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Good Parents in Video Games.


  • Alan Wake features a subtle example in which the protagonist's caring mother gives him a special item when he was a child to help fight his lifelong fear of the dark; with it taking "on mythical proportions in his mind", "Alan finally slept like a baby."
  • ANNO: Mutationem: Holtz Flores is a widowed, adoptive father by choice, but the Flores home is well-maintained after raising each of his adoptive children with care.
  • Asura's Wrath: Played straight with Durga for Mithra, though played with. Despite loving her deeply, Asura had no idea how to raise children and admitted that the best he could do is punch anyone who made her cry. As Durga herself puts it, she would raise Mithra while Asura made the world a safer place for her. Sometime during Mithra's childhood, Asura took a more active role as a parent, best shown when he plays along with Mithra's shenanigans but also shown in his refusal to let Mithra become her generation's Priestess (essentially a White Mage) and an instrument of war.
    • Do keep in mind that the entire game consists of Asura trying to rescue Mithra from the Big Bad. He eventually punches and completely destroys the godlike creator and spinner of Mantra, Chakravartin, for many reasons, but above all others, for making his daughter cry. Many a Youtube comment declares Asura to be Best Dad of All Time.
  • In Baldur's Gate, the Player Character is implied to be Happily Adopted by their foster father Gorion. Gorion loved them dearly no matter what alignment they choose, and encouraged them to follow their own path. He also took them to the safety of Candlekeep even though he apparently lost face for it, and in spite of many believing you would bring ruin to them all. By contrast, your biological parents were an evil god who wanted you to die so he could come Back from the Dead, and a cultist who bore her deity's child willingly and was ready to kill you because her master told her to.
    • In fact, parentage is discussed in the game, with this being one of the facets. The player meets several evil Bhaalspawn who try to have them killed or do the job themselves, but of those whose pasts are known, none of them were lucky enough to have a parent like Gorion. Sarevok in particular got the short end of the stick: his kindly foster mother was strangled to death in front of him as a child, his foster father was a horrible, horrible person and his mentor was deliberately guiding him down the path of darkness for his own personal glory. He and the player were in the same place when Gorion found them, and when he believed he could only save one of them, he chose the player, leaving Sarevok to fend for himself. And even though Yaga-Shura's adoptive mother loved him, she too was grooming him to take his father's place. Bhaal hated them all as well. A key way to get the best ending possible is to acknowledge that any of them could have become heroic rather than villainous if received the boons the player and their little sister Imoen enjoyed in life.
  • BioShock:
    • The good ending of the first game, which has Jack giving the saved Little Sisters a chance to live normal lives by raising them as his own.
    • Subject Delta in BioShock 2 is adored by his former Little Sister, Eleanor, no matter what choices the player makes, but he definitely falls into this category if you choose to be a good guy. Even though he can't speak and looks like a hulking monster, "good" Subject Delta still teaches Eleanor the value of human life and forgiveness, through example.
  • Borderlands 2 has Gaige's unnamed father, who's shown to be nothing but supportive and encouraging to her daughter despite her borderline Mad Scientist antics, and she loves him back. When Gaige's weaponized Bully Hunter robot accidentally killed her bully and put her on the hitlist of a massively corrupt police force, her father created a diversion involving a golf cart and loads of gasoline to help her escape to Pandora. Later on in the Son of Crawmerax DLC, Gaige learns that she was being pursued by her bully's uncle, but Gaige's father saved her by sabotaging his ship, killing her would-be assassin.
  • Eirik and Blodeuwedd from Dead In Vinland are this to Kari, and Eirik and Kari are especially close. They're not perfect — Blodeuwedd is a bit overprotective and makes it too clear she Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child, while Eirik neglected to inform Kari or anyone else of his suspicions that they may have been at risk due to his status as bastard son of the old jarl and potential rival for the title, leading to his persistent Guilt Complex — but they clearly care deeply about her and do the best they can. Solveig is a similarly devoted parent, to the point where her character tagline is "Loving Mother" — even though all but her youngest child died in an epidemic. (Her husband Knut is another story.)
  • Dead Rising 2: Chuck Greene is willing to go to hell and back to get Zombrex for his daughter, Katey, even if it means going through zombies, Gas Zombies, chainsaw-wielding gimps, glass-wielding maniacs, overpowered twins with katanas, literally Lethal Chefs, and psychotic mascots with flamethrowers.
  • There are good parents in the Disgaea games.
