Henrikson’s 10 Favorite Videogame Endings

Let’s face it, guys – videogame endings suck. In the 30+ years in which our industry has existed, endings have changed in presentation, but not in substance. In 2015, most games still end with a glorified “Congratulations, you win!” ending where the heroes defeat the bad guys and then stand around victoriously, thinking about how everything’s fine and dandy, but there might be some other threat looming in the distance! Seriously, think about it – most videogames just offer either a very standard and generic ending, or one that is so bad and nonsensical that you wish they’d gone with a “Congratulations, you win” screen (looking straight at you, Mass Effect 3). Still, the abundance of subpar endings in the industry only makes it easier to appreciate the ones which are truly exceptional – those that tie the story together satisfyingly while also breaking from the norm and even offering a twist or two. Below are ten endings that dare to offer us something more than our hero(es) looking dramatically towards the horizon. Now keep in mind that this is my own, personal top 10, and as such it is highly subjective. And while I call it a top 10, the entries themselves are not in any particular order – those are just the 10 endings that I find to be the best. You’ll see some popular picks and some that may be a bit contested, but either way – this is strictly my opinion! And, of course – massive, MASSIVE spoilers (duh)! Seriously, only read the entries that you’ve already played or you don’t care about spoilers (I’ve tried to explain it so that even people who haven’t played the game will understand the ending). And, as an added bonus, I’ve also indicated when a game ends with a Sweet Ending Song! Without further ado, let’s dive into the list!

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Not a lot of people remember The Force Unleashed. Which is a shame, considering it’s actually a really, really decent hack n slash game. Interestingly enough, I prefer the PS2/PSP/Wii version to the 360/PS3/PC one, but that’s really down to personal preference and doesn’t affect the ending. Either way, you play as Starkiller – Darth Vader’s secret apprentice and the most powerful Force user in the old Expanded Universe. Darth Vader slaughters Starkiller’s entire family on Kashyyk and then decides to adopt him and secretly train him to be his apprentice so that the two of them can overthrow the Emperor (remember – there can only be two Sith, a Master and an Apprentice). At first Vader only sends his apprentice to kill rogue Jedi, but after the Emperor catches wind of their plans Vader is forced to fake Starkiller’s death before sending him on a special mission. Said mission involves organizing a rebellion that would distract the Emperor for long enough to allow them to strike him down! So Starkiller spends the latter half of the game assembling an all-star cast, including fan favorites such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma (and I may have lied about the ‘all-star’ part). He even manages to find General Rahm Kota – a Jedi that he tried to kill earlier in the game, but only succeeded in blinding him and shattering his dreams of liberation. So the four of them, alongside Juno (Starkiller’s trusty pilot) gather in order to officially declare a rebellion against the Galactic Empire… And then it turns out that Vader was playing Starkiller all along. He never had any intention of overthrowing the Emperor, he just wanted to root out the Empire’s enemies! I think there are easier ways to do that which don’t involve wasting the most powerful Force user who ever lived, but that’s just me.

Starkiller has been betrayed! And worst (best?) of all, he’s actually started seeing the evil that the Empire is doing and the need for a rebellion. Not to mention, he’s grown attached to his allies and has even fallen in love with Juno. Well, luckily, the person who betrayed him and Starkiller’s allies are both on the Emperor’s Star Destroyer, so it’s like hitting two birds with one stone! The young Force User launches a desperate one-man assault, cutting down wave after wave of the most elite soldiers the Empire has at their disposal! Eventually he reaches the throne room, but Vader isn’t just going to let his former apprentice kill his master. What follows is a truly epic three-stage battle during which most of Vader’s armor breaks apart, crippling him, yet only making him angrier and more powerful. Finally, Vader is on his knees, and Starkiller is faced with a choice – finish his old master off or spare him and save his allies. In the canon “light side” ending he chooses the latter, squaring off against the Emperor himself and managing to hold off his immense power for just long enough so that his allies can escape. Unfortunately, Starkiller dies in the process, but as Vader points out, that just makes him more powerful than ever. Rallying behind their martyr, the allies unite on Kashyyk and finally make an official declaration of rebellion, giving birth to the Rebel Alliance! Not only that – on the suggestion of none other than Princess Leia Organa herself, the crest of Starkiller’s family on Kashyyk becomes the official symbol of the Rebel Alliance! And just as Juno is mourning her loss, Rahm Kota reveals that he always knew that the young rebel he mentored was the same dark Jedi who blinded him, yet only agreed to help because amidst all of Starkiller’s dark thoughts there was one huge bright spot – Juno herself. The two of them remain mourning, yet optimistic about the future as John Williams’ classic score plays them out, ending one legend and beginning another.

