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A subtrope of Multiple Endings, where one of the endings (or the epilogue) can only be unlocked after you have discovered all other (non-Game Over) endings of the game — with emphasis on all.note  Theoretically, after watching/reading this ending, the players can safely quit the game and walk away, since they have now seen everything it has to offer.

May or may not be the Golden Ending or Secret Expanded Epilogue. Closely related to New Game Plus. Compare Secret Final Campaign, which focuses on multiple character stories rather than multiple endings. Contrast Last-Second Ending Choice.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action RPGs 
  • Drakengard:
    • Drakengard has five endings, with the last only able to be watched upon getting the other four endings as well as acquiring every weapon and completing every companion sidequest. And it's a weird ending - Caim and Angelus follow the Queen-beast into another worldnote , defeat it, and then get killed by a fighter jet launching a missile at them.
    • NieR has a similar requirement for its Ending D, requiring you to see the first three endings before you unlock it. It's an alternate version of Ending C, where Kainé becomes a Shade and you're forced to kill her; in this ending, Nier instead takes the other option to save Kaine, by sacrificing his very existence for her, which goes so far as to delete your save and even disallow you from replaying the game going by the name you picked for that save. The 2021 remaster also adds a fifth ending following on from that, where Kainé is able to bring Nier back.
    • NieR: Automata features ending E, which can only be reached once you've seen endings A through D. Unlike most examples of this trope, the endings are more sequential than parallel. Endings A and B both cover the first half of the plot from the perspective of different characters, and the order you complete them in is fixed. From there, you get to play through the second half of the plot, with a choice right before the final boss fight determining whether you get ending C or D; either way, you unlock a chapter select, making it easy to go back and get the fourth ending, after which you'll immediately get a prompt to move on to ending E for a brief epilogue.
  • In Odin Sphere, unlocking the game's epilogue requires seeing all cutscenes — including both the good and bad endings, but also every combination of the five player characters defeating the five final bosses.

    Adventure Games 
  • Bugsnax had two endings when it was initially released; one in which not everyone survives their experience on Snaktooth Island, and one in which they do, the latter of which is followed by The Stinger in which two characters have a cryptic conversation. With the release of the BIGsnax DLC, if all of its new content is explored before the ending, the conversation in The Stinger changes to become a lot less cryptic.
  • Shadow of Destiny has two endings that can only be unlocked when you've seen all the five other normal endings. Interestingly enough, this a diegetic example — thanks to the game's narrative themes of Time Travel and altering history, each ending is theoretically canon, and the main character remembers each previous ending. As a result of his understanding, a new dialogue option appears in the opening cutscene during New Game Plus, which leads to a choice between the two "Extra" endings—both where you stop the villain's scheme at two different points that could be considered "as early as possible", You Can't Thwart Stage One be damned.

    Beat 'em Up 

    Fighting Games 
  • The True Ending for the Fighting Game-Slash-Visual Novel BlazBlue: Continuum Shift is a subversion. It closes many of the story threads for the moment and leads into the eventual sequel, but you don't need a 100% completion, you can just complete the necessary stories (Ragna, Noel, Jin, Tsubaki, Hakumen, Hazama) and then you can see the True End. To appreciate the story fully, you're going to dig into other characters that aren't necessary to unlock the True End.
  • Castlevania: Judgment has a variation, where completing Story Mode as each character only shows Aeon's clock receiving another Soul Key, with him accepting it and saying how many more you need. You have to clear every character's story (except his own) in order to unlock both Aeon himself as a playable character, as well as True Story Mode, which adds on a second fight with Aeon (or another character if you're playing as Aeon) and a fight with the Time Reaper, the True Final Boss of the game. Only then can you get the character's ending text.
  • The Androids arc of Dragon Ball Fighter Z can only be unlocked after clearing the other two story arcs involving the heroes and the villains. It's also the canonical one, with all three story arcs being mutually exclusive to each other, since Big Bad Android 21 is destroyed in both of those arcs before the Android arc even starts.

    Platform Games 
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: The Dreamcast and early Modern era of the franchise loved this trope.
    • Sonic Adventure has a Last Story that can't be unlocked without completing the stories for no less than six individual characters.
    • Sonic Adventure 2 streamlined this down to a Last Story that couldn't be unlocked without completing the initially available Hero and Dark Stories.
    • Sonic Heroes required you to play four stories and collect all of the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the Last Story, with the added caveat that all four "stories" are an identical sequence of events with different Player Characters.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog: Reach all 10 possible endings and you'll unlock the "Last" Story, the true canonical ending.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) requires you to complete the Sonic, Shadow, and Silver stories before getting to the Last Story.
  • Wario Land II has six endings, one of them being the "normal" ending achieved by completing the main 25 levels, and four others are reached by finding secret exits that leads to hidden chapters. Only after obtaining those five endings and collecting every treasure and picture piece can the player access the Really Final Chapter, which leads to the final ending.

