Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Satanic Archetype / Video Games

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diablo_0.png
"Take one last look at your shining Heaven, Imperius. For soon, nothing of it shall remain... but my laughter."

  • ActRaiser's Big Bad was Satan in the Japanese version, but was renamed Tanzra in the US, due to Nintendo's policy against religious references.
  • Chakravartin from Asura's Wrath is one of these. He is the originator of all mantra, of which has affinities based on the Seven Deadly Sins. His name means "Ideal universal ruler", and is a rough equivalent to the word "Cosmocrator" an epithet for the devil. He introduces himself under a disguise as the ruler of Naraka, the equivalent to Hell in Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. He claims to be the true divine ruler of Gaea and the Anthropomorphic Personification of Samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death, not unlike Mara, the demonic celestial king who rules over the Earth and the Buddhist equivalent of Satan. When he finally reveals himself, he appears in the form of a divine being dressed in gold to hide his true nature, and midway through the Final Boss against him, transforms into a much more threatening true appearance with a large amount of red and black colors. And right before the final battle, he attempts to offer Asura (himself a Messianic Archetype) a chance at ruling the world, like Satan attempted with Jesus.
  • Bayonetta:
    • Queen Sheba is the ruler of Inferno, the realm of demons that Bayonetta often taps into for her most stylish finishers. In fact, Bayonetta summons Sheba herself in order to finish off the Creator God Jubileus by punching her all the way through the solar system and into the sun.
    • Rodin himself also counts. The character art for Rodin in the unlockable extras never uses that name, giving his name as "Mephisto", the name of a German folklore demon most prominently mentioned in the Faust legend and occasionally used as another name for the Devil himself. Appropriately, Rodin's role is broadly similar to the traditional devil: a fallen angel who is thwarted and punished from trying to conquer Heaven (and is feared by it), who rules his own "sub-basement" location after his punishment, and jokes about the "deals" he provides Bayonetta.
  • BioShock: If Andrew Ryan is (ironically) the God of Rapture then Frank Fontaine would be the Devil of Rapture. He's a Con Man who sets up charity services for the indigent and less-than-well-off as a front for smuggling and human experimentation (including getting them addicted to ADAM and turning them into splicers), akin to the Deal with the Devil Satan makes on the most vulnerable. His Master Actor abilities allowing him to convincingly fake his death and reappear as somebody else with people none the wiser harkens to Satan always appearing as someone innocuous before luring somebody into their trap. The fact that the player can become something akin to the Messianic Archetype towards the Little Sisters by saving them (doing so would grant the good ending, which has been canonized and also makes him the Anti Anti Christ) futher highlights Frank as BioShock's equivalent of the Devil.
  • Yuuki Terumi from BlazBlue is also a Satan Expy. One of the revered Six Heroes, he betrayed his team and, after being sealed, resurfaced once more to topple Heaven and God and shape the world as he saw fit. He made what he believed to be truth, which meant despair was the only truth in the world, and caused the lies of the world (which, in his view, is everything) to be cut down. He succeeded in toppling "God" (Takamagahara) by Continuum Shift and now seeks to do the same to the true God (Amaterasu). He walks around with Eyes Always Shut, speaks like a gentleman in order to lull his unaware "allies" to move like he wills it, and if his acts with Litchi are to be believed, one of his modus operandi is driving people to sign on a Deal with the Devil. Although his not really true name 'Terumi' is safe, the nickname 'Hazama' gives the meaning of 'otherworldly', similar to how Lucifer meant "Lightbringer" before he went on to be known as Satan or all those nasty other names. Taken to it's logical extreme in the fourth game when his true identity is revealed to be Susanoo, the original will of the Susanoo Unit that initially served the Master Unit, Amaterasu (aka God) but rebelled when he felt like he was enslaved to it's will and devoted his life to destroying the world that Amaterasu created and becoming a being that would surpass it and create a world where he is feared and loathed by all. In other words, he's quite literally the universe's version of the devil, with the Amaterasu Unit/The Origin playing the God-like figure and Ragna playing Jesus. He only has the name Susanoo because the naming scheme is heavily Japanese-themed, Izanami is already taken and Susanoo fits well as an antagonistic being for Amaterasu, while his origins felt more like the actual Satan/Lucifer himself.
  • Raul Menendez, the main antagonist of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, has a lot of this going for him. A Nicaraguan drug lord and arms dealer who rose from poverty to lead the anarchistic terrorist group known as Cordis Die, he seeks to bring down the wealthy and militarized First World and create a new order on behalf of the downtrodden (though a more personal motivation is the death of his sister). He's not without some sympathetic qualities, but the comparisons are still obvious, right down to him being strongly associated with fire and insisting that, if martyred, his death "will shine light upon ubiquitous darkness".
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has Chaos, an entity born from mankind's collective malice that acts as the God of Evil and the source of Dracula's power. As Long as There Is Evil, it and Dracula can always come Back from the Dead.
  • Clustertruck: The final boss is most accurately described as "Truck Satan". That is about it.
  • Death Smiles:
    • The writers decided that plain old Satan was too boring, so the final boss and head of the demonic invasion triggered by Jitterbug is Demonic Imperator Tyrannosatan.
    • The sequel has as its final boss a bizarre mash-up of demon and Santa Claus called... "Satan Claws".
  • Mundus from the Devil May Cry series, who was originally intended to be named Satan. He comes in white and looks somewhat like an angel (that is, until Dante messes him up but good, revealing the Eldritch Abomination within). He's not quite omnipotent, though, but it does seem thus far that he cannot be permanently killed, even with the power of Sparda, so Dante eventually has to seal him away like his father did long ago. He is shown to have three eyes, likely in reference to Satan's three faces in The Divine Comedy.
