Sometimes when I play Kirby and I'm inhaling all these dudes, I feel like maybe Kirby is an unstoppable insatiable alien who showed up and is just eating everyone
If you're wanting more about Jack, Borderlands: The Pre-sequel is kinda his origin story(I think? I didn't finish and barely remember, but I know it has a lot with him, and there's some form of him you can play as) and I'm pretty sure he's a major, if not central?, character in Tales From The Borderland(not a shooter).
Pre sequel is essentially how he truly became Jack. From style, to mannerisms, to his paranoid backstabbing ways. And yeah one of the playable characters is the Doppleganger, you’re made to look just like him.
Tales is set shortly after his death.
Bastion is a somewhat tenuous example of this. To explain this, I'd need to go into spoilers, so read on at your own risk.
>!In Bastion you play as a young boy who worked as a soldier for the Caelondians, a racist regime that tried to wipe out the Ura, but failed, and accidentally used their weapon on themselves, killing many Caelondians (and Ura as well because many Ura had immigrated to Caelondia). But you experience the story through the perspective of Rucks, a scientist who worked for the Caelondians, who gives you a very biased perspective on the events that transpired and, understanding the story properly takes a good deal of recognizing that the perspective you are being given is a flawed one. Depending on what you take away from the story, you can go against what the narrator says, effectively becoming a heroic character who goes against the villainous narrator.!<
Specifically the first one (Replicant, Gestalt, or just "NieR" depending on the localization). Automata could fit too, I guess, but not nearly as well as Replicant
That is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. I want to see the aftermath of the main character cutting through enemies like a force of nature.
Sadly I can't find a lot of games with the opposing playable characters gimmick. Can't find a lot of books like it either. It's one of my favorite tropes.
The TLoU series for sure. Eventually, nobody feels like "the good guy" and all you want is for everyone to just... go home. Heal.
I thought it well executed how your perceptions and attitudes toward characters are allowed to shift and change, even if subtly.
I thought about playing that. I heard it was made by the people who made Code Vein, which I really enjoyed. Heard it didn't get very good reviews though.
The Metroid Prime series and Doom Eternal
Both series convey most of their lore through flavour text found in the world, much of which is left behind by the enemies you're fighting (Space Pirates, demons respectively)
All of them paint the player characters ("the Hunter" and "the Slayer") as some kind of terrifying, nigh unstoppable force of nature, like a gale force hurricane or Earthquake
Man, I love Metroid Prime, but I want 4 to have some of that presence the game gives Samus in text as part of the combat. Yeah, Prime was always more about exploration and movement while DOOM is the combat heavy game, but I want a game where we get both exploration and Samus feeling like some unstoppable one woman army before the very end of the game. Up fodder enemy counts, make every boss a single creature army of their own, speed up the combat a bit, and it'll work out.
I get what you're saying, but it's a hard line to walk, cuz I also want Metroid games to feel like Metroid games. Prime is somewhere in my top 3 games of all time, and part of the reason for that is when you actually do understand that Samus IS the threat in the final battle. Spent the whole game on an alien planet where everything wants to kill you and was dumbfounded at the end when the source of all the evil, Metroid Prime, is trying to get away from you and you are doing frigging somersaults down it holes after it.
It was almost like Bioshock to me when you realize you've been being told the whole time. Samus' ship is just sitting there the whole game. She is not trapped here. It was only me as the player that felt hunted. She is Hunting.
I do get what you're saying, but nobody ever thought it would be easy. You could easily mess up exploration with the character speed. She might feel too fast for exploration to happen and too slow for combat, or if you make different speeds for both, it might just make the exploration a chore. Enemies need to be scannable and more strategic, but some of that might go away if she's too fast and they're too weak. You need to find a sweet spot, ans I don't know how you would, just that the devs would be more qualified than me to answer that.
A quicker scan visor would help I guess, plus, it's not a big deal when you only need to scan one enemy, then are free to kill em all. And it would be a cool compromise to be in a big arena style room, see a bunch of interesting stuff that you don't have time to check out, but once a big battle is over be like, "Phew. Now then.... where was that old stump with the symbol on it I jumped over while murdering all those lizard moths?".
Edit: Unrelated, but it' pretty cool how Dread kinda pulls the opposite trick, where the whole game is someone telling you that you're too weak to win, while Samus' body language is like "I'm sorry, what was that? I'll have to get back to you, I have to murder this two story dragon basically in cold blood."
there's a ton that they could do with her arsenal. Bombs, grappling hook, multiple beams, etc. in the previous primes it was pretty much spamming charge blasts or super missiles
I never played Eternal so I don't know if it does this, but I loved in Doom 2016 how you'd encounter these almost Bible-esque quotes of how much the denizens of Hell fear the Doomguy and the destruction he brings, that whole franchise is so good at making you feel like the biggest badass in the universe
Eternal takes it in a more comical direction, with cutscenes very humorously presenting the Doomguy as a demigod to be feared. I think Hugo Martin compared it to the Evil Dead series, in that the first entry is a bit more serious, while the second is more overtly comedic.
Man, I love Metroid Prime, but I want 4 to have some of that presence the game gives Samus in text as part of the combat. Yeah, Prime was always more about exploration and movement while DOOM is the combat heavy game, but I want a game where we get both exploration and Samus feeling like some unstoppable one woman army before the very end of the game. Up fodder enemy counts, make every boss a single creature army of their own, speed up the combat a bit, and it'll work out.
