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{{trope}}
[[File:its_not_a_video_game_but_it_still_fits.jpg|link=Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|frame|Welcome to the [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Gravekeeper's Palace]]]]
 
{{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]''', ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]''}}
 
{{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.
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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 (Video Game)|Order of Ecclesia]]'', {{spoiler|Dracula's Castle itself}} becomes this.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask (Video Game)|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.
** 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: theThe Adventure of Link (Video Game)|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'', where it's called The Great Palace and is the longest level in the game, big enough for you to get lost.
*** 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 (Video Game)|DS]] [[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Video Game)|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 and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|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.
* ''[[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 ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'', you see a huge, ominous tower. Guess what happens there?
** {{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 ''[[Star Fox Adventures (Video Game)|Star Fox Adventures]]''. Where better to end it than [[Where It All Began]]?
* ''[[Nazo no Murasamejo (Video Game)|Nazo no Murasamejo]]'' has the titular Murasame Castle, where the floor is black and the walls are [[Nothing but Skulls]].
 
 
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== [[Adventure Game]] ==
* ''[[Professor Layton and Thethe Curious Village]]'' has the Tower. You've been talking about it since the start of the game, heard strange noises coming from it, and just acquired the obscure key needed to unlock the way to it. Now you just need to complete 10 extremely difficult puzzles to get to the top and have everything revealed.
** ''[[Professor Layton and Thethe Diabolical Box]]'' has Herzen Mansion. Believed to be haunted by a vampire, Layton and Luke must traverse the woods, lake, and bridge leading to the castle where they must then be tied up by the [[Big Bad]] only to escape, solve several more puzzles, and prepare for the final confrontation where everything is revealed.
** ''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 Onon the Tin|rainbow]]. There's one of them in every game and it is always the last track in the game (if you do the cups in order).
 
== [[Fighting Game]] ==
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** ''[[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-Bearing Boss|the world is collapsing]], where you fighting a doppleganger, also fits this trope.}}
** ''[[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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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 ([[[[Incredibly Lame Pun]] ha), the final mission of ''[[Halo 3]]'' takes place in the Halo installation being built to replace the one the Master Chief destroyed in the first game.
** 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 (Video Gameseries)|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|Big Bads]] of any of the games. (Primagen's lightship, etc.)
* ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|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?
** 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 (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]] 2'' takes place in [[Big Applesauce|Central Park]]. {{spoiler|A Central Park suspended more than a mile in the air by a [[Alien Invasion|Ceph]] lithoship previously buried underground. A Central Park you have to navigate while massive chunks keep falling off and the Ceph hunt you across its surface, while you have twenty minutes to reach and destroy the lithoship before U.S. command [[What an Idiot!|launches a nuke at it]].}}
* ''[[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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** 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 (Video Game)|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 (Video 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 (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 4'' is a partial exception--the [[Kill Sat]] on which the last battle takes place is a superweapon that X (or Zero) is trying to stop.
** ''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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|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 (Video Game)|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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|the original 16-bit game]] looked like Scrap Brain (a reasonably ominous factory\city). The name was simply: FINAL ZONE. Fear.
** ''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}}
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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 ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]'' (the centre of the universe with multiple planets) and Bowser's Castle in ''[[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario World]]'', which actually does have the fifty foot neon letters on the front saying 'BOWSER' (which, amusingly enough, has both a front door that can be reached [[Sequence Breaking|absurdly fast]] and a back door that leads directly to the room before the boss).
** Bowser in the Sky, complete with a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] if you don't have at least 70 stars.
* ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'' has a Very Definitely Final ''Rooftop'', complete with an apocalyptic musical score, an enemy the size of a building himself, a skyline that is literally on fire from planet-destroying orbital bombardment, and the fact that if you win the fight you've put down almost everyone in the game who the writer gave names to.
** [[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 ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day (Video Game)|Conker's Bad Fur Day]]'', with the windmill. It's visible right in the middle of Windy for the entire game, but teasingly, there's no way inside. {{spoiler|Then, after the War chapter, it gets destroyed. "Oh no! Where did the windmill go? I was sure that was the final level!"}}
** {{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 (Video Game)|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]]--quite possibly the creepiest thing in the game thus far. Thematically, it's inside the head of the [[Big Bad]] himself, and, due to [[Applied Phlebotinum]], the ''hero's'' head as well. In the previous level, you've fought the [[Freudian Excuse|Freudian Excuses]] of assorted people; now you're fighting your ''own'' demons, and those that made the [[Big Bad]] who he is.
