Predestination paradoxes in video games

A predestination paradox is a common literary device employed in many fictional and mythological works, dealing with various circumstances and paradoxes that can logically arise from time travel.

This page describes several examples of predestination paradox in literature. For more popular culture examples see Predestination paradoxes in popular culture, Predestination paradoxes in literature, Predestination paradoxes in film, Predestination paradoxes in television, and Predestination paradoxes in comics, manga, and anime.

Achron

• In the computer RTS Achron, every player has the ability of free-form time travel, so predestination paradoxes occur very often. For example, a player can send his units back in time to defend the factory that would build them.
• Six of the ten Grekim units can become their own progenitor.

Breath of Fire

• In Breath of Fire, Ryu and his party encounter an exact duplicate of fellow party member Nina, but dressed in blue rather than pink. The duplicate reacts with confusion to any attempt to speak with her. Later in the game, Nina is pulled into a time stream and separated from the group, and the duplicate is then revealed to be the future version of Nina after she had been pulled through time and become significantly more powerful.

Chrono Trigger

• The console RPG Chrono Trigger is famous for exploring several varieties of time travel ethics, including predestination, mostly when it comes to the creation of the Masamune. After acquiring The Two broken halves of the sword from Frog and taking them to Melchior in 1000 AD, he informs you that it needs Dreamstone to be repaired, which no longer exists. Later, before going into the Undersea Palace in 12,000 BC, Melchior's past self gives you a ruby knife with which to destroy the Mammon Machine, both being made from the same material. When the knife stabs into the machine, Lavos' power transforms the knife into the great sword which would become known as the Masamune in the centuries to come.

• The game's main plot is started when the characters go to the future and witness an apocalypse caused by an alien called Lavos.

Chzo Mythos

• A minor one occurs in the Chzo Mythos games. Prior to the events of 7 Days a Skeptic, Malcolm Somerset kills his father, renowned psychologist Jonathan Somerset, and assumes his identity aboard the spaceship EFS Mephistopheles on the advice of the Caretaker, a mysterious bald man in red robes. By the end, he is apprehended by the authorities and placed in a mental hospital. While in confinement, he is visited again by the Caretaker, who presents him with a key-like tool called Frehorn's Blade. Malcolm uses this to open a fleshy door in a cell (presumably a metaphor for his committing [...] With It), and descends an increasingly bloodied staircase; while doing so, his hair falls out and his patient robes become increasingly stained with blood. At the end of the stairs, he is revealed to be the Caretaker, and that by stabbing himself with Frehorn's Blade, he has exploited a loophole of sorts and gains the power to travel across time. Near the end of 6 Days a Sacrifice, he prepares to prompt his past self to kill his father, thus closing the loop.

Clive Barker's Undying

• In Clive Barker's Undying, the character Patrick Galloway discovers a journal that mentions a powerful mystical weapon, the Scythe of the Celt, which was stolen from a now-ruined monastery hundreds of years in the past, and describes a means of travelling in time via a magical portal. The journal writer intended to use the portal to take the Scythe before it was stolen but was mortally injured before he could do so. Using clues in the journal, Galloway travels back to a time when the monastery was intact and populated and steals the Scythe, becoming the very thief mentioned in the journal. The theft of the Scythe also releases energy that causes the destruction of the monastery whose ruins Galloway finds in the present day.

Ecco the Dolphin

• In Ecco the Dolphin, the eponymous protagonist Ecco meets an ancient creature named The Asterite, who seems to recognize him. The Asterite is willing to help Ecco on his quest, but is unable to, as one of the globes that comprises its body is missing, so it sends Ecco back into a prehistoric era to find it. In the past, Ecco finds a younger version of the Asterite, who attacks him. Ecco fights against the younger Asterite, and in the process takes one of its globes. At this point he is sent back to the present, where he gives the Asterite back the globe that he had stolen millions of years before.

Escape From Monkey Island

• In the PC game Escape from Monkey Island, the player character Guybrush Threepwood travels through a special time-travel-inducing swamp. There, he meets his future self, who hands him three items and speaks certain phrases to him. The object of this part of the game is to ensure the proper conversation and item-exchanging occur in the same order both when the player controls past-Guybrush, and later when the player controls future-Guybrush. Otherwise, a time-storm erupts. The three items, of course, are trapped in an endless loop of changing-hands. An interesting side-note is that often one of the items will be a gun. If it is, when the player controls past-Guybrush, he may choose to shoot the future-Guybrush with the gun. However, later when the player controls future-Guybrush, the past-Guybrush inevitably shoots him.

