Parental Abandonment / Video Games

Single Parent Rule: RPG characters with two living parents are almost unheard of. As a general rule, male characters will only have a mother, and female characters will only have a father. The missing parent either vanished mysteriously and traumatically several years ago or is never referred to at all. Frequently the main character's surviving parent will also meet an awkward end just after the story begins, thus freeing him of inconvenient filial obligations.

—The Grand List Of Console RPG Clichés #6

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• Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, where the narrator's parents die after a downed plane crashes into the cape where the family home is. In Joint Assault Sulejmani's Freudian Excuse is that he was sold off by his parents to be a Child Soldier.
• Advanced Variable Geo: Satomi's parents died in a car accident. The whereabouts of most other characters' are never elaborated upon, although in Erina's case, her desperate longing to bring her grandmother to Japan might be a good indicator that her parents are gone as well.
• In the Dating Sim Always Remember Me, the protagonist's parents died in a car crash before the game, and she is currently under the care of her aunt.
• In Amea, the fact that her parents had abandoned her was the reason why Amea joined the Cult of The Eye in the first place.
• Another Code: Ashley's parents are both gone by her third birthday, leaving her with her Aunt Jessica. Dad coming back into her life is the plot of both games. Mom's kinda dead, though.
• Baldur's Gate:
  • Your character is raised by a foster father, and never knew who his or her mother was (the series, in fact, gives two conflicting descriptions of who she was; both might be true). As for your blood father, well, better you didn't know: the freaking god of murder.
  • There is also your half-brother Sarevok and your half-sister, Imoen. And there are companions such as Valygar Corthala, who killed his own parents when they turned into ghouls. And Viconia deVir, whose mother was killed by her brother for trying to kill her. And Aerie, who was kidnapped from her home by slavers and raised by a gnomish carny. And Anomen Delryn, whose mother is dead and whose father is abusive and drunk. And Nalia de'Arnise, whose mother is long dead and whose father is killed by trolls during the course of the game. And Lord Keldorn Firecam doesn't spend enough time at home with his kids. And Cernd doesn't even know that he has a kid.
• Jade's parents in Beyond Good & Evil disappeared mysteriously when she was an infant; she was raised by her father's best friend. A Final Speech by an Almost Dead Guy near the end of the game implies that they were killed trying to protect her... And the Big Bad himself implies that she never had any, due to her nature as a MacGuffin Turned Human.
• In both the NES and Wii versions of A Boy and His Blob, the boy's parents are never seen, even when he's at home. This is especially disturbing in the Wii version, since the extra material states that the boy is supposed to be around six years old.
• The Caligula Effect has a case where you actually meet the parents and not the child. Kotono and Ryosuke had sex shortly before graduating high school, and Ryosuke disappeared after graduation, leaving Kotono to raise the child with her mother. However, two years later, Kotono grows sick of being a single parent, and uses parties as an escape. As a result of this, she ends up in Mobius, where she's now been, away from her son, for two years.
• Chest: Tole was thrown off a cliff by his parents, and he's been looking for them ever since, but is afraid of what to say to them because he fears they no longer want him. In the ending, it's revealed that his parents actually threw him down a small ledge that they knew he would survive so they could temporarily hide him from the debt collectors, but he instinctively teleported away from them and got separated.
• The Firstborn from Clive Barker's Jericho. Oh, and the parent just happens to be God. Who booted the Firstborn out of reality itself. The Firstborn is understandably pissed at humanity for being favored over him.
• The surprisingly dark twist of the otherwise child-friendly Scenario A in obscure DS RPG Deep Labyrinth is that the main character — a young boy — must come to terms with the fact that his parents' marriage is failing and they both harbor feelings of resentment towards each other and him.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Dante and Vergil's father, the uber-Devil Sparda who awoke to justice, has been missing since their early childhood and both are bitter about it. It's never explicitly stated what happened, but it is suggested that he was either killed or captured by the demons. Their mother Eva was killed some time later in a demonic attack on their house.
  • Devil May Cry 3's Lady's mother was killed by her father as part of a sacrifice, and later pays him back in turn.
  • Nero from Devil May Cry 4 was not only abandoned in Fortuna at an early age by his biological parents, his adoptive parents end up dying from a demonic attack in his early childhood. No protagonist is safe from this trope. Even better, Capcom has revealed that his father is Vergil, who was totally absent from Nero's life, though as of Devil May Cry 5 Vergil didn't even know he had a son.
  • In Devil May Cry 5 Nero's business partner and weapons maker Nico's father (4's Mad Scientist Agnus) abandoned his daughter and wife and left them for dead. As such she absolutely no ill will to his killer Dante.
• Why should we let the Dragon Age roster off easy?
  • Dragon Age: Origins:
    • Most of the possible Wardens have bad stuff happen to their families — in fact, the only origin where they're both present puts them through Death by Origin Story almost immediately. Zevran is the son of a brothel worker who suffered Death by Childbirth. Alistair couldn't be acknowledged by his parents due to him being a Royal Bastard, and his substitute father figure sent him to a monastery after marrying. Leliana's mother had her out of wedlock and died young. Morrigan never knew her father and her mother is... a whole other kettle of fish. Circle mages get this both ways; not only are they allowed little to no contact with their families, but any children they have in the Circle are taken from them almost at once. In Wynne's case, she never knew her real parents at all — her earliest memory is of hiding in a hayloft to keep warm. The farmer's family took her in until her powers manifested. She herself is a Missing Mom to the son who was taken from her in the Circle. The Qunari simply practice No Blood Ties, so Sten has never known his parents.
    • The Awakening DLC cast doesn't get off lightly either. Velanna's parents are implied to be dead, with her sister being her only living relative. Nathaniel's parents are definitely dead; the Warden killed his father during the main game.
  • Dragon Age II: Hawke's father is already dead when the game starts. Their mother, Leandra, is murdered late in the game's second act. Anders, being a Circle mage, hasn't seen his parents since he was taken from them as a child. Isabela never knew her father, and her mother sold her into a loveless marriage. Both of Aveline's parents are dead. Merrill left the clan she was born in to train as another clan's Keeper, and hasn't seen her parents in years. Varric's father died when he was a toddler, and his mother drank herself to death a few years before the game. Fenris is an amnesiac ex-slave with no memory of his family, and his mother is confirmed to be dead by his sister. DLC-only companion Sebastian is introduced seeking revenge for the murder of his entire family. Get the idea?
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: Possibly averted or played straight with the Inquisitor, depending on which race and dialogue options are chosen. Cassandra's parents were executed when she was a child, after they tried to overthrow the King of Nevarra. Sera was orphaned when she was too young to remember her parents and her Parental Substitute has also died. The Iron Bull, like Sten, doesn't know his parents due to Qunari custom. Vivienne, being a Circle mage, was taken from her parents when she was very young. Dorian's parents are both still alive but he is not on speaking terms with them, and his father is assassinated in the year between the main game and Trespasser. Cullen's parents died during the events of the first game, although this is revealed more in supplemental material than in the game proper.
• Dragon Quest series:
  • Dragon Quest II: Princess of Moonbrooke's father sacrifices his life to save his daughter from Hargon.
  • Dragon Quest III: The Hero's father Ortega dies in a heroic battle with Zoma's enforcer.
  • Dragon Quest IV:
    • Solo/Sofia has a loving adopted family until his/her parents are killed off at the beginning of his/her chapter. During his/her chapter, it's revealed that the Hero's real father is dead, while his/her mother is alive. Also, very early on in his/her chapter, the Hero can meet his/her grandfather, though neither of them know of their relation to each other when this occurs.
    • Maya and Meena's father is killed. No mother is mentioned.
  • Dragon Quest V:
    • Madason doesn't know his mother. His father takes him on a quest to find her. Then Pankraz is killed, telling The Hero to search for her mother before she dies, thus the major objective of the game after the Time Skip.
    • Bianca's mother dies from illness between the Time Skip.
    • Parry and Madchen have this issue because their parents, The Hero and his wife, are cursed into stones for years.
  • Dragon Quest VI: The Hero has only his sister. Except not really, it turns out that both your parents are quite alive and after you find them, are quite helpful and play a role in the plot. Making this the biggest aversion of this trope in the whole series.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: The Hero doesn't seem to have any parents. His relatives are dragons.
