Top 10 Video Game Plot Twists That Make No Sense
#10: “It’s Not a Lake… It’s an Ocean”
Top 20 Worst Video Game Plot Twists
“Alan Wake” (2009) This shadowy shooter had a mysterious plot that often stayed out of Wake’s, and the player’s, reach. As he searches for explanations and his missing wife Alice, it becomes harder and harder to tell what’s real, what’s a dream, and what’s somewhere in between. Players finally hoping for a resolution to the story they’ve spent so much time unravelling, were disappointed by that final line, with nobody definitively understanding what it means. There are plenty of theories, sure, but a concrete answer has never been provided – though some DLCs did attempt to tie things up.
#9: Dante’s Double-Sided Coin
Devil May Cry: Dante's Origin
“Devil May Cry 2” (2003) Throughout this controversial entry to the series, antihero Dante uses a coin toss to make his decisions – namely about whether or not he’s going to help those in need. The player, like the characters Dante runs into, thinks he’s only choosing to help out based on the arbitrary flip of a coin, but you eventually discover that the coin is a joke; it’s double-sided with the logo for the Devil May Cry shop on both sides. While some people liked this twist and how it tied into some of the game’s most climactic moments, others felt a little “short-changed” by Dante going to the trouble of flipping a coin and pretending he’s making a decision.
#8: Vocal Cords Parasites
“Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” (2015) At first glance, the idea that a parasite could burrow into somebody’s throat and lie undetected for weeks as it pretends to be their vocal cords is just gross, but a deeper reading makes the entire concept fall apart. The larva being able to step in as someone’s vocal chords this convincingly is strange enough on its own, but add the fact that they only start reproducing after exposure to a specific language – first; Kikongo, then later English. That’s an absurd reach, because as languages have evolved over centuries, certain words that have no initial meaning in one language, have adopted said words from foreign languages to fill gaps. So if Skull Face only wanted to target English speakers, he would cause a lot more damage than he intended.
#7: Cereza is Bayonetta as a Child
“Bayonetta” (2009) It wasn’t exactly hard for anyone to work out that there was a connection between Bayonetta and Cereza, the young girl she spends much of the game looking after, the game foreshadows this far too much by referring to Bayonetta as Cereza, and let’s be honest; “Cereza” isn’t exactly a common name. But the actual revelation that Cereza is Bayonetta as a child was bizarrely swept under the rug. While Cereza’s presence is integral to the present-day Bayonetta unlocking the power of the Left Eye within herself, she just takes Cereza back to her own period with no explanation as to how she’s able to create a time travelling portal. That’s one hell of a handwave.
#6: Aerith’s Death
Saddest Video Game Death of All Time - Aerith
“Final Fantasy VII” (1997) As if Cloud needed another reason to hate Sephiroth after he already destroyed Cloud’s entire village. During an early encounter with the villain, Sephiroth takes it upon himself to brutally murder Aerith. Since you were led to believe that Aerith is an important character, and you’ve probably already put a lot of skill points into her, this is upsetting on multiple levels. But adding insult to injury is the fact that you can’t just use a Phoenix Down to resurrect her after Sephiroth runs her through with his sword. You use them for the whole game, but when the narrative requires a death they’re rendered useless.
#5: The Internet is a Living Thing
Top 10 Huge Video Game Plot Holes That Make No Sense
“Indigo Prophecy” (2005) This game’s opening makes for a highly compelling mystery. Main character Lucas has murdered a man in a bathroom and doesn’t know why. All he DOES know is that he needs to get out without alerting the cops. But about midway through the game, this intriguing story begins to fall apart with one crazy plot twist after another. It turns out that the cops and the Mayan Oracle who forced Lucas to kill aren’t the only ones he needs to worry about – the internet is after him as well. Not people on the Internet, the Internet itself. Supposedly it’s made up of a group of AIs who want to destroy the world via an eternal, global snowstorm. Whaaaat?
#4: The Reapers’ True Motivation
Top 20 Greatest Video Game Plot Twists
“Mass Effect 3” (2012) Every 50,000 years, the mysterious Reapers arrive to purge the galaxy of advanced sentient life, leaving primitive civilizations trying to piece together what happened to those who came before. It’s not until the very end of the game, that some ghost kid who resembles the one you saw die, poorly explains their reason why: To stop prevent artificial life from wiping out all organic life. This would be a great example of AI gone awry, if not for one problem: the conclusion of the Geth/Quarian arch proves that actually, organics and synthetics are more than capable of living harmoniously. Thus making the Reapers – a solution to a hypothetical problem – basically unnecessary … and hypocritical.
#3: Melissa Bergman is Mother Brain
“Metroid: Other M” (2010) The long-established lore of the “Metroid” games was, by most accounts, ruined by the 2010 entry to the series. The person you know as Dr. Madeline Bergman for the majority of the game is, in fact, Melissa Bergman. If this twist seems lacklustre, it only gets worse from there. Melissa Bergman is an AI created by Madeline Bergman, and not just any AI, an android clone of Mother Brain, who just so happens to have the exact same initials. You know, the same Mother Brain who looked like this in her last appearance. That’s some crazy suspension of disbelief. Worse still, the foreshadowing was painfully obvious given the repeated drop of the initials “MB”, yet Samus’s inability to put two and two together is just one of the reasons people hate this game.
#2: Scott Shelby is the Origami Killer
Does Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Deserve To Be Brought Back From The Dead?
“Heavy Rain” (2010) For most of the game, we’re set up to believe Ethan is the killer. He’s the one who has the spooky blackouts and wakes up with origami in his hand, after all. But it turns out that Scott Shelby has been the real killer all along, using his “investigation” as a cover to retrieve evidence. This could have worked if not for a few problems. We’re meant to believe that he had time to go kill Manfred all while Lauren is briefly distracted, and then his internal monologue is him wondering who could have possibly done it while he gets rid of their fingerprints. Not to mention it undermines the entire purpose Kramer party story arch, where Scott needless put Lauren in danger.
#1: Mechanical Arm is Your Wife
“Bionic Commando” (2009) Prior to the events of the game, Major Nathan Spencer’s wife, Emily, goes missing, and his attempts to find her drive much of the plot. Imagine the shock when you, and Nathan, find out that Emily was emotional catalyst linking Nathan to his giant, bionic arm. Meaning; They literally put her brain inside the thing so that Nate and his appendage can “sync” together. Even more absurd is that Emily actually agreed to this irreversible procedure. Meaning she literally gave up her whole life, just so that her husband could have an advanced prosthetic arm. Sure some of us may want to do that if a loved one needed a vital organ, but not an arm. Come On!
