Deal With The Devil / Video Games

"So tell you what, I've got a piece of paper here! Don't worry about the details! I just need you to sign right here at the bottom!"

Video Game examples of Deal with the Devil.

---

• The 7th Guest series:
  • The 7th Guest implies this happened with Henry Stauf, the villain of the game. The visions of the dolls he carved for children came from an unspecified source of evil; the game's plot revolves around Stauf trying to get enough souls to complete a pact with this evil force, which gave him supernatural powers that he used to kill the guests in his home. (The game never specifies exactly what the force is or what the consequences will be if Stauf completes the pact.) Beating the game turns Stauf into a spirit trapped in his own mansion.
  • In the sequel, The 11th Hour, the mansion has become a physical being thanks to Stauf haunting it—or, at least, that is what the ethereal Stauf believes, since the house is decaying with time. He demands his "staff", which includes four guests from the first game and his own daughter, bring him more innocent souls as sacrifices. This game has three endings, each with its own fate for Stauf: The house "starves" to death, killing Stauf and the trapped souls with it; Stauf gets a new "guest" to give up her soul, but the house remains in limbo; or Stauf gets the final sacrifice he needs to return his house to its former glory and unleash its dark power. Of the three endings, the second one is considered the most canonical, as it was the intended ending before the devs decided on multiple endings.
• Animamundi Dark Alchemist: The the lead character sells his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for his sister's life after she's attacked by a monster in the woods. However, not only was Mephistopheles the one who attacked her in the first place, he did so because she had sold her soul to him a little while earlier in exchange for her brother's life. Naturally, Mephistopheles is quite pleased with himself for that one. There is also a subversion. Dr. Bruno Glening wants a deal with Mephistopheles, but Mephisto finds Bruno so repulsive that he rejects every attempt, and it has gotten to the point where he even refuses to answer the man's summons.
• Alone in the Dark (2024): Jeremy Hartwood's pact with the Dark Man was this, allowing the Dark Man to take his soul for eternity but prevent the Black Goat from escaping Derceto. If you meet the requirements for Emily Hartwood's bad ending, she can take the deal in Jeremy's place.
• Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword: Before the story begins, Yuuto somehow managed to make a contract with Desire, a living weapon. The deal was that it would save his little sister's life, and when the time came Yuuto would wield it to destroy its enemy, Oath. Both swords are evil. Played with a little in that Desire never really gains the degree of control over Yuuto that it expected it to. And that it dies before achieving its goal and lightens up a little at the end.
• In Ashen, Jokell's family line is cursed to become shadowy wraiths upon their deaths who go on to haunt the dreams of their living kin. This came as a result of one of his ancestors making a deal with Riak to acquire the Umbral Veil. When the veil was lost, it resulted in a curse on him and all of his descendants. Jokell's questline involves discovering the truth about this curse and finding a way to break it.
• Atomicrops: The Deervil, if you find her den, offers you a choice of two risk-attached items or to leave permanently. Once you take one of her items, she'll freak out and laugh at you in her demonic form and vanish in a fireball.
  • Hamsters: You get an unlimited source of fertilizer substitute but piss off the local wasps. If you get hit, the hamsters and the wasp grudge die.
  • Heart Beet Keikis: You get a lot of max HP boosters at the cost of dropping your max HP to 1. If you can't plant and harvest them in time, game over.
  • Irrigating Moles: The moles water your crops, but they show up in droves and keep attacking even at night. They'll stop once you get hit.
  • Nitro: Your crops grow so fast they literally catch fire.
  • Reptilian Solstice: The day after you take this deal is now twice as long, but you're hounded by an invincible fire-breathing iguana the whole time.
• Avencast: Rise of the Mage: In one wizard's lab, the imprisoned demon Kulkurazz will trade his ability to open one door for his freedom. Having satisfied the arrangement, both you and Kulkurazz go your separate ways...until he reappears late in the game to exact vengeance. By getting a fair deal from a demon you were ripping him off, and his pride won't allow it.
• He's not exactly the devil, but in Avernum 5 the mysterious mage Gladwell is certainly willing to offer you a deal. Just for agreeing to work for him, every party member will get an additional point to every primary statistic (a significant boost in power), plus powerful magical items in return for every artifact you bring him. The catch is that this power comes with his control—if he wants you to get him an artifact near your current location, you'll be physically incapable of proceeding until you get it, regardless of whether stealing the artifact will piss off a town and prevent you from completing further quests there. He cannot, however, prevent you from physically attacking him . . .
  • He's back in game 6, and this time he's a bit more subtle. He tells you he'll reveal his goals to you once he trusts you more, but in the meantime you'll just have to take his word for it that he has a good reason for telling you to go to various places filled with powerful undead and set them loose. As early as his second mission you can attempt to warn people about what he's up to, but you'll find that your jaw refuses to obey you.
• In Baldur's Gate III, the party is infected with Mind Flayer brain parasites that threaten to eventually turn them into Illithids. They're far beyond the ability of an average healer to remove, and on more than one occasion you get unconventional offers you really shouldn't take.
  • In Act I they're approached by a literal Devil named Raphael who offers a vague promise that he'll return once they've exhausted all other options. If playing single-player, not a single one of your companions thinks it's a good idea. In Act III, he makes good on his promise and makes you an offer; trade the Ancient Artifact you're trying to reclaim from the Big Bad Duumvirate for a Sword of Plot Advancement so he can take over Hell (with no guarantee he'll stop there).
  • Auntie Ethel is a Hag who offers to cure a party member in exchange for one of their eyes. If the player accepts, it's revealed that the parasite is cursed and beyond even her power to remove, leaving the player with a permanent debuff called "Paid the Price" that makes it impossible to score critical hits and gives disadvantage on all Perception rolls. To make matters worse, exploring her house reveals a Torture Cellar filled with unfortunate souls who suffered worse fates, such as a man who wished to halt the spread of his terminal illness (that she gave him) and was Taken for Granite.
  • Warlock party member/Player Character Wyll spent nearly a decade suffering due to this. He had to make a Leonine Contract with the devil Mizora to save the titular city, and ever since she's been tormenting him for her amusement, destroying his relationship with his father and turning him into her personal attack dog. She tries to manipulate him into killing party member Karlach, and if he refuses she disfigures him. In Act III if the player manages to negotiate Wyll's freedom, she shows up with a Sadistic Choice; his soul or his father, and if he chooses the former she spitefully kills his father herself if he tries to mount a rescue.
• In Battle Brothers, the Ancient Dead Crisis stems from one. Long ago, the world was united under a grand Empire that persevered for many years until it fell into decline, as all empires do. The death-knell for the Empire was the last potential child heir being born stillborn. The desperate ruler of the Empire was approached by someone known as the "Ugly Man" who offered him a deal: hand over the child and pay the price, and his Empire would never die and nor would he or his wife, who would rule eternal. The price was that his wife would become barren, and the Empire and its legions would become undead.
• The Umbra Witches, including Bayonetta, make pacts with the demons of Inferno in exchange for magical powers. As a consequence, when they die, their souls are Dragged Off to Hell. Like the Lumen Sages, though, souls trapped in Inferno can eventually become demons or even demon lords, which is actually loosely implied to be a (slightly) better fate than becoming an angel.
• In The Binding of Isaac...
  • Devil Rooms have a chance to appear after completing a floor (said chance can be increased by not taking red heart damage on said floor). Inside these rooms, Isaac can take items at the cost of removing heart containers from his Life Meter, with some exceptions ^{Such as...}Besides some characters having alternate methods to pay for the items (Keeper pays for them with coins while The Lost can take one of them for free), it's also possible to get them for free by using a credit card - said items can range from simple tear-firing familiars to demonic powers like brimstone lasers fired from the mouth... and a quarter. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though; occasionally the Devil Deal room will only contain red chests and others you'll find yourself facing a boss. Paying for any Devil Deal item will also prevent Angel Rooms from appearing for the rest of that run.
  • Two items, Contract From Below and The Pact, are implied to be of this nature, with the former making Isaac's eyes white and soulless while the latter turns him into a demon. Incidentally, both are found in the Devil Deal item pool.
• Subverted in Borderlands. The final DLC introduces Mr. Blake of the Hyperion corporation, who talks with an Evil Brit accent and is introduced with horn-like prongs in his hair and a ring of fire around him. He serves as your questgiver (offering you vast amounts of money in exchange for ending a Robot War they started accidentally started while trying to kill you). Despite all these hints, he doesn't betray you and pays you well for your services. In the sequel, where his boss is the Big Bad, it's revealed he helped Dr. Zed escape from some assassins Hyperion sent after him.
• Cross in Brawlhalla is a mobster who made a deal with a devil in order to bind it to him and use him as a weapon and he'll be able to do so until his last battle. He's using a Loophole Abuse in the fact that he's now in Valhalla, where he gets to fight infinitely.
• Happens to the main character in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. When struck down by his rival Bosch, the dragon Odjn restores your character's life and gives him the power of the Wyrm. From then on, during any battle he can call upon the Wyrm's power and do tremendous damage to anything in his way. However, every time he does so, the Wyrm takes over more of his soul. When the Wyrm takes over his soul completely, it bursts out of his body, ending the game. Later on, Bosch gets a similar power from another dragon.
• Brutal Orchestra:
  • Nowak makes a pact with a monster introducing himself as Bosch in the beginning of the game to get revenge on the person who killed him, complete with a handshake. It's later subverted in that Bosch isn't a demon.
  • A more straight example is the Charcarrion, the Last of His Kind for a race of creatures, who made a deal with a demon to gain immortality, with the cruel twist being that he comes back more damaged and imperfect. The demon's face is visible in his chest cavity.
