This is when a character who was computer-controlled (as anNPC or as aBoss) in one installment of a series becomes a potentialplayer-controlled character through the course of the game, or in sequels. They may be hidden unlockable characters, you might get the chance to recruit them, or they might be presented outright at the character select screen.

Typically they are more powerful than your average "normal" character, though of course they may end up a lot weaker than when they were boss characters (expect their HP to be divided by a factor of 10). This may be due to aRedemption Demotion or forPVP balancing. It's also possible that the game has played up a bad guy as such, only for him to become playable near the end of the game. There is noHeel Face Turn involved; just the bad guy doing stuff on his own or justpassively riding the plot along.

Beating the game with/as one of these characters usually reveals a special type of end-game victory screen. A fighting game series of sufficient length will almost always resort to this.

Action Adventure

• Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is playable inSonic Adventure 2.
  • Earlier than that, Amy inSonic Adventure, and Knuckles inSonic & Knuckles
    • Tails in the Genesis version ofSonic the Hedgehog 2. In theMaster System version, he is theDude in Distress. Tikal and Chaos were playable in the multiplayer ofSonic Adventure 2, and believe it or not, you can play as Maria Robotnik in 2 levels ofShadow the Hedgehog.
• Metal Mario appears as a boss inSuper Smash Bros.., while anyone can be made metal with the green box item inSuper Smash Bros. Melee andBrawl. Similarly, the original game had GiantDonkey Kong andMelee andBrawl can make anyone Giant with the Super Mushroom.
  • Also,Giga Bowser fromMelee becomes playable throughBowser'sFinal Smash inBrawl.
  • Wario, Meta Knight, Pit, Olimar, Squirtle (who doubles as the starting platform in Poké Floats) and King Dedede (who also appeared in the N64 installment as a background character in Kirby's stage) all appeared as trophies inMelee before becoming playable characters, and Charizard was one of the Pokémon summoned in the first two games before it became a playable character itself.
  • Special note goes to Captain Falcon and Ness, who demonstrate a variant of this trope: They were unlockable characters in the first game, then ascended into default characters inMelee before being demoted back to unlockables inBrawl.
• Shiva wasThe Dragon to the final boss inStreets of Rage 2, notable for having a moveset remarkably close to that of the playable characters. In the sequel to that game, he became selectable from a Continue after being defeated in an earlier level - however, he lacked one of his special moves when playable, which was available to a later boss version of him.
• Vergil inDevil May Cry 3: Special Edition.
• Any and all NPCs, minor characters, major characters, main characters, villains and supporting characters in theLEGO movie games can and will be unlocked some way or another. Even the ones who have no weapons and can't do anything. You can play asanybody. Newer games let you create your own character using parts from unlocked characters.
• MostCastlevania games after Symphony of the Night let you play as a boss/rival character after you finish the main game. Examples are Richter in Symphony of the Night (and Maria in the Sega Saturn version), Julius in Aria of Sorrow, Julius again with Yoko andAlucard in Dawn of Sorrow,Stella and Loretta in Portrait of Ruin(Though Richter and Maria are also unlockable), and Albus in Order of Ecclesia.
• The Bandana Waddle Dee fromKirbySuper Star ends up playable inKirby's Return to Dream Land, over adecade after his original appearance.
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit spendsEpic Mickey driving the plot and having aCain and Abel relationship withMickey Mouse. InEpic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, he's playable alongside Mickey.

Driving Game

• Many a character from theMario Kart series games.
• Minion was the final boss inTwisted Metal, in subsequent games he's usually featured as a midgame boss and tends to be unlockable,and generally is as strong when playable as he is when he's a boss.

