History OneSteveLimit / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' has an interesting example of this in the Battle Ring (with the same character being fought in different battles). There's Bowser X, the second non-tutorial boss in the game who's fought alongside Antasma X, as well as Bowser X, who's the X version of giant Bowser, an endgame giant boss... and they're both named the same as the secret BonusBoss from the game that came before this, ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory''. This can make it pretty confusing if someone describes one as ThatOneBoss or something similar without saying what they're referring to.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' has [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Pain and Paine]]: one is [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} a minion of Hades]], the other is [[WesternAnimation/FinalFantasyX2 one third of the Gullwings]]. Luckily, neither have their names spoken out loud.

** There are ''6'' characters with the surname "Zhang" alone: He, Liao, Chunhua, Jiao, Bao, and Fei, of whom only the latter two are related to each other. That's because it's one of the most common Chinese and world surnames ''ever'', so it's understandable that there are many people who have it without being related.

* In the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'', this is averted heavily. No two major characters have the same name, but there are numerous shared names with [=NPCs=], like the fisherman Lloyd from ''Trails in the Sky'' and Lloyd Bannings, the protagonist of ''Trails from Zero''. Taken up to eleven in ''Cold Steel 3'', where there are now three Kurt's: A bracer from Liberl, a young boy living in Trista, and a member of New Class VII.
** ''Trails in the Sky'' and ''Trails of Cold Steel'' both feature (entirely unrelated) villains named Georg

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has two Dunmer named Fathis; Fathis Ules, a high-ranking Thieves Guild fence, and Fathis Aren, Bravil's resident CourtMage. Both are tangentially involved in the same Thieves Guild quest (stealing a MacGuffin from Aren unlocks Ules' services as a reward) but are otherwise unconnected.

** Averted in regards to the two characters named after Wilhelmina 'Mina' Harker of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' fame. Mina Hakuba the {{Miko}} and love interest (''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'') appeared before ''Grimoire of Souls'' established an OriginalGeneration all named after the heroes of ''Dracula''; since both games take place in the same era, the character from ''Grimoire'' was named Her''mina'' [[note]]In contrast, Lucy Westenra and Director Seward had their names left unchanged[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'': The names of the idols and other female employees of the angency are randomly drawn from the same pool. This sometimes results in the player having two employees who share a first name or a last name.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Dissidia|Final Fantasy}}'', there are two characters named Cloud - Cloud Strife, a [[{{Angst}} moody]], [[AnimeHair pointy-haired]] {{BFS}}-swinging TomatoInTheMirror hero, and Cloud of Darkness, an evil MsFanservice who wears basically a cape and a CensorSteam and shoots [[BeamSpam magic lasers]]. Generally, Cloud Strife is addressed as 'Cloud' and Cloud of Darkness's name isn't used at all.

* ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'': There are two people named Terry. There's BESTDEALSTERRY, the owner of a page that sells stickers and wallpapers containing viruses, and [=WormyTerry2=], an unlisted user who talks about the worms he likes.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Return of the Obra Dinn}}'', as the crew list includes both two Johns and two Charleses. Naturally, both pairs have one flashback each naming the person in conversation by first name only, requiring the player to deduce which of the pair is actually being referred to. There are also two Edwards, two Henries, two Samuels, two Thomases and two Williams, but no such confusion arises between them.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'', there are several Alis, several Petes, several Jacks and also few Bobs, Sarahs, Brians and Charlies. There are few other repeating names too.
** Parodied with the desert town of Pollivneach, where ''every'' named resident is called Ali, including a cat and a woman (she claims it's short for Alice).

** Interestingly [[AvertedTrope Averted]] and Played Straight at the same time in Siegfried's case – Averted as there are two characters both named Siegfried, and both are also dragonslayers lore-wise. Played Straight as they originate from two different games ''and'' are placed in different crafts - There is one for Dragoncraft (based from Rage of Bahamut) and another for Swordcraft (based from Granblue Fantasy). True to this trope, they can't be put together on the same Craft.