Until the sequel when Starkiller comes back as a clone. That was a bummer. Don’t play it.

Sweet Ending Song: No

2. Assassin’s Creed: Rogue

I have to admit that I’m a huge sucker for the Assassin’s Creed games – whenever one comes out I just can’t help but eat it up, even if it’s just a spinoff title. So late last year, when all eyes were on Assassin’s Creed: Unity, I instead decided to check out the last-gen title that pretty much everybody neglected, and thus I was one of the very few people who experienced this awesome ending close to launch. Let me tell you, the worst feeling in the world is knowing about something truly awesome and not being able to talk about it! Well, to be fair, maybe there are worse feelings in the world, like starvation, burning alive or being subjected to Nicki Minaj songs, but I digress. While Unity takes place in revolutionary Paris, Rogue returns us to the North Atlantic for some good old piracy action! The game, taking place after IV but before III, effectively making it a pre-sequel (because the word “interquel” is so last-gen), places you in the shoes of assassin Shay Patrick Cormack. Over the course of the first act he grows disillusioned with his order, seeing them more as just trying to be a thorn in the side of the Templars (their sworn enemies) rather than protectors of freedom like they’re supposed to be. When he sees them destroy a city, Shay decides he’s had enough and quickly switches allegiances, joining the Templar cause in order to hunt the Assassins down. And he does, eliminating them one by one, leaving the Order in the state that it was in III – devastated, with only one wounded Mentor living alone.

But that’s not the cool part. The cool part is that after that ending the game fast-forwards to about 20 years later, after the events of III have played out. We see Shay in Paris escorting Mr. Benjamin Franklin on a diplomatic mission to Versailles. What Mr. Franklin doesn’t know is that Shay has his own mission, and it’s not nearly as diplomatic. Once he makes his way into Versailles, he quickly tracks down a prominent assassin by the name of Charles Dorian and puts an end to his life. With his dying breath, Charles says that everything Shay accomplished in the game was ultimately undone by Connor in III (making it the only case in the history of gaming where the player undoes his own achievements) and that his American Revolution removed the Templar control over the colonies. Shay’s response is simple – “Then perhaps we’ll have a revolution of our own”. Just then, Charles’ young son Arno finds his father’s body. If you haven’t figured it out by now, Arno is the main character of Assassin’s Creed: Unity. So yes, the ending of Rogue is literally the beginning of Unity. The two games, which were supposed to be completely separate, were united in the most awesome of ways, thus also connecting the last-gen era of the franchise with the new-gen one. And I love it!

Sweet Ending Song: No

3. Bioshock Infinite

Oh boy… This is going to be a tough one to explain. Honestly, I debated with myself whether to include Bioshock Infinite or Virtue’s Last Reward on this list, simply because both games deal with the multiverse theory and end with a myriad of twists and revelations thrown your way, but ultimately decided to go with Infinite simply because that game presented its twists more stylishly. Infinite follows the story of Booker Dewitt, a private eye sent to the floating city of Columbia to find a girl named Elizabeth in order to pay for his gambling debts. “Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”, his mysterious client says. As it turns out, this Elizabeth girl is super important, as she’s not only the daughter of the religious zealot in charge of Columbia, but she’s also able to open rifts to other universes – same as our own, yet different. She can pull objects from these worlds, and she can even transport Booker and herself there. But no matter where they go, the duo can’t escape the wrath of Comstock – the zealot mentioned above. So, after a long, long journey with countless of shooting galleries where you need to kill everyone before proceeding, Booker finally manages to kill Comstock. Happy ending? Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that. Using her power, Elizabeth opens a tear to Rapture, the setting of the original Bioshock, and that’s where things get trippy. For you see, as it turns out Comstock is really Booker from an alternate universe – one in which he accepted a baptism that Booker denied.

