History DarkIsNotEvil / VideoGames

*** The Twili people in general are the game's main antagonists, and the game's backstory indicates that they once used dark powers to try to conquer the land and steal the Triforce, which lead to them being banished to the Twilight Realm. Late in the game, however, [[spoiler:Midna indicates that the Twili took their punishment to heart, and became a peaceful people with no desire for power. Indeed, Zant was shunned and rejected among his people ''because'' they could see his lust for greater power, and they remembered well what happened the last time they went that direction. The only reason you're fighting them in the game is that Zant has used Ganondorf's magic (which comes from [[LightIsNotGood his Triforce of Power, the "golden light" of three Goddesses]]) to corrupt and control them: when freed of his influence, the Twili revert to their true, peaceful forms.]]
*** It should be noted that prior to her character development, Midna (while wanting to help free the Twili) cared nothing for mankind or Hyrule and only saw Link as a means to an end. But after he got her the last Fused Shadow, she planned to let him go back to a normal life instead of disposing of him. But when she knew her plan would be more complicated, she stayed with him longer, fueling a bond between the two. She's also friends with Princess Zelda, and part of her reluctance to aid the Hylians was due to a long-standing rule of non-interference on the Twili's part.

** The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' dungeon "The Heroes' Gauntlet" involves the party having to fight through projections of Hydaelyn's champions summoned from all corners of the universe. One of the minibosses is a Spectral Necromancer who opens the fight by proclaiming ''"Tainted though I am, I am still a Warrior of Light!"''

* ''VideoGame/DarksidersII'' gives us Death, who, despite being a [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Horseman of the Apocalypse]] and generally living up to his name in the looks department, is on a surprisingly selfless mission to save his brother [[VideoGame/{{Darksiders}} War]] by resurrecting humanity. He also demonstrates a great deal of kindness and loyalty to the people who help him on his quest, and is a DeadpanSnarker and can be heard genuinely laughing sometimes.

* Demons in ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' and ''Videogame/MakaiKingdom'' frequently insist that they are definitely evil, but are more often lazy than malicious and tend to be smartasses rather than cruel. The 'evil' thing is really just a cultural affectation that they've picked up over the ages because, as ''Videogame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' explains, while it ''is'' their job to spread fear among humans, this is largely A. for the humans own benefit to keep them from being too self destructive and B. because both they and angels need humans to fear or worship them respectively. Everyone needs to play their part in the system or the whole system falls apart. More than evil, if demons had a character alignment it would be chaos with angels on the other side representing order, though they often believe themselves to be just as holy and good as demons are corrupt and evil.
** This is actually a huge element of ''Videogame/Disgaea5'', as the characters each have to go through their own character arcs of realizing that just because they're demons and supposed to act vicious, it doesn't mean they can't care about or help the people around them, and coming to these realizations allows them to actively become far stronger than they already are. Each one gets an Overload that is no less destructive than their previous one, but is far more powerful just by allowing themselves to use their powers for the benefits of friends rather than selfish motives.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. Your SpaceMarine character has some pretty strong BloodKnight qualities (just look at his [[SlasherSmile diabolical grin]] when he picks up a new weapon), and he wound up stationed on Mars due to a violent case of insubordination. His offense, by the way, was putting his C.O. in a body cast for ordering their squad to fire on civilians.

