| 1 | %%% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %%% |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ChekhovsGunman in Video Games. |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | * ''VideoGame/{{Afterimage}}'': You'll find Echoes or notes of a blue-haired girl [[spoiler:mentioning another Renee, or that the blue-haired girl declares herself not Renee, but Avisia. Not only do these {{foreshadow|ing}} the existence of other Renee "clones", our protagonist duo eventually spot a blue-haired IdenticalStranger of Renee in the Whispering Forest, and "The Essential" ending sees her return (as Avisia) saving the playable Renee from the red-haired Renee]]. |
| 10 | * In the Platform/SegaGenesis version of the ''VideoGame/{{Animaniacs}}'' game, WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain can be spotted as one of the many cameos throughout the game. However, in the first stage, in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, you can find the two building a suited robot. It's the game's final boss. |
| 11 | * ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': Prior to leaving Freeway 42, Ann finds a little girl called Sigrid [[HungerCausesLethargy collapsed from hunger]]. After taking her somewhere to recover, Sigrid shows that she has RealityWarper abilities that activate when she puts enough focus. Before the final confrontation with C, Sigrid is brought in to use her powers as she is the only who can weaken him to a state where he can be defeated. |
| 12 | * ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' has one with an important villain for a good portion of the game being visible [[spoiler: while the player selects his/her name and gender]]. This is later shown when the player witnesses the same scene as part of the story. |
| 13 | * In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', during the intro where you control Bruce Wayne, a prisoner standing in front of him on a line will say "Bruce Wayne...you're on my list". Since he looks somewhat nondescript and everyone else is hurling threats at Wayne, you tend to ignore him. [[spoiler:He's actually Floyd Lawton AKA Deadshot, the focus of a sidequest chain, and Wayne is indeed on his hit list (along with Batman, who unbeknownst to Deadshot ''is'' Bruce Wayne)]]. |
| 14 | * Secundo, the AmbiguouslyGay and [[JustAStupidAccent Ambiguously Spanish]] AI from ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil''. He appears briefly in the first half-hour, then slinks back into the shadows, mostly just spewing pre-set lines... [[spoiler:In the end, he's able to hack into the broadcast satellite on the moon and project the evidence of the Alpha Section's atrocities to all of Hillys]]. |
| 15 | * Since most of the new characters in each ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' game are PromotedToPlayable versions of [=NPC=]s from the last game, this is a recurring trope of the series. |
| 16 | ** In the Story Mode opening for ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'', one scientist offhandedly refers to the failed subject [[spoiler: Number Eleven]]. Guess who becomes one of the playable characters in the next game? Less offhandedly, you have Tsubaki Yayoi and Hazama, who start as [=NPCs=] but are playable in ''Continuum Shift''. Then Makoto Nanaya and Valkenhayn became DLC. |
| 17 | ** In ''Chronophantasma'', Amane Nishiki is an extremely-effeminate dancer who doesn't really do much of anything important. In ''Central Fiction'', he steps up [[spoiler: having been revealed as an immortal Observer, set to replace Rachel Alucard. Even if you skip the CF arcade stories, he still steps into Story Mode to offer Ragna his Observance and keep the Black Beast at bay]]. |
| 18 | * The ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' has a brilliant example of this. Janos Audron is only a passing detail of flavor text in one of the items' descriptions in the very first game of the series, never mentioned anywhere else. He reappears to be a mentor to Raziel in the second game, [[spoiler: then we learn that his species, of which he is the last specimen, are actually ancestors to the vampires of this universe]]. |
| 19 | * In ''VideoGame/BoilingPointRoadToHell'', [[spoiler:a patron in the bar at the beginning of the game]] [[TheDogWasTheMastermind turns out to be the game's]] BigBad. Because most of the people in the game are Signpost [=NPCs=] with identical dialogue, it's very likely you'll ignore him and miss out on talking to him entirely, and thus have no idea who the character is supposed to be when he suddenly becomes relevant to the main plot towards the end of the game. |
| 20 | * ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'': The first time you encounter the Adventurer, they're wearing green, despite their normal outfit being red. This goes completely without explanation or even acknowledgement until [[spoiler:the very end of ''[[VideoGame/BravelySecond the next game entirely]]'' -- it turns out that they can TimeTravel, and for whatever reason this turns their outfit green for the duration of the trip]]. |
| 21 | * In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'', there's [[spoiler:Peco]], seemingly unimportant to the plot, with all his lines being pretty much comic relief. Then, out of nowhere, he saves your entire party from total annihilation simply because [[spoiler:he's Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life]]. |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'' has Elisabetha Cronqvist, Mathias' wife. Her death basically kicks off the whole series. |
| 23 | * ''VideoGame/CaveStory'': |
| 24 | ** Jenka is a simple old woman who tells you information about the Red Flowers in exchange for finding her puppies for her. The true ending reveals that [[spoiler: she is Ballos' sister, and the one who sealed him away after he went out of control. She is also Misery's mother.]] |
| 25 | ** The Red Ogre is briefly mentioned by Jack in an optional dialogue in the Assembly Hall earlier in the game. [[spoiler: He will later appear as the boss of the True Final Cave if you're en route to the best ending.]] |
| 26 | * For most of ''VideoGame/ChicoryAColorfulTale'', Lemon plays a bit part as a regular NPC. But in the finale, [[spoiler:they help carry Pizza (who can't swim) across Sips River back to Luncheon to confront the corrupted brush]]. |
| 27 | * Queen Umbra's two daughters and CoDragons from ''VideoGame/ChildOfLight'' are briefly and anonymously mentioned early on in the story, but aren't brought up again until about the halfway point. The elder ends up being OutOfFocus, but it's played straight with the younger. [[spoiler:Technically, [[TheMole Norah/Nox]] appears earlier than this, but her true identity [[BitchInSheepsClothing and personality]] aren't fully revealed until about halfway through.]] |
| 28 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': the element shopkeeper in Termina has virtually no plot significance, despite being one of a small handful of characters with portraits that aren't playable characters. In fact, there are plenty of characters who are ''more important'' who don't get portraits, such as [[spoiler: the ''Chrono Trigger'' kids' time crash ghosts]]. |
| 29 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': |
| 30 | ** Melchior manages to pull it off twice. He's first introduced as a sympathetic merchant living near Medina, but turns out to be the only blacksmith capable of repairing the Masamune. Then it later turns out that [[spoiler:he is one of the displaced gurus from 12,000 B.C.]] |
| 31 | ** The game's first boss, Yakra, is a great example of this trope. Although initially introduced as just a commander in Magus' army, and killed very early on, [[spoiler: [[SmallRoleBigImpact it is actually his defeat at the hands of the heroes that causes his descendant to seek revenge on Crono, by impersonating the Chancellor of 1000 A.D. and staging a fake trial, which ultimately pushes the heroes to escape to 2300 A.D. and learn about Lavos, setting the game's story into motion]]. What is amazing is that it is not until very late in the game--and in an optional sidequest--that you actually learn that the reason Crono was arrested and sentenced to death upon arriving home from 600 A.D. was not because the Chancellor was overzealous about Marle's safety, but because you "just" (well, 400 years ago) defeated a seemingly unimportant monster.]] |
| 32 | ** Heck, ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' requires its own folder for all of the examples of [[ChekhovsGunman Chekhov's gunmen]]. There's the [[MrExposition old man]] at the [[spoiler: End of Time]], who introduces the mechanics of time travel and magic to the party...and then, much later, we find out [[spoiler: that he is Gaspar, the Zealian Guru of Time, and also creates the [[TitleDrop Chrono Trigger]] designed to reverse the flow of time to revive Crono after his HeroicSacrifice]]. |
| 33 | ** [[spoiler: Magus]]. He gets introduced as simply being the BigBad of the Middle Ages, but his real significance to the plot is revealed slowly over the course of the game. [[spoiler: He is revealed to be the reason why Frog is in his amphibian form, then we first meet him trying to summon the FinalBoss. ''And then'' we meet him in 12,000 B.C., in two forms at once. He is conspicuously introduced as both a bizarre prophet who is using his own knowledge of the future to {{manipulat|iveBastard}}e the Queen of Zeal, and the young Prince Janus (who is a ChekhovsGunman in his own right), who is later shown being blasted into the Middle Ages, after (in his adult form) both he and the player party lose a HopelessBossFight against Lavos. ''And then again'', he is later recruitable]]. |
| 34 | ** Think you can pick out a Gunman just because of his custom sprite? Not so fast. Famously, Flea, one of Magus's generals, will first appear as a generic Juggler Enemy (coupled with a "Flea?" name during battle). It is until after the battle, however, that you learn that the true Flea has been there the entire time, as the tiny, generic little bat that's been following you since Magic Cave. |
| 35 | ** Several of the people at Millennial Fair can also qualify as Chekhov's Gunmen. Although they do not affect gameplay directly, helping/leaving them alone will help prove Crono innocent later on. |
| 36 | ** The Trickster Norstein Bekkler is an inversion of this trope combined with a GuideDangIt: He appears as a special character, but is simply the introduction to several minigames, which have almost no impact on the actual game. [[spoiler:However, later you are required to find someone who can produce a Clone of Crono to save the poor boy from oblivion. Guess who you have to find?]] Granted, you don't actually have to accomplish this task to continue with the game, but [[spoiler: reviving the main character is kinda important]]. |
| 37 | * ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'': |
| 38 | ** That bald guy in the third mission intro? He's the BigBad for the entire series. |
| 39 | ** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', every so often, a bald, goateed man appears and tells Stalin various things, though players don't get to hear his lines. Then the ending appears, and you realize said bald, goateed man is quite the MagnificentBastard. |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'': The three cavemen punks you see in the Rock Solid level standing next to the giant keg serve only as decoration. You later see them again when they mug you and challenge you to a hoverboard race. Ironically enough, the fourth member that you ''don't'' see in Rock Solid is the one that falls off his board and dies. |
| 41 | * ''VideoGame/CreepyCastle'': |
| 42 | ** Did you think that [[spoiler: Stickbug]] was just a character thrown in for a cute boss battle? Think again! [[spoiler: He ends up being one of Ant Queen's partners in her scenario.]] |
| 43 | ** During the game, you may find Duel Manuals explaining the various battle minigames. They are signed by a certain 'BF'. [[spoiler: Butterfly is one of Darking's generals and the one writing the manuals. She gives you some info when you meet her. Then she becomes the main character of two scenarios, kicking butts [[ActionGirl left and right.]]]] |
| 44 | * In the prologue to ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', Adam encounters two sets - a handful of scientists at Sarif Industries that his ex-girlfriend talks to on the way through the lab who all get killed (actually kidnapped) in the attack that happens moments later, and three of the attackers who turn out to be the bosses you have to fight throughout the game. |
| 45 | * In ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' Mid-Boss starts out as a speedbump and doesn't get much better. Sure, he can pick up Flonne's holy pendant without getting burned, but that's probably because he's [[HarmlessVillain too lame to actually be evil]]. At the end of the game, it turns out he's [[spoiler: the spirit of King Krichevskoy, Laharl's father, who's been working with the Seraph to test if Laharl is ready to be the Overlord]]. |
| 46 | ** Earlier in the game, the castle's monster occupants show up to [[spoiler: save your underleveled butt after it gets kicked by an Alternate Netherworld monster]]. Before and after that they're pretty much decorations. |
| 47 | ** In the third game, Geoffry seems minor, [[spoiler: but he's the BigBad of the game]]. |
| 48 | * ''Franchise/DragonAge'': |
| 49 | ** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', an unnamed Circle mage at Ostagar objects to Cailan's plan to have [[PlayerCharacter The Warden]] and [[TheLancer Alistair]] light the beacon for the army - and is promptly slapped down for his impudence by a nearby priestess. [[spoiler: He turns out to be Uldred, a {{blood mag|ic}}e who later becomes the demon-infested stage boss of the Circle Tower]]. |
