Whenever it comes to video games, you will rarely come across titles where you can walk down an evil path. In general entertainment media, conflict usually forces an artificial perspective of what is right and wrong.
While most of the RPG titles always end up with the hero winning over the villain, there are few experiences that break out of this cliche, allowing players to experience the other side of the coin.
Below we have listed a number of Role-Playing games that allow players to assume antagonistic roles, thus helping craft stories that touch on the moral gray area in these games.
RPGs where becoming evil is an option
Undertale
Undertale is the first one that comes to anyone’s mind when discussing games that allow you to turn into a villain by the end of the experience.
The game was developed by solo artist Toby Fox in 2015 and it quickly gained popularity among the RPG crowd for its unique endings, which tie in very well with the gameplay system and the characters.
Undertale has two ending routes commonly known as The Pacifist ending and the Genocide ending. Both involve a very different kind of gameplay experience.
Pacifist ending is considered the good ending where you have to avoid combat throughout the game. The other ending is the one which offers the evil ending, where you end up killing every character you come across.
Usually people who do a blind playthrough of this game, end up going through with the genocide ending. It is because the game keeps throwing you into combat constantly and the natural way to progress with the evil ending is to engage in fights and kill everyone in this game.
V Rising
Ever sympathized with Dracula in Castlevania ? Thought he was right all along ? Well V Rising allows you to live out that perspective as a vampire. Developed by Sunlock Studios and released for PC, V Rising is an open world MMORPG with survival crafting elements where you playthrough as an awakened vampire.
You raid camps and pillage villages through the lands in a top down isometric view similar to Diablo games.
Right off the bat the gameplay reels you into the life of villainy as you work your way up to become the Vampire lord of the realm. You get to contest and kill heroes of the past, truly cementing the idea of putting on the villain’s shoes.
V Rising recently had a collaboration with the Castlevania franchise which brought in several of the classic characters, and made them playable.
Fable
Fable is a game series from 2004 originally developed for Xbox console systems. The game is set in the fictional country of Albion which resembles medieval Europe.
You get to play as a young boy who is pushed to pick up a sword and fight for his life after bandits break into his village and kill people close to him and kidnap his sister.
What makes this series significant enough to earn it’s inclusion in this list is tied to a particular gameplay mechanic. Fable uses a morality system for the protagonist where the player’s choices will determine what kind of a person the young boy will turn out to be.
Either leaning towards the side of heroism or towards a much darker persona, this system will affect how NPC in the world react to you and your actions.
Skills in Fable also develop according to the kind of morality you start leaning towards as you progress through the game. The franchise is now available on PC as well, and a reboot of the game is in the works.
Breath of Fire IV
Fans of Capcom know the developer for franchises such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil or Monster Hunter. But just a few console generations back the developer was also known for a particular RPG series that seems to have been long abandoned, but fans still yearn for it to return.
Breath of Fire franchise originally started off on the SNES and till date has spawned several numbered titles. It follows the adventures of Ryu, a young man who can transform into dragons.
The twist that Breath of Fire IV presents is allowing players to step into the shoes of the antagonist at certain points in the game. What makes this interesting is that Fou-Lu, the antagonist, is more than just a regular villain, and is actually the other half of the main protagonist, Ryu.
Both the characters share contrasting abilities from one another yet taking control of Fou-Lu, it feels like naturally controlling Ryu again. This title stands out because it does the entire “be a villain” trope differently.
Tyranny
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment in 2016, Tyranny is an RPG where the game’s world has already been conquered by an evil tyrant. You get to play as one of their high ranking pawns, a Fatebinder, who is tasked with establishing control over several territories under Kyros, the tyrant.
The gameplay of Tyranny opens up with a conquest-like board game, where the player influences the history of the Fatebinder and how things develop around him right from the character creation process.
During combat the gameplay shifts to an isometric field view with enemies and your companions, similar to Obsidian’s previous game, Pillars of Eternity and several other CRPGs.
Tyranny is interesting because the game bluntly puts the player into the position of an evil individual right off the bat, and makes them take decisions throughout the game that really questions the moral gray area between a hero and a villain.
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei is a fairly well known JRPG franchise in modern times, thanks to the popularity of Persona. But unlike the spinoff, this mainline monster collecting franchise actually uses an alignment system that allows for chaotic endings.
Based off a science fantasy novel from the 80’s, the original Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei games were turned into Shin Megami Tensei by Atlus, bringing in a lot of new game systems inspired by western RPGs and D&D.
The games usually take place in a post-apocalyptic scenario where the world gets destroyed. Chosen individuals also known as Messiahs in the franchise show up, who undertake a journey to decide the future of the world.
The climax of the post-apocalyptic setting in these games are always centered around wars between alignment factions, usually the Law faction is represented by God and his Angels, and The Chaos faction represented by Lucifer’s army on the other side of the spectrum, there is also a third neutral alignment.
Dark Half
Probably the most obscure title in this whole list. Dark Half is an RPG developed for the Super Famicom system by developer Westone and was never localized outside Japan.
The whole game takes place in an isometric view, and follows Falco, the game’s brave warrior and his band of heroes work their way to defeat a vengeful fallen angel named Rukyu, who wants to bring about the destruction of the world.
The twist is probably not going to be surprising at this point in this list, as yet again, Dark Half allows players to experience the game through the perspectives of both Falco and Rukyu.
The game will make the players constantly alternate between the two sides spanning several chapters, until a particular point in the game when it will finally ask you to pick a side, which will determine one of the protagonists as the final boss.
Rukyu is the perfect representation of what happens when an RPG allows the player to become evil, as any NPC Interaction with him results in instant death by consumption of the soul, and not even children or women are spared.
