The Lost Lenore / Video Games

The Lost Lenore in Video Games.

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• Ace Combat:
  • In Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, it's revealed that the driving force behind Abyssal Dision’s quest for revenge was the death of Yoko Martha Ionue, who had successfully created a Brain Upload version of him into the Electrosphere, right as soon as their superiors at General Resource LTD. bombed the facility to cover up Yoko’s involvement in the ‘Darkness of Enigma’ project. Yoko’s death is also the driving force for Simon Orestes Cohen, though he’s out to kill Dision because he blamed him for Yoko’s death.
  • In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Shamrock decides to fly for one final mission to stop the Estovakians from destroying Gracemaria after informing Talisman that his wife Monica, and his daughter Jessica were killed.
• Another Code: Sayoko Robbins' death and previous life is the driving force of both games.
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: Christina Vespucci’s death during the Bonfire of the Vanities haunts Ezio such that he represses his memories of her, with said memories being triggered by chance encounters with random Christina look-alikes in Roma years later.
• Bioshock Infinite—Lady Comstock, mourned both by her husband and the entire city. It's later revealed that she was killed by Comstock himself to preserve the secret that Elizabeth is not their child, framing nearby scullery maid Daisy Fitzroy in the process.
• In Borderlands 3, Maya became this to Kreig after her death, and their friendship (with his hope of it becoming something more) was his only support system for his mental illness. He made significant progress but began to relapse after learning of her death and feared losing his memories of her, but at the end of the Fantastic Fustercluck DLC his two personalities manage to reconcile.
• Castlevania:
  • Dracula's wives (Elisabetha back in the 11th century and Lisa in the early 15th century). The guy is not really lucky in love.
  • In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow's bad ending, Soma Cruz can be duped into thinking that Mina Hakuba has become this. Cue Face–Heel Turn. To drive the point home, he is the above's reincarnation.
  • In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Gabriel's wife Marie plays a role almost identical to Mono's, albeit a bit more involved.
• In Blue Tea Games' Cursery: The Crooked Man, the title character's fiancée died before they could get married and he went insane with grief. While she has been reborn as the player character's sister, her ghost still haunts the areas where she lived and died until the Crooked Man triggers the sister's memories.
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time: The alternate universe version of Tawna Bandicoot implicitly alludes to the fact that her universe's versions of her boyfriend, Crash, and his sister, Coco, are dead, and that she failed to protect them, resulting in her becoming reclusive. It's revealed later on that her universe's version of Dr. Nefarious Tropy was the one who killed him, as she made a hobby out of hunting anthropomorphic bandicoots and skinning them into watches, with Tropy determined to have Tawna join her lover in the afterlife.
• In The Darkness 2, Jackie Estacado is haunted by eerily lifelike visions of his girlfriend Jenny, who died in the first Darkness game.
• In the second Dark Parables game, the Frog Prince is immortal and eternally grieving for his lost brides, most particularly his first wife Ivy.
• Used directly in the tenth installment of the Dark Tales, which is based on The Raven; losing his beloved Lenore is implied to have driven Alan to suicide. However, Lenore is actually alive, and Alan was murdered.
• Strongly implied in the trailer for Days Gone, with the main character reminiscing of happier times with his girlfriend before The Virus happened.
• Nicole in Dead Space and its sequel. It's a major plot point in both games.
• This is the whole point of Dear Esther.
• Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance has Liezerota, Killia's Love Interest, who was responsible for shaping him into what he is out of what used to be a violence-driven, cynical demon lord; he carries a flower he froze back then as a reminder of her. Killia refuses to forgive Void Dark for murdering her in his attempt to kill him. Interestingly, though, Lieze's death also impacted Void, and the universe-spanning campaign of conquest he and the Lost engaged in was all done just to bring her back; he succeeds, but the heroes have a lot of mess to clean up on the way and in the end.
• In Disco Elysium, your detective is haunted by a lost woman from his past who he seems to have conflated with the holy mother figure Delores Dei. This is actually a subversion - the woman is still alive, and has left him for completely normal reasons. Your detective's catastrophising mind has turned her into this kind of figure, completely out of proportion with the level of misery that her life actually contains. This has been stated by Word of God to be an intentional message of the game - that the things that make most people so unhappy aren't the kind of dramatic, idolising Lost Lenore storylines you typically find in cop shows and RPGs, but normal everyday unhappinesses. His conflation of his lover with a religious icon is part of the same emotional immaturity that caused her to leave him in the first place.
