Another Side, Another Story

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Sometimes, beating a game will unlock the ability to play as another character entirely, presenting a different storyline, often parallel to the main one, which unfolds to reveal a side of the story you never knew before...or perhaps simply an amusing Perspective Flip, where the former heroes are now villains or incidental side characters.

Ever wonder just what the Sidekick/the Rival/the Well-Intentioned Extremist was doing while he wasn't on screen? Here's your chance to live it.

Compare New Game+, Lower Deck Episode & The Rashomon. If, instead of a game mode, you get an entire sequel like this, it's a POV Sequel. If, instead, only the good guys get such a perspective, then you have No Campaign for the Wicked.

Examples of Another Side, Another Story include:
  • Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and its PlayStation 2 remake feature "Reverse/Rebirth", in which you guide Riku through the castle at the same time as and just after Sora goes through it.
    • The Trope Namer, while from Kingdom Hearts, isn't actually an example itself; the name comes from a hidden video in the first game that provided a preview of characters and teased plot threads for Kingdom Hearts II.
      • That video later became the focus of a POV Sequel, so it isn't entirely unrelated, interestingly enough.
  • Persona 3: FES, the Updated Rerelease of the game, gives us The Answer, an entirely new epilogue chapter that makes Aigis the main playable character. A new AI-controlled character appears as well.
  • Disgaea Afternoon Of Darkness lets you play as Etna in the PSP and DS remakes, an Alternate Continuity where she accidentally kills Laharl although, he later turns out to be just fine at the beginning of the game.
  • The Wii and PSP ports of Phantom Brave have an Alternate Continuity called "Another Marona" where right before the plot of the main story, everyone dies and becomes phantoms.
  • This is absurdly common in Nippon Ichi remakes. The PSP remake of La Pucelle has an alternate story mode involving Overlord Priere, while the PSP port of Makai Kingdom will have a new story mode starring new character, Zetta's Daughter, Petta (The mode is fittingly called "Papa is the Strongest Overlord".
  • Fire Emblem: The Sword of Flame has Hector's Story, where you play as Hector (no, really?). Thing is, with the exception of the first chapter, three added side-quests (including a side-quest to a side quest), two extra mandatory chapters, an extra character in one of the extra chapters, an extra character in a chapter that was there in Eliwood's story but just never showed up for some reason, a few dialogue changes, the placement of the enemies, and the two extra endings you could get by playing some or all of the aforementioned side-quests, it's basically the same thing. Yes, that sounded like a Long List, but really, in a game like Fire Emblem, that's not a lot of stuff. The music was generally better, though.
    • It is also harder particularly on Hector (Nintendo) Hard mode, the standard difficulty for accessing the series' Serious Business Character Tiers.
    • Actually, a bit of Trial and Error Gameplay—emphasis on the "error"—reveals why Karla only shows up in Hector's Story even though the chapter she appears in is also in Eliwood's Story. Karla is also the person who gives you the Elysian Whip in the village in Chapter 25, Crazed Beast--and if you fail to reach that village and bandits end up destroying it, Karla won't show up at all, implying that she was killed in the attack on the village. And since in Eliwood's Story, the group never got lost and ended up there, this was the only option. This also means that Hector's Story is Canon, since Karla is the mother of one of the characters in Sealed Sword.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones does this a bit differently. You start the game as Eirika, and after around ten missions you can continue with Eirika or choose to play as Ephraim. The next six missions will be different for each route. Afterwards, you join back up with the other party for the last few missions. Each route actually portrays the principal villain quite differently. One had him being motivated by love, the other possessed by an Demon God. Regardless, said Demon God ends up being the final boss. Which route's story is canon is unknown, but it's a standalone game anyway.
  • Resident Evil 2 was one of the first to pull this, with one disc for Leon S. Kennedy's side of the story and a second for Claire Redfield's. Players could play both sides of the story in either order, but got more areas to explore in the second run. Additionally, the way certain events transpire also changes depending on which character is chosen first. And once the second scenario is completed, it opens up yet another side story, where the player controls Hunk, a surviving member of the Umbrella Special Forces unit that attacked William Birkin.
