Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Jerk with a Heart of Gold in Video Games include:

  • Sten from Dragon Age. He likes kitties. His sense of humor is just a bit... dry.
  • Similarly, Wrex in Mass Effect is the most cynical and jaded of the party members. However if the player helps him reacquire his grandfather's old armor he'll note during his Heroic BSOD that Shepard's done more for him than any of his family. If he survives for the sequel, he becomes the Overlord of the Krogans of Tuchanka, determined to drag them kicking and screaming into a new future. He also happily greets Shepard upon meeting him/her, noting that their time spent was one of the best times of his life. He is almost a 1000 years old.
  • Kanji from Persona 4 is a rather awkward nice guy with a bit of a temper, who acts like a Delinquent. At one point he threatens to tear down a man's cafe for misplacing his order... Before correcting himself and adding that he'll rebuild it twice as good; he's gonna RENOVATE his ass.
    • Kanji also likes to sew and makes stuffed animals (very well made ones at that).
    • Yosuke counts as well. He likes to poke fun at the rest of the team, Kanji in particular, but he's a good guy who truly wants to help his friends and save his town (at least eventually: his Shadow points out that he wanted to look into things initially because he was hoping to be a hero).
    • Mr. Morooka, a.k.a "King Moron", might be a subtle example. He's a rather snobbish (and hideous) man with a grudge against women as well as the main character. He treats his students rudely (putting the main character on his "Shit List" within minutes of meeting him), and got flat ass drunk on the school fieldtrip. However, Conversations with some students in the school reveal that he's dragged several girls into his office for "private talks"...in which he advises them on their career paths and urges them to follow their dreams. It's likely that he genuinely cares for his student's futures, but really doesn't know how to properly show it. Of course, you wont find this out unless you actually take the time to talk to NPC's walking around school.
  • In a similar vein, Shinjiro from Persona 3. Grumpy, unfriendly, uncooperative loner...who is very fond of animals and loves cooking shows!
    • A lounge conversation with Aigis shares that Shinjiro buys expensive dog food for Koromaru, out of his own pocket.
    • Another one informs the player that he has been feeding Koromaru, back when the dog still lived at the shrine. (This is also implied in the Persona 3 Portable Drama CD)
    • Persona 3 Portable also brings his Hidden Heart of Gold to the forefront in the Female Protagonist's route. During his Social Link, he's genuinely friendly from the start, is surprisingly cooperative with her, and only shows a (very) brief Tsundere side right before the Optional Sexual Encounter. Which makes sense, as he'll die in a few days (or so he thinks) and really doesn't want another thing to regret. All Girls Want Bad Boys be damned!
  • Jimmy, the main character of Bully. In the opening cut scene Jimmy appears disrespectful to his mother and new step father and starts off quite unsociable. However he does mention that "I only give people what they have coming to them." He proves to be as good as his word, as his early missions involve protecting the Nerds from the Bullies. He goes out of his way to help the ugliest and least popular girls get their stolen items back and told the biggest kid in the school that "There are a lot of kids at this school who need a beating, and you're picking on the few who don't! So I want you to leave me and him (Petey) alone!"
  • In Marathon, a rampant Durandal was the Big Bad. In Marathon 2, he's mission control. In Marathon Infinity, he saves the player rather than himself from imminent death - twice. And he died permanently both times. And Durandal's driving ambition in the first two games? To make himself immortal, no matter the cost to anybody else.
  • The various Sonic the Hedgehog series have a good number of characters like this. The most prolific being Knuckles the Echidna. He is shown as a short tempered, arrogant and anti-social loner but he's also been said to have "a trusting heart, and wants to believe there's goodness in everyone." This element of his character really comes into play in Sonic Adventure 2, when he saves Rouge from falling into the lava and then actually apologised for hurting her. In Sonic 06 he was noticebly upset when Sonic was temporarly dead. His trait also spilled over into most adaptations, such as Sonic the Comic where he cheerfully helped Tails' Fake Ultimate Hero scenario by pretending that he was Sonic, and that he was Tails' sidekick.