  • Dragon Quest XI:
    • The Luminary gets hit with this twice over. His biological parents where both killed shortly after his birth when his home kingdom was overrun by monsters, and his adoptive mother Amber was killed when King Carnelian ordered his childhood home slaughtered to the last man. Except not really. One of the first things the Luminary discovers post-Time Skip is that Hendrick had everyone in Cobblestone imprisoned in the dungeon instead of killing them and they were all released once Carnelian was freed from Mordegon's mind control. Amber is still alive and well by the time the credits roll.
    • Jade also got hit with this pretty hard, with her biological mother dying shortly after she was born and her surrogate mother (The Luminary's biological mother) being murdered when she was only four. Her father actually is alive, but they've been estranged ever since she was a child due to him being possesed by Mordegon.
• In Dungeon Fighter Online, both the Fighter and the Slayer have lost their parents. The Fighter lost her parents to monsters, but the manner in which the Slayer lost his parents was much more sinister.
• Lampshaded in EarthBound. Ness's parents are alive and present throughout the adventure, apparently pleased that their son is engaging in a potentially lethal quest to save the world. However, his father is never seen for the entirety of the game, only talking to Ness through phone conversations to save the game.
  • It's the same situation for Ninten in EarthBound Beginnings. Although there was a (ultimately abandoned) Sequel Hook that seemed to imply his father would be more involved.
  • Mother 3. Don't get us started on Mother 3. In the same night Lucas loses both his mother and his twin. He still has his father, but Flint's reserved, and everyday is out either at his wife's grave or still searching for his son.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The Sload, a race of "slugmen" native to the archipelago of Thras to the southwest of Tamriel, are a species of hermaphrodites that have no interest in the fate of their (grub-like) offspring.
  • That the Player Character's parents are unknown is an important plot point in Morrowind ('born on a certain day to uncertain parents...').
  • Skyrim:
    • The player determines whether or not the Dragonborn's parents are alive in dialogue options in the Dawnguard DLC when Serana inquires after them.
    • Vilkas and Farkas, the twin brothers in the Companions guild, have this in their backstory. They have no memory of their mother at all; they were brought to the guildhall as small children by Jergen, a Companion who may or may not have been their father, but filled the role until he left to fight in the Great War, and he never came back.
• Elite Beat Agents gives us one of the biggest Tear Jerker takes on this trope with its "A Christmas Gift" mission. The girl loses her father in an accident and the mission is to help her accept her loss. The usual EBA way of using song and dance is toned down in wackiness to reflect the somberness of the scene and successful completion allows the father's spirit to return and deliver the Christmas present he promised.
• Evolution Worlds:
  • Mag Launcher's parents are both absent by the time the game starts, with Gre Nade acting as his Parental Substitute. Asroc, Mag's father, sent Linear to Mag along with a note telling him to watch over her one month after Asroc's disappearance and 3 years prior to the start of the game. Mag and Gre are both confident that Asroc is still alive though. It's less clear what happened to Mag's mother, but the fact that Mag's Flavor Text suggests that she is/was alive suggests that she disappeared along with Asroc.
  • Chain Gun's parents are also not seen in-game, with Easter and Kashim acting as her guardians in their absence. Unlike Mag, however, Chain's parents are explained as being abroad with the implication that they stay in touch with their daughter.
• All of the Final Fantasy games are like this. You could probably count the number of characters in the whole series that actually have a named parent on one hand, and forget finding a character with both a named mother and father.
  • All heroes in all versions (so far) of Final Fantasy are amnesiac and, thus do not remember their parents. True, this doesn't necessarily imply that they are dead... but the overall effect is the same, and given the series' track record...
  • Final Fantasy II: Maria and Leon's birth parents, who are also Firion and Guy's adoptive parents, get slaughtered by Imperial troops right at the start of the game. As for Guy and Firion—Guy was abandoned by his actual parents at birth and raised by wild animals (specifically a beast named Mauza) until Maria and Leon's family took him in. They also took in Firion, who had been orphaned in the city of Salamand. The dragoon boy named Kain in Deist lost his father and then loses the man who promises to raise him, and Josef's daughter Nelly ends up orphaned after Josef's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Final Fantasy III: The four main characters all turn out to have been orphaned by the same event — Cid's airship was torn apart by the cataclysm that froze most of the world in time, and only the four children and Cid himself survived the event, with their birth parents all perishing. They aren't the only ones either, since Prince Alus had already lost his mother some time before the events of the game, and then his father, King Gorn, tries to kill him as he sleeps and eventually has to commit suicide to prevent himself from carrying out the deed. At least Gorn was being controlled by Garuda, making his actions that bit less horrific.
  • Final Fantasy IV: Parental Abandonment plays a big role in Theodor's transformation into Golbez and Cecil's adoption by the King of Baron. On the same day, Kluya died at the hands of angry humans and his wife Cecilia died giving birth to Cecil. In addition, Rydia's mother is inadvertently killed by Cecil's hands near the start of the game. She later finds a new family of sorts in the Land of Summoned Monsters. Kain's mother is never mentioned, and it's All There in the Manual that his father died when Kain was a child. Edge's parents are turned into monsters by Dr. Lugae, and commit suicide upon realising what they have become. Edward's parents are both killed in the assault on Damcyan and are never seen by the player. Rosa's father is dead, but remarkably, her mother is still alive. Also inverted, since Anna dies before her father, Tellah, albeit not by very long.
  • Final Fantasy V: Bartz lost both of his parents to natural causes before the events of the game, while Lenna lost her mother in similar circumstances, and then her father is killed by Exdeath partway into the game. Faris initially has no knowledge of who her birth parents are, having apparently been orphaned in a shipwreck and raised by pirates. It later turns out that she's actually Lenna's older sister, a fact which is confirmed just in time for her to watch their father die. Poor old Krile has it the worst however, as not only did she lose both of her parents prior to the game's events, but her last surviving relative Galuf, her grandfather, dies battling Exdeath in the game's Tear Jerker moment, leaving her completely alone in the world. Well, apart from the other player characters, anyway
  • Final Fantasy VI: Relm's mother died and her father ran away and became a Ninja mercenary with a pet dog who's Made of Iron, although Relm was raised by her grandfather — Relm's true parentage is never explicitly stated. Gau's mother died in childbirth, causing his father to go insane and abandon him on the Veldt. Terra loses her parents both at the same time — her mother Madeline/Madonna is killed when The Empire raids the Esper world, and her father Maduin, being an Esper, is taken by the Empire's scientists as a laboratory subject who dies over the course of the game. Edgar and Sabin lose their mother in their very early childhood, and their father dies in their teens, strongly implied to have been killed by The Empire. Locke's mother is never mentioned and his father is dead by the start of the game.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Cloud's mother died when Sephiroth went berserk in Nibelheim. In Remake, it's revealed that his father died when he was very young.
    • Tifa's mother died when she was 8-years-old^note Which led to an additional tragedy when, confused and upset, she wandered off to Mt. Nibel believing she could meet her mother if she crossed the mountains; there was an accident, Tifa got hurt, and Cloud (who'd been following to protect her) got blamed for it, while her father was one of the casualties of the Nibelheim incident.
    • Aerith's father, Gast Faremis, was killed by Hojo when he left Shinra to start a new life, while her mother, Ifalna, died of exhaustion during their escape from Hojo. Aerith was subsequently raised by Elmyra Gainsborough.
    • Barret adopted Marlene because the latter's parents died when Shinra attacked Corel. Barret later finds out that her father, Dyne, is still alive, but he has been driven insane (he thinks that Marlene died with his wife). After knocking some sense into him when he tries to commit Murder-Suicide on Marlene, Barret is entrusted to raise her on Dyne's behalf before he decides to jump off of a cliff.
    • Red XIII's parents died protecting Cosmo Canyon from the Gi Tribe.
    • Vincent Valentine's father, Grimoire, was killed in a materia experiment performed by Lucrecia Crescent, while his mother is never mentioned.
    • Sephiroth was told that his mother, Jenova, died during childbirth. In truth, he was taken away from his biological mother, the aforementioned Lucrecia Crescent, shortly after he was born. She then tried to commit suicide, but failed, and then sealed herself away in a crystal to atone for her misdeeds. His real father, Hojo, neglected to ever mention that he was his father.