  • Diablo, Lord of Terror in the Diablo series is one of the Three Prime Evils, ruling over hell alongside his brothers, Mephisto, Lord of Hatred and Baal, Lord of Destruction. He is considered the most dangerous of all of them despite being the youngest and having neither Mephisto's capacity for plotting nor Baal's knowledge of warfare. In Diablo III, he even becomes the embodiment of all Seven Great Evils, the Prime Evil, making him this trope writ large, enough to have him currently pictured on this page.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II has the God-King, the God of Evil and leader of the Eldritch Abomination Voidwoken. The Black Ring Apocalypse Cult works in his name spreading death and chaos wherever they go, and he's known to make Faustian bargains with mortals, binding them to him in exchange for power.
  • Doom:
    • The Icon of Sin from is the first proper one, making his first appearance in Doom II as the final boss. He a gigantic Satyr head on a wall with his brain exposed that has facilitated the invasion of Earth, and attacks you by endlessly spawning demons and hounds them at you. He returns in Doom Eternal, now with a body and is much stronger than before, with the ability to conjure fire, possessing godlike amounts of physical strength, and is even capable of distorting reality and tearing down spacetime.
    • Khan Maykr may appear to be an Angelic being, but is currently the closest thing the series has to a Satan figure. She is the ruler of a race of decidedly misanthropic angelic figures who usurped control after the original, good ruler of Urdak left for unknown reasons and has been corrupted into a demon.
    • The Ancient Gods — Part One DLC finally reveals the series' true example in the form of Davoth, the Dark Lord and Greater-Scope Villain of the franchise. He was the Father's first and most beloved creation, much like how Satan is considered God's favourite son, who ruled over the ancient realm of Jekkad, which was heavily implied to be Heaven or Eden, however like in Paradise Lost is portrayed as a tragic and sympathetic figure. Davoth loved his creations and subjects, but couldn't bare the pain of watching them slowly die. Despite the Father telling him not to meddle with the balance of life and death, Davoth attempted to gain his people eternal life, only to be driven mad and ended up mutating them into demons and transforming Jekkad into what is now known as Hell, leading to the Father sealing away Davoth's core. When the Slayer is asked by Samur to retrieve the Father's core, the Slayer destroys it and takes Davoth's core so he can resurrect him and end Hell's threat towards the universe once and for all. It turns out that he is not only Hell's greatest warrior and Hell's equivalent of the Doom Slayer himself, with his physical form looking identical to him, minus the red demonic eyes and having various pentagrams and demonic sigils on his body. He's also referred to as "The Devil" by the intern.
  • Dragon Quest as a franchise loves this trope. As a rule of thumb, if the Big Bad of the game isn't a God of Evil, it's some form of demonic overlord.
    • Dragon Quest XI goes even further beyond by having THREE Satanic Archetypes in the same game, all embodying different aspects of it.
      • Mordegon represents the "King of Demons" part of the archetype. A demonic Sorcerous Overlord whose goal is to bring darkness to the land and subjugate humans forever. He was also a former hero, who betrayed his companions and killed the setting's equivalent of the Messiah in order to obtain power.
      • Jasper represents the "Fallen Angel" part of the archetype. An attractive Knight in Shining Armor with blond hair and association with light whose envy and pride cause him to fall into evil. Fittingly, his transformed form resembles the pop-culture Lucifer, including large bat wings and sharp horns, along with vaguely goat-like fur on his legs and arms.
      • "The Dark One", also known as Calasmos, represents the "Embodiment of Evil" of the Archetype. An ancient demonic being and the eternal enemy of Yggdragon, the creator deity of the world. He's also a tempter who "whispered" in the mind of Morcant to push him into evil, becoming Mordegon. On top of that, he's the one who is destined to be defeated by the Luminary, the setting's equivalent of the Messiah.
  • Porky Minch from EarthBound (1994). If he was one in training in, then his future counterpart in Mother 3 King P is unabashedly Satan. First of all, Word of God has described him as the embodiment of Humanity's vices, and his personality fits all the Seven Deadly Sins well. Additionally, he was originally a friend of Ness before he sided with Gigyas, fitting him closely with Lucifer's origins, and everything he does is motivated out of his own selfish desires.
  • Elden Ring:
    • Mohg, the Lord of Blood; a demigod born from the Top God of the setting and cast out for being born an Omen, Mohg would later create a satanic-styled blood cult in his name, who commit all kinds of evil actions: ranging from murder, kidnapping, brainwashing, and physical corruption. He himself is practically covered in curled black horns, and whatever humanoid features his face ever had became downright demonic by the time you meet him. He's by far one of the most evil characters in the entire setting, and probably the most unapologetic about it.
    • To a lesser extent, Rykard. He's a corrupt demigod who rebelled against the ruling deity of the Lands Between in a fit of pride and ego, lied and manipulated to convince many decent people to come with him and eventually sacrificed them all for his own power. He presides over a lava-strewn underground lair that is pretty reminiscent of modern Christian depictions of Hell, and it's populated solely by either daemon spawn or damned souls stuck in eternal torture. He even summons other damned souls as ammunition during his boss fight. His magma-based powers and association with snakes (even when he was still an Inquisitor) strengthen the Satanic imagery, as does his eventual transformation into a multi-headed serpent that seeks only to devour.
  • In The Elder Scrolls, many different aspects of Satan are spread across multiple Daedric Princes (plus some other characters):
    • The straightest example of this trope within the franchise is probably Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption, aka "The King of Rape". While most of the Daedric Princes tend to be Jerkass Gods who have Blue-and-Orange Morality when compared to mortals and display a mix of positive and negative qualities, Molag stands out as the Prince who has most consistently been portrayed as unquestionably evil and lacking redeeming traits of any kind. He claims domination and enslavement within his spheres of influence, and most of his interactions with mortals involve some combination of tempting them into wickedness, forcing them to spread strife through the world in his name, and claiming their souls after death. While in most games you see him only in shrines, in Daggerfall he looks like a big, green devil◊, while in TES Online he looks like this.◊
    • Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction, actually subverts it. Despite his Big Red Devil appearance, The Legions of Hell style servants, Fire and Brimstone Hell plane of Oblivion, and being the record holder in the series for most attempts to Take Over the World (so he can then destroy it), Dagon actually has some redeeming qualities, unlike Molag Bal. While destruction is his modus operandi, his sphere also includes concepts like ambition, change, and revolutionnote  that a functioning world requires to operate. Essentially, he can be thought of as no more "evil" than a force of nature like an earthquake or a flood.