Fighting

• Samurai Shodown added Amakusa to the playable roster in the third game.
• Darkstalkers made Pyron and Huitzel playable in the second game.
• ManyGuilty Gear sequels include a playable Justice. Other bosses in the series were playable in their own games from their introduction.
  • Baiken initially started as a secret boss in the originalGuilty Gear. SinceGGX, however, she appears as a playable character from the very beginning.
• In theTekken series, the first game had Kazuya as a main character and Heihachi as an unlockable boss. The second game had Kazuya as an unlockable boss and Heihachi as a main character. Then Heihachi recovered his unlockable boss status in the third and Kazuya became a main character again in the fourth, and that's without getting into Jin... yeah, the whole Mishima family is like this.
  • Lee becomes a main character in Tekken 5. After being an unlockable Law clone he was greatly improved in Tekken Tag and is a notable part of the story in Tekken 4.
• Ditto Shang Tsung fromMortal Kombat toMortal Kombat II, where Shao Kahn replaced him as theFinal Boss.
  • AlsoTrilogy had most of the different boss and bonus characters playable (though who exactly depended on the version of the game),4 had Goro in the home version andDeception had both him and Shao Kahn, andArmageddon had Onaga.
    • Armageddon had everyone. Literally every fighter over the course of the entire series was playable in that one (although Khameleon continued to be Nintendo exclusive).
    • Except Human Smoke.
• The four Shadaloo Grand Masters (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison) fromStreet Fighter II were exclusively computer-controlled in the original game, but were promoted to playable characters inChampion Edition and onward.
  • Akuma (aka Gouki) was originally theTrue Final Boss inSuper Street Fighter II Turbo, playable only via a cheat code. He became a regular playable character inStreet Fighter Alpha 2, with an alternate "Shin Akuma" version as a secret boss (who was only playable in the PS1 and Saturn ports).
• InMagical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces allows you to use theMaterials once you beat the storylines of the three characters each of them is based upon (e.g. Nanoha, Vita, and Zafira for Material-S). Needless to say, they are the most powerful characters in the game,exceptUnison Reinforce.
• Final Fantasy Dissidia made many villains of the series, including the incredibly popularSephiroth, (though he had already been playable inEhrgeiz) into playable characters.
  • Dissidia 012 does it again, addingGilgamesh into the mix. Also notably—in the firstDissidia game, many fans wished that theFinalSNK Boss Chaos was playable (he wasn't, not without hacks). But his new and altered form, Feral Chaos, is.
• Castlevania Judgment has Dracula and Death as unlockable characters.

RPG

• Joaquim inCastlevania: Lament of Innocence.
• Magus inChrono Trigger.
• Sarevok inBaldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal.
• Teyrn Loghain a.k.a. the Secret Companion inDragon Age: Origins.
• Dialga and Palkia inPokémon Diamond and Pearl and Reshiram and Zekrom in thePokémon Black and White would count too—they have been played up as destructive rival forces, but naturally, you canput both into your possession.
• Kingdom Hearts has the entire Organization XIII [bosses] as playable characters for the first time in358/2 Days, along with Goofy, Donald and Riku (AI-controlled support party members) and Mickey (he would be playable but only briefly if you died in certain boss fights).
  • Riku had an entire campaign to himself inChain of Memories.
• SomeFire Emblem games let you unlock theBig Bad and several of his cronies (And some unrelated villains) as playable characters fror Trial Maps. That is, those whodon't join you during the main game anyway.
  • Of particlar note is theBlack Knight fromFire Emblem Tellius.That One Boss in Path of Radiance, one of the coolest characters in the game, now is playable in a few chapters in Radiant Dawn. And he, in fact, kicks even more ass than before, so players can use him to singlehandedly inflict beatdowns of epic proportions on their enemies. Only problem is that he is aCrutch Character to the max who already has the max level, so using him will cost your other characters much-needed EXP, causing many players not to use Blackie at all.
  • Also from the Tellius games, Oliver (the main antagonist for the portion ofPath of Radiance that took place in Begnion) turned out to beNot Quite Dead inRadiant Dawn and can be recruited near the end of the game.Statwise he's not very impressive, but his conversations with some of the other characters are among the funniest things in the game.
• Valkyrie Profile lets you fight Freya, Brahms, and Lezard Valeth in theBonus Dungeon, and they join you if you defeat them. You can't use them in the regular game, however, since the bonus dungeon is chosen from the main menu instead of being part of the regular game.
• Bowser, after being an antagonist in the two preceding games, becomes a playable character (and is in fact the driving force behind the plot rather than being amere joke) inMario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
  • Bowser also starts becoming playable in thePaper Mario series from the second game and onwards.
  • Way before either of those, Bowser actuallyjoined Mario's party let Mario join his party inSuper Mario RPG.

