abstract
| - Basic Trope: A bad ending to a good game.
* Straight: The first 14 levels of a game are ultra-fun, but the last level feels more like work than play.
* Exaggerated: The final boss deletes your save data. And no, it isn't because you pirated.
* Justified:
* The developers wanted to experiment with the last level.
* The developers ran out of time and had to skimp on something.
* Inverted: "Sure, this game is terrible at first, but just wait 'til you get to the end!"
* Subverted: The last level seems like it's going to be filled with Demonic Spiders and horrible physics, but then you get superpowers...
* Double Subverted: that make you slide around like a hockey puck on a greased rink.
* Parodied: The game falls into Stylistic Suck at the end. Upon beating it the hero complains vigorously that it was a total waste of his time.
* Deconstructed:
* The creators realize that for many games the last levels will suck due to unavoidable outside factors, so they "end" the game early with little plot resolution and a Cliff Hanger, hoping sales will get them a sequel where they can do things right.
* Alternately, they use Fake Balance to more or less even things out.
* Reconstructed: The creators realize going in that they won't be able to maintain the degree of quality/difficulty of the first levels in the last, so they purposely make the last levels too Nintendo Hard by design, albeit (hopefully) with a "carrot" to make it worth it.
* Zig Zagged: The last level has good and bad parts, interchangeably.
* Averted: The whole game is the same quality.
* Enforced: Since the developers had to rush the game out the door, and the final levels had to be redone late in development, well, this is the result.
* Lampshaded: "Oh great, the last part of the game. Bear with me, folks..."
* Invoked: The villain can manipulate the game itself and, as he can't defeat the character up till now, tries to force the player to quit using a terrible endgame.
* Defied: A quarter of the way through a terrible endgame, the protagonist gives up in frustration, reveals himself and everyone else to be Animated Actors, punches through the scenery, and fights the director.
* The developers plan for the last 15% of the game to be a Playable Epilogue, so that if they don't have time to do it right, they can just drop it entirely and still have a complete game.
* Discussed: "The last part of the game is usually the bad one, so I'll try to make this quick."
* Conversed: "Have you ever noticed how a video game starts to really drag down near the end?" I go through endless pages of Tropes just to get to Disappointing Last Level!?
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