Video Games Where You Can Beat The Main Protagonist

The main protagonist of any video game can connect with the player on a deeper level than most other mediums. This is because they are usually in the control of the player in a way most other characters are not, depending on the genre. Because of this, it’s a somewhat rare opportunity in a game when the player gets a chance to fight against the main protagonist.

However, this opportunity is common enough, even in games where the player character is the one most commonly controlled, that sometimes that control is ripped away from the player. Here are some games where you can face off with the main protagonist.

5 Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Chapter 3-13: Blood Contract

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Systems

Released

November 11, 2007

Radiant Dawn is a sequel to Path of Radiance, which starred Ike and tells the tale of him and his mercenary group taking on Daein to save Crimea. Radiant Dawn looks at the resulting consequences of this war from multiple perspectives, shifting focus from the Daein liberation group; the Dawn Brigade, the Crimean Royal Knights, and Ike’s own mercenary group; the Greil Mercenaries. Despite his status as protagonist being disputable, with Micaiah serving as the lead for large parts of the game, the Greil Mercenaries are the playable faction for most of Part 3.

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Ultimately, due to the Dawn Brigade having conflicting goals, the Greil Mercenaries serve as the antagonists of Chapter 3-13, with Ike being the boss. Defeating Ike is a possible way to clear the chapter, but due to how powerful he is, holding the defense line for 12 turns may be the more appealing option. In the following chapter, the player takes control of the Greil Mercenaries once more, with Micaiah serving as the chapter’s boss, yet the nature of this chapter makes her impossible to fight.

After these two chapters, the goals of the various groups coalesce, and they pool their units together into three separate, but directly affiliated armies. They further combine into a broader force during the final part’s endgame, where any unit is a choice to be deployed.

4 Bookworm Adventures 2

Chapter 6; Level 5: Back to the Library

• Released: 2009
• Platforms: PC
• Developer: PopCap Games, Inc

This boss battle has the odd distinction of serving purely narrative purposes rather than being a genuinely challenging fight. Lex, the titular bookworm, learns about rifts occurring in the library. He is assaulted by a worm that looks identical to him and steals the fabled Magic Pen. The worm is only differentiated by a futuristic propeller helmet. This worm is dubbed “Evilex” and is teased as a future antagonist. Once Lex ends up traveling to the future, he obtains an identical helmet which functions as a time machine, and decides to travel back in time to face his purported rival.

He makes his way through the library, taking on Anna Karenina, Cyrano de Bergerac, Odysseus, and Moby Dick before facing the heavily-teased opponent. Unfortunately, there is no Evilex to be found, only a significantly weaker helmet-less Lex who can be taken down in one hit (I.E.: the previous Lex whose POV “Evilex” was identified from.) While most boss fights where the player deals with the protagonist are treated with some level of difficulty, this one is perhaps the easiest one ever made. This reinforces the sense of humor the Bookworm Adventures series has and is done to directly match the previous segment, where Lex was in fact beaten down with one hit.

3 Pokemon Gold and Silver

Mt. Silver

Red is the original main character of the Pokemon series, an avatar designed to embody the assumed male player (Leaf, the female counterpart, did not debut until the remake). However, as with most variable self-inserts, the common trade-off was an immensely limited personality, usually determined by the player’s choices more than any narrative. Canonically, Red beat his rival, Blue, and effectively took his spot as champion.

Gold and Silver made the interesting choice of making a 14-year-old Red the final boss of the game. Here he is just as talkative as he is when controlled by the player. This gives him a somewhat foreboding feel when disconnected from the context of him as the player’s avatar. Here, he has a team consisting of the Kanto starters, Pikachu, Snorlax, and Espeon. He also appears in the remake, swapping out his Espeon for a Lapras.

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Red has since made sporadic appearances in the series, playing the role of a respected veteran trainer various players can face, or in rare instances battle alongside. His team occasionally changes, but he typically uses all three of the Kanto starters, as well as an un-evolved Pikachu, who also serves as a starter in Pokemon Yellow.

2 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice

Turnabout Revolution

Phoenix Wright is the main character of the Ace Attorney series. His characterization is limited in such a way that gives him a greater connection to the average player, which is further cemented by his everyman appeal. However, there are some limitations to the efficacy this has, especially in later installments.

The primary issue is that the continual lore-building of the game confirms that Phoenix Wright is probably one of the best defense attorneys in-universe. The evidence for this claim is founded on the fact that he has consistently solved seemingly hopeless cases across the previous installments. It gets to the point where Phoenix’s protégé, Apollo Justice, was a huge fan of his before getting to work under him.

Spirit of Justice splits the role of protagonist between the two defense attorneys. In the first half of the final chapter, Phoenix is forced to operate as the plaintiff attorney for the cowardly Paul Atishon. Here, Wright faces off against Apollo Justice in a rare civil trial, where the pair determine the ownership of the Founder’s Orb, a relic from Khura’In said to grant vast spiritual power.

Although canonically Justice does win out in the end, Wright is no slouch. To make matters worse, his iconic “Objection!” theme, usually a sign of relief in most cases, still plays for him when he finds contradictions as the plaintiff’s attorney. Spirit of Justice is largely about Apollo stepping out from under his mentor’s shadow, and this being one of the game’s final trials helps add to that story.

1 Asura’s Wrath

Yasha faces off against his brother-in-law

This cinematic beat-em-up, Asura’s Wrath, stars a demigod looking for revenge. Asura was betrayed by his comrades, the Seven Deities, and killed, as they planned to make use of his daughter Mithra as a slave, murder his wife Durga, and frame him for the crime. He returns to the world of the living, and indeed, his wrath is what saves his life at times when it is in jeopardy.

However, even when it’s righteous indignation, excessive anger is never a good thing. There comes a point in the game where Asura gets so angry, that even the player can’t control him. Asura’s lifelong rival and Durga’s brother, Yasha grows disgusted with the actions of the Deities and decides to betray them. An initial act of defiance is fighting Asura, not to kill him, but to save him. From here, Yasha serves as more of a supporting character than a villain, although the focus largely shifts back to the titular Asura.

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