Decomposite Character / Video Games

• As Age of Empires II expands its civilization roster, this has happened a few times.
  • The Expansion Pack The Forgotten introduced the Slavs, who broadly represent the Kievan Rus' and other cultures that surround them. The later expansion Dawn of the Dukes introduces the Bohemians and Poles as standalone civilizations, leaving the Slavs to represent just the Rus.
  • The Forgotten also introduced the Indians, a civilization intended to represent all of India. This received some criticism that India is too ethnically and culturally diverse to be represented as a single entity, even in a game that is openly flexible with what each civilization is intended to represent. A later expansion, Dynasties of India, addresses this by creating three new Indian civilizations, the Bengalis, Dravidians, and Gurjaras, while reworking the old Indian civilization into the Hindustanis.
  • Lords of the West introduces the Burgundians and the Sicilians, both of whom were previously represented by the Franks and Italians respectively in a few campaign levels.
• Assassin's Creed III: Charles Lee and Haytham Kenway are, in many ways, a decomposite character of the real life Charles Lee. Haytham receives Real!Lee's strategic acumen and good relations with the Mohawks (including a Mohawk wife and son), and Game!Lee takes Real!Lee's hot temper and resentful nature.
• Baldur's Gate III: All three main villains take one cue from Sarevok, the villain of the first game. Ketheric is the heavily armored bruiser. Enver is the political mastermind seeking elevation to become leader of Baldur's Gate, and Orin is a Bhaalspawn.
• Battlefield 4 does this with weapons by making two classes out of the sniper rifles of previous games: smaller, faster-firing and higher-capacity ones that don't hit as hard or reach as far are reclassed as Designated Marksman Rifles that can be used by any kit, while the larger rifles that reach further and punch harder but tend towards lower capacities and bolt-action operation remain as proper Sniper Rifles exclusive to the Recon class.
• BlazBlue divides the Japanese god Susano'o with the two users of the Susano'o Unit armor. Hakumen represents the original's gradual Heel–Face Turn and defeats the Orochi-like Black Beast, while Yuuki Terumi turns out to be the original Susano'o and is revealed to have his identity and goal based on his mythological hatred for his sister Amaterasu.
• Bridge to Another World: Alice In Shadowland is a Hidden Object Game based on the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland books, but plays fast and loose with the canon a lot. For one thing, the Queen of Hearts is both composited and decomposited. Her evil and vain nature is put on the King of Hearts, and the look of the queen is given to Alice, whom the king marries, and she becomes the Queen of Hearts (complete with a dainty Cool Crown, short Pimped-Out Dress and ermine wrap). Then there's the matter of seeming to be two Alices...
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II:
  • Story-wise, General Shepherd from the 2009 game is split into two characters. The new General Shepherd has his name, his high position in the US military, and his political power granted by that position, whereas Philip Graves has his position as the leader of Shadow Company, his care for those under his command, and his Blood Knight tendencies.
  • Gameplay-wise, several weapons that were present in the 2019 game as ammo conversions for an existing weapon were split into entire weapon platforms wherein one weapon is unlocked by regular progression and the rest by leveling weapons in that platform; for instance, the M4 in the 2019 game could be converted to fire in bursts, take larger-caliber .458 SOCOM bullets, or smaller-caliber pistol bullets, which were split off in MWII to a burst-firing M16, an "FTac Recon" in .458 SOCOM, and a pistol-caliber "FSS Hurricane". Mechanically it's more or less identical to the previous system, save for that you can put one more attachment on later weapons in a family than you could on a converted weapon in 2019, since the ammo/fire mode conversion is classified as a "receiver" rather than taking up an attachment slot.
• Civilization has a tendency to mash together separate entities to create a single civ, or draw from thousands of years of history when it comes to devising a civ's leader, unique units and special abilities, resulting in things like Mahatma Gandhi leading war elephants to defend Mughal castles. But recent entries have reversed the trend in some cases.
  • Civilization IV introduced the notion of multiple leaders for a single civilization, representing more time periods and bringing different bonuses, so France could be led by Louis XIV for a monarchist flair, Napoleon for some warmongering, or Charles de Gaulle for a defensive stance.
