History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': Ryder is one of the major characters who is a member of the Grove Street Families gang and one of CJ's friends from childhood with the charisma and attitude to be well liked by many fans of the game in spite of his [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassness]]. When he is revealed to be a traitor along with Big Smoke, CJ shows genuine shock of Smoke betraying him and never once mentions Ryder's name, even when he tells Sweet. In the mission "Pier 69", CJ kills Ryder without much of a dramatic scene between the two and only mentions him once after his betrayal. Since then, Ryder is never brought up again, and Sweet never even asks about Ryder's whereabouts by the time he is released from prison. It made Ryder seem more like a minor character who suddenly became less important half way through the game and his death scene isn't any more different from Kane's death earlier in a Los Santos mission. It also doesn't help that he has the least backstory of the main cast.

''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' is a particularly glaring offender. Because [[AnyoneCanDie any party member can die permanently in combat]], the designers didn't bother to write any further material for characters once they join the party permanently. It gets to the point where it's almost disappointing to get a new party member, because it means that the character in question has been reduced to a block of combat statistics and will never do anything interesting in-story again. This is especially galling with characters like [[KnightInShiningArmor Agrias]] and [[GadgeteerGenius Mustadio]], who join early in the game and would likely have gotten a lot of development in any other RPG, or who like Meliadoul (whose father is the BigBad for much of the game) still have an obvious connection to events in the main plotline. The only exception is in a battle soon after you get Agrias that will initiate a unique conversation between her, Ramza, and Gafgarion, but she only gets a single line of it. Additionally there are very few times where the optional characters contribute anything to the game after joining. Mustadio is needed to recruit Construct 8, Cloud, and to get Reis' human form. In the PSP version, you need Mustadio and Agrias to get a super-powerful accessory. The PSP version also adds an optional sidequest for Beowulf and Reis. This is a complete list, leaving the other characters pointless to the story.

*** Yuffie could be considered this by some. She is the princess of a nation that was invaded and defeated by Shinra. This same nation is again hit by Geostigma, essentially The Black Plague of the VII universe and yet little is said about how it's handling this. It is said that this country was once great and mysterious, and yet Square decided to expand on Cloud's story and make a game centered around [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vincent Valentine]] rather than explore a country with it's own history and culture that is vastly different from the one already shown in series. Given what history has already given us, Square could've used some real world examples and made a story centered around politics and Yuffie's history growing up in a vastly different setting then Cloud and the rest of the cast. At least we get to see her in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''.
*** The developer explanation for ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'''s focus on Vincent was that he was the party's gunner, allowing them to make a third-person shooter game. This naturally made some people in the fandom comment that there's ''two'' gunners in ''Final Fantasy VII'', and that it was a waste that they assumed you'd want to play a shooter as an over-serious and shallow {{Goth}} {{Bishounen}} when you could be playing as Barret, a funny {{Badass}} HotBlooded eco-terrorist with a gun attached to his arm? Barret also suffered the indignity into being pushed into a small cameo in ''Advent Children'', with even his daughter and NotLoveInterest Marlene associated with Tifa instead of with him.
** Selphie and Irvine from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. Aside from Rinoa, they are the only two not from Balamb Garden. Selphie's Garden, Trabia, is the victim of an attack by the Galbadian Army, and a lot of focus could have been given to that. Irvine, a Galbadian himself, basically just has the purpose of revealing the [[spoiler: LaserGuidedAmnesia everyone has]] before shifting to the background.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Fran, the only nonhuman character in the cast and by far the oldest, is victim of this. Little of her backstory is ever uncovered.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': Ryder is one of the major characters who is a member of the Grove Street Families gang and one of CJ's friends from childhood with the charisma and attitude to be well liked by many fans of the game in spite of his [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassness]]. When he is revealed to be a traitor along with Big Smoke, CJ shows genuine shock of Smoke betraying him and never once mentions Ryder's name, even when he tells Sweet. In the mission "Pier 69", CJ kills Ryder without much of a dramatic scene between the two and only mentions him once after his betrayal. Since then, Ryder is never brought up again, and Sweet never even asks about Ryder's whereabouts by the time he is released from prison. It made Ryder seem more like a minor character who suddenly became less important half way through the game and his death scene isn't any more different from Kane's death earlier in a Los Santos mission.It also doesn't help that he has the least backstory of the main cast.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': Ryder is a member of the Grove Street Families gang and one of CJ's friends from childhood with the charisma and attitude to be well liked by many fans of the game in spite of his [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassness]]. When he is revealed to be a traitor along with Big Smoke, CJ shows genuine shock of Smoke betraying him and never once mentions Ryder's name, even when he tells Sweet. In the mission "Pier 69", CJ kills Ryder without much of a dramatic scene between the two and only mentions him once after his betrayal. Since then, Ryder is never brought up again, and Sweet never even asks about Ryder's whereabouts by the time he is released from prison. It made Ryder seem more like a minor character who suddenly became less important half way through the game and his death scene isn't any more different from Kane's death earlier in a Los Santos mission.

