History Main / DisappointingLastLevel

** The final case of ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations]]''. The pacing becomes very slow, and it starts to drag out after [[spoiler:Shih-na's reveal]]; unfortunately, you'll still have several more confrontations to go. The main problem is that the game's length isn't balanced by the emotional tension, as unlike the previous antagonists Edgeworth had no personal connection to the BigBad, only an ideological one, and can make it hard to care at times. On top of that, despite the case's extreme length, it fails to do more than make the game's overall storyline feel like a series of massively improbable {{Contrived Coincidence}}s. As a result of all this, it's widely considered to be not only the worst final case in an ''Ace Attorney'' game, but a strong contender for the single worst case in the entire series[[note]]("Turnabout Big Top" and "Turnabout Serenade" from ''Justice For All'' and ''Apollo Justice'' respectively are the only ones generally considered to be worse, and even then there are those who'd point out that they're just filler cases with little bearing on the overall plot of those games, meaning their poor quality isn't as bad)[[/note]].

** The final case of ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations]]''. The pacing becomes very slow, and it starts to drag out after [[spoiler:Shih-na's reveal]]; unfortunately, you'll still have several more confrontations to go. The main problem is that the game's length isn't balanced by the emotional tension, as unlike the previous antagonists Edgeworth had no personal connection to the BigBad, only an ideological one, and can make it hard to care at times.
** Some fans consider the final case of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' to suffer from this, mostly due to the confusing and illogical MASON System, as well as the hero being sidelined and the series' original protagonist taking over temporarily. By the time you return to Apollo, all that's left is some dialogue and presenting the last piece of evidence before losing control of him again to decide the final verdict as someone else.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''. Thanks to a combination of budget restraints, and massive re-editing thanks to September 11th, the notorious ending was considered a let-down by fans thanks to the very long cutscenes, and a fight that felt anti-climactic and incomprehensible.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' has a strange sort of dual example. The [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon climactic assault on Governors Island]] is extremely fun to play but vaguely unsatisfying from a story perspective, as the primary antagonist character remains TheUnfought and there's no real closure over the PlayerCharacter's dead brother. Beat the game on the hardest difficulty, however, and you unlock a secret level... A completely linear, not especially challenging and very obviously unfinished level that looks like it was DummiedOut due to time constraints and then added back in as an afterthought, with a hilariously literal case of AWinnerIsYou on top. The worst part is, the very existence of this level suggests that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen there might have been a more satisfying conclusion planned at one point.]]

* The final level of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' is probably the easiest one in the whole game. You're in a medium-sized room with Idunn, the TrueFinalBoss, on the other side, and there are only two other enemies to start with, neither of whom actually block your path. Idunn's stats are also fairly underwhelming, and don't increase on Hard Mode (bar one extra point of HP). On top of that, at this point you should have most of the Legendary Weapons, plus the Binding Blade, all of which are PurposefullyOverpowered and also effective against dragon enemies (which both Idunn and her cronies are). With a Dancer or Bard, it's feasible to finish the map in ''one turn.'' The level prior to it wasn't much better, being little more than walking through an overlong corridor and fighting identical squads of Manaketes.

* The Meat Circus from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', while it does do its job in terms of wrapping up its story, suffers an absolutely tremendous DifficultySpike involving a time-based escort mission and numerous leaps of faith in an otherwise easy game. The development team was in a time crunch near the end of production, so it's understandable, if still disappointing. One of the developers claimed to have dreamed of being trapped in the Meat Circus near the end of the development cycle.

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The game's quality suddenly dips to hell and beyond, so much so that it feels as though the game was outsourced to another, less-competent group of developers for the endgame. The difficulty becomes [[SchizophrenicDifficulty largely inconsistent]] and unable to make up its mind about whether to [[DifficultySpike spike]] or [[BreatherLevel drop]]. The pacing is [[EndingFatigue slow-paced and boring]], filled with blatant {{padding}} in a generally fast-paced game world. The gameplay is suddenly full of [[UnexpectedGameplayChange awkward]] {{stealth|BasedMission}}, TrialAndErrorGameplay, and terribly-placed ([[CheckpointStarvation if at all]]) {{checkpoint}}s. The [[FinalBoss end boss]]? [[AntiClimaxBoss Dies with about as much effort as it took to beat the first level's]] WarmUpBoss. This climax should be as good as what lay beforehand and then some, yet it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth after an otherwise enjoyable game. Essentially AWinnerIsYou from a game design standpoint.