Fallout 2

• In the PC game Fallout 2, there is a chance that the player may encounter the Guardian of Forever of Star Trek fame in an Easter egg. Should they use the device, they will be taken back in time to Vault 13, the home of the Vault Dweller, the player character's ancestor. Using a certain computer in the Vault will result in the water purification chip being irreparably damaged, thus setting in motion the events of the previous game, that eventually result in the Vault Dweller being exiled and establishing the player character's tribe. The game humorously notes that "this comforts [the player] for some reason".

Final Fantasy VIII

• In Final Fantasy VIII, it is because of the direct actions of Ultimecia, knowing of her destiny to fall at the hand of Squall, that the events of the game take place. The main character, Squall, ends up briefly in the past in front of the orphanage he grew up in. By telling the matron of his origins, he ensures the creation of Garden and his appointment as commander of the SeeD forces—the very events that Ultimecia wanted to prevent.

Futurama

• In the Futurama video game, Professor Farnsworth walks into one of the Planet Express buildings room wearing a sombrero, where Fry, Leela, and Bender are talking. When they ask Farnsworth why he is wearing a sombrero, Farnsworth throws the sombrero away awkwardly, and tells them that he has sold Planet Express to Mom. The game then follows the travels of Fry, Leela, and Bender as they try to keep Mom from universal conquest. The game starts out with a tutorial mission, where Fry must get tools to help repair the mysteriously broken Planet Express ship. Eventually, the protagonists manage to get a working time machine, and try to go back in time to when the Professor was selling Planet Express to Mom. They end up damaging their ship badly, taking a past iteration of the ship and leaving the broken one behind, explaining why the ship was broken in the first place. Later, Mom tries to stop the protagonists with a large robot, eventually leading to the death of Fry, Leela, and Bender. The past iteration of Professor Farnsworth, having witnessed these events, cancels his contract with Mom, who then offers Farnsworth a sombrero if he gives her Planet Express. Farnsworth accepts, and proceeds to tell the past iterations of Fry, Bender and Leela about the trade, while wearing the sombrero.

Jak and Daxter

• Time travel features in the Jak and Daxter series, particularly Jak II. The second game begins with the protagonists travelling to the apocalyptic Haven City. They later find out that it is a futuristic version of their environment from the first game. As the game progresses, the player is tasked with protecting a kid who looks like Jak. When Jak confronts the Metal Head Leader, an insect-like cyborg who has been waging war on Haven City, he reveals that Jak is from the future. After defeating the Metal Heads, Jak sends his younger self back in time so that he may receive the training necessary to do what his older self just did. Daxter comments on the non-sensical nature of this as a form of comic relief.

Tomb Raider: Legend

• In Tomb Raider: Legend 7th in the Tomb Raider series, the star and the playable character, Lara Croft, sets out to find the pieces of the legendary sword, Excalibur. In the intro video, nine-year-old Lara and her mother are on a private plane, currently over Nepal. Suddenly the right engine of the plane catches fire and the plane crashes in the Himilayas. Lara and her mother, the only surrvivors, make their way through the mountains to a hidden Buddist monastery. When Lara's mother tells her to find firewood, Lara wanders into a room, where in the middle, a stone dais with a sword (another of Excalibur's kind) is standing. Lara's curiosity takes over, and she touches the sword. A stone circle rises from the floor and it alights with a glowing green substance. Lara's mother, Amelia Croft, steps in and hears something in the green light. She then is startled and pulls out the sword, then vanishing before her daughter's eyes. Then the intro goes to grown up Lara, climbing in the cliffs of Bolivia. She soon travels to Peru, Japan, Ghana, Kahzakstan, Cornwall, Nepal (again), and then back to Bolivia in her search for Excalibur. She arrives in Bolivia the second time, defeats mercinaries, kills one of her enemies, and defeats a hybrid monster. Lara and her old friend, now enemy, Amanda Evert are the only people left in the room. Amanda, on the floor out of breath, tells Lara not to put Excalibur into the dais. Lara does not listen and does so. Then she follows the drawings she took when she was nine and activates the dais. Amanda struggles to get up, then Lara hears her mother in the light, moments before she disappeared. Amelia does not recognize Lara, and they have a very short conversation before Amanda yells to Lara "Pull out the sword! Pull it out of the dais will explode!" Amelia thinks that Amanda is talking to her, and she pulls out the sword from her side. Afterwards Lara is furious at Amanda, and threatens to kill her, but spares her life after Amanda tells her her mother went Avalon, realm of the dead.

