History GainaxEnding / VideoGames

** Emelia. After being wrongly accused of murdering her fiance, Emelia embarks on an epic quest of revenge against the true killer, a man known only as Joker (no, not [[Franchise/{{Batman}} that one]].) Instead, on the last leg of her mission, she comes across a church, decides out of nowhere that she wants to have a make-believe wedding with a male party member playing the part of her dead fiance, fights a giant angel/goddess monster, and then the story ends. She never finds Joker or wraps up any of the other plot threads encountered in her story.
** Blue. A wizard from the Magic Kingdom, who must find and kill his twin brother Rouge, so that he can become the perfect wizard and save the kingdom from evil. After killing Rouge, Blue and Rouge merge into a super-wizard and you return to the Magic Kingdom to face the end boss. After fighting through all of the final boss's [[SequentialBoss multiple forms, the screen goes black and the story ends with no more explanation than the words "Game Over". WordOfGod is that Blue continued fighting the boss for the rest of eternity, thereby protecting the Magic Kingdom. Lovely, but why couldn't you say that in the game?]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''. Legions of creepy floating babies, a giant naked woman who uses sound as a weapon, a main character turning into a clone army of demonic angels that destroy the world, and that's just scratching the surface. The first ending, which is canon, is straightforward. The most bizarre ending — the last one — is also canonical.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}''[='=]s ending was confusing enough to warrant the developers putting in a [[NintendoHard super]]-[[ThatOneBoss hard]] epilogue explaining everything in the game's UpdatedRerelease. Protagonist died by giving his life to save the universe. Originally, it was up to the player to decide whether or not he died or just went to sleep when he was reunited with his friends.

** Happens in the sequel, especially regarding why, in the epilogue after the GoldenEnding, the protagonist is SuddenlyVoiced. However the whole game makes it pretty clear that a sequel will answer all the loose ends, [[spoiler:mainly because it'll be an interquel whose BadEnding led to this future, where everyone is, unknowingly, working to undo whatever gone bad in there via MentalTimeTravel]].

* When ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'' was granted a new hidden ending in an update, known as the "Good" ending, those who made the grueling effort to get said ending by getting ''every'' problem wrong were greeted with this: [[spoiler: If you escape the school after getting every problem wrong, rather than cutting to the usual AWinnerIsYou ending, it cuts to a screen showing Baldi frowning and the message: "You Won! But there's room for improvement, though...Go see Baldi in his office for some tips!". At this point, though, you still have control of your character. If you turn around from the message, you can see a door labeled: "Baldi's Office". If you go through it, you'll find a skewed and distorted Baldi in the middle of the room, and a deformed image of a real life man (no, not the Principal of the Thing) behind Baldi's desk. If you get close enough to the desk, embers begin dancing around, and in immensely distorted audio full of scratches and beeps, the man [[BreakingTheFourthWall implores the player to destroy the game]], insists through SuspiciouslySpecificDenial that the game didn't [[TrappedInTVLand suck him into it]], and that it ended up "[[GameBreakingBug corrupting]]" him upon doing so. The final shot is a close up of the man, now seemingly a ghostly, glitchy version of himself once again insisting to the player to destroy the game before the game closes.]] And this is preferable to the [[AWinnerIsYou normal "Bad" Ending]] where the player is presumed to have escaped with their life; think about that for a moment.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''. [[Synopsis/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Read its full glory here.]]

* The ending of ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'': [=LeChuck=] is actually Chuckie, Guybrush's creepy brother, haunting him through the game for breaking one of his toys. [[AllJustADream The whole thing was essentially an amusement park fantasy played out in the minds of two bored kids.]] [[OrWasItADream Or LeChuck just put a spell on Guybrush to make him think so.]] Even for a game series that thrived on absurdist humour and ''Franchise/StarWars'' references, the mixing of the two with presumed LotusEaterMachine involvement created a true masterpiece in confusing endings. And then Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer bailed on the series, so it's never shown how it was meant to go from there. ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' opens with adult Guybrush floating in the ocean in a bumper car with a pair of balloons in his inventory. It's never exactly explained what happened in the meantime, but the second-to-last chapter of the game suggests that [=LeChuck=] had put a spell on him, and he escaped after breaking the spell. By having all that stuff happen again. It's almost as if they had ''wanted'' to pick up right where things left off, but ExecutiveMeddling forced them to open with Guybrush stranded in the ocean instead.

