Redemption Quests in Video Games.
- In Amnesia: The Dark Descent: The plot of the game is about Daniel trying to kill Alexander to redeem himself for having killed lots of innocent people to keep himself safe from the shadow that haunts him.
- In Bioshock Infinite, Elizabeth is an absolute darling; a kind, intelligent, perseverant young woman who sticks by Booker through thick and thin in their mission to take down Comstock and leave Columbia — by the end of episode one of ''Burial at Sea, however, she's become ruthless, manipulative, and so obsessed with revenge against every iteration of Comstock across the multiverse that she 1. murders a repentant version of Comstock who had been living with amnesia about his former identity for years and sincerely apologizes to her once he gets his memories back 2. uses a little girl, Sally, as bait to lure the aforementioned Comstock to his grave (she was his adopted daughter who he'd been searching for after she'd been kidnapped and turned into a Little Sister) and 3. abandons the timeline and leaves Sally to die a painful death once she's outlived her usefulness. Come episode two, we see that Elizabeth's been telling herself that she did nothing wrong in an attempt to alleviate her guilt, but she eventually recognizes the actrociousness of her actions — she has the Luteces bring her back to Rapture in the immediate aftermath of that moment, and the episode is spent with her trying to rescue Sally and make it right.
- Strongly implied with the various heroes in Darkest Dungeon. Their motivations are implied by their backstories, with some of them explicitly seeking redemption. The achievement gotten from completing the final quest with the first two heroes you get also strongly implies that Reynauld and Dismas sought redemption for something.On the old road, we found our redemption.
- The DLC expansion duology for Dishonored, Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, focuses on Daud, the Professional Killer who kicks off the plot of the main game by assassinating Empress Jessamine. Soon after the assassination, Daud realizes that while he killed all kinds of nobles for money before, regicide was the final straw that pushed Dunwall and the Empire over the edge, and gets a chance to atone for it by saving his last victim's daughter from a Grand Theft Me. However, his real redemption comes from turning his back on his murderous ways and, in gameplay terms, going for a Low, rather than High Chaos playthrough, as doing so will prevent his Plotline Death at Corvo's hands after the last mission in TBW.
- In The Enthralling Realms 2: An Alchemist's Journey Coral, after accidentally killing her sister Iris during an attempt to make a potion of eternal life, vows to bring her back somehow.
- Although Cecil from Final Fantasy IV has his Heel Realization early on and, thus, has the "repair my past mistakes" part all throughout the first half of the game, it isn't until he's separated from all the allies he has made and ends up in the town he pillaged to start this whole war off that the "impossible task" aspect comes into play and he breaks out of Dark Powers Versus Evil.
- It initially appeared that this sort of redemption was what Athena and the other gods had in mind for Kratos from God of War, but it turns out that wasn't quite the case. They do forgive him. However, it was not forgiveness Kratos wanted, but to forget all the terrible things he had done. Gods do not grant him that. And that is why there are no more Greek myths.
- Tarnum from the Heroes of Might and Magic series spends his entire story arc trying to atone for the terrible deeds in his first life that barred him from entering the Barbarian afterlife. He was cursed with immortality and spent a thousand years fighting evil. Tarnum finally achieves redemption in Heroes of Might and Magic IV by guiding the young Waerjak as he unites the remaining barbarian tribes without repeating Tarnum's mistakes. However, when he is offered admittance into the afterlife he desired, Tarnum chooses to stay with his people, having found a new reason to live.
- The first of the redemption tasks involves helping the soul of the man who killed him, the first Gryphonheart king. While Tarnum has reservations about this, he proceeds with the task, especially when he learns that the man's daughter, the current queen of Erathia, is Tarnum's own niece (yes, the entire Gryphonheart line is descended from Barbariansnote ).
- Several of Tarnum's quests force him to confront the fallout of his own past tyranny, such as a Barbarian cult that worshipped a distorted image of Tarnum himself as the Barbarian Tyrant and freeing the people whom he enslaved in the past (setting them up as a Slave Race to others). The last entry of the Chronicles series has his past as the Barbarian Tyrant haunt him once more in the form of one of the rivals seeking the Sword of Frost: Kija, the wife of the new Ax-Crazy Barbarian King Kilgor whom Tarnum considered to be the final fruition of the example he set for his people as the Barbarian Tyrant. Kija ultimately claims the Sword of Frost for Kilgor, with world ending consequences.
- Hotline Miami: Although it isn't revealed until the second game, almost the entire first game is one of these for Jacket. It is revealed in the second game that Beard (the friendly clerk who Jacket visits at the end of almost every mission) was Jacket's close friend, and they fought together in the war. At one point in the war, Jacket was severely wounded by an exploding elevator. Bleeding out, he was carried to safety by Beard, who urgently radioed for help, effectively saving Jacket's life. Several months after the war ended, Beard was killed in an atomic blast created by a Russian nuclear weapon which was dropped on San Francisco. It is implied that Jacket decided to become a hitman for 50 Blessings because of his repressed regret over not spending more time with Beard while he was still alive, and/or possibly even because he felt that he never got to repay Beard for saving him. The first game ends with Jacket removing his mask and tossing a polaroid photograph of him and Beard (which Beard gave to him to "remind him of who saved his life") into the wind, likely feeling that he has finally fulfilled his favour and reached the end of the line.
