We Can Rule Together / Video Games

• In The 7th Saga, the villain of Patrof offers this to you. If you say 'yes', the castle gates will unlock. You must eventually say 'no' to progress the story.
• In Alpha Protocol, Henry Leland will make this offer to Mike if he likes Mike and Mike agrees to work with him. At that point, Mike can do this, or either wipe out Alpha Protocol or do the above and slip an explosive surprise to Leland, and then take over Halbech himself. Depending on what transpires earlier, this is a rare case where accepting the offer is not only an option, but makes sense.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • In Assassin's Creed III, Haytham Kenway tries more than once to make his son Connor adopt the Templar way of thinking. It's a mix of types 2, 3, 4, and 5. Haytham is so dedicated to the Templar cause that he doesn't quite get why Connor is so opposed to it, Connor would be a very deadly Templar agent, Connor is his son, and (perhaps most importantly) Haytham really wants to hear Connor say "Father, you were right."
  • In Assassin's Creed Origins, the Order of the Ancients spares Bayek's life after the incident that led to his son Khemu's death in hopes of him coming around and joining them. Given that they are very cosmopolitan and diverse, including Romans and Egyptians alike in their ranks, they'd probably be willing to take him in. But considering what they have done previously, its baffling they ever thought a Papa Wolf like Bayek would ever side with Khemu's murderers.
• In Axiom Verge, Athetos makes the classic "with you at my side" offer, and Trace thinks it over a little before responding:
  "Okay, I've thought about it, and my answer is... hell no, you self-righteous jerk!"
• Subverted in The Bard's Tale, where The Bard has the option of joining with the Demon Queen. Yes, the world is screwed, but it's the one that works best for his interests (Coin and Cleavage).
• In Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Barkley is offered this right before the final battle. Accepting results in a Nonstandard Game Over.
• Battlezone 2 gave you this option about halfway through the game (well, technically it was joining the rebels, but the gist of it was this anyway.) If you refused, your commander takes over and prepares to invade Earth and institute a fascist government. If you joined them, they turn the tenth planet into a base in preparation to turn Earth into a Utopia. Or something.
• In Biomotor Unitron, the Unitice asks you to turn all your UNITRON power over to it. If you accept, the Unitice thanks you and proceeds to engulf the entire planet in a metal shell, presumably killing all other life forms (including the protagonist). (It's not explained why it's so significant that the player surrender for the Unitice to do this. Perhaps it just wanted to give the player a chance.) If you refuse, you battle and the Unitice is defeated. Though the destruction of the Unitice means that all the robots that you've been training and battling with throughout the entire game are reduced to dust, crippling a lot of the modern economy. Heigh ho.
• Bookworm Adventures:
  Dracula: Join with me and reject Codex!
  Lex: 'Join with you'? When does that EVER work?
• Boktai 2 allows you to take the offer from Black Dainn. You get a strange Non-Standard Game Over where a spooky image of Django's vampire form appears, and the game fades out over Sabata's protests. After the credits, the doomsday prophecy is played again, implying that you and Dainn have fulfilled it and ended the world.
• One of these happens in every Breath of Fire game to date. If Ryu takes the offer, he'll usually go on to slaughter his former party members, destroy the world, and otherwise become the embodiment of the Big Bad. Since this almost always occurs at the end of the game, it's more like a bad ending than a Nonstandard Game Over.
• Ceville does not openly contain such a proposal, but ends in the best possible way: Evil Ceville marries dumb but good hearted Queen Gwendolyn and actually rule together. After all, goodies are no less evil they just hide it better.
• In Contra: Hard Corps, one of the villians, Colonel Bahamut gives you the chance to join him. Accepting immediately results in a bad ending, while refusing will result in a boss battle instead. However, the European Probotector version instead let you fight him who never asks you anything.
• In Cowboy Kid, the bosses have brief dialogue before their fights that amount to little more than, "HA HA HA! Do you think you can beat me?". The player quickly gets conditioned to skip through the dialogue - except the Mad Brothers will ask you to join the gang, and the default answer is yes. Accidentally choosing this option gives a quick summary of Sheriff Sam joining the villains and eventually being hanged for his crimes. And then you lose all of your lives and continues and have to start the whole game from the beginning!
• Cuphead: After getting all the Soul Contracts and beating King Dice, Cuphead and Mugman meet up with the Devil, who gives them an offer of whether they can rule the Inkwell Isles if they hand over the contracts. Accepting the offer can result in the Devil turning them into demonic servants and lead to a bad ending; but if they refuse, it will lead to the ultimate battle with him, where they will (literally) risk their necks not just for their own lives, but for the lives of everyone on the Inkwell Isles whom they will save from eternal servitude to the Devil.
