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Cool Old Guy / Video Games

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Cool Old Guys in video games.

  • Advance Wars:
    • The old Advance Wars series had Sensei, who is rumored to be Yellow Comet's former legendary commander. Days of Ruin has Forsythe, another war hero returned from retirement. Sensei's coolness is slightly reduced by the fact that he grows weaker in each game. In Super Famicom Wars, where he was still known as Yamamoto, his units were all nigh unbeatable by being a massive 40% more powerful than any normal unit. In Advance Wars 2, his debut as Sensei, only his infantry and battle copters retained his original abilities — and even then, only in offensive power, with defense being reduced to average — though he also gained some cool superpowers, that still couldn't match his original strength. In Advance Wars: Dual Strike, his infantry had also become total weaklings. On the other hand, his CO power in Dual Strike summons a hell of a lot of them, making him arguably a Game-Breaker on some maps. He is going just a little senile though...
    • Also, Javier, a Don Quixote wannabe who can still kick plenty of ass and has the best lines in the game.
      "Charge into the toothy maw! For now is the time for a glorious hindspanking!"
      "This day shall be the greatest of days unless tomorrow is even greater!"
  • Odin and Tor Anderson in Alan Wake might be crazy, but that's part of what makes them cool. The other part is that they're retired rock stars from the band Old Gods of Asgard. They still have a stage with working pyrotechnics at their farm, they have a Viking longboat in their barn, they changed their names to Odin and Tor, and they make their own moonshine.
    • At one point, Odin comments on the events in Bright Falls and their own craziness, saying "It takes crazy to know crazy!"
    • Not crazy, but still cool is Pat Maine, the town's radio host and a retired cop, who calls out FBI agent Nightingale on his reckless pursuit of Alan - while on the air.
  • Art of Fighting has the protagonist's father Takuma Sakazaki, AKA Mr. Karate. Despite being in his upper 40s, he's one of the most powerful martial artists in South Town to the point where Geese Howard took notice of him, leading to the events of the first game. In The King of Fighters continuity, he regularly attends the yearly tournaments and later opens a successful barbeque restaurant.
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • Mario Auditore from Assassin's Creed II. Ezio's uncle acts as The Mentor and is the one who teaches him how to be an assassin and helps him throughout the entire game.
    • Ezio himself can count for this by end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. He's 49, likely the most skilled assassin in Italy and Grand Master of the Assassin Order in Rome in a time where the life expectancy was within the late 40s to early 50s. By the time of the sequel, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, he definitely counts as a cool old guy.
    • Revelations also features Altair being the Memetic Badass we've come to know him as well into old age.
  • Asura's Wrath: Even considering his harsh training policies and tendency to strike him for little reason, Augus is a lot nicer to Asura than the other guardian generals, even after becoming one of the seven deities and trying to kill him.
  • Baldur's Gate's Keldorn. Probably in his 50s at least, greying, a bit creaky, yet goes out and smites evil arse with a 2 handed sword and plate mail (his default equipment).
    • It is hard to be lawful good and cool at the same time, but he manages it perfectly. The fact that he is the only NPC that can use the uber-paladin sword Carsomyr is just gravy.
    • His interactions with Anomen (lawful neutral, thinks he's lawful good) frequently take the form of a Take That! at Knight-Templarism and/or Lawful Stupid, the basic message being "if you're not awesome, you're doing it wrong".
    • Gorion, too. Admittedly he's dead for most of the time and as such mainly appears in various flashes of the past, and his big Dead Man Writing is ruined when he's apparently retconned to have lied about the PC's mother. But the picture gathered from other characters is that he used to be an active adventurer who probably saw a lot during his life, and had even faced a dragon and lived to tell the tale, leaving it with a few scars. And apparently he used to tell Imoen and the PC stories about everything between heaven and earth, and would hang out with canon über-characters like Khelben Arunsun and Elminster Aumar. When we actually see him for a moment at the very beginning, he defends his foster child against the Big Bad and his minions and ultimately sacrifices himself, unwaveringly telling them to step aside if they want to remain unhurt and then eliminating all the three minions in about one round each before facing off hopelessly against the Big Bad himself until he's cut down (except on the rare occasions when a glitch lets him actually win and lock up the game).
