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Defeat Means Friendship / Video Games

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Times where Defeat Equals Friendship in Video Games.

  • Absinthia: Pirate Queen Contesse scams the party out of their money instead of giving them supplies. When they call her out, she then sends them through Eastport's sewers to pick up the supplies she promised, but really to make them clear out the monsters that are inconveniencing the pirates. After the party defeats Contessa, she gives them the supplies and a boat. She states that she had to put them through some tribulations in order to maintain her crew's reputation.
  • Advanced Variable Geo: This is Yuka's fighting style. More specifically, she has the ability to form an empathic bond with those she fights; once she's in tune with their soul, she's able to defeat them spectacularly, and whoever she defeats has a high probability of becoming a fast friend with her.
  • Age of Empires III:
    • At one point in Ice, John and Kanyenke defeat a small British force and then recruit the troops over to their side to fight in the next mission.
    • Exaggerated in the case of the Chinese explorer, a Shaolin master who has a chance to convert any opponent he kills into a special Disciple unit. This can include wild animals.
  • Anarchy Reigns: This is done twice in the Black Side (Jack Cayman) story. The first time it happens is with Big Bull, whose fight was supposedly Jack's induction into his brotherhood. As such, Big Bull returns from time to time to help Jack out. The second time it happens is with Rin Rin, who "owes her life" to Jack after he opted not to kill her after beating her. She also returns to help Jack out from time to time.
  • Arabian Magic: The earlier bosses, including the six-armed Asura, the Yogi magician, and the doppelganger, will join your battle after you best them in their respective boss fights, and in the Final Boss battle against the powerful wizard Baruantess, they will periodically come back to assist you.
  • ARK: Survival Evolved: In order to tame most creatures, you must first knock them out. If you then give them enough of the right food while they're out, they will wake up instantly tamed. There are a few exceptions that are tamed less violently, however. Downplayed, since the defeat itself doesn't cause the friendship, it just gives you the opportunity to feed them safely. If they wake up before eating enough, they will not be tamed, so the player will often need to use narcotics to keep them under.
  • Baldur's Gate:
  • Banjo-Tooie: Terry, the boss in Terrydactyland, accuses Banjo and Kazooie of stealing his eggs, and they fight him in a boss battle. After Terry is defeated, Banjo says that they haven't stolen his eggs, and offers to look for them for him. After finding them, he thanks them and rewards them with a Jiggy.
  • In Battle For Meridell, a game available on the website Neopets, you battle monster versions of the species you can fight as. When defeated, they turn good and fight for you. This also works both ways, as them defeating one of your characters turns them evil (and makes them lose any equipment they were carrying).
  • Beastieball: Besides any unique conditions, defeating a Beastie is a requirement for recruiting them into the team.
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm:
    • Tyalie is first introduced to us as a thief trying to beat our heroes to the third PasSWORD shard. After she's caught and defeated, it's revealed that she's actually trying to gather the shards for the exact same reason they are, so she decides to join the team instead.
    • In the prequel, BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires, Cornelia briefly acts as The Dragon to Boxxyfan before she's convinced to switch sides. She's so unfit for evil that she actually starts second-guessing herself midway through the battle, and starts missing some of her attacks on purpose.
  • Bully:
    • After Jimmy beats up all of the nerds, he says that he did it so they could team up to take over the jocks. Earnest, the leader of the nerds, even says "You have a strange way of making friends!".
    • The leader of the Bullies clique, Russell, remains a loyal friend to Jimmy after he defeats him in a fist-fight and even remains the only clique leader who doesn't betray him in the game's final chapter.
  • In Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Trevor Belmont picks up allies Grant and Alucard only after defeating them as bosses. Justified in Grant's case, as this cures him of being turned into a monster.
  • In Cave Story, the protagonist does this to Toroko, Curly Brace, and eventually Balrog. In Toroko's and Curly's case, it's because they preemptively attack him, thinking he's a killer — so by defending himself and not killing them, he wins their trust. In Balrog's case, it's because Balrog is a decent guy, only working for the Big Bad because he's magically forced to do so.
  • Circus Electrique: Most of the Vicious you fight are Killed Off for Real or run away if you break their spirits. However, certain battles end with your opponent surviving, with the Ringmaster extending an offer of employment.
  • Civilization 5:
    • Bismark's Furor Teutonicus creates a chance that barbarians will join you after taking their encampment.
    • The Mongol scenario has militaristic city-states provide you with soldiers when you conquer them.
  • Crescent Prism:
    • Flayt is a balloon who attacks Lunita for being too rough when pulling them out of Minister Orange's box. Afterwards, they calm down and help Minister Orange draw a crowd for the festival. Later, they give Lunita advice about dungeon mechanics.
    • Laundro is initially angry at Lunita for putting soap in them without permission and fights her out of rage, but one dungeon later, they help Lunita learn a new Astra skill.
  • Command & Conquer Red Alert 2: Happens in the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge when they defeat the Allies and team up to take on Yuri's forces.. and vice versa in the Allied Campaign, although the Soviets using time travel to force a different outcome is much more plot-critical.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening:
    • After an entire game of butting heads, Dante and Lady finally come to terms with each other when he beats her in proper combat.
    • Dante must defeat the Devil Arms in their original forms as guardians of the tower before he can use them as weapons. Agni and Rudra in particular are very enthusiastic about this trope, practically begging Dante to take them with him after their defeat.
  • Devil May Cry 4: Dante sees the conviction within Nero after fighting him to a standstill, and despite questing for Yamato, he smoothly steps aside and lets Nero use it for the latter's mission of saving Kyrie. He eventually allows Nero to keep the Yamato by the end of the game.
