Post-Final Level

In most video games, the Final Boss resides in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. However, this is not always the case — sometimes you've beaten the big final area, only to discover that there is another area, but this one is a short level that only houses the final boss and maybe some healing supplies. This is the Post-Final Level, a Boss-Only Level that comes after the actual final level, its sole purpose being to give you a place where you fight the final boss.

Compare to Post-Final Boss, an easy battle that comes after the actual final boss — this is that concept applied to levels. Boss-Only Level is the same concept, but not exclusive to final bosses. Also not to be confused with Bonus Dungeon and Brutal Bonus Level, which can often be unlocked by beating the final level but is a level in its own right.

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Examples:

Action-Adventure

• Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: After the fairly brutal Stage 7, Stage 8 is nothing but a short ascent up some stairs to Dracula himself. And a hidden stairway to some bonus items.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The inside of the Pyramid of Power is where Ganon transports Link for their final battle after the latter has already scaled Ganon's tower.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The two final battles are fought in the past-era version of the Sealed Grounds, rather than the Sky Keep which serves as the final dungeon.
• Metroid Dread has Itorash, Raven Beak's flying base which only consists of a few rooms, and comes after the actual final level, Hanubia.
• Perish ends with you defeating Aiakos, supposedly the last boss, only to be thrown further into hell in one more stage, "Suffer your Sins" where you must fight more demons atop a lava-surrounded platform, ending with you facing a degraded copy of the first boss (now reduced to a one-shot enemy). The credits roll after that.
• In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, assuming you did not side with Owl during the second visit to Ashina Castle, the final level of the game is the Fountainhead Palace, but after it's completed, you are relocated to Ashina one last time, where you're forced to traverse through the castle against the Interior Ministry's army in order to search for the gate that you visited at the start of the game before facing the Final Boss.
• The ROM hack Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time has Bowser's Castle as the final area, but after defeating Bowser in the future, Mario must then travel to the past, where a Warp Pipe opens near Peach's Castle that leads to a massive lava pit for the actual final battle against Bowser.
• Tomb Raider II: After you slay Marco Bartoli in his dragon form, you proceed to run to the exit as his lair crumbles, but there's one final level after that; Lara Croft's own manor gets invaded by Bartoli's last men, and the game ends properly once you've killed the last of them.

Action Game

• _iCEY._:
  • In the main game, the Room of Fate is the final area listed after Clock Tower 2F, consisting of three empty rooms and the top of the tower where the final battle against Judas happens.
  • Should you get all the other endings, the True Ending unlocks, which takes place in an unnamed darkened room where the Narrator snaps and fights you as the Post-Final Boss.

Adventure Game

• Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has one of these in the Golden Ending. Upon unlocking the path, there are two full fledged Room Escape Game sequences, the library, and Zero's Hideout, the latter of them having the vibe of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. After escaping from there, you reach the incinerator, which turns out to have its own Escape scene; however, this one consists of only a single puzzle, rather than multiple puzzles combined with Point-and-Click gameplay.
• Spirit Hunter:
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark: Most of Chapter 5, the last chapter, takes place in the Underground Shelter where the Kannon Soldier lies, but after defeating the spirit, Kazuo travels to Kujou Mansion to fight the mastermind.
  • Spirit Hunter: NG: As in the first game, most of the Demon Tsukuyomi chapter is in the Momoi Department Store, and for the rest of the chapter Akira is transported to Kakuriyo for his final showdown against Kakuya. Said area essentially consists of some cutscenes across a series of small rooms where you are instantly transported from one to the other, and there are no puzzles, but a series of choices that don't matter, until the actual boss fight.
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II: The final visit to the clock tower is the last area of Chapter 7 after the second visit to Fox Forest, consisting of the final deduction of the Departed's identity, a single puzzle, and (if you got both right) the final battle against the Departed.

