Arch Enemy / Video Games

"Join me in this eternal nightmare." ^{In order...}Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion, Kingdom Hearts II, Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

"You really wanna be my enemy? Just ask Mario how that's worked out for him!"

— Bowser, Fortune Street

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Works with their own pages:

• Star Trek
• Star Wars

Other Works

• .hack: Kite has Skeith, who put his friend Orca in a coma.
• In Ace Attorney, Phoenix eventually gets one in the fourth game of the series, that person being Kristoph Gavin, who was the responsible for making Phoenix lose his badge. Phoenix, in turn, spent seven years working to change the legal system just so he could have a chance to bring Kristoph to justice through Apollo.
  • Mia Fey has Dahlia Hawthorne (who was responsible for framing two of her clients, and causing the death of the first) and Redd White (who ruined her family's reputation, killed Mia herself, framed her sister Maya for it, and switched to make her protégé Phoenix his scapegoat instead).
  • Edgeworth has Manfred Von Karma, his mentor and adoptive father who killed his biological father, Gregory, and also planned for years to frame Edgeworth because killing his father just wasn't enough revenge for getting a penalty in his perfect win record (oh, and an accidental bullet on the shoulder, but it was clear where Manfred's priorities truly lied).
• Advance Wars: Andy has Sturm, who used a clone of him for a series of False Flag Operations.
• Advanced V.G.: Yuka's fighting ability has enabled her to overcome each of Miranda Jahana's hybrids. A fact which has made her the focal point of Miranda's hatred, which is why she'll stop at nothing to try to break Yuka.
• Alan Wake: Alan Wake has the Dark Presence, who kidnapped his wife.
• American McGee's Alice: Alice Liddell has Dr. Angus Bumby, who raped her sister, murdered her family, and attempted to turn her into a Sex Slave.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • The Templar Order for the Assassin Brotherhood. In fact, their rivalry spans centuries dating back to Ancient Egypt and has touched nearly every corner of the world.
  • In the first few games, Desmond Miles had Dr. Warren Vidic, a Mad Scientist who used him as a test subject.
  • Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad has Robert de Sablé in Assassin's Creed. Altaïr's arrogant attempt to assassinate Robert led to the death of his comrade Kadar, the maiming of his other comrade Malik, and the demotion of Altaïr himself. Altaïr gradually regained his status by killing Robert's co-conspirators, before killing Robert himself.
  • Ezio Auditore has Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia respectively in Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Rodrigo was responsible for the deaths of Ezio's father and brothers, and Cesare kills Ezio's uncle, Mario.
  • Ratonhnhaké:ton / Connor has Haytham Kenway and especially Charles Lee in Assassin's Creed III.
    • Haytham is Connor's Archnemesis Dad, the ringleader of the conspiracy he is trying to foil, and the man who crippled his mentor, Achilles Davenport.
    • Charles Lee was a Jerkass to a young Connor, which led Connor to grow up incorrectly believing that Charles was responsible for his mother's death. Years later, Lee attempts to execute Connor, and manipulates Connor's childhood friend Kanen'tó:kon into turning on him, forcing Connor to kill him in self-defense.
  • Aveline de Grandpré has The Company Man, who turns out to be Madeleine de L'Isle, Aveline's stepmother, in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.
  • In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Edward Kenway has one in the form of Bartholomew Roberts (a sage of Aita).
  • Francois-Thomas Germain becomes one to Arno Dorian in Assassin's Creed: Unity.
  • Crawford Starrick serves as the archnemesis for the Frye twins in Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Additionally, Evie and Jacob each have their own nemesis in the form of Lucy Thorne and Maxwell Roth, respectively.
  • Assassin's Creed Origins has a twofold example. Flavius Metellus / The Lion is the Arch Enemy for Bayek of Siwa since the former was responsible for causing him to accidentally murder his son Khemu while Flavius' second-in-command Lucius Septimius / The Jackal is an Arch Enemy for Aya.
  • Deimos becomes a personal foe to the Eagle Bearer in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, especially since they are siblings.
  • Eivor has Basim Ibn Ishaq in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, as the former killed the latter's son in their past lives as Odin and Loki, respectively.
• Asura's Wrath:
  • Asura has Deus, the leader of the Seven Deities who betrayed him, murdered his wife, and kidnapped his daughter.
  • After Deus' death, he is replaced as Asura's archfoe by Chakravartin, who possesses his daughter Mithra and reveals himself as being The Man Behind the Man to Vlitra and the Gohma (which in turn led to the aforementioned Deus' betrayal), in order to test Asura. Asura attacks him upon learning this. Asura ends up sacrificing himself to take down Chakravartin.
    Asura: (to Chakravartin) You... You're the one I should kill!!
• Baldur's Gate: Gorion's Ward has Jon Irenicus, who frames them for the murder of Skie Silvershield, experiments on them, kidnaps their sister Imoen, and steals Charname's soul.
  • In the first game, Gorion's Ward had Sarevok Anchev, who killed Gorion at the beginning of the story.
• Banjo-Kazooie: Banjo and Kazooie have Gruntilda the witch, who is always trying to make their lives miserable. In the first game she kidnaps Banjo's sister Tooty to suck out her beauty and tries to kill Banjo and Kazooie when they come to rescue her. In the subsequent games she returns to get revenge on the duo for defeating her. She is also this to the Jinjos whom she regularly mistreats, even killing the Grey Jinjos with her digger in Banjo-Tooie.
• The Battletoads: The Battletoads have the Dark Queen as their most recurring adversary. In the first game, she kidnaps Pimple, and in the 1991 Game Boy game, she kidnaps both Rash and Pimple.
• Bayonetta has Loptr, the Big Bad of the second game, who murders her mother and drives her father, Balder, insane, making Loptr responsible for the events of the first game.
• Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg: Billy Hatcher has Dark Raven, the ruler of the crows who captured his friend and tied them to bombs. Dark Raven seeks to cover both Morning Land and Billy's world in eternal night, while Billy spends the game weakining Dark Ravens influence by rescuing the Chicken Elders and defeating the crow bosses who serve Dark Raven.
• BioShock:
  • Jack has Frank Fontaine, his adoptive father who plays Jack like a fiddle throughout most of the game, forcing him via brainwashing and deception to assassinate his real father, before sadistically leaving him to die.
  • Andrew Ryan, the ruler of Rapture, has Atlas, a Rebel Leader opposing Ryan. Atlas is actually Ryan's supposedly dead business rival Frank Fontaine, who seeks to overthrow Ryan so he can rule Rapture himself.
  • Subject Delta has Dr. Sofia Lamb, who kidnapped his Little Sister at the start of the second game and tried to force him to kill himself.
    • Charles Milton Porter from the second game's "Minerva's Den" expansion pack has Reed Wahl, his former partner who betrayed him and tried to seize total control of The Thinker.
  • Zachary Hale Comstock is this to both Booker and Elizabeth in Infinite. Elizabeth because he is sort of her father, but also not (it's complicated), and he had her locked away in a tower for years, and later had her kidnapped and tortured so as to harness her power. She eventually makes it her mission to kill all versions of him across all realities. Booker because Comstock technically is Booker, or at least an alternate universe version of him that became a totalitarian and psychotic dictator. He also serves as this to Daisy Fitzroy, who starts an uprising to rebel against the society of bigotry and slavery that he has created and fostered.
    • Elizabeth could also be said to have The Songbird, who often comes across very much like an abusive ex-boyfriend.
• BlazBlue has a number of these relationships.
  • Resident Sadist and Troll Yuuki Terumi manages to be this to damn near the entire cast. That's right, he's almost everyone's arch enemy, which says a lot on how much of a scumbag he is for getting on so many people's shitlist. Notable ones include his former teammates whom he helped saved the world with (against his will mind you), Rachel who continuously puts in motions to stop him, and finally Ragna, who's life he has ruined to the point where Ragna's motivation for most of the series is to see him dead. Terumi for his part just sees them all as his favorite targets to screw with and rarely takes them seriously befitting his trolling nature. He even manages to weaponize this as the enmity he invokes in people is what keeps him alive and empowers him, mostly from Ragna. It's ultimately Ragna who does him in however, and Terumi even shows him some begrudging respect in their final confrontation.
  • There's also the siblings Ragna and Jin And by extension, Hakumen to a lesser extent. Jin's made it his purpose in life to kill Ragna because of the threat he poses as a potential reincarnation of the Black Beast that will bring the world to ruin. Ragna acknowledges this and swears to settle things with Jin when everything is said and done resulting in numerous examples of Rivals Team Up throughout the series. They do ultimately bury the hatchet and make up in the end, albeit not after one last fight between them to settle things.
  • Carl's greatest foe as of Continuum Shift is his father Relius, who added his own daughter (Carl's sister) Ada's body and soul to the Nox Nyctores Nirvana and used the information he gleaned from that experiment to create a superior puppet — using Carl's mother Ignis.
  • Bang used to consider Jin to be his Arch Enemy, but thanks to Character Development has moved passed this. He now considers the system behind the NOL itself that ordered the attack on Ikaruga to be his Arch Enemy.
  • Even Taokaka has one. She and Arakune frequently come to blows since he terrorizes the Kaka clan village and she is its protector.
  • Tsubaki becomes her former best friend Noel's Arch Enemy thanks to Terumi's influence, the trauma of losing her sight to Izayoi, and her deep-rooted jealousy of Noel over her being chosen to be by Jin's side. Unlike most examples, they make up eventually.
  • Relius Clover has a secondary enemy in Valkenhayn, as the two have a long-standing rivalry prior to the Dark War; this was suspended when Relius fell into the Cauldron the day the Black Beast emerged, but has reawakened with Relius' re-emergence.
• BloodRayne 2: Rayne has her Archnemesis Dad Kagan, who conceived her by raping her mother, and later killed Rayne's maternal relatives.
• Borderlands:
  • The Vault Hunters of the original Borderlands game have Handsome Jack, who used them as pawns to find the first Vault. When Roland and Lilith help the Vault Hunters of Borderlands 2 kill Jack's daughter Angel, Jack kills Roland and forces Lilith to become a replacement for Angel. If the Player Character of Borderlands 2 doesn't kill Jack, Lilith will do so instead.
  • The Vault Hunters of Borderlands 2 also have Handsome Jack, their former employer who betrayed them and left them for dead, causing them to join a resistance movement against Handsome Jack. After they kill Angel, he rescinds the bounty on them so he can deal with them personally.
  • In Tales from the Borderlands, Rhys has the Handsome Jack AI, who serves as his Enemy Within and eventually tries to kill him. Rhys also has Hugo Vasquez, his corporate rival who cheated him out of a promotion by murdering their boss.
  • The Vault Hunters of Borderlands 3 and their commander Lilith have Tyreen and Troy Calypso, the leaders of the Children of the Vault. Tyreen steals Lilith's powers, and Troy murders their (The Vault Hunters and Lilith's) comrade Maya.
• Bully: Jimmy Hopkins has Gary Smith, who betrays him, turns all the cliques at Bullworth Academy against him, and manipulates Dr. Crabblesnitch into expelling him.
• Call of Duty:
  • In the Modern Warfare trilogy, Captain John Price has Vladimir Makarov, who is responsible for Price's three year imprisonment in a gulag and for causing Soap's death. Price is ultimately the one who kills Makarov
    • Yuri is considered by Nikolai to be the only person who hates Makarov more than Price. The two were comrades until Yuri tried to stop Makarov from carrying out the massacre Zakhaev International Airport, only for Makarov to shoot him and leave him for dead.
  • In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, David Mason has Raul Menendez, who kidnapped him as a child, tricked Frank Woods into shooting David's father, and killed Jason Hudson.
  • In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Jack Mitchell has Jonathan Irons, the father of Jacks's deceased best friend Will, and the man who gave Jack a second chance at being a soldier by giving him a cycernetic boss. Irons was Jack's boss until Jack learned that Irons allowed a series of terrorist attacks to happen.
  • In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Farah Kerim has General Barkov, who invaded her homeland and imprisoned her and her brother for several years.
• Dracula has the Belmont Clan (as well as the Belnades and Morris families) as his running archenemies in the Castlevania games.^note  The Belmonts have to destroy Dracula. They are fated to do so. Dracula makes it easy by actively pissing off the current Belmont. The Morris family, however, has no such problem with Dracula, instead being chosen by the Belmont clan to defeat the vampire out of necessity when they can't. It's a confused mish-mash, but the end result is that Dracula has the Belmont clan as his arch-enemies, but it's one-way and he should really stop exacerbating the situation.
  • Dracula also has his son Alucard. while Dracula seeks vengeance on humanity for killing his wife Lisa, while Alucard seeks to thwart him out of respect for his mother Lisa's dying wish not to seek vengeance.
  • According to the prequel Lament of Innocence, Dracula's real Arch Enemy is Sara Trantoul, whose soul empowers the Vampire Killer.
  • Death, the most prominent of Dracula's servants, is the secondary archenemy of the Belmont Clan, having fought multiple Belmonts over the course of centuries. In Lament of Innocence, the earliest chronological entry in the series, Death helped Leon Belmont's Big Bad Friend Mathias Cronqvist become Dracula in the first place. Death suffering his earliest known defeat at the hands of Leon Belmont, centuries before Dracula's first defeat at the hands of Tevor Belmont (who Death also fought). In Harmony of Dissonance, Death kidnaps Juste Belmont's friend Lydie with the intention of sacrificing her to ressurect Dracula.
  • In Lament of Innocence, Leon Belmont had Walter Bernhard, the vampire who kidnapped his fiancée Sara Trantoul.
  • In Curse of Darkness, Hector has Isaac, his former comrade who seeks revenge on Hector for betraying Dracula. Hector in turn seeks vengeance of Isaac for having Hector's lover executed as a witch.
  • In the Lords of Shadow reboot series, Dracula and Satan himself are mortal enemies. In fact, so long as the vampire lord exists and walks the Earth, Satan doesn't dare leaving Hell to conquer the human world. When Dracula is revived in modern times, Satan sends out his acolytes and minions to dispose of his hated enemy before he can return to Earth.
• Chrono Cross: Lynx to Serge (who Lynx repeatedly tried to kill him and took his body) and Kid (whose sister figure Lucca's orphanage was burned by Lynx).
• Chrono Trigger: The party as a whole have Lavos, who is the Big Bad they are trying to Save the World from, and who later becomes Crono's killer.
  • Marle has Yakra XIII, who framed both her friend Chrono and her father. Yakra seeks revenge of Marle's friends, who killed Yakra's anscestor to save Marle's ancestor.
  • Frog has Magus, who killed his friend Cyrus and turned him into a Frog.
• The end of the world be damned, nothing will stop GDI and Nod from attempting to destroy the other, an alien invasion bent on killing everyone is only grounds for a short ceasefire, which doesn't even last halfway through the invasion.
  • Kane, the leader of Nod, is this to GDI officer James Solomon, who lost two brothers to the Brotherhood of Nod. In the original game, set during the First Tiberian War, Solomon is a Non-Entity General whose responsible for Kane's defeat at the end of the game, which leaves Kane disfigured. In Tiberian Sun, set during the Second Tiberian War, Solomon is the Chief Commander of the GDI, and therefore one of the main authority figures in the war against Kane.
• Commander Keen: Commander Keen has his Mortimer McMire, who bullied him in school, is behind the various alien threats Keen faces, and seeks to destroy the universe.
• Crash Bandicoot — Crash has his creator, Doctor Neo Cortex. In the same series there is also the rivalry between sentient voodooo masks Aku Aku and Uka Uka.
• Croc has Baron Dante, who kidnapped his adoptive father in the first game. Croc and Dante come into confict again during the second game.
• Crysis 3: Prophet has the Alpha Ceph. In the opening narration, Prophet declares that despite C.E.L.L. corporation being on the verge on world domination, it is the Alpha Ceph who poses the main threat to the world. Later in the game, Prophet unwittingly frees the Alpha Ceph from C.E.L.L.'s captivity.
• Dark Forces Saga:
  • Kyle Katarn has Jerec, a Dark Jedi who murdered Kyle's father, and Desann, who defeated a depowered Kyle at the beginning of the game, and pretented to kill Jan Ors in order to provoke a vengeful Kyle into travelling the the Valley of the Jedi to regain his Force powers, which enables Desann to locate the Valley and exploit its power.
  • Jaden Korr has Tavion Axmis, who he encountered on Yavin IV when he arrived there to begin his Jedi training. Tavion later corrupts his friend Rosh Penin, is responsible for the loss of Jaden's lightsaber on Vjun, unsuccesfully seeks to have Jaden himself corrupted (which Tavion's apprentice Alora tried to carry out by trying to goad him into killing Rosh), and summons Marka Ragnos, who possesses Tavion, to defeat Jaden.
