Trope or not, gods just end up being a common target for games about heroes escalating in power while fighting increasingly world-destroying consequences.
So, for each post, name a game and describe it, with the assumption being that every description automatically ends with the phrase:
“…and then it ends with you fighting a god.”
Asura’s Wrath, DMC1, Bayonetta
Path of Exile has you clearing out the entire pantheon. Then the main campaign is over and you begin the post-game part, which is what actually matters.
“Doom” is a pretty good one.
“Advent Rising” you find out you are a god.
“Dread Delusion” prisoner to decider of gods fate.
A lot of Kirby games.
Even with the weird Mormon allusions, I really wish we could’ve gotten an Advent Rising sequel.
Persona 5 starts with you being transferred to a high school far from home in Tokyo due to being expelled…
Kirby Superstar: Milky Way Wishes. Ohh you think it’s a game about pink ball stopping the sun and moon from fighting? NOPE, here’s a jester with power of god.
Pokemon. Technically you don’t end with fighting god but somewhere you’re fighting a pokemon that’s basically god of something.
Also does Hades count lol.
You can always spot a Kirby fan based on how they react to a butterfly appearing late into the game.
Even better for Pokemon, God (Arceus) lets you capture it in a pokeball
Another Crab’s Treasure is a cute, fun, cartoony soulslike game where you play as a hermit crab whose shell has been stolen! He heads out on an adventure to get it back.
I mean… Dark Souls is the game that essentially created this meme.
Your entire goal is to beat up God and take his place so you can keep things going as they’ve been going for an untold number of centuries. Though IMO that’s one of the bad endings; the good ending is ending the status quo and becoming a new, different god. A god a humanity instead of… Whatever the fuck the gods before were (they are separated from humanity, even though they look like humans) 🤷🏻♂️.
For a much older game… EarthBound. Starts off just being a quirky, modern day (modern day being the 90’s in this case) RPG; ends with you fighting a literal space god that looks vaguely like a fallopian tube.
I’m fairly sure the meme was popularized way back with old JRPGs; just that they tended to be the ones with long enough stories to gain that kind of path of progression.
Yeah if I had to take a guess shin megami tensei series (1987) is solidly in the “… And then you fight God”, but a lot games even earlier probably did the same.
Actual gods, or do self-proclaimed gods that are actually something else count?
Cuz if the latter, Final Fantasy 1 (same year, few months earlier) might be Patient Zero for killing “gods” in jRPGs.
I just checked, and Dragon Quest 2 released in January of the same year as both of those games and ends with you fighting Malroth, god of destruction. If anything is patient zero, it’s the Dragon Quest series.
Haha, I think it’s very likely there are even earlier examples than both of those. I debated counting final fantasy, and did not recall the final boss of Dragon Quest 2.
I think ultimately, Man v God is a story that’s existed for a looong time.
Final Fantasy Legends!
Final Fantasy 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13
- Start off figuring out why meteors are falling and the wind has died
- Start off fighting a snail while using magic machines
- Start off as a terrorist
- Start off as an emo student
- Start off sneaking into a play
- Start off with blitzball
- Start heading down the hallway
Haven’t finished 1,2,3 but spoilers below:
spoiler
Ff4 - have to stop a vengeful manifestation of an advanced race
Ff5 - stopping a tree
Ff6 - stopping a clown’s divinity
Ff7 - well, that is more an alien with support from the spirit of the planet protecting itself
Ff8 - sorceressess and time shenanigans
Ff9 - ends with an abrupt challenge from a death god to convince it not to delete the current universe
Ff10 - and be transported to a land where a dominant religion is enforced through the power of a wmd that is maintained by “faith”
Ff12 - prevent the folly of a man trying to become a god, through the power of a renegade of the universe godhood pantheon
Ff13 - become pawns of higher beings wanting to stop the nihilism of one of its brethen tired of the infinite cycle
FF8 spoiler
Was Ultimecia characterized as (a) god, or wanting to be one?
I think Ultimecia wanted a world that consists of only her, hence she could be considered a god in her own world. She succeeded until the power of friendship and love defeated her but …
I don’t think it counts under what I understood the prompt in the OP is all about. But then again, it’s been a while since I last played that game, and I hardly paid much attention to the story (got too icked out by the love story). Cool game mechanics tho.
spoiler
In a way, I guess technically her goal was very godlike as she wanted to control and compress time to create a favourable timeline for herself.
That goal however just created a self-fulling circular loop prophesy as her fear of SeeD was ultimately her demise.
As for the time shenanigans:
- Her being killed by your group in the future leads to her essence finding Cid’s Wife as a host in the past
- Leads to the founding of SeeD
- Introduce main character and group for the game
- Leads to perpetuating a cycle
I suppose one can think of her desperately trying to win a time loop and going mad from failure
Edit
spoiler
Laguna’s Love Story wasn’t too bad, although a little on the nose for Squall falling in love with Laguna’s first Crush, but him settling down with Raine was bitter sweet at the end.
That last sentence in the first spoiler is more or less my take on her situation.
FF8 spoiler
I saw Ultimecia as more of a tragic character than someone who really wanted power for its own sake, which is why I don’t really see her as wanting to be a god. She just wanted a way out of the time loop. As you’ve said: she went mad from repeated (?) failure.
