Favourite Final Level?

[sextus the crazy]

The Halo 3 ending was fucking perfect:

Agreed. And One last Effort was a great song to play with it.

Let's see.

Spoiler: fire emblem

Dragon's gate was pretty difficult for a first time player. The music (Area, boss 1 & boss 2) is excellent and the fighting with the revived bosses from the game is both a nice conclusion and a difficult challenge.

Spoiler: fire emblem: awakening

You get to fight on the back of a fucking dragon against your evil parallel universe self.

Also, that music:

Spoiler: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors

It's the most emotionally charged Sudoku puzzle you will ever do. Which is fucking hilarious.

 

[Auron225]

I'm gonna have to go with;

FF IX: The last dungeon was awesome to me because of the little revelations throughout it (Dagger in the boat, etc).

Portal 2: Running from Wheatley and especially HOW you beat him are downright fantastic.

Half-Life 2, Episode 2: As someone else said - it's you and your car against an army. It was damn hard but so satisfying when I finally won.

Pokemon White/Black: It felt a lot more climactic than any other Pokemon game. Racing with N to become the Champion first and just trying to stop him in general - all the gym leaders appearing to help. No other Pokemon game to that point gave me the impression that the world was at stake.

Bioshock 2: Really felt climactic through and through!

 

[The Madman]

Mass Effect 1: Virmire on through to the end is just fantastic both in terms of story and gameplay imo, dodging rockets and fighting krogan and geth by the dozen as I fight my way up the side of the side of a tower with Sovereign looming overhead? Yes please.

Gotta agree with this, the original Mass Effect just had such an amazing ending. Everything from Ilos onwards was just mind-blowing from the fights themselves to the twists and turns of the story, your final decisions, and the glorious space battle you get to witness.

Mass Effect 2 had a neat twist to it with the Suicice mission and all, but it didn't really have a good antagonist in the same way Saren and Sovereign were in Mass Effect 1 plus that whole 'human reaper baby' thing was kinda stupid which holds it back.

 

[Launcelot111]

I'm terrible at finishing games because of anxiety about eliminating future exploration potential among other reasons, so for a few of my favorite games, I've actually never seen the last level.

That said, I loved the last chapter of Resident Evil 4 where the army is theoretically coming to rescue you and you get to do the Krauser fight among other awesome things before you blow up all the genetic abominations and bail (although the damn jet-ski portion added another 10 deaths to my counter...)

Also have to mention To The Moon because of how the game crushes your dreams only to build them back better than ever before

 

[skywolfblue]

Portal 2: The whole last level is simply fantastic, as made obvious by it's title "The Part Where He Kills you". Wheatley "learns" from the mistakes that GLaDOS made in the final boss fight in Portal 1, and his final fight bears some similarity while also being very unique in it's own right. My favorite line being "Holmes vs. Moriarty. Aristotle vs. MASHY SPIKE PLATE!".

Bioshock 2: Elanor joining you in combat is awesome, she's as powerful as a Big Daddy, and can't be killed (only de-summoned), so the last few fights are against a huge army of splicers, quite fun. Watching your harvest or save choice impact and change what Elanor chooses to do is neat. And the ending is beautiful.
+ Minerva's Den DLC ending level. Minverva's Den has it's own completely separate and unique story about a thinking steampunk computer in rapture. After the enjoyable boss fight, the last of the level is heart-tugging trek through the the protagonist's old pictures and memories.

Bastion: This is largely self-explanatory I think. Poor Zulf. The music and narration provide for an extremely moving ending.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

There can be only one awesome final stage.


Not only was this a great final stage, but also the best way to end the Classic Sonic the Hedgehog series.

 

[Chaosian]

I'm going to put my chips down on some of the page's favorites and call in Halo CE and Half Life 2, but also make note of both Metro games and Dark Souls. For 2033, climbing Ostankino tower was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done in a video game - and Metro Last Light's twin climaxes at Red Square and D6 are some of the most epic moments I've ever played through. My recommendation for Dark Souls comes more from the sense of a journey completed; the Black Knight that could massacre you in the second level is now something that you can take all your armor off before and reliably farm without taking a single hit.
Interestingly enough, none of the games I've pointed out have a strong final boss.