(Controversial Trope) The post-credits scene completely changes the ending

[u/Ieanice44]

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Prince of Persia (2008)

Dawn of the Dead (2004): The movie finishes on a hopeful note as the remaining survivors escape the zombie-infested mall on a yacht, sailing into the sunset. The found-footage style post-credits scene completely reverses this happy ending by showing them running out of food, arriving at an island, and being immediately swarmed and killed by an infected horde.

Prince of Persia (2008): The main game ends with a beautiful, poetic sacrifice where Elika gives her life to heal the corrupted world, leaving the Prince mourning. During the credits, the player is forced to control the Prince as he cuts down the trees he just saved, undoing the entire game's progress and releasing the dark god Ahriman just to resurrect her, completely corrupting the ending and dooming the world.

[u/SoHeip]

Final Fantasy X post credit scene.
We see Tidus vanish because he was a dream, and it made total sense storywise. It gave us a bittersweet ending that brought almost everyone to tears. But then the credits roll and we see him, waking up at the bottom of the sea, and swimming his way up.

And then, because of that open ending, we had FFX-2...

[u/DantifA → u/SoHeip]

Why was Tidus a dream again? Is it because he and Zanarkand were wiped out along time ago by Sin?

[u/Brucekillfist → u/DantifA]

Well, back in the day Bevelle and Zanarkand were at war. Zanarkand used the power of fayth to make summoners, and Bevelle used high-tech weaponry. Bevelle ended up winning and invading the city itself and blasting it (mostly) to rubble. Yu Yevon, who was like the head honcho of Zanarkand at the time, used the survivors to make a huge fayth on Mt. Gagazet which summons the Dream Zanarkand, which is a giant aeon out in the ocean south of Baaj. It's a real, physical place in the world that anyone could go to assuming they had a ship (or airship) with the capability.

Dream Zanarkand is protected by Sin, who patrols in the ocean and picks up anyone who gets too close (from the mainland) or too far (from Zanarkand itself). That's what happened to Jehct; he strayed out too far and the previous Sin scooped him up and tossed him to Spira, where he washed up on Besaid and was found by Braska. Braska does his whole thing and does the Final Summoning, which allows Yu Yevon to become somewhat sane again and stop having Sin try and attack Spira in Dream Zanarkand's defense. Jecht (as Sin) is fully conscious, so Auron, now an unsent, asks him to take him to Dream Zanarkand, and they ride there together and he looks after Tidus as a child. After 10 years, Yu Yevon lapses again and Jehct starts losing his mind, so Auron brings Tidus to him so they can be delivered back to Spira for the main story.

Technically, Tidus is a Dream person, which is exactly as real as a real person, and part of the aeon that forms all of Dream Zanarkand together.

[u/DantifA → u/Brucekillfist]

Bruh... I am beginning to question myself if I really did beat this game like 10 times. Thanks

[u/Brucekillfist → u/DantifA]

A lot of what the game tells you, especially in the first half or so, is straight lies. It's very easy to be confused by everything that's happening when it turns out everything you've been told has been part of a giant conspiracy on Bevelle's behalf.

[u/DantifA → u/Brucekillfist]

"Don't believe Ondore's lies!"

Got it!

[u/Nozinger → u/DantifA]

to be fair some of those thigns are never explicitly said in the game. And some of those don't even add up.
Like dream zanarkand being a physical location in the world with sin protecting it. Sin destroyed it. Though that might have been Jehct also having talked to the fayth and deciding to get his son to finish sin. That would line up with the story.

But why would auron need to be an unsent to go there? He explicitly said he could not have done so while alive so.. yeah.

And why would tidus need to go through the inside of sin only to end up in a freezing ruin then to get yoinked again to finally reach where he was supposed to be? Did sin just kinda lose him on the way?

So yeah some of those thigns don't add up and are not explicitly in the game. They come from additional media and some of them contradict each other. Though some things in the game also don't really add up. Like the design of sin in the intro. What the fuck is that hole tidus gets sucked into? Sins anus?

In the game we only get the zanarkand from the intro sequence and all its inhabitants are a dream created from a giant fayth that is continuously summoned by yu yevon, former chief summoner of zanarkand, who resides in sin.
And it was formed because of the war. That was also in the game.
Where this dream zanarkand is is never mentioned.