    • The Turk member Cissnei from Crisis Core was raised by Shinra after being found in an orphanage, her parents' death never explained.
    • In Dirge of Cerberus, Shalua and Shelke Rui's parents are dead years before the Compilation takes place.
    • Weiss and Nero's mother gets sucked into darkness when she gives birth to Nero.
    • Denzel from Advent Children lost his parents when the Sector 7 Plate collapsed.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, almost all of the main cast are orphans, which becomes something of a plot point.
    • Their surrogate mother-figure, Edea, abandoned them when they were still very young because she became possessed by an evil sorceress from the future. Their surrogate father figure, Cid, had all of them trained to be elite mercenaries, and allowed (if not actually arranged) for their memories of Edea to be wiped, in order to later send them to assassinate her.
    • Although Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine were all adopted, only Zell still appears to have a loving relationship with his adopted mother; Selphie and Irvine's adopted parents are never mentioned, and Quistis' adoption "didn't work out," causing her to be sent to Garden by the age of ten. Seifer was never adopted at all.
    • Rinoa's mother died in a car accident when she was a little girl, and she and her father are estranged over political conflicts.
    • And Squall takes the prize for Parental Abandonment issues: on top of the abovementioned abandonment by his surrogate mother and father, he also got abandoned by his other surrogate mother/big-sister figure at the age of about four, and between one and the other is left with crippling emotional issues that he struggles with throughout the game. On top of that, he eventually learns that his mother died in childbirth and his father is the president of a prosperous nation and had no idea he ever had a son.
    • Even when they do meet, Squall's father only awkwardly hints that they have some things to talk about, and Squall doesn't indicate openly whether he's aware of the connection or not.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Zidane not only has no parents, but is phenotypically unique on Gaia (and in that game's verse, that's really saying something) and doesn't know anything about his origins. Garnet's an orphan who's been raised by Queen Brahne, who also dies part-way into the game. Vivi also is unique and unaware of his origins. Eiko is an orphan who lives alone in the ruins of her hometown... I think what we can take away from this is that Final Fantasy loves this trope.
  • Final Fantasy X is another winner.
    • Tidus' father went missing when he didn't return from swimming practice in the sea, and his mother died when he was eight and it left him to Auron to be taken care of.
    • Yuna's father is a legendary hero because he sacrificed himself to defeat Sin ten years ago. Her mother's own demise was the inspiration for her father's act of heroism.
    • Wakka's parents were killed by fiends when he was a child and so were Lulu's.
    • Rikku's mother was killed when malfunctioning machina went on a rampage.
    • Seymour gradually turned bad because when he was a child, his mother died to become an Aeon. And then he later killed his own father.
  • And Final Fantasy XII. Vaan and Penelo are both orphans (Vaan's parents died in a plague, Penelo's parents and Vaan's Promotion to Parent brother died in war with Archadia). Ashe's parents (and presumably the rest of the royal family) were wiped out two years ago. And Balthier keeps dropping vague references to unresolved issues with his own dad which are perfectly understandable, since his old man Cid is now a mad scientist who'll stop at nothing to unlock the secrets of immortality and ultimate power. Interestingly, while it's All There in the Manual that Basch believes his mother to be dead (his father is never mentioned), there's no confirmation one way or the other.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII Lightning's and Serah's parents died some years ago, causing Lightning to deny her emotions to care for her younger sister.
    • Snow is an orphan, everyone in NORA is..
    • Sazh is a single father and cares for his son Dajh alone.
    • Hope's mother Nora (who is tough) dies in a failed attempt to help the purge victims escape from PSICOM. He's also very distant from his father and only visits him to tell him what happened after heavy convincing by the other party members. However, his father is devestated by the news of Nora's death and there are several pictures of her in his home, so it's unclear if they actually lived seperated.
    • The final boss Orphan should be one because of his name.
    • That's actually a fair point to make, considering Orphan's genocidal plot is only formed because the fal'Cie wish to call back the Maker, the creator deity which allegedly abandoned the world and all his creations millions of years ago.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance goes back and forth with the trope. Marche's parents are never seen, but are mentioned to always being busy taking care of his sick brother, Doned. Ritz's father is never mentioned and her mother only gets a single mention over how sad she looked every time she dyed Ritz's hair. Mewt is a special case regarding his parents; his mother passed away when he was young, causing his father, Cid, to be "crying in the gutters" (or an alocholic in the Japanese version). Most of the plot revolves around Mewt using the powers of a magical book to make his own life better again by making his father a powerful judge master and reviving his mother back to life to become queen of Ivalice. Turns out that Mewt's mother isn't real and is a powerful magical being who is preying on Mewt's emotions.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics A2 doesn't use dead parents as the main plot point, but it's still there. Luso's parents aren't mentioned at all except for one scene where it's revealed that both of his parents died while he was young, leaving him in the care of his aunt. Adelle's parents also died while she was young because her entire village came down with a plague and she was the sole survivor.
• From the makers of Ace Attorney we then get Ghost Trick which goes all out in taking away poor Camila's parents in the cruelest ways imaginable. However, thanks to the timeline-altering efforts of the two most loyal pets ever, she ends up living happily ever after with both of them alive. Fans of Ace Attorney collectively cried tears of joy upon witnessing this unexpected outcome.
• The original Grandia has a few. Justin lives with his mother (his father, who gave Justin his McGuffin, is mentioned as having passed away), Sue is an orphan who lives with her aunt and uncle, the parents of Feena and her sister Leen are never mentioned, and Rapp's parents were petrified when the original Cafu village turned to stone. The rest of the cast is of adult age (and a few several times older than that, the oldest being a few centuries old), though it's also worth mentioning that Colonel Mullen's mother, a humanoid that General Baal married in order to learn ancient secrets about the ancient world, is also dead.
• Halo's Spartan-IIs are taken away from their parents at a young age to be raised by the military. The military made sure that the subject's parents wouldn't search for them by creating a flash clone. While flash cloning works perfectly for stuff like replacement organs, cloning a human is problematic since the accelerated growth results in the clone usually succumbing to metabolic cascade failure after a few months.
• Haven (2020): Kay grew up in an orphanage and is convinced that his parents willingly gave him up, as the pendant he constantly wears around his neck is the only thing he can associate with them. It's thanks to the function of said pendant that he finds out he and his family took part in the Apiary's colonization of Source, and that his parents were among the victims of the planet's partial destruction.
• In Hometown Story:
  • Steve, one of the bachelors, is the only youngster with both his parents around.
  • Yumi, who looks younger than the bachelorettes and the female main character, seems to be living alone.
  • Both justified (due to being from out of town) and a plot point for Shinji.
  • A later Miyo-Haruka event has the latter mention her father.
• During the timeskip between HuniePop and HuniePop 2, an inverted example occurs as Tiffany cuts off contact with her mother Jessie.
• Inazuma Eleven has plenty:
  • Yuuto and Haruna, they lost their parents in a plane crash and they ended up growing up in an orphanage. Haruna was later adopted into the Otonashi family, and Yuuto was recommended by Kageyama Reiji to the Kidou Financial Group after he witnessed Yuuto's natural talent for soccer.
  • Fubuki Shirou lost his whole family after an avalanche striked Shirou's car. He was pushed out by Atsuya, thus saving him.
  • Kageyama Reiji's father left his family because after losing a soccer match to Daisuke (before that he never lost), he started to lose every match after that and his mother died because of an illness. This is also his Freudian Excuse.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist:
  • While Tang and Dys's mom died from suicide, Dys states in his six-heart event that they never had a father, implying he was likely a Glorified Sperm Donor.
  • Vace's mother split when he was a baby and pretended he didn't exist, while his father died two years before the Heliopause passed through the wormhole. However, Vace doesn't miss his dad because he believed the latter was weak for drinking, knocking him around, and then "[falling] down a buncha stairs" after getting into an unwinnable fight. Said abusive father was the likely cause of his own abuse towards Rex and Anemone.
• In the Jak and Daxter series, there are only five fathers and mothers are only mentioned in passing.
• King's Heir: Rise to the Throne: The Ulmer brothers' father is dead, their mother is never seen, and Randall's birth parents, the Prince and Rose, are also both dead.
