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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, [[
▲{{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]''', ''[[Eight Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]''}}
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
▲{{quote|''"This door just'' screams ''endgame."''|Shiki, [[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|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 Playing Game|Role Playing Games]] in particular tend to be downright obsessed with epic final showdowns. This clash needs an appropriate venue. Some get away with an ordinary castle, [[Elaborate Underground Base]] or the like, but that real twang takes a place that might as well bear the words "'''FINAL CONFRONTATION HERE'''" in spiky laser-shooting letters three hundred feet high.
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.]]
And sometimes, just to screw with the player, the Very Definitely Final Dungeon seems peaceful and quiet... [[It
If they're going for a nostalgia feeling, there may be a bit of each terrain/level/mechanism from earlier in the game put in there, making a final conclusion of the game as a whole.
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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|Examples}}▼
== [[Action Adventure]] ==
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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
* In ''[[
** 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.
** Don't forget ''[[Link to The Past]]'' which has its final dungeon inside a giant glowing tower. And a final battle that takes place inside the pyramid that was your starting point for the last two-thirds of the game. And Link's Awakening which has a final "dungeon" maze and battle inside the giant egg on top of the mountain that every single NPC talked endlessly about all throughout the game.
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** ''[[The Minish Cap]]'' has Hyrule Castle again, only Vaati's magic has warped it into a much more sinister structure than it was before.
** ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' had you go to another one of Ganon's towers, though underwater, but then final fight took place atop that tower, with the entire ocean raining down around you.
** And in ''[[Zelda II:
*** 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, [[
** Both the [[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
** Death Mountain in the original has a unique, nightmarish [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_cOBMxjqKw music piece].
* The final battle in ''[[Beyond Good
* ''[[La-Mulana]]'' has the Shrine of the Mother, where [[Disc One Final Dungeon|you don't quite fight the final boss yet]]. Only after defeating all the other bosses and chanting a series of mantras do you unlock the True Shrine of the Mother, a [[Palette Swap|Palette-Swapped]], badly-damaged version of the Shrine, the center of which you fight the final boss in.
* When you finally get out of the caves and reach the top of the {{spoiler|island}} in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Is it as exciting as what happens in that unassuming hut nearby?}}
* ''Predator: Concrete Jungle'' had a pretty epic final battle which started beneath a gigantic hologram of Earth and ended in the right palm of a two-hundred-foot-tall statue of the [[Big Bad]].
* Krazoa Palace in ''[[
* ''[[
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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.
== [[Adventure Game]] ==
* ''[[Professor Layton and
** ''[[Professor Layton and
** ''Professor Layton and the Lost/Unwound Future'' has {{spoiler|a gigantic mobile fortress full of weapons ready to destroy London, controlled by [[The Man Behind the Man]] who ran away during [[The Reveal]] kidnapping Flora on the process.}} It's even more awesome than it sounds.
*** In fact, the Layton games all go out of their way to point out their final dungeons, popping up a message box to alert the player that, from this point, there is no turning back.
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== [[Driving Game]] ==
* ''[[F-Zero]] GX'' has two of these. The second-to-last race in the storyline takes place inside a volcano, while the final race takes place on an ethereal virtual track that cycles through the colors of the rainbow.
* [[Mario Kart]] has Rainbow Road. A large, hazardous racetrack in space (usually. Once it was floating over a city) with dramatic, upbeat music and looks like it's made out of a...well, [[Exactly What It Says
== [[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.}}
== [[First
* Xen in the original ''[[Half-Life]]'' - having spent the first nine-tenths of the game in a mostly-underground military facility, you spend the final tenth suspended in the sky of an alternate dimension, fighting gigantic aliens atop semi-organic purple floating islands. [[Disappointing Last Level|Opinions are divided]].
** The Citadel in ''[[Half Life]] 2'': towering ominously over the entire rest of the game, blaring alarms and occasionally releasing hordes of airborne enemies, this [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|miles-high spire]] (lit by deadly balls of energy, and consisting almost entirely of [[No OSHA Compliance|poorly-safeguarded catwalks]]) clearly fits the definition.
* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'''s final boss fight(s) take place inside the Impact Crater, the source of the [[Green Rocks|space-borne mutagen]] infecting Tallon IV, which you have to collect a bunch of meaningless Artifacts and defeat [[The Dragon|Meta Ridley]] to get into.
** ''[[Metroid]] Prime 2'''s has Dark Aether's Sky Temple, which, to get in to, you had to steal the planetary energy from the rest of Dark Aether, [[Bag of Spilling|get back all of the weapons and abilities you lost]], obtain your Annihilator Beam, and collect the (sigh) Nine Sky Temple Keys. It doesn't hurt that you're told ahead of time that the lord of all [[The Virus|Ing]] is in there, either. {{spoiler|He's not the final boss, but a Sky Temple Gateway filled with mutagen, [[Timed Mission|while]] [[Load
** ''[[Metroid]] Prime 3'' (last one, honest) brings you to the planet Phaaze, the source of all suffering and evil ''from the last two games''.
