Promotion To Parent / Video Games

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• Advanced V.G.: Satomi's parents died years ago, in a car accident, leaving her to fend for herself and her kid brother, since they have no other living relatives. But she barely earns enough for them to get by, due to how costly her brother's treatments are, which is why she's set her sights on the VG Tournament's prize money.
• Another Code: Jessica got hit with this along with a case of Nephewism when Richard left Ashley in her care while he sorted out his issues. For the most part, Jessica seems to have done the job well and Ashley admits she's somewhat like a mom to her.
• Art of Fighting:
  • Ryo Sakazaki looks after his little sister Yuri after his mother's death and his father left the family for a while, which would explain a lot about his massive Big Brother Instinct towards her.
  • King looks after her little brother Jean. It is not known what happened to their parents, but she takes care of him and enters fighting tournaments in order to pay for his medical bills and treatment.
• Best of Three: Deconstructed. Helen has to take care of her five-year-old twin brothers, which she doesn't appreciate. It's because her mother has left for three years to date someone new, while her father can't even hold down a part-time job and spends most of his time writing cheesy poetry. She's being forced to get a business degree and a job, so she takes "night courses in various intensely tedious subjects so she can be around and look after the kids during the day".
  Helen: If she finds me not working, she will decide that I’m obviously not busy and thus available to take over for her when she’s exhausted and overwrought. And she’s always exhausted and overwrought.
• The Coffin of Andy and Leyley deconstructs this trope with Andrew Graves. His mother, after giving up on Ashley, intended for Andrew to take care of his little sister. However, Andrew is only two years older than Ashley, and was clearly not old enough to play the role even if Ashley hadn't been unstable from the get-go. As he's the only person in Ashley's life to show her any genuine care, she ends up developing an unhealthy attachment to him, which combines with Andrew's Extreme Doormat tendencies to create the siblings' present toxic codependency.
• In Dragon Age: Origins, the Dwarf Commoner Origin implies, the Player Character was effectively raised by their elder sister Rica due to their mother's alcoholism.
• In Dragon Age II:
  • Hawke became the sole breadwinner after the death of their father, three years prior to the game. Most of Hawke's actions for the first part of the game are simply trying to find a way to provide for their mother and their two younger siblings, the Half-Identical Twins Bethany and Carver.
  • After the death of Varric's father a few years after their exile to the surface, Bartrand took over as head of House Tethras and busied himself with running the family business, while Varric ended up being left to raise himself and look after his alcoholic mother.
• In Ensemble Stars!, Kuro's mother passed away a couple of years back, and while his father is still alive, he spends almost all of his time working to support the kids. As a result, Kuro is the primary parental figure for his younger sister — he learned how to cook and sew so he could better take care of her and applied to Yumenosaki specifically because she liked idols and he wanted to make her happy.
• Allegretto, from Eternal Sonata, takes Beat in as his adopted little brother.
  • This relationship is even further cemented with the orphans living in the sewer. At one point, you can speak to an orphan who will say, "If we're a family, then Beat's the mom and Allegretto's the dad!"
• Fallout 4 has Piper Wright caring for her much younger sister Nat after their parents were killed by bandits. Nat helps Piper sell the newspaper she writes.
• In Fahrenheit, Lucas casually mentions that his older brother Marcus "took care of me after our parents died". Sounds sweet enough until you see their gravestones and figure out that Lucas was around eighteen when his parents died (ten years later he has a former girlfriend that used to live with him in his huge loft).
• Farnham Fables: Following the deaths of their parents, Vincent Doyle took it upon himself to become a father figure to his younger sister Theresa. At the beginning of Episode 2, Pastor Luke Howards mistakenly thinks that Vincent is actually her father.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Averted in Final Fantasy IV (DS version), where Golbez/Theodor started to be a good older brother to Cecil, but Zemus started his mind control and Golbez proceeded to kick Cecil's ass to the curb.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, this ends up happening to Terra when she comes across a town in which all of the adults have died.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning decides to raise Serah on her own at fifteen, when their mother dies (their father died when the girls were very small). There's an almost total lack of resentment, and the sisters care deeply about each other. Interestingly, Serah worries plenty about Lightning too, and with good reason.
    • Lightning gets it again around the end of the first disc, when Hope joins her when she tries to go solo, in the process proving how weak and defenseless he really is. She's visibly displeased — at least at first.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the Falcoknight Juno raised her sisters, the Pegasus Knights Thite and Thany, after their Ilian mercenary parents were killed together in the battlefield when Juno was a teenager and the others were little girls.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has Fiora, who raised her sisters Farina and Florina; Uther, who had to raise his younger brother Hector in addition to ruling Ostia; and Ninian, who's been taking care of her little brother Nils.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Tethys, who raised her younger brother Ewan alone until she joined Gerik's group and he went to study with Saleh). There's also Forde, who became a knight both to follow his Disappeared Dad's example and provide for himself and his little brother Franz (who would become a knight as well).
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has Oscar raising his little brothers Boyd and Rolf in Greil's group.