  • Bastion is a good example of this, featuring Rucks as a badass cowboy/former special ops, with a voice that can only be described as audio erotica.
  • Henry Stein from Bendy and the Ink Machine proves himself to be this, being in at least his 50's, yet still fighting his way through the hellhole that the animation studio that he used to work at became, from surviving falls that should be lethal without a scratch, to chopping, stabbing, and bashing his way through hoards of ink blotted rubber-hosed freaks, including a twisted version of the titular Little Devil Darling, mutilated clones of a trio of antagonists from the cartoons, and the monstrous form of his Sidekick, Boris the Wolf.
  • Zane Flynt from Borderlands 3. He is a former hitman who hails from a family of bandit lords, worked for every corporation under the sun, is wanted by every corporation under the sun, and took up Vault Hunting as a retirement plan. No matter how absurd the situation is, he sounds like he's having the time of his life. He's also so well known that certain enemy mobs might recognize him and say hi.
  • Master Naguri from Bujingai. He's first introduced as he tosses a stone column at his student, Lau, to test his skills. He then proceeds to dodge all of Lau's attacks, calling them terrible. Keep in mind, Lao is capable of Dual Wielding Big Fancy Swords, casting magic, and gliding through the air.
  • The Castlevania series has Julius Belmont, who is noticeably older than the cast of the rest of the cast of both Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Technically, Arikado/Alucard is much older. He lampshades this by commenting to Soma that "Growing old is a terrible thing," when he is too winded to fight after breaking a dark barrier. This still doesn't stop him from kicking ass in the bonus Julius Mode of both games.
    • Better still, in his fight in Aria of Sorrow, he can use the Grand Cross and it makes parts of the castle crumble, and claims to have been holding back despite being That One Boss for some people, and this is only using subweapons after halfway into the fight. In Dawn, he is bested by Dario, some fire punk foe, but only because he can't seal his dark power. The badass part is that Julius has dealt with sealed enemies before, except he's just beaten the shit out of them before they can regenerate. That's how awesome he is.
  • In Chicory: A Colorful Tale: Pizza notes out loud that Cardamom, an elderly lion, is much less... intense than the other wielders, and he explains that the brush can be a burden when you're wielding it.
  • Conqueror's Blade has the Greyhair Garrison, a team of elderly but highly-experienced Qian soldiers who have been defending Linwu Fortress for most of their lives. In-game, they use multiple types of weapons and are a flexible unit that can attack and defend with equal skill.
  • Dead by Daylight has Ace Visconti, a charming gambler with a slick tongue presumably in his 40s.
  • Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, who this time decides to join Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie into the adventure.
  • Dragon Age:
    • In Dragon Age: Origins, Duncan, the Warden-Commander of Ferelden.
    • In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, if Teyrn Loghain was spared and forced to join the Wardens during Origins, it seems he's mellowed out into one of these.
    • Ser Emeric, the only Templar in Kirkwall who is bothering to investigate a specific string of murders, is the closest thing Dragon Age II has to one of these.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Dragon Quest IV:
      • Ragnar is not quite as old as Borya, but still clearly much older than most of the team. He is also a nice guy, a loyal friend and a powerful warrior.
      • Borya's the oldest of the main party members on top of being good with magic and still a loyal servant to Alena no matter how much he grumbles along the way.
      • Torneko looks to be in his late forties but is still the funniest guy on the team.
      • Oojam, Maya and Meena's supporting fighter and their father's servant, appears to be around Torneko's age in the remakes. Subverted in the original where he appears to be only slightly older than the sisters.
    • Dragon Quest V: Monty the Monster Monitor is a nice and kind-hearted elderly man who is also a former monster-tamer. He is happy to teach the Hero how to recruit monsters, as well as taking care of his unused allies.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Morrowind:
    • Skyrim:
      • Calcelmo is an Altmer researcher and scientist and a truly Absent-Minded Professor who, if his quests are completed, appears rather fond of the Dragonborn and happy to assist them in his limited fashion. He's a few centuries old at the time of the game.