• Kingdom Hearts doesn't mention parents all that much, but when they do, they're almost always absent:
  • The only character whose parents are confirmed to be deceased is Ienzo/Zexion, as their deaths led Ansem the Wise to adopt him.
  • In the first game, Sora's mother is heard calling him for dinner, and Riku mentions his parents at one point. They are never referenced again afterward, though they are presumably still around.
  • Kairi was adopted by the Mayor of Destiny Islands upon being stranded there. Before then, she lived with her grandmother (who presumably perished when Radiant Garden was swallowed by darkness), implying that she is an orphan.
  • The only father figure Terra and Aqua have is Master Eraqus, who bites the dust in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Ventus grew up under Master Xehanort, then Eraqus, before which his past is equally mysterious. Kingdom Hearts χ reveals that Ventus has been around since hundreds of years ago, so if he has parents, they're obviously no longer around.
• Dustil Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic thinks his father Carth abandoned him. Carth at least had something of an excuse, since he believed his son had been killed during the Sith bombardment of Telos.
• A lot of the cast of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel have family issues.
  • Rean: Adopted. His biological father is eventually revealed to be alive, but an enemy. Biological mother really is dead.
  • Alisa: Mother is a workaholic who only spares time to have dinner with her only child roughly once a month. Father deceased, later revealed to be alive and an enemy. Grandfather moved away after retiring. Alisa was essentially raised by the maid.
  • Machias: Mother deceased, father usually busy with a very high-level government position.
  • Jusis: Mother deceased, relationship with father highly strained, later becoming an enemy.
  • Elliot: Mother deceased, doesn't spend much time with his father because Elliot lives in his mother's home in the capital with his sister while his father commands an army division on the border. Relationship mildly strained over a dispute about Elliot's future career, which eventually gets resolved amicably.
  • Laura: Mother deceased, actually has stable relationship with surviving parent.
  • Crow: Parents deceased, raised by grandparent, who is also deceased.
  • Emma: Parents never mentioned, raised by grandparental figure. This is later updated in The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie to having both parents dead, her father of natural causes when she was very young, her mother in a Mutual Kill with an old enemy of the family, who didn't stay dead and then possessed Alisa's father.
  • Millium: Never had parents, raised by a grandparental figure.
  • Fie: Orphaned, adopted, orphaned again, then everyone else in her surrogate family abandoned her at her adoptive father's request.
  • This leaves Gaius as the only member of the original Class VII to have a stable, two-parent home.
• The Legend of Zelda: Many fans have expressed curiosity as to where Link's parents are during any of his adventures. This is perhaps most glaring in the original game in the series; since Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is stated to be taking place a couple years after the original game, and the game's manual clearly remarks that Link is now sixteen years old, one has to wonder how young he was the first time around.
  • Some of the games, however, do give Link other relatives — he had a grandmother and a sister in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a grandfather in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and an uncle in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Additionally, the Expanded Universe of Link to the Past states that his parents are deceased, but had been Hylian Knights (yes, both of them). The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time also says his mother died and left him to be cared for by the Deku Tree before succumbing to unspecified injuries, though his father is never mentioned. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's revealed that his father was a royal guard, though the exact nature of his fate is never revealed. The other games seem to assume that Link just came into existence on his own; this is particularly egregious in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword because Link is said to have been a native of Skyloft, yet the students at the Knight Academy all have their families living on the small floating town except for Link himself.
  • Considering how in Wind Waker Link's grandmother reacted to his quest to save Aryll (becoming ill with grief and anxiety), it's not too hard to imagine why he's an orphan in a lot of these games. It avoids the Fridge Horror element of asking what kind of parent would allow their young son to go off and experience all of that.
  • Zelda fares similarly to Link, as most of the time her parents are either unmentioned or, when mentioned, completely unseen (such as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where the king of Hyrule is mentioned often in the beginning but never actually appears, and is all but outright stated to have been killed by Ganondorf off-screen when Impa fled with Zelda). In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, her parents are explicitly Posthumous Characters who significantly affected her (her father was stern and put high expectations on her, her mother was the one who gave her passion for archaeology). One exception to all of the above is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, where her father is the headmaster of the academy she and Link attend (though her mother remains absent and unaddressed).
• Jeros in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals ends up abandoned by his parents, as Maxim and Selan both die on Doom Island. The remake's New Game Plus ending averts this.
• Lunar: The Silver Star:
  • The first game is one of the rare RPGs to subvert this trope. The main character, Alex, not only has both parents intact, they manage to survive to the end, despite being abducted halfway through the game.
  • The sequel, Lunar: Eternal Blue plays this trope straight, however. Hiro is raised by his grandfather, with no mention of any parents.
• The Normandy from Mass Effect is often nicknamed the "SSV Daddy Issues." There is a very good reason for this.
  • Two of the three possible origins of Commander Shepard involve parental abandonment: in one (Colonist), both of Shepard's parents were killed when slavers raided the colony they lived in, and in the other (Earthborn), Shepard grew up on the streets of Earth and never knew his or her parents at all. Averted with the Spacer origin — both of Shepard's parents are alive and well, though Shepard's father is barely mentioned. Shepard's mother, Hannah Shepard, on the other hand, is contacted by Shepard during a side quest in the first game, is mentioned in the Galactic News and sends Shepard a letter in the second game, is mentioned multiple times throughout the third game, and talks with Shepard in the "Citadel" DLC in the third game.
  • Liara never knew her "father" and her mother was brainwashed into joining the Big Bad of Mass Effect. The "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC for the second game reveals Liara's dad's identity (Matriarch Aethyta, the bartender at Eternity on Illium). In the third game, you can encourage Liara to talk to her.
  • Wrex never mentions his mother, but does explain that his father betrayed and tried to murder him, causing Wrex to kill him.
  • Ashley's father is also dead, but it's never said how. That her mother is still alive and she actually had a decent relationship with her dad means she's still one of the luckier ones on this list.
  • Tali's mom died several years before the beginning of the story, and her father (an Admiral of the Migrant Fleet), while not having abandoned Tali, was emotionally distant for most of her life. Then, in the second game, Shepard and Tali find her father's corpse on the science ship he was working on, killed by the geth he was brutally experimenting on in order to "give his daughter the homeworld."
  • Garrus's mother is never mentioned in the game, but his father is. The "Lair of the Shadow Broker" dossier reveals that she's dying of an incurable disease, which, coupled with Garrus's numerous failings, puts him at odds with his sister. In the third game, Garrus only mentions his father and sister when talking about his family, implying that his mother died in the year between the second and third games. Averted in the third game, mainly due to the fact that Garrus decided to talk with his father about preperations for the Reapers, and he listens.
  • Miranda never had a mother — she was created using her father's DNA, his Y chromosone altered with traits from a number of women. However, she wasn't created so he could love someone, rather, to preserve his legacy. She left her father at the age of 16 and hasn't spoken to him since. In the third game, she kills him.
  • Jacob's father was the Executive Officer of an freighter which disappeared in 2176, almost nine years before the events of the second game. During the course of Jacob's loyalty mission, Shepard and Jacob discover that the freighter crashed on an uncharted planet with plant life that causes neural degradation in humans. As the crew succumbed to the effects of the toxic food, Jacob's dad set himself up as the cult-like leader of the crash's survivors, killing off anybody who questioned his rule and making a harem out of the female survivors. Of the three options the player has of dealing with him, two lead to his death.
  • Jack never knew her parents, having been raised in a laboratory and experimented upon to create the ultimate biotic. Her "Lair of the Shadow Broker" dossier reveals that when Jack (then named Jennifer) was a baby, her mother sent her in for a routine checkup. The doctor, noting that the infant had great biotic potential, convinced the woman that her daughter had died from a seizure and sent Jack off to Pragia to be studied.
  • Grunt's "father," Warlord Okeer, created him to be the "perfect" krogan using DNA from himself and several prominent krogan. Okeer is killed before Grunt ever leaves his growth pod. Even then, Okeer only cared about Grunt as a weapon, and Grunt quickly dismisses Okeer as irrelevant, since none of his programming interests him.
  • Thane, on the other hand, is an inversion of this trope. He abandoned his son, Kolyat, after his wife was killed by slavers that were trying to get to him. Shepard can reunite father and son during the course of the game.
