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The Power Of Friendship / Video Games

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"It sure isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but there are people who taught me to never give up. They've been guiding me and showing me all the beautiful things in this world. I love them, and I love what they love. We're connected by this sword. It will burn up the darkness to make way for light! This will be... our path back home!"
  • Choose a video-game where players are put in teams and have to play against one another. Any game. Even if one team has better players, if they're not working together or supporting one another, and the other team is, the other team is almost certainly going to win.
  • In Alpha Protocol, Player Character Agent Mike Thorton of the titular No Such Agency is a Guile Hero with a knack for figuring out what makes people tick, and uses it to his advantage by cultivating relationships around the world to aid him in his mission.
  • Assassin's Creed: The Assassin order is called the "brotherhood" for a reason. The friendships between the Assassins and their non-assassin allies help them accomplish their missions and preserve in the face of Templar power.
    • Assassin's Creed: Altaïr can befriend vigilantes by rescuing their family members and they in turn help him fight/escape from guards and prevent his targets from escaping. Then there's his friendship with Malik which saves him from a Zerg Rush in the final level.
    • Assassin's Creed II: Ezio is aided by many people over the course of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, from his Platonic Life Partner, Leonardo, to the thief guilds he meets in Florence and Venice. This culminates in All of his friends coming to his aid, The Cavalry-style, and then inducting him into the Assassin Brotherhood.
    • Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: Ezio can recruit civilians to become Assassins by helping them. Part of Brotherhood is explicitly about him making so many friends that he has enough power to liberate Rome from the Borgia Templars.
  • Astra Hunter Zosma: Every boss the party defeats improves their bond, resulting in Zosma getting more sigil slots and more actions per round while the blob companion gets more ABP to allocate to their skills, as well as new active and passive skills.
  • In Breath of Fire II you're told that the only way to get the final dragon form to beat the Big Bad is for one of your friends to give their life. They're varying degrees of willing. It turns out that the real way to unlock it is to ignore the requirement and refuse to choose a friend, choosing to sacrifice yourself rather than others.
  • Breath of Fire IV: Subverted in the "bad" ending in which the main character was absorbed by the villain who then proceeded to summon an enormous dragon to fight the remainder of the party. Said party spouted something about friendship, but it was quickly snuffed out by the fact that the dragon had infinite HP, which regenerated every turn, counterattacks that did thousands of damage, an attack that reduced everybody to 1 HP, and was controlled by the player. The game then proceeded to end with all of humanity being destroyed.
  • In Bubble Bobble, it's this that breaks whatever curse Bub and Bob are under. So much that if you beat the game without your friend i.e. player 2, you won't get the Golden Ending.
  • Castlevania:
  • Disgaea:
    • In Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, during the final battle, this is a Discussed Trope. While idealistic hero Almaz calls it this, Mao categorically denies that it has anything to do with friendship, claiming it's some sort of cosmic energy he was hiding in his body.
    • Playing the trope straight, Valvatorez of Disgaea 4 strongly believes in the power of friendship, and utters the following line in the last battle:
      Valvatorez: Do you see now, God!? This is the power of demons, angels, and humans! A power that's much stronger than yours, the ties of our camaraderie!
    • Disgaea 5 has this as a central theme for Killia's development as the main character. Not only is it the key to helping him tame his Superpowered Evil Side, it also helps him master the ultimate demon technique he was taught by Goldion and even serves as the source of power for the strongest skills that are utilized with it. In fact the Ultimate Demon technique is designed to allow demons to unleash incredible power by gaining control over their evil tendencies and urges by tempering them with pure thoughts and feelings, allowing them to push past their limits. The skills Avidiya Holy Water and Macrocosm can only by used by those who have mastered this and are designed to expel evil in opponents and elminate it rather than the targets.
    • Disgaea 6 is yet another example of this being a lesson the main character learns and ends up saving the day. Zed at first is only focused on getting stronger on his own and believes that stopping the God of Destruction is his job alone, but after helping his allies solve their own personal problems, they unlock new powers that help him accomplish his goal and save his sister. Not only that, but the main theme of the game is all about whether or not destiny can be taken into your own hands, and the big bad tries to destroy the universe out of despair after time travelling tens of thousands of times to save his loved one and failing each time. The he ultimately failed? Because he tried to do it alone. When Zed and his friends go to the time period where he tried to change her fate, Zed and his friends succeed first try. He also gets saved himself from becoming a destructive Majin by this trope when his friends channel their power and feelings through Melodia and she kisses him to stop him from transforming. Zed even quotes this truth near the final battle:
      Zed: Anyone can change fate. As long as they have friends fighting by their side!
