Ensemble Dark Horse / Video Games

Describe Video Game characters who really caught on with the fans, despite not being a main character here.

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Games/franchises with their own pages:

• Animal Crossing (Villagers)
• Azur Lane
• The Binding of Isaac
• Brave Frontier
• Dark Souls
• Dragalia Lost
• Dragon Age
• The Elder Scrolls
• Fallout
• Fate/Grand Order
• Final Fantasy
• Fire Emblem
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• Granblue Fantasy
• Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!
• Just Dance
• The King of Fighters
• Kirby
• The Legend of Zelda
• Mega Man
• Pokémon
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Super Mario Bros.
• Tekken
• Touhou Project
• Undertale
• World of Warcraft
• Yandere Simulator

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Individual examples:

#-B

• In Agarest Senki for the protagonists of the five generations, Thoma himself is the most well-liked of the 5 protagonists followed by Leo. For the other party members, we've got Fyuria, Valeria (enough to be brought back to Agarest 2), Silvi, and Murmina.
• Uzuki from Akai Ito. In an official poll asking which couple was the most popular, Uzuki and the main character Kei ended up as number one.
• Blitztank from Akatsuki Blitzkampf and later BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is popular with fans because it's a Sapient Tank with a Skull for a Head in a fighting game.
• May Greenfield, from Armored Core For Answer. Practically no characterization, is an entirely optional wingman, and is never seen outside of her mech, but AC fandom in general and 4chan's /m/ in particular have fallen in love with the cheerful teenage girl in the bright green Engine of Destruction.
  • Whose logo is a smiley face. Unsurprisingly, (fan) depiction of her is with green hair. And busty.
  • From the same franchise is Nineball. No player may consider themselves true AC fans if they don't know Nineball, owing to the fact that everyone has had their asses handed to them once by this guy and he won't hesitate to do it again.
  • Stinger, while not as popular, has his fans as well.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Assassin's Creed gave the gaming public Malik, Jerusalem quest giver. He has established himself as a fan favourite, mainly for being bitter, sarcastic, and delightfully mean to Altair. So naturally, he gets a bridge dropped on him in the backstory for Revelations.
  • Even more extreme is his brother Kadar, who exists only to get fridged fifteen minutes into the game. He still gets into a lot of fanart.
  • Damascus' Rafiq (who apparently has no name). He's a...talkative, odd sort of guy.
    Rafiq D: Whose life do you come to collect today?
    Altaïr: His name is Abu'l Nuqoud.
    Rafiq D: Oh, the Merchant King of Damascus! Richest man in the city! Quite exciting, quite dangerous! I envy you, Altaïr—well, not the bit where you were beaten and stripped of your rank — but I envy everything else! Oh, except for the terrible things the other assassins say about you; but yes, aside from the failure and the hatred, yes, aside from those things, I envy you very much!
    Altaïr: If you're finished...
  • Assassin's Creed II has plenty. Claudia, Uncle Mario, La Volpe, Caterina Sforza, Machiavelli, Rosa... pretty much all the supporting cast, basically.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci, with his sheer Adorkable nature and enthusiasm. The quick-time option to hug him has led to players claiming to have restarted the game after missing it.
  • Bartolomeo Da Alviano, on account of his... bombastic nature and abundance of character.
  • Subject 16 / Clay Kaczmarek, by dint of his Woobie nature and traumatic backstory, which eventually resulted in his getting a DLC pack for Revelations.
  • From Brotherhood, Cesare Borgia garnered this, mostly for being hot it seems. Deviantart has lots of fanarts showing him molesting Ezio or the poor, scared shitless Leonardo Da Vinci.
  • Revelations has Yusuf Tazim, the snarky head of the Istanbul Assassins, who still manages to kill several Janissaries during his Last Stand.
  • From Assassin's Creed III, there's Haytham Kenway, the Decoy Protagonist of the initial sequences, who's been compared to a seventeenth-century James Bond, and is some circles is considered more interesting than his son, the main character. Like Achilles below, he plays a major role in Assassin's Creed: Rogue, which takes place before III.
  • Benjamin Franklin, despite the small amount of appearances he has in-story. The fact that he has one of the funniest conversations in the whole game helps.
  • Achilles, due to his combination of humor and pessimism. Fans were hoping for him to show up in the next game, though that didn't happen. He did appear in the game after that, though, which explored some of his backstory.
• Augus from Asura's Wrath is easily one of the more liked characters in the game, as his boisterous personality and relatively manly and badass traits make him quite a popular character even after Asura defeats and kills him. Many fans clamour for him to be playable in extra scenarios or DLC.
• One of the most popular and interesting characters in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana is not a playable character, but rather a shopkeeper of all things. Veola, the owner of the magic shop in the first town you visit becomes the most captivating and fleshed out character in the game as the plot progresses. The character in question is also the subject of some fan fiction.
• Achmed Khan from Backyard Sports. Originally, he was just a regular playable character who was not on any of the artwork of the first few games. But he got a massive fanbase, mostly due to his guitar-player wannabe personality. This probably led to his inclusion as a playable character in Backyard Skateboarding, and (unfortunately) his Flanderization.
• Minsc (and Boo!) from the Baldur's Gate series. Practically the series' mascot character(s).
  • The main reason for this is because his legendary Cloudcuckoolander tendencies (mostly by relying on Boo to do any thinking beyond "hitting bad guy with BFS") backed up by being a living wall of ham.
  • They even got a shout out in Mass Effect 2 with Tali (ironically another BioWare Ensemble Dark Horse herself) having a combat line referencing one of Minsc's and a purchasable space hamster for your quarters.
  • To some, the paladin Keldorn attains this status for the simple virtue of being one of the few D&D paladins ever who manages to avert all their most common flaws.
  • Imoen started out as a childhood friend and half-sister of the main character thrown in at the last minute (she doesn't even get any banter lines with the party) as a recruitable party member due to playtesting finding the beginning of the game too hard without recruiting the two evil-aligned Ax-Crazy characters you run into soon after. She was even slated to die once the sequel came around, but her surprising popularity kept her alive, and she went on to become the series' Genki Girl and Woobie extraordinaire (not to mention one of the best mages in the second game.)
  • Viconia is also popular because... well, you know.
• Banjo-Kazooie:
  • The series has a huge cast, many of them being incidentals or one-offs worth only a single Jiggy. Nonetheless, some of them get to be quite popular. Prime among them are Chilly Willy and Chili Billy, the twin bosses of Hailfire Peaks in Tooie. In a world of goofy and cartoonish creatures, they stand out because they're enormous, screen-filling DRAGONS, with massive glowing spikes (visually impressive by Nintendo 64 standards), epic music, and dialogue that's pretty funny by the standards of an already comedy-centric game.
  • Mr. Patch, another boss from Tooie, is almost as popular. Once again, his epic boss fight may have something to do with this, as he's easily the largest character in the entire series, and has to be fought while flying. He also manages to be quite funny (how many other characters' Boss Subtitle calls them a "Strange Wobbly Inflatable Thing?).
  • Sexy Grunty. During the game over sequence of the first game, Vain Sorceress Gruntilda gets her wish to become beautiful. And boy, does she ever! Naturally, she became popular due to her sheer, overwhelming sexiness... and perhaps for the large amounts of Nightmare Fuel said game-over was capable of inducing, particularly "Ugly Tooty."
  • Clanker, the giant mechanical shark/whale thing from Clanker's Cavern in the first game. Despite his scary appearance, Clanker is one of the more pitiable characters in the series — he's forced to serve as Grunty's trash compactor in a tiny, confined cavern full of grimy water, when all he wants to do is breathe fresh air and swim free.
• Baten Kaitos Origins gives us Guillo, Sagi's magical puppet sidekick. Aside from having several Game-Breaker specials and items, Guillo is widely considered the best character in the game, being a hilarious Deadpan Snarker foil to Sagi, having a compelling backstory, and just generally being a total badass.
• Battle Garegga has Black Heart, the boss of Stage 5 and the second-to-last boss, and it's even more popular than Glow Squid; in fact, on the Japanese version of That Other Wiki, the Battle Garegga page has a whole section for Black Heart. Its owes its popularity to how much harder it is compared to the past four bosses when you first encounter it, and a very major scoring trick you can exploit when you encounter it a second time. It was popular enough that in the Spiritual Successor Armed Police Batrider, it appears as a Superboss twice.
  • Also, the Stage 2 flamingoes. Part of a high-scoring secret, the flamingoes have become very popular amongst Garegga fans, despite being little sprites that have no relevance to the protagonists or antagonists.
• Bendy and the Ink Machine:
  • Wally Franks might count as one. Mostly because his audio logs come off as a welcomed comic relief in every chapter.
  • Thomas Connor, due to the fact that despite only being contracted to work for Joey Drew Studios, he's easily the most stable employee, and seems to be one of the only people to not take Joey Drew's antics. This combined with the fact that he was only one smart enough to try to get out when he could led to people relating to him quite a bit.
• Beyond Good & Evil:
  • Meii is one of the more popular characters in the fandom, following only behind the main characters. She's liked far more than her fellow NPCs in the game's Mission Control. However, she's also a voluptuous, blue-furred Cat Girl, which explains a lot.
  • There's also Yoa, one of the Heartwarming Orphans from the lighthouse. Among the six orphans, she's easily the most popular—probably because she, too, is blue, with unusual facial markings, speaks a mysterious language, and seems to be either an excellent snoop or have psychic powers. Her cool design and air of mystery make her very popular with the fans, despite her being just another NPC otherwise.
• Loki from The Binding of Isaac. Compared to certain infamous bosses fought in The Depths and Necropolis like Mask of Infamy and The Bloat, Loki is a goofy and loveable Breather Boss and is pretty popular as a result (the fact that he's referred as "Mr. Cool" in the credits certainly helps.
  • The Dark Bum in Rebirth immediately gained popularity due to how much of a Game-Breaker he was in the initial release (offering Soul Hearts in exchange for health pick-ups at a 1:1 ratio.)
  • Eve has a surprising amount of popularity considering that she's otherwise generally seen as a Low-Tier Letdown.
• Rosalind and Robert Lutece from Bioshock Infinite have been considered rather endearing by fans for their odd behavior and speech mannerisms. They even won the 2013 VGX award for "Best Character of the Year."
• Blaster Master Zero II introduced additional Metal Attacker pilots as supporting characters. Out of all of them, the one who got the most attention is Kanna, a ditzy yet cute Plant Alien girl encountered on the planet Stranga. She became so popular that she not only got a Raising Sim mini-game DLC dedicated to her, but she even made an appearance in Blaster Master Zero III, with her profile on the official website for that game basically admitting they're Not Even Bothering with an Excuse regarding why she's back beyond Popularity Power.
  It's like, totally bonkers, but Kanna appears in this game for some reason.
• Bang Shishigami is one of the more unexpectedly popular characters in BlazBlue. At first it appeared as though he was going to be a ripoff of Chipp Zanuff. By the time the Arcade game came out, he was highly-praised for his hammily over-the-top hilariousness. He's practically a living Shout-Out to every manly Shonen character designed in the past two decades of Anime history. This is quite surprising that he's usually seen as a clown in-universe (who likes bitching on him) as well as not even considered "important" by ASW themselves (he's considered weaker than Carl, of all people, as a vigilante), although that may change in the future due to story progression. He also enjoys a lot of fanworks.
  • Also, Taokaka. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that there isn't a single person who hates her, due to her established reputation for being such a hilarious character. She even lampshades her status in Relius' Gag Reel.
    "Tao would never say that because Tao's adorable and friendly and a fan favorite."
  • Makoto Nanaya used to be this back in Calamity Trigger. She was an NPC who only appeared in flashback sequences, an old friend of Noel's from the academy days. Despite her very limited screen-time and nominal importance to the overarching plot, she got a surprisingly warm reception from the fandom, mostly due to similarities with the above Taokaka ^note they're both cute animal girls with ditzy, food-loving personalities who play the role of the plucky comic relief. However, her introduction into the main story by Continuum Shift Extend has been criticised as clumsily handled and has made her into a Base-Breaking Character.
  • Amongst NPC's, Kokonoe and Jubei are darkhorses too. Kokonoe is well loved for her utter snarkiness and the hilarity she brought in "Help me! Professor Kokonoe!", although her darker, Slippery Slope Jumping actual story has also earned her haters. Jubei is universally liked simply because he's probably the only Six Heroes with the least mental problems or emotional baggage and the closest they can get for a Big Good.
    • The prayers for Kokonoe's fans are answered as she becomes a DLC for Chronophantasma.
  • Relius is shaping up to be this, gaining a huge amount of popularity just after becoming a playable character. Oh, and this is despite being a Faux Affably Evil villain who performs Mind Rape For Science! This is probably because despite his status as an important Big Bad Duumvirate, he wasn't as oversaturated in attention as compared to Hazama (who has slowly lost his favor over time and is facing Creator's Pet accusations), nor was he the main concern of the main hero (Ragna), thus fulfilling the Dark Horse qualifications. Having one of the two big gag reels from Extend helps, too.
  • Perhaps the strangest Ensemble Dark Horse of them all is the fluffy white dog (commonly known as Hype Dog)◊ in the background of one of the stages, notable for barking its head off and being absolutely adorable.
  • As for the third game, Chronophantasma, Azrael of Sector Seven has proven to be by far the most well-received of the three new characters in America and Europe. Interestingly, Amane Nishiki is the most popular in Japan. This is mainly due to cultural differences in views towards "manly" characters.
  • As of a recent popularity poll, Azrael has officially overcome his fellow newcomers (including Kokonoe!) to be included in the top ten most popular characters in both Blazblue AND Guilty Gear combined. DAYUM!
  • Litchi's gag reel for the third game features Bullet in a Ragna-inspired outfit. It's truly surprising how much fanart this rendition of Bullet gets.
  • Most of them are at least playable, whereas Hype Dog was more close to a Memetic Bystander. There is a darkhorse that has been around since the first game, the fans like him, but he has never set himself amongst the playable characters no matter how much he got teased for it. That character is Jubei, one of the Six Heroes and hailed as the most powerful creature alive, the father of the aforementioned Kokonoe, teacher of Ragna (and later Jin) and Pint-Sized Powerhouse extraordinary. Seriously, this guy can have cute plushies about him, and forced the fans to wait 9 whole years before making him playable!? Truly, Toshimichi Mori's favorite drink must be our tears.
• In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Gordeau. He comes from the least known of the four franchises in this crossover title, and he's not even a major character in his home game. However he is the single most played character of the open beta, more than any of the Blazblue roster and even more than the titular four heroines of a certain Rooster Teeth-produced web anime series that has exploded in popularity in recent years who it bears repeating make their fighting game debut in this title. That is how insanely well-received Gordeau is. Gordeau fans pin it on being a manly scythe-wielding Nice Guy who plays and looks like a mix of Sol Badguy and classic Dante and who is also top tier.
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night:
  • Orlok Fahrenheit Dracule, better known simply as O.D.. He's Bloodstained's answer to Alucard in everything but name, aided by him having Alucard's look and voice actor(s) ^note whereas in Japanese he's fittingly voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu, who's consistently lent his voice to Alucard since 1997, the English version arguably went the extra mile by getting Robert Belgrade, Al's original English voice actor from the same game, to effectively "reprise" the role, and the game deliberately gives him a role similar to the Master Librarian from SotN — complete with the exact same "High Jump into chair from the room below" Easter Egg (which can also be triggered with Invert). Then there's the matter of his secret boss fight in the Glacial Tomb: hilarious for its "reasoning" (he was not joking about how valuable the Tome of Conquest is to him) and utterly cool in design (as O.D. employs cyrokinesis and chronokinesis along with Alucard's various transformations).
  • Lindsay, the NPC who tasks Miriam with avenging her fallen friends and family, is fairly popular in the fanbase, mostly because of "Kill those murderers DEAD!!"
  • In a game full of memorable enemy designs, Tamako-Death stands out for the appeal of a cute girl with a guitar as her weapon that shoots fire set to heavy metal riffs.
  • As far as summons go, Carabosse is a popular choice due to the fact that she can attack and heal Miriam, which makes her quite useful.
  • Shovel Knight's cameo as the Shovel Armor has also been praised. It helps that players can obtain his trusty armor and shovel as Random Drops.
  • Bloodless, a mid-game boss, garnered attention and pretty much a lot of love from lots of players, due to both her boss fight (which involves lots of Fanservice along the way) and the ability to play as her on Boss Revenge Mode. It was enough for Iga to decide to make her playable in the main game as well via the "BLOODLESS" code used as the player name.
• Blue Archive:
  • Millennium's C&C club is this, as the members are a mix of Secret Agent in disguise as Meido. In particular are the Cold Sniper Karin and ditzy Asuna, especially after they (as well as Akane and Neru) got Bunny Girl outfits.
• Bugsnax:
  • Bunger quickly garnered a large amount of popularity among fans despite not being a major focus of either the game or its promotional material (both of which instead hyped up Strabby as the Bugsnax mascot), thanks to a combination of Bunger's cute design, amusing name, and Simpleton Voice Pokémon Speak. It helps that Vinesauce Vinny was instantly smitten with the "stupid little burger" and Bunger memes and fanart spread like wildfire within the Vinesauce community.
  • The Big Bopsicle is also pretty popular due to how aggressive its voice is, making it sound like it's giving a Cluster F-Bomb.
  • Scoopy Banoopy gained a wave of fans based on the name alone, as well as its Eeyore-like appearance and the fact that it's based on a banana split, a very popular type of ice cream sundae.
  • Though they are one of the last to be invited back to Snaxburg, Floofty is easily one of the most popular grumpuses of the main cast for their memorability as an ethically-questionable Insufferable Genius. Being a canonically nonbinary character in a medium where respectful portrayals of such identities are fairly uncommon doesn't hurt either. There's even "Floofty Friday" on the official Young Horses Discord channel!

