Perpetual Frowner / Video Games

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Perpetual Frowners in Video Games.

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• Ragna the Bloodedge of BlazBlue. Scowling is his default expression in all his character portraits, and given his life, it's easy to see why. With the exception of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, absolutely none of his official artworks in any games has him smiling. This runs contrast to his Spiritual Predecessor, Sol Badguy, who is often shown smirking.
• Black puffles from Club Penguin.
• Cuphead has Sal Spudder, Wally Warbles and Werner Werman. Neither one of them are seen or shown smiling in the game (although Sal does smile in his defeat quotes, making him a downplayed example). Werner, however, smiles in the good ending.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Vergil, befitting his Aloof Older Brother status and in stark contrast to the happier Dante, pretty much always has a dispassionate frown on his face. He does smile and smirk at least few times when facing and fighting his brother or finishing off an enemy, showing that he's Not So Above It All.
  • Lady in DMC3 though ultimately justifed given she’s a vengeful Broken Bird who had her mother killed by her father. The only time we see her smile is a cocky smirk in the midst of a Gun Kata fight against a demon horde and towards the end where she’s bonded with Dante. Averted in the anime and the fourth and fifth games where Lady has gotten a new lease on life and thanks to Dante and Trish is more cheerful.
  • Lady’s aforementioned father Arkham likewise is constantly frowning likely as a contrast to his Superpowered Evil Side Jester whom is naturally is a Perpetual Smiler Joker-style.
  • Credo from DMC4 similar to Vergil feels no reason to wipe that constant surly frown off his face and in fairness is given no reason to.
  • Dante himself in DMC2 as frequently complained about wears a stoic frown throughout the game barring a couple of moments (e.g a badass smile just as he’s finishing off Argosax) and doesn’t make a single quip. The backlash to this colder Dante was so great every subsequent mainline game makes sure to largely present Dante as Fun Personified
• In Disco Elysium: The Final Cut's Fascist vision quest, your player character — normally a Stepford Smiler — can look at the mirror, pledge to discard "the darkness" inside him, and prove this by adopting a perpetual scowl befitting of a true Kingsman. And we mean perpetual - it's actually caused by severe nervous system damage, meaning you can now only move your face with your fingers. Kim worries at first that you have had a stroke, and then acknowledges that what you have really done is turn your face into 'a living mask'.
• Valvarotez from Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten always puts on a serious expression on his face. He's also arguably the most Comically Serious main character in the series.
• Sten of Dragon Age: Origins. Nonetheless he's occasionally shown that he's got a Gentle Giant side going on, and he smiles broadly if you return his sword.
  • Hawke is shown doing nothing but scowling in any Dragon Age II promotional material, though thankfully, this is averted in the game itself. In-game, however, the expression is associated with Fenris, to the point where Merrill comments that she's worried that if Fenris was to smile his face would break.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest IV:
    • A comment Ragnar McRyan makes about his face if you look in a mirror, lamenting it's why he probably doesn't get the attention of the ladies.
    • Kyril is almost always frowning in his official artwork and his portrait in the DS remake gives him the same expression. There is at least one piece of official artwork that shows him smiling, but it's from the 8-bit era and thus could be attributed to Early-Installment Weirdness.
    • Meena has a permanent frown, though given the kinda crap she has to put up with keeping Maya from being irresponsible, justified.
  • Dragon Quest V: The Hero, as an adult, in the PS2 version, despite having shown all kinds of gentle expressions in official art, his 3D model for the game looks quite angry most of the time. Given his past...
• Koei's Dynasty Warriors has the infamous Lu Bu, whose designs regularly feature Big Ol' Eyebrows, Hot Blooded Sideburns, and a constant look of disappointed contempt for everything around him. Even when he's being kind to someone like Diaochan, he rarely actually smiles—instead, he just shouts a bit less than usual.
• Elite Beat Agents:
  • Derek and Chieftain are never seen smiling, sharply contrasting the other agents, who are always cheerful as they fulfill their missions.
  • Jake only starts smiling if you fail his stage and he turns into a giggling zombie.
