Bad ending guide for Road to Empress: An embarrassing and fatal bad ending triggered by performing a disastrously bad pipa routine at the imperial banquet, drawing the Emperor's …
An embarrassing and fatal bad ending triggered by performing a disastrously bad pipa routine at the imperial banquet, drawing the Emperor's wrath instead of his favor.
The Terrible Pipa is a classic bad ending that punishes overconfidence at the imperial banquet. After carefully selecting your dress and making it past the earlier choices, the Banquet Performance branch gives you three options for entertaining the court. Choosing the pipa — and performing it terribly — turns what should be a showcase of talent into a humiliating display. The Emperor does not look kindly on those who waste his court’s time with incompetence.
This ending is surprisingly easy to stumble into because the other two performance options (a simple dance or a stunning song) both lead to continued gameplay, making the pipa seem like a legitimate third option rather than a trap. Players who choose it out of curiosity quickly learn that in the imperial court, mediocrity is not merely overlooked — it is punished. To continue past the banquet, stick with the dance or the song and save your musical ambitions for another playthrough.