Friendly Rivalry / Video Games

Friendly Rivalries in Video Games.

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• Jack and the Blacker Baron in Anarchy Reigns are in constant competition with each other, and neither can resist chances to land verbal (and sometimes physical) jabs at the other's expense... but when actually pushed, the two will immediately band together to crush anything that threatens either.
• Art of Fighting (and related SNK titles):
  • Ryo and Robert's rivalry is lampshaded in the original game's intro and also by its Japanese title: "Ryuko no Ken" (lit. "Fist of Dragon Tiger"). This carried over to the King of Fighters series, where they often have special pre-fight intros and victory quotes for when they face each other.
  • In games where they appear together (KOF included), Ryo also has this sort of rivalry with Terry; this was even the main draw of KOF '94 before the series decided to center the story on Kyo. KOF: Maximum Impact 2 also gives them a special intro where they acknowledge how long they've been squaring off and agree that it's not all bad; doing so with their alternate versions (Mr. Karate II and Wild Wolf) has the exchange end with a fist bump before the battle commences.
  • In fact, pretty much all KOF heroes that aren't named Iori Yagami or K' are quite respectful of one another's skills (even if Kyo can get cocky sometimes and Ash is fond of deliberately riling up people as part of his facade).
• Advanced V.G. features several among its main cast:
  • Yuka and her best friend, Satomi, were both taught by Yuka's grandfather and grew up together as sparring partners at his dojo. So they've been competing with each other since childhood, though their rivalry is downplayed, as they have little interaction in either game's story mode.
  • It's played straight between Yuka and Tamao, who looks up to Yuka as her role model and affectionately refers to her as, "sempai."
  • Jun also competes with Yuka, but her main rivalry is with Erina Goldsmith, with whom she's become close friends. They've competed directly in almost every game and often appear in each other's endings.
• At the end of Devil May Cry 5, Dante and Vergil settle into this relationship. They work together to keep the demons at bay in the underworld while still taking every opportunity to show each other up or spar with each other.
• At their best, this is what a rivalry represents in Dragon Age II. While Hawke and the other character may have differing viewpoints, they respect the fact and still value each other as friends, or even more. The other part of it is that Hawke think the other person can do better. So rather than the friend-path "I'm with you all the way," it's more "Come on, you can do better than that!"
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: The two most famous wineries in Skingrad are competitors but won't say a word against each other; Davide Surilie even admits that Tamika's wines are even better than the Surilie Brothers' — albeit less affordable.
• Fable: The Hero's childhood friend Whisper trains alongside him in the Heroes Guild and takes several quests that pit her against him in order to challenge herself to surpass him. Nonetheless, she's always on good terms with him.
• In Setzer's backstory in Final Fantasy VI, he and Darill were good friends who loved competition with one another. Sadly, she died in a crash long before the story began, setting up Setzer's drinking and gambling issues.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Boyd is this to Ike, The Hero of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Despite his cockiness and brash nature, Boyd is genuinely a Nice Guy who's determined to one-up Ike in combat in the most friendly way possible, to the point that he can be regarded as Ike's equal. And if you play your cards right, that's exactly what happens.
  • Flavia and Basilio from Fire Emblem: Awakening rule the East and West halves of the militant nation of Regna Ferox. Flavia tends to call Basilio an "oaf" due to his grumpy attitude, and the two hold regular Combat by Champion competitions (usually won by Basilio) to determine the full ruler of Ferox, but they are quite friendly with each other, both on and off the battlefield.
• You can be a competitive gamer with Alex in Growing Up, and if so, she'll also see her neighbor Shane as her friendly rival, even if she gets jealous when he beats her high score in Space Sheep. She even doesn't hold ill will against him when he gets injured in her dare in high school, but blames herself for it because she had to cut classes to visit him in the hospital. If you date her, she'll play Space Sheep with you in Shane's honor and even give you the choice to put his name in the scoreboard. He even becomes their wedding officiator in her good ending if you marry her.
• Though it started off on a bitter note, Sol and Ky's rivalry in Guilty Gear eventually becomes more brotherly. By the time of Overture^note five years after GG1 and four years after the X and XX titles, they're practically a combination of this and Vitriolic Best Buds. Ky even entrusts the safekeeping of his son to Sol, something that would've been unthinkable earlier on in the series. Slayer also has a friendly rivalry with President Gabriel.
• A friendly rivalry between the protagonist and Jamie in Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is possible. Since Jamie is always the opposite sex, the option of marrying him/her is always an option. Doing so lands you a rare Non-Standard Game Over good ending.
• Sora and Riku start off like this in Kingdom Hearts. The two would actually keep score of how many wins they had in their competition. But then Riku's jealousy of Sora and his own ambition for strength serves at the catalyst of him falling to the Dark Side. After his Heel–Face Turn, the rivalry in general started to die down and the two became Bash Brothers instead.
