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Pet the Dog in Video Games.


  • Absinthia: In the ending, Lilith leaves Strider behind in Halonia so that the party can take care of him, since she doesn't want him to get caught up in her quest to kill her creator.
  • Save the truly villainous ones, the normally antagonistic rival prosecutors in Ace Attorney games each have their own Pet the Dog moment to prove they're not as mean as their courtroom abuse of Phoenix would have you think.
    • In "Bridge to the Turnabout", the smug Godot shows a soft spot for children when he comforts a distraught Pearl by giving her his last cup of coffee, and sweetens it for her- note that Godot normally hates putting sugar in coffee because it's a Trauma Button that reminds him of when he was nearly killed by poison disguised as sugar being put in his coffee, but he still does it because he knows Pearl wouldn't like plain black coffee.
    • The flashback to Mia's first case shows that the arrogant Diego Armando still showed up to assist a rookie like Mia when Grossberg overslept.
    • Miles Edgeworth (pre-Heel–Face Turn) threw away a victory that he had in the bag because the main actor of his favorite TV show would be convicted in the place of another person who was very obviously guilty. He also refused to use forged or falsified evidence. Word of God also says that Miles Edgeworth has a literal dog, named Pess, who serves as his Living Emotional Crutch. Edgeworth also called off his first trial to demand an ambulance when the defendant poisoned himself, and Mia's ending narration notes that he was just as traumatized as she was by the fiasco.
    • Franziska von Karma:
      • Franziska has her soft spots, particularly towards young children and the hapless Adrian Andrews. Even if she previously manipulated Andrews's codependency issues for court purposes.
      • In case 3-5, she seems genuinely worried for the emotional well-being of Sister Bikini when everything starts falling down around her. She also whipps Phoenix so he'll give her words of encouragement. Take that however you will.
    • In the non-prosecutor department, the sociopathic murderer Matt Engarde has a cat named Shoe whom he asks you to feed.
    • Another non-prosecutor variant is Kristoph Gavin, the original mentor for Apollo Justice.
      • Kristoph assists Appollo in defending Phoenix Wright in a murder trial. He is initially sincere in both helping Apollo master the basics of lawyering, and defending the case. However, the tables quickly turn when Phoenix ends up cornering him as the true culprit, and it's later revealed that he's the Big Bad of the game, having sabotaged Phoenix's career in a fit of hubris and spite.
      • And in a literal example, examining a photo in Kristoph's jail cell later on reveals that he has a dog named Vongole whom he calls his best friend.
    • Simon Blackquill may be a prisoner and one of the most abrasive prosecutors in the game, but he's quite affectionate to his pet hawk, Taka.
    • Subverted by Manfred von Karma taking in and raising a young Miles Edgeworth after Edgeworth's father died. Teaching the kid everything he knew and training him for his career sounds like a kind thing to do for the son of von Karma's rival, but actually, von Karma just taught Edgeworth to be as ruthless and amoral as he is. He also did it with the ultimate intention of completing his revenge on Gregory Edgeworth, ensuring that his son would turn out nothing like him.
    • Barok van Zieks in The Great Ace Attorney may be scathing and belittling towards Ryunosuke and the Japanese people but he did ask how Soseki Natsume - a Japanese man - was faring after his trial.
      • After Constable Roly confesses to tampering with a crime scene so he could spend more time with his wife on their anniversary, van Zieks lets him off with a warning rather than a harsher punishment.
      • When Olive Green initially refused to cooperate with Ryunosuke while on the witness stand, van Zieks gently reminds her that she could be charged with perjury if she continues to do so.
  • An Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies cutscene shows the enemy ace Yellow 13 holding and petting a small dog. He also saves the narrator and the barkeeper's daughter from getting caught by military policemen after the latter is seen planting explosives.
  • AdventureQuest Worlds:
    • Kitsune, the fourth Lord of Chaos, is extremely fond of all of his fellow Yokai. When Emperor Daisho started inviting foreigners from outside Yokai Island to the island itself, Kitsune became furious and didn't share Daisho's sentiment, vowing to do everything he could to return the island to its former secluded sanctuary — which is how Drakath made him the fourth Chaos Lord. Kitsune became a Magnificent Bastard as soon as Drakath convinced him to use the Hanzamune Dragon Koi Blade to free the O-dokuro from its prison in the rift of time.
    • Zahart was extremely fond of Tibicenas, the eighth Lord of Chaos, whom he got the ability to summon and command after Drakath gave him a chaorrupted magic ring. He was so fond of Tibicenas that he wanted to use him to rule the Sandsea for all eternity after paying off his debt to Drakath by using the red diamond found by his slaves to animate the Chaos Sphinx. Unfortunately for him, Tibicenas has plans much worse than he himself had originally planned.
    • In the Doomwood saga, Drakath, being the Affably Evil guy he is, has landed himself in this spot since he kindly retrieves Vordred's helmet and returns it to Sally.
  • The protagonist of the remake of The Bard's Tale is an Anti-Hero Jerkass more interested in, as the game states, "coin and cleavage" than saving the world. He is a compulsive liar and cheat, swindling his way through life and seducing his way through women. However, not only does he pick up a dog companion early in the game, but he sheds a genuine tear and vows revenge when the dog is killed by a monstrous minion of the apparent Big Bad.
  • At the end of Bendy and the Ink Machine, it's revealed that Joey Drew has been receiving letters from his former employees. He even has a letter from the janitor, Wally Franks, who is astounded that Joey would even remember him.
  • Booker DeWitt of BioShock Infinite is a former Pinkerton Detective. And by "former", we mean that he was kicked out for "behavior beyond the acceptable bounds of the Agency". He was also present at the Massacre of Wounded Knee, and there he burned teepees with women and children inside (ostensibly, he did this to gain the acceptance of his comrades after they rejected him for his own Native American ancestry). Despite this — or very possibly because of this — in a game dripping with Deliberate Values Dissonance, he has some relatively progressive views on race. Booker treats the African-American janitors and attendants with far more politeness than the other citizens of Columbia and often urges them to drop the "subservient" act around him. Booker is also quite feminist for someone of his time period. And there's his interactions with Elizabeth.
  • BlazBlue:
    • Hakumen, the Hero Antagonist of the series who exemplifies Good Is Not Nice, gets a few.
      • Everyone mocks Bang Shishigami. The only one who actually praises him genuinely is Hakumen.
      • In Continuum Shift, when he meets Tsubaki Yayoi, instead of brushing her off, as he does most people, he sits down and asks her to "listen to an old man's tale". He tells her a story of a woman he loved, but who tragically died. He's referring to Tsubaki herself, as Hakumen is really Jin Kisaragi from the previous time loop. Then, once he figures out Hazama's plans for Tsubaki, he finds this loop's Jin and convinces him to go save her, not wanting her to die in this loop too.

        Alternatively, in his Bad Ending, upon realizing the plan, Hakumen goes to fight Hazama himself, only to find that's she's already blind while Hazama beats her while she's down and insults her, at which point Hakumen completely loses it.
      • In Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, he's as gruff and aloof as ever, but he is practically fatherly to Weiss Schnee, giving the girl words of encouragement and complimenting her fighting ability. He also shows a lot of respect for Yu Narukami.
    • Ranga the Bloodedge:
      • In Calamity Trigger, Ranga is given two options after defeating Arakune in his story mode. Option one is to just leave and let Litchi greave over him. Option two is to stay behind and finish the job. If you choose this option, Ragna stays and argues with Litchi over why she should let him kill Arakune. Eventually, he leaves her and grumbles something along the lines of "If you wanna save him, go ahead. It's none of my business." But, as he leaves, he also quietly whispers "Good luck."
