After more than a year of TheGamer staff answering some weird and wonderful questionsevery single weekend, we’re saying goodbye to The Big Question format as we know it and moving on to bigger and bolder things. Don’t worry, we’ll still be answering the truebiggestquestions,like which Pokemon we’d smash.
In the spirit of things coming to a conclusion, we thought that it’d be fitting that the final Big Question be all about our favourite endings in gaming. Whether they be happy, sad, or exciting, here are TheGamer staff’s favourite video game finales.
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Kingdom Hearts 2
What would The Big Question be without me talking aboutKingdom Hearts? Sora’s adventures often get a bad rap for being overcomplicated and leaving plot threads open, which is certainly true the further into the series you get. Kingdom Hearts 2, however, knew exactly how much to leave open to the imagination, like Mickey’s letter to Sora, while also acting as a satisfying conclusion that didn’t feel like it was asking the player to wait a million years to see what was next.
After the gut-punch of an ending that the first game had, there was nothing sweeter than seeing Sora finally reunite with Kairi and Riku on Destiny Islands, with plenty of hugs and smiles to go around. All that pure joy while the most beautiful rendition of Sanctuary plays is enough to get me teary-eyed writing about it.
The Last of Us
Andrew King, Features Editor
While writing this I pulled upThe Last of Us' end credits on YouTube and immediately got emotional listening to Gustavo Santaolalla’s “The Path (A New Beginning),” the melancholy acoustic guitar track that plays after Joel and Ellie’s final conversation. I’m a big fan of ambiguous gut-punch endings, and The Last of Us might be my favorite. Joel’s decision to lie, Ellie’s decision to believe it — I had loved the game until then, but the tricky, emotional balancing act of this final beat was what solidified it as an all-timer.
Half-Life: Alyx
James Troughton, Cross-Department Editor
Alyxwas billed as a prequel about City 17 before Gordon Freeman’s arrival, back when the rebellion was in its infancy and the Combine was still building its presence. Yet, at the very end, we arrive at a giant prison suspended in the air that, as it turns out, was built around the G-Man. He let himself get captured, all to test Alyx and offer her a chance to change the future and save her father from death, rewriting Episode 2’s cliffhanger.
The prequel turned into a sequel at the last possible moment, and the shock of reliving that pivotal scene all these years later, now an adult instead of a snot-nosed seven-year-old, in a completely different medium, brought me to tears. Hearing her cries again, and then her father’s heartbreaking in real-time as she was ripped away from him, crushed me. Yet, those tears turned to uncontrollable excitement when I was handed a crowbar, a crowbar I’ve still yet to swing at any Combine. Hopefully, that’ll change soon.
Dragon’s Dogma
It’s difficult to narrow down my favourite ending in a game, or rather, it’s all too easy to sayNier ReplicantorNier: Automatabecause the layered endings twist the narrative around on its head and make you question your entire playthrough in such a clever way. Instead, I’m going to pickDragon’s Dogmabecause I liked a certain mechanic it employed.
The ending overall is a little convoluted, especially as there are a few outcomes, so I won’t dig into everything. Essentially, the Arisen (that’s you) goes to defeat the Dragon, the Dragon isn’t really the baddie. The Seneschal is. If you defeat this god-like being, you take its place. Even if you choose to take the Godsbane and kill yourself once you’re the Seneschal, you seemingly start the cycle of Arisens and dragons anew, though your pawn (your NPC buddy) has taken your place, in your body, as the Arisen.
The real thing I liked about this ending, is that when you play through again after beating the ending already, the Seneschal at the end is no longer the same character model. Instead, the model of the last player who defeated them is in their place, perpetuating the idea of this neverending cycle where a new Arisen takes their place.
Final Fantasy 15
Ryan Bamsey, Evergreen Editor
I know thatFinal Fantasy 15is something of a controversial entry in the FF canon, but something about its ending has stuck with me for years. FF15 is, at the end of the day, a heartwrenching tale about the bonds of friendship - underneath the flashy effects and the mess that is the game’s entire production history, there is a deeply emotional throughline that sticks the landing, and after so many hours, the journey is over.
A final campfire sequence and a slideshow presentation of photographs taken over the course of your adventure are underlined by Florence and the Machine’s stunning rendition of Stand By Me. It’s scientifically engineered to make you cry. I’m tearing up thinking about it.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
James Kennedy, Specialist
If games are art, and I think they most certainly are, then their capacity to move you should be invaluable. Sayonara Wild Hearts’ final stage reframes the entire game, and becomes a stunningly powerful message about self-acceptance, self-forgiveness, and moving past conflict instead of further embroiling yourself in it. It tells an impactful story without a single word being spoken and manages to be incredibly uplifting, while simultaneously devastating.
Backed by glossy visuals, and a stellar, upbeat track, Sayonara Wild Hearts’ final stage is a feast for the senses. It manages to outdo the incredibly memorable introductory stages, and helps the game finish on a high note. Even now, years after completing it for the first time, my mind will occasionally wander back to the final moments of Sayonara Wild Hearts. Because Wild Hearts Never Die.