• Castlevania:
  • Castlevania 64 offers a very interesting variation. In the Villa, the heroes encounter a demon salesman called Renon who offers to sell you potions and other items. (His stock is not very impressive compared to most merchants, but unlike most, his shop can be accessed from anywhere, using magical scrolls, making him somewhat of an asset.) However he neglects to mention that spending more than 30,000 gold in his shop equals to selling your soul to the devil (that clause is technically written into the contract, but in a demonic language that humans can't read), in which case Renon will be more than eager to claim his fee when the time comes. (If this happens, you have to fight him as a Superboss, and the contract is rendered void if you defeat him.)
  • Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow features the Devil Soul. It's a familiar soul - press R and you will begin to lose ten HP a second in exchange for much higher power. It'll stop before it kills you though. Great if you're good at not getting hit or if you're doing a Boss Rush.
• In Charlie Murder, Paul Bitterman strikes a deal with dark forces after being kicked out of the titular band, becomes the powerful Lord Mortimer, and forms the Death Metal band Gore Quaffer to take Charlie Murder down. You need to expose the demon possessing him to get the good ending.
• Cuphead: The game starts with Cuphead and his brother Mugman losing a game of Craps against the Devil. Just as he's set to kill them, they plead for their lives and he agrees to spare them in exchange for them tracking down and defeating his debtors, who make up the game's many, many boss fights.
• Cyberpunk 2077
  • Working with Arasaka in general is outright called "un pacto con el diablo" and "selling your soul" by your buddy Jackie in the Corpo lifepath story, such that he sees getting screwed over by Arasaka's people as a blessing in disguise, as it means that V is now free to follow their own path.
  • Choosing to side with Arasaka (and by association, Saburo and Yorinobu Arasaka) leads to some of V's friends shunning him or her, in particular Misty for working with the people that killed Jackie just to save their own skin and Johnny Silverhand, the latter of which tells V that they'll regret it and that they chose wrong. Sure enough, Arasaka can't save V anyway and the only options are to live out what's left of their life and die, or get uploaded into the "Secure Your Soul" program and eventually get a new body once technology advances enough to make it possible. The latter option does have some hope assuming that Arasaka upholds their end of the deal, but the former is a complete Downer Ending because V betrayed Johnny and his/her friends for nothing, culminating with them breaking the bullet necklace in anger and despair. Said ending is fittingly called "The Devil".
• In Dark Cloud Seda makes a deal with a Robed man, by infusing the blood of witches in him, he would gain immense magical power to aid him in winning the war he was in to protect his kingdom, however there was a price: When his hatred and sorrow peaked; the Dark Genie was born.
• In Dark Devotion, the Evil Sorcerer Nekosh seems to have obtained his spell book through a pact with a demon. Defeating Nekosh results in him getting sucked into the book, from which the demon then manifests and attempts to kill you.
• The Dark Meadow uses this as the main backstory in the game. Suffering from a terminal illness, Ben Jacobi's parents sell their souls in order for their son to be cured of his illness and receive 17 great years afterwards. 17 years later, an overwhelmingly successful Ben feels invincible and thus agrees with the Trickster to sell his daughter's soul so he could live for another 17 years. His wife never gets over their daughter's subsequent abduction and divorces him, leaving Ben as a penniless, drunken mess. Ben's time is nearly up once more, hence why he's in the hospital.
• Most killers of Dead by Daylight found their way unwillingly or accidentally into the service of The Entity. But two struck a deal specifically with it for revenge.
  • Lisa Sherwood (AKA, The Hag) was captured by a Cannibal Clan and slowly cut up and eaten over a lengthy period of time. Teetering on the brink of death and reduced to a rotted mockery of humanity, she reached out to a spirit for revenge. The Entity obliged, gave her the revenge she wanted, and drafted her into its repertoire.
  • Yamaoka Rin (AKA, The Spirit) was murdered by her deeply in debt father. Like Lisa, she struck a deal with a dark force on the brink of death. Said spirit was The Entity, and she now serves it as well.
• In Chapter 2 of Deltarune, Spamton's initial wager to Kris is presented analogously to one, offering them unspoken benefits in exchange for their SOUL. Spamton himself is also stated to have undertook one in the past: after ages of struggling as a failed salesman, he suddenly received immense fame and fortune with the help of an unknown voice on the telephone. However, he did so at the cost of his friends, and saw everything crash down once he tried to "see too far," being reduced to an even lowlier position than before by the time he meets Kris.
• In Destiny, there are multiple examples of this:
  • The backstory of the Hive involved the three princesses of an alien kingdom whose throne had been usurped shortly after discovering that their planet was about to be scoured of all life by a world-spanning tidal wave. In order to escape this extinction and gain the power to retake their stolen throne, they made a deal with an entity known as the Deep through its emissaries the Worm Gods, who had been imprisoned deep within their planet: in return for serving the Deep and taking the gods' parasitic larvae into their bodies, to feed on violence and the Light of living beings, they would gain immense power. These children became the Hive gods Oryx, Savathun, and Xivu Arath, and their species became a malevolent force that would genocide its way across the universe for billions of years.
    • True to form, the Hive's bargain almost ended up destroying them: as they grew in power, the worms grew unsustainably hungrier, and were on the verge of consuming their own hosts until Oryx jury-rigged a solution.
  • A species of dragons known as Ahamkara appeared in the Solar System while the Traveler was terraforming the planets in the system. Possessing Reality Warper powers and uncanny knowledge, the Ahamkara proved to be a source of great power to humanity following the Collapse, but it soon became apparent that the Ahamkara were exhibiting dangerous influence over the Guardians due to their bargains and deals. Knowing exactly where this was heading, the City's Consensus ordered the Great Ahamkara Hunt and drove them into extinction. Of that, one can be assured, o reader mine....
  • It is heavily implied that the Virtuos Worms and Ahamkara are connected. They even have the same Mad Libs Catchphrase.
• Disgaea:
  • Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: In an Etna mode chapter break in the Updated Re-release, she offers to beat up bullies harassing a 7-year old kid, in exchange for the kid's servitude after he dies. Seeing as this is Etna, a nearby prinny immediately objects.
  • In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, it's suggested that Adell had such a deal with a succubus, but it ended with him getting the scars on his face. It's implied that it was for the identity of his Missing Mom and Disappeared Dad.
  • Inverted in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, where it's a desperate demon who ends up making a Deal With The Human.
• In the Divine Divinity series:
  • Divinity: Dragon Commander has two examples: if Ophelia is your wife, this can come up as a possible solution to her problem. But the devil you're dealing with is Corvus, who in Act II can boost your popularity and provide extra mercenary cards in exchange for devouring some of your population, and even your queen. This will inevitably backfire on you in Act III, as every deal you make with Corvus increases his power as well as yours.
  • Divinity: Original Sin: In his past, Jahan made a deal with a demon — 1000 years of youth, after which his life and soul are forfeit. Now that his time is up, you help him default by the simple expedient of killing the demon when it comes to collect.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II:
    • You can cut a deal with the archdemon Adramahlihk to support your bid for divinity. He demands that you kill the rest of the Player Party in the Final Battle; if you do, you share divinity and make Hell on Earth, and if you refuse, he destroys you and fights the party himself.
    • You can sign your soul to the Greater-Scope Villain the God-King in exchange for a stat boost and the promise of power when he rules the world, earning a Downer Ending if you follow through. He'll inflict a permanent Curse if you refuse to destroy the city of Arx with a Doomsday Device, but you also have a chance to sever the Magically-Binding Contract and keep the benefits.
• In Don't Starve, In Wilson's character origin video it reveals that he agreed to build a machine for Maxwell in exchange for ultimate scientific knowledge. The machine is what ended up stranding him in the Don't Starve world.
• Being a franchise about demons and Demon Slaying, the Doom series naturally features a number of villains who have made a deal with Hell.
  • Olivia Pierce from Doom (2016) is revealed to have made a deal with the dark lords of Hell for godhood, and winds up getting turned into the Spider Mastermind.
  • The Betrayer in the backstory of that same game made a deal with Hell to get his son back in exchange for giving the demons access to the Wraiths, spelling the end of Argent D'Nur. The demons upheld their end of the bargain, but brought the son back as none other than the Icon of Sin.
  • The Khan Maykr from Doom Eternal made an even worse and far more damaging deal with Hell: in exchange for the Khan Makyr giving worlds over to the demons for consumption, the demons make the souls of the people of those worlds into Argent Energy and send it to Urdak so that the Maykrs don't have to undergo Transfiguration. As an added bonus, the soulless husks of these victims eventually become more demons.
• Dragon Age has numerous demons all seeking to makes deals with everyone, especially mages. They will keep their word, but are usually pretty jerkassy about how they do it. And after the deal they generally turn you into an abomination and take over your body. Strangely enough, it's actually the better way to become possessed because it leaves your will intact (as opposed to the demon crushing your spirit) because then the control can be broken.
  • Dragon Age: Origins:
    • Connor makes a deal with a demon to save his father after he was poisoned. The demon keeps their word...and then possesses him, turning him into an unstable Caligula who will destroy the nearby village and its inhabitants unless the player intervenes.
    • By selling Connor's soul to the aforementioned demon, the player can get something in return, like Relationship Values, stat boosts or learning Blood Magic. This scenario is actually one of the less risky deals in the series, since it's not your soul on the line.
    • The protagonist and/or Alistair's deal with Morrigan to survive killing the Archdemon, and then putting its soul in Morrigan's care, has the distinct scent of this trope about it. It's all about the way she presents it, combined with ominous camera angles and background music. Subverted, since it results in no negative consequences for you and your party, and Morrigan proves to actually be a good mother to the resulting child, Kieran.
  • Dragon Age II:
    • The prologue has Hawke being forced to make one of these with Flemeth: help with Flemeth's Thanatos Gambit in exchange for getting Hawke's family and Aveline to safety. By the end of the game, there appear to be no negative consequences for this deal, at least for Hawke.
