Basic Trope: Before the ending of a game, you make a choice that largely invalidates everything you've done.
- Straight: Legends of Troperia is a standard Karma Meter game - that is, until the end, when Bob the Hero can either decide to rescue the fair Princess Alice, join the evil Emperor Evulz, or ally with the rogue band of marauders he's encountered - regardless of what alignment he'd played before then.
- Exaggerated: There's about 50 options available to you, each of them falling somewhere along the line of good vs. evil. And all of them are available regardless of how you've been playing.
- Bob throughout the game was a heartless psychopath who always made bad decisions and ruined the lives of thousands of persons. He can get the Golden Ending if he makes the right decision at the end of the game.
- Downplayed:
- If you're super evil, some of the more good-oriented endings will be locked, and vice versa...
- While the primary portion of your ending is chosen at the last second, your choices throughout the game affect the Modular Epilogue.
- While the player can choose any of the paths, the epilogue reflects their alignment. A good character who chooses to side with Evulz becomes a Noble Top Enforcer, and when Evulz eventually dies, a far more benevolent heir. An evil character who sides with Alice is implied to have done it for Pragmatic Villainy; they don't get Alice's hand in marriage, but do get a fat payday, a full pardon and the opportunity to be her feared attack dog when dirty deeds need doing.
- Justified:
- Bob's choice involves Time Travel, making his past actions not matter.
- Redemption and falling from grace are recurring themes.
- The other choices are remote and impossible for the rest of the world to know. While they say a lot about Bob's character the world will only know if he joined or slew Emperor Evulz.
- Inverted: Bob has to make a Big First Choice affecting gameplay at the beginning.
- Subverted: All of the choices are available when the player reaches the ending... but selecting one too at odds with the player's alignment will cause a But Thou Must! and gray the option out.
- Double Subverted: But given the Wide-Open Sandbox nature of the game, you can still wander around and do good/evil deeds, so all the endings are still technically open to you.
- Parodied: Bob has spent the game casually screwing over his allies and friends whenever he felt they weren't useful to him any more, masterminded both a famine and a pandemic so he could profiteer off of selling food and medical supplies to the desperate masses, condemned at least one entire sapient race to genocide, gleefully desecrated at least one major religion's most holy site, casually destroyed and burned several priceless works of art and literature whenever he came across them, constantly spewed sexist and racist remarks at the slightest provocation, shamelessly robbed every beggar who was unfortunate enough to cross his path, regularly stolen candy, balloons, and toys from children and drowned cats in acid just for the fun of it, not to mention all the random murder sprees he occasionally went on, but come ending time, the choice to marry the fair Princess Alice, who is Incorruptible Pure Pureness incarnate, is still available, and as such Bob can still ascent the throne and get the ending that informs the player that Bob became known as the most good, just and pure king there ever was. The resident Fourth-Wall Observer is utterly appalled by how egregious that "happy" ending is.
- Zig Zagged: You can choose an ending at odds with your actions. Freeing Marduk always invalidates your past actions. However if you are evil but try to side with good in the end you get hit with a Heel–Face Door-Slam. If you side with good but go to evil at the end you are Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves instead of becoming the second in command. Attempting ascension has an outcome completely determined by your past actions.
- Averted: Story-altering choices are scattered throughout the entire game's length and each one impacts has the same impact on what ending you get.
- Enforced: "Remember, the players will whine if they don't get to access all the endings, so make sure they can."
- Lampshaded: When you walk around town while evil, the townspeople will admonish you, saying things like "I know there's good in your heart"; while good, the bad guys will lament that "I can tell you'd make a fine villain".
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: If you are vile and attempt to marry Princess Alice she will kill herself to avoid marrying you.
- Discussed: "Wait a second. I've been kicking puppies all throughout this quest, but I still get the Standard Hero Reward for slaying Baron von DragonMeister?"
- Conversed: "It just seems kinda messed up that after playing my character as an evil monster, I could get the ending where the princess and I live happily ever after".
- Deconstructed: Sure, you can have bad karma and marry the princess...but if you do, your character becomes infamous as a tyrant king. The sequel is set after this ending, where Alice's bastard daughter, Faye, must try to both overthrow her father and keep her morality high...lest she suffer the same fate.
Back to Last-Second Ending Choice - and before you go, I have to ask - are you a lumper or splitter?
