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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"This is a temple ''dedicated'' to evil. It's built on the desecrated ancient burial ground where other ''more'' ancient desecrated burial grounds went when they got evil stuff built on ''them''. The architect was a necromancer and the contractor was in the eldritch mafia."''|'''[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2008/05/24/episode-996-renovations/ Prince Drizz'l]''', ''[[
{{quote|''"This door just'' screams ''endgame."''|Shiki, [[The World Ends With You]]}}
A video game with any sort of combat (and a few without) can be expected to end with a dramatic [[Final Boss]] battle. Console [[Role
It could be the [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|tallest of spires]] or the highest of mountains. It could be outside the world entirely, or in the distant past. In a [[Scavenger World]], it's a fully armed and operational [[Ominous Floating Castle|battlestation]] [[And Man Grew Proud|from legend]]. Often it's the very [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] the [[Big Bad]] wants. In any case, it embodies the words "Serious business," and just entering it can merit an FMV or a [[Boss Battle]] (on the first try; from there on, it's easy as pie). Extra credit if it forms/arises/descends/erupts just when everything seemed all right, if it's [[Malevolent Architecture|more dangerous than would be allowed for any real place]], and if it has a [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|pretentious, overblown name.]]
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Interestingly enough, it's usually stressed that it will be incredibly difficult, maybe even [[Point of No Return|impossible]] to leave the final dungeon once you've entered it. This only applies in gameplay. Most characters who enter the final dungeon simply leave after the boss has been defeated, sometimes barely finding a means to escape, but at other times with no explanation at all. Unless they die there. This sometimes does not come into play, as it is the boss's power causing some obstruction to leaving.
[[Where It All Began]] is a particular type where the final dungeon has some connection
{{examples}}
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** The same goes for the Chaotic Realm in ''[[Aria of Sorrow]]'', except the Chaotic Realm map doesn't even display.
** The {{spoiler|Inverted Castle}} in ''[[Symphony of the Night]]''.
** In ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia|Order of Ecclesia]]'', {{spoiler|Dracula's Castle itself}} becomes this.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' the final dungeon, set within a terrifying grimacing moon, appears to be a beautiful field containing a single tree with children playing around it. [[Creepy Child|Children wearing the masks of all the bosses.]]
** While ''Majora's Mask'' definitely leads the series in this most of the other games aren't slackers though. ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' is probably one of the best examples of this, with the transformation of Hyrule Castle into Ganon's Tower, a giant black monolith floating over a sea of lava. Twilight Princess also has the immense Hyrule Castle, which is this time sealed in a force field for most of the game and is visible almost anywhere in the overworld. Although in the end bits of the final battle take place outside the castle as well.
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*** Not only that, to get to it, you have to travel through a lava-strewn terrain, which only exists in that one part of the world.
** In ''[[Oracle of Ages]]'' the villain spends the entire game building the final dungeon, right next to the village, and it ominously gets taller and taller as her plot progresses. Also, [[It's All Upstairs From Here]].
** Both the [[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|DS]] [[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|games]] have one start out in one place and move the end to another. ''Phantom Hourglass'' has the [[Scrappy Level|Temple of the Ocean King]] with it then moving to the [[Ghost Ship]]. ''Spirit Tracks'' has a [[Final Boss, New Dimension]] for the train portions and Phantom portion but kicks back to New Hyrule for the final parts.
** Death Mountain in the original has a unique, nightmarish [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_cOBMxjqKw music piece].
* The final battle in ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' takes place in a gargantuan cavern inside a large moon, on a slab of rock surrounded by green glowing water, with a giant statue-like Domz creature looking over the battle, and all your friends and other citizens of Hyllis locked in permanent paralysis in green Matrix-like pods lining the walls of the cavern. Doesn't get much more final than that.
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* The last stage of ''[[Gungrave]]'' is reached through an incredibly tall elevator which dwarfs the city it extends from. In stark contrast to the urban crime drama of the rest of the game, is an ancient floating temple with crystals hovering around, populated with blue-skinned monsters which look remotely human at best. And no, the game doesn't explain where it came from. There is an explanation, but [[All There in the Manual|it isn't in the game, it's in the artbooks]].
** The last stage of the sequel takes place in the "basement" of a previous stage (The Laboratory). Said "basement" is really {{spoiler|The Methuselah Starship, an alien craft that crash-landed on the planet hundreds of years ago, and the very place where the technology necessary in engineering the Seed and Necrolyzation Projects originated from.}} Again, it makes more sense if you read the [[Concept Art Gallery|art]] [[All There in the Manual|book]].
* ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] II'' could be said to have invented this trope: during many of the game's cutscenes, you could see the final tower in the background, and after beating one stage, you see the tower in question in a final cutscene before actually entering it. However partially subverted in that the REAL final battle takes place in a hell dimension inside the tower.