So, just to keep everything straight – Booker and Comstock are the same person, but they were defined by the baptism. Half of the Bookers in the multiverse accepted it, turning into Comstocks, and the other half denied it and remained Bookers. You still with me? Okay, doesn’t matter. “But wait”, you may ask. “Wasn’t Elizabeth Comstock’s daughter? Doesn’t that make her Booker’s daughter?” Actually, yeah, but since this is Bioshock Infinite things are a bit more complicated than that. See, Comstock has been experimenting with technology to travel to other universes, but has rendered himself infertile in the process. In order to obtain an heir, he goes to an alternate universe where Booker had a daughter and then “buys” her. That’s right – “Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt” was never referring to Booker rescuing Elizabeth from Columbia, it was referring to him giving up his little girl. So, at the end of the game, when Elizabeth becomes nigh-omnipotent and is able to see into all the universes at once, she decides that all the Comstocks must be destroyed at birth. So how do you kill the Comstocks while letting the Bookers live? Simple – you go back to the baptisms. The game ends with Elizabeths from all kinds of different universes drowning Comstock at the place of his baptism, and it’s implied that the same thing happened to every other Comstocks. But no Comstock means no Elizabeth, as there’s suddenly no one to raise Booker’s daughter into becoming Elizabeth. So she essentially erases herself and the city of Columbia in the process. Whew! Did you keep up with me? Don’t worry, I know it’s a lot to wrap your head around, but the funny thing about it is that when you really think about it, when you really get multiverse theory, it actually becomes quite simple. Bioshock Infinite is one of those games that really makes you think to understand its concepts, and it does so while throwing a buttload of jaw-dropping revelations at you. And we don’t get nearly as many endings like this in videogames.

Sweet Ending Song: Kind of – a cover of Will The Circle Be Unbroken plays at the end of the credits

4. Prince of Persia

Not enough people played this absolute gem from 2008, which is truly a damn shame. Not every Prince of Persia game has to feature the Sands of Time Prince, folks! There were entries in the franchise before him, you know! But anyway, the 2008 Prince of Persia title follows the exploits of a nameless protagonist who’s a thief, a tomb raider and an overall rather despicable, yet charming adventurer – think of him as the Indiana Jones of ancient Persia. During a sandstorm he loses his donkey and all of his gold, but meets Elika – a girl with magical powers given to her by the god Ormazd, who is essentially the god of good. Her mission is to stop Ahriman, the god of evil, from breaking out of his eternal prison by essentially repairing the chains that hold him there. Not wanting to let her go alone, the Prince joins her on her quest to purify the corrupted land, strengthening Ormazd’s influence and weakening Ahriman’s. Throughout the game, the two are chased by Elika’s dad, who has sworn allegiance to Ahriman. As it turns out, the reason for this is simple – Elika is actually dead. To bring her back, her father made a deal with the god of darkness – her life in exchange for his services. As a result, a spark of Ormazd’s power lodged itself inside Elika’s heart and is what’s keeping her alive. How making a deal with the god of darkness gives someone the power of the god of light I’ll never know, but hey, every game should have one get-out-of-plot-hole-free card.

At the end of their journey, the land surrounding Ahriman’s prison has been fully purified and purged of the evil god’s corruption. Also, the prince is head over heels in love with Elika, because you just can’t have two protagonists of opposite genders and close ages and not having them suck face by the end of the game. Finally, all the pieces are in place – the chains are back, and there’s only one thing left that’s missing to seal the deal – a spark of Ormazd’s power. Hmm, if only we had one lying around here somewhere… Oh wait. Oh no. Yes, folks, Elika sacrifices herself, using up the power keeping her alive in order to seal Ahriman for good. In one of the most heart-breaking sequences ever, the prince has to carry the dead body of the woman he loves out of the prison as the credits roll. Well, I guess that was kinda sad, but is it something worth putting on a Best Endings list? Why yes, it is, because the game keeps going after the credits are done. The prince looks around himself, at the chains of light holding Ahriman in place, and even though he doesn’t say a single word you know exactly what he wants to do. Taking back control over the prince, you have to undo your entire progress (huh, guess I was wrong earlier – there are two games in which this happens), severing the chains and bringing corruption back to the land you just purified in order to bring Elika back. And when you do, the prison crumbles to dust – Ahriman is free to essentially destroy the world. When she wakes up, the girl is on the verge of tears. “Why?”, she asks. Why, indeed. Because not every protagonist is a hero. Not every scoundrel can save the world. And not everyone can cope with a personal sacrifice for the sake of millions of nameless people. And now, because nobody was willing to give the game a chance, the Prince of Persia franchise is dead and this dark and depressing ending is how the saga ends. Good job, haters. Good job.