• In Dishonored, Corvo Attano never gets over the murder of Empress Jessamine. He later makes her birthday an Empire-wide day of mourning so the world mourns with him.
• Dragon Age:
  • Although it's not explicitly stated in Dragon Age: Origins, supplemental material reveals that his late wife Celia, mother of his daughter Anora, is actually this for Loghain Mac Tir. After her death, he never returned to the Teyrnir of Gwaren, which he's supposed to be running. If he becomes a Warden and is asked to do the Dark Ritual with Morrigan, he even states that he'll be imagining her while he does. This is an especially interesting case because Celia was Loghain's Second Love; other supplemental material shows that he has another Lost Lenore in the form of Queen Rowan, his first love, who was married to his best friend King Maric.
  • It is very clear in the subsequent games after the first game that whomever the Warden (posthumously known as the Hero of Ferelden) romanced is still grieving over their death, should the first game have ended with the Player Character doing the Ultimate Sacrifice to eliminate the Archdemon.
  • Subverted with Varric and Bianca: in Dragon Age II, it's told that Varric's crossbow Bianca, which he consistently talks about as if they're in a relationship, is named for the person who helped create it... and that Varric, a gregarious storyteller known for exaggerating or fabricating whatever he feels like, refuses to say any more about the story behind Bianca's creation. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the real Bianca is shown to be alive and well, and that she and Varric are still in communication somewhat regularly; she's just in an Arranged Marriage to someone else, so they can't be seen together. Or her family will send assassins. It's never stated or even implied that Bianca is dead or that Varric is in mourning, but because of the way he treats the crossbow, many fans assumed this was the case until she appeared in the third game.
• Dragon's Dogma has the Duke Edmun Dragonsbane, who is the hero of the past. He chose to sacrifice his beloved, who was even named Lenore, in a Faustian Pact to both avert a disaster and become the duke. Based on the player's involvement, he will (almost) strangle his new wife in an act of sleepwalking/lunacy and shouts "Lenore! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
• Subverted in DragonFable. The fact that Warlic and Xan's teenage rivalry led to the woman both of them were crushing on, Jaania, being imprisoned in a crystal is a major factor in both of their motivations (Xan in particularly wants revenge on Warlic for it). Then Jaania gets out, and she's so royally pissed at both of them that she freezes both them and the player character solid and goes on to become a Knight Templar.
• Dusty Revenge have the death of the titular rabbit's fiancée, Daisy, in the backstory, and he spends the entire game tracking down her killers and beating them to death.
• Endless Nightmare have the backstories of at least two protagonists like these. James from the first two games lose his wife and daughter to a Serial Killer, while Scott from the fourth lost his wife and son to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Both protagonists started losing their grips on reality as the game goes on.
• Richard Hamilton, in the Enigmatis trilogy, has spent thirty years trying to avenge the murder of his sweetheart Emily, having never recovered from her loss.
• Fallout series:
  • In Fallout: New Vegas, one of your companions, Boone, recently lost his wife after she was captured by Slavers. He's haunted by his failure to protect her and by the fact that he killed her himself.
  • In Fallout 4, former Little Lamplight mayor RJ MacCready has a lost love in the form of fellow ex-Little Lamplighter Lucy, who was killed by Feral Ghouls during their travels following the third game.
  • Also in Fallout 4, the Sole Survivor's deceased spouse can be this.
• Fear & Hunger: Termina: Daan was in love with a young woman named Elise before he was shipped off to war. When he returned, he found she had perished in a ritual, spurring him to go to Prehevil and figure out why.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy VI, Locke is guilt-ridden over the demise of his former love Rachel. She actually got amnesia while saving him from a bridge collapse and then died in an imperial invasion, both of which he is trying to atone for by acting protective over every woman he meets from then on (first Terra, and then Celes). Eventually, Rachel's spirit tells Locke he should move on with his life without feeling guilty.
  • In Final Fantasy VII Aerith has a Lost Lenore in the form of Zack. The reason she joined Cloud's party to begin with is that Cloud (for one reason and another) is similar to Zack. Naturally, she then becomes Cloud's Lost Lenore when her inevitable sled occurs.
