Surprising plot twists and turns are the lifeblood of some of the best role-playing games ever made, as well as of some that are not as beloved. Some plot twists work as masterful gut punches that completely turn the story on its head, whereas some others make it spin out of control and go completely off the rails. The JRPG genre features twists that range from genius to bizarre.
Luckily, all types of plot twists can be great, so long as they’re memorable. Nothing is too dumb, as long as it’s surprising and engaging enough. Here’s a look at some of the biggest plot twists in JRPGs.
Final Fantasy 8: The Orphanage Twist
Outlandish and Widely Criticized
Final Fantasy 8 starts off by introducing the SeeD, an elite military mercenary group that’s somehow composed of teens. When players start the game, these mercenaries don’t know each other, but they end up meeting on a basketball field where the truth is finally revealed. The big reveal is that all these soldiers grew up together as friends in the same orphanage.
The reason they no longer knew each other a few years later is because it turns out Guardian Forces (the word FF8 uses for its summons) occupy a part of the user’s brain that’s responsible for storing memories, meaning that they cause memory loss. This is one of the most lambasted plot twists in video gaming history — and likely the most lambasted in Final Fantasy history.
The Death of Aerith, Final Fantasy 7
Still One Of The Most Tragic Deaths In Gaming History
Final Fantasy 7
- Released
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January 31, 1997
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Back in 1997, there was likely no one playing Final Fantasy 7 who didn’t get flabbergasted when they found out no phoenix down could bring Aerith back after she inevitably gets impaled by Sephiroth. It was a shocking moment that dealt a huge blow to players everywhere, making it one of the most iconic and devastating moments of the franchise.
Now, over 30 years later, Square Enix has proven that it remains just as shocking as it ever was. The developers tinkered a bit with the formula in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, just enough to make players think they could change things this time around, only to reveal there was no way of really preventing this event. This is absolutely one for the history books.
Persona 5: Betrayed By A Seemingly Trustworthy Ally
You Never Know Who To Trust
Betrayals are the most common, and surprisingly, still one of the most efficient types of plot twists in anime. Persona 5 absolutely needed one of these in its quest to become the best anime-inspired video game to ever exist.
Anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled should play the game and have a blast with its twists and turns. For those who don’t care about spoilers: it’s Igor. Despite his peculiar in-game appearance, he seems more than loyal and capable at his job. However, he has serious motives of his own that will clash with those of the main party — and of everyone who wants to keep their apparent free will.
Earthbound: It’s Aliens
And Quite An Encounter
Earthbound
- Released
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June 5, 1995
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Crude Humor
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
If there’s one thing that’s sure to sadden the “I want to believe” types out there, it’s that aliens are never the explanation to whatever mystery they’re trying to solve. In Earthbound, however, aliens are indeed the explanation, and they make quite the dent in this story.
The game mostly plays as a cute, child-friendly RPG adventure where a group of kids set out to solve a neighborhood mystery. But instead of a peculiar but mostly harmless threat, the final battle in this game ditches the colorful palette and cute character designs to have the player’s POV stare straight up into a red and black nightmare. There, they see Giygas, an entity so alien that the game barely even attempts to explain it. This isn’t just one of the wildest plot twists in terms of storytelling, but also one of the boldest final boss encounters of all time.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – The Organ Trafficking Mission
Pokémon Would Never
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is a Digimon spinoff about solving mysteries, so it’s naturally a bit darker than what one would expect out of Digimon. But there’s one moment when it gets way darker than anyone would’ve expected. In a mission called “Living Doll, Dead Body,” players learn that someone is luring people via human-shaped dolls so they can capture them and take their bodies, possibly for organ-harvesting purposes.
Though the player gets to stop this operation at some point, that’s not before the group’s last victim finds himself stuck in cyberspace with no body to go back to. This would be grim even in Cyberpunk 2077, let alone Digimon.
Chrono Cross: Everybody From Chrono Trigger Is Probably Dead
Fan Disappointment In An Otherwise Great Game
Plenty of lists on the internet cite the death of the main character from Chrono Trigger as a super plot twist, even though that’s only temporary, unlike Aerith. Still, that’s actually something that happens for fans of Chrono Trigger who stick around to play Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross, much like its predecessor, is one of the greatest games of all time. Unlike its predecessor, however, Cross suggests that Crono died. This could be a perfect set up for him to show up later, but nope. He’s absent throughout the entire game, and then the game has players filling the shoes of a completely different cast of characters. Did everyone else die as well? Maybe that question is best left unanswered.
Vagrant Story: The Answer To The Game’s Biggest Mystery
It’s All Up To Interpretation
Vagrant Story
- Released
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May 15, 2000
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Animated Violence
- Developer(s)
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Square
- Publisher(s)
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Square
Near the start of Vagrant Story, a cutscene shows the family of the protagonist, Ashley Riot, getting murdered by a bunch of armed thugs. It’s a potent origin story, though a pretty commonplace one. Vagrant Story doesn’t like clichés that much, so it later shows a cutscene where the one doing the murders is none other than Ashley himself.
Best of all, this isn’t even the real twist. The game never reveals which of the flashbacks is true — or even if any of them are. As the game posits, it might all be part of an elaborate implanted memory scheme, and the game deliberately never reveals the truth. That’s one of the boldest story choices ever put into a game, and quite a way of saying “forget the past, enjoy the amazing game instead.”
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