10 Background Video Game Characters That Change EVERYTHING

A lot of Final Fantasy VII players would be forgiven for thinking that Zack's role in the original game (we'll not touch the remake here) doesn't so much change everything, rather that it is everything. But it's only through an optional cut-scene very late in the game does the entire story, warts and all, unfurl itself.

Cloud Strife is a mercenary who, having served in the elite military unit SOLDIER, is plagued by confusing flashbacks and a mysterious voice in his head. He remembers things he shouldn't, draws a blank when he should have clarity, and is repeatedly mocked by his nemesis over how he recalls an incident that occurred five years prior to the game.

Meanwhile, a barely-mentioned character named Zack has been missing for a number of years and was, once, the love interest of the game's other main character Aerith.

It transpires that, traumatized by the destruction of his village and poisoned by the MAKO energy source that powered it, Cloud (only ever a lowly guard) was experimented on extensively in the aftermath. Broken out by his best friend Zack, he was carried across the world to safety while being regaled with all of his many adventures in SOLDIER. Catatonic and with little idea of who he really was, Cloud's mind simply absorbed the stories as memories instead.

When Zack dies on the outskirts of Midgar, Cloud eventually comes back to his senses and beings to resume his life unaware that the last few years are a total fiction designed to repress his trauma.

It's a kid's game though, according to my dad.