Times where it's noted that Both Sides Have a Point in Video Games.
- In The Amazon Trail 2, one location has you talk to an oil executive and a native from the area. The executive wants to drill for oil, and the native doesn't want the environment to be spoiled. Now while the game has a bias to the native, the game will only reward you if you listen to both characters about the issue.
- In Bravely Second, you unlock jobs from the first game by completing sidequests which always feature two of the Eternian Jobmasters deadlocked in some argument, forcing you to choose who to side with (with you geting the job of whoever you don't side with after beating them in a fight). Both sides' arguments tend to be either equally compelling or equally stupid, depending on how sadistic the choice in question is. For example, the first such sidequest makes you choose between returning a water-producing magic gemstone to its pedestal so that it can continue to provide much-needed water to the people of the desert, or giving it to the nearby university for the purposes of researching a new kind of energy that can potentially benefit the entire world.
- In Deltarune, Ralsei is against fighting or harming anyone, ever, while Susie thinks that fighting is the only way to go. Over the course of the first chapter, they're both vindicated. There are moments when Susie attacking everyone makes matters worse, and since most enemies can be spared peacefully, there's really no reason for it. However, Ralsei naively falling for an I Surrender, Suckers from the Big Bad nearly gets everyone killed. Ralsei ashamedly apologizes, admitting that they can't afford to be so soft to everyone. Susie then admits that she was wrong, too — using violence without a second thought wasn't working, either.
- A lot of times in Dino Crisis you are forced to side with either Rick or Gail, with Rick believing they need to prioritize saving the lives of their teammates at any cost and that the mission is F.U.B.A.R. at this point, and Gail believing they need to pragmatically look out for themselves or they will just die as well and that the mission still stands. The problem isn't that either of them are wrong, in fact they both raise entirely salient points, the problem is you're the one who has to pick a side and there's no happy medium. This sets up a nice subversion when, at the end of the game, you can either save everyone and let the scientist you're trying to capture escape (Save Everyone ending), capture the scientist and let Gail die (The Mission First ending), or save Gail's life and then go to capture the scientist yourself (True Ending). This is the only time a third option is actually available, but the game doesn't tell you.
- A major theme of Dragon Age is that there is never a clear-cut right or wrong answer to any conflict. For the Templar/Mage conflict in Dragon Age II the Mages are horribly oppressed by the Chantry's Templars, imprisoning them to keep the city safe and treating all Mages as dangers. At the same time there are a lot of Mages who seem to turn to Blood Magic and the like, due to the weakness of the Veil in the area. Better safe than sorry? Analyzed exhaustively in this essay.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- Redguard society has traditionally been divided into two sociopolitical groups: The Crowns, descended from Redguard nobility, hold Yokudan tradition in high regard and dislike foreigners, while the Forebears, descended from the warriors who conquered Hammerfell, are more comfortable with incorporating aspects of other Tamriellic cultures (especially Breton and Imperial cultures) into their way of life. A third political movement, the Lhotunics, emerged after the Warp in the West, who espouse both the cosmopolitan values of the Forebears and the sense of tradition and respect for the past of the Crowns, but are generally held in contempt by both sides...
- The civil war subplot in Skyrim is rife with this, as well as plenty of Grey-and-Gray Morality. It revolves around the Civil War raging in Skyrim between the Imperial forces and the Stormcloak rebels (with the Aldmeri Dominion looming in the background) Numerous characters mention the validity of the other side's points throughout the game, but the war remains.
- The Stormcloaks, Nord secessionists, (rightfully) criticize the Empire for not understanding the people of Skyrim or their culture/religion (agreeing to the ban on Talos worship in the White-Gold Concordant with the Dominion to end the first Great War was the final straw for many Nords). They follow Ulfric Stormcloak, a man of great courage and loyalty to his allies (which his enemies acknowledge) and is a paragon of traditional Nord values. They (justifiably) feel that the Empire caved-in to end the Great War (in which thousands of Nords gave their lives fighting for the Empire), and that it's become a decrepit, obstructive entity with weak leadership that has given their enemies huge amounts of power in Skyrim without the Nords' consent. Also, a few characters mention that the Empire has been putting high taxes on Skyrim after the war, limiting the citizens' financial well-being.
