Basic Trope: A bad ending that's harder to get than the normal ending.
- Straight:
- Completing Hell Tower and obtaining the Black Crown results in an ending where Roland, after defeating the Dark One, is corrupted by its power and becomes a demon even stronger and viler than his fallen nemesis.
- During the endgame, Roland is offered a deal by a mysterious, but shady person (who is all but directly telegraphed to be some kind of Devil in Disguise), who promises him the power to easily defeat the Dark One in exchange for a vaguely-defined, but ominous-sounding price. The choice of accepting or declining the deal is ultimately left to the player, but in case the mysterious stranger's sinister demeanor isn't enough of a tip-off, Roland's friends (and maybe even the game itself) make sure to tell both him and the player how a spectacularly bad idea the deal seems like. If the player decides to go ahead with the deal in spite of all these warnings, defeating the Dark One with the power given to Roland by the stranger results in an ending where the mysterious stranger returns to claim Roland's soul, turning him into a demon in his service, who is even stronger and viler than his fallen nemesis.
- Exaggerated: The game is normally a sickeningly cute platformer that takes place in a Sugar Bowl. However, fulfilling an elaborate set of extremely cryptic and difficult requirements leads to a secret Non-Standard Game Over ending where the world turns into Hell and its inhabitants are tortured for the rest of eternity.
- Downplayed: Completing Hell Tower turns the ending from a straightforward happy ending to a Bittersweet Ending or what was already a Downer Ending into an even worse one.
- Justified:
- The message of the story is that being greedy for power is wrong. By collecting the Black Crown, the player ignores this message.
- The developers were feeling particularly spiteful and made it so that playing on the Harder Than Hard difficulty gives a "Shaggy Dog" Story ending.
- The evil actions Roland takes on the path to the worst ending turn him into a pariah, locking him out of benefits and options that the player would otherwise take for granted.
- The difficulty of the harder path forces Roland to sacrifice his morals to survive, ultimately turning him into a case of He Who Fights Monsters.
- The Dark One is able to do more harm because Roland wasted his time doing sidequests when he should have been dealing with him.
- Inverted:
- Completing Hell Tower results in the Golden Ending. Conversely, you get the worst ending by beating the game on easy mode.
- Evil Is Easy
- Subverted:
- It seems like Roland has been turned evil by the Black Crown, but ultimately, he's able to use his Heroic Willpower to overcome its corruption, after which he uses its power to usher in a new golden age.
- The sequel reveals that Roland obtaining the Black Crown was actually part of the Big Good's plan, and things would have ultimately gone much worse if he hadn't done it.
- Getting this ending along with all the others is required to unlock the Omega Ending.
- Double Subverted:
- ... At least, that's what Roland thinks he's doing. In reality, he's become a tyrannical Knight Templar who murders everyone who fails to meet his impossible definition of "pure."
- The Big Good's plan goes horribly wrong.
- Parodied: The Dark One shows up in a Paper-Thin Disguise telling Roland about the wonderful things that will happen if he goes through Hell Tower and gets the Black Crown, assuring him that the idea it would cause the apocalypse is just an old wives' tale. After following his advice and predictably causing the apocalypse, Roland's only response is an awkward "Uh-oh..." while his allies scream at him for his idiocy.
- Zig Zagged: Beating Hell Tower gets you a bad ending... unless you then beat the even harder Bonus Dungeon Hell Tower II, which rewards you with the ability to purify the Black Crown and use its power for good. However, then you unlock Hell Tower III, and completing that results in the God of Evil awakening and causing the apocalypse. But then there's Hell Tower IV...
- Averted:
- The game only has one ending.
- The ending is decided by a Last-Second Ending Choice.
- None of the endings are strictly better or worse than one another; the player is intended to decide which one is best for themselves.
- Enforced:
- The developer hates the concept of Multiple Endings and makes the secret ending worse than the normal one as a jab at it.
- The secret ending was intended as a Sequel Hook, but the sequel was never made, leaving it as the end of the story.
- Lampshaded: "So this is what all the blood I've shed was for..."
- Invoked:
- Realizing that Roland has become too powerful for him to defeat in combat, the Dark One instead tries to trick him into getting the Black Crown and damning the world for him.
- A villain with Medium Awareness hides the Black Crown deep in the deadliest dungeon in the world, knowing that some players will assume it must be a good item to have and take the bait.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: The other characters try to prevent Roland from getting the Black Crown.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: After finally completing Hell Tower, Roland's reward is... a T-shirt saying "I completed Hell Tower And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt." Roland decides that maybe the Dark One was on to something with that plan to destroy the world...
Back to Earn Your Bad Ending