  • Civilization II represented the Nordic countries with a generic "Vikings" civilization, but Civ V split it into Denmark, which retained the Vikings' medieval berserker unit and focus on naval raids, and Sweden, which was equally adept at diplomacy and war with superior gunpowder infantry. Civ VI switched out Denmark for Norway for the "Viking" angle and gave Sweden even more of a focus on diplomacy and culture.
  • Athens and Sparta were both part of a "Greek" civilization under Alexander the Great until Civ VI. In that game, Pericles of Athens and Gorgo of Sparta were alternate Greek leaders with very different playstyles and bonuses, while Alexander was eventually reintroduced in a fully Macedonian civilization.
  • A blanket Celtic civ has been around since Civ II, which resulted in Boudica reigning from her capital of Edinburgh in Civ V. Civ VI instead introduced an explicitly Scottish civilization under Robert the Bruce and represented ancient Celtia with a Gallic civilization led by Ambiorix.
  • ''VI also adds "Personas" which add in different fascits of a leader already in the game, such as Qui Shi Huang who builds wonders vs unifing China, or Sultan vs Vizier Saladin. The most notable is Theodore Roosevelt who had his leader abilities from the base game split into two Personas: "Rough Rider" based around military and diplomacy and "Bull Moose" based around nature and land appeal.
  • Game mods can of course go even further — one of the most extensive breaks Civ V's Polynesia into separate civs for Hawaii (its leader, King Kamehameha), Tonga (its ability to cross oceans long before normal), Maori (its Maori Warrior unique unit), and Rapa Nui (its moai improvements).
• Contra 4 turned the various character designs and Dub Name Changes of series protagonists Bill Rizer and Lance Bean into seven different playable characters:
  • "Bill" and "Lance" use their original names along with the designs based on their NES incarnations (shirtless with color-coded pants).
  • "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion" use their names from the American manual of the original Contra and used Bill's and Lance's colors (green and purple respectively) from the arcade version of Super Contra. (Story-wise, they're also Retconned into being the protagonists of Operation C.)
  • "Jimbo" and "Sully" use their names from the American manual of Contra III: The Alien Wars and designs from the same game.
  • Finally, "Probotector" is based on the robots (RC011 and RD008, although those names are never used in Contra 4) that replaced the human characters in the Bowdlerised European games.
• Some characters from Defense of the Ancients were decomposed into separate characters on League of Legends. Sniper, for example, had his increasing range passive transferred to Tristana, his ultimate skill transferred to Caitlyn, and his basic skill transferred to Miss Fortune.
• Dragon's Dogma II splits the "Strider" vocation, which used daggers and bows in concert, into two seperate classes: "Thief", which focuses on daggers; and "Archer", which focuses on bows.
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • Cloud was originally designed with slicked black hair, but this look was later given to Zack.
  • Early production documents show a character named Aerith but with a design much more similar to Tifa, who had elements of both eventual characters (she would have been both an ecoterrorist who runs a bar, and an Ancient well-versed in magic). These two aspects of the character were eventually split — perhaps explaining the unusual personality inversion between both characters (Tifa being a sexy-looking physical fighter and bartender but gentle and sensitive, Aerith being a delicate magic healer and florist whose personality is forward and assertive).
• God of War had Erinys, an expy of the mythological Furies introduced in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, she later became this trope in retrospective when the actual Furies appeared in God of War: Ascension which was released way after Ghost of Sparta.
• The Great Ace Attorney has a few examples to deviate from the stories of Sherlock Holmes.
  • In the original stories, Sherlock is accompanied by his ever faithful companion John Watson, who records and narrates his adventures. In this duology, while John Wilson exists in the story, the role of Sholmes' chronicler falls to his daughter Iris while the role of his Straight Man falls to Ryunosuke. It also turns out that Wilson being Sholmes' partner is a misassumption — that role is filled by Yujin Mikotoba, and Wilson is effectively an In Name Only version of the character.
