Dark Is Not Evil/Video Games

"Master Assassin:"We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins. Nothing is true, everything is permitted." Said at the end of the initiation ceremony of The Assassins."

"Without darkness there can be no light... So how can darkness be truly evil?"
 * from Adventure Quest Worlds is The Champion of Darkness and he is on the side of good
 * Deus Ex. JC Denton is always dressed in a black overcoat with shades. Of course, you can play JC as an amoral killer, but that's your choice.
 * Similarly Adam Jensen, while pretending to be an assassin it is noted he "certainly looks the part"
 * The Necromancer from Diablo II, who sees raising undead as a necessary evil for the greater good. He may be on to something, as the years he's spent in the crypt studying the dark arts make him much more likely to resist being corrupted by diablo's evil like the heroes of the first game.
 * Similairly, the Witch Doctor from Diablo III uses zombies and voodoo as part of a mutual pact with the spirits, it's not treated as a twisted abomination or desire for power, but sheer reverence for the spirits of the departed. The witch doctor himself is also a very kind and mellow (if somewhat backwards) person.
 * from Nightmare House fits this trope.
 * Millenia from Grandia II is a textbook example of this. Despite being a piece of the setting's local Satan figure, she's actually a rather pleasant person when she's in a good mood.
 * Overall, this trope is pretty much half the point of the game itself...the other half being
 * Dante of Devil May Cry, although he's mostly an exception as nearly all demons in the series are evil. Sparda, Dante's father, was an extremely powerful devil and nicknamed "The Legendary Dark Knight"; he was also a very nice guy who saved humanity from extinction. Trish and Lucia from the same series are also demons who fight for the good of mankind.
 * Nero from 4 is another example: His arm looks like living lava, and he's implied to be possesed by the ghost of Aloof Big Brother Vergil. Despite this, he's a Knight in Shining Armor who, despite what you may think from the word "possessed", does not have a Super-Powered Evil Side (aside from the intial awakening of his brand of Super Mode, and even then, he just seemed like a fairly calm Blood Knight. Sort of like Dante.
 * Dark type Pokémon. Dark types also aren't emo, despite what the good people of Deviant ART tell you. Though they aren't perfect, they're no worse than any other type of Pokémon. A good example is Absol, who can sense disasters and tries to warn people of them, but gets Mis Blamed as the perpetrator, or Umbreon, which evolves due to happiness (at night).
 * Despite this, the original Japanese name for Dark type is "aku" or "evil" type. This could be because of the nasty effects dark-type attacks often have, however - most of them involve "fighting dirty", like pretending to cry (Fake Tears), ganging up on one opponent (Beat Up), biting (Bite, Crunch), thievery (Thief), and throwing foreign objects (Fling).
 * Additionally, in Pokémon Colosseum, the original Japanese name for Shadow Pokémon is Dark Pokémon. They, for the most part, were used by an evil organization, inverting this trope. This trope was also ironically played straight, as not every Dark Pokémon was an "evil" type.
 * Darkrai is practically made of Nightmare Fuel in the games, but he is the Legendary Pokémon protagonist of the anime's tenth movie (although he is accused of causing the events until Dialga and Palkia make their presence known)! He also is said to be misunderstood, according to the Platinum Pokedex.
 * However, in Mystery Dungeon 2 game Darkrai is indeed evil and He's also the most Nightmare Fuel to ever evade an E-rated censor.
 * Ghost and Poison types are also similarly treated in the same way that Dark types are, Ghost types having paranormal powers and Poison types being associated with pollutants, venomous animals or sickness.
 * Pokémon White gives us
 * Same goes for the trainers who specialize in Ghost- or Dark-types- while villains will often use these types, anyone who makes a point of using them is just as likely to be nice or on your side. Though Ron the Death Eater will occasionally come into play....
 * The Longest Journey and its sequel has The Dark People, these aren't evil despite the fact that they are cloaked, dressed in black or seem to lack legs. They are librarians and collectors of stories and knowledge and actually helps the main characters on several occasions.
 * The Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children games, for the Game Boy systems, are probably king of this trope: the eponymous heroes are half-demons who explore Makai and various other worlds training demons, at some points even collaborating with Lucifer. Naturally, they're trying to save the world. Then again, positive portrayals of some "dark" supernatural entities is pretty standard for MegaTen.
 * Igor from the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off Persona game series is a very sinister-looking character, with a hunched back, bulging eyes, an enormously long nose, and pointed ears. He's actually a steadfast ally to the main characters throughout the series, giving advice and his services of Persona fusion. And he's the only character to appear in all Persona-related media to date, including the anime.
 * Though whether he's good isn't entirely clear, since he may or may not take orders from Nyarlathotep as well as Philemon.
 * Shin Megami Tensei in general has a very literal example of Dark Is Not Evil. The series uses a two-axis alignment system, with the axes being Law/Neutral/Chaos and Light/Neutral/Dark. However, despite what you might expect due to its similarities to Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Is Not Evil, and Light Is Not Good—they have to do with the mythological reputation of the being in question, not its actual morality; Dark demons can be good, and Light demons can be quite nasty indeed.
 * The Dark Warriors of Final Fantasy III. They helped save the world in the past of the game world when the Light got too powerful and threatened to destroy the earth in the Flood of Light.
 * Most Black Mages in Final Fantasy aren't evil at all.
 * Cecil, too. Yeah, he throws away his own Dark Blade and becomes a Paladin, but the prophecy mentions wielding both dark and light... and indeed, at the end, it takes both Cecil and to finish off the Big Bad.
 * Also, there's nothing evil about the Dark Crystals, they're simply the underworld counterparts to the Light Crystals.
 * For that matter,  himself, espescially in Dissidia Final Fantasy when he's teamed up with characters who are both Dark-themed and evil.
 * And Cecil again. In Dissidia, he uses the powers of both the Dark Knight and Paladin, switching freely between them as he fights. Dissidia's position on this is made clear with the description of the "Twin Form", a material needed to forge Cecil's ultimate weapons:

"King Bulblin: Enough. I follow the strongest side! ...That is all I have ever known. Midna: Link! He... he spoke!"
