Sega instead wanted to make edutainment shovelware games out of Ecco.
So the developers left it hanging? I hate it when that happens! Well, the fans could always make a game!
Ecco 3: Aria of Atlantis
@@Nathan-rb3qp Sadly the Pico is Sega's most successful console. There are games made for it even now. And a successor named the Advanced Pico.
That larva is in fact meant to be the vortex queen. The larva is programmed to loop around areas, so the reason there's multiple is to give the allusion of you and her racing for the time machine.
"He uses it and disappears into the tides of time"
And the worst part? He's been stuck there for the past 30 years. This game came out in 1994.
What about the ps2 game is that filler
@@DahHourglass Defender of the Future? That's a reboot.
I also found this ending to be sad and creepy when I was younger. I always figured it was a setup for the plot of Ecco 3 that never materialized - I think Ed Annunziata said Ecco was going to go back and visit the ancient Atlanteans in an interview somewhere, but nothing came of it. I always thought it was a shame that Ecco didn't get to have the life of triumph and relaxation that he earned after saving the world twice.
I had a headcanon that the Queen's progeny eventually became crustaceans, which is why the crabs in the first game are so obnoxious to fight off - they have some sort of ancestral memory of "dolphin = threat" and go berserk trying to get rid of Ecco as soon as they see him. That might just be me trying to excuse my skill issue, though!
The Dreamcast one is technically "Echo 3" but lacks the same developers. Hence why the story doesn't continue the same way.
Heard the devs said aliens became crustaceans
They're also the ancestors of arthropods, and other insects too, so think of them the next time you see a spider.
I know this vid was mostly about Ecco, but you really hit the nail on the head with the Mt Silver point. I really feel this in my soul! Everything about it just gives you this feeling of “why am I doing this?” and a bit of emptiness even… (but I mean it in a good way, somehow)
The atmosphere of the area feels lifeless, like people used to live here but it got taken over by the strong Pokemon. The remakes are especially strong here with the wind blowing at the summit, and the long, winding path. You’d be travelling up it thinking “wow this goes so far up. Is the reward even worth it?”
Then the wordless exchange, a battle with unreal levels compared to what came before, and an abrupt return down the mountain. I actually find that last part so interesting. Every major battle in a game would typically lead to more content, as though the following events are just as canonical as the ones before.
But Red doesn’t do that. Beating him isn’t really that functionally different from losing to him (well lost money aside, but that could have happened from even a wild battle). There’s really no canonical winner. It becomes a personal goal. The game doesn’t care if you beat him or not.
You’re doing this for yourself.
For the whole blowing wind making the ending seem creepier, it just makes me think of the Armageddon ending in Live a Live, with how the music grows quieter, then the bell is quieter, then it's just the wind, then nothing. Wind is just a pretty eerie sound.
Yeah, it really just makes you feel empty inside...
I like it.
Getting more characterization from Red in later games lessens the creepy factor of the encounter for me. Masters establishes that he goes super hard on trainers because he wants to teach them that losing isn't the end of the world. And his silent treatment is apparently because the bond he has with his pokemon is so strong he doesn't even need to speak for them to understand him.
Here I am imagining the Asterite doing an Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith. "You were the chosen one, Ecco! You were supposed to destroy the time machine, not use it!"
the chosen one Betrayed everyone, if he didn't get it, the other would emerge and end this conflict once and for all, Luke Skywalker.
This is why fan games are made, when the devs give their characters these cliffhanger endings. This is one of those games where as a kid, I would have been surprised to play as something other than a humanoid character.
Red getting clowned on by blue for being quiet in later games is funny at least
I saw him not speaking as a way to show he knows why you are here and there is no need for words just action. You can't accidentally stumble across mt silver
Still, he could've said SOMETHING. Congratulate you or whatever. I'm pretty sure he's anti-social.
@@_Hamler well he does talk with yes or no and I think when someone copies him. They just rolled with it as a silent protagonist for the most part.
I 100% get this. It's also the kind of thing that raises a thousand questions. Why did Ecco go against the Asterite and not destroy the time machine? Did he know something the Asterite didn't? What if it's been evil all along? I was expecting you to reload and try nose bashing the machine instead of using your sonar.