    • SatAM Sonic gave Antoine, who although being a cowardly, pompous oaf has proven to be unquestionably loyal to Princess Sally, and on occasion shown traits of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass when one of the others was in trouble, like when Sonic was about to be ambushed from behind by a Nasty Hyena. The comics gave a few more redeeming moments such as a very early example of when the Freedom Fighters thought Sonic was dead, Antoine cried out that Sonic would be avenged.
    • Later in the Comics Ash the mongoose was introduced. From his first appearance, he had a grudge against Sonic, (though some say his reason for hating Sonic wasn't good enough )and was outwardly bitter. The 'heart of gold' part of his character came out when he risked his life to save Mina from a bomb in her dressing room.
    • A weird semi-example: some of the game manuals claim that Sonic is one of these... but it's almost never canon in-game at all. However, the Archie comics portray his "jerk" side way out of proportion, so much so that the heart of gold is hard to see.
  • Final Fantasy IV: Edge may be a perverted and arrogant ninja prince, who often flirts with Rydia, but his heart is in the right place at times.
  • Final Fantasy VII
    • Cloud shares a similar attitude as Squall (see below), although the "jerk" phase lasts all of two hours of gameplay.
    • Cid Highwind swears like a sailor and apparently verbally abuses his assistant, but he's a real softie deep down.
    • Did no one mention Yuffie?
  • Squall in Final Fantasy VIII is socially awkward, standoffish, and often quite rude, but underneath his emotional immaturity he's a decent kid.
  • Final Fantasy X: Jecht is egotistical, arrogant, a drunk, and verbally abuses his son on a regular basis. Then he goes to Spira, where he makes Braska and Auron help other people because "it's the right thing to do", even if it means problems for him and his companions. He quits drinking after an incident because he thinks his family wouldn't be proud. He records a video stating how much he loves his son and how proud he is to be his father, though eventually stops because he's "not good at those things". After reaching Zanarkand, we learn that he planned to raise his son to be a blitzball star, had it not been because he got to Spira. Then he sacrifices himself in order to give peace to Spira (if only for a while), giving up his hopes to get back home.

    In Dissidia, he swallows his pride (for a while at least) and takes orders from Emperor Mateus because he promised him that he would get back to his home world with his son. Besides that we learn that if he insulted his son it was because he wanted Tidus to stand up and prove him wrong. We get a hint of all this at the beginning of the game: Jecht was well-loved by his fans, to the point a blitzball tournament is named after him when he disappears.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning is a moody, distant young woman who spends the opening hours beating up and abandoning her party. Then you get the background as to why she's like that, and she noticeably softens up from then on.
  • Nero from Devil May Cry 4. Prone to badmouthing the church, listening to loud metal in said church, not allowing anyone to work on his team (which consists of himself), back talking to Kyrie's brother, taking great pleasure in insulting basically the gods of Hell to their faces, and anything else that happens to come his way, including Dante. But in that titular scene in the prologue, you see that one smile he gives to Kyrie when she's on stage that makes women everywhere pine for such a sweet guy.
    • The scene at the end of the credits where Kyrie is looking all dramatic and thoughtful and Nero swaggers up behind her. She takes his hand - his demon hand - and gives it a little squeeze...which he returns. Then he promptly goes all bashful and can't look at her, with a dorky little smile on his face. Just don't screw with her. Ever.
  • Nash from Lunar: Silver Star Story is a borderline case: he's a jerk from the instant you pry him from that ridiculous trap he ended up in; he sells you out to Ghaleon once or twice; at the end of the game you find that all he's done, he's done for love of Mia. Mia slaps him into sensibility, and he rejoins you as an invaluable mage in the taking down of Ghaleon.
    • If Nash was a borderline case in the remake, he WAS this trope in the original. He might have been egotistical and frequently abrasive, but he goes quite far out of his way to help Alex out and is one of the few people in Vane to recognize that Mia is actually quite stubborn and strong-willed underneath her sweet personality. By pretending to switch sides, he gets the team to the Frontier, and nearly dies for it when Xenobia figures out what he's up to. He goes from annoying to downright heroic.
    • Ghaleon also may count in this category. He was the main villain in the first game and one of the last bosses in the second game, but his long-winded death speech, gift of an ass-kicking sword, and a couple of fairy gardens show you he really did mean well.
