Unknown Rival / Video Games

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• Zigzagged in the Ace Combat series. Some games feature a rival ace for the Player Character to fight against later in the games - 04 has Yellow Squadron, 6 has Strigon Team, and Joint Assault has Rigel Squadron. However, despite (for example) Yellow Thirteen going so far as to track the protagonist's progress after each mission so he might become a worthy opponent, the Player Character of each game is a Silent/Featureless character, so we never learn what their opinions on the rival ace is, or if they even acknowledge them.
• In Arknights, similarly to Kuromi and My Melody, Lava sees her sister Hibiscus as her arch-nemesis and doesn't like it one bit that the two are sisters. Her older version still keeps at it even though she's less petulant about it. Hibiscus, meanwhile, seems to be entirely unaware of Lava's one-sided 'rivalry' or doesn't take it serious at all.
• In Baten Kaitos Origins, Giacomo is one to Sagi, after the Power Trio kicks his ass during the escape from Mintaka in the beginning of the game. Sagi, meanwhile, just feels sympathy for Giacomo's obsession.
• In Borderlands 2 DLC, Professor Nakayama immediately assumes the Vault Hunters are in Aegrus to stop him. He reacts badly when Hammerlock explains that they're on a hunting trip and have no idea who he is. Eventually he gets so annoying that the Vault Hunters eventually start going after him just to ensure they can get some time to actually hunt.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has an odd variation. By all accounts, Adam Smasher and Johnny Silverhand did have a longstanding and heated rivalry unlike the former's more one-sided grudge against Morgan Blackhand in the tabletop. To the point where even fifty years after Johnny's death Adam still kept many of Silverhands possessions despite not taking trophies from any other kills. However, he’s unaware of Johnny surviving as an engram stuck in V’s head. This means that while Johnny still hates his guts and practically begs and orders V to end him as a Last Request Smasher has no idea about his existence. In the final boss fight, he reacts with utter confusion if V tells him that Johnny sends his regards after being beaten.
• In Dandy Ace, the Green-Eyed Magician considers Dandy Ace his Worthy Opponent and rival. When they meet for the first time in-game, Dandy Ace has no idea who he is.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Sera introduces herself by sending an invitation to the Inquisitor via arrow. When the Inquisitor arrives at the appointed time and place, they encounter an unnamed Orlesian mage. The mage seems to think he's the Inquisitor's Arch-Enemy and that the Inquisition must have spent much of its resources tracking him down. Seconds later, Sera appears and plants an arrow right between his eyes and, when asked about him, says she doesn’t know who he is either.
  • The Big Bad refers to this trope by name when you first meet him; "I will not suffer even an unknowing rival." Until that point he'd been hiding his existence and acting through agents, some of which the Inquisition had thwarted.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest IV: The Japanese version of the DS remake hints at Kyril considering the male Hero to be his rival; though, the Hero is completely unaware of it.
  • Dragon Quest V: Dwight Darf considers himself Queen Treacle's arch nemesis, while she is barely aware of his existence. After the timeskip, he considers himself the Hero's rival, despite being some nobody the Hero beat up when he was six.
• Ensemble Stars! has something of a variation: Wataru loves to insist that Keito is his sworn rival, while Keito doesn't see it that way at all and always denies it when he claims that. However, unlike most examples, it's Wataru who is doing the trolling, as he knows for a fact that Keito doesn't like him but loves to tease him anyway.
• In Fallout: New Vegas, Ulysses is this to the Courier. Ulysses is obsessed with the Courier for destroying the budding nation in the Divide by delivering a package that caused the nukes hidden underneath to detonate. The Courier, however, is completely unaware of the part they played in those events and has no prior knowledge of Ulysses, and even as it becomes increasingly clear that Ulysses himself had some hand in the events of just about every DLC, the Courier never learns who he is until directly speaking to him in the final DLC.