• The Darkness: Jackie Estacado has his Evil Uncle Paulie Franchetti, who tries to have him killed and murders his girlfriend Jackie.
• Darksiders:
  • Darksiders: War has the Destroyer, formerly known as Abaddon, whose actions prematurely started the Apocalpyse, which War was wrongfully blamed for.
  • Darksiders III: Fury has Envy, who served as the Starter Villain of her quest to destroy the Seven Deadly Sins, disguised herself as a Watcher to manipulate her, betrayed her and stole a chunk of her power, and became the Final Boss for her to defeat.
• Darkwatch: Jericho Cross has Lazarus Malkoth, who turned him into a vampire.
• Dead or Alive is a series long grudge between the Muugen Tenshin ninja clan and DOATECH, who refuses to leave them alone.
  • Kasumi's nemesis in the original DOA was her Evil Uncle, Raidou, who attacked and crippled her brother Hayate in order to steal the "Torn Sky Blast", a hidden and closely guarded ninpo art of the Muugen Tenshin Clan. She was so enraged by the offense, that she defied their clan's laws by leaving the village to pursue Raidou and didn't rest until she finally succeeded in killing him.
  • From DOA2 onwards, her main antagonist becomes Victor Donovan and DOATECH as a whole, given that Victor has repeatedly targeted the Muugen Tenshin for experimentation and execution. But Kasumi herself is of particular interest to him due to her immense spiritual energy, which is why he's had multiple clones made of her - essentially weaponizing Kasumi against her own family.
  • DOA3 gave Ayane her own score to settle against DOATECH by having them abduct her adoptive father figure Genra, then subjected Genra to cruel experiments that ultimately turned him into mindless superweapon. Like her half-sister before her, Ayane was enraged and refused to accept anything less than vengeance, going so far as to openly defy their brother Hayate by beating him unconscious when he tried to stop her from leaving. The third game concluded with Ayane avenging Genra and laying him to rest.
  • By DOA4, the Muugen Tenshin's patience with Victor's antagonism finally reached its limit, prompting them to launch an all-out assault against the DOATECH building itself with the intent of destroying it and kill Victor in the process.
• Dead to Rights: Jack Slate has Dick Hennessey, who killed his father Frank and framed him for the murder of Augie Blatz.
• Destiny 2:
  • The Lone Wolf has Dominus Ghaul, who stripped them (along with every other Guardian) of their powers and dealt them (the Lone Wolf) a Curb-Stomp Battle at the beginning of the game.
  • Continuing from the original game, Humanity has the Fallen - while the Hive and Vex are bigger threats, and the Cabal were the first to take the city, the Fallen have an enormous amount of bad blood with mankind that is heavily reciprocated. Notably, the Fallen came the closest to the Cabal in trying to take the city, directly besieging it during the Battle of the Twilight Gap, while the Kell's Scourge later assault the city in an effort to raid the Black Armory, and even deploy a nuclear walker, Insurrection Prime, for this very purpose.
  • The Hive are this to the Guardians - as a Darkness-worshipping race with paracausal powers like their own, the Hive are the most invested in killing the Guardians and destroying the Traveler, and have the most effective means of permanently ending the Guardians. Eris Morn, in particular, considers the Hive Gods to be her greatest foes, and personally helps the Young Wolf end each of them.
  • The Traveler has the Witness. The Witness is the gestalt form of the Eldritch Race, the first to be blessed with the light, only to turn against it after both seeing how destructive the Light could be and despairing over lack of purpose due to the Traveler never communicating with them. Upon discovering the Traveler's Darkness counterpart, the Veil, the Eldritch Race studied its power, finding a way to combine it with the Traveler to create a new, perfected existence they called the Final Shape. Disgusted by their efforts, the Traveler abandoned them and fled to the cosmos, to which they responded by using the Darkness to bind themselves into one being, so that they could chase it for all eternity to enact their plans. The Witness has gone out of its way to insert itself into the history of the Traveler, setting up itself as the equal and opposite of the Traveler, so that it can force beings into serving its crusade to calcify existence according to its whims, and finally bring meaning to a universe that lacks one.
• Deus Ex Universe: JC Denton has Bob Page and Walton Simons, who are responsible for the death of his father.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Dante has his brother Vergil, who is obsessed with defeating Dante. Vergil is by far Dante's most persistent adversary, having served as a recurring boss to Dante in the original game, Devil May Cry 3, and Devil May Cry 5
  • In Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, Lady has her father Arkham, who murdered her mother.
• Diablo:
  • Tyrael, the Big Good of II and III, has Diablo, the Big Bad of the series. He formed the Horadrim to combat Diablo (and his two brothers, Baal and Mephisto, but Tyrael considered Diablo to be "the worst of the three"). In III, Diablo uses Tyrael's companion Leah as his vessel.
  • Imperius also has Diablo. As the Archangel of Valor, Imperius is the thematic opposite of Diablo, Lord of Terror. The two of them fought in the animated short Wrath, which resulted in a standstill before the resst of the Angiris Council arrived to turn the tide in Imperius' favor. Diablo then provoked Imperius into killing him a fit of rage, knowing he would simply return if killed. The two of them fight again in Diablo III, and results in Diablo defeating Imperius and breaking into the Silver City.
• Dishonored: Delilah Copperspoon serves as a series-wide nemesis for the Kaldwin family due to being an illegitimate sister of Jessamine who was tossed to the streets and forced to scrounge through life from the gutters. She served as the central villain of Daud in his DLCs, but refocuses her hatred towards Emily and Corvo in the second game.
  • In the first game, Corvo Attano has Lord Regent Hiram Burrows who arranged the murder of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, his protectee and the mother of his child, Daud, who carried out the murder of Jessamine, and Admiral Havelock, who betrayed Corvo and plotted turn turn his daughter Emily into a Puppet Empress.
• Doom: The Doom Slayer has Davoth a.k.a. the Dark Lord, his Alternate Self who commands the Legions of Hell the Doom Slayer constantly fights.
• Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee have Willy Mackey, who kidnaps Billy's girlfriend Marion in the first game, and shoots her in the second.
• Dr. Muto has Professor Burnital, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who sabotaged one of Muto's inventions, resulting in the destruction of the planet Midway (Muto's homeworld).
• The Grey Wardens and the Darkspawn of Dragon Age: Origins. The Grey Wardens were founded specifically to prevent the Darkspawn from destroying Thedas and will do anything to accomplish this task. The feeling is mutual during Blights — Archdemons will go out of their way to kill the Grey Wardens once they can sense their location since they know that only Wardens can permanently destroy them.
  • Each respective origin (except the Mage and Dalish) end with the Warden gaining one of these. Arl Rendon Howe for the Human Noble, Prince Bhelen for the Dwarf Noble, Jarvia for the Dwarf Commoner and Vaughn for the City Elf.
  • Teyrn Loghain serves as this for Alistair. Loghain earned Alistair's hatred for his desertion at the Battle of Ostagar, leaving the King and the Grey Wardens to die. Loghain meanwhile fears the threat that Alistair poses to his Regency, since as bastard son of King Maric, Alistair is the closest legitimate heir to the throne.
  • Shale considers Birds to be her personal nemesis, having endured thirty years of being covered by their droppings whilst frozen as a statue in Honnleath. Indeed, one of the first thing she does after being reawakened by the Warden is to stomp on a chicken and according to Dragon Age II, the pigeon population of Ferelden has mysteriously dwindled since the end of the Blight.
  • In the sequel, Dragon Age II, some of Hawke's companions have archenemies. Danarius for Fenris, Bartrand for Varric, and Castillon for Isabela. Meredith and Orsino are also mutual archenemies. Anders becomes one for Sebastian after the former destroys the Chantry.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Elder One serves the greatest and most important foe to the Inquisitor.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest: Despite her history with Zoma in Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest Builders explains that the Dragonlord is actually this to the goddess Rubiss, having been in conflict with her over the fate of the world for ages since he emerged.
  • Dragon Quest V: The Hero has a personal grudge against Bishop Ladja. It becomes mutual later in the game, to the point where Ladja is focused on destroying him in the most emotionally torturous way possible.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: The Hero has Rhapthorne, who through his puppet Dhoulmagus is responsible for the curse on the castle he serves as a guard for, and the transformation of both his childhood friend Medea into a horse, and his boss King Trode into a toad-like creature.
  • Dragon Quest IX:The Supreme Sage sealed the Tyrannosaurus Wrecks in a book to prevent him from tearing the world to pieces.
  • Dragon Quest XI:
    • Mordegon to the Luminary, Rab, Jade, and Hendrik. For Rab and the Luminary, he orchestrated the fall of Dundrasil and was responsible for the death of King Irwin and Queen Eleanor, the Luminary's parents and Rab's daughter and son-in-law. For Jade, the fall of Dundrasil caused her to be separated from the Luminary and Mordegon possessed her father, King Carnelian. For Hendrik, Mordegon caused the fall of the Zwaardsrust, Hendrik's birthplace, and he corrupted his friend Jasper and turned him against all of humanity.
    • Calasmos to Yggdragon. The injuries she received from her battle with Calasmos would cause her to become the World Tree Yggdrasil and she would later choose Erdwin as her champion to defeat Calasmos.
• Dragon's Dogma: The Arisen has Grigori, a dragon who attacked their village and took their heart.
• Dragon's Lair: Dirk the Daring has Mordroc, who is responsible for the kidnapping of his Love Interest Daphne in both Time Warp and 3D.
• Duke Nukem has Dr. Proton, a Mad Scientist who serves as the Big Bad of the original game and returns in The Doctor Who Cloned Me, which is DLC for Duke Nukem Forever.
• Earthworm Jim has Psy-Crow, who is accidently responsible for Jim gaining the Super Suit. In the second game, Psy-Crow attempts to force Jim's Love Interest, Princess What's-Her-Name, to marry him.
  • Princess What's-Her-Name has her Evil Twin Queen Slug-For-A-Butt.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Arena: The Eternal Champion has Jagar Tharn, who had them imprisoned.
  • Battlespire: The Apprentice has Mehrunes Dagon, who attacked the Wizarding School they attended and captured their partner.
  • Morrowind.: The Nerevarine has Dagoth Ur, a former servant of the Nerevarine's previous incarnation.
  • Oblivion: The Hero of Kvatch has Mankar Camoran, a servant of Mehrunes Dagon who arranged the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim VII, the man who freed the Hero from imprisonment.
  • Skyrim: The Last Dragonborn has Alduin, who they are prophesied to confront, and Miraak, his predecessor, who tried to have them killed.
    • Alduin also serves as one to Paarthurnax, his younger brother and former right-hand who made a Heel–Face Turn and helped mortals oppose Alduin.
  • Online The Vestige has Molag Bal, who has possession of their soul, and Mannimarco, who sacrificed them to Molag Bal in the first place.
  • Additionally from Skyrim, General Tullius (leader of the Imperial forces) to Ulfric Stormcloak (leader of the rebel Nord forces) in the Civil War questline.
  • Serana has Lord Harkon, her abusive father who seeks to use her blood to create The Night That Never Ends.
  • Karliah has her former comrade Mercer Frey, who stole the Skeleton Key, causing her to lose Nocturnal's favor, murderd her lover, and framed her for the crime.
  • In the series' lore, the Ka Po' Tun "tiger folk" and Tsaesci "snake vampires". Both are races native to the continent of Akavir. When the Tsaesci attempted to "devour"^note There are conflicting sources as to whether this meant literal eating or was a metaphor for enslavement. Akavir's native dragons, which the Ka Po' Tun revere, the two races went to war. The Ka Po' Tun were victorious, but it left both nations weakened and the remaining dragons dead.
  • In the series' backstory, the ancient Yokudans (ancestors of the Redguards) and the Sinistral Mer (Left-handed Elves). The two sides fought a devastating war which would render the Sinistral Mer extinct. To this day thousands of years later, the Redguards refuse to speak of them for doing so tends to "darken their days." The modern Redguards have a long rivalry with their neighboring races in High Rock, including both the Bretons and Orcs. Though they have formed an Enemy Mine with each in the past when circumstances required it, they've spent far more time battling against them.
  • The Altmer (High Elves) and Maormer (Sea Elves) have an ancient, heated rivalry. Throughout the 1st and 2nd Eras, Maormer forces, personally led by their "Undying Wizard King" Orgnum, were said to "ravage" the coastlines of the Summerset Isles. In the 3rd Era, the Maormer allied with the "Wolf Queen" Potema who was attempting to usurp the throne of the Septim Empire. However, when the Maormer fleet attacked, it was swallowed whole in a magical storm conjured by the Psijic Order. The Maormer were so devastated that it is said they will never seriously threaten Tamriel again.
  • The Altmer also have another ancient and heated rivalry with the Sload, "slugmen" native to the archipelago of Thras to the west of Tamriel. When the ancient Aldmer, ancestors to the modern races of Mer, came to Tamriel, the Sload claimed the Summerset Isles. The Aldmer fought them and chased them off, but the Sload have remained their enemies ever since.
  • The Aldmeri Dominion (led by the aforementioned Altmer) has long been the most powerful rival to the various Cyrodiilic Empires throughout Tamriellic history. It took Tiber Septim using the Numdium against the Dominion for mankind to finally conquer the Altmer homeland, with the Altmeri army decimated and their capital city captured in less than an hour of fighting. When the Septim Dynasty ended following the Oblivion Crisis, the Altmer wasted no time in reforming the Dominion and striking back at the remnants of the Septim Empire, reigniting the rivalry.
  • The Thalmor, a extremist religious sect that took power within the Aldmeri Dominion, are one toward the Psijic Order, an ancient and powerful magical monastic order based on the isle of Artaeum within the Altmeri homeland of the Summerset Isles. The Order is essentially a living Berserk Button for the Thalmor, as they're an Altmer organization with immense magical knowledge but absolutely will not tow the Thalmor line. The second disappearance of Artaeum in the 4th Era is believed to be directly related to the rise of Thalmor influence in the highest levels of the Aldmeri Dominion government.
  • In the early 1st Era, the Falmer (Snow Elves) became this to the Atmorans (ancient proto-Nords) when the Falmer slaughtered and burned the Atmoran city of Saarthal. Ysgramor, one of the Atmoran leaders, returned to Atmora and raised an army of 500 of Atmora's greatest warriors and led a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that nearly drove the Falmer to extinction.
  • The Khajiit and Bosmer (Wood Elves) have a long and violent history. Their homelands share a border and disputes are common. One such dispute quickly escalated into the Five Years War, during which the Khajiit took control of some Bosmeri territory and continued raiding deep into Valenwood. It took the Bosmer invoking the Wild Hunt, in which some of them irreversibly transform into nightmarish beasts, to finally end the war.
  • In Tamriel's earliest history, there existed a race of Bird Men native to the islands that would become the Imperial City Isle in central Cyrodiil. They were lost to history, along with whatever they may have called themselves, at the hands of "cat demons," which modern scholars believe were the ancient Khajiit.
  • Hagravens and Spriggans are seen to have a strong hatred of one another. Hagravens are a flightless harpy species known for being powerful witches who seem to have life itself as an enemy. This obviously puts them at odds with the Plant People Spriggans, who are "Nature's Guardians" and come into frequent conflict with Hagravens wherever they are found. Hagravens are fond of dotting their lairs with decorative Spriggan heads and parts, including their Taproots.
  • Arkay, the Aedric Divine God of Life and Death, and Mannimarco, the "God of Worms" and patron of necromancers. Quite logical, as Mannimarco actively works to upset the balance that is Arkay's divine duty to maintain.
  • Mannimarco also has a fellow "mortal" arch-enemy in Galerion, the founder of the Mages Guild. Both were former students of the Psijic Order who left after disagreeing with the Order's policies. (Galerion believed that magic should be freely taught and shared, not kept in the hands of a select, elite few while Mannimarco openely practiced The Dark Arts, including Necromancy.) The organizations they would found (the Mages Guild and the Order of the Black Worm) would be rivals for centuries.
  • Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption, has several:
    • Arkay. The two have a strong rivalry and Molag Bal created the first vampire specifically to upset Arkay's balance of life and death.
    • Molag Bal has another in Boethiah, a fellow Daedric Prince whose sphere includes Plots, Deceit, Conspiracy, Murder, Assassination, Treason, Unlawful Overthrow of Authority, Betrayal. The two constantly snipe at one another, attempting to steal or murder each other's followers. Though no reason has ever given for their rivalry, it is a prominent example of the (generally considered) "evil" Daedric Princes averting Evil Is One Big, Happy Family. Molag Bal also doesn't get along well with Mehrunes Dagon.