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== [[Fighting Game]] ==
* You might think the final levels of ''The Subspace Emissary'' in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'' take place in Subspace. And you'd be right... {{spoiler|mostly. Actually the final dungeon of Brawl is ''The Great Maze'', which is a literal maze made out of previous levels, where you have to fight off every character you've unlocked, and every boss you've faced so far in order to open the final door to Tabuu. Needless to say, it does feel very definitely final, and even looks final. A big grapeshaped cluster of worlds floating in darkness, with an ominous staircase leading to it and everything.}}
** {{spoiler|And the ominous shadowed gate with the trophies of all those you defeat inside the Great Maze. The Very Definitely Final Part of the Very Definitely Final Dungeon ''within'' the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.}}
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* ''[[Deus Ex]]'', which takes place at Area 51. Not only do you find out that {{spoiler|you're a clone and there are more nano-augmented agents like you}}, but it's also the place which can bring down the entire world order, has the mastermind of the Gray Death virus stationed there, AND has a malignant AI that wants to merge with you. Either way, it doesn't go down well, especially since {{spoiler|the following game retconned the fact that you killed the mastermind, merged with the AI and destroyed the government AT THE SAME TIME}}.
** ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'' has {{spoiler|Panchaea. A massive building hollowing out a section of the ocean built by one of the richest men on the planet. Due to his plans, it's also infested with augmented people being driven mad by their chips.}}
* Bringing things full-circle (
** To top that, the recently released REACH ends with a firefight taking place on a platform overlooking the {{spoiler|yet-to-depart Pillar of Autumn in the far distance.}} {{spoiler|After firing the MAC at a dozen or so Phantoms and destroying the [[BFG|glassing laser]] on the Covenant cruiser}}, Noble 6 is then {{spoiler|left behind in a foggy wasteland as endless and increasingly difficult waves of soldiers [[Last Stand|advance]] [[It Has Been an Honor|to take]] [[Dying Moment of Awesome|you down]].}}
** [[Halo: Combat Evolved]] has {{spoiler|the crashed Pillar of Autumn. [[Book Ends|Also where the game began]].}}
** ''Halo 2'' ended at the building that housed Delta Halo's control room. You fight a lot of Brutes, and then you get to the control room itself where the [[Final Boss]] takes place.
* The final part of ''[[The Darkness]]'' has you on a island with a lighthouse where the lighthouse is the where the final fight takes place. The area begins in full daylight, which as it's light you loose you powers, but soon after a solar eclipse happens, making the being inside you extremely powerful... for some reason, who then subverts this trope by destroying everything and body in a mile radius.
* ''[[STALKER|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl]]'' ends inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself, the location you've spent/struggled the entire game trying to reach.
** {{spoiler|And during a period where you spent you time doing blind local teleportation, you surprisingly do one long distance teleportation on the very first place you began to play.}}
* Somewhat averted in the ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' games, as the rest of the game contains such interesting locales that the final dungeons aren't that much of a telltale shift. The biggest indicator they're the final areas are the fact they're named after the [[Big Bad
* ''[[Borderlands]]'' has this in the DLC The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, with you heading to the giant, mansion that can be seen from nearly everywhere on the island.
* ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'': The Basilica. If the entire gameworld is an enormous tower, where else can the ultimate confrontation be but at the very top?
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== [[Mecha Game]] ==
* ''[[Super Robot Wars Compact]]'''s final two levels takes in the [[Chars Counterattack|Asteroid Colony Axis]] about to [[Colony Drop|drop to the Earth]] because of [[Daitarn 3|Don Zauser and Koros]].
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== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s ==
* In ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'', the bizarre and dark Ruins end incongruously in a flowery field with a pleasant stone monument in the center. Then Dark Falz appears and the ground turns into ''skulls''. Animate, shrieking skulls.
* Although it's not the ''final'' final dungeon, the final dungeon on ''[[Gaia Online|zOMG]]'' Chapter one is suitably epic. Divided into four parts, the final instance {{spoiler|takes place below the Shallow Sea as your fight your way to Labtech X's [[Underwater Base]]}}. It is by far one of the most challenging areas in the game, so far.
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** Classic [[WoW]] had final dungeon duties divided between two dungeons, which were on the opposite sides of the map to each other, aptly enough.
** At the northern end of the Eastern Kingdoms, located in the heart of the blighted plaguelands, we had Naxxramas, a vast floating necropolis. Home to Kel'thuzad, Dragon to the Lich King, Naxxramas featured never-before-seen monsters, bosses that tested raids like never before, buckets of horror, Nintendo Hard dificulty...oh, and K.T's pet cat, Mr Bigglesworth. It was such a good dungeon that Blizzard had it return as the entry-level raid for Wrath of the Lich King.