| 50 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': |
| 51 | *** During the first scene of Act I, an imperious armored woman with blonde curls glares down at a pickpocket as she passes by. Much later, she turns out to be Knight-Commander Meredith, head of Kirkwall's [[ChurchMilitant Templars]] and [[spoiler: the game's FinalBoss]]. |
| 52 | *** A small sidequest has Hawke tracking down a young elf mage for his worried mother. On the way, he/she runs into a scruffy ex-Templar, now lyrium addict, who points the way to a bunch of slavers. This is Samson, who will show up later in the game in a conspiracy against Meredith [[spoiler:and again in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', where he leads the Red Templars.]] |
| 53 | ** The Dalish origin in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' introduces several characters who become important in the next game. Merrill, a temporary companion, becomes a main companion in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', Keeper Marethari is a major player in Merrill's storyline and Pol, who is completely optional to talk to, shows up in one of her quests as well. |
| 54 | ** The mage origin has Cullen, a minor character you speak to once, show up later in the game as the only surviving templar after the Circle tower is overrun by demons. He plays a big role in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' as the second-in-command to Knight-Commander Meredith and has an even bigger one in ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Inquisition]]'' as an advisor and possible love interest. |
| 55 | ** The elven Gods are mentioned only in codex entries in ''Origins'' and are barely heard about until ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Inquisition]]'', where they are revealed to play a huge role in the overall plot. |
| 56 | ** In ''Origins'', party member Leiliana is introduced this way. She's a random nun you meet in a bar who helps you when a fight breaks out, then afterwards she asks to join your party. She not only becomes a potential love interest, but it turns out she has quite the colorful background. She goes on to play a major role in ''Dragon Age II'' and ''Inquisition''. |
| 57 | * ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'': |
| 58 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': |
| 59 | *** At the beginning of the remakes, the player character and his father are sharing boat with Rodrigo Briscoletti and his two daughters Nera and Deborah[[note]]From the DS remake onwards[[/note]], with no indication they will be important later. After getting off the boat, the player character will not see them again until the midpoint of the second act, when he has to decide who he will get married to. |
| 60 | *** Tuppence first appears as a generic young boy in Gotha's inn during the second part of the game. One timeskip later, he is a soldier who joins the party as an optional member. Because the player character doesn't age during the timeskip, by the end of it they're about the same age. |
| 61 | *** In the original version, a couple of characters mention a Demon Lord that's trying to enter the world, though you don't even learn Grandmaster Nimzo's name until near the end of the game. |
| 62 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestX'': |
| 63 | *** During the storyline where Gardlund's citizens mysteriously disappear, an unassuming human jester named Pujyu takes credit for the disappearances after Sage Marine's monster form is defeated, collecting the doll and flying away. Aside from instigating a separatist group named after Astoltia's Ogre god, he isn't seen again in the game until Nadragle is defeated by the Hero and Tobias, dropping a strange looking seed that Pujyu takes after they leave. Later during the start of Version 5, he shows up and steals an identical looking seed from the Hero by using a decoy of Anluica from the same doll during the Gardlund storyline and is chased to the doors of the Netherworld, where he and the Hero fight. He once again disappears from the game after his defeat and using the Shock Seed to open the doors to the Netherworld, but shows up again during the game's 5.4 update and is revealed to be more than just a trouble-making jester:[[spoiler:He's one of the 7 Dark Deities of Jagonuba!]] |
| 64 | ** Captain Whitebones from the beginning of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders2'' doesn't appear to be anything other than a tutorial character who is wiped out to sea and seemingly killed right before you end up on the Isle of Awakening. [[spoiler:Cue him showing up alive and well at the end when the player needs to find somebody to pilot the Ark in Malhalla.]] |
| 65 | * ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': At the game's opening sequence, several Tarnished of note are mentioned, though [[spoiler:Hoarah Loux]] [[TheGhost goes completely unseen throughout the entire game]]. Then, right before the final boss, [[PlayerCharacter the Tarnished]] returns to Leyndell only to find [[spoiler:Godfrey, the First Elden Lord]], who otherwise has also only been referenced here and there but never seen thus far, blocking their path to the Erdtree. [[spoiler:Fighting Godfrey and depleting his health to half leads to TheReveal that Godfrey and Hoarah Loux ''[[TwoAliasesOneCharacter are one and the same]]''; Godfrey [[GodzillaThreshold killing Serosh]] and unleashing his [[BloodKnight bloodlust]] as he [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya reclaims his true name]] indicates that he acknowledges the Tarnished as a WorthyOpponent, and that [[TheGlovesComeOff he's not going to hold back any longer]].]] |
| 66 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': |
| 67 | ** Subverted throughout most of the series. Almost everyone you encounter is named and can be talked to, but the vast majority are unimportant. |
| 68 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': |
| 69 | *** It's possible to run into a babbling jester who is attempting to transport his mother's coffin across Skyrim, but the wheel on his wagon is stuck, and the nearest person who could help is refusing to do so. You can help the jester by getting the farmer to fix the wagon. If you then start the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] questline, you learn that this jester is a ''trained assassin'' and his "mother" is [[spoiler:the Night Mother, the "spiritual" leader of the Brotherhood]]. |
| 70 | *** Upon first arriving in Riverwood, you may or may not come across [[spoiler:Delphine, the owner of the [[MeaningfulName Sleeping Giant]] inn]]. One third into the main quest, after finding that someone's beaten you to the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, you are told in the letter they left behind to [[spoiler:head to the Sleeping Giant inn and "[[TrustPassword rent the attic room]]"]]. Once you do, [[spoiler:Delphine reveals herself as the one who stole the horn and the last remaining Blades agent in Skyrim]]. In fact, most players will completely miss the fact that [[spoiler:Delphine can be seen speaking to Farengar in Dragonsreach after you fetch the Dragonstone from Bleak Falls Barrow, wearing leather armor and a hood to conceal her identity]]. |
| 71 | * In ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', sometimes, characters will pop up in stages prior to their first appearance. For example, Sam and Max ([[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice no, not ''that'' Sam and Max]]) appear in the "Rock This Town" stage, and Bill Mitchell, Tex and Amanda appear in "[=Sk8er=] Boi". |
| 72 | * This is the primary means of identifying people you can recruit for your army in ''VideoGame/ExitFate''. |
| 73 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' doesn't so much have a Chekhov's Gunman as it has a Chekhov's ''town''. The game's FirstTown is a quaint little village where you perform a few mini quests like giving pointers to the town farmers, clearing out a nearby radscorpion den, helping create an antidote to radscorpion venom, and dealing with the local Raider threat. [[spoiler:This small village goes on to become [[TheFederation the New California Republic]], one of the most powerful and influential factions in the setting]]. |
| 74 | * In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', while optionally talking to your boss at the courier agency, you can find out you weren't the first pick for the Platinum Chip job that got you shot. The first guy for the job, a fellow named Ulysses, saw your name on the list, forfeited it and said you should have it. In the DLC's, particularly ''Lonesome Road'', he turns out to be...rather important. |
| 75 | * Ryuji Yamazaki was introduced in ''VideoGame/FatalFury 3'' as a PsychoForHire under the Jin twins. In the later series ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', it was revealed that at least some of his madness is caused by his Orochi blood; he's a member of the Orochi clan central to the main plot in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series. Subverted somewhat in that he just doesn't care. |
| 76 | * The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games like to do this. |
| 77 | ** When you beat Garland as the first boss of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', ''before'' the adventure properly begins, did you really think you'd ever see him again? [[spoiler:And as the ''last'' boss, no less?]] |
| 78 | ** Krile in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' first appears as an illusion from the Siren, but Galuf can't recognize her owing to amnesia. She becomes a major character at the Earth Crystal when she pulls a BigDamnHeroes. |
| 79 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' has one of these in the form of an EasterEgg. When Baku is describing the plan to Tantalus on the ship at the start of the game, Zidane has the option of saying "That's when I kidnap Queen Brahne, right?" or "That's when I kidnap Princess Garnet, right?" Saying the "Queen Brahne" option a total of ''64'' times will eventually make Ruby come in and chastise Zidane, long before Ruby is ever properly introduced. |
| 80 | ** Genesis Rhapsodos, the principle antagonist to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII's'' prequel game, ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', first appears in the secret ending of its sequel ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' nearly a year earlier. |
| 81 | ** Zack in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is only mentioned off-handedly by Aeris/th, and an old couple early in the game, but he holds the key to figuring out Cloud's past. He's now considered important enough to warrant starring in a short anime ''and [[VideoGame/CrisisCore his own game]]'', he even gets a last name (Fair). Even though anyone who's played ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII FFVII]]'' knows how it will end... And on the subject of Cloud's past, there's the Shinra soldier that is seen throughout Cloud's flashbacks of the Nibelheim incident. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Cloud himself, as Zack was '''really''' the one that was in SOLDIER and was Sephiroth's partner]]. |
| 82 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' a creepy and random child would appear every now and then, mainly forming in the main character Tidus' dreams. Eventually, he is revealed to be [[spoiler:the Bahamut Fayth]]. |
| 83 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', the first flashback (right after the party gets turned into Pulse l'cie) briefly shows an AmazonianBeauty having a drink and talking to Lebreau. All that's mentioned about her is that she's looking for someone. Later on, she becomes the ''SixthRanger'' of the group, one who was [[spoiler:involved in Pulse's initial attack on Cocoon that started the whole fear of Pulse l'Cie in the first place]]. |
| 84 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Amon was introduced as a one-off boss in ''A Realm Reborn'''s Crystal Tower alliance raid series with very little lore outside of it. In ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:"Amon" is revealed to be a clone of the original, the Source reincarnation of the rogue Ascian Fandaniel. His unsundered self, Hermes, also created Meteion, the ultimate villain of the game's first decade-long saga and was responsible for the destruction of the ancient world and the conflict that followed]]. |
| 85 | ** The parrot that Brandt's mom Kuore keeps as a pet in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight''. [[spoiler:It's actually King Horne. The guy in the castle? That's ''Satan''. The spell breaks after his defeat]]. |
| 86 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' is full of these, often in the form of characters giving you items in villages, and even in the houses scattered about the battle field. |
| 87 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'', there is an out of the way village you can visit while conquering Gra. There you'll meet a man with a unique sprite and the name "???" who'll give you a Thoron tome and tell you to pass it on to Boah (who you've rescued from Archanea palace). Several chapters later, you have a chance to fight him in Grust, where you find out [[spoiler: he's General Camus, the man who was in charge of Archanea palace until he allowed (read: helped) Princess Nyna to escape. We also find out that he and Nyna love each other, although this is not enough to get him to switch sides]]. He also shows up again in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' as an amnesiac general of Rigel named Zeke and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' [[spoiler: disguised as "Sirius". You recruit him in an early chapter, and you need to take him into the final battle if you want to save [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Nyna]]]]. |