  • Karin Kanzuki from Street Fighter, although this side is more apparent when she's not fighting. She makes friends with her longtime rival Sakura, and in Rainbow Mika's storyline, Karin agrees to provide some of her vast fortune to support Mika's wrestling career.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Mido from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time starts off as the only Kokiri who hates Link, to the point that he spreads rumors that Link was the one who was responsible for the Deku Tree's death. By the time you meet him again as an adult, he has begun regretting his mistreatment of Link, and he asks Adult Link (who he does not recognize as Link) to convey his regret to Link if possible.
    • In The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, Midna, at the start of the game at least, is an abusive, snarky, whiny brat who wants only power and revenge, but she eventually begins to let slip a few signs of her soft spot for Link (by the end of the game, she's not even trying to hide it).
    • Linebeck from The Legend of Zelda/PhantomHourglass also counts. At first, he's a selfish coward who is taking advantage of Link to find treasure. By the end, he saves Link's life and gives up unlimited wealth to have his old boat back.
    • Groose from The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword starts off trying to sabotage Link's chances in the Bird Races by locking up his Loftwing and then having him and his lackeys ram into and throw eggs at Link in the race itself, all so he could get to be the one to go out with Zelda. He's eventually shown to be quite noble when the situation calls for it, though; most notably, he helps Link fight the Imprisoned with a bomb-launching apparatus that he built specifically for that purpose, and he warms up to Link over the course of the game.
  • Brutally subverted, almost, in Jewel Knights Crusaders. The main star makes it abundantly clear that he is Jerk almost all the way through. Whenever he shows the tiniest bit of kindness, he subverts it. Except a couple of times when he doesn't.
  • Gala from Legend of Legaia starts out as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He constantly insults Vahn and Noa at first, demeaning their violent ways and quite openly displaying his disdain at being forced to help them. Eventually, he'll lighten up and become friendlier with the rest of your team, though he still occasionally argues with Noa.
  • Kazooie, the loudmouthed bird from Banjo-Kazooie. She doesn't show it much, but she does care about Banjo deep down. When she and Banjo get separated in the beginning of Grunty's Revenge, she's happy as a clam to see him again. She also occasionally lets slip her concern for other characters; there is a scene in Banjo-Tooie where, during the sidequest to save the frozen baby aliens, Kazooie goes "Aww..." out of pity, before catching herself and pretending she doesn't actually care.
  • At first, the mercenary Kratos in Tales of Symphonia appears to be traveling with the party only for the money, and then on top of that he betrays you! But, it turns out he's not as much of a jerk as Lloyd first thinks and he comes back to your side in the end.
    • Zelos fits this trope even better. While he is a teasing, arrogant and care free Handsome Lech who starts off with a dislike for half-elves, he does make an effort to overcome that prejudice. He does whatever he can to help his little sister despite the fact that her mother murdered his. Also, like Kratos, he betrays you at one point but comes back to yourside in seven of the eight endings. Even in the one where he doesn't rejoin he he helps you one last time before he dies. When conditions place him closest to Lloyd, he also shows that he believes that Lloyd was right that status and race mean nothing.
  • Ryudo, from Grandia II, fits this trope to a tee. He starts off as a devil-may-care, potty mouthed jerk who only seems to be going along with the quest for money, but later reveals that most of it was just a bit of a coping mechanism, due to the rather low opinion most people have of mercenaries in his world. By the end of the game, he's transformed into a pretty likable and friendly guy, albeit one who can still curse like a sailor.
  • The "grumpy" male animals in Animal Crossing, especially in the second game. Though they are self-admitted curmudgeons, they warm up to you fairly quickly, and even though they tease you, they're very glad of your friendship. They even cry if you show up at their birthday parties!
  • Most of the rivals from the Ace Attorney series.
    • Miles Edgeworth is probably the best example.
      • Part of the reason he resists allowing Phoenix to take his case in Turnabout Goodbyes despite having been accused of murder is because it would potentially ruin Phoenix's career if Phoenix lost. He also apologizes for telling Phoenix that he's a horrible defense attorney, stating that he'd only been trying to make Phoenix go away, and he hadn't really meant it.