** And at the southern end of Kalimdor, deep in the deserts of Silithus, we have Ahn'Qiraj. Part blasphemous temple, part insect hive, and home to an [[Eldritch Abomination]] who whispered disturbing messages to the raid group. Sealed up by ancient protectors millenia ago, players have to undergo a massive quest chain that takes them all over the world to re-open it and bring death to the horrors inside.
*** Ahn'Qiraj was probably the hardest and most awe inspiring dungeon of Vanilla WOW. Populated by enough insectiod aberrations to wipe out several armies and reinforced by gargantuan colossi that were made in the image of one of the most terrifying [[Eldrich Abominations]] in the WOW universe, just opening the gates required a quest chain that took you to some of the longest and most challenging raids of the time and resulted in a world event that simulated a several day long war between the entire server and the denizens of the dungeon. The actual area was split into two regions each with about a dozen extremely hard bosses while the final boss of the forty man raid was completely UNKILLABLE until Blizzard scaled down the difficulty from impossible and fixed a few bugs. The actual mechanics of C'thun's fight could scale the damage to points that reached the tens of millions and massacre half a raid in a second.
* While there still is some way to go until the players reach Mordor, which most likely will be the very final dungeon, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' you will notice when you're at the conclusion for the storyline you're currently following. While Angmar itself felt like this from the start, that storyline didn't end until the final chapter, seven updates after the game launched. The Moria/Mirkwood storyline doesn't end until the players get to Dol Guldur, one of Sauron's fortresses. For raiders, the final challenge is climbing the fortress all the way to the highest tower, where they face one of the Nazgul and it's flying steed. Speculation is that the latest storyline will end at Isengard.
== [[Platform Game]] ==
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'': The Ragnarok orbital cannon, falling from space and burning its way into the atmosphere, with only two minutes provided to defeat the final boss of the entire series. [[Nintendo Hard]] indeed.
* ''[[Mega Man X]] 4'' is a partial
** ''X2'' subverts this hard. After completing 4 levels in the North Pole, you see the [[The Dragon|X-Hunters']] base utterly destroyed. So where does X teleport into? Bizarrely enough, Magna Centipede's stage, or just the opening half, replacing [[That One Boss|the annoying sword]] with {{spoiler|possibly Zero and}} Sigma. In fact, going to Magna Centipede's stage at that point in time (rather than selecting Sigma) will still make it the closing level.
** The, ahem, architecture, of [[Big Bad|Dr. Wily's]] fortress makes it obvious in ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]''. A skull? Really?
** ''X5'', originally the final chapter of the ''X'' saga, has Area Zero as one of this. Notice how eerily different the area feels from the final dungeons in the other games, including those after X5; the background is solely consisted of untouchable electric light animation, giving the creepiest and the worst feel of loneliness out of all the final stages in X saga.
* The various space stations from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]]'' series, beginning with ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]''{{'}}s Death Egg, ''[[Sonic 3&Knuckles]]''{{'}} ''reassembled'' Death Egg, ''Sonic the Fighters''{{'}} Death Egg ''2'', ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]''{{'}}s Space Colony ARK, and various others in the ''[[Sonic Advance]]'' series. Of them, ARK has been the only one shown to have planet-destroying power, but they are all implied to be [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|Weapons of Mass Destruction]].
** ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' trumps all previous examples of the series, because it doesn't get much more Very Definitely Final than a city that the villain has spent at least ''five games'' trying to build.
** The last level in [[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|the original 16-bit game]] looked like Scrap Brain (a reasonably ominous factory\city). The name was simply: FINAL ZONE. Fear.
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** In the Sonic Game Gear game, you chase the boss from what appears to be the final area to {{spoiler|his flying base}}
* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Two Thrones'', the final battle occurs at the top of the Tower of Babel, which provides a panoramic view of ancient Babylon on your way up.
** Additionally, the battle with the [[Big Bad]] at the top of the tower is followed by an epilogue of sorts where you chase the game's ''other'' [[Big Bad]] through a weird landscape of swirling mists, neon platforms, strange perspective tricks, and an occasional flash of a scene from the previous Prince of Persia games. Finally, you confront him in a room where the decor is dominated by... [[Title Drop|a pair of elegant thrones.]]
* The rest of the ''[[Metroid]]'' games are no slouches either:
** The original ''Metroid'' had Tourian, home of both the Mother Brain and the only place you'll find the titular Metroids.
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** [[Pacifist Run|Or the knowledge that you're going to have to kill your first, and last opponent.]]
* The final level of the third (and, so far, final) ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' game is the Cooper family vault, where not only are you going through the entire history of the Cooper family, but you're also having to use all your moves to get through it.