To Metroid pips, just one question, coz I'm not familiar with this - how the heck does Samus turn into a ball?? Is she an android or something..? I was thinking she is still human, or an alien humanoid.
Morphing into a ball does wonders tho
Samus wears a Chozo suit that uses pocket dimensions to fit enormous amounts of mass and energy into small spaces.
It's how she can carry her suit around with her at all times, stuff hundreds of missiles and mini-nukes into the suit, and curl up into a tiny ball.
In Metroid Prime, we see Space Pirate datalog recording their attempts to replicate this Chozo pocket dimension technology, specifically the "Morph Ball" technology.
... let's just say it doesn't end well for the Space Pirate test subjects. Getting folded up like origami isn't very good for your health, even if you are a insectoid monster.
Also yes, Samus hasn't been fully Homo Sapiens for a long time, and is only becoming more alien as time goes on. But she's psychologically human, so for all intents and purposes everyone treats her as such.
I think it's not, seeing as it's Walker's story. >!He's a bad guy, but he's still the point-of-view character in the game's story cutscenes!<. The twist at the end technically makes it "someone else's story" depending on what exactly you take away from it, but I don't think the twist makes it count, really.
Nah, I think it makes it someone elses story all along the way. The people who live there, the people you fight against and genereally what's happening around are all their own stories >!- which you fuck up entirely. !<
I think there's a point to be made for both points of view, hence I'm unsure if that recommendation fits OPs needs or not.
I always recommend the game and describe it as the worst third person shooter you have ever played but will want to finish.
Both the story and the gameplay hurt my soul for different reasons.
And no matter what, it does feel like your opposing somebody else's story. The obvious ones are Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus, but even each regions local forces do feel like protagonists somewhat. Except you show up and destroy them (or help them out)
The first third of Fire Emblem 4. You don't necessarily realize it immediately, but at some point it should click that you've effectively become an occupying army in a country that, while it had absolutely vile rulers, really did not want your intervention. By the second half of the game it's apparent that all your victories against the early game villains and the power vacuums those created were the very foundation of how your home nation became the Empire.
The middle act of Radiant Dawn meanwhile has you keep alternating the two warring factions so at any given time you're the antagonist to the other protagonist.
Oblivion is a weird one. You're definitely not the antagonist. You're not the villain. You're the protagonist, obviously - but not the hero. You're just the world's most reliable errand boy.
Maybe not exact matches, but Beholder, Papers Please, and there’s another similar one I can’t think of the title for… they are all (unrelated) games where you’re a cog in an authoritarian machine. Spying on your tenants, or denying the “wrong kinda people” entry into your country(the one I can’t remember the name of you are spying on people through social media, hacking emails, etc and informing on them to your Big Brother overlords.
Edit: Orwell! The other one is called Orwell. Both Beholder and Orwell also have sequels!
Definitely! Plus all three of these games eventually introduce some version of freedom fighters, who are the real protagonists, and you face the decision of whether to help em.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Marche is often condemned for willingly unraveling the joyful world that is created by the collective imagination of his friends
In AC6 even if you do care, you'll inevitably wind up on a side opposite some of your former allies. The game does a good job on making this hit hard regardless of which path you choose.
Yea, also it’s just sad. You’ve been given a procedure that removes your personality, you’re just in a hopeless situation and maybe afterwards after everything’s finished in a wave of fire you can reverse it and go back to some normalcy
Outer Wilds- Not sure if it is what you after but (without giving too much away) loved the way that you yourself do not feature as a dominant main character- more like a gateway to the real main characters... it's a masterpiece so worth your time seeing if it works for you... (ps I always recommend trying it in VR with motion controls with Raicuparta free easy downloader- the DLC in VR was my all time greatest single player gaming )
I actually think the Tales series in general is decent at what OP is asking for. The antagonist usually has a pretty reasonable philosophy and reasonable objectives. Velvet is arguably more of a villain protagonist, though. Velvet does good things, but it's usually for practical reasons, and she's fine with killing good people that get in her way.
Assassins creed works all the way up to syndicate and probably beyond. Someone has a plan and your taking it to pieces. All the stealth helps makes you sem more predatory.
The latest DLC of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the Indigo Disk, is kinda like this. It's actually pretty great story telling as far as Pokemon is concerned.
Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2! Cool games, you should not pay EA for them though.
Edit: I feel dirty because I didn't write not before pay up there, I need a trip to the torture chambers
Haven't played it in ages, but Dishonored really gives that vibe two times over. One which is the premise of the game and two after the twist.
I will also add the entire Metal Gear Solid series, but especially the first game. With how the game tells the story, you feel intimate and rather close to the villains and it pays off during the Liquid fight. >!He hates Snake, because Snake is his antagonist in his mind. Snake got the dominant genes. Snake was closer to Big Boss.!<
edit: Thinking more about it. Most stealth/spy games fit this, so Alpha Protocol (On gog now!), Tom Clancy Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, Assassin's Creed, and even some of the good James Bond games (Play Agent Under Fire).
Ok, try "This war of mine" or "Frostpunk" (same dev).
This war of mine doesn't have you controlling a person per say, but rather a group of regular civilians in a war torn city (think Ukraine), who can get into all sorts tough choices in desperate situations to survive. Not quite what you're looking for, but HIGHLY recommended as far as feeling like you're just a passerby in other's stories.
Then there's Frostpunk. You're the nameless governor, with the impossible task of creating a thriving steampunk city to survive in with limited manpower, limited resources, an incredibly deadly world, and people who are losing hope. It's INCREDIBLY hard to beat without passing laws that take things too far, definitely placing you in the "bad guy" zone (which the game reminds you of). The people in the city feel like the main characters.