** And in the original, blood mages. Blood magic is a terrifying power that lets you CastFromHitPoints and take control of people, but it's no more evil than any other form of magic. It does come with a high risk of WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity if used recklessly however and Blood Magic is normally learned via a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with a Demon]]. While it doesn't necessarily make the user evil, it is still a very dangerous power that shouldn't be treated lightly. While most blood mages that you meet in the series are pretty nasty, [[HeroWithAnFInGood Jowan]] is well-intentioned (even if he screws everything up) and [[CloudCuckoolander Merrill]] of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is the kindest person in your entire party (though she's portrayed as being quite naive and overconfident when it comes to dangerous magic).
** Also from the original, the werewolves. [[spoiler: They're actually the descendants of humans that killed Zathrian's son and raped his daughter centuries ago. [[PayEvilUntoEvil Zathrian cursed the humans so that they and all of their descendants would be werewolves.]] The werewolves were just desperate to be cured, so they attacked and infected the Dalish hoping that Zathrian will lift the curse once he saw the curse affecting his own people. They're not purely good, but then neither are the Dalish. This is [[GrayAndGreyMorality Dragon Age: Origins]], remember.]]
** Near the end of ''Awakening'', during the defense of the City of Amaranthine you encounter a Disciple (sentient Darkspawn) sent by The Architect that fights alongside you if you let it. If you choose to let it go afterwards, the epilogue states that it becomes a hooded traveller that helps those it encounters (though it accidentally spreads the taint where it follows).
** [[spoiler: The Grey Wardens. To better fight the Darkspawn horde, every prospective Warden must drink a special concotion of Darkspawn blood and submit themselves to [[TheCorruption their Taint]]. However instead of becoming mindless ghouls that serve the horde, Grey Wardens manage to retain their humanity and turn their newfound power against them. Likewise, it's heavily implied that the ritual likewise has some basis in BloodMagic.]]

* Monster Girl Quest: Monsters. [[spoiler:Literally, they embody a dark element that keeps the world in motion.]] Alice looks especially the part with her blue skin, yellow eyes, tattoos, and serpentile body.

* Soma Cruz, the resident white haired {{Bishonen}} in the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' duology wields the dark power to absorb his enemies' souls and use them as weapons, a result of [[spoiler:either inheriting the power of Lord Dracula or being Lord Dracula reborn.]] That said, he is quite a nice person, selflessly [[AllLovingHero working for the good of mankind]] and looking after his [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend childhood friend,]] who later proves his sweet-as-pie [[HeIsNotMyBoyfriend not-girlfriend]] who [[SubvertedTrope has so far completely failed to be kidnapped.]]

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** Riku as time goes on; at the end of ''Kingdom Hearts II'', he was purified of Xehanort's darkness, but he keeps his own darkness-based abilities because they're part of who he is. In fact, ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' reveals that Riku has [[spoiler: become immune to corruption from darkness]] due to constant and repeated use and is the only character in the series that we know this has happened with. In other words, Riku is the only character to have ''actually [[spoiler: mastered darkness'']].
** Terra from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' is an even better example. He's basically Riku's predecessor and also uses darkness despite being a good guy. However, unlike Riku who becomes kinda emo about it for most of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' and angsts about how he gave into the darkness, Terra angsts about it for a few minutes but gets over it and remains a slightly stoic but kind, heroic and loveable goof even after he starts [[EyeScream zapping people's eyes out with dark energy.]] Unfortunately, he learns the downside of dark power in the end. Whether it's used for good or evil, use of darkness weakens a person's heart's natural defenses of light, [[spoiler:making him helpless when Master Xehanort attempts GrandTheftMe.]] So it seems that while darkness can be used for good, it is much more hazardous to wield.
** Also from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', [[spoiler: this is implied to be the case for Ventus back when he was Xehanort's apprentice. His heart had enough darkness in it for Xehanort to make [[EnemyWithout Vanitas]] out of it, but all signs indicate that he was just as nice then as he is in the game's present. In fact, that was why Xehanort decided to extract his darkness in the first place, since Ven was too soft for Xehanort's purposes even with all that darkness in him.]]
** Pure-hearted Mickey himself, while strongly associated with the Light, uses the Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness when he's not wielding his original Star Seeker keyblade, largely because they needed a Keyblade of Darkness as well as one of Light to lock the Door to Kingdom Hearts.
** The friendly Spirit Dream Eaters who serve as your allies in ''Dream Drop Distance'' are beings of darkness, just as the antagonistic Nightmares are. The entire theme of this installment, in fact, could be summed up in this trope...especially considering that towards the end of the game, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the real protagonist of this one is Riku. Riku has even temporarily become a Dream Eater, protecting Sora from the villains by consuming the darkness of the Nightmares.]] Riku's character arc ends in this game with him accepting the darkness but using it selflessly, [[TheLancer to protect his friends instead of benefit himself.]] As if to cement it, at the end of the game [[spoiler: he is dubbed a Keyblade Master... and [[TheHero Sora]] isn't.]]
** In general, Darkness is stated to be neither evil nor good in and of itself: Mickey points out that it makes up half of everything, and that creation couldn't exist without it. However, the power it offers tends to attract unsavory people, and since all the characters are from the Realm of Light, Darkness often has negative effects on them. It could be said that the series Darkness as not evil in the same way that atomic radiation isn't evil, in that darkness is a fundamental part of reality, but also [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral]], hazardous when coming in direct contact with life and something that should be treated and handled with a healthy degree of caution and care.
** [[spoiler: The real Ansem]] actually notes that if one treats darkness with neither fear or caution, the negative side effects become a non-issue. [[spoiler: However, he is actually mistaken, as his frequent use of it actually does affect his heart and drive it toward an obsession with revenge. Seeing Sora's heart of light in action prompts a HeelRealization from him.]]

