Friendly Enemy/Video Games

Examples of Friendly Enemies in Video Games include:

Visual Novels

Lancer from Fate/stay night is a pretty decent guy once you get to know him. He generally finds it distasteful to stab noncombatants to death and allows Shirou the chance to defend himself while trying to silence him, and considers 'once tried to kill you' (or even 'once killed you' in Shirou's case) to be a perfectly natural way to be acquainted with someone; no hard feelings attached. This is mostly in-story Values Dissonance because, in his time, enemies could also be drinking buddies the night before a battle, at which they would slaughter each other mercilessly. He's gets annoyed when Tohsaka explains that it doesn't work like that anymore.
- Assassin is also a good example of this trope, being perfectly polite and courteous to Saber even as he's trying to separate her head from her body, and complimenting her swordsmanship when she kills him at the end of Unlimited Blade Works.
- Even after the conflict has entirely ceased, Shirou is surprised to learn that, despite how friendly he is with the other Servants, Lancer still views them all as enemies. And enemies are to be killed.

Other genres, as-yet unsorted

Big Boss and Ocelot in the Metal Gear Solid series. Big Boss, at the beginning, decides not to kill Ocelot because of his youth, and slowly starts pseudo-mentoring him with each subsequent fight, while Ocelot comes to pretty much worship Big Boss by MGS3's conclusion. This culminates when Ocelot joins Big Boss as a member of Foxhound.
- And having an invitation for Big Boss to join the Patriots be his condition for joining himself.
Almost all of the characters you get in the Fire Emblem games used to be enemies. In dialogues before entering battles, you'll usually see a single character with a face and a name, saying "I can't possibly fight against these people!", and you can recruit him or her by talking to them.
Harman Smith and Kun Lan are frequently seen playing chess in Killer7. Harman makes the nature of their relationship clear when he says to Kun, "You're a good friend, but unfortunately, our interest is not mutual." It kind of helps that both of them are impossible to kill. Maybe...
Kirby and the Affably Evil Anti-Villain, King Dedede. Outside of fighting each other over random stuff (most of which is either a misunderstanding, Dedede being possessed, or Dedede just being a greedy asshole in some of the older games), they enjoy racing and competing against each other in friendly competitions.
- In Super Smash Bros. Brawl's adventure mode, King Dedede even glomps Kirby! After he (that is, Dedede) saves the day, of course.
Certainly, Mario and Bowser have to be like this. They've even reluctantly teamed up on a few occasions. Not to mention the fact that Bowser regularly opens up his castle for Mario's go-kart races...
- In fact, at the end of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, after the two duke it out once again (and Bowser losing once again), Mario, Luigi, and Peach decide to send a gift to Bowser for saving the world: A cake with all of them together.
- In Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser actually admits that he likes having Mario as his enemy.
Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V treats your party this way after the first couple of encounters, saying that he's glad to see you again and asking how everyone has been. It gets even more bizarre the last time you encounter him, as he delivers a pep talk to each of the heroes, then uses a Suicide Attack to destroy both himself and the boss you were fighting.
- The last couple of encounters could be explained by the fact that Gil had been tossed into the Interdimensional Rift for failing one too many times. Exdeath was a dick, the heroes weren't, so he was very much on their side when he found out that they were in the Rift too.
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane and Kuja have a moment of this after Kuja saves the team from the collapsing Memoria and Iifa Tree and Zidane decides to stay and attempt to save Kuja from the depths of the Iifa Tree. Then again, they are brothers and this brief moment of friendliness doesn't continue in their appearances in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
Fox McCloud and Wolf O'Donnell (and, to some extent, the entire teams of Star Fox and Star Wolf) in Star FOX Assault probably qualifies. Unless, of course, you refuse to believe that the game exists.
The Amarr and Minmatar roleplaying communities on EVE Online are like this. In character, they are bitter enemies, but they at least recognize that the other side tends to play by the rules (as opposed to genuine pirates). Out of character, they have the utmost respect for one another. If a roleplaying reason could be found for the two communities to work together, they would be a very effective alliance.