  • Samara is also an inversion. One of her daughters turned out to be a Serial Killer, so Samara left to hunt her down, leaving the other two behind in the Monastery that everyone with their condition is imprisoned in. If Samara dies in the suicide mission, or can not be talked out of killing herself to fulfil the Justicar Code, Samara's youngest daughter is left without any family at all.
  • The fact that both of Kaidan's parents are alive and well, and he dealt with his father issues long before the events of the game, makes him a distinct anomaly in the squad. As if to correct this, his dad goes MIA during the third game and is presumed dead.
  • Captain Bailey gives the opinion that many of the Citadel's social problems relate to this trope. When you ask him to help a man take responsibility for his son's welfare, he jumps at the opportunity. He implies that a lot of it is guilt over not being there for his own son.
  • James Vega lost his mother as a teenager, after which his father fell into drugs. Their relationship died when James's father tried to blackmail James into being a drug courier.
  • Averted with Mordin. While he doesn't have any children to speak of, he does keep in contact with his nephew, even stating that he is an inspiration to survive the upcoming suicide mission.
  • Aethyta faced what may be one of the funniest examples ever. Her father was a veteran of the Rachni Wars, while both of her parents fought on opposite sides of the Krogan Rebellions. Aethyta's mother figured things out pretty quickly, but stayed quiet while Aethyta's father boasted. He was pushing a thousand and she was a matriarch when he finally found out. They called up Aethyta — who was about a hundred years old and working as a stripper — to tell her that they were going to have it out and she should keep loving whichever one survived. In Aethyta's words: "Turned out to be damned easy, since neither one did. Family, huh? What a kick in the quad."
  • EDI does not have abandonment issues from being on the other side from the Illusive Man, who she does not see as a father figure. This comes up because Shepard noticed the pattern and specifically asked.
• Of course, the cast of Mass Effect: Andromeda don't have it any easier than their predecessors.
  • The Ryder twins lost their mother to an illness while they were still in the Milky Way and their father to a freak accident not long after reaching Andromeda.
  • Cora Harper's parents disappeared in the Attican Traverse with the rest of their ship not long after she joined the Alliance. Cora never found out what happened to them. Even before then, it is implied that Cora's parents distanced themselves from her out of fear of her powers.
  • Vetra Nyx's mother wanted nothing to do with her children after she divorced their father, and their father disappeared when Vetra was a teenager, forcing Vetra to raise her much younger sister Sidera herself. Vetra never found out if her father was killed or if he just ran away (and Vetra's not entirely certain on whether he was alive and went deeper into hiding when she tried looking for him).
  • Jaal's father was captured by the kett and never seen again. Unfortunately that is not atypical among angara children.
  • Gil Brodie's father ran off before he was born, and it is implied that he lost his mother at an early age, leaving him as a Street Urchin.
  • Lexi T'Pero grew up on Omega and lost both of her parents in a turf war.
  • Something happened to Nakmor Kesh's parents that resulted in her being raised by her grandfather, Drack. Drack prefers not to discuss the matter due to the implication of Outliving One's Offspring.
  • And as for Drack himself, his mother, the legendary krogan Warlord Shiagur, was assassinated by turians when he was (comparatively speaking) young.
  • In general, anyone who didn't bring their parents to Andromeda with them had to mourn them once they woke up due to the six hundred year journey. Liam and Suvi both mention having trouble dealing with this at times.
• Mega Man Legends: Roll Caskett-both mom and dad are missing.
  • Mega Man ZX: Vent and Aile-their parents got killed by the Serpent group.
  • Mega Man Star Force: Geo Stelar-his mom is alive but his dad is missing. Star Force also takes it one step further with Sonia Strumm, as her mom died 3 months before the main story and Pat Sprigs, who like Roll Caskett, Vent and Aile has both parents missing.
• Otacon's mother died while he was still young, his father committed suicide (for which Otacon blames himself), and his stepmother seduced him into having sex with her. Throw in his notorious bad luck with women and we have the god of woobiedom on our hands.
  • And where to begin with Solid Snake...
  • Compared to Otacon Snake got off easy His father disowned him but his mother loved him and probably only gave him up because of Zero. His mother even told him everything right before he inadvertantly killed her. His father even came around and saved his son's life knowing that it would cost him his. Snake's real problem is his brothers.
• Similarly, in Neverwinter Nights 2, the closest thing you have to living relatives are your foster father and his brother. You never learn anything about your real parents.
  • There's also Gannayev in the expansion pack, Mask of the Betrayer. When asked about his history (Well, after you get him to stop dicking around and spinning one out of whole cloth), he says that he never knew his father and that his mother cast him out in the wilderness. You eventually do get to meet his mother, a Nighthag that's gone utterly insane. After enraging the Coven for refusing to kill her lover, they decided to punish her by tracking him down, killing him, and forcing his charred remains down the mother's throat in front of their son. It's probably a good thing that Gann doesn't really remember that part.
  • Also Neeshka, who says she doesn't really remember/know her parents and was taken in by Priests.
• NieR:
  • Depending on the version, either Yonah and Nier have lost both their parents (Replicant), or Yonah has lost her mother and her father Nier spends a very good deal of time searching for a cure for her condition (Gestalt).
  • Jakob and Gideon lose their mother, the Masked King lost his father, and both Fyra and Kainé were abandoned by their parents.
• Ryu Hayabusa's entire clan in Ninja Gaiden seems to be slaughtered every game or so.
• It's easier to list which Nintendo characters actually have parents or explain the lack of them.
  • Samus Aran had parents that were murdered by Space Pirates when she was very young, and she was adopted by the Chozo. And it's strongly implied that the Chozo are now all extinct. This would make Samus an orphan twice over!
  • Star Fox: Fox's father is mentioned in the intro, assumed to be killed by Andross. His mother is only directly seen in the comics, although Word of God states that she's alive, albeit estranged, in the 64 continuity. Other than that, direct relatives are scarce in the Star Fox setting, though. Slippy has a father that isn't canonically mentioned until Assault, Peppy eventually becomes a father (the wife is only mentioned in one ending in Command), but that's about it.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has Nino shame Canas for doing this, since he left Hugh, who at this point isn't yet two, at home to go on a journey of knowledge. (To his credit, he admits that he made a mistake, and his ending notes that he heads home after the events of the main story.)
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, aside from Ike, Mist, and Soren being parentless (well, Soren had both parents alive for some time, but unknowingly participated in the killing of his actual father, who had disowned him at birth)...
  • Elincia had both her parents killed in the events starting Path of Radiance.
  • Boyd, Rolf, and Oscar's story is a little complex. Boyd and Oscar had the same parents, but their mother died. Their father remarried and produced Rolf by the new wife, but then the father died, and wife number two fled. In one of this series' many instances of Guide Dang It!, you have to have one of the three brothers visit one specific house in Chapter III-1 to learn this.
  • Micaiah's parentage is unknown through most of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, though she's understood to be an orphan of sorts. Her true heritage, making her the true Apostle of Begnion, means she was forced to flee her family when the assassination was carried out against her grandmother, though presumably either her mother or father or both remained alive long enough to conceive Sanaki, her sister, and it was never explained why the Apostleship skipped a generation like that.
  • There's actually implications that she was not aware of her heritage as Apostle of Begnion. Micaiah is not the kind of person who would order the death of her own sister, even under threat of the Blood Pact. Due to Micaiah's age being unknown, there is a window of error for the events and how they unfold. There is actually more reason to theorize that she lost her memory, as that would explain her ignorance of her heritage as well as help accommodate Micaiah's aging.
  • Sothe, Laura, Aran, and Edward are explicitly stated to be orphans.
  • The Heron Royals' mother is stated to have died in the Serenes Massacre, and their father was severely debilitated to the point where even Reyson, the one royal who remained with their father after the incident, was raised by Tibarn and/or Naesala.
  • Jill is an inversion. She abandoned her father, a Daein General, to fight for the other side when she figured out that what he was doing was wrong. Doubly inverted in that Shiharam knew what he was doing was wrong, but had to fight for the good of the people of the Daein fiefdom that he ruled. Indeed, if Jill is made to fight her father, she'll turn into an Enemy unit.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening Chrom and Lissa's father was a warmongering tyrant, which they're still cleaning up after when the events of the game roll around. The Avatar as well as the most of the second generation suffer from this as well. In the case of the children, their parents died in the war against Grima. This is brought up by most of the children during their support conversations with their parents. The Avatar's parents are revealed to be Validar and an unnamed woman who tried to save him/her from their father.