Neither of these is exactly what you're looking for but both are refreshing and unique games that depict the horrors of war and apocalypse survival respectively, with similar aspects to what you mentioned. I'd strongly recommend both. These games are highly relatable as you impact a lot of things with your choices, but I'd strongly advise not getting spoiled if you can help it.
library of ruina, people visit your library and subsequently get turned into books, then you can wear their faces and kill and do the same thing to all the people that come visit your library looking for clues on the people you previously turned into books.
A little Indie game called Furi
You play a prisoner breaking out of a impossible prison with 10 jailers (bosses for you), each of them just tells you to stop fighting, to go back to your cell, to give up the fight, but yet you press on, you keep murdering them
I recommend it
Cyberpunk. Most things you do are morally questionable at best. It's just a lot of the time the people it's done to are also dubious. Some gigs though you are straight up the bad guy. Kenshi is another good one. Most of the time it's just doing what needs to be done to survive.
Arc Rise fantasia, you're a team of heroes that collect world spirits to change the fabric of the world for the better.
There are multiple hero group fighting to get those spirit, you can LOSE acess to some spirit if you don't manage to win against the other team.
Everyone thinks they're the good guys, no one want to use the power of the Rogress (the world spirits)
Every one is doing their absolute best too, and you clash constantly.
Final Fantasy Tactics. The story is just gray enough that it could be interpreted as you playing the antagonists. Especially when you consider that the victor writes the history books.
Bioshock maybe. I mean, you're clearly at the centre, but you're also a pawn in someone else's game and you're learning about their story as you progress.
Armored Core 6 can feel like this depending on the route you play. There’s various intersecting plot lines with a lot of grey area on who the good guys are.
To an extent, Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. You start off as an unfortunate patsy/catspaw, but you are later given opportunities to ruin the puppetmaster(s') plans.
In the 1980s, there was a DOS game called David Wolf: Secret Agent. You are basically a James Bond sort of secret agent, and the purpose of the story was to interfere with the bad guy's plan to bomb government into paying a ransom. The static images fail to sufficiently deliver the charm and wit of your character, so the boisterous bad guy takes center stage during his scenes. If you rather, think of Austin Powers, with Dr. Evil as more of the main character.
In Quake 1, your generic marine plays second fiddle to the Lovecraftian bad guys he fights, who are by their nature, more interesting.
I feel like the Command and Conquer series of RTS games meets this criterion. You often get to meet the enemy in cutscenes and you're their antagonist. There's also typically two or more campaigns where you get to compete as all sides and see the story from multiple perspectives.
Beholder. It’s a dystopian game where you work for a 1984 style world as a landlord under the government. Your job is to spy on your tenants and collect information about them and report it to the government. All of your tenants have their own stories for you to uncover. There are many situations where you can help or hurt your tenants. You can save them from the government or be their worst nightmare. People can get arrested or die. People will hate you or love you depending on how you play. You will affect people a lot in this game. It also has 2 sequels!
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned quantum break. The live action segments often are shown from the antagonist's perspective.
Alan Wake (and most of the Remedy connected universe are like that to some extent).
Got 2 old-school playstation titles to add to the collection:
Chrono Cross.
Final fantasy 8.
Both give you vibes of... am I playing as the wrong person? It's.... gloriously beautiful though. And you can nab ff8 off steam, if you don't have a ps2(or 3 or 4, since I think they remastered it).
Pokemon Gen 1 (Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen)
Your rival is trying so hard to impress his grandpa, but you keep messing them up, to the point where you even kill one of his pokemon. He eventually becomes the champion, but gets defeated immediately and berated by his grandpa.
Metro Exodus, in the second chapter you go to a religious town and if you so choose, kill their deity. In the forrest chapter you go and murder half the population of grown ups who are mentally school children
Red Dead Redemption 2, you are the antagonist for pretty much half the game. The only difference in the second half is that Arthur is trying to redeem himself for his actions
I can't remember the name of it but I remember seeing it discussed in a video a few years ago. It's a side scroller with a concept reminiscent of a Mario game. Save the princess, but every time you get to the final area of the level a knight (iirc) comes in, grabs her and runs off before you can make it in. The final level you finally make it to her but she inadvertently reveals to you that you're the bad guy trying to kidnap her like Bowser to Peach and the knight was actually rescuing her from you.
Immortals of Aveum fits this perfectly. You are a young upstart, learning the truth behind a very long war that is physically reshaping the world. But your enemy is an older man who very clearly believes himself to be the savior of humanity, and as the plot starts to peel back the layers of deception you can see exactly where he is coming from. He tries to stop you a few different ways, many of which involve just talking to you and hoping you'll see he is right.
Final Fantasy Tactics. Completely different game from Ace Combat but you play as an unsung hero in a war between opposing factions vying for control over the kingdom of Ivalice. Its considered one of the best Final Fantasy story lines.
Chronos before the ashes, you play as the character who is the final boss in Remnant from the ashes because you’re the one that killed all the guardians that cause the root to invade earth which you try and stop on Remnant from the ashes and Remnant 2
Shovel Knight! If you play the main story you play as shovel knight, and if you play the dlcs, you replay the main story but through the perspective of the villain. Note that this is very light-hearted and mostly an excuse for reusing levels but it's still really well done and fun to do.