    • A mage Hawke can also make a deal with Torpor, a sloth demon, while in the fade. In exchange for a reward they must help the demon possess the inexperienced mage Feynriel. If you do, Feynriel will become a dangerous abomination that will cause trouble for you later in the game.
    • The game has two party members who have made such deals with all the best intentions. Merrill made a deal with a demon to become a blood mage so that she could help her clan rebuild its former glory. Anders made a deal with the benevolent Fade spirit Justice; Justice could possess him, preventing Justice's death and augmenting Anders's powers... but despite both parties' good intentions, they turned out to be very bad for each other; Anders' anger about the systemic abuses that mages suffer corrupt Justice into a demon, and Justice in turn prevents any Heel Realization's from sticking properly.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition has the "choice spirit" Imshael offering The Inquisitor either power, riches, or virgins. If the player picks virgins, he admits that he can never find any and offers a rune instead. Should the player accept, Imshael then murders the chevalier who sent you on the quest to kill him, preventing you from recruiting him into the Inquisition.
• Dragon Quest:
  • In Dragon Quest, the Dragonlord will pretend to acknowledge the Hero's triumphs as making them worthy of standing beside him, and then he will offer him half of world in exchange for switching sides. Should he take up his offer, the Hero will be given the "Half the World" Castle to rule exclusively while the Dragonlord ravages the whole world, as revealed in Dragon Quest Builders.
  • Dragon Quest VI: Dhuran, the final and most powerful of the Dread Fiends, gives Terry "ultimate power" in exchange for his service.
  • In Dragon Quest VII, a priest let himself be transformed into a monster by Gasputin in exchange for a promise that no harm will come to the townsfolk of Vogograd so long as he lives in his cursed form.
  • Dragon Quest IX: 300 years ago, King Nonus of Stornway sold out the neighboring kingdom of Brigadoom to Yore so that the demon would fight off the Gittish Empire, but Yore's bestiary description reveals that Yore had a second contract with the Gittish Empire itself to destroy the whole world, which validates Nonus' fears that Yore would've turned on him.
  • Dragon Quest X: The Hero's Sibling after much time traveling lands in the Netherworld where they make a pact with Jagonuba, who makes them Masen while curing them of the Time Passage Curse that prevented them from staying in one era of time. However, they work behind the Great Source of Darkness's back to prevent the Great Mismal Event, since the Netherworld is just as important to protect as Astoltia. When the Sibling explains their actions to the Hero and later survives an attack from Daviyaga, Jagonuba in his avatar body of Nalasia watches and tries to kill them and the Hero after the Sibling is officially freed and the Curse of the Great Darkness is defeated, but Shaka takes their place in order to save them.
  • Dragon Quest XI: Vince Vanquish made a deal with the monster Arachtagon to bring it great warriors so that it could drain their fighting essence, but he does this so he can get a cut of the essence and win prize money to help support the orphanage he looks after.
• When you finally confront the Dragon in Dragon's Dogma, he reveals that he's captured your "Beloved" as determined by the in-game Affinity System and offers you the choice of either facing him in battle or sacrificing your Beloved, in which he will willingly leave Gransys and leave you as an immortal with a claim to the Duchy. He reveals that Edmun Dragonsbane, the current Duke of Gransys took the deal. However, accepting said deal results in a Nonstandard Game Over.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Throughout the series, this trope falls within the sphere of Clavicus Vile, the Daedric Prince of Bargains and Wishes. Clavicus Vile loves making deals with mortals that they later come to regret, crossing over with either Jerkass Genie (when he's being particularly malevolent) or Literal Genie (when he's being a bit more forgiving). For example, when a group of vampires begged him for a cure to their disease, he had a hero come along to Mercy Kill (in Vile's opinion) them all. Though Clavicus Vile is reported to sometimes make agreements that the recipient doesn't regret (this probably has something to do with the fact that unlike most devils, he actually has a fairly strong conscience. It just happens to be external and manifests as a Big Friendly Dog named Barbas who nags him not to be overly mean to mortals (the two tend to argue a lot).
  • Though it is the specialty of Clavicus Vile, making a deal with any Daedric Prince can be considered a Downplayed version of the trope. While you may be rewarded quite well for serving the Prince, you will often be required to perform some rather morally questionable (or worse) tasks to obtain the Prince's favor, up to and including outright murder and betrayal. In some cases, a pledge to serve the Prince in life and in death is required.
  • The Ideal Masters are immortal beings who were once powerful mortal sorcerers during the Merethic Era. After finding their mortal forms to be too weak and limiting, they entered Oblivion as beings of pure energy and settled an area of "chaotic creatia", forming the Soul Cairn. The Ideal Masters are most infamous for their trafficking in souls, especially "Black" sapient souls. All souls trapped in soul gems end up in the Soul Cairn and are considered property of the Ideal Masters. Individuals seeking power, especially mortal necromancers, have long contacted the Ideal Masters. The Ideal Masters grant it in exchange for souls, which often includes the soul of the necromancer themselves. (Though the necromancer may not be aware of this fact as the Ideal Masters are Manipulative Bastards who often get what they want through Exact Words.)
  • Hagravens are a form of flightless harpy who were once mortal women that underwent a ritual "trading in their humanity" for access to powerful magic. The exact means of the transformation remains mysterious, but it is known that a human sacrifice is part of the process. They will also be the "devil" in the trope toward Reachmen warriors. These warriors will allow a Hagraven to replace their heart with a Briar Heart, a magical organic item that grants them great power at the cost of their free will. These "Briarhearts" are frequently found in service to Hagravens.
  • In Oblivion, the aforementioned Clavicus Vile gets a taste of his own medicine. He makes a deal that he later comes to regret, in acquiring Umbra, a soul-stealing Empathic Weapon. This results in him losing some of his Daedric power.
  • Skyrim:
    • Nocturnal, the Daedric Prince of Night and Darkness, is shown cutting these sorts of deals. Nocturnal is the patron of thieves, and said to be the source of "scoundrel's luck" that aids them and the shadows that hide them. However, this is a contract, not a blessing; thieves aren't all that good at religion, but bargains are something they get. As revealed in the Thieves' Guild questline, three champions known as the Nightingales swear absolute loyalty to her, pledging their souls to guard the Ebonmere, her conduit to the mortal realms, in life and in death. In life, the Nightingales receive great power, special armor, and the freedom to do with these as they wish on the condition that they always guard the Ebonmere - fail and they will lose all their gifts, and all thieves will have a sudden run of supernaturally bad luck, until it is reconsecrated. After serving their term as spectral guardians, they join the shadows which aid all living thieves.
    • A specific group of the aforementioned Hagravens, known as the Glenmoril Witches, acted as a broker in such a deal between Hircine, the Daedric Prince of the Hunt, and the Companions of Whiterun. Hircine granted them the ability to freely transform into werewolves, giving them immense power, but in death, he claims their souls. Undoing this deal is a major part of the Companions quest line, but some companions choose to remain werewolves, because Hircine's realm is a pretty decent afterlife if you're a Blood Knight.
    • In the Dawnguard DLC, it's revealed that making a pact and submitting yourself to Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of Domination and Rape, will turn you into a more powerful version of a Vampire than does simply becoming one via disease. The Big Bad of Dawnguard did this ages ago to stave off death, dragging his wife and daughter into it and sacrificing many of his own subjects in the process.
    • In the Dragonborn DLC, Miraak, the First Dragonborn, gained the power he needed to defy his former dragon masters through a deal with Hermaeus Mora, Daedric Prince of Knowledge. The price of said deal was that he was trapped in Mora's realm of Apocrypha when he otherwise would've died; after thousands of years there, he's kinda desperate to escape. The player then has to make a similar deal to prevent Miraak from escaping Apocrypha and trying to take over the world. In exchange for the player's service (and the Skaal's secrets), he'll provide you with the complete Bend Will shout, which will allow you to reach Miraak and fight him.
    • In fact, depending on how thorough you are, by the end of the game you may have pledged yourself/sold your soul to around ten different deities. The real kicker is that the Dragonborn's soul isn't even theirs to give away, as they're an aspect of the Top God Akatosh.
• Even For Eternia: All Umbra agree to give up a party of their memories to Arisu in exchange for power, but Snow's deal seems to be different. The story doesn't make it clear, but it's implied that Snow secretly struck a deal with Arisu to keep her memories in order to still get a chance to kill Rubellum, since she prioritizes killing Rubellum over Arisu in the last stretch of the game. This works out for Arisu, who knows that Rubellum will eventually oppose him once she learns the truth about Eternia.
• Fallen London: Any sort of deal with the Masters of the Bazaar that goes beyond purchasing stuff for actual money tends to resemble these, mostly because they have a bad case of Blue-and-Orange Morality and have no idea how humans work. Actual devils are a lot more straightforward; their deals are more or less monetary transactions where your soul's the currency.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Alaya, the will of Humanity to survive, is capable of making deals with humans. In exchange for a miracle granted via Alaya's power, the human agrees to become a Counter-Guardian in death. Counter-Guardians are dispatched to destroy threats to humanity, which more often than not are humans themselves, and destroying anything associated with the threat, up to and including entire nations. The only way to escape the contract is if the Counter-Guardian's legend becomes revered enough for them to enter the Throne of Heroes.
  • Archer entered a contract to save a few hundred people from a natural disaster. He despises his existence as a Counter-Guardian, as even though he is saving more people in the long term, all he ever sees are the people he slaughters indiscriminately.
  • Saber regretted her choices in life and made a contract with Alaya. In exchange for undoing her choices, she would become a Counter-Guardian. Prior to death, her soul was removed from time and sent to claim the Holy Grail, which could grant the wish. She ultimately chooses to accept her life, and so is freed from the contract.
• Fear Effect has Mr. Lam do this with the King of Hell in order to get rich quick. Unfortunately, he has to raise a girl who is supposed to destroy the world. Naturally, this deal comes back to bite him and bite him hard.