  • Dragalia Lost: This is exactly how Euden defeats Xenos. Since Euden is an abnormality, being a part of Xenos’ heart, (the part that gives to others) at the very end of his adventure, he gains the ability to literally harness the bonds that he has with his friends, and manifest it into a physical form. In order to kill Xenos for good, Euden harnesses the power and bonds that he has shared with literally every single person that he has connected with, and this power is what proves to be too much for Xenos to handle.
  • A recurring theme in Dragon Age:
  • The power of friendship allows everyone to survive their Duel Boss fights in the last route of Duel Savior Destiny. Otherwise, they'd all have died either before the fight or right after it.
  • The Ebony Blade as seen in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a sword that technically runs off the Power of Friendship... by which we mean the sword gets stronger if you use it to murder characters you have become close friends with. The Ebony Blade as seen in previous Elder Scrolls games did not have this ability.
  • Used against the player in eXceed 3rd: the third boss, Giee, uses Summon Magic, and claims that the love and trust between herself and her summons grants her incredible power (since she's just the Stage 3 boss, she goes down hard).
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy IV (II in its first western release):
      • The player's party is about to be wiped out right before the final battle, when the camera switches back to Earth, to show people sending "their prayers" to the characters. After that, several of the protagonist's friends (some dead ones too!) materialize briefly by his side with words of encouragement. Each such speech heals the members a bit, until they're at full strength again.
      • The same game also turns it against you with the Archfiends. After taking down the final Fiend, Rubicante, he realizes that you beat him because your party fought him as a team (he realized this sooner when you defeated him in his solo boss fight).
    • In Final Fantasy VI, upon reaching the Final Boss, the party responds to his nihilistic revelations by talking about all of the individual bonds they've made with one another, what they've learned throughout their individual experience, and why real love is worth risking their lives and fighting to preserve. The villain's response? "This is sickening. You sound like chapters from a self help booklet!" Kefka is wrong. He is stopped. It's also worth noting that in a game where one of the central themes is "human connection makes you a person," Kefka, the villain, is alone in absolutely every way.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, after a particularly distressing revelation, Zidane turns into a zombie-like Jerkass note  and tries to go it alone. His friends gather around him and convince him that they need each other, helping him turn back into a nice guy.
      • This is used more literally during the ending; after the party is completely wiped out by Kuja's Ultima and helpless when Necron appears, the four party members not participating in the final battle hand their power over to the four others, fully healing them and giving a few encouraging words as they do so.
    • Final Fantasy XII pulled this one twice: once when the main cast is getting ready to fly off to destroy the source of the game's Applied Phlebotinum, and again when they're just getting ready to fight the Big Bad.
    • Dissidia Final Fantasy almost as much as Kingdom Hearts. The initial idea for the game was to make it a Kingdom Hearts game, which is telling.
    • Final Fantasy XIV This occurs at the end of the the initial A Realm Reborn launch content where arc boss Lahabrea is defeated when you are both able to manifest a weapon of pure light, and through your connection to your friends over power him.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • In the later games, units that spend significant time battling near each other can have what are called "Support Conversations" wherein they develop their relationships, causing them to have a boost to their offensive or defensive ability when within a short distance of each other. You heard that right: Shipping provides a strategic advantage. This is justified, as all of your characters are soldiers or fighters of some degree. The support levels are gained by having the units fight near each other, so the game is recognizing that people who fight as a team tend to get better at it over time. This is even referenced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with Ike's famous line "I fight for my friends."
    • Near the end of Fire Emblem: Awakening, it is revealed that the Avatar can destroy Grima for good, although doing so would erase him/her from existence. It's mentioned it is possible, although very unlikely, for him/her to be brought back if the bonds s/he formed with other people was strong enough. It works.
  • Grand Theft Auto V of all things heavily employs this trope, particularly in the Golden Ending. Rather than kill his two friends and mentor figures at the behest of Devin Weston and the FIB, Franklin instead opts to get Michael and Trevor together to take down everyone who wants them dead, despite the latter two's ongoing feud. In the end, the protagonists eliminate all their enemies, deal with their inner demons, strengthen their bonds, and earn their happy endings. The other endings where Franklin betrays one of the two are much bleaker.
  • This is ultimately how Kiana defeats the Herrscher of Domination in Honkai Impact 3rd. The impetus for Kiana's transformation into the Herrscher of Flamescion is her powerful desire to fight for and protect those she loves. This is also how she's able to break through the Herrscher of Domination's final attack (which provides the page image), allowing her to deal the finishing blow.
