The Chosen One / Video Games

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• In the online Flash RPG, AdventureQuest, You are the Avatar of Hope, though it has been implied that the entire human race of Lore is the Avatar of Hope, in one of the stories posted by the admin Falerin on the forum.
• Ancient Domains of Mystery: Judging from the title screen song, the Player Character is the Chosen One of prophecy who will defeat the forces of Chaos... or do something else world-altering. At least, if we're talking about a Player Character who makes it through the game. All the others are probably better described by other lines in the song, which include the words "born to die". The Player Character is also very likely to be the Chosen One bearing the Ring of the High Kings awaited by the Eternal Guardian, though you can just kill him if you want to do things the hard way.
• Arc the Lad subverts this tropes: Arc was not chosen by the Powers That Be: he was chosen by his father who then went to bargain with the power that be.
• Subverted in Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, where it appears that the player character is the reincarnation of the Living One, a mystical figure, but later in the game You discover that you are just a common person, that the prophecy of the reincarnation is false, and that the Living One is in fact still alive.
  • The prophecy is still subverted in other ways, such as the 'great evil' of ages past — that is, the 'evil' version of the Chosen One you've been sent to smite — being the almost completely helpless prisoner of the real Big Bad. And he's actually a pretty decent guy who, in his centuries of confinement, has had a chance to mull over his past actions and decide he was in the wrong.
• Harvey and Lucile of Asdivine Cross were created specifically to be able to fight against and harm the ruling Deities of their world.
• The Assassin's Creed series has the modern protagonist, Desmond Miles, acting as a conduit for the Genetic Memory of his Assassin ancestors, as part of a scheme by the modern-day incarnation of The Knights Templar to locate ancient artifacts that will let them control men's minds. Well, it turns out that this is itself part of a much older scheme by the makers of said artifacts to create a nexus in time through which they can communicate with Desmond and tell him how to avert The End of the World as We Know It. Thus, Desmond comes from a family of Chosen Ones.
  • Word of God states that they made Desmond's ancestors Altair and Ezio come from separate bloodlines because they wanted Desmond to be the culmination of multiple Assassin bloodlines that carry Precursor genetic material. Desmond is the Chosen One because he carries such a high concentration of Precursor DNA.
  • Ultimately, in Desmond's case, it's a subversion. Juno manipulated history so Desmond is faced with the choice of let the world burn and become a messiah, only to be inspire new Templars after he dies, or save the world while letting Juno run free to take over mankind herself. Desmond takes the latter option because he believes it's better than the former.
  • Assassin's Creed Origins: Bayek of Siwa turns out to be the subject on no less than three different prophecies throughout the game and its DLC, though it's a subversion — they're not prophecies as such, just Those Who Came Before predicting when he'd show up, and getting interpreted as prophecies by the people of Ptolemaic Egypt and Libyra.
• Baldur's Gate:
  • The Player Character in the Baldur's Gate series gets some of this in Throne of Bhaal. It turns out the outcome of the prophecy of the Bhaalspawn hinges upon them; the great destruction foretold will only happen if they fail.
    Prophetic stone head:
    "The wheels of prophecy e'er turn,
    Gorion's ward hath come.
    Crossroad of past, present and future,
    The one foreseen, the one foretold."
  • In Baldur's Gate III, three party members have been chosen as the avatars of their respective deities, depending on player choice. Squishy Wizard Gale was the Chosen of the goddess of magic Mystra until she abandoned him over a mistake he made prior to the events of the game, but he has the chance to earn her favor back. Token Evil Teammate Shadowheart can be named the Chosen of her God of Evil Shar if you don't steer her towards a better path. Like Gorion's Ward before him, Player Character The Dark Urge was the Chosen of the God of Evil Bhaal and has to choose whether to embrace his demonic heritage or reject it.
• The 2004 The Bard's Tale parodies this rather savagely. You are told early on that your character is the chosen one on an important quest, but as you progress through the game, you encounter a number of self-proclaimed Chosen Ones who make big speeches about their destiny, only to get killed horribly by monsters or booby traps. You eventually stumble across a whole prison full of "Chosen Ones" of various ages.
  • The best part being the creepy goblins that show up and sing a song about the latest Chosen One to get its ass kicked. Little bastards.
    "It's bad to be you,
    A chosen one of many isn't new..."
  • The Reveal that Caleigh the princess is actually the demonic Big Bad of the game actually makes the situation pretty tragic. A demon has been tricking countless poor saps into getting themselves killed, trying to find someone skilled enough and gullible enough to free her.
• Hoopz Barkley of Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga. Whatever he's chosen for, it has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself.
• Parodied in Borderlands 2, where unscrupulous Arms Dealer Marcus Kincaid tells an egotistical nerd that he is the Chosen One of a random prophecy that he made up on the spot (and changes when necessary) for the sole purpose of selling him a gun for two million dollars.
• Gabriel Belmont from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is God's chosen champion who is destined to fight against evil. Gabriel suffers so much because of destiny that he becomes the Dark Lord Dracula to spite God. Despite this, the sequel shows that God still considers Gabriel his champion.
• Trilby, and to a similar extent, Theo Decabe, are referenced to being chosen ones in the Chzo Mythos. Trilby is "The Guide" and Theo is chosen to be "The New Prince"
• Conviction (SRPG): Leed is the chosen one of the Light Elf while Emperor Abyss III is the chosen of the Dark Elf. Additionally, Jing, Snow and Lilith are the Three Magi who are destined to help Leed seal the Dark Elf.
