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Depending On The Writer / Video Games

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Examples of characterization changing dramatically Depending on the Writer in Video Games and Visual Novels.

Video Games:

  • Carmen Sandiego varies between Friendly Enemy, Card-Carrying Villain and everywhere in between. Especially notable is her portrayal in the Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? cartoon, which took her to such Anti Villainous levels that by the show's end she was teaming up with the heroes to take down "real" bad guys with regularity. She even once saved the heroes, supposedly because it's not a game if there's no one to play against.
  • Most iterations of Darkstalkers get the basic gist of Morrigan Aensland - a hedonistic succubus who roams around Earth seeking pleasure. The difference is whether she's treated as the closest thing the series has to a heroine who would Never Hurt an Innocent (such as in the video games), or as a mass murderer just as morally despicable as all of the other major players (such as in the UDON comic adaptation).
  • In Devil May Cry, Trish's personality as Dante's partner was somewhat different in Kamiya's vision when portrayed in Viewtiful Joe; Trish was more of a traditional partner who follows the hero, Dante, being the voice of reason and expressing deep concern for him, coupled with jokes that Trish was being too "motherly". Trish in Itsuno's vision, and effectively the canon version of Trish as it stands, is more of a playful independent spirit, who while undoubtedly loyal to Dante she isn’t above playing tricks and teasing him, such as increasing his debt and delivering Sparda right onto the enemies hands to make things more fun; still Dante has also been adjusted accordingly, being able to take all of Trish's playfulness.
  • Donkey Kong:
  • Dragon Quest: The Hero is either from a small village in Torland who washed up on the shores of Alefgard (Alfregard in the GBC version) or an Alefgard native who had been training for the day he might be able to fight. Either way, he was already aware of his lineage, despite not having any way to prove it until he found his ancestor's seal in a perilous poison swamp.
  • Fallout 3 may have used the trope In-Universe. A computer in the ruins of Hubris Comics in D.C. contains a letter to the editor that, depending on your interpretation, seems to call out a writer for turning a well-developed comic book villain (the AntAgonizer) into a For the Evulz nutcase. (Since we never see the comics in question, this could also be in-universe Draco in Leather Pants. The Fallout wiki leans towards this interpretation.)
    • The Fallout series in general tends to be rife with this, due to the different companies that have handled it. The series gets around this somewhat by the fact that most of the Black Isle/Obsidian games deal with the western US, while the Bethesda games deal with the eastern US, meaning a lot of differences can be chalked up to "it's a variant/local branch/different strain." For instance, in Black Isle/Obsidian games, Mariposa Super Mutants are on average not too bright but still have many with average or even genius intellects, and aren't violent by nature unless they're under a violent leader (though many of them are), with many mutants following the death of the Master being content to live their lives. In Bethesda games, Vault 87 and Institute Super Mutants are almost universally Always Chaotic Evil even without any controlling intelligence or agenda, with the smart ones being seen as one-in-a-million exceptions, and tend to be borderline animalistic and Too Dumb to Live. Compare the smart and stealthy (if unstable) nightkin variant on the West Coast to the braindead suicide bomber variant on the East.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI, the game's main villain Kefka Palazzo was presented as a Psychopathic Manchild and The Fool. When Ted Woolsey translated the game for English-speaking audiences, he emphasized the character's hatred and sadism while keeping his sense of humour, which resulted in Kefka becoming much more popular in English-speaking regions (and probably had a large amount to do with why Final Fantasy VI itself is much more popular in English-speaking regions than it is in Japan). This would in turn influence his portrayal in all versions of Dissidia Final Fantasy.
    • Depending on which one of his appearances it is, Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII can be a cocky-funny and self-centred young man with a hidden vulnerable side, a genuinely cold and dramatic '90s Anti-Hero, or a stoic secretly plagued with deep emotion. Cloud's Japanese voice actor opined in Ultimania that, while there are parts of Cloud that remain constant, he considers him a different character in every appearance. Both Crisis Core and Before Crisis are prequels which show us very different interpretations of the teenage Cloud; in Crisis Core he's a sweet, boyish Nice Guy and a reasonably capable soldier, and in Before Crisis he's a much more aggressive and troubled teenager who talks to others in a condescending way and ignores orders because he thinks he knows best, even when it's clear he doesn't.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening features hundreds of conversations between over forty playable characters, each one being completely unique (at least for a single playthrough). So naturally, details become muddled or mixed up across across the many support conversations. Mostly this includes little things like how pronounced a character's quirks are, i.e: how violent Henry is, how flirty Inigo acts, or how hopelessly Cordelia swoons after Chrom (sometimes its the entire focus of a support, other times it's not mentioned at all like in her talks with the Avatar for example). Other examples include how big the Shepherds actually are in-universe, and whether they include normal soldiers behind the scenes, going back and forth between calling them 'our little group' and 'we're an army.'