  • In Improbable Island, there are some situations, especially when there is threat level 1 in every outpost, it simply is not feasible to continue normally, as the cost of healing will outweigh the payouts of hunting. However, in you are part of a large guild, especially one with maxed out buffs, a competent player can become nearly invincible to all level-appropriate encounters, as the enemies will barely be able to overcome your damage resistance, let alone your regen.
  • In Inuyasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask, depending on which character you spend your rest days with, you gain more powerful combination attacks with said character as your in-game friendship grows (and character-specific endings, but they just follow similar formats).
  • In the final battle of Jade Empire, your allies weaken the enemies that the Big Bad sends at you before you face him. The game's Karma Meter system makes this a Downplayed version. The only difference between being an All-Loving Hero who believes in the power of friendship (Open Palm), and a tyrant who just killed all the followers who disagreed with him (Closed Fist), is you have to fight a few more enemies.
  • Crucial to the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora's Keyblade, and indeed all keyblades, seem drawn to individuals with strong hearts and emotions, including — and especially — friendship. But magic and normal combat also seems to operate under this trope; Donald Duck and Goofy and all of Sora's various friends triumph repeatedly through their bonds with each other.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep states that the Power of Friendship is practically a superpower. It also allows Aqua to smash the Keyblade equivalent of Excalibur by turning her own into a lightsaber of friendship. It gives Ven the power to leech Vanitas's abilities off of him and use them to defeat Vanitas, and it gives Terra the ability to control his own armor even after his heart and body have been taken by the big bad. Finally, it allows Ven (who's currently comatose) and Terra (who's currently trapped in his own body while another controls it) to magically transport their Keyblades to the realm of darkness to one-shot Darksides and save Aqua while also giving her the will to live again.
    • Gameplay-wise, D-Links are basically the invoking of The Power Of Friendship, in which characters tap into the powers of characters they've interacted with. Most of these actually involve friendship (Experiment 626, Zack and Mickey) while others a bit less so (the Disney Princesses and in Terra's case, Maleficent).
    • coded keeps up the trend; the connections and friendship that data Sora has built with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy allow Data Sora to summon a Keyblade, and may have actually created a heart for him.
    • The Power of Friendship is the central theme of 358/2 Days too, centering around the friendship of Roxas, Axel and Xion
    • Played with in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The villains use Sora's reliance of the power of friendship to lure him into a trap, and Xigbar attempts to deconstruct the trope by pointing out that if Sora's power comes from his friends, then he doesn't have any of his own. Sora completely ignores the attempt to send him into a Heroic BSoD and reconstructs it on the spot, saying that makes him part of something bigger than himself and he's totally cool with that.
  • Kirby Star Allies is entirely powered by this trope: Kirby has to use hearts to turn his foes into his friends so they can all team up together to save the universe. The game is heavily tuned towards multiplayer gameplay, so it takes this trope right to the people playing it.
  • Done in Left 4 Dead as game mechanic. Going Rambo and your chance to die is 100% 99.999% (solo runs are being attempted, but no one yet seems to have bagged 'em all) from Smoker and Hunter. Only your friends can help you out of that.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel:
    • The ARCUS system weaponizes this through the Tactical Link feature. Forging a strong link provides all sorts of benefits, such as the chance to automatically heal an ally when attacked, covering for another ally for reduced damage, or executing a finishing blow. However, characters that are feuding won't be able to form a link. It only works if they're friends, or at least are able to put aside their differences and find common ground.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • An argument could be made for this trope's inclusion in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Link and the imp Midna increasingly learn to trust and rely upon one another; there's even a screencap after one battle they fight together where they look like they're posing for some kind of friendship poster. Additionally, the first item Link receives in the game is a fishing pole handcrafted by his young friend Colin; if Link pulls the fishing pole out during his final fight with the Big Bad, his enemy actually stops moving and stares at it, giving Link the opportunity to get in some hits without retaliation.
    • Since this trope is part of the premise of the gameplay of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Zelda develops a habit of randomly turning into Tea from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series and delivering Friendship-speeches. Aside from these speeches, however, the concept works incredibly well for a game series where The Hero usually fights all alone and leads to many heartwarming scenes. The cheesiness of this is rather hilariously lampshaded: after they fight together to beat Byrne they have a huge celebration for their teamwork...then notice with a Double Take that the boss took the opportunity to hobble away in the meantime.
  • The Legendary Starfy series:
    • In Densetsu no Stafy 4, this is the whole point of the Powerful Spin; it specifically works because of the strong friendship Starfy and Moe have with each other.