* ''[[Wario Land (Video Game)|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.
 
 
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** ''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|MacGuffins]]; in ''[[Ultima V]]'', you have to drag your tired arses halfway across the Underworld, the Word of Power is needed again, as are several other items (actually usable items with other functions) and it's combined with the fact that once you go in, ''you can't leave until you reach the very bottom'' and hopefully have everything you need to complete the final puzzle.
*** It's the Stygian Abyss in ''[[Ultima IV]]'', but in ''[[Ultima V]]'' [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] is Dungeon Doom. Same concept.
* 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 (Video Game)|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| In order:}}
** [[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|The temple from the beginning, but 2000 years in the past]]!
** [[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Hell's Capital]].
** [[Final Fantasy III (Video Game)|The Dark World]], which was preceded by [[It's All Upstairs From Here|a giant crystal tower]].
** [[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|The crystalline core of the moon]].
*** [[Final Fantasy IV the After Years (Video Game)|The core of another moon]].
** [[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|The Interdimensional Rift]], composed of the pieces of the world destroyed by the Void.
** [[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|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]]'''''}}.
** [[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|A wound in the planet]] leading to [[The Lifestream]].
** [[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|A giant floating fortress]] in compressed time.
** [[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Ancestral memory]].
** [[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Some sort of crazy dimension]] {{spoiler|inside Sin, though the game does a fake out with Zanarkand looking like the end.}}.
*** [[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|The Farplane]].
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]'' gets special mention because of having ''several'' of these dungeons, all [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] of their storylines. Such examples are the Shadowlord's Castle for the original storyline, {{spoiler|the floating Zilart city of Tu'Lia}} in ''Rise of The Zilart'', and {{spoiler|the Zilart ''Capital'' of Al'Taieu... in ''another dimension''}} in ''Chains of Promathia'', which also has the very last boss fight take place {{spoiler|''Above Vana'Diel!''}} Yes, the FFXI teams love being over-the-top, why do you ask?
*** 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 (Video Game)|A flying fortress]].
*** ''[[Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|A strange, shifting, "digitized" dimension that is the "cradle" for your unborn enemy]].
*** [[Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Video Game)|The largest city in the world, evacuated.]] Might not be the most impressive, but certainly the most unnerving.
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|The ruined airship of some ancient civilization.]]
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Video Game)|A royal valley in the throes of excessive reality warping]].
** [[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 (Video Game)|A forbidden land, being torn apart by an interdimensional rift]].
** [[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Videovideo Gamegame)|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 off -- dealing the finishing blow to {{spoiler|the Parasite.}}
* 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 Byby the Format|(we're still on Disc 1)]], honourable mentions go to Idar Flamme, which did a great job of capturing the feel of a Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
** ''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 (Video Game)|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|Killer Robots]] while being buzzed by their [[Big Damn Gunship|Big Damn Gunships]]. And then the [[Foreshadowing]] really hits - near the beginning of the game, Ashely mentioned that the stair arrangement in the Council chamber makes for a great defensive position. Now you have to fight through it just to get to the boss!}}
** ''[[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 (Video Game)|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]]'' 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 [[Always Chaotic Evil|White Legs tribals]].
* 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].
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**** 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 (Video Game)|Chain of Memories]]'' in Castle Oblivion, but the last floor still fits - every previous floor had retold the story of a world he'd visited. The [[Thirteen Is Unlucky|thirteenth floor]], however, is simply Castle Oblivion itself. In [[Video Game Remake|Re: Chain of Memories]], the final battle takes place [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHx59-tSmAg&feature=player_embedded on the back of a giant creature in the middle of what may be described as the inside of a giant star globe.]
** 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.}}
* ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' have you fight ''inside'' the big bad itself. ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' episodes 1 and 2 have you fight on the Weapon of Mass Destruction of that game's [[Big Bad]] (though it turns out both are throwaway badguys... and both are albinos with white hair. Hmmm...). Episode 3 definitely screams "FINAL BOSS HERE" as well.
** 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 ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' takes place inside Lavos's shell; the second half, meanwhile, is fought at a point where all time converges, shifting from one place in history to the next. The final battle in the sequel, ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'', likewise goes down at the junction of all possible dimensions. Both of these are really an aversion, since you don't need to go to a dungeon to get to the final boss, and in fact, the [[Multiple Endings]] require you to fight the final boss at arbitrary points in the middle of the game.