* Subverted in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Instead, the '''actual''' final level is the Bank, which has been just out of reach for the entire game until the very end, similarly teasing the player.}}
* The final level of ''[[Psychonauts]]'' is Very Definitely Final not only in appearance, but theme. Visually, it's a [[Circus of Fear]] made entirely out of [[Level Ate|raw, bloody meat]]
* ''[[Wario Land]] II'''s "Really Final Chapter". Basically, Wario had to beat all the other endings to fill out a map that contained the location of the Black Sugar Pirate's secret hideout. Additionally, this level was the only level in the game with a Time Attack.
== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* The original ''[[Command
** In fairness, the expansion pack (and sequel) show that it wasn't the only Temple of Nod. It later becomes a standard building for Nod. Then the third game reveals that there is Temple '''Prime'''... [[Disc One Final Dungeon|Which gets besieged (three times, by different forces) and blown up by a]] [[Kill Sat]] [[Disc One Final Dungeon|in the middle of both campaigns.]] [[Xanatos Gambit|exactly what Kane wanted.]]
** Similarly the final missions of Tiberium Wars certainly feel like a final dungeon. You start off the campaign in the Blue zones either containing Nod insurgents or causing havoc as Nod, where the tiberium levels are low and contained. Then the action moves into the yellow zones as the fight is taken to Nod's front door, where tiberium proliferates and structures are all dilapidated. The final levels take place deep in red zones, where tiberium contamination is so high there are whole glaciers of the stuff and the blasted landscape looks more alien than anything, and that's besides the gigantic,glowing towers.
** Kane's Wrath features one where the [[Oh Crap]] meter boinks the roof. The enemy will spare no expense towards your destruction and you are awarded by Kane all three Nod Factions for use in the mission, allowing you to build three super weapons (normally restricted to one) and all of their units. There's also a count down timer to doom hanging over your head, with the Tacitus going ever more critical the longer you drag your feet.
== [[Roguelike]] ==
* In both ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' games, the final dungeons both involve some sort of [[It's All Upstairs From Here|floating tower]]. You can tell that they are the final dungeons because 1) They're ''floating'' towers, 2) They have the epic "this is going to be our final journey" music, and 3) Both dungeons are located disturbingly far away from civilization and many NPCs are telling you that you must not fail or else the world is [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|doomed]] before you head out.
** The [[True Final Boss|real bad guy]] however isn't fought in tower. He is fought in crater. Which is by [[That One Level|itself hard]].
* The final level of ''[[Nethack]]'' is the Astral Plane (AKA Heaven) where you battle swarms of hostile angels and the {{spoiler|other three}} [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]].
* Similarly, ADOM has the final battle ({{spoiler|with an [[Eldritch Abomination|Elder God]] no less}}) take place in the realm of primal Chaos.
== [[Role
* ''[[Ultima]]'', the granddaddy of them all, set its final confrontation in a cavern beneath a volcano, 1000 years in the past. It may have been monochrome and not that visually impressive, but it was about as very definitely final as one could hope for on an Apple II computer in 1980.
** ''The Great, Stygian Abyss'' from the fourth and fifth installments of the series should also qualify, if only for its name and the damnable somersaults you have to perform to get in there. In [[Ultima IV]], the player characters need to have completed a number of highly virtuous tasks in a highly virtuous manner, learned the Word of Power, and collected several [[MacGuffin
*** It's the Stygian Abyss in ''[[Ultima IV]]'', but in ''[[Ultima V]]''
* The Fortress of Regrets in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' is {{spoiler|a fortress that stretches for hundreds of miles, located in a Plane of total entropy, built from the regrets of all the vastly terrible deeds in the main character's countless past lives and populated by the shadows of all the people who have died because of him. Oh, and the portal leading to it turns out to be in [[Where It All Began|the room you started the game from]].}}
* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' decided that an awesome spot for the final several fights would include {{spoiler|God (or a god)'s drinks parlor/pad}} and that the ultimate final {{spoiler|cutscene}} would occur {{spoiler|In a massive room where soul-stuff gets refined and remade. And promptly does, post scene.}}
** The door to the former is lampshaded by one of the characters - "This door just screams of endgame!"
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' is big into this.
{{quote|
** [[Final Fantasy I|The temple from the beginning, but 2000 years in the past]]!
** [[Final Fantasy II|Hell's Capital]].
** [[Final Fantasy III|The Dark World]], which was preceded by [[It's All Upstairs From Here|a giant crystal tower]].
** [[Final Fantasy IV|The crystalline core of the moon]].
*** [[Final Fantasy IV:
** [[Final Fantasy V|The Interdimensional Rift]], composed of the pieces of the world destroyed by the Void.
** [[Final Fantasy VI|The shattered remnants of the world, formed into a blasphemous tower]], with {{spoiler|a [[Disc One Final Dungeon|fake-out TVDFD]] in the form of a '''''[[Floating Continent]]'''''}}.
