Most satisfying video game endings (gameplay-wise)?

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

I'm starting this thread because due to the recent release of Saints Row IV, I finally decided to finish my game of The Third, and while I feel it was overall the least good of the SR games I've played (I skipped the original), MAN that last mission was SO much more fun than Saints Row 2's and is now one of my favourite final missions in video gaming. It really felt like it was the culmination of all events from the rest of the game and was everything the final showdown of a game like that should be: all action, guns blazing in all directions, a tight race to beat the clock while climbing a freaking monument, all the while saving members of your gang, including Viola, Shaundi and Burt f'n Reynolds because why the F not?


Also, that song should be in every video game ending. Ever:

[cowbell5000]

Castlvania, lords of shadow fight against satan. Very satisfying. Also, devil may cry Dante's final fight against the demon, using all forms and then flying the plane out.

[Hurbster]

I'm going to have to say Mass Effect. Beating Saren (twice) while the Normandy leads the fleet and that bit where you crawl out of the wreckage - superb. Liked the Suicide Mission in ME 2 as well, but seeing as any decision you made to do with the Collector base got ignored in ME3 tarnished it a bit.

[Mac]

BLOPS 2, Both awesome, then confusing,then WTF then awesome agin.

[FinalGwen]

Definitely agree with SR3. Fantastic mission that had the high stakes, and Jim Steinman music makes everything better.

I'd throw in Metal Gear Solid 3 and all three Mass Effect games as other perfect conclusions.

[Rumble McSkirmish]

Final Fantasy VI: Watching your party members interact with each other with as they escape Kefka's crumbling tower, and then see them as they fly off into a promising future finally freed from the whims of an Omnipotent mad man is a true thing of beauty.

[Viva]

Begins and ends with Mass Effect 2 IMO.

[Topher is Human]

Mass Effect 3's Earth mission where it ends with an endless wave of Banshees and Brutes was amazing, it's the only time I felt it really mattered who you took with you.

All three games had an awesome ending, but 3 felt like it was really testing you after 60+ hours of the trilogy.

Also add in Metal Gear Solid 2/3/4 and Rising. Destroying heaps of Ray's followed by a huge sword fight made Raiden seem badness for the first time.
Then having Naked Snake basically being forced for fight his mentor/best friend to the death in a fight that forces you to rely on the camouflage and CQC that youve had to master all game was as epic as it was sobering.
Then in 4 having the four stage fist fight with the one character to appear in all four games felt like everything was wrapped up.

Plus say what you will about Rising that final, never ending boss fight was insanely difficult!

[Deleted]

Aug 31, 2013 18:07:22 GMT -5 Viva said:

Begins and ends with Mass Effect 2 IMO.

That was the best one, and I think the soundtrack was the icing on the cake. That music gives me goosebumps when I hear it during the ending.

ME1 had a great ending as well. ME3's wasn't as great, but still satisfying in a way.

[Dr. T is an alien]

I dare you to tell me that fighting the Mother Brain in Super Metroid wasn't a blast. I remember thinking "Dammit! I got all the way here and am getting my ass kicked by this cheap bastard!" only to have the Metroid swoop in, save you, and gives you a super gun to kick the Mother Brain's ass with.

[A Platypus Rave]

Aug 31, 2013 15:14:02 GMT -5 cowbell5000 said:

Castlvania, lords of shadow fight against satan. Very satisfying.

I agree with that... which is why the after credits scene really pissed me off as it seems to shit all over it.

[Mike Strike]

Transformers Fall of Cybertron. The final level rapidly jumps from 1 character to another, making the player fight on both sides of the conflict from all angles. From leading the boarding party inside the Ark as Soundwave to fighting the space battle outside as Air Raid to demolishing the Ark's hull as the combiner Bruticus to fighting against Bruticus as Jazz to the final duel between Optimus & Megatron, in which you're the choice of which of the 2 to play as. Ok sure the ending was a cop-out but I ain't even mad, the level itself was so worth it.

[Deleted]

Final Fantasy 10: Braskas Final Aeon. Epic battle with great music.

Ending wise: XCOM UFO Defence is fantastic, the whole Cydonia mission is epic. And that ending!!

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

I agree with most of these. So I'll just add Fire Emblem: Awakening instead of repeating anything.

[Deleted]

Aug 31, 2013 18:07:22 GMT -5 Viva said:

Begins and ends with Mass Effect 2 IMO.

This. I didn't want to look up how to get the best ending, so choosing who would go where at which point and battling through the Collector Base was both tense and exciting. The moment that music hits as your team heads for the base and when I actually got the best ending and the cutscenes that followed were satisfying in the best possible way.

[Phil Parent]

Metal Gear Solid 3 & 4.

The grave site scene.

And the father and son reunion.

I cried manly tears. Storytelling. They should make a movie series. A three parter: MG1/MG2, MGS, MGS4. And then you can make a prequel series.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

New Super MArio Bros. Wii and 3d Land the last Bowser level was great. I want more like that

[Deleted]

Aug 31, 2013 19:31:44 GMT -5 Topher is Human said:

Mass Effect 3's Earth mission where it ends with an endless wave of Banshees and Brutes was amazing, it's the only time I felt it really mattered who you took with you.

All three games had an awesome ending, but 3 felt like it was really testing you after 60+ hours of the trilogy.

From a gameplay standpoint ME2 is a contender, it's so cool how you have to carefully assign tasks to your crew, based on their skillsets and loyalties and all that. But playing through the end of ME3 carried such an emotional, visceral feeling. Literally over one-hundred hours of Mass Effect beating over your head that the reapers are coming, and then there you are fighting them for the last time.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}I just wish it were longer. I say ME2 rivals it because even though the "suicide mission" and the collectors look like kids' stuff after the doom and gloom that Mass Effect 3 brought to the show, I really wish other characters played more of a role in the final battle. I wish there were moments where you're in a pinch and then Grunt saves you, or even if you just saw trickles of your friends in the background, like Wrex wrestling a Banshee, maybe have a final resistance from the remains of Cerberus, then have Miranda come in and kick their asses. I don't know, I just wish it were more inclusive. But still the adrenaline of running down towards the catalyst with a reaper blasting at you is the most intense thing I've ever played through.