** 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 Arms 1 (Video Game)|Wild ARMs]]'' has a final dungeon that cannot be mistaken for a typical dungeon. It's a friggin' orbiting ''space station'' set in a ''wild west'' motif. If that's not a telltale shift in scenery, then nothing is.
** 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 (Video Game)|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 Asas 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 Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'' is behind the titular door.
** The final dungeon of ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]'' was an entirely black-and-white castle ''completely inside of a black hole''.
** The final dungeon of the original ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|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.
*** 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 Aa Can|the entombed soul of a demon.]]'' ''Super Paper Mario'' features Count Bleck's Castle, an ominous structure floating ''in the middle of a void that threatens to devour all of existence.'' In both cases, with the way they are designed, as well as the dark and bleak moods of the places, there is no doubt of their validity as TVDFD.
* 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.}}
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* 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 (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'', traditionally, sets your final battle in Charlock, the home of the Dragonlord.
** ''[[Dragon Quest II (Video Game)|Dragon Quest II]]'' has its final battle in Hargon's Castle, which has you facing off against Hargon and Malroth.
** ''[[Dragon Quest III (Video Game)|Dragon Quest III]]'', after beating the [[Disc One Final Boss]], Baramos, has you journeying to the Dark World (actually the world of the original game) and has you returning to Charlock for the showdown against Zoma.
** ''[[Dragon Quest IV (Video Game)|Dragon Quest IV]]'', sends you to what is essentially Hell and has you battling demon lords before storming the palace of Psaro the Manslayer and then climbing his mountain to do battle with him.
** ''[[Dragon Quest V (Video Game)|Dragon Quest V]]'' returns to the Demon World and eventually has you climbing another mountain to face Grandmaster Nimzo.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VI (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VI]]'' has you facing Mortamor in his castle in the Dark World.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VII (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VII]]'' has you battling Orgodemir in what was once the Crystal Palace.
** Subverted in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VIII]]'', in which [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] ''becomes'' the final boss.
** [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] in ''[[Dragon Quest IX (Video Game)|Dragon Quest IX]]'' is [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|the Realm of the Almighty,]] twisted into a hellish place by the [[Big Bad]].
* ''[[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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** ''Pokemon XD'', the sequel to ''Colosseum'', sees Cipher confronted in their newest base--still under construction, the tunnels in the complex weave in and out of an active volcano.
* ''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 ''[[EarthMOTHER Bound Zero1]]''), 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 (Video Game)|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 ''[[Earthbound]]''.
* ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'' has [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|Mars Lighthouse]], the final [[Cosmic Keystone]] that you've hiked across six continents (and [[One Game for Thethe 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 (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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.]]}}
* ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'' ends at the Absorption Gate, a castle located at the North Pole where all the world's energy returns to the Core. {{spoiler|Then the game pulls a [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]] on you and it turns out that the real Final Dungeon is Eldrant, a replica of an entire island, which is now capable of flight (until it crashes by way of your party), and resting place of the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]].}}
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' has Derris-Kharlan, which is a purple, gaseous <s> comet</s>, Planet that is just a bit too close to the planet where most of the game takes place. Inside you've got really powerful [[Our Zombies Are Different|undead monsters]], {{spoiler|[[Light Is Not Good|evil angels]]}}, and it ends with a busted up castle with what appears to be a black hole behind it. Yeah, [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]. Oh, when Derris-Kharlan appears it is started with the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|''hijacking the body of [[The Hero]]'s closest friend (who may be his lover)'' then causing [[Evil Tower of Ominousness|the Tower Of Salvation]] to EXPLODE, sending chunks of it raining down as meteors. If that's not enough, when the dungeon does appear, it is seen with it so close that bolts of space lightning are raining down from it and its gravity is causing huge storms on the planet.}} Oh, and it turns the sky purple.
** {{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.}}
* ''[[Tales of Vesperia (Video Game)|Tales of Vesperia]]'' has the Tower of Tarqaron, a floating city which has been converted to a [[Magitek]] weapon of enough power to annihilate an [[Eldritch Abomination]]...by sacrificing the life force of ''every human on the planet'' for its power source.
* ''[[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?
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights]]'': The Source Stone in the original campaign. The Netherese city of Undrentide in ''Shadows of Undrentide''. The frozen wastes of [[Circles of Hell|Cania]] in ''Hordes of the Underdark''.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' ends with one of these as you attack the Big Bad's stronghold. Of course, you just drove his army away from yours minutes earlier...