      • He gets another one with Taokaka. After fighting him in her story mode, Ragna offers her some of his food.
    • In Continuum Shift, Jin Kisaragi is a complete asshole who throws death threats to anyone who gets in his way. However:
      • Tsubaki is his Morality Pet and possibly his Love Interest, so he cares about her well-being a lot. She's the only person in the game that Jin doesn't insult or belittle at all; if he beats her, he apologizes and promises to pick her up when it's all over; and if you actually hurt her in front of him, he will hunt you down and make sure you never do so again. The same is true for Hakumen.
      • Although to a much lesser extent than Tsubaki, he's also quite friendly to Makoto, if a little snarky. He seems to genuinely care for her well-being, saving her life when Hazama attempts to "discipline" her (read: he's trying to off her because She Knows Too Much).
      • He also seems genuinely sorry for the female officer he knocks out to escape the NOL ship at the start of his story.
      • In the Drama CD "The Wheel of Fortune", it's shown that when they were kids, he was rather affectionate to Saya before she became sickly. The reason for Jin's hatred towards Saya and why she suddenly became ill is unknown.
  • Cave Story: Misery spends the entire game taking pleasure in antagonizing the Mimigas and doing the Doctor's bidding. But in the best ending, Misery sends Balrog to rescue Quote and Curly Brace from the Seal Chamber the moment Ballos was destroyed as thanks for being freed from the Demon Crown's curse.
  • Conviction (SRPG): Stan the Bloody is one of Emperor Abyss's generals and looks like a wild brute. He's also an antagonist because the empire is aligned with the Dark Elf while the party is aligned with the Light Elf. However, he cares for several kittens and retreats from a battle he was otherwise likely to win in order to save them.
  • Revealed near the very end of Dead Space 2. Director Tiedemann, who seems throughout the game to be a cold, ruthless Corrupt Corporate Executive, is in fact shown via three audio logs to have had the best interests of humanity in his heart. He went along with the Marker project because humanity was slowly dying out and he thought that this was their best hope for salvation, and when the outbreak occurred he blatantly disregarded the protocols set in place by the shadowy figures in charge and called for a station-wide evacuation, doing his best to save as many citizens as possible from the necromorphs.
  • Detroit: Become Human:
    • During Connor's chapter, you often have to choose between an act of kindness or completing your mission, such as save Hank or continue chasing a Deviant, shoot or spare a pair of Deviants, or whether or not you'll shoot an innocent android in order to gain information. The more often you choose to pet the dog, the more Deviant Connor himself becomes, as he himself is developing emotions and a sense of empathy in spite of his programming. After all, it's human to want to save a friend, spare a genuinely victimized person who lashed out in Self Defense, or refuse to harm an innocent for personal gain. You also get to literally pet the dog at one point, as Connor can pet Hank's dog Sumo.
    • Late in Kara's chapter you watch someone drop their bus tickets and have the option to either keep them and board the bus yourself, or be nice and return them. Returning them actually bites you in the ass as, while it was the nice thing to do, it also forces you to attempt to cross the river into Canada and results in Luthor's death.
  • Laharl gets a few of these in Disgaea, generally involving Flonne and/or Sicily. For example, after kicking Lanzarote's ass in Disgaea Dimension 2, he accepts her fealty and immediately tasks her to look after Sicily, a huge fan of Lanza's music.
  • Dragon Age:
    • The Qunari, the resident Scary Dogmatic Aliens of the setting (of the religious fundamentalist variety), are the only society in Thedas to have complete racial equality. So much so, in fact, that the name "Qunari" is a catch-all term for all followers of the Qun, whether they be human, elf, dwarf, or the horned Draconic Humanoids that make up the bulk of the Qunari faithful. Also, they are extraordinarily accepting of transgender individuals. Ironically, the latter comes from one of their more politically incorrect elements, namely their enforcement of strict gender roles.
    • In Dragon Age: Origins, Loghain can get one if you have him in the party with your dog. It turns out that part of the reason he hates the Orleasians so much is because they killed his dog.
  • Dragon Quest IV: Psaro used the Secret of Evolution to uplift the animals around Rosehill, giving them the ability to talk. This wasn't done out of pragmatic means, as they're not hostile towards you when they visit (although they still hate humans), so apparently he did this for no other reason other than that it would make their lives easier.
  • Dynasty Warriors:
    • In Dynasty Warriors: Empires the ending consists of a "clip show" with various officers of your faction in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms outakes". One clip shows one of your officers leaping in front of a runaway carriage to save a small lapdog, then with their most heroic and staunch Chinese Warlord face, they nod approvingly over the tail-wagging little thing. Especially funny when a real jerkass officer like Lu Bu does it. Downright hysterical if that officer happens to be the Emperor of China at the moment.
    • Koei loves giving Oda Nobunaga pet the dog moments:
      • A cinematic in Samurai Warriors: Empires has Nobunaga trying to cheer up Nene when she's upset by her husband's philandering. (This one happens to be Truth in Television, quoted straight from a letter Nobunaga wrote to Nene.)
      • In the Sengoku ending of Warriors Orochi, Xiao Qiao gets upset when the three main characters (Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, and Takeda Shingen) start trading not-so-veiled threats at each other, so Nobunaga chuckles and pats her on the head. (It's All There in the Manual — Xiao Qiao reminds him of his sister Oichi.)
      • In Samurai Warriors 2, this gets raised to Ho Yay levels when he sheds a tear at Mitsuhide's death in his ending.
  • Elden Ring: Rykard, the Lord of Blasphemy, is an unbelievably vile antagonist, packing one of the highest body counts of any villain in the game and utilizing several horrifying methods to torture and kill people, all of which pales before his endgame desire to devour the world and kill everybody. However, Rykard gets one explicit humanizing moment: it's implied that he gave his consort Tanith the Tonic of Forgetfulness as a backup plan in case their adopted daughter Rya ever found out the traumatizing truth of her birth, letting them remove those horrible memories and allow her to live happily.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Between the events of Oblivion and Skyrim (due in large part to the previous events of Morrowind), the Dunmer (Dark Elf) people were forced to flee their ancestral homeland of Morrowind due to the events of the Red Year and the subsequent Argonian Invasion. The High King of Skyrim, homeland of the generally elf-hating Nords, formally offered the Dunmer people the island of Solstheim to resettle on. Subverted, however, as a rather cynical old Dunmer notes — Solstheim was always a barren rock that no one ever particularly cared about outside of its ebony and stalhrim deposits, and was theoretically already claimed by Morrowind even if no one there wanted it at the time. Furthermore, refugees were already pouring in after the Red Year, meaning that the Nords would have had a hard fight against desperate people on their hands if they wanted to keep the island. To quote from the declaration:
      "Untithed to any thane or hold, and self-governed, with free worship, with no compensation to Skyrim or the Empire except as writ in the armistice of old wheresoever those might still apply, and henceforth let no man or mer say that the Sons and Daughters of Kyne are without mercy or honor."
    • Skyrim:
      • If you've completed any of the faction questlines, you have the option of introducing yourself as the leader of said faction to Tsun, the old Nordic god of "trials against adversity" and shield-thane of Shor, when you meet him in Sovngarde. If you introduce yourself as the Archmage of the College of Winterhold, he remarks about how badly mages have been treated as of late, and mentions how mages are honored in Shor's hall. It's a nice moment after enduring snarky remarks about magic during the rest of the game. You still have to fight him, but he sees you as an equal, same as if you introduced yourself as Dragonborn or the Harbinger of the Companions.