  • Do you know what the funny and ironic part about this is? When the girl, who is effectively the Antichrist, finds out about the deal and the terms, she calls out Mr. Lam on making such an evil and stupid pact. Yes, even the Antichrist had moral objections to this!
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy II: Big Bad The Emperor made a deal with Satan (and yes, they do invoke him by name in the Japanese novelizations), offering his soul for the power to command the Legions of Hell in order to Take Over the World. And when he is killed and Satan comes to collect...the Emperor uses this power to meet Satan in combat and kills him dead, then goes on to conquer hell itself. And if you think that's impressive? He did the same thing in Heaven.
  • Final Fantasy XI: This is part of the ritual in becoming a Blue Mage. Fortunately, the order also takes precautions so that your soul is not lost to the beast, including special armor and trying to assassinate you when they believe you have become too powerful. Also a major part of the underlying story of Treasures of Aht Urghan ("Hast thou sated thy rage?").
  • Final Fantasy XII:
    • Ashe is offered the chance, by the deities of her world, to cut some pretty shards from a big crystal. These shards are weapons of mass destruction, and with them she could become Queen of the World - the problem is, it's implicit that if she were to do that, the deities would have indirect control over mankind through her. The deities present her with apparitions of her late husband to tempt her. Ultimately, the crystal is destroyed before she can truly decide.
    • It's implied that the most famous King who 'united' the world and left three of those shards as his legacy actually did the deal good and proper.
  • The demonic Voidsent of Final Fantasy XIV have occassionally made dealings with mortals beyond the Void for the sake of feasting on the realm's aether.
    • In the Thamaturge questline, the succubus Momon pleads with a young alchemist for him to free her from her prison rather than destroying it in exchange for whatever he desires. The alchemist wants to be a powerful thamaturge like his brothers, and so Momon offers to grant that power. When he opens the jar, Momon possesses his body, using him to gather power until she can fully manifest again.
    • The Reaper job introduced in the Endwalker expansion is a melee fighter who has made a covenant with a voidsent to gain dark powers and absorb the aether of a slain victim's soul to empower both the Reaper and the voidsent they are bound to. This was Averted by Zenos, who enslaved a voidsent to take its power rather than bargain for it.
  • Wiegraf in Final Fantasy Tactics.
    Belias: God Stone Bearer, with me now do treat. Your spirit and my flesh as one shall merge. Life undying yours forever more.
    Wiegraf: Help me... I beg you...
    Belias: I am Belias... the devil. Your wish is granted.
• In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, mages sometimes entice spirits to enter their bodies, giving them great power... for a price... Such mages are called Spirit Charmers, for obvious reasons. While the spirits themselves are not diabolical, the effects of charming one are. (Supposedly...)
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia confirms that Witches are women who gave up their souls to Duma for stronger magical powers. This comes up in several ways:
  • It's first mentioned when both Alm and Celica fight Witches for the first time.
  • Jedah is stated to have sacrificed his own daughters Marla and Hestia, but not Sonya, who managed to escape, implying it's not always willing on the Witches' sides.
  • Jedah also tries to get Celica to offer herself up to Duma, claiming that her soul is strong enough to restore Duma to his former state thanks to her brand. This causes one of the major conflicts in her half of the game.
  • At the end of the game, Berkut snaps and makes a deal with Duma, which powers him up and turns his fiancée Rinea into a Vestal, which is basically a Witch Wreathed in Flames.
  • Finally, in a somewhat downplayed example, Delthea is first introduced under the control of one of Duma's priests. Fortunately, she snaps out of it at the end of the chapter if she survives.
• In Galactic Civilizations, the Korath Clan (a group of Drengin), made a deal with the Dread Lords to gain vast power, in exchange for helping the Dread Lords annihilate all other intelligent life. The vast power comes in the form of biological adaptations (it's arguable whether the Korath Clan are even the same species as the Drengin after a while) and highly advanced technology. It's implied that the Dread Lords plan on exterminating the Korath as well once they're done, though.
• In Gardens Inc.: From Rake to Riches Jill's friend and assistant Mike agrees to use his pickup truck to transport some unspecified "merchandise" for Cliff Gold, who's been sabotaging their gardening company the entire game, in exchange for Gold supposedly fixing the town gardening contest so Jill wins it and the cash prize, paying back the money her grandparents owe to Gold and thereby saving the family villa.
• In God of War, Kratos makes a deal with Ares to save his life. Then Ares tricks him into murdering his wife and daughter. Driven to madness by what Ares had him do, he prays to the other Gods to make his nightmares stop. Athena agrees to forgive his deeds if he somehow stops Ares. Kratos ultimately manages to get out of this deal in a rather badass way — by absorbing the power of Pandora's Box, growing to Godly size, and killing the hell out of Ares. That said, he still ends up the loser. After Kratos slays Ares, Athena honors the agreement and forgives his deeds. Unfortunately for Kratos, she never agreed to stop his nightmares. This drives Kratos to suicide. Which Athena refuses to let proceed — as there is an empty chair on Olympus for the new God of War.
• GrimGrimoire: Lillet Blan proves herself to be a Guile Heroine by making complete mockeries of two Big Bads, both of which had only been sealed before since they were too powerful to defeat. She does this by abusing a very big loophole — on her side — in a Deal With the Devil: specifically, she cons one Big Bad into killing the other Big Bad (by summoning him outside of the first Big Bad's bindings), and then sells her soul to the surviving Big Bad for one wish, in a contract that is only breakable if the demon volunteers to be sucked back to Hell and tortured for eternity. For her wish, she asks the demon to embrace God.
  Grimlet: [realizing to his horror that he'd just been suckered by a little girl] Mephistopheles... is this your doing?
  Advocat: [laughing like a maniac] No. But, I so wish that it was.
• In Growing Up, the "failure" animation for studying Contracts shows the protagonist's dealmaker turning into the Devil after they sign the contract.
• Guacamelee!'s main antagonist Carlos Calaca has one in his backstory. A famous sportsman in his life, made a deal with el Diablo to fix his broken hand so he could participate in and win La Gran Charreada. However, just before he could claim the trophy, Diablo dragged him to the World of the Dead. Calaca did not take this well, turned El Diablo into a chicken, and now plots to take over both life and death to make everyone worship him.
• Used straight in Guitar Hero III, with your agent Lou. Not only does the small print state that "Your soul is mine", but you can attempt an ordeal to recover it. The song used for that final battle? "The Devil Went Down To Georgia."
• Half-Life:
  • In Half-Life, the G-Man takes the liberty to conscript Gordon Freeman into his service without ever offering him a choice or actually informing him about it until the end of the game. In both this and Half-Life 2, he's constantly around manipulating events to turn out favorably for Gordon and his allies. Episode 2 informs us that he did the same to Eli Vance. Instead of forcing them to do the work for him, he arranges it so that by achieving each of their own goals, they actually further his own hidden agenda.
  • The G-Man is back at it again in Half-Life: Alyx, but this time he's got his sights set on Alyx Vance. After she frees him from the Combine, the G-Man shows her the very end of Episode 2 when Eli died and lets her prevent his death, thus changing the timeline. Then the G-Man reveals that he and his employers are no longer satisfied with Gordon and so the game ends with him putting Alyx under stasis, thus hiring her and releasing Gordon.
• Discussed in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope. The century-old mage Edmond mentions that others believe he's sold his soul to the devil. He's actually just befriended the Harvest Goddess.
• A Hat in Time exaggerates these to the point of parody with the Snatcher's utter inability to get anyone to do anything without a contract. Even things like simple community service or telling you to get the hell out of his forest are done through contract, all official enough to show up in your pause screen like RPG quests.
• Journey On: In the ancient times, King Valimur summoned the Avatar of Darkness to help him quell a rebellion and later learned dark magic in order to avenge his son. However, his soul was eventually fully corrupted and his kingdom was overrun by demons. In the end, he became little more than a mindless brute under the command of the Avatar.
• Riku, from Kingdom Hearts. Also, Cloud Strife, with Hades.
  • Subverted with Auron, who is offered a deal to get out of Hell, and refuses, and then gets out anyways.
    Auron: This is my story, and you're not part of it.
• Behind your new house in Lakeview Valley is a grove where you're offered a number of perks. Things like unlimited stamina, extra inventory space, the ability to stay underwater indefinitely, free ammunition, free money... all kinds of useful things. And the first one you choose is free! After that, however, your Mysterious Benefactor wants you to fulfil some requests in exchange... starting with killing one of the other villagers.
• League of Legends has a few:
  • Tahm Kench, the River King, loves to make deals with the desperate to take them to where they have all they could want, only to take everything back from his victims to feed his appetite. His character trailer details one such deal he made.
  • Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, has a relatively less severe MO: if you lost your life to betrayal, she and her collective Mind Hive will hunt down and kill the traitors that wronged you. Her price is your soul, which ends up being absorbed into the Mind Hive.
• It's revealed in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV that Osborne ended up making a deal with Ishmelga to save Rean's life. At the end of Cold Steel IV, Ishmelga desperately wants to make a deal with Rean to make him more powerful just to save his own skin but Rean wouldn't want any of that and cuts him down to two.
• In The Legend of Spyro trilogy, the Apes made a pact with Malefor to free him from the Well of Souls in exchange for power. Well they work their butts off to free him and he 'rewards' them by turning them into undead skeletons forever condemned to live in the dark.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
    • Jovani sold his soul to the Poes in exchange for unlimited wealth. They turned him and his cat into immobile but completely sentient golden statues to go along with it.
    • The game starts with Link being recruited by a wicked-looking imp who will help you rescue your friends in return for retrieving three forbidden artifacts sealed away by Hyrule's light spirits. Subverted — the imp, Midna, may look wicked, but she isn't. Well, not much.