    • He and Meridia hate each other as well, since she finds him utterly disgusting and he considers her a nuisance.
    • He is also implied to antagonize followers of Stendarr specifically. Since Stendarr is the God of Mercy and he is the God of Domination, it seems Bal enjoys seeing just how capable Stendarr is of protecting his faithful.
  • Ebonarm, a god of war worshiped in the Iliac Bay region and held in especially high regard by the Redguards, is a noted adversary to all Daedric Princes (except for Sheogorath, for reasons not explained).
  • Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, has two. The aforementioned ancient Nord hero Ysgramor was one and, according to old Nordic legends, outwitted Mora regularly. The Skaal of Solstheim are the other, and have managed to keep their secrets safely hidden from him. The plot of Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC is revealed to be an elaborate scheme by Mora to get them.
  • Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, has one in Jyggalag, the Daedric Prince of Order. As revealed during the events of the Shivering Isles, it turns out to be an Arch-Enemy Within scenario. Sheogorath is the Person Shaped Can Jyggalag was sealed inside of. The events of the expansion's main quest see the two split.
  • From the backstory, Pelinal Whitestrike, the legendary hero of mankind/racist berserker, had one in the Ayleid leader, Umaril the Unfeathered. Part of it stems from Pelinal realizing that he was a sort of indirect creator of Umaril, since if it were not for Pelinal's deeds then Umaril would not be famous. (In Oblivion's Knights of the Nine expansion, you, as "Pelinal Reborn", get to finally defeat a resurrected Umaril once and for all.)
  • Wulfharth Ash-King, the ancient King of the Nords who has died and come back to life at least three times, despised the Dunmeri Tribunal of Morrowind and wanted to see them destroyed. After initially aiding Tiber Septim in his conquests (as the mysterious Underking), Wulfharth feels betrayed when Septim agrees to the Armistice with Morrowind, seeing it as a validation of the Tribunal religion, and leaves Septim for a time.
• Empire Earth's 2nd campaign focuses on Great Britain and France's feud through the ages.
• Espgaluda: Ageha and Tateha have Jakou, their Archnemesis Dad who experimented on them.
• Eternal Darkness: Alexandra Roivas has Pious Augustus, who is responsible for the death of her grandfather.
• F-Zero: Captain Falcon has Black Shadow, who Falcon undermined both as a racer in the Grand Prix, and as a Bounty Hunter who went after his minions. Black Shadow is also responsible for creating Blood Falcon, an Evil Knockoff of Captain Falcon.
• Fable
  • The Hero of Oakvale has the Jack of Blades, who kills his father and imprisons his mother and sister.
  • Sparrow has Lucian Fairfax, who kills their sister Rose
• Fallout:
  • Fallout: The Vault Dweller has the Master, the head of Unity and the creator of the super mutants (one of whom is canonically responsible for the death of the Vault Dweller's companion Ian) who seek the extinction of humanity, and are an existential threat to the people of Vault 13.
  • Fallout 2: The Chosen One has President Dick Richardson and his henchman Frank Horrigan, who seek to kill anyone from the Wasteland. Richardson is the leader of the Enclave responsible for kidnapping the Chosen One's fellow villagers. Horrigan murders a family in front of the Chosen One, potentially kills their allies Matthew and Gruthar (depending on whether the Chosen One completes their respective quests), serves as the Final Boss for them to defeat, and tries to pull a Taking You with Me against them.
  • Fallout 3: The Lone Wanderer has Colonel Augustus Autumn, who is responsible for the death of their father.
  • Fallout: New Vegas:
    • The Courier:
    • Given that the game opens with Benny shooting The Courier in the face and burying them in a shallow grave, it's only natural that he is this to them. You can choose to give him a second chance when you track him down... only for him to try to have you killed again. Originally there would have been encounter if you saved him from Ceaser's Legion where he would try to kill you again, but it was cut from the game.
    • Ulysses, former Frumentarii of The Legion and the last of the Twisted Hairs tribe, despises The Courier for accidently destroying The Divide some years ago. He holds extra animosity for an NCR aligned as he hates them and plans to use the missiles of The Divide to destroy the Long 15, thus dooming the NCR soldiers stationed in the Mojave. Ulysses will make things personal for The Courier by kidnapping your loyal robot companion ED-E just before you reach him.
    • Caesar can be considered one to The Courier should you not side with him. If you'd been fighting the Legion up to the point, Caesar will give out a list of transgressions the player has committed against the Legion and will throw a childish tantrum if you talk back to him or refuse to work for him. He goes so far as to threaten The Courier to be torture for his own amusement.
    • In a grand sense, the NCR as a whole and Caesar's Legion as a whole are this to each. Ever since Ulysses first reported back to the Legion of Hoover Dam and the NCR, it has been the Legion's goal to destroy the NCR's armies and take New Vegas for themselves. The Legion also despises the NCR for their disorganized politics and their failure to stop the lawless raiders while the NCR despises the Legion for their slavery practices and their treatment of women.
    • Caesar:
    • Joshua Graham became this to Caesar after Joshua failed to defeat the NCR at the first battle of Hoover Dam. For his failure, Caesar covered him in pitch, lit on fire, and tossed into the Grand Canyon. Joshua survived but is in permanent pain every single day. Angered at Joshua's survival, Caesar has the White Legs tribe destroy Joshua's home, the city of New Canaan. If you side if Joshua in fighting the White Legs, Joshua very clearly wants to kill their leader Salt-Upon-Wounds as a proxy for revenge on Caesar.
    • Chief Hanlon is this to him in the Worthy Opponent sense. Hanlon is NCR soldier most responsible for defeating Joshua and the Legion at the first battle of Hoover Dam due to blowing the forward troops sky high at Boulder City. Should Hanlon be alive during a Legion victory, he and his men valiantly fight to the last man holding off the Legion off.
    • The Courier can be this to him (see above).
• Far Cry:
  • In Far Cry 3, Jason Brody has Vaas Montenegro, who kills Jason's older brother Grant, and Hoyt Volker, who is The Man Behind the Man to Vaas, forces Jason to tortures his younger brother Riley, severs one of Jason's fingers, and gloats about selling Riley as a Sex Slave.
  • Far Cry Primal: Takkar has Ull (who was responsible for the deaths and many of Takkar's fellow Wenjas) and Batari (who captured many of Takkar's fellow Wenjas, and tried to burn Takkar alive when he rejected her).
• Fatal Fury:
  • Terry had a personal vendetta with Geese for the murder of his adoptive father, Jeff Bogard. The original game concluded with Terry exacting his revenge by besting Geese and sent him plummeting from atop the Howard Building, to his death. Though in the King of Fighters continuity, Geese survived the fall and returned to antagonize Terry once again.
  • Real Bout: Fatal Fury is a retelling of the original game's events, which concludes with Terry attempting to save Geese at the end of their duel. But Geese refused to accept out of spite and chose to fall to his death. This time, it was for keeps.
• Fate/stay night: Shirou gets two, and which he comes into conflict with depends on what route you're in:
  • In "Unlimited Blade Works" Shirou's possible future self Archer is the antithesis of his ideals, yet embodies them: He sold his soul into servitude as a guardian for eternity after death because he all he wanted was to save people, but instead he was forced to watch humans suffering forever while being unable to save anybody or even end his own existence. Hating the ideals that betrayed him, he wants to crush Shirou's belief in being a hero of justice and kill his past self so that he can be released from being a guardian. Shirou in turn refuses to stop believing in his ideal, and fights to prove that he is right.
  • In "Fate" and "Heaven's Feel" Shirou's Arch-Enemy is Kotomine Kirei, who is exactly like Shirou in that he has no real sense of self. At the same time they are irreconcilable opposites because Kotomine finds joy in the suffering of others while Shirou finds his in saving them. In "Fate", Shirou's conflict with Kirei gets personal at the end when he finds out that Kirei was responsible for the disaster ten years ago that changed his life, and caused his father Kiritsugu's death. However in "Heaven's Feel" where this does not come up Shirou figures out that the reason for his instinctive dislike of Kotomine was that deep down he liked Kotomine, but could not admit it to himself. Nevertheless they have no choice but to fight each other over their opposing goals.
    • Kotomine was also the Arch Enemy of Shirou's adoptive father (as detailed in Fate/Zero) and still speaks respectfully of him, though he appears to have misunderstood Kiritsugu's motives. This is clearest in the "Mind of Steel" Bad End where Shirou becomes a Totalitarian Utilitarian who no longer has Saber to fight for him.
      Kotomine: You [and Rin] shall act out the final stage of the Holy Grail War.
      Shirou: Are you saying I will remain until the very end?
      Kotomine: Of course. You are Emiya Kiritsugu now. There is no way you cannot win.
    • He was also arguably Rin's Arch-Enemy, since he stabbed her father in the back and orchestrated the eventually fatal strangling of her mother, which she discovers in "Unlimited Blade Works". In both "Fate" and "Unlimited Blade Works" she gets her revenge on him, although indirectly.
  • Saber's Arch-Enemy in the "Fate" route is Gilgamesh, who opposes her quest for the Holy Grail because he wants her for himself. He is also the negative image of her as a ruler, since he sacrificed his kingdom for his own benefit while she sacrificed herself for her kingdom.
• Final Fantasy:
  • From Final Fantasy The Warrior of Light to challenge Garland the human incarnation of the Big Bad Chaos.
  • From Final Fantasy II is Firion fighting for freedom from oppression against The Emperor who seeks to bring everything under his heel.
  • Final Fantasy III brings us The Onion Knight a cowardly child to face The Cloud of Darkness, an embodiment of fear itself.
  • Final Fantasy IV has Cecil who must overcome his cynical brother Golbez and show him The Power of Friendship.
  • From Final Fantasy V is Bartz a none to bright wanderer who confronts the monstrous Exdeath who wants to erase everything.
  • Final Fantasy VI gives us Terra whose fear of her immense magical power attracts Kefka who seeks to control her.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Initially subverted, since Sephiroth had little regard for Cloud, except as a pawn by which to obtain the Black Materia he needed to summon Meteor. It wasn't until the very end when Cloud defeated him, that Sephiroth took him seriously as an enemy.
    • By Advent Children (and Dissidia, below), it's played straight, with the official novellas stating that Sephiroth kept himself from being assimilated by The Lifestream of the planet by focusing on his hatred of Cloud. Sure enough, once he resurrected, his first order of business was to try to settle the score between them. But Cloud defeated him again, after another hard fought battle.
    • Their mutual contempt for each other is further solidified by their appearances in other media. Cloud and Sephiroth have appeared in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Super Smash Bros., and a key aspect of Sephiroth's primary motivation is always to continue to torment Cloud.
    • Among the other members of the FFVII cast, several might consider Professor Hojo their archenemy, but Vincent Valentine has the best claim to it. Hojo stole the woman he loved, impregnated her, experimented on their child to create Sephiroth, and then shot Vincent himself to experiment on him too and turn him into the vampire we see by the time the game starts. This all sent Vincent careening over the Despair Event Horizon to the extent that he decided to sleep in a coffin and avoid the world for multiple decades. Even after finally killing Hojo in the original game, Hojo came back to be the central antagonist of Vincent’s spin-off game, Dirge of Cerberus, as well. While Red XIII, Cloud, and Aerith all had their lives ruined by Hojo to various degrees as well, he put Vincent through the most.
    • Tifa could also claim Sephiroth as her archenemy because he killed her father and destroyed her hometown, and that’s not even getting into everything he did to her Implied Love Interest Cloud.
    • Aerith has Jenova, who drove her people, the Cetra to near-extinction. After her death at the hands of Sephiroth (who was using Jenova's body at the time), Aerith's spirit is able to command the Lifestream, which enables her to protect the planet from Sephiroth, and by extension Jenova.
    • The prequel Crisis Core, starring Cloud’s friend/mentor figure Zack Fair, introduces Genesis Rhapsodus as a prototype Sephiroth with a clone army. As the game progresses, Genesis gradually shifts from being a cocky young would-be hero, to a tragic villain; making his role and character arc loosely analogous to Sephiroth's with Zack serving as his equivalent to Cloud.
  • Final Fantasy VIII brings Squall who is forever fated to confront the time witch Ultimecia. Squall also has Seifer Almasy, his Rival Turned Evil.
  • From Final Fantasy IX is Zidane who's motto is to help anyone who needs it and his brother Kuja who is unable to see the value of anything but himself.
  • Final Fantasy X:
    • Tidus wants to settle the score with this father Jecht once and for all.
    • Yuna has Seymour Guado, who tries to force her to marry him so he can use her to become the next Sin. Yuna is the one who brings him down for good.
  • The ten heroes and their respective villains, Chaos and Cosmos, and Shantotto and Gabranth in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
  • The prequel Dissidia 012 reveals the Emperor is actually more an Arch Enemy to the Final Fantasy X cast as an Expy of Seymour — he manipulates Tidus and Jecht into fighting for the sake of his schemes and isn't pleased when Yuna tries to get the two to work out their differences peacefully. In a less direct example Exdeath is the enemy of the Final Fantasy IV cast, being Kain's designated rival and his death in that cycle being caused by Golbez disrupting his control over the Manikins so Kain can get past them and challenge Exdeath. Also puts a new spin on the scene of Exdeath accusing Golbez of treachery and Cecil protecting him.
  • Final Fantasy XII:
    • Vaan and Ashe have Vayne Carudas Solidor, who arranged the False Flag Operation which claimed the lives of Vaan's brother Reks and Ashe's father Raminas and enabled the Archadian Empire to annex their homeland.
    • Basch fon Ronsenburg has his Evil Twin Judge Gabranth, who murdered Reks and Raminas while impersonating him during the aforementioned False Flag Operation.
  • Lightning Farron from the Lightning Saga has Caius Ballad and Bhunivelze.
    • Caius sought to kill the goddess Etro, while Lightning is Etro's champion protecting her from Caius. In Lightning Returns, Lightning expresses regret over failing to stop Caius, and she confronted Caius again shortly afterwards.
      Lightning:The unseen Chaos that has torn the world apart... And it was unleashed by one man—all because he wanted to stop time for a girl he loved. Caius Ballad. If only I could have stopped him earlier... But I didn't.
    • Bhunivelze turned Hope into his vessel, manipulated Lightning into doing her bidding by falsely promised to bring Serah back to life, and schemed to destroy and Unperson the souls of the dead, rid humanity of emotions, and make Lightning the new Goddess of Death. Lightning ultimately rebels against Bhunivelze, who becomes the Final Boss of the trilogy, and wins.
  • Final Fantasy XIV Introduces Zenos Yae Galvus, who becomes infatuated with the player character and considers him both his friend and rival, as the Warrior of Light is one of the few beings that can match him in combat.
  • Final Fantasy XV: Noctis Lucis Caelum has Ardyn Izunia, who kills his fiancée and later captures his friend Prompto.
  • Final Fantasy XVI: Clive Rosfield has Ultima, who seeks to posess him, and Hugo Kupka, who destroyed Cid's hideout.
• The Final Fight series has the Mad Gear gang as collective arch-enemies for nearly all of the playable characters. Their first incarnation kidnapped Jessica, Haggar's daughter and Cody's love interest, while their second incarnation took revenge by kidnapping Rena and Genryusai, who are not only the fiancee and mentor of Guy, but also the sister and father of Maki. In the third game, the Skull Cross gang are arch-enemies for Dean as they killed his family. In Streetwise, Father Bella is the arch-enemy of Kyle as he is actually the brother of the first leader, Belger, who was killed by Kyle's brother, Cody. In the Street Fighter Alpha trilogy, Sodom and Edi. E are treated as the personal arch-enemies of Guy and Cody, respectively.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Archanea Series: Marth has Medeus (who invades Marth's homeland of Altea, forcing him into exile), Gharnef (who convinced Jiol to betray Altea, captured Marth's sister Elice, and later brainwashed Marth's ally Hardin), and Jiol (who murdered Marth's father Cornelius).
  • Jugdral Series:
    • Sigurd has Manfroy, who kidnaps his wife Deidre.
    • Seliph, the son and Sigurd and Diedre, has Arvis, who killed Sigurd, and Manfroy, who is responsible for much of the misery in his parents' life, and who tried to sacrifice his half-sister Julia.
      Seliph:My father's sadness, my mother's grief... It was all part of your plot... Your sinister ambitions are the cause of all of this... Damn it... Manfroy! I won't forgive you. I will never forgive you for this!
    • Naga has Loptous, a fellow dragon whose she had a major role in defeating in the backstory.