** Neither [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Demitri]] nor [[HornyDevils Morrigan]] are evil. However, neither are ''good''. Morrigan is a self-indulgent and childish princess, and Demitri is a power-hungry vampire who wants to conquer Makai/the Dark World. Though at the end of Morrigan or Lilith's routes in ''Vampire Savior'', however, it does show Morrigan starting to actually grow up and accept responsibilities.

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' really likes this one. Your party alone can include Fall-From-Grace, a [[ChasteHero chaste]] [[HornyDevils succubus]] uninterested in consuming mortal men's souls, and Morte, the sarcastic foul-mouthed disembodied talking skull [[spoiler: who went to Hell when he died]]... who is also the only Good recruitable NPC and the only true friend you start the game with.

* ''VideoGame/OmegaLabyrinthLife'' has Mei Kurosaki, a {{Chuunibyou}} who nonetheless gets access to ''actual'' dark and terrible powers, and whose canonical WeaponOfChoice is a SinisterScythe. Despite this, she is still firmly on the side of Justice and the protagonists.

*** This is the core theme of the ''Shadowbringers'' expansion; in it, you travel to the world of the First, where the forces of darkness were all but eliminated. This allowed the Light to run unchecked and almost consumed the world in a mighty Flood of light energy. Though it was stopped before it could consume everything, what's left of the world is covered by an eternal pall of light; night is non-existent, and the survivors are besieged by [[AngelicAbomination Angelic Abominations]] known as Sin Eaters. The citizens of the world have grown jaded towards the light and concepts of virtue relating to it; they refer to friends and travellers colloquially as 'sinner,' entire religions have sprung up around the worship of darkness and the return of night, and that world's version of the Warriors of Light - those who originally eliminated the forces of darkness - have gone down in history as ''villains'' for causing the Flood in the first place. To this end, the citizens of the First await a Warrior of Darkness to defeat the Sin Eaters and bring back the night. The player character Warrior of Light must take up this mantle of 'Warrior of Darkness' and use their unique powers to undo the damage the Light has done to the first.
*** The expansion also has huge revelations about the nature of [[GreaterScopeVillain Zodiark]] and [[BigGood Hydaelyn]] too: [[spoiler: both are Primals, with Zodiark being created by the Ascians to ''save'' them from an impending apocalypse, with many willingly giving their lives to summon him. Hydaelyn was not the creator of the world as originally implied during the earlier stories in the game; she was actually summoned in response to Zodiark by those who feared his power, believing he needed to be kept in check. This resulted in Hydaelyn shattering Zodiark into fourteen pieces, and thus shattering the world into the different Shards in the process. This is why the Ascians see Zodiark as a saviour and Hydaelyn as a destroyer: because in their eyes, Zodiark saved them, while Hydaelyn thanklessly punished him out of misguided fear. Of course, considering [[BigBad who tells the story]], it's entirely possible he's [[UnreliableNarrator only telling his side of the story]].]]
*** ''Endwalker'' introduced the Reaper job to the game. Reapers are assassins from the mostly-antagonist empire of Garlemald who wield a SinisterScythe as a weapon, and have a DealWithTheDevil with a Voidsent who is projected through a puppet known as an Avatar that gives the Reaper traces of their power in return for feeding them the life energy of the Reaper's prey, to the extent of a SuperMode where the two fuse into a black-cloaked, glowing-red eyed and sharp-clawed frenzied beast. Reapers are ''also'' consummate professionals who prefer their assassination targets to be cutting off the serpent's head without excessive casualties and were culled from Garlemald after one of them tried to kill Emperor Solus after he launched his campaign of domination across the world, and besides their assassination jobs, their main and preferred quarry are Voidsent who managed to manifest in the mortal realm, who are without question pure evil, man-eating monsters. The Reaper's job trainer lives in Ul'dah and runs a group that helps to hide, secure the safety and livelihood of Garlean runaways and defectors who spoke out against the Empire's evils, who would almost certainly be killed otherwise due to FantasticRacism against Garlean citizens for what their nation was doing, and is ultimately a good person despite being very blunt and humorless.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'':
** Dante, although he's mostly an exception as nearly all demons in the series are evil. Sparda, Dante's father, was an extremely powerful devil and nicknamed "The Legendary Dark Knight"; he was also a very nice guy who saved humanity from extinction.
** Nero from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' is another example: His arm [[EvilHand looks like living lava]], and he's implied to be possessed by the ghost of AloofBigBrother Vergil. Despite this, he's a KnightInShiningArmor who, despite what you may think from the word "possessed", does ''not'' have a SuperpoweredEvilSide (aside from the initial awakening of his brand of SuperMode, and even then, he just seemed like a fairly calm BloodKnight. Sort of like Dante.
** Trish, Dante's ally from the first game starts out as the [[DarkIsEvil opposite of this trope]] being a full-blooded demon who dresses in [[HellBentForLeather black leather]]. She undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and now helps Dante in his battles to protect humankind from evil demons.
** Lucia from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2'' is a cross between this and LightIsGood. She [[ArtificialHuman artificial demon]] who was created by the BigBad of the game Arius and discarded for being a "defect". When she realizes her true origin she becomes terrified that she could turn on the humans she is supposed to be protecting and tries to convince Dante to kill her to prevent this. However, Dante convinces her that while she might be a demon she is still a person at heart. Where the LightIsGood part comes in is that Lucia wears a [[GoodWearsWhite cape]] and her SuperMode is a winged, angel-like creature. Also her [[MeaningfulName means]] "light" in Latin.
** V from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' is a mysterious man who dresses in black and has the ability to summon shadowy familiars that resemble enemies that appeared in the first DMC game. [[spoiler: It is revealed that he is the human half of Vergil's nature made flesh after Vergil decided to use Yamato split himself into two, with Urizen, the villain of the game being Vergil's demon half and lust for power. V on the other hand represents all that is human and good about Vergil.]]