• At the end of Dante's Inferno, Lucifer proposes that he and Dante join forces, saying Dante can have anything he wants. Dante flatly refuses. In the comicbook version, Dante replies, "All I want is to be rid of you!"
• Darksiders
  • The first game has Abaddon the Destroyer offer War the chance to conquer the universe together with him under the banner of Hell. A deal that Abaddon himself accepted when he realized he would be disgraced if he went back to Heaven. He notes that War has nothing to lose and everything to gain since all of Creation hates War anyway, and that even The Charred Council intends to throw him away like a used rag once his purpose is fulfilled (which War knows is true thanks to a future vision he had). He ends his offer with a final question: "Will you serve in Heaven? Or rule in Hell?" War's response: "I choose what once...a coward did not". Cue boss battle.
  • Darksiders III has several of the Sins offer Fury this, playing on her desire to be respected and powerful. Pride comes the closest of all, outright telling her that the two of them together can forcibly bring order to the chaos and create the true "Balance" that even The Charred Council merely plays at serving. Fury admits to being tempted by that last one, but throws it back with her refusal, showing off her Character Development from the person she was at the start who probably would have taken it.
• Dawn of War: If you play the chaos campaign, then Kyras will give Eliphas an offering to join him and destroy the galaxy, however Eliphas refuses as he is under orders from Abaddon to kill Kyras. Besides, as Eliphas also mentions, he betrayed and killed his last superior/partner Araghast, showing he has no interest sharing power when he can just take it for himself.
• Deus Ex Universe:
  • In Deus Ex, your final confrontation with the villain will have him growing increasingly nervous as you're demolishing his great scheme for world domination, and he'll gladly offer up a lion's share of the world to make you stop.
  • In Deus Ex: Invisible War you can actually accept the offers of all the feuding factions. Although how much power you receive under the new regimes is debatable, and you're free to backstab all of them.
  • In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, certain e-mail messages reveal that the Illuminati asked David Sarif to join their ranks. David refused since he's fundamentally opposed to their goals. The Illuminati want to maintain the status quo as much as possible to control the world and David is an idealist who wants to usher in sweeping changes to the world via augmentation.
• In Diablo III Zoltun Kulle offers this repeatedly to the player character in Act II.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest: After fighting your way to the Dragonlord's throne room, he gives the standard offer. Refusing leads to the standard Final Boss battle, while accepting seems to produce a Nonstandard Game Over. But in actuality, you can betray him and start the normal boss fight at any time, and the normal ending will proceed as if your brief Face–Heel Turn never happened. In all subsequent rereleases the Hero wakes up in a town near the Dragonlord's castle, where the innkeeper says that he had a Bad Dream.
  • Dragon Quest Builders takes place in an alternate continuity where the hero from the original Dragon Quest accepted the Dragonlord's offer, only to be betrayed by the foul fiend and the realm plunged into a dark age. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that he made good on the letter of his offer, with the fallen hero granted dominion over a small castle titled "Half the World". When you eventually confront the Dragonlord, he gives you the same offer. If you accept, he'll bestow upon you dominion over a similarly tiny "half" of the world: your tomb!
• Earth 2150 has an interesting version where choosing yes actually works out and changes the next missions. As the Lunar Corporation you are allied with the United Civilised States until you come across the Hacker "Neo". Since your avatar Fang knows him, he offers you to change alliances towards the Eurasian Dynasty by simply destroying the UCS container vehicles. Cue a different set of missions against the UCS and a lot of humorous remarks from Neo. The alliance is later killed by the ED.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Morrowind:
    • Big Bad Physical God Dagoth Ur was a trusted friend of the original Nerevar in the Backstory, and wishes for this to be the case once again. He repeatedly makes offers for the Nerevarine, supposedly Nerevar's Reincarnation, to join him, even right up until the final battle. However, there is no way for the player to actually choose this option. (An actual chance to do so was cut from the game before release due to time constraints.)
    • In the Tribunal expansion, Tribunal deity Almalexia, who was the wife of the original Nerevar, wants the Nerevarine to prove that he's really Nerevar, so they can reunite. This is despite the fact that, depending on which version of the events of Nerevar's death you believe, she and the other members of the Tribunal may have been the ones to betray and murder Nerevar. Regardless of what you do, Almalexia proves to have gone completely off the deep end due to the loss of her divine powers as a result of the main game's main quest. She kills fellow Tribune Sotha Sil, tries to murder the Nerevarine to be a martyr to her cause, and plans to murder the other Tribune, Vivec, leaving her as the only figure for the Dunmer people to worship in her new monotheistic state.
