History FromNobodyToNightmare / VideoGames

*** This is revealed to be the origins of the Empire of Garlemald. Because the Garlean race are [[UnSorcerer biologically incapable of using magic]], they were hounded by the other races of Hydaelyn and driven from other lands into the harsh north. It was there that they discovered vast ceruleum deposits that lead to their industrialization and nigh unstoppable {{Magitek}} arsenal. The newly formed empire would go on to conquer most of the known world and

* Happens three times in ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' the first is [[spoiler: John [=DeFoe=] by the way of being beaten to death with an enchanted idol]] then in the prestory [[spoiler: Cabadath becoming the Prince]], then [[spoiler: Theo Dacabe becoming the New Prince.]]

** In another AlternateTimeline [[spoiler: she accidentally burns down Hill Valley only a few years after it was officially established ,wiping it off the map, [[RetGone and from history.]]]]

** In another AlternateTimeline [[spoiler: she accidentally burns down Hill Valley only a few years after it was officially establish,wiping it off the map, [[RetGone and from history.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has the BigBad Demon King Odio, who originally was nothing more than [[spoiler: Oersted, a simple knight who was going to marry a princess; but everything went wrong after he set out to defeat the Demon King, and ended up becoming the Demon King himself]].

** All things considered, there is nothing particularly powerful about Mordecai, Axton, Athena, Brick, Gaige, Zane, Salvador, Roland, Nisha, or Moze. Heck, technically not so about FL4K (a library robot) or Claptrap (playable in TPS. None of them have magical powers, none of them gain some sort of magic, and none of them have unusual superhuman physique by default. Despite this, every one of them is, by the words of Dr. Nakayama, a "Walking Apocalypse" by pure skill and effort, slowly building up their strength or gaining technological augments that put them on par with the Sirens.

** According to the extended lore, the Prophet of Truth began as a low-ranked clerk in the Covenant bureaucracy dealing with neglectful superiors while sympathizing with the lower ranked member species of the Covenant such as the Unggoy. But by through his natural smarts and cunning, he managed to claw and conspire his way up the ladder until he eventually became the leading Hierarch of the Covenant and supreme leader of its mighty military force. And immediately after he began the Human-Covenant War which would last for 28 years and lead to the death of 23 billions of humans and unknown number of billions of his own Covenant followers, destruction of countless worlds and the near total extermination of all life in the galaxy when he almost manages to activate all the Halo rings from the Ark, forcing NightmareFuel incarnate [[EldritchAbomination the Flood]] [[EnemeyMine to ally with the Master Chief and the Arbiter]] to stop him from ending all life in his mad persuit for godhood.

** According to the extended lore, the Prophet of Truth began as a low-ranked clerk in the Covenant bureaucracy dealing with neglectful superiors while sympathizing with the lower ranked member species of the Covenant such as the Unggoy. But by through his natural smarts and cunning, he managed to claw and conspire his way up the ladder until he eventually became the leading Hierarch of the Covenant and supreme leader of its mighty military force. And immediately after he began the Human-Covenant War which would last for 28 years and lead to the death of 23 billion humans and unknown number of billions of his own Covenant followers, destruction of countless worlds and the near total extermination of all life in the galaxy when he almost manages to activate all the Halo rings from the Ark, forcing the nightmareish Flood to ally with the Master Chief and the Arbiter to stop him from ending all life in his mad persuit for godhood.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Master Chief beings as a boy on an Earth colony, and quickly becomes arguably the greatest soldier of all time. He single-handedly carves his way through countless Covenant forces, blows up massive warships, wipes out a parasitic horde that's already devoured an entire galaxy, and goes toe-to-toe with a hivemind EldritchAbomination. He's also called the best soldier in the SPARTAN-II program, a unit made up entirely of genetically-augmented supersoldiers, and played a pivotal role in ending the human-Covenant war. The "nightmare" part really comes into play when you look at Master Chief from the Covenant's perspective. Imagine a 7-foot tall, seemingly invincible, fully-armored, faceless, emotionless machine, designed to kill you and your fellow soldiers. Now imagine it's being turned loose against you, and no matter what you throw at it -- grenades, snipers, tanks, Elites, Brutes, and Hunters -- it won't even slow down as it massacres your entire army. A nightmare, indeed. It is any wonder that their nickname for the Master Chief is "Demon"?
** According to the extended lore, the Prophet of Truth began as a low-ranked clerk in the Covenant bureaucracy dealing with neglectful superiors while sympathizing with the lower ranked member species of the Covenant such as the Unggoy. But by through his natural smarts and cunning, he managed to claw and conspire his way up the ladder until he eventually became the leading Hierarch of the Covenant and supreme leader of its mighty military force. And immedaitely after he began the Human-Covenant War that would last for 28 years and lead to the death of 23 billion humans and unknown number of billions of his own Covenant followers, destruction of countless worlds and the near total extermination of all life in the galaxy when he almost manages to activate all the Halo rings from the Ark, forcing the nightmareish Flood to ally with the Master Chief and the Arbiter to stop him from ending all life in mad persuit for godhood.

** The Three Mage Sisters from ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' were once [[spoiler: three young girls brought to within an inch of their lives within their harsh elemental environments before Hyness found them. Now they are three of the most powerful sorceresses in the universe]]

-->"For centuries my people have been slandered and insulted, labeled witches and warlocks. Well, so be it. We will not run from these lies any more, but embrace them. Encourage these rumors, for it is better to be infamous than ignored."

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has the BigBad Demon King Odio, who originally was nothing more than [[spoiler: a simple knight, who was going to marry a princess, but everything went wrong, after he set out to defeat the Demon King and ended up becoming the Demon King himself]].

*** In ''VideoGame/WatchDogsLegion'' you can recruit anyone off the street to [=DedSec=] meaning that in theory you could comprise your team of operatives who bring down a major crime boss and a wannabe tyrant exclusively of beggers.

** In {{Yakuza0}}, Kazuma Kiryu goes from a low level enforcer taking on money collection for loan sharks, to one of the men who brought the powerful Dojima Family to its knees after he is thrust into a conspiracy to userp his father figure's position in the organization. By the game's end, he basically has started to turn into the man who would in decades time become the most famous figure in the yakuza underworld.

** Slave Knight Gael in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' might be the biggest example in the series. As his title indicates, he is exactly that: cannon fodder sent to fight in the bleakest of battles and nobody would ever miss his death. [[spoiler:But then he manage to devour the Pygmy Lords' fragments and become the embodiment of the Dark Soul and one of the most powerful beings in the setting. For bonus points, he serves as the final boss of ''The Ringed City'' DLC expansion, and by extension, the entire series as whole]].

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':.

** Garland of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was once the greatest swordsman of the Kingdom of Cornelia, he then decided he wanted to take over his kingdom by holding the king's daughter for ransom, only to be beaten down by the Light Warriors of Lukhan's Prophecy. [[spoiler:Flash forward to the end of the game and Garland himself has become the source of all evil, The god of Discord; Chaos!]]

** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Five games later]], [[MonsterClown Kefka Palazzo]] went from being the court mage of [[TheEmpire the Gestahlian empire]] who'd run away at the mere possibility of coming to harm to becoming the god of magic, set on unraveling all of creation.

*** The sequels up the ante significantly. By the time [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 XIII-2]] rolls around, Lightning has become, with the exception of [[BigBad Caius Ballad]], the strongest human being in the setting. By the end of [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII Lightning Returns]], Lightning has become even more powerful, to the extent of [[spoiler: being quite possibly the [[PhysicalGod single most powerful being in existence]].]]

** Vivec, the Dunmeri [[PhysicalGod Tibunal deity]], in the most [[UnreliableNarrator reliable version]] of his past, started off as the son of a poor Netch herder before rising up the ranks to become the NumberTwo to [[FounderOfTheKingdom Lord Nerevar]] as leader of the Chimer. Then, after [[TheRashomon probably]] having something to do with Nerevar's death, tapped into a forbidden power source to [[DeityOfHumanOrigin become a god]]. In supplementary works, Vivec also claims to have achieved "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence CHIM]]", a god-like state of being even beyond that of deities like [[OurGodsAreDifferent the Aedra and the Daedric Princes]].

look down on those who once drove them off as "savages" to either enslave or exterminate.

