Fair warning: many of these occur at the end of a work, so spoilers may be unmarked. Tread carefully.
Last-Second Chances in Video Games.
- Baldur's Gate:
- You can offer this to a lot of characters in Baldur's Gate, most notably perhaps Yoshimo. He doesn't, or rather, can't, take it.
- Inverted in a scene in Throne of Bhaal — without it being a case of We Can Rule Together, and more like an inversion of that too. A figure supposedly representing the player character's lost innocence offers them a chance to return to their childhood home and the state before they became powerful. The player can't actually accept the offer (and it would have to be a Nonstandard Game Over). The apparition then transforms into an avatar of evil and attacks.
- One of the major villains in Chrono Trigger, Magus, gets one of these. In the final battle against him, when he realizes that he has lost, he admits defeat and invites you to kill him. However, you can take the merciful route, and not only let him live but convince him to join your party to fight against the real Big Bad.
- Depending on the ending you're going for in Devil Survivor 2, you can do this to all your former party members after defeating them. But notable examples are Yamato and Ronaldo, who will either become available to recruit, try a last-ditch attack against one of your party members (disregarding the fact that he's a Physical God), or, in Yamato's case, perform a Heroic Sacrifice by pushing you out of the way of a falling tower.
- In Dissidia Final Fantasy Cecil offers a place among the Warriors of Cosmos to his designated nemesis, Golbez. He does this because, at this point, he knows that Golbez is his brother, and not entirely responsible for the evil he committed in their homeworld. Golbez refuses the first time, telling Cecil that he has done too much to be forgiven at this point. After their final final battle in Shade Impulse, Cecil offers him the same thing, and this time, while he still turns away, Golbez acknowledges that there may be hope for him someday."But... maybe someday. If the light should smile upon me..."
- Many antagonists in the Fallout series can be reasoned with by players with high enough stats in certain areas (usually charisma or speech). While this often merely results in the antagonists committing suicide after realizing the error of their ways, this can also lead to a villainous character having a sincere change of heart, joining forces with the player character and ultimately surviving the game.
- One notable instance is the Big Bad of the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Lonesome Road, Ulysses, who wants to launch nukes at both the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion, as well as kill the Courier for an incident from their past. With the highest speech check of 100 (90 if strongly allied with a faction) or a convincing argument based on either his discarded audio diary or ED-E’s flight logs, he can be convinced not only to allow you control of the nukes, but he'll also help save you from the ambush he planned for you.
- Final Fantasy:
- Seifer gets one of these just prior to the last fight with him in Final Fantasy VIII. Naturally he refuses it, claiming that he's gone too far to stop now. The ending sequence implies that, because he was fortunate enough to survive, he actually does renounce his evil ways, though it's a little ambiguous.
- In a twist, this last-second chance is offered by Seifer's Silent Bob henchman, rather than by the hero.
- Seifer gets one of these just prior to the last fight with him in Final Fantasy VIII. Naturally he refuses it, claiming that he's gone too far to stop now. The ending sequence implies that, because he was fortunate enough to survive, he actually does renounce his evil ways, though it's a little ambiguous.
- At the end of Final Fantasy IX, right after the final boss is defeated, Kuja, the villain and Zidane's brother, is dying inside the roots of the Iifa Tree when he realizes the mistakes that he's made in his life, resolving to at least try to make up for them by teleporting Zidane and his friends with the last of his power safely away from the now convulsing roots of the dying tree. Zidane, being the good guy that he is, heads straight back into the roots, where he finds Kuja and tries to convince him that he doesn't have to die just yet, and that he can make up for what he's done. Kuja thanks Zidane for the offer, but knows that he's finished. Just then a root heads straight for them, with the scene fading to black right as it's about to hit. It's heavily implied that Kuja died saving his brother from the root, making this a Redemption Equals Death situation.
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance does this in an oddly reversed way rather commonly. Muarim, Shinon, and Ena all are defeated, and recruited after the fact (though in Shinon's case, only if you satisfy certain requirements first, thus merging last-second chance with Defeat Means Friendship.
- However, Bryce, the last of the Four Riders, plays this trope straight to the hilt, as his loyalty is to the Daein crown, no matter how insane its sovereign may be. This happens after Ashnard admits to killing everyone ahead of him in line for the throne, including his own father, the previous king to Bryce's face. Further, fighting him with Tauroneo, a former Rider of Daein and Bryce's old comrade, causes a bit of bonus dialogue where he admits that he realizes Tauroneo's decision to defect is more just, but that there are some people who can't change their ways.