• In the Kirby series, this is what King Dedede's relationship with the titular pink puffball has settled down to in the modern era. While he still proclaims they're "destined rivals" (as per his figurine in Forgotten Land states), and he certainly won't hesitate to take a chance to one-up the pink puffball, at the end of the day he's one of Kirby's most stalwart companions and equally won't hesitate to have his back at the face of any massive crises they may go through. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a Waddle Dee even states that the king was "crestfallen" when he failed to find Kirby in the new world.
• League of Legends: Jayce and Viktor, two young, brilliant inventive minds from the technologically-forward city-states of Piltover and Zaun, respectively, worked closely together on many of their inventing projects, and challenged each other to greater and greater achievements. Things went sour once Jayce, disagreeing with Viktor's growing unconcern with human free will, reported him to the authorities and had him ostracized from the inventing community. Viktor struck back by stealing the power source Jayce was experimenting with to fuel his human-turned-machine goal he called the "Glorious Evolution," while Jayce, wielding his newest and greatest invention, the Mercury Hammer, broke into Viktor's lab and destroyed the power source. At this point, they're just plain rivals, and Jayce, hailed as a hero by Piltover's general population, awaits another confrontation with Viktor.
• In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Smith and King Daltus had one when they were young men, having fought a sword duel during a past Picori Festival that ended in a draw. This is probably the reason why Smith's grandson Link and Daltus' daughter Zelda grew up as Childhood Friends.
• Masato and Kengo in Little Busters! Though they're both part of the group of True Companions that are the eponymous Little Busters and often show that they care about each other, both are very competitive, to the point where Kyousuke is able to convince Masato to take his side in the baseball game in Rin's route by appealing to his need to prove himself over Kengo. Sasami and Rin also stumble into one of these, though both the rivalry and the friendship are mostly on Sasami's side.
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games:
  • This is apparently the relationship that Tails and Yoshi have in the Mario & Sonic series. This can also be seen with the main duo Mario and Sonic themselves.
  • And Peach and Amy; Daisy and Blaze; most of the rivalries in the games... However, it's averted with Luigi and Shadow, who spend most of the time on-screen glaring at each other.
• Mortal Kombat: Liu Kang and Kung Lao's relationship originally didn't start out as this, with them being straightforward friends. However, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks reimagined Kung Lao as being jealous of Liu Kang being The Chosen One which added some antagonism to their relationship. Since then, Liu Kang and Kung Lao have been depicted as being close friends who still compete with each other.
• Pokémon:
  • Most of the rivals from Gen III onward are very friendly to the protagonist, with them usually either being neighbors that want you as the new kid to feel welcome (Brendan/May in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Calem/Serena in X and Y, Hau in Sun and Moon, and Nemona in Scarlet and Violet) or close childhood friends (Barry in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, Cheren and Bianca in Black and White, Hugh in Black 2 and White 2, Trace from Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!, and Hop in Sword and Shield). Additionally, the protagonist may end up forming friendly rivalries with other characters that they end up meeting during their journey (Wally in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Shauna/Tierno/Trevor in X and Y^note They meet the protagonist around the same time as Calem/Serena, but are not shown to be their neighbors, and Marnie in Sword and Shield). This is in stark contrast with the first two rivals, Blue/Green and Silver, who would regularly insult and belittle the player.
  • Kieran from the Scarlet and Violet DLC gradually subverts and deconstructs this. When you first meet him in The Teal Mask, he's eager to befriend you and battle with you in spite of his shyness, but as the storyline progresses he becomes increasingly unable to cope with being Always Second Best to you (among other things), and the "friendly" part gradually ebbs away.
• Ninja and Miyamoto from the Richman series always have a dual with each other when met, and sometimes they learn from each other to become stronger in their next dual.
• Senran Kagura games are about four schools (well, three schools and one band of runaway ninja) competing to out-ninja the others, so there is a lot of this trope going around.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In contrast to his much more bitter relationship with the likes of Shadow or Jet, Knuckles eventually ends up having this relationship with Sonic over time. Their usual spats lack any real malice and are treated more like playful teasing.
  • Sonic tries to invoke this on Shadow in the hero path story of Shadow the Hedgehog, but Shadow is rather annoyed about it. However, he reciprocates in the Pure Hero — Dark ending, where he decides that he is the most powerful hedgehog in the world.
• In Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, Danette is Revya's childhood friend/rival. In her ending (male), it is heavily implied that they will become intimate.
• In the Star Fox series, Fox and Falco are this to one another. Despite being teammates, the two have a tendency to snark at one another's skills and try to show each other up given the opportunity.
