History AdultsAreUseless / VideoGames

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesKuroNoKiseki Kuro]]'' noticeably has most of its playable characters be in their twenties or older, including protagonist Van. Only 4 are still in their teens, one of whom (Aaron) only barely qualifies due to being 19.

* Any RPG where the main characters are almost always under 20, often around 14-18. Normally there are one or two older characters to act as a sage or adviser.
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** Even setting aside the fact that it usually falls to [[KidHero an 11-15 year old to save the world from destruction]] at the hands of the antagonists, the complete and utter incompetence at Pokémon battling displayed by most adults in this series is astonishing.

* ''VideoGame/DigimonSurvive'': Averted with the Professor, who is the only adult around. He is always willing to sacrifice himself to protect the teenagers, even though they are strangers to him. The teens are all grateful for his presence and appreciate his kindness. When he is seemingly killed, the teens are all devastated by the loss and they're left without adult supervision in this strange world. [[spoiler:It later turns out that he has survived and he later avoids the CompetenceZone because of his old Digimon Partner from his childhood.]]

* ''VideoGame/DigimonSurvive'': Averted with the Professor, who is the only adult around. He is always willing to sacrifice himself to protect the teenagers, even though they are strangers to him. The teens are all grateful for his presence and appreciate his kindness. When he is seemingly killed, the teens are all devastated by the loss. [[spoiler:It later turns out that he has survived and he later avoids the CompetenceZone because of his old Digimon Partner from his childhood.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''. Surprisingly one of the most accurate portrayals of this trope. It's set in a school, one that's plagued by bullying. Even if the student body consists of [[ThrivingGhostTown about 70 people]], the adults and the four prefects seem to just stand there going, "Duuuuuuuuh" while Gary manipulates all the cliques into fighting with each other. Even if the prefects (and adults) ''do'' chase Jimmy and can be seen occasionally busting a student, it's obvious the prefects are power-hungry jerks who're oblivious to most of the stuff that goes on in the school, and so are the adults. (i.e., the nerds are able to construct ''potato gun turrets'' in the astronomy club building without alerting adults and it's implied they have no supervision, the jocks throw ''explosive-laden footballs'' at a student, the gym gets ''lit on fire'' and nobody calls the police unless you fail and nobody even ''mentions'' it afterward.) It's safe to say even if the game has a realistic portrayal of how useless adults can be in a school setting; you can probably rest easily given that if this happened in real life, people WOULD call the police and the school would be closed in a year. (Mr. Burton ''especially'' would be fired for ''encouraging'' the bullying and [[spoiler: the implications that he ''sexually harassed Zoe''. Which he is anyway]].)

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Even setting aside the fact that it usually falls to an 11-15 year old to save the world from destruction at the hands of the antagonists, the complete and utter incompetence at Pokemon Battling displayed by most adults in this series is astonishing.

* Most of the adults in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' are incompetent. The police force of Onett fights Ness [[DisproportionateRetribution for trespassing]] and loses, not to mention how they were unable to stop a teenage gang from wreaking havoc before that. Some of the people interested in the Happy Happy cultists are too busy painting cows and buildings blue to care for their children back in Twoson. Paula's father is too worried and scared about her disappearence to try to look for her while her mother doesn't seem to be worried in the slightest, you have to free Threed from the zombie invasion because none of the adults there know what to do, The Runaway Five are continually tricked into crippling debt everywhere they go. Porky's dad in Fourside is seen riding off of his son's success, and later in the game, he's lost everything.

* The ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' subverts this trope as much as possible while still keeping its younger viewpoint characters relevant. There are several competent, more experienced adults that can and do show up the younger characters, every step of the way in skill and practice. Which is exactly why they stay out of situations their Bracers/police/soldiers in training can work with on their own. A student can't truly learn to rely on their skills if they had to depend on their mentors to get by. However, when they decide not to hold back, they frequently reach StoryBreakerPower levels of competence. This is also one of the reasons why the overall villains of the series, [[AncientConspiracy Ouroboros]] easily get what they want as almost all their members are competent adults. They also aren't afraid to weaponize adults' vulnerability and trust toward children, as the Black Fang and the Angel of Slaughter demonstrate with chilling effectiveness.
** By ''Cold Steel IV'', [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky the]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure three]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel protagonists]] of the various arcs are all adults and are very competent compared to their younger years with the three leads being [[ExperiencedProtagonist experienced protagonists]].
** ''Sky the 3rd'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie Reverie]]'' are notable in that they feature protagonists ([[BreakoutCharacter Kevin and <C>]], respectively) who are experienced adults right from their introduction, the latter actually boasting the title of "oldest protagonist in ''Trails''.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesKuroNoKiseki Kuro]]'' noticeably has most of its playable characters be in their twenties or older, including protagonist Van. Only 4 are still in their teens, one of whom (Aaron) only barely qualifies due to being 19.

** Mr. Jefferson is a nice guy in Episode 1, but when confronted with cruel gossip about a student in Episode 2, he resorts to UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming. [[spoiler: He also turns out to be the BigBad all along and murders Chloe upon his reveal. It's likely he willfully invoked this trope to manipulate Kate and clean up a possible loose end.]]