• Parodied in D Is for Dungeon. The Big Bad returns earlier than it's supposed to and there's no time to wait around for the only one who can defeat it to grow up, so the main character goes through the game as a baby, thereby making "dungeon-crawling" somewhat more literal than usual.
• Dark Souls:
  • The Player Character in Dark Souls is the Chosen Undead, whose fate is to succeed Lord Gwyn and link the Fire, or plunge the world into darkness. However, they are not the first Chosen One, just the one who's managed to get the furthest in the dangerous land of Lordran.
  • Deconstructed in Dark Souls III. Prince Lothric was designated at birth to be the one to Link the Flame, but he grew to resent his role due to everyone knowing that he would be the one to do it and thus never being allowed any sort of choice or say in the matter. This eventually caused him to become disillusioned and misanthropic to the whole affair, to the point where he decides to just let the Age of Dark come, rather than submit himself and his brother to the Flame again.
• In Densetsu no Stafy, according to the prophecy found in the Undersea Temple, a particular hero is destined to defeat Ogura—at least for the time being. Moe, naturally, assumes that it must be him, though it turns out to be Starfy.
• In the Divine Divinity series:
  • Divine Divinity: The Council of Seven, themselves magically selected representatives of all the setting's races, choose one of the three Marked Ones to be elevated to Divine One by the Gods. You play as a Marked One and become Divine after enemies kill the other two.
  • Deconstructed in Divinity: Original Sin II: the player character is chosen as "Godwoken" by one of the Seven Gods to ascend to Divinity... but so are their companions, as well as one major villain, and There Can Be Only One. Also, the Seven are revealed to be competing Jerkass Gods, who have chosen and discarded many Godwoken already. The Godwoken are forced to ask whether No Man Should Have This Power, and, in the end, can either become Divine or share the power with the entire world, among other endings.
• Subverted completely in Dragon Age II; everyone assumes that Hawke, the Player Character, deliberately caused the momentous events that occurred in the game, while really s/he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, had absolutely nothing to do with everything that was going on, and was forced to use badassitude to ride the wave. In fact, it can be argued that in the end, Hawke really changed nothing.
• Played with in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Everyone treats the Inquisitor like they were Andraste’s Herald, chosen by her to seal all these Fade rifts that are spewing demons everywhere. They do so, even if the Inquisitor is a dwarf, a mage, an elf, a qunari or an elven mage or qunari mage. But, they survived an explosion that killed many, were guided out of the Fade by a woman and they have the mark which closes rifts. So, Andraste must have chosen them, right? Except, the only reason they got the mark and survived the explosion, was because they barged into a room at the wrong time, and ended up touching a very powerful orb, which marked their hand.
• A number of Dragon Quest games have a Chosen One, though the method of choosing differs. In Dragon Quest, the hero is chosen by virtue of being the descendant of a great hero. Dragon Quest II is similar, but the choices are slightly on the larger scale given the larger family tree. In Dragon Quest III, the same thing happens, but the story is a prequel, where the hero goes on to initiate the heroic linage of the family of the first two games. Dragon Quest IV has a chosen one philosophy, but the game rather treats all the cast as The Chosen Many. In Dragon Quest V, the protagonist is actually not the Chosen One, but his inevitable son is. In Dragon Quest XI, you're "chosen" by virtue of being the reincarnation of a prior great hero — but It Sucks to Be the Chosen One because you're blamed as the reason the vicious monsters are appearing.
• EarthBound (1994) had the Chosen Four. With Ness as a more specific Chosen One.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • The series' in general has the in-universe, metaphysical concept of "heroes". These are rare individuals not bound in any way by fate and who have the ability to rule their own destiny. Heroes are closely related to the prophecies revealed in the Elder Scrolls, but are not bound by them, and they often grow to become far more powerful than most other mortals (sometimes to the point of becoming Physical Gods or outright Deities Of Human Origin). Each Player Character in the series to date has been such a hero, and many others are mentioned in the series' lore (often as Long Dead Badasses and Founders Of Their Kingdoms).
  • Morrowind:
    • The Nerevarine plays with the trope heavily straight (at face value, at least). According to prophecy, the Nerevarine is the reincarnation of the ancient Dunmer hero, Lord Indoril Nerevar. Throughout the main quest, you uncover the lost details of the prophecy and fulfill them yourself until you are recognized by the Daedric Prince Azura, Nerevar's patron. You are granted the Moon-And-Star ring, specially blessed by Azura to kill anyone who tries to wear it except for Nerevar, which you are able to wear. You complete the trials of the prophecy, defeat Big Bad Physical God Dagoth Ur, and sever his (and the Tribunal's) divine connection to the Heart of Lorkhan. However, there is strong evidence that the player is ''not'' Lord Nerevar reborn, but merely a convenient pawn Azura is using in her revenge plot against the Tribunal (Nerevar's councilors who went against her wishes thousands of years ago, used the Heart, and stole her worshipers along with possibly murdering Nerevar himself.) It is revealed that there have been others who fit the prophecy, but were killed before they could fulfill it entirely, and that Azura is more The Chooser of the One rather than there being one true Chosen One. Morrowind is probably one of the only stories to combine this trope with The Unchosen One — at the end of the main quest you get asked if you are Nerevar reborn. It is entirely possible to answer that no, you aren't, but you're doing this because it's the right thing to do (it is given more weight if you didn't fulfill the entire prophetic list of things you are supposed to do before confronting Dagoth Ur yet still is in a position to confront him by your possession of Kagrenac's Tools attuned to you). Finally, there is also the perspective that having the spirit of Nerevar will become more literal as you follow in his footsteps (Elder Scrolls metaphysics allow for avatarizing yourself by 'walking like he does until he walks like you do', an action known as "Mantling".)