| 88 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' has Finn, who was fairly unimportant in the first generation but comes back in the second generation and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' as a father-figure to Leif and one of the figureheads of Leonster's liberation movement. |
| 89 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has the Bishop Renault, first encountered giving you a small item in one of the early chapters. Turns out he joins the party in the last two chapters. Furthermore, you can find out via support conversation that [[spoiler:he murdered Lucius' parents, was Wallace's battle instructor, and he was [[BigBad Nergal]]'s guinea pig in developing his [[ArtificialHuman morphs]]]]. |
| 90 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' are chock full of them. |
| 91 | *** In one of the early chapters of ''Path of Radiance'', in which you rout a bunch of pirates from a port, there is a house you can visit with a man that gives you an Elixir. That man is none other than Nasir, who just so happens to be a rather important character in the game, as well as a pretty decent unit to play with. |
| 92 | *** In that same game, there's [[spoiler:Zelgius]], who seems like some random dude in Begnion's army, [[spoiler:but turns out to be none other than the Black Knight himself in ''Radiant Dawn''!]] |
| 93 | *** Another one from ''Path of Radiance'': Izuka, a major antagonist in ''Radiant Dawn'', makes a brief appearance in one of the last chapters of the game. |
| 94 | *** None of them top Sephiran, a mysterious NPC with a unique skill that makes him completely invincible who can somehow order the Black Knight around. [[spoiler:He turns out to be the Prime Minister of Begnion. Then in ''Radiant Dawn'', he turns out to be Lehran, the heron responsible for sealing the dark god. He's also the BigBad of both games.]] |
| 95 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEchoesShadowsOfValentia'' has two overlapping examples. A mysterious masked knight shows up several times early on to help out Celica. Also, she mentions [[spoiler:a long-lost brother]] often. This knight joins Celica's party in Act 4, and he turns out to be none other than [[spoiler:Celica's missing older brother Conrad]]. |
| 96 | * ''VideoGame/GhostOfATale'' loves this trope; its small cast of characters all have HiddenDepths and a lot more significance than is obvious at first glance. |
| 97 | ** The very first character you're introduced to, the mad frog pirate Kerod, seems to just be a silly fellow prisoner who exists to give you a bit of exposition about the jail and sort of tutorialize you on how quests work in the game, while talking about the conversations he's been having with good old Captain Powderkeg ever since the two of them wrecked their ship just offshore and they were thrown in prison. A bit of searching reveals a rat skeleton in the next cell wearing a pirate hat, but Kerod refuses to believe that his friend is dead and that he hasn't really been talking to him all this time. Kerod later ends up playing a small role in several later quests, but it seems like he's just sort of a quirky NPC. [[spoiler: It turns out that Captain Powderkeg is very much alive, that the shipwreck probably saved the world from another ZombieApocalypse, and that everything he was talking about plays a major role in the endgame.]] |
| 98 | ** The rat blacksmith, Rolo, is the first rat NPC you encounter who doesn't attack you on sight. He offers to sell you tips and maps, serving as a store of sorts. He later serves to make or upgrade a few costume pieces, but he seems to be otherwise uninvolved in the plot, and when asked why he's willing to help, will actually charge money for the answer - and then claim it is just because the pay is lousy and he wants to put away enough money to retire on. However, he seems to have some HiddenDepths - he seems to know about everything that is going on around the prison, helps to put Tilo on the right track several times, particularly about the Master's smuggling ring. [[spoiler: Rolo is actually Captain Otto Powderkeg, he murdered the original blacksmith and took his place, he doesn't care about escaped prisoners because he himself is one of them, he accepts money not for himself but to send to the family of the blacksmith he murdered, and he later murders the jailer, resulting in a lockdown of the prison, because the jailer was getting too close to the cursed treasure that he'd buried nearby years ago and had been keeping an eye on in disguise ever since. He ends up being crucial in saving the world from the Green Flame in the end of the game, battling zombie pirates while Tilo blows up the treasure with explosives.]] |
| 99 | ** Merra, Tilo's wife, refused to sing "The Poisoned Cup" to the local rat baron, a song about how mice cowardly betrayed the rats during the war against the Green Flame. [[spoiler: It turns out that Merra was actually a rebel, and that she had been summoned to sing the song because the baron strongly suspected she was involved in the rebellion. Merra's refusal resulted in both her and her husband being imprisoned, with Tilo believing it was nothing more than random cruelty on the part of the baron.]] |
| 100 | ** Ouma Rezzia, the kindly old mouse cook, gives Tilo free food and is willing to sell him more food, as well as offering him a minor sidequest to track down bee queens for the abandoned hives. She seems like just a minor flavor side-character to show that not all mice are treated poorly by the rats. [[spoiler: Until the end of the game, when you discover she is the Master, a smuggler operating out of Dwindling Heights, and she poisons Tilo when he gets too close to the truth. After Tilo recovers and turns her into the commander, she disappears, only to reappear in the end game, trying to kill Tilo yet again to get at the hidden pirate's treasure - and dying gruesomely after trying to pilfer it, as it is cursed by the Green Flame.]] |
| 101 | * ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' has a habit of making the most innocuous characters turn out to be extremely plot-relevant. This includes [[spoiler: Missile, who comes back as ghost and ally in chapter fourteen]] and [[spoiler: Ray, who makes TheDogWasTheMastermind literal]], but the most egregious is [[spoiler: that black cat who shows up in the junkyard for two seconds. Not only is that the BigBad possessing the cat's body, but the body is Sissel's actual corpse]]. |
| 102 | * The grave digger in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar''. When you first meet him he's just some weird guy digging an arbitrary hole. Several days later you're fighting your way through the Underworld when he pulls you out of the hole, right outside where you need to be (which would've taken a hell of a lot longer to get to if Ares hadn't whipped a pillar into your chest from several miles away). He's also Zeus. |
| 103 | * ''VideoGame/GoodbyeVolcanoHigh'': Naser, Fang's little brother and the current Class President at Volcano High. For most of the game, other than giving a glimpse of what Fang's home life is like, he doesn't play a major role in the story. But at the game's climax, [[spoiler:when Lava Java is shut down and Fang needs to find a place to hold their end-of-the-world concert, Naser reveals he still has the keys to the school, meaning it can be used as a venue]]. |
| 104 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' had the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0KMIV8gsUo Neo (The One)]], produced by Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree under the name Slyder. The duo went on to found Shiny Toy Guns, and the lyrics of "Neo" were used as the chorus of the STG song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoA2zapKgX4 You Are The One]]. |
| 105 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'': |
| 106 | ** The game has this with the main characters from ''The Ballad of Gay Tony'', Luis Lopez, and ''The Lost and Damned'', Johnny Klebitz. Niko meets Johnny at a party and both are tasked with a drug trade that goes south for both of them. The main game deals with Niko's escape while ''Lost'' shows how Johnny escaped. Later Niko helps hold up a bank where Luis is taken hostage. Next Niko and Johnny meet up again at a smuggled diamond exchange at a museum, which also goes south when Luis shows up and shoots up the place. Each game deals with how they got out of there. Finally Niko and his friend Patrick exchange a hostage with Luis and his boss Gay Tony for the diamonds. Then in ''Lost'' Johnny has a mission where he sees Luis, Tony, and Tony's boyfriend, new character Evan Moss get the diamonds initially, and steals them. |
| 107 | ** Yusuf Amir was mentioned in a single mission in IV as a random real estate mogul Playboy X was trying to impress. Yusuf becomes a central character in ''The Ballad Of Gay Tony''. |
| 108 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' by Tessa, [[spoiler:who might fool you into thinking she may be recruitable, or secretly a bad guy, but is in fact neither and dies for real within 10 minutes, despite having a VA and profile picture]]. |
| 109 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Grow}} Comeback'', a hero save a kid from a monster in the intro. The plot of the game is to put the [[RetiredBadass retired hero]] back into shape so he can beat an other monster by placing objects in the good order. When you do so [[spoiler: one of the hero's supporter will try to beat the monster himself and lose, giving the motivation the hero needed, this supporter is actually the kid that the hero saved in the intro]]. |
| 110 | * At the very start of ''[[VideoGame/GuildWars Guild Wars Prophecies]]'', you meet a friendly, innocent 10 year old girl named Gwen. You can talk to her and she will follow you around. If you give her flowers and a new flute, she will even give you a tapestry shred as a sign of friendship. Then the Searing happens and Ascalon is destroyed, ending the tutorial and beginning the game for real one year later. Gwen is not mentioned again, although you can find a broken flute and a torn girl's cape, implying she had been a victim of the Searing. Two full follow-up games and an expansion pack later, you meet up with Gwen again, now 8 years older and a cold-hearted, ass-kicking Mesmer, after spending years as a slave. She goes on to be a major character in the Eye of the North expansion pack and the subsequent Guild Wars Beyond missions. As a bonus, the tapestry shroud she gave you kicks off a quest where you go on a mission with her to find, you guessed it, the flute you gave her 8 years ago. ChekhovsGun, indeed. |
| 111 | * '''The''' example in video gaming would be the G-Man in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' who's seen in almost every level from the very beginning of the game in quick and silent appearances. [[spoiler:He turns out to be the most important character in the game]]. |
| 112 | * In ''VideoGame/TheHalloweenHack'', Apple Kid mentions he hasn't heard from Dr. Andonuts since Giygas was defeated. [[spoiler: Guess who's responsible for all the monsters?]] |
| 113 | * In ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'', if the player takes the Sniper route during the first St. Petersburg mission, they can see a man wearing a brown jacket. He turns out to be Final Boss. If the player kills him, the mission will fail. |
| 114 | * In ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' [[spoiler:the tutorial missions introduce Erich Soders, an ICA instructor and former ICA top hitman who tries to make 47 wash out via UnwinnableTrainingSimulation out of jealousy. In episode 5 he is revealed to be TheMole for the Illuminati-esque group Providence and becomes one of the targets in the season finale.]] |
| 115 | * At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}''/''Indigo Prophecy'', we are introduced to a homeless man who watches Lucas flee the diner. If you talk to him as Carla and ask the right questions, he'll tell you his name is Bogart and he saw the "Devil, himself" leave the diner. At the end of the game, [[spoiler: it turns out Bogart was the head of a secret organization of homeless people, battling the bad guys]]. |
| 116 | * The Kid in ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' isn't just the lost heir, he's [[spoiler: Jak's younger self]]. Also, Veger may have kicked Jak out of Haven, but it wasn't personal... except [[spoiler: he knew that Jak was the little kid, he knew who Jak's father was, and he was responsible for separating the two of them in the first place]]. |
| 117 | * In ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'' series: |
| 118 | ** While rushing to work in the beginning of the first game, you have to wait for a moment while the elevator takes a man to the roof. [[spoiler:That man turns out to be Elliot Sinclair, the BigBad, and he intends to assassinate the Cyrollan emissary from the roof of your apartment building.]] |
| 119 | ** Agent Three, the coworker who you met for a few seconds in the first game when she told the player off for showing up late to work, turns out to be [[spoiler:the main villain of the second game, who framed the player for time-crimes and tried to sell time-travel technology to an alien species.]] |
| 120 | ** In the third game in the series, you use a [[MasterOfDisguise 'Chameleon Jumpsuit']] which allows you to take on period-appropriate disguises and interact with people in the past. Unfortunately, due to timespace non-interference laws, you can't approach people without a disguise and you can only use disguises in the same time period in which you obtained them; therefore, each of the three time zones has a character near your starting point who, for whatever reason, can't see you, whose disguise you can take to start you out. Atlantis has a blind beggar, El Dorado has a sleeping farm boy, and Shangri La has a pilgrim prostrating himself before the temple. All three turn out to qualify for this trope: |
