Knight In Shining Armor / Video Games

• Baldur's Gate: The series had a few - brash but idealistic squire Anomen, relentlessly pious and judgmental Ajantis, and the old but still fighting Keldorn. Oddly enough, perhaps the most outspokenly classical example is a female halfling, Mazzy, who comes as close as a halfling can come to a paladin in a Second Edition-based game. The Knights of the Noble Order of Radiant Heart were an order of this trope, whom the protagonist could join if s/he was a paladin too.
• Bloodborne has Ludwig, the Holy Blade, as the closest thing one gets in a Gothic Horror setting. He was the first Church Hunter and the Ludwig's Holy Blade weapon was based on his personal sword. By all accounts, he was a genuinely decent person who honestly wanted to protect Yharnam and was completely open about the Beast plague. He is fought as a boss in the DLC after he's succumbed to the Beast Scourge, transformed into a grotesque amalgamation of human and equine features that attacks you like a rabid animal... well, for the first half of the fight. For the second half, he'll return to his senses and fights you with the Holy Moonlight Sword, and it turns out when he stands upright he looks kind of like a man on horseback.
• Chrono Trigger: Cyrus in the English version. His apprentice Glenn takes on traits of this as well along with being a cursed knight. Not in the original Japanese version: Lost in Translation.
• Dark Souls has Solaire of Astora and Oscar of Astora. Solaire is an honorable, friendly Warrior of the Sun, and Oscar was on a quest to ring the Twin Bells of Awakening. Siegmeyer of Catarina wants to be this, but is far too bumbling. Artorias used to be one, but he was corrupted by the Abyss and is centuries dead by the time of the game.
  • Dark Souls III has Siegward of Catarina, as a slightly less bumbling and more badass version of Siegmeyer, and Anri of Astora, who's on a quest to defeat a great evil and wears the Elite Knight set. Darkly subverted with Prince Lorian, though; he was originally this, but after he and his brother Lothric Linked the Fire, he was reduced to a brain-damaged brute unable to even stand upright, aiding his brother in rejecting the Linking of the Fire and becoming the last Lords of Cinder you fight. Also subverted with Holy Knight Hodrick, who probably used to be this, but has since gone Ax-Crazy and joined the Mound-Makers, becoming a threat to anything that crosses his path.
• One of the armor sets for the Titan class in Destiny resembles the armor of a knight and flashes a bright blue, befitting of Guardians renowned for being fearless protectors who embody strength and self-sacrifice.
• Balmung of the .hack series (all incarnations). While the setting of the series is an MMORPG, Balmung specifically investigates circumstances which could easily get him hurt in the real world. However, he has a strong moral code on issues of lesser significance, such as a strong distaste for hacking and player harassment. He also has a penchant for swooping in at the last moment to save other characters:
  • In Sign, Balmung only appears in one episode, but rushes in to distract the Phase monster so that Subaru and company can escape.
  • Similarly, Balmung's introduction in the video games has him chasing down another corrupted monster and trying to get Kite and BlackRose to run away.
  • and in the Legend of Twilight manga, Balmung (Now a sysadmin) swoops down yet again and saves Rena, takes out the data bug, and disappears before they can even find his name. When the people he works for ban him from getting involved in this again, he quits his job and takes up arms on his own.
  • His status as this in-universe even extends to Newly born AI Aura taking his character template for use as an automated defender of the World.
• Typically for a Low Fantasy setting, the Dragon Age games employ this trope:
  • The Warden, Hawke, and the Inquisitor can all fit the trope, if the player so chooses, especially in the warrior class. Inquisition even lets you craft literal shining armor for the character.
  • Alistair in Origins is mostly this, being a tank warrior who works best in heavy armor and wielding a BFS; he's sweet, sensitive, and chivalrous. He's also the only party member (besides the dog) who cannot be forced or even asked to leave, due to his Undying Loyalty to the only other Warden. If romanced, he adores his lady and presents her with a rose and some bashful speeches. On top of all that, he's also secretly a Prince Charming, as you learn over the course of the story. Covers a lot of bases, does our boy Alistair.
  • A rather novel version is found in the Awakening expansion with the Spirit of Justice. A Fade Spirit based on the concept of Justice, it is eventually trapped in the corpse of a Grey Warden named Kristoff. It then joins your party as an Undead Knight in Shining Armor.