* ''VideoGame/ChicoryAColorfulTale'' will ask the player what their favorite food is, and names the protagonist after that. If an important character has the provided name, the game will ask the player their next favorite food.

** There are two playable characters named Roy: the one from''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' that was introduced in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'', and the one from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' that's an alternate costume for Bowser Jr. and was introduced in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU For 3DS and Wii U]]''. The ''Fire Emblem'' Roy returned as a [[DownloadableContent downloadable]] fighter in ''For 3DS and Wii U'', making them the first games in the ''Smash'' series to have two playable characters with the same name in the same entry, which would carry over to ''Ultimate''.[[note]]This technically ignores alternate forms of characters or Link's LegacyCharacter status, but even in those cases, the game picks descriptors such as "Dr. Mario" and "Zero Suit Samus", while the two Roys are both just "Roy".[[/note]] There's also the NonPlayerCharacter from ''Franchise/MetalGear'' named Roy Campbell (though he commonly goes by "Colonel"), who appears in Snake's Codec calls.

* The PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' has the codename Agent 3. The protagonist of the first game was already called Agent 3. To distinguish the two, old Agent 3 is referred to as "Captain" as per their RankUp, while promo materials (but not the game itself) refer to the new Agent 3 as, well, New Agent 3.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' has a playable character from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' named Roy, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' has a playable character from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' who is also named Roy (as an alternate costume for Bowser Jr.), and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' has a NonPlayerCharacter from ''Franchise/MetalGear'' named Roy Campbell (though he commonly goes by "Colonel"), who appears in Snake's Codec calls. The ''Fire Emblem'' Roy returns as a [[DownloadableContent downloadable]] fighter in ''For 3DS and Wii U'', making them the first games in the ''Smash'' series to have two playable characters with the same name (ignoring alternate forms of characters or Link's LegacyCharacter status, but even in those cases the game picks descriptors such as "Dr. Mario" and "Zero Suit Samus". The two Roys are both just "Roy".), and both of them return alongside Roy Campbell in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''. Ironically, ''Ultimate'' only has one Steve, that being the default skin for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'''s player character.
** ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' has collectibles called Spirits based on different video game iconography. This obviously leads to a situation where you have multiple characters sharing the same name. The game fixes this by usually affixing a descriptor in parenthesis after said name, like the example above calling one spirit ''Roy (Fire Emblem)'' the other ''Roy (Super Mario Bros.)''.

* The PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' has the codename Agent 3. The protagonist of the first game was already called Agent 3. To distinguish the two, old Agent 3 is referred to as "Captain" and promo materials refer to the new Agent 3 as, well, New Agent 3.

** There's Tom Nook and one of his assistants Tommy, and there's also a cranky cat villager named Tom. This however is avoided as Tom Nook is always refered to by his full name or just "Nook" (very rarely is he just called "Tom").

* In VideoGame/ArTonelico there are three characters named Ayatane, all of which share a similar appearance without being actually related to each other. One is Ayatane Michitaka from the first game [[spoiler: who is a Virus that took the form of a dead person]], the other, in ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'', is [[spoiler: in Jacqli's Cosmosphere]] and the third, in VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel, is [[spoiler: an important villain]] named Ayatane Kureha, [[spoiler: AKA Luphan]].

* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' averts this, at least phonetically. The main protagonist is named Catie, while a certain sidequest puts you in control of a girl named Katy. There's also an [[PlanetOfSteves entire race of people]] named Anonymous.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' we have Lizzie, a prostitute whose murder was the breaking point for her fellow sex workers and pushed them to establish the Moxes gang (their main base of operations is a bar called Lizzie's, named after the girl), Lizzy Wizzy, a pop star, who's a minor character in one line of sidequests, and Elizabeth Peralez, the wife of the mayoral candidate Jefferson Peralez. The three have nothing to do with eachother.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, with its massive amounts of named NPCs, averts this trope beautifully. Given names tend to be recycled among members of the same sex and race ([[FridgeBrilliance which actually makes sense]] [[TruthInTelevision because we recycle names ourselves in real life]]); for example, "Alessia" is a common name amongst Imperial women. [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Names This appendix in UESP contains all the names in the Elder Scrolls.]]

