History Main / AstralFinale

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', Cecil's journey to the moon fulfills a prophecy. There he learns about the identity of the BigBad [[spoiler:and himself]], and enters the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' is a massive fan of the AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield for the FinalBoss of expansions. The vast majority of which are very spacey, but none more so than the battlefield ''Empyreal Paradox'' where the god Promathia is fought at the end of Chains of Promathia (and later Shinryu[[note]]Who is Promathia from an alternate universe where he won the final battle and absorbed Selh'teus.[[/note]] at the end of the Abyssea battle packs). You're literally in space standing on an invisible "floor" with the planet Vana'diel clearly visible below you.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has done this for several expansion final bosses starting from Stormblood, with each one pushing out further beyond than the last. In your fight with Shinryu, the boss carries your party into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, starting phase 2 of the fight high in the sky. Shadowbringers takes your party fighting far, far above in orbit, with a somber view of [[spoiler: the representation of the dying moments of the planet before its sundering]]. And Endwalker one-ups the stakes once again by having you face off against your greatest foes at [[spoiler:the very furthest reaches of all existence, the far edge of the universe]].

* ''Manga/ShamanKing'': Played with. While it doesn't take place in literally in outer space, the powers of the Great Spirit are so immense, [[spoiler:Hao]] interprets his battle against the Five Grand Elemental Warriors as Earth vs the cosmos itself, so the battle inside the Great Spirit is set in a representation of outer space.

** While the overwhelmingly majority of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury The Witch from Mercury]]'' technically takes place in space, most mobile suit action occurs within a colony MilitaryAcademy (specifically simulated battles on Earth-like battlefields). The major space battles are limited to the prologue, the first cour finale, and the last couple episodes of the series as a whole.

* Most ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series will have fights out in space, allowing the pilots to go all-out and rip each other a new one. Of the animated installments, only ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'', ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' do not end in space. ''0080'', though, ''does'' take place in a space colony, so it might count.

* Japan's mascot for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, Advertising/SegataSanshiro, went into space in his final commercial. He redirected and rode a missile aimed at Sega's HQ by their competitors, making his voyage into the stars a HeroicSacrifice. Eventually it was revealed that [[PutOnABus he's busy]] on other planets, teaching them about the Sega Saturn.

** Most of the ''Videogame/MegaManClassic'' UsefulNotes/GameBoy series have their final levels take place in space (the fifth game does not count due to half the boss roster residing in space levels, and the only game to completely avert the space setting is the third one). As for the main games, ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'' saves its very last stage for this trope, right after the usual four stages of a traditional endgame castle. ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'''s final battle appears to take place in space, but it's just a holographic illusion.

* The final stages of ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Neo Contra]]'' has you taking the fight to [[BigBad Master Contra]] on his space station.

* This is quite common for ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games.
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'': The final level and boss fights take place in the Death Egg Zone, an orbiting space station made by Dr. Eggman.
** ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'': The final zone of the game, where the first act takes place inside the Death Egg space station, with its second act being outside of it. The Earth is even visible from view in the latter act. If the player collected all the Chaos[=/=]Super Emeralds, then the TrueFinalBoss takes place in The Doomsday Zone, where Super Sonic flies through space to pursue a fleeing Eggman.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'': The final stretch of the story and final bosses take place on the Space Colony ARK, which is an abandoned space station. This includes levels that take place inside and outside of the ARK, and the final boss of The Last Story mode having both Sonic and Shadow fight The Final Hazard that is hurtling through space and on a crash course to Earth.
** ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'': [[spoiler:The TrueFinalBoss, has Super Sonic and Sage piloting THE SUPREME Titan fighting against THE END, who takes the form of a giant moon, with the battle taking place in space and orbiting around the Earth.]]