* In ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron4'' playing as one of the major European Axis powers, the last obstacle is almost always the United States. They are an awful opponent because they have probably spent 5 years building up a gigantic army that will swam almost any landing, as well as a large Navy if the Imperial Japanese Navy hasn't helped you by taking it out.

The game's quality suddenly dips to hell and beyond, so much so that it feels as though the game was outsourced to another, less-competent group of developers for the endgame. The difficulty becomes largely inconsistent and unable to make up its mind about whether to [[DifficultySpike spike]] or [[BreatherLevel drop]]. The pacing is [[EndingFatigue slow-paced and boring]], filled with blatant {{padding}} in a generally fast-paced game world. The gameplay is suddenly full of [[UnexpectedGameplayChange awkward]] {{stealth|BasedMission}}, TrialAndErrorGameplay, and terribly-placed ([[CheckpointStarvation if at all]]) {{checkpoint}}s. The [[FinalBoss end boss]]? [[AntiClimaxBoss Dies with about as much effort as it took to beat the first level's]] WarmUpBoss. This climax should be as good as what lay beforehand and then some, yet it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth after an otherwise enjoyable game. Essentially AWinnerIsYou from a game design standpoint.

Game is building up to the climax, and you can only imagine how amazing it's going to be with how great everything was beforehand. What you're thinking of seems too good to be true... ''[[TemptingFate And good God, it is]]''.

The game's quality suddenly dips to hell and beyond, so much so that it feels as though the game was outsourced to another, less-competent group of developers for the endgame. The difficulty becomes largely inconsistent and unable to make up its mind about whether to [[DifficultySpike spike]] or [[BreatherLevel drop]]. The pacing is [[EndingFatigue slow-paced and boring, filled with blatant {{padding}} in a generally fast-paced game world]]. The gameplay is suddenly full of [[UnexpectedGameplayChange awkward]] {{stealth|BasedMission}}, TrialAndErrorGameplay, and terribly-placed ([[CheckpointStarvation if at all]]) {{checkpoint}}s. The [[FinalBoss end boss]]? [[AntiClimaxBoss Dies with about as much effort as it took to beat the first level's]] WarmUpBoss. This climax should be as good as what lay beforehand and then some, yet it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth after an otherwise enjoyable game. Essentially AWinnerIsYou from a game design standpoint.

Many developers have admitted to paying far less attention to their climaxes than they probably should, as most players don't get that far. Even some professional reviewers admit they don't play enough of the game and many reviews are based off of the early-mid parts of the game. This initiates an obvious vicious cycle of players who would otherwise finish being put off by terrible ending levels, with the expectation that no really great gameplay surprises (with positive impact) will happen after the first half or so of a game is completed. Even if individual developers don't want to be a part of this problem, ExecutiveMeddling will often enforce this trope, especially if the game is ChristmasRushed and the ending is the first thing that's sacrificed. AuthorExistenceFailure is another possibility, if the ending wasn't sorted out ahead of time. This was even more prevalent in the days of shareware: when the first third of your game was going to advertise the rest, suddenly you were incentivized to put all the good levels in that part.

** TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon added to ''Afterbirth+'', and as the final addition the final floor for the whole game, is the Void. It fits with the game's lore, but fans were disappointed to discover that the Void simply uses designs of the past floors in the game, with a different setting picked randomly for each room. The boss of it is effectively a harder BossRush in a game that already has one and with a ton of HP. Making matters worse is that the ending from beating this -- the last ending of the game -- doesn't really establish or change anything that wasn't already covered in a previous ending.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** The final case of ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations]]''. The pacing becomes very slow, and it starts to drag out after [[spoiler:Shih-na's reveal]]; unfortunately, you'll still have several more confrontations to go. The main problem is that the game's length isn't balanced by the emotional tension, as unlike the previous antagonists Edgeworth had no personal connection to the BigBad, only an ideological one, and can make it hard to care at times.
** Some fans consider the final case of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' to suffer from this, mostly due to the confusing and illogical MASON System, as well as the hero being sidelined and the series' original protagonist taking over temporarily. By the time you return to Apollo, all that's left is some dialogue and presenting the last piece of evidence before losing control of him again to decide the final verdict as someone else.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has Act 4. Whilst having the final chapter in the pits of Hell is pretty cool, there are far fewer areas in Hell than in any other chapter, only a handful of [=NPC=]s in the 'town' of the Pandemonium Fortress, and only three quests, two of which are needed to win the game anyway. Your blacksmith and healer in that town have noticeably been given fewer lines to say and have no discernible personality. "Hail to you, champion" will be stuck in your head after a while.

