Evil Costume Switch / Video Games

Evil Costume Switches in Video Games.

From heroic Heliodorian Knight to Supreme Commander of the Spectral Sentinels

• In Codename: Kids Next Door - Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E., after causing a power outage in the Sector V Treehouse headquaters, Count Spankulot transforms the Operatives into Spank-Happy Vampires again. They retain their usual attributes shown from "Operation: L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N.", including Numbuh 4, which is an unlockable cheat along with the others (minus the pilot, Numbuh 2), only this time around, it's Numbuh 5 who gets spanked instead of Numbuh 4, since he was using the haunted treehouse toilet the operatives never use. Her vampire costume comes with a blue dress with a jagged hem, white leggings with the gloves to match, a bright red batwing cape and a gold medallion. In addition, her hat is torn up and her red scrunchie is replaced with a blue bat scrunchie.
• In Don't Starve's sequel Don't Starve Together the playable characters can have different costumes, one of this is the Triumphant skin set, it depicts what would have happened if the characters had become corrupted by the Nightmare Throne. Inverted with Maxwell's Untriumphant skin, which shows him as William Carter.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest XI: Jasper, upon being revealed to be Mordegon's right hand man, switches his Heliodorian Knight armour for a red and black warlock outfit.
• EXTRAPOWER:
  • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Cross Crow, as a part of his evil brainwashing, replaces his usual outfit with a stark black and white ensemble.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: Valkyries are all brightly dressed with forms and colours that reflect their element. Valdiora, a former valkyrie who has gone demon, dresses in all-black armour punctuated by red, and swings around a similarly black-with-red sword and flail.
• After it's revealed in Six Rules that Yukiri was plotting the main character's demise all along, she next shows up in a fancy black-and-gold kimono in contrast to her earlier white one.
• Jade Empire: As soon as he reveals his true nature, Master Li trades in his robes for a black suit of armor. From some of the flashback cinematics, it's clear that this is very similar to what he wore before he started pretending to not be a Manipulative Bastard.
• Common in the Star Wars verse, where a shift to the Dark Side is indicated by a switch to black robes and a red lightsaber
  • If you remove Dark Bastila's robes in the first Knights of the Old Republic, you'll find she's also changed her underwear). The facial features also tend to become more twisted. Inevitably, female Dark Siders look like Goth dominatrixes, while Dark Side males look like George Romero rejects.
  • In fact the player character's underwear changes if you go dark side too. This is due to the developers not bothering to give varying dark side skin tones to the body models (since you're rarely unclothed anyway) and instead you get a full-body black suit with red Sith symbols.
  • Kreia does this late in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, as shown in a cutscene right after the Exile arrives on Malachor V.
  • Word of God reveals that Atris and her handmaidens were meant to change their white robes to black after Atris' Face–Heel Turn, but it seemed implausible for them to keep black robes around. The Last Handmaiden, who joins a Male!Exile after they leave the Telos academy, will still use a black version of her default white clothing if she falls to the dark side, however.
  • The main character's underwear will change too, but oddly, the Dark Side underwear is actually more conservative, basically consisting of a full body stocking. Those Siths. Such prudes...
  • In a scrapped Star Wars: Battlefront sequel, there was supposed to be a Sith version of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of course, there was a costume change that gave him a lot of similarities to the Emperor.
• In the Rumble Roses games — all-woman wrestling titles — every character has a face and heel persona. Most of the heel costumes follow the pattern, except for the characters that start as heels. Race queen Reiko becomes a biker chick, cowgirl Dixie turns into a Stripperiffic cop, and conversely punk-rock schoolgirl Candy Cane becomes a strait-laced student/cheerleader.
• In La Pucelle: Tactics, the character Eclair develops a "Dark" side, which appears to wear nothing but black lingerie, especially when compared to the dress she normally wears. Prier gets one also, scoring a new outfit similar to the one Succubi wear.
• In the Heaven's Feel scenario of Fate/stay night:
  • Sakura drops her rather plain pastel outfit and goes with a form-fitting black dress with red trimmings instead. Since the dress is made of pure magic, she's technically naked.
  • Saber also gets one of these upon going bad.
• Lunar: The Silver Star:
  • Ghaleon starts out as a simple White Hair, Black Heart in dark blue robes, but upon his metamorphosis into the Magic Emperor, he gets a brilliant suit of armor with a fancy cape and shoulder plates large enough to rival those of Il Palazzo. Some of the remakes also include a flashback scene to his Start of Darkness as Dyne helps Althena shed her godhood over Ghaleon's objections, showing him in robes with an even paler colour scheme.
