Jerkass/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Even in non-canon examples, Jin Kisaragi is still an asshole.


Here's the list of Jerkasses in Video Games. I had to hold your fucking hand all the way here, go read it yourself, dipshit. Here's some broken bones to help you with your permanent retardedness, maybe it'll help you comprehend the words on this page. Do I have to spell the words out?


  • Jin Kisaragi of BlazBlue, pictured to the right. He's apparently "not good with people" and admittedly in flashbacks it's shown that he was once a reasonably decent guy, if usually callous and indifferent to normal peoples' suffering. But hearing his hated/beloved brother is alive evidently snaps even this fragile remnant of his sanity and pushes him into full-out mad psychosis. He has been lately getting a little better, but he still remains a colossal dick, especially to Noel Vermillion (long story).
    • One of Platinum the Trinity's personalities, Luna, is this meets Bratty Half-Pint. She's an extremely obnoxious girl who will stop at nothing, including pranks and insults, to get what she wants. At one point calling Ragna a pedophile, then suckering him into paying for an expensive meal. She's also quick to become jealous, especially when it comes to breasts, as well as 'clingy'; attacking Litchi for having a small, normal talk with Jubei, and for being bustier than Luna, with this kind of reasoning: "How dare you grow a pair of breasts before me!"
  • Leonard's pact-partner in Drakengard, the malicious unnamed fairy. She goes beyond annoying, however, in that she uses every chance she gets in conversation to inflict psychological torture on him, bringing up how Leonard is a complete failure, how he couldn't protect his family, and how he couldn't even kill himself when Driven to Suicide. Her attitude is such that it boggles the mind to contemplate how he ever agreed to a pact with her in the first place. Probably some twisted form of repentance.
  • Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII (and in Kingdom Hearts II) starts out as this before becoming a Rival Turned Evil after his Face Heel Turn. When you first use him in Final Fantasy VIII, he literally kicks a dog.
    • Similarly, Jecht from Final Fantasy X during the first half of the game. He's emotionally abusive toward Tidus (a mini-game involves Tidus trying to suppress memories of his father's abuse while trying to make a shot), initially a surly, disrespectful drunk while in Spira, and, while drunk, is responsible for accidentally attacking and injuring a shoopuff.
  • Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness has been made into a badass tough girl to the point where it is just plain annoying. This is also a case of Flanderization.
    • This also extends back to some (although not all) of the scenarios Tomb Raider: Chronicles, which is possibly even less fitting as the timeline of the game is non-linear and goes back to times before/in-between the previous games, where she was far less of a Jerkass.
    • At one point in Tomb Raider: Chronicles, she abuses Exact Words to murder a rival treasure-hunter who had just saved her life. Aside from her grossly out of place Bond One-Liner, no justification whatsoever is given for this.
  • In Enchanted Arms, Token Gay Guy Makoto gets introduced as a Jerkass, getting jealous of anyone who gets close to Toya, advocating cutting and running, verbally kicking the dog, and also generally making it abudently clear he doesn't like the hero. The stereotypical lisp and the over-confident win quotes don't help.
  • Erol from the Jak and Daxter series is in Jak's face constantly from the moment the two characters first meet. Making it that much more satisfying when you finally blow him to pieces at the end of the third game.
  • One of the reasons why Bubsy from the ill-fated Bubsy the Bobcat series was such a failure as a video game mascot, was because his personality was basically a repulsive combination of Stan Smith from American Dad and Tomo from Azumanga Daioh (really, any Genki Girl could do, but Tomo seems to fit just right). In fact, Games Radar declared Bubsy as the single most unlikeable character in video game history.
  • Wario in the Wario Ware games. He's a fat, lazy, ill-tempered slob who never pays his employees... and yet they keep working for him.
  • Bowser from the Mario series is portrayed as such in the spinoffs, since they have a more comical tone than the main series.
  • Anomen, the insufferable Priest of Helm from the second Baldur's Gate game. A stick up the ass is only to be expected, of course, but the would-be paladin goes beyond that, complaining that quests such as hunting down kidnappers who bury people alive or returning a poisoned man to his friends to be cured is a waste of time ("He's probably just drunk"). He even explicitly claims to be the only competent member of the party. He doesn't even get marks for consistency: when you find a drow about to become the victim of vigilante justice, despite having committed no crime, he dismisses it as her just desserts for being part of an evil race. But if you save her, he says he doesn't care whether or not she joins the party—apparently because he thinks she's hot. All this is made even worse by the fact that, in an unmodded game, he is the only romance option available to a female protagonist.
    • Anomen eventually ends up with a character-focused side quest that sees him try to become a paladin; if he fails the test, he renounces the paladin oaths and (eventually, if you can stand keeping him around until the expansion pack) becomes more honest about his dark side, if he succeeds he becomes more paladin-like and courteous (but stays holier-than-thou). Either way, his jerkassness is reduced... Slightly.