First-Person Shooter

• Borderlands: After a difficult trek between two levels ("The Descent" and "Eridian Promontory") filled to the brim with Crimson Lance soldiers and Eridian guardians, the game ends in the level "The Vault", where the only thing they find just after entering is the Destroyer itself.
• Duke Nukem 3D: The final Episode's final level, "Stadium", consists only of the final boss's arena. This contrasts the previous Episodes' boss levels, which behaved as classic FPS levels ending with a boss.
• Halo: Reach: Following the final level, The Pillar of Autumn and the credits, a mission titled "Lone Wolf" begins, which is simply your death and eulogy.
• Quake IV: After a grueling level ("Nexus Core") that includes a Boss Rush, battles against several Elite Mooks, and other difficult areas, the final level ("The Nexus") is a long, item-filled corridor that ends in an arena, where both boss battles take place.
• Unreal: After shutting down the Mothership's power source, Prisoner 849 descends through a vent (the level "The Source Antechamber") into the level "The Source", which hosts an item-filled platform with a bridge into the chamber that houses the arena where the Skaarj Queen is fought.

Platform Game

• B3313: The Eternal Fort, which is accessed through a pipe at the end of the Randomized Realm, is a competitively small area with a short platforming section leading to the final Bowser fight.
• Donkey Kong 64: The final world is Hideout Helm, but after the Kongs get to the top, instead of fighting them, King K. Rool hops in a ship and tries to flee from DK Isles. It crashes behind it, so you have to leave the level and hop in there to actually fight K. Rool.
• Every main Kirby game from Kirby's Return to Dream Land onwards has a big final world, usually ending in a fight against the Disc-One Final Boss, followed by a world consisting of a single Boss-Only Level, which is the actual final boss fight. Variations of this were done in earlier games as well.
  • The first game to do this was Kirby's Adventure, where after beating Dedede in Rainbow Resort, you enter Level 8: The Fountain of Dreams, which consists solely of the battle against Nightmare.
  • The true final level of Kirby's Dream Land 3 is Hyper Zone, accessible if you found all the Heart Stars, but in contrast to Iceberg, the normal final level with seven stages ending in a battle against King Dedede, Hyper Zone consists solely of the Dark Matter fight.
  • Kirby Super Star:
    • Castle Dedede in "Spring Breeze" is a single room barely larger than one screen, containing a few enemies and the door to King Dedede; its original version in Kirby's Dream Land was an All the Worlds Are a Stage finale. In Ultra's "Revenge of the King", a harder revamp of "Spring Breeze", Castle Dedede is lengthened into a full level.
    • "Dyna Blade" consists of four full stages, with the fifth stage being a short climb up a mountain to reach the sub-game's only boss, Dyna Blade.
  • Collecting every Crystal Shard in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and defeating the standard final boss, Miracle Matter, at the end of Ripple Star opens up a seventh world, Dark Star. It only consists of a single brief level, where Kirby's friends help him one more time before he takes to the skies with Ribbon to face the True Final Boss.
  • Kirby's Return to Dream Land:
    • Downplayed with Another Dimension, as the first part is an Unexpected Shmup Level, but it is rather short compared to Dangerous Dinner.
    • Deluxe's Magolor Epilogue has the Ethereal Altar, which consists of a single altar that can be visited at any point, but only after all the Fruit Fragments are gotten can the final bosses be fought here.
  • Kirby: Triple Deluxe has Eternal Dreamland, which is at the very top of Royal Road (the final world) and consists of Kirby being blasted out of a cannon to face the final boss.