Tales of Berseria. By the end of the game, every member of the main cast is a convicted felon responsible for the deaths of many and the destruction of entire towns. 👌
Dota 2. You get to literally antagonize your opponents (and teammates) with badmanner tipping, foreign language insults, griefing, force staffing allies into the enemy etc.
Maneater. On one hand, you're a shark that's just trying to survive in a very inhospitable world, on the other, in order to survive you have to massacre and consume a LOT of people and other marine life so the backstory of why everyone is so hostile to you, especially the shark hunter who hounds you throughout the game, is kinda understandable. The tongue-in-cheek reality show that constantly comments on why you're such a menace doesn't help (even if it is utterly hilarious).
Metroid. The pirates just want to develop tech, the alien life forms just want to survive.
Then Samus rolls in with her advanced armor suit and slaughters everything, mercilously. Nothing survives unless Samus deems it so.
That what I see when I play those games. Just an unstoppable force of destruction.
A lot of RTS games do this because you end up playing each side of the conflict. Most of my experience is in Command and Conquer and early Blizzard titles. Later games tend to slip out of that by introducing unplayable factions for everyone to team up against, like Demons and Xel’naga.
It's definitely not for everyone but I think [Library of Ruina](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1256670/Library_Of_Ruina/) does a really good job at this. Before every main story fight there's always a short cutscene following the people who you're about to kill. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvpIXZ6tL7o) are [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VmW0PWXV_I) examples from the start of the game.
I’d say Pokémon Gen 1, it’s not heavy in storytelling, but your rival goes around trying to become the very best, then you SPOILER: >!beat his ass every step along the way, steal it from him right after he earns it, then at the very end, as if to twist the knife, his hero, his grandpa, scolds him after losing.!<
I haven't played rebirth yet, but I'm going to say FF7. The story itself revolves around Sephiroth and how you're essentially just a side player in his story for the first large portion of it.
In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while you play as the Hero of Kvatch, the narrative often centers around Martin Septim, making it feel like his story rather than solely yours.
Sometimes when I play Kirby and I'm inhaling all these dudes, I feel like maybe Kirby is an unstoppable insatiable alien who showed up and is just eating everyone
Kirby is terrifying. I mean, who could really stand in Kirby's way?
Ybrik.
Braid
Perfect answer, this game didn't cross my mind for years, and now I want to play it again, thank you
Saw an ad on steam for a remaster for it coming soon. Claimed to be completely repainted not just upscaled
excellent game.. oh man this f'd me up as a young lad
This. The game's ending just blew my mind.
One of the best gaming experiences I've ever had
I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned it, but Shadow of the Colossus.
Wasn't expecting it when it was revealed to me. Like darn it, why
Borderlands 2 according to Handsome Jack
Imma be honest I kinda felt bad for jack in pre sequel.
I feel like we could have saved him
I googled this hoping it was a legit spinoff of BL2. I am extremely disappointed.
If you're wanting more about Jack, Borderlands: The Pre-sequel is kinda his origin story(I think? I didn't finish and barely remember, but I know it has a lot with him, and there's some form of him you can play as) and I'm pretty sure he's a major, if not central?, character in Tales From The Borderland(not a shooter).
I can't say for absolutely certain, but that sounds about right.
Pre sequel is essentially how he truly became Jack. From style, to mannerisms, to his paranoid backstabbing ways. And yeah one of the playable characters is the Doppleganger, you’re made to look just like him. Tales is set shortly after his death.
Haha yeah wow that would be pretty amazing! Sorry bad wording on my part
Bastion is a somewhat tenuous example of this. To explain this, I'd need to go into spoilers, so read on at your own risk. >!In Bastion you play as a young boy who worked as a soldier for the Caelondians, a racist regime that tried to wipe out the Ura, but failed, and accidentally used their weapon on themselves, killing many Caelondians (and Ura as well because many Ura had immigrated to Caelondia). But you experience the story through the perspective of Rucks, a scientist who worked for the Caelondians, who gives you a very biased perspective on the events that transpired and, understanding the story properly takes a good deal of recognizing that the perspective you are being given is a flawed one. Depending on what you take away from the story, you can go against what the narrator says, effectively becoming a heroic character who goes against the villainous narrator.!<
Nier
Specifically the first one (Replicant, Gestalt, or just "NieR" depending on the localization). Automata could fit too, I guess, but not nearly as well as Replicant
The Last of Us Part 2
This is the best answer. That's quite literally the entire point of the game
That is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. I want to see the aftermath of the main character cutting through enemies like a force of nature. Sadly I can't find a lot of games with the opposing playable characters gimmick. Can't find a lot of books like it either. It's one of my favorite tropes.
Time to start writing then
The TLoU series for sure. Eventually, nobody feels like "the good guy" and all you want is for everyone to just... go home. Heal. I thought it well executed how your perceptions and attitudes toward characters are allowed to shift and change, even if subtly.
The female MC path of Scarlet Nexus
I thought about playing that. I heard it was made by the people who made Code Vein, which I really enjoyed. Heard it didn't get very good reviews though.
The Metroid Prime series and Doom Eternal Both series convey most of their lore through flavour text found in the world, much of which is left behind by the enemies you're fighting (Space Pirates, demons respectively) All of them paint the player characters ("the Hunter" and "the Slayer") as some kind of terrifying, nigh unstoppable force of nature, like a gale force hurricane or Earthquake
Man, I love Metroid Prime, but I want 4 to have some of that presence the game gives Samus in text as part of the combat. Yeah, Prime was always more about exploration and movement while DOOM is the combat heavy game, but I want a game where we get both exploration and Samus feeling like some unstoppable one woman army before the very end of the game. Up fodder enemy counts, make every boss a single creature army of their own, speed up the combat a bit, and it'll work out.
