Deuteragonist / Video Games

The Deuteragonist in Video Games.

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• Advanced Variable Geo:
  • As the heiress of The Jahana Corporation, Reimi Jahana serves as both the deuteragonist and as Yuka's primary rival. After being defeated by Yuka, she aids her in putting an end to her mother, Miranda's, ambitions.
  • In Advanced V.G. II, Tamao assumes this role, relegating Reimi to being the tritagonist. The game has Tamao looking for Yuka, who'd lost her will to fight due to feeling responsible for the deaths of K-1 and K-2^note both were killed by Miranda for failing to defeat Yuka in the previous tournament. Tamao helps rekindle Yuka's spirit by making her see that she wasn't to blame for what'd happened, after which, they face each other in a friendly match. In the canonical version, Tamao wins and goes on to defeat Miranda as well.
• Jack and Leo from Anarchy Reigns. Both gets an equal amount of focus, and you have to play both sides of the single player campaign.
• ANNO: Mutationem: Ayane Misuno is Ann's Best Friend and a brilliant hacker who lends her support by hacking into systems, researching, and looking up information/locations of interest while accompanying Ann through her Paipai drone.
• Art of Fighting: Robert is the next most pivotal character in the series' canon, as he and Ryo are both credited for taking down Mr. Big's Syndicate, while Robert is credited for personally defeating Big. AoF 3 reversed their roles, making him the protagonist of that game, while Ryo served as deuteragonist. Carmen Cole contacts him to help him find Robert, since he assumed Ryo knew him well enough to be able to anticipate where might've gone and what his next move would be.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Assassin's Creed III has Achilles Davenport, leader of the Colonial Assassins and Connor Kenway's mentor.
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has Adéwalé, Edward Kenway's quartermaster.
  • Assassin's Creed: Unity has Élise de la Serre, adoptive sister and lover of Arno Dorian.
  • Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Henry Green is this to the Frye twins.
  • Assassin's Creed Origins: Aya is this to Bayek and is playable in a few of her own missions.
• Boyle is the protagonist of Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Myst, and much of the story's focus revolves around his quest to become a hero. But the goal of main quest itself is actually about Myst trying to rescue her younger brother from being sacrificed to a demon.
• Battle for Wesnoth: Some campaigns has one.
  • Heir to the Throne: Delfador is the deuteragonist as Konrad's mentor, the one with more personal reason to overthrow Queen Asheivere as she betrayed the king he was loyal to, and, although Konrad is the one who lead the troops, Delfador tends to be the one who decide what the group should do. Princess Li'sar, recurring enemy turned ally, is the tritagonist as the heroes' goal shift from "make Konrad the king" to "make Li'sar the queen" for the final scenarios of the campaign.
  • Legend of Wesmere: Landar is the deuteragonist as Kalenz' Lancer from the very start. Landar's status as the deuteragonist is cemented after the Great Chief's death, as Landar's increasing ruthlessness is frequently focused on and the story only ends after Face-Heel Turned Landar is defeated by Kalenz.
  • The Eastern Invasion: Dacyn is a similar case with Delfador above, being the who knows the most about what is going on and decide where to go while Gweddry leads the troops, and being the one with personal history with the Big Bad.
  • The Rise of Wesnoth: Lady Jessene. While Haldric is the leader and the one with most focus, the story is almost as much about Jessene trying to save the Wesfolk from Jevyan and the orcs as it is about Haldric trying to save his people (and Jessene's too once she become an ally) from the same threat.
• In other Bioware games, there's Imoen of the Baldur's Gate series, Bastila in Knights of the Old Republic, Kreia in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and Dawn Star in Jade Empire. In Knights of the Old Republic, Carth Onasi takes on the role of Tritagonist.
• Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite after Booker frees her from captivity early in the game. This is flipped around in Episode 2 of Burial at Sea, where Elizabeth is the protagonist and Booker, or at least a mental version of him, is the deuteragonist.
• Jin Kisaragi from BlazBlue. It becomes increasingly obvious over the series that his character arc runs parallel to Ragna's, The Protagonist. Namely his transition from a figurehead hero used by the villains to a genuine hero taking his own path. Noel Vermilion rounds things out as the tritagonist, also having a prominent character arc alongside Ragna and Jin's, discovering her past and overcoming it to save her loved ones. It's also worth noting that Word of God considers Rachel Alucard and Hazama to be the de facto fourth and fifth main characters of the series. The former is ever-present in supporting and (rudely) encouraging the heroes' efforts (being one of a few characters to qualify for Big Good status, in fact) and plays a key role in the story herself, while the latter is the vessel for the Big Bad and serves as the Arch-Enemy to a majority of the cast.
• Breath of Fire IV: Fou-lu acts as the deuteragonist while Ryu acts as the protagonist. Considering that they are the same person, this is not such a surprise.
• Broken Age features two separate stories of two separate teenagers which are played in parallel; although it seems there is little direct connection between them, actions of both heroes have great effect on each other without them aware of the other's existence.
• Call of Duty:
  • In Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mason is the protagonist, Hudson is the deuteragonist, Woods and Reznov are the tritagonists.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops II:
    • In the flashback, Woods is promoted to deuteragonist since most of the past is narrated by him, but you still play all save one of the missions as Alex Mason. Woods can also be considered the deuteragonist of the story as a whole, since although Mason gets the spotlight in the 1980s missions, it is ultimately Woods' actions and mistakes that set up the 2025 conflict.
  • For the 2025 story, David Mason is the protagonist, Mike Harper is the deuteragonist, Javier Salazar and Admiral Briggs (probably Crosby too) are the tritagonists.
• Crescent Prism: After beating Chapter 1 using Lunita's party, the player is thrust into Chapter 1X, where they take control of Nova and his Sundown Squad as he starts to realize how poorly he treated Amos. Nova ends up partnering with the Crimson Prism Stone, showing that he's going to be a major player in future chapters.
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale is as much about Chicory as it is the player character, in that she's the artist whom they look up to, but struggles with her personal problems surrounding her responsibility as a Brush Wielder.
• Cyberpunk 2077: V as the protagonist and Johnny Silverhand as the deuteragonist. Johnny is essentially a personality on a chip that V has slotted into their body, making the two share a brain. There's a running motif in the game of the two personalities slowly merging together, and, as the plot progresses, we see that Johnny gains more and more of V's traits and vice versa.
• Detroit: Become Human takes place 20 Minutes in the Future where Ridiculously Human Robots have become commonplace... but are still the victims of Fantastic Racism. The three Player Characters are: Markus, who leads the androids in their Robot War; Connor, a loyal android sent to stop it; and Kara, fresh from the tech demo, a Robot Maid who goes on the run from an abusive owner.
  • Kara (despite getting first billing) is unquestionably the tritagonist: due to the Story Branching and Permadeath mechanics, she can actually just die before the first day of the game (of five total) has ended. Additionally, while the three characters get together during the third act, Markus and Connor's remaining chapters center around the Robot War, while Kara pulls a "Screw This, I'm Outta Here," leaving the revolution and never looking back. Her whole point is to provide an everyman perspective.
  • The question of who is the deuteragonist is a bit more complicated. Markus is the lynchpin of the game, and his fate affects those of the other two even when he's not present. That said, Connor is the subject of both the Distant Prologue and The Stinger, his Character Arc is by far the most complicated, and he's the only character with Relationship Values with a human (Lt. Hank Anderson of the Detroit PD, with whom Connor has an Androids and Detectives double act going). Frankly, either interpretation — Markus as Protagonist and Connor as Foil; Connor as Protagonist Emergent Human and Markus as Supporting Leader — works.
  • Finally, since the three characters have their own Cast Herds, they also have their own deuteragonists. Connor's is Hank, as mentioned; in fact, if you just treat the three PCs as sharing the protagonist spotlight, Hank is the deuteragonist for the whole game, not only for having the second-largest amount of Character Development (after Connor himself) but for being the single most important human character in the game. Kara's is Alice, the abusive owner's little girl whom Kara becomes a Mama Bear for, with a tritagonist in Black Best Friend Luther. And Markus's is North, the Blood Knight Sex Bot Love Interest, with a tritagonist in Josh, the Actual Pacifist Black Best Friend; they, plus another guy named Simon, are the leaders of La Résistance when Markus stumbles upon them.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Devil May Cry 2: Dante is the protagonist and Lucia is the deuteragonist. Depending on how you look at it, Lucia is the real protagonist since she actually undergoes a character arc while Dante seems to treat this as just another job for him.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: Dante is the protagonist, his brother Vergil is the deuteragonist and Lady is the tritagonist.
  • Devil May Cry 4: Nero is the protagonist and Dante is the deuteragonist.
