Revenge is one of the oldest stories in gaming, and action RPGs have made particularly good use of it.There's something immediately compelling about watching a character hunt down the person responsible for destroying their life. The promise is simple: find the culprit, make them pay, and finally get some sense of justice.

But the best revenge stories don't stop there. They ask what happens after the target is finally defeated. Can revenge really give someone back what they lost? Or does spending years consumed by anger simply leave another kind of emptiness behind? These five action RPGs explore that darker side of revenge, with heroes who discover that getting what they want can come at an unbearable cost.

1. Tales of Berseria — Velvet Crowe

Velvet Crowe wasn't always the furious, revenge-driven protagonist players meet in Tales of Berseria.Before everything fell apart, she was a caring young woman who loved her family, particularly her sick younger brother, Laphicet. That life disappears during the Scarlet Night, when Laphicet secretly follows his brother-in-law Artorius and becomes part of a ritual designed to awaken Innominat.Velvet tries to save him, but she's too late.

The tragedy transforms her life completely. She becomes a Therion, gaining a demonic left arm capable of devouring daemons, before Artorius imprisons her. Three years later, Velvet escapes with one goal: find Artorius and make him pay. Her revenge eventually succeeds, but it can't undo the years she spent imprisoned or bring Laphicet back. By the end, Velvet has sacrificed almost everything that once defined her. Her final choice to seal herself away with Innominat in order to save Phi and the other Therions makes her journey especially tragic. She gets closer to revenge than most protagonists ever do, only to discover that revenge cannot restore the life she wanted back.

2. Drakengard — Caim

Caim's hatred begins long before the events of Drakengard. His parents were killed during an Imperial attack involving a black dragon, and years later, the Empire threatens his homeland and his sister, Furiae. His anger finally has a direction. But Caim's revenge doesn't remain personal for long.He becomes caught in a brutal war that grows increasingly horrific, fighting enemies far beyond the people directly responsible for his suffering. After being mortally wounded, Caim encounters a dying dragon. Despite his hatred of dragons, he forms a pact with it to survive. The price is his ability to speak. Caim willingly gives up his voice to continue fighting, and from there, his revenge consumes more and more of his life. What began as a desire to protect his sister eventually becomes an endless cycle of violence.

Depending on the ending, the consequences can include Furiae's death and Caim's own destruction.Either way, the revenge that initially gave him something to fight for ultimately takes away much of what remained.

3. Assassin's Creed Origins — Bayek

Bayek's story in Assassin's Creed Origins begins with one of the most devastating losses imaginable: the death of his son, Khemu. Khemu is killed during an encounter with masked members of the Order of the Ancients, leaving Bayek and his wife, Aya, determined to find everyone responsible.At first, their mission is deeply personal. They want justice for their son. But as Bayek and Aya follow the trail, they discover that Khemu's killers are part of a much larger organization with ambitions reaching far beyond one murder. Their search for revenge gradually becomes a fight against the entire Order. That transformation changes everything. Bayek and Aya eventually help establish the Hidden Ones, dedicating themselves to a cause that will shape the future of the Assassin Brotherhood.The tragedy is that their new purpose comes at the expense of the life they once shared.Bayek and Aya never stop caring for each other, but their paths ultimately separate. They succeed in turning their grief into something larger, yet the personal life they wanted is something they can never recover.

4. NieR: Automata — 9S

Few revenge stories are as painful as 9S's journey in NieR: Automata. The game initially follows androids 2B and 9S as they fight machines on behalf of humanity. Their partnership becomes increasingly important as the story unfolds, but everything changes when 2B is infected with a Logic Virus. Knowing that she won't survive, 2B asks the rogue android A2 to continue the fight and takes steps to preserve her memories. A2 kills 2B before the virus completely takes over.

Then 9S arrives. He sees A2 standing over 2B's body and assumes she murdered his partner. He doesn't know the truth, and his grief quickly turns into an obsession with killing A2. The tragedy is that 9S eventually gets his chance. During their final confrontation, A2 attempts to explain what really happened to 2B, but 9S is too consumed by grief and anger to hear her. He manages to overpower A2, but the fight ends with 2B's own sword delivering the final blow. His revenge never gives him closure. Instead, it becomes another part of the tragedy that destroys him.

5. Middle-earth: Shadow of War — Talion

Talion's revenge begins in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, after Sauron kills his wife and son as part of a ritual. But by the time Middle-earth: Shadow of War begins, his ambitions have grown considerably. Talion is no longer simply hunting the people responsible for his family's deaths. Now, he wants to take the fight directly to Sauron.

After his partnership with Celebrimbor falls apart, Talion is forced to continue the battle alone.He turns to Isildur's Ring to stay alive and keep fighting, but the decision comes with a devastating price. The Ring gives Talion the power he needs, yet it also slowly corrupts him. The longer he relies on it, the closer he gets to becoming the very thing he has spent his life fighting.Eventually, Talion becomes one of the Nazgûl. It's a fittingly tragic conclusion to his revenge story. He survives, he continues fighting, and he gets closer to Sauron—but in the process, he loses the very identity he was trying to protect.

Revenge Doesn't Always Mean VictoryWhat makes these stories memorable isn't simply that their heroes want revenge. It's that their games understand revenge isn't a magical solution to grief. Velvet can't bring Laphicet back. Bayek can't restore his family. 9S can't undo what happened to 2B. Talion ultimately loses himself, and Caim's hatred leads him down a path of destruction. In each case, the hero gets some form of revenge, but the victory feels painfully incomplete. That's what makes these stories so effective. They don't ask whether revenge feels satisfying. They ask whether satisfaction is worth everything a person might have to sacrifice to achieve it. And sometimes, the answer is devastatingly clear: by the time the hero finally reaches their target, there's almost nothing left of the person who started the journey.