5 Female Video Game Villains Who Defect To The Good Guys

The all-important convention of the villain is necessary for a variety of different types of video games. A common convention in storytelling dating back to at least ancient Mesopotamia is an antagonist who decides to cast their lot with the heroes.

A notably common aspect of this convention is that villains who are more likely to change sides are women. This is likely influenced by stereotypes that regard women as being inherently more virtuous or wise than their counterparts, as well as the fact that their writers tend to skew male. Even so, the motivations female characters have for changing sides can vary greatly. Here are some examples of various female villains who joined up with the heroes.

5 Trish

Devil May Cry Series

Trish is a demon who bears a striking resemblance to Eva, Dante, and Vergil’s late mother. She first meets Dante at his titular agency, where she attempts to attack him. She temporarily reconciles with Dante, requesting his help, but this is revealed to be a ruse. In actuality, she is a demon created by Mundus, who wishes to draw out Dante. Despite this knowledge, Dante feels compelled to protect Trish, which endears her to the half-demon hero. Trish attempts to sacrifice herself to aid Dante, being attacked by Mundus in a seemingly fatal manner. Nonetheless, she returns and helps Dante finish off her former master.

Since then, Trish has stayed firmly on the side of good. She has canonically worked alongside Dante in two Devil May Cry sequels, and appeared in various other media pertaining to the series, maintaining a largely playful and carefree yet ultimately heroic manner of being. Dante’s continued kindness towards her, in spite of her previous evil, is what compelled her to become good.

4 Franziska Von Karma

Ace Attorney Series

Franziska Von Karma is a prosecutor who has been active since her teens, with her documented appearances in the Ace Attorney series all occurring during those years. She has ties to the two major prosecutors from the first game, being Manfred Von Karma’s daughter, and by proxy, serving as a sort of surrogate sister to Miles Edgeworth. After Manfred died in disgrace after being exposed as a murderer and Edgeworth essentially faked suicide, writing a note stating he “chose death” before spending time away from the country, Franziska wished to beat Phoenix Wright, as a sort of revenge against Edgeworth for leaving her behind.

She is notably quite abusive towards the majority of people she meets, insulting and whipping them if they irk her enough. In her first trial against Phoenix, she even broke evidence law to submit a particularly incriminating photograph. Her second, and to date, final trial against Wright resulted in a loss after the culprit hauled his murder weapon to court, having hidden it under his wheelchair. Both of these trials highlighted her desire to win a court case at any cost, as a result of the kind of mentality Miles and her were brought up with. Like Miles, she at first did not care if an innocent defendant was wrongly imprisoned, as long as she won a court case. Franziska was slated to prosecute against Wright in the final trial of Justice For All but was shot by an assassin before it occurred.

This was the result of tampering by Matt Engarde, Phoenix’s defendant, who hired Shelly De Killer to assassinate his rival, Juan Corrida, and control the subsequent trial. De Killer kidnapped Maya Fey in an effort to force Wright to get Engarde a not-guilty verdict. After working with Edgeworth to stall the trial, evidence that would turn De Killer against his client was discovered and Engarde begged for a guilty verdict. Seeing Wright’s joy at his first-ever loss, Franziska was puzzled by the scenario and questioned her own motives for prosecuting.

Ultimately, Franziska continued her work as a prosecutor. She appears in the final chapter of Trials and Tribulations, helping investigate the murder of Misty Fey, and serving as a temporary prosecutor to continue the case, at the behest of Edgeworth, who ironically serves as a defense attorney. Franziska is also a supporting character in Investigations and its sequel. She often argues with Miles about the case at hand and aids him in the various titular investigations. Although her demeanor is, in some ways, largely unchanged from days past, she is now more firm in her morals and remains steadfast in her convictions. She has also come to terms with the crimes of her father, despite him being such a significant influence on her life.

3 Katarina

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem

The updated Fire Emblem remakes are notable for their additional characters who were not involved in the original versions of the respective games. Katarina, a sage, is one such example. Katarina, formerly known as Reese, was an abused orphan who was eventually groomed into an assassin by Eremiya, a bishop brainwashed by the evil sorcerer, Gharnef. Eremiya subjected the orphans she took in to grueling training so that they could become assassins.