  • Devil Survivor has the Nintendo DS lookalike COMP, which upon activation summon a demon for you to fight. If you defeat it, it will become your subordinate. And then a fraction of the way into the game, Midori defeats a Jack Frost and teaches him about The Power of Love and Friendship. A few days later, he reappears and depending on your choices, you can recruit him into your party on the last day.
  • Devil Survivor 2 features Social Darwinists Yamato Hotsuin and Keita Wakui, who believe that Might Makes Right. Both of them will fight you if you take any ending path other than Yamato's, and after you beat them they'll both admit that by their own logic, you've got the might and therefore must be right.
  • Dicey Dungeons:
    • Applies to the Jester if you beat them in battle six times, turning them into a playable character. In the final chapter, Back Stage, the news of your rebellion against Lady Luck means all the enemies will join your rapidly expanding party once you beat them, including either Audrey or Buster when you fight them as a Final Boss before Lady Luck appears as the True Final Boss.
    • Lady Luck becomes a lot more friendly and respectful after you defeat her.
  • The photo in the credits of Donkey Kong '94 hints at this. It's worth pointing out that this is the last game where Donkey Kong goes out of his way to antagonize Mario, whereas in future games the big ape would just lose his temper and Mario would have to deal with it.
  • In the NES version of Double Dragon III, the bosses of the China (Chin) and Japan (Ranzou) stages join your side after you defeat them. Interestingly, they actually become playable characters, allowing you to continue if Billy or Jimmy is killed or even to temporarily use their strengths (powerful claw punch and speedy ninjato respectively) where most useful.
  • Dragon Age: Origins:
    • this can happen with Zevran, potentially leading to a romance, as well as Loghain.
    • Played with in the case of Loghain though; while the player may forgive him for showing remorse as he is defeated, Alistair will most certainly NOT. He becomes infuriated with the player, reminding them of all the evil Loghain has done in the recent past, contrition or no.
    • This is the stated endgame of the Qunari (a religious force, not a race) — once they've beaten an enemy, said enemy is "re-educated" to embrace the Qun, which is the Freedom from Choice philosophy of the Qunari. Of course, if a prisoner is particularly stubborn, they're just turned into a mindless laborer using a substance called Qamek.
  • Dragon Quest:
  • One of the worst aversions of this trope is in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2. The more times you defeat a character, they will have negative opinions of you and your friendship with them will drop. Since you will need to have high friendship with characters in order to obtain their Gundam, this is a pretty annoying thing and will make obtaining them pretty tedious. But in the third and future games, the friendship with characters will always go up and never go down.
  • Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG:
    • Downplayed with Fredek and Genesis, who join the party after their defeat, but this was partially motivated by Kekkan betraying them and revealing Zeta had no more use for them. However, Akira can deepen their bond with these two through bonding events.
    • Subverted with third angel Aphos, who tries to join the party after their defeat, only for Asterisk to kill him.
    • The sixth angel boss, Quot, acts as a friendly shopkeeper to the party after her fight and gives them some information about Asterisk, demons, angels, and the Church.
    • After defeating Clyde, Robun, and Artica, Robun tries to sacrifice himself and his entire team to Saggitarius. Akira saves Artica from this fate, leading to Artica joining the Vulcanite Resistance. It helps that Artica was already genuinely friends with Akira before the latter became a fugitive and already had doubts about Zetacorp.
  • A few of EarthBound's supporting characters are introduced as bosses, even one in particular who helps you defeat Giygas.
  • The Elder Scrolls
    • In the series' backstory, founder of the Second Tamriellic Empire, Reman Cyrodiil, incorporated the defeated Tsaesci invaders from Akavir into his fledgling empire. After Reman used the Thu'um against them in battle during their invasion of Tamriel, they recognized him as Dragonborn, who the Tsaesci believe to be the ultimate dragon slayers. He incorporated the surviving Tsaesci into his armies, where they served him as bodyguards, dragon hunters, and would be the precursors to the Blades. They also became a great cultural influence within the empire.
    • Skyrim:
      • There are several NPCs who invoke this trope. When you talk to them, they challenge you to a fistfight. When you win said fight, they become much friendlier and most of them will even join you as a follower if you ask. There is one particularly racist NPC who manages to zigzag this trope, should you challenge him as an Elf. After you defeat him, he will switch between his usual racism, proclaiming you to be a cheater, and this trope, calling you a good friend.
      • One of the staples of Dragon culture is the belief that the strongest is meant to lead, hence Dragons who survive clashes with another frequently offering their allegiance to the one that bested them. Odahviing and Durnehviir end up invoking this towards the Dragonborn during the main game and in the Dawnguard DLC; the former defecting in the belief that Alduin lost his right to command after he fled battle with the Dragonborn, while the latter does so out of respect for the Dragonborn being the first individual to ever best him in combat. After the defeat of Alduin, many of the Dragons under his command switch their loyalty to Paarthurnax, who leaves to instruct them in the Way of the Voice.
  • At the end of the Ensemble Stars! Main Story, when Trickstar overcomes fine in the DD, Eichi admits to Subaru that he might be starting to feel something like friendship for him. This is also something of the theme of Quarrel Fes, where Eichi insists on he and Keito fighting one another face to face because he's worried that Keito is giving up his life for Eichi and wants to prove that he sincerely wants to be an idol and isn't just wasting away here. Only by Keito beating him can the two overcome that tension in their relationship and become fully equal friends.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy: Starting from the second game:
  • Several recruitable characters in Exit Fate, both optional and mandatory.
    • After you rout Keyser's forces with a gambit thought up by Bast and take him prisoner, Bast approaches Keyser and asks him to join your side. To his credit, Bast does make several good points to entice him: Keyser is now disgraced in Kirgard and couldn't go back to his old life anyway, Zelmony is proving to be the winning side, and best of all, "Don't you want to see what you and I can accomplish together?"