Sweet Ending Song: No

5. Persona 3 Portable

How many endings can you think of where the main character dies at the end? Possibly a lot. How many can you think of where the death happens in the blaze of glory, in the very climax, in some sort of heroic sacrifice meant to save everyone? I’m guessing pretty much every single one. That’s not what makes Persona 3 Portable so great. It’s important to note that some of this also applies to the original Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES, but I’ll mostly be talking about Portable for reasons I’ll disclose later. So, what is P3P about? Well, it’s about death. You fight by shooting yourself in the head. A party member dies halfway through the game and the survivors have to cope with it. Hell, the final boss is Nix – a creature summoned by humanity’s subconscious desire for death! There’s no way to stop such a creature, of course. It takes the whole party working together to stop its herald – the Silver Surfer to Nix’s Galactus. Nix is always around, fueled by the darkest emotions deep within humanity’s heart. There’s just no way to destroy this thing. The only possible way to hold it off is to seal it, and even that requires a sacrifice – the protagonist’s life, and the party’s memories of everything related to their struggle. Of their friendship. Of their love and care for each other.

But the protagonist doesn’t die right away. He or she manages to hold on for a few months, getting weaker and weaker every day, spending most of their days sleeping. On graduation day, the protagonist climbs the roof of the school and waits for their friends, desperately hoping that they would remember. And, miraculously, they do – during the graduation ceremony every single party member regains their memories, and they all rush to the rooftop to meet the protagonist that they had previously ignored. And, on New Game Plus, the first one to get there is none other than the protagonist’s love interest, who manages to hold their beloved tight as they pass away. And finally, the last interaction you ever do with the game is closing your eyes and drifting away. But the ending isn’t depressing, at least not for me – while the main character dies, they do so surrounded by the people who care for them, and are departing this world a hero who managed to save humanity from itself. I know this description was kind of vague, but in a game where you get to choose your protagonist and your love interest, there’s just no way around it – while Persona 3 and FES have just one ending, Portable has a variation for every single party member, depending on who ended up becoming your love interest. And it is beautiful every single time.

Sweet Ending Song: Yes – Memories of You

6. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

When a “re-imagining” of the first Silent Hill game was announced, I don’t think anyone really expected it to be even remotely good – the last few games in the franchise were bombs, the developers were mostly known for ports and spin-offs, and what the hell is a “re-imagining” even supposed to be, anyway? In any case, the few of us who gave Shattered Memories a chance found out that it’s not just good – it’s really good. Once again you play as Harry Mason, a father whose daughter Cheryl goes missing after a car crash and he has to find her in Silent Hill – a town that, in this version, is covered by snow and practically frozen over. From time to time, your gameplay will be interrupted by therapy sessions in which you’ll control a protagonist from a first person perspective and perform various tasks appointed to you by a psychologists. And these therapy sessions influence the main game in the strangest ways – for example, early in the game you’re given the task to just color a picture of a happy family in front of their house. And in the next chapter Harry reaches his home and finds out that it’s painted in the exact same colors as the picture. So the question is, did the picture somehow influence the house, or did whoever painted it use their own house as reference? You never know, because reality constantly keeps fracturing, changing and twisting, making you doubt that any of this is even real. Like, when Harry tries to enter his home, he’s greeted by an elderly couple who have supposedly been living there for many years. Nothing makes sense, and Cheryl’s still nowhere to be found.

