/vr/ Endgames

[Anonymous No.2694314]

What's your favourite classic endgame, /vr/?

It can be a single boss fight, but better go for a memorable final dungeon, a level or set of levels, or other such climactic payoff after a whole game of buildup.

Let's have an Endgame Thread to end all Endgame Threads.

[Anonymous No.2694317]

Northern Crater is "epic".
they really set the mood too. It feels giant in there and the descent down to the boss is amazing.

[Anonymous No.2694323]

Chrono Trigger

[Anonymous No.2694328]

>>2694314
I liked ultemecia's castle. Shit was huge, lots of bosses, felt eerie. Just seemed where you'd expect to find the big time kompression bitch

[Anonymous No.2694332]

I really like FFIV's Lunar Subterranean final dungeon. It's definitely a great capstone on the game. It just feels so right to me.

[Anonymous No.2694335]

>>2694323
Which one? There's like half a dozen possible final scenarios

[Anonymous No.2694342]

Don't mean to keep the Square thing going, but the cathedral in Vagrant Story was awesome: tons of crazy bosses, puzzle rooms and a great mood of general finality.

[Anonymous No.2694353]

>>2694317 >>2694328 >>2694332

Any Final Fantasy final area is gonna be great. It's in the bylines

[Anonymous No.2694357]

>>2694353
The world is Square.

[Anonymous No.2694371]

The Revolution in Battetoads was pretty awesome. The effect stills holds up pretty well too. Shame the boss fight is a bit boring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9kUYlZXz0M

I didn't really get the pun back then though

[Anonymous No.2694406]

>>2694357

Get out Tomino

[Anonymous No.2694468]

>>2694314
It's not exactly what you were thinking, but Lunar 2 has a pretty amazing end game for a 16 bit era RPG.

After you beat the "final" boss and watch the ending there's a bit of a twist. Then you get a whole little epilogue adventure where you travel the world again, get your old party back together and tackle a few extra dungeons. It's really awesome and something I wish more RPGs did.

[Anonymous No.2694475]

Star Ocean: The Second Story's final dungeon was fantastic. Great music (As always, thank you based Sakuraba), memorable boss encounters, just well done in every aspect.
I'M GETTING HOTTTTT
I-I'M ERASING YOU

[Anonymous No.2694492]

>>2694468
I remember this, it was awesome. They hid it pretty well, though, so a lot of people I knew just thought that game had a bad ending.

[Anonymous No.2694493]

>>2694342
What's this? A picture for vagrants??

[Anonymous No.2694515]

>>2694468
>>2694492

Sounds interesting. I've had the PS remake lying around for ages; should I play that one, or go for the original Sega CD version?

[Anonymous No.2694520]

It barely counts since it's like, 1/3 of the whole game, but the final mission in Metal Slug 3 is simply nuts.

[Anonymous No.2694686]

>>2694515
PS. Don't listen to the stupid fucks around here who say the CD version is better.

[Anonymous No.2694706]

Shenmue II's entire last disc is incredible.

It's weird because action-wise the game climaxes at the end of disc 3, that's the final boss, that's where everything comes to a head. Disc 3 is entirely action. And then disc 4 is... mostly walking through a forest. It's so bizarre it's effective. You get the feeling that everything you've done so far is just the intro and this is what Shenmue is really about. There's some massive revelations too. Really the entirety of Guilin is probably my favorite bit in any game.

[Anonymous No.2694721]

Memoria at the end of Final Fantasy IX sticks out for me. It was the first "real" RPG I finished as a kid, and it had such an intense atmosphere. It was an epic payoff for a long journey.

[Anonymous No.2694734]

>>2694332
That music. Just incredible.

[Anonymous No.2694761]

>>2694520
Lets be real here, the vast majority of Metal Slug 3 is simply nuts.

[Anonymous No.2694770]

When I was a kid I played this game all the time. My sister and I would play multiplayer co-op.

One afternoon we had some neighbors over and decided to try to beat the game instead of getting bored after an hour or two (I was probably 7 at the time). Eventually we get to space for the final confrontation on an enormous space station. It really blew my mind at the time.

[Anonymous No.2694773]

>>2694770
Wow I had pretty much the same experience except with Sonic & Knuckles.

[Anonymous No.2694836]

>>2694515
Either is fine. I liked the Sega CD version a lot better because the music sounded better and it didn't have enemies that scaled to your level. The remake has a few extra scenes of no importance and enhanced visuals.