  • Devil May Cry 5: Nero is the protagonist, Dante is the deuteragonist and V aka Vergil is the tritagonist.
• Dragon Age:
  • Dragon Age: Origins has two possible deuteragonists, with their exact order of importance depending on how you play the game. One is Alistair, especially if he's picked to be king. The other is Morrigan.
  • Dragon Age II: Anders is the deuteragonist, being central to the Mage-Templar conflict that sets up the next game. Isabela is the tritagonist, being central to the Qunari crisis that leads directly to the Mage-Templar conflict. Varric is the tetragonist who narrates it all.
  • Inquisition gives this role to Cassandra Pentaghast, being the one who is responsible for the establishment of the eponymous organization and vouching for the protagonist's innocence over the Conclave explosion, saving their lives and eventually putting them into power to the said organization.
  • Throughout the series Leliana is probably the most predominant character, since she appears in all three games and regularly in Expanded Universe material. Dragon Age: Inquisition in particular gives her the most attention, with her serving as the Inquisition spymaster and then potentially as the Divine herself, making her arguably the most powerful person in Thedas.
• The Elder Scrolls games have main questlines in the base game and in the add-ons, each with their own deuteragonists to the player character's protagonist:
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has Martin Septim as deuteragonist and Jauffre as tritagonist.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Serana in Dawnguard and Frea in Dragonborn both serve as the deuteragonist of the main questline.
• Fable:
  • Theresa, who's a guide/mentor to the hero in Fable II, Fable III, and Fable: The Journey, as well as the sister who needs to be found in Fable.
  • Walter Beck, the hero's sword master, is this in Fable III.
• Fallen Legion Revenants: Rowena and Lucien are both playable but separated between Combat and Diplomacy. At the end of the game, your decisions decide which was the protagonist and lead to completely different final chapters.
• Fallout:
  • Fallout 3: Your father, James with Sarah Lyons being the Tritagonist.
  • Fallout 4: Based on what faction you side with, this could be either Preston Garvey for the Minutemen, Paladin Danse for the Brotherhood of Steel, or The Father, AKA your son Shaun with the Institute.
    • Nick Valentine becomes one to the Sole Survivor in the "Far Harbor" DLC.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: Depends on what faction you join e.g. Mr House if you side with him the entire game, Caesar if you side with him.
    • Also, in a way, Benny. Although you don't really see him, the story only comes together when you get to know his side of it. He sets the events of the main plot in motion and remains an important figure even after the Courier kills him. Especially in the Free Vegas ending, where you take his place in the plan to free Vegas from external influence and Mr House's reign, bringing it into a new age of prosperity and progress. Or total anarchy.
    • In the Dead Money DLC, Christine Royce, Dean Domino or Father Elijah, depending on how you interpret the story.
    • In the Honest Hearts DLC, Joshua Graham AKA The Burned Man.
    • In the Old World Blues DLC, Doctor Morbius.
    • In the Lonesome Road DLC, Ulysses. Or ED-E. But come on, it's Ulysses.
• Far Cry has Valerie Constantine, Jack Carver's client.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy VI, it's hard to tell who the primary protagonist is among Terra, Celes, and Locke. But there is a pro-, deuter-, and tritagonist, make no mistake.
  • Compilation of Final Fantasy VII:
    • Final Fantasy VII has Aerith in this role, while Barret and Tifa are pretty evenly tied as the tritagonists. Once Aerith dies, Tifa steps into the deuteragonist role, leaving Barret as the sole tritagonist.
    • Final Fantasy VII Remake has Cloud as the protagonist and Aerith as the deuteragonist again, but this time Tifa is the clear tritagonist to Barret's tetragonist. She is around in the party more often than him, he is the one removed from the party when all four heroes regroup in Chapter 17, and he has clear bottom priority for events that can involve any one of the three party members.
    • Crisis Core has Zack as The Protagonist. Sephiroth, Big Bad of Final Fantasy VII, serves as the deuteragonist until his Freak Out, Face–Heel Turn, and subsequent defeat at Nibelheim. At that point, Cloud assumes the role of deuteragonist.
    • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has Tifa as the deuteragonist to Cloud again. Of all people, the one closest to tritagonist in this one is Marlene.
  • Final Fantasy VIII has two major candidates for this trope, depending on perspective.
    • On one hand, Square officially considers Laguna Loire to be the deuteragonist. The manual emphasizes this as his role, with its summary of the storyline placing special note on how the story is of his and Squall's fates intertwining with each other (it's heavily implied that Laguna is Squall's father), as well as listing the two on the same page. In addition, Laguna is responsible for and involved in many crucial aspects of the game's backstory, and he was added as the new VIII representative in Dissidia 012. The creators made him with the intent of his being an "alternate protagonist."
    • On the other hand, among fans it is usually Rinoa who is considered the deuteragonist, due to her prominence in the game itself as the heroine, her and Squall's romance being a major part of the storyline, as well as her overall popularity. It also helps that she is a permanent party member, unlike Laguna who is only playable during the flashback sequences. Interestingly, Rinoa would eventually be added to Dissidia NT whereas Laguna would be one of the 012 newcomers to not return for that installment.
  • Final Fantasy IX has Garnet and Vivi. Which one is the deuteragonist or tritagonist depends on your point of view.
  • Final Fantasy X zig-zags this. It starts out with Auron, the Badass Longcoat-wearing mentor figure, telling Tidus "This is your story"... but that story involves him getting Trapped in Another World where he is a Naïve Newcomer and immediately becomes a member of the Praetorian Guard to Yuna, a Messianic Archetype who can save the world. The story is structured around her pilgrimage to defeat "Sin", an Animalistic Abomination that has been wreaking havoc on Spira for a thousand years, to the point where players can forget that, 20 or 30 hours ago, we were told Tidus was the main character. But then the Plot Twists fall fast and furious: Jecht, Tidus's alcoholic, abusive Disappeared Dad, is Sin; he too was isekai'd to Spira, he too became a Guardian, and he helped Yuna's father defeat Sin last time, which somehow resulted in him becoming the new one. Sin always comes back, part of an Eternal Recurrence created to keep Spira locked in Medieval Stasis.^{tl;dr (Spoilers!)}Sin hijacks the person who killed it. The last time this happened prior to X, Jecht killed it. And the reason both Jecht and Tidus are here is that only they can break the cycle.^{tl;dr (Spoilers!)}Sin was created by someone to protect a community of refugees. Jecht and Tidus hail from that community, who have since learned what was done in their name and want it to stop. While Yuna is The Chosen One and The Only One Allowed to Defeat You where Sin is concerned, she's the Supporting Leader and deuteragonist, because it's Tidus who makes that defeat permanent. Yuna calls their roles to attention when Tidus brings up how the story of FFX is his story near the end:
    Tidus: This is my story. It'll go the way I want it... or I'll end it here.
    Yuna: Wait. You say it's your story, but it's my story, too, you know?
  • Final Fantasy XII: Ashe is the most important with Vaan being the Supporting Protagonist.
  • For the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy as a whole, the true deuteragonist is Serah, as the trilogy centers on her and Lightning's struggle through time and space to find each other again. In practice, however, the deuteragonists switch per game:
    • The first game has Vanille. She's in the game's logo, she's the narrator, and she has a very important branded "Focus." Snow and Hope serve as co-tritagonists with a personal arc shared between them.
    • Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Noel Kreiss to Serah.
    • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII puts Hope as the deuteragonist; he's the one Lightning trusts the most at this point, and provides key information throughout her quest. In addition, the game examines how his relationship with Lightning has evolved from the original game (with a ton of Ship Tease to go with it), and his post-XIII-2 backstory and ties with Bhunivelze (further detailed in the post-game novella Reminiscence -Tracer of Memories-) are major plot points.
  • Final Fantasy XIV has different sets of deuter- and tritagonists for each expansion, in support of the player character's protagonist.
    • A Realm Reborn's main storyline was a bit all over the place, preventing it from really solidifying anybody, but towards the end Alphinaud and Cid settled in as deuteragonist and tritagonist.
    • In the 2.1 to 2.5 patch cycle, Cid was replaced with Minfilia, while Alphinaud came more to the forefront.
    • Heavenward featured the trio of Estinien, Alphinaud, and Ysayle as deuteragonist, tritagonist, and tetragonist respectively.
    • The 3.1 to 3.5 patch cycle featured Alphinaud as deuteragonist with Aymeric as tritagonist.
    • Stormblood had Lyse as deuteragonist and Hien as a tritagonist. In the 4.x patch cycle, Alisaie steps up as the tetragonist.
    • Shadowbringers actually avoided this thanks to focusing much more on its ensemble cast, though it could be said that the Crystal Exarch served as a tetragonist to the ensemble's deuteragonists.
