Multiple Endings in Games: How They Work and the Best Ones Ever Made

There is a special kind of magic in finishing a game and realizing the story could have gone completely differently. Multiple endings turn a single playthrough into one thread of a much bigger tapestry — and they are the reason some games get replayed for decades. This guide explains how multiple endings work, the main types you will encounter, and the fifteen best games that use them, plus practical tips for seeing every ending without losing your mind.

If you love stories that branch, you will also enjoy our picks for choose your own ending games — a companion list focused on games built entirely around player choice. This article goes wider: what multiple endings are as a design feature, and which games do them best.

What Are Multiple Endings?

Multiple endings mean a game can conclude in two or more meaningfully different ways depending on what the player does. The differences can be huge — a saved kingdom versus a burned one — or subtle, like a final line of dialogue that reframes everything. What separates real multiple endings from a fake choice is consequence: the ending has to reflect your playthrough, not just play a different cutscene at random.

Designers use them for a simple reason: replay value with emotional weight. A linear story can be replayed, but you already know how it ends. Multi ending games promise that your decisions matter, which makes the first playthrough tenser and the second one a genuine discovery instead of a rerun.

The Main Types of Multiple Endings

Not all multiple endings work the same way. Once you know the types, you will start spotting the machinery behind your favorite games.

Good, bad, and neutral endings

The classic trio. Play heroically and you get the good ending; play ruthlessly and you get the bad one; muddle through and you get the neutral outcome. Undertale is the modern master of this: the Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide routes are effectively three different games sharing one world.

The true ending

Many games hide a “true” or “canon” ending behind extra effort — collecting everything, finishing on the hardest difficulty, or completing a post-game quest. The other endings still count, but the true ending is the one the developers consider the real story. Chrono Trigger famously shipped with 13 endings in 1995, with the best ones gated behind New Game+ replays.

Secret and joke endings

Some endings exist purely as rewards for curiosity or as gags. Silent Hill 2 has the infamous dog ending. Far Cry 4 lets you beat the game in fifteen minutes by just… waiting at the dinner table in the opening. These endings are the developers winking at players who poke at the edges of the game.

Character and faction endings

Rather than good-versus-bad, some games give each ally or faction their own conclusion. Fallout: New Vegas lets four different powers take Hoover Dam. Mass Effect carries your choices across a whole trilogy so the ending reflects hundreds of small decisions.

How Multiple Endings Are Triggered

Under the hood, ending games usually track one or more of these:

• Explicit choices: Dialogue options and branching decisions, the most visible system. Detroit: Become Human even shows you a flowchart after each chapter.
• Morality meters: Hidden or visible scores tracking your behavior — karma, honor, chaos. Infamous and Red Dead Redemption 2 build entire endings around them.
• Completion thresholds: Endings gated by how much you did — collectibles found, side quests finished, characters befriended.
• Playstyle tracking: The game watches how you play, not just what you click. Undertale’s Genocide route requires methodically killing everything; Dishonored tracks whether you ghosted or slaughtered.
• Final-moment decisions: Some games funnel everything into one last choice. It can feel cheap if unearned — or devastating if the whole game was building to it.

15 Best Games With Multiple Endings

In original ranking order, mixing classics and modern essentials:

