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

Physical God / Video Games

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_1_003.jpg
"Kneel, before one of the Seven Deities!"note 

Physical Gods in video games.

  • Actraiser: A god resembling a human male warrior is the main character.
  • Advent Rising is based upon the theory that all humans have the potential to become Physical Gods. Of course, this means a race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens are obsessed with wiping us out in our latent state out of sheer jealousy. By the time the game starts, they've driven us off at least two planets — and by the time it ends, they've killed all but two of us.
  • The Goddess in the online Flash RPG, AdventureQuest, Lorthia has no physical form, though she can manifest into her creations, usually as a female, hence the word Goddess. She also had four children, and those four children had four children (Each pair had two) to make the eight Elemental Lords of Lore.
    • She also had made the Devourer Uncreator The'Galin, who often manifests into people instead of making a form for himself, Though he is refered to him because he is once a human. He is also immortal.
  • Assassin's Creed: While The Ones Who Came Before were explicitly a Precursor race and not gods, they came to be worshiped as such by mankind, especially after they died out seventy five thousand years ago. In Assassin's Creed III, it is revealed that one of them stuck around through a variation of Brain Uploading and is, at the end, unleashed on the world in the course of saving it from destruction. It is implied that she will be as close to a real (and vengeful) god as can be said to exist in the franchise.
  • All of the Guardian Generals from Asura's Wrath count to some degree. Despite the mixture of Buddhist myth and sci-fi, it turns out they are descendants of genetically altered humans that were turned into something akin to this.
    • Chakravartin, however, is a literal god that takes this to a much, much much, much greater level than the above generals. A creator deity that embodies the Wheel of Life and the spinner of Mantra, as well as the personification of Samsara, he allowed said Guardian Generals to exist in the first place, due to being the embodiment of all Mantra energy in existence. He can become bigger than galaxy clusters, throws planets, stars and meteors at you, and even makes super novas just to defeat Asura. And this isn't even his strongest form, which becomes Humanoid Eldritch Abomination that can do all the above and more, stop time, fire Storm of Blades like no tomorrow, and literally has his own QTEs that mimic your own, just to prove that he's basically able to lean on the fourth wall.
    • Asura himself becomes this each time he reaches a new level of power. From punching giant demigods into space and destroy planet-sized ones with his sheer rage and singlehandedly wiping out a fleet of ships capable of bombing continents, Asura becomes powerful enough to rival mantra within the Karma Fortress that is TRILLONS worth of human souls, even tanking and surviving their Wave-Motion Gun point blank. He eventually earns enough power to fight on par with an Eldritch Abomination and winning and surviving and trading blows with the aforementioned Chakravatin. However his power is so great, his anger could destroy his own body. However after Yasha gives him the Mantra Reactor and using it to absorb a planet busting laser, Asura completely becomes this trope as he grows bigger than the planet, can fly through space at speeds faster than light, can destroys planets and stars thrown at him, move and break out of dimensions through sheer willpower and KILLS Chakravartin in his base form. It's clear that Asura has truly earned the title of Asura the Destructor.
  • BioShock Infinite:
    • Elizabeth becomes one at the end of the game after the destruction of the Siphon. With her powers no longer constrained Elizabeth can freely open tears and travel to different worlds at will and can "see all the doors" and branching paths between worlds.
    • The Lutece twins are revealed to have been assumed dead for some time before the events of the game, but are actually capable of apparently effortless travel across the multiverse due to the accident which supposedly killed them. They are also apparently immortal and invulnerable.
  • In BlazBlue, the entire setting is maintained by the three "Sankishin Units" (or Original Units), each named after famous gods in Japanese Mythology: Amaterasu, Susano'o, and Tsukuyomi respectively. Amaterasu is a Reality Warper that created the entire setting and can manipulate it freely, Susano'o can cut through time itself, and Tsukuyomi provides the ultimate defense. Notably, a major conflict is how the villains try to manipulate said gods to change the world in their own way. The true Big Bad and Final Boss of the series turns out to be Susano'o himself. It's just that for most of the series, its mind/soul was separated from its body. Said body is the Susano'o Unit inhabited by Hakumen. As for the rest of Susano'o? That's the entity better known as Yuuki Terumi.
  • In most of the Breath of Fire games, Ryu's ability to turn into a dragon is considered to be either amazingly powerful or completely ignorable. For example, in Breath of Fire II, no one seems to care about Ryu's transformations until very late in the game. However, in Breath of Fire IV, all dragons are considered to be gods called the Endless, and in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Ryu is possessed by Odjn, a godly dragon whose power is so immense that it's slowly killing Ryu, shown in game as the D-Counter.
  • Castlevania has Dracula the King of the vampires, since his he draws his power from Chaos itself, he can be considered one. He can transform into demonic forms with godly powers when he unleashes his full might. The only way to defeat him is with specific holy weapons, however even that doesn’t stop him he can sometimes resurrect himself in a hundred years to resume his plan to conquer the world.
  • Chest: Anzi is a goddess who was exiled to the earthly realm for healing the demon scientist Lolo.
  • City-Building Series:
    • Pharaoh: While the five gods of the Egyptian pantheon (Osiris, Ra, Ptah, Bast, and Seth) don't appear physically, they are more than happy to bless/curse whatever aspect of civilization falls under their purview (agriculture, diplomacy and trade, craftmanship and industry, food and health, and warfare) if you honor/forget to honor them.
    • Zeus: Master of Olympus: A core game mechanic is that the various gods of the Greek pantheon (and Atlas in the sequel) like to briefly incarnate themselves and wander around, giving blessings and curses. The only way to get rid of gods going around cursing/smashing buildings is to build a sanctuary to a more powerful god.
