History BlackAndWhiteMorality / VideoGames

%%* Deconstructed in ''VideoGame/GrandiaII''.

%%* The first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' game. Deconstructed in the sequel.

** Also played straight by the one-off villains in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' and ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series. Okay, Count Bleck is much more sympathetic than the usual antagonist if still undeniably evil, but Fawful, Dimentio, the Shadow Queen, Cackletta, and the Shroobs are portrayed very much to the extreme end of the evil scale.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' at a ''first'' glance seems to plays this straight for the most part, but as it turns out, it's a deliberate [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] if not ''{{Reconstruction}}'' of TheEmpire and DarkIsNotEvil, making it far more like WhiteAndGreyMorality. The Kingdom of Hoshido is a [[{{Wutai}} Japanese-like]] prosperous nation that only wants to live in peace, and the Kingdom of Nohr by contrast is a {{Mordor}}-esque country with a tyrannical king who comes off as pure evil and seems trying to invade Hoshido to no provocation, and the conflict seems with a clear moral victor no matter the route. That means Hoshido is objectively in the right and Nohr needs to be stopped, right? Well, [[spoiler:Nohr is starving and has survived a SuccessionCrisis that, as it turns out, killed the previous king -- who by all accounts was a genuinely reasonable person before he died -- and was as a result [[DemonicPossession directly possessed]] by Anankos, the GreaterScopeVillain who's a misanthropic dragon-god with no understanding of humans. This caused a CycleOfVengeance between Hoshido and Nohr due to the possessed Garon acting in the interest of destroying ''both'' kingdoms, hiring equally-psychotic retainers to act on his behalf in Iago and Hans. Meanwhile, every playable character in ''Conquest'' is CreepyGood and sympathetic at best in spite of their awful leader, and an AntiVillain at worst, trying to survive while Hoshido shows genuine ignorance to Nohr's plight (with Ryoma acting shocked to learn that most of Nohr is starving and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVillified wants Garon overthrown]]. And as you have loved ones on both sides, the game doesn't frame Nohr as irredeemable but makes it clear that both sides are the victims of the greater machinations in this war, with Hoshido trying to defend itself and Nohr forced to invade a country due to a king who was DeadAllAlong, and part of the GoldenEnding involves breaking the cycle by unifying both kingdoms to fight against Anankos. Part of the moral conflict as such is either "do the logical thing and side with Hoshido to protect it from Nohr," or "do the emotional thing and side with your raised family in an attempt to break the cycle from within", and both sides are framed as very sympathetic as such.]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' at a ''first'' glance seems to plays this straight for the most part, but as it turns out, it's a deliberate [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] if not ''{{Reconstruction}}'' of TheEmpire and DarkIsNotEvil. The Kingdom of Hoshido is a [[{{Wutai}} Japanese-like]] prosperous nation that only wants to live in peace, and the Kingdom of Nohr by contrast is a {{Mordor}}-esque country with a tyrannical king who comes off as pure evil and seems trying to invade Hoshido to no provocation, and the conflict seems with a clear moral victor no matter the route. That means Hoshido is objectively in the right and Nohr needs to be stopped, right? Well, [[spoiler:Nohr is starving and has survived a SuccessionCrisis that, as it turns out, killed the previous king -- who by all accounts was a genuinely reasonable person before he died -- and was as a result [[DemonicPossession directly possessed]] by Anankos, the GreaterScopeVillain who's a misanthropic dragon-god with no understanding of humans. This caused a CycleOfVengeance between Hoshido and Nohr due to the possessed Garon acting in the interest of destroying ''both'' kingdoms, hiring equally-psychotic retainers to act on his behalf in Iago and Hans. Meanwhile, every playable character in ''Conquest'' is CreepyGood and sympathetic at best in spite of their awful leader, and an AntiVillain at worst, trying to survive while Hoshido shows genuine ignorance to Nohr's plight (with Ryoma acting shocked to learn that most of Nohr is starving and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVillified wants Garon overthrown]]. And as you have loved ones on both sides, the game doesn't frame Nohr as irredeemable but makes it clear that both sides are the victims of the greater machinations in this war, with Hoshido trying to defend itself and Nohr forced to invade a country due to a king who was DeadAllAlong, and part of the GoldenEnding involves breaking the cycle by unifying both kingdoms to fight against Anankos. Part of the moral conflict as such is either "do the logical thing and side with Hoshido to protect it from Nohr," or "do the emotional thing and side with your raised family in an attempt to break the cycle from within", and both sides are framed as very sympathetic as such.]]