    • Just to illustrate how much of The Scrappy Anomen is, the Let's Play of Baldur's Gate II saw him ejected out of the party... By being thrown into a dimensional rift to the elemental plane of Bees.
  • Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2 certainly had his moments. If the player character is female, he gets to call her a whore, and his personality and actions definitely get him in trouble with Lawful Good Paladin Casavir. Somehow still manages to be popular with the ladies.
  • Algus/Argath from Final Fantasy Tactics. He starts off as a knight in a bit of a predicament, since his lord was kidnapped, and he constantly demands that his lord be rescued ASAP. When that's finally done, he then shows a very classist superiority complex that deems commoners trash and deserving to die in the name of nobles, brushes off all opinions that don't match with his, belittles Delita and his sister constantly (never mind Delita was just responsible for his lord's rescue), and on top of it all, has no qualms about killing Delita's sister in front of him, still demeaning him and Ramza in the name of his ideals of a world only for nobles, and commoners can die for all he cares. Instant Scrappy indeed!
    • In fact, he is so reviled (and designed that way, to be sure) that, in the PSP Updated Rerelease, you can kill him again. And no, his attitude between the first death and the second doesn't get any better.
  • Gears of War has Baird, who is a capable soldier, but is also a complete Jerkass. Methinks that if the humans weren't so strapped for troops, Baird would find himself off the frontlines rather quickly. However, this is something of a deconstruction in that his attitude has seen him busted back down to private numerous times.
    • In his defense, the novel mentioned it was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity. Dom had his search for Maria until he found her, Fenix had his stone cold demeanor, Cole had his over the top gung-ho ness, and Baird... was a jerk.
  • In the sequel, Dom acts like somewhat of a Jerkass (perhaps unintentionally) with constant references to Snipers around Benjamin Carmine. Although it seems that Anthony's death was made out to be way more heroic than it actually was, so Ben doesn't even know he should be offended.
  • Half Life 2: Episode Two introduced Dr. Arne Magnusson. He is insensitive to the emotional needs of others, will yell at you to keep moving when you are pinned down by enemy fire, and after you save the base (using a weapon he invented) tries to take all the credit (which, for a scientist, is a mortal sin). Strangely, the vortigaunts (aliens allied to humanity) seem to like him.
  • Wendy Oldbag from the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series can be a huge jerkass towards Phoenix just because he's a "young 'un" and she goes into a raging fit if he even annoys her slightly. She even does this to the judge and calls him a whippersnapper, even though he's the same age as her! She even admitted to busting Phoenix's balls in the second game cause she enjoyed making him suffer. However, if anyone mentions Edgeworth or one of Oldbag's favorite actors, she'll be tame as a kitten.
    • And while we're on the game, Phoenix in the 3rd game discovers that someone is impersonating him. When he confronts the guy, not only he's a total jerkass, he's a downright bully who would rather kick everyone's ass for even looking at him funny. When a girl named Viola Cadaverini shows up, though, he goes from tiger to kitten, and for good reason: Several months before, he got into a traffic accident with Viola, whose granddad is a mob boss, and he was forced to pay $1 million for the surgery on poor Viola. Even jerkasses know better than to piss off a mob boss.
    • Out of earshot, however, he outright insults Viola. Considering this happens right after the girl's tearful confession about the whole matter, this comes off as seriously nasty.
      • All that aside, there's also the fact that he was the murderer in that case. As if it wasnt obvious.
    • Aren't we forgetting rather more major characters? Like, say, Franziska von Karma? Edgeworth was annoying in the first game, but at least he had style. Franziska has far fewer scruples and way more of a propensity to literally whip anybody who says something she doesn't like. Including the judge.
      • Fran did break down when little Pearl told her she was just a little girl without her trusty whip, tried to give Adrian Andrews a helping hand and at one moment even cried. So, I'd say she's more of a Tsundere who took lots of time to find her dere-dere side, rather than a true Jerkass.
    • Then there is Godot from the third game, who instead of using a whip like Fran, throws cups of coffee at Phoenix.
    • Also, Zak Gramarye is a jerk. Perhaps worst of all, he disappears, abandoning his own daughter and leaving Phoenix to be disbarred..
    • Shi-Long "NOT SO FAST!" Lang. Gives Edgeworth and Franziska shit just for being prosecutors, and boasts a high arrest rate for a not-very-good reason: he likes to just arrest the first suspicious person he sees and let those prosecutors he hates so much worry about things like "evidence" and "actual guilt or innocence". Probable cause? What's that?
  • Linebeck from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
    • Towards the end, Linebeck arguably makes the move to Jerk with a Heart of Gold after a Crowning Moment of Awesome where he fends off Bellum singlehandedly long enough for Link to regain consciousness. This move is furthered by his wish to the Ocean King afterwards - he doesn't want gold or treasure in the end; he just wants his ship back. Ciela lampshades how out-of-character this is for him throughout.