Simulation Game

• InThe Sims 2,NPCs can be made playable if you have a high enough relationship score and ask them to move in, or marry them. There are also variousGame Mods to do so.

Shooter

• Touhou Project does this all the time. Every one of the Windows games has had at least one boss villain reappear as playable in a later game.
  • It started after thesecond-game of the PC-98 series.
    • With 2 characters even getting their own games! (to be specific, Aya Shamemaru with what can be most easily described as photography games cmkbined with the bullet hell of the usual series and Cirno, whose game was a bulelt hell with bullet freezing mechanics.)
• Halo 2 makes the predecessor's main enemy, the Elites, a playable race in multiplayer. While they aren't technically more powerful, the altered hit-boxes has led to arguments on which model is superior and standardization in the MLG circuit.
  • Played completely straight in "Halo: Reach" where the Elites have more shield strength and faster movement speed than their Spartan counterparts.
• Hibachi is an unlockable fighter in the iPhone port ofDodonpachi Ressurection after beating the game(Good luck with that by the way).

Side Scroller

• Zero becoming playable as theMega Man X series went on was pretty much inevitable; first he was an underpowered extra character inX3, but he later became a fully fleshed out alternative to X.
  • The PSP remakeMaverick Hunter X allows you to unlock and play as Vile.
  • The other PSP remake,Mega Man Powered Up, does this with all eight Robot Masters. Of course, only six of them were in the originalMega Man.
    • Also in the same game, Roll and Proto Man were also unlockable each with their own stories. Roll was a background character in the first game while Proto Man made his debut as Breakman inMega Man 3.
  • Inverted inX7—X himself isDemoted To Unlockable.
  • After being X, Zero and Axl's navigator from X5 to X7, Alia is promoted to unlockable inMega Man X8 with moves similar to X. Unlike X however, she cannot use any of X's armor. Layer and Pallette are also unlockable with moves similar to Zero and Axl, though you have to rebuy the weapons for Layer and Pallete cannot metamorph like Axl.
• The "Meta Knightmare" sub-games inKirby: Nightmare in Dream Land andKirby Super Star Ultra (both of which areEnhanced Remakes of earlier games) make Meta Knight an unlockable player character.
• The Red Arremer that just spent the past few lives terrorizing you in theGhosts N Goblins series? He's not nearly as nimble when under your control in theGargoyle's Quest subseries, though his fighting game appearances inSVC Chaos andUltimateMarvel vs. Capcom 3 show greater shades of his abilities.

Sports

• You can play as Barry DeJay, the announcer fromBackyard Basketball, inBackyard Baseball as an unlockable.He is actually in Basketball, too, through a secret code.

Strategy

• Hachi the shop owner in theAdvance Wars series becomes unlockable inBlack Hole Rising andDual Strike.Appropriately, he is one of the game's most powerful COs.
  • Hawke and Lash inBlack Hole Rising become playable in the campaign ofDual Strike.
• Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories does this quite a bit in the PSPVideo Game RemakeDark Hero Days, making almost all of the formerly unusable optional boss characters playable, perhaps the most notable of them beingZetta, who's aGame Breaker due to some retainedContractual Boss Immunity, and the absurdly large hit radius on his attacks.

• Trope
• Video Game Rewards
• Promoted to Playable