NationStates Jolt Archive

Yep, we Generalites are being very desperate when it's coming to video game threads. So now, I ask you, what is the best twist in a video game?

The first twist in Phantom Dust was pretty damn good. The second twist you kind of saw coming.

KOTOR. I actually sat there going "fucking hell" over and over again.

KOTOR. I actually sat there going "fucking hell" over and over again.
Yeah. I remeber that one. YEP! YOU'RE ACTUALLY *****!!!! I'm like "Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa."

coughbcoughucoughmcoughpcough

KOTOR wins, end of discussion. Although Jade Empire got me too. Damn you Bioware.

KOTOR wins, end of discussion. Although Jade Empire got me too. Damn you Bioware.
What was the twist in Jade Empire? I don't remeber there being any twist in Jade Empire.

Your mentor actually being evil after you spent most of the game trying to "rescue" him

This one totally caught me off-guard:
"How are you gentlemen? All your base are belong to us!" :eek:

But yea, the KOTOR twist was pretty damn good.

Your mentor actually being evil after you spent most of the game trying to "rescue" him
Oh. That was the big twist? I didn't really consider that a big twist. I kind of saw it coming... Now the first Phantom Dust twist, it was impossible to see that one coming.

Poorly executed, but excellent nonetheless.

The White Mantle, the saviors of Kryta, are murdering Krytan natives with any latent magical ability for fear of them rising up against their "gods."

KOTOR, amazing twist for an amazing game, and Halo had a good twist which was a good plot device too.

Poorly executed, but excellent nonetheless.

The White Mantle, the saviors of Kryta, are murdering Krytan natives with any latent magical ability for fear of them rising up against their "gods."

There is also Liquid Snake posing as your mentor, Master Miller, manipulating your directions and actions up to the activation of Metal Gear Rex in Metal Gear: Solid Snake.

KOTOR, amazing twist for an amazing game, and Halo had a good twist which was a good plot device too.
Man. Everyone is like "KOTOR KOTOR KOTOR!" Aren't there any good video game twists besides that one? I mean, the first Phantom Dust one was EXCELLENT!

F.E.A.R. has some of the weirdest twists. And you actually have to think about the plot to understand it.


Spoiler (Highlight)Well, first off, you know that little creepy girl who wants to kill everyone (her name is Alma)? Yeah...she's your mom...literally...

And also at the end of the game, you set off a huge explosion that supposedly "killed" Alma. Then you get in a Black Hawk, with the two other main characters, one a demolitions expert, the other a psychic medic. The psychic medic starts questioning whether you really got rid of Alma and then THUMP!

You hear something on the bottom of the copter, the screen goes black and white, and Alma starts crawling up into the helicopter. I almost crapped myself. End Spoiler.


I also really liked the plot of Second Sight. Crazy ass plot changes, and I mean changes. Because you go back and forth in time.

Deus Ex, the first one, or Thief.

Final Fantasy VII. You know when you find out what Cloud really is. And what really happened in... ummm that town.

Final Fantasy VII. You know when you find out what Cloud really is. And what really happened in... ummm that town.


I agree...or when Aeris(aerith) dies...that was very twistful

Yeah...that seriously sucked. But in a good way.

There are some good ones in the MetaL Gear Solid series, some of them got really weird though. Final Fantasy X had a few too.

-Finding out for the first time in Super Mario Bros. that the Princess is in another castle. Good times.
-Finding out that Shiek in Ocarina of Time is really Zelda.
-Killing Mother Brain and finding out that there's one last room to go through. This time, you have Mr. Timer with you as you escape Ms. Planetery-bomb.
-In Super Metroid, where the very Metroid you were sent to save ends up saving you and dying in the process.
-Very early in Metroid Prime 2, when you find out that all the federation troopers you were sent to rescue died in combat well before you even got your mission. You couldn't have known because the planet's magnetic field made contact with them impossible.

i'd have to say KotOR and FF X.. though the finaly fantasy one isn't Quite as much of a "arrrrgh! totaly unexpected arghness!" moment, it's still very good.

hehe.. i'm trying to think what other games i play that actually have a plot. they tend to be stratigy types..

does FF8 count? the stuff at the end of disk one ALMOST becomes a plot twist.. or a twist then a reverse twist...

then there's the whole "she's evil but she's not" bit.. and the bit in space... it has lots of little ones that add up, i guess.