 * In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, this gets... complicated. In the first half of the game, we encounter Dark, and later in the story, we have a surprise reunion with . It initially seems as though both are pure evil. However, Dark saves Porom from a horde of undead without a second thought, and Dark  is less evil and more... angry. Venting the hatred that  tried to forget. Their dark selves seem to be more a representation of their deepest feelings and strongest emotions given form. In fact, Dark  truly believes that he is the true . In both cases, it is only when the character accepts the dark half of their soul that their journey is complete.
 * Jecht as well, who represents a good mindset amongst the Chaos faction of Dissidia.
 * Squall in Final Fantasy VIII wears black and is up-front about being a mercenary who'll fight for whoever pays his contract, contrasted with his Rival Turned Evil Seifer, who is blond, wears white, and styles himself as a Knight in Shining Armor.
 * Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII has strong goth/vampire themes, and turns into horror creatures as part of his Limit Breaks, but is nevertheless a force for good, more or less.
 * In Final Fantasy X,
 * In Final Fantasy XI, Diabolos is simply cynical and even allies with the player if a certain quest is completed. Odin might also qualify for this.
 * Vivi is a Black Mage, but far from evil. His 'brothers' aren't either, when they aren't brainwashed or tricked into being evil.
 * Riku from Kingdom Hearts in the more recent two games; at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 Riku was purified of Xehanort's darkness, but he keeps his own darkness-based abilities because they're part of who he is.
 * Terra from Birth By Sleep is an even better example. He's basically Riku's predecessor and also uses darkness despite being a good guy. However, unlike Riku who becomes kinda emo about it for most of Kingdom Hearts II and wangsts about how he gave into the darkness, Terra angsts about it for a few minutes but gets over it and remains a slightly stoic but kind, heroic and loveable goof even after he starts zapping people's eyes out with dark energy. Unfortunately, he learns the downside of dark power in the end. Whether it's used for good or evil, use of darkness weakens a person's heart's natural defenses of light, So it seems that while darkness can be used for good, it is much more hazardous to wield.
 * Pure-hearted Mickey himself uses the keyblade from the Realm of Darkness, if only because it's the first one he found and he doesn't want to take Sora's.
 * The Forsaken of World of Warcraft. There have been plenty of arguments between those who say they're evil and those who say they're doing what they have to in order to survive. Blizzard themselves flip flops on this issue.
 * The Wrathgate storyline more or less proved both sides of the debate right.
 * Also Warlocks, who are described in the character creation menu as "the bane of all life", and whose magic focuses on (1) summoning demons, (2) sucking life energy out of people, and (3) setting people on fire. Nonetheless, they're able to do all the same heroic deeds as any other playable class. (Having said that, all important warlocks in the story are evil.)
 * Many Warlocks being evil comes from the fact that evil characters wanting a quicker path to power use fel magic, and are prone to making deals with the Burning Legion, in later cases the Old Gods, the latter use of it being the main reason way so many races hate, as well the fact that the ecosystem on the orcs' homeworld was killed by Shadow Council recklessly using fel magic.
 * The Good aligned troll tribe are called the Darkspear. Similarly the Shadow Tooth tribe of Dark Trolls aided in the battle of Mount Hyjal.
 * The night elves, while being WoW's version of dark elves, aren't evil. Yes, they're nocturnal and have fangs. Sure, they're mysterious, distrustful of the other races, and rather prideful. They have made some (rather large) mistakes in their past, namely tearing the Warcraft world's Pangaea-like supercontinent apart with overuse of magic. But for the most part they're okay folks who want to preserve the balance of nature and stuff.
 * If you really get into the lore, you begin to find that the ones who are actually still dark elves are largely, in fact, the ones who managed to avoid being responsible for all of the above mistakes.
 * The new Death Knights are pious fighters of the light who died, and where brought back as mindless servants of the Scourge. Towards the end of the questline the Lich King loses control over the player, and the player joins either the Alliance or Horde depending on race.
 * One of the biggest examples is the NPC Death Knight Thassarian, first to rejoin the Alliance.
 * The next Expansion Pack will feature Gilnean Worgen, not entirely unfortunate victims of a lesser version of Arugal's curse. Unlike their truly cursed cousins in Silverpine, they retain control of their minds in wolf form and can switch between both at will. While they look less ugly then true worgen (extradimensional invaders that have one form and one form only), having no tusks and well-groomed fur, their human forms are very definitely "dark", being at least one foot taller on average then actual humans and looking, shall we say, feral. They're members of the Alliance, as opposed to the endearing goblins of the Horde.
 * Gilneas also fit this in Warcraft II, in which their color was black. Though tremendously selfish jerkasses they still fought with the Alliance in the end.
 * If by "fought with" you mean "walled themselves off for a decade" then yes, they did do that in the end. It's also worth noting that they didn't have free will until at some point during the beginner area, they work some magic to give you your free will back.
 * "Damn the orcs, damn the Alliance, and damn you! The last thing Gilneas needs is sponges from other nations drawing from our resources, Dalaran wizards meddling with our affairs, and someone else's enemies killing our soldiers! Gilneas is its own nation and it always will be. This is the last time I'll ever talk to you, Terenas, so I hope you were listening." - Genn Greymane, the king of Gilneas.
 * The Ghosts of Razgriz in Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War fly a 4-ship formation of all-black fighter jets while kicking the Big Bad's asses.
 * The country of Darkworld is on the good guys' side in Wonder Boy in Monster World; apparently it's called that because it's dark most of the time (which is also why there's so much ice), even though the world is flat.
 * The Twili in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Indeed, the entire game plays to this trope in one way or another. Consider And all this is on top of the premise of Link being a Big Badass Wolf for much of the game, complete with the way the public reacts.
 * The part about the Twili is even mentioned by Midna when Link is in . Midna mentions that even though every Twili you've seen so far has tried to kill you and they, in general, look evil, the Twili are generally quite peaceful.