• The End Times: Vermintide: Victor Saltzpyre's range of facial expressions consists chiefly of disapproving scowls, fatalistic scowls, and angry scowls. This is noted by Sienna in her diary entry, where she comments on how he only seems to express a variety of "bleak facial expressions".
  I adore those loving little doodles in the margins. Especially the ones of Saltzpyre. You’ve really captured his scowl — or rather, one of his many scowls. They do say that goblins have a hundred different words for "mushroom". Our dear, gallant Victor is a bit like that, but with bleak facial expressions, don't you find? Perhaps it's only having the one eye that does it? Or having a shard of flint where his heart should be.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Though his face is always covered by a mask, we can safely assume that Shadow from Final Fantasy VI doesn't even know HOW to smile. He rarely speaks and his only friend is his dog. According to Shadow himself, he's learned to kill his emotions, and Edgar knows of his reputation as a cold-blooded assassin who would "kill his best friend for the right price."
  • Squall from Final Fantasy VIII smiles less than Cloud which is saying something.
  • Steiner and Amarant from Final Fantasy IX certainly qualify. ESPECIALLY Steiner, a cantankerous grouch of a knight whose only two emotions are angry and dead serious. The number of times he's seen without his signature grouchy frown can be counted on one hand with fingers remaining.
  • Many characters in Final Fantasy XIII, due to the Dysfunction Junction nature of the party. Lightning is the cold and brooding Distaff Counterpart to Cloud, Hope is constantly angsting about his dead mother and his desire to have his revenge on Snow, Sazh is mopey because of his lost son, while Cid Raines is a Perpetual Frowner due to being forcefully made a puppet to the fal'cie.
  • Pretty much everyone in Final Fantasy Tactics is drawn with a small pout for their facial expression. Considering the pretty dark setting of the game involving conspiracies, backstabbing, and murder, it's justified.
• The Fire Emblem series has several examples:
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
    • As befitting his generally cold and rude temperament, Soren is not much for smiles.
    • Sothe displays this trait in Radiant Dawn as well, which is remarked upon by Naesala in the following exchange:
      Naesala: Where's that stone-faced sidekick of yours?
      Micaiah: He's just hesitant to show his emotions.
    • Ike is definitely this. He even scares Sothe when they first meet in Path of Radiance. Sanaki also lampshades this in Radiant Dawn:
      Ike: I'm here. What do you want?
      Sanaki: Hmph. Don't look so sour.
      Ike: I always look like this, Apostle Sanaki.
      Sanaki: Ah, yes. That's true. Well, I didn't summon you to talk about your grumpy expressions.
  • Raven from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade also qualifies. As noted by his comrade Wil, during one of their hilarious support conversations:
    Wil: Fine, fine. If it'll get you to stop scowling, I'll talk normal.
    Raven: What scowl?
    Wil: That! What you're doing right now!
    Raven: ...This is my normal face.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has Chad, a teenage orphan whose orphanage was burned down by Bern soldiers (who also killed the orphanage's caretaker), and even before that had to steal food to survive because the orphanage had trouble keeping itself afloat. Hugh is genuinely surprised that he can laugh in their A support, but is nonetheless happy to see it and encourages him to do so more often.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has Lon'qu (of the serious variant), Tharja (of the sullen variant), Gerome (of the serious variant), Severa (of the angry variant), Noire (of the sad mopey variant), and to a lesser extent, Lucina (of the serious variant). In Noire's case, it's a result of living in fear of Tharja's (her mother) curses, as she was used as a guinea pig for them.
  • Fire Emblem Fates has Azura (who only smiles to people she's close to), Hinoka (a downplayed example in that it's just her default expression), Xander (who deliberately maintains a serious and stern appearance), Beruka (who's emotionally very numb), and Nyx (who's rather world-worn and bitter).
  • Byleth of Fire Emblem: Three Houses is noted several times as being almost inhumanly stoic, with Male Byleth's default expression being a slight frown. Even as they become more in touch with their emotions over the course of the game, they still only rarely smile.
  • Fire Emblem Engage: As is common in the franchise, there are a couple of characters who rarely smile. However, this game only has two characters of note: Vander and Jade. For Vander, it's to help emphasize his stern demeanor, and for Jade, it's for the sake of Irony, since she is a comedy writer. For the latter, it is lampshaded quite a bit.
