Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Multi-Slot Character

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dbz_bt3_character_select.png
How many Gokus and Vegetas does it take to fill out a playable roster?note 

When it comes to designing characters in video games, one solution that is common for Long-running games or games based on Long-Runners is to simply take a character and divide them into multiple different characters. There are multiple ways this is done:

Video games use this trope for a multitude of reasons: one of the most obvious is that giving a character every power, technique, form, etc. that they have used would make a character both too complicated and too powerful and splitting them into multiple characters maintains game balance. Another reason is that fans who want to be able to use multiple incarnations of a character would not be happy if they only used one particular version. A third reason is that splitting a character into multiple incarnations makes it easy to create characters with unique movesets without having to create original character or resort to using more obscure characters to increase that game's roster.

These characters are sometimes also Moveset Clones. Licensed Games often use these types of characters, though examples from non-Licensed Games aren't unheard of. Gacha Games use this trope extensively, often giving a single character multiple variants that can be added into the player's pool of playable characters. Some of these variants are Temporary Online Content that is only available certain times of the year. These variants will have different weapons/stats/abilities to distinguish them from the other, but mostly its because they have different, usually eyecatching, outfits to entice the player to spend money in order to summon them.

Compare Decomposite Character. Contrast Alternate Self, who are different characters in-universe, Swap Fighter, which involves multiple characters being combined into one character, and Palette Swap, which sometimes involves multiple characters being combined into one slot.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Action Games 
  • Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith: Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader are unlockable characters for the game's Versus Mode alongside the default characters Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
  • Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner's Versus mode gives Jehuty four slots and Anubis two: Jehuty gets its original form, Jehuty Version 2, Damaged Jehuty and Naked Jehuty, while Anubis gets both its original form and Aumaan Anubis.

    Action RPG 

    Action Adventure Games 
  • In general, expect any LEGO Adaptation Game to have different versions of the same character based on their appearances in the source material (like for instance, Luke Skywalker having his appearances in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as separate characters):
    • LEGO Dimensions: There are two playable versions of Batman — the default version which comes with the starter pack and Excalibur Armor Batman who was released later on to tie in with the release of The LEGO Batman Movie.
    • LEGO The Incredibles: There are many, many versions of our main hero family unlocked throughout the story mode, cycling through almost every outfit worn by them in the movies. Examples include Bob's glory day outfit, his normal attire, and even his pajamas. Multiple versions of the same character can also be played in 2-player mode.

    Beat'Em Up Games 
  • The Bouncer: The game allows you to play as not just the heroes but even bosses and other characters too. Mugetsu has two character slots for his masked and unmasked selves and Darugon C. Mikado has 4 character slots for his restrained state, then the last 3 are his final boss forms (Unrestrained, Overalls and Awakened).
  • In Castle Crashers, the Grey Knight comes in two different versions: his regular self and as "Open-Faced Grey Knight'', where his helm is left open. Both versions are differentiated from each other with their projectile magic (the former uses bombs while the latter uses daggers).
  • Streets of Rage 4 has alternate retro versions of certain characters based on their appearances in previous games. Both Axel and Blaze in particular get four slots: their current versions are part of the starting roster, while their retro versions from the previous three games are unlockable.

    Card Battle Games 
  • 100% Orange Juice! has quite a good few characters with different versions of themselves.
    • From QP Shooting:
      • QP has QP (Dangerous), based on her appearance in QP Shooting - Dangerous!.
      • Likewise, Yuki also gets Yuki (Dangerous), again based on her appearance in that game.
      • Aru meanwhile gets Aru (Scramble), taken from her appearance in Xmas Shooting - Scramble!. They even got to meet each other in one event!
      • Natsumi has Natsumi (Sweet Blogger), who is Natsumi as one of the Sweet Gods.
      • Krilalaris gets Krilalaris (Pajamas), basically Krila...wearing pajamas.
      • Mimyuu of the Tomato & Mimyuu duo gets Mimyuu (Jailbird), a version of her wearing prison apparel.
    • From SUGURI:
      • Suguri has Suguri (Ver. 2), a version of her wearing a different outfit, and Suguri (4.6 Billion Years), based on her appearance in 200% Mixed Juice.
      • Hime has Hime (Moonlight), based on some concept art Hono drew for cosplayers to wear.
      • Saki has Saki (Sweet Maker), another one of the Sweet Gods.
    • From sora:
    • From Flying Red Barrel:
      • Marc has Marc (Pilot), who is Marc wearing her pilot outfit and flying her plane, the titular Red Barrel.
      • Fernet gets Fernet (Noble), who is Fernet wearing a fancy Pimped-Out Dress.
    • Original Generation:
      • Kai gets Kai (Hero), an Older and Wiser version of himself.
      • Marie Poppo is an unusual example in that she's actually a crowd of identical beings, but she still fits this trope in that she gets two different versions of her: Marie Poppo (Mixed), a Poppo wearing a different outfit who specializes in using portals, and Mother Poppo, an older-looking Poppo who is in fact Ellie's mother.
      • Tomomo gets Tomomo (Casual/Sweet Eater), a dual-stance character that sees her start out as a slacker in her PJ's, before using her hyper to become Sweet Eater.
      • Mio gets Mio (Festive), based on her appearance in the Clash of Cakes event.
      • Lulu gets Dark Lulu, a Superpowered Evil Side of her caused by Mio corrupting her mind with darkness for the sake of a tragic ending.
      • Ellie has Hyper Ellie, a Super Mode version of her.
  • Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has a number of Legendary cards that get released with different variants across different card sets. For example, the original Deathwing from the Classic set is a 12/12 dragon that, when played, destroyed all monsters on the board but forced you to discard your entire hand. The "Whispers of the Old Gods" expansion added Deathwing, Dragonlord, another 12/12 dragon with a death rattle effect, summoning all dragon minions in your hand when it was killed.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links: There are quite a number of characters who have multiple versions of themselves with different animations, voicelines, decks, Skills, and rewards.
    • Yugi, Kaiba, Jonouchi/Joey, Mokuba, and Anzu/Téa all have variations based on their Duel Monsters appearances as well as their Dark Side of Dimensions appearances.
    • Judai/Jaden has his normal self and his Supreme King self as separate characters. Judai and Yubel are also playable both as separate characters and as their fused self from Season 4.
    • Carly and Kiryu/Kalin have their normal selves and their Dark Signer counterparts be playable. Their Dark Signer versions appeared first before their normal versions became playable.
    • As of this writing, Yuma and Astral are currently slotted as one unit, and unlike other characters, they have access to their first Fusion Dance form via skill, which can only appear once certain conditions during the duel are met. Their lack of voice lines for cards that they receive upon their separation in the anime and manga heavily implies that the two of them will eventually appear as separate units in the game.
    • Similarly to Yuma and Astral, Playmaker and Ai are currently still together as one unit, but they are likely going to appear as separate units as well, since Ai has his own set of cards and a human form in the anime.
    • ARC-V World averts this with their Legacy characters. The Legacy characters that appeared in the anime were alternate selves from different continuities, but in Duel Links, the original versions of said Legacy characters have received voice lines for their alternate versions and therefore function as one combined unit of the multiple iterations of their characters without the need of adding other versions of them in ARC-V World. The characters from ARC-V acknowledge that original versions of the Legacy characters they know are different people.