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals'' has an extremely bizarre ending: After the player spends the last third of the game scouring the jungles of Nontoonyt as Patti looking for Larry, both characters get captured by lesbian cannibals and bound in a cage. Patti then uses a magic marker to draw a magical portal into the air, which transports them out of the game and into Sierra Studios, where they run around the ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'', ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'', and ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'' sets until Roberta Williams offers Larry a lucrative deal to design and write adventure games based on his own adventures. Al Lowe had to skip the fourth installment in the series altogether just to write himself out of that one.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps3'', the player [[AteHisGun eats their gun]] to stop the AI Corvus from infecting [[PurelyAestheticGender their]] Direct Neural Implant. They then appear in a frozen forest, introduced by others as a sort of afterlife made possible by their [=DNIs=], where they fight alongside Taylor against Corvus. Part of the fight involves burning giant human hearts to unlock paths through the forest. Then, the player returns to the real world and manually purges their DNI of Corvus. When asked their name by another soldier, they reply, "Taylor." Then the screen goes black. UnreadablyFastText throughout the beginning of every mission in the game explains events in the prequel comic that ominously parallel the game events with Taylor and his squad in place of the protagonist and Dylan Stone in the place of the rogue Taylor and his squad, and in the first mission itself the game told a story about how a new recruit died of injuries or complications.

* The Amstrad CPC version of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' (going by its Japanese name ''Gryzor'') had this with its ending: you charge into the lair of Red Falcon, blow the crap out of everything... then you're told that the boss's heart had a DeadManSwitch that ''caused the planet to be destroyed''. Note that this didn't happen in ''any'' of the other ''Contra''/''Gryzor'' games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', starting somewhere along the second disk, replaced virtually all overland map movement and scenes with the characters sitting in chairs [[ContemplateOurNavels narrating everything that happened]]. This actually is an openly admitted case of a low budget and forced rush to market causing a Gainax Ending.
** Monetary constraints aside, the ending was pretty straightforward: the party fights Deus in its sanctuary, Elly takes Deus away before it self-destructs on the planet, Fei enters Deus and he and Elly have a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with it, chat with Krelian, and leave before Deus explodes. Then they come back home to a very unambiguous, triumphant welcome from the rest of the heroes. It got metaphysical once or twice, but everything else was spelled out crystal-clear, leaving virtually no room for alternate interpretations. Though the fact that Krelian managed to [[KarmaHoudini get away with his numerous crimes, including genocide and psychologically scarring Ramsus and Fei for no adequately explained reason, to the point that he condescendingly informs Fei that "Only God can judge him now"]] left a bitter taste in many fans' mouths.

* The ending of the arcade and also NES Shoot'em up game ''Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother'' is pretty bizarre: After reaching the last level, [[spoiler: the last boss of the game is an ordinary medieval castle, which you have to destroy all its defenses without any effort. Once this is done, the castle explodes in a quasi-atomic explosion, while your helicopter escapes the place without any problems. The epilogue of the game implies that all the while, Satan himself (or some kind of monster fighting in his name) was manipulating the terrorists and by destroying the devil or that being in person (who was probably in that castle you destroyed) the world is now a safe place once again. This is especially bizarre, since the game does not imply from the outset that there was any kind of supernatural elements. The NES version has the same ending, except replacing the devil with a generic monster]]. It's very likely the ending was being told from a figurative sense, however.