** The final track of the final Retro Cup in ''DS'' is merely Yoshi Circuit from ''Double Dash!!'', which is not only anticlimatic on its own but also in comparison to the other ''Mario Kart'' games with Retro Cups that do end with more memorable tracks (SNES Rainbow Road in both ''Super Circuit'' and ''7'', [=N64=] Bowser Castle in ''Wii'', [=N64=] Rainbow Road in ''8'').

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'' has a Disappointing Last World. The first five worlds of the game are pretty varied, having some nice diversity in the environment, atmosphere, and design of their levels. Then you get to World 6, and all the levels are ice levels of some form. Every last stinking one of them, even the temple and boss stages. While there is a clear justification for it in-game, and while a few levels do at least attempt to vary it up a little (notably 6-6 and 6-8), it doesn't stop the world having by far the least scenic variety (despite each level being based off a world in its predecessor, as a sort of combination of Nostalgia Level and a cross-game All the Worlds Are a Stage). The fact that the world is also the longest in the game, with 12 levels (most contain 10) doesn't help matters either.

** The first game has this with the entire final third of the game. The first two thirds, set in America and Japan, are full of tense shootouts with cops, a couple bank heists, and gunfights with civilians caught in the crossfire. The final act is set, bizarrely, during a revolution in South America, and has the player commanding a small RedshirtArmy against a huge RedshirtArmy. The credibility of the plot is stretched thin, and the inability of the friendly AI to handle the vastly increased difficulty of the endlessly respawning [[YouAllLookAlike beardless Fidel Castros]] does little to help.

Contrast TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, where the final level is awesome and memorable.

** Same deal with ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal''. The second-to-last planet is Koros, which is a great experience given the original setting, new enemy type and hard but balanced battles. Then you get to Mylon, which is on the other hand visually bland, with easy puzzles and while battles are hard, they are against enemies you encounter since Metropolis. Also, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywaling, the music is reused from first game]]. Once you get to FinalBoss, you get into an awesome fight with few elements mixing it up, but the fight afterwards against Bio-Obliterator MkII is uninspiring at best.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' zig-zags this to hell and back. After you've finally freed the "love interest" of the game for Ratchet, you are forced to deal with another larger, tougher, frozen wasteland that is mainly white and blue, Planet Grelbin. Some players just go "eeeh" and force themselves through. And there is still 20% more plot to get through in the form of going to other planets in the middle of beating Grelbin and then getting to the final planet, Yeedil. The first half of Planet Yeedil consists mostly of a long, tedious Hypnotizer puzzle that effectively makes you waste 10 minutes in a long maze of electric fences and [[GoddamnedBats Protopets]] in order to move about 100 feet forward. Then you raid MegaCorp HQ, in what is largely considered to be one of the most fun and climactic levels in the series while SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic blares in the background. And then, after TheReveal, you're treated to the final boss, who is one of the most [[AntiClimaxBoss laughably pathetic bosses]] in franchise history, going down in about 10 seconds to the [[GameBreaker Heavy Bouncer]] and not much longer than that with your other weapons. It's as easy as the first two bosses of the game, made worse since the planet where the love interest was rescued, Snivelak, is home to ThatOneBoss.

*** It should be noted that many fans think the way some of the character arcs wrap up (particularly those of Snake, Raiden, Otacon and [[spoiler: Big Boss]]) makes up for the bloated [[FakeOutFadeOut final act, epilogue and debriefing.]]

* The Battle of Endor scene from ''VideoGame/XWingAlliance'' doesn't really fit in with the main plot--that of the player character's family--that drove the rest of the game. In fact, the main plot itself is ''never completely resolved''. Instead you get four missions covering the Battle of Endor. You wouldn't ''think'' it could be possible to screw this up, but the attack on the Death Star is incredibly boring and tedious, and it gets incredibly annoying listening to Wedge's invincible X-wing constantly taking fire as he follows you through the tunnel. And then you have to escape from a flashing cube of death after blowing up the reactor, rather than a proper wall of flame, or even the chain of explosions you normally get when blowing up a large ship; what's more, said cube will only catch you if you sit around doing nothing for a full minute. Not only does this mission absolutely pale in comparison with the version seen in ''[[VideoGame/RogueSquadron Rogue Leader]]'', but ''Super Return of the Jedi'' and arguably even the '''UsefulNotes/Atari2600 tie-in game''' had Battle of Endor missions that were much more fun.

->''"I realise it's the endgame, but it still feels like too much. Just because it's 'endgame' doesn't mean it should [[ThatOneLevel turn into]] {{Russian roulette}}."''