Best and worst video games plot twists

[Darth Marsden]

The best for me was Knights of the Old Republic (the revelation regarding your past). I didn't see it coming at all, and yet it didn't feel out of place.

Yes.

Bioshock's twist was also pretty good. Certainly wouldn't have expected that if I hadn't heard about it before playing. But mentioning that game brings back memories of System Shock 2.

Spoiler: The big twist with that one was awesome as well.

The woman who's been helping you throughout the first half of the game actually committed suicide, and the person talking to you was actually Shodan. Woah.

Also - obligatory mention of Aeris' death. Surprised that I'm the first to mention it.

 

[Vlane]

The best for me was Knights of the Old Republic (the revelation regarding your past). I didn't see it coming at all, and yet it didn't feel out of place.

The worst was Final Fantasy VIII, which was a terrible game anyway; the specific point that I'm referring to is when you find out that all of the characters knew each other as children, but then forgot. It seemed really, really contrived to me at the time, and since I was about 13, that means it was really fucking contrived.

FF8 has the two worst twists, because there's that and there's the whole retarded twist at the end that the real big bad is someone else you never even heard who's thrown in at the last minute.

Like in FF IX. God I hated that.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Planescape: Torment is like awesome twist city. Some of my favorites:

Spoiler: Pharrod and the Bronze Sphere

Pharrod wanted you to get the bronze sphere because the practical incarnation of The Nameless One had told him Pharrod could use as part of Pharrod's plan to avoid dying and being punished in the afterlife.

This was a lie; the bronze sphere is actually a sensate memory container with lost memories from the first incarnation, and your practical incarnation was just manipulating Pharrod into finding it for him. When Pharrod finds out you lost your memory, he manipulates you into getting it for him, which is amusingly ironic because it's actually useless to him, and The Nameless One was the one who wanted it found all along.

If you retreive it from his corpse, and carry it to the end to find this out, you can use it, and get a ton of exp. Plus, you can feel the first incarnation's regret.

Spoiler: Dakkon and the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon

If you study the teachings in this artifact with a very high int and wis, you can help Dakkon gain a better understanding of the teachings of Zerthimon, and in return he renews his pledge to aid you to the death.

This artifact was given to him by the practical incarnation, and if you ask him about it when you meet him in the Fortress of Regrets, he reveals it's a fake, made up by him purely to manipulate Dakkon into following him. Looks like it worked well twice over

Plus there's so many twists about your history and your involvement with the other characters.

 

[PureChaos]

bad:
Star Wars: Force Unleashed. Who didn't see that one coming?
Reiko's ending in Mortal Kombat 4. He stands there, a portal opens, he walks into it, the portal coses, credits role.
did anyone think the ending to Perfect Dark was a bit of a letdown?

Good: Golden Sun, i really hope they do 3
Twilight Princess. she broke it, how could she?
Breath of Fire 2, play it, you'll see
Snowboard Kids, its not really an ending but its funny

how do you do those spoiler tag drop-downs?

 

[CmdrGoob]

Just write (spoiler="text you want to show")text you want to hide(/spoiler), but use square brackets instead of the round brackets.

 

[GuerrillaClock]

best - Second Sight

Spoiler

Where you find that you aren't having flashbacks, but the flashbacks are actually the present and you're having a twisted vision of the future.

worst - Bioshock

Spoiler

for being EXACTLY the same as System Shock 2... for shame.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Worst plot twist:
Neverwinter nights 1: When Lady Aribeth turns evil, I mean, That was so expected, At the first episode when you find clues about that Cult, When you get the idea that the cult has a symbol of an eye, And then at the end of the first chapter, You see a cinematic with Lady Aribeth holding a sword that's on it's hilt was the symbol of the cult.

It's far worse when her identical clone with a lightsabre, Bastila, does the same thing in KotOR, because you could see it coming a mile off (She even says in the trailer/intro "I'll never turn to the dark side", to which the audience inevitably must respond "oh yes you will", pantomime style, and because she gets captured in a stupid scripted sequence by jumping in to "save you" in a fight where you're scraping the decks with Darth Chinless' face.

FF8 has the two worst twists, because there's that and there's the whole retarded twist at the end that the real big bad is someone else you never even heard who's thrown in at the last minute.

