The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''"This door just'' screams ''endgame."''|Shiki, [[The World Ends With You]]}}

 

 

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.]]

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.

 

 

{{examples}}

*** 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]].

** 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.

 

== [[Fighting Game]] ==

** {{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.}}

 

* ''[[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.}}

** 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]].}}

* ''[[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.}}

* ''[[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?

 

 

* 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.

== [[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.

** ''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.

** ''[[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.

** [[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.

** {{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.}}

* ''[[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]] ==

** 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.

 

 

* ''[[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 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.}}

** [[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.}}.

*** 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 Tactics Advance|A royal valley in the throes of excessive reality warping]].

** [[Final Fantasy Tactics A2|A forbidden land, being torn apart by an interdimensional rift]].

* 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]].

** ''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).

** ''[[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.}}

*** ''[[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).

* 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).

*** 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''.

*** 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.

** 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.

** 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.}}

* 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.}}

** ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

** 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.

* ''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.

* ''[[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}}.

* ''[[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]]''.

** ''[[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]].

== [[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]].

* Final boss fight locations in ''[[Touhou]]'' include: outer space, the moonlit sky, the River of the Dead, and the deepest bottoms of Hell.

 

** ''[[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.

 

 

== [[Survival Horror]] ==

** ''[[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}}.

== [[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.

 

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]