  • Skyrim:
    • Just before the final battle in Sovngarde, Alduin compliments the Last Dragonborn and mentions that s/he would have been an excellent slave. For a being whose fundamental nature is to dominate, that is probably as close as he can come to this trope.
    • In the Dragonborn DLC, Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora, seems intent on making the Dragonborn his new champion. He is notably the only Daedric Prince you must encounter during the main quest and he is the Greater-Scope Villain of Dragonborn. The entire plot of Dragonborn is basically Mora's scheme to replace Miraak with the Dragonborn, with everyone else involved being Unwitting Pawns at best.
• Elemental Master begins with the Demon King Gyra making this offer to the hero, Laden, only to be turned down.
  Gyra: Join me. Let's work together and we can conquer the world.
  Laden: You are a fool.
  Gyra: The only fools are those who try to stop me now...
• This can happen a few times in E.V.O.: Search for Eden. The first time, you are offered to join the tyrannosaurs in ruling over the world. You can, but you are then treated to viewing the extinction of your new allies...and you. Later in the game, you are given the choice to join King Rogon in his undersea kingdom. Another Nonstandard Game Over awaits you if you accept. The actual Final Boss, Bolbox, doesn't make this offer because he has the same motivations as the Protagonist—getting to Eden and becoming Gaia's partner—which only one person can achieve at a time.
• In Fallout, one Non-Standard Game Over has you surrender to The Master and become a Super Mutant aiding him in his Assimilation Plot.
• In Fallout: New Vegas, there's a few of these.
  • In the main game, this is Mr. House's offer for you to work for him. By doing so you become his Dragon. He entirely makes good on his promises.
  • Caesar also makes a similar offer, although it's closer to "join me and you'll be one of my main lieutenants" than anything else.
  • In the Dead Money DLC, you can join Father Elijah in his genocidal plans at the end if you're an enemy of the New California Republic. If you do, you get a Nonstandard Game Over where it's stated that the Courier and Elijah unleashed the Cloud and the holograms on the Mojave Wasteland killing everything in its path and that they remained in the Sierra Madre waiting for the world to "begin again".
  • Old World Blues has a Dummied Out bad ending where the Courier becomes a member of the Think Tank and helps them take over the Mojave.
• Fallout 4 has Father, the leader of the Institute, attempt to groom the Player Character into becoming his successor and aiding in their conquest of the Commonwealth. And in one ending, he succeeds.
• Far Cry 4 gives the player the option of actually doing this with a Secret Ending you can see within 15 minutes of starting the game. All you have to do is simply stay at Pagan Min's table rather than try and escape. He eventually comes back, sincerely apologizes for being delayed by the Golden Path attack, takes Ajay to scatter his mother's ashes, then the two board the helicopter with the clear implication that Ajay has become his new dragon.
  Pagan Min: Oh good. Do you feel better now? Did you get it out of your system? Good. And now maybe we can finally shoot some goddamned guns.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VI has Gestahl and Kefka offer this to Celes. She doesn't buy it, because by this point she's come to believe that too much power only leads to destruction. That, and it probably didn't appeal to her that Gestahl implied he wanted her and Kefka to breed with each other to create new Magitek troops for him...
  • In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Kefka pulls this on Terra due to her destructive nature and past Heel–Face Turn. Terra, too, doesn't fall for it. The Emperor makes a similar but far more eloquent proposal to the Warrior of Light, the Warrior however doesn't fall for it either.
  • High Commander Jegran does this with Princess Althea in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. She refuses. For him it's merely a stepping stone to legitimize his power, and he ultimately decides its unnecessary since his power as an artificial Crystal Bearer means he sees himself as a god — rather than use her, he'll just create a new tribal crystal and his own kingdom.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake: Sephiroth offers this to Cloud, and briefly looks genuinely sad when Cloud refuses. Sephiroth has memories of the original timeline and has seen how powerful Cloud will become, so he would rather have him as an ally than an enemy. He even spares Cloud's life at the end, so he's apparently not given up on recruiting him.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Grima ultimately needs his chosen vessel that would be the player character to merge with him. He has found a workaround, but it's strictly plan B. As long as he and his vessel are separated, his power is incomplete.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Flame Emperor offers Byleth the chance to join them on a few occasions. On one of the game's routes, they can take them up on the offer to even the Flame Emperor's surprise, as by that point he had assumed the chances of Byleth turning coat were slim to none. Specifically Black Eagles, as the Flame Emperor is Edelgard, who is legitimately grateful to her professor for joining her side. However, you can only take this branched route, Crimson Flower, if you managed to max supports with Edelgard; otherwise you end on the Silver Snow route as Byleth turns down the offer by default.
• Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel ends with Christopher, the Cult Leader of the Sacred Trail, offering the player character Roberto a place in his cult. Roberto can either take Christopher's hand and join him, or grab his pistol and shoot Christopher from up close.
• Trajkov in Geneforge is a megalomaniac bent on building an army of genetically modified supersoldiers and overthrowing the established Shaper government, but he's quite charismatic about it and even offers the player a place at his side in exchange for helping him achieve demigod-like powers. He's entirely truthful about his bargain and the resulting ending arguably results in a better off fate for the protagonist◊ and the serviles than helping out any of the "good" factions.
• Happens in the Ghosts 'n Goblins spinoff game, Gargoyle's Quest. The Big Bad tells the player that he will make you a king if you join him, but if you accept, he simply laughs and drains you of all your powers, leaving you hopelessly outgunned in the ensuing fight.
• Gold Box: This is the standard offer is given by Tyranthaxus before the Final Boss battle in the original 1988 Pool of Radiance game. In a small twist, the offer is made to each character in your party individually; if some characters accept and others refuse, the character who refuse fight against the Big Bad along with the accepting characterings in the Final Boss battle. (Evil-aligned NPCs automatically accept.)
• Averted in GoldenEye (2010). Alec says he pondered the idea of offering James a chance to fight on his side but ultimately realized that Bond's loyalty would always stand in his way and opts to do away with him instead.
• Anji Mito receives this offer from That Man in Guilty Gear X. Uncommonly for the trope, he accepts. For a while, anyway.
• At the end of Half-Life, you have the choice between joining the G-Man or a Bolivian Army Ending. Subverted in hindsight, in that joining him is canon and the G-Man isn't that evil, but at that point you don't know that.
• Halo:
  • In Halo 3, Gravemind unsuccessfully attempts this on Master Chief: "I am a timeless chorus; join your voice with mine, and sing victory everlasting". Though in this case it was less "join with me" and more "become part of me".
  • In Halo 5: Guardians Cortana offers Master Chief and Blue Team this. His counteroffer is her returning home with him. So she decides to lock him away for 10,000 years under the assumption that by then they'll be able to convince Master Chief to see it their way.
• Hextech Mayhem: Semi-Villain Protagonist Ziggs suggests Hero Antagonist Heimerdinger become his sidekick, which he obviously declines. Ziggs responds by blowing up a bomb in his face. At the end of the game, Heimerdinger requests the same to Ziggs, albeit this time with Ziggs as his apprentice. Ziggs declines the offer due to him considering explosions a form of art, rather than science.
• In Infinity Blade the God King will make this offer to the Warrior if he survives the first phase of the fight. Should the Warrior accept the God King then reveals that he was once a mortal and that there are worse Deathless out there. To fight them, the God King needs a strong champion like the Warrior at his side. It's actually a pretty decent, if short, ending... but since it breaks the self-destructive cycle of revenge that's the focus of the entire game, you get booted back to before the fight after the credits roll to try again.
• Jade Empire has a twist: you can agree to leave the Big Bad alone and let him have his dream of world domination, in return for being idolized as a hero by future generations. The resulting ending is not quite a Nonstandard Game Over, but it's not exactly uplifting either.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Vanitas in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep offers Ventus this.
  • Braig offers it to Sora in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], and of course he refuses. But he isn't given much of a choice.
• In the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning "House of Ballads" questline, the Maid of Windemere makes this offer to you several times. After you gain the upper hand against her in battle, she begs for mercy and explains that she just wants to be loved and is sick of being the Designated Villain of the Telling. This creates a truly unusual variation of this trope: since you're "King Wencen" now after the original chickened out, you effectively rule the House of Ballads already. The player character is the one who can make the We Can Rule Together offer to the defeated villain.
• At the end of Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, Alita, the protagonist turns out not to be The Chosen One, but is in possession of the magic sword which the real chosen one requires. This can result in a deal like this being struck, depending on player choice.
• Langrisser II's remake Der Langrisser gives you the choice of joining the Evil Empire midgame... And doing so branches off into a completely different campaign. Several, in fact.
• Ganon's introductory cutscene in Link: The Faces of Evil:
  "Join me, Link, and I will make your face the greatest in Koridai! Or else you will DIE."(It Makes Sense in Context - the faces of Gannon's Koridian elites are carved into mountains, as shown on the map.)
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, choosing former Artifact of Doom Reinforce in the Sequence 4 battle against Lord Dearche will have Lord Dearche giving this offer to her. Reinforce naturally refuses.