C-D

• Castlevania:
  • Castlevania: Judgment has one in Golem, who was largely a non-entity in the game, players considered him inconsequential, but they grew a fondness for him in this game, and has what's considered the best story mode in the game. His Iron Woobie status may also have gotten some fandom, too.
  • As a whole, characters not related to the Belmonts seem to be more popular. More notable cases include Grant DaNasty (the first ally to be encountered in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and the one fans valued the most due to his game-breaking wall-climbing abilities), Maria Renard (both as a child and an adult), and Hammer (a retired army grunt who functions as a weapons and items supplier to Soma; fans desperately want to see him playable despite being Dummied Out of Dawn's Julius Mode and Harmony of Despair).
    • There's also the leads of some of the non-canon side games. Nathan Graves from Circle of the Moon and Cornell, the Blue Crescent Moon from Legacy of Darkness both have very devoted fanbases despite their games being largely inconsequential to the overall timeline (this is probably thanks in part to their games being more experimental than the standard Castlevania mold). Cue Cornell making a pleasantly surprising reappearance as one of the few modern characters in Castlevania: Judgment (alongside the then newcomer Shanoa), second in terms of darkhorse status to the aforementioned Golem, one of the few characters to not have their characterization change from what was previously established, and probably the only Takeshi Obata redesign to be praised by the fans instead of detested (face it; going from a Wolf Man to a wolf knight can hardly be considered a downgrade).
  • In terms of villains, we have Death (due to being Dracula's Affably Evil Dragon and a more challenging boss than Drac himself), Carmilla (for Ms. Fanservice reasons), Slogra (a member of Death's Praetorian Guard alongside Gaibon and the only Memetic Badass of the series not named Simon, Richter, or Julius), and Joachim Armster (partially overlapping with Draco in Leather Pants, but the appeal of a Secret Character who uses psychokinesis to wield five swords is most certainly there). Galamoth also has shades of this, but that's moreso thanks to his That One Boss status in SotN than any actual characterization (he's implied to be The Starscream, but is the Big Bad of the non-canon Kid Dracula and The Ghost in Judgment, where he sends The Time Reaper in his place).
  • As far as Belmonts go, the most popular one is the one that DIDN'T get his own game. Julius Belmont is a canonical badass, a trait especially elevated in Dawn Of Sorrow where, when asked how he took down the more powerful regenerating monsters despite being unable to draw magic seals to stop the regeneration, he responds by stating he just kills them too fast for them to regenerate. His popularity probably has to do with being canonically the strongest Belmont and indeed possibly the strongest character in the series, having permanently killed Dracula, teaming up with Alucard, having the more well received playable post game quests, being totally manly with a Badass Longcoat and, in Aria of Sorrow, being a combination of That One Boss and Best Boss Ever, along with his theme music. Added to this is the fact that at the time of the Sorrow games, he was in his mid-fifties. Even with the reboot, many fans are still clamoring for a game based on the war of 1999, where he permanently killed Dracula but it was never elaborated how.
• Kanpachi from Cave Story is merely a fishing Mimiga who isn't much important, until he manages to catch a key for you. Mirai Gamer fandom seems to raise him to Memetic Badass levels.
  • How can we mention Cave Story without bringing up Balrog? OH YEAAAAAH!!!
• City of Heroes had quite a few.
  • Ghost Widow, an attractive undead right-hand woman to Lord Recluse (mainly popular for being the only character in the game with animated hair), the Memetic Badass Blue Steel, and new character Desdemonda, made to showcase the Going Rogue expansion. Desdemonda's case was helped by her portrayal at HeroCon by a tall and attractive model.
  • While the Korean version of the game failed, the characters created for it proved surprisingly popular, especially Mr. Fanservice Foreshadow and Sword and Gun user Spark Blade. Good aversions of Captain Ethnic.
• Schala from Chrono Trigger is one of the most beloved characters in the game despite being an NPC. There's also Gato, Lucca's combat training robot in the Millennial Fair, mostly for his catchy theme which he sings himself as heard in the OVA.
  • Guile of Chrono Cross is also a fair bit more popular than most of the optional characters in the game if only for the fan theory that he's Magus in disguise.
• Corpse Party:
  • Seiko Shinohara. A cheeky, eccentric girl who stays relentlessly cheerful even when trapped in a haunted school full of dead bodies. That and her possibly one-sided crush on Naomi has made her one of the most popular characters in the series, despite her not even making it past the first chapter of Blood Covered or Book of Shadows.
  • Of the original five cast members Yoshiki is by far the most well-liked. In the PC games he had little relevance in the overall story, but as the series has gone on he's almost become a Breakout Character, at times becoming more involved in the plot than actual protagonist Satoshi. His level-headedness, blunt but kind demeanor, pretty face, and devotion to keeping Ayumi alive (to the point that he'll erase himself from history if it means a chance to help her) are all reasons for his popularity.
• Crash Bandicoot:
  • Many of the Original Trilogy bosses are popular within the fandom, most notably Dingodile, Ripper Roo, and Tiny Tiger.
  • Crunch Bandicoot, a super buff bandicoot originally introduced as a badass rival to the main character in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Word of God claims Crunch's cameo in Crash Twinsanity was solely to appease his huge fanbase.
  • Tawna garnered a rather large fanbase, but appeared prominently in only two games and made very minor cameos in others (due to the Creator Backlash concerning Executive Meddling bowdlerizing her original character design). Her popularity further increased with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, in which she finally gets Promoted to Playable, has dialogue and an established personality.
  • Fake Crash, a random version of Crash that was meant to be an in-game joke turns into a total fame by the Japanese that makes him now a tag-along guy.
  • Ami, Isabella, Liz and Megumi from Crash Team Racing already had a minor following as the Trophy Girls in the original 1999 game, but their grand return as playable racers in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, with newly-established personalities, made their popularity explode, and they instantly became fan favourites.
  • Evil Coco is a rather extreme example of this; she was one of the many examples of cut content from Crash Twinsanity, but she has a considerable amount of fan-art to her name and was seen by fans as a missed opportunity. Her presumed brother Evil Crash (who did make it to the game) also gets quite a bit of love for a character who was never seen again after Twinsanity (excluding some cameos and a Crash skin in Crash Tag Team Racing that vaguely resembled him).
• Katya, one of the playable characters of Crayola Scoot, quickly became popular because she's a black cat Funny Animal witch who happened to appeal to the furries.
• Cuphead:
  • King Dice, due to his creative boss fight, his insanely catchy theme song, and his cool design.
  • Cala Maria, for her appealing design and her creative boss fight.
  • Cagney Carnation was one of the first bosses seen from the game, leading to him having a place in some players' hearts. Not to mention the general Body Horror he pulls off during his fight and the lively background music of the stage.
  • Werner Werman as well, due to having a pretty fun and creative boss fight, with a neat twist at the end.
  • Despite him being a very difficult boss to many, plenty of people in the Furry Fandom have been slowly growing attached to Grim Matchstick. Even outside it, general consensus is that he's too adorable to stay angry at, and is generally beloved despite the rage he induces.
  • Sally Stageplay, for her Affectionate Parody of a JRPG boss battle and her small stature, as most bosses are an Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever.
  • Mac and Lord Forkington are both NPCs who only pop up on the Inkwell Isle map, but they do receive quite a bit of attention.
• Darkstalkers:
  • Jon Talbain. Especially in the United States. Thanks to Capcom Japan's absolute refusal to include him in any future games featuring the Darkstalkers, he's become this in many fans' eyes. Even Ryoma Niitsuma, the director of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, notes that if he had more development time, Jon would have been the game's 4th rep for this series (after Morrigan, Felicia, and Hsien-Ko).
  • Anita. Many players wish to see the older and more cheerful self (as seen in Dee's story from Vampire Savior 2 and planned to be included in the third game) as a playable character in future games. She made, however, the jump to playable in some crossovers, such as Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom, where she was a selectable Assist Character.
  • Lei-Lei/Hsien-Ko: The jiangshi girl's innovative fighting style and overall cuteness made her a fan favorite as well, with her appearing in Pocket Fighter, Namco × Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Project × Zone. She even gets a very large role in the anime, in which she is the secondary protagonist along with her sister.
  • Lord Raptor/Zabel Zarock: his rock star nature and hilarious, hammy yet brutal quotes and fighting style have made him very popular amongst Western fans, many who wanted to see him in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as DLC. He made it into Namco × Capcom and Project X Zone as one of the villains.
  • B.B. Hood/Bulleta: Similar to Lord Raptor above, she has garnered a sizable fanbase (again, at least in the West). Most of this stems from the take that she's an Faux Affably Evil take on Little Red Riding Hood who seems completely out of place in this series and yet manages to hold her own. Along with Felicia and Anakaris, she did manage to join Morrigan in the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 lineup. She also was the sole series representative in Cannon Spike and showed up in Project X Zone 2 as an enemy unit after what has been essentially a fifteen year-long absence.
  • Jedah: Another really popular character to Western fans due to the fact that he's sort of an interesting take on the devil. He's sexy, classy, semi-evil, has the most bloody and brutal specials of everyone in the cast, and has an unforgettable maniacal laugh courtesy of the voice of Dio Brando. Aside of a playable stint in Capcom Fighting Evolution, he'd appear as one of the major villains in both Cross Edge and Project X Zone as well as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War has several:
  • Sindri Myr, The Starscream of the first campaign. A suave Magnificent Bastard who plays everyone else like puppets and voiced by Scott McNeil at his finest, he still remains the most popular and beloved villain of the series despite not appearing since.
  • Ork Warboss Gorgutz Headhunta, who debuted in Winter Assault as the leader of the Orks and as a textbook example of Laughably Evil got all of the funniest lines. He subsequently returned for Dark Crusade, where his popularity only grew after he still got all of the best lines, and Soulstorm, which... most people pretend never happened. Fans kept hoping he would return for Dawn of War II, even after it became increasingly unlikely.
  • Winter Assault also has General Sturnn, who, being the only Imperial Guard officer who actually looks like he's been through a few decades of hell, is widely considered the hardest bastard in the galaxy, and his speech at the end of the Guard campaign is well-regarded for its manliness rating.
  • Eliphas the Inheritor of the Word Bearers Legion, a suave and witty evil overlord (and the only Chaos Lord with the slightest modicum of sense) who graced Dark Crusade but seemed doom to death in canon. Then the trailer for Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising was released, fans assumed the Chaos Lord shown was Eliphas and rejoiced, and Relic scrambled to put him in the campaign anyway as a treat for the fans. Even despite dying again he returned as a playable character for Retribution.
  • Vance Motherfucking Stubbs is pretty much the only commander in Soulstorm that's popular for the right reasons as opposed to Indrick Boreale who is popular, but for all the wrong reasons.
  • Sergeant-Major Merrick is VERY popular, despite being only a supporting character in Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising. He becomes a playable character in Retribution, much to the fandom's pleasure.
  • Araghast, despite getting screwed over in the Chaos Rising campaign due to Eliphas replacing the role he would have filled (indeed, in the final product he has few lines and serves no purpose in the story), still has a significant group of dedicated fans who love his endless ham.
  • Retribution has the entire Ork campaign. All four of the characters have many fans (especially Bludflagg, due in part to much resemblance to Gorgutz) and nearly every mission has at least one hilarious line that solidifies the claim that Orks really are da best.
• Deadly Premonition has a few, given its large cast with fairly expansive backstories; of the "visible" cast, most notable is probably Carol. She's one of the few people in the seemingly sweet Greenvale who's as as acerbic as the protagonist, not to mention her stylish choice of dress, the fact that she's a lounge singer, and her very, very strong Yandere tendencies.
  • Even moreso in certain ways is Punk York. During one small conversation, York offhandedly mentions that he used to dress like a punk rocker in high school. The idea completely captivated fans' imaginations, producing many pieces of fanart of a teenaged, punk-dressed York, and "punk York" was among the more requested alternate costumes for the Updated Re-release.
• Dead or Alive:
  • Christie has quite the loyal fanbase, mostly because she was the first female villain in a series known for having beautiful ladies. Her fans also love her because of her being the oldest in a roster with mostly young girls, her seductive femme-fatale attitude and her sexy British accent courtesy of fan-favorite voice actress Laura Bailey. Her absence in Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3 was a point of contention for MANY fans.
  • Leon as even though his plotline seems complete, he's appeared in various games as a bonus character and when he was cut from DOA5, the fans were not happy... until he returned in DOA5U.
  • Mila gets a lot of love from the fanbase for going completely against the grain for a female DOA fighter. To wit, she's cute and attractive without being hyper-sexualized (at least by the series' standards) or playing up any fetishes, has a hot-blooded but still humble personality, shows great sportsmanship, and her MMA-based fighting style is short on flashy and balletic moves, but it looks very damned painful and effective.
  • Hitomi is also popular with the fanbase since her debut in DOA3. Even series creator and former director Tomonobu Itagaki likes her. She was even allowed to appear in the Updated Re-release of DOA2 for the Xbox, albiet without her own story mode.
  • Marie Rose and Honoka were introduced in DOA5U and DOA5LR respectively as extra characters with no specific story mode, but have gained so much popularity after their debut that they've been front and center in the cover and promotional material for Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3, appeared in Musou Stars as playable characters, and have been part of several cross-company promotions (like guest characters in a Senran Kagura game). It's no surprise the sixth episode has promoted them to full-fledged characters that are very prominent in its Story Mode.
  • Ryu Hayabusa's cute apprentice Momiji has earned a lot of fans through her flashy yet practical moveset and gentle Nice Girl attitude. As of 6 she is the single most requested character for DLC by a huge margin, according to a GameFAQs poll. She was eventually announced to return in Version 1.11 during the Tokyo Game Show 2019.
  • Momiji’s fellow Ninja Gaiden newcomer, Rachel, also has quite the fanbase because of her slow but highly-damaging moveset and her rather mature look and personality, in contrast to the more young-looking newcomers. She even ranked as the 2nd most requested DLC character for 6, right behind Momiji.
  • Anyone who has heard of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Venus Vacation took a strong liking to the new character Misaki, to the point someone made an actual mod of her. This leads to demands for bringing her in the next installment should Team Ninja puts her in future games.
  • Luna gained this status after her debut in Venus Vacation. Her weird personality while speaking in monotone and her rather hilarious interactions with Ayane made her one of the two popular girls in Venus Vacation.
  • To a lesser exent, Kokoro’s mother, Miyako. For a very minor character whose overall screentime is barely over 2 minutes, she sure has quite a lot of fans who either want to see her playable to break the series’s habit of having mostly young women in its roster and/or just think she’s very hot for a 40yo mother, having a lot of (mostly erotic) fanart and animations made of her.
• Devil May Cry Trish is somewhat of a Breakout Character. In the first game, she was only vital to the plot where she was a look-alike of Dante's mother: Eva created to trick him into coming to Mallet Island. She later appears as a Secret Character in Devil May Cry 2 after fans complained about her not being playable in the original. She later returns in the anime (after being absent in the third game) where she has gone solo after being fed-up with Dante's atitude. She later goes on to become one of the series' staple characters alongside Lady, who she is often paired with and shares a similar status in the series.
• Several in the Deus Ex series, especially with (optional-encounter) characters who have much more backstory and impact than meets the eye:
  • The Morpheus AI in the original game is an optional encounter that is "rewarded" by picking a few locks (that you may have spent as much as or more time doing, depending on how you did it and your skills) and an insignificant number of skill points. The conversation he has with the protagonist is considered one of the game's most interesting conversations, raising some interesting philosophical ideas. One of the games most quoted lines is the AI's idea that "God was a dream of good government".
  • The NSF soldier you find locked up in the UNATCO secure holding facility when JC is imprisoned a third of the way through the game. Despite the fact that nothing in the game indicates you should go out of your way to save him, he's a One-Hit-Point Wonder, and you don't get any reward for helping him get to the Liberty Island helipad besides his thanks and a mention that he can "make it from here", many players choose to save him rather than leave him behind (and spent the whole time escorting him) because the character is ridiculously charismatic and innocent.
  • Aimee, the homeless woman you meet when you first go to Paris, who asks you to kill the greasels who murdered several of her cats. The character has received a Memetic Mutation for her victory cry (when you complete the missions) of "You saved mah kittehs!" in a heavily-accented French voice.
  • The Omar in Invisible War, The Social Darwinist Cyborg Hive Mind that maintains the game's Black Market. This is most likely due to their interesting appearance and the Omar Trader's awesome voice.
  • Malik in Human Revolution, who mostly exists as your comm support, but proved to be so popular that players would go back and replay the Hong Kong crash mission to save her life (and prevent her from being killed and harvested for augs).
• Disgaea:
  • Asagi and female archers are quite popular as well. The former was 5th in a Japanese NIS character popularity poll and the latter was 11th. Most of Asagi's popularity comes from the fact that she's been largely unsuccessful in her quest for main character status (only appearing as a Secret Character in several Disgaea-related games; NIS has seemed to turn this into a Running Gag for her).
  • Prinnies even got their own Spin-Off.
  • Salvatore from Disgaea 3, despite being a side character from the game's Quirky Miniboss Squad, makes as much cameo apperances in other games just as frequently as the main characters.
  • Pleinair is A LOT more popular in Japan than in America...though she does get points for being a Game-Breaker Memetic Badass in the states. She's a Memetic Bystander in Japan.
• The two sets of .hack// games have each had at least one Darkhorse: Cheerful Child Mistral for the first four (popular enough that she got to appear in the Sign epilogue, the only not-plot-important character to do so), and Proud Warrior Alkaid for G.U..
  • Azure Kite of G.U. is also extremely popular, what with the fire and the Impossibly Cool Weapon and the badass and...
  • Skeith. Mainly due to Creepy Awesome.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest: Curiously, the Green Dragons and their kin^note Blue Dragons and Dread Dragons became very popular. They don't typically pop up much in the series, but when they do, it's always pretty cool to see them.
  • Dragon Quest II: While never addressed in canon or other games, quite a few fans are fond of the Princess of Cannock, making up little stories and fanart for her. She did get something of a role via an Expy in Kiefer's sister, Leeza, in Dragon Quest VII, but the personalities of these two are quite different.
  • Dragon Quest III: The Warriors in general, though the female Warrior most distinctly. She appears as various NPCs in future installments of the series. The male Marital Artist has likewise gone on to appear in future games, as well.
  • Dragon Quest IV:
    • Psaro, who gets his Heel–Face Turn moment in the remakes; Alena, who has a manga feature her as a main character and a game loosely based on her and her two helpers; and Torneko, who has his own series of Mysterious Dungeon games. Every main character except the hero and Borya has appeared at least once in the Fortune Street series.
    • Alena in general is considered practically the poster girl of the Dragon Quest series. It helps she's a tough princess who not only dresses conservatively, but is also a Bare-Fisted Monk who will easily dole out the most physical damage as a character in the party. Her high Critical Hit rate also makes her an ideal party member for taking down Metal Slimes and all their variants.
    • Kiryl in particular tends to get quite a bit more fan art then you'd expect, and as such appears pretty often in spinoffs. Healie also goes from being a Guest-Star Party Member (albeit the first playable monster one ever) to being one of the most reoccurring characters in the series.
    • Sofia, the female version of the Hero, who was popular enough to receive an appearance in the arcade crossover game Monster Battle Road alongside her male counterpart, in contrast to the other heroines who didn't get so much as a nod. There were many fans who lamented her exclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when Solo appeared as an alternative costume for Hero and not her.
  • Dragon Quest V:
    • The only reason why Ladja becomes so much more important in the remake is because of how popular he was. To a far lesser extent, Dwight "Da White" Dwarf also goes from a memorable Warmup Boss from the beginning of the game to a full fledged party member.
    • Prince Harry is also very popular for a Guest-Star Party Member, with many wanting to see a version where he permanently joins the team.
    • You can't forget Tuppence either, who goes from a completely random recruitable generic soldier with weird hair to a wisecracking Casanova Wannabe.
    • Pankraz is also one, mostly for being one of the best fathers ever and a Badass at that.
  • Dragon Quest VI:
    • Dhuran appears to be the most popular member of the Dread Fiends by quite a bit. Being a Noble Demon and not bad looking certainly help.
    • Among the main party, Carver qualifies. While he lacks the innate popularity that comes with having an attractive design like Ashlynn, Milly or Terry, his reliability throughout the game in battle and modest-yet-supportive Big Brother Mentor personality have endeared many to him.
    • Due to his rather unique character and situation, even among the rest of the party, Amos is this for some, at least the some who bother giving him the time of day, that is.
    • Lizzie is also quite popular due to her incredible stats and general usefulness as a party member. The remake establishing her as Terry's somewhat Adorkable Stalker with a Crush gives her further Ugly Cute points.
  • Dragon Quest VII: The tiny little Pod/Foo (later: Pip/Conk) families of monsters, who are critter versions of the default heroes of Dragon Quest III, are well-liked by the fans due to their cuteness and paying homage to the third game.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Yangus was popular enough to earn his own spin-off. Marcello qualifies, given his fangirls.
  • Dragon Quest XI:
    • Gemma, the hero's sweet childhood friend and potential Love Interest; it's been lamented that she wasn't a full-time party member. Prince Faris is very popular as well, another common sentiment being that he'd have made an organic addition to the party after his arc.
    • For the villains, Tyriant is well-liked despite not lasting very long. Krystalinda is popular as well.
    • Among the party members themselves, Sylvando is extremely popular despite arguably having the least amount of story relevance; to the point of placing first in the western popularity poll. By virtue of his own popularity, characters affiliated with him such as Dave and the Soldiers of Smile tend to also be very well-liked, which resulted in them gaining some focus in Sylvando's character episode in the Switch version.
    • Queen Marina, the ruler of the land beneath the waves, who even after meeting her the first time, still helps you out again later in the story. It also helps that she's very beautiful, elegant, and probably the best ruler of any kingdom in the game.
• Drawn to Life has Crazy Barks, whose defining trait is that he likes to TALKINALLCAPSWITHNOSPACESBETWEENWORDS!. There is a lot of fan art of this character, especially on DeviantArt.

