Board Thread:Anime/Game Discussion/@comment-28920940-20170710055810/@comment-38952966-20200516215440

But that's why Stone Ocean's ending is so good: it's bittersweet. The good guys won and even changed their fates, but it cost everything. The ending manages to feel satisfying while not feeling too "happily ever after". It's also a perfect way to close off that continuity, so that the audience is left wondering. Did everything change, or just Stone Ocean? To what extent did things change in this universe? It ultimately doesn't matter because we've left that continuity behind, and we're allowed to wonder.