And The Adventure Continues / Video Games

• 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds: One of the unlockables is about Lucy, Maggie, and Luke working together to clear out a McDonald's infested with 16 vampires, and the true ending has a chance of having Claire the adorable cashier becoming a vampire hunter herself.
• Absented Age: Squarebound: Karen defeats the Ganger who took her first fragment, but she still has three more fragments to obtain before she can complete herself and there's still the question of who turned Karen into a ghost and rewrote the past. The anchor in Mika's house tells the player to hold on to their save file in preparation for the sequel, Absented Age: Ghostbound.
• Ota's route in AI: The Somnium Files ends this way. After Mayumi and Ota reconcile, Date receives a call from Boss with some updates on the case. Date and Aiba say that there's still a lot to investigate, and it ends on that note. And then you finish the Annihilation Route and realize that it's not going to end well...
• A rather epic version of this happens in Alundra, where after destroying Melzas and saving Inoa, Alundra walks off into the proverbial sunset, only to see ominous clouds gathering over a distant valley. Heroic music starts playing as Alundra smiles and walks towards them, signifying the beginning of a new adventure.
• ANNO: Mutationem: In the ending, Ann finally severs her connection with Amok and Hinterland, curing her "Entangleitis", as well rescuing Ryan once the matter was settled, and Ann reconciles with herself wanting to run away from her family to keep them safe from herself. However, Dr. G assigns Ann as a pair of eyes for The Consortium for any future anomalies since the unknown faction that engineered C's actions is still out there (though he has at least proven that the Consortium are more than willing to engage with Ann in good faith), and after Ann takes Ayane to see the ocean during the daylight, Ayane enthusiastically talks about how she'll stick by Ann in all their inevitable future adventures.
• At the end of Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland, before the credits, Dessier says that he knows this isn't the end, but the beginning, as Arls, now part of the Arland Republic, has a bright future. Meruru expresses a similar sentiment and then you get to see a bit of how her adventures continue, based on which ending you qualified for.
• Baldur's Gate III: Depending on your choices, some of the characters' endings fall under this.
  • Should you free Orpheus and ensure Lae'zel survives the final battle, she will become a dragon rider and lead a revolt against Vlaakith. Before leaving she thanks the player character for all that they've done and asserts that they will forever be remembered as a liberator by her people.
  • If you completed Karlach and Wyll's storylines either you or Wyll can convince Karlach to go with one of you into Avernus so she'll live and go on fighting the forces of hell, potentially even killing Zariel and very likely killing Mizora should Wyll be the one to join her. It should be noted that the scene of her arriving with the player character or Wyll in Avernus was patched in due to criticisms of her ending being an Anti-Climax.
  • If you convinced Astarion not to ascend and not to kill the many vampire spawn Cazador sired, he can go join his siblings in the Underdark and help them lead the other vampire spawn Cazador was keeping prisoner. If you romanced him, you can suggest you two go on another adventure together, potentially to find a way to let him enjoy the sunlight again.
  • For Shadowheart, both her Selunite and Justiciar endings can be open-ended. If she's a Selunite and ended the curse, she can suggest travelling with the PC to seek out a fresh start in lieu of homesteading. If she's a Justiciar but freed her parents, she can reject the idea of rebuilding the Sharran Coven in Baldur's Gate and be a travelling preacher instead.
  • If Gale lives, he'll note that the Crown of Karsus is somewhere in the waters near Baldur's Gate. He's wise enough to know that the party should not just hope against hope it remains lost there. If you convinced him to seek out Mystra's forgiveness, he will resolve to find it and give it to her and he seems confident that she'll heal him and make him her Chosen once more. If you didn't do that and encouraged his more reckless behavior he'll decide to use the Crown to command Karsus's weave, ascend to godhood; he essentially resolves to succeed where Karsus failed. He'll even suggest that he'd love to make the player character his Chosen should they become amenable to the idea.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum ends with the Joker apprehended, Arkham reclaimed by Gotham PD, and Batman — who's just been beaten from here to kingdom come in the course of the night — talking with Jim Gordon. When Gordon says he should go home and rest, an APB goes out saying that Two-Face has just robbed a bank... and Batman flies back into Gotham on the Batplane.