• In Fallout 4, the Commonwealth Minutemen serve as this to both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute for much of the story, depending on the timing of quests completed. Considered by both as little more than basic watchmen that pose no threat at all, they fail to realize in time that all those settlements they have united under their banner mean they have an impressive amount of manpower, plus the effectiveness of their signature laser muskets is nothing to sneeze at. Even if the Minutemen reclaim their old headquarters at Fort Independence, becoming even more effective of a military force, the Institute merely makes a note of it in their surface reports and the Brotherhood only seemed concerned about them being bad neighbors. They only graduate from this status in both factions' eyes after the Sole Survivor helps the Minutemen rediscover the stockpile of artillery armaments they can install in every settlement across the Commonwealth. Said artillery might eventually be used to shoot the Prydwen out of the sky if the Brotherhood ever becomes a problem to them, to say nothing about Sturges uncovering a long-forgotten backdoor into the Institute that allows the Minutement to blow it up from the inside.
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • Kadoc Zemlupus resented Ritsuka Fujimaru for managing to save the world while Kadoc was stuck in a coma and thus "stealing" his chance to be the hero. Kadoc sought revenge, but when they confront each other, Ritsuka gets confused because they had never met before. It's later subverted as the Garden of Lost Will reveals one of their subconscious fears is being completely replaced by Kadoc post-Heel–Face Turn for being a better mage and relegated to disposable fodder by Chaldea.
  • Ashiya Douman sought to surpass Abe no Seimei in magic and popularity, and was insulted that Abe never took him seriously. Even when Ashiya formed a plot that could destroy the world, he was insulted that Abe got Ritsuka to take him on instead of facing him himself.
  • Jeanne Alter sees the original Jeanne d'Arc and Saber Alter as rivals, but Jeanne doesn't take her seriously because she sees her as her cute little sister. Saber Alter does see her as a rival, but Jeanne Alter is much more heated about it while Saber Alter just sees it as a side gig.
  • Caster Altria resented Fairy Gawain ever since a meeting where they got off on the wrong foot, plus she is jealous of Fairy Gawain for being tall with huge breasts while she is not. Whenever they meet, Fairy Gawain doesn't recognize her.
  • Meanwhile, Fairy Gawain wants to fight with Melusine to prove which of them is stronger, but Melusine is unaware of this and gets confused when Fairy Gawain acts hostile to her.
  • Murasaki Shikibu gets insulted that Sei Shonagon treats their rivalry as no big deal.
  • Tomoe Gozen at times expresses her hatred and desire for revenge against Minamoto no Yoshitsune for being involved with her husband's death. However, Yoshitsune is summoned as her teenage self, Ushiwakamaru, who does not have her older self's memories and so does not recognize her. Ironically, Gozen does not recognize her either.
  • When Bazett Fraga McRemitz shows up, Queen Medb glares at her with jealousy because Bazett got to have a relationship with Cú Chulainn while she didn't, but neither Bazett nor Manannán mac Lir, the god possessing her, care about her.
  • Despite Paris being the one who killed Achilles in life, Achilles treats him like a bratty little kid and ignores Paris' attempts to form a rivalry. Achilles later admits to his Master that he does respect Paris for managing to kill him, but since he is a brat, he will never admit it to his face.
  • Mandricardo saw Roland as his arch enemy, but Roland only saw him as a spoiled brat and did not pay much attention to him. However, Roland does start to respect him after Ritsuka tells him about how Mandricardo acted like a true hero in the Atlantis Lostbelt.
• Fate/Samurai Remnant:
  • Kiso-no-Yoshinaka is obsessed with slaying Ushi-Gozen because she is an evil oni he was tasked to hunt and she is trying to devastate the land. Ushi-Gozen doesn't really pay attention to him and treats him just like any other person in her way.
  • Even though they had never met before, Chiemon despises Miyamoto Iori and tries to kill him due to seeing him as a hypocrite for hiding his Blood Knight nature. Iori only sees him as just another bad guy. When Iori finally kills him, he never learned why Chiemon hated him and does not care.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Gilgamesh and Bartz play this out in Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy. Bartz has lost his memories of his home world, and doesn't remember Gilgamesh, who shows up and demands a duel. The icing on the cake that Gilgamesh doesn't even seem to realize that Bartz has absolutely no idea who Gilgamesh is in this continuity; Gilgamesh misinterprets Bartz's look of confusion at his arrival as his being dumbstruck at seeing him again. Bartz only accepts his challenge because he feels it'd be a fun way to pass the time.
