Multi-Slot Character

How many Gokus and Vegetas does it take to fill out a playable roster?^note

"What [Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout] is consistent with is its fetish for squeezing every last drop of Saiyan juice out of Goku, who has not one, not two, not three, or even four playable versions, but a staggering SIX all together, which technically beats the previous record of five set by DB FighterZ."^note

—Matt McMuscles, The Worst Fighting Game

When it comes to designing characters in video games, one solution that is common for Long-running games or games based on Long-Runners is to simply take a character and divide them into multiple different characters. There are multiple ways this is done:

Making older and younger versions of a character playable.
Characters with a transformation of some kind such as a Super Mode, a One-Winged Angel form, a Fusion Dance etc, are divided into separate characters.
Characters who gained new powers and/or lost their old powers have variations that use the old and new powers.

Video games use this trope for a multitude of reasons: one of the most obvious is that giving a character every power, technique, form, etc. that they have used would make a character both too complicated and too powerful and splitting them into multiple characters maintains game balance. Another reason is that fans who want to be able to use multiple incarnations of a character would not be happy if they only used one particular version. A third reason is that splitting a character into multiple incarnations makes it easy to create characters with unique movesets without having to create original character or resort to using more obscure characters to increase that game's roster.

These characters are sometimes also Moveset Clones. Licensed Games often use these types of characters, though examples from non-Licensed Games aren't unheard of. Gacha Games use this trope extensively, often giving a single character multiple variants that can be added into the player's pool of playable characters. Some of these variants are Temporary Online Content that is only available certain times of the year. These variants will have different weapons/stats/abilities to distinguish them from the other, but mostly its because they have different, usually eyecatching, outfits to entice the player to spend money in order to summon them.

Opposite Trope to Characters Sharing a Slot. Compare Decomposite Character. Contrast Alternate Self, who are different characters from Alternate Timelines, universes, or dimensions, in-universe; Swap Fighter, which involves multiple characters being combined into one character; and Palette Swap, which sometimes involves multiple characters being combined into one slot.

Examples

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Action Games

Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith: Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader are unlockable characters for the game's Versus Mode alongside the default characters Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner's Versus mode gives Jehuty four slots and Anubis two: Jehuty gets its original form, Jehuty Version 2, Damaged Jehuty and Naked Jehuty, while Anubis gets both its original form and Aumaan Anubis.

Action RPG

In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, both Thanos and the version of him with the Infinity Stones equipped are playable.

Action Adventure Games

In general, expect any LEGO Adaptation Game to have different versions of the same character based on their appearances in the source material (like for instance, Luke Skywalker having his appearances in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as separate characters):
- LEGO Dimensions: There are two playable versions of Batman — the default version which comes with the starter pack and Excalibur Armor Batman who was released later on to tie in with the release of The LEGO Batman Movie.
- LEGO The Incredibles: There are many, many versions of our main hero family unlocked throughout the story mode, cycling through almost every outfit worn by them in the movies. Examples include Bob's glory day outfit, his normal attire, and even his pajamas. Multiple versions of the same character can also be played in 2-player mode.
In ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!, Old-Skool versions of both ToeJam and Earl based on their appearances in the original game can be selected and played as. Putting the two together with their present counterparts in a co-op game can lead to some humorous conversations between them.

Beat'Em Up Games

The Bouncer: The game's versus mode allows you to play as not just the heroes but even the bosses and other characters too. Mugetsu has two character slots for his masked and unmasked selves and Darugon C. Mikado has 4 character slots: the first one is for his restrained state, while the last 3 are for his final boss forms (respectively Unrestrained, Overalls and Awakened).
In Castle Crashers, the Grey Knight comes in two different versions: his regular self and as "Open-Faced Grey Knight'', where his helm is left open. Both versions are differentiated from each other with their projectile magic (the former uses bombs while the latter uses daggers).
Streets of Rage 4 has alternate retro versions of certain characters based on their appearances in previous games. Axel and Blaze in particular both get four: their current versions are part of the starting roster, while their retro versions from the previous three games are unlockable.

Card Battle Games

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has a number of Legendary cards that get released with different variants across different card sets. For example, the original Deathwing from the Classic set is a 12/12 dragon that, when played, destroyed all monsters on the board but forced you to discard your entire hand. The "Whispers of the Old Gods" expansion added Deathwing, Dragonlord, another 12/12 dragon with a death rattle effect, summoning all dragon minions in your hand when it was killed.
South Park: Phone Destroyer:
- All five themes have variants of Stan, Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, Randy, Wendy, Tweek, Craig, Tolkien, Timmy, Jimmy, Bradley, and Red. Randy even has a fifth card in Neutral for his "future" design from South Park: Post Covid. Justified by the narrative as they are switching between different games and dressing up accordingly. It is also not permitted to play two versions of the same character from your deck at the same time.
- Versions of Bebe, Ike, and Garrison appear in all four themes except Superhero.
- Scott has two variants: Captain Diabetes in Superhero and Alchemist Scott in Fantasy.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links: There are quite a number of characters who have multiple versions of themselves with different animations, voicelines, decks, Skills, and rewards.
- Yugi, Kaiba, Jonouchi/Joey, Mokuba, and Anzu/Téa all have variations based on their Duel Monsters appearances as well as their Dark Side of Dimensions appearances.
- Judai/Jaden has his normal self and his Supreme King self as separate characters. Judai and Yubel are also playable both as separate characters and as their fused self from Season 4.
- Carly and Kiryu/Kalin have their normal selves and their Dark Signer counterparts be playable. Their Dark Signer versions appeared first before their normal versions became playable.
- As of this writing, Yuma and Astral are currently slotted as one unit, and unlike other characters, they have access to their first Fusion Dance form via skill, which can only appear once certain conditions during the duel are met. Their lack of voice lines for cards that they receive upon their separation in the anime and manga heavily implies that the two of them will eventually appear as separate units in the game.
- Similarly to Yuma and Astral, Playmaker and Ai are currently still together as one unit, but they are likely going to appear as separate units as well, since Ai has his own set of cards and a human form in the anime.
- ARC-V World averts this with their Legacy characters. The Legacy characters that appeared in the anime were alternate selves from different continuities, but in Duel Links, the original versions of said Legacy characters have received voice lines for their alternate versions and therefore function as one combined unit of the multiple iterations of their characters without the need of adding other versions of them in ARC-V World. The characters from ARC-V acknowledge that original versions of the Legacy characters they know are different people.