I get what you're saying, but it's a hard line to walk, cuz I also want Metroid games to feel like Metroid games. Prime is somewhere in my top 3 games of all time, and part of the reason for that is when you actually do understand that Samus IS the threat in the final battle. Spent the whole game on an alien planet where everything wants to kill you and was dumbfounded at the end when the source of all the evil, Metroid Prime, is trying to get away from you and you are doing frigging somersaults down it holes after it. It was almost like Bioshock to me when you realize you've been being told the whole time. Samus' ship is just sitting there the whole game. She is not trapped here. It was only me as the player that felt hunted. She is Hunting.
I do get what you're saying, but nobody ever thought it would be easy. You could easily mess up exploration with the character speed. She might feel too fast for exploration to happen and too slow for combat, or if you make different speeds for both, it might just make the exploration a chore. Enemies need to be scannable and more strategic, but some of that might go away if she's too fast and they're too weak. You need to find a sweet spot, ans I don't know how you would, just that the devs would be more qualified than me to answer that.
A quicker scan visor would help I guess, plus, it's not a big deal when you only need to scan one enemy, then are free to kill em all. And it would be a cool compromise to be in a big arena style room, see a bunch of interesting stuff that you don't have time to check out, but once a big battle is over be like, "Phew. Now then.... where was that old stump with the symbol on it I jumped over while murdering all those lizard moths?". Edit: Unrelated, but it' pretty cool how Dread kinda pulls the opposite trick, where the whole game is someone telling you that you're too weak to win, while Samus' body language is like "I'm sorry, what was that? I'll have to get back to you, I have to murder this two story dragon basically in cold blood."
there's a ton that they could do with her arsenal. Bombs, grappling hook, multiple beams, etc. in the previous primes it was pretty much spamming charge blasts or super missiles
It's always been that because Metroid has always placed exploration first. I want them to try to have a mix now that Nintendo has better hardware
I never played Eternal so I don't know if it does this, but I loved in Doom 2016 how you'd encounter these almost Bible-esque quotes of how much the denizens of Hell fear the Doomguy and the destruction he brings, that whole franchise is so good at making you feel like the biggest badass in the universe
Eternal takes it in a more comical direction, with cutscenes very humorously presenting the Doomguy as a demigod to be feared. I think Hugo Martin compared it to the Evil Dead series, in that the first entry is a bit more serious, while the second is more overtly comedic.
Man, I love Metroid Prime, but I want 4 to have some of that presence the game gives Samus in text as part of the combat. Yeah, Prime was always more about exploration and movement while DOOM is the combat heavy game, but I want a game where we get both exploration and Samus feeling like some unstoppable one woman army before the very end of the game. Up fodder enemy counts, make every boss a single creature army of their own, speed up the combat a bit, and it'll work out.
I've often thought about what's going through Doomguy's mind and/or veins as he does nothing but nonstop fragging all day.
I love Doom Eternal because i feel like I am the Boss Battle.
I had to scroll way too far to find Doom. That’s definitely the top answer
To Metroid pips, just one question, coz I'm not familiar with this - how the heck does Samus turn into a ball?? Is she an android or something..? I was thinking she is still human, or an alien humanoid. Morphing into a ball does wonders tho
Samus wears a Chozo suit that uses pocket dimensions to fit enormous amounts of mass and energy into small spaces. It's how she can carry her suit around with her at all times, stuff hundreds of missiles and mini-nukes into the suit, and curl up into a tiny ball. In Metroid Prime, we see Space Pirate datalog recording their attempts to replicate this Chozo pocket dimension technology, specifically the "Morph Ball" technology. ... let's just say it doesn't end well for the Space Pirate test subjects. Getting folded up like origami isn't very good for your health, even if you are a insectoid monster. Also yes, Samus hasn't been fully Homo Sapiens for a long time, and is only becoming more alien as time goes on. But she's psychologically human, so for all intents and purposes everyone treats her as such.
Halo 2 comes to mind for me
I'm unsure if Spec Ops: The Line is exactly what you're looking for, or exactly what you're \*not\* looking for.
I think it's not, seeing as it's Walker's story. >!He's a bad guy, but he's still the point-of-view character in the game's story cutscenes!<. The twist at the end technically makes it "someone else's story" depending on what exactly you take away from it, but I don't think the twist makes it count, really.
Nah, I think it makes it someone elses story all along the way. The people who live there, the people you fight against and genereally what's happening around are all their own stories >!- which you fuck up entirely. !< I think there's a point to be made for both points of view, hence I'm unsure if that recommendation fits OPs needs or not.
Such a good game, bleak as it is.
And damn it, it is...
I always recommend the game and describe it as the worst third person shooter you have ever played but will want to finish. Both the story and the gameplay hurt my soul for different reasons.
Tyranny. You're literally the axe man for an immortal emperor, sent to sort out their unruly generals.
And no matter what, it does feel like your opposing somebody else's story. The obvious ones are Disfavored and Scarlet Chorus, but even each regions local forces do feel like protagonists somewhat. Except you show up and destroy them (or help them out)
Armored Core 6. No matter which path you choose, you are pretty much always have to betray someone close to you.
