Another Side, Another Story: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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.

 

 

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]].

 

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|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]]''.

* ''[[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness|Disgaea Afternoon Of Darkness]]'' lets you play as [[The Lancer|Etna]] in the PSP and DS remakes, an [[Alternate Continuity]] where she accidentally kills Laharl {{spoiler|although, he later turns out to be just fine}} at the beginning of the game.

** ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' for the PSP lets you play as Axel, a story which takes place before the events of the main game.

*** The [[Play Station Vita]] remake of ''Disgaea 3'' will have ''four'' new scenarios, including one starring two entirely new characters made for the port.

* The Wii and PSP ports of ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' have an [[Alternate Continuity]] called "Another Marona" where right before the plot of the main story, [[Everybody's Dead, Dave|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 Elibe|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, [[Overly Long Gag|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|Nintendo]]) ''Hard'' mode, the standard difficulty for accessing the series' [[Serious Business]] [[Character Tiers]].

* ''[[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 [[Gas Mask Mooks|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).

** 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]].

* ''[[Lego Adaptation Game|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 {{spoiler|Rilo Doppelori}} after you beat the game once, and Mr. Almond after beating it with {{spoiler|Rilo}}, although he doesn't have a unique take on the plot like {{spoiler|Rilo}} does.

* 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.

* ''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.

** ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' works much the same way.

* 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.

* ''[[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 video game)|Battlezone 1998]] II'' forks about halfway through. You are given a [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]] between loyalty to [[General Ripper|Braddock]] who is your direct superior and promoted you to [[The Dragon]] just prior to the mission or loyalty to [[A Mother to Her Men|Shabayev]] who WAS your direct superior before {{spoiler|defecting after Braddock made a [[Never Found the Body|failed]] attempt on her life and made it look like the Scions did it}}. The Braddock half is [[Gainax Ending|only three missions long and leaves several unanswered questions]] (how the heck did the Scions get their hands on {{spoiler|a planet-destroying superweapon}}?) whereas the Shabayev half is triple the length and fully explains what the Scions want (turns out {{spoiler|the superweapon in question is actually a harmless terraforming device and is aimed ''at the Dark Planet'', not Earth as Braddock says}}).

* ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'''s [[Updated Rerelease]] allows players to play as [[Ensemble Darkhorse|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 [[The Lancer|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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]