- The Empire is trying to hold onto Skyrim because it needs both the resources and the manpower, especially since they expect a full-scale second "Great War" with the Aldmeri Dominion (see below) in the near future. Even many Nords continue to support the Empire, realizing that united Skyrim backing the Empire has the best chance to defeat the Dominion in the inevitable second Great War. Despite their success in retaking the Imperial City during the Great War, it came at great cost and the leadership of the Empire realized that agreeing to the White-Gold Concordat would buy them some much-needed time to recover. They also don't really bother to even enforce some of the more-hated terms of the Concordat, such as the ban on Talos worship. Additionally, Skyrim has historically been one of the Empire's (which was founded by Talos) greatest supporters, and that the all-important Nord honor demands that they support their long-time ally. They (rightfully) believe that Ulfric and the Stormcloaks are putting Honor Before Reason, and that their rebellion is extremely short-sighted. (Both sides agree that the Dominion is irredeemably evil, with open intentions of dominating and oppressing the world in any way they can.) Further, Ulfric and the Stormcloacks have displayed significant Fantastically Racist tendenciesnote and Ulfric himself used a traditional Nordic challenge as an excuse to effortlessly kill the previous King of Skyrim with the Voice (albeit with the victim accepting his challenge), despite said King having been known to support Ulfric's views up until being challenged. Also, some characters reveal that the unity of the Empire allows for prosperous trade and surplus of food, and Skyrim's independence will damage this trade.
- Behind it all lies the Aldmeri Dominion, led by the extremist Thalmor, who are pulling the strings behind the scenes and may have even been responsible for instigating the civil war. They hope to weaken the Empire by depriving it of its strongest remaining province while bleeding both sides dry for an eventual Dominion takeover. There is even evidence that they tortured and brainwashed Ulfric Stormcloak as a prisoner in the waning days of the Great War and then unleashed him to accomplish exactly this task. (However, they may have underestimated Ulfric's leadership and inspirational abilities, as he quickly proved to be more effective than intended...) Both sides of the civil war agree that the Dominion is the greater threat, but are at odds over the best way to deal with them.
- It even branches off into the main quest. The Blades don't like the Greybeards because they'd rather the Dragonborn focus on learning to control their Thu'um, and because they refuse to intervene in Tamriel's ongoing crises. Conversely, the Greybeards don't like the Blades because they constantly meddle in affairs they don't understand and wish to use the Dragonborn as a soldier exclusively at their beck and call. Of course, because Alduin has emerged, and threatens Tamriel with immediate destruction, the Dragonborn doesn't have time to properly meditate on the Voice, but to simply charge in with blades drawn is a fool's venture.
- Ultimately, the Blades' argument runs a bit shallow when Master Arngeir points out that while the Greybeards prefer that the Dragonborn learns the Way of the Voice, they are ultimately a free spirit, unbound by any rules or places. The Dragonborn has the right to choose for themselves, and the Greybeards respect that regardless.
- This is the reason that the Dragonsong War from Final Fantasy XIV lasted for as long as it did. The original King Thordan and his knights launched an unprovoked attack on the great wyrm Ratatoskr, killing her and consuming her eyes for the immense amount of aether they contained. Her brood brother Nidhogg, was absolutely enraged by such treachery and launched a thousand year long campaign against Ishgard as a result. On the one hand, Archbishop Thordan VII mentions that what Thordan I did was absolutely unforgivable, and Nidhogg's rage at his sister's undeserved death is entirely understandable. On the other hand, he's also completely right to point out that the people of Ishgard's present don't deserve to suffer for the crimes of their ancestors, and that Nidhogg is so consumed by his need for vengeance that instead of just wiping out Ishgard like he could have at any point in the past millennium, he just drags out a bloody conflict that ruins the lives of countless innocent people and dragons. In order for things to truly improve for Ishgard, both sides need to be permanently dealt with.
- This is what drives a lot of the Grey-and-Gray Morality in the Geneforge series, with even the more "evil" factions such as the Takers or Barzites making the occasional valid point.
- Interestingly, Grand Theft Auto V gives credence to both sides in the torn friendship between its Villain Protagonists. Michael wanted to leave the dangerous criminal lifestyle behind for his family's sake, so he betrayed his more Ax-Crazy friends to the FIB. Trevor, as unrepentant as he is, regards the concepts of loyalty and True Companions very highly, and is thus understandably pissed at Michael for his treachery and especially since it got their other runner, Brad, killed. In the Golden Ending, the two acknowledge that they both indeed had a point and finally reconcile.