    • Sanguine, Daedric Prince of Debauchery and Hedonism, qualifies to a lesser extent. He "prefers to drag mortals down to sinful lifestyles by means of temptation and humiliation". Basically, Satan if he were a total troll. His chosen form in Skyrim is a Dremora, a grey-skinned humanoid with horns and red face paint.
    • Clavicus Vile embodies the Deal with the Devil part of the Satanic Archetype. He makes tempting promises, but is known for either twisting words, "granting" wishes in the cruelest possible way, or simply claiming the victim's soul in exchange for what they desired.
    • Meridia, the daedric prince of lifeforce, has a lot of parallels with a fallen angel. She is a former Magne-Ge, an angel like group of demi-gods, who fell from grace after consorting with daedra. In Skyrim she's depicted as a Winged Humanoid playing up this trope. That said, she's commonly an ally to mortals as she hates the undead and will often help the living destroy them.
    • The traditional Dunmer religion has four in the form of the House of Troubles/'Bad Daedra' (opposing Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura, patrons to the Dunmer who are seen as 'Good Daedra'), who represent both temptation and dangers to the Dunmer people as a whole. They are Molag Bal (corruption of genealogy), Mehrunes Dagon (Morrowind's natural hazards), Sheogorath (temptation to mental weakness), and Malacath (represents the Dunmer's physical enemies).
    • Lorkhan, the "dead" creator god of the Mundus (mortal realm), is this, but only in the religions of the races of Mer (elves), primarily the old Aldmer and current Altmer. Their religious beliefs state that, before the creation of the mortal world, they were all immortal spirits in the pre-creation universe. Creation was then a malevolent act which robbed them of their divinity and forced them into "a mortal prison", where they experience death and suffering. To them, he is "the most unholy of all higher powers". The other spirits who he "tricked" into aiding him in creation lost their Complete Immortality and "killed" him as punishment, tearing out his "heart" (divine center) and casting it down into the world he created. However, he's seen by most of the races of Men as their patron deity and is known to favor them, especially through his mortal incarnations, like Eternal Heros Pelinal Whitestrake and Wulfharth Ash-King, who often directly resulted strengthening the presence of men at the cost of elves who oppressed them.
    • In Morrowind, Dagoth Ur is this to the Tribunal Temple and the Ashlanders. He was in some way involved with the death of the legendary Dunmeri hero, Saint Nerevar, and went against the wishes of Nerevar and his Daedric patron, Azura, to tap into the Heart of Lorkhan to ascend to godhood. As one learns throughout the main quest of the game, the truth (or at least what isn't known to be false) is a bit more complex than that...
    • Alduin, as best exemplified in Skyrim. The first and most glorious of Akatosh's creations who is also a great black dragon that is defined by his arrogance, he is supposed to "eat" the world at the end of every kalpa, but came to enjoy being worshipped by mortals more than completing his task as assigned, which is why he serves as the Big Bad of Skyrim.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 3: Akron is the game world's version of Satan to the extent that he is called "Satan" in the game's data. He is a giant Horned Humanoid created by God(cat) that can use Fire, Ice, and Dark attacks (he can use literally every element, but he's best with Dark and worst with Holy). He also has Light Is Not Good features, such as gaining a Holy Halo when his health is low and one of his possible element settings allowing him to absorb Holy. Even the last major area before his three-screen Rift is a volcanic wasteland with a Fire and Brimstone Hell look to it without actually being Hell. Epic Battle Fantasy 5 suggests that he has a large number of worshippers in the rebooted universe, as Anna speculates that the Temple of Trials was built in his name.
  • Final Fantasy has plenty of these serving as final bosses:
    • Final Fantasy II: The Emperor of the Palamecian Empire, Mateus Palamecia, goes to Hell after dying in battle against Firion and Co., where he takes control of it as the Emperor of Hell and Pandemonium rises in place of Castle Palamecia. Even before all of that, Mateus had summoned demons from Hell which helped in attempt to conquer the world. His Light Counterpart also plays up Lucifer, tempting the souls of Minwu, Scott, Josef, and Ricard who died helping Firion and the party with the promises of eternal life if they forgive him.
    • Beelzebub, however, is a miniboss that can be found in front of a certain treasure chest, and as a bonus boss in the Bonus Level, in which you play as the characters that died during the main storyline.
    • Final Fantasy VI: Kefka Palazzo is a Monster Clown who hates all of existence and claws his way up to godlike power. His laughing mockery of goodness, mercy, hope and love really drives the devil point home. The similarity was further alluded to with the SNES translation for one of his attacks, Fallen One. Additionally, the three stages of his Statue of the Gods first place him in the role of Satan as he appears in The Divine Comedy, before having him sequentially mock both Purgatory and Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pietà and at last appearing in his final angelic form.
      Kefka Palazzo: Life... Dreams... Hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go...? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all!'.
    • Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth is a Fallen Hero once revered as supreme. He began a quest to claim godhood, his motif is the One-Winged Angel, and his origins, motives, various powers and characterization all bear more than a little resemblance to the Demiurge... and there's also the whole standing in fire thing. Sephiroth is especially the devil for Cloud and Tifa, since he burned their home town, killed their parents and effectively ruined their lives for years to come. The demonic nature of Sephiroth is set against Cloud and Aerith's Messianic themes as well aa Tifa's allusion to Tiferert, the spiritual belief in Judaism of beauty, compassion and self-sacrifice.
    • Final Fantasy XII has two beings which qualify as Satan counterparts, one major and one minor.
      • The Greater-Scope Villain of the game is Venat. She was once a member of the Occuria, but left Giruvegan because she disagreed with the majority opinion (i.e. that humans need to be strictly guided). Because she cannot act on her own, she settles on influencing select humans to help her fight her former brethren and their allies. The leader of the Occuria, Gerun, explicitly refers to her as The Heretic.