    Fighting Games 
  • The X-Edition expansion pack for Acceleration of Suguri adds in two different versions of Suguri: Suguri-P, whose moveset consists of regular Suguri's attacks and a set of Attack Drones (in addition, her personality also becomes more childlike), and Suguri-SP, who not only uses a melee-focused moveset, but also gains a different outfit.
  • Blade Strangers has Umihara Kawase get two character slots: her regular self in the base game and a version of her wearing a bikini top called "Summer Kawase", who was added in an update. Notably, the story portrays the latter as an Enemy Without who even gets to fight her original self in her story.
  • BlazBlue:
    • Hakumen is Jin Kisaragi thrown back in time and merged into the Susano'o unit. In this case, both are introduced as separate characters before the link is revealed.
    • Hazama debuts as a Living Bodysuit of the ghost Yuuki Terumi, then in Chronophantasma they separate and Terumi gets a replica body with a more violent fighting style, then in Central Fiction a weakened Terumi gains a Super Mode by reclaiming his original body from Hakumen, making "Susano'o" also a second version of Hakumen. All of these are playable in Central Fiction.
    • Mu-12 started out as Noel Vermillion assimilated into a Murakumo unit cyborg, before becoming a regular Super Mode for her.
    • Izayoi is effectively a Super Mode version of Tsubaki, as her weapon is a prototype to the above Murakumo units.
  • Bloody Roar 4 gives Ryoho two slots: one for his regular self with Mana following him, and one for his Final Boss form as Ryoho the Dragon.
  • Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium has both Rugal Bernstein and God Rugal (called "Ultimate Rugal" outside Japan. He's also known as "Satsui No Hadou Rugal"), as well as Akuma and Shin Akuma (also known as "Orochi Akuma"). Unlike their source series, both superpowered incarnations are the result of one absorbing the other's power, leading to them having moves of their rival (such as Rugal being able to inflict a Shun Goku Satsu).
  • In Chaos Code, Hikaru has two versions of himself: his regular self and a version creatively dubbed "Mad God Hikaru" (or MG Hikaru for short), who's basically Hikaru... having managed to get his hands on a limited-edition anime figurine and going crazy in the process. His moveset also changes, going from a regular Shotoclone moveset to a more technical one consisting of a command grab, attacks that can inflict serious stun damage on his opponents and several feints to keep his pressure unpredictable.
  • Dead or Alive 4 has Hayate get two slots: his current self is part of the base roster, while his previous amnesiac identity of Ein from the first two games is an unlockable character.
  • Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy has an interesting example with Chaos and Feral Chaos: the latter can be unlocked as a playable character by clearing Main Scenario 000, albeit with several nerfs placed on him until certain abilities are bought to bypass them. By contrast, regular Chaos himself can only be selected as a CPU-controlled opponentnote .
  • The original version of Dong Dong Never Die gave Dong Dong two slots: one for his regular self, and one for Violent Dong Dong. As of the Judgement Day update however, Violent Dong Dong was removed and seemingly replaced by... Inugame Korone of all people.
  • Dragon Ball fighting games are somewhat notorious for this trope:
    • Son Gohan usually has three slots based on his 5-year-old self, his 11-year-old self (erroneously dubbed "Teen Gohan") and his 16-year-old self. This is due to his growth spurts requiring different character models. There are also times where Gohan is playable as his superhero persona, the Great Saiyaman, who is either treated as a completely separate playable character from his undisguised self, or as a transformation for his 16-year-old self. Whether or not his Ultimate transformation is a transformation or a separate character for Gohan also varies from game to game.
    • Son Goku also has slots based on his child self and adult self for similar reasons, though they're not as prominent as Gohan's due to Goku's childhood self coming from either the original series or GT, whose inclusions in fighting games tends to vary. In addition, his various transformations are sometimes considered part of his moveset, while other games split them into different characters.
    • Vegito and Gogeta often zig-zag this trope. They appear either as transformations for Goku and Vegeta, or as their own characters.
    • Majin Buu often appears in various separate forms in video games, with the three main forms being labeled as "Majin Buu" (specifically the fat one), "Super Buu" and "Kid Buu" in the localizations. The forms that were born from Super Buu absorbing people are usually categorized as Super Buu's transformations. The grey Evil Buu sometimes appears in addition to the other three main forms, albeit not as common.
    • Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 is not so bad with this trope, having a base roster of 22 characters and five unlockable characters. The base roster has two versions of Gohan (the young Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, and the Great Saiyaman), two versions of Majin Buu, Gotenks in addition to his two components Goten and Kid Trunks, the latter also coexisting with Future Trunks. While the base roster has Super Saiyan 2 Goku and Majin Vegeta, the unlockable characters include Kid Goku, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, and the Fusion between Goku and Vegeta, Gogeta.
    • Dragon Ball GT Final Bout has a roster of maximum 17 characters, including six versions of Goku, three versions of Trunks, and the Potara fusion of Goku and Vegeta, Vegetto (sic). The base roster of ten has only two Gokus, but the fact that all unlockable characters are Vegetto and various versions of Goku and Trunks makes this game a prime example of this trope.
    • The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series feature the various transformations and fusions as just power-ups and therefore don't have too many playable units of the same characters mentioned above. (ie. Two Gokus, four Gohans, three Buus in Budokai 3.)
    • The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series does this very often, particularly 3, as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as separate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. 3 also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan arc, the Namek arc, or the Cell & Buu arcs. Each version and form has their own moveset. Because of this, 3 has 161 playable characters with them being some variants or being composed of a familiar character based on a specific period in the source material.
      • In 3, Goku has five different playable versions of himself (not counting transformations), separated into Early, Middle, End from the Z-era as distinct characters, Kid Goku from the original Dragon Ball, and the GT-version of Goku.
      • Gohan likewise is split between Kid, Pre-Teen, and his Teenaged selves, along with his Ultimate transformation being a separate character. BT3 would make his alternate counterpart from Trunks' Bad Future timeline a distinct playable character as well, complete with his own moveset.
      • While first game in the series would combine Cell and Buu Saga Vegeta into one character slot, Vegeta would end up having five playable variants in 2 and 3: there's Scouter (his self from the Saiyan-Namek Sagas), Androids Saga Vegeta, Buu Saga Vegeta, Majin Vegeta, and finally Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta from GT. There's also Baby Vegeta, the time where the parasitic Tuffle villain, Baby, would possess Vegeta's body.
      • Future Trunks is separated into two characters based on two periods in the Androids Saga; one where he fights with his sword at the start of the arc, while the another is based on after he trained the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and fights without his sword. Sparking! ZERO would also add his Super incarnation as he appeared during the Goku Black/Future Trunks Saga.
      • Piccolo in BT3 is represented by his Early and End forms, with the former encompassing his appearances in the Saiyan-Namek Saga and the latter during the Androids Saga after fusing with Kami.
      • Both Frieza and Cooler in BT3 are split into separate characters as both their normal selves and their cyborg forms after their near death experiences.
      • All four variants of Buu are present in the series' roster, including Fat Majin Buu, Evil Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu.
    • The Raging Blast games attempted to circumvent this by giving characters like Goku the ability to customize their moveset, giving them access to skills that spanned across the entire series to prevent cases like the one seen in the Budokai Tenkaichi games. That said, this is still present.
      • Gohan is again split between Kid, Pre-Teen, and his Teenaged selves, but oddly his Ultimate transformation wasn't included anywhere in the first game. The sequel would add Ultimate Gohan and the alternate timeline Future Gohan as separate playable characters.
      • Vegeta is split between his Saiyan-Namek Saga self, Cell-Buu Saga self, and Majin Vegeta.
      • Future Trunks is split as two characters again, classified by whether he uses his sword or not.
      • Unlike BT3, only Fat, Super, and Kid Buu are present in Raging Blast.
      • The games includes two What If? forms, where both Vegeta and Broly achieved Super Saiyan 3; in canon, they never unlocked this form, and perhaps to reflect this, Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta and Broly are treated as their own characters rather than transformations.
      • Raging Blast 2 would make Frieza and Cooler playable alongside their cybernetic counterparts, who are given separate character slots.
    • Dragon Ball FighterZ:
  • Eternal Fighter Zero: Nayuki Minase has two different versions of herself as separate characters: Awake Nayuki, a straightforward rushdown character, and Asleep Nayuki, a sort-of oddball Drunken Master character with an unpredictable moveset.
  • Fate/unlimited codes has both Saber and her corrupted Alter self as playable characters.
    • In a way, one could also count Shirou Emiya and Archer, aka. EMIYA, as this, since the latter is the former's future counterpart.
  • Fight of Animals has Bad Dog and Tricky Fox, evil versions of Power Hook Dog and Mighty Fox respectively, each with a different moveset in comparison to their sources.
  • A subversion occurs in Fighting EX Layer with Hokuto and Shirase. At first glance, the latter appears to be the former's Superpowered Evil Side, right down to having similar animations. As it turns out however, the Hokuto in the game isn't Hokuto at all, but rather her younger sister Nanase, having had her memories suppressed by Shirase and led to believe that she's the original Hokuto.