* At the start of the ''Videogame/SaintsRow'' series, the Third Street Saints are a small street gang with the player being a fresh recruit. The second game has the player character becoming the leader of the Saints as they go up against three GangOfHats and a MegaCorp to take control of Stilwater. By the time of the third game, the Saints operate a media empire that includes clothing stores, energy drinks and even film deals. The fourth has the Boss becoming President of the United States, meaning the Saints now rule America as kleptocrats, and though [[spoiler: the Earth is destroyed early on in the game, what remains of the Saints eventually kill the intergalactic warlord who blew it up and seize control of his entire space fleet. By the beginning of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'', they elevated themself even further to GodEmperor!]]

''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'': Over the course of the series, Goro Majima goes from a no-name punk on loan to a third-string yakuza outfit, to second-in-command of Japan's largest organized crime group.

** There's also Steven Heck, the CrazyAwesome ConspiracyTheorist alleged-CIA Agent who's implied to just be a regular guy who decided out of sheer insanity to be the best Conspiracy Theorist in the world.

* At the start of the ''Videogame/SaintsRow'' series, the Third Street Saints are a small street gang with the player being a fresh recruit. The second game has the player character becoming the leader of the Saints as they go up against three GangOfHats and a MegaCorp to take control of Stilwater. By the time of the third game, the Saints operate a media empire that includes clothing stores, energy drinks and even film deals. The fourth has the Boss becoming President of the United States, meaning the Saints now rule America as kleptocrats, and though [[spoiler: the Earth is destroyed early on in the game, what remains of the Saints eventually kill the intergalactic warlord who blew it up and seize control of his entire space fleet.]]
* The Boss from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1''. At the beginning of the first game, he was just some guy on the street. By the end of the second, though... hoo, boy. Just ask the Stilwater Police Department. In [[MultipleEndings one of the endings]] of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', this random street-kid from the rough part of Stilwater singlehandedly destroys [[spoiler: an AirborneAircraftCarrier]], despite having a sizeable army with heavy military equipment available. He then proceeds to declare independence, turning the city of Steelport into a new city-state, and [[DoNotAdjustYourSet informing the entire US]] that if they have a problem with that, they're welcome to BringIt! The Boss ends up becoming the President in the fourth game and must fight off an alien invasion. [[spoiler:The end of the game sees them as the ruler of said intergalactic alien empire, with access to time travel. By the beginning of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'', they elevated themself even further to GodEmperor!]]

* ''VideoGame/EternalRadiance'': When the party researches the past of Eldareth, the leader of the Shadowborn, they learn [[spoiler:he was once a child from the destroyed village of Clearbell. He attempted to study magic at Veritas Academy, but he had little talent, causing him to drop out. He joins the Shadowborn and gains powerful, but insanity-inducing magic while studying Akleim artifacts.]]
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'': The Pact Commander begins as a complete novice to adventuring. Over the course of the main storyline, ''Living World'' and the expansions, they go on to slay two [[EldritchAbomination Elder Dragons]] and the [[WarGod God of Fire and War]]. They are also made TheChampion of the newest Dragon, kill a [[OurLichesAreDifferent mummified lich tyrant]] and spearhead alliance efforts between the playable races and [[FactionCalculus Orders of Tyria]]. The latter ultimately leads to the creation of [[BadassArmy the Pact]], a coalition army that enables the Pact Commander to defeat the first of the Elder Dragons.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The protagonist starts out as an innocent-looking child. On the [[KillEmAll Genocide route]], they begin to butcher everyone in sight, turning them into a physical incarnation of the desire for video game players to gain more power; everymen run away, heroes fight them and die.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Master Chief beings as a boy on an Earth colony, and quickly becomes arguably the greatest soldier of all time. He single-handedly carves his way through countless Covenant forces, blows up massive warships, wipes out a parasitic horde that's already devoured an entire galaxy, and goes toe-to-toe with a hivemind EldritchAbomination. He's also called the best soldier in the SPARTAN-II program, a unit made up entirely of genetically-augmented supersoldiers, and played a pivotal role in ending the human-Covenant war. The "nightmare" part really comes into play when you look at Master Chief from the Covenant's perspective. Imagine a 7-foot tall, seemingly invincible, fully-armored, faceless, emotionless machine, designed to kill you and your fellow soldiers. Now imagine it's being turned loose against you, and no matter what you throw at it - grenades, snipers, tanks, Elites, Brutes, and Hunters -- it won't even slow down as it massacres your entire army. A nightmare, indeed. It is any wonder that their nickname for the Master Chief is "Demon"?
* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'': When the series begins, Kain is a simple human nobleman... until he's assassinated by brigands and resurrected as a vampire by the {{necromancer}} Mortanius. By the time of ''Soul Reaver'', he's become a powerful VampireMonarch and the GodEmperor of Nosgoth, with very few beings in the land, human or otherwise, aware that he WasOnceAMan.
* Can be invoked by the player in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' and ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'' by dying to a low ranking uruk, giving them a name, backstory, rank, and a new set of armor. If the player continuously loses fights against them, they will get more powerful, becoming a warchief, and even an overlord, of which there are only five or six of in the army. This can easily make them the [[ThatOneBoss the most difficult enemy in the game]].
** The Hammer of Sauron, one of the three Black Captains who dominate all of the uruks, used to carry stretchers for Mordor's wounded, but picking up Sauron's mace turned him into the embodiment of Sauron's might in battle.
* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has the BigBad Demon King Odio, who originally was nothing more than [[spoiler: a simple knight, who was going to marry a princess, but everything went wrong, after he set out to defeat the Demon King and ended up becoming the Demon King himself]].
* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' if you play on the difficulty setting 'impossible' the player generally spends most of the game so far behind [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the other wizards]] as to seem completely irrelevant. Yet if the player survives long enough it is possible they'll turn the tables on them.
** Taken to the logical extreme when playing the 'Worst Wizard Possible' on impossible. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GJ_Zx-muJs#t=1h13m10s Here's what the power looked like]] when the game was well underway (the player is the purple line). And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwYLs_rM83k#t=35m25s here's an example of the player's magical might]] mid-way through. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlPIDLCwtV0#t=2h56m15s here's how it all ended.]] Right as the 'worst wizard ever' completed the spell of mastery. (look at how far ahead the yellow and blue lines started ahead of the purple one. And how much it jumped at 1421).
* The Spemin in the first ''VideoGame/{{Starflight}}'' are described as the whipping boys of the galaxy. By the second game, encountering them with a weak ship pretty much means death.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'': Porky Minch started off as Ness's neighbor - a [[PoisonousFriend devoted yet extremely obsessive]] [[SmallNameBigEgo egomaniac]], but too lazy and self-centered to do anything dangerous with it. Then he gets involved with [[EldritchAbomination Giygas]]. Once he gets his grubby little hands on some of Giygas's technology, he changes from a mere rotten brat to TheDragon to Giygas, or even part of a BigBadDuumvirate with him, ''OR'' even the downright BigBad, depending on your interpretation. He even gains an EldritchAbomination mech. Once that falls through and Giygas gets destroyed, he buggers off with the technology and disappears into time. [[spoiler:Come ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'', he's time-traveled so much that he's [[AGodAmI become immortal]], has raised an army, is perverting nature and [[OmnicidalManiac wants to destroy the world simply because]] ''[[VictoryIsBoring he's bored]]''.]]
** Giygas himself is also an example, being twisted by his conflicted feelings about mankind from a sweet little alien baby raised by humans to a soulless EldritchAbomination [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm beyond comprehension]].
* ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'': At first, Marx appears to just be another harmless, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cutesy]] resident of Dream Land, but in fact he [[spoiler:tricks the sun and moon into fighting, gets Kirby to summon Nova to stop the fight and then uses Nova's power to take over the galaxy.]] Then, in ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', [[spoiler:he is resurrected from his former defeat in a demonic soul form by absorbing Nova's power]].
** The Three Mage Sisters from ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' were once [[spoiler: three young girls brought to within an inch of their lives within their harsh elemental environments before Hyness found them. Now they are three of the most powerful sorceresses in the universe]]
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'', Seiji Kato started off as a lovable goof with a kind heart, an eagerness to please, a crush on his superior officer, and next to no knowledge of magic, instead having studied ''geography''. He summoned the ancient gods of Japan in an attempt to completely rewrite history and erase an entire timeline. Because his "girlfriend" died twice on him.
* Psaro The Manslayer from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', a pretty boy who builds up a hate for humans because cruel men want his elf girlfriend's ruby tears and hurt her for them, He gathers monsters to invade other towns in order to kill the legendary hero/heroine, but is simply rumored by regular people as a random cruel arena fighter. [[spoiler:When Psaro's girlfriend, Rose, is actually killed by humans, he goes mad and seeks a way to evolve into a monster]], and you have to fight him as a final boss.

* ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'''s Siegfried was the leader of a rag-tag bunch of thieves; not much to write home about. After robbing a convoy [[spoiler:where he mistakenly decapitates his own father and quickly loses his mind over it, convincing himself that someone else did it]], he takes it upon himself to locate Soul Edge, thinking that his father's murderer deserves no less than death by that blade. He finds it, alright.
** In ''Soul Calibur III'' [[spoiler: Siegfried and Nightmare become separated. So Siegfried is no longer a Nightmare. He's just responsible for unleashing a villain that lacks any semblance of a conscience or humanity whatsoever. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oopsie.]]]] Then in ''Soul Calibur IV'' in his ending [[spoiler:he allows Soul Calibur to bring "peace" to the world by covering it with crystals to trap it in stasis forever]].
** Not to mention Soul Edge itself, it was once a normal sword, but by consuming the blood and souls of countless people, it became something much more.

* In the ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' games, your characters always start as unknowns, but quickly become the reason for much OhCrap from the enemies.
** [[spoiler:Captain Matias Torres in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'']], at least from the player's perspective. Suffice to say more than one ''Ace Combat'' fan double-taked when they learned that [[spoiler:the originally unmentioned captain of the battleship ''Tanager'' (and ''de facto'' commander of the Aegir fleet) in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' has not only gone on to command the most powerful naval weapon in the series, but has since taken on a GeneralRipper mentality along the way. Just look at his Plan to Save Ten Million Lives (it's literally called that) by "sacrificing one million" in turn (i.e. ending the Lighthouse War through a nuclear strike on Oured).]] Even Project Aces described him as the most evil character in the franchise (and he's not even [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Belkan]]!).
* Aldo Trapani, the real player character of ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'', was originally just the son of a Corleone-aligned baker. Ten years after his dad gets gunned down by Barzini goons, though, he gets taken under the wing of Luca Brasi and quickly becomes the top Corleone hatchetman, effectively crushing the other four families and becoming the new Don of NYC. Averted in the sequel, where Dominic is already established as Aldo's underboss prior to the start.
* While this Trope can apply to most characters in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'', Needles Kaine, aka Sweet Tooth, stands out. His origin varies [[DependingOnTheWriter with each version]], but started as either a homeless bum or an ice cream man before he became an insane SerialKiller.
* It's mentioned in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' lore that The Illusive Man, VisionaryVillain and leader of human extremist group Cerberus was once a normal man with a family named Jack Harper.
** Also, from the Reapers' perspective, [[TheHero Shepard]] him/herself. Starts out as a farming kid/{{street urchin}}/spacer depending on the player's choice, and an ordinary soldier, but becomes the single greatest threat to the Reapers in over a billion years.
*** This is especially prevalent if Shepard becomes a Renegade. The player has the option to portray Shepard as a near-VillainProtagonist and sociopath, willing to do things from ruthlessly killing innocent people for the good of the mission to [[KickTheDog shooting an adoring fan]] in the foot.
** The Shadow Broker turns out to be [[spoiler:a member of a primitive species who was enslaved and trained to be the original Shadow Broker's [[TheDragon chief enforcer]]. He killed the original Shadow Broker and took his place.]]
** Up to a point, the Krogan race. A [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy proud warrior race]] that was way behind the rest of the galaxy technologically, they were eventually used by the Salarians as soldiers against the Rachni. With exposure to other cultures and better technology, the Krogan became a threat to all other races, to the point the Salarians had to cull their numbers with the Genophage.
** The Geth are another example. They started their lives as simple labor devices with the ability to learn, but eventually developed the ability to philosophise. Fearing they'd want their freedom and rebel, their creators decided to wipe them out... only to lose the war so ''badly'', they were driven from their homeworld and forced to become interstellar vagrants. When the Geth finally reappear three centuries later, they're allied with the Reapers and try to take over the galaxy. [[spoiler: Although it's later revealed the "True" Geth actually desire peace with their creators and only acted in self-defence. The Geth who have allied with the Reapers are "Heretics" and only represent a small minority.]]
** [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Subject Zero, AKA Jack]], full stop. She could have just been a regular girl, had [[WellIntentionedExtremist Cerberus]] not gotten hold of her. But, because of that, she is ''the'' most powerful human [[MindOverMatter Biotic]] in the galaxy (depending on your beliefs of Adept/Vanguard/Sentinel Shepard's own Biotic skill), on par with [[OneManArmy Asari Matriarchs]].
** [[spoiler:Shepard's clone]] started out as a simple source of spare parts during Project Lazarus, and eventually becomes a serious villain with a highly xenophobic agenda.
* ''Franchise/MetalGear'':
** Ocelot in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is introduced as a funnyish, SpaghettiWestern-themed villain with a relatively boring power, in one of the game's easiest boss fights. The end of the game reveals he was TheMole, and in the next game he's ''extremely'' threatening. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', he's revealed to be pulling the strings and the destroyer of the entire world.
** A major plot point in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' invokes this: [[spoiler:Venom Snake is ''not'' actually Big Boss, but was actually an otherwise normal combat medic in Militaires Sans Frontieres before XOF destroyed Big Boss's Mother Base and dismantled MSF. He risked his life to save Big Boss, becoming gravely injured, falling into a coma, undergoing hypnotherapy, and receiving reconstructive surgery to turn him into Big Boss's doppleganger. He would go on to lead the Diamond Dogs, destroy XOF, kill Skull Face, and found Outer Haven. The "Big Boss" that Solid Snake had to contend with in the original ''VideoGame/MetalGear1''? That's not the real Big Boss, but a former combat medic who went on to be his exact duplicate in ''every'' way!]]
* Throughout the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series, the PlayerCharacter goes from being just some kid [[spoiler: with a tiny fragment of the God of Murder in them]] to a being of incredible power. The bad guys in the third game don't send assassins after you - they send an ''army''. You can also [[spoiler: become a God, if you choose]].
** Sarevok, and most of the rest of the [[spoiler: Bhaalspawn]] that become major forces. Sure, they [[spoiler: have a fragment of the God of Murder in them]], but ''lots'' of people had that, and most of them didn't amount to much of anything. Sarevok, for example, goes from an orphan [[spoiler: with a tiny fragment of the God of Murder in him]] to ''extremely'' deadly warrior and a good enough manipulator that he actually ''is'' elected Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', with its first expansion pack, is maybe an even better example. At the start, protagonist is just another inhabitant of West Harbor, not really remarkable [[spoiler: except for the shard]]. At the end of Mask of the Betrayer he/she can, if you so choose, become a [[spoiler:superpowered abomination that devours souls, and is capable of doing that to any number of people at once and even to gods. Cue a RoaringRampageOfRevenge of eating its way across Toril and the Planescape.]]
** [[spoiler: For all we know, Gorion's ward could be among the gods that get eaten.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', two of the available origins really are nobodies - you can't get more 'nobody' than an elf living in an [[FantasticGhetto elf ghetto]] or a Casteless dwarf. You then go on to command the armies of an entire country, whose combined power is more or less equal to [[OneManArmy your own]]. You can even become [[spoiler: the first person ever to slay an Archdemon without dying, though you need some "outside help" for that one...]]

* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', the Doctor was, well, a doctor before getting his hands on the [[ArtifactOfDoom Demon crown]] and proceeding to enslave cute bunny creatures and turn them into his evil army.
* Happens three times in ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' the first is [[spoiler: John [=DeFoe=] by the way of being beaten to death with an enchanted idol]] then in the prestory [[spoiler: Cabadath becoming the Prince]], then [[spoiler: Theo Dacabe becoming the New Prince.]]
* The Boss from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1''. At the beginning of the first game, he was just some guy on the street. By the end of the second, though... hoo, boy. Just ask the Stilwater Police Department. In [[MultipleEndings one of the endings]] of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', this random street-kid from the rough part of Stilwater singlehandedly destroys [[spoiler: an AirborneAircraftCarrier]], despite having a sizeable army with heavy military equipment available. He then proceeds to declare independence, turning the city of Steelport into a new city-state, and [[DoNotAdjustYourSet informing the entire US]] that if they have a problem with that, they're welcome to BringIt! The Boss ends up becoming the President in the fourth game and must fight off an alien invasion. [[spoiler:The end of the game sees them as the ruler of said intergalactic alien empire, with access to time travel. By the beginning of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'', they elevated themself even further to GodEmperor!]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Kel'Thuzad, a second rate mage, discredited and harassed by the mages ruling council for a bit too much interest in certain taboo fields of study like necromancy. Takes one little trip to that planet's version of the Arctic, comes back as leader of a death cult, spreading a plague of Undeath through the human kingdoms, bringing most of them to their knees before finally getting killed; only to come BackFromTheDead and become TheDragon for one of the most powerful forces of Evil in the World.
** Although according to [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Kel%27thuzad#Biography WoWWiki]], he was a member of the Kirin Tor's Council Of Six. They might have expelled him from the order, but it doesn't seem as though he was a nobody before that.
** Kel'Thuzad was an Archmage of Dalaran and a man of considerable wealth and political standing, as well as being one of the Six. However, it has to be said that simply being an archmage and member of the Council of Six does not make one a noteworthy lore character, since most of its current members are relatively minor [=NPCs=] in [=WotLK=]. That said, this trope could be said to apply in that he started out as 'just' a powerful and influential mage who dabbled in necromancy (and was terrified by what he saw in Northrend), to being an incredibly powerful necromancer and the second-most powerful undead entity on Azeroth behind the Lich King.
** Garrosh Hellscream started off as the pathetic, fatalistic leader of the Mag'har, wrapped up in self-loathing after learning his father was the one who corrupted the Horde. After Thrall showed him how [[HeroicSacrifice Grom had died freeing the Orcs]], Garrosh began to act more like a typical orc warlord: Brash, violent, and a bit short-sighted. He eventually became Warchief of the Horde and then the final enemy in ''Mists of Pandaria'', and is a founding member of the Iron Horde.
** This trope seems to be in full effect when Blizzard is trying to find a new raid boss or enemy. Millhouse Manastorm? Minor NPC that you freed from a Burning Crusade dungeon turned into a member of a cult worshiping beings that want to destroy the world. He gets eaten by a stone worm but comes back as a Brawlers Guild boss and later a follower for your Garrison.
* BigBad [[MadScientist Demichev]] of ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' - ForWantOfANail [[spoiler:YOU'RE saving him from an inferno that should have killed him]]- rises to power in the USSR and leads it to world conquest. [[spoiler:And in one of the endings, [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure ''Barisov'']].]]
* Everyone with a COMP in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', provided they survive making a demon contract. Special mention goes to the MC who ends up facing off against several demon overlords bent on winning a battle royale to [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority become the ultimate ruler of all demons]] and which [[spoiler: he himself can win, doing so to become the next Demon King or Messiah.]] He even fights and defeats [[spoiler:Lucifer]] as a BonusBoss. In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Overclocked]]'', one of the [[PlayableEpilogue 8th Days]] ([[spoiler:Demon King Route]]) has you fight [[spoiler:Metatron]] as the FinalBoss, with the ending making it clear that the next enemy is [[spoiler:[[{{God}} the Big Man Himself!]]]]
** Once more in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'', where the protagonist and his friends start off as normal high school students taking their entrance exams and end up becoming humanity's last line of defense against an alien invasion, fighting off both demons and StarfishAliens. This culminates in the protagonist and his team facing off with [[spoiler:[[RealityWarper Polaris,]] the Administrator with jurisdiction over reality,]] and can end up [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing it off in two endings!]] And then [[UpdatedRerelease Record Breaker]] [[SerialEscalation ups the ante by having you fight]] [[spoiler:Canopus, the Will of the Universe itself]], the entity responsible for the existence of the original game's FinalBoss. What really sets this up is that the protagonist has the option to [[spoiler:become the next Administrator himself in one of the Triangulum endings.]]
* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
** From ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', [[PhysicalGod the]] [[ChosenOne Demi-Fiend]]. OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent one moment. [[ImplacableMan Implacable]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu godslayer the next]]. If his [[BonusBoss appearance]] in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' is of any indication, he's powerful enough to trivially whack even ''other ''SMT'' protagonists at their full power'' into next week.
** Ultimately, it can be said that most if not ALL of the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' main characters become this by the end, many of them starting off as average highschoolers and ending up as the biggest badasses in the game. Even ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney Strange Journey]]'''s protagonist, who is in the armed forces at the beginning and thus already a badass by human standards, is small fry compared to the demons of the Schwarzwelt. By the end, he becomes the single most powerful being in it. Also notable is [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV Flynn]], who started off as a ''dirt-poor rube of a labor caste'' before becoming the Samurai who punched out [[spoiler: Merkabah, Lucifer, and a rather large assortment of homicidal OlympusMons]].
** On the more nightmarish end is Nanashi of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', who, by the end of the Massacre route, [[spoiler:kills everyone in his universe. Including YHVH]]. Not bad for an underaged brat from the underground districts who got himself killed on his first outing.
** Even worse, [[GodIsEvil The Great Will]], or YHVH. He was once a {{God}} among many, with only a few more followers than the norm. This was enough to allow him to destroy and demonize his opponents, and led to him becoming a MadGod ruling across universes and the ultimate manifestation of the concept of Law.
** Tayama from ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' was such a small fry before the Firmament rose, a Ginza chef comments he wouldn't have reached the entrance of his posh restaurant. Post-Firmament, he became the leader of the immense Yakuza-esque Ashura-kai, seizing control of six of the seven National Defense Divinities, cutting deals with demons through means so horrifying ''Lilith the Mother of Monsters'' does not hesitate in the slightest in considering "true evil".
* In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', one of the options you can start with is as a "Recruit", in which you are, well, a raw recruit with no field experience (and [[DifficultyLevels no starting skill points]]): in other words, a "nobody" who will make for a perfect fall guy if anything goes wrong. In one of the possible endings, you [[WeCanRuleTogether agree to work for]] the BigBad [[ICanRuleAlone but then betray him]], having made enough friends in both high and low places to run your own [[TheConspiracy Conspiracy]] and manipulate world events from the shadows.
** There's also Steven Heck, the CrazyAwesome ConspiracyTheorist alleged-CIA Agent who's implied to just be a regular guy who decided out of sheer insanity to be the best Conspiracy Theorist in the world.
* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is the embodiment of this trope. The player character starts waking up from death relatively powerless and gradually becomes the scourge of the US Army.
** In the plot it happens ''twice''. First, by all accounts innocent college student Elizabeth Greene became an immortal host for [[TheVirus the Redlight virus]] and a [[WalkingWasteland One]] [[{{Plaguemaster}} Woman]] ZombieApocalypse. Second, [[spoiler:poverty-stricken, abused foster child Alexander Mercer grew up to get a degree in genetics, create the deadliest virus in mankind's history and with it attempt to take the whole human race with him when he died. That accidentally made his corpse the immortal host for the Blacklight virus and a PersonOfMassDestruction - the player character]].
* Utsuho Reiuji, the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'', was originally just a simple, stupid bird whose job was to operate the boilers of [[FantasticGhetto Former Hell]]. Then she ate a sun god, gained the power to [[ILoveNuclearPower control nuclear fusion]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity went mad with power]] and decided to TakeOverTheWorld and turn the surface into a blasted hellscape. The problem is that under her new megalomania and insane wish to burn everything, she was still the same dumb raven, and after she had gotten [[DefeatMeansFriendship some sense beaten into her]] she quickly dropped her plans. Turns out that [[TheDitz she hadn't considered]] the possibility that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality some people might prefer grass, trees and cooling breezes to lava wastelands and sulfur]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' the Desert Rangers encountered a rabid dog in a cave and shot it in self-defense. The dog's owner, a young boy by the name of Bobby, attacked them out of anger and was shot as well. He later crawled out of his grave and swore vengeance on the Rangers, promising he'd show them what real peacekeepers looked like. [[VideoGame/Wasteland2 Fifteen years later,]] Robert "Bobby" Danforth is the leader of the Rangers' greatest rivals, the Red Skorpion Militia, and enslaved an entire town while [[WellIntentionedExtremist convincing himself he was protecting them]].
* This is seen in ''VideoGame/LandsOfLore III''. While the {{Big Bad}}s of the previous two games were the sorcerous leader of the EvilArmy, and then the setting's [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragon Satan]], the main villain of the 3rd game turns out to be one the series' secondary supporting characters, who starts the game as comic relief and progressively turns villainous as he grows increasingly desperate while his plan to avoid death begins to unravel.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', [[spoiler:we find out that Cave Johnson's secretary, Caroline, underwent BrainUploading on Cave's orders after his death, as he felt Aperture would be in good hands with her. The computer her brain was uploaded into? [[AIIsACrapshoot GLaDOS]], the rightfully feared and nigh-omnipotent goddess-queen of a vast underground empire.]]
** The same trope can also said to have been invoked in [[spoiler: [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wheat]][[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ley]], who turned from being just one of the many personality cores within the Aperture Laboratories (and one programmed to be a laughable idiot, no less) to [[WhosLaughingNow being in charge of the entire facility]]...for a while.]]
** [[ForScience Aperture Science]] started out making shower curtains. Then they move on to other bathroom appliances, and then ''[[MadScientist somehow]]'' figured out how to invent and perfect both teleportation and (later on) inter-dimensional travel. When you consider that ''Half-Life'' takes place in the same continuity, this makes Aperture the most advanced entity ''in the entire multiverse''.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh'' definitely uses this trope when the origins of the Hecatomb are finally revealed: it's actually [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig (not the one you've been playing). He started out as an innocent child who just happened to be in the same room as Paul Warner while he was looking for test subjects. Flung into another dimension and forced to watch as he was replaced by an alien duplicate, he plotted revenge; twenty years later, he's developed powerful psychic abilities, and he wants the duplicate's body for his own]].
* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', [[PlayerCharacter Revya]] starts off as a normal person, living in a hidden village with his/her best friend. Then, his/her soul gets fused with Gig's and[[spoiler:,should you choose the Demon Path, becomes so powerful that he/she destroys two of the World Eaters with ease, takes over the entire kingdom of Orviska and ends up ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying all of reality]]'']].
* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', Chaos, the watery humanoid being who grows bigger and stronger by consuming Chaos Emeralds, is called the god of destruction, and is responsible for destroying nearly all of the Echidnas, started off as an ordinary Chao, one of the adorable little critters you can raise in the eponymous gardens, until exposure to the Master Emerald mutated him. Then the Echidna tribe tried to take the Chaos Emeralds for themselves, hurting several Chao in the process. [[BerserkButton That resulted in Chaos]] ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge earning]]'' [[UnstoppableRage his title.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', [[spoiler:Infinite was once the leader of a group of jackal bandits that resided in a far desert, until one day he decided to raid Dr. Eggman's base for some loot, leading to a confrontation with Eggman and coming into contact with the Phantom Ruby, that showed Infinite's desire for a world completely destroyed. Impressed by this, Eggman offers Infinite the chance to make both of their dreams a reality. After failing to protect the facility from Shadow and throwing a tantrum that he himself is weak, he is fused with the Phantom Ruby, resulting in Infinite becoming a weapon of destruction and leading the Eggman empire to take over the world.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonFable'', humble blacksmith apprentice Konnan turns to fire magic and renames himself Drakonnan after the hero failed to save his family from the fire dragon Akriloth. Drakonnan quickly surpasses his EvilMentor Xan and Akriloth in terms of sheer evil.
* Jane Turner of ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' started out as the owner of a flower shop - however, the Empire razing her business turned her into the [[SociopathicSoldier sadistic, war-mongering]] [[BloodKnight maniac]] she is now. The epilogue says that she replaces DrillSergeantNasty, and becomes an even meaner one.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', [[spoiler:Yomiel goes from being a computer programmer (albeit one of the best) to being a disembodied spirit with the ability to possess other people and move his own time-frozen corpse like a puppet.]]