  • Luna goes from wholesome girl to evil slut upon returning to godhood and being brainwashed by said Magic Emperor.
• In Neverwinter Nights, the heroic paladin Aribeth turns into an evil blackguard about halfway through the game. Since her original costume was pretty revealing anyway, all she has to do is Paint It Black and get a wilder hairdo. She also gets a neat blood-red light emanating sword.
• Anders in Dragon Age II changes from his old, light blue-grey and light brown robes into a black and grey costume once he loses any hope of improving the mages' lot peacefully. He doesn't turn into an outright villain but certainly embraces his Well-Intentioned Extremist side.
• In Disgaea, Flonne gets a new red-trimmed outfit after becoming a demon. She also gets a pointy tail and little demon wings to go with it. Slightly subverted in that this is treated more like a change of career than character and her personality doesn't change at all — she's still the same cheerfully adorable Love Freak she always was and about as evil as a raspberry sundae.
• In Jeanne d'Arc, all of the Transformations tend to look somewhat evil. Additionally, when Roger pulls a Face–Heel Turn and is overtaken by the Reaper within him, he doffs his traveling clothes and wears a dark, menacing suit of armor. Subverted when he still wears it when he's a guest with you, and you still can see him wearing it.
• Schirach in Romancing SaGa, especially her Human◊ form.
• Most of the signature heroes in City of Heroes have Mirror Universe Evil Counterparts who typically favor darker colors and spikes and such. The two exceptions are the Dark Is Not Evil Infernal and already deeply disturbed Malaise; tellingly, their Praetorian counterparts share their names as well as their costumes.
• Prince Arthas, in Warcraft III, after taking up the soul-stealing sword and becoming evil, also manages to pick up armour with a lot of skull motifs and a long purple cloak. Also, his skin and hair turn deathly white. Apparently, he's able to stroll right back into his father's throne room looking like this without raising anyone's suspicions.
  • Any corrupted character in the Warcraft franchise really. Sylvanas retrieves her body, now wearing the exact same outfit as when alive but in black. Illidan grows demon horns and hooves. Alexandros Mograine ditches his blue-ish armor for a dark grey and red one, and even his sword "Ashbringer"'s gemstone becomes a skull, which goes back to its old look upon purification.
• Castlevania:
  • In the "bad ending" route of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Richter's girlfriend, Annette, gets turned into a vampire/succubus by Dracula and ends up wearing skanky black succubus lingerie.
  • In the second Castlevania Pachislot game, the dancer/sorceress Angela gets turned into Dracula's minion and goes from wearing white and blue frills to a barely-there red-and-black leather one-piece. Being Ms. Fanservice, both her good and evil outfits are actually equally Stripperiffic.
• In Resident Evil 5, Jill Valentine is dosed with Psycho Serum and ends up the Brainwashed and Crazy Dragon of series Big Bad Wesker. She ends up with blonde hair and wearing a purple-and-black leather catsuit. She still wears the costume after you rescue her, but it's justified since she has no time to switch to normal clothes due to the fate of the world being at stake.
• Resident Evil 6 features a rather subtle one: your first clue that Ada Wong has become a full-fledged villain is that she wears blue instead of her trademark red outfit. Of course you find out this Ada is an Evil Twin named Carla Radames, and the real Ada Wong wears her typical red.
• In Tales of Symphonia, whenever you see Kratos after The Reveal, his outfit has switched from his usual purple skin-tight thing to a white jumpsuit with more belts than is really necessary. He swaps back to purple when he rejoins the side of good. If you pick him over Zelos, you can get the white belted outfit as an alternate costume.
• In Arc Rise Fantasia, when it's revealed that Adele is the Real Diva, she swaps outfits so that she wears a shiny red dress that looks like it's weaved out of oversized ribbons, and gets a funky tornado-like head-dress to match.
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Princess Peach gets one when she is possessed by the Shadow Queen. As part of her Evil Makeover, her pink dress turns black, and the blue jewels turn red. She has a cape and a collar that goes behind her head in a fan-like way. Also, her skin is white, gets a new hairdo and she has purple/pink eye shadow, making her a cross between Maleficent and the Evil Queen. This also appears as an alternate costume for Peach in Project M; some of her moves now have a darkness status effect.