• Batman: Arkham Origins: Once the main plotline is over, the player can continue the game, tying up all the loose ends.
  Batman: Well, if you're up for it, I've got a few loose ends to tie up out here—and I could use your help.
  Alfred: You can count on it. And when you get home, we can finally have that Christmas dinner I've been keeping warm for you—for our breakfast.
• The ending of Borderlands 2 has the Vault Hunters discovering that the Vault Key is a map to vaults all over the galaxy.
  Mordecai: Heh. You know what that means.
  Lilith: Yep. No rest for the wicked.
• C-12: Final Resistance ends with Vaughn defeating the Alien Leader, moments before Dr. Carter tells him there's still more work to do. The two of them then fly away in a spaceship as the credits roll.
• Celestial Hearts: In the ending, Kayah, Helen, and Achilles travel to the surface in order to stop Lilith, who survived the Final Boss fight.
• In one of Chrono Trigger's Multiple Endings, Crono, Marle, and Lucca end up piloting the Epoch once more to rescue Crono's mom (and 1-11 cats), who accidentally fell through a Gate. If you decided to beat Lavos without resurrecting Crono, the final cutscene shows the gang getting ready to find a way to bring Crono back.
• Cult of the Lamb: After defeating Narinder in the Refuse ending, the player is free to continue crusading, growing in power, and developing their cult with no time limit or restrictions. A later update added a post-game storyline in which the Lamb must defeat the Four Bishops once again to give rest to their spirit (as well as to claim them as followers).
• Devil May Cry 4: The second epilogue features Dante, Trish, and Lady discussing the events of the game when they receive a call for their next gig. Cue them smashing out of the agency, complete with Angels Pose and background explosion.
  Dante: Come on, babes...
  All Three: ...LET'S ROCK!
• Devil May Cry 5: Nero, Nico, Lady, and Trish continue Devil May Cry's business (with Lady and Trish off to a new job from Morrison the last time we see them) while Dante and Vergil are in the Demon World, alternately fighting demons and each other, though on a more friendly basis.
• Digimon World -next 0rder-: After defeating the final boss, the player character returns back to their own world, only to find they and the other characters have been summoned back to deal with a new problem. And there are all those other Digimon to bring back to the city...
• Dragon Age: Origins could end this way, though special mention goes to the ending if you romanced Morrigan and decide to try to find her. The DLC module Witch Hunt can end with you and Morrigan stepping off into the unknown together.
• Dragon Quest IX takes this trope to an extreme. Not only does the ending message say "To Be Continued...", it immediately puts you in the post-game epilogue ready to take on new quests.
• Dual Hearts ends with Rumble finally getting his wish at the cost of Tumble's life. When asked what he wishes for most, Tumble insists that as a treasure hunter, he values treasure above all else. He adds that he knows what to wish for and the scene abruptly shifts to him walking slowly down a road. He asks "What treasure will this road take us to?" and breaks into a full run with Tumble by his side.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Played straight in all the main series games. Once you've completed the main quest, you're free to keep exploring the (vast) game world, complete the Loads and Loads of Sidequests, and complete any of the faction questlines. Your adventure continues until you get bored of exploring. Later games also have expansion packs and DLC content to continue the adventure as well.
  • The Action-Adventure Gaiden Game The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard has Cyrus, the protagonist, leave for future adventures at the end. Sadly, the game's poor sales meant the planned sequels were cancelled.
• Fake Happy End: In the non-destroy endings, the party rejects the idea of destroying the tower's power source because doing so will expose magic and demons to the world, which would destabilize human society. They seek out other towers in the hopes of reversing their demon transformation while trying to survive as invisible beings.
• Less frequent in the Fallout series, however, as New Vegas and pre-Broken Steel Fallout 3 both end the moment you end the final main quest, with no mean to keep on exploring the Wasteland. New Vegas still implies that the adventures of the Courier are far from over, though. Fallout 4 plays it straight, similar to the Elder Scrolls sister series above.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy V ends with Bartz going back on his adventures, Faris ditching being a princess to resume pirating (unless Lenna died, then she stays a princess), and Lenna ruling Tycoon. Then they all join up with the lonely Krile and ride of to another adventure together.