I'd say Silent Hill 2 - it caught me totally by suprise, even though there are specific parts which, if you play it again, you recognise as being clues to the truth of James' wife.

KOTOR is the obvious choice...sheer brilliance there.

But that's been done, so I'll pick a different game....Fable

SPOILER: When you find out that the Seeress is your sister, and when you learn that Maze has been helping Jack of Blades all along...both good twists.

Final Fantasy VII. You know when you find out what Cloud really is. And what really happened in... ummm that town.
Yeah, and then later you find out that that wasn't what really happened, and you find out what really happened. Then you find out that all of that is irrlellevant when you realise what cloud really is, and then you find out that he kinda isn't, and if you look hard enough you discover that he isn't even himself. So afteryou find out what really didn't happen didn't happen and actually happened differently, then you see theat cloud really is who he wasn't after you realised that he was something else, but not. In the end, cloud is cloud, and what happened happened, but not the way you see it at first. It takes them like 4 major twists to get to that point. Then theres the Aeris thing, how she isn't actually just aeris and is actually something far more important, but then it doesn't matter (you know why), but that happenening actually didn't destroy everything, and actaully saved it because of what she made reference to way early on in the game. The, it also turns out that Aeris's father created sephiroth, but hojo fathered him, but vincent might have, cos he loved sephiroth's mother, who incidentally wasn't Jenova after all. There fore, Sephiroth isn't an ancient at all and the whole thing is just one giant mix up, minus the happy 80's comedy laughing end.





...Yeah I think FFVII tops it in terms of twisting.

...Yeah I think FFVII tops it in terms of twisting.
As has been said manys a time, the biggest twist in the game (that seems so utterly overlooked) is when you get to the North Crater and see Sephiroth suspended in Materia after the Nibelheim incident.

"Wait, so he's been stuck here in this thing this whole time? Then who the hell have I been trailing?!?"

FF5 had a neat twist to it too.

"Yeah, you know this guy who's wreaking havoc, destroying your family and friends and generally wanting to destroy the world? Yeah, he's a tree."

I liked the MGS2 "Simulation" twist; never saw that coming at all.

And, of course, practically the entire of Legacy of Kain; Soul Reaver 2. Not a great game, but the twists and turns in the plot were constantly keeping you on your toes.

Well, people have already mentioned the typical Final Fantasy VII or Dues Ex twists. How about in Kingdom Hearts II when we learned that Ansem wasn't actually Ansem but a guy who just took Ansem's name and was actually some dude named Xehanort that had helped the real Ansem in his research and all that jazz?

Oh, and how Goofy appeared to die for a while. There's a scene after the Demyx battle in the war in Hollow Bastion where Goofy saves Mickey from being clonked on the head by an enormous piece of rubble that was shot off from a battle about two hundred feet up on a cliff. Said rubble smacks Goofy instead and for a while everyone thinks he's dead. Gives Mickey a brilliant scene too.

'Course, KH II has only been released for a month, so it's not too well known yet. =/

Baten Kaitos had a great twist, if anyone here as actually played it. Another game with great twists is Chrono Trigger.

Baten Kaitos had a great twist, if anyone here as actually played it. Another game with great twists is Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger definitely had some nice twists. I do wish they'd remake that game one of these days. Be nice to see the script updated and the story improved a great deal so that it's not cliche-filled and what have you.

Surprisingly enough, Freelancer. It had alien invasions, treacherous Chancellors and terrorist organisations, complete with a sexy female President to shoot something and swear :P

There are several good twists in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Not the least of which is the ending.

The best part of the big KOTOR twist was that you could have seen it coming, but hardly anybody did. The whole game set you up for it, just from the little things people said (that video after the revelation just rubbed it in!). And if you did the Kashyyyk star map beforehand, there was a big clue right there.