    • They take their Chosen Ones seriously on Vvardenfell, really. One of the Tribunal Temple's standing orders is to execute anyone calling themselves Nerevarine — not because they want to stop the prophesy but rather because if the Nerevarine is going to fulfill every point on his prophetic agenda (yes, there's an actual list) he can't let a little thing like a full inquisitorial execution stop him. Ergo, try to execute every pretender — if they succeed, they know it was an imposter.
  • Oblivion:
    • Once again played with by the Player Character in the main quest. Here, Martin is the Chosen One — the only person left of Septim blood who can perform the ritual necessary to seal Mundus (the mortal plane) against the threat of Oblivion. The Champion of Cyrodiil is instead Martin's Lancer/Hyper-Competent Sidekick. However, there is also the implication that you were still chosen by the gods for your role in the story, delivering the Amulet of Kings, rescuing Martin, and doing most of the heavy lifting against the Mythic Dawn and Big Bad.
    • Played straight in both major expansions, Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles, where you very much are the Chosen One of each storyline. Also played straight in the Dark Brotherhood faction questline.
  • Skyrim:
    • Again, played with by the Player Character. Played straight as the Dragonborn is a rare mortal blessed by Akatosh with the immortal soul of a dragon, allowing for inherent knowledge of the Thu'um and being the Last of His Kind in that respect. Even further, they are also the Dragonborn prophesied to defeat Alduin. However, being a Dragonborn also means being one of the setting's metaphysical "heroes" who are not bound in any way by fate. As the Greybeards state, any action you take, whether good or evil, given your nature, is an action essentially blessed by the gods.
    • Played straight in most of the faction questlines. Before even coming to Skyrim, you appear in a dream to the Harbinger of the Companions as the one who will break the self-inflicted Lycanthropy curse on the group. In the College of Winterhold society, you are again chosen, this time by the Psijic Order. Once again, you also play it straight in the Dark Brotherhood questline, being chosen once again by the Night Mother, just as in Oblivion.
  • In the series' backstory, Reman Cyrodiil, founder of the Second Tamriellic Empire, was a chosen one. Said to be conceived in a union between the petty King Hrol, the spirit of St. Alessia (founder of the First Tamriellic Empire), Akatosh (the draconic Top God of the Imperial Eight Divines pantheon), and the land of Cyrodiil itself, Reman was, according to legend, found born atop a mountain of mud with the Amulet of Kings, long since lost, already in hand. Coronated as a child, Reman quickly brought the two halves of Cyrodiil (Colovia and Nibenay) back together, along with the other kingdoms of Men (High Rock and Skyrim). His line would go on to rule nearly all of Tamriel.
  • Also from the backstory, near the end of the 2nd Era, the Greybeards summoned the chosen one who would who would restore the Empire and conquer the elves to High Hrothgar, their monastery on the Throat of the World. Wulfharth Ash-King, the legendary ancient King of the Nords, famous Shezarrine who had died and come back to life at least three times, and noted Elf-hater, Jumped at the Call and went to the Greybeards. Instead, Wulfharth is "blasted to ash" by the Greybeards who declare Hjalti of High Rock (a young Tiber Septim) to be the one instead.
• Eternal Darkness deconstructs the concept of the Chosen One in that it demonstrates that it's probably a very good idea to figure out who is doing the choosing and to what end.
• Fallout 2, wherein the player character is identified as the Chosen One at the very beginning. Apparently being descended from the hero of the first game includes inheriting some pretty big expectations.
  • The player can also declare himself to be the Chosen One to many characters throughout the game world. Most of them will then treat your character as delusional, insane, or just as a plain backwards tribal following the statement. On the flip side of this, you can make it your boxing name in the prizefighter questline and have all of New Reno acknowledge your title if you become heavyweight champion.
• In Faria, your player character is a warrior from a distant land whom an ancient prophecy identifies as the only one able to save the kingdom of Faria from the Evil Sorcerer.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The four protagonists (later retconed to a single protagonist) from Final Fantasy arrival had been prophesied long before the start of the story. It had been predicted that the Warrior of Light would save the world from a group of monsters known as the Four Fiends, and a never ending time-loop.
  • Subverted in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest when The Dark King tells you that the prophecy of a hero who would defeat him is false and that he made it up for his own amusement. Then double subverted when you kick his ass anyway.
  • In Final Fantasy IV, Cecil Harvey is the prophesied Chosen One mentioned in the The Mysidian legend destined to ride the world of all evil because he wields the Mythgraven Blade.
  • Subverted with Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth. He thinks he's one during his freakout moment but, as it turns out, this is all just delusions of grandeur on his part. He eventually decides to become a villainous example of The Unchosen One by fulfilling Jenova's role of destroying everything on the planet.