    • The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Resident Evil 4 added the "Separate Ways" scenario, which depicts the events of the main story from Ada's perspective and even goes as far as to depict why certain locations and items were the way they were in the main story. Oddly enough, the only gap in the story that "Separate Ways" does not cover was the one between Ada's arrival at Sadler's Island and her meeting with Krauser (presumably since "Assignment: Ada" covered a similar ground).
  • The Tales of Destiny remake has this with fan-favorite character Leon Magnus in the director's cut, although you don't need to play the main plotline first (although you probably should, because Leon is in the know about several things that are spoilers to Stahn.)
  • Proto Man mode in Mega Man 9 qualifies, although technically you can access this immediately if you buy it immediately. Mega Man 10 follows suit with Bass Mode.
    • In Mega Man Powered Up for the PSP, you get the ability to play the game as any Robot Master you managed to beat by using only the Mega Buster - since you're always guaranteed to have done so with at least the first Robot Master you defeated, you'll always have one. So in that version, you actually can have this eleven times. Furthermore, the boss of the stage of the Robot Master you're playing as will be a fake, Wily-produced Mega Man instead.
      • Roll, Proto Man, and Mega Man with his slide and charge shot from later games in the series are also unlockable, as is Rock Mega with no abilities whatsoever.
    • In Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter X, you get access to Vile Mode.
    • In the doujin clone Rosenkreuzstilette, after playing through the game as the regular character, Spiritia, you get a code that if entered at the title screen allows you to play as Grolla, the sword-wielding Lady of War who was one of the eight regular bosses of the game; she plays like a clone of Zero...in a game based on the original series (Thus, heavier Boss Dissonance than your usual Mega Man game). As what is likely a nod to Powered Up, after playing through Grolla's stage as Grolla, you get to fight Spiritia as a boss instead of Grolla.
      • And that fight is apparently meant to be the same fight as in Spiritia's story. So the other bosses are being beaten twice at mostly the same time.
  • Three (four in the PlayStation 2 port) unlockable characters exist for Viewtiful Joe, each with a slightly different story. For the record, they're Silvia, Captain Blue, Alastor, and Dante.
  • Variant in the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors series: Unlocking a new character means you can go through their specific Story Mode and/or add new missions.
  • Castlevania has many examples across many games. Richter Mode (which appears in both Symphony of the Night and Portrait of Ruin, though the latter misspells his name as "Richiter"), Axe Armor Mode, Julius Mode (in both Sorrow games)...
    • The Julius Mode in Dawn of Sorrow even has its own plotline (following on the Somacula ending). The Julius Mode in Aria of Sorrow, however, is merely a bonus mode as with most other modes with alternate characters (with the exception of Dawn of Sorrow's equivalent and the below).
    • Sisters Mode in Portrait of Ruin, meanwhile, is a prequel to the game's events.
  • Devil May Cry 3 has Vergil Mode in the Updated Rerelease. He plays surprisingly different from Dante, considering their blood relationship.
    • Sadly fails to live up to expectations for many, since the way Vergil fights is the ONLY thing different about Vergil Mode.
  • Half-Life: Decay features a bonus mission where you can play as a Vortigaunt.
    • In fact, basically every single one of the Half-Life expansion packs was this to the original game, with Opposing Force casting the player as one of the invading marines, Blue Shift letting players step into Barney's shoes, and Decay giving players two middle-aged young female scientists in powered armor to play with, through the whole resonance cascade.
  • A lot of Sonic the Hedgehog games have this from the start (For example, 2 sides in Sonic Adventure 2, etc.), they're usually accessible from the beginning. However, the Sonic Riders subseries unlocks the alternate "Babylon" storyline after you're done with the Heroes and Sonic Adventure allowed to start a character's story immediately after you encountered him in someone else's part of the game.
    • It could be argued that the first game in the Sonic series to do this was Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Playing as Knuckles would present different level designs and a slightly different story, and it would even let you play as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
      • The trope is subverted in this case: Knuckles' story takes place not during Sonic's story, but after: the Death Egg and Eggman are no longer on the island (the one Eggman's appearance in Flying Battery Zone is actually an oversight because he has different sprites in that encounter), the ghosts are unleashed in the pyramid during Sonic's game, but are present from the start in Knuckles' game, and while in Sonic's game the Angel Island is at sea level and only raises in the sky at the end of the game, it's always flying in Knuckles' game. Not to mention that Sonic and Knuckles settle their differences towards the end of Sonic's game, they seem friends at the end of Knuckles' game despite not having met during the game. Oh, and that at the end of Sonic's story the main villain in Knuckles's story appears as The Stinger.
