Plot twists can be an effective narrative tool for video games–by breadcrumbing with foreshadows, plot twists can shock the audience with unbelievable revelations that will have you replaying the game to find the signs.
But no matter how well-written these stories are, some plot twists just don’t hit as hard as they should be. Maybe we’re wise to the narrative techniques used to tell the stories, but we have become a bit sharper at detecting when a plot twist is coming.
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10 Most Shocking Video Game Plot Twists
Twists are a massive part of any source of fiction and video games are no exception.
While predictability isn’t the worst thing a game can do to its plot, it might miss out on the opportunity to completely devastate the player because of the consequences of their character’s actions.
Still, these games had a significant plot twist that was unsurprising to most. Fortunately for most of them, these predictable plot twists did not negatively impact how enjoyable the games were.
Warning: Major Story Spoilers!
10 Horizon Zero Dawn
Whether He Wanted It Or Not
Horizon Zero Dawn
- Released
- February 28, 2017
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Decima
- ESRB
- T for Teen – Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Mild Sexual Themes, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 22½ Hours
- PC Release Date
- August 7, 2020
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4
- Publishers
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Horizon Zero Dawn has a complex history and lore set before the main story, which revolves around the terraforming artificial intelligence GAIA restoring life on Earth after the apocalyptic Faro Plague.
As Aloy travels through the beautiful lands to search for answers about her origins and defeat the Eclipse cultists that killed her adopted father, she meets Sylens (RIP Lance Reddick), a cunning and enigmatic Banuk man who enlists her help in uncovering what happened to the old world.
Throughout the story, Sylens remains cagey about revealing information that Aloy wants to know, until the mission “The Mountain That Fell,” where Sylens confesses that he was responsible for the formation of the Eclipse cult under HADES’ orders. We also find out that Sylens was the one who discovered the AI and reactivated him in his pursuit of knowledge.
This isn’t entirely surprising to players the moment they encounter Sylens. While he was helpful to Aloy, he only helped her simply because their goals aligned. Though he has expressed regret for his actions and has since tried to redeem himself, Sylens is still responsible for setting in motion the events that led to a bloody conflict.
9 Yakuza: Like A Dragon
Ichiban’s Origins
Ichiban Kasuga is perhaps the perfect successor to the Like A Dragon series, taking the baton from the legendary Kazuma Kiryu. Introduced in the seventh mainline game Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Ichiban’s story very much parallels Kiryu’s, as he goes to prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
As the lackey of the Arakawa Clan, Ichiban loyally serves Masumi Arakawa, along with his son, Masato Arakawa, with whom he shares a birthday. Even after Ichiban takes the fall and is sentenced to prison for 18 years, the family patriarch still sends him heartfelt letters where he expresses how much he misses him.
While brotherhood and familial loyalty are huge in crime families, especially in the yakuza, one might find Arakawa’s fondness for Ichiban rather suspicious. Why would a yakuza patriarch be this soft on one of his subordinates?
It’s later revealed that Ichiban’s real father is none other than Masumi Arakawa, while Masato is the biological son of yakuza captain Jo Sawashiro. As babies, they were placed inside coin lockers, with Ichiban in 0101 and Masato in 0099.
Through a chaotic series of coincidences, Masumi Arakawa had mistaken the baby in 0099 as his and raised him as his own, while Ichiban was adopted and raised by Jiro Kasuga, the owner of the Shangri-La soapland.
You can see this plot twist coming a mile away because of the father/son relationship Ichiban and Arakawa have throughout the story. Still, it doesn’t take away the tragedy that Arakawa dies never knowing that Ichiban was his real son.
Played Us Like A Damn Fiddle
As one of the best open-world stealth games, Phantom Pain unfortunately does not deliver the most shocking plot twist that warrants its own fan theory.
The story of Phantom Pain takes place nine years after the destruction of MSF in Ground Zeroes, where “Big Boss” wakes up from a coma and adopts the name Punished “Venom” Snake to find those responsible.
We later find out in the story, through flashbacks and tape recordings, that Venom Snake is not Big Boss, but the field medic who shielded Big Boss from Paz blowing up at the end of Ground Zeroes.
