History WhereItAllBegan / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', the final mission takes place in the Graybox, Alpha Protocol's headquarters and the site of the game's tutorial mission. This is heavily [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]: the final section of the game is entitled "Operation Full Circle" and the BigBad muses on how appropriate it is that the story's ending in the same place it began in the cutscenes preceding the mission.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' does this in a way. The final boss battle takes place at the theater Bruce Wayne attended on the night of his parents' murder, bringing it back to where it began not for the events of the game, but for Batman himself.
** 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''" indeed.
** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' also does this in a way with the Joker's makeshift lair, which is hidden in the extremely creepy Visitor's Center. The first time the player visits it, a cutscene plays where [[IShallTauntYou Joker taunts Batman]] and [[ItHasOnlyJustBegun foreshadows dangers to come]], and the player can continue to visit it throughout the game to hear him comment on events if they choose. The penultimate message the player can get is the Joker laughing at them on loop as a lead-up to the Joker boss battle. Additionally, the large Joker gateway over its entrance continues to be built throughout the game, only being fully completed by the end of the night, [[PointOfNoReturn and once the player enters the visitor's center at that point, the doors lock behind them]], a cutscene ensues, [[BookEnds and the game finally comes full circle]].
** Apparently, the Arkham series loves this trope, because in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' the final confrontation with Bane and Joker takes place at Blackgate Prison, where the game began.
** And ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' does it twice during the endgame -- first off, the final confrontation with Scarecrow takes place in the ruins of Arkham Asylum, and then a hallucination takes Batman to Crime Alley. Furthermore, the game's opening cutscene takes place in Pauli's Diner, which can be seen during the opening cutscene of ''Arkham Asylum'' -- where the series itself began.

* Very popular in Creator/{{Bioware}}/Creator/ObsidianEntertainment games:
** ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'': Irenicus returns to the place he first turned to evil, in order to finish what he started.
** ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'': You begin in the city of Neverwinter. The final areas take you back to the city with the {{Plot Coupon}}s you've collected to open up the caverns below the castle of the city's ruler. In the ''Hordes of the Underdark'' expansion, the final battle takes place outside the Inn you woke up in at the start of the game.
** ''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.
** ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'': The player's LastStand is held at the temple of Dirge, where the Spirit monks were all killed before the beginning of the game. It's also straight up invoked by [[BigBad Master Li]], who sends you to a dream-version of [[DoomedHometown Two Rivers]] and forces you to fight your fellow students as the school burns around you.
** But subverted in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': Your hero returns from Baldur's Gate to the hometown of Candlekeep in what appears [[DiscOneFinalDungeon to be the last chapter]], only to be sent to Baldur's Gate again for the final showdown.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' you face the BigBad and Dragon on the Citadel, the space station what was where you were at the end of the tutorial-linear opening of the game.
*** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[OpeningTheSandbox the sandbox opens]] in the same system as the Omega-4 Relay, which is the only way to access the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Collector Base]].
*** For Legion, who is strongly implied to be the first geth to take up arms against their creators (when the latter decided to begin genocide of the former), their story begins and ends on Rannoch, the quarian homeworld.
*** ''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", includes a mission on Eden Prime, where the very first mission in the very first game took place.
** 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. It can even get lampshaded as an option, as one of the keys to enter is to write down a regret on a scrap of skin, and "I regret that I wandered all over the Planes when the damn portal was right here when I FIRST woke up" is perfectly valid.
** In ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' the heroes [[YouAllMeetInAnInn All Meet In An Inn]] in a little town. They leave on their quest, then return in the final chapter to discover the main villain has been making himself at home while they were gone.
** Players with the City Elf background in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' will revisit the Alienage as part of the final battle. (The Dwarf origins and the Mage origin both return to where it began, and players with the Return to Ostagar DLC can, of course, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin return to Ostagar]], but none of these take place at the end of the game.)
** In the series' lore, when King Calenhad Theirin waged his war of unification in the land that became Ferelden, his first campaign led him back to the city of Highever, his home and birthplace, and he defeated the Couslands, making them the first to bend the knee to him.
** In the Witch Hunt DLC, the Dalish Warden returns to the broken mirror that tainted him/her. You can literally reply to Ariane that it's the place where everything began.
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' the FinalBattle takes place in the Gallows, the first part of Kirkwall Hawke sees when the family fled Lothering years ago.
** In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the entire quest consists of Revan retracing his/her steps, only to end up back on the Starforge. In the sequel, ''The Sith Lords'', the Exile also has to retrace his/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 the Exile into a hole in the Force.
** 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': The [[PlayerHeadquarters Hunter’s Dream]] has a gate that doesn’t open until [[spoiler: Mergo’s Wet Nurse is defeated. On the other end is the arena where you choose which ending you get. You either submit your life to Gehrman in order to be freed from the nightmare or refuse and fight him. If you consumed three of the four umbilical cord pieces then you fight the TrueFinalBoss, the Moon Presence on the same arena immediately after defeating Gherman.]]

* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' has its final dungeon located inside the Great Chasm, former sight of Tiz's hometown and directly next to the starting town.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'' has this overlap with WhenItAllBegan, as the final world visited is [[spoiler: Cortex Island, 1996, when the [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1 first game]] took place, which after the final battle reveals that it was [[StableTimeLoop Crash himself that caused his past self to reject being put under Cortex's control]]]].

* The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' trilogy has this twice, both times with the Firelink Shrine. Both ''VideoGame/DarkSouls1'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls3'' have the Kiln of the First Flame be accessed from the Firelink Shrine; the HubLevel that you access immediately upon clearing the tutorial in both games.
** One additional albeit ambiguous example occurs in ''Dark Souls 3''s DLC episode "The Ringed City". The SuperBoss of said DLC is Darkeater Midir, the last dragon, who is fought at the bottom of a deep chasm in a cave under the titular city, dwelling place of the Pygmy Lords, The Furtive Pygmy's descendants. This being a ShowDontTell kinda game, the nature of this cave is never explicitly stated, but more than a few people have noted that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the cave in the first ''Dark Souls''' intro cinematic, where the Furtive Pygmy discovered the Dark Soul: The place where it all began in every sense of the word.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'': In a way. The whole game started at the opera house to when Nero was heading. By the end, [[spoiler:Nero and Dante fight [[BigBad Sanctus Diabolica]] and [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever The Savior]] respectively near the very same opera house]].
* The final battle of ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'' takes place on Liberty Island, the exact same place the first level of the original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' took place. The map design is even incredibly similar, although alterations were made due to the limits of the console-based engine of ''Deus Ex 2''.

* ''VideoGame/DigimonWorld3'': The final battle takes place in an almost identical equivalent of the building where the player first arrived in the Digital World.

* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 8 XL'' makes reference to this during the final stage of Lu Bu's Hypothetical route, Recapture of Chang'an, when Zhang Liao comments that Chang'an was where all of Lu Bu's troubles began, having been forced out of the city earlier in the story. Lu Bu replies that this is different; this time, he is free to do as he wishes on the battlefield.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' the main character is born at the Jefferson Memorial, but is led to believe he/she was born in Vault 101. [[WideOpenSandbox Sooner or later]], the player storms that same place twice in the main storyline.
** It goes a lot further than that. If you pay close attention and find all the right logs, you'll realize that the player character (assuming you disregard the expansion) dies on the ''exact spot where they were conceived'' - in the reactor room, fixing the problem his parents missed because they were too busy having sex.
** In addition, one sidequest tasks the player with returning to their old home, Vault 101, to quell a dispute between the residents within concerning opening the vault and venturing out. At the quest's conclusion, the player leaves the vault again, [[YouCantGoHomeAgain for the last time.]]

* Very subtly done in ''VideoGame/{{FEAR}}''. The game's first level is a non-combat tutorial where you search an abandoned building in a run-down neighborhood for the game's TheDragon. At the very end of the game, you emerge from an ElaborateUndergroundBase into a run down warehouse. If you look out the window, you'll see that you're in the very same neighborhood that the game's first level took place in.
** Also, the final "confrontation" with Alma takes place in a hallucination of the same building from the game's first level, which is revealed to be the labratory where Alma gave birth to your character.

** For ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', the game begins with Cecil and the Red Wings flying back to Baron, and on the way is a flashback that explains they're returning from Mysidia after stealing their Crystal. Later in the game [[LaserGuidedKarma Cecil returns to the city]] and becomes a Paladin, shortly after which he returns to Baron. Then later still, he returns to the tower just behind the Crystal's resting chamber to witness the arrival of the airship that will fly them to the moon, where the BigBad awaits.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', the first scenario is in Castle Tycoon and the journey starts in the kingdom of Tycoon. When the two worlds merge, the Void will absorb Castle Tycoon and leave a dark portal in it's place. This dark portal is the entrance to the Interdimentional Rift, the game's Final Dungeon.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' pulls off a similar feat. You spend at least a good 7-10 hours in Midgar at the start of the game and then can't get back in after you leave the city completely (unless you find the key to the gate in a mini game much later on and even then, it only lets you back into Sector 5 and 6). Towards the very end of disc 2 after beating Diamond WEAPON, your party parachutes into Midgar to stop Hojo and the music for the chapter is the same one you heard in the beginning of the game when you first started out. On top of that, Barret comments that he kind of misses Midgar after having come back, but then gets angry at himself for longing for a dump run by Shin-Ra.