    • This was also in effect in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 with three different characters' scenarios, but in the end it practically meant the developers only had about a dozen levels and were forced to re-use them all twice to make the game long enough. And that's not counting the fact that the final level is a bunch of Remixed Levels.
  • Lego Batman allows you to play an episode as the villains after completing it with Batman, showing how they broke into these places and put their nefarious schemes into place before the Dark Knight interfered. The game counts these as separate levels with their own sets of collectibles necessary for One Hundred Percent Completion.
  • Noitu Love 2: Devolution lets you play as Rilo Doppelori after you beat the game once, and Mr. Almond after beating it with Rilo, although he doesn't have a unique take on the plot like Rilo does.
  • RTS example: Completing the Campaign mode in both Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War with one of the available factions opens up several others (and, in the case of Medieval, also opens up two new time periods).
  • Completing Bunny Must Die with sufficient time power-ups unlocks Chelsea and the 7 Devils, where you play through the same levels as the antagonist Chelsea. In this case, 7 Devils is not simply a perspective flip, but an attempt by the characters to turn back time and change the past.
    • While being Bunny's last boss (as Bunny is Chelsea's last non-anticlimactic boss), they're not really antagonists, as they either ignored or coincidentally helped each other throughout.
  • Gathering 104 of the 108 Stars Of Destiny in Suikoden III would unlock an additional scenario where you played as the four main villains of the game (and the final four Stars).
  • Star Wars: Empire at War lets one play as the Rebellion (canon) and Empire (non-canon but epic), with their own missions and accessible planets.
    • Star Wars games in general love retreading film territory.
  • Beating Um Jammer Lammy once unlocks an extra mode where you can play as Parappa from the original game, with all-new story cutscenes (that don't tie in to the gameplay) and remixed stage music with new lyrics.
  • The PlayStation 2 game The Getaway, after beating the game as Mark Hammond, the next play through allowed you to play as Frank Carter, the cop who initially pursued, and eventually helps Mr. Hammond.
  • In the Spider-Man movie game for the PlayStation 2, it was possible to unlock an alternate mode of play where the player takes control of Harry Osborne as the Green Goblin, looking to avenge his father.
    • Allegedly, the Play Station 3 version of the third movie game apparently permits you to do much the same thing.
  • N3: Ninety-Nine Nights relies completely on this trope. Entire subplots only appear when you get far enough to play through as the right character.
  • The incredibly difficult Transformers: Convoy no Nazo let you play as Rodimus Prime after beating it once with Ultra Magnus. Rodimus was only a recolored Ultra Magnus, though.
  • Beat Tenchu 2 with both Rikimaru & Ayame to play as Tatsumaru and learn why he betrayed the Azuma. Ditto Tesshu in Wrath Of Heaven.
  • The Updated Rerelease version of Metal Gear Solid 2, Subsistence, features the Snake Tales bonus mode, where you can play short sequences as Snake, to compensate for having to play most of the game as Raiden.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Falsebound Kingdom had one story each for Yugi and Kaiba. Completing both modes granted access to a shorter mode for Joey.
  • This is as good a trope as any to describe Nethergate, which is essentially two intertwined games with the same engine. At the beginning, you choose to be a Roman or a Celt, and each plays through half the plot, often with one setting up elements that are only explored in the other's scenario. However, since the two scenarios take place concurrently, and since neither side fully understands what's going on, you can play the two in any order.
  • In the PlayStation 2 video gameMobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo, beating the game once unlocks a bonus mode allowing the player to play a number of sidemissions, taking place both on the Federations side, and on that of the Principality of Zeon (even allowing the player to unlock Char's old red-painted Mobile Suits).
  • Silent Hill 2: The "Born From a Wish" sub-scenario.
  • Square Enix's iPhone RPG Chaos Rings lets you play as any of the 4 couples in the same background of the Arc battle arena. The story progression differs slightly with each couple you play with, because inevitably you will have to kill the other 3 couples.