      • In the Daedric quest of Clavicus Vile, the Daedric Prince of Bargains and Wishes, you have the option of reuniting him with his severed external conscience, Barbas. If you do so, he (reluctantly) decides not to flay you in the most gruesome manner possible for disobeying his order to kill Barbas instead. The implication is that the return of Barbas, and thus Vile's full divine power (and his conscience), is the better deal for Vile.
      • Sheogorath's Daedric quest is this for Pelagius the Mad, relieving the poor deceased emperor of the madness which has long plagued him. Given that this Sheogorath is heavily implied to be the Champion of Cyrodiil, this may be the result of him Taking a Level in Kindness since the last game.
    • In The Elder Scrolls Online, despite admitting that most of her benevolent acts were purely for her own benefit and that you were her Unwitting Pawn, the Daedric Prince Meridia does do two helpful things for the player. The first is locating and returning the Vestige's soul — although Cadwell was the one who asked her to do, she agreed regardless. The second is accepting Cadwell as her new servant, and enabling him to assist the player in various ways, such as opening the way for New Game Plus content.
  • Fable II: You can play as evil as you want, but your faithful dog still loves you.
  • Fallout:
    • Fallout: New Vegas:
      • Subverted by a literal case — the Legionary Antony displays more regard for the dogs under his charge than he does for people. He offers his aging favorite to be killed in the arena for the possibility of giving her immortality as the brain of a cyber-dog, and he gives the other dogs a teddy bear to play with — which he took from a child slave.
      • Played straight in the ending if Caesar's Legion wins and Caesar himself is still alive. One of the only non-evil things he does is let the humanitarian organization Followers of the Apocalypse leave Vegas peacefully because he himself was raised by the Followers.
      • This depends hugely on your political views, but if you work hard enough and jump through enough hoops, the Good Karma ending for the nominally Good Is Not Nice NCR is probably the nicest ending in the game.
      • In one notable scene, the NCR are handing out supplies to the NCR refugees in Freeside. If you pose as a refugee for a quest, you get a dialogue option where you mention having a local friend who needs food. The NCR officer mentions being under strict orders that they cannot offer food for locals. Right before handing you another food package to take back to him.
      • If you get a relationship value of Accepted with the NCR, a Ranger will appear and meet you out in the wastes. He'll give you a radio and explain that you can call for NCR support should you need it.
      • God from Dead Money may be a controlling Jerkass, but he openly admits that Dog's welfare is his top priority.
      • Dean Domino is also this. He's a complete and total bastard (and an unrepentant one too), but if you're decent to him in spite of this, what is potentially a boss fight turns into the two of you actively working together to escape a death-trap-riddled theater. Upon encountering Domino for the first time here, he's genuinely happy to see you, exclaiming "Hey, partner! Nice to see a friendly face!" before explaining how to help him. His epilogue, should you have befriended him, is also this, since it suggests that some part of him really does feel bad for the things he's done.
      • Even you can get a few. If your karma is rock-bottom and you're not above murder and constant thievery, but still spare various factions and work against the Legion, then you may be villainous, but everyone will be happy you're on their side handing it to the "bad guys". Because of the roleplay aspect of the game, it can be anything from you just feel like it, to having personal standards the Legion crosses. With a high Charisma score, you can play with the Boomer children and give them toys regardless of your alignment.
      • Father Elijah is a deeply selfish and callous man who generally sees other people as glorified machines meant to achieve a goal... with the exception of Veronica, whom he genuinely seems to love like a daughter. If you tell him that you know her, he'll be overjoyed that she's still alive. However, like with Antony, it's deconstructed, as his kindness towards her often takes twisted forms; for instance, he sabotaged her relationship with Christine because he's homophobic and misguidedly thought he was helping her.
    • Fallout 4:
      • Quite literally with Paladin Danse, an utmost supporter of the Brotherhood of Steel and their ideals who shows nothing but sneering condescension (if not outright hostility) to your other companions when switching them out. When you switch out Dogmeat for him, however:
        Dogmeat: [sad whimper]
        Danse: Don't worry, boy. I'll make sure this soldier comes home alive.
      • Another much more surprising one is on one certain quest involving a ghoul child, one of the many things Danse's a Fantastic Racist about. If brought along, he reassures the child that he'll help him find his parents and seems very concerned over his safety.
    • The main story quest "Dangerous Minds" is one such moment for Kellogg, the ruthless Institute-hired merc who killed your spouse and kidnapped your son. After living for years as a soldier of fortune after his family was murdered by raiders, he is seen caring for Shaun while living in Diamond City under the cover of being a regular dad and his son, the last time in his life he would be able to live as a normal family man.
  • Faust: The Seven Games of the Soul: Mephistopheles acts as a tempter to mankind, getting people involved in contracts that have caused a lot of pain for a very long time, but he doesn't embrace his role wholeheartedly. Chapter 7 of the game, "The Masterpiece of Giselle", explores through flashback how he befriended a young woman named Giselle who lived a lonely life as a freak show attraction at the circus because of her weight and wished to be reunited with her dead parents. Even though it was against the rules for him to do so, Mephisto reached out and befriended her, convincing her that even if she wasn't going to live long, she should live the rest of her life doing good so that when she passes on, she and her parents will be proud.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • At one point in Final Fantasy Adventure, a random man helps out the player rescue a girl. It turns out that that man is Julius, the Big Bad, and the hero even thinks to ask why he helped him out. Julius mentions that he wasn't sure that the girl the hero was trying to save was the girl that Julius wanted — meaning that he essentially helped the hero out for no apparent benefit to himself since Julius doesn't even help the hero beyond getting him the book of fire that he needs.
    • The first part of Crisis Core serves as this for pre-insanity Sephiroth by showing that before the notorious mission to Nibelheim, he was actually a cool, but fairly nice person who had friends and worried about them.
  • Finding Light: Surprisingly, the Big Bad Zamas revives Abbie from certain death and allows her and Mari to safely leave Heaven's Door. Before doing so, he implies that one of them has a connection to his sister Helena, who is the only person he actually has any love for.
  • First Encounter Assault Recon:
    • At the end of the first game, Harlan Wade is so deeply affected by guilt over what he did to Alma that he decides to let her out and allow her to kill him. Then again, he knew she was little more than a walking personification of murderous hatred by that point and let her out of her box anyway, which makes him a bit less sympathetic.
    • Project Origin has a debatable example. One of the intelligence files reveals that the music box that appears early on in the game in Genevive Aristide's apartment (and is the source of the recurring theme music throughout the game) originally belonged to Alma, and that Aristide had it brought to her home so she could listen to it and remind herself of how guilty she is herself. However, given Aristide's greedy, self-justifying behavior and comments in both Project Origin and the supplemental promotional materials, the idea of her feeling any guilt over Armacham's treatment of Alma seems highly unlikely. Maybe she just likes the music box's tune.
    • Alma herself has a few Pet the Dog moments towards both the Point Man and Becket, like when she kills a group of Replicas that have the Point Man pinned down in Extraction Point, or when she kills an Abomination that is directing Replica soldiers against Becket, or kills ATC troops in Becket's path in Wade Elementary.
  • Game Master Plus: After losing his boss battle, Anima isn't actually damaged at all and still intends on erasing Espheria to replace it with a new digital world, but plans to postpone it so that Elsa can at least live out the rest of her life in peace.
  • Ghost Trick:
    • Yomiel possesses people to force them to commit crimes, cuts a deal with a foreign nation who will almost certainly use what he offers them to attack other countries, and manipulates poor Kamila into killing her own mother, albeit indirectly. Towards the end of the game, he saves Lynne and Kamila from drowning by breaking open the submarine door that's stuck and manipulating junk to make an arm to pull them out.