- The Injustice games and tie-in comics have this between the Regime and Insurgency, led by Superman and Batman respectively. The Regime choose to become Darker and Edgier, doing things like abandoning Thou Shalt Not Kill and deciding to Take Over the World ala the Justice Lords, but do end up improving the world with their actions. The Insurgents meanwhile fight the Regime even before they start becoming morally dodgy, motivated more by Batman's fears of what could happen rather than actual concerning behavior and it gets pointed out to Bats that keeping to traditional superhero methods completely has become impractical at best. But Batman winds up Properly Paranoid because the majority of the Justice League wind up Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and becoming much worse. Oh and the inciting incident for this divide? The Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois Lane and nuking Metropolis, leading Superman to kill him in retaliation.
- Knights of the Old Republic:
- In the Backstory, Revan, Malak, and their followers such as the Jedi Exile (canonically a woman named Meetra Surik) broke with the Jedi Council over whether the Jedi should join the Republic on the battlefield against the Mandalorians. The Revanchists, as they became called, pointed out that a lot of innocent people were dying, and the Jedi could be effective in turning the tide for the Republic. The Masters of the Council countered that war has a way of making one lose sight of one's own morality: within the lifetimes of most of the Jedi Order's upper echelon, the Krath Crusade had led directly to Exar Kun and the Qel-Droma brothers falling to the dark side, resulting in the Great Sith War. In the event, both sides' arguments came true: under Revan's generalship the Republic broke the back of the Mandalorians, dealing them a blow they never fully recovered from and probably saving billions of lives, but it also drove them to the dark side with a little help from The Man Behind the Man, Darth Vitiate the Sith Emperor; Revan and Malak returned to the Republic not as war heroes, but as new Sith Lords in their own right, while the Exile was in such shock over her conduct in the war that she cut herself off from the Force entirely.
- There's something of a Deconstruction in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Inside Ludo Kressh's tomb the player is faced with a series of illusions. In one of these, the player's companions are about to attack Kreia (the player's mentor) and the player must decide who to side with. However, if the player answers "I won't attack you, but I won't stop the others from attacking you either", Kreia exasperatedly scolds you and everyone present tells you that "apathy is death".
- In Lost Judgment, much of the conflict stems from the clashing ideals of series protagonist Yagami and his newfound Evil Counterpart Kuwana, who is an extreme Bully Hunter that has killed at least seven people in his efforts to bring justice to those whom he feels the law has abandoned. On one hand, Kuwana is right that the law and society doesn't do enough to punish bullying and prevent teens from committing suicide because of bullying, and many of his victims were unrepentant assholes who would have never received any judgment for their actions. On the other hand, Kuwana's methods cause inconsiderate collateral damage and often drag innocents down with him, and can be exploited by truly villainous figures like Soma, RK, and Public Security for their own schemes which only corrupt society further. Kaito even brings this up at the end, when the two prepare to settle the score once and for all.Kaito: The way I see it, Tak, Kuwana's makin' sense, too. Just consider it, but, is there really a right answer here?
- In Mass Effect 2 this is the Paragon resolution of post-loyalty mission conflicts between members of The Squad. Inverted in the Renegade resolutions, where Shepard points out that neither side has a point and they're both endangering the mission for no good reason.
- In Pokémon Black and White, Team Plasma are the villains less because of their intentions (well, the intentions of most of the members, anyway) and more because of the fact that they're extremists who genuinely want to do good but are going about it the wrong way aside from their true leader, who is manipulating them as part of a plan to take over Unova. It's made clear in the game that some trainers really do abuse their Pokémon, but many respect their partners. While Team Plasma's plan to create separate worlds for humans and Pokémon is wrong and would probably cause society to collapse, some people really shouldn't be trainers.
- In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Irida and Palina's argument before the events of the main game was like this. Palina's Noble Pokémon, Hisuian Arcanine, died when he tried to save his puppy Growlithe from drowning. As such, Palina is reluctant to train Growlithe as the new Noble, since she worries that he was traumatized by the event. Meanwhile, Irida wanted Palina to hurry up and start training Growlithe, since the Pearl Clan needed a new Noble. Irida regrets pushing Palina and understands her point of view by the time the player character reaches Palina's part of the plot; however, with how important the Noble Pokémon are to the Diamond and Pearl Clans, it's true that having one less Noble has cultural ramifications for the Pearl Clan.