| 121 | *** The blind beggar, Padros, [[spoiler:was once a member of the elite Templar guard charged with keeping commoners away from the [[{{Precursors}} Sosiqui]] artifact known as the [[MacGuffin Gaealith]]; he was blinded and cast out of the order for suggesting that the Gaealith's gifts of healing and immortality should be shared with all. He's also the ringleader of the plot to escape the city.[[note]]Also, an old friend of his encountered later in the timezone turns out to actually be a younger [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Elliot Sinclair]], mentioned above, who inverts this trope.[[/note]]]] |
| 122 | *** The pilgrim is eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:the {{Reincarnation}} of [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Siddha Biwawa]], a major figure in Shangri La's mythology. The very last step of the Shangri La story is to convince him to use his powers of transmutation to return the Shangri La [[LostTechnology Legacy fragment]] to its [[MacGuffin true form.]][[note]]It's also implied in the ending that the original Biwawa may have been a [[{{Precursors}} Sosiqui]] all along.[[/note]]]] |
| 123 | *** The farm boy is [[spoiler:TheChosenOne as seen in the visions granted to the city's shaman by the third piece of the Legacy. The shaman says that the farm boy is the one who will use the Legacy fragment ([[MacGuffin 'The Totem']]) to bring peace to [[ArchaeologicalArmsRace the battle of the Two Brothers]], actually the alien species Cyrollan and Qo'Thalas.[[note]]Possibly subverted in this case as [[PropheticFallacy what the shaman seems to be actually seeing]] is the PlayerCharacter ''disguised'' as the farm boy bringing the Totem to the future.[[/note]]]] |
| 124 | * ''VideoGame/{{Judgment}}'': The first case that Takayuki Yagami takes on involves chasing a fellow detective and getting him to pay his gambling debts, after which he seems to disappear from the story. [[spoiler:''Much'' later on, when Fujii arranges a meeting to discuss Morita's ties to TheConspiracy, it turns out to be this detective who's been investigating Morita.]] |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/KeroBlaster'': In Normal mode, the boss of the Train Station level is followed by two birds on a handcar. In Zangyou mode, the train you'd normally ride while fighting that boss passes the station instead of stopping, but the birds appear so that you ride their handcar instead. The birds and their handcar show up in the last level, too. |
| 126 | * In ''VideoGame/Killer7'', while running through the early stages your character is constantly being contacted by a man named Johnny Gagnon, his messages arriving by carrier pigeon. This wouldn't be too unusual if he didn't address every letter to someone named Emir and wasn't writing ''about'' the Smith syndicate you play as. [[spoiler:Later, you learn about a man named Emir Parkreiner, who is the most important character in the game and the murderer of the [=Killer7=] in their past lives. It would make sense that Emir hired Gagnon to get information on the seven assassins so as to have some intel on his targets]]. |
| 127 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 128 | ** The secret endings of the numbered games always tease new characters from future games. |
| 129 | *** In [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]], it has Riku battling Roxas at The World That Never Was, and Roxas meeting Xemnas at the Dark Margin. While Xemnas is confronted as an OptionalBoss in ''Final Mix'', he and Roxas won't be properly introduced until ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII II]]'', which also explains the context of both scenes. |
| 130 | *** In ''II'', the secret ending shows the frickin' climax of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', with Terra, Ventus, and Aqua battling Master Xehanort and Vanitas. In the original game, everybody except Master Xehanort wear masks, but the ''Final Mix'' update does show them unmasked. |
| 131 | *** The secret ending of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII III]]'' is a twofold, since the character teased, Yozora, actually appeared earlier in the game as part of an in-universe video game. |
| 132 | ** The [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Re-releases]] always feature an OptionalBoss that will play a role in future games. This is why they are not to be missed despite most of them being [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive for a long time]]. |
| 133 | *** The first game has "Unknown", who is really Xemnas. |
| 134 | *** ''II'' has "Lingering Will", who is the living armor of Terra. |
| 135 | *** ''Birth by Sleep'' has "Unknown" again, though the person is different; he is Young Xehanort, one of the CoDragons of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]''. |
| 136 | *** ''III'' reintroduces Yozora as an OptionalBoss. |
| 137 | ** The ''Final Mix'' update of ''II'' has a cutscene showing Xemnas visiting a room underneath the Hollow Bastion castle, where he communicates with a blue-colored armor and keyblade, greeting them as "friend". That's Aqua's armor, and he has been communicating with it to gain info regarding Ventus' location in Castle Oblivion, as revealed in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage A Fragmentary Passage]]''. |
| 138 | ** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', when Xion confronts Xigbar, we cut to a shot of the fight from Xigbar's POV. It turns out he sees Xion as Roxas... except he wears a wholly different clothing, and Xigbar doesn't recognize him as Roxas, either. Say hello to Ventus, one of the protagonists of ''Birth by Sleep'' and the person that Roxas took his appearance from. |
| 139 | ** In the beginning of the first game, a strange man in a brown robe appears and leaves some cryptic words. In Hollow Bastion, the robe man returns to possess Riku and reveals himself as [[BigBad Ansem]]. And then in ''Dream Drop Distance'', [[spoiler:it turns out that Ansem showing up on the Destiny Islands way back then was actually part of a massive time travel gambit, and his being there would later allow his younger self to travel to that point and enter the Sleeping Worlds to mess with Sora's head]]. |
| 140 | ** One of Ansem's Secret Reports in ''II'' mentions the names of Xigbar, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, and Xaldin's Somebodies: Braig, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, and Dilan. It isn't until ''Birth by Sleep'' that we actually see them. |
| 141 | ** Xigbar in ''II'' was an entertaining, if forgettable, member of Organization XIII who mentioned once that he knew Keyblade wielders before Sora. ''Birth by Sleep'' reveals [[spoiler:Xigbar may just be the only character in the entire series who knew everything that was going on. As Braig he worked for Master Xehanort, and when Xehanort got amnesia after possessing Terra, Braig was the one who pushed him down the path to fulfill their plans]]. ''III'' pushes it even further when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Braig is actually [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX Luxu, one of the Keyblade apprentices of the Master of Masters]], and he has been engineering the events of the whole series to summon his fellow apprentices, the Foretellers, to the current universe]]. |
| 142 | ** Unlike the other members of Organization XIII, we never see Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord's Somebodies in ''Birth by Sleep''. They are late additions to the group, do not have connection with the others, and seem to be fillers at first glance. That is, until ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX Union χ]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:Marluxia and Larxene are the Nobodies of Lauriam and Elrena, two of the Dandelions handpicked by Master Ava to lead the Keyblade wielders after the Keyblade War.]] Luxord is mentioned in ''III'' to [[spoiler:also be a Keyblade wielder from the distant past]], and the secret ending of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIIIReMind Re:Mind]]'' suggests that [[spoiler:Luxord may have hailed from Quadratum, the world where Yozora came from.]] |
| 143 | ** Vanitas is a being of darkness, but he seems to be disconnected from the Heartless (he is associated with the Unversed, who represent emptiness). In ''Birth by Sleep'', it's explained that Vanitas is Ventus' LiteralSplitPersonality, the personification of his darkness, but in ''Re:Mind'', he refutes this by stating that he has been a separate being from Ventus since the very beginning. ''Union χ'' finally reveals that [[spoiler:in the distant past, Ventus became the unwitting host of "Darkness", one of thirteen entities who split from the original χ-Blade. Another "Darkness" became the source of all Heartless. Despite being entities of darkness, the thirteen have distinct personalities, which may explain why Vanitas and the Heartless are separate despite being on the same side.]] |
| 144 | * Marx, from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', is introduced at the beginning when he tells you the objective for Milky Way Wishes, wishes you luck, and you leave. You don't see him again until the very end, when he reveals that [[spoiler:[[EvilPlan he set up the whole thing so he could rule the world]]]]. |
| 145 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': |
| 146 | ** The seemingly generic Dark Jedi to whom [[GuestStarPartyMember Trask Ulgo]] [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself so you can escape]] is later revealed to be [[TheDragon Darth Bandon]], [[BigBad Malak]]'s apprentice. You also meet Mission, Zaalbar, Canderous, and Calo Nord in the Taris Lower City before they become important characters. |
| 147 | ** Malak's former master Darth Revan is shown in flashback a couple of times, only for others to mention that Revan is dead now. [[spoiler: They're wrong however, since [[TheReveal Revan is also the player character]]]]. |
| 148 | * In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the DummiedOut planet M4-78 (available with the Restored Content GameMod) has the "Conspicous War Droid", a Sith battle droid that seeks your aid (unaware of the fact that you're a Jedi). You can reprogram it to follow your orders and if you do, [[BigDamnHeroes it shows up to aid you and the TSF with a battalion of droids]] during [[BigBad Darth Nihilus]]' attack on Telos in the endgame. |
| 149 | * Dr. Harlan Fontaine in ''VideoGame/LANoire'' only appeared in some newspaper flashbacks where the early ones usually showed him doing seemingly innocuous things. It turned out that he was one of higher up members of the Suburban Redevelopment Fund which was responsible for the events of the Arson section. |
| 150 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', one of the doctors that was killed by Joel at the end of the first game to save Ellie (specifically, the one that holds out a scalpel that blocks your way to get her, meaning you have no choice but to kill him) turned out to be Abby's father. Abby's infamous killing of Joel at the beginning of the second game kickstarts the entire plot off. |
| 151 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': |
| 152 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Blind the Thief is first discussed in the beginning of the game when Link talks to a Kakariko villager inside Blind's old hideout. Several plot twists and seven dungeons later, Blind turns out to be the Boss of Dark World Dungeon Thieves' Town. |
| 153 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': |
| 154 | *** Remember that creepy withered tree near where Link is cursed into Deku Scrub form? Remember how, if you take the "chase the Deku Butler through the maze" sidequest, he'll mention that you remind him of his son? The credits shows him sitting in front of that tree, grieving. |
| 155 | *** Kafei is one of the first people you see whenever you start a new three-day cycle in Clock Town. He ends up being ''very'' important for a major sidequest. |
| 156 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the game's first miniboss Ook the Monkey appears after Link frees him from the influence of an Insect of Darkness to help Link in the second phase of the fight against Diababa by swinging around carrying Bomblings for Link to hurl at Diababa with the Gale Boomerang. |
| 157 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Lightmatter}}'', Virgil repeatedly communicates with his security manager James, who is assisting the launch party attendees with evacuation and whose pet cat Lux you recover during the game. [[spoiler:During the very last minute of the game, James shows up in the facility and stops Virgil from disintegrating you, allowing you to activate the final lever and destroy Lightmatter.]] |
| 158 | * In ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'', Benny Benson is first mentioned as a low-ranking crook that Eve's trying to write a new article about. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that she was writing about him on the night of the fire, proving her innocent, and a previous headline about him has him denying that he knows The Purple Fox. This gives Amelia a new lead on who might be the culprit behind the arson since she theorizes that they set her mother, Freya's café on fire as revenge for her robbery as TPF.]] |