    Ike: You look a bit angry, Jade. Is everything OK?
    Jade: I'm fine. I'm just smiling. Is it that hard to tell?
• First Encounter Assault Recon: Besides her creepy little smiles directed towards Becket, Alma is always frowning.
• Marcus Fenix from Gears of War never smiles. Dom is this as well, especially after Maria's death.
• God of War: Kratos's face very rarely deviates from an angry scowl or an enraged snarl (while his expression softens during rare moments of tenderness, the times he actually smiles can be counted on one hand). Special mention goes to his appearance in Mortal Kombat 9, where Netherrealm Studios was explicitly given instructions to give him a defiant expression even as he's dying from a Fatality.
  • This changes subtly in the 2018 game: while he still frowns constantly, his disposition has changed to being stern and distant rather than constant anger, reflecting his Character Development. Kratos finally smiles again albeit briefly in the opening of the sequel God of War Ragnarök (the last time being when playing with his daughter) showing he’s fully come to accept his new life with his son and is content. Sadly it doesn’t last when Odin and Thor come knocking.
• Huang Lee of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Comes from being a Deadpan Snarker Only Sane Man.
• Sasha in Harvest Moon 64 is constantly frowning. She is depressed due to the fact that the vineyard is dying, her daughter Karen is a hairs length away from running off, and her family always argues. Her mood improves if you either save the vineyard or get Karen to stay (by marriage or friendship). It's noticeable in the Alternate Universe Harvest Moon: Back to Nature that Sasha smiles on default. In that game, and all future games, she isn't married to Gotz and doesn't even own a vineyard.
• There are those who doubt that Agent 47 from Hitman can even smile.
• The Mad Bomber from Activision's Atari 2600 game Kaboom! only smiles when you miss one of his bombs.
• The Lodger from Knock-Knock sports one throughout the entire game.
• Bill in Left 4 Dead hardly smiles at all. He can smile like the rest of the survivors in game if you have him use a positive reply, but most official media and the tie-in comic will always have Bill showing his serious face. It is justified since Bill's a Vietnam War veteran and going through a second "war" with the zombies wouldn't exactly brighten anyone's day. Bill's in-game model has him look like he's constantly frowning for his neutral face due to having a cigarette in his mouth.
• Joel in The Last of Us has a nigh-constant and often angry frown on his face. Perfectly understandable given he lives in the post apocalypse and his daughter Sarah died in his arms the day everything went to shit. First time we see him genuinely smile again is during the car ride with Ellie and even more so when reuniting with Tommy his younger brother. This also becomes Ellie’s default expression in the sequel due to becoming a Broken Bird herself after Joel is killed in front of her.
• Throughout the Legacy of Kain series, Kain very rarely smiles. In the event that he does, it's usually a good indication that his enemies have found themselves on the receiving end of his plan or he's about to do something horrible to somebody.
• Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time very rarely changes his expression from a frown, and when he does, it's usually in shock from whatever horrible monstrosity he's just encountered. The only other time he isn't frowning is in his Item Get! pose. Mido in the same game is always in a foul mood and never changes his expression, even in the ending where everyone is happy after Ganondorf is defeated.
• Kazuma Kiryuu of the Like a Dragon games has a forbidding scowl permanently etched onto his face. He does smile a few times, usually when he's around Haruka, and it's adorable.
• Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis has Moritz of the Athanor room. Lampshaded many times during the party's first visit. First and foremost:
  Nikki: Whoah! Scary face alert!
• The title character of Max Payne, as befitting someone whose last name sounds like "pain".
• Mega Man
  • Mega Man in Mega Man 7.
  • Zero from the Mega Man X series deserves a special mention, seeing how he applies to this trope in more ways than one:
    • After Iris dies, he not only stops smiling, practically at all, but loses essentially all of his Badass Boasting personality and becomes The Stoic. For example, he no longer throws a thumbs up at the player after beating a boss, but just turns away before he leaves the stage.