    Gilgamesh: Steel yourself! For I am not the Gilgamesh you remember!
  • World of Final Fantasy gives poor Gil the exact same problem with the exact same person. World's setting pulls from almost^*II, XII and XIV are the only main titles released at the time with no representation every game in the series and combines them into their own, contained continuity. Gilgamesh, however, is the exact same character across the entire franchise — World included. Consequently, Gilgamesh remembers fighting Bartz in V, but this Bartz hasn't fought Gilgamesh.
  • Nero Tol Scaeva in Final Fantasy XIV was Always Second Best to his friend Cid Garlond, and has been stuck living in his shadow for years. To this end, Nero wishes to defeat the Warrior of Light so he can finally earn the recognition he feels he deserves. Cid meanwhile was completely unaware of Nero's plight and is sorry that his friend had to suffer that way.
  • Loqi Tummelt in Final Fantasy XV is explicitly described as this in his in-game description: he thinks of himself as Marshal Cor Leonis's rival and frequently exclaims as much, but Cor doesn't even think about him.
• Fire Emblem:
  • The Tellius duology has a knight called Kieran, who is the sworn rival of Oscar. Kieran constantly trains so that he can someday outdo Oscar; Oscar largely ignores this and only ever mentions their alleged "rivalry" in order to manipulate Kieran into accepting a gift that he refused to take. Keep in mind KIERAN SECOND COMMANDER OF THE CRIMEAN ROYAL KNIGHTS! is a guy who shouts his name and rank at his opponents in battle, and wants to keep an axe given to him by his mentor on a mantel. Really, his ending for the 10th game sums him up perfectly "Kieran served the royal family with nearly fanatical verve. His voice could be heard from anywhere in the castle."
  • Sylvia and Fury are an amusing example in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
    Sylvia: Hey Fury, you don't by any chance have a thing for Levin, do ya??
    Fury: What? I don't. He's just... Prince Levin is an extremely important person to Silesia.
    Sylvia: I seeee. So you don't mind if him and I go out??
    Fury: No, I don't mind... (?)
    Sylvia: Really?? You're not pretendin' t'not like him or somethin' are ya?
    Fury: Pretend? What ar—... why would I need to pretend??
    Sylvia: I don't know. Well, then I'm goin' after him.
    Fury: Umm... whomever is to be the next queen of Silesia needs to have a little grace and dignity like our own Queen Lahna.
    Sylvia: So you're sayin' I'm no good somehow!? How rude!
    Fury: No, I'm just...
    Sylvia: Hmph, Fine! You just wait and see!
    Fury: ....
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has an example on the Azure Moon route via Dramatic Irony. Dimitri knows full well that a shady group was responsible for killing his father and sparking a genocide, which led him on a crusade of vengeance. What he doesn't know is that Lord Arundel, his uncle, is actually their leader in disguise. Since this figure is posing as an important leader for The Empire, he ends up fought and killed in battle against Dimitri's forces late into the route, with Dimitri being none the wiser as to who he really was.
• Galaxy Angel: Ranpha was this to Milfie when they attended the piloting academy together, as she tried to compete for the top spot but always falling behind due to Milfie's luck. Milfie never had a clue there was any animosity to begin with, and somewhere down the road the two ended up becoming best friends.
• Genshin Impact: Arrataki Itto to the Raiden Shogun. Itto thinks that he was the biggest pain in the butt for the Shogun during the Vision Hunt Decree, and was insulted when he found out that his vision was at the bottom of the statue where all of the Visions were being confiscated. The Raiden Shogun however, doesn’t even know who he is.
• This sort of dynamic exists between the ODSTs and the Spartans (particularly the Spartan-IIs) in Halo - the ODSTs were formerly the best of the best in the UNSC military, but after the SPARTAN-II program started, they were suddenly the second best, which didn't sit well with them. It was made worse when a fight between a group of ODSTs and a Spartan (John-117, to be precise) resulted in some of the ODSTs being killed. While not every ODST has animosity towards Spartans (post-Covenant War, some ODSTs have even become Spartans themselves), most do. The Spartans, on the other hand, either aren't aware of the ODSTs' disdain for them, or are, but don't care.
