Expy / Video Games

Snake and Snake. No relation.

Hmm... Do any of these video game characters (or pixels) look familiar to you?

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• Book Of Demons has everyone mirroring the characters from Diablo:
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Warrior, the Rogue and the Mage are expies of the Warrior, the Rogue and the Sorcerer. Their playstyles is exactly the same. Both Warriors are male and fight with melee weapons. Both Rogues are female and fight with a bow. Both the Mage and the Sorcerer use magic are also Ethnic Magician.
  • One of the major boss is The Cook which an expy of The Butcher. Both demons are slaying and hacking victims to keep their body parts.
  • The Antipope is an expy of the Archbishop. Both are enemy mages and serve the Big Bad as The Dragon.
  • The Archdemon is and expy of Diablo. They are both the Final Boss and demons who use fire attacks.
  • The Sage is like Deckard Cain the Elder. They are old men with a beard and guide the player with knowledge of demons. They also provide indentify services for a fee.
  • The Healer and Pepin fonction as The Medic NPC and heal the players.
  • The Fortuneteller is an outsider to the town, just like Adria. They both sell magical wares to the players.
  • The Barmaid standouts as she's a combination of both Ogden and Gillian, who are an innkeeper and a barmaid respectively. She helps the players with magical cauldron services, something that doesn't exist in the Diablo game.
• Cassette Beasts has a couple of character designs based on things from Doctor Who:
  • Binvaders are inspired by the Daleks — the art book says their origins will be obvious to anyone familiar with British sci-fi — being aliens wearing cylindrical metal armour.
  • The Amber Lodge is similar to the TARDIS, being a blue, sapient cuboid who travels through time and space, is Bigger on the Inside, and sometimes takes the form of a woman.
• 2Dark:
  • Mr. Smith is an alcoholic widowed version of Edward Carnby;
  • Antonio Petronelli is Pennywise with some elements of The Joker;
  • Sylvia Scarlett has a butler named Benjamin Sagot, who is pretty clearly styled after Alfred Pennyworth.
  • Delicatessen is a one armed Leatherface wearing a pig-mask like Piggsy;
  • Dr. Ernest Miguele is a badly scarred Frankenstein with elements of real-life nazi Mad Scientist Josef Mengele; in fact, the player can find a "New Scientist International" in his clinic that has him on its cover, and straight-up calls him "a modern Dr. Frankenstein", who defends a thesis of immortality.
  • Doggy Doug is a metal-jawed Shell-Shocked Veteran version of Dr. Faustus. He also bears some resemblance to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight version of Bane.
• The main character of 1001 Spikes, Aban, is pretty much Indiana Jones with anger and daddy issues. One of his alternate colour sprites also bears an uncanny resemblance to Lemeza Kosugi.
• ANNO: Mutationem has multiple SCP Foundation expies. It was originally developed as an original SCP work before being revamped while keeping the SCP traits. The Consortium is a near-exact copy of the SCP Foundation, complete with the goal of containing anomalies, known here as "variants" and keeping the world at large in the dark about the supernatural. Some of the SCPs included/referenced are; a Mad Doctor with a plague mask (SCP-049), an enormous reptilian creature called The Varanus (SCP-682), a telephone kept in containment (SCP-145), and Sigrid, a young girl who has the ability to alter reality by focusing on it (SCP-239).
• All characters in Battlerite base their gameplay off of one of the bloodlines from Bloodline Champions, the game it is a Spiritual Successor to.
• According to top BioWare writer David Gaider, BW's writers build characters by taking ones from other works and reworking their names and backstories.
  • Alistair for example was heavily based on Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.^note This is why they chose the name Alistair, it's the Scottish form of Alexander.
  • Bastila is essentially a carbon copy of Aribeth.
  • Shale is HK-47 but made of rock.
• Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue is a dead-ringer for Vash the Stampede. According to the developers, he's a deliberate homage.
  • A good number of the Blazblue cast have the vestigial DNA of their counterparts from the game's inspiration, Guilty Gear. Ragna for example with his red and white colouration, holding a Cool Sword in Reverse Grip and swearing like a trooper, is obviously a carry-over from Sol Badguy.
  • Iron Tager is meant to be the Blazblue equivalent of Potemkin, as another intimidating wall of muscle who is actually a gentle Genius Bruiser. Tager even has some of Potemkin's moves.
  • Bang Shishigami is a Ninja Idiot Hero whose antics are played for comic relief and hardly anybody in the cast takes the guy seriously, much like Chipp Zanuff. Also like Chipp, Bang has crap for defences.
  • As a sharply dressed and well-trimmed gentleman with a monstrous side who fights barehanded, Valkenhayn is a fairly obvious dead-ringer for Slayer, except he's a werewolf not a Daywalking Vampire. Rachel's the vampire of the cast, and she carries over Slayer's Story Breaker Powers and cutting snark.
  • Kagura Mutsuki, as a fairly clownish Chivalrous Pervert who actually displays great competence when pressed, is the Blazblue iteration of Johnny.
• In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Gebel is basically one of Castlevania's Dracula, as he was once a normal human who has since become a Humanoid Abomination and created a castle infested with demons. Miriam is one of Shanoa from Order of Ecclesia due to her magic powers, amnesia and an outfit that reveals her back, or rather the design on her back.
• While their personalities are distinct, Sion of The Bouncer saw his design (down to the style and preferred colors on their clothes) almost completely recycled for Sora in Kingdom Hearts. In particular, the excess chains and zippers are shared by both characters. Heightened in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days — Xion (whose name in Japanese, Shion, is shared with Sion) is an element of Sora that is ultimately absorbed back into him.
• Bungo to Alchemist's whip class is the expy of Touken Ranbu's naginata – they're fairly sturdy, they hit all enemies in one attack and they have a distressingly low growth rate which requires high leveling for their attacks to become more than Scratch Damage.
• Cheritz:
  • Yoosung from Mystic Messenger closely resembles Yeonho from Nameless, an earlier game from the same company: both are blond Keets who are The Baby of the Bunch, harbor deep insecurities behind their cheerful smiles, and can become disturbingly clingy towards the female protagonist in their bad endings.
  • Every Cheritz game so far has had a male love interest with long white hair: Jihae from Dandelion, Lance from Nameless, and Zen from Mystic Messenger. Jihae and Lance also have similar Sugar and Ice Personalities, although the same cannot be said of Zen.
• Child of Light:
  • Aurora, in addition to having the same name as the protagonist of Sleeping Beauty and suffering a similar fate at the beginning of the story, is reminiscent of a certain other redheaded Action Princess.
  • Genovefa resembles Naija from Aquaria; both being amphibious mermaids whose peoples fell victim to genocide.
  • Queen Umbra is an amalgam of Queen Grimhilde, Lady Tremaine, and Maleficent, complete with a Scaled Up One-Winged Angel form like the latter.
  • Several parallels can be drawn between Nox/Norah and the Evil One/Airy; both being white-haired girls who seem to be on good terms with the heroes, only to be revealed to be Evil All Along enforcers of a greater evil's will before their respectives games are over, are vile Hate Sinks upon showing their true colors, are fought near the end of their respective games, and transform into monstrous forms to fight the heroes.
• Chroma Squad, being an Affectionate Parody of Power Rangers and Super Sentai, is stuffed to the gills with expies.
  • The heroes' old boss, Dr. Soap, is a caricature of Haim Saban, the founder of Saban Entertainment which created Power Rangers. His depiction as an overbearing and litigious blowhard is a jab at the fact that Saban Entertainment was not a fun place to work for a lot of actors, in addition to the company's overprotectiveness of its brand (to reinforce this, he was originally named Mr. Mi Ah).
  • Cerebro is an obvious stand-in for Zordon.
  • Lord Gaga shares his name and flashy mannerisms with Lady Gaga.
  • In the final season, your team is joined by one of three Sixth Rangers: either Galactic Sheriff, an expy of Metal Heroes; Night Driver, a Kamen Rider expy; or Tammy, an expy of the original Sixth Ranger Tommy Oliver.
• Civilization: Beyond Earth has a lot of this with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:
  • Suzanne Fielding and the American Reclamation Corporation bear a lot of similarities to Nwabudike Morgan and Morgan Industries, though her faction bonus is towards espionage, more like the Data Angels. Hutama, leader of Polystralia, also bears a lot of similarities to Morgan, as a student-activist turned politician with a charismatic personality who really doesn't seem to belong on a space expedition.
  • Commander Rejinaldo Leonardo Pedro Bolivar de Alencar-Araripe has characteristics of Colonel Corazon Santiago of the Spartan Federation. He also looks quite a bit like Col. Miles Quaritch.
  • Vadim Kozlov, leader of the Slavic Federation, is based a lot on the real life Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Lampshaded in-game as the achievement you get for winning a game playing as him is called "Gagarin's Legacy".
  • The new British/Scandinavian-flavoured North Sea Alliance in Rising Tide harkens back to the Nautilus Pirates of Alpha Centauri's own expansion pack, Alien Crossfire.
  • Word of God says that the African Union faction behaves a lot like the Shoshone of Civilization V, expanding very quickly and grabbing territory, and then fiercely defending it. Similarly, the Pan-Asian Co-operative play similarly to Egypt from the same game.
  • Word of God also compared the three affinity choices to various icons from films, TV and gaming. Supremacy ^note an affinity all about building a variety of unmanned drones and combat robots while also upgrading your troops with cybernetic implants and eventually using full Brain Uploading into robotic bodies, with the intent to allow humans to become independent of planetary biospheres has been compared to the Cybermen, the Terminator and the Borg. Harmony ^note an affinity all about Organic Technology, gene-splicing, cloning local alien wildlife to use as battle companions and mounts, and interfacing with the local Genius Loci has been compared to the Na'vi and Predator, though some have made less flattering comparisons to the Yuuzhan Vong. Purity ^note an affinity that celebrates human history and identity, using big vehicles and mechsuits with a strong Diesel Punk/Space Roman aesthetic and an undercurrent of Fantastic Racism against Supremacy cyborgs and Harmony mutants has been called a secular, more family-friendly version of the Imperium of Man.
• Many of the elements in The Colonel's Bequest are expies of the setting, characters and even murder implements from the board game Clue. The video game as a whole is an unofficial adaptation of the board game.
• There are quite a lot of expies in the Contra series:
  • The final boss in the arcade version of Super Contra, Emperor Devil Gava (aka The Red Falcon), is based on Mad Emperor Asmodeus, the final boss of another Konami arcade game, Battlantis. Battlantis was directed by Hideyuki Tsujimoto, who was co-programmer in the original arcade version of Contra and later directed Super Contra, as well as Sunset Riders and Mystic Warriors.
    • Emperor Devil Gava has also some similarities with the Xenomorph Queen from the Alien franchise, especially in his Super Contra debut. Compare Gava's head◊ from Super Contra, and that of the Queen/◊ Both give birth to the other aliens, and are their leaders.
    • In Contra ReBirth, Gava has mandibles, that make him look a bit like a Predalien.
  • The Aliens are in series, generally are based on those from the Alien movies. In The Final level of the original game, there is Devil Dragon Emperor Java(the big Xenomorph-like head), and Facehuggers. In Super C and Alien Wars, there are enemies, that look like adult Xenomorphs, not to mention the Metal Alien, who looks like a winged one.
  • The Waterfall Boss from the Jungle Stage in Contra: Hard Corps looks like a Space Jockey. Well, at least one in their biomechanical Powered Armor.
  • The Moirai in Shattered Soldier have a similar role to the Engineers/Space Jockeys, both being very advanced species, who created the alien enemies in series.
  • The True Final Boss of Contra III also resembles the Golem from Salamander.
  • In ReBirth, the Contra commander looks like Che Guevara, and Brownie the Robot Girl looks suspiciously like Drossel Von Flugel from Fireball. Brownie/Tsugu-Min also very resembles Browny from Contra: Hard Corps, both in looks and gameplay.
  • Bill Rizer resembles very much Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lance Bean Sylvester Stallone.
  • A pretty weird example from Contra: Hard Corps, were there is an expy of an attack, rather than a character. The first form of Colonel Bahamut after fusing with Alien Cell uses an attack that is pretty much the Continuous Energy Bullets attack from Dragon Ball Z. His second form after he loses control over the Alien Cell looks like Slave Beast Taka aka the giant turtle boss from Alien Wars and Shattered Soldier.
  • The fight against The Relic of Moirai fused with the Triumvirate from Shattered Soldier is oddly enough, an expy of the multi-fazed boss fight against Colonel Bahamut. And their first form resembles Super Buu, again from Dragon Ball Z.
  • Genbei "Jaguar" Yagyu, is obviously based on the historical Samurai Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi.
  • In Contra ReBirth, Rocket Ninja Sasaki, looks very much like a Predator, or a Lin Kuei Cyborg Ninja.
  • The Recurring Boss Big Fuzz looks like a gigantic Terminator skeleton, and the two androids that are fought before him in Alien Wars look like normal sized ones. The three, however, are actually expies of the Snatchers from Snatcher, made specifically more apparent in the name of their debut stage being "Neo Kobe", the setting of Snatcher.
• Hard Corps: Uprising, being a Contra game by Arc System Works, has a lot of expies of characters from their earlier works, other Contra games, and other franchises:
  • Sayuri = Baiken.