    • The game also has a variant on this in Zant, who sells his allegiance to Ganondorf in exchange for the latter's help in usurping the throne of the Twilight Realm. Zant, mistakenly believing Ganondorf to be a god, can't be killed as long as the immortal thief-lord lives, but in exchange for the Twilight throne, Ganondorf forces Zant to turn his people into monsters and invade Hyrule (Zant didn't really need much persuasion on that matter, though). In reality, the reason Ganondorf offered the bond to Zant was to feed on his hatred in order to restore his power after his execution. In the end, this deal backfires on Ganondorf when he tries to reach out to Zant for power to save him from dying, but a disillusioned Zant opts to kill himself instead by snapping his own neck, taking Ganondorf with him.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: A malevolent deity that loved to make money contracts with people was sealed into a statue by Hylia, now residing near Hateno Village. People don't go near it, leaving it all the more bitter and dejected, biding its time until you show up. Do you think you need more health? Or more energy? Well, they will let you exchange your hearts for stamina, or vice-versa, for a small fee. It doesn't require your soul, favors, or anything of the sort, however — cold hard cash will do.
• The Devil's Deal item in Luck be a Landlord. If you lack the money to pay a rent payment, you can use it once... in exchange for 6 Dud symbols being added to your pool. If that wasn't your last rent payment, prepare for pain. Its Essence counterpart simply destroys itself and gives you 33 coins if you can't pay the rent.
• Majesty: One mission opens with a demon visiting your palace in order to collect a debt incurred by the sovereign's mother: 100,000 gold. The player has no option but to raise the cash in thirty days or have the kingdom reazed.
• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: Bowser and Antasma make a deal with each other. Bowser gets Peach, Antasma gets the world. If it's not immediately clear who the devil here is, it's Bowser(not suprising since he's the Great Demon King).
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Dr. Doom trades Nightcrawler and Jean Grey for a Plot Coupon as part of his Chain of Deals to steal Odin's power. The players eventually reach Mephisto, but have to beat him up to proceed. No deals allowed.
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Subverted in Dante's ending, where Mephisto appears before him and offers to revive his mother and fix his relationship with Virgil. Dante, being too smart to fall for such things, aims Ebony at Mephisto's throat and retorts:
  Dante: I'm not really interested in mending fences with my brother, so here's my counteroffer: you give me a job that can pay my electric bill for the year, and I'll leave you here with your head attached to your body.
  Mephisto: ...Actually, there's a fiend called Blackheart who has caused me trouble to no end.
  Dante: Done. But I'm charging you triple because you're such a tool.
• Mass Effect:
  • The Reapers often make use of humanoid aliens to assist them in their repeating genocides of all galactic civilizations. Since they know that nobody would willingly help them or even be fooled by offers to be spared for their help, they instead rely on Indoctrination, distorting the minds of all sentient creatures within several dozen kilometers around them to make them see the Reapers as trustworthy and not all bad. While it has only limited reach and takes time, strong individuals can retain their personalities and abilities almost intact for quite a long time, making them extremely valuable to infiltrate any group that might be a real problem in the next coming extermination. At shorter range, even small parts of dead Reapers still have that effect after millions of years.
  • Saren attempts to make a deal with the Reapers, assisting them in their return in the hope of securing a better fate for himself and those who will follow him in submitting to them when they will arrive. It is made quite clear that the Reapers have no intention in letting anyone survive, but Saren can't see this due to the gradual process of indoctrination.
  • Sovereign approached the geth prior to the first game, offering them what they most desired in exchange for their help slaughtering the galaxy. Only 5% of the geth accept the offer, the majority believing that they must earn what they want most by their own hands, not rely on the charity of others. Whether Sovereign intended to keep its promise is unknown, but given Reaper behavior in the rest of the series, they probably would have betrayed the geth anyway in the end. Then again, maybe not; according to Legion what he actually promised was for all Geth consciousnesses to be housed in a Reaper shell, and that's what they do to conquered races anyway.
  • In Mass Effect 2, the Illusive Man does not fall for the story that the Reapers would spare anyone who surrenders to them. Instead he believes that the Reapers are just machines and that they can be controlled if one has sufficient knowledge of their technology. To him the potential of Reaper technology is too great to allow it to be lost, and so he fights those who would destroy them, greatly weakening the resistance the Reapers are facing in their invasion. Unfortunately, it turns out that in Mass Effect 3, all of the Illusive Man's Magnificent Bastardry is not enough to keep him and most of Cerberus from being indoctrinated.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda:
    • The end of one mission (provided the player does it before the end of the game) has The Primus offer Ryder a chance to sabotage the Archon's ships at a later date, when they'll inevitably fight. Some of Ryder's teammates, Jaal in particular, will point out that with the ketts' long history of screwing the angara over with lies, the deal can't be trusted, but in this case... the Primus actually is on the level. In the final battle, she gives Ryder that chance, no twists or betrayal. It's Ryder who can chose to renege. However, it is made abundantly clear the Primus is doing so she can take control of the kett forces, and she's only better than the Archon in that she's not a raging megalomaniac. She still wants to take over the Heleus Cluster.
    • Turns out what happened with the salarian Ark is one of these. Having woken up and found out about the kett, the salarian leadership surrendered their ship, figuring they could probably learn enough about the kett to bring them down from the inside, not knowing that the methods the kett use would've left them in no position to actually take advantage of that knowledge.
    • And another one turns out to be a major part of the backstory. Jien Garson, founder of the Andromeda Initiative, was approached by a mysterious individual who offered her the financial backing needed to get the Initiave off the ground - bleeding-edge spaceships for extra-galactic travel aren't cheap, after all - but by the time Jien gets to Andromeda she's a puppet for this individual, and is scared over what their intentions might be. Before she can get to anyone, she's murdered under suspicious circumstances.
• This is how most of the bosses in the Mega Man Star Force games become bosses in the first place. The FM-ians need to physically bond with humans in order to affect things on Earth. They'll often find humans at their Moment of Weakness and offer to grant them power to achieve their wish. Once merged, the FM-ians use their new human puppets to run rampant until Mega Man steps in. Even this incarnation of Mega Man is born from a Deal; Geo Stelar ends up agreeing to become Omega-Xis' host and fight off the FM-ians hunting him in exchange for information about his Disappeared Dad.
• Towards the end of Mortal Kombat 9. Raiden tries to make one with Quan Chi to help turn the tide against the Big Bad after Sindel's massacre; the souls of all those killed in the battle for Netherrealm's aid. Unfortunately, the Big Bad had already sold all the souls to Quan Chi.
• The Neverhood: Klogg offers you Hoborg's crown. You probably shouldn't take it.
• Neverwinter Nights:
  • Hordes of the Underdark: the Valsharess hasn't to her own mind even made a deal with the devil, but simply made him her servant (somehow). However, considering he is an archdevil called Mephistopheles, she should have known it was not going to end well. There are rules, whatever they may be, and eventually he uses the player character to manipulate her to break them enough that he can bend the bounds of her control and have her killed. Then, since he now happens to be in the material world, he sets out to conquer it. Later, he may simply talk the player's companions into joining him before the final encounter. It is even hinted that the entire "deal" was an Evil Plan by Mephistopheles himself, started as far back as the previous game.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2:
    • This trope is played straight by Ammon Jerro, who sold his soul to the archdevil Levistus. Jerro's ally Mephasm subverts this, however; he'll reject buying your soul if you offer to sell it to him, and only seems interested in trading magical artifacts.
    • In the Mask of the Betrayer expansion pack, at one point you have to free a wizard who struck a deal with the devil and "just signed it." The resulting conversation and comment options while you comb the fine print of the contract and question both the devil and the wizard about it are close to being the most hilarious in the game.
      Faras: So you have some experience with infernal beings, then?
      Player Character: You could say that. I once knew a warlock who collected them, actually,
    • Interestingly enough if you dig completely through the contract and both sides of the story you can find that the devil a) cheated and b) doesn't realize it. He is forced by his very nature to declare the contract void if you point it out. Alternatively, a Spirit-Eater with a very high Appraise skill — or an eagle-eyed player — can notice that a word is misspelled in the contract, rendering it nonbinding under infernal law. Pointing this out to the devil causes him to meekly leave the plane.
    • Mask of the Betrayer also has Oronock and Thael'ka, a pair of Devils who've set themselves up as merchants to control the trafficking of souls between hell and a wizard's academy.
• Nexus War: Dark Oppressor demons in Nexus Clash run both pyramid-scheme organizations and direct Deals where they loan their powers and spells to others in exchange for moral corruption and potentially servitude in the afterlife. The chain of deals can potentially can go through multiple layers of demons and is implied to continue past player-character Dark Oppressors all the way up to the Evil Elder Powers.
• Odin Sphere: There are a few of these. Ingway makes one with the queen of death herself for a power to get revenge on Odin in exchange for his soul. It seems something similar happened with the same power to Cornelius's grandpa when his home country was being invaded many years ago. Oswald is tricked into one by Melvin by not being told that using the demonically powered blade he uses will eventually deliver his soul to the queen of death when he dies. However, all three of these don't go as planned. Ingway doesn't actually die until the queen of death is dead and can't collect. Cornelius' grandpa got free during the end of the world and took the place of the queen of the dead. Oswald is ultimately saved from his fate by Gwendolyn when she goes down to the underworld to get him back and kills the queen of death herself. He's also rescued the first time by Odin but he ends up making a deal with him in exchange for Gwendolyn. This one is foiled by Gwendolyn herself when she decides not to give the ring to Odin because Oswald gave it to her as a sign of his feelings for her. Odin also failed to add in the deal of giving the ring up because he only asked for the death of a dragon that originally had it, which was carried out. The parties that would normally benefit all get screwed over. Except maybe the case of the Fire King who does get screwed over, but wouldn't be considered the usual sucker in these types of deals.
