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Token Good Teammates in Video Games.

  • Abyss Crossing: Sylfie the Wind Astra and Boldow the Light Astra never directly antagonize humanity and are content to keep to themselves in their own domain, making them the most benevolent of the Astras. However, the two insist on fighting the party to the death in order to determine if the latter can defeat the one manipulating the Astras.
  • Mina Tang in Alpha Protocol. The only employee of the eponymous No Such Agency who seems to have any sort of conscience, and also the only one of Mike Thorton's Mission Controls who care if he kills American agents or civilians, makes deals with arms traffickers, or commits similar acts of Dirty Business. In the We Can Rule Together / I Can Rule Alone ending, Mike discovers that she's actually The Mole for the NSA in order to keep Alpha Protocol from going too far.
  • Shay Patrick Cormac for the Templar Order in Assassin's Creed Rogue. Whereas most people join the order to advance their career, grab for power or resentment against the Assassins, he joined the order for a purely heroic motivation — namely, stop the Assassins from triggering earthquake with First Civilization's Temples.
  • In Asura's Wrath ironically the titular berserker protagonist was this for The Eight Guardian Generals, despite his violent nature he’s still a Bruiser with a Soft Center Family Man compared to Deus, Augus, Wyzen, Sergei, Olga and Kalrow who are power-hungry complete Jerkass Gods who performed The Coup and pinned it on Asura. The other good teammate is Yasha, Asura’s brother in law who was Forced into Evil by the Generals and eventually defects from Deus to helps Asura bring down their former teammates and avenge his sister.
  • In Batman: Arkham Origins, James Gordon, who is not yet The Commissioner Gordon at this point, is the one cop in Gotham who is not on the take.
  • Batman: The Telltale Series:
    • Pretty much the only staff member we ever see of Arkham Asylum who isn't Dr. Jerk, a callous brute, or corrupt and on the take is Doctor Joan Leland. A major driving reason why Arkham is such a Cardboard Prison that serves to only make villains and not actually help anyone is because this woman is the only one who is actually trying to help the patients.
    • "John Doe" is this for the Pact. His only real motivation for being with them is because he has the hots for Harley Quinn, and he largely seems unhinged to the point he basically doesn't realize how bad the things he's doing are. He's otherwise consistently friendly, loyal, and protective of Bruce even if you don't bother to return the favor to a point. He's insane and violent either way, but your how you treat him determines whether he becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist who just needs help or dives head-first into the role of the Joker.
  • BlazBlue:
    • By the end of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Litchi ends up joining NOL as the Token Good Teammate. Unlike the Imperator's other subordinates, Litchi only joins NOL in search of a cure for Arakune and her own deteriorating health, and otherwise has no loyalty to them. Interestingly, she doesn't undergo an Evil Costume Switch in Chronophantasma and more-or-less has the same personality she did before siding with NOL.
    • In BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, the Duodecim families are all firmly under the control of the NOL (and the Imperator and Hazama by extension), except for Reasonable Authority Figure Kagura.
  • Bomberman
  • Athena, in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, is the most heroic Vault Hunter in the game, compared to Wilhelm (a mercenary who cares only about getting paid and comes to respect Jack's ruthlessness), Nisha (a Combat Sadomasochist who becomes Handsome Jack's main squeeze when she finds his brutality alluring), Claptrap (who's...well, not evil, but hardly heroic, and is incapable of disobeying an order from Jack), Timothy (who like Claptrap cannot disobey Jack due to being his body double) and Aurelia (who's an Egomaniac Hunter, albeit one with standards). By the end of the game, the only reason she's still with Jack is that her sense of professional pride prohibits her from leaving a job unfinished as well as wanting to get even with Lilith and Roland.
  • William is the Super Ego among the McCall brothers' Power Trio in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.
  • In many D&D games, such as Icewind Dale or Temple of Elemental Evil, having a paladin in your party can prevent you from having normal dialogue choices, instead getting sanctimonious tirades that ironically prevent a peaceful resolution.
    • Baldur's Gate proffers some useful Good-aligned characters who could fit in well, statistically speaking, with an otherwise Evil-aligned but statistically optimized party. Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated than that — many characters with incompatible personalities will come to blows if left together in your party for too long. The only exception is Imoen, who is neutral good and will stick with the main character no matter what, even if all the other companions are bloodthirsty evils or the party reputation is abysmal.
      • Throne of Bhaal has Balthazar, a Lawful Good monk who has teamed up with the bad guys to accomplish the goal of destroying what he sees as a great evil. Interestingly, the group itself is a part of that evil and he plans to see the entirety of it destroyed — himself included — in the end.
    • In Planescape: Torment, Morte the flying talking skull is only good-aligned character in your neutral-aligned party. You may also become good, but it'll require some time.
  • Dead Rising gives us Thomas Hall of the Hall Family. While his father Roger and brother Jack are clearly just killing survivors For the Evulz and using survival and self-defense as excuses to do it, Thomas clearly doesn't want any part of it and is only killing because he's being pressured into it by his family. There's no way to spare him though, as he remains aggressive even if you kill his family; presumably killing his father and brother either makes him snap and want vengeance, or it justifies their self-defense excuse to him.
  • Credo from Devil May Cry 4 is pretty much the only member of The Order who is genuinely good and heroic, isn't in on the evil conspiracy, and isn't a demon at first.
  • Flonne in Disgaea. Originally joins to understand demons and teach them about love. You get more good teammates eventually, but only very late in the game; Flonne is the Token Good Teammate of the Power Trio you have for most of the game.