At the end of the game, Harry finally finds out where his little girl is – in the lighthouse, just like in the original Silent Hill. He travels there by boat, and when that’s no longer an option because of he ice he runs over it and then swims all the way to the little island with the lighthouse. Just as he gets there, though, he’s confronted by Sybil – the police officer who has been chasing him throughout the game. She tells him that, as it turns out, Harry Mason has been dead for quite some time now, having perished in a car crash. Harry refuses to believe that – he’s still right there, in the flesh! After getting Sybil’s blessing, he continues to the lighthouse, which, as it turns out, is actually a clinic. And when Harry climbs it and enters it all makes sense. As we switch back to the first person therapy sessions we see the psychologist practically having a fit of anger, accusing his patient of being unable to let go and telling them to “Wake up!”. There is no Harry. Harry died in the car crash. He doesn’t exist. But if that’s true… then why does Harry walk through the door? The camera finally turns around to reveal our patient, who of course turns out to be a grown up Cheryl. Now, there are several interpretations of the ending, but the one that makes the most sense to me is that everything took place in Cheryl’s head – she imagined her father braving monsters, running through deep snow and ice and just being the hero she always thought he was in order to come save his little girl. As she finally accepts that this version of Harry is nothing but an illusion, he slowly turns to ice and disappears. Cheryl finally lets go of her father and is able to move on with her life. Now, I guess some people would be pissed off with the “It’s just a dream!”-like explanation for the game, but honestly, I didn’t mind it one bit. Because while none of this was real, it did represent the deepest aspects of the main character’s psychology and gave them a physical form – you know, like a Silent Hill game ought to do. It’s just that the main character wasn’t the one we actually played as. And when everything is over, Cheryl is actually enriched as a character as this particular chapter of her life comes to a close, so it’s not like the dream was inconsequential for her. And best of all – the “It’s just a dream” twist is heavily foreshadowed throughout the game and completely justified in the narrative. So at the end of the day this isn’t exactly Super Mario Bros 2.

Sweet Ending Song: Yes – Hell Frozen Rain or Acceptance, depending on which variation of the ending you get.

7. Metal Gear Solid 3

This is one of those entries that just pop up on literally every single “Best Endings” list, no exceptions. And let me tell you, there’s a very good reason for that! Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, despite its suggestive name, is one of the best games of all time – some would even argue that it’s downright perfect. I wouldn’t go that far, but the ending definitely struck a chord with me. The main character is Naked Snake – a secret agent during the Cold War who needs to infiltrate a jungle in Russia (because, you know, there’s just so many jungles in Siberia) in order to assassinate another secret agent, known as The Boss, who has gone rogue. Only problem is, The Boss is kind of like a mother to Snake – she took him under her wing and taught him everything he needed to know to become the badass he is today. So naturally it’s not exactly an easy task for him, but it’s either that or an all-out nuclear war, for you see, The Boss allegedly fired an American-made nuclear weapon against the Russians, who are obviously on the verge of firing some missiles back. So, in order to prove their innocence, the States must kill The Boss, and Snake is the one sent to do it, because there’s just no one else good enough for the job.

So, after dozens of hours of eating snakes, enduring torture and flirting with a femme fatale sent in to assist Snake, he finally comes face to face with The Boss. The two have an absolutely devastating battle in close and long range, but eventually Snake comes out victorious. With her dying breath, The Boss asks you to kill her… And you do. No, I’m not saying Snake did it – you, the player, have to physically press the fire button and execute The Boss. Immediately afterwards, the agent comes to a rather shocking conclusion – his mentor was innocent all along. While The Boss did provide the Russians with nukes, it was all part of a secret mission involving faking defection and infiltrating the ranks of a mad colonel. Said colonel is the one firing the nuke on Russian soil, making the situation very awkward for everyone involved. To save themselves from the national incident that would occur if they reveal that they sent one of their own agents to infiltrate the Russians at the height of the Cold War, the government simply decided to eliminate The Boss as a traitor. In the final moments of the game, Snake is awarded a medal for his service and the title Big Boss. But by that point the young agent had lost faith in his own government, even refusing to shake the hand of the CIA director. Silently, he walks out of the ceremony and goes to The Boss’ grave, which isn’t even marked with her name, then salutes her and sheds a single tear. The punch to the gut is double when you realize that Big Boss is actually the main villain of the Metal Gear franchise as a whole, and that this scene right there is essentially his start of darkness, and the reason why he did everything he did later in life. Ouch. Talk about a downer. It surely can’t get any more depressing than that, right?

Sweet Ending Song: Not really, but the Ending Theme is heart-wrenchingly epic.

8. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

This isn’t the first time I’ve praised the ending of Fatal Frame 2 – in the top 5 horror games list I called it “one of the most fitting endings in all of gaming”, and I still stand by this statement. It’s just so… perfect. Let me explain. Crimson Butterfly follows the story of Mio and Mayu – a pair of twins who, after going to their favorite playing spot from their childhood, find themselves lost and end up in the lost village – a place full of ghosts and visions. As it turns out, the village was built next to what’s basically a giant hole in the ground that connects the underworld to the… overworld, I guess. In order to keep the spirits happy and the world turning, every generation a pair of twins must be sacrificed to the void. The sacrifice is done in a very peculiar way, however – the older twin must strangle the younger and throw her body in the pit, where her soul turns into the titular crimson butterfly. Except during the last generation things went horribly wrong, as one of the twins escaped and the spirits were not happy about this whatsoever. Now that they’ve got a new pair of twins to play with, their goal is to make sure that the ritual is fulfilled so that the souls of the villagers may finally find peace. Mio and Mayu, not content with becoming a killer and a victim respectively, desperately try to find a way out. Except there isn’t one, not for them. Even when they manage to find an escape route, the spirits just refuse to let them leave without completing the ritual. Desperate to save her sister, Mayu sacrifices herself and dies by Mio’s hand, her soul turning into a crimson butterfly and flying away alongside the souls of every single girl ever sacrificed. Meanwhile, Mio chases after them, shouting that she’s sorry, but it’s too late. The curse has been lifted, the lost village is no longer lost and Mio is free to go. In the last shot of the game, she merely falls to her knees staring at the butterflies, leaving her final fate unknown, but we’re supposed to presume that she will survive.

This ending (which, I should point out, is the canonical one – as with most horror games there are several non-canon ones) is so simple, and yet so very fitting. It’s widely known that horror shouldn’t have a happy ending, but so many horror IPs in general, whether it’s games or movies, seek to enforce that rule with some random coincidence killing off the main character at the end. In Crimson Butterfly, Mayu’s death is foreshadowed throughout the whole game – the ritual is at the core of the story, and we’ve been told repeatedly that there just isn’t another way to escape. What’s more, the protagonist of the game, Mio, actually manages to survive. She’s emotionally wrecked and without her twin, but is alive after the terrible ordeal. She came out on top, and yet she still lost. That’s how horror should end – with the protagonist sacrificing something in order to survive, and that sacrifice has to make sense. Honestly, to this day I don’t think I’ve seen a horror game ending more brilliantly than Crimson Butterfly.

Sweet Ending Song: Yes – Chou

9. Transistor

This game is just… Wow. Damn near perfect. Even though it didn’t get my Game of the Year award, I’d still call it my personal favorite of 2014, as it’s an experience that I’ve gone through three times already, and I can see myself going back to at least 30 more in the future. Now, keep in mind that the story of Transistor is rather vague and open to interpretation. Nothing is what it seems, and you’re mostly left to draw your own conclusions, so what I’m about to describe is my own personal interpretation. It could be right, but it might as well be terribly wrong, yet either way, the ending isn’t any less beautiful. The main character, a singer named Red, is living in what I believe to be a world on the inside of a hard drive – a complex system of data and bytes where anything can be rewritten with the proper line of code. Well, what happens when this hard drive is erased? The Process happens, personified in different types of creatures sent to physically annihilate everything and everyone in their path. Red knows about the Process and desperately tries to warn people away with her songs, but nobody listens. What’s more – she’s not the only one who knows. A group of people only known as the Camerata want the Process to erase everything, so that they can use a mysterious weapon known as the Transistor (that suspiciously looks like a pendrive) in order to rewrite the world in their own image. Now, the Transistor works in a rather peculiar manner – if we think of the world as a 1TB hard drive, the Transistor would be an 8GB pendrive. It’s still a place where the various inhabitants of the world can live, but they can only go there once their data has been absorbed. The game starts with the Camerata attempting to assassinate Red with the Transistor, yet a man (who I believe is her bodyguard) sacrifices himself, locking his own soul into the sword in order to spare her. Well, Red manages to acquire the Transistor and, with the man’s help (he talks to her through the sword), decides to stop the Camerata and save what’s left of the world.

