Playable Epilogue: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A Playable Epilogue, however, lets you continue playing after beating the final boss. In some cases this simply means that the scenes taking place during the epilogue are interactive (you can talk to NPCs at your leisure, but not go out and explore the [[World Map]] or battle monsters), and your save file still reloads the game as it looked before the final boss. In other times the epilogue is an actual bonus chapter set in the "saved" world, after the main plot has been all wrapped up, often featuring extra side quests or dungeons to explore at your leisure.

 

* The NES ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games are the [[Trope Maker]] here; from the very first game, in fact.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons]]'' games are unique in canon in that you can continue playing after you win, to allow the strange password system that [[One Game for the Price of Two|connects the games]] to work. After the end, everyone comments on your saving the world and (in the first game only) a bunch of new NPCs show up ready to take passwords from the other game. If you play the second game in already-beat-the-other-game mode, though, [[True Final Boss|the ending]] is [[Hijacked by Ganon|different]], and you can't save afterward.

* The original ''[[Myst]]'' allowed the player to continue wandering around the various worlds and exploring after completing the game, even though that's what the player had already spent the entire game doing.

** The remake, "realMyst," added an additional world that could be accessed at this point: it didn't deliver any more story, but offered a nice world-builder engine and a cameo appearance by Riven.

*** And the opportunity to [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|shoot lightning bolts at whales]] (don't worry, they have NPC invulnerability).

* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, defeating the Elite Four doesn't end the game at all. It usually just opens up a high-level challenge, like the Battle Tower/Frontier. In ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'', it turns out to be sort of a [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|fake ending]]: even though the credits roll, you have ''half of the game left''. It turns out there's an entire ''region'' left to explore, and you need to get another eight badges to face [[Previous Player Character Cameo|the protagonist of the last game]] to get the real ending.

** ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' takes this even further. After you beat {{spoiler|N and Ghetsis}} and the story has clearly ended, you still haven't even beaten the Elite Four and become Champion, which was your goal in the first place! Becoming Champion is your main goal to work for during the postgame sidequests.

* Strangely enough ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' let's you play even after you've beaten Gruntilda just in case you may have forgotten the some notes or forgot to get the infamous stop and swop eggs. Heck, you can even visit gruntilda's grave and dance on it!

* The ''[[Civilization]]'' games have the "Wait! [[Just One More Level|Just...one...more...turn!]]" option to play on after you've won a victory.

** The original ''Dark Cloud'' let you do it, too; the one difference was that, as {{spoiler|you had restored the whole world to how it was before}}, you no longer needed the [[Applied Phlebotinum|magical blue stone]] on your glove. Plus there was still a [[Bonus Dungeon]].

* ''[[Tales of Legendia]]'' doesn't so much have a playable epilogue as a ''second half''. The credits roll before you get there, though, so...

** ''[[Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time]]'' had a playable epilogue, {{spoiler|though it was really just a disguised path to the unexpected [[Post Climax Confrontation]].}}

** The First ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' did have a playable epilogue, just the sort where it's only a means to get you to the last cut scenes.

* ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete]]'' has a playable epilogue that could (arguably) be called the true final arc of the game; it's rather long and completes the game with a happy ending.

** The remake of ''[[Lunar Silver Star Story Complete|Lunar 1]]'' game also had a playable epilogue, though all you could really do is wander around [[Capital City|Meribia]] and watch all the secondary characters wrap up their story arcs.

* The original four ''[[.hack]]'' games as well as the [[.hack GU|G.U. games]] have playable epilogues which let the player recruit bonus characters as well as play through a [[Bonus Dungeon]] for the epilogue.

* In ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'', after defeating the [[Final Boss]], you can run around the Cardon Forest, Apple Market, and Downtown areas one last time talking to NPCs, whose dialogues changes depending on what side quests you did. Talking to Roll will then continue the ending and [[Incredibly Lame Pun|roll]] the credits.

* Once you finish the [[Final Boss]] in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', you then get Purple comets, which makes more Stars to get. If you get all of these though, you still aren't finished. You can then {{spoiler|play as Luigi}}. This lets you play through the whole game again, beating the final boss again, then getting all the stars again... which unlocks {{spoiler|the Grand Finale Galaxy, which returns you to the Star Festival from the beginning of the game, and allows you to get one last star with each Mario brother and a congratulatory message from Nintendo.}}

*** ''Fable 3'' was better in this regard, several quests only becoming available after you've driven off the [[Final Boss]].

* ''[[Wasteland (video game)|Wasteland]]'' let you wander around after killing off the [[Big Bad]]. Then again, the world was still saved but crawling with dangerous creatures.

** It was EX3. IIRC, it was just for fun; it didn't do anything. One of the flunkies was a Hugo-esque bruiser who grew bigger every time you decked him.

* ''[[Toejam and Earl]]'' and its sequel have epilogue levels where you just walk around and talk to the colorful alien characters.

** It also ends at marriage when you play as Sara in the third ''[[Game Boy]]'' game, and get married.

** In ''Harvest Moon DS'', however, the game ends after marriage. Fortunately, it's only if you marry a Mineral Town girl.

** This is there for the sake of the game's [[Multiple Endings]]. Each boss guards three high-valued treasures, and taking too long to beat a boss will make the treasures start to disappear- the ones you get end up at the final boss room, which works the same way. If you missed a treasure before, you would ''have'' to fight the boss again after beating the game.

* After completing each episode of ''[[Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People|Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People]]'', you can access Extended Play via the Save/Load menu, which gives you an opportunity to access any unlockables you might have missed, and talk to all the characters. Episode 4 ("Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective") has the most in-depth Extended Play; Since the episode itself was a movie that the characters were filming, its Extended Play has some extra "Making Of"-style cutscenes.

* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' had two short playable sections in its epilogue.

* The ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' mod Rubicon had three playable epilogue levels. Two that reveals the historical effects of the players actions, and one where you {{spoiler|revive Durandal after you just had killed him.}}

* In the newest Halo game, Reach, you get to {{spoiler|fight on a part of Reach that is getting glassed by the Covenant after the credits at the end of the Pillar of Autumn. You see randomly generated Spartan bodies, and no matter how well you perform, the end is always your death due to numerous Elites. However, this is a mild spoiler because the opening cutscene is one of your player character's helmet with a bullet hole through the visor.}}

* ''[[Grandia II]]'' had an epilogue where you took control of Roan who, some time after the [[Final Battle]], goes {{spoiler|[[King Incognito]] again}} to visit his friends [[The Fellowship Has Ended|now living all across the land]].

* ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' features a very elaborate one, where you play as child Jennifer, walking around the orphanage to say farewell to the precious memories she had about the place despite of all the bad that happened. It culminates the storyline masterfully and provides some of the strongest [[Tear Jerker]] fuel in video game history.

* ''[[Fossil Fighters]]'' gives you access to a huge number of new things after beating the main game. Not only do you gain access to two new areas (which you will need to visit in order to [[Gotta Catch Em All|find every viviosaur]]), nearly every storyline character you've fought throughout the entire game becomes a [[Bonus Boss]]! Beating ''these'' lets you earn access to [[Unusable Enemy Equipment|previously]] [[A Taste of Power|ungettable]] 'saurs, and you can even face the ''ultimate'' [[Bonus Boss]], consisting of the three most powerful characters in the game.