    • In the fifth game, Mashtooth starts as invincible and defeats Starfy in battle. Luckily, Bunston and Moe are here to invoke "THE POWER OF FRIENDS!" to get Starfy back on track and dissolve Mashtooth's barrier.
  • In Mario Superstar Baseball and its sequel, Mario Super Sluggers, some characters have good chemistry with other players. Moves involving two players (e.g. one throws the ball to the other) are improved if those players have good chemistry with each other. This kind of friendship is represented visually by music notes.
  • While Commander Shepard's skill to inspire Undying Loyalty in his/her crew is a recurring motif in the Mass Effect series, the aesop of how important it is to have loyal friends covering your back is pretty much hammered home with a sledge in the "Citadel" DLC campaign for Mass Effect 3. Its entire plotline is basically as a series of situations where the Power of friendship ensures the continuous survival, sanity, and success of the entire party.
  • In Mega Man Battle Network:
    • Mega Man gains power by fusing with the "souls" of his friends, and some powerful items are only available by playing link games with other players (ostensibly, friends). The game focuses more on the bond between family members though.
    • The main character of Battle Network would go on to create the foundation of the world of Star Force, making him the most successful protagonist ever.
  • Mega Man Star Force:
    • The game harps on the importance of relationships frequently. In fairness, the "Brother Band" system that underpins this emphasis on relationships also confers very practical benefits. Brother Banding with NPCs (or actual humans over Wi Fi) gives the player (or both players) bonus HP and the option to share their "favorite cards" for use in battle. This doesn't stop the game from also using it in other contexts, including when the main character is Lost in Space and his friends direct him back to earth using the awesome power of friendship. Not all of them are even really Brothers with him. The Power of Friendship can also apparently bring the dead back to life!
    • Solo praises the civilization of Mu... which went down solely because its inhabitants didn't trust each other. Meanwhile, ingame the Rogue powers that can be gained are far inferior to what Geo can get from the standard Brother features, and the Super Mode (which, amusingly enough, is a symbol of what Mu could have been if the people worked together) is only accessible if you have a Brother from an opposite game (Or a Wave Command Card). In fact, by the next game Solo ditches the whole "alone" aspect by teaming up with an ancient Mu relic. This doesn't stop him from constantly talking down to Geo, no matter how many times Geo beats his face in or how many "battle of ideals" Solo loses. There's a reason most people don't take Solo seriously.
    • Worth noting that Solo does believe in the power of friendship... but he sees it as an evil power. This is because Solo has a tendency to creep people out, so they run from him... then they come back with their friends, and beat up the alleged threat.
    • Ironically enough, FM-ian invaders grant power to those who are incredibly lonely, and even though most of that ends up resembling Demonic Possession, Geo/Omega Xiz although Omega is actually from Planet AM and Sonia/Harp end up forming good working relationships which then draw power from friendship. So having friends all along is bad, but starting out the most reclusive and lonely person on the planet, meeting an alien who gives you super powers, and then making friends, is the path to ultimate power!
  • Miitopia:
    • Friendships are an integral part of the game's mechanics. As they grow stronger, your Miis are able to perform assists for each other, from impressing each other with stronger attacks to avenging each other to bringing themselves back from defeat through sheer force of will for their fallen friend's sake.
    • Energetic team members have the "Cheer" quirk, which activates when another member's MP is very low and they cheer in support for them, which boosts their MP.
  • Minecraft: Story Mode: After Jesse makes a comment about losing/winning against Lukas, Petra suggests befriending him in case they need his help later on. Jesse can agree or disagree, but will always grumble about being lectured on "the power of collaboration".
  • Mother:
  • In Neverwinter Nights 2's endgame Black Garius uses your tiefling companion Neeshka's devil blood to put a geas on her. If your Influence with her is strong enough, she'll break the geas, refusing to attack the only person who's ever been nice to her.
  • The original Nier decides to, as with many other JRPG tropes, take the sledgehammer at this concept and tear it apart. Friendship and relationships are not an excuse for not thinking your actions through. Nier shows time and time again that just invoking The Power of Friendship is shockingly self-centered of him, through this act he is basically saying that his motives are better than that of his opponents because he is doing them for another person, thus dismissing his opponent as people and their reasoning, or even ability to make meaningful connections of their own. Ultimately it is Nier's inability to empathize and him hiding behind his friends in order to justify his actions that leads to the end of the human race.