Katarina first encounters Kris, the player’s avatar and Marth’s eventual most steadfast ally, under false pretenses. The pair are part of one of many platoons attempting to join their might with the Altean army. Katarina lies that she is not a combatant and merely wishes to serve as a strategist. Katarina used the platoon’s eventual success to become close to Marth and attempt to kill him in his own palace. Although this failed, it was not the last Marth and co. heard of the assassins. Other members of the organization, like Legion, a mob of berserkers essentially acting in tandem as one man, and Clarisse, an arrogant sniper who hides in the fog of war, cross paths with Marth. However, each confrontation ends with the assassins being defeated, and eventually killed.

After Katarina is encountered again, it takes significant convincing from Kris to get her to switch sides. She first feigns apathy to Kris, telling them their time together meant nothing. However, her tears are a dead giveaway as to her true feelings. Kris once again asks her to join. She hesitates at first, believing her crimes are too great. However, she is ultimately convinced by Marth to “atone with her life”, which she continues to do once the War of Shadows is over.

2 Sindel

Mortal Kombat Series

Sindel is the queen of Edenia, a realm noted for its long-lived people, the Edenians. In earlier Mortal Kombat games, she was identified as the unwilling consort of Shao Kahn, who committed suicide shortly after Shao Kahn took over her realm. Kahn eventually resurrected Sindel on Earth, in an attempt to conquer it. Initially, Sindel proved subservient to Shao Kahn in her reborn form, using her long hair and sonic attacks on his behalf. However, Kitana, her daughter, was able to convince her of her true past. Since then, she has been a force for good, at least when in control of herself. This seems, at first, to be the case in the initial reboot, despite being brainwashed for the majority of the time.

However, this ended up being retconned by Mortal Kombat 11, which reimagined her face-turn as a ruse to maintain Edenian loyalty. She is now recontextualized as Shao Kahn’s willing partner, who admires his need to gain power and will do anything she can to grasp onto it herself. This retconning was not particularly well-received by some fans, believing it to be inconsistent with her established character.

In the second reboot, Mortal Kombat 1, she is a well-meaning ruler of Edenia and not connected to Shao Kahn, on the side of good, but somewhat out-of-touch in regard to certain issues faced by her subjects. While the exact path this version of the character will take remains unclear for the moment, she certainly seems less evil than her previous counterpart turned out to be.

1 Saya

Project X Zone

Some characters’ supposed “face-turns” can be motivated solely by pragmatism. One such example is Saya, the primary antagonist of Namco X Capcom, in one of her subsequent appearances. Saya is a werefox who is a field agent of Ouma, an organization dedicated to merging the various worlds. She is an arch-enemy of Reiji Arisu, an agent of a rival organization, Shinra, dedicated to preserving order. Their feud is somewhat personal, as Saya killed Reiji’s father, a former Shinra agent, years ago.

However, despite her dedication to chaos in the abstract, she occasionally sides with the heroes. She first appeared as a supporting character in Endless Frontier: EXCEED, a spin-off of sorts to Namco X Capcom. In Project X Zone, a more direct sequel to Namco X Capcom (now including Sega characters), Saya, on behalf of Ouma, aids the organization known as Oros Phlox, with the pair pooling resources to their own ends. However, after Saya discovers Oros Phlox lied to her about the exact usage of certain units, she chooses to betray them, siding with the heroes for the remainder of the game. This is fairly unique, as the alliance with this clearly evil character develops not from a shift in ideals, but rather mutual convenience. However, within the context of Project X Zone, this is relatively common, as blatantly evil characters such as Heihachi Mishima (Tekken), Juri Han (Street Fighter), and T-elos (Xenosaga) have also joined the heroes.

Project X Zone 2, a game that borrows much more heavily from Namco X Capcom in its storyline, Saya reverts to being a major antagonist for the game, with T-elos and Juri becoming unplayable enemies as well. This change was likely made to distinguish the rosters between the two games, with other more important characters being added to the sequel. Regardless, Saya was killed in the sequel, ultimately dying to defend Ouma’s goal of merging the worlds. If she does return, it will likely be on the side of evil, but perhaps the conditions of the day may persuade her towards another temporary side switch.