    • We also get one from Dandy, who is very polite and kind to Kamila, even when he kidnaps her, giving her a book and juice, finding it disturbing that he and his associate were asked to hold Kamila captive in the remains of her former home, and crying over Kamila's fate in the timeline when she's crushed to death.
  • God of War: Chains of Olympus seems to have a number of cinematics showing tender moments between Kratos and his family, before you-know-what happens. The ultimate peak of this, Kratos reuniting with his daughter after renouncing his violent past and powers, is followed by a heartbreaking Shoo the Dog moment, in which he has to shove his daughter away (in one of the series's trademark button mashing minigames no less) in order to save the world. It goes a long way to establish just why Kratos is so goddamn angry in the later games.
  • Guilty Gear: In -REVELATOR-, I-no is a total bitch to every character she runs into... but her conversation with Axl over his decision to erase the current timeline and go back to his own time or erase his timeline and trap himself to help Sol is actually rooted in calmness and uncharacteristic sympathy. -STRIVE- contextualizes this further by revealing that I-no is an Alternate Self of Megumi, whom Axl previously said would be supportive of his decision; apparently even after a hefty dose of cynicism, I-no still cares very much about her old boyfriend and wants what's best for him. In fact in the ending of -STRIVE-, she sacrifices herself to bring Megumi forward in time to him, finally reuniting the lost couple.
  • In Hades, the title character is very officious and ill-tempered, but has a few of these moments, most notably in the Playable Epilogue, where he unambiguously thanks the player character, his son Zagreus, for the actions he took in the main game that Hades had been actively working against.
  • Heavy Rain manages to pull this off in reverse. Over the course of the game, Shelby saves the Hooker with a Heart of Gold from a former client, stops a suicide, takes care of said suicide near-victim's baby, stops a liquor store hold-up, and, if the player is fast enough, saves Lauren again from a drowning car. Then you find out that he's the Origami Killer. It's up to the player to decide whether these acts were genuine, or if he was simply a Manipulative Bastard.
  • Hitman:
    • Subverted in Contracts, where 47 has the option of petting the dog in order to advance his agenda: For example, he can offer to take the place of a tired bartender — so he can poison a customer's drinks.
    • Also subverted in Blood Money, where throughout the game, you see that the cold-blooded killer keeps a pet canary. However, the moment the bird starts chirping at an inopportune time: *crunch*.
    • Played straight in Hitman 3 in the Chongqing level, where starting off on the balcony has 47 consoling a woman about potentially losing a friend by telling her that the fact that she agreed to meet in the middle of a rainy night means that said friend must still care and even making suggestions to repair their relationship. This is all despite her being some random civilian who has nothing to do with his mission.
  • Hotline Miami has several cases of this.
    • Jacket can do this a couple of times, most notably in "Decadence", where he discovers that a famous movie producer has tied a drugged-up prostitute to his bed and is using her as a sex slave. After slaughtering all of the Producer's mobsters, Jacket defeats him in combat and bloodily gouges his eyes out with his thumbs. At this point, the prostitute has been abused to the point where she has completely lost her will to live, so she simply asks Jacket to get it over with and kill her as well. Jacket responds by gently carrying her to his car parked outside and driving her back to his apartment, where he nurses her back to health.
    • The Biker is definitely more ruthless than Jacket, but he does have his moments of this as well; he spares his interrogation targets and (contrary to the main game's suggestion) he can simply ignore all of the Phone Hom workers instead of chopping them up.
    • Richard also does this a few times in the second game. As the Russians are nuking the USA at the end of the game, he appears to Richter and comforts him, stating that "leaving this world isn't as scary as it sounds". Also, in the opening cutscene of Hard Mode, he angrily reprimands and insults all of the protagonists for their violent and selfish actions, except for three of them:
      • Richter, whose apology for murdering the Girlfriend in the first game Richard accepts on behalf of Jacket.
      • Evan, who asks Richard who he is, and actually gets an answer (somewhat).
      • And lastly, Beard, who exchanges apologies with Richard for not being able to meet again under different circumstances.
    • When Manny confronts Tony (the last surviving member of the Fans at that point) at the end of "Death Wish", Tony is uncharacteristically cradling Corey's corpse in his arms.
    • The Henchman has a moment of this after he completes his job in "No Mercy" (ironically). As he is leaving the crime scene, Andy comes across him. The Henchman simply tells him to go home and drives off.
  • In The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, you generally run around doing whatever you want, and that usually involves, depending on the player, the deliberate killing or accidental endangering via crossfire of many, many, many innocent people who walk all over the city and parts of the badlands. They actually are so easily in peril to the point that on a city bridge or two, they spawn where they will fall just from seeing the Hulk and running. But if you so choose to grab a person, you have an option besides throwing them into the distance: Putting them down gently and patting them on the head.
  • In Katawa Shoujo:
    • Kenji, a paranoid misogynist conspiracy theorist, makes unsavory remarks about the girls, steals books from the library and borrows money without paying it back. However, on Lilly's route, when he accidentally runs into her, he offers to help her up, and when Hisao finds out that Lilly is leaving for Scotland, he offers to talk with him if he needs it. In Shizune's route, after Hisao gets a "Dear John" Letter from Iwanako, he fondly talks about his old girlfriend.
    • Shizune, as Student Council President, has a reputation around Yamaku as incredibly bossy, and as a result, everyone besides her best friend and interpreter, Misha, left the council. However, in Hanako's route, she helps Hisao take Hanako to the nurse's office when she suffers a panic attack, and it's implied that she likes and is concerned about Hanako, but can't get close to her because Hanako's best friend is Lilly, who is in a feud with Shizune. In Lilly's route, Shizune manages to reconcile with Lilly. In Shizune's own route, she reveals that all of her actions, starting with her attempts to recruit Hisao to the student council, were done so that he would snap out of his depression. She also states that making people happy and engaged is her goal, and she hopes to become a philanthropist.
  • Kero Blaster: Nanao is usually fairly unpleasant, but during the epilogue, when Kaeru is recovering in the hospital from his recent injuries, she shows up to bring him flowers. This is by far the nicest thing she does in Normal Mode (though to be fair, she spends most of the game posessed).
  • Buggs from Kindergarten is a Barbaric Bully, but if you successfully complete his mission, he'll let the protagonist keep Ms. Applegate's phone out of respect.
  • Krohnen from The King of Fighters XV may be a very anti-social Jerkass who technically kidnapped a minor, but his team ending shows that he is capable of showing some kindness. Namely, he gives Kula, said minor, back to her parental figures Diana and Foxy unharmed, and relinquishes the entire prize money to her. Keep in mind that years ago, he attempted to outright murder Foxy and mocked Kula to her face about it.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, after splitting Ventus's heart in half and creating Vanitas, which nearly killed him, Master Xehanort took him to his homeland, the Destiny Isles, so he could spend his last moments in a peaceful world. Then cruelly subverted when Ven connects to Sora's heart and recovers, and Xehanort makes him suffer much, much more.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • At the end of The Wind Waker, Ganondorf knocks out Link and steals the Triforce of Courage, but promises not to kill him or Zelda. Unfortunately, this goes out the window a second later when he loses the chance to rule Hyrule and goes rather crazy, determined to drown them all.
    • In Phantom Hourglass, Linebeck spends the entire game as a gutless coward who has to be bribed by the Ocean King to convince him to help out at all. At the very end of the game, he sees that Link lost his sword and is being attacked by Bellum and promptly stabs the demon to give Link a chance to fight back. The poor guy is then possessed for his efforts.