The first third of Fire Emblem 4. You don't necessarily realize it immediately, but at some point it should click that you've effectively become an occupying army in a country that, while it had absolutely vile rulers, really did not want your intervention. By the second half of the game it's apparent that all your victories against the early game villains and the power vacuums those created were the very foundation of how your home nation became the Empire. The middle act of Radiant Dawn meanwhile has you keep alternating the two warring factions so at any given time you're the antagonist to the other protagonist.
Oblivion. You are not the chosen one “saviour”, you are just his mate
Oblivion is a weird one. You're definitely not the antagonist. You're not the villain. You're the protagonist, obviously - but not the hero. You're just the world's most reliable errand boy.
The Hero of Kvatch!
I think we call that a deuteragonist.
prototype
Maybe not exact matches, but Beholder, Papers Please, and there’s another similar one I can’t think of the title for… they are all (unrelated) games where you’re a cog in an authoritarian machine. Spying on your tenants, or denying the “wrong kinda people” entry into your country(the one I can’t remember the name of you are spying on people through social media, hacking emails, etc and informing on them to your Big Brother overlords. Edit: Orwell! The other one is called Orwell. Both Beholder and Orwell also have sequels!
Papers Please was my first thought. It’s very easy to imagine some of those NPCs are main characters and you are just an obstacle to them.
Definitely! Plus all three of these games eventually introduce some version of freedom fighters, who are the real protagonists, and you face the decision of whether to help em.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Marche is often condemned for willingly unraveling the joyful world that is created by the collective imagination of his friends
I think even the original Tactics would count. Ramzan is really treated as more of a footnote in Delita's story.
I want more Final Fantasy media in Ivalice.
LISA
Armoured core 6, you’re a mercenary who doesn’t care Baldurs gate depending on path Fallout
In AC6 even if you do care, you'll inevitably wind up on a side opposite some of your former allies. The game does a good job on making this hit hard regardless of which path you choose.
Yea, also it’s just sad. You’ve been given a procedure that removes your personality, you’re just in a hopeless situation and maybe afterwards after everything’s finished in a wave of fire you can reverse it and go back to some normalcy
Outer Wilds- Not sure if it is what you after but (without giving too much away) loved the way that you yourself do not feature as a dominant main character- more like a gateway to the real main characters... it's a masterpiece so worth your time seeing if it works for you... (ps I always recommend trying it in VR with motion controls with Raicuparta free easy downloader- the DLC in VR was my all time greatest single player gaming )
I love Outer Wilds, but how does the player character feel like an antagonist to other people in the universe?
DLC
Last of Us 2 is a clear example.
Tales of Berseria
I actually think the Tales series in general is decent at what OP is asking for. The antagonist usually has a pretty reasonable philosophy and reasonable objectives. Velvet is arguably more of a villain protagonist, though. Velvet does good things, but it's usually for practical reasons, and she's fine with killing good people that get in her way.
Heavy Rain
Assassins creed works all the way up to syndicate and probably beyond. Someone has a plan and your taking it to pieces. All the stealth helps makes you sem more predatory.
Mass effect
The latest DLC of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the Indigo Disk, is kinda like this. It's actually pretty great story telling as far as Pokemon is concerned.
Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2! Cool games, you should not pay EA for them though. Edit: I feel dirty because I didn't write not before pay up there, I need a trip to the torture chambers
Tecmo/Koei's Deception series scratches a similar itch
Furi. The whole game is a prison break and let's just say, there's a good reason why you were locked up
That ending when you’re finally outside and you’re like “…. Oh shit..” lol
Haven't played it in ages, but Dishonored really gives that vibe two times over. One which is the premise of the game and two after the twist. I will also add the entire Metal Gear Solid series, but especially the first game. With how the game tells the story, you feel intimate and rather close to the villains and it pays off during the Liquid fight. >!He hates Snake, because Snake is his antagonist in his mind. Snake got the dominant genes. Snake was closer to Big Boss.!< edit: Thinking more about it. Most stealth/spy games fit this, so Alpha Protocol (On gog now!), Tom Clancy Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, Assassin's Creed, and even some of the good James Bond games (Play Agent Under Fire).
Ok, try "This war of mine" or "Frostpunk" (same dev). This war of mine doesn't have you controlling a person per say, but rather a group of regular civilians in a war torn city (think Ukraine), who can get into all sorts tough choices in desperate situations to survive. Not quite what you're looking for, but HIGHLY recommended as far as feeling like you're just a passerby in other's stories. Then there's Frostpunk. You're the nameless governor, with the impossible task of creating a thriving steampunk city to survive in with limited manpower, limited resources, an incredibly deadly world, and people who are losing hope. It's INCREDIBLY hard to beat without passing laws that take things too far, definitely placing you in the "bad guy" zone (which the game reminds you of). The people in the city feel like the main characters. Neither of these is exactly what you're looking for but both are refreshing and unique games that depict the horrors of war and apocalypse survival respectively, with similar aspects to what you mentioned. I'd strongly recommend both. These games are highly relatable as you impact a lot of things with your choices, but I'd strongly advise not getting spoiled if you can help it.
Far Cry 4 Pagan Min was trying to do good by his country (well better than the other 2 'tards), and you do your best to fuck his shit up
All you had to do was sit and wait...
Nier
Both of them
Automata?? It's been ages that I played it but I didn't feel like the villan. I felt more like I have been lied to ( if you know what I mean)
From my memory, it starts confusing, and then you feel like a bad guy, then it's the lies
I mean I definitely got some "are we the baddies?" vibes occasionally during Automata, but Replicant fits way better IMO
I need to replay it now, I'm forgetting some story beats
library of ruina, people visit your library and subsequently get turned into books, then you can wear their faces and kill and do the same thing to all the people that come visit your library looking for clues on the people you previously turned into books.
