What's the best and worst finale in a game?

[Sandman]

Needless to say, this thread contains spoilers.

What makes a good 'final battle' in game?

I'd say that it has to be very difficult: Nothing is more depressing than defeating the last boss on your first try. Ideally you should be sweating and tearing your hair out, that way victory is all the more sweet.

It also has to be climactic, the location and music have to be the best the game has to offer. High-up locations are preferable. I favour a climactic final battle over a difficult one.

Good final battles:

Chrono Trigger has a fantastic battle against Lavos' true form, an astronaut-like creature. The setting was in a time warp, the music was groovy and the creature was really tough. A great one.

Zelda: Links Awakening has a final battle against a shape-shifting 'nightmare'. He has eight different forms, each requiring a different attack strategy. To make the battle even cooler, he uses forms from Link's previous SNES adventure.

Homeworld's final mission was a frantic struggle to repair and reorganise your forces after wave after wave of enemy capital ships hits you, all with your homeworld hanging in the sky above. The emperors mothership was disappointingly easy to destroy though.

Bad final battles:

Deus Ex has three endings, but the final area resembles an obstacle course, filled with silly enemies and slightly ludicrous tasks to complete.

Max Payne had a cool setting (on top of a skyscraper) but in a game of massive shoot-out, the final battle was more of a puzzle. The final battle should NEVER be a puzzle!

[BustaMike]

Bad Final Battles

Morrowind - Even thought the game is great the end to the main story is ridiculously easy and just plain stupid.

FFX - You can't die. WTF is up with that. Everytime the guy kills you you respawn.

Good Final Battles

Halo - the race to get to the escape pod is the best part of this game. **** is exploding everywhere while your cruisin' along in the warthog. It's great.

[Urban Ranger]

Some of the best finales are ones you don't have to fight the boss/big bad guy/etc.

Wizardry 7 - Crusaders of the Dark Savant has one such ending.

[Drake Tungsten]

SaGa Frontier had the worst ending ever when you beat it with Blue. After defeating the difficult Lord of Hell, the screen just faded to black and white and then said "The End". I thought the game had screwed up the first time I beat it, so I played it again. It hadn't messed up; it was just a super ****ty ending. Worst. Ending. Ever.

[loinburger]

Best: Fallout II, since there were oodles of ways to beat the game (but none of them were particularly simple).

Worst: Final Fantasy 6. "Hooray, you've beaten Kefka! Maybe if you'd done it a bit sooner, then world wouldn't be completely depopulated now!" Actually, any Final Fantasy game I've played follows this same general trend.

[Skanky Burns]

Carrier Command had to have the worst ending of all.
You played this game over many months, finally defeat the enemy carrier in an epic battle, and all you get is a screen saying "You have won". Then about 3 seconds later it goes back to the title-screen.

[Drake Tungsten]

Carrier Command had to have the worst ending of all.
You played this game over many months, finally defeat the enemy carrier in an epic battle, and all you get is a screen saying "You have won". Then about 3 seconds later it goes back to the title-screen.

SaGa Frontier is worse. It doesn't even tell you if you won or not...

[Mr. President]

Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES has a cool final boss, Zeromus, even though he looks like a brain that's been left out in the sun too long. Unfortunately, I always get completely slaughtered by him, so I couldn't tell you about the ending.

I actually liked Tatanga (if that was his name) in Super Mario Land. He was cool. The ending when you beat him is nothing to write home about, though.

The ending of Donkey Kong Country 3 is very cute. Actually, all the Donkey Kong games have cute bosses and endings.

[Grumbold]

I quite liked the different ways you could complete Deus Ex. The final level layout had to facilitate all the endings so it wasn't perfectly designed for any of them, I agree.

Fallout 1/2 had the excellent 'what happens now based on the things you did' endings. Much nicer than seeing a single fmv ending that is the same every time just because you beat the final boss.

[Father Beast]

Monkey island 2 had a nasty bit at the end, where I was tearing my hair out trying to get everything together while i kept being stabbed by the voodoo needle. very frustrating. and then the ending sequence just left me hanging - going "What?!?!?".

Civ2 has the best ending that comes to mind, after you land on Alpha Centauri. maybe i'll think of a better later.

I don't think i've ever played a shooter through to the end.

[axi]

HalfLife: Opposing Force has one of the most difficult and annoying finales I have seen.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by loinburger
Worst: Final Fantasy 6. "Hooray, you've beaten Kefka! Maybe if you'd done it a bit sooner, then world wouldn't be completely depopulated now!"

Did you ever try beating it sooner? I've never played a FF game before though.

Freedom Force has the best finale of the recent games I've played.

[MattyBoy]

I can't think of many.
Can somebody remember what happened at the end of Doom 1 or 2?

Worst:
I don't like the silly looking ending in Master of Magic.

Best:
Nethack's finish is excellent, with the really awkward air and water levels followed by the end, which is a tactical, stressful battle in the semblance of a slugfest. The finish is satisfying and perfectly informative.
The worst thing about the end game is the ridiculous combination of things you have to do to get to the bottom level. That should at least be made more obvious via hints during the game.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Did you ever try beating it sooner? I've never played a FF game before though.

It's not possible to beat him before he's pretty much destroyed the world. Final Fantasy games are scripted up the wazoo. (Approximately, the last 1/2 to 2/3 of the game take place after the world's been cracked and almost everybody's been killed.)

[Skanky Burns]

Doom 1 had you getting killed after reaching the end of Ep1, and then going to hell.
...

Actually, I can't remember more than that, despite the fact that I've finished all 3 episodes of 1 and finished 2 as well.