* ''VideoGame/PunchClub'' The game opens with the protagonist's father being shot and killed by the mysterious man in black and he takes your fathers medallion, which acts as the game's {{MacGuffin}}. After hard training and fighting your way to to the top, you head to a secret island which has Sub Zero on it for some reason and fight your brother who is considerably weaker than the last 2 guys you fought to get here. The result of this fight has no effect on anything but 2 lines of dialogue, then you confront the Man in Black and he reveals that he is your father. Yep your father's killer is your father ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldda7vhmuxU ); he traveled back in time, killed his past self, and stole the medallion so he could destroy it, all because in the original timeline the medallion was (somehow) cursed and drove you or your brother insane (he doesn't tell you which), then the insane one killed the other one and became a crimelord and somehow turned the city into an apocalyptic wasteland or something. Nothing else is explained, no one reacts, asks questions or says anything else, then you get to walk around for a few more seconds before the credits role and that's it. No after scene credits and loading your save takes you back to the last of fight of the championship. Also played for laughs in the the Dark Fist quest line (unlike the main story where the ending is quite serious). It ends with the revelation that evil Mastermind is [[spoiler: your cat who faked his own death]] and you stop him by [[spoiler: telling him off, telling him not to try taking over the world then taking him home]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': The main character is supposed to be dead. A computer that controls destiny. The computer kept humanity safe from a race of dragon people, NiceJobBreakingItHero. Everybody from t he last game is inexplicably dead and your actions may or may not have actually done anything about it. Schala Lives! But Lavos is inside of her! But no worries, you exorcise Lavos with a song! Then finally, a credits sequence of a girl — heavily implied to be Kid/Schala — running around in... Tokyo? And good luck figuring out if you actually accomplished anything from playing the game.

* ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'' had this for Light Side. You beat Kreia, she talks to you for a bit, explaining why she liked you, and explaining the fates of some of your comrades. Then, she dies, your ship picks you up, after it fell into a chasm to its apparent destruction earlier, then flies away from the exploding planet unscathed. AND NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. No denouement, no "what's next?", just hop on the ship GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY, leaving everyone wondering "Okay, is there ANY backstory for Sion or Nihilus? How did the remote beat G0-T0? And why was HK apparently completely extraneous?"

** Dark Side wasn't any better, in fact it was worse. Your ship falls into a chasm before you even reach the academy for no apparent reason. Then, you beat Traya and become leader of the Sith Academy. That's it, no mention of what happened to the rest of your party, except for the remote, which G0-T0 presumably destroyed. Just you and the academy. AWinnerIsYou indeed.

* ''Dragon Squadron Danzarb ''(Which actually happens to be partly made by Gainax, funnily enough) ends with the revelation that the soldiers in the squad are mind-wiped convicts who were sent to a remote island chain to fight staged battles (while being secretly filmed "reality TV" style). The money earned from their exploitation is being used to fund "real" military ventures in the rest of the world (which they've been sealed away from). After discovering the truth, the main character looks into a camera and chews out whoever is watching, scolding them for getting a kick out of watching other people die for the sake of their own amusement (implying that [[YouBastard the player, who has been watching the whole thing, is one of those sickos]]).

* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' has the notorious "Judgment" ending, where [[spoiler: Alex is captured by monsters and then transformed into a creature akin to the legendary Pyramid Head of ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'']]. Fans have actually [[FridgeBrilliance figured out]] a logical explanation for this ending that makes it a subversion: [[spoiler: "Judgment" is only unlocked if Alex does not MercyKill his mother and does not forgive his father. Furthermore, through the course of the game, Alex is directly or indirectly responsible for all of the deaths of the various parents that Pyramid Head is there to kill. In other words, Alex ''does Pyramid Head's job for him'', and he does so to such an extent that Silent Hill decides it's only fitting to recruit him ''as'' a new Pyramid Head-type "agent"]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'''s final level has the Princess running away from a knight, while you follow underneath her and help each other overcome obstacles. At the end, you find yourself outside the princess's bedroom, and are only able to rewind time. Rewinding shows that in fact it was you who was chasing the princess, while she tried to stop you with a variety of traps that you managed to overcome, with the knight rescuing her at the end.
** If you get the seven secret stars, some of the switches in that level become timeproof, so you can rewind and go fast enough to stand on the chandelier as it's going back up, catch the princess and... '''KABLAM!!!!!''' Essays have been written. Long ones. The general consensus is that the princess is a nuclear bomb, and the hero was probably one of the Manhattan Project scientists. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This has absolutely nothing to do with the time-warping platformer gameplay]], but is hinted at by various {{Info Dump}}s and the aforementioned exploding princess.
* ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''. Legions of creepy floating babies, a giant naked woman who uses sound as a weapon, a main character turning into a clone army of demonic angels that destroy the world, and that's just scratching the surface. The first ending, which is canon, is straightforward. The most bizarre ending - the last one - is also canonical.

** ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}''. While the individual stages have their own moments, like First Life being a front for [[DarkMessiah Ulmeyda's thrill seeking cult]], [[{{Sentai}} The Handsome Men]] being erased from existence by Trevor's sister killing them in a video game, and whatever the hell was the purpose of the room you fight Curtis in, the ending blows them all away. [[AlphaBitch Samantha]] dies somehow, Christopher gets killed, Garcian [[MoreDakka interrupts]] Kun and Harman's chess game, Garcian is actually insane, there is another Harman Smith and he's in his 30's and works for the government, [[GovernmentConspiracy all of Garcian/Emir's actions were controlled by the United States government]], the memos were sent years ago and are addressed to Garcian/Emir, and the guy writing them was killed by [[{{Meido}} Samantha]] on the orders of old Harman, Emir/Garcian killed the entire Smith Syndicate at the age of 13, Iwazaru is Kun is the last Heaven Smile, Garcian/Emir's eyes turn green and he gets a nice suit, and Japan either gets bombed by the USA or leads the UN in a full scale attack on America. Also, Kun and old Harman are alive 100 years later in Shanghai to do it all again.

** Even [=LPs=] of Creator/{{Suda 51}}'s games aren't safe. Most notable in [[LetsPlay/ChipCheezum Chip and Ironicus']] [=LPs=] of ''Killer 7'' and ''No More Heroes'', where the former ends in the revelation that The LP was all in Chip's head and the latter ends with Chip and Ironicus suddenly proclaiming "It's coming." repeatedly in monotone during the final video of the LP, until semi-trucks start to rain from the sky.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfGoo'' - Every ''chapter'' has its own Gainax Ending. The Ivy Goos float away with balloons! The world is powered by the beauty of a giant ugly woman! The World of Goo corporation's new product is the ''third dimension!'' MOM is a '''spam bot!''' The fish have wings and levitate the telescope! The title refers to ''the moon!'' Made even better by the insanely epic ''music'' that plays during each scene, despite the game's premise being, essentially, poking goo until it goes somewhere.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'''s ending was confusing enough to warrant the developers putting in a [[NintendoHard super]]-[[ThatOneBoss hard]] epilogue explaining everything in the game's UpdatedRerelease. Protagonist died by giving his life to save the universe. Originally, it was up to the player to decide whether or not he died or just went to sleep when he was reunited with his friends.

* The conclusion to case 3 in ''[[VideoGame/TouchDetective Touch Detective 2½]] The Fossil Hunter turns out to be a living fossil from another dimension, who is only able to live in the normal dimension thanks to his eye. His tears are connected to the Cambrian ocean, and he uses them to raise extinct fossils. When he cried in reverse back when he heard about the Noodle Festival, the Seabottom Dwellers, a group from an ancient race who it turns out are not extinct and live in the mountains, took it as a sign of impending peril, so removed his eye, which turned him into a fossil. the weird pink thing that showed up at the three-quarters point that almost poked out Mackenzie's eye? Turns out to be one of the member of the ancient Sea Dweller race. They were going around poking out left eyes from things at the museum because they can't speak human language and were trying to primitively communicate to the humans about the doom they were sensing. This all explained in one long explanation from the Fossil Hunter after he's turned back from a fossil thanks to Mackenzie putting his eye back in, in the midst of the arch villain, the Cornstalker, trying to steal the his eye, which everyone thought was a rare ancient pearl, and being fooled into taking a fake one. The entire thing even makes Mackenzie's confused, which is saying something given all the other stuff she's already seen before.