    • Laharl's parents from Hour of Darkness and A Brighter Darkness, and by extension, Sicily's. King Kriechevskoy never stopped trying to teach Laharl that an Overlord must have compassion to the point that he reincarnated himself so he could continue the lessons. Laharl's mother sacrificed herself to save her son from a disease and sacrificed her chance to become an angel so that her unborn daughter Sicily could become one instead.
    • Usalia's parents from Alliance of Vengeance were very supportive of their daughter that they let her be with them even when they discussed politics, and even when Usalia was cursed, they kept trying to make a curry that she can handle without complaining about it, no matter how bad she got over having to eat curry every day. Their love was so great that even as zombies, they still managed to muster the strength to take an attack from Majorita meant to kill their daughter.]
    • Although not born by traditional standards, Fuji in Disgaea 7 becomes this in the postgame after accepting Ao as his daughter and immediately becomes a loving parent despite the curse.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Bryce and Eleanor Cousland, parents of the human noble PC in Dragon Age: Origins. Though they don't get much screen time in terms of the rest of the game, they are supportive, loving, and proud of their children to the end.
    Bryce: Then, go, Pup... warn your brother... and know that we love you both. You'll do us proud.
    Eleanor: Goodbye, darling...
    • Leandra Hawke of Dragon Age II is also loving (if imperfect; her first reaction to a younger sibling's death is to blame the survivors). She was willing to spend much of her life on the run to protect her apostate mage husband and child(ren). "I'm so proud of you. Love, Mother." Her death is one of the biggest Tear Jerker moments in a game full of them.
    • Obviously, we don't see it first hand, but Malcolm Hawke is remembered with near reverence by Hawke and their younger siblings. While he had wished that his children were born as non-mages, this revelation comes as a great surprise to the ones who were as he never held it against them, as it was more hoping they could avoid the life on the run that comes with it. He trained his mage child(ren) very closely to ensure that they would remain free of the Circle, but also use their magic for the good of others. Even Carver remembers him extremely fondly despite the extra attention he had to pay to Bethany and, possibly, Hawke.
  • Dragon Quest has a lot of these.
    • Dragon Quest III:
      • Ortega left to defeat Baramos so that his child could live in a world free of violence and destruction. He's sincerely apologetic for his failure to do so, and before dying he begs the person nearby him (who's his child, the Hero) to tell his family of what's happened and that he's sorry for leaving them.
      • The Hero's mother holds nothing but absolute love for her child still dotes on them regularly when they come back from adventuring, even allowing their party members to stay at home with them. When Ortega was about to leave home to defeat the arch fiend, she pleaded with him to think about their newly born child.
    • Torneko in Dragon Quest IV is an immensely warm and kind father to his son and the main reason he wants to become a great merchant is to make sure he can supply everything for his family.
    • Pankraz from Dragon Quest V is perhaps one of the greatest dads in video game history. He is a stern but wise and incredibly loving father to his son and is nigh-on unstoppable in protecting him and he does not hesitate at all to give his life for his son. Also his wife Madalena was this too before she went missing.
    • Dragon Quest VIII's King Trode is very much this trope to his daughter Princess Medea. Even if she is a horse most of the game. He is also this with the main character, always treating him more like a son than a servant.
    • In Dragon Quest XI, the Luminary is lucky enough to have not just one or two, but five good parental figures looking out for him. First there is his adoptive grandfather Chalky and his daughter Amber who raised him lovingly when he had no one else, with the latter in particular understanding his Call to Adventure and wishing him luck despite being worried out of her gourd for his safety. Then there is his actual parents the king and queen of Dundrasil who both gave their lives to save him. Finally there is his grandfather Lord Robert, aka Rab, who not only points the Luminary in the right direct on his quest but joins his grandson's party to protect him!
  • EarthBound Series:
    • The series speaks this trope by itself. The mothers in the trilogy are all good and nice even if they are just minor characters.note  For Hinawa's case, she's dead after Chapter 1. She spends most of her role as a spirit.
    • Fathers are quite good as well.note  With an exception of Flint, who breaks from his wife's death and becomes not quite caring to Lucas, they pump their money into your bank account, save your game, and ask if you're exhausted from your journey.
  • Farmer Giles from Fable II gave up his role as Bowerstone's guard captain so he could be this trope. In addition to making sure his son Rupert was safe from Ripper and his bandits (which unfortunately killed Giles's wife), he doesn't show any anger or resentment when Rupert tells him that he's gay, and openly says that he respects his son's choice.