  • Final Fantasy X: Tidus is an interesting example. He was brought to Spira by Jecht who upon becoming Sin, a rampaging god-like monster with only a tiny shred of its original humanity left within it, decided that Tidus, his own son, should be the one to defeat him.
  • Final Fantasy XII: Princess Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca, descendant of Dynast-King Raithwall, is chosen by the Occurria to set mankind's history on the "right" path. However, their idea of "right" involves mass genocide of the entire Archadian Empire, and even Ashe's hatred of said Empire falters at the prospect. Strangely, their usage of illusions indicate that Vaan was their Plan B for a time, but they gave up on him when he outgrew his hang-ups. It was this very growth that helped inspire Ashe to reject her "chosen destroyer" role outright.
  • Final Fantasy XIII has the l'Cie. They are chosen to complete a mission assigned by a fal'Cie, a mission which's nature is completely unknown to the l'Cie in question. They are distinguished by a mark on any part of their body. If a l'Cie fails to carry out their quest, they get turned into a Cie'th, Body Horror incarnate, as punishment; and if the l'Cie succeed their quest they will turn into crystal until the fal'Cie decides to give the l'Cie a new mission to carry out... It kind of sucks to be a Chosen One in Final Fantasy XIII's universe.
  • Final Fantasy XIV is a very interesting version of this trope. At the start of 1.0 and A Realm Reborn, Mothercrystal Hydaelyn chooses the player character to be her champion, bestowing them the mysterious power of the Echo. No one ever bothers questioning it until it's all flipped on its head during the Shadowbringers expansion, when it's revealed that you are actually the reincarnation of a shard of an Ascian, the Big Bads of the game and that Hydaelyn didn't need to choose you as the method she chose you with could be used to choose any other reincarnated Ascian shard!
    • That said, it's heavily hinted that the Warrior of Light is the reincarnation of a specific Ascian — namely an individual known only as The Fourteenth, who had walked away from the ruling council of Amaurot in opposition to the creation of Zodiark and is implied to be the person who led the efforts to birth Hydaelyn — which is why they were chosen to be Her main agent.
  • Final Fantasy XV:
    • The main story has Noctis and his ancestors whom decided he would be the Chosen King of Light, destined to banish the darkness at the cost of his own life and after the previous king, the Big Bad, failed.
    • Episode Ardyn reveals the aforementioned Big Bad and titular character Ardyn Izunia is a horrific inversion. He was actually chosen by the gods to become the world's equivalent to Satan, and is told in no uncertain terms that he can go along with it or be made to go along with it.
• In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the characters that enter the game's final tower are classified as "Chosen Ones". The player gets to choose most of them though, rather than fate directly.
• In Granblue Fantasy, the "What Makes The Sky Blue" event reveals that the protagonists (Gran/Djeeta) are the "singularity" upon which the fate of the world revolves around, whether it lead to salvation or ruin. The Primarchs subsequently choose to bestow their tetra-elemental power upon them, causing Shiva, Alexiel, Grimnir, and Europa to take an interest in them.
• Notable aversion in Grandia: The protagonist Justin is an ordinary boy who just wants to be an adventurer. He isn't chosen by the "Spirits" after an ancient prophecy, but is begrudgingly accepted by them after proving how awesome he is.
• Played with in Guild Wars. The White Mantle seeks out people who are deemed to be chosen ones by fate it seems. Given how many, it apparently doesn't take much to be one of the chosen ones it seems. However, It Sucks to Be the Chosen One as the White Mantle will try to sacrifice you on a bloodstone. This means that the prophecy can't be fulfilled to destroy the Mursaat. It's revealed over the course of "Prophecies" that the player character(s) are Chosen too, but it's also implied that they aren't the chosen one, so much as the only ones of the Chosen who got there.
• Horizon Zero Dawn:
  • When Aloy was born, she was found deep inside the most sacred part of Nora land — right underneath the claw of the Metal Devil that their Goddess fought. The Matriarchs couldn't agree on whether she was the daughter of All-Mother sent to save the Nora, or the spawn of the Metal Devil sent to awaken it, with Teersa believing the former and Lansra adamantly believing the latter. They were able to reach a compromise in making her an outcast, keeping her away from Nora society for their protection, in Lansra's mind, but keeping open the possibility for her to earn her place. As it turns out, she actually was born to save them and the rest of humanity (albeit without the religious implications). She is a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobek, the creator of the AI GAIA tasked with terraforming the planet. GAIA knew that she would have full administrative access to nearly all Old Ones technology, which would allow her to restore GAIA, who had to destroy herself to stop HADES. She notably has some typical angst about this on learning the truth but Sylens, as always, mocks her:
    Sylens: How tragic, to learn you're a person of towering importance!
  • The Dragon Helis also believes he is a chosen one - and he is. Aloy has to spell it out that he was chosen to destroy everything because he was stupid enough to deny the Big Bad's true plans in his face until the bitter end.
  • In the sequel, Beta was created by Far Zenith to serve as their savior. Naturally, they made her mortal, abused her frequently, and intended for her to die or be used as a tool forever.
• Idle Mine Remix: You. As the game reveals later on, you were destined to be a miner, which is why you have a blacksmith and the reserve of gems at home. You were chosen to explore the endless riches of the underground.