  • Fire Emblem Fates: Niles's father abandoned his mother while she was pregnant, and his mother left shortly after giving birth to him, so soon he doesn't even remember her face. Similarly, Beruka's parents dumped her off on an assassin who raised her to be an emotionless killing machine.
• Nippon Ichi loves to use this trope.
  • In Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Cornet's mother, Cherie, died protecting her when she was young.
  • In La Pucelle: Tactics, Prier's and Cullotte's parents were killed in a wagon accident years before the game begins. Homard became a Sky Pirate to defeat the demon who injured his father and attacked his kingdom, Marl Kingdom, making him the grandson of Cornet from Rhapsody.
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Flonne's parents are never mentioned. Etna is an orphan, and the closest thing she had to a father figure, the Overlord and Laharl's dad, died two years ago. Laharl's mother died before the game began when she sacrificed herself to cure him of an incurable disease and his father, the Overlord, died choking on a black pretzel which is just a rumor and actually died after sealing away Baal. Both his parents, however, do return to watch over him...though his mother is a Prinny and his father is The Dandy Goldfish Poop Gang. Jennifer was orphaned, and her adopted father is The Dragon. Flonne's parents are met in the Japan only novels.
  • In Phantom Brave, both of Marona's parents die in the opening cutscene. Ash's parents are never mentioned. Walnut was adopted and then later left his adoptive parents so that he wouldn't burden them and his sister, Castille. In the Updated Re-release, you have Carona, a Marona from an Alternate Universe who loses her parents and Ash.
  • In Makai Kingdom, we see Alex's family during the credits, but they're never mentioned nor do they appear in the game. Pram took her Netherworld from her father at the age of two (Making this a case of the child abandoning the parent) and depending on how you interpret King Drake's accusation of her taking his Netherworld, he may be her father. Other than that, none of the Overlords have visible parents.
  • In Disgaea 2 , Adell reveals to Rozalin early on that he was adopted, and likely abandoned by his blood-parents. It turns out that Adell's parents are the masked man and woman serving under Overlord Zenon against their will. Triggers a rather tragic case of Self-Made Orphan. Rozalin shamefully admits that she never met her father in person and really the "father" was an old foe with a grudge who got off on the idea of the God of all Overlords being subservient to him, who was actually Rozalin in her past life. It's also implied that he killed her mother in his attack on the Snow Tribe that also claimed the lives of Yukimaru and Fubuki's parents. Tink's parents are never mentioned at all, but presumably aren't there as he seems to live with Rozalin instead.
    • In the manga version of Disgaea 2, we are treated to a flashback of Rozalin's mother... and her fate alongside the rest of the clan. Rozalin's mother is actually seen in the official art book. Also in the manga Adell's parents sacrifice their lives so that he can reach Zenon before he escapes with Rozalin. Finally, Zenon is killed by Rozalin, but despite being a fake, Rozalin still sees him as her father.
    • According to the Updated Re-release's Axel Mode, it's very common for a demons to abandon their children. Axel himself and the rest of his siblings are all revealed to be orphans and their mother actually adopted them.
  • Danette's parents in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters were killed by Thurists. Gig has no parents, being a god, and Revya has no parents. In his/her past life, his/her mother died 200 years and his/her father, Lord Median, is currently a zombie. Tricia, Levin, and Euphoria were also orphaned at a young age. Trish was eventually adopted for the purpose of being raped at the age of 17 (Whether or not this happens depends on which path you chose) and Levin and Euphoria were being used by the World Eater Raksha so that he could put his Evil Plan into action as his body couldn't move.
  • In Disgaea 3, Mao's mother is never mentioned, and lives under the custody of his butler rather than his father because, as we find out later, said father is actually dead. Mao repressed the memory out of guilt over indirectly causing his death.. Sapphire's parents died when she was little, and she's rather infamous in the human world for not mourning either of their deaths. Almaz's parents aren't mentioned but, considering that he went on an almost suicidal mission to defeat the Netherworld's Overlord for the sake of a crush, we can probably assume they weren't around to stop him. Raspberyl's parents are brought up during a flashback with Mao, but they are never seen.
  • In Disgaea 4, Fuka's mother died long ago and her father is always at work, though it turns out that her father was creating a little sister for her.
• No Umbrellas Allowed:
  • According to one newspaper, Merry Kim's jeweler parents were killed in a robbery when he was 10, and AVAC took him in and trained him to become their youngest officer in the present.
  • Eggie's parents were outside their home when Fixerain poured on them, making them Legally Dead due to their emotional numbness. Because they became apathetic towards Eggie, she ran away from them.
• Octopath Traveler: Ophilia, Therion, Primrose, Alfyn and H'aanit are all orphaned. Ophilia is Happily Adopted but her adoptive father also dies during her story and so is H'aanit, in a way (Z'aanta is practically a father to her). Tressa is the only character confirmed to have living biological parents.
• Overlord II: Not only is the Overlad's father stuck in The Abyss, his mother Rose soon after giving birth to him leaves him in a village where he's hated for being a Creepy Child who shoots lightning out of his hands to assist The Empire in what she thought would be the restoration of order to the lands by assisting Florian's conquest of the lands.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 3, every member of SEES has parents who are either distant or dead. That makes it a lot easier to go live in a dorm full of teenagers and a creepy old guy, and a lot easier to go out at midnight on a near-daily basis.
  • Persona 5: Most of your party has parents who are never seen or are outright dead:
    • The Protagonist, Ryuji, and Ann have parents, but they are never seen and at best are rarely brought up. In Ryuji's case, it's due to having an abusive dad, and in the Protagonist's because they want nothing to do with you while you're on probation. Ann though has no reason given for her parents never being involved.
    • Yusuke, Futaba and Makoto lost both their parents. Yusuke was taken in by Madarame, Futaba was adopted by Sojiro, and Makoto lives with her sister. Haru and Goro both lost their mothers with Haru's father dying partway through the game and Goro's father having abandoned his mother before he was even born.
• Pokémon In most Pokémon games, the player character usually has a mom and a mom only; whatever happened to dear old Dad is never explained.
  • Red, Blue and Yellow also have your rival, Blue — who is supposed to be Professor Oak's grandson, but appears to live with his sister. Where did the Professor's child go?
  • Averted quite noticeably in Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire — not only is Dad still around, but he's a Gym Leader, and yes, you do have to wail on Pappy for a badge. He does not go easy on his own child. Not. In. The. Least. In the same games, both your rivals have both parents present in the game as well; rival Brendan/May's father is Professor Birch, while Wally also has both parents as well as an aunt, uncle and cousin who love and support him.
  • The player character's father is mentioned in Platinum, with Mom saying that you're just like him. Your rival's father also appears as the Battle Tower Tycoon, who also brings up that fact that he and the player's father started their adventure in a similar manner to the player and their rival. However, what happened to the player character's father is, as ever, not explained.
  • A special event in HeartGold and SoulSilver, remakes of Gold and Silver, actually shows you the very moment Silver's father, Giovanni, abandoned him.
  • Pokémon Black and White: The sequel reveals that N turns out to have been orphaned by his parents because he was somehow born with the ability to read the minds of Pokemon. Ghetsis then found him and used him as a Tyke Bomb for his plan to take over Unova. After it failed, Ghetsis abandoned N in turn.
  • In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Professors Sada and Turo are actually Arven’s parents and, depending on which version you’re playing, one of them left the family shortly after his birth (Turo in Scarlet, and Sada in Violet). The other presumably abandoned him later in order to pursue their research, but it’s later revealed that they were killed by a rampaging Koraidon/Miraidon, and the Professor that has been in the game is actually an AI programmed to carry on their memories and research should they abruptly pass away.
• In a contrast from the partners of the previous games, your partner in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity actually brings up their past and mentions that they've been alone from the moment they were born. It's their concern that the hero might not be the same (When asked about this, they simply respond with Visible Silence) that helps them accept that they have to return to their world in the ending, and also initially makes them reluctant to try bringing them back in the post-credits segment.
