54 Fictional mercenaries in video games

Alexios and Kassandra are fictional characters in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed video game franchise, who are featured as the player characters of the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and also appear as unlockable characters in the spin-off mobile game Assassin's Creed: Rebellion. Alexios and Kassandra are portrayed through performance capture by Michael Antonakos and Melissanthi Mahut respectively.

Samus Aran is a fictional character who serves as the protagonist of the Metroid science fiction action-adventure game series by Nintendo. She was introduced in the 1986 video game Metroid.

Balrog is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series. He made his first appearance in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991. In the series, he is a disgraced boxer and antagonist who works for M. Bison's organization, Shadaloo.

The following is a list of characters from the Dead or Alive video game series, created by Tecmo and Team Ninja.

Niko Bellic is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of Rockstar North's 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, the sixth main installment in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He also makes non-playable appearances in the game's episodic content The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, both released in 2009. Michael Hollick provided the character's voice and motion capture.

Big Boss is a video game character from the Metal Gear video game series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. He was first introduced in the 1987 Metal Gear game as the commanding officer and father of the main character, Solid Snake, later revealing himself as a terrorist leading a faction known as Outer Heaven. He is later featured in the prequel games, starting Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as a younger version of the character named Naked Snake , an American Special Forces Operator and decorated war hero until political manipulations cause him to be disillusioned when facing his own mentor, The Boss, and gradually develops his own private mercenary company. The original incarnation of Big Boss from the 1987 Metal Gear game is retroactively established as a separate character known as Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.

Claude is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2001 video game Grand Theft Auto III. He also makes a non-playable cameo appearance in the 2004 prequel Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A silent protagonist, Claude has no lines of dialogue in either game. In Grand Theft Auto III, he is depicted as a small-time criminal who resides in the fictional Liberty City with his girlfriend Catalina, who leaves him for dead following a successful bank robbery. Surviving, Claude embarks on a quest for revenge, which quickly leads him to become entangled in a world of organized crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption.

Cloud Strife is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Square's 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, its high-definition remake, and several of its sequels and spinoffs. In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is a mercenary claiming to be formerly of SOLDIER, a group of elite supersoldiers employed by the Shinra Electric Power Company, a megacorporation responsible for draining the life from the planet. Cloud joins the resistance group AVALANCHE in the fight against Shinra, and driven by a feud with his former superior, the primary antagonist Sephiroth, Cloud learns to accept his troubled past and adapts to his role as a leader.

Conker the Squirrel is an anthropomorphic squirrel starring in various video games. He first appeared alongside Diddy Kong of Nintendo's Donkey Kong series in Diddy Kong Racing. The character is stated to be 21 years of age by Nintendo. Conker is voiced by Chris Seavor in all of his appearances.

Dante , also known under the alias of Tony Redgrave , is a fictional character in the video game series Devil May Cry, created and published by Capcom. Introduced as the protagonist of the 2001 game with the same name, Dante is a demon-hunting vigilante dedicated to exterminating them and other supernatural foes in revenge for losing his mother Eva and having his twin brother, Vergil, lost. He is the son of Sparda, inheriting superhuman powers which he uses with a variety of weapons in the games. The character also appears in several Devil May Cry novels and manga volumes and is featured in the 2007 anime television series. Dante has also made multiple guest appearances in crossover games. An alternate version of the character was created by Ninja Theory for their game DmC: Devil May Cry, which is set in a separate universe from the main series.

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box video game bundle for Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed in December 2007 when The Orange Box was ported to the system. Later in development, the game was released as a standalone title for Windows in April 2008, and was updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts handling all physical and console ports of the game.

Eddy Gordo is a video game character from the Tekken series by Namco Bandai Games. The character is a Brazilian capoeira fighter. Eddy made his debut in the arcade version of Tekken 3 in 1997 and his first console appearance was in the 1998 PlayStation port of the title. Eddy has since appeared in every game thereafter, although he shares the same character slot as Christie Monteiro in Tekken 4 and Tekken 5, but regained his own slot in subsequent games beginning with Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.