** The entirety of Team Galactic. They were great in concept, but feel very underdeveloped, even in Platinum. The grunts all have the same basic personality, the commanders aren't explored, even Cyrus himself feels, to quote the man, "incomplete". There a bit better in Platinum, but barely.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': Ryder is a member of the Grove Street Families gang and one of CJ's friends from childhood with the charisma and attitude to be well liked by many fans of the game in spite of his [[Jerkass jerkassness]]. When he is revealed to be a traitor along with Big Smoke, CJ shows genuine shock of Smoke betraying him and never once mentions Ryder's name, even when he tells Sweet. In the mission "Pier 69", CJ kills Ryder without much of a dramatic scene between the two and only mentions him once after his betrayal. Since then, Ryder is never brought up again, and Sweet never even asks about Ryder's whereabouts by the time he is released from prison. It made Ryder seem more like a minor character who suddenly became less important half way through the game and his death scene isn't any more different from Kane's death earlier in a Los Santos mission.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': Ryder is a member of the Grove Street Families gang and one of CJ's friends from childhood. When he is revealed to be a traitor along with Big Smoke, CJ shows genuine shock of Smoke betraying him and never once mentions Ryder's name, even when he tells Sweet. In the mission "Pier 69", CJ kills Ryder without much of a dramatic scene between the two and only mentions him once after his betrayal. Since then, Ryder is never brought up again, and Sweet never even asks about Ryder's whereabouts by the time he is released from prison. It made Ryder seem more like a minor character who suddenly became less important half way through the game and his death scene isn't any more different from Kane's death earlier in a Los Santos mission.

** [[spoiler:Dr. W. D. Gaster]]. Everything about him (role, fate, relationship with [[spoiler:Sans]]) sounds really fascinating, but you will only get to find about all of this by searching DummiedOut content, or via a small random chance in any given playthrough. Then again, this seems to be the whole point of his character and a possible SequelHook.

** [[IntrepidReporter Emily]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Wong]] gets unceremoniously [[BusCrash killed offscreen]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', seemingly to make way for [[ReplacementScrappy Diana Allers]] to join the ''Normandy'' as the Alliance's official War Correspondent. [[spoiler:Even her DyingMomentOfAwesome by attempting to take down a Reaper by ''{{ramming|AlwaysWorks}}'' it did little to mitigate the blow many fans felt, especially since the character of Diana Allers was included due to corporate pandering.]]

** Yuffie from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' could be considered this by some. She is the princess of a nation that was invaded and defeated by Shinra. This same nation is again hit by Geostigma, essentially The Black Plague of the VII universe and yet little is said about how it's handling this. It is said that this country was once great and mysterious, and yet Square decided to expand on Cloud's story and make a game centered around [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vincent Valentine]] rather then explore a country with it's own history and culture that is vastly different from the one already shown in series. Given what history has already given us, Square could've used some real world examples and made a story centered around politics and Yuffie's history growing up in a vastly different setting then Cloud and the rest of the cast. At least we get to see her in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''.
*** The developer explanation for ''Dirge of Cerberus'''s focus on Vincent was that he was the party's gunner, allowing them to make a third-person shooter game. This naturally made some people in the fandom comment that there's ''two'' gunners in ''Final Fantasy VII'', and that it was a waste that they assumed you'd want to play a shooter as an over-serious and shallow {{Goth}} {{Bishounen}} when you could be playing as Barret, a funny {{Badass}} HotBlooded eco-terrorist with a gun attached to his arm? Barret also suffered the indignity into being pushed into a small cameo in ''Advent Children'', with even his daughter and NotLoveInterest Marlene associated with Tifa instead of with him.

* The majority of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' characters ([[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and there are a lot]]) still manage to be interesting despite their brief appearance, and even ones with multiple appearances have large chunks of their personality and past underutilised or just unexplored. Fortunately the fighting {{Gaiden Game}}s, ExpandedUniverse manga and {{Universe Compendium}}s take the opportunity to expand upon the characters in more detail and attention, but some benefit more than others; for example there is lots of info on the Scarlet Mansion residents but next to nothing about the denizens of [[FantasticGhetto the Underground]], despite the numerous stories than can come from {{youkai}} facing FantasticRacism from their brethren.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The leader of [[TheRemnant The Covenant Remnant]], Jul 'Mdama, was a fairly popular villain, with fans enjoying his sad backstory, and moral complexity. In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' [[spoiler: he's killed off by Fireteam Osiris early on, with Cortana replacing his role as the primary BigBad. ]]

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The leader of [[TheRemant The Covenant Remnant]], Jul 'Mdama, was a fairly popular villain, with fans enjoying his sad backstory, and moral complexity. In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' [[spoiler: he's killed off by Fireteam Osiris early on, with Cortana replacing his role as the primary BigBad. ]]

* [[OriginalGeneration Kogoro and Mii]] were main characters exclusive to ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'', [[PutOnABus but they seem to be nowhere found in the sequel]]. Even if they were to appear in the sequel, they were likely to be DemotedToExtra.

** The entirety of Team Galactic. They were great in concept, but feel very underdeveloped, even in Platinum. The grunts all have the same basic personality, the commanders arent explored, even Cyrus himself feels, to quote the man, "incomplete". There a bit better in plat, but barely.

* [[OriginalGeneration Kogoro and Mii]] were main characters exclusive to ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'', [[PutOnABus but they seem to be nowhere found in the sequel]]. Even if they did appear in the sequel, they were likely to be DemotedToExtra.

* Yuffie from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' could be considered this by some. She is the princess of a nation that was invaded and defeated by Shinra. This same nation is again hit by Geostigma, essentially The Black Plague of the VII universe and yet little is said about how it's handling this. It is said that this country was once great and mysterious, and yet Square decided to expand on Cloud's story and make a game centered around [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vincent Valentine]] rather then explore a country with it's own history and culture that is vastly different from the one already shown in series. Given what history has already given us, Square could've used some real world examples and made a story centered around politics and Yuffie's history growing up in a vastly different setting then Cloud and the rest of the cast. At least we get to see her in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''.