      • On a side note, different forms of media change what sort of breath the Manaketes breath which is depicted as blue stuff in-game. Aforementioned game conversations describe them as fireballs, while the promotional comics sometimes depict it as ice breath.
    • Marth's personality is pretty all over the place, with him ranging from naive and pacifistic, wise and mature, or cocky and cool, depending on the game you're playing.
    • Roy was written in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade as mostly mature, intelligent, peaceable, and underconfident. When he appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, owing in part to him having been based on early drafts, he was made much more of a hot-headed Stock Shōnen Hero, which bled into the fandom as a whole. His appearances in Fire Emblem Heroes seems to be an attempt to synthesize the two, borrowing a lot of Roy's Smash mannerisms.
  • Friday Night Funkin': Boyfriend, the protagonist of the game, is canonically established as speaking only in beeps. In the fanmade Game Mods however, he is often seen speaking normally, or mixing beeps with normal speech as the plot demands. Whether the other characters understand his beeps also varies from mod to mod.
  • KanColle the game proper has very little lore, leaving a lot up to the interpretation of fans and spinoff writers. As a result, the tone of fanworks and spinoff works varies from very dark horror and tragedy to lighthearted comedies and anything in between. Other things also change between interpretations; origins of the ship girls and Abyssals - Aliens? Mystic rituals and spirits? Super-science? Do projectiles remain proportionately small to human size, like in the anime, or do they expand to full size as per Kant-O-Celle Quest? What about the girls and Abyssals themselves? Are conventional forces relevant, or only as much cannon fodder as in kaiju films? Are the Abyssals a worldwide threat or merely a Pacific problem? So on and so forth.
    • The cast of shipgirls, despite being the game's focus, is also prone to very different interpretations, since each only has a small set of lines and many of their current traits derive from Fanon. Perhaps the worst is Kitakami: she can be a stoic warrior, a cunning tactician, a cranky loner, The Gadfly, or an outright bully towards Abukumanote .
  • Within the Kirby series, King Dedede can be a little inconsistent. In games directed by Masahiro Sakurai such as Kirby's Adventure and Super Smash Bros. Brawl Dedede can act caring and even physically affectionate towards his rival Kirby. However in games directed by others starting with Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards Dedede shows very little in the way of genuine friendship to Kirby and only joins his rival through Teethclenched Teamwork with later games having him keep a sense of aloofness to anything other than his waddle dees.
  • While this happens a lot in any RPG with multiple endings/plotlines over multiple games, special mention goes to the Knights of the Old Republic series, which went from a single-player game where the player could end up with half a dozen versions of Revan, to an MMO where there was only one version of Revan, which was supposed to loosely correspond to the first game's light side path with caster abilities (something that was mechanically discouraged to begin with, since the light side powers focused on melee buffs in the first game) but in fact resembles no version of the character the first game could produce in any way. The Watsonian explanation was that in the time-jump after the first game he recovered the rest of his memories, and is now effectively a master of both sides of the force (and has gone completely mad for unrelated reasons). It becomes a plot point in his own expansion story; after he died for real he generates two Force Ghosts with completely different personalities, one light side and one dark side, neither one of which matches the one he had in earlier appearances in the same game.
  • In the Life Is Strange games, were Chloe and Rachel an Official Couple or not? Numbered games in the series made by original developers Dontnod Entertainment tend to keep the issue ambiguous, and while Chloe was clearly in love with Rachel, nobody else (up to and including Chloe's mother) seems to have been aware of a romantic aspect to their relationship, if indeed we're even intended to infer that there definitely was one. The named spin-off games by Deck Nine, on the other hand, are an official part of the series canon but make it clear that Rachel and Chloe acted on their feelings for each other at some point, even if the player doesn't direct them to; and Steph has detailed memories of attending Pride with them while they were openly dating.