[Anonymous No.2694870]

The last few hours of Xenogears were fucking nuts.

[Anonymous No.2695249]

Yeah, you could go to the Military Base to end it, but this one was harder and felt like you should do it last. Running on in, shooting everyone down, my god I loved it the first time I ever played.

[Anonymous No.2695571]

>>2694353
>memoria

Mah absolute nigga, it spooked me to nightmares when I was a kid

[Anonymous No.2695608]

This is more in the category of bosses, but I love everything about the final boss battle in Kirby's Adventure. The buildup, the music, the plot twist, the music, the technical presentation, the music

[Anonymous No.2695691]

>>2694314
the dark world of Final Fantasy III
those Zande Clones fucked my shit up with their shitty meteo spam

[Anonymous No.2695701]

>>2694314
MGS1 from the Metal Gear Rex boss fight including Gray Fox's death to the car chase at the end is my definite favorite.

Also Castlevania SOTN when you're confronting your father.

>>2694323
Uh yeah, which endgame? There's a bunch of them. If you're referring to the final boss I can understand, even though he really wasn't anything special.

[Anonymous No.2695717]

>>2694770
As far as final bosses go, I really hate that one.

[Anonymous No.2695904]

>>2695608
How did they even do the parallax background stuff in a NES game?

[Anonymous No.2696034]

>>2695904
It doesn't have independent background layers but it can scroll individual lines separately from each other. Sometimes devs also used animation (by swapping tiles) or sprites to simulate parallax scrolling.

[Anonymous No.2696045]

>>2695904
Iwata.

[Anonymous No.2696048]

the boss rush in actraiser.

meeting the triforce in lttp.

super mario world, as ridiculous as that might sound.

and >>2694332

[Anonymous No.2696072]

>>2694515
Personally I think the Sega CD version is quite a bit better. It has more music tracks, more animations and certain sections make a lot more sense in the original.

Like this, the Illusion Woods which in the Sega CD looks like an actual forest where secret passageways are hidden in the trunks of trees. In the remake it just looks like a bunch of bushes and the "hidden pathways" are just bushes you can push out of the way. It's very strange considering there was no reason to make it look that way.

Anyways all that said, the PS version is still decent. If you're going to emulate then certainly go for the Sega CD version. But I wouldn't go out and buy it if that's how you play and already have the PS version laying around.

Also,
>>2694686
These are the words of someone who's never played the Sega CD version. Everyone who's played both says it's better with good reason.

[Anonymous No.2696073]

>>2694314
So here's my beef with "endgame" scenarios in vidya. I don't like them, ever. Endgame is always the least interesting part of the game for me. It's the part that has been telegraphed for hours, you know what is going to go down, more or less, you know you already have all the equipment, all your skills, and you've likely seen all the other vast locations and content the game has had to offer, and now it's down to one last boss in one last dungeon which likely offers nothing new. It's the point of no return and the writing is on the wall. It just feels like going through the motions at that point. This is why, so often, when I play games, I lose my drive once I sense the end is near. Especially on multiple playthroughs. My favorite parts of games are when you're early on, just getting the hang of it, and seeing things in the world that you can't yet do, or places you can't yet access, and wondering what kind of tricks you'll learn and when you're going to learn them. That moment when you finally unlock a new skill or item and have that "Ah-ha!" moment of all the places you can now go back to explore further, it's near orgasmic.

For me, getting there isn't just half the fun, it's like 99% of the fun.

That said, I loved the ending to Skies of Arcadia. The game went nuts with new locations for you to explore, and even cleverly tied them back to the very beginning of your quest on Shrine Island. It was charming, to say the least.

[Anonymous No.2696109]

>>2696072
Here's an example of that same area in the PS remake.

[Anonymous No.2696151]

>>2694721
>>2694353
Those are pretty screens, and Memoria is nonstop pretty, but I don't really rate it as a dungeon. It's very much walk through the screens fight the bosses. The previous few games in the FF series really changed things up at the end.

>>2695701
MGS1 is a good one. Just loved the boxing match and the car scene does a great job of being exciting but also sort of relaxing - like you've done the challenge, have a little shooting to cool off.

