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Orphans Plot Trinket / Video Games

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  • Cless's pendant in Tales of Phantasia.
  • Lucia of Lunar: Eternal Blue is friendless rather than an orphan, but her pendant is an important trinket nevertheless.
  • Rena's pendant in Star Ocean: The Second Story.
  • In Final Fantasy V, Faris' pendant is not a Plot Coupon, but does serve as a really obvious foreshadowing to Luke, I Am Your Father.
  • Relm's Memento Ring in Final Fantasy VI. It can also be worn by Shadow.
    • Also Terra's Pendant. Though it's never really referred to in the plot, it is sitting there in your Key Items inventory.
  • The Holy materia in Final Fantasy VII which belonged to Aerith's (biological) mother before her.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Eiko and Mog have a matching pair of ribbons given to them by her grandfather before he passed away leaving her all alone, save the moogles, in the ruins of their hometown. After a certain Heroic Sacrifice, it becomes a very useful accessory that she can learn her most powerful summon from.
  • The user-named girl's pendant in Mystic Quest (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Adventure, the first game in the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series).
  • Apollo's bracelet in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, although it is never acknowledged as such by the character in question. Also, he's not exactly an orphan.
  • Ephraim and Eirika, the main characters of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, honorary orphans as of the opening cutscene, have the Lunar and Solar Bracelets, which are very handy for opening sacred shrines and giving the two of them their class promotion.
    • Don't forget Neimi's handmirror. If not for it, you wouldn't have the also very recently orphaned Colm and Neimi in your party, since he tries to retrieve it after it's stolen by the same bandits that destroyed their hometown and she joins the party to find him before the bandits kill him; also, several of Neimi's supports allude to how important it is for her. It was owned by Neimi's deceased mother, a high-ranked cleric. Actually the only reason they decide to help her is that Eirika and Seth are chasing after her bracelet, which had been stolen by Colm.
    • Neimi's supports with Retired Badass Garcia reveal that she actually has two OPT's. The second is her archery gauntlet, which belonged to her dead grandfather Zethla; she modified it for her use, and we get a nice talk about Zethla's legendary archery skill and legacy when Garcia sees it.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, while Ike and Mist do become orphans at the beginning of the game, their mother Elena died before the game's events. As such they have two mementos from her: a medallion that she carried and left for Mist and which turns out to be Lehran's Medallion aka the Fire Emblem itself, and a lullaby she used to sing.
  • In the second half of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the mages Arthur and Teeny have matching pendants given to them by their dead mother, Princess Tailto of Freege. It's thanks to said pendants that they recognize each other, after having been separated for years. And if you don't get these two charas, their expies Amid and Linda will have similar pendants handed by their mom, Tailto's sister Ethnia
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, almost all the Future Children have their mothers's wedding rings as proof of their heritages.
  • Tetra's charm in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which turned out to actually be a piece of the Triforce, passed down by the royal family, meaning she's really the current Queen - er, Princess Zelda.
  • Dante and Vergil's lockets in Devil May Cry. Also, their swords - Yamato, Rebellion, and Force Edge - to a lesser extent.
  • Shing's Soma in Tales of Hearts is inherited from his grandfather. Kohak Hearts carries his memento of his mother, and The Ace Chalcedny carries the memento of her mother.
  • Lloyd's Exsphere in Tales of Symphonia which was grown on his mother and refined perfectly, allowing him to have angel wings in the finale.
  • Played straight in Castle of the Winds with the Amulet of Kings.
  • Dart from The Legend of Dragoon is in possession of a shiny red stone which belonged to his father, retrieved from the ashes of his Doomed Hometown. Early on, it's revealed that the the stone is actually a Dragoon spirit which allow you to turn into a dragoon. How Dart's father acquired it remains a mystery for most of the game - up until very late in disc 3, when it's revealed that he was actually one of the original seven dragoons who fought in the Dragon Campaign over eleven thousand years ago.
  • The Dragon's Tear from Breath of Fire II.
  • Kid's Astral Amulet in Chrono Cross. Also a Memento MacGuffin.
  • Jet Enduro from Wild ARMs 3 got something a little more practical than a piece of jewelry: a freaking machine gun. Called Airgetlamh (a Continuity Nod to a legendary sword from an earlier game), it is the only ARM that Jet can use because he is an Artificial Human. Regular people are able to use ARMS because they are descended from demons. Being a sample of the planet itself, Jet cannot wield the power of demons.
  • The Kid in Jak II: Renegade had an amulet around his neck, marking him as Haven City's lost heir to the throne. As it turns out, it was an indicator of Jak's heritage and proof positive that he was Damas's son.
  • Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 combines Orphan's Plot Trinket with Memento MacGuffin/Transformation Trinket, seeing as Edgar/Aera's father and mother are both dead when the story starts.
  • Subverted in Mother 3. The first time you see Kumatora, she drops a magical pendant. Later on, when she joins your party, you find out the pendant is just a defensive item with awful stats.
  • Invoked by Elh in Solatorobo to get into the canals in Spinon, telling the worker that they dropped a pendant from Elh's dead mother in there. Of course, as soon as the worker opens the sewers for them, the waterworks immediately stop and it's back to business as usual, causing Red to comment on how creepy it is for someone to be able to turn their emotions on and off like that.
  • She's only a half orphan when the game starts, but Heather's necklace in Silent Hill 3, which contains a special aglaophotis capsule for exorcisms.
  • Athena's earring in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, which her mother made for her from the valuable moon rock that the Phantom had tried to steal, and later to destroy. As the only known fragment of the moon rock, it becomes important to prove that the unknown rock found in the wreckage of the bombed Courtroom No. 4 was also a fragment of the moon rock and that the Phantom's blood on said rock proved that he was Metis Cykes's killer, whom Athena had stabbed.
  • The player's pendant in Avencast: Rise of the Mage.
  • Agnès' pendant in Bravely Default, given to her by the Sage Yulyana. Doubles as an in-game phlebotinum that grants the party the Abilink system. Yulyana got the pendant from "the angel" he and De Rosso encountered 1800 years ago, which greatly resembles Agnès and is heavily hinted to be the Agnès of one of the worlds already linked by Airy. The pendant is also the key to defeat Ouroboros, since it really connects the party to other dimensions which grant power to the heroes: those other dimensions are your friends' (Bravely Default) worlds.
  • Subverted in Dragon Age: Inquisition, when the Inquisitor asks Sera if she has any memories of her birth family:
    Sera: Well, there is the amulet I had as an orphan that has a missing piece and look at your face! You believe me!
    • The trope was played fairly straight in Dragon Age: Origins, however. Speaking with Alistair, he reveals that as a child he had been given an amulet that used to belong to his mother; sadly, he no longer has it, as he threw it against a wall and broke it during an argument he had with Arl Eamon regarding his being sent to the chantry. Snooping around in Arl Eamon's study reveals that Eamon had taken the time to repair the amulet and kept it, allowing you to give it to Alistair as a present. May be a subverted trope in hindsight; the reveal that Alistair's mother was actually Fiona, an elven mage ex-Warden, rather than the human servant he had been told she was puts it into doubt whether the amulet was really hers or not. A Dalish warden can also be given one, if they can convince their foster mother to tell them what happened to their birth parents.
  • Stella Glow sets it up early. In the beginning of the game, you're introduced to the local shopkeepers, Bianca and Franz, as well as Franz's daughter Rena. Franz doesn't survive the Wham Episode, leaving poor Rena to be your shopkeeper for the Orb shop. Just before the final battles, she reveals an orb of her own that she'd created using the techniques her father had taught her, and it's a powerful Orb—guaranteed crits against Angels.
  • Thimbleweed Park gives one of its playable characters one. Antonio Reyes has an old, broken pocketwatch that belonged to his father, head of security at the pillow factory who then died when its AI burned the place down. He has to repair it, and it serves a plot purposes to open the Pillow Factory's door by tricking the security system.
  • In Bad Mojo, Roger has a locket from his deceased mother which contains a photo of her in it. The locket has bad mojo in it which turns Roger into a cockroach, setting off the plot. In the Golden Ending, the landlord Eddie recognizes the locket as a gift he gave to his late wife Angelina — the picture in the locket matches the wedding picture of Angelina that Eddie treasures. This leads Roger and Eddie to realize that Roger is Eddie's son. The entire game was the spirit of Angelina's attempt to bring her son and husband together.
  • Theresia: Dear Emile gives protagonist Leanne a broken key wrapped in barbed wire. It serves as the game's hint system, and will tell you what to do when you use it. The key is a remnant of Emile, her mother. We don't find out Emile is dead until later in the game, however.
  • Kay's necklace in Haven (2020), which is the only thing he has left from his missing parents. Late in the story, it's revealed to serve a functional purpose that provides a big clue as to what really happened to them.
  • Luminous Avenger iX: Kohaku carries around a pendant that has a picture of her and her sister, who's gone missing one day. Seeing the picture causes Blade to start resisting her brainwashing.

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