* ''[[
** ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
* 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 (
* ''[[
* ''[[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?
** And then the [[Bonus Dungeon]] takes place at the bottom of the tower.
* Near the finale of ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'' you descend into a vast underground base with [[Star Wars]]-like bottomless pits, flashing lights and a massive sphere covered by a wave-like forcefield {{spoiler|containing a murderous ghost girl who has been trapped in there for decades}}. Compared to the relatively mundane office buildings and warehouses that you spend the rest of the game running around in, the contrast is pretty jarring.
* The final level of ''[[Crysis (
* ''[[Doom|Doom 2]]''. Icon of Sin. A giant lake of blood, a demon hundreds of feet tall, and a reverse shooting gallery with rows of monsters blasting away at ''you''.
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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 ''[[
== [[Platform Game]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
** ''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 (
** ''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 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 (
** ''Sonic Drift 2'' maintains the tradition by making the Death Egg the final track of the Blue Grand Prix. But it turns out there's [[True Final Boss|one after that]]...
** 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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** ''Metroid Fusion'' has two final dungeons, actually. The first one, is the secret part of the space station, where the metroids are being bred. AFTER that, you head to SR-X's secret underground labs, which resemble tourian. Both this, and the final bosses represent the trope [[Where It All Began]]
** But of course, Samus tops it all off by destroying each and every one of those places, some way or another.
* The ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]]'' series has had a few Definitely Final Dungeons, but the best examples are probably the Galaxy Reactor in ''[[
** Bowser in the Sky, complete with a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] if you don't have at least 70 stars.
* ''[[
** [[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 ''[[
* ''[[
== [[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 [[
** 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 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
** [[Final Fantasy II
** [[Final Fantasy III
** [[Final Fantasy IV
*** [[Final Fantasy IV:
** [[Final Fantasy V
** [[Final Fantasy VI
** [[Final Fantasy VII
** [[Final Fantasy VIII
** [[Final Fantasy IX
** [[Final Fantasy X
*** [[Final Fantasy X
** ''[[
*** 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
*** ''[[Final Fantasy XII
** [[Final Fantasy XIII
*** [[Final Fantasy XIII-2
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics
** [[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (
* 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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** The first arc of the game has its own Very Definitely Final Dungeon, in the form of a huge wizard's tower near Shanghai. It's very obvious that this portion of the story is ending, although it's not quite the radical departure the true VDFD for the game is.
** ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: Covenant'' gives us the Asuka Stone Platform, which when activated teleports one to the Vessel, a massive series of tiers powered by crystals, with bizarre shapes floating by in the distance.
*** Also, although it's definitely not the Final Dungeon [[Spoiled
** ''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]])}}.
* ''[[
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[Fallout]]'' had either the subtle cult's main base: a cathedral built over a Vault infected by its resident, the Master OR a former military base in the Sierras filled with Super Mutants and [[Applied Phlebotinum|vats of the F.E.V.]] Both were pretty ultimate and like everything else in the game, you got to choose!
** ''[[Fallout 2]]'' had the Enclave base. After juryrigging a (extremely large) supertanker to sail out to it, you're treated to an FMV of the city-ship being dwarfed by a ''figurehead'' on the side of the base. As a bonus, the Enclave are so well equipped, they even have a spare [[Plot Coupon|GECK]] sitting in a storeroom closet, after you've scoured the wasteland for one the entire game.
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**** ''Fallout Tactics'', set in the Midwest, takes it to a bit of an extreme. Pretty much everything from your first run-in with Super Mutants is basically leading up to the end of the game, which sends you further west than you've ever been, up into the mountains, where you do battle at the entrance of freaking ''Cheyenne Mountain''. Just getting into the vault beyond involves ''carting a nuclear warhead up to the door then setting it off''. And once you're inside? All bets are off. Once you leave for Cheyenne Mountain, you can't go back to your home base. Oh, and you're surrounded by angry robots who want to murder you, and once you've blown the door off the whole place is a radioactive hellhole.
*** ''[[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''.
** And in 1, we have a final battle in an expanse of swirling darkness, but only after you finish the part where you fight in a battlefield formed from the broken remains of Sora's world.
