Topic: Your Favorite and Least Favorite Game Endings

The ending can make or break a game. Whether it be an impactful final boss fight, a plot twist, a staggering emotional reveal, or just a satisfying resolution to the conflict, the ending is your final impression you take with you. Some of my favorite games are up so high in my mind because of the ending, and on the other hand, some games I consider disappointing because of the way they end.

I wanted to hear some of people's favorite game endings. And we can also throw in our most disappointing game endings if you want too.

Please be mindful of spoilers It shouldn't spoil anything for someone if you just say you liked or disliked the ending, but much detail beyond that could spoil it for those who haven't played. If you want to comment and give detail why you liked or disliked it or how it impacted you, then please use the spoiler black out function — which is beginning and ending the statement with the tags: [ spoiler].....[/spoiler] (just without the space after the bracket)

I'll begin. These are some of my favorite endings that come to mind at the moment (all for different reasons. Each of these endings resonated with me in a different way):
Shadow of the Collossus
The Last of Us
Red Dead Redemption
Portal 2 - the twist with Wheatley turning on you and then the way you defeat him by portaling him onto the moon is just so awesome
Bioshock Infinite - this one just blew my mind and I was thinking about it for weeks, trying to make sense of it. I like endings that make you think
Uncharted 4
The Walking Dead - having to choose whether to shoot and kill Lee or let him turn into a walker, that was tough

Some of my disappointing endings:
Assassin's Creed 3
Mass Effect 3

Nier Automata and Final Fantasy 9 are the best two endings for games that I've played.

FF9's is long but utterly satisfying lol.

@KratosMD The main ending after the 3rd chapter

@kyleforrester87 @KratosMD
I guess one of these days I need to give in and play Nier Automata.
Agree on Danganronpa. Still haven't finished D2, (I'm in chapter 3) The great thing about those games is that each case/chapter is its own surprise ending with mysteries that aren't revealed until the very end of the case, in addition to the mind blowing overall ending to the game.

As far as unsatisfying endings, I agree that there is a direct relationship to the time you invest into the game and the anticipated payoff. Just like you mentioned with Resistance 3 (which I didn't play), my and most people's beef with ME3 was that after so much time and decisions were put in over 3 games, the ending did not really take all that into account and seemed to invalidate all that emotional investment over dozens of hours of gameplay build up.
With Assassin's Creed 3, similarly I felt unsatisfied with Desmond's story. I guess the games ending was reasonable enough, I'm not sure what bothered me about it. I guess it seemed to fall flat to me, after playing 5 games with him and his ancestors.

From the older days I was kind of shocked by the ending in Phantasy Star 2. It was quite something for an 1989 game.

As well as Final Fantasy games are conserned I liked the ending in the 6th game.

Favorite is easily Metal Gear Solid 3. Least favorite would be Mass Effect 3 though to be fair I don't think after all the build up that any ending really could've met what people had come up with in their minds.

I think TLOU and Portal 2 are my favourite endings. I also quite liked the ending for Far Cry 2. Super Metroid had probably my favourite ending of the 16bit era because it actually had an ending rather than just a Congratulations message. I loved the ending of Bioshock Infinite - to be honest, the ending probably saved the game for me as the gameplay wasn't up to the level of the original.

As for poor endings - I didn't really like Far Cry 3, it had a silly choice and neither were very satisfying.

The ending of the Order 1886 was frustrating, only because it was clearly a franchise starter that will never get resolved.

As well as some that have already been mentioned (Last of Us, Red Dead, Portal 2), the end of Silent Hill 2 stayed with me. I think I got the 'bad' ending though. Or if it was the good ending, then I'd hate to see the bad one, put it that way.
I enjoyed Borderlands but the ending was a massive anti-climax, and the second one wasn't much better.

I remember finishing Killzone 3 and being deeply unimpressed by the abrupt ending. It's trucking along at a good pace, then all of a sudden the credits roll. I could be misremembering, but I definitely recall being frustrated by that. Killzone Shadowfall also left me wanting.

The Last of Us has already been mentioned, but that has a fantastic ending. I was also going to say The Last Guardian, but actually, all of Team ICO's games have strong, affecting endings.

