Series Fauxnale in Video Games.
- The first five games of Assassin's Creed were focused on the story of Desmond Miles and his ancestors, with Assassin's Creed III set up as the Grand Finale of his exploits; The franchise was followed immediately with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and the subsequent games now follow the consequences of Desmond's adventures and are more Myth Arc driven than actually following a single storyline.
- Though Baldur's Gate wasn't supposed to end at its second instalment, its DLC had the main protagonist Charname face off against a Big Bad who was involved in the start of the reason behind all of the adventuring, and ended the Bhaalspawn Saga. Yet in October 2020 Baldur's Gate 3 got released in Early Access, and though as of writing this entry in March 2022 the game hasn't released fully, the "Saga" around Baldur's Gate continues. note
- beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST was intended to be the final consumer version of beatmania IIDX, featuring the usual bells and whistles of an arcade-to-PS2 port as well as a PREMIUM BEST disc that features a compilation of songs from the original IIDX to beatmania IIDX 15 DJ TROOPERS, with 198 playable songs between both discs. However, beatmania IIDX INFINITAS would come along for PC six years later.
- The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ was intended by Edmund McMillen to be the final DLC for the remake, with its new ending clarifying several plot points established by previous endings. But a popular Game Mod, Antibirth, was released just a couple weeks earlier, and Edmund liked it so much that he decided to officially re-release it as part of the Repentance expansion, which has a new even more conclusive ending.
- Traveller's Tales wanted to end Crash Bandicoot with The Wrath of Cortex, which billed itself as the game where Crash defeats Cortex for good and seemingly makes good on its promise in the real ending where Cortex and Uka Uka are banished to the arctic. Vicarious Visions then got hold of the series, releasing The Huge Adventure, N-Tranced, and Crash Nitro Kart, which are set in VV's own timeline and give Cortex a Snap Back, before TT continued the series with Crash Twinsanity, which is set 3 years after Wrath and starts with Cortex escaping his banishment.
- Dead Space 3 seems to end on a decisively final conclusion for Isaac, the Markers, and the Necromorphs. Then the Awakening DLC comes along to continue the story, ending on a grim cliffhanger. Shortly afterwards the series was put on indefinite hiatus due to "poor" sales performance, leaving the plot hanging on a very dark note.
- While Diablo and its sequel both had open/cliffhanger endings, the expansion pack Lord of Destruction ended on a pretty final note. All of the Prime Evils' Soulstones had been destroyed, permanently killing them off. Of course, that didn't stop Blizzard from making Diablo III: The Search for More Money.
- Dragon Age: Origins: BioWare fully admits they didn't know if the game would sell well enough to launch a franchise, so they added more detailed player choices, lasting consequences, and epilogue slides detailing the fates of each character and location for decades to come to wrap things up. When Origins sold well enough to launch the Dragon Age franchise, BioWare gently retconned the end slides to be in-universe "rumors", and avoided adding too detailed player choices and end slides for subsequent games, to keep future stories open.
- Five Nights at Freddy's:
- Five Nights at Freddy's 3 had an air of finality to it and was supposed to be the finale, with the game taking place 30 years after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closing down for good, the Purple Man getting his punishment for his actions, and the murdered children being set free after decades of being stuck inside the animatronics. Overall, it felt like a fitting end to the series that never happened.
- Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was supposed to be the finale like the third game, showing some of the first events in the series, what happened at Fredbear's Family Diner, and possibly explaining the origins of one of the characters in the series, but too many mysteries were left, which led to the creation of the following games.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location was also supposed to be the finale, focused on the Purple Man (now revealed to be called William Afton) and his family. But the ending left many questions in it, with it ultimately getting a sequel.
- Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator was probably the closest to the Grand Finale: The last surviving robots are brought together, mysteries from the past are solved, and it all ends with the animatronics (including Afton), the protagonist (the same person as in Sister Location) and Henry, the Greater-Scope Paragon who was the founder of Freddy's and mastermind behind the events of the game, all dying in a fire, seemingly ending the legacy of Freddy Fazbear for good. The game following it, Ultimate Custom Night, is heavily implied to be the epilogue where William Afton gets tortured for eternity... but then Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted came out, and all the games following it. Looks like we're not getting a true finale anytime soon...