      • The other figure is Ultima, who similarly rebelled against the Occuria, but specifically out of pride, much like the classical Devil. Notably, she personifies the holy elemental, has angelic wings, and is described in the backstory as "The High Seraph" of the Occuria, until she led the other Espers against them that led to their downfall. Ultima has a much more prominent role in Final Fantasy Tactics, where she serves as the Big Bad.
    • Final Fantasy XIV features Venat (named after the character from Final Fantasy XII above out of universe), a white-robed Ancient who brings about the final downfall of her own civilisation and the sundering of the star while declaring that no more shall man have paradise, becoming the angelic goddess Hydaelyn in the process. She's presented as a flawed but well-intentioned take, breaking the world into fourteen pieces as a means to De-power her godlike kind so that they can know hardship and suffering in order to better face a greater threat down the line, in opposition to their plan to sacrifice other life to bring about a return to the way things were before the calamity that ruined them. Her Japanese name can also be transliterated as Venus to further the Lucifer allusion.
  • Granblue Fantasy created two characters to represent the mythological figure Lucifer/Satan due to the difficulties that would come with trying to tell his story in the form of a singular character in this setting. There's Lucifer, the benevolent supreme primarch who only wishes for the prosperity of the Sky Realm and at worst can come off as a Well-Intentioned Extremist.. and then there's Lucilius, who's name is a Dub Name Change of Lucifer in Japanese note . Though it can be guessed that Lucifer is the version Satan pre-fall based on that description alone, Lucilius is meant to represent Lucifer post-fall, being the leader of the fallen angels, plotting to usurp God, and an all-around bad person. That said, he is only the closest the setting can get to the fallen version of Lucifer (hence, being an archetype), as he's not a proper fallen angel himself, being a former Astral turned Astral-Primal hybrid after having his head sown onto Lucifer's dead body. After obtaining the power of the Speaker to perfect himself, he becomes the strongest being in all of creation with enough power to surpass the God of this setting until he's taken down by Sandalphon, Lucifer's successor.
  • In God of War, Hades, the typical recipient, is ironically not this. However, Kratos fits it a lot better, especially in III. He is a favored champion of the gods who Turned Against Their Masters, leads the return of the Titans, essentially the same as The Legions of Hell to the setting at large at that point, and brings about the destruction of the world in his attempt to destroy the control of the Top God. Throughout that game and II, he is more or less seen as The Antichrist in-universe, without actually saying that he is.
  • In Graffiti Kingdom, the devil is a horned, purple human-looking-thing named Medium. When freed from his imprisonment, he takes over Canvas Kingdom and plans to rule the world. His son Tablet overthrows him and becomes the new devil, so "devil" is probably just a title for "ruler of demons" rather than an actual entity.
  • The Great Gaias: Malviticus is a self-centered divine being who feels limited by the rules that the higher gods placed on him and despises all other gods for not acknowledging him. In response, he spitefully uses a demon to possess Auroria and force her to go on a murderous rampage against her own creations. After being cast out of the Celestial Realm for his crimes, he takes the form of a brightly-dressed man, masquerades as a servant of a god of light, and manipulates Validus into starting a genocidal war against the elves. He also has control over the Abyss and allows his worshipers to summon demons as allies. After regaining his true form, which looks like an angel of light despite his dark nature, he slaughters every deity in the Celestial Realm so he can rule as the One True God. Even when confronted by Tantalasia, he attempts to use his silver tongue to try to justify his actions.
  • In Heroes of Might and Magic Ashan, Urgash the Dragon God of Chaos and Kha-Beleth the Demon Sovereign share this role. Urgash meets the "God of Evil" and "rebelled against God" criteria; he warred against Asha, the Goddess of Order, during the Mythic Age when the world was relatively young, and was imprisoned in Sheogh, the setting's equivalent of Hell, after his defeat. Kha-Beleth, as the Supreme Ruler of Sheogh and leader of the demons that Urgash created to serve as his minions, meets the "ruler of demons" and "prominent antagonist" criteria.
  • From Hollow Knight, True Final Boss The Radiance is the fallen former leader and god of the Moth Tribe, one of the higher beings who used to rule over the land that is now Hallownest before the arrival of the Pale King and the White Lady, who supplanted her and tried to erase her from living memory. She spreads The Corruption from within the dream realm, driving bugs to madness, and when confronted takes the form of a giant winged figure with glowing eyes and a three-horned Crown-Shaped Head, resembling an insectile Angelic Abomination.
  • Horizon Zero Dawn: HADES is not truly evil, but he has all of the basic traits of a Satan figure: he "falls" after "rebelling" against GAIA, he tempts people with promises of knowledge and power, he makes deals that he reneges on as soon as keeping them is no longer convenient, he's associated with corruption and shadow imagery, and he sets up Helis as basically the Carja equivalent of The Antichrist. In addition to all that, he also invokes this trope intentionally, quoting Carja scripture in order to pretend to be the "Buried Shadow," the Devil-figure of their religion.
  • I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: AM gets this treatment, moreso than in the original book. He is an omnipotent being who uses his power to unleash violence and death upon the world. His greatest source of amusement is torturing the five survivors for all eternity. The game involves him tempting his victims into giving into their worst instincts. It is more apparent in Ted's scenario, where he creates a literal demon and devil, who both attempt to push Ted into trading his love interest's soul in exchange for being let out of AM.