Venom Snake was transformed into Big Boss through cosmetic surgery and hypnotherapy to serve as a body double while the real one went on to further his own goals.
The player character’s identity as Big Boss has always been hinted at as dubious from the very beginning. In the first fifteen minutes of the game, you’re given the option to “customize” the face of an iconic Metal Gear character, all to revert to Big Boss’s face throughout the entire game.
Despite the weak ending, this plot twist makes all the connections between the different games in the franchise. Several pieces of evidence point to Venom Snake’s true identity, and eagle-eyed fans will notice that the inconsistencies between Venom Snake and the real Big Boss are quite clear.
There’s a cutscene in Ground Zeroes where you can hear Kiefer Sutherland’s voice as both Big Boss and the field medic. Tons more inconsistencies point toward this twist, including Venom Snake smoking fake cigars, not speaking Russian, and not being recognized by certain characters who have known Big Boss.
7 Baldur’s Gate 3
Don’t Trust Your Dream Guardian
In the second Act of Baldur’s Gate 3, you learn that the Dream Guardian you’ve probably spent hours customizing along with your character is the Emperor, a mind flayer who has been secretly leveraging the power of Githyanki Prince Orpheus to prevent your Illithid transformation.
While the Emperor may seem trustworthy because of him being more upfront about himself, he cannot escape his Illithid nature and tries to gaslight you into strengthening your parasite. Thinking back on his actions and the nature of mind flayers makes it hard not to realize that he’s been manipulating you to save himself from the grasp of the Nether Brain.
Your partnership with the Emperor is also constantly tested. When he willingly tells you his backstory, you learn that he had manipulated Duke Stelmane for his own goals, and killed the dragon Ansur, who was his closest friend. Even if you form a strong bond with him, there’s always something off about the way he keeps his cards close to his chest.
Regardless of what you decide to do with your relationship with the Emperor, he does everything for the sake of his survival, rather than a need to help others. If you choose to free Prince Orpheus at the climax of the story, then the Emperor leaves you out of fear of Orpheus killing him and becomes your enemy in the final boss fight against the Netherbrain.
While the outcome of the story is entirely depending on the player, it’s unsurprising that the Emperor would betray you if you don’t do everything he tells you to, as this character is all about bending the will of others to further his goals.
6 Devil May Cry 5
Daddy Issues
Despite the iconic status that the franchise has achieved through its revolutionary hack-and-slash gameplay, the Devil May Cry franchise has never been known for deep storytelling and profound themes, and that’s okay.
While Devil May Cry 5 never tried to be subtle that V and big bad Urizen are two halves of Vergil, they’re even less subtle about the connection between him and Nero, whom we later find out is his son.
Those who have played Devil May Cry 4 will vividly remember Nero’s awakening when he unlocked his Devil Trigger for the first time while wielding Yamato, Vergil’s sword.
While their motivations may differ, Nero shares his father’s obsession with power, as both of them have said the same quotes.
This makes the revelation in Devil May Cry 5 that Nero is Vergil’s son hilariously predictable, and that also makes Vergil a deadbeat father. Maybe it’s time for Vergil to finally pay for child support.
5 Resident Evil Village
Why Won’t You Die?
Even amongst video game protagonists, Ethan Winters is surprisingly indestructible despite the constant life-threatening injuries he’s suffered throughout Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village. The “boulder-puncher” Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy have competition.
While you play as him in both games, you can very easily heal your injuries by pouring a healing liquid on you to continue fighting. There are times when Ethan’s limbs are amputated by Lady Dimitrescu and he somehow still manages to reattach his arm and walk it off.
Of course, you can write it off as classic video game logic, but RE Village explains an in-universe reason why Ethan can’t seem to die.
The truth is that Ethan has been dead this whole time. He died when Jack Baker ambushed him back in RE7. Ethan’s body was then taken over by the megamycete fungus which revived him, giving him the super-regenerative abilities that we see throughout the games.
This also explains why Rose later grows to develop fungal powers, because she was conceived from Ethan’s changed biology.