  • Bahamut = Sol Badguy or Bill Rizer (which would also make him an expy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, as noted above) or a gun-toting Hayato Kanzaki.
  • Krystal, while easily likened to Millia Rage or Brownie/Tsugu-Min, actually shares more in common, at least in terms of looks, with Samus Aran. Her gun is based on the Arm Cannon of Samus's Power Suit and Krystal even has an alternate color scheme where she looks exactly like Zero Suit Samus.
  • Harley = Potemkin + Johnny. He also seems to have been designed as a fully human version of Brad Fang from Contra: Hard Corps.
  • Leviathan = Ky Kiske + Chipp Zanuff.
    • He is also an equivalent of Lance Bean, who was Bill Rizer's former friend in the old Contra titles and an enemy in Shattered Soldier. Both have accused their former friend (Bill/Bahamut) for the atrocities they have done (Bill accidentally wiped out 80% of human population and nearly killed Lance, Bahamut betrayed Leviathan and the Commonwealth Empire) before becoming enemies.
    • He also resembles Deadeye Joe from Hard Corps. Both have lower parts of their faces obscured by their masks, both are chased by the player, both have Noble Demon tendencies, and both fight against the player character, both personally and from inside of a Mecha.
    • He's quite similar to Jin Kisaragi, too. Both are sometimes at least a bit crazy, had a deep bond with one of the characters (Ragna/Bahamut) that was broken, and consider themselves kind-off the good guy, at least in the beginning, despite being on the definitely wrong side of the conflict. Their faces and hair are also definitely similar.
  • Tiberius = Colonel or Master Contra of Neo Contra + Chief Salamander of Contra ReBirth.
  • Tiberius Augustus = Justice.
    • In this form, he also resembles the first two stages of G-Virus mutated William Birkin, with both sharing the overgrown one arm, complete with a pulsating, giant eye.
    • Ironically, he also resembles the Triumvirate from Shattered Soldier if you count the Relic of Moirai overwhelming them.
  • Tiberius Invictus = Chaos. Other alternatives include Valentine from the final battle of Guilty Gear 2: Overture or Project C of Neo Contra.
  • Some of the enemies are not free of this either. There's one resembling a Gigafly (from Contra III, Shattered Soldier and Contra 4) that tries to "kidnap" your character by taking them away to the top of the screen.
  • The Cerberus boss resembles Devil Emperor Gava, who appears in other Contra titles, but is much more mobile.
  • Both 573-Tigris and 573-Draconis (Kasuga series in the Japanese version) resemble the Magnus Tank series.
  • 573-Draconis from the end of Stage 3, seems to be based on the blue battleship/submarine boss from the beginning of the second stage in Contra: Shattered Soldier. It also resembles the TIM Gunboat in Neo Contra.
  • The Lux Corona resembles a combination of Rocket Ninja Sasaki (from Contra ReBirth) and Great Awakening Robo Big Fuzz.
  • The transforming black robot from Stage 6 looks, and behaves like, a combination of Super Power Robot Yokozuna from Contra: Hard Corps/Shattered Soldier and the Heli-bot from the beginning of Stage 6 in Shattered Soldier.
• The titular character of Crash Bandicoot. A species of Australian marsupial who performs tornado spins to break everything in his path. Wait, were we talking about Taz or Crash?
• Crusader Kings II has one plotline where you have to deal with the unnamed leader of a band of merry men causing havoc in your realm. Several of the story branches feature scenes straight out of the legend, but allow you to change the outcome. In the same vein, a Christian ruler in a bind may end up presented with their very own Jeanne d'Archétype and can either pick story decisions leading her to a death by burning, or save (and potentially marry) her.
• Devilotte of Cyberbots was built as an expy of Doronjo from Yatterman — both being blonde, female comedic mecha villains constantly accompanied by a pair of male lackeys. Lampshaded in Doronjo's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, where she ends up going after Devilotte for stealing her gimmick.
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy's planet Blenjeel is based on the planet Arrakis from Dune.
• Dark Souls:
  • In general, the series has a lot of characters based on characters from its Spiritual Predecessor, Demon's Souls.
    • From Dark Souls: The Crestfallen Warrior is one to the character of the same name (both being soldiers who lost the will to go on, can be found in their game's main Hub Level, and share the same voice actor), The Undead Merchant is one to the Dregling Merchant (a human turned monster who managed to retain their sanity, and acts as an early game merchant), the Bell Gargoyles are ones to the Maneaters (flying monsters with similar appearances and fighting styles, who are initially fought one to one until a second one spawns after the first reaches half-health), Lautrec of Carim is one to Yurt the Silent Chief (an Ax-Crazy warrior in heavy armor wielding a scimitar as his weapon), Snuggly the Crow is one to Sparkly the Crow (an unseen NPC who can exchange specific items with the player), Kirk, Knight of Thorns is one to Garl Vinland (an Anti-Villain knight whose goal is centered around protecting a Delicate and Sickly girl), Quelana of Izalith is one to Yuria the Witch (both being pyromancy trainers and Broken Birds who wear similar attire and share a voice actress), Maneater Mildred is one to both Executioner Miralda (a Dark Action Girl who always wears a sack over her face) and the unnamed black phantom fought in the Valley of Defilement (a phantom enemy fought in a poisonous swamp area), the Fair Lady and Crossbreed Priscilla are ones to Maiden Astraea (the former a demon who managed to retain her free will, has the ability to heal the sick by taking their ailments onto herself, and also has a loved one guarding her that the player needs to beat in order to get to her, while the latter being a Non-Malicious Monster who calls the player out for their cruel actions, and also shares a voice actress), Siegmeyer of Catarina is one to both Biorr of the Twin Fangs (a Boisterous Bruiser in heavy armor who performs a Heroic Sacrifice to help the player on their journey) and Ostrava of Boletaria (a Distressed Dude who the player can help throughout their journey, only to eventually cross the Despair Event Horizon and need to be put down), Big Hat Logan and Griggs of Vinheim are ones to Sage Freke and his apprentice, respectively (the former a skilled mage with an unhealthy fascination with magic, who is first found locked in a cage in need of rescuing, and the latter having a similar appearance and being the apprentice to a powerful mage who they've been separated from), Blacksmith Vamos is one to Blacksmith Ed (a grumpy blacksmith encountered in the later half of the game, who can make some of the most powerful upgrades in the game), and the Bed of Chaos is one to the Old One and True King Allant (a Botanical Abomination that hides a pathetic slug that was once a great ruler inside it).
    • From Dark Souls III: Index Gundyr is one to Old King Doran (an ancient champion who fights the player to test their worth as a warrior), The Fire Keeper is one to the Maiden in Black (a blind, shoeless woman found in the game's Hub Level, who acts as the player's source to level up), Greirat of the Undead Settlement is a combination of the Dregling Merchant (a merchant encountered in the game's first true area), Graverobber Blidge (a scavenger who acts as The Rival to Patches), and Stockpile Thomas (having a very similar questline), Yuria of Londor is one to Mephistopheles (a masked woman who tasks the player with assassinating another character), the Evangelist are ones to the Fat Officials (having the same outfit and fighting style), Anri of Astora's straight sword is one to the Blueblood Sword (a sword that scales in luck and was previously owned by royalty), Karla is one to Yuria the Witch (a woman with a similar appearance, mannerisms, and voice, and being someone who the player can save from an enemy), Slave Knight Gael is one to the Dreglings (slaves who were forced to fight in battles with only the most basic equipment), and Sir Vilhelm is one to Yurt the Silent Chief (a Black Knight with a very deep voice).
  • All three games have a Downloadable Content boss clearly based off of Guts:
    • Dark Souls has Knight Artorias, a warrior with a wolf motif, an injured left arm, and wielding a BFS that can kill otherworldly monsters. His pose on the cover of the game's Prepare to Die edition also resembles Guts' pose from the cover of Volume 28 of the manga, and Artorias' combat style in his boss fight greatly resembles Guts' when the Berserker Armor is equipped.
    • Dark Souls II has the Fume Knight, a heavily armored Black Knight weilding a BFS that, in the words of Berserk's narrator, is less a sword and more a slab of raw iron.
    • Dark Souls III has Slave Knight Gael, whose first phase of his boss fight has him performing animalistic attacks and movements similar to Guts in the Berserker Armor, while his second phase has him using an auto crossbow and one handed BFS with a fighting style that greatly resembles Guts' as the Black Swordsman.
  • Dark Souls:
    • Gwyn seems to take inspiration from Odin, the Top Grandpa God with an epic beard who attempts to prevent the inevitable end of the world and ultimately fails, as well as Zeus, a Top God with lighting-based powers, though Gwyn is considerably less of an asshole.
    • Dark Sun Gwyndolin is one to High Priest Poe, a Creepy Crossdresser wearing white robes and a mask who attacks using a blue blast of magic shot from his staff.
    • The Wisps are ones to the Lost Souls, floating skull enemies who attack the player by flying towards them.
    • The Four Kings are ones to the Nazgul, former rulers who became corrupted by temptation and transformed into deformed monsters. Also, like the Nazgul, the group wields corrupt swords and attacks the player together if given the chance.
    • According to Word of God, the Humanity Phantoms are this to the shadow monsters.
    • Black Dragon Kalameet is one to Black Dragon Guyra, a one-eyed black dragon who is a rival to another dragon named Seath.
    • Velka is one to the Raven Queen, a goddess with a crow and raven motif, as well as an association with winter, who performs judgement on the deceased.
  • The Pursuer from Dark Souls II is one to Nine-Ball, a Recurring Boss with a cyclops-like design and a black bird motif.
  • Dark Souls III:
    • Many characters in the game are very clearly based on characters from the series' Spiritual Successor, Bloodborne: The Fire Keeper is one to the Doll (a woman who's found in the game's Hub Level, acts as the player source to level up, and has a side quest based around finding a specific item for them), Ringfinger Leonhard and the Abyss Watchers are both this to the Hunters (the former having similar dialogue relating to hunting beasts, referring to the player as one, and his eventual betrayal mirroring a Hunter succumbing to the Scourge, while the latter group were once warriors with an aggressive fighting style who dedicated their lives to hunting monsters, but have all since been driven mad), Yuria of Londor is one to Annalise (a masked, Ambiguously Evil woman leading an unseen faction), the Giant Archer is one to Djura (a character who initially attacks the player from an elevated area before the player befriends them), the Lycanthropes are ones to the Scourge Beasts (werewolf like monsters with a feral fighting style), Sulyvahn's Beast is one to the Watchdog of the Old Lords (a monstrous dog-like creature), the Irithyllian Slaves are ones to the Mad Ones (extremely tiny enemies with Glowing Eyes of Doom), the Man Serpents are ones to the Fishmen (having a hunched over body and wearing ragged clothing, as well as having a very similar fighting style), the Farron Followers are this to the Hunter of Hunters covenant (a group that specialize in fighting Eldritch Abominations that were once members of their group), and Sir Vilhelm is one to Brador the Church Assassin (a member of a group tasked with killing those who delve to deep into what they don't want people to know).
    • While the series as a whole has taken heavily inspiration from Berserk, this fact becomes much more noticeable with this game, with a large number of characters taking heavy inspiration from characters in the manga: The Winged Knights are ones to Bazuzo (having a very similar appearance), their golden versions are ones to the empowered versions of Bishop Mozgus and his disciples (having a similar fighting style and appearance), the Evangelist are ones to Bishop Mozgus (having a similar appearance and using their heavy tomes as a weapon), Sulyvahn's Beast is one to the Beast of Darkness (a monstrous, dog-like beast), and Pontiff Sulyvahn is one to Griffith (a former peasant turned high ranking noble who's responsible for most of the story's problems who managed to achieve his goal though making a pact with four powerful beings, betraying his allies, and breaking the mind of a female ally).
    • The Curse-rotted Greatwood is one to Exdeath, a Botanical Abomination with a near identical backstory.
    • Orbeck of Vinheim may be one to Severus Snape, being a man with a sour personality, a dry voice, and wavy black hair.
    • Appearance wise, the Pontiff Knights heavily resemble the Nazgul.
    • Lothric, The Younger Prince is one to Elric, a sickly albino prince doomed by destiny with a similar sounding name.
    • The Painter is one to Rapunzel, an artistic, barefoot young woman with extremely long blonde hair, who is kept in captivity by a witch.
    • Princess Filianore is one to the little girl, a Mysterious Waif with long hair who guards a strange egg.
• Dead Island: Riptide introduces us to Australian sailor John Morgan. Here's a photo◊ of who he looks like and how he actually appears in game.◊
• Most of the Psychopaths in Dead Rising 2 are mix-and-match expys of the Psychopaths from Dead Rising.
• Belltower Heavies from Deus Ex: Human Revolution wear armour that resembles bomb squad suits and bring More Dakka, similar to the Juggernauts of Modern Warfare 2.
• The Devil on G-String: Maou/Kyouhei Samejima was built as an expy of Lelouch from Code Geass, down to having the same voice actor.
• Destiny 2 has a character in lore named Rezyl Azzir. His backstory of how he became Dredgen Yor is similar to Darth Vader's backstory. Bungie writers were inspired by Star Wars when making Destiny
• Discworld Noir: Many of the characters in the game are quite clearly Discworld versions of characters from Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. "Tomb evacuator" Laredo Cronk is an obvious Lara Croft reference, and the Indiana Jones theme occasionally almost plays in the background of the archaeologist's guild.