  • Guybrush is presented as way more intelligent in the first two Monkey Island games than the later ones. At the same time, he is portrayed as much calmer and competent in later games, as well as less of a jerk who steals everything he can (as much as an adventure game protagonist can).

  • Pokémon:
    • The personalities of the playable Pokemon trainers, when they're Suddenly Voiced instead of being a Heroic Mime has shades of this, given divergent personalities in Pokémon Masters, cameos in other games, manga and anime adaptations. Trainer Red, for instance, has his actual personality being The Stoic who rarely talks in his subsequent game cameos (which other trainers make fun of him for), while in Pokémon Adventures and anime Pokémon Origins he has shades of a spunky Stock Shōnen Hero (contrasting Ash's more Nice Guy approach) who openly talks and learns many things along the way.
    • Pokémon Sun and Moon offers two contradictory Pokédex entries for Araquanid. While Moon's entry describes it as a Non-Malicious Monster who brings weak Pokémon into its water bubble for safety, in Sun it notes that small Pokémon that enter said water bubble drown, implying that's how it hunts its prey. (The common fan theory is either that Araquanid has a soft side and is willing to protect others when it's not hungry, or that it doesn't actually realize it's killing them.)
    • Darkrai's personality has been subject to different portrayals. In the main games and in one of the anime movies, Darkrai is an extremely shady yet good-hearted Pokémon, while in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, it is an Omnicidal Maniac whose favorite hobbies include throwing children into never-ending nightmares, and driving heroes and gods to suicide and insanity. Unless, of course, you've beaten the game, in which case, he undergoes amnesia like the game's protagonist and reverts back to the former characterization the next time you encounter him. Likewise, Poké Park 2 features him as the main antagonist, albeit nowhere near as evil as his Mystery Dungeon counterpart.
  • [PROTOTYPE] and [PROTOTYPE 2] had different teams of writers, and the protagonist of the first and the antagonist of the second is arguably an example of this. In the first game, Alex Mercer was an amoral but not expressly evil creature that gradually gained a conscience as events played out. He risked his life to stop Manhattan from being destroyed by the Infection, and later Blackwatch, expressing disgust at those who played god with peoples' lives for their experiments. He was blunt, concise, impulsive, not much of a thinker, and socially awkward to the point of hilarity. Come the second game, and he's suddenly a smooth-talking evil-genius-archetype planner that plots to recreate humanity in his image.
    • Blackwatch also gets hit with this. In the original Blackwatch was portrayed largely as ruthlessly devoted to stopping the Virus, with a disdain for the USMC, and although they experimented with the virus, they didn't seem that reckless; additionally, they were fully aware that the protagonist could shapeshift very early ingame (to the point of gunning each other down if convinced Mercer was in their midst). In the sequel, the mad science and pointless sadism get played to the hilt, with Blackwatch releasing giant infected monstrosities in the middle of public to see what happens when you release giant infected monstrosities in the middle of the public, and the commanding officer in charge of Blackwatch being completely surprised that Heller can shapeshift (and apparently never noticing the dozens of fights Heller has with the Evolved; Mercer's sleeper agents in Blackwatch).
  • Shantae:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog characters have changed somewhat over the course of the series' history, although they do typically retain the same fundamental characterization, at least in the original Japanese script:
    • Sonic himself was originally marketed as a spunky Mascot with Attitude in America, but while his actual in-game personality was somewhat irreverent (he'd actually quit the game if you took too long in Sonic CD), it was still pretty muted and therefore up for interpretation as the Japanese marketing toned down the attitude somewhat. Despite this, the Japanese manuals and box art for the games often featured taglines or quotes related to Sonic's attitude of doing what he so desires without regrets or fear, and when Sonic Adventure came out worldwide, Sonic's personality was expanded upon to show him as an assertive yet laid-back and cheerful Stock Shōnen Hero. While this personality was mostly consistent, different writers usually emphasized Sonic's different traits— whereas Shiro Maekawa's version of Sonic (Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and the Sonic Storybook Series) was more openly cocky and snarky, other writers like Akinori Nishiyama (Sonic Adventure and the Sonic Rush games) and Kiyoko Yoshimura (Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Unleashed) wrote him as more subdued, and Takashi Iizuka's portrayal of him in Shadow the Hedgehog was more excitable. Sonic Colors broke the mold by portraying him as being more talkative and openly energetic like how he was portrayed in some American adaptations, but also had him focused and direct like his usual Japanese portrayal.