    • Vanrushal the vampire joins you after you've defeated him and taken away most of his power. He does this of his own accord, both for his own safety (since he's much weaker now and his mansion is full of deadly monsters) and because you seem interesting. You don't even get a chance to refuse.
    • Deke joins after you defeat his prototype robot. Obviously, this means that he still has much to learn and far to go.
    • Daniel attempts to invoke this with Pereious after routing his forces in battle several times. He fails to sway him, but Pereious still at least gives Daniel advice with how to deal with the Almenga army.
  • EXTRAPOWER:
    • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Zophy and V have a shared history and while not enemies, have a lingering score to settle. Soon after their meeting, they fight in a one-on-one duel where, due to how closely matched Zophy and V are, can end with either side winning. Regardless of who won, the encounter is considered a success and they get along better as comrades.
    • EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: The fighter Wolf is eager to drop everything for a chance to test his training and Wolf Punch against Zophy, making them boss fights for each other. After their final encounter, Zophy acknowledges Wolf's strength and part on good terms.
  • Marcus the super mutant from Fallout 2 narrates to the player a one-on-one battle between himself and a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. After three days the two combatants reconcile, become good friends, and found a town together. Doesn't quite fit the trope 100%, as Marcus seems to imply that the fight was a draw.
  • Far Cry Primal: Takkar The Beastmaster operates like this with three of the prehistoric creatures he goes after in his Beast Master Hunts: the Snowblood Wolf, the Bloodfang Tiger (which, by the way, killed his hunting part at the start of the game), and the Great Scar Bear. He basically fights them, with weapons, traps, and sometimes other beasts he's already tamed, and once he whittles their hit points down low enough, he then throws them some healing meat and tames them, and from then on, they're his to interact with.
    • Also applies to Dah and Roshani, who are recruited into Takkar's tribe after he beats them in battle. Specifically, they are both taken prisoner and forced to teach the Wenja how to create their tribe's signature weapons: rot bane for the Udam (Dah), and fire bombs for the Izila (Roshani). That said, Dah doesn't end up becoming Takkar's friend until after Takkar saves him from being drowned by a bunch of unreasonably vengeful Wenja, and then offers to get him medical supplies to keep his "skull fire" in check. Roshani is more submissive because he's a Dirty Coward and desperate to not be killed.
  • Final Fantasy games often require you to defeat various monsters as bosses before they offer you their power as Summon Magic.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, Amarant is a bounty hunter hired to kill Zidane and company, until they best him in a fight and he decides to throw in with them. This is one part honour and one part trying to figure out exactly how he beat him.
    • In Final Fantasy VII, it's Yuffie, who joins your party after a fight in an attempt to screw you over. Eventually becomes a sincere member of the party after you save her from Don Corneo.
    • In Final Fantasy VIII, seven of the game's sixteen Guardian Forces are fought as bosses, including the first boss, Ifrit, and must be defeated in a boss fight before you can use them.
    • In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Most of the monsters you beat (non-boss only) become your familiar and help you in fights.
    • Final Fantasy Tactics: While several former antagonists join Team Ramza after their defeat, it's usually other factors that lead to them making a Heel–Face Turn; however, generic enemies (of both human and monstrous persuasion) can always be persuaded to join the party using the Mediator skill Invite, which has better chances of working after you've whittled down their health a bit—in the case of monsters, you can even have the switch in loyalties happen automatically with the Support skill Train, in which they will come over to your side as soon as the person with Train drops their hit points below a certain threshold.
  • Subverted most of the time in Fire Emblem. Recruiting enemy forces to your side is a major mechanic in every game, but this is normally done by getting someone the enemy knows to talk to them and convince them to join you without fighting. With only a few exceptions (such as Shinon in Path of Radiance and Walhart in Awakening, but even they have preconditions), defeating a recruitable unit in combat will kill them, not recruit them.
    • Fire Emblem Fates:
      • In the Revelation route, this how Camilla (the Avatar's eldest sister on the Nohr side) and her subordinates, Beruka and Selena, are recruited. She is sent by Garon to stop the Avatar and Co., alongside her Amazon Brigade plus Flora, and says she really doesn't want to kill the Avatar, but that if it has to be done, she'll do it herself, otherwise, she will be executed by Garon for failing or refusing. At the end of the level, after defeating her and Flora, she asks the Avatar to kill her, but the Avatar refuses and she and her group join in (save for Flora, who returns to the Ice Tribe, who have already gone into hiding).
      • In Birthright and Revelation, this is how Silas is recruited.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
      • In the DLC side story, "Cindered Shadows", the Ashen Wolves will challenge you to a fight to test your mettle. Once you clear the first chapter, they become your allies, and proceeding further through the story allows you to recruit more of them in the main story.
      • In the main game, specifically in the Crimson Flower route, you can get Lysithea into your team this way if you haven't recruited her during the academy phase. However, she will be rather underpowered if recruited after being defeated, compared to the usual method.
  • An odd variant occurs in The Force Unleashed: rogue Jedi Master Rahm Kota is defeated and apparently killed by Starkiller in the first mission (he doesn't bite it). Much later, after Starkiller's death is faked by Vader, they run into each other again under Imperial fire, and immediately team up, forced together by circumstance. At first, Starkiller thinks that Kota doesn't recognize him because the latter was blinded in their first encounter, but in the Light Side ending, Kota reveals that he knew who Starkiller was all along; he just went along with the ruse because he could sense that Starkiller had a spark of good in him and needed a mentor other than Vader to bring it out.
  • Gacha World:
    • Upon beating every boss inside story mode and challenge mode, they each return to normal and continue their daily lives after returning the favor usually by befriending you through recognizing your efforts to bring them back or in one case, gives you a free means of ocean travel.