Coincidentally, I thought Squall, at the very end, could have had ended the time loop. In that cutscene after Ultimecia’s defeat, as he was wandering back to his own time, he met a much younger Edea, who has then just inherited Ultimecia’s power. He could have chosen not to tell Edea about SeeD at this point, but I don’t think he’s aware he was talking to that Edea he knew (even though I think the surroundings should have sufficiently clued him in).
FF8 B-plot spoilers
I found Squall falling in love with the daughter of Laguna’s first crush to be a nice little thing. I also liked Laguna far better as a character, and his love story with Raine a far superior love story than the main one. I think he really fell in love with Raine, but his fatherly love for Ellone far outweighed it.
FF8 spoiler response
spoiler
Yeah, I agree especially with her being a tragic character her final lines sounds line someone desperate:
“Recall a memory from your childhood. The sensations, emotions, the words from back then. Growing up means leaving something behind and throwing something away. Time will not wait, no matter how hard you hold onto it, it escapes you. And …”,
especially considering how Ellone’s powers work
I think it is repeated (at least once already) or she achieved some form of omnipotence with her time compression as her plans seem to have a definitive goal to them like she knows who to look for (Adel and Ellone) and what to do to achieve her ends. Edea (forgot her name) probably still had enough power to “guide” her a bit but ultimately she was overpowered most likely, until Ultimecia released her power to hop to the next one.
Yeah, Squall could have finished that in a few ways - although, I guess seeing Ultimecia survive (especially after she implanted that final thought, in retrospect), his instincts probably didn’t want to take the chance of her time hopping again and wanted the time line to be prepared. Also he couldn’t kill an innocent person either and risk one of the orphans getting the power as Edea tells him
The love story between Squall and Rinoa can be melodramatic, but it is done well enough with Rinoa peeling away the layers of edge off of Squall.
Laguna and Raine though, I agree was a lot better and I think Raine understood the type of person Laguna was and supported him - her personality was like his in some ways. She probably saw Ellone as a daughter as well and knew how far he would go to protect her, which is why she probably kept her pregnancy quiet to not distract him on his quest to save their “daughter”.
Oh! Forgot which event happened after which other event in that long cutscene after the final boss battle.
FF8 spoilers
I thought Squall met the younger Edea after receiving Ultimecia’s powers. I only remembered the fact that Squall implanted the idea of SeeD into Edea, but I couldn’t remember how exactly it happened.
As for Rinoa, back when I first played the game, I was a bit younger than Squall is, and Rinoa annoyed the hell out of me—far more than I got annoyed with Selphie, supposedly the annoying one. Younger me would have preferred if Squall fell in love with someone else, heck, even Seifer would have been a better love interest for Squall as far as younger me was concerned. I guess then, their love story worked nicely, and younger me was just too stubbornly edgy to appreciate that.
I think Laguna and Raine’s love story resonated with me far better because it’s far less “abrasive” and in-your-face. It might be a more bland and ordinary love story, but it’s a nice foil to the main love story between Squall and Rinoa.
EDIT: failed my spoiler formatting
FF 8 Spoiler Response
spoiler
If I recall, Squall sees a defeated Ultimecia staggering and ready to pass her powers on before dying, but Edea stops him from finishing her off They sort of have a conversation and SeeD is mentioned and young Squall comes running to Edea
Rinoa grew on me, at first hated the brattiness but over time she grew on me as a character who acts a blunt force determined to break Squall out of his shell. The Ragnarok scene and her becoming a sorceress locked her in as she matured and leaned on Squall for support in a reversal of her wanting to be his support and Squall being more “human”
The real love story is Zell and Hot Dogs (oh, almost forgot, Pig-tail girl)
Laguna and Raine was a lot more wholesome and mature with it not having any internal drama. The drama is more external elements leading to a more bitter sweet tale of Laguna accomplishing his mission but living with guilt of his failures
The original Baldur’s Gate story (1 and 2 + expansions) begin with you being a barely trained orphan sent on an unexpected journey by your foster father…
Fantastic games. Irenicus while not the god boss you’re referring to, is my favourite villain ever.
Bayonetta invents an entirely new god in the last 10 minutes of the game that was never explained or alluded to before, and then has you piledrive it into the sun.
sounds neat tbh
Shin Megami Tensei 2 and it doesn’t just end with you killing a god. You get to kill THE God, YHWH, aka the Abrahamic God!
Breath of Fire 3. People find a dragon that had been dormant in a crystal for centuries. It wakes up later as a human child. That child travels the world trying to figure out who they are. And then you fight a god, or not it’s your choice.
first game I thought of too, that Boss fight knocked My socks off.
I’m a notorious grinder in JRPGs. I love to power level, and that boss took me 45 minutes to beat. For reference the end boss in Tales of Symphonia took three hits from Presea when I got to them.
I felt the same way.
I grind it until I could comfortably beat every regular enemy in the game, but I’m pretty sure it took me over 2 hours actually beat that God boss, barely hanging on and getting one shot in every three healing turns or whatever
Xenoblade Chronicles
Technically you don’t, just a very powerful being who was allowed to powerful by an AI “god”.
Yeah, but you don’t find that out until later games. At the end of Chronicles, it certainly looks and feels like fighting a god.
The AI stated that it was an computer intelligence at the end of the first game. There’s even the cutscene of the project at one point showing what happened, with the computer having the same voice.
God of war?
I mean you fight all the Gods
And it starts with you fighting a God!