  • Elibe Series:
    • Roy has Zephiel, whose is responsible for the death of his father's friend Hector. Roy in turn serves as the leader of the Lycian army, and later the Etrurian army, opposing Zephiel.
    • Eliwood has Nergal, who killed his father.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Eirika and Ephraim ostensibly have Lyon, their Evil Former Friend. Lyon subverts this in Eirika's route (where he is revealed to be a Meat Puppet to the demon Fomortiis, making said demon Eirika's true archenemy in her route), but plays it straight in Ephraim's route (where Lyon is still in control of his actions despite being manipulated by Fomortiis, making the conflict beween Ephraim and Lyon a case of It's Personal with the Dragon).
  • Tellius Duology: Ike has the Black Knight for killing his father Greil.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
    • Chrom, Robin, and Lucina have Grima. In the Bad Future where Lucina comes from, Grima possesses Robin and kills Chrom. Chrom's daughter Lucina travels back in time to prevent the Bad Future, while Grima follows Lucina to the past to stop her. As a result, Grima comes into conflict with the past versions of Robin and Chrom.
  • Fódlan Games:
    • Byleth has Thales, the boss of their father's killer Kronya. Thales directly intervenes to prevent Byleth from saving their father's life.
    • Come Three Hopes, Byleth also has Shez, whose mercenary group they had wiped out in the prologue. Though, later in the game, it ultimately turns out to be more between Sothis and Arval.
    • Seiros has Nemesis, who killed her mother.
  • Fire Emblem Engage: Alear has the Fell Dragon, Sombron, their villainous father.
• First Encounter Assault Recon:
  • The Point Man has Paxton Fettel, his villainous brother
  • Michael Becket has Alma Wade, his stalker and eventually his rapist.
• In Five Nights at Freddy's, the Purple Guy, William Afton, found himself at odds with several characters throughout the series most prominently being the Puppet who in the sixth game is revealed to be the daughter of the Cassette Man who is explicitly stated to be Henry from the novel series. In the fifth game, he manages to also earn the ire of his son Michael after tricking him into going to the underground factory leading to him getting gutted by Ennard who then used his skin to escape.
• The Force Unleashed:
  • Played With between Starkiller a.k.a. Galen Marek and Darth Vader. Vader killed his father, raised him under abusive conditions, and eventually betrayed him twice. While Starkiller is nominally subservient to Vader for the majority of the game, his loyalty to Vader is shaken after the latter's first betrayal, where he stabs Starkiller in the back and ejects him into outer space from the bridge of the Executor. Vader oversees Starkiller's recovery, and while Starkiller does continue following Vader to an extent, he defies Vader by rescuing his Morality Pet, Juno Eclispe, beginningthe process of his Heel–Face Turn. Towards the end of the game, Vader betrays Starkiller again by capturing the Rebel leaders Starkiller gathered on Corellia (which Starkiller believed was so he and Vader could kill Palpatine while he was distracted by the Rebels) and trying to kill him. Starkiller pursues Vader to the Death Star and defeats him in combat.
• Freedom Planet: Sash Lilac and Milla Basset have Lord Brevon, who tortured Lilac and mutated Milla.
• Full Throttle: Ben has Adrian Ripburger, who framed him for murder.
• Game of Thrones (Telltale): Rodrik Forrester has Ludd Whitehill, who took his brother Ryon as a hostage.
• In Gears of War, Marcus Fenix has Queen Myrrah, who murdered his mother.
• Genshin Impact: The Traveler has their Evil Twin, the leader of the Abyss Order, and the Unknown God, who seperated the Traveler from their twin in the first place.
• Gex has Rez, a Dimension Lord whom he comes into conflict with in all three games. In the first game, Rez kidnaps Gex to make him his mascot. In the third game, Rez kidnaps Gex' lover Agent Xtra as revenge for his previous two defeats at Gex's hands.
• Ghost of Tsushima: Jin Sakai has Khotun Khan, who kills his friend Taka.
• Ghosts 'n Goblins: Sir Arthur has Astaroth, who has served the Big Bad of the first game, where he orchestrated the kidnapping of Arthur's Love Interest, the princess, and has remained a recurring foe for Arthur ever since. While he spends several games doing the bidding of other demons, he becomes the Big Bad again in Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins, where he once again kidnapps the princess.
• God of War
  • Kratos:
    • The Barbarian King Alrik was his earliest rival, responsible for dealing Kratos his first near-defeat. The prequel comic reveals that they constantly fought each other before the series. It was this near-defeat that drove Kratos down his Start of Darkness, as he pledged Ares to save him and became his enforcer.
    • Ares, the God of War, for tricking Kratos into killing his own wife and daughter to so they wouldn't burden him. Kratos spent the following decade trying to atone for this horrible deed as well as seeking to pay back Ares, which he gets the chance in the first game.
    • Zeus himself after he betrayed and killed Kratos in God of War II. One could say that no other enemy, not even Alrik or Ares, commands as much of Kratos' time and energy as the King of the Gods, given that Zeus wants to kill Kratos to restore order to the world, and Kratos is willing to destroy Zeus and Olympus in order to get his revenge.
    • Played With regarding Odin. While Kratos is Older and Wiser, no longer blindly follows his desire for vengeance and wants no part of Ragnarok, Odin manipulates him disguised as Tyr, threatened those close to him, murdered Brok, one of his few true friends and alienated Atreus from him and threatened his son's life more than once. In many ways he's just like the Jerkass Gods from his homeland he loathed so deeply. Kratos doesn't seek war, but he makes it abundantly clear that if it comes to it, he'll gladly kill Odin for all he's done.
  • Odin:
    • He can be considered one to Kratos (see above entry).
    • Has been Freya's ever since he cursed her, manipulating their son Baldur into doing his bidding and causing all the grief and turmoil in her life. She spends most of Ragnarök trying to initiate the Norse apocalypse just so she can finally kill him.
    • Mimir (who was once one of Odin's closest allies) has been one of his more personal enemies ever since the Smartest Man Alive saw how awful Odin really was, leading to Odin to condemn him to a hellish Fate Worse than Death by sealing him within a tree and torturing him every day for 109 winters. Even in Ragnarok, their mutual hatred of each other is on full display whenever they interact and Mimir spends much of the games reminding the others of Odin's psychopathic nature.
    • The Jotnar of the Nine Realms have been driven to almost extinction because of Odin's Irrational Hatred of them and spending eternity waging war against them. This is especially daunting as Odin himself is part Giant; his grandfather was Ymir, the father of all Giants.
    • Becomes Sindri's most hated enemy after he murders Brok before his eyes while disguised as Tyr. In fact, even after Freya overcomes her hatred of him and learns to move on from her trauma, the pain is still fresh with Sindri and he destroys Odin's Soul Jar, condemning him to an eternal nonexistence without a shred of hesitation.
  • Deimos has Thanatos, who imprisoned him for years.
• Golden Axe: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead have Death Adder, who killed at least one family member of all three individuals.
• Gradius: The Gradians have the Bacterians, who keep attacking them.
  • James Burton has Dr. Venom, a fellow Wreek who attempted a coup against the Gradian government, only to be foiled by James. James confronts him again in Nemesis 2, and in Nemesis 3, Venom travels back in time to kidnap James as a kid.
• Grand Theft Auto:
  • Grand Theft Auto III: Claude has Catalina, his treacherous ex-girlfriend.
  • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Tommy Vercetti has Sonny Forelli, who is his employer untill Tommy decides to start his own criminal empire. Sonny is eventually reveals to be responsible for Tommy's fifteen years of imprisonment before the start of the game. Lance Vance had Ricardo Diaz, who was responsible for his brother's death.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Carl Johnson has Officer Frank Tenpenny, who forces CJ to do his bidding before trying to have him killed. CJ also has Big Smoke, his treacherous former friend.
  • In a non-character variation, the Sindaccos and the Forellis are this to the Leone Crime Family in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.
  • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories: Victor Vance has Jerry Martinez, who roped him into unethical activites that got him dishonorably discharged from the military.
  • Dimitri Rascalov, Ray Bulgarin, and Darko Brevic to Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. Dimitri is Niko's most recurring and personal enemy throughout the entire game, being responsible for selling out Niko to Bulgarin, burning down the home of Niko's cousin Roman, and later kidnapping the aforementioned Roman. Bulgarin is a russian mob boss and human trafficker who blames Niko for the destruction of one of his freighters and the theft of his diamonds, and is The Man Behind the Man to Dimitri. And Brevic caused the deaths of 12 of Niko's friends, and hunting down Brevic is one of Bellic's main reasons for coming to Liberty City in the first place. In the Revenge Ending, Jimmy Pegorino becomes a personal enemy for Niko by killing Kate McReary (at Niko's cousin Roman's wedding, no less) in a botched attempt to kill Niko himself as payback for Niko killing Rascalov (who Pegorino was trying to make a business deal with).
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned: Johnny Klebitz has Billy Grey, who betrays him to the Triads, and when that backfires, he plans to testify against the Lost MC.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony: Luis Lopez has his former employer Ray Bulgarin, who seeks to have Luis and his boss Tony killed for the theft of diamonds which were previously Bulgarin's.
  • From Grand Theft Auto V: Michael has Steve Haines and Devin Weston, Franklin has Stretch, and Trevor has Wei Cheng and the Lost MC. The Golden Ending of the game has the three helping each other eliminate the others' antagonists in order to clean loose ends without leaving a trail.
• Grim Fandango: Manny Calvera has Hector LeMans and Domino Hurley.
  • Hector LeMans is a criminal mastermind behind the conspiracy which his former employer, Don Copal was a part of.
  • Domino Hurley was Manny's rival as a salesman in the Department of Death, and an accomplice in Hector's conspiracy. After being promoted by Hector, Domino tries to become Manny's Evil Mentor.
• Guilty Gear: Sol Badguy and That Man have the Universal Will, who is responsible for turning Aria Hale (Sol's lover and That Man's friend) into Justice.
• Gungrave: Beyond the Grave has Harry MacDowell, his Evil Former Friend.
• Hades: Zagreus has his father Hades, who seeks to prevent him from escaping the Underworld.
• Half-Life 2: Gordon Freeman has Dr. Wallace Breen, his former colleague who betrayed humanity to the Cambine.
• Halo:
  • The UNSC and the Covenant, which is specially represented by the Spartans and the Elites respectively (though the latter take the rivalry much more personally). They've been fighting for decades, with humanity trying to stave off extinction at the hands of the Covenant. But later, it's revealed that humanity as a whole has a far more deadlier archrivalry with the Flood, a highly virulent and intelligent parasite dating back to the time of the Forerunners.
  • The Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 reveal that the Forerunners themselves were this to a highly-advanced prehistoric humanity, with the modern form of the rivalry represented in the conflict between the Master Chief vs. the Ur-Didact.
  • The Master Chief has the Gravemind, the shared consciouness of the Floog, who manipulated him, betrayed him, and Mind Raped Cortana.
  • Master Chief also has a grudge against 343 Guilty Spark for betraying him in the first game.
  • The Arbiter has the Prophet of Truth and Tartarus, who betrayed him and attempted to have his race massacred.
  • On a species level, the various Covenant races don't get along with each other in general, but there are two very strong interspecies rivalries that stand out, those being the friction between the Jackals and the Grunts, and the animosity between the Elites and the Brutes, the latter of which escalates from a rivalry into a full-on genocidal conflict during and following the Great Schism.
• Hammerin' Harry: The President of Kuromoku-gumi, Hyosuke Kuromoku, for Genzo. Only one game in the series has not featured the Kuromoku-Gumi and Hyosuke as major villains.
• Heavenly Sword:
  • Nariko has King Bohan, who captured her father.
  • Kai has Flying Fox, who murdered her mother.
• Hello Neighbor: The Protagonist has the Neighbor, who imprisoned him on his property when he was a child, which caused him trauma that persisted into his adulthood.
• Heavy Rain: Ethan Mars has the Origami Killer a.k.a. Scott Shelby, who kidnapped his son.
• Henry Stickmin Series:
  • There is the Toppat clan and the Government, who are arch enemies to each other.
  • Dmitri, the Big Bad of Complex is this to Henry and Ellie in the Pardon Pals and Toppat Recruits path of Mission.
  • Henry himself becomes one to Ellie in the Toppat Civil Warfare path of Mission, due to him leaving Ellie behind at the wall in Complex and her taking over as leader and having most of the Toppat members turn against Henry.
• Heroes of Might and Magic:
  • Adrienne has Lord Haart, who invades her homeland.
  • Rion Gryphonheart has Duke Deezelisk, a vengeful demon who was defeated and blinded by Rion. Deezelisk arranged to have Rion Rerouted from Heaven, and later captured and tortured his daughter Allison.
• Hitman: Agent 47 and Lucas Grey have Providence, the Nebulous Evil Organization which their abusive father Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer was affiliated with.
• Honkai Impact 3rd: Kiana Kaslana has Herrscher of the Void, her Enemy Within.
• Horizon Zero Dawn:
  • Aloy has Helis, who killed her Parental Substitute Rost.
  • Erend has Dervahl, who tortured his sister to death.
• Ice Scream: Daniel J. Brown has Rod Sullivan, who repeatedly kidnaps his friends.
• Iji: Asha the Assassin considers himself Iji's Arch Enemy after losing their first fight. Originally, he was only after the bounty on her head (and the fame), but took his loss so personally he dedicates himself to destroying you. Your actions determine whether this feeling is reciprocated, or you can completely ignore him, which actually leads to Asha killing himself in despair.
• InFAMOUS:
  • In the first game, Cole MacGrath has his evil future self Kessler, who killed his girlfriend Trish. In inFAMOUS 2, Cole MacGrath has the Beast, a.k.a. his former ally John White, who Kessler was grooming Cole to defeat in the first game.
  • In inFAMOUS: Second Son, Delsin Rowe has Brooke Augustine, who tortured his entire tribe.
• Injustice: The version of Batman from the Injustice universe has his universe's Superman, his Evil Former Friend and the leader of the Regime Batman is rebelling against.
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Rex and Vace are two members of the Heliopause with wildly opposing personalities, especially when it comes to working with the Stratospheric crew. Vace hates Rex for becoming "too soft" by hanging out with the peaceful Stratos, while Rex hates him for being a military bully, especially since Vace broke Rex's arm when they were kids, just to prove himself that he's "manly" enough to be a soldier.
• Jade Empire: The Spirit Monk has Death's Hand, who destroyed their hometown of Two Rivers, Emperor Sun Hai, who was responsible for the destruction of the Spirit Monk's original home of Dirge, and Sun Li, the Spirit Monk's traitorous mentor.
• Jak and Daxter: Jak has Erol, Kor, Baron Praxis, and Count Veger.
  • In Jak II, Erol arrests Jak and hands him over to Baron Praxis, who experiments on Jak for two years. Erol also become Jak's rival for Keira's affections. In Jak 3, Erol becomes the Big Bad for Jak to defeat.
  • Kor is the Metal Head leader who Jak is destined to defeat. At the beginning of Jak 2, Jak accidently releases Kor and his Metal Heads by activating a Rift Gate, resulting in a desperate Jak travelling three hundred years into future, upon which Jak is captured and spends two years as a test subject to Baron Praxis. Kor spends much of Jak 2 disgused as a human, pretending to be Jak's ally. Kor later kidnaps Jak's younger self, and attempts to take the Precursor Stone from the teenage Jak so he can use the younger Jak to activate the Precursor Stone and feed on the life force within. After Kor's defeat at Jak's hands, Jak's younger self travels back in time so he can grow up to defeat Kor, completing the Stable Time Loop.
  • Baron Praxis is the Evil Overlord of Haven City who subjected Jak to Dark Eco experiments for two years, resulting in the creation of his Superpowered Evil Side Dark Jak. When Daxter comes to free Jak, Jak angrily vows to kill Praxis. Praxis is also opposed by a resistance movement called the Underground, who seek to despose Praxis and replace him with a kid who is Haven City's rightful heir. That kid is a younger Jak, whose father, the previous ruler Damas, was usurped and banished by Praxis.
  • Count Veger banishes Jak into the Wasteland, and reveals that he kidnapped Jak as a child.
• Jazz Jackrabbit has Devan Shell. In the first game, Devan tried to destroy Jazz's homeworld. In the second game, Devan ruined Jazz's wedding to Eva Earlorg, and stole Eva's ring.
• Jet Set Radio: The GG's have Gouji Rokkaku, a Corrupt Corporate Executive whose plans get foiled by them in both the original game and its sequel Jet Set Radio Future.
• Jump Start: Frankie has Jimmy Bumples, who destroyed his cousin's scooter.