** Sora spends all of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
** Subverted in ''[[Birth By Sleep]]'' in that while the Keyblade Graveyard- an eerie barren world [[Field of Blades|filled entirely with abandoned Keyblades]] created from the titanic Keyblade War- serves as the final dungeon for all three scenarios and certainly has the tone and style to match, there is still one more scenario {{spoiler|with Aqua, culminating in a boss battle against the newly minted Xehanort at Radiant Garden. Also, said graveyard pops up as a dungeon early on in Ven's scenario as well as in various cutscenes in Terra and Aqua's scenarios.}}
* ''[[
** It's not quite the definitely final dungeon, but Xenosaga still subverts it quite powerfully towards the end of the third game when you enter the huge, heavily foreshadowed giant space station of doom to confront a major enemy. It's a staggeringly detailed place, full of unusual game mechanics and stunning scenery… {{spoiler|but when you reach the end a mook calmly informs you that Your Princess Is In Another Castle. In fact he had the same idea as you did and is currently [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|in your base, killing your dudes]]. Said killing then takes place in a cutscene, just to show you just how badly you screwed up}}.
*** The biggest component of the subversion is that the core of this false final dungeon looks ''almost exactly the same'' as the final boss' area in ''Xenogears''.
* The first half of the final battle in ''[[
** The Black Omen in ''Chrono Trigger''. An ominous evil edifice constructed by pure evil out of the remains of the Ocean Palace that floats above the earth for eternity, and it's black and covered with spikes, domes, and weird eyes. The very definition of the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
*** 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 ''[[
* ''[[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 ''[[
** The final dungeon of the original ''[[Paper Mario (
*** And all this happens IN OUTER SPACE.
** And the sequels are not to be outdone. ''Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door'' features the Palace of Shadow beyond the eponymous door, a gigantic downward-going complex that houses powerful monsters and ''[[Sealed Evil in
* The '' [[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series has no shortage of epicness, and the final dungeons are no exception. In particular, ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' climaxes in a climb up a tower which leads to the center of the inside-out Vortex World.
** 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
** 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.}}
* ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** Subverted in ''[[
**
* ''[[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 ''[[
** The final chapter of ''[[
* ''[[
** ''[[Golden Sun
* [[Spoiler Title|As predicted by the title]], the last battle of ''[[
* 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.]]}}
* ''[[
* ''[[
** {{spoiler|The sequel sets the final battle at the Ginnungagap, the gateway in between the heroes' world and Niflheim, the realm of the demons. Failure means the heroes' world will become one with Niflheim. But seriously, no pressure.}}
* ''[[
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]: Broken Angel'' uses the highest tower on a castle, which was built for some inexplicable reason by the leader of the town, who isn't even a villain. ''Fullmetal Alchemist: Curse of the Crimson Elixir'' goes even further by having the final area be an enormous super-pyramid (the Spire of Lebis) in the middle of a reconstructed ancient city (complete with Golems imitating era-accurate people), and then when you reach the top of that, you're transported to the basement of the Spire, which is a humongous cavern (the ceiling fades to black), characterized by stone ledges built seemingly in the middle of an abyss with torches of blue fire set along them. Oh, and did I mention that the far-off walls have rocks with glowing red eyes carved into them?
* ''[[
* ''[[
** And even though it's ''really'' short, ''[[Expansion Pack|Mask of the Betrayer]]'' has you fighting through ''the depths of your own soul''.
** The second [[Expansion Pack]], ''Storm of Zehir'', has the Temple of the World Serpent. Subverted in that you can continue adventuring afterward ''a la [[The Elder Scrolls]]''.
* Most all of the dungeons in ''[[Dragon Quest]] [[Gaiden Game|Monsters Joker]]'' take place in your typical temple locations. However, the final dungeon, in order to stand out, takes this trope way over the top. Basically, {{spoiler|Infern Isle, which was once merely desolate, has been transformed into a barren hellscape covered in dark purple clouds, soaring demonic monkeys, and a couple lava flows here and there. Then you get to the top of the island, enter a creepy-ass stone face, and end up in Tartarus, which is somewhat of a mix between a [[Womb Level]] and Hell; all the scenery is purplish, veiny, and occasionally even ''pulsating'', the enemies are all some manner of undead, one room features a sea of ghastly purple faces, and another features a pair of giant pulsating organic tubes that continuously spit out and swallow what appear to be ''enormous balls of tormented human souls''.}} Sweet Christ.
* Most of the settings in ''[[Contact (
* The [[Path of Inspiration|Mythic Dawn]]'s Paradise from ''[[Elder Scrolls|Oblivion]]'' is {{spoiler|[[Exactly What It Says
** Not to mention {{spoiler|the Imperial City afterwards when Mehrune's Dagon launches a full scale assault on the city.}}
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem Tellius
** As a bonus the dimensions are distorted inside, though you only get to find out when it is already firmly established as The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
** It's also the only place in the entire game where simply standing on a tile can boost one's magic power or defense. Before then, only mundane terrain like bushes could help with defense.