• Lt. Carter Blake in Heavy Rain tries to see himself as a rival to Norman Jayden due to the fact that he dislikes and resents him like all cops. However, due to the fact that they're working together, Jayden doesn't acknowledge him as a rival.
• In Hunt Down the Freeman, Mitchell has a grudge against Gordon Freeman for fucking up his face, to the point that Mitchell amasses a massive army of freed children with the express intent of allying with the Combine so they can give him a shot at Freeman. Then it's revealed that the one responsible for beating him to near-death was somebody else simply dressed up in an HEV suit, leaving Mitchell to assume it was the guy in an HEV suit, as part of a Batman Gambit to draw the Combine's forces away from City 17 long enough for Gordon to slip back in relatively unnoticed. He notes as much when this is revealed, stating to himself that Freeman doesn't even know Mitchell exists and has been holding a grudge against him for twenty years.
• In Iji, Komato Assassin Asha considers Iji to be his complete and utter nemesis after she beats him; Iji makes no comment except for a remark about being bountied. This changes after he kidnaps and later (possibly) murders her brother.
• Katamari Damacy has Kawaiiko Ichigo, who's incredibly jealous of how the King of All Cosmos calls her klutzy cousin Honey cute. So far, there's no sign Honey is even remotely aware of their so-called rivalry — and given the series' nature, it's unlikely that's going to change.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
  • At the end of Kass's series of Shrine quests, he reveals that his late teacher was one to Link. Said teacher was a Sheikah man who helped Princess Zelda research the ancient Magitek being unearthed at the time and fell in love with her. But Zelda was oblivious to his affections because she had fallen in love with Link. This, combined with Link's lack of noble heritage, made Kass's teacher bitterly resentful of Link. But Link is never shown interacting with this guy in any of the flashbacks, which seems to indicate that he was no longer helping Zelda's research by the time Link was assigned as the Princess's bodyguard. Granted, Link's Heroic Sacrifice to defend Zelda made Kass's teacher a Graceful Loser in the end.
  • The Champions' Ballad DLC implies that Kodah was this for Mipha. Both of them were in love with Link when they were younger, but Mipha's diary (which has entries about how she was jealous of how much time Link spent with Zelda) makes no mention of her.
  • Revali felt this way about himself towards Link. It grew to the point that Revali became very exasperated and spiteful at Link who never spoke to him or seem to acknowledge him. He even tried to goad Link to attack him but Link didn't react to any of Revali's taunts, to his frustration. How Link felt about Revali is never shown.
• Played with in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle with the Phantom, who proclaims himself as Mario's rival and claims to have hated him ever since his Donkey Kong days, despite having been created literal minutes ago.
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Gandrayda wants establish herself as the best bounty hunter in the business, and sees Samus Aran as her chief rival in doing so. This is shown throughout the game, as compared to Rhundas' friendliness and Ghor's professionalism, Gandrayda is passive aggressive towards her. Once she gets corrupted, she's still the most eager to kill Samus. By contrast, there's nothing to indicate that Samus had any idea who Gandrayda was prior to the game.
• Minecraft: Story Mode: In Episode 1 of Season 2, when Jesse meets Stella for the first time, she calls them her sworn rival, seeming to have decided that they’re rivals based on the fact that she runs Champion City and they run Beacontown. Jesse, meanwhile, has no idea who she is.
• Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse:
  • One of the (many) criminals Nancy's put in jail vows revenge and tells her they will meet again. Nancy's response?
    Nancy: Well, there's a waiting list. I hope you're patient. Goodbye, Anya.
  • There's one case in the Nancy Drew games in which someone who vowed revenge actually attempted it. Dwayne Powers, the bad guy from Stay Tuned for Danger, returns as the true mastermind in Ransom of the Seven Ships. Downplayed overall, however — Nancy forgot the person's name, but she does remember why they vowed revenge on her. Somewhat amusingly, his original motivation as a bad guy was also because of this trope — he targeted Rick Arlen, an actor he used to be an agent for, because Rick jumped ship from his talent agency as soon as it started going under, going on to be successful without so much as a hint of remembering Powers or his help in getting where he is now.
