But Now I Must Go / Video Games

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• This is Akatsuki's ending in Akatsuki Blitzkampf, where he tells the defeated Murakumo that his A God Am I stint is bullshit and disappears immediately afterwards. There's even a picture of him walking out and away from Murakumo's lair. He does something similar in his Under Night In-Birth ending, where after defeating Hyde, Akatsuki decides to go to Mount Fuji to check on what's supposed to be an old lab (and where, in Blitzkampf story proper, he faces Kanae and later Fritz).
• In Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, there's the ending where you accept godhood.
• The ending of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Alucard rescues Richter Belmont and meets up with both him and Maria at a cliff overlooking the former spot of Dracula's castle. He tells them both that because of his cursed lineage, he was better off gone. That being said, Alucard departs to return to his eternal slumber (much like at the end of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse). Depending on certain variables in the game, Maria will either respect Alucard's decision to disappear and return home with Richter or confess her love for him and follow him.
  • The radio drama sequel subverts this trope (read: Maria follows him), showing that a year later, Alucard and Maria are living together.
• Dragon Age:
  • Morrigan does this at the end of Dragon Age: Origins. The Warden can follow her. She returns for Dragon Age: Inquisition with a helping of character development and possibly a young son named Kieran.
  • All Awakening epilogues state that after a few years of service, the Warden-Commander leaves for parts unknown. Her/His love interest may follow as well. Dragon Age: Inquisition reveals that they are searching for a cure for the blight. You can briefly communicate with them as well through a war table mission.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest: After saving Princess Gwaelin and slaying the Dragonlord, the Hero is offered the throne of Tantegel, but he declines and sets off on a journey to explore new, uncharted lands beyond Alefgard.
  • Dragon Quest III: The Hero disappears following the celebrations of their victory over Zoma at the end of the game, leaving behind only their sword, armor, shield, and mark to be passed down the kingdom through generations.
  • Dragon Quest VI: At the end of the game, Ashlynn has to leave her friends and love interest and return to Zenithia.
  • Dragon Quest VII: After Dharma Temple is saved, Zev chooses to leave his sister behind, asking Kasim to protect her in his stead.
• Fallout
  • Inverted in Fallout. After defeating the Big Bad the Vault Dweller is denied re-entry into the vault by the overseer. He walks alone, into the sunset, cut off from everything he worked so hard to save.
  • Played straight in the Fallout: New Vegas DLC. After saving Christine from the immediate danger at the Big Empty and getting what he came for, Ulysses leaves.
• Mewt at the end of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. He obviously has a strong attachment to the world (come on, the reason it's there is because he wants it to be), yet he reverts the world back to real life at the end, with one of these moments.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Princess Nyna does this in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. After all the Break the Cutie that she went through for her heritage/position and the terrible mistake she committed for the sake of the continent, she decides to leave Archanea in the hands of Marth and Caeda and leave.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Ninian and Nils return to the dragon world together if Eliwood doesn't have an A support with Ninian; if she does, Nils goes back alone. Also, Athos uses up the last of his life energy to help fight the final battle, and the Tactician ends up leaving for reasons unspecified.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, this takes place if Gerik doesn't have a shared ending with Natasha, Joshua or Marisa and he decides to leave his native Jehanna. And it always happens with Knoll, who leaves after Grado is rebuilt. It's subverted if Cormag has a shared ending with Tana, as he goes away but Tana searches for him until she catches up with Cormag and makes him her personal knight.
  • Ike from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, who disappears to lands unknown at the end of the game, either alone or with a companion depending on what supports the player did. As a bonus, he appears in exactly the same pose as in the page image, complete with a memorial of sorts. There are rumors that in Fire Emblem: Awakening that he had crossed over into another world...
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, almost all the Kids From The Future decide to leave their parents and their future selves so they can rebuild their own lives in the now liberated present, whether alone or with a boyfriend/girlfriend if they have enough supports (It's all but stated that they cannot return to the Bad Future they come from, anyway). The only exceptions are an unmarried Noire (who stays with her parents now that her complicated relationship with her emotionally/mentally unstable mother is mended) and an unmarried Severa (who leaves to travel around but is said to return to her parents' sides regularly to "yell at them for old times' sake")... though this is retconned in Fire Emblem Fates as in at least one world she, Owain and Inigo eventually do leave. Additionally, if Henry remains unmarried, he simply goes away and disappears.
  • At the end of the Revelation route of Fire Emblem Fates, after the defeat of Anankos, and as the Avatar is crowned the new king or queen of the reborn Kingdom of Valla, his/her Parental Substitute Gunter quietly leaves the scene.