  • Going even further back in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War are half-brothers Arvis and Azelle of Velthomer. Azelle's mom was one of the maids working for Arvis' dead mother and died some time ago, and their father Lord Victor went the Spurned into Suicide way at some point, so Arvis took upon himself the duty of helping raise young Azelle. Arvis was less than an ideal parent, though, since Azelle presumably dies along with the rest of Sigurd's army at the end of the game's first half when Arvis betrays and slaughters all of them. Other sources, however, hint that Azelle was spared by Arvis, but died of illness and grief sometime later.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
    • Morgan, the Avatar's Kid from the Future, can have an older brother or sister depending on who the Avatar marries (If a female Avatar marries Chrom, or if a male Avatar marries a first-generation girl who also gives birth to another Kid from the Future). If this happens, in the Bad Future the parents will die and the Avatar will become the Vessel for Grima, leaving little Morgan in the care of his/her older brother or sister, barely a teenager themself.
    • This is also heavily implied with Lucina. She's Chrom's daughter from a Bad Future and the first born of the Future Children, and as said above all of his playable wives have their own canonical child who's younger than her, meaning Chrom will typically father two children no matter who he marries (unless said wife is the Village Maiden). It's outright stated in all of Lucina's supports with her younger sibling that Chrom told her to protect them; if either Morgan or Cynthia is Chrom's kid, either of them says in their dad support that they have next to no memories of him (though for different reasons), further evidencing this.
    • Emmeryn is also this for her younger siblings Chrom and Lissa; Lissa explains to the Avatar that she never really knew her parents because they died when she was too young to remember them.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, the Nohr siblings barely survived in a Decadent Court. The two eldest surviving kids, Crown Prince Xander (mid-to-late 20s) and Princess Camilla (early 20s), ended up taking parental roles towards their half-siblings Leo (mid-to-late teens) and Elise (early teens) and their adoptive sibling the Avatar (also mid-to-late teens, though older than Leo).
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the villager Atlas has been raising his little siblings on his own. When they're kidnapped by Grieth, Atlas joins Celica's group to rescue them.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • This seems to be implied to be the case between Seteth and Flayn. Despite being siblings, Seteth acts more like a father to Flayn than an older brother, which could be explained by their age gap. And the fact he's not actually her brother, but her father.
    • Downplayed in the case of Raphael Kirsten. He and his younger sister do still have a grandfather to look after her day-to-day, but he's getting older, hence why Raphael is trying to become a knight to take care of her.
    • This happens to Ashe twice over the course of his life. When his biological parents died, he was left to care for his two younger siblings and ended up resorting to thievery to survive. All three ended up being adopted by Lord Lonato, a noble... but then Lonato dies, and Ashe is once again the primary caretaker for his younger siblings.
• Vera Light in Hidden City was forced to be the primary caregiver for her younger brother, Lucas, after her family home was engulfed by a magical fog while their father was presumably in his workshop, as he was the Chief Lamplighter for the Upper City, and thus was separated from each other. Eventually, Vera and Lucas are reunited with their father but by that point, the siblings had become scavengers and Mr. Black hated the scavengers.
• In the fall section of The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie befriend two brothers traveling together, adult Henry and his 13-year-old brother Sam. It's not clear what happened to their parents, but Henry is deeply protective of Sam like a father would be.
  • Also, Joel is implied to have more or less raised his younger brother Tommy before the outbreak.
• In Life Is Strange 2, you play as Sean Diaz, a 16 year old boy who is forced to look after his younger brother, Daniel, following the sudden death of their father. The choices made by the player will ultimately determine how the relationship goes, and how good or bad Daniel is holding up.
• Vetra Nyx in Mass Effect: Andromeda raised her younger sister Sid after their father mysteriously disappeared. After her loyalty mission, it becomes clear that Vetra is so accustomed to being Sid's mother that she doesn't actually know how to be her sister now that Sid is approaching adulthood.
• In NieR, the "brother" version of the eponymous protagonist ended up being his little sister Yonah's sole provider after their mother succumbed to the Black Scrawl. He's incredibly overprotective of her, willing to go to any lengths to cure her when she gets sick, and gets worried when he finds out she's been writing letters to a boy. Pretty much all of these traits are shared by the "father" version of the protagonist.
• In One Shot Calamus takes care of his younger sister, Alula after their mother died.
• Persona:
  • A particularly interesting example of this trope appears in the Persona 2 duology, in that both of the parents in question are alive, present in the home, and neither are antagonists. Tatsuya Suou's older, police sergeant brother Katsuya got the upgrade — although flashbacks in Innocent Sin show him in a quasiparental role even before this — after their father was released dishonorably from his capacity as a police officer and simply...wasn't interested in raising his children. Their mother (who's only ever mentioned in the side material) is technically there, but entirely ineffective and as unconcerned about her children's lives as her husband, leaving Katsuya to act as the family's sole breadwinner and his brother's caretaker all on his own.
  • In Persona 5, Makoto Nijima's older sister Sae looks after her after their father's death, as their mother had already died years earlier. While Sae cares for Makoto, the fact that Sae doesn't think much about Makoto's relatively idealistic worldview and desire to follow in her father's footsteps (since Sae blames her father for getting himself killed), and is secretly jealous of Makoto causes friction between the sisters.