  • Granblue Fantasy Versus has two different versions of Belial: regular Belial and Avatar Belial (aka. Belial implanting the Versus Core into himself and turning One-Winged Angel in the process). The former is a Shotoclone who specializes in whiff punishment and going on the offensive, while the latter is a Glass Cannon who can sacrifice his health to boost his attacks. Also worth mentioning is that both share the same weapon and colour skins with each other.
  • Guilty Gear XX Slash and Accent Core has both Sol Badguy and Order-Sol a.k.a. Sol from the Past during his time in the Holy Order. Notably, they both got to fight each other in the former's story, courtesy of I-No's time travel.
    • Similar to the KOF examples below, the XX games would give everyone alternate "EX" movesets that are either based on past movesets from previous games or (in the case of those who debuted in XX and onward) drastically different from them altogethernote . Kliff and Justice are the only ones NOT to get any EX movesets however, on account of a. already being Secret Characters, b. having been canonically Killed Off for Real and c. not being very well balanced to begin with (at least, up until Accent Core Plus R).
  • Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master: Out of the nine characters, three of them are Jackie Chan. Each of them use different fighting styles based on the movies they're based on: there's Jackie Chan from Drunken Master II, Jackie Chan from Spiritual Kung Fu, and Jackie Chan from Project A.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure games:
    • Joseph Joestar is often split into his Young and Old variations, the former using his Hamon and Confusion Fu, while the latter mainly uses his Stand, Hermit Purple, in tandem with his Hamon.
    • Heritage for The Future:
    • All Star Battle:
      • Young Joseph was part of the original base roster, with Old Joseph being added in DLC. The same situation happened with Kosaku Kawajiri and his original self Yoshikage Kira, the former base roster, the latter DLC. Lastly there's also Dio Brando from Part 1 and DIO from Part 3.
      • The Updated Re-release R adds most of the variant characters from Eyes of Heaven. In the case of Enrico Pucci, his split has been reworked. The base version of Pucci has only Whitesnake, while Final Pucci (Pucci from the original release of ASB who uses Whitesnake, C-Moon and Made in Heaven) would later be released as free DLC (when in Eyes of Heaven Final Pucci did not have Whitesnake).
    • Eyes of Heaven:
    • There are two versions of Diego Brando; the original version with Scary Monsters and the alternate universe version with The World.
  • In KILL la KILL - IF, both Ryuko and Satsuki have alternate movesets that see them dual-wield their respective weaponsnote .
  • Killer Instinct (2013) has both regular Hisako (a vengeful onryo spirit who fights with a naginata) and Shin Hisako (the former having transcended into a kami spirit and who now fights with a katana) as selectable characters.
    • Shadow Jago (a demonically-possessed version of regular Jago) is an interesting case; he originally debuted as an alternate skin for the latter. It wouldn't be until the Killer Instinct Community Fund completed its goals in 2015 that he became his own character. By that matter, Omen could probably also count as this for Shadow Jago.
  • The King of Fighters and its related works:
    • In the Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series there's Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo's eccentric father and founder of the Kyokugen Karate school, and Mr. Karate, his superpowered and more serious side; it's not unusual to find both forms of the same character at the same time in a roster (see: The King of Fighters XIII). So serious, in fact, that this version (the Final Boss in the first AOF, mind you) is a regular playable character for SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos while he has another form, Serious Mr. Karate, as the SNK-side Final Boss.
    • Early on, Iori and Leona's Orochi Forms were treated as separate characters from their normal forms. In later games, this is averted, as their Orochi Forms are incorporated into their normal forms' movesets.
    • In Maximum Impact 2, Kyo, Terry, Ryo and Ralf all have alternate versions of themselves as secret characters. They are respectively Classic Kyonote , Wild Wolfnote , Mr. Karatenote  and Armour Ralfnote .
    • The console version of XI has both regular Kyo and EX Kyo, the latter ported over from NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a secret character and based on his NESTS saga appearance. Notably they cannot be used on the same team, despite having separate slots.
    • XIII would, alongside the above-mentioned Takuma/Mr. Karate, give both Kyo and Iori different forms dubbed "NESTS Kyo" and "Iori with Flames" respectively that revert them to their classic movesets and outfitsnote .
    • Team Orochi has their normal and "Awakened" forms who, unlike Iori and Leona, are always treated as separate characters.
    • In general, certain games will give certain characters alternate movesets based on their appearances in previous games, though unlike the other examples on this page, these ones usually share a slot with the base character and require holding down a certain button while highlighting them to accessnote . Examples include Real Bout Specialnote , KOF 97note , KOF 98note , its Ultimate Match updatenote , 2002 UMnote  and XIIInote .
    • Even SNK Bosses might get alternate versions of themselves (usually nerfed and more balanced for competitive play), with the main examples being Rugal and Omega Rugal in KOF 98, Geese and Nightmare Geese in 2002 UM and Saiki and Awakened Saiki (and to an extent, Dark Ashnote ) in XIIInote .
  • Exaggerated with Kirby Fighters Deluxe and its sequel, where nearly its entire roster consists of different versions of Kirby, each one using a different Copy Ability moveset. In fact, it's probably easier to list out the ones who aren't this trope: Bandanna Dee, Gooey, Magolor, King Dedede and Meta Knight.
  • The Last Blade 2 has two different versions of Kaede: his awakened form with the blonde hair is selectable by default, while his unawakened form with black hair (who was originally the default version of him in the previous game, with his awakened form being a Super Mode) is selectable with a cheat code.
  • Magical Battle Arena has two versions of both Nanoha and Fate: their original incarnations are part of the base roster, while their StrikerS incarnations were added in later updates.
  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Wolverine is divided into two versions — one with his standard Adamantium claws, which uses his Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes moveset, and another with bone claws, which uses his X-Men vs. Street Fighter moveset.
  • Melty Blood is infamous for its utter glut of doppelganger characters, with many of them being creations of TATARInote . To wit:
    • Arcueid has Red Arcueid, an Ax-Crazy version of her who fully gave into her bloodlustnote , and Archetype: Earth, a fragment within Arcueid's mind who was her original form before her encounter with Roa.
    • Ciel has Powered Ciel, who is Ciel swapping her black keys and habit out for her Seventh Scripture and a more revealing outfit.
    • Shiki Tohno has Shiki Nanaya, originally from Kagetsu Tohya, a manifestation of Shiki's fear of becoming a cold-blooded killer.
    • Akiha has Vermilion Akiha, who is Akiha having inverted and lost her humanity, and Seifuku Akiha, who is Akiha... wearing a seifuku. There's also Giant Akiha, an unplayable boss version of her.
    • Both Hisui and Kohaku are playable either as themselves or as part of a tag-team. Kohaku is also playable as a tag-team with one of her creations, Mech-Hisui.
    • Len has White Len, a clone of the former made from Wallachia's remains and some of Len's unused parts by Aoko Aozaki, and is noticeably more outspoken as a result.
    • Sion has Sion TATARI, a What If? of Sion where she succumbed to her vampire condition, and the Dust of Osiris, an alternate version of Sion created by TATARI from the future who went back in time to Kill All Humans and leave an eternal record of their existence.
    • Mech-Hisui is playable either by herself or as part of a tag-team with Kohaku or Neco-Arc.
    • In Type Lumina, Noel has Dead Apostle Noel, who's basically Noel as a Dead Apostle.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy had two versions of Smoke and Sub-Zero: one of them is their regular playable selves by the time of the game (an unmasked Sub-Zero and Cyber Smoke), and the other their masked "ninja" selves, which are also a regular playable character and a Secret Character respectively.
    • In the Playstation 1 port for Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the player can access older versions of four characters by highlighting their faces and pressing "Select" on the controller: Kano and Raiden (Mortal Kombat I versions) and Jax and Kung Lao (Mortal Kombat II versions). Each of them have their own moves and fatalities, differing from their available/updated versions of the base roster.
    • Mortal Kombat 9 has both the masked version of Sub-Zero and the unlockable Cyber Sub-Zero, who has a completely different moveset from its regular self. Downplayed with the Human and Cyber versions of Cyrax and Sektor, who are mostly the same, but have minor differences.
  • Naruto: Ultimate Ninja:
    • In the Japanese version of the first game, Naruto and Sasuke have permanent awakening forms that stay intact until the battle's end. The former activates the Nine Tails Mode by performing at least one part of his Level 3 Ultimate Jutsu, while Sasuke activates the Curse Marked Mode by performing either the fourth part of his Level 2 or third part of his Level 3 Ultimate Jutsu. In the West, both forms were detached into two separate unlockable characters, who inherited the Ultimate Jutsu that activate them in the Japanese release. As a result, the original Naruto's four-part Level 2 Ultimate Jutsu was divided into two to fill the spare Level 3, while Sasuke outright lost the parts that could activate the Curse Marked form.
    • In 2, Orochimaru has a "sealed" form (the result of the Reaper Death Seal taking away the control of his arms), which is selected separately from the original. In this form, he only uses kicks and unorthodox swordsmanship with the Kusanagi hidden inside his body, and relies on Kabuto to perform jutsu for him.
    • In 4, 5, Generations, Revolution, and Storm 4, you can select both pre-timeskip and post-timeskip versions of Naruto and his friends.