    • Whether Laslow, Odin, or Selena get married or not, they're stated to return to their homelands if they live to the end of Conquest or Revelation (unless one of them married the Avatar). This is because they are Inigo, Owain and Severa from Awakening.
    • Some the Second Generation characters also do this once the war is over. The list includes Ophelia, Soleil, a married Shigure, an unmarried Mitama and the Kanas of either gender.
• God of War Ragnarök ends with Atreus leaving for distant lands in order to seek out the fate of the Jotnar, with his and Kratos' final words to one another being to always be in each others' hearts. Kratos meanwhile learns of his destiny to be a benevolent deity of the Nordic land and decides to continue protecting the nine realms.
• Into the Breach: After defeating the Vek, the pilots of the mechs are forced to leave via time travel, as there is no other way to get them out of the blast zone of the bomb that destroys the Vek hive.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • This is an unspoken agreement between Donald Duck and Goofy. Due to the "no meddling" rule, they know that eventually, they'll have to leave Sora forever. By the time of Kingdom Hearts II, however, they've gotten far too attached to Sora to leave him.
  • After Winnie the Pooh regains his memories of his friends, he pleads with Sora to stay with him in the Hundred Acre Wood; Sora reassures him that "I will always be with you, right here", pointing out that he'll always be in Pooh's heart.
• Knights of the Old Republic: The protagonists of both games end the games this way, and Word of God says they leave their party members behind. Importantly, they leave the seeds for the rebirth of the Jedi Order and the Republic, and their actual fates are covered partially by Star Wars: The Old Republic and an EU novel. Both end up in the True Sith Empire, trying to stop the Emperor from starting a war with the weakened Republic. They end up getting betrayed by a temporary ally, with the Exile getting stabbed In the Back by him and Revan being outmatched by the Emperor and kept in stasis for the next several centuries. But he does, however, manage to subtly influence the Emperor to hold off on attacking the Republic for 300 years or so.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has Musse pulling off this trope to enact her "Mille Mirage" plan which requires her to fight off against the empire in the shadows and leaves the party after the climax of Cold Steel III. This lasts for all of two weeks before she's reunited with Class VII and they tell her to join them to search for their teacher Rean, who was captured during the finale of Cold Steel III.
• This is very common at the end of the The Legend of Zelda games. Either Link's sidekick leaves Link or Link leaves Hyrule to go on a journey.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has Navi leaving Link at the end because Link isn't a Kokiri and the only reason she was sent to him was so he could fulfill his quest. Once that was done, she couldn't stay with him any longer.
  • Majora's Mask started with Link getting sidetracked while searching for his friend Navi. At the end of the game, Link leaves Termina and Tatl to continue on that quest.
  • The Linked game ending for Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages shows that after Link stops Twinrova's plans to revive Ganon from coming to fruition, Link bids farewell to a crowd, departs Labrynna or Holodrum and sets off to the sea on a sailboat by himself. While the ending was originally implied to show both games as a prequel to Link's Awakening with the same Link, later revision to the timeline stated that they happened after that game and featured a different Link.
  • The ending of Wind Waker has Link leaving his grandma and sister to search for new land. Similarly, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, the true identity of the King of Red Lions, turns down Zelda's request for him to stay with them to find a new land to call home, as he feels himself to be forever bound to his fallen kingdom of Hyrule.
  • There's also Minish Cap where Ezlo leaves because the door to the Minish world is about to close and won't reopen for another hundred years. At least he leaves a parting gift.
  • At the end of Twilight Princess, Midna, now free of Ganon's curse, seals herself and all other Twili from Hyrule for eternity by destroying the Mirror of Twilight. The Mirror is corrupting and evil, and they will ultimately need to destroy it after they are finished using it. At the very end, Link is seen riding away from Ordon village on Epona, but it's never said where he's going.
  • At the end of Spirit Tracks, Anjean and the other Lokomos leave the kingdom of Hyrule under the protection of Link and Zelda, since the defeat of Malladus fulfilled their duties. Additionally, when asked prior to the final battle, if the player answers "I dunno." to Zelda's question on what Link wants to do in life after this is all over, The Stinger sequence shown after the Closing Credits imply that Link has left Hyrule as well.
  • At the ending of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Fi, the spirit living within the Master Sword and your companion throughout the game, seals herself in the Master Sword in eternal sleep after the defeat of Demise. Impa also leaves by dissolving into tiny balls of light.
• Sundown's chapter in Live A Live ends with him leaving the town of Success because he's finally learned how to live once more. He wouldn't have had a choice anyway since the Big Bad abducts him moments after he leaves.
• Averted in an interesting way in Lunar: Eternal Blue. Lucia leaves Hiro on Lunar (a terraformed Moon After the End) so that she can go back and terraform Earth. In the Playable Epilogue, he finds a way to follow her and stays with her. Presumably through Human Popsicle, he is able to be with her when her job is complete, centuries later.