Legacy of Kain

• In the Legacy of Kain series, the character Raziel is born a human and lives the life of a religious zealot that, along with his Sarafan brethren, eventually meets his end at the hands of a demonic abomination. Raziel is resurrected as a vampire by Kain, who later sentences him to burn in the Abyss. Rising again, and following a quest for vengeance against Kain that covers the five games and time travel, Raziel discovers that it was he, in his wraith form, who killed himself and the other Sarafan, and that Kain had sentenced him to the Abyss to fuel the chase through time that would bring Raziel full circle for a larger purpose, making Raziel escape the clutches of the otherwise all-dominating wheel of fate that dictates the lives of all living creatures in Nosgoth. Raziel eventually succumbs to his fate of becoming the soul-harvesting spirit within the Soul Reaver blade that was previously merged metaphysically with him.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

• In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the main character Link, who is the destined "Hero of Time," goes back and forth between a seven-year time period to save Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf. At one point in the game, as an adult, Link enters a windmill in Kakariko Village where a man teaches him the Song of Storms, which he says "messed up the windmill seven years ago when some kid played it". Then in the past, Link plays the song inside the windmill, causing it to speed up, thus "teaching" the man the same song Link had learned from him in the future. This also an example of a Bootstrap Paradox, as the song itself was never written, but taught back and forth between Link and the man in the windmill.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

• While it is not compulsory to the plot, there is an easter egg within Metal Gear Solid 3 that refers specifically to a time paradox. After viewing a cutscene where Ocelot is knocked unconscious, the player is freely able to shoot the unconscious Ocelot dead: however, upon doing this the game immediately reverts to the "Game Over" screen, but with "Time Paradox" taking its place, referring to Ocelot's centrality to the overarching plot of the series. The player will also get a similar time paradox message if EVA is killed since she plays an important role in the future games (chronologically, particularly Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots). In addition, should the main character, [...] Snake, be killed in the game, the player will receive a "Game Over" message, but the message will slowly turn into "Time Paradox." This is because [...] Snake is actually "Big Boss," the "father" of Solid Snake. Also, in its "enhanced version" - "Metal Gear Solid 3 : Subsistence" - There is a humorous video on an additional disc, in which Raiden tries to kill [...] Snake, so he can become the protagonist of "Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns Of The Patriots" instead of Big Boss's "son" Solid Snake. Every time he comes close to [...] [...] Snake, he fails miserably and is sent in another moment in time, while the words "Time Paradox" appear on the screen.

Prince of Persia

• In Prince of Persia (Ubisoft), The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, the Prince is able to manipulate time, and the effects or causes of time travel are explored (with a light air in Sands of Time, and with a more far-reaching philosophical logic in Warrior Within) and the very nature of causality is questioned. However, all manipulations seamlessly integrate themselves into the timeline, such that when one is sure that one has just cheated fate (the main theme in Warrior Within), one finds oneself merely fulfilling one's own destiny. Also seen is a self-fulfilling prophecy by the "Empress of Time" that predicts that the Empress will die at the Prince's hand, prompting the Empress to decide to engage the Prince in battle to try to prevent her own death by [...] the Prince first. She underestimates the Prince and is killed, and the same event releases the "Sands of Time" that start the Prince's ordeal in the first place.

Sam & Max

In Sam & Max Season Two there exist 2 examples of this paradox.

• In "Ice Station Santa", Sam and Max must save their future selves from being killed. In "What's New, Beelzebub?" they are saved by their past selves; this creates an infinite loop of "save and later be saved; the savers are later saved".
• In "Chariots of the Dogs", Sam and Max are given an egg by their future selves from "What's New, Beelzebub?" who they also give a remote control too. Later, in What's new Beelzebub S&M give their past selves the egg and get the remote from them which, once again, creates an infinite loop. However this creates an inconsistency(paradox) in which the egg has no origin.