  • Final Fantasy XV:
    • The Episode Ignis DLC firmly established Ignis as the game's deuteragonist, as it is his actions in this DLC that have the most wide-ranging effects. Specifically, he can override the game's original Bittersweet Ending with a full-on Golden Ending.
    • Lunafreya was intended to be this to replace the original deuteragonist of Versus XIII, Stella, but became Out of Focus due to development issues. However, Episode Ignis does put her in the role of tritagonist since she is implied to be giving Ignis the information he needs in order override the original ending.
    • Prompto and Gladiolus thus share the role of tetragonist, as they do not affect the plot nearly as much as Noctis, Ignis and Luna do.
  • In Final Fantasy XVI, Joshua Rosfield is the deuteragonist. He spends all of his time before entering the plot researching the Big Bad, he factors just as heavily into said Big Bad's evil plan as Clive does, and in the end he is one of the two people to accompany Clive to the Final Battle (the other being Dion Lesage, who is a relatively important supporting character but is there mainly as a living ferryman). Jill Warrick and Torgal serve as the tritagonists, being Clive's most constant companions throughout the game.
• In Final Fantasy Tactics, it's Delita Heiral, the former best friend of Ramza Beolve whose actions play a major part in shaping the plot. The story is his as much as it is Ramza's, with them taking divergent paths that nonetheless criss-cross throughout the game from start to finish.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and its direct sequel Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Caeda serves as deuteragonist to Marth's protagonist, being his staunchest supporter in both wars and (in Mystery of the Emblem) Love Interest. She keeps the role in the remakes, though New Mystery of the Emblem also features the Avatar (Kris) as a Supporting Protagonist. Unlike most subsequent deuteragonists in the franchise, however, Caeda does not have any in-game Plot Armor protection; the trope is subverted if she falls victim to Permadeath, though if this happen, the games' respective endings will change to have Marth mourn her death.
  • New Mystery of the Emblem also features a new subplot, in which Katarina plays deuteragonist to Marth and Kris, as she is the main focus of the subplot and is the closest thing the prologue, which begins the subplot, have to a main antagonist.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: For the first generation, Deirdre serves as this to Sigurd, due to her being his Love Interest and a key element in Manfroy's Evil Plan. The second generation has Julia to Seliph; her relationship with both Julius and Seliph himself, as well as her heritage being the key to stopping Loptous, provide her a great deal of focus.
  • Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, meanwhile, features Nanna in the role to Leif's protagonist, being his love interest. But much like Caeda, this can be subverted if she falls in battle, as Nanna also doesn’t have any Plot Armor.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has no clear deuteragonist, but plot-wise, Elffin is arguably the closest to the role, since he is Roy's second top confidant after Merlinus, and he has a stake in the war against Bern just as much as Roy does, owing to him being the presumed dead prince of Etruria. However, subsequent material, including Fire Emblem Heroes, has Black Magician Girl Lilina playing this instead, because of her being the daughter of Hector, who is made a Lord in the prequel game, as well as being the Developers' Desired Date for Roy.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, this depends on the story mode:
    • In Lyn's Tale, the tactician (Mark) is the deuteragonist, with Kent and Sain as the tritagonists.
    • For Eliwood's Tale, Hector serves as the deuteragonist to Eliwood. Lyn goes down to the tritagonist spot; although she's not exactly irrelevant after her tale, she doesn't hold quite as much importance to the overarching plot compared to Eliwood or Hector. Ninian serves as the tetragonist, as her relationship with Eliwood and her heritage being the key to open the Dragon's Gate are vital plot points.
    • In Hector's Tale, Hector takes center stage as a Supporting Protagonist instead, while Eliwood takes a step back as the deuteragonist (though he remains the primary focus of the plot). Lyn and Ninian, meanwhile, keep their respective tritagonist and tetragonist spots.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Seth is the deuteragonist for the first two story arcs of the game, as he is the one charged by the late king with the safety of the twins, an adviser in Ephraim's route, and the tactician in Eirika's path. After the siblings are reunited, however, the role is deferred to the sibling not chosen as the protagonist.
  • For Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Princess Elincia is the deuteragonist to Ike's protagonist.
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, however, has the player taking on different armies in different parts of the game, meaning who the deuteragonist is depends on what part of the game one is in:
    • Part 1: Sothe is the deuteragonist to Micaiah's protagonist.
    • Part 2: Geoffrey and Lucia are the deuteragonists to Elincia's protagonist.
    • Part 3: Ranulf is the deuteragonist to Ike's protagonist.
    • Part 4: While the army is split for most of this part, by the end, and arguably for the game as a whole, Micaiah is the deuteragonist to Ike's protagonist.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has the Avatar (Robin) and "Marth" (actually Chrom's daughter from the future, Lucina), whose roles in the game are equally important as Chrom's, despite the fact that they aren't given as much focus. Additionally, Say'ri plays the role of tetragonist on the second arc of the game, due to her insight on the Valmese Empire as well as her vendetta against Arc Villain Walhart.
  • Fire Emblem Fates has Azura to the Avatar (Corrin). She joins them in all three routes and her powers, knowledge, and background are extremely vital plot points.
  • In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, it depends on whose party the player is following. Alm's side of the story puts Clive in the position, while Saber fills the role for Celica's path.
  • In Part I of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Byleth is the protagonist and Sothis is the deuteragonist while whichever lord you pick (Edelgard, Dimitri, or Claude) acts as the tritagonist. In all routes except the Silver Snow route, the lord takes over as protagonist as their goals and ambitions begin to drive the plot while Byleth becomes their Number Two and the deuteragonist, and their top retainer (Hubert, Gilbert, or Hilda) assumes the role of tritagonist. In the Silver Snow route, Byleth remains the protagonist while Seteth assumes the role of deuteragonist as your Number Two.
  • Fire Emblem Engage has Veyle as the deuteragonist to Alear's protagonist, showing up early on and often driving the story through her or her other personality's actions, so she's the second most important character after Alear.
    • The Fell Xenologue storyline has Nel act as the deuteragonist to Alear's protagonist, with her character arc, history with Alear's Alternate Self, growing friendship with Alear being just as vital to the plot. The tritagonist is Nil, or rather Rafal, who also serves as the Arc Villain of the DLC.
• While formerly The Big Guy of the Five-Man Band, Augustus Cole is promoted to this at the start of Gears of War 3. The second half of the first Act is played from his perspective, and is the only time in all three campaigns that Player 1 isn't controlling Marcus Fenix.
• While Kratos remains the protagonist in God of War (PS4), the majority of the story is also about his own developing father-son relationship with his son Atreus as the latter comes to term with both himself and his father. This continues in God of War Ragnarök where there are even segments where Atreus becomes a fully playable character.
• Gothic has Xardas for the series as a whole. Diego fills the role in the first game. In Arcania, Zyra is the deuteragonist to the new protagonist.
• Often happens in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. The GTA Wiki has two nice convenient lists of every deuteragonist and tritagonist in the series.
  • In Grand Theft Auto III, Claude is the protagonist, Maria Latore is the deuteragonist, and Asuka Kasen is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Tommy Vercetti is the protagonist, Ken Rosenberg is the deuteragonist, and Lance Vance is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Carl "CJ" Johnson is the protagonist, Sean "Sweet" Johnson is the deuteragonist, and Cesar Vialpando is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto Advance, Mike is the protagonist and Cisco is the deuteragonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Toni Cipriani is the protagonist, Salvatore Leone is the deuteragonist, and Donald Love is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Victor Vance is the protagonist, Lance Vance is the deuteragonist, and Louise Cassidy-Williams is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto IV, Niko Bellic is the protagonist, Roman Bellic is the deuteragonist, and "Little" Jacob Hughes is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, Johnny Klebitz is the protagonist, Jim Fitzgerald is the deuteragonist, and Ashley Butler is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Huang Lee is the protagonist, Wade Heston is the deuteragonist, and Hsin Jaoming is the tritagonist.
  • In Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, Luis Fernando Lopez is the protagonist, Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince is the deuteragonist, and Yusuf Amir is the tritagonist.
  • Grand Theft Auto V is wonky.
    • For the game overall, Michael de Santa, Trevor Phillips, and Franklin Clinton are the protagonists and Lester Crest is the deuteragonist.
    • For Michael's storyline, Michael is the protagonist, Dave Norton is the deuteragonist, and Jimmy de Santa is the tritagonist.
    • For Trevor's storyline, Trevor is the protagonist, Ron Jakowski is the deuteragonist, and Wade Hebert is the tritagonist.
    • For Franklin's storyline, Franklin is the protagonist, Lamar Davis is the deuteragonist, and Chop is the tritagonist.