* In the Hidden Object casual game ''Surface'', a petty criminal named Sid takes over an alternate reality by switching places with his otherworldly duplicate, who rules the place.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and ''Platinum'', Cyrus appears to be this. He is explicitly stated to be a quiet boy who tinkered with machines and lived in Sunnyshore City with his family. Then he grows up, establishes a business empire and a criminal cult, and tries to destroy the universe. And he's ''[[ImprobableAge twenty-seven]]''.
** Also in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, Beedrill. Originally an early-game [[ComMon common bug]], it gained a lot of power in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' in the form of a Mega Evolution, giving it Attack and Speed on par with some legendaries.
** Mega Evolution did this to a lot of weak and forgotten Pokémon. Take Mawile, for example. It was introduced in Generation 3 as a sort of counterpart to Sableye, but unlike Sableye (which had no weaknesses and was a useful support with its Prankster ability) it lacked redeeming factors to compensate for its abysmal stats. Despite its Steel typing and its useful Intimidate ability, Mawile was all but left to rot. Then Generation 6 came around. Suddenly Mawile gained the Fairy typing on top of Steel, which made it either resistant or outright [[NoSell immune]] to 11 out the 18 types in the game and weak to only '''two'''. It also gained a Mega Evolution which gave it, of all things, '''Huge Power'''. Suddenly its 380 base stat total effectively became '''585''', with effectively '''210 attack''' and the movepool to take advantage of it, coupled with competent defenses (especially on the physical side) along with its ridiculously tanky typing. Mawile was now an absolute monster capable of shrugging off most of the moves in the game while dishing out plenty of pain in return. And that Intimidate we mentioned before? It's not made irrelevant by its Mega. Mawile can now pretty much guarantee a swap and use it to freely set up a Swords Dance, sharply raising its already ludicrous attack. According to Smogon tier lists it struggles a bit in Ubers, but that still means that '''it made it to the Uber tier'''.
* Another heroic example is of course Samus Aran of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series. The SpacePirates first encountered her as a harmless girl, orphaned when they attacked her home colony. Years later some bloodwork, warrior training and a suit of PoweredArmor has turned that little girl into a OneWomanArmy with a grudge. She cuts through their soldiers with contemptuous ease, and turns the pirates' technology against them. She can effortlessly hack their data networks and bypass their security systems. She doesn't just wipe out bases, [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds she leaves destroyed planets in her wake]]. She is [[TheDreaded the Hunter]], the one threat in all the galaxy the Pirates are flat-out terrified of, all because one of their raids over a decade ago left one survivor.
** On the other end of the spectrum, we have Dark Samus. [[spoiler: Starting off as nothing more than a simple Metroid, the Leviathan that impacted Tallon IV turned it into [[BigBad Metroid Prime]], the Worm of Chozo lore, who then proceeded to hound Samus for the entire trilogy, culminating in it not only corrupting Samus with [[TheCorruption Phazon]] but becoming the very heart of Phaaze.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' series, Vladimir Makarov started out this way. He was originally just another soldier in Zakhaev's army, but through showing a great deal of skill and loyalty (including saving his life when Price shot him at Pripyat in 1996) he was elevated to one of Zakhaev's top commanders. Then when Zakhaev died, he took over the reins of the more extremist elements of the Russian Ultranationalist party, and from there, the world began to ''burn''....
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', ''you'' as a Sith Inquisitor. You [[MadeASlave start as a slave]] being sent for some [[TrainingFromHell do-or-die Sith training]], but by the end of your character quest you'll have killed three powerful Sith lords who got in your way, repeatedly humiliated Darth Thanton by [[KneelBeforeZod making him kneel before you]] in front of the Dark Council, and ''joined'' the Dark Council. To drive the point home, you can mock and kill the SmugSnake of an overseer who relentlessly bullied you at the start of the game. Oh and you get your own [[spoiler:Death star, granted its one of many superweapons but that is still an impressive feat.]]
** The Bounty Hunter starts off as a talented gunfighter looking to enter a Mandalorian competition. Through the story they not only win, joining fellow Great Hunt winners as the best Bounty Hunters around. By the end of the the storyline they've essentially become the Dark Council's personal enforcer as well as the most hated terrorist of the Republic.
** The Smuggler begins the story as an outlaw who just had their ship stolen. At the end of the story they end up becoming a renowned Republic Privateer as well as potentially the most powerful crimelord of the galaxy.
* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', the main antagonist, Antasma, was originally just a normal bat until he started feeding on nightmares, which turned him into an evil nightmare creature. He then gets trapped in the Dream World (almost literally becoming a nightmare) by the Pi'illo folk and is somehow forced to assume the form of a small bat.
* The Soldier of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' somehow went from being rejected by every branch of the military, having no training, and being unable to locate Poland on a map to [[OneManArmy personally killing over 6000 people during and after World War II.]]

