Most Satisfying Epilogues in Video Games

laggyteabag

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Another one for Halo: Reach.

You're on a dying planet, assaulted by one of the largest alien fleets that mankind had ever seen at that point. Your partner, the one who stayed behind to ensure your escape had just been killed, and your part to play had been completed. You know what you had to do, so you waved goodbye to your last chance off the planet, avenged your partner, and assumed his role, in an attempt to allow the package that you had just delivered to be safely taken off the planet. The ship flies away, package on board; you had completed your mission, and then the screen fades to black, stranded on that dying world full of glass, fire and aliens.

After the credits roll, and a brief scene hearkening back to the original Halo game, the screen then fades to black once again, when suddenly, you see a familiar orange dust. Your character is then revealed to be alone in an outpost somewhere, surrounded by dead human forces, and with aliens closing in. During the fighting, your helmet gets increasingly cracked, until finally, when you "die", you then throw your helmet onto the ground, and a group of aliens cut you down; not without taking a few with you.

Then, the camera pans back down to your broken helmet on the floor, like it was at the beginning of the game. After a brief pause, the red dust and dirt is replaced by green grass and a clear blue sky. 35 years later, your helmet is still lying where it fell, but the planet had recovered, humanity are recolonising, and a narrator tells you how the tasks, trials, and sacrifices that your character made led to the eventual winning of the war.

It was a fitting end to the franchise at that point. Whilst I am still having fun with the Halo games that are still coming out, I must say, if Halo Reach was the final Halo game, it would have been a perfect end to a brilliant series of games.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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Gone Home - Probably the most emotional ending of any game ever
The Witness - Wraps everything up nicely
Yoomurjak's Ring - Lovely epilogue, very satisfying
 

Bobular

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Was going to say Dragon Age. I like when stories are rapped up and you know how things go on afterwards, too many games/movies end a story with something to start the next story with.

If I'm remembering correctly Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark had an epilogue for each of the characters
and I really liked some of the ones you could get for the end boss
 

Xprimentyl

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I?m gonna say The Darkness has to have my favorite ending. Developer Starbreeze did a brilliant job of making Jackie Estacado?s girlfriend Jenny real and relatable; hell, anyone who played it and had a shred of heart ended up loving Jenny as much as Jackie does. Then, *spoilers, duh* when she was killed early on in the game, it broke my heart like no other and I was completely invested in Jackie?s (my) quest for revenge (ripping the hearts of those fucking bastards? chests was cathartic.) And in the end, after Jackie has clearly condemned his own immortal soul, giving in to the Darkness and its power to kill any and every one of those scumbags who took Jenny away from him, the game ends with a peaceful dream sequence, Jackie laying on a park bench, his head in Jenny?s lap, and she tells him they only have this one moment to say goodbye:

Jenny: ?You have to go now.?
Jackie: ?I don?t wanna go. I wanna stay here with you.?
Jenny: ??I know.?

Fuck?s sake, I?m tearing up now?
 

BrawlMan

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All of the Streets of Rage endings; that goes double for the 3rd game (provided you got the good ending) which feels like an epic conclusion in the trilogy. The city, and world by extension is saved, Mr. X is gone for good, the whole cast get on with their lives, with final shot of them looking at the city from a distance; a call back from the first game. Oh, and a implied relationship between Axel and Blaze, if a viewer pays close attention.

<spoiler=Streets of Rage endings>




hermes said:
Asura's Wrath
snip
Asura's Wrath had me in feels mode. The ending made me tear up even after seeing the epilogue.

Sonic Adventure 2 - The music helps, and at the time, most Sonic fans thought this would be the last Sonic game. I nearly start crying whenever I hear the music. And those words "Rest easy heroes" gets me every time.

<spoiler=Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Ending>
Double Dragon 2 (NES) - If anyone played the arcade version first you already know why. Speaking of Double Dragon, the Advanced version has Marian teaches the twins a lesson of bros before hoes. In layman's terms, she gets them to stop from killing each other provided you are playing in co-op mode.

Honorable mentions to Devil May Cry 1, 3, & 4.
 

BrawlMan

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Ezekiel said:
CoCage said:
Sonic Adventure 2 - The music helps, and at the time, most Sonic fans thought this would be the last Sonic game. I nearly start crying whenever I hear the music. And those words "Rest easy heroes" gets me every time.
I think Sonic and Knuckles did it better with Doomsday Zone. The music was cool and you weren't doing it in rounds between two characters, it was continuous. Sonic also didn't talk yet, thankfully.
I remember the ending for Sonic 3 & Knuckles absolutely, and let me tell you, getting all the chaos emeralds and then the super emeralds was super satisfying. Getting that back at the age of 6, was one of my best gaming moments ever! The thing with S3&K was the epicness to it, and most fans knowing their was going to be another Sonic game. Maybe not the way we thought, but we knew at some point it was going to happen. SA2 was the last major Dreamcast game and what many thought would be the last Sonic game due to Sega bowing out of the console race. When I first heard the announcement back in mid 2000 that the Dreamcast was going to be discontinued and that Sega was dropping out of the console market I completely froze. So that's why SA2 has that affect on me, even though S3& Knuckles is the better game.
 

bossfight1

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Uncharted 4. A wonderful "where they are now" that also has something to build potential future installments off of, though I have no idea if Naughty Dog has any interest in that.
 

The Madman

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Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhall had an exceptional epilogue, so far as written story epilogue can be excellent. A number of companions had different possible epilogue based on your actions throughout the game that were all simultaneously satisfying and even occasionally tragic.