Fighting Games

The X-Edition expansion pack for Acceleration of Suguri adds in two different versions of Suguri: Suguri-P, whose moveset consists of regular Suguri's attacks and a set of Attack Drones (in addition, her personality also becomes more childlike), and Suguri-SP, who not only uses a melee-focused moveset, but also gains a different outfit.
Azumanga Fighter (a fangame based on Azumanga Daioh) gives six characters (Kagura, Sakaki, Yomi, Tomo, Chiyo-chan and Osaka) separate EX versions as secret characters.
Blade Strangers has Umihara Kawase get two character slots: her regular self in the base game and a version of her wearing a bikini top called "Summer Kawase", who was added in an update. Notably, the story portrays the latter as an Enemy Without who even gets to fight her original self in her story.
BlazBlue:
- Hakumen is Jin Kisaragi thrown back in time and merged into the Susano'o unit. In this case, both are introduced as separate characters before the link is revealed.
- Hazama debuts as a Living Bodysuit of the ghost Yuuki Terumi, then in Chronophantasma they separate and Terumi gets a replica body with a more violent fighting style, then in Central Fiction a weakened Terumi gains a Super Mode by reclaiming his original body from Hakumen, making "Susano'o" also a second version of Hakumen. All of these are playable in Central Fiction.
- Mu-12 started out as Noel Vermillion assimilated into a Murakumo unit cyborg, before becoming a regular Super Mode for her.
- Izayoi is effectively a Super Mode version of Tsubaki, as her weapon is a prototype to the above Murakumo units.
BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls has four different versions of Ichigo. In chronological order, the first one is the Shikai-wielding version from the Soul Society Arc, who can transform into his early Bankai form. Then there's the Bankai version from the Hueco Mundo Arc, which can activate both the Hollow Mask and Full Hollowification. The third version is the "Final Getsugatensho" form he assumed in his final battle of the Deicide Arc. Finally, as DLC, there is his new Shikai obtained during the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, which can use a new Hollow form.
Bloody Roar 4 gives Ryoho two slots: one for his regular self with Mana following him, and one for his Final Boss form as Ryoho the Dragon.
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium has both Rugal Bernstein and God Rugal (called "Ultimate Rugal" in English; also known as "Satsui No Hadou Rugal"), as well as Akuma and Shin Akuma (also known as "Orochi Akuma"). Unlike their source series, both superpowered incarnations are the result of one absorbing the other's power, leading to them having moves of their rival (such as Rugal being able to inflict a Shun Goku Satsu). The original game also let you unlock Evil Ryu and Orochi Iori, who inhabited their own character slots (and were given the highest Ratio possible at "4", which is reserved for unlockable characters), and they would also carry over to the sequel as unique entrants from their normal personas.
- Its SNK-made counterpart SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos has Riot of the Blood Iori, Serious Mr. Karate, Shin Akuma and the all-new Violent Ken.
In Chaos Code, Hikaru has two versions of himself: his regular self and a version creatively dubbed "Mad God Hikaru" (or MG Hikaru for short), who's basically Hikaru... having managed to get his hands on a limited-edition anime figurine and going crazy in the process. His moveset also changes, going from a regular Shotoclone moveset to a more technical one consisting of a command grab, attacks that can inflict serious stun damage on his opponents and several feints to keep his pressure unpredictable.
Both Dead or Alive 3 and 4 see Hayate get two slots: his current self is part of the base roster, while his previous amnesiac identity of Ein from the second game is an unlockable character.
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy has an interesting example with Chaos and Feral Chaos: the latter can be unlocked as a playable character by clearing Main Scenario 000, albeit with several nerfs placed on him until certain abilities are bought to bypass them. By contrast, regular Chaos himself can only be selected as a CPU-controlled opponent^note.
The original version of Dong Dong Never Die gave Dong Dong two slots: one for his regular self, and one for Violent Dong Dong. As of the Judgement Day update however, Violent Dong Dong was removed and seemingly replaced by... Inugami Korone of all people.
Dragon Ball fighting games are somewhat notorious for this trope:
- Son Gohan usually has three slots based on his 5-year-old self, his 11-year-old self (erroneously dubbed "Teen Gohan") and his 16-year-old self. This is due to his growth spurts requiring different character models. There are also times where Gohan is playable as his superhero persona, the Great Saiyaman, who is either treated as a completely separate playable character from his undisguised self, or as a transformation for his 16-year-old self. Whether or not his Ultimate and Beast transformations are transformations or a separate character for Gohan also varies from game to game.
- Son Goku also has slots based on his child self and adult self for similar reasons, though they're not as prominent as Gohan's due to Goku's childhood self coming from either the original series or GT, whose inclusions in fighting games tends to vary. In addition, his various transformations are sometimes considered part of his moveset, while other games split them into different characters.
- Vegito and Gogeta often zig-zag this trope. They appear either as transformations for Goku and Vegeta, or as their own characters.
- Majin Buu often appears in various separate forms in video games, with the three main forms being labeled as "Majin Buu" (specifically the fat one), "Super Buu" and "Kid Buu" in the localizations. The forms that were born from Super Buu absorbing people are usually categorized as Super Buu's transformations. The grey Evil Buu sometimes appears in addition to the other three main forms, albeit not as common.
- Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 is not so bad with this trope, having a base roster of 22 characters and five unlockable characters. The base roster has two versions of Gohan (the young Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, and the Great Saiyaman), two versions of Majin Buu, Gotenks in addition to his two components Goten and Kid Trunks, the latter also coexisting with Future Trunks. While the base roster has Super Saiyan 2 Goku and Majin Vegeta, the unlockable characters include Kid Goku, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, and the Fusion between Goku and Vegeta, Gogeta.
- Dragon Ball GT Final Bout has a roster of maximum 17 characters, including six versions of Goku, three versions of Trunks, and the Potara fusion of Goku and Vegeta, Vegetto (sic). The base roster of ten has only two Gokus, but the fact that all unlockable characters are Vegetto and various versions of Goku and Trunks makes this game a prime example of this trope.
- The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series feature the various transformations and fusions as just power-ups and therefore don't have too many playable units of the same characters mentioned above. (ie. Two Gokus, four Gohans, three Buus in Budokai 3.)
- The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series does this very often, particularly 3 and Sparking! ZERO, as when a character has multiple forms, the game uses the forms as separate characters, resulting in choosing a Goku and having 7 different forms to choose to start with. 3 onwards also splits some of the characters into time periods, meaning that, for example, you can play as Goku from the Saiyan Saga, the Frieza Saga, or the Android and Majin Buu Sagas. Each version and form has their own moveset. Because of this, 3 has 161 playable characters while Sparking! ZERO has 182 in the base game alone, with them being some variants or being composed of a familiar character based on a specific period in the source material.
  - In 3, Goku has five different playable versions of himself (not counting transformations), separated into Early, Middle, End from the Z-era as distinct characters, Kid Goku from the original Dragon Ball, and the GT version of Goku. The versions from Super and DAIMA are also a part of Sparking! ZERO's roster.
  - Gohan likewise is split between Kid, Pre-Teen, and his Teenaged selves, along with his Ultimate transformation being a separate character. The Sparking! ZERO DLC includes his appearance from the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie. While 3 and Sparking! ZERO would add his future self, that version of Gohan comes from the same alternate timeline Future Trunks hails from, and is therefore not the same Gohan.
  - While the first game in the series would combine Cell and Buu Saga Vegeta into one character slot, Vegeta would end up having five playable variants in 2 and 3: there's Scouter (his self from the Saiyan-Namek Sagas), Androids Saga Vegeta, Buu Saga Vegeta, Majin Vegeta, and finally Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta from GT. There is also Baby Vegeta, which is when Baby possessed his body in GT, although that one is considered a form of the relative villain, rather than Vegeta himself. Lastly, Sparking! ZERO also adds the incarnations from Super and DAIMA.
  - Future Trunks is split into two characters based on two periods in the Androids Saga; one where he fights with his Sword at the start of the arc, and the another is based on when he came out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and fights without his sword during the Cell Saga. Sparking! ZERO would also add his Super incarnation as he appeared during the Goku Black/Future Trunks Saga.
  - Piccolo in BT3 and Sparking! ZERO is represented by his Early and End forms, with the former encompassing his appearances in the Saiyan-Namek Saga and the latter during the Androids Saga after fusing with Kami. Sparking! ZERO DLC adds his Super Hero self as well.
  - Both Frieza and Cooler in BT3 are split into separate characters as both their normal selves and their cyborg forms after their near death experiences. Sparking! ZERO also adds one more version of Frieza, based on his appearance in Super.
  - All four variants of Buu are present in the series' roster, including Fat Majin Buu, Evil Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu.
  - Android 17, alongside being represented by his self from Z's Android Saga, gets a second slot in Sparking! ZERO, based on his appearance in Super and the Tournament of Power arc.
  - In Sparking! ZERO, Cell is split into two character slots, one where he goes through his Imperfect, Semi-Perfect, and Perfect form transformations, and one simply called Perfect Cell. In canon, "Perfect Cell" was a form taken on by Cell after he self-destructed, returning by his regenerative abilities. Unlike most Dragon Ball games, where it was a fourth transformation for Cell, "Perfect Cell" is his own character, making it Truer to the Text.
