We've helped Jessie and the new Order of the Stone fight enemies that ranged from zombies all the way to an enormous Wither Storm that almost wiped out everyone it came in contact with. The adventure pack, the second part to the series, added adventures that singled out the Order of Stone in a weird world where everything is accessible through doors that you have no way of knowing what's behind them. They've done everything from help YouTubers solve a murder mystery to stopping a super computer from destroying a world of mindless zombies. The people behind the world's greatest group of new heroes don't seem to be all that great and it definitely shows with the most recent episode: Episode 8: A Journey's End? which was meant to close out this adventure and pave the way to the Order's new future; but it didn't.
The idea was that the final episode set Jessie's journey home from the infinite doors and finalize the first adventure that the new Order of the Stone took as a team. A betrayal causes Jessie to land himself and the others in a type of competition in which prisoners struggle for their freedom. Sounds cool, right? Well, the story seems completely rushed and the choices are limited to basic decisions rather than something that would fill the void being the very last episode of a group's adventures. The real fault in this episode is the belief that something like the events of the episode, legends of a survivor who was able to escape and the story behind why everyone is in their current predicament, could all be told in about an hour and a half.
There are many aspects of the series that could have tremendously helped this episode, but failed to do so because of lack of input. Jessie and his team are on their way to meet the Old Builders, people who would have had pretty awesome backstories if anyone focused and made time to talk about them, and are later forced into a game of Spleef. The game is rigged so that no one actually wins and are forced to stay in the Quartz mines for all of eternity but that doesn't really stop anyone from having hope; especially with the new Order of the Stone there. The story as a whole and the limited camera time that many of these characters have force the episode to be lackluster but that doesn't make it any less fun to play for the sake of making decisions and seeing the choices that others made.
Like many choices you make throughout the game, the idea is that they will impact the narrative in some way and make the ending turn out differently. It's a nice though, until you're left with the credits rolling and trying to figure out if anything you did really mattered in the end. This is especially dulled by the fact that many characters, like Facemeat and Slab, a a pair of enforcers in the prison, aren't seen enough times to be considered important. These characters are what add light to this episode and, like many of the episode in the Adventure Pack, made it seem like they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Jim Cummings, the voice of Hadrian, on the of the Old Builders, adds the same kind of enthusiasm and spark in his character which is thrown away when you realize that you will probably never see or hear him again. Same goes for either of the other Old Builders as well as any other characters that we've seen in the Adventure Pack regardless of the fact that there are all connected to the corridor of portals.
Fortunately, many of the same elements of the previous episodes, like quick time events and lets you do a bit of exploring, but it almost feels forced. However, the episode does recognize that it is the last in the series and invites a few familiar faces to sit in on the action, giving the episode a sense of nostalgia over all. Regardless of that, the episode ends on a note that there is more to come with Jessie and the gang yet there won't be any more to show us. It's a bit of a shame because throughout the series, there were so many prominent figures and characters that made Jessie who he is now and they aren't drawn from in a way that would have closed out the series indefinitely. Hopefully, we are steered wrong and another expansion like the Adventure Pack will be released and give the Order of the Stone the adventure and dedication that they really deserve.
Closing Comments:
Being the last episode in the Minecraft: Story Mode story, the episode doesn't really close out the story of the Order of the Stone as a whole and really only makes it an addition to one of the many adventures that Jessie will have. It seems a little distant from the kind of heroes that the group wanted to be at the closing of the fifth episode, but it could very well be that they aren't ready for the same kind of adventures that the original Order of the Stone before them had. Hopefully, there will be more added to the story to round out their adventures but if and until then, this episode isn't exactly a fitting end the series as a whole.