Fox McCloud is a video game character and the chief protagonist of Nintendo's Star Fox series. He is an anthropomorphic fox created and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takaya Imamura. In each game, to varying extents, the player controls Fox in his Arwing. He is the leader of the Star Fox team, and is joined by his wingmates on various missions.

Frank Jaeger, better known by his codename Gray Fox, is a fictional character and protagonist from Konami's Metal Gear series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, he first appears in the series' original 1987 game Metal Gear, and is one of the few characters to appear in both the original 2D games and the later 3D games. First introduced in the original game as a high-ranking agent of FOXHOUND who goes missing during a mission to Outer Heaven, he is saved by fellow FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake but goes missing during the original game and its sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake during which he is revealed to have sided with Big Boss; he is eventually defeated and left for dead. The character is reintroduced in Metal Gear Solid as the Cyborg Ninja, a mysterious being wearing a powered armor exoskeleton and armed with a high-frequency blade. During Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND revolt at Shadow Moses, he confronts Solid Snake on several occasions, while also providing advice via CODEC as a faceless contact named Deepthroat. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set twenty-five years before the original Metal Gear, also features his teenage iteration using the codename Null.

Hana Tsu-Vachel is a player character in the Fear Effect horror video game series for the PlayStation. She was introduced in Fear Effect in 1999 and is most notable and remembered because of her controversial bisexual relationship in the game's 2001 prequel Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix. She was supposed to return in the canceled sequel Fear Effect Inferno for the PlayStation 2.

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box video game bundle for Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed in December 2007 when The Orange Box was ported to the system. Later in development, the game was released as a standalone title for Windows in April 2008, and was updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts handling all physical and console ports of the game.

Ike is a fictional character from the Fire Emblem series of video games. He is the central protagonist and Lord-class character of the ninth game in the series, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and one of the central characters in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Ike's premiere game, Path of Radiance, was the first console Fire Emblem game released internationally, was the first console Fire Emblem game released since the Super Famicom game, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, and was the first to have three-dimensional, cel-shaded graphics. His raw personality and blue hair are derived from Hector, the protagonist of the first Fire Emblem released to Europe and North America, when Ike's creators discovered that he was one of the most popular characters in the series.

The Illusive Man is a fictional character in BioWare's Mass Effect video game franchise. He is the leader of the pro-human group Cerberus. The Illusive Man wears an open suit that connotes both futuristic style and the "casual swagger of a charming billionaire". His eye implants make him appear slightly inhuman. He is normally seen in an empty office with no indication of his living arrangements. He is voiced by Martin Sheen.

The Iron Bull is a fictional character in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. The character appears in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he serves as a companion party member.

Kano is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game and media franchise by NetherRealm Studios/Midway Games. He is one of the series' original characters, having made his debut in the first Mortal Kombat in 1992. A calculating Australian mercenary and member of the international crime cartel known as the Black Dragon, Kano is also the top fugitive and persistent nemesis of Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs of the Special Forces, which has been his primary storyline throughout the course of his Mortal Kombat series appearances. In Mortal Kombat 3, he becomes the general of Outworld emperor Shao Kahn's armies. In the 2011 series reboot, he additionally poses as a crooked Special Forces informant and serves as Shao Kahn's arms dealer. His most recognizable feature is his cybernetic metal faceplate that houses an infrared eye laser.

Kyle Katarn is a fictional character in the Star Wars expanded universe, who appears in the five video games of the Jedi Knight series, the video game Star Wars: Lethal Alliance, and in several books and other material. In the Jedi Knight series, Katarn debuts in Star Wars: Dark Forces, appears in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, is one of two playable characters in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, appears in Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and is a major NPC in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi is a fictional character in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition. He is a former soldier in the Tevinter Imperium's military forces, and is currently a member of the Bull's Chargers, a mercenary company led by the Iron Bull. He was created and written by Patrick Weekes. Canadian-American voice actress Jennifer Hale voiced Krem in Inquisition.