The fact that the game just silently continues *after* the supposed ending is also weird as hell. I can't think of any other games that have done that.
Now that I think about it, judging by epilogue, it looks like Vortex Queen got to the Time Machine first, and Ecco just had to follow her. The part with Time Machine is a cutscene, I think, so you as a player can't do anything about it.
Also, Might&Magic RPG games, usually continue after main quest line is completed, as a semi-meta form of "life doesn't end after adventure.", also without much fanfare.
I heard "Sonic and the Black Knight" has a fair bit of post-credits story...
The Bowser Jr. campaign of the Mario+Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story remake has a notable amount of post-game story once the final boss is defeated.
I might be wrong, but the way I interpret some of the epilogue crawl is that Ecco goes off on a one-way trip to the past to stop the Vortex Queen since he destroyed the time machine (I think). And knowing that Ecco does it for the greater good at the cost of his chance to live peacefully with his pod is probably the sad part to me. Plus, it doesn't really feel like a win - it's more like knowing the horrible truth to something you thought was true in another way.
Unrelated note, glad to see you still trucking Git.
As frustrating as this game could be at times, I can definitely appreciate the atmosphere, visuals, and music. Especially impressive for a Genesis game.
3:37 I think something similar happened in the JP version of Ecco I.
In the final boss in the JP version, if the Vortex Queen eats you, you get taken to an easier and NOT auto-scrolling version of the Machine called "The Stomach", while the US/EU versions just take you back to The Machine. Shit. (Note: the JP Machine has 3 checkpoint glyphs! Nice! The downside: this is ONLY in the JP version.)
I got this from the tCRF (The Cutting Room Floor) page for that game.
The real oddball is that those mechanical jellyfish never appear outside of those levels, which would've believed that these were recently created for the Vortex Queen to use...
I miss when games were experimental and made you both have existential and internalized dread, making you question everything within the game itself.
Honestly, I just miss these early, formative gaming years in general. The technology was limited and it forced game developers to get creative with how they used it. I'm still impressed that Nintendo and Game Freak managed to stuff nearly all of Kanto (with cuts, of course) into the same cartridge that contained all of Pokemon Crystal.
Fast forward to the present and the average game now wants 150-200GB of storage despite not looking that much better than games that only need 30-50GB. I wouldn't mind going back to Xbox 360 era graphics if it meant one game didn't eat up nearly half my storage space.
It was a great time, but sadly, games are incredibly expensive to make, and the competition is plentiful and fierce, which doesn’t allow for as much creativity
indies, my dude
In FFIX, I always wondered if Terra would have still assimilated Gaia anyway after everything that happened with Necron appearimg after their crystal was blown away by Kuja. You know sometimes the endings were done so over the top in happiness, that the plot could have twisted again at some point during or some time after.
Ecco's entire vibe is creepy, which is why I've never really been enthused about trying out the games.
There's actually another game that has an issue like this - a modern indie game called Aquaria. It's also set in a vast ocean, albeit a more fantastic one, but after you complete the game, you also get a short stinger sequence which envelops the main character, and leads to a scene afterwards that hints at the story not really being over. Which was supposed to lead into a planned sequel...that never actually materialized.
And really, I think it's the exact same issue in both cases - they're outright telling you "this story isn't actually over", but the next part of the story was never told, so for all intents and purposes that's where we're left - with the hero having experienced a fate that denies them, and us, resolution forevermore. It twigs a primal fear that we have done something wrong that never can be set right, and we'll never be able to fix it.
Red's battle in the Johto games doesn't quite have that same issue, but I do think it's a little unsettling in other ways. One, it's weird seeing a 'protagonist's experience' from the outside - Red just vanishing like that is akin to what must happen when YOU lose a battle - i.e. "you blacked out" and wake up back at your last Pokémon Center/heal point (admittedly I've blacked out few enough times that I don't really know the mechanics that well). But two, the way it's done gives an eerie sense of lack of accomplishment - you've just beaten the most powerful trainer you can come across, and it ends up feeling hollow because there's no real reward to it - not even words of congratulations. (End credits don't count.) It might sort of reflect how Red got there in the first place, maybe just there to train because his life doesn't have any other meaning...it makes you wonder about the whole "becoming the best" idea and whether it truly brings satisfaction, or just obsession.