    • Subverted by the Final Boss as the Final Boss is never friendly to begin with and never befriends you afterwards either. It later gets double subverted because the stage number that you fight Final Boss on is not the end of Act X therefore is not the true world 10 boss.
  • Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Invoked. The spirit of the sentient Sand Prince Gem is enthusiastic in greeting the party characters and happily offers them his/its assistance... but he/it needs them to pass a test of character before they can use him/it.
  • Golf Story: After foiling the plot of the two goth girls trying to raise an army of skeletons, their mind-controlled mole rats are freed, and make the Greenkeeper their new king in gratitude.
  • Grandia: Played with with Gadwin's two duels, the first being an impossible boss fight.
  • Hades: Thanatos will sometimes challenge Zagreus (the player) to a competition in which they each try to slay the most enemies in a shared encounter. In adittion to winning an extra prize from Thanatos if you beat him, the only way to talk to him between runs to increase your hearts and romance him is to win these.
  • Heroes of the Seasons: If Cameo mode's final boss is defeated on any variation of Nightmare, Gobi will attend Utania's Christmas celebrations and sell overpowered items to the mercenaries. While he can be challenged again in Cameo mode, the dialogue is changed so that he'll treat his boss fight as a friendly match.
  • Hollow Knight: The mantises of the Mantis Village are a Proud Warrior Race who respect strength above all. As such, once you prove your strength by defeating their leaders, the Mantis Lords, the mantises cease being hostile and instead bow at your approach. This does not apply to the infected traitor mantises you encounter much later, as they no longer respect the village's code.
  • Honkai: Star Rail: During Jarilo-VI's penultimate story mission, you knock out Dunn, a captain of the Silvermane Guards. After the conclusion of the planet's story, he texts you, declaring your friendship to have started after his battle with you, and invites you to lead his troops in a training exercise.
  • Hylics: Defeating Pongorma makes him join Wayne's quest.
  • Hyrule Warriors. In Adventure Mode, King Bulblin appears in some battles on the Twilight and Termina maps and Captain Keeta appears in some battles on the Termina map. They appear as part of the enemy or rogue forces but will become your allies and fight on your side if you get their health low enough.
  • I Miss the Sunrise has the twist in that you need to fight them twice. Jessamine is fought as a Mini-Boss towards the beginning of His Master's Voice, and can be fought again as an Optional Boss later. They join your party after that.
  • Inazuma Eleven is chock full of this. Even the most evil people become good by the end of the third games after you have beaten them again and again. Bonus point goes to the fact that you can recruit almost every of them into your team.
  • Kirby:
  • Knights of the Old Republic has you, in one of your early missions as a Jedi, track down and defeat the fallen Jedi apprentice Juhani. After you duel her, you can talk her back to the Jedi path with relative ease. Or kill her, if you're Dark Side-inclined, but that's more than a bit of a waste.
  • Opponents also become allies after they are beaten in LBX: Little Battlers eXperience, which is from the same creator as Inazuma.
  • Talon of League of Legends was only bested once in battle, when the fearsome General Du Couteau sought out the assassin making a name for himself on the streets. After being bested, Talon swore undying allegiance to him. And him alone. Even after his mysterious disappearance, Talon still carries out his Noxian diplomacy in his name.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Upon being defeated in the first game, Cynder, the first game's Big Bad, becomes Spyro's friend onwards, partner in the third, and eventual mate at the end. It helps that she was Brainwashed and Crazy in the first game and losing to Spyro knocked the curse out of her.
  • Like a Dragon; Kiryu makes a surprising number of friends and allies across the series after beating them into the pavement over a disagreement. A few selected examples:
    • After the first game, Goro Majima is one of Kiryu's most steadfast allies, given that Kiryu can beat him in a fight.
    • In Yakuza 3, Rikiya becomes Kiryu's loyal supporter after Kiryu beats him in a fight.
    • Yakuza 0 features two major sidequests: One where Kiryu becomes a real estate tycoon and attempts to wrest control of every business in Kamurocho from the Five Billionaires, and one where Majima manages a cabaret club, competing against an alliance of other cabaret clubs called the Five Stars to become the most successful in Sotenbori. For Kiryu, getting one of the Five Billionaires to admit defeat causes them to clean up their act and assist Kiryu in competing against the other Billionaires, while for Majima, defeating one of the Five Stars causes their number one-earning girl to join Majima's club's roster.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth: In the SNES RPG, similarly as in the animé, every major antagonist will have a change of heart and join your party, and then leave right before you fight the next major antagonist. Except for Caldina, who lets you hire her for 3000 gold if you want her to tag along, and doesn't tag along if you don't hire her. But Fenrio, Ascot, and Lafarga all join your party temporarily, after they are taught the meaning of friendship, or in some cases, de-brainwashed.
  • This happens to Roxis of Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis, as the terms of a bet made by the heroes against the Goldfish Poop Gang, the latter of which Roxis was a part of. However, it's subverted in that Roxis doesn't think of The Hero as his friend throughout the game.
  • Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Deadpool does this after you prove you're not aiding the terrorist attack in his debut level. In the penultimate level you fight Green Goblin and Venom, and when you defeat them to free them from The Fold they go into an Enemy Mine with you, so it sort of counts, though both are very agitated working alongside their archnemesis Spider-Man.
  • Mass Effect 2 has a small one with Grunt. When he's awakened from his tank, he immediately attacks Shepard and pins him/her to a wall, demanding that s/he give reason to command him, not expecting much from a human. Revealing the kind of enemies s/he has and that s/he has had a gun on him through their entire conversation impresses Grunt enough that he pretty much instantly gains Undying Loyalty to Shepard.
    • Also turian standard policy. When the turians win a war, they absorb the defeated enemies' population and territory into their empire and recruit them as auxillaries for their armies. At the conclusion of their service they're granted full turian citizenship with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities.
