History UnintentionallyUnsympathetic / VideoGames

** Sylvain Jose Gautier is introduced as a HandsomeLech who hits on every woman at the abbey, but if Byleth strengthens their connection with Sylvain they eventually finds out Sylvain feels trapped in his role as a noble who has to perpetuate the family line and resents the women he dates for seeing him as nothing more than a meal ticket to an easier life. This attempt at HiddenDepths falls flat since we only ever see Sylvain hit on women, even women who are not interested, and never see women hit on him engage in GoldDigger behavior. It makes Sylvain come off, not as a guy forced into a role by his family, but a misogynist with a MadonnaWhoreComplex.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', Leonie's support chain with Byleth has earned a decent amount of criticism due to Leonie's frustrations at Byleth's lack of knowledge about Jeralt's life. She acts very hostile, accusing them of taking their father Jeralt for granted, and when she attempts to apologize in the B-support, she loses her temper again in the end. [[spoiler:The fact that this support can only happen after Jeralt dies comes across as extremely poor taste as she makes the issue about herself and doesn't even remotely try to console Byleth.]] While Jeralt is an important mentor for Leonie, she comes across as very entitled about him, not to mention that Jeralt can't have been her mentor for that long because otherwise Byleth would have met her before arriving at Garrag Mach. She does admit when you speak to her after [[spoiler:Jeralt's death]] that this must be even harder for Byleth than it is for her, but it's quite easy to miss and when the player tracks down [[spoiler:Kronya]] in the Golden Deer route, Leonie says she's determined to have ''her'' revenge. She also has the highly-irritating habit of attributing any skill that Byleth has to Jeralt's teachings and it takes some extreme prodding for her to acknowledge that Byleth is a strong warrior in their own right.

** Jane, at least in the final episode. Here, [[IdiotBall she makes her most bone-headed moves,]] which is strange for someone who survived this long. While Kenny becomes more dangerous over the course of the Season, Jane crosses the line by [[spoiler: a) [[BullyingADragon repeatedly bringing up his dead family during their fight in the truck]], b) faking AJ's death to "show Clementine his true nature", and then c) expecting to be saved during her fight with Kenny. On the other hand, one of the endings is for Clementine to save her, realize Jane was antagonizing Kenny intentionally to "prove he was unstable", and abandon her for it, allowing Clementine to PayEvilUntoEvil.]]

*** Creator/{{Capcom}} went to some extent to make Ada more sympathetic in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake RE2make]]'' with her genuinely telling Leon while dangling over a BottomlessPit to let her go, telling him she's not worth saving. But it's still undercut by the WoundedGazelleGambit manipulation she gave Leon on the tram earlier or her coldly trying to blow little infected Emma Kendo's brains out in front of her father. If Ada wasn't a main character, she definitely wouldn't get away with her actions, cool femme fatale or not.

*** The start of Episode 4 really makes it hard to sympathise with Kenny. [[spoiler: As the player is forced to cut off Sarita's arm when she's bitten and {{Mercy Kill}}ed, either way Kenny screams at Clem for her actions, conveniently forgetting the time he killed Larry for the same reason. Kenny hasn't learnt any lesson by the end of the season even when he's responsible for the group falling apart. You can kill Kenny during his fight with Jane (see below), but it's treated more like a MercyKill and less like a KickTheSonOfABitch moment.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'': One reason that the whole game was criticised back in 2003 was that viewers thought ''none'' of the protagonists were very sympathetic. Issues with Marche aside, Mewt came off as a spoilt crybaby making laws stronger just because. Ritz was seen as flat out ''petty'' because all she wanted was to have naturally red hair. Doned was the only one who ''was'' seen as sympathetic due to his wish being to walk and run like a normal kid... Yet at the same time, he proceeds to throw his own brother under the bus and hires multiple thugs in an attempt to rough him up. On top of that, the kids basically [[DisproportionateRetribution wish for their classmates to freeze to death in the snow]], and [[WhatTheHellHero beat their corpses up]] for the hell of it.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'': Marche, the main character, is supposed to be in the right in destroying the parallel universe LotusEaterMachine of Ivalice and returning to the real world he and his friends came from. However, Marche often comes across as cruel to his friends, who all have better lives in Ivalice than the real world. Specifically, his disabled brother Doned can walk in this world, while his friend Mewt's mother is alive in Ivalice and his alcoholic father Cid is healthy as a result. To make matters worse, there are people in Ivalice that do not seem to correspond to real people, suggesting the possibility of a DreamApocalypse should Ivalice cease to exist. Marche does little to address his friends' issues besides telling them that [[MemeticMutation escapism isn't healthy]], causing him to come off as selfish in destroying an arguably better world simply because [[ItsAllAboutMe he wants to go back]], everyone else be damned. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation There are many fans who believe him to be a]] VillainProtagonist as a result.
** One reason that the whole game was criticised back in 2003 was that viewers thought ''none'' of the protagonists were very sympathetic. Issues with Marche aside, Mewt came off as a spoilt crybaby making laws stronger just because. Ritz was seen as flat out ''petty'' because all she wanted was to have naturally red hair. Doned was the only one who ''was'' seen as sympathetic due to his wish being to walk and run like a normal kid... Yet at the same time, he proceeds to throw his own brother under the bus and hires multiple thugs in an attempt to rough him up. On top of that, the kids basically [[DisproportionateRetribution wish for their classmates to freeze to death in the snow]], and [[WhatTheHellHero beat their corpses up]] for the hell of it.