• Oni: Close to the end, Konoko discovers that Muro is planning to pollute the environment worldwide to kill everybody. However, he will save people who sell their souls to him for a Daodan Chrysalis. On their part, they will survive the polluted with a Daodan Chrysalis implanted in each of them. On Muro's part, he gets people who will serve under him, and will kill and destroy on his command, which would make them as monstrous as him. If that is not a Deal With The Devil, then what is?
• Persona:
  • Subverted in Persona 3; the contract the main character signs with Pharos in the opening sequence practically screams Deal With The Devil — but despite granting the main character the services of the slightly creepy Trickster Mentor Igor, the contract in itself has no negative repercussions (it turns out to be implicitly vital in saving the world, in fact). Furthermore, the only condition on your side of the contract is to accept the consequences of your actions. Nothing more.
  • Persona 5:
    • Inverted; each character's Shadow, the other self, first manifests as their voice with a Magnificent Bastard air either confronting them about not standing up for others or themselves, or commenting that they had been waiting for them, and offering them a "contract", which results in the Shadow becoming a Persona in exchange for unleashing their rage and hatred on the world that wronged them. However since Shadows are part of them and Persona are Shadows given form by the strength of heart, it basically means it is a contract with themselves to no longer compromise who they are, which is what gaining a persona essentially is. Case in point: Makoto gains her Persona after being pushed around one too many times by one of the villains. She is far happier and more well adjusted after this and decides to make her own path instead of just doing what is expected of her.
      Johanna: You have finally found your own justice... Please... Never lose sight of it again...
    • A more traditional example occurs in Royal: When Dr. Maruki formed a contract with his Persona, which took the form of the Lovecraftian deity Azathoth, it offered him the power to relieve his girlfriend's trauma. He accepts, and inadvertently erases her memories of himself as well as her trauma.
• Pirate101: One of the major antagonists of Cool Ranch is the Duck of Death, formerly known as William the Duck or English Bill, who made 2 deals with the Devil, one metaphorical and one literal. The first (metaphorical) deal was when he betrayed his kind to the Dogs of Marleybone when they promised him riches and titles. However, the Dogs had no intention of keeping their end of the bargain and turned on him when their Steam engine failed. Bill decided to seek vengeance against the Dogs, who retaliated in kind and chased him to the world of Darkmoor. There, he made a second (literal) deal with an Eldritch Abomination (Savvy Wizard101 players will recognize this being as Old Cob) for great power in exchange for his soul.
• Planescape: Torment:
  • Twisted on its head with Fhjull Forked-Tongue, a devil who tried to tempt a fallen angel with a deal... only to find that said angel was considerably defter at contract manipulation than he, with the end result being that he's forced to be good for as long as he and the angel remain alive (both are, naturally, immortal). It goes without saying that when you meet him, he's not having a happy existence.
  • Played straight should the Nameless One come across the Grimoire of Pestilential Thought. It offers rather cynical wisdom such as "There are two secrets for becoming truly powerful. The first is to never tell anyone everything you know." But, it can teach you powerful spells, at a price. It starts off just wanting a drop of your blood, but it then demands you sell one of your party members into slavery. Finally, in exchange for "Power Word: Kill", you must murder another one of your party members.
  • In the same vein, The Dustmen will let anyone sell themselves into a contract where their body is reanimated into a zombie, then a skeleton, for work in the Mortuary. In the Hive you'll find someone upset that they sold their body after death and want the contract back, a zombie holding a note that says "Please cremate me after death - take this magic item in exchange", and the Nameless One himself can sign such a contract - three times over!
    • This particular incarnation of the trope is interesting because, while signatories to the Dustmen contract may often feel like they've undergone this trope, the Dustmen themselves do not see it this way. In their philosophy, a body is nothing but a vessel for the soul, and once the subject is dead (and their soul has passed on), what's left is just an empty shell that isn't in any way sacrosanct. Understanding this can allow The Nameless One to get someone out of a Dustman contract, by pointing out to the Dustman who signed it that the idea of having his body reanimated later is causing the signatory mental anguish now that may damage his soul and prevent him from reaching True Death.
  • When visiting the Sensate Hall, you can attend a lecture from Ghysis The Crooked, one of the veterans of the Blood War - an all-consuming war taking place on the lower planes since time immemorial. He offers advice on how to stay out of it, and asks everyone there to lead a good life so that they won't fall to the lower planes in death and be conscripted into the war for eternity. If you've asked Verusika about him, though, you can get Ghysis to tell his story on how he got out...
    Ghysis The Crooked: Me an’ two other lads fled like dogs, that’s what ‘appened. We scurried across the Plane fer a handful o’ days afore we came to this great pillar o’ livin’ ‘eads... an awful sight, it was... they jabbered an’ hissed at us, callin’ fer us ta come closer. That night I stole away from the others an’ went ta talk ta th’ pillar. [Ghysis shut his eyes and rubbed at his temples.] I... I asked this pillar ‘ow I might be freed, ‘ow I might escape Baator... an’ it told me in exchange fer th’ two o’ my brothers. [He was quiet for a moment, biting on his knuckles as if fighting back tears.] Ta me... at th’ time... t'was just math.
  • The Nameless One can also accept a quest to free a demon summoned to their current plane, but bound to a pentagram. Chatting with the demon results in the demon chatting cordially with you, and if you ask for something in return, agrees to give you a powerful weapon. If you then free it by scratching out part of the pentagram, he bids you farewell and is never seen again.
  • Eventually, The Nameless One can come to the Pillar of Skulls himself. The pillar promises to answer all your questions - with a dear price for each answer. It is also honorable, and if you ask it a question it can't answer "What is my true name?", it will admit it doesn't know the answer, and request nothing. For every answer, it demands one of the following before it answers your question:
    • Placing Morte back in the Pillar. You can break him out later - you'll lose some max HP from all the skulls biting you, and they'll refuse to answer any more questions - instead yelling for abashis to come tear you to ribbons.
    • The location of Fhjull Forked-Tongue. You can get away with lying about it if your Charisma is good enough, essentially paying nothing.
    • The Modron Cube. It is immediately and irrecoverably destroyed.
    • Fall-From-Grace. If you choose her, she will assume you're joking. If you confirm you're serious, she will disappear into thin air, never to be seen again. The Pillar doesn't accept this, given she escaped and all.
    • Annah. If you choose her, she'll assume you're joking as well. Confirming you're serious will make her fight you to the death. The Pillar doesn't accept her corpse.
    • The blood of an immortal (yours) Picking this will result in hundreds of skulls biting you and draining your blood, making you lose a lot of max HP.
    • In addition, if you ask "Who am I?" to the pillar and Vhailor is in earshot, when Vhailor hears the answer he will fight you to the death for your many injustices.
• Pokémon:
  • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Big Bad Volo made a pact with the setting's Satanic Archetype Giratina, with the two plotting against the Top God Arceus to remake reality In Their Own Image.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced the Mythical Pokémon Pecharunt, the Subjugation Pokémon. It's a Poison/Ghost type with the power to increase another being's chosen abilities, at the cost of enslaving them to its will. It was the trio master for the Villain with Good Publicity legendary trio known as the Loyal Three, and acted as the Greater-Scope Villain of the Teal Mask expansion.
• In Pony Island, you play the eponymous Game Within a Game multiple times, and are usually interrupted after a few levels with a screen saying "Experience the rest of Pony Island! Insert your soul to continue" after a few levels.
• This forms the basis of the PC-88 horror game Produce: Toshio makes such a deal with an Entity, which offers him a chance to Murder the Hypotenuse with the added catch that Toshio has to lure both his prospective Love Interest and another friend of his to the Entity as well. Toshio is inevitably double-crossed and all of his friends are killed as a result.
• In Ravensword: Shadowlands, during the battle at Heronmar, the Archmage and his assistant Kavanaugh attempted to end the battle by summoning a powerful demon named Ul'Thok and ordering him to kill all dark elves; the deal was that if he kills them, then he's allowed to consume their souls. However, Kavanaugh betrayed the Archmage and changed the deal to instead kill everyone participating in the battle. However, the player character's heritage prevented Ul'Thok from killing him, and since this meant that Ul'Thok could not carry out his part of the deal, he was forced to go back to the Shadowlands he came from.
• Red Dead Redemption II: Some background details make it seem like Herbert Moon, the racist shopkeeper, made one with the Stranger, with the terms that he would have to choose between "happiness" and "a second generation." It's unknown what choice he made, but the end result seems to be that he and his daughter survived the plague - but his daughter ran off to marry a Jew. If he chose 'happiness', then presumably the happiness referred to his survival while the 'second generation' he lost referred to his estrangement with his daughter, and if he chose 'a second generation', then the second generation was his daughter's survival while the happiness lost was his relationship with his daughter.
• Invoked by name in Rimworld with Luciferium. This exotic Super-Soldier serum of glitterworld mechanites can provide significant health benefits including reversal of brain injury and lost limbs and a permanent boost to all bodily functions, making the user faster, more perceptive and more resistant to pain. However Luciferium is permanently addictive from the first dose and without a weekly dose of the drug the user suffers debilitating withdrawal symptoms including acute pain, impaired consciousness, insanity and eventually death after ten days without a dose.
• RuneScape:
  • Once upon a time, the Mahjarrat Sliske promised power to six generals who needed it to battle the vampires of Morytania. They won battle after battle... and on the eve of their final confrontation with the vampires, Sliske murdered them himself and turned them into the Barrows Brothers. He'd never promised them victory, only power.
  • Sliske gains another Barrows wight in "Kindred Spirits" by offering Linza the blacksmith protection from the Dragonkin she'd robbed for supplies, in exchange for becoming a wight after death. He never promised not to kill them himself.
  • Yet another Sliske moment: a dying man named Gregorovic prayed to Sliske to save him from his terminal illness. Long story short, Gregorovic is now an insane Monster Clown that eats people to stay alive. Or not.