  • A male example is Lord Rassler to Ashe from Final Fantasy XII. She keeps hallucinating that she sees his spirit following her around and it turns out the Occurria were exploiting this trope to manipulate her.
  • Serah from Final Fantasy XIII, though she has been crystallized instead of killed. It affects every main character, especially Snow and Lightning. Serah's death at the end of Final Fantasy XIII-2 evokes this in Lightning, Mog, Noel, and especially Snow in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
  • Haurchefant from Final Fantasy XIV, for the Warrior of Light/Player character. He's the Implied Love Interest, and his death breaks and marks a painful change in the Warrior of Light's attitude, which is lampshaded by several characters over the course of the story.
  • Lunafreya serves as this for Noctis in Final Fantasy XV, as a good chunk of the second half of the story involves him overcoming the PTSD that accompanied him helplessly witnessing her death at Ardyn's hands, and the guilt of her using the last of her strength to protect him and ensure his destiny fulfilled. In Episode Lunafreya, which was released in story form and originally would have been a DLC, it's subverted as she's brought back to life with similar powers to Ardyn's.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Monica for Orson, her husband. It's so much so he's willing to do a Face–Heel Turn to bring her back to life. Luckily, the player never sees the result.
  • Ke'ri is this to Lon'qu in Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's made worse than the standard since she died in a Heroic Sacrifice to save him.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden and especially its remake, Shadows of Valentia, if certain characters die in action, another character's ending will mention that he/she became this to the survivor. Some of them are: Clair and Gray for each other, Valbar for Leon, Forsyth for Python (probably), Clive for Mathilda, Zeke and Tatiana for each other, Boey and Mae for each other too...
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses gives Ingrid from the Blue Lions one of these in the form of Felix's older brother Glenn, who died in the tragedy of Duscur. Many of her supports involve her still being in mourning for him due to them being a perfectly arranged marriage.
• In Ghost Trick, The suicide of Yomiel's fiancée Sissel is part of what drove him mad with isolation. He even named his cat after her.
• God of War (PS4): The death of Kratos' second wife is what sets all the events of the game. By the end, it is all but confirmed that this was her intention all along.

• Hades:
  • Persephone for Hades, even though she's not actually dead. Nonetheless, the loss of his wife deeply embittered Hades who now refuses to even allow any of his subjects to speak her name.
  • Being based on Greek mythology, it's no surprise Eurydice is this for Orpheus. While the game is set after Orpheus' death, he's unable to meet her even in the afterlife due to being consigned to a different layer of Hades.
  • Similarly, Achilles and Patroclus are this for each other, unable to be Together in Death due to Achilles giving up his place in Elysium to Patroclus.
• Halo: You would never expect to find this trope in a first-person shooter, but Halo 4 ends with the realization that there has been a romance brewing in this series since the first game, and Cortana becomes this for the Master Chief in the end. Then Halo 5: Guardians reveals that Cortana survived and has developed the desire to rule over the galaxy as a benevolent tyrant. Chief is as angry and heartbroken about this as a stoic killing machine can be.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has the unnamed wife of King Rhoam, who died while their daughter Zelda was very young. As the women of the Royal Family of Hyrule are the ones who pass down the Royalty Super Power capable of defeating Calamity Ganon and teach their daughters how to awaken it, and as his wife was the kind and encouraging parent, King Rhoam made Zelda go through a regimen of ritualistic prayer at sacred springs to unlock that power while forbidding her from researching Ancient Technology as she wanted because that was the only way he could think of to do so.
  • Link himself may have had one in Mipha. She was clearly in love with her Childhood Friend and while it's not confirmed whether he felt the same, the two had a close bond and some dialogue options can imply he reciprocated.
• Depending on the player's actions in Mass Effect, this ends up happening. Liara, in particular, is affected by Shepard's death—though her character development is partially a facade due to emotional trauma and survivor guilt.
  • Mass Effect 3 can potentially add two more. If Kasumi was encouraged to keep her graybox and either the extended Destroy or Control endings are activated, she's shown to not be over Keiji at all, and in fact spends nearly all her free time reliving his memories. In the Citadel DLC, if Thane was romanced, Shepard can experience this herself through the use of paragon options during Kolyat's memorial service.
• The Sorrow became a rare male example in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, having sacrificed himself so his love, The Boss, could live.
