Comments on: Playable Dénouement

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:34:00 +0000

The original Dragon Warrior/Quest had a playable denouement way back in 1986!

After defeating the Dragonlord you get to walk through the monster-free world and receive praise from townsfolk to your heart’s content. Eventually you’ll end up back at the game’s opening Castle and the game will wrap up.

By: Cameron Sorden

Cameron Sorden — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:18:00 +0000

I’ve got nothing that hasn’t been said, yet (I’d have said Chrono Trigger), but I wanted to say…

…you rock. Earthbound is awesome. I want to go replay it now. :D

By: Ian Schreiber

Ian Schreiber — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:00:00 +0000

The original Ecco the Dolphin had a final level where you got to talk to a bunch of dolphins that you saved, before the credits rolled.

Angband let you keep playing indefinitely after beating the final boss.

I'm sure I've encountered a few RPGs over the years where you still had some limited control for a short period of time after defeating the last boss, although nothing quite as involved as you describe.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:52:00 +0000

Fallout and Fallout 2, but thats more retroactively playable, showing how different towns have turned out based on your actions.

Well put though, this should be a more common thing.

By: mik3cap

mik3cap — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:01:00 +0000

I thought one of the Suikoden games did, but I could be wrong…

By: Mike Lundy

Mike Lundy — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:41:00 +0000

New Game+ in Chrono Trigger has a few endings with short ones (I especially like the ending when you beat it before you help the mammals defeat the reptites, and thus everyone is a reptite instead of a mammal). The longest one is probably the programmer’s ending, where you get to walk around the End of Time and talk to avatars left by the dev team.

I wish more games were like Earthbound. Need to get rid of a magic pencil blocking the path? Get a magic pencil eraser, duh!

By: Corvus

Corvus — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:29:00 +0000

DQ Heroes: Rocket Slime for the DS has something of a denouement. I’m guessing Pokemon will too.

However, these are games which allow continued access to the world so you can “train” for the multiplayer components.

I can’t think of any other games that have a denouement for the sake of denouement… well, WoW post 70 is pretty much a long and painful denouement filled with flashbacks, I guess!