• In the Mass Effect series, Saren and The Illusive Man both attempt this, trying to convince Commander Shepard to join their side. Inverted by Paragon Shepard, who instead repeatedly tries to get them to join their side instead and help them stop the Reapers.
• Massmouth 2: The Big Bad attempts this on Massmouth, twice. The first time, your choice determines the next mission only, since if you agree to work for him, he later decides you're too dangerous to keep alive anyway. He tries it again at the end of the game; cue Multiple Endings, depending on what you do.
• In MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Ian Dresari is giving this offer not once,not twice, but THREE TIMES in rapid succession. After refusing all three offers he is asked what he WOULD like for the offerer's life. His response is likely the most badass response to this trope in history.
  Offerer: Well then Mr. Dresari, what DO you want?!
  Ian Dresari: I want my family back.
• In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Senator Armstrong immediately dusts off Raiden and helps him up after beating the crap out of him when it seems like Raiden actually agrees with his philosophy. Even after being defeated in the end, seconds from death, Armstrong is satisfied because he believes he found a kindred spirit in Raiden. The ending shows that Raiden did share some of Armstrong's opinions.
  • Also applies to Jetstream Sam, by way of his prequel DLC story and with the Foregone Conclusion of Sam already working for Armstrong in the main story.
• Metroid Dread: Once Raven Beak reveals that he has been manipulating Samus the entire game to unleash her Metroid abilities, he tells her to join him so that they can bring order to the galaxy. She turns him down with an Ice Missile.
• Mother:
  • At the end of EarthBound Beginnings, the Big Bad Giygas is poised to commence a destructive Alien Invasion of America as a result of the secret of PSI being stolen from his race by the main protagonist Ninten's great-grandather. When he's confronted on the top of Mt. Itoi, he implores Ninten to join him on his mothership, claiming that he's grateful to Ninten's family because Ninten's great-grandmother Maria raised him from infancy. The player is not given a choice in the matter, and Giygas' response indicates that Ninten refused.
  • Happens early in EarthBound (1994) with Mr. Carpainter. Accepting just gives the villain a "first strike" with a lightning bolt, but you automatically deflect it if wearing the Franklin Badge. Incidentally, if you don't accept it, he still zaps you with lightning, making this a But Thou Must! choice.
• The Neverhood: When Klaymen finally encounters the Big Bad Klogg, he attempts to convince Klaymen to put on Hoborg's crown in a last-ditch effort to keep his status as the Neverhood's king. From there, the player can either betray Klogg and rule the Neverhood alone or return the crown to its rightful owner.
• Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark:
  • Your henchmen get tempted during the final battle with Mephistopheles. Whether or not you have to fight against them depends on your persuasion skill or if one of them is your love interest.
  • The Valsharess makes such an offer to you at the midpoint of the game before it is revealed that Mephistopheles has been the real Big Bad all along and was manipulating her into bringing the one who could defeat her (and incidentally free him) right to them.
  • An interesting catch though is that no matter what has happened, no matter how tempting the offer might be, and regardless of your persuasion skill Deekin will always side with you. He's just that awesome.
  • You can also turn this back on Mephistopheles: if you find his true name in the final chapter, you can use it to control him, and one of the optional endings has you ruling the Hells together.
• In Neverwinter Nights 2, an evil player character has the opportunity to join the King of Shadows as his Darth Vader. Good player characters are not offered this opportunity. In fact, all of the player's henchmen are also offered this opportunity, and you can lose some of them and have to fight against them if you do not have enough influence with them.
• In Ninety-Nine Nights, Yesperratt tries this line on Tyurru. Tyurry doesn't even stop to consider it before starting to lay on the smackdown. It didn't help that the villain killed her mentor right in front of her just before offering...
• In the true ending of the main game of Nioh, Sir John Dee the true mastermind behind Edward Kelley and the devastation he inflicted on Japan for the purpose of gathering amrita is confronted by William. He asks William to join him in leading England to greatness with the power of amrita. When William refuses, he becomes the True Final Boss.
• In Nocturne: Rebirth, the Big Bad, Khaos, plans on decomposing the world and reconstructing it to a certain time in the past, essentially allowing time travel and timeline alteration. He offers to use this power to undo Reviel's massacres so he can restart his life with a clean slate and to undo Luna's transformation into a vampire. They both refuse and decide that it's better to live with their mistakes and deal with their obstacles in the present, since using this power means everything they've ever been through would be for nothing.
• Octopath Traveler: The Big Bad of Cyrus's story offers to work together. His response?
  Cyrus: Ridiculous. If that it a jape, it is a poor one.