The end of disc 2 of a four disc game is a funny definition of "last minute". Most people would consider that to be "half way".

 

[Zeldadudes]

Bioshock has an awesome plot twist...one which I will not go into detail on, as i feel even putting it in spoiler tags would spoiler it somewhat

Definitely Bioshock but also Pokemon Mystery Dungeon... Yes yes i know its sad but it has to be said! That game had an epic plot twist.

Worst... Hmmm thats quite a difficult one... Probably FF8 - As loads of people have said, who didn't see that coming haha

 

[Arionis]

Worst.

Not sure, but most recent is Mirror's Edge.

Spoiler: This is what I mean

Finding out Celest was the sniper. Duh. Heck, even when Merc yelled "He's getting away!" I almost screamed in annoyance "That's a chick, moron. OUR chick."
Then Jackknife actually being a bad guy too.

Another worst, Morrowind: Tribunal

Spoiler: Stupid Goddess

Who didn't think that the Goddess would end up betraying you? All the bull she'd been doing recently should have been an alarm

And now a word *I mean worst* from Oblivion.

Spoiler: Vampire Hunters

Two instances of this. One in the Elven Gardens district in which a man says that a girl he was having an affair with was killed by a vampire. He sends you out to a hut to kill the guy, who then tells the truth and sends you back, where you find the quest giver waiting in full armor to kill you. Also, in Bruma I believe, a man is killed by a "vampire hunter" as is another in Cheydinhall. Turns out the three of them were all old buddies with a treasure. Need I go on?

Oh, and FFXII. Don't even need to say it, do I?

Never really had a GOOD plot twist.

 

[Woe Is You]

Worst plot twist:
Neverwinter nights 1: When Lady Aribeth turns evil, I mean, That was so expected, At the first episode when you find clues about that Cult, When you get the idea that the cult has a symbol of an eye, And then at the end of the first chapter, You see a cinematic with Lady Aribeth holding a sword that's on it's hilt was the symbol of the cult.

It's far worse when her identical clone with a lightsabre, Bastila, does the same thing in KotOR, because you could see it coming a mile off (She even says in the trailer/intro "I'll never turn to the dark side", to which the audience inevitably must respond "oh yes you will", pantomime style, and because she gets captured in a stupid scripted sequence by jumping in to "save you" in a fight where you're scraping the decks with Darth Chinless' face.

Thankfully that wasn't the big plot twist in that game. The bigger one was far better.

 

[Gahars]

"No, Jon - You are the alien!"

In all seriousness, probably MGS2 would be my candidate for the worst.

The ending is so infamously convuluted that it makes it difficult to follow.

Best is either Bioshock or Kotor.

 

[Supernovajake]

"No, Jon - You are the alien!"

In all seriousness, probably MGS2 would be my candidate for the worst.

The ending is so infamously convuluted that it makes it difficult to follow.

Best is either Bioshock or Kotor.

"And then Jon was an alien. Teh Edn?". Who saw that coming?
Anyway I personally think the Hitman: Blood Money twist at the end was very well done. I didn't see it coming anyway.

 

[n01d34]

I loathe plot twists in general. Basically they all amount to the writer saying to the audience 'Ha ha I tricked you, you're stupid.' Which is even worse when you see it coming, in which case the writer is saying 'I underestimated your intelligence because I thought I was so much cleverer then I really am'.

Anyway the worst is Monkey Island 2. Way to ruin one of the greatest adventure game series ever chuckleheads.

 

[Scumsberg]

When Fallout 3 forced you to kill yourself (or Lyons) despite giving you three radiation immune companions (Fawkes, Charon and the robot). Fawkes actually told me suicide was my destiny and he wouldn't interfere with it - despite that he could have prevented anyone from dying with no risk to himself.

What the fuck, Bethesda?

 

[excessum ado]

Bioshock-That shocking twist that im sure everyone remembers so well I dont even have to describe it.

Also Castlevania SOTN-finding out that 'Alucard' The main character is 'Dracula' spelt backwards.

 

[gigastrike]

Worst:

Spoiler

Super Mario: Sunshine, when baby bowser claims that peach is his mama. Peach is all like "I am?" and I'm like "HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW IF YOU ARE OR AREN'T!?"

 

[PaladinKnight02]

Best:
1.) Tales of Symphonis
2.) Knights of the Old Republic