• Just Cause: Rico Rodriguez has Oscar Espinosa, the leader of the Black Hand and the man responsible for the death of Rico's father.
• Kao the Kangaroo: Kao has the Hunter who captures his friends.
• Kid Icarus:
  • Pit and Palutena have Medusa. In the backstory of the original game, Palutena and Medusa were co-rulers of Angel Land, until Palutena turned Medusa into a monster and banished her to the Underworld as punishment for Medusa's attacks against humanity. A vengeful Medusa joins forces with the Underworld Army to imprison Palutena within her (Paulutena's) palace, only for Medusa to be defeated by Pit at the end of the first game. Twenty five years later, Medusa returns, now seeking vengeance against both Pit and Palutena.
  • In Uprising, Pit gains a new archenemy in Hades, the true ruler of the Underworld and The Man Behind the Man to Medusa. After Pit defeats Medusa, Hades reveals himself and declares that "Next to me, little miss Medusa's going to look like a sweet, cuddly bunny." He constantly addresses Pit with Terms of Endangerment throughout the game, summons Mimicuties to impede him during their Enemy Mine against the Aurum, and even eats him in Chapter 23. By the end of the game, Hades considers Pit a Worthy Opponent.
    Hades:It gives me such pleasure to see you suffer, Pitty Pat.
  • Dark Pit has Pandora, who orchestrated his creation, only for him to turn on her and assimilate her into his wings, stealing her powers in the process.
• Killer Instinct: Black Orchid and her brother Jago have Gargos, who was a Treacherous Advisor to Jago, and who Orchid inadvertently helps by killing his (Gargos') rival Eyedol.
• Killzone: The Conflict between the ISA and the Helghast who waged war against them drives the overall conflict of the series.
  • In Killzone 2, ISA soldiers Rico Velasquez and Tomas Sevchenko have Autarch Scolar Visari and Colonel Mael Radec. Visari is the ruler of the Helghen Empire, the instigator of the Second Extrasolar War, the main target the two are trying to capture, and the boss of Radec. During the events of the game, Visari caused the deaths of many ISA members by nuking his own capital. When the two capture Visari at the end of the game, Sev vows to make Visari "pay for what [he's] done" by bringing him to justice, only for an enraged Rico to get provoked into killing Visari, making him into a martyr. Radec is responsible for the deaths of both Rico and Sev's superior, Colonel Jan Templar, and their squadmate Garza.
  • In Killzone 3, Jorhan Stahl has Admiral Orlock, as the two spend the game competing for leadership over the Helgan Empire following Visari's death. While Orlock intially appeared victorious thanks to the Senate deciding to make Orlock Visari's successor, Stahl assassinates Orlock shortly afterwards.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Riku's arch-enemy is Xehanort's Heartless/Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness. He represents every bad decision Riku made in the first game, stole Riku's body at the end of those bad decisions, and spent a lot of time as Riku's Enemy Within. Not even being purged from Riku's heart is quite enough, as they end up fighting each other all over again in 3D.
  • Xemnas claims the title of archenemy to Sora. He seems to get Sora riled up the most easily and has fought him the most out of any of them. He also made the life of his Nobody, Roxas, terrible.
  • Saix spent a lot of his time as the archenemy of Roxas and Lea throughout the Dark Seeker saga, until his Heel–Face Turn in III.
    • Saix was responsible for making Roxas’s life a living hell while in the original organization, Roxas himself holds a grudge against him for the way he mistreated his friends, especially Xion.
    • Lea also has a personal vendetta against his former friend, In III, Lea wants to get Roxas back and unknowningly at the time, Xion. Lea even fights him in the Keyblade Graveyard before Roxas’s return and the memories of Xion come back.
  • Vanitas, Xehanort's right hand minion in Birth By Sleep, serves as one to Ventus and Aqua.
    • He keeps showing up to taunt Ven with the possibility of losing Terra forever, threatens his friends' lives if Ven doesn't do as he's told, and tries to kill Aqua right in front of him. Ven is willing to destroy his own heart if it'll stop Vanitas, and when Vanitas returns in III, Ven speaks through Sora for the first and only time to angrily call Vanitas's name at the sight of him. He is Ven's Enemy Without, after all.
    • Vanitas and Aqua both keep encountering each other throughout Birth By Sleep and III. Vanitas even does despicable things like breaking the wooden keyblade that was given to Ventus, and threatened to kill Ventus when he was still in his sleeping state all just to set her off.
  • Master Xehanort is this to the entire Wayfinder trio, having ruined their lives in varying ways for his quest to acquire the χ-blade.
    • Terra is by far the biggest example. Xehanort spent the entire game pulling strings on Terra by using his own insecurities and issues as ways to manipulate Terra and turn him against his friends and make him embrace the darkness, only to later reveal his true colors by sending Terra to fight Master Eraqus only to later kill him in front of Terra after the fight followed by him destroying his world and threatening to kill Ventus and Aqua, which eventually ended in Xehanort taking on Terra as his vessel instead of Ven.
    • Ventus is another one, though he’s not as personal as Vanitas. He was Xehanort's former pupil, who constantly put Ventus through Training from Hell to use the darkness inside him to turn the boy into his vessel and after the boy failed to do so, Xehanort extracted the darkness from him, which could've ended on Ventus' death and brought Vanitas out in the first place.
    • Aqua is a downplayed example compared to the other two but is still present, as Xehanort is the one responsible to her losing both her best friends, the death of her Master and father-figure Eraqus, and getting stuck in the Realm of Darkness for years, which even got her corrupted by it for a while.
  • After III, Xehanort can safely be considered Sora's as well. If all the pain and suffering that him and his other incarnations put the boy and his friends through wasn't enough for that, even with his failed attempt to turn him into a vessel in Dream Drop Distance, then after striking down Kairi, it definitely puts him here, driving Sora to tears as he attacks the old man, something no other villain managed to do. It's especially notable when Sora comes across Xehanort in Re:Mind, despite Sora knowing of Xehanort's intentions by this point, he acts aggresive and confrontational to the Master, even summoning his Keyblade while shooting him a Death Glare.
• The King of Fighters:
  • KOF '95-'97 essentially boiled down to the ongoing blood feud between the series' protagonist, Kyo Kusanagi, and his arch rival/antagonist, Iori Yagami. It lasted until after the events of KOF XI, due to finding a mutual Arch Enemy in Ash Crimson (who, like Bison before him, has that special talent for pissing off near anybody he comes into contact with).
  • Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura all have Orochi, as they are the respective heirs to three clans responsible for sealing Orochi away.
  • Ash Crimson has Saiki, his villainous ancestor.
  • Chizuru Kaguya has Goenitz, who killed her sister Maki.
  • Alba Meira has Duke Burkoff , who killed his adoptive father.
• Kirby's title character has King Dedede, downplayed in that while Kirby and King Dedede fight from time to time, he is much more likely to team up with Kirby against a common threat or be the victim of Demonic Possession. He has about the same dynamic with Meta Knight, who takes Kirby much more seriously as a Worthy Opponent. Nowadays, the Dark Matter race seems to fit the deal as arch-nemesis better than Dedede and Meta Knight, with many members of the species having fought Kirby across the series; culminating in Kirby Star Allies, where Kirby seems to face off against Void Termina, which is likely the Monster Progenitor of the Dark Matter.
• Klonoa has Joka, who killed Grandpa (Klonoa's guardian).

• Kya: Dark Lineage: Kya has Brazul, her Archnemesis Dad.
• The Last of Us: In the first game, Ellie Williams had David, a cannibal leader who kidnapped her. In Part II, Ellie has Abby Anderson, who killed her father figure Joel.
• Legacy of Kain gives us Malek and Vorador in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, The Sarafan Lord and Janos Audron in Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain, and Kain and Raziel throughout the series. All of these are slightly one sided, though. While Malek had a deep personal hatred for Vorador, Vorador didn't think much of him and for the most part hated his order and humanity in general. Janos hated the Sarafan Lord for holding him prisoner for four hundred years, starving him of blood but the Sarafan Lord's issue was with vampires in general and he considered Janos little more than a tool. Raziel, likewise, hated Kain on a very personal level, but Kain's actions against him were necessary evils. Kain himself had much more personal grudges against Malek and the Sarafan Lord than he did against Raziel, and possibly his true arch enemy was Moebius. And in the end it turns out Kain was the arch enemy of the Elder God, who manipulated people across centuries to try and kill Kain, due to Kain's destiny to become the Scion of Balance, the only being that can destroy the Elder God.
• The Legend of Dragoon: Dart Feld has Lloyd, who killed his companion Lavitz Slambert.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ganondorf is Link's eternal arch nemesis, since he and Princess Zelda reincarnate in most games in the series:
    • In the game that started it all,The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf kills the Great Deku Tree, Link's parental substitute, before beating Link effortlessly in the Child portion of the game. Link in turn wrecks Ganondorf's army and frees all of his victims from the monsters plaguing them. Ganondorf responds by kidnapping Princess Zelda, AKA Sheik, while Link is helpless to stop him. By the time the final boss fight starts the animosity between them is very mutual, particularly in the manga adaptation.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Ganondorf thinks this Link is the reincarnation of the one from Ocarina of Time, not realizing they're unrelated. However, as Ganondorf has kidnapped Link's sister, tortured him and Tetra/Zelda, and wrecked every society Link has met across the islands, Link despises him. The one time Link looks visibly furious in this game is after Ganondorf backhands Tetra hard enough to knock her out.
    • However, there are exceptions as certain Links (like the ones in Spirit Tracks and A Link Between Worlds) are Legacy Characters.
    • Played for Drama in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Ganondorf is the reincarnation of Demon King Demise's endless hatred for Link and Zelda, and that continues to haunt them even as they keep reincarnating. The three are bound to fight for eternity. It also turns out that Zelda is the mortal incarnation of Hylia, the goddess who initially sealed Demise, which means she was his original Arch Enemy, not Link.
    • This even plays true in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, where their counteracting birthdays and personalities leave them not getting along with each other (albeit not in a way that ends in violence and reincarnation).
  • The Skyward Sword incarnation of Link has Ghirahim, who seeks to sacrifice Link's childhood friend Zelda to his master Demise, and faces Link multiple times in battle.
  • The Minish Cap's incarnation of Link has Vaati, who turns his childhood friend Zelda to stone.
  • The Twilight Princess incarnation of Link has King Bulblin, Zant's enforcer in the Light World, who kidnapped several of Link's friends near the beginning of the adventure, and serves as a Recurring Boss throughout the game. In the same game, Midna has Zant, who is revealed to have usurped her throne, turned her into an imp, and disrupted the peace in the Twilight Realm by transforming its inhabitants into Shadow Beasts. It is then revealed than Zant is actually a servant of Ganondorf, who needed a vessel to retrieve a physical form and rule over Hyrule once again.
  • Tatl from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask seemingly has her former friend the Skull Kid, who mistreated her brother Tael and tried to destroy Termina. Subverted with the reveal that the Skull Kid is being possessed the the titular Majora's Mask, effectively making the mask Tatl's true archenemy. After learning about it's possession of the Skull Kid, Tatl assists Link against Majora's Mask during the Final Boss battle of the game.
  • The Ikana Kingdom and the Garo from Majora's Mask have had a Great Offscreen War. By the time of the game's events, the Ikana Kingdom is in ruins, its people have become undead, including their ruler Igos du Ikana, who continues to reside in the Ancient Castle of Ikana, while the Garo Master resides in the Stone Tower Temple, which is also in the Ikana region.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Oshus, also known as the Ocean King, has Bellum, an Eldritch Abomination who stole much of his life force.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Ganondorf is this to Rauru. Ganondorf falsely swore allegience to Rauru before murdering his wife Sonia, and Rauru later sacrificed his life to seal away Ganondorf. Thousands of years later, Rauru's replaces Link's arm, which had been corrupted by Ganondorf, with Rauru's own, enabling Link to survive and defeat Ganondorf.
  • The Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom incarnation of Link has a notable feud with Master Kohga, the leader of the Yiga Clan. In Breath of the Wild, Kohga has his minions searching Hyrule in an effort to hunt down Link, only for Link to personally storm Kohga's hideout in the Gerudo Desert and confront Kohga personally, at which point Kohga tries to kill Link himself, only for Kogha to cause himself to fall into a pit. In Tears of the Kingdom, Kohga is revealed to have survived his fall into the pit, which caused Kohga to land into the Depths of Hyrule. Blaming Link for his fall into the Depths, Kohga and his begins researching Zonai technology. Later on, Link himself enters the Depths and obtains the Autobuild ability before Kohga could, prompting Kogha to fight Link again in attempt take it from Link. However, Link defeats Kohga again, prompting the Yiga Clan leader to flee. Link ends up pursuing throughout the Hyrule Depths, encountering him in combat several more times.
  • Lana has Cia, whom Lana is the good half of.
• The Legendary Starfy: Starfy had Ogura, the Big Bad of the first two games and The Dragon to Evil in the third game. Ogura was a Sealed Evil in a Can who Starfy accidently freed in the first game. Ogura would go in to kidnap Starfy's mother in the second game.
• LEGO City Undercover:
  • Chase McCain has Rex Fury, a criminal who Chase helped capture in the prequel game, two years before the events of the original game. Rex Fury returns as The Dragon to Forrest Blackwell in the original game, where Rex serves as the Final Boss, while Blackwell is The Unfought.
  • Chase later has Forrest Blackwell, who orchestrates the kidnapping of his crush Natalia's father, kidnaps Natalia herself, and endangers the population of LEGO City. After Chase foils his plans at the end of the game, Blackwell swears vengeance against him.
• LEGO Island: Pepper Roni has the Brickster. The Brickster has made repeated attempts to deconstruct LEGO Island, only to be repeatedly foiled by Pepper.
• The Kansai-based Omi Alliance of the Like a Dragon series have been the most persistent enemies of Kiryu and his Tokyo-based allies, being the main antagonists of Yakuza 2 (and its remake), Yakuza 5, and are the secondary antagonists of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Even when they don't appear in the story physically, the threat of an Omi invasion is enough to drive many of the plots of those games and creates further conflict.
• Loom: Bobbin Threadbare has Chaos, who kills his mother figure Hetchel. Bobbin in turn helps prevent Chaos from taking over half the universe, although he is unable to save the other half.
• Commander Shepard in Mass Effect has a lot of powerful enemies: Saren Arterius in the first game, The Illusive Man and Kai Leng in the third game. However, Shepard's archenemies are the Reapers, and (s)he is theirs. They consider Shepard to be the greatest threat they have ever faced, and Shepard is the only thing in existence that has ever made the Reapers feel fear. Notably, they will turn their dreadnought-killing guns away from entire fleets to target Shepard alone.
  • Harbinger in particular has animosity for Sheperd. Not only is Harbinger the leader of the Reaper Armada, he killed Shepard at the beginning of the second game, and has gone on to personally confront(and lose to) Shepard countless times thanks to his ability to hijack the bodies of his Collectors. Harbinger becomes furious when Shepard ruins his plans to create a Human Reaper, and most of what the Reapers know about Shepard comes from Harbinger. At the end of the Trilogy, Harbinger personally invades Earth, Shepard's homeworld, and nearly kills Shepard with a laser beam.
  • The Illusive Man was Shepard's ally in the second game, before becoming an antagonist to them in the third game, with the two having opposing views on dealing with the Reapers. He is the boss of Kai Leng, who repeatedly antagonizes Shepard and their allies, and some time after Shepard attacks the Illusive Man's headquarters and kills Kai Leng, the Illusive Man confronts Shepard and forces them to shoot their mentor Anderson.
  • Saren Arterius was responsible for the failure of Shepard's mentor Anderson to become a Spectre, and Shepard exposed Saren's trachery to the Citadel Council, resulting in them stripping Saren of his Spectre status, making Shapard a Spectre, and sending them after Saren.
  • Shepard can potentially have this relatinship with the batarian terrorist Ka'hairal Balak, depending on Shepard's Multiple-Choice Past. If Shepard is a War Hero, Balak with have a grudge against them for thwarting the Skyllian Blitz, a batarian attack on Elysium, and if Shepard is Ruthless, Balak will hold a grude against them for participating in the attack on Torfan, which was a retaliatory attack for the aforementioned Skyllian Blitz. In the first game's "Bring Down the Sky" DLC, Balak's actions result in Shepard having the Sadistic Choice between letting hostages die or letting Balak escape. If Shepard either saves the hostages, leaves Balak for dead, or simply doesn't do the "Bring Down the Sky Quest", Balak returns in the third game, where he has a grudge against Shepard for their role in destruction of the batarian colony of Bahak in the second game's "Arrival" DLC.