    • Breath of the Wild:
      • Bokoblins are implied to take good care of the horses that they ride, as they are fully tamed.
      • Revali may act like an egotistical jerk most of the time, but he does genuinely (if begrudgingly) respect Princess Zelda for her pluck and altruism, and he feels sorry for her being unable to awaken her powers despite all the hard work she's put into it. He is uncharacteristically somber and lacking any of his usual criticism when Zelda returns from the Spring of Wisdom with still nothing to show for it.
  • Frank from Life Is Strange provides a rather literal example. Although he is presented as a dangerous and violent drug dealer who often threatens Max and Chloe in his quest to get the money he is owed, it is shown that he has a soft spot for dogs. Talking to a certain police officer can reveal that he once rescued a bunch of fight dogs, one of which he kept as his pet and companion. Another, less literal example, is if you get on his good side during the confrontation in "Dark Room" and convince him to help you find Rachel. If you do that, he'll also give Chloe her gun back if he took it during an earlier episode.
  • Love & Pies:
    • Despite her hatred towards Amelia and her café, Edwina helps Amelia's daughter, Kate, find her lost toy and gives her a dinosaur balloon as a gift. Amelia doesn't understand why she's being nice towards her daughter but not her.
    • Edwina's father Sebastian, who's a corrupt CEO, gifts Amelia a cherub statue for her romantic date room, even if Yuka initially suspected that it was a trap. Amelia finds this strange, but she accepts it, anyway. This is because Sebastian wanted to reach out to Amelia, his daughter.
  • Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis features Roxis (The Rival, Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and once a part of the Quirky Mini Boss Squad), who gets a few of these moments throughout the game, mostly after being recruited into the game's band of heroic friends. The first example is almost literal: adopting a stray kitten whose mother just died. He's even seen babytalking to it, although he'll deny any such events took place when confronted.
  • The Mass Effect franchise:
    • Depending on your playthrough, Commander Shepard has his moments. It's most notable if s/he's usually renegade and starts abusing NPCs outside his/her crew but takes a moment to console his/her squad with any problems they might have. This can be played fully straight if s/he's constantly renegade all the time in the sequel but takes the paragon route on the crew's loyalty missions. The "I Remember Me" mission of Mass Effect has a more specific example: When dealing with a badly traumatized girl taken as a slave in the same raid that Shepard narrowly avoided, Renegade Shepard encourages the girl to be strong and tells her that she is strong enough to face what happened.
    • Mass Effect 3:
      • Udina gets one. Aside from actually acting like a Reasonable Authority Figure, he also tells you about how the destruction of the entire Alliance parliament (most of whom he knew on a First-Name Basis) has affected him.
      • Zaeed in the Citadel DLC gets hooked on a claw vending machine game while trying to win a toy for a child. Bear in mind that Zaeed is pretty much a Psycho for Hire and regularly discusses, in a very casual way, how [thing] wiped out half his squad once.
  • Mega Man:
    • Dr. Wily from the classic series gets a few:
      • In Super Adventure Rockman, Wily says that he loves his robots, and would never allow Ra Moon to destroy them.
      • In Mega Man 10, he turns out to be the villain again, but when he gets a fever from Roboenza, he's put into the hospital. He escapes soon afterward, but not before leaving enough Robonenza cure capsules to cure a population, and if it's not enough, they could still examine it and determine the cure. Wily may be a villain who wants to take over the world, but he's not a heartless monster.
    • Dr. Wily's counterpart in the Mega Man Battle Network series, Lord Wily, has paid for the medical treatment of Joe Mach's daughter, and he also temporarily abandoned his quest for revenge on society to take care of Baryl for a friend. He walks into an exploding volcano to rescue his own son Regal and give him a second chance to be an upright human being courtesy of Laser-Guided Amnesia mixed with a rather amazing Reset Button.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Solid Snake in general:
      • His love of animals probably counts, since it's the first suggestion we get that he's anything other than an action hero with no inner life. In fact, Snake's dismissal of Otacon's defense of Wolf on this basis in the below example is deeply ironic and not a little tragic — he loves dogs too, but he believes himself to be an intrinsically worthless human being outside of the battlefield. Snake's self-loathing becomes more apparent by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, until Big Boss reappears, more-or-less apologizes to Snake for how fucked up his life was, and then tells Snake to live out the short remainder of his life in peace and happiness.
      • He gets some additional moments in his cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl's CODEC conversations. Specifically, he sticks up for the two butt monkeys, Luigi and Slippy, telling the A.I. Colonel to show Luigi some respect and praising Slippy's mechanical skills and offering to purchase a weapon from him.
    • Metal Gear Solid:
      • The villain Wolf pets a dog to prove her not-all-bad-ness. Oracon remarks that her love of dogs must mean that she's good inside, prompting the main character to rant about how her love of dogs proves nothing. While it might seem like a subversion at the time, as we proceed it turns out that the villain is not a creepy stalkerish murderer, but a lonely dog lover who only wants to be loved. Then Snake kills her.
      • OCELOT of all people gets one as an Easter Egg. If you get all the way to the torture sequence without saving, he'll remark that if you die there you're going to have to go all the way back to the beginning. Then he gives you the chance to just submit right there without a fight, and even offers to tell everyone else that he broke you through torture.
    • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Fortune blasts apart a squad of Navy Seals for not being able to shoot her, then apologizes to the dead seagulls that got hit by their bullets.
      Fortune: I'm so sorry, my beauties. I'll see you again someday.
    • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has a literal example with a cat. During one of the villain's Motive Rants while you're surrounded by enemy soldiers and you're free to look around, you can turn and watch one of the soldiers be visited by a cat. Rather than shoo it away, he makes sure his boss isn't noticing, takes a knee and pets it, and then waves goodbye as it walks away. Then the first thing you do once the cutscene ends is cut those enemy soldiers to ribbons.
  • In Mother 3, Fassad is shown as being downright evil, torturing monkeys and corrupting innocent civilizations. However, after he is defeated, the player meets his pet mouse who is eagerly awaiting his beloved master's return.
  • Travis Touchdown of No More Heroes, a perverted, Blood Knight Otaku, has a thing for cats. He owns a Scottish Fold, Jeane, which he can interact with in both games, and one of the jobs in the first game has him finding runaway cats.
  • When you get to The Room in OFF, you encounter the Guardians of the Zones you previously defeated, and they seem to do a total 180 of their established personalities. Dedan offers to dry your tears and go on a pedalo ride, Japhet tells you to be careful around the cliffs, and Enoch promises to bake you cakes later. It is commonly accepted that this is a flashback, and that they are speaking not to the Batter, but to Hugo. At some point after becoming the Guardians, they jumped off the slippery slope.
  • Gogandantess from Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny is a highly arrogant Genma who is the self-proclaimed "greatest swordsman of all demons". Although he isn't nearly as evil as the other Genma shown in the series — in fact, he is very honorable and chivalrous — he's still definitely a bad guy. So it comes as a surprise to Jubei (and the players) when, just as it looks as though Oyu is going to plummet to a fiery death, Gogandantess leaps in and saves her at the last second.
  • Onmyoji: Former Big Bad Kuro Seimei, though still antagonistic, does this by giving Seimei a hint to the fragments of the Sword of Kusanagi, which puzzles Seimei himself.
  • Deconstructed in Papers, Please. The Inspector may be a Punch-Clock Villain capable of moments of benevolence, and those moments may feel pretty good to the player, but he does have a family of his own to take care of, and too many citations can cost him his job. In short, petting the dog can screw him and his family over if the player isn't careful.