  • Dota 2:
    • The Dire side is full of monsters and generally evil beings and some neutral ones. There are a few exceptions.
      • Magnus and Lycan are heroic characters looking for justice for wrongs dealt to them.
      • Clinkz is also heroic in his backstory, slaying a demon to protect his lands, only to receive his current form accidentally from a spell by the mage-king Sutherex, which left him understandably pissed off.
      • Dazzle, a friendly healer who uses his magic for self defense and aid. In Huskar's backstory, it is Dazzle that saves him, not that Huskar wanted that.
    • On the Radiant side, there is Treant Protector, who is the most gentle and least violent hero in the game. The only hero he takes exception to is Timbersaw.
  • Drakengard brings us Leonard. Yes, he may be a pedophile, but he recognizes those urges as wrong and represses them. He stands out among the cast for being the only member with a defined moral compass and actively discourages and abstains from the extreme violence Caim and company engage in.
    • In a more muted example, considering its main character is more mean than evil, the third game brings us Michael/Mikhail; while every other dragon in the series is apathetic at best to humans and actively antagonistic at worst, Michael is an honorable and noble dragon who values mankind's safety, and his reborn self Mikhail is an idealistic All-Loving Hero... who is unfortunately saddled with Zero and her growing harem of... questionable individuals, even if they never quite reach the depravity of Leonard's compatriots.
  • Dragon Age II
    • There's a cabal of mages from Starkhaven Hawke often deals with over the course of the game. Their leader, Decimus, tries to kill you on sight. Grace, his girlfriend, starts out creeped out, but accepts his way of thinking and tries to murder Hawke and their sibling/love interest. Terrie isn't seen much but she gives quests involving framing templars. Then, there is Alain, a genuine Nice Guy who just tries to help.
    • Of the actual main characters, there's Bethany Hawke. Everyone else has at least one moment of hypocrisy or moral greyness (even Da Chief is very pragmatic), while Bethany mainly wants to be normal. Sebastian genuinely tries to be this, despite his hotheaded streak — whether he succeeds depends on his relationship with Hawke and what you do with Anders in the endgame.
  • Cao Ren in Dynasty Warriors is probably the least evil member of the Wei kingdom, a force filled with ambitious and/or scheming lords like Cao Cao and Sima Yi (who was a Wei officer until the introduction of the Jin kingdom in 7, which introduced another example for Wei when Cai Wenji was Promoted to Playable). Ren is a fatherly soldier who simply wants to put an end to the chaos as peacefully as possible.
  • For The Elder Scrolls, Meridia is arguably this for the Daedric Princes, as she and her followers are invested primarily in hunting down the undead, which typically pose a significant threat to mortals in the setting. That being said, Daedra typically run on Blue-and-Orange Morality, so she isn't "good" so much as "her goals align with mortals' best interest."
  • Subverted in Ensemble Stars!: while Trickstar are trying to work out how to unseat the intimidating arm of the student council Akatsuki, Anzu meets up with Kuro, one of its members. However, he tells her straightforwardly that he dislikes the current situation as well and that while he won't defy Keito, he'll be cheering them on. But later on it's revealed that Souma also dislikes the student council, meaning that only the leader is really an antagonist. And even Keito ultimately encourages Mao to return to Trickstar, with words that imply he regrets going along with Eichi's plans.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 5 has a group of Superbosses known as the Evil Players, who are all based on the party members. Most of them are antagonistic, with Matteus wanting to eat the party, Natalia trying to "cleanse" the party with holy and fire magic, Lancelot trying to "optimize" the party by reducing them to raw materials, and Annabelle wanting to turn the party into hunting trophies. The final and strongest Evil Player, God, is much nicer to the party and is only fighting them in order to mentally prepare them for the Final Boss.
  • In the Fallout series, the defining characteristic of the Vault-Tec Corporation was their disturbing social experiments on the people in their Vaults, shelters to hold people if the Apocalypse ever happened (which it did), in order to gauge their reactions. These range from Vaults of one men and all women, to more elaborate nightmares like filling the Vault with mind-altering white noise, or telling the dwellers they must sacrifice one person a year or all perish...
    • ...And then there was Dr. Ted Reilly, introduced posthumously in Fallout 4: Vault-Tec Workshop. He was part of the staff for Vault 88, which prototyped appliances for use in the horrific social experiments that would be used in other Vaults, but Ted apparently missed the memo that he worked for Evil, Inc. and instead designed things that would actually make the Vault residents happier and healthier. To name just one example, there was an experiment based around placing a soda machine into a Vault; some ideas included spiking the soda mix with mind-control chemicals or diet suppressants so they wouldn't stop working in order to eat. Ted's idea was a soda mix that tasted better than Nuka-Cola and could've made Vault-Tec billions. The notes left behind by the other Vault-Tec staff are full of remarks about how much they despise Ted and pleas to Headquarters to reassign him to somewhere cold and unpleasant.
    • The ruthless Gunner faction from Fallout 4 is a mercenary outfit just one step above Raiders in terms of viciousness, and will do any job, no matter how brutal, if the pay is right. However, since their main motivation is money, you'll sometimes come across non-hostile Gunners who are just taking honest jobs as caravan protection.