• Kurtis from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was created as an expy / Shout-Out to Jet Link AKA Cyborg 002 from Cyborg 009.
• Ada, the protagonist of D'LIRIUM is a dark grey unicorn with a black mane who bears a lot of resemblance to King Sombra. Both of them also become Evil Overlords after becoming corrupted by dark magic.
• Dong Dong Never Die has so many that the game itself could be considered an Expy. Just a few of the more notable ones...
  • Several of the stages are recreated expies of various Street Fighter stages.
  • The intro is more or less The King of Fighters '98.
  • Dong Dong, Terminator, Sheng Hua Nang, and the entire plot are tied to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Ken is...Ken.
  • Liu Mang seems to be a huge reference to Shaolin Soccer and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.
  • Mian Hua Tang summons Optimus Prime.
  • On a related note, Xiao Pan wears an Autobot T-shirt, but otherwise has absolutely nothing to do with Transformers. Instead, he has Guile's move set.
  • Fei Fei is basically a female Iori Yagami.
• Double Dragon Advance:
  • Willy's bodyguard Raymond is based on the nameless final boss from the second NES game. While the Mysterious Warrior's fighting style from Double Dragon II was called "Gen-Satsu-Ken" (Phantom Murder Fist), Raymond's style is known as "Gen-Setsu-Ken" (Phantom Interception Fist).
  • Duke, the Big Bad of Super Double Dragon, also resembles the Mysterious Warrior.
• Android 21 of Dragon Ball FighterZ is an expy of Cell, being a bio-android with Power Copying, and of Super Buu, being a murderous Majin that turns other into food to satisfy her Horror Hunger.
• Mercedes Marten of Dragon's Dogma is an expy of Casca from Berserk more or less. The game is already crawling with Berserk references, so it's not hard to imagine that the headstrong but insecure, short-haired, ambiguously brown, tomboyish, female commander of an army being a tad bit inspired by the female lead of the dark fantasy manga. It's pretty hard not to once you've seen them.
• The dragon in Dra+Koi is an expy of Lala Satalin Deviluke from To Love Ru in appearance, though her personality is only somewhat similar. They both have long pink hair and a very distinctive hat. In the case of the original, it's a shapeshifting robot. The dragon's hat just happens to look like it.
• The Duck Hunt dog has a laugh very similar to Muttley from Wacky Races.
• The Final Boss of Jaleco's EDF: Earth Defense Force looks suspiciously like Subatomic, the first boss of R-Type II.
• Nearly all the agents in Elite Beat Agents were designed to be westernized versions of their Japanese counterparts in Ouendan.
• Endless Frontier, a Spin-Off of Super Robot Wars, does this for nearly the entire cast. The mecha also pull this off: Alt Eisen Riese -> Alt Eisen Nacht; Ialdabaoth -> Ark-On; Soulgain -> Arkgain; Fairlion -> Fee-Kleid; Thrudgelmir -> Svaiser; Weiss Ritter -> Weiss Ritter Abend.
• The main character of Esoteric Ebb is basically a 5E Dungeons & Dragons Cleric roleplayed by Harry DuBois.
• Alexandra Roivas of Eternal Darkness is basically a slightly older Buffy Summers, being a college-aged blond woman who learns she has a Secret Legacy to fight against Pious Augustus and his chosen Ancient, but unlike Buffy's inherent supernatural knowledge and abilities as Slayer, Alex receives her wisdom from a Tome of Eldritch Lore, filled with the experiences and magickal knowledge of previous Tome bearers.
• The Wanderer class from Etrian Mystery Dungeon is heavily inspired by Shiren, the protagonist of Shiren the Wanderer, the most prolific Mystery Dungeon series and the only one with original characters. In addition to a heavy physical resemblance, they focus mostly on utility skills intended to help explore the dungeon, while the other classes are lifted from the main series and fill more standard RPG class roles.
• Sally from the Fallout 3 DLC Mothership Zeta resembles Sherry from Resident Evil 2, who in turn was based on Newt from Aliens. There are also the vast scores of raiders that make up the bulk of the enemies you face in the game look like they were plopped into the game straight from Mad Max.
• Dr. 0 in the Fallout: New Vegas expansion Old World Blues is based on Rusty Venture from The Venture Bros. Not only do they share the same voice actor — and yes, James Urbaniak makes sure to use the same voice and inflections — but they also share similar personalities as well. Both are inventors of dubious competence with a deep inferiority complex towards a superior scientist (Mr. House and Jonas Jr. respectively) as well as drug habits (Mentats for 0 and "diet pills" for Rusty). With the Wild Wasteland trait, one of 0's old labs contains "walking eye" robots; Rusty invented a Walking Eye on the show.
• Farnham Fables: The Edisons are based on the Apple family from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • They're farmers who love apples and speak in a Southern drawl. The family members who get the most focus are one brother, who's the eldest, two sisters, and a grandparent.
  • Wendy, the older sister, is based on Applejack. She's kind, trustworthy, and a very hard worker, but can sometimes be a bit blunt. She's often seen wearing her signature brown cowboy hat.
  • Winona, the youngest sister, is based on Apple Bloom. She's very cheerful and energetic, but with occasional depressive episodes. She wears a pink ribbon in her hair.
  • William, the eldest brother, is based on Big Macintosh. He's the one who takes care of the heavy lifting around the farm, and is mentioned to rarely argue or raise his voice, though he will do it when pushed far enough.
  • Wilford is a Gender Flipped version of Granny Smith, being the above three characters' grandfather and raising them in their parents' stead (though one difference is that the Edisons' parents moved away to the city, while the Apple parents are heavily implied to be deceased).
• Fatal Fury:
  • Geese Howard is based on Souther/Thouzer from Fist of the North Star, especially his flying pose when changing from one plane to another in the first game.
  • Rock Howard's moveset in Super Mode is based on Kaede from The Last Blade.
  • Axel Hawk is based on George Foreman.
  • Blue Mary is based on Android 18, though the resemblance lessened as time went on.
  • Sokaku seems to be based on a generic enemy◊ of Sengoku 2.
• Some characters from Fate/stay night are expies of characters from one of the author's previous work, The Garden of Sinners: Kirei Kotomine and Souren Araya (both voiced by Joji Nakata), Shirou Emiya and Tomoe Enjou, Rin Tohsaka and Azaka Kokutou (made even more obvious in a flashback that shows Azaka had the same hairstyle as Rin), Souichirou Kuzuki and Satsuki Kurogiri. The franchise's queen of this trope is Saber and this is made fun of in-universe: in the gag manga Koha-Ace, it was announced that a new character was going to be introduced only for it to be another Expy which had the characters themselves say "Another Saber!?". In TYPE-MOON's April Fools special of 2013, Saber herself (under the Paper-Thin Disguise of "Mysterious Heroine X") joins Satsuki, Sion and Riesbyfe in their quest to overthrow the Gold Heroines because she wants to "get rid of the clones".
  • Also, Rin is VERY similar to Evangelion's Asuka. Both are tsunderes. While Asuka is half-German, Rin has spells in the German language. Similar hairstyle. Both are known as geniuses in their field.
  • Fate/Grand Order is no exception. As one of many examples, Minamoto no Raikou has a startling resemblance to Suzuhara Misae from Zettai Junpaku Mahou Shoujo — they have the same character designer: Honjou Raita.
• Duke Snakeheart in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 bears a lot of similarities to Kefka from Final Fantasy VI since both characters seek power to rule over people and will commit atrocities and betrayals for the giggles.
• While not applying to a Character, the double-barrelled Devestators of Dune II have an expy in all Command & Conquer games to date save for Tiberian Sun, in the form of the Mammoth, Apocalypse and Overlord tanks.
• Reno from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Axel/Lea from Kingdom Hearts, complete with the same voice actors. Confirmed by Word of God.
• Word of God states that Final Fantasy X-2's Paine was intended as a gender-bent version of Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII. Ditto Lightning, of Cloud Strife.
• Many have commented that the new cast in Dirge of Cerberus are basically the entire cast of Metal Gear Solid. Rosso the Crimson's a sexy sadist with a ludicrous accent like Sniper Wolf, Azul the Cerulean is a huge Genius Bruiser with a minigun and weirdly defined, animal-related magic powers like Vulcan Raven, Nero the Sable's an insane, Freudian mind-reader in bondage gear like Psycho Mantis, Shelke the Transparent is the cybernetically-enhanced ninja sibling of a sexy female scientist who has an intensely personal history with the main character like Gray Fox, and Weiss the Immaculate is a ranting, shirtless helicopter pilot and Vincent's inverse and rival like Liquid Snake. Shalua is a helpful, brooding scientist with damage and a dark secret whose sibling was turned into a scientifically-enhanced ninja, like Naomi Hunter. It almost qualifies as a Whole-Plot Reference.
• Final Fantasy XIV has several characters who share names and likenesses with other characters from earlier installments, including:
  • Matoya, Y'shtola's mentor, is named after a witch from Final Fantasy. She even has a Crystal Eye.
  • Krile Mayer Baldesion, one of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, is named after one of the playable characters of Final Fantasy V. Like her namesake, she wears a cat-eared hood and has a grandfather named Galuf.
  • The Warriors of Darkness are based on late-game bosses from Final Fantasy III, with their titles taken from jobs from the same game: Warrior, Devout (an evolution of the White Mage), Magus (an evolution of the Black Mage), Ranger, and Knight.
  • While not referencing a previous FF game, Shadowbringers features a Humongous Mecha that features prominently in a post-game questline called "G-Warrior", which is colored in a manner similar to a Gundam, makes a similar pose to the ZZ Gundam, and gets an upgrade later on with a rename to "G-Saviour''.
• Wol in Mobius Final Fantasy hits major points from Kazushige Nojima's previous FF heroes - Squall's fear of getting emotionally involved, Cloud's Deadpan Snarker side, and Tidus's Fish out of Water personality. Heavily lampshaded in Gilgamesh's storyline, where Gilgamesh is trying to get Wol to find himself a role model among the Warriors of Light in history - 'you sound like a few of them already'. Wol tells Gilgamesh to go and talk to a wall, a phrase used by Squall, and when asked if he's a fan of Squall says he's 'not interested' while doing Cloud's distinctive shrug. Gilgamesh becomes concerned that Wol will never be able to be more popular than Cloud, but wishes him good luck anyway. (she
• Cody Travers from Final Fight had his looks and the entire story of his videogame lifted from 1984's Streets of Fire starring Michael Paré (as Tom Cody) and a young Diane Lane (who was aboutt 17 to 18 years old when filming began in 1982).
• Fire Emblem, to a notorious degree, as there are so many similar characters fandom categorized them into archetypes.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, characters such as Caeldori, Rhajat, and Asugi are all dead ringers for characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening (Cordelia, Tharja, and Gaius respectively) and share very similar personality traits. Then again, Caeldori could possibly be the granddaughter of Cordelia (depending on if her father marries Cordelia's daughter), and it's hinted that Rhajat and Tharja are part of the same reincarnation cycle (just who reincarnates into who is up for debate) so it strays a little from this trope.
  • Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a charismatic, intelligent Warrior Princess Anti Heroine with light hair and a shocking brutality towards her enemies, who launches a war of conquest against an entire continent. Making her a Dragon Rider through her Wyvern Rider/Lord class (a move supported by her stat layout heavily favouring this class) completes the comparisons to Daenerys Targaryen.
• Fork Parker's Crunch Out: The games Fork's company plays have titles like "Alley Fighter" and "Wyvern's Quest".
• Bruce and McCoy,◊ the protagonists of the unreleased Data East game Ghostlop, are basically The Blues Brothers if they were a pair of ghost hunters. Similarly, their enemy Mushman (as seen in Magical Drop V) is pretty much a purple Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective: Yomiel is an expy of Yanni Yogi, in a way. Both had their lives ruined by being wrongly arrested by the police (including having their fiancées Driven to Suicide because of it), and later dedicated themselves to Revenge against the officers involved. The icing on the cake is that they both had pets named after their deceased fiancées.Both games were created by Shu Takumi.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Ken Rosenberg, of David Klinefeld from Carlito's Way.
• Guilty Gear: Axl Low is quite obviously based a lot on Axl Rose, the vocalist for Guns N' Roses, but being a goofy and humourous British time traveller, there's also a lot of The Doctor in him. With the Tomato in the Mirror in Xrd -REVELATOR- that he's a magical time being as well, he's even closer.
• Each of the Dickens sleuths in Guilty Party draws direct inspiration from another famous detective character. Dorian "The Commodore" Dickens is Sherlock Holmes, with his vaguely British accent and deerstalker cap. Max Dickens is Sam Spade, with his fedora and trenchcoat. His sister Phoebe, with her FBI badge and habit of being the only sane one, is Agent Scully of The X-Files. Her son Rudy "Kid Riddles" Dickens, the overenthusiastic child detective, is Encyclopedia Brown. On the Dickens-Johnson side of the family, Dorian's sister Charlotte Dickens is an investigative little old lady in the mold of Miss Marple. Her husband, Butch Johnson, is a tall, imposing man in the mold of Shaft (daaaamn right). And their adoptive daughter Ling Ling Dickens-Johnson is a smart, analytical teenaged girl in the mold of Nancy Drew.