- Fortnite: The Season 10 finale event ends with the island, all of the skins and the universe being sucked into a black hole. The game then goes offline, only showing the black hole, with its social media pages blacked out, and even being removed from the Epic Games Store banner. Serious dedication.
- Futurama: The game was originally conceived as another possible series finale, as it ends with Fry, Bender and Leela's deaths. With the series being revived years later, the events of the game were pushed to Canon Discontinuity.
- Gothic III's Golden Ending not only solves the main conflict of the series (the proxy war between the gods), it also places the Nameless Hero into an entirely new world with no return. It's directly stated that peace will ensue and that there is no way this happy ending could be reversed. However, thanks to Executive Meddling by the publisher, the infamous Gothic III: Forsaken Gods was made, in which the war didn't end, so the Nameless Hero had to return to Morgrad, which turns the original Gothic III into this.
- Halo:
- Halo 3 was meant to be the conclusion to the series and very definitively wraps up most of the outstanding plotlines while sending Master Chief and Cortana onto an And the Adventure Continues sort of ending. It was marketed with the tagline, "Finish the Fight" and the advertising generally made a big deal about this being the final installment. Even when the series continued, the next games and stories were only ever spin-offs like Halo: Reach which took place before the ending of 3. But seeing as how Halo is Microsoft's main series, they couldn't stop making Halo games, and so once Bungie lost creative control, Microsoft created 343 Industries to continue the series with Halo 4 and it's own follow-ups and spin-offs. In fairness, the 343 games do involve a completely new fight years later, so there's not really any Happy Ending Override going on.
- Ironically, Halo 4 itself is an example. If it weren't meant to be the start of a new trilogy and era of Halo, one could very easily presume 4 is meant as a Grand Finale to wrap up the few plot threads remaining after 3, as it does just that and closes on a very conclusive Bittersweet Ending that doesn't show any immediate potential for sequels. Cortana is dead and Master Chief is alone as a broken, traumatized relic in a postwar galaxy that's leaving him behind, but they saved the universe one last time by defeating the Didact, a new generation is rising to defend the galaxy in their place, Cortana went out on her own terms, and Chief got the closure he needed, with his last scene making clear that he's gonna be alright. While the Spartan Ops mode and Expanded Universe material sets up potential new stories in the universe, Master Chief's journey seems very definitively ended here, which may be why Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite seem to spend a lot of time undoing 4's status quo shifts in favor of different ones.
- The Kingdom Hearts series has not only one, but two fake grand finales:
- Kingdom Hearts II was made, according to Word of God, to serve as a potential Grand Finale and wrap up nearly all loose ends from Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, with Organization XIII and both Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody destroyed, and Sora, Riku, and Kairi finally reunited on Destiny Islands. But it ended up being a huge success, and of course Disney and Square weren't going to let a moneymaker like that go.
- Kingdom Hearts III was intentionally designed as the Grand Finale of the Dark Seeker Myth Arc, 17 years in the making, which was started with the first game. The story that revolves around the Destiny Islands, the Sea Salt, and the Wayfinder trios are wrapped up and the main antagonists, Master Xehanort and the Real Organization XIII, are defeated for good. However, the game has plenty of Sequel Hooks serving as a continuation of Kingdom Hearts χ, which was supposed to be a standalone title. Only Sora has been confirmed to return as protagonist in the next myth arc, while the Foretellers from χ will return as the antagonists.