  Big Bad: [more arguments]
  Cyrus: I'll pass. (Leitmotif flares up, follows up on a full Kirk Summation)
• Paper Mario:
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: At the start of the Final Battle, the Shadow Queen, while possessing Peach, offers Mario the option to become her servant. Refusing starts the boss battle; accepting triggers a Non-Standard Game Over as she spreads her dark magic over the world.
  • Super Paper Mario: In the climax, Dimentio offers Mario and Luigi to join forces to defeat Count Bleck. If they accept, they are enslaved with Floro Sprouts, likewise getting a Non-Standard Game Over.
• In Parasite Eve, Big Bad Eve attempts to convince Aya several times to join her in taking over the world where sentient mitochondria are the supreme rulers (since Aya has powers just like Eve). Aya says nothing at first and just fights Eve since Aya is not sure of herself or if her powers would make her become like Eve. Near the end of the game, Aya gains more determination and realizes that her mitochondria is the only thing that can stop Eve.
• Happens twice in Persona 5. The first is when corrupt politician Masayoshi Shido's Shadow offers to employ you, but he isn't being sincere and will try to kill you even if you don't outright refuse him. The second one is offered after Yaldabaoth and his plan to enslave humanity is exposed. This offer can be accepted, as a result of which the Phantom Thieves end up in control of the city at the expense of remaining under Yaldabaoth's thumb.
• In Pillars of Eternity, this offer is made by Woedica, through Skaen to the player character. Accepting it is not a Non-Standard Game Over, but a perfectly valid ending.
• In the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf Monon Color game Comet Battle, Brother Pony, intending to rule Green Green Grassland, promises Weslie that "as long as you surrender to me, I will grant you status and power; this is a good deal!" Weslie isn't having any of it.
• Pokémon
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers does this in the game's second storyline. Darkrai offers you a chance to give in and rule the world alongside him. Your partner even accepts Darkrai's offer and urges you to give up as well. After a while, however, the game ultimately leads you to the conclusion that Darkrai has you in a nightmare, causing the player to break free and attack him, setting the mood for the subsequent boss fight.
    • Not only that, but your partner tells you that if you refuse, your partner and best friend will die.
    • In the first pair of games the "personality test" in the beginning may include this trope as a question. A question says "There is an alien invasion! What will you do?" If you select "Fight", you will be shown a second question, where you are defeated but your strength has impressed the aliens anyway. (The test then briefly imitates what it thinks aliens sound like by speaking in All Caps.) Selecting "Rule with the aliens" boosts towards various personalities (and thus different species for the player) by small amounts, while refusing gives a massive boost towards Brave.
  • Subverted in Pokémon Colosseum. Nascour, the apparent leader of Cipher, asks if you would like to become a permanent competitor at Realgam Tower, with promises that you will rise to the top in no time... only to backpedal and state that he isn't that merciful, and that he intends to destroy you instead.
• Pony Island: The devil laments during 'Adventure Mode' that you're going to fix/exploit bugs, and not going to play by the rules, however, becomes excited that the player will help them play-test his newest "game design revolution" together. What makes it tragic for him (see YMMV) is you make progress faster than he can code up levels, and refuse to take breaks.
• In Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, the villain Munakata asks the main character to join him every time they meet. The player appears to get to make this choice, but it's really a But Thou Must! situation.
• Rise of the Third Power: After Prince Gage is imprisoned for stopping Sparrow's assassination of Arielle, Emperor Noraskov offers to pardon him and restore his position as Crown Prince of Arkadya if he publicly apologizes. Gage refuses and joins the party to continue opposing Noraskov.
• Happens three times in the Sly Cooper series.
  • In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, The Contessa tries to convince Murray to turn against his friends and resume being a subject to her hypnosis project. Outraged on how he nearly killed his friends under her control, Murray refuses, citing the only mental help he needs is to not be reminded of her again.
  • In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Dr. M gives Bentley a "Not So Different" Remark, and that Sly is only using him to his own needs, citing his own poor partnership with Sly's father. Bentley rejects this, citing that he's been friends with Sly since childhood, and they consider each other brothers. Dr. M succeeded with Penelope, on the other hand, leading to the next example...
  • Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: Penelope also tries to convince Bentley to betray both Sly and Murray, citing that with their combined skills, they can Take Over the World. Not only does Bentley reject this out of loyalty to his friends, he outright slams Penelope for her being petty, selfish, jealous, and manipulative in the name of greed.
• In Sackboy: A Big Adventure, at World 3, Vex offers SackBoy to work together, claiming that his recreation of the world with the Topsy-Turver is inevitable, and therefore it would be easier to go along with it than try and stop it. SackBoy is quick enough to refute him completely. Considering that Vex was purposefully letting Sackboy gather up all the materials he needed, he probably knew Sackboy would refuse.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In Shadow the Hedgehog, you can choose to fight with or against Black Doom, and you can switch whenever you choose.