    • Beginning with Storm 2, some characters have multiple versions depending on the abilities they have at different points of the story. Obviously, Naruto has the most versions, with Sasuke being a close second.
  • Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel has a played-with example with Super Sonico, who's available as both a playable character and as an assist, meaning it's possible to pair the two up together.
  • Persona 4: Arena and its sequel does this in a roundabout way with its two playable variations of Labrys. One version has her controlling the Persona Ariadne, along with her Shadow, who controls Asterius. Both versions share the same moves, with the normal Labrys gaining power based on her axe's power tiers, while Shadow Labrys is a Glass Cannon. As explored in the first game's story mode, Shadow Labrys is the shadow self of the original, who was born from Labrys' desire to be a normal girl. After the original is defeated during the P-1 Grand Prix tournament, players have to contend with Shadow Labrys, who fights using Asterius. After being defeated, Labrys accepts her Shadow self, where the Shadow then transforms into her true Persona, Ariadne. This is further explored during the P3 Route of Ultimax's story mode, where Shadow Labrys is stored within Labrys' mind as a separate personality. This becomes evident after Sho Minazuki attempts to hijack Labrys the same way he did in the first game, only for Shadow Labrys to take control and fight Minazuki, calling upon Asterius as her Persona in the process. Once the fight is over, Shadow Labrys concedes control back to her original self out of boredom, though the normal Labrys believes she was helping her.
    • Sho Minazuki has two playable variants in Ultimax, one being SHO Minazuki (The Rule-Smashing Pun Machine), and the other is his Split Personality Sho MINAZUKI (The Scar-Faced Dark Messiah). SHO doesn't have a Persona to use, so his moveset is entirely focused on using his twin pair of katanas and physical skills. MINAZUKI shares the same moveset as SHO and combines it with his Persona Tsukiyomi, which can use darkness-based moves. The true end of Ultimax's story mode reveals that after the defeat of the true villain behind the game's plot, Sho can't sense Minazuki anymore, and that he now has access to Tsukiyomi as his Persona. It's implied that Minazuki became Tsukiyomi, and that Minazuki was Sho's Shadow. This is followed up with a True Final Boss fight against Sho, where he uses his physical-based gameplay style while also having access to Tsukiyomi's power, though this variant isn't playable and can only be fought in the game's story mode.
  • Phantom Breaker Omnia has Shin Waka, an alternate version of Waka obtained by clearing her story. Her moveset greatly contrasts that of regular Waka's, being aggressive and fire-based as opposed to the latter's more wind-based, space control moveset. Unlike regular Waka however, Shin Waka can't be used in certain modes (like story mode, for instance).
  • PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has both Cole and Evil Cole in the roster, which reflects the two possible ways Cole's powerset and personality can be shaped by the player in inFAMOUS 2.
  • Pokkén Tournament has Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo as two separate fighters. Mewtwo can be obtained by clearing the Red League and defeating Shadow Mewtwo. Shadow Mewtwo can be unlocked early by tapping the associated amiibo card, or permanently by clearing the story mode's Chroma League. The Pokkén Tournament DX version on the Nintendo Switch has Shadow Mewtwo unlocked from the start. Both versions of Mewtwo are Lightning Bruisers, but their movesets and playstyles are different: the regular Mewtwo has a higher health pool and can tank damage, while Shadow Mewtwo is a more offensive-orientated fighter with less health and moves that consume his HP bar. The game's story mode reveals Shadow Mewtwo and Mewtwo are the same Pokemon; the latter being corrupted into the former by saving Anne from a Shadow Synergy Stone (which is embedded in its shoulder). It takes the player and Anne working together to defeat Shadow Mewtwo, which sees him reverting back into its uncorrupted form.
  • Power Instinct:
    • In Goketsuji Legends, Poochy and Super Clara, normally transformations for Kinta and Clara respectively, are both given their own separate character slots.
    • In Groove on Fight, Bristol Weller has two slots dedicated to himself: his human form who fights with leg strikes and a gun, and his demon form who can summon other demons to fight for him.
  • In the first Power Stone game, Valgas is playable in two forms: his normal form and as Final Valgas.
  • For Project Justice, some characters (Batsu, Hyo, Daigo, etc.) have a variant character that is placed in a separate slot from their "main" version. This descends from Rival Schools where Akira has two different character slots to herself (one with a helmet and one without) and is given a different Team-Up Attack.
  • Shrek SuperSlam: Princess Fiona is playable in both her human and ogre forms, and both have their own unique playstyles: Human Fiona is fast but doesn't deal much damage, while Ogre Fiona hits harder but is less mobile. Both characters have different slams, with Human Fiona throwing ninja stars while Ogre Fiona sends musical notes around the stage by singing. Both versions also wear different outfits, with the former wearing her iconic green dress from the first movie and the latter wearing a Valkyrie outfit created for the game.
  • Soul Series:
    • In Soul Edge and Soulcalibur, Siegfried and Nightmare have separate character slots. II gave the slot to Nightmare alone (with Siegfried being regulated to alternate costumes) before the next entry made the two Decomposite Characters.
    • In Soulcalibur III, Zasalamel gets two slots to himself: one for his normal form, and one as Abyss.
    • Soulcalibur V has two variants of its main protagonists, Patroklos and Pyrrha, in the forms of α Patroklos and Pyrrha Ω. α Patroklos is when he wields the titular Soul Calibur weapon, changing his fighting style completely (with him becoming a Moveset Clone of Setsuka instead of his mother, Sophitia). Pyrrha Ω however is essentially her Superpowered Evil Side after grabbing hold of the Soul Edge, the opposite of the Soul Calibur. Unlike Patroklos, her moveset stays the same. The two are essentially transformations of the same character in the story but they each have a separate character slot in the roster (ie. four slots are taken up by two versions of Patroklos and Pyrrha).
  • In Spectral vs. Generation (a crossover fighting game between Spectral Force and Generation of Chaos), both Hiro and Jadou have alternate versions of themselves as secret characters called "Hiro 2" and "Jadou 2" respectively, being more Ax-Crazy and feral versions of themselves. Earth meanwhile has an unplayable version of himself called "Holy God Earth" as the Final Boss.
  • Star Gladiator 2 (aka. Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein overseas) has both Black Hayato (a Brainwashed and Crazy version of regular Hayato) and Ghost Bilstein (Bilstein's original body from the previous game taking on a life of its own) as separate characters from their respective sources.
  • Street Fighter:
  • Super Cosplay War Ultra has two versions of this:
    • Certain characters have alternate EX movesets that give them different attacks. They are as follows: Ryuko, Chung, Amiro, Anmc P, Giant, GS, Sin, Kay, Sakuya, Alex, Sou, Erus, OS Feng, Gon, Gigi, SWW, Ziro and Yinan.
    • In the case of Z-Mega, he gets an extra slot as Shin-Z, who is only playable in Battle Royale.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
  • The first Super Smash Flash fan game, like Super Smash Bros. Melee, has two playable Links from Ocarina of Time, one being his adult form and his young form. Sonic is also playable in this game, alongside his Super Form as an unlockable separate fighter. Compared to normal Sonic, Super Sonic has higher jumps and damage output, but ironically has slower attacks and a larger hitbox. The sequel does away with this and only has Sonic as a playable character and Super Sonic as part of his Final Smash.
  • Tekken: Devil Jin and Devil Kazuya combine this trope with Gameplay and Story Integration; Devil Jin is always a separate character from Jin, while Devil Kazuya is only a separate character in 2 and Tag Tournament 1, with every other appearance having him be a part of Kazuya's moveset. This is fitting because Jin hates his Devil side and views it as an Enemy Within, while Kazuya embraces his Devil and eventually masters it.
    • Ogre is also split into two different forms: his normal form (called "Ancient Ogre" in Tag Tournament 2), and his One-Winged Angel True Ogre form.
    • From Tag Tournament 2, there's Slim Bob, who is basically Bob having lost weight, as seen in his Tekken 6 ending. Noticeably, many of his moves leave him stumbling due to accounting for mass he no longer has.
    • Then there's Violet, who's basically Lee Chaolan in a Paper-Thin Disguise.
    • And lastly, there's Unknown, who is the Superpowered Evil Side of Jun Kazama as revealed in Tag Tournament 2.
    • Tekken 8 sees both Kazuya and Jin get unplayable boss versions of themselves in the arcade mode: Kazuya gets Devil Kazuya (aka. Kazuya permamently locked into his Devil transformation, letting him use his Heat Attacks without consuming the Heat Gauge) and True Devil Kazuya (aka. Kazuya absorbing Azazel into himself, greatly enhancing his powers and granting him access to some of Azazel's moves too). Jin meanwhile gets Angel Jin (Jin combining his Devil Gene with the Kazama clan's purification powers).
  • Umihara Kawase Bazooka has two different versions of Cotton on the roster: Cotton (Origin), based on her classic appearance from her own series, and Cotton (Fresh!), based on her appearance in Fresh (namely wearing the same outfit as Kawase's).
  • Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble gives the starting six charactersnote  casual/depowered forms as separate slots based on and similar to Joe and Silvia's depowered forms from the main games. In addition, Captain Blue and Emperor Jet Black both get an alternate form each based on their appearances as the final bosses of their respective games: Young Captain Blue for the former, and Dark Hero Jet Black for the latter.
  • X-Men: Next Dimension:
    • Jean Grey is separated into two slots, one as herself and one as her evil form Dark Phoenix.
    • Psylocke was split into two forms as well: her classic Psylocke form with telepathic powers and a psychic knife, and "Betsy", an at the time more modern version who had Telekinetic powers that took the form of a katana instead.

