Edit: wrong forum dammit. Mods please move this topic, sorry
I've used this example before for games that have tonal shifts in general, but I think it fits this... admittedly super specific category better, and the other one not so much.
Xenogears.
Spoilers for the first hour or so of Xenogears.
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It starts off in the village of Lahan, which is a pretty happy go lucky place. Spoilers, things go wrong. This is nothing new for JRPGs - it's actually pretty normal, if not expected to have your hometown burn down and everyone die - but the tonal shift is what sets it apart, because...
-The game suddenly shifts from a backwater mountain village where you're playing as a martial artist to big ass Gundams invading your town.
-You go from controlling a martial artist to controlling a big ass Gundam
-You accidentally use this Gundam to destroy your town. YOU. You destroy your hometown.
-Everyone in your town hates you and thinks you're a monster, and the little boy who looked up to you moments before goes on a quest for vengeance against you
-The subplot with Fei's murky past is set into place, and the shadow of Id is cast over the story from this point forward. The game starts with Fei as a relative nobody - a common trope in JRPGs, the farm boy saving the world - but this changes it to a different trope, which is Fei as a sort of special person
-The game is dark as hell from this point forward. Mitsuda's music for Lahan sounds like something straight out of Chrono Trigger, but the rest of the OST sounds... I don't know how to describe it. Heavier? Nothing sounds as lighthearted as this.
I don't know, it might just be me, as several people have disagreed with me on this before, saying the Lahan segment is pretty in-line with the rest of the game... but to me, it feels distinctly different. Like the game was trying to sell me Chrono Trigger or Grandia, but ended up giving me Final Fantasy VII or SMT instead. It went from a rustic setting to a sci-fi setting at the drop of a hat, even if the sci-fi was hinted at in the intro scene. I felt like it was setting up a grand adventure, but we got a fairly mature, layered story instead. It was a pretty big fake-out to me back when I first played it.
You can feel free to agree or disagree.
But enough about my opinions... what games do YOU think shifted gears really early on?
I've used this example before for games that have tonal shifts in general, but I think it fits this... admittedly super specific category better, and the other one not so much.
Xenogears.
Spoilers for the first hour or so of Xenogears.
It starts off in the village of Lahan, which is a pretty happy go lucky place. Spoilers, things go wrong. This is nothing new for JRPGs - it's actually pretty normal, if not expected to have your hometown burn down and everyone die - but the tonal shift is what sets it apart, because...
-The game suddenly shifts from a backwater mountain village where you're playing as a martial artist to big ass Gundams invading your town.
-You go from controlling a martial artist to controlling a big ass Gundam
-You accidentally use this Gundam to destroy your town. YOU. You destroy your hometown.
-Everyone in your town hates you and thinks you're a monster, and the little boy who looked up to you moments before goes on a quest for vengeance against you
-The subplot with Fei's murky past is set into place, and the shadow of Id is cast over the story from this point forward. The game starts with Fei as a relative nobody - a common trope in JRPGs, the farm boy saving the world - but this changes it to a different trope, which is Fei as a sort of special person
-The game is dark as hell from this point forward. Mitsuda's music for Lahan sounds like something straight out of Chrono Trigger, but the rest of the OST sounds... I don't know how to describe it. Heavier? Nothing sounds as lighthearted as this.
I don't know, it might just be me, as several people have disagreed with me on this before, saying the Lahan segment is pretty in-line with the rest of the game... but to me, it feels distinctly different. Like the game was trying to sell me Chrono Trigger or Grandia, but ended up giving me Final Fantasy VII or SMT instead. It went from a rustic setting to a sci-fi setting at the drop of a hat, even if the sci-fi was hinted at in the intro scene. I felt like it was setting up a grand adventure, but we got a fairly mature, layered story instead. It was a pretty big fake-out to me back when I first played it.
You can feel free to agree or disagree.
But enough about my opinions... what games do YOU think shifted gears really early on?
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