      • He helped Phoenix stall for time in Case 2-5 of Justice for All in order to give Gumshoe time to find Maya, who had been kidnapped by an assassin, despite not even knowing about it. All he knew was that Phoenix was freaking out about something, so he just jumped in to help draw out the trial and requested a ten-minute recess so he could ask Phoenix what was going on.
      • In Trials and Tribulations, he charters a private jet and flies back from overseas the instant he hears that Phoenix might be dying in Case 3-5. Of course, considering it was Larry who called, it turned out that the situation was far less extreme than that: Phoenix had merely caught a cold. Although to be fair to Edgeworth, this was after he had plunged off a burning bridge into a rapidly-flowing river in the middle of winter, so Phoenix is actually just really lucky.
      • Directly afterwards, he risks his career for Phoenix's sake by pretending to be a defense attorney in order to defend Iris on the first day of her trial, as Phoenix had not yet been released from the hospital.
    • Franziska von Karma in the second game. She has a nasty temper and a tendency to attack people with a whip when she doesn't get her way. However she is kind to Adrian Andrews and she cried when Edgeworth showed brotherly affection for her. Also, in the third game, she got upset when Pearl yelled at her.
    • Diego Armando from Trials and Tribulations is the typical "romance novel" type Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He comes off as cocky and patronising towards women and he's very self assured. However he's also dedicated to catching criminals and shows care for Mia.
    • Maximillian Galactica from Justice for All comes off as arrogant and self-conceited, but does so with the hopes that it will get his circus mates to strive to become better and follow in his example.
    • Shi-Long Lang from Ace Attorney Investigations appears to be a total jerk at first who irrationally hates prosecutors, but near the end he Helps Edgeworth take down the real mastermind behind a smuggling ring, as well as take a bullet for his traitorous assistant.
  • Neku Sakuraba of The World Ends With You hates people in general and at the beginning of the game does his best to shut them out. But after playing the Reaper's Game for 6 days he starts becoming a lot more friendly and tolerant.
  • Jade and Anise of Tales of the Abyss are perfect examples.
    • And from the same game, Tear Grants can be very icy and blunt at times, but she noticeably softens up as the story progresses.
  • Yeager of Tales of Vesperia is a minor recurring villain with a German accent, crazy speech, and constantly meddles in things on both sides of a conflict so he can keep the profits coming in as a weapons dealer. Then Raven sees fit to inform that he's just laying the nutjob act on a little thick. THEN you find out he's been donating to an orphanage all this time and raising two of the orphans like his own daughters.
  • Oswald of Odin Sphere is another example. Only shows his nice side to people he trusts though.
  • Taking its cues from Indiana Jones, Nathan Drake of Uncharted Drakes Fortune fits this trope, and allegedly the forthcoming sequel will reinforce the "jerk" part a lot more than the original did.
  • In Team Fortress 2 we have the "Teufort 9" mercenaries as a whole, with the exceptions of The Engineer and The Pyro. They're shown to be rude, unpleasant and vicious in battle, but they have a kind side shown to their loved ones, little kids, and even each other. Also, they're generally pleasant when off-the-clock, and they're saints compared to the likes of their amoral superiors and enemies.
  • Hakurei Reimu of the Touhou series is occasionally played as a Stoic Jerk with a Heart of Gold, when the fans aren't joking about how her approach to solving a problem is thuggish (or genocidal).
    • Marisa also counts, she can be a mean, mischeveous, liar and thief, but she thinks, and tells to Hijiri Byakuren humans needs to be protected from unchecked youkai (which causes Byakuren to attack her, since when she was sealed it was youkai who were getting exterminated, and so she thinks Marisa is just another racist. There are apologies on boths sides afterwards). She also puts apart her own curiosity and interest in ransacking the Mountain to help the Kappa and Tengu with their problems in Mountain of Faith, and is nice enough to have earned a sort of big sister position to the three mischievous fairies.
    • Many Touhou characters can be considered like this. Of course, sometimes it's really "obnoxious with a heart of gold", or "lazy with a heart of gold", or "utterly crazy but with a heart of gold".
