(Side Note: Obviously, this blog makes no bones about discussing spoilers. That being said, this IS a list about twists that are inherently meant to be effective because they are surprises. A slightly more serious spoiler warning is in effect for this article.)
Twists are fun, right? Talking about how exciting twists can be is even MORE fun, right? I think so, at any rate, so let’s start going through some of my favorite twists in storytelling by looking at the vast world of video games first! Let’s get this thing started!
10) The Unexpected Stealth-Sequel ~ Nioh 2
I love Nioh 2 a lot. It’s an exceptional game, and one of the greatest Soulslike games of all time. I’d recommend it to pretty much each and every single fan of action-combat games. Praise aside, Nioh 2 is, despite what the numeral would imply, a prequel to the first Nioh. The game explores an early period in Japanese history, and covers events and introduces characters that lead up to the start of the first Nioh. Standard prequel stuff, right?
Except, near the very end of the game, your character falls into a deep slumber while using their body to create a seal on an ancient demon. Just when you think the credits might roll, your character is awoken by William, the historical hero of the first Nioh, who has just finished his adventure in that game. He wakes you up to recruit your help in stopping the renegade deceiver Maria, the main villain from the first game who escaped at the end. Together, you and he defeat Maria and the ancient demon you’d been tasked with sealing away, and bring peace to Japan forever. Nowhere in any promotional material did it hint that Nioh 2 would wrap up the franchise in this manner, and it really caught me off guard.
9) Suddenly, Zombies! ~ Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
I had absolutely no idea what to expect when going into the Uncharted series, other than that they were globe trotting adventures with lots of puzzles and climbing, apparently. Also, quite a lot of frantic and crazy shootouts with enemy armies and black market militias (how many black market militias are there even, as the villains in Uncharted never seem to run out of goons). Well, my expectations were certainly met by the first installment in this franchise…up until the final two hours, that is.
There were hints that something wasn’t quite right on the island where the first Uncharted takes place, but even those bits of foreshadowing weren’t enough to prepare me for straight up mutant zombies! Right at the start of the last act of the game, a veritable horde of zombies come crawling out of the woodwork, popping out of vents and jumping around corners. All of a sudden, Uncharted turns from an actiony-adventurey romp through the jungle into a desperate fight for survival in a decrepit, abandoned military base. And, most shocking of all, it’s genuinely scary too. Like, it’s really effective horror!
8) SEND PLAYER ~ Bravely Second
The first Bravely Default game had an ingenious twist in regards to its narrative, and it started the trend of games in this series pulling no punches with regards to shocking revelations (it may or may not be further down on this very list). However, Bravely Second took a different approach, and instead opted for the mind-boggling, fourth-wall-breaking, type of twist.
The full title of the game is Bravely Second: End Layer, which is perhaps a reference to the state of the world in conjunction with the multiverse. Yada yada yada. The real title, however, is Bravely Second: Send Player, and the extra letters reveal themselves on the title screen right after the main villain has defeated the heroes and plunged the world into eternal darkness. A message pops up on screen: “You have completed the game, and unlocked New Game Plus”. So, what’s the plan now? Well, what you have to do is head into new game plus (wherein your characters maintain their levels, skills, weapons, and items) and defeat the previously unwinnable first boss fight using your overpowered strength, thus drastically changing the plot! It’s nuts!
7) Fear the Power of the Dark Side ~ Jedi: Fallen Order
I’ve mentioned once or twice on this blog about how incredible Jedi: Fallen Order is, which is an especially surprising fact given that it was published by EA. It’s another Soulslike, though with an obvious helping hand of lightsabers, Force pushes, and stormtroopers having terrible aim. It’s a great time, with thrilling lightsaber combat, and though the storyline and characters are somewhat predictable, they are still very good and a lot of fun.
You know what IS surprising, though? After you’ve finally defeated the extremely difficult climactic showdown against the Second Sister, and you have almost managed to finally get through to her, who decides to drop in but Darth Vader himself? Cutting the Second Sister down, effortlessly swatting your mentor aside, and igniting his lightsaber, Vader proceeds to smack you silly in an unwinnable fight, where all you can do is run for your life as he throws wall panels, machinery, and the floor itself at you. He doesn’t even have a boss fight! It’s a crazy, heart-pounding spectacle, and was not even remotely teased in trailers for the game!
6) Ghost in the Courtroom ~ Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
I know I’ve teased it a few times by now, but I promise I will eventually get around to writing an article about Dahlia Hawthorne, my favorite antagonist in the entire Ace Attorney trilogy. Just because I haven’t written her article yet, though, does not mean my love for her unmatched vileness is any weaker. She’s still an unforgettably manipulative and vengeful villain, and the lengths which she goes to in order to fuel her petty grudges knows no bounds.
And I mean that as sincerely and frighteningly as possible. Dahlia gets away with a lot of the course of two entire trials (killing her sister, manipulating her boyfriend into committing suicide, poisoning a defense attorney, killing her new boyfriend, gaslighting her sister, and nearly getting an innocent man convicted of murder). After she is finally caught, she’s given the death sentence for her crimes, and several years pass…only for a new murder case to suspiciously match her MO. Lo and behold, she’s back from the grave as a sadistic spirit, and she brings another two innocent people down with her before being excised once and for all, right in the middle of court! Sure, spirit mediums are common place in Ace Attorney, but this is a whole new level of crazy revenge!
5) Just Monika ~ Doki Doki Literature Club
Doki Doki Literature Club is an extremely special gem of an indie game, and it is worth playing every single second of this unforgettable visual novel. In fact, the base version of the game is completely free on PC, though if you can afford it, I would certainly recommend throwing down $15 for the expanded remastered version that just released on Steam and Consoles. This is a game that’s going to stick with you for a long time, I promise.