  • Minor example: In Persona 4, there's a snippet of dialogue from a Yasogami student that hints that Sadist Teacher Kinshiro Morooka can have some pleasant moments, as the student says that she got some candy from him. He's also in the habit of offering serious career advice to his students on the sly. However, he's always a jerk towards the protagonist and his friends, so they never actually see this aspect of him.
  • Pokémon:
    • The rival character in Pokémon Gold and Silver has a Golbat, which only evolves into Crobat when it has developed a particularly strong bond of friendship with its Trainer. Thus, said rival's Golbat's evolution into Crobat is used in to show that the rival character has begun to properly care for his Pokemon instead of just trying to use their power.
    • Archie and Maxie in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire also use Crobat, though they are Well-Intentioned Environmentalists so it's not a far jump for them to be responsible Pokemon Trainers.
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:
      • Just like in the examples above, Cyrus, the nihilistic and emotionally disturbed Big Bad who proudly claims that he only uses Pokémon for their power, has a Golbat that in his final battle has turned into a Crobat.
      • A far less subtle case is where Cyrus, after the hero battles through his mooks and defeats him in battle, praises the hero's courage, gives him/her a Master Ball as a reward, and tells him/her where to go to save the Spirit Pokémon. In Diamond and Pearl, this ends up ruining his plan, but in Platinum, he's more prepared.
  • Randal's Monday: You can help a struggling salesman in one early puzzle. This is subverted later in the prison chapter, where said salesman does not return the kindness and you have to give him some payback.
  • Dutch van der Linde in Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 pets almost as many dogs as he kicks, being an Ax-Crazy Noble Demon and Byronic Hero who leads a gang of outlaws. Probably the most known example is when he saves John Marston from Micah Bell after siding with Micah and betraying John years prior, and then leaves John with the huge sum of money from the Blackwater heist.
  • From the Resident Evil franchise:
    • Annette Birkin, who's right up there with all the other batshit insane Umbrella researchers whose entire motive behind working with viruses seems to be "because", at the very least genuinely does love her daughter and not only begs the heroes to rescue her from the infection, but also tells them how to do it.
    • Oswell E. Spencer, the man directly or indirectly responsible for every death and monster in the entire franchise and a sadistic, nihilistic, misanthropic A God Am I Evilutionary Biologist known for killing anyone who's outlived their usefulness because they might know too much, has exactly one shred of humanity in him and has done exactly one decent thing in his entire life. He was decent to his loyal butler Patrick, whom he apparently grew up with and who was his childhood friend. When he's outlived his usefulness, Oswell simply dismisses him and sends him away rather than having him killed, which also spares Patrick the grisly fate of Oswell's security staff when Wesker showed up.
    • Ada Wong gets a good one as part of her unknown story in Resident Evil 6, where, during her escape from Lanshiang by helicopter, she takes the time to gun down some zombies that have survivors cornered on the rooftops. Her repeatedly helping Leon may count too, but that's less about simply being good and more about having the hots for him.
    • Eveline has one in Resident Evil 7 where she gives Ethan a second chance after cutting his leg off by giving him a first aid kit to heal himself and reattach his leg. It works because Ethan had already died at that point and was instead just an incredibly advanced molded creature, rather then a human being.
    • Heisenberg is shown to genuinely respect Ethan unlike the other lords and offers him a chance to team up with him and kill Miranda, even giving him one last chance after Ethan refuses before dropping him into a hole to get killed by Sturm, even making it possible for Ethan to escape in case he changed his mind.
  • At the beginning of Robopon 2, Dr. Zeke finds Cody washed up on the beach and saves him, taking him to his house until he wakes up. Unlike his brother in the previous game and his father, he seems to be an Affably Evil kinda guy.
  • Pyke in Ruined King is a ruthless, terrifying killer but he has cordial, even empathetic, conversations with the rest of the team. Despite Miss Fortune being on his list, he insinuates that she is pretty low on the list and will gladly share a kill on Gangplank with her. He also affirms that Braum is a fool but is honorable and not on his list. Likewise, he reassures Ahri, who sees herself as a monster, that she is not evil because her nature demands her to do unethical things.
  • Saints Row:
    • The Boss comes across as a sociopath who revels in the evil they do in Saints Row 2. In Saints Row: The Third though, they mellow out considerably, particularly in regards to the other Saints. The good ending and DLC take this further, with Boss positively nuzzling Jenny to the point where she becomes a Promoted Fanboy by standing up for herself and killing her Jerkass director, knowing Boss will have her back. They then get several more in Saints Row IV, including fighting for the human race, going out of their way to rescue crewmates, and saying that they'd take the bullet for a friend. Oh, and the DLC where they save Christmas. The French Boss in particular comes across as very gentle and kind when speaking to her lieutenants in the fourth game.
    • Gets a big one with Matt in the fourth game. Since they are the last living world leader, they give Matt, a big Nyte Blayde fan, all rights to the entire franchise. Matt is left nearly speechless. Admittedly this is after Matt accomplished the near impossible feat of making the Boss a fan of the show.
    • According to Keith, The Boss holds Donnie Wong in higher regard than Maero. Which is touching in a way, considering all they ever did was bully the poor guy.
    • In IV, Pierce's loyalty mission involves The Boss finally letting him do one of his needlessly complicated plans for once. They even refer to Pierce as "Boss" throughout.
    • After Troy Bradshaw becomes police chief in Saints Row 2, he keeps Boss on life support and gets Gat protection in prison as a way of making up for being an undercover cop with the Saints.
    • Killbane gets one in The Third when he lets Matt Miller leave the Syndicate with no strings attached. He even offers himself as a job reference! This is further highlighted by Matt clearly being antsy and fearing Resignations Not Accepted the entire time he's walking off, especially since Killbane broke the neck of the last person who said they were getting out.
  • Shadow Hearts: Covenant has The Brute named Lenny, who is a recurring foe on the first disc. On the second disc, however, one Sidequest reveals that he spends considerable amounts of time petting the dog. Among other things, he saved an old woman from muggers, he sent one mook with an ailing mother to report to their boss and thus saved him from certain death on the next mission, and he made a poor thief self-sufficient by teaching him math (which helped him get a job). Furthermore, in From the New World, he has vowed to serve Johnny for life due to him giving Lenny a glass of water a few years before the game, serving as a Battle Butler and being the muscle behind his top-tier Tool attack.
  • Shadowverse: When Eris is serving as the gatekeeper for the Lotus-Eater Machine, her only desire is that the inhabitants find their peace due to the environment sating their desires. She is genuinely saddened that Luna was not able to find peace in the dream despite being willing to give into it, and tearfully lets her leave once she comes to terms with her parents' death.
  • After a Space Route scenario in Shin Super Robot Wars, Laodecia finds a capsule with a weakened Earthling floating inside. She manages to say that her name is Fuala before losing consciousness, and Laodecia orders her tended to. This act apparently caused Fuala to become loyal to the Balmarians' cause.
  • Skies of Arcadia: Mercenary helmsman Lawrence borders on being a Jerkass most of the time, but when he's not on duty he chooses to hang out with Pow, so he can't be all bad. Also, when the Crescent Island base is destroyed, he is seen clumsily trying to corral the escaped chickens.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • During Sonic Adventure 2's final story, Eggman sets aside his rivalry with Sonic and company to stop the ARK from crashing into the earth. While the credits roll, we see Eggman having a friendly conversation with Tails about how he used to idolize his grandfather (the man responsible for almost destroying the world this time).