  • In Faraway Story the main antagonists for Part 1 are the members of the Midage Unit, who want to conquer the Faraway Continent and take the Philosopher's Stone. Silmina and Crowa want to arrest or kill your party for petty reasons and Necrovia is willing to do anything to stop the Dark Lord's resurrection, or so she claims. In contrast, Remi Currensia uses her authority ethically, genuinely believes that the Philosopher's Stone will make the world a better place, and tries to defeat the party non-lethally when they have to fight.
  • In the Final Fantasy series:
    • General Leo in Final Fantasy VI is also a known case of this. In fact, the game likes to lampshade the fact that the only reason why Leo is considered an antagonist is that he works with the Empire.
    • Reeve in Final Fantasy VII, Shinra's head of Urban Development, seems to be the only person on Shinra's board of directors with a conscience or sense of ethics. He eventually defects to AVALANCHE as a Double Agent.
    • Among the Primals in Final Fantasy XIV, there is Ramuh. Among the likes of Ifrit (who intends to brainwash everyone into his thrall) or Garuda (who wants to destroy everything except her followers), Ramuh is at worst territorial. He only wants to be summoned by his Sylph followers in case their forest home is in grave danger to protect it. Although he does believe Humans Are the Real Monsters and is willing to bring down his judgment on them.
    • Dissidia Final Fantasy:
      • Jecht is good, or at least neutral, despite being a member of the Warriors of Chaos, all composed of Final Fantasy villains. Every other villain is out to either Take Over the World, or destroy it — Jecht is just a rather lousy dad who wants to fetch his kid and go home. The reason he's siding with the villains is that Emperor Palamecia manipulated him into thinking that their victory would let him rejoin his son, Tidus. It's also revealed in the prequel that he was actually on Cosmos' side in at least the previous cycle. He probably would have remained there for the 13th cycle as well, had it not been for the Emperor's machinations.note  Golbez, on the other hand, is a good guy posing as a villain.
      • To a lesser extent, Judge Magister Gabranth. In the 13th cycle, he's nothing more than a disgruntled jailer who serves as a warden for those no longer used in the conflict. Several of lines are somber and hint that he wants nothing more than penance for his past transgressions, while most of the other Chaos warriors mock him for his more admirable qualities. Compare this to Shantotto, who serves as Team Cosmos' Token Evil Teammate (to the point that most of the villains revere her). Both of these are somewhat subverted in the prequel Duodecim, as the two are actually affiliated with their respective deities this time around (however, Gabranth just seems to be doing his job and seems to be confronting Cosmos simply to end the war — thus lacking an ulterior motive unlike most of the others, while Shantotto is still a fair bit malicious, even towards her ally Prishe).
      • Also, Kuja is a bit of a tragic case. He's actively working with the heroes Bartz, Zidane, and Squall, up until Kefka intervenes. He's even responsible for Cloud's Heel–Face Turn and Terra's too. After he's defeated by Lightning, Kefka implants false memories to ensure his full-on villainy in the Thirteenth Cycle.
  • A recurring theme in the Fire Emblem series. Nearly every game has at least one member of the antagonistic faction who is nearly entirely sympathetic, yet can't do a Heel–Face Turn, often due to My Country, Right or Wrong.
    • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light has Camus, the one who started the trend. He often actively went against his superiors when they ordered him to Kick the Dog, and yet still serves his country out of knightly honour. Having a Star-Crossed Lovers relationship with a major NPC makes it even worse.
    • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War has Ishtar, who's only against you because the man she loves happens to be possessed by a God of Evil.
    • Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 has Reinhardt, the older brother of one of the playable characters who's mostly fighting you because said God of Evil-possessed character thought he was getting too close to Ishtar and is attempting The Uriah Gambit.
    • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has Gale, who was this close to actually being recruitable but was cut out at the last minute, leaving his an an extremely sympathetic boss (and with a similar Star-Crossed Lovers situation to Camus) and Brunnya, who is a Love Martyr for the Big Bad.
    • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has Linus and Lloyd, two members of the Black Fang who retain their sense of honour and hate how Sonia has corrupted the group into going after innocents, and both act as big-brother figures to Nino. Unfortunately, one dies fighting your army and the other goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and won't listen to reason.
    • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Glen and Selena. Glen is particularly vocal about questioning Emperor Vigarde's orders, but ultimately doesn't live long enough to join the heroes. Selena, meanwhile, is genuinely honorable, but her devotion to Vigarde proves to be a Fatal Flaw. Duessel is a subversion, since he starts out this way, but actually gets to go through with his Heel–Face Turn.
    • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has Bryce, who is aware of Ashnard's atrocities and disapproves. He remains polite and honourable even while fighting your army.
    • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has Hetzel for the Begnion Senators, the only one who isn't a corrupt racist slave-trading bastard and regrets the genocide of the Herons, and who saved Rafiel's life by buying him as a slave and releasing him. Most of his battle quotes can be summed up as either Just Following Orders or expressing regret for never trying to stop the other senators. Levail also serves as this to the main Begnion army, as he doesn't bear any animosity towards the party and only fights out of loyalty to his general.
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening has Mustafa for the Plegian generals, who's such an extreme case of this trope that he is entirely sympathetic and only fights you due to his king threatening his wife and child. Having to fight him comes as a major Player Punch. The Valmese Empire has Yen'fay, who was literally forced into fighting due to Excellus threatening to kill his sister. Said sister doesn't find out until he's been killed, possibly by her own hand, making this even more painful.