** Thematic parallel: in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', Tidus' journey begins in 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...

** ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', the prequel ''Dissidia 012'' begins Bartz's storyline in the Land of Discord after he's been captured. Once he escapes Zidane is captured, and Bartz has to head back to the Land of Discord to find him and fight his FinalBoss. The Warriors of Cosmos also return to Order's Sanctuary near the end of the 13th cycle once they have their Crystals, the first time all the heroes have been gathered together since the start of the 12th cycle, when Cosmos imbued them with her power so they could manifest said Crystals.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' continues the trend by ending in Insomnia, the protagonists' DoomedHometown AfterTheEnd. Unlike most examples however, it was not accessible as a playable area in the beginning of the game, only appearing in cutscenes, the tie-in movie ''Anime/KingsglaiveFinalFantasyXV'', and a short demo that was released before the game.
** Somewhat Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. The tutorial level starts at Orbonne Monastery, but this is revealed to be simply where Ramza ended up due to the events of the first chapter. The game's entire story does start properly as Chapter 2 begins where the tutorial level left off as Ramza had been explaining the events up to that point to his companions and the plot is kicked off. Later, at the end of Chapter 4, Ramza must return to Orbonne as it is the site of the portal that would lead to the very final levels.

** A rather meta example in the Tellius duology: the very first thing you see when booting up ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' (after the Nintendo and Intelligent Systems logos) is [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fe9cg01.png an ominous-looking still image of the Tower of Guidance.]] Guess where the last few battles of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' are fought.

** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes'', the Scarlet Blaze story route starts with Edelgard attacking Garreg Mach to drive out Rhea and the Knights of Seiros. They come back to Garreg Mach for the finale, which becomes a MeleeATrois between the Empire, the Church of Seiros, and "those who slither in the dark".

* The first ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'' game started and ended with the Angels launching from the White Moon and battling around it.
* ''VideoGame/Geneforge5Overthrow'' has one if you join Ghaldring's faction. One of the final quests 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]].

* A ''when'' variation occurs in ''Videogame/GhostTrickPhantomDetective''. Not returning to the start of the night at the junkyard, oh no, but to the event ''ten years prior'' that set everything into motion that culminated on the night in question.

* ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' plays this trope for all it's worth. Near the end, Manny returns to the city where he began the game working as a travel agent, now a [[FilmNoir corrupted cesspool of sin and debauchery]]. He infiltrates the heart of the criminal conspiracy, where the BigBad unwittingly ''offers Manny his old job. In his old office''.

** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' is fond of this trope; about halfway through the game, you end up backtracking through the levels you've previously been through, until the very last level which takes place on the very starship you began the game on in the first level. The first chapter title of the final level is even "...And The Horse You Rode In On."
** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/Halo3'', the final battle takes place in the Halo Control Room, identical to the Halo Control Room in ''Halo CE''. You even face off against the same enemy.
** In addition, the entire final level in ''3'' is on 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 CE'' level "The Silent Cartographer".
** Bungie's final game in the series, ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', ends with the first scene of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''. Even more so, ''Reach's'' last level and the ''Halo's'' first level are both called "The Pillar of Autumn. This trope was even said word for word as part of the tagline:
--->"Remember where it all began. [[RememberTheAlamo Remember Reach]]."

** ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' opens with the titular character breaking out of the lab where he was created, and finishes in the same building, when he kills his creator.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' is fought inside the Temple of the Black Egg, which is located in the first area of the game, just a stone's throw away from the entrance. It's likely one of the first places a player will come across, far before they understand its significance.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' takes this to a logical extreme. The almost final area is Twilight Town, which is where Roxas gets his name from Xemnas, where he met Axel, where his first mission with Xion was, and where he, Axel, and Xion meet up to hang out. Not only is it the final area, but the clock tower is the setting for the final part of the fight with Xion, which also drags you to three other worlds you visited throughout the game. Then, you're taken to The World That Never Was, which is where your main hub has been for most of the game. You then reenact the secret ending to Kingdom Hearts, which means it loops all the way back to the ending of the ''first game''.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'', this occurs across games -- the goal of the heroes is to find out the source and meaning of a mysterious message that's appeared in Jiminy's journal, and the final world ends up being Castle Oblivion, the very place Sora lost his memories and the journal was originally left blank back in ''Chain of Memories''.
** And once again occurring across games in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' -- the final boss takes place in The Awakening once again, after which the environment shifts to Destiny Islands, and the player must answer questions mirroring the ones asked at The Awakening in the first game.
** A series-wide example in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. The final battle takes place in Scala ad Caelum, which is heavily implied to be the ruins of Daybreak Town, the hub world for ''Kingdom Hearts χ'' and implied to be the very first world in the realm of light.

