8 MORE Video Games Where The True Ending Is The Bad Ending

Over the years, the interconnected nature of the Dragon Quest series has become rather tenuous but the first trilogy of titles are all clearly linked. Dragon Quest II takes place 100 years after the original, which sees the player going on a quest and slaying a dragon (hence the name, really).

There’s a moment before the closing fight where the Dragonlord will actually do the stereotypical villain thing and invite the player to join them, promising to let them rule over half of the world. It’s intended to make players steel their nerves before they launch into battle and DQ2 pretty much assumes you selected that choice. After all, if you don’t then the screen fades to black and the game freezes.

However, thirty years later, a little more was added to this previously thought plotline cul-de-sac in Dragon Quest Builders.

In this charming little spin-off you play the role not of a warrior but of a builder (these titles really are straight forward) who is charged with reconstructing the world after the defeat of the hero. In this timeline of events, the player accepted the Dragonlord’s offer, which turned out to be a trap and the dragon destroyed the kingdom.

The hero from Dragon Quest can even be found hiding out in a small fortress he’s nicknamed “half of the world” and cackling like a maniac to really drive home his failure.