When Samus takes off their mask at the end of Metroid and it's a woman

When you defeat Mizar at the end of Jet Force Gemini, and Mizar turns out to be A tribal. Jeff's brother Barry, in fact.

At the end of Zelda OOT when you've defeated Gannondorf and escaped the castle. You're just about to pat yourself on the back when Gannondorf rises from the rubble, and begins to get bigger...

Getaway
When you finish it and it sucks.

Need for Speed: Most wanted, when you find out the final bosses real name is Clarance.... I couldn't stop laughing :D

*Potential Spoilers*







-MGS2, when you learn that the Patriots are already DEAD!

-Final Fantasy III (or XI); when the villain ACTUALLY suceeds in destroying the world.

*Potential Spoilers*







-MGS2, when you learn that the Patriots are already DEAD!

-Final Fantasy III (or XI); when the villain ACTUALLY suceeds in destroying the world.
That's more like half of all Final Fantasy games. The same happened in VI, when Kefka disrupted the balance between the statues, thus totally changing the world. In IX, the world was covered in Mist, along with lots and lots and LOTS of random places being suddenly blocked off for seemingly no good reason that I never understood. Then there's VIII, where you're technically supposed to be in the future but they were so lazy they just put up forcefields around all the towns. I mean, come ON SE. You could have at least pulled a VI and showed a devestated world. Hell, maybe even expanded it a little. But, no...

That's more like half of all Final Fantasy games. The same happened in VI, when Kefka disrupted the balance between the statues, thus totally changing the world.

That's actually what I meant (I typed XI when I should have typed VI). And it was special for me because it was one of the first RPGs I played.

PS: Kefka FREAKED me out. Nothing like an insane psudo-jester to rile things up.

That's actually what I meant (I typed XI when I should have typed VI). And it was special for me because it was one of the first RPGs I played.

PS: Kefka FREAKED me out. Nothing like an insane psudo-jester to rile things up.
Yah.

You know, that's what is missing in Western-style RPGs...there are few if any memorable characters in any of the games...yet in Eastern-style, there are tons, many of which are practically household names even in homes that don't even HAVE a gamer.

Or at least in the U.S., anyway.

Chrono Trigger definitely had some nice twists. I do wish they'd remake that game one of these days. Be nice to see the script updated and the story improved a great deal so that it's not cliche-filled and what have you.

There were a couple fan-based initiatives to give CT a make-over, with fancy cutscenes and whatnot, but Squaresoft put a stop to them.

There were a couple fan-based initiatives to give CT a make-over, with fancy cutscenes and whatnot, but Squaresoft put a stop to them.
Thus causing a lot of controversy, both with fans angry about the cancellation AND hoping desperately that it might mean SE was actually planning on doing it themselves. They still might. I still hope they do, but, like with my hope for Star Trek still somehow being alive, it's not exactly that much of one.

There was a pretty cool one in Starcraft.

In the original FF, Garland, the first and final boss, is sent backwards in time by the same evil that he sends forwards...

MGS3, too many to list.

MGS2, the whole Liquid's arm takes over Ocelot's body thing.

KOTOR, of course.

In the first KH, Sora had Kairi's heart inside him the whole time.

The Legend of Dragoon had some great ones.
Friend and ally Rose is really the Black Monster and has been alive for the past 10,000 years. Dart's dad was also from 10,000 years ago but turned to stone for a long time. Dart's mom is Haschel's runaway daughter. Meru was a Wingly. Etc. Etc.

Yah.

You know, that's what is missing in Western-style RPGs...there are few if any memorable characters in any of the games...yet in Eastern-style, there are tons, many of which are practically household names even in homes that don't even HAVE a gamer.

Or at least in the U.S., anyway.
Meh. Not actually! There are plenty of Western-style RPG characters names I remeber! Like..... Like..... Crap. Your right. Western-style RPGs aren't very memorable. Besides... Wait no.... That's Eastern... Oh wait! No... That's Eastern too.... Meh. I suppose there are SOME memorable characters from Fable. Like Jack Of Blades. But I wish Fable was much longer. Like as long as FF7. That way we could've come to know and love Jack like we did Sepiroth.