- Also notable is General Shiharam, father to party member Jill. Already a defectee from Begnion rather than serving the corruption in the senate, he sees his service to Daein as the only way to be sure that his troops have a home to come back to, following the orders of General Petrine who openly despises him as a foreigner in the process, and ends up dying to accomplish nothing. In an ironic turnabout, fighting him with Jill is a double last-second chance both ways: if Jill does not have a support built up with one of the other characters, she'll switch sides and fight alongside him.
- Path of Radiance's sequel, Radiant Dawn, plays this straight more often. Jarod is given this choice when outnumbered and outmaneuvered at the end of the first act, and the final act features this choice given to Hetzel, Levail, Dheginsea, Nasir and Gareth if you choose to attack them, and finally Sephiran.
- Radiant Dawn also subverts this a few times as well, with Ludveck, who pre-emptively accepts the Last Second Chance and surrenders before Elincia takes his head off and Oliver who volunteers to defect to the good side without any effort on the player's part if he spots Rafiel, much to everyone else's discomfort. Furthermore, with a little hoop jumping, Sephiran will actually accept rather than refuse his last-second chance on the second play through the game.
- In Three Houses, Edelgard offers Rhea one last chance to surrender before the final battle on the Crimson Flower route. Rhea doesn’t believe it’s sincere, and chooses to fight to the end instead.
- Also in Three Houses, Dimitri offers to spare Edelgard at the end of the Azure Moon route. Instead, Edelgard throws her dagger at him, and he kills her in retaliation. It’s hinted that she wanted him to kill her so she wouldn’t be a roadblock when he rebuilds Fódlan.
- God of War Ragnarök:
- During the battle with Heimdall, after impaling his arm to a wall Kratos, wanting to avoid his past mistakes of recklessly killing gods, gives him multiple chances to back down and even dismembers him when he tries to threaten Atreus. Unfortunately, this just infuriates Heimdall, causing him to get back up and causing Kratos to finish him off for good.
- This is how Odin is defeated. After all his machinations come crumbling down and getting the snot beat out of him in the final battle, he's left to near-death, yet Atreus still offers an olive branch for him to put an end to the madness, allowing him the possibility of properly accepting and take responsibility for his terrible, abusive actions. Odin flatly chooses neither, leading to a pitying Atreus to seal Odin's soul into a soulstone marble, which is then promptly crushed, killing Odin for good.Atreus: There's always a choice! You have to stop. You can choose to be better.
Odin: ...No, I can't. I have to know what happens next. I... will never stop.
Atreus: ...why'd you have to say that?
- Halo:
- In Halo 2, the Arbiter attempts to talk Tartarus out of activating the Halos. After presenting evidence (in the form of an "Oracle", Guilty Spark, even) of the true purpose of the rings, Tartarus seems to consider stopping... but instead knocks Johnson away with Spark, forces Miranda Keyes to insert the Activation Index, and haughtily claims that his race will rise above the Elites. Notable in that the Elites and Brutes are at each others' throats at the best of times, yet the Arbiter gives him a chance to step away without a fight even when he's about to destroy all life in the galaxy and already orchestrated the death of hundreds of Elite Councilors. It shows the Arbiter's nobility, even compared to other Elites.
- The Arbiter does this again in Halo 3, when he tries to convince a group of Drones that Truth is just leading them to their doom. It fails, and you have to help him kill them all.
- Kyle Katarn to Desann in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, as seen in the page quote. No luck, but at least it manages to make him angry. It also completes Kyle's character arc from an angry guy with a lightsaber to a Jedi Knight capable of forgiveness.
- Kyle Katarn's student Jaden Korr has even less success trying this on The Dragon Alora in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy; she just laughs. At the end of the Dark Side route, Kyle attempts this on the power-crazed Jaden and goes 0 for 2.
- Knights of the Old Republic is quite fond of these:
- Three characters get a last-second chance in the Light Side path of the game Bastila and Juhani can be persuaded to take it; Malak cannot.
- Hell, the Player Character can get one if you choose to go down the path of the Dark Side if Revan is female and began a romance with Carth. True to the trope (patches notwithstanding), your character spits in the face of opportunity and you get the choice of killing Carth yourself or having Bastila do it for you... the ending in which it would have been possible to accept the offer and die together saving the Republic was cut from the game. Oh well.