  • Final Fantasy XII sets up nicely for Revenant Wings, with Vaan shown piloting his own airship in the ending and Penelo stating "I'll be going too, of course. Every good sky pirate needs a partner, right?"
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is the definitive conclusion to a storyline that started with the original 1.0 release of FFXIV, but the game ends on an high note that leaves the door open for more adventures in post-launch updates: the danger that had threatened Hydaelyn since well before the Sundering has been dealt with, and the world is at long last safe, with the Scions officially disbanding and going their separate ways, and the Player Character stepping down from their role as the Warrior of Light to travel the world as an adventurer once more.
• Final Fantasy Legend II ends as the protagonist, this time joined by both parents, set off on another adventure, soon after completing the one that comprised the game's plot.
• Freedom Fighters (2003) ends with Chris and Isabella getting ready to defend themselves from a retaliatory attack from the Soviet army.
• Golvellius: Valley of Doom ends with hero Kelesis defeating the title character and freeing Rena. The seven crystals he had collected in his journey enter Golvellius' body and restore him to the side of goodness, and Kelesis and Rena return to their kingdom but both leave almost immediately to search for Kelesis' sister. They're even met on their way by Golvellius who accompanies them.
• Hades: After convincing Hades and Persephone to make up, causing the latter to return to the Underworld and the former to introduce her and Zagreus to his siblings officially, Hades hires Zagreus to be his security consultant for the Underworld. Specifically, Zagreus needs to continue to attempt to escape the Underworld so Hades can find and plug loopholes that others might use to escape, thus allowing the player to continue playing even after the story has concluded. Also, after Zagreus convinces the Olympians to come down for a grand feast, they continue aiding his escapes, even though he's unable to break out just yet.
• The Harvest Moon and its many offshoots are like this. When some game-specific significant event occurs, such as your character's marriage, the credits roll. Then, you can continue playing. In fact, there is often some post-end content such as new seeds, or new NPCs to romance.
• Whether you win or lose a run in Into the Breach, all your surviving pilots will jump to a different timeline to try and save it, letting you carry over one pilot to another run.
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
  • The lightside ending goes thus:
    Kyle: There's still a whole galaxy of trouble out there. Ready for another mission?
    Jaden: As luck would have it, I am. [Credits roll to Star Wars theme]
  • And the darkside ending is similar, except the player character is now in control of an imperial warship, an artifact of incredible power and the rest of the Jedi out to kill or capture them.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts ended with Sora, Donald and Goofy chasing down Pluto in a field.
  • Kingdom Hearts II ended with Sora, Riku and Kairi getting a letter from King Mickey.
• Both Knights of the Old Republic games, as your Player Character vanishes into the Unknown Regions to find out just what set off the inciting incident in the first place.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC ends with Estelle and Joshua after all the fighting, tragedy, and reuniting together, decide to leave Liberl in search of Renne. After all, there's a big world out there to explore and they've got reputations to make as Bracers, just so long as they travel together. And as later games would show, they indeed had many adventures along the way.
• The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning ends with Spyro purifying Cynder and preventing her from freeing the Dark Master, but the war;s not over yet.
• Every The Legend of Zelda game since Majora's Mask.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask ends with Link leaving Termina to continue his search for Navi.
  • The one from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games is a "you know what happens next" ending.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The ending features Link sailing out with the pirates to find a new land. Possibly the most unambiguous moment of this in the series. And one of the saddest. Lastly, it's also one of the few in the series to get an actual follow-up.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ends with Link and Zelda working together to rebuild Hyrule. Link and Zelda agree to keep exploring the new world and continue their research in hopes of restoring the kingdom of Hyrule someday.
