History Main / WhereItAllBegan

** In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the entire quest consists of [[spoiler:Revan retracing her steps]], only to end up back on the [[spoiler:Starforge]]. In the sequel, ''The Sith Lords'', the Exile also has to retrace her steps, returning to many of the key locations of the Mandalorian War, and ending on the ruins of Malachor V, the world the Exile destroyed to stop the Mandalorians and save the galaxy, the act which transformed [[spoiler:the Exile into a hole in the Force]].

Compare HereWeGoAgain, {{Bookends}}, and GoBackToTheSource.

Compare HereWeGoAgain, BookEnds, and GoBackToTheSource.

* Most of the {{Myst}} games do this for individual ages; the last puzzle to solve is usually in the first thing you saw when you came in.
** In ''Riven'', the player's final action in the game is to activate a device that is right near the starting location. Especially effective because the device in question has been accessible since the beginning, but the player doesn't understand what it's for until after the story is nearly over; successfully beating the game relies on opening what doesn't look like a safe with what doesn't originally seem to be a combination lock, that has been sitting right in front of you from the moment you arrived.
** Also, the last area unlocked in ''Uru'' is [[spoiler: Myst Island]]. Note, however, that Uru was intended to be -- essentially -- a ''Myst'' MMORPG, so it's not really the end of the Uru storyline. It's kinda complicated...
** Subverted, however, in ''Myst V: End of Ages''. [[spoiler: Even though you have the option to, you don't WANT to return to Myst Island. [[DownerEnding Trust me on this one]].]]

* The final story mission in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' take place on the floating remains of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, where the PC awakened in the prologue.

* ''Geneforge'' 5 has one if you join Ghaldring's faction. One of the final quests [[spoiler: but not the last one]] is to kill Shaper Rawal, who just happens to have his base in [[FirstTown Isenwood Spire.]] Even better is the fact that you can bypass most of his defenses by coming in through the [[NoobCave Foundry Core.]]

* The final chapter of ''TheEvilWithin'' takes place at Beacon Mental Hospital, where the first chapter was. You even pass through part of the sewer system you did back then, access a door you couldn't and even find a note in the same place you found one back then.

Your rookie hero has left his hometown to answer the call. He learns from his mentor, fights minions, develops some really flashy attacks, perhaps takes down TheDragon, and angsts a lot. But now it's time to face the BigBad, and what better place to do it than back at his hometown, WhereItAllBegan?

Alternatively, WhereItAllBegan can be where the BigBad first struck. Sometimes this and the hero's home [[DoomedHometown are one and the same]]; that's [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive why the hero was chosen]].

* The Grand Conjunction adventure-arc for the {{Ravenloft}} D&D setting concludes as Castle Ravenloft: site of the award-winning module that originally inspired the game-setting, ''and'' of the in-Verse events that created the Land of Mists.

* It has been revealed that the final goal of the heroes of Series/{{Lost}} is to [[spoiler: protect a magical light]] that is located in the same bamboo grove Jack awoke in in the first episode.

*** [[spoiler: VideoGame/MassEffect3 starts on Earth and ends on Earth. Not only that, the first game also began in Earth orbit.]]
*** DLC for ''Mass Effect 3'', "From Ashes", will include a mission on Eden Prime, where the very first mission in the very first game took place.

*** And Sam speaks the very last words of the story in Bag End, where Bilbo was right at the beginning of ''Literature/TheHobbit''.
* After a year on the run, the main characters return to Hogwarts for the FinalBattle in Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows.
** The teaser poster for the movies underlines this. [[http://media.mugglenet.com/i//movie7/hp17postercompare.jpg Ruthlessly]].

*** Picard and Q also face off in the same replica 22nd century courtroom that Q brought him to in that premiere episode. Picard even comments on this in the finale.

** ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'': Zhjaeve takes the player to reforge the Silver Sword of the Githyanki where it was originally broken long before the game started: in West Harbor. Which ''also'' happens to be the place where the game started, and the player's DoomedHometown.
*** And again in ''Mask of the Betrayer'', where the final level is in a dreamscape version of West Harbor.

*** [[spoiler: VideoGame/MassEffect3 starts on Earth and ends on Earth.]]
**** Not only that, the first game also began in Earth orbit.