- The Raging Blast games attempted to circumvent this by giving characters like Goku the ability to customize their moveset, giving them access to skills that spanned across the entire series to prevent cases like the one seen in the Budokai Tenkaichi games. That said, this is still present.
  - Gohan is again split between Kid, Pre-Teen, and his Teenaged selves, but oddly his Ultimate transformation wasn't included anywhere in the first game. The sequel would add Ultimate Gohan as a separate playable character.
  - Vegeta is split between his Saiyan-Namek Saga self, Cell-Buu Saga self (once again treated as a single character), and Majin Vegeta.
  - Future Trunks is split as two characters again, classified by whether he uses his sword or not.
  - Unlike BT3, only Fat, Super, and Kid Buu are present in Raging Blast.
  - The games includes two What If? forms, where both Vegeta and Broly achieved Super Saiyan 3; in canon, they never unlocked this form (though the former would finally unlock it in DAIMA 15 years later), and perhaps to reflect this, Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta and Broly are treated as their own characters rather than transformations.
  - Raging Blast 2 would make Frieza and Cooler playable alongside their cybernetic counterparts, who are again given separate character slots.
- Dragon Ball FighterZ:
  - Goku is split into his Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan Blue, Base, GT, Ultra Instinct and DAIMA Super Saiyan 4 forms. Note this is nearly enough unique versions to populate an entire match by himself.^note
  - Vegeta is split into his Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan Blue, and Base forms. Baby Vegeta also appears as a DLC character.
  - Gohan appears as his Teen and Adult variations, in addition to acting as an Assist Character to Videl in his Great Saiyaman guise.
  - Majin Buu appears as both his fat self and as Kid Buu.
  - Zamasu appears as Goku Black with Future Zamasu as an Assist Character as well as Merged Zamasu.
  - Android 17 first appeared as an Assist Character for Android 18 before being Promoted to Playable as a DLC character, this version being based on his appearance during Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power arc.
  - Broly is split into his classic incarnation from Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan and his modern incarnation from Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
  - Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta and Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta appear as separate characters, and they also share a dramatic finish.
  - Android 21 appears in both her transformed state and human form.
Eternal Fighter Zero: Nayuki Minase has two different versions of herself as separate characters: Awake Nayuki, a straightforward rushdown character, and Asleep Nayuki, a sort-of oddball Drunken Master character with an unpredictable moveset.
- There's also Misuzu Kamio and Kannabi-no-Mikoto, the former being a reincarnation of the latter in the original source material.
Fate/unlimited codes has both Saber and her corrupted Alter self as playable characters.
- In a way, one could also count Shirou Emiya and Archer, aka. EMIYA, as this, since the latter is the former's future counterpart.
Fight of Animals has Bad Dog and Tricky Fox, evil versions of Power Hook Dog and Mighty Fox respectively, each with a different moveset in comparison to their sources.
A subversion occurs in Fighting EX Layer with Hokuto and Shirase. At first glance, the latter appears to be the former's Superpowered Evil Side, right down to having similar animations. As it turns out however, the Hokuto in the game isn't Hokuto at all, but rather her younger sister Nanase, having had her memories suppressed by Shirase and led to believe that she's the original Hokuto.
Granblue Fantasy Versus has two different versions of Belial: regular Belial and Avatar Belial (aka. Belial implanting the Versus Core into himself and turning One-Winged Angel in the process). The former is a Shotoclone who specializes in whiff punishment and going on the offensive, while the latter is a Glass Cannon who can sacrifice his health to boost his attacks. Also worth mentioning is that both share the same weapon and colour skins with each other.
Guilty Gear XX Slash and Accent Core has both Sol Badguy and Order-Sol a.k.a. Sol from the Past during his time in the Holy Order. Notably, they both got to fight each other in the former's story, courtesy of I-No's time travel.
- Similar to the KOF examples below, the XX games would give everyone alternate "EX" movesets that are either based on past movesets from previous games or (in the case of those who debuted in XX and onward) drastically different from them altogether^note. Kliff and Justice are the only ones NOT to get any EX movesets however, on account of a. already being Secret Characters, b. having been canonically Killed Off for Real and c. not being very well balanced to begin with (at least, up until Accent Core Plus R).
Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master: Out of the nine characters, three of them are Jackie Chan. Each of them use different fighting styles based on the movies they're based on: there's Jackie Chan from Drunken Master II, Jackie Chan from Spiritual Kung Fu, and Jackie Chan from Project A.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure games:
- Joseph Joestar is often split into his Young and Old variations, the former using his Hamon and Confusion Fu, while the latter mainly uses his Stand, Hermit Purple, in tandem with his Hamon.
- Heritage for The Future:
  - Dio is split into a regular form and a "Shadow" form, the latter based on his early appearance in the manga. The main difference between the two is that regular Dio has a very high learning curve but is powerful when mastered, while Shadow Dio is a more straightforward rushdown character who isn't very powerful at higher levels at play.
  - Hol Horse has two versions that are differentiated primarily by which character they have as their partner; one version has J. Geil and The Hanged Man as his partner, while the second has Hol Horse teaming up with Boingo and Thoth.
  - Kakyoin has a normal and a "New" version, their respective differences being that the former uses moves he used before he was injured by N'Doul, while the latter uses moves that he used after he recovered.
  - Anubis plays with this trope; he's a sword that can possess people, with three playable characters (Chaka, Khan, and Black Polnareff^note) wielding him as a weapon, each with their own playstyle.
- All Star Battle:
  - Young Joseph was part of the original base roster, with Old Joseph being added in DLC. The same situation happened with Kosaku Kawajiri and his original self Yoshikage Kira, the former base roster, the latter DLC. Lastly there's also Dio Brando from Part 1 and DIO from Part 3.
  - The Updated Re-release R adds most of the variant characters from Eyes of Heaven. In the case of Enrico Pucci, his split has been reworked. The base version of Pucci has only Whitesnake, while Final Pucci (Pucci from the original release of ASB who uses Whitesnake, C-Moon and Made in Heaven) would later be released as free DLC (when in Eyes of Heaven Final Pucci did not have Whitesnake).
- Eyes of Heaven:
  - DIO has three forms that act as separate fighters: His Phantom Blood version, his Stardust Crusaders version and an unplayable boss version made for this game called "Heaven Ascension DIO".
  - Part 4 Jotaro was added as a separate character from his Part 3 iteration.
  - Pucci was split into two characters: one version that wields Whitesnake and a second version that wields C-Moon and upgrades into Made in Heaven.
In Kill la Kill: IF, both Ryuko and Satsuki have alternate movesets that see them dual-wield their respective weapons^note.
Killer Instinct (2013):
- The roster has regular Hisako (a vengeful onryo spirit who fights with a naginata) and Shin Hisako (the former having transcended into a kami spirit and who now fights with a katana) as selectable characters.
- Shadow Jago (a demonically-possessed version of regular Jago) is an interesting case; he originally debuted as an alternate skin for the latter. It wouldn't be until the Killer Instinct Community Fund completed its goals in 2015 that he became his own character. By that matter, Omen could probably also count as this for Shadow Jago.
The King of Fighters and its related works:
- In the Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series there's Takuma Sakazaki, Ryo's eccentric father and founder of the Kyokugen Karate school, and Mr. Karate, his superpowered and more serious side; it's not unusual to find both forms of the same character at the same time in a roster (see: The King of Fighters XIII). So serious, in fact, that this version (the Final Boss in the first AOF, mind you) is a regular playable character for SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos while he has another form, Serious Mr. Karate, as the SNK-side Final Boss.
- Early on, Iori and Leona's Orochi Forms were treated as separate characters from their normal forms. In later games, this is averted, as their Orochi Forms are incorporated into their normal forms' movesets.
- In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Kyo, Terry, Ryo and Ralf all have alternate versions of themselves as secret characters. They are respectively Classic Kyo^note, Wild Wolf^note, Mr. Karate^note and Armour Ralf^note.
- The console version of XI has both regular Kyo and EX Kyo, the latter ported over from NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a secret character and based on his NESTS saga appearance. Notably they cannot be used on the same team, despite having separate slots.
- XIII would, alongside the above-mentioned Takuma/Mr. Karate, give both Kyo and Iori different forms dubbed "NESTS Kyo" and "Iori with Flames" respectively that revert them to their classic movesets and outfits^note.
- Team Orochi has their normal and "Awakened" forms who, unlike Iori and Leona, are always treated as separate characters. It's especially noticeable in The King of Fighters XV, where their Awakened forms were added in as a DLC team, complete with their own separate slots from their normal forms who were in turn part of the base roster.
- In general, certain games will give certain characters alternate movesets based on their appearances in previous games, though unlike the other examples on this page, these ones usually share a slot with the base character and require holding down a certain button while highlighting them to access^note. Examples include Real Bout Special^note, KOF 97^note, KOF 98^note, its Ultimate Match update^note, 2002 UM^note and XIII^note.
- Even SNK Bosses might get alternate versions of themselves (usually nerfed and more balanced for competitive play), with the main examples being Rugal and Omega Rugal in KOF 98, Geese and Nightmare Geese in 2002 UM and Saiki and Awakened Saiki (and to an extent, Dark Ash^notewho also counts as this to regular Ash) in XIII^note.