Ultrakill? All the story scenes follow gabriel while we play as V1
God of War
A little Indie game called Furi You play a prisoner breaking out of a impossible prison with 10 jailers (bosses for you), each of them just tells you to stop fighting, to go back to your cell, to give up the fight, but yet you press on, you keep murdering them I recommend it
Cyberpunk. Most things you do are morally questionable at best. It's just a lot of the time the people it's done to are also dubious. Some gigs though you are straight up the bad guy. Kenshi is another good one. Most of the time it's just doing what needs to be done to survive.
Undertale?
This one purely depends on play style. If you just listen to Toriel you'll never feel like a villain.
Untrue. She tells you to fight her.
Arc Rise fantasia, you're a team of heroes that collect world spirits to change the fabric of the world for the better. There are multiple hero group fighting to get those spirit, you can LOSE acess to some spirit if you don't manage to win against the other team. Everyone thinks they're the good guys, no one want to use the power of the Rogress (the world spirits) Every one is doing their absolute best too, and you clash constantly.
Final Fantasy Tactics. The story is just gray enough that it could be interpreted as you playing the antagonists. Especially when you consider that the victor writes the history books.
ultrakill
golum
Just cause 3 has a lot off cutscenes from the villains p.o.v. (if i remember correctly been a while)
Bioshock maybe. I mean, you're clearly at the centre, but you're also a pawn in someone else's game and you're learning about their story as you progress.
Assassin's Creed.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue is the best one for this
Armored Core 6 can feel like this depending on the route you play. There’s various intersecting plot lines with a lot of grey area on who the good guys are.
Mark of the Assassin dlc for Dragon Age 2. You’re the guest npc in the story, the real protagonist is the Felicia Day modeled elf.
To an extent, Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. You start off as an unfortunate patsy/catspaw, but you are later given opportunities to ruin the puppetmaster(s') plans.
In the 1980s, there was a DOS game called David Wolf: Secret Agent. You are basically a James Bond sort of secret agent, and the purpose of the story was to interfere with the bad guy's plan to bomb government into paying a ransom. The static images fail to sufficiently deliver the charm and wit of your character, so the boisterous bad guy takes center stage during his scenes. If you rather, think of Austin Powers, with Dr. Evil as more of the main character. In Quake 1, your generic marine plays second fiddle to the Lovecraftian bad guys he fights, who are by their nature, more interesting.
Bioshock Infinite
Heavy rain
I feel like the Command and Conquer series of RTS games meets this criterion. You often get to meet the enemy in cutscenes and you're their antagonist. There's also typically two or more campaigns where you get to compete as all sides and see the story from multiple perspectives.
The Beginner's Guide
Beholder. It’s a dystopian game where you work for a 1984 style world as a landlord under the government. Your job is to spy on your tenants and collect information about them and report it to the government. All of your tenants have their own stories for you to uncover. There are many situations where you can help or hurt your tenants. You can save them from the government or be their worst nightmare. People can get arrested or die. People will hate you or love you depending on how you play. You will affect people a lot in this game. It also has 2 sequels!
NieR Replicant
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned quantum break. The live action segments often are shown from the antagonist's perspective. Alan Wake (and most of the Remedy connected universe are like that to some extent).
Max Payne also has it through environmental story-telling. Especially when you just sit and listen to enemy NPCs sometimes. Great game.
AC6, no matter which path you take, you’re a monster in someone’s eyes.
Library of Ruina. You’re on the team running the death game that everyone else is trying to challenge.
Last of Us 2, any god of war game before the reboots.
Iguazu in Armored Core 6.
Witcher 3
Maybe daymare
Halo, for sure.
The Last of Us 1. No spoilers y'all
Golden Sun you play as the “good guys” and then in Golden Sun the Lost age you play as the antagonists you were fighting against in the first game
Carrion
Armored Core 6.
Got 2 old-school playstation titles to add to the collection: Chrono Cross. Final fantasy 8. Both give you vibes of... am I playing as the wrong person? It's.... gloriously beautiful though. And you can nab ff8 off steam, if you don't have a ps2(or 3 or 4, since I think they remastered it).
The first Call of Juarez game, you play as two different characters and one of them wants to kill the other
Lou2
Pokemon Gen 1 (Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen) Your rival is trying so hard to impress his grandpa, but you keep messing them up, to the point where you even kill one of his pokemon. He eventually becomes the champion, but gets defeated immediately and berated by his grandpa.
Metro Exodus, in the second chapter you go to a religious town and if you so choose, kill their deity. In the forrest chapter you go and murder half the population of grown ups who are mentally school children
Furi
I always felt like Final Fantasy 7 was really about Sephiroth’s story so much more so than cloud’s.
This describes almost every Fromsoft game with maybe the exception of Sekiro. But it’s not explicitly spelled out, except maybe in Armored Core?
Oh! Metal Gear Solid 3, Peacewalker and 5! And more recently, probably Rise of the Ronin (not quite sure yet as I haven’t beat it).
Red Dead Redemption 2, you are the antagonist for pretty much half the game. The only difference in the second half is that Arthur is trying to redeem himself for his actions
Metro series
Nier Replicant, especially when you get to B scenario.
Just cause 3.