    • Tails began as a gentle boy who admired Sonic despite his struggles to keep up with him, until Sonic Adventure saw Tails strike out on his own as a hero without relying on Sonic's help, fully evolving into The Smart Guy of the main cast and an equal to Sonic, while retaining his general childlike attitude. While this core element of Tails has remained the case throughout the series, games from Sonic Unleashed onwards have also made him more of a Non-Action Guy, with Sonic Forces having him outright needing to be rescued by Sonic at two points. The English version of Sonic Colors also presented a slightly more snarky side to his character, with Sonic Lost World having him become outright abrasive towards Sonic for seemingly trusting Eggman over him, although Forces returned him to his more approachable and calm attitude. This is actually discussed and lampshaded in-universe come Sonic Frontiers, where Tails wonders if he's a burden to Sonic because he's always getting into trouble or getting captured. When Sonic points out his more heroic side, Tails comes to the conclusion that he's "wildly inconsistent".
    • Amy Rose can best be described as an excitable and energetic girl playing off of Sonic's more laid-back attitude, and this element of her has mostly been consistent. Her crush on Sonic however went from being openly affectionate to outright aggressive and clingy over the course of some games, with Sonic Battle even having a case where she hallucinates that Sonic's around when he isn't. Games following Sonic Lost World have reigned in her crush on Sonic and highlighted the caring side that she always had, but her energetic and extroverted attitude was toned down as a result.
    • Knuckles' debut in Sonic 3 & Knuckles had him as a smug rival to Sonic who chuckled at his misfortune at every turn. Sonic Adventure and onward established him as more of an aloof and serious-minded loner to contrast with Sonic's carefree attitude, but Sonic Heroes onwards also had Knuckles acting as more of a helpful ally towards Sonic, with the two gaining a friendly rivalry as a result. Despite the Adventure games notably highlighting his connection to and duty towards the Master Emerald, later games had him show up as a member of Sonic's team and with no explanation, and he was also Demoted to Comic Relief on a few occasions around the mid-2000s despite being Sonic's more serious (if also more naive) foil. Sonic Frontiers highlights Knuckles' role as a serious foil to Sonic and aims to reconcile some of the different sides of his character, with the English script having Knuckles desire to leave Angel Island and explore the world more, and the Japanese script having him wish to learn more about his people.
    • Dr. Eggman is one of the more consistent characters in the franchise, owing to his simple core persona as an ego-driven Mad Scientist who wants to Take Over the World no matter how much or how little destruction he causes, but the main thing that changes about him from game to game is how much his humorous or serious traits are emphasized (which typically change along with the tone and story the game is aiming for), as well as his exact level of competence— some games portray him as a master schemer and others portray him as more bumbling and short-sighted.
    • Shadow can be viewed as a cynical counterpart of Sonic: a reserved yet arrogant and misanthropic individual motivated by his desire to prove himself as the Ultimate Life Form, with his relationship with Rouge and Omega being more emotionally distant compared to Sonic and friends, with Sonic Battle indicating that he views them more as "allies" than outright companions. However, Sonic Adventure 2 had him originally motivated by a desire to avenge his close friend, with Sonic Heroes having him motivated to find out his own identity after gaining amnesia. His self-titled game infamously characterized him as a more openly angst-ridden '90s Anti-Hero who follows orders from both friends and foes, along with being generally more selfish and with his aggressiveness turned up to much higher levels than before. The games following returned Shadow to his more balanced original persona, while retaining traits like his rivalry with Sonic. While this portrayal has remained consistent throughout in Japanese, English-language media in the 2010s has turned up his more arrogant traits and made him more openly aggressive towards Sonic, compared to how Shadow's previously established characterization had portrayed his disdain with Sonic as more to do with his annoyance towards Sonic's positive attitude than an actual grudge.
  • Street Fighter:
    • Dan Hibiki is always the worst martial artist of the cast, but to what degree this is can vary. Sometimes, Dan is actually a very good martial artist by human standards (though he's also a goof) who is just massively Overshadowed by Awesome when everyone else is inhumanly skilled and fit. Other times, he's a complete Miles Gloriosus who has no skill to speak of and can barely fight at all.
