People growing up without siblings often wonder how different things could have been if things had gone differently, mostly misunderstanding that it always is sunshine and rainbows to have a brother or a sister. But those who have, know very well that it is not all fun and games as sometimes it all may come down to survival of the fittest for who gets their turn on the PlayStation next.
Beyond real-life situations, rivalries between siblings have been centerpieces in literature and popular media since time and memorial. In the list below we will look at seven of the best feuds and storylines of conflict between siblings in video games.
Best sibling rivalries in gaming
Morgana and Kayle
League of Legends is not a title that many would be oblivious about in the current day and age if one even cares a little bit about video games, thanks to the popular Arcane series. But a lot of people may not know that the franchise is home to a lot of sibling rivalry stories.
Sorry Vi and Jinx fans, but this time the spotlight goes to the winged protectors born on Mount Targon. Morgana and Kayle were the Damacian protectors who took a flight to fight the Darkin Blade, Aatrox. But he was too much for the sisters to fend off, so one of them made the hard choice to use her dark powers and help bind Aatrox.
Morgana took the fall for Damacia while Kayle sealed away Aatrox using the sword empowered by celestial flames. This moment in the lore is what originally set in motion the conflict between the sisters as they both went their separate ways. Morgana became the veiled one for using her chains of dark flame, While Kayle stayed as the Winged Protector.
Dante and Vergil
Probably the most iconic pair of siblings in all of gaming. Born of a demon and human mother, Dante and Vergil were separated from each other way early in their lives, and both grew up to have very different views of the world around them.
Dante grew up to be more down to earth living among humans, fighting against demons to protect others while Vergil grew up being aligned more towards the demonic side. He couldn’t care less about others or the mortals around him and would do anything to gain more power.
Beyond the above-mentioned differences between the brothers, they also differ quite a lot in their personalities. Dante is a very rowdy, outgoing, and immature individual while Vergil is much colder, ambitious, and graceful in whatever he does. But the most important takeaway from the relationship between these two is that they love being rivals and fighting each other constantly.
Nina Williams and Anna Williams
This won’t be the last time on this list you get to see siblings go at each other in a fighting game, because that is a game genre that thrives on good rivalry stories, and what better than some ‘good-ass’ sibling rivalry?
Tekken is known to hold the Guinness Book of World Record for the longest-running family feud storylines in gaming. But our focus is on a different sub-story of family feud in the franchise, mainly the long-running rivalry between the Williams sisters.
Born to a British Aikido champion mother and an ex-assassin, Richard Williams, young Nina was the daughter who took an interest in her father’s former profession. It led her to receive special treatment, while the younger sister Anna got neglected which fueled their rivalry. Ever since then, the two girls have been the center of constant on-screen catfights that are continuing to date.
Solid Snake and Liquid Snake
The protagonist of the Metal Gear franchise, Solid Snake, technically has crossed paths with multiple siblings throughout the series as they are all lab-created super-soldier clones of Big Boss. But his most important and memorable conflict according to fans has always been with Liquid Snake.
Originally introduced in the first Metal Gear Solid game, the rivalry between Liquid Snake and Solid Snake was established well early in the first Playstation era. Liquid had always had a superiority complex when comparing himself to Solid, but the latter having been the only sibling to have defeated the Big Boss instilled jealousy and hatred into the former.
Liquid Snake always wanted to be the first of them to kill Big Boss, but having that snatched away drove him further down a path seeking the destruction of Solid Snake.
Cecil and Golbez
The Final Fantasy games are world-renowned Japanese RPGs that get to explore several different types of relationship dynamics between their main characters since all the games are stand-alone experiences. But this time we will be particularly focusing on Final Fantasy 4
The main character, Cecil Harvey is the brother of one of the antagonists, Golbez. This although is a considerable bit of a spoiler if one is planning to play the game, the tragic plight of these two siblings begs discussion, considering the events that pushed them to become each other’s enemy.
As a child, Theodor was incredibly excited to have a sibling when his mother went into labor. But unfortunately, she died while giving birth to Cecil. Having lost both his parents, Theodor went mad slowly being possessed by Zemus, who taught him that his newborn brother was responsible for the death of their parents. From that day forth Theodor became The Black Man, Golbez, and sought destruction.
Mileena and Kitana
As mentioned previously, fighting games are filled with incredible rivalry stories between siblings. This time we are looking at another one, and it’s from the Mortal Kombat Franchise.
Conflict between the two sisters from the Mortal Kombat franchise, Mileena and Kitana has always brought people together to debate over which origin story is the better one. If we had to consider it, then the best one would always be the classic timeline with Shang Tsung.
Kitana was once of a royal lineage from the realm of Edina, which Shao Khan took over and made her his own daughter. He ordered Shang Tsung to create a clone of Kitana mixed with Tarkatan blood, who was named Mileena. Both the sisters are repulsed by each other, with Kitana being the kind-hearted and brave one while Mileena turns out to be the sadistic assassin, absolutely loyal to their father Shao Khan.
Travis Touchdown and Henry Cooldown
Goichi Suda or Suda51 is well known among fans as one of the most interesting game developers of the current generation. Having made weird and beautiful titles like ‘The Silver Case’, ‘Killer7’ and his most famous work ‘No More Heroes’.
The game series stars Travis Touchdown who wants to become the number-one-ranked assassin in all of United Assassins Association. The first game follows him on a killing spree, hunting down all the ranked assassins to the top, until he comes across his twin brother Henry Cooldown who is also fighting to become the world’s top-ranked assassin.
Henry and Travis’ rivalry spans over three games. Both were born to pretty normal parents but with completely contrasting personalities. Travis is rowdy and laidback while Henry is always serious and means business. The extensive hate between the twins constantly leads them to end up killing each other on multiple occasions, even to the point where Travis steals Henry’s ex-wife.
