8 Ingenious Villain Foreshadowings In Video Games

4. Link's Fleeting Shadow - Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link

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Nintendo

If you noticed this one on your first playthrough, I'll eat my hat. But you didn't, let's be honest.

Zelda II was quite the departure from its top-down predecessor and the series' future entries, despite receiving the same level of acclaim on release. The game world is littered with bosses, and it's during these very sections that the game's final boss is so sneakily alluded to.

Each boss has a specific number of hit points, and once you get this number down to zero, the enemy will disappear in a nice pixelated explosion. It's a classic formula.

What's not so classic is that, here, the light from the explosion will illuminate Link's shadow on the wall - something you're not able to see at any other point in the game. While this may seem like nothing, keep going to the end of the story to discover that the final boss is none other than Link's shadowy doppelgänger, Dark Link!

As villain foreshadowings go, there truly aren't many out there as fiendishly well-hidden as this. Who'd have thought one of Link's most formidable foes would be hiding behind his back the whole time?

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Graduate composer, on-and-off session musician, aspiring novelist, professional nerd. Where procrastination and cynicism intertwine, Lee Clarke can be found.