  • Aveline from Dragon Age II is a gender-flipped version, complete with rescuing of her love interest.
  • Inquisition has two among the Inquisitor's friends:
    • Warden-Constable Blackwall, who feels that part of being a Grey Warden is to be this trope. Which is why he pretends to be Warden-Constable Blackwall to atone for his sins.
    • Cullen has transitioned from a traumatized Templar recruit to a good example of this trope. He's kind, honorable, and thoughtful. On the other hand, he is still troubled by recovering from his lyrium addiction, and is buried so deep in his work he sometimes forgets to be Cullen: human being. The other characters can help him improve in this vein a little; it's more pronounced if he's romanced.
• Erdrick/Loto's descendant from Dragon Quest is one of the earliest examples for Japanese RPG history by saving a princess in distress and defeating an evil dragonlord on his own.
• Dual Blades has Duke Andre, a Christian knight who embarks on a journey to save his people from half-human/half-beast monsters as he is guided by the voice of God according to his bio and literally wears a shining armor, in fact one of his dislikes is said to be unpolished armor.
• In Elden Ring, there are many knights associated with the various demigods, but most of them are presented as either mercenaries or loyal servants of their respective demigod with no regard for morality or chivalric virtues. However, the clearest examples of this trope are the Erdtree Sentinels, who are knights clad in golden armor, riding enormous steeds, and are devoted to defending the titular Erdtree. The Erdtree itself is the source of the Golden Order, a divine law created by a being known as the Greater Will, which defines the laws of life and physics in the world, effectively making the Erdtree Sentinels into knights who defend the very laws of reality.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Throughout the series (at least until Skyrim did away with classes), "Knight" was a preset class. Knights get bonuses to the Blade and Block skills, as well as Heavy Armor, Speechcraft, and Restoration, following the trope closely. The class description reads: "Of noble birth, or distinguished in battle or tourney, knights are civilized warriors, schooled in letters and courtesy, governed by the codes of chivalry. In addition to the arts of war, knights study the lore of healing and enchantment."
  • Though outside of High Rock, the Bretons are better known for their magical prowess, he Bretons actually have a strong chivalric tradition and most city states have their own knightly order to that end, as most prominently seen in Daggerfall. (Knights of the Rose in Wayrest, Knights of the Dragon in Daggerfall, as well as various Templar Orders such as the Order of the Hour who are dedicated to Akatosh, the God of Time, and the Knights Mentor, dedicated to the God of Knowledge.) Due to High Rock's cutthroat politics, how noble these knights actually are can vary wildly.
  • In Oblivion's Knights of the Nine expansion, the Player Character can found a new holy order of shiny-armored knights. Membership requires avoiding "Infamy" at all costs.
  • From the series' backstory comes Pelinal Whitestrake, the legendary 1st Era hero of mankind who came to St. Alessia to serve as her divine champion in the war against the Ayleids. Or, at least, that's how he is remembered in Imperial dogma anyway. Pelinal subverts the trope, having also been a racist berserker who would fly into fits of Unstoppable Rage (mostly directed at the Ayleids) during which he would be stained with their blood and left so much carnage in his wake that Kyne, one of the Divines, would have to send in her rain to cleanse Ayleid forts and village before they could be used by Alessia's forces. In one infamous fit of rage, he damaged the lands themselves, which nearly caused the divines to leave the world in disgust.
• The Justice faction in Eternal Card Game, perhaps unsurprisingly, has many of these in its ranks.
• The Fate Series has plenty of examples, several of whom were actual knights of the Round Table.
  • To start with, there is Fate/stay night's Saber, a Lady of War who believes whole-heartedly in honor and fair play. Fitting, considering she's King Arthur/Artoria Pendragon.
  • Fate/Zero's Lancer is very similar to the aforementioned Saber, and the two of them actually see each other as a Worthy Opponent and Friendly Enemy because of that.
  • Gawain is the "most honorable knight" according to Artoria, with being undyingly loyal and a bit of a chivalrous pervert. Turns out that part of the reason why he's so loyal is due to blaming himself for Artoria's death. Subverted in Fate/Grand Order, where he ends up following the evil Lion King due to his guilt over said death. However, the Gawain summoned by the Lion King is different than the one allied with the player, and the trope is again played straight in the SE.RA.PH arc.