• inFAMOUS: Played straight. If you collect enough dead drops you eventually come across one of a phone call made by Kessler to the courier service Cole worked for. He asks for Cole by name to deliver a package, which is how Cole gets the Ray Sphere in the first place when he is instructed to open it. Might be an aversion given that technically he chose himself given that Kessler is Cole from the future.
• The Keyblades in Kingdom Hearts tend to choose keybearers for themselves when needed. This part goes to Sora and later also to Mickey Mouse, Riku, and Kairi. Once chosen, a keybearer has to deal with a great amount of Heartless and Nobodies, who want to kill him/her because keyblades are the only true threat to them and also simply Because Destiny Says So. Additionally, Sora was also chosen to open "the door to light" with his keyblade for reasons as yet unknown.
  • Interestingly, Sora was never meant to wield a Keyblade. The one initially chosen is actually Riku, but since Riku jumps too quickly at the call, Sora finds it instead. Terra chose Riku, but destiny chose Sora. They're both Chosen, but Destiny's Choice takes precedence. Meanwhile, Aqua planned on choosing Sora, but decided against it after realizing that Terra had chosen Riku...unaware that she had already chosen Kairi by accident.
  • Although ultimately subverted It's revealed in Birth By Sleep that at one time in the past hundreds to thousands of people wielded keyblades, and that a massive war erupted between them. The keyblade wielders of the present are few just because there were few left over after the keyblade war to pass on the ability.
  • The ending of Dark Road reveals that the Book of Prophecies mentions the "Child of Destiny" who is said to hail from the "Isles of Destiny" and has the ability to feel, share, and embrace the hearts of others, and connect their heart with others. The Blue Hooded Figure, the Reincarnation of the Player, believed that Xehanort was the Child of Destiny, but it’s implied that they were wrong and the Child of Destiny is actually Sora.
• The Fateless One in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is normally The Unchosen One because he/she is Immune to Fate. However, it is because of this property (and generally being a Badass) that the godlike Akara in the "Legend of Dead Kel" DLC chooses the Fateless One to carry out his goals. Just because the Fateless One isn't bound by Fate doesn't mean he/she can't still be manipulated in other ways.
• King of the Castle:
  • The Prophecy scheme sees their preferred claimant of the Chiefs of the North held up as a great ruler, referred to by such names as Lordrender or Thronebreaker, whose coming was foretold in old prophecies (as long as they are interpreted a certain way), and the three objectives of the scheme involve manipulating the Kingdom to make it appear as though the prophecies are coming to pass.
  • The Fervour scheme entails the Grandees of the South presenting their claimant as having been chosen by the Ninth God to rule the Kingdom, and the objectives involve persuading the peasants that a bountiful harvest is evidence that their claimant enjoys the Ninth God's favour.
  • The Sceptre of Sages ambition involves the King going in search of said MacGuffin, the holder of which is prophesied to rule over a golden age. The Treasurer tells the King that only the pure of heart can wield it, which in the context of the game involves passing Trade and Faith checks.
• King's Raid has the Holy Sword Aea which chooses a new wielder to save the world whenever the threat of the demons is brewing. Kasel is its current wielder, who wonders if he's up to the task. Just like some of the other examples on this page, the series isn't afraid of exploring the ramifications of the concept.
• In Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, God Is Dead, but there's one person prophesied to take up the sword which killed him and become a vessel for his rebirth. It turns out that the protagonist and one of her colleagues, Carissa are the only two people who could fit the prophecy, which prompts those who don't want the Dead God back to try to kill them as a preventative measure. In the end, Carissa is revealed to be the prophesied one, but the protagonist holds the sword. Depending on player choice, this may result in a We Can Rule Together deal, but it's also possible to defy the prophecy.
• The Legacy of Kain series plays around with this, not getting around to deciding just who's the Chosen One, or what they're chosen for, until the end of the series. In Defiance, both Raziel and Kain believe they're the Champion of the vampires. Eventually, it's revealed that Raziel could be the Champion of either the Vampires or the Hylden, and as the only one with free will, he can choose. In the end, Raziel plays out both Champions' parts by giving the Hylden Overlord a sufficiently strong host body in the form of Janos Audron, and giving Kain, the Scion of Balance, everything he needs to fulfill his own destiny by erasing Nupraptor's corruption from his spirit and fusing himself with the Soul Reaver.
• Legacy of the Wizard: Played with. Roas, the descendant of the wizard who defeated the evil King dragon Keela, is completely useless until the very end of the game, when he suddenly becomes the only one able to wield the Dragon Slayer sword and kill Keela.
• Link from The Legend of Zelda; in some of the games he's specifically referred to as "the Chosen Hero."
  "It is written: Only Link can defeat Ganon."
  • Played with in some games, where Link actually has to earn the title of Chosen Hero. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has him recover the pieces of the Triforce of Courage and show that he's courageous enough to actually receive it, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has him directly perform various deeds for the Goddess in order to gain access to an intact Triforce.
  • Proving his destined right to find and wield the Triforce of Courage is the entire point of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the second game in the series and when the existence of the Triforce of Courage is first mentioned^note the original game had only Wisdom and Power But this can be chalked up to Continuity Snarl retroactively making it the final game in its branch of the series, chronologically.
