So I was having a think the other day, about this ridiculous phrase. For example, Fallout games present you with the option to wipe several towns off the map, and yet everyone will by default, treat you like the weird drifter wearing a bowler hat that your player character is.

I'd like to exemplify Shadow the Hedgehog for the shotgunning of fish: The game treats it as if taking "Light", "Dark" or "Switzerland" paths as some amazing tantamount feature, but the reality is, there's a Final Story which pulls them all to one ending anyways. If you played Shadow as a candy stealing swearhog, it doesn't matter in the end. Much like the entire game.

What other games present the illusion of choice so pathetically invalid as to present the quality of Kodomo-damashi? (Lit: Child Fooler)

Please explain your replies.

The Telltale Batman game was dreadfull about this. I know some people hate on all the Telltale games for their illusion of choice, but I didn't have a problem with that in Wolf Among Us or Tales from the Borderlands (I outright love the latter game). As long as it's a good, convincing illusion, I'm fine with it. But in Batman it just all felt so transparent. All the instances of being a loyal friend to Harvey didn't seem to change his final total hatred of me an iota. In fact, I can't think of any instance of a convincing illusion of choice with any of the characters.

But I guess it doesn't help thatthe game is just weak overall. You spend 80% of it as Bruce Wayne, and as Batman you just do the same exact QTEs over and over. And the story isn't exactly Heart of Ice either, and it wouldn't be even if the choices did matter.

EDIT:
Oh, and while I think the Witcher games were overall very good with the choices, it always annoyed me as hell that despite carrying over my saves from the first game, where I never had a relationship with Triss, the second game still starts me out with Geralt & Triss together. It was such a bizarre disconnect right from the get go, like a cherry on top of all the massive (and mostly bad) changes the second game made.

FF13-2. Major spoilers below.

There are plenty dialogue options, Mass Effect style, that are presented throughout the game. Most of the choices you pick have no tangible effect on the dialogue or lore and the comedic choices usually give better cosmetic rewards than the standard choices. The ending is especially egregious as you're presented with a choice to spare or kill a key figure, but your choice doesn't matter at all since everything converges to one ending demanded by the writers.

Isn't bad in theory, but execution was poor because you only play from the protagonists' POV up to that point with the understanding that you had free will to correct the timeline with little foreshadowing of the opposite conclusion. In actuality, it becomes meta on various levels due to contrived storytelling and world-building after analyzing the subtext:

1. The timeline initially has free will, but it is heavily influenced by the actions of the goddess that negatively affect the villain.
2. The villain kills the goddess to impose his own free will of how the timeline should act in his own view.
3. The villain tricks the protagonists into thinking they have free will to affect the timeline when in fact he pre-planned all of their victories and time travel locations to ensure everything converges in a predetermined manner.

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I'm also on the fence with Jade Empire.

You can play the game in three different manners: the virtuous way, the asshole way, or a mixed way that is non-optimal compared to the gains of the two extremes. Your options can affect stats, equipment, skills, NPCs, environments, romances, and how the ending turns out. With respect to the main story, however, there are two major forkroads in the endgame where you can 180° and negate the effect of your choices up to that point to obtain the opposite ending.

It's pretty convenient for those who only want to play the game once and see the major endings, but at the same time it removes agency from your choices up to that point. What's the point of helping this NPC with their romances or being a therapist for a father and son with inheritance issues if I can just kill everyone, rescue the god, and be completely forgiven for all past deeds? With the way the game is designed, it makes sense to go through two playthroughs to get the entire experience of the other path than to reload at those forkroads instead.

Mass Effect 3
The ending just asks you to pick your favorite color. No, really. (Spoilers for a game released in 2012, I guess)

The Walking Dead by Telltale Games
I felt like I could only choose whether a character died on the spot, or a few minutes later. Everything funneled you towards the same outcome regardless.

I think the Telltale games were charming, like the OG Sam & Max adventures, Homestar Runner, Tales of Monkey Island, but it's clear they had one trick and just a pony.

Which, praise to them for getting both items to do as well as they did, but it clearly was showing at the seams at points.

Also, action/arcade sections suck. ...I knew the ending of Mass Effect III was bad, but gosh. So it doesn't even have the courtesy to be a conclusive ending, just on the off chance that Cloud's Return was axed for any unforeseeable reason.

Dishonored 2. The first one did a pretty good job of making your choice of playstyle, who live and who died matter in the epilogue. But in 2 there were so few variations that didn't account for differences in what you had done. How hard would it have been to record a few extra lines of exposition so that, yes choosing to kill or spare this person mattered. What was the point of replacing the Duke with his double if leaving the overseer alive simply gave you the overseer ending.

real elections :D

It probably would've been resolved in a novel that would eventually be translated 8-15 years later. Story of LR is so short even 80 pages would be good enough if you distill the main parts.

sounds fun, purge the deviants out

As much as I love The Witcher, the choices in the Alvin quest are meaningless because no matter what you do the exact same things will happen to him. Taking Alvin to Triss or Shani will just determine who your waifu is (and as Breja said, it won't even matter in the second game anyway). I took him to Triss because I legit thought if his powers weren't properly controlled by someone with knowledge of magic he would explode or something and take half of Vizima with him. :D You're like my brother, he is a diehard #TeamShani and still bitter about this to this day haha.

Maybe the choice in Unepic that affects the ending (where you have to choose between bad outcomes)?

Then again, at least the game has a rather fiery ending, at least for me in Hard++ mode. (A pure mage build with fire and protection magic will do that.)

The Telltale "Cinematic" Games - i.e. everything they made AFTER Back to the Future (which was fantastic). They ditched actual gameplay for multiple choice that had little impact on the outcome at the end of the season. I'd rather play a proper adventure game.

I also felt that Deus Ex - Human Revolution was a bit like this. Take choices through the game, then pick your ending by pressing one of four buttons. Waste of time that was.

Cyberpunk’s deep, immersive, character building origin stories. Essentially you get a choice between 3 classes, one mission, then fast forward to where everyone is buddies, and then no further impact at all. Just another one of this classic best game ever’s repertoire!

that saddened me the most about cp :=
why give different origins if they give like 0 gameplay/story differences , fake feature
i should be able to play as a rich smug elite or a poor redneck