The Reveal / Final Fantasy

• Final Fantasy IV The sorcerer Golbez is the brother of the protagonist Cecil and is being mind-controlled by the real Big Bad Zemus, a creature sealed on the moon that wants to achieve world domination.
  • Interesting variation in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Because Golbez never took his helmet off in the first game, no one recognizes him when he shows up until Cecil calls to him by name. A different variation with Kain, as the only people the "Hooded Man" interacts with are people who don't know who he really is, and the ones that do just give Cryptic Conversation until the official reveals at Baron Castle.
• Final Fantasy VI Emperor Gestalt's raid on the Esper Realm killed the human Madeline, mother of the protagonist Terra.
• Final Fantasy VII takes until late in the second disc to reveal what really happened in Nibelheim five years ago, especially Cloud's involvement. This in turn leads to two reveals: The first being where he's told that he is just a clone of Sephiroth, and all his memories of Nibelheim were taken from Tifa. The second being him discovering that he is in fact, not a clone, at least not in a traditional sense. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase Un-Reveal.
  • In all of the promotional material for Advent Children (including the PlayStation 3 technical demo that remade the Final Fantasy VII opening with the new character designs), no shots of Aerith showed her whole face. Even in the actual film, the first unobscured shot of her face is at the very end when her spirit turns to look back at Cloud before going away with Zack. Given, her face has become one of gaming's most famous ones, and if the modelers screwed it up...
• Final Fantasy VIII
  • The SeeD mercenaries were really created to combat the Sorceress.
  • The sorceress Edea is the wife of Balamb Garden Headmaster, Cid Kramer
  • Edea is being possessed by Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future.
  • Most of the protagonists discover they grew up at Edea's orphanage but using the summoning monsters (GFs) forced them to lose their memories. These include Squall, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Selphie, Seifer, and Ellone.
  • In a paradox, the party travels to the future, defeats Ultimecia, who falls into the past, giving her powers to a younger Edea and then dying.
• Final Fantasy IX
  • Vivi is a prototype for the black mage soldiers.
  • Princess Garnet isn't the true heir, but the last of the summoner's tribe who survived and was found by the King of Alexandria, she had her horn ordered to be ripped out.
  • Zidane and Kuja are brothers, artificially created by the leader of the dying world Terra. Their job was to create chaos on the planet Gaia, making it so Terra can absorb Gaia.
  • Kuja discovers he was built with a limited lifespan, making him go mad and planning to destroy existence.
• Final Fantasy X brings them until the final dungeon.
  • First and foremost is the can of worms that is Sin:
  • Jecht IS Sin.
  • Sin brought Tidus to Spira, and Sin is the only thing that can take him back to Zanarkand. So by completing the pilgrimage, Tidus will be forever stuck in Spira.
  • Indirectly related: You know the Final Aeon, the only thing that has ever beaten Sin? It will kill Yuna once it's summoned. This is never explored, but the fact alone agonizes EVERYONE, regardless of how long they've known.
  • Sin will never go away. The Final Aeon is possessed by Yu Yevon upon Sin's defeat, and the Calm, the short period of years between Sin's appearances, is its incubation/growing period.
  • Sin is, in fact, a summoned monster by Yu Yevon, who was a summoner from Zanarkand a thousand years ago, who sacrificed what was left of the devastated Zanarkand (from a war with Bevelle) to use as Fayth for the summoning.
  • Auron's confession that he's an unsent (solid ghost). It was his devotion to his previous summoner and Tidus' father that allowed him to retain his human form (and not become a fiend), so he could Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Final Fantasy XII has quite a few. To top it off as being inspired by Star Wars, some of them are related to family:
  • Basch didn't kill the king. Or his comrades. Or Reks. Or betraying Dalmasca. His twin brother, the Archadian Judge Gabranth/Noah, did.
  • Balthier was a former Judge of the Archadian Empire. He's also Doctor Cid's son.
  • The red-colored Goddess' Magicite is the lost second Deifacted Nethicite, the Dusk Shard.
  • There's also the fact that Vayne, Doctor Cid, and Venat are all ultimately Anti-Villain because of the existence of the Occuria, the Greater-Scope Villain who has been controlling the path of history for who knows how long.
  • Reddas is the former Judge Zecht of the Archadian Empire AKA the Judge who blew up Nabudis.
• Final Fantasy XIII:
  • "The Purge" of the Cocoon citizens isn't an expulsion to Pulse. It's a massacre.
  • Fang and Vanille are both Pulse l'Cie and the ones indirectly responsible for the branding of Sazh's son, Dajh, as a l'Cie. While Fang is amnesiac, Vanille is not, though she feigns it so she can't be held up responsible.
  • Fang and Vanille are also the way they are because the goddess Etro crystallized them before they could complete their Focus (essentially a literal Deus ex Machina). Oh, Etro's also the one responsible for de-crystallizing the band at the end.
  • The Primarch Galenth Dysley is actually the Cocoon fal'Cie Barthandelus.
  • The "hellish" Gran Pulse is not hellish at all. Sanctum spreads the belief that as part of their propaganda.
