History CowardlyLion / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/TheMaw'', a game on the UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade. The title character is a blob who can eat just about anything and keeps getting bigger until it eats the entire planet, but it has a tendency to flee screaming from bigger enemies that posture in a frightening manner.

** Amy Rose. In ''Sonic Adventure'' she's afraid of Zero and spends most of the game running away from him, but when this one hurts a little bird she was protecting, she goes MamaBear and takes him down with her own hands (or rather, with her hammer).

* The third game in the ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' trilogy has Ron Delite, who's a bit of a meek crybaby, but still manages to maintain a flamboyant PhantomThief alter-ego in Mask☆[=DeMasque=], and is revealed to have once saved his future wife from a pair of knife-wielding bank robbers by crying and screaming at them until they left.

** Amy Rose. In ''Sonic Adventure'' she's afraid of Zero and spends most of the game running away from him, but when this one hurts a little bird she was protecting, she goes MamaBear and takes him down with her own hands (or rather, [[DropTheHammer with her hammer]]).

** Luigi, though this is better exemplified in the spin-off series ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''; he's clearly terrified half the time in both games due to his fear of [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes ghosts]], but manages to save his brother [[TheHero Mario]] in the first game and the ''entire time-space continuum'' in the second. Even in fan games, this is one of Luigi's traits. During a BonusBoss with the Headless Horseman in ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'', after Kyuu's TakingTheBullet moment, he responds with a lighting attack that outright cripples the boss and makes the fight far easier.

** Luigi, though this is better exemplified in the spin-off games ''[[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Luigi's Mansion]]'' and [[VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon its]] [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion3 sequels]]; he's clearly terrified half the time in both games due to his fear of [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes ghosts]], but manages to save his brother [[TheHero Mario]] in the first game and the ''entire time-space continuum'' in the second. Even in fan games, this is one of Luigi's traits. During a BonusBoss with the Headless Horseman in ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'', after Kyuu's TakingTheBullet moment, he responds with a lighting attack that outright cripples the boss and makes the fight far easier.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'': The Felyne Whitescruff from Cheeko Sands. The first time you meet him, he keeps whining about he's an easily frightened, good-for-nothing loser. After you take down Akantor, [[spoiler:the same one who defeated his original master and made him so jittery in the first place]], he asks to join you as a Palico. It gets better: [[spoiler:it turns out he's an aggressive-type Palico who prioritises fighting large wyverns, with two special abilities, one that increases his damage and health massively if you are KO'd and another that tantamounts to him ''jumping on the wyvern's face and clawing away at its eyes'', giving you an opening]]. Not bad, little buddy.

** Shown by [[spoiler:Master Kohga]] of all people in Videogame/HyruleWarriorsAgeOfCalamity. When in a life or death situation, [[spoiler:Sooga]] tells him to run, and he begins to... only to immediately change his mind and back him up. The DLC further shows that [[spoiler:Kohga]] helped carry [[spoiler:Sooga]] despite the insurmountable danger the duo was in. Ultimately [[spoiler:Sooga forces Kohga to run for his life when the two hit an unwinnable situation, and it's clear Kohga still doesn't want to, but has no choice, and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Sooga refuses to let Kohga die here.]] It also becomes the inciting incident where Kohga [[HeelFaceTurn switches sides]] to take down [[EnemyMine Aster and Ganon]].]]

* As usual, [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo Shaggy]] shows shades of this in ''VideoGame/{{Multiversus}}'', but it's given a twist here. Thanks to having mistaken a power crystal for candy, [[AdaptationalBadass he became super-powerful and confident enough]] to fight the likes of superheroes like ComicBook/Superman and ''win'', yet he's still afraid of ghosts and worries when his friends are missing.
* Abe from the ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' series. He was an employee/slave working at a terrible factory, and when he found out the the next food product were going to be made from his species, he makes a break for it alongside his other slave. He is a meek fellow, always on the edge from danger, but he walks into it to save his fellow slaves and escape to freedom. in Soulstorm, he becomes a living legend to other Mudokon slaves who are working in other terrible places.

** In Videogame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga, Mario contracts Bean Fever and the only cure is Crabbie Grass that grows in the Guffawha Ruins. This requires a dangerous solo trek which utterly terrifies Luigi. When reminded that Mario will not get better without it, Luigi forces himself to walk to the entrance of the ruins while trembling. The doctor even notes that Luigi's sheer brotherly love is forcing his legs to move.

** Amy Rose. In ''Sonic Adventure'' she's afraid of Zero and spends most of the game running away from him, but when this one [[BerserkButton hurts a little bird she was protecting]], she goes MamaBear and takes him down with her own hands (or rather, [[DropTheHammer with her hammer]]).