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' does this for the Hard Rain campaign where the finale takes place in the Burger Tank, which is where you started in the first map, except it is more wrecked and now flooded from the hurricane.
** And The Passing as well; the whole objective of that campaign is to get to the other side of a bridge and lower it so you can drive the escape vehicle from the first campaign over it.

** Twice in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' -- first, you rescue Zelda from the Hyrule Castle dungeons, then return to the castle after obtaining the Master Sword to climb its [[DiscOneFinalDungeon central tower]]. In the Dark World, after completing the final dungeon the final boss crashes through the top of the Dark Pyramid you entered the world on to reveal a chamber inside where the final battle is held. Just to top it all off too, the Dark Pyramid and Hyrule Castle are in the same place between the two works. There are two other instances, as this game is the TropeNamer for DarkWorld -- the first dungeon for each of the two worlds is in the same place, and the final dungeon of the Dark World is in the same place as the final dungeon of the Light World.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', it is noted that the entrance to the Dark World is located not far at all from Link's hometown.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' follows this, but only in the PlayableEpilogue -- the TrueFinalBoss is in the very first area of the game, in a part you've been unable to access until now. The path eventually loops round to the other side of the control room where the first boss was, before the inevitable escape sequence back to your ship.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' ends with Samus taking the baby Metroid back to her ship. In the [[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns remake]], Ridley appears out of nowhere right in front of Samus's ship for the final boss battle, playing the trope much straighter.

* Most of the ''VideoGame/{{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 the original game, the white page needed to beat the game is hidden within the marker switch on the dock you started off on when you first arrived on the island. The player actually has all of the tools necessary to physically reach the good ending (and getting it done in under two minutes actually nets you an achievement in modern versions), they just don't have the knowledge.

** Subverted, however, in ''VideoGame/MystVEndOfAges''. Even though you have the option to, you don't WANT to return to Myst Island. [[DownerEnding Trust me on this one]].
* In ''VideoGame/NieR'', the gateway to the Shadowlord's castle lies just past the altar where Grimoire Weiss and Nier first met. When Emil comments on this, Weiss agrees that it feels strangely nostalgic.

* ''VideoGame/ObsCure II'' does this twice. The fight against the DiscOneFinalBoss takes place at the abandoned ruins of the High School where the first game was set, and where Herbert Friedman conducted his experiments on the [[TheCorruption mortifilia plant]] that led to the events of the series. Then comes TheStinger after the end credits, and TheReveal of the GreaterScopeVillain who financed Friedman's experiments. What comes next is a NoGearLevel set in their headquarters where you learn about all of their machinations and their role in the story, just before the real FinalBoss.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao''. WhereItAllBegan is some generic large town, that practically nothing happens (ever), much less an epic battle. However, in the PlayableEpilogue it does return to an origin place, the [[CosmicEgg Universe Egg]] where the world was created at the end of the first game.

** ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' begins at Seven Sisters High School. While the final dungeon - a massive, shrine-like spaceship called Xibalba - isn't there per se, the Narurato Stone, a small monolith that sits behind it, serves as the entrance to said dungeon.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' has a variation: the last dungeon of the game is the lowermost depths of Mementos, the same underground maze that you have access to right after the first major [[EldritchLocation Palace]] is destroyed. The variation comes in that Mementos is completely optional, as its main purposes are serving as a hub for all of the game's sidequests and for extra grinding. However, it is ''not'' recommended that Mementos be skipped, because if you did not delve into it throughout the game, you will have to do so during the Endgame, and once December 24th comes and you go in, [[PointOfNoReturn you cannot come back out]].
** Furthermore, the stairway and entrance to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon is in a hellscape version of Shibuya Station Square, where the protagonist first gets off his train in Tokyo, and one of the first areas the player character is given the ability to move around before entering any dungeon.