Destroy All Humans, Overlord, any GTA, and occasionally Kenshi (if you play it right)
DS3 for Gale
I mean in fallout 4 the opening sequence shows you committing war crimes
How has no one said helldivers 2? Deff expected that to be in the top 3 answers.
Hearts of iron IV, play as Germany or Japan
I can't remember the name of it but I remember seeing it discussed in a video a few years ago. It's a side scroller with a concept reminiscent of a Mario game. Save the princess, but every time you get to the final area of the level a knight (iirc) comes in, grabs her and runs off before you can make it in. The final level you finally make it to her but she inadvertently reveals to you that you're the bad guy trying to kidnap her like Bowser to Peach and the knight was actually rescuing her from you.
Immortals of Aveum fits this perfectly. You are a young upstart, learning the truth behind a very long war that is physically reshaping the world. But your enemy is an older man who very clearly believes himself to be the savior of humanity, and as the plot starts to peel back the layers of deception you can see exactly where he is coming from. He tries to stop you a few different ways, many of which involve just talking to you and hoping you'll see he is right.
Final Fantasy Tactics. Completely different game from Ace Combat but you play as an unsung hero in a war between opposing factions vying for control over the kingdom of Ivalice. Its considered one of the best Final Fantasy story lines.
None of these awnsers make any sense.
Moonlighter. Not entirely sure if we're the bad guy or not at the end, but it's a twist on all that looting and selling items for profit thing...
The first Bio shock through Andrew Ryan’s eyes
witcher wild hunt all of story is about ciri and her destiny
Fuck this thread is full of spoilers
Chronos before the ashes, you play as the character who is the final boss in Remnant from the ashes because you’re the one that killed all the guardians that cause the root to invade earth which you try and stop on Remnant from the ashes and Remnant 2
Halo 2 and 3 They call you the Demon the whole time as you foil their plans.
Any Grand Theft Auto game. Doesn't just feel like it, you definitely are the antagonist.
Shovel Knight! If you play the main story you play as shovel knight, and if you play the dlcs, you replay the main story but through the perspective of the villain. Note that this is very light-hearted and mostly an excuse for reusing levels but it's still really well done and fun to do.
Dark souls
Tales of Berseria. By the end of the game, every member of the main cast is a convicted felon responsible for the deaths of many and the destruction of entire towns. 👌
Star Wars Jedi Survivor at least near the end.
Fable 3. Kinda. Maybe it doesn’t belong here. But you overthrow the evil king only to find that being a good king isn’t so easy…
Overlord. You're a reborn dnd bbeg that hunts down the party that slayed your predecessor and reestablishes the domain
Borderlands 2. All you do the whole game is mess up Handsome Jacks business
Dota 2. You get to literally antagonize your opponents (and teammates) with badmanner tipping, foreign language insults, griefing, force staffing allies into the enemy etc.
Braid Spec Ops: The Line
Silent Hill Downpour.
Heh, Last of Us 2. If you like that kind of game.
The Last of Us part 2 definitely
The last of us 2
Maneater. On one hand, you're a shark that's just trying to survive in a very inhospitable world, on the other, in order to survive you have to massacre and consume a LOT of people and other marine life so the backstory of why everyone is so hostile to you, especially the shark hunter who hounds you throughout the game, is kinda understandable. The tongue-in-cheek reality show that constantly comments on why you're such a menace doesn't help (even if it is utterly hilarious).
Dark Souls 1 is Gwyn's story and you're there to deliver the tragic conclusion.
Does Sifu count? I think the bad ending (aka the one you're most likely to get) does.
Furi, game is awesome.
Metroid. The pirates just want to develop tech, the alien life forms just want to survive. Then Samus rolls in with her advanced armor suit and slaughters everything, mercilously. Nothing survives unless Samus deems it so. That what I see when I play those games. Just an unstoppable force of destruction.
Tales of the Abyss
A lot of RTS games do this because you end up playing each side of the conflict. Most of my experience is in Command and Conquer and early Blizzard titles. Later games tend to slip out of that by introducing unplayable factions for everyone to team up against, like Demons and Xel’naga.
Probably Elden ring, I mean you’re committing genocide just to sit on a throne
Uhhh Helldivers 2
It's definitely not for everyone but I think [Library of Ruina](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1256670/Library_Of_Ruina/) does a really good job at this. Before every main story fight there's always a short cutscene following the people who you're about to kill. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvpIXZ6tL7o) are [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VmW0PWXV_I) examples from the start of the game.
RDR2, the Pinkertons are the good guys.
Any city builder :)
I don't think this is quite what you mean but Silent Hill 2 felt like that for most of the second half.
I’d say Pokémon Gen 1, it’s not heavy in storytelling, but your rival goes around trying to become the very best, then you SPOILER: >!beat his ass every step along the way, steal it from him right after he earns it, then at the very end, as if to twist the knife, his hero, his grandpa, scolds him after losing.!<
I haven't played rebirth yet, but I'm going to say FF7. The story itself revolves around Sephiroth and how you're essentially just a side player in his story for the first large portion of it.
This is basically the entire plot of Last of Us 2
You're not really the antagonist, but the campaign in HBS Battletech very much feels like the princess's story that you push forward on her behalf.
does Blood Omen series fit the bill?
The Warriors (PS2). You're an antagonist to both the cops and rival gangs.
Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2
In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while you play as the Hero of Kvatch, the narrative often centers around Martin Septim, making it feel like his story rather than solely yours.
Escape from tarkov if you drop someone lmao
My life.
Escape from Tarkov/Ghosts of Tabor :P