  • Midna from Twilight Princess who, like Linebeck, simply sees Link as a means to get what she wants, though she starts defrosting as early as the end of the second dungeon.
  • Another Zelda Jerkass, this time from Ocarina of Time, is Mido. He's the self-proclaimed boss of the Kokiri, hates Link's guts and treats all the other Kokiri like dirt (with the exception of Saria).
    • When you meet him in the future, however, he clearly states that he regrets his behavior towards Link, after being reminded of him by the adult version of Link, who he of course doesn't recognize due to the fact that Kokiris don't age and that Link was raised by said people. Still, that moment counts as a big Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • The "snooty" female animals in Animal Crossing, due to Flanderization from game to game, have gone from somewhat annoying to this - this is in stark contrast to the "grumpy" males.
  • Pokey Minch. Pokey freaking Minch. Let's elaborate: after running off upon hearing Buzz Buzz's prophecy, he aligns himself with a cult leader and assists in the kidnapping of a young girl, steals an expensive helicopter away from the heroes and crashes it into a swamp, and finally assists in the final boss battle because he felt it was "the winning path" before he runs away to a different time period. And let's not even get into what happens later in Mother 3, where he founds a warped dictatorship that takes over the protagonist Lucas' home country, kills his mother and twin brother, and reanimates his brother's corpse, who is forced to aid Pokey in his world takeover, and ultimately, fight against Lucas at the end..
    • Hey, hey, let's not forget about him brainwashing a corporate executive. And became Giygas's DIRECT ASSISTANT.
    • And, on a lesser note, you can add Fassad (or Yokuba or Locria, whichever you prefer). He proves his douchiness with regularly electrocuting Salsa (on top of stealing a Luxury Banana if you grab it during Chapter 3) on top of the slave labor, and when Lucas and company figure out the truth to the Thunder Tower, he gives the order to evacuate him and then blow it up. Let's not forget that his leaking the truth of the world to Porky was half the reason things got to be as fucked up as they are. The fact that he is reassembled as a chimera simply cheats the player out of a karmic death (he slipped on a banana atop said tower) while doing jack to detract from the douchiness.
  • Luke fon Fabre, protagonist of Tales of the Abyss, is a major-league Jerkass for the first fourth of the game—however, it's pretty clear that almost no-one else in the party can stand him and follow him simply because their goals overlap. Upon finally reaching a point where his scant redeeming features stop making up for his obnoxious personality, they abandon him until he's cleaned up his act... Which he does, and then some.
    • Special mention should go to *the entire rest of his family and friends except for Mieu, Ion and his mother.* Tear treats him like an idiot for not knowing basic things even after she learns about his amnesia and upbringing, and was even willing to let him get arrested for a crime he didn't commit, just to teach him a lesson in manners. Jade does the same, except he had a valid reason to arrest him and is even more condescending, especially since he (and Ion) already figured out the secret that might have let Luke avoid his first major BSOD, but didn't think to tell him until it was too late. Anise was trying to seduce him for his wealth and was working as a spy for Mohs, and thus responsible for quite a lot of the bad guys' interference and eventually the death of her beloved Ion. His best friend was nice to him, but it turns out that he had infiltrated Luke's family in order to destroy it, was working with the Big Bad in order to do it (though he didn't know the true extent of the guy's plans), and subconsciously wanted to kill Luke. His fiancee/cousin (not really) blackmailed him into joining the party. His father, uncle, and beloved master/surrogate father set him up to suicide bomb a place to start a world war, with the last giving him a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness lecture just after activating the rather insulting post-hypnotic command to make him fire his hyper resonance. After that last event, most of his party blames him for not trusting them and for actions that they knew were done while under the post-hypnotic command and abandons him to go questing with Asch, his older brother, sortof, who tried to murder him at least twice, assaults him repeatedly through the course of the game, helped kidnap Ion, helped slaughter Jade's crew, constantly withholds vital information, and basically calls him Replica like it's a racial slur. At least Luke's jerkassery was basically confined to his mouth.
    • Well, in Guy's defense, he only wanted to kill Luke and his family because Luke's father destroyed his entire family. Growing up with Luke however, pretty much made him decide not to kill Luke, though the idea was still there in his subconscious. Also, after he finds out what Van is planning, he attempts to use his power as Van's master to get him to stop.
    • Also, Mohs and, to a slightly lesser extent, Dist.
    • The game's most overt, unrepentant example of this, however, is Sync the Tempest. All the other God-Generals have noble qualities or Pet the Dog moments, but not Sync. He'll Kick the Dog or hurl insults at every opportunity, and while his comrades want to make the world a better place, all Sync wants is to destroy the world that gave him his wretched existence.