  • Among the Signature Heroes, Ariane the mage tried to scam a demon once. The demon had offered her information in exchange for a blood sacrifice to Zamorak, and Ariane used her Seer powers to learn the demon's secret without making the cut. In retaliation, the demon convinced bystanders that Ariane really had made an offering, getting her expelled from the Wizards' Tower.
  • In the Player-Owned Port, amateur adventurer Meg sometimes asks for advice about dealing with demons. The best-scoring advice is "don't risk it", though if she's already made a pact you can advise her to check for loopholes.
• The Secret World has many examples of characters who, whether directly or indirectly, were offered opportunities in this spirit from the beings behind the filth. The players are offered such opportunities at some points, and fight other characters who have done so.
• Shadow Hearts has as a major plot point in Covenant that mortals can make pacts with the three most powerful demons in that universe: Amon, Asmodeus, and Astaroth. Doing so will let the demons eventually hollow out your soul and take up residence. Yuri Hyuga, who made the pact with Amon, is in no danger because he simply beat Amon into submission. Nicholai, who made the pact with Astaroth, had enough willpower to stop the Demonic Possession... until he got captured by another faction of bad guys and was tortured to the point where his spirit broke.
• Subverted early on in Shadow of Destiny: Eike assumes that the Homunculus is after his soul, but Homunculus isn't interested. One possible ending double subverts this, implying that the only reason Homunculus doesn't want Eike's soul is that he already owns it.
• Twisted a bit thanks to the ambiguous nature of the 'demon' in Shadow of the Colossus: Wander brings the corpse of his love to a forbidden temple and strikes a deal with the power sealed there (Dormin): slay the sixteen Colossi, and Dormin will revive Mono. Exactly what Dormin is never fully gets explained, but Lord Emon and his men treat Dormin like a horrific demon, and Dormin's true form being a giant horned Living Shadow and taking over Wander's body don't exactly help Their case. That said, Dormin does keep Their end of the bargain: in the end, Mono is resurrected, just as They promised, and the fact that They say They're "borrowing" Wander's body implies They were going to give it back at some point. Not to mention They actually warn Wander that dealing with Them might not turn out well for him in the end, which is uncommon behavior for a demon, to say the least.
• In Shadow the Hedgehog, it is revealed that Gerald Robotnik made contact with the Black Comet and makes a deal with the alien named Black Doom to help him finish creating the Ultimate Lifeform out of desperation to save Maria in exchange for Shadow giving him the Chaos Emeralds the next time the comet passes Earth. Gerald had no intentions of holding up his end of the deal and created the Eclipse Cannon for when the time came to use it. Unfortunately, his dealings with the Black Arms are discovered along with the fact that he sold out humanity to complete his research are why the government shuts down the Ark and kill everyone aboard, under the premise that there had been an accident. Essentially, it is Gerald's own fault that Maria died by making contact with the Black Doom.
• Shin Megami Tensei revolves around this, as the protagonists form Magically Binding Contracts with demons in order to use them in combat that can usually be broken upon the summoner's death, with the demon being Incapable of Disobeying until released. However, in the franchise "demon" is a catch-all term for any kind of supernatural creature including angels (who would be very angry to be called that to their faces), and only a fraction of them are actual demons. This comes at no cost to the summoner provided they don't try bargaining with a demon they're not strong enough to control, however a major flaw is that demons who can comprehend technology can also use it to summon more demons and wreak havoc if their summoner dies.
• Murphy Pendleton in Silent Hill: Downpour strikes a deal with corrupt corrections officer Sewell to get revenge on the pedophile who killed his son in exchange for a favor. Said favor turns out to be offing benevolent corrections officer Coleridge.
• SimCity 4: Business Deals are essentially this. If your city is performing poorly financially, your budget advisor will propose you make deals to build structures that generate revenue but have a mix of drawbacks and positive effects. These include the Casino, Army Base, Toxic Waste Dump, Federal Prison and the Missile Range. Unusually for this trope, it's easy to get out of the deal, just bulldoze the building, although this tends to be expensive.
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time shows a metaphorical version with Penelope selling herself to Le Paradox for money, world domination, and the lives of Sly and Murray. She did so, believing she'd be able to use Le Paradox for her own gains, but as Bentley pointed out, it's the other way around, and she's now his puppet. Penelope's stubbornness costs her everything; all her projects are destroyed, Bentley chews Penelope out for having a frozen heart before dumping her, she's kicked out of the Cooper Gang for high treason, and Carmelita hands her over to Interpol in disgrace. Even Le Paradox mentions he's done with Penelope later on, having gotten what he needed from her.
• In Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, After failing a Demonic Possession of the main character, Gig, who is now fused to your soul, offers the main character a Deal With The Devil: He'll lend you some of his divine powers in return for limited control of your body, allowing you to create your army. During certain points in the story, he'll offer you better access, granting you incredible powers that will allow you to grind whoever you're facing into fine powder... But once you're done with said grinding, you get a Non-Standard Game Over as Gig uses that access to boot your soul out of your body and takes it for himself.
• Every single non-human boss in Soul Sacrifice has one of these in their backstory. There is a powerful entity known simply as the Chalice, who appears to those who are overwhelmed by powerful emotions (preferring the Seven Deadly Sins). It makes them an offer - in exchange for something of great value to them, it will give them the power to fulfill their desires. They get what they want, but in such a way that renders them a hideous monster.
• In the Splatterhouse 2010 reboot's opening, the Terror Mask makes such a deal with the dying Rick.
  The Terror Mask: He took your girl, Rick. He took your dreams. And he took your life. Doctor Henry West, MD...he took it all. Only thing you got left is your soul...and that belongs to me. Who am I? Let's just say I'm God; your God...least, the only God that's listening right now. What do I want? Ah, same as any other God; a little faith...for without faith I am nothing...and without me you're fucked. She doesn't have to die. I can help you; I can heal your wounds. We can save her, if you show me some faith... if you trust me, if you put me on...
• StarCraft II has this going on between Tychus and Arcturus. No points for guessing who the devil is.
  Arcturus: They say a man doesn't know anything about himself... until his freedom's been taken away. I wonder... how much do you know about yourself?
  Adjutant: Please step onto the platform.
  Arcturus: Convict 626. Murderer. Pirate. Traitor. Today, you go free. But as you'll soon learn, even freedom has its price.
  [cue various machines assembling a Marine suit on Tychus]
  Adjutant: Combat suit sealed and locked.
  Arcturus: You will carry your prison with you. That armor will be your new cell. Make no mistake. War is coming, in all its glory and all its horror. Mister Findlay, your freedom awaits.
  Tychus: Hell, it's about time.
  • The actual deal, meanwhile, goes something like this: Mengsk will let Tychus go free if and only if Tychus assassinates Kerrigan for him. Until then, he's allowed to join up with Raynor and his rebel army, albeit in a suit of welded-shut powered armor... which can, incidentally, be remotely commanded to shut his major organs down if he ever disobeys orders.
• In Stellaris, if your empire takes the Psionic Ascension Path, you may randomly make contact with various Shroud entities that offer you a "covenant." They give your empire permanent bonuses, though with some obvious drawbacks, but most players agree they're Worth It.
  • The "Composer of Strands" boosts your population growth and life expectancy, though occasionally your Pops may mutate and have their species traits randomized.
  • The "Eater of Worlds" makes your fleets and armies more effective, but sometimes it gets hungry and consumes some of a world's Pops.
  • The "Instrument of Desire" makes your workers more productive, but may drive your people to decadence and deviance.
  • The "Whispers in the Void" boosts your research speed and Influence gain, though your leaders might go mad or kill themselves.
  • And then there's something that calls itself The End of the Cycle and offers incredible bonuses to everything that last fifty years, "If we only bring forth the end." The cost is never specified, but the tooltip to accept this bargain reads "DO NOT DO THIS." If you accept anyway... It costs you everything. When the time is up, an Eldritch Abomination spawns in the middle of your empire and destroys it entirely. Every ship and every megastructure blows up, every planet is scoured of life and rendered uninhabitable, and every leader is killed except for one scientist who saw this coming and fled to a sanctuary world on the edge of the galaxy with everyone he could convince to go and a handful of resources. Meanwhile a gigantic Shroud entity made from all the souls of your dead citizens forms into a fleet with ONE MILLION naval power and begins marching through the galaxy to purge it of life, and it deliberately saves your pitiful colony for last. And even if someone manages to destroy it, you now have a -1000 diplomatic malus for dooming everything and everyone for your own ambition and everyone will be gunning to finish you off. Oh, and if no habitable planet to become your colony exists then the game just instantly slaps you with a Game Over.
• The plot of Stretch Panic is about twelve sisters who were transformed by the Demons of Vanity into their visions of "ultimate beauty", which turns them all into twisted, bizarre forms (with Demonica in particular becoming so hideous/horrifying that merely glancing at her is fatal). The protagonist Linda cures them by using a stretching-obsessed vanity demon contained in her scarf to forcibly rip the other demons from their souls; said demon was unable to possess Linda herself owing to her selfless, humble nature and instead possessed her scarf as it was the only thing she was proud to own.
• Richter Abend from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World struck a deal with the demons of Niflheim (the land of the dead) for enough unholy power to avenge his best friend. Since the target of his revenge is also the seal that stops the demonic populace from invading the world, and the absence of the seal would allow aforementioned best friend to come back to the world of the living, it works out quite well for all concerned. Except Richter is planning to double-cross the demons by turning himself into a new seal after his friend is reborn.
• Team Fortress 2 parodied the concept with "Merasmissions" in Scream Fortress 2015
  "Well done indeed, mortal! A pity you didn't read the fine print. For now, Merasmus has your parking space...for eternity!"
  "Fool! You made a Deal with the Devil! And now you'll reap the reward! Which is... this reward. The devil may have inadvertently dropped the ball on this one."
