Top 10 Lists : The Top 10 Most Shocking Plot Twists And Moments In RPGs *SPOILERS*

Legend of Dragoon starts out with Dart's town destroyed and his childhood friend and love interest, Shana, kidnapped. Dart bravely goes of on a quest to save her and along the way ends up saving the world from destruction. Sound just like any other RPG? But wait, along Dart's journey we learn that Dart's childhood hometown was destroyed as well, but this time it was from an evil being known as "The Black Monster." Dart swore to hunt the Black Monster down and it is his life's goal. To help Dart's on his journey he is guided by a mysterious woman named Rose, who has lived since ancient times and does not age. Oh and by the way she is the dragoon of darkness who awakens Dart as the dragoon of fire. Dragoons are warriors that with the powers of the dragons saved man kind long ago. Dart eventually learns on his journey that the Black Monster appears every one hundred years to hunt down and kill someone called the moon child. However Dart finds out near the end of his journey that the Black Monster made a mistake in killing the moon child last time because the moon child was a twin. The twin that lived just happens to be Shana, Dart's girlfriend. If that is not bad enough as Dart learns this he finds out that the Black Monster he had been chasing this whole time was in fact Rose! Dart then learns that if the moon child is not killed by the Black Monster every one hundred years the world ends. So as you can see Dart was in a major pickle. In the end he does not take his revenge on Rose and ends up saving the world and Shana as well. Good plot twist and a happy ending.

Valkyria Chronicles is an RPG that takes place in an alternate time line from our own around the time of the 1930s-1940s during WWII. The story is just part of a much larger war going on involving all of Europa (our Europe). The main characters in this game are Welkin Gunther and Alicia Melchiott, who like oh so many other RPGs see their hometown destroyed and occupied by an evil empire. Welkin and Alicia join the militia in response to the empires invasion of their country, Gallia. Welkin ends up as the commanding officer of Squad Seven with Alicia as his second in command. After joining Welkin learns that his College buddy and best friend Faldio also is a commanding officer of another squad. As the war goes on Squad Seven wins many victories all thanks to Welkins unusual but effective tactics. Romance sparks between Welkin and Alicia and every thing seems to be going well as Gallia starts to push the empire back to the border. However things take a sudden turn for the worse when the enemy fields a Valkyria, a human race that vanished long ago that held unbelievable power. The Valkyria is Selvaria a commander for the empire and bodyguard of Maximilian the imperial prince who is leading the invasion of Gallia. To make matters worse Alicia gets shot by a sniper and is wounded and wont wake up. Welkin is told that Alica was shot by a Gallian sniper rifle round, meaning that someone from their side shot Alicia. Welkin is ordered to the front lines against the Valkyria while having to leave Alicia back at the armies main camp unaware as to who or why someone from Gallia would shot one of their own. As Gallia's armies continue to be decimated by Selyaria's unstoppable onslaught all hope seems lost when Alicia arrives glowing in a blue flame just like Selvaria. It turns out that Alicia was a Valkyria as well. An epic battle ensues in a cut scene between Slevaria and Alicia with Alicia coming out as the victor. Gallia ends up winning the battle but Welkin is left with questions unanswered. It turns out that Alicia was shot by Faldio and the reason for doing so was that he discovered that Alicia was a Valkyira through his research and that the the Valkyira's power only awakens when they are near death. Faldio is placed in prison until further notice while Welkin and Alicia are sent to the front lines again. As the story continues Alicia decides not to use her powers again and Faldio redeems himself by saving Welkin and Alicia's lives and taking down the Imperial prince Maximilian.