  • The Matrix: Path of Neo has Chang Tzu, who you have to defeat before he'll listen to you, then you have to defeat agents together.
  • More like Defeat Means Grudging Allegiance in MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries; you can challenge a Clan colonel to an honor duel. If you win, she is bound by honor to serve your merc company (as a pilot, so don't get any wrong ideas, mkay?). Your second-in-command calls this out as an unreasonably bad idea, and while Falcon doesn't disobey orders, she's not exactly happy with the whole arrangement.
  • In Mega Man Powered Up, the Updated Re-release of Mega Man, if you defeat the bosses using only Mega Man's Buster said boss will be left intact upon defeat and be taken back to Dr. Light's lab for repairs, making them playable. Using any other weapon will just destroy them.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Big Boss, as a younger man, seemed to attract a number of allies in this way. Ocelot, Python, and Gray Fox. Though in Python's case, they were already friends before they were dropped on opposite sides of the conflict, and after finishing their fight, they were friends again.
    • Before founding MSF, Big Boss — still calling himself Snake — ambushed a squad of Revolutionaries in Spain and took out half the unit. As he left, a drill sergeant yelled at Snake to help him kill himself and then tried to suicide bomb Snake's squad because of his Japanese pride. When he passed out from blood loss, Snake saved his life. Two years later, Snake and Kazuhira Miller have opened up Militares San Frontiere.
    Kaz: Why'd you save me, your enemy, after I tried to kill you?
    Snake: Because you swallowed your pride and fought with everything you had.
    Kaz: I just didn't wanna lose.
    Snake: You found a way to fight back even in the face of death, even when you knew you were gonna die — That's the mark of a true warrior.
  • Minecraft Dungeons: At the end of the game, the players finally triumph over the Arch-Illager, and he's initially very fearful of them until they reach out their hands in friendship. The Arch-Illager gladly takes up their offer, leaving the land and the Arch-Illager at peace.
  • In Moco Moco Friends, defeated Plushkins may offer to join your team.
  • Mortal Kombat spoofs this with the "Friendship" Finishing Move.
  • The Pirate Captain boss in Necesse turns into the Broken Pirate once defeated, who can be recruited for free.
  • Nippon Ichi works:
    • In Disgaea, Flonne, Hoggmeiser, Maderas, and Gordon all get converted to Laharl's side after he beats them handily in boss battles. Also, defeating a monster-type enemy makes it available for you to create and use in battle. Killing more and more of the same type results in it costing less and less Mana to summon. If you're impatient and have strong characters not in play on the field, you can also just throw an enemy monster-type into your base panel (where your characters start in a given battle) and, if your reserves can subdue the monster, that monster will join your team assuming you defeat the others.
    • Disgaea 3's Raspberyl is a big believer in this trope. In the ending to the first chapter of Raspberyl Mode, her advice for making friends is as follows: "First, bust into their house... then, use your passionate fists and fight them till the end. Once the two of you collapse to the ground and start laughing, you guys will always be friends."
    • All the members of the main cast of Disgaea 4 who aren't with you from the beginning join after being defeated. Tyrant Valvatorez takes this concept to its logical extreme by making it a literal in-game ability - any enemy he defeats becomes a CPU-controlled ally for the remainder of the battle.
    • In Phantom Brave, killing a few of an enemy type will make it possible to recruit that enemy type.
    • In La Pucelle Tactics, if you "purify" any enemy before killing it, it will join your party and can be fielded immediately if you don't already have 8 units in play.
    • In Makai Kingdom, Zetta can challenge and beat most of his fellow overlords and obtain either them or some other form of stand-in (they've got netherworlds to run, after all) as party members — including Laharl — during a New Game Plus. Just don't expect this to work on Salome, though.
    • Disgaea 2 has Yukimaru, who joins you after Adell beats her in the tournament and talks her down from probably-very-honorable-but-not-really-wished-for suicide.
    • Soul Nomad & the World Eaters has Odie as a main story example, and Asagi and Lujei as Optional Boss examples. The Demon Path is full of this, but it's more a case of 'defeat equals slavery' there — except for the previous villains, who line up to join you with a smile on their faces.
  • A literal example in One Night at Flumpty's. What is your reward for beating Hard-Boiled Mode? You get to become Flumpty's new best friend!
  • Pikmin 4:
    • After defeating Louie in the final Dandori Battle, Moss will run off and return to Olimar, sticking by the Rescue Corps. until the end of the game and no longer aiding someone that opposes the player character. Justified as she was never outright villainous to begin with, but was instead following orders from Leafling Olimar and later Louie.
    • The Ancient Sirehound becomes tamed after its defeat, appearing in the ending to have became a friend of the Pikmin. Nelle implies that the Sirehound is normally friendly, only attacking because Louie somehow commanded it to.
    • Downplayed in the postgame. When Louie is captured and taken in to be rescued, he stops being hostile to the Rescue Corps. and will even give rewards if his sidequests are completed. However, he doesn't actually apologize for anything he did, and instead just acts like his turning on the Rescue Corps never even happened.
  • In Pirate101 some enemies will join the player's crew after they have been defeated.
  • In Pocket Arcade Story, Rivals who've lost to you in tournaments will immediately become patrons your arcade.
  • Pokémon:
    • Really, this is the point of the entire franchise. The player weakens and captures monsters, and after that the player bonds with their monster as their friendship increases.
    • The Friend Ball automatically makes anything it catches friendly to its owner. Otherwise, catching a Pokemon only guarantees obedience; captured Pokemon will start with a rather low happiness rating.
    • In the 2nd Gen games and remakes, defeating certain trainers prompts them to give you their phone number, allowing you to call them every now and then, and them to call you for a rematch or give you useful items or information...or just annoy you by telling how they almost caught that Pidgey for the millionth time.