  • In the first game of the duology, Eggert Benedict/Ashley “Graydon” Milverton and Magnus McGilded represent different aspects of Charles Augustus Milverton. Ashley is a villain who steals information for profit as with the original, but because he’s upgraded to a younger, more average-looking man with a more sympathetic past, McGilded gets the character’s older, stocky design and Hated by All status.
  • In the backstory of the second game, The Professor was an infamous murderer who’s initially set up as a straightforward Composite Character of Professor Moriarty and Rodger Baskerville. However, it’s later revealed that he was manipulated by Mael Stronghart, who skews much closer to Moriarty by being a criminal mastermind with a strong public image and making sure his own hands are never dirty.
• In Classical Mythology, Zagreus was typically identified as Dionysus in his first life as the son of Zeus and Persephone. Hades, however, goes with Aeschylus's Alternative Character Interpretation of Zagreus as the son of Hades (and thus cousin to Dionysus) instead. The more traditional setup is alluded to when Dionysus suggests Zagreus should prank the House of Hades's court musician, Orpheus, and convince him that they're the same person, not quite realizing Orpheus would turn it into the central lore of one of the Greece's most famous Mystery Cults.
• The King of Fighters:
  • The King of Fighters '99 features Kyo-1 and Kyo-2, two clones of Kyo Kusanagi, the series' former protagonist. Kyo-1 uses Kyo's moveset from KOF '94-'95, while Kyo-2 uses his moveset from '96-'97. Likewise, Kusanagi from KOF 2002 and 2003 wears Kyo's original costume and uses a variation of his '95 fighting style, essentially allowing both the classic and modern versions of Kyo to appear in the same game.
  • Almost a decade after Rugal Bernstein's canonical demise, we are introduced to his two children. When seen together, they both are easily Rugal himself in all but name, but individually, his son Adel inherits his fighting prowess, while his daughter Rose inherits his prideful disposition, which factors into their Sibling Yin-Yang dynamic.
• Killing Floor 2 split off two new classes from two of its existing ones: Sharpshooter, formerly focused both on rifles and handguns, was split into focusing on just rifles while handguns went to the new Gunslinger, and Medic's submachine guns with healing darts were replaced by a new set of futuristic medic guns, with the conventional submachine guns going to the new SWAT perk.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Hyrule Historia stated The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's Link was the same as in the The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, but they were referred to as separate characters in the non-canon Hyrule Encyclopedia.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask takes place in a parallel universe to the one Hyrule exists in, and as such has many alternate counterparts to characters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Some of these counterparts are actually the result of single characters from Ocarina of Time being split into multiple characters; Romani and Cremia are respectively based on the young and adult forms of Malon, and the three Gorman Brothers look just like Ingo.
  • In the first four games, there is an enemy race of monstrous Fish People called the Zoras. Ocarina of Time introduces non-villainous and more humanoid Zoras who are stated to be close allies of the Royal Family of Hyrule and who gladly help Link on his quest, implying a Heel–Race Turn. Oracle of Ages, however, portrays the former Zoras (called "River Zora") and the latter Zoras (called "Sea Zora") as two separate races.
  • Similarly to the Smash Bros. and Mario Bros. examples, Hyrule Warriors has multiple versions of key characters on its playable roster: The base game includes both Zelda and Sheik, though story mode never includes both at once since as far as the story goes they're the same person. DLC adds more variants: Young Link and Toon Link for regular Link, Tetra and Toon Zelda for Zelda, and Twili Midna for Midna. This extends to Ganondorf to a certain degree as well, since Ganon is a boss character.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Rito are portrayed as the radically altered descendants of the Zora, and they even use the same three-crescent emblem on their clothes and other objects. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, however, the Rito and Zora are portrayed side by side as separate species, with the Rito adopting a new emblem resembling a stylized bird.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, a sequel to/reimagining of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past:
    • Zelda is split into Zelda (princess of Hyrule, keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom and Bow of Light), Seres (one of the Sages, captured by the villain at Sanctuary), and Hilda (Link's advisor during the second half of his quest).
    • In A Link to the Past, Link finds a maiden in prison who turns out to be the dungeon boss (Blind) in disguise. In A Link Between World's equivalent dungeon, Thief Girl and Stalblind are wholly different characters.