Exaggerated with Kirby Fighters Deluxe and its sequel, where nearly its entire roster consists of different versions of Kirby, each one using a different Copy Ability moveset. In fact, it's probably easier to list out the ones who aren't this trope: Bandana Waddle Dee, Gooey, Magolor, King Dedede and Meta Knight, all from Kirby Fighters 2.
The Last Blade 2 has two different versions of Kaede: his awakened form with the blonde hair is selectable by default, while his unawakened form with black hair (who was originally the default version of him in the previous game, with his awakened form being a Super Mode) is selectable with a cheat code.
Magical Battle Arena has two versions of both Nanoha and Fate: their original incarnations are part of the base roster, while their StrikerS incarnations were added in later updates.
In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Wolverine is divided into two versions — one with his standard Adamantium claws, which uses his Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes moveset, and another with bone claws, which uses his X-Men vs. Street Fighter moveset.
Melty Blood is infamous for its utter glut of doppelgänger characters, with many of them being creations of TATARI^notegiven that it originally started as a doujin series, it's most likely that the developers did this as a cost-saving measure. To wit:
- Arcueid has Red Arcueid, an Ax-Crazy version of her who fully gave into her bloodlust^note, and Archetype: Earth, a fragment within Arcueid's mind who was her original form before her encounter with Roa.
- Ciel has Powered Ciel, who is Ciel swapping her black keys and habit out for her Seventh Scripture and a more revealing outfit.
- Shiki Tohno has Shiki Nanaya, originally from Kagetsu Tohya, a manifestation of Shiki's fear of becoming a cold-blooded killer.
- Akiha has Vermilion Akiha, who is Akiha having inverted and lost her humanity, and Seifuku Akiha, who is Akiha... wearing a seifuku.^note There's also Giant Akiha, an unplayable boss version of her.
- Both Hisui and Kohaku are playable either as themselves or as part of a tag-team. Kohaku is also playable as a tag-team with one of her creations, Mech-Hisui.
- Len has White Len, a clone of the former made from Wallachia's remains and some of Len's unused parts by Aoko Aozaki, and is noticeably more outspoken as a result.
- Sion has Sion TATARI, a What If? of Sion where she succumbed to her vampire condition, and the Dust of Osiris, an alternate version of Sion created by TATARI from the future who went back in time to Kill All Humans and leave an eternal record of their existence.
- Mech-Hisui is playable either by herself or as part of a tag-team with Kohaku or Neco-Arc.
- In Type Lumina, Noel has Dead Apostle Noel, who's basically Noel as a Dead Apostle.
Mortal Kombat:
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy had two versions of Smoke and Sub-Zero: one of them is their regular playable selves by the time of the game (an unmasked Sub-Zero and Cyber Smoke), and the other their masked "ninja" selves, which are also a regular playable character and a Secret Character respectively.
- In the Playstation 1 port for Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the player can access older versions of four characters by highlighting their faces and pressing "Select" on the controller: Kano and Raiden (Mortal Kombat I versions) and Jax and Kung Lao (Mortal Kombat II versions). Each of them have their own moves and fatalities, differing from their available/updated versions of the base roster.
- Mortal Kombat 9 has both the masked version of Sub-Zero and the unlockable Cyber Sub-Zero, who has a completely different moveset from its regular self. Downplayed with the Human and Cyber versions of Cyrax and Sektor, who are mostly the same, but have minor differences.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja:
- In the Japanese version of the first game, Naruto and Sasuke have permanent awakening forms that stay intact until the battle's end. The former activates the Nine Tails Mode by performing at least one part of his Level 3 Ultimate Jutsu, while Sasuke activates the Curse Marked Mode by performing either the fourth part of his Level 2 or third part of his Level 3 Ultimate Jutsu. In the West, both forms were detached into two separate unlockable characters, who inherited the Ultimate Jutsu that activate them in the Japanese release. As a result, the original Naruto's four-part Level 2 Ultimate Jutsu was divided into two to fill the spare Level 3, while Sasuke outright lost the parts that could activate the Curse Marked form.
- In 2, Orochimaru has a "sealed" form (the result of the Reaper Death Seal taking away the control of his arms), which is selected separately from the original. In this form, he only uses kicks and unorthodox swordsmanship with the Kusanagi hidden inside his body, and relies on Kabuto to perform jutsu for him.
- In 4, 5, then from Generations onwards, you can select both pre-timeskip and post-timeskip versions of Naruto and his friends.
- Beginning with Storm 2, some characters have multiple versions depending on the abilities they have at different points of the story. Obviously, Naruto has the most versions, with Sasuke being a close second.
- Storm 4 would avert this in a way, by grouping as many variants under a same character slot as possible, which still left 4 separate Naruto variants on the character selection screen just for the Shippuden era. In addition, this game marks the first time where some characters got extra variants even without having in-unverse specific moves (the characters of Boruto and Sarada, where originally included as pre order DLC, before receiving other variants based on the Boruto movie).
- Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections enforces even more this trope, not only it fully separates characters on the basis of their moves again, but now iterations that in the previous game were just costumes are also given their own slot even if gameplay wise they are still fully identical (like the Konoha 12 in their adult years, excluding Naruto and Sasuke; or Hanabi Hyuga in her Shippuden version).
Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel has a played-with example with Super Sonico, who's available as both a playable character and as an assist (albeit with different outfits to differentiate the two from each other), meaning it's possible to pair the two up together.
Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax:
- Both games do this in a roundabout way with its two playable variations of Labrys. One version has her controlling the Persona Ariadne, along with her Shadow, who controls Asterius. Both versions share the same moves, with the normal Labrys gaining power based on her axe's power tiers, while Shadow Labrys is a Glass Cannon. As explored in the first game's story mode, Shadow Labrys is the shadow self of the original, who was born from Labrys' desire to be a normal girl. After the original is defeated during the P-1 Grand Prix tournament, players have to contend with Shadow Labrys, who fights using Asterius. After being defeated, Labrys accepts her Shadow self, where the Shadow then transforms into her true Persona, Ariadne. This is further explored during the P3 Route of Ultimax's story mode, where Shadow Labrys is stored within Labrys' mind as a separate personality. This becomes evident after Sho Minazuki attempts to hijack Labrys the same way he did in the first game, only for Shadow Labrys to take control and fight Minazuki, calling upon Asterius as her Persona in the process. Once the fight is over, Shadow Labrys concedes control back to her original self out of boredom, though the normal Labrys believes she was helping her.
- Sho Minazuki has two playable variants in Ultimax, one being SHO Minazuki (The Rule-Smashing Pun Machine), and the other is his Split Personality Sho MINAZUKI (The Scar-Faced Dark Messiah). SHO doesn't have a Persona to use, so his moveset is entirely focused on using his twin pair of katanas and physical skills. MINAZUKI shares the same moveset as SHO and combines it with his Persona Tsukiyomi, which can use darkness-based moves. The true end of Ultimax's story mode reveals that after the defeat of the true villain behind the game's plot, Sho can't sense Minazuki anymore, and that he now has access to Tsukiyomi as his Persona. It's implied that Minazuki became Tsukiyomi, and that Minazuki was Sho's Shadow. This is followed up with a True Final Boss fight against Sho, where he uses his physical-based gameplay style while also having access to Tsukiyomi's power, though this variant isn't playable and can only be fought in the game's story mode.
Phantom Breaker Omnia has Shin Waka, an alternate version of Waka obtained by clearing her story. Her moveset greatly contrasts that of regular Waka's, being aggressive and fire-based as opposed to the latter's more wind-based, space control moveset. Unlike regular Waka however, Shin Waka can't be used in certain modes (like story mode, for instance).
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has both Cole and Evil Cole in the roster, which reflects the two possible ways Cole's powerset and personality can be shaped by the player in inFAMOUS 2.
Pokkén Tournament has Mewtwo and Shadow Mewtwo as two separate fighters. Mewtwo can be obtained by clearing the Red League and defeating Shadow Mewtwo. Shadow Mewtwo can be unlocked early by tapping the associated amiibo card, or permanently by clearing the story mode's Chroma League. The Pokkén Tournament DX version on the Nintendo Switch has Shadow Mewtwo unlocked from the start. Both versions of Mewtwo are Lightning Bruisers, but their movesets and playstyles are different: the regular Mewtwo has a higher health pool and can tank damage, while Shadow Mewtwo is a more offensive-orientated fighter with less health and moves that consume his HP bar. The game's story mode reveals Shadow Mewtwo and Mewtwo are the same Pokemon; the latter being corrupted into the former by saving Anne from a Shadow Synergy Stone (which is embedded in its shoulder). It takes the player and Anne working together to defeat Shadow Mewtwo, which sees him reverting back into its uncorrupted form.
Power Instinct:
- In Goketsuji Legends, Poochy and Super Clara, normally transformations for Kinta and Clara respectively, are both given their own separate character slots.
- In Groove on Fight, Bristol Weller has two slots dedicated to himself: his human form who fights with leg strikes and a gun, and his demon form who can summon other demons to fight for him.
In the first Power Stone game, Valgas is playable in two forms: his normal form and as Final Valgas.
For Project Justice, some characters (Batsu, Hyo, Daigo, etc.) have a variant character that is placed in a separate slot from their "main" version. This descends from Rival Schools where Akira has two different character slots to herself (one with a helmet and one without) and is given a different Team-Up Attack.
Rival Schools:
- Unmasked Akira as well as the alternate versios of Hinata, Kyoko, Natsu and Tiffany are separately selectable from their normal selves.
- Burning Batsu, Wild Daigo, and Powered Akira are separately playable from Batsu, Daigo and Akira respectively in Project Justice.