Lee Chaolan is a player character from the Tekken fighting game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment. He is an orphan adopted by Heihachi Mishima, head of the Mishima Zaibatsu corporation, and later becoming embroiled in a one-sided rivalry with his adoptive brother, Kazuya Mishima. The defeat of Kazuya is Lee's primary objective in entering the King of Iron Fist fighting tournaments. Since making his debut in the original Tekken, Lee has been a mainstay in the series, appearing in every subsequent game except for Tekken 3, and has at times appeared as an alter ego named Violet, who is additionally playable in several series installments. Outside of the games, Lee has appeared in two animated Tekken films, and he has received a positive critical reception for his flamboyant personality and particularly his Tekken 5 ending.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a 2009 first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the sixth installment in the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, continuing the storyline. It was released worldwide on November 10, 2009, for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. A separate version for the Nintendo DS, titled Modern Warfare: Mobilized, was also released on the same day. A version for macOS was developed by Aspyr and released in May 2014, and the Xbox 360 version was made backward compatible for the Xbox One in 2018.

Falco Lombardi is an anthropomorphic bird from the Star Fox series of video games. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and designed by Takaya Imamura. Falco acts as the wingman and friend of the titular Fox McCloud for the majority of the series.

Heishiro Mitsurugi , better known as just Mitsurugi, is a fictional character in the Soulcalibur series of fighting games by Namco. He is a mainstay and one of most iconic characters in the franchise as one of only four characters to appear as a playable character in every installment since 1995's Soul Edge. In the games' lore, Mitsurugi is a master swordsman from Japan turned a wandering mercenary ever looking for the ultimate sword and a challenge, who is a rival of Taki and Algol and the enemy of Setsuka.

Mona Sax is a fictional character in the neo-noir media franchise Max Payne, where she represents the femme fatale archetype. Mona is a mysterious contract killer in a dangerous relationship with the series' titular protagonist, the policeman-turned-vigilante Max Payne. The character was portrayed by Kathy Tong and voiced by Julia Murney and Wendy Hoopes in the video games, and was played by Mila Kunis in the film adaptation.

Siegfried Schtauffen and Nightmare are two interconnected fictional characters in Soulcalibur, a series of fighting games by Namco. Introduced as a tragic hero in the 1995 game Soul Edge, Siegfried has been a mainstay and lead character for most of the series, especially Soulcalibur Legends, until Soulcalibur V. Nightmare is an evil, mutated form of Siegfried that later becomes an entity entirely separated from Siegfried in Soulcalibur III onward, the living incarnation of Soul Edge / Inferno .

Nina Williams is a fictional character from Namco's Tekken fighting game series. A cold-blooded Irish professional assassin, Nina made her first appearance in Tekken, the original game in the series. Notably, Nina, is one of four playable characters and the sole female character, to appear in all main installments in the series, with the noticeable exception of the original arcade version of Tekken 7. She also starred in her own spin-off game, Death by Degrees.

Noob Saibot is a fictional character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by NetherRealm Studios and Midway Games. Initially introduced as a black silhouette of 1993's Mortal Kombat II's other male ninja characters sharing their special moves, he would be given his own unique move-set and appearance in later games, while his backstory would be greatly expanded upon. His name consists of the surnames of Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias spelled backward.

Duke Nukem is a fictional character and protagonist of the Duke Nukem series of video games. The character first appeared in the 1991 video game Duke Nukem, developed by Apogee Software. He has since starred in multiple sequels developed by 3D Realms. Most recently, he starred in Duke Nukem Forever, released by Gearbox Software, which now owns the rights and intellectual property.

