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Worst "He was there all along" Retcons

S

Shadow_Lord

Member
Some game series think it's a clever twist to introduce a new character, then reveal that he was actually there in the previous games in the series, either behind the scenes or in the thick of action, and they never got introduced and put in the spotlight because reasons.

My example for this thread is Yuri from Modern Warfare 3. The Russian protagonist is a new character in the game, who seemingly just hates Makarov, the villain established from Modern Warfare 2, and is apparently just a character introduced just cause. Later in the game, it is revealed that
him and Makarov have actually been around since the original Modern Warfare, driving a truck that one of the targets from the game escapes in. And they also were the ones who detonated the nuke in that game too. Oh, and Yuri was actually there during "No Russian" and he was actually trying to save civilians
. All in all, I just think it was a messy retcon.
 
R

RecRoulette

Member
Metal Gear Solid V:
Skull Face basically tailing Big Boss throughout the entirety of Metal Gear Solid 3.

Led to some pretty funny pictures though.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
On the flip side, I really liked in Modern Warfare Remastered
that Makarov is in the convoy when you target Zakhaev. Plus you can kill him before taking off Zakhaev's arm for an achievement/trophy called "Time Paradox."

I always thought this was a neat tie-in to an earlier retcon.
 
C

CertifiedFP

Member
eso76 said:
MGS4
Big Boss "Ha, I was alive all along !" *dies
Click to expand...

Nah, that doesn't quite fit the bill. He was absent throughout all of MGS1, 2, and everything before MGS4's ending - He wasn't inserted into any prior scenes he shouldn't have been in.

Also it would have been the third time chronologically that he pulled that trick. Well, second after MGSV retconned MG1.

Ironically, MGSV pulled a "
He was never actually there
" retcon.
 
M

MCD250

Member
Mortal Kombat 4. Quan Chi.


Always bugged me how they retconned that part of Scorpion and Sub-Zero's history.
 
FUNKNOWN iXi

FUNKNOWN iXi

Member
Crimsonclaw111 said:
Overwatch. Can't believe Sombra was there all along.
Click to expand...

tenor.gif
 
eso76

eso76

Member
CertifiedFP said:
Nah, that doesn't quite fit the bill. He was absent throughout all of MGS1, 2, and everything before MGS4's ending - He wasn't inserted into any prior scenes he shouldn't have been in.

Also it would have been the third time chronologically that he pulled that trick. Well, second after MGSV retconned MG1.

Ironically, MGSV pulled a "
He was never actually there
" retcon.
Click to expand...

my bad, misunderstood the OP. No, it was never stated he took part in anything happening in mgs1/2.
 
E

Earthpainting

Member
6UF5LFc.jpg

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was a expanded remake of the DS game Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn. On top of upgraded visuals and a new battle system to compensate for scrapping the entire hook of the game, it also expands the story by adding a new antagonist. Level 5's brilliant idea to integrate the titular White Witch was to cut to the League Of Villains between all significant events in the game, and do roughly the same scene again and again and again:
'The boy is coming closer and our previous plan failed, but it matters not, arrangements have been made to stop him in this tracks. This new henchman will surely dispose of him.'

Just a lot of that. It feels entirely pointless and forced in, and only sets up their new villain in the lamest, most incompetent way. Like the OPs title said, 'she was there all along, I promise!" Ni no Kuni's remake suffers from poorly integrated content in general, so it's impressive that these new scenes still manage to stand out. I guess it's easy to spot since there's so much repetitiveness in the cutscenes.
 
D

disappeared

Banned
Yeah Skull Face was kind of a let down. Like, they gave him a lot of time to explain himself in the cassette tapes with Zero and Code Talker but it's like you go back to play MGS3 and you're subconsciously looking everywhere to see if he's there and he's not. :/
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Whatever new characters Crisis Core introduced to FF7s backstory.
 
KyanMehwulfe

KyanMehwulfe

Member
Skull Face in Snake Eater is a weird one because on one hand, it's just an irrelevant part of The Phantom Pain that it's easy to ignore. On the other hand, that just further adds to the confusion as to why even bother with it at all.

