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Game Faces in Video Games.


  • BlazBlue: The main villain in once his identity is revealed. With Compressed Hair!
  • Vampire Lords such as Lord Harkon, Serana, and optionally the Player Character have access to a powerful transformation in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For the PC, it also conceals their identity if they weren't seen transforming, so they can commit as many crimes as they want while transformed without worrying about a bounty.
  • Overlapping with Mistaken for Granite, Medusa in the first Castlevania initially looks like a regular stone bust of a woman before revealing her intimidating true form. She would pull this same trick in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Several of the villains in Final Fantasy Tactics transform into their Lucavi forms for the final confrontation against you. Oddly, the demon forms are often easier to beat than the human ones, particularly Elmdore and his Assassins.
  • Several animatronics in the Five Nights at Freddy's series have differences between their normal appearance and their appearance while stalking or attacking the player, usually that their eyes turn into Black Eyes of Evil. Second game's Toy Chica takes it even further as her beak also vanishes when she is on the prowl. Here is Toy Chica in her normal state. And here... is Toy Chica on the hunt...
  • One important cutscene in Jak II: Renegade shows Kor, the old friendly guy that was the one of the first contacts with the new world and gave you quests through the game, with a big grin for a second as he speaks to Jak, showing you that something is off. He then proceeds to reveal that he is in fact the Metal Head leader and thrashes Praxis and his guards.
  • Kirby:
    • Scarfy is a cute little flying critter that changes into a furious, one-eyed Action Bomb.
    • Two-Face and Mr. P. Umpkin go from calm to malicious when Kirby gets near.
    • Propeller Bomb smiles if Kirby is alone when he approaches it, but the presence of an Animal Friend sends them into a rage.
    • Tick looks cheery when Kirby is below it, but changes to a sinister smirk when he's above and in range of its spike.
  • Odin Sphere:
    • All Vulcans have humanoid forms, but their real forms are fire spawned creatures with live fire generated from them. Normal Vulcans turn naked, grow horns, and have their skin covered by magna, hardened, and blackened. Onyx turns into a small Balrog.
    • In Ringford, the Myconid boss has three forms. One of them is an adorable little mushroom that can still cause quite a bit of damage. The other two, though...
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Reptile, who usually displays a perfectly normal - if half-masked - human face, momentarily flashes a leering reptilian expression when he spits green venom into the eyes of his opponents or eats their head.
    • Similarly, Scorpion's face also appears normal, albeit largely concealed by his mask, up until he removes it and reveals that his head is a flaming skull underneath. Downplayed following the series's jump to 3D, as his masked face, while still looking human, has Prophet Eyes that belie his supernatural nature.
  • In the Vampires Expansion Pack for The Sims 4, you can give vampire Sims a unique "vampire form" with various inhuman features of your choosing (or none at all). They put it on when feeding, using their vampire powers, or when they get hungry (which also causes them to start violently attacking others to drink their blood).
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, there are the boos - the Normal Boos and the Boom Boos. They start off as seemingly harmless with their black eyes and stitched up mouths, but get close to them or attack them and they will reveal themselves as the Attack Boos which have yellow eyes and sharp-teethed grins (for the Normal Boo, they reveal themselves by jump scaring a character).
  • Discussed in a metaphorical sense by Raynor towards Kerrigan in the single-player campaign of Starcraft II Heart Of The Swarm after he and his forces join hers in battle — specifically, at the start of the final campaign battle where the player as Kerrigan leads the assault on Korhal and Mengsk's palace. Kerrigan had already willingly re-infested herself in order to be able to unlock the full might of the Zerg Swarm, something which angered Jim as it seemed to throw away all the effort he and his Raiders had gone through to de-infest her throughout the entirety of Wings of Liberty; however, he had changed his mind after seeing evidence that this wasn't the same Omnicidal Maniac Queen Bitch of the Universe from before. Now isn't the time for sentimentality.
    Kerrigan: Jim... thank you.
    Raynor: Thank me later — it's time you put your war face on.
  • Mimi from Super Paper Mario is a shapeshifter, but usually just looks like a cute green-skinned girl with pigtails and an Unlimited Wardrobe. That is, until you actually fight her and she transforms into a monstrosity akin to The Thing (1982).
  • Tekken's Angel has one in the second Tag game. If you see it, she's probably about to melt your face.
  • Lampshaded in Octodad and its sequel, Dadliest Catch.
    Octodad: *blub of getting his game face on*
  • Undertale:
    • It's subtle but quite startling when facing Sans on a Genocide Run to suddenly see his eyes just disappear with no warning when upset, with the rest of the face unchanged. As a skeleton this actually gives him a more eerie and skeletal look, contrary to his normally expressive skull face. He actually does this a few times on other kinds of playthroughs, for dramatic effect.
    • When facing off against Asgore, he lowers his head, which hides his eyes and makes his hair and beard look more barbarous. In actuality, it's because he can't bear to look you in the eyes.
    • Flowey reveals his as early as he's introduced, in his Establishing Character Moment. Whether you avoid his "friendliness pellets" or run into them, he'll let out an Evil Laugh as he prepares to kill you with an unavoidable circle of bullets.
  • While all of the ghosts in Wick are already creepy to look at (with the exception of Benny and Lillian), they all start sporting rot and mutilations in the No Way Out DLC. This may be because where the base game is just avoiding them as part of The Bet, the object of NWO is to deliberately fuck with these unquiet dead by messing with their stuff.
  • In the latest World of Warcraft expansion, the Worgen shift into animalistic form whenever they enter combat, including a permanent scowl. Interestingly, Worgen can maintain human form while casting healing and buff spells out of combat. Trying to aid an ally currently in combat will trigger the shift, however.


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