Take Up My Sword / Video Games

Be aware that this trope is naturally prone to SPOILERS.

Times where someone takes up another's quest, mission or legacy after their death in Video Games.

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• Alone in the Dark 2: A captain killed by the Big Bad claimed that he would die by the captain's sword. In the final battle, you need to get the sword (Which has been stuck in the planking of the ship's quarterdeck for centuries) to win the fight.
• In Chrono Trigger, Frog eventually takes up the legendary Masamune in memory of his brother-in-arms Cyrus, who was killed just as the sword was recovered.
• Conviction (SRPG): In Ending A, Leed sacrifices himself to seal the Dark Elf and passes the role of the Light Elf's chosen one to Ire, along with the responsibility to maintain the balance of Elwes.
• Dragon Quest V, Pankraz's trying to find his wife, and passes on the job to his son as he's dying, setting up one of the main objectives of the game.
• Dynasty Warriors zigzags it by having Zhang Bao taking up his father, Zhang Fei's spear for one of his secondary Musou attacks after Zhang Fei is killed by Shu soldiers who then flee to Wu. The attack itself ends with a Mighty Roar. The one Musou attack is the only time we see it and he's never shown with it otherwise.
  • Similarly zigzagged by Guan Xing who uses his dead father, Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • During the Solomon Singularity, when Mash Kyrielight sacrifices herself to shield everyone from Goetia's attack, Ritsuka Fujimaru picks up her shield and uses it to beat Goetia to death. Mash is later resurrected and the shield is returned to her.
  • During the Shimousa Singularity, when Assassin of Paraíso is killed, Koutaro picks up her kunai and eventually avenges her by killing Amakusa Shiro with it.
  • During the Atlantis Lostbelt, when Hektor is killed, Mandricardo picks up his spear Durindana (Mandricardo was the only one worthy to use it due to the connection between their legends) and wields it until he is also killed.
  • During the Paper Moon Ordeal Call, Saber Medusa is mortally wounded and gives her sword to the others, allowing Ritsuka to wield it against Kali.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In the Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core, Zack Fair puts his Buster Sword into Cloud's hand and tells him to live "for the both of us". This later leaves Cloud in a state of endless anxiety when he regains his proper memories and decides that he's failed to live a proper life for himself, much less for Zack, at the beginning of Advent Children.
    "You are the proof that I existed."^note Zack calls back to this when Cloud is about to be killed by a resurrected Sephiroth, noting that Cloud has an obligation to live so that Zack is not forgotten.
  • Final Fantasy V has an example that is reflected within the game mechanic. When Krile replaces Galuf in your party following the latter's death, she gets all his old abilities and exp and suchlike.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: The entire 2nd half takes place after Sigurd and most of the player's army from part 1 are defeated and executed.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has the kids who took up their parents' missions come from the future to fight with them in an attempt to make said Bad Future better.
• In Guacamelee! 2, it turns out that "our" Juan was the only Juan across countless alternate timelines to defeat the Big Bad of the first game. In every other timeline, Juan died horribly in the final battle, and another hero stepped up to defeat said Big Bad in his place. Which is why our Juan is called to the Darkest Timeline because their replacement hero became the new Big Bad.
• God of War (PS4): Faye wielded the Leviathan Axe. When she died, her husband Kratos wielded the weapon.
• God of War Ragnarök: After Thor dies, his daughter Thrúd wields his hammer Mjölnir.
• In Hearthstone when Tirion Fordring dies, his death rattle causes the player's hero (normally Uther) to immediately equips Tyrion's sword Ashbringer. The animation for the ability shows a sword flying from Tirion to the hero, implying him throwing his sword to them.
• In Jeanne d'Arc, Jeanne takes a nasty spill down a ravine. Only Gilles goes on to look for her —everyone else thinks she's dead, including the French commanders, who all but force Jeanne's friend Liane to impersonate the Maid of Orleans in order to keep morale up. It doesn't end well for the replacement, as she is the one who gets burned at the stake instead of the real Jeanne.
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Aqua takes up Eraqus' keyblade when returning to Land of Departure after his death, and start wielding it after losing her own to save Terra-Xehanort. The bequeathing ceremonies Aqua and Terra give to Kairi and Riku also qualify by the end have effectively passed on their roles in the story to them.
• Susie's Guest Star description in Kirby Star Allies states that she's intent on continuing President Haltmann's mission to conquer and mechanize planets following his death at the end of Kirby: Planet Robobot. That said, this applies to the English version. The Japanese version states that the events of Planet Robobot prompted her to do a Heel–Face Turn and turn to spreading smiles with science, though with her aggressiveness toward savages still undeterred.
• The Last Story: The sword that Dagran wears on his belt is symbolic of his childhood oath with Zael for them to become knights and protect people. Later, Dagran pulls a Face–Heel Turn and tries to kill the party. After his defeat, he passes on this sword to Zael, acknowledging that he lost faith in their dream and that Zael never did.
• Legacy of Kain: Defiance: Raziel willingly lets himself be absorbed into the Reaver, so Kain can continue to fight the good fight.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, the reason why Gaius becomes a Dominion is because he ends up inheriting the stigma from a traveling priest who taught him a few things, the previous Eighth Dominion, as he dies from defending Nord.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: When Link finds his uncle dying in the sewers of Hyrule Castle, he is told to take his sword and save Princess Zelda.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Upon freeing each of the Divine Beasts, Link is gifted with their respective champion's signature spells and weapons (though the weapons are given by separate NPCs rather than the champions themselves).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Link, himself, is on the receiving end of this trope by Rauru in the beginning when the ancient Zonai king's arm, which previously kept Ganondorf bound, is given to Link to replace the arm that had been injured by the Demon King's Gloom. Afterwards, each of Link's companions in exploring the newly unearthed Temples take up the causes and Secret Stones of their ancestors, members of the Six Sages, to support Link in the fight against Ganondorf: Yunobo becomes the Sage of Fire, Tulin becomes the Sage of Wind, Riju becomes the Sage of Lightning, and Sidon becomes the Sage of Water.