[Anonymous No.2696203]

>>2694314
It's got some shitty endgames too, but in Saga Frontier I really got a kick out of Lute's. The airship boarding idea is great already, then you've got this moody location, a giant robot miniboss (actually optional), and fighting the final boss while on the elevator with his support units shooting at you as you go by. (If only the rest of his route had... anything at all)

[Anonymous No.2696213]

Saga Frontier 2.

[Anonymous No.2696234]

I like how Lufia 1 to 3 all end in the same final dungeon, but I have a soft spot for the penultimate dungeon in 3.

[Anonymous No.2696981]

>>2694314
Still the best.

[Anonymous No.2696996]

I like how the pyramid finally opens up in Link to the Past (after being visitable, but sealed for the entire game), following an extremely long and difficult dungeon. As a 7 year old I actually didn't know what Ganon looked like, so the tension was sky-high. Wasn't quite expecting a pigman though.

[Anonymous No.2697034]

This shit right here. Skip to 6:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc6jhcJmPZc

[Anonymous No.2697450]

>>2696213
Agreed

Also Tactics Ogre

[Anonymous No.2697590]

>>2696981
I remember beating this on a NES emulator without savestates.. One hell of a ride.

[Anonymous No.2698523]

>>2694468
Lunar 1 isn't bad either, you get to wander around Meribia and savour the aftertaste of the game

[Anonymous No.2700336]

>>2694314
Alundra's final zone, the lake shrine. loved the place, the sense of loneliness it gave the first time you'd enter the place and the OST. was my first ps1 game, loved it from start to the end

[Anonymous No.2700354]

>>2696981
judging from the board climate tonight you guys are probably going to flip out me for asking, but what game is this?

[Anonymous No.2700357]

>>2698523
too bad the aftertaste is like that of a cheep beer, I really don't get why people jizz over the lunar games, they kinda suck.

[Anonymous No.2700381]

>>2700354
ff3 crystal tower. In ff3 there were no save points in dungeons, you could only save on the world mapand the tower was a rather long dungeon with some strong monsters, if i remember well. You died inside there, you had to redo everything

[Anonymous No.2700439]

>>2694870
Once you get past the awful non-playing text fest, hell yeah.

[Anonymous No.2700538]

>>2700381
It's not like you couldn't return to the world map between the labyrinth and the tower to save and rest. It's not much of a gauntlet at all to be honest. Only the World of Darkness itself has to be done in one go.

[Anonymous No.2700621]

>>2700357
The first game was kinda "Hey, evil needs to be stopped, go and do it, will ya? Everyone else is busy. Oh yeah, some of you are actually important to the main story, but let's keep introducing shitty minor characters instead of focusing more on you."

At least the sequel made it clear that you were involved in the main event simply by dumb luck as opposed to being the only ones around to do anything. It was more adventurous, in that sense. It also handled the key plot points from Lunar 1 (which were padded, so SO much with stupid walkabouts in the first game), so the sequel is the only game in the series you even need to play, really.

[Anonymous No.2700670]

Jet Force Gemini. The Asteroid.

After having to endure the bullshit that was the Tribal hunt, you get treated to the real final level. Juno alone in a maze of tunnels that's both dark and bright, the shadows of enemies on the horizon. Regular bugs. Giant bugs. That music playing in the background. All as a build up to the final battle...

God damn that fight. Mizar ranks as the single most difficult boss I've ever had to face since I started playing games back in the 80s. Through a combination of a random AI pattern and me being dumb enough not to focus on ammo upgrades on my homing rockets, the only way I could survive that fight was if I was lucky enough to blast him out of the sky before he could use that electric attack of his.

Even though the game really ended with a Floyd mission, it was still worth being able to blast Mizar limb by limb.

[Anonymous No.2700674]

>>2694706
When you finally arrive at Shenhua's house and she tells you the name of the tree. Never felt chills like that because of a video game before.

[Anonymous No.2700846]

>>2694493

[Anonymous No.2701296]

>>2694335
I think any would do. It's great how well the illusion of having a say in (literally) the time of the final confrontation holds up.

Is one of the paths supposed to be canonical? Like, beating the game through the Black Omen and whatnot?

[Anonymous No.2701348]

>>2701296
It's a multiverse, so there is no canon. For a while Crono being dead was canon (Radical Dreamers). Canon for Another in Cross is the new ending for DS. Clostest otherwise is the first since that doesn't ruin the epoch.