 * It should be noted that prior to her character development, Midna (while wanting to help free the Twili) cared nothing for mankind or Hyrule and only saw Link as a means to an end. But after he got her the last Fused Shadow, she planned to let him go back to a normal life instead of disposing of him. But when she knew her plan would be more complicated, she stayed with him longer, fueling a bond between the two.
 * Plus, she's the dark counterpart for the light-elemented Zelda, and the two are actually friends.
 * Of course, Midna's lack of interest in helping the humans wasn't exactly evil more than the Twili's policy of leaving the Light World alone.
 * And when you defeat the seemingly bestial King Bulblin, who has never indicated anything other than sheer goblin brutality:

"Mercedes: Why are you with them, comrade...? Lina: You're a vampire!? Ein: So your wings... Serene: These are Arc wings! How could a cute girl like me be a demon...?"
 * Also the Sheikah race who are known as Shadow Folk. Though we've only seen two members of the race (Impa and Impaz) and aside from their red eyes they aren't all that different from Hylians.
 * The Gerudo in Ocarina of Time at first come across as a dangerous race who kidnap and lock up men, attack Link, and hail Ganondorf as their king. They are perfectly willing to accept Link into their tribe when they see his strength and skill though, and Nabooru is introduced as doing her best to prevent Ganondorf's evil plans.
 * Koume and Kotake from Majora's Mask. Both are shriveled hags who appeared in the previous game as villains. In this game, they're pretty nice (if a little grumpy) and will provide Link with some useful items and help him move forward in the game.
 * Soma Cruz, the resident white haired pretty boy in the Castlevania series of games wields the dark power to absorb his enemies' souls and use them as weapons, a result of That said, he is quite a nice person, selflessly working for the good of mankind and looking after his childhood friend, who later proves his sweet-as-pie not-girlfriend who has so far completely failed to be kidnapped.
 * Lampshaded by Alucard (you already know it's him!). When Soma freaks because he's told his powers are dark, Alucard tells him it is just that, and not evil.
 * Other examples from the series include Dracula's son Alucard, the peaceful beastman Cornell, the traitorous devil forgemaster Hector, and a Golem who was temporarily given a soul.
 * Demons in Disgaea and Makai Kingdom. Though most would likely insist that they are, in fact, totally evil, the only affect demonhood would appear to really have on one's conscience (as  and others turned into demons would probably tell you) is a natural predisposition to be a smartass. And slightly dimwitted:  doesn't even manage that much 'evil', other than a love of battle.
 * King Krichevskoy particularly exemplifies this. Far from being a Card-Carrying Villain, all evidence points to him being a very nice if rather eccentric demon who would even treat complete strangers with kindness. He was even shamelessly married to a complete Love Freak. All this from the man who just happened to be the king of The Netherworld.
 * Of course, there are a few demons who are genuinely evil even though the majority of their kind lean more towards chaos.
 * Driving the point of this home is a sequence in the first game. The angel Vulcanus sneaked down to the netherworld out of rage that Flonne had be sent to deal with the situation there instead of himself. He steals a pendant that Flonne (or any trainee angel) needs in order to survive down there. As he's escaping the Netherworld, the pendant starts to blaze into heat in his hand, causing him to drop it, for the Noble Demon Veyers Mid-Boss, to find and pick up. Before the last battle of the chapter, the main characters find Mid-Boss in possession of the pendant, and Flonne warns him that it will burn the hands of anyone with an evil soul. Not only does its failing to do so in Mid-Boss' hands display this trope, But what does it say about Vulcanus back up there?
 * To be fair, Vulcanus couldn't be any more Obviously Evil if he tried. Just look at him...
 * And then there's Valvatorez, a vampire Tyrant with a very Villainous Fashion Sense (High Collar of Doom, Red and Black and Evil All Over, Creepy Cool Crosses, Ominous Opera Cape, etc.) and titles such as Blood-soaked Valvatorez of Absolute Evil and the Bloodthirsty King of Fear... who prides himself in keeping even the most inconsequential promise, gives dramatic speeches on the power of camaraderie (and/or sardines), and generally comes off as a hammy, slightly spacey Nice Guy
 * Yuri from Shadow Hearts is a "Dark"-elemental character, and the main character- a heroic main character, even. He can transform into various demons, but he uses that power to fight against the really nasty bastards, and himself suffers absolutely no evil attitudes other than being a bit of a dumbass and a slight pervert. There's also Shania, in the third game, who is not only the main heroine and a Proud Warrior Race Guy... er, girl, but very much a Darkness element character.
 * Lucia from Covenant is also a Dark-elemental character...who's also a ditzy and nice fortune-teller, barring the whole attempted murder by giant, pink pussy on the cat (she has a good reason for that).
 * Also in Covenant, you get a vampire in your party. The fact that he's a vampire kinda takes the back seat to the fact that he's a gay pro wrestler, though.
 * The Protoss Dark Templar of Starcraft are pretty damn heroic. They are also some of the only Protoss seen so far to have a sense of humor. As for the mainstream Protoss, its a case of Light Is Not Good, because most of the Khalai Protoss, with a few exceptions, are blind, arrogant, Lawful Stupid religious fundamentalists. The Dark Templar are actually peaceful, it's the Light-aligned Khalai Protoss who are the war-mongers. During the course of the series so far, the Khalai Protoss have declared war on the Dark Templar at least three times. The Dark Templar have declared war on the Khalai Protoss...never. They just want to be left alone.
 * In fact, Zeratul, the Dark Templar hero of the series has been described by Gamespot's Top 10 Heroes in Gaming as a Darth Vader who fights for the rebellion.
 * Nina of Breath of Fire 2 fame is a pure-hearted maiden, but her feathery black wings make her an outcast and scapegoat for disaster in her hometown. Also a Black Magician Girl.
 * The hero's power in Illusion of Gaia are dark-based, and his badass form is called a dark knight. The Big Bad itself is neither Light nor Dark, the hero and his Love Interest fuse into a Yin-Yang Bomb to fight it.
 * The Daedric Princes of The Elder Scrolls. Despite many of them being outright evil, and the general association of Daedric meaning Demonic, quite a few of the Daedric Lords are benign or outright Good. Meridia, Azura and even the Ax Crazy Sheogorath, Daedric Lord of Madness, turns out not be really evil.