    • Fire Emblem Engage has Mauvier of the Four Hounds. He's the only member who's consistently uncomfortable with their actions, including their treatment of Veyle when she isn't in her evil personality. He's also the only member who does a Heel–Face Turn and joins the heroes, although Marni gets a Redemption Equals Death moment that allows Veyle to break free of Sombron's control.
  • Both Rei and Shu become this in the Dream Mode of the first Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage solely on the basis that the Nanto side are the antagonists, and they're both Nanto practitioners. In the real story, they would've been Kenshiro's greatest allies. In Rei's case, it's because his sister Airi was taken hostage by Thouzer.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Officer Hernandez is the junior partner to the LSPD C.R.A.S.H. division contingent with Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski. While the former is the Big Bad ringleader of the racket that uses police authority to control the street gangs by Police Brutality and the latter is an unrepentant sexist and racist pig (including to Hernandez), background information reveals that Hernandez became a police officer for the noble goal of fighting crime; in a Crapsack World like GTA, though, he's probably the only honest cop in the entire series, notably more reluctant to partake in the Jerkass behavior of Tenpenny and Pulaski when interacting with CJ. Eventually he get so fed up with it he begins informing Internal Affairs about what Tenpenny is up to. Tenpenny finds out and has Pulaski kill Hernandez for it alongside CJ out in the desert to cover their tracks once the heat is on, though not before Hernandez performs a Heroic Sacrifice by getting one last attack on Pulaski to give CJ a chance to escape and kill Pulaski.
  • Hades: The Olympian gods are a messy, dysfunctional family, and often shows that underneath their pleasant facade to Zagreus, they're also prideful, temperamental, and vengeful. Athena and Hermes are the exception to this. The former is genuinely helping Zagreus because she believes is the right thing to do and his presence can help to mend the family, while Hermes is actively working behind the scenes with Nyx and Charon to bring Persephone back to the Underworld, and is even hiding this involvement from his family.
  • The Hex: All of the characters are revealed to have been in on performing The Hex the entire time, and do so out of revenge towards their creator, Lionel Snill. All of them except Rust, who doesn't perform The Hex out of revenge. He's the only one who doesn't declare his revenge in the end, instead seeming to believe it'll bring his dead son Rocky back.
  • Hi-Fi RUSH: Korsica, Head of Security at Vandelay Technologies, is the only one of the six heads of the company that isn't narcissistic, petty, or megalomaniacal. She's simply a dedicated worker who embraces the philosophy that Roxanne Vandelay set up for the company and would rather resolve things in a straightforward manner. Her greater moral character is likely why Kale kept her in the dark about SPECTRA's true nature, and she ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn after finding out what Kale is really up to (coupled with his attempt on her life after she decided to investigate).
  • Raiden Mei in Honkai Impact 3rd. To be fair, there are other decent members of World Serpent (such as Raven), to the point that it can be argued whether this organization is truly evil. They are, however, responsible for numerous innocent deaths as well as dangerous, immoral expariments and she is the only one whose hands are completely clean.
  • Injustice:
    • Injustice: Gods Among Us: The Regime has Shazam!, who is by far the nicest member of the regime. He is only in it due to him truly believing it is the best thing for the world, and even then is the only one who openly questions if their actions are right. He is also the first one to realize how far the regime has gone when Superman attempts to destroy Metropolis and Gotham to set an example.
    • In Injustice 2, Superman and his allies are Fallen Heroes who seek to re-establish the Man of Steel's totalitarian Regime. They are joined by Supergirl, Superman's cousin, who wholeheartedly believes she and Supes are Hope Bringers. When she finds out just what Superman is up to, however, it crushes her. If the player picked the Bad Ending, Superman orders Supergirl to become The Dragon to his restored Regime, and threatens to convert her into a brainwashed cyborg if she refuses. Being that she's imprisoned, Superman knows that she'll be back into his fold one way or another.
  • Aside from its numerous defectors, NESTS from The King of Fighters has two that are relatively noble people, yet still obey the organization for their own reasons: Zero, who was rightfully horrified by what his clone was doing behind his back and is not interested in cheating in order to win, and Nameless, who goes along with their activities without question in hopes of being able to see Isolde again.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Riku is this during his time working for Maleficent's Council in the first game. Unlike the rest of the group, Riku has no interest in taking over the worlds and only works with them as part of his mission to get Kairi her heart back.
    • Among the members of Seifer's gang in Kingdom Hearts II, there's Vivi, who is by far the nicest member of the group, and seems to only really follow the rest of them due to his hero-worship of Seifer. Notably, he's also the only member of the gang who wasn't an antagonist in their home game, being a party member of Final Fantasy IX, while the rest were all antagonists of Final Fantasy VIII.
    • While most of the members of both incarnations of Organization XIII are unambiguously bad people, there are a few exceptions.
      • Roxas, Axel, and Xion are, collectively, the least evil members of the original Organization. Roxas and Xion aren't evil at all, only working as a part of the Organization because they believe it's the only thing they can do, while Axel starts out as just as evil as the rest of the group, but slowly develops into a far more heroic figure. Sooner or later of each other, all 3 eventually pull a Heel–Face Turn and abandon the Organization.
      • Besides the trio, Luxord is this for both the original Organization and the XIII Seekers of Darkness. He's far and away the most affable member of either group, is the only member alongside Axel to treat Roxas and Xion with anything close to something resembling respect, and shows no animosity towards Sora whenever they encounter each other, resulting in the two striking up a strange sort of respect. Even after he's defeated in Kingdom Hearts III he tells Sora before he returns to his original body that he looks forward to meeting Sora again as a friend.