| 159 | * In the Platform/GameBoyColor game ''VideoGame/MagiNation'', there is one who is practically a Chekhov's boss. In the third Shadow Geyser, you are suddenly stopped by someone named Warranda who summons a creature (and is practically a joke boss) She says a few things to you and then vanishes...making you wonder what the point of that was (unless you didn't return the Key to Ashkar). Then in the fourth Shadow Geyser, she appears to be the guardian of it, but gives you an offer. She'll either give you the PlotCoupon and let you go without a boss fight (making it the easiest Shadow Geyser after the first one) or you can fight her. If you take it and leave, you'll seemingly avoid a boss battle. ''HOWEVER'', if you do this, in the fifth shadow geyser, she mysteriously appears out of nowhere and tells Tony that he promised to leave, and didn't, so it was time to fight her. (Whether or not she's more powerful at this point isn't really known.) |
| 160 | * In the first level of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', Bachmeyer, Becker, Da Silva and Dr. Fischer[[note]]in the magazine Clue[[/note]] show up, well before they're formally introduced. |
| 161 | * ''Franchise/MegaMan'': |
| 162 | ** In ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork 2'', every so often, a gray haired kid who doesn't speak when you talk to him pops up in random places. Sure enough, [[spoiler:he's the BigBad]]. Same thing happens with a certain Russian scientist in ''Battle Network 3''... |
| 163 | ** In ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce 2'', at the hotel lobby in Grizzly Peaks, you meet a mysterious white haired boy that tells Geo to mind his own business and stop investigating the recent events. But Geo keeps involving himself in them and he ends up meeting that boy again. Turns out [[spoiler:he works for the BigBad and he's the LastOfHisKind of [[{{Atlantis}} Mu]], a SunkenCity the villains are trying to resurrect. He also becomes Geo's rival for the rest of the game and the following installment]]. |
| 164 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'': [[spoiler:For most of the game, Data, the cutesy robot monkey, served as little more than a save point. Then, after beating [[FinalBoss MegaMan Juno]], Data instructs Eden to call off its destruction of Kattelox Island due to Juno malfunctioning. It was as big a surprise for [=MegaMan=] as it was for the players]]. |
| 165 | * In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', you're told in the opening cutscene about the members of FOXHOUND - "[[{{Introdump}} Sniper Wolf, the beautiful and deadly sharpshooter; Decoy Octopus, master of disguise; Vulcan Raven, giant and shaman; Revolver Ocelot, specialist in interrogation and a formidable gunfighter; and FOXHOUND's squad leader, Liquid Snake]]." Decoy Octopus is conspicuously absent from all scenes of the others together, and does not get a boss battle. Very late in the game, we discover from Vulcan Raven that Decoy Octopus is already dead, but the revelations of how he died and what he was trying to accomplish at the time become a vital part of the plot, in which he had an arguably more important role than most of the actual boss characters. |
| 166 | * In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', Samus mentions that her new ship's onboard AI reminds her of her old CO, Adam Malkovich, who had died. It turns out that [[spoiler:he actually is Adam, revealed when he says [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay something only Adam would say]]]]. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': Aiden appeared in the first episode as a {{Jerkass}} opponent to contrast NiceGuy Lukas; he sabotages your build, and then later insults Jesse at Endercon, before disappearing. He optionally reappears at the end of episode 4 in a BigDamnHeroes moment with the other Ocelots, but this trope primarily comes into effect as he becomes the BigBad of episode 5. |
| 168 | * ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': |
| 169 | ** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'' makes passing reference to the fallen Dragon King Onaga, whose immortal army Quan Chi and Shang Tsung plan to resurrect using the souls of slain enemies. Guess who's the BigBad of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception''. |
| 170 | ** ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': Sindel falls under this trope as well. Revived by Quan Chi's necromancy, later powered up by Shang Tsung's soul by Shao Kahn, which leads her to slaughter her daughter and most of the Forces of Light, with Nightwolf [[HeroicSacrifice killing both him and Sindel]] in the process. |
| 171 | ** The [[GaidenGame action game spin-off]] ''VideoGame/MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero'' featured the first appearances of a few of the playable characters from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'': namely Quan-Chi, Shinnok, and Fujin (who appears as a nameless Wind God). Sareena from the same game was never intended to be a playable character in the fighting games, but became an AscendedExtra when she was reintroduced in the GBA game ''Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition'', then later ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon''. |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'': |
| 173 | ** ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' has Magicant's Dragon. You can't miss it when you first go underground, but at that time you can barely interact with it. It's only when you come back later in the game that you find out it guards the third-to-last melody. |
| 174 | ** ''[[VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance Mother: Cognitive Dissonance]]'' gives us Zarbol. He joins the party just like everyone else to find the pieces of the Apple on Enlightenment and keep them safe from Giegue and that's about it. [[spoiler: He is actually Buzz Buzz from ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', sent back in time to give Ness a warning about the threat of Giygas]]. |
| 175 | ** ''VideoGame/Mother3'' gives us Leder, the incredibly tall, [[TheQuietOne silent guy]] standing by the bell at the start of the game who you probably ignored, and later disappears without a trace following the time skip. [[spoiler: Turns out that he was entrusted to be the only one to retain any memory of the events that lead up to the settlement of civilisation on the Nowhere Islands, and thus, he was imprisoned by the Pigmask Army in hopes that no one would be able to learn the truth]]. Who knew? |
| 176 | * The first meeting with [[spoiler: Shandra Jerro]] in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' seems to serve no purpose and feels like filler. Then [[spoiler:her grandfather becomes important to the plot. She's held HostageForMcGuffin, is rescued, joins the party...]]. |
| 177 | * ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' features a middle-age drunk civilian who appears in almost every level of the game. In the AfterTheCredits reveal, he's shown to be [[spoiler: the Director of H.A.R.M., and serves as the BigBad of the sequel]]. |
| 178 | * ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'': |
| 179 | ** Towards the end of your first day at work, a redheaded man in a black hoodie shows up and casually asks Darcy about your bandaged face. After the man leaves, HUE suspects if he was eavesdropping, but Darcy, who found you and had you pose as his missing son Bob, denies it. [[spoiler:This man turns out to be [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Blackmailer]], who stalks you for the next five weeks to threaten to out your true identity to AVAC as one of the four missing people during the CARI fire.]] |
| 180 | ** Early in the game, a blue-haired lady asks you to keep her moon rock until she comes back another day. Jihye looks like one of the few special customers with their own [[ScriptedEvent scripted transactions]], but if you deny to her that you kept her rock safe, she'll criticize you for hurting people like Jisu Cha. [[spoiler:If you keep the rock and have been kind to your customers, she's revealed at the end of Week 6 to be an OldFriend of Jisu... [[TomatoInTheMirror who turns out to be]] ''[[TomatoInTheMirror you]]''. If you reveal your identity to her, she gets shocked that you lost your memories of her, and she offers to take you to "the safest place in Mindlesia" if you can prove to her that you are her missing friend for the next two weeks.]] |
| 181 | ** Actor Yeongmi Mo can sometimes be found mingling with his fans near the shops or sipping coffee at Mindlesso. Other than visiting your store twice and his signature being included in Darcy's manual, he seems to be one of the few unique but minor customers... [[spoiler:unless you turn out to be his OldFriend Sangsu Ahn if you've been greedy in running your shop. If you reveal your identity to him, he tells you that he and his boss had been looking for you, and he offers to get you back to your old job as a Fixie supplier to Bluebird if you can prove your identity to him for the next two weeks.]] |
| 182 | ** Sometimes you can find a little orphan girl in a yellow dress playing with her pet cat around Ajik City. This later turns out to be Eggie Yoon, who ran away after her parents got [[EmotionSuppression Fixed.]] If you befriend her, she'll return your kindness by [[ItemCaddy giving you free items.]] |
| 183 | ** Dr. Gonam Choi seems to be a unique customer who sells you The World's First Mobile Phone to fund his search for his missing apprentice, [[spoiler:but if you've been supporting AVAC, ''you'' are his missing apprentice, Bok Bae. Dr. Choi can show up as early as Week 1 if you sell Jihye's moon rock, and if you reveal your identity to the Director of CARI and then prove to him for the next two weeks that you're his loyal researcher, he'll take you back to the Institute.]] |
| 184 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': |
| 185 | ** Outside your starter character's town, you meet a random guy named Kit who bums a Healing Grape from you and makes a couple of sporadic appearances in some minor sidequests afterwards looking for his missing father. [[spoiler:Turns out he's the son of the man who wrote Tressa's journal, saved Alfyn from a deadly disease as a boy, and was eventually corrupted into Redeye, and the BigBad wants to use him as a vessel to resurrect the local GodOfEvil.]] |
| 186 | ** The BigBad herself, [[spoiler:Lyblac]]. [[spoiler:She's first seen at the Ravus Manor Gate after completing Therion's first chapter, as part of a mundane sidequest that some random guard is crushing on. Turns out, events in all eight playable travellers' lives can be traced back to her efforts to resurrect Orsterra's GodOfEvil.]] |
| 187 | ** Ophilia's story has Mattias. The man initially appears to be a humble merchant and an unimportant NPC, [[spoiler:but is eventually revealed to be the leader of the {{Cult}} for the aforementioned GodOfEvil who [[ManipulativeBastard takes advantage of Lianna's pain from her father's passing]] to orchestrate a ritual to weaken the God's seal and obtain dark power for himself. Needless to say, Mattias is the ArcVillain of Ophilia's story.]] |
| 188 | ** Cyrus' story has Lucia. While it's somewhat [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in her case, as she is the one to suggest that [[spoiler:Cyrus be placed on extended leave following a rumour that he has started an illicit relationship with Princess Mary]], she nonetheless starts out as [[DeanBitterman Headmaster Yvon]]'s anonymous assistant before [[spoiler:co-orchestrating a plot to kill Cyrus [[HeKnowsTooMuch for investigating into the theft]] of the tome ''From the Far Reaches of Hell'']], then is revealed to [[spoiler:be the ArcVillain of Cyrus' story when she [[TheStarscream betrays Yvon]] and takes the tome to use for her own purposes, once he had studied its secrets for her [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and therefore was no longer useful to her]]]]. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/TheOrionConspiracy'' introduces you to a tough female pilot named Brooks. She seems to have only a small role in the game. Later, she gets killed off trying to stop a berserk Ward and [=LaPaz=] drags her body out of the corridor. Later, when you get to the shuttle, you find out that the [=NavCom=] chip was destroyed, effectively crippling the shuttle. However, [=LaPaz=] reveals that there is a backup chip...located in Brooks's brain! {{Squick}}, but it does explain why [=LaPaz=] dragged Brooks's body out of a corridor that had to be sealed shortly afterwards. |
| 190 | * In the prologue of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' just before Naru's death, a shadowy spider-legged figure can be seen in the foreground. A third of the way into the game, he is revealed as Gumo, [[LastOfHisKind the sole survivor of the Gumon race]], an important supporting character who saves Ori from Kuro, and also [[BackFromTheDead revives Naru]] near the end. |
| 191 | * ''VideoGame/PaladinsQuest'' has Duke, a party member who only stays with you for roughly the first five minutes of the game. He turns out to be [[spoiler: [[BigBad Zaygos]], who was using you to awaken the destructive creature Dal Gren]]. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/{{Pentiment}}'': In Act II, Andreas is introduced to Magdalene Druckeryn, his friend Claus's young daughter born during a TimeSkip. As she's only 2 years old and can't say anything beyond babbling, she plays a very minor role. Come Act III, and [[spoiler:20-year-old Magdalene replaces Andreas as the player character.]] |
| 193 | * ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' plays this around ''a lot''. For most of the time, the BigBad, TheDragon or even the GreaterScopeVillain can be encountered within the first few scenes in a ''Persona'' game, usually appearing as innocent or unsuspicious. |
| 194 | ** The first few days in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' have over half the future Social Links making quick appearances. |