E-L

• Elden Ring has a good few surprisingly likeable minor characters roaming the vast open world.
  • The most literal example is probably Leonard, otherwise known as the emaciated and way-too-small horse Radahn rides. The horse is never officially given a name ('Leonard' comes from datamining), but the absolutely ridiculous image (Leonard is so small compared to Radahn it's easy to miss that Radahn has a mount at all) and the surprisingly sweet backstory that Radahn only learned the Gravity Master magic he was best known for so he could still ride his childhood mount.
  • Then there's the giant tortoises found scattered across the Lands Between, who the fandom have quickly taken to. Special mention goes to Miriel, Pastor of Vows, a tortoise cleric wearing a pope hat who's happy to teach you incantations from any book you give him, and unlike Corhyn won't whine about any being heretical.
  • The Living Jars are quite popular due to their odd appearance and representative Alexander, who has a game-spanning questline that's both funny and genuinely moving, along with being the game's equivalent to the Catarina knights of Dark Souls.
  • Blaidd the Half-Wolf is the game's resident Guts expy and much beloved for his cool appearance, amiable nature, and brotherly relationship with Ranni. Which makes the end of his questline where you have to Mercy Kill him after he goes mad a massive Player Punch. Plus, his armor has a Frozen reference.
  • Blackguard Big Boggart is well-liked for his rough demeanor, Hidden Heart of Gold, and striking up a friendship with the player character over boiled shellfish, to the point where the most common reason Dung Eater's questline is avoided is because Boggart dies if his quest was done first.
  • Sorceress Sellen's endearing Affably Evil personality made her well-liked from the start, but her popularity skyrocketed after hackers found her model and discovered that she was very attractive under her mask.
  • The Tibia Mariners are quite well-liked for random and fairly easy field bosses for just how ridiculous they are- glowing skeletons paddling ghost boats and wielding a massive alpine horn.
  • Millicent is an exceptionally popular NPC for her world-spanning questline ( which, if completed, will allow you to spare Melina without being locked into a Downer Ending), character development from an Ill Girl to an Action Girl, and the bittersweet nature of her ending.
  • Rya is very popular for a minor NPC due to her kind nature and the reveal that she's a Man-Serpent, the only friendly one you meet.
• Somewhat in the same vein as Battle Garegga and Black Heart, CAVE's Espgaluda gives us Princess Seseri of Shinra, the half-sister of the main protagonists who desperately wants her father, King Jakou, to love her. Appearing as both the Stage 1 boss and the penultimate boss of the first game, Seseri definitely served the "rival boss" air that Garegga's Black Heart maintained. Because of her popularity, her death in the first game was somewhat retconned as she was brought back in the second game as an automaton, serving as the penultimate boss once again, and with a "True" form similar to CAVE's many TFB's. In Espgaluda II's Black Label edition, the original Seseri, non-cyborg, was even Promoted to Playable!
• Hans Christian Andersen from Fate/EXTRA CCC isn't a main character, yet still manages to be one of the most remembered things about the game, possibly thanks to the sheer hilarity of him being a Deadpan Snarker middle-aged man in the body of a young boy, while still having the voice of an adult man. The scene in which he tells off Gilgamesh, of all characters, most certainly helps.
• F-Zero GX/AX gave us the AX racers. Each are unique in every way possible from the already massive set of 30 unique racers.
  • But of that group, it's usually Phoenix, Princia, and Lily who get the most attention.
  • To a lesser extent, Samurai Goroh is one. Despite being a Butt-Monkey in GX, the anime revamped him as a much better-looking long hair Lovable Rogue mentor to Ryu Suzaku/Rick Wheeler whose penchant for enacting awesome moments was second only to Captain Falcon himself. They also gave him one fox of a wife in the form of Lisa Brilliant. Come Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he's the only character in the series besides Falcon to get non-trophy representation as an Assist Trophy.
  • More or less, the series could be summed up as "Captain Falcon + Everyone Else". There's a favorite out there for everyone.
• The dinaurians from Fossil Fighters. A little more than halfway through the first game, it concludes its To Be a Master plot with the main character actually becoming a master, and shifts focus to a group of dinosaur-like aliens who want to take over the Earth. Their plot wraps up, and they don't appear at all in the sequel (save for in some Downloadable Content). However, almost the entire fandom for the two games revolves around them, especially the more saurian Battle Forms they can take, composed of Hard Light.
• Gears of War:
  • Anthony Carmine, a Red Shirt killed early in the campaign. He was playable in multiplayer, and was so popular that it was very common to fight COG teams filled entirely with Anthony Carmines. In the sequel, Carmine was brought back — or more specifically, his brother, Ben Carmine who has a similar personality He dies as well although he was given more screen time and a dramatic, emotive death unlike Anthony. Then in the third game, Carmine is resurrected yet again with Clay Carmine, with a running gag about his family's expendability with Clay narrowly avoiding death multiple times. However, Clay does survive in the end.
  • From the Locust side we have General RAAM. Despite appearing only about three times in the first game and having a much smaller role than Skorge and Myrrah. He is so popular that an entire DLC for the third game is a single-player prequel story where RAAM returns, and is playable.
  • Among the weapon selection, the Gnasher Shotgun seemingly acquired Ensemble Dark Horse status. It's fairly obvious that the Lancer and its Chainsaw Bayonet, the signature weapons of the series, were intended to be the weapon people relied on most. However, the shotgun was so strong that 90% of the community used it exclusively, and foamed at the mouth when Epic tweaked it in the sequel.
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has Rief's sister, Nowell, who enjoys a good fanbase for a One-Scene Wonder.
• Guilty Gear series:
  • Bridget. Through the sheer power of Memetic Mutation, she quickly became one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise, especially in Japan where she even outranks other very popular characters around the world like Dizzy, Baiken, Johnny, Slayer, and even Elphelt from the more recent entries. It's to the point where Bridget and her backstory were how many people even became aware of Guilty Gear in the first place. With each new character popularity poll, Bridget consistently topped several of the lists, so when it was finally confirmed that Bridget would become the first character of -STRIVE-'s second DLC season, the fandom erupted in joy. The later reveal that Bridget has come around to identifying as a trans woman attracted even more eyes to the series, in part due to the representation she provided.
  • Robo-Ky. Despite being Ky's evil robot twin who wears the same clothes and even copies some of his moveset, Robo-Ky developed a distinct, separate identity that fans found charmingly hilarious. His appearance in Xrd Revelators story mode boosted his popularity further when he and Venom defeat Bedman (a feat that other characters could not pull before); however, his unplayable status in that game was considered a missed opportunity by many.
  • Within minutes of seeing footage of him, fans immediately proclaimed their adoration of Xrd story NPC Leo Whitefang. He was confirmed as DLC. Cue fandom exploding. He grew to great importance in the main story, and returned for -STRIVE- as part of the default roster.
  • And with the coming of Xrd's Story Mode, President Gabriel turned into one of these, gaining a surprising amount of popularity after fans finally got to see his combat prowess against Bedman. Now known as a Memetic Badass, people have been requesting that he become playable.
  • While moderately popular in previous installments, Baiken received a massive surge in popularity after her return in Xrd: Rev 2. She’s one of the most played characters both online and in arcades (mostly by new players), as well as gained tons of fan art. It probably helps that she had a noticeable redesign that drew a lot of newer fans to her.
  • Goldlewis Dickinson quickly became a fan favorite in -STRIVE-, being a manly badass who wields a freaking armored coffin as a ball and chain, and was considered one of the more memorable characters in the game despite not being playable until the first DLC. His support of Bridget's transition in her arcade mode endeared him to fans even more.
• "Male_07", one of the generic resistance fighter character models from Half-Life 2 received a lot of memetic fame due to being featured in various Garry's Mod-made media, such as being Concerned's Gordon Frohman, and John Freeman in the machinima adaptation of Half-Life: Full Life Consequences.
  • Dog was so beloved by the fans that Valve ensured he would be the first thing the player sees at the beginning of Episode One, and was reintroduced in Episode Two by fighting a Strider and tearing out its goddamn brain.
  • Father Grigori, who appeared in one level and was never even mentioned again, yet is still remembered as one of the best parts of the game.
  • A large amount of fans of the original storyline of Half-Life 2 like Animal, who would be a rebellious footsoldier and he is noted for being frantic and nervous. He would only be seen briefly before getting killed by a sniper.
  • Adrian Shephard, player character of the Opposing Force expansion, had no affect on the overall storyline and isn't mentioned anywhere else in the series, but many years after his appearance fans still clamour for him to return to the series in some way.
  • An Intended Audience Reaction by the developers of Portal is the Weighted Companion Cube, it's literally just an inanimate box. They needed to make sure you kept that Cube with you as your friend; when people didn't care about it, they'd leave it behind and not realize they needed it to complete puzzles. The Space Core from the end of Portal 2 joins the Companion Cube amongst the darkhorses of the series.
• Halo:
  • Sergeant Major Avery Johnson started out as an expendable, randomly spawned Marine in Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo 2, he is promoted three pay grades at once, from Staff Sergeant to Sergeant Major, and hailed as the only survivor besides the Master Chief of the events of the first Halo (despite the presence throughout the game of Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Stacker and PFC Chips Dubbo, two other Marine survivors). In Halo 3, Johnson heroically sacrifices himself so Chief can destroy the Flood. There were many Manly Tears during that scene.
  • Stacker and Dubbo themselves earned this status when, like Wedge, they both end up living through the entire original trilogy. Stacker even gets to show up in Halo 4.
  • The ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) quickly became a respected part of the franchise, with even the employees at Bungie considering these guys to be their favorites; with a name like that, what's not to like? They even got their own Gaiden Game in Halo 3: ODST, with one of its leads, the Nathan Fillion-voiced Edward Buck, becoming popular enough to find his way into the main series in Halo 5: Guardians (and quickly becoming of one of that game's most popular characters).
  • Speaking of Halo 5: Guardians, 031 Exuberant Witness was one of the few parts of the campaign that didn't break the base, in large part for being both quirky and helpful, not to mention being one of the few unambiguously good Forerunner AIs in the entire franchise.
  • The Arbiter is an interesting case; he started off as a Base-Breaking Character when he debuted as one of Halo 2's leads, but after being demoted to a supporting character in Halo 3, his reputation steadily improved to the point where he's now one of the most popular characters in the franchise; Halo 2: Anniversary's terminals revolve largely around him, and he's considered one of the best parts of Halo 5's campaign.
• Every edition of the Harvest Moon series (with the possible exception of the Game Boy editions) contains at least one, usually a popular non-marriage candidate. Some of the more prominent examples include Pastor Carter (from the Mineral Town games), Flora and Carter the Archeologist (the Wonderful Life versions), Marian (Grand Bazaar), Alisa (Island of Happiness/Sunshine Island) and Eileen (The Tale of Two Towns).
  • Marriageable darkhorses (usually male) include Cliff (Mineral Town), Vaughn (Island of Happiness), Chase (Tree of Tranquility), Dirk (Grand Bazaar) and Cam (The Tale of Two Towns).
  • In A Wonderful Life, Lumina was so popular that she was turned into a marriage candidate in the Special Edition of of the game.
• In A Hat in Time, there's Queen Vanessa. She only shows up for one level, but it's a memorable one, because, in what is by and large a cute adventure of whimsy and nostalgia, she manages to be genuinely and legitimately terrifying. It's partially for her backstory, and partially the fact that she temporarily turns the game into a paranoia-inducing Stealth-Based Mission akin to Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
• Homeworld's Kadeshi are a Darkhorse species or rather culture. Whether or not the Kushan eradicated them is a subject of debate.
• Varla Guns from The House of the Dead: OVERKILL. The PlayStation 3 version even has two exclusive chapters where you play as her, because people loved her so much on the Wii version.
• HuniePop: Of the four Secret Characters, the most popular seems to be the badass alien bounty hunter Celeste.
• HuniePop 2: Double Date: Ashley, a British punk rocker tomboy chick, quickly won over huge sections of the playerbase with her hilarious dialogue and a surprisingly sweet personality.
• Inazuma Eleven has a huge cast, so expect to find a lot of characters that fall under this trope.
  • Burn and Gazelle only appear in few episodes and they're the only that don't appear in GO, but they still have a massive amount of fanart and fanfiction. Their popularity comes from their Ho Yay moments, making them one of the most popular ships in the fandom, their love/hate relationship, their contrasting personalities and the fact that they merged their teams to make a single strong team.
  • Nepper became a fan favourite thanks to all his badass efforts and abilities in his match with Chaos against Raimon. More exactly, he's the only character who ever broke through Aphrodi's "Heaven's Time". And he appeared in only 2 episodes out of 127.
  • Speaking of Aphrodi, he's also a fan favourite. He only appeared in few episodes ^note in the original series at least, but he was popular LONG before he started to appear more, but he's one of the most badass characters, while looking fabulous at the same time, which is enough to make him popular. But what really made him a fan favourite was that time when he joined Raimon for a while to help them in the matches against Diamond Dust and Chaos and even helped Fubuki with his issues. He could have stayed more with them if he hadn't injured in the second match, but he was still glad to help them.
• The Jak and Daxter series has a few, but the most surprisingly popular character has to be Jinx. He only appeared in three missions in the ENTIRE series.
• Yoyo from Jet Set Radio became this when he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in Future. Although he is kidnapped for 1/3rd of the game, he's the most popular character amongst the female gamers, and you'll be surprised by how much fan art and fanfiction he has. Cube, the goth girl, is this for the male gamers.
• Jurassic World Evolution 2:
  • Among the creatures new to the sequel, the Tylosaurus has quickly cemented a place as one of the most popular new creatures, thanks to it being by and large the single best creature in the game in terms of financial investment to appeal ratio, and a small pod can single handedly carry a park over the 5 star finish line, a godsend in Challenge mode due to Tylosaurus being available in Challenge mode regardless of map, especially the maps where space is at a premium or the roster of dinosaurs is limited.
  • The Kronosaurus for not only being an accurate pliosaur especially compared to the Liopleurodon, but also being the first marine reptile to be able to take on the Mosasaurus and win. The Kronosaurus is also a great alternative to the Tylosaurus, especially if it is available in Challenge Mode, as it has similar appeal, cost and more importantly, it has slightly lower space requirement. This means that, coupled with the Humble trait, you can house two Kronosaurus in 5-section lagoons that are otherwise only big enough for one Tylosaurus.
  • The four new genera of the Feathered Species Pack have made a great first impression to fans, particularly with their realistic designs. Deinocheirus and Yutyrannus are praised for being Feathered Fiends, while Sinosauropteryx and Jeholopterus have received love for looking extremely adorable.
  • The Utahraptor from the Cretaceous Predator Pack for being the first dromaeosaurid to outright avert the Raptor Attack trope, not only sporting an up-to-date design but also being the first raptor to not hunt larger dinosaurs in packs.
• Eggplant Wizards from Kid Icarus. In fact, one was even a main villain on Captain N: The Game Master and got on the cover of the second game.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising:
    • Phosphora is quite popular, to the point where she was made an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. For 3DS/Wii U.
    • There's also the unnamed little girl from Chapter 18, for contributing to the somber opening of the chapter. It's to the point that there's a myriad of fan theories revolving around her.
    • Pandora is this, but mostly because of her design.
• KanColle:
  • The Akatsuki-class Destroyers, mainly for being adorable and somewhat quirky.
  • Kisaragi. between her feminine vanity, flirting attitude towards the player, and her sisterly relationship with Mutsuki, there's a legitimately good reason why she's deserves to be on the spot. Many fans, especially Americans, are outraged at her first death in Episode 3 of the anime, although The Movie brings her back twice due to popular demand.
  • Shimakaze's attitude, Iconic Outfit, and reputation as the Series Mascot meta-wise has made her one of the most popular Ship Girls among the fanbase.
  • Being Shimakaze's counterpart, Amatsukaze shares Shimakaze design and popularity. In addition, Amatsukaze's sister ship Yukikaze and Tokitsukaze are often paired together with the two in many fan arts.
  • While the Kongou-class Battleships are very popular themselves for being a bunch of adorable but deadly weirdos, Kongou stands out among them and is one of the most memorable Ship Girls for her well-spoken English, Catchphrase, and Verbal Tic.
  • Akagi has won a lot of fans due to her Senpai/Kōhai dynamic with Fubuki, comically ravenous appetite (especially if bauxite is involved), and being a girlfriend/wife material.
  • Kaga too, for her no-nonsense personality, Image Song, and much like Akagi, being a girlfriend/wife material, albeit in a different direction. Being the only known Ship Girl who was once an Abyssal and has Past-Life Memories of it doesn't hurt a bit.
  • Iowa is unsurprisingly a big hit in America, given her historical counterpart's fame in World War II.
  • Yuudachi, for her memetic "Poi" Verbal Tic. She is often paired together with Shigure, for both of them share dog ears inspired hairstyles.
  • Suzuya's cheerful high school girl personality attracted lots of fans. Her popularity only grew more when she was featured in The Movie.
  • Similarly, Tenryuu's hotheaded personality also gained her quite a name.
  • Fusou and Yamashiro got this treatment for their sisterly relationship with Shigure and their Running Gag of being Born Unlucky. Yamashiro is even more so, mainly due to her aggessiveness and being one of the few known battleship-type Ship Girls who delivered the fatal blow on a Princess-type Abyssal on her own (albeit with Shigure's backing) in Let's Meet at Sea.
• Colonel Radec in Killzone 2, due to his badassery and awesome-looking uniform, despite the fact that a) he's a villain and b) is a soulless monster who will execute his own men if they don't wear their uniform right and would probably drop punt a baby into a minefield if it led to achieving his mission.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Among Organization XIII, Demyx easily stands out as the biggest darkhorse. He's arguably the least important member, dying halfway through II without contributing much to the plot and only gets a slightly increased role in III, helping Vexen to recover extra vessels in the Replica Program to revive Roxas. Despite this, he has one of the largest fan followings among the organization for being an ineffectual Punch-Clock Villain, while simultaneously having a surprisingly challenging boss fight.
  • Another example is Zexion. Despite only appearing in a few scenes for Riku's story in Chain of Memories, being killed off by Axel (off-screen in the original, too) before the end of the story and all in all being unimportant, he has a large fanbase for pretty obvious reasons. It doesn't hurt that he's deliberately presented as one of the more mysterious organization members, leading to heaps of fan-speculation, and acting as The Atoner in 3D and III.
• Princess Charm from Knockout City. Despite only appearing in a single trailer for a mock interview and being completely unheard of in the actual game, she gained a sizable fandom for her Little Miss Badass schtick, delivering a harsh Take That! towards the idea of the Damsel in Distress, and being rendered in stunningly fluid pixel art. Most of the fan-art depicts her alone, and there were many calling for her to become an Ascended Extra.
• Herschel Biggs, Rusty Galloway and Malcolm Carruthers seem to be the most popular characters in the L.A. Noire fandom.
• League of Legends, being what it is, has a lot of characters that fit this description.
  • Mordekaiser is considered to be low-tier and nigh useless in competitive gameplay. Now go ask the players about him. They will probably go answer with "Mordekaiser es #1. HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE."
  • Draven has become this VERY QUICKLY, because that's so Draven. He then went on to obliterate all comers in the GameFAQs 2013 Character Battle, making a strong statement early on by defeating Link, the highest ranked member of the Character Battle's "Noble Nine" (nine characters who used to only ever lose to eachother in 1-on-1 matches).
• LittleBigPlanet:
  • Clive Handforth from LBP2. He's a nigh-impossible-to-hate combination of adorable character design (he's made of office supplies!), varying degrees of cynicism, and tendency to utter the best lines in the game. Perhaps if he'd cheer up if he knew he had so many fans! Or not.
  • General consensus among the Sackfolk of the Imagisphere is that Marlon Random is the most memorable and memetic character in LBP3.
• Live A Live:
  • Lei Kugo, in spite of being entirely capable of being Killed Off for Real and ending up as nothing more than an afterthought, is not only the most popular of the three Earthen Heart disciples, but also a very popular character in general, thanks to her Action Girl status, as well as for also having the potential to be the sole female party member in the final chapter and for being the most developed major female character in general. It's likely due to this popularity that she's the most common of the three disciples to be portrayed as the Earth Heart successor. Notably, she's the one most featured in the trailers for the remake that deal with the Imperial China chapter.
  • The Mimic Mammet from the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter exists for the sole purpose of blowing itself up soon after it's recruited as part of the chapter's Pacifist Run, yet is still a surprisingly popular character who a lot of fans like to portray as sticking around longer in the chapter and even afterwards.
  • The angel Akira summons during his Divine attacks, despite being a generic sprite that can appear on a few different occasions outside of those attacks, is surprisingly popular among fans and shows up in a lot of fan art for Akira, usually being portrayed as either a sort of Guardian Angel or Fighting Spirit for him, and is even sometimes shipped with him.

