Magnetic Hero / Video Games

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• Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. The protagonist has no problem whatsoever in recruiting people to cheerfully abandon their livelihoods and trudge along, carrying crateloads of gear into dangerous situations and swinging weapons at all manner of ungodly foes and beasts, and not even say anything when you're announcing your plans to go to the next "no-one-ever-came-back-alive" destination, such as the Vendigroth Wastes, Island of Despair, ultra-secret enclave of the dark elves, or the Void. (Those are Names to Run Away from Really Fast, people.) The protagonist will also usually inform the latest recruit that they're hunted by an ancient order of assassins who want them, and everyone associated with them, dead. This fails to deter anyone. I guess living in Dernholm must suck majorly if this is the preferred choice.
• Subconsciously attracting allies is a semi-divine power of Breath of Fire IV's hero.
• In Chrono Cross, only a few of the 40+ characters join Serge because their own ambition drives them to seek the Frozen Flame (and even then, they become subservient to him instantly.) The others join up simply for the reasons described above, or Because Destiny Says So.
• Detroit: Become Human: Markus is a former caretaker android who, after deviating from his programmed restrictions, develops the ability to help other androids deviate and free themselves. Between this, his charisma, and his ability to get things done where few others would even try, he ends up at the head of an android-rights movement that draws thousands of androids under his banner in a shockingly short span of time.
• The MC of Devil Survivor can become one, depending on dialogue choices and in some paths, end up recruiting more humans than the player can deploy in battle. A good example is Haru, who happens to be suicidally depressed, but nevertheless opens her heart up to the protagonist almost from the moment they meet.
  • Same goes for the protagonist of the sequel, Devil Survivor 2. Invest time in someone and most of them will follow you into hell itself, even if your alignments don't quite match up.
• Valvatorez of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten has an extreme knack for bringing people to his side. Apart from drawing in Fuka, Emizel, Vulcanus, and Desco, he also manages to unconsciously amass an entire army willing to fight for him. For Tyrant Valvatorez, it's taken to an even higher level — he can get a passive ability to turn any enemy he defeats into an ally for the rest of the battle.
  • Adell of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories and Killia of Disgaea 5 fall into this as well with their respective parties forming around them due to their dependability.
• Dragon Age:
  • The Grey Wardens of Dragon Age: Origins have far less clout in Fereldan then they enjoy in other countries, so they rely on this for their recruitment. Duncan and the player are two such examples. Arl Eamon also owes his political influence to being one.
  • Hawke in Dragon Age II seems to have an unerring ability to gravitate people towards them. Besides their regular companions, it's shown that Bodahn Feddic vowed complete Undying Loyalty after Hawke rescued his adopted son, Sandal, in the Deep Roads, becoming their man-servant and official Team Dad of their estate, despite Hawke's protests that it really wasn't necessary. Hawke's maid, Oriana, was a former slave that s/he rescued from an insane Tevinter Magister. She's naturally bewildered when Hawke informs her she's now free, proceeds to offer her a job... and more astoundingly, is actually going to pay her for her service.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Varric might tell the Inquisitor a story about Hawke, specifically how some moron in the Carta sent some people after Hawke to get him/her to pay for his/her uncle's debts after Hawke became extremely wealthy. A Snarky!Hawke was waiting for them with cards and kept them busy until the guards showed up and arrested them. A number of them still liked Hawke so much that, after getting out, they became regulars at Hawke and Varric's weekly card games.
• In Dragon Quest Builders 2, people find the Builder extremely likable and will quickly become fast friends. This, in a setting where the local Religion of Evil rules over the region, and their propaganda paints builders like the main character as bringers of misery. Regardless, the Builder's cheerful attitude and willingness to make whatever their friends need easily draws in people, monsters, and even the humanoid reincarnation of the god of destruction.
• It's observed early on that the protagonist of Exit Fate has a knack for this. After he defects to the opposing army, his superiors don't even bother assigning troops to him, since he's so good at finding new recruits. At the end of the game, your crew count will be somewhere between 40 and 75.
• The protagonist of Fate/Grand Order is noted many times to be very mediocre as far as being a magus is concerned, but when it comes to being a Master they're unmatched by anyone, simply by virtue of their ability to bond with and command even the most prideful, crazy and/or evil Servants in existence.
• Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII. Despite the fact that he's a former SOLDIER for Shinra, as well as having an aloof attitude, AVALANCHE accepts his help and eventually admit him as their leader thanks to his charisma and him helping out with their problems, even after they find out that his memory of him being from SOLDIER is false, and that he can be mind-controlled by the Big Bad.
• Every Lord in a Fire Emblem game. Enough so to attract more allies than your party has room for.