• In Octopath Traveler, Ogen is introduced in Alfyn's Chapter 3 as a cynical Jerkass apothecary who only treats those he believes deserve to survive, and is willing to leave wounded criminals to die. After the indiscriminate Alfyn treats Miguel, who goes on to kidnap an innocent boy to hold for ransom and then wound him because he found his crying annoying, Alfyn is forced to kill Miguel to save the boy's life, and enters a moral crisis of being an apothecary. At this moment, Ogen tells Alfyn that he was once an indiscriminate apothecary who believed anybody in need deserves to be helped, until he too treated a wounded criminal who then betrayed his trust by murdering his own wife. This incident was Ogen's Cynicism Catalyst.
• It seems that the standard response to the death of lovers in Onmyōji is to cause disasters: Ame-onna (husband died at sea) turns into an oni and takes other demons' life force to protect the bridge where she waits for her husband. Sakura-no-sei (fiancé murdered) turns the entire forest she lives in into a frozen wasteland. Tamamo no Mae (wife struck by lightning) mourns his beloved as it rains seven days in a row.
• Michael from Oxenfree qualifies. He died sometime before the beginning of the events of the game occurred, but it's made pretty clear that his ex-girlfriend Clarissa never recovered from the loss and his presence is felt throughout the narrative.
• Saki Konishi in Persona 4 was the second victim of the Serial Killer tormenting Inaba, and Yosuke's crush whose murder motivates him to find the truth. His Social Link revolves around his struggle to come to terms with her death as well as his own insecurities.
  • The first victim, Mayumi Yamano, was this to a lesser extent as her lover Namatame was devastated by her death, and his desire to prevent more people from ending up like Mayumi allowed him to be easily manipulated by the real killer.
  • Yu's aunt was killed in a hit-and-run accident prior to the start of the game, and his uncle Dojima's desire to catch her killer caused him to become a workaholic and neglect his daughter Nanako. Dojima's Social Link revolved around Yu helping him to let go of his need for revenge so he doesn't end up losing more of his family.
• Dr. Maruki in Persona 5 Royal was basically a nicer Gendo Ikari, as the root of his Utopia Justifies the Means plan was his girlfriend Rumi whose memories he accidentally erased when trying to alleviate her trauma. Subverted in that she didn't physically die, but to him, she essentially was.
• A major plot point of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is that Hershel Layton's college girlfriend, Claire Folly, was killed years before the events of the game. ...Or so it seems, as Claire was actually transported at the last second into the future, and Layton, now reunited with her, wants them to have a second chance together. This doesn't last, though, as to stop the flow of spacetime from collapsing, Claire has to return to the moment when she was meant to die, cementing her death for good. This set of events ends up breaking Layton.
• Psychonauts 2: Helmut Fullbear serves this role for Bob Zanotto, as his death kickstarted the latter's spiral into depression and reclusion. Subverted when Helmut turns out to be Not Quite Dead, rather just a Brain in a Jar that only pre-Laser-Guided Amnesia Ford knew about.
• Mono from Shadow of the Colossus. Bringing her back to life is the entire premise of the plot.
• James's wife Mary in Silent Hill 2. Her demise drives the entire plot, with James heading to Silent Hill in response to a letter from her, which somehow was delivered to him two years after she passed on. The biggest twist of the game is that she actually died recently, and was a Mercy Kill from James himself. It’s heavily implied he wanted to be Together in Death with Mary, and came to Silent Hill to fulfil that goal. Whether he does depends on which of the Multiple Endings the player achieves.
• The Sims 3: One of the pre-made Sims is Agnes Crumplebottom, who lost her husband, Erik Darling, on their honeymoon before she could even change her surname. As a result, she’s usually quite sad, not helped by the fact that they were planning to have a child, with a half finished nursery still on the upper floor of her home. In the original game, which 3 is a prequel to, she appears as Ms. Crumplebottom, who is known for a dislike of public displays of affection, often telling couples to “get a room”, with 3 heavily implying that this is the end result of her heartbreak from Erik’s death.
• Super Paper Mario: Lady Timpani's "death" was the catalyst for Blumiere to kill his tribe and take on the mantle of Count Bleck. However, Timpani was put inside the body of a Pixl and became known as Tippi.
• Tales Series:
  • Stella to Senel in Tales of Legendia. Senel is so hurt and hung-up on her death that this causes him to be completely oblivious to her younger sister Shirley's own feelings and emotional turmoil and the enemy uses this to break her, among other things.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Lloyd Irving's mother, Anna, for Kratos Aurion. Yuan Ka-fai's is also this for Martel.