You can wonder that about a lot of Pokémon games, really, since usually the eventual goal is beating the champion, nothing really deeper than that - all the rest of the stuff in the story ends up more or less being sidequest. Two very notable exceptions are Black/White, where the climax of the story proper has you taking on the apex of the game's antagonist team, and Scarlet/Violet, where the whole gym challenge is just one plot thread taking you towards the final chapter. And I consider those two to have the strongest stories of the core games.
Aquaria was an _amazing_ game.
Shame the creator killed himself.
I had the exact same feeling with the ending being such a downer, and thought I'd done something wrong when I failed to destroy the time machine with the sonar blast. I always wondered if I should have empowered it with a charge thrust first, or just nose butted it into oblivion, but I could never bring myself to face those levels again. The Vortex Larva in particular creeped me out way too much to go back.
I remember playing this when I was super young like low single digits because older siblings had it. I couldnt make it ANYWHERE, like most games i would play until I figured it out. But this was basically a game I messed around with for 20 mins on the first screen and gave up everytime.
I literally thought it was just a game about a dolphin swimming and jumping around. I didn't learn until MUCH later (honestly probably your video about the first one) that this series had fantastical elements. Imagine how shocked and horrified I was to finally see the final boss of the first game. Hearing the synopsis about a dolphin saving his pod from aliens and time traveling just messes me up 😂.
This ending is really fascinating to me, I wasn't expecting it to go in the way that it did. The Vortex Queen's fate is really interesting too, who knows how much the ocean itself has integrated with the unusual characteristics of the queen herself? Possibly not to the point of harm, but in sync. I'll definitely be thinking about this for a time. Thanks for the video!
This game terrified me as a child at the same time that it fascinated me and I loved it ❤️ I always loved the ocean, it is like a landscape from another world, eerie and beautiful, and this game perfectly nails that feeling with a sci-fi touch that suits it very well. I love when weird but creative concepts like this come up. but bro, it was difficult as hell Dx
I remember seeing a year or two ago some guy suggesting that the Vortex Queen, integrating herself with the life on Earth in the past, eventually evolved into humans, and therefore Atlanteans. The same who were fighting a losing war against the Vortex aliens in the far future.
I believe she evolved into bugs.
The designer said she evolved into arthropods
@@isauldron4337
Oh. Well, there goes my headcanon. :(
@@takkoy8658 to be fair in Game the line is so vague
I'm surprised these games haven't had a re-release or modern sequel. People love dolphins. They're beautiful.
I can remember a few games like Ninja Warriors where the protagonist has to die or sacrifice themselves after defeating the main enemy, but this doesn't sound like there was any particular reason for it. Maybe Ecco was being kept on standby in case something like this ever happens again, in any time period? He's the timeless hero the ocean deserves.
Like the Gordon Freeman of dolphins, then?
@@person0-016 Gordon Free Willieman
There was a spiritual successor on Kickstarter, but it failed to reach its goal before the end of the campaign, so it never materialized.
Pretty sure almost no one would pay for it I would but I don't think it has many fans
Ecco 3D killed the franchise.
Wonderful job at keeping the atmosphere within the video itself! The no text for the entire ending sequence was a great creeepy touch. (Also, I was expecting it to be a bad ending involving the secret password because I didn't know how the password system worked, so I was surprised too)
Bless you Git! Life's been getting me down severely, but your videos bring me to a happy place and make me feel better about things ☺️.
I thought you were going to touch upon using cheats in the game and getting the "Next time play without using Cheats" message. Even when i was older that scared the crap out of me. Unexpected 4th Wall breaks like that make me very uneasy.
But yeah, I definitely feel that the ending feels melancholic...especially with the music (though I very much like the soundtrack). Such a weird game.
I didn't know that happened. Damn, I would've included it if I knew.
@whoisthisgit it's all good. It wad a great episode and honestly the way you talk about how melancholy the soundtrack is definitely tracks. Like even the first stage song seems much darker that it's prequel. The game is pretty disturbing at times. Nice analysis.