  • Sir Bedivere might be the shiniest of all of them. He's unfailingly chivalrous, loyal and an upstanding guy all around. And even with his Heroic Self-Deprecation, he's still a very impressive Badass Normal.
  • Grand Order also introduces Tam Lin Lancelot/Melusine. She's indicated to fit this role the best of all the Fairy Knights of the Round Table, as while Barghest is the most feared and Baobhan Sith is the most hated, she's called the "most loved" as well as the "most beautiful".
• The Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout was founded to be a group of proud warriors that protect humanity from itself by securing and locking away any technology that could be used with disastrous results in the wrong hands. Many in the wasteland simply view them as holier-than-thou technophiles. They even have a caste referred to as the "Knights" that Depending on the Writer will either maintain the Power Armor and laser weaponry that the Paladins use, or are warriors that serve under a Paladin.
  • It's worth noting that power armor marked as Brotherhood armor, and thus disguises the player as a member of the faction in Fallout: New Vegas is notably cleaner looking than any other power armor in the game. Even the same set of non-faction armor will look rusted and dirty by comparison. Fridge Brilliance dictates that if your Power Armor is well maintained, you must be Brotherhood. If your armor is all rusted out, you're probably just a scavenger that got lucky and found a functional suit in a cave somewhere. Guess where most, if not all non-faction power armor can be found.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Warrior of Light in Dissidia Final Fantasy takes the trope and runs with it. In fact, he's heroic, noble, unashamedly, unrepentantly, disgustingly chivalrous to the point of making his characterization seem a tad unrealistic. And it's justified too, as a side effect of him originally being born as a clone without much emotions. He's extremely loyal to Cosmos because that's all he's ever known in life.
    • As does Cecil, but that rather goes without saying (though perhaps not as much as the Warrior).
  • Cecil Harvey in Final Fantasy IV. Indeed, his turn from the dark side to this is one of the driving forces behind and most emotionally satisfying part of the overarching plot.
  • Steiner in Final Fantasy IX, to the point that he makes a clanking sound whenever he walks. He is also chivalrous to a fault, and is torn by his conflicting duties to Queen Brahne and Princess Garnet.
  • Basch in Final Fantasy XII. Lampshaded when Judge Gabranth wonders, in their final confrontation, how come Basch failed his motherland, and then the kingdom who took him in, but is still the one who keeps his sense of honor of the two.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Parodied with Sain in The Blazing Blade, who acts like this just so he can get women. The only result is that his comrade, Kent, repeatedly tells him to drop it and get back to work.
  • Played straight as an arrow with Seth from The Sacred Stones, Geoffrey from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, and Kent himself for that matter.
  • Camus and Arran from Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light explore the more tragic aspects of this trope:
    • Camus ends up having to choose between his love and his country, ending up going with the latter. This results in him being left for dead and his love being stuck in a loveless Arranged Marriage. When he returns as Sirius in Mystery of the Emblem, he devotes himself to saving Nyna, but in the end, even though he's able to snap her out of being Brainwashed and Crazy, he resigns himself to the fact he can't be with her, and leaves, never to return.
    • Meanwhile, a case of My Greatest Failure has led Arran to continue to adopt this persona even while terminally ill, as a way of Facing Death with Dignity.
• For Honor has the Knights of the Iron Legions as one of its three factions, yet the only Knight class that approaches this trope is the Warden, who looks the most like the classic interpretation of a knight, wields a longsword, and serves as the viewpoint character for their chapter and afterwards ends up leading a resistance movement of the other Legions against Apollyon and her Blackstone Legion. Still, they don't wear full-on shining plate armor as the trope usually goes, instead wearing brigandine over their torso. There's nothing stopping a Warden player fighting as dishonorably as they want to win fights in the game however.
• Gems of War:
  • The Whitehelm region has a piety-and-honour theme to it, meaning that its units tend to fit this archetype (i.e. being good-aligned religious crusaders). Besides the cards called "The Paladin" and "High Paladin", there's Gravitas, a divine knight with special powers against the undead and daemons.
