• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Are there any games where you start as a hero but slowly become the villain?

Jadow

Jadow

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,969
And I am not talking about a morality system like in Mass Effect or Fallout where you can be a total dick from the beggining of the game, I am talking about getting slowly corrupted throughout the events that transpire in the game's story. I honestly have never played a game that portrays a character like this, just games where you can choose to be a total cunt, but nothing really sticks out to me.
 
Dark Knight

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,304
Canonically? Not sure, but there's probably a lot you could argue from a certain perspective or narrative.

People might say FFTA...
 
Lotus

Lotus

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
105,818
It's not a hero to villain thing, but Nier Automata does this well, the whole corruption/mental breakdown aspect
 
Last edited:
Fuzzy

Fuzzy

Completely non-threatening
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,130
Toronto
Infamous but only if you want to but I guess that goes against what you said in the OP. lol
 

SkyOdin

Member
Apr 21, 2018
2,680
I haven't seen all of the story routes, but I am will to wager that some of the paths through Tactics Ogre end up like this. The entire game involves walking a tightrope of conflicting goals and grey morality.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,369
Isn't one of the Far Cry games like that? Where you go from just surviving and rescuing your pals to being an actual bringer of chaos? I never finished the game, so I don't know how it concludes.
 
Stef

Stef

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,407
Rome, Italy, Planet Earth
Jadow said:
And I am not talking about a morality system like in Mass Effect or Fallout where you can be a total dick from the beggining of the game, I am talking about getting slowly corrupted throughout the events that transpire in the game's story. I honestly have never played a game that portrays a character like this, just games where you can choose to be a total cunt, but nothing really sticks out to me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Man, this is heavily spoiler territory. °_°

Somehow
Bioshock, even if a bit unwillingly
 
j3d1j4m13

j3d1j4m13

Member
Feb 24, 2019
577
Depending on your outlook FE Three Houses can end up like this. Also The Last of Us can be seen as sorta this way maybe?
 
KmA

KmA

Member
Oct 27, 2017
299
Billfisto said:
Shadow of the Colossus and Spec Ops: The Line, maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Idk these games aren't really about BECOMING villains. More like as the player learns more information, the more dubious the main characters actions are. They aren't necessarily heroes who have an arc that leads to villainy.
 
Haze

Haze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,784
Detroit, MI
As mentioned, Spec Ops and SOTC are kinda this. Although maybe not so much starting out as a hero, but learning over the course of the game that you never really were the hero to begin with.
 
Prolepro

Prolepro

Ghostwire: BooShock
Banned
Nov 6, 2017
7,310
KmA said:
Idk these games aren't really about BECOMING villains. More like as the player learns more information, the more dubious the main characters actions are. They aren't necessarily heroes who have an arc that leads to villainy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Im pretty sure they both do anyway, but they neednt devolve into mustache twirling villainy to be villains.

The point of a good villain is that they dont think of themselves as villains. Theyre doing what they are doing because they believe it's the right thing to do, and Walker and the Wanderer both do so to the detriment of their own settings.
 
Gorger

Gorger

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,628
Norway
At the end of the Baldur's Gate saga you can take up the mantle and become
the literal god of murder.
 
GameBuddy

GameBuddy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
94
Hellabama
Arguably all of the Soulsborne games. Even if you pick the "good" options the consequences for the world at large are almost always negative.
 
RROCKMAN

RROCKMAN

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,824
It's rather simplistic but Hibiki in the Last Blade 2 goes from a staunch pacifist to enjoying the killing if you murder everyone she fights against in her route.

You could even kill an old family friend and by that point the only thing she has to say is a cold, "Satisfied, pops?"

It even changes her ending too.
 
Lunir

Lunir

Member
May 17, 2018
331
Mexico
Baten Kaitos, all your quest is to end it all. At the end you try to be good but everything done was to destroy everyone and you didn't know until the last segment of the game.
 
TheOne

TheOne

Alt Account
Banned
May 25, 2019
947
It's not exactly that, but Baten Kaitos has something that makes you go sheeeeeit.
 

BillFromAccounting

Banned
Jun 12, 2018
633
latest
Warcraftiii-frozen-throne-boxcover.jpg
 
Mentok

Mentok

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,599
Spec Ops definitely
An argument can be made for Link's Awakening
I don't know if you're necessarily the villain in DS, but you are definitely dooming the world either way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.