DEATH STRANDING
Hideo Kojima’s ode to hiking is chock-full of important items that don’t look like much. While the parcels Sam carries are essential to the plot, the contents really aren’t. And that makes the contents classic MacGuffins: he could be delivering pizza, pearls, or PS5s. It’s the act of delivering that matters.
UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES
The treasures Nathan Drake hunts are perfect MacGuffins, utterly pointless in themselves but the whole reason he heads off into the wilds. Your local pawn shop owner may not be able to value Marco Polo’s oil lamp or the massive Cintamani Stone, but he knows people who can. All of them say “Ooh, the Cintamani Stone” in hushed tones, and travel really far for it, so we reckon it’s a big deal.
KINGDOM HEARTS III
The powerful X-Blade, as mighty as Kingdom Hearts itself, drives the plots of several Kingdom Hearts games. Its importance in the final battle in KHIII proves it’s a plot device, not a mere MacGuffin: Sora couldn’t win without using it.
Persona 5
The Phantom Thieves steal the most important kind of plot device – small things with the power to change a heart.
MONKEY ISLAND 2: LECHUCK’S REVENGE
Guybrush Threepwood is a mighty pirate, no question, but finding a large treasure would help everyone else realise that. That’s why he searches for the Big Whoop. This is a treasure so important Guybrush travels an archipelago, and fights tax collectors and zombie pirates – truly a big whoop.
FINAL FANTASY XII: THE ZODIAC AGE
There’s political intrigue throughout Princess Ashe’s journey, driven ultimately by the material nethicite. She and her comrades collect shards and work their way to the source of the powerful, glowing stone, and in the end it becomes clear the war they’re trying to bring a final end to started over this stuff, so many years earlier.
STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
Nothing says MacGuffin more than a data chip, or in this case cube. You hop from one planet to the next to find it, because what matters is not the cube, but the info on it. As a classic MacGuffins, it’s less about the item and more about the monsters we slay on the way.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Ryder chases Meridian without knowing whether it’s a place or a thing, across an entire galaxy. We’re still not sure.
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR
Sauron wants the One Ring. Gollum wants it. So it’s every bit as sought after as a classic MacGuffin. However, it’s also intrinsic to the plot, unlike its useless MacCousins. No matter who has it, including Shadow Of War protagonist Talion, the lesson stays the same: an object of such immense power should never make it into the wrong hands.
WATTAM
There’s no one thing driving the plot in Wattam. In fact, there’s not really a plot. But if everything’s ultimately pointless, does that mean everything is a MacGuffin? Are we, the players, driving the action yet being completely interchangeable, the ultimate MacGuffins?
THE LAST OF US
Ellie’s not a plot device herself – she’s a beautifully developed character, with more depth than simply being a thing to be possessed or protected – but her resistance to becoming Infected very much is. It drives critical parts of the action in a way nothing else could, and is the reason why this deeply satisfying story exists.
Final Fantasy VII
This plot device couldn’t be more important: the fight for the Meteor Materia determines the fate of the planet.
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