M-O

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
  • Ruby Heart and Amingo, who are original characters. They managed to appear in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series, though.
  • And Strider Hiryu, who's one of the most requested characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, thanks to his previous appearances. To give you an idea, he ended in third place in one of Capcom's poll for favorite Marvel vs. Capcom/Street Fighter characters, with Mega Man and Poison before him. That doesn't sound all that good, until you realize that the poll featured exactly 111 characters. This actually seems to have paid off in Hiryu's favor. While he didn't make the cut (due to licensing issues) for MvC3, fan demand almost singlehandedly ensured that he'd be joining the roster of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• The Mass Effect series, especially the second episode, gives us a slew of One Scene Wonders like Aethyta the bartender (and asari matriarch), Gianna Parasini, the crime boss Aria T'Loak, Charr the krogan who attempts to woo his Asari girlfriend with (bad) poetry, the Tupari Sports Drink vending machine on the Citadel, "Refund Guy" in both games (he still hasn't gotten his refund, after two years!), Conrad Verner, the Friend Zoned Turian and Valley Girl Quarian on Illium, the "Biotic God" volus Niftu Cal, Kal'Reegar (who has his own twitter page now!), Shiala, Urz the varren, and especially Blasto the Hanar Spectre.
  • Also Techno-Turian and the Turian Gardener on the Citadel. Who might be the same person.
  • With immense enthusiasm: the elcor are possibly the most popular minor species in the game lore, in no shortage due to their slow, deliberate speech and their tendency to indicate what emotion they are feeling making them a surprise hit amongst fans. Matters are definitely helped by most of the elcor Shepard encountering being very friendly and cordial to them.
  • Ken and Gabby, the engineers on the Normandy and the main reason you should go into the Omega 4 relay right away after they are kidnapped.
  • Mass Effect 3 doesn't have a Final Boss in the traditional sense, so the final enemy ends up being a Marauder, not really different than any of the other ones that you fight throughout the game. He's become very popular, and has been given the nickname Marauder Shields◊.
    • Due to the ending causing the base to be blown wide open, the fandom insist that he is trying to save Shepard from it.
  "We must honour his sacrifice".
  • Refund Guy comes back in 3. He finally gets his refund of fifteen credits. The clerk says he's never seen someone so dedicated over a toaster.
    • A few other darkhorses return for ME3, or at least receive some recognition: Aethyta is around the Citadel, and is revealed to be Liara's Father. Charr and Kal'Reegar both come back for massive Tear Jerker. Charr dies fighting the indoctrinated rachni, and leaves behind a poem to be sent to his asari wife/ex-girlfriend; Kal'Reegar sacrifices himself fighting the Reapers. Lastly, Aria comes back to offer you some sidequests. (She also acts as a temporary party member during the Omega DLC, of which she is the central character.)
  • Captain (later Major) Kirrahe, loved for his Hold the Line and Dare to Be Badass speeches by the fandom. Many wished that he was a party member, making his potential Taking the Bullet moment from Mass Effect 3 a huge tear jerker.
  • After the first game, there was a lot of attention paid to the Luna VI (its final message said "Help" in a binary code, leading many to believe it was actually an AI). Toward the end of the third game, we learn that EDI, a rather major character, is that VI — upgraded, of course.
• The Metal Gear series has Psycho Mantis, ever-popular for his No Fourth Wall Mind Screw boss fight, Sniper Wolf, who still succeeds in making gamers cry, the AI simulation Colonel and his memetically-delicious "I need scissors! 61!", and the perplexing example of Raikov, who exists solely to mock Raiden, be knocked unconscious and impersonated (and provide some Ho Yay with the game's Big Bad, but surely that's irrelevant). The best example, however, has to be The Cardboard Box (tm).
  • This may have led to Raikov's re-appearance in Portable Ops, this time as a playable character, who despite having limited relevance to the main story, ended up having more lines than in Metal Gear Solid 3.
  • Psycho Mantis ends up coming Back from the Dead briefly in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and is seen as a child in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
  • The Colonel AI from Metal Gear Solid 2 is so popular that he's basically entirely eclipsed the actual Colonel in terms of personality and memorability. Even in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metal Gear Solid 4, there were references to the Colonel AI (in 4, this meant an Easter Egg flashback of something Snake couldn't possibly have known about), and the real Colonel's personality was changed to be a little more Cloudcuckoolander to bring it in line with the Colonel AI. The Colonel AI is probably the only thing about Metal Gear Solid 2 that even its detractors liked.
  • The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for having what is considered by many fans the most awesome boss battle in the entire series besides Psycho Mantis (and to some, the best boss fight in gaming history). No other enemies, no music, just you and a 100-year-old, part-plant, ghillie suit-clad veteran sniper in a tense Sniper Duel over a massive old-growth forest area. Not only is the old man nearly impossible to spot and know the whole forest inside-out, he has the ability to outrun Snake and photosynthesise to recover his stamina. The most notable thing is the sheer number of Outside The Box Tactics you can use to beat him: use thermal goggles to see his footprints, catch and release his parrot and see where it flies to (or if you're feeling cruel simply shoot it to deprive him of his spotter, but be careful because this infuriates him and makes him more aggressive), use the directional microphone to hear his breathing or snoring or his loudly admonishing his little bird, hide in the river using the crocodile head as cover, using the Konami Code to reveal him on the Map. If all else fails, just save the game when his fight begeins, then wait at least 8 days and he will die of old age, which is what he's most well known for.
  • Johnny Sasaki (who gets a major role in MGS4).
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has Monsoon. He appears in the game for about five minutes and then his boss fight begins in which he is killed. But his infamous "memes speech" before his boss fight, the uniqueness and intensity of the fight itself, and his awesome boss theme have led to him having a huge internet fanbase, way disproportionate to his screen time.
• Metroid:
  • Kraid, despite the fact that the games have given little to no background on who he is, is popular for his Kaiju-like design being an epic display of the Sequel Escalation in Super Metroid and the fact he was one of the earliest bosses Samus faced, alongside Ridley and Mother Brain. In fact, him being overshadowed by Ridley only made him even more popular as fans wanted the underutilized big boy to make a comeback in a 3D game^note especially when Metroid Prime development team revealed he would been featured as Meta-Kraid if they had more time) rather having another Ridley boss fight. When a trailer for Metroid Dread shows Samus fighting Kraid (or maybe another of his species) in full 3D graphics, fans were ecstatic to say the least.
  • Upon revelation of Metroid: Other M, fans quickly fell in love with Anthony Higgs, who earned the nickname MBD (Mysterious Black Dude). When the game became notoriously divisive, even those who didn't like the game overall tended to regard Anthony as the best part of it. He's portrayed as Samus' best friend... and unlike the highly contested portrayal of Adam, Anthony actually acts like it, being a kind, supportive person, with a good sense of humor and respect for Samus. It doesn't hurt that he's also a badass wielding a BFG.
  • Rundas, the ice-based alien bounty hunter of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption certainly has a large following. Most likely because 1) cool powers; 2) his voice and personality; 3) twice he rescues Samus, once from several Pirate shuttles and the other from falling to her death after battling Meta Ridley; 4) out of the three hunters, he seemed to be able to control his corruption the best, well enough in fact that Dark Samus had to take control of him herself to fight Samus; 5) his hauntingly sad and beautiful boss theme.
    • All of the other bounty hunters to some extent; Ghor, being basically a cyborg version of the Hulk, and Gandraya the shapeshifter who seems to like teasing Samus.
  • Of all the bounty hunters that appeared in Metroid Prime: Hunters, Sylux, only referred to as an 'it' seem to be the most popular. And the ship that appears to follow Samus in the Metroid Prime 3 ending looks very similar to Sylux's.
• Murray, the Mighty Demonic Skull from The Curse of Monkey Island. Originally a one-shot character scheduled to appear only during the opening sequence, feedback on the demo — which featured the full conversation with a maniacal, animated Card-Carrying Villain skull with an over-the-top Evil Laugh and plans for world domination — convinced the creators to turn him into a Recurring Character who even got a spot in the follow-up, Escape from Monkey Island. And naturally, he shows up in Tales of Monkey Island (in Episode 3, "Lair of the Leviathan").
  • Murray turned out to be such a staple of the series that when Ron Gilbert, creator of the original two games who didn't like the direction the series took after his departure, finally got to finish his own trilogy with Return to Monkey Island he had to specify that Curse — and hence Murray — would still be considered canon on twitter. Murray even shows up in the game's announcement trailer.
    Murray: Ron Gilbert told me he'd never make another Monkey Island unles-*gets knocked into the drink*
• Monster Hunter:
  • Yian Kut-Ku has long been a fan favourite monster for its Ugly Cute design and for being the go-to Wake-Up Call Boss ever since the very first game on the PlayStation 2. In fact, when Famitsu held a poll about which monsters should return in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, Yian Kut-Ku was ranked #1.
  • Monster Hunter: World:
    • Kula Ya-Ku, the New World cousin of Yian Kut-Ku, is a cross between an Oviraptor and a giant chicken prone to digging up rocks and throwing them at hunters and monsters alike. A lot of players can't help but feel a kinship to the goofy creature as it is hideously outmatched by monsters but gets by with ingenuity and unorthodox tactics.
    • Tobi-Kadachi won a lot of fans immediately due to its unique thunder snake/ferret/flying squirrel design, even though it only appeared in the reveal trailer for six seconds.
    • Great Girros is very popular on account of a) having a cool Plague Doctor looking armour set, and b) the fact it often gets mixed up in fights between the hunter and his large target monster and paralyses the latter, making it a Helpful Mook.
    • Odogaron. Odo has a legions of fans for several reasons. His armour looks awesome on both male and female characters (males get a Samurai-esque armour suit, females get a more Ms. Fanservice kunoichi look) and it also offers great stats and useful skills like Critical Eye and Speed Sharpening. Many of its weapons are also top-tier choices, with many Insect Glaive users swearing the Odogaron IG is the best one in the game. Odogaron is also a Turf War champion through sheer Az-Craziness, humiliating Paolumu and defeating Legiana convincingly; only Vaal Hazak has his number in a fight.
• The Mother series has a lot of Quirky NPCs, so it's got a few darkhorses.
  • EarthBound (1994) brings us the New-Age Retro Hippie, a minor enemy that sticks out due to having one of the most creative names in the localization and having a great theme.
    • Compare Tony's prominence in fanart to his actual role, for example.
    • The ghosts of Osohe Castle in Mother 3, particularly the one with the wine goblet, are surprisingly popular for their presence in-game.
• In Neptunia, Noire is consistently high in the polls. Appropriate, seeing as the series has primarily been on the PlayStation brand. Falcom is also pretty popular amongst the cast. For the villains, CFW Brave is the highest ranked among all of them (probably because of his Noble Demon traits, in contrast to his fellow Felons), and for NPCs, it's Histoire.
• Jackle from NiGHTS into Dreams…. This card-throwing maniac has become so popular that even newer fans of the NiGHTS series who never played the original game love him to pieces.
• No More Heroes fans seem to love Letz Shake. His status as Ensemble Darkhorse is especially noteworthy in that you don't even get to fight him despite his seemingly very powerful Dr. Shake weapon; Henry kills him in one blow, and doesn't even give you the courtesy of a replacement boss to fight.
  • This has been rectified in the sequel. Letz Shake and Dr. Shake have combined to form Dr. Letz Shake. Now with awesome new Verbal Tic. Exclamation mark.
  • There's also Bad Girl, one of the most recognizable characters from the first game, probably for being the most psychotic (and having an awesome theme song.) Also, being hot.
  • No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has Margaret. Reaper, reaper that's what people call me...
  • If the staggering amount of fanart and cosplays are anything to go by, Dr. Naomi is quite loved by the fanbase. Half the reason due to her knockers and all the cool stuff that she provides Travis, including a giant mecha.
• Nuclear Throne has Y.V. (Yung Venuz) and Y.C (Yung Cuz). The former is a playable character from Vlambeers earlier game Gun Godz. The latter is an Easter Egg character found in a secret area and is a Dummied Out playable character. Both are well liked in the community due to their design (Y.V. is designed after the Eye of Providence, which incidentally makes him popular with Gravity Falls fans as well due to his similarities with Bill Cipher and Y.C. is a round version of Y.V.) and the fact that Y.V. is a Fountain of Memes:
  Loading Screen: #verifyvenuz
• Octopath Traveler: Gareth, Therion's third chapter boss and right-hand man of Darius. Despite only appearing once, he has an oddly large amount of fanart, most of which pair him up with his boss. Probably has to do with the fact that he's genuinely loyal to his boss.
• In Ōkami, the Ensemble Dark Horse is probably Oki, who is very much of a badass, take into account he has one of the best fights in the game, is probably one of the characters with the most personality, and he can turn into a wolf, yeah, he's that awesome. Waka probably counts too.
  • Tobi is also very popular, despite showing up for only one dungeon and in essence being A piece of paper. So popular that the HD port of Okami gave him a trophy, despite normally being set aside for slightly more major events. Most bosses get insults. Tobi gets "Rest In Peace".
• OMORI has several Ensemble Darkhorses:
  • Captain Spaceboy, or more specifically, his edgy alter-ego Space Ex-Boyfriend. He serves as the Wake-Up Call Boss of the game, has a badass appearance and music, and is also The Woobie due to his relationship with Sweetheart. As a result, he has as much fanart as everyone else.
  • Pluto, due to his Large Ham mannerisms and memorable boss fight as Pluto (Expanded).
  • The Bread Twins, despite being a completely optional encounter that's easy to miss, are a surprisingly popular subject for art compared to their role. It helps that their battle theme is considered to be one of the best in the game and their real life counterparts are bizarre Cloudcuckoolanders.
  • Basil, while an important character, goes missing and doesn't have much screen time. Even when taking his real world self into account, while even more important to the plot, it's still not much. Even so, people love him for his Adorkableness and precious nature as a sweet flower boy. Even more so due to The Reveal that he was an accomplice to the faked suicide of Mari, being the one who thought it and chose to believe that a monster killed her, rather than accept it was Sunny. There's a reason he's shipped with Sunny so much.
  • Rococo, the alien artist. A minor character who had the unfortunate pleasure of dating Sweetheart for the sake of repopulating his destroyed world, only to get dumped and banished into the walls of her castle. His tragic backstory and impressive artwork makes him memorable to say the least.