** In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': the gateway to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon turns out to be in the Mortuary where the game started, just a few feet from where the main character woke up at the beginning of the whole thing.
*** Turns out that the crazy guy outside the mortuary at the beginning of the game was foreshadowing something different when he told you that you'd been in, and out, of there before.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''/''Crystal'': The path to Indigo Plateau from Johto? Surf east from New Bark Town.
*** ''[=GSC=]'' also lets you go to Kanto after beating the Elite Four, where you can collect the badges there and gain access to Mt. Silver; waiting at the end is [[spoiler: Red, the protagonist of ''[=RGBY=]'']] and the strongest opponent in the game.

*** In the sequel ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]'', the Mysterious Girl descends to Earth at Baron, and the party gathers their numbers and heads to Baron in the penultimate tale to confront her.

*** In the spin-off ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', Zack finds out Genesis's base is under the ruins of Banora, which was bombed in Chapter 2 after the initial confrontation with Genesis.

** Thematic parallel: in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', Tidus' journey begins in [[spoiler:Dream]] Zanarkand, which is then destroyed by Sin. At the end of the game, when the party has gone inside Sin to destroy Braska's Final Aeon, only to find its deepest layers a ruined recreation of Zanarkand. Also, before the fight with Sin, the entire game has been a pilgrimage to the real Zanarkand.
*** Not only that, but when you are traveling to Spira at the beginning of the game, you pass through the same ruined Zanarkand recreation...

**** Aaand, ''Hitman: Contracts'' technically begins and ends in the same hotel room, but that's because he's been tripping the entire game on his near-deathbed.
* The entrance to the final dungeon of the normal ending of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' is in one of the first places you see in the TV world.
** The final dungeon of the true ending is the same place that the protagonist dreamt of at the beginning of the game and where the first fight took place.

** Just before that, you enter the very same chamber Bruce Wayne was imprisoned in in the beginning of the game en route to [[VeryDefiniteFinalDungeon Wonder Tower.]] After the scene in wonder tower, you head to the theater, which, of course, is near the spot where Bruce's parents were killed, which is supposed to be one of the first easter eggs the player finds as Hugo Strange leaves a tape there for you in the beginning of the game.
*** ''It will end where it began.''

* In the expansion to ''[[VideoGame/Black and White Black and White II]]'', the last island is the ruins of the Greek homeland, which you were forced to evacuate at the beginning of the main game. It still has the volcanoes that were summoned to destroy your first city.

** Don't forget the obvious. Both games use Princess Peach's Castle, the starting point of the adventure as the final dungeon albeit with some modifications made by the BigBad.
* The last stage of ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' is a black-and-white homage to its GameBoy predecessor, ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'', with two rooms for each of that's games four stages.

* ''VideoGames/GhostHunter'' begins with two cops talking about the abandoned high-school they're checking out. It ends with them in the same place, talking about how they're going to report what happened.

* ''VideoGame/GhostHunter'' begins with two cops talking about the abandoned high-school they're checking out. It ends with them in the same place, talking about how they're going to report what happened.

* GhostHunter begins with two cops talking about the abandoned high-school they're checking out. It ends with them in the same place, talking about how they're going to report what happened.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' briefly takes you back to the second level (which is now a piece of cake, due to being able to fire two portals) before the final boss.

** ''{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}}'': Serah's journey starts when a meteorite (actually a Time Gate) crashes just outside New Bodhum, her home since Cocoon's fall, and Noel appears. The pair end up in a ruined version of New Bodhum ([[AfterTheEnd in 700 -AF-]]), just before the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. The game also ends in Valhalla, where the tutorial and prologue took place ([[spoiler:on the same beach where Caius was shown laying Yeul to rest]]).

->We shall not cease from exploration
->And the end of all our exploring
->Will be to arrive where we started
->And know the place for the first time.

** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', the final battle takes place in the Halo Control Room, identical to the Halo Control Room in ''Halo 1''. [[spoiler:You even face off against the same enemy.]]
** In addition, the entire final level is on [[spoiler:A recreation of the first Halo.]] Clever gamers will note that the final warthog-run course is designed to be a near-exact silhouette of the island from popular Halo 1 level The Silent Cartographer.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' , Gordon Freeman arrives at the Combine-ruled City 17, passing through a block of flats and a trainstation, before reaching a friend's lab and then heading off to the coast, where he is later teleported back to the lab, except that resistence uprising has resulted in riots. This is most striking when the player escapes from some ruined apartments, to discover he is in the same courtyard has passed through earlier, and then goes on to find the train station exterior, now covered with Combine devices and walls.