• Loop Hero ends with the Hero successfully defeating Omega and stopping his unmaking of reality. However Yota, the Goddess of Probability explains that there are countless alternate timelines where the Hero failed and Omega will continue his work. The two of them resolve to continue fighting against Omega across those alternate timelines in order to save them all, a task they even acknowledge will likely have no end.
• LunarLux: In the ending, Saros is defeated and Bella takes his place as Lunex General. However, Lunex Force still needs to worry about Comet Coda, the Nemesis civilization, and creating an Anti Serum to restore anticores back into humans.
• Mari and the Black Tower: In the ending, due to Ned's warning that the Black Tower will reappear in the 2000s, as well as the god Zamas's connection to the miasma, Abbie and Mari know that they must go on a journey to further investigate the miasma and how to stop it.
• Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus: In the game's Golden Ending, Doris and Max have a newfound respect for each other once they realize they successfully stopped the invasion and worked together the whole time. The Director calls them in for a mission on Saturn, and they happily accept.
• The ending for Mega Man V (otherwise known as Rockman World 5) for the Game Boy. The Stardroids are destroyed, Wily cowers, but leads to a chase.
• The ending of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Sort of. Snake knows that he probably doesn't have long left to live, but he wants to stick around long enough to see what a world without the Patriots will look like. He knows that his fight is over, but he decides to take Otacon and Sunny along with him for one last adventure. Cue road trip.
• Invoked in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: After defeating Senator Armstrong and thwarting his plan to spark a global war to take the Presidency and establish a Social Darwinist regime, Raiden leaves his friends at Maverick to continue the fight against Armstrong's PMC, World Marshal, on his terms.
• Minecraft: Story Mode ends Episode 8 with Ivor stealing the Flint and Steel and the Atlas Guide so he can have more adventures in other worlds. The player can decide whether to chase after him and join him on another adventure, or just let him go, confident that he'll be back one day.
• Although they don't really have any "endings," MMORPGs often give this treatment to the aftermath of major global events. The world has been saved and its would-be destroyer is now on farm status, but (barring developer abandonment) who knows what the next update will bring? This is especially evident in games with an Expansion Pack structure.
• This applies in Muramasa: The Demon Blade to Kisuke's second and third endings. The narrator even lampshades it in one of them by mentioning that the events of the game are the first story of 20. Momohime's second ending is also like this, with her leaving her new adopted home to unravel the secrets behind her Identity Amnesia. Arashimaru's second ending looks like it will be this, with Jiraya and Tsunade setting out together to thwart the schemes of So Xian, but the narrator decides to skip ahead to the end and give the audience a "sneak peek" of the final battle.
• Neverwinter Nights 2: The base game averts the trope, due to the nature of its ending. However, the expansion Mask of the Betrayer ends this way in its good endings, as does the second expansion Storm of Zehir.
• No More Heroes: The first ending shows Travis being ambushed by a challenger while on the toilet. The "true" ending went straight into Mind Screw territory.
• No More Heroes III has Travis finally defeat all his opponents and be the number one ranked assassin once more. But just as things settle down, FU's father arrives and tries to start his own invasion only for Travis and Jennae's kids from the future arrive to kill him and introduce Travis to his grandson whom he had had fought earlier (and luckily didn't kill, Travis mention that something in him wouldn't let him do it, turns out it was maternal instinct). They then invite Travis and his posse to come to the future where Henry is causing trouble much to Travis' confusion.
• Ōkami ends with Amaterasu and Waka sailing the Ark of Yamato back to the Celestial Plane. A Sequel Hook of the finest order.
• Ōkamiden ends with one of these, with Kuni leaving home, and saying that this wasn't the last adventure he'd have with Chibiterasu.
• Papers, Please: Completing the game without fleeing the country or helping EZIC at all results in one of the game's three good endings, namely the only ending where you keep your job. As a result of a new agreement with Arstotzka's neighboring country Kolechia, the checkpoint is reopened one week after the last regular day of the game, and you're told to return to your post on that day. This also reveals the code to unlock Endless mode.