P-R

• Bain from PAYDAY: The Heist grew into this trope, being well-known for having planned each heist carefully and how he can get your crew out of custody/jail no matter how many cops and civilians you killed.
• Persona:
  • Chihiro from Persona 3. She's the only character who returns Older and Wiser in Persona 4, and while she is a Social Link, she's not even a party member! It's probably the glasses... or her Shrinking Violet with slight dashes of Yandere streak.
  • Elizabeth as well. In the original release, she was mostly a side-quest hub character, but she gathered enough popularity to receive a fully voice acted personal side-quest in the Updated Re-release which ends with her and the main character sleeping together!. She also obtained additional quests and dialogue, and was another of the few characters from Persona 3 to receive a Shout-Out in Persona 4 through her sister, Margaret. In the PSP rerelease, her brother Theodore was introduced as a possible replacement for her in the female protagonist's route, and he's just as popular for his charming looks and niceness. Unfortunately, he tends to be the butt of his sisters' very painful pranks.
  • Both of them pale in comparison to Badass Longcoat Shinjiro Aragaki, who stands as a fan-favorite party member despite only being available for a small fraction of the game. Unsurprisingly, when the PSP update of the game added the option of playing as a female protagonist, Shinji was not only made a possible love interest, but maxing out his Social Link provides an additional bonus: it saves him from his Plotline Death.
    • Speaking of the female protagonist, Kotone Shiomi is more popular than her male counterpart, despite never appearing in anything related to Persona 3 except the Live-action theater, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth and a Drama CD. This is presumably mostly because of her having Social Links with every SEES member (yes, even Koromaru) thus giving the characters more 'development' and because of having the choice of remaining as friends, as well as her all-around cheerful, energetic disposition.
  • And once again continuing from above, Koromaru is also beloved for being a Badass Adorable dog who is actually quite the useful party member even though he's the only permanent character whose Persona cannot evolve. The PSP release also gave him more spotlight, allowing for him to be taken for walks and the chance to catch up with your Social Link friends, or your dormmates can tag along as well, levelling up their Social Links should you have some with them depending on the protagonist's gender, Koromaru included if you're playing as the female protagonist.
• Persona 4:
  • Of the minor social links, Kou Ichijou and Ayane Matsunaga manage to be surprisingly popular in spite of both of their minor statuses relative to the game. Both are very well liked in several cult circles for the former's relatability and latter's genuine growth and adorableness, and this is helped in no short part due to their legendary portrayals in the Persona 4 Hiimdaisy Comic.
  • Mr. Morooka has quite a few fans who find him funny and/or good at teaching. Some even joke that he should have been a party member.
  • The "Spacey Girl" and "Funky Student" NPCs (the latter likely helped by his prominence in the Endurance Run).
  • Shadow Yosuke and Shadow Naoto tend towards being the most popular of the Shadows. Particularly notable in that the former is only part of the tutorial and doesn't have a special venue like most of the other Shadows, while the latter is, as mentioned above, a Breather Boss.
• Persona 5:
  • Tae Takemi became an instant hit when she was unveiled as part of the Cooperation cast, simply thanks to her bizarre behavior and excellent design. Once the game was released proper, Takemi continued to garner praise for her sympathetic backstory and for offering one of the steamier Did They or Didn't They? Rank 10 scenes in the franchise.
  • Sadayo Kawakami as well for having extremely useful confidant skills and being a rather interesting character despite her first impression. The skills in question also tend to revolve around her doing chores or favors for the protagonist, contrasting how most confidant skills give the protag themselves new abilities; this makes her stand out as someone who's working just as hard for the player's success as the player is. This includes one of the most useful skills in the game, giving the protagonist a massage that allows him to do something at night if he explored a Palace or Mementos that day. If you max out her Confidant, this ability carries over to a New Game+ as soon as your start her confidant again. However a part of this is also the wish fulfillment aspect of a student hooking up with a teacher, which is a ''very'' divisive issue among the fanbase and makes her being a romantic option the biggest area of complaint about her as a character.
  • Hifumi Togo was planned to be a party member, but was Demoted To Confidant due to the game's story already being packed enough as-is. She has a large fan following, with many people wishing she still had her original expanded role. It helps that she has one of the most useful Confidant gameplay bonuses, allowing party members to swap out mid-battle.
  • Munehisa Iwai won himself many fans due to his interesting backstory, Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic with Joker, and his genuine desire to become a good father for his adopted son. It also helps that he's second to Joker in being the game's Mr. Fanservice.
  • Shinya gets this because of his cute little brother relationship with the Protagonist, his sharp tongue, and for his "Get Smoked" hat.
  • Sojiro is fairly popular, due to having some of Dojima's better qualities as a Parental Substitute without his more controversial decisions.
  • Lala Escargot, the owner of Crossroads. More than a few people have lamented that she wasn't a Confidant, due to her personality, being a good boss who looks out for the MC, and being a respectful portrayal of a non-hetero-normative person (either a male crossdresser or a transwoman, and referred to with female pronouns), which many found refreshing after seeing the Camp Gay NPC duo, as well as being a Gonk person that's not a complete Jerkass like the ones in Persona 4. She placed first in the NPC popularity poll in Japan.
  • Shiho Suzui due to her kind nature (being one of the first students to actually talk to Joker like a normal person, as well as to talk to Ann without thinking first about Ann's mixed ancestry), her Woobie status and the impact she has on the story. Many fans hoped that if there were ever an expanded re-release ala Persona 4 Golden that Shiho would get her own Confidant role, but as of Persona 5 Royal that unfortunately proved not to be the case.
• Pikmin:
  • Pikmin (2001): The Puffstool and their Mushroom Pikmin (AKA Toadmin, Puffmin, etc, etc, etc). Three appearances in the entire series, all in only the first game and two of them being in the game's challenge mode. Despite that, they serve as Fan Fic Fuel and the mushroom-itized Pikmin have a lot of fan art. Some fan art of group shots of Pikmin even include the mushroom variety as sort-of eighth ranger to the established red, yellow, blue, purple, white, rock, and winged varieties.
  • Pikmin 2: The Waterwraith is probably one of the most memorable bosses in the game, due to being so different from everything else. For starters, it is considered one of the biggest sources of Nightmare Fuel in its game, as in any of the first sublevels of its dungeon, it will crash down and start chasing you after an invisible timer reaches its limit. Then there's the actual fight with it, where after getting Purple Pikmin its rollers will eventually get broken and it's revealed that the thing is actually a Dirty Coward. This probably got a nod in the third game, where the final boss seems to be related to it. How, though, is even more Fan Fic Fuel on its own.
• General Darkhart from Pirates of the Caribbean Online has been one of the most popular bosses in the game ever since weapon drops were added. It's a moderately-high-level boss, found in the doldrums of Padres del Fuego, and reaching him requires walking for about ten minutes through a cave system maze and a forest. So why is he so popular? Because he's rumored to drop Famed and Legendary Weapons at a higher rate than other enemies and bosses in the game. It had gotten to the point where people advertised "DH Runs" in their guild chat in order to streamline farming him. The Legend of Pirates Online turned him into a Breakout Character, giving him his own Lobby menu, a required battle in the Headstone Story Quest, and turning him into the sole drop location of Jack Sparrow's Blade.
• Dak'kon from Planescape: Torment was The Stoic Warrior Monk, and his badass Humble Hero behavior was so well-received by fans that in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons and onward, his entire race (Githzerai) was rewritten to be more like him.
• A number of pop'n music's many, many, MANY characters have more fans than mascots Nyami and Mimi; Milk, MZD, and Minit's, just to name a few.
• Bottlooi, an Original Character from Power Bomberman, is well-liked due to her Hard-Drinking Party Girl design.
• Psychonauts:
  • Sasha Nein, the German secret agent has an almost absurdly huge fanbase. This is probably because of his deep, smooth, German accent. As well as his calm (but not cold) reaction to the absurdity going around him, as well as a strong hatred for tacky furniture (ugh, that tiffany lamp).
  • Psychonauts also has D'Artagnan, the original protagonist, who was cut for being hard to render. Nonetheless, he does get a quick cameo reference in the end, and fans seem to have latched on to him as well.
  • The Milkman, the Manchurian Agent implanted inside Boyd Cooper's mind is very popular with fans (and non-fans, too) due to his creepy personality, the memes his presence spawned, and the existence and creativity of his level, the Milkman Conspiracy, which is widely regarded as one of the game's best levels.
• Psychonauts 2 has Sam Boole, who is well-liked for her off-kilter personality. She provides some of the funniest moments in the game and is related to Dogen Boole, contributing to her popularity.
• Punch-Out!!:
  • Warm-Up Boss Glass Joe, who is almost literally the series' punching bag, having a career record of 1-99. Perhaps it's his Woobieness that's garnered him such a fanbase; perhaps it's due to the surprisingly difficult battle against him in the Wii game's Title Defense mode. Either way, Joe is perhaps the most popular character in the series, and many fans want him to have his own game.
  • Also Aran Ryan. Or at least after the Wii version turned him into an absolute nut.
• Out of the many Puchirus monsters in the obscure DS game Puchi Puchi Virus. A Sea Bee, a goldfish/bee hybrid Puchirus monster, inspired more fanart than other characters.
• The Hungry Pum(p)kin from Pumkin Land [sic] is a character who only appears in one of the game's minigames, yet has a pretty decent Memetic Mutation based around it. Especially in YouTube Poop. "I'm very hungry!"
• Puyo Puyo has Draco Centauros. She was just a random mook and actually the first (normal) enemy, but was so liked she got upgraded to one of the hardest enemies in the sequel and then to outright a playable character with her own story mode along Schezo. Then the franchise reboot came and all old characters were gone (immediately qualifying for this trope). Then they made 15th anniversary, which brought up the old main cast and a few others... but not her. Fan reaction managed to bring her back up for the next game... And even have other two other fan-favorite characters make a cameo!
  • There's also Witch, who was so popular back in the old Puyo-days that she was given her own PC game provided by Compile Discstation Magazine. This game's claimed as the best Discstation games out there.
  • Sig is a huge fan favorite, to the point where he can easily be argued to be the most popular SEGA created character in the franchise.
• Ratchet & Clank:
  • The Galactic Rangers from Up Your Arsenal. Not only among the only characters that give Ratchet proper appreciation for his work, they promise to pay him back for all his help. During the final boss fight, they make good on that promise. Gets better. They have been confirmed to appear in the film!
  • Mr. Zurkon requires no nanotech to survive. Mr. Zurkon lives on fear.
• Rayman: From the original, Bad/Dark Rayman, who was popular enough to later appear as an unlockable character in Rayman M.
• The Reader Rabbit character Vermina is well-liked by most fans, despite being a minor character and villain. Naturally, she is the youngest and most feminine of the latter group, although her adorable "I Am" Song about loving sailing more than fame or luxury probably also helped.
• The Resident Evil series is rife with this.
  • The Memetic Mutation of the first game's legendarily bad voice acting led to throwaway character Barry Burton becoming a playable character in Resident Evil 5 and its "Mercenaries: Reunion" mode. Note that the rest of the Reunion cast consists of the main characters, The Dragon, and the helicopter pilot from RE5 itself, as well as long-time recurring character Rebecca Chambers; Barry's completely-out-of-the-blue appearance is the Crowning Moment of Awesome for many fans who enjoyed mocking his deadpan delivery of his lines. Capcom understands this to the point where his Narm-tastic "I have THIS!" line about his revolver has carried over to RE5 and to Resident Evil: Revelations 2.
  • HUNK appeared in a flashback cutscene in Resident Evil 2 in which his entire team is thrashed. However,he completed his mission as the Sole Survivor with limited ammo in a minigame. The badassery implied by that, and his trademark gas mask, made him popular with many fans — so popular, in fact, that several sequels that never mention him at all have minigames including him as a playable character.
  • Out of all the freaks and mutants in the Resident Evil series the one who stands out the most is the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. His appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pretty much cements this.
  • Jack Krauser from Resident Evil 4 was such a popular villain that he reappears in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, where he receives a more detailed backstory, and reappeared in The Mercenaries 3D. Not only that, but he's even a favorite among the creators themselves.
    • Then there's the Merchant from RE4. The man(?) sets up shop in monster-infested dungeons without a care in the world, has Glowing Eyes that indicate he's one of the Parasite Zombies you're killing and yet is perfectly peaceful... but the true reason fans remember him is that the English dub, for no adequately-explained reason, has him Talk Like a Pirate (or given how often guns come up in his dialogue, fans think he talks like an ork).
    • Who could forget MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!
  • Manuela from The Darkside Chronicles seems to be heading in this direction despite canon suggesting that she'll only be a one-shot character (she survives the events of the game and is taken into the custody of the U.S. government). That lovely singing voice of hers is probably why. She gets bonus points for actually becoming one with the T-Veronica virus to no ill-effect (something Alexia Ashford couldn't do) and then using said powers to help out Leon and Krauser during the final battle.
  • While Mr. X, in the original Resident Evil 2, was a little more forgettable than the other Tyrants from the series, especially his successor, Nemesis, he exploded in popularity with the 2019 remake thanks to his huge badass upgrade, great AI that provided a consistent threat throughout the game, and great style.
• The Wrestler and the Reporter from the Rhythm Heaven Fever stage "Ringside" are just as associated with the franchise as the intended series mascots, Marshall and the Chorus Boys. Only the Wrestler and Reporter had become memetic, however. Nintendo was quick to acknowledge their newfound fame, as the Ringside duo get a shared trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, one of the few from the Rhythm Heaven franchise.
• Rune Factory 4 has several:
  • Porcoline, the local chef, is well-loved by many fans, and many wish he was one of the game's romance options. Not only does he seem to have a massive crush on the protagonist regardless of their gender, and his obsession with food is seen as funny... but he's also the single biggest Nice Guy in the series, opening up his inn to anyone who needs it, and looking after Margaret, Arthur, and Dylas as if they were his own children. Beyond simple humor, many fans admire him for his kindness.
  • Bado, the shopkeeper, is another character who fans wish was marriageable. He's a lazy shopkeeper who's constantly thinking up absurd get-rich-quick schemes, though he's too lazy to actually go through with them. Not only do fans find this funny, but many are attracted to his strong, manly look and find him handsome.
  • Illuminata, the detective. Unlike the two above, there's some evidence that she was a love interest at one point, but was Dummied Out. She has swimsuit and pajama sprites, which normally only marriage candidates have. Many fans like the fact that she has an unusual job, being a detective, and that she's an older woman.
• RosenkreuzStilette has a lot of lovable characters for such an obscure indie game franchise, but the following two really stand out:
  • Luste Teuber is well-liked for being a cheerful Fun Personified character whose Idiot Hero tendencies are absolutely adorable. She even got an April Fools' joke dedicated to herself, giving her a fairly attractive aged-up form and loading said joke with several hilarious gags.
  • Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle is also quite popular, as she is known for her stages having hilarious trollish designs and Schmuck Baits, as well as having an adorable design, somewhat creepy emotionless dialogues (which also provide funny moments), and a genuinely sad reason for turning on her own colleagues in RKS. She's also featured as the fandom's mascot, and even has her own mascot in the form of her best friend Zeppy the squid.