• Played straight by Snake while talking to Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and a weird series' of aversions in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, where it's always made clear by Old Snake that once he's done with his one final mission, he'll retire to die alone. (Otacon even says this to Sunny after Johnny and Meryl's wedding)In a weird twist of this trope, we get to see what he does after leaving, which is to kill himself to prevent a mutagen FOXDIE from spreading. Then Big Boss comes out of nowhere and gives him a CQC Hug, tying up all loose ends in the plot, and Snake comes back with Otacon, according to The Stinger, thus averting the trope
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens, you must let your pony cross the bridge to Ponyland at the end.
• Mana Kirishima must do this in the Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel game. And this is the happiest ending, people.
• Persona:
  • Happens to the main character at the end of Persona 3 and its remake. He falls asleep and never wakes up because his soul is keeping Nyx from returning to destroy the world. And this is the GOOD ending.
  • Happens to the main character at the end of Persona 4 when he has to return to his parents. Though considering the series, things could have been much, much worse. Something of a subversion in that we know from the very beginning of the game that he'll be leaving town in one year. And depending on which dialog choices the player chooses, he might not want to leave at all. Also, in the True Ending, Teddie says that he's decided to stay in the TV world, but the rest of the cast calls him out for being overdramatic, pointing out that he can easily go back and forth between worlds and will be back in their world as soon as he gets bored.
    • Sequel Persona 4: Arena undoes this one: In order to investigate Teddie's call to a tournament for Persona users, Yu Narukami (the protagonist's Canon Name) returns to his friends in Inaba less than two months after the end of the game.
    • While Yu does leave Inaba once more after the events in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, Golden's extended epilogue has him returning to Inaba again, with no indication that he's going to be leaving permanently, if at all.
  • At the end of Persona 5, the protagonist completes his year-long probation, and leaves Tokyo to return to his hometown. Depending on the ending, the rest of the team decides to accompany him on his road trip back home (Vanilla True Ending/Royal Good Ending) or they see him as they distract the government agents following him and the protagonist rides home by himself via train (Royal True Ending).
    • The sequel game, Persona 5 Strikers, has Joker return to Tokyo for summer vacation, albeit he and his friends end up having to travel around the country, so he doesn’t return for long. They all part ways again at the end of the game with new team member Sophia playing it the most straight, deciding to go with her creator Ichinose instead of the protagonist at the last minute.
    • The interquel, Persona 5 Tactica, after the Final Boss, Salmael, has been defeated, the Kingdoms and other products of created from Salmael manipulating Toshiro's mind will also disappear. As a result, the Phantom Thieves have to leave Erina behind, as she is a part of Toshiro's psyche and cannot enter the real world, where she returns to his heart after fulfilling her purpose of protecting Toshiro from Salmael.
• Pikmin (2001): Throughout Olimar's journal entries, it becomes clear that he's become quite attached to the pikmin and their strange, blue world. Unfortunately, he's got a family back on his home planet, and the toxic atmosphere just doesn't help anything. If you reach the happy ending, the diminutive alien gives the cute pikmin one final glance before shaking his head and leaving them all behind.
• Planescape: Torment ends like this with The Nameless One.
• Pokémon:
  • Subverted in Pokémon Gold and Silver. Red seems to have gone away since the events of the previous games, and not even his mother knows where he is; however, he is still around. He's training at the peak of Mount Silver, the game's True Final Boss.
  • N Harmonia in Pokémon Black and White. The sequel implies that Hilda and Hilbert pulled one of these off-screen.
  • At the end of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the AI Professor realizes that as long as they continue to exist in the current time period, the time machine cannot be disabled. The AI Professor decides to put an end to things by going through the time machine, partially to disable it permanently but also to see the past/future that the original Professor worked so hard to protect, in the process leaving behind a heartbroken Arven who is forced to watch his mother/father leave him behind a second time.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team... though it ends up subverted, as the protagonist stays after all.
  • Played straight in Gates to Infinity. For a little while, anyway.
  • Subverted in Super Mystery Dungeon. Your partner in Super Mystery Dungeon is (canonically) the second Pokémon in the Mystery Dungeon games to die. The partner's death involves them disappearing in a ball of light when you are supposed to leave for the human world, and, after explaining that they chose to erase their memories with the player due to them being Mew's reincarnation, they vanish in the ball of light, never to be seen again... Until the postgame story, where the player's wish to be with the partner causes the partner to be Back from the Dead.
• Done for the hero in Quest for Glory IV; in the middle of the reward ceremony, Erasmus locates the hero via scrying and teleports him to Silmaria for the events of the fifth game, remarking "He's a hero, and heroes go where they are needed."