Journey is another I'd say has a good ending. I found it to be incredibly powerful the first time I played the game.

Edit: Oh man, Red Dead Redemption is a good shout, too!

I thought of another couple endings that I really thought well done.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - that was a great ending. Very impactful. A charming and innovative game overall and the ending did not disappoint.
Batman Arkham City - I've heard people complain about the ending, but I thought it was great. In fact, perhaps it has been part of why I never could get into Arkham Knight, which sits still in my backlog after playing about 4 hours of it and then abandoning it ... Or maybe it's just because of the Batmobile 😜

To me the ending of a game isn't just the cutscene that follows. It's the lead up to it (boss fight, character development) and the follow through (post-credit scene, choice of music...), that's what makes it memorable.

Favorite Endings:

• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
  Game left me an emotional wreck for weeks. To this day I can't bring myself to replay Crisis Core, as I don't want to tarnish my memory of playing it. I have watched some Let's Plays though and that ending gets me every time...
• Kingdom Hearts 2
  The final boss fight is just incredible. Xemnas is such a fantastic final boss. The different phases of the boss fight blew 13 year old me's mind. Then comes the ending. Sadness. Then there's light. Then 'Sanctuary' plays and hits you right in the feels. In comes one of the most stunning CGI cutscenes I've ever seen...a promised reunion... and just when you feel sad it's all over you receive a letter from the King detailing your next adventure. What a roller coaster!
  The older I got the more I appreciate the brilliance of this ending. The story of Kingdom Hearts is hard to follow, but as I got to play the other games it all makes sense.
  Also back then I seriously believed there was a hidden message in 'Sanctuary'. Listen to it backwards. It gives away key plots of the game.
  He was Ansem! He was Ansem!

-Uncharted 4
The perfect ending. I won't go into it too much, but it gave me closure. I don't need an Uncharted with Nate anymore. The seeds have been planted (!). The chapter has been closed. I'm grateful to see the story through.

-Persona 3
The final hours of that game will never be topped for me. Everyone accepts despair and defeat, but they keep living with the memory so that they can see through their quest. It's a real struggle to get to the final floor of Tartarus (250+ floors!!!) and when you do, you better strap in for the final boss fight.
I guess the ending is open ended. But, I've interpreted it a certain way. Fighting your way up Tartarus, spending an hour+ on the final boss, I too felt tired. I too felt like I just wanted to close my eyes and call it a day.
That ending is poetry in motion. Beautiful.

Least Favorite:

-Persona 4 Golden
I know people love this game, but the ending ruined it for me. Terrible boss fight, awful design and at the end it's like 'yeah whatever, I'm going away now, you proved yourself'.
Ending that follows is generic anime ending. Hated it. Really that's what we're doing after the brilliance of P3's ending?

-Assassin's Creed 3
The ending that basically killed my interest in the story. Whilst I enjoy the games as mindless fun (tick the boxes, be creative). I've never been emotionally invested since. If only we could turn back time...

Can't think of too many bad endings. There's a lot of 'meh' ones, but none come close to those two.

@KratosMD That's my ending though. Which is the normal ending. If they wanted everyone to have that ending it would've been more accessible.
My saves (all 3 of them) also got corrupted, which means I could never go back. I don't intend to ever play it again, so that's my experience. My ending.
As the expression goes 'always put your best foot forward'.

I didn't really like the main cast, whereas P3's has my favorite cast of characters in gaming. I just felt very underwhelmed.

@KratosMD @Gamer83 yes mgs3 was a great ending. Expertly done with the big boss allegiance well told and mind blowing.

My other favourite was streets of rage 1 due to the bad ending oppurtunity and mass effect where the reapers are shown approaching. The reapers at the end had my hairs on end. I literally sat there glued to the screen completely enrossed.

@Fight_Teza_Fight the true ending is incredible. I loved it!

@themcnoisy I'm sure it was. Wish I could've seen it, given the 60+hour time investment . @KratosMD I'll keep that in mind should the game ever come to a PlayStation home console. It's the only way I'd play it again and I do enjoy Persona games in general. That's the issue with multiple endings though, especially if some endings are lacking more than others. People will have a different experience and you open yourself up for criticism. Glad they made it easier in P5.

