Video games like to make us feel special. They like to make us the hero of a story, give us the most important task, a vital role that no one else can fulfill. Maybe you’ll become the ruler of every faction under the sun; maybe you’ll stop the world from meeting assured doom and destruction; perhaps,just perhaps, you’ll prevent some great scourge that has risenas you are the only one with the powers to do so, the chosen one.
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Or maybe, you’re just a nobody. You’re the runt of the litter, and you have nothing to offer. No, instead you’ll have to earn the title of “mildly recognized, barely renowned”, let aloneHero.
In these games, you begin with nothing. You are nothing. Aren’t video games wonderful?
10Outward
Outwardbegins just as any good game does: with debt! In this game, you barely survive a shipwreck as you make your way back home, where suddenly an old woman has rallied the town to shout at you about some money you owe - otherwise, they’ll take your house. How fun.
You have nothing but some clothes and a little bag to carry, so go out there andmake the bare minimum to survive- glory and riches can come later, much later. You better put in the work, or end up on the spear end of a conversation with some bandits. Or, you know, some creatures that can’t converse… so just on the end of a spear.
9Dragon Age: Inquisition
WhileDragon Age Originscould suffice too, this title will do. InInquisition, you start out the game in chains, after being but one of the many victims of a terrorist attack on the conclave. You were just someone there, no one important, and just happened to get mixed up in some very unfortunate events.
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You survived, and you might have gained some ability that will eventually allow you to stop the coming destruction, but for now - how do those handcuffs feel?
8Mount & Blade
This one goes for bothMount & Bladeand its sequel, Bannerlord. In a game that lets you rule armies, kingdoms, and oversee the well-being of just about everyone on the continent, you’ll first have to make your scruffy little peasant and get to work with a blunt stick.
You can choose just how much or how little you do have, but rest assured, it’s going to be a hell of a lot of work to get any renown in this world. Even then, you can lose it all in an instant, so don’t ever think reputation will carry you.
7Saints Row (2022)
The reboot ofSaints Rowserves as an origin to the series behind the titular gang. So what does going back to the very beginning mean? More debt!
You and your scraping-by friends soon get caught up in situations that lose all of you your jobs and positions, and with so much student debt to pay off, the only reasonable solution is to create a criminal empire and rule the underworld - so get to it!
6Divinity: Original Sin 2
At the beginning ofDivinity: Original Sin 2, you may choose to play as any of the pre-set characters with actual stories, or you can just make your own - this is your own nobody. There are many prisoners who are being rounded up and shipped off via boat to a prison for the magically imbued. You are but one of these people being shipped off. At this point in time, you are certainly just another sad sack in chains being loaded up like cargo and sent away, probably never to be seen again.
Sure, you might end up becoming a little more important down the line - like,becoming a godkind of important- but for now, you are wearing rags and scraping by at the mercy of the magisters. Good luck, because it will be rough for you for quite some time before it gets better.
5Elden Ring
Many of FromSoftware’s games like to start you off in the same way - some raggedy-looking peasant who has awoken to this cruel and unforgiving world, in the desperate hopes that they can be the one to change it.Elden Ringis no different.
While you may very well end up the one to fix the world - or doom it further - many others like you have tried, and all of them have failed. You’re just another one of them. What makes you think you’re going to be able to achieve it?
4Disco Elysium
At the very start ofDisco Elysium, you wake up from a void of consciousness, and just like you playing it for the first time, your character has no clue who they are, where they are, or what anything really is. You’ll go on to solve a murder case andfall deeper into the mystery, but all the while, you will need to figure everything out from scratch.
What better way to begin than to have no knowledge at all? You’re a sad old man that is not in a good state, and everyone around you will constantly remind you of it. It can be tough to deal with, and maybe you’ll even crack under the pressure, but you’ll really have to go against all odds in order to make something of yourself here.
3Persona 5
Other Persona games could fit here too, butPersona 5is the most notable to most people. You really start as no one - transferred to a new school in a new city, you have nothing but a bad reputation to your name and rumors floating around you.
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You’ll go on to become the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, sure, and you’ll achieve a lot - but even then, it’s all out of the public eye. You’ll start as nothing, and as far as they’re all concerned, you’ll remain just another student of Shujin Academy.
2The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Bethesda sure likes to put us in chains, because it now seems a tradition forThe Elder Scrollsto start you off as a prisoner.Did you deserve to be captured?That’s for you to decide, but you’re always the nobody in the middle of chaos.
Oblivionbegins in the dungeons of the Imperial City, and before long you’ll be escaping alongside the Emperor. Why? Because the secret escapejust so happenedto be in your cell - you’re not special, don’t flatter yourself. you’re able to go on to achieve as much or as little as you like, but you’re just an average person that got very lucky to avoid rotting between four walls.
1Kingdom Come: Deliverance
You are, quite literally, a peasant. InKingdom Come: Deliverance, you start your life as a blacksmith’s son living in a village and having a fantastically uneventful life: visiting the tavern, throwing animal waste at neighbors' houses, and dreaming of life outside of your little town. I mean, youcan’t even read.You have to learn that as a skill.
you may go on to earn your keep as a skilled fighter, coming out of many battles victorious, and richer than you could have hoped for as you stand right-hand to some important people. But you never were one of those important people. You were a village boy with nothing notable about you.