    • Even his theme music has noticeable changes. Where his theme is X4 may have been the peak of giving the feeling that Zero is about to cut down everyone in the level, in X5 and onward, Zero's music becomes a lot more calm and serious sounding.
    • By the Mega Man Zero series, not only does he never smile once, but his dialogue portrait seems to get angrier with every passing game.
  • Then there's Geo Stelar of Mega Man Star Force, who spends much of the first game on a massive angst-trip and is shown frowning both in human and wave forms. He lightens up later, though. From the second chapter on, this role is taken by Solo, justified by him being constantly abused and beaten in the past for his unusual appearance and special abilities.
  • Grey from Mega Man ZX Advent spends the whole game at best with his face in a neutral line of quiet contemplation, and more often than not is frowning or shouting angrily or determinedly. In his case, he's not naturally The Stoic or suffering from major angst save in one or two places, but it's more that he hasn't exactly had much to smile about for the short time he's been awake (waking up surrounded by dead bodies with no memory of who he is, getting told he's a "defective" and he needs to die, fighting his way out of the mysterious lab he's stuck in, and then nearly dying from an explosion and fall off a waterfall wouldn't leave much of a good first impression on anyone). He doesn't smile at all until the ending, first to Model A and then to Aile.
• The Boss/The Joy from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Meanwhile, The Sorrow never frowns.
• Minoto from Monster Hunter: Rise is constantly wearing a frown, in contrast to her twin's soft smile. It's merely a case of resting bitch face and she's perfectly nice under her social clumsiness.
• Nintendo Wars: Hawke from Advance Wars is the only character in the game to not smile or cheer when his units win an attack. He doesn't even have a smiling mugshot.
• Osvald from Octopath Traveler II rarely smiles. When Ochette comments on this in travel banter, Osvald simply replies that it's his regular face.
• Aban from 1001 Spikes is always irritated with a face to match. Until the very last part of the Golden Ending cutscene, that is.
• Ooblets: Clickyclaws are described as aggressive, and they're always frowning. The only exception is the artwork on Just a Taste, its third signature move, where it's smiling.
• Reaper of Overwatch has a constant scowl if the player equips a skin that shows his face (and doesn't spam his laughing or shrugging emotes).
• Papa Louie Arcade has Kahuna and Gremmie doing this as their usual expressions in their debut. They soon start smiling in later games.
• Pokémon:
  • The original player character, Red. He was depicted with a serious frown in most of his official Generation I artwork, and from Generation III onward, he's always shown frowning, except for his victory animations in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and once when he gives a haughty smirk in said game.
  • Crobat's face is contorted into a permanent scowl, despite the fact that it can only become a Crobat by reaching maximum happiness with its trainer.
  • In X and Y's Pokemon Amie feature, while most Pokemon will lighten up and give you a proper smile under the right circumstances, there are a few like Umbreon, Terrakion, and Zekrom who simply won't smile, no matter how hard you try to get them to.
  • Mewtwo's face is always in a frown or scowl. Even if it wins a match in the Super Smash Bros games, it'll still have that same angry expression.
  • Subway Master Ingo is always frowning, which helps others distinguish him from his twin brother, Perpetual Smiler Emmet.
  • In Pokémon Sun and Moon, Plumeria never smiles during any of her onscreen appearances, not counting the Slasher Smile she gives you in the demo. Though she does finally crack one during the ending of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, after Guzma disbands Team Skull.
  • Shroomish◊, the Mushroom Pokémon as an upside-down V-shaped frown in all of its sprites.
• In Potion Permit, the accident that forced Garret into a wheelchair a few years ago has left him always frowning.
• In Puyo Puyo Tetris, the quiet and stoic S.S. Tetra captain Tee, while he does smile a few times, doesn't smile all that often compared to other characters.
• Shiki from Samurai Shodown is constantly frowning and being generally sullen, considering her Demonic Possession and the fact she was Word of God inspired by Rei Ayanami this should be a given. Touchingly Shiki is shown smiling when with her baby daughter Mikoto.