| 195 | *** True, but none of those pretend to be anything other than what they are, and players who are aware of the Social Link mechanic would naturally see any character they meet as a potential link. A better example is [[spoiler:Ikutsuki]], a conspicuously inoffensive character who is introduced early on, does next to nothing of note for much of the game (he's one of the few characters who fails to exhibit any obvious signs of a DarkAndTroubledPast), and surprises absolutely no one when [[spoiler:he turns out to be TheManBehindTheMan]]. |
| 196 | *** In ''[[ExpansionPack FES]]'' you can see most Social Link characters as well as Akihiko being pestered by fangirls during your character's first walks from the school to the dorm. |
| 197 | *** You can also meet all your school Social Links on the first day of school, and even talk to them. |
| 198 | *** Yukari and her Evoker appear briefly in a couple of shots in the first anime cutscene of the game. |
| 199 | *** There's also a non-character example: the music the protagonist is listening to on his headphones during that scene is "Burn My Dread -Last Battle-". This track later plays as a proper BGM (rather than being all muffled and distorted) during [[spoiler:the final battle with Nyx]]. |
| 200 | *** [[NominalImportance The fact that they gave him a]] CharacterPortrait clued many people into his role as a future protagonist before the new game was even announced. |
| 201 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona4'': |
| 202 | *** In a seemingly throwaway appearance [[spoiler:punctuated by controller vibration]] at the ''very beginning of the game'' is [[spoiler: the third character you meet -- the gas station attendant]]. She turns out to be [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain the one responsible for kicking off the plot]], which you don't find out [[GuideDangIt unless you're on the road to the True Ending]]]]. This is also particularly well hidden because the player has been trained by this point to assume that anyone without a portrait is irrelevant to the plot -- [[spoiler:up until the reveal, the gas station attendant only has a normal, inconspicuous character model. She only gets one ''after'' TheReveal]]. |
| 203 | *** Made all the more effective by the fact that [[spoiler:while players will note the vibrating controller, plus the fact that the MC feels nauseated after meeting her, the game is so long, plus the fact that any other contact you can have with the Attendant are the optional mini-conversations that you can have with any other NPC, that most players will forget about meeting her at all before the first in-game month is out!]] |
| 204 | *** [[spoiler:Namatame]] and [[spoiler:Mitsuo]] both appear around Inaba and in neglible cutscenes well before becoming major players in the plot. There's [[spoiler:Taro Namatame]], who was first seen being mentioned on the news and can be seen around town. He isn't seen again until [[spoiler: he kidnaps Nanako]]. He even [[spoiler:makes an appearance at Junes]] at your team's concert. [[spoiler:Mitsuo]] is first seen asking out Yukiko on the protagonist's first day of school, and then isn't seen again until after [[spoiler:he kills Morooka]]. |
| 205 | *** After playing through November's dungeon, notice the [[spoiler:delivery truck you see driving by]] while chasing the pervert spying on Rise? [[spoiler:It's got the ''real'' kidnapper in it.]] If you play from the beginning after that dungeon, you'll note that even earlier, when you first arrive in Inaba at [[spoiler:the gas station, a truck that appears to be the same delivery truck is getting filled up next to you & the attendant runs out from behind it to help the Dojimas, which would seem to indicate this is when Namatame also received his powers.]] |
| 206 | *** Arguably, [[spoiler:Nanako.]] Said character has no effect on the plot and is mainly a secondary character [[spoiler:making her kidnapping all the worse.]] |
| 207 | *** If you rescue the first kidnapping victim early on, you get to see scenes with other Social Link characters, such as Hisano, Eri, Naoki and Ai, on your walks to school. |
| 208 | *** In a smaller sense, Naoto Shirogane only appears as a relatively minor character just before the second dungeon, and later becomes your final party member. |
| 209 | *** Don't forget [[spoiler:Rise Kujikawa, who appears in a short commercial in the beginning then later becomes your support character]]. |
| 210 | *** As well as [[spoiler:Adachi, who is ultimately revealed as the murderer despite being a mere inept detective up to that point]]. The game's main plot practically runs off of this trope. |
| 211 | *** If your first time playing P4 is with the UpdatedRerelease on the Vita, Golden, there's an added portion where you have time to explore the city for a bit, during which you can see (at the time unnamed) future Social Links and important characters - most notably [[spoiler:Naoki and Saki before the latter's murder]]. Marie is also the third person you encounter on the way to Inaba In P4 Golden. |
| 212 | ** In ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'', most of the bosses appear to have no relation to the plot and are seemingly just randomly put in attractions to guard an item. [[spoiler:In reality, those were deployed by Zen/Chronos just to make sure that Zen and Rei cannot recover their memories without the Persona users aid, as recovering them will unleash massive pain on Rei.]] |
| 213 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': |
| 214 | *** You can find eventual party member Makoto hanging around the library at school long before she has any involvement in the plot. |
| 215 | *** You can find some of Junya Kaneshiro's henchmen in Shibuya, asking if you're interested in one of the "part-time jobs" that it later turns out they're using to {{Blackmail}} students, months before it actually becomes a plot point. |
| 216 | *** Yumeko Mogami, a Mementos miniboss, can be found in school stalking her crush, Ikesugi, months before she becomes a target of the Phantom Thieves. |
| 217 | *** You first see eventual party member Haru briefly during the fireworks festival cutscene, and you meet her again during the ClassTrip to Hawaii. |
| 218 | *** [[spoiler:The head of TheConspiracy, Masayoshi Shido, turns out to be the guy responsible for the Protagonist's probation. Justified by the fact that Shido was inadvertently getting in the BigBad's way, and thus they gave the person Shido had most recently wronged the power to eliminate him.]] |
| 219 | *** [[spoiler:The woman that Shido molested at the beginning of the game is brought up again near the end of the game, where she testifies against Shido to ensure his imprisonment.]] |
| 220 | ** In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 5 Royal]]'': |
| 221 | *** Early on the game after Ann's awakening, for a few seconds a bespectacled man in a brown trenchcoat emerges out from the school gates. This is actually the student councilor Takuto Maruki, one of the game's new confidants. In fact, if you max his Confidant, [[spoiler:he tells you this is how he figured you are a Phantom Thief able of abusing the Metaverse and that motivated him to find you to complete his research....and once he got the power of the God of Control, that research will be used to create a world without pain, or more accurately, the end of everything as we know it.]] |
| 222 | *** After hanging out with the boys in a food fair, another character unique to ''Royal'', Kasumi Yoshizawa, will tell you that her younger sister died to a traffic accident last spring, presumably also the same 15-year old girl who died of a traffic accident "a month ago" as stated by Sojiro during the second day of the game. It turns out that [[spoiler:the younger sister did not die, Kasumi herself died trying to save her from absentmindedly running into traffic when she failed to cheer her up with banter. And the "Kasumi" you are with? That's actually her mentally unstable and SurvivorGuilt ridden younger sister, Sumire, who was subconsciously brainwashed by Maruki into thinking that she was Kasumi.]] |
| 223 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'': |
| 224 | *** Zenkichi Hasegawa, an inspector working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and [[spoiler:a party member later on during the game]], can be seen as soon as during the prologue, talking to his superior Miyako Kaburagi about arresting the Phantom Thieves over the newest mass Change of Hearts. |
| 225 | *** Advertisements of Natsume Ango's newest book, ''Nightmare Prince'' can be seen in Shibuya. Natsume is the King of Sendai who had been selling the book by changing hearts using EMMA. |
| 226 | *** Konoe, the CEO of Madicce who was the King of Osaka and was trying to arrest the Phantom Thieves for delusional reasons in the second half of the game, is mentioned in the news before Alice's Calling Card and can be met in Sendai, after Natsume's defeat. |
| 227 | *** Akane Hasegawa, Zenkichi's daughter, can be met as soon as leaving Sapporo. You have to [[spoiler:confront her as a major target later on in the game.]] |
| 228 | *** As soon as you leave Shibuya into Sendai the first person you will meet is a '''very suspicious''' woman in a lab coat who seems to be trying too hard to imitate Maruki's counseling. That's actually Kuon Ichinose, who quickly spills all the beans [[spoiler:about her involvement in EMMA when you are about to leave Sendai and she somehow knows that you are the Phantom Thieves, again with the same incredibly suspicious behavior.]] She basically vanishes after you leave Sendai and doesn't do much save for giving you [[spoiler:Konoe's keyword.]] Remember, this is a major character with a big head portrait and a cut in who does ''almost nothing'' for most of the story and doesn't even personally appear after two cutscenes. Sure enough, Ichinose [[spoiler:very obviously turns out to be the GreaterScopeVillain and traitor of all things in a similar vein as Akechi or Adachi before her, and those 2 meetings are setups since she saw you when monitoring the Jails. You gave her an exact idea on who to wipe out when EMMA becomes a goddess of salvation.]] |
| 229 | ** ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'': |
| 230 | *** Nagi, which appears to be another Zen-like character trying to protect a girl known as Hikari. She does ''absolutely nothing'' other than watching the player's progress [[spoiler:until all four movies are cleared and the party exits the Cinema. It turns out that Nagi was the BigBad and is actually "Enlil," who owns the theaters that imprison people's will to live and inadvertedly rots their heart out with movies made from pure negativity in an attempt to relieve their pain of living.]] |
| 231 | *** A non-character example is that the Rabbit form of Kamoshidaman doesn't look like that he has any importance to the movie and almost looks like a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere. In reality, [[spoiler:the rabbit is used to represent one of Hikari's past traumas where her primary school teacher blamed other students for posioning a rabbit that she probably could care less. When Hikari spoke against the teacher, she flipped out and humiliated her with the rest of the class following unanimously.]] |
| 232 | * The second ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' game features Torkoal, the local elder, who the heroes meet at a hot spring at the end of Waterfall Cave. [[spoiler: He turns up again when the heroes and the guild need a lead on where to find the [[DiscOneFinalDungeon Hidden Land]]; being the oldest Pokemon in Treasure Town, Torkoal supplied his old wisdom to the guild, and thanks to him, they managed to find where it is]]. |
| 233 | ** Drowzee, the second boss and first outlaw that the main characters arrest. [[spoiler: In the post game, he helps the main characters get into Azurill's nightmare after being let out of prison and being sorry for what he did to Azurill before]]. |
| 234 | ** Cyrus in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', as well as ''[[ExpansionPack Platinum]]''. He's introduced relatively early on in Diamond and Pearl, and very early in Platinum, but you don't find out [[BigBad who he is]] until later. In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', the same thing was done with [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss N Harmonia]]]]. |
| 235 | ** The news reporter of the Holo Caster in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', once you reach the Pokémon League, turns out to be Malva, one of Kalos's Elite Four. |
| 236 | ** Arley, Hocus, Kasa, and Edward from ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Guardian Signs''. They are introduced at various points in the game, Arley and Edward are introduced at the beginning. The player dismisses them as pointless {{NPC}}s. Towards the middle of the game, they all gather and have a tea party. [[spoiler: Towards the end of the game, they raise a giant fortress into the sky, and they destroy the island that they player started out in. It turns out they were controlling the evil group of the game, and they wanted to take over the world. They are the final bosses of the game]]. |
| 237 | ** In both of the [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Gamecube]] [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness Pokémon games]], you meet a stout and kind old man 15 minutes into the game. [[spoiler: They are the leaders of Cipher, the crime syndicate terrorizing Orre, and they are the final bosses of their respective games]]. |
| 238 | ** After Gen I, it's almost tradition for the champion to be some seemingly innocuous trainer who has almost no ties to the plot whatsoever aside from occasionally aiding you against the regional villain team, only for you to find out the truth when you go to face the champion after defeating the Elite Four. The only champions to ever subvert this was the champion of ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', Alder, and the champion of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', Leon. [[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitchBoss That was most likely deliberate in the case of the former]]]]. |