    • In A Link to the Past it's not exactly clear how separate Agahnim and Ganon are (Ganon's spirit is seen leaving Agahnim's body after his death, and Ganon refers to Agahnim as his "alter-ego"). A Link Between Worlds' Yuga is clearly entirely separate from Ganon; even when the two merge, Yuga's the one in charge.
    • Link's pink bunny Dark World form from A Link to the Past is the basis for Ravio's design, foreshadowing that Ravio is the Lorulean version of Link.
  • Subverted in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Impa seems to be split into Zelda's Sheikah protector and the keeper of the Sealed Temple who advises Link on his quest, but the ending reveals they're the same person, separated by The Slow Path.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does something very similar to Skyward Sword by splitting up Impa between the head Kakariko Village as the sagely old woman, and the Gerudo Champion Urbosa as Zelda's Parental Substitute, with the main difference being that here they actually are two completely separate characters. As a consequence, the distanct prequel Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity depicts Impa at a significantly younger age than previous incarnations (being only around 4 years older than Zelda and more of a best friend than a mother figure) so that she and Urbosa wouldn't overlap too much.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to Breath of the Wild, retroactively does this with Ganon. It is revealed that Ganondorf is a separate character from Calamity Ganon, who was an apparition formed from Ganondorf's hatred rather than something he could transform into.
• The characterization of Heathcliff in Limbus Company is lifted from before he returned to Wuthering Heights, and as such is an Adaptational Nice Guy who never commits the reprehensible acts his book counterpart does. Erlking Heathcliff, on the other hand, is a revenge-obsessed madman more in line with the Heathcliff from the books, stealing Catherine's coffin from the basement and using Isabella Edgar's body as a conduit for himself to exist in the "main" timeline (a parallel to Heathcliff's abusive relationship with Isabella in the original book).
• There are two separate versions of Wolverine featured in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The standard Wolverine utilizes his fighting style from the previous Marvel vs. Capcom game, while the Bone Claw Wolverine uses his style from X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
• Mega Man Battle Network splits the role of Dr. Light from Mega Man (Classic): Posthumous Character Tadashi Hikari has the visual resemblence, and his invention — the internet — causes Wily to become jealous and turn to villainy just like the Classic series. However, MegaMan.EXE's creator and the heroic doctor of the series is Tadashi's son Yuichiro Hikari.
• Mega Man Star Force, being the sequel series to Mega Man Battle Network, takes the roles and character traits of the first protagonist's circle of friends and reuses them in various combinations. Battle Network had Yai, the brainy rich girl with a complex about her diminutive stature, which Star Force takes and splits into Zack, the brainy kid with a height complex, and rich girl Luna. Battle Network's musically-inclined love interest Mayl, is split into musically-inclined love interest Sonia and other love interest Luna (making her both an example of Decomposite Character and Composite Character). Luna and Sonia both also borrow a plot element from Yai, whose vast family fortune was frequently used to write the cast both in and out of various problems, as Luna's parents are just as obscenely rich as Yai's and Sonia is a wildly popular pop star.
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater did this with the cut Metal Gear Solid 2 boss Oldboy, a hundred-year-old soldier who was supposedly Big Boss' mentor in the past. The characters of The Boss (Big Boss' mentor) and The End (a hundred-year-old sniper) were created from aspects of his character. This is in interesting contrast to what happened to the other cut boss, Chinaman, who instead had his powers and a boss arena meant for him given to Vamp.
• Monster Hunter: Your AI-controlled companions (Palicoes in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and onward, as well as Cha-Cha in Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) plus Kayamba in 3 Ultimate, can be tailored to provide extra damage or provide support with buffs, field gadgets like traps and trampolines, and heals. Monster Hunter: Rise introduces the Palamute, a dog companion with dedicated offensive support, with the Palicoes now being more focused in non-offensive assistance.
• One of the originally proposed characters for Mortal Kombat (1992) was a male African-American soldier named Kurtis Stryker. He would end up getting a Gender Flip and a Race Lift in the finished game, becoming Sonya Blade, as the developers felt the character roster needed female representation. The original concept for Sonya would end up being repurposed for her partner Jax Briggs in Mortal Kombat II, while the name Kurtis Stryker would end up being used for the police officer character in Mortal Kombat 3.
