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.”
Terraria.
And Calamity mod.
No one has mentioned Noita yet? In Noita, killing a god is part of exploring the game.
Fable
As a kid you get your village burned down but you’re rescued at the last minute by a Hero.
You’re raised in the Heroes Guild and become one yourself. You help people, kick some chickens, and learn magic.
And then you fight a god, twice.
And then I get the solus greatsword and berserk and win the game.
Most persona/smt games fit the bill
mass effect. Shepard kills many reapers, which are pretty close to eldritch gods in another setting.
You are in a theater group and steal a magical princess. Yada Yada Yada, you find out your twin brother is using magic life mist to build an army of dolls… Yada Yada yada, the princess turns a castle into a giant robot to fight the doll army… Yada Yada yada, you go to your alien space ship to find all of your other clones, yada yada yada your clone brother kills you and the only way to realive is to kill Necron the god of death and then the game ends.
Final Fantasy 9, the pinnacle of FF games doing this.
Another favorite for me though would be Breath of Fire.
You are a man, you become a dragon man, you find out you were always a dragon, find the goddess and have to chose between killing her or becoming a dragon god and killing your friends.
Firstly, I feel offended you reduced the giant mecha vs a dragon cinematic to robot vs a doll army :P
Ff9 did the “all powerful god” but it is really a wtf out of no where momement that can feel jarring with the themes of the game - a ludonarrative narrative dissonance, unless I missed some obscure reference to it somewhere
I would argue that ff6 wrote a less jarring “kill a god” fight:
spoiler
Although pulling ideas from christianity, it has a psychopathic clown ascend to godhood, shatter the world and sit a top his “heavenly throne” shooting god rays from the sky on a whim
The fight then is a series of killing his “angels” before finally destroying him and shattering his “heaven”
Most Final Fantasy games and JRPGs in general.
Earth Defense Force 5 ends with you fighting a god. EDF 6 basically starts and ends with this.
Depending on how you define all powerful God, Fallout New Vegas
God of war?
I mean you fight all the Gods
And it starts with you fighting a God!
To some extent the majority of JRPGs fit into this trope. It’s a long running joke that it isn’t a JRPG if you don’t end up fighting a god with the power of friendship.
In fact, there are particular reasons behind this that are influenced by Japanese culture and history.
This is exactly the kind of long form content I love watching. Thanks for sharing!
Skyrim. At the end of the main quest you go through a portal to Nord heaven and kill Alduin who is an ancient dragon god.
Hey hey hey, SPOILERS! I’m only ~8,000 hours into the game and haven’t gotten there yet!
Morrowind
There is an argument to be made that neither Dagoth Ur not the tribunal are strictly speaking “gods” by Elder Scrolls’ definitions. They have godlike powers thanks to the heart, but they are referred to as false gods by all the Deadric gods you interact with.
Heck, the main quest is basically Azura using you as her vessel to expose the falsity of the Tribunal’s claim to godhood.
Although, if you go one level deeper and you buy into Vivec actually achieving Chim, then it could be argued he is at least as godlike as Talos (who used his understanding of Chim to retcon the actual history of Tamriel). Which is another can of worms, because his godhood is also questioned and the whole reason his worship was outlawed in the white-gold concordant…
Oh Elder Scrolls lore, how I love your convoluted nature.
How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence.
I remember that the sound of his voice surprised me a lot, but I really like it. It honestly sounds a lot more normal than I would have expected - but I guess the voice is the difference between a god and a fake god!
Someone had to put it in a song https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iR-K2rUP86M
And oblivion, and skyrim
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
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
Even better, Arceus is given out for free like christmas in the og gen 4. Only in the remake they have you battle and capture it.