  • Likewise, Mephiles pulls this on Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), which Shadow rejects immediately.
    Mephiles: Come with me, Shadow. Let us punish this foolish world of humanity.
• Interesting twist in Star Trek: Elite Force 2, Munro interrogates a Ferengi and tricks him into offering him his own planet, but then arrests him for attempted bribery. (If you accept the offer you lose).
• As per Sith customs, very common in Star Wars videogames, though those endings are usually not canon.
  • In Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, if Kyle has built up significant negative Karma through out the game, when offered this choice Kyle takes a third option: "Why do I need you, Jerec, when I can take all the power of the Valley myself?".
  • Averted for once in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast: The game's Big Bad attempts in a cut-scene, but Kyle, having fallen to The Dark Side in the last game, obviously refuses and counters with a Last-Second Chance. It doesn't work either.
    Desann: I was wrong about you, Katarn. Your failure as a Jedi hasn't weakened you; it's only made you stronger. Come, join me. You know in your heart that you'll never truly be one of them.
    Kyle Katarn: Maybe, maybe not, but I know I won't be alone. How 'bout you, Desann? Even now, after all this pain, there's still hope. Come, join us.
  • And in the next game, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, played the same way as in Jedi Knight: If the player chooses The Dark Side, Jaden responds to the proposition with "Why should I change one master for another?".
  • Offered to the player several times in the first Knights of the Old Republic. Yuthura Ban offers this to you as a sidequest. Bastila offers it at the climax. If you take the latter offer, you can turn around and be the one making the offer to your party. Most of them will refuse. You'll have to kill them.
  • In an inversion, near the end of Knights of the Old Republic, Malak's latest Dragon offers to join with you to crush both Malak and the Republic, you're free to accept and doing so locks you into the darkside ending. The variation to the standard theme is that the Dragon offers to become your Dragon if you turn against the Republic (generally, the We Can Rule Together offer suggests you'll be the Dragon or at best that you'd be equals). They also assure you than once they become strong enough they will kill you, as a good Sith should. Nice it's all planned out, huh?
  • Downplayed in the Backstory. When Saul Karath left the Republic to become the Sith's top admiral, he tried to convince Carth (his Number One at the time) to come along with him. Carth refused the offer. Saul's loyalty test was destroying Carth's home world. Needless to say, Carth's all too happy for a shot at gunning his former commanding officer down,
  • The video game adaptation of Revenge of the Sith included an alternate ending, where Anakin pisses all over Obi-wan's "high ground", impaling him. Cue this exchange:
    Palpatine: Excellent work, my apprentice. There are none left to oppose us. The galaxy is ours now. Your new weapon, Lord Vader. (Gives Anakin lightsaber. Anakin kills him with it.)
    Darth Vader: No. The galaxy belongs to me.
  • In Star Wars: The Old Republic, this option comes up at the end of the first act of the Imperial Agent storyline, in which Darth Jadus gives you the choice of either working for him or be forced into a Sadistic Choice in which you must either try and stop either him or his doomsday weapon. This does actually impact the story somewhat, but not too heavily since Jadus is all about working in the shadows. Alternatively, you can bluff him into backing off without accepting or rejecting him, but you'll need to tread carefully.
    • In the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion pack, Valkorion/The Sith Emperor offers both you and Darth Marr power and a place at his side, since he considers the two of you some of the only worthwhile beings in the galaxy. Marr rejects the offer and dies trying to kill Valkorion, while you have the option of rejecting or accepting the offer. If you reject it, Arcann, Valkorion's son, will hand you your weapon, which you use to kill Valkorion. If you accept the offer, however, Arcann himself will kill his father while he's distracted giving you some of his power. No matter the choice, Valkorion still dies.
  • The climax of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has Starkiller defeat Darth Vader in a Boss Battle. In a parallel to Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine laughs and says, "Yes! Kill him! He was weak! Broken! Kill him and take your rightful place at my side!" You can choose the Light Side and attack Palpatine, or choose the Dark Side and finish Vader off.
    • In the second game, when Starkiller storms the Imperial stronghold on Cato Nemoidia trying to rescue Rahm Kota, Baron Tarko is impressed by his strength and tries to recruit him as a gladiator, even shouting, "You can have all the wine, women, and blood you want!" Starkiller simply presses on.
• The Street Fighter series has Bison telling more than one fighter around the world to join him and Shadaloo. No one accepts.