That message didn't scare me, just annoyed me.
Want me to play without cheats?
Don't include cheats in your game then.
that bad future looks really dreamlike to me, maybe because i have had 2 separate dreams involving just going around in tubes (no idea either)
anyways what a depressing song and ending jesus
Ecco's epilogue goes extra weird-creepy, once you think, that it's mostly about Vortex Queen. It's probably just me, but I see this as an antipode to final episodes of Gulliver Boy anime - they give a closure to some minor plot points, but mostly are means of saying farewell to heroes. Episodes are extra upbeat and comedic. This one instead give a form of closure to Vortex Queen, and extra sad and somber in atmosphere. It's almost like an entire game was about her and not Ecco...
I didn't know that detail about the shark transformation D: cool!
I agree with the music, both this and the first game have a melancholy but also mystical feel. I think that combined with the graphics and the sea theme make it a bizzare trip. The way the ending is handled is also really weird! You're not the only one who finds it creepy.
honestly i agree with you on the ecco games having a melancholic atmosphere. the graphics help a lot oddly enough, the semi-realistic artstyle kinda amplifies it
The original series sorta ends there. If there was a third game planned, it didn't get made. The Dreamcast game is not connected to this story as it's a reboot where the Asterite is replaced with 'The Guardian' and the Vortex replaced by 'The Foe'
aliens invading from the ocean, the plot of Xcom terror from the deep
This game ending where Ecco disappears into the time machine may look like a bad ending on the surface, but it is 100% Hero's Journey archetype. Once the hero completes the journey and achieves the set goal after journeying into a new world, the hero becomes a master of two worlds, and even after returning, may disappear forever again into the unknown, since the hero despite journeying back into the familiar world where he or she came from, no longer is anchored into the previous reality of his or her home and has become as mythical as the challenge faced by the hero. It is pretty much what happens to Ecco at the end of this game.
For a game about a dolphin with star scars on his head, it's definitely got many, MANY disturbing moments.
Ecco 1 & Ecco 2: Tides of Time, as well as the Defender of the Future has a LOT of Creepy Moments series material:
Ecco 1: The waterspout/storm, the entire Vortex levels & music that goes with them, how Ecco defeats the Vortex Queen, the fact that Ecco can be eaten & digested alive by the Vortex Queen, & the fact she has already EATEN his pod beforehand, meaning if Ecco hadn't been there, or fast enough, they'd be digested by the Vortex Queen.
Ecco 2: Fault Zone when Ecco loses his powers & can now drown, the entire Sea of Darkness level, the cutscene with the Vortex Queen curb-stomping the Asterite, Ecco potentially being eaten alive by the Vortex Queen (again) & going to that creepy level, nearly being ripped apart by your felliw dolphin allies in Fish City as a school of fish, & the bad future.
Ecco: Defender of the Future: The Great White Shark boss that can instantly eat Ecco, the two giant eels in Four Ways of Mystery & Roaring Forces that can instantly eat Ecco. Then there's the bad futures:
- Man's Nightmare (a dystopia where dolphins are slaves & have visible wounds on them, a baby dolphin being excited to do mining & they're possibly extinct in the wild & the ocean is full of pollution)
- Dolphin's Nightmare (a future with literal N*zi Dolphins trying to kill off any dolphins that are different from them. Need I say more? No? Oh, they also use whales as batteries for machines & their bones as houses)
- Domain of the For (the bad guys win & now the ocean is filled with parasitic aliens that can leech air from Ecco, & spit acid, there's a giant terrifying Foe Queen that will try to eat Ecco using her tongue, & the foe larvae in The Hatchery level can pretty much instantly kill Ecco if they jump out of the eggs. Oh, & the way Ecco kills the Foe Queen is disturbing, especially Seeds of Poison & Heart of the Foe...)
Ecco: Defenders of the Future is home to a Creepy Time Limit series entry, too: Heart of the Foe, the final boss. If Ecco doesn't stop the Foe Queen's heart on time, he literally drowns in acidic red alien blood.