    • Ninja girl Ibuki historically is portrayed as a competent ninja and fighter but her willingness to fight and fighting skill can vary greatly. Also while she is one of the most acrobatic characters often shown in the air from high places in Street Fighter V she suddenly develops a fear of heights. Also her breast size varies from appearance to appearance.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Bowser is often subjected to this. While other characters change personality in most adaptations and spinoffs as well, Bowser is a character who's completely different between the main series and many spinoffs. In the main platformers and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, he's a competent Evil Overlord and Card-Carrying Villain with the occasional humorous moment. In the Mario & Luigi series he can be anything from a Boisterous Weakling who's only truly competent when he's working with the good guys to a competent if blunt Boisterous Bruiser father to his men whose only defeats are delivered by the brothers themselves. In the Paper Mario series, he's a Noble Demon with an unrequited crush on the Princess and doesn't like it when other villains infringe on his territory. Mario Party has him as an Attention Whore Card-Carrying Villain who's only capable of Poke the Poodle levels on villainy and who probably just wants to be loved. In Super Smash Bros., he's a terrifying monster with little if any humor to him at all, even after his design was updated to be more in-line with his usual look. Other spinoffs tend to have him as a Friendly Enemy of Mario's (he named Go-Karting with Bowser, after all). The cartoons and anime series vary his personality per episode, and his size varies between appearances. Bowser's physical abilities are also dependent on the game he appears in where he's either strong but slow or fast enough to keep up with Mario as well as jumping much higher.
    • How much Bowser remembers Luigi is this as well. Some games, particulary the Mario & Luigi games, have him (and all his army too, for that matter) outright forget who he is and adress him as "green 'stache", while in other games such as the Paper Mario and Mario Party series, he is perfectly aware of who Luigi is.
    • Wario is a villain in his debut in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Mario & Wario, in Wario Land he's more of an Anti-Hero with near-superpowers, and in WarioWare he is a normal person who's merely a greedy jerk.
    • The sentience of Bob-ombs varies from game to game, along with other Mooks. A similar issue is whether or not, Bob-ombs die if they explode.
    • Luigi's personality generally contrasts his brother's (clumsy and timid everyman rather than athletic and brave hero), with the Luigi's Mansion games and Mario & Luigi games being the most notable ones with this portrayal. Some games scrap this for a more adventurous Luigi who can be foolhardier than his brother, most notably the Paper Mario series. In his Smash appearances, he's eccentric to borderline Cloudcuckoolander levels and implied to be depressed or resentful. His level of fighting prowess can range from an equal to Mario, to skilled but unlucky, to a Cowardly Lion, to a Butt-Monkey out of his depth. And in the very earliest games prior to his Divergent Character Evolution, he showed no signs of being anything but Mario in green.
    • Whether or not Luigi is a Heroic Mime is another deal: In Super Mario RPG and the Paper Mario series he has full dialogue, while the Mario & Luigi series he simply speaks Italian-sounding Simlish like his brother.
    • Peach's character changes quite a bit: Super Mario Sunshine casts her mostly as a Cloudcuckoolander, whereas in Super Paper Mario she's a Deadpan Snarker, and other games place her at various points in between. She also flip-flops between Princess Classic and Royals Who Actually Do Something, in large part depending whether she is a playable character. Likewise, her abilities are heavily dependent on the writers. In the first game, the manual states that her powers are the only thing that can undo Bowser's magic, though we never actually get to see it. In later games, she either has actual powers (Super Mario RPG where she can heal, cause status effects, and inflict big damage), limited powers that only serve to assist Mario (Paper Mario series where she gives Mario a boost in the finales), or have none at all.
    • Species' speech capabilities vary; for example, Yoshis can either speak in full sentences, or they can only communicate through Pokémon Speak. As another example, in earlier Mario Party games, some species, such as Thwomps and Bob-ombs, are capable of speech; in later games, their words are spoken by the guide characters.
    • Ever since their return, The Koopalings (sans Iggy) have varied in terms of characterization: Ludwig and Wendy are portrayed semi-consistently, but may have a different quirk (Ludwig being a Gadgeteer Genius in Paper Mario: Color Splash while being a Master of Disguise in Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Wendy having Attention Whore traits in Mario & Sonic at Rio 2016 Olympic Games and just a general Hair-Trigger Temper elsewhere), Roy and Lemmy may have a major difference between games (Roy being Book Dumb in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam while claiming to go to night school in Color Splash, Lemmy acting childish in the former and like a showman in the latter), and Larry and Morton can practically become different characters between games (the New Super Mario Bros. series portraying Larry as having a Hair-Trigger Temper while Rio 2016 portrays him as much more laid-back). Morton in particular is notable for having this happen in the same subseries, speaking in normal sentences and being perceptible (to the point of being worried when the Mario Bros. defeat all the other remaining Koopalings) in Paper Jam to being somewhat dense and speaking in Hulk Speak in the remakes.