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** [[Final Fantasy IX|Ancestral memory]].
** [[Final Fantasy X|Some sort of crazy dimension]] {{spoiler|inside Sin, though the game does a fake out with Zanarkand looking like the end.}}.
*** [[Final Fantasy X
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' gets special mention because of having ''several'' of these dungeons, all
*** Special mention to the final fight in the ''Treasures of Aht Urghan'' expansion where you fight {{spoiler|a newly summoned [[Light Is Not Good|Alexander]] inside the giant shell of his previous summon.}} Although you don't have to fight your way there and you could enter the area before that, it is still kind of freaky.
*** The VDFD for ''Wings of the Goddess'' has not been unveiled yet, though it seems it may be in the next story update. Players have been given glimpses of a fragmented town suspended in ethereal space with a massive maw in the "sky" over it. There is also the continuing hope that this expansion will finally grant players access to the Marquisette of Tavnazia, the city destroyed in the intro fmv.
** [[Final Fantasy XII|A flying fortress]].
*** ''[[Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings]]'' tops that with a floating temple {{spoiler|in outer space with a nice view to the planet below}}.
** [[Final Fantasy XIII|A strange, shifting, "digitized" dimension that is the "cradle" for your unborn enemy]].
*** [[Final Fantasy XIII-2|The largest city in the world, evacuated.]] Might not be the most impressive, but certainly the most unnerving.
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics|The ruined airship of some ancient civilization.]]
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance|A royal valley in the throes of excessive reality warping]].
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics
** [[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (video game)|A lone mountain, isolated far away from known civilization and right at the edge of the visible world, bearing the meteor which first brought miasma to the world.]] Then right when you are about to destroy the {{spoiler|Meteor Parasite}}, {{spoiler|Raem}} intervenes and teleports you to an [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]. Interestingly, after {{spoiler|Raem}}'s defeat, you are returned to right where you left
* The final dungeons of the ''[[World of Mana]]'' tend to take place in or near the [[World Tree]]. Exceptions:
** ''[[Secret of Mana]]'': <s>[[Floating Continent]]</s> [[That's No Moon|Floating superweapon that's big enough to be mistaken for a floating continent]].
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** ''From the New World'' has The Gate to the World of Malice, basically the very dimension where all Malice originates, complete with a black sun that's the game's [[Final Boss]] {{spoiler|(well, [[Dual Boss|him and Lady/Grace Garland]])}}.
* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' had a rather modest abandoned temple of Bhaal, but ''Baldur's Gate 2'' ramped it up to Hell itself, and the ''Throne of Bhaal'' expansion had the final fight at, you guessed it, the Throne of Bhaal (which looked rather futuristic, for the home plane of a god in a fantasy setting).
* The final battlefield of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' turns out not to be the planet Illos, as initially suspected, but {{spoiler|the [[Book Ends|Citadel itself]]. And you climb a kilometer-high tower in zero-gravity fighting [[Killer Robot
** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has {{spoiler|the Collector base. An enormous (Citadel or bigger) biomechanical space station, suspended in the middle of a huge ancient debris field. [[Rule of Cool|In the accretion disc of the supermassive black hole at the very center of the galaxy]]}}. Yeah. Gonna be interesting to see how they top that.
** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' {{spoiler|it is attempted, but falls flat. While Earth could be considered to be the [[Final Battle]], it is esstablished very early on that the entire assault on London is to reach the teleporter to the Citadel, which would be The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. However, there are no fights on the citadel and you "defeat" the enemies in two dialogs.}}
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*** ''[[Fallout 3]]'' features an assault on Project Purity alongside a gigantic robot; ''[[Expansion Pack|BrokenSteel]]'' continues the storyline and eventually has you invade the Enclave's personal base, hijack their tech, and destroy them using their own beloved orbital bombardment.
*** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has this inside the game's [[MacGuffin]], Hoover Dam. The game asks you if want to commit to this final quest before you start, and automatically creates a savegame either way (not an autosave, an actual permanent save) so that you can go back and explore more of the Vegas sandbox if you so choose. The end result will be a fight with either [[Made of Iron|Legate Lanaius]] or [[Flunky Boss|General Oliver]], depending on who you sided with (though only [[Villain Protagonist|Caesar's Legion sympathizers]] will fight Oliver).