• Guilty Gear:
  • Ky Kiske is essentially The Hero and one of the leading characters of the GG series, but he is still behind Anti-Hero Sol Badguy in terms of protagonism due to not being as tied with the series' background as Sol is.
  • Guilty Gear 2: Overture marks a rare diversion, as it's Ky's son Sin who instead serves as the deuteragonist, having been placed in Sol's care for a variety of understandable reasons that were either poorly conveyed to his young child or unable to be conveyed at all. While Sol deals with an Outside-Context Problem from the Backyard that's seemingly connected to his past, Sin splits his time assisting his guardian and sorting out his abandonment issues. It's also implied Sol's "rearing" of Sin had a positive effect on him (up to that point, Sol had been notorious for his lone wolf tendencies), which makes sense when later games all but outright say Sin is his grandkid.
  • The role of tritagonist, on the other hand, is somewhat harder to pin down.
    • Dizzy, introduced in X, was the original title bearer, owning to her status as the half-Gear daughter of Justice, the Commander Gear who menaced humanity during the Crusades and was the Final Boss in GG1. Despite trying to peacefully co-exist with humanity, Dizzy is one of the highest priority targets of the Government Conspiracy that rules the post-Crusades world (ranging from a bounty on her head in X to attempted abductions in Accent Core Plus so a Mad Scientist can analyze and clone her), and XX sees her unfortunately drawing the attention of That Man's group as well. However, she ends up becoming temporarily indisposed during the Time Skip between Accent Core Plus and Overture and is downgraded to Living MacGuffin status in GG2 proper, allowing the tritagonist role to go to...
    • Ky Kiske himself, now the First King of the Allied Kingdom of Illyria. While Sol and Sin have a more direct role in combating the threat that has arrived at Illyria's doorstop — a mysterious girl named Valentine — Ky's presence and exposition fills in a lot of the gaps brought upon by the Time Skip. Namely, he fell in love with and entered a secret relationship with Dizzy/"The Maiden of the Grove", had a part-Gear child whose existence also had to be kept secret, was forced to take up his current position by the Senate to protect his family (and, on top of dealing with The Chains of Commanding, is aware they want to use him as a Puppet King because he's adored by the public due to his past exploits as a hero of the Crusades and captain of the International Police Force), and — perhaps worst of all — had to freeze time around Dizzy to save her when her body mysteriously began to sublimate and then entrust his son's safety to Sol, forbidden from telling Sin anything without potentially endangering him. This mostly gets sorted out by the time of Xrd -SIGN-, where Ky is once again the deuteragonist.
    • Ramlethal Valentine arguably steps up to the plate during the Xrd saga, either sharing tritagonist duties with Sin or outright supplanting him. A significant portion of -SIGN-'s story is devoted to her character arc, culminating in a Heel–Face Turn, and Ram survives her apparent death at the Big Bad's hands to help save the day (and her sister Elphelt) in -REVELATOR-.
    • Owing to several revelations across the series, particularly in Xrd, one could also argue that Aria, Sol's Lost Lenore, is in the running, having been directly or indirectly responsible for the present-day state of the series. In order: She convinced That Man to convert Sol into a Gear after it was revealed she was Secretly Dying and was later converted into a Gear herself, becoming Justice; her contact with the Universal Will caused a domino effect leading to the destruction of Japan and Justice's own vendetta against the human race (both major parts of the lore); Sol faces her several times during the Crusades and finally puts her down at the start of the series, only realizing after the fact that it was a Mercy Kill; her clone, Valentine, serves as the main villain of Overture; -SIGN- delves into Aria's backstory and reveals that Justice's Empty Shell is in the possession of the Conclave, who want to use her power as a Commander Gear to further their plans for shaping the world; -REVELATOR- continues to divulge backstory details and likewise reveals that That Man salvaged half of Aria's soul from within Justice and placed it inside of another clone (Jack-O' Valentine), who proceeds to merge with Justice to bring Aria Back from the Dead in the finale; and, as of -STRIVE-, the revived Aria (under the alias of Jack-O') now travels with Sol as his partner in bounty hunting.
• Half-Life 2 has Alyx Vance, close friend and ally of Gordon Freeman, who accompanies him through much of the game.
• Halo:
  • The Arbiter (Thel 'Vadam) is the main character in several levels of Halo 2, and fights beside Master Chief in Halo 3. In fact, it's the Arbiter, not Chief, who saves the galaxy at the end of Halo 2.
  • Master Chief himself in Halo 5: Guardians. You only play as him in about 20% of the game, with the starting and final mission being Locke's job. Especially considering that the final mission is Locke trying to rescue Master Chief from Cortana.
• Hitman has Diana Burnwood, Agent 47's "handler", for the series as a whole.
• Marie in I Miss the Sunrise. The developer even makes an argument that she could be considered the protagonist, with Ros as the deuteragonist. Tezkhra is eligible for the role of tritagonist, also, as his subplot gets a great deal of focus and is significant to the main story.
• Riku in Kingdom Hearts has progressively become this, starting with Chain of Memories, where he takes over as the playable character in his own story once Sora's story finishes, and cemented past Kingdom Hearts II. Out of all the games in the series, Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has the most fun with this trope. In this one, Sora is the deuteragonist, while Riku himself gets a day as the protagonist.
• Over the course of Kirby and its long long history, Kirby has been the protagonist with his Arch-Enemy King Dedede serving as his deuteragonist. Depending on the game you play, Kirby's deuteragonist could be Gooey, Meta Knight, Prince Fluff, Ribbon, or Bandanna Waddle Dee. Kirby: Triple Deluxe takes its sweet time setting up this narrative, with Kirby attempting to stop Taranza, the initial Big Bad, and save Dedede, who was mistaken as the hero of Dreamland, by climbing the Dreamstalk across the many islands of Floralia. In the side game "Dededetour!", the game shows the situation from Dedede's perspective, which leads him to find and destroy the Amazing Mirror — the item that had drove the true Big Bad of the game, Queen Sectonia, insane.
• The Last of Us has Joel as the protagonist and Ellie as the deuteragonist. The two characters spend (almost) the entire game together, and their character arcs are very closely linked together.
• The Last of Us Part II has two protagonists, and each one of them has a deuteragonist. Returning Ellie's deuteragonist is her girlfriend, Dina, while Abby's deuteragonist is Lev.
• In the Legacy of Kain series, it's Raziel. More specifically:
  • Blood Omen: Vorador is the secondary protagonist that Kain is inspired by and the most useful in fighting the members of the Circle of Nine.
  • Blood Omen 2: Umah
  • Soul Reaver: The Elder God aids you in this one and takes up a lot of screen time.
  • Soul Reaver 2: Kain
  • Defiance: Raziel has about as many stages as Kain but he ends up being a supporting role to Kain in this story.
• The Legend of Zelda has Zelda's incarnations as the general deuteragonist to Link's protagonist, with several games having another specific one. Most of these are the designated helper, but that isn't always the case, such as with Navi from Ocarina of Time, who doesn't have a backstory.
  • Link's Awakening: Marin, to the point of being an Implied Love Interest.
  • Majora's Mask: Tatl, who's not only Link's main helper, but a former friend of the Skull Kid.
  • Oracle of Ages: Ralph is the Oracle's Guardian and often helps Link.
  • Oracle of Seasons: Impa is the Oracle's guardian and the most useful NPC.
  • The Minish Cap: Ezlo, a talking hat who's not only Link's constant companion, but the former master of the Big Bad.
  • The Wind Waker: The King of Red Lions, who's not only Link's boat, but the last King of Hyrule.
  • Twilight Princess: Link himself is this in the narrative, with his companion Midna being the main protagonist.
  • Phantom Hourglass: Link may be the hero, but Linebeck's the one who gets the bulk of the Character Development.
  • Skyward Sword: Fi, who's the very spirit residing in Link's sword.
  • A Link Between Worlds: Ravio, who's in fact Link's Lorulean counterpart.
  • Tri Force Heroes: King Tuft.
  • Breath of the Wild: The game's memory sequences focus primarily on Zelda and her character development.
• In Life Is Strange, Max is the Protagonist and Chloe is the Deuteragonist. The two of them are best friends/possible lovers.
  • In the prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, Chloe becomes the Protagonist and Rachel is the Deuteragonist. Like Max and Chloe from the original game, they are best friends who may also begin a romantic relationship.
  • In Life Is Strange 2, Sean is the Protagonist and Daniel is the Deuteragonist. They are brothers.
    • In all three games, you can make a case that Chloe/Rachel/Daniel is the true focus of the story, even though we see them from the perspective of Max/Chloe/Sean.