  • Code Vein: Project QUEEN was intended to transform a young girl named Cruz into a perfect revenant without any of the weaknesses of a normal revenant. The project succeeded... and then Cruz frenzied, turning into a threat at least as great as the horrors she had been intended to fight. In addition to Super-Strength, Super-Speed, and Super-Toughness all above the physical enhancements that normal revenants have, she also is able to use revenant Blood Magic to impossible levels, can control even the alien Thorns of Judgment to reshape the world at her whim (or just shoot them at people), and she can force others to frenzy as well, mutating them into the insane Lost who serve her will. Oh, and she has Complete Immortality; killing her is literally impossible, so the best anyone could do was seal her away by ripping her body to pieces and keeping these "relics" as far away from each other as possible. Even then, it's repeatedly pointed out to be a stopgap measure. Notably, her original defeat in the backstory was little more than dumb luck: She was completely destroying three of the strongest revenants in the world, when the nameless Protagonist got their gas mask knocked off and started to frenzy. The Queen stepped close to take a look, and the Protagonist was able to drain her with their Blood Veil. Unfortunately, draining the Queen's blood began to turn the Protagonist into a new Queen, so Jack was forced to Mercy Kill them. But Jack didn't realize that the Protagonist was now a Successor, and far more difficult to kill than a normal revenant.
  • At the height of their power, the Lords who discovered the Lord Souls in Dark Souls were physical gods. Gwyn, the lord of sunlight, was a God-Emperor who could hurl lightning bolts at his foes and commanded a legion of inhumanly tall ageless Silver Knights. Nito, the first of the dead, was the Grim Reaper and the master of death and necromancy. The Witch of Izalith and her daughters were peerless witches who could set battlefields ablaze with the flames of chaos. Seath the Scaleless lacked the immortality of his fellow dragons (all physical gods in their own right) but was otherwise just as powerful as them, and he became renowned as the creator of sorcery. By the time the game begins, all of these beings have become shadows of their former selves — a symptom of the overall decay of the Age of Fire. As the inheritor of the Dark Soul, the Lord Soul discovered by the Furtive Pygmy the progenitor of humanity, your character is also technically a physical god. A role the Chosen Undead can embrace in the "Dark Lord" ending.
    • Three particular cases of this trope stand out in Dark Souls III, the first being the Nameless King, an Optional Boss who looks like a god of thunder and whose arena is pretty much just gray clouds you can walk on, and while he looks a bit worse for wear, he's definetly at least near his full power. On top of that the lore you get after killing him imply he's Gwyn's firstborn.
      • The second one is the Final Boss of the game: The Soul of Cinder, or Incarnation of Kings in the Japanese version. Not only does Gwyn's enduring soul reside within it, which would automatically make it this trope, there's also the added bonus of it having the souls of ALL the Lord of Cinders and chosen undead who sacrificed themselves to the flame, and each one of them would naturally become demi-gods themselves through the course of their journey due to the absorption of souls. As practically an incarnation, or maybe automatic defence system for the First Flame, it's one of the strongest characters in the series lore-wise.
      • The Ringed City DLC introduces a third one, who's not only the final boss of the game or the DLC, but of the whole Dark Souls series: Slave Knight Gael after he consumes the Dark Soul fragments of the Pygmy Lords. This effectively turned him into the incarnation of the Dark Soul itself, which according to the lore, should put him on equal footing with — or maybe even beyond — the Old Lords at the height of their power. And it shows, he becomes able to perform seemingly impossible acrobatics despite his hulking size, attack with deadly force despite the sorry state of his time-worn weapons, and he has an utterly massive healthbar to boot. Once he gets to his third phase, he can even perform something not even Gwyn could: summon lightning. Not yellow miracle sunlight spears, actual lightning pulled straight from stormclouds.
  • In Darkstalkers, the demons of Makai are gauged by their strength alphabetically. For the record, a "mere" Class B Darkstalker, like Le Malta (Lord Raptor's shapeshifting companion), could solo an entire platoon of trained marines, and the majority of playable characters are considered "B+". Anyone who makes it to Class S qualifies for this trope (with a dash of Reality Warper), rivaling Galactus in terms of planet-busting destruction. As an infant, Morrigan unknowingly could create and destroy whole dimensions in her sleep. She eventually had her soul split into thirds so that she could learn to properly wield these powers... and still ended up as a powerful demoness. Jedah could create an entire realm that sucked in souls like a magnet and his plan for Makai's "salvation" was to absorb all of Makai's souls into his body and reset reality. Perhaps the best example comes from Morrigan's adoptive father Belial, a Class S+. When Demitri (a Class A) challenged Belial for the throne of Makai, Belial nonchalantly ripped Demitri and his castle out of reality and exiled him to the human world. It took Demitri a century to recover, and he still wasn't at 100% when the first game rolled around. Understandably, Belial spent most of his time with his full strength bound so not as to destroy Makai with his sheer might. And even he was fearful of Morrigan's powers, seeing her to have the potential to not only rule Makai, but eventually surpass him.
  • Dawn of War: Daemon Princes are this in 40K fluff, but the game unit is actually killable, if annoyingly hard to kill (and he certainly believes himself to be one). Sindri Myr became one in the first game, and served as its even tougher Final Boss.
    DESPAIR, FOR I AM THE END OF DAYS.
    I HAVE ASCENDED, NONE MAY CHALLENGE ME!!!
    THEY ARE AS GNATS BEFORE ME!
    I AM DESTRUCTION INCARNATE!!!
    I AM A GOD!!!
  • In the canonical ending of Deus Ex, the player becomes this.
  • Devil May Cry:
    • Mundus, the main villain of the first game, is effectively the God of Demons. It's heavily implied that the reason Sparda (and later Dante) made him into a Sealed Evil in a Can is because there is literally no power that can kill him. Devil May Cry 5 tweaks the lore slightly with the revelation that the source of Mundus's great power is the Qliphoth, an ancient tree residing within the Demon World that collects human blood over the course of millennia and eventually bears a single fruit that effectively bestows godhood upon whoever eats it. Sparda made sure to cut off the Qliphoth from the Human World after defeating the King of the Underworld, but with the seal broken in the present, new Big Bad Urizen (Vergil's devil half split off from his human side) seeks to obtain the legendary fruit for himself. He succeeds about 3/4 of the way through the game but proves no match for a reinvigorated Dante, who has gained even greater power by using the broken remains of his Rebellion to fuse both that sword and the Sparda into his body. By the end of the game, both Dante and Vergil have surpassed both Mundus and Sparda (with Vergil's son Nero implied to be not too far behind them), essentially pushing this up to eleven.