• OMORI: In the Omoriboy comics, Omori was more outwardly self-loathing and would occasionally make comments about his life in the real world. By the time of the game, this would be split into two aspects of the same character: Sunny handles all matters relating to the real world and must confront his trauma, while his mental counterpart Omori keeps to Headspace and represents Sunny suppressing his memories and guilt.
• Overwatch:
  • Hanzo and Genji were originally a single ninja character, but the character was considered so cluttered and unfocused both in design and mechanics that he was split into two different characters, with Hanzo focusing on archery and Genji being a shuriken-throwing swordsman.
  • One of the heroes in early development was an omnic named Wildebeest, who fought with a shield and a flail. Wildebeest was eventually split into Reinhardt and Orisa before the game's release, with his flail going to Brigitte.
• Two characters from Persona 5 are derived from Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3: Makoto Niijima inherited Mitsuru's primary position as the Student Council President of her school, her intelligence, her serious personality, and her position as a secondary analyst for the Phantom Thieves (as Mitsuru was SEES' navigator before Fuuka joined them, whereas Makoto handles analyzing enemy weaknesses, even after Futaba becomes the Mission Control). Haru Okumura, meanwhile, inherited Mitsuru's immense wealth (albeit on a more realistic scale: she's the daughter of the president of a fast food company, whereas Mitsuru's father owned a MegaCorp), her Arcana (The Empress), and parts of her backstory, namely that she's locked in an Arranged Marriage for her company's sake. Both of them are also third-years like Mitsuru, and like Mitsuru, Makoto is a bit out of touch with her peers due to spending much of her time studying.
• Pokémon:
  • During the development of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Latias and Blaziken were initially imagined as one Pokémon affectionately referred to by the fanbase as "Latiken".
  • Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! has playable characters and a rival separate from Red/Leaf and Blue from Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. The Let's Go protagonists take Red's place in challenging Gyms and fighting Team Rocket (particularly Jessie and James from the anime, who appeared in Pokémon Yellow), while the rival takes Blue's place. Meanwhile, Red, Blue, and Leaf can all apparently be battled in Let's Go, thus making it a case of this trope in action.
  • Pokémon Masters splits the player roles between the protagonists. For example, Hilda fought the champion but Hilbert took down Team Plasma. Lyra mentions fighting Red, but she owns a Marill like the NPC Lyra and Ethan isn't related to the Daycare Couple like his NPC version is.
  • In most Pokémon games, The Professor fulfills several roles: Greeting you and giving you your starter Pokémon, researching Pokémon, developing the Pokédex that they give to you to fill up during the game, and having familial relation to your rival. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet splits the role into several characters: Professor Sada/Turo (depending on the version) are Pokémon researchers and your rival's parents, Director Clavell greets you and gives you your starter Pokémon, and Jacq develops the Pokédex and gives it to you. Interestingly, it's later mentioned in-lore that all of them used to work under the same research team before Clavell and Jacq become academy staff, with Sada/Turo the only one still working on their research.
• Resident Evil:
  • In the original 1996 version of Resident Evil, S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team's helicopter pilot Edward Dewey was simply a name listed in the game's manual. He was never depicted in any form (manual art or in-game), although it is implied that the disembodied hand that Joseph Frost finds in the live-action opening belonged to him. Fast-foward to the 2002 remake and Bravo Team's pilot is now a different character named Kevin Dooley, while the actual Edward Dewey is an active member of Bravo Team who gets killed off earlier in the prequel Resident Evil 0. The reason for this change was likely due to a photograph in Resident Evil 2, which depicted all the S.T.A.R.S. members from the first game, plus two extra members who were never shown before. Naturally one of them was likely Edward Dewey, leaving the other one unaccounted.
  • Resident Evil 1.5 had many of its elements decomposited and integrated into Resident Evil 2.
    • John, a character who was meant to appear in the police department's cell block, was split off into Ben Bertolucci, who kept his role as a civilian in one of the cells, and Robert Kendo, who was given his appearance.