Gene and Elvis in God Hand, despite being enemies, do have some pretty friendly banter. After he kills Elvis, Gene goes into a bit of Antagonist in Mourning and is more than a little pissed off at Shannon for badmouthing him.
Tales of the Abyss has Van Grants, along with several of his Dragons. Most of them have a history with the protagonists, and both sides acknowledge that the other is only trying to save the world in their own way. In fact, the Big Bad himself constantly states that he has no desire to kill the heroes and would happily let them join him. Even before, during, and AFTER the final battle, both sides only express their respect for one another.
Sonic and Dr. Eggman are like this sometimes.
In the leadup to the new class update for Team Fortress 2, it's revealed that the RED Demo man and the BLU Soldier met at a gun convention and became friends. The person pulling the strings for both teams decided to sabotage this friendship by pitting the Soldier and Demoman against each other for new weapons.
In Mass Effect, Wrex mentions an old Asari commando friend of his named Aleena that he was contracted to kill. They agreed to fight it out in an abandoned space station filled with mercs and pirates. After days of hunting down one another and killing off all other mooks, Wrex managed to trap her while she's healing. However, the base was soon about to explode, forcing him to leave, deciding that No One Could Survive That, only to get a message from her. At that point, Wrex decided that anyone who survived all of that deserves to live a bit longer and just let her go.
- Mass Effect 2 hints that Aleena is actually Aria T'Loak, ruler of Omega.
Cate Archer and Magnus Armstrong in No One Lives Forever. Armstrong spares Archer's life several times despite his criminal peers' insistence that she be executed, partially out of camaraderie (they're both Scottish) and partially out of respect for her abilities.
- Magnus leaves H.A.R.M. in the sequel and helps out Cate a little.
Axel has shades of this towards Sora in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, but it's mostly to manipulate him.
- It may also have quite a bit to do with Axel's relationship with Roxas.
Despite the presumably high-stakes nature of Pokémon League challenges, the League Champion in all generations after the first displays impeccable grace and sportsmanship, even when defeated.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Emilia Nighthaven & Solmyr ibn Wali Barad.
Tomb Raider Anniversary: Lara Croft and Larson Conway show a degree of this. Larson even goes out of his way to save Lara's life from Natla's other goons a couple of times. The final confrontation between the two ends badly, though, with Lara eventually killing Larson when he refuses to back down and let her go after Natla.
Stern and Levi of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny. Their first interaction with Nanoha and Fate immediately show that, while they're technically on opposing sides, they really like each other and treat one another like old friends. Levi even manages to cheer up Fate after the latter had just gone through a traumatizing fight against a copy of her dead Evil Matriarch. Unsurprisingly, Stern and Levi were quick to suggest that they team up with the good guys once a bigger threat appeared, and were quicker to oppose the wishes of their leader, Lord Dearche, when she suggested that they should kill everyone in Nanoha's group.
Tales of Xillia Has Alvin be careful with those that are close to you, they just might turn against you when you least expect it.
Ace Attorney series has both Phoenix/Edgeworth and Apollo/Klavier. They are technically "enemies" (prosecution vs defense) but both have worked together in search for the truth.
In No More Heroes, Travis can be like this with some of the assassins he fights, sometimes one sided. Death Metal offers advice before Travis finishes him, he honestly respected Holly Summers a great deal and Speed Buster was impressed with him. He also spared Shinobu after realizing how she isn't like the other assassins and this comes back with Shinobu saving his life and eventually becoming a crazed fangirl. Henry becomes pretty friendly with Travis in the sequel (even if Travis doesn't care), while there are a few more he ends up liking. He tries letting Ryoji live for his warrior spirit, lets the broken Captain Vladimir enjoy a happy death and freaks out over Alice Moonlight, who he only killed because she wanted him to. There's also Kimmy Howell, although he's more freaked out by her since she's a stalker fangirl of terrifying levels.
In Whacked this is true for all the contestants due to Gameplay and Story Segregation; they're pretty cordial to each other in cutscenes, even after trying to brutally kill each other during the game itself. Lucy even has sex with Lance in one cutscene - although, she's not impressed.

Back to Friendly Enemy