    First-Person Shooters 
  • Star Wars: Battlefront II:
    • Both the original and the 2017 game have Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader as separate characters with differing Force alignments, meaning it's not only possible to have both on the field at the same time, but if that happens, they'll actually be fighting each other.
    • There can be three different iterations of the Millennium Falcon on the field at the same time - the Falcons as they were when used by Lando, Han, and Rey respectively.
  • TimeSplitters is certainly no stranger to having different versions of the same character. In Future Perfect for instance, Sergeant Cortez has four slots dedicated to himself based on his appearances in the story mode: his regular self, Henchman Cortez (from "The Russian Connection"), Doctor Cortez (from "You Genius, U Genix") and Time Assassin Cortez (from "You Take the High Road").
  • Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict has two slots for both Anubis and Selket. Their regular Nakhti warrior selves are part of the base roster. The Bonus Pack later added the "Mercenary" version of Anubis (Anubis with his Imperial Guard Patrol costume from the intro of the game) with the same moveset, and Selket would get a Necris version which appears at the very end of the story mode, with a different moveset with Necris race abilities and her Flash personal ability.

    Gacha Games 
  • In Fate/Grand Order, multiple versions of the same character are summonable in different classes with different parameters and skills. For example, Altria has a version of herself for nearly every playable class in the game. In addition to her original Saber incarnation, an Evil Counterpart Alter version, she has a summonable Archer swimsuit version, an Alter swimsuit Rider version, two Alternate Self Lancer versions, and so on.
  • Fire Emblem Heroes: Alternate versions of certain characters such as seasonal or Legendary versions have different abilities and stats and are treated as separate characters from their base version. There are also characters who get variants based on canon events in their original games, like Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, who has her Officer Academy student variant, her Flame Emperor disguise variant, her two time skip outfit variants (Armored Lord and Emperor), and her Hegemon Husk variant from where she's a Final Boss in the Blue Lions route.
  • Flower Knight Girl has its cast of Flower Knights be given alternate forms (ie, different ensemble of clothing) in later updates, determined via players voting for the most popular knights. These alternate forms are all categorized as separate units in gameplay, with it being entirely possible to have multiples of one character in a team of five; certain characters of consistently winning in the yearly polls being capable of making a full team or more.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd: All characters have "Valkyrie battlesuits" with different powers and gameplay abilities. In practice, the game makes separate slots for each of the characters' battlesuits, and it's possible for you to field up to 3 of the same character in different battlesuits together. In some cases, the newer "battlesuits" are symbols for the character's progression in the story, such as the main character Kiana going from Valkyrie Ranger -> White Comet -> Knight Moonbeam -> Herrscher of the Void -> Void Drifter -> Herrscher of Flamescion and finally Herrscher of Finality. It's played with in that in a few occasions, an Alternate Self of a given character is treated as a "battlesuit" for said character in gameplay.
  • Mega Man X DiVE: The game's roster is filled out with several alternate versions of various Mega Man characters, some being obscure pulls from the series' history while others are holiday-themed costumes during limited time events.
  • My Hero Academia: World's Strongest Hero has multiple versions of all of class 1-A, with training versions, middle tier versions and later, more powerful versions.
  • Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes has different versions of many Star Wars characters, like General Kenobi, Old Ben and a younger Obi-Wan and Anakin, Lord Vader and Darth Vader. There's also Farmboy Luke Skywalker, Commander Luke Skywalker and Jedi master Luke Skywalker along with a Jedi Knight one.
  • Tom and Jerry Chase features multiple different playable versions of Tom, Jerry and Tuffy inspired by different sources, such as a Pirate Jerry from the Shiver Me Whiskers movie or a Musketeer Tom from the Mouseketeer shorts.
  • Touhou LostWord puts an emphasis on alternate universes, so it could be possible to fill a team with multiple versions of the same character from other worlds. Each alternate character has their own set of attacks and skills to suit them.