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box video game bundle for Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed in December 2007 when The Orange Box was ported to the system. Later in development, the game was released as a standalone title for Windows in April 2008, and was updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts handling all physical and console ports of the game.

Raiden , real name Jack , is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Konami's Metal Gear series of video games. The character was created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, and was introduced in the series as the main player character of the 2001 stealth game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden appears to be a member of the U.S. special operations unit FOXHOUND and is participating in his first mission against terrorists. Despite coming across as a rookie, he is a young soldier who is later revealed to have been a Liberian child soldier. Raiden also appears as a supporting character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which he is assisting the series' protagonist Solid Snake in his fight against Revolver Ocelot's forces. He is also the main character of the hack and slash game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in which he is dealing with his past and his present life as a combatant who faces enemies from private military companies.

Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft for the Sony PlayStation video game console. Released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998, it is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The game combines thematic elements of the Final Fantasy video game series with a game engine and battle system unlike those previously seen in the franchise. In contrast to other 32-bit era Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy Tactics uses a 3D, isometric, rotatable playing field, with bitmap sprite characters.

James Eugene Raynor is a fictional character and a major protagonist in Blizzard Entertainment's science fiction StarCraft series. Raynor is a predominant character in the science fiction real-time strategy video games StarCraft and Brood War, and is a player character in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. He also appears as a playable character in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm. Outside video games, Raynor appears in the novels Liberty's Crusade and Queen of Blades, while his backstory is explored in the novels Heaven's Devils and Devil's Due. Robert Clotworthy voices the character in all video game appearances.

Revolver "Shalashaska" Ocelot is a recurring fictional character in Konami's Metal Gear video game series. Considered an anti-hero of the series, he takes on a variety of roles: a major nemesis to Solid Snake, a friendly rival to Naked Snake, the right-hand man of Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake, and a close ally to Venom Snake. The character has been well received by video game publications for his role as a central villain and antihero in the franchise and has often been considered one of its most important characters for his connections with various characters.

Rolento F. Schugerg , is a video game character from both the Final Fight and Street Fighter series. Like Sodom before him, he first appeared as a boss character in Final Fight, but later evolved into a playable fighter in Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Scorpion is a playable character and the mascot in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games/NetherRealm Studios. Making his debut as one of the original seven playable characters in Mortal Kombat in 1992, he is an undead ninja specter seeking revenge for his death at the hands of Quan Chi.

Slippy Toad is a character from the Star Fox series of video games published by Nintendo. He was created by Shigeru Miyamoto along with Takaya Imamura, who also designed the character, and was based on the assistant director of the original Star Fox game. Slippy acts as the inventor and mechanic of Star Fox Team as well as the sidekick to Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi.

Sol Badguy is a fictional character in Arc System Works' Guilty Gear video game series. He first appeared in the 1998 video game Guilty Gear, as the main character and namesake. In the series, he is a bounty hunter who has dedicated his life to the destruction of Gears, a race of magical bioweapons that plunged the world into a hundred-year war known as the Crusades. He was once a member of the Sacred Order of the Holy Knights, and this appearance was featured in another playable character named Order-Sol .

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box video game bundle for Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed in December 2007 when The Orange Box was ported to the system. Later in development, the game was released as a standalone title for Windows in April 2008, and was updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts handling all physical and console ports of the game.

Solid Snake is a video game character and one of the primary protagonists of the Metal Gear series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. He is depicted as a former Green Beret and a highly skilled special operations soldier engaged in solo stealth and espionage missions, who is often tasked with destroying models of the bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha known as Metal Gear. Controlled by the player, he must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While his first appearances in the original Metal Gear games were references to Hollywood films, the Metal Gear Solid series has given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawa alongside an established personality while also exploring his relationship with his father and mentor Big Boss.

