Games that seem like they're over then have another large part?

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm looking for games that seem like you're getting close to the end of them then surprise you with another rest of the game that is just as long as the content leading up to it if not longer
Bonus points if it introduces a bunch of new mechanics.

Preferably without spoilers.

Nier automata is probably a good example.

[KnightoftheWind]

Dragon's Dogma and Super Mario 3D Land, those are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Final Fantasy VI, famously.

Happens twice in the Trails series. Trails in the Sky was supposed to be one game but was split into two. Just as you're wrapping up the first game... bam, it was actually just the prelude to a much bigger story (which continues in the second half, SC). Same with Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2. CS1 introduces a new battle system at the very end that is then used throughout CS2. Trails of Cold Steel 2 also has an unexpected continuation, going on for about 20 more hours (in a 90 hour long game). Some people don't like that it went on for another 20 hours but I personally quite liked it.

Utawarerumono Mask of Truth though it only goes on for about 20 more hours after the natural climax (in a 70 hour long total game). I know that the last part is contentious and people think it should have just ended at that earlier climax.

Dragon Quest XI with act 3. Again, last part is contentious and some people think it should have just ended at act 2.

Muv-Luv (visual novel, no gameplay). Back in the day, it was sold as a slice of life VN, and the alien invasion part which was the real story that unlocks after you finish the SoL prelude was not openly advertised. Everybody nowadays gets into Muv-Luv for the mecha part and some people don't like having to slog through the slice of life first part to get to the cool stuff. I thought some of the slice of life stuff was fun, though.

Warframe had you reach the character creation screen about 100 hours into the game and unlock new powers. The game has had multiple revamps since then so this might happen way sooner nowadays.

[aweigh]

Elminage: Gothic.

The real game begins after the credits roll, and the 4 dungeons afterwards are far more ambitious in scope than anything that has come before. The game reconfigures its challenges in these 4 new dungeons in such ways that it makes you reasses EVERYTHING you've learned about how the game works up to this point. You thought you had mastered the mechanics but you realize that the bottom is still far below. The power curve in Elminage: Gothic is a thing of beauty, it's amazing what they accomplished with the way the game continuously builds upon its own foundation, with the way itemization continues getting better and more unique, and the final dungeon itself, Ibag's Tower, will end up amounting to about HALF of your total playtime. It's an incredibly challenge but also incredibly rewarding. You truly, truly feel like you have mastered the game when you've succeeded, and uncovered all of its secrets (if you ever do).

The aura of mystery never evaporates due to the way Elminage: Gothic blackboxes a lot of its own mechanics and quests, and because of the many secrets it keeps inside its dungeons. The so-called "post game" is not really a post game since the game's story and narrative never actually stop even though the "credits" rolled, in fact it's just the beginning. You can consider everything before the credits the game's tutorial. The dungeons following are truly special, and one in particular, The Cave of the Ancients, is a great tribute to classic Wizardry. This is a game where 120 hours in you realize that you're just now recontextualizing basic character classes and their usefulness due to the new challenges by Ibag's Tower. It makes you appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into making sure that the game's difficulty never stagnated, that its itemization never stagnated or plateaued, it makes you almost marvel at how they managed to pull off one of the most elegant balancing acts imaginable and kept the power curve not just intact but bearing fruit right up until the final hour of the game. It's hard to understand without playing the game yourself but you can tell they put their heart and soul into this game. This was their life's work.

[Vergil]

Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker has you fight a final boss that the plot revolves around complete with game credits and then has new missions for you to do post game that then unlock the plot to the second half which results in another final boss and game credits.

[wndrbr]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

[Vergil]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

I've noticed a lot of western games will promise/plan on this sort of thing but either fail to deliver (like Fable III) or end up having it cut (like New Vegas).
Not that it's always a good thing. Dark Souls 1 ******* draaaaags on the second half.

[wndrbr]

Not that it's always a good thing. Dark Souls 1 ******* draaaaags on the second half.

all fromsoft-made souls games have this problem except for Demon's Souls (they just cut the unfinished archstone from the game) and Dark Souls 2 (unfinished **** is spread throughout the game instead of being concentrated in the later areas). Elden Ring is probably the worst offender, since the game is already way too big. I remember feeling disappointed when i fought the big boss of the Royal Capital, only to find out that it was just an illusion, and that you must play for another 20 hrs (most of which were boring frozen wastes full of recycled enemies).

[Vergil]

I really like Dark Souls II the best and I think Scholar of the First Sin no DLC probably has the best balance/experience for me. I got all the way to when the base game ends but I just could not bring myself to get through all of those ******* DLC dungeons. The first one was a poison precarious ledge hellhole and I put the game down after getting sick of it.

[rusty_shackleford]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

Japs tend to tell stories that are essentially "what a tweeest!", so…

[aweigh]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

japanese games tend to be focused on gameplay primarily, unlike most western games. It's no wonder that a thread asking for games with lots of gameplay would receive these replies.

[aweigh]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

Japs tend to tell stories that are essentially "what a tweeest!", so…

don't make threads asking for earnest opinions if all you're going to do is act petty due to your jealousy towards japanese games. If that's going to be the case then at least i won't bother participating.

