FEZ (Switch eShop)

FEZ has two endings — one for getting most of the game's 64 cubes, and one for getting all of them. For a game that pretends to be a platformer with a neat gimmick, Fez quickly unravels into a game about so much more — it's about creation, game development, and the fundamental truths at the heart of reality, soundtracked by the melancholic Chopin’s Prelude #4 in Em.

Get all the cubes, though, and the ending will be different — instead of digging down into fundamental truths, we instead zoom out from Gomez's existence, to learn that we are all ultimately insignificant.

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But both endings are ultimately about us, about Fez's creators, and about what it all means — even if the answer, at the end, is a shrug.

Bastion (Switch eShop)

As you play Bastion, the Narrator — Rucks — speaks about you and to you in his mellifluous, deep voice. There's something extra special about the combination of Darren Korb's incredible music and that voice accompanying you throughout the game, but right at the end, the themes of two of the most important characters at the heart of the story, Zulf and Zia, get combined to create the tear-jerking 'Setting Sail, Coming Home' as the background to your final journey.

To The Moon (Switch eShop)

To The Moon is a beautiful little narrative adventure about exploring and lightly altering a dying man's dreams to grant his last wish — to go to the moon. The problem is that the man can't remember why he wants to go, so it's your job to dig deep into his memories and find out the reason before he passes away.

Unfortunately, his wish is tangled up, because it both requires and conflicts with his love for his wife. In the ending, the two scientists tasked with fulfilling this wish are forced to alter the dying man's memories in the most heartbreaking way. But is it a happy ending, or a sad one? You decide.

Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

Super Mario Odyssey goes to some weird and wonderful new places for the series, including the literal moon. After the hardest level in the game — Bowser's Kingdom — Mario finally gets the power to fly to the moon, where suddenly his jumps are all floaty and the colourful backgrounds have been replaced by nothing but grey rocks.

It's a fantastic subversion of what the game has been about all along, with the goal of the level — the gigantic chapel — visible from just about anywhere in the landscape, making it feel more like a playground to have fun in than a challenge.

Of course, at the centre of this serene place is the actual hardest level in the game, the insanely hard lava platforming challenge that tests everything you've known so far. And after all that, Peach almost leaves you and Bowser stranded on the moon because you're both grandstanding idiots.

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Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey [Download Code - UK/EU]
Super Mario Odyssey [Download Code - UK/EU]

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)

Dragon's Dogma is underrated, and its ending deserves to be seen by more people. What looks like a pretty standard fantasy RPG with dragons and bandits turns out to be much, much more complicated, and that includes the ending — which pulls a bait-and-switch on you.

You think that killing the dragon that stole your heart is the ending, only to discover that it has, in fact, opened up a new world to you — a deep, almost-bottomless pit in the earth, at the centre of which lies your destiny. And after all that, you have to make a decision; one that has nothing to do with dragons and bandits, but with yourself.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Celeste (Switch eShop)

Celeste's story is deceptively simple: climb the mountain. But during that quest, you'll meet yourself along the way — and you might not like what you see. Madeline, the protagonist, struggles with self-doubt and imposter syndrome, as represented by Badeline, your antagonist/evil persona, who tells you that you can't do anything right.

And so, when you get up to the top of the mountain, you haven't just beaten the summit — you've proved yourself. Accompanied by the beautiful soundtrack by composer Lena Raine, it's a touching moment that serves as a fitting tribute to your hard work.

And then, of course, you have to climb back down again!

Celeste - Download code
Celeste - Download code
Celeste
Celeste

What Remains of Edith Finch (Switch eShop)

What Remains of Edith Finch is one of those games that people call "walking simulators", since all you do in them is walk forward and experience events — but that downplays how incredibly moving the story is as you experience it through the eyes of those who have passed on within the Finch family. It's a sorrowful tale of an unfair curse, and the myriad ways we can lose people even knowing that loss is coming.

Since it's a game all about walking forward, the ending is necessarily a dead end, but it's the perfect finish to the story: A graveyard, filled with the bodies and memories of all the lives you've come to know while exploring the Finch house.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch eShop)

At the very beginning of this incredible trilogy, you could be forgiven for thinking the developers were just making a series of disconnected murder cases. And at the time, they probably were.

But slowly, over the course of the three games, an epic tale of revenge, familial ties, and tragic misunderstandings starts to unravel, and by the end of Trials and Tribulations, you finally get to the heart of it all. The Fey family has had a rough go of it, and as soon as the mysterious prosecutor Godot gets revealed for who he is and what he's done, it feels like a knot at the centre of the tragedy of Mia and Maya Fey finally gets loosened. And Dahlia Hawthorne is still one of the best villains in video games.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Switch eShop)

In a move that's pretty much par for the course for Moon Studios' platforming adventure, the ending to Ori and the Will of the Wisps is incredibly bittersweet. It brings the game to a close in perhaps the only way it could, with both a heartwarming revival and Ori's own crushing sacrifice. It's not all tears though, as the plucky titular protagonist lives on in the form of a Spirit Tree, growing and flourishing as his loving family grows old alongside him.

It also turns out that the game's narrator was actually Ori himself all along, recounting his tale in the form of the Spirit Tree. It's a lovely ending, even if it's not necessarily the happiest one imaginable. Then again, devs always find some way to bring their main characters back to life, so here's hoping we see Ori again in the future!

Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch eShop)

Much like Celeste, Chicory is a story all about self-doubt, anxiety, and the harm that a person can do to themselves by not believing in their own talents and importance. In the end, Chicory and Pizza decide together that trying to live up to a legacy is just a way to perpetuate generational trauma, and that gatekeeping creation is pointless.

There were times in the story where we wondered how on earth this true-to-life tale of the artist's struggle to find themselves would end, but Chicory executes it flawlessly — in a fittingly messy way.

It's time for us to say goodbye, too — but not forever! Thank you for reading this list, and for making our endings special, too.

Let us know in the comments what your favourite game ending is, and what you think makes a "good" ending, too!