      • When it comes to the XIII Seekers of Darkness, Xion once again plays this role, only working for the group due to her new Replica body lacking her heart, rendering her a soulless puppet. As soon as she gets her heart back, she's quick to defect from the group.
    • While none of the Foretellers are outright evil characters, Ava is the only one among the group who can be considered a completely good person. She's the only member of the group who never uses any morally ambiguous methods to achieve her goals, and is noted to be the only Foreteller who never attempted to use anyone else as a pawn in a scheme.
  • Kirby Star Allies has two for the Wave 2 and Wave 3 Dream Friends.
    • Adeleine is this to the Wave 2 Dream Friends. Daroach managed to pull a Heel–Face Turn at the end of his game, but he's mostly an Anti-Hero at best who's out to find the Dark Hearts to add to his collection of treasure. Dark Meta Knight, meanwhile, is a full-on Token Evil Teammate who is a Nominal Hero and is heavily implied to still be drawn to darkness, suggesting that he wants to find a new dark master to serve, or because he's drawn to the Dark Heart's dark energy.
    • Taranza of the Wave 3 Dream Friends. Both Magolor and Susie are Reformed, but Not Tamed in their own ways: Magolor still pulled a Heel–Face Turn by building Kirby an amusement park after fighting through the depths of Another Dimension to destroy the Master Crown, but he's The Gadfly who loves to trick others and even reveals to have some resentment towards Kirby, as revealed in Return to Dream Land Deluxe's True Arena fight with Magolor Soul, while Susie is Faux Affably Evil and the only one of the three who doesn't turn good, instead intent on reviving the Haltmann Works Company. Of the three, Taranza is the only one who's more or less good, and the only one who is a Punch-Clock Villain.
    • There's also the new mid-boss Vividria. If she really is related to Drawcia and Paintra, then she's the only one of the three who becomes a friend of Kirby's.
  • The original League of Legends lore, prior to its 2014 reboot, had several examples in its villainous factions:
    • First, the Noxus faction has Riven, a proud believer of Noxians that the ones with strength should rule, except that she pretty much went into self-exile (hence her title being The Exile) because she completely disagreed with how the current Noxus runs and seeing her teammates die to friendly-fire was the last straw. Still, she's still proud of her Noxian heritage so she still kinda counts. Her post-reboot self has a much more complicated relationship with her homeland, choosing to voluntarily live as an exile in the land she was once sent to conquer and only returning when confronted with the risk of her adoptive Ionian father dying—making her less a token heroic teammate and more a Defector from Decadence.
    • Zaun, the faction where Science Is Bad may as well be its slogan, has Zac, a Blob Monster Living Weapon who is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. He's in fact a personable, boisterous guy who is not really interested in abusing his freedom in most extreme methods like most other Zaunites pre-reboot. His post-reboot self, while still good, is part of a much more morally complex Zaun characterized more by an interplay of desperation and oppression than straight-up Mad Science villainy—and is also joined by Ekko, Zeri, and Blitzcrank as unambiguously good Zaunites.
    • The Shadow Isles, home of various death-dealing undead, has a hulking gravedigger named Yorick, who is only in the League to preserve his dead family's lineage rather than adding more to the collection of dead souls. His post-reboot self is a Creepy Good gravedigger-monk who opposes the Ruined King's forces (with Maokai as a non-allied compatriot in that struggle), but is certainly not their teammate.
    • The Winter's Claw faction in Freljord has Volibear. Unlike his more rude and ruthless compatriots (Sejuani and Olaf), Volibear is a peace-loving bear only interested in protecting his clan and recognizes that only through war that true peace can be attained. He's also MUCH calmer than his compatriots. Averted by his post-2014 lore counterpart, where he's an independent demigod who seeks a return to a time when his old Vorrijaard was ruled by tooth and claw.
    • The post-2014 lore has examples of its own, though there's much more emphasis on conflict between factions within each region than between each region as a whole.
      • Udyr takes Volibear's place as the Winter's Claw's primary "good" advisor, helping in part due to loyalty to Sejuani's mother Kalkia and in part due to a desire to preserve the Freljord's conflict-driven spirit ecosystem from the Avarosans and Frostguard. Olaf is possibly a downplayed example—as he's driven more by a desire to die in glorious battle (despite a prophecy saying he'd die of old age) than a desire to take from the weak, he's ended up on the side of good to hunt monsters surprisingly often.
      • Commander Ledros, former military colleague and mutually unrequited love of Kalista and current denizen of the Shadow Isles, spent a millenium repeatedly trying to return Kalista to her senses—even quitting that, he still seeks a way to end the Ruination and with it his love's torment. He still fights the party as an optional boss in Ruined King, however, despite having no particular reason to fulfill his old role as the Ruined King's Shield.
      • Back when they were alive and part of the military and/or royalty of the bloodthirsty, glory-obsessed kingdom of Camavor, Kalista, Queen Isolde, and Commander Ledros each had a tendency towards this trope.
      • In Legends of Runeterra, Varus is presented as having the potential to become this in comparison to the other Darkin—as the minds of his fused host end up helping him remember his own lost humanity. He's still on Aatrox's side as far as opposing Xolaani goes, but it's not likely he'll aid Aatrox in his omnicidal crusade beyond that.