  • Sword's Edge, labeled in the opening credits as "Knights of the Iron Reach", has the noble knight thing going. "Ser Cygnea" is a human knight who specializes in defense and is often found first in battle.
• Prince Rurik of Guild Wars, doubling as The Scrappy for many.
• Ky Kiske from Guilty Gear. Prior to the events of the game, he's a military commander who willingly risked his life to save people even if the situation seemed hopeless or even if the person to be saved was questionable. In XX, Ky continues to be a noble public servant as a high ranking police officer. By the time of Overture, his popularity and charisma has earned him the position of a king.
• Hollow Knight: While his armor isn't literally shining anymore, the Dung Defender plays all of the other aspects of the trope straight. He is a proud, honorable warrior who is one of the few bosses who not only survives, but apologizes for attacking you (he thought you were a husk) and praises your ability. He played it even straighter when Hollownest still stood, as Ogrim, the most loyal of the Five Great Knights.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising makes it clear that Pit is one, as he is endlessly loyal to Palutena and will always fight for the human race, even though the game also shows that Humans Are Bastards and the real Big Bad, Hades, easily manipulates them to kill each other.
• In King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame, this is a given as you command various members of the Knights of the Round Table. While there are murderous Knights who are more concerned about their chances at raping and pillaging, many of your Knights are law-abiding and hold true to the folklore of chivalry, including your first Knights - Sir Ector and King Mark.
• In King's Quest Graham of Daventry forgoes the armor in favor of guile, but he is still very much a knight at heart, even after being crowned king.
• The Legend of Zelda has Link who, while not always a knight by occupation, is nonetheless an Ideal Hero who's been saving the princess and the land of Hyrule from Evil Overlord Ganon since 1986. That said, his A Link to the Past and Ocarine of Time incarnations are stated to have descended from the Knights of Hyrule, the Skyward Sword version is in the middle of training to become a knight at the start of the game, and Breath of the Wild's Link served as Princess Zelda's personal knight.
• Oersted from Live A Live is a deconstructed example. Demon-slaying, princess-saving, the whole nine yards. The chapter is dedicated to show that even the noblest of knights can finally crack if there's enough hatred to corrode them, and in his case he cracked pretty damned hard.
• Samara in Mass Effect 2, even going so far as to give a Knight Errant (perhaps with a bit of Samurai) as the closest human equivalent to her order. Though she has a strong ruthless streak, and is absolutely unbending when it comes to her code.
• Neverwinter Nights: Lady Aribeth, Paladin of Tyr, the god of Justice is a rare female example. Her fall towards evil after seeing the city she had sacrificed so much for execute her fiancé for a crime he is innocent of (he was made a scapegoat and the people condemning him are fully aware of it) as well as the blatant injustice committed in the name of the god of justice is the main plot of the game
• Neverwinter Nights 2 had Casavir. Granted, he has all the personality of a brick, but he's a chivalrous paladin nevertheless.
• Noblemen: 1896 from Foursaken Media, has a post-Civil War America that lost 70% of the population. This enabled a rise of a new aristocracy. And when the undead emerged with the plague, from this new aristocracy came new classes of expensively armored knights such as the Sabre Knight and the Rifle Knight. The highest tier of this new knighthood are the heavily armored Paladins who wear power armor that's one part medieval knight, one part Ned Kelly and the rest a bank vault. These religious warriors don't have any magic but they do extra damage against ghouls and vampires.
• Overwatch: Reinhardt Wilhelm is more of knight in mechanical rocket powered armor, but he still fits, and in fact invokes this trope. He sees himself as a modern day knight, and was previously part of an entire order of modern knights in powered armor called The Crusaders. He acted as The Heart to the titular Overwatch, staunchly supporting the group, but calling them out the minute they started straying morally. His forced retirement was the first step to the organization's eventual collapse from corruption and infighting, leading him to become a Knight Errant. In his youth, he was a hot-blooded and reckless gloryhound whose actions led to the massacre of his mentor and almost his entire unit. He later deeply regrets it.
  • Also of Overwatch is Reinhardt's Squire, Brigitte. While she was originally mainly tasked with helping maintain his Power Armor, she eventually develops her own and functions as a Paladin-esque Hero.