* Creator/{{Treasure}} games are probably the most notorious of this trope, with their [[MoodWhiplash unexpected mood swings]], [[FauxSymbolism symbolic references]], and/or {{Downer Ending}}s (''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes'', ''VideoGame/SilhouetteMirage'', and ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'', to name a few) to complement their UnexpectedGameplayChange leave many to think that they are the [[Creator/StudioGainax Gainax]] equivalent to videogames.
* ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor''’s ending: A giant machine called Death Mask appears [[DiabolusExMachina right the fuck out of nowhere]] and kills all robots on Earth, including Astro. Roll credits. Fortunately, this turns out to be just the halfway point of the game, and the rest involves Astro getting unstuck in time thanks to the Phoenix and jumping around the game's timeline to find out how to prevent this from happening.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', a game normally pretty good about foreshadowing plot twists in advance, has an ending that comes completely out of nowhere. [[spoiler:It turns out that Zanza the {{Jerkass God|s}} was actually a human MadScientist named Klaus who messed around with a universe-creating machine and accidently destroyed the universe and remade it with him as a God. Mayneth was also a human who just... happened to be there at the time. Zanza and Mayneth got lonely, so they created all the living things in the world. Then Zanza turned evil for... some reason, leading to the events of the game. Then Alvis, the party's MysteriousProtector throughout the game, is revealed to be ''a computer program'' (namely, the embodiment of said universe-creating machine) and the whole game he was guiding Shulk to kill Zanza for abusing the system. [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Also, killing Zanza made Shulk the new god of the universe]], but he turns down the power and asks to create a world with no gods. The universe explodes and is remade... but both the party and all the [=NPCs=] in the game still seem the same as they used to be. And Fiora gets turned back into a Homs again with no explanation. (There actually ''was'' going to be an explanation for this, but it got cut for time and eventually relegated to AllThereInTheManual.)]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': The main character is supposed to be dead. A computer that controls destiny. The computer kept humanity safe from a race of dragon people, NiceJobBreakingItHero. Everybody from the last game is inexplicably dead and your actions may or may not have actually done anything about it. Schala Lives! But Lavos is inside of her! But no worries, you exorcise Lavos with a song! Then finally, a credits sequence of a girl -- heavily implied to be Kid/Schala -- running around in... Tokyo? And good luck figuring out if you actually accomplished anything from playing the game.

* ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' springs a last-minute surprise on the player that's set up in such a way that it's incredibly easy to miss — the [=DomZ=] are feeding on the citizens of Hillys because their own weird alien lifeforce, which they call "shauni", was stolen from them -- by Jade's parents. Jade's somehow the [=DomZ=]'s shauni, and they would very much like her back. In hindsight, it's a decent explanation for a lot of odd behaviour that the player's already put down to "it's a game". It's not terribly well set up even if you notice the extremely incidental evidence the game presents in the final level, specifically a conversation the player overhears that's optional, and how the sacred chant the [=DomZ=] keep repeating has the same lyrics as the battle music -- including the word "shauni".

* ''VideoGame/PunchClub'' The game opens with the protagonist's father being shot and killed by the mysterious man in black and he takes your fathers medallion, which acts as the game's mc guffin. After hard training and fighting your way to to the top, you head to a secret island which has Sub Zero on it for some reason and fight your brother who is considerably weaker than the last 2 guys you fought to get here. The result of this fight has no effect on anything but 2 lines of dialogue, then you confront the Man in Black and he reveals that he is your father. Yep your father's killer is your father ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldda7vhmuxU ) and that he took the medallion so he could destroy because the medallion turned your father and he destroyed a city except not really or something. Maybe time travel was involved? Not that anyone says, and time travel had not been mentioned up to the that point. Nothing else is explained, no one reacts, asks questions or says anything else, then you get to walk around for a few more seconds before the credits role and that's it. No after scene credits and loading your save takes you back to the last of fight of the championship. Also played for laughs in the the Dark Fist quest line (unlike the main story where the ending is quite serious). It ends with the revelation that evil Mastermind is [[spoiler: your cat who faked his own death]] and you stop him by [[spoiler: telling him off, telling him not to try taking over the world then taking him home]]