 * On the other hand, . And in Morrowind, the only reason she helps the PC is
 * Although she is kind to her tool (the PC) during this. The actions of all the Deadra Princes are justified somewhat in them not even being nearly human. They might look or sound remotly human, but they are ancient being often with totally alien goals and mindsets.
 * But then again, the same criticism can be leveled at
 * Meridia is another example; she wants to fight undead and necromancy. And even Malacath, who has you protect the honor of Orcs and Ogres when they are abused by other races (such as a Dunmer Hero taking credits for the exploits of his Orc servant in Morrowind, or humans using Ogres as slaves in Oblivion). While their methods are ruthless and violent, their goals are not always evil.
 * A more straight example may be Divayth Fyr from Morrowind - not only does he run the only hospital for sufferers of a certain truly horrific disease and show genuine compassion for them, he is also the only person in the game to wear full demonic armour.
 * Though is you talk to him, Divayth makes it clear that his interest in Corprus is academic. If he so happens to help people while doing his research, so much the better, but he's only doing this because of his fascination for the intricacies of Corprus as a complex magic disease and the corprusarium is a side benefit of that research.
 * Nocturnal would either be this trope played absolutely straight or subverted, if she wasn't so damn MYSTERIOUS! About the only action that has been stated that might be good or evil would be the curse of the grey cowl of Nocturnal, and that seems more like a Take That than anything else. Most of the time she calls on the PC to take care of some matter that's causing her grief.
 * For an example of this trope from ordinary Daedra, Sheogorath's enforcers in Shivering Isles. The Dark Seducers are much friendlier than their counterparts, the Golden Saints.
 * Sheogorath is the Prince of Madness, but it's not always Ax Crazy madness. In Morrowind he calls madness a "bitter mercy" that is sometimes a blessing for people who would otherwise fall into despair. And in Skyrim, acts as a therapist to the spirit of a dead and Ax Crazy former emperor. Being a deity of madness also means knowing how to treat madness.
 * from Daggerfall.
 * Vivian in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is considered an enemy since she is the sister of the other two "Shadow Beauties Sirens" that are working for Grodus. However, about midway through Chapter 4, Vivian ditches her witch sisters and
 * A few games have depicted Luigi with rather dark powers.
 * Sonic in Sonic Unleashed unwillingly gets turned into a werehog after absorbing some of the Big Bad's dark energy. He may look ferocious but he's still (mostly) the same hero we all know and love.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog qualifies for this after his drawn out Heel Face Turn.
 * The video games Star Ocean the Second Story and Final Fantasy IX have child magic users Leon and Vivi, respectively, available as player characters. Both of them, especially Leon, use shadowy and dark magic in some of their attacks, even to the point of summoning up The Grim Reaper to instantly destroy the villains, but neither Leon or Vivi are themselves evil. Far from it, at least in Vivi's case.
 * In Star Ocean: The Second Story, Leon's ultimate weapon is the Necronomicon. Evil flavor text about opening portals to hell and summoning demons also included.
 * Rider in Fate/stay night doesn't appear completely dark or use especially dark powers, but wears a black cloth, initially comes off as the Servant of an evil Smug Snake, is seductively sexy and dangerously ass-kicking, and even Saber calls her off as a monster. But beyond the initial impressions, you find out that she's not THAT evil, only tortured and hammered with lots of misfortunes in the past, and her true Master was someone far more benelovent and kinder than the said Smug Snake (provided she doesn't snap).
 * Oichi in Sengoku Basara is known for her dark powers and even has 'dark hands' as her special moves. But she's pretty much an innocent, melancholic woman that doesn't seem to be pure evil, driven with her love with Nagamasa. Push her too far, however, and she'll really show that she can be destructive with her dark power (or to be exact ). Another example would be the jovial ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, who is only "Dark" due to his job.
 * The Summon Spirit, Shadow, who is the summon spirit of darkness, in Tales of Symphonia, and again in Tales of Phantasia is one of the nicer Summon Spirits. (In Phantasia especially, as he does not require a fight to obtain.)
 * He's contrasted in Symphonia by Luna and Aska, who will kill you if you lose the pact-making fight, and they're the Summon Spirits of Light. (Note that in Phantasia, neither Luna nor Aska had a fight either.)
 * They don't necessarily kill you. But you'll get a Game Over for losing the fight, which is justified by the fact that the group can't simply return like on the other fights. would block the way, making things like leveling up somewhat impossible.
 * Because of Tales of Eternia's magic system, Shadow makes whatever mage is equipped with him the designated Dark mage. Also, the Dark Aurora used by Shizel . See also Yin-Yang Bomb.
 * Tenebrae, from the sequel, is also a very straight example-besides being a servant of you know, the king of all monsters, he's also the Centurion of Darkness. He's also a pure good guy, albeit one with a nasty sense of humor.
 * Emil, the protagonist in the sequel, is also Darkness-affiliated. Although with his Ratatosk Mode, this may not be a perfectly straight example.
 * The series also has several Dark-elemental playable characters - Leon Magnus of Tales of Destiny, Ricardo Soldat of Tales of Innocence, and Kunzite of Tales of Hearts all use primarily Dark techs, spells, and abilities. However, the original Leon doesn't really count as he remained a sadistic Jerkass, it wasn't until the remake where his personality gets retooled into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. On the other hand, Judas counts very much.
 * Judas (as well as Harold) both feature Light and Dark elemental spells in their moveset. Judas's stronger hi-ougis have him using Light elemental attacks, and his best move involves him materializing a sword of light out of thin air. As a result, he could be considered an example of a Yin-Yang Bomb.
 * The dark worlds in Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King are pretty much called that because they aren't as bright as the worlds the heroes come from and not because there's evil everywhere (though almost everything in the one in VIII is black and white for some reason, with the residents commenting on the heroes' colors). In fact, most (if not all) of the human residents encountered aren't evil at all.
 * Neither Demitri nor Morrigan from Darkstalkers are evil.