• Nippon Ichi just seems to love this trope. As befitting of their storyline status, these characters tend to fill the Goldfish Poop Gang mold to a tee. Examples include:
  • Vyers from Disgaea, who was unflatteringly re-named "Mid-Boss" by Laharl during their first encounter and never referred to by his real name again. Ironically, he happens to be the main character's dead father having temporarily returned to test his son's strength and character. Bet getting called "Mid-Boss" wasn't part of his plan.
  • Axel from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. Axel becomes this again in Disgaea 4, but with a twist; he hates Valvatorez with a passion, after Val's rebellion made Axel look like a rebel too, and he lost his job and status. The twist is that Valvatorez actually thought Axel was an ally, thanks to Fenrich's lies, and is utterly incapable of understanding that Axel has anything against him, even claiming he's an imposter because the real Axel wouldn't do that.
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice has the Vato Bros, a trio of recolored Orcs that challenge Mao every few stages. Mao sees them as useless weaklings, and even dubs them 'Trio De Losers' due to their Spanish accents.
  • Alexander (referred to as "asshat", or simply "Alex", by Zetta) from Makai Kingdom. While Alex practically built his entire life around his rivalry with Zetta (to the point where he would help Zetta if it meant getting another shot at him), Zetta doesn't really care.
  • Odie in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters basically invokes this trope within half a minute of his first appearance. He shows up and immediately boasts to the hero about how awesome he is, gets angry when she ignores him, and then tries to kill her when he finds out that she honestly doesn't know who he is, calling upon an old farmer and his two dogs.
• No More Heroes: Henry. When he is first encountered, he kills the Rank 5 assassin Letz Shake before the protagonist, Travis Touchdown, has a chance to in a pre-organised fight. However, after the player defeats Henry in a final bonus battle, Henry reveals himself to be Travis's twin brother (although the ambiguous plot of the game means that this is not necessarily true).
• No Straight Roads: At several points throughout the game, the rap artist DK West challenges his younger brother Zuke to a rap battle, due to his troubled history with him and a favor he's done for Tatiana. Zuke gets rightfully pissed off at DK West, since he has more pressing matters to deal with than settling their rivalry, but ends up getting dragged into the battles against his will anyway. In the end, Mayday steps in and points out to West that Zuke never actually intended to ruin his life in the first place, getting the brothers to reconcile.
• Paper Mario has Jr. Troopa, a baby Koopa Troopa that never left his eggshell. After being trounced by Mario in the first chapter, he swears revenge, and returns to face Mario at the end of nearly every chapter. Goombario's tattle always seems to ridicule his persistence, and he never really plays any significant role in the plot. Mario's performance as the Heroic Mime adds much humor to Jr. Troopa's appearances and monologues. The player even has the chance to rub this in further before the second fight with him, as they can choose "No" when asked if Mario remembers him. Naturally, this doesn't please him.
• Persona 4: Ai Ebihara is one to both Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi. With Chie, it's because the guy Ai has a crush on confessed to having a crush on Chie instead. This devolves into a small Cat Fight in the anime adaptation, though Chie still has no idea why Ai holds a grudge against her. With Yukiko, it's because they are both popular rich girls in the same small town. If the player has them run into each other, it turns out Yukiko has no idea who Ai is. Ai ends up walking away in annoyance.
• In Persona 5, Joker, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba and Haru all had direct and indirect gripes against Shido and was ready to get revenge on the latter for what they and their associates did to them and their parents. For Shido however, they never recognize these individuals as threats. While Shido's Shadow does remember Joker to some degree, their real person didn't realize how many of the Phantom Thieves whose lives Shido ruined will be the ones to cause their downfall.
• In Pikmin 4, one of the castaways is Santi, who considers the Rescue Corps' pilot, Bernard, to be his rival that he cannot escape. According to his stories, he and Bernard have known each other since they were infants, and everywhere Santi goes, Bernard is there, to Santi's frustration. Bernard never shows any sign that he even recognizes that Santi has a problem with him.