Super interesting video, you're a natural storyteller. Maybe it's just me but I think the Sega mega drive soundfont makes soundtrack so eerie and scary. I had the same feeling with "Rolo to the rescue".
Personally, I find the the Ecco 2 ending interesting ---an ending so ambiguous. How many kids games would forego the happy ending/doing what the hero was told---and instead going for the main character just kinda peacing out, seemingly?
Always a classic channel!
I don't know if you're taking requests or not, but on the offchance you do take ideas or suggestions from the comments, have you considered covering any of the Compile Heart/Idea Factory games, such as Hyperdimension Neptunia or better yet, Death end re;Quest? The bad ending for Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2/Sister's Generation (Conquest) completely turns an already rather dark game on its head and somehow turns it into nothing short of nightmare fuel with how intense it gets. (By contrast, the Holy Sword ending from Sister's Generation is a wonderful candidate for Lovely Good Endings, but I digress.)
Death end re;Quest and its sequel are basically, I can't make this up, "Bad Endings: The Game" and "Bad Endings: The Game: The Sequel" given how a core mechanic of both entries is filling out the events log with *every possible outcome, including death ends*, and is practically required to get the final true endings in both entries.
I'm not sure if I posted this on another video or not, but either way, I highly suggest you give them a look.
There was a bad ending like that from The Nameless Game Eye if you decide to 100% complete the body parts and submit yourself into chaos
I don’t know if this is 100% true, but I’ve heard a third Ecco game explaining what happened after Tides Of Time was considered, but for whatever reason never made (Not counting Defender Of The Future)
Considering Sega has been on a big push to revive lots of their classic IPs, maybe we should see this third game finally being a reality
I've heard that, aside the Sonic Paramount movies. SEGA haves the idea of making a Comix Zone, Space Channel 5 and Toejam & Earl movies, but that's the only thing i've knew since.
If SEGA is still wanting to make movies of their other IP, damn, Ecco is the perfect fit. The melanchoy, dark, but beatiful world that haves would be more than perfect. Heck, maybe in that case the fable Ecco 3 would finally happen. It's unlikely to happen, but yeah, would be cool.
You're not the only one man, my thalassophobia came from this game and its goddamn ending...
Tides of Time has one of the greatest endings of any game. The fact that the cliffhanger was never resolved has created a way cooler outcome. Ecco throwing himself into the Tides of Time and it being left ambiguous as to why he did it, or where it was going to throw him is cooler than anything they could have written to follow up on it. As much as I respect Ed Annuziata's determination to get the rights back and finish the story, I think it's be too long at this point, and fans have already come to adore the way the series ended.
The lore in this game goes hard af
I would like to introduce you to the Bobbit Worm and the Sea Angel which look similar to the two different stages of the Vortex Queen and the Sand Flea which looks similar to the standard Vortex Aliens.
Was the Bobbit Worm the final boss in Tides Of Time and not the Vortex Queen?
Because I could never figure out why she went from a giant floating head to... What she was in Tides Of Time.
Man. That makes this more emotional huh, never understood it because i was still a child back then.
In anycase related to creepy bad endings i wonder if Ace Combat has been done on this channel before, theres 2, 3 or more games with bad endings in it. While actually most of these are just mission failures, still ends up as a bad ending. [Spoilers Below.]
Ace Combat 2:
One of the missions have you tasked to chase a SLBM before it hits the City of St. Ark [iirc], if you failed to destroy it, you get to witness the SLBM split into multiple missiles and destroy St. Ark
Ace Combat 3:
Now i don't really know about this one, i can't tell which are neutral or bad, except the UPEO route is basically the Happiest the game could get. As far as i can remember the game has a true ending for completing all 5 paths. As for the creepy bad ending? It would probably be General Resource or Ouroboros [Electrosphere as the final mission].
Ace Combat 5:
The final mission has you tasked to destroy the Strategic Orbital Linear Gun [SOLG] before it hits the Capital, Oured. Yet again if you fail, Oured gets annihilated as the SOLG contains a very powerful WMD.
Ace Combat 6:
This game has 2 BAD ENDINGS actually. 1 - Gracemeria Patrol // City Lights, another missile chase sequence, miss too much and Gracemerias is basically gone. 2 - Chandelier // To All Things, cliché-ish final mission with destroying the superweapon Chandelier, let it fire too much Stauros shells to gracemeria and it's game over.