    • While Boom Boom has generally been portrayed as a single character of the same name ever since his debut in Super Mario Bros. 3, a handful of games feature multiple Boom Booms in one place and imply that he is just one of a species of Koopa called Boom Boom.
  • Super Robot Wars: In every game he has shown up in prior to Original Generation Gaiden,Axel Almer has never had a consistent character portrayal. If he is selected as the protagonist of Super Robot Wars Advance, he is a silly man who suffers from amnesia and he is a Casanova Wannabe. When he realizes the truth, he gets serious and he becomes The Atoner for the Londo Bell crew. If he is not chosen as the protagonist, he is a cold-hearted soldier who cares only about succeeding in his missions and he looks down upon the W series. In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2, Axel Almer becomes a full on Jerkass with a hatred for Kyosuke Nanbu because in his universe, Kyosuke (called Beowulf) was better than him and Axel was jealous. Axel also goes from looking down upon the W-series to outright hating them and when he is saved by Echidna, he expresses disgust that a doll would save him. He also says that he does not care for his lover Lemon. In the Videogame Remake, Axel is a Noble Demon who fights Kyosuke because Beowulf was evil and when he realizes that Kyosuke is not like Beowulf, he still fights him because he does not want Kyosuke to become like him. Instead of hating the W-series, he tends to mock them but he does respect them when they do well and later begins to become impressed by them. When he is saved by Echidna, he becomes upset that the Shadow Mirror lost a soldier like her. When he is finally defeated, he expresses the belief that the W-series were perhaps more than just dolls and he says Lemon's name, showing that he genuinely loved her.
  • Tales from the Borderlands does this in-game, as the plot is being told In Medias Res by the two Player Characters. More often than not done for humorous effect, as the PC telling the story can paint themselves as a Badass or the other as The Woobie before the other PC calls them out on it.
  • It seems that the various crossover games in the Tales Series can't agree on whether to support Senel/Shirley (the Official Couple) or Senel/Chloe (the Fan-Preferred Couple, at least in the West).
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • The relationship between the RED and BLU teams varies heavily depending on who's writing. In Meet the Team, for instance, there are explicitly multiples of every class (for instance, Meet the Spy has both RED and BLU Spies featuring, and Meet the Medic features a small army of BLU Soldiers), while in the comics, it tends to treat things as if there's only one of each of the mercs and they just frequently switch off who they're working for.
    • Heavy ranges from a thick-skulled Boisterous Bruiser in-game and in Meet the Medic, to a stoic and sensible Genius Bruiser in the comics.
  • Lara Croft's personality in the Tomb Raider games heavily depend on who is doing the writing as well as who does Lara's voice:
    • In Tomb Raider I, Lara's personality is friendly (even towards her enemies), but can be quite cheeky when she needs to be.
    • Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III has her acting no nonsense at times and is quite snarky with everyone. Compared to the voice actress who portrayed Lara has having a high pitched voice, the voice actress used here is much deeper sounding. This version of Lara is also more willing to kill other people, especially if they get in her way.
    • Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Tomb Raider Chronicles has Lara doubling down on the snark and can come off as very rash and rude. Lara's voice actress was changed again to have her sounding higher pitched once more with some sultriness mixed in. This incarnation of Lara also has her acting selfish and petty, such as breaking into von Croy's headquarters in Chronicles and killing a bunch of his guards just to steal back the artifact they found in The Last Revelation.
    • Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness has Lara acting extremely rude and nasty towards people and using the nicer dialogue choices only has her slightly dialing back on her nastier traits. Lara's voice actress is the same one used in The Last Revelation and Chronicles.
    • Lara's character was completely revamped in Tomb Raider: Legend. Here, Lara's personality is a mixture of her previous incarnations where she is a lot more friendly towards everyone, brings out the snark when needed, and is very cold and rude towards her enemies who very likely deserve it. Lara's voice actress was changed again here.
    • Tomb Raider: Anniversary changes Lara's personality again, but is justified due to it being a prequel towards Legend. Lara comes off as no nonsense at times, but is very daring when the need for it arises. Lara also makes her first human kill (Larson) and is visibly very shaken up over it, but learns to get over it.