    Role-Playing Games 
  • The Brief and Meaningless Adventure of Hero Man: The 18th ending requires the player to have logged the 17 other endings on their save file first. Since Hero Man remembers all the previous endings, getting the 18th ending causes him to realize that even if each individual ending seemed meaningless, they still led him to this point in his life and can help him appreciate the rest of the world.
  • The Chaos Rings series tends to have this.
    • In the original game, you can only initially play as one of two couples. Finishing the game for both unlocks two more couples you can play as. Finishing the game with all four unlocks a final chapter. Finishing the final chapter with all four finally unlocks the Golden Ending.
    • Chaos Rings II has two examples. You can only unlock the final chapter and True Ending after getting the Normal Ending. And then you can then only get the alternate Golden Ending in Endgame+ after getting the True Ending.
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2 has the normal ending, eight paradox endings gained by screwing destiny, and the super-secret epilogue unlocked by finding all fragments, including those gained by seeing the other endings. Caius realizes you exist - and then mocks you for thinking you could change the ending to a Final Fantasy game by 'trying really hard'.
  • No Delivery grants you a different certificate for each ending and places them in a plaque near a dead end. Going there after you've earned all five lets you into a clean, unruined version of the restaurant and gives you the Certificate of Completion. Continuing on takes you to the game's museum, basically a behind-the-scenes bonus feature. It also unlocks an overpowered-as-hell character named the Manager.
  • Undertale has a rather twisted example if you see the Golden Ending after getting the Genocide Ending. Remember how, after finishing the Genocide route, the world was totally destroyed, and you had to give the Fallen Child your soul to get things back to normal? Well, now you get to find out what they're gonna do with it! They start by possessing Frisk's body and letting out an Evil Laugh. In a minor example, you can only get the golden ending after completing a neutral run first, as befriending Alphys and accessing The Very Definitely Final Dungeon isn't possible until a neutral run is finished and a character in the game tells you of its existence.

    Simulation Games 
  • Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere had five endings and an epilogue that revealed that you were an AI trapped inside a simulated reality all along — who's about to be released to make one of the simulated routes a reality, since The Man Behind the Man's ultimate goal, that being the death of a specific character, is accomplished in all five routes.
  • Armored Core: Last Raven has an ending that is seen after the other six, where you are the sole surviving Raven of the war between The Alliance and Vertex, and you receive a request to destroy a gigantic MT, the last of the Pulverizers, from an unknown source.
  • NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD has an ending that only accessible if you obtain other 25 endings (other two endings don't count). It also unlocks the secret text file which inaccessible during normal playthrough.

    Survival Horror 
  • Corpse Party: Book of Shadows does not allow you to play the final chapter until you see all of the endings of the other chapters... unless you happen to have a save from the previous game, Blood Covered. In that case, you only have to play through each of the other chapters once.
    • The prequel fangame Corpse Party Zero has a Bad Ending variant. If you see each of the nine bad endings obtained by making a fatal mistake at different points in the story, you can take on 'the final nightmare', a What If? scenario implied to be Shiho's Dying Dream.
  • ENIGMA: An Illusion Named Family has a Downplayed example. Only three endings lead to credit rolls; in order to reach the third, True Ending, you have to collect all the pieces of a photograph that's been torn up and scattered throughout the manor, then play through and reach the other two 'Main' Ends. None of the other Bad Ends have to be viewed.
  • In Eternal Darkness, each time you play through the game, there's one less ancient to choose from in the first level where you play as pre-Face–Heel Turn Pious. After you've completed the game with all three as an antagonist, the epilogue reveals that the fourth god, who was helping the player, basically split reality into alternative timelines where each ancient was defeated and then merged them together so that they all were.
  • Piggy has both the True Ending in Book 1 and the Hidden Ending in Book 2, which require you to have completely every single chapter and ending before them, alongside several other requirements throughout other chapters.
  • The Resident Evil remake on Nintendo GameCube has a thank you message from the developers that you only get once you've unlocked and beaten absolutely everything... that basically tells you how much it means to the developers to have a gamer get that much enjoyment out of their game.
  • Resident Evil 6 originally had this as part of the Ada campaign, which could only be unlocked by completing the other scenarios, until Capcom patched the game to make it available from the start.

