00:01Warning, spoilers ahead. When it comes to video games, there are players who play for
00:05the action and there are players who play for the story. They're not mutually exclusive
00:09of course, but even those with no capacity for cutscenes have to admit that some great
00:14game endings are as iconic to the world of gaming as Rosebud is to the world of cinema.
00:20Like Mafia 3, whose framing device is a documentary that mixes interviews, old news clips and
00:25other bits of footage from the past to tell the story of Clay in his fight against the mob.
00:30In a scene that takes place after you beat the mob boss, Donovan exposes the senator's
00:35involvement in the assassination of JFK and shoots him in front of everybody and the cameras,
00:41saying I'm starting with you and vowing to find everyone involved.
00:45Or in Red Dead Redemption, easily one of the most iconic games ever, when Marsden pushes
00:50the doors of his farmhouse open and the game automatically activates Deadeye, persuading
00:54you to take out as many lawmen as you can. You can take out a few, sure, but Marsden dies
00:59and we later see that the cycle of violence continues in Marsden's son, Jack, who we see
01:04returning to gather his father's belongings, cluing us to the idea that one day we might
01:09pick up where we're being left off. What about the legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker?
01:14As Kenneth Shepard writes in Kotaku, the entire fight is a literal washing away of the past that
01:20has plagued these heroes through multiple reincarnation cycles. Wind Waker's final battle
01:25sells the notion with a dramatic vigor elevated by a stellar fight. These are just three examples
01:32of endings, good or bad, that stick with you, and hopefully there are many, many more still to come.
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