• The G-Man from Half-Life was stated by Marc Laidlaw, one of the series' main writers, in an email to be "weirdly/interdimensionally" related to a character named Theodore Slowslop from the obscure Japanese point-and-click adventure series Gadget, the tie-in novel for which (titled The Third Force: A Novel of Gadget) Laidlaw wrote before joining Valve. Both characters are the cold, suited, mysterious, Ambiguously Human handlers of their games' protagonists at the behest of their employers, but both characters will act against these employers for mysterious reasons, such as Slowslop collaborating with scientists he was supposed to be hunting down and the G-Man rescuing Alyx Vance from Black Mesa despite her infancy.
• Much of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2's cast are expies of characters from the original storyline.
  • Yasuaki -> Abe no Yasutsugu
  • Fuji-hime -> Yukari-hime & Misono.
• Despite having vastly different character designs, Ella and Elly Cole from Harvest Town is obviously based on Akane and Kasumi Tendo from Ranma ½. They're both sisters who have a Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic, with the older (Elly/Kasumi) being a gentle and motherly Yamato Nadeshiko, while the younger (Ella/Akane) is a fierce and unladylike martial artist. The younger sister once tried growing out her hair after her sister mentioned that her crush (Andy Reed/Dr. Tofu) might not like tomboys, but now wears her hair short after an accidental haircut. Regardless of how the younger sister fixes her hair, though, her love remains unrequited because her crush is actually in love her older sister (and turns into a blubbering idiot in her presence), though the latter remains oblivious to his attraction.
• Hotline Miami has a few of these.
  • Jacket is a rather blatant one of the Driver from Drive (2011); they are both very quiet, mysterious, blonde-haired men who are known by their iconic jackets and are capable of committing acts of extreme violence and brutality with surprising skill and efficiency.
  • The Producer whom Jacket fights in "Decadence" is likely based on Michael Clarke Duncan's portrayal of the Kingpin in Daredevil (2003).
  • The Son from the second game is one of Tony Montana's character in Scarface (1983); they are both infamous criminals with noticeable facial scars who become drug kingpins of Miami by ruthlessly murdering their rivals, and they are both killed while desperately fighting off assaults on their respective compounds while extremely high on drugs.
  • The Colonel (also from the second game) is one of Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, complete with a similar appearance and character arc.
• Hyrule Warriors has Volga the Dragon Knight: a violent, arrogant Blood Knight who wields a mean spear? Sounds an awful lot like Lu Bu...
• Eboshidori, the first boss of Ikaruga was based off the Xenomorph Queen.
• Cybird's Ikemen Revolution has several characters who are very clearly based on ones from the company's previous game Ikemen Sengoku:
  • The most blatant example is Ray Blackwell whose black-themed appearance and "aloof military leader with a hidden cheeky side" role/personality mimic Nobunaga Oda's to such an extent that he even shares Nobunaga's "tilted head and smug grin" pose.
  • Sirius Oswald, like Hideyoshi Toyotomi, is the right-hand man to his army's leader and acts like a perpetually worried parent to the rest of his army's members who constantly tease him about his mother-henning.
  • Fenrir Godspeed, like Masamune Date, is a playful, fearless Spirited Competitor who wields two weapons at once and initially frightens the female main character with his battle lust until she learns his reasons for fighting.
  • Blanc Lapin, like Sasuke Sarutobi, is a bespectacled Nice Guy whose chance encounter with the main character inadvertently causes her to become trapped in another time/world. He even warns her not to fall in love with anyone before she returns to her original time/world like Sasuke does.
  • Amon Jabberwock, like Kennyo, is a Manipulative Bastard who's Playing Both Sides of a war between two opposing armies and keeps his identity and true mastermind status a secret from them until The Reveal. The two armies also eventually join forces to defeat him in most routes.
• Ranmaru Mori from Ikemen Sengoku has several striking similarities to Nico Meier from Cybird's earlier game Midnight Cinderella: both of them have pink hair and boyishly cute looks, act as sweet and cheerful attendants for the main character's faction, but are secretly The Mole for an enemy faction even though they feel increasing guilt about deceiving the MC.
• Just like in Cybird's previous game Ikemen Revolution, some characters in Ikemen Vampire are strikingly reminiscent of certain Ikemen Sengoku characters and their similarities are amplified even further by IkeVamp's character design artist being the same as IkeSen's:
  • Napoleon Bonaparte is an even more obvious Nobunaga Oda expy than Ray Blackwell was; not only is he also a historically famous dark-haired military leader who earned both undying admirers and undying enemies for his Well-Intentioned Extremist methods, but the game even gives him an eagle as a pet to parallel Nobunaga having a hawk as his pet.
  • Leonardo da Vinci, like Masamune Date, is a flirty, teasing charmer who calls the main character by an Affectionate Nickname, kisses her far, far earlier than any of the game's other guys do, and frequently spirits her away (sometimes against her will) on adventures outside to encourage her to loosen up and let go of her fears and worries.
  • Vincent van Gogh is portrayed so similarly to Mitsunari Ishida as a pure-hearted and ambiguously neurodivergent genius who initially does not understand the concept of love that the main character even frequently likens him to an angel just like IkeSen's MC does with Mitsunari. Ironically, the character artist also made him look like a dead ringer for Ieyasu Tokugawa, Mitsunari's Sitcom Archnemesis in IkeSen.
  • Sebastian shares Sasuke's role as the only romanceable character in his game who isn't a famous historical figure but an ordinary human who came from the same modern era as the main character and also Sasuke's personality traits of appearing to be The Stoic on the outside but turning out to be a huge history geek who gleefully fanboys over the famous men he's now living/working with.
• Inazuma Eleven GO:
  • The game plays this with the manager trio, Sorano Aoi, Seto Midori, and Yamana Akane are expies to the prequel's Aki Kino, Raimon Natsumi, and Otonoshi Haruna.
  • The commentator Kakuma Ayumu is this to Kakuma Keita. After all, they're brothers that have a common interest and share the same VA.
• Island Saver: Rainbow Cat is a colour-changing version of the Cheshire Cat.
• IOS games tend to make common use of expy and Captain Ersatz characters. Psyche from Greek mythology was a beautiful princess in a tower that the god Eros fell in love with. In Com 2 Us's game Majestia, she's made into a fighter with a sword and shield and wearing a Navel-Deep Neckline white robe. In other words, she's an expy of the Soulcalibur IV version of Sophitia but with red hair and no braid.
• Cuisses, the Team Pet who can eat skill stones to fuse them from Level-5's Jeanne d'Arc was made as an Expy of the Team Pet Toad from Level 5's Rogue Galaxy.
• The first boss of Kero Blaster, the Shield Plant, is one of Omega from Cave Story, both of which were created by Studio Pixel. Aside from being a giant plant monster instead of a sand monster, it has the same attack pattern as Omega: be immune to damage until the two halves of its shell open up to expose its weak point and fire projectiles into the air.
• In Kid Icarus: Uprising, it is even lampshaded that Komaytos are identical to Metroids.
• The King of Fighters:
  • King's androgynous fashion sense was inspired by Grace Jones, while her fighting style and physical appearance were influenced by Dutch actress and Muay Thai fighter Saskia Merk van Rijswijk (specifically in her role as a henchwoman in China White).
  • Benimaru Nikaido was modeled after Jean-Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. According to an interview, Benimaru was even jokingly called Polnareff by the development team that worked on The King of Fighters '94.
  • According to the official KOF website, Shermie was based on Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, which is evidenced by her flirtatious demeanor and massive breasts.
  • Serial Killer Choi Bounge is based on Freddy Krueger, sporting the same hat, sunglasses and clawed gloves.
  • According to Word of God, Chizuru's design was inspired by Yoko Shiraki from Tomorrow's Joe. Both are long-and-dark-haired high-class young women who handle venues related to fighting: Yoko sponsors a boxing gym with her grandfather, Chizuru organized the KOF tournament more than once.
  • Rather infamously, K9999 was a blatant homage to Tetsuo from the movie AKIRA, bearing a similar design, fighting style (right down to certain moves that were lifted straight from the film) and even the same voice actor. It has been speculated that sheer blatantness of the similarities are part of the reason why he was quickly dropped from the series and hadn't been seen since up until KOF XV, where he returns under the new identity of "Krohnen" and with his AKIRA references toned down considerably.
  • Sylvie Paula Paula is based on real life idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
  • Chin Gentsai of the Psycho Soldier team is plainly based on Beggar So from the first Drunken Master film.
• Riku from Kingdom Hearts have his characteristics coming from Yui Hongo of Fushigi Yuugi. Both are best friends of the main character (Sora and Miaka), sided with the villain (Maleficent and Nakago) just to get a desired person (Kairi and Tamahome), turn good at the cost of being taken over by the main villain (Ansem and Seiryuu), and after getting out of this mess, become The Atoner. They also have their hairs growing long in the sequel series.
• Lololo and Lalala (aka Fololo and Falala) from the Kirby series are based on Lolo and his girlfriend Lala from the Adventures of Lolo series, having almost identical character designs; Lolo and Lala have mouths, while Lololo and Lalala do not (as they are based on Lolo and Lala's sprite artwork, where their mouths are generally Invisible Anatomy).
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
  • Chris Avellone stated he created Kreia because he "thought it would be cool to be in an adventuring party with Ravel Puzzlewell!".
  • By The Emperor's Hand introduces us to Mara Jade. Mira in the second game is an expy of Mara, right down to wearing one of the outfits Mara did in the comic.
• Each of the playable classes of Star Wars: The Old Republic is a clear analog to an iconic Star Wars character from the films to one degree or another:
  • The Jedi Knight is based on Luke and Anakin Skywalker, as well as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • The Jedi Consular is based on Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi in his later years.
  • It's really transparent that the Smuggler is Han Solo in all but name. One of your first companions is a Wookie who owes you a life-debt, the love-interest for Light-Side Male Smugglers, Risha, is secretly a princess with Belligerent Sexual Tension with the Smuggler, you're being hounded by a crime-lord whose cargo you lost early on, and even your ship looks like a boxier and less advanced Millennium Falcon. Of course, for some people that's the appeal...
  • The Republic Trooper is based on the Clone Troopers from the prequel trilogy. The most prominent NPC who represents the class, Jace Malcom, even bears some similarity to Jango Fett, the original donor from whom all clones derive from. The female Trooper is also a stand-in for Commander Shepard due to their voice actress.
  • The Sith Warrior is reminiscent of Darth Vader, especially in the case of his most prominent in-game NPC, Darth Malgus. The player character also borrows elements from the latter, like him (potentially) having a Twi'lek wife. Said Twi'lek, Vette, is an expy herself: same species, personality, and voice actress as Mission Vao. The main difference is that Vette's "of age" and a romanceable option.
  • Unlike with other classes, the Sith Inquisitor's templates are two rather different characters: the Force Sorcerer Darth Sidious and the Force Ninja Darth Maul.
  • The Bounty Hunter is based on Boba and Jango Fett.
  • The Imperial Agent is kinda inspired by prominent Imperial figures like Grand Moff Tarkin and Grand Admiral Thrawn; though here the similarities become very fleeting as they fit the role of a Non-Action Guy, which is the opposite of the Agent.
• Kyle & Lucy: Wonderworld: With their similar character designs (One being a bird robot and the other being a robot with a large drill in place of a nose) and roles in the story (Bumbling minions of another, more prominent villain), Spike and Ballast are a dead ringer for Scratch and Grounder, from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• Croix Raoul from La Pucelle looks an awful lot like Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.
• Russian browser-based game League 17 used to contain actual Pokémon, but, after being hit with cease-and-desist, they have replaced them with blatant (even occupying the same dex slots and having similar names) substitutes. See for yourself.
• Jinx in League of Legends is according to Word of God a Rule 63 Expy of the Batman: The Animated Series version of the Joker (with Caitlyn being Commissioner Gordon and Vi being Batman). Although there's also quite a lot of Tank Girl in there.
  • Veigar reminds a lot of people of Vivi Ornitier.
  • Samira is effectively Dante of Devil May Cry if he was a fully human, one-eyed Arabic woman, both being stylish Thrill Seekers who fight using flashy Gun Fu with dual guns, a giant sword, and a combo-grading system. She outright quotes several of his iconic catchphrases.
• Left 4 Dead 2:
  • Ellis is based around designs for the Scout from Team Fortress 2.
  • Louis also has his clothes and background being an almost duplicate of the title character from Shaun of the Dead. Once Louis and the other survivors from the first game were made available in the second game, the resemblance is even more similar once you give Louis a cricket bat.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Kholdstare from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past greatly resembles Kracko from the Kirby series.
  • Yuga from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is basically a mixture of Agahnim from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Ghirahim from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Like the former, he's trying to revive Ganon, captures Maidens, is fought before you enter the Dark World equivalent and is a mysterious magician from nowhere. Like the latter, he shares an effeminate appearance, a need to revive his master, is the boss of the first dungeon and is fought three times throughout the adventure.