S

• The third season of the Sam & Max: Freelance Police games introduces Sal, a six foot tall cockroach. Sounds disgustingly unappealing, right? Yet his kind, simple personality makes him such a likeable Gentle Giant that no one can help but love him, even Sam and Max themselves. People can't help but feel guilty when they have to beat the crap out of him later. Or when he dies in a Heroic Sacrifice, Redemption Equals Death moment, but it's you who persuade him into it.
• Tachibana Ukyo from Samurai Shodown, a badass swordsman afflicted with tuberculosis, was intended for death early on in the series. However, due to popularity among fans, he was not killed off and has appeared throughout the series. Or rather, the later Samurai Shodown game stories are always set in a time frame where they can include Ukyo (that one game that didn't have him turned out to be a flop). Also further addressing to the trope, come the second game, Ukyo takes a huge step down from story relevance thanks to being ousted as the true rival of Haohmaru by Genjuro, and each game diminishes his importance. He's still a fan favorite either way.
  • Iroha seems to be another case; despite only having a single appearance in the series (in VI), she was popular enough to gain a spin-off game starring her.
    • This seems to partially stem from the fact that she's an utterly stacked Ninja Maid whose lines are directly addressed at the players, specifically, the male ones.
  • Cham Cham is also quite popular for someone who only showed up in three games (II, IV, and VI; and in IV, she was a PlayStation-exclusive character). She even has her own pachinko game.
  • Shiki from the Hyper Neo Geo 64 titles is quite popular as well. Even though she never made it to the main series until the 2019 revival, she was among the first characters from her subseries to make it into other SNK crossovers, such as SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.
  • And then there's Nakoruru, who's a full-on Breakout Character.
• Sengoku Basara is a series rife with Yaoi Fangirls for fans. However, there is one figure that stands to be very popular amongst the boys, and that is... Oichi. Her charm is just how tragic she ends up in her life, with her whole story being a huge Tear Jerker. She also has the voice of Mamiko Noto, and with some other things, she became the series' dear girl and even when Sengoku Basara 3 is announced to have some characters, especially those close to Nobunaga, to be cut... when asked about Oichi's eventual fate, the producers always say "I'm not telling" to tease the fans. Oh, and she's also the sole playable female in the fighting game spinoff. And now she is confirmed to be playable in SB3, despite being historically LONG DEAD before Sekigahara even begins (but then again, this game really doesn't care about historical accuracy, so she's there by popular demand). And then, it gets even better in English when she gets a popular voice actress to voice her: Laura Bailey.
  • No mention of Oichi's light saber wielding, shield boomerang throwing, justice maniac husband Nagamasa Azai? Along side Oichi, Nagamasa wasn't initially playable in his first appearance in Sengoku Basara 2. His popularity sky rockets him into Playable Character status in the expansion SB2: Heroes. Even after his canonical death, fans were clamoring for his return. After taking a leave of absence in Sengoku Basara 3, with the story being rebooted, Nagamasa, announced along side Oichi, and his newly NPC sister Kyougoku Maria, are returning in Sengoku Basara 4. It also helps that even history-wise, aside of being Oichi's husband, he's just another warlord that Nobunaga trounced without anything super awesome like other warlords. So for him to explode in popularity in this series... well, that certainly fits greatly.
• In Shadow of the Colossus, the one character who most people agree on an interpretation of is Agro. Since Agro is a horse, she has the advantage of lacking the Grey-and-Gray Morality of the rest of the characters: she's just a loyal steed doing as her master directs her.
• Looking back at the Shining series, if there is one character who receives considerable popularity, it's none other than Shining Tears' token ice witch Blanc Neige. She is often hailed as one of the best NPCs to have around (despite being squishy) and possesses a skill that is extremely useful, and many fawn over seeing how she starts out super aloof and bitchy, then warms up and lets out a very cute smile if paired at the ending. Maybe she's not the true main character, but she stands out as the character who received the most fanarts, and also escaped the 'cut', appearing in the crossover with Shining Wind. And if there's one more factor to her popularity, it's her voice in the game, in the Japanese version. She's voiced by none other than Megumi Hayashibara herself.
  • From the sequel to Tears, Shining Wind, we have Tetsu Inada's own beast king Rouen. He's a badass who is also a pirate and a king of a Chinese based kingdom.
  • An older example back from the Genesis days would be the Kiwi, an optional character from Shining Force II. His stats aside from physical defense is poor, and Magic will inevitably one hit kill him every time. He is a bit of a Magikarp Power type, if you level him to his promotion level, he gains the ability of flight and breathing fire!...But even with this he's still likely to be instant killed by magic due to his horrible HP. Despite this, many players will use him through the whole game, giving him nearly all of the stat boosting items to keep him on par with the rest of the force.
• Several of the main demons in the main Shin Megami Tensei have received this treatment. Notably, Mara, Matador and Alice. Mara, for being a Crazy Is Cool Hurricane of Puns Giant Gag Penis, Matador for becoming THE representative of the series' trademark bosses, and Alice is a Little Miss Badass who just wants you... to Die for Her!
• In Sid Meier's Pirates! The Indian War Canoe. This is the tiniest, puniest ship in the game, used only by Indians to make raids against ports. However, in the hands of the player, it is a war machine — forgoing cannon-play entirely to go for a quick boarding, dodging between cannonballs. Players skilled with Fencing can pretty much defeat any ship this way, no matter how large, and very quickly the ship became a cult favourite, especially for playing at the highest difficulty levels.
• Silent Hill:
  • Scarlet from Homecoming has her own fan club.
  • Vincent is also pretty popular for being a interesting psycho and Stanley Coleman despite barely appearing in 3.
  • Walter Sullivan is perhaps the most well liked aspect of fourth game, as he manages to charismatic and likeable as well as batshit insane and Ax-Crazy. Walter also tends to be Fan Art magnet online usually depicting him with Henry.
• Don't ask us how, but the pre-packaged Frances Worthington III, a student from The Sims 2: University somehow developed a small cult that's absolutely obsessed with him. Per the strangeness that is TS2 fandom, you can't quite tell how serious they really are about it.
  • Most simmers have a strange fascination with Goopy Gilscarbo, a funny-looking plainclothes townie with allegedly great genes.
    • Goopy's genes are considered great by the fandom because he produces kids that aren't Face 1 or Face 2, but aren't so bizarre as to be considered outright ugly.
• Gilder and Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia both get this treatment at times.
• Skullgirls:
  • So far, Peacock seems to be drawing the most attention, probably by virtue of being the weirdest character — which is quite an achievement, given what the other characters are like. This is most likely due to her spouting a bunch of familiar lines and her appearance and fighting style being based on old cartoons.
  • Even though Painwheel is not the most visually attractive character, her backstory and deadly moveset, along with stellar voice work by Danielle McRae, helped her become a firm fan favorite.
  • Squigly is very popular among the burgeoning fanbase, and she isn't even part of the default roster!
  • Minette, a character who was only seen in one picture in the Story Mode Trailer, and whose name was only known at the time by Word of God, gained popularity shortly after the trailer went up.
  • Panzerfaust, a huge, muscular character with a tank for a fist, and whose name was also only revealed by Word of God, who grew in popularity as the possible first playable male character until Big Band was chosen. He was previously part of another game concept by Alex Ahad, but shows up in the background of Parasoul's Story Mode in the same uniform as the rest of her soldiers. A popular YouTube voice actor, General Ivan, recorded some lines for him and sent them to Mike Z.
  • Stanley Whitefin, also known by the Fan Nickname "Science Shark." He was apparently designed as a throwaway background character and was actually intended to die over the course of the story... but fans took a liking to him, and he was even a possible DLC candidate.
  • Big Band, aka Sax Deka, is another background character with a large following. In fact, he replaced Umbrella as the second DLC character.
  • Adam Kapowski, elite Black Egrets soldier, is well-liked amongst the fandom for his status as a generic Dogged Nice Guy.
  • Feng, Cerebella's roommate, is well-liked for her cute appearance and humorous backstory. She has a surprisingly large amount of fanart.
• Sly Cooper has Dimitri. His suit is greasy sweet! His ridiculous mannerisms and oddball use for the Clockwerk tailfeathers in Sly 2: Band of Thieves (plates in a counterfeit money machine?) made him so popular that he managed to worm his way into the Cooper Gang in the third game. Also Muggshot and Panda King from the first game, to the point where they would later reappear in the third game.
• Soul Series:
  • Li Long (from Soul Edge/Soul Blade) due to his flashy moves.
  • Hwang for being better than his replacement.
  • Talim due to her kind personality.
  • Shura (from IV) is also very popular despite being a bonus character to the point where many fans were disappointed when she was confirmed not to be in V.
  • Among the Guest Fighters, Link was the most well received by fans. Many even hope future installments of the series hit a Nintendo platform just so he can be included in it. He also singlehandedly ensured that the GameCube version of Soulcalibur II sold more than either the PlayStation 2 or Xbox versions.
  • Ezio Auditore, the Guest Fighter in V, seems to have dethroned Link, believe it or not. In a series where guests (barring the aforementioned Link) are massive Base Breaking Characters, not only is Ezio noted to be the first guest who completely fits the atmosphere of the series, but he is generating so much hype that he is creating a Just Here for Godzilla effect from both Soulcalibur and Assassin's Creed fans. To put this into perspective, his reveal trailer shows the return of series Big Bad Nightmare. Ezio completely steals the spotlight, to the point that Nightmare appears to just be an afterthought.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine:
  • Second Lieutenant Mira, although she is Imperial Guard and they're usually very well-liked by the fandom anyway.
  • Warboss Grimskull has quite a following, mostly for his Villainous Valour and general Orky Crazy Awesomeness.
• Splatoon:
  • Introduced in the first game:
    • Annie, the sea anemone girl◊ who runs the headgear store, has become quite popular due to her unique design and shy personality.
    • The female anemone member of the Chirpy Chirps (ABXY) band initially only appeared on an in-universe album cover, but judging by the amount of fanart of her compared to virtually every other non-idol "Splatband" member, she's become the popular 'face' of the background bands, to the point where the Chirpy Chips were the only Splatoon 1 band to return in Splatoon 2. She eventually makes a proper in-game appearance in Splatoon 3 (getting an official English name of Harmony in the process).
  • Introduced in Splatoon 2:
    • The Inkling girl with short 'bob-cut' tentacle hair shown in the Switch Footage reveal has become extremely popular in fanart.
    • The Salmonids tend to get this treatment a lot, especially by the people who enjoy Salmon Run. Despite being implied to be Always Chaotic Evil, they're loved for their Ugly Cute designs and being in what's considered by many to be one of the best game modes introduced in 2, with only the Flyfish being unanimously hated by fans. This popularity is perhaps part of the reason why Splatoon 3 gives the player a little Salmonid sidekick.
    • Among the minor in-universe bands introduced in 2, something about the beta fish violinist for the Celtic rock band Bottom Feeders captured the fandom's attention and generated an unusually high amount of fan art around the world for a character whose only scraps of backstory come from a Japan-only artbook.
    • Dedf1sh, the Octoling DJ that supplies the music for most of Octo Expansion, became popular with fans the moment they were shown on Nintendo's Twitter account through a combination of their design, backstory, and beats. After Harmony, She eventually goes on to make a physical appearance in Splatoon 3's Side Order DLC.
    • C.Q. Cumber, Octo Expansion's Memetic Psychopath of a train conductor, is also popular for his Ugly Cute design and his "Test failed" catchphrase.
    • Among the "Denizens of the Deep", the sea angel jock gets the most fanart.
  • Introduced in Splatoon 3:
    • Big Man; one of the members of the new idol group and news hosts, Deep Cut, is well loved due to standing out from all the other physically-appearing idols. He is a male manta ray rather than being very humanoid with a lovable personality. He's loved to the point where he would most likely to win the popularity of Splatfests. Special mention goes to his boss fight, which is a shout-out to the Manta Storm from Super Mario Sunshine.