[Anonymous No.2701354]

Gunstar Heroes has a pretty great final level. Would've been nice to have a checkpoint though.

[Anonymous No.2701408]

>>2701296
>(literally) the time
What the hell does this even mine? Time is time, retard. There's no other way to take except for literally so there's no reason you would have to specify it. I guess you somehow thought you were being clever because Chrono Trigger is about time travel but you're still an idiot because ALL time is literal.

[Anonymous No.2701432]

[Anonymous No.2701437]

>>2701408
Not him but I'm pretty sure he was emphasizing the fact that you decide the time to finish the game in real life (outside of the game), as well as in the game's fictional timeline. If you can think of a better word than "literally" which also provides that emphasis, feel free to share.

[Anonymous No.2701448]

[Anonymous No.2701468]

[Anonymous No.2701491]

[Anonymous No.2701536]

>>2701491
I remember that image being on McDonald's happy meal boxes back in the day, but I don't know where the little toy went.

[Anonymous No.2702141]

>>2694314
Tetris. When the other player throws his GB on the ground and stomps on it.

[Anonymous No.2702154]

I've always loved the Wily/Sigma stages in the Megaman games. It always feels satisfying to fight through the mavericks again using all your upgrades. The levels also tend to be the most challenging and fun to play through. MMX in particular I think has a Sigma Fortress that really shines with some creative boss fights, and despite how easy the game is the last fight with Sigma is challenging enough to make victory feel really good.

[Anonymous No.2702638]

>>2694314
Sonic 2 Sky Chase/Wing Fortress/Death Egg

Sin & Punishment 2 final level and Boss Rush
FF6 Kekfa's Tower
FF7 North Crater

[Anonymous No.2702952]

>>2694721
I was about to post this. I played in this part of the game so much, eventually leveled my main party to level 99. I still have my original save on a "24-in-1" PS memory card.

[Anonymous No.2702958]

>>2702154
I remember borrowing this game from a friend a few years ago after dusting up my old SNES. He told me he never managed to beat it. A week later I told him to come see me because I had something to show him. I beat the whole game in front of him.
He was like "wtf you make it look so easy". I just showed him that it actually is and bosses are essentially just pattern memorization.

[Anonymous No.2702965]

>>2701432
Mein neiger

[Anonymous No.2702971]

G-Darius is the master of atmosphere IMO.

[Anonymous No.2702972]

Surprised nobody mentioned earthbound yet, that's the end fight nobody forgets.

[Anonymous No.2702982]

>>2694314

[Anonymous No.2703181]

its been said, but final fantasy 7. mainly because all the humans died at the end.

[Anonymous No.2703417]

It's so shockin when you first arrive in the Cave of the Past. The music, the atmosphere, and the plot are so desolate.

[Anonymous No.2703419]

>>2694332
FF4 is the quintessential RPG final dungeon for me. It's long, full of optional content, and very challenging. Making your way down into the core of the moon is so intense.

[Anonymous No.2703571]

>>2700439
Eh I liked the story and didn't mind.

[Anonymous No.2703593]

I think Specter Land would be considered a fuckhuge level even by any standard, going through could easily take you over an hour your first time. The final fight is on a different level specifically for the final fight, same with every AE, but it's still an awesome and massive finale to the game.

Brave Fencer Musashi had a great final area too.

[Anonymous No.2703598]

The final "battle" in Monkey Island 2 is my favourite bit in any point and click adventure ever.

[Anonymous No.2704390]

>>2696203
>Not T260G's end game
You were on a massive space ship that the central program crafted around itself so it could go to planet to planet so it could eradicate all life.

The dungeon was the final boss.

[Anonymous No.2707768]

Stepping into the time warp at the Temple of Fiends was pretty epic, especially since it was a one-way trip without an Exit spell. The orbs are lit, and the world is at peace for the most part, but the earth is still decaying, the wind has died, waters rage, and heat scorches the earth. And the only way to fix that is to travel back a thousand years to erase the thing that started it all.

[Anonymous No.2708026]

Fallout2 is great
the whole oil rig is tough as fuck and then guess what? fucking frank horrigan up your ass

after the disappointment that was the master in FO1, it was nice feeling like you really had a FINAL BOSS to defeat

and then fallout 3 and NV dropped the ball again (fucking eden and autumn and then a cutscene where you follow a giant robot without doing anything? lanius is a pussy and pushover, ulysses is just boring)