In most stories, including video games, it’s pretty obvious when you’re presented with an important plot element. Something is very clearly emphasized and implied that it is important later on, which encourages you to keep an eye on it. The next level of this is when a story can sneak a major plot element past you without you ever noticing.
Perhaps an important element is disguised as a running joke or a coincidence – or else the characters don’t do anything special to draw your attention to it. When that stealth action gets past you, the final reveal becomes all the more surprising.
9 Aiba’s Zone-Outs – Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
The story of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth reveals that the main character, Takumi/Ami Aiba, has a rather… short attention span. They frequently fall out during long-winded conversations and expositions, often requiring those they are talking to back to reality.
This is played as a joke for the vast majority of the game’s story, but in the final arc it is revealed that these zone outs are not the result of a short attention span. Instead, Aiba’s digital body was gradually breaking down, causing problems with their brain’s processing capacity. As the digital world and the eaters invaded the real world, Aiba’s mind and body slowly deteriorated, and if left unchecked, they would eventually die.
8 Cait Sith’s Abrupt Participation – Final Fantasy 7
When Cloud and his company first meet bizarre feline fortune teller Cait Sith at Gold Saucer, they don’t really have a good rapport. Cait Sith reads an ominous fortune to Cloud and suddenly bursts into the party wanting to see it come true. In most RPGs, it wouldn’t be unusual for a random character to suddenly invade your party, especially if it’s a crazy mascot.
In reality, however, this was a bit of a deception; Cait’s participation seemed forced because his controller, Shinra director Reeve, needed to come up with a reason to follow Cloud at this point, and that was the best he could do in the short term. It only worked because no one would think twice about a crazy mascot following them in an RPG.
7 Ganon’s Grudge – The Legend Of Zelda
In almost every item in the Legend of Zelda series, there is always a Link, there is always a Zelda, and there is always a Ganon. For a long time this went completely inexplicable, except perhaps for a brief nod at the end of Ocarina of Time when the original Ganondorf swears revenge after his defeat. Furthermore, it was just a given that Link, Zelda and Ganon would endlessly dance their dance.
However, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword reveals that it goes much deeper than that. Ganon does not reincarnate based on his own grudge, but rather on the grudge of the original Demon King, Demise. When Demise was defeated by Link, he swore that his hatred would last for centuries and take many forms, all to endlessly torment those with the blood of the goddess Hylia. What has long been assumed to be a lingering grudge of a lone wizard goes much, much deeper than that.
In the first few Metal Gear games, Solid Snake seems to be quite young – late twenties or early thirties. In Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, however, he has aged visibly, possibly as old as his 40s. Originally believed to be a matter of design shifting, an update of Snake’s design between 2D and 3D games. Gray Fox even makes a clumsy joke about it in Metal Gear Solid, saying he’s aged badly.
However, through a conscious choice for the story or a retcon, this was not just a matter of changing designs. Because Snake was a clone of Big Boss, his genetic structure was unstable, leading to severe premature aging. This is why in Metal Gear Solid 4 he looks old enough to be in his 70s, despite being only about half that.
5 Rei’s Apetite – Persona Q: Shadow Of The Labyrinth
Not long into Persona Q’s story, after she’s shaken off her initial shyness, Rei suddenly develops a voracious appetite. As ZEET and the research team show her around the endless school festival, she is thrilled to eat all the snacks on offer and never seems to stop feeling hungry.
What was originally presented as a harmless character trait, however, takes on a darker connotation when the truth about Rei’s identity is revealed – she’s dead. Rei died of a terminal illness long ago and only exists in the endless space of the festival thanks to the extradimensional intervention of her friend Zen. Her constant hunger is actually an impulse from her short-lived body desperately trying to convince itself that she’s still alive.
4 The Pizza Bat Corporation – No more heroes
In the first No More Heroes game, Travis kills the CEO of the Pizza Butt company and his two sons in subsequent appearances. These appearances have no particular pomp to them, with Pizza Butt’s CEO and his sons looking identical to all of their other suitable goons you’ll encounter throughout the game.
It turns out, however, that these seemingly low-key murders sparked the entire chain of events leading up to the second game’s story, as the CEO had one last son, Jasper Batt Jr. Singing for revenge, Jasper transforms Pizza Butt into Pizza Bat, buys out almost all of Santa Destroy, and orders an attack on Travis’s best friend Bishop, all to get revenge for his murdered family.
3 The Mistletoe Arrow – God of War
After rescuing Sindri from the dragon Hræzlyr in God of War, the dwarf rewards Kratos and Atreus with a bundle of braided mistletoe arrows. Neither is particularly impressed with the gift, but they accept it anyway, and when Atreus’ bow belt breaks, Kratos uses one of the arrows to make a buckle for it in a handy moment of father-son bonding.
That one moment of connection proved vital, however, as mistletoe was the only thing that could break the spell of immortality that rested on the Norse god Baldur. When Baldur encounters Atreus in the final arc of the story, he grazes himself on the mistletoe, lifting his curse and making him vulnerable. This weakness was alluded to when Freya burned all the other mistletoe arrows after Atreus showed them to her.
2 Sora and Riku’s Clothes – Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
In Kingdom Hearts 3D, when Sora and Riku are taken to the Sleeping Worlds by Master Yen Sid for their respective Mark of Mastery exams, they discover that their clothing has been magically transformed into new adventure clothing. Sora’s shirt has a large, white X on the front, while Riku’s vest has a Spirit Dream Eater symbol on the back. At first, this just seems like an aesthetic choice with no specific meaning.
However, it is revealed later in the story that both aesthetic choices are very important. Riku has a Dream Eater symbol on his back because his exam is in sora‘s dreams, making him a Dream Eater in his own right. The X on Sora’s shirt is in fact Xehanort’s Recusant’s Sigil, a magical marker he used to trace Sora’s path through the Sleeping Worlds and send it to his claws.
1 Captain Square – Live A Live
In the Distant Future chapter of Live A Live, the crew of the Cogito Ergo Sum meet briefly in the recreation room to discuss with the captain of the ship. During this meeting, the helmsman, Kirk, plays a retro game, Captain Square, in the corner of the room. Cube can play the game by talking to him, but it’s entirely possible to progress through the story without doing so.
However, during the chapter’s climax, that game console becomes an essential tool to stop the ship’s rogue AI, OD-10. The AI controls every single terminal on the ship, the only exception being the game console. Only through that console can Cube hack into the ship’s systems and attack OD-10 directly.
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