1. Chrono Trigger (1995) — 13 endings via New Game+; the game that taught a generation what multiple endings could be.
2. Undertale (2015) — Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide routes that remember everything you did, across playthroughs.
3. NieR: Automata (2017) — 26 endings, most of them jokes, but endings C, D, and E form one of gaming’s great stories.
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) — 36 possible world states; small dialogue choices with Ciri decide her fate.
5. Detroit: Become Human (2018) — A visible flowchart with thousands of permutations across three protagonists.
6. Mass Effect trilogy (2007–2012) — Choices compound across three games; famously controversial, undeniably ambitious.
7. Silent Hill 2 (2001) — Endings determined by subtle behavior tracking, including the legendary joke endings.
8. Fallout: New Vegas (2010) — Four faction endings plus dozens of epilogue slides for your companions.
9. Life is Strange (2015) — Two stark final choices that split the fanbase to this day.
10. Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) — Thousands of ending variations from the most reactive RPG ever made.
11. Hades (2020) — The “true” ending requires beating the final boss ten times; the story earns every run.
12. Star Ocean: The Second Story (1998) — A staggering 86 endings based on relationship values between party members.
13. 428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) — 85 endings across five interlocking protagonists’ timelines.
14. The Stanley Parable (2013) — Endings as comedy; disobeying the narrator is the whole game.
15. Dark Souls (2011) — Two endings, both bleak, both perfect — proof that quantity is not the point.

Honorable mentions: Hollow Knight (endings gated by completion), Persona 5 Royal (the true ending requires maxing confidants), and Outer Wilds (multiple ways to end the universe, all earned through knowledge).

Why Developers Love (and Fear) Multiple Endings

For players, multiple endings are pure upside. For developers, they are expensive. Every ending is content most players will never see — industry estimates suggest a majority of players never finish games once, let alone replay them. Writing, voicing, and testing five endings for an audience where a fraction sees more than one is a hard sell in a budget meeting.

That is why the trend has shifted toward systems rather than content: instead of five hand-made finales, modern games track dozens of variables and assemble the ending from modular pieces — which characters live, who rules what, what the world looks like. Baldur’s Gate 3 does not have “endings” so much as an ending generator. It is cheaper to build and more personal to experience.

My original take: the best multiple endings are not the ones with the most branches, but the ones where the branches reflect you. Undertale remembering your Genocide run in a later Pacifist attempt is more powerful than any flowchart, because the game is not tracking a variable — it is tracking your behavior and judging it. That is the design insight the whole genre is chasing.

Tips for Seeing Every Ending

• Play blind first. Your genuine first ending is the only one you get once. Do not look anything up until the credits roll.
• Use manual saves at branch points. Old-school but effective — keep a save before the final mission or the big choice.
• Check for New Game+. Many games (Chrono Trigger, NieR: Automata) expect replays and make them fast.
• Learn the trigger system. If endings are morality-based, commit to one path per run instead of hedging.
• Do not 100% every run. Completion-gated true endings usually only need one thorough playthrough; rush the others.
• Watch the joke endings on YouTube. Some are not worth a six-hour replay. No shame in it.

Multiple Endings FAQ

What was the first game with multiple endings?

Early examples go back to text adventures and arcade games in the 1980s, but Chrono Trigger (1995) popularized the concept with its 13 endings, and Fallout (1997) showed how player actions could shape epilogues.

Which game has the most endings?

Among major releases, Star Ocean: The Second Story is often cited with 86 endings, and the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble has 85. NieR: Automata has 26, though most are joke endings.

Do multiple endings hurt the story?

They can, if the branches feel arbitrary. The best implementations make each ending feel like a natural consequence of your playthrough rather than a menu choice at the end.

What is a “true ending” in games?

A true ending is the conclusion developers treat as canonical — usually the hardest to unlock, requiring full completion, extra quests, or specific conditions. Other endings are still valid playthroughs, but the true ending is the “real” story.

Are multi ending games worth replaying?

The good ones are. Games like Undertale and NieR: Automata are designed so replays reveal new layers rather than repeating content. For others, one blind playthrough plus a true-ending guide run is the sweet spot.

Conclusion

Multiple endings are gaming’s promise that your choices matter — and at their best, they deliver something no linear story can: an ending that is yours. Whether it is the gut-punch of Life is Strange, the accumulated weight of a Mass Effect trilogy, or the quiet judgment of Undertale, the games on this list earn their replays.

For the design theory behind branching stories, see Wikipedia on nonlinear gameplay. And when you are ready for games built entirely around the power of choice, our choose your own ending games list is your next stop. Now go get the ending you deserve — or the one you fear.