And the biggest reason for being so memorable? Monika. Just Monika. The first half of Doki Doki Literature Club makes it abundantly clear that Monika knows more than she lets on, and that she might not necessarily have the best interests of the other club members at heart. But, wow! That doesn’t BEGIN to prepare the player for the second half of this game, wherein Monika destroys the literature club from the inside out, breaks apart the boundaries of the game, mangles the game’s very own code into a horrific mess, and traps you and her together in an eternal purgatory. It’s a roller coaster ride of wholly unexpected proportions, and it’s awesome!
4) Alrest Is Actually Earth ~ Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I’ve had no qualms in expressing my overall disappointment in Xenoblade Chronicles 2‘s storyline, and just the game as a whole. However, that by no means should imply that I dislike the game, as I actually quite enjoy it. There are even a fair few number of story beats that I’m a big fan of, with the chief among those story beats being the late-game reveal that the fantasy world you’ve been exploring (Alrest) is actually a floating landscape atop the sunken remains of our very own planet Earth, destroyed in a dystopian catastrophe centuries ago.
When you finally get down to the old Earth (called “Morytha” by the denizens of the world above), it’s a surreal and quietly horrifying experience. You walk through ruined skyscrapers, abandoned hospital buildings and parking garages, and come across plain looking highway exit signs that are so out-of-place in this fantasy setting it almost triggers a flight-or-fight panic in the player. It’s just too weird, too uncomfortable, and too sad to see humanity wiped away into nothingness. The somber, chilling piano melody that plays is the icing on the cake of this top-tier twist.
3) “You Shouldn’t Have Done That, Little Brat!” ~ Xenoblade Chronicles
The best kind of plot twists are the ones that are seeded throughout a game’s story, hidden and layered into the storytelling with just enough foreshadowing that the twist catches the player completely off guard BUT helps them quickly realize how foolish they were for missing the clues. To be sure, a twist like this is not easy to pull off. In fact, it’s exceptionally difficult to give the player just enough context for the hints without spoiling the twist, but not leaving it vague enough where the player is left unsatisfied.
Xenoblade Chronicles pulls off this sort of epic twist better than almost any other twist I’ve ever experienced. There is an unignorable feeling of dread and suspicion for nearly the entire game, as the player learns more about the world and the magical sword they are wielding. Some of your allies seem less-than-trustworthy as well…but when the other shoe drops, there was no way to guess the craziness that ensues. The hero’s mentor shoots him in the back, an evil entity returns to cleanse the world of life, the hero was revealed to have actually been dead all along, and an entire peaceful race is mutated into cruel abominations? And that’s only the start! Best of all, as I alluded to, all of the evidence and hints were in place to guess this twist, which makes a second playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles, so, so, SO rewarding!
2) AIRY LIES ~ Bravely Default
Well, this was an expected entry considering how I teased it earlier, though as I also stated, this twist focuses more on affecting the narrative (not without a healthy does of surprising title screen shenanigans). Like the article from last week described, the adorably precocious fairy, Airy, serves as a deconstruction of the “cute mascot character” trope, when the climax reveals that she’s a sadistic monster responsible for the deaths of millions, and all in pursuit of reviving her dark god master. She’s unabashedly malicious, and her voice actress really chews the scenery for every single encounter with Airy after this reveal.
As shocking as this reveal is, though, it’s the way it is presented to the player that is truly jaw-dropping. See, the characters actually being to piece together that Airy is manipulating them a while before the grand reveal, but circumstances prevent them from calling her out until later. So, what happens? Well, the game’s full title is Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies. Right as Airy starts showing her true colors, most of the title screen fades away, to instead reveal the simply message of “Airy Lies”. It was downright chilling the first time I ever saw that, and that frightening title screen is now forever burned into my mind.
1) “They’re Already Dead, Komaru.” ~ Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls
Big, crazy, life-altering twists are amazing when done correctly, and several of the other entries on this list fulfill that condition. Still, sometimes the simplest twist manages to be the most effective, and the most shocking. There’s no need to be grand and dramatic if the twist instead burns the player’s soul so deeply that their shock and horror is more than enough to etch the memory of that twist into their hearts for all time. Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls opts for that simple but unequivocally shocking type of twist, and it just…wow.
For the entire span of this game, main heroine Komaru Naegi has fought through one horrific trial after the next, all to rescue her parents from the human personification of evil, Monaca Towa. She’s been drip-fed by audio recordings and reports about her parents imprisonment for the entire game, and she is a determined force of nature by the time she finally busts into their prison cell in the game’s closing climactic showdown…
…only to find a bloody mess of remains, a rotting stench, a palpable aura of despair, and the maliciously grinning form of Monaca standing amidst the carnage. With a cheerful lilt, Monaca explains that Komaru’s parents are already dead, and have been dead for the entire course of the game. Everything Komaru heard about her parents up to this point was either prerecorded or fabricated. They died weeks ago, and they died slowly, as Monaca delves into nauseating detail on exactly what she did while torturing them to death.
Komaru completely freezes at the revaluation, and she shuts down entirely, all the fight wiped out of her. And, for at least me too, I also found myself with my jaw on the floor, in total disbelief that the game would sucker punch me so strongly. I had to put the controller down and actually process what I’d just witnessed, and I found it as difficult as Komaru to keep going after a bombshell twist like that.
Simple? Yes, extremely. My favorite twist in all of gaming? Absolutely.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 