In ROBO OH, Maxcyber has a more powerful form called Dimcyber that can be fought if the player constantly refuses his upgrades throughout the game and defeats Giant Shippooh when encountered. Said form can also be selected by pressing down three times on Maxcyber's portrait.
Rumble Roses would give its cast different Heel/Face personas as separate characters, each with their own slots (like for instance, the babyface Reiko Hinomoto having her Heel persona Rowdy Reiko as a separate character).
Saint Seiya: The Sanctuary (2005):
- Gemini Saga, the Gemini Gold Saint, has two forms in the game: his empty armor (which he manipulated from afar in the original anime/manga) and gray-haired possessed self. Both share the same attacks, but the empty armor character lacks a second special attack, which the second Saga has.
- Seiya, the main character, also appears in the roster as two characters: Pegasus Seiya (wearing the Pegasus Bronze Cloth) and Sagittarius Seiya (wearing the Sagittarius Gold Cloth). In either incarnation his attacks are the same.
Shrek SuperSlam: Princess Fiona is playable in both her human and ogre forms, and both have their own unique playstyles: Human Fiona is fast but doesn't deal much damage, while Ogre Fiona hits harder but is less mobile. Both characters have different slams, with Human Fiona throwing ninja stars while Ogre Fiona sends musical notes around the stage by singing. Both versions also wear different outfits, with the former wearing her iconic green dress from the first movie and the latter wearing a Valkyrie outfit created for the game.
Soul Series:
- In Soul Edge, Siegfried obtains the titular sword and becomes consumed by its power, turning into Nightmare. This form is included in the Soul Blade re-release as the Secret Character "Siegfried!", obtained after getting all of Siegfried's weapons in Edge Master and selectable by going off of the default character select screen. In Soulcalibur, Siegfried and Nightmare are split into separate character slots, while SCII gave the slot to Nightmare alone (with Siegfried being regulated to alternate costumes). The next entry made the two Decomposite Characters.
- Sophitia Alexandra gets not one, but three slots for herself as Sophitia, Sophitia!, and Sophitia!! in the Soul Blade re-release. There are no moveset changes for these versions of Sophitia, and the two extra slots use her normal sword and shield weapons. The only thing that's changed is that Sophitia is wearing a fanservicey costume; Sophitia! removes her armor and wears a simple white dress, while Sophitia!! leaves her in her swimwear from her arade ending. Sophitia! is unlocked after obtaining all of Sophitia's weapons in Edge Master while Sophitia!! is unlocked after getting all of the weapons from everyone's Edge Master mode.
- In Soulcalibur III, Zasalamel gets two slots to himself: one for his normal form, and one as Abyss, his One-Winged Angel state.
- Soulcalibur V has two variants of its main protagonists, Patroklos and Pyrrha, in the forms of α Patroklos and Pyrrha Ω. α Patroklos is when he wields the titular Soul Calibur weapon, changing his fighting style completely (with him becoming a Moveset Clone of Setsuka instead of his mother, Sophitia). Pyrrha Ω is essentially her Superpowered Evil Side after grabbing hold of the Soul Edge, the opposite of the Soul Calibur. Unlike Patroklos, her moveset stays the same. The two are essentially transformations of the same character in the story but they each have a separate character slot in the roster (ie. four slots are taken up by two versions of Patroklos and Pyrrha).
In Spectral vs. Generation (a crossover fighting game between Spectral Force and Generation of Chaos), both Hiro and Jadou have alternate versions of themselves as secret characters called "Hiro 2" and "Jadou 2" respectively, being more Ax-Crazy and feral versions of themselves. Earth meanwhile has an unplayable version of himself called "Holy God Earth" as the Final Boss.
Star Gladiator 2 (aka. Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein overseas) has both Black Hayato (a Brainwashed and Crazy version of regular Hayato) and Ghost Bilstein (Bilstein's original body from the previous game taking on a life of its own) as separate characters from their respective sources.
Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi has Princess Leia in the base roster, and you can unlock an alternate version of her in Jabba the Hutt's slave outfit; she's differentiated with an exclamation point at the end of her name.
Street Fighter:
- In certain games (the Street Fighter Alpha subseries, Ultra Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Ultra Edition), Ryu shares the character selection screen with Evil Ryu, a version of him consumed by the Satsui no Hadou.
- In Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Ultra Edition, Akuma shares the character selection screen with Oni, an even more powerful version of him. In the Street Fighter Alpha series there's also Shin Akuma, another even more powerful version that has no relationship with Oni. This version is also the Capcom side boss in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
- In Ultra Street Fighter II and SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Ken Masters shares the roster with Violent Ken, a Brainwashed and Crazy version of him whose origins are found in the Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
Super Cosplay War Ultra has two versions of this:
- Certain characters have alternate EX movesets that all change their attacks as well as their properties. They are as follows: Ryuko, Chung, Amiro, Anmc P, Giant, GS, Sin, Kay, Sakuya, Alex, Sou, Erus, OS Feng, Gon, Gigi, SWW, Ziro and Yinan.
- In the case of Z-Mega, he gets an extra slot as Shin-Z, who is only playable in Battle Royale.
Super Smash Bros.:
- Dr. Mario first appeared in Melee as a Moveset Clone of Mario, with later games differentiating them by making Dr. Mario an Unskilled, but Strong Mighty Glacier, while regular Mario became more of a Weak, but Skilled Jack of All Stats.
- While there are three versions of Link, the player character in The Legend of Zelda, present as three distinct fighters throughout the series, only Melee version qualifies for this trope, with other games being more of an example of Alternate Self. Link in the original and Melee are primarily based on Adult Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Melee also introduced Young Link, depicting Link's younger form seen in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Super Smash Bros. Brawl replaces him with Toon Link, whose appearance and abilities are drawn from The Wind Waker, who is canonically a separate character. While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate includes all three variants concurrently, the adult Link is primarily based upon the new Link from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild^note to better set him apart.
- Starting from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, characters with a transformation ability had said ability removed, with their alternate form becoming a completely separate character. As a result, Zelda and Sheik as well as Power Suit Samus and Zero Suit Samus gained their own separate character slots.
- Chrom in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appears as both an Assist Character for Robin as well as an Echo Fighter of Roy.
The first Super Smash Flash fan game, like Super Smash Bros. Melee, has two playable Links from Ocarina of Time, one being his adult form and his young form. Sonic is also playable in this game, alongside his Super Form as an unlockable separate fighter. Compared to normal Sonic, Super Sonic has higher jumps and damage output, but ironically has slower attacks and a larger hitbox. The sequel does away with this and only has Sonic as a playable character and Super Sonic as part of his Final Smash.
A Super Smash Bros. fangame, Super Smash Bros. Crusade, has both Mario and Dr. Mario, as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus, and Link and Toon Link, just like in the main games. It also gives two separate slots for both Ryu and Shantae as Evil Ryu and Nega Shantae respectively.^note
Tekken:
- Devil Jin and Devil Kazuya combine this trope with Gameplay and Story Integration; Devil Jin is always a separate character from Jin, while Devil Kazuya is only a separate character in 2 and Tag Tournament 1, with every other appearance having him be a part of Kazuya's moveset. This is fitting because Jin hates his Devil side and views it as an Enemy Within, while Kazuya embraces his Devil and eventually masters it.
- Ogre is also split into two different forms: his normal form (called "Ancient Ogre" in Tag Tournament 2), and his One-Winged Angel True Ogre form.
- From Tag Tournament 2, there's Slim Bob, who is basically Bob having lost weight, as seen in his Tekken 6 ending. Noticeably, many of his moves leave him stumbling due to accounting for mass he no longer has.
- There's Violet, who's basically Lee Chaolan in a Paper-Thin Disguise. Violet is only treated as a separate character in Tag 2. In any other appearance he is simply an alternate that can be selected over Lee with no functional difference.
- There's Unknown, who is the Superpowered Evil Side of Jun Kazama as revealed in Tag Tournament 2.
- Tekken 8 sees both Kazuya and Jin get unplayable boss versions of themselves in the arcade mode: Kazuya gets Devil Kazuya (aka. Kazuya permamently locked into his Devil transformation, letting him use his Heat Attacks without consuming the Heat Gauge) and True Devil Kazuya (aka. Kazuya absorbing Azazel into himself, greatly enhancing his powers and granting him access to some of Azazel's moves too). Jin meanwhile gets Angel Jin (Jin combining his Devil Gene with the Kazama clan's purification powers).
Ultra Fight Da! Kyanta 2 gives two characters two separate slots each:
- Michelle gets "Masked Michelle", who is basically the former wearing a mask to disguise himself (not that it fools anybody, though).
- Masao meanwhile gets "Masako", aka. the former turned into a girl by Well Done.
Umihara Kawase Bazooka has two different versions of Cotton on the roster: Cotton (Origin), based on her classic appearance from her own series, and Cotton (Fresh!), based on her appearance in Fresh (namely wearing the same outfit as Kawase's).
Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble gives the starting six characters^note casual/depowered forms as separate slots based on and similar to Joe and Silvia's depowered forms from the main games. In addition, Captain Blue and Emperor Jet Black both get an alternate form each based on their appearances as the final bosses of their respective games: Young Captain Blue for the former, and Dark Hero Jet Black for the latter.
X-Men: Next Dimension:
- Jean Grey is separated into two slots, one as herself and one as her evil form Dark Phoenix.
- Psylocke was split into two forms as well: her classic Psylocke form with telepathic powers and a psychic knife, and "Betsy", an at the time more modern version who had Telekinetic powers that took the form of a katana instead.