Honesty, since Ecco "Dissapeared" instead of explictly going back home, and the fact the Dreamcast game doesnt pick up from this at all, fuck it, I'm gonna say it. Echo died/faded from existence. Theres no proof either way
Chakan the Forever Man has something similar going in his ending. Check out that game next!
Be warned, though: the soundtrack for that game is Leave My Ears Alone! material...
I never played the Ecco games, but every time I've seen someone talk about them online I found them creepy, and this video is no exception. I guess they meant to make another sequel that never came to be, and this ending was a set up for it, but as it is, with the sequel not having been made, it's so unsettling.
And I agree with you about that Pokemon "ending" being creepy too! At least in how it's presented. Cause you know, no need to fear Red.
I don't care what people can say, that was one of my favourite game as a kid. I was like 7/8 but i felt the poetry of the game, the art direction, the music, the colour. It was rare for the kid I was to feel that
I hated how AVGN reviewed this game; it seemed like it wasn't his own opinion & was scripted. If he had got to the aliens part & played the sequel & the Dreamcast universe game, his reaction may have been different.
Regardless of that, I enjoyed these games!
@@amandamakin1542He should return to Ecco the dolphin.
Speaking of Heart Gold / Soul Silver, there is an unlockable event in the game that sends you a short bit back in time to when Team Rocket takes over the radio tower, but places you in the cave between Johto and Kanto. There, you encounter Giovanni. Having heard his team calling for his return, he prepares to leave, but you're in his way. When you defeat him, though, he leaves the room, accompanied not by the normal step noises associated with you or NPCs leaving a room, but with a splashing noise, implying he leapt into the waters just outside the cave....
As a kid, this ending made me hyped/hoping an Ecco 3 so hard. But sadly, Defender of the Future was a complete reboot and the original story would forever end on this cliffhanger/letdown. And that was a big deception for me back then.
...But I guess in the end, it didn't tarnish my opinion of Ecco 2 that much, despite this epilogue/second ending, it's still one of my favorite Genesis games.
Interview with Ed Annunziata
Epicenter: Is there any sort of backstory about the Asterite? If it was supposed to be native to the Earth or an alien life-form, where it came from, et cetera? How did it tie into life on Earth (was life created by the Asterite? It almost seems implied, given that it is DNA shaped.)
Annunziata: The Asterite was the first lifeform on the earth. The first strand that all life unwound from. Its origin or biogenesis is a mystery.
Epicenter: A very obvious question, no doubt everyone wonders about. What was Ecco's reasoning behind using the time machine at the end of the second game, rather than destroying it as the Asterite instructed him?
Annunziata: He went to join the atlanteans -- there are specific reasons I reserved for the 3rd game - I may still make that episode so I'll keep that stuff to myself.
Epicenter: What was the reason for the Vortex Queen's change in appearance from her insectlike form resembling a beetle on Vortex, and her more amorphous form attached to the machine on Earth?
Annunziata: The vortex evolved a special characteristic that makes them very dangerous: they evolve very fast. The can adapt to any environment and absorb other lifeforms and use them to make new creatures. The Vortex is kind of like an organic BORG from Star Trek
Epicenter: The Dark Vortex Future is very empty, and the only things that are alive there seem to be scavengers, like the amoeba-like blobs. Had the Vortex race migrated somewhere else after killing off most life on Earth? What were the "magic arm"-like creatures in the Vortex Future that had the long spiked black tails and metallic looking heads? I noticed in the prototype version, Earth oceans were full of them in the Present and Good Future, although they were Crabs then. ;)
Annunziata: We liked that algorithm and the way the sprites looked lifelike - so we used them as enemies. There are other creatures and snake like things that use variations on that theme.
Epicenter: What were the Magic Arms? Vortex lifeforms of some sort, or something terrestrial?
