Secret character  

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A secret character (not to be confused with an unseen character) can be a player character or a non-player character in a video game that must be unlocked by completing a goal within the game. A secret character can only be played or interacted with after it has been unlocked, and may not even appear until then.

Secret characters are common in fighting games, in which the secret characters expand upon the core of playable characters. However, they can occur in many other genres.

Secret characters are often given as a reward for successfully completing a trial or for completing a chapter or segment of the game. The Tekken games are one example of this, as they actually provide empty spaces on the Character Select screen for characters that have not yet been unlocked.

Other secret characters, however, are far more secretive, and can be classified as a kind of Easter egg. Some may require the player to accomplish impressive or unusual gameplay feats, and some can only be obtained by using cheat codes or hacks.

Popular secret characters sometimes return as main characters in sequels of the original game. Reptile, a secret character in the original Mortal Kombat, returned as a main character in later games in the series.

Sometimes certain characters are not completely secret, but appear only as non-player characters at first, such as bosses or enemies, but then become available to choose as playable characters when the specific tasks or cheats are performed. They are not secret as enemy characters, but secret as player characters.

In the Dating sim genre, the protagonist is often limited to pursuing only a single girl until reaching the end. The other girls in the game are unlocked only after completing the game.

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Notable secret characters


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Secret character" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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