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot has Mind in the Program, which is the Astral Finale battle after the Access Ark.
  • Kirby Star Allies:
    • The fifth stage of the same name as the game. It comes after the lengthy fourth stage "Far Flung - Starlight Heroes" and its final level, The Divine Terminus. The final stage instead consists of the multi-phase final battle.
    • In the "Heroes in Another Dimension" mode, the Final Dimension, unlocked after beating the second, third, and fourth dimensions in any order, consists of one room with copy abilities and friend recruitment, then the final boss room.
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Lab Discovera, an abandoned laboratory at the bottom of Redgar Forbidden Lands where Fecto Forgo is being held and where Kirby meets the leader of the Beast Pack, Leongar. It consists of a short elevator ride and hallway and the subsequent Boss Bonanza.
• Mega Man 2: After the final level of Wily's castle, Mega Man finds himself transported to an underground cave. The only dangers are drops of acid that fall from the ceiling and can do lots of damage, but otherwise it's just a short jaunt. At the end, you face Wily, who reveals himself to be an alien. It's actually another robot combined with a holographic projector.
• Psychonauts 2: After reaching the end of Fatherland Follies, the Big Bad's mental world, Raz is then transported out, and the final battle takes place in Lucrecia's mind, which consists of a short bridge to the area where the boss is fought.
• In both RosenkreuzStilette games, the fourth and final Iris Stage is a short hallway with a few power ups (plus a few enemies in the first one) and the last battle with Iris, after the two big stages and third-stage Boss Rush.
• Used in several Sonic the Hedgehog games. Since your ring count resets to zero at the start of every level, and your rings are tied to your health, this setup makes it easy for the devs to crank up the difficulty by forcing you to face the final boss as a One Hitpoint Wonder. (Although some games have mercy and give you a few rings in the final level anyway.)
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrap Brain Zone, the climax level where you take the fight to Eggman's factory base, is the only zone that doesn't end with a boss fight. It's followed by the Final Zone, which just consists of your last fight with Eggman.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Wing Fortress Zone is the last proper level, followed by Death Egg Zone which is just two last boss fights. (Sonic Team originally planned to make Death Egg Zone a full level, but lack of time forced them to abandon the idea.)
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles:
    • In Sonic's campaign, Death Egg Zone is the last full level. But if you have all the Chaos Emeralds needed to go Super Sonic, then Death Egg Zone is followed by The Doomsday Zone, which just consists of the True Final Boss fight. (Although Tails' campaign is almost identical to Sonic's in every other way, Tails can't access The Doomsday Zone, so Death Egg Zone is the end of the game for him.)
    • In Knuckles' campaign, Lava Reef Zone is the last full level. It's followed by Hidden Palace Zone, an Absurdly Short Level with just a set of stairs and a teleporter, then Sky Sanctuary Zone, with just a boss fight against Mecha Sonic.
• Wario games:
  • In Wario Land 3, after gathering all the treasures, Wario fights the final boss in the Temple, the short one-room area he ended up in at the start of the game.
  • In Wario Land: Shake It!, after beating the last continent, Quiver Cliffs, the Shake King awaits Wario in his ship, the Shakedown Schooner, which consists of a single Boss-Only Level.
  • In Wario World, Sparkle Land is the last normal world, with Pecan Sands the last normal level; the fifth 'world' is just the battle against the Black Jewel.