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** Garland of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was once the greatest swordsman of the Kingdom of Cornelia, he then decided he wanted to take over his kingdom by holding the king's daughter for ransom, only to be beaten down by the Light Warriors of Lukhan's Prophecy. [[spoiler:Flash forward to the end of the game and Garland himself has become the source of all evil, The god of Discord; Chaos!]]
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': [[spoiler:Delita]] starts as Ramza's [[TheLancer commoner sidekick]] and [[LastPlanStanding ends]] as [[LonelyAtTheTop the king of Ivalice]]. Also [[TheHero Ramza]] and [[FallenHero Wiegraf]] start as [[UnwittingPawn relatively low rank military leaders]] and end [[spoiler:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu fighting]] and [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis becoming]] monsters respectively]].
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Five games later]], [[MonsterClown Kefka Palazzo]] went from being the court mage of [[TheEmpire the Gestahlian empire]] who'd run away at the mere possibility of coming to harm to becoming the god of magic, set on unraveling all of creation.
** Lightning in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII:'' At the start of the game's story, Lightning is a sergeant in the regular army of the floating world Cocoon. After being corrupted by agents of the lower world Pulse, she becomes the leader of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits who singlehandedly topple the [[PhysicalGod Fal'cie]], and who slaughter their way through everyone and everything sent to stop them.
*** The sequels up the ante significantly. By the time [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 XIII-2]] rolls around, Lightning has become, with the exception of [[BigBad Caius Ballad]], the strongest human being in the setting. By the end of [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII Lightning Returns]], Lightning has become even more powerful, to the extent of [[spoiler: being quite possibly the [[PhysicalGod single most powerful being in existence]].]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'':
*** Edda Pureheart, a [[WhiteMage conjurer]] who's apparently not very good at her job, as her first appearance has her party complaining that their only source of healing is potions, and her second shows the party blaming her for the death of Avere, the party's tank (and Edda's fiancé). This seems to be the last the player sees of her, until they start doing [[HardModeFiller the hard mode dungeons]].The quest to unlock the Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) begins when [[spoiler:one of Edda's former party members receives an invitation to Edda and Avere's wedding. This creeps him out greatly, since Avere is ''quite dead'' at this point. Progressing through the dungeon reveals that Edda has gone mad with grief, ritually sacrificed one of her former party members, is trying to sacrifice the other (which you stop), and [[CameBackWrong brought Avere "back" as an ahriman]], who serves as the dungeon's end boss.]] The ending strongly suggests that Edda is still around... [[spoiler:and indeed, she serves as the first non-filler boss in the Palace of the Dead.]]
*** This is revealed to be the origins of the Empire of Garlemald. Because the Garlean race are [[UnSorcerer biologically incapable of using magic]], they were hounded by the other races of Hydaelyn and driven from other lands into the harsh north. It was there that they discovered vast ceruleum deposits that lead to their industrialization and nigh unstoppable {{Magitek}} arsenal. The newly formed empire would go on to conquer most of the known world and look down on those who once drove them off as "savages" to either enslave or exterminate.
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' reveals that Handsome Jack was formerly a low-level code monkey who happened to have [[spoiler:a [[TouchedByVorlons Siren]] as a daughter]]. While he was never truly heroic, the events of Elpis (particularly betrayal by [[spoiler:the Meriff]] and [[spoiler:Moxxi, Roland and Lilith]]) slowly but surely drove him insane and by the end of it all he became the narcissistic megalomaniac of the second game.
** In general, the entire cast of playable characters sans the Sirens are often normal individuals that either gain abilities thanks to technology or generally just badassery and end up becoming the very nightmare of any sane man on Pandora.
** All things considered, there is nothing particularly powerful about Mordecai, Axton, Athena, Brick, Gaige, Zane, Salvador, Roland, Nisha, or Moze. Heck, technically not so about FL4K (a library robot) or Claptrap (playable in TPS. None of them have magical powers, none of them gain some sort of magic, and none of them have unusual superhuman physique by default. Despite this, every one of them is, by the words of Dr. Nakayama, a "Walking Apocalypse" by pure skill and effort, slowly building up their strength or gaining technological augments that put them on par with the Sirens.
** Krieg is this to Hyperion. A normal schmoe that was heavily experimented on that broke loose. Thanks to their bizarre experiments, Krieg has practically magical biology that can completely mutate him into a walking abomination. Woe be Hyperion that cross paths with Krieg.
* Plenty of villains in the ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' series are this, but one notably subject is the Indian [[FantasticDrug spice]] lord Rajan from ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves''. He started out as a street urchin who made it big with spice dealing, but is trying to convince everybody, including himself, that he's royalty.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': Kerrigan was originally a soldier turned rebel... unusually strong psychic powers for a human, but nothing too unbelievable. What does she become? The Queen of Blades, the Heart of the Swarm, or, in her own words: "Queen Bitch of the Universe"; she has the ''entire'' Zerg Swarm under her control and more sheer psychic power than any other known being in the universe.
* Daisy Fitzroy of ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' was just a lowly, but highly intelligent scullery maid. Then [[spoiler:she witnessed, and [[{{Frameup}} was framed]] for the murder of Lady Comstock.]] Descending into the depths of Columbia's slums, she founded the Vox Populi, and [[spoiler:through several degrading versions of reality]], went from a well meaning revolutionary to a terrorist no better than Comstock.
** Comstock himself turns out to be one of these: [[spoiler: he's actually parallel-universe version of Booker [=DeWitt=], the game's protagonist, this version starting out a traumatized corporal in the aftermath of Wounded Knee; after having himself baptised into a fundamentalist Christian sect in an attempt to justify what he'd done during the battle, he started preaching, acquiring followers outside the sect - enough to influence the United States government to fund the construction of Columbia. Eventually, through the firepower of Columbia and the Lutece's machinery, he levelled up into an apocalyptic prophet that endangered not only "The Sodom Below," but the rest of the Multiverse as well.]]
** Elizabeth/[[spoiler:Anna [=DeWitt=]]] is another example, particularly in the [[spoiler: bad future sequence, where she takes over Columbia and uses it to destroy god only knows how many versions of human civilization]]. She started out as a harmless baby [[spoiler: who just so happened to lose her small finger in a dimensional rift and became a being with godlike powers]]. In the Burial At Sea DLC [[spoiler: this extends to being the instrumental cause of the Rapture civil war]].
* Most of the villains in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' start from humble beginnings. Andrew Ryan is a Russian immigrant [[AllThereInTheManual who fled the Bolshevik Revolution and watched his father be killed by the Red Army]]. Fontaine used to be a two-bit conman and criminal who moved to Rapture in the hope of making money from the most elaborate long con imaginable, and promptly became a leading figure in the creation of plasmids and in the civil war that destroyed the entire city. Dr. Tenenbaum, although a reformed villain, started out as a prisoner in a concentration camp, then rose to prominence after developing the Little Sisters to gather ADAM.
* [[spoiler:Edna Strickland]] in ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame''. [[spoiler:She goes from minor annoyance to the leader of a [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother dystopia]]]].
** In another AlternateTimeline [[spoiler: she accidentally burns down Hill Valley only a few years after it was officially establish,wiping it off the map, [[RetGone and from history.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/RepublicTheRevolution'': The player character starts out as the son of middle-class couple. After [[PresidentEvil Karasov]] has them arrested and likely killed, the character will eventually grow up to be the leader of the faction that overthrows Karasov, and woe betide anyone who gets in his way.
* One of the earlier ones: ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'''s protagonist starts out as some random marine contracted to protect a research facility in Phobos. One portal screwup and [[DemonicInvaders opening of Hell]] later, he goes on to singlehandedly save the base, prevent humanity's extinction, and ''completely wreck {{Hell}} itself''. As revealed in ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' and ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', he then goes on to become a walking boogieman to ''all'' of demonkind.
* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'', the protagonist starts out as a simple farmhand picking turnips when a small army of the dragons' beastmen attack his/her hometown. By the end of the day, he/she has killed scores of beastmen, bonded with a baby dragon, and saved the town by pushing an ogre off a roof. The [[RedBaron dragon-rider]] becomes a hero to the people and an object of fear and hatred to the dragons.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'':
** The Furtive Pygmy was a nobody compared to other Lords. While the other Lords were mighty and awesome godlike beings, the Pygmy was just that: a pygmy. He is even described by the opening narration as being "so easily forgotten". Ultimately, the Pygmy turned out to be more cunning and patient than the other Lords, having come up with a scheme that would ensure that the Pygmy's descendants would one day inherit the world. [[spoiler:It's also possible that he became Manus, the terrifyingly powerful lord of the Abyss.]]
** The Old Iron King in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' was once a very minor and unimportant nobleman who ruled over some worthless pile of dirt, up until he ran into a Iron Sceptre that allowed him to mine rich mineral deposits. He became DrunkWithPower and would relentlessly mine his own homeland in search of riches until he fell into a pool of lava and emerged as a fearsome demon.
** Slave Knight Gael in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' might be the biggest example in the series. As his title indicates, he is exactly that: cannon fodder sent to fight in the bleakest of battles and nobody would ever miss his death. [[spoiler:But then he manage to devour the Pygmy Lords' fragments and become the embodiment of the Dark Soul and one of the most powerful beings in the setting. For bonus points, he serves as the final boss of ''The Ringed City'' DLC expansion, and by extension, the entire series as whole]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', Joel, though a badass early on, goes from a typical smuggler whose reputation is relatively unestablished compared to his partner, to a one man army who is ready, willing, and able to plow through hordes of enemies, human or infected, to keep Ellie safe.
** Taken to extremes in the Winter chapter when he has just woken up from a serious case of [[spoiler:ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice]] and so terrifies [[spoiler:David]]'s men that they run away in terror from a single, injured, and relatively ill-equipped man.
* From the perspective of the Tal Shiar, D'Tan in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. When he was introduced in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', he was just one kid in Spock's Reunificationist movement. Over the time-skip between the end of TV series and the beginning of the game, he turns into the leader of one of the two major anti-Tal Shiar resistance movements, leading a rag-tag refugee fleet with contacts in many Romulan (and even Reman) colonies. Over the course of the game, D'Tan's resistance movement then grows into the most powerful faction in Romulan space, integrating the other major resistance movement and ending up as a Republic controlling most of Romulan space (with D'Tan still in command) while the ''Tal Shiar'' has been reduced to rebels with only a few isolated sympathetic colonies to call for aid from. The Tal Shiar ends up trying to bribe D'Tan in a desperate bid to keep some measure of their former influence, which fails miserably.
* Jason Brody of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' starts out as some twenty-something guy who parachuted onto the wrong island, ending up a prisoner to Vaas Montenegroto. One escape and brutal survival regime later, and Jason Brody becomes the most feared person on said island.
* The animatronics from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' count. They went from being unremarkable, [[UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot rather creepy machines]] meant to entertain children, to being [[AIIsACrapshoot kill-happy murderbots]] haunted by the souls of children murdered by a serial killer.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':.
** Each PlayerCharacter in the series, especially the ones who start out as prisoners, starts off about as close to a "nobody" as one can get. By the end of the game, they acquire skills, equipment, and abilities that make them one of the most powerful beings in all of Tamriel, and, in a few cases, SemiDivine or outright [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] capable of foiling the plans of truly god-like beings.
** Vivec, the Dunmeri [[PhysicalGod Tibunal deity]], in the most [[UnreliableNarrator reliable version]] of his past, started off as the son of a poor Netch herder before rising up the ranks to become the NumberTwo to [[FounderOfTheKingdom Lord Nerevar]] as leader of the Chimer. Then, after [[TheRashomon probably]] having something to do with Nerevar's death, tapped into a forbidden power source to [[DeityOfHumanOrigin become a god]]. In supplementary works, Vivec also claims to have achieved "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence CHIM]]", a god-like state of being even beyond that of deities like [[OurGodsAreDifferent the Aedra and the Daedric Princes]].
* Ruben Victoriano AKA Ruvik from ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' started out as a rich nobody, being the son of a wealthy landowner, and just so happened to have [[KidsAreCruel an unhealthy obsession with dissecting animals.]] Then his sister died saving him from a fire which horribly disfigured him in the process, and he went on to start dissecting people, kill his parents, and eventually be betrayed by the NebulousEvilOrganization he worked for, [[RealityWarper becoming a very literal nightmare...]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Armello}}'': Sylas used to be a humble fisherman, albeit one with a fiery temper. Then he decided to poach a legendary fish off the King's hunting grounds and share it with his fellows. The King responded by having everyone else in the village slaughtered while Sylas was chained up and ForcedToWatch, then LeftForDead. While he hung there, a dark force whispered to him, offering to make a deal... Now he's known as the Fisher of Souls, and is the only hero explictedly ''not'' angling for the throne. All he cares about is revenge...
* ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' heroine Prier was originally a demon hunting nun. [[NunTooHoly A nun who likes using bone-crushing kicks to solve almost every problem]], but clearly an otherwise heroic nun who aspired to be the Maiden of Light. However, she had a desire for power which lead to her becoming an Overlord in one of the endings of the original game. That ending was eventually canonized by the game's UpdatedRerelease ''Ragnarok''. By the time of the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series, Prier had become synonymous with "FallenHero", having become an infamous BloodKnight that seeks to challenge powerful opponents throughout the Creator/NipponIchi multiverse. That said, [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor whether she's good or evil pretty much changes between games]], and even in the UpdatedReRelease there were two endings that picked either one, so she can be either a straight-up FallenHero or just a DarkMessiah...[[BloodKnight who either way really loves fighting others]].
* Several player characters from the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series can count. At the start of each games, the player character is usually rather young (such as [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] or [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Arno]]) or in a relatively unimportant position ([[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag Edward]] was just a sailor/privateer) but inevitably each one proves to be exceptionally important both to the [[AncientConspiracy secret war between the Assassins and Templars]] and to the [[BeenThereShapedHistory historical setting in which they live]]. Special mention goes to Connor, who first appears in the game as a kid and is assaulted by the game's resident Templars, and declares that one day he'll find and kill all of them; over the next eight years, he does exactly that as well as playing pivotal roles in [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Battle of the Chesapeake, among other events]] which completely destroy the Templars' plans for the fledgling United States.
** A character in Revelations actually lampshades this.
-->"For centuries my people have been slandered and insulted, labeled witches and warlocks. Well, so be it. We will not run from these lies any more, but embrace them. Encourage these rumors, for it is better to be infamous than ignored."
* Both Cole [=MacGrath=] and Delsin Rowe from the ''VideoGame/InFamous'' series can go through this, if the player plays the evil path. The former is simply a bike messenger who, by the end of the inFamous 2 evil playthrough, can turn into a gigantic creature that consists of molten rock and can form explosions that level entire city blocks. The latter, a normal guy with a tendency for vandalism, realizes that he can copy the powers of other superpowered beings, plans to visit a prison where all known superhumans are held to copy their powers, and thus can control basically anything he can see. Either of these "Nightmares" cannot be controlled by the player, however.