  • Life Is Strange: True Colors breaks up the above formula a little, as the playable character Alex is undeniably the Hero Protagonist of the game. The game still has Deuteragonists, with Alex's two best friends/potential love interests Steph and Ryan sharing the role (regardless of who is romanced); but they are much less the focus of the story than in previous LIS titles.
    • Alternatively, you could argue that Alex's brother Gabe is the true Deuteragonist, even though his role is largely posthumous (he dies about 20% of the way through the story). In this case, Steph and Ryan would be the joint Tritagonists, which makes sense considering they impact the plot significantly less than Gabe does.
• The Lufia series has an interesting case with Erim, the Sinistral of Death, whose Heel–Face Turn plays a major role in each game's plot. She frequently takes the form of the deuteragonist on the heroes' side: Lufia, Seena, and Iris in the remake.
• The Mass Effect trilogy has trouble pinning this down — which is probably appropriate given for a Space Opera with a huge cast to the point where the third game has a Codex list for the most important characters narratively. Candidates include:
  • Admiral David Anderson. He drives a fair amount of the plot in the original Mass Effect and Mass Effect 3, and is a main character in three of the novels. That said, he is only a playable character during the Noob Cave segment of the third game, whereas everyone else spends at least one full game in your party.
  • The trilogy has a rotating cast of recruitable party members — there are twenty spread across three games. Of them, only three are recruitable in all three: Garrus Vakarian graduates to the role of Shepard's right-hand man (and potential Love Interest for female players) in the second game, and in Mass Effect 3, he's second only to Liara in available dialogue options — despite the fact that he can be Killed Off for Real in 2 and not even appear in 3. His Character Development throughout the trilogy is meant to paint him as a Foil and Shadow Archetype to Shepard. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya is likewise Promoted to Love Interest in the second game, and is absolutely central to resolving one of the trilogy's two biggest subplots — like, if you've gotten her killed off by this point, Failure Is the Only Option. Finally, Liara T'Soni is the only character on this list who is a Love Interest in the first game, the only party member in the franchise with no Plotline Deaths, the only character to appear in the Distant Sequel Mass Effect: Andromeda and the (as of 2020) in-development fifth Mass Effect game (in the sense that she appears in the teaser), and serves as Shepard's Number Two in the third game. This is partially to make up for the second game, in which she is either an NPC or an NPC who can be recruited during a DLC mission. Any — or perhaps all — of these characters qualify as Deuteragonist due to their relative prominence throughout the trilogy.
  • Mass Effect 2 introduces the characters of Miranda Lawson, who serves as your liaison with Cerberus (long story) and The Kid with the Leash (long story) and Jacob Taylor, who was the first character besides Shepard who has been a playable character in a game, making a foil to Shepard, and usually the one who explains what happens between the first and second game.
  • You start the first game with two human party members, Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams. They serve as Tritagonist throughout the trilogy, helping provide a context for the player character's adventures throughout the stars, and creating a Sadistic Choice in the first game where one has to be left behind on Virmire to save the other. The "Virmire Survivor" thereafter show ups in the second game to provide a Player Punch in relation to Shepard's time with Cerberus, and when they rejoin in the third game, the attempts to convince them of your loyalty take up a good section of the plot, to the point that (like Wrex in the first adventure), they can potentially die standing against you if the player fails to sufficiently repair the relationship.
  • The tetragonist role can be taken by three characters who are party members in one game but their presence affects the narration. First is Wrex, whose fate in the game can vary based on the relationship he forges with Shepard. While he is only playable in the first game (and via DLC in the third), he is also Failure Is the Only Option-level central to the franchise's other major subplot. The second is Mordin Solus, only playable in the second game but his past actions drive the narrative of two subplots in both the second and third game while being one of the only party members who has a direct presence in the second game's main storyline. Finally, there is EDI, introduced in the second game but only being playable in the third game; her Character Development is parallel to one of the themes of artificial intelligence in the series.
• Mega Man:
  • In the Classic series, the role of deuteragonist and tritagonist goes to Proto Man and Bass, whose subplots and ties to the cast often introduce some shades of gray (or at least an opportunity for navel-gazing) to an otherwise (fairly) black-and-white conflict. Sometimes the roles swap between them depending on who gets Promoted to Playable in which game, such as Bass in Mega Man & Bass or Proto Man in Mega Man 10. Strangely, neither character appears in any capacity in 11.
  • Zero in the Mega Man X series, especially starting at around X4. He even takes over as the main character in the Sequel Series, Mega Man Zero, after X disappears. This all makes sense when you learn that Zero was originally supposed to be Mega Man X until Executive Meddling forced Keiji Inafune to come up with a design closer to that of the original Blue Bomber, with Inafune giving Zero more and more plot relevance over time in response.
    • Axl, debuting in X7, is the X series' tritagonist. Notably, X7 and X8 are (more) focused on him than X or Zero.
  • In the Zero series, Zero is the protagonist, Ciel is the deuteragonist, and the tritagonist role is shared between Harpuia (Neo Arcadia's Noble Top Enforcer) and X (now the Big Good). In Mega Man Zero 4, with Harpuia possibly dead and X having retired to Cyberspace in the aftermath of the third game, the tritagonist role is then shared between Neige and Craft. The former is an Intrepid Reporter trying to lead a caravan of refugees from out of Neo Arcadia and into Area Zero, giving the first extensive look in series history at how humans feel about the constant cycle of war that has engulfed the planet, whereas the latter is Dr. Weil's newest second-in-command... and an honorable soldier who was once involved with Neige.
• The Metal Gear games are pretty complicated in this respect:
  • In Metal Gear Solid, the deuteragonist is either Liquid Snake, Meryl, or Otacon, with the other two serving in the roles of tritagonist and tetragonist.
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is an interesting case, as Raiden is the Protagonist while Snake is the deuteragonist... at least that should be the case. Hideo Kojima actually states that Raiden is really a Supporting Protagonist while Snake is still the main hero.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake is the protagonist, The Boss is the deuteragonist, EVA is the tritagonist, and Ocelot is the tetragonist.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Snake is the protagonist, Otacon is the deuteragonist, Liquid Ocelot is the tritagonist, and Raiden is the tetragonist.
  • In the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, there's Quiet. She's the only human who can be used as a buddy in missions and her song is used as part of the main theme. She's the protagonist that has the most to do with the parasite story and she even has own ending sequence and her romance for Venom Snake is one of the few things that differ him from the real Big Boss.
  • In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, it's Big Boss' partner Kazuhira Miller and in the sub-series for MGSV in general including Ground Zeroes.
• The Metroid series has a few. Super Metroid has the Baby Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Other M have Adam Malkovich, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has U-Mos, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has Aurora Unit 242.
• Minecraft: Story Mode: In both seasons, Jesse is the protagonist, while Petra is the deuteragonist. (In Season 1, Lukas is tritagonist, while in Season 2, Jack and Radar are co-tritagonists.)
• In the Modern Warfare series, John Price, "Soap" MacTavish, and whoever is the "other" player character frequently switch off depending on the game; it is generally easiest to tell who is the protagonist by whomever you control in the final level. In order:
  • In the first game, Soap was the protagonist, with Price playing deuteragonist and Sergeant Jackson playing tritagonist.
  • In the second, Soap was again the protagonist, with Price again playing deuteragonist and Roach and Ramirez playing tritagonist.
  • In the third, Price became the primary protagonist, with Yuri being the deuteragonist and Soap and Frost serving as tritagonist.
• The Monkey Island series is an epic struggle between Guybrush Threepwood and his unkillable opponent, LeChuck — the deuteragonist. Elaine Marley is the tritagonist by a narrow margin.
• Persona:
  • Aigis from Persona 3 is notable because she's introduced into the story about a quarter of the way in, and only becomes really important by the last four months of the game, yet she's as central to the story as the main character, coming to the fore after it's revealed that she sealed Death inside him, creating the personality of Ryoji/Pharos, which jump-starts her arc about starting to feel emotions and becoming more "human". This is taken to its logical extent by having her be the protagonist of the Playable Epilogue included in the Updated Re-release, as well as playing a central role in Persona 4: Arena.
  • Rise Kujikawa is this in Persona 4: Dancing All Night, since she's the leader of the designated B-Team, and the reason the rest of the Investigation Team is at a music festival to begin with. Her friend/rival Kanami Mashita is the tritagonist, with a major portion of the game revolving around her own adventures. Fittingly, it's a three-way performance between protagonist Yu Narukami, Rise, and Kanami which defeats the final boss.
  • Word of God confirms that Goro Akechi from Persona 5 is this to the protagonist, as he serves as the latter's rival and him having access to the Metaverse two years before anyone else in the Phantom Thieves serves as a catalyst for the game's story. In Royal, he's one of the few characters to immediately notice the Lotus-Eater Machine everyone's trapped in and approaches Joker about it, with a later major reveal being that Joker having regrets about leaving things with Akechi unresolved after the latter's Uncertain Doom in Shido's Palace is partially responsible for the events of the third semester to begin with.