    • Sparda himself is often described as such whenever he is spoken of. The third and fourth games both revolve around villains seeking to claim his power for themselves and become gods. In fact, the villains of the fourth game are a religious organization inspired by tales of Sparda's feats. His sons Dante and Vergil also follow in his footsteps with Dante having been said to have become even more powerful than Sparda at least once. As mused on by Dante and Nero at various points, Sparda's legendary power stems at least in part from his humanity (in spite of being a demon) and righteous nature, something that the villains always fail to realize.
    • Dante's final boss in Devil May Cry 2 is another powerful demon who was sealed away by Sparda. The DMC5 prequel novel, Before the Nightmare, states that Argosax was powerful enough to challenge Mundus after the latter had eaten the Qliphoth fruit and their battle ended up splitting the demon world into two halves, one ruled by Mundus and the other ruled by Argosax. Interestingly, Sparda did manage to kill Argosax as opposed to merely sealing him away, with the Big Bad's plot in 2 revolving around reviving the demon king and—you guessed it—obtaining his power.
    • It's implied that Dante has the potential to surpass his father (who also qualifies for this trope). By 2, he slaughters Argosax the Chaos, King of the Demon World, and the Despair Embodied (its Bishōnen Line of a One-Winged Angel) with little visible effort. And that's when he's in his normal form. Devil Trigger (Majin Form), anyone? In the 5 prequel novel, Argosax was so inconsequential he doesn't remember his name. By 4, he can take a blow from The Savior and still be relatively unscratched. In 5, he unlocks his final form, Sin Devil Trigger, which takes on a form which is a hybrid of his normal Devil Trigger and his Majin from 2 and gains his own Devil Arm, Demon Sword Dante. He's powerful enough that he's able to dominate Urizen one-on-one, who had previously overpowered Dante without even getting out of his chair. Dante's only equal is Vergil after he acquires his own Sin Devil Trigger.
  • In Diablo, you have the Lord of Terror. The sequel has three of these, aptly named the Prime Evils.
  • In Divinity: Original Sin II the Player Character and their companions are Godwoken, chosen successors of their respective gods.
  • Dragon Quest:
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • In the series' Backstory, the Naytheistic Magitek Steampunk Dwemer were attempting to create one of these ("Anumidium") and/or Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Whatever they did, they blinked out of existence and haven't been heard from since.
    • Each of the incarnations of the HoonDing, the Redguard/Yokudan "Make Way" god, is one. It's implied that they are only temporarily the HoonDing until they've accomplished what they've needed to do in order to "Make Way" for the Redguard people, but during that time, they are said to be able to "make way" through anything. Cyrus the Restless, hero of the Action-Adventure spin-off game Redguard, is perhaps the most famous incarnation.
    • Though suggesting it to him would result in your quick death, Pelinal Whitestrake, the legendary 1st Era hero of mankind/racist berserker, was clearly connected with divinity in some way and had abilities far beyond that of mortal men. Believed to have been a Shezarrine, physical incarnations of the spirit of the "dead" creator god Lorkhan (known to the Imperials as "Shezarr"), Pelinal came to St. Alessia to serve as her divine champion in the war against the Ayleids. Pelinal would fly into fits of Unstoppable Rage (mostly directed at the Ayleids) during which he would be stained with their blood and left so much carnage in his wake that Kyne, one of the Divines, would have to send in her rain to cleanse Ayleid forts and village before they could be used by Alessia's forces. He admitted during a conversation with his "nephew" Morihaus that "we are Ada," an old name for Aedric beings, and was able to survive and hold a conversation as only a head after his body was dismembered.
    • Morrowind:
      • The three "Living Gods" of the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur qualify. Each tapped into the power of the Heart of Lorkhan, the still-beating heart of the "dead" creator god, in order to ascend to godhood. The game (and the Tribunal expansion) end with them de-powered and three of the four dead.
      • The Nerevarine qualifies as as a Downplayed version. By the end of the game, you're one of the most powerful beings in Vvardenfell, if not on all of Tamriel, and have slain 2-3 full blown Physical Gods, as well as the aspect of another, more powerful god-like being in the Bloodmoon expansion. You also still have the Corprus disease, with the negative effects cured, leaving you as The Ageless and immune to all other disease. Corprus disease is alternatively known as "the Divine Disease," and was created by Dagoth Ur using the power of the Heart of Lorkhan. You keep this even after you destroy the heart, meaning you still have a connection to its divinity. It may not be as strong of connection as the Tribunal or Dagoth Ur, but it is a shred of the divine.
    • Oblivion - The Shivering Isles expansion has the player interact with Sheogorath - the daedric Prince (Read: God) of Madness, and ruler of the Shivering Isles. Then you become that Daedric Prince.
    • In Skyrim:
      • Alduin the World Eater is an aspect (or son, or both, it's complicated) of Akatosh, the Aedric Dragon God of Time. Fittingly, he is the most powerful dragon of them all story-wise (gameplay-wise, only the legendary and revered dragons introduced in Dawnguard have better stats), has unique Shouts that can raise the other dragons from the dead and have fire rain down from the skies, and is completely invincible unless he has mortality forced upon him via Dragonrend. He's got an ego to match his power. Alduin even neglects his role as the Reset Button on the world in favor of ruling it like the God-Emperor he believes he is.
      • Arguably, Dovahkiin/the Dragonborn is one; instead of a regular, mortal black soul, s/he has an aedric dragon soul that provides instant mastery over the Thu'um. As a result, the Dragonborn can screw with reality by yelling it into submission, devour the souls of dragons and other Dragonborn, and, if Miraak is correct, they can become far more powerful than they already are.]]
