In the world of modern gaming, one of the biggest selling points for a lot of titles is the storyline. While not every genre puts a major focus on this aspect of a game, many do. But not every video game storyline is structured the same way. Some of them are linear tales that have a traditional beginning, middle, and definitive end that closes out the game.
But, then there are some that are completely different. Instead of having a single ending that every single player will reach after they get through the storyline, there are some games that have two or even more endings that will change depending on the choices you make throughout the adventure. From good endings to terrible ones, there are some games with a ton of different endings that players can get.
Updated April 29, 2023 By Ben Jessey: Some of the greatest games on the market today don't provide linear narratives. Instead, they give you a story that you can alter with your own actions and choices. This can typically impact the main narrative in several ways.
However, the biggest impact is usually felt at the end. In these types of games, you dictate what conclusion you receive. For this list, we highlighted some of the most notable games with multiple endings. In this update, we've added a few more.
21 Prey
In 2017's Prey, you play as a scientist who is trapped on a space station with an alien species known as Typhon. Your main goal throughout the game is to escape and perhaps deal with the alien threat. Along the way, you make a bunch of different choices that impact you, the aliens, and your fellow survivors.
The biggest ones come towards the end when you make several decisions about how to deal with the whole situation. Do you blow up the entire station or just neutralize the Typhon? Do you escape alone or take every survivor with you? These choices dictate what ending you receive and how you're perceived in the secret final cutscene.
20 Dead Rising 2
As Dead Rising 2 isn't an RPG or even a particularly story-oriented game, you'd be forgiven for not expecting it to have multiple endings. Yet, it does have six different conclusions. They directly correlate to how well you do in the game. In fact, they all come with a letter grade, so there's no debate on whether you got the good or bad ending.
Much of it comes down to whether you complete all the cases, whether you keep giving your daughter her life-saving Zombrex, and whether you save the unlikable TK's life. If you do all those things, you get the impressive Ending S which is the most joyous one for the main characters. However, if you don't do some of those things, your conclusion is noticeably worse.
19 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The main premise of The Witcher 3 is that you play as legendary monster slayer Geralt as he attempts to find his adoptive daughter Ciri before the evil Wild Hunt gets her first. However, the final act of the game occurs after you locate her. And throughout that last act, you make choices that impact what happens to Ciri at the end.
What's interesting is some of them don't seem very significant. It's all about the little choices you make while interacting with Ciri. Under your guidance, she can become a Witcher, an Empress, or die before she ever makes that choice. Some of your decisions also impact the overall world and Geralt's own future.
18 Sifu
In the action beat 'em up game, Sifu, you take on the role of a young martial artist on a quest to avenge the death of your father. To do so, you must fight your way through droves of henchmen before going toe to toe with one of the five bosses responsible.
The twist is that each time you fall in combat, you are revived slightly older than you were before. Not only that but you are also given the option to either kill or spare the five bosses once you've managed to defeat them. And the choices you make will determine which one of the two available endings at the end of the game.
17 Twelve Minutes
With an all-star voice cast that consists of James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe, Twelve Minutes is one of Annapurna Interactive's most ambitious indie projects. The game is presented in a top-down style, not unlike classic point-and-click adventure games, but what really helps to elevate it is the depth of its writing and the complexity of its different permutations.
As the title suggests, you are stuck within the same 12-minute time loop, trying to gather the clues you need to break free of its shackles. Depending on how much you manage to uncover, as well as the choices you make during the playthrough, you'll get rewarded with one of seven different endings.
16 Fallout: New Vegas
After Fallout 3 had helped to revitalize the Fallout franchise, Bethesda Softworks had sought to outsource development work for its follow-up title to Obsidian Entertainment. This resulted in Fallout: New Vegas, a standalone spinoff that was considered by many to be a marked improvement over the previous entry.
One aspect of the game that seemed to garner the most praise was its writing, with its story about a courier seeking to avenge those who had left him for dead in the middle of the Mojave Desert. And throughout your adventure, you can choose to align with one of the several warring factions that occupy the land. But at the end of the story you're presented with a choice that would determine which of the game's four endings you are given.
15 SaGa Frontier Remastered
This recently released remaster is the definitive version of SaGa Frontier, one of the most quirky and beloved JRPGs from Square-Enix’s classic JRPG library. Originally released in 1997, SaGa Frontier was an ambitious game with different characters each with their own endings better known as the Free Scenario System.
The remaster fixes several issues with the original game by restoring lost cutscenes, story events for Asellus, and introducing new characters with their own personal quests. SaGa Frontier was released on April 15, 2021, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and mobile devices.
14 Resident Evil
The Resident Evil franchise began all the way back in 1996 when the first game was released. This game follows the S.T.A.R.S. team of Raccoon City as they go to a mansion outside the city where bizarre creatures have been feeding on murder victims.
Resident Evil is known for being one of the games to kickstart the survival horror genre, but also for the high number of endings that the game has. Each of the two main characters, Chris and Jill, has four separate endings that will change depending on whether or not they were able to save the other S.T.A.R.S. team members.