    • Tao Blue; the Octoling from Yoko & the Gold Bazookas got a lot of attention thanks to her distinctive design features. Many noted that she resembles a blue-ringed octopus.
• Due to the nature of the specimens, a few of the creatures in Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion can be considered this:
  • Specimen 6 is a Shout-Out to the Happy Mask Salesman and has a gimmick like the Weeping Angels or SCP-173. It is considered to be the Best Boss Ever as far as the game goes, due to being difficult and having a memorable kill screen.
  • Specimen 8 gets a lot of merits: it has an awesome chase theme, a Wendigo design, has a great build up to it, and a few unsettling lines.
  • There's an odd case with Specimen 10. As in, the Specimen 10 before it was replaced due to being a Breather Boss. Some find it Ugly Cute, and the fact that it was seen In-Universe as such only helped matters.
• Spyro the Dragon:
  • The Egg Thieves. The second game had only a single thief challenge in Shady Oasis, but the third game had a bunch (usually involving supercharge ramps).
  • The secret agent twins, Handel and Greta, are decent fan-favourites despite being minor NPCs who only appeared in two worlds across the original trilogy, due to being both creepy and badass. It goes double for Greta, as her role and subsequent badassery in Year of the Dragon's Fireworks Factory is heralded as one of the most iconic moments of that game.
  • Despite only being playable in a few levels in Year of the Dragon and having some minor NPC appearances in later games, Bentley is a huge fan-favourite due to being a Genius Bruiser who has some great lines due to his Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
  • Sgt. Byrd, simply due to being a flying penguin with missile launchers! He was so popular he made some return playable appearances in Spyro: A Hero's Tail and Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs.
  • Agent 9 was so popular for his Trigger-Happy personality that he was intended to become a full-on Breakout Character, getting his own spin-off games. Alas, his games never saw the light of day.
  • Ember and Flame from A Hero's Tail. Each of them only appears for a few minutes in a single brief cutscene to interact with Spyro, though they are available as unlockable skins for Spyro. However, they're the only dragons Spyro's age introduced in the series period until Cynder, who was in a different continuity. Thus, fans latched on to them, and loved expanding on their implied friendship with Spyro.
  • The reveal and release of the Reignited Trilogy saw a major popularity boost for the elder dragons from the original Spyro, owing in large part to their memorably diverse redesigns, which has made them popular subjects for fan-art despite their very limited interaction with Spyro. While just about all of them have their fans, special attention was given to Bubba (for his Boisterous Bruiser attitude) and Magnus (for his cuddleability factor).
• In the SSX games, Psymon Stark. Not only is he one of the more popular characters due to his out-there personality, he's the only one of the new characters introduced in SSX Tricky to return in any of the later games.
• Admiral ZEX from Star Control II has a surprising amount of appeal outside the main fan site, but he's no Draco in Leather Pants; female fans simply tend to find him attractive for his canon personality. Of course, the Ho Yay with the main character does have something to do with that... additionally, the first Spathi that the player meets — Captain Fwiffo — is a fan favourite, even though the player basically only has one conversation with him, after which Fwiffo's commanded ship becomes one of your fleet. It is not uncommon for players to keep his ship in active duty and alive for the rest of the game. Why? Just because Fwiffo rocks.
• Star Fox:
  • Fay and Miyu from Star Fox 2, for being the first female characters in the series (and not making any appearances ever since).
  • Krystal is incredibly popular as well, since she has a pretty solid fandom and is even one of the more requested characters in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Protests arose in some circles that Thana, a temporary rival character on Taris for Empire players in Star Wars: The Old Republic, was merely a minor NPC and not a full-fledged party member.
• Street Fighter:
  • Originally the only other "chick" in the roster aside from Chun-Li, Cammy became popular enough to appear in several of the game's crossovers. Sakura, who debuted in Street Fighter Alpha 2, also became popular enough to have her own comic book, which spawned the Canon Immigrant character Karin, who appeared as her rival in Alpha 3.
  • Dan Hibiki, the quintessential Joke Character who first appeared in Alpha, has also become unusually popular because of his status as such.
  • There's also Guy, the Bushin Ninja who crossed over from Final Fight, and Fei Long, one of the original Bruce Lee Clones in video games (indeed, Fei Long is the only "New Challenger" from Super Street Fighter II other than Cammy to return in the original version of Street Fighter IV). Charlie/Nash is also pretty popular, despite the fact that in his first chronological appearance, he dies.
    • And then he dies again. Both in Street Fighter Alpha 2, which, to be fair, was actually superseding the first game's canon, but then, more absurdly, resurrected and killed once more in Alpha 3. And then resurrected again for Street Fighter V. He might have even been brought back as "Shadow" between those periods, but Capcom's never really come to a conclusion on that point.
  • Alpha 3 had two in Karin (the aforementioned rival to Sakura) and busty masked wrestler Rainbow Mika. In an official 2013 character poll by Capcom, Karin was the surprising fan favorite among Japanese SF fans, outranking Ryu, of all characters. This might explain why both of them return for Street Fighter V.
  • Dudley of Street Fighter III fame is easily the most popular original character from his series, to the point where he was ranked 1st in an online poll held by Capcom to determine which characters should show up in Super Street Fighter IV.
    • Although he has since been eclipsed by Makoto and bizarrely enough, Q, both of whom finished in the top 5 of Capcom's latest character popularity poll, at 2 and 4 respectively.
  • Also from III is Highly-Visible Ninja Ibuki, who was originally the only member of that game's cast to appear in another game (Super Gem Fighter), until Alex showed up in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
  • Another Final Fight example comes from Colonel Badass Rolento, whose last appearances were in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Namco x Capcom. He remained a popular choice in polls, and he eventually saw a return in Street Fighter X Tekken in USFIV.
  • Also from III is Genki Girl princess Elena. She just barely missed being included in SSFIV, but she, Rolento (mentioned above), Hugo and Poison were all included in Ultra SFIV. And then we have the Lee Bros., Yun and Yang, who actually did make it to the arcade version of SSFIV. Yun also has the distinction of making the most crossover appearances out of the entire SFIII cast.
  • From Street Fighter EX, there is one name that stands above all: SKULLOMANIA. Perhaps the campiest homage to all things Toku, he is a walking Crowning Moment of Funny. In the poll for Street Fighter IV (the same one that Cammy won), he came in second place. Clearly, Skullo is the darkhorse among darkhorses. And that's not getting into the likes of Garuda (who's second in regards to Skullo), Pullum, Doctrine Dark, Hokuto, Kairi, Cracker Jack (who was probably the original Dudley), Darun, Blair, Allen...
  • Out of Street Fighter IV's newcomers, the no-nonsense CIA agent (and mother of one) Crimson Viper proved to be popular among the cast of the newcomers, to the point that Viper is the fourth SF rep in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (alongside Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma). (Would you believe it that Abel was supposed to be the focal point of IV?)
    • That said, Super SFIV introduced deliciously insane and evil Taekwondoka Juri and she completely eclipsed them all in popularity. She's proved to be so popular that she was the only other SFIV character added to Street Fighter V besides Seth and was the only other non-SFII or a newcomer in Street Fighter 6's launch roster (besides Luke). There are people who argue that if MvC3 had come out a little later, Juri would've easily taken C. Viper's spot.
• Although they only appeared in two games, the Dynamic Duo of Suikoden, "Blue Lightning" Flik and Boisterous Bruiser Viktor, remain as fan favorites and fans have been wishing that if the chronological setting is correct, they would reappear again. Too bad Konami never thought of that since their last appearance (though, they did get some mention in the third game).
  • At least Flik and Viktor are still important for the games they appear in. On the other hand, Flik's lover, the one he named his sword after, Odessa Silverberg, only lasts not more than a quarter of the first game before she died. Even then, she was considered pretty cool and well-liked for her short time, even to the point that there was a short story involving her before the events of the first game and she was an all around badass. Of course fans know that she's Too Cool to Live and her death still contributed to Flik's ascension to a darkhorse.
  • Black Knight Pesmerga also. He is easily accused as a Palette Swap of Yuber, always joins late and never contributes to the main plot other than 'looking badass', and his customization option is limited, and he's only in two games. He's still well loved anyway thanks to his links with Yuber which unfortunately never got resolved.
  • Hai Yo from the second game, your resident chef... who also has his own optional sub-quest (with nothing to do with the main plot) encapsulated with an addicting cook-off mini-game, then he's revealed to also be an Iron Chef, as gameplay-wise, he's highly customizable and can even surpass the aforementioned Pesmerga, just as long as you take your time to train him. With that his popularity soared so much that two characters from that sidequest of his, Retso and Shun Min, end up being featured as Stars of Destinies in the fifth game.
  • In Suikoden V, Miakis quickly became a fan favorite.
• Super Robot Wars has a hefty amount, much of it thanks to multiple instances of Memetic Mutation.
  • Sanger Zonvolt, "The Sword That Smites/Cleaves Evil". Originally The Dragon in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, his Large Ham tendencies and rampant badassery ascended him to be a selectable protagonist in Super Robot Wars Alpha 2, with significant plot events in the Alpha 3 finale, all of which carries over into Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, as well as several other incarnations. Then he appears in Project × Zone, the Spiritual Successor to Namco × Capcom, representing SRW singlehandedly by smiting evil on foot with a human-sized Type-3 Colossal Blade.
  • Sanger's Heterosexual Life Partner, Elzam von Branstein. Like Sanger, Elzam started as The Dragon who joins the protagonists towards the end of Original Generation, but due to a case of an accidental bug that causes his Leitmotif to override boss themes, including being a Char Clone of the titular character, this caused him to become a Memetic Badass. When he immigrates to Alpha 2, he dons the "Ratsel Feinschmeker" persona via Paper-Thin Disguise, then re-immigrates back into Original Generation 2 with this persona, only now he gains access to a new Super Robot that can turn into a stallion named "Aussenseiter" (literally, "dark horse", though most translators' first response would be "outsider"; Atlus thankfully picked up on it). This, in turn, created the "Real Men Ride Each Other" stint, as Sanger's own Humongous Mecha mounts the Aussenseiter in their Combination Attack. One doesn't get more darkhorse than this.
  • Russel Bagman is The Generic Guy for Original Generation: no special traits, looks or personal Leitmotif and close enough to being a Flat Character, yet is designed for Taking the Bullet by having one of the best defensive stats and skills in the games. Russel manages to stand out because he's the most normal character in a cast chalk full of quirky individuals.
  • Kai Kitamura seemed like a new character simply there to fill in the party until more were available in Original Generation, but once it set into players that he can stop a rampaging Super Robot with little more than a Mook-level Gespenst using manual controls, WITHOUT preset commands, Memetic Badassery ensued. These days, it's hard to see Kai as anything but the epitome of Badass Normal, who turn a simple Mecha-Mook into a weapon of mass destruction.
  • You wouldn't expect a character loosely mentioned in a drama CD for a Gaiden Game then making his debut in the Second Original Generation to become this, but Michiru Hanaten does exactly that. This average high school foul-mouthed Japanese Delinquent is as generic as the archetype demands, until he gets his own Super Robot "G-Bankaran" and semi-vocal Leitmotif, utterly decimating fan expectations of who he is. Think of him as the Captain Ersatz of Boss, only far more competent, with a Mighty Glacier mecha that's no Joke Character, but a Game-Breaker.
  • Shu Shirakawa, thanks to his ominous Leitmotif "Dark Prison", the (Neo) Granzon's firepower, and the way he trolls villains cemented him as this. Fans got disappointed he was just an Anti-Climax Boss in Original Generation Gaiden; fortunately, he made up for it big time in the Second Original Generation and his very own route, Dark Prison.