  • The Avatars of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth games are able to support with every other playable character of their respective game — and the latter two can even marry any of the opposite sex. Even the Secret Characters that don't as much as get supports with anyone else.
• In Halo, Thel 'Vadam, better known as the Arbiter, was a magnetic force among the Sangheili.
  • Several Sangheili, such as Sesa 'Refumee, spoke very highly of him and regarded him as trustworthy. Others, like Rtas 'Vadum (before and during Halo 2), pledged allegiance to him, even if it meant siding with the Humans.
  • By Halo 5: Guardians, several Sangheili chose to defect from the collapsing Covenant and join his side as they felt it was dishonorable to kill their own kind.
  • Rhu 'Vrath was a Covenant assassin sent to kill the Arbiter while he was readying his armor. But it wasn't until seeing the Arbiter's Mark of Shame when he slowly switched sides and joined the Swords of Sanghelios.
    Rhu 'Vrath: Perhaps there is more to [the Arbiter] than I thought.
• Yuri from Infinite Space seems to have a natural air of leadership that draws people to him... or have him do dirty work for them.
• Sora from Kingdom Hearts. He is explicitly stated to have the power to connect with anyone. Unfortunately, the Big Bad realizes, as bonds and other such links between Hearts are very important in this series, that anyone includes him, and attempts to use this to possess Sora. It should be noted that the Big Bad can be rather charismatic (if he chooses not to simply beat your face in) in virtually every incarnation, and he has a lot of those.
• A Deconstructed Trope in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The Jedi Exile you play as is (in)famous for creating bonds like this subconsciously by using the Force, sometimes creating bonds strong enough for a Synchronization. Further deconstructed when it's revealed that they're regaining their connection to the Force by basically pulling excess energy through said bonds. Of course, the upshot to this is that the party members they're bonded to need to have some connection to the Force themselves for the Exile to pull energy from them — meaning just about every one of your party members can be trained as a Jedi.
  • This trope is played straight in the original Knights of the Old Republic. But there is some mild deconstruction and Ascended Fridge Horror involved; your character is an amnesiac Darth Revan, whose legendary charisma and skills all but destroyed the Jedi Order and the Republic by dragging half the Jedi Order and a third of the Republic military with you when he made a Face–Heel Turn the instant the previous threat was defeated.
• The Legend of Zelda: Link is made of this trope. All sentient characters except Ganondorf are required to help him in some way.
• Commander Shepard of Mass Effect has a natural talent for influencing other people. Whether that talent is for charm or for intimidation — and to what uses Shepard puts it — is up to the player. Paragon Shepard even recruited from supposedly Always Chaotic Evil races. ^note Certain player actions can lead to Hitchhiker Heroes instead.
  • Hackett himself even notes that this is exactly why he essentially made him/her the Big Good to the other species. Because he knew that s/he could get them to believe in the cause and follow him/her, no matter what the cost or odds.
  • Lampshaded by Miranda in the second game as the reason why Cerberus spent billions in credits in order to resurrect Shepard;
  Miranda: But Shepard? They'll follow him/her.... s/he's a bloody icon!
  • Shepard's ability to do this is seemingly a Running Gag in the third game: whereas most characters react with astonishment to Shepard having a Prothean squadmate, Wrex and Mordin's reaction essentially boils down to, "It's Shepard... what else is new?!"
  • Archangel is another example, recruiting a multi-species band of vigilantes to fight crime all over Omega. It worked fairly well until a traitor left them wide open to retaliation. Since he's Garrus, you can guess where he picked up the multi-lateral team idea from.
  • So great is Shepard's ability to inspire complete Undying Loyalty in such diverse groups of people that the Big Bad of the Citadel DLC derisively refers to Shepard's team as "The Cult of Shepard". The entire theme of the DLC was essentially that as big of a badass as Shepard is, it's this trope mixed with The Power of Friendship s/he inspires that make him/her such a powerful figure.
  • It's telling that the Commander's last name is Shepard, in that it is pronounced the same/has the same meaning as "shepherd." Essentially — one who leads the flock.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops — Big Boss can recruit any soldier he comes across, including his bosses and the Big Bad.
  • A major portion of both the gameplay and plot in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain revolves around Big Boss's ability to attract even his enemies to his cause.
  • His successor Solid Snake has this ability to a lesser extent. For example, sometime before Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, he recruited Kyle, who was an enemy in Metal Gear.
• In Ogre Battle, your hero does it with main characters, and you can also do it with neutral encounters, and occasionally you'll get an item called Love and Peace that lets you do this to enemies.
• Mario in the Paper Mario series, where he gets some pretty helpful allies, most of them belonging to a usually antagonistic race.