- Kirby Star Allies presents itself as the finale of the 2D Kirby games. The game features many game mechanics previously exclusive to certain earlier games, such as a modified Helper system from Super Star, Ability Mixing from Kirby 64 (albeit in the form of elemental weapon imbuement more resembling Squeak Squad), and four-player co-op from Return to Dream Land. Additionally, the game features a multitude of playable characters in addition to Kirby, the regular Helpers in the Dream Friends, comprised of the other three playable characters from Return to Dream Land in addition to many returning characters such as Rick, Kine, Coo, Gooey, Marx, Daroach, Magolor, and Susie who likewise represent other individual games, and the final boss being very obviously connected to the series Big Bad Dark Matter and, according to the Japanese Pause Descriptions, also being the Greater-Scope Villain of the whole series. While it wasn't the end of Kirby as a whole, due to the game's direct mainline successor, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, being the series's Video Game 3D Leap, Star Allies can still be viewed as the ultimate culmination of the series to that point.
- While it was unlikely to be the end of the franchise as a whole, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is clearly written to be a finale to the loose "Hero of Time Saga" started by Ocarina of Time and continued by Majora's Mask. Wind Waker itself takes place in the timeline left behind by the Hero of Time when Zelda sent him to a new timeline that would lead to Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker reveals throughout the game that Ganon escaped his imprisonment and destroyed much of Hyrule with no hero to stand up to him, leading to the survivors pleading to the gods to intervene, itself leading to the creation of the Great Sea and the ruined Hyrule put in stasis. The game as a whole also delivers a Central Theme of "let the past go", with Ganondorf wanting to bring back Hyrule as part of his stubborn refusal to give up his ambitions and the old King Daphnes wanting to let Hyrule and Ganondorf wash away beneath the waves. Overall, it served as a fitting end to the legacy of the Hero of Time, but Wind Waker's direct successor, Twilight Princess would further explore the consequences of the Hero of Time being transported to the timeline of Majora's Mask, albeit in a way that didn't factually invalidate Wind Waker due to Twilight Princess being concurrent in the Alternate Timeline.
- The Mass Effect games followed the adventures of Commander Shepard against the Reapers and Mass Effect 3 was the conclusion to the "Shepard Saga"; however the franchise continued with Mass Effect: Andromeda.
- Most Mega Man subseries have had this at least once:
- The classic Mega Man games were evidently intended to wrap up with Mega Man 6; this is apparent in the tone of the music, particularly the songs used for the title screen, final stages and final boss, and after the final boss Mega Man arrests Dr. Wily. note Mega Man 7 came along and opens with Wily escaping from prison six months later, then 8 came along and became another Series Fauxnale before 9.
- The Mega Man X games were intended to end with Mega Man X5 then segue into the Mega Man Zero series, until they made X6 without Keiji Inafune's involvement and the series continued with X7, X8 and Command Mission.
- Mega Man Zero 3 would have concluded the trilogy if Zero 4 wasn't made. Despite all the revelations thrown in the player's face and the climax involving Zero—in an inferior copy of his original body—facing off against said original body followed by the implied deaths of X and the Four Guardians, the developers realized they had one major plot thread left hanging: the Big Bad of 3 was still alive and now in control of Neo Arcadia...
- Mega Man Battle Network was evidently intended to end with 3, and much like Mega Man 6 had an air of finality in some parts of its soundtrack, but still continued for three more games and several spin-offs. The last game also ended with a Distant Finale that has yet to be continued from, as the next games in the timeline taking place long after the Hikaris as we know them would be dead.
- Mega Man X: Mavericks seemed like its fourth game was going to be the last. It pretty clearly concluded the plotline that had been set up since the first game and brought back all the party members for the final showdown. It even lacked a stinger like the previous installments. It turned out to be this when a fifth game was announced a few years later.
- For the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots goes to painstaking lengths to make sure no potential for sequels exists after its ending. Solid Snake is an old man with a few months left to live; the mystery surrounding The Patriots is cleared up right before they're promptly destroyed, the off-screen fates of several characters from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater are revealed; EVA, Vamp, Naomi, Ocelot, Zero and Big Boss all die; the remaining characters finally get their happy ending and the game recontextualizes all the canon games up to that point as specifically leading up to Guns of the Patriots. This didn't stop Konami from trying to continue the story in several ways: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V are main series interquels that focus on gameplay and themes rather than the overarching plot (with MGSV specifically revolving around clearing up a single plot hole that the extended series caused in the first gamenote ), while Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a spin-off sequel to 4 that's contrived to the point of parody.