  • Tales of Berseria: Zaveid's girlfriend Theodora, who became the dragon Shenlong and was killed by Eizen.
• This trope seems to be a common theme in the Trails Series. Games until Cold Steel II will not be in spoilers due to how long the series has been.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Cassius Bright lost his wife during the Hundred Day War while his wife was trying to protect their daughter at the clock tower. Meanwhile, Loewe lost his girlfriend during the Hamel Incident, which is one of the main reasons he joins the secret society Ouroboros.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, Cecile Neues loses her boyfriend Guy while in the line of duty and ends up taking care of his little brother Lloyd Bannings. She ends up taking a lot of time to get over his death.
  • In Cold Steel I, quite a few members of the party's parents have a missing significant other. Alisa's mom lost her husband in an accident and thus made her go from a kind and caring mother to an all serious and workaholic who barely spends any time with her daughter. And as revealed in Cold Steel III, he's actually alive and ends up being The Dragon for Osborne due to quite a number of things that happen in Erebonia. Elliot's dad meanwhile lost his wife and was not exactly adamant about making his son go to music the same her wife did. Though he ends up relenting in Cold Steel II.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, the emperor reveals to Rean that Olivert's mom is this to him as she ends up dying for the nobles to gain prestige for the previous emperor as she was a commoner. It's also where Olivert got his last name, Lenheim, from during the Sky Series. And for Giliath Osborne, he loses his wife due to an incident a few days before the Hamel Incident happened as described above. He also reveals that the scar Rean has on his chest is actually because Rean got impaled by a huge wooden splinter and that Rean only survives because Osborne, as revealed in Cold Steel IV, had to make a Deal with the Devil so that Osborne can transplant his own heart and replace Rean's damaged heart.
• A non-romantic example, but in The Walking Dead (Telltale), despite Clementine's many, MANY losses throughout the series, Lee's tragic death breaks Clementine's heart in a way no other character's death has to date. Many points throughout her journey make reference to how much she loved and misses him, in fact, it's to the point she barely mentions her own parents most of the time and defers to him when talking about parental figures in her life. You'd also better not say a word against him when she's around to hear it. Just ask Lily. It doesn't help that she blames herself for what happened. It definitely doesn't help that she's right to some extent, though of course the blame can't rest on her.
  Clementine: Lee, I miss you so much. I wish you were really here...
• Tiffin Wrynn in World of Warcraft, who was killed by a brickbat. A rather ornate memorial is built for her, and Varian spends significant amounts of screen time in lore angsting over her death or talking 'to' her about various things. In Wolfheart, he is shown still blaming himself for the death well over a decade later, and in the leader short story The Blood of Our Fathers, he is shown to carry around her locket as a form of Security Blanket.
• Xenoblade Chronicles:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Fiora is this to Shulk, driving him to kill Metal Face to avenge her death. Though she later comes back as a Hollywood Cyborg.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Lora is this for Jin, with her death 500 years ago by the hands of Amalthus and more tragically her last words to him being what motivated him to become a Flesh Eater by devouring her flesh to remain alive and preserve his memories of her. He fell into a deep depression and despair that eventually motivated him to kill the Architect and destroy Alrest out of the belief the whole world and the cycle of Drivers and Blades was a curse that didn't need to exist anymore.
• Played straight in Xenogears for Fei's past incarnation selves always end up losing Elly, especially for Lacan, who went rouge to seek power and became one of the prime antagonist Grahf after Sophia's death.
• Xenosaga has both male and female examples of this trope. Shion's Lost Lenore is Kevin, her boyfriend and the scientist originally in charge of the KOS-MOS project, while Jr.'s is Delicate and Sickly Sakura, whom MOMO was created to look like.
  • Mary, as well, for chaos. Who is "resurrected" not once, but twice, with KOS-MOS holding her soul and T-Elos being made from her body, respectively.
• Parodied in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, where the Bartender of the Survive Bar tells the tale of a lover that passed away whenever anyone tries to buy the bottle of high-end "Legend Malt" on his shelf and how that bottle was meant for her. In actuality, it's just a sob story he uses to dissuade anyone from actually buying and finding out that it's just cheap rotgut in a fancy bottle.

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