• While it's unclear if Chell from the Portal-series actually fits in this trope, many of the things GLaDOS says in Portal 2 seem to imply it. Then again, she's a compulsive liar with a grudge, so what she says needs to be taken with a truckload of salt.
  GLaDOS: If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birthmother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep.
• Professor Layton:
  • Professor Layton's adopted daughter, Flora Reinhold, suffers from this trope. When Flora was little, her mother died. Her father had a village built and populated by Ridiculously Human Robots. After her father's death, Flora was Raised by Robots (and the human caretaker) until Professor Layton came to the village.
  • Layton himself has an unfortunate track record for abandoning Flora. He often invokes Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You, citing that it would be too dangerous to bring a young lady on his adventures, but she's nevertheless often hurt by this, and resorts to sneaking along on the adventures in the second and third games. This frequently leads to her being a Damsel in Distress and/or Designated Victim.
• Rakuen:
  • Sue's father left her family due to a gambling addiction. He is currently the homeless man known as Uma, and despite camping out in the abandoned part of the hospital he never once pays her a visit out of shame for his past actions.
  • Though he doesn't admit it until the end, the Boy is hurt that his father chose to stay at the nuclear plant and give up his life to prevent a meltdown rather than evacuate when he was given the chance to leave.
• Ratchet was raised by himself. His father was dead since Ratchet was a baby, and nothing is known of his mother except that she was there at some time. So he grew up without knowing his parents on a backwater desert planet... not that he cares in the slightest.
• Resident Evil has this. Some are a case of All There in the Manual, while other cases actually happen on-screen.
  • The Redfields' parents died in an accident when Claire was fourteen and Chris was twenty (source: a bonus material book that was supplied with Resident Evil 2 when it first was released)
  • Leon's parents were both victims of criminal activity (Leon's father was a criminal himself, actually). He was raised for most of his adolescence by one of his uncles, and he was the one who inspired Leon to become a police officer. (Source: Word of God)
  • It's implied that Jill Valentine's mother is dead and something is up with her dad, who's missing at least. In S.D Perry's novel adaptations, her father was a con artist.
  • Jake Muller is the illegitimate son of an Eastern European woman who died of illness when he was in his early teens, and the series' now-former Big Bad, Albert Wesker. Wesker had a one-off affair with the woman, and she left for her home country not long after she got pregnant.
  • Sherry Birkin's parents die on-screen in Resident Evil 2; her mother Annette falls into a pit underground, while her father William turns into a murderous multi-eyed blob monster courtesy of the G-Virus that Leon and Claire are forced to put down.
  • The Ashford twins impose this upon themselves by torturing their father Alexander and turning him into the monster Nosferatu, which Claire kills during the game.
  • Barry Burton is the only protagonist who has a family: a wife and two daughters. While all of them are alive and well, it is possible for him to be killed off during the first game and its remake, putting this in effect for his daughters.
• Roots of Pacha:
  • Frer's parents went missing before the events of the game, so his grandma Tetih raises him in their stead, even if she goes overboard in trying to protect him.
  • Nari's parents died in the earthquake when their cave collapsed, and Nari, distraught by their deaths, decided to stay with her daughter Era while the latter's father Zelk traveled as a trader.
• Rune Factory 3 nearly takes this up to eleven. No one has two parents, and most of the cast has none whatsoever, and there is absolutely no explanation. The missing relatives are as follows: Raven, Gaius, Pia, Kuruna, Oromis, Zaid, Daria, Shara, Monica, and Marion have no parents. Sakuya and Karina have no father. Sofia, Evelyn, Colette, and Rusk have no mother. To the best of my knowledge, the only character who actually acknowledges the fact that she has no living family is Raven. The hero's father gets one line of dialogue in a flashback, and the hero calls for his mother in the same flashback, but otherwise they never appear. Blaise (Colette and Rusk's father) does occasionally mention his "dear wife's cooking", so she may have existed at some point.
• Scaler has the main character, a human boy transformed into a lizard, who has decided to go by Scaler. He lives with his mom; his dad, a scientist, disappeared in the backstory; it's implied that he was sucked into the "reptile world" that Scaler now finds himself in. Naturally, he finds his father. It's Leon, his Older Sidekick.
• In Secret of Mana the Boy was left to be raised by the Potos Village elder and never knew his parents. Near the end of the game he finds out that his dad is a sword and his mom is a tree.
• Happens are few times in the Shining Series:
  • Shining Wisdom: Mars' parents are nowhere to be seen, his father died in battle while his mother only gets a passing mention, he's looked after by his grandparents.
  • Shining Force III Synbios only has his father at the start of the game, his mother is barely mentioned. Then near the end of the game, you see him poisoned and killed before your eyes.
  • Julian, the protagonist of the third part, had his parents killed in the prequel Shining the Holy Ark which set him on this adventure to kill all the Vandals, Galm in particular.
• Skies of Arcadia:
  • Averted. Not only are both of Vyse's parents alive, he's on good terms with them, and they encourage him to go out adventuring.
  • Played straight with his friend Aika, who lost both her parents before the game began. However, save one cutscene, she never really angsts over it.
• Eroge Snow Sakura, Yuuji Tachibana has jerkass parents who force him to move from Tokyo to Hokkaido to live with an uncle and a tsundere female cousin while they have a nice, long holiday in Hawaii.
• Sonic The Hedgehog:
  • It's easier to list who is over 18 or has parents or guardians. You'd think the social workers would come poking around to see why there is an eight-year-old living on his own in the middle of a factory, with a 15-year-old best friend that's constantly running away, and cart him off to a care home; apparently not.
  • Blaze the Cat is a 14-year-old princess who guards the Sol Emeralds, her world's equivalent to the Chaos Emerald. In Sonic Rush, she tells Sonic that she had always been alone; but in the sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure, it's stated that she has a living family, although they are unseen.
• Joey La Rocca, the protagonist of The Sopranos: Road to Respect, is the illegitimate child to Big Pussy Bonpensiero (although he's never seen on the show).
• Soul Series:
  • Kilik's parents abandoned him on the steps of the Ling Sheng-Su Temple. The same fate happened to his childhood friend, Xianglian, whose parents were Ling Sheng-Su monks, but were caught having an affair and subsequently banished (her mother managed to run off with Xianglian's twin sister, Xianghua, who would meet with and become Kilik's love interest many years later).
  • Tira kidnaps Sophitia's daughter, Pyrrha, to force her to work for Soul Edge, ultimately culminating in her sacrificing herself to save her. Afterward, Pyrrha is not returned to her birth family, with Tira raising her (though given Tira's pretty insane, it makes one wonder how effective she is at that).
• Spirits of Anglerwood Forest: Edgar's father leaves on a two day trip, but never comes home. His mother is just gone the next morning. Their disappearance is what jump-starts the plot of the game. Ezra's parents also never came back after he went to Angler's Maw. It's implied they were turned into trees.
• In the Spore cutscene for when your creature family migrates to a new nest, one of the adults will stay behind to watch over the eggs. Your creature then hatches and you have to find the new nest.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Symphonia and its sequel features this in spades:
    • Lloyd: Mother killed, adopted by a dwarf. Finds out later that his father killed his mother to save him, is still alive, and is the right-hand man of the Big Bad.
    • Colette: spends the first third of the game under the belief that her loving father and grandmother are merely a foster family and that her true father is an angel — and said angel is something of an uncaring prick towards her. Subverted once we learn that the angel was lying (or as he claims, the characters just misinterpreted him using "daughter" as a priest would) — and her foster family is really her family..
    • Raine and Genis: Father died, mother abandoned them at a dimensional gate to escape persecution, leaving them to fend for themselves in another world. Mother later went insane with grief over having to do this and, upon meeting her children again twelve years later, fails to even acknowledge them, instead treating a ragdoll as her still-infant daughter and believing she's pregnant with her now preteen son.
    • Sheena: Abandoned by parents, taken in by ninja. Was used by said ninja as a bargaining chip for a political alliance. She later screwed up a summoning ritual that ended up killing over a quarter of the clan and sending her adoptive father into a permanent vegetative state, causing the survivors to ostracize her.