      • Kodlak Whitemane is the Harbinger of the Companions, a sort of father figure to Skyrim's local warrior guild, who has a particular warmth and trust for the Dragonborn.
      • Brunwulf Free-Winter is the replacement Jarl of Windhelm if the Dragonborn takes the Empire's side in the civil war, and a legitimate contender for 'nicest guy in Skyrim', being genuinely concerned about the welfare of all citizens rather than just the human ones.
      • Paarthurnax is the leader of the Greybeards, spending his time alone at the top of the Throat of the World, the tallest mountain in Tamriel. He's the second-eldest dragon in the world, who is a non-humanoid version of the trope.
      • The Greybeards themselves each qualify. They've been studying the Thu'um, the draconinc Language of Magic, until, well, they're grey in the beard. Each is an Old Master who can tear a foe apart with words. When they call the Dragonborn to visit their monestary, all of Skyrim hears it.
      • Galmar Stone-Fist is Ulfric's second in command and a burly Nord warrior who vows to kick down the walls of Whiterun himself.
      • Vignar Gray-Mane, the (rather competent) replacement Jarl of Whiterun who is a former Imperial officer and Companion and looks like he could pick you apart in a sword fight even as a man in his late sixties.
  • Garth from Fable II. The first time you see him, he's fighting against the frakking Commandant. And he's not doing too badly.
  • Fallout:
    • Fallout features Harold, a 90-year-old mutated human known for his sense of humor and ability to survive. Harold makes appearances in Fallout 2 and 3 as well.
    • Fallout 2 has John Cassidy, who is in his sixties at the earliest, has a heart condition, a metal plate implanted in his head, a missing eye, and is covered with scars and wrinkles. Nevertheless, he's an outstanding marksman and easily the strongest companion available to the player. His daughter, Rose of Sharon, can fight alongside the player in Fallout: New Vegas.
    • Fallout 3:
      • Elder Owyn Lyons, Star Paladin Cross, Fawkes, and of course, your father, James. All four have dedicated themselves to helping humanity, though in different ways. There's also Desmond Lockheart in Point Lookout, but it's really up to you if he qualifies as cool or is just a jerk.
      • Herbert 'Daring' Dashwood is one of the few people in Tenpenny Tower who isn't a jerk, and his terminal and radio show reveal he had quite a past. If you release the feral ghouls into the tower, he manages to take some down before being overwhelmed by numbers.
    • Fallout: New Vegas has a lot of Wasteland Elders that can still kick ass:
      • The Remnants, a squad of Enclave veterans with high-tech gear and a shared shady past (of having been in the Enclave) who kick massive amounts of ass once reunited.
      • Our favorite old school ghoul Raul who can take up his guns are return to a life of wandering Vaquero, protecting the innocents and punishing the wicked.
      • Marcus is back, running a peaceful village for Super Mutants in a Pre-War ski resort, trying to help the Nightkin in healing their shattered minds.
      • Lily, a sweet old granny in the body of a hulking Nightkin who served as the spec-ops of the Master's army. Leo, the voice of her violent urges, makes her a fearsome berserker.
      • Chief Hanlon, grizzled NCR Ranger, and de facto leader of the NCR's Mojave forces and loves his rangers dearly even if it means subterfuge to save them.
      • Corporal Sterling of the NCR 1st Recon and former Ranger served during the early years of the Mojave campaign and still served despite being tortured.
      • Joshua Graham, the Malpais Legate and Burned Man, former war chief of Caesar's Legion and now war chief of the Dead Horses tribe. He never lost his faith or his edge.
  • Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VII have characters named Cid, both of him fall under this trope. The VII version is a complete jerkass, though.
    • Cid from VII rolls more as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He does have some redeeming qualities, after all.
    • In a slight subversion, Cid from VII isn't even the oldest member of the main cast (he's 32, Barrett is 35, Red XIII is 48 note ), but he acts more like an old man than the other two.