  • Zelda also destined to have the Triforce of Wisdom, though Skyward Sword's Zelda was revealed as the Goddess Hylia's mortal reincarnation, so she isn't the Chosen One as much as the chooser. Ganondorf, however, unconsciously chose the Triforce of Power. At the end of the day, all three in their various incarnations and descendants are ultimately destined to forever be in conflict thanks to Demise's curse.
  • Link's status as the chosen wielder of the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a point of contention for Zelda herself and Revali, Champion of the Rito. Both initially resent Link for this for similar reasons, namely, that they have worked and trained so hard for their respective roles, and they view Link as having received his power on a plate. Revali is powerful in his own right, but his ego can't take the fact that he has to take a support role to this new swordsman that he never heard of before, while Zelda doesn't even have anything to show for all of her efforts until she finally unlocks her divine power while saving Link's life during Calamity Ganon's resurrection.
    • This game deconstructed The Chosen One for both Link and Zelda and the struggles one would face to live up to the expectations. They both face immense pressures from family and civilians to protect Hyrule due to a prophecy, dedicating their entire lives for this cause. Link felt it was necessary to hide all emotion and even refuse to speak out of fear of doing or saying anything unbecoming of a chosen one. Zelda is severely admonished by her father and others for her inability to summon her divine power without any guidance of learning how to do so, leading to self-doubt and self-loathing. And when they failed and Hyrule was in ruins, they blamed themselves despite doing everything they could and they still suffer resentment from some of the surviving races a hundred years later.
• The Lufia series:
  • In Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, Maxim is told by Iris that he has the power to fight whatever vague evil has risen. It's more explicit in the remake, Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, where Maxim is referred to as the "Legendary Hero" and even gets a Title reflecting being the only person capable of wielding the Dual Blade.
  • Eldin in Lufia: The Ruins of Lore accidentally ends up becoming The Chosen One after a curse Rubius meant to receive herself struck Eldin instead, due to Eldin having Eristolian blood.
• Metroid: Samus is sometimes portrayed simply as a singularly hyper-competent one-woman space police force, but in the NTSC version of Metroid Prime, the Chozo Lore entries imply that the Tallon IV Chozo prophesied and expected Samus to come save their dying planet after the Phazon meteorite strike.
• One character proposes in Mass Effect 3 that Shepard is the Avatar of his/her Cycle, someone who plays a centrally important role in the fate of the galaxy. Shepard even has the opportunity to recruit the Avatar of the previous cycle, Javik. With the Extended Cut, it is possible for the game to play out such that Shepard fails to stop the Reapers, but Liara succeeds in warning the next cycle, allowing them to stop the Reapers 50,000 years later. Shepard becomes Shrouded in Myth for his/her part in this.
• Miasma Chronicles: Bha Madhi says that Elvis is the reincarnation of the previous Alpha Editor, and is destined to complete the overthrow of the First Family. She found him as a baby in the Alpha Editor's grave, and raised him as her own child. We see a statue of the Alpha Editor, and Elvis has the same face.
• Dug Too Deep: The miners in Mineshaft A found a big Miasma deposit, which causes
• Mother 3 has Lucas and Claus/The Masked Man, who are the only two people in the world that can use PK Love and pull the 7 needles that will awaken the Dark Dragon and change the world, as prophesied. The Magypsies make note to point out how unique they are as well.
• The protagonist of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen is decreed by Warren the Seer to be the hero who will liberate Zenobia. If you choose to have the protagonist fight against Rashidi, he mentions how he foresaw the protagonist's coming and his death at the protagonist's hands.
• Persona has the Player Character in each entry from the third onwards, each marked by their possessing the power of the "Wild Card" which allows them to summon multiple Personas. The circumstances in which each protagonist is chosen varies between each game:
  • Persona 3: A battle between Aigis and the Shadow known as "Death" led to the deaths of the protagonist's parents. While Aigis was able to subdue Death, she couldn't destroy it. Thus, in the hopes of preventing further destruction, she had a portion of Death's power sealed within the protagonist, thus fostering his Wild Card ability unwittingly. This fragment of Death would later become the mysterious child known as Pharos, the transfer student Ryoji Mochizuki, and finally, the Nyx Avatar.
  • Persona 4: The protagonist is one of three (potentially more) people approached by Izanami — at the time disguised as a gas station attendant — as part of an experiment into whether humanity was worthy of salvation. Of those chosen, the protagonist was chosen to represent the idea of "Hope".
  • Persona 5: The protagonist is approached by Yaldabaoth — disguised as Igor — as part of an experiment into humanity and the twisted desires that have given birth to the Metaverse. Also chosen was Goro Akechi: the protagonist would fight to save the world from the distortions, and Akechi would fight to perpetuate them as part of a conspiracy to put Masayoshi Shido into political power. Yaldabaoth's "game" is ultimately rigged in favor of the world's ruin, but the protagonist is subsequently tasked by the real Igor with stopping him.
• Pokémon:
  • The player character in Pokémon Crystal is one to the legendary Pokémon Suicune. When the player encounters it at the bottom of the Burnt Tower, Raikou and Entei immediately flee. Suicune bolts as well, but pauses for a moment in front of the player as if it was looking at them before also taking off. A few NPCs state that Suicune will allow a human to draw close to it if said human has a good natured soul. At the Tin Tower later on in the story, you encounter the three legendary Pokémon again. Entei and Raikou flee once more, but Suicune attacks the player as if it's testing them. Only the player is allowed to battle and possibly capture Suicune.