Final Fantasy X starts out with another main character's hometown being destroyed. Tidus was a blitzball star like his father, Jecht, before him who disappeared when he was a kid. In the middle of a blitzball game Tidus's hometown is attacked by a gaint monster known as Sin. To make matters worse he is thrown a thousand years into the future. Tidus learns that Sin is still alive and well in the future and that the only way to defeat Sin, although temporary is with a summoner. Tidus becomes one of a group of guardians to a summoner named Yuna. Yuna who recently became as summoner must go on a journey and make pacts with powerful summon creatures known as Aeons as part of training to obtain the final Aeon that can defeat sin just like her father defeated sin before her. Tidus also learns that is father, Jecht, was a guardian to Yuna's father on his summoners journey to defeat Sin. The place were Yuna is to obtain this final aeon happens to be in Tidus's hometown which is now just ruins of a city destroyed a thousand years earlier. Tidus cheer's up the group with his happy go lucky attitude. They need it because they know something that he does not, that Yuna will die when she summons the final aeon. When Tidus finds out that the girl he loves has to die to beat sin, he naturally is frustrated, but still goes along at Yuna's wishes to continue her journey. When they finally get to the place were they are to obtain the final aeon the group learns that one of Yuna's guardians has to become the final aeon and that, that final aeon would eventually become the next sin. Tidus also learns that his own father who was Yuna's father's guardian is the current Sin. Tidus and Yuna then resolve themselves to defeat Sin without the final aeon and break the cycle. They succeed but unfortunately Tidus dies to do so. Don't worry if you get the good ending in FFX-2 hes brought back to life but that's another story.

My personal favorite RPG for the PS2 Persona 4. There is simply too many plot twists in this game to count so ill just give you and overview. This RPG starts out with the main character going to live with his uncle and cousin in a rural area of modern day japan for a year since his parents are going overseas for work for a year. As soon as the main character (Silent protagonist whose name you choose) moves into town strange murders start to happen that baffle the police. As the main character is making friends at his new high school a rumor starts spreading that if you stair at a T.V.that is turned off at midnight after it rains and the fog rolls in you will see your sole mate. The main character and his friends test this rumor and sure enough a girl appears on the screen. Not only that but when the main character touches the T.V. screen he is almost sucked into the T.V. lucky for him that time the T.V. was too small for him to fit. The next day his friends at school report that they saw the girl on the T.V. as well. The find out later that day that girl on the T.V. disappeared, and later was found hung upside down dead on a telephone pole. Thinking that this "Midnight Channel" and the murders cannot be just a coincidence. The group of friends take it upon themselves to investigate and catch the killer. On their investigation they find out that they can enter T.V.'s and obtain the power of persona by facing and overcoming their "Shadow" in the world inside the T.V. Every lead they get in their investigation seems to bring more questions rather then answers. To make matters worse the fog that has been appearing in the real world keeps getting worse. Eventually they find out that a lot more is at then just a murder mystery as when they finally discover the killer he reveals that the world will soon end. Ordinary people start acting strange as the fog does not go away and spreads across the world. Things start looking bad but the group of teens defeats the killer and the fog lifts in the real world. Good work you saved the world right? Wrong!
Depending on how well you have been following the mystery up to this point you realize that one question remains unanswered. Depending on your dialog choices you can get the true ending which you fight the real source of all the supernatural occurrences and save the world for good.

What plot twist and shocking moments would be complete without Final Fantasy VII. Any fan of RPGs or has to have heard of Final Fantasy VII. Many fans to this day still call it the greatest RPG of all time. FFVII had everything you could ask for in an RPG, a griping story, a great main villain, lovable characters, a main character with a huge sword, and of course shocking moment. The moment I'm talking about is the death of Aeris one of the main characters halfway through the game. FFVII was the second major RPG to break and unwritten rule of killing off one of the main playable characters. Which was the first one? That is the next one on the list.

Anyone that played RPG's on the Super Nintendo has heard of Chrono Trigger. The game is about a group of accidental time travelers that learn of their world ending in their future at the hands of a creature known as Lavos. Chrono Trigger takes the player on a journey though time on a quest to save the world's future. The main character is called Crono and he like the main character in many other RPG's is a silent protagonist. So were does the plot twist come in Chrono Trigger? Well like with Final Fantasy VII one of the main playable characters dies, and not just any character, the main character himself Crono! So how does the story continue when your main character dies right in the middle of the game? Simple the main characters friends travel through time to find a way to bring him back. The do so by traveling back to the moment before Crono was vaporized by Lavos and freeze time. Then they pull Crono aside and replace him with a doll that looks like him. After that Crono is back in action as if he never died in the first place. The party then goes on to defeat lavos and prevent the worlds destruction.