      • Clavicus Vile is the Daedric Prince of corrupted wishes. He explicitly states that the Dragonborn is equal to him in power, while he is in a weakened state. You can encounter this quest at Level 10, and the cap is Level 81. There's also a line i n the Dovahkiin song that translates to "with power to rival the sun" - remember in the Elder Scrolls cosmology, the sun is actually a giant hole in the fabric of reality that Magnus tore when he created the mortal plane and ran away; it is speculated that this event is the source of all magic in Nirn.
      • In Sovngarde, you meet Tsun, the old Nordic god of "trials against adversity" and shield-thane of Shor. Tsun "died" in the mythic past defending Shor from "foreign gods", but still has a physical form within Sovngarde, and now tests warrior spirits for their worthiness to enter Shor's hall.
  • Elden Ring, being a game very focused on the concept of religion and divinity, has several tiers of physical gods:
    • On the lowest rung of the 'godly' part, there are Demigods: the sons and daughters of Marika The Eternal and their descendants. The Elden Lord, the ruler-consort of Marika, is also considered a Demigod for political and power purposes (Super-Empowering seems to be involved), despite all of them being mortals who ascended to that position through taking Marika in marriage. All direct descendants possess superhuman strength and/or immense magical talent and prowess. The demigods themselves are tiered; distant descendants of Marika like Godrick have 'diluted blood' that puts them below direct descendants, but they still head and shoulders above most anything else in the setting in power.
    • Above them is their collective mother, Marika, ruler of the Lands Between and vessel of the Elden Ring. Though her prowess in battle is not known, she's often described as a fear-inducing goddess that ruled more or less unquestioned in the prime of her civilization. Sharing her tier are also the Empyreans, select few descendants of Marika selected by the Two Fingers as candidates to succeed her. Aside from taking her place as a vessel of the Greater Will, they also have the potential to be empowered (willingly or not) by other Outer Gods. Therefore the Empyreans all have the potential to succeed Marika as the Ruling God of the Lands Between and though only Malenia, Blade of Miquella and Goddess of Rot, is fought in the game, she provides a horrifying glimpse into just how powerful the entities of this tier really are.
    • Also equal to Marika are the Vassals, angel-like entities that acts as heralds for the very-much-not-physical Greater Will, the entity that selected Marika as its chosen god-vessel. The Two Fingers are the main representative of this group, and act as the Big Good to the player in their attempt to reconstruct the Elden Ring. As it turns out at the very end of the game there is actually a vassal above Marika herself: the Elden Beast, the incarnation of Order that resides within the Erdtree, and is implied to either be the guardian or the conscious will of the Elden Ring itself, who is powerful enough to be able to punish Marika and crucify her for the crime of breaking the Elden Ring.
    • There are other deities that seemingly don't fit into the usual hierarchy. The God-Devouring Serpent Eiglay and the Ancestor Spirit for example are giant magically-empowered animals that are worshipped as gods by their followers.
  • Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom: Gods and deified heroes (Confucius, Sun Tzu, the Monkey King...) can be sacrificed to in order to persuade them to incarnate in your city where they can bless buildings and houses. Unlike other games, only the first three gods (Nu Wa, Shen Nong and Huangdi) need regular sacrifices so they don't send disasters on your city.
  • Over one tenth of the galaxy in Escape Velocity: Nova is controlled by Krypt, a god-like entity formed when a group of powerful Vell-os psychics imbued their consciousnesses into a planetary network of nanites . Krypt is capable of taking human shape (or practically any other shape it chooses), but generally spends its time "exploring" the rest of the galaxy in sphere like orbs that obliterate practically everything they come into contact with. By the time the story begins, Krypt is so far gone from reality that it isn't even aware other life forms exist.
    • Towards the end of the Vell-os campaign, the player becomes one, having realized their full psychic potential. In terms of gameplay, the most powerful psychic "ship" you can summon isn't outright invincible, but it's pretty dang close. It is stated that your powers could destroy a planet if you chose, and you actually manage to battle Krypt to a standstill in order to force it to acknowledge your existence. The storyline ends with you and the rest of the Vell-os race re-merging with Krypt and transcending to the next plane of existence.
    • Towards the end of the Polaris campaign, the player character is described in terms pretty similar to the power of the player in the Vell-os campaign. The explanation in that case, in one of the game's Schrödinger's Gun moments, is that the player character is the universe descended into human form. Of course, actually using (or even being aware of) your awesome powers is fraying to your self-perception as a human, so once matters are sorted out for the moment you re-ascend.
  • In the First Encounter Assault Recon games, Alma is, for all intents and purposes, a being of godly power. However, mentally she is also a child (a very screwed-up, emotionally-stunted, and completely insane child, mind you) so she doesn't extend her psycho past people who have personally hurt her, and instead focuses on other things, like protecting her children or chasing after a man she has a crush on. That latter bit is a hell of a lot more terrifying than it sounds....
  • Final Fantasy has a lot of those.
    • The Summons of the series are portrayed as gods and they were even worshipped as ones in some entries.
    • Garland from Final Fantasy becomes the god of discord Chaos after he absorbs the Fiends of Chaos and fights the party with his newfound power.
    • Emperor Mateus from Final Fantasy II manages to become this after his death as a mortal, his soul was split into two entities and both halves managed to defeat and overthrow the rulers of both Heaven and Hell respectively, and both halves become the new rulers of their respective realms as the Dark Emperor and Light Emperor.
    • The Cloud of Darkness from Final Fantasy III is an ancient entity from the void who was awakened by Xande, and she is also powerful enough to destroy everything in existence.
    • Zemus from Final Fantasy IV becomes one as Zeromus his powers skyrocketed to the point where he proclaims himself as Zemus’ hatred and the attacks used by Fusoya and Golbez did nothing to him.
      • It’s sequel has the Creator and alien who ironically, created the entire universe, it’s also powerful enough to destroy the universe and recreate it.
    • Final Fantasy V has Exdeath an extremely powerful warlock with god-like powers born from the sage tree that contained the evil souls that merged together to create him. He becomes more powerful as Neo Exdeath who has complete control over the void, and the power to destroy both himself and all of existence.