  • Garrus Vakarian has Lantar Sidonis, who betrayed his team to the Blue Suns.
  • Miranda Lawson also has an archenemy in her father, Henry Lawson.
  • Jack has an archenemy in Cerberus because of what they did to her. She also has a particular hatred for Miranda though after Miranda quit Cerberus, it tones down significantly and in the Citadel dlc, Shepard can convince the two to settle their differences
  • Samara's nemesis is her daughter, Morinth.
  • Liara considers the Shadow Broker to be her nemesis.
  • Zaeed's nemesis is Vido Santiago.
• Max Payne has Nicole Horne in the first game, Vladimir Lem in the second game, and Victor Branco in the third game.
• MediEvil: Zarok to Sir Daniel Fortesque, a reanimated skeleton who suffered an Undignified Death at the hands of one of Zarok's minions.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man has Dr. Wily, a Mad Scientist he defeated on numerous occasions.
    • Dr. Wily is also this to Dr. Light, Mega Man's creator. Light and Wily used to be colleagues, but Wily was jealous of being Always Second Best to Light, and turned to evil because of it.
  • Mega Man X: X has Sigma, who X fought many times.
  • Mega Man Zero: Zero has Dr. Weil, who used his original body to create Omega.
  • Mega Man Battle Network: MegaMan.EXE a.k.a. Hub Hikari and Lan Hikari have Lord Wily, a former friend of Lan and Hub's grandfather Dr. Tadashi Hikari. Wily is a recurring enemy of MegaMan and Lan throughout the series, serving as the Big Bad personally in 1, 3, and 6, and The Man Behind the Man to Gospel in 2. In addition, Wily is the father of Dr. Regal, who is the Big Bad of 4 and 5.
• This, like every other trope, gets lampooned in Kingdom of Loathing: the player receives a quest from their guild to retrieve an item stolen by their Nemesis. The player wasn't aware that they even had a Nemesis before that.
• In the Metal Gear Solid series the main protagonist, Solid Snake is constantly facing of against Revolver Ocelot and/or Liquid Snake, though none of them'd ever use titles as arch-nemesis. Snake used to have Big Boss, but ended up in a coma for the majority of Solid Snake's story arc.
  • Liquid would absolutely consider Solid Snake his archenemy. The man dedicated his entire to life to killing Snake and proving himself superior! Revolver Ocelot might not use the title despite his long history as an enemy of Solid Snake, but that's because he matured after spending an entire game trying to prove himself as Big Boss's archenemy.
    • Revolver Ocelot's Arch-Enemy could ultimately be said to be the Patriots, as all of his actions throughout the series were done with the purpose of eventually defeating the Patriots.
  • Big Boss has Zero, his former comrade. The two had a falling out because of their opposing ideologies, and because Zero had Big Boss cloned. During the Peace Walker incident, Zero attempts to launch a nuclear attack and frame Big Boss for it.
  • Raiden had Solidus Snake, who killed his parents and raised him to become a killer. Raiden later has Senator Steven Armstrong, who planned to replicate Solidius' training of child soldiers, and became one of the toughest opponents Raiden ever fought.
  • Before becoming Big Boss, Naked Snake made a personal enemy in Colonel Volgin, an sadistic Soviet officer. Snake attacked Volgin's lover Raikov, and Volgin tortures Snake. Years after Volgin's near-death in Snake Eater, he comes back in MGSV as the Man on Fire, where he becomes an Implacable Man seeking revenge against Big Boss. When Volgin realizes that Venom Snake, the man he was hunting, was not the same person he had a vendetta against, he allowed himself to die.
  • Venom Snake had Skullface, who was responsible for the incident which caused the death of Paz and Venom's own maiming.
• General Morden to Marco Rossi in Metal Slug, mostly due to the former killing many of the latter's comrades during his attacks.
• Metro Exodus has Yakov Taubman to Miller. After Artyom and Anna uncovers Hanza's deceit of covering up the organisation's involvements of executing any outsiders around Moscow, Taubman becomes Miller's nemesis, going so far in putting them on court martial.
• Ridley in the Metroid games, to Samus Aran. This one is personal, since Ridley trashed Samus' home of K-2L and personally killed both of her parents and one of her adoptive parents. Ironically, the Metroid manga (which was made by Nintendo) has a brief scene where a 4-year-old Samus, not yet knowing what Ridley has done, tries to make friends with the giant space dragon.
  • When Samus approaches him, Ridley is watching the chaos and fire his pirates have caused, and actually gets a sad look for a moment when he sees her. Then Samus' mother runs to save her from Ridley, and he promptly goes back to normal and kills Samus' mother in front of her. He later mocks her about how he killed her parents.
  • Oddly, unlike Bowser, Ganondorf, or other arch-enemies, Ridley is generally the Climax Boss of the game, but not the final one. Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, adds him in as the game's final boss, arriving on SR388 after the Queen Metroid has been defeated.
  • Samus also has Mother Brain. While not quite as personal as Ridley, Mother Brain is still one of the most recurring villains of the series, and earns Samus's ire in various ways, most notably killing the baby Metroid. It's somewhat more prominent in the manga, where she played a part in raising Samus, before becoming one of her adversaries, unlike in Zero Mission where Samus says she grew up on Zebes long before Mother Brain was there.
  • Samus had Metroid Prime/Dark Samus during the Metroid Prime Trilogy. The two of them have similar armor and abilities and have fought each other multiple times. However, Dark Samus truly cemented herself as this for Samus after she corrupted three of Samus' Bounty Hunter allies with Phazon, forcing Samus to fight each of them to the death.
  • Samus also has Raven Beak. Although he is only a direct antagonist for Samus in Metroid Dread, he is one of the most influencial antagonists in the franchise due to his role in causing the Metroid crisis by massacring the Thoha tribe, preventing them from destroying SR388 and the Metroids with it. Furthermore, Raven Beak has a personal connection with Samus, as one of her Chozo gene donors.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: Talion has the Black Hand of Sauron, who is responsible for the deaths of his wife and son.
• The Mimic: Yasu Masashige has Kintoru, a witch who turned many members of his bloodline into puppets, starting with his ancestor Kusonagi and his (Kusonagi's) daughter.
• Minecraft: Story Mode: Jesse has Romeo, who steals their identity.
• Mischief Makers: Marina Liteyears has The Emperor, who has her creator Professor Theo kidnapped.
• The Monkey Island series protagonist Guybrush Threepwood has constantly thwarted the plans of the Ghost Zombie Demon Statue Pirate LeChuck. Played with in the second game where Guybrush won't shut up about having beaten LeChuck, most people either don't believe it (Or are just sick of hearing about it) and so he gets no respect for it, but LeChuck does very much remember and actively seeks his vengeance.
• Mortal Kombat has these all over the board.
  • Liu Kang has Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung.
    • Liu Kang has repeatedly thwarted Shao Kahn's attempts to take over Earthrealm, first by defeating his minion Shang Tsung in the original game, and later by defeating Shao Kahn directly in II and III.
    • Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung in the original game, and Shang Tsung in turns kills Liu Kang in Deadly Alliance.
  • Raiden, the God of Thunder, has Shao Kahn (who Raiden spent centuries trying to stop from conquering Earthrealm) has Shinnok (a God of Evil who he banished to the Netherealm).
  • Sonya Blade, a Special Forces Officer, has Kano, the leader of the Black Dragon Criminal organization. The two have feuded since the beginning of the series. Her pursuit of Kano was what roped her into the original game's Mortal Kombat tournament.
  • Scorpion has the first Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot/Bi-Han (who killed him) and Quan Chi (who killed his family) as successive archenemies.
  • Kitana has Shao Kahn (her abusive adoptive father and the murderer of her biological father), Shang Tsung (Mileena's creator), and Mileena (her evil clone).
  • Jade has Tanya, a fellow Edenean who betrayed her people.
  • Kung Lao has Shang Tsung, who is responsible for the death of his ancestor, and later for the death of his friend Liu Kang.
  • Jax has Hsu Hao, his treacherous former subordinate who was a mole for the Red Dragon clan.
  • Cyrax has his Evil Counterpart Sektor.
  • Shujinko has Onaga, who used him as a pawn.
  • Taven has Daegon, his villainous brother.
• Mother:
  • Ness in EarthBound has Pokey Minch (known as Porky Minch in the Japanese version), his Evil Former Friend who allies himself with Carpainter and Monotoli, and Giygas.
  • Lucas in Mother 3 also has Porky Minch. Porky killed Lucas' mother and brainwashed his brother Claus.
• Muchi Muchi Pork: Momo Barasoto, Ikuo Katakuchi, and Rafute Souki have General Pork Fillet, who turned them into pig-girls.
• Murdered: Soul Suspect: Ronan O'Connor has the Bell Killer, a serial murderer who took Ronan's life. The Bell Killer turns out to be the ghost of Abigail Williams, who carried out the Bell Killer murders by possessing several hosts, including Ronan himself.
• Namco × Capcom and Project × Zone has Saya, a high-ranking member of Ouma, to Reiji Arisu.
• Nancy Drew has Dwayne Powers, who kidnapped her friend Bess in Ransom of the Seven Ships as retaliation for Nancy's role in bringing him down in Stay Tuned for Danger.
• In NiGHTS into Dreams… and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, NiGHTS has Wizeman, his creator.
• Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa has the Jaquio, who brainwashed, and later killed, Ryu's father.
• No More Heroes:
  • In the first game, Travis Touchdown has Jeane, who killed his parents.
  • In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Travis has Jasper Batt Jr., who has Travis' friend Bishop murdered. as retaliation for Travis for killing his father and two brothers.
  • In No More Heroes III. Travis has FU, who maims Shinobu and kills Badman after Travis kills Mr. Blackhole (who was one of FU's subordinates).
• No One Lives Forever: Cate Archer has Dmitrij Volkov, who is responsible for the deaths of several agents in UNITY, the spy organization Archer works for.
• Oddworld:
  • Abe has Molluck, who seeks to turn his fellow slaves into food in the original game and its remake, New 'n' Tasty. Molluck returns in Soulstorm, seeking revenge against Abe.
  • Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath: The Stranger, a member of an endangered race known as the Steefs, has Sekto, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who is responsible for the genocide of the Steefs and is the boss of D. Caste Raider, who is responsible for the lynching of Doc, who the Stranger sought to receive an operation from.
• Ōkami: Amaterasu has Orochi, who was responsible for the death of her previous incarnation Shiranui.
• Onimusha: Samanosuke Akechi has Fortinbras and Oda Nobunaga, who sought to use his cousin Yuki and her adopted brother Yumemaru as Human Sacrifices in the first game.
• Outlast:
  • Miles Upshur has Chris Walker, who stalked him throughout Mount Massive Asylum.
  • Waylon Park has Jeremy Blaire, a Murkoff Corporation executive who commits him to Mount Massive Aslyum and makes him a test subject as punishment for trying to expose Murkoff's inhumane experiments.
• Overwatch:
  • Widowmaker to Tracer, who feels the world is worse off because she failed to stop Widowmaker from killing Mondatta.
  • Reaper to Soldier: 76, his former friend.
• Parasite Eve: Aya Brea has Eve, who massacred Carnagie Hall while Aya was attending an opera there. Aya is resistant to Eve's powers because they both have donated organ's from Aya's deceased sister Maya. As a result, Aya is the only credible threat to Eve.
• Pac-Man: Pac-Man has the Ghost Gang, a group of ghosts who repeatedly antagonize Pac-Man. Blinky in particular stands out, as he is both The Leader of the gang and the most aggressive towards Pac-Man.
• Persona:
  • The Protagonist of Persona 3 has Erebus, who is The Man Behind the Man to Nyx. The Protagonist sacrifices themselves and turns their soul into a Barrier Maiden to keep Erebus from reaching Nyx and destroying humanity.
  • Persona 4: Yu Narukami has Tohru Adachi, whose manipulation of Taro Namatame led to the kidnapping of Yu's cousin Nanako.
  • Persona 5: Joker has Masayoshi Shido, who framed him for assault. Morgana even outright refers to him as such.
• Phantasy Star:
  • Phantasy Star I: Alis Landale has King Lassic, who killed her brother.
  • Phantasy Star IV: Chaz Ashley has Dark Force, a Recurring Boss in the game and an entity worshipped by Chaz's Token Motivational Nemesis Zio (who killed Chaz's mentor).
• Pirates of the Caribbean Online: Jack Sparrow has Jolly Roger, who coveted his position as a Pirate Lord, and spent years trying to kill him.
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Black and White: The Protagonist (who is either Hilbert or Hilda, depending on the player's choice) has Ghetsis Harmonia, The Man in Front of the Man to the leader of Team Plasma, the Nebulous Evil Organization which the protagonist spends the main storyline opposing. Additionally, the protagonist encounters Ghetsis in person several times throughout the story. Ghetsis eventually reveals to the protagonist that he is a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to trick Pokémon trainers into freeing their Pokémon so he can Take Over the World, and even gloats that the protagonist's friend Bianca, whose Munna has previously kidnapped by Team Plasma, will be forced by public opinion to release her Pokémon.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon: Lillie has Lusamine, her villainous mother.
  • In the DLC of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Ogerpon and Pecharunt are nemeses to one another considering that they are an inversion of the story of Momotaro, with Ogerpon being an innocent creature who was made into a target of Kitakami Village's anger due to Pecharunt's machinations. It's also heavily implied that Pecharunt's minions murdered Ogrepon's original trainer. If brought out for the fight against the latter, Ogerpon responds in a furious battlecry.
• In the Portal games, Chell the silent protagonist has the evil A.I GLaDOS. In the second game GLaDOS in the antagonist for only the first half of the game and is replaced by Wheatley as this for the rest of the game.
• Prince of Persia:
  • In the original continuity, the Prince has Jaffar, who tried to force his Love Interest to marry him in the first game, and stole his identity in the sequel.
  • The Prince's most prominent enemy in the Sands of Time continuity is the Vizier, who sets the plot of the trilogy in motion by tricking the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time. Although the Vizier only directly serves as the Big Bad in The Sands of Time and The Two Thrones, he is indirectly responsible for the Prince's conflict with the Dahaka during the events of The Warrior Within (as the Dahaka is hunting the Prince for using the Sands of Time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong from the Vizier's machinations in The Sands of Time). The Vizier is also responsible for the Start of Darkness of Saurva, who comes into conflict with the Prince during the events of Battles of Prince of Persia.
    • In The Warrior Within, the Prince has the Dahaka, an Implacable Man who seeks to kill him for altering the timeline.
• Professor Layton: In the first trilogy, Professor Layton has the Mad Scientist Don Paolo, who resented Layton for having a relationship with Claire Foley, who Paulo, then known as Paul, had a crush on. In the second trilogy, Layton has his brother Jean Descole.
• [PROTOTYPE 2]: James Heller has Alex Mercer, who infected him with a strain of the Prototype virus.
• Ratchet & Clank:
  • Dr. Nefarious to the titular duo, as their most frequent and powerful enemy.
  • Prior to meeting Ratchet and Clank, Nefarious and Captain Qwark were arch-enemies due to Qwark bullying Nefarious in school, foiling his evil plans and causing him to be turned into a robot. While Nefarious comes to realise that Ratchet and Clank are far more formidable nemeses than Qwark, the history between Qwark and him still causes the mere sight or mention of Qwark to make him rage to the point of malfuntioning.
  • Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: Emperor Tachyon can also be considered this for Ratchet since he’s not only responsible for disappearance of his entire race, he also personally killed Ratchet’s father. While Nefarious is more infamous and possibly more dangerous, Tachyon is easily Ratchet’s most personal enemy.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: Emperor Nefarious is this for Rivet and Kit, mirroring their alternate counterparts.
  • In Ratchet: Deadlocked, Ratchet has Gleeman Vox and Ace Hardlight. Gleeman Vox is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who forces Ratchet to participate in a deadly tournament, slanders him, and tries to have him killed for rejecting his business proposal. Ace Hardlight is a Fallen Hero and Vox's star contestant, who Ratchet becomes more with audiences than despite Vox's efforts to slander Ratchet and make Hardlight popular, in large part because Hardlight is a Jerkass. Hardlight also shoots Ratchet's ally Big Al.
• Rayman has the Magician, his former ally and a Fanboy of Mr. Dark, the original game's Big Bad. Despite being Rayman's ally in the original game, the Magician goes on to serve as the Big Bad of Rayman Origins (where he initially pretends to still be Rayman's ally) and Rayman Legends.
• Red Dead:
  • Red Harlow has Governor Griffon, General Diego, and Colonel Daren, who were all responsible for the deaths of Red's parents.