| 239 | ** In ''Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire'', one of the villainous team grunts that appears as you're leaving Petalburg Woods has a unique character model. [[spoiler:This is Zinnia, who is the main instigator of the post-game Delta Episode]]. |
| 240 | * In the UsefulNotes/RPGMaker game ''VideoGame/PromDreams'', [[spoiler:there's a girl in a wheelchair who you can find outside of the lunch room, in the music room, and in the library of the school. She rarely addresses the player, and she's typically seen alongside the supposed villain, Claire. It turns out that she's actually Dolores, the BigBad, while Claire is in fact her [[TheDragon Dragon]].]] |
| 241 | * The character of Thomas Downes from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' would be easy to forget about. A man Arthur is sent to beat some debt money out of early in the game, and who dies offscreen afterwards. But the impact of his existence comes several chapters later when [[spoiler:Arthur discovers he contracted tuberculosis from him.]] |
| 242 | * [[spoiler: Captain Wesker]] in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' fits this quite well. [[spoiler: He poofs off at the start of the game and then turns out to be the BigBad of the entire series, except for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. Kind of]]. |
| 243 | ** The zombies in the Remake of ''Resident Evil'' for Platform/NintendoGameCube become this if you fail to dispose of their bodies properly. If you think those zombie bodies just lay there the rest of the game to avert EverythingFades, you're in for a ''nasty'' surprise when they start [[DemonicSpiders getting back up]] about an hour later. |
| 244 | ** Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine also qualify. In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheUmbrellaChronicles'', Claire mentions that she had never expected to use her brother's training whilst in zombie-occupied Raccoon City, meaning that she learned how to survive from him. In Jill's case, being infected with the T-Virus and surviving thanks to Carlos producing an antidote in Nemesis isn't that big of a deal...until it is discovered after tackling Wesker through a glass window before Resident Evil 5 that her bloodstream held a rare strain of T-virus antibodies which Wesker uses for his Uroboros research. |
| 245 | ** You can now add Sherry Birkin to the list. Like Jill, she has G-virus antibodies following Claire curing her in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''. [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 Fifteen years later]] her own antibodies are used by Carla Radames to perfect the C-virus. |
| 246 | * ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3''. |
| 247 | ** Averted with the Professor. They have a unique sprite, are conspicuously introduced, and have two different quests associated with them. Most other characters with all these traits can join your party... but the Professor is just a minor NPC with no relevance outside their associated quests. |
| 248 | ** Same deal with Volcano. Along with his rival Undine, he's involved in the subplot at Mahzoz regarding the retrieval of the Archfiend's Shield located inside the Dead Man's Well. Unlike Undine, he cannot be recruited. |
| 249 | * In Red's Scenario in ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'', Dr. Klein is connected to a Terrorist Organization known as Black X mentioned early on in the story, at the very end he says that he is the one behind everything. [[spoiler: Not the case as the Real Leader is another being completely]]. |
| 250 | * Sand whales in ''VideoGame/SeriousSam 3'' are typically just a form of BorderPatrol to prevent players from wandering out into the open desert. [[spoiler:The final boss area is in open desert, and the final boss is the size of a sand whale. Hence, he will often challenge the whale when he gets bored with you, giving you a chance to [[AttackItsWeakPoint shove metal poles into his back]]]]. |
| 251 | * Early in "The Dead Man's Switch" campaign of ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' you encounter an exceptionally ugly elf. [[spoiler:He turns out to be the DiscOneFinalBoss]]. |
| 252 | * ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': Near the start, Shantae encounters two vacationing girls in Saliva Island that she helps as part of a puzzle. [[spoiler:Near the end of the game, they're revealed to be the Ammo Baron's latest recruits and are in charge of calibrating and firing the [[{{BFG}} Palace Disruptor Canon]]]]. |
| 253 | * The love interest from ''VideoGame/SigmaStarSaga'' is the first boss (it's pilot, anyways). |
| 254 | * ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'': |
| 255 | ** Towards the beginning of the game, Captain Renko is sent back in time to 1955 where he unknowingly saves a wounded Demichev, and a man in a burning room shouts to you that you must not allow Demichev to live. While you do figure out quickly that Demichev is essentially the BigBad and that was probably a mistake on your part to save him, the real kicker is the man telling you to let him die. [[spoiler: It's yourself from the future, who is trying to stop you from repeating the same loop, and has left semi-cryptic messages everywhere warning you everyone who you are both allied with and against are all completely wrong about how to stop the anomaly, which is to go back in time and kill yourself]]. The interesting thing is, by the time you learn who that was, you likely had completely and entirely forgotten his existence since he is little more than a background character introduced in the first few minutes of the game, and his identity isn't revealed until pretty much the last few minutes of the game. Furthermore, with the building burning down, you're likely far more interested in paying attention to getting out of the building rather than some shouting maniac. [[spoiler:It doesn't help the game cheats a bit by not ever showing your face, so you wouldn't have recognized him even if you did notice him]], and the messages written by this man all address you but never make direct mention of who they were written by. |
| 256 | ** Kathryn counts as well, having been the person who wrote the book that she based her own philosophy on. Talk about a [[StableTimeLoop Self Fulfilling prophecy]]. |
| 257 | * The boss of the first dungeon level (Shrine Island) in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' turns out to be [[spoiler: an old and beat version of robotic guardians on Soltis, the sunken continent that Shrine Island is actually a part of]]. |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' held a campaign which showed a number of characters that could be potential playable {{DLC}} characters, and out of the 32 potential options, 30 of them had appeared in the game previously in one way or another, either as major characters, [=NPCs=] in story modes, [=and/or=] background characters on stages and cutscenes. |
| 259 | * In ''VideoGame/TheSilentAge'' Joe's pal [[spoiler:Frank]] is only mentioned once at the very start of the game, when Joe is offered his part of the job. Eventually though, [[spoiler:Frank turns out to be a key character in inadvertently bringing about the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Apocalypse]] after he steals the TimeMachine]]. |
| 260 | * In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', the "Hint Orb" that provides hints and tips throughout the game is actually [[spoiler:the spirit of Tikal, the Echidna girl whose past is shown throughout each character's campaign and initially sealed the monster Chaos in the Master Emerald to keep it from destroying the world in ages past]]. |
| 261 | * ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'': |
| 262 | ** Amy first appeared in a minor role in the AttractMode of ''Soul Calibur II'' hiding Raphel from Guards. She returns as a playable bonus character and Raphel's main motivation in the next game, revamped for the arcade version into a full character and then revamped again for ''Soul Calibur IV'' as a full character. |
| 263 | ** ''Soul Calibur IV'': Algol was mentioned as the "Hero King" who created Soul Calibur in pretty much every game beforehand, finally getting a fully-playable reveal in ''IV''. |
| 264 | * In ''VideoGame/TheSpiritEngine2'', you can see the Big Bad walking through the background in Chapter 3, if you keep your eyes open and know what to look for. Also, later on, he [[spoiler:makes a brief stint as MrExposition]]. |
| 265 | * In ''VideoGame/StarControl II'', a player's very first encounter will most likely be with a "drone-vessel" of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ur-Quan]]. When you talk to them, in the corner of the screen is a small, frog-like animal which translates for them. It's there just to add flavor, right? [[spoiler:So very wrong, as they later turn out to actually be the Dnyarri, an ancient race of evil psychics, who [[CompellingVoice enslaved]] the Ur-Quan ages ago. The Ur-Quan have since rebelled and managed to free themselves, then proceeded to take their revenge by turning the Dnyarri into mindless animals. An "awakened" Dnyarri has a rather major role in the game]]. |
| 266 | * In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', we have Duran, the ghost who joined the UED against the Dominion as an alleged member of the Confederate resistance. His role had a major turnpoint when he betrayed the UED in favor of Kerrigan and disappeared sometime during the Zerg campaign of Brood War. One secret level with Zeratul shows that he is far more than he looks, with obscure plans involving the Xel'Naga. Turns out he's been taking the alias Narud in Wings of Liberty seeking Xel' Naga artifacts and is in league with the true BigBad of the series, the Fallen One. |
| 267 | * In ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', The HubLevel has one Thorntail that doesn't speak to Fox, grumbling that he's tired. Turns out [[spoiler: he's the fourth and final Gatekeeper]]. |
| 268 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': |
| 269 | ** On Balmorra, the Bounty Hunter PC works for an Imperial officer in order to get an opportunity to target his admiral for the Great Hunt, for whom you're competing with another hunter whose identity the PC is not told. The contact has a Cathar slave that the camera frequently lingers on during mission briefing conversations, to which she fairly blatantly listens in. Sure enough, she turns out to be the other bounty hunter, having apparently chosen to let the PC do most of the legwork for her. [[spoiler:She succeeds in killing the admiral, but the PC kills her in the ensuing firefight and is able to claim the bounty.]] |
| 270 | ** During Chapter I, the Sith Inquisitor PC once walks in on their master, Darth Zash, having an argument with another Sith named Darth Thanaton over hologram. Thanaton becomes the Inquisitor's ArchEnemy beginning in Chapter II: they spend the rest of the class story questing for means to defeat him. |
| 271 | ** At the start of Chapter II, the Imperial Agent's contact point for their mission to infiltrate Republic SIS is a man who goes by Hunter. [[spoiler:He turns out to be a DoubleAgent for an AncientConspiracy and makes a fool out of both SIS and Imperial Intelligence.]] |
| 272 | * Early on ''VideoGame/TheStretchers'', Professor Doctor mentions that he has a son called Junior Doctor that he doesn't necessarily get along with, especially when it comes to e-mail and satellites. Come the penultimate mission, [[spoiler:Junior, now going by Captain Brains, kidnaps his father to stop him from helping the medics.]] |
| 273 | * ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' has the ''[[spoiler:Peeper]]'' of all things as this. [[spoiler:The most common and abundant fish in the game has some odd traits your PDA notes when you scan one, like holes that allow them to expel the contents of their stomach, which you can catch them doing from time to time. Then if you stumble across an alien vent on the sea floor, you'll see Peepers coming in and out of its grates. Make it to the Primary Containment Facility, and you'll find Peepers [[AirVentPassageway riding the tubes from the surface all the way to the Sea Emperor's habitat,]] bringing sea flora seeds in exchange for doses of Enzyme 42, the only thing that can combat the [[ThePlague Kharaa bacterium]], which they take up to the surface and expel for the benefit of other life forms. In short, the humble Peepers are the Sea Emperor's agents and the only reason there's life left on the planet.]] |
| 274 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': |
| 275 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'': Killing the Fake Bowser with fireballs at the end of World 3 will actually turn him into a Buzzy Beetle. Buzzy Beetles actually do not appear until World 4-2, and cannot be killed with fireballs. Another example is the first Fake Bowser, who is actually a gray Goomba. In the final level, all Goombas there are colored gray. |
| 276 | ** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' played this trope pretty commonly. Of note are Flavio and General White, who both debuted at least five chapters before they were needed. Another example is Goldbob, who appeared in several chapters in different locations with his family before his major role. The game had a running gag about Mario running into several unimportant recurring characters each time he arrived in a new locale, and Goldbob blended in perfectly. |