  • For all of his faults, among them leaving his son/daughter to continue a large-scale project (which in itself was with good intentions), James, the father of the protagonist of Fallout 3, genuinely loves and cares for his son/daughter. If one carefully listens to the mixture of conversations transitioning from the protagonist's birth to their first year, you can hear how James chose to halt his work for the sake of his wife and child.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VII:
      • Despite not being her biological mother, Elmyra Gainsborough is a good mother to Aerith, loving her as she grew up and not freaking out when Aerith showed hints of supernatural powers. She asks Cloud to keep his distance from Aerith out of concern for her, and Cait Sith reports that she wept buckets on learning about Aerith's death. Later novellas show Cloud keeps in touch with her.
      • Cloud's own mother Claudia as seen in the Nibelheim flashbacks in the orignal game and its remake as well as her cameo in Crisis Core was a compassionate and supportive mother to her only son Cloud, not caring that he didn't become a SOLDIER and only wanting him to find a girl that would care for him as much as she does. Tragically Sephiroth set the town on fire and Claudia burned to death or in the Last Order and Remake tellings killed her himself, causing Cloud to go on a Unstoppable Rage.
    • Final Fantasy XIII's Sazh Katzroy would go to the end of the earth for his son Dajh, and he is forced to after the kid is made into a Sanctum l'Cie. Sazh is much more than just a Papa Wolf though, he is also shown in flashbacks and at the end of the game as being just as genuinely kind and loving toward his son as you would expect after spending so much of the game with him. Dajh's mother may have passed away years before the beginning of the game, but Sazh proves time and again that he's truly all the family that his son needs.
  • If married, Henry of all people in Fire Emblem: Awakening is said to have been a "surprisingly good father." It also shows in his supports with his Kid from the Future; while all fathers have the same story beats, he's the only one who isn't angry with Owain and doesn't compare Inigo to Lucina.
  • God of War: For all of his many flaws, it's made clear that Kratos is a genuinely loving father — his daughter Calliope is one of the few people he truly cares about, and he's at his most human when he's interacting with her. He has a bit of trouble bonding with Atreus, but this mostly stems from both difficulty finding common ground with the boy and not wanting to hurt Atreus like his forefathers did with their sons.
  • The protagonist's parents in Growing Up certainly take good care of them through the years, mostly by playing with them and teaching and giving them advice on how to succeed in life.
  • Half-Life: Eli Vance is a prime example of this. Not only is he a loving, encouraging father, but he somehow managed to keep his (very young, at the time) daughter alive through the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident, the Seven Hour War, and the Combine occupation of Earth. Even after she's able to take care of herself, he still remains constantly concerned for her safety and emotional well-being. Which makes his death at the end of Episode Two all the more painful.
  • Zoey's father from Left 4 Dead only wanted what was best for his little girl. Unbeknownst to him the gene that makes someone immune to the zombie virus is passed down from the father's line. Zoey is immune, meaning he never needed to be put down after being bitten.
  • In Legend of Legaia, Vahn's father is always supportive of his son's quest to destroy the Mist, stating at several points that he's incredibly proud of Vahn and wants him to stay as safe as possible. Also applies to Noa's parents, who genuinely loved their two children before the Mist came and turned Conkram into a Hell on Earth. As they're at death's door, Minea and Nebular both say that their greatest regret was not saving Cort from being possessed by the evil Rogue.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Based off King Zora’s interactions with Ruto, he seems to be a good dad. He becomes concerned once he learns his daughter has been eaten by Lord Jabu-Jabu and is grateful to Link for saving her.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Mila's father willingly pays his whole fortune desperately trying to get his daughter retrieved. Despite ending up in poverty, he and Mila take the change much better.
  • Kazuma Kiryu from the Like a Dragon series. After he retires from the yakuza in the first game, takes charge of an orphanage in the third, and he is just about the best parent a kid could hope to have. He's wise, loving and very protective of his kids. God help you if you decide to mess with them.
  • You might not expect it from a snarky Casanova Wannabe, but it turns out that Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat is a loving father to his daughter Cassie, being an understanding, easygoing, and doting parent. This is in stark contrast to Sonya, who, while obviously caring for Cassie, is Married to the Job instead. The same can be said of Jax, who is very mindful of his daughter Jacqui, though some might say he's now an overprotective dad as well after the events of Mortal Kombat 9. The other known fathers featured in the game, namely Kenshi and Kano, are significantly more flawed in their history with their children, though at least Kenshi tries. MK11 surprisingly has Mileena of all people be a geuinely loving mother to her baby daughter seen in her ending.