  • John Marston has Edgar Ross and Micah Bell.
    • Edgar Ross took his family hostage, forced him to hunt down his old gang, and had him killed once he outlived his usefullness to him.
    • Marston had a grude on Micah Bell for betraying the Van der Linde gang. After waiting eight years for a chance for revenge, John finally tracked him down and killed him.
  • Arthur Morgan has Micah Bell, for being The Corruptor to their boss Dutch, and for betraying the Van der Linde gang to the Pinkertons.
  • Dutch van der Linde has Andrew Milton, Colm O'Driscoll, and Leviticus Cornwall.
    • Milton was the leader of the Pinkerton agents pursuing the Van der Linde gang throghout the second gang. Athough Milton was technically hired by Leviticus Cornwall to go after Dutch, he genuinely despises the lawlessness which Dutch represents, and Dutch despises the society that Milton represents. Milton used Micah Bell as a mole to sabatoge Dutch's gang, and he kills one of Dutch's comrades, Hosea Matthews, in front of him.
    • Leviticus Cornwall is a Corrupt Corporate Executive whose businesses are often targeted by the Van der Linde gang. Cornwall hires Milton to go to take down Dutch after he robs his train. Dutch personally kills Cornwall.
    • Colm O'Driscoll was Dutch's former friend. Dutch killed Colm's brother, and Colm subsequently killed Dutch's lover.
• Resident Evil: Chris Redfield began the series as one of Wesker's subordinates, but once he learned Wesker was a traitor who was secretly an agent of Umbrella, that changed everything. In each of their subsequent appearances, Wesker was cast as the main antagonist with Chris as his chief advisory. Whereas Jill Valentine all but disappeared from the series after RE3 and wasn't seen again until RE5, where she only had a bit part as Wesker's minion. Then promptly dropped out of sight again, after Chris saved her. After Wesker's death, Chris briefly had Carla Radames, the murderer of Chris' entire squad, until she too was killed at the end of RE6. Then he had Lucas Baker from Resident Evil 7 who like Carla killed all of his men before Chris kills Lucas in the Not a Hero DLC.
  • Wesker also has an antagonistic relationship with Sergei Vladimir, his former colleague from Wesker's time as an Unbrella Corporation employee. While Wesker betrayed Umbrella and its CEO Oswell E. Spencer, Sergei remained loyal to them.
  • In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Jill Valentine had the titular Nemesis, who made regular attempts on Jill's life throughout the entire game. Nemesis is responsible for the murder of Jill's comrade, Brad Vickers, making Nemesis a very personal enemy for Jill.
  • In Resident Evil 4, Leon S. Kennedy had Osmund Saddler, who kidnapped the President's daughter and infected Leon with Las Plagas, and Jack Krauser, who was Leon's former friend until he betrayed the U.S. government. In Resident Evil 6, Leon had Derek C. Simmons, who murdered the President, who was Leon's friend, and proceeded to frame Leon for the crime.
  • In Resident Evil 2, Sherry Birkin has her father William Birkin, who implants her with an embryo.
  • Resident Evil: Survivor is an interesting case of the protagonist having multiple possible arch-enemies. In two early parts of the game, you have the option to advance with three possible routes to your destination. The second time this happens, the game assigns you an antagonist based on the route you took, from the possibilities of Vincent Goldman, Andy Holland, or the Commander of the Umbrella Trashsweepers. All three exist in the story (you even talk on the phone with Andy after the first fork), but only your personal antagonist factors into the cutscenes going forward.
  • In Resident Evil 6 Ada Wong had her Evil Doppelgänger Carla Radames.
  • Ethan Winters had Eveline (who was behind the kidnapping of his wife), followed by Mother Miranda (who kidnapped his daughter Mia)
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure: Phantom R has a man who claims to be Napoleon, who Phantom R first encounters when he rescues a girl named Marie from him. Phantom R subsequently focuses a great deal of time and effort to opposing "Napoleon", encountering him and his minions on multiple occasions. "Napoleon" later has Marie kidnapped in order to force R to give him the Dragon Crown, and although Phantom R tries to trick him with a fake crown, Marie's guardian Jean-François, who is aiding "Napoleon", shoots Phantom R and seizes the real Dragon Crown before he can escape with Marie. "Napoleon" later has Marie's mother kidnapped in to force Marie to summon a superweapon. Towards the end of the game, "Napoleon" reveals himself to be an imposter, whose real name is Leonard Bonar.
• Rocket Knight Adventures: Sparkster has Axel Gear, a traitorous former member of the Rocket Knights.
• The God Wars Dungeon in Runescape would imply that the four Gods involved consider each other Arch Enemies, since even after thousands of years, the 4-way free-for-all is still going on. Saradomin and Zamorak, even though they aren't technically the "Good" and "Evil" Gods.
• Saints Row: The Boss has several throughout the series.
  • Dane Vogel, who used them as a pawn to wipe out other gangs before sending his own forces after the Saints.
  • Killbane, who frames the Saints for the destruction of the Hughes Memorial Bridge.
  • Cyrus Temple, the leader of STAG, a faction responsible for capturing Shaundi, forcing the Boss to choose between saving her or killing Killbane. After Cyrus' Knight Templar antics against the Saints get him kicked out of the military, he becomes a terrorist and tries to nuke Washinton, D.C., ranting to the Saints that they "ruined America" and "our leaders failed America by letting you live."
  • Zinyak, who attacked the White House during the the Boss' presidency of the United States, abducts Kinzie and Shaundi, traps the Boss in a virtual simulation, and destroys the world when the Boss escapes.
• Samurai Shodown:
  • Shiki has her former master Yuga, who brainwashed her into serving Yuga.
  • Nakoruru has Mizuki Rashojin, who was the reason that she made a Heroic Sacrifice, resulting in her Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence. The two of them have a Go-Karting with Bowser moment in Team Samurai's ending of The King of Fighters XV, after Nakoruru and her teammates corner Mizuki.
• Scribblenauts: Maxwell has Doppelganger, his Evil Twin who serves as the Final Boss of Super Scribblenauts and The Heavy of Scribblenauts Unmasked.
• Sengoku Basara: Tokugawa Ieyasu has Ishida Mitsunari, who seeks revenge on Ieyasu for killing his lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
• Serious Sam: Sam Stone has Mental, a Galactic Conqueror he inadvertently awoke.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: Wolf has Genichiro Ashina, who cut off his arm and kidnapped his master.
• Shadow of Rome: Agrippa has Decius, who killed his mother.
• Shadow Warrior (1997): Lo Wang has Master Zilla, who tried to have him killed for quitting Zilla Empetrpises, and whose men are responsible for the death of Lo Wang's mentor, Master Leep.
• The Shantae series has self-proclaimed Queen of the Seven Seas Risky Boots for the titular heroine. It started with Shantae foiling Risky Boots' plans in the first game, which led to Risky getting payback in Risky's Revenge, which then led to an Enemy Mine situation in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. They've since settled down on a Worthy Opponent situation where Risky tries to take over Sequin Land while Shantae tries to stop her.
• Shenmue: Ryo Hazuki has Lan Di, the man who murdered his father
• Shinobido: Goh has Gamuran, a Sealed Evil in a Can he inadvertently unleashed. Gamuran is responsible for the deaths of most of Goh's clan, including his master, and for taking Goh's soul, causing Goh's amnesia.
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri often has this dynamic due to ideological differences between the various factions:
  • The U.N Peacekeepers tend to oppose the Spartan Federation, as the Peacekeeper's peaceful and humanitarian ideals clash with the Spartan's brutal Social Darwinist philosophy. The Peacekeepers also tend to find an enemy in the Human Hive, as the existence of a democratic government is entirely at odds with Chairman Yang's collectivist and communist ideology.
  • The Gaia's Stepdaughters tend to oppose Morgan Industries. To the former, the latter are a bunch of greedy, amoral bastards who'd happily rape the planet for a quick buck. To the latter, the former are a silly Animal Wrongs Group getting in the way of good free market economics. Morgan Industries also often finds an enemy in the Free Drones, as they're seen by the Drones as The Man trying to keep the little guy down to make money.
  • The University of Planet tend to oppose the Lord's Believers. To the former, the latter are a bunch of stupid, superstitious lunatics following an outdated, anti-progressive philosophy. To the latter, the former are a bunch of power-hungry Mad Scientists who epitomize Science Is Bad.
  • The Data Angels often oppose the Hive and the Believers, as they see both as societies that are inherently based on restricting access to information by promoting their respective ideas as "The One True Way". And that's really bad.
• Silent Hill:
  • Silent Hill 2: James Sunderland has Pyramid Head, a monster stalking him who is a manifestation of James' subconscious desire to be punished for killing his wife.
  • Silent Hill 3: Heather Mason has Claudia Wolf, who had the Missionary to kill her father Harry.
  • Silent Hill 4: Henry Townshend has Walter Sullivan, and undead Serial Killer who seeks to kill Harry and his neighbor Eileen in order to perform a sacrificial ritual to reunite with his "mother", which he believes to be Harry's apartment room.
• Singularity: Nathaniel Renko has Dr. Nikolai Demichev, who takes over the world after time displaced Renko saves his life.
• Skies of Arcadia: Vyse has Lord Galcian, the leader of the Valuan Armada which Vyse opposes throughout the game. Galcian considered Vyse the biggest thorn in his side, which Vyse takes pride in.
  Galcian: And you Vyse, have caused me more trouble than anyone.
  Vyse: Thanks. It's an Air Pirates duty to cause trouble...I feel so accomplished.
• Skullgirls:
  • Filia and her Parasite Samson have Eliza, who is responsible for the death of Samson's previous host Delilah. Eliza is obsessed with Samson, and views Filia as an unworthy host for him.
  • Peacock has her Evil Former Friend Marie. Additionally, both Peacock and Maria have Lorenzo Medici, the head of the Medici mafia who were behind the people who enslaved them.
• Sleeping Dogs (2012):
  • Wei Shen has Henry "Big Smile" Lee, who killed Wei's childhood friend Jackie towards the end of the game. Big Smile was also in league with Dogeyes Lin, the game's Disc-One Final Boss.
  • Winston Chu has Sam "Dogeyes" Lin, a rival gangster who was once his friend.
• Slender: The Arrival: Lauren has the Slender Man, who turned her friend Kate into a Proxy.
• Sly Cooper:
  • Clockwerk to Sly since Clockwerk murdered Sly's clan. Sly later has Dr. M, a resentful former teammate of Sly's father who seeks to steal the Cooper fortune.
  • And starting with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Bentley and Penelope become mortal enemies following their nasty break-up when she was found to be a Gold Digger Yandere.
• Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is Sonic the Hedgehog's Arch Enemy. The same goes with Metal Sonic who was programmed by Eggman for the sole purpose to destroy Sonic.
  • In the first two Sonic Boom games, Sonic has Lyric the Last Ancient. In Rise of Lyric, he is a Sealed Evil in a Can who Sonic inadvertently frees, and who has a vendetta against Sonic for causing his one thousand years' imprisonment in the first place, which Sonic does by travelling back in time to defeat Lyric in the past after Sonic (from Sonic's point of view) accidentally frees Lyric in his (Sonic's) own time. In Shattered Crystal, Lyric captures Sonic's friend, Amy.
  • Shadow gets his own Arch Enemy in Black Doom in Shadow the Hedgehog, and then Mephiles the Dark in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
  • Eggman Nega serves as the arch enemy to Blaze in the Sonic Rush series and then to Silver in the Sonic Rivals series.
  • Omega, one of Eggman's creations, considers him a sworn enemy because he had abandoned him in a base. Needless to say, Eggman doesn't acknowledge him as a threat.
  • E-102 Gamma has his "brother" E-101 Beta, who is the first and Final Boss for Gamma's storyline in Sonic Adventure. The two end up killing each other.
  • Light Gaia, also known as Chip, has Dark Gaia, an Eldritch Abomination he protected the world from for ages.
• The Soul Series is riddled with several deadly rivalries.
  • The Soul Edge and the Soul Calibur swords are destined to fight each other until the end of times. Soul Calibur was created specifically to destroy it, but the Soul Edge keep reassembling itself everytime and this has been going on for ages.
  • Siegfried has his own Enemy Within Nightmare after they became two separate beings. Raphael considers Siegfried his arch-enemy in turn for the attempt on his life.
  • Sophitia and Tira, due to the latter threatening the former's children.
  • Setsuka regards Mitsurugi as her arch-enemy for having killed her master, and notably, her story has nothing to do with the evil swords as she is purely concerned with killing Mitsurugi. She eventually lets go of her revenge.
  • Maxi wants revenge against Astaroth for having killed his previous companions and is willing to use the Soul Edge and throw his own life way to destroy him.
  • Ivy Valentine has her own father Cervantes since he raped her mother and gave birth to her, while Cervantes wants to kill her so he can absorb her soul to gain more power.
  • Taki and her own father-figure and sensei Toki after he became corrupted by an Evil Weapon. An unconventional example, since Toki isn't a playable character unlike other examples, but Taki pursues him as part of her backstory. Mitsurugi could be considered her rival, too.
• Space Quest: Though only really appearing in two games (And revealed to be responsible for a third,) Sludge Vohaul considers Roger Wilco his arch nemesis. He certainly proves it by willing to travel back in time from a future where he already won just to ensure his victory. Some later strategy guides and writer's bibles try to tie the series together by claiming every antagonist across the series is related to or associated with Vohaul in some way.
• Depending on the continuity, Spyro the Dragon had Ripto, Malefor, or Kaos.
• Spinmaster: Johnny has Dr. Dogedo, a rival treasure hunter to kidnapped his girlfriend Mary.
• Splatoon: Craig Cuttlefish has DJ Octavio, his Evil Former Friend who has a vendetta against him for defeating him during the Great Turf War.
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: Sam Fisher has Douglas Shetland, his Evil Former Friend.
• StarCraft:
  • Both Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan consider themselves arch-enemies of Arcturus Mengsk, and not without good reason. Mengsk reciprocates on both counts.
  • Alexei Stukov has an arch-enemy in Samir Duran, AKA Emil Narud. Duran/Narud doesn't think much of Stukov despite putting him through living hell and inflicting serious Body Horror on him through Zerg infestation. This proves to be his downfall.
  • The Protoss are archenemies of the Zerg, primarily because the Zerg had driven them from their homeworld of Aiur.
    • The Protoss themselves are divided. The templars are frequently at odds with the Dark Templar, though the Conclave could very much qualify for not respecting the Dark Templar's desire for individuality. However, because of the Zerg, the two factions are being forced to cooperate and may actually begin to respect one another.
    • During his campaign Raynor makes himself bitter enemies with the Tal'Darim faction of Protoss, by repeatedly stealing their sacred artefacts. When we learn their history in Legacy of The Void, they're the archenemies of pretty much the entire Daelaam Protoss — both the Dark Templar and the Khalai Protoss.
• In Star Fox, Fox became Andross' nemesis after he prevented him from conquering the Lylat System. Star Fox 64 was a retelling of the original game's events and made things personal between Fox and Andross, by implying Andross had been responsible for the death of Fox's father, James McCloud.
• Star Gladiator: Hayato Kanzaki and his Love Interest June Lin Milliam have Dr. Edward Bilstein, who killed June's parents and implanted Hayato with a microchip that turns him (Hayato) into Black Hayato.
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter: Jango Fett has Montross, a rival Bounty Hunter who kills his friend Rozatta.
• Stolen: Anya Romanov has Breeze, a ninja who she has multiple encounters with throughout the game. Anya also has Richard Killian, who used her as a pawn to discredit his political rival, and framed her for murder.
• Street Fighter:
  • As the series' main antagonist, Bison has made enemies of nearly half the main cast and is the focal point of their respective story lines:
    • Guile was introduced as having a score to settle with Bison for the death of his partner, Charlie. Which remained a recurring theme throughout the series and in The Animated Movie.
    • Similarly, Chun Li was introduced as wanting to avenge her father's death. She was eventually recast as an Interpol agent to justify her pursuit of Bison, starting in the Alpha series^note which Capcom canonized from The Animated Movie.
    • Cammy was 1 of the 13 girls who were kidnapped and mentally enslaved, via Bison's Psycho Drive, as part of the "Doll Program"^note which turned them into his personal squad of sleeper agents/assassins. Ever since freeing herself of his control, she's made it her mission to try to save the others, whom she now regards as her "sisters," and exact revenge against Bison — for all of them.
    • Rose was first seen in Alpha 2, where she was a fortune teller attempting to seal away Bison in an attempt to prevent her own death, at his hands, which she had foreseen in a vision. Years later, it was changed so Rose was now Bison's other half, who sought to seal away his evil.
