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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/33439
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In my story, there's this big bad, who needs to be destroyed. That is the main goal for about the last third of the video game. So the group of heroes manages to destroy him! ... but I don't want to end the story there. For as it turns out, that last third is actually the second to last _quarter_ of the story and there's another quarter more to come!

There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up and lots of things that went behind the scenes that I want to show, such as the actions of a very important character, which had a huge impact on the story. Long story short: if that character didn't do what they did, everyone, and I really mean EVERYONE, would be dead. So I'd like to think that this is pretty important info to convey.

I also want to show some of the fallout and how people deal with their lives after the events, after the big bad is destroyed. One of the main characters for example, a little girl (11 years old), lost her older sister (20 years old), who sacrificed herself and died a truly horrible death to save the little girl and many other people. She was like a mother to the little girl in some way, so the loss of her had a huge impact on her. Some characters, on the other hand, suddenly have families, which they don't know how to deal with, which creates its own set of problems because of previous events.

Then there are other (brave) characters, who are cleaning up the rest of the big bad's mess, so any dangerous remnants of him are gone. One of the characters ends up being corrupted by the big bad because of an earlier event, which turns into the question: "should we kill him and risk the big bad coming back or kill him and end his suffering?"

How can I prepare the player for that? I don't want to overstay my welcome, so I want to make clear that there _is_ more after the big bad is destroyed. I don't want this to be _just_ about destroying the big bad (as it's not even the focus for the first two thirds of the story - see below), I want to show what the big bad would've affected if he wasn't destroyed: the future.

**Some info about the big bad**  
He is an unknown entity during most of the game, most characters don't even get to see him. Most characters aren't even aware of his existence. They don't know who he is, what his goals are and why he's doing any of this. In the beginning, they are simply trapped in his world/dimension/whatever and the only goal is to survive and escape a hostile environment.

As time passes and the characters find out more and more, they see how big of a threat the big bad really is to the rest of the world. Even though they find a way to escape, they find out that the big bad would cause chaos and destruction in about 30 years if they don't stop him now - and they do find a way to stop him. Most of the characters would feel uncomfortable knowing their children (and _their_ children) would face the wrath of the big bad in the future if he's not stopped _right now_.

Because the story has an emphasis on the future and how everyone is going to live their lives, I want to show the players what they accomplished, what kind of future they saved. It's not going to be a happy ending for all characters, but I do want to show what happens to all the surviving characters, even if they end up living a (mostly) miserable life.

Original score: 7