Tangled Family Tree / Video Games

• There's a massive, full-game sidequest in Baten Kaitos where you have to get every member of a dying old man's family to sign their name on their place on his family tree. The man had five wives and had children with all but one (whom he adopted a single child with), many of whom had more children. There's around 50 NPCs on the tree.
• Crusader Kings. In a game about feudal Europe and its dynasties where alliances are sealed by marriage, this trope naturally follows. In the sequel, Zoroastrian rulers add in dynastic inbreeding to the mix, just to mess things up more.
• Seen quite a bit in the Dark Parables, where many of the characters from classic fairy tales are either Composite Characters or else related to one another in ways that their original stories did not include. The absolute epicenter of the family tree earthquake is The Frog Prince, owing to the fact that he was married five times in this universe. The longer the series goes on, the more connections are found between the characters. Among the highlights: His first wife, Ivy, was the sister of Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty). Another wife was Naida, who was the sister of The Little Mermaid. His fifth wife is Snow White, who is also The Snow Queen, and whose twin brother Ross Red is engaged to Rapunzel. Snow White is also the mother of the Frog Prince's only child, Prince Gwyn, who is good friends with Kai and Gerda, and Gerda is a direct descendant of Hansel. Meanwhile, Briar Rose belongs to a badass group of warrior women called the Red Riding Hood Sisters; its members also include Teresa, who is another sister of the Little Mermaid, and Brianne, who turns out to be Beauty, and Emma, who is engaged to Jack (the beanstalk guy). Emma is also a descendant of the girl who became queen because Rumpelstiltskin helped her spin straw into gold. Players may wish to draw up a chart... especially since the series is nowhere near finished.
• Dead or Alive has one regarding the main family of ninjas. You have the leader of the Mugen Tenshin clan Shiden, his wife Ayame, and two kids in Hayate and series mainstay Kasumi. Then add Shiden's brother Raidou into the mix and bam, there's the youngest of the main trio in rape-conceived Ayane. The main storyline of 6 adds another wrinkle in that Ayane isn't Raidou's only child; somewhere before Ayane's conception Raidou impregnated another woman with Honoka.
• Dragalia Lost: It turns out that Euden has quite the complicated family heritage: He’s not actually the seventh scion of Alberia, but rather is a clone of him. The original seventh scion, Nedrick, was presumed to have died as an infant, so King Aurelius cloned him shortly after his birth. This means that Euden is the same age as his biological father, and his “siblings” are technically his aunts and uncles. He was also cloned using Morsayati’s flesh, which means he’s biologically related to Sheila and Mordecai, who are also fragments of Morsayati. It also turns out that Morsayati is actually the heart of Xenos, making them biologically related to him as well.
• Dynasty Warriors:
  • Taking after the novel and history, the series has as playable characters: The Sun family (father Jian, sons Ce and Quan, daughter Shangxiang), Quan's concubine Lianshi, and Ce's wife Daqiao, whose sister Xiaoqiao is married to Sun Ce's sworn brother Zhou Yu, making them brothers-in-law. Sun Shangxiang is married (at least briefly) to Shu's leader Liu Bei, who has a son from another marriage Liu Shan, who is (presumably) married to Xingcai, the daughter of one of Liu Bei's sworn brothers Zhang Fei. (Xingcai is actually a Composite Character of Zhang Fei's two daughters, both of which were married to Liu Shan.)