• Street Fighter:
  • Ryu and Ken are one of gaming's earliest and longstanding examples. They've been training together since childhood and have remained competitive with each other throughout the series. Ken's story in Street Fighter Alpha 2 concluded with them having a friendly match, when he saw Ryu was still shaken by his duel with Sagat (in SFI) and the ramifications of his victory. Ken is also one of Ryu's Rival Battles in SSFIV. In games that have special intros, you'll often see Ryu and Ken either tapping fists or doing something else that shows they're not in it to kill each other (like Ken playfully putting Ryu in a headlock before he gets tossed to his own side of the screen).
  • In the earlier parts of the series, Sagat was an enemy of Ryu and hellbent on getting revenge for being scarred by his Shoryuken, which served as a permanent reminder of his defeat at Ryu's hands. This was retconned years later, to make it so Sagat had actually been the winner of the match. Ryu still scarred him but it was an upsurge of Satsui no Hadou ki that inspired it and it happened after he had lost. However, he still comes around during Alpha 3 after running into Dan (whose father was killed by Sagat in the ring years ago) and having a Heel Realization, so Sagat now sees Ryu as his inspiration to delve deeper into his own spirituality as a warrior and relishes the opportunity to face him again.
  • Sakura and Karin's relationship began as a one-sided rivalry on the latter's part, as she previously suffered a defeat at Sakura's hands. After settling the score in Alpha 3, Karin realizes her victory was a fluke and remembers Ken's words (from earlier in her A3 story) that the outcome of a match isn't as important as the match itself. Karin then changes her tune about Sakura, with Namco × Capcom pairing them up and later games like SFIV implying the two now enjoy a much healthier rivalry like Ryu and Ken do. Sakura's appearance in Season 3 of Street Fighter V would solidify their status as close friends; Karin regularly invites Sakura to the Kanzuki estate, which leads to the two squaring off nearly every time they catch up, but also lends an ear and offers some counsel when Sakky is unsure about where her life's path is leading her.
  • The Street Fighter III series has two more examples. The first, Yun and Yang, are twin brothers who protect their hometown of Hong Kong together but also consider the other to be their greatest rival (though Yang's unrequited and unvoiced pining for his brother's girlfriend Hoimei may also factor into this). The second pair, Ibuki and Makoto, have a special intro in 3rd Strike, but also appear together in several pieces of official art (often alongside Elena), where it's suggested they're schoolmates and possibly close acquaintances. Ibuki regards Makoto more neutrally in SSFIV (likely because the game is set before the III series), where she instead partakes in a friendly spar with Sakura for her Rival Battle.
  • Ibuki's aforementioned encounter with Sakura seems to have also developed into one of these, albeit largely off-screen. When Karin requests the kunoichi's services and brings Ibuki into the fold in V, she does so almost entirely based on all the positive word of mouth she had heard from her chats with Sakura.
  • SFV sheds some light on the wrestling promotion which Rainbow Mika is a part of by way of adding Yamato Nadeshiko, a character who was previously only seen in artbooks and mentioned in Mika's backstory as her main rival, as her tag team partner.
• Tekken:
  • Jin Kazama and Hwoarang start out as bitter rivals in their debut game (Tekken 3, with the backstory establishing their rivalry began when the two fought to a draw prior to the third King of Iron Fist Tournament), but since Jin eventually has to deal with much bigger and serious unrelated issues, he consciously tones down on their petty rivalry, much to Hwoarang's chagrin. It's worth noting that, aside from Ling Xiaoyu, Hwoarang is the only person Jin has been shown to genuinely smile at. In 8, Hwoarang is the first person to notice that Jin is hiding his Devil powers at his expense, and encourages him to stop doing that, which proves to be the answer to decisively defeat his father.
  • Asuka Kazama, much like her relative, starts out having a serious rivalry with Lili Rochefort, but it seems that their time in the tournaments have made them realize that they are more alike than they thought, and they become friends as a result.
• Touhou Project:
  • Reimu and Marisa's relationships with other characters often end up becoming this. It is not unusual for both Reimu and Marisa to mercilessly beat down their enemies in battle, only to hang out and engage in witty banter with them later. When they're not investigating incidents, Reimu and Marisa get along fairly well with others, but both will jump at the chance to settle scores and see how much their former enemies' skills have improved.
  • Reimu and Marisa's relationship with each other is like this as well. They're good friends and Marisa readily admits Reimu is stronger (proudly calling herself the second-strongest person in Gensokyo), but she still tries to become stronger and resolve incidents faster.
• In Wildermyth, a given pair of heroes can become rivals through player choice, events, or in-game interaction. Their interaction tends to be aggressive, but they're still comrades who work together to accomplish the party's goals, and their rivalry inspires them to try to outdo one another in battle — when one of them performs a successful stunt, their rival gains an increased chance to stunt as well, indicated by the status "Oh Yeah? Watch This!"
• Invoked in Xtreme Sports. Finn and Guppi mutually decide to compete in a sports tournament so they can easily win its prize. Naturally, the player character ends up confronting whoever hasn't been picked, at one point. Amusingly, both competitors also happen to be an item.

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