• Pokémon:
  • N in Pokémon Black and White is this to the player character until he beats the champion and challenges you with one of the legendary dragons.
  • In Pokémon Crystal (and Heart Gold and Soul Silver, where the storyline is nearly identical) the player meets a mysterious trainer named Eusine who is obsessed with finding the mythic Pokémon Suicune. Because Suicune seems to show up wherever the player shows up, Eusine starts to see the player as a rival in his goal, and at one point even challenges the player to a Pokémon battle to win Suicune's respect (even though Suicune clearly couldn't care less).
• Don Paulo has sworn revenge on Professor Layton. Layton has no clue why until the third game. (Back when they were both in college, Layton was in a relationship with Paolo's crush, who was completely unaware that Paolo was even interested in her. There isn't even any indication that she knew he existed.)
• In Ace Combat’s Spiritual Successor Project Wingman, Crimson 1 sees himself as a rival to Monarch/Hitman 1, as part of a severe superiority complex and guilt over serving the fascist Pacific Federation putting down his home country' s independence movement. However, by the time of his, third engagement with Hitman team, Monarch's wingmen are both confused and irritated by Crimson 1's monologuing. Diplomat eventually snaps and yells at Crimson 1 to shut up over the radio, and that he isn't nearly as important to Hitman Team as he thinks he is.
• In Psychonauts 2 the Big Bad Gristol Malik despises Ford Cruller and thinks that he's responsible for Gristol's life of luxury being ruined. Despite this, when Ford runs into Gristol (in reality just his body with another person's brain in it) Ford doesn't recognize him.
• Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, an early FPS game by Monolith (of earlier Blood and later F.E.A.R. fame) featured a Goldfish Poop Gang character named Samantha Sternberg, who would show up, try to kill you, promptly get blown to pieces, and come back again a few levels later for more. This was played for laughs in a plot that was otherwise reasonably serious (i.e. Samantha was the only character to inexplicably survive multiple encounters with the player, whereas nearly every other character would die when you destroyed their MCA). Notably, Samantha was determined to kill your character, whereas your character seemed to regard her as something of a weird annoyance, her appearances garnering little more than a comment that this sort of obsession isn't healthy for her after the second or third time. Then she makes herself a serious threat by attacking you in an MCA, while you're on foot.
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time has Cyril Le Paradox and his clan as self-proclaimed rivals to the Cooper Clan as they are also a clan of "master thieves". However, neither Sly nor any of his past ancestors were even aware of the Le Paradox clan or them being a family of thieves. More than likely, the Le Paradox family just sucked so bad at being thieves they weren't really worth mentioning.
  • In a more personal example, Sly is unknowingly in a hostile rivalry with Penelope over Bentley; Sly sees Penelope as a close friend, but she hates him to the point that she's planning to murder him. Penelope also hates Murray for the same reason, and intends to both murder him and wreck his beloved van. When they find out, they take offense, and Penelope ends up a friendless miser and fugitive.
• In Soul Calibur VI, after their first encounter leads to Mitsurugi's defeat, Mitsurugi declares Geralt of Rivia his rival. Geralt just wants to get back home, and has little time for or interest in his would-be rival. Geralt canonically beats Mitsurugi every time, but does begrudginly admit after the last that Mitsurugi is an incredibly good fighter for someone without magic or alchemical enhancements.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Onslaught: Darth Savik holds a personal vendetta against the Republic character who had previously defeated her on Corellia. However neither the player nor the character even remember her: on Corellia she appeared only as a simple named NPC mob like hundreds of others that you have defeated, with no lines or any role in the story whatsoever. The player had an option to lampshade this, pointing out that the day they fought changed Savik's life forever, but for them was merely a stepping stone on the way to do bigger things.
• Inverse example: Street Fighter IV has Rufus, an obese but agile American warrior who spends the tournament pursuing Ken. However, he doesn't know what Ken looks like beyond the vaguest physical description (blond hair, Caucasian, known to wear red) and is prone to mistaking others for Ken^note in-franchise, he's mistaken Cammy, Makoto, and Poison for Ken, and in Street Fighter X Tekken, he's mistaken King for Ken, among others; yet strangely enough, Akuma, who wears a gi like Ken, isn't one of the characters he's mistaken for Ken. Played straight in that Ken doesn't have the foggiest idea who Rufus is.
