My brain instantly goes to Sonic Adventure 2. 8 year old me was not ready for such a fun ending. Live and Learn coming on during the Sonic movie unlocked something in me, so cool
I occasionally plug weird old freeware games I used to play in threads like this - Iji is a product of its era, but it also feels like it was ahead of its time the way the dev subverted the “alien invasion” trope. Ending theme is also a banger.
Also Cave Story is a classic.
Braid has one of the best ending levels ever.
OG Portal (it was good before it got memed into the Earth’s core) for introducing me to Jonathan Coulton.
Undertale
More recently, I liked Nine Sols.
predictable mention but honestly no other game’s climax has enraptured me and moved me like Disco Elysium. it’s beautiful.
…still need to play this
Heard some shady shit went down at the studio. I’ll have to look into whether I should pirate it or not
Pirate it is the usual recommendation. Iirc profits will go to a bad dude who stiffed the workers. Been a while since I read that info though, so might be worth to read further.
I like the People Make Games investigation, but understandably no one’s got time for that shit. It’s like 2 hours long.
TL;DW: It’s complicated, but I don’t think it’s right to say the workers got stiffed. A lot of people worked on the game, not just the three who were forced out (though those three were considered the core design team). At this point, though, what’s left of ZA/UM is probably an empty office and half a dozen scrapped projects on hard drives. There’s nothing left to support even if you side with the company. I say pirate it.
Edit: The good news is there are like 4 recently announced projects from multiple former Elysium devs that promise to carry on the spirit of the game.
That pokemon game from 20 years ago where you beat all the gyms and go to the elite four and win the game and then its like PSYCHE theres an entire nother set of gym leaders and elite four get to it!
my tiny head exploded
…Time, Dr. Freeman?
Is it really that time again? It seems as if you only just arrived. You’ve done a great deal in a small time… span. You’ve done so well, in fact, that I’ve received some interesting offers for your services. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t contemplate them… but these are extraordinary times. Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you… if and when your time comes round again. I do apologize for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Dr. Freeman. I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of… well… I’m really not at liberty to say. In the meantime… this is where I get off.
Mgs2