  • Done in a very meta sense for the True Final Boss of NieR: Automata. Framed as Pod 042 risking his life to recover 2B, 9S and A2's data after their deaths, the final boss of Ending E is a Bullet Hell shmup battle against the end credits. Said fight is extremely difficult, to the point of nearly the entire screen being covered in bullets, but every time you die you get an increasing number of encouraging messages from other players, and after enough deaths you're able to call upon their help directly in the form of multiple ships donated by other players, which give the player extra firepower and form a shield around them. After the ending is over, the player is then encouraged to sacrifice their save data in order to encourage and help other players.
  • Hikari from Octopath Traveler II very firmly believes in this trope. He actually hangs out with and befriends the common folk of his kingdom, and he treats his allies as equals. This allows him to retake Ku after Mugen drives him out, as Mugen would rather rule by fear, making Hikari far more popular with the citizens. Finally, Hikari manages to overcome his Superpowered Evil Side due to his desire to protect his friends, which also becomes the new source of his Latent Power.
  • The Paper Mario series has this, and not just because switching between your immediate partners is what allows you to overcome the obstacles along the way. In each game, the climactic battle with the Big Bad begins with you getting in a few hits before he makes himself invincible somehow. Then the wishes or prayers or feelings of the friends you've made in all the places you've been enable the breaking of the barrier, so the fight can begin in earnest. The whole "power of friendship" scene is extremely long in the second game against The Shadow Queen compared to the ones against Bowser and Super Dimentio.
  • Persona:
    • In Persona 3, the strength of your fused Personas are dictated by how strong your relationships with other people are. These relationships are usually platonic, but five of them are romantic, and several are of the surrogate family variety. During the ultimate confrontation with the Big Bad, the combined strength of all of the protagonist's relationships creates the Universe Arcana and sustains the protagonist during the final battle, providing the power to create the Great Seal, which prevents The End of the World as We Know It.
    • The Social Link system returns in Persona 4. Many of your social links are with party members, and having a stronger social bond with them will improve their combat abilities to the point where their Personae are upgraded to an improved form. During the game's True Final Boss fight Izanami-no-Ookami attempts to use One Thousand Curses on the protagonist, only to be blocked by each active party member in turn. When the Protagonist is finally hit with the attack, every completed social link appears before him, telling him about the impact he's had on their lives and offering their support. The power of all these social links transforms your starter Persona into Izanagi-no-Ookami, allowing you to break free from the attack and lift the fog of deceit once and for all.
    • Somewhat downplayed with Persona 5's "Confidant" system, where every character you get to know over your year in Tokyo gives you various gameplay bonuses as your relationship with them advances, such as cheaper rates at shops, new items, or new abilities in battle, along with the standard ability from previous Persona games to fuse stronger Guardian Entities. However unlike the previous Personas, there isn't any moment where your confidants magically support you in the endgame. Their help is much more mundane and down-to-earth, such as near the end of the game when the protagonist's teammates and max-ranked Confidants all work to clear his name and set him free when he's locked up in juvie.
    • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is one of the few cases where this trope is played in a perverse fashion. The second movie known as Junessic Land features a pack of Herbivore Dinosaurs running away from mighty Carnivore Dinosaurs into an "ancient paradise" where supposedly no Carnivore can reach. However, the group of Herbivores abuse their roles as friends with each other to silence any of their critics who suggested ideas different from those of the entire pack. Inverted at the end when the movie's script is changed, as the Herbivores genuinely worked with each other and are able to have differing opinions.
      • In fact, the pervese portrayal of this trope there is deliberate, since the Dinosaurs directly embody one of OC character Hikari's traumas where she tried to help and befriend a bullied student but got bullied as the bullies also target anyone who befriends their victims. When she tried to prevent the bullied student from being lynched by her other friends, she got the boot instead. She also invited the bullied student out for a movie, which is exactly about Herbivore Dinosaurs saving their friends from Carnviores by gathering their power.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney:
    • This trope is, thankfully, subtly, invoked, and called 'trust' by Detective Gumshoe. In the first game (especially the DS-exclusive 5th case) Phoenix unintentionally shows this to Edgeworth. When Edgeworth returns in the 4th case of the second, he either reminds Phoenix of this or shows it to him directly. Through the combined efforts of Wright, Edgeworth and Von Karma, Engarde is found guilty, which is called a 'miracle' in the end.
    • Mia also mentions in the 2nd game that friendship is "the strongest weapon in the world and you have it in abundance". Mostly to cheer Wright up though.
    • Dual Destinies has the trio of Hugh O'Conner, Robin Newman, and Juniper Woods. Although nothing magical happens, their unity helps redirect the case in the right direction.
