Needless to say, there are a lot of surprising things that can transpire in many beloved RPGs. Even if these are series you have been playing for over a decade, some things are bound to slip from your notice and surprise you. Whether that surprise is pleasant or horrible is a hidden trapdoor that awaits you.
But the element that often adds to the surprise is a few words that could change your entire worldview about the game. Some of these rip the very fabric of the game's objective, while others are unimaginable horrors and silly plot twists.
10 Undertale - Papyrus Believing In You
"Still... I believe in you! You can do a little better! Even if you don't think so!"
He himself said that he didn't expect you to attack him. If you went with the intention of a genocide run, then you probably saw your actions coming from a mile away. But the more surprising part is that Papyrus still places his faith in you.
He still thinks you can be a good person, even as he was dying after your attack. What comes after this decision affects much of the game, but it's probably not going to compare to the emotional damage that's going to stay with you for a while.
9 Plague Tale: Requiem - Hugo's Farewell
"You must stop me... To stop the Macula."
We're not sure if this is shocking or heartbreaking, or a sick mix of both. It's been implied throughout the game that the only solution is on a mysterious island, and you've been given hope that it's possible to rid Hugo of the Macula.
You reach the island and find the remains of a former Protector and a chained Carrier beneath the ground. You had some hope that you'd be able to escape with your little brother, only for you to be apprehended when you least expected it. This all proves that human cruelty will be far more horrific than rampaging plague rats.
8 God of War: Ragnarok - Sindri
"That's what comes next."
The surprise of the moment was all too great to take in. But then again, you'll have to give it to Sindri for smashing a murderer's soul. For taking his only family away, it wasn't a surprise for Sindri to harbor such strong feelings that could materialize into vengeance. The way it's done, the abruptness of the scene, and the very few words he leaves after he disappears will leave you holding your breath.
We just didn't expect him to appear out of the blue to steal the soul of the man who killed his brother. Perhaps the actions were more shock-inducing than the words themselves.
7 Horizon: Zero Dawn - Aloy's "Mother"
"I'm not a person, I'm an instrument. Manufactured by a machine."
You've spent the entirety of Horizon: Zero Dawn chasing after Elisabet Sobeck, who was implied to be Aloy's mother, only to find out that's not exactly the right term for her. After the complicated explanation of GAIA and the information overload you had to experience, Aloy pretty much sums it up with those words.
Although she's still very human, you were probably just as shocked as she was to learn about her origins. That, or you spent more time than Aloy trying to understand whatever Gaia was saying after the game.
6 Bayonetta 3 - Viola's New name
"Be back by curfew, Bayonetta."
There are many twists and turns in this game that particularly shocked Bayonetta fans, but the happiest surprise of them all has to be this confirmation that Viola did, indeed, inherit the Bayonetta name after one last fight against Cereza's shadow.
She's not your usual Umbra Witch, from hair to her own abilities, but she's proven many times that she's worthy of carrying the family name along with the responsibilities and powers that come along with it. Let's just hope she doesn't hit anything (or anybody) with her katana by accident again.
5 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Emhyr Giving Up
"Witcher. I do not wish to see you. Ever again."
You probably breathe a huge sigh of relief once you heard Emhyr say these words in The Witcher 3. More persistent than the Wild Hunt itself is Emhyr's pursuit of power. So when he lets Geralt go scot-free without doubting his word, it becomes shocking. Geralt has no idea if Emhyr is truly convinced, but you've been convinced that Emhyr meant every word he said to Geralt: that he never wants to see him, ever again.
That doesn't seem to bode well for the White Wolf or Ciri, but at least this means that there will be less of this power-hungry king (hopefully).
4 Persona 5 Royal - The Real Igor
"Grant that man a swift death."
Igor is a mysterious character, but killing the main character of Persona 5 is a little too much—even for him. It's revealed much later that things have gone awry in the Velvet Room, so hearing this line from Igor is naturally surprising. Some fans were suspicious of his words, but many were still caught off-guard, nevertheless.
Once this fight happens, it becomes clear why Igor's dialogue has been oddly unhelpful and peculiar. So what really happened to Igor during this time? Also, something you wouldn't have expected yourself, but that's for you to explore.
3 Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Nikolaos Is Not Your Father
"I loved you — and your brother as if you were truly my own. But you were never mine."
A lot of things went down during the Wolf of Sparta quest in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. You went there as Kassandra (or Alexios) to surprise your father, who supposedly killed you, only to leave the scene feeling shocked at his revelation. This only applies if you choose to hold your anger back and decide to find answers instead.
The man who you thought was supposed to protect and care for you, who turned against you and your brother, was apparently just another Spartan who took in two children that weren't his.
2 Fallout: New Vegas - The Story of Vault 11
"Despite what you were led to believe, the population of Vault 11 is not going to be exterminated for its disobedience. Instead, the mechanism to open the main vault door has now been enabled, and you can come and go at your leisure."
Imagine living your whole life believing that the world you live in is just one big Prisoner's Dilemma, only for it to be sickly proven false once you make the active stand to stop sacrificing other human beings.
Vault 11 from Fallout: New Vegas made people think that they had no other choice but to sacrifice one of their own so that the rest of the Vault would live. This is no different from medieval sacrifices to a random god in the hope of rain—but the disgusting part about this social experiment is that it actively preyed on the instinctive response of humans to survive by all means, only to find that there never really was a threat, to begin with.
1 Yakuza: Like A Dragon - A Fight Between Two Dragons
"I'm the dragon guarding it. Defeat me."
A fight between two dragons isn't a new theme for the Yakuza series, but to fight our very own Kiryu Kazuma in Yakuza: Like A Dragon? The quintessential main character of Kamurocho? It's a good rite of passage for Ichiban, but that doesn't make this memorable line—or frankly, this scene, any less shocking. Once he had his shirt off, it was clear there was no talking your way out of this.
This wasn't the first time we had to fight Kiryu, but if anything was predictable here, it's that Kiryu only fights good guys to beat sense into them.