**** ''New Vegas'' has a smaller [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] for the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC. Embarking on this quest will re-enable travel to the Mojave and cause most of the name character (including the only merchant) to leave. Interestingly, it's not an actual dungeon, but rather the entirety of Zion National Park with fast travel disabled and filled to the brim with [[
* The ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' games were based on the ''[[Star Wars]]'' franchise, so the final battles (and most boss battles, for that matter) were guaranteed to take place at impressive locations. In particular, the first game ended at the Star Forge, an [[Artifact of Doom]] [[Lost Technology|factory]] that could pump out [[Offscreen Villain Dark Matter|entire fleets]]. Did I mention it siphoned a sun for a power source? But don't [[Take Our Word for It]]. You can see its introduction right [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5xDSZnok4s here].
** The sequel set the finale on Malachor V, a less visually impressive but still very definitely final dungeon - a planet literally torn apart by a gravity weapon. Again, don't [[Take Our Word for It]]. You can see it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrBk2VKlrws here].
*** Oh, but wait, there's more. Because there's also a secret academy under the surface, with the final boss fight taking place in the center of a hole in the force, above a pit of fiery death.
* In the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series we have The End of the World (a messed-up world formed from the shattered remains of worlds lost to the Heartless) and The World That Never Was (an artificial world created by Organization XIII, complete with floating castle and evil city).
** With a final battle in 2 that takes place ''literally nowhere''
*** Well, since it's nowhere, couldn't you easily top that?
**** Not at all. It's not simply "nowhere". It's in a place ''made of nothingness itself''.
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*** The very definition except for the fact that it's entirely optional. Still probably counts, though, since beating it ''does'' drop you directly in front of Lavos.
*** Also, you can do the Dark Omen more than once by going backwards in time.
* The first ''[[Wild
** And let us not forget that 2 takes you to the living heart of the planet through an inverted spiral tower that stretches on for deities know how long full of its own mini-bosses, and 4 takes you to a deranged, ARM-particle-infested Alcatraz overgrown with crystal and bizzare ARM mutants, with its own Load Bearing Final Boss... Hurr.
* Subverted in ''[[Phantasy Star]]''; King Lassic's tower of Baya Malay is at first glance the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, until you reach its peak and discover it's merely the gateway to King Lassic's ''invisible flying city''. The game then subverts the trope the second time when, after finishing the dungeon and killing Lassic, the ''real'' final dungeon turns out to be an unimpressive catacomb beneath Paseo, where the [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] has taken up residence.
* The other games in the ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' series, however, usually play it straight: The control center for the entire solar system, an ancient city, the other side of a dimensional prison, etc...
* Soltis in ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' is a whole continent, but fits this trope perfectly. It appears ominously from [[Where It All Began|the happiest and lowest-level area in the game]], raising up dark clouds and the game's strongest monsters with it to change everything around. Everybody in the world automatically fears it, even when they can't see it. It was the original home of the [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] civilization that bore the [[Mysterious Waif]] and [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]], and {{spoiler|inside is the power to [[The End of the World as We Know It|destroy the world]].}}
* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' had Cor Hydrae, the ancient castle of Malpercio currently floating in the middle of a dimensional rift.
** And the prequel gave us Tarazed, a colossal machina construct powered by {{spoiler|captured afterlings}} and serving as both the new capital of [[The Empire]] and said empire's continent-shattering superweapon.
* The final dungeon of ''[[Paper Mario:
** The final dungeon of ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' was an entirely black-and-white castle ''completely inside of a black hole''.
** The final dungeon of the original ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' is a flying castle (Bowser's). The final ''battle'' is on a special Bowser-boosting arena mimicking the appearance of his Clown Car, and is accessed via a temporary bridge leading from Peach's Castle, which is on top of Bowser's Castle.
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** But none of them can beat the spinoff game ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2''. The final dungeon of that game is {{spoiler|the afterlife, after all the main characters have died and Serph and Sera have fused into a superbeing on the way.}} Oh, and {{spoiler|the afterlife is inside the sun, and the reason they're going there is to speak to God and convince him to stop destroying the world.}}
*** Also, {{spoiler|the inside of the sun is apparently purple and kind of sparkly. Looks pretty, though.}}
** How about [[Strange Journey]]? While the entire game takes place in the Schwarzelt, the final sector, {{spoiler|Horologium}} just plain screams '''FINAL AREA'''. The influence of {{spoiler|Mem Aleph}}'s presence is so great that the area ''takes the form of primordial Earth''
* The ''[[Suikoden]]'' series subverts this trope somewhat by relying on the series' emphasis on war: the last dungeon in most of the games is usually the other army's biggest fort or capital city. In the latter case, it almost feels anti-climactic, as the player had to fight ''to'' said city, ensuring most of the enemy army would be in tatters. However, in the third game in the series, {{spoiler|the final confrontation takes place in a suitably ancient series of ruins, which also happens to be the [[Lost Superweapon]] central to the (arguably) [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] antagonist's plan}}, and in the second, {{spoiler|the last dungeon is not the last (optional) confrontation, which occurs near the scene of the game's ''beginning''}}.