  • Francis from Left 4 Dead. He hates almost everything except vests, and his background info shows that he is a rebel and enjoys the zombie outbreak because he can now kick some ass without the law standing in this way. During the game, he loves to bust Bill's chops, but shows respect if Bill happens to die. He also shows a bit more emotion to Louis if he gets killed, saying things like "He didn't deserve this." When it comes to survivors being low on health, he shows the most concern to Zoey, and if any survivor is incapacitated twice, Francis will express grave concern for the victim as he helps them up.
    • Rochelle will say this almost word for word about Nick in the sequel if he pulls her up after she's fallen from a ledge.
    • Francis shows more "gold" than "jerk" when it comes to talking about Bill's death in The Passing, referring to Bill as a good man and how he would have shot Nick for being so disrespectful and rude.
    • Nick himself has shades of this. While he starts off as an extreme Jerkass, he does seem to become more friendly with his fellow survivors during the course of the game. For example, sometimes when Ellis dies, he'll say "You know all those things I said about you, Ellis? I was joking..."
  • Mao in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. Sapphire out right points this out near the end of the game.
  • Zero from Mega Man X and Zero. He acts cold towards anyone, even his own partners X and Axl. It was all just an act; he just had too many betrayals and tragedies going on with his life. However, he really is a nice guy, and is someone who is ready to fight for the people who he cares for the most.
    • Omega-Xiz from Mega Man Star Force. He starts out viewing humans as blundering inconveniences, but does come to genuinely care for his host as a friend.
  • Frog from Chrono Trigger, but only the Japanese version - his dialogue was changed in the English translation such that he was chivalrous and polite (and with pseudo-Shakespearean syntax) instead of abrasive and aloof.
  • Dias Flac from Star Ocean: The Second Story, except when speaking to Rena.
  • Atton Rand from Star Wars: KotOR II. See "Han Solo." Then give him a lightsaber.
    • The influence system means you can nurture the heart, or crush it under your booted heel, depending upon how badly you give in to the Video Game Cruelty Potential.
    • Jolee Bindo from Star Wars: KotOR.
    • Bastila from the first game (though she is only really a jerk to the player and Carth); and Carth (just watch all the arguments over trust).
  • In Star Wars: The Old Republic the Player Character can be one, particularly if they play light-side on the The Empire. On the Republic side, the smuggler tends to be this, and will even lampshade it.

Smuggler: Well, you found my heart of gold.

  • Neeshka can be a bit of a jerk, but a careful player can bring out her softer side. Likewise, Gann in Mask of the Betrayer comes across as an arrogant, uncaring person, but is revealed to be quite the opposite if a female character gets enough Influence with him.
  • Fire Emblem has got 'em all over the place
    • FE 6 has both Hugh and his grandmother Niime (and their supports make it dead obvious). Chad and Rutger also count, as does Cath.
    • Hector from FE 7 is loud, brash, and reckless, but he's willing to abandon his lordly title and run away from home just to help his friends. Other examples include Legault, Vaida, Matthew, and Rath (though he's more "standoffish" than jerk).
    • Colm from FE 8 plays this trope so straight it's almost scary. Joshua, Innes, and Cormag also count, helped by the fact that they all have their own Morality Pet.
      • Innes acts like a complete asshole to the mercenaries he's hired in order to get them to abandon him and surrender so they'll at least survive. The mercenaries figure that out and say that they're staying around even after he fires them. After they save his ass, Innes re-hires them for double the pay they were originally getting. Douche, maybe. Well-meaning, certainly.
    • Then there's both Shinon and Soren from FE 9, though both can be seen as pretty tragic examples. Lethe and Sothe are also examples, and Naesala in a Magnificent Bastard sort of way.
  • The Prince of Sands of Time (before the sequel, anyway) is arrogant, spoiled, sarcastic, reckless, stubborn, and obsessed with 'honour and glory' to the point where he accidentally unleashed hell for it, but he is also very brave, well-meaning, and totally, heartbreakingly desperate for his father's approval, even though his father obviously already adores him.