• This is two of seven possible endings for Ein in Riviera: The Promised Land, including the one that's Word of God canonical. They're mostly the same, though; the only thing that changes is whether or not his familiar turns into a catgirl.
• In the modern Sonic the Hedgehog games, Sonic will usually run off to his next adventure whenever the latest Eggman threat du jour is stopped.
• Spud's Adventure ends with Spud continuing wandering after the game is over. Princess Mato decides to go with him.
• Street Fighter has Ryu's ending in every game he's been in. One of the most memorable phrases in gaming history from his ending in any Street Fighter II: "Already seeking the next challenge, ceremony means nothing to him. The fight is everything." As we read it, the players see a lonely Ryu calmly walking into the sunset.
• This can happen to the Player Character Prince in Suikoden V if he chooses to. It will definitely happen to his strategist, Lucretia Merces.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • In Super Mario RPG, Geno leaves the party and his spirit returns to the Star Road after the heroes have completed their quest in fixing it and defeating the Big Bad.
  • In Paper Mario 64, after Bowser has been defeated and the Star Rod is recovered, Twink bids farewell to Princess Peach and returns to Star Haven, and Mario's partners return to their hometowns, as well, only for all of them to later be invited to Princess Peach's victory party.
  • Happens during The Stinger from Super Mario Galaxy: If you defeat Bowser with all 120 Power Stars, then we actually get to see a cutscene where Rosalina is actually shown bidding Mario/Luigi farewell and flying off to another part of the galaxy, followed by a Luma climbing out of a damaged spaceship. Moments later, however, Mario/Luigi is actually now back on Rosalina's ship!
  • This also happens in the sequel, where after Bowser is defeated the Luma Mario/Luigi travelled with actually ends up seeing Rosalina's ship flying by and telling Mario/Luigi goodbye. However, she does return to help Mario/Luigi complete World S, beat Bowser again, get all 120 Green Stars, and finally complete Grandmaster Galaxy.
• Super Robot Wars Alpha: At the end, Kusuha's boyfriend Bullet decides it's too dangerous for someone like him to hang around... plus he wants to keep RyuKouOu out of other people's hands. He gets over it by Alpha 3, and asks Kusuha to marry him.
• Tales Series
  • Kratos in Tales of Symphonia.
  • In Tales of Phantasia, it's practically a Foregone Conclusion that when Dhaos is defeated and the world is saved, Claus and Arche will have to return to the past. Arche is a bit of a subversion, since she's a half-elf, and thus will still be around in 100 years, but Claus...
  • Tales of Xillia pulls this off with Milla in the final scene of the game. She decides to become the new Maxwell and leaves the human realm for the spirit realm.
  • Tales of Xillia 2 pulls this off with Milla again, but this time it is treated as a Foregone Conclusion for it to happen. After joining the party, Milla openly admits that she only has a limited amount of time to remain in the human realm. At the end of the game, her time is up and she has to return to the spirit realm. Her sister Muzét joins her in leaving the party at this point, though she has no such restriction and is the only Great Spirit who can easily go between realms, due to her powers.
• The Avatar from Ultima IX: During ALL the game it's said that you won't be back to Earth nor Britannia (the planet where the game is set) but you will ascend to another form of existence. The full name of that game is "Ultima IX: Ascension". No less.
• In the Golden Ending of Undertale, this is one of the two choices you can make once you've reached the surface and Toriel asks you what you plan to do next. If you tell her that you have places you want to go, she completely understands but hopes that you'll come back and visit sometimes. When you make this choice, the ending post-credits scene of the game is a picture of your player character, Frisk, together with all the friends that you/they made during the journey. The other option you can choose is an example of I Choose to Stay.
• Every game in the Ys series always ends with Adol getting on a boat and sailing off into some new epic adventure. Sometimes it's with his Heterosexual Life Partner Dogi, sometimes it's alone. But, it always has some maiden who's clearly infatuated with him seeing him off at the docks to give a final farewell.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
  • The game ends with Keves and Agnus being separated. This means that everyone must say their goodbyes to loved ones from the opposite nation as them, and return to their respective world. There is no way that they can see each other again (that we know of).
  • The prequel DLC ends with Shulk, Rex, and A entering Origin in order to stabilize it, leaving their friends and family behind. They promise that this isn't goodbye forever, just "taking a breather," and that they'll see each other again eventually once the worlds separate and everything is restored to normal. The after-credits scene reveals that this worked, and the worlds separated as intended... but then they merged again (safely this time) as they were always meant to. Meaning that everyone will meet again.
    Shulk: We'll be waiting, at the far edge of time.

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