My personal favorite RPG series is the Lufia series. The Lufia series is a lesser known RPG series that has all the stuff that any great RPG series has. First let me answer a few commonly asked questions about the Lufia series. Lufia & the Fortress of Doom was released a few years before Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. However Lufia & the fortress of Doom's main story takes place one hundred years after the events of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. In fact very beginning of Lufia & the fortress of Doom is the ending and final battles of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Anyway Lufia & the fortress of Doom begins with the worlds greatest heroes, Guy a human wariror, Artea the elven warrior, Selan the sorceress and her husband and, the leader of the group Maxim in the final fight against four evil gods calling themselves the Sinistrals. The four sinistrals, Gades the god of destruction, Amon the god of chaos, Erim the goddess of death, and Daos the leader of the Sinistrals and God of terror, decided that humans must be destroyed for reasons that are told in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. They terrorize humans from their island that floats in the sky called Doom island. Maxim and the group battle with the four gods at the start Lufia & the Fortress of Doom finally defeating the Sinistral. Their victory is bittersweet as Doom island starts to fall only Guy and Artea manage to escape as Maxim stays with his fallen wife Selan and the island crashes. Fast forward about one hundred years and you have the main character (you choose his name) of Lufia & the Fortress of Doom who is a descendant of Maxim and Selan working as a Knight in a peaceful kingdom and living with his childhood friend and love interest Lufia. The main character is wary of the peaceful life of he is living knowing how hard life was for his ancestors when they battled the sinistrals. While going out for training he visits a neighboring kingdom only to find out that it was destroyed by a single man. When he reports back to his kingdom he learns that it will take far too long to assemble the rest of the knights investigate and takes matters into his own hands. Upon returning to the destroyed kingdom the main character rescues the king and as they are escaping the man the destroyed the kingdom appears before him. The main character battles with the man who reveals himself to be Gades the god of destruction. Gades defeats the main character with ease but before he can finish him off is stopped by Lufia. Upon seeing Lufia Gades leaves. The main character then starts on a journey to get the sword his ancestors used to the defeat the Sinistrals, called the Dual blade. During his quest however he learns that even if he defeats one of the Sinistrals as long as Erim the goddess of death lives the other Sinistrals will be revived as well. Too make matters worse Daos the leader kidnaps Lufia and reveals to the main character that Lufia is actually Erim and reawakens Erim's memory! The main character obtains the dual blade and does battle with the Sinistrals. With the final battle against Daos the main character calls out to Lufia and brings her back to her senses. To gather they defeat Daos. Lufia then turns to the main character and tells him to slay her so that the Sinistrals wont be resurrected by Erim's power. The main character says he could never do so but the Dual blade (which has a will of its own) leaps from his hands and cuts Lufia down. Lufia then falls from Doom Island and the main character and the rest of the party escape. The credits roll and then a scene shows that says one year later. The main character visiting a village with Lufia's favorite flowers they had visited on their journey. The main character is then in shock as he sees Lufia. Lufia does not recognize the main character but is quick to introduce him to her grandfather who the main character met before on the journey. He tells the main character that Lufia showed up a year ago with no memory of her past. The story then ends with the main character saying "That's alright we will make new memories." The creators of the Lufia series liked the plot twist of the main heroine being Erim that the used the same plot twist in the third game of the series on the game boy color, Lufia the Legend Returns, which takes place one hundred years after Lufia and the Fortress of Doom.

