10 Thought-Provoking Video Games That Haunted You For Days

9. Final Fantasy VII

For a game that requires you to dress your butch protagonist up as a woman, Final Fantasy VII is surprisingly deep and thought-provoking in it's latter stages. While it isn't the first Final Fantasy to feature a character suffering from an identity crisis (Terra in Final Fantasy VI is a much more notable example of this), uncovering Cloud's problems is a key thread that runs throughout the entire story and the various mysteries of his past are only revealed after many, many hours of gameplay. Cloud's past is first revealed after the party escapes Midgar and arrives in the small town of Kalm. Here, he explains his past with Sephiroth with a particular focus on an ill-fated mission to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim. In particular, Cloud's story highlights his role as a Soldier 1st Class; something that is a vital element of the hero's past. ...or is it? In actuality, Cloud's past is incredibly vague. It turns out that most of his memories are actually somebody else's; Cloud's best friend Zack Fair, a character who Cloud has completely forgotten by the beginning of Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to experimentation, Cloud took on the memories of a dying Zack and forged a persona where he essentially replaced him; hence the memory loss and instability of Cloud's mental state. The revelation that Cloud's past is mostly lies and forgery is pretty shocking and it's an event that genuinely makes you go back and question everything in the game. More interestingly, you'll also notice the small hints at Zack's role in the game on a second playthrough, such as when Aeris mentions her first boyfriend in an early scene. All of this, along with the general intrigue of memory loss and unreliable characters, turns Final Fantasy VII into a highly memorable and haunting game.