  • Legacy of Kain: Janos Audron for the vampires. Kain is a Magnificent Bastard out to achieve his goals by any means necessary. Vorador is a sadistic hedonist with a penchant for torture. Raziel, while not really evil, can be indecisive, self-righteous, and is mostly motivated by wanting to save himself. Janos, on the other hand, is a kind, fatherly cleric type who is one of the few people in the games who will tell the truth in a straightforward, artless manner. He even thinks kindly of the murderous Sarafan, believing that they're only acting out of fear and ignorance.
  • Out of the entire cast of Liar Liar, Tanaka is the only one who doesn't show some level of Ax-Crazy or Love Makes You Crazy.
  • Lonely Wolf Treat: Moxie and the other foxes set up shop near the rabbit village for the express purpose of catching and eating the rabbits there. The fox Chai, however, just spends their days working at a grocery store and never shows interest in eating anybody.
  • Luigi's Mansion has Madame Clairvoya, who is the only ghost not out to kill Luigi. In fact, she actively helps him seek out Mario. Once she's finished helping Luigi, she goes into his Poltergust without a struggle. (However, she still drops poison mushrooms.)
  • Luigi's Mansion 3 continues this trend with Morty, a ghost film director. He's more interested in filming his next movie than trying to kill Luigi, and he freely hands over the elevator button once production is finished. Luigi can still vacuum him up once the chapter is completed.
  • Weird Ed from Maniac Mansion is the only inhabitant of the titular mansion who's actively seeking to help Dave and his friends, mostly because it fits in with his goal of removing his father from the Meteor's control. Green Tentacle could count too, except he just wants to form a rock band and doesn't seem to care one way or the other about whose side he's on. (It should be noted that he and Weird Ed are operating independently of each other.) As for the others, the Meteor is evil, Dr. Fred (as mentioned) is under his control, Nurse Edna tolerates the evil members, Purple Tentacle does whatever Dr. Fred says, and Dead Cousin Ted is, well, dead.
  • In Mass Effect 3, a recording of the Illusive Man reveals that he tried to manipulate Shepard into joining Cerberus by surrounding Shepard with Cerberus' Token Good Teammates during Mass Effect 2, making this the rare case of this trope being actually enforced. It also revealed why it's rarely enforced; the entire crew defected en masse at the first opportunity.
  • Sword Man from Mega Man 8 openly admits he has no qualms with Mega Man; He's simply been programmed to destroy him. He even compliments Mega Man with his dying words before exploding.
    Sword Man: Nice shot.
  • Khamsin from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has No Social Skills and is an absolute Blood Knight, two traits that saw him booted from the proper military, but he is nevertheless driven by a genuine Hero Complex, is trying to do right in the world, and even treats LQ-84i amicably. Between Mistral and Monsoon who are absolute Psychos For Hire, LQ-84i who's basically a slave with a Restraining Bolt, and their boss who's at absolute best a Well-Intentioned Extremist who plans to raze the world and rebuild it as an anarchic mess to "free" people, Khamsin is genuinely trying to liberate the people of Abkhazia because he believes in helping them. As they fed into his gullibility to use him for their own ends, this is likely the reason Mistral set him up to be killed in the end once they'd gotten what they needed out of him.
  • Minecraft: Story Mode: The Ocelots are rude and arrogant — except Lukas, who's surprisingly helpful and friendly. Petra will lampshade this during the Wither Skull segment.
  • My Child Lebensborn:
    • The game is set in a time and place in which any percieved cooperation with Germany can cost someone their job. In fact, it's the reason the Player Character is jobless at the beginning of the game. However, nobody in the factory in which the Player Character starts working on the day the child starts school gives them any trouble. The Player Character's coworkers are even described as nice and considerate compared to the rest of the town.
    • Liv, the child's best friend, zig-zags this. She eventually caves to peer pressure in terms of her treatment of the child, but after things get bad enough, she starts being friendly to the child again, if in secret.
    • Mr. Berg is the only teacher who appreciates how hard the child is working in school, while the two other teachers mentioned are acting like Sadist Teachers towards the child. Unfortunately, Mr. Berg eventually leaves.
  • In Nicktoons Unite!: Globs of Doom, the heroes and villains from various Nicktoons split up into opposite teams. Villain Protagonist Zim, however, goes with the heroes, so his arch-nemesis, Hero Antagonist Dib, decides that he has to team up with the bad guys. This doesn't end well for him.
  • Nintendo Wars: In his first appearance, Cyrus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is urging Dr. Caulder to leave Brenner and his men alone as there's no need to attack them (of course they do anyways), and his "goodery" ultimately pisses off Caulder enough that he poisons Cyrus with a chemical that will kill him in the slowest most painful way possible. Brenner's Wolves becomes this for a brief bit for the army of Rubinelle when serving Greyfield, as well; even though his evil and insanity is painfully obvious, Brenner sticks with him, hoping to end the war between Rubinelle and Lazuria that's still going despite the world being destroyed. Davis is this within the New Rubinelle Army proper, as he's the only non-Mook member who doesn't participate in any atrocities, despite also being a Dirty Coward like his peers.
  • Overwatch:
  • The Medic from PAYDAY 2 is the only Special who isn't a Rabid Cop.
  • Persona:
  • Pokémon:
    • Surprisingly, Cipher, the most evil organization in the franchise, has one in Eldes, one of the two sons of the Cipher leader. He hates Cipher's actions and is nothing but nice to innocent persons. When he realizes that Michael can single-handedly take out Cipher, Eldes helps him by trying to convince his father and brother to just give up. He succeeds with his father when Michael defeats the three, but sadly fails with his brother, Ardos.