    • In Final Fantasy VI, Kefka becomes the new God of Magic after absorbing the power of the Warring Triad, he then goes on to destroy the world and then later becomes the worlds new ruler for a year.
    • In Final Fantasy VII Sephiroth in his iconic One-Winged Angel form, Safer Sephiroth, is powerful enough to destroy an entire solar system and this form is the closest thing of Sephiroth reaching godhood.
    • Ultimecia from Final Fantasy VIII has her final form which is an Eldritch Abomination that emerges from the void and absorbs stars and planets from across the space-time continuum.
    • The most powerful Fal'Cie of Final Fantasy XIII could be called this, and the First Three Fal'Cie created by the God Bhunivelze are considered as Gods and Goddesses by Humanity. Pulse made the Pulse Fal'Cie, Lindzei made the Cocoon Fal'Cie, and mankind was born from Etro's blood.
  • God of War has you playing as Kratos fighting against the Olympian/Norse gods and even brutally killing them.
  • In Granblue Fantasy, most Primal Beasts are revered as deities by anyone living in close proximity to them and their powers give them near absolute control over certain aspects of reality. Some of them who became Promoted to Playable (i.e. Yggdrasil and Tiamat) opt to shrink into their "human" sizes so that they can travel with the rest of the crew.
  • The Precursors of Halo have been described as this. Their constructions are utterly indestructible, their technology characterizes Clarke's Third Law perfectly, they could take any form they desired, live for millions of years, and created life, including humans, Forerunners, and every other sentient species in the universe, just because they could. The Librarian herself stated that they might as well be called gods.
  • Jade Empire: Sun Li and Sun Hai do their best, but the Spirit Monk can still beat them both into the ground. They are the toughest foes in the game, true, but swords and fists can still kill them.
  • The Precursors in the Jak and Daxter series were stated from the beginning to be an ancient race as opposed to actual gods, but the second game shows that they were more than just a super-advanced people, and the third game confirms their god-like powers. And by the way, one's been sitting on Jak's shoulder since Day One.
  • League of Legends
    • Celestials are godlike entities that have existed since the creation of the universe and they have powers to prove it. They’re the universe's protectors and caretakers, seeding and influencing the tide of the world's past, present and future towards the greater good. The Celestials we know about so far are Aurelion Sol, Bard, and Soraka.
    • Speaking of Aurelion Sol, he’s a Celestial Dragon that created the universe. He has the power to create stars, solar systems, galaxies and rarely meets any equals him in power and creativity. He’s also the only known Celestial Dragon we know of in the entire game and it’s likely there will be more in the future.
    • There’s also the Ascended, who are some of the most powerful beings in the game, they were once humans who were magically altered by the Sun Disc, turning them into immensely powerful beings. Each Ascended has unique powers depending on the individual they were prior to the Ascension. They are also immortal, they don’t age, have a need to eat or sleep and they can’t be killed. The only known Ascended are Azir, Nasus, Renekton, and Xerath.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • From The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, we get the Fierce Deity's Mask. Evidently, if you check the Gossip Stone in Eastern Ikana Canyon, the Fierce Deity seems to be a vengeful god, bound to a mask and sent to the moon for safe keeping. Or something like that. Regardless, considering that it can rip the resident Eldritch Abomination to shreds in seconds, effectively making the challenging final boss a Curb-Stomp Battle, it deserves that "Fierce" qualifier.
    • The Four Giants, also from Majora's Mask, probably qualify as well. They're worshiped as protectors by the people of Termina, and together, they're strong enough to catch the moon.
    • As of Skyward Sword, it would seem that the Demon King Demise would qualify, and according to his testimony, and judging by the existence of items called Goddess Plumes, it is likely true for the goddess Hylia as well.
  • The Sinistrals of the Lufia video game series are essentially ancient, malevolent gods, though the localizations of the games for North American audiences like to call them "super beings."
  • Althena and Lucia of the Lunar franchise are certainly this; however, the plot of the games take pains to make them considerably less awesome when they're in your party (to wit, Althena is actually the protagonist's girlfriend, who doesn't know that she's the goddess incarnate and only has the vaguest notion of her power until the end of the game, at which point she's, uh, hostile and will utterly wreck you unless you know how to reach her heart and Lucia gets her shit wrecked about an hour into the game and spends most of the rest of the game at roughly the same level as the mortal heroes.)
  • All of the Gods in Lusternia qualify, with the exception of The Soulless Gods. In descending order of power: the Elders were created by the Anthropomorphic Personification of creativity, and are immortal Reality Warpers - but they are also sterile, and can be killed. The Vernals are mortals who raised themselves up by draining a Nexus of power, becoming godlike, but significantly less powerful than an Elder. Half-formed are "baby" Elders, consigned to Pocket Dimensions that serve as "creches": with the departure of the Anthropomorphic Personification of creativity, they will never fully mature into Gods, and must remain there eternally. Ascendants are mortals who drain a portion of a Nexus of power, and are incredibly strong, but can be killed by concerted effort of even other mortals. Demigods are mortals who have fanned the spark of divinity within themselves, and are essentially ageless mortals at an olympian physical peak. (Read as "Level Grinding your way to level 100.")
  • Mabinogi has Morrighan, Cichol and Neamhain so far, as well as a couple others who have yet to be seen physically, notably Lymilark.
    • Nuadha joined the party a while back.
  • Maverick Zero from Mega Man X. According to an old man, who, in Sigma's words, was like Zero's father (it hasn't been proven, but generally believed to be Dr. Wily):
    "Zero is the most powerful thing in the universe, when purified by The Virus."
  • One of the Masters in the game Minion Masters is named "Apep, the Serpant God".
  • Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series in general, as well as Fujin, Shinnok and various others.