    • Auron, of Final Fantasy X fame, fits this trope to a T. He is in near superhuman physical condition, unshaven, and a no-nonsense hardass. However, most of this is fairly unimportant compared to the fact that he's already dead in the first place.
      • He's also only in his 30's. Or he was when he died, at least.
    • The most imbalanced playable character in the Final Fantasy history: Cidolfas Orlandu, the Thunder God Cid is pretty cool and pretty old.
    • Maat from Final Fantasy XI, the one NPC who will beat you into the ground when you first fight him. In Wings of The Goddess, you can see him hold off advancing Beastmen armies by himself.
    • Cyan demonstrates that not every RPG swordsman is a wangsty teenager, Word of God puts his age around 50-something. Strago could also count.
    • Galuf from Final Fantasy V is a 60-year-old man who was one of the four Warriors of Dawn, who had sealed the Big Bad prior to the game. Not only is he a strong warrior and a king, but he's not above making fun of his younger friends and spouting horrible, wonderful puns. Not to mention the fact that he may be the only game character ever to have been able to continue fighting while at 0 freakin' HP, right before a Heroic Sacrifice!
    • Sazh is the oldest of the playable cast of Final Fantasy XIII excluding Vanille and Fang and happens to be the most stable and level-headed of the heroes.
  • The resident Bad Ass Mayor of Final Fight, Mike Haggar is the epitome of this trope. Pushing 60 and he is more than able to throw down with Pro Wrestlers, Super Villains, Evil Dictators and even Galactus!!! When was the last time your mayor fought off the eater of worlds?
  • Fire Emblem games will always have a couple of Cool Old Guys. Often they'll be an Old Retainer to the protagonist or an Older Enemy General who eventually gets recruited to the protagonists cause.
    • Athos the Archsage from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. More than 1000 years old and still quite the Eccentric Mentor, aside of being one extremely powerful magic user.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade Marcus (in his 40s) is not only thought of as one badass Cool Old Guy in-game, but he's also viewed as practically required for getting a high ranking in the game's hard mode. Despite being a Crutch Character, Marcus also has high enough growths to remain serviceable throughout the game. In The Binding Blade, Marcus (now in his 60s) is more of a classic Crutch Character but is still needed to beat the games Hard Mode.
    • Tauroneo tends to lean this way, despite his tendency to stay away from any conversations in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. However, he truly becomes part of this trope in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, showing just how wise and awesome he is. He also tends to be one of the best endgame Generals/Marshals. That makes him a badass, too, as he's shown to mow through enemies with relative ease throughout the games. Given his look, he is likely in his mid-50s.
    • Basilio gets treated this way in Fire Emblem: Awakening by the army, even to the point of being nicknamed "Gramps". Yet, Basilio only looks like he's in his 30-40s at most. Gregor is a more accurate example, he's visibly middle-aged, and is a worldly sellsword who spends most of his support conversations giving advice to other characters and joking around. In the English dub, he also has a Russian accent and Blunt Metaphors Trauma that will trick a player into thinking he's dumber than he actually is at first.
  • Front Mission has Alder Weiss, a good mercenary who's a little full of himself and yet a no-nonsense character.
  • Malcolm Corley in the LucasArts Adventure Game Full Throttle: Not only is he the owner of Corley Motors, the last remaining domestic motorcycle manufacturer, but he's spent a significant amount of his youth on the back of a motorcycle, and gets along particularly well with his customers, sharing anecdotes from the 'glory days'. It's a shame to see him die at the hands of his greedy second-in-command about a third of the way through the game.
  • Gears of War: Colonel Hoffman has only a Vague Age, but he's definitely aged. He still is capable of kicking ass like a boss.
  • Golden Sun:
  • Guilty Gear has Kliff Undersn, the retired former commander of the Holy Order who isn't afraid to to pick up his sword again when he learns that Justice may be resurrected, despite the fact that said sword is twice his height and several times his weight.
  • Saisyu Kusanagi in The King of Fighters '98. He has much of Kyo's overconfidence but greater knowledge of combat, so it's justified.
  • Joel, the main protagonist of The Last of Us. His hair and beard may be starting to gray and he's a little past his prime, but he's still a tough-as-nails survivor who certainly knows how to bash teeth in, from human and infected alike.