    • Tornadus and Thundurus from Pokémon Black and White are a pair of Jerkass Gods who delight in causing mischief and mayhem across Unova. The third of their ilk, Landorus, is far more benevolent than the two, providing fertile land for farmers and actively putting a stop to the pair's rampages when they start.
    • In Pokémon Sun and Moon, the Ultra Beasts are, if not necessarily evil, a destructive threat to both humans and Pokémon. The one exception to this is Cosmog, who's less dangerous and far more friendly than other Ultra Beasts. By extension, its evolutions, Solgaleo and Lunala, also fall under this trope.
  • Primal Rage: Blizzard is the only one of the gods who can be called an outright good guy, as the other so called "Virtuous Beasts", while not actively malevolent, tend to regard humans as nuisances or dinner.
  • In Prince of Persia (2008), the Corrupted of Ahriman have the Warrior. He was a king who needed power to save his pacifistic people from invaders, and sold his soul to Ahriman for that reason. Compare that to the motivations of the Hunter, the Alchemist, and the Concubine. Even Elika's father was not purely altruistic when he sold his soul in exchange for his deceased daughter's resurrection. When the Warrior fights against Elika and the Prince, he mocks them less than the other Corrupted and tells them to flee while they still can more than once. Elika senses that he loathes what he has become and holds for him more sympathy than for any other Corrupted (except maybe her father), urging him to fight against Ahriman's control over him. When he's finally defeated, he spends his last moments in a more positive light than the rest of the Corrupted: by begging for his people's forgiveness, throwing Elika and the Prince to a safe distance from him, and seemingly fighting against Ahriman's control before he explodes.
  • Rave Heart: Downplayed with Milo, a member of the Star Raiders. Most of the Star Raiders are ill-tempered brutes who peddle addictive drugs, but Milo is more affable to the party and is willing to earn money legitimately through his mercenary contacts. He's still not the nicest person around, since he's willing to abandon Chad in order to steal a shuttle for himself, though he at least has the decency to leave behind a key so that Chad can pilot a different shuttle.
  • Resident Evil has quite a few:
    • Beltway and Lupo to the rest of the Wolfpack in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, for a very loose definition of "good"; they're still remorselessly hunting down innocent cops and civilians, but their lack of overt psychopathic tendencies still puts them over the mark compared to the rest of their team.
    • Speaking of Umbrella's forces, the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service is comprised of convicted war criminals and mercenaries and home to some purely evil and psychotic people like Nikolai, but seems to contain a few of these. Carlos Oliviera is the one known member of the unit who, despite having a Dark and Troubled Past, is a genuinely heroic man who actually wants to rescue the surviving citizens of Raccoon City and is visibly distraught by the revelation that Umbrella actually caused the viral outbreak. Other characters like Mikhael and Murphy might count as well, as well as the unnamed UBCS soldier who died defending a single civilian from a BOW, but aren't given enough development to know for sure.
    • Alexander Ashford may count as well, being one of the only known executives of Umbrella to have some moral standing and who isn't utterly batshit insane, and who's research focused entirely on the human gene responsible for regulating intelligence and human cloning. What firmly pushes him into this position is, upon seeing the horrific experiments his daughter Alexia was working on, her intent to test said experiments on herself, and fearing the threat to the world this posed, he developed the Linear Launcher and installed it in the base, designed to be used to stop Alexia if her plans were carried out. Guess what comes into play during the Final Boss battle.
      • His father Edward Ashford was one for the original founders of Umbrella. Compared to Marcus and Spencer, he was the only one who wanted Umbrella to be just an ordinary pharmaceutical company and not an insane conspiracy that makes bioweapons.
    • Ada Wong in Resident Evil 4, if you count Wesker and the people working for him as a team given how little actual teamwork happens. She spends enough time and effort helping Leon that you can almost forget that she's trying to get the Dominance Plaga for Wesker until she steals it from Leon at gunpoint. Though it's revealed that she gave Wesker a fake Plaga and gave the real one to her other employers.
  • Rise of the Third Power: Deconstructed. Prince Gage is relatively more ethical than most of the other Arkadyan authority figures, which is why Arielle thinks the Resistance can convince him to cooperate with them. However, he turns out to be complicit in Arkadya's purge of dissenters and undesirables, which permanently lowers Arielle's respect for him even after he joins the Resistance. Despite his attempts to live a moral life, he is influenced by Arkadyan propaganda and is underneath the emperor in the chain of command, making it inevitable that he'd be complicit in atrocities.
  • Alex in The Sakabashira Game is the only one of the seven participants who isn't an anti-social jackass (Bella, Harold and Evan), a violent murderer (Cool, Marjorie and again Evan), or secretly an Eldritch Abomination (Ceci).
  • Oichi in Sengoku Basara used to be one for the Oda clan. Despite her dark powers, she just looks demure and innocent compared to Nobunaga, Mitsuhide, Nouhime and Ranmaru. Then she got carted off to marry Nagamasa where her 'good'/'innocent' side develops more and she could be a genuine good rather than Token Good Teammate... Too bad it goes downhill so fast from there on.
  • Out of the five (eventually six) Valuan admirals in Skies of Arcadia, Gregorio is very honorable and only follows the empress because he subscribes to the My Country, Right or Wrong mentality, and Belleza despises war and seeks to put an end to the long-standing Valua-Nasr War by any means necessary. When Galcian declares his intention to take the entire Valuan navy and go rogue, both Gregorio and Belleza turn against him, pulling Heroic Sacrifices to allow the party (which includes the defected Valuan prince — who Gregorio is a father figure to — at this point) to escape Galcian's fortress and to kill Galcian respectively.
