Oh god, let's see how many I can recall.
MGS 1 and 2 for opening sequences. Both do such a perfect job setting the stage for something epic. Conversely, MGS3 has, I think, the best final hour of almost any action game.
The Last of Us—less so its final hour and more its final moment. Like, its literal last exchange. It's maybe the best example I've seen of a game knowing -exactly- where to cut to black.
Final Fantasy 6, both opening and ending. The music and slow march of that opening is an all-time nostalgia moment. If you grew up during the '90s playing JRPGs, there was nothing like it. Absolutely iconic. FFVII, on the other hand, is a flawed mess of a game that I don't love as much as many, but I cannot deny the power of that opening—like someone above said, it's maybe one of the best openings to a game ever, and such a statement for the time it came out.
The Outer Wilds. This is maybe my favourite ending to any game ever. The final race, arriving at the eye, the lightning-streaked landscape that actually fucking terrified me... and then realizing, in the end, that you and your companions are birthing new existence from music and friendship... I was a fucking mess in the best possible way.
The final hours of both Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian—the former for its unexpectedness and grandeur, the latter for the emotional bond formed.
The final castle assaults in both Link to the Past and Breath of the Wild—I won't lie, when Zelda says in BotW "Courage need not be remembered, for it is never fogotten," it got me.
The opening to Uncharted 2. The leap from 1 to 2 was so profound in its presentation.
And this last one is a dark horse, but the ending of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2. I remember so many game critics shitting on the ending, but I just adore its audacity—you can't lose those fights, you can't even really get hurt, because you didn't; because you did this, this is your own past, and as we all know, history abhors a paradox. It's totally ridiculous and I fucking love it.
Log in to comment