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.”
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.
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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.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a great game…
I do agree on it being a great game, and she fights gods on her way to her final goal but
spoiler
she doesn’t really fight any gods though - it is all in her head
I found when they used that same device to explain the ending of Hellblade 2 really unsatisfying.which is a shame because I’d really enjoyed the journey.
That is a shame, I would have thought that she would have some measure of control after the events of the first game
Especially, since the burden she was carrying was lifted.
spoiler
I guess she has a severe case of the “blessing” that she disassociates with reality regularly and is unable to discern what is real and what is not as she lives a life of what she thinks is real as truth.
I guess I can see that happening without any form of medication or therapy and only having her own thoughts to live with after the traumatic events of her past
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.
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.
Hollow Knight is a game where you start out as a little bug discovering a bug’s nest. Then you unlock some secrets, find the secret true final boss, and next thing you know, it ends with you fighting a god.
- Divinity Original Sin
- Soul Reaver through to Legacy of Kain - Defiance (Elder God)
- Titan Quest
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Cat Quest
- Hades
- Smite
- Mortal Kombat?
Pretty much any Final Fantasy game fits this to some extent.
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.
The Talos Principle.
No one has mentioned Noita yet? In Noita, killing a god is part of exploring the game.
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
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.
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous.
You start as a level 1 pf1e character and get thrown into a war against demons. This game is pretty hard if you don’t know 1e rules but completely viable, i played it before knowing any 1e. And you don’t end with a level 20 character, you end up much more powerful.
If you are good at making builds, you can have some wild combos, it’s great. It balances the power trip you can have with some brutal fights. Fuck those Bodaks.
I highly recommend it if you enjoy real time CRPGs. Turn based mode exists, but it makes some fights (cough cough tavern *cough cough) take multiple hours.
Im about four months into my first playthrough of Wrath. Love it.
I would say anyone interested in the game a general rule of thumb would be trash mobs and easy fights = real time and bosses and difficult fights turn based.
One can luckily change that on the fly.
I mean if one is confident in their micro, then one can do most of the game in real time, but the game does have enemy encounters that just feel unfair when fighting real time while feeling better tuned in turn based.
Good game though as one journeys through one of initially 2 “ascension” paths that can eventually branch out into one of 10 different paths as one takes the fight against, technically, gods - but not in the heavenly sense.
I’ve owned this game for years and I love RTwP combat in games like PoE and Baldurs Gate (first two). You’ve convinced me to give it another try!
Recently finished that game as an Azata and transcended. The story is great and the mythic paths are really quite fun, but I found combat to be a slog on the higher difficulties. Ended up turning it down to normal (from core) in act 4 due to the sheer amount of fights that take ages. The Defender’s Heart battle took me almost 2 hours! I get they want to make it feel grand, but it just slowed it down too much. For any new players, I recommend picking a lower difficulty, and use liberal use of real time for easy fights, of which there are far too many. You also need some resilience against bugs, as there are many. Only a few are game breaking, but most are really annoying and cause you to lose actions or items or something. Despite all this criticism, behind all that is a great game and I do recommend it to crpg fans, especially if they like pf1e (which I hadn’t played at the time).
Azata was a fun character. Love myself some elysian whimsy.
But good lord the defender’s hearth fight. I played a build based on stunlocks and didn’t have good dps at that point. I ended up wobbling enemies for about 5 hours. I started the fight drunk and finished it sober -_-
Yeah, I was built around slumber and coup de grace, so I feel your pain. I nearly died to the Minotaur too as I started using levelled spells just to make it go faster and then I was out when it attacked. Had Ember give him a run around while Lann killed him lol.
Persona 3, 4 and 5