** After beating the Elite Four and the Champion in most games, next time you load your save, you'll be in your bedroom, where you started the game, except for Ruby/Sapphire, as you started those games in the back of a moving van.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' also do this, with Victory Road being just off the first Gym town, and you can even access the entrance to it before getting a single badge!

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

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' [[SubvertedTrope sort of]] does it. The very first true level of the game takes place in the mind of Coach Oleander. The very last level of the game, after beating the [[DiscOneFinalBoss Brain Tank]], takes place in a nightmarish hybrid of Coach Oleander and [[KidHero Razputin's]] minds. It could be argued that this is actually a double-dose of the trope, since Raz also revisits the environment that he grew up in and escaped from immediately before the game started.
* The jail cell in ''VideoGame/{{Purple}}'''s intro is actually located within TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. In fact, it's just steps away from final boss' chamber.

* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', the titular Ravensword happens to be hidden in a tomb underneath the town's plaza, which is the first location you enter after the introductory sequence.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'' is an unusual example given that it has a somewhat non-linear storytelling. However, Episode 1-1 shows that the plot for the game essentially starts on the shore overlooking the ruins of Terragrigia. It is here that Jill and Parker find the sample of the T-Abyss virus and they are told that Chris and Jessica have disappeared, prompting the rest of the game where they go to the Queen Zenobia to search for them. At the end of the game, O'Brian reveals that the third and final ship, the Queen Dido, is where they'll find what they need in order to end everything. Where is the Queen Dido? Underwater at the ruins of Terragrigia, where the plot started.

* ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'''s penultimate mission brings the player back to the titular castle where you started the game (though in a different section that has been overrun by the undead). And if that wasn't enough, the mission's name is the title of the game, making this a SpoilerTitle in that sense.
* In the first two ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'' games, the final remix ends with a Karate Man section. Karate Man was the very first mini-game in the first installment. (Which was [[NoExportForYou only available in Japan]])

* Only if you play as Albert in ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa'' the first dungeon in his scenario is the gate to the final dungeon. Turns out the monsters are stronger also when you enter the very first cave again due to the game's Event Rank system.
* In ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'', the game begins in Omnitopia before you get shuttled down to Evermore's surface. The rest of the game is largely spent trying to figure out how to go back home, which the protagonist believes can be done by returning to Omnitopia. And for the final areas of the game, he does.

* In ''VideoGame/StarTropics II: Zoda's Revenge'', the very last chapter of the game takes place on C-island, the first island of the original ''[=StarTropics=]''. And the game's ultimate dungeon? [[NostalgiaLevel A remix of the first game's first stage]], complete with music.
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenI'' starts in what will become the final dungeon. Most of the endings of the second game involve the main character returning to WhereItAllBegan for a final confrontation with his NecessarilyEvil best friend.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' does this in a bit of a roundabout way. While in the original, Citadel Station was destroyed, the very last section of the sequel dumps you into a still-forming recreation of Citadel's medical level, big blue tiles and all -- said medical level being the place where the Hacker first woke up in the original. It's still-forming because SHODAN is rebuilding it ''out of her own memory''.

* Lara Croft tends to end up doing this in the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games, generally after spending most of the game searching for a MacGuffin needed to activate something in the first location she visited.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'': The game begins with the player in the town of Langtree trying to deal with some ghosts that have been haunting everyone, which eventually leads to the main plot. The final chapter also takes place in Langtree, albeit in a bigger state of disrepair due to both the world itself corrupting and the remnanats of the Dream King's castle having merged with it. Additionally, the final scene of the game happens outside the main character's house, which is exactly the place the whole game started.

* ''VideoGame/WorldsEndClub'': Upon reaching the area where MAIK is presumably, the Go-Getters find out MAIK is not there. Using a variety of clues picked during the journey, Pochi [[AddressingThePlayer along with assistance from the player]], managed to discover MAIK is located beneath the underwater park in Kagoshima, where the Go-Getters began their trip.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' Garrosh and Thrall agree to have their final battle to the death at the place where the two met and bonded over Thrall's memories of Grom.

** Another minor example in [=WoW=] occurs during the Siege of Orgrimmar, the final raid of ''Mists of Pandaria'', with portions of it occurring in Ragefire Chasm, the Horde's first dungeon.

* The last stage of ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' is a black-and-white homage to its UsefulNotes/GameBoy predecessor, ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'', with two rooms for each of that game's four stages.

** In the UsefulNotes/{{Satellaview}} remake of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI the original game]], the final fight with Ganon takes place in the first cave where you got the wooden sword.