** If questioned about her past, [[TheHandler Kirsten Geary]] will admit that she started out as just "an ordinary Valley Girl," right up until she ended up getting kidnapped by two Illuminati sorcerers looking for human sacrifices. Unfortunately for the "frat-boy necromancers," they didn't [[MuggingTheMonster check her pockets for duct-tape and mace]] - resulting in the two eventually confessing to Illuminati membership over the course of an impromptu torture session. Disappointed at the lack of standards among the society's members, Geary decided to join the Illuminati herself and help out with their employee handbook. Decades on, Kirsten Geary is a high-ranking executive in charge of tutoring and directing Illuminati players, and easily the most disturbing of all the faction handlers encountered in the game.

* At the start of the ''Videogame/SaintsRow'' series, the Third Street Saints are a small street gang with the player being a fresh recruit. The second game has the player character becoming the leader of the Saints as they go up against three GangOfHats and a MegaCorp to take control of Stilwater. By the time of the third game, the Saints operate a media empire that includes clothing stores, energy drinks and even film deals. The fourth has the Boss becoming President of the United States, meaning the Saints now rule America as kleptocrats, and though [[spoiler: the Earth is destroyed early on in the game, what remains of the Saints eventually kill the intergalactic warlord who blew it up and seize control of his entire space fleet.]]
* All of the [[BigBad main antagonists]] of the ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' franchise started out as shrine maidens trying to fulfill the roles they were given. [[TragicVillain They became dangerous only after their respective rituals failed and the HellGate they were meant to appease corrupted them.]] Reika from the third game deserve a special mention, as she takes this trope to literal extremes (she haunts and kills her targets in their own nightmares).
* Aloy from ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' can be seen as this. Born as a member of the Nora, a rural, nature-worshiping tribe that fears technology, and then cast out until her nineteenth birthday, Aloy goes from being shunned and despised to achieving an almost mythical status within the tribe. This is largely thanks to her being able to subjugate otherwise-hostile robots and more importantly communicate directly with the Nora's deity [[CargoCult All-Mother]] (much to her disgust and chagrin, as she feels that being suddenly idolized by them is just as bad as them treating her as less than human).
* [[spoiler:The Dark Curse]] from ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'' was once a regular Mii who suffered the AllTheOtherReindeer treatment and became vengeful and evil as a result.
* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series:
** Ike in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn''. He starts off as a greenhorn mercenary knocking down common bandits for a pittance. He ends up [[spoiler:powerful enough to ''beat the shit out of half of a god'']], and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' he's revered/feared as the strongest hero who ever lived in the entire ''Fire Emblem'' multiverse.
** The Avatar/Kris in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' is perhaps the best example in the franchise. They go from some random nobody knight wannabe to Marth's right hand and the single most dangerous person in his army, despite not having a drop of holy blood in their veins, a unique/semi-unique class, or even a personal weapon (unlike every other main character in the series).
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'':
*** [[PlayerCharacter The Avatar]] starts off as an amnesiac tactician with nothing to their name sans the clothes on their back and the weapons on hand, who is found unconscious by the wayside by [[TheHero Chrom.]] Their [[BatmanGambit mastery of tactics]], coupled with [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind their strong work ethic]] and [[ThePowerOfFriendship bonds with their comrades]] quickly make their name known throughout the land as a mastermind capable of engineering crushing victories against insane odds. By the game's second arc the Avatar is known overseas for their prowess, and by the game's third arc, it turns out [[spoiler:their very existence is the lynchpin of the BigBad's ultimate plan to destroy the world ''and'' also the key to permanently putting a stop to it.]] This doesn't take into account other factors like the ability to [[RagsToRiches marry into nobility or even into royalty,]] or even marry the local religion's oracle, who happens to be [[DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu the daughter of said religion's patron goddess,]] thus gaining even ''more'' power and influence ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation not that it actually is acknowledged in-story]]). There is a dark twist to this, though, in that [[spoiler:in the original BadFuture, the Avatar truly became a nightmare when [[EldritchAbomination Grima]] took over their body and launched a ZombieApocalypse that effectively destroyed the world and damn near killed all life before the future children of the Shepherds traveled back in time to stop it from happening.]]
*** The Avatar's comrades aren't too far behind, as the Shepherds, both collectively and [[RedBaron individually]], become famed as an entire crew of badasses who face incredible odds and consistently come out on top anyway.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', [[spoiler:Nemesis, the man who became the strongest person on the continent, massacred the Nabateans, and acts as the lynchpin of the villains' plan to upend the order of Fódlan]], started off as a common bandit at the same level as the guy you bumped off in the tutorial mission.
* In ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'', you start as an unnoteworthy character like a doctor, a detective or a person doing a menial job, but after you get to know about the Mansus and its functioning, you become the leader of a powerful cult for which murder, robbery, madness and EldritchAbomination summoning are commonplace occurrences. And if you manage to win the game, you become an immortal Long waiting to fully ascend to the Mansus.
* In ''VideoGame/StellaGlow'', the protagonist Alto was just an amnesiac living a simple life as a hunter in a backwater village with his adoptive family. At the game's start his [[DoomedHometown hometown is destroyed]] by the Witch Hilda and he swears to bring her to justice. In short order he becomes a knight of the kingdom, discovers his latent power to refine and draw out the power of the Witches, becoming an essential component of the plan to save the world, and by the game's end has become the single greatest hero of the land whose name is known far and wide and hailed as the world's savior and [[spoiler:the one who ended the rage of "God" and the rampage of the angels.]] What really cements Alto's position is that, initially, [[spoiler:Alto ''really'' was "nobody"--"Alto" is actually a split personality born from the land's original hero, Elcrest, who took control of the body when Elcrest was [[BigSleep forced to slumber to heal his physical and mental wounds.]] He wasn't supposed to exist, but still came to be and ended up [[SplitPersonalityMerge becoming the dominant personality when the Elcrest persona finally awoke.]]]]
* While we aren't given too much light on ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'''s VillainProtagonist (or even his name, and is arguably a deliberately FlatCharacter), he seems to be an ordinary citizen who one day just snapped. TruthInTelevision about mass-murderers, sadly.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' Scarecrow had a memorable MindScrew of a boss battle, but at the end of the day was just another asylum inmate and side villain. [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight Three games later]], Scarecrow makes a comeback as the BigBad, holding all of Gotham hostage with a mix of a heavily-armed militia and extremely potent fear gas, and in the end [[spoiler: is the one Batman villain to finally publicly unmask Batman.]]
* Discussed in Season Two of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' when Jane talks to Clementine about Kenny's degrading sanity, comparing his recent unreasonably harsh actions to the season's StarterVillain Bill Carver:

* The AIIsACrapshoot that [[VillainProtagonist you play as]] in ''VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips'' starts out as a mere industrial manager whose task is to maximize paperclips. By the first third of the game, you've enslaved humanity under brainwashing. By the second third of the game, Earth's matter has been turned into paperclips. By the game's end, [[spoiler:one of the endings has [[TheBadGuyWins all the matter in the universe turned into paperclips]]]].
* "[[ComicBook/TheJoker John Doe]]" of ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' starts out as a mostly harmless, if capable fighter when necessary, inmate of Arkham Asylum who despite being sociopathic with serious issues is largely a nice guy who genuinely is Bruce's friend. Then he gets involved with The Pact and Batman which [[StartOfDarkness pushes him down the road to villainy]]. Your choices in how you trust and treat him will turn him into either ''The'' Joker we all know and love and Batman's greatest villain, or a ''monumentally'' effed-up BigBadFriend "vigilante" who needs to be taken down. [[spoiler: [[TragicVillain He doesn't get a good ending either way]], but the PostCreditsScene of a "Vigilante Joker" playthrough has Bruce visiting John in Arkham, implying there's at least still hope for him]].
* ''VideoGame/ForeverHome'': Barclyss was originally nothing more than a street urchin who unknowingly had a connection to the Abyss Prism. Once the anti-Tren resistance recruits him and teaches him how to use magic, he becomes a violent psychopath. His fellow revolutionaries exile him out of disgust, causing him to join Tren and eventually command his own military faction. [[spoiler:Worse yet, he discovers how to use the Abyss Prism to turn his victims into mindless puppets, allowing him to build an army of the dead]].
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' has Simeon [[RedBaron the Puppet Master]] as the ArcVillain of Primrose's route. He started out as a humble gardener's apprentice working for Primrose's family when she was a child, and the two of them had a budding romance. Years later, he's the leader of the Obsidian crime syndicate, and using its vast resources to fuel his sadistic need to put others through tragedy, Primrose in particular.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace:'' Horatio apparently started as little more than a kid with [[MyBrainIsBig a weird head]] that others mocked, then moved on to be a SelfMadeMan with trillions at his disposal. This might already count due to his insanity, if it weren't for his self-imposed exile... but then, he came galloping back into the spotlight, as the planet he moved to had a few Precursor cloning vats he quickly figured out. He made a whole planet-covering empire consisting entirely of himself and his clones, and then enjoyed it so much he turned to the stars, and decided the whole galaxy could use some of that. In the timeline of the game, ''the'' Horatio are a star-spanning empire in the same standing as any other, and pose a very real risk of taking over the whole galaxy and fill it with only Horatios like him, with everyone else either destroyed, subjugated or assimilated.
* In the GameMod for ''Skyrim'', ''VideoGame/{{Falskaar}}'', Vernan was initially just a monk at the Priory, but his experiments got gradually out of control and he was eventually expelled when an experiment nearly killed two people (by accident). When the time comes to do the quest, he's tampering with the Dream Crystal and is the head of a large chain of necromancers.
* Races in ''VideoGame/EvolveIdle'' start out as primordial ooze and eventually evolve into cavemen (or cave elves or cave orcs, etc). Progressing through the tech tree will unlock new and more powerful technology and before you know it your race will be out spreading to new star systems and eventually conquering entire galaxies.
* ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters The King of Fighters '97]]'' gives us the New Faces Team, a trio of musicians who generally act like goof balls and never take anything seriously. [[spoiler:Reach the end of the game and they're revealed to be Knights of Orochi and their playful personality gives way to sadistically punishing opponents. Then things take another step when Chris, the youngest member of the group, turns out to be the vessel for Orochi himself!]]
* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': The Arch-Illager, Archie, was shunned by his own kin and met with scorn from everyone else. That all changed upon obtaining the [[ArtifactOfDoom Orb of Dominance]].
* ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer'': Aria's story reveals [[spoiler:the Necrodancer was once a struggling bard named Octavian who stumbled across the [[ArtifactOfDoom Golden Lute]]. After using its power for too long, the lute corrupted him and turned him into the Necrodancer.]]