** A prime example of this is [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles The Doomsday Zone]] in which Sonic goes into Super/Hyper Mode and chases down Eggman in order to retrieve the stolen Master Emerald and return it to its rightful owner.
** The trend can be traced back to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', with its final stage taking place on Eggman's SpaceStation, the Death Egg. The final boss fight features a view of the Earth from orbit.
** The latter parts of the story of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' take place on the Space Colony ARK, with the TrueFinalBoss being fought ''outside the colony''.
** ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' concludes with [[spoiler:Sonic and Sage, the latter controlling the [[HumongousMecha SUPREME Titan]], chasing after [[EldritchAbomination THE END]] as it leaves Earth. If the player is playing on Hard difficulty, they even get to fight THE END in a shoot-em-up sequence.]]

%% * This is quite common for ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games. Examples include, but unlimited to, ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'', and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''.

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': When the attempt to forcibly cure [[BigBad Victor]] failed, [[StockShonenHero Kazuki]] used the [[BladeOnAStick Sunlight Heart Plus']] full power to blast the both of them to the moon, so that their WalkingWasteland powers would no longer threaten the Earth. With a cure finally complete, the series' {{Denouement}} has Kazuki's friends and comrades combining their powers to rescue the pair of them.

* ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'': The final battle has Shanon team up with [[TomboyPrincess Princess Seness]], against the Peacemakers, which begins in the upper atmosphere, but soon escalates into an all-out battle royale in deep space!

* ''Cruis'n World'' has a final/bonus stage on the moon.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has done this for several expansion final bosses starting from Stormblood, with each one pushing out further beyond than the last. In your fight with Shinryu, the boss carries your party into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, starting phase 2 of the fight high in the sky. Shadowbringers takes your party fighting far, far above in orbit, with a somber view of [[spoiler: the representation of the dying moments of the planet before its sundering]]. And Endwalker one-ups the stakes once again by having you face off against your greatest foes foes at [[spoiler:the very furthest reaches in all existence, the far edge of the universe]].

* Most of the ''Videogame/MegaManClassic'' UsefulNotes/GameBoy series have their final levels take place in space (the fifth game does not count due to half the boss roster residing in space levels, and the only game to completely avert the space setting is the third one). As for the main games, ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'' saves its very last stage for this trope, right after the usual four stages of a traditional endgame castle. ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'''s final battle appears to take place in space, but it's just a holographic illusion.
* For ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', ''X4'' has its final two stages set on the Repliforce's Final Weapon space station. The finale of ''X8'' involves traveling to the moon, where Sigma's base is located.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'''s final stages is set in the space cannon Ragnarok that is used by the villain Dr. Weil to destroy Area Zero that contains the last bit of nature in the ruined world to keep the citizens of Neo Arcadia under his tyrannical rule. The very final stage has Zero going back to the station as [[spoiler:it is falling down to Earth straight to Area Zero that will destroy what's left of life on the planet. The final battle between Zero and Weil is on a time limit that tells how long until Ragnarok enters orbit and its a life lost if time's up. Zero ended up killing Weil which leads to Ragnarok splitting into debris that falls harmlessly on Earth, likely taking Zero with it.]]
* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce''[='s=] final stage is set in a space station, and ''3'''s is [[spoiler:within a meteor that's [[ColonyDrop headed for Earth]].]]

* The [[FinalBattle]] of ''WesternAnimation/Amphibia'' occurs in space between the girls in their [[SuperMode Calamity Forms]] and [[BigBad The Core]] while trying to prevent it from [[ColonyDrop crashing Amphibia's moon into the planet's surface]].

* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4''[='s=] final stages is set in the space cannon Ragnarok that is used by the villain Dr. Weil to destroy Area Zero that contains the last of nature in the ruined world to keep the citizens of Neo Arcadia under his tyrannical rule. The very final stage has Zero going back to the station as [[spoiler:it is falling down to Earth straight to Area Zero that will destroy what's left of life on the planet. The final battle between Zero and Weil is on a time limit that tells how long until Ragnarok enters orbit and its a life lost if time's up. Zero ended up killing Weil which Ragnarok was split up into debris that fall harmlessly on Earth, likely taking Zero with it.]]

* The last levels of ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes'' takes place in space, starting with a [[GenreShift side-scrolling space shooter]] stage as the player pursues TheEmpire's flagship, then fighting their way through said flagship.

