10 MORE Video Game Villain Turns You Never Saw Coming
8. Yamiko - Aragami
When 2016 indie stealth action title Aragami opens up you, as the titular shadow spirit, are summoned by a ghostly young lady named Yamiko.
The girl explains that she and her peers have been trapped by the nefarious Kaiho people and you must rescue them. But you have to do it quickly, because once the sun rises in the morning - you will cease to exist. The Kaiho are an army of warriors who can bend and control light - a very dangerous group for a man made of living shadow.
Through the game it slowly comes to light, pun intended, that the Kaiho are not the evil conquerors Yamiko makes them out to be. But that Yamiko is actually the evil Shadow Empress that the strongest Kaiho warriors united to seal her away after she engaged in a path of conquest. There's ample evidence that Yamiko, however, was simply a puppet for a man named Hyo - who you find is now dead, killed by the Kaiho.
At the climax of the game it's an even bigger kick in the shadow nards to learn that Yamiko is not some innocent tool - she created you from the shattered soul of the Kaiho leader who died to seal her away.
She has, in a similar vein as Fontaine in Bioshock, made you kindly murder all your old cohorts and subordinates. And in the final battle she admits that killing you is her end-goal.