  • Groose from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword bears a striking resemblance to Wakka from Final Fantasy X and even goes through similar character developments.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass gave us Linebeck, who has his share of similarities with a certain Captain called Jack.
  • The recurring boss/enemy Mothula is clearly based on the kaiju Mothra.
  • The champion Revali from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a cocky, bluish-feathered Rito, is pretty much a medieval version of Falco.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the pregnant Uli and her husband Rusl resemble Osono and Fukuo, respectively, from Kiki's Delivery Service.
  • Also in Twilight Princess, Shad looks uncannily like a Hylian version of Harry Potter.
• Kyousuke of Little Busters! is clearly based on Yoshino Yuusuke from CLANNAD, both having similar hairstyles, voices, and names, and propensities for inexplicably charismatic speeches about love or friendship or hope in totally mundane situations. However, they're far from the same character - for example, where Yuusuke is always totally serious and stoic, Kyousuke is much more overdramatic and expressive and happy. Most of all, Kyousuke comes across as something of an expansion on Yuusuke's character, as while Yuusuke only ever had a minor role at best in CLANNAD, being mostly a one-off joke, Kyousuke is absolutely integral to the plot of Little Busters! and gets a whole lot more character development.
• The Villain Protagonist of Lucius is clearly an Expy of Damien from The Omen. (In fact, the game is pretty much Omen: The Video Game.)
• Lufia: The Legend Returns has Deckard, an Expy of Dekar from Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Spiky blue hair, badass normaltude, amazingly stupid...
• Max Payne is a rogue vigilante with a leather jacket, a bag full of guns, and a family killed in a senseless act of violence. Now, he's out for revenge on the criminals of the world. In other words, he's The Punisher. There's even a physical resemblance.
• Beyond the fact that the premise of the the Classic series (and preliminary designs for Mega Man X) were inspired heavily by Neo Human Casshern (Mega Man and Rush are practically Casshern and Friender), Mega Man has several expies within its own universe:
  • In-universe, Guts Man seems to be a recurrent template for bosses in subsequent games, with one of the most obvious examples being Concrete Man.
  • Slash Man of Mega Man 7 owes his design to Pluto of the Stardroids.
  • Tornado Man and Splash Woman are, respectively, Sage Harpuia and Fairy Leviathan.
  • Giro is Zero. Besides possessing Model Z (which may or may not be Zero's Soul Jar), this similarity is explicitly remarked upon in-series; Prairie, the leader of the Guardians, is heavily implied to be an older Alouette from the Zero tetralogy—right down to sharing her voice actress—and is suggested to nurse feelings for Giro because of how much he reminds her of someone she once knew (i.e. Zero).
• Metal Gear:
  • Hideo Kojima created Metal Gear Solid's Meryl Silverburgh as an Expy of the Meryl Silverburgh from his earlier game Policenauts, who in turn was created as an Expy/Distaff Counterpart of Solid Snake from his even earlier game Metal Gear.
  • Kojima also later exported a Race Lifted Benson Cunningham from Snatcher to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
  • And Dr. Pettrovich Madnar, the Metal Gear engineer in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was exported to be the head of the Frankenstein Project in Snatcher.
  • Drebin from Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Smuggler from Deus Ex. Both are shades-wearing black men who do questionably legal defeating of biometrics. They even have the same voice actor.
  • Most of boss cast of Metal Gear: Ghost Babel are direct stand-ins for FOXHOUND from Metal Gear Solid. Slasher Hawk is an Aboriginal shaman with a bird association, to go with Vulcan Raven the Athapaskan shaman; Marionette Owl, with his madness, Gothic Horror elements and kinky serial killer routine, is a take on Psycho Mantis; Black Arts Viper is vengeance-crazed and The Rival like Liquid Snake; and Sophia N'Dram is a tragic, sexy racially-oppressed woman with a Noble Demon side and extremely heavy weaponry like Sniper Wolf. Pyro Bison doesn't really fit anywhere, though.
  • EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was stated by Kojima to be his take on Fujiko Mine from Lupin III. She's a similarly powerful motorcycle-riding Action Girl who disguises herself and uses sex to get an advantage, and also her ultimate action is to stab Snake in the back and steal a legendary item from him.
  • Snake himself is VERY similar to Kurt Russell's character Snake Plissken from Escape from New York. For his part, Kojima has said the resemblance is intentional, as Escape from New York is one of his favorite films. Snake also uses the alias "Iroquois Pliskin" in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
  • From Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, we have the Final Boss, Metal Gear Sahalanthropus, which is similar in many respects to Evangelions: in addition to being distinctly humanoid in its build compared to other Metal Gears in such a way as to physically resemble an Evangelion, it has some bestial behaviors like Unit-01 when it goes berserk. Also like the Evangelions, they are designed in such a way that they can only be piloted by Child Soldiers. Further driving this home is the fact that the fight against Sahalanthropus entails the mecha being manipulated by a malevolent psychic child named Tretij Rebenok, whose name translates from Russian into "Third Child" — the same designation given to Shinji Ikari.
• Metroid II: Return of Samus
  • Tsumuris are zoomers of Metroid in function, only you see their profile rather than their mugshot. Official art makes them more snail-like.
  • The Metroids already cribbed a page from Alien's Facehuggers (although in this game they hug Samus's belly) and this game makes the similarities even more blatant by having the Metroid phases of evolution crib a page from the Xenomorphs. They even have a Queen Metroid that lays eggs.
• Mighty No. 9, being made by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune sans the actual rights to the series, has Mega Man and Roll being substituted with heroes Beck and Call. Dr. White is essentially a Younger and Hipper Dr. Light (though the Mission Control aspects of the character are given to Dr. Sanda), Dr. Blackwell is Dr. Wily, most of the Mighty Numbers are based off various Robot Masters (for example, No. 7/Brandish is Proto Man mixed in with Cut Man and No. 4/Seismic is Guts Man; notably, No. 6/Aviator draws inspiration from GyroMan.EXE), Trinity's first form uses the attack patterns of the Yellow Devil, and Ray is a gender-flipped fusion of Zero and Bass/Bass.EXE.
• Minecraft: Story Mode: Endercon is this of Minecon.
• Many of your units (and the enemy units) in Mini Robot Wars are expies of plants and zombies from Plants vs. Zombies.
• Mitsumete Knight, a Spiritual Successor of Tokimeki Memorial 1 made by the same Konami team as TM1, had a few Expies in its cast:
  • Lesley, of Ayako Katagiri: they share the same specific personality traits unique to their character, i.e. an obsessive love for painting, and a horrible fear of water which plays an important role in some special Events and dates at swimming locations;
  • Linda, of Mira Kagami: they have the same hair color, the same haughty voice and attitude, a similar Noblewoman's Laugh, and comparable Hidden Depths);
  • Johan, of Rei Ijuin: they both act as the rival of their respective games' protagonists; both are heirs of very rich and influencial families, and they share the same arrogant and Screw the Rules, I Have Money! attitudes, along with a love of showing off with roses).
• Ninten and Ness, both from the Mother/Earthbound franchise. In fact, most of your party in EarthBound (1994) serve as expies of the party from EarthBound Beginnings. Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd -> Ness, Paula, and Jeff, where the members of both trios fill the role of the striped shirt protagonist with a red cap, the female esper with a pink dress, and the bespectacled boy who specializes in weapons.
• Moonlight Berry: Blueberry was created as a Palette Swap of Itsumi, before developing characterization on her own and being remade into a distinct, but still noticeably similar character. The two are now canonically cousins.
• Kongōke Bosatsu "Hana" from Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- is very obviously an expy of Sengo Muramasa from Touken Ranbu, what with their equally eccentric personalities, dress sense and especially their fixation on nudity and constant insistence on stripping off clothing.
• Nefarious has Princess Mayapple, who is pretty much Princess Peach by another name, sharing the same style outfit she has, as well as the same dynamic with Crow that Peach has with Bowser. Albeit, she's a tad bit more snarkier about her frequent kidnappings by him than Peach is.
• While Nexus Clash is crammed with Expies as player characters, everyone in the official lore is an Original Character...except possibly the setting in near-future Shining City Laurentia, which is pretty clearly an Expy of Vancouver.
• The rabbit Marquis de Hoto from The Night of the Rabbit is an expy from the rabbit of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In both works a kid follows a rabbit into a magical world.
• Ni no Kuni:
  • Marcassin, who is an absolute dead ringer for Howl of Howl's Moving Castle. In the English version, he even spends his first few moments on screen hiding his face, complaining about how "hideous" he is — just like Howl does! (This is Studio Ghibli, however, who are known for their Reused Character Designs.)
  • There's also the Toko class of creatures, who are an obvious Totoro expy, especially Chibi-Totoro.
• Nostalgia (Red Entertainment) has Doctor Brown, who looks like Indiana Jones with a thick mustache.
• Catfish Carl, the shopkeeper in Octogeddon, is basically a fish version of Crazy Dave, the shopkeeper from Plants vs. Zombies. Justified, as both games are from the same creator.
• In Ori and the Will of the Wisps:
  • Opher, a warrior monkey armed with a battle staff, resembles a composite of Sun Wukong and Rafiki.
  • The Stink Spirit, though named after the corrupted version of the River Spirit from Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, more resembles the Tatarigami's first form in Princess Mononoke, which is further referenced with the creature's later Demonic Possession of Kwolok.
  • The Sand Worm in Windtorn Ruins appears to be modeled after the Shai-Hulud worms from Dune, with elements of the Graboids from Tremors.
  • Twillen◊, the Shard merchant first met in Kwolok's Hollow, has a suspicious resemblance to the Skull Kids from the The Legend of Zelda series.
  • Mora, the Giant Spider guardian of Mouldwood Depths, has drawn many comparisons with Shelob, the Giant Spider guardian of Cirith-Ungol in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, although Mora is merely Brainwashed and Crazy rather than outright evil.
• Phineas Welles from The Outer Worlds has been said to be a hybrid of Rick Sanchez and Walter Bishop, with a dash of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor.
• Persona:
  • Persona 3:
    • Both the game's male protagonist and Aigis act as expies of Rei Ayanami—the former being a stoic with blue hair who warms up to the other characters over time while also having some When He Smiles moments, and the latter being an Emotionless Girl who slowly gains emotions over time and acts as the protagonist's primary Love Interest.
    • Akihiko Sanada acts as this to Ryohei Sasagawa, a silver-haired boy with something on his left temple who acts as the captain of the boxing team. The only difference is that Akihiko is much smarter.
  • Persona 4:
    • Teddie was designed as a Decon-Recon Switch of the classic Japanese children's character Doraemon. Much like the blue cat mascot who provides useful tools to the main character but barely resembles a cat, Teddie is a blue bear mascot who provides the tools the protagonists need to navigate and leave the TV world.
    • Naoto Shirogane acts as an expy of Rei Ayanami, a mysterious blue-haired girl who shows a rather endearing side to those she warms up to.
    • Mr. Morooka seems to take inspiration from a number of characters from other series, including Mr. Akashi, a Sadist Teacher with goofy teeth who hates the main characters just for existing, Iyami, having very similar looking teeth and hair, and Mr. Kinpachi, a teacher with a similar haircut who wears pinstripe suits and genuinely wants his students to succeed, though Kinpachi is far less abrasive about it.
    • Ms. Kashiwagi seems to be based on Mitsuki-sensei, a stripperiffic Hot Teacher who constantly tries (and fails) to invoke Hot For Teacher.
  • Tohru Adachi's fighting style in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax is very similar to Hazama's, with one attack in particular resembling Hazama's Astral Finish.
  • The Queen of Hearts from Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth gets her name and appearance from the Queen of Hearts, fitting the game's overall Alice Allusion.
  • Persona 5's Sojiro Sakura is based on Daisuke Jigen, a picaresque thief from a franchise that Atlus noted as one of their inspirations for Persona 5. This includes Sojiro sporting Daisuke's distinctive beard, haircut, and nose, as well as wearing a trilby hat in his casual outfit reminiscent of Jigen's iconic fedora.
  • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth:
    • Nagi is one to Dumuzid/Boss, a Mesopotamian god in white who disguise themselves as human, traps people in nightmares, and doesn't actually do anything until the very end of the game, where they're revealed to be the Big Bad.
    • Kamoshidaman is an expy of Superman, a Flying Brick who engages in Clark Kenting and is adored by the masses. The only difference is that Kamoshidaman is a Villain with Good Publicity, rather than a straight hero.
  • Akira Konoe from Persona 5 Strikers is this to Iron Man, being a rich tech guru praised as a hero by the public, and also has a notably similar appearance. His Shadow also wears a mechsuit greatly resembling Iron Man's own.
• Plague Inc.: in the Necroa Virus scenario, as soon as the Necroa Virus revives it's first zombie, Hero Antagonist Z-COM appear. If whom Z-COM are supposed to be is not apparent enough, the achievement for destroying a Z-COM base is called Z-Com: Enemy Undead. Fittingly, for a Perspective Flip of a game notorious for it's Early Game Hell, Z-COM is an Increasingly Lethal Enemy growing in strength over time.
• In Pocket Arcade Story, the first three characters you'd most likely encounter in the game in fighting mode are Ryuchiro, Speedy Joe and Chunchun- expies of Ryu, Guile and Chun-Li respectively.