- RuneScape: Word of God is that each of the setting's gods have their own idea of what is best for the world, each as valid as the next. Even Zamorak, previously considered the God of Evil.
- Rift gives us the Guardians vs. the Defiants. The Guardians are divinely inspired/powered heroes seeking to rid the world of the Defiants whose technology is destroying the only thing keeping the dragons from causing The End of the World as We Know It. The Defiants are persecuted "lesser" races who have dealt with the Guardians bearing down on them for generations, and who can only defend themselves with said technology. Both sides are right, and both sides are at fault: the Guardian intro makes it clear that the Defiants are, actually, at fault for unleashing Regulos and the dragons; however they go way too far in their persecution and drive some members of the Defiants to make a Deal with the Devil in the first place, and neither side can stop killing the other one all the way through the far-future Defiant intro to realize they shouldn't be enemies, even as the world literally dies around them and Regulos gets his way. The character of either side ends up in the "middle ground" timeline of the main game (either because of being Not Quite Dead for years, or through actual Time Travel) at which point they immediately go about killing the other side instead of actually dealing with the Dragons for most of the early areas.
- Shin Megami Tensei: This is the cause of the Forever War at the center of the series. It's easy to dismiss Lucifer's
Forces of Chaos and YHVH's Forces of Law as being Knight Templar extremists, especially since they're very With Us or Against Us about it. Likewise, either will create one terrible future or another if they're allowed to triumph. Yet the entire point of the "Law Hero" and "Chaos Hero" characters is to demonstrate how this trope makes it very, very easy for otherwise sane, rational people to fall into extremism once circumstances get bad enough. Most of the decisions in the game MUST be Lawful or Chaotic, and the happiest outcome is usually the one where the hero rejects the extremism of either while utilizing the better qualities of both...though at the price of needing to wipe out both Law and Chaos. - The final battle in Tales of Xillia, especially in the English version, comes down to an argument about taking harsh but justifiable actions with guaranteed benefits versus a gentler plan with the chance of superior long term benefits, with the villains taking the former chance and the player party taking the latter.
- The Touhou Project Universe Compendium Symposium of Post-Mysticism is about a conference between the new powers that have arrived to Gensokyo discussing how best to manage the danger and chaos of the region, each naturally claiming that their temple is the best one to lead, but each have some credence to their argument. Kanako is right that lacking a symbol or being to put their faith in leaves many of the inhabitants lost and listless. Byakuren is right that youkai are often treated unfairly by humans and need an advocate to protect them. And Miko is right that only with strong leadership can Gensokyo's humans ever move forward or advance in any way. But ultimately Marisa is right that none of the three have any idea how Gensokyo works and them trying to radically change it will only end in disaster.
- A major source of the Alliance versus Horde conflict in World of Warcraft. The Alliance is racist and brutal against the Horde but the Horde tried to kill them all and quite a few of them are kinda-sorta evil. Given the Horde has mitigating circumstances for many of their past crimes and has helped save the world, both sides have degenerated to a "he did this, she did that" situation to justify the cycle of hatred.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has this with Rex and Mythra's argument at the beginning of Chapter 4. While Rex is right not to let the bad guys get a hold of her for their own nefarious goals, Mythra is also right about not wanting to be awakened due to her dangerous power level, as well as calling out Rex's recklessness that necessitated said awakening.
- Yakuza 6: The fate of baby Haruto. Kiryu insists on trying to raise Haruto himself, and, with his first-hand knowledge of what growing up in orphanages and foster care is like, is desperate to keep Haruto away from that and accuses CPS of not caring about the children in their care. The man from Child Protective Services, on the other hand insists that CPS is doing what they can, but the system is so underfunded and overburdened that regrettably isn't much. Also, even if Kiryu was right he can't simply hand off a child to someone who isn't a relative, legal guardian or vetted foster parent, as that is a perfect breeding ground for child abuse. Akiyama sympathizes with Kiryu, but also points out that if Kiryu takes Haruto without a go-ahead from the authorities he is guilty of kidnapping, and if he gets arrested and sent to prison for another decade he isn't helping anyone, least of all Haruto and his mother.