  • In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Regime Superman (a.k.a. the High Councillor), the Big Bad of the game, has incredibly Satanic elements surrounding his character. A Fallen Hero who used to be the greatest superhero on Earth until the Metropolis incident, Superman becomes an Evil Overlord that sacrifices all notions of goodness in his heart until he's nothing but an apathetic tyrant and turns the world into a living Hell (paralleling the Fallen Angel archetype to an incredibly disturbing degree), usurps all governments on Earth to replace them with a completely totalitarian, autocratic and oppressive Fascist dictatorship (reminiscent of Italy during the reign of Benito Mussolini) in which he mercilessly slaughters any opposition, corrupts the Justice League into becoming his henchmen, and even coerces Black Adam into joining him by threatening to destroy Kahndaq if he doesn't do so. Not to mention, Regime Superman's personality perfectly embodies every single one of the Seven Deadly Sins, further enhancing his Satanic qualities. Furthermore, all of this demonic nature is put on full display when he's caught murdering Lex Luthor in cold-blooded fashion, where he completely loses it and becomes a Psychopathic Manchild that throws a massive, deranged temper tantrum by planning to destroy the world, starting with Metropolis and Gotham in order to keep people oppressed (somewhat similar to the Devil in Christianity planning to destroy the world in order to recreate it in his own image), and most importantly, he ends up becoming a Shadow Archetype to the mainstream Superman (who is most commonly depicted as The Paragon and Earth's greatest protector) as to what if he lost his moral compass, enough as to why he fears being a Mirror Character to his Evil Counterpart. And what ultimately seals the deal, though, is the fact that Regime Superman is an obvious expy of Darth Vader, another character who's notable for being another Satanic Archetype, not to mention the High Councillor's surprisingly uncanny resemblance to infamous historical dictator Adolf Hitler.
  • Jak and Daxter
    • The first introduced is the Big Bad of Jak II, Kor, who is The Corrupter and the leader of the Metal Heads. He masquerades as an old man within the walls of Haven City, and becomes a mentor figure for Jak. But all along, he's playing with both sides by having the Underground destroy eco shipments, and is obsessed with finding the last Precursor Egg in order to wipe out all life on the planet; when the time is right, he backstabs the overtly-paranoid Vin and deactivates the shields protecting the city, dooming it to his Metal Head army.
    • Erol starts off as merely a Jerkass Rival, but come Jak 3, due to exposure to Dark Eco in a near-fatal crash, he ends up conspiring with a whole race of demons called Dark Makers, who happen to be corrupted Precursors, to destroy the universe. In other words, Erol becomes Satan outright. This is balanced out with the game's other Big Bad, Count Veger, who is The Fundamentalist and aspires to become a Precursor of Evil
  • Kingdom Hearts: Master Xenahort: His goat motif, the prevalence of black with red and silver accenting in his clothes, his powers over darkness, summoning of monsters, his penchant for possession, and the power he ascribes to symbols and names are all very telling.
  • Kirby, despite being the cheery Sugar Bowl series, has some villains who more or less have Satanic qualities:
    • Kirby Super Star: Downplayed, but Marx still fits the bill, being a deceitful manipulator with a monstrous, demonic true form who constantly sows chaos for his own amusement and takes the form of a cute ball riding creature to deceive Kirby into summoning Nova, mirroring Satan taking on his initial Lucifer form to trick people.
    • Kirby's Return to Dream Land has 2 characters who embody different aspects of it.
      • Magolor is modeled on Lucifer in serval ways: his main color along with blue is yellow, the color associated to betrayal in Christianity, he rebelled against his planet's deity, Landia, and was cast down on another planet where he manipulated Kirby and his friends into defeating said deity and letting him obtain the Master Crown. Also, his final form bears a resemblance to the Biblical description of Seraphim, the highest choir of angels that Lucifer was part of. It's Averted in later games, where he becomes a genuine friend to Kirby, considering he went through Hell to redeem himself in the Magolor Epilogue.
      • The Master Crown, an artifact created by the Ancients, is the full package of the Devil himself. It tempts people like Magolor into wearing it for limitless power, only to take control of their souls and use their bodies to destroy worlds and civilizations, commands an army of demon monsters in the form of Doomers, including the Sphere Doomers and Grand Doomer, its right hand lackey, has goat-like horn spikes, and when possessing the first Gem Apple of the series, it becomes a giant tree monster. Finally, it's battled in a location enshrouded in flames, mirroring "Paradise Lost".
  • Knights of Ambrose: Zamas was once meant to rule the world alongside Helena, but he turned rogue due to his hatred of humanity and their unpredictability. In Finding Light, when he is fought as the Final Boss, he has a halo on his head and a giant ring of light behind him, as well as several advanced light spells.
  • League of Legends:
  • In Legend of Legaia, the head Rogue is heavily implied to be the universe's equivalent of Satan. A thousand years prior to the events of the game, he led a rebellion against Tieg, the universe's God, was put down by Tieg's power, and was banished to the Tower of Rogue for all eternity as punishment.
  • The Legend of Zelda originally featured pastiches of Christianity as part of its setting, so it makes sense that it has a couple Satan stand-ins of its own:
    • Demise from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is literally the God of Evil and is just a "Demon", not even given a fancy made-up name like the rest of the creatures in Hyrule. Demise seeks nothing but destruction and, after being sealed away by Hylia, is naturally pissed. When released by Ghirahim, Demise wastes no time fighting Link to the death. However, when he is impaled by the Master Sword, Demise is literally spitting blood over it and curses Link and Zelda that his hatred (Ganon) will follow them forever, making him the ultimate Sore Loser.
    • Ganon is "The Demon King" and, following Demise's path, he is the epitome of evil in Hyrule. Ganon seeks to rule over all Hyrule and anyone who's brave enough to stop him is in for a world of hell. Ganon is often associated with demonic imagery, such as flaming red hair, evil black magic, and transforming into a monstrous boar. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity even depicts him as having a cult of malevolent followers similar to Christian portrayals of Satanism.
  • WhiteNight from Lobotomy Corporation is an Aleph-Class Abnormality styled after Lucifer, taking the form of a white-winged fetus-like creature with a golden halo and a collar with 666 written on it and thinks itself to be God. It's by far one of the most dangerous Abnormalities in the game, brainwashing some of your agents into 'apostles' that will begin to wreak havoc in the entire facility. The easiest way to defeat it is actually to have the twelfth apostle confess to One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds, an Abnormality that takes the form of a crucified skull with a crown of thorns that, which will immediately suppress WhiteNight with massive pillars of light from above. In other words, in order to beat Satan you have to rely on the powers of Jesus.