• In Pokémon:
  • Most of the male protagonists are expies of the original hero, Red. Ethan, Brendan, and Lucas take after his original design while Hilbert, Nate, and Calem take after his modern one. The latter two are also expies of Hilbert, most obviously with Nate.
  • N from Pokémon Black and White takes after Kaworu of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • The unnamed protagonist of Pokémon Stadium is obviously meant to look similar to Red from Pokémon Red and Blue. The female protagonist in the sequel game looks like a brunette Kris from Pokémon Crystal.
  • Looker is one to Inspector Zenigata of the Lupin III franchise. They're slightly goofy but largely competent Interpol Special Agents. Looker's trenchcoat is very similar to his as well.
  • Throughout the series, species have tended to repeat themselves as well:
    • Most infamously, Series Mascot Pikachu has had a new cheerful, circle-cheeked, Fragile Speedster electric rodent just like it in every generation, in order: Pichu, Plusle and Minun, Pachirisu, Emolga, Dedenne, Togedemaru, Morpeko and now Pawmi and its evolutions.
    • Although none of them are Electric types, Marill, its evolutionary relatives, and Mimikyu are also sometimes included in this group by Pokémon fans.
    • Every generation up through 5 has a small, cute, unobtainable legendary with an even spread of 100 among all stats. In order: Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, and Victini. To further the pattern, all but two, Manaphy and Shaymin, are at least part-Psychic-types.
    • The earlier routes are known for having a number of recurring patterns in the Com Mons, such as with the Normal Mammals^note Rattata, Sentret, Zigzagoon, Bidoof, Patrat, Bunnelby, Yungoos and the Normal/Flying Birds^note Pidgey, Starly, Pidove, and Pikipek along with Spearow, Hoothoot, and Taillow. X and Y has noticed the pattern and subverted it; Bunnelby evolves into Diggersby, a really not cute Normal/Ground type who's a Mighty Glacier rather than a Fragile Speedster, and Fletchling, who at first appears to be the Normal/Flying bird, evolves into Talonflame, a Fire/Flying type who's one of the deadliest non-legendary Pokémon in existence.
    • Black and White was known for completely wiping the pokédex up to that point to fill the region with new species. While this has had different results depending on who you ask, the Roggenrolla^note Expy of Geodude, a three-stage rock-type that had the ability Sturdy and had its final stage evolve by trade, Woobat^note A very common bat that confused opponents like Zubat, Audino^note A pink, fluffy Metal Slime that spreads joy and commonly works in medicine, like Chansey, Munna^note A psychic-type based on the mythical tapir Baku that feeds on dreams, like Drowzee. Unlike Drowzee, however, Munna evolves with a Moon Stone, Timburr^note A three-stage fighting-type with very high attack and has the last stage evolve through trade, like Machop, Throh/Sawk^note Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan, twin fighting types which looked similar but had different focuses, along with the fact that you could only have one of the two, and Bouffalant^note A normal-type bovine that strongly resembles Tauros with an afro lines seem oddly familiar.
    • Ruby and Sapphire was a similar case, even though the Pokédex was only partially wiped. One can easily see the first-gen inspiration from Beautifly and Dustox^note Both going through cocoon metamorphosis similar to the Butterfree line, with Dustox taking after Venomoth, the Shroomish line^note Mushroom-based Pokémon similar to the Paras line which also has access to the otherwise exclusive Spore; one could also make a case for the Nincada line, which also includes an undead cicada similar to Parasect in Shedinja, the Aron line^note Rock-type mineral kaiju resembling a dinosaur similar to the Rhyhorn line, Seviper^note Venomous snake used by Jessie of Team Rocket, who replaced Arbok, and the Corphish line^note Crustacean Pokémon similar to the Krabby line, both caught by Ash.
  • In Pokkén Tournament, Pikachu's mannerisms and fighting style are reminiscent of Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima from the Tekken series.
  • A lot of Pokémon are inspired by Japanese pop culture, but in particular there's a surprising amount of Pokémon directly based on Kaiju movies—Nidoking and Nidoqueen are clear parodies of the subterranean monster Baragon, right down to having the Ground-type; Aerodactyl has a lot in common with the pterosaur-like Rodan, including the fact that both their Japanese names are derived from the word "Pteranodon" ("Ptera" for Aerodactyl and "Radon" for Rodan); Tyranitar is just a straight up expy of Godzilla himself; and Generation Five would introduce the quasi-divine, mothlike Volcarona and destructive three-headed dragon Hydreigon, clear expies of Mothra and King Ghidorah respectively. Additionally, Butterfree's Gigantamax form introduced in Generation Eight resembles Mothra as she appears in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
• Angela Belti from Power Instinct was based on pro-wrestler Reggie Bennett, specifically as she appeared in a Japanese energy drink commercial in the early 90s.
• Kogoro Tenzai and Mii Koryuji from Project × Zone are based off of Sun Wukong and Xuanzang from Journey to the West, respectively. Appearance-wise, Mii is basically a cross between Bayonetta, Juliet Starling, and Petra Johanna Lagerkvist.
• [PROTOTYPE]'s Blackwatch was created as an expy of Blue Unit from Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.
• Puyo Puyo did this to itself by introducing a cast of new characters in Puyo Pop Fever who are meant to be equivalents to the characters from the franchise's Compile era.
  • The new protagonist, Amitie, is the original hero Arle. Both are teenaged girls who know some of the same magic spells ("Bayoeen" is a more specific one, but they do know fire, ice, and lightning spells that they give different names).
  • Raffina is Amitie's rival, very wealthy, and a big jerk, just like Arle's rival Rulue.
  • Dongurigaeru, like the Compile-era Nohoho, is a frog. That doesn't really constitute an expy by itself, but they both use the same puyo dropset - they fill the right side of their playfield with puyos, leaving the left open.
  • The Ocean Prince is meant as a stand-in for Suketoudara.
  • Lidelle/Rider has elements of Draco Centaurus (her horns, green hair, and weak AI) and the Puyo Puyo~n character Chico (small size, ears). Once Draco herself returned in Puyo Puyo 7, she even borrows Lidelle's dropset.
  • The Compile era had a talking skeleton named Skeleton-T, whose role was taken up in the Fever era by Oshare Bones a.k.a. Dapper Bones.
• ''Revenant Hill'': The main character, Twigs is an expy of Mae Borowski from Night in the Woods except less anthropomorphic.
• Red Dead Redemption II: Perhaps intentional on the part of Rockstar Games, Micah Bell seems to be an extreme version of a mix between Michael DeSanta and Trevor Philips. In many ways, Micah is a Shadow Archetype, Foil and even an Evil Counterpart to both characters — a dark mirror of their worst traits, having all of Trevor's Ax-Crazyness and all of Michael's greed, ruthlessness and individualism but none of the charm and redeemable traits that Trevor and Michael are best known for. Ironically, Trevor and Michael were two of the main protagonists of Rockstar's previous game while here, Micah is the main Big Bad. It's almost as if the company has created an antagonistic, evil, unsympathetic version of both characters.
  • To Trevor Philips. Both are chaotically Ax-Crazy members of their respective game's main gang/family unit, and are more than likely to kill on a whim. Additionally, Micah starting his own gang after selling out Dutch mirrors Trevor's small criminal empire, Trevor Phillips Enterprises. That's where their similarities begin, and they quickly end with Micah lacking many of Trevor's redeeming and/or comedic traits. Trevor has many Cloudcuckoolander tendencies and a Hair-Trigger Temper while Micah is more well-composed and is rather serious in his acts. Trevor is The Pig-Pen while Micah keeps a well-groomed gunslinger image. Both are also opposites in regards to racial views and moral codes in their respective stories. Trevor is Equal-Opportunity Evil and cares little for the ethnicity and gender of those he works with or hurts, while Micah is an unapologetic bigot. And most of all, Micah lacks Trevor's main virtue: Loyalty. He sells out his gang, friends and surrogate family to the Pinkertons so he can branch out on his own.
  • To Michael DeSanta, which is fitting since Micah is just two letters away from Michael. Like Michael, Micah is a malignant narcissist who grew up in a life of crime, and played a major role in the running of a gang. Both also made deals with federal agents that led to the disbandment of their respective gangs. That is where their similarities end, and their differences could not be any starker. Michael will never commit wanton violence for the fun of it, and many of his plans usually try to avoid unnecessary violence, whereas Micah never plans and commits violence for his own amusement left, right, and center. While Michael made a deal with the FIB to protect his family, and he would do anything for them, Micah made a deal with the Pinkertons that only he would benefit from, and he couldn't care less for the gang he destroyed. Their arcs also end differently, at least by player choice. While Michael can ultimately reconcile with his family and begin to move on from his life of crime, Micah remains an unrepentant criminal and dies because of it.
• Several of the fighters in Rivals of Aether are Composite Characters based off of characters throughout the Super Smash Bros. series, as the game was explicitly created for the Super Smash Bros. Melee fandom.
  • Zetterburn is heavily based on the "Spacies" archetype (that is, Fox, Falco, and Wolf) that has historically been exceptionally popular in the Smash competitive scene. This is especially evident in his Up and Neutral Special Moves — his Up-Special is Fox's "Fire Fox" with no change in function, and his Neutral-Special is based on his Reflector — without the reflection capabilities, instead focusing on its unintended offensive capabilities as one of the fastest attacks in the series. In addition, many of his standard attack animations are taken directly from Wolf's moveset in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^note In a Hilarious in Hindsight move, their movesets did split... on Wolf's end, when he returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When the series began to expand, he drifted apart from Fox personality-wise, but in the original game, the inspiration remains clear.
  • Wrastor's moveset takes attacks from Captain Falcon, Meta Knight, and Falco. Along with his being a bird, his characterization as a rude, cocky flier is based on Falco as well, and his Brooklyn accent in promotional materials is based on the voice Falco had in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • Orcane takes his moveset directly from Vaporeon in Super Smash Land — creator Dan Fornace's previous project. They're both built around the central gimmick of leaving puddles of water and teleporting between them.
  • Of the expies in Rivals, Clairen remains the closest to her source character. She takes the majority of her moveset from Marth down to animations and the gimmick of the tip of her sword being stronger than the blade, and takes her backstory from Lucina in that she travelled into the past to aid her ancestor (for Lucina, Chrom; for Clairen, Forsburn) in order to prevent a Bad Future.
  • Absa takes moves from Ness, Mewtwo, and Zelda, in the case of the latter some of said attacks even having the same name. She's also built around Ness/Mewtwo's unique jump mechanics.
• Randy and Andy, the Dragon Twins from River City Ransom, are based on Billy and Jimmy Lee, right down to using their same theme music. The reference was even more blatant in the Japanese version, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, where Randy and Andy's Japanese counterparts were originally named Ryūichi and Ryūji Hattori (their names meaning First Dragon and Second Dragon).
• In Road Redemption, the unlockable character John Spartan is based not on the protagonist of Demolition Man, but on Spartan John-117 AKA Master Chief. Likewise, Jack Traven, though he has the same name as the hero of Speed, more resembles Agent 47.
• In Robopon, Robopon 64 had you play as expies of Cody and Bisco, the hero and his rival from the GBC games.
• From Roommates, Isabella greatly resembles a certain Rivaini pirate and, for all intents and purposes, could be seen as a modern-day college equivalent. Rakesh may put people in mind of another quirky Indian fellow with a one-letter difference in his name.^note It doesn't help that the two letters are side-by-side on a standard QWERTY keyboard, making it extremely easy to mistype one for the other.
• Red and Blue from SaGa Frontier were based on characters of the same name from Treasure Hunter G.
• The titular Serious Sam is pretty much the equally titular Duke Nukem without all the sexual and toilet humor (but still with plenty of cheesy one-liners.) This, plus the fact that the first game came out the same year that 3D Realms announced "Duke Nukem Forever will be done when it's done" could be used to argue that the former is a Spiritual Successor to the latter (especially when Duke Nukem Forever bombed horribly, while Serious Sam 3 fared considerably better.)
• Shadow Hearts: From The New World lifts some characters from previous Shadow Hearts games.
  • Anne Lafitte is basically Anastasia from Covenant - a Token Mini-Moe with Improbable Weapon and an energetic and somewhat annoying personality.
  • Lady and Killer are basically evil Alice and Yuri. Both Lady and Alice are white-haired young women with mysterious powers, who empower their protectors. Both Killer and Yuri are brooding older men in Badass Longcoats with Too Many Belts and Good Old Fisticuffs battle style.
• Both Miko SHMUP Heroines Sayo Yuuki from Castle of Shikigami and Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project are said to be based on Sayo-chan/Pocky from Kiki Kaikai/Pocky and Rocky.
• Shovel Knight takes a lot of influence from the 8-bit era of gaming due to being a homage and Retraux, with many influences coming from Mega Man (Classic).
  • The Order of No Quarter are based off the concept of the Robot Masters. They're a group of highly memorable bosses who wait at the end of specifically themed levels, have great visual designs and a lot of personality for one-off bosses, fight with very specific gimmicks, and are fought a second time in a Boss Rush toward the end of the game. They even have a very similar naming scheme.
  • Shovel Knight and Shield Knight are visually based off of Mega Man and Proto Man (although the latter only in terms of appearance).