  "'Congratulations! The gift I give you... is death!'... is what Merasmus would be saying if Merasmsus' lawyers hadn't advised him that death is not an acceptable form of payment in New Mexico."
• Kazuya Mishima of Tekken survives being thrown to a cliff because he made a Deal with the Devil to give him strength so he can take revenge on his dad Heihachi. However, he takes control of the Devil and his power in Tekken 4.
  • Marshall Law makes a metaphorical one with G Corp in Tekken 8 's Story Mode in a desperate attempt to escape Perpetual Poverty.
• The DLC content of Total War: Shogun 2 features a new building called Lend Lease. Taking it gives you an immediate one-time lump sum of 4500 gold, but permanently dents your Daimyo's honour rating. Being in league with the invasive Portuguese is bad enough, but is it really worth publically pissing on the tenets of Bushido and Buddhism AND spreading sentiments of betrayal among your generals, just for a quick injection of cold, hard cash?
• Total War: Warhammer III has the Big Bad pull one of these with a Greater-Scope Villain. After Be'lakor's defeat the hands of the player faction, Tzeentch offers Be'lakor a way to retain his corporeal form and avoid being banished, considered A Fate Worse Than Death to daemons. In desperation, Be'lakor agrees. Tzeentch being Tzeentch, this results in Be'lakor, to his horror, being bound to the player's servitude forever. It hits doubly hard if the player is using the God-Slayer, who Be'lakor originally betrayed in the first place.
• Trials of Mana has one of the three Big Bad villains, the Dragon Emperor, offer one to the Crimson Wizard. In fact, the Crimson Wizard could cast no spells in his youth and was offered a deal: If the Wizard offers half of his life force, the Dragon Emperor will teach him how to cast spells. The Wizard accepted. In an unusual manner for this type of deal, the Dragon Emperor is completely honest: He doesn't take more than was offered and lives up to his deal in both letter and spirit.
• Inverted in Trillion: God of Destruction, where the main character Zeabolos is the demonic Great Overlord of the Underworld and basically Satan's successor, but who gets killed by the titular Trillion after one hell of a pounding. However, he makes a deal with Faust, a necromancer who, in exchange for his soul, offers to bring him back to life and help him gain the power to kill Trillion before it destroys the Underworld. Faced with no other options, he agrees, even lampshading the nerve one must possess to make a deal with a devil. Interestingly, Zeabolos makes it clear from the outset that he intends to follow on his end as long as they win, and sure enough in most of the endings he does so save a few such as one where Faust reveals she fell in love with him too much to take his soul and they get married instead.
• The winner of Twisted Metal gets one wish from Calypso; when he grants it things aren't always what they'll expect.
  • In Twisted Metal: Black though, the wishes have to be malicious in nature to not be twisted, as we learn.
• Azul Ashengrotto of Twisted Wonderland's unique magic, "It's a Deal", works like this. Azul will grant whatever his targets want when they sign his contracts... for a price. In the story, he makes a contract with Grim, Ace Trappola, and Deuce Spade as the three wanted to get good test grades, and when they break the terms of their contract they lose their magic and are forced to serve him until graduation. As a child, Azul used it to target his merfolk classmates by granting their wishes while taking away what they treasured most; one merman got a girlfriend but his rich tenor voice became hoarse while another lost their ability to swim quickly because they exchanged their tail for silky blond hair.
• In Undertale, playing the No Mercy route ends with the entire game world being erased and the first child offering to reset it if you give them your soul. Accepting the offer lets you play through the game again, but it permanently turns the game's Golden Ending into a Sudden Downer Ending.
• It's a major plot point in Victor Vran:
  • It's eventually revealed to be what caused the destruction of the city in which the game is set, thanks to a demon invasion. When she was younger, the sovereign, Queen Katarina contracted an incurable disease. Gabriel, the only healer able to help her didn't do it with medical means but by making her sign a demonic pact with her own blood. It granted her complete recovery, but they will come back to get her thirteen years later. To avoid this, Gabriel taught her a spell making the demons unable to locate her. It had an unexpected consequence: since they couldn't find her, the demons turned against the whole population.
  • The protagonist, Victor Vran, received his demon powers this way. He was a prince. His lands were threatened with an invasion which would have been impossible to vanquish. He made a pact with dark powers and received his demon powers, which he used to repel the invaders. They ended up cursing the land he was ruling, forcing him to leave as a wanderer, for his powers meant he would taint any land by residing in it too long.
  • It ends to have some importance in the story. A part of the plot consists in looking for Queen Katarina's pact to cancel it. It's also revealed that Gabriel (under a false identity) is the one who also proposed the pact to Victor...
• View from Below: The Crimson Skulls are lost spirits who willingly threw their lot in with the Crimson God in exchange for receiving gifts. However, if their leader dies, they all turn to ash, which shows that allying with the Crimson God has dire consequences.
• In Warcraft III, Grom Hellscream and the rest of the Warsong clan drink the blood of Mannoroth and use their restored chaos-empowered strength to slay the demigod Cenarius. This puts them under the thrall of Mannoroth again. When Thrall confronts Grom, the latter confesses that the Orcs were not forcefully corrupted by the Burning Legion as Thrall always believed. Grom and the other chieftains gave themselves and their clans willingly to the Legion, and drank Mannoroth's blood. Later released materials reveal this is not entirely true; the Orc chieftans drank the blood of Mannoroth willingly, but did so without being told what it was or what the effects would be beyond giving them and their clans power.
  • Kel'Thuzad assumed this was how the Lich King had come to control the Nerubians, that Anub'Arak agreed to serve him in exchange for power. When Kel'Thuzad mentions as much to Anub'Arak, he's told that "Agreed implies choice."
  • Subverted with the Warlock class in World of Warcraft, as Warlocks don't make contracts with demons, but rather enslave them. However, the Adventurers can make a deal with a demon in the Legion expansion.
  • In the Battle for Azeroth expansion, Horde players get to make their own deals with Bwonsamdi, the Loa of Death, in Zandalar's Nazmir subzone. As a price for his help, Bwonsamdi asks for one million souls, though given the kill count of the average PC, he could have reasonably tacked on a few more zeroes without complaint. King Rastakhan makes his own pact with Bwonsamdi as well, even binding his whole bloodline to Bwonsamdi.
  • Sylvannas Windrunner committed suicide only to find herself in The Maw, the Warcraft equivalent of Hell, an eldritch wasteland where demons hunt down souls so they can slowly consume their essence with sensory deprivation torture and reforge the remains into their screaming armor. Driven mad by the revelation that such a place could be created by the gods and that she was currently in it, she made a deal with the ruler of The Maw, The Jailer, to act as his agent of death and ruin topside. While she paid lip service and a quota of murders at first, the stress of discrimination, disownment, and her own poor life choices caused her to snap and make a bid to either serve The Jailer's ambitions for multiversal domination or usurp him.
• Seems to be part of Siegfried's mode of operation in the Wild ARMs series.
  • Wild ARMs: He betrays Mother by disguising himself and guiding the heroes through the Photosphere and urging them to destroy her as quickly as possible. However, as soon as they've done that he reveals his betrayal and declares war on them and their allies.
  • Wild ARMs 3: His mere presence in the Hyades library is enough to convince the Prophets to work for him and bring him back to life. In fairness he does uphold his end on the bargain and turns them into demons, although given their new forms, you might think he was mocking them.
  • Wild ARMs: Million Memories gives us a doozy. Not only does he coerce the Prophets into working for him as payment for saving their lives, he convinces Rudy, of all people, to join forces with him to take down Mother. Rudy knows a team up is a bad idea but cannot see any other option, so agrees. Thankfully, Siegfried's desire to protect Filgaia from Mother is genuine, and extends to him shielding Rudy from her attacks and sacrificing himself to ensure the heroes have a chance at winning.
• The Witcher 3:
  • During the Bloody Baron's questline, it's revealed that his wife Anna despised him and made a deal with the monstrous witches known as the Crones in order to abort their second child. As a result, the child is transformed into an undead creature known as a botchling while Anna herself was enslaved by the Crones and potentially dies from the curse they put on her unless Geralt takes the proper measures to prevent it.
  • A major plot point in the Hearts of Stone expansion. A noble by the name of Olgierd von Everec made a deal with a powerful demon known as Gaunter O'Dimm in order to regain his fortune and keep his fiancee from being married off to another man, but later on refused to surrender his soul as part of the deal. Geralt is forced to make a deal with the demon in order to save his own life, and in exchange has to help O'Dimm fulfill the terms of the contract with von Everec. Later on Geralt can learn how to banish O'Dimm by gambling for his and von Everec's souls, but if he fails they're both Dragged Off to Hell. This story is heavily inspired by an old Polish folk tale about a sorcerer named Pan Twardowski who makes a deal with Satan to gain magical powers and great knowledge, and tries to scam Satan by adding a clause that says He can only claim his soul when he visits Rome - a place he never intends to visit. Many years later the man walks into an inn and finds Satan there, and Satan claims his soul. The inn was named Rzym, or "Rome". In Olgierd's case they were supposed to meet on the moon, but O'Dimm caught him standing on a mosaic of it hidden in the dirt beneath his feet.
  • If Geralt sides with the demon to claim Olgierd's soul, the trope is subverted as demon offers Geralt a reward, no strings attached. And if Geralt asks him where to find Ciri, the demon apologetically and sympathetically admits he can't help Geralt - some things are beyond his capability to grant - but offers very sage advices on how to save Ciri and get the Golden Ending.
• Wizards And Warlords: The "Dark Pact" trait means your wizard has a pact with a dark patron, who you can beseech for aid or quests. However, your patron will eventually expect you to repay your eternal debt...
• In Xeno Gears a character named Grahf shows up several times in the story to grant a villain on the verge of defeat "The Power". Sure enough they do gain godlike strength, but it inevitably backfires disastrously on them shortly after they accept it.

---