** Played mostly straight in ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]'', {{spoiler|the tower of the Order of the One True Way functions as this well enough the first time through, but after that, The One King arrives and turns the whole thing into a giant, but hollow, statue of himself, which you have to go through again.}}
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** ''[[Dragon Quest VI]]'' has you facing Mortamor in his castle in the Dark World.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VII]]'' has you battling Orgodemir in what was once the Crystal Palace.
** Subverted in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'', in which
**
* ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' has the Moon That Never Sets.
* ''[[Dungeon Siege]]'' (the game, not the terrible movie) concludes with a final fight against the [[Big Bad|resurrected master]] of [[The Legions of Hell|a long dead evil race]], in a cavern below a castle, with walls made of human faces and screams echoing in the air.
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** Black and White have {{spoiler|N's Castle, which [[Big Bad|N]], the leader of Team Plasma, summons after the battles with the Elite Four. You have to go through the castle and when you reach N, either Reshiram or Zekrom appear depending on the version and you have to catch the legendary. Then you fight N who has the opposite legendary. After you defeat him, [[The Man Behind the Man|Ghetsis]], one of Team Plasma's seven sages appears and reveals the true intentions of Team Plasma and you have to [[Final Boss|battle him as well]]. After that the game ends.}}
** ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'' ends in the Realgam Tower. It spends the entire game being constructed, and in the final act it opens as a glittering Vegas-style resort complex run by the Cipher syndicate. You dismantle Cipher at the top of the spire by battling on Realgam's private Colosseum, while thousands upon thousands of screaming spectators view your final struggles.
** ''Pokemon XD'', the sequel to ''Colosseum'', sees Cipher confronted in their newest
* ''Earthbound'' has the final battle take place innumerable years in the past - to be sent there, your party's souls are transferred into robots, and it's made pretty clear that there's no going back.
** However, its prequel, ''Mother 1'' (or ''[[MOTHER 1]]''), has either a very small final dungeon, or a very large final dungeon if you count all of Mount Itoi.
** The final chapter of ''[[Mother 3]]'' takes your party to New Pork City. It's clear that there's no going back, since the overworld has been [[Doomed Hometown|completely abandoned]], and just about every NPC you've ever met is there with you. The final battle itself takes place deep underground, like in ''[[
* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' has [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Mars Lighthouse]], the final [[Cosmic Keystone]] that you've hiked across six continents (and [[One Game for the Price of Two|two games]]) to reach, located at the very edge of the world. It isn't even marked on your map.
** ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' has the Apollo Sanctum, which sits on top of the world's tallest mountain, has you spend a good chunk of time scaling the mountainside just to reach it! If that doesn't scream final dungeon, the last portion of it also has you walking through a {{spoiler|shower of light that is so strong it will completely destroy you unless you use the Umbra Gear, which creates a shadow barrier to protect you temporarily from the intense light}}.
* [[Spoiler Title|As predicted by the title]], the last battle of ''[[Lufia and The Fortress of Doom]]''... is in the Fortress of Doom, which sits on a floating island. Not too surprisingly, this is also where the game usually sends the players in all the other games...
* In ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' the Final Dungeon is just some tower out in the desert. {{spoiler|However, that desert is located on the Moon, which acts as the dreamworld's Purgatory. The final battlefield (accessed by a portal at the top of the tower) is implied by [[Wikipedia|That Other Wiki]] to be the core of the dream, but by others to be the ruins of the [[Where It All Began|Tenuto flowerfield.]]}}
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* ''[[Radiata Stories]]'' ends in the City of White Nights, a decaying structure located at the literal end of the world that is shrouded in perpetual night. At the top is the castle of the Gold Dragon, where all reality is due to be reset any time now...
* "Mother's Lair", the core of the [[Ghost Planet]] you've spent 90% of the game trying to reach, serves this role in ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]''.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' doesn't get more final than the assault on Darkspawn-occupied [[Capital City|Denerim]], which is a [[Point of No Return]]. As a sort of final-dungeon-within-the-final-dungeon, at the far end of Denerim is [[Just for Pun|Fort Drakon]]. The Archdemon's at the very
** ''[[Expansion Pack|Awakening]]'' features Drake's Fall, a [[Vestigial Empire|Tevinter]] ruin designed to channel power from bones of the dead dragons outside.
*** Also gives you a nice perspective of how far you've come when you [[Curb Stomp Battle|essentially curbstomp]] a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|High Dragon from nowhere]].