• PAYDAY 3: After pulling off the final heist in the launch storyline, Touch The Sky, the PAYDAY gang successfully ruin Sharke's reputation, left Garnet to be sued for billions after the Wixia deal falls through, and re-secure their ill-gotten cash using quantum-level encryption. The plan now? Steal more valuables and money to put that encryption to the test. Meanwhile, Concord disposes of Sharke and Garnet and doesn't plan on stopping his conspiracy any time soon.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow ends in this manner. Having fought their way through scads of enemies and made it to their ship, Jack and Will catch up to the pirates that betrayed them in the first place. Unfortunately, it turns out that the skull of Teouacata was cursed and the entire crew blames the duo for their misfortune. They surround Jack and Will who laments the situation. Jack merely states that such is the life of a pirate.
• Every game of Pokémon. Beat the Elite Four and became the Champion? Odds are that there still are heaps of Pokédex spots to fill, contests to win, Optional Bosses to fight, minigames to play with friends, NPCs to encounter, items to find...
• Shortly before Portal 2 was officially announced, the ending for Portal was changed from Chell escaping the Aperture Science testing facility to falling unconscious on the ground outside to add an Aperture Science robot dragging her back in.
• The "leave Paradise" ending to Postal 2: Paradise Lost. As the Postal Dude and Champ walk off into the sunset, finally leaving Paradise behind them, the narrator goes on about how the people of the town have taught them a valuable lesson about the tenacity of the human spirit, and that the two know that Paradise will continue on... and then it gets nuked. Again. Cue the Dude turning to Champ:
  Eh, fuck 'em. C'mon, Champ, we've got adventures waiting elsewhere.
• Psychonauts ends this way—when Raz fulfills his lifelong dream of becoming a psychonaut and reunites with his father he is immediately thrust into another adventure.
• The ending to Quest for Glory IV ended with the main character being teleported out of the middle of his award ceremony in order to save Silmaria. One of the endings to the final game in the series has the main character turning down the chance to be king in order to continue adventuring and fighting evil in other lands.
• The end of Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army shows Narumi and Raidou taking on another case.
• In Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Ratchet was going to Ride Into the Stars on his own, but eventually Clank decides to go with him until they find Ratchet's family, leaving Sigmund as Senior Caretaker of the Great Clock.
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) ends with BJ off on another mission fighting Nazis.
• At the end of Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die, Ichiro Ogami being dispatched to Paris to lead a new combat revue in Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?. Then, at the end of Is Paris Burning?, Ogami has to return to Tokyo to regroup with his old friends from the Imperial Combat Revue, setting the stage for Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens.
• Happens to Magoichi Saika in her Blue Ending in Sengoku Basara 3/Samurai Heroes. Before she can end her contract with Mitsunari, he hires her again, saying there's still work to be done.
• The conclusion to the Morning Star story arc in Shadowverse has every character set out on a new adventure to other worlds to chase after Nexus now that their own world is safe.
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. If another faction gets transcendence before you do, the game ends with you returning to human form to spread the life of Planet to the stars.
• Solatorobo: Red the Hunter has Red and Elh riding the Asmodeus together towards their next adventure in The Stinger, following a long journey averting The End of the World as We Know It and coming to grips with their own origins and supernatural natures.
• Sonic Adventure Similar to Mega Man V, ends with Eggman escaping, and Sonic chasing him.
• The first three Spyro the Dragon games give you that exact line after you beat the final boss and watch the ending cutscene.
• Spyro: Shadow Legacy ends with everyone celebrating Spyro's victory, but they know that the Sorcerer is still out there and they prepare for his return.
• While StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void wraps up the series(and according to Word of God the franchise's) story, potential conflicts could be brewing. The Tal'darim no longer follow Amon but are not good, or willing to join the rest of the unified Protoss. With Zagara now leading the swarm, the Zerg have begun laying claim to worlds surrounding their territory.
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ends with Cal deciding that the holocron with the locations of Force-sensitive children is too dangerous to exist with the Empire still around, and as such he destroys it. As he and the Stinger Mantis' crew then stand in a semicircle, Cal asks one question before the credits roll:
  Cal: So... where to now?