** Also worth noting are the Dragon's Gate in ''Rekka no Ken'' and the Dragon Temple in ''Fūin no Tsurugi''. [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons|Have I mentioned that the Fire Emblem series really likes dragons?]]
* Interesting aversion from the original ''[[Persona]]'': The alternate path has you battle the Snow Queen, whose final dungeon is the school the kids go to, as she's really one of the teachers.
** ''[[Persona 3]]'' has also a middle aversion since the final dungeon is the only dungeon. Doesn't stop it from being difficult to reach the top, especially if it is the first play.(It also has the fact that most of the time, there timed barriers.)
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** ''[[Persona 4]]'' is tricky, given that there are many that wrongfoots the characters and even the player. {{spoiler|While Mitsuo's dungeon is an obvious [[Disc One Final Dungeon]], both Heaven and Magatsu Inaba could very well count, depending on what ending the player gets. The ''real'' [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] is Yomotsu Hirasaka, where the game's real [[Big Bad]] lurks.}}
*** The true VDFD has a bit of a [[Genius Bonus]] that adds to it's VDFD-ness, too {{spoiler|Yomotsu Hirasaka is the slope that leads to Yomi, the underworld in Japanese mythology.}}
* ''[[
** ''Ys I'': The Darm Tower - the huge architecture built by demons to reach the floating continent Ys, blocked off to the outside world by a [[Point of No Return|one-way door]]. Unusually for this trope, it takes up about half the game (except in the combined ''Ys Book I and II'', where it's [[Disc One Final Dungeon|only the final dungeon of the first part of the game]]).
** ''Ys II'': The Center of Ys - the headquarters of the ancient kingdom Ys that houses [[Artifact of Doom|the Black Pearl, the source of all magic]].
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** ''Ys VII'': The Well of Souls.
** ''Ys Origin'': The Darm Tower (same tower from Ys I since it is a prequel) - rare case where ''the whole'' game takes place in one of these.
* Due to it having 2 mostly independent stories, ''[[
* The final dungeon of ''[[
* In the ''[[Might and Magic]]''-franchise you can usually tell that you are close to the end of the game once [[Sci Fi]]-elements start showing up. The VDFD is usually some kind of starship or control room for the planets, in almost every game except the very, very bad MM IX.
* ''[[
* ''[[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]].
* Diablo 2 features a gigantic hellish pentangle in an infernal cathedral at the end of a river of lava. Also, the expansion ends in a room with an enormous crystal, in the deepest level of a holy cavern, at the top of a very tall mountain.
* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' - the Imperial Palace is [[Ominous Floating Castle|a gigantic, floating palace]] inhabited by the [[Big Bad]], the [[Bigger Bad]], and the [[Powered
* 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.
== [[Shoot
* ''[[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.
== [[Simulation Game]] ==
* The Electrosphere in the American version of ''[[Ace Combat]] 3 Electrosphere'' (and one of the multiple endings in the Japanese version), a stunning void space crisscrossed by infinite planes covered with shiny luminous grids, with a big green vortex on the background, where you must fight a really tough [
** ''[[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.
== [[Stealth Based Game]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Thief]]'', the first game. After visiting such Victorian/medieval/steampunk locations as a mansion, a cathedral, city streets, an opera house, a prison, a thieves' guild etc., the last level is the Maw of Chaos, a hellish dimension of weird layout, magic and the Elements, spewing forth an unlimited horde of monsters. With an Elder God inside that most people in the enlightened world no longer believe in.
== [[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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** ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'': The Church of the Order. Welcome home.
** ''[[Silent Hill 4]]'': Walter Sullivan's Re-Birthing Dimension.
** ''[[
** ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'': The Chamber of Child Sacrifices
** Subverted in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]''; the Lighthouse looks this way, and is built up this way by the characters, but {{spoiler|the end of the game comes right ''before'' you enter it.}}
== [[Third
* The final showdown of ''[[Max Payne (
* 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: After Blank]]'' series stays true to the spirit and ends with a do-or-die assault on the Reticulan mothership docked on the far side of the Moon.
== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Saints Row]] 2'''s main storyline (initially) ends with the player character [[One
* ''[[Minecraft]]'' {{spoiler|"ends" rather aptly, in The End, an [[Eldritch Location]] filled with nothing but endless expanses of air, a background that looks like TV static, making it very hard to see, tons of Endermen, massive Obsidian towers, and the Enderdragon.}}
* The final dungeon of ''[[Dead Island]]'' takes place on a prison island, in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by floating mines, in a building run by the big bad and filled to the brim with hoardes of hungry undead. Oh, and did I mention you can't leave once you've travelled there? Very Definite Final Dungeon indeed.
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