  • Morgana serves as the tritagonist in 5, helping to form the Phantom Thieves as well as guide them in order to resolve his Quest for Identity. This becomes relevant when the team has to reach the bottom of Mementos at the end of December. He's also the Phantom Thief Joker interacts with the most due to living alongside him at Leblanc (or being carried around in Joker's schoolbag otherwise) and one of the only characters with an automatic Confidant, causing their plot arcs to intertwine quite a bit over the course of the game. In Royal, this remains the same until the third semester, where the previously Heroic Neutral Kasumi Yoshizawa joins up with Joker and Akechi to investigate a false reality that threatens to override everyone's cognitions and turns out to be more closely connected to the root of the problem than anyone realized.
• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The game has four playable stories, the fourth being unlocked after the first three are finished, and each has a different deuteragonist:
  • Victory Road has Nemona, who supports you as you seek to become a Champion so she can have a rival who can match her, as the deuteragonist.
  • The Path of Legends has Arven, who seeks the Herba Mystica to heal his injured Mabostiff, as the deuteragonist.
  • Starfall Street has Cassieopeia/Penny, who seeks to bring down Team Star for reasons unknown, as the deuteragonist. Clive, a student who is in no way shape or form the school's director Clavell in disguise (spoiler: he is), seeks to discover the truth of Team Star's origins and how the previous school administration failed them, serving as the tritagonist.
  • The final story, The Way Home, has your game's boxart Legendary complete its character development and seek to regain its true form, serving as the deuteragonist. Arven acts as the tritagonist, bringing closure to his extremely strained relationship with his parent the professor.
  • The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC has Kieran as the deuteragonist due to his development going from a meek, shy trainer to an insane, power obsessed bully who seeks to defeat the main character. Carmine acts as the tritagonist as she becomes a better person after meeting the main character and seeks your help bringing Kieran back to his old self.
    • The first portion of the DLC, The Teal Mask, has Ogerpon as the deuteragonist as much of the story is around befriending her and finding out about her backstory, with Kieran being the triagonist as his search for Ogerpon leads to his Start of Darkness, while Carmine is the quadagonist as she becomes a better person.
• Lili of Psychonauts serves as the Deuter to Raz's Pro. Realizing that they're sharing a precognitive dream with each other, the two team up to get to the bottom of it. The second half of the game is dedicated to Raz trying to find and rescue Lili.
• Rockstar Games's other big franchise that started with Red Dead Redemption does this a little bit differently than GTA due to the games being directly tied to each other rather than vaguely in the same universe. It also comes from the narrative being built backwards due to 2 being a Prequel to 1.
  • In 1, Jack Marston is this to John Marston’s protagonist. Bonnie Macfarlane is the tritagonist of the actual gameplay, while John’s wife Abigail is the tritagonist of the narrative.
  • In Red Dead Redemption II, John Marston is this to Arthur Morgan’s protagonist.
• Resident Evil has one as a counterpart to their protagonists in almost every game in the series.
  • For the series overall, by virtue of having the most amount of appearances and Character Development, Chris Redfield is largely considered The Protagonist. The deuteragonist, meanwhile, is open to interpretation: depending on who is asked, it's either Leon Kennedy, who has the second highest amount of appearances and Character Development, Jill Valentine, who has been in the series since the beginning and has a large impact on the world as a whole, or Claire Redfield, who has been a series mainstay since the second game and tends to have solo adventures separate from the other main characters.
  • Resident Evil: It depends on who you're playing as, but the player character is the protagonist.
    • Jill: Barry Burton is Jill's partner and stays with her for almost the entire game, is a large Red Herring as a possible traitor, and gets a significant amount of development throughout the story.
    • Chris: Rebecca Chambers is Chris's partner, offering him medicine throughout the story, remaining the Sole Survivor of Bravo Team (with it being very clear that there's an untold story behind her predicament), and having a large amount of sibling-like chemistry with Chris.
    • The tritagonist role is split between Albert Wesker and the player character that isn't being played as.
  • Resident Evil 2: In both the original and the remake, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield split the role of protagonist and each have their own deuteragonist.
    • Leon has Ada Wong, a mysterious woman who stays with him throughout the night with an equally mysterious agenda. Ada drives a large amount of Leon's story after she arrives, pursuing her own goal and leaving Leon to try to keep up. The remake even has her playable, cementing her status.
    • Claire has Sherry Birkin, a young girl left in Raccoon City to survive on her own. From the moment she appears, Claire is driven by little more than a desire to protect her, going to hell and back to keep her safe from harm and directly bringing her into Umbrella's crosshairs in the first place. Her relationship with her parents also creates a lot of the game's pathos.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis:
    • Carlos Oliveira serves as living proof that not everyone who works for Umbrella is bad, going from a Casanova Wannabe to a genuine hero who does nothing but try to save Jill's life. He has a playable section in both the original and the remake.
    • The remake of 3 expands the role of Tyrell Patrick from the original, elevating him to the status of Tritagonist. He's Carlos's team-mate who acts as his back-up in most of his endeavours to save Jill, and will later accompany her as a non-playable companion for a time when Carlos runs off to play Big Damn Heroes off-screen.
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica: There are two possibilities depending on interpretation: Steve Burnside and Chris Redfield. They have roughly the same amount of screen time (Steve dies about three-fourths through the game, but Chris doesn't come in until halfway through). Steve is with Claire from the beginning of the outbreak, is responsible for a large amount of the game's emotional moments, and is partnered with Claire for almost the whole game. Chris, meanwhile, is indirectly responsible for the events of the game occurring in the first place, has a very personal grudge with Big Bad Albert Wesker, and is playable for about a quarter of the game. Whoever of the two isn't the deuteragonist is considered the tritagonist.
  • Resident Evil 0:
    • Billy Coen is supposedly a murderer facing the death penalty, but there's clearly more to the story. As he teams up with Rebecca to survive in the Spencer Mansion, Billy grows from a disillusioned Jerkass to someone who wants to do the right thing. His backstory is actually focused on more than Rebecca's is, and it's retroactively clear that his development is less character development and more taking off the jade colored glasses.
    • Dr. James Marcus splits the roles of antagonist and tritagonist, with his backstory, the mystery of his death, and the reason for his vengeance against Umbrella kickstarting the events of the game and driving the plot. For an Umbrella scientist, he's remarkably sympathetic, and it's Marcus's actions that cause the events of both the first game and the rest of the series.
  • Resident Evil 4: Ada Wong returns to take her spot, having a clearly morally ambiguous agenda that somehow involves Leon's mission but keeps them on opposite sides. She appears throughout the campaign as both a help and hinderance to Leon, and she even has her own campaign showing her side of the story after Leon's campaign is complete.
  • Resident Evil 5: Chris Redfield returns as the protagonist alongside newcomer Sheva Alomar who shares protagonist status with Chris being his partner, while Jill Valentine becomes the deuteragonist. Despite supposedly being dead for years, her time in the game forces her to confront her past, specifically what Wesker made her do while under mind control, forcing her to come to terms with her past actions. Her grudge with Wesker is also just as personal, if not even more personal, than Chris's.
  • Resident Evil: Revelations: Averted. Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield split the protagonist role and, while there are numerous characters unique to this game, none of them get enough development to qualify.
  • Resident Evil 6: Oh boy, here we go.
    • For the game as a whole, the roles of protagonist, deuteragonist, and tritagonist is either Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, or Jake Muller and is basically up to interpretation. All three undergo a large amount of Character Development (though Jake undergoes the most), have large effects on the world as a whole (though Jake and Chris do the most), and have largely self-contained stories (though Leon's overlaps with the others the least).
    • Chris: Chris's new partner is Piers Nivans, a soldier who stays by his side throughout the entire game. Piers is forced to confront reality of life in the military and stay positive despite the hellish situation. Piers also spends most of his screen time ensuring that Chris doesn't succumb to despair, and it's his death via Heroic Sacrifice that makes Chris decide to stay in the B.S.A.A.
    • Leon gains a partner in Helena Harper, a Secret Service agent and coworker. As the audience discovers, however, she was blackmailed by Derek Simmons into helping him with his evil plans, leaving her as The Atoner desperately trying to help Leon to make up for the things she helped Simmons do.
    • Jake Muller has Sherry Birkin return to the role, serving as Jake's partner and conscience, helping turn Jake from a mercenary who's Only in It for the Money into a genuine hero who wants to save the world. It's only through Sherry and the G-Virus in her blood that a vaccine is eventually created, and his friendship with Sherry is a deliberate foil to the relationship their fathers shared.