    • In Sonic Heroes, E-123 Omega is generally rude, antisocial, and utterly obsessed with killing Eggman to prove his own superiority. When the group encounters several pods containing android copies of Shadow, Shadow and Rouge begin to worry that the former may also be an android. Omega's response is to comfort Rouge in his own way.
      Omega: You know about cloning... the original must exist somewhere.
    • In the final story of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Eggman assists Sonic's friends in bringing him back to life to stop the end of all existence.
    • In Sonic Lost World, Eggman falls off a cliff as a consequence of trying to keep Sonic safe (they're teaming up against a bigger threat), though in this case, he engineered his sacrifice so that he would be able to surprise Sonic later on after the bigger threat is taken care of.
    • Shadow is absent at Sonic's birthday party in the beginning of Sonic Generations. At the end of the game, he reappears at the party with everyone else. Instead of going back to whatever he was doing before, he decides to stick around, though he does keep himself in the background.
  • Soul Nomad & the World Eaters:
    • At the end of the Normal Path, Gig admits his regret over everything Drazil made him do, taking responsibility since he still enjoyed what he did even though his personality was changed.
    • In the Demon Path, Dio is risking his life to save his queen and eventually has a full-blown Heel–Face Turn.
    • Subverted in the Demon Path, where Revya saves the life of a angel just so that s/he can kill her friend right in front of her. This behavior is also mocked when Lobo is revealed to be a traitor in the Demon Path. If you choose to say that you trust Lobo, his Freudian Excuse kicks into play and he leaves you, claiming that people who trust each other are fools. Gig mocks him for it.
  • Splatoon: The second game introduces Mr. Grizz, the Bad Boss of Grizzco Industries who employs you in the Salmon Run mode and outright Big Bad in Splatoon 3's Hero Mode. If you achieve the highest ranking in Salmon Run, "Profreshional", and clear a round, he'll sometimes tell you that you might be "the best employee he's ever had". That said, the devs have hinted that the "Mr. Grizz" speaking to you in Salmon Run may just be an automated text-to-voice program.
  • Spud's Adventure has this frequently with Devi, who kidnapped Princess Mato.
    • Devi rushes to rescue Princess Mato from her prison after an earthquake strikes, moving her to a more secure cell.
    • In a scene exclusive to the Japanese version of the game, Devi agrees to not attack Spud midway through the tower because his sister convinces him.
    • After you defeat him, Devi sees Spud as a worthy opponent and speculates that they could've been friends in another life, and also tells him information about where the princess is located. This last one gets him killed.
  • In Starcraft II Wings Of Liberty, if you choose to kill the infested colonists (which includes Dr. Hanson), both Tosh and Tychus console Raynor in their own ways.
  • Happens a few times in Street Fighter:
    • Sagat allows Joke Character Dan, whose father he killed in a fight, to defeat him to gain either the title or closure they seek. This is the first step in his Heel–Face Turn, as he saw how much obsession with revenge ruined Dan's life (at the very least, it caused Gouken to turn him away partway through training, resulting in his Joke Character style), and he realized his obsession with Ryu was doing the same to him.
    • Balrog, of all people, gets one of these in Street Fighter IV. Bison's plans have, apparently, gone to Hell, and Balrog is stomping around the ruined base looking for some treasure to loot before the whole place blows up. He runs into a scared child instead, and opts to carry him out. That said, he only decides to save him after he discovers that he has some sort of special powers, so his motives might not be as altruistic as they seem. However, Street Fighter V has the kid, Ed, showing up in some story modes, and it seems that he and Balrog have sorta become friends.
    • Vega even more shockingly has one legitimate moment of this in the Street Fighter Alpha series. Though overall he is a despicable narcissistic psychopath, when Cammy and the rest of the Dolls collapse from the strain of freeing themselves from Bison’s brainwashing, Vega saves them all from the burning Shadaloo base. True his reasons for doing so are mainly rooted in his warped and beauty obsessed mind — Cammy and the Dolls are all smoking hot babes therefore for Vega they can’t be allowed to die like that (plus he has a Villainous Crush on Cammy) but it’s still far more altruism than he’s ever displayed or would ever display again. His beautiful mother also died tragically so that might be a factor as well.
    • Juri in Street Fighter V takes a small break from her usual sadistic hedonism to aid Cammy whom goes against the law to protect Depcare and safeguard the rest of the Dolls. Important to note though this is definitely not any sort of genuine heroism or compassion on Juri’s part, she’s simply doing it for her own amusement and because she has own vendetta against Shadoloo for killing her parents.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser, when facing three of his soldiers who betrayed him and returned to grovel their way back, decides to quickly scold them and order them back to their posts ASAP instead of outright kicking them out or worse.
    • Mario Party 9: If the player in last place lands on a Bowser Space and gets an event that would cause them to lose Mini-Stars, Bowser will give them Mini-Stars himself instead.
    "Even I'm nice every once in a while! Write me a thank-you note later!"
  • Tales Series:
    • Tales of Symphonia: Yuan gets one of these in a sidequest. After he spends the entire game as a cold, impatient, manipulative bastard who appears not to care about even the Heroic Sacrifice of his closest subordinate, you follow him across both worlds on a sidequest where he's searching for something that he sharply refuses to explain. Turns out it was his engagement ring to Martel, and when he finds out that Lloyd was the one who picked it up, he's willing to literally beg for its return.
    • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World:
      • Alice gets one in a sidequest, wherein an old lady from Sylvarant is thrown away by a priest from the Church of Martel when she requests that he save his son. After Alice and Decus show up and beat up the priest, Alice tells the woman to go to Flanoir, where her son will be given free treatment. This may be because Alice's parents were slaughtered by animals on a forced pilgrimage. This is also the reason why she believes that Might Makes Right.
      • In a very literal example, the Mayor of Iselia, who was firmly established as a racist Jerkass in the previous game, can be found petting his dog.
    • Tales of the Abyss: It's easy to forget because he's so damn funny and technically on your side, but Jade Curtiss is pretty damn evil. And his cruelest moment, suggesting Luke kill himself to destroy the miasma, comes right before an extremely rare moment of kindness:
      Jade: That's what I would say if I was an emperor, with a country and people to look after. As your friend...I feel compelled to stop you.
      Luke: I didn't realize you thought of me as a friend.
      Jade: Oh? Of course not. I can be a terribly cold person...I'm sorry.
    • Yeager of Tales of Vesperia is portrayed as one of the Big Bad's servants, and is considered to be evil and manipulative. However, there are two girls who're helping him, and during his final battle, he explicitly orders them to not join in the fight between him and the heroes, heavily implying that he wants to die. If you do a lot of digging, you find that Gauche and Droite are actually from an orphanage that Yeager funded, and pledged their lives to help him.
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • As nasty they are to the enemy, RED and BLU are portrayed both in the official supplemental comics and fanworks as surrogate family members for one another. In-game behavior depends on who's playing, but the game definitely rewards working together and helping one another out, and all classes also have genuinely nice things to say to teammates either through dedicated button press or triggered automatically.
    • The comics also add another dimension to the otherwise morally questionable mercenaries: even they draw the line when children are involved, and always act kindly towards them. (Even if, in the case of BLU Spy, "acting kindly" means teaching a little kid how to use an icicle as a weapon so he doesn't get kidnapped.)
  • Tekken:
    • Subverted in the non-canonical ending of Tekken 5. Kazuya actually pays respect to his grandpa Jinpachi before fighting him by giving him a respectful bow. After beating him, he even cradles him on his hand while reminiscing about his past with his grandpa, when he was an innocent boy. Cue Kazuya getting his Evil Eyes activated, killed Jinpachi with his own hand, and cue another Evil Laugh... He got you again, didn't he?
