Whileliteral ghosts hanging out in derelict housesare one thing, there’s another kind of haunting taking place across all kinds of different stories. This is the impact of a character who, despite either not being present at all, dead, or only briefly present, just keeps showing up everywhere we turn. The consequences of their actions ripple out into the present; the invisible webs they set up entangle you, and we just can’t shake the memory of them lingering in all of our choices.
This trend is also not exclusiveto horror games,despite “haunting” being in the name. Any game, in any genre, can have a character who haunts the narrative. These are a few you might be familiar with.
8Johnny Silverhand
Cyberpunk 2077
Now, this character is a bit of a cheat because his digital ghost—the copy of him—isvery involvedin your experience of Cyberpunk 2077 (perhapstooinvolved, at the end of the day). Depending on how much you think this version of him ishim, how true you think the copy is to the actual character, and how much control and influence your physical body might have on this process affects how much a cheat you think it is.
Regardless, heisdead in the game, and his actions are the catalyst for everything you’re now dealing with. While being dead, and even being a ghost, isn’t all that it takes to haunt the narrative, this man occupies a strange place in the narrative that has a lot of overlap with this trope.
7The Boss
Metal Gear Solid Series
If you’ve ever heard the name Big Boss, come up against Ocelot, or played a Metal Gear Solid game using Close Quarters Combat (CQC), then you’ve already felt this character’s influence. While the role of character-haunting-the-narrative isn’t true for her in the game where she’s an antagonist (Metal Gear Solid 3), itistrue for every other game in the series, before and after her death.
The Boss is a mentor and mother figure to Naked Snake and the literal mother of Ocelot. She’s a legendary soldier whose role in America’s special forces shapes the back-and-forth happening in the entire series. Once you know who she is, you can’t escape seeing her in almost every element of it.
6Chara
Undertale
How you’re treated and the problems you’re attempting to fix (or make worse) stem from the human that came before you, the first human to fall into the Underground: Chara. They’re also directly involved with the motivations and backstories of major characters like Toriel, Asgore, and Flowey. So much so that it’s impossible to play Undertale and not reckon with them.
You also only actually get to meet Chara if you complete the genocide run. Otherwise, they remain an unseen presence lurking behind the events of the story, with only a few hints given to the truth about their nature. In this way, the game (and, perhaps, Chara) is leveraging your curiosity about them to push you to do terrible things.
5Uncle Ben
Marvel’s Spider-Man Series
You don’t need to have played the games to recognize this character. Uncle Ben’s death is the same here as it is in the comics: he dies at the hands of a robber, a death indirectly caused by Peter Parker using his powers for selfish reasons and refusing to step in and do the right thing.
Though we don’t see that happen on screen, we do hear him referenced. We know, interacting with the people who knew him, that we have him to thank for Spiderman’s origin. There’s also a small easter egg in the game acknowledging how important this character is to the story. If you look for it, you can find and visit Uncle Ben’s grave.
4Link
Breath Of The Wild
While this is, yes, the literal protagonist ofBreath of the Wild,the version of Link you play has amnesia. Meanwhile, the version of Link that’s haunting the narrative is the one that you can no longer remember being. Moreover, the version of Link that’s haunting the narrative is the version of the legendary hero that you’re supposed to embody, but, as everyone keeps reminding you, you’re drawing up short of.
In her diary, Zelda notes how the pressure of being “Link,” of being this hero that’s been reincarnated so many times, weighs constantly on the real Link. And that’s before you start walking through memories, trying to piece together who you are and how you’re supposed to be acting. By the time the game ends, you’re a completely different person than you were a hundred years ago, even with those memories. That version of Link isn’t coming back.
3Rachel Amber
Life Is Strange
In Life Is Strange, when Max Caulfield returns to the town of Arcadia Bay, she reconnects with her old friend Chloe Price and realizes she has the ability to rewind time. (Which are equally important events to her.) But there’s someone else involved in their dynamic, though she’s not present. And that’s Chloe’s missing friend, Rachel Amber.
Max has never interacted with Rachel, but the plot is driven by her disappearance. Her absence also lurks over the relationship that she’s developing with Chloe, as she’s always in competition with Chloe’s replacement for her. Let’s just say that without Rachel’s role in the plot, life might be normal.
2Chang Ming Hui
Detention
Fang Ray Shin is trapped and trying to survive in a dark, haunted version of her high school. And the reason why unravels around the character of Chang Ming Hui. Without Chang, the entire story wouldn’t have taken place, and Ray would still be going through the motions of her life, unburdened by the guilt that’s haunting her.
Since only his ghost is present in this nightmare world, any real interaction with him is limited to flashbacks, and we know him mostly through the people he helped shape. In true haunting the narrative fashion, we learn about him in inverse: learning about his legacy and impact before actually meeting him, knowing who he was and what he was doing.
1Hannah & Beth Washington
Until Dawn
The first game released prior to, and the blueprint for, the Dark Picture’s Anthology, Until Dawn reunites a group of friends at a cabin in the woods. Even before things go wrong, there’s already a glaring absence among them: two negative spaces that the friends can’t figure out how to navigate. This is where Hannah and Beth were the last time they were here.
While the two of them are not the end all be all of the plot, theyareessential to the emotional state of the other characters throughout the game. And they’re the reason that everyone needs to survive Until Dawn, because without their disappearance, there wouldn’t be any reunion.
