Endings in which the party loses

[hbn]

I'm just wondering but what is the best way to do this? Without having to go into too much detail but when the party is approaching the final battle, the big bad. The aim here is to have a battle that you control. However story wise I plan to have the party get wiped out and killed off one by one, whilst the villain is not shown being killed.

I know logically I could always use the "continue when lost" thing to prevent a gameover which will fit the story of it well, even if it might break the sequence of the events slightly or to have sorta an awful ending or a bad ending but with how I plan the story to end, I don't know how to put this into a game without making everything ultimately seem pointless.

It's not self-sacrificial either. The bad guy ultimately proves just too strong for the party to beat. Potentially also to set up a sequel in which the bad guy just gets his badassery rating boosted.

 

[firecat]

I say make it clear for the player to understand why they were never going to beat this boss. A good explanation makes things better than straight out, finding out that it is unbeatable. This could be done in the ending but there also needs something before it to tell the player of possibility not ever beating it.

 

[Essy]

Sorry for weighing in late old friend, but imo...
Doing it through the battle itself may feel very frustrating to the player. From a narrative standpoint it's fine for the party to lose and even for them all to die, but you mustn't forget that there should be hope in memento mori. Their deaths shouldn't just be a 'dark twist', it should feel like each of those deaths hold meaning. In this case the party can't 'resolve to die', but you should have built up for the sequel, perhaps even with characters you plan to be core in this continuation. You can use them to provide the spot of hope and leave the player with the following feeling "even though their adventure came to an end, their deaths weren't entirely meaningless."