    Hack And Slash 
  • Hyrule Warriors:
    • Link has his main self, Young Link from Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, Toon Link as a hybrid of the Link from The Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and (depending on whether or not you count him as Link) Ravio from A Link Between Worlds.
    • Zelda has her main self, her Sheik disguise, Toon Zelda from Spirit Tracks, and Tetra from The Wind Waker.
    • Midna has both her Imp form and her true form.
    • Fi is something of an interesting example in that there's technically only one playable version of her, but her future self (in the form of the Master Sword) is one of Link's movesets.
    • Downplayed with Ganondorf, whose Dark Beast Ganon form is only playable in specific game modes.
  • In One Piece: Pirate Warriors, both versions of the Straw Hat pirates from before and after the Time Skip are playable from the second game onward, with each of them having different movesets.
  • Warriors Orochi:
    • Despite both technically being the same being (albeit at a different evolutionary stage), Orochi and Orochi X are considered separate characters for gameplay purposes. Justified however with Yinglong, who is the god that became Orochi, and thus someone else.
    • Nezha first appears in Warriors Orochi 3 as a Cyborg godslayer (though with a Crippling Overspecialisation in that regard, which means humans can defeat him). The Ultimate expansion to the game added in prequel chapters, where the cast learn Nezha's cybernetics were used to resurrect him after suffering a Curbstomp Battle from Orochi, and as such get to fight alongside "human Nezha", who takes up a separate slot in the roster from his cybernetic self. In Warriors Orochi 4, Nezha once again first appears as a cyborg, though in this case, his human self doesn't make a story appearance, and instead is unlocked alongside his cyborg self, again, as a separate character with his own roster slot.