  • Mercifully, the direct playable character family link mostly ends there for the games; in the novel and history, it continues with Xingcai's mother being the niece of Xiahou Ba, whose father Xiahou Yuan is cousins with Xiahou Dun and Wei leader Cao Cao. Cao Cao in turn has his own cousin, Cao Ren, and a son Cao Pi whose wife Zhenji was originally married to one of Yuan Shao's sons. Cao Ren has a daughter who marries another one of Sun Jian's sons bringing us full circle. Of the aforementioned characters, Xingcai's mother was eventually turned into a playable character in DW9 under the name Xiahou Ji. Xiahou Ji is also noted to be the mother of Zhang Fei's son Zhang Bao, whereas it was never indicated if Zhang Bao and Xingcai shared the same mother.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Due to Heroic Lineage and Relationship Values being major hallmarks of the game, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War features rather tangled relationships between both the heroes and the villains, moreso once the second generation hits. Even just going by the fixed canon pairings and the ones acknowledged in Thracia 776: Seliph is maternal half-brother through Deirdre to both Julia and Julius, who happen to be the result of half-Brother–Sister Incest via their father Arvis. Through his father Sigurd, Seliph is also the nephew of Ethlyn and Quan, cousins with Leif and Altena, and distantly related to his guardian Oifey, while through his mother, he's third cousins with Saias and distantly related to Linoan. Leif himself is the brother-in-law of Arion through Altena, who is the son of Leif's nemesis Travant, and according to Thracia, marries Nanna, who is sister to Diarmuid (who may be the half-brother of Fergus) and niece of Eldigan through her mother Lachesis, and by extension, Ares's cousin and distantly related to Chagall. Since Julius is married to Ishtar, that makes her Seliph's half-sister-in-law, and Ishtar was herself distantly related to Julius and Azel on her mother Hilda's side, and on her father Blume's side, niece to Tailtiu, and cousins with Arthur, Amid, Tine, and Linda. And this is before the player has the option to start pairing people up; by the end of a second-generation playthrough, you do not have to go far to connect the dots between any given kid.
  • Fire Emblem Fates features also rather tangled family relation. The parents of the main character Corrin (Kamui) are Anankos and Mikoto, the Hoshidan Queen. On the Nohr side, he/she is the younger adoptive sibling of Xander and Camilla and older adoptive sibling to Leo and Elise. On Hoshido side, he is the younger step-sibling of Ryoma and Hinoka and older step-sibling of Takumi and Sakura. He is also the paternal half-sibling of Lilith and cousin of Azura as their mothers Arete, the Queen of Valla, and Mikoto were sisters—which makes Arete his aunt. Azura, in turn, is the stepsister of the Nohr siblings and adoptive sister of the Hoshidan siblings and that's not even going into the children they can have with one another or other people which tangle the tree even more.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses eventually reveals that Byleth's family relation is quite complicated. Their father Jeralt doesn't mention any blood-relatives but due to Rhea giving him her blood, he's in a way related to her as mother/son or at least a blood-kin. Then Rhea is the mother/creator of Byleth's mother, Sitri, who was supposed to be the vessel for Sothis, which making Rhea Byleth's grandmother on both sides of the family. That also makes Seteth/Cichol, Macuil, and Indech their granduncles while Flayn/Cethleann is a cousin. Then, because Sothis merged with Byleth into a single being, that would make our protagonist their own great-grandmother, "mother" to their grandmother Rhea and "grandmother" to their parents, Jeralt and Sitri. And if you believe that Sitri is a clone of Sothis and not just Rhea's child, then Byleth can also be counted as Rhea's sibling and their parents' uncle/aunt.
    • In addition to the above, all crest-bearers are descended from the 10 Elites and with the nature of dragon blood in this setting, those 10 warriors are related to the dragons whose blood they consumed. That means all characters with crests are (very) distantly related to Byleth/Sothis. With the Cindered Shadow DLC, it's implied that Aubin, one of the Four Apostles and a first-generation Crest-bearer, was the one who gave Yuri his crest which makes Yuri another cousin with a closer relation to Byleth.
• Guilty Gear:
  • While the family tree in question is relatively straightforward, the reveal that Sol Badguy and Justice/Aria are Dizzy's parents (and Sin's grandparents) is still shocking enough that the Valentine sisters Ramlethal and Elphelt (who are Aria's clones) ruminate on whether they now need to be refer to Sol as "father" or "brother." As for Ky, he's more aghast that Sol somehow became his father-in-law; Sol's own Skyward Scream shows that the feeling is mutual.
  • This is lampshaded twice in -REVELATOR-, first during the above reveal and again during the final battle. Jack-O' Valentine, a Valentine made in Aria's likeness who holds the half of her soul not contained within Justice along with Aria's memories (and thus is effectively Aria herself), comes to save Elphelt from her "mother" (read: creator) Ariels/the Universal Will. Elphelt asks Jack-O' if she's her mother instead of Ariels and gets a "It's complicated" in response.
