Moments where somebody realizes that "I Never Told You My Name" in Video Games.
General:
- Are you part of an MMORPG RP Community? Expect this. The real reason is that people can have multiple characters, so Alice might know Bob well as his warrior character but not be aware that he also has a monk until Bob introduces himself while playing the monk. The in-universe, in-character reason could be anything.
- This can also occur because Bob is introducing himself to Alice for the first time on any character, addressing her by the avatar name suspended above Alice's avatar. In this case, it could be a sign of being new to RP OR not reading the player's bio to see that certain costumes may have certain identities. These usually prompt an out of character correction.
By Title:
- Bayonetta 2 has a very spoiler-y example at Chapter XVI. As Bayonetta and Balder (her father from the past, who she's already fought) escape a collapsing structure, they get to safety and Bayonetta lets slip Balder's name, which he never actually told her. When he gets suspicious, she ends up getting flustered and telling a very flimsy lie.
- In The Caligula Effect, Marie Mizuguchi also known as Wicked comes with food and water to free the Go-Home Club from being locked in their club room for two days. The protagonist doesn't have any of it and rightly so, which leads to this exchange:Marie: Aren't you hungry? You should eat too, President.
Protagonist: How do you know I'm the President?
Marie: ...Huh? - Escape From Lavender Town is a game that knows your name. Without you ever entering it before.
- Fears to Fathom: A retroactive example occurs in Ironbark Lookout. Jack initially doesn't think much of it that Silas knows his name without Jack having told him, because Silas claims to work at the park and says his co-workers have talked about Jack. However, Jack gets a lot more worried when he mentions it to Connor, who says that no one named Silas works with them.
- Fire Emblem:
- In the original Japanese script of Fire Emblem: Awakening, the Avatar knows Chrom's name the moment they first meet, even though they're suffering from amnesia and initially can't remember their own name. Chrom's lieutenant Frederick finds this very suspicious. The English translation changes this scene somewhat. Instead of being suspicious and asking "How do you know my name?", Chrom instead remarks that since the Avatar already knows his name, it will speed up the introductions. Frederick instead focuses more on the fact that the Avatar claims not to remember anything except Chrom's name and the fact that they claim to not remember how they know him.
- In Fire Emblem Fates, during Chapter 18 of the Conquest route, the Avatar and his/her siblings from the Nohrian royal family stop by the neutral kingdom of Izumo, which is governed by Archduke Izana. Izana recognizes Elise, the youngest of the siblings, and addresses her by name without having been told it, and while Elise is mildly surprised that he knew her name, she lets it slide. Too late, the party realizes that Izumo was actually impersonated by Zola, a high-ranking Nohrian dark mage (who would naturally know all the royals' names), in a ploy to trap and execute the Hoshidan royal siblings.
- Grand Theft Auto:
- Parodied in Grand Theft Auto III during one of the calls Lazlow takes on the Chatterbox FM station. It's from Toni Cipriani (a Mafia boss who you take missions from early in the game), who says "my name ain't important" but accidentally lets his name slip as he's asking advice on how to make his mother show more appreciation. Lazlow as such calls him Toni when he starts to respond, which makes Toni suspicious, wondering if he's tracing the call and threatening to kill him if he is, before insisting Toni is most definitely not his name - only to immediately refer to himself as Toni again.Not-Toni: Toni? How'd you know my name was Toni? You tracing this call? Cause if you are, you're gonna get real intimately acquainted with what your brains look like! My name ain't Toni! Okay?!
Lazlo: Uh, okay...
Not-Toni: But my mom, she keeps going, "Toni, Toni, be a real man, stand up for yourself, don't take no shit!" But all I do is to be a good son...What do I do?
Lazlo: Well Ton-I mean sir... - Grand Theft Auto Online has this occur at the end of the fourth heist, a huge drug deal organized by Trevor. His buyer mentions both Trevor's name and the fact that the purchase includes cocaine, two things which Trevor did not tell him. Of course, it turns out to be a sting operation, which Trevor is forced to flee by jumping into the ocean.
- Parodied in Grand Theft Auto III during one of the calls Lazlow takes on the Chatterbox FM station. It's from Toni Cipriani (a Mafia boss who you take missions from early in the game), who says "my name ain't important" but accidentally lets his name slip as he's asking advice on how to make his mother show more appreciation. Lazlow as such calls him Toni when he starts to respond, which makes Toni suspicious, wondering if he's tracing the call and threatening to kill him if he is, before insisting Toni is most definitely not his name - only to immediately refer to himself as Toni again.
- A variation occurs in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In Traverse Town, Leon, who claims to have never met Sora and the others, refers to Sora by name as he tells him not to take it personally, despite Sora never having mentioned his name in the conversation. Shortly thereafter, he does the same to Donald and Goofy, when protesting that he really doesn't know them.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sheik's true identity as Zelda is widely known. For any players undergoing Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure or are very new to the franchise, this twist is foreshadowed when Sheik calls Link by his name at the end of their first "conversation", even though Sheik is literally the first person Link sees after jumping forward in time, hinting that Sheik is someone Link already knows.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, when Link, who had been asleep for a century in the Shrine of Resurrection and emerges without his memories, first enters Zora's Domain, he finds that many of the inhabitants immediately and sometimes casually greet him with his name upon first meeting him. It is gradually revealed that not only are the Zora sufficiently Long-Lived for many to have been around a century ago, but Link was also good friends with the Zora people, particularly Princess Mipha. Subverted when he reaches Goron City: the entrance guard greets Link with his name, but when Link asks him how he knows, the guard admits he didn't; he simply greets everyone as if they were the old Hylian Champion just to pass the time.
- At the end of Night in the Woods the Janitor who had popped in and out of the game tells Mae that he'll see her around. It takes Mae a moment to realize she had never actually given him her name. This is one of the clues that imply the janitor might be more than he seems.
- Early in One Shot, the game calls you by name during a Title Drop ("You only have one shot , [Name]"), despite not asking you for it. It's a good indication of the nature of the game.
- In Silent Hill 2, Maria calls James by name in spite of the fact that he never introduces himself. James never comments on this or responds to it in any way, and it's far from the only knowledge she should not have and yet does.
- In Silent Hill: Origins, Dahlia knows Travis's name without him ever telling her. He asks her about it, but she never gives him an answer.
- Super Robot Wars X: In Arzenal Reunited, Captain Nemo calls Jill Alektra, indicating that he knows more that he lets on. As a result, Jill feels that Nemo is someone she can trust. Jill, thus, gives Nemo access to the first Para-Mail squadron.
- In the English version of The World Ends with You, upon meeting Neku, Joshua uses Neku's name twice before actually being told by Neku himself. Used to hint that Joshua is more than he seems, as he later ends up being a very significant character. The reason why he knows Neku's name is because he personally selected Neku to serve as his proxy, and killed him to enter him into the Reaper's Game.
- In Xenogears, after being exiled from his village, Fei encounters a woman in the forest who is later knocked unconscious prompting Fei to yell "Keep your hands off Elly!". Later on she introduces herself and her name is in fact Elly. There is a really complicated reason for this.