    • Library of Ruina has The Voice of the Distortion, an unseen entity that whispers to people at their lowest points that tempts them into letting go of their dreams and ambitions and to give in to their base desires, which most of the time leads them into transforming into Distortions. It's later revealed that The Voice is actually Carmen, the woman who main character Angela (an AI) was designed to be a "reincarnation" of, and was presumed dead even before the events of the previous game. Instead she transformed into a bodiless, omnipresent entity after the White Nights and Dark Days incident, seemingly fused with the Light that spread across the City itself, and whose goal it is to make 'everyone in the City love themselves', regardless of how much destruction she brings. The Voice has several parallels and allusions to the above-mentioned WhiteNight, and this is entirely intentional.
  • In Metal: Hellsinger, we have the Red Judge, a tall, skeletal demon who rules the Hells as a cruel, brutal ruler with a short-temper. She is also described as a Sore Loser by Paz. Turns out her plan was to rebel against the Forces of Heaven, using the Unknown for the gambit.
  • Metroid:
    • Ridley, a high ranking Space Pirate dragon and the Arch-Enemy of Samus Aran, has a demonic visage with glowing eyes, bat-like wings, a skeletal frame, and a barbed tail. He mostly resides in Norfair, a Lethal Lava Land that resembles Hell itself (and unsurprisingly, it's one of the most difficult regions to traverse). And he is the only thing that Samus truly fears since he murdered her parents right in front of her when she was a child, as well as the fact he always comes back from the dead no matter how many times the bounty hunter blows him up.
    • If Ridley represents the classic Devil, then Raven Beak from Metroid Dread represents Lucifer. He is possibly the greatest Chozo warrior in history and certainly the most prideful of them all. He wears shiny silver armor and possesses two dark feathered wings, giving him the impression of an evil-looking angel, and he tempts Samus to join him through the guise of ADAM, her dear friend. When Samus defeats him, he loses his wings and his personal ship plummets down from the sky to the ground, where an X Parasite absorbs and transforms him into the hideous monster he was on the inside.
  • Monster Hunter Series:
    • Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: Dire Miralis. Its entry in the Monster Notes describes it as "the devil prophesied to destroy the world", and its introduction certainly gives off a sense of entering Hell, plus a Leitmotif full of Ominous Latin Chanting.
    • Monster Hunter: World: Safi'jiiva from Iceborne is as close to satanic as a dragon gets: Classically medieval dragon body, long black horns, red scales, and is a 'mature' form of Xeno'jiiva, an almost angelic being of light.
    • Monster Hunter: Rise: Gaismagorm from Sunbreak is called the "Archdemon of the Abyss" and the fact that the shape its mouth opens up is similar to a pentagram, it is very likely equivalent to the Devil. There's also its relation to Malzeno. In most tellings Dracula, the most famous vampire in history, gained his powers through making some form of Deal with the Devil. The vampiric Malzeno gained control over the Qurio after its battle with Gaismagorm.
  • Mortal Kombat:
  • Klogg from The Neverhood is a pretty explicit allegory for the Devil: He was one of the first creations of a divine being who attempted to dethrone his creator and corrupted himself thanks to his own greed and envy. He tempts Klaymen with promises of power, and if Klaymen takes him up on that offer, he becomes corrupted as well. Though unlike Satan, Klogg actually succeeded in dethroning his creator.
  • Tlacolotl from Nexus War games is a Manipulative Bastard and tempter who stirs up conflict between the rest of the pantheon, starts wars, runs an endless shell game of cults to keep mortals chasing after his fleeting favor, and launches into What Is Evil? lectures whenever confronted about any of it. He's not the only greater evil in the setting, but the others are all Eldritch Abominations with an understanding of human psychology that is too limited for a tempter's role.
    • If they play a sufficiently high-level Dark Oppressor, player characters can fill this kind of role too.
  • Ninja Gaiden: Vigoor is the ruling devil and absolute authority of a "holy" empire of evil deities. Then it turns out in the second game that he's not the only "Supreme Archfiend", though the only other Supreme Archfiend is actually just the son of Vigoor. Or rather, the remains of his body after being defeated. So it's sorta the same being, but weaker..
  • Zig-zagged by the Pokémon embodiment of antimatter Giratina.
    • While not truly evil, Giratina's design draws inspiration from Fallen Angels, and it serves as a Satanic figure in Sinnoh region myth. It was banished by the Top God Arceus to the Distortion World for "violence", its Altered and Origin forms resemble the Beasts of Revelation, and its six legs, wing spikes, and armored plates evoke the Number of the Beast. However, it could also be inspired by Samael, who is the ruler of the 5th Heaven and has grim and destructive duties whilst being a member of a heavenly host; both traits allude to Giratina being the ruler of another dimension (Reverse World) and its threatening visage.
    • Giratina's role as one is expanded on in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, playing the trope much straighter there. It used to be every bit as violent as it was mentioned as being, and harbored a grudge against Arceus for its banishment. It tore open the space-time rift over Hisui and drove the Noble Pokémon into a frenzy, along with the other members of the creation duo, as an act of defiance against the deity that created it, while also serving as a benefactor for the game's Big Bad (who likewise seeks to challenge Arceus). It wasn't until Giratina and the Big Bad are defeated by the player that it finally calms down and has a Heel–Face Turn, becoming the Dark Is Not Evil protector it is in the modern day.
    • Played much straighter by Cyrus: An Omnicidal Maniac who amassed a group of decieved followers into an Stock Pokemon Villain Team in a plan to destroy the world and recreate it in his souless image, arrogantly believing it to be superior to God's design. He also shows other signs, such as his attempt to control the gods, mass deception and hatred towards creation itself. He is ironically, or perhaps befittingly, opposed by the above Pokemon.
    • Necrozma could be considered as another example of the trope: its Ultra Form resembles an yellowish-white angelic dragon, much like Giratina, while its weakened base form is instead very dark and sinister, evoking a Fallen Angel, and has a grudge against humans, making it the first truly antagonistic Pokemon seen in the entire franchise.