    • Tomb Raider: Underworld has Lara acting more aggressive and hostile due to her dealing with her long time nemesis Amanda and the return of Jacqueline Natla, the latter being responsible for the death of Lara's father and her friend Alister. This has her also acting a bit cold towards Zip, though it is brief.
    • Tomb Raider (2013) changed things up again by introducing the game as another reboot along with having a new voice actress for Lara. This version of Lara is younger, inexperienced, and can barely keep her composure with everything thrown her way throughout the game. She's very caring towards her friends and she becomes emboldened in killing her enemies once she is used to killing them and loudly declares she's coming for all of them by the end of the game.
  • World of Warcraft has had this happen - often with faction leaders or characters.
    • Most infamously with Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom and Warchief of the Horde during Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. Apparently during Cataclysm there was two ideas of how Garrosh' character was meant to play out. One was that he would start out as a brash hothead who still had a sense of honour, who would eventually grow into a wise leader of the Horde. The other was that he was meant to be a villain from the start, with him gradually taking more extreme actions until he finally Jumped Off The Slippery Slope. Eventually it turned out the second idea was what Blizzard would go with, to the chagrin of fans who liked the 'honorable' Garrosh. It didn't help that some blamed the majority fan backlash to Garrosh's brash original characterization for causing Blizzard to write off their attempts to make Garrosh a sympathetic character and instead make him a villain.
    • The Horde as a whole seems to have a problem with this. In Warcraft I and II, the orcs were typical Always Chaotic Evil fantasy orcs. Warcraft III expanded their history to explain why they were so evil in the past, and partially served as a redemption story for the orcs and the Horde as a whole. This was all well and good, but the way it's been handled since has been inconsistent. Sometimes the pre-corruption orcs are portrayed as good and noble and were deeply deceived. Sometimes the pre-corruption orcs are portrayed as warmongers nearly indistinguishable from their corrupted selves, even as we're told they're simply tragic heroes. From one minute to another, the Horde can claim that they're only fighting out of desperation to defend their homes, to itching to pick fights with and bathe in the blood of passive neighbors. The main problem seems to stem from wanting to continue showing the Horde as the barbaric, bloodthirsty faction that thirsts for a good kill and a good death, even after their redemption and return to peaceful ways. A lot of times, the differences are clearly between the writers of the main plots and the writers of the quests and world content. In Warlords of Draenor, where we see most of the orcs still become ruthless conquerors without the corruption, even the still good Frostwolf orcs have Non Player Characters that threaten to do horrible things to Alliance characters for no reason (note that in this timeline, the only experience the Frostwolves have with the Alliance are the Alliance rescuing their people from a mutual enemy). Meanwhile, the leader of the Frostwolves is treated like a mutual hero who is friends to both sides in all of the story content.
    • This also affects entire Horde characters whom can change characterization based on a whim. Mists of Pandaria changed many orc character, whom were previously depicted as Heroic characters or Jerks with a heart of gold at worst into bloodthirsty villains that often dipped into Stupid Evil.
    • On the other hand, some writers seem to depict every single member of the Alliance as wholly good and ignore or even rewrite any morally grey action the Alliance did to make it unambiguously justified. For one individual case, General Twinbraid was depicted in prior expansion as a Dirty Coward and Fantastic racist with a hatred of animal people. Yet come, Mists of Pandaria, Twinbraid was suddenly depicted as out to save the Pandaren from the "evil" of the Horde, with his cowardly tendencies, Fantastic Racism and past warcrimes getting zero mention by the narrative.
    • Jaina Proudmoore started going through this after the destruction of Theramore. She briefly swung to genocidal hatred of the Horde before being talked down, after which she was cold to the Horde but willing to cooperate with their more neutral members such as the Blood Elves. Then she went into a murderous rage and purged Dalaran of all Horde for a crime she couldn't prove the resident Sunreavers helped commit. Again she was talked down into cooperating with the Horde to get rid of Garrosh only to immediately suggest killing all the Horde's leaders and continuing the war. She left at the start of Legion because she couldn't work with the Horde, even in the face of a demonic invasion, only to return in Battle for Azeroth significantly mellower and ends up willingly working with Thrall to reform the Horde. This shift in Battle was actually due to fan backlash over the original writing which maintained Jaina's anti-Horde extremism.

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