    Visual Novels 
  • Similarly to Zero Escape below, the Golden Ending in AI: The Somnium Files is only unlocked after completing every other route, with the worst Downer Ending unlocked immediately beforehand and tying into it.
  • Akai Ito has the Nozomi route, which is unlocked after completing Yumei's route, which in itself requires you to complete the Good Ending of Tsuzura, Uzuki, and Sakuya. It's mainly there to explain Nozomi's motivations and is a letdown after the emotional climax with Yumei.
  • Amnesia: Memories initially offers the player a choice between four possible routes: Heart World, Diamond World, Clover World, and Spade World. Gaining the Good Ending of all four routes unlocks Joker World, the "true" path of the game.
  • Aoi Shiro has the Nami ending, which is also the Golden Ending. It's opened after getting the Good Ending with all other girls: because some choices in her route are not obvious unless you get the facts right from the other routes.
  • In Area X, Ferim's route can only be unlocked by getting all the other endings.
  • In "BAD END THEATER", You unlock a secret epilogue after beating the fight with TRAGEDY if you find all 41 bad endings, revealing that the Maiden was TRAGEDY's self-insert character, the Overlord was based upon was TRAGEDY's lost love, and the player was the aforementioned lost love the entire time!
  • CLANNAD takes it further: after you've achieved all of the 'main' endings to the first part of the game, you unlock the second part, which comes with endings of its own. There's then a final ending to that, which is only achievable once you win every other ending. It's actually a plot point: when you finish each ending, you receive an orb of light, which in-universe is supposed to appear when a person experiences a moment of true happiness. For the final ending, Tomoya actually uses the orbs of light to grant him a wish, which is how the true ending happens.
  • In Code:Realize, completing the True Endings for Impey, Saint-Germain, Frankenstein, and Van Helsing unlocks Lupin's route.
  • In Doppelganger: Dawn of the Inverted Souls, you have to get a certain number of other characters' endings to unlock Blake and Clifford's paths and then at least one ending of every available character to unlock the Golden Path.
  • Fate/stay night has a final epilogue scene in the Realta Nua version (where Shirou and Saber are reunited in Avalon) that can only be unlocked after viewing all forty-five endings of the game (that is, find all of the Bad Ends and reach all five of the formal endings) and then replaying the first route.
  • Hatoful Boyfriend has a lengthy extra route that's only accessible when you've seen an ending for each dateable bird. You play as Ryouta attempting to solve Hiyoko's grisly murder. This extra route has a post-credits scene that can only be viewed if all of the endings for each of the dateable birds have been unlocked.
  • Little Busters! has the Refrain route, which can only be unlocked after completing all other routes.
  • Monster Prom: Downplayed, THE SUPER SECRET ONE ending doesn't require all other endings, but, out of the 22 secret endings, at least 6 have to be achieved, one for each character, and the player also has to have taken all six Love Interests to prom at least once, as well as having a large amount of completed events.
  • In Nameless, only Lance, Yeonho, and Yuri's routes are available at first. Getting at least one of these characters' good endings unlocks Tei's route, and getting Tei's good ending in turn unlocks Red's route. Get all five characters' good endings, and you'll be able to view the Secret Character's ending. But that's not all: after viewing said secret character's ending, you need to choose to have all your previous save data erased and repeatedly enter the secret character's name at the character selection screen to see the second and final secret ending.
  • Never7 and Ever17 have extra dialogue options that only appear when you've seen all the good endings. The new options lead you to the true ending.
  • In no-one has to die., the final storyline is unlocked only after you've seen every possible story outcome. There turns out to be a plot-justified reason for this: it turns out that all these previous storylines you saw came from parallel/alternate universes where you made different choices of who to save and that in one of these storylines, you took a time machine to a universe where all the main characters were able to remember having similarly time-traveled from a universe in which they had been the lone survivor of their group.
  • In Ozmafia!!, the Grand Ending that fully explains the game's backstory can be viewed only after you see all characters' endings.
  • In Shining Song Starnova, Sasami’s route is locked off until you complete the routes of the other six heroines.
  • Shira Oka: Second Chances makes you work hard to get the Golden Ending in which Kasumi lives by forcing you to get every other character's good ending to unlock it.
  • Tsukihime has nine endings and an epilogue where Shiki meets his mentor, Aoko Aozaki, who compliments him on his choices in life. Interestingly, the epilogue is supposed to be canonical in each path/ending, including the one where Shiki dies.
  • To see the true endings in the Zero Escape games (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Virtue's Last Reward; and Zero Time Dilemma), you must see the other endings. Note, however, that this is entirely justifiedat least one character in each game is using Mental Time Travel to explore multiple timelines in order to prevent a tragedy.

    Other 
  • The Multiverse Correction epilogue of the Henry Stickmin Series can be viewed after viewing every single unique fail and ending of every game in the series, from Breaking the Bank to Completing the Mission. All of these fails cause the multiverse to reach "full capacity", so the Center for Chaos Containment "defragments" the multiverse to fix the problem but discovers another anomaly: there was no explanation for why Henry received a package at the beginning of Escaping the Prison. So the CCC sends the package into the past, jumpstarting the series. Afterwards, the creator thanks the player for supporting the series all those years.
  • In E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy, the "true" ending can only be seen by finding the 3 Gate abilities, each one acquired during the final level of each of the 3 normal ending paths.

    Non-video game examples 
  • The light novel Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte involves a Romance Game titled Love Me Magically!. It has a so-called "God Route" that can only be unlocked after getting all ends, including the bad ones.
  • A variation in We Lost Our Human: After three playthroughs, Ham, Pud, and I.T. find themselves at the beginning of the universe as it reboots along with every other permutation of Ham and Pud. As Future Ham and Pud argue, they break the Amulet, which turns out to contain the human genome, which they then feed into the universe, allowing them to finally be reunited with Human.


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