 * Neither of them, however, are good. Morrigan is a self-indulgent and childish princess, and Demitri is a power-hungry vampire who wants to conquer Makai/the Dark World. However, several of the characters the closest to purely good in the series also fall under this, including Rikuo/Aulbath, the fish-man; John Talbain/Gallon, the werewolf; Anakaris, the living mummy; Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko, the Chinese Vampire; and Victor, the Frankenstein's Monster.
 * At the end of Morrigan or Lilith's routes in Vampire Savior, however, it does show Morrigan starting to actually grow up and accept responsibilities.
 * City of Heroes liberally uses and plays with Superhero tropes, and this is no expection. The primary example is Infernal, a demonic-looking warrior from another dimension who controls demons and binds them into his armour, but is always portrayed as a hero (excepting his Evil Twin from the Mirror Universe, who shows that demon binding is a risky business). City of Villains added a large amount of rather villainous-looking costume pieces, but all of them are equally accessible to hero characters as well.
 * Also, the various Dark power sets, which have a variety of quasi-vampiric powers, are freely usable by heroes and villains. Pain Domination may or may not involve this trope, as it is a set of villain-only healing powers with a black-and-red color scheme.
 * Since the recent advent of power customization, you can have a hero with cloven hooves, horns, a demon's tail and wings, a skull head (and a costume consisting of skulls, chains and barbed wire) who fires off black energy blasts or carries black swords.
 * There's also the Nictus: Scientifically modified energy beings that feed off their unmodified bretheren, work with The Council and 5th Column, and want to make earth their new homeworld. Reformed Nicti/human unions are a Hero exclusive archetype, called Warshades. If you want a Villainous Warshade, you have to side switch it. No Praetorian Nictus for you.
 * Masterminds are slated to receive "Demon Summoning" in Issue 17. Currently, Masterminds are an exclusively Villainous Archetype, but when Going Rogue is released one can easily play a demon summoning hero.
 * Hell, Going Rogue is this trope, (mixed heavily with Light Is Not Good). Even Arachnos Mooks can be heroes now.
 * Heroes of Might and Magic V plays with this. The Dark Elves are not generally evil, although some of their clans are. The Necromancers are initially presented as evil, but in the Tribes of the East stand-alone expansion they are allied with the good factions against the Demons. The Orcs from the same expansion are also not evil and part of the alliance. Of the 8 factions, the only one that's Exclusively Evil is the Demons.
 * That said, the game still considers the Dark Elves, Necromancers, Orcs, and Demons to be "evil" factions when calculating morale.
 * Yeah, but morale is more about the perceptions of the troops than it is about actual alignment. Angels really hate Devils, even if the Devils are actually pretty good guys and misunderstood. They still hate each other, thus a morale hit.
 * The Dark Elves of the old verse were slightly-dusky mercantile-focused city-dwellers whose last war with their Light cousins was a long time age. In the one game in which they show up in, you work for their Merchants' Guild to save the world (admittedly, it was destroyed not long after anyway, but that was for unrelated reasons they couldn't have done much about).
 * According to the backstory, in the next-gen Prince of Persia Big Bad Ahriman, God of Darkness, was an example of this trope... until his Face Heel Turn a thousand years or so before the game started. Becoming the Sealed Evil in a Can hasn't helped matters any in that regard.
 * Second Sight introduces members of the psychic Zener Children that were horribly mutated by the treatments used to activate their powers: despite their repulsive appearance and cannibalistic habits, when John Vattic arrives in the lower levels of the Zener Project base, they are quite generous in assisting John through the passages, eventually banding together with the unmutated Zener Children in the final battle.
 * The Seiken Densetsu series has Shade, the spirit of Darkness. Despite having spells with names like "evil gate" and pitting the party of one game against a monster in order to prove their worth, he's still a purely good entity, as dedicated to saving the world as the heroes are.
 * It should be noted that at least in Secret of Mana, he's the only one not possessed and only attacks to prove your worth.
 * In the Fire Emblem series, offensive magic can be divided into anima (thunder, fire, wind, sometimes ice), light ( lightning Exactly What It Says on the Tin (The spell being called Lightning has little to do with what it is.)) and dark (darkness, energy absorption). However, this doesn't determine the user's alignment; e.g Nergal from FE 7 is a dark magic user and the Big Bad, whereas your group can recruit a shaman named Canas who's actually a quite nice guy and directly invokes this trope (though he also points out that "dark" magic users prefer the term "elder" magic).
 * The Sword of Seals (FE 6) game also uses this trope, as you can recruit three dark magic users: two shamans (Ray and Sophia, the first one being cynical but not evil and the other being a Shrinking Violet) and a Druid (Niime, a Hermit Guru
 * In FE 9 and 10, the character Soren, who is both dressed in black and born with the "dark" affinity, is possibly THE most loyal character to the protagonist's cause... and one of the most amoral and cynical of the Greil Mercenaries.
 * Pelleas, who uses Dark Magic, is kind and honorable, albeit naive.
 * This is actually Lampshaded in FE 8. Look up Lute and Knoll's support converations.
 * In 10, your army ends up working for the goddess of chaos against the goddess of order. The goddess of chaos is considerably kinder than the goddess of order.
 * A mention to FE 5's Salem, a Loputo Mage (a servant of a Dark God (who really is evil)) is pulling a Heel Face Turn when you encounter him. If you successfully capture him you'll find he's not evil, unlike every other Loputo Mage ever.
 * 'FE 8 has Knoll, a Shaman who is also one of the kindest and more unfortunate people in the game. If you promote Ewan into a Shaman, he also becomes an example of this. In contrast,
 * Meta Knight, Gooey, and Shadow Kirby from Kirby.
 * Gooey from Kirby's Dream Land 3. He is shown as Kirby's friend from the beginning, and the only way to reveal he should be with the bad guys is doing 2-player on the Final Boss. Gooey attacks Zero without hesitating the slightest, as if he never was on their side.
 * For clarification: When you bring Gooey into the final boss against Zero you need to be flying. Gooey can fly on his own. Now the relevance is the fact that Gooey looks exactly like a dark matter, his body changes its overall shape and he gets the orange nubs on the back, the only difference between him and regular dark matter is he has a face instead of a single eye.