[rusty_shackleford]

Funny how it's just Japanese games being posted.

Japs tend to tell stories that are essentially "what a tweeest!", so…

don't make threads asking for earnest opinions if all you're going to do is act petty due to your jealousy towards japanese games. If that's going to be the case then at least i won't bother participating.

wat
it's an actual style of storytelling japs have, ask @WhiteShark

[rusty_shackleford]

Japs tend to tell stories that are essentially "what a tweeest!", so…

don't make threads asking for earnest opinions if all you're going to do is act petty due to your jealousy towards japanese games. If that's going to be the case then at least i won't bother participating.

wat
it's an actual style of storytelling japs have, ask @WhiteShark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishōtenketsu

[aweigh]

is the notion of a "post game" originally a western one or a japanese one? mildly interested in this. knee-jerk reaction i think is it might be western in origin but codified into a game mechanic by japs.

of course this thread/question isn't SPECIFICALLY about 'post games', i realize that. the two can overlap tho.

I'm looking for games that seem like you're getting close to the end of them then surprise you with another rest of the game

still, only examples i can come up with are japanese ones. ff6 was a good example of one that fits the criteria without being an actual "post game". i hate the term tbh, especially when the game just continues narratively anyway.

[wndrbr]

I do not consider a proper narrative continuation of the game as "post-game". I.e. Dragons Dogma's "post-game" isn't actually a post-game, and Grigori isn't the final boss.

Post-game would be something similar to how in Fallout 2 you can pick an option to continue playing after you blow up the oil rig, and read a bunch of new dialogues from NPCs reacting to the destruction of Enclave.

[aweigh]

I do not consider a proper narrative continuation of the game as "post-game". I.e. Dragons Dogma's "post-game" isn't actually a post-game, and Grigori isn't the final boss.

Post-game would be something similar to how in Fallout 2 you can pick an option to continue playing after you blow up the oil rig, and read a bunch of new dialogues from NPCs reacting to the destruction of Enclave.

i completely agree, but most people consider everything after the credits "post game". the real narrative mystery doesn't even come up in Elminage: Gothic until after the credits roll, not that game is that heavy on narrative but just pointing that out. I've always resented that they chose to have a credit roll in E:G halfway thru the game because most people, well like the 5 or so people who've played the game, see the credits roll and think they're finished with the game when the best parts are still waiting. Only reason I can come up for a dev team to do something like this is if the game is either very long, or very difficult, and they are afraid of most people leaving the game unfinished so they throw in a climax halfway thru so people leave feeling like they finished something. Hard to say.

like i mentioned i kind of hate the whole 'post game' term and concept. a real "post game" seems like it should be an extended epilogue, like your fallout 2 example, or Earthbound on SNES where you can visit every town and everyone has new dialog after you beat Gygas. That kind of epilogue is what a "post game" feels like to me.

[Envergence]

Dragon's Dogma is really the only one I can think of off the top of my head that meets Rusty's specifications, since post-game isn't technically what's being asked.

Fallout 3 would have counted if it wasn't DLC that moved the main plot to the next chapter after activating the purifier.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

For postgames, there is the Pokemon series, specifically gens 3, 4, and 5 where there is a considerable amount of postgame content. For example, after the credits roll in RSE, you can then stumble upon Latias who is roaming across the land. You can find an underwater cave near Pacifilodge Town with the Braille puzzle that required you to get out the game manual or open a dictionary to decode, which then leads you to hunt for the three Regis in their lairs across Hoenn. There was also the Sky Pillar dungeon you had to traverse the reach Rayquaza. Then there was the Battle Frontier with the plethora of challenges to clear. In Gen 5 after the credits rolled, the Elite Four became WAY stronger and you could fight the true final boss, and there was the secret lab you could visit, as well as the hunt for the Seven Sages. There is also Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, which had a 10 hour long postgame storyline featuring Darkrai, and a bunch of new levels opened up. There was also Colloseum, where after the credits rolled you unlocked the Battle Mountain where if you won a gauntlet of 100 battles in a row, you got a Ho-oh that could be transferred to the GBA games.

[Oyster Sauce]

After you become the champion in Pokémon Gen 2 you get to go to the map from the first game

[WhiteShark]

The Monster Hunter series does this. You get a credits roll pretty early but there are a ton of missions and several monsters you won't even see unless you keep playing.

You could consider DCSS to do this. You only need three Runes of Zot to win the game, but there are 15 total. The additional rune-containing areas are commonly referred to as the postgame since they aren't strictly necessary to win, but each additional rune collected boosts your score significantly. There are many monsters, uniques, items, and some mechanics unique to the postgame. There are also ziggurats, which are entirely optional areas consisting of 27 floors filled with hordes of monsters and loot, the quantity of both increasing each floor.

[Irenaeus]

San Andreas has something like this. You think the game will be just a story about a drug dealing black gang from Compton then all hell breaks lose and you have to leave LA and go on further adventures all over the map.

[Roguey]

Symphony of the Night with the inverted castle.

After you beat Hades once it expects you to beat it a bunch more times to unlock the true ending (terrible).

[Ranselknulf]

Diablo 3

[rusty_shackleford]

Ultima V, the underworld