    • His later counterpart is a scruffy, cynical, selfish, irreverent, hedonistic, blatantly lecherous, grave-robbing lout. He's also pretty friendly when he wants to be, especially to girls he likes, and quite soft-hearted. In the end, he proves that he'll do anything to save the people he loves, including saving the world... and personally bringing about its end.
  • Yuuichi in Kanon. Despite practically being a less cynical Kyon who doesn't keep his comments to himself, in reality he's very dependable.
  • Junichi from Da Capo.
  • Fate/stay night's most troperriffic character and more meme than man, Archer. He clearly means well and in a lot of ways is more successful at this than Shirou himself. However, in UBW the "heart of gold" gets restored to the surface... and promptly hit with a Reset Button. And then restored again.
  • Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue. For someone who is feared as the Grim Reaper, curses and trash talks a lot, just as long as you're not after his head, he is usually a nice man and an example of Dark Is Not Evil. This is lampshaded by Litchi when he decided to spare Arakune after she pleaded him to (he is also against beating up women for no reason). This is very contrasting with his complete Jerkass of a brother, Jin.
    • Also, to a lesser extent (on the "Jerk" front at least) is Bang Shishigami. He can be rather thoughtless, will beat up anyone trying to talk to Litchi (even if she's the one who initiates the conversation), and, in Noel's story mode, beats her up and walks away laughing while she breaks down and cries. That said, he's also a very well-meaning individual who cares much more for the well-being of his village and those who follow him than his own personal safety, will never back down from helping those in need (though he may be incompetent at it), is strictly adherent to his code of no killing, and, in each character's respective Joke Ending, takes Taokaka and Carl under his wing to train them.
    • Even Jin gets in on this, in the sequel. Jin was revealed to have the great deal of his Jerkass attitude from being Brainwashed and Crazy by his Evil Weapon Yukianesa, and ends up being closer to this trope to anything else. By this point, he's closer to his older self, Hakumen, than how he was in the first game.
  • Popka from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.
  • Protagonist example: Jak in the second and third Jak and Daxter games; he was just the heart of gold in the first game, before two years of genetic experiments in prison. We get to watch the heart of gold grow back, shrivel, and grow back again over the course of both games.
    • Similarly, Samos the Sage can be a total jackass at times, but in the end he genuinely cares about the other three main characters (yes, even Daxter).
    • Daxter snarks at everyone and repeatedly tries to weasel out of trouble, but he genuinely cares for his friends and risks his life repeatedly for them. Torn is a very bitter man who repeatedly berates J&D and periodically sends them on unpleasant and/or borderline suicidal missions, but he dropped his Krimzon Guard commission like a rock in order to do the right thing. Sig is a ruthless mercenary who's always willing to put his life on the line for his friends. Naughty Dog love this trope.
  • N from Pokémon Black and White. At first, he seems to be a driven jerk who hates humans and only cares for Pokemon, even calling out Professor Juniper on having nothing against relationships between the two, and that he is revolted by even the idea of the Pokedex itself. But at the end of the game, it is revealed that he didn't think there were Pokemon that liked humans, even though he himself could talk to them - he'd been raised with Pokemon abused by humans. And it turns out his constant battles with you were (unsuccessful) attempts at confirming his beliefs.
  • Fassad/Yokuba from Mother 3. For pretty much the entire game he's been a Jerkass in various ways- torturing Salsa, corrupting Nowhere Islands, and if it weren't for him, the REAL Jerkass, Porky/Pokey might have died from the start, (depending on if he's really capable of dying) and would not have succeeded in manipulating the islands' inhabitants anyway, and also, he wouldn't have gotten the idea to pull the Needles in the first place. But you figure out that last one right as you discover that Fassad/Yokuba = Locria. (That explains why he's so ugly) And his room is in the classic Magypsy style. Then Pokey/Porky goes on the intercom and says get out of there. And right in the next room, there's a little mouse. He says, "Squeak squeak squeeeak. (I don't think Locria is coming back anymore. Oh, me? I'm a mouse Locria liked to dote over. He had a creepy "Nwehehehehe" laugh, so he might've seemed like a mean person in most people's eyes, but he was very nice to me, at least. Do you think he'll be coming home soon? I'm so lonely.)" Considering you humiliated him, made him reconstruct himself, left him to drown in sewage for hours, and since your ultimate goal is to pull the Seventh Needle, effectively killing him once and for all, it may make some feel guilty for leaving this little, insignificant mouse all alone. Even for killing the Jerkass.