13 Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5 is set in the fictional rural area of Hope County, Montana after a cult led by the Seed family moves in and completely devastates the local people living there. This game has three different endings, one of which can be unlocked at the very beginning of the game.
The different endings are obtained depending on how the player chooses to deal with Joseph Seed. At the beginning of the game, if you choose to simply leave Hope County without fighting Joseph, the game will end immediately, unlocking a special secret ending. The other two endings happen at the end of the storyline and neither one turns out very well for your character.
12 Doki Doki Literature Club
Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel that was released in 2017 and follows a character that agrees to join their friend's literature club at school, leading to them befriending the other members of the club.
Depending on the different choices that you make throughout the course of the game, there are three different endings that can be unlocked. There is a basic ending in which things take an eerie turn, a more positive ending in which things turn out okay for the characters, and a super-interesting secret ending that ends the game before it starts.
11 The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan
Man of Medan is the first entry in The Dark Pictures anthology. This game is an interactive survival horror game in which people can play together, but see only their own characters and are completely separate from one another as far as the gameplay goes.
The game follows a group of people going on an underwater diving expedition. They come upon an abandoned ship and take their adventure onto the haunted vessel. The choices that you make and the way you choose to play can lead to one of 14 different endings.
10 Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain is an interactive drama that follows four protagonists that are all involved in some way with a serial killer named the Origami Killer. The Origami Killer uses periods of intense rainfall in order to take down his or her victims and the game's endings depend on choices that you make that will reveal the nature of the Origami Killer.
Heavy Rain was released in 2010 and has a total of 17 different endings that are unlocked depending on your game progression. There are key choices that are made throughout the narrative that can unlock one specific ending each time.
9 Chrono Trigger
Considered by many to be one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, Chrono Trigger is a stunning 16-bit classic that pushed the SNES beyond its limits. The game’s replayability still rivals some of the best by featuring 14 different endings, some of which have multiple scenarios of their own.
Furthermore, it stands the test of time with its beautifully-drawn characters created by Akira Toriyama and musical contributions from Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and Noriko Matsueda.
8 Nier: Automata
Released in 2017 and available for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Nier: Automata is a science-fiction action RPG developed by PlatinumGames and directed by Yoko Tara. It is a sequel to the 2010 cult hit, Nier, a spin-off from the divisive Drakengard series.
Just like its predecessors, Nier: Automata requires multiple playthroughs to see its true ending. Every new playthrough unlocks brand-new scenarios and story segments. The game’s narrative and script are some of the deepest in any genre and each ending scenario has its meaning but naturally, the best is kept until last. If you want a game that is going to make you think long after it’s finished, then Nier: Automata and the upcoming remake Nier: Replicant is a perfect choice.
7 Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human is an interactive game that follows three different androids living in Detroit. Each of them has a very different role in the world of androids and completely different views on serving humans.
The game has over 40 different endings, depending on the different choices that you make. Each of the android's storylines can go in very different directions or even come to a sudden end.
6 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild technically has multiple endings, although it's a game that not many people would think of when it comes to this topic.
Link can find various memories scattered throughout the Kingdom of Hyrule in order to unlock the key to remembering who he is and why it's his destiny to defeat Calamity Ganon. If you find every single one of these memories, you unlock a special ending, otherwise you get the standard ending.
5 Silent Hill 2
Released in 2001, Silent Hill 2 is rightfully considered a survival horror classic. Both of the first two games in the Silent Hill franchise feature multiple endings, with each of them having six possible endings you can unlock.
James Sunderland travels to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife, Mary, despite the fact that she died three years prior. This game has six different endings depending on the way that you handle situations throughout the story. The developers have never called one ending the "true" or canon ending, leaving it open for players to decide.
4 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Released in 2017, and available on PC and console, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a massively open-ended RPG in the vein of classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. Like those games, Original Sin 2 is widely regarded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time.
Every action you take in Original Sin 2 seems to have some kind of consequence in shaping the world around you. This extends to the game’s many endings and scenarios too. It’s one of the few games where every playthrough feels unique to your own choices. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a make-your-own adventure in almost every sense of the word.
3 Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - PSP
Released in 2011 for the PSP, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a remake of the original that was released in 1995 for the SNES in Japan. It was developed by the same team that created Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy XII.
Its gameplay and themes are tonally similar to Final Fantasy Tactics but one could argue that Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is even more ambitious. It features vastly different multiple endings that are hugely impacted by the choices you make during certain points in the game. Thankfully, the PSP version features the “World System” which unlocks once the game has been completed. This allows you to go back to important events during the game’s story and make different decisions, so you can experience a new branching storyline.
2 Catherine
Catherine is a game that follows Vincent, a man who is torn between his feelings for his long-time girlfriend, Katherine, and a woman he meets who is nothing like her, Catherine. At night, he finds himself put into a bizarre nightmare world where he's forced to confront his innermost thoughts and feelings.
Depending on the choices you make during these nightmare sequences, there are eight different endings that can be unlocked. There's a secret ninth ending that can be seen by completing a series of trials.