• Resident Evil:
  • Chris is an interesting example because pretty much all the artwork for RE1 depicts him with a cocky smile. In Code Veronica he’s still mostly upbeat, however from RE5 onward Chris is as cheerful as the Punisher with a brooding frown stuck on his mug almost 24/7. Of course you only have to take a look at what’s happened to him and accept a man who watched numerous teammates die (or seemingly die in Jill’s case), had his hometown nuked and has to deal with nightmarish abominations his whole life, probably wouldn’t smile much. When Chris does smile, usually thanks to his friends, family and allies it’s a heartwarming sight to witness.
  • Claire, Chris‘ sister in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 in contrast to her sunnier and sweet disposition in her previous appearances is largely stoic and somber with a stern frown on her face throughout the game. The most jarring Not as You Know Them moment for fans being when Claire isn’t as warm to Natalie (a scared little girl) as Moria is despite Claire’s previous track record as a Friend to All Children. Though this personality shift can be more understandable retroactively if you consider the events of Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness set before Revelations 2 where Claire has a quite a falling out with Leon, not to mention being barred from raising Sherry by RE6’s Big Bad Simmons, her legal guardian. Like with Chris you can’t fault someone for frowning a lot and being less warm after all that. She is seen smiling again when reuniting and relaxing with Chris and the others in Death Island though.
  • Leon’s default expression in RE6 as well as the cannon CG media Degeneration, Damnation, Infinite Darkness and Death Island which is quite a contrast to his more upbeat demeanour in RE2 and RE4. Like with Chris and Claire it’s easy to see why his horrible life experiences would be getting Leon down with him having outright admitted he had suicidal thoughts to the late Adam Benfolded who brought him into The Government and in Vendetta Leon says he feels like his heroics are for naught since The World Is Always Doomed. He is capable of smiling and joking every now and then at least when his close allies like Claire, Hunnigan, Helena and Chris are concerned. Resident Evil 4 (Remake) really dials this up, with Leon having a brooding frown on his face for most of the game and only softens up and smiles when Ashley cheers him up with her playful sweetness.
  • Jill in Resident Evil 3 (Remake) wears a concerned frown and a furrowed brow throughout the game and otherwise just looks miserable — which given the state of affairs i.e Zombie Apocalypse along being pursued by The Juggernaut Nemesis is entirely appropriate. She does smile a couple of times, first after the flirty Carlos promises he won’t die and leave her in a world without him and again at the end when escaping Raccoon City’s destruction on the helicopter she smiles in relief.
  • Mr. X and the other Tyrants despite having lips unlike Nemesis have a stone-face angry frown as their constant expression. At least one Tyrant, Hypnos from Resident Evil: Gun Survivor, does get a shark-like expression when it Turns Red though.
• Koei's Samurai Warriors has Honda Tadakatsu, whose angry eyebrows add slightly downturned mouth give him a stern and humorless look. He also sometimes crosses over into 'angry and shouting' but never quite seems to make it to 'happy.'
• Octavian the Eagle in The Secret World never smiles at any point in the game, a habit made all the more obvious by his wide and permanently-downturned mouth.; even when he's finally given a reason to care again, he still can't manage a smile. Of course, given all the scars on his face, it's not clear if he's physically capable of doing so anymore.
• Mitsunari from Sengoku Basara has an unflinching Death Glare, replaced by a slight smile only once; in his best friend's imagination.
  • Honda Tadakatsu from the same series always has an unchanging expression of vague disapproval, falling somewhere between Batman and Robocop.
• Silent Hill has plenty this due to starring numerous deeply messed up people. If anything it’s more concerning when a character is smiling in this series because it’s a sign there’s something deeply wrong with them.
  • James from Silent Hill 2 when not looking plain lost or bewildered just has a sad frown on his face. Which is the expression you’d hopefully expect a man who just euthanised his terminally ill wife with a pillow and is doing some Cope by Pretending would have. The only few times we see him smile is when he’s with Mary or when he mistakes Maria for her. The other people who have come to Silent Hill Angela and Eddie are likewise perpetually frowning being victims of horrific sexual abuse and bullying respectively, only Laura (an innocent girl) and Maria are frequently shown smiling, the latter for less comforting reasons.