    • Ada was originally a scientist (initially named “Linda”) who was actually a spy working for Umbrella. In the final game Ada is still a spy but her female scientist role is taken by Annette, who actually turned into a monster in the original version.
  • Two early versions of Resident Evil 4 became their own games. The first is Devil May Cry whose Hack and Slash gameplay was considered too radically different from the usual Survival Horror tone thus was turned into its own franchise, with the only connecting elements being Dante, whose jokey cool guy personality is akin to RE4's Leon and the creepy castle. The second was Haunting Ground which borrowed many elements (and even textures) from RE4 while managing to be uniquely creepy, although Hewy the Canine Companion makes a cameo in RE4 as a different but no less helpful dog.
• In Shrek SuperSlam, both of Princess Fiona's forms (human and ogre) were split into two different characters, each with their own playstyles: Human Fiona takes her ninja-like fighting ability to become lightning-fast while Ogre Fiona focuses on her raw ogre strength and singing ability to be more of a Jack of All Stats. Furthermore, both characters have different default outfits, with human Fiona wearing her iconic green dress from the first movie and ogre Fiona wearing a Valkyrie outfit.
• Six Ages, the successor to King of Dragon Pass, features an entirely new Fantasy Pantheon—albeit one where most of the new gods have clear counterparts among the old ones. The exception is Vinga, KODP's goddess of explorers and female warriors. Her role is split between two new gods: Osara shares Vinga's association with Action Girls and has a similar relationship with her father Elmal to the one Vinga has with Orlanth, while Zarlen shares Vinga's rune (Motion), provides her Pathfinder blessing, and is the new patron of explorers. Both of them share her often-mentioned red hair.
• In recent years, this has happened to the title character of Sonic the Hedgehog. Starting with Sonic Generations there was an implied split between the "Classic" era (the Sega Genesis trilogy of Sonic 1, 2, and 3 & Knuckles), the "Dreamcast" era (Sonic Adventure through to Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)), and the "Modern" era (everything after 2006, e.g. Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations), with Classic Sonic returning as "Sonic as he was at ten years old" as a result of time travel. In the years since, Classic Sonic has become his own brand of sorts, getting equal footing and presence with Modern Sonic and his own merchandise. By the time Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces arrived, Sega had quietly ret-conned Classic Sonic into being his own stand-alone character from his own stand-alone dimension, splitting him entirely from Modern Sonic and in turn allowing both to get even more attention and presence. However, to the frustration of Dreamcast era fans, this also resulted in the entirety of the Dreamcast era becoming Out of Focus outside of the occasional memes and jabs at the 2006 game. Inverted later on, when Sega declared once again that Classic Sonic is just Modern Sonic's younger self, and the Classic and Modern games are in the same dimension and timeline.
• Soul Series:
  • In the Asian (non-Japanese) versions of Soul Edge, the samurai Mitsurugi was replaced by Korean swordsman Hwang due to a law in South Korea which bans media depicting samurais. In the Version 2 revision of the arcade game and subsequent PlayStation port (titled Soul Blade in the west), Hwang and Mitsurugi were made into separate characters. The character of Arthur in the original Soulcalibur, an English swordsman who substituted Mitsurugi in certain versions of the arcade game, was also made into a separate character in Soulcalibur III.
  • What was effectively done with Siegfried and Nightmare, The Hero and the Big Bad of the series respectively. Originally, Siegfried became Nightmare after claiming Soul Edge and was Brainwashed and Crazy into being the host of the blade, and was treated as his evil alter ego. In Soul Blade, Nightmare was foreshadowed with a bonus costume title "Siegfried!", in Soulcalibur they appeared as Moveset Clones with little variation, and in Soulcalibur II Nightmare has replaced Siegfried entirely. However, lore-wise Siegfried broke free of Soul Edge's grasp, and was freed of becoming Nightmare. Then, Nightmare was able to operate without a host due to Zasalamel using his sorcery to bond Soul Edge to Inferno's energy, making the two into completely separate characters. From that point on, they've been treated as different entities, and in fact Soulcalibur V retconned the lore by stating that "Nightmare" is a mantle given to those who wield Soul Edge.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • There is a tendency to do this in Spin-Off titles to increase the character roster. For example, baby versions of various Mario characters have appeared alongside their adult selves with no explanation. A few of Mario's and other character's powered-up forms have also evolved into their own separate characters. Some examples include Metal Mario, Dr. Mario, Tanooki Mario, Cat Mario, Pink Gold Peach, Cat Peach and Dry Bowser.