  • Bill from Left 4 Dead, an old Vietnam war vet who constantly has a cigarette hanging from his mouth and a witty remark ready for his younger, upstart fellow survivors. One of the lines you can hear him say as you mow down zombie after zombie is "I'll see peace back on Earth if I have to kill every single one of these bastards with my bare GOD DAMN hands!"
    "I was too old for this shit fifteen years ago."
  • In Littlewood, there's Dudley. He's the Hero's grandfather figure, and loves fishing and farming. He's definitely slowing down in his old age, as he notes he's not as active as he once was, but he's still a fun-loving guy who dispenses wise advice. Notably, while the other Townsfolk have their internal squabbles, everybody in town likes Dudley and everybody looks up to him.
  • Lufia:
  • Mass Effect:
    • Wrex and Mordin are both cool and deadly guys old by their species' standards. Wrex is somewhere between 1000 and 1500 when natural Krogan longevity is a spot over 1000. However, as the game gladly points out to you, very few krogan die of old age) and Wrex is not one to die from anything else. Mordin is over 40, which is rare for his species.
    • Zaeed Massani and Admiral Hackett are human examples, both having quite the lot of badassery under their belts and quite the facial scars to testify to it. Zaeed is somewhat younger than he looks though.
      Jacob: If they make old guys any tougher than that, I'd like to see it.
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda has Alec Ryder, an N7 (making him an automatic One-Man Army), and the first human Pathfinder in the Andromeda Initiative. He's also a surprisingly capable AI researcher, having designed the SAM system the Initiative uses. The first planet in the game has his kid following in his wake as he mows through kett troops effortlessly. Then there's Nakmor Drack, the game's krogan teammate, who's upward of 1600, and still capable of kicking all manner of ass... and also being an amazingly supportive sort, both to Ryder's team and his granddaughter.
  • Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: While he's only middle-aged, Yakou is notably older than all of the other detectives, with Desuhiko even referring to him as "old man", and he serves as the chief of the Kanai Ward division of the WDO, the biggest detective organization in the world.
  • Mega Man:
    • Dr. Light, Mega Man's and X's creator, a world-famous altruistic scientist, and all-around paragon of the benefits of useful, moral science.
    • Mega Man Legends: Wily is an old sailor with an eyepatch that runs a boat shop and doesn't mind when two teenagers start tinkering with one of his boats without permission. He even lets them use the boat for free whenever they want after they fix it.
    • Mega Man Battle Network: In the fourth game, Tensuke Takumi and his Navi, Top Man, who fights with tops, a pipe, and a cane.
    • Mega Man Star Force: The Shaman is the leader of the village in the mountains of Nanzca, determined to lead his people into prosperity, by hook or by crook.
    • Mega Man ZX Advent: Master Mikhail wisecracks and jokes quite a bit with the heroes, and is the most down-to-earth out of the Sage Trinity. He even gives Grey/Ashe a consoling pep-talk after Prometheus and Pandora destroy the computer that hacked Legion and thus denying them the chance to search it for any data on themselves.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is depicted as a badass graying elder, capable of kicking as much ass as he did in earlier games. Although he isn't actually that old, he has supposedly aged prematurely because of the primitive cloning method used to create him.
    • Then again, the games do have a very high concentration of cool old guys. Revolver Ocelot is in his sixties and the best gunslinger and plan user in the world. An extreme example is The End, 'the father of modern sniping', who's over a hundred and looks it, but is still capable of leaving a man a third his age in his dust, while carrying an awesome Mosin Nagant sniper rifle.
  • Ōkami has a dojo in 3 areas, all run by the same guy, who goes by Onigiri Sensei. He barely looks like he's capable of anything at first, but then he pulls a 180 (rather literally) and becomes a kickass old instructor.
  • Overwatch
    • Reinhardt, age 61, is a mountain of a man clad in Powered Armor, armed with a rocket-propelled warhammer, and who believes wholeheartedly in the ideals of peace and justice upon which Overwatch was founded. Even after being forced into retirement, he continues the good fight, and his age has done little to slow him down.