  • Heather throughout Silent Hill 3 being a Broken Bird has either a sad frown or angry frown when dealing with Claudia who killed her beloved father Harry. She does smile a few times such as the start when talking to her father on the phone or bonding with Douglas.
  • Generally the default expression of The Generic Guy Henry from Silent Hill 4: The Room at least barring the endings where he visits Eileen in hospital with flowers and is shown smiling. The games’ antagonist by contrast Walter is a Perpetual Smiler.
• Drachma in Skies of Arcadia smiles once in the whole game, during his Obi-Wan Moment. The rest of the time his face is contorted into a cynical scowl.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • This is Shadow the Hedgehog's default expression, though he does smirk on rare occasions. About the only time he genuinely smiles is in the non-canon Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, if he does well at the events. It's even lampshaded as one of his stage themes is even called "Mr. Unsmiley".
  • Knuckles is portrayed as the dead serious loner after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which gets lampshaded in his Sonic Adventure theme song: "You can call me Knuckles, unlike Sonic I don't chuckle". Later on his hot-headed attitude grew more characteristic, to the point his official artworks tend to show him frowning or clenching his teeth.
  • It is unusual to see Silver crack a smile when he first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), but this has to do him taking his duty in protecting the future very seriously. He does show a smile in some games like Sonic Generations where he shows excitement in facing Sonic in a rematch.
  • Blaze is a cold, detached loner (much like Knuckles) in Sonic Rush, and this is even after she comes out of her shell. However, she was honestly surprised when Cream pointed out that she was smiling. In the Mario and Sonic series, she is portrayed as much more jovial and enthusiastic, frequently displaying a large wide open smile, suggesting she maybe has more a Serious Business treatment of her duties rather than negative in personality.
  • Espio of The Chaotix is the most serious member of the team and doesn't smile often, contrasting his two teammates: the loudmouth Vector and the scatterbrained Charmy.
  • When raising Chao in the Sonic Adventure series, it's possible for them to be this, since every chao has a 'default' face determined by how its egg hatches.
  • Sonic himself tends to use this trope when going Super Sonic. In most of his appearances, Super Sonic doesn't display the smug cockiness Sonic usually has, but instead keeps a determined glare and remains somewhat stoic. Even standing on the edge of a platform doesn't phase him. Granted, this may be because Sonic needing to go Super usually means the situation is somewhat dire.
• In StarCraft: Remastered, virtually all male Terran character portraits were redrawn to show the characters constantly scowling.
• Street Fighter:
  • Akuma/Gouki from is a famous and extreme example, as he never smiles at all.
  • When he becomes Shin Akuma in Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium, he does smile... a Slasher Smile.
  • He did have one in Street Fighter Alpha 2 in Ryu's ending.
  • Series mainstay M. Bison was originally a Perpetual Frowner, but now he's better known for his Slasher Smile. From what can be seen, those are the only two facial expressions he's capable of.
    • Well, these two, plus his Oh, Crap! expression during the endings of Alpha 3.
  • Sagat and Guile are also constantly frowning, though Guile occasionally smiles in the presence of his family. Main character Ryu is halfway there, though it's more of an impassive look that leans toward frowning than a proper Perpetual Frown.
  • Guy from Final Fight has a trademark scowl that matches his aloof and serious personality. The only instance in which Guy smiles is in an official art depicting Ryu, Ken, and Guy in casual clothes (Hell, in Cody's ending in SFA3, his face is scowling, even though the dialogue implies he is glad Cody is back on his side)
  • As of Super Street Fighter IV, Makoto was not seen showing so much as a smirk in any official art (her ending in Super Street Fighter IV being an exception). She makes up for it with plenty of yelling.
  • Remy from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. You wouldn't expect someone whose win quote translates to "I hate everything that I see!" to smile much, would you?
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Princess Peach is this in some of the Darker and Edgier RPGs, until the ending, When She Smiles. Because of the darker themes, this is justified.
  • Rosalina doesn't smile for most of the game, which is justified by her tragic past, as she has lost her mother and only overcomes her own loneliness with the Lumas' support. However, she does smile a bit in the endings of both Super Mario Galaxy games and when winning a level in Super Mario 3D World.