  • Black Knight is also an expy of Proto Man in that he's not only fiercely independent, he also serves as a somewhat similar foil to Shovel Knight. He's also an expy to Bass in that he's a black-armored rival to Shovel Knight, using the same form of attack as him and not being aligned to the main antagonist.
  • The game's Big Bad, the Enchantress, has a design that is heavily reminiscent of Maleficent from the Disney Animated Canon. Both have green skin, wear a cloak with black and purple as its main colors, horns on top of their heads, and utilize green fire.
• The Butcher in Silent Hill: Origins and the Bogeyman in Silent Hill: Homecoming are expies of Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2. It goes beyond just being an Expy in Homecoming; the Bogeyman is more or less just Pyramid Head renamed.
• In Silent Scope, Monica the Armored Secretary is basically an armor-plated version of Catwoman.
• Drachma from Skies of Arcadia was created as an expy of Captain Ahab from the classic Moby-Dick. The Hero Vyse also has a lot of Captain Harlock in him.
• Small Town Murders: several from Criminal Case.
  • Mike Shanahan for David Jones.
  • Sal Manzanella for Tony Marconi.
  • Zoe Maurice for Ruby Rees (only in physical appearance).
  • Winnifred Wayward for Agnes Leek (the former isn't as grumpy as the latter).
  • Esme Wayward for Morgana Blackhawk.
  • Luna Wayward for Belinda.
  • Tyler Parks for Bobby Prince.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Dr. Eggman's robot companions in Sonic Colors, Orbot and Cubot, strangely resemble Decoe and Bocoe from Sonic X, who themselves are expies of Scratch and Grounder from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Dr. Eggman borrowed some ideas from another mad scientist antagonist in video games, Dr. Wily- Egg Mobile is similar to Wily Capsule, both have robotic minions, both reside in futuristic fortresses. In Game Boy Mega Man games Dr. Wily's final stage sets in space, while in many Sonic games Dr. Eggman's final stage also sets in space. But in Mega Man V Dr. Wily has Death Star-like space station, like his fellow Dr. Eggman made his own space station months earlier. While both seek for achieving and maintaining world dominance, historical personalities, they based on are pacifists- Theodore Roosevelt and Albert Einstein respectively.
  • King Boom Boo and his minions in Sonic Adventure 2 are the series equivalent of King Boo and his minions in the Super Mario Bros. series.
  • Rouge the Bat is basically an animal take on Morrigan from Darkstalkers.
  • The Nocturnus are very similar to the group of Echidnas, the Dark Legion, from the Archie Comics, and Shade is similar to Julie-Su, and their home dimension "The Twilight Cage" has a similar name to the Dark Legion's dimension "The Twilight Zone". Ix also looks similar to the Sonic the Comic character Dr. Zachary, and Archie's version Dr. Finitevus.
  • The Ifrit in Sonic Rivals 2 is very clearly an expy of Iblis. Like Iblis, the Ifrit is an immortal fire monster named after a djinn in Middle Eastern mythology, and who is responsible for destroying the world in Silver's future. Even their designs are similar, with the Ifrit resembling a winged version of one of Iblis' forms.
  • The Sonic games also have many similarities to Dragon Ball Z. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver are essentially expies of Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks, respectively. There's also the super forms and the seven magical Chaos Emeralds. Unsurprising, considering the manga influenced quite a bit of the overall franchise.
• Sorcery Saga has extremely transparent stand-ins for the main Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo cast. While there are some tiny differences to try and make them different from their ancestors, the blueprint is still there.
  • Pupuru is Arle's expy, being the curry-loving Bokukko magic student trying to graduate magic school. Both of them are also the Only Sane Man in a Cast Full of Crazy, though Pupuru is a bit more scatter-brained and slow-witted compared to Arle.
  • Cliora is Rulue's, being The Rival to the heroine in romantic pursuits. Unlike Rulue, however, Cliora is capable of casting magic.
  • Zeo is Schezo's, an expert magician specializing in dark magic with dodgy vocab choices. Zeo, however, claims to have deliberately vague wording to try and be more mysterious.
  • Gigadis is an expy of Satan, being a pathetic and laughable demon king that pines for the main heroine that has zero interest in him.
  • Kuu is Carbuncle's, as the weird little cute creature with a connection to Gigadis, the Satan expy. Both of them accompany the heroine on adventures, and are Extreme Omnivores, but their reason for following the heroine differ. Kuu just wants food, Carbuncle seems genuinely happy to be with Arle despite wandering off now and then.
• Spelling Jungle: In the sequel Spelling Blizzard, all six animal types (excluding the Abominable Snowman, which is functionally a hybrid of an animal and a Trickster) serve the same functions as six of the animals from Spelling Jungle (the polar bears fill the role of the lions; the wolves fill the role of the tigers; the penguins fill the role of the gazelles; the moose fill the role of the rhinos; the walruses fill the role of the alligators; and the whales fill the role of the hippos).
• Officer Ooe from Spirit Hunter: NG is one to Mashita from the previous game Spirit Hunter: Death Mark. With her black hair, half-lidded eyes, and role as a Cowboy Cop who bucks the rules in favour of the truth, she's strikingly similar to a female version of him. This is shown to be deliberate in the concept artwork, which features a sketch of Mashita alongside her own.
• The Planet Buster in Spore is an expendable item which is essentially a "Destroy Alderaan Button". Of course, just like its source, the Planet Buster will make everyone in the galaxy hate/fear you.
• Star Ocean:
  • The three starting party members from the original game are clearly expies of some of Tales of Phantasia characters. In the Anamnesis/Rays collab artwork◊ they even have mirrored positions. Not surprising, given that Star Ocean was created by the same team as Tales of Phantasia.
    • Roddick is a clear counterpart to Cress, being a sword-wielding hero, who longs for adventure and, unfortunately, gets it by the way of destruction of his village. In First Departure he even wears almost the same armor.
    • Dorne is an expy of Chester. Both are friends to the hero, who leave the party early on, and not on their own will (Chester is accidentally left out of time-warping spell while Dorne is Taken for Granite by a disease). Both even share their Eyes Always Shut trait, although Chester drops it in later appearances.
    • Millie is a fusion of Mint and Arche, being a White Magician Girl (like Mint), who, however, has Tsundere tendencies, and is easy to anger (like Arche). She shares her spellist with Mint, but physically resembles Arche.
  • Nel Zelpher from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was created to be an expy of Phia from Star Ocean. Phia's combat style in the PSP Updated Re-release of the first game was even reworked to be more like Nel's later on.
• The protagonists of Earthworm Jim, The Neverhood, and Armikrog all resemble each other. They also resemble character Doug TenNapel has created in other media. Armikrog's Big Bad Vognaut is an obvious reference to The Neverhood's Big Bad Klogg, right down to being the protagonist's older brother. He is even shown wielding a similar weapon.
• All the hero characters in Mobirix's Zombie Hive are based off of characters elsewhere: Red Fox is Claire Redfield from Resident Evil, Jack McLaine is John McClane from Die Hard, Lady Hawk is Marvel's Black Widow but with an inverted colour scheme and an electrified submachine gun rather than shockrods, Mr. Blood Jacket is Rambo down to the bare chest and M60 but he's a black man now and finally there is Iron Shark who's a total expy of Iron Man (complete with missile-firing cannon off of War Machine).
• The Shroud in Stellaris, and four of its five most powerful beings, are expies of the Warp from Warhammer 40,000 and its Chaos Gods. The Shroud's versions, while still highly dangerous, are typically more balanced in the positive and negative aspects of their domains than their Chaos counterparts:
  • The Whispers in the Void are Tzeentch. The Whispers provide a great boon to your science as they share cosmic secrets, but some of those so "gifted" may Go Mad from the Revelation.
  • The Composer of Strands is Nurgle. Instead of disease, however, it brings mutation (often positive) in a Bizarre Baby Boom.
  • The Instrument of Desire is Slaanesh. It will greatly benefit your economy, inspiring your people, but that inspiration may also lead to counter-cultural political movements or consumerist decadence.
  • The Eater of Worlds is Khorne, and an exception to the "less nasty than its Warhammer counterpart" rule. Your admirals and warriors will fight with unrivaled ferocity and courage, but the Eater will occasionally devour entire cities, causing them to "mysteriously vanish", in exchange.
  • The fifth, the End of the Cycle, is not an expy of any specific Chaos God. But making a bargain with it (which the game explicitly warns you is a bad idea) results in a disaster very much like the Fall of the Eldar. The empire that made the bargain is simply annihilated, and the souls of its billions, if not trillions of people are devoured to give birth to psychic monstrosities that will sow havoc and destruction across the galaxy.
• Many of the characters from Street Fighter^note Visit the Shout Out page for more details:
  • Ryu and Sagat from the original Street Fighter onwards were based off of real-life karate masters Mas Oyama/Yoshiji Soeno and Reiba, respectively, from the manga Karate Baka Ichidai. Sagat's design is especially blatant, as both he and Reiba are dark-skinned Muay Thai masters with no hair and one eye.
  • Ken Masters (along with Joe from the first Street Fighter) is based off real-life karate champion Joe Lewis.
  • Eagle is based on Petrov, the Russian fighter from Fist of Fury, right down to the identical clothing and facial hair. His redesign in Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium made him look more like Freddie Mercury.
  • Chun-Li from Street Fighter II is primarily based on Ton Pooh from Strider.
  • Blanka looks like the green-skinned version of Malaysian wild man boxer Harimau from Tomorrow's Joe. Harimau can also do his own Rolling Attack.
  • Dhalsim is based on La Seng, the Indian Yoga master from Master of the Flying Guillotine. It is believed Dhalsim's fighting style and ability to stretch were taken from the character.
  • Zangief is mostly likely based off Soviet Union professional wrestler Victor Zangiev, who had a stint at New Japan Pro-Wrestling from 1989-1990.
  • Balrog/Mike Bison/Boxer and Fei Long are modeled after Mike Tyson and Bruce Lee respectively.
  • M. Bison/Vega/Dictator is visually based off of Yasunori Katō◊ from the novel Teito Monogatari and its various adaptations^note Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis and Doomed Megalopolis in particular, right down to the cape, hat◊, and use of dark powers. Build-wise he's more closely modeled after Washizaki◊ from Riki-Oh... who is in turn also visually inspired by Yasunori Kato.
  • Dee Jay was inspired by Billy Blanks' character from The King of the Kickboxers.
  • Cammy White, the former brainwashed assassin of Shadaloo, has a design based on Alita/Gally from Battle Angel Alita.
  • Alex from Street Fighter III is probably the beardless version of Hulk Hogan, particularly when he does his intro pose where he tears apart his shirt.
  • Hugo/Andore from Final Fight is himself an expy of André the Giant. When he made his appearance in Street Fighter III, he helped solidify this comparison by doing with Alex the WrestleMania III pose-down between Hogan and Andre.
  • The twins Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III are based on Duo Maxwell and Trowa Barton respectively from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, particularly their hairstyles.
  • Makoto from Street Fighter III is based on Akane Tendo, the female lead of Ranma ½.
  • "The Last Emperor" of Russia, MMA Legend Fedor Emelianenko, inspired the character design and fighting style of Abel and his fellow Bison/Dictator clone(s), the Final Boss Seth from Street Fighter IV.
  • El Fuerte from Street Fighter IV is more than highly reminiscent of Rey Mysterio Jr. in terms of his fighting style, with shades of El Santo thrown in the mix.
  • There are at least four separate fighters inspired by characters from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Guile's trademark Anime Hair was originally based on Jean-Pierre Polnareff, one of the characters from Stardust Crusaders.
    • Rose from Street Fighter Alpha was inspired by Lisa Lisa, also from Battle Tendency. Aside from the very similar physical appearances, both women have long, flowing scarves that they use to channel energy during battle.
    • The Final Boss of Street Fighter III, Gill, is probably based off of Kars, the Big Bad of Battle Tendency.
    • Juri from Street Fighter IV is heavily based on Jolyne Cujoh, the main protagonist of Stone Ocean. They have extremely similar outfits and hairstyles, and Juri even shouts something akin to Jolyne's "Ora ora ora!" Battle Cry during certain moves. Both women also have bug motifs, with Jolyne tied to butterflies and Juri tied to spiders.
    • Necalli from Street Fighter V is very reminiscent of the Pillar Men from Battle Tendency. Both are half-naked ancient long-haired warriors modeled after Aztecs, and they share the ability to devour people through their own skin. When he activates his V-Trigger, his hair also resembles that of Kars.
  • Famously, Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha was created as a Composite Character parody of Ryo Sakazaki, Yuri Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, the three protagonists of Art of Fighting.
    • His clothing and fighting style were taken from Ryo, his face and hairstyle were from Robert, and his effeminate mannerisms from Yuri. His father, Go Hibiki, was even designed to look like Mr. Karate, the father of Ryo and Yuri.
    • And of course, the whole reason Dan exists in the first place is because Capcom was annoyed that SNK created Ryo, a blatant clone of Ryu from Street Fighter. Given that both Art of Fighting and Street Fighter were created by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, the similarities between Ryu and Ryo were likely 100 percent intentional.
    • Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter later gave Dan a teenage sister named Yuriko, making her Capcom's Expy of Yuri Sakazaki.