  • Pocket Arcade Story actually uses this as a gameplay mechanic. You need to form bonds between the various patrons to your arcade by holding events and participating in high score tournaments to unlock new game machines, vendors, vending machines and deco for your arcade.
  • Pokémon
    • One of the major themes in the franchise is the relationship between trainers and their Pokémon. Regardless of the forms they take or abilities they have, all can be befriended and made into potential allies. Another theme is the relationship between trainers themselves, both in-game and the players since it's impossible to collect all Pokémon within a single game and trading between players is vital.
    • The move Return, which grows stronger the higher the user's happiness value is. Inverted with its opposite counterpart Frustration, which is stronger the less happy the user is.
      • It's worth mentioning that in the games themselves, due to how friendship and happiness is calculated, it's difficult to the point of practically impossible for Frustration to be as strong as Return. Or, to put it another way, hatred will never be as strong as friendship.
    • Some Pokémon can only evolve when their happiness level is very high.
    • The Pokémon-Amie feature in Pokémon X and Y and its successor Pokémon Refresh allow you to interact with your Pokémon and increase their affection toward you. Pokémon with high Affection get a number of bonuses like an increased critical hit rate, gaining experience faster, a chance to shrug off status effects or stat-lowering moves like Leer, or even survive attacks that would have knocked them out through sheer force of will.
    • Mega Evolution, a new game mechanic also introduced in Pokémon X and Y, seemingly relies on this too; Trainers can only make their Pokémon Mega Evolve if they trust and are loyal to each other, not unlike how certain Pokémon (such as Golbat) need to completely trust their trainer and consider them a loyal friend to evolve. In-game however, the process is instantaneous and doesn't actually require you to spend any time with your Pokémon.
    • In Pokémon Colosseum and its sequel, Shadow Pokémon are Pokémon that have been subjected to a process that strips them of their emotions, leaving behind mindless killing machines. Sure, the shadow Pokémon are more powerful than the normal ones, but such power comes at a price: they can't level up, they can't have their moves replaced, they are sometimes known to disobey/attack their trainers and their corrupted state turns them into mindless weapons. How do you undo this corruption? Simply by spending time with the Pokémon and caring for them.
    • In the Pokémon Ranger spinoff games, this also plays a major role; you temporarily recruit Pokémon to help you clear obstacles by using your Capture Styler to "convey your feelings of friendship and befriend them".
    • This trope is what drives the plot of PokéPark Wii, because friendship powers a crystal that keeps a floating island from falling and crushing the park.
    • In Pokémon Masters, this is what fuels Sync Moves as the Sync Stones grant their power through the bond between Trainer and Pokémon. However, there's one person who doesn't have this: Lear, the creator of Pasio Island and the tournament you're participating in. He's a complete and total Jerkass who always blames his Pokémon or his comrades for his failings and openly mock the idea of this trope. It isn't until he's kidnapped by Team Break and realizes what a complete ass he's been that he changes his mind.
  • Given a very bittersweet nod in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. It's revealed during the course of the gameplay that Luke, the Prof's devoted apprentice, is going to be moving overseas with his parents (and his father is also one of Layton's closest friends). Layton points out a statue depicting the friendship between a different adult and child, and promises Luke that no matter where they are in the world, they will always be friends.
  • Friendship equals literal psychic power in Psychonauts — while absolutely no one will help you save the world, when you save someone's brain, they thank you by adding their psychic energies to yours, making you stronger. (Which in this case means more health.) If you reach a certain level, all of your friends start focusing their positive energies on you to cheer you to victory, and you slowly heal as you go.
  • Reader Rabbit Second Grade: While Sam is wandering about the dragon's castle, he wonders if he does actually have what it takes to defeat him. He concludes that if he has to in order to save Reader Rabbit, yes, he does. It turns out that Reader was never in any actual danger.
  • Resident Evil, when playing as Jill, has this with a recurring theme in order to get the good ending where Barry survives. Frequently Barry will either tell you to let him do things for you, like get a rope to pull you from a pit, or will ask you if you want him to go with you. Trusting him by waiting for the rope and going with him, and taking the selfless options like going first, are the choices you need to do to keep him alive. Not trusting him or being a selfish bastard, while apparently the smart choice as he begins acting very suspicious, will result in his death in a myriad of ways. The 2002 GameCube remake kept this, although it condensed it into a single yes or no choice: do you trust your friend enough to give him back his gun after he betrayed you so he can fight Lisa Trevor?