My headcanon is just that they were the clean up crew sent into Tselinoyarsk after the fact or something, and during the actual Operation Snake Eater mission were mostly just doing field support elsewhere, e.g. any loose ends that were being affected elsewhere in the Soviet Union haha. Or on the border region somewhere, barely on the fringes jamming radios or something. I try not to imagine Skull Face -- with an XOF team, no less -- literally shadowing Snake -_-
 
E

Earthpainting

Member
MMarston said:
From the MGSV spoiler thread way long ago
Click to expand...
These are brilliant.

TimPV3 said:
It wasn't a remake, they were both in development at the same time.
Click to expand...
You're right that it technically isn't a remake, since they decided to make a PS3 version from the start, and they had a small team on it. "Both in development at the same time" is a bit generous though, as the PS3 version did not go into full production until the DS version was wrapping up, and might as well functionally be seen as a remake. They spent the majority of the supposed overlapping development time trying to prototype countless battle systems, figuring out how to most faithfully capture Ghibli's style, and ways to integrate the companion book like with for instance PS Move controls.

Regardless of whether it was a remake or not, it's as clear as day either way that the original White Witch content was wedged in there well after the fact. It existed entirely separately from the rest of the game. The Witch and Pea scenes are never addressed by anyone in the game world until the core story was finished, and the majority of their consequences were to justify something that was going to originally happen anyway (hence why I brought it up in the thread). After the Shadar plot is wrapped up, the world suddenly does start to acknowledge these scenes, but basically amounted to "visit all the old areas again to unlock the bonus dungeon." The only reason those scenes existed was to facilitate bonus filler content and to not have a left-field Necron final boss.
 
K

KidB

Member
As others have said Zero Time Dilemma had one of the most stupid twists of this kind.
The villain has been with one of the 3 groups since the beginning, apparently actively participating in everything the group does.
It's so freaking bad and comes so out of the left field that it sours the entire experience. Coupled with the revelation of the villain's motivations and the way the true ending plays out, it makes ZTD by far the most disappointing game of the Zero Escape trilogy.
 
R

rainking187

Member
Sofia Lamb in Bioshock 2. She was apparently a huge figure in Rapture, even though she wasn't mentioned a single time in the first game.
 
J

Joey Ravn

Banned
I agree with ZTD. What a disappointing game that was. It had the best highs in the franchise, but its lows were insultingly bad.

Also, who the fuck is "Genesis Rhapsodos"? Square Enix milked FFVII as much as they could... Amazing.
 
W

Wichu

Member
To be fair to Zero Time Dilemma, there were a lot of hints and foreshadowing. The characters unambiguously talk about the villain several times before the reveal (the
"old man in the wheelchair"
scene, for example), and they indirectly appear in some scenes (
the player views the game through his eyes, so we never see him directly, but his shadow is visible in some scenes; there's also a point where the characters are making a weirdly big deal of rescuing the dog who's been tied to a post, where the other end of the chain leads towards the camera - they're trying to rescue him, not the dog
). As all the groups are separated, only one of the three groups is aware that something is off, and
rightfully suspect the kid who they've never seen before rather than the harmless old man they've lived with for several days
.

My main issue with Zero Time Dilemma's villain is that although the characters are aware of them, everybody accepts their story at face value and never decides they might be hiding something. Also "complex motives".
 
J

Jangowuzhere

Banned
Shadow_Lord said:
Some game series think it's a clever twist to introduce a new character, then reveal that he was actually there in the previous games in the series, either behind the scenes or in the thick of action, and they never got introduced and put in the spotlight because reasons.

My example for this thread is Yuri from Modern Warfare 3. The Russian protagonist is a new character in the game, who seemingly just hates Makarov, the villain established from Modern Warfare 2, and is apparently just a character introduced just cause. Later in the game, it is revealed that
him and Makarov have actually been around since the original Modern Warfare, driving a truck that one of the targets from the game escapes in. And they also were the ones who detonated the nuke in that game too. Oh, and Yuri was actually there during "No Russian" and he was actually trying to save civilians
. All in all, I just think it was a messy retcon.
Click to expand...

Yup, this is a terrible retcon

It helps enhance the story of MW3 at the expense of the other two games. It really makes this entire series feel way more cartoony.

Crazy Diamond said:
Skull Face is exactly what your title describes.
Click to expand...

It's hardly a "worst" retcon. It's a little aside and is effective at what it was trying to do (downplay Naked Snake's legendary status.)

Ocelot actually PRETENDING to be Liquid Snake for two games is an actual clumsy "He was there all along" retcon.
 
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