Thus causing a lot of controversy, both with fans angry about the cancellation AND hoping desperately that it might mean SE was actually planning on doing it themselves. They still might. I still hope they do, but, like with my hope for Star Trek still somehow being alive, it's not exactly that much of one.
Oh dude. That would be awesome. Replaying CT with PS3 graphics. AND WITH VOICES! Oh dude... They better give Magus a kick-ASS voice. Other wise the whole game will go down the drain... Haven't you even played Chrono Cross though? The supposed "Sequel" to CT, which I don't even consider really to be a "Sequel", because all it does is tie up a few loose ends left by CT. I think there were one or two twists in that game...

Oh dude. That would be awesome. Replaying CT with PS3 graphics. AND WITH VOICES! Oh dude... They better give Magus a kick-ASS voice. Other wise the whole game will go down the drain... Haven't you even played Chrono Cross though? The supposed "Sequel" to CT, which I don't even consider really to be a "Sequel", because all it does is tie up a few loose ends left by CT. I think there were one or two twists in that game...
Chrono Cross was not so much a sequel as it was a game set in the same universe.(Universes? Multiverse? Whatever.) As such, one should not expect it to follow up on Chrono Trigger's story.

As for a remake: it would be wonderful, but only if handled carefully. Far too often remakes end up not so great.

Oh dude. That would be awesome. Replaying CT with PS3 graphics. AND WITH VOICES! Oh dude... They better give Magus a kick-ASS voice. Other wise the whole game will go down the drain...

*Imagines Magus with the voice of Ramon Salazar from RE4*

*Head explodes*

Best twist is the one where the T shaped block spins around to fit exactly into a gap, earning you an easy couple of lines.

Best twist is the one where the T shaped block spins around to fit exactly into a gap, earning you an easy couple of lines.
...

I...

You win the internets. That was flawlessly executed.

...

I...

You win the internets. That was flawlessly executed.
*bows*

Chrono Cross was not so much a sequel as it was a game set in the same universe.(Universes? Multiverse? Whatever.) As such, one should not expect it to follow up on Chrono Trigger's story.

As for a remake: it would be wonderful, but only if handled carefully. Far too often remakes end up not so great.

It's not a direct follow-up to Chrono Trigger, but it does continue the story. It's a sequel with different characters in a parallel world, you could say. I mean, afterall, the whole point of the game is finding and saving Schala (a.k.a. Sara).

The one thing that irked me about it was the whole "Guile" thing. It's so obvious that he was supposed to be Magus, but the developers decided to take a shortcut (or their time was cut by Square) and ended up making him a random, drunken magician with next to no backstory. Lame.


As for the best twist? It has to be the multiple Cloud-related twists on Final Fantasy VII. And I think I speak for everyone when I say the developers should've spared Zack, changed the story a bit to compensate, and made him a playable character.

The Prince of Persia series has some of the best twists.

I.E., in Warrior Within, you pretty much create the Sands of Time after trying to destroy them, then travel again through time to destroy them. Or when you play the alternate ending in which you actually KILL the Dahaka. I loved that battle.

Omg, how could I forget? The greatest twist in my opinion was in Two Thrones when you find out Farrah is ALIVE. I literally said "Praise the Gods, is it true!?" I nearly cried when she died in the first game.

There are some good ones in the MetaL Gear Solid series, some of them got really weird though. Final Fantasy X had a few too.

yeah...ff10...Yuna has to die...Sin is your father...Yevon is fake...i loved the twists there.

I agree, Freelancer has some good twists, also I would say Unreal 2 the Awakening... There was a really unexpected end!

The one thing that irked me about it was the whole "Guile" thing. It's so obvious that he was supposed to be Magus, but the developers decided to take a shortcut (or their time was cut by Square) and ended up making him a random, drunken magician with next to no backstory. Lame.

Meh. It does suck. I would've loved to see "Guile" in fact BE Magus as a twist, then have him become a major story line character. He didn't. So in my + games I used him constantly when ever I could.

Best twist is the one where the T shaped block spins around to fit exactly into a gap, earning you an easy couple of lines.
LOL