10 Amazing Pieces Of Video Game Foreshadowing
1. Time-Travel Agent (Grim Fandango)
Like all the greatest examples of its genre, Tim Schafer's neo-noir classic Grim Fandango bathes in the penumbra of its foreshadowed plot just as much as it does its chiaroscuro setting.
Pretty much every detail of the narrative is subtly nudged at within the game's opening ten minutes. In the introduction cinematic, Manny Calavera presents a set of brochures to his latest client Mercedes Colomar, detailing how she can make her way through the Land of the Dead to the other side. It turns out it's Manny, not Merche, who travels by car, ship, and then train during his four-year trek.
There's even a picture of a ship in Year 1, upon which Manny comments:
"I wonder if I'd be happier working on a ship. Then again, I'm so competitive, I wouldn't be able to relax until I was captain."
Sure enough, in Year 3, he rises up the ranks to become head of the S.S. Lamancha's crew.
There's more. During the very first conversation in the game between Manny and Eva, Manny insists his secretary is working for someone else. A panicked Eva gets the wrong end of the stick, under the impression Manny has blown her cover as a double-agent for Salvador Limones' resistance movement.
When it turns out Manny was merely talking about taking messages for business rival Domino Hurley, she breathes a huge sigh of relief. "We all have our secrets," she coyly notes.
We could go on. It's a bit of a masterpiece.