* Asura from ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' is very demonic looking, and wears dark colors and tends to be very angry. But he is easily the nicest of all the Demi-gods shown in the game. This is played with even more and UpToEleven when he gains a SuperpoweredEvilSide as a result of becoming too angry...and even then, he still won't hurt innocents in his berserker wrath form.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' seems to imply that technology itself might count as this. It's heavily implied that [[spoiler:[[BigBad Yami]], [[GodOfEvil Lord]] [[UltimateEvil of]] [[EldritchAbomination Darkness]]]] is the originator of all machinery and is indeed a MechanicalAbomination when you confront it. However, when used by mortals, technology isn't evil at all and helping a Mechanist complete his invention ends up empowering [[NobleWolf Amaterasu]], [[GodOfGood Goddess]] [[LightIsGood of]] [[PowerOfTheSun The Sun]].

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' gives us Raven. Yes, he does look very much like a bad guy thanks to his dark wardrobe (complete with flowing cape and a number of motifs related to his namesake) and displays some VERY disturbing behavior in an actual fight. However, he's also quite personable when he wants/needs to be and is actually a good person; at the very least to the point where he's easily the most sympathetic of That Man's faction.

** Shadow Kirby is a black and grey doppelganger of Kirby that leaps out of the shadows to attack Kirby. It turns out he's actually just trying to [[spoiler:protect the Mirror world, but he was tricked into thinking his counterpart was a threat by the real BigBad. He wises up and helps out in the last battle by retrieving the EleventhHourSuperpower for Kirby if he loses it.]]

* Shown in [[http://vindictus.nexon.net/News/Content.aspx?boardNo=100&contentNo=00BGD this]] article, a prelude to ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}''. [[note]]"Does it matter?" Brynn said. "She told us to work together. ‘Light is not Good. Dark is not Evil.’ Our kinds have been joined at the hip ever since."[[/note]]