    • Presea: Mother died when she was young, father became sick. At the age of twelve, Presea underwent Magitek surgery to do his job, which brainwashed her and caused her to ignore his subsequent death, leaving his decaying body lying in the bed he died in for sixteen years until the party frees her.
    • Zelos: Mother forced to marry his father to extend the mana bloodline, causing her to hate her child. Father ignored them both and took a half-elven mistress, who decided to make the child of their union the chosen of mana by killing Zelos. During her attempt on Zelos' life she killed his mother in front of his eyes — his mother's last words to him was "I wish you had never been born."
    • Ironically, the only one who angsts about his problems is Regal, who doesn't have any parent-related issues. Granted, he's a full-grown man, but he does angst quite a bit over his one and only problem.
    • Subverted with Emil: Both parents were killed during the Palmacosta Blood Purge. However we later learn that they weren't even his parents, nor is he the real Emil Castagnier.
    • Marta: Mother killed when the giant tree went berserk and destroyed Palmacosta, Father went Brainwashed and Crazy and started the Vanguard.
  • From Tales of Phantasia, there are Cress's parents who are murdered by Mars searching for his family pendant. Chester's parents were already dead by the time the game rolls around. Mint's mother dies trapped in a jail where both Cress and Mint were locked. Claus is old enough to get married, so it's very likely they would die of old age (they are simply never mentioned). Suzu's parents were brainwashed to assassinate Cress in Euclid. Arche is the only one to have both living parents, but mom was forced to move to Hidden Elf Village together with all other elves.
• In the backstory of Team Fortress 2, it is the tradition of Highland Demolitions Experts to abandon their children at birth until their true skills begin to emerge. In our Demoman's case, he was collected from the Crypt Grammar School for Orphans by his real parents after he was tricked into reading a cursed book that taught him all about demolitions.
• Tekken:
  • Lee Chaolan was orphaned as a boy, and he eventually came to be adopted by Heihachi Mishima.
  • Michelle Chang found and adopted Julia, who was abandoned as a baby.
  • Jin Kazama's father, Kazuya Mishima, was killed before he was born. He lived with his mother, Jun, until she went missing when he was fifteen, after which he moved in with his grandfather, Heihachi.
  • Steve Fox's biological mother is Nina Williams, who was impregnated by an unknown sperm donor while she was undergoing cryosleep. Neither she nor the donor were responsible for raising Steve.
• In the original Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft's aristocrat parents disowned her after she chose to take up a life of adventuring.
  • In the Crystal Dynamics reboot, Richard Croft disappeared in Cambodia (later revealed to have been killed by Natla), while Amelia Croft got pulled into the Underworld and turned into a zombie.
  • And in the latest reboot, Amelia Croft died in a plane crash, while Richard was murdered and the death made to look like a suicide — with a young Lara being the one to find the body.
• Touhou Project proudly features hundreds of characters, most of which live in what are functionally adoptive families of Ragtag Band of Misfits. You can count on one hand how many characters even have parents ever mentioned to have existed in the entire course of the series. Since many characters are youkai, such as a wild animal or inanimate object such as an umbrella given sentience through age and magic power, many of these characters perfectly understandably never remember their parents. Still, the only family ties any characters who appear ever have are direct blood siblings.
  • Marisa Kirisame explicitly has an estranged father. Her mother is implied to exist.
  • Part of the reason people want to see Mima and Shinki from the PC-98 games return is because they may have this relationship to Marisa and Alice respectively. In Alice's case, she was first fought in Makai, and Shinki claimed to be the creator of and the creator of everything in Makai, which would presumably include Alice. However, the Windows series describes Alice as a human-turned-youkai and not a demon, which calls such a relationship into question. A common fan interpretation is that a rift formed between Alice and Shinki after Mystic Square, which caused Alice to leave for Gensokyo. Others however, show a more closer relationship with Alice simply trying to strike out on her own.
  • Meanwhile, the relationship between Marisa and Mima may be one of the biggest mysteries in Touhou. In the PC-98 games, Marisa referred to Mima by the extremely respectful -sama honorific. One the one hand, this was her first and second appearances. On the other hand, this is the most respect Marisa has shown to anyone ever. Fans generally have them as teacher and student, often crossing over into a pseudo-familial relationship, which becomes Parental Abandonment for Marisa when Mima is Put on a Bus. Finally, Mima's leitmotif is given a description in Dolls in Pseudo Paradise which has been taken to be about Marisa and her mother.
  • Youmu Konpaku was apparently abandoned when Youki Konpaku went on a "journey for enlightenment" completely out of the blue, and dumped all his duties on his young student (the actual relationship between the two is unknown). While she was left under the care of an adult, Yuyuko is not an ideal parental figure.
  • Sakuya's backstory is a canon area of doubt and uncertainty, but it's extremely unlikely that her parents are anywhere near her, as she's a lone human working for a group of youkai. Not even likely to have any parental figures, as she's the most mature person in the mansion.
  • Despite coming from the Outside World, AKA modern Japan, Wind Priestess Sanae Kochiya's parents are utterly unmentioned and unaccounted for, with her goddesses (one of them being her distant ancestor) often acting as substitute parents for her in Fanon.
  • Reimu's parents are never mentioned. It's generally assumed that they died somehow, as we should really has seen them by know, given her main character status. In Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 25, she bitterly mentions as the daylight goes away faster than she'd like that one would think things like daylight and parents would be around forever, implying she personally knew her parents but they're gone now.
• View from Below: In the mirror room, Melody's phantoms reveal that her parents abandoned her, giving her self-esteem issues.
• In The Walking Dead: Season One, Clementine's parents are in Savannah when the outbreak hits, and she is alone when Lee finds her. Unfortunately, they're already dead when Clementine and Lee leave the Marsh House. And unfortunately, Lee, her new father figure, succumbs to his walker bite and is either put down by Clementine or left to turn.
• In A Witch's Tale, Liddell was abandoned by her mother at the school at a young age.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1:
  • Only ONE of the main characters (Melia) has a parent that actually appears in-game. Her father is Sorean Antiqua, King of the High Entia. Her mother is not seen and is only mentioned in passing, but this is likely justified as she was the second (Homs) consort and likely died long before the beginning of the game.
  • Shulk's parents are mentioned; they, along with many other members of their expedition were killed when the Monado absorbed their life forces to awaken Zanza's soul.
  • Dunban is Fiora's older brother and acts much like a father to her (Riki even lampshades this) but their parents are only ever mentioned in passing.
  • Sharla, Reyn, and Riki's are not mentioned at all, though Riki may be justified since his back story revolves around HIS OWN wife and children.
• Xenogears:
  • Fei was abandoned on the doorstep of the village chief in Lahan by a man commonly believed to be his father. He loses the chief, his adopted father, shortly into the game.
  • Elly's parents are still alive, but Citan warns her that they'll likely disown her if she gets involved with Fei and his group. They don't, but they don't stay alive very long either.
  • Bart's parents were both killed in the coup that lead to him becoming a sand pirate.
  • Billy's mother was killed before the game started, and his father is distant and neglectful.
  • Maria's mother is never mentioned, but her father was kidnapped by the Evil Empire, leaving her in the care of Shevat. Dad eventually shows up Brainwashed and Crazy, forcing Maria to destroy him.
  • Emeralda is an Artificial Human created from a nanobot colony, and her "parents" were killed just before she was supposed to be "born," leaving her in suspended animation for 4000 years. However, her parents have reincarnated as Fei and Elly, so she actually becomes one of the few video game characters with an intact family at the end of the game.
• Xenosaga:
  • Shion and Jin's parents died when Shion was a little girl. What happened to them is a major plot point.
  • Junior never knew his mother and his father is a Mad Scientist villain whom Junior ran away from after a certain incident.
  • MOMO is an Artificial Human, but the man she thinks of as her "father" is dead, and the woman she thinks of as her "mother" does everything she can to avoid seeing MOMO.
  • KOS-MOS may or may not be an aversion, depending on who you think of as her parents. Shion is clearly the closest thing she has to a mother. If you think of her "father" as Kevin, the scientist who originally designed her and built her Black Box components, then she counts. If you think of her "father" as Allen, who was the main male scientist working on the current version and who helped build her replacement Black Box components after the first ones were damaged, then she actually has both "parents" still alive and with her.

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