  • All of the Command & Conquer games offer campaigns for both NOD and GDI if you're in the Tiberium universe or the Allies and the Soviets if you're in the Red Alert storyline (as well as the Empire in Red Alert 3).
    • While that is true, only Firestorm and C&C3 actually tell the same story. The rest of them have the campaigns exist in different timelines.
    • This could be considered only slightly in keeping with the spirit of this trope, as these alternate stories/perspectives are always open from the start, with one exception: Beating the GDI and Nod campaigns in C&C3 unlocks the Scrin campaign.
  • The GBA and PSP versions of Final Fantasy II has "Soul of Rebirth", a mode where the characters who died through the story meet in the Afterlife to fight the Light version of the Dark Emperor.
  • Haegemonia: Legions of Iron starts with two separate campaigns for Earth and Mars, but they converge after the first several missions. Beyond that, the only differences are the primary hero and cosmetic ship designs.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth games have alternate campaigns for both the Good (canon) and Bad forces.
  • The first two Warcraft games allow the player to fight as either the humans or the orcs. A notable difference is that canon assumes that the orcs win the first game.
    • World of Warcraft has the same events play out in some areas from the Horde's and Alliance's separate points of view. A notable example is the Southern Barrens: the Horde is reeling from the fire-bombing and looting of Camp Taurajo, kill the general responsible, and blow up an Alliance archaeology digsite. The Alliance players, meanwhile, deal with the death of their general who deeply regretted the way Taurajo turned out, arrest the convicts looting the ruined town, and report to a man that his son died in an explosion.
  • Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare has you play as either Edward Carnby or Aline Cedrac, who each have their own path in the story.
  • Star Ocean the Second Story allows you to play as either Claude or Rena from the beginning of the game. There are no big differences in the main storyline, however, there are certain Private Actions that aren't available to both characters, and certain characters you can only recruit as one or the other.
  • Battlezone 1998 II forks about halfway through. You are given a "Friend or Idol?" Decision between loyalty to Braddock who is your direct superior and promoted you to The Dragon just prior to the mission or loyalty to Shabayev who WAS your direct superior before defecting after Braddock made a failed attempt on her life and made it look like the Scions did it. The Braddock half is only three missions long and leaves several unanswered questions (how the heck did the Scions get their hands on a planet-destroying superweapon?) whereas the Shabayev half is triple the length and fully explains what the Scions want (turns out the superweapon in question is actually a harmless terraforming device and is aimed at the Dark Planet, not Earth as Braddock says).
    • A good example of the difference between the two is the fate of Manson. The Braddock arc starts right off with you smoking him out of hiding after he proclaimed Braddock a traitor; his body is found a few hours after the battle. The Shabayev arc however has you at one point relieving the siege on his base and organizing his forces into a counterattack; you also happen to get evidence of Braddock doing background deals with the Scion traitors who only appear in this arc and mess things up a few times.
  • The survival horror game Kuon lets you choose between two main characters, however it is only after completing both characters storyline that the final character and the ending is unlocked.
  • In the fighting game Death Vegas, all the playable characters' Story Modes actually interweave into a single story, with all of their fights and victories canon within that story.
  • Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 allows you to choose if you want to join Ironman's Pro-Reg team or Cap America's resistance. Depending on which side you choose, you get either Ironman or Captain America's perspective about the other team.
  • Dead Space 2 has a purchasable version of this that allows you to re-experience the outbreak, with Dead Space Extraction's Gabe Weller and Lexine Murdoch, going through later areas of the core game first and ending in the early levels.
  • Dead Rising 2's Updated Rerelease allows players to play as Frank West, the protagonist from the first game in a retelling of the second game's story. Chuck Greene (the second game's hero) now serves as Frank's Lancer in co-op mode.
  • Tales of Xillia allows you to choose either Jude or Milla at the beginning of the game as the "main character". Whoever you choose will get more scenes, their own set of battle music, and you get to see their version of events when the party splits up. While Jude is a more traditional Audience Surrogate whose scenes focus on Character Development, Milla is more involved in the events of the plot.
  • Shantae: Half Genie Hero has the "Pirate Queen's Quest" DLC, which lets the player play the game as antagonist Risky Boots, showing Risky's side of the story. Or rather, Risky's interpretation of it.
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