  • Rival Schools thrives on this. The students (and teachers) in this game usually gain their strength from their bonds with their friends, and are able to triumph over loner villains in each game. It's so powerful that in each game, a mole sent by the villain (Kyosuke in United By Fate and Yurika in Project Justice) ends up switching over to the good guys because of the friendships they've developed.
  • In RuneScape, what separates the player character from Rasial and the rest of the necromancers who followed in the intervening millennia is that, rather than enslave the dead, the player asks them for their assistance and leaves them free to refuse. This grants them an edge that Rasial sorely lacks, which upon his eventual defeat the latter acknowledges to have never considered trying. A possible explanation is that the undead conjured by the player are able to draw out more of their own strength by virtue of lending it willingly, whereas most other undead are tortured souls begging for release.
  • Parodied in the season finale of Sam & Max: Freelance Police season 2 when Sam tells Satan that he managed to escape his own eternal punishment through the power of friendship and cooperation. Max then adds that he mauled the demon guard and ripped out his kidneys.
  • Samurai Warriors: The personal philosophy of Kanetsugu Naoe (well, that and Justice). Everyone else is annoyed by his constant speechifying and tells him to shut up.
  • Part of the plot of the Touhou Project fangame Sengoku Gensokyo deals with Reimu being incredibly thick-skulled when it comes to this trope. Eiki Shiki, Suika and Yukari are all heavily invested in helping Reimu realize that yes, this trope is a thing, and no, allies are not just there for the sake of convenience. Also, interacting with your team's characters often enough will result in bonuses to selected stats.
  • This is a gameplay mechanic in Shining Force III. If two characters work together to defeat an enemy unit or heal each other they can gain relationship point,to increase the level of their relationship Ally-Partner-Friend-Trusted-Soulmate. When two characters with a relationship level stand near each other, they get a stat boost.
  • Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: When Shantae is corrupted by dark magic, it seems like all hope is lose... until Bolo, Sky, and Rottytops remind Shantae about who she is. Sure enough, she is able to overpower the dark magic with her friend's words. Friends To The End takes this even farther, showing the trio fighting through Shantae's memories to save her.
  • In a nonstandard approach in the Shin Megami Tensei series, the Bonds Route of Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is all about this. In fact, it's capable of exposing the Greater-Scope Villain YHVH as a mere demon and destroying him completely!
  • This is what Red of Solatorobo says keeps him going even when things get rough. Also the reason he claims the Caninu and Felineko will not dissolve into war like the humans did, since humans only began to war on a global scale when they stopped helping each other get better.
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog series seems keen on the theme of friendship.
    • In Sonic Adventure, the power of friendship restored the Chaos Emeralds' power after they've been drained by Perfect Chaos, giving Sonic the means to go Super in order to stop the rampaging beast from destroying the world. Justified in that the Emeralds' powers are activated and fueled by emotions (be it positive or negative), so Sonic and his friends opted to "channel" their positive emotions to restore them.
    • The general theme of Sonic Heroes deals with teamwork and friendship. This ties into its gameplay, where all four teams have three members working together to take advantage of their strengths to get past obstacles and defeat enemies. Taken to its logical extreme when three of the four teams use "the real superpower of teamwork" to weaken Metal Sonic, giving the last team, Team Sonic, enough time to use the Chaos Emeralds to transform and defeat him in the Final Boss.
    • The general theme of Sonic Rush, where Blaze the Cat initially is standoffish and aloof. However, through the power of Sonic's conviction and eventual friendship, it allows Blaze to access the true power of the Sol Emeralds, going into her Blazing Form. Teaming up alongside Super Sonic, the two put a stop to the two Eggmen from taking over the world in the game's finale.
    • Displayed in Sonic Forces. When Eggman is shocked that Sonic and the Avatar character got out of Null Space, Sonic explains that he had help from said Avatar. In the second instance, Infinite scorns the idea of friendship, but Sonic shuts him up by telling him the help of his friends has brought him this far to stop him and that his power influenced by the Phantom Ruby is the real illusion.
  • Spirits of Anglerwood Forest: This is how the final boss is defeated. In the first phase, Edgar's friends provide extra salt to protect him. In the second phase, Edgar places the branches of his tree-ified friends and family into Ezra's tree, uncorrupting his spirit.
  • The main character, Edge, of Star Ocean: The Last Hope will repeat the same sappy, sugary lines about the power of friendship until the player gets diabetes.
  • Star Wars: Republic Commando. "We'll beat them, Delta Squad!"
  • Not only do characters in Super Robot Wars get bonuses when they're next to a friend (Or rival or romantic interest), but two of the abilities a pilot can have, Trust and Faith, replenish an ally's HP — That's right, you're repairing physical damage to a Humongous Mecha through the Power of Friendship.