Annunziata: A genetic mix of terrestrial and extraterrestrial
Epicenter: Were Trellia and Ecco related or was Trellia Ecco's 'ancestor' being descended from modern day dolphins? That would insinuate, if Trellia was Ecco's direct ancestor, that he did not vanish into time as the ending suggests. I have a theory that a second Ecco was left behind when Ecco travelled into the past to save his pod in the first game, and that Ecco may have removed himself from the time stream to stop further splitting, and left behind the 'original' Ecco in the process. Perhaps that second Ecco is the know-it-all dolphin who drops in to tell you about teleporter rings and Ecco losing his powers in 'Fault Zone'? ..
Annunziata: Trellia is from the future making Ecco her ancestor. My lips are sealed regarding the split time streams.
Epicenter: Why was the Dark Vortex Future in the sky? Did the Vortex have a practical reason to build in the air, when they seem to be primarily water-dwelling?
Annunziata: Life in general reaches out in all directions. Even the Dolphinkind built structures into the sky. Like we do with our sky scrapers and space stations. Life has a fill the entire universe tropism, including the Vortex.
Epicenter: Why do Vortex drones bring Ecco to the Dark Future, seemingly helping him? Also, would they not have had to COME from the Dark Future? Perhas it has something to do with how the Vortex Drones seem to blow up when they come too close to the surface in Dark Sea-- sensitivity to sunlight?
Annunziata: Those particular drones are deep sea drones that are "built" for the extreme pressure of the deep
Epicenter: Had a third title been developed (like the fabled 32x/Saturn games that never came to fruition), did you have any sort of story in the works? I'd love to hear it if you did.
Annunziata: I have a full notebook, filled with ideas and some decisions not yet made. As I mentioned above if there ever is another ecco (that I make) I will pick up the story from the end of Tides of Time.
Epicenter: You mentioned a while ago, that you wanted to be able to feature the dolphins' migration to the ocean and if I recall correctly, to in some way incorporate the land-dwelling dolphin ancestors in the game. How did you envision them? I'd like to know what you would have done had this idea been implemented more thoroughly in the games.
Annunziata: I saw some paintings of what they may have looked like during my research. ... I just took some time to find some of those images but could not. I guess you have to use your imagination.
Epicenter: What was the symbolism if any, behind the marks on Ecco's head-- were they a map to Vortex, resembling a constellation? I do not immediately recognize a pattern.
Annunziata: Its the constellation Delphinus, "The Dolphin", located just west of Pegasus. The planet Vortex by the way is in the constellation Pegasus. www.dibonsmith.com/del_con.gif
Epicenter: A friend noticed some runic symbols from a long, long time ago in Atlantis, and was reportedly able to read some of them; something about the closing of one path, opening of another? (the tube, and travel through the time machine to vortex?) Are these runes indeed hiding bits of the story? Did you design that or is it something Zsolt slipped in?
Annunziata: I don't remember so your Zsolt theory is a good one :)
Epicenter: Who had what roles in the design/completion of the games? I know the team's basic roles but it would be interesting to know how you guys came together to work on them, who wrote out message screens, implemented what, designed what, et cetera. I know, that's really vague. Sorry about that. ;)
Annunziata: I really defended the game in terms of NOT adding humans and fishermen and whalers and oil slicks (all marketing suggestions) we all worked together as a team to bring the game together creatively. I had the easy job for sure.
Epicenter: What inspired you to come up with the (amazingly creative) ideas for the story? e.g. A dolphin as the main character, the Vortex, Asterite, the Atlanteans and their history, so forth.
Annunziata: Books: Lightning by Dean Koontz
The Sounding by Seals (inspired the Seeing with sound idea!!!)
Center of the cyclone - by John Lily also other lily writing.
The terminator movies
HR Geiger
Epicenter: A friend of mine found these sprites in the final versions of Ecco 1 and 2, but they're unused. Do you happen to recall what their purpose was, or what the seemingly snakelike creature was meant to be?
(images)
Annunziata: I don't remember
Epicenter: I found some odd text in the game ROM by picking around with a hex editor. Right above where the Asterite's speech is, is the line "PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME ECCO". Do you recall who was meant to say this? I also found some weird things that look like easter eggs, they read "HELLO WORD", "HASTA LA VISTA BABY", "OPERATING SYSTEM", "WILCOMMEN IN DER" and "STAFF ROUND ONE FIGHT". I suppose one of the programmers left these? Was there any meaning behind any of them you can recall? ;) They just sound like jokes.
