Which is the saddest ending?

[MoogleDee]

Other endings made me feel incredibly empty or made me feel like a monster, but Shizune's bad end required me to get up and walk away from the computer to calm down and dry off m'eyes.

In fact just thinking about the way her face looked in the CG is starting to make me upset. That, along with the cat toy sitting in her bag is just... ugh. Here sits the loneliest girl in the world because she just had her entire world ripped away from her. She blames herself of course, looking at everything that went wrong and thinking it's her fault. She's not entirely wrong in this, but in the end it comes down to that one decision you make in A3 and lying about it which removes her ability to trust anyone ever again.

[Althamus]

Other endings made me feel incredibly empty or made me feel like a monster, but Shizune's bad end required me to get up and walk away from the computer to calm down and dry off m'eyes.

In fact just thinking about the way her face looked in the CG is starting to make me upset. That, along with the cat toy sitting in her bag is just... ugh. Here sits the loneliest girl in the world because she just had her entire world ripped away from her. She blames herself of course, looking at everything that went wrong and thinking it's her fault. She's not entirely wrong in this, but in the end it comes down to that one decision you make in A3 and lying about it which removes her ability to trust anyone ever again.

+1.

I haven't played Rin's route yet, so cannot comment on that, but the other routes cannot hold a candle to Shizune's bad ending IMHO. Which is interesting for me, since Shizune was by far the weakest path for me, yet the bad ending was so incredibly powerful.

[NoOne3]

The sadest ending? It's easy. The sadest one is the last one you get. After that there is nothing left...

[Oddball]

I think Hanako's bad ending was the saddest. You basically pushed her until she broke and lashed out. I really don't see her getting any better from from that. There were only two people in the word she could even bring herself to talk to and you ruined even that for her.

In her neutral ending she may be stuck, but at least she has somebody there for her. It's not the greatest situation in the world, but at least she has come comfort knowing that somebody is still there, even if she can't connect with them.

[Nobody in Particular]

Rin's "neutral" ending for me. Personally I thought it was the most depressing scene in the game, and while I really enjoyed the scene, I refuse to play it ever again. I don't need to explain it because someone did a great job of that earlier. It gets even more depressing when you realise Rin probably commits suicide as a result, just like Sae's husband.

[LeeeHaay]

Hanako's bad ending definitely broke me.. Seeing her just stand there and yell at me was awful. And how she says that she hates both Hisao and Lilly. It's like she's finally cracked. In her neutral ending, she at least wasn't at her breaking point and trying to push her only friends away from her life.

[shaftslammer]

Better put up some spoiler tags.

Off-Topic

GOD. DAMN. THESE. SPOILER TAGS.

In a topic such as "Which Is The Saddest Ending", its a spoiler thread. EVERYTHING in it is spoilers. Give me a fucking break.
On a laptop with no USB mouse, viewing spoiler tags gets very tedious.

[Bigbishounen]

Toss up between Hanako's and Rin's neutral endings. Everything else is fixable, but these are pretty damn bad for the girls in question.

(and for Pete's sake, Shizune's bad ending has nothing to do with Hisao's infidelity. She didn't even know about that.)

Incorrect. Go back and run through her bad end again.

Right in the last scene, as Shizune and Hisao are having the "break up" talk, Hisao realizes that Shizune can READ LIPS and was able to "eavesdrop" on Hisao and Misha's rooftop conversation where they discussed having sex. It is implied that Shizune gave them both a chance to come clean with her, but when neither did she finally broke it off with both of them, unable to stand the pain of both being cheated on and then lied to. It is further implied that losing Shizune has caused Misha to give up on her dream of being a sign language teacher, as she no longer has the self-confidence and the will to go overseas to study.

This is what makes Shizune's ending so incredibly painful. It's the shattering of not just the relationship between her and the main character, but the utter obliteration of the Student Council friendship group and the life plans of possibly all 3.

That's why Shizune's bad ending gets my vote, although Rin's neutral ending was a very close second.

[Bigbishounen]

Better put up some spoiler tags.

Off-Topic

GOD. DAMN. THESE. SPOILER TAGS.

In a topic such as "Which Is The Saddest Ending", its a spoiler thread. EVERYTHING in it is spoilers. Give me a fucking break.
On a laptop with no USB mouse, viewing spoiler tags gets very tedious.

Buy a USB mouse. it's not like they are expensive.

[Mirage_GSM]

Some people are reading on smart phones or tablets...
Spoiler tags do have their uses, but in a thread like this they are completely unnecessary.

Edit:
Even with a laptop, it may not be practical to use a mouse, for example if you are on the train.
Not really important anyway. The point was to cut down on the inflationary use of spoiler tags, especially in threads that by definition contain nothing but spoilers.

[Bigbishounen]

Some people are reading on smart phones or tablets...
Spoiler tags do have their uses, but in a thread like this they are completely unnecessary.

But he said he was using a laptop...

[Bagheera]

Toss up between Hanako's and Rin's neutral endings. Everything else is fixable, but these are pretty damn bad for the girls in question.

(and for Pete's sake, Shizune's bad ending has nothing to do with Hisao's infidelity. She didn't even know about that.)

Incorrect. Go back and run through her bad end again.

I have. My assessment is spot on: the things you mentioned are mere speculation on Hisao's part, and not in any way confirmed by other scenes in the game.

(he has that realization while talking to Kenji, btw.)

That's why Shizune's bad ending gets my vote, although Rin's neutral ending was a very close second.

The main difference is that Shizune's bad end is easily fixable while Rin's isn't (though damned if Gecko isn't doing a fine job of selling me on a way to make it happen).

[Mirrormn]

Incorrect. Go back and run through her bad end again.

Right in the last scene, as Shizune and Hisao are having the "break up" talk, Hisao realizes that Shizune can READ LIPS and was able to "eavesdrop" on Hisao and Misha's rooftop conversation where they discussed having sex. It is implied that Shizune gave them both a chance to come clean with her, but when neither did she finally broke it off with both of them, unable to stand the pain of both being cheated on and then lied to. It is further implied that losing Shizune has caused Misha to give up on her dream of being a sign language teacher, as she no longer has the self-confidence and the will to go overseas to study.

They don't overtly discuss having sex, though. The closest either of them comes to talking about it is Misha saying something along the lines of "After all, I've done a really bad thing now. A terribly unforgivable thing". That is an interesting interpretation of Hisao's thoughts in Spiral about reading lips and eavesdropping, though. I don't think the specific circumstances he reflects upon in Spiral actually match the scene on the rooftop in Look Aside/Look Ahead, but I could be wrong about that. I've been trying for quite a while to figure out what Hisao is thinking about at that point in Spiral, so giving the rooftop scene another read to see if they match up is certainly worth my while.


Also, in my opinion, Shizune's bad ending is probably the saddest in an objective sense, but I didn't really care for Shizune, so it actually affected me the least out of every bad ending. Rin's neutral ending is nearly as sad, or more so if you believe the foreshadowing that she will end up the same way as Sae's husband, and I was the most attached to Rin, so Rin's neutral ending has to be my vote.