    • Hanzo Hasashi, aka Scorpion is indicated to have been a loving family man before he lost his wife and son; and is a far better Parental Substitute for Kenshi's son Takeda than one would expect from a rage and vengeance driven spectre, being encouraging and nurturing and extremely protective.
  • The eponymous main character of NieR is a widowed father whose love for his daughter Yonah is incredibly deep; though he's not around nearly as often as he should be (because he's away doing odd jobs to provide for her), when he does spend time with Yonah he is shown to be a very gentle, considerate, and loving father. He is also a pretty good Parental Substitute to Emil. Naturally, Gestalt Nier, the Shadowlord, also qualifies, given how he waited over a thousand years to be with his daughter again and was willing to doom the entire world to do so.
  • The titular Octodad may be an octopus in a three-piece suit who stumbles around knocking everything over as he tries to accomplish mundane daily tasks, but he perseveres because he's a devoted and loving family man whose two human children (don't ask) think he's the best dad ever.
  • The first Psychonauts game eventually reveals that, far from being a psychic-hating monster, protagonist Razputin's dad Augustus Aquato is one of these. When the real Augustus eventually witnesses Razputin's perception of him in Raz' Mental World (where it manifests as an Evil Augustus cheerfully talking about how much they hate psychics and seeing their son happy), the real Augustus is shocked - and focuses not on denying Raz' point of view, or being angry about it, but addressing his son's fear and sadness and clarifying his intentions. He also reveals he's a psychic himself, and lends Raz all the power he has so Raz can face the final boss. Afterwards, he supports Raz' dream of becoming a Psychonaut, telling him to "show them all".
    • Taken further in the sequel, Psychonauts 2. Augustus brings the whole family to Psychonauts HQ to support Razputin, mediating between his family - still stuck with some of the anti-psychic prejudice Augustus himself used to teach them - and his son. He's also started practising his own psychic powers, telling his wife that he wants to include them in the family's circus acts. When he and Raz discuss that Raz' elder sister, Frazie, is psychic too, Augustus tells Raz that she'll tell them in her own time. Finally, near the end of the game, it's revealed that Ford Cruller altered Augustus' mind when Augustus was a child, to convince him that his Aunt Lucrecia Mux, better known as the Big Bad Maligula, was actually his mother - right after Maligula had inadvertently killed Augustus' real mother. Whilst deeply stricked by this revelation, Augustus does not revert to his hatred of psychics, does not seek revenge or retribution - but reacts with empathy, and still makes time to talk to Raz even as he does some deep soul-searching.
  • John and Abigail Marston in Red Dead Redemption. As seen in the prequel, John wasn't always this way. He didn't believe Jack was his kid and basically ignored him for the first four years of his life, including leaving for a full year but he gets there. Abigail, on the other hand, was always this. Even in the beginning of 2, when she's in an absolutely desperate situation (being an unwed, illiterate former prostitute single mother in 1899), she's determined to give little Jack a better life than she had. She can be seen early on making Jack learn to read so he can make something of his life, in her words "do the hanging, not the swinging". She's largely successful too, at least in the material sense. Especially if you consider the book by "J. Marston" Easter Egg in Grand Theft Auto V to be canon, as it implies that Jack was able to live a normal life and probably got a university education.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Barry Burton is a promient example, he cherishes his daughters Moria and Polly dearly, something a Manipulative Bastard like Wesker uses to his advantage in the first game when he wants to get Barry over to his side, using their and mother Kathy's lives as a bargining chip although Barry still does the right thing in the end. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 doubles down on Barry phermonal's parenting as he goes Sushestvovanie Island alone knowing its full of monsters to get his daughter Moria back and even looks after Natalia an orphan he found along the way, because he's that much of an awesome dad.
    • Ethan Winters proves to be this in Resident Evil Village when his six-month-old baby girl Rosemary gets taken by a bunch of mutant aristocrats whose leader Mother Miranda wants to use Rosemary as a vessel to revive her own daughter Eva, Ethan unleashes a One-Man Army can of whoop ass all over them to get her back even if he does ultimately die in the effort.
    • In Resident Evil 2 and its remake, it's a mark of how woeful William and Annette were as parents to their daughter Sherry, that in comparsion Leon and Claire (two complete strangers) are this to her. Even in the short space of time Claire and Leon looked after Sherry before Claire left to find her brother and Leon got recruited by the govermeant, under the condition Sherry was looked after. RE6 reveals Claire became her legal guardian and visted whenever she could and Leon shows in the main game itself he still very much cares for Sherry, even if she's become an Action Girl herself in the years since the second game.