Rad Spencer , also known as Nathan Spencer in certain games, is a fictional character created by Capcom and the protagonist of the Bionic Commando series. Nathan Spencer is a prototype bionics-enhanced soldier who is mainly noted by video game reviewers due to his "Bionic Arm" and his inability to jump. Outside the Bionic Commando series, the character appeared in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Nathan's design changed since his introduction, receiving both praise and criticism.

Squall Leonhart is a fictional character and the primary protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, a role-playing video game that was produced by Square. In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is a 17-year-old student at Balamb Garden, a prestigious military academy for elite mercenaries. He is 177 cm tall. As the story progresses, Squall befriends Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, and Irvine Kinneas, and falls in love with Rinoa Heartilly. These relationships, combined with the game's plot, gradually change him from being a loner to an open, caring person. Squall has appeared in several other games, including Chocobo Racing, Itadaki Street Special, and the Kingdom Hearts series as Leon .

Strider Hiryu is a fictional character jointly owned by Capcom and Moto Kikaku. Although primarily known as a game character, Hiryu debuted in 1988 as the protagonist of a Japan-exclusive manga titled Strider Hiryu, published by Kadokawa Shoten.

Thane Krios is a fictional character in BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, who first appeared in Mass Effect 2 as a party member. The character is a drell, a race of extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids who form a sociopolitical alliance with the hanar, a species of jellyfish-like entities known for their strict adherence to polite speech and proper etiquette. He is a highly skilled professional assassin who utilizes a mixture of stealth, firearms, hand-to-hand combat techniques, and biotic powers.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is an action-adventure game developed in a collaboration between Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The ninth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, it was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2005. A port for the PlayStation 2 was released in June 2006. At the time of release, the recommended retail price of the PS2 port was around half the price of the PSP version, because the PS2 version does not feature the custom soundtrack ripping capability of the PSP version. A port for iOS, Android and Fire OS devices was also released in December 2015, February 2016, and March 2016, respectively.

The Ultimate Stuntman is a 1990 video game developed by Codemasters and published by Camerica for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), featuring action game elements. The Ultimate Stuntman is one of 14 video games published by Camerica for the NES without proper licensing. The company had to create their own cartridges that would bypass Nintendo's lock-out chip and break the 10NES "code". In virtually all of Camerica's games there is a switch found on the reverse side of the cartridge, this allows the user to switch between NTSC and PAL compatibility.

Urdnot Wrex is a fictional character in BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, who serves as a party member in the first game of the Mass Effect trilogy. He is a krogan, an alien race near-sterilised by other galactic races for their violence and high population growth. Introduced as an experienced krogan mercenary, his role changes in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 where he becomes leader of an expanding krogan clan and eventual head of state for the krogan as a whole. After over 1000 years of aimless apathy, Wrex seeks to bring back hope to his people and reverse their fate by undoing the genophage. He is voiced by Steven Barr.

Venom Snake , also known as Punished Snake , is a fictional character from Konami's Metal Gear video game series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, he is most notably the protagonist in the 2015 game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He is performed via voice acting and performance capture by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version and by Kiefer Sutherland in the English version.

Widowmaker is a playable character appearing in the 2016 video game Overwatch, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. The character is of French origin; her real name is Amélie Lacroix.

Time Crisis is a first-person on-rails light gun shooter series of arcade video games by Namco. The first installment of the series was released in arcades in 1995 and later ported to PlayStation consoles.

Wolf O'Donnell is a fictional character in Nintendo's Star Fox video game series. In the series, Wolf O'Donnell is an anthropomorphic wolf who is both the leader of the Star Wolf mercenary team and rival to Fox McCloud. Star Wolf is initially hired by Andross to take down the Star Fox team; although unsuccessful in doing so, the dogfights between the two teams results in Wolf developing both a grudging respect for Fox and a desire to defeat him in a rematch.

Sonic Lost World is an action-adventure platform game developed by Sonic Team. It is part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and was released in October 2013 for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in PAL regions by Nintendo and by Sega in North America and Japan. A port for Microsoft Windows was later released in November 2015.