  • In Pokémon Sun and Moon, each island has a Kahuna that acts as the island's guardian. A Kahuna is picked by the island's guardian deity Pokémon and once someone is chosen, they cannot refuse it. Kahunas are also very strong Pokémon Trainers, being the region's version of the Elite Four.
  • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Player Character is handpicked by Arceus and brought to Sinnoh to foster human-Pokémon relations and improve our understanding of them during a time before the close bond between the two races was established. This is later revealed to be secondary to its true motive, which is to raise up a Trainer strong enough to protect it from Volo & Giratina.
• Prayer of the Faithless: As her her character description, says, Serra Cadmus thinks of herself as one, due to being the only Oracle, regaining her powers while all others lost theirs:
  Believing herself to be a "chosen one" of sorts
• Septerra Core. The appropriately-named Chosen think that being the descendants of Marduk's army make them this collectively, and Doskias in particular thinks that being Marduk's direct descendant (which means he's the great-great-great-great-etc. grandson of God) makes him an All-Loving Hero as well.
• The Jedi Knight player character from Star Wars: The Old Republic. Every plotline leading in to the game from other media ends in his/her campaign, and there is an actual prophesy about them in the prequel novel.
• START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue: Thanks to the blessing of the Change God, the Housemaiden can not be Frozen in time like most of the land has been. What's more, she can restore any party members who have been Frozen with her magic. Should she fall in battle, however, with nobody around to revive her...
• Suikoden — every major game in the series revolves around the 108 Stars of Destiny, 108 usually recruitable characters that all play a vital role in the fate of reality.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • In Super Paper Mario, it's stated that Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser are the Heroes of Light chosen by the Light Prognosticus. Luigi is the Chosen One for the Dark Prognosticus, being the Apocalypse Maiden.
  • Yoshi's Island DS has the Star Children: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, DK, Bowser and a newborn Yoshi (Implied to be the Yoshi from when Mario is an adult).
• The Tales Series often uses this trope; however, given that it's the Tales Series, you can bet that it's often played with or flat-out deconstructed.
  • Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia, although she's not the main character and has been fully aware of her status as the chosen one her whole life, it being due to her genetics. This is also a deconstruction. It is revealed that there are entire families containing the chosen bloodline spread across the world, any member of whom can be proclaimed the chosen one by the Powers That Be whenever required. And then of course it turns out what the Chosen is chosen for — to be the vessel for the resurrection of the "goddess" Martel — and by "goddess" we mean "Big Bad's dead sister". Knowing for most of her life that she exists to be a human sacrifice also gives her next to no sense of self-worth or preservation, making her selfless to a fault and unwilling to burden others with her problems even when those problems are literally, physically killing her. In fact, one of her Angel powers allows her to heal the entire party and inflict damage on the enemy party at the cost of dropping her to 0 HP. Zelos Wilder is another chosen (the chosen of a different world, to be precise), but he doesn't really want to do it, since the job was actually his sick sister's and he's not at all suited. At one point he appears to have made a deal with the villains (though whether he's really doing this depends on Event Flags) to betray the party in exchange for getting out of his duties. Or to just die at the party's hands. That's fine, too.
  • Speaking of the Tales series, Luke in Tales of the Abyss is prophesied to be the Chosen One who will lead his world to new heights of prosperity. The Big Bad tries to cheat the prophecy by cloning him.
  • In Tales of Eternia, it's implied that Reid and Ras were Chosen ones; but not entirely any specific one as more "Only these people can use the power of Seyfert's Fibril". Meredy can too, thanks to Shizel, user of Nereid's fibril being her mother and all.
  • In Tales of Vesperia, Estelle is one of the last remaining Children of the Full Moon: beings who possessed a great and immeasurable power over the world's aer. What did the original Children of the Full Moon do to save the world? Commit suicide to avoid accidentally screwing the world over with said power.
• In That Which Sleeps, the Chosen One is a randomly-ish selected character (heroic or not) who gets Fate on their side and is destined to face the Old One in the final battle to save the world. The player is that Old One, so annihilating or corrupting that pesky Chosen One is a vital part of the game.
• Unreal has various messages (combined with your actions) that heavily suggest that you are an All-Loving Hero who will save the Nali from the tyranny of the Skaarj. This may be a subversion however, as the tournament games (said to be set after the first game) suggest that the Nali are still being hunted, although the reference is non-specific enough that you could easily assume your character at least made their situation far better.
• Valis: Yuko Ahso is generically thrust into the spotlight as the warrior who can wield the sword of Valis and defeat evil (Okay, not quite generically — she's thrust into the spotlight with a big dose of Fanservice and Stripperificness). She plays the role of The Valis Warrior in the first three games, then becomes the Dream World's goddess, and in the fourth game, Lena takes over Yuko's prior role as the wielder of the eponymous legendary sword.
• Voidigo: Drash, the starting playable character, was chosen by the Antivoid to purge the Beacons of Void corruption. Her character subtitle is even the trope name verbatim.
• In Warcraft III, Arthas is Ner'zhul's Chosen One, as Kel'Thuzad specifically states in "The Revelation".
• Weaponlord is an interesting example, as all the playable characters, including the Big Bad are all considered the Chosen One by virtue of being born under a sacred event called the Warrior's Moon.