First-Person Shooters

Star Wars: Battlefront II:
- Both the original and the 2017 game have Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader as separate characters with differing Force alignments, meaning it's not only possible to have both on the field at the same time, but if that happens, they'll actually be fighting each other.
- There can be three different iterations of the Millennium Falcon on the field at the same time - the Falcons as they were when used by Lando, Han, and Rey respectively.
TimeSplitters is certainly no stranger to having different versions of the same character. In Future Perfect for instance, Sergeant Cortez has four slots dedicated to himself based on his appearances in the story mode: his regular self, Henchman Cortez (from "The Russian Connection"), Doctor Cortez (from "You Genius, U Genix") and Time Assassin Cortez (from "You Take the High Road").
Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict has two slots for both Anubis and Selket. Their regular Nakhti warrior selves are part of the base roster. The Bonus Pack later added the "Mercenary" version of Anubis (Anubis with his Imperial Guard Patrol costume from the intro of the game) with the same moveset, and Selket would get a Necris version which appears at the very end of the story mode, with a different moveset with Necris race abilities and her Flash personal ability.

Gacha Games

The Battle Cats:
- A number of the game's Uber Rare units have seasonal variants that can be obtained during specific time periods of the year, and there's nothing stopping you from using them along with their regular counterparts. In particular, most of the Galaxy Gals have two seasonal variants, so it's not unheard of to have three of them on the field at once.
- All of the game's Normal Cats (as well as Moneko) have their Crazed counterparts - if anything, invoking this trope is actually encouraged, as there are Cat Combos involving both the regular unit and their Crazed version (for example, having both Sexy Legs Cat and Crazed Sexy Legs Cat in the same lineup will increase how far units with the Knockback ability can push enemies).
- The majority of the Uberfest-exclusive Uber Rare units have counterparts in the form of Epicfest-exclusives, which are essentially evil or cursed versions of their regular counterparts. Given that the Uberfest-exclusives are effective against any traited enemy while the Epicfest-exclusives focus on eviscerating enemies without a trait, they work pretty well together, assuming you're lucky enough to own both.
- Some collaborations have multiple versions of the same character as different units. Donald Morden in a tank and Donald Morden in a helicopter, Madoka Kaname and her chibi self, Rei Ayanami and Rei Q... you get the idea.
In Fate/Grand Order, multiple versions of the same character are summonable in different classes with different parameters and skills. For example, Altria has a version of herself for nearly every playable class in the game. In addition to her original Saber incarnation, an Evil Counterpart Alter version, she has a summonable Archer swimsuit version, an Alter swimsuit Rider version, two Alternate Self Lancer versions, and so on.
Fire Emblem Heroes: Alternate versions of certain characters such as seasonal or Legendary versions have different abilities and stats and are treated as separate characters from their base version. There are also characters who get variants based on canon events in their original games, like Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, who has her Officer Academy student variant, her Flame Emperor disguise variant, her two time skip outfit variants (Armored Lord and Emperor), and her Hegemon Husk variant from where she's a Final Boss in the Blue Lions route. Some variants use different weapons than their base version. Some characters have so many different variants available, it's possible to build a full team of variants of the same character.
Flower Knight Girl has its cast of Flower Knights be given alternate forms (ie, different ensemble of clothing) in later updates, determined via players voting for the most popular knights. These alternate forms are all categorized as separate units in gameplay, with it being entirely possible to have multiples of one character in a team of five; certain characters of consistently winning in the yearly polls being capable of making a full team or more.
Honkai Impact 3rd: All characters have "Valkyrie battlesuits" with different powers and gameplay abilities. In practice, the game makes separate slots for each of the characters' battlesuits, and it's possible for you to field up to 3 of the same character in different battlesuits together. In some cases, the newer "battlesuits" are symbols for the character's progression in the story, such as the main character Kiana going from Valkyrie Ranger -> White Comet -> Knight Moonbeam -> Herrscher of the Void -> Void Drifter -> Herrscher of Flamescion and finally Herrscher of Finality. It's played with in that in a few occasions, an Alternate Self of a given character is treated as a "battlesuit" for said character in gameplay.
Mega Man X DiVE: The game's roster is filled out with several alternate versions of various Mega Man characters, some being obscure pulls from the series' history while others are holiday-themed costumes during limited time events.
- Mega Man X alone has several alternate versions the player can obtain. Alongside his base version, summonable variants include ones based on his Rising Fire Weapon, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Falcon, Gaea, and Shadow, upgradable armor sets from the mainline games, along with the Ultimate Armor sets from X4-X6 and even his Mega Man X: Command Mission. There's also an upgraded version of his base form known as S-Class Hunter X, crossover collaboration variants (Rathalos Armor, Shagaru Armor, and X Dante Trigger), and wholly original armor variants from X DiVE itself (DiVE Armor X and Next DiVE Armor X).
- Classic Mega Man is summonable in his base form, Thunder Beam weapon variant, and equipped with Rush as Super Mega Man.
My Hero Academia: World's Strongest Hero has multiple versions of all of class 1-A, with training versions, middle tier versions and later, more powerful versions.
Some of the playable variants in Persona 5: The Phantom X can be summoned and are classified as different party members in-game, but two of the same Phantom Thief cannot be used in an active party at once:
- With the version 2.1 update, Motoha Arai is both playable as a default party member in the Phantom Thieves and as a summonable gacha character wearing a swimsuit, who are classified as different units mechanically.
- Summer Tomoko was added to the game in the second half of the summer event in Version 2.1.2, where she appears as her normal Phantom Idol appearance as Moko and a separate summonable unit "Summer Tomoko," where she wears a swimsuit and fights alongside the other Phantom Thieves.
- The Phantom Idol based on Kotone Montagne, codenamed Mont, gets a variant unit called Dancer Kotone (though still under the same codename), with her Persona Duo becoming Dancer Terpsichore as well. While she shares the same pool of weapons as regular Mont, Dancer Terpsichore has a Stance System mechanic that changes her skills and elemental affinities.
- Riko Tanemura/Wind is available as her normal Support Party Member navigator self and her 5* Ceaseless Wind variant, which allows her to fight on the frontlines alongside her friends, making her parasols a melee weapon and throwing stars her ranged weapons. In-story, Ceaseless Wind is a temporary boost of power for Wind, which goes away at the end of Chapter 3, but players can still use her if they pull for it via gacha. In gameplay, like other gacha party member variants, only one version of Wind can be used in the party at a time.
- Lion Dance Yaoling is a variant of the Rin Phantom Idol based on Lunar New Year. Unlike some of the other variants, Lion Dance Yaoling doesn't share the same weapons with the normal version of Rin, while also changing her resistances and weaknesses.
Power Rangers: Legacy Wars: While alternate skins can allow a single character to represent versions of themselves when the moves are similar enough, other characters are unique enough between versions that they require their own character slot.
- The original five Mighty Morphin' Rangers and Rita all have both a classic version and a version based on the 2017 film. On top of that there's also Billy using the Ninja powers from the third season, Trini using the Black Dragon Armor from the comics, Jason as the Gold Zeo Ranger, Kimberly as the Ranger Slayer, and a Dragon Shield version for Jason, Zack, and Kimberly.
- Not to be outdone, Tommy has nine versions of himself: Green, Green V2, White, White Ninja, Lord Drakkon, Zeo Ranger V - Red, Red Turbo, Black Dino Thunder, and Master Morpher.
- Adam has a separate slot for his Black Ninja form and Zeo Ranger Green form.
- Leanbow has a version of himself as both Koragg the Knight Wolf and the Red Wolf Warrior.
- Ryu and Chun-li from each have a version based on their normal Street Fighter movesets, and a morphed version with original moves and designs.
- Goldar and Black Dragon are available as both normal fighters and in Megazord battles.
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes has different versions of many Star Wars characters, like General Kenobi, Old Ben and a younger Obi-Wan and Anakin, Lord Vader and Darth Vader. There's also Farmboy Luke Skywalker, Commander Luke Skywalker and Jedi master Luke Skywalker along with a Jedi Knight one.
Tom and Jerry Chase features multiple different playable versions of Tom, Jerry and Tuffy inspired by different sources, such as a Pirate Jerry from the Shiver Me Whiskers movie or a Musketeer Tom from the Mouseketeer shorts.
Touhou LostWord puts an emphasis on alternate universes, so it could be possible to fill a team with multiple versions of the same character from other worlds. Each alternate character has their own set of attacks and skills to suit them.

Hack And Slash

Hyrule Warriors:
- Link has his main self, Young Link from Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, Toon Link as a hybrid of the Link from The Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and (depending on whether or not you count him as Link) Ravio from A Link Between Worlds.
- Zelda has her main self, her Sheik disguise, Toon Zelda from Spirit Tracks, and Tetra from The Wind Waker.
- Midna has both her Imp form and her true form.
- Fi is something of an interesting example in that there's technically only one playable version of her, but her future self (in the form of the Master Sword) is one of Link's movesets.
- Downplayed with Ganondorf, whose Dark Beast Ganon form is only playable in specific game modes.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors:
- Both versions of the Straw Hat pirates from before and after the Time Skip are playable from the second game onward, with each of them having different movesets. They only had literal separate slots in the second game, but the third game onwards retained them as costumes, which alter their movesets.
- Blackbeard has his normal self with the Dark-Dark Fruit powers alone, and his Marineford self with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit powers added.
- The fourth game adds more alternate selves of characters as DLC: Luffy and Kaido as they appeared on Onigashima, Shanks' Film Red appearance, and Lucci's CP0 appearance, all with different movesets.
Warriors Orochi:
- Despite both technically being the same being (albeit at a different evolutionary stage), Orochi and Orochi X are considered separate characters for gameplay purposes. Justified however with Yinglong, who is the god that became Orochi, and thus someone else.
- Nezha first appears in Warriors Orochi 3 as a Cyborg godslayer (though with a Crippling Overspecialisation in that regard, which means humans can defeat him). The Ultimate expansion to the game added in prequel chapters, where the cast learn Nezha's cybernetics were used to resurrect him after suffering a Curb-Stomp Battle from Orochi, and as such get to fight alongside "human Nezha", who takes up a separate slot in the roster from his cybernetic self. In Warriors Orochi 4, Nezha once again first appears as a cyborg, though in this case, his human self doesn't make a story appearance, and instead is unlocked alongside his cyborg self, again, as a separate character with his own roster slot.