Some RPG's hold their plot twist until the very end of the game. Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the second game in the Shadow Hearts series. It takes place a few mouths after the "Bad ending" in Shadow Hearts one. The main characters name is Yuri and the setting is in an alternate time line during WWI. The main difference between our world and the world of Shadow Hearts is that magic, monsters, and demons are common place. In Shadow Hearts one Yuri saves the world like most RPGs however Yuri is no ordinary human. Yuri is a Harmonixer, he can collect the souls of the monsters he defeats and use those souls power to turn into monsters himself. Being a Harmonixer however is a double edged sword. The monsters souls he collects build up malice represented by four masks in his soul. These masks curse Yuri and eventually the curse of the masks with kill him. Yuri's girlfriend, Alice, however sacrificed herself so the masks took her soul instead of Yuri's and she dies at the end of Shadow Hearts one. Yuri is unable to forgive himself for Alice's death and decides to protect the near were Alice was buried from the German army that is invading France were the town is located. Karin Koenig a German army officer is tasked with defeating the "Demon of Domeremy" who is actually Yuri. After being defeated once by Yuri. Karin is helped by a someone from the Vatican named Nicolai to exorcise the demon. However as they confront Yuri they are caught up in a conspiracy from a secret society that Nicolai is a member of and Karin winds up joining Yuri on his quest to stop the secret society from destroying the world. Nicolai also cursed Yuri with the Holy Mistletoe an item that destroys a soul by slowly destroying the memories of the one it has cursed. Near the end of the journey the final boss of the game reveals that he plans on going back into time one hundred years to shape the current world as he sees fit. Before the final battle Karin confesses her love to Yuri, but she knows that Yuri only loves Alice. In the final fight the party is sent back to their own time. Unfortunately Yuri stays behind and dies, so that he can die with his memories intact. Unlike the rest of the party however, Karin is send back a few years before Yuri is born. The scene ends with Yuri's father discovering Karin who is holding a picture given to Karin by Yuri's aunt in the future that shows Karin, Yuri's father, and a young Yuri.
The game drops clues along the way that Karin is Yuri's mother that do not come together until the very end. So on your second play through you pick up on them. Talk about an unusual plot twist.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic takes place thousands of years before the Star Wars movies. Its a time were the Jedi and the Republic are fighting the Sith. Your main character starts out as a republic soldier on a ship attacked by the Sith. You escape and land on a planet that the Sith have occupied. You and your companions are searching for Bastila a Jedi that was on your ship that you were in charge of protecting. Eventually you find Bastila who tells you that you have the potential to become a Jedi. You train as a Jedi and in record time breeze through the training and become one. After becoming a Jedi you go on a journey to many planets searching for clues to find the hidden base of the Sith and eventually confront their leader Darth Malak. Darth Malak was the apprentice of Darth Revan until he betrayed and killed him by firing on his ship after the Jedi boarded and confronted him. Bastila was one of the Jedi who boarded the ship the fight Darth Revan. She escaped and has been fighting the Sith ever since then. Near the end of the game you confront Darth Malak with Bastila were he reveals that you are in fact Darth Revan himself! Bastila and the other Jedi had erased your memories using the force, they were keeping this a secret all along. That was why you breezed through your Jedi training since you already had done it before. The game had dropped hints before that you were Darth Revan, like Shadow Hearts: Covenant, they do not come together until the very end. What you do with this information that you are Revan is up to you. Like most Bioware games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has tons of dialog choices. You can be angry with Bastila and the Jedi for keeping this from you or you can even thank her for giving you a chance to redeem yourself.