!!As this is an EndingTrope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

!! Examples:

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': Inverted. While most of the game is set in space, the final galaxy, appropriately called "Grand Finale Galaxy", takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, not featuring the crazy-shaped {{Baby Planet}}s and {{Unrealistic Black Hole}}s which are otherwise common.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': The final level [[spoiler:takes place on the moon, in a region called [[PunnyName Honeylune Ridge.]]]] There's also [[spoiler:the BrutalBonusLevel Dark Side of the Moon and the NintendoHard Darker Side of the Moon.]]

* During the climax of ''Film/{{F9}}'', the ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Fast & the Furious]]'' series finally [[AscendedMeme fulfills all of the jokes]] that people have made about where its constant SequelEscalation would end up, as they literally strap rocket boosters to a Pontiac Fiero and send it into outer space so that Tej and Roman can blow up the BigBad's satellite.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': Rainbow Road, the final track in every game, is in space or at least the upper atmosphere. In ''Mario Kart Wii'' your character will catch fire and appear burned up on re-entry if they fell off the track. In terms of the [[NostalgiaLevel Retro GP tracks]] in later installments, however, ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'' and ''Mario Kart Wii'' avert it by using [[VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash GCN Yoshi Circuit]] and [[VideoGame/MarioKart64 N64 Bowser's Castle]], but ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 8]]'' finally play it straight with [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart SNES Rainbow Road]] and [[VideoGame/MarioKart64 N64 Rainbow Road]], respectively.

* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' and ''Viewtiful Joe 2'' have a final stage in space. Since they take place in Movieland, they are beyond over the top and awesome because of that. The first game's finale, "Joe & Sylvia", is a ''Franchise/StarWars'' homage, culminating in a battle with space mecha atop the Earth, and you punch out ''the Moon'' at Mach Speed to make yourself go [[HotBlooded red hot]] with a flaming BattleAura! Followed up by a duel with the FinalBoss outside of his mecha in a one-on-one brawl. In a space station with lowered gravity, no less.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''. While most of the game is set in space, the final galaxy, appropriately called "Grand Finale Galaxy", takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, not featuring the crazy-shaped {{Baby Planet}}s and {{Unrealistic Black Hole}}s which are otherwise common.
* Played straight in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', where the final level [[spoiler:takes place on the moon, in a region called [[PunnyName Honeylune Ridge.]]]] Played even more straight with [[spoiler: the BrutalBonusLevel Dark Side of the Moon and the NintendoHard Darker Side of the Moon.]]

* The final battle of ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' is set in the stars above the Mushroom Kingdom, where Peach's castle is hoisted into space with Bowser's castle underneath.

* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'', similarly, has an [[BadMoonRising evil moon]] that has to be visited in the end and destroyed, although its interior is more of a WombLevel.
* In ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet 2'', The Negativatron is fought in the outer reaches of the Cosmos. The final part of his final battle is in front of a Space arcade game.
* Rainbow Road, the final track in every ''VideoGame/MarioKart'', is in space or at least the upper atmosphere. In ''Mario Kart Wii'' your character will catch fire and appear burned up on re-entry if they fell off the track. In terms of the [[NostalgiaLevel Retro GP tracks]] in later installments, however, ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'' and ''Mario Kart Wii'' avert it by using [[VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash GCN Yoshi Circuit]] and [[VideoGame/MarioKart64 N64 Bowser's Castle]], but ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 8]]'' finally play it straight with [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart SNES Rainbow Road]] and [[VideoGame/MarioKart64 N64 Rainbow Road]], respectively.
* The three ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' racing games all end with racetracks set in space - Oxide Station in ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'', Hyper Spaceway in ''VideoGame/CrashNitroKart'' and Craters on Uranus in ''VideoGame/CrashTagTeamRacing''. ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled'', being a remake of ''Team Racing'' with most of the content from ''Nitro Kart'' thrown in for good measure, sees both Oxide Station and Hyper Spaceway make an appearance, albeit the latter comes in a more compressed form due to the lack of anti-gravity. The Gasmoxia Grand Prix, being the final limited-time event, also caps off the post-release tracks with Drive-Thru Danger, a track set high up in the stratosphere of Gasmoxia.