- Mass Effect 2:
- Thane Krios has spent the last few years killing despicable, evil people in penance for the years he spent as an assassin for first the hanar and then private individuals and organisations. He is also dying of an incurable disease. When he learns of Shepard's mission to take down the Collectors, he signs up immediately, seeing as the best thing to do with what's left of his life. This also ties into his loyalty mission, which revolves around him and Shepard preventing Thane's son from following in his father's footsteps as an assassin.
- Tali's loyalty mission. The Admiralty Board gives her (and Shepard, naturally) the task of reclaiming a quarian ship that has been overrun by geth. If she is killed, the Board promises to drop the charges against her. If she survives and succeeds, she still has to deal with the charges but the act will lend credence to her side. [Subverted Trope Subverted]] where the admirals prematurely pronounce her as KIA and one of them suggests exiling her posthumously, anyway. This being a Role-Playing Game, the final decision is left up to Shepard's diplomatic skills.
- Downplayed with Mordin Solus, who has worked with the salarian government to ensure the Genophage — the population-control bioweapon they developed and used on the krogan — was still working as intended. He defends the Genophage as a means to keep the galaxy safe from the warlike krogan without committing outright genocide, but the effects the Genophage had on the krogan, turning them into a race of pessimistic mercenaries with a grim outlook on their own future, has weighed heavy on his conscious. Come Mass Effect 3, he gains an opportunity to make amends by curing the Genophage, reasoning that the krogan have suffered long enough (and their help against the Reapers wouldn't hurt), which, this being a Role-Playing Game, Shepard can help or hinder.
- Pinstripe: It's revealed that the whole story is one for Ted, the player character. His journey forces him to confront the fact that his alcoholism led to the car crash that killed him and his daughter, and allows him to atone for his mistakes, rescue his daughter, and enter Heaven with her.
- In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince strives to redeem himself by undoing the damage he inflicted upon the time-space continuum by releasing the Sands in the beginning of the game.
- Randal's Monday: Despite how mean spirited the game can be, Randal's story is ultimately about him redeeming himself for his terrible choices and becoming a better person.
- Red Dead Redemption. John Marston, former outlaw, is sent by Federal agents to hunt down and kill members of his former gang. It seems like a subversion at first because the Federal agents are actually forcing Martson to leave his peaceful retirement on a small farm by kidnapping his wife and son and threatening to jail or kill Marston for his life of crime, but through the game Martson talks about his desire to atone for all the violence he's committed and how much he hates having to keep killing people.
- And then ultimately subverted at the end when despite having completed the impossible mission, killed some eviler-than-thou baddies and earned his family's freedom, the Federal agents come to kill him anyway and the Playable Epilogue shows that Marston was remembered in the same breath as the villains he killed, as just another violent outlaw that the West is better without.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 also has this come up, particularly when players pursue a high Honor rating. Arthur Morgan, a member of the same gang John Marston ran with, is a complex man who led a life of crime, but when he contracts tuberculosis, he begins to reconsider his acts and taking steps to make amends. This comes to a head in the climax where, if the player so chooses, Arthur chooses to help John escape from the Pinkertons, forsaking a large sum of money in so doing, but completing his redemption.
- Deconstructed in Spec Ops: The Line, one of the reasons Walker keep pushing to find Konrad and save the people of Dubai is he subconsciously views his mission as one of these, desperate to make up for the white phosphorus incident. However, his drive to be a hero just ends up making things so much worse. By the end, it's entirely possible that everyone in Dubai, including Walker himself, is dead because of his need to prove to himself that he's a hero.
- Tales of Destiny 2: Judas is on one of these for having betrayed his friends and family in the previous game to save someone he cared about.
- Tekken 8: The Story Mode focuses on Jin's attempt to bring an end to Kazuya's dominion of the world, while at the same time making amends for the global war he started all the way back in Tekken 6 that resulted in Kazuya's rise to power in the first place.
- Ben from The Walking Dead: Season One tries to set out on a Redemption Quest at the end of Episode 4 after his efforts to protect the group from bandits in secret led to Duck being bit, which caused Katja to kill herself. He's absolutely consumed with guilt, and is confused if you don't let him die in Crawford. Despite how awful he feels about what happened, he stands up to Kenny in defiance of the repeated abuse he's been given for what honestly was a misguided attempt at protection, and after Kenny realizes how much of a dick he's been, it looks like Ben's going to be able to turn things around, but come episode five, he's unfortunately injured in a way that pretty much signs his death warrant, and Kenny, to make up for what he's done to the poor kid, shoots him in the head before the walkers can get to him, since he had expressed that being eaten alive was his worst fear, and he would rather take any other way out.