** 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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Contact]]'' are lush, peaceful islands with the occasional high-tech military base or [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|island version of Akihabara]] in between, but the game makes no bones about it when the last island has a great big sinister castle.
* The [[Path of Inspiration|Mythic Dawn]]'s Paradise from ''[[Elder Scrolls|Oblivion]]'' is {{spoiler|[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]], an [[Arcadia|idyllic paradise inhabited by the souls of those slain in the service of the Mythic Dawn]]. Oh, except for [[Crap Saccharine World|bloodthirsty daedra who assault and torture the land's inhabitants]]... and that's only the fate of the loyal servants of Dagon. Those who question him receive a worse, and more [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|traditional treatment]].}}
** 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 (Video Game)|Radiant Dawn]]'' has the Tower of Guidance, a sacred tower dedicated to the Goddess Ashera {{spoiler|who is said to sleep there for 1000 years - only she wakes up prematurely thanks to war. She will be your final opponent, though not before you finally get to take out every other villain you've wanted to throttle, plus a couple of [[The Reveal|unexpected]] foes}} Oh, and the ''tower itself'' [[Power Glows|is glowing]] like a beam of light. If that doesn't scream "final dungeon", I don't know what does.
** 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.
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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 (Video Game)|Ys]]'' series by Falcom is a big fan of these. Let's elaborate:
** ''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, ''[[Tales of Legendia (Video Game)|Tales of Legendia]]'' has 2 of these. First is the Wings of Light, which is ridiculously obscenely long and has 3 distinctive sections, each of which could qualify as a full dungeon on its own. The second, the Cradle of Time, isn't so impressive length-wise, but it's a place that exists outside of time, and is made of small floors that on each one is a boss fight.
* The final dungeon of ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'' is Dhaos's Castle. Not the ''same'' Dhaos Castle that was the [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]; this one has a totally new layout and it's hidden in a ''different time period''. The heroes have to bend spacetime to their will to even make it to the front door.
* 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.
* ''[[Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|Super Mario RPG]]'' had a double subversion. Bowser's Castle. The sword sticking out of appears to be the final boss... except that the sword is the gateway to the ''true'' final dungeon, Smithy's weapons Factory (complete with Smithy, the [[Final Boss]] and [[Big Bad]], at the very end).
* ''[[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]]''.
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*** 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 Byby 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''.
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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.
* ''[[ActraiserAct Raiser]] 2'' has a generic Fortress of Evil, made distinctive by the fact that entry requires taking the Sky Palace, the throne of the Almighty God, and crashing it through the walls. The final level is littered with dead cherubs and surviving angels are being exterminated, because ''shit just got real''.
** 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]] ==
* ''[[Assassin's Creed II (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed II]]'', with the majority of the game taking place in Florence, Tuscany, Venice, etc. has the last level as {{spoiler|Rome, your objective being to head through dozens of Templars trying to stop Ezio getting to the Vatican. You'll have to use all your horseback, blending and sword-fighting skills to make it to the end, and the final boss battle does not disappoint (Unless in terms of difficulty, but it's satisfying.)}}
* ''[[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 0]]'', ''[[Resident Evil 1|1]]'', ''[[Resident Evil 2 (Video Game)|2]]'', ''[[Resident Evil Code Veronica|Code Veronica]]'', ''[[Resident Evil Gun Survivor|Survivor]]'', ''[[Resident Evil Outbreak|Outbreak]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles|Umbrella Chronicles]]'' follow the normal formula , While the rest is a bit of a mix up...
** ''[[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}}.
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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 Origins (Video Game)|Silent Hill Origins]]'': Where it ALL began.
** ''[[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-Person Shooter]] ==
* The final showdown of ''[[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|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]]}}.
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== [[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 BlankAfterblank]]'' 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]] ==
* ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours (Video Game)|Scarface the World Is Yours]]'' ends in Sosa's rather large mansion, fighting through his large personal retinue of mooks to finally give him his comeuppance. It's small hat compared to pretty much everything else on the list, but the game is fairly realistic as it stands, so it should be forgivable.
* ''[[Saints Row]] 2'''s main storyline (initially) ends with the player character [[One-Man Army|singlehandedly]] assaulting the Philips Building, a massive Combine Citadel-esque black tower that's been standing in the middle of the Saint's Row district for the entire game. First with an attack helicopter, and then breaking in and fighting the rest of the way up the building on foot.
* ''[[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.}}
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