Party Games

100% Orange Juice! has quite a good few characters with different versions of themselves.
- From QP Shooting:
  - QP has QP (Dangerous), based on her appearance in QP Shooting - Dangerous!.
  - Likewise, Yuki also gets Yuki (Dangerous), again based on her appearance in that game.
  - Aru meanwhile gets Aru (Scramble), taken from her appearance in Xmas Shooting - Scramble!. They even got to meet each other in one event!
  - Natsumi has Natsumi (Sweet Blogger), who is Natsumi as one of the Sweet Gods.
  - Krilalaris gets Krilalaris (Pajamas), basically Krila...wearing pajamas.
  - Mimyuu of the Tomato & Mimyuu duo gets Mimyuu (Jailbird), a version of her wearing prison apparel.
- From SUGURI:
  - Suguri has Suguri (Ver. 2), a version of her wearing a different outfit, and Suguri (4.6 Billion Years), based on her appearance in 200% Mixed Juice.
  - Hime has Hime (Moonlight), based on some concept art Hono drew for cosplayers to wear.
  - Saki has Saki (Sweet Maker), another one of the Sweet Gods.
- From sora:
  - Sora gets Sora (Military), based on her time in the military before her fateful encounter with Alte. She also shares a slot with Sham as the Idol Singer duo, Cuties.
  - Star Breaker has Reika Hoshino, an Alternate Self of her as an Ordinary High-School Student from a drama CD as opposed to being a Human Weapon and Omnicidal Maniac like the former.
- From Flying Red Barrel:
  - Marc has Marc (Pilot), who is Marc wearing her pilot outfit and flying her plane, the titular Red Barrel.
  - Fernet gets Fernet (Noble), who is Fernet wearing a fancy Pimped-Out Dress.
- Original Generation:
  - Kai gets Kai (Hero), an Older and Wiser version of himself.
  - Marie Poppo is an unusual example in that she's actually a crowd of identical beings, but she still fits this trope in that she gets two different versions of her: Marie Poppo (Mixed), a Poppo wearing a different outfit who specializes in using portals, and Mother Poppo, an older-looking Poppo who is in fact Ellie's mother.
  - Tomomo gets Tomomo (Casual/Sweet Eater), a dual-stance character that sees her start out as a slacker in her PJ's, before using her hyper to become Sweet Eater.
  - Mio gets Mio (Festive), based on her appearance in the Clash of Cakes event.
  - Lulu gets Dark Lulu, a Superpowered Evil Side of her caused by Mio corrupting her mind with darkness for the sake of a tragic ending.
  - Ellie has Hyper Ellie, a Super Mode version of her.
In Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed, both Jake and Dark Jake are unlockable characters that can be played as in the versus mode.
Sonic Shuffle: Both Sonic and his Super Sonic form are selectable characters, with the latter in particular being a Secret Character.

Platform Games

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk has both Red, the starting Player Character, and Felix, his original identity before Faux had him killed. The latter can be unlocked simply by beating the game, and both can be found at any dance floor from there on out.
In Sayonara Umihara Kawase, Kawase comes in two variants: her adult self and her child self who, unlike her adult counterpart, can restart once from a checkpoint after failing a stage.
Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic and the Black Knight: Zig-zagged. Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Percival are all playable alongside Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Blaze the Cat in the game's multiplayer battle mode. The latter three use the same models as the Knights, just without their armor, share the same moveset with one another, but are classified as different characters in the battle mode with different slots, and in-universe, the knights are Alternate Selves of Sonic's friends who hail from the Arthurian-based world and not Sonic's.
- Sonic Generations has two different time-displaced iterations of Sonic as its playable characters, each with their own distinct playstyle: Classic Sonic, whose levels emulate the classic Genesis games in both versions of the game; and Modern Sonic, whose levels emulate the 3D Boost games on the console/PC version and the Sonic Rush games on the 3DS version.
- Sonic Forces has both Modern and Classic Sonic as playable characters like Generations, each with the same respective play styles as the console version of Generations.

Puzzle Games

Antonball Deluxe parodies it with the character "Fixed Gold Evil Baby Paul (Shiny)", who is a fixed, gold, evil, baby and shiny version of the character Paul, who himself already is a variant of the main character Anton. Heck, a good few characters in the roster are all different versions of Anton and Annie.
Deadly Rooms of Death: Halph comes in two variants, "Young Halph" and "Halph". His exact age is unspecified, but he was "Young Halph" during Journey to Rooted Hold, and "Halph" in The Second Sky, taking place two years later. In gameplay terms, the difference between the two is that adult Halph can wade in shallow water.
In Dr. Mario 64, both Dr. Mario and Wario have alternate versions of themselves (Metal Mario and Vampire Wario respectively, each the end result of ingesting the megavitamins both have been fighting over) as playable characters. Both can be fought and unlocked by going through Story Mode on normal or higher without losing a single round (Dr. Mario will fight Vampire Wario, while Wario will fight Metal Mario).
Petal Crash has an alternate version of Lilibri as the True Final Boss dubbed "Hyper Lilibri" who can be unlocked by playing on medium or higher, making it to the end without continuing and defeating her when she shows up^note. Notably, she shares the same slot with her regular self and can be selected by pressing the right shoulder button twice over her.
Puyo Puyo:
- From Fever 2, Klug has Possessed Klug, who is the former possessed by a demon sealed within his spellbook (and with Klug's spirit taking the demon's place in that book too!) and was originally the Big Bad of the game. He would however be Demoted to Extra in following games (first as part of Klug's adult transformation in Puyo Puyo 7, then as an alternate skin for Klug in 20th Anniversary), before becoming a separate character again in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
- Speaking of 20th Anniversary, that game would give six characters alternate versions of themselves with different animations and voice sets: the aforementioned Klug and Possessed Klug, Amitie and Red Amitie, Sig and Dark Sig, Feli and Angelic Feli, Dark Prince and Onesie Prince, and Ecolo and Alter Ecolo.
- In Puyo Puyo 7, Arle has Dark Arle, who is the former possessed by Ecolo. In a way, she also serves as this for Ecolo, given the circumstances.
- In the PC Engine version of Puyo Puyo 2, where the CPU opponents are all Promoted to Playable, Dark Prince comes in two slots: his regular self and as Masked Prince.
Scribblenauts Unmasked contains many different versions of famous DC characters, based on the various Elseworlds and adaptations, such as the Communist Superman from Superman: Red Son, the Thomas and Martha Wayne versions of Batman and The Joker from Flashpoint (DC Comics), and the Terry McGinnis version of Batman from Batman Beyond. For characters that once performed a Face–Heel Turn or vice versa there are versions of both their heroic and villainous incarnation, such as the Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern versions of Sinestro.

Racing Games

Cars:
- The first game has Lightning McQueen be playable in both racecar and monster truck forms, with both versions being considered separate characters in the character select.
- Cars: Mater-National Championship not only brings back Lightning's monster truck form, but adds a new monster truck version of Mater. Both Monster McQueen and Monster Mater are considered separate characters from the original versions, but can only be used on the monster truck races.
- Cars: Race-O-Rama gives Lightning new Beach, Off-Road, Street, and Wide-Body customizations that are treated as separate characters from the original version, with different stats and their own spots on the character select screen. Chick's modified version is similarly considered separate from the main version. Monster McQueen and Monster Mater also return from the previous games.
- Cars 2: All character variants are now treated as separate characters from the originals without exception, such as Materhosen (Mater wearing lederhosen) being separate from vanilla Mater, and Radiator Lightning (Lightning in his Radiator Springs getup from the first movie) being separate from vanilla Lightning.
- Cars 3: Driven to Win brings back Mater the Greater returning from the Cars 2 game, and also added Fabulous Lightning McQueen (Lightning painted to look like Doc Hudson) as a post-launch character a couple of weeks after the game launched. Both characters are treated as separate characters from the originals, meaning you can have both of them in the same race alongside their original counterparts.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled:
- Crash, Coco, Cortex and N. Tropy all get baby versions of themselves as separate characters, the former two debuting in the Back N. Time Grand Prix, and the latter two^note appearing in the post-GP update.
- Emperor Velo XXVII gets two slots to himself: one as his larger self and the other as his real, more dimunitive self.
- Rilla Roo would be split into his regular self from the Winter Festival Grand Prix, and as "Fixed" Rilla Roo^note in the post-GP update.
- And then there's Mega-Mix, who's basically this to Cortex, Dingodile, N. Gin and Tiny on account of him being a Fusion Dance of the four.
Crazy Frog Racer 2 has 2 versions of the titular frog as separate characters, his regular self and his Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist costume from "Popcorn".
Disney Speedstorm has two different versions of Mickey Mouse as separate characters: his modern incarnation (classified as a speedster), and his classic incarnation from Steamboat Willie (classified as a defender).
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast has two versions of Donkey Kong as separate characters: there's his regular self who's part of the base roster, and then there's "Ultra Barrel DK", who possesses maxed-out stats and can be unlocked by clearing all of Candy Kong's challenges.
Gran Turismo is the biggest offender of this trope, albeit with real-world cars; due to Creator Provincialism, there happen to be many variations of Japanese cars such as Mazda MX-5/Miata/Roadster, Honda/Acura NSX, and even a few generations of Nissan Skyline have more than 10 variations alone. Even foreign cars are not immune (notably Shelby Cobra and AC 427 S/C).
Jak X has four different versions of Jak to choose from: his default appearance for this game and three different versions of him based on his appearances in previous games. The latter three can be obtained by having save data from those games on the memory card.
Mario Kart
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit has Red Yoshi, Light Blue Yoshi and Yellow Yoshi as multiplayer exclusive characters in addition to Yoshi himself.
- Mario Kart: Double Dash!! introduced Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as a playable duo, with both characters returning in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8.
- Mario Kart Wii added Baby Peach and Baby Daisy and addition to the baby versions of the Mario Bros. Dry Bowser is also a separate racer from his living counterpart.
- Mario Kart 7 introduced Metal Mario, a character who had history in other Mario spinoffs as a hidden character.
- Mario Kart 8 brought back the baby versions of the Mario Bros, Peach and Daisy and added one for Rosalina. Pink Gold Peach was also introduced in this game, serving as Metal Mario's Distaff Counterpart. The DLC packs introduced Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, Dry Bowser and colour variants for Yoshi and Shy Guy. The Deluxe version added in the DLC characters at launch and added gendered variants for Inkling and Villager while adding Gold Mario^note as the sole unlockable character. The Final Wave of the Booster Course Pass subverts Inkling and Villager by merging both genders into one slot while also adding Peachette, a power-up form of Toadette that was previously playable in Mario Kart Tour, as one of the final characters.
- Mario Kart Tour: Most of the characters have alternate versions of them in different costumes to incentive players to get them, due to the game being free-to-play and previously featured Gacha elements.
- Mario Kart World: Like in Tour, separate slots are used for characters with alternate versions having unique costumes and dresses. In the absence of Gacha elements, these character versions are unlocked instead by eating meal items during races in Grand Prix and Knockout Tour.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers: The third game in the series, Slime Speedway, has in its roster both the regular versions of SpongeBob and Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants and their younger selves from Kamp Koral. Additionally, Raphael from the TMNT Mirage comics and a purple version of Reptar are separate playable characters from Raphael and Reptar respectfully.
Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic R makes Sonic and Super Sonic into separate characters, the difference being that regular Sonic is simply fast and can Double Jump, but has poor handling and sinks in water while Super Sonic is a Master of All, having max stats and no weaknesses.
- Sonic Forces: Speed Battle features multiple alternate versions of characters as separate characters, mainly due to them being available as part of special events. For example, Sonic is also available as Super Sonic, Darkspine Sonic, Sonic the Werehog, Excalibur Sonic, Boscage Maze Sonic, LEGO Sonic, Slugger Sonic, and Snowdrift Sonic with his Classic self from the past, Classic Sonic also having alternate versions as Elf Classic Sonic and Classic Super Sonic. There's also Movie Sonic being playable alongside Baby Sonic and Movie Super Sonic. As such, you can have multiple instances of the same character racing with one another. Justified, as they're Phantom Ruby copies.
- Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds features both regular Sonic and Sonic the Werehog (Sonic's werewolf-esque transformation from Sonic Unleashed) as playable racers. Super Sonic is also an unlockable character obtained by beating every rival in the Grand Prix mode.
Star Wars: Racer Revenge, the sequel to Star Wars Episode I: Racer, has alternate versions of both Anakin and Sebulba as they appeared in the previous game, as well as Darth Vader for the former, as secret characters.