    • Ada: A noticeable subversion. Ada's campaign is basically a solo journey. Even if there's a co-op partner, they take the form of the nondescript "Agent", who is a completely blank soldier.
  • Resident Evil: Revelations 2: Claire Redfield and Barry Burton split the role of protagonist.
    • Claire is partnered with Moira Burton, Barry's daughter, who desires to work for TerraSave despite her father's objections. Her own fears and relationship with her father are large parts of the game's story; in fact, if Moira does not overcome her fear of guns that stems from accidentally shooting her sister as a child the Bad Ending is unlocked. By the end of the game, Moira has both overcome her fear of guns and repaired her relationship with her father, ending the game in a much happier place than when she started.
    • Barry works with Natalia, a mysterious child who seems to have caught the attention of Alex Wesker for her plans, hoping to utilize her mysterious powers for her own ends. Barry spends the entire game trying to protect her (and her protecting him in return) and keeping her away from Wesker's grasp. In the good ending it is implied that he failed, with Natalia giving a very Wesker-esque smirk at what she's reading, and in the bad ending it is outright confirmed.
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard:
    • Mia Winters is this to her protagonist husband Ethan. Not only is Ethan only in the Baker's house because he's looking for her, she receives as much (if not more) Character Development as her husband, preventing her from being a Living MacGuffin. The Reveal that she's actually an agent of The Connections and is directly responsible for Eveline's rampage is a huge part of the game's lore and makes it clear that the story is just as much about her journey as it is Ethan's.
    • Meanwhile, Zoe Baker acts as the game's Tritagonist: She's initially more helpful to Ethan than Mia is, and gives him a lot of assistance in evading her family (in part because she hopes to escape them too). Ethan can even choose to save her instead of Mia, though doing so ensures the game's bad ending. The final story DLC is called The End of Zoe and resolves her story, after the main game leaves her fate ambiguous. In it, she serves the role of the deuteragonist, with Joe Baker (her uncle) being the protagonist.
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: The previous antagonist Risky Boots is now helping Shantae stop the new villian Cacklebats, she drives the boat that transports to different islands and sometimes joins on the current level.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • The Law and Chaos Heroes from Shin Megami Tensei I set the common format of two allies, one orderly and one chaotic, helping and befriending the Hero initially before whatever incarnation of the Order Versus Chaos war is happening tears them apart, makes them more extreme, and forces the Hero to choose a faction, if any, using the other Heroes as mouthpieces. While there is a Heroine who stays with the Hero permanently no matter what, she doesn't contribute to the plot in this game after she's in for good.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei II, it's Zayin, the Spiritual Successor of the Law Hero who also ends up tormented by the game's central themes of To Be Lawful or Good and dealing with insane authority contradicting his lawful standards, resulting in him switching between good and evil while barely changing sides. His final actions and outlook is dependent on the path Aleph takes, either fully succumbing to his role as Satan on Chaos and showing no remorse for Aleph, regretting that he and his old friend are now enemies before fighting him on Neutral, or regaining himself after the gravity of causing the apocalypse on Law hits and sacrificing himself in one last battle against his boss YHVH.
  • Shin Megami Tensei if... has Ideo Hazama, a normal high school student who becomes a demon emperor and starts torturing the rest of his school. The secret final dungeon heavily focuses on exactly how he ended up as twisted as he did, and a mobile prequel outright makes him the protagonist.
  • Averted in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. There are a lot of notable characters with roughly equal importance, none of whom act as a secondary focus.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey goes back to the formula set by the first game with Zelenin and Jimenez as the Law and Chaos Heroes, respectively.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV also uses the first game's formula with Jonathan and Walter. Unlike the first game, Isabeau, the counterpart to the Heroine, takes up this role at the end of the Neutral route, though if not on this path, she either disappears from the plot early due to a bad ending or kills herself after failing to stop Flynn on Law or Chaos.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse goes in a unique route with Dagda, a cynical, misanthropic god who aids and empowers Nanashi while allowing Krishna's plans to reach its endgame so he can hijack it, which would result in a new universe free of gods and demons and the death of YHVH at the cost of nearly everyone from the original universe. Whether or not he succeeds is up to Nanashi.
• Bentley from the Sly Cooper series. Especially by the third game, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. He's even the only other character aside from Sly to have a voice-over narration in the cutscenes.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: While Sonic is always The Hero, there's usually another character that the story focuses on as a Supporting Protagonist depending on the game.
  • Knuckles had a few prominent roles in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Chronicles in which these games lean to his connection with the Master Emerald and the Echidna race.
  • Shadow had a major role in almost every main title alongside Sonic himself starting with his debut appearance in Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, his own namesake game, which chronicled his story arc and then in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) where he's one of the three main playable characters.
  • An interesting variant comes from Sonic Advance 2. While Sonic is the main character with his story mainly revolves him stopping Eggman's plans, Cream the Rabbit happens to be the deuteragonist as her story revolves around her rescuing her mother Vanilla.
  • Blaze the Cat takes on this role in Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure, being the only other playable character and focusing on her relationship with Sonic and a few other characters as she learns The Power of Friendship.
  • Silver and Shadow share this role in Sonic '06. With Sonic fighting off Dr. Eggman, they fight against the other main villains, Iblis and Mephiles respectively. Princess Elise is the tritagonist, as Eggman and Mephiles seek after her due to having Iblis sealed within her, along with her close friendship with Sonic being one of the focuses of the game.
  • Chip in Sonic Unleashed as getting his memory back is basically tied into the plot of restoring the Chaos Emeralds and the planet. It turns out Chip is Light Gaia.
  • Despite not being playable, Tails has taken up this role as of late since Sonic Colors, being the only other recurring character to accompany Sonic against Eggman. In Sonic Lost World, after being betrayed by the Zeti, Eggman takes on the role as the tritagonist after being forced into an Enemy Mine situation with Sonic & Tails.
  • The Custom Character has taken up this mantle in Sonic Forces, going as far to save the entire Resistance from an artificial sun.
  • Sonic Frontiers has Sage as the game's main deuteragonist despite how she acted as an antagonist for a good chunk of the story. Her actions prove to be just as impactful as Sonic's and it's their clashing that gets them, as well as the entire world, in trouble. Eventually, on Ouranos Island, Sage becomes fully cooperative with Sonic, and assists him in stopping THE END. Amy, Knuckles, and Tails are tritagonists as most of their own character development is a major story focus on each of the islands, Sonic is trying to rescue them from their in-between worlds limbo, and they eventually sacrifice themselves to save Sonic from his cyber corruption.
• Star Ocean
  • Rena or Claude in Star Ocean: The Second Story, depending on which of the two you choose as the main character at the beginning.
  • Raymond of Laeticia in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, also depending on who you chose as your protagonist in the beginning.
• While Ryu is the primary hero of the Street Fighter series and Ken is his closest ally, Guile and Chun-Li have an equal or even greater role in driving the series' major conflict, because they're the ones with an ongoing beef against the overarching Big Bad, while Ryu and Ken are mostly concerned with topping one another as the world's greatest fighter and don't get in Vega/Bison's business unless he gets into theirs. Chun-Li might have a stronger claim to the role, having been active throughout the entirety of the Alpha series alongside Charlie (Guile's war buddy who was killed by Shadaloo) whereas Guile himself didn't show up until Alpha 3. Chun-Li is also the only returning veteran in the III series — and one of the few characters in that subseries period — who takes a proactive role in going after new villainous organization the Illuminati despite only being present for the third and final installment.
• Luigi fits this role in the Super Mario Bros. games, especially in the early ones, where he was playable as a sprite recolor of Mario. He still has that role in many of the later Mario games, having just as big of a role as Mario in the Mario & Luigi games, and even appearing in both Super Mario Galaxy games as an alternative to playing Mario. It's not called Super Mario Bros. without a reason, y'know. Bowser is another example, strangely enough, having his own separate storyline in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and technically being the the real hero of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Peach is the tritagonist, as the one who usually needs to be rescued.
• In Super Robot Wars V, you can choose between 2 characters to be your protagonist, Soji Murakumo and Chitose Kisaragi. Whoever you didn't choose will appear later in the game as a "sub-protagonist."
• In general the Tales Series does this with a "hero" and a "heroine", usually the latter working also as the Love Interest, plus potentially a tritagonist. Exceptions for the love interest rule are found in Vesperia, Graces, Zestiria and Berseria.
  • In Tales of Eternia, Reid has his love interest in the heroine and childhood friend Farah. However, the story's focus is on Meredy's family, arguably making her the deuteragonist in this case.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Lloyd is the protagonist, Colette is the deuteragonist due to her central role in the Big Bad's plan, Sheena is the tritagonist as her Summon Magic is vital to undoing the Big Bad's plan, and Zelos is the tetragonist as the Wild Card. There's a reason these four are on the original American box art.