Bastion
Joe Parlock, Tabletop Editor
It’s been years since I last playedBastion, and I couldn’t tell you most of what happened. But I do remember that final, silent march through hordes of enemies as you carried your former enemy to safety. It was a beautiful, poignant ending to a game all about learning to forgive, made all the better by the stunning song Mother, I’m Here. While there have been bigger, more explosive endings since, I can’t think of one that so perfectly summed up everything a game is as well as Bastion’s.
Resident Evil: Village
Branden Lizardi, Evergreen Editor
Protagonist Ethan Winters may not have been the most memorable or interesting character with his debut inResident Evil 7. But in Village, he shined. His drive to find his daughter, mixed with his ongoing frustration with the obstacles in his way, reinforced a narrative tension that felt both dramatic and relatable (as relatable as anything in that story can be). By the end, Ethan was pissed. But not even fungal creatures with the power of a god would stop him.
It all built up toward a dramatic conclusion that shows the lengths a parent would go to for their children. It was exciting but melancholy. A bittersweet victory that ended in both defeat and success. It was heartbreaking. And while I wish it could have turned out differently, I’m sure I would have done the same thing in the end.
It’s certainly better than the boulder-punching one.
Firewatch
I’m one bittersweet motherfucker. I love to have my heartstrings caressed and treated with care, but I also love to have them torn asunder and stomped upon forever allowing myself to get too vulnerable.Firewatchis the perfect distillation of that experience with its tragic opening and how it leads to the unsure love story between fellow firewatchers Henry and Delilah. Both are distant souls trying to find their way in lives that have dealt them a bad hand, finding comfort in loving moments of flirtation and carefree whispers throughout the summer nights.
Final moments have the forest set ablaze as the two of you reunite to escape, with the player expecting to meet Delilah for the first time and perhaps even fall in love. That doesn’t happen. She contacts you on the radio and says pursuing this wouldn’t be right for either of you, or fair on the terminally ill wife you decided to abandon because the idea of responsibility frightened you. Life isn’t fair, and often relationships we desperately want to pursue fall apart from under us, and Firewatch understands that to a beautifully tragic degree.
PowerWash Simulator
Amanda Hurych, Evergreen Content Lead
Yes, before you ask, there’s a narrative ending toPowerWash Simulator. After cleaning a variety of locations and vehicles, you discover that the people who initially contacted you for your power-washing business are time-travelling aliens, and they’ve got you cleaning what is essentially a gigantic world-saving edifice that is covered in muck and grime.
What makes this last assignment and the credits that follow so superb is how long it takes to reach that point. This final level is no joke. Where before, cleaning up ten percent of a location took at most five minutes, cleaning up one percent of this ancient pyramid takes fifteen. It’s a beast of a clean-up. And at the very end, you “save the world” and you’re done with the game. And it’s this moment of sharp reversal, where you might have been getting tired or just bored of washing dirt-encrusted surfaces, and suddenly, you want to keep doing it. After sinking hours into fake-cleaning objects, after performing mind-numbing motions back and forth and side to side for days at this point, the ending makes you want it to never end. You want to keep going and make it all shine. And that is a goddamn glorious ending.
Transistor
Issy van der Velde, Cross-Department Editor
InTransistor, you save the digital city of Cloudbank from a destructive force known as the Process. It seeks to make everything uniform, but in ironing out the creases, it also suppresses everyone’s individuality. But, even with the city restored, the people are still gone. Rather than reign over an empty, beautiful world alone, Red decides to take her own life and go to a blissful digital afterlife with her lover, forever trapped within the very weapon that took his life and her voice. It’s bittersweet, but a powerful choice. After fighting to stay alive the whole game, Red makes the choice to rest.
Portal 2
Justin Reeve, News Editor
In the final moments ofPortal 2, Chell makes a portal on the moon, dragging Wheatley with her, while GLaDOS regains control of the facility, sending Wheatley into space. GLaDOS then explains how they discovered the value of humanity, setting Chell free into a field along with a Companion Cube. The ending is naturally subject to interpretation, but the whole thing is both ironic and strangely satisfying, GLaDOS clearly trying and mostly failing to create a happy ending for Chell. I just love the positive outcome, despite the impending sense of doom.
Lu-Hai Liang, News Editor
I know that many among you favour Arthur Morgan’s tale, but for me, it’ll always be John Marston that has a place in my heart. Growing up on a diet of Westerns, theRed Dead Redemptionwas a dream come true. Here was the chance to roam the prairie, the moody towns, the saloons thick with atmosphere, and the scrubland as a rootin’ tootin’ outlaw. Voiced superbly by Rob Wiethoff, Marston was my companion across many moons as we galloped together on his quest. The ending is so bitter and perhaps the finest thing Rockstar has ever done.
After completing his debt to the proto-Feds, you play some idyllic missions as Marston returns to his ranch. But it’s all a set-up. Marston is betrayed. Years later, his son seeks revenge, and the final story mission isn’t even a main one, it’s just there as a side quest. The credits roll and you are left with the unmistakable feeling that Jack is not fully redeemed. That revenge is but a shallow replacement for the void that’s left by his father’s absence.