    • Played straighter with Kazuya in regards to Jun his baby mama, however evil he may be Kaz still drops the smirks and cruelty for cruelty’s sake when within Jun’s presence. In Devil Kazuya’s non-canon ending in Tag Tournament 1 when he finds Jun unconscious on the ground he lifts her up into his arms with obvious care. In Jun’s reveal trailer for Tekken 8 Kazuya speaks uncharacteristically softly to her, marvelling over the fact she’s not actually dead like he thought. Kazuya’s ending confirms he does genuinely love Jun (even if he frames it in a Might Makes Right Amazon Chaser way) with his affection for her being literally the only semblance of good he has left inside him.
    • Heihachi’s relationship with Xiaoyu and Kuma falls under this. Although he’s a horrible old douchenozzle and Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who has hurt, abused and tried to kill his own family members, he conversely does have a soft spot for Xiaoyu after she impressed him by breaking into his yacht and beating up his mooks and treats her like a favourite granddaughter. The fact he’s willingly to dote on Xiaoyu and spoil her — in stark contrast to how he treats his own children and grandchild speaks volumes (it’s hinted that she may remind him of Kazumi). As for Kuma it’s shown Heihachi does legitimately like his pet bear to the point of them being partners in Street Fighter X Tekken.
    • Nina is an unscrupulous and sociopathic Ice Queen Femme Fatale assassin who has no qualms killing innocent people or trying to kill her own sister Anna over the smallest of provocations. Yet in Tekken 4 when tasked with assassinating Steve Fox, whom is her son, Nina couldn’t go through it. In Tekken 7 although Nina coldly rejects Steve as her son after he gets her to explain his birth, like before Nina still can’t kill him nor does she even try which considering her usual murderous hair-trigger propensity towards people or relatives who get in her way or annoy her is extremely telling.
  • Belladonna gets one in Trials of Mana, but especially if Riesz is in the party and is not the main character. During the "Big Bad Pileup" in which 2/3rds of the aspiring Big Bads are eliminated by the successful one, Belladonna explains her Evil Plan to Riesz, but since the Dark Majesty's remains were destroyed, she has no reason to harm Elliott at all, so she has him returned to Laurent before committing suicide offscreen.
  • Very, very rarely, Calypso from Twisted Metal gets one such moment. For example, in Twisted Metal: Head On, when Mortimer wishes to return to his grave instead of wishing for Revenge against the punks who dug him up, Calypso fulfills his wish with no strings attached.
  • Undertale makes this an important part of a Pacifist Run, since many monster encounters can be resolved without fighting if the player performs acts of kindness and affection on them. The specific actions for dogs always include a literal "Pet".
  • In Valkyria Chronicles, an unnamed Imperial officer allows Welkin and Alicia to leave in peace after he finds out that the two tried and failed to save the life of one of his men (a young scout who was gravely wounded and stumbled into their hiding place; Welkin tried in vain to patch up his wounds, Alicia kindly comforted the boy in his last moments, and they gave him a decent burial the following morning) even though he was the enemy. He laments the idea of facing the two again as it would be on the battlefield, and he would have to fight "good people".
  • In Valkyrie Profile, the PC acts as a Psychopomp, recruiting Einherjar from the "worthy dead" and sending the rest to Hel. One of your recruitments features a low-down thug named Badrach, who's popped up in the stories of several other characters before — including participating in the kidnapping and transport of a princess, which led to her death. When his deeds finally catch up with him, he drags himself home to his worn-down little house, and his sharp-tongued wife, bleeding all the way before collapsing on the doorstep. In the afterlife, he finds Lenneth Valkyrie waiting for him, only too eager to send him hurtling down into Hel, but she gives him a chance: Did he ever do anything worthy? A single good deed? He first tries to lie, but he cannot — instead, he merely spouts a string of crimes, from mugging and burglary to outright murder. But finally, he does recall a single redeeming act — one time, he was running security for slavers, and one slave, a little girl, took a shine to him. When the slavers' pay didn't measure up to his expectations, he ditched them and took the girl out of spite, bringing her to... an abandoned church. Probably better than staying with the slavers, though. Interestingly, it's implied that the girl he saved was Lucien/Rucio's sister that was sold off in the prologue.
  • Warcraft:
    • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne:
      • Illidan Stormrage is a power-hungry demon-night elf hybrid. Still, he goes out of his way to help save Tyrande, his sister-in-law, for whom he harbors an unrequited love.
      • Seeing how Illidan's brother Malfurion acts towards him every time he gives him a chance to, from the war of the ancients and forwards, one can argue that he's actively been working to turn him into a villain in order to secure Tyrande for himself, which in some ways would make a lot of the good things he does fall into this trope's territory.
    • World of Warcraft:
      • Kel'Thuzad is an undead lich who serves as The Dragon to Arthas Menethil, the Lich King. However, players can confront a kitten named Mr. Bigglesworth in his lair. If Mr. Bigglesworth is killed, Kel'Thuzad's reaction seems to be sadness and vengeful hatred towards those heartless loot-seekers that just killed his kitty.
      • King Varian Wrynn, who is considered a racist jackass by some, gets one when he allows an enemy general to pass through Alliance lines unmolested so that he can retrieve the body of his slain son.
      • Garrosh Hellscream, Varian's clear counterpart among the Horde, gets one as well when he executes a warlord for attacking innocents and shows respect for the wisdom of a still-grieving Tauren chieftain.
  • The End Times: Vermintide: Kerillian is an incredibly abrasive and insulting Asrai outcast whose dialogue mostly consists of barbed Deadpan Snark, but she does reveal a tender side once in a blue moon.
    • A conversation with Bardin will have her accuse Bardin of not actually looking for Karak Zorn and is simply trying to keep away from his fellow Dwarfs, though she has no idea why. This leaves Bardin sounding like the next thing she says might get him to try and kill her, but she ends the conversation off with an honest appeal that he has her sympathies and that she hopes he really "...finds what he is searching for".
    • In the levels "Against the Grain" and "Blood in the Darkness", she is gung-ho about saving the "mayfly" prisoners as much as the other Ubersreik Five. The same goes for every mission involving dead or captured civilians (captivity is her Berserk Button).
    • In "The Blightreaper", she has some surprisingly kind words for the dead body of Father Kraussman, considering her usual disdain for humans and servants of the Empire especially.
    • As a Sister of the Thorn, she jokes to Kruber that "I'd never hurt you; when the time comes, it'll be painless". In later dialogue, he reveals that the mean joke genuinely hurt his feelings, and she, amazingly, genuinely apologizes for it. Kruber notes this is the first time he has ever heard Kerillian apologise for anything.
    • When she makes a brief appearance in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as a Guest-Star Party Member, she leaps out of hiding to save the Player Characters from a mutant ambush ("Death on the Reik"), and later aids them in "The Horned Rat" and "Empire in Ruins", though in each case she will quickly disappear after, not wanting to grow too attached to them.
  • Dio from Virtue's Last Reward. Although not shown in game, Word of God has said that the cold-hearted, murderous terrorist once saved a stray cat.
  • King Foltest from the The Witcher games is generally described as "the arrogant, sister-humping warmonger", a completely justified characterisation. However, he is A Father to His Men and recognises and remembers the name of a private from a battle over four years earlier. Also, when interacting with his children, he turns into a complete creampuff.
  • Wolfenstein: The New Order: Despite B.J's... occasional abrasive and violent tendencies, he gets a cute little sidequest where he goes around collecting Max's lost toys for him. There's also a later sidequest to find and retrieve a concentration camp survivor's lost wedding ring.
    B.J: Good dreams, Max.

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