Human Aliens / Video Games

• Super Robot Wars: Original Generation reveals that all the Human Aliens are actually humans, who left Earth long ago voluntarily. The Mysterious Lovecraftian Aliens refer to Earth as the "Land of Beginning", where sentient life first evolved.
• Galactic Civilizations has a race called the Altarians, who are essentially Humans With Psychic Powers. The Altarians even call the Terrans their "lesser cousins." It's implied in the backstory, however, that the two races might have a common origin.
  • That being said, the game makes it clear they are two separate species, and unlikely to be compatible for reproduction (no one has really tried). Furthermore, everyone in the game notes that the physical similarities between the two species are very strange and seemingly fly in the face of science.
    • Specifically, certain Altarian research options with Dark Avatar notes that a) Altarians and Terrans are two separate species, b) Altarians are more genetically similar to Terrans than they are to any species on their home planet.
  • The resident Precursors, the Arnor, are also noted to look similar (though at the same time they are clearly a separate species) to humans. The only known Arnor still around are the Dread Lords, however, so humanity is rather disturbed by this revelation. It turns out that this is because the Arnor's creator, the Mithrilar Draginol, is himself an ascended time-travelling human. The heavy Arnor presence on early Altaria (as demonstrated in the backstory of the Elemental fantasy spinoff series) is probably significant to that planet's natives' resemblance to humans as well.
• Gene Troopers has the E-Vamp race, a group of Space Vampires from another planet who looks human, but can absorb energy through touch. The player's main partner, Keysha, is one of their members and doesn't look too different from a human.
• Star Control II is mostly pretty good about making its aliens different from humans, though there are still a suspiciously large number of bipeds with heads on the top. However, one species, the Syreen, are your typical blue-skinned space babes - and they comment on the perplexing similarity between their species (the big difference being matriarchal rather than patriarchal). They're so close, in fact, that they're apparently sexually compatible, capable of producing fertile offspring. It is implied in the game's rich backstory, however, that it's because a certain other alien species transplanted some ancient Syreen to Earth as part of an extremely long-term experiment.
• Three of the four protagonists from Demon Front are humanoid aliens (the exception being Maya the Killer Space Monkey). Their only alien features being Jake, The Hero, having bright orange skin, and that the characters have wings that can deploy and help them float.
• Touhou's Gensokyo is a Fantasy Kitchen Sink inhabited by a variety of mythological creatures that all look quite human, even at their most bizarre. A lot of the youkai themselves could qualify for this trope, but The Lunarians are the closest the humans there are. But then again, they might be merely ascended humans after all, and the ending of Imperishable Night describes them as having aspects of both humans and youkai.
• Similarly, the Lunarians in Final Fantasy IV don't look too different from humans other than slightly different skin tones and hair colors. They can even interbreed with humans and the two major characters are Half-Lunarian.
• Final Fantasy X/Final Fantasy X-2: With few exceptions, the Al Bhed are virtually indistinguishable from the other human races on Spira. The only way to recognize them, is by the unique spiral pattern of their irises, which is how Auron confirms his suspicions about Rikku. The game also uses this as a minor plot point, since Wakku hated the Al Bhed, yet failed to realize she was one of them. Yuna herself is half Al Bhed, and is in fact Rikku's cousin.
• Star Ocean series in general has so much various aliens that are completely indistinguishable from humans, that it outright calls them as such, and specifies Earth humans as "Earthlings". Some of these aliens have some sort of minor characteristic that distinguishes them from Earthlings.
  • Expellians from Star Ocean: The Second Story tend to look slightly younger than their real age when compared to other races. Some of them are Uneven Hybrids with various other races, mostly Fellpol.
  • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
    • Velbaysians are capable of remarkable feats of strength, but only for a short time, before requiring rest.
    • Elicoorians can see Symbological currents, making them great mages.
    • Klausians are Heavyworlders, and it's said that an average Klausian is more physically capable than any Earthling. The only way to recognize them is three green lines around their necks.
  • Lemurisians from Star Ocean: The Last Hope are gifted symbologists, and tend to be shorter than other races.
  • Faykreedians from Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and Verguldians and Asterians from Star Ocean: The Divine Force don't even have that, and can't be distinguished from Earthlings at all.
• The D'ni in the Myst series count, as their ancestors (the Ronay) evolved on a different planet. However, this is further complicated by the fact that that planet was in an Alternate Universe, since the Ronay (and their descendant cultures, D'ni included) invented the use of Linking Books as a means of access to The Multiverse (originally to evacuate their dying homeworld). Up until the Uru spinoff games introduced the (humanoid, but non-human) Bahro species, all sentient inhabitants of D'ni-linked worlds were hardly distinguishable from humans of our universe, suggesting that some part of their linking technology automatically avoids creating links to worlds with non-humanoid inhabitants for some reason.
  • There is some precedent for such an interpretation, even given the Bahro. D'ni law (although not any actual aspect of The Art) required all ages to conform to certain environmental conditions, for safety reasons. Since these conditions fostered the evolution of the human-like D'ni, it stands to reason that they would foster the evolution of biologically similar races, especially if they were sufficiently constrained.
  • This also explains why they look human; D'ni itself is underground on Earth, but is itself a colony from a forgotten homeworld.