• In the first and second generations of Pokémon, Blue's sister Daisy seems to be assuming the role of acting mother for him in lieu of missing or deceased parents as she is several years older than him and looks after the house with no other adults present.
  • It's stated in FireRed/LeafGreen Versions that Professor Oak lives with them, and even in the first generation, his lab is right next to Blue and Daisy's house. He probably cares for them.
• The Resident Evil series has Chris Redfield to his little sister Claire, as it's stated in the Japanese companion novel that their parents died in a car crash years ago when Chris was 20 and Claire was 14. Like many examples this realistically subverted as Chris given new responsibilities was overprotective of Claire since he trained her in firearms and combat training from a young age and apparently bossed her around frequently. Claire only expressed her struggles with Chris’s parenting much later in life in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 showing even as a full-grown woman she still has some bitterness about it.
  • The first Gun Survivor has Lott taking care of his little sister Lilly once their parents are zombified.
• Röki: As a result of the death of her mother Eva, Tove has had to raise Lars in her place, especially since their own father Henrik is so overwhelmed with grief by Eva's death that he barely even looks after his children.
• InThe Sims, teens aren't taken away by a social worker if their parents die (unlike Sims of child-age or younger who have been orphaned and left without an older relative in the house), which can leave them in this role to younger brothers and sisters.
  • The pre-generated Newson family in The Sims 2: Apartment Life have this; two teens have to raise their younger siblings (two children and two toddlers) after their parents' death. The player can choose to add an unrelated adult to their household if desired, however.
• Tales Series:
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Raine, sister of Genis, takes the parental role; at the start she only has a vague memory of her mother and Genis doesn't remember anything. They do find their mother near the end, but she's insane and nursing a doll whom she named Raine. Raine (not the doll) ends up in a parental role for the group of children sent out to save the world, along with Kratos, the mercenary hired for the job; of course Kratos pulls a Darth Vader.
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Van acts like a parent to Tear when Hod is destroyed. Also, although they aren't actual siblings, Guy acted as both an older brother and a parent to Luke, as he is the one who taught Luke how to walk/talk/etc. after he was found at Choral Castle.
  • Chester from Tales of Phantasia was promoted to a father figure for his little sister Ami after their parents died... up until she dies as well, together with other denizens of Toltus.
  • In Tales of Xillia 2, Julius serves as a father figure for his younger half-brother, Ludger after Julius killed Lugder's mother, who was the younger sister of Julius's mother, in self-defense. Julius was extremely careful to keep all of this hidden from their Archnemesis Dad.
  • Tales of Berseria: Celica had to take care of her much younger siblings Velvet and Laphicet when their parents died. When Celica died, Velvet had to step up, but in that case she didn't have to fill the role completely since Celica's husband Arthur was still around to help.
• Because everyone in Touhou is either Conveniently an Orphan or subject to Parental Abandonment, but there still seem to be a fair number of siblings, even though there are no parents to go with them, this happens in a few places.
  • Remilia Scarlet is head of the Scarlet Devil Mansion... even though she looks (and often acts) like a 10-year-old. The actual maintenance of the house is handled by the human meido Sakuya (at least, as long as her merely human lifespan lasts), Remilia is functionally boss / dictator of the household. Of course, perhaps her most important duty is keeping Enfant Terrible little sister Flandre Scarlet from throwing a temper tantrum that accidentally ends the world in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
  • Satori Komeiji heads the household, although her younger sister, Koishi, often gives herself a Poke in the Third Eye to give herself a functional Invisibility Cloak and live essentially as a hobo, stealing food and trespassing for shelter. Regardless, the household has many "pets" that have grown up into full-fledged humanoid youkai that live with Satori in the Komeiji household, although the events of Subterranean Animism imply she wields little control over her "pets" or "family" if one of them can make a crack at World Domination without her noticing.
    • It's worth pointing out that Rin seemed to be actively covering up for Utsuho for fear of Satori finding out.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Lee looks after Clementine and becomes another father figure for her in Season 1 when he realizes her parents are gone and are most likely dead.
  • Alvin Junior's parents are both dead mere days after he is born. Despite only being eleven, in several of Season 2 Episode 5's endings, Clementine is looking after AJ by herself. By Season 4, she basically can take up the role of a big sister figure and mother by teaching AJ proper social skills, food etiquette, etc.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Dunban fell into this role with his sister Fiora, as he's 12 years older than her and their parents died long before the events of the game. At the start of the game, Fiora is helping care for Dunban like one would a sick parent. Later in the game, Dunban's reaction to seeing Fiora Back from the Dead and giving his blessing to Shulk and Fiora's relationship feels more fatherly than brotherly.
• Yakuza; while searching Kamurocho for leads on his missing Love Interest Yumi and the culprit in a robbery/murder, Kazuma Kiryu comes across a young orphan girl named Haruka who's looking for her mother. Haruka's mother turns out to be Yumi, but due to circumstances of the climax she ends up dead. Kiryu unofficially adopts Haruka, and the two grow very close over the course of the series (and while he never comes out and says it, Kiryu does consider Haruka the daughter he never had).

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