@KratosMD yeah nice one for that bro. Absolute stonker of an ending. I was like holy s#!% then it all kicked off. One of the best for sure.

Dont worry @fight_teza_fight its all good man, watch it on the intertubes its brilliant. Im doing the same for the ff15 story content which has just been released as Im not replaying that in the near future.

@Fight_Teza_Fight @KratosMD @themcnoisy
It's an interesting point - how multiple endings run the risk of leaving a bad taste in a player's mouth if they follow the "wrong" path. I too really liked P4G's ending, but it I was sure to get to the true ending.
If a game makes getting the true ending so obscure, that you have go out of your way, then it does detract a little from it. As one example, I really liked my ending of Until Dawn, but I followed a guide so I could get the optimal ending -- to escape the night with all the crew alive
Some may say that this ruined the game for me, but I wanted to see the best ending (and get the gold trophy). I did that with P4G. Knowing all the time invested, I wanted to be sure to get the true ending, so I was sure to follow a guide. Perhaps this is why Bioware did what they did with ME3 where they made all the endings of ME3 basically the same except with a color pallete change. So everyone, no matter what choices you made, had the same crappy ending 😅

I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days. It's hard to really pick and choose (or even remember) all the endings I've seen. I'm not gonna fully elaborate due to spoilers, so here's my picks explained the best I could.

First off, MGS 1-4 all really strike a chord with me. MGS really had a perfect feel good ending, with a good moral of living your life the best you can. It sounds basic, but within the context of the game, knowing who and what Snake is and has been, it really feels uplifting. To hear Snake sound so human after it all is one of the best parts of the series. Sons of Liberty's ending isn't as good, but it deserves a mention if only because of Snake's speech at the very end. A speech about leaving all of our experiences for the next generation to build off of. The final sentence of which is found on my forum signature. Snake Eater is a sad ending that really shows just why Big Boss is jaded, and what threw him into villainy. And Guns of the Patriots is a perfect, fitting bittersweet conclusion to the franchise.

The only non Metal Gear ending I liked that I can remember fully is Kingdom Hearts II. I can't help but feel happy everytime I see it. Perfect Disney ending, which is what I wanted after sinking all the hours I did on KH1 back in the day only to get a cliff-hanger.

Also a shout out to Crisis Core. I was one of the few who played this before FFVII, so I had no idea what would happen. It hit hard. Thankfully, it's sort of enhanced my playthrough of VII.
Now, my least favorites.

On the topic of cliff-hangers, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. I'm still salt steaming over it, and will likely continue doing so until Sly 5 comes around. That's what happens when you undo a great ending to a trilogy (itself a candidate for my favorite endings if not for the interest of keeping things as briefly as possible.) and put a cliff-hanger on the first game in 8 years, which still has yet to be followed up on.

And, rather controversially, Red Dead Redemption. It's not a bad ending at all, it's very well done, and probably one of the best the medium has. It's really good.....at making me cry like I got kicked in my dude parts with a steel toe boot. It really punches the player where it hurts, and made me feel like everything I did was for nothing. And unlike MGS3 and Crisis Core, there's no feeling that things will be better in the future. But as a story set in the dying Wild West, it ended the only way it probably could.

@DerMeister you didn't mention MGSV: TPP. Perhaps that was on purpose, but I really liked that ending. MG:GZ ended quite well with the cliffhanger to carry over and then the way MGSV:TPP ended was great - with the twist that you had been playing the entire game thinking you were Big Boss but actually were the phantom decoy. Mind blown, and I really liked that, especially in the context of the over arching story of Big Boss.
Also if you play the extra missions to see Quiet's ending, that was profoundly moving, I thought, but maybe I'm just a sucker. I know a lot of people reference the fact that MGSV is an "unfinished" game and had a whole other chapter intended, but the ending that they did put together hit me pretty hard and I thought about it for weeks.

@Th3solution That's because I haven't played MGSV yet. I bought it months ago, but I haven't touched it, as I wanted to clear some games from my pile. I'll probably get to it soon.

While on the topic, I may as well say that Portable Ops and Peace Walker's endings didn't leave a big impact on me compared to the others. That said, they were more focused on advancing Big Boss' story than leaving a grand conclusion, I think. On that front, they did well.