• In A Witch's Tale, Liddell was chosen to wield the ancient magic. Loue mentions that the same thing happened with Alice 1,000 years ago. Liddell is also chosen to become Alice if the current one dies.
• The World Ends with You also is an interesting example. Neku is just another player of the Reapers' Game, among dozens of other dead guys/gals. Later in the game, it's revealed that Neku IS actually the chosen one... And he was chosen by Shibuya's resident Jerkass God just because he was staring at a graffiti wall. However, in the Secret Reports Hanekoma reveals that Neku has "dense and all-inclusive Soul" and "high Imagination" and was therefore picked by the Composer for his qualities (that are the reason that Neku can use all sorts of pin while his fellow Players cannot). The graffiti wall in the UG attracts people with those qualities, so Josh just knew that Neku was the right person. Which makes Neku a true Chosen One... Or sort of that.
  • The other main reason Joshua chose Neku was because Neku was the biggest example of what Joshua hated about Shibuya's people; people who let their potential go to waste by hiding in their own little worlds. So in this case, being the Chosen One was NOT a compliment. However, Neku surprised Joshua by growing into a better person by learning to let his world grow with others' worlds... meaning he actually saved Shibuya by subverting a main reason he was the "Chosen One" and proving the Chooser wrong.
• World of Mana
  • Secret of Mana plays with this trope. Near the start of the game, the main character pulls a sword out of a stone. He is later told that only a great hero should be able to remove the sword, but since he is too young to be a hero, it must have happened because the power of Mana is weakening. He is asked to take care of the sword until he can find a real hero to give it to. Later on it turns out that he was the Chosen One all along. He's even the son of a hero!
  • Trials of Mana features six characters to choose from, and you can choose any one of them to be the main character. Destiny doesn't choose the Chosen One until shortly into the game when your first character finds a weakened fairy looking for somebody to save the Mana Tree. While you inevitably fail to save the Mana Tree, your fairy friend becomes the new Mana Goddess who will eventually be able to restore it.
• In World of Warcraft: Legion the Naaru Xe'ra reveals that the Child of Light and Shadow prophesied to end the Age of Demons is Illidan Stormrage. He detests this concept as he long ago chose to fight destiny. After killing Xe'ra, he declares that there can be no Chosen One and that they must all save themselves.
• Later Xeno- title Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has those chosen to wield the Monado. Non-chosen are uncontrollably thrown all over the place if they touch it. There are only two exceptions: Dunban, who used it in the Battle of Sword Valley at the cost of the use of his right arm (although he later alleges that the sword was controlling him), and Shulk, who wields it without any apparent repercussion and gains the ability to see the future through its use. (A third, Alvis, shows up early into Makna Forest, although why they can use the Monado isn't explained until very late-game: namely, he is the Monado.) Shulk in particular gains the nickname "True Heir to the Monado" for his ability to wield it. The trope is played particularly straight in his case: the reason he can use the Bionis' Monado is because the omnicidal god Zanza arbitrarily chose to inhabit him to further his ends. However, with a bit of prodding by Alvis, Shulk goes on to make his own Monado to combat Zanza with.
  • Another case is party member Riki, the legendary Heropon. This one's Played for Laughs, as it quickly comes out that the main thing qualifying Riki for "Heropon" status (which itself in an annual appointment) is massive, crushing debt, which gets forgiven by taking up the mantle. The Nopon Elder and The Chooser of the One heavily implies he's fobbing Riki off on the party because their quest is marginally less suicidal than the normal Heropon duties of hunting (and being eaten by) monsters in their forest and it would be nice for Riki's family if he came back alive.
• Xenogears revolves around a Chosen One named Fei who is a reincarnation of the original Chosen One, Abel. His choosing is eventually revealed to be sheer accident, as his contact with the Wave Existence occurred because Abel got lost while trying to escape the doomed Eldridge. His contact allows him to survive and entrusts him with the task of freeing the Wave Existence from the Zohar, and he is destined to die and be reborn forever until he accomplishes his task. Ironically, if Abel had not gotten lost, someone (or perhaps no one) else would have become Chosen One.
  • The game has another Chosen One, Elhaym. The Wave Existence created the original Elhaym out of Abel's longing for his mother (he was lost, remember?) and she likewise reincarnates across several lifetimes.
• Adol from the Ys series is a rare combination of this and The Unchosen One. In most cases, The Chosen One becomes badass because they were chosen. Adol, by contrast, didn't even Jump At The Call — he set out looking for calls. In the OVA of Ys I, it turns out he has the same name as the prophesized hero, but this is Lampshaded when the seer's superior reminds her that Adol Christin is a common name and the last one that came to town was a little girl. It turns out that the prophecy is in fact talking about him, but instead of him becoming a hero because he was chosen by the prophecy, it just correctly predicted that he'd show up and save the place. Adol's reputation begins preceeding him as early as the first game. It's generally because of who he is and what he's done that he's given any powers or ancient artifacts that he doesn't get himself — if you need a hero to save your land, it's only sensible to choose someone with job experience. In Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, the daughter of Alma running the trials is not impressed with this random man who just showed up out of nowhere, but after he begins passing them, she asks around about who this 'Adol Christin' guy thinks he is. She grows much more impressed and respectful after that.
• ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: According to ancient prophecies, the protagonist is a hero meant to save Magical Land Zanzarah from evil.

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