Annunziata: Inside jokes, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
Epicenter: When Ecco 2 was first being developed, were the 3D jump through the rings' stages meant to be for time travel instead of for long-distance travel? I ask because I noticed that in the early prototype, the rings don't actually take you forward (the scenery doesn't change and enemies don't vanish). A magazine article I saw called them "Temporal 3D stages", which would suggest time travel, and in the Game Gear version you use a 3D stage almost every time you travel through time. If so why did it change?
Annunziata: I don't remember.
Epicenter: I know you had nothing to do with the Game Gear version. But was the Game Gear team working from a prototype given to them as reference? After playing through Ecco 2 for GG, I noticed there are almost no levels that aren't in the extremely early pre-alpha build of Ecco 2 for MD/Genesis, the weird glitchy aspects of the prototype are often present, and some other strange similarities-- like how the bloblike segments that made up the Queen's tongue in the prototype, are what the Queen spits at you in Ecco 2 GG. It almost seems like the GG team used the MD version as reference before the game was even done. ;)
Annunziata: Can't remember :(
Epicenter: Thank you very much for all of your time and effort!
Annunziata: No problem.
web.archive.org/web/20060623182023/www.ecco-darksea.com/int_annunziata3.php
Great vid
Ecco was actually brought back in the hit SEGA Pico game Sonic wacky worlds. Where in the boxart, we can see Sonic the Hedgehog painting Ecco and bringing her back to her own world
Not to be judgmental, but the plot of Ecco seems kinda hardcore for a dolphin game
Vortex Queen: Well, that was pointless.
When are you going to do a Persona 5 Creepy bad endings video git?
Soooooo much content.
I’m not afraid of the ocean! I’m afraid of what’s in the ocean
plot twist: the alien queen is Ecco's ancestor
Nope, the ancestors of dolphins are in the 1st game, just not visible. In one of the Jurassic levels, there's two hidden dialogues where if Ecco sings upwards to the walls, there's someone wondering if they can live in the sea & how they will try.
I want to see your reaction to Bugsnax and all the endings in that game.
Say will you do the house of the dead series at some point? It has quite a few creepy endings.
please do the game zero time dilemma, i think it’d be nice since you’ve done the other two games heh
I curl my toes and giggle like a maniac with every new thisgit video
Can you do Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea? That game has more than 1 bad ending, too, much like Splatterhouse 3.
according to ed in his interview with darksea, the vortex ended of becoming all forms of crustaceans after the queen went to the past. and ecco went to join the atlanteans. no mention of why. would be nice if felip provided a source for that claim of helping the atlanteans fight the vortex.
I miss Darksea, it was such a great Ecco fansite. Same with Arkonviox.
Caverns of Hope is still up, I think (CoH focuses more on the Dreamcast universe, though, but OG Ecco stuff is there, too).
i suppose that ecco the dolphin in this ending, his friends and family in his pod will never see him again, also how disturbing would ecco's friends if they see the fish turn back into ecco's dolphin form be that they almost ate him if they didn't fully do so before?
i think because as your fan(i see all your videos) because we have similar fetish on bad endings as me.. you associate the sound of wind to games like chrono trigger(future world) or the bad ending in live a live (armageddon ending). wind makes a scary memory
I could never get past level 2 in the original Ecco
"Getting past this section without losing a fish would be a good achievement"
While this is a game supported in RetroAchievements, that particular task is not part of the set.
That's just eerie
honestly i was expecting the vortex queen to evolve _into_ the dolphin species somehow.
The canon is that the vortex queen would end up integrating into the earth's ecosystem and her offspring would become modern day arthropods.
I bought this game at a yard sale
Me too! It's the same feeling for each game! (No spoiler for everyone 💪🏻)
I've already seen ending as a screw you ending.
*ECCO!!*
YESSS
WAT THE FUK? THEY KILLED OFF ECCO?!?!
Where's Lub Lub ?
Maybe he/she/they got eaten by the Vortex Queen