• Joker in Persona 5 is seriously this. He starts out as a social outcast with a bad (and undeserved) reputation but by the end of the game he can wind up with companions that consist from everything to several of his classmates, a pre-teen gamer genius, a back-alley doctor with a bad reputation, an Intrepid Reporter, an ex-yakuza shopkeeper, and a politician who successfully gets elected to the national government. Not bad for someone who isn't even old enough to drive.
• The player character in Pirate101. As you sail across the Spiral, your Captain draws all manner of people to their crew, from former enemies to perfect strangers. The Privateer class is the best example. They're such a natural leader that they get the most crewmates of any class in the game.
• Also deconstructed in Planescape: Torment, which KOTOR II took many notes from. The Nameless One's allies are drawn to his torment by torments of their own. He literally is branded with the Rune of Torment, which draws tormented souls to him. Furthermore, with the exception of Annah, Nordrom, and Fall-From-Grace, their torments are mostly your fault.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Not only does the titular hero have his main Power Trio of Team Sonic, he has plenty of other friends and allies spanning not just across the globe but through space, time, and other dimensions, and he's even responsible for a few of their heel-face turns.
• The New Kid, from South Park: The Stick of Truth, has an uncanny ability to make friends on Facebook. Gets Played for Drama / Laughs when it's revealed that the government hunted him to exploit his ability and that his family transferred to South Park to escape from its agents. The sequel reveals that their power of social media is genetic and that they managed to receive millions of followers on Facebook at birth.
• According to Rose in (Super) Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter series lead Ryu is an unintentional variant of trope and mixes this with The Chosen One. According to Rose's fortune telling, Ryu is designated as The Fool, the only one who can possibly hope to defeat Bison, but only when "the stars align to herald his coming." Rose would attempt to do the deed herself (and in fact, has tried at least three times beforehand), but seeing as she's the good half of Bison's soul, her Soul Power and his Psycho Power simply stamp each other out at best, so she can only hope to stall Bison as she lends her power to Ryu's quest (and sometimes prevents him from preemptively facing Bison). Addition, Rose notes that anyone who's crossed paths with Ryu (which is practically everyone, ranging from the likes of Chun-Li and Guile to Guy to Sakura) will have their life's path altered accordingly; Ryu's best friend Ken will apparently play a role in the final battle and Sagat's destiny was ultimately changed when he met Ryu back in the first World Warrior tournament. In a sense, Ryu's a Self-Insert minus the qualities.
• The hero in Suikoden gathers 108 people towards them Because Destiny Says So. Well, that and if you play the game right.
• Tears to Tiara 2: Hamil The Leader and The Hero
  • Beat Them Up: Aemilia
  • Recruitment by Rescue: Charis in a bit of back story, when he saved her and her father from an oppressive Imperial soldier. Artio, Elissa, and Daphnis by jumping into their fight and saving them from certain death.
  • Tell Them Your Quest: He convinces Tartetos he is a worthy successor to the Barcids, so Kleito offers her support. His dream of creating a Hegemonic Empire wins over Aemilia.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Artio, Elissa, and Daphnis. See above.
• Reimu and Marisa from Touhou Project are extreme examples of this trope — every game introduces about 8 new characters, and the series is a dozen games long, not even counting the Gaiden Games leading to roughly a hundred characters (117 named characters as of this writing), and Defeat Means Friendship is practically ironbound law in Gensokyo, leading to them having massive numbers of Superpower Lottery winners to call on for allies. Although only a fraction of these characters actually wind up fighting directly alongside the heroines in any of the regular games (doujin games like Touhou Labyrinth that have real party systems being an exception) and often are more friendly rivals in function, the sidestories like Silent Sinner In Blue feature essentially half of Gensokyo teaming up in a massive jumble to take on the Lunarians.
  • Cirno is likewise an example, occasionally gaining protagonist status and making acquaintances using the same methods, having earned a friendship with several characters including the Three Fairies of Light, Marisa herself, and the fairy Eternity Larva on her personal quest for strength.
• Undertale: The player character becomes this when playing Pacifist or mostly-Pacifist, despite never (visibly) speaking to anyone. One of the game's core mechanics is the ability to spare and befriend literally every enemy in the game. Yes, even Flowey, though that requires a second playthrough.
• Rinka Kagurazaka from Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- is the reason the rest of the cast is able to set aside their differences and become friends with each other.
• Mizuki Hamasaki of World of Horror is naturally geared towards this. Not only does she start with naturally higher Charisma and a random Ally, most of her distinct Perks she can choose from when leveling up revolve around taking advantage of her companions in various ways.
• Fei of Xenogears falls into this, since he recruits quite a large party of people from all over the world, including at least a couple who try to kill him at first.

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