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Games where the true villian is hinted at in the beginning (Heavy Spoilers)
- Thread starter Zeta Ori
- Start date
And there's literally no discussion of said character until you reach them.
Metal Gear Solid V
The huge V on the boxart. Looking back in hindsight it was a clear hint for Venom Snake. It was right in front of us the whole time and nobody thought anything of it.
Probably late to the party on this one, but now I'm looking back at the controversy surrounding Kiefer Sutherland ending up as Venom Snake over David Hayter, and am now wondering if that was also another hint just like what's being discussed with Persona 5 in this thread. Solid is a clone of Big Boss so them having the same VA makes sense, but Venom is merely changed to be Big Bosses doppelganger, meaning changing his voice to sound exactly like Big Boss would be much more difficult. It also plays nicely with the whole vocal cord parasite plot point imo.
Pokemon makes it too obvious.
Meeting this guy in Lumoise City jjust screams villain material
Meeting this guy in Lumoise City jjust screams villain material
No, Mario is high on shrooms.
Just think about it:
- Jumping in paintings, thinking it will lead to other worlds
- Talking to purple Bomb-ombs
- Flying along rainbows with a winged cap
- Chasing rabbits in the hallways of the castle
- Thinking a slide appears when he stares at the ceiling long enough
- Thinking the stairs never end
Super Mario Sunshine is basically Mario in rehab but he still sees things (Shadow Mario).
At the end of Super Mario Galaxy the trip ends with a bang until Yoshi convinces him to go down the wrong path again.
In Super Mario 3D World they're all high af, thinking they're cats.
In hindsight Murai makes it a little too obvious imo, but yeah that's another one I had forgotten about.
He does try to kill you with those badass nunchakus. What a great game that was.
This almost ends up working, except the switch to Kiefer happened in Ground Zeroes, when it should have still been Big Boss. If the switch had actually been done at the right time on purpose, it would been a fantastic twist, but it really does seem like it was just because Kojima wanted a name actor.
Now I'm imagining a Legend of Zelda game where it's eventually reveled Zelda is the villain and our pursuit of Ganon is reason Hyrule is dying...
Or they could go a step further and imply that the reason Ganon always comes back is because the players of the game always seek to have a new adventure in this land, making the fans desire to keep playing Zelda games the real enemy of Hyrule...
Or they could go a step further and imply that the reason Ganon always comes back is because the players of the game always seek to have a new adventure in this land, making the fans desire to keep playing Zelda games the real enemy of Hyrule...
Damn, your right. Forgot Kiefer was the VA in Ground Zeros and not just V.
Saints Row 2
GTA San Andreas
You fight all the gangs during the game but the real villain is Dane Vogel who is shown multiple times early .
GTA San Andreas
Frank Tempenny . He looks like the type of guy who will die soon but he is the main antagonist
Tales of Vesperia, to an extent
There's a minor case in The World Ends With You as well:
The game's final boss can be met multiple times as part of a sidequest that spans most of the first half of the game where conversations with him hint at his motives throughout the story. The sidequest can be initiated literally minutes after leaving the first town in the game.
There's a minor case in The World Ends With You as well:
Joshua makes a blink and you'll miss it appearance at the very start of the game in a single scene, and most players will completely miss it the first time through. The reason for him even being there isn't explained until his involvement in the grand scheme of things is revealed near the end of the game.
Unless GZ is just the implanted memories of Venom Snake! :p
The VA trick blew my mind. I was so distracted by the swap that I didn't realize and was blown away when the real one showed up.
Just want to say thanks to everyone who came into the thread and gave examples, I'm actually looking into this trope throughout video games as research for a project of my own, and it will be interesting to visit each of these I haven't experienced yet and see how they compare, when it's done just right or done too obviously (as in the pokemon examples lol), etc.
Final Fantasy XV
Kingslaive sort of strongly/outright suggests that they are bad/pulling the strings though, so the reveal isn't surprising.
The more surprising thing is how little screen time
the old guy who was sort of the main villain but had no impact on the story whatsoever
had.
Clicked on the thread to say this too. I really loved that game. It's a shame I've heard so little talk about it in actual top ten lists from 2017.
Spec ops gives it away pretty early on, albeit in ways you don't notice the first time, depending on who you see as the villain.
In my eyes Walker is the true antagonist.
The first scene opens with: "We have our orders. Reach the city, radio command from outside the stormwall. They send in the cavalry. We go home."
5 minutes later he was defying those orders and setting the wheel in motion.
"None of this would have happened if you had just stopped." - "Konrad" to Walker.
"None of this would have happened if you had just stopped." - "Konrad" to Walker.
This is not exactly a villain in the traditional, grandiose sense, but Other M, paragon of storytelling that it is, telegraphed that the dweeby scientist in the beginning of the game was a bad man the moment he adjusted his glasses -- and it got all shiny.
Classic anime trope.
Classic anime trope.
Xenoblade Chronicles does this very thing amazingly.
Shulk's own internal fight, from the beginning of game, was really a fight for control against the final boss. Not only that, but the final boss is literally the first thing you see in the game.
Yeaaaaah, I don't think we can count FFXV as a 'hint'. From the moment you see him, you're just waiting for the characters to catch up to you for like 10 hours.
This picture used in promo material isn't just a cool visual, it's what is physically remaining of the main antagonist Ruvik's real body
His opening speech clearly showed a lot of hate about the world itself
Nah, the AI will injure the traveler if the big buy tried to escape earth.
Pretty sure he was
the former chosen undead
Not quite
The Soul of Cinder is an amalgamation of souls from every being that linked the fire through the ages, eventually reversing to Gwyn, the first who ever kindled the First Flame.
Shovel Knight.
I dunno, I don't think I suspected the P4 villain from the start.
I dunno, I don't think I suspected the P4 villain from the start.
Vesperia was so blatant about it.
Long white hair? Check
Brooding over the horizon? Check
Little monologue when meeting? Check
It was textbook stuff, I saw him and yeah, that's the main villain. Wasn't he also eating an apple or something? I feel like apples are big on JRPGs villains.
Blood Omen:
The character Mortanius is the villain (for all intents and purposes... his body is possessed by the villain when it counts).
You can pick out his silhouette and skeletal hand during the pivotal murder in the opening cutscene. It becomes completely obvious once you know to look for him.
You can pick out his silhouette and skeletal hand during the pivotal murder in the opening cutscene. It becomes completely obvious once you know to look for him.
It's been a really long time since I played it, and I only did once, but I am pretty sure it was telegraphed in Heavy Rain.
Early on in Prey 2017, you're put through some tests.
The purpose of these tests is to see Morgan demonstrate his Typhon powers. The scientists expected them to have those abilities naturally, as a result of neuromod research. That's why they're flabbergasted (and even annoyed) when they don't. Of course, that's not the reveal. The reveal is that "Morgan" is actually a Typhon-Human hybrid created by Alex. Whether you choose to see the opening sequence as a deliberate tease to this reveal or not, it's entirely up to you. More blatantly would be the cutscene you see when you first use a Typhon neuromod: the simulation you're under overloads briefly to show the Operator AIs and Alex presuming over the hybrid for a few moments before returning to regular gameplay.
In a way, there isn't really a "true villain", unless you see yourself as such. That's assuming, of course, that you didn't opt to stab Alex through the chest when you return to reality. No matter what, the reveal that you yourself are among the alien species that has taken over the Earth is a shocking one.
In a way, there isn't really a "true villain", unless you see yourself as such. That's assuming, of course, that you didn't opt to stab Alex through the chest when you return to reality. No matter what, the reveal that you yourself are among the alien species that has taken over the Earth is a shocking one.