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Luke is the protagonist, with Tear as the Deuteragonist due to her being a decendent of Yulia Jue and her Cain and Abel relationship with the Big Bad. Asch is the tritagonist as his relationship with both Luke and Van is central to the story.
  • Tales of Vesperia has at most Ship Tease between various characters; Yuri is the Anti-Hero lead who ultimately brings together the group, Estelle goes through the majority of the Character Development, and Flynn is important to both.
  • In Tales of Graces Asbel is definitely The Hero, but his Love Interest is not the heroine; Sophie is the other important character being actually Proto Heis who is tied to the Big Bad who goes through loads of Character Development just like Asbel; the culmination of both their arcs ends with Asbel adopting Sophie.
  • Tales of Xillia has a more direct example due to having two official leads and "routes" to go with it; Jude and Milla even having separate dungeons and events. Alvin acts as the tritagonist to both of them. Taking account the events that surround them, Jude acts as the true deuteragonist as the Love Interest to The Hero that is Milla.
    • The sequel has Elle to Ludger, though his older brother Julius also can fill this role. In the character episodes, Ludger acts as the deuteragonist to the focus character.
  • In Tales of Zestiria, the characters with the same amount of development of the protagonist Sorey are his childhood friend Mikleo and fellow party member and Tritagonist Rose while he doesn't end up with anyone officially.^note Subtext and certain cues used in most Tales Official Couples suggests that Mikleo is Sorey's Love Interest but there's been no "official" word in that regard.In the post-story DLC scenario, Alisha is the protagonist, while Rose is her deuteragonist.
  • Tales of Berseria has the main focus be sibling love between Anti-Hero Velvet and Morality Pet Laphicet, with Token Good Teammate Eleanor becoming the tritagonist who also develops a significant connection with both characters and becomes the official Precursur Hero of Zestiria.
  • Tales of Arise is as much about Shionne as it is about Alphen, and the story frequently points out that it's impossible for either of them to move forward without the other. Rinwell is the tritagonist; as a Dahnan mage, possibly the only one left, she has a unique connection to the Great Spirits of Dahna and Rena, the forces behind the whole plot. Dohalim is the tetragonist, as he is central to the plotline about reforming Renan society. Rinwell and Dohalim together are the most affected by the reveal that the Renan race is a bioengineered Human Subspecies descended from Dahnan mages that were abducted by the true natives of Rena.
• In the Tokimeki Memorial series, and if discounting the main male protagonist:
  • 1: Yukari was planned as this to Shiori in the initial development stages of the game, but the idea was ultimately scrapped, and Shiori remained the sole main heroine.
  • Drama Series Vol. 3: Tabidachi no Uta: Miharu (to Shiori), if going the Miharu route.
  • Substories 1: Dancing Summer Vacation: Kaori, or the Shirayuki twins (to Miyuki), depending on which one you choose as Miyuki's DDR partner.
• Touhou is a bit odd with this. Theoretically, Reimu is the protagonist and Marisa the deuteragonist, but Marisa actually gets more appearances outside of the main games (while they're tied in the games) and Reimu is never made the pov character in written works explicitly to keep readers from being allowed to see things from her perspective but instead being allowed to see her from many different people's perspectives. Reverse-wise, the games put Sakuya and later Sanae as the tritagonist, but this hasn't extended to the side materials (where most of the story is).
• The Trails Series has a secondary main character about half of the time:
  • All entries in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky trilogy have one. In FC, Joshua is pretty much every bit the main character as the official protagonist Estelle, and even in SC, his story is pretty vital to the main narrative. In The 3rd, Ries is this to Kevin.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Juna and Kurt share the deuteragonist role, as both are newbies to what is happening behind the scenes of both Erebonia and Crossbell, in contrast to Rean, who has been the protagonist since the first Cold Steel game; generally, they get the focus whenever it's not on him. That being said, Kurt does ever-so-slightly overshadow Juna in terms of importance, as he has an ongoing subplot.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie has three protagonists in Lloyd, Rean, and C. Between the trio, Lloyd is protagonist, being the one who gets the most focus at the beginning and the end; C is the deuteragonist, being the one whose Character Development drives the story; finally, Rean is the tritagonist, as his route is the most disconnected from the main plot^note Crossbell's liberation is at the center of the main story, and Rean doesn't even try to go there until the penultimate chapter, but he's the one with the connection to the game's main antagonist.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak has Agnes act as the deuteragonist to Van's protagonist during the first game, as her plotline with the Oct-Genesis is what drives the main plot forward.
• Triangle Strategy has Benedict, Serenoa's strategist who has aided his father and knows more than what he lets on about the politics of the world, Fredrica, Serenoa's fiance who is also the half sister of the Big Bad and a member of the oppressed Roselle through her mother, and Roland, the prince of a kingdom that gets invaded early on and loses his family and people he loves while his sister is made into a puppet queen for the invaders. The Last-Second Ending Choice leads to conflict between the three ultimately ending in one of them leaving if you don't go for the Golden Ending. The rest of the main cast, Roland's personal bodyguard Hughette, Fredrica's tutor Geela, Wolffort's scout Anna, and the Armsmaster of Wolffort Erador, are tritagonists, where their opinions need to be swayed to make decisions as House Wolffort's War Council and the cast usually defers to their expertise in certain situations, but none of them have any major characters arcs.
• Uncharted:
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, in flashbacks Victor Sullivan's origin is explored as a father figure to Drake as an orphan, and he has a relationship with the antagonist Marlowe.
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Sam Drake is temporarily playable and him being blackmailed into finding a treasure is the emotional pull of the story.
  • Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Nadine Ross is Chloe's partner who had a former relationship with the antagonist.
• The Walking Dead (Telltale) has a different Deuteragonist for every season:
  • The Walking Dead: Season One has Clementine, a small child in the care of main character Lee. Lee's friend, Kenny, acts as the tritagonist.
  • The Walking Dead: Season Two has Kenny, an old friend of Lee and Clementine's (who herself has now been upgraded to the playable protagonist). Clem’s friend, Luke, takes the role of the tritagonist after Kenny shows up.
  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier has Clementine again, with new character Javier as the player character for the majority of the game.
  • The Walking Dead: The Final Season has AJ, a young boy born into the post-apocalyptic world whom Clementine has been caring for since he was orphaned as a baby, mirroring her relationship with Lee from the first season.
    • The Final Season also features a tritagonist, whose identity is determined by the player's choices. Either of Clementine's potential love interests, Louis or Violet, becomes the tritagonist. Interestingly this isn't determined by which (if either) the player chooses to pursue a relationship with, but by who Clem saves from the raiders at the end of Episode 2 — which need not necessarily be her partner.
• Warcraft has various Deuteragonists depending on the campaign, most often being playable characters alongside the Protagonists:
  • Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
    • Exodus of the Horde has Grommash Hellscream, mentor and "big brother" of protagonist Thrall.
    • The Scourge of Lordaeron has Jaina Proudmoore, friend and former love interest of protagonist Arthas Menethil. Arthas's mentor Uther the Lightbringer serves as tritagonist.
    • Path of the Damned has Kel'Thuzad, the closest ally of newly-turned Villain Protagonist Arthas Menethil.
    • The Invasion of Kalimdor has Cairne Bloodhoof, chieftain of the tauren and Thrall's new ally, with Grommash Hellscream as tritagonist.
    • Eternity's End has Malfurion Stormrage, night elven leader alongside his wife and protagonist, Tyrande Whisperwind. Malfurion's twin brother Illidan serves as tritagonist.
  • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
    • Terror of the Tides has Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, night elven leaders who join Maiev Shadowsong on her hunt for Illidan Stormrage.
    • Curse of the Blood Elves has Lady Vashj, Kael'Thas's unlikely savior and ally of protagonist. Their master, Illidan Stormrage serves as tritagonist.
    • Legacy of the Damned has Anub'Arak, king of Azjol-Nerub and newest ally of protagonist Arthas Menethil.
    • The Founding of Durotar has Rokhan, a troll of the Darkspear Tribe who accompanies Rexxar through most of the campaign.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Rex's blade guardian had a past life with the antagonists Torna who wish to take her power, she takes the forms called Pyra and Mythra but her true form is called Pnuema. The tritagonist is Nia since she was a former member of Torna and is the first partner.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Noah is the protagonist, but Mio is just as important to the story as he is. The story is about their friendship and eventual romance as they unite the separate factions that they are from. Interestingly, you can tell who is going to inherit a class from a Hero by guessing which of the party members is the deuteragonist of that Hero's Hero Quest.

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