Speaking of which, if you want potentially tragic epilogue Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer had some good ones. Well, good in the sense that the epilogue were what you were looking for from a game and tragic in the sense that sometimes, there just aren't going to be any good endings. Poor Kaelyn.

Finally if you want a playable epilogue, then as mentioned previously Witcher 3 did a great job in giving the player one of three possible playable epilogue. More if you count Blood and Wine as a sort of epilogue as well.

Shadowrun: Hong Kong also has a playable epilogue of sorts in the form of a free dlc released for the game that takes place after the events of the main story. Also quite well done.
 

ksn0va

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Witcher 3's bittersweet ending comes to mind.
Spending the day with Ciri fishing, giving her a piggyback ride and even argue a little before she goes to Nilfgaard(unbeknownst to Geralt). Geralt can even be salty and part with her in bad terms or simply assure her that it's not goodbye forever.
 

Zaltys

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For me, it's games like Earthbound, Undertale and Dragon Quest VII. The ones that allow you to go and talk to everyone you've met at the end, to see how they're doing.

I'm also fond of the Fallout / Dragon Age: Origins / Arcanum / Witcher style of narrative epilogues, where you get to hear what consequences your actions had.
 

Hawki

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While I'm here, I guess I can add the endings to Resident Evil 3 and maybe Outbreak. Both cover the aftermath of Raccoon City's destruction with gravitas, even if the former adds some cheese to the mix.

Oh, and:

CoCage said:
Sonic Adventure 2
Ezekiel said:
Sonic and Knuckles
I've played both, but wouldn't really consider either of them epilogues per se. Sonic Adventure 2 has a final cutscene before the credits roll. It's decent overall, especially since this was before Shadow got over-exposed, and caps off the game nicely, but I don't really consider it an epilogue per se. Likewise, S&K is also satisfying, but again, don't strictly consider it an epilogue. Also the satisfaction comes mostly from the sense of achievement, rather than story per se (even if STH3&K does tell a story, given how each zone is linked via a narrative device, such as Knuckles sabotaging Sonic). That said, if we're looking at the early 2D games, the ending of STH2 knocks it out of the park in terms of emotional punch. Yes, I cried, though finally beating Death Egg Zone might have been part of that.
 

Kingjackl

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The epilogue mission of Red Dead Redemption springs to mind for me. It was s cynical ending in that typical Rockstar way, but also provided a nice cap off of the themes of the dying West and the grey morality of the characters.

Plus, I enjoyed the catharsis of it. Not the simple revenge aspect, that's exactly what they were trying to avoid. But that last lonely ride across the desert tracking down Ross before you end up at the lake. There was a beautifully bleak atmosphere about it.
 

Recusant

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I'll toss in another vote for the Baldur's Gate and Streets of Rage games. And while it was understated and brief, I'll also nominate Thief 3 (and by extension, the series as a whole). It was done mostly through implication, but that befits the series (the endings of the first two games were disappointingly anticlimactic, after all).

This is with the assumption, however, that Aozgolo simply misspoke (well, mistyped). I don't think we're wrong, but...

aozgolo said:
So without further adieu, tell us which game epilogues were the most rewarding for you.
I sincerely hope this just a language familiarity issue; the word you're looking for is "ado". A game without further "adieu" would have no epilogue at all. In the event that this was what you meant, then the obvious answer would be Half-Life.
 

BarryMcCociner

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Does the post-credits talk of MGS4 count?

In most MGS games you got a post-credits "stinger" like this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm_lxeQ6PmM

This is intended to be a shocking scene, you're given three bits of information. Solid Snake is the inferior clone, there's a third clone, and the third clone is president of the United States.

This leaves potential for a sequel and It's honestly a cool idea that they really didn't capitalize on in MGS2.

But the post-credits talk of MGS4?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWTzLgyAUis

The "stinger" here is that Snake quits smoking and decides to finally retire for good and die peacefully.

It's a good epilogue, not just because of sentimentality. It adds a sense of finality, a true ending to the character of Solid Snake.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Zhukov said:
I wasn't all that taken with Dragon Age: Origins but I'll always remember it for having a good epilogue scene. I liked that your character could make plans for what they wanted to do next. For example, I had my character decide to accompany Sten back home to the Qunari lands, then Zevran and Leliana said they'd come along too. All the other characters mentioned their various plans. Had a nice "... and the adventure continues" feel to it.

Witcher 3 had a nice epilogue too. Traditional, but well executed.
For me, I had my Grey Warden make plans to go on adventures with Zevron...and by "adventures" I mean the kind of thing that you can follow over on pornhub.

Xprimentyl said:
I?m gonna say The Darkness has to have my favorite ending. Developer Starbreeze did a brilliant job of making Jackie Estacado?s girlfriend Jenny real and relatable; hell, anyone who played it and had a shred of heart ended up loving Jenny as much as Jackie does. Then, *spoilers, duh* when she was killed early on in the game, it broke my heart like no other and I was completely invested in Jackie?s (my) quest for revenge (ripping the hearts of those fucking bastards? chests was cathartic.) And in the end, after Jackie has clearly condemned his own immortal soul, giving in to the Darkness and its power to kill any and every one of those scumbags who took Jenny away from him, the game ends with a peaceful dream sequence, Jackie laying on a park bench, his head in Jenny?s lap, and she tells him they only have this one moment to say goodbye:

Jenny: ?You have to go now.?
Jackie: ?I don?t wanna go. I wanna stay here with you.?
Jenny: ??I know.?

Fuck's sake, I'm tearing up now?
Ah yes, The Darkness: That game that had a really, really, really good romantic plot. I absolutely didn't tear up reading that and being flooded with memories.