As the year draws to a close, a lot of people reminisce about 2025 and how the year went for them. There could be some bitterness, some sweetness, or even some apathy towards the events that happened this year and people’s own personal stories. Whenever the new year comes around, I always find myself pondering on how I feel about the year and what I did with it. Was it satisfying? Did I learn something new? Am I a better or more skilled person?
Video games tend to play a role in that for me. Did I find a game that was worth the experience? Was the ending something that left me refreshed? Anguished? Disappointed? The ending of a video game usually has a lot of emotions, but there are typically strong ones that make it most memorable. So, what video games have the best endings?
Now, when I say best ending, I mean an ending that felt good. It’s an ending that was satisfying, that really wrapped up the storyline or gave a sense of relief to players. It’s an ending that makes players want to experience the game again just to get that feeling. I feel that nowadays, a lot of games are live server games that either lack a great story or have continuing stories that haven’t reached its conclusion yet. I play the latter half a lot, so I have many stories that haven’t quite wrapped up completely yet.
But, there are still great games that show great storylines and wrap it up nicely. One game that I think of is Homicipher. It’s a game with multiple endings through various points of the storyline. Each ending gave me a sense of the world, of a branch in time. It did a great job of delivering an ending that satisfied the romance-aspect of the game and the lore-building parts of the game.
Another game that comes to mind for having a great ending is Presentable Liberty. It’s a bittersweet ending. It’s good but so tragic. It’s a conclusion that doesn’t feel good, per se, but it leaves an impact. The story had come to a close. Letters and storylines wrapped up with the player left to contemplate in the ruins of it all. It’s a different take of a good ending, but it’s valuable nonetheless for the impression it left. It’s a game that relied more on its atmosphere and its dialogue which made each character impressionable despite never having a face to any of them.
I feel like a great game also has a great conclusion. In my opinion, it’s why so many games suffer because they make a great intro but a lackluster ending. The journey is important, but so is its destination. I spent all that time and effort and ended up here. Is it a good place? Satisfying? Rewarding? What I feel at the end of the game greatly contributes to how well-made I think the game is. It’s easy to say a few hours in that it feels like a great game. It’s a lot harder after time has passed and the game has ended to say the same. All of these thoughts and emotions contribute to whether a video game has a good ending.
What games do you think have the best endings? What marks a good ending to you? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or in our Boss Rush Discord!
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Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games
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