| 277 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'': At the start of Story Mode after receiving Bowser's invitation, Donkey Kong runs off first. After getting turned to stone and freed, DK continues his run and is the one who destroys the mini-mizer after knocking it from Bowser. |
| 278 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' used Toadbert, an amnesiac Toad from the present who was one of Peach's bodyguards. [[spoiler: After the Shroob Mothership, Kylie Koopa falls on his head, which causes him to rush to the Bros. to tell them that he has the fifth Cobalt Star Shard, but the Cobalt Star Shard won't defeat the Shroobs. His efforts to stop the Bros. are in vain thanks to the Elder Shrooboid]]. |
| 279 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' has Durmite, a seemingly random boss fought within the first few hours of the game. [[spoiler:She is revealed to hold the first Star Cure and must be fought again in her sage Wisdurm form to get the Cure]]. |
| 280 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Divine Wars'' features a number of cameos by characters from the second ''OG'' game, even though ''Divine Wars'' touches only the story of the first. |
| 281 | ** Used for hilarious results in ''OG Gaiden'' where Touma (''Alpha 3'' protagonist who has yet to appear in the series proper) appears as a Soba Delivery man, and in a voice acting joke, later on gets harassed by the Shura General [[{{Gonk}} Magnaz Ald]], who happens to be voiced by the same seiyuu of his future rival [[BoisterousBruiser Baran Doban]] (do note that Touma has yet to [[TookALevelInBadass take a level in badass]], so it is very plausible that he offers so little resistance). There's also Aqua Centrum (''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsMX SRW MX]]'' protagonist) as a regular Federation soldier, in a ContinuityNod, Aqua says that she would never wear anything as {{Stripperiffic}} as Lamia Loveless' clothes. She's right: In ''MX'' and the sequel, ''2nd OG'', she wears even ''less''. |
| 282 | ** There was also a Gunman in the ''Alpha'' series, in the first installment, you get to meet Mio Sasuga, one of the Elemental Lord heralds and she tells you to 'wait up for the next game', because she's going to appear. Guess what, she DOES appear in ''Alpha Gaiden'' (along with the rest of the Elemental Lords crews). |
| 283 | ** Also, in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsW'', Yumi Francois, David Krugel and Natasha Pablociva from ''Anime/TekkamanBlade II'' make an early cameo being visibly taken over by the Radam tree near the end of the first half, and later appearing in the second half as playable characters. They certainly didn't appear visibly (taken over off-screen) in the original first ''Anime/TekkamanBlade''. |
| 284 | ** In the same game, [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Mwu La Flaga]], [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray Gai Murakumo]], and Yohko from ''Detonator Orgun'' all appear in the first half of the game as playable characters, even though their storylines technically don't even happen until the second half. |
| 285 | * ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter 2'' introduces Chance as an unassuming RedShirt G.I., but at the end of the game, he is revealed to be [[TheMole an Agency mole]] who was calling the shots behind Logan's back the whole time. |
| 286 | * In ''VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia'', the first time Senel encounters the Bantam Bouncers, you can spot someone who has a unique model in the bottom of the screen - it's actually Grune, a later party member and is pretty much God. |
| 287 | * When players first meet Tabatha in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', they are quick to write her off as a background NPC, or if they are savvy enough [[spoiler: a failed vessel for Martel]]. By the end of the game [[spoiler:she fulfils her original purpose; hosting the soul of Martel and becoming the guardian spirit of the new Tree of Mana]]. |
| 288 | ** Likewise, Yuan. First appears prior to [[spoiler:Kratos's first FaceHeelTurn]], repeatedly, and definitely looks important. Remarkably, he manages to pull it off again in the second game, where he looks sufficiently different enough that you can't be sure if that's really him or not when you first meet him in Asgard, very early in the game. Right near the end, it proves to be him. |
| 289 | ** A bit of an aversion comes from the fact that many of the important characters have a theme song that plays when they show up, which kinda ruins the surprise if you figured that out early on. |
| 290 | * Golyat in ''VideoGame/TearsToTiara2'' first show up commanding his legions to crush Hispania's rebellion. As he retreats, [[TheHero Hamil]] offers him land grants for his veterans if he switch sides, something TheEmpire did in its heyday. He admits the offer is very enticing but it's too late and they'll loose. [[spoiler: Fast forward to the final approach on Alba Longa, as the party wonder if any of TheEmpire's legions will switch sides, they find him having already put the city under siege and is waiting for them]]. |
| 291 | * ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'': Heihachi Mishima. The guy locks up his dad, tosses his son into a ravine, adopts another kid which becomes his first son's rival, and guns down his grandson. Yeah, it's safe to say that Heihachi's actions drives the series. |
| 292 | * In ''VideoGame/ThreeTheHardWay'', several random NPC townies you can interact with may reveal themselves as a Kaibutsu Lord. |
| 293 | * Stage 2 of the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' game ''VideoGame/TouhouYouyoumuPerfectCherryBlossom'' features the nekomata Chen as midboss and boss. She is written off as an unhelpful nuisance, like most bosses before Stage 4. [[spoiler:In the Extra Stage, she returns as the midboss - she's the shikigami of Ran Yakumo, the Extra Boss and herself shikigami to [[OptionalBoss Phantasm Boss]] Yukari Yakumo]]. |
| 294 | ** But wait! It gets better with [[spoiler:Kogasa in ''VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject'']]. [[BrickJoke Surprise!]] [[spoiler:And again in ''VideoGame/TouhouShinreibyouTenDesires''!]] |
| 295 | ** In ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'', the cat miniboss in Stage 4 [[spoiler: turns out to be Orin, the main boss ('''and''' miniboss) of Stage 5. And she shows up again as the miniboss of the final stage]]. |
| 296 | ** Nue. To her credits she's an Extra Boss in ''Touhou 12'', but by her own admission, she's [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere not directly connected to the story]]. Who would have thought that she has connection with Mamizou, who is [[TheCavalry supposed to defeat]] Toyosatomimi-no-Miko in ''Touhou 13''. |
| 297 | * In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', [[spoiler:Jack, the first person you interact with, along with The Cab Driver responsible for getting the Main Character around Los Angeles, turn out to be responsible for ''everything'' that has happened throughout the game. The Cab Driver is even heavily implied to be ''Caine'', the ''Father of all Vampires''! Amusingly, if the player chooses to play as a [[MadOracle Malkavian]], this plot twist is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d during dialogue with some characters, though it is difficult to spot without having played through the game at least once]]. |
| 298 | * In the second episode of ''VideoGame/{{The Walking Dead|Telltale}}: Season Two'' Clementine and Luke comes across a man on a bridge who offers them a place to stay and food, who is shot and killed by Nick when he thought he was endangering them from faraway. [[spoiler:It was Matt -- Walter's significant other, which causes some trouble later on that could possibly get Nick killed.]] |
| 299 | * ''VideoGame/WeBecomeWhatWeBehold'': The very first thing the game has you take a photograph of is a man wearing a nice hat, which becomes a fashion trend. [[spoiler:After some bickering between square-heads and circle-heads, all hell breaks loose when the man in the hat comes back to shoot the spiky-haired square, starting a war.]] |
| 300 | * In the DS game ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' aka ''It's A Wonderful World'', a slightly different sprite can be seem in a crowded scene at the beginning of the game, chillin' and not even having a line. Or moving. Or doing anything, for the matter. [[spoiler:He's in fact the fourth main character, and the one who set up everything in the game to happen]]. |
| 301 | * In ''VideoGame/WildARMs3'', you'll occasionally notice a purple-haired little girl. She might just walk by for a second as you enter a town or dungeon, or show up standing near a plot-important character as he begins conspicuously talking to himself. She's the [[spoiler: BigBad ManipulativeBastard]]. |
| 302 | * ''VideoGame/WishboneAndTheAmazingOdyssey'': |
| 303 | ** The duck, which accompanies the crew from Troy, turns out to be critical to obtaining an item for one of the last puzzles in the game. |
| 304 | ** Wishbone takes a sheep from Polyphemus's island; it comes into play in the Underworld for summoning Tiresias. |
| 305 | * In the start of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'', Geralt meets a humble mirror merchant by the name of Gaunter O'Dimm who tells him where to find Yennefer and then vanishes for the rest of the game. He then reappears in the ''Hearts of Stone'' expansion, [[spoiler: and reveals himself to be [[SatanicArchetype a powerful demon]] and the expansion's antagonist]]. |
| 306 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a bunch of characters like this. Some of the more notable cases include: |
| 307 | ** Tirion Fordring, who made his debut in the Eastern Plaguelands all the way back in the original release. Here he was a disgraced former paladin who gave you a couple of quests, culminating in him taking up his sword again. Two expansion packs later, he shows up again as the Supreme Commander of the Argent Crusade and is one of the most important characters in ''Wrath of the Lich King''. His shiny new levels in badass come complete with his own unique legendary blade pulled straight from the ExpandedUniverse and a few one-on-one battles with no less a figure than [[BigBad the Lich King]] himself. Tirion's story ends rather disgracefully 13 years later in Legion in the Battle of the Broken Shore. |
| 308 | ** Gryan Stoutmantle, a low-level questgiver who hangs out in Sentinel Hill in the original content and leads the Westfall Militia. Come ''Wrath'', he's been upgraded to ''Captain'' Gryan Stoutmantle, leader of the Westfall ''Brigade'' and commander of the Alliance's military efforts in Grizzly Hills. |
| 309 | ** In the Pandaren race's NoobCave there's a character named Jojo Ironbrow, named so because [[UseYourHead his head]] can break virtually anything, and sends the player to gather bamboo, wood, and stone so he can demonstrate. When you help Ji attack a Hozen village, you find a jade statue, itself a ChekhovsGun, that is the only thing he '''can't''' break, so he uses it as a battering ram to knock down a gate near the end of your quests, and he later follows Aysa to Stormwind when she joins the Alliance. |
| 310 | ** Horde players might come across a depressed son of Grom Hellscream in the first expansion. He gained rank within the Horde, but 3 expansions later, he proves to be the BigBad and directly responsible for the existence of the 5th expansion. |
| 311 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} Episode I'' features an EarlyBirdCameo of sorts for one of the major villains of ''Episode III'', the android T-elos. Plans for T-elos are visible scattered around a U-Tic Organization battleship that Jr. and his crew storm. The mysterious young boy Abel also gets a split-second EarlyBirdCameo in the game's ending. Also, several scenes from ''Episode I'''s "8 Minute" trailer showcased key events like Jin and Margulis' epic sword fight and the unveiling of Proto Omega, which don't occur until well into ''Episode II''. |
| 312 | * ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' has Nick Ogata. He makes a brief appearance in Chapter 2, and otherwise has no appearances in the main story (the Management sidequest notwithstanding)... up until near the end of the game, where it turns out he had a hand in protecting [[spoiler:Daigo, Majima and Saejima]] from their enemies and later plays a pivotal role in taking down Ryo Aoki. |
| 313 | * ''VideoGame/YesYourGrace'': Lorsulia, who is technically the owner of the family cat, prepares to bring it with her when she moves in with her new husband. Her much younger sister Cedani decides to preemptively adopt a snail to replace the cat, but it gets misplaced and mistaken for part of the food during the wedding banquet. Near in the end of the game, it turns out that [[spoiler:a character who was poisoned during the wedding banquet drank poison meant for someone else. The murderer has been suspecting the would-be victim of having deliberately switched chalices for the whole game, but the would-be victim never went anywhere near the place where the wine was kept during the wedding]]. As they are trying to make sense of the events, someone remembers that Cedani searched for her snail ''absolutely everywhere she could think of'' when she misplaced it, and [[SpannerInTheWorks didn't necessarily put things back where she found them]]. The narrative itself gives the snail credit for the turn of events. |
| 314 | * ''VideoGame/UnrealIITheAwakening'': The Kai are a peaceful species that perform menial tasks for humans. [[spoiler:However, it turns out that the DNA of an EldritchAbomination species is hidden in their genetic structure: the Tosc, the creators of the Artifacts you've spent the whole game retrieving]]. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext ChekhovsGunman / VideoGames
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