  • Ryu considers Akuma to be his enemy for having murdered his sensei, Gouken. Though Capcom retconned it years later, so that Gouken was merely in a coma, for all that time.
  • Prior to that, the original iteration of Street Fighter II had Sagat out for revenge against Ryu for scarring his chest. Which served as a permanent reminder of his defeat... until that got retconned to.
  • Alex has Gill, who injured his mentor Tom.
  • Rashid has F.A.N.G., who killed his friend.
• In the Streets of Rage series, The Syndicate leader Mr. X is the arch-enemy of the protagonists, specifically in the second game where he kidnaps Skate's brother Adam for contributing to his defeat in the first game, and in the third game where he was instrumental in Zan's transformation into a cyborg.
  • In the fan-made remake of the game, Shiva is arguably this to Axel, as well as being The Rival. The whole Syndicate is this for Rudra, since they kidnapped her sister to force her servitude.
• Strider (Arcade): Grandmaster Meio to the Strider Hiryu Legacy Character. In 2048, Strider Hiryu was sent to assassinate Meio, who ruled the world at the time. Despite Meio's best efforts to have Hiryu eliminated, Hiryu was a One-Man Army who fought his way through Meio's forces and defeated Meio himself. Meio returns 2000 years later, and another Strider with the codename Hiryu (later revealed by Word of God to be a clone of the previous Hiryu) is sent to oppose him, this time defeating Meio for good.
• In Sunrider Mask of Arcadius, Kayto Shields comes to view the PACT dreadnought Legion as his personal Moby Dick. At the very start of the game it conquers his home planet Cera by singlehandedly obliterating most of the Cera Space Force and nuking his home city from orbit, killing his sister in the process. The Legion remains a constant thorn in his side from then on, threatening to turn many of the Sunrider’s hard-fought victories into crushing defeats thanks to its overwhelming firepower. When the latest run-in with the Legion leaves thirty-two of his crew injured and six dead, Kayto becomes determined to sink it at any cost.
• Super Mario Bros.: The feud between Bowser and Nintendo's Italian plumber is gaming's best known and most enduring example, due to the sheer number of times Mario has stomped him to rescue Princess Peach. Which was lampshaded in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time where it is revealed that even as toddlers Mario stopped Bowser from kidnapping her.
  • Donkey Kong is a secondary nemesis to Mario. He was Mario’s first main archenemy during the arcade era, before they each got their own series on consoles, and Bowser took on the role for good in Donkey Kong’s absence. Based on their friendly interactions in Spin-Off games it was originally implied that they buried the hatchet for good, but then the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series revived it and it has been going since, albeit to a much lesser degree than the rivalry with Bowser.
    • Donkey Kong would later go on to gain a new arch-nemesis of his own with King K. Rool in the Donkey Kong Country games with him being the most recurring threat for the big ape and the rest of the Kongs.
  • Bowser Jr., the son and Dragon of Bowser, has also been a recurring nemesis to Mario since Super Mario Sunshine, during which he framed Mario for the pollution of Isle Delfino. Bowser Jr. repeatedly kidnaps Peach on his father's behalf, and serves as a Recurring Boss throughout the series. In some games, Bowser Jr. is an even more recurring boss than Bowser himself.
  • With the Luigi's Mansion games, Luigi has gained his own arch-nemesis in the form of King Boo.
  • The Yoshi's Island games establish Kamek as this to Yoshi. Bowser also shares the same role, if not to the same extent.
  • Wario himself had Captain Syrup back in the day, though her last appearance had her come back as an ally and assistant to Wario. She still ended up manipulating him, though.
  • As of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Wingo is this for Captain Toad as well.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Prince Dreambert had Antasma, who had Dreambert and his people Taken for Granite in the game's backstory.
• Dr. Fetus to Super Meat Boy: Meat Boy has Dr. Fetus, who kidnaps his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, and years later, he kidnaps their daughter Nugget.
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, Sangar Zonvolt and Wodan Ymir.
  • The same game has Beowulf, as the arch-nemesis of Axel Almer. When Axel hopped over into the OG universe, that animosity got transferred over to Beowulf's counterpart in that dimension, Kyosuke Nanbu. Though Axel and Kyosuke developed a great deal of respect towards each other, and as of Original Generation Gaidan, they are fast becoming friends.
• Galeem and Dharkon in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. As they are direct contrasts to one another, they cannot stand each other and seek to kill the other so that they can conquer the universe. Even during their Dual Boss fight, it's far more of a Mêlée à Trois rather than an Enemy Mine.
• Super Solvers: The Super Solver has Morty Maxwell, whose plans they repeatedly thwart.
• System Shock: The Hacker has SHODAN, an AI whose ethical restraints were removed by him.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Phantasia: Cress Albane has Dhaos, who is responsible for the destruction of his home village and the death of his parents and best friend.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Lloyd Irving has Lord Mithos Yggdrasill, who ruled the Desians (who caused the death of Lloyd's mother and attacked his village), sought to use Lloyd's friend Colette as a vessel for his (Mithos') sister Martel, and was a Big Bad Friend for Lloyd's best friend Genis.
  • Tales of the Abyss: Luke fon Fabre has Van Grants, his treacherous mentor who made him into a Laser Guided Tyke Bomb and discarded him after he outlived his usefulness.
  • Tales of Vesperia: Yuri Lowell has Alexei Dinoia, who was responsible for the kidnapping of his companion Estelle, and was The Man Behind the Man to the previous antagonists of the game.
  • Tales of Xillia: Milla Maxwell has King Gaius and Gilland.
    • Gaius the ruler of Auj Oule, and the master of the Chimeriad, who Milla and her party repeatedly face over the course of the game. Both of them desire to protect the world, but Gaius' methods are more extreme. Near the beginning of the game, Milla gets Brought Down to Badass due to Gaius' minion Agria. When Milla and her party have an audience with King Gaius, his minions try to capture Milla and her companion Elize (who had been one of the test subjects in booster experimentations, something which Gaius' right-hand man Wingul took responsibility for when Milla agrily confronts Gaius about the issue).
    • Gilland is the leader of Exodus, an organization which had been trying to kill Milla for years, and the person behind the creation of the Lance of Kresnik, which Milla has made her mission to destroy. Early in the game, he captures Milla, and her friends Elize and Driselle, and threatens them in an attempt for force her to cooperate with him.
  • Tales of Berseria: Velvet Crowe has Artorius Collbrande, who killed her brother.
  • Tales of Arise: Alphen has Vholran Igniseri, who kidnaps his Love Interest Shionne.
• Tekken: Jin Kazama, his Archnemesis Dad Kazuya Mishima, and Kazuya's Archnemesis Dad Heihachi Mishima all have each other.
  • Armor King II has Craig Marduk, who killed his older brother, the previous Armor King.
• Tenchu: Rikimaru has Onikage. The two of them have fought multiple times over the course of the series.
• Terra Cresta has Mandler to the titular organization. In Sol Cresta, Mandler is also this to Sho Tendo.
• TimeSplitters: Sergeant Cortez has Jacob Crow, the creator of the TimeSplitters threatening humanity. During Future Perfect, the time-travellung Cortez encounters Crow at various points in time over a span of several centuries.
• Tomb Raider
  • The Legend Timeline incarnation of Lara Croft has Jaquelina Natla (who serves as the Big Bad in two games and reveals herself to be responsible for the murder of Lara's father) and Amanda Evert (her Evil Former Friend).
  • The Survivor Timeline incarnation of Lara Croft has Dr. Pedro Dominguez, the leader of the Trinity organization, who serve as the main antagonists of the second of third games of the trilogy, although Dominguez himself only appears in the third game. Additionally, like Natla in the Legend Timeline, he is responsible for murdering Lara's father.
• Touhou Project: Mokou vs. Kaguya. Good thing for them: killing each other over and over and over again is how they kill their (potentially infinite) time. Figuring out how to kill each other in new and interesting ways is their joy in life, and sometimes they let other people in on their exquisite "pleasure".
• Turok: Joseph Turok has the war criminal Roland Kane, his former mentor and superior. During Turok's mission against Kane, Turok also gains an Animal Nemesis in Mama Scarface, a Tyrannosaurus rex whose offspring were killed by Turok.
• Turrican: The Machine is the most prominent enemy of the United Planets Freedom Forces throughout the series. The Machine has a particular feud with UPFF soldier Bren McGuire, the Sole Survivor of a ship attacked by the Machine, and Player Character oppising the Machine in the second and third games.
• Twisted Metal: Calypso, the creator and host of the Twisted Metal tournament, to Carl and Jamie Roberts, who seek to end Twisted Metal.
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Ty has Boss Cass, a recurring foe of his throughout the series.
• Uncharted:
  • Nathan Drake has Rafe Adler, Katherine Marlowe, Zoran Lazarević, and Atoq Navarro.
    • Rafe Adler is Nate's former associate whose murder of a prison warden led to the fifteen years' imprisonment of his brother Sam. Rafe is envious of Nathan's success and fame as a treasure hunter.
    • Katherine Marlowe spent 20 years trying to take Sir Francis Drake's ring from Nate, succeeding at the beginning of the third game, of which she served as the Big Bad.
    • Zoran Lazarević is an Ax-Crazy war criminal who hired Nate's acquaintance Harry Flynn, killed Jeff Wynis (a man who Nate tried to save), attacked the village of Tenzin (a man who saved Nate's life), and killed Nate's ally Karl Schäfer.
    • Atoq Navarro is Nate's Evil Counterpart in the first game, and an accomplice to Gabriel Roman, the man who non-fatally shoots Nate's mentor Sully. During their first meeting, Navarro hits Nate with a gun. Later in the game, he punches a cative Elena in front of Nate, points a gun at Elena, and mockingly smiles and salutes at Nate while holding Elena captive. Shortly afterwards, Navarro betrays Gabriel and plans to sell a plague which Nate's idol, Sir Francis Drake, sacrificed himself to prevent from spreading. At the climax of Drake's Fortune, Navarro tries to leave the island with both the plague and a captive Elena in tow.
  • In the first game, Victor Sullivan had Gabriel Roman, a Loan Shark he owed money to.
• Undertale: The Human Child/Frisk has Flowey/Asriel Dreemurr, the first character they meet in the Underground, during which Flowey pretends to be friendly before trying to kill them. Flowey is the Final Boss in both the Neutral and True Pacifist Routes (as Photoshop Flowey in the Neutral Route and as Asriel Dreemurr in the Pacifist Route), and the Post-Final Boss of the Genocide Route.
• Viewtiful Joe has Alastor, his recurring rival throughout the series.
• Warframe: Kahl-175 has Pazuul for enslaving his brethren. Lotus also has Pazuul for puppeteering her brother's body.
• Warriors Orochi: Yoshitsune Minamoto has his Kiyomori Taira, his "sworn rival" who was resurrected as a demonic being after perishing in battle with the former. Minamoto respected the human Kiyomori used to be, but despises the demon he was reborn as.
• Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga: Christohper Blair has Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka, The Dragon to Emperor Joor'rad nar Kiranka (who is never fought directly) in Venegance of the Kilrathi and Heart of the Tiger. In the Heart of the Tiger, Thrakhath kills Blair's Love Interest Angel.
• In The Witcher games we have Geralt of Rivia and Eredin Bréacc Glass. This relationship wasn't present in the original books given that the latter was a minor villain who became an Ascended Extra in the games and Geralt's most powerful and persistent foe.
  Eredin: "So know, witcher, that you will surrender unto me the soul of a dear one. It is written. A person both dear and distant, a traveler beyond time. I shall ever be on your trail".
  • In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Geralt has his Evil Former Friend Letho, who commits a regicide which Geralt is wrongly blamed for.
• Wolfenstein:
  • In the classic series, B.J. Blazkowicz had Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Third Reich. Blazkowicz seized the Spear of Destiny from Hitler's control on multiple occassions, and made personal attempts in Hitler's life in both Original Encounter and Wolfenstein 3-D.
  • In the reboot series, B.J. Blazkowicz has Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse and Frau Engel. Deathshead is a Nazi scientist, SS-General, and "the single most dangerous figure in the Third Reich". He's also quite apt at getting away with all sorts of atrocities. Deathshead for his part also considers Blazkowicz to be his archfoe. In a trailer for Wolfenstein, his narration states that the most memorable part of the events of the game wasn't the eldritch horror he unleashed, but the lone badass (Blazkowicz) that stopped it. Frau Engel was the head of a concentration camp which Blazkowicz escaped from, an escape which left Engel disfigured in the process. Blazkowicz later kills her lover Bubi. In The New Colossus, Engel kills Blazkowicz's allies Caroline Becker and Super Spesh, and decaptates Blazkowicz himself, only for Blazkowicz's head to survive long enough to be reattached to another body. Blazkowicz later kills Engel on live televison.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Varian Wrynn is technically the Arch Enemy of Thrall, though this is mostly one-sided since it's only really Varian who wants to kill Thrall, while Thrall himself would gladly declare peace. Meanwhile, Garrosh Hellscream represents the anti-Alliance hate on the Horde side. He and Varian almost try to kill each other on a diplomatic meeting.
    • Almost is being generous, they were trying to kill each other, someone else just got in the way.
  • Thrall would probably think of Kil'jaeden as his Arch Enemy, since he was the one who originally corrupted the Orcs and currently leads the Burning Legion. Kil'jaeden, though, probably wouldn't think much of Thrall at all.
  • Kl'jaeden and their subservient eredar are definite arch-enemies of the whole draenei race and their leader Velen — they once were one race, before Sargeras arrived with The Corruption. From then on, draenei where on the run from eredar for millennia, until they settled on Azeroth for their final stand.
  • Illidan Strormrage has Sargeras, who burned out his eyes. Illidan would become Sargeras' jailor upon the latter's defeat in Legion.
  • The Arch Enemy concept is also presented with Outland factions. Major bad guys there are represented by two races — blood elves under the rule of Kael'thas Sunstrider and various demons, partly led by Illidan. Major player friendly fractions, Aldor and Scryers, don't get along very well and have different opinions — Aldor chose demons as their Arch Enemy, while Scryers prioritize stopping Kael'thas' elves.
  • In the Wrath Of The Lich King expansion, Arthas, the eponymous Lich King is an Arch Enemy of Tirion Fordring and Sylvanas Windrunner in addition to being a Big Bad for the expansion.
  • In a lesser example there is Loken, Arch Enemy of Thorim, who orchestrated first his Heroic BSoD, then the recovery from it, which only led into another trap.
  • Deathwing, leader of the Black Dragonflight, is the Arch Enemy of Alexstrasza and the other surviving Dragon Aspects.
  • Wrathion had N'Zoth, the Old God who corrupted his grandfather into Deathwing.
  • Twilight's Hammer has been the arch enemy of the Earthen Ring, a shamanistic organization dedicated to preserving & protecting the elemental balance of Azeroth and Outland, since before Cataclysm.
  • Needless to say, group-wise, the Alliance and the Horde are both arch-enemies to each others, though none of them really is evil and people on both sides have attempted multiple times to arrange peace. They can sometimes begrudgingly team up against a common enemy, but overall they tend to be at each other's troath. Some species on each sides also tend to have a particularly personal hate:
    • Orcs and Humans usually are the two factions who have the most personal dislike for each other, having fought since the First War.
    • Though not necessarily hatred, Gnomes and Goblins seem to have some rivalry on which of the two is the smartest, both being the eccentric inventors of their respective factions.
    • Draenei had a particular animosity toward Blood Elves during Burning Crusade, due to the latter abusing them back on Draenor and having enslaved one of the beings their worshiped so they could have their own Paladin. A rarity for this trope, they actually ended up reconciling, with the Draenei helping the Blood Elves solve their biggest crisis and the Blood Elves starting to become paladins the regular way without enslaving anything.
    • Worgen have a particularly personal conflict with the Forsaken, who invaded their native country while taking advantage on a crisis and slayed their crown prince.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Shulk had Metal Face, who he believed to have killed his friend Fiora. Metal Face is later to be revealed to be Mumkhar, Dunban's old war buddy who became the feared Face Mechon to try and one up him since he wanted to wield the Monado. Shulk's true enemy is Zanza, the god of the world who used Shulk as his Soul Jar to regain his body and kill Egil, as well as Meyneth, the Goddess of Mechonis.
• Xenogears: Fei Fong Wong has Miang Hawwa (who possessed his mother and performed unethical experiments on him), Krelian (who was friends with Fei's previous incarnation, Lacan, prior to his (Krelian's) turn to evil), and Kahran Ramsus (a Recurring Boss who resents being in Fei's shadow).

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