Shadow of Destiny

• In Shadow of Destiny, the predestination paradox and many other time travel concepts are explored as the protagonist, Eike Kusch, is murdered by a mystery assailant, and he is empowered to prevent his own demise via time travel. In fact, one of the endings results in an alchemist from the past making a wish to be, forever more, just like someone of Eike's character, having met him previously. The wish comes true, with the alchemist being metamorphosed into an exact duplicate of Eike; speculation is that the Eike the player controls, is the future self of the alchemist, having lived immortally for centuries as Eike, hence why his survival is so important to Homunculus.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

• In Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Karin is given a photograph that depicts her as Yuri's mother. Because of this photo, instead of returning home like the other characters, Karin stays in the past and eventually gives birth to Yuri. Karin also assumes the alias of "Anne" as Yuri told her that was his mother's name. Yuri also added that he was named after his mother's first love — Yuri himself. Yuri also gives Karin his mother's cross which is taken back in time and eventually given back to Yuri so that he can close the loop, creating an ontological paradox in relation to the cross.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• In Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow rescues Rouge the Bat, who was sent to retrieve the "Scepter of Darkness" from Eggman's base, and had not been heard from since. Shadow invades the base and finds Rouge in the midst of accomplishing her mission. They escape to the site that was formerly the castle of Soleanna's kings where they are confronted by Dr. Eggman, who attempts to retrieve his stolen property. Eggman's robots swoop down to attack, and in the heat of the battle, the Scepter of Darkness is completely shattered. With the seal crashed, Mephiles is freed. Resurrected in the likeness of Shadow through his shade, Mephiles the Dark introduces himself and hints at history that the two shared, though Shadow has no clue who he is. Later, Shadow goes back in time by ten years to learn about the Solaris project. He and Silver witness the Solaris Project's failure at hand, and watch as Iblis and the original Mephiles, a dark puddle, emerge, opening Silver's eyes to Mephiles' deception. The Duke of Soleanna tells them that the demons must be sealed, so he gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow goes to capture Mephiles, and Silver goes to capture Iblis. It is here that Shadow finds out why Mephiles knows him; it was Shadow who sealed him in the Scepter of Darkness in the first place. With the demons sealed, Shadow leaves the Scepter in the past since he knew where it would end up in the present day.
• Elise gives the blue Chaos Emerald to Sonic, who gives it to Eggman at his snowy mountain base in exchange for Eggman letting Elise go free, only to be teleported to the distant future. Silver finds it and keeps it as a good luck charm. Later, Silver uses it to travel back in time ten years with Shadow. Right before he returns, he leaves the Chaos Emerald with Elise, telling her that it will bring good luck. Elise then gives it to Sonic ten years later.
• In the future the world is constantly destroyed by the monster Iblis. After Silver asks how Iblis can be stopped, Mephiles tells him to only way to stop Iblis is to go back in time and kill the person who originally released Iblis. Convinced by Mephiles that Sonic is the "Iblis Trigger" Silver tries to kill Sonic several times before he realizes that there is another way to stop Iblis and returns to the future. However, Silver's presence in the past creates a situation that allows Mephiles to kill Sonic. This causes Elise to cry, which is what caused Iblis to be released in the first place.

Tekken 5

• In Xiaoyu's ending in Tekken 5, she uses the prize money she wins to build a time machine, so that she could stop Heihachi Mishima from throwing a young Kazuya down a cliff (which caused Kazuya to vow that he would kill his father, and ultimately starts the story of the Tekken series). Unfortunately, Xiaoyu's time machine malfunctions upon returning to the past, and knocked past Heihachi over, causing him to accidentally drop his son down the cliff, ironically causing the very event that Xiaoyu was trying to prevent. She realises that it is impossible to change the past, and all she could do are only minor improvements.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

• In the first-person shooter TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, the player character Sgt. Cortez often meets a near-future version of himself who helps him progress with the game. Later on, the player must perform that exact role to help his past self. One such example is at one point on the level 'Scotland the Brave', there is a locked door which Cortez cannot get through. This is sorted however when he looks up through a grate to see a future version of himself. After a brief conversation, the future version hands him the key to the door. Later in the level, he travels through a time portal and looks down a grate to see the past version of himself by the locked door. This is when he hands the past version the key to the door.

Valkyrie Profile

• In Valkyrie Profile, the valkyrie Lenneth visits Dipan, a city that had thrived in centuries past, but in the present is in ruins. Upon arriving, she is attacked by the ghost of the deceased king, who accuses Lenneth of [...] him and destroying his kingdom. Lenneth has no recollection of this, as she had never been to Dipan before. After fighting the king's ghost, she explores the ruined palace and is sent back in time to the day of the king's execution. While there, Lenneth discovers that her sister Hrist (who looks very similar to Lenneth, save for the color of her hair and armor) had come to the city under Odin's orders to execute the king for attempting to discover immortality. Lenneth then locates the queen, who gives her the king's crown and explains how the king's three mages had tricked him. Before Lenneth can return the crown to the king, he is executed by Hrist, but it is at that point that Lenneth returns to the present. She returns the crown to the king's ghost, putting him to rest, and then hunts down the three (now immortal) mages that had tricked the king.