* In VideoGame/RhythmDoctor, this is lampshaded. Two patients, Hugh Cumber and Richard Hugh, are both named Hugh. The latter does not like this fact, and demands that the former change his name.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': One of the Jedi Consular’s companions is Tharan Cedrax, an arrogant, flirtatious scientist. Not to be confused with Theron Shan, SIS agent, son of Grandmaster Satele Shan, and a major character and romance option in the expansions. Tharan will lampshade this when encountered in Onslaught, saying that Theron probably “spells it the stupid way.”

* Utterly averted in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', especially in Pleasantview, where there are two Brandis (Broke, a playable, and [=LeTourneau=], a Townie), two Townies named Orlando (Centowski and Bertino), two named Amin (Bear and Sims) and two Townies ''[[UpToEleven with the exact same full name]]'': Ivy Copur. This is because all Townies and [=NPCs=] have names generated from two relatively small lists.

* In the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'', this is averted heavily. No two major characters have the same name, but there are numerous shared names with [=NPCs=], like the fisherman Lloyd from ''Trails in the Sky'' and Lloyd Bannings, the protagonist of ''Trails from Zero''. Taken UpToEleven in ''Cold Steel 3'', where there are now three Kurt's: A bracer from Liberl, a young boy living in Trista, and a member of New Class VII.

** Averted in regards to the two characters named after Wilhelmina 'Mina' Harker of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' fame. Mina Hakuba the {{Miko}} and love interest (''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'') appeared before ''Grimoire of Souls'' established an OriginalGeneration all named after the heroes of ''Dracula''; since both games take place in the same era, the character from ''Grimoire'' was named Hermina [[note]]In contrast, Lucy Westenra and Director Seward had their names left unchanged[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' has a few accidentally similar named characters due to having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. Due to the inevitable DubNameChange, some characters have the ''exact'' same name in some languages, but never two characters that appear in the same game:

* The Creator/ParadoxInteractive games ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' and ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis: Rome'' have LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and only so many names in the random generator's database; justified, as medieval Europe and (especially) AncientRome averted this trope. ''Crusader Kings II'' even inverts the trope, as children have a high chance of specifically inheriting their names from their parents or grandparents (rather than simply getting the same name by chance from the database).

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, with its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters massive amounts of named NPCs]], averts this trope beautifully. Given names tend to be recycled among members of the same sex and race ([[FridgeBrilliance which actually makes sense]] [[TruthInTelevision because we recycle names ourselves in real life]]); for example, "Alessia" is a common name amongst Imperial women. [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Names This appendix in UESP contains all the names in the Elder Scrolls.]]

*** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' contains absolutely Loads and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters as befits a gacha game, but some characters take it further by having multiple playable versions. For example, if someone mentions Jeanne, they could mean the BreakoutCharacter Avenger Jeanne Alter, or the original Ruler Jeanne D'Arc, or an event-specific Jeanne of yet another class.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' has recycled a number of names for a franchise with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters; there are plenty of cases in which two characters from different sagas share a name:

** There have been several characters named "Fado" in the series. The only thing they have in common is living in a forest. Two of them are Kokiri, albeit from separate games and centuries apart. It's often assumed Fado from ''Wind Waker'' is a DevelopmentGag to Fado from ''Ocarina Of Time''.

* ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' loves to recycle names. Not just common names like Max or Arthur, but also more oddball ones like Hig(g)ins. [[note]]Higgins (two "[=Gs=]") is a Paladin in ''VideoGame/ShiningForceII'', while Higins (one "G") is a Ninja in ''[[VideoGame/ShiningForceGaidenGames Shining Force Gaiden II]]''[[/note]]

** '''Lloyd''': Was he [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade from the Black Fang]] or [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates one of]] ThoseTwoBadGuys?