 * Shadow Kirby is actually just the
 * Planescape: Torment really likes this one. Your party alone can include Fall-From-Grace, a chaste succubus uninterested in consuming mortal men's souls, and Morte, the sarcastic foul-mouthed disembodied talking skull ... who is also the only Good recruitable NPC and the only true friend you start the game with.
 * In Jak 3 one of the reasons Jak is banished is because he is tainted with Dark Eco. While he's rather darker than he used to be, Jak still has his heart in the right place.
 * However, Dark Eco is still pretty nasty stuff that turns benevolent gods into monsters, makes nice heroes go bat-shit insane, or else just kills things in a horrifically painful way. Not to mention that most of the major baddies thrive off the stuff, some more literally than others.
 * The true ending of Eversion:
 * The Nanaya clan in Tsukihime. A family of assassins. Seclusive, described as vicious killers and also seem to have a penchant for rape. The only glimpse we get of one is Nanaya Shiki, the hero's Super-Powered Evil Side who first brutally destroys Arcueid and then later tries to rape her. However, as Akiha points out, they weren't actually that bad (nor that were they very good either) because the only ones they ever had that impulse towards were non humans, who generally are not good people to have around ie: the Dead Apostles, demons and the inverted members of the Tohno family. They still seem to enjoy themselves a little too much when 'working' though.
 * Actually, the rape was due to . It had absolutely nothing to do with the Nanaya side.
 * The Asmodians of Aion. They look faintly demonic, and are rather harsh and violent—both due to living in a wasteland that at its brightest exists in what could be called "shadowy twilight", and due to being descended from those who supported continued war with the cruel and brutal Balaur rather than attempting to sue for peace. They're ultimately only trying to survive, and just as dedicated to fighting the real villains as the more angelic Elyos. Unfortunately, both sides are just as dedicated to fighting each other, out of a combination of blaming the other side for the ruin of their world, and the belief that one of the remaining stumps of the Tower of Eternity has to be destroyed to save what's left of the world from total destruction. Each side also blames the other for their current state of war.
 * In Odin Sphere, the "Shadow Knight" Oswald is somewhat cold and ruthless, but DEFINITELY a good guy. The "Demon Lord" Odin is one of the most morally ambiguous characters in the game but never comes across as "evil". Even Odette the Queen of the Underworld, despite being as cruel and vindictive as you'd expect for someone in her position, doesn't seem to be a real villain. The game DOES have definite villains and Odette doesn't even come close.
 * Furcadia's Dark Primes aren't all bad. Tallus, for example, was an "evil" god of prophecy and . He also was a thief but Tallus, according to in-game lore, died protecting his brothers and sisters, but in-game actually died  Taglin Tigh is considered the king of the Dark Primes and the god of Nightmares, but   He also is renowned as a "good father" to his many children.
 * The ghouls of Fallout generally have either gone completely feral or are just regular people with severe skin issues. Fallout 3 subverts this in the Tenpenny Towers questline, where the racists are refusing to let Roy Philips and other ghouls move in..
 * Similarly, the Family turn out to be.
 * And in some extent, some super mutants like Fawkes, Uncle Leo and Marcus.
 * The Talking Deathclaws in Fallout 2. Deathclaws in general may look frightening, but they're not evil per se, just really dangerous.
 * Toby from Quest for Glory 4 is this giant, furry, hulking, red-eyed, fanged, ill-tempered monstrosity. However, he's just protective of his ward
 * Pick a Youkai from Touhou, any youkai from Touhou. In spite of youkai supposedly having a diet consisting of human, almost none of the characters are ever admitted as having actually done this. (Notable exception: Vampire Remilia Scarlet, who, disturbingly enough, is otherwise very much a friendly neighborhood vampire.) Even if, at first glance, The World Is Always Doomed, almost none of the supposed Big Bads were actually doing something as dangerous as it at first seemed, and after the shooting ends, tea parties are in order, and the characters are invited into the greater cast for whatever random adventure they'll be up for next.
 * Subterranean Animism featured youkai hated even by other youkai for their distasteful powers, and exiled to the Underworld. Yamame, the friendly Cute Monster Girl spider monster could inflict diseases at will, but was popular for her friendly, cheerful personality. Yuugi, a much-feared Oni, mostly played around (though very roughly) with the heroines before helping them out. Satori and Koishi both had telepathic powers that terrified youkai and humans alike, forcing them to live with nothing but animals, even if they had done no actual wrongs to anyone. Rin carries away corpses and uses them to regulate the Hell of Blazing Fires, and initiated the game when she began driving evil spirits above ground, but only to lure the more powerful beings living there underground to stop her friend Utsuho from doing anything foolish or dangerous. Even Utsuho herself, the nuclear-powered hell raven with ambitions to Take Over the World, just went a little mad with power and was fine after having some sense blasted into her.
 * Death from Romancing SaGa is actually quite an important deity, as he is in charge of the cycle of reincarnation; he even helps out the heroes if you fight in areas where Death is worshipped or use his vortex enough; in which he will instantly kill most enemies, even some Bosses (Sadly undead and certain bosses are exempt).
 * Rose from Legend of Dragoon, who, being the dragoon of the dark dragon, has such attacks as: sucking out an enemy's life force, doing something that leaves the enemies utterly terrified, and sucking the enemy party through a portal to hell. She can be rather harsh, but she also saves the main character's life, teaches him how to use her powers, and faithfully follows the rest of the party in their missions. It's eventually revealed that
 * In the tragically-underexposed PAL-only PSX Konami-Atlus survival horror game Hell Night (Dark Messiah in Japan), the Cult antagonists in the game give the protagonist a test (which you have to pass in order to get a key item) to determine if he understands "True Darkness". The impression one gets is that such darkness is not supposed to be in conflict with, but actually in complement to the Light:
 * 1) You see 2 birds. Which bird will you help? A black dove or a white crow?
 * 2) There is a city. Who lives in it? Small children or big grown-ups?
 * 3) Which you do you prefer: the darkness of outer space or the darkness of the deep ocean?