  • Luigi's default expression in Mario Kart 8 is a grumpy frown.
  • Bowser is usually shown with a "mouth agape, angry scowl" look or a pouty expression if his mouth is closed. In the 3D games, Bowser is always looking sour. The RPG spin offs do show Bowser smiling from time to time, but the only thing that changes from his default mouth agape look is his eyes.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • This is Mario's default expression in the series since you could see his mouth in Melee, which is jarring; considering that Mario is a pretty cheerful guy in his home series. Compare his amiibo from Super Smash Bros. 4 and Mario Party 10. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he smiles a little more in his victory animations and in his taunts, but otherwise he's still scowling. His new walk animation◊ (as shown in the Piranha Plant trailer) even looks more imposing and threatening compared to the steady jog he had in the last previous games.◊
  • Princess Zelda has a default somber expression in the third and fourth Super Smash Bros. games. Considering she's the more somber Twilight Princess version of Zelda it's perfectly understandable.
  • Lucas in Super Smash Bros. Brawl wears a constant frown, although it's more of a forlorn frown if anything. Speaking of the things he had to go through in his own game, it's no wonder he wears such a sullen look on his face. This is averted in the fourth and fifth games, where he is given a more happier expression. His Brawl self is supposed to represent him during the events of Mother 3 when he is still having a hard time dealing with the death of his mother and whereabouts of his twin brother and is distant and withdrawn. The later installments in which he is smiling is supposed to represent him after those events where he knows himself to be a strong, capable and more confident PSI user over the course of the journey.
• The Tales Series has a few.
  • Kratos from Tales of Symphonia, as befits his role as The Stoic. Same goes for Regal, who wears an even larger frown than Kratos (especially in his official art), but is slightly more likely to lighten up. Presea also rarely smiles due to being magically emotionally repressed for years (16, in fact,) which makes the few instances where she does smile utterly adorable.
  • Leon from Tales of Destiny.
  • Veigue from Tales of Rebirth, who smiles once in the entire game, near the end.
  • Keele from Tales of Eternia — his expression is generally either "angry", "disdainful" or "sullen", whereas his "smile" is more of an arrogant smirk.
  • Asch from Tales of the Abyss, whose grumpiness is commented on and made fun of by the other characters; Luke tells him at one point that if he keeps frowning, his face will get stuck that way. Again, his "smile" is usually more like a smirk.
    Jade: What's the matter, [Asch?] You look as if you've swallowed a bug. Oh wait, you always look like that.
    • What's weird is that his status picture in the menu represents him with a full-on happy face...maybe because we'd never get to see him smile in-game.
    • This is even referenced in Tales of Vesperia. There's a note scratched into a signboard identifying all the main characters in Tales Of The Abyss. Asch's entry is just "always looks angry."
  • Kunzite of Tales of Hearts rarely smiles, his only "happy" portrait is but a tiny turning of the lips, and the first time a character gets him to smile, he seems to frighten everyone by the mere act. Mysterious Waif Lycia says straight out that she can't smile as long as she's atoning for the plot of the game, but is eventually persuaded to (along with Kunzite, properly this time) when the final dungeon rolls around.
  • Gaius from Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2. He doesn't smile at all in the first game, but manages a smirk on a few occasions in the second.
  • Eizen from Tales of Berseria. The most he ever tends to show is a slight smirk, though he does display a hilariously devious smile in a skit on one occasion after subtly trolling Magilou during one of her comedy routines (Perhaps he's secretly the one his sister got the habit from...).
• Temtem: As their names suggest, Grumvel and Grumper always look grumpy, to the point that "sulky as a Grumvel" is an idiom in Uhuru.
• Trauma Center:
  • Victor Niguel's only two sprites are his normal one (frowning) and really pissed off. You know that it's gone From Bad to Worse when he's really pissed.
  • CR-S01 is always frowning because he was sentenced to confinement in a low temperature cell, which causes his facial muscles to contract to the point he cannot physically smile. Having spent a significant portion of the final chapter outside of it, he is able to smile for the first time.
• Warriors: Legends of Troy has the vicious and chronically surly Achilles, who could probably crack mirrors with how often he's scowling at everything.

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