    • Torbjörn, age 57, is a stout mechanical genius who helped to make the mechanical wonders of Overwatch possible. The younger members of Overwatch all look up to him as an inspiration, and he still knows how to kick all sorts of ass.
    • Soldier 76, age uncertain, is an old soldier that serves in Overwatch during the Omnic Crisis and hasn't stopped fighting the good fight after the disbandment of Overwatch.
  • Dallas from PAYDAY: The Heist is the oldest robber of the crew, being in his mid-forties. During his time, he managed to turn two mob groups against each other so he could profit from them and then managed to evade both groups for several years after they discovered they were tricked. Dallas also staged a heist on a freight liner containing weapons once he came out of hiding. Once he teamed up with the rest of the crew in the game, he can fend off waves of cops and SWAT units while robbing banks, jewelry stores, and a senator's apartment while not being slowed down by his smoker's lung.
  • Pokémon Red and Blue: Professor Oak. Wait, what? Well, in the Adventures manga, at least - Oak actually competes in the Pokemon League and beats Blue, and without his lab-coat, he looks surprisingly fit for someone his age. The games themselves note that Oak was a top-class trainer before switching professions, roughly around the level of the Elite Four, since he was friends with Agatha.
    • With the use of a cheat device, or a branch of the Mew Glitch, you can unlock a Dummied Out battle with Professor Oak, where he has some of the most powerful Pokemon in the game, his strongest equaling Mewtwo and their levels on average being the same as the Champion's if not higher. His Pokemon? Tauros, Exeggutor, Arcanine, Gyarados, and the fully evolved starter that wasn't picked. All of them are amongst some of the most powerful Pokemon of the first generation. The guy's a straight-up badass.
    • Also, several Gym leaders from the anime are cool old guys. Blaine/Katsura, Pryce/Yanagi (once he gets defrosted when his long-lost Piloswine returns), Juan/Adan and Spenser/Ukon come to mind...
      • Blaine was already this in the games. A Fire specialist and the second strongest Kanto Gym Leader, old age didn't extinguish his burning fervor for quizzes and Pokémon battles.
    • Pokémon Colosseum introduces a Trainer type called Fun Old Man. Eagun qualifies too (more so in the sequel).
  • In Potion Permit, Zeke is an old, carefree man who retired from his job as a merchant to live a peaceful life in Moonbury with his pet cat Kipps as a nobody.
  • The kooky mystic in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.
    • While we're on the subject, it would be criminal not to mention Orvus and Azimuth. Both majorly cool characters, both capable of incredible things— they are, respectively, former Senior Caretaker of The Great Clock note  and a Four-Bolt Magistrate for the Lombax Praetorian Guard and an Elder Councilman for the Center for Advanced Lombax Research.
  • Landon Ricketts from Red Dead Redemption is an ex-gunslinger who has retired to Mexico. In addition to aiding you in some missions, he also teaches you a few tricks to help increase your Dead Eye Meter.
  • Both male teachers from the Rival Schools series, Hideo Shimazu and Hayato Nekketsu, qualify for this by simply being Badass Teachers.
  • In Roots of Pacha, the protagonist's adoptive grandfather Igrork is a kindly senior who raises them and manages the plant nursery. He often jokes around and participates in "children's" activities such as playing in the snow, believing that they keep him young. He also becomes his grandchild's nanny to their own child(ren) if they wish.
  • Zimos from Saints Row: The Third. He is the oldest pimp in Steelport, has Autotune on his voice box, and even manages to get one of the DeWynter sisters in bed. And he maintains very high standards of working conditions for his girls to contrast the Syndicate's straight up Sex Slavery. For an old guy, he sure has a lot of swag.
  • Shadow Hearts:
    • The first two games have Zhuzhen and Gepetto, who are eccentric but powerful mages and provide invaluable information on the occult to Yuri and the Naïve Newcomer female leads.
    • From the New World makes its Cool Old Guy character a quite possibly insane ninja/US Secret Agent.
    • Not to mention Roger Bacon and Albert Simon, though not playable, are still way cool.