• For a fairly short game, Jade Empire packs in a lot of secret relatives of the Emperor. Every single one is introduced well before their particular Reveal. It's a fairly simple tree (three brothers, two of whom have daughters), but by the time you learn who the third brother is, you'd be forgiven for thinking everybody is related to the Emperor somehow.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Although one might not count it as a "family" tree, the sheer number of people in the series who are, were, pretended to be, or were semi-kinda-possessed-by-fake Ansem is staggering. Master Xehanort took over Terra's body, becoming the character known as "Xehanort." He pretended to be Ansem, and the Ansem in the first game ("Ansem, Seeker of Darkness") is Xehanort's Heartless. The antagonist of Kingdom Hearts II (Xemnas, an anagram of Ansem with an X added in) is Xehanort's Nobody. Also, Riku (who was possessed for a time and even had his body stolen by ASOD in the first game), using ASOD's powers, took on the form and name of that Ansem. The actual real Ansem (Ansem the Wise, the former ruler of Radiant Garden) is first introduced in Chain of Memories as "DiZ" (short for "Darkness in Zero") and his true identity is discovered near the end of II.
  • Not to mention all the many Soras. Alongside Roxas (Sora's Nobody), there's Xion from 358/2 Days, a Replica of Sora made from his memories created by Xemnas to use as a fail-safe in case Sora and Roxas proved to be useless to Organization XIII's goals; in essence, she's an Opposite-Sex Clone of Sora/Roxas. Birth by Sleep gives us Ventus, who not only looks like Roxas (or rather, Roxas resembles him), but whose heart dwells inside of Sora's due to certain circumstances taking place at the end of the game. Additionally, Vanitas, his Enemy Without, shares Sora's face due to the heart of a newborn Sora offering to connect his heart to Ven's after the forcible creation of Vanitas (thanks to Master Xehanort) left Ven temporarily comatose.
  • Due to the circumstances that led to Sora becoming a Heartless (and the creation of Roxas by proxy) in the first game, as well as Kairi's nature as one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, Naminé (Kairi's Nobody) is peculiar among her kind, as she was born of Kairi's heart but Sora's body and soul. This is why Naminé can manipulate Sora's memories in Chain of Memories, as well as why she possesses none of Kairi's memories.
  • Dream Drop Distance took this trope and ran with it to extreme levels of litigiousness. Master Xehanort, Back from the Dead, is gathering together a new Organization XIII. Who are among its ranks? Thirteen Xehanorts assembled from across various timelines. A younger incarnation of Master Xehanort (known better to players as the Unknown/Mysterious Figure from BBS and co-existing alongside his older self) was tasked by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (who was able to time travel due to his lack of a body) with gathering thirteen incarnations of Xehanort. Aside of Master Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Xemnas, and Ansem, Xigbar and Saïx (and not their original personas, Braig and Isa, strangely enough) are revealed to be Xehanorts as well, having been infused with a part of Master Xehanort's heart and gradually turning into Xehanort, slowly adopting features of his such as golden eyes and pointed ears in the process. Additionally, the plan was to turn Sora into the final member of this group (luckily, it was thwarted by a Big Damn Heroes moment from Lea, Axel's original identity), and the original plan for Organization XIII was to use the other Nobodies as vessels for Xehanort's heart. Kingdom Hearts III reveals the remainder of the True Organization to consist of previous members of the first Organization (Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord, with Vexen and Demyx as "reserve members" — though Vexen's actually a mole for the heroes alongside Saïx and convinces Demyx to defect to their side), Terra-Xehanort, Vanitas, "Dark Riku" (a time-displaced version of the brainwashed-to-believe-he-was-the-original Riku Replica from Castle Oblivion in direct opposition to his present-day, post-Heel–Face Turn incarnation who cooperates with the real Riku), and Xion (once again filling in for Sora). And while not officially a Xehanort, Aqua is forcibly corrupted when Ansem imbues her with darkness, causing her to undergo a somewhat similar transformation into Anti-Aqua.
• Trying to detail the relationships of every character in the Metal Gear series forms an incomprehensible mess which ultimately connects every named character in the series.
  • Metal Gear Solid features clone sons of Big Boss Separated at Birth, one of whom dies and possesses the arm of another man who had it transplanted onto him after his death, and it turns out Eva was Snake's surrogate mother all along. A small family tree, but it gets honorable mention because of how insane it actually is.
  • Also, every single mook in the first MGS is related to the Snakes due to genetic engineering!
  • Liquid also mentions how the Gulf War Syndrome was caused by prototypical gene therapy experiments; therefore, Gulf Veterans and their children are also related to the Snakes.