    • From the previous game in the series, we have Mr. Everdred, a thief who jumps from a roof to attack you. However, after beating him (or not), he tells you to come back after rescuing Paula, at which point he gives you ten thousand dollars. You're supposed to use the money to help the Runaway Five, though, so you don't get to spend it. Awwww.
  • Haseo from .hack//G.U. starts as grade-A Jerkass in .hack//Roots, slowly develops into this throughout the game, and by the end of Volume 3, he apparently has dropped his jackassery.
  • Augustus Sinclair in BioShock (series) 2. A self-interested capitalist whose goal is to use Subject Delta to steal the technology of Rapture for profit, he nonetheless does go to great lengths to help Delta in his quest rather than leaving him to die and encourages him to refrain from killing those who don't need to die. In the end, when Sofia Lamb turns him into a Brainwashed and Crazy Alpha-series Daddy, he encourages Delta to put him down and helps him with the last of his free will.
  • Mario, surprisingly. When he's given a personality, he's portrayed as an attention-hog, steals from his friends, and tells people that his friends are happy with his treatment of them (They aren't). However, he also is shown to truly care for his friends, and feels that the friends someone makes is the most important part of any adventure.
  • From Wild ARMs 3: Maya may seem harsh, but beside the obvious motivation of wanting to get rid of other Drifter competitors, she does have a sweet spot for Virginia, protecting her in her own way (and literally saved the party's life at least once).
  • Capelli in the end of Resistance 2. He eventually goes to this in the third game.
  • Geralt of Rivia, of The Witcher series, is this canonically. Thanks to his life and the world in which he lives, he has become very cynical and jaded, and he takes great pains to take no sides in any debate and maintain a veneer of cool professionalism. But he's very protective of his few friends, and deep under his Jerkass Facade has something very close to Chronic Hero Syndrome.
  • Cass from Fallout: New Vegas. She's got a foul mouth, drinks like a fish, and sleeps with anything with a pulse. But she's got a strict moral code and is extremely loyal to and protective of a Courier with good karma.
  • Frank West in Dead Rising looks rough around the edges, but nevertheless will help anyone in the Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Cranky Kong. Being a Grumpy Old Man, he's often rude and sarcastic whenever he's on-screen, but he's willing to give good advice, and later, potions.
  • Kalas from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. He's a cynical jerk of an Anti-Hero, but if you hurt someone he loves, he'll chase you to the ends of the sky.
  • In his debut, Ratchet was shockingly different from the lombax we know and love today. Over the course of the game he bounced between Jerk with a Heart of Gold and plain old Jerkass; granted, he had a reason for the poor behavior in one case and, near the game's end, Clank actually invoked this trope.

Clank: This is the Ratchet I always knew was there.

  • In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, you have as an optional character Roger S. Huxley, a Menodix (essentially a small boy with a racoon's tail). For most of the game, he alternates between being a jerk and immature (although he is only 12). But should he (re)appear in a later cutscene where he is injured after destroying a transporter jammer (which character does this out of Nel, Albel, or Roger is decided by the player's choices earlier in the game), it turns out that for all his flaws, his heart is in the right place. This same scene could be considered a moment of heartwarming.
  • Herschel Biggs from L.A. Noire is not the most sociable character to be partnered because he works alone. However, near the end of the second Arson case, he begins to like Cole.
  • Patroklos from Soul Calibur V.
  • Miguel Caballero Rojo in Tekken 6. He is a jerk to everyone except his sister. When he found out about her plans in marriage, he tries to murder him, but relents anyway for the sake of her happiness.
  • Ripto from Spyro the Dragon is a jerk, as most villains in the series are. But he does care for his minions to some extent - he mourns the loss of Crush, and promises Gulp all the fairies he can eat if he takes care of the title character for him. (And considering that he was planning to give a fairy to Gulp, he likely isn’t totally exaggerating). He also wasn’t wrong to be angry at Gulp for eating his scepter.
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