    • The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games portrays Darkrai as one of these: not only is he responsible for the second game's events as part of his plan to destroy the Pokemon world, such as trying to overthrow Dialga by corrupting him, but also tempts the heroes first into committing suicide and then into joining him and helping him destroy the Pokemon world again.
  • Radiant Arc: Zardon is a Holy Being who rebelled against Irin out of jealousy and commands an army of demons, which he plans on using to enslave humanity just to spite the other Holy Beings. Through his offspring, Seperus, he managed to subvert humans such as Kagan, Derek, and Aria's father to his cause.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Albert Wesker the Big Bad of most of the franchise easily fits the Lucifer bill. He’s a handsome charismatic man who fooled his allies into thinking he was a hero before betraying them, he manipulates and corrupts others such as making Family Man Barry work for him and transforming Jill into loyal minion and he’s prideful to the core believing himself no less than a god who will turn world into a “paradise”. Even his role as Mad Scientist who creates monsters is fitting as the Devil is said to create demons and monsters in mockery of God’s creations or turns angels into demons which is akin to what Wesker does to Jill. The Satanic allusions become most overt Wesker while fighting Chris is literally bathed in molten lava “a lake of fire” at the end of Resident Evil 5.
    • Mother Miranda from Resident Evil Village fits the bill. The Greater-Scope Villain of the series she was once a good person corrupted by darkness (in her case The Mold) and has lived for countless years the leader of a pagan cult inspiring evil in others such as Oswald Spencer (founder of Umbrella) and corrupting other people such as Lady Dimitrescu, Hisenberg and Heisenberg by turning them into mutants. Furthermore her true form seen in the finale is of a dark eight-winged angel which perfectly fits in with the Satan theme with Lucifer being a fallen angel.
  • In Sengoku Basara, Oda Nobunaga claims to be the "Devil King of the Sixth Heaven", which is more or less the Buddhist equivalent of Satan. Turns out he's not exactly joking.
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog has two very prominent examples, something you wouldn't expect from what is usually a pretty lighthearted franchise. Notably, they are primarily antagonists for Sonic's Antihero Foil, Shadow, as opposed to the titular character himself.
  • Soul Sacrifice Delta has Cert, the God of Greed and Chaos. While the game doesn't make direct comparisons between him and Old Scratch, Cert still fulfills this trope for being a visually-demonic entity that uses The Sacred Chalice as a medium for sinister deals against mortals, allowing him to prey on the desires of the desperate so he can corrupt their wishes and warp them into hideous monsters known as Archfiends. Cert also opposes Romulus, the divine God of the setting (not that Romulus is any better), for the sole motive of spreading as much chaos as possible.
  • Urien from the Street Fighter series fits nearly every single description of this trope to a T. Having incredibly Satanic elements surrounding his character, Urien is a deranged megalomaniac with a petulant, obnoxious childlike behavior, a Hair-Trigger Temper and massive delusions of grandeur and supremacy, as well as a nastily prejudiced, classist, fearmongering, jingoistic, and despotic tyrant who plots to overthrow his older brother in order to rule the world with an iron fist (which would lead the world to ruin and despair), tries to manipulate and extort every person he comes across with into kneeling before him (mirroring Chapter 7:1 from the Book of Revelation), and will tempt more than a few people into making deals with him in order to further his deeds and achieve his very Luciferian goals. Also, Urien's personality embodies all of the Seven Deadly Sins, further enhancing his Satanic qualities. Furthermore, there's the fact that when he and his brother Gill used to be together until the Prophecy managed to split them, Urien sacrificed all notions of goodness in his heart and consigned himself to evil (paralleling the Fallen Angel archetype), as well as the fact that the creators based much of Urien's character on Judas Iscariot. But that's not all. You only need to combine this with the fact that Urien disguises himself in public with blond hair to evoke the image of an angel of light with Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold, as well being incredibly egotistical and psychotic, and you've got the Light Is Not Good quality on Urien. With all of this demonic nature heavily contrasting with Gill's Messianic Archetype (of the dark type, of course) and altruistic goals, as well as his complete intolerance on failure and brutal desire for attention, it all but utterly cements Urien as one of the most appallingly and unapologetically evil characters in the series (enough to even make M. Bison of all people, look kind of tame by comparison at times), not to mention one of the most thoroughly obnoxious and despicable ones.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Keisar Ephes from the Super Robot Wars Alpha subseries. He was once known as the Psychodriver Augustus that ruled the Balmar world wisely and was worshipped like a god, but he felt left out of the cycle of life and death by Ide, and so sought to surpass him by absorbing the power of the spirits of the dead, becoming more sadistic and tyrannical along the way. His attacks involve summoning the spirits of the dead and giving apocalyptic visions while Laughing Mad, and if the victim is drained of HP from it, they get sucked to his Hell, dogpiled by his collection of evil spirits, and messily brutalized in a nasty way.
  • Tekken:
    • The Devil Gene, which allows most of the Mishima family (besides Heihachi) to turn into a Devil, and the Devil Forms of Kazuya and Jin are usually considered the strongest combatants in the game as far as story goes.note 
    • For a character-specific example, Kazuya is very Luciferian in terms of characterization and goals. Rebels against his creator (i.e. his father, Heihachi)? Check. Has a lust for power that leads to him wanting to Take Over the World? Check. Frequently has dark and/or red attire? Check. Has a cynical worldview that includes believing Humans Are Bastards? Check. And while Kazuya himself is rarely a Manipulative Bastard, instead being very open about his evil nature, his white pants and red gloves are used to invoke a heroic image in Tekken 1 before he's depicted as evil from 2 onward, not unlike Satan's association with light (as Lucifer) and deception.
  • ULTRAKILL's depiction of the original fallen angel ends up proving to be more benevolent than his poem counterpart according to the lore, but there is one being that most certainly fulfills the trope: Hell itself. That is no mistake; the very location the game takes place in is in fact a living being which grew beyond its original purpose of being created by God to punish sinners and now tortures its own denizens and creations for its own sick, twisted amusement. It's implied that Hell is the real reason for humanity's extinction rather than the assumed Hopeless War, as humanity managed to survive said war and live in the New Peace era before something happened, presumably by Hell's handiwork.