    • In the 5th Gen games, you can fight and beat Doctors and Nurses on the routes. Once beaten, they will heal your party for free every time you talk to them. Since they tend to hang around in places far away from cities, this is very helpful.
    • Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness has all of the Cipher admins become friendly with the protagonist after they're defeated in the post-game Orre Colosseum, sending him a letter to this effect... with one very notable exception. Ardos instead sends a death threat saying the remnants of Cipher will always be watching him, making it clear that he still holds a lot of ill will towards the protagonist.
    • The fan comic CharCole shows some more reasons for Pokémon to follow their trainers: "Charlie" Cole eventually agrees out of concern for Brian and his other Pokémon, while Raijal's Pikachu, Kraker, apparently just likes to fry some Pokémon butt and be praised for it.
    • This trope has a major role in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. After an enemy faints there's a percentage chance that they will ask to join your team, based on levels as well as the species of the Pokémon in question. However, you have to leave the dungeon successfully in order to keep them, and not all Pokémon can be recruited this way. In the Explorers games, it's changed so all you have to do is beat them; if your party's full, they just teleport out.
    • The concept behind the captures in Pokémon Ranger is that the Capture Styler conveys one's feelings of good will to the Pokémon, requesting their (temporary) help in whatever heroic campaign you are undertaking. Hence, the process of defeating them is that of befriending them.
    • The Black/White generation of games hints that most of the wild Pokémon you come across want to be caught so they can get stronger and see new places. An NPC who apparently figures out how Pokemon feel about you by looking at their footsteps tells you that ones that like you fairly well hear wild Pokémon telling them that they've forgotten what it's like to be wild, whereas Pokemon who love you see the wild Pokémon as envious of the partnership.
    • In Black2/White2, the three Legendary Pokemon Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion (collectively called "The Three Muskedeers" by fans) clearly want to battle you. When they each appear, it's as if they were waiting for you to come. Latios or Latias (which one depends on the version) is even more eager to battle you; instead of standing still like most Legendaries do, it actually rushes up to and starts the battle whether you want to or not!
    • In Pokémon Conquest, defeating a free warrior in certain waysnote  will result in them joining forces with you.
      • After wiping out a warlord's army, the warlord (and any other warlord they've recruited) joins the pool of free warriors that can randomly appear and be recruited. However, in order to recruit warlords, the same conditions have to be fulfilled with another warlord dealing the final blow.
    • Shows up in PokéPark Wii with a twist — battles are only one of the skill games, with tag and hide-and-seek being the other two competitive ones.
    • This is one of the ways to obtain additional Pokémon in Pokémon Rumble. The chance of it occurring is normally rather low, but when attacking enemy Pokemon, they have a random chance of becoming dazed and defeating them while they're in this state guarantees that you'll obtain them.
  • Puyo Puyo: Somewhat...in Puyo Puyo~n, Puyo Puyo 7, and Puyo Puyo Chronicle. In Yo~n, a select cast of characters (Draco, Serilly, Witch, and Chico) will tag along with Arle after you beat them (and even then, they have their own agenda for joining Arle), allowing you to use their special attacks. This gets taken away from you when you face Dark Prince, who walls off your allies away from the battle scene. In Puyo Puyo 7, a defeated person might tag along with Ringo for the story, as she takes a few heroes and, for a short bit, Dark Prince. As for Chronicle, just like with Yo~n, a defeated person will tag along with your party for the entirety of the story. This includes random enemies, as well as the main playable cast.
  • In Rabi-Ribi, Erina and Ribbon have to invite magic users to come to Rabi Ribi Town to help with a more worrying problem. The problem is, any time Erina tries to strike up conversation with such an individual, that person usually either attacks Erina over a misunderstanding or is Brainwashed and Crazy by a "bunny phenomenon" and has to be snapped out of it by defeating them, with few exceptions. In any case, defeating the target usually gets them to come to town, though two bosses have to be fought multiple times for it to succeed.
  • Rayman: After defeating the first boss, a huge mosquito, it starts crying, and when Rayman pats it on the back they form a friendship and work together in the next level.
  • In Recettear, Charme gives you her Adventurer Card a few days after she's defeated at Jade Way, allowing you to recruit her for other missions. The same goes for Tielle and Griff as well.
  • In the survival / colony simulator RimWorld, if your survivors take prisoners from an attack on the colony, these prisoners can potentially be recruited into the community.
  • In Ristar, a weird alien kid follows you around stage 5-1 in the background, and at the end of the stage you must beat him in a Snowball Fight. Later on, when you fight the stage 5 boss he helps you by bringing hot pizzas to throw in its mouth.
  • The GBA remake of River City Ransom allows you to recruit most of the gang bosses into your party after you beat them. You can even recruit the old Big Bad to use against the Optional Boss.
  • In RosenkreuzStilette, Spiritia has to fight her friends to get them to listen to her, which is no easy task given they are all magical girls. And then there's Grolla trying to convince them that an "unassuming" child is behind all the madness.
  • Saints Row IV features two previous adversaries as prominent allies of the Boss (now the President of the US): Benjamin King, the former leader of the Vice Kings from the first game who was forced to drop his flags after an attempted coup in his organization, now the President's Chief of Staff; and Matt Miller, the leader of the Deckers from the third game, who was defeated by the Boss and likewise forced to flee, now a member of MI6. In addition, enemies from previous games, like Maero, Phillipe Loren, and Tanya Winters, can be recruited as Homies after defeating them in Loyalty Missions.
  • In the Shin Megami Tensei series if you defeat a boss you can create it through fusion, and this will remain in the compendium even in New Game Plus and can be summoned regardless of level provided you have enough money to summon it.