** Although it's a stretch to say that [[TheEmpire Caesar's Legion]] is supposed to by sympathetic, there are a lot of remarks to the effect that it is meant to be a factor in the game's GreyAndGreyMorality, with a number of characters remarking a preference for them over other factions, citing their ability to make the wasteland safe as opposed to [[TheFederation the humanitarian, but bureaucratic NCR]]. A lot of discussions involving them treat them as at least an equal choice compared to the other possible options. However, the facts remain: they are cruel and violent, increase their numbers by enslaving and brainwashing young adults and ''children'', are ''severely'' misogynistic[[labelnote:*]]To the point that even a female Courier that's helping them out is only barely a step up from being slave fodder themselves purely because of Caesar's favor for them[[/labelnote]], their [[LuddWasRight staunch anti-technological policies]], their [[KeystoneArmy crippling dependency on a military dictator]], and, in regards to meta, [[ObviousBeta having the majority, if not the entirety of their non-military locations cut from the final game]] critically [[StupidEvil left many players confused as to what the upsides of choosing their faction were supposed to be]]. [[CrapsackWorld Even without the Legion, the Wasteland already has very few modern conveniences and is full of slaving, raping, and murderous psychopaths]]? [[FridgeLogic But sure, obviously, the solution is to institutionalize all those things and put a self-important psychopath dictator in charge]]! And even if you are one who thinks the NCR is full of it, there are two other possible factions that sidestep its issues in a much better-adjusted fashion. Tellingly, the game's official statistics put Legion-aligned playthroughs as one of the least common choices by a fairly wide margin.

* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'': One of the major reasons that Nurse Angie is seen as [[TheScrappy The Scrappy]] to so many players. We're intended to sympathize with her because of her [[DarkAndTroubledPast tragic childhood]] as Dr. Blackwell's daughter, and her strong commitment to saving lives. The problem is that Angie's [[{{Tsundere}} hot temper and emotional immaturity]] just make her too frustating for people to want to sympathize with. It ''definitely'' didn't help that she once lashed out at a depressed teenager and got [[KarmaHoudini no comeuppance for it.]]

** The entire New Frontier organization in Season 3 falls into this hard in the final episode. For the first four episodes they are unambiguously the antagonists, and are a band of bloodthirsty raiders who [[WouldHurtAChild gun down Javi's little niece for the hell of it]] and later brag about it, attack and wipe out innocent settlements so they can steal from them, and hold Kangaroo Courts to kill any dissenters. Even the most charitible description of them is essentially [[Film/MadMax2 Lord Humungous's marauders]]. Suddenly in episode 5 the game decides you need to sympathize with them, because they are being killed by zombies because ''one of their own members accidentally blew open their wall trying to kill you''. You're expected to not only care and feel bad for them for dying, but actually try and save them, because Javi fighting against them inadvertently led to this outcome,even though up until now they've been portrayed as completely unsympathetic and it was their own actions that led to their grizzly outcome. Members of your own group, even those who are victims of their actions, suddenly begin lecturing Javi about how these "poor people" need his help.

** Something that comes out even worse with Demacia. Initially and after the lore reboot, they were set to be the TheGoodKingdom. Built on the principles of chivalry, duty, honor, justice, community, and helping others in need. It was added that they also were founded as a refuge against the dangers of magic, following the devastation of the Runic Wars, to provide a home to all those escaping from the lethal and uncontrolable sorcey unleashed. The problem is, that they keep doing this by persecuting their own mages in order of "treating their illness", or exiling them. To the point that this has sparked a magical revolution inside their frontiers. Which would make for a fine shade of gray... if it wasn't for the fact that said prosecution is ALL we are shown in Demacia stories. We are being constantly TOLD that Demacia has a strong sense of community, where everyone helps each other, and admires the heroes and defenders of the capital, who protect the less fortunate. But we are only SHOWN constantly how angry mobs in the villages attack mage hunters that come from the capital, looking for mages of poor families, who they incarcerate and "treat" with painful magic-suppressing medicines. And how those same distrustful mobs set fire to houses of neighbours they suspect of being mages, all the while the heroes of Demacia think about how "this isn't their Demacia", and "the people of Demacia are normally good and helpful of each other". It doesn't help either when said heroes either come out as a resentful KnightTemplar, or as an hypocritical mage that won't doubt in using torture to escape mage hunters. Meanwhile, all stories showing the good qualities of Demacia of acceptance and generosity, could be count with a hand that had less fingers than normal.
* There is a version of this trope that led to a bit of a BrokenBase in ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma''. [[HospitalHottie Litchi Faye-Ling]] has taken swing into AntiVillain [[ForcedIntoEvil against her will]] and her arcade shows that she has a big remorse in fighting her friends and is not pleased with her superiors. All in all, it led to her being 'sympathetic'. However, in story mode, [[spoiler:after having her attempts to be 'good' again was undone via time reset, she's later shown to still continue aiding Relius to 'recreate the world' under the goal of 'creating a world where Lotte Carmine exists', to dissuade her grief of losing him now that he couldn't be saved.]] At that point, the base broke: some still considers her sympathetic and tragic like what was intended in the Arcade Mode because among other things, [[spoiler:she's pushed beyond her limits and sees no other 'option' to save Lotte, and she still shows dislike and remorse to what she must do, proven with how she tried to stop Carl from joining her]], others follow this trope and lost any sympathy for her because... [[spoiler:is saving one person and alleviating your own grief and guilt when no one else could worth aiding an equivalent to a genocide that involves herself and other characters that cared about her?]]