• Humorously played in the fifth episode of Sam & Max: Freelance Police Season 2. Just before the Soda Poppers battle the heroes, they switch into demon outfits. Whizzer and Peepers wear black versions of their Soda Poppers uniforms with flame decals. Specs, on the other hand, changes into black leather S&M wear with decorative spikes and chides the others on their lack of imagination.
• Persona 5 has two examples from late in the game:
  • In the original version, we have Goro Akechi's Phantom Thief outfit. When he joins the team during the infiltration of Sae Niijima's palace, his outfit is a predominantly-white nobleman's regalia with a red, long-nosed mask not dissimilar to a Tengu, earning him the codename of "Crow". After The Reveal that he is The Mole and The Dragon, and the halfway point of a subsequent boss fight, his attire changes to a predominantly-black villainous ensemble, and his mask becomes a Black Knight-esque helmet designed to look like a demonic Slasher Smile, complete with red lenses over the eye holes. Notably, when he rejoins the Phantom Thieves during the events of the "third semester" in Royal, he maintains his villainous outfit, reasoning that he has no further need to hide his true nature.
  • From Royal: Also from the "third semester" is the new Big Bad, Dr. Takuto Maruki. When we first meet Maruki, he has shaggy hair, light stubble, and a casual ensemble of khakis, blue shirt, and tie underneath his lab coat. With The Reveal of his true nature as a Well-Intentioned Extremist willing to rewrite reality under the misguided ambition of freeing the world from pain, he shaves off the stubble, slicks his hair back, and replaces his outfit with an all-white doctor's uniform. With the later reveal that he likens himself to a priest guiding a lost flock to salvation (or a cult leader, depending on who you ask), he dawns a white robe with golden clothes and a golden mask.
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: While Bowser was already evil to begin with, he begins wearing a blue mask under the alter-ego Rookie after he was recruited by Popple after suffering amnesia from a bonk to the head by Captain Goomba.
• In Tales of Monkey Island, when Elaine is turned into Lechuck's Demon Bride, her usual attire is replaced by a black gown and a spiky black tiara. Interestingly, she never changes back, even after Guybrush manages to undo her demonic transformation.
• Punch-Out!!: The Wii version takes it further in Title Defense Mode. It takes every single opponent in the entire game, gives them all a badass makeover, and makes them all much harder than they are normally. Some of the makeovers have practical purposes, namely, Glass Joe's headgear and King Hippo's manhole cover, but for the most part, they just make them look different and distinguishable from their weak counterparts, plus Darker and Edgier.
• In Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts, when Riku opens his heart to the darkness, his usual clothes are transformed into a shirt that looks like it's made of black and red muscle tissue with a Heartless emblem on the chest and what looks like a hula skirt.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, "Repliku" changes between the two costumes depending on how much of a Jerkass he's being to Sora at the moment.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Sora is an unwitting and downplayed case of this. While at no point does he willingly turn evil, unlike the now-fully-redeemed Riku, who's associated with light yellow and sky blue, Sora's new clothes are primarily black, red, and magenta. Most importantly, the X on his Sleeping Worlds clothes, the Recusant's Sigil, is planted by Xehanort to track him, guide him to where he and his cohorts want him, and shatter his heart to turn him into his 13th and final vessel and only narrowly thwarted at the very last second. Even then, Sora still falls to darkness and has to be saved from it.
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land: After being recruited onto the Beast Pack, King Dedede begins wearing a more tribal version of his usual outfit, with leopard spots all over his robe, a small tear on his kimono, feathers all over the linen of his robe, and what appears to be war paint on his face. For his second battle, he gets a boar mask to go with it.
• Ace Attorney:
  • The original trilogy has Godot. While he isn't evil, he had black hair with a red shirt while a defense attorney and mentoring Mia. After his poisoning, he became a bitter and petty prosecutor. His hair was bleached as a side effect of the poison, he uses a visor due to eye damage, and wears a green shirt rather than red because he can no longer see the color.
  • The Big Bad of Spirit of Justice also does this. When Ga'ran goes full Judge, Jury, and Executioner as the prosecutor of the final trial, she changes out of her queenly attire for a dark purple outfit and Femme Fatalons that makes her look like more like an Evil Sorceress.
