All The Tropes

The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

The Very Definitely Final Dungeon (view source)

Revision as of 07:10, 9 January 2014

8 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
(Fixed image/caption markup, links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 2:
[[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]''', ''[[Eight 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]]}}
Line 18:
[[Where It All Began]] is a particular type where the final dungeon has some connection to -- or in some cases even ''is'' -- the spot where the game started. Can naturally be combined with [[Bonus Level of Hell]], [[Storming the Castle]], or [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]. See also [[Bonus Dungeon]]. For the exact opposite of the spelunking spectrum, see the [[Noob Cave]]. Beware of fakeouts by the [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]!
 
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== [[Action Adventure]] ==
Line 37:
** And in ''[[Zelda II the 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, [[ItsIt'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].
Line 71:
** {{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 -Person Shooter]] ==
* 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 -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}}.
Line 91:
** 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 Game)|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''.
 
Line 165:
 
== [[Roguelike]] ==
* In both ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' games, the final dungeons both involve some sort of [[ItsIt's All Upstairs From Here|floating tower]]. You can tell that they are the final dungeons because 1) They're ''floating'' towers, 2) They have the epic "this is going to be our final journey" music, and 3) Both dungeons are located disturbingly far away from civilization and many NPCs are telling you that you must not fail or else the world is [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|doomed]] before you head out.
** The [[True Final Boss|real bad guy]] however isn't fought in tower. He is fought in crater. Which is by [[That One Level|itself hard]].
* The final level of ''[[Nethack]]'' is the Astral Plane (AKA Heaven) where you battle swarms of hostile angels and the {{spoiler|other three}} [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]].
Line 182:
** [[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 [[ItsIt'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]].
Line 215:
*** Also, although it's definitely not the Final Dungeon [[Spoiled By 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]])}}.
* ''[[BaldursBaldur'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.
Line 247:
* 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 As We Know It|destroy the world]].}}
* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' had Cor Hydrae, the ancient castle of Malpercio currently floating in the middle of a dimensional rift.
** And the prequel gave us Tarazed, a colossal machina construct powered by {{spoiler|captured afterlings}} and serving as both the new capital of [[The Empire]] and said empire's continent-shattering superweapon.
Line 259:
*** 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'' -- ie, [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]]. The fact this sector is '''''absurdly large''''' and filled with powerful demons, as well as featuring a ''very'' confusing move-tile maze, contributes to making this sector one ''hell'' of a trek.
* 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.
Line 337:
 
 
== [[Shoot 'Em Up]] ==
* ''[[Front Mission]]: Gun Hazard'' scores a double; first defeating The Society by crashing their enormous flying carrier, then (surprise!) it's time to head up the Atlas space elevator which [[Chekhov's Gun|has been on the map since the beginning of the game but never given you a reason to visit until now]].
* If you can complete all the objectives in ''[[Xeno Fighters]] R'', you get to make a decisive raid on the refitted [[Space Colony]] the BRES army calls home. And of course, that means a very, ''very'' large fleet of fighters is there to make life short and exciting for you. It doesn't help that this isn't just BRES's administrative base; it's also an industrial colony--in part, their ''main shipyard''. So yes, a few of their capital ships and a ''lot'' of their recently-constructed higher-grade fighters are ready and willing to fight. Have fun!
Line 372:
 
 
== [[Third -Person Shooter]] ==
* The final showdown of ''[[Max Payne (Video Game)|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.
Line 386:
== [[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.}}
* 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.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/509883"