 * Correct answers are all B.
 * Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 gives us Cobray Gordon, who pilots the Werkbau and eventually upgrades to the Dis Astranagant. Werkbau is dark-colored and vaguely demonic in appearance, but the Dis Astranagant looks like something the Grim Reaper would pilot, complete with a Sinister Scythe, Attack Drones that look like a swarm of bats, and Ain Soph Aur, a Wave Motion Gun which draws power from dead souls in order to wipe an enemy from existence. Is this badass son-of-a-bitch the final boss? The Dragon? An anti-hero? Nope, he's one of the four selectable main characters, and he's every bit as heroic as the other three.
 * The Vernal deity Urlach of Lusternia, who used The Undead as shock-troopers to stand against The Soulless Gods. His views brought him into conflict with other, more idealistic Vernals, but he never failed to get results and never stopped fighting.
 * He also used his magic to create the Catacombs of the Dead. Though ostensibly designed to move his undead troops around efficiently, it was also used to transport refugees away from cities attacked by The Soulless Gods. Many thousands of innocents were saved in this way.
 * Soul Reaver features a Crapsack World and a number of fearsome-looking characters who could not exactly be called blameless, but their appearance is no guarantee of their moral alignment. The protagonist Raziel is former vampire, twisted by cruel execution into a ghoul who must feed on the souls of humans and monsters alike. However he rejects the brutality of his former brethren and acts with honor and is genuinely searching for the truth. The vampires are revealed to be the victims of a curse by their enemies, and were once a race of winged celestial beings. The vampire Vorador is a green scaly monstrosity but is basically decent. Even Kain, the Big Bad, is partially justified in his actions in the end. Contrast this with the supposedly righteous human characters, who are xenophobic, religiously fanatical exterminators of anything not human, including
 * Noctropolis features a post-cataclysmic city in perpetual night under a cloud of volcanic ash. The city's main hero restores his health, powers and equipment by immersing himself in a pool of Applied Phlebotinum called Liquidark, the distilled liquid essence of darkness, created by the Brotherhood of the Night as research into the extradimensional Elementals particularly the Patronage of Darkness, none of whom seem malevolent. The protagonist takes up the hero's mantle to fight the Big Bad
 * Ragna the Bloodedge, the main character of Blaz Blue. He's a White-Haired Pretty Boy with Mismatched Eyes (one of them red),, carries an Artifact of Doom , wages a one man war against the ruling government, the "Novus Orbis Librarium" or NOL for short, by destroying their bases and slaughtering everyone in them, and has a drive ability called "Soul Eater" which steals life from his foes. Despite all this he's not really a villain due to the very questionable morality of the government he's fighting against. He's also nice enough to share food with a hungry Taokaka (who promptly starts calling him "Good Guy"). His rage and frustration with the world at large is also somewhat understandable since his life just sucks so much.
 * There's also Rachel Alucard and her butler, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing. Rachel may be a vampire who acts quite bitchily and condescending towards almost everyone around her, but that doesn't change the fact that she also genuinely cares about the cast, and wishes to devote as much she can to defeating Terumi Yuuki, the man who has caused pretty much all of the suffering which takes place in the game's universe. Her faithful butler, Valkenhayn, is a werewolf, was one of the Six Heroes who saved the world from the Black Beast, an abomination which destroyed most of the world.
 * Shadow from Twisted Metal. A ghostly black hearse that's had several drivers (including an undead mortician, a goth girl, and a nerdy kid with a pet frog), all with fairly sympathetic motives.
 * Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier has the Orchestral Army, and to an extent the entire demon world of Formido Heim, although they did cause a bloody war ten years ago. However, special mention goes to the Orchestral Army's leader Ezel Granada, an axe-wielding demon whose head is a demonic skull with glowing red eyes and ram horns, constantly displaying a fanged grimace. He's also quite possibly the most noble character in the entire game,
 * Neverwinter Nights has no alignment alterations for appearance. So yes, with an upgraded game to get the right color options you can run around as a paladin with matte-black skin and hair dressed in black and red, and still have people treat you like you look perfectly normal and are not at all creepy.
 * The rebel drow in Hordes of the Underdark, though their replacing the traditional drow black and red with blue and purple uniforms doesn't hurt either.
 * Ammon Jerro, the second game's resident Knight Templar, is a demon-summoner with grey skin and glowing spiderweb tattoos that the game tries to convince you is the Big Bad for the first two chapters. If you have enough Influence with him by the scene at Shandra's farm, he will not be quite as evil as he was before.
 * Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening has one in the form of The Spirit of Justice, who in the Fade is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. However in the real world he ends up becoming stuck in the corpse of a Grey Warden named Kristoff and joins your party as a Lawful Good Zombie.
 * And in the original, blood mages. Blood magic is a terrifying power that lets you Cast From Hit Points and take control of people, but it's no more evil than any other form of magic. It does come with a high risk of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity if used recklessly however and Blood Magic is normally learned via a deal with a Demon. While it doesn't necessarily make the user evil, it is still a very dangerous power that shouldn't be treated lightly. While most blood mages that you meet in the series are pretty nasty, Jowan is well-intentioned (even if he screws everything up) and Merrill of Dragon Age II is the kindest person in your entire party.
 * Also from the original, the werewolves.
 * Near the end of Awakening, during the defense of the City of Amaranthine you encounter a Disciple (sentient Darkspawn) sent by The Architect that fights alongside you if you let it. If you choose to let it go afterwards, the epilogue states that it becomes a hooded traveller that helps those it encounters (though it accidentally spreads the taint where it follows).
 * Feynriel in Dragon Age II: if you help him fight off the demons in the Fade, he journeys to Tevinter and learns to control his power from a magister, remaining a good mage at heart.
 * Cassandra Pentaghast during the narration scenes. She's basically part of Thedas' equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition, wears all black, and is extremely grouchy...
 * In the DLC "Legacy", is revealed to have been a Blood Mage. However, he was still a good man, and he only used blood magic  The Key from "Legacy" is another example. Though it was forged with Blood Magic and has a distinctly intimidating appearance, it's a powerful weapon of good in Hawke's hands.