Roguelike

• The Binding of Isaac:
  • In Greed Mode, the final normal floor is The Shop, which contains the standard 10 or 11 waves of enemies that have to be defeated. After you've beaten The Shop, you travel down to one final floor, which contains nothing but a short Mini-Boss and the Final Boss of the game mode, Ultra Greed.
  • To access the True Final Boss of Repentance, you have to take a special path and travel upwards through the entire game while fighting extremely powerful Elite Mook variants of iconic monsters. However, the boss itself resides in Home, a floor that's just Isaac's actual house. It contains nothing but a bed, a chest, a free item, and a way to start the boss fight.
• Slay the Spire has a surprise Act 4, "The Ending", which is only revealed after beating Act 3 at least once with each of the three main characters, and is only unlocked in individual runs in which the player managed to collect all the keys. The Ending always consists of a single path in the same order — a rest site, a merchant encounter, an Elite fight against the Spire Shield and Spire Spear, and finally the Corrupt Heart of the Spire itself.

Role-Playing Game

• Buddy Simulator 1984 has two of these:
  • The Snoodlewonker's cave is where the Big Bad lies, coming after Palchumville, a massive area with puzzles and many enemies. The cave, by contrast, only has a single big hallway and a few scripted scenes before the actual battle. The In-Universe developer was apparently going to make it a full-fledged final dungeon but ran out of time.
  • After beating the final boss, you are then transported to a first-person rendition of Home for each of the endings. For the most part, it is impossible to lose here — you just do whatever the game says to progress.
• All of the Dark Souls games have a dedicated area for their final boss:
  • Dark Souls: After collecting all of the Lord Souls during the non-linear second half of the game, the Chosen Undead uses them to open the door to the Kiln of the First Flame, a large but empty area containing nothing but a few spread-out Black Knights and the final boss's arena.
  • Dark Souls II: The finale of the game is at the Throne of Want, a section of Drangleic Castle with three boss fights and nothing more. The area can be accessed early to fight one of the bosses, but the final boss and True Final Boss can only be fought after obtaining a key item behind the last few required areas.
  • Dark Souls III: The Kiln of the First Flame again serves as the last area of the game, and only contains the final boss fight. The last full-fledged area is Lothric Castle, home of the final Lords of Cinder.
• In Elden Ring, after traversing the Crumbling Farum Azula and defeating the boss there, you're relocated to Leyndell one last time, which, due to the burning of the Erdtree, is now covered in ashes which bury most of the city with it. There isn't any enemy to fight unless one goes out of their way of the intended destination, and the only obstacles standing between you and the throne is a couple of Boss Bonanza before facing the Final Boss.
• Final Fantasy XII: The Sky Fortress Bahamut. It is far shorter than the exceedingly-long Pharos, and although you do need to explore it a bit, it mainly exists as an arena for the final boss, Vayne. You can't even save inside it.
• Every Guild Wars expansion (Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North) features a lengthy penultimate mission and then a final mission consisting entirely of the final boss fight.
• The Kingdom Hearts series has a few:
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Upon gathering all of Xehanort's Reports and completing every character's story, which except wrap up in the Keyblade Graveyard (except Ventus, whose Final Boss is at the Station of Awakening), you're treated to a final story which takes Aqua back to the town plaza of Radiant Garden to battle Terra, who is now possessed by Xehanort.
  • Kingdom Hearts III: after taking out everyone in Organization XIII except Master Xehanort, Sora and the gang send him to his old training grounds of Scala ad Caelum, which cannot be explored save to trigger a Boss Rush leading to the showdown with Xehanort. The Re Mind DLC, on the other hand, reverses this: Scala ad Caelum becomes a fully navigateable level, and the game jumps back to the skies above the Keyblade Graveyard to battle Xehanort's twelve replicas.
• Mass Effect 3: The final proper mission takes place in London, with Shepard and the rest of Hammer Squad storming the Reaper conduit, but there's two short segments after that where you explore the occupied Citadel, talk down or kill the Illusive Man, and converse with the Catalyst before choosing how to activate the Crucible. The mission journal is greyed out during these segments.
• Most of the main Pokémon games end with each region's Pokémon League, an area which always comes after Victory Road, a long area filled with the toughest trainers in the main game. The League, by contrast, is a building that only houses the Elite Four and Champion.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan, regardless of if you do the Temple of Sacrifice as an operation or by having NPC armies storm the temple, Revan flees at the end and a final mission has the player character confront him along with the major allied NPCs from the story.
• Undertale: New Home comes right after the Core, a big final area with strong enemies (or, in the True Pacifist route, the True Lab), and is a short trek through a few rooms (one of which contains the final obtainable equipment set in the game), before facing the various final bosses of each route.
• Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening: After the long trek through Uratheul, the finale takes place in the now-transformed Daybreak, an area consisting of six rooms with NPCs but no enemies, and the seventh room where the final battle takes place.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Memory Space is a small area that is accessed after going through the proper final dungeon, Prison Island, and is instead a series of four small hallways with Spirit enemies and a room at the end where the final battle is.

Survival Horror

• Luigi's Mansion:
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: The final mansion is the Treacherous Mansion, but after clearing it, Luigi is transported to King Boo's Illusion for the last showdown.
  • Luigi's Mansion 3: The final proper floor is 15F, the Master Suite, but afterwards Luigi has to go to the Rooftop, a short area consisting of a brief ascent to the top where King Boo awaits.

Other

• The Beginner's Guide has an Epilogue chapter right after Chapter 16, which is a long, grueling climb up an ominous tower ending with the big reveals of the story. In contrast, the epilogue level is relatively simple — just walk to the end — has no obstacles, and is more of a place to ruminate on the reveal and wrap up the story.
• Bubbaruka! has one for both the main game and post-game:
  • In the main game, the final stage is Flou's stage, Bubby Garden Time, with the final location in said stage being Onaga's House. After beating the Warn virus boss within said stage, you are then transported to a twisting hallway with no enemies or puzzles, just a straight, long walk to the final boss as the Big Bad speaks to you, giving some exposition.
  • In the post-game, you can do every area and every task in whichever order you want, but once you have done them all, a portal opens outside the Bubbyville Police Department leading to a small area where you fight the True Final Boss.

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