    • A similar system applies to Jump Ultimate Stars. If you place friends next to your playable characters in your deck, the friend will give the playable character a boost to their maximum HP.
  • Tales Series:
  • Played with in Thief II: The Metal Age. One of the epigraphs that preceed the cinematic sequences before each level is from the Keepers' Book of Secrets: "Reliance on others is strength for the weak, but weakness for the strong. Wisdom lies in knowing one's own nature over time." Garrett has always been a (effectual) loner, but winds up needing to make allies to solve the problems he faces in the game. If the epigraph is correct, this means Garrett used to be strong but now has become weak.
  • A major theme in Thomas Was Alone.
  • Undertale could be called "The Power of Friendship: The Game". Throughout the game, you have to either kill monsters in your way, or "spare" them, which often requires befriending them through dialogue during the battle beforehand. In fact, the game is so dependent on this trope that the end of the game changes significantly depending on whether you were a friend to the monsters or not. The Golden Ending is actually unavailable unless you manage to befriend everyone in the Underground. And simply sparing everyone won't do it either, you need to backtrack and directly befriend some of the main characters through hang-outs and "dates". Even worse, should you go for the genocide ending, in which you kill everyone and everything, you'll do irreversible damage to the game and the Pacifist Run.
    • The Final Boss of the Neutral Route, Photoshop Flowey, consists of you joining forces with the lost humans souls, who heal you when you call for help, lower Flowey's defense to 0 and remove his powers, allowing you to kick his ass.
    • During the True Pacifist Run, you beat Asriel Dreemurr by calling out to your friends and reminding them of the times you spent together.
    • In an interesting inversion, in a Genocide route, Undyne believes that she's using the power of friendship to stop you from progressing into Hotland, which is why she survives the lethal blow you dish out to her. Due to her having a similar death animation as the amalgamates in the True Lab, some fans believe that she's actually using determination to survive your attacks.
    • Speaking of the Genocide route, Sans talks about this trope and points out he tried to pull it off on you. See, Sans has Medium Awareness and is aware of your power to SAVE and RESET, and that you are "anomaly in the timespace continuum" that he and someone else have been researching about. He acts like a Nice Guy throughout the game because he believes that you're doing horrible things in various timelines because you're unhappy, and that he could make you stop by simply befriending you.
  • Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume deconstructs this trope. The main character carries a cursed artifact, the Destiny Plume, which makes the target super-strong for one battle but kills them at the end of the fight. It only works on people who trust him and consider him a friend, and none of them realize he's the one who's cutting them down. Frequent use of it makes you more powerful, but as you can imagine, it's not exactly healthy for your Karma Meter. As it's mentioned, "The closer the better". This also turns it into a form of Gameplay and Story Integration, since you can't sacrifice "guest" characters (partly because they're important to the plot of that story arc) as they haven't actually considered Wyl their friend yet.
  • This theme is prominent in The Witcher if you choose to work with the Order or, more accurately, with the knight Siegfried. From the very start, Geralt muses that he prefers to work alone but fighting monsters back-to-back with Siegfried has unexpected advantages. Throughout the game, the two men can develop a friendship that is awkward at first (since they come from very different backgrounds and neither is particularly good at being friends) but becomes one of unconditional trust towards the end.
  • Part of the point behind The World Ends with You is getting Ineffectual Loner Neku to open up and cooperate with his teammates in order to survive "The Game" being played around Shibuya. Keeping close ties (or, in game terms, a high "Sync" ratio) with them increases their fighting effectiveness, since the Noise also fight in tandem.
  • In World of Warcraft defeating both raid bosses and the opposing faction requires effective communication, teamwork, and persistence. This is why guilds are more successful than pick-up groups.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, a recurring theme is the connection between duelists and friends.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1, though strangely more prevalent in gameplay than in the story. Shulk's ability to befriend anyone notwithstanding, the affinity system controls how effective the party is at working together, based on character relationships. Members of the party who have higher affinity with each other can use longer and more damaging chain attacks... As well as craft higher quality gems.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 may as well live way more on this trope so much that the player will be annoyed whenever Rex spouts the trope word-for-word every battle.
  • in Xenogears, Fei always ends up tragically losing Elly in all three of his past incarnation lives. The difference between Fei and his past incarnations is that he now had the guidance and support of multiple comrades (including his partner Weltall/Xenogears) at his side which aided him to ultimately save his lover at the final battle against Deus.
  • Spoofed with the tagline for Zombie Vikings, "With the power of friendship, we can kill anything!"

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