• Franchise/Pokemon:
  • Team Plasma in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 does this, changing from the white Knight in Shining Armor uniforms in Pokémon Black and White to black modern military uniforms in the sequel, while Zinzolin, one of the Seven Sages, has a more militaristic outfit of his usual sage robes. It's a subversion as Team Plasma was evil in both, except in the original they were Straw Hypocrites, while in the sequel, they are Obviously Evil.
    • Some members of the old Team Plasma have become The Atoner and kept the white uniform, standing in contrast to the black uniforms the evil Team Plasma wears; this makes it a kind of Good Costume Switch, without actually changing clothes.
  • The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games have Dialga's normally turquoise coloured pattern turn a kind of orange-red after becoming Primal Dialga. The blue gem on its chestplate also turns red.
  • Happens in Pokémon Ranger a few times. Most notably Kincaid, upon revealing himself as The Dragon for Dim Sun, he...twirls around a few times and changes into a black suit and cape with Dim Sun's logo on it. He also gets a pair of completely black sunglasses, which resemble Blake Hall's. It's from then on he tries to murder you at every opportunity. In Guardian Signs, Edward ditches his white suit for a black one when revealed as the Big Bad...until Purple Eyes shows up.
• Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem has Hardin switch from a simple white turban and cloak to a menacing suit of red armor after he falls under Gharnef's control. In the original game, he somehow switches back once he dies; in New Mystery, he keeps the evil outfit but loses his glowing red eyes.
• Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals: when Iris, a modest dressing priestess in white, transforms into the Sinistrals of Death, Erim, she suddenly wears a black dress sporting a Navel-Deep Neckline.
• NieR: Devola and Popola have ditched the apron portion of their costumes when you meet them in the Shadow Lord's Castle. Cue cleavage.
• During the transition from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Kain switches from his blue armor to a dark red one. Kain is already an Anti-Hero, but the sequel changes his sprite to emphasise he's turned into a bad guy due to a Literal Split Personality problem. The good and real Kain is hiding around in a disguise of a Hooded Man.
• In BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, Tsubaki Yayoi is permanently using her 'dark version', which consist of her costume going black, thus counts as having one. On the other hand, Litchi Faye-Ling averts this. Despite joining NOL, she never gets an NOL-custom uniform and still fights with her Stripperiffic red garb and also wearing her doctor outfit occasionally. It may symbolize her dislike towards the organization and she's just in there because there's no other way if she wants the cure she's looking for.
• Jacqueline and Marienbard in Soulcalibur IV wear light-colored clothes when they fight (and lose) to Raphael. After he "malfests" them, they change to black dresses (that look like maid uniforms).
• In Tekken, Jun Kazama changes from a white top and jeans to a martial arts gi with Creepy Crows, to signify that she is if not evil, then certainly a Darker and Edgier death maiden.
• Mortal Kombat has several notable examples:
  • Raiden, after his Face–Heel Turn in both the original and rebooted timelines. In the original timeline, his outfit shows more armor, is black and he looks more like a samurai, complete with Shoulders of Doom and a tattered Badass Cape. On top of that, his skin turns grayish white, has Glowing Eyes of Doom, and he has a deeper voice.
    • He dons a similar outfit at the end of MKX, following his corruption. Though he drops the Badass Cape, he grows out his fingernails, which are black. His outfit has the Shoulders of Doom and even his straw hat is now black. Similar to the original timeline, his skin turns grayish white, has reverberating vocal cords, his eyes are now golden-red, and his lightning turns from blue to red to highlight his corruption, though he does not have the Volcanic Veins the revenants get (when they're brainwashed) in MKX. And, in an up-yours to the Netherrealm's new rulers (Liu Kang & Kitana), he also dons Shinnok's amulet on his chest as a war trophy.
  • Some of the revenants in MKX also switch from their normal costumes to much more eviler ones (this is because they are brainwashed to serve Quan Chi and Shinnok, and are also usable as alternate costumes in non-Story Mode matches). All of them have greyscaled Undeathly Pallor skin, orange-colored Glowing Eyes of Doom, Volcanic Veins and have Power Echoes in their vocal cords. Jax has Spikes of Villainy on his metal arms, Sub-Zero dons a costume similar to that of his brother Noob Saibot, Kung Lao gains Femme Fatalons and wears an armored variant of his normal costume, Liu Kang's costume sports Shoulders of Doom and Kitana wears a variant of her default costume in MK9, though her hair is tied in a bun similar to what she had in MK3.
