10 Games Where Mercy is Rewarded

Mercy is something that games don't usually encourage. Generally, since the 8-bit era, we've been taught to punch, shoot, or jump on anything that gets in our way. Whether it's a turtle, monster, soldier, ninja, alien, or whatever, if it moves and is coming towards us, it's better to kill it before it kills us. For years, that was the rule, and it's difficult to break out of that 'automatic mode'.

But some games try to reward our mercy, or at least reward the fact that we think a little before pressing the 'kill' button. Whether it's with vital information we wouldn't discover otherwise, a powerful ally, or a touching scene that deepens the life of that NPC, mercy can be a good ally in these games.

Let's talk about ten games where having mercy can guarantee good surprises, and if you have any questions, just leave a comment.

Let's start with a classic from the 16-bit era and remember how mercy can reward you with a boxing kangaroo that beats up street thugs with kicks, punches, and tail whips. Roo and his trainer, Bruce, are two bosses in the game who appear to block your path to Mr. X's lair. Bruce has an electric whip that he uses on Roo to make the kangaroo attack you. And he attacks with punches, kicks, and a kind of hurricane kick like Ryu's, which takes away a lot of energy.

But what if you attack the trainer and not the animal?

If you spare Roo and focus your attacks on Trainer Bruce, you can defeat him and free Roo from the abuse and the electric whip. Your reward for sparing the kangaroo? He becomes controllable if you die and choose him on the character selection screen. Roo is a strong fighter and will be very helpful in the fight. And he's also quite different from the others and fun to play.

BioWare's Mass Effect is the kind of game where the player's decisions are designed to affect the game and subsequent events. And the choice to save the Citadel Council is one of the first important decisions to be seen as a reward for mercy. Because you feel like not saving them. They spend the entire game doubting, attacking, criticizing, and humiliating you for trying to warn them that something was wrong with Saren, the Citadel's most famous and decorated Spectre. Nothing more just than letting Saren blow them up and saying, "I told you so, didn't I?"

But if you save them, mercy is rewarded with future actions. In Mass Effect 2, this helps restore Shepard's Spectre status, and in Mass Effect 3 Destiny Ascension becomes a war asset, while letting the Council die changes the political situation and the return of these allies. Here, "mercy" isn't just about sparing the council. It becomes political capital, military resources, and help when the galaxy needs it most. And you can even remind them later: "I told you Saren was evil. I told you so, didn't I?"

Undertale is a very different kind of indie RPG, with a complete pacifism and mercy route that changes the entire plot of the game. One of the most talked-about things about the game when the subject comes up is the fact that killing enemies is unnecessary. It's possible to negotiate, talk, and spare enemies to get out of danger, and the player can even become friends with all the bosses. This choice isn't just aesthetic.

The game's structure itself responds to the player's actions, changing dialogues, characters, and the direction of the story. Undertale is one of the rare cases where mercy isn't a hidden parallel route within a traditional RPG, but part of the plot itself. It's the game that most clearly took the question "do you need to kill?" and turned it into a complete gameplay route. And if the answer is "yes", then you can kill everyone and face one of the toughest bosses.

A game that puts you in control of a martial arts movie in the best Jet Li and Bruce Lee style, Sifu is a revenge story where you hunt down your master's former disciples. The big difference between this game and others where the quest for revenge motivates you to go around beating everyone up is the aging mechanic. Every time you die, your character ages and gains more skill and technique, but loses damage and vitality. Balancing experience and strength is one of the secrets to reaching the end of the saga.

However, after finishing the game once, the protagonist doesn't feel good about it. He feels that revenge isn't complete, and so you can restart the game and face the enemy bosses again. This time, the option to spare them arises. You can spare the lives of your enemies, and this rewards you with the true ending of the game. You didn't kill your enemies; you achieved your revenge and showed that the path your master taught was the true path. Peace of mind is your greatest reward.

Another game where decisions matter and shape the story. Throughout the game, several choices give you the opportunity to save lives—human and android—which will change the game's ending. Because in Detroit: Become Human, the machine revolution isn't like in Terminator, with robots dominating humanity. But it can be. Only you can change that.

Throughout the game, Connor, Kara, and Markus, the three robots you control, make decisions, and this greatly influences how public opinion perceives your revolution. Killing two android companions who love each other and killed a client because he mistreated them and put their lives in danger? Raiding a parts factory and only knocking out the guards instead of killing them? Helping an injured human instead of letting them bleed to death? Choosing to confront weapons with a song instead of violence—all of this changes the ending of your game.