  • The woman in Donkey Kong was just referred to as "Lady". While in English works she has been named "Pauline" since the NES port, in Japan she wasn't named until Donkey Kong '94. Even though they're the exact same character with a redesign, a lot of 1990s and 2000s Japanese media treated them like two separate individuals. It wasn't until Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U that Japanese media began consistently listing them as the same character.
• From Super Smash Bros.:
  • Mario has multiple versions of himself appear in the games, which are treated as separate characters: Mario has Dr. Mario as an alternate character and Metal Mario as a boss in the first game.
  • In Melee and Brawl, a few characters could switch between different forms: Zelda could transform into her alter-ego Sheik, Samus could lose her armor and become Zero Suit Samus, and the Pokémon Trainer could switch between Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. As of the fourth game, the devs made a concerted effort to drop these mechanics; and as a result Zelda, Sheik, Samus, and Zero Suit Samus are all separate characters and the Pokémon Trainer was replaced with just Charizard (though Ultimate re-composites Charizard by bringing back the Trainer).
  • Dark Pit started off as a "Fallen Angel"-themed Palette Swap of Pit in Brawl. In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sakurai decided to make him into a character. As of 3DS/Wii U, he's now got his own slot on the roster (albeit as a Moveset Clone of Pit).
• In the original Tomb Raider continuity, Lara's tech support was provided by a wise-cracking African-American hacker named Zip. In the movies, the same basic role was filled by a white British guy named Bryce, who was more of a Deadpan Snarker and more of a stereotypically awkward geek than the self-assured Zip. Come Tomb Raider: Legend, Zip got a makeover, but also a second-in-command named Al*ister, another white British techie with less overt social confidence, who seems to have been created to incorporate Bryce's qualities into the games while retaining Zip as a separate character.
• Town of Salem: In the first game's "Coven" expansion, the new Coven Leader role replaces the Witch and uses the latter's "control one player into another" gimmick, except on a team and having the potential to also deal damage to their initial target directly. In the sequel, the Coven Leader and Witch were split into two coexisting roles: The Witch gains her ability to control other players, while the Coven Leader can now deal damage directly to one target, and choosing to boost their strength at the cost of defense.
• Twisted Insurrection does this with itself as more-or-less the original work — 0.9 split GDI and Nod into two subfactions each (outside the campaigns), the explanation being that over the versions the mod's incarnations of the factions had becoming increasingly cluttered with too many units dragging the faction thematics into different directions. To fix this, GDI was split into Falcon Division (the classic GDI slow-and-powerful juggernaut) and Phoenix Regiment (a faster, lighter hit-and-run faction) while Nod was split into the Sons of Kane (focusing on stealth and traditional Nod technology) and the Genesis Legion (focusing on cybernetics and exotic technology).
• Warframe has an unusual example in that it's both the original work and the adaptation (thanks to the developers constantly updating the game): the original boss of Mars was Sergeant Nef Anyo, a Corpus military figure responsible for overseeing the Solar Rail network. Update 16.4 split him into the Sergeant, who retained the old appearance and role as boss, and Nef Anyo, a con man posing as a preacher who instigated the False Profit event. It seems that Nef's new boss fight, which had been in the works for quite some time, wasn't ready when the event launched, so he was temporarily split in two; it's likely that the Sergeant will be quietly replaced once the new fight is ready. Oddly, the same did not happen for Tyl Regor, the Grineer scientist who had a very similar situation with the very next event in Update 16.5, possibly because his character and personality remained fairly similar.
• In Watch_Dogs the stand-in for Google in-universe were Blume due to its operating system monopoly. Come Watch_Dogs 2, both Nudle (search engine and maps) and Haum (smart home) were also stand-ins for Google.

---