    • This was initially handwaved as Raiden taking a mortal form in order to compete in Shang Tsung's tournament in the first Mortal Kombat, but has since been retconned. Interestingly and possibly a bit of a holdover from the original concept, Raiden and his fellow gods (with the exception of the truly immortal Elder God Shinnok) don't seem to be any more physically durable than their mortal counterparts, and a good deal less durable than maybe-god Shao Kahn.
  • Neptunia has the Console Patron Units and their little sisters, the CPU Candidates. While they are immortal, incredibly tough by themselves, and can activate Hard Drive Divinity for an even greater power boost, the position does come with some drawbacks. Namely, enough physical punishment can still kill them, and their relative power is dictated by the market share their nation's gaming system holds.
    • There is also Histoire, the oracle of Planeptune who with the help of Arfoire created the CPUs in at least one universe.
    • There are two CPUs that are considered Physical Gods even among the other CPUs, namely Rei Ryghts and Kurome Ankokuboshi. Both of them are CPUs from before the time of the current ones and despite having few to no followers can still beat down on the CPUs even when they work together, although it should be noted both of them resorted to...unconventional methods and new power sources for at least part of their strength.
  • Overlords from Nippon Ichi games fit this trope in the story, and in the gameplay, you can create one from scratch.
  • Ōkami features Shinto gods portrayed by animals in the Chinese zodiac, plus the cat left out via folklore. The most prominent of these is Amaterasu (also referred to as "Ammy" by Issun), who takes the form of a white wolf and serves as the game's lead protagonist.
  • Onmyōji (2016): Miketsu, Susabi, Ichimokuren and Yamata-no-orochi. Fittingly, all of them (in the case of the last, his humanoid form) are placed in the SSR rarity, the game's highest class of obtainable shikigami.
  • Pokémon has quite a few Legendary and Mythical Pokémon that fit the criteria:
    • Generally, if they're on the box art, they're powerful enough to be a deity in their own right. The exception is Pokémon Red and Blue, where there are Starter Pokemon on the cover, not Legendaries, and Pokémon Crystal. (Kyurem, Zygarde, and Necrozma are counted as part of this list.)
    • Arceus is pretty much the Pokémon equivalent of God, stated to have shaped the world in HeartGold and SoulSilver, and is based on the concept of a creator deity.
      • To a lesser extent, the Lake Guardians, Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Supposedly the origin of knowledge, willpower, and emotion, respectively, their combined power is great enough to rival that of Dialga or Palkia (but not both; this becomes a problem in Platinum). Both they and the Creation Trio are from the Sinnoh region like the aforementioned Arceus, and Sinnoh Legend states that all six of them are Arceus's children.
    • Regigigas is said to have moved the continents into place, putting it on the same ballpark as most of the more powerful Legendary Pokemon.
    • Celebi has a shrine dedicated to them in Ilex Forest, making them the first Legendary or Mythical Pokemon to be explicitly worshipped.
    • In addition to the Tao trio, Pokémon Black and White has the Forces of Nature, who destroyed the land with thunderstorms and gales. You actually can find a shrine dedicated to Landorus, who stopped them.
    • In Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Rayquaza is actually called "Lord Rayquaza" and is worshipped as the savior of Hoenn, including by the player character — you pray to it to make it Mega Evolve. Said Mega Evolution is also disgustingly powerful, with high base stats and the ability to hold an item while Mega Evolved.
    • Pokémon Sun and Moon has the island guardians, who are known and revered by Alola as deities and are very strong.
  • Puyo Puyo has Marle, the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Will of the Worlds' need to maintain the orderly, enjoyable nature of battles, as well as her brother/creation, Squares. They're both ageless, immensely powerful (though not invincible and rather easy to catch off-guard) and hyper-fixated on the concepts they represents.
    • Puyo Puyo's sister series, Madou Monogatari also had Lilith, the Dark Prince's former consort, who ascended to become part of The Powers That Be. Arle is implied to be an incarnation of the magical power left behind when Lilith ascended (they look identical to each other), and early pre-release material for Puyo Puyo Fever indicates that Amitie might be descended from Lilith (or another goddess connected to her) as well. In any case, Arle's and Amitie's alternate costumes, Valkyrie Arle and Red Amitie are all but stated to basically make them Physical Goddesses themselves, even if they are unaware of this fact.
  • Rosalina from the Super Mario Bros. series is hinted to be this, thanks to how she manages to oversee the death and rebirth of the galaxy in the first Super Mario Galaxy game. But if that's not enough, she definitely counts as this in her Super Smash Bros. appearance, where most of her non-Luma attacks involve the power of the cosmos that she holds, and she even uses the power of said cosmos to prevent people from seeing anything up her skirt other than stars.
  • The Touhou Project cast has its own fair share of gods amongs the large cast. For starters, the Dragon God who, though it has never been seen, is the greatest divinity in the setting (presumably by virtue of being a kind of Anthropomorphic Personification of all east-Asian mythology).
    • From the pre-windows era game Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square we had Shinki, who is THE God of the demon realm, Makai. As in, she personally created Makai and every single one of its inhabitants (with the possible exception for Alice). And then there's also Mima, who tells Shinki she's the goddess of the human world for laughs. And isn't that far off, if her fanon interpretation is anything to go by.
    • Most of Touhou's goddesses were introduced in Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith: Autumn goddesses Shizuha Aki, goddess of colouring the leaves when autumn comes, and her younger sister Minoriko Aki, goddess of the abundant harvest. Then there's the curse goddess Hina Kagiyama, though she is described as technically being closer to a youkai since she lives off of misfortune rather than faith. On the top of the hierarchy there's the Shinto goddesses, Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya. The first is a mountain goddess of the wind and the sky, while the second is a native goddess of earth and curses (though she's also strongly associated with frogs). Their shrine maiden, Sanae, also falls under this since she's an arahitogami, a being who is both fully god and fully human at the same time (which is what the emperor of Japan was once considered).
    • Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires gives us Toyosatomimi no Miko. Being based on Prince Shoutoku, she is a Buddhist Saint, a Taoist Hermit, as well as a Shinto god, all at the same time. Like Shinki above, she has more or less created her own realm, Senkai, and spends much of her time there in meditation.