To say that mercy is rewarded here is only partially correct. In the Middle Earth series of games, mercy can be used strategically to gain benefits later on. The Nemesis system, a famous system that allows you to transform former enemies into allies, gives you the option of considering how sparing an orc general now can make him a stronger ally in the future. And in Shadow of War, this becomes much more evident.

It's not exactly "mercy" in the moral sense, but sparing an enemy often produces stronger captains who can be recruited later.

For example, think of it this way: you can kill a level 10 general now or leave him alive. He might reappear later as a level 30 general. If you spare him, he might come back in the future as a level 50 general, and then you can recruit him. It's not exactly that simple, as they can go mad, become even more furious, or simply lose the will to fight, among other things. But using mercy thoughtfully can become an advantage in the fight against Sauron in the future.

One of the most celebrated RPGs of the 16-bit era, Chrono Trigger is famous for its complex time-travel story, memorable characters, and character design by Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball. Furthermore, one of the game's most important choices—whether or not to kill Magus, one of the game's strongest characters, who can use all elements (Fire, Water/Ice, Lightning) and possesses exclusive Dark magic such as Dark Matter—can lead to different endings and distinct rewards.

This is one of the most memorable moments in the game, occurring during the confrontation with him. You have two options: if you choose to fight him, you can face him in a difficult battle. If he’s defeated, you’ll find Schala's amulet and learn the legend of the Egg of Time. But, if you choose not to fight and spare him, Magus will reveal vital information and decide to join your group to defeat Lavos and search for Schala.

So, the question remains: kill him? Don’t kill him? In general, playing two runs and making different choices will resolve the doubt, but, at first, the urge to press the final button weighs more than usual, doesn't it?

Compassion is one of the primary ingredients for playing the Life is Strange franchise. Having empathy is fundamental to understanding how Max Caulfield can make important decisions and choices that will affect the lives of everyone around her, and the rewards for compassion are much more narrative than allies or powers. Among the various stories the franchise offers, we will highlight the story of Kate Marsh.

A religious student is deeply affected by a series of rumors, gossip, and an embarrassing video that never shows exactly what happened, but profoundly affects her, mainly because she doesn't remember exactly what she did. Kate reaches the point of climbing onto the school roof to jump and end her pain. That's where Max and her time-traveling power come in. With enormous effort, Max reaches the roof before Kate jumps, and all her choices will affect whether or not you can stop her from taking her own life.

Having empathy for her, choosing to be understanding, supporting her, and even remembering details like her favorite Bible passages will make a difference at a crucial moment in the game. With her alive, Kate remembers information that can also help you unravel the mystery of Rachel Amber's disappearance.

From the beginning of your quest in Baldur's Gate 3, you hear about the Song of the Night, even without knowing exactly what it is, and you become interested in the subject, knowing that there’s a reward for it. You imagine it's a weapon, a powerful item, or something like that. The last thing you think is: she is a demigoddess, daughter of the moon goddess Selûne, sworn enemy of the goddess of darkness, Shar, who guides all the life and decisions of your ally, Shadowheart.

However, upon invading the Gauntlet of Shar temple and reaching her, the decision to kill or not kill the demigoddess falls on the group, especially on Shadowheart. She can become a Dark Justiciar, the highest rank of Shar's clerics, or have mercy, gain a powerful ally, and save several lives hidden in the Last Light Tavern.

Furthermore, not killing the Song of the Night makes Shadowheart rethink her entire life, as she discovers that she’s originally the daughter of two Selunites—the clerics of Selûne—and was kidnapped by Viconia DeVir and transformed into a cleric of Shar against her will. Here, mercy changes not only the world but the life of someone very close to you.

Dishonored is a classic case of mercy as a means of controlling chaos. The game explains that Chaos is a hidden value adjusted by the player's actions, and that this chaos alters the outcome of the story, as well as changing enemies, rats, scenes, environmental objects, and conversations. In other words, sparing people rewards you with a relatively easier game, in addition to changing some aspects of the story's direction.

In other words, the game rewards a non-lethal style not only with a less gritty world, but with narrative and path variations that make the campaign less aggressive and more stable. In Dishonored, sparing isn’t a weakness; it's a way to prevent the entire city from sinking along with the player.