• Mass Effect 3: The Crucible is an ancient weapon against the Reapers that was never finished before its creators were wiped out. It wasn't developed by the Protheans either. Like the humans, they found the plans in ancient ruins 50,000 years older than their own civilization and only improved and refined what they found. It's the combined effort of countless civilizations which each added new improvements to the design before they were annihilated by the reaper, making the building of the Crucible a task that has been passed down for millions of years, with the current cycle of reaping that Humanity is part of being the first to finish it. In the Refusal ending, Liara in turn sends on the Crucible schematics to the next cycle.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man 7: Proto Man giving his shield to the blue bomber after a Bonus Boss Battle.
  • Mega Man X: If the player fails to acquire the X Buster upgrade, Zero will relinquish his own for you to use after his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • After Zero's death at the end of X5, X tries to find his friend, only to find Zero's sword. X decides to use the Z-saber onwards "in memory" of Zero.
  • In Mega Man ZX, Zero and X return as equipable "biometals" that can impart their form unto a new user, who then not only takes up their sword but also their body. The player acquires Zero's biometal after its original owner, Giro, dies.
  • In Mega Man X: Command Mission, the Steel Massimo that joins your party is not the heroic Reploid warrior but rather a disciple of his that took on his axe, armor, and name.
• Metal Gear: The big Reveal of the heavily Mind Screwed series turns out to be that the entire situation with Outer Haven, Metal Gear, Les Enfants Terrible, the Patriots, and FOXDIE is just the result of a small group of people fighting about how to best continue the work of The Boss.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has Raiden take Jetstream Sam's sword after their duel to finish the fight with Senator Armstrong, who Sam tried to defeat before the events of the game. After defeating Armstrong, the latter states that Raiden is a worthy successor of his ideals and encourages him to fight for his own ideals regardless of what others may think.
• Metro Exodus has Artyom who becomes the new Commander of the Spartan Order after Miller died of radiation poisoning, where this time Miller dies for real in the canon.
• Modern Warfare: This happens several times. In 1, Sgt. Jackson gets killed by a nuke, although that's a weaker example since you were already playing as Soap, who the story shifts to, anyway. In 2, It happens twice- first, Allen gets shot by Makarov and you become a different US Army Ranger in the same unit for the rest of the American side of the story, and later, Roach dies when Shepard betrays Task Force 141, and you play as Soap for the final few missions 3 is the only game in the series to (mostly) lack this trope- a few characters die while you play as them, but you only play as them for one level anyway, and nobody new replaces them.
• In Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Kisuke received his sword style this way from Jinkuro's master, who was already dead.
• In the Overwatch short "Honor and Glory", it's revealed that Colonel Balderich von Adler was chosen to join the original Strike Team Overwatch to try and stop the Omnic Crisis. During an omnic assault on Eichenwalde, Balderich was fatally wounded. Knowing his death was imminent, he passed the medallion representing the Overwatch responsibility to Reinhard Wilhelm while Balderich made his Last Stand.
• In Phantasy Star IV, Alys' death forces Chaz to assume command of the team and continue the mission to stop Zio.
• Romancing SaGa 2: With its generation system, the game considered this whenever a generation changes or when the team leader is killed, notably the first lord, Leon. He gets killed off by a bad guy during the prologue chapter, passing all his ability and skill to his wimp son Gellard, who's taking a whole new level in badass. He's then off to avenge his father.
• Samurai Shodown 2: This happens in Nakoruru's ending since her sister Rimururu receives her dagger and decides to fight on from then on. Nakoruru later becomes a sort of Spirit Protector who comes back when needed and often fights alongside Rimururu.
• In Shaun White Skateboarding, Shaun's last act before his imprisonment is passing his legendary skateboard to you, which frees your mind and lets you take up his cause.
• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey has this with Commander Gore begging you to save humanity and not give in to the angels or the demons.
• In Stray Gods, Calliope passes her gift for music onto Grace before she dies.
• In Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Gaiden it's revealed that Fighter Roar tried to use a kamikaze attack on Dark Brain and is now without a body. He then merges with Kouta so that Kouta can become the new Fighter Roar with the first Roar being his mentor.
• Tales of Monkey Island: has a subversion. At the end of chapter 4, Guybrush died and it looked like Elaine would be the hero of the final episode (she even gets an appearance in chapter 4's end cinematic, as if confirming this idea). A month later, chapter 5 came out and the focus was still on Guybrush.
• In Valkyria Chronicles, Isara is killed at the end of a mission by fleeing Imperial forces. Her being The Heart of not only Squad 7, but also the Gallian military's R&D department, R&D mechanic Kreis volunteers to become the Edelweiss' operator in her stead, even inheriting her old toolkit. He also continues her dream of building an airplane, finishing her half-finished model (which is then named after her) along with the rest of the R&D department, before going on to devote his life to aeronautic engineering.
• In Warcraft, Anduin Lothar, leader of the Alliance forces, falls in battle. His second-in-command, Turalyon, takes up his position and kicks the living shit out of the orcs.
• Zettai Hero Project has this as the means by which the main character becomes the Unlosing Ranger, inheriting the Morphing Belt from Pirohiko, who dies shortly after. Pirohiko himself became the Unlosing Ranger in this way, and it's heavily implied this is how new Unlosing Rangers are decided.

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