    Party Games 
  • In Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed, both Jake and Dark Jake are unlockable characters that can be played as in the versus mode.

    Platform Games 
  • Bomb Rush Cyberfunk has both Red, the starting Player Character, and Felix, his original identity before Faux had him killed. The latter can be unlocked simply by beating the game, and both can be found at any dance floor from there on out.
  • In Sayonara Umihara Kawase, Kawase comes in two variants: her adult self and her child self who, unlike her adult counterpart, can restart once from a checkpoint after failing a stage.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic and the Black Knight: Zig-zagged. Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Percival are all playable alongside Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Blaze the Cat in the game's multiplayer battle mode. The latter three use the same models as the Knights, just without their armor, share the same moveset with one another, but are classified as different characters in the battle mode with different slots, and in-universe, the knights are Alternate Selves of Sonic's friends who hail from the Arthurian-based world and not Sonic's.
    • Sonic Generations has two different time-displaced iterations of Sonic as its playable characters, each with their own distinct playstyle: Classic Sonic, whose levels emulate the classic Genesis games in both versions of the game; and Modern Sonic, whose levels emulate the 3D Boost games on the console/PC version and the Sonic Rush games on the 3DS version.
    • Sonic Forces also has both Modern and Classic Sonic, each with the same respective play styles as the console version of Generations.

    Puzzle Games 
  • Antonball Deluxe parodies it with the character "Fixed Gold Evil Baby Paul (Shiny)", who is a fixed, gold, evil, baby and shiny version of the character Paul, who himself already is a variant of the main character Anton. Heck, a good few characters in the roster are all different versions of Anton and Annie.
  • Deadly Rooms of Death: Halph comes in two variants, "Young Halph" and "Halph". His exact age is unspecified, but he was "Young Halph" during Journey to Rooted Hold, and "Halph" in The Second Sky, taking place two years later. In gameplay terms, the difference between the two is that adult Halph can wade in shallow water.
  • Petal Crash has an alternate version of Lilibri as the True Final Boss dubbed "Hyper Lilibri" who can be unlocked by playing on medium or higher, making it to the end without continuing and defeating her when she shows upnote . Notably, she shares the same slot with her regular self and can be selected by pressing the right shoulder button twice over her.
  • Puyo Puyo:
    • From Fever 2, Klug has Possessed Klug, who is basically the former possessed by a demon sealed within his spellbook (and with Klug's spirit taking the demon's place in that book too!) and was originally the Big Bad of the game. He would however be Demoted to Extra in following games (first as part of Klug's adult transformation in Puyo Puyo 7, then as an alternate skin for Klug in 20th Anniversary), before becoming a separate character again in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
    • Speaking of 20th Anniversary, that game would give six characters alternate versions of themselves with different animations and voice sets: the aforementioned Klug and Possessed Klug, Amitie and Red Amitie, Sig and Dark Sig, Feli and Angelic Feli, Dark Prince and Onesie Prince, and Ecolo and Alter Ecolo.
    • In Puyo Puyo 7, Arle has Dark Arle, who is the former possessed by Ecolo. In a way, she also serves as this for Ecolo, given the circumstances.
    • In the PC Engine version of Puyo Puyo 2, where the CPU opponents are all Promoted to Playable, Dark Prince comes in two slots: his regular self and as Masked Prince.
  • Scribblenauts Unmasked contains many different versions of famous DC characters, based on the various Elseworlds and adaptations, such as the Communist Superman from Superman: Red Son, the Thomas and Martha Wayne versions of Batman and The Joker from Flashpoint (DC Comics), and the Terry McGinnis version of Batman from Batman Beyond. For characters that once performed a Face–Heel Turn or vice versa there are versions of both their heroic and villainous incarnation, such as the Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern versions of Sinestro.