Here we are the biggest plot twist yet. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was the third in the series to be released out of the four games in the Star Ocean series. Its worth noting that even though Star Ocean: Last Hope was the latest to be released, it is a prequel to all the other Star Ocean games and does not mention or hint anything about Star Ocean: Till the End of Time's plot twist. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time plot twist really makes you think, and its almost scary just to think about especially if you play video games. Like all Star ocean games it takes place within our own time line a few hundred years into the future and is a science fiction based story. Star Ocean games try to make things seem as scientifically plausible as possible. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time even has an encyclopedia in game explaining everything from how symbology (this games version of magic and spells) works to the hyper drives on the games star ships. By this time in the Star Ocean series mankind has developed the use of symbology, which lets them basically use spells and magic. The story starts out with the main character, Fayt Leingod, vacationing on a resort planet with his family and friends when it falls under attack by the Vendeen, an extremely technologically advanced alien race. During the attack Fayt is separated from his family and friends and he boards and evacuation ship. The Vendeen attack the evacuation ship and Fayt is forced into and escape pod that lands on an underdeveloped planet. Underdeveloped planets are planets with civilizations that have not yet reach a technological level that merits them to be welcomed into the intergalactic community. It is illegal to make contact with citizens of underdeveloped planets unless its an emergency. Fayt travels from planet to planet all the while being chased down by the Vendeen. Eventually on his journey Fayt and his companions discover why the Vendeen are after them. The Vendeen call Fayt "The enemy of the Galaxy" the reason being that Fayt and his childhood friends had symbological genetic experiments done on them when they were born. What reason you ask? We will get to that in a bit. It turns out that the Vendeen do not like anything to do with symbology as it angers the "gods." Which is why they are so relentless in hunting down Fayt and his companions. Before Fayt can confront the Vendeen about this the "gods" make their presence known. Beings appear throughout the Milky way galaxy calling them selves proclaimers and executioners. They devastate the galactic federation and destroy planet earth. During the executioners attack, Fayt and his companions learn that Fayts parents learned about the existence of 4D beings. Now before I continue it is important to note that we exist in 3D or the third dimension. The same holds true for the Star Ocean storyline. Fayts parents learned of these 4D beings that created the third dimension. They also learned that because the inhabitants of the Milkyway galaxy stumbled upon power they were not meant to have(symbology) the 4D beings scheduled all life in the Milkyway galaxy to be deleted. They are deleting all life with the executioners. The Vendeen with their super advanced technology also had learned of this which is why they tried to appease the 4D beings by eliminating symbology and anyone that uses it. Rather then just be destroyed Fayts parents with their knowledge of symbological genetics, gave Fayt and his childhood friends the power to enter the 4th dimension to try to convince or stop the 4D beings from destroying all life in the galaxy. Fayt and his friends enter the 4th dimension but it is not what they expect. In the 4th dimension they learn the most shocking plot twist of all. That they do not actually exist. That they along with everything in the 3rd dimension are just data and NPCs (Non Player Characters) in an MMORPG called "The Eternal Sphere." Residents of the 4th dimension play with their dimension as we would a video game. They also learn that the Milkyway galaxy of the Eternal Sphere is under "maintenance" and that the executioners are just a "patch" to fix bugs like symbology. Fayt and his companions join up with a faction in the Sphere company that is opposed to the massacre in the Eternal Sphere. Since they created artificial intelligence in the Eternal Sphere that believed it was alive and could think for itself and learn they did not see any difference between the 3D beings and 4D beings. Unfortunately the head of the Sphere company, Luther, is bent on the destruction of all life in the Milky way and logs back into the Eternal Sphere and Fayt and his companions fight Luther. However there efforts are in vain as after the battle Luther decides to delete the Eternal Sphere. However your friends back and the sphere company must have backed up the character data because everyone exists as they were. All the characters in the Milkyway retain their perception of the universe so nothing changes, or that since they had achieved a certain level of intelligence they could not be deleted, the true reason they still exist is not entirely clear. However the executioners are gone and although many died throughout the galaxy there are still survivors and life goes on.

Did you understand all that? It may be hard to take in all at once. Makes you think though, we have already created virtual worlds in MMORPGS like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI. The only step left is to invent artificial intelligence that can learn and think and program them to think that they are alive. Scary! Lets just hope that companies like Blizzard and Square Enix know what they are doing if they ever make a future MMORPG like the Eternal Sphere.

Well their you have it the top 10 list of my opinion of the most shocking moments and plot twists in RPGs. All these games have excellent stories and I highly recommend any of the games mentioned above. Especially the Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals for SNES its my favorite RPG of all time. As for Star Ocean: Till the end of time I actually wrote a paper for my philosophy class based on the plot twist. I succeeded into scaring my class about the future of gaming and got an A+ paper.

List by LeviathanXI (06/15/2010)

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