  • Silent Hill might well have the crowning example with Harry Mason, the guy whom in the first game braved a town full eldritch horrors created by a Reality Warper Broken Bird and killed a god that birth from her body all just to get his 7 year old daughter Cheryl back. Made even more powerful by the fact Cheryl isn't actually Harry's daughter by blood (her real mother being town's cult leader) he just found on her side of the road and adopted her, but he's still willingly to defy forces far greater than him to get his little girl back and does so, in a way. If that wasn't enough, Harry's memento that he gives to Cheryl (renamed Heather) in the third game foils the plan of the cult once again and prevents Heather from giving birth to a God of Evil meaning he saved the day from beyond the grave. Given the rest of the parents in series are either horrifically abusive or just absent, Harry stands out like a shining star.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Vanilla the Rabbit, Cream's mother, is a kind and caring mother who supports her daughter's adventures and heroism.
    • Despite being an evil villain, Dr. Eggman grows close with his surrogate AI daughter Sage in Sonic Frontiers. That being said, the game's English writer has indicated that Eggman's affection for Sage mostly stems from the fact that he created her, and even in-game he remarks that Sage is a great creation as "her dad is a genius". With these points in mind, it's unknown how future games will explore the two's relationship further.
  • Sophitia Alexandra is one of these offscreen between Soul Calibur 1&2 and 2&3, and fights in 2 and 3 primarily to protect her children from the harm Soul Edge could bring to the world. This bites her in the ass hard in SC4, when Tira implants Soul Edge into her daughter Phyrra, forcing her over the line into Knight Templar Parent as she kills otherwise good people who want the sword destroyed, even at the cost of her daughter's life.
  • Street Fighter has quite of a lot of these: Guile and his wife Juila to their daughter Amy, Ken and Eliza to thier son Mel, Dhalsim and his wife Sally to their son Datta, Hakan and his wife Melike to their daughters as well as Chun-Li's father Dorai who when shown alive is a pretty damn good dad as seen in Street Fighter II V. Chun-Li herself is a wonderful adoptive mother and Badass Teacher to Li-Fen and the rest of the children under her care.
  • Bowser from Super Mario Bros. is generally the Big Bad in most games and is mostly evil, but he treats his son, Bowser Jr., with genuine love and never scolds him should he fail to stop Mario.
  • In Tekken this trope is a sad rarity as most of the parents of the series e.g Heihachi, Kazumi, Kazuya and Nina are either actively abusive to their children both phyiscally and emotionally, neglectful and disowning or actually tried to kill their children. Even parents like Richard Williams and Jinpachi who haven't been explictly shown to be cruel to their children, still raised them into the flawed and antagonistic people they are as adults (though Jinpachi at the very least was a Doting Grandparent to Kazuya and one of the few members of his family that he still recognizes calling him "ojiisan"). There's only about two straight examples of this in the entire franchise.
    • The first is Jun Kamaza who was a wonderful mother to Jin having raised him in isolation and instilled in him goodness that his father and grandfather utterly lacks. Before Jin was even born, when the Devil Gene that was inside Kazuya tried to possesse Jin inside her womb, Jun kicked the living shit out of it and drove it off as well as sacrificing herself fighting Ogre to protect Jin. Her only real slip up as a mother was telling Jin to go to his aforementioned douchebag grandather Heihachi if something happened to her, which set Jin down a dark path when Heihachi inevitably betrayed and tried to kill him.
    • The second is Marshall Law, who unlike the rest of the dreadful dads in the series, gives nothing but care and supportive to his son Forest. In Tekken 5 Marshall even enters the fifth King of Iron Fist tournament, just for the sake of paying the medical bills after his son got into a motorcycle accident fooling around with Marshall's Hetrosexual Life Partner Paul Phoenix.
  • Undertale has Toriel and Asgore, who had raised their son, Asriel. Toriel and Asgore raise Asriel to be kind and sweet to everyone and teach him that violence is wrong. When a human child fell into the monster world, Toriel and Asgore adopt the child and raise them the same way as they did with Asriel. The parents cared for the children very much, taught them well, and raised them to be happy. However, when both children had died (one from poisoning via buttercups and the other being murdered by humans), Toriel and Asgore grew extremely heartbroken and their view on the world was changed forever.

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