    • Over the course of the series, several Lunarian deities have been introduced as well. Eirin Yagokoro from Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night is, for example, heavily implied to actually be the Shinto god of knowledge, Omoikane, also known as Ya-gokoro-omoi-kane-no-mikoto, and in the interview with ZUN at the end of Symposium of Post-Mysticism, he implies that she's one of the "higher class of gods" that live on the moon, as opposed to the native gods that live on the Earth. Silent Sinner in Blue also introduced the Lunarian princesses Watatsuki no Yorihime and her sister Toyohime, both likely based on the daughters of the Dragon God, Watatsumi. Princess Chang'e, Goddess of the Moon according to Chinese mythology, has also occasionally been name-dropped but has yet to be seen. Finally, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom introduced Sagume Kishin, who's outright stated in the Grimoire of Sumireko to be Ama no Sagume.
    • Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom also introduced both Junko, a "Sagacious Spirit" who turned her power of purification (which have the ability to purify anything of all impurities, up to and including their True Name, returning them to their primordial, divine nature) upon herself in order to turn herself into a being of pure resentment, she can probably be considered some kind of goddess, as well as Hecatia Lapislazuli, Greek Goddess of the Hells of the Earth, the Moon and the Otherworlds.
    • The following game, Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons, introduced Okina Matara, the syncreticized goddess of the back door, secrets, noh theatre and many other things, based upon Matarajin, as well as Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida, who are based upon Matarajin's attendants, and also Eternity Larva, who's heavily implied to be the God of the Everlasting World.
    • Finally we have the Gods associated with the afterlife; Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View introduced Komachi Onozuka and her superior Eiki Shiki. The former is a Shinigami, but whether Shinigami count as gods in Touhou or not is unknown, while the latter is based on the actual Yama divinity. However, she's explicitly stated to be only one of many such Yamas, each with a different area of jurisdiction, (Gensoukyou in Eiki's case). Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature also introduced Eika Ebisu, Goddess of Fortune, as well as Kutaka Niwatari, who's based upon Niwatarijin, the God of Chickens, and Keiki Haniyasushin, the conflated form of Haniyasubiko and Haniyasuhime, Sculptor Goddess of Soil.
    • And those are only the actual Gods. Yukari, Yuyuko, Flandre, Mokou, Kaguya, Keine, Yuuka, and even Reimu, the heroine according to some interpretations of her final spellcard, have seemingly unstoppable superpowers and/or actual immortality with 'merely' extremely dangerous superpowers.
  • The TRON example is Zig-Zagged in TRON 2.0. Digitized human "Users" are certainly powerful. Even at his lowest level, Jet Bradley is still more powerful than most Programs. And Thorne certainly lives down to the worst parts of this trope by going A God Am I and unleashing Zombie Apocalypse all over Cyberspace. Ma3a, being part User in that she's what's left of Lora Baines-Bradley, can unleash terrifying amounts of power given sufficient time or bad code. Ma3a zapped Jet in via the Shiva laser on the basis of Takes One to Kill One. However, Seeker engines or certain security programs are certainly capable of killing Jet outright, and The Kernel finishes Thorne off after Jet and Ma3a wound him in the Bar Brawl. Alan Bradley also has laughably low hit points once he's zapped in, and the most he can do is duck and cover once discs start flying. Once the Datawraith mercenaries come into the picture, however, it pretty much proves Ma3a right as it really does take a User to kill a User.
  • Archons in Tyranny. When a person awakens as an Archon, they gain ageless immortality and fearsome magical power. They are in fact sources of magical power — the Sigils used by mages in the setting are derived from studying Archons. And Kyros the Overlord dwarfs them all. The source of the Archons' power is implied to be partly rooted in belief, though a few awaken their powers naturally. While Kyros commands many Archons, only several are encountered in-game:
    • Tunon the Adjudicator is Kyros' oldest and most devoted servant. Originally a student of law and bureaucracy, he became so dedicated to upholding and enforcing Kyros' laws that he became an Anthropomorphic Personification of it. Even among the Archons, Tunon is feared.
    • Cairn the Archon of Stone. A giant of a man made of flesh and stone, he commanded vast power over the earth and nature. When he went rogue, he fought off entire armies before Kyros had a Fatebinder unleash the Edict of Stone on him, turning him into a (still living) statue.
    • The Voices of Nerat, the Archon of Secrets. Kyros' spymaster and leader of the Scarlet Chorus. Once a man so fanatically dedicated to Kyros he butchered his own family on suspicion of treason, Nerat is now a human-shaped mass of living green flame that consumes the minds of others.
    • Graven Ashe, the Archon of War. Ashe started out as a Badass Normal general who fought against Kyros. His prowess and the strength of his army was such that he resisted longer than most. The stories of Ashe inspiring his men lead to people believing his very presence could heal and strengthen his soldiers. That belief transformed this ability into the Aegis, the magic he uses to heal his troops at the cost of his own health.
    • Bleden Mark, the Archon of Shadows. Once an outcast who wanted nothing more than to fade away into the shadows, his desire led to him actually gaining that power. After trying and failing to assassinate Kyros for fun, he now serves Kyros as a headsman (and unofficial hitman).
    • Sirin, the Archon of Song. The youngest Archon, she is one of the rare natural talents who awakened her power in childhood. She possesses an extremely powerful Compelling Voice that can manipulate and influence entire armies. Most of her power is currently restrained thanks to a helmet forced upon her by Kyros after Sirin tried to compel Kyros to commit suicide and nearly succeeded.
    • The Fatebinder after Act II. It started when they invoked and broke the same Edict in a Spire. After breaking at least one more Edict, they gain the power to redirect the Edict's magic through the Spire, allowing them to cast their own Edicts. This leads to Kyros officially dubbing the Fatebinder an Archon.