  • Also Solidus, the third brother, who became President.
    • And Solidus is Raiden's adoptive father.
• Monster Girl Quest! has a major tangle already, and it gets worse when you add in its sequel Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG:
  • Luka and Alice XVI get together and have two kids, Nero and Neris. The latter shows an interest in the Luka of a parallel world.
  • Luka's father, Marcellus, killed Alice's mother Alice XV, with the help of his companions. Luka's mother was the angel Lucifina, and through her Luka is nephew to the angels Micaela and Eden and grandson to Ilias, the creator of humanity.
  • Luka's more distant ancestor (and Marcellus' ancestor as well) is Heinrich, who killed Alice VIII. But Alice VIII isn't actually Alice XVI's ancestor, as the family line was continued by her younger sister Alice IX. And Heinrich got together with Edina, the princess of Remina, meaning that Luka and Marcellus technically have Royal Blood.
  • Alice XVI's earliest ancestor is Alice I, the first monster and the one who created the monsters that gave rise to all other monsters. Also, one of Alice I's first creations is Tamamo, the ancestor of kitsunes and other beast monsters, who acted as mentor to Alice XVI, to several previous Monster Lords and to Nero.
  • In the parallel world that's the focus of Paradox, Karen (one of Marcellus' companions) got together with some unnamed doctor and had a daughter, Sonya. When she and her husband died, Sonya was cared for by Lazarus, another of Marcellus' companions.
  • Finally, these games are H-games in which Luka can end up as the unwilling husband/sex slave to almost any of the named female characters, including the ones who are related to him.
• Pirate101 has perhaps one of the most massive cases of this — all of Monquistia is at least a third cousin of some former king. Their marriages are so twisted and tangled that the family trees look like cobwebs made by drunken spiders.
• The Sims:
  • The Sims 2's premade neighborhood Strangetown comes with a rather complex family tree. A dead Sim, Glarn Curious, was originally married to Glabe Curious (a theory floating around suggests that she might actually be his sister). He was abducted by aliens and impregnated by Pollination Technician 9. After giving birth to twins, Glarn left Glabe and married Kitty Hogleg. They had four kids, and the oldest (Jenny) ended up marrying and having children with Pollination Technician 9 when he crash-landed on Earth...
  • It gets worse with the sequels. In The Sims 2 for PSP, Jenny and the Curious brothers get a new cousin out of nowhere named Sinjin Balani and Pascal Curious gave birth to his alien child, Tycho. In The Sims 3: Ambitions, the family tree is expanded again with Notzo Curious and Zo Curious' parents being revealed. There's a theory that Sinjin Balani may be the grandson of Notzo's sister (also introduced in The Sims 3), Bunny Curious, but nothing is officially confirmed. In The Sims 4, the family tree is expanded yet again with the addition of Nova Curious, who is said to be a cousin of Tycho. It's theorized that she might be Lazlo's daughter due to their physical similarities, but there's no official confirmation on that. Here is the family tree for those interested.◊
  • Thanks to Story Progression, it can even happen randomly to players. The mechanic will pair up any Sims that are Young Adult or older as long as they're not directly related. Since the game is only able to keep track of so many relationship taboos, this often leads to second cousin marriages and the like. Sims can also marry their ex-aunts and uncles (since the game only counts them as related if they're married to a relative) and become their cousins' step-parent. Their new child will be the cousin/stepchild's half-sibling. To further convolute things, the cousin/stepchild can go on to marry the step-parent/cousin's nephew or niece. To complete the circle of fuckery, their child can marry and have kids with the ghost of one of their ancestors. Does your head hurt yet?
  • To make things even worse, thanks to mods, you can even make Sims have children with their siblings, their parents, or their grandparents.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: With Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed revealing that N and M are the original Vandhams, this... completely messes up their lineage. It's pretty straightforward at first: Ghondor is N and M's son, Ghondor is Matthew and Na'el's grandfather, Guernica is Matthew's descendant, and then Monica and Ghondor are Guernica's daughter and granddaughter respectively. However, Noah and Mio are parts of N and M, thus still technically being the same people, though Noah and Mio were born centuries after their original "parts." However, since they are only 18 and 19 biological years old respectively (9 and 10 on a technicality level respectively), this means that the two of them are actually younger than their descendants! And that's not even getting into all the Ambiguously Related stuff they've got going on.