4 Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
A Heroic Sacrifice
- Released
- May 12, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- n/a
- Metascore
- 96
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- n/a
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Cross Save
- N/A
- Cross-Platform Play
- N/A
During Link’s travels throughout Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, he’ll encounter three divine dragons that peacefully roam the skies of the kingdom, each representing an aspect of the Triforce.
Tears of the Kingdom adds a mysterious fourth Light Dragon, whose blonde hair is suspiciously familiar. This beast flies at a much higher altitude and sheds tears that are scattered across Hyrule. It also doesn’t seem to mind it when you dislodge the sword from its head.
If you collect all 11 tears from the geoglyphs, you’ll learn that Princess Zelda was thrown back 10,000 years in the past. In an attempt to save Link and stop Ganondorf, she volunteers to swallow her secret stone to turn herself into the Light Dragon and imbue the Master Sword with divine power for Link to retrieve.
The implications of this reveal are tragic for Zelda, who has slept for a century during the events of Breath of the Wild, and now she’s turned into a dragon for 10,000 years.
3 Life Is Strange
Have You Seen This Girl?
Rachel Amber has always been a mysterious figure throughout the story of Life is Strange: characters you meet in Blackwell Academy and Arcadia Bay seem enamored by her, and most importantly, Chloe is adamant about investigating Rachel’s disappearance.
Because you never get to meet her in the first Life is Strange, Rachel has always had an air of mystique and an almost ethereal nature to her myth. You wonder where she might have gone, and why Chloe seems to be so smitten by this girl. At least, not until the prequel Before the Storm.
Everything we know about Rachel is based on second-hand accounts, and one thing is for sure: she was popular and beloved by everybody who met her. When someone is this loved and is never present in a story, you know they’re dead.
And what do you know? Max and Chloe dig up Rachel’s corpse in Episode 4, which is buried underneath the junkyard that she and Chloe used to hang out at. Turns out Rachel was another victim of the twisted partnership between serial killer Mark Jefferson and spoiled brat Nathan Prescott.
Though Rachel may have met a tragic end, Max eventually gets some justice for her.
2 Bayonetta
The Resemblance Is Uncanny
In the first Bayonetta game, the titular Umbran Witch is dogged by the forces of Paradiso because she owns one-half of a pair of jewels known as the “Eyes of the World.”
During her travels to search for the other half, she meets a cast of characters, including a fellow Jeanne, a fellow Umbra Witch, Luka, a journalist who mistakes her for his father’s killer, and Cereza, a little girl who bears a striking resemblance to Bayonetta herself.
When she first meets Cereza, Bayonetta is reluctant to help the little girl, who insists on calling her “mommy,” much to her chagrin. As if it couldn’t be any more obvious, Cereza is revealed to be Bayonetta as a child. But how can two Bayonettas exist at the same time?
It turns out that Bayonetta’s father, Balder, had gone mad and wanted to summon a powerful deity to recreate the universe. To do so, he had to whisk away young Cereza to trigger Bayonetta’s forgotten memories to awaken the Eyes of the World.
1 Red Dead Redemption 2
Healthcare Sucks, Partner
Red Dead Redemption 2 aims to immerse you in the rough and tumble world of America in the late 1890s. With realistic elements like hunting, fishing, and a clear eye for detail, this game has it all. Even terminal illnesses.
During the tail end of the game in the Beaver Hollow chapter, Arthur suffers from a debilitating coughing fit and nearly passes out. With the help of a good Samaritan, Arthur finds a doctor, who diagnoses him with tuberculosis.
While TB is treatable in the modern age, Arthur’s days are numbered and we are essentially spoiled about Arthur Morgan’s fateat the end of the game, who succumbs to tuberculosis regardless of the player’s decisions and whether they had high or low honor.
Prior to the diagnosis, we can also see signs of Arthur’s tuberculosis manifesting through random coughs, and a clear indication of Arthur contracting TB is when he collects a debt for Strauss from Thomas Downes during the early game chapters.
Arthur’s fate is tragic, but contracting tuberculosis forces him to see his life clearly and reevaluate his life, understanding that he can still make a change and help those who need him most before his inevitable demise.
Next
10 Best Games With Shocking/Unexpected Ending
Story-driven games sometimes can surprise us in ways we could have never imagined. If you need more of those twists, we have some suggestions here.