*** From the same game, Chris Redfield falls into this trope starting from Chapter 3 of his campaign, where he continuously makes stupid decisions that ultimately [[spoiler: kill all his men, Piers included later on,]] in an attempt to get revenge [[spoiler: for the first time he lost an entire team]], and acts in a way that’s meant to make him seem tragic, brooding badass but makes him come off more as a major jerk instead.

** Ada Wong. Although she’s a morally ambiguous FemmeFataleSpy, we’re still supposed to root for her due to her DatingCatwoman relationship with Leon, implied DarkAndTroubledPast, occasional PetTheDog moments with other protagonists and the actual villains of the games generally [[LesserOfTwoEvils being more villainous than her]]. Except none of this changes the fact that Ada is still complicit in multiple acts of bioterrorism, even working for the likes of [[BigBad Albert Wesker]] and shows zero remorse for her actions which involve selling super viruses to her employers, likely resulting in more [[ZombieApocalypse outbreaks]]. For any other villain, working with Simmons the guy caused millions of deaths and a global outbreak before leaving him to pursue her own ends as she does in the sixth game would be a MoralEventHorizon, but [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Chris has to let go of his perceived vendetta against her]][[note]] Carla, Simmons other former subordinate who was turned into clone of Ada, was the one who killed Chris’s squad [[/note]] and she [[KarmaHoudini gets away scot-free at the end]] just because Leon likes her and she pulled an EnemyMine against Simmons. Also, despite her mutual infatuation with Leon, Ada has no problem using Leon’s [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl feelings]] for her own personal gain and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays him frequently]], making her out as more firmly villainous and unsympathetic than likely intended.

** While Marni [[spoiler:sacrificing herself to save Veyle]] is meant to be tragic, most of the player's interactions with her have the girl threatening to kill the party and mocking them for trying to stop her. She's given a brief backstory revealing [[spoiler:abandonment issues and obsessive need for approval]], but many players find it as a weak excuse for her actions. The narrative presents her as a tragic person whom ended up working for bad people, but many have noted that this not only fails to excuse her [[AxCrazy kill-happy attitude]], but also that [[spoiler:her decision to try to save Veyle at the last minute stems less from a genuine change of heart, and more from her no longer supporting Zephia's treatment of her after getting to know Veyle's DarkAndTroubledPast.]]
** Griss spends the entire game acting as a AxCrazy psychopath, even threatening, in his own words, to rip somebody's guts out in what is definitely not a bluff. His only interactions with the player have him trying to kill or mock them and even before the final battle with him, he openly states how he'll never repent or change under any circumstances. And while it's revealed [[spoiler:[[JerkassWoobie he never knew his mother, was indoctrinated by fell dragon cultists, and was more or less raised by Zephia]]]], this is not only mentioned exactly ''once'' during his last moments (coming off too late to change their view of him), but also [[spoiler:during a surprisingly prolonged scene where him and Zephia have a heart-to-heart]], which incidentally rubs many the wrong way for reasons described below.

** ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'': The BigBad [[spoiler:Sectonia]], according to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:only became a narcissistic tyrant after she went insane from staring into the corrupted Dimension Mirror for too long.]] But without glancing at some pause menu descriptions in the postgame, all you're likely to see is a one-dimensional villain who, in short order, [[spoiler:[[BadBossblasts her loyal servant Taranza off a tower for failing her]], constantly boasts about her beauty and power, attempts to ascend to godhood, threatens to feed on the inhabitants of Planet Popstar for ''eternity'', and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking spends WAY too much time in the background in her final form]]]], making TheReveal of [[spoiler:her tragic descent into madness]] pretty abrupt. Added lore in ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' heavily implies that [[spoiler:Sectonia has used her parasitic magic on innocents for [[Really700YearsOld at least 1000 years]] just to become more beautiful]], which further undercuts the sympathetic angle the writers meant to go for.