  • In Shadow Warrior (1997), Lo Wang seems to be at "Old Master" age (even though it only shows through his lack of hair and gray goatee), but he is as nimble and tough as you would expect from your average fast-FPS protagonist, and his arrogance is as contagious as Duke Nukem's.
  • Shadowrun Returns
    • The Dragonfall campaign has Dietrich, the Kreuzbasar Crew's shaman and former punk rock frontman. He's been actively kicking ass since at least the Night of Rage, 15 years before time the game is set in. He's also following an idol that drives him to take on ever greater and more dangerous enemies. All that in the shadows of Berlin, where life tends to be nasty, brutish and short.
    • The Director's Cut of Dragonfall adds Herr Hasenkamp, the accountant and assassin of a local loan shark. Sent along on a run to keep an eye on the player and kill them once the job is done he's a literal Badass Grandpa. Should the player manage to come to an agreement with him in the end, he'll mention being grateful that he'll get home just in time to read a bedtime story to his grandkids…
  • SOS: Jeffrey Howell is a doctor in his sixties, yet can still jump, swim, and save survivors as well as anyone else. Redwin Gardner also counts, though downplayed since he's in his near-forties.
  • Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher, an ex-Navy SEAL working as an international spy, acts as this. That is, despite starting the series as a fourty-seven-year-old Navy vet, he still has the capacity to prevent world wars:
    Grim: It looks like a laser grid just came online.
    Fisher: Lasers? Lasers are so—
    Grim: Nineties?
    Fisher: I was going to say Seventies. Can you please stop making me feel so old?
    Grim: Got bad news for ya Sam: you are old.
  • In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, the Old Forester (Lesnik)note  who lives in the Red Forest alone. The Red Forest is a real place, it's one of the most radioactive places on earth and it is implied Lesnik has been living there since before the CNPP went critical. This alone would make him qualify for the trope, but in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe, the Red Forest is also a Death World full of all kinds of mutants and anomalies: most Stalkers refuse to enter the area unless in a large and heavily-armed group unless they have a death wish, but Lesnik lives there alone with nothing but an old break-action hunting shotgun and a ushanka for protection. He was even able to bag a Bloodsucker (a squid-faced, invisible mutant vampire creature straight from your worst nightmare) with it.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:
    • Jolee Bindo. He is a very Cool Old Guy, who feigns deafness and senility but who is still a competent fighter and dispenser of sage advice. And he's voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
    • Also, Masters Vrook and Vandar.
    • And Sion (still can whip your ass with a lightsaber at around 1,000 with a barely functional body. Just imagine him in his prime).
    • And three of the five lost Jedi Masters (Atris and Kavar don't look old enough).
    • Canderous Ordo also counts. As of the first game, he'd been kicking ass for forty years. Second game, he's pushing 65, is the only humanoid in the party Exile can't cross-class (and doesn't NEED to), helps put the smack down on two Sith Lords, and is still kicking righteous ass as Mandalore the Preserver, setting the stage for his people to become Republic 'allies'' for the next century or two. All with a bone-dry wit, and surprisingly poetic descriptions of his past battles.
  • Suikoden has TONS of badass old guys (and women). Georg Prime grows to be a badass old man in Suikoden II. For Suikoden III, Geddoe's main party consists of mostly old badasses (himself, Joker and Ace). Suikoden IV has Elenor and Lino, while Suikoden V has Galleon and Raja. And these consist of the generally self-proclaimed old. This game has a fruitful bounty of badass adults.
  • Super Robot Wars:
    • Lt. Colonel Daitetsu Minase from Original Generation, captain of the Hagane.
    • Also Major Kai Kitamura. Kai isn't actually all that old, however.
    • Rishu Togo definitely counts, being an old swordsman who designed the Type 0's sword, and trained both Zengar and Bullet, and also on at least one occasion cut bullets out of the air. You even get to use him as a pilot in one of the PS2 OG games.
  • A playable 20-40 throwing the 15-18 Competence Zone out of balance is a staple of the Tales series.