• In Super Robot Wars UX, Doctor Minami regards Doctor West as his greatest rival, but West has no idea who he is. It turns out Minami hates West because West doesn't know who he is.
• In Tales of the Abyss, Dist is not actually this to Jade, but Jade likes to pretend he is — mostly because it really, really annoys Dist, which Jade clearly finds hilarious.
• Team Fortress 2 invokes this trope with its "Nemesis" gameplay mechanic. Specifically, if you kill another player 4 times in succession without being killed by them in return, you will be designated their nemesis and have a flashing icon displayed over your head. Only that player will be able to see this icon (and if they kill you, they receive bonus points) and it won't appear over their head when you spot them. And, even though the nemesis in question will be notified that they're dominating that player after the fourth kill, enemy players' names are not shown outside of the kill feed (except when disguised while playing as a Spy), often leaving the only way to identify a player you've dominated as being the guy who repeatedly charges you brandishing a melee weapon.
• Paul Phoenix in Tekken starts out as the only guy powerful enough to ever end up in a draw against The Hero (sort of) Kazuya Mishima, and he's even designated as The Rival in the first game. However, as Tekken evolved and the Mishima family started to take most of the importance of the story, Paul was slowly thrown out of the picture in the rivalry. He still sometimes considers himself Kazuya's rival, but he's largely ignored, especially since he now focuses his rivalry on a bear, or ensuring that Hilarity Ensues, along with his Bruce Lee Clone friend Law. Paul even technically won the third Iron Fist tournament, since he was the one who beat Ogre. He didn't stick around after the fight, though, which meant Jin got the credit after beating True Ogre.
• Touhou Project: Played with in dialogue between Alice and Reimu. When Alice re-challenged Reimu during the Extra stage of Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square, the latter didn't remember who she was. This becomes a bit of a Running Gag: when Alice re-appeared in Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom, Reimu still acts like she doesn't know who Alice is; during the Magic Route of Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night, Reimu doesn't even seem to acknowledge Alice is there with Marisa; and, she gets only slightly better treatment in the Tasogare fighter games in as far as dialogue is concerned, even though there is still never a formal addressal.
• In Valkyria Chronicles, one of your soldiers, Edy Nelson, dreams of becoming a famous singer and actress. However, Rosie is already a fairly popular singer, which rouses Edy's jealousy and prompts her to view Rosie as her number one rival. Of course, Rosie is completely oblivious to said rivalry. Their potentials highlight this as well: Rosie's "Big Sister" potential buffs her if Edy is nearby, while Edy's "Rosie Hater" potential debuffs her if Rosie is nearby. Put the two together and Rosie will be stronger than normal and Edy will be weaker than normal.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Alexandria, commander of Colony Iota, has nursed a grudge against Colony 30 and its commander Valdi ever since a prior conflict that resulted in an upset victory for Colony 30, despite Colony Iota being of a higher rank. Valdi, however, being as single-minded in his passion for Levnis development as he is, doesn't actually have any memory of this conflict; in fact, he never intentionally mounted any kind of offensive in the first place, as he had merely lost control of his Levnises. When the Ouroboros have the two commanders meet up as part of a technology summit between their colonies, Valdi greets her as though they were strangers, while Alexandria is cold and terse in her exchanges with him.
• Yakuza 2: Daigo Dojima thinks of Ryuji Goda as his rival, and wants revenge for the five years he spent in prison because of Ryuji's machinations. Ryuji, on the other hand, considers the most important thing in his life to be taking down series protagonist Kiryu, and thinks Daigo is a snot-nosed punk who should learn to keep his nose out of the affairs of his elders and betters. Daigo's attempts to make Ryuji acknowledge him quickly come across as screaming "NOTICE ME, SENPAI!"
• In Yandere Simulator, nine of the ten rivals for Senpai's affections don't even realize Ayano is also interested in him...and only realize too late she's willing to go as far as murder to make sure the rival doesn't get him. (The tenth rival, however, is fully aware of Ayano's true nature and plans on taking her down.)

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