The Uneclipsed Penultimates

That singularly stunning moment in a game that everyone notices. Often a moment that a game can never reach greater heights than, no matter how hard they try to - but sometimes, for the greatest of the greats, they reach even higher.
Only Rule: cannot be the final scene.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Lvl 86-87 MSQ
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
Inside the Pyramid
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
The Tribunal

(The first night, dance scene, and karaoke could also go here. Many more too, but I will leave them aside should I spoil the final act of Disco Elysium. What a game.)
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds
The Quantum Moon
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight
The Blue Lake
Pony Island
Pony Island
Asmodeus Scene
Undertale
Undertale
Battle Against a True Hero

(Yes, yes, I do actually think that the game's endings are by far its greatest moments, hyperfocalising its thematic points into singular, hard-hitting 'events'. However, in the Genocide route, this is thematically speaking the universe's final clash against the player's completionism, desperate to maintain its character's strengths and determination to survive. The actual ending is strikingly hollow as a result; this is the final moment of genuine exhileration)
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 4 Golden
Magatsu Inaba - the monologue
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Case 4
Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki
Poniko's House

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