One of the toughest things to do, seemingly, is figuring out how to end a video game. A game can have one of the best stories around, even compared to movies, but if things go badly in the final act, it can alienate fans. Some of the following games have divisive endings that may have done just that, but no one can deny how shocked they were upon originally finishing up these games.
Some examples include something recent, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, something a bit older, like Spec Ops: The Line. Those games and more will be ranked based on shock value and how they ultimately fit into the narrative.
Double Dragon
Brother Drama
Double Dragon is one of the most classic arcade and NES games of the 80s. There are differences between the two versions besides just the graphics and gameplay, but for the purposes of this entry, it’s the ending that is most shocking.
In the arcade version, players can play co-op as brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, but in the NES version, it is single-player with Jimmy hiding out in the background while Billy is the lone protagonist. That is, until the end, when it is revealed that Jimmy was behind the whole thing, significantly retconning the whole game, which was later changed in the lore going forward. At the time, this was a huge shocker, especially for players who engaged with both versions.
Resident Evil Village
The Love Of A Father
Resident Evil Village starts on a wild level with protagonist Ethan Winters getting raided by Chris Redfield’s team. They shoot his wife, Mia, dead and then kidnap his daughter, Rose. Somehow, Chris loses her, leading to the villains dissecting Rose and putting her in jars, which is the main quest in the game: collecting and reassembling Rose.
In the final battle, the main antagonist, Mother Miranda, steals Ethan’s heart, but because he is part of the mold network, the Megamycete, he can keep going long enough to save Rose. Ethan dies, and then things flash forward to Rose as an adult, with the timeline still being a bit unclear, but either way, the main character dying in a game is always shocking.
BioShock Infinite
The Circle CAN Be Broken
BioShock Infinite is about a detective, Booker DeWitt, who is hired by a mysterious patron to get his daughter back from a floating utopia called Columbia. When he meets her, Elizabeth, the two go on quite the adventure, eventually leading to the big twist.
The villain and head of Columbia, Zachary Hale Comstock, is actually an alternate version of Booker and Elizabeth, who is actually another version of Booker’s daughter he lost to time. To stop Elizabeth’s many versions from dealing with pain time and time again and to stop Comstock from being born, Booker has to drown himself, and it’s quite a melancholy way to end a video game.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
Zelda Is More Than A Damsel In Distress
Apt players could probably see some sort of twist coming in Shadow of the Colossus a mile away. The hero, Wander, is told by disembodied voices to kill Colossi, and each time he does, he passes out after absorbing dark energy. After the last Colossus is killed, Wander starts to turn into a godlike entity, Dormin, which is thankfully stopped in the nick of time.
After the spell is broken and Dormin is resealed, Wander appears to have been reborn as a baby that his presumed parter, Mono, must now take care of. Whatever their relation is doesn’t matter as the very idea of reverting the hero into a child is probably more upsetting than a noble death.
Shadow Of The Colossus (2018)
The Sacrificial Mark
Apt players could probably see some sort of twist coming in Shadow of the Colossus a mile away. The hero, Wander, is told by disembodied voices to kill Colossi, and each time he does, he passes out after absorbing dark energy. After the last Colossus is killed, Wander starts to turn into a godlike entity, Dormin, which is thankfully stopped in the nick of time.
After the spell is broken and Dormin is resealed, Wander appears to have been reborn as a baby that his presumed parter, Mono, must now take care of. Whatever their relation is doesn’t matter as the very idea of reverting the hero into a child is probably more upsetting than a noble death.
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