- The game gives you the option to offer the Last Second Chance to pretty much every single Dark Jedi that doesn't attack you on sight. Only a handful of them will accept it. Including one who's long past his last seconds; you can redeem his ghost. The second in command of the Korriban Academy, Yuthura Ban, will actually accept it if your diplomacy's good enough and you've talked to her about her motive beforehand.
- Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords features one right at the end when you confront Kreia. Even though she has no intention of taking you up on it she still seems to appreciate the offer. As far as she's concerned there's only one way this is going to end.
- Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect has one of these just before the final confrontation with Saren. If you succeed, he commits suicide. Sovereign still reanimates his corpse for the final battle, however.
- In Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC, a Paragon Shepard gives this to the DLC's main villain, Dr. Amanda Kenson. Sadly, by this point, she's too heavily indoctrinated to be helped, and triggers a bomb to try and take Shepard with her.
- In Mass Effect 3, Shepard gave this by showing mercy to Kai Leng after their final confrontation, leaving him beaten-but-alive on the floor. Cue Leng realising far too late that he really should have stayed down
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- In the game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, you play as a mercenary blowing stuff up for money, eventually making many people angry at you. However, those same people know that if they pay you well, you will end up destroying your own clients, so these people come up with a deal. You give them a cut of the paycheck you received from your previous client (say, $100,000-$500,000), and they give you a brand new job. This, of course, leads to a cycle of you betraying every single faction of the game, and THEY STILL WILL HIRE YOU! Lampshaded when the leader of the South Korean faction, a CIA Spook, said, "This is your last second chance."
- Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights has one if you have too few ranks in Persuade and didn't complete her romance subplot.
- In Planescape: Torment, you can also offer to try this trope at a few characters, most poignantly to Trias the Betrayer by reminding him that the Upper Planes are also a place of forgiveness. Having Vhailor in your party makes it's a moot point, however, as he'll strike Trias down whether you succeed or no.
- In Soul Nomad & the World Eaters' Demon Path, the Villain Protagonist Player Character gets this offer from a remaining friend among the good guys before the final battle. It's actually subverted: you can accept it, but the other heroes point out that the villain passed the Moral Event Horizon long ago and that one person doesn't have the right to offer them forgiveness after everything that's happened, so the battle starts anyway.
- Jowy, the Rival Turned Evil in Suikoden II, gets his last-second chance at the end. As he insists that they have to fight, the player can either choose to strike him down or consistently refuse to fight back, in which case he dies anyway. Unless, of course, you played the game in just the right way, in which case you end up with a rare subversion... but then again, he was only Necessarily Evil.
- In the Tales Series, the heroes almost always try and reason with the Big Bad at the end, which never works.
- Lampshaded in Tales of Vesperia when Flynn makes an attempt at this, causing his buddy Yuri to quip, "Flynn, are you still saying things like that?!"
- Duke Pantarei, while not the Big Bad, is an exception.
- Lampshaded in Tales of Vesperia when Flynn makes an attempt at this, causing his buddy Yuri to quip, "Flynn, are you still saying things like that?!"
- If you do a No Mercy run in Undertale, the game gives you multiple chances to back out of it.
- Papyrus telling you that he believes you're still a good person at heart and sparing you instead of fighting you fits the most traditional variation of this trope the best.
- If you rush to Mettaton NEO without fully depopulating the Hotlands+CORE area, he'll still die but give a speech about how he can tell you're not irredeemably evil after all and won't destroy everyone — and your character indeed doesn't.
- The final chance is in the final boss fight (against Sans), where he will spare you and practically beg you to stop fighting. If you agree and spare him in turn, he one-hit kills you while your guard's down because you're far too dangerous to be allowed to live — but as he points out, if you really regret your actions, you can reset instead of continuing.
- If you didn't take that one, there's still one more last chance, but this one is more meta. The Fallen Child takes control during most of the final cutscene and murders Asgore without your input. But just before murdering Flowey, they falter, making you press the button to prod them into finishing the job... or instead, you can hold ESC and quit the game.
- Finally subverted in your confrontation with the Fallen Child, where they prompt you to Destroy the entire world. While you are technically given the option to refuse doing so will result in The Fallen Child merrily smashing the fourth wall and destroying the world anyway. As if the game is mocking you for, after having already crossed the line multiple times, trying to back out at the last possible moment.
