“Which Video Game Contains the Most Surprising Plot Twist?”

Hello adventurers, and welcome to the first post in over a week that wasn’t written on Thursday, May 18th! Today’s post is actually my submission in an ongoing community event hosted by Later Levels known as the Question of the Month!

“Oh great, Ian’s answering more questions.”

Ah, but this event is a little different from my usual question-answering shenanigans. You see, this event is something like a contest: you get to vote for the answer you think is best! My submission is only one of the many answers you’ll see, and if you don’t like it, you can tell me so by voting for someone else.

First, credit where it’s due. This event is hosted by Later Levels, a fantastic blog that you absolutely should be following if you are not already. Later Levels poses the question each month and also hosts all the answers, as well as hosting the poll itself. So if you want to participate in this event by voting, you definitely need to check them out. Also, if you want to participate by submitting answers, shoot them a friendly e-mail to find out the rigorous quest you need to undergo in order to participate. There’s a dragon and everything!

I’ve got a lot of good competition in this thing. Not only does Kim from Later Levels submit her own answers, but plenty of other bloggers do too! There’s Kevin from The Mental Attic, who recently did a great post on being a dungeon master that I highly recommend for fellow tabletop fans. Then you’ve got Luke from Hundstrasse, whose recent entry into the podcasting world is a delight to listen to. Also Nathan, who participated in the Gamely Giving stream I had the pleasure of watching a few weekends ago and who does his own streams as well. There’s even a few folks I haven’t “met” yet (inter-met?) whose content I’ll definitely be looking into; their blogs are GeekOut South-West, OverThinker Y, and NekoJonez’s Gaming Blog. All of these folks will be posting answers to the question of the month, so be sure to check them out!

As far as the ground rules, I only really know of one: my answer has to be communicated as effectively as possible in only 100 words (speaking of which, I just now thought to ask if contractions have special rules, so here’s hoping my post even counts!). I assume there are also unspoken rules like “don’t be a meanie-head” and “don’t pay people to vote for you.” But other than that, it’s anything goes in this interrogative free-for-all and I have every intention of coming out on top in my first bout!

So once again, the question: which video game contains the most surprising plot twist? My answer: Baten Kaitos Origins, the second game in the Baten Kaitos series and prequel to Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean.

What would you do to stop an evil mastermind? Where would you draw the line? Selling your soul to demons, perhaps? It turns out in Baten Kaitos Origins, that’s exactly what you’ve done. The game tells you constantly that you’re an otherworldly spirit of good, a guardian who watches over the protagonist. But that perception is altered when you discover that YOU are the one who sold their soul. You are the demon Malpercio, final boss of the first game. Baten Kaitos breaks the mold by twisting the one thing that the player should be certain of: your own identity.

Well there you have it, adventurers! My argument is penned and I imagine that you’ll be seeing the answers of other bloggers throughout the week as well. Later Levels is planning to post the poll on Friday, June 2nd, at 1 AM EST (6 AM GMT), so be sure to check out their blog that day and vote for me the best answer. Thanks for reading!