• Word of God says Grandmaster Meio from Strider was inspired by Sauron, specifically in his appearance in a cover art for the first book. This is noticeably in their similar cloaked/shadowy appearances and the fact "Meiō" is a title equivalent to Sauron's "Dark Lord", which is actually used in the book's Japanese localization.
  • Solo is one to Boba Fett: Solo was inspired by Fett's establishing scene where he's contracted by the Empire, both are bounty hunters who use flight-capable and face-concealing armored suits and fight exclusively with ranged weaponry. His name may even allude to Han Solo, the one Boba Fett was hunting down.
  • On the other hand, Keiji Inafune has said that Solo was part of his inspiration when designing Zero and staff at Capcom has implied Chun-Li was a non-evil expy of Tong Pooh.
• The Super Robot Wars series seems to be a magnet this for many of its characters and Humongous Mecha:
  • Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning -> Reiji Arisu and Xiaomu^note Unsurprisingly, the games for both pairs had the same director.
    • Alt Eisen -> Vita; her barrier jacket is predominantly red and black (with some white highlights), her armed device is called "Graf Eisen" which, while a hammer, functions as a barrier-piercing Pile Bunker via spending cartridges and also has the power to attack her enemies with tons of iron balls.
    • Lamia -> Richia Spodune and Kunzite; the former shares her voice actor, green hair and Stripperiffic outfit, the latter her Artificial Human Robot Girl background, The Stoic personality and similar Tin Man to Become a Real Boy story.
  • Aside from the Hermodr battleship and Zyflud, none of the Balmarian mecha in Shin Super Robot Wars reappear in future SRWs. However, the Zadoc and Cees in Shin are most likely the base designs of the Zechariah and Megillot from Super Robot Wars Alpha.
  • Each of the original mecha in Super Robot Wars 64 are essentially slightly redesigned and recolored for the ones in Super Robot Wars Advance: Earthgain -> Soulgain; Super Earthgain -> Zweizergain, Virose -> Vysaga; Simurgh Splendid -> Angelg; Soldifar and Ashcleef -> Ash Savior; Svanhild -> Laz Angriff; Rathgrith Custom -> Laz Angriff Raven^note Laz Angriff Raven, however, only appears in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation.
  • God Gravion/Sol Gravion -> Compatible Kaiser/G Compatible Kaiser; in this case, Gravion creator, designer and director Masami Obari was asked by developer Banpresto to give the Kaiser a new look.
  • GaoGaiGar -> Gunleon, a lion-themed mecha that uses construction tools as weapons with a really BIG one as its most powerful and associated with/powered by a green-colored energy source.
  • Gundam -> Huckebein series; this example is rather infamous, as the entire mech family got bridge'd in 2nd Original Generations after Sunrise complained about the similarities. This resulted in the creation of the Exbein, which is about 99% identical to the old Huckebeins, lacking only the most blatant Gundam design elements.
• Sword of the Stars has a few: Several Grand Menaces carry inspiration from earlier sources. The Puppet Master is based on the Beast from Homeworld Cataclysm (which was made by the team that would become KP). The System Killer reminds one of the The Doomsday Machine from Star Trek: TOS. The Peacekeeper is based on the spaceship in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
• SolForce from Sword of the Stars is one for EarthForce from Babylon 5. The name and functions are similar, the backstory of SolForce involves a democratic administration being suborned by jingoist militants that eventually get pushed back, just like the other, and the creators have even admitted to being fans of the show.
  • The Bloodweaver aka He Who Shapes is the most paternal of the Suul'ka and the most adept at biological warfare. The Zuul females under him are constantly in pain and warped in form. Doesn't that sound like Grandpa Nurgle?
  • The Loa to the spirits in real life Haitian Religion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loa. Hardly surprising, as most races have some kind of historical analogue and the Lore writer is trained in historical anthropology.
  • Despite the name, the Zuul are more like the Reavers from Firefly. Ramshackle ships, into abduction, piracy and slaving, have a taste for rape (mental, not physical, which isn't much better) and murder, make lots of use of grappling harpoons and Boarding Parties...
• Flynn from Tales of Vesperia looks a heck of a lot like Guy from Tales of the Abyss. Word of God is that they wanted to experiment by putting a similar design on someone with a completely different role.
• Tales of Xillia:
  • Milla bears similarities to Dhaos, having a mastery of four basic magic elements, and also having a mission to destroy the technology that's disrupting her world's mana. Appropriately, she gets his outfit as a costume.
  • Dhaos gets a second, villainous Expy in the sequel in the form of Chronos, who possesses all of his signature moves (Tetra Spell, Tetra Assault, Chronos Corridor/Laser), and harbors a similar disdain for humanity. It's likely a nod to the fact that a Captain Ersatz of Dhaos named Sekundes served as the Craymel of Time in Tales of Eternia (Chronos being the prime spirit of time in Xillia's universe). It's made even more apparent with Chronos's Mystic Arte "Chrono Erosion", which is literally named Time Craymel in the original Japanese.
• Aska from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters was based on Mitsu, the female Japanese rebel from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. However, her name ended up being changed for unknown reasons.
• Leo from Tekken is an homage to Rock Howard from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Both characters are young, slender Bishōnen (well, Bifauxnen in Leo's case) with short blond hair and outfits consisting of a red and white jacket worn over a black top.
• Temtem is heavily inspired by Pokémon, and several species play similar roles:
  • Like Ditto, Mimit is a genderless shape-shifter that can breed with almost every other species.
  • Like the Machop line, the Osuchi line are humanoids who specialise in hand-to-hand combat and whose final stage has four arms.
  • Like the Abra line, Hocus and Pocus are psychic humanoids named after magic words.
  • Like Eevee, Tuwai has multiple evolutions that each specialise in different Elemental Powers.
  • Like Celebi, Kinu is an elusive nature spirit with Psychic Powers and a metaphorical Green Thumb.
• Terraria:
  • The character sprites in alpha were rather blatantly based off of Final Fantasy V combat sprites, but they were thankfully changed for its release on Steam to avoid a lawsuit from Square Enix.
  • The Moon Lord is obviously Cthulhu.^noteAccording to Word of God, he is Cthulhu's brother.
• The indie fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds has a revealed cast that is based on characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, since the game was based on the fangame My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic.
• Tomb Raider: Legend adds a geeky British assistant named Alister to Lara's support team, with the character having been inspired by Bryce, Lara's tech guy from the live-action movies.
• Undertale:
  • The Fallen Human is an Ambiguous Gender riff on the protagonists of the Mother games.
  • Undyne, a sharp, cool, and dutiful eyepatch-sporting soldier famed and respected in the setting, and her good friend Dr. Alphys, an awkward anime nerd with crippling insecurity and a tendency to keep creating killer robots, seem to have a certain amount of inspirational pedigree from Solid Snake and Otacon from Metal Gear Solid.
• VGA Planets is a multiplayer 4X space-empire game, where each player heads up a faction modeled directly off a race or group from either Star Wars, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. The more recent Nu version has toned this way back in an attempt to avoid lawsuits.
• Victor Vran eponymous protagonist is basically a Gabriel Van Helsing expy. Both are mysterious monster hunters proficient in fighting, and both wear badass leather suits with a cool hat.
• Dandy-J from Waku Waku 7 is heavily based on Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, right down to copying Joseph's hat and fighting style.
• Carley from The Walking Dead is an expy of Rebecca Chang from Dead Rising 2. Both women are pistol-toting attractive reporters who wear the same outfits (a white buttoned shirt, black skirt and matching slippers/heels), and they both die very shocking and sudden deaths from being shot in the head.
• Arthas of Warcraft III was inspired by Elric of Melniboné, and Frostmourne by Stormbringer.
• A huge number of the Skaven in Warhammer: The End Times: Vermintide are based on the Infected from the Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2:
  • Packmasters incapacitate and drag heroes around while slowly damaging them like the Jockey.
  • Poison Wind Globadiers use a lingering Herd-Hitting Attack that deals Damage Over Time and obscures vision, similar to a combination of the Spitter and Boomer.
  • Gutter Runners leap on heroes to incapacitate them, then repeatedly stab them in a manner to the Hunter.
  • Skavenslaves attack in huge numbers at one go, essentially simulating the horde attack of regular zombies.
  • Rat Ogres are big, tough and attack with powerful melee like the Tank.
  • Sack Rats carry useful items but attempt to run from the players just like the Fallen Survivors.
• White Noise Online:
  • Two of the investigators bear a noticeable resemblance to Velma Dinkley and Shaggy Rogers.
  • One of the new investigators for White Noise 2, Vincent, is essentially Vincent Price.
• The Quarter Knights in the original Wild ARMs are based on the Sinistrals / Four Mad Gods from the Lufia / Estpolis series.
• Wintermoor Tactics Club:
  • The most obvious one is the game the Tactics Club formed around, Curses & Catacombs; it's a near beat-for-beat Affectionate Parody of Dungeons & Dragons. Almost everything about the game is a reference in some way.
  • Much later on, the game Baphomet writes is very clearly an Expy of Vampire: The Masquerade, though the game never comes out and directly says it.
  • Colin's ultimate challenge for the party is also this — a C&C module called the Crypt of Impossible Terrors, a clear reference to the Tomb of Horrors.
• World of Horror: The Old Gods you might face in the game are each based off a different fictional creature, mainly based on the Cthulhu Mythos or the works of Junji Ito:
  • Cthac-Atorasu, the Spider God, is based off H.P. Lovecraft's Atlach-Nacha.
  • Ath-Yolazsth, a living planet that seeks to consume the Earth, is a mix of Hellstar Remina and Ghroth the Harbringer.
  • Goizo, the Thing Forsaken by God, is a reference to the Japanese horror movie Guzoo, the Thing Forsaken by God, which also featured an Eldritch Abomination that attacked people through mirrors.
  • Ithotu, the Devouring Fire, is based on Lovecraft's fiery Elder God Cthugha.
  • Ygothaeg, the Irresistible Gaze, is a giant axolotl with a hypnotizing gaze that was awoken by nuclear testing, making it a combination of Godzilla and the Hypnotoad.
• World of Warcraft is chock full of 'em. For example, the spymaster of Stormwind occasionally introduces himself as "Shaw. Mathias Shaw."
• XCOM Legends, a follow-up mobile game to XCOM: Chimera Squad, has a character named Angel who's pretty blatantly based on Mercy from Overwatch. Besides having a similar color scheme, both characters have the artificial "angelic wings and halo" contraption to keep them floating or flying (though Angel's alien technology version gives hers a more mystical "feel" as the components aren't attached and float through empty air). Both are also the most powerful healers of their respective game though Angel can't resurrect and instead carries far more firepower. The biggest differences are in the storyline (Mercy is a Swiss doctor while Angel is an Italian ADVENT scion who rebelled against her evil family to first work at a gene clinic and later steal unique alien-based technology then joined XCOM) and their hair color - Mercy's a blonde while Angel is a brunette.
• The Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade Chronicles series are flush with innumerable expies, owing to the fact that, despite the games being produced and owned by different developers and publishers, all involve the creative efforts of writer/director Tetsuya Takahashi. The expies include about a dozen variants based on main characters alone, and often these characters share not just superficial design features and a few character traits but rather have nearly identical plot arcs. All told, there are dozens and dozens of borrowed characters across the games, making them some of the most expy-heavy works ever. As just a few examples:
  • Xenosaga's Jin Uzuki, who is clearly based as both a visual design and narrative matter on Xenogears' Citan Uzuki; both characters are master swordsmen, but more importantly to the plot, sagacious faunts of knowledge and wisdom. Both provide moral support, guidance, and a dose of restraint to the larger group of principal protagonists, but in both cases they are keeping deep secrets from their compatriots about their own nature, because disclosing all that they know would be dangerous.
  • KOS-MOS, one of the principal characters of the Xenosaga trilogy, appears in Xenoblade Chronicles 2; in both narratives, she is a Tin Woman variety of Robot Girl and a prototypical Living Weapon who slowly learns to feel and eventually discovers a hidden past. Main party member Poppi also embodies these traits, minus the Identity Amnesia part.
  • Abel appears in both Xenogears and Xenosaga as an identical-looking young boy who is the only person with the power to speak directly to God.
  • Xenogears' Maria Balthasar makes a minor appearance as Mai Magus in Xenosaga III; in both cases she is a technical wunderkind and a chip off the old block to her father, a genius engineer who builds her a personal mech superweapon that she ultimately completes just in the nick of time.
  • Additionally, innumerable secondary characters appear repeatedly across the games. As just one example, Vandham of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is nearly identical to the Vandham of Xenoblade Chronicles X, who in turn is clearly based upon the character Vangarre from the original Xenoblade Chronicles 1, who in turn bears some similarity to Vanderkaum, who appears in the first two Xenosaga games, who in turn is virtually identical in terms of both visual design and character traits to Vanderkam, a character from Xenogears.
  • Even God itself can't avoid being pulled in as a recycled character, appearing as the nearly identical 'Wave Entity' (Xenogears) and U-DO (Xenosaga) — and in both cases it is an omnipotent being from a higher dimension that is partially trapped in the physical universe so that its power can be siphoned and utilized by a much more nefarious demiurge.
• Xenonauts: The chief scientist of the Xenonauts program in both the first and second games, has both the appearance and narcissistic personality of Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica (2003).

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