It is exceptionally difficult to make a satisfying ending to a viꦯdeo game. There are often such personal affairs where a player’s own actions so heavily affect their experience, that it’s tough to please everybody with a game’s conclusion. However, when a game does stick the landing with its ending, it often elevates a work from great to genre-defining. Likewise, when an otherwise good game botches its ending, it leaves players with the sense that they may have wasted dozens of hours of their time.

While a title’s ending is incredibly important in every genre of games, it is more important in Role Playing Games than any other genre. RPGs can span dozens or even hundreds of hours, with story elements of various importance popping up around every corner. With gamer🅺s demanding that new RPGs be bigger and filled with more content than ever before, endings in this genre of games are trick🥀ier than ever. Between this desire for more content and financial incentives, it’s no wonder that a lot of game developers are starting to forgo endings entirely in RPGs and instead make them an ongoing piece of media that’s constantly updated or told over multiple games in a continuous narrative.

For better or worse, though, each of these games have some kind of ending. These conclusions either brꦓing a game to almost unparalleled heights or worsen what is otherwise a terrif♌ic experience. No ending is perfect, but these 30 games make it clear that some endings are a whole lot better than others.

27 Hurt: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

There is no questioning that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the best and most successful video games in recent memory. However, its expansive and rich world came with the price of an unsatisfying conclusion. While there is a lot to do in Skyrim, the main storyline is painfully short and the final battle against Alduin is perhaps one of the least memorable features of the game. None of the endings to Skyrim’s various storylines are particularly great, and most players stop playing the game once they’re sick of it, instead of 𝓰w🐎hen they feel like they’ve beaten it.

26 Best: Final Fantasy VII

Even with a couple of spinoffs that take place after the main game, there’s no question that the ending to Final Fantasy VII is one of the best in gaming. After duking it out with the morbid Jenova and a monstrous version of Sephiroth, the final battle 🐼begins against his warped angelic form as the iconic ‘One Winged Angel’ plays. After this encounter, a scripted fight plays where Cloud finally defeats the last remnants of Se🐎phiroth and frees himself from the madman’s influence. Cutting quickly to a restored planet, this ambiguous ending is one of the best in gaming.

25 Hurt: Fallout 4

There are four possible ways to end Fallout 4’s major plotline, and none of them feel particularly satisfying. You can either destroy the institute by siding with any of the other three factions in the game or you can join the institute and help control humanity by replacing parts of it with robotic doubles. Each of these endings is supposed to reflect different philosophies and outlooks on life, but instead, they all fall flat and these ideas feel mostly unexplored. Like most of Fallout 4, these ꦿendings are some fun flash with litt♛le substance.

24 Best: Chrono Trigger

There are multiple possible endings to Chrono Trigger, and they are all excellent. Depending on how much of the game you complete before you finally defeat the planet-devouring Lavosꦰ, a different ending will play. These endings are usually fun and quirky, but can also shine some interes🦹ting insights into the various characters who appeared throughout the game. With how likable each character is and how fun it is to explore this world, these endings feel like an appropriate reward for those who scoured every part of this groundbreaking game.

23 Hurt: Nier: Automata

In the incredible year of games that was 2017, Nier: Automata still managed to stand above most other new titles. With its addicting gameplay and bone-deep examination of humanities best and worst features, it’s a better and more thought-provoking game than most others. The final ending, however, leaves little to be desired. While requiring players to give up their saveܫ❀ file to reach the final ending is a bold choice that hammers how important self-sacrifice and bonds are to the human condition, there’s not enough character resolution for it to be a satisfying finish.

22 Best: Bloodborne

There are a few different endings in the terrific and totally unique game Bloodborne, and they’re all spectacular. The hidden, and perhaps true, ending of the game is when the player destroys the diving being behind their existence in the game, ensu🙈ring that they themselves become an eldritch creature. As with most FromSofware games, this ending is ambiguous. Although it seems to imply that in defeating the Moon Presence and gaining the true knowledge of how this world fell to ruin, the player is now as powerful as the creatures t🌠hat shaped it.

21 Hurt: Undertale

Undertale is a fantastic indie game and nothing short of one of the most creative and original video games ever made. However, the quality of its writing and the themes it built up in its previous storylines take a severe nosedive during its most villainous run. Here, the game resembles a creepypasta more than anything else and the themes of forgiveness and acceptance that permeated the game disappear in favor of shock value and a heavy-handed anti-violence message. It's unfortunate that a player must to harm the terrific characters in Undertale to experience all of its story.

20 Best: Persona 5

Even with a couple of dips throughout its 80 or so hour long storyline, Persona 5 is a terrific game that finishes on a high note. After destroying a tyrannical god with the power of the fallen angel Satanael, people learn that they don’t have to fall back on the various institutions of society to be happy or successful. Following this climactic battle is a much more relaxed stretch of gameplay where the player essentially says goodbye to the many lovable characters in Persona 5. This ending i🍒s equal parts heart wrenching and adrenaline pumping.

19 Hurt: Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X is a sad game with a sad ending. The world of Spira is plagued by a monstrous being known as Sin that destroys anything it comes across and is reborn from the body of whoever manages to defeat it. This devastating cycle is eventually broken by the protagonist Tidus, but in doing so his temporary existence comes to an end. There’s no way for any character in Final Fantasy X to find enduring happiness, and this gꦺame’s ending is a pyrrhic one.

18 Best: Pokémon Gold And Silver

The first of the Pokémon games end with the player becoming the best Pokémon trainer in the world. The protagonist of the second set of games has the same goal, and the only way to do this is to defeat the player character from the first games. Beyond being a surprise⛎ reveal and a challenging encounter, this ඣending makes a player feel like they’ve grown more than any other title in gaming. In this battle, a player proves that they are better than when they were when they played the original Pokémon games.