  • Persona:
    • A mutual instance in Persona 2: Innocent Sin; after Lisa pushes Eikichi's Berserk Button at the start of the game, he attacks her and Tatsuya with his Persona only for them to summon theirs and the three end up knocking each other out. After getting exposition from Philemon, coming to, and getting attacked by Joker, they decide to work together.
    • Played with in Persona 4: after each member of the Investigation Team confronts and comes to terms with their Shadow Archetype, the physical manifestation of their worst qualities, that Shadow will turn into their Persona, which they can control. The twist is, fighting their Shadows is unnecessary, even though it always happens in the game; if they simply accept that the Shadow was part of them, as they do after the fight, it becomes their Persona.
    • Adachi in Persona 4 becomes The Atoner after his defeat at the hands of the Investigation Team and if his Social Link was completed, wishes Yu well in his letter to him from prison. His Heel–Face Turn is cemented in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, where he explicitly shows his desire to change due to the team's influence.
    • In Persona 5 Royal, Akechi joins the Phantom Thieves for real after being brought back to life by Maruki as a long-term Enemy Mine, and displays a degree of newfound respect for Joker.
  • In Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, the Griffin Keeper boss of Stage 5 befriends the main characters after they defeat it, and it offers to carry them to their destination Mt. Fuji.
  • In Solatorobo, a quest with Alman has him asking Red to teach his new apprentice to work harder. The apprentice wants none of it, telling them to leave him alone, and eventually prompts Red to fight him. Once beaten, his attitude does a 180 and he'll do anything "Boss" Red tells him to, including working as hard as he possibly can.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Many newcomers fight Sonic, usually out of misunderstanding, before joining his side. This dates back as far as Knuckles (from 1994's Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but several times since) to the additions of Blaze (Sonic Rush) and Silver (Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)). The real baddie usually shows up mid-fight, making the opposing character perform a split-second Heel–Face Turn.
    • Sonic Adventure 2:
      • Shadow is an exception in that he's the one orchestrating the evil, so even after his defeats at the hands of Sonic, he continues to be evil, and his Heel–Face Turn comes later in the Last story.
      • Also, this is played straight with Knuckles, who manages to befriend Rouge after he defeats her in a battle, and soon afterward saves her life and earns her respect.
  • Star Fox: In Assault Star Wolf fights the main characters first before joining them. Although to be fair, it was Star Fox who bothered them in their base. Even then, it was a case of Enemy Mine and Wolf has a The Only One Allowed to Defeat You thing for Fox.
  • In Star Ocean, if Ratix tries to reach C rank in the arena after a certain plot event, Tinek Arukena will announce that he wants to fight Ratix since he finds him a worthy opponent, then leaps in from the audience bleachers and replaces the end boss for the fight. If you defeat him and has less than eight members, he'll join up afterwards. (If you have no free spaces, he just leaves.)
  • In Stellaris, the expansion of pacifist empires often ends up blocked by empires who are hostile to them due to conflicting ethics. The pacifist empire can't just conquer them, because the pacifist ethic does not allow wars of conquest. But what pacifist empires *can* do is declare "Liberation" wars. What that means is that they invade, kick their ass, replace their government with one that shares their own ethics, and then befriend them.
  • Elena from Street Fighter III basically takes this as a policy since she isn't fighting as a matter of personal pride or glory. Instead, she uses it as a way to meet new people and befriend them, strange an approach as it is.
  • Assuming you don't want to use the Classic Cheat Code to unlock him, this is how you get access to Roo in Streets of Rage 3, albeit in a different manner than normal. You have to leave him alone during the brawl against him and his trainer and only defeat the trainer, at which point you can select Roo when you have to use a continue from then on.
  • The Suikoden series is full of this trope. There are 108 recruitable characters in each game, and many of them start off as enemies, or simply won't join you if you can't defeat them in a fight. In the first game, 3 of the 4 enemy generals join up after they're beaten, though you do have the option of killing them instead, but this is not recommended as you won't get the "good ending" because you didn't gather the 108 Stars of Destiny.
  • Super Crush KO ends with the protagonist, Karen, and the final boss, Ann, bonding over their shared love of Karen's pet cat. Even though the game's conflict was Ann stealing the cat in the first place.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • In Mario Super Sluggers, after defeating Bowser in Challenge Mode in his own castle, Mario and his friends invite him to play baseball together for fun. Bowser accepts.
    • In Paper Mario, Lakilester (AKA Spike) fights Mario on Huff N. Puff's orders. After Mario beats him, he joins his party.
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl uses this as a common means of getting new allies in the Subspace Emissary mode. The odd thing is that you can often fight as either, so it works both ways.
  • Super Snail from QC Play Limited, in the country of Cathay some of the generals (including Supreme General Lu Bu) are earned by beating them in combat. In Murika, superheroes only work with you when you beat them. Likewise the partner Peter Jr. only joins if you defeat him first and come back to talk the next day.
  • Tales Series:
    • Tales of Symphonia has this in spades:
      • Sheena joins you after beating her twice. Regal joins almost right after defeating him. Many bosses often convert to your side as friendly NPC's once Lloyd beats the stuffing out of them. With an epiphany speech tossed in for free.
      • Kratos. After defeating him 3 times, the 3rd being a one-on-one duel between Lloyd and the aforementioned character. Depending on certain conditions filled earlier in the game the aforementioned character may join your party.
    • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World gives you the option (almost requirement) of recruiting monsters after defeating them in battle.
    • In Tales of Rebirth, almost every party member is recruited this way for one reason or another.
      • When you meet Tytree, he's been consumed by his Force after his sister was kidnapped, and beating him up breaks him out of it long enough for the heroes to explain the situation.
      • Annie attacks you and you have to fight her to tire her out, eventually leading to her joining the party.
      • Hilda is originally Tomha's Tyke-Bomb, who's only diffused by fighting her twice, once normally and a second time in a berserk state.