T-Z

• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Destiny:
    • Kongman is a rather hilarious example, actually. He's a very minor optional character in the original, but his portrayal vaulted him into popularity to the point where he personality was more developed in the remake. People love to hate him, and Namco's bonus DVD's waste no effort in ripping the piss out of him.
    • Lilith's quite popular, considering she's a minor character. May be because she is an Ascended Glitch.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Remiel is only a supporting character, but the reveal that he was Evil All Along and in league with the villains makes him a well done example of a character the audience can Love to Hate despite his short screen time.
  • Tales of Destiny 2:
    • Nanaly Fletch is never seen in popularity polls, her story involvement in-game is rather minimal, but maintains quite a substantial fanbase, nobody complains about her... and when there's a Tales crossover spinoff (Radiant Mythology, Versus) she's usually the first character from Destiny 2 to be announced, before The Hero Kyle is ever announced. She's also the only Destiny 2 representative in the Superboss battle in Tales of the Abyss.
    • Harold Berselius is also fairly popular, getting almost as many cameos as Nanaly and not generally getting a lot of hate directed her way despite being a Comedic Sociopath. Her outfit was included as DLC for Pascal in Tales of Graces.
  • Vesperia has Flynn; though he already had a prominent role in the original game due to his rivalry/friendship with Yuri, his popularity led to him being Promoted to Playable and receiving even more screentime in the remakes.
  • Tales of Xillia: Driselle. Despite being a relatively minor character, her sweet and kind personality, on top of her becoming almost an older sister to Elize, quickly made her someone fans wanted to see more of. Combined with her good design and being implied to have taken training lessons from Rowen, and many wanted her to join the party, especially in the sequel.
  • Tales of Xillia 2: Rollo. Lots of people love the fat cat. The fact that Rollo is part of a Link arte takes this even further.
  • Tales of Zestiria:
    • Sergei, for being a Badass Normal Reasonable Authority Figure that can parry what he can't see because he's just that good. Being voiced by Xander Mobus also helps.
    • To a degree Muse, Mikleo's mother due to her being The Woobie and fans wanting her to live happily with her son has her being featured in quite a bit of fanworks. In fact, almost every High School AU or most other Alternate Universe fan fiction for Zestiria will feature her to some degree with varying levels of importance. She is almost always alive by the end of said fan fiction.
  • Tales of Berseria:
    • Benwick proved to be endearing due to being a Nice Guy and genuinely useful to the party.
    • Grimoirh won over fans from her first appearance between not being frightened by Velvet attempting to scare her into helping them and acting as Laphicet's mentor.
  • From the spin-off games Tales of the World Radiant Mythology series, we have Kanonno Earhart from RM 2, the sole spin-off heroine to ever make it in the 5th Tales Of character poll, placing in 24th place. Since then, she's appeared in Drama CDs and managed to become a heroine in a Tales Of crossover spin-off game.
• The Talos Principle: D0G, the snarky program. He's one of the only programs to return in the "Road to Gehenna" DLC.
• Minor Team Fortress 2 characters such as Miss Pauling, Archimedies, Merasmus, and SAXTON HAAAAAAALE!!!
• Tekken:
  • Rivaling (and perhaps even surpassing) Nina is none other than the awesome, Robin Hood-esque Space Ninja Yoshimitsu, who quickly became an iconic member of the cast to the point that his ancestor popped up in Soulcalibur and has remained a staple member of the cast ever since. Even better; in the Japanese version of Soulcalibur, he's voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama and then Norio Wakamoto in IV, making him even more of a darkhorse.
  • Kunimitsu became very popular when she returned in Tag 2 thanks to a cooler new default, flashy fighting style, beautiful animations, and turning her into her own character no longer being a clone to Yoshi. Her newfound popularity allowed her to make it in over Yoshi in Tekken Revolution and return to the main games with T7. Not bad for a character who was initially removed from the games for a while due to being unpopular.
  • There is also Eddy Gordo, a character that was formerly widely hated for being formerly a character that was easy to button mash with. However, the fact that Christie initially replaced him, along with button mashing turning into a much less effective method helped boost up his popularity to the point where he is a heavily wanted character in the official Tekken X Street Fighter poll.
  • Alisa is pretty popular. It might be due to the fact that she’s a cute Robot Girl with entertaining animations and a pretty creative fighting style. She scored 6th place in a popularity poll. She even co-starred with Xiaoyu in their own movie and made it into Project × Zone.
• The New Order Last Days Of Europe:
  • Nowa Polska, a Polish rump state where Determinator Polish refugees fled into Western Kazakhstan after the Fall of Poland and defied the Nazis' expectations that the Polish people would just lie down and die became a major hit even before the full reveal.
  • Gorky, a tiny Russian warlord nation not even eligible for Russian reunification, has plenty of fans thanks to their huge tank fleet. Within days of Gorky's reveal in the mod's second demo, players were adding custom events and decisions allowing them to be a regional unifier and then finally a national unifier.
  • Despite being only being teased as a secret monarchist path for Komi in initial release, Sergey Taboritsky's Holy Russian Empire has proven to be one of the most popular and widely-discussed paths that any nation can take due to the uniquely insane nature of Taboritsky's Esoteric Nazism and the sheer horror and bleakness the path entails. The fact that this obscure unifier was the first (and so far only) one to get post-national unification content should speak volumes.
  • Of the new Russian paths added in the Cutting Room Floor update, Mitchell Werbell's West Alaska paths has become the most popular through the sheer ridiculousness of Russia being unified by a bonkers American mercenary and his company, and the route being a Whole-Plot Reference to Metal Gear Solid and the lore around Outer Heaven (Big Boss's attempt to build an entire country of soldiers for hire).
  • The Bogi Smerti, a warlord state that use to rise from RK Moskowien's collapse who use Satanic imagery to intimidate their victims, and the mystery surrounding their masked leader and his true identity have made them stand out enough to garner fascination from the fanbase. They and their leader the Antikhrist are often depicted in fan content, with some even hoping that they'd get a focus tree someday. While removed and hated by the Devs (due to their entire lore being incoherent and their addition into the game being a complete joke on their part), the fanbase actually mourned their removal. Their Spiritual Successor, the Brotherhood of Cain, a band of this time-unironic and completely insane Satanists who arise after Taboritsky's Holy Russian Empire collapses with his death, is similarly popular.
• Basso The Boxman from the Thief games has exactly two canonical appearances: In Thief: The Dark Project he's in Cragscleft Prison, and Garrett — who had to break into the prison for unrelated reasons — rescues him in exchange for a valuable nonmonetary reward from Basso's sister. In a mission from Thief II: The Metal Age, Garrett, somewhat against his better judgement, assists Basso in rescuing a indentured servant that Basso's fallen in love with from her cruel mistress. For some reason, Fan Mission community liked Basso and he gets used as a plot device of creators. Eventually, Fanon evolved that established him as a hapless, bumbling individual who was nevertheless Garrett's only true friend in a Crapsack World of treacherous allies and manipulative organizations.
  • From the same game series, there's Benny, the incompetent and usually-drunk guardsman. Though he's more of a Running Gag...
• Tokimeki Memorial had Miharu Tatebayashi, a sweet Shrinking Violet who often crashes into the main guy as a hidden character, but she became extremely popular with gamers. Similarly, assistant Saki Nijino also became very well-loved within fandom, often scoring 1st place in character polls and as such became the heroine of the 1st Drama Series game ; and add to the list Ayako Katagiri, who was popular enough to be the heroine of the 2nd Drama Series game.
  • Tokimeki Memorial 2 has Kaori Yae as the ultimate Ensemble Dark Horse of this game. Maho Shirayuki is also an extremely loved character.
  • Tokimeki Memorial 4 had Miyako Okura, who may well have been an intentional example of this trope, initially being the supporting character who gives you the information on all the girls, but if you try hard enough, you can start dating her, whereupon she completely takes over the game, and the fanbase loves her for it.
  • In the Girl's Side branch, Reiichi Himuro of Girl's Side 1 is pretty popular among fans.
• Twisted Metal:
  • Mike and Stu from Twisted Metal 2 (and to a lesser extent, Jeff and Mike from the original Twisted Metal), for being Those Two Guys that provide Comic Relief — oh, and driving a giant-ass monster truck that can crush other cars under its wheels alone.
  • Quatro and Orbital are probably the only characters introduced in 4 that fans like, the former for his sympathetic motives for participating in Twisted Metal, and the later for being a badass bounty hunter that doesn't fall for the traps of Twisted Metal. It also helps that the rest of the cast are, put very bluntly, annoying and cartoonish.
  • Raven, the driver of Shadow from Twisted Metal: Black. She's one of the franchise's most popular characters for her goth style and sympathetic backstory and motive. Her Twisted Metal: Lost profile stating how she became a hero to Midtown, using her ocultic powers to protect the innocent and deliver vengeance upon the Ax-Crazy Serial Killers terrorizing the streets only further increased her popularity.
  • Agent Shepard, the latest driver of Crimson Fury in Twisted Metal: Head On, for being savvy enough to straight-up arrest Calypso instead of trying to make a wish, and also by defying Calypso's Hannibal Lecture before giving him "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Uncharted:
  • Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: Eddy Raja. A little bit crazy wise-cracking rival with a (slight) sense of honor? What's not to love? Some people found him more interesting than the actual main antagonist of the game.
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: Tenzin has quite a fan following for stabbing the shit out of a suited Guardian with a massive kukri just before it bitch-slaps the life out of you. Not to mention his hat.
  • Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: Charlie Cutter. He's cocky, sarcastic, and has excellent banter with Nate. He managed to play off the cast so well that many were sad to see him get Put on the Bus.
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
    • Nate and Sam's mother never actually appears in-game, but the appeal of an Action Mom Adventurer Archaeologist in the 1980s is pretty undeniable.
    • Cassie Drake appears to garnered her fair share of fans, despite her brief appearance. Go find any discussion about a hypothetical future Uncharted installment and odds are good that you'll find at least a few people pitching her as the protagonist.
• Unpacking: For a game with only a handful of very vague and mostly unseen characters, the girlfriend is almost universally beloved for their colourful and pretty taste in clothes and belongings and for the positive influence they have on the protagonist, even if they are only implied to appear in the last two levels.
• Valkyria Chronicles is prone to this, since every single grunt character has their own appearance, animations, voice sets, personality, and personal biography. This can lead to some players becoming attached to some of the grunts even more than the main characters themselves!
  • The best example would be Edy Nelson from the first game, an Unknown Rival to main character Rosie who dreams of becoming a Glamorous Wartime Singer. She has more fanart than any other character, with the exception of Selvaria (a Darkhorse in her own right), and she and Selvaria have entire side chapters dedicated to them as downloadable content!
    • To a lesser extent, Marina Wulfstan and Isara are rather popular characters. Marina in particular is one of the best units in the game, and the best sniper hands-down, and the revelation in the Edy Detachment DLC that her aloof Cold Sniper demeanor disappears in the presence of cute animals endeared her to fans even more.
    • Vyse and Aika, two of the heroes of Skies of Arcadia, were added as recruitable soldiers and even given last names.
  • The Edy Detachment in particular (Edy, Lynn, Homer, Susie, Jann and Marina) is made up completely of Ensemble Darkhorses, though Susie is far more of a Base-Breaking Character in the west.
  • From Valkyria Chronicles II, there are Marion Siegbahn, a prim and proper ojou with a secret gun fetish, and Alexis Hilden, a white-haired bifauxnen.
  • ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!?! Seriously, Vario Kraatz gets quite a bit of love from the fanbase as well, probably due to basically being an Expy of freaking ELVIS.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Carley, largely for being an attractive Action Girl whose impressive proficiency with a gun yields her several Crowning Moments of Awesome. She also gets a lot of love for treating Lee with respect and being enough of an adult to support neutral options when the player tries to keep the peace between Lilly and Kenny.
  • Chuck also is liked by the fandom despite appearing only half-way through Episode Three and being killed off relatively early in Episode 4. Most of the love stems for being a Cool Old Guy and badass, shovel-wielding grandpa with really good and pragmatic advice towards raising Clementine.
  • Omid is well-liked for being upbeat, friendly, and funny. Which is probably why he was the first to die in Season Two.
  • Pete became a fan favorite for being a strong and stern leader type, as well as being the only member of the Cabin group who was consistently intelligent and welcoming of Clementine. Many believe that if Pete had lived past "All That Remains"/"A House Divided", the plot wouldn't have turned so dark.
  • Walter was a beloved character in "A House Divided", because his level of kindness was a breath of fresh air after dealing with a group that locked Clementine in a shed.
  • Walter's boyfriend Matthew is in the same boat, resulting in jokes about how much he loves peanut butter.
  • Eddie from the 400 Days DLC, because his banter with Wyatt was so hilarious.
  • Jesus already had this status from both the comic and the show, but quickly became a hit in the game too, for his badass fighting moves, Nice Guy attitude, and being voiced by Garrus Vakarian.
  • Mariana Garcia. Players really enjoyed her adorkable and carefree attitude, many humorous moments and genuine kindness to Javi unlike the rest of their family. Naturally, they were not happy when she was unceremoniously killed off at the end of the first episode of Season 3.
  • Conrad from A New Frontier became well-liked by the fans after episode 2 in which he becomes determinant, because unlike every other Telltale game in which determinant characters tend to die quickly, not only can he survive several determinant deaths (thereby making him the first to survive so long) but his added depth, Character Development (unlike the rest of the new cast) and a fairly important role in the rest of the game has earned him a lot of love, perhaps even more so than the other members of the cast (excluding Clementine of course.)
  • Louis, for being an incredibly funny, charismatic, and overall likeable kind of guy, as well as a potential romance for Clementine.
  • On the other hand, there's also Violet. Other than being the first female LGBT character since Paige from Michonne, fans have taken a liking towards her for being a Defrosting Ice Queen, as well as also being a potential romance for Clementine.
  • James was an instant hit with players due to his past as a Whisperer, his preference at using non-lethal means to get rid of walkers, and the fact that he's played by Johnny Yong Bosch.
  • Omar has become a Memetic Badass simply for having the least screen time among the new characters of the final season and yet still managing to survive the season.
  • Rosie the dog for being surprisingly sweet if Clem chooses to get to know her and for mauling Abel when he attacks Clem. The fact that, unlike most other dogs in post-apocalyptic stories, she survives in the end helps too. You can find several comments calling her best girl.
• In pretty much every itineration of The Witcher, Dandelion is this. He's the ultimate Spoony Bard. As the saga progresses, he becomes the only spot of light, wits, and humour in this grim-dark world. In the TV adaptation, he was the only character to be acclaimed by both fans of the saga and regular viewers. His popularity was actively invoked in the tabletop game and he's still there in the video games, gaining even more fans. A rare case when a Non-Action Guy (and more or less The Load) in an action-oriented genre becomes highly popular. Being just a regular guy in the World of Badass helps immensely, not to mention his Undying Loyalty and enduring kindness and compassion for witchers, who are treated like social pariahs in this Crapsack World.
• Warcraft:
  • The Captain, a wannabe-character who only serves as someone Arthas can talk to in the human campaign of Warcraft III has attained many fans among the community. In the retelling of the Warcraft III events in the book Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, he finally gained a name — or actually two, split into two separate characters, Falric and Luc Valonforth.
  • Captain Placeholder, despite being nothing more than well, a placeholder, still managed to become popular enough that fans wrote a song about him.
  • Fel Rangari Anaara has proven popular enough to have fanfiction dedicated to her despite having no lines or any relevance at all beyond letting hunters tame fel wolves.
• The World Ends with You:
  • 777 is fairly well-liked, thanks to his Punch-Clock Villain tendencies, humorous sidequest, and tragic death.
  • Shooter is also quite popular among the fandom as well for his Large Ham mannerisms, obsessive love for Tin Pin, and humorous dialogue, especially when interacting with Neku. His expanded role in Another Day also helps.
  • Sota and Nao are beloved within the fandom for their role in cheering Neku out of his related issues concerning Shiki being his Entry Fee in Week 2, their genuinely warm-hearted personalities and generosity concerning the other Players, and tragic deaths at the hands of the Taboo Noise.
• The Yakuza series has Goro Majima, who went from having a relatively minor role in the original Yakuza and subsequent titles to becoming a protagonist in his own right in the prequel, in adddition to a vastly expanded role in the first game's remake and the sequel's remake, as well as becoming a playable Charather in Dead Souls.
  • Akira Nishikiyama; Kiryu's sworn brother, due to his appearance in 0 where he fought against and alongside Kiryu. Fans wanted to see more of their brotherhood, but to their dismay his downfall plays a huge role in Yakuza 1/Kiwami, where he even goes to an extent to redeem himself by blowing up the 10 Billion yen alongside himself after killing Jingu
  • The main antagonist of Yakuza 2, Ryuji Goda, he was so popular that he even appeared in Dead Souls as a playable character, he also makes a cameo in 0 where he threatens to steal Majima's pants.
  • One of the villains of 0: Daisaku Kuze, due to the fact that he is the most reoccurring boss in the game. Despite appearing in only one game, fans want to see him reappear in a future title.
• Yume Nikki has Uboa, The Grim Reaper-like mask thing. And that's not all. Given that the only real "character" is the protagonist herself, the fandom has latched on to a lot of random NPCs and made them its favorites. The usual suspects are: Uboa, Poniko (Uboa's "normal" form as a blonde girl), Masada (a tall figure dressed all in black, sitting in front of a keyboard in a spaceship, with googly eyes), Monoko (a sweet Joshikousei who turns into Body Horror incarnate in the presence of the "Stoplight" effect), and Kyunkyun-kun (a happy rainbow-colored blob who loves to rub poles, and that is not a euphemism).

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