• In Streets of Rage, the final boss offers likewise (although if you accept, he immediately betrays you). This leads to an interesting alternative ending if, in a two-player game, one player accepts and the other does not: the two players get to fight one another, and if the "bad" player wins, he gets to defeat the final boss on his own, and replace him as a crimelord.
• In Suikoden V, this happens relatively early in the game. It's really more of a "be a figurehead king while I pull the strings" deal, but still. Agreeing results in a Nonstandard Game Over/Bad Ending where the guy who made you the offer decides that he can rule alone and has you killed.
• Super Robot Wars subversion: In SRW64, you are eventually asked to assist one of the several villainous factions in the game. You can actually join any of them, and none of them are bad choices, nor do they result in a betrayal.
• System Shock 2 does this, word for word. It is followed by a hilarious, and oh-so-satisfying, rebuttal.
  (Camera zooms in on PC, complete with "Whooshing" sound that kills the music)
  "Nah." (BAM!)
• In Tactics Ogre, as Denam is about to help Catiua take her rightful place on the throne, Brantyn Morne offers him the chance to rule Valeria alongside him.
• Tales of Monkey Island: LeChuck does this to Elaine after fatally stabbing Guybrush and telling her about his playful acts of "kindness":
  LeChuck: I know you've developed feelings for me... join me as my demon bride and together we'll lay a bloody siege to the very heart of voodoo itself!
  Elaine: Go to hell, LeChuck.
  LeChuck: Well, you can't say I didn't try... Looks like we'll be doing this with all that voodoo...
  • She finally accepts that offer in Chapter 5... but only when she needs to hold the untouchable (for humans) Cutlass of Kaflu in order to destroy LeChuck once she is returned to normal.
• Tales of the Abyss has the God Generals and Van ask a couple of the heroes (and Asch) to help free the world from Yulia's Score. While the heroes do agree that the Score shouldn't be followed later in the game, they don't agree with the villains' way of going about it.
• Near the end of Teslagrad 2, the Captain, who had previously been giving Lumina powers and upgrades throughout the game, shows her a painting of her looking quite badass and leading an army of shadow creatures with her powers. The implication being that he upgraded her because he wants her to work for him. She quickly rejects him, and the boss fight begins.
• Tomb Raider:
  • In Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, the Egyptian god, Set, offers Lara Croft power, immortality, and power of a ruler to let all man bow before her if she gives Set the MacGuffin. Lara refuses.
  • Tomb Raider: Anniversary has Natla pull this trope on Lara. Natrually, Lara doesn't buy it.
• Mors Gotha makes this offer to the Avatar in Ultima Underworld II, on the condition that you surrender a weapon to her (it doesn't have to be your main weapon; a dagger will suffice). You end up fighting her regardless of whether you take up the offer.
• In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Sebastian LaCroix (your boss and the current Prince of Los Angeles) offers you this if you choose to stick with him all the way to the end. Sadly, you also both end up dying in a massive explosion. Oops.
• In Viewtiful Joe, Fire Leo offers Joe half the world if he joins Jadow. Joe not only turns it down, but says he wouldn't join even if Jadow offered to give him the whole planet.
• In Way of the Samurai, if the player has managed to forge an alliance between the two ruling factions of Rokkotsu Pass and fend off the evil army effectively, he will be asked by the Big Bad if he would like to switch sides. Accepting the offer is the only way to acquire the game's fifth ending.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: Nemeroth asks Titus to join him, so he can lead the Ultramarines in domination of the galaxy. Titus refuses, and the final battle begins.
• Wizard101: When you and Morganthe meet again during the climax of Zafaria, Morganthe offers to take you under her wing, citing a "Not So Different" Remark. Naturally, you don't have the option of accepting and you proceed to fight her minions.
  • Grandfather Spider offers both you and Mellori the chance to rule over the new world he plans to create (which would destroy the Spiral) as well as save anyone the two of you desire if you aid him in getting his heart back. Naturally, you both refuse.
• In Wizardry 8, when the final boss (who you've been simultaneously stalking and avoiding the whole game for three games) sees you attempting to alter history (your party and him just became gods; you snuck around behind him arguing with a robot about where the old gods were because he wanted revenge) in order to revoke his godhood, he confronts you and you're given three options: rewrite history (beat him up, become gods alone, doing the best you can), tear out the page that banished him from godhood (beat him up and his past-self helps you be benevolent gods), or join him and form a universe of terror with him as your mentor.
• In The World Ends with You, right before the final boss battle with Megumi Kitaniji, he asks you to join him in order to brainwash everyone into thinking exactly the same, thus letting him rebuild Shibuya. You are actually allowed to make this choice, but Neku refuses no matter what you choose.

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