  • After Shinnok's defeat at the end of MKX, Liu Kang and Kitana become the new rulers of the Netherrealm; both of them sport eviler costumes than what they had before.
    • Liu Kang's Dark Emperor costume is now Red and Black and Evil All Over, has Spikes of Doom and incorporates skeleton designs. Kitana's Dark Empress costume now sports Femme Fatalons (similar to Raiden and Kung Lao), shows some cleavage and even her headgear is reminiscent of Catwoman.
  • In Mortal Kombat 11 Once Jax joins up with Kronika, his costume and cybernetic arms sport her distinctive white and gold motif.
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation "The Inspector" storyline, when Excellen is captured, her clothes don't change, but her mecha does, going from the simplistic Weissritter to the more demonic Rein Weissritter. She keeps it even after returning to the good guys.
  • A more literal example would be in Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 with Bullet.
• Django gets a minor one in Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django when he shifts to his vampire form: his colors become darker and bolder, he wears his goggles over his eyes, and his scarf takes on the shape of bat wings.
• Pikmin: In the first game, there is a rare enemy called the Puffstool which blows out purple gas. If the player character's Pikmin touch this gas, they will turn purple, gain white eyes, and have their flower/bud/leaf replaced with a red mushroom. This shows that those Pikmin are not on the player character's side anymore.
• The Street Fighter series has a few examples, including Evil Ryu, Oni (who's basically a MORE corrupted version of Akuma), and a revived Charlie Nash. Inverted with Cammy, who started out as a fully-clothed, brainwashed baddie and later made a change to become a scantily-clad hero character.
• Brütal Legend reveals one about a third of the way into the game. After being shunned by her friends due to a misunderstanding, Ophelia leaves the group, and disappears for three months. As it turns out, she went seeking the Sea of Black Tears, to literally drown her sorrows. She comes back looking like this◊ and has a new kickass guitar, becoming the villain for the second act. Though it turns out that Drowned Ophelia is really an Evil Knockoff created by the Sea of Black Tears, which still has the real Ophelia trapped in it.
• In Splatoon 2, a heel-turned (actually Brainwashed and Crazy) Callie switches out her slightly flattering but still tasteful sequined pop-star outfit for a midriff-baring black leather ensemble, complete with belly tattoo and shorts.
• The Remnants of Despair from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair underwent this after becoming Brainwashed and Crazy, usually wearing dramatic outfits befitting their talents. After his conversion into Izuru, Hajime gains bright red eyes with radar symbols, a black suit, and extraordinarily long, black hair.
  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls: as the Servant, Nagito gets an unfortunate case of Fashion-Victim Villain. His hair is longer and somehow even messier; he sports an odd, black coat with random zippers and buttons; an untucked striped shirt; a mitten covering Junko's hand and a Slave Collar.
• Kratos from the God of War series was already pretty close to a Villain Protagonist at the beginning of the series, but he was ostensibly a champion of the Olympians. But when he is the made the new God of War, his despair over being denied respite from the memories of killing his family and the realization that the Olympians are responsible for taking his mother and younger brother away from him drives him to madness. When God of War II begins, he starts wearing a suit of godly armor eerily similar to the armor Ares wore. And just like Ares, Kratos has begun a campaign of destruction and conquest of Greece.
• Monster World IV: Over the course of the game, various people are slowly corrupted by dark forces. As Queen Praprill XIII is particularly affected and outright turns murderously evil, in the 2021 remake she switches to a black, skimpy outfit.
• At first, Penelope of the Sly Cooper franchise wears overalls and presents herself as a Wrench Wench Meganekko to win the trust of the Cooper Gang. She later swaps to a yellow Spy Catsuit in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, reflecting her true nature as a cruel, ambitious sociopath who abused and exploited Bentley for his skills.
• Trails of Cold Steel: Sharon performs a Face–Heel Turn in the third game. When she reappears in the fourth game, her outfit has changed from a long dress to a black leather swimsuit.
• Hoshi wo Miru Hito: Exclusive to the Fan Remake Romancing StellaVisor, Aine loses her Vibrant Orange outfit in place of a white mantle with black accents upon being possessed by the Marionette.
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Eiji Mitamura switches from a white polo shirt to a black Hawaiian shirt with blue flowers on it after he's revealed as The Mole. He also stops using his wheelchair as he never needed it in the first place.

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