Rhythm Games

PriPara:
- Triangle (Junon, Pinon, Kanon) and Non can be seen as a multi-slot character, given that the former three are alternate forms of the latter.
- Mirei has two slots in the character select of All Idol Perfect Stage (Nintendo Switch), her idol form and civilian form. Noticably for this trope, they are counted as one character during group formation.
- All Idol Perfect Stage also has the various playable characters in different coords as separate group members during group formation (again like Mirei, each character except Meganee can only be selected once), each providing a different set of scoring bonuses.

Role-Playing Games

Yo-kai Watch: Games in this series typically categorize Yo-kai with each individual variant taking up their own slot. Even so much as holding a popcorn bucket is enough to make you a different character:
- Yo-kai Watch 1: Shogunyan is stated to just be Jibanyan dressed up, but he's a rare Legendary Yo-kai who gets a special slot at the back while Jibanyan is just a normal Charming tribe Yo-kai. Subverted later in the series when Divergent Character Evolution meant Shogunyan got his own identity.
- Yo-kai Watch 2 adds Rank S versions of the Series Mascots, who despite being the same Yo-kai but with a Battle Aura, have their own slots in the Medallium.
- It almost gets ridiculous with Yo-kai Watch Blasters. While the previous games at least had unique obtainments for these Yo-kai, Usapyon, Jibanyan, Komasan and Sgt. Burly get variants with their own slots despite these variants quite literally just being them changing clothes in a nearby closet.
- Firmly an Exaggerated Trope in Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble, that's the one where holding a popcorn bucket makes you a new a character. There's enough to fill multiple teams with nothing but minor variations of the same guy in slightly different outfits.

Shoot-em-Up Games

Cotton Boomerang noticeably has three different versions of Cotton and Appli each, with each one differentiated from the other by colour palette and firing pattern, in order to accomodate for the team-based gameplay.
Twinkle Star Sprites has Load Ran and her Older Alter Ego Sprites; the former is selectable by default, while the latter is a Secret Character selected by highlighting Ran and pressing Up four times.

Tower Defense

The Battle Cats has seasonal variants of several ubers, which take up an additional slot in your cat guide. Most of them are straightforward clones of their base versions with a different target type, like Tropical Kalisa being a variant of Kalisa who targets red enemies instead of angels.

Turn-Based Strategy Games

Civilization:
- Leaders in VI who lead multiple civilizations like Eleanor of Aquitaine or Kublai Khan, and leaders who have different personas available like Theodore Roosevelt or Catherine de Medici are treated as separate leaders for selection purposes.
- In VII, personas return. While leader's personas share the same base model, they have different abilities, attributes, agendas, and mementos. Each persona is presented as a distinct leader on leader selection.
Disgaea:
- In Disgaea D2, Girl Laharl was simply a Palette Swap for Laharl. In Disgaea 5 and Disgaea 6, Girl Laharl is a separate character with different stats, Evilities, and Weapon Proficiencies.
- Disgaea 4:
  - Valvatorez has his regular version and his Tyrant version. The normal version is a Brought Down to Badass powerhouse as a result of not drinking blood. Tyrant Valvatorez is a Purposefully Overpowered Game-Breaker who has very high stats, broken Evilities, and stronger versions of Valvatorez's unique specials.
  - Flonne has her Archangel and Fallen Angel selves as playable characters, with the former primarily using magic and a Bow, while the latter sacrifices some of her Magic for the ability to wield both guns and bows.
The Walking Dead: No Man's Land has three Daryls (a Hunter, a Scout and a Bruiser), two Ricks (a Shooter and a Scout), two Maggies (a Hunter and a Shooter), two Carols (a Hunter and a Scout), two Glenns (a Scout and a Bruiser), two Rositas (an Assault and a Bruiser), two Negans (a Bruiser and a Scout), two Morgans (a Bruiser and a Hunter) and two Aarons (a Shooter and a Warrior).

Vehicular Combat

Twisted Metal: From the second game onwards, Needles Kane/Sweet Tooth shares the roster with Marcus Kane/Roadkill, on account of both of them being split personalities of the same person. Head-On also adds in Dark Tooth and Tower Tooth, both driven by Needles and Marcus at the same time.

Wide-Open Sandbox

Disney Infinity:
- The first version of the game had Mickey Mouse in his Sorcerer outfit from Fantasia. For 3.0, a version of Mickey based on his classic appearance was added as a separate character.
- 3.0 introduced Hulkbuster Iron Man and a version of Captain America based on his appearance in Captain America: Civil War that were separate from the regular versions of those characters. On a more minor note, the handheld release of 2.0 featured an exclusive version of Spider-Man in his Symbiote suit.
- Following the precedent set in other Star Wars games, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are separate characters.

Non-Video Game Examples

Tabletop Games

The BattleTech CCG from the 90s had one expansion that featured older and more experienced versions of some of the characters who'd shown up in the core set. Each of these cards had slightly different abilities than the original, and only one of them could be in play at a time. For example, there was Prince Victor Steiner-Davion as an upgrade for Victor Steiner-Davion, Phelan Ward vs Phelan, and Kai, Champion of Solaris for Kai Allard-Liao.
Recurring characters in Magic: The Gathering tend to only get no more than one card per set, but in sets based off of preexisting stories, whether they be Magic's own novels like The Brothers' War or outside media like The Lord of the Rings will have multiple versions of the same major character plucked from different points in the story. For example, former protagonist Urza as a child, an adult, and just before ascending to near-godhood, all from the same set.
In Star Wars: Epic Duels, both Anakin Skywalker (with Padmé Amidala) and Darth Vader (with two Stormtroopers) are major characters. It is possible to have them fight against each other, or to have them fight side by side against other major characters.
In Warhammer Fantasy, Vampire Counts special character Mannfred von Carstein has two versions: Mannfred the Acolyte and Count Mannfred von Carstein. The former is a Hero-level character that represents him in his early days. The latter is a Lord-level character representing him in the present as the Count of Sylvania.
In Warhammer 40,000, Blood Angels special character Erasmus Tycho is available in two variants: Captain Tycho and Tycho the Lost. The former represents the character in his prime, while the latter represents him after falling to the Black Rage and becoming part of the Death Company. The two variants actually share a single miniature, whose armor has to be painted either in gold or in black depending on which version of the character is meant to represent.
Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Characters that are part of a storyline will sometimes have multiple monster cards based on them, each monster being based on specific incarnations of that character at certain points in the story.
- The Winged Dragon of Ra in the original manga as well as anime based on it, has three forms; its sealed Sphere Mode, a normal mode, and Phoenix Mode. In the actual card game, Ra's three forms were split into three separate monsters.

Web Video

Parodied in ProZD's "new cards in gacha games" skit, where the player is happy with the Normal Archibald variant they summoned in the King Dragon Canon gacha game. A disembodied voice then announces the game is getting variant cards of Archibald, including Rare Archibald (who wears a hat), an SR labor day exclusive collaboration event Archibald, and an SSR card of Young Archibald. That last one is enough for the player to start spending money for summoning crystals. Each Archibald has a different variation of his Catchphrase.
Normal Archibald: Hyah! I think that enemy got the point!
Hat Archibald: Hyah! I think that enemy saw my hat!
Labor Archibald: Hyah! I think that workers have contributed to our country!

Multi-Slot Character
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