Origins Episode / Video Games

• Pretty much anything with the subtitle "Origins".
  • Assassin's Creed Origins is about the formation of the Assassin Brotherhood in Ancient Egypt by Bayek and Aya/Amunet.
  • Batman: Arkham Origins doesn't cover the origins of Batman, but it does show the origins of the Batman-Joker feud and Harley Quinn in this canon, as well as the re-opening of Arkham Asylum due to the events of the game. Downloadable content also shows the origin of Mr. Freeze.
  • Oddly enough, excluding Dragon Age: Origins. The "origins" in question are the first act of the game and cover how the main character became a Grey Warden. They have nothing to do with the origin of the setting, any other characters (except possibly Jowan), or the Blight. Speaking of Origins, the DLC campaign Leliana's Song provides an origin story for the eponymous character, which is only alluded to in the game proper.
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  • Subverted with Rayman Origins. It was originally intended to be the origin of Rayman. Its plot changed but its title did not.
  • Silent Hill: Origins is this for Alessa/Cheryl/Heather.
  • Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is this for Garland/Chaos, the main villain of the original Final Fantasy.
  • Ys: Origin explores the history of the Ys civilization, its six priests and twin goddesses, the Fact family, and the Black Pearl.
• Episode 3, "The Inherited Turnabout", of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2 expands on the events that led to the murder of Gregory Edgeworth at the hands of Manfred von Karma, which by extension led to the events of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game. "The Inherited Turnabout" even has segments where the player controls Gregory during his final case, before switching back to the present where Miles Edgeworth picks up on where his father left off.
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• Similar to the Origins example above, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is actually about how King Aelfred the Great reformed the Order of the Ancients into the modern Templar Order which is revealed near the end of the game when Eivor Varinsdottir visits a study room and stumbles upon letters from Goodwin which notes that Aelfred's used the alias of "Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ" to spy on the Raven Clan.
• Baten Kaitos Origins shows how Geldoblame came to be in control of The Empire, and how he went from Verus' prissy Yes-Man to a megalomaniacal Evil Overlord. It also shows how Giacomo's constant defeats at the hands of Sagi shaped him into a zealous soldier utterly obsessed with attaining power by any means necessary and how he eventually became Emperor Geldoblame's right hand man.
• Borderlands The Presequel is the Protagonist Journey to Villain, showing how Jack became Handsome Jack.
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• Castlevania has Lament of Innocence, which explains the origins of Dracula and the Belmont clan's feud with him.
• About one third of Crisis Core is spent on telling us how Sephiroth became the One-Winged Angel he is in Final Fantasy VII. Including remaking Cloud's flashback scenes from the original game to the actual moment he snapped. This took advantage of advances in animation and allowed for Cloud's serious amnesia problem.
• Dragon Quest III serves as the Origins Episode for Erdrick/Loto, the legendary ancestor of the heroes of the prior two games.
• Kagetsu Tohya fleshes out Michael Roa Valdamjong's start of darkness with the Crimson Moon and Drinking, Dreaming Moon scenarios. Roa actually wanted to achieve immortality because he fell in love with Arcueid and wanted to be with her for eternity, but mistook that feeling for hatred and thought he wanted to torment her for eternity.
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, chronologically the first game in the series, mainly delves into the origins of Xehanort and other villains such as Maleficent, Pete, and Organization XIII, but it also briefly shows how Sora, Riku, and Kairi came to be the people they were by the start of the original game.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time shows the Start of Darkness for Ganon, the series Big Bad. The game also goes into greater detail about how the land of Hyrule was formed.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap has the creation of the Four Sword from the, well, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures games, and originally went by a different name (in this case, the Picori Blade), and although it's part of the backstory, The Minish Cap also explains Vaati's Start of Darkness (and shows that he wasn't always a floating Faceless Eye).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword explains the origin of the Master Sword; more specifically, how the Master Sword used to be a sentient being and originated as the Goddess Sword. It also explains where Zelda's magical power comes from (she's the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia), and why Link is always reincarnated (he's Hylia's chosen hero)
• Mass Effect: The novel Revelation serves as an Origins Episode for Saren, showing how he came to be the villain in the videogame... though in the novel itself, he's already an extreme'' Knight Templar.

• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater revealed the tragic backstory of Big Boss, and showed how he went from an idealistic, somewhat silly hero to the villain of the first game... though the process didn't really finish up until around the fifth game.
• The GBA game The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King explains that Oogie Boogie used to be the leader of a holiday called Bug Day. However, it was forgotten and the town was destroyed, leaving Oogie as the sole survivor. The reason he wants to take over Halloween Town is to re-make it into a new Bug Day. This also explains his dislike of Jack in the movie.
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles provides such a story for Jack Krauser. During a mission working alongside Leon, Krauser suffered an injury that crippled his left arm and effectively ended his illustrious military career. After witnessing how the virus healed the Delicate and Sickly Manuela and gave her incredible power, Krauser decided to seek out Wesker in hopes of regaining everything he'd lost.
• The official bio for each character in Skylanders details how they first came to join the group as a whole. Other sources tend to expand upon these in greater detail.
• Despite the major characters of the Masou Kishin series appearing sporadically through the "Classic Timeline" of Super Robot Wars, The Lord of Elemental effectively serves as the prequel detailing how each character arrived in the subterranean world of "La Gias" and earned the right to become a Herald of the Elemental Lords.
• The 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider serves as this for Lara Croft, it follows a 21-year-old Lara Croft fresh out of college on her first expedition to find the lost city of Yamatai. The game showcases her original disbelief about myth before embracing these mysteries and figuring out what happened to her father as well as rebuilding the pedestal she had before he went missing. The following two games, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider work with the 2013 title as Lara Croft's origin trilogy.
• Chapter 4 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate, a side-story Touhou Project book, tells the story of how Fujiwara no Mokou became immortal.
• The "Harbingers: Gul'dan" video released before the World of Warcraft expansion Legion details how Gul'dan became a power-hungry servant of demons after having been cast out from his birth village for being crippled.
• Majima's side of the story in Yakuza 0 chronicles how he went from a surprisingly mellow and subdued caberet club owner to the Ax-Crazy Mad Dog of Shimano through a long, long series of traumatic events.

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