  • In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, we have Dimitri to the rest of the Klaww Gang. Compared to the rest of the gang he's a fairly small-time crook who really only wants to make a ton of money and retire rich, and actually seems more interested in his legitimate life as a club owner and artist than as a criminal. He also seems to be a somewhat Benevolent Boss, actually encouraging his mooks rather than threatening them and even promising them immense wealth at the end of their scheme. He's even perfectly willing to simply bribe Sly to leave him alone, only letting things get personal when Sly insults his suit. So much so that, by the time Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves rolls around, he actually pulls a full Heel–Face Turn and joins the Cooper Gang when they help him recover his grandfather's diving equipment, eventually going fully straight.
  • Soulcalibur IV has this fate unfortunately befall Sophitia Alexandria. Tira shows herself to be very Genre Savvy by designating Sophitia's daughter as a prospective host for Soul Edge. In order to prevent this, Sophitia was strong-armed into working with Nightmare and co. As the latest warrior in a long line chosen by the Greek gods to destroy the evil sword, Sophitia is none too thrilled about her Face–Heel Turn; however, for the sake of her children, she must reluctantly ward off any who attempt to reach the sword, including her younger sister Cassandra and any of her previous allies. And when her other allies who are similarly manipulated in this cause was Voldo...
  • Splatoon 3: While none of the members of Deep Cut are really "evil", they're pretty abrasive in their boss fights. Except for Big Man, who is the first one to hint at the group's true well-intentioned motivations instead of just boasting or trash talking.
  • In Star Wars video games:
  • Eleanor Hume from Tales of Berseria is a good-hearted member of the Abbey, an organization that claims to be protecting and uniting the world in the name of reason and their job are basically exterminating Daemons (men turned monsters). All of them are more into Daemon-killing, but Eleanor is more focused on helping the innocents and tends to be a little crybaby about it, and being kept in the dark on the Abbey's darker intentions (to eliminate free will). She ends up tagging along with Velvet that sought to destroy the Abbey and after realizing that the Abbey is bad, she stopped following its orders, but because Velvet's group is basically a bunch of anti-heroes, Eleanor basically became their Token Good Teammate, the only character in the group that's grounded with basic morality.
  • Team Fortress 2: On paper, the Pyro is by far the friendliest member of Team Fortress, intending to spread joy wherever they go instead of following their job to kill people. Unfortunately, they operate under a completely different perception of the world, having no idea that shooting out rainbows at babies equates to burning people alive with a flamethrower.
  • Tekken:
    • Jinpachi Mishima is the only member of the Mishima family to not be power-hungry (Heihachi, Kazumi) or a fallen hero (Kazuya, Jin). The only time he's ever done anything bad was when he was possessed by a demonic force. The Heroic Bastard son of Heihachi Lars, is also a good person like his grandfather.
    • Among the Williams family, Steve Fox Nina’s in-vitro fertilised son, compared the rest of his relatives is this. Unlike his mother, aunt and grandfather he’s not a Professional Killer but instead a Nice Guy boxer. Sadly his efforts to try reach out to his villainous mother have been met with cold rejection as Nina (though unwilling to physically hurt him) doesn’t want Steve in her life.
  • In Tomb Raider: Anniversary gives us Larson Conway of Natla's thugs. He's a former US Marine while his allies are a former gang leader and a full-blown serial killer who much prefers to talk it out with Lara and use non-fatal takedowns to defeat her. At one point he intentionally misses so she can escape, and later tries to talk her out of continuing by pointing out the Scion technically belongs to Natla, and only actually turns his weapon on her once she makes it clear she fully is willing to kill him to retrieve the Scion.
  • In Tyranny, the Fatebinder is (at least initially) an outright Villain Protagonist working for The Empire, and their companions and allies are, for the most part, Sociopathic Soldiers, Les Collaborateurs, just plain Ax-Crazy, or some combination thereof. With two notable exceptions among the possible party members:
  • Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider: The Guardians are a group of bio-mechanical ninjas with Elemental Powers who help the corrupt and oppressive Penrai Government kill all those who oppose them. Moonrider is the only Guardian with a properly functioning conscience and fights against the others, although his Armor-Piercing Question to Stormdiver makes her question her motives too, allowing her to defect and save him after his Heroic Sacrifice later on.
  • In Warriors Orochi, Himiko is mainly on the side of the forces of Orochi because Da Ji acts as a Cool Big Sis toward her. When she and Da Ji are captured by the Resistance in Warriors Orochi 3, Himiko gets along better with the Resistance fighters (as unlike Da Ji, she doesn't have an ulterior motive for doing so), and goes along with a few of the girls in one Side Quest to help rescue another of their missing warriors.
    • Also in 3, Motonari Mori is savvy enough to realize that the balance of the dimensional world actually depends on Da Ji's presence, like it or not, so he protects and joins forces with her despite still being friendly, especially compared to Orochi's other generals such as Masamune, Fuuma, Keiji, Achilles or Dong Zhuo.
  • Three of the Four Horsemen in World of Warcraft are sadists and their quotes reflect so. Sir Zeliek is the one who has retained his humanity and, rather than taunt you, tries to make you turn back and survive, but is still forced to fight for the Lich King.


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