• Fernando from Paladins is an egotistical self-appointed knight who does heroics for glory and charming women. However, he does look out for his comrades and will protect them with his mighty shield and fry foes with his flame lance.
• Aeron, of Pandora's Tower, who starts the game off sneaking into the capital city of the country his homeland is at war with just to watch his girlfriend sing, then doesn't hesitate to disappear with her when Elena is promptly afflicted with a curse. He then spends half the game looking to break said curse, and the other half looking after her and making their shabby safehouse a much more pleasant place to be just so she's more comfortable. Bonus points for the fact his armor is literally bright, shiny gold.
• The Knight class in Runes of Magic is apparently inspired by this trope.
• In Shop Heroes, Gauvin aspires to be a classic knight — slaying dragons to rescue princesses. He's currently a squire, though.
• Sonic and the Black Knight: In the final battle against Merlina, Nimue and the Knights of the Round Table use the power of the sacred swords to transform Sonic into Excalibur Sonic, a Super Mode which grants the blue hedgehog golden armor.
• Soul Series:
  • Doubly subverted with Siegfried; his outward design is evocative of the trope wearing bright white/silver armor, but alas he is a Knight in Sour Armor in personality. He dreamt of becoming this just like his father who was an heroic knight that qualified for the trope, but fell into some bad company and eventually turned into a monster. He became so consumed with his crimes that he spent most of the series seeking atonement for them, and nearly veered into Knight Templar territory in the fourth game. By Soulcalibur V, he found peace and most definitely can be considered a noble knight as his new mission is to defend humans against the Malfested.
  • Patroklos is similar albeit in a relatively less tragic way as he was initially an arrogant Jerkass who did morally questionable things in the name of "justice". He does grow out of it.
• In StarCraft, Raynor starts out as one, Kerrigan even lampshades it. Unfortunately, he then realizes that the Koprulu Sector is a Crapsack World and becomes a Knight in Sour Armor.
• Flynn in Tales of Vesperia.
  • While Flynn is a very literal example on top of displaying the character traits, his best friend Yuri embodies the traits befitting this trope, while crossing it with Knight in Sour Armor, due to his dislike of the Empire and his time as an actual knight. He even gets a title in reference to the characteristics of this trope, called True Knight, and it's noted when you get the costume that Yuri is the most knightly of any of the characters, including Flynn (as the character who says this is talking to Flynn, who will agree with her).
• Trails Series
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, Alfin considers Rean to be her knight in shining armor when he inadvertently rescues her at Pantagruel (he was forcibly taken there and both had no idea that the other was also on the ship) complete with Rean giving Alfin a Bridal Carry.
  • Arianhrod is a rare female and antagonistic example. Her entire aesthetic is that of a silver knight, with an imposing armor and helmet along with an absolutely massive jousting lance. Despite being an Anguis of Ouroboros, she's shown to be one of the most honorable antagonists in the series. She even has 'squires' in the form of the Stahlritter, a trio who share her knightly aesthetic and are fervently loyal to her.
• TCTRPG The Colour Tuesday: Kyle fits this; he only rebels when its clear his sister will die if she does not recieve medicine that he can't leave town for because of an arbitrary law (apparently it's the wrong "season") He's consistently the most polite and level-headed character, and doesn't think twice about sacrificing his relationship with Alex and his powers to cross the magical flames which separate him and the medicine he carries from his sister. Thankfully this isn't necessary.
• In Undertale, Undyne literally refers to herself as a "knight in shining armor" in one version of her pre-Boss Battle speech. Though she will fight humans for other monsters with a vengeance, she's really a Hot-Blooded badass who bows to practically nobody.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Sir Gillaume De Launfal seems to have entirely missed the memo about what kind of world The Witcher is set in, and manages to be young, naïve, affectionate, impulsive and ready to throw himself at any chivalrous cause without regard for his own safety. Play your cards right, and he can make it work, and become one of the few characters in the franchise to get an unambiguously happy ending.
• Kuros, protagonist of the Wizards & Warriors series, is decked out in full plate armor in each of his games, usually coupled with a slotted face-covering helmet (although the second game, Ironsword, gave you other options for helmets as well), and he's an incredibly courageous knight of Elrond. However, Covers Always Lie, as the games' box art always depicts him as a Barbarian Hero for some reason.

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