  • The fal'Cie want to use the l'Cie so they can destroy Cocoon, killing millions of people in the process and possibly attracting their Maker along the way
  • The fal'Cie brand humans because while they can't fight destiny, humans can. Serah and Cid's crystallizations before they even complete their Focus are testaments to that. The heroes obviously use this logic so they can free Cocoon by defeating its fal'Cie without actually destroying it.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2
  • Like Yeul, Serah also has the Eyes of Etro, meaning that she can see the visions of the future, yet it brings her closer to death (which she does in the end).
  • Snow is becoming a l'Cie again so he can have the powers to assist Lightning.
  • Caius is a Pulse l'Cie who was given the Heart of Etro, essentially making him immortal, bound to the goddess, and given knowledge about the visions.
  • Caius doesn't want to kill Serah and Noel to solve the paradoxes which he claims are speeding up Yeul's demise, he wants to engulf the entire world with chaos by killing Etro.
  • Regardless of what the heroes do to stop Caius, including killing him, NOT killing him, saving Etro, and heeding to Yeul's prophecies, he always wins at the end.
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
  • Lumina is the physical manifestation of Lightning's suppressed guilt and denial over Serah's death and the chaos that envelops the world. She also contains Serah's soul, which is why she looks very similar to Serah.
  • Bhunivelze isn't benevolent at all. He wants to rob people of their free will by disposing their burden, as in, the memories of their dead relatives. In fact, he's probably the Greater-Scope Villain of the trilogy, being the one who created all this mess in the first place considering the backstory of the world genesis.
• Final Fantasy XIV
  • Thancred was possessed by Lahabrea the whole time, actively spying on the Scions from within their inner circle.
  • Not only are Bahamut and Louisoix still alive, but in order to match the dragon king's power Louisoix had to transform himself into the primal Phoenix. This ended with both sealed away in Dalmund's ruins and Louisoix being enthralled by Bahamut.
  • Nael van Darnus is also still alive, is also Bahamut's thrall, and is actually girl underneath all that armor. Since Square didn't alert the localization teams about this twist in advance, some REALLY awkward write-arounds were put in its place until the official lore book retconned it into Nael being Dead All Along and the "Nael" you knew even in Legacy was actually his twin sister Eula taking on his name to honor his memory.
  • Ishgard's King Thordon I was the one who instigated The Dragonsong War when he killed one of Midgarsormr's first brood. The church has covered this up for years and painted the dragons as the aggressors in the retellings.
  • Alexander wasn't actually summoned by Mide's party three years prior. Alexander used time magic to appear at the same point in time that the initial summoning attempt took place. In addition, the primal itself wasn't the one who killed Mide's friends, but rather the members of the Illuminati who were hidden on Alexander's massive body with guns to pick them off.
  • Zenos yae Galvus has not only captured Shinryu, but thanks to genetic experiments he had his scientists perform on himself, he now had his own version of the Echo and could use it to take control of Shinryu's body.
  • Omega is not an Allagan superweapon, but an extraterrestrial machine from a distant planet that had come to Hydelyn in pursuit of Midgardsormr, as well as to make itself stronger so that it can ultimately return to its homeworld.
  • Hydaelyn and Zodiark aren't true gods, but the very first Primals, summoned by an ancient race whose survivors would become Ascians. Furthermore, Zodiark was created to protect the world from the apocalypse, and Hydaelyn was supposed to keep his power in check.
  • The Warrior of Light is the reincarnation of Azem - the final member of Ancients' ruling body, the Convocation of Fourteen, and a former friend of Emet-Selch.
• Final Fantasy XV The Big Bad Ardyn Izunia's true name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum, revealing him as a potential usurper for the Kingdom of Lucis, and he is in fact a member of the Lucian royalty who healed people from demonic illnesses by taking demons into himself. He was denied the Lucian throne and godhood due to the demons inside him, which also made him immortal and thus he became a vengeful manipulator.
  • Also, Bahamut is either a Jerkass or outright Evil, since the DLC reveals he intentionally drove Ardyn mad and let him cause the apocalypse, so that Noctis would fulfill a prophecy to cure an otherwise undefeatable plague, while the dubiously-canon sequel novellas reveal Bahamut used the defeat of the plague as a battery to power an even worse apocalypse, so he could wipe out the whole world for not meeting his impossible standards and remake the ashes in his image.
• Final Fantasy XVI:
  • Joshua Rosfield didn't die at Phoenix Gate during the Night of Flames.
  • Barnabas Tharmr was working for Ultima and is an undead Akashic.
  • The reason why there are two Eikons of Fire is because they are each half of Ultima's Risen form.
• Dissidia Final Fantasy is chalked full of revelations.
  • The Warrior of Light, the hero of the original Final Fantasy and the series very first protagonist is a clone. To top it off he's not just any clone, he's a clone of the very first (due to Retcon) Cid.
  • The narrator of the game is Cid of the Lufaine.
  • Cosmos is a clone of Cid of the Lufiane's wife. She's also shown to be Back from the Dead post game.
  • Chaos is an innocent victim of others machinations (mainly Cid and Shinryu).