    Racing Games 
  • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled:
    • Crash, Coco, Cortex and N. Tropy all get baby versions of themselves as separate characters, the former two debuting in the Back N. Time Grand Prix, and the latter twonote  appearing in the post-GP update.
    • Emperor Velo XXVII gets two slots to himself: one as his larger self and the other as his real, more dimunitive self.
    • Rilla Roo would be split into his regular self from the Winter Festival Grand Prix, and as "Fixed" Rilla Roonote  in the post-GP update.
    • And then there's Mega-Mix, who's basically this to Cortex, Dingodile, N. Gin and Tiny on account of him being a Fusion Dance of the four.
  • Crazy Frog Racer 2 has 2 versions of the titular frog as separate characters, his regular self and his Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist costume from "Popcorn."
  • Disney Speedstorm has two different versions of Mickey Mouse as separate characters: his modern incarnation (classified as a speedster), and his classic incarnation from Steamboat Willie (classified as a defender).
  • Gran Turismo is the biggest offender of this trope, ableit with real-world cars; due to Creator Provincialism, there happen to be many variations of Japanese cars such as Mazda MX-5/Miata/Roadster, Honda/Acura NSX, and even a few generations of Nissan Skyline have more than 10 variations alone. Even foreign cars are not immune (notably Shelby Cobra and AC 427 S/C).
  • Jak X has four different versions of Jak to choose from: his default appearance for this game and three different versions of him based on his appearances in previous games. The latter three can be obtained by having save data from those games on the memory card.
  • Mario Kart
    • Mario Kart: Super Circuit had Red Yoshi, Light Blue Yoshi and Yellow Yoshi as multiplayer exclusive characters in addition to Yoshi himself.
    • Mario Kart: Double Dash!! introduced Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as a playable duo, with both characters returning in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8.
    • Mario Kart Wii added Baby Peach and Baby Daisy and addition to the baby versions of the Mario Bros. Dry Bowser is also a separate racer from his living counterpart.
    • Mario Kart 7 introduced Metal Mario, a character who had history in other Mario spinoffs as a hidden character.
    • Mario Kart 8 brought back the baby versions of the Mario Bros, Peach and Daisy and added one for Rosalina. Pink Gold Peach was also introduced in this game, serving as Metal Mario's Distaff Counterpart. The DLC packs introduced Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, Dry Bowser and colour variants for Yoshi and Shy Guy. The Deluxe version added in the DLC characters at launch and added gendered variants for Inkling and Villager while adding Gold Marionote  as the sole unlockable character.
    • Mario Kart Tour: Most of the characters have alternate versions of them in different costumes to incentive players to get them, due to the game being free-to-play and previously featured Gacha elements.
  • Nickelodeon Kart Racers: The third game in the series, Slime Speedway, has in its roster both the regular versions of SpongeBob and Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants and their younger selves from Kamp Koral.
  • Sonic Forces: Speed Battle features multiple alternate versions of characters as separate characters, mainly due to them being available as part of special events. For example, Sonic is also available as Super Sonic, Darkspine Sonic, Sonic the Werehog, Excalibur Sonic, Boscage Maze Sonic, LEGO Sonic, Slugger Sonic, and Snowdrift Sonic with his Classic self from the past, Classic Sonic also having alternate versions as Elf Classic Sonic and Classic Super Sonic. There's also Movie Sonic being playable alongside Baby Sonic and Movie Super Sonic. As such, you can have multiple instances of the same character racing with one another. Justified, as they're Phantom Ruby copies.
  • Sonic R makes Sonic and Super Sonic into separate characters, the difference being that regular Sonic is simply fast and can Double Jump, but has poor handling and sinks in water while Super Sonic is a Master of All, having max stats and no weaknesses.

    Shoot-em-Up Games 
  • Cotton Boomerang noticeably has three different versions of Cotton and Appli each, with each one differentiated from the other by colour palette and firing pattern, in order to accomodate for the team-based gameplay.
  • Twinkle Star Sprites has Load Ran and her Older Alter Ego Sprites; the former is selectable by default, while the latter is a Secret Character selected by highlighting Ran and pressing Up four times.

    Turn-Based Strategy Games 
  • Civilization: Leaders in VI who lead multiple civilizations like Eleanor of Aquitaine or Kublai Khan, and leaders who have different personas available like Theodore Roosevelt or Catherine de Medici are treated as separate leaders for selection purposes.
  • Disgaea:

    Vehicular Combat 
  • Twisted Metal: From the second game onwards, Needles Kane/Sweet Tooth shares the roster with Marcus Kane/Roadkill, on account of both of them being split personalities of the same person. Head-On also adds in Dark Tooth and Tower Tooth, both driven by Needles and Marcus at the same time.

    Wide-Open Sandbox 
  • Disney Infinity:
    • The first version of the game had Mickey Mouse in his Sorcerer outfit from Fantasia. For 3.0, a version of Mickey based on his classic appearance was added as a separate character.
    • 3.0 introduced Hulkbuster Iron Man and a version of Captain America based on his appearance in Captain America: Civil War that were separate from the regular versions of those characters. On a more minor note, the handheld release of 2.0 featured an exclusive version of Spider-Man in his Symbiote suit.
    • Following the precedent set in other Star Wars games, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are separate characters.

Non-Video Game Examples

    Tabletop Games 
  • Recurring characters in Magic: The Gathering tend to only get no more than one card per set, but in sets based off of preexisting stories, whether they be Magic's own novels like The Brothers' War or outside media like The Lord of the Rings will have multiple versions of the same major character plucked from different points in the story. For example, former protagonist Urza as a child, an adult, and just before ascending to near-godhood, all from the same set.
  • In Star Wars Epic Duels, both Anakin Skywalker (with Padmé Amidala) and Darth Vader (with two Stormtroopers) are major characters. It is possible to have them fight against each other, or to have them fight side by side against other major characters.
  • In Warhammer Fantasy, Vampire Counts special character Mannfred von Carstein has two versions: Mannfred the Acolyte and Count Mannfred von Carstein. The former is a Hero-level character that represents him in his early days. The latter is a Lord-level character representing him in the present as the Count of Sylvania.
  • In Warhammer 40,000, Blood Angels special character Erasmus Tycho is available in two variants: Captain Tycho and Tycho the Lost. The former represents the character in his prime, while the latter represents him after falling to the Black Rage and becoming part of the Death Company. The two variants actually share a single miniature, whose armor has to be painted either in gold or in black depending on which version of the character is meant to represent.

    Web Video 
  • Parodied in ProZD's "new cards in gacha games" skit, where the player is happy with the Normal Archibald variant they summoned in the King Dragon Canon gacha game. A disembodied voice then announces the game is getting variant cards of Archibald, including Rare Archibald (who wears a hat), an SR labor day exclusive collaboration event Archibald, and an SSR card of Young Archibald. That last one is enough for the player to start spending money for summoning crystals. Each Archibald has a different variation of his Character Catchphrase.
    Normal Archibald: Hyah! I think that enemy got the point!
    Hat Archibald: Hyah! I think that enemy saw my hat!
    Labor Archibald: Hyah! I think that workers have contributed to our country!

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top