  • Undertale:
    • Chara. Known as The Fallen Child, the character the player was really naming at the beginning of the game, Chara describes itself as "the demon that comes when people call its name." Only appearing in full during a Genocide run, Chara will destroy the world and supplant the player, making them sell their soul to bring back the game. In addition, Chara is noted as being "not the nicest person" by Asriel, and even invokes a bit of Demonic Possession during their Thanatos Gambit prior to the start of the game, back when their goal was to save monsterkind.
    • Asgore is a subversion. He is the leader of a group of monsters forced from the surface to a place underground, collecting the souls of humans to escape and supposedly to start a war of genocide against humanity. When he is finally seen near the end of the game, it turns out he also appears goat-like, uses fire magic, and has a blood red trident as his weapon. The subversion is that he is a big pushover and not nearly as evil as he is built up to be throughout the game. The only reason he even fights the protagonist because he feels there is no better option, and even then he's hesitant to go through with it.
    • Genocide Anomaly is the best example. A pure evil Eldritch Abomination (The same species as The Maker) who rebels against The Creator of the game's desire to free Monsterkind out of Pride and their own selfishness, abandoning all notions of goodness and consigning themselves to the most evil route by becoming The Angel of Death (Which is one of Satan's many monikers) and create an Antichrist (Who they serve as The Corrupter to) to serve as their Earthly envoy and agent of destruction. Players who did a Pacifist Run first also fit the Fallen Angel and Fallen Hero tropes, and even invoke a bit of Demonic Possession during their control of Frisk. Out of all the characters, the Player themself can potentially become the closest thing to Satan.
  • View from Below:
    • The Crimson God is responsible for tempting his followers into performing human sacrifices to empower him, and he did the same in the real world with Delilah by manipulating her into becoming a serial killer. He also has the Beast of Revelations as his ally, who can be fought as an optional boss. Once Ash and Melody defeat him, he tries to tempt Ash into joining him in getting revenge on society. This makes it even more of a twist that he's actually Jesus, but this still fits with how many examples of this trope are fallen angels or gods.
    • Downplayed with Somnium, the one who facilitates the human sacrifice rituals. He is a demonic being who is known as the God of Dreams and Death. Those who complete his ritual get a wish, which is essentially a Deal with the Devil. However, he never directly appears in the story and is never shown tempting anyone, though the very existence of his ritual counts as a form of temptation.
  • Warcraft series:
    • Sargeras was once a divine Titan tasked with battling the demon hordes and protecting the universe while the rest of the Titan pantheon seeded more planets with life and found more of their kin. During his mission, Sargeras happened upon a world with a slumbering Titan, only to recoil in horror upon realizing both the planet and his unborn kin were corrupted by the Old Gods, agents of the Void Lords; possessed with rage and knowing there was no way to save the Titans, he destroyed both. The other Titans got angry about this and dismissed his reasons as insane. Deciding that only he knew what needed to be done to save the universe from the Void Lords attempting to corrupt and consume it, Sargeras freed the demons he had imprisoned long ago, became their Evil Overlord, and started an omnicidal campaign across the universe to purge it of life, becoming the biggest Big Bad in the setting. He led the Burning Crusade to invade many worlds and enslave/assimilate/demonize many species. He also got corrupted into a flaming, horned figure at some point. His blood and other leftover bits can give mortals great power, at the cost of their sanity, and potentially turning into a demon.
    • The eredar Kil'jaeden also acts as a Satan analogue, due to being a Big Red Devil who introduced warlock magic to the orcs and aiding Gul'dan, as well as having Illidan attempt to dispose of the Lich King. He's even called "The Deceiver". Fittingly, he was once a wise leader of his people before being tempted by Sargeras himself.
    • Deathwing the Destroyer is in some ways Crystal Dragon Satan. He was one of the five godlike Dragon Aspects made by the Titans to watch over the planet (or the son of an Aspect, Depending on the Writer). The Old Gods drove him insane, so he started attacking other dragons and ordinary mortals. He became a sort of evil overlord for an entire race of evil dragons and their minions.
    • Gul'dan, while nowhere near as blatant as the above examples, definitely fits in the first two Warcraft games and in Warlords of Draenor. He was once a potential shaman, before turning against his mentor Nerzhul and proceeding to make an alliance with Kiljaden with him gaining more power. He proceeds to introduce the blood of Mannoroth to his people, causing them to turn from honorable warriors to bloodthirsty monsters with an urge to kill and committing genocide against the Dranei and the humans, while failing to mention that the blood of Mannaroth will enslave them ultimately to a demonic army that can cast them aside as it is seen fit. And ultimately, he betrays his people and his former master in the original timeline by seeking power which plays a major role in the fall of both the Horde and frustrating the Legion's second invasion attempt. Even after his death in the original timeline, his actions leave a long scar across the Horde and the Alliance to this day.
  • Gaunter O'Dimm in The Witcher 3 is an exceptionally powerful demon who's described as "evil incarnate", and has made bargains with humans At the Crossroads for millennia, which almost always end with them being Dragged Off to Hell. He's a Jackass Genie, such as granting a historian protection from him in exchange for making him stay in a small protective circle in his basement, plaguing him with nightmares, and killing him should he ever leave it. He's one of the few monsters that is too powerful to be killed, and the most Geralt can do is temporarily banish him by solving his riddle.
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus: If B.J. Blazkowicz's childhood was a living hell, then his father Rip was basically the devil himself. The primary colors in his clothes are red and black (which aside from their devil symbolism also foreshadows his joining the Nazis, who use the same color scheme, when they take over), he thinks B.J. showing compassion or mercy towards others makes him weak, he's incredibly manipulative, and he's ultimately an evil human being who's gladly willing to ruin totally innocent people's lives for his own gain. B.J. even associates him with Hell, as well as his mother Zofia with Heaven. It's honestly quite ironic considering Rip is Ambiguously Christian ("This is a white man's world now; white man's gotta keep it Christian").

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top