• Going along with Star Wars above, Knights of the Old Republic has several. The Handmaiden (and by extension the entire Echani species) look like humans but with a tendency towards being very pale, sometimes with white hair (they also have the quirk of extreme familial similarity: looking like twins is the norm — so long as the age difference isn't too large — to the point that Handmaiden looking subtly but visibly different from her five sisters^note as established in dialogue. They actually use the same model and textures except for the Handmaiden having a different hairstyle which can't even be seen in the standard Handmaiden outfit is a clear sign she had a different mother). Echani NPCs in the first game look entirely human^note though this may just be Continuity Drift. The Miraluka are also functionally indistinguishable; it's not until they take off their wrappings that they're revealed to be eyeless. (Visas, your Miraluka party member, is never seen unveiled.) Note that many Star Wars species are actually 'near-Humans', meaning that they are descended from Humans but evolved into something else because of long-term genetic isolation. This is because before the Hyperdrive was invented, people traveled around in generation ships or sleeper vessels; some limited interspecies contact occurred, but no organization on the scale of the Republic or Empire was possible. Also, not all isolated Human populations diverged genetically if their new environment was benign enough; for example, the inhabitants of Naboo stayed well within the Human genetic range, but diverged from mainstream humanity culturally.
• While not referred to as aliens, many of the demons from Disgaea fall under this, since we see that they do inhabitant different planets throughout space. In the second one, it's an even a major plot point that Adell is a demon indistinguishable from humans.
• Escape From St. Mary's: You first think you're looking for a shriveled green man, for your search's actual result turns out more like this.
• Waka from Ōkami looks very human, yet he's acquainted with Sun Goddess Amaterasu. Eventually, he's revealed to be a survivor from the Moon Tribe
• Universe at War mostly plays this straight with the Masari, though there are implications that it may be the inverse as the Masari had been "guiding" humanity for at least ten thousand years. Alien humans anyone?
  • There is also Mirabel, who plays it straight (baring similar Masari influence on Novus' creators)
• If you put it this way, the Kingdom Hearts series resolves around space travel, though all the worlds were originally one. Many of them contain humans (with some exceptions), and the human characters you control can be considered aliens. Though the only one ever called that, indirectly, was Terra, when he was "saved" by Gantu and shown, unconscious, to the Grand Counselwoman.
• Homeworld has the Hiigarans (consequently their descendants, the Kushan and Kadeshi), Taiidani, Vaygr, apparently the Bentusi and possibly everyone else (given that their ships, once captured, instantly can be fielded against them).
• Body Blows: The second game in the series, Body Blows Galactic, introduced a multitude of extraterrestrial fighters, of which three, named Azona, Kai-Ti, and Lazer, looked exactly like humans. The rest of the newcomers were either beings with a humanoid body shape or other kinds of creatures altogether.
• Hat Kid from A Hat in Time looks entirely like a human child, but is from space, identifies as non-human in her personal writings, and regards a toy model of a UFO abducting cattle as an offensive stereotype. The only physical proof that she's not a human comes from an X-ray that shows her ponytail has vertebrae-like bones.
• Parodied in Earth Defense Force 5: when the Primers start ramping up their invasion of Earth, they start sending in alien troopers that, according to other people, look just like humans. They have two arms, two legs, use tools and weapons, have two eyes and mouths, and communicate in their own language, ergo, they are just like humans! Then the player sees these supposedly humanoid aliens, and they are actually Frog Men the size of a building.
• Possible in Stellaris. Create a custom species and use the human portraits, and voilà, an alien species that look like humans but not named as such, evolved on a planet other than Earth, and have entirely different traits from "standard" humanity altogether.
• Polaris Sector has the Magellans, who look extremely similar to humans, except for purple skin, vertical pupils, and certain other physiological characteristics. Moreover, humans and Magellans are able to interbreed, even though human-Magellan males are sterile (female hybrids, though, are fully capable of producing offspring). Hybrids tend to take the best of both races: human physical strength and Magellan intelligence. Genetic testing has confirmed that they are, in fact, distinct species, but they do share a 98.735% genetic similarity (that's less than chimps, by the way, who share 99% of our DNA), suggesting a common ancestor in distant past, which seems odd, considering that they have come from the Magellanic Clouds. Magellans are generally slow breeders. While it's common for a female to bear 2-3 children at once, their male-to-female ratio is astoundingly skewed towards females (1 male per 1000 females). They practice neither artificial insemination (against their religion) nor cloning (too much risk of genetic errors). It's not clear why they don't practice polygamy, though, since that would help alleviate the problem.
• Alex Kidd is a large-eared humanoid alien.
• Arknights has this with Ash, Blitz, Frost, and Tachanka in what may be a strange mix of playing this straight and inverting it all at once. The four are fully human as we know it on Earth, but they were sent to Terra as a result of an experiment on Earth-based Originium. The Arknights Wiki acknowledges them as Homo Sapians, but labels them as Aliens, and their recorded races are Unknown.
• Blaster Master Zero III: Not counting Gonbei from planet Montoj (who's more or less The Cameo from a game that supposedly takes place on Earth), the people of Sophia III have zero practical differences between Earthlings, to a point where Jason and Eve are biologically compatible.
• The Pikmin series has the Hocotatians and the Koppiates, who look like fairly typical cartoon humans. However, there are a few differences; they’re only about two inches (as least in Earth measurements) tall, and they don’t breathe as much oxygen as humans do. That is why, when they are on PNF-404, they are always wearing their space suits.
• Arm Champs: In II one of the opponents is Atlas, the human looking Prince of Planet Amusement.
• The reason Hildibrand and Godbert have super human strength and durability in Final Fantasy XIV is due to them inheriting an alien bloodline passed down from generation to generation while still passing off as Hyurs (game's equivalent of humans).
• Mortal Kombat: Inhabitants of Edenia, Orderrealm, and Chaosrealm mostly look and smell like humans, though they tend to have longer lifespans (Edenians, for instance, can live for thousands of years). Half of Outworlders are humanlike, while the other half are beastly or monstrous. The demons of Netherrealm have monstrous forms by default, but can take human forms through practice.

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