Dragon's Dogma

You'll get 'together' eventually.

Was that not the coolest fucking dragon boss fight EVER?! How badass was it when you were thousands of miles in the air and climbing up it's back?

I love that battle so much. It was so epic and every second was beautifully climactic. The dragon's speech throughout leaves a lot to be speculated, but also ties in nicely with the ultimate ending.

If you asked the Dragonforged about the dragon, he'd have told you that though it's death incarnate, it has a tone of resignation beneath it's voice. You really get the feeling that, much like most all the other Arisen, the dragon was stuck in this cycle too and looking for a way out. It took no joy in killing anything, and only sounded truly alive once you were fighting it to the death.
Poor Wyrm... ;_;

-Also good to see you're a real hero and didn't pull a Duke Edmun by leaving your lover to die. I thought the dragon was going to kill her anyway and shot an arrow at its face as my answer.

How cool was it that you finally got to help poor ol' Dragonforged and got the best revenge against that shitass Duke? You put the other Arisen, who had all failed to stop the dragon, to their final peaceful rest. Watching the Duke age was so satisfying.

As was throwing his ass out the damn window.

I really did feel like a dick for killing the dragon. After killing it, the cutscene came up and as I watched it, damn I feel like an ass for fighting it.

Well, it was for the best. It granted him peace, too.
They really wrote the Dragon well. Not once did they throw that subtly to it in your face by making it cry or something stupid. It bore its burden and went out with dignity.

I really liked it when he just flattened Elysion, the one-eyed freak leading Salvation.

Elysion:"THIS IS SALVATIO-!"
*SPLAT*
Dragon: "The ravings of a zealot make for poor listening..."

Godsbane

give Quince the 20 Wakestones and move onto the final boss. As long as it's in your inventory before you get to the final boss, you'll be able to get the best ending.

How weird was that, right? The final boss was


the Arisen in the prologue! That shocked me pretty hard, but it makes sense. The girl Quince who you give the wakestones to? She's one of the pawns summoned in the prologue.
That Arisen is also on the box art (front and back) and apparently he was the only one to kill the dragon.

It's strange commentary on the idea of being a god. You can create and destroy life as you see fit, but ultimately you can't interact with people in a personal way and are stuck, alone, watching the lives of others unfold for all eternity and shackled to a cycle that seems to have no beginning and no end. I guess that's because in reality the Senechel isn't a true god, but just another poor soul trapped playing a role in the grand cycle.
-Until you, the final Arisen, the one who kept their destiny in their own hands to the very end, finally stops it. The other Arisen, the Dragon, and even the Senechel were all stuck playing roles they wanted no part in. But the last Arisen took a chance and found out what happens when the cycle finally stops.

...Though narritive-wise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why the first Arisen didn't just off himself with the Godsbane like you did. Too scared, maybe? He did seem to have brainwashed himself into believing the cycle was the only way life can exist, so maybe that's why.

It was a sad but also somewhat happy ending. The gameplay concept of the main pawn reacting as you would react by learning from you really drove home the idea set forth with the Dragonforged and the ethereal Arisen in the "Witch Hunt" quest: the idea that the Arisen shares part of their soul with their pawn, and despite them eventually gaining humanity of their own because of this, they will always be very much like their masters.
_Ultimately your pawn is you, but also not. It reminds me of the ending to a PSP game I love called "Fate/EXTRA".
It's you, but not really: how to blend the "happy ever after" and "self-sacrifice" endings.

Your pawn will go on to life as you would, gaining freedom and a peaceful life of their own and keeping your memory strong.

...Though that also means he'll be fucking my waifu!
YOU BACKSTABBING CUNT-PAWN! HOW DARE YOU?!

its when you have to kill yourself?

if so i got that on my first run. but i was so confused before diciding on that action.

i was too awed by the fact that you fought god then it turned out to be the hero from the the beginning. i guess all the trailer was his life before our hero came in.

after you became god i was confused as to what to do. so i did what anyone would do, sit in the chair. then after awhile i was like this is stupid, trying to figure out what to do and i remembered that knife. that i used to stab my heart, that i kept on me because it seemed really important.

i didnt really understand when my pawn fused in me. until my second run when i got the witch hunt mission which explained everything

If you let the Senechel do his ultimate attack and your Pawn is still down, he opens up a hole in the sky and kills you. You get a scene where the Arisen is falling down, and then turns into a dragon. Then the opening cinematic replays with the red dragon, and the credits roll for a bit.

I didn't know my pawn needed to grab him on my second try at it, so I kept stabbing the shit out of him and wondering why nothing was working. lol

And haha yeah, that was my reasoning too. The plot paints the decision much more meaningfully, but my first words after sitting in that chair and passing through a few villagers was "...Fuck this shit". -Stab

What do you think, though? A few people are saying it's too sad or depressing, with a number comparing it to the end of Persona 3. I think it fits the story pretty well. I would've preferred for the Arisen to live out his days in peace, but considering the cycle literally hinges on there being an Arisen to take the next Senechel's place, it really felt like this was the only way to stop this from happening again.

What I mean is that, for me, the ending followed the story's main theme and didn't feel forced when considering the other variables in the plot.