  • Most of the characters from Team Fortress 2, with the exception of the Scout and possibly the Pyro, appear to be in the late 40s, early 50s range, making them an entire cast of Cool Old Guys. It's lampshaded by Heavy in the Mann vs. Machine mode:
    Heavy: I am getting too old and too giant for this.
  • Tekken:
    • By Tekken 5, Heihachi is a grandpa who can punch Terminators in half and survive an explosion that hurls him several kilometers away. Without any medical attention, mind you. And he launches enemies into space on a rocket. Not only is the guy impossible to kill, but he's also got style.
    • Wang is 104 in 5 and 6, and is in perfect fighting condition. He's also one of the good guys, unlike Heihachi, and even gets the respect of Feng with his skill.
  • Elder Keeper Artemus of the Thief series. He's more of a Non-Action Guy and The Mentor / surrogate father figure to the protagonist, but he's a Badass Bookworm and master of stealth nonetheless.
    • Specifically, Artemus is able to out sneak the protagonist, who is able to outsneak basically everyone in the organization that prides itself in never being seen.
  • Uncharted's Victor "Goddamn" Sullivan, or Sully for his friends. By the time of the third game he is sixty years old, and he can still run, climb, fight, shoot, and woo as well as a man half his age. He also ends up averting Mentor Occupational Hazard, managing to survive all the way to the Distant Finale.
  • Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume has enough Cool Old Guys to make them a subject of an amusing scene in Seraphic Gate.
  • Dandy-J from Waku Waku 7 is a cross between Indiana Jones and Joseph Joestar, how could he be anything but?
  • Anduin Lothar from the Warcraft franchise. Not only was he a badass Old Soldier who led The Alliance in a world war, but he serves as a kind of Big Brother Mentor to Khadgar in Warcraft: The Last Guardian, showing much more level-headedness and wisdom than his own King.
    • In World of Warcraft, Tirion Fordring. A retired man living in a hut until the player shakes him up, at which point he reforms an order of paladins, redeems an army of death knights and leads an army to some godforsaken corner of the world to bring judgment to a Physical God who threatens all life. Also, he carries a huge magical sword forged from the shard of a dead Energy Being angel with one hand.
    • Drek'thar in the same game. He's so old he needs a wheelchair, he's blind, he has seizures...and he can STILL kick a raid group's ass. Even if you ignore the Alterac Valley version of him, he still predicted the Cataclysm and yelled at the people who ignored him.
    • Cairne Bloodhoof. Despite dying he still almost kicks the ass of the son of one of the most famous heroes of the Horde, and he arguably would have won if Magatha hadn't poisoned Garrosh's weapon.
    • Archbishop Benedictus. Old man, looks weak and decrepit, is a non-fighting priest. That doesn't sound cool at all, right? Well, in Cataclysm, he allies with the evil Aspect of Death, becomes the Twilight Prophet dedicated to wiping out all life, enslaves a blue dragon princess, creates a monster so awful that not even the four dragonflights can take it out without help from Thrall, and eventually faces down Thrall himself and the players to try and recapture the Dragon Soul for his master, Deathwing.
  • Brother-Sergeant Sidonus of the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. He's been an Ultramarine for 200 years, has seemingly Seen It All and reacts with appropriate dry humor, lost his arm in battle against the Tyranids and part of his face in battle against the Eldar, and slits a Bloodthirster's throat with his chainsword, though sadly he gets killed shortly afterward.
  • Dr. Raymond Shen, head engineer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Not only is he responsible for building a lot of really cool stuff (the best of which, in his own opinion, is the Firestorm), he's the voice of caution and reason in the Freudian Trio, sometimes coming across as the Only Sane Man in the whole project. And during the alien's attack on XCOM HQ, he is shown surviving a machine blowing up right next to him.
    • Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang from the Slingshot [DLC is a former member of the Chinese Triad who defected to join XCOM. In his first appearance, he one-shots a moving Sectoid with a pistol and then joins you as (probably) the highest-ranked soldier at that point. He's also a good candidate for psychic potential due to his high Will, and hence may possibly even be the soldier who pulls a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the game.

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