And she does. After a long and perilous journey she manages to defeat each member, locking their souls (and the souls of every casualty of the Process) into the Transistor. But there is no way to stop the Process, and while Red manages to spare herself, the world is gone, and all of its inhabitants are in the Transistor. It’s not all bad, though, as the sword’s true power is now unlocked, giving Red the power that the Camerata desired so much – the ability to reshape the world in whatever way she wants. She essentially becomes a goddess. She can create something out of nothing. But that’s not what Red wants. All she creates is a pathway to the body of the man whose soul, stuck in the Transistor, had been guiding her and helping her on her journey. She lies down next to his corpse. The man realizes what she plans to do and desperately begs her not to, imploring her to just… live. With one final command, Red turns the Transistor on herself and commits suicide, uploading her consciousness into the pendrive world so she can be reunited with the man she had grown to love. There’s nothing left for her out there. Just an empty hard drive, a blank canvas. Everyone she’s ever known is in the Transistor, and that’s exactly where she wants to be. This ending touched me on so many levels. Just like the game itself, it is absolutely perfect.

Sweet Ending Song: Yes – Paper Boats

10. The Last of Us

There it is, guys. The big one. What many consider to be the best videogame ending of all time. Everything, the entire game, has been leading up to these few moments. And it is brilliant! The Last of Us tells the story of Joel – an average suburban dad in his early 30s taking care of his young daughter Sarah… when the zombie apocalypse happens. Despite his best effort to protect her, Sarah ends up getting shot by a very human soldier and dies in Joel’s arms in what is probably the most heartwrenching scene in gaming history. Fast forward to 20 years later when Joel has basically degraded into a common thug working behind the back of the US government, who have essentially declared martial law in a desperate attempt to keep what little is left of their population safe. When most of his merchandise ends up with a resistance group known as the Fireflies, their leader gives him a rather intriguing offer – he gets double than what he lost in exchange for a simple smuggling job. Left without much choice, Joel agrees, but much to his surprise the cargo he’s supposed to smuggle out of the city is a 14 year old girl called Ellie. As it turns out, Ellie is immune to the fungus causing the infection and is being taken to a Firefly lab where she can be tested in an attempt to develop a vaccine. Unfortunately, when they get to the rendezvous point the Fireflies are all dead. After losing his partner, Joel decides to take Ellie on a cross-country trip in order to get her to the remaining Fireflies and get that vaccine made!

It doesn’t take a master storyteller to figure out what happens next – Joel and Ellie, while not too fond of each other at first, gradually find common ground. Their friendship turns into love as Joel sees his long-lost daughter in her, and at the end of their one year long journey the pair have become closer than ever. They survived perils beyond belief and saw wonders beyond imagination, as a documentary narrator would put it. And finally they get to the final Firefly outpost, which turns out to be their biggest one. Once there, Joel is knocked out. When he awakens, he’s told by the leader of the Fireflies herself that now that Ellie’s there, the chances of them actually stopping the disease have increased exponentially. With a vaccine in distribution, it’s only a matter of time before society is back on track. But in order to develop the vaccine the doctors need to study Ellie’s infected area… which is the brain. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s the right one, so with a heavy heart Joel leaves the lab quietly, having lost his daughter once again in order to save humanity. Oh, wait, did I say he leaves quietly? I meant he slaughters every single person in there, including the leader of the Fireflies, killing humanity’s last hope for survival in order to save his adopted daughter. On their way out, Joel lies and tells Ellie that the Fireflies just gave up, that they can’t develop the vaccine and thus didn’t need her anymore, lying to her in order to protect her. Some time later, the two of them are hiking in order to get to a community where they can be safe. Just before they go in, Ellie asks Joel to swear that everything he told her about the Fireflies having given up is true. Joel swears to her. And Ellie just says “Okay”. She knows she’s being lied to, but chooses to accept said lie in order to continue her relationship with her surrogate father. And that’s just… Wow. I don’t even know what to say, just WOW. This is one of the greatest endings I’ve ever seen not just in a videogame, but in everything! It fits the story so well, matching the dark tone while also staying true to the characters and providing an amazing twist. Honestly, when I first beat the game I thought that I had gotten a bad ending or something, because how many games canonically sacrifice humanity for the salvation of one person? And sure, you can argue that Prince of Persia did the same, but that ending was more of a sequel hook, while The Last of Us ends very definitively. It’s just… Brilliant. Here’s hoping that the gaming industry as a whole learns from this game and starts delivering endings that are a notch better than “Main character stares at the sunset”.

Sweet Ending Song: No

So, what do you think? Do you agree with my list? Also, what is your favorite ending? Let me know in the comments down below, or on Twitter – @ChrisHenrikson1!