 * Technically, Tallis of Mark of the Assassins. Despite the fact that she's a follower of the Qun, one of the most hated factions of the series, she is portrayed as relatively heroic and an idealist who believes the Blue and Orange Morality World of Silence of the Qunari really is the best option.
 * The beginning of Splinter Cell: Conviction has a flashback to Sam Fisher telling his daughter who's scared of the dark that the dark can be used to protect you from bad guys.
 * Which is, by the way, pretty much the point of the series.
 * The Duty faction in the STALKER series. While their uniforms have dark tones with red marks and their attitude can come off as harsh and somewhat elitist, they're not inherently evil (or good, for that matter).
 * Serenade from Mega Man Battle Network 3 may also apply. It claims to be a "denizen of the Dark" when it is defeated. It also rules over the game's post-game area, which is pretty much the original form of the Undernet, an unspoiled, peaceful sanctuary.
 * Necromancers - one of the player professions - from Guild Wars. They have all sorts of creepy and sometimes disgusting powers, but they're one of the most popular professions. The three NPC necromancer heroes - Olias, the Master of Whispers, and Livia - provide the personnel for two of the most powerful player/NPC team combinations in the game, the so-called "Sabway" and "Discordway" skill sets. The NPC female necromancer Eve is one of the poster girls for the game.
 * On that note Grenth, the patron god of necromancers, the undead, and death in general isn't actually that bad(despite being cowled and having a deer skull for a face). Grenth overthrew the previous god of death who ruled over the dead with an ironfist, and didn't allow the dead to be resurrected(whereas Grenth does). So every time you resurrect in Guild Wars, you can thank Grenth.
 * Okami seems to imply that technology itself might count as this. It's heavily implied that is the originator of all machinery and is indeed a Mechanical Lifeform when you confront it. However, when used by mortals, technology isn't evil at all and helping a Mechanist complete his invention ends up empowering Amaterasu.
 * Goh Asuka is known as the Crow and wears black from top to toe, but he's the good guy.
 * In The Legend of Spyro Trilogy, Cynder is the only black dragon in the game and has control over the element of Darkness but is only a villain in the first game, after being freed of being Brainwashed and Crazy, turns out she's actually a pretty nice girl and a loyal ally, and, for Spyro, even becoming playible in the third game.
 * Speaking about the Spyro serie, Skylanders also has plenty of this; the Skylanders are basically the Spyro Universe's version of the Justice League, yet they have absolutely no problem in recruiting Undeads and Ghosts such as Ghost Roaster and Chop-Chop, the Elven undead Necromancer Hex, Troll Mad Bomber Boomer, Orc Warrior Vodood or Cynder. Spyro is even revealed to have learnt to use his Dark Spyro form to heroic purpose.
 * In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, definitely falls under Obviously Evil. Her clothing and hair is entirely black, she has a way of suddenly appearing from nowhere, a creepy giggle, is aware of her family's being The Mafia, and repeatedly offers coffee to Phoenix and Maya. As it turns out, she's  Of course, that doesn't stop her from
 * Detective Tyrell Badd isn't bad, although he is Baddass.
 * Garret from the Thief series may seem like an uncaring and dark fellow who'd do anything for some extra gold, but he never goes so far as to kill anyone that doesn't deserve it (that is if the game is played properly, of course) and usually ends up doing the right thing, whether intentionally to or not, even saving the world a few times.
 * Ysuran, an elven Necromancer in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, plays with this. He learned to harness the Shadow Weave while working for a group of terrorists, but was struck with amnesia following a magical duel with his mentor. When he learns the details of his past, he becomes The Atoner and uses his dark magic for good.
 * Soranica Ele's Zenobia has a power called Lucifer that commands the forces of darkness to strangle her opponents and disguise herself. She's really not a bad person, and in fact carries a heavy burden from all that she's been through, and seeks forgiveness for it.
 * Riviera: The Promised Land has the Arcs, a tribe of benevolent bat-winged and eared Sprites entrusted with guarding Lacrima Castle. Their race was almost completely wiped out by demons, before the heroes' arrival. Serene, the sole survivor of the race and one of the main heroines, exhibits these traits. Played with during a battle event in Mireno Cemetery against two vampires:


 * The Grey Order from League of Legends are former Noxians who broke off from their nation due to its evil, but still study dark magic. Their representative Champion is Creepy Child Annie, who doesn't necessarily qualify as good, but is certainly not evil.
 * Yorick Mori is an undead necromancer who summons ghoul to rip apart his enemies in battle. He was also the last member of a long line of gravediggers who never produced a heir and died in shame. His grief was so great he was unable to pass on, and returned to the world of the living as a hulking undead behemoth. He joined the League of Legends only to bring his family name into the light once again, and his League Judgement makes it clear how much of a Woobie he truly is.
 * REW casts you in the role of a monstrous teddy bear, with the first scene showing him in a kitchen where he has murdered a little old lady...but the scenes are actually being shown in reverse order, and it's gradually revealed that
 * In the PC game "Pajama Sam in: There's No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside", the titular Pajama Sam wants to vanquish the Darkness so he can return home, due to being scared. However, by the end
 * The plot for Off Switch has the hero fighting to save his world (which is composed of shadows) from the invading light demons.
 * Several armors and weapons in the Monster Hunter games are rather dark and sinister-looking, some even coming with descriptions that indicate a "cursed" legend or attributes considered "evil". However, your character is usually doing heroic things like saving villages and forts from gigantic, vicious monsters.
 * The antagonist of Distorted Travesty is an entity known only as "The Darkness", which is using a "Phase Distortion" to draw various video game worlds and the real world together into one reality. It is also capturing and holding prisoner anyone who stands against it.
 * Galm from the Shining Series is a complicated character but not really evil. He's one of the most powerful Vandals, a race that where sealed away but are trying to come back to reclaim their kingdom, but seems to be completely disinterested in helping out. In fact in Shining the Holy Ark he helps out the heroes attempting to stop the revival of the Vandals. Then again he did rape and/or impregnate a couple of women so he isn't exactly good either.