- The Metroid series has had two of these:
- Super Metroid was originally meant to be the ending of the series. In this game, the Metroid species goes extinct, and all of Samus's enemies in the Space Pirates are destroyed for good. And for a long time, this game was indeed the end of Metroid: it took another 8 years for new installments in the franchise to release, with Metroid Fusion being a continuation.
- For the Metroid Prime games, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was also meant to be the end of that series: in that game, Metroid Prime/Dark Samus is Killed Off for Real, and all Phazon in the universe is destroyed. Then ten years later, Metroid Prime 4 was announced (although it's arguable that one year earlier, Metroid Prime: Federation Force already resulted in this).
- Defied with Metroid Dread: series creator Yoshio Sakamoto confirmed that Dread will be the end of the Metroid story arc that began with the first game, but it will not be the end of Samus Aran's adventures.
- The Professor Layton series was initially planned to be a trilogy (and was announced in Japanese as such), which is why Professor Layton and the Unwound Future wrapped everything up. But neither the fans nor the staff wanted the series to stop at three games, and Level-5 continued the series by announcing a trilogy of prequels (similar to Star Wars minus the giant gap in release dates).
- Resident Evil 5 seems like it was designed to be the finale of the series. Original protagonists Chris and Jill reunite (under some very unique circumstances) and series Big Bad Wesker finally takes direct action after several games of plotting from behind the scenes. The game also brings the Umbrella Corporation to a final end with the death of founder Oswell E. Spencer, and reveals the true origins and motives of the evil pharmaceutical company. In the end only a few plot threads were still left hanging, mostly involving Sherry and Ada Wong. Subsequent games have either been interquels or had the feel of a post-script game (or a post-script interquel). And then Resident Evil 7: Biohazard came out, extending the series in an entirely new way with a new story arc involving the new protagonist Ethan Winters while maintaining the same overall themes.
- Richman 8 was initially announced to be the last installment of the Richman series by Word of God in 2009, but in 2016, the series gets Un-Canceled by Richman 9.
- R-Type Final was supposed to be the last of the series. However, it was soon followed by spinoffs R-Type Tactics in 2007 and R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate in 2009. Then it was fully subverted with R-Type Final 2 releasing in 2021.
- Sakura Wars originally ended with Fall in Love, Maidens, which concluded Ichiro Ogami's storyline from the first four games. However, Sega released the next mainline title, So Long, My Love, in 2005.
- In a dual example, Sam & Max was intended to end with Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, acting as the ending point to the 23 years of the series up until then. Fast forward 10 years later and it was announced the original trilogy that Devil's Playhouse is a part of was confirmed to get remastered starting in 2020.
- The endings of both the second and third Sly Cooper games were designed so the series could feasibly end there. Then came Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time in 2013.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic Adventure 2 is suggestive of this, likely because Sega knew the Sega Dreamcast would be discontinued that year. Officially it was the most ambitious game in the series at the time, serving as a celebration of Sonic's 10th anniversary. It ends with all the characters — including Dr. Eggman — teaming up to save the world, and ends on a solemn note as they bond over Shadow's supposed death. The real kicker is the preview to the Hero Story, which outright says: "Farewell, Sonic. Forever." However, Sega became a third-party company and released Sonic Heroes three years later.
- While Sonic Adventure 2 wasn't the last story-driven 3D Sonic game, there still hasn't been a true Sonic Adventure game since it. note As such, it could still be considered the Adventure series' Grand Finale.
- Warcraft 3: Reign Of Chaos ends with the Burning Legion defeated. Medivh (the only character from part 2) settled his unfinished business and vanished back into oblivion. The Frozen Throne details the rise of the Undead as the new Big Bad faction of the game.
