10 Video Game Twists In Front Of You The Whole Time
1. Kasumi And Sumire - Persona 5 Royal
You could teach a class on how to hide a twist in plain sight with the story of Kasumi and Sumire Yoshizawa in Persona 5 Royal.
When you first meet Kasumi Yoshizawa, you have no reason to believe she's anything other than the nice, intelligent, hard working athlete she appears to be. I mean, she's one of the biggest additions made to the story of Persona 5, so you know SOMETHING has to be up with her, but you have no idea what. The biggest clue you're outright given is the backstory detail about her sister Sumire who died in a car accident.
And then the third semester comes along.
It turns out it was Kasumi who died in that car accident, and you've been following Sumire the whole time. She was so emotionally destroyed by the death of her sister, that her therapist Dr. Maruki - who we learn at the same time has gained the ability to telepathically control and distort reality itself - made Sumire think she was Kasumi in a twisted attempt to take away the pain.
What makes this twist so brilliant are two things: one, no one else is altered by Maruki's spell, they still see her as Sumire. But due to Japanese custom, everyone but you refers to her as Yoshizawa-san. And you only think she's Kasumi because Sumire is carrying around her sister's phone and license.
And secondly, and what puts this twist at the top: the big twist is outright shown to the player in big red flashing neon WAY early in the game. Her Phantom Thief attire and Persona reflect the story and symbolism of the famous ballet Swan Lake, which is about - among many other things - mistaken identity and one person replacing the life of another. Which players would pick up...if anyone in Persona's target demographic were at all interested in ballet.
The story of Kasumi and Sumire is the gold standard of how to telegraph and pull off a twist, and how to have that twist lying right under the audience's nose the entire time, with none the wiser.