Plot twists in games

[ReturnofMCH]

We all enjoy a good story, but what about the endgame twist? Sometimes it’s obvious what was going to happen, othertimes it’s spoiled later on by a later game, others still it’s memes on or becomes the next darth vader is luke’s father, and then lastly they can sometimes lose their luster over repeat playthroughs.
But let’s have a discussion on plot twists, any you like? any you dislike? Anything else to share? For me I personally feel like if a twist is painfully obvious then it should be more on the weight of the twist rather than the twist itself like for example in pokemon black and white it was clear from the getgo who was really pulling the strings, but the fact that said villain was a LOT more vile and competant than anyone expected was a surprise. Or marvel’s spider man, as soon as otto octavious was shown in the game, we immediatly knew doc ock was going to show up sooner or later, the weight was on why he was pulling the strings in the game and how he hoped to accomplish it, plus knowing spidey’s secret identity.

 

[Poke Dragon]

There was one plot twist in Kid Icarus Uprising where the game portrayed Medusa as the main villain. Once the 8-bit credits were reached, Hades literately clawed it away, revealing him to be the true main villain of the game.

 

[TheCapsFan]

Part of the reason Xenoblade is so revered is because of it’s plot twists. They’re done really well with only little foreshadowing that keeps you on your toes.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

The World Ends With You does a wonderful job with its twists. They tend to be reasonably well foreshadowed, and they all either heavily inform the plot and interactions of the rest of the story or dramatically recontextualise almost the entire story before that moment, to the point where a second playthrough (highly encouraged by the structure of the post-game content) will read entirely differently given your knowledge of the reveals that come later down the line.

 

[Daren]

Dragon Quest 3's twist was--fom what I've read--huge and influential moment in Japan and had a large impact on Japanese game development, but was mostly overlooked in the west because:
a: DQ was nowhere near as prominent in the west
b: The manual gave it away in the english version as part of the "manuals as strategy guides" thing that happened with RPGs in that era at times.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

one of my personal favorite twists in recent years is one ANYONE with even a passing knowledge in comics could've seen coming, but the twist was more on the impact and weight than the actual twist

in marvel's spider man otto octavious becomes doc ock, no surprise there. but he knew of peter's secret identity, made mr negative, and orchestrated the events of the game to expose oscorp and norman osborn, who in turn actually was doing all his evil to save henry osborn, BY NATURE OF THE VENOM SYMBIOTE

 

[prog rocker]

The World Ends With You does a wonderful job with its twists. They tend to be reasonably well foreshadowed, and they all either heavily inform the plot and interactions of the rest of the story or dramatically recontextualise almost the entire story before that moment, to the point where a second playthrough (highly encouraged by the structure of the post-game content) will read entirely differently given your knowledge of the reveals that come later down the line.

Just look at the intro. In a first time playthrough it would look like random nonsense, but after you beat the game it makes complete sense.