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* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' - the Imperial Palace is [[Ominous Floating Castle|a gigantic, floating palace]] inhabited by the [[Big Bad]], the [[Bigger Bad]], and the [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|source of their power]]. The entire purpose of the fourth chapter, the Lotus Assassin Fortress, is to gain access to the palace. Then you [[Storming the Castle|storm the palace]] and defeat the [[Big Bad]], only to {{spoiler|be killed in turn by [[Magnificent Bastard|your teacher]], who set the whole thing up. You get better and promptly come ''back'' to the Imperial Palace to kick even ''more'' ass.}}
* The final dungeon in ''[[Drakengard]]'' is {{spoiler|the skies above Tokyo}}.
* The Hanging Gardens/Eden in ''[[Tactics Ogre]]''. A surprisingly tranquil looking place full of palm trees and waterfalls...until you get to the final stages, which are crawling with undead and a ''gate to hell''.
** ''[[Tactics Ogre]]: The Knight of Lodis'' features the prison of a fallen angel. It's surprisingly beautiful.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] 3: Morrowind'' drops you in a volcano for its final dungeon. ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Arena'' puts you in the imperial palace. ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] 5: Skyrim'' puts you ''in an afterlife''. For extra bonus points, the background music actually chants your title in this final dungeon. Daggerfall's final dungeon is a number of islands and structures ''floating in space''.
* In ''[[Cthulhu Saves the World]]'' it's, surprise surprise, R'lyeh.
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== [[Shoot'Em Up]] ==
* ''[[Front Mission]]: Gun Hazard'' scores a double; first defeating The Society by crashing their enormous flying carrier, then (surprise!) it's time to head up the Atlas space elevator which [[Chekhov's Gun|has been on the map since the beginning of the game but never given you a reason to visit until now]].
* If you can complete all the objectives in ''[[Xeno Fighters]] R'', you get to make a decisive raid on the refitted [[Space Colony]] the BRES army calls home. And of course, that means a very, ''very'' large fleet of fighters is there to make life short and exciting for you. It doesn't help that this isn't just BRES's administrative base; it's also an industrial
* Final boss fight locations in ''[[Touhou]]'' include: outer space, the moonlit sky, the River of the Dead, and the deepest bottoms of Hell.
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** ''[[Ace Combat]] 5'' had you raid the entrance of and then fly into a giant underground tunnel with an enemy ace on your tail.
** ''[[Ace Combat]] Zero'' had you fly through a canyon with heavy anti-air fire, then into the interior of a dam.
* ''[[
** Not exactly a generic base considering it's [[Hell]] reached through the mouth of a volcano. Unlike the first game, this time you have to sacrifice [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|Heaven]] in order to crash through and reach it.
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== [[Survival Horror]] ==
* In the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games, it's usually a laboratory. ''[[Resident Evil
** ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis|3]]'''s is a abandoned factory.
** ''[[Resident Evil 4|4]]'''s is a military base on a island (Dead Aim also does this, but with a different island).
** ''[[Resident Evil 5|5]]'''s is {{spoiler|Wesker's personal battleship, which is bursting into flames by the final segment}}.
*** And the ''final'' final showdown takes place {{spoiler|inside an [[Convection, Schmonvection|active volcano]].}}
* You always know when you're at the end of a ''[[Silent Hill]]'' Game - if the [[Bizarrchitecture]] and increasing grossness of the environs don't tip you off, the increase of monsters surely does.
** ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'': About 90% of the way into Otherworld. Order? Logic? Sanity? Causality? You wish.
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* The final showdown of ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' takes place atop the Aesir Tower, headquarters of Aesir Corporation and [[Big Bad]] Nicole Horne. ''Max Payne 2'''s final battle happens inside the Woden Manor, and is initially a two-person [[Storming the Castle|castle storm]] until {{spoiler|Mona is gunned down by Vlad}} at the end of the second to last level, at which point Max chases the [[Big Bad]] straight to the top for the final level and faces off with him for the last time.
* The final showdown of the [[John Woo]] game ''Stranglehold'' has Tequila storming the gates of Wong's Manor in order to save his daughter, with the showdown with Wong and Dapang proper taking place in the big chamber with the huge jade dragon statue.
* Dead Space at least has quite a big change of scenery, while Dead Space 2 has you see the [[Artifact of Doom]] and the {{spoiler|Convergence they have been talking about for all of the two games}} all through the final section. And all culminates in {{spoiler|your own mind, fighting off [[The Plague]]}}.
* Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' final boss fight takes place within the mythical {{spoiler|neon-blue, glowing Life Tree}} that was mentioned very early on and then repeatedly discussed the entire game.
== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ==
* The ''[[X-COM]]'' games all feature some variation on this. Even the final hidden star system in X-Com Interceptor can be considered an example of this trope.
** The first game in the [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[UFO:
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]
[[Category:Dungeon Tropes]]
[[Category:Video Game Settings]]
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