  • Vagrant Story has several examples. Sydney is probably the weakest example in this trope, because while he starts the by taking a crossbow bolt to the heart and ripping it out, he doesn't display much sheer power in anything except summoning monsters. Guildenstern briefly ascends to this level before Ashley Riot kicks his ass. Ashley is the last one to ascend to this state, and everyone acquired this power by grafting the Blood Sin to their back.
  • Gaunter O'Dimm from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. O'Dimm can float in the air, conjure up wind and storms, freeze time, instantly banish ghosts, create entire dreamworlds full of demonic entities, manipulate chance, and seems to be practically omniscient. He possesses immeasurable power even beyond Ciri's Elder Blood, and people who study his true nature tend to go mad. In fact his only obvious limitations seem to be he can't see into otherworldly areas like the Isle of Mists and he's bound to the rules of his own pacts - he's powerless to act against someone as long as they abide by the limitations of the pact he set them, and he can't retroactively change the rules to suit him. Geralt theorises he must be some sort of djinn or demon, or maybe a particularly powerful (and insane) mage.
  • Wizard101: In a world full of MacGuffins, Doomsday Devices, and Reality Warper wizards, the buck stops at Grandfather Tree. He is the first of the Primordials and has power which hypothetically exceeds that of his siblings Grandmother Raven and Grandfather Spider combined. Although he can't directly intervene in Spiral affairs, he singlehandedly maintains the Spiral Thread that keeps the worlds from the Void. Only the Titans exceed him in raw power.
  • The Composer aka Joshua from The World Ends with You, who rules over Shibuya and is effectively worshipped by the Reapers. However, to directly interact with regular people, he has to "downtune" himself, which greatly limits his powers. Without doing so, his form is incomprehensible and barely recognizable as anything other than a divine mass of light.
  • In World of Warcraft almost any god is up for becoming an endgame boss at some point. So far the players have killed 1 troll blood god, 13 avatars of other troll gods, 2 Old Gods, and the blood elf Phoenix God. Also, the god of the Burning Legion, Sargeras, was killed hundreds of years before Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.
    • Although according to canon, few of these are full gods per se (and according to the non-canon RPG none of them are). The ones that are include the Old Gods which are Eldritch Abominations made by even more powerful Eldritch Abominations and the blood god Hakkar. The troll Loa on the other hand were animalistic nature spirits (and either way the players never killed any of them, the things the players killed were troll priests that already killed the Loa and absorbed their power, or were channeling them), Al'ar wasn't a phoenix god (though that is its title), just a powerful phoenix. In the Warcraft Encyclopedia the Titans were Sufficiently Advanced Aliens until the official website Retconned them into full gods(though that's likely related to Blizzard realizing that Sargeras was called a God in The Last Guardian and the War of the Ancients Trilogy). As to Sargeras, he was referred to in The Last Guardian as a God to begin with and affirmed to be the God of Fel by the Ultimate Visual Guide, and he himself was never killed. He allowed Aegwynn to destroy an avatar of him, so he could put his spirit into her body while her defenses were down from the spell. However, he has been out of the picture since Medivh died, leaving his status ambiguous.
    • The Lich King is called the Death God by the vrykul. He is practically invincible and wields magic powers far beyond almost anyone else, and then there's the whole raising the dead thing. The vrykul may have been confusing the Lich King (who was very active and present in their lives) with the Old God Yogg-Saron, which has allowed them to die and be restored in a similar way in the past.
    • All these beings are basically godlike, but the only confirmed, true, gods so far are the Old Gods who themselves were creations of the Void Lords, Hakkar, Anzu the Raven God, An'she the Sun God, Rukhmar the Sun Goddess, and Elune the Moon Goddess. Elune is pretty benevolent(Anzu used to be too until a Demigod corrupted him). She(and An'she) also has yet to make a true physical appearance, making her not an example of this trope. Though she may be the larger moon itself.
    • It has been strongly implied that there is some kind of intelligent force behind the Holy Light (beyond the Naaru) that would probably qualify as this trope.
    • The Elemental Lords qualify. They tend to cause natural disasters when brought into the world. Ragnaros the Firelord being summoned created Blackrock Mountain and destroyed the forest all around it (creating the Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge).
    • Defied by the Naaru, who technically qualify based on the parameters of the trope, but are very clear that A God I Am Not and decline to be worshiped - they're servants and messengers of the Holy Light, akin to angels.
  • In Wrath Unleashed the Overlord Units are this. Apparently created in a cataclysm that shattered their world, they're controllable units and serve as your primary spellcasters. The game specifically refers to them as Demigods in the beginning; at the end of their respective campaigns they ascend to Godhood proper, and their God forms can be used in-game.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has two: Bionis and Mechonis. All of the landmasses in the world are made up of their bodies, with biological life living on Bionis, and Mechanical Lifeforms living on Mechonis. It is believed that both titans are long dead, but actually their souls (Zanza and Meyneth) live on, while their bodies are in a deep hibernation. Both are eventually revealed to have originally been humans who were elevated to godhood by a science experiment and created the Xenoblade universe.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has the Architect, the creator of the world and all life in it. However, he hasn't interacted at all with his creation in a long, long time. The Architect is in fact the "good" half of the evil Zanza from the first Xenoblade, who remained behind in the original universe and has been overseeing the terraformation of Earth's surface into a livable planet again. He's not quite done yet, so he created the giant living landmasses known as the Titans to serve as places for living creatures to inhabit in the meantime.
      • The Aegis’ Pyra/Mythra and Malos can also count as god-like beings thanks to their immeasurable power, The former can control fire as Pyra and as Mythra, she can use the power of light and the latter can use the power of darkness, and both have the power to control the Artifices including Aion which can destroy the world.
  • In Xenogears, there are several beings who could be referred to as gods to some extent, but Deus is the one actually referred to as a god and who has the power necessary to back it up.
  • Xenosaga has three: chaos, Wilhelm, and Abel. Of the three of them Abel is the only one who's actually a God in Human Form, while chaos and Wilhelm are vaguely defined nigh-omnipotent antipodes with one (chaos) possessing the power to destroy the universe, and the other (Wilhelm) tasked with protecting it.

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