* Creator/{{Treasure}} games are probably the most notorious of this trope, with their [[MoodWhiplash unexpected mood swing]], [[FauxSymbolism symbolic references]] and/or {{Downer Ending}}s (''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes'', ''VideoGame/SilhouetteMirage'', ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'' to name a few) to complement their UnexpectedGameplayChange leave many to think that they are the [[Creator/StudioGainax Gainax]] equivalent to videogames.
* ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'''s ending: A giant machine called Death Mask appears right the fuck out of nowhere and kills all robots on Earth, including Astro. Roll credits. Fortunately, this turns out to be just the halfway point of the game, and the rest involves Astro getting unstuck in time thanks to the Phoenix and jumping around the game's timeline to find out how to prevent this from happening.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', starting somewhere along the second disk, replaced virtually all overland map movement and scenes with the characters sitting in chairs narrating everything that happened. This actually is an openly admitted case of a low budget and forced rush to market causing a Gainax Ending.
** Monetary constraints aside, the ending was pretty straightforward: the party fights Deus in its sanctuary, Elly takes Deus away before it self-destructs on the planet, Fei enters Deus and he and Elly have a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with it, chat with Krelian, and leave before Deus explodes. Then they come back home to a very unambiguous, triumphant welcome from the rest of the heroes. It got metaphysical once or twice, but everything else was spelled out crystal-clear, leaving virtually no room for alternate interpretations. Though the fact that Krelian managed to [[KarmaHoudini get away with his numerous crimes including genocide and psychologically scarring Ramsus and Fei for no adequately explained reason, to the point that he condescendingly informs Fei that "Only God can judge him now"]] left a bitter taste in many fans' mouths.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', a game normally pretty good about foreshadowing plot twists in advance, has an ending that comes completely out of nowhere. [[spoiler: It turns out that Zanza the {{Jerkass God|s}} was actually a human MadScientist named Klaus who messed around with a universe-creating machine and accidently destroyed the universe and remade it with him as a God. Mayneth was also a human who just... happened to be there at the time. Zanza and Mayneth got lonely, so they created all the living things in the world. Then Zanza turned evil for... some reason, leading to the events of the game. Then Alvis, the party's MysteriousProtector throughout the game, is revealed to be ''a computer program'' (Namely, the embodiment of said universe-creating machine) and the whole game he was guiding Shulk to kill Zanza for abusing the system. [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt Also, killing Zanza made Shulk the new god of the universe]], but he turns down the power and asks to create a world with no gods. The universe explodes and is remade... but both the party and all the [=NPCs=] in the game still seem the same as they used to be. And Fiora gets turned back into a Homs again with no explanation. (There actually ''was'' going to be an explanation for this, but it got cut for time and eventually regulated to AllThereInTheManual.)]]

* The ending of ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'': [=LeChuck=] is actually Chuckie, Guybrush's creepy brother, haunting him through the game for breaking one of his toys. [[AllJustADream The whole thing was essentially an amusement park fantasy played out in the minds of two bored kids.]] [[OrWasItADream Or LeChuck just put a spell on Guybrush to make him think so]]. Even for a game series that thrived on absurdist humour and ''Franchise/StarWars'' references, the mixing of the two with presumed LotusEaterMachine involvement created a true masterpiece in confusing endings. And then Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer bailed on the series, so it's never shown how it was meant to go from there. ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' opens with adult Guybrush floating in the ocean in a bumper car with a pair of balloons in his inventory. It's never exactly explained what happened in the meantime, but the second-to-last chapter of the game suggests that [=LeChuck=] had put a spell on him, and he escaped after breaking the spell. By having all that stuff happen again. It's almost as if they had ''wanted'' to pick up right where things left off, but ExecutiveMeddling forced them to open with Guybrush stranded in the ocean instead.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': The main character is supposed to be dead. A computer that controls destiny. The computer kept humanity safe from a race of dragon people, NiceJobBreakingItHero. Everybody from the last game is inexplicably dead and your actions may or may not have actually done anything about it. Schala Lives! Then finally, a credits sequence of a girl -- heavily implied to be Kid/Schala -- running around in... Tokyo? And good luck figuring out if you actually accomplished anything from playing the game.

* ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' springs a last-minute surprise on the player that's set up in such a way that it's incredibly easy to miss - the [=DomZ=] are feeding on the citizens of Hillys because their own weird alien lifeforce, which they call "shauni", was stolen from them -- by Jade's parents. Jade's somehow the [=DomZ=]'s shauni, and they would very much like her back. In hindsight, it's a decent explanation for a lot of odd behaviour that the player's already put down to "it's a game". It's not terribly well set up even if you notice the extremely incidental evidence the game presents in the final level, specifically a conversation the player overhears that's optional, and how the sacred chant the [=DomZ=] keep repeating has the same lyrics as the battle music -- including the word "shauni".

* Invoked with ''VideoGame/LastCaseTheDisappearanceOfAmandaKane''. The game ends with Jack Forester being abducted by what appear to be aliens. Up until then, the game was nothing more than a cliché FilmNoir cop story about a private investigator trying to find Amanda Kane. WordOfGod admitted on Game Jolt that this was done intentionally to subvert how cliché the game already was.