      • Veigue is good at this point, but he and Tytree getting into a fistfight and Tytree finally "winning" make Veigue fully admit the pair are friends and the two develop a better relationship as a result.
    • Tales of Vesperia:
      • With Well-Intentioned Extremist Duke, the final boss. Yuri and friends beat the crap out of him, then completely forgive him after he joined their cause and helped to defeat the Adephagos. Despite the whole, y'know, attempted omnicide thing]].
      • With Raven, only the eventual defeat didn't so much cause the friendship as affirm it.
  • In Team Fortress 2, all Valve (public) servers automatically rebalance the teams in a game if one team wins enough times without letting the other team win by shuffling players between the two teams. (Good luck finding a server where the players stick around after an autobalance and don't promptly quit because they've been shuffled onto the losing team.)
  • Tears to Tiara 2 Hamil defeats Aemilia, proving to her that there's still hope, that there's people hard at work at fixing what The Empire had let fall to ruin, and that there's people willing to fight for the sake of others. And of course his father was her ally at court. She quite eagerly joins the Party and put her administrative skills to use.
  • In Tekken 4 and 5, King fights and beats Craig Marduk, who murdered Armor King in a bar brawl before Tekken 4. After the second defeat, Marduk decides to change his ways and become a more honorable fighter when King forgives him, and the two end up as tag-team partners in the professional wrestling circuit.
  • In Telefang, when defeating enemy Denjuu, they often offer you their phone number so that you can befriend them and use them to battle other opponents.
  • This is the hallmark of the Touhou Project doujin game series. The only playable character that didn't start as a boss is Reimu herself. In fact, almost every game ends with the good guys sitting down for tea with the bad guys and unlocking a bonus stage.
    • It's also heavily implied in the backstory of the goddesses in Mountain of Faith. Kanako defeated Suwako to conquer her kingdom, but didn't exile her and agreed to share the shrine.
    • One of Reimu's alternate outfits/color schemes in 12.3, Hisoutensoku, is a Shout-Out to the Nanoha herself. Makes sense, as they both are fans of Friendship Through Superior Firepower.
    • In Touhou Labyrinth, a boss fight with one of the major Touhou girls always ends with the girl (or guy, in the case of Rinnosuke) in question "joining" Reimu's party in the post-battle cutscene. How willing each girl is at the matter varies individually, though.
    • In Sacred Oriental Place, the Three Fairies of Light purposefully challenge Reimu for the sole reason to become friends with her, since they know what has happened to other former enemies of Reimu.
    • This trope finally got averted with Double Dealing Character's Big Bad, Seija Kijin, who got the societal upheaval plot of the game rolling by manipulating Shinmyoumaru Sukuna into doing her bidding. As it turns out, in Impossible Spell Card, following the events of DDC, she was branded an outlaw and hunted by everyone for all the shit she stirred up. However, Seija is so contrarian, enemies basically are friends from her point of view.
    • The consequences of this trope are further elaborated upon in Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery: Because of both Defeat Means Friendship and the fact that she treats youkai and humans the same, Reimu gets a lot of non-human visitors at her shrine. But because of that, rumors have started to circulate in the human village that she's not doing her job as their protector and youkai exterminator, but rather that she's siding with the enemy.
  • In Toy Commander, after you defeat one of the seven generals, said general becomes playable in the final fight against Huggy Bear.
  • Troublemaker has the boss, Zaenal, who reforms after getting beaten up by Budi and becomes one of his besties.
  • Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Used blatantly in the first game, when one of the mini-bosses, Neddy, immediately declares you his new best friend after you beat him and gives you a thunder egg.
  • This trope is repeatedly and cruelly subverted in Tyranny as part of its Central Theme of 'the reward for loyalty to a tyrant is death'. One major subversion of this trope drives the central conflict of the game: Graven Ashe, a rebel who killed the previous Archon of War shortly before being subdued by the rest of Kyros' Archons, was given the previous Archon's in the Overlord's empire as part of a KlingonPromotion after being dragged before the Overlord by the other Archons impressed by his prowess. He's set up to be killed with a UriahGambit after decades of loyalty. It's strongly implied that Kyros would've never made Ashe an archon and was forced to out of political expedience. However, since Ashe serves Kyros loyally the Overlord never got, until the start of the game, a reason to kill him.
  • Undertale both subverts and plays this trope straight. You can befriend any monster you encounter(including bosses) after winning the battle. The catch is, to do so you will have to "win" the encounter by non-violent means. If you will fight the monster, the battle will end with you actually killing them.
  • This occurs once in Valkyrie Profile. Throughout the game, you witness the deaths of heroes, and recruit their souls for Ragnarok. At one point, the Valkyrie is commanded by the goddess Freya to kill a wizard named Gandar and take his soul. After he's dead, he refuses to join up with Valkyrie. She gives him the ultimatum of joining her or being sent to Hell. He grudgingly accepts.
  • This is the standard mode of character recruitment for the Wei campaign in Warriors Orochi, though most of the time it's more "defeat = forced to join your side". Eventually, though, Wei defects from Orochi control and a large chunk of disgruntled ex-Wei officers show up to help. The other campaigns are a mix of this and Big Damn Heroes.
  • In Wintermoor Tactics Club, after each round of the Snowball Fight competition, one member of each of the disbanded clubs you defeat will join Tactics Club, though not always the member given the most spotlight... Batu is the most surprising, as he literally has no lines of dialogue before he joins the party.
  • In The XCOM Files if you capture an enemy dog alive, it's added to your kennel.
  • Adol's rival in Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim and Ys SEVEN, Geis, joins the party in the latter after losing a duel. Of course, in this case it's more like "defeat means becoming willing to provide assistance in defeating a common enemy", since Geis was never terribly fond of Adol.

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