• Street Fighter as a whole does this chronologically:
  • The ending monologue that is heard during the credits of Street Fighter IV:
    "This marks the end of an epic battle. The winner emerges with the pride and honor of a hard won victory, but also with a nagging sense of uncertainty. The loser walks away with a heart heavy with shame and anger, ready to make a new start and fight again another day. Both warriors know that this isn't truly the end. Neither one's potential has been truly reached, and there is much hard training ahead. They'll never forget the days of exchanging blows at a fevered pitch. They'll never forget the days of lost hope, of self-loathing. Once they've caught their breath, the warriors will return to the ring. This is the burden of the true fighter. There is no other choice. Who knows where their next opponent lies? This story may be over, but the battle is just beginning!"
  • The farthest events in the Street Fighter timeline is Alex's Ending in Street Fighter III where he is having a rematch with Ryu, after previously getting his ass completely handed to him. Ryu appears to be winning the match and even boasts to Alex if is that all he's got, Alex responds he's just warming up and the real fight begins now. and after that it ends, leaving it up to fan interpretation who wins the match.
• Happens at the end of Stinkoman 20X6. Stinkoman rescues his friends Pan Pan and 1-Up from the clutches of Shadowy Figure, but the crystal used to power Mecha-Trogador is broken into pieces and scattered across Planet K.
  1-Up: We should prolly make sure no one tries to reassemble them.
  Stinkoman: Hey, Saying-Words Guy! That's a great idea for a sequel or maybe an animated series!
• SturmFront: The Mutant War ends with you defeating the mutant hive boss, but the world is still a mutant-infested hellhole. You then reloads and steps out to a new world of slaughter:
  Death and destruction lies in Siegfried's wake. Even in his darkest moments, sheer hatred persevered when flesh and steel began to falter. But this inferno cannot be smothered. Siegfried's very existence is poised on the perpetuation of war and violence. And so he marches on, against no one, against the world, battle for battle's same.
  Ever onwards, the Eternal soldier.
• In the ending to Super Robot Wars UX, Kurou Daijuuji is working for Ruri Hadou, who has him investigating the recent blood monster incidents, a reference to Kishin Hishou Demonbane.
• TearRing Saga ends with the two protagonists, Runan and Holmes, setting off on a voyage in search of another adventure along with their love interests and a couple of friends. The last scene of the game is of their ship, the Sea Lion, sailing off to unspecified destination.
• Threads of Fate gets this treatment with a stinger clip after winning both scenarios, with Rue and Mint joining Claus in the search for another relic.
• The Touryst ends with the Tourist and the Old Tourist riding an ancient rocket ship into space, looking for further adventure and guided with nothing more than a simple set of coordinates that form a Title Drop.
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ends with Nate and Elena retiring from treasure hunting permanently to begin a more savory career in archaeology. They are eventually joined by their teenage daughter, Cassie. Meanwhile, Sam and Sully partner up and embark on another adventure in Portugal or Brazil.
• The Sentinels campaign of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne ends with Maiev continuing her pursuit of Illidan.
• Wild ARMs ends with the heroes defeating the demons but Rudy and Jack head out on their next adventure while Cecilia remains in Adlehyde to serve as queen. However, after a few days she realises royalty is not for her and catches up to them so they continue to wander Filgaia as a trio.
• Wild ARMs: Million Memories ends this way too. Mother and the Quarter Knights are (seemingly) defeated but Cocytus, the Prophets and Asgard, Brioniac and the Veruni are still at large so your party sets out to deal with them too. (In reality, the game was shut down in February 2020, so they had to get the Rudy's betrayal plot out of the way and left a lot of the other threads hanging.)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt potentially ends this way for both Geralt and Ciri. Geralt continues to wander the land killing monsters for money if he does not pursue a relationship with either Triss or Yennefer (or if he blows his chances with them both), and Ciri can choose to become a full-fledged witcher herself.
• Xenosaga Episode III ends with Shion, Allen, Jr., the Elsa crew & the Godwin sisters setting out to find Lost Jerusalem (Earth) and prevent the destruction of the universe. This was probably the Sequel Hook for Episode IV.

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