Anyone else really unhappy with the extended ending? (spoilers of course)

[Aristobulus]

I'd rather wait in the silent hope that there WILL be a sequel than to get the story written out.

Well, sure, but when you have the creator himself telling you he doesn't have any plans to even start making a sequel, there's no real hope.

[Alec]

Yeah, I think I already hinted at it too much.

[Alphasoldier]

Well I AM still all up for a novel as a 'sequel', that would be amazing and one of the few novel-y things in my life I WOULD read.

[Aristobulus]

I'd read it, but an Aquaria without the amazing soundtrack and visuals and VA work just wouldn't be the same.

[Senorctenophore]

I actually kind of liked the extended ending.  But then, I am a big fan of "But Wait!" twist endings.  You know:  bad guy's dead, all the likable people who you thought had died are actually okay, things are settling down to be nice and quiet and happy....but wait!  What's this?  The villain's not really dead?  Or-- horrors!-- there's a new, even worse villain?!? Zoiks!  It's that feeling that the story's not over-- that it may, in fact, just be beginning...
   And Mia's such a great diabolical villain.  Even more diabolical than the Creator.  Yes, he's a genocidal megalomaniac, but at the core he's really just a frightened, lonely, hurting little boy.  You can't help but feel sorry for him a little.  But Mia's an adult-- a conniving, sneaky woman completely in control of everything.  And a smug snake to boot.  It's really too bad there won't be a sequel because I'll bet it'd be a lot of fun to go up against her.  She'd mock you at every turn, taunt your feeble efforts, laugh at your tears.  It'd make it all the more satisfying when you wipe that smirk off her face and she delivers her frantic "No!  This cannot be!  How is this possible?!!" speech. 
  Ah well, at least we got this little glimpse of her.

Plus, Naija did say she wanted more adventures...
   

[Alphasoldier]

^ Completely agree with ya.

However, I don't think Naija would be playing in the sequel, seeing she's trapped in that crystal.
Also I'm presuming the whole cutscene with their child has to do with going to the land/fortress of the creator/kid to find some way to stop Mia.

[Align]

I don't think she's trapped in any crystal; the title screen is just artistic license at work. Mia wanted Naija to come with her, didn't she? And it would be weird if Lucien just flew off for no reason when Naija is right there.

[Alphasoldier]

I suppose, we don't really have hard evidence.
The only thing that I can think of is that she must be trapped in that crystal to tell Lucien the story THROUGH the crystal. Unless the crystals "saves" her thoughts.
And what use does Naija have if she's constantly unconscious? It's not like she'll work with Mia... unless she'd be brainwashed, which is ANOTHER thing we wouldn't know.

[Zoko]

My interpretation is that the red "save" crystals really saved Naija's memories, and Lucien is accessing them. I agree with Align about the title screen - I think it's just symbolism for Naija's mind being trapped by Mia. 

But we've got to keep in Aquaria's tendency towards loose interpretations. It could be that Alec and Derek designed the title screen without anything specific in mind, perhaps they even made it before they thought of what Mia was going to do to Naija.

[Alphasoldier]

And perhaps they didn't. =p

[Klarden]

Registered after reading the topic.
What i wanted to say about the second ending is that, the only two things that i found not right were "to be continued" message (only the message itself) and the lack of full understanding of what's going on without finishing the game without all memories.
I just finished the game for the first time and got all memories on the first playthrough. And while i could guess, what's going on in the second ending, i understood it only after reading the script file for the unfinished ending.
Alec, i do understand the reasoning behind the "to be continued" thing, and i also think that if the ending had nothing like this, it would feel unfinished. But choosing "to be continued" is instantly taken as "okay, so there's definitely 100% going to be a sequel" thing usually. It ended up like "Raziel... welcome to your destiny" in the end of Soul Reaver.
maybe some kind of VO could've helped both things i've pointed out - slightly explained that this is her son, and ended on more of the "but that's a different tale" rather than "come again next week" note.
Beautiful and haunting game, anyway. Thank you

[Nightmareshadow]

I really didn't care for the ending myself, though it was more emotional than anything else I've ever played, but I also tend to like happy endings.

What gets me most though are all the variables, you know?  We can speculate on Lucien and his Girlfriend, or on Naija and Mia, but there are so many aspects of the ending I think people overlook that I just wish we had more data on, like how Xenogears had a data book released after the game, which tied up a few loose ends.  Wasn't necessary, but it was nice.

I personally wanted to know about the four surviving races and what happened to them during the timeskip.  Could Lucien's Girlfriend be of Drask's bloodline?  The prince was freed before Lucien was born and the girl we saw in the end didn't look much older than Lucien.  Or what about the Krotite and Druniad who escaped?  And just who were the humans on the surface, the ones that Li was a part of, with all the boxes we see marked with a falcon?

It's been 2 years since I beat the game and I still wonder.  The mystery is kind of the fun but, like Naija, I think we all have an innate desire to know the truth and find new discoveries over the horizon.

One thing I don't think anyone's counted on though is Alec's discussion about how the story goes on after we stop playing.  That can be interpreted in many ways, but I kind of like the idea.  It matches Alec's other discussions like on IA about how games can become living breathing things in their own right and that's kind of what Aquaria is.  An entity that has evolved and changed from it's infancy to the present(mods like Beauty and Sacrifice proved that.)

Anyway, I'm starting to go off on a tangent here.  I hope Marion is as grand as Aquaria and who knows?  Maybe there'll be a hidden Easter egg or nod to Aquaria within it.  The story only ends if you let it.