  • The World Ends With You: Conductor Kitaniji. See Kick the Dog for more information.
    • Don't forget Joshua [Yoshuya Kiryuu], who gets the main character to want to choke him to death about ten seconds after they meet. Well, okay, that's actually the second time they meet, not that Neku remembers. The first time, Josh killed him. And he does it again by the end of the game. Go Josh! Thing is, he's a Jerkass and does it out of love on purpose. That's what he's loved for, actually - well, that and the (not so) Ambiguously Gay attitude.
    • Neku was also kind of a jerkass before Character Development
  • The VUX from Star Control say that our first contact with them was so insulting that they hate us forever...Until we discover their real reason, at which point the player realizes (if he hasn't already) that they're just incredibly thin-skinned and self-centered snobs.
    • You can, over the course of several conversations with their ships, actually convince them that humanity is truly and honestly sorry for the insult, at which point they outright say that they just don't care and attack you anyway.
  • Prince Charmles(s) from Dragon Quest VIII. Oy.
    • Also, Marcello, especially late in the game, where he throws your team in a nearly-inescapable prison after they save the life of the High Priest (claiming them to be the ones that attacked him). The High Priest dies a little later anyway, at which point Marcello goes on a massive power trip and tries to take over the church, and finally, still professing his hatred to his brother Angelo AFTER being saved by him.
  • The Pope from Tales of Symphonia. Where to begin with this bastard? He starts up a TON of anti-half-elf laws (despite his daughter being one), plots with Vharley to poison the King so he can take over the country, labels the heroes as bad guys plotting to destroy the world (making it MUCH harder to get around), kidnaps an entirely innocent princess just for a shot at taking us down, and, perhaps worst of all, tries to kill his own daughter TWICE, even though she was doing everything she could to help him!
    • And while I'm on this game, let's not forget Vharley himself, who kidnapped Alicia, forcing Regal to give the Toize Valley Mine to him in exchange for her life, then returns Alicia to Regal. AS A MONSTER WHO BEGS REGAL TO KILL HER. He got off lightly when Regal and Presea "dealt with him", if you ask me. It should've been much more painful.
    • And in the sequel, we get to meet a trio of Tethe'allan nobles on a tour through the Sylvaranti areas of the new world. Check them out: [1][2]
  • In the original Ratchet & Clank game, after the titular duo are betrayed by Captain Qwark, Ratchet holds a grudge and becomes extremely hostile and uncooperative with Clank. This lasts through most of the rest of the game. At times he's a real asshole. Good thing later games made him nicer.
    • Speaking of Captain Qwark, he too qualifies; whether it be setting events up to make someone, usually Ratchet, look like the bad guy in order to portray himself as the hero, or sending someone else to do the dirty work and take all the credit.
  • Walnut from Phantom Brave qualifies. However, he's a much nicer person in Soul Nomad and The World Eaters (and a lot cooler to boot).
    • Up until the end of the game, almost everyone in Ivoire. The worst offender would be the elder Owl from the 2nd chapter. Upon hearing that Marona is the Possessed One, she goes from nice owl lady to complete Jerkass, yelling at Marona and refusing to pay her after all she had done. And then, if that wasn't enough, she criticizes her parents while she's at it.
  • Ambassador Udina from Mass Effect. You can do whatever the hell you want, he will always treat you like a useless piece of shit. No wonder the alien characters dislike humans so much... and no wonder one of the game's many Crowning Moments of Awesome is when somebody finally punches him in the face.
    • Ironically, Udina is actually more polite to a fellow Jerkass. On at least one occasion he'll apologize to Shepard for his rudeness if you choose a Renegade response. He's downright amiable in the Renegade ending; even to the Captain, the guy who punched him in the face earlier.
      • Well, depending on which variant, the Renegade ending has you making him either one of the ruling oligarchy of the galaxy or else the /sole/ ruler of the galaxy. Man's in a really good mood that day.
        • Or you can make him sad by choosing Anderson for the above position instead. It's so worth it, if only to see Udina look all sheepish and disappointed.
      • Udina: ...and why are you bringing this... quarian in here?!

Anderson: I don't report to you anymore, Udina. Why don't you go to your office and think about that.

    • Let's not forget the Turian Councilor, who will treat you like shit for everything you do. No matter if you choose to kill the Rachni Queen on Noveria or let her live, he will rub it up your face, and throw insults at you. He will do stuff like that on every occasion, no matter what you do, and which way you choose. The other two Councilors on the other hand, especially the Asari, seem to be much friendlier.
      • It seems like the only time he's nice to you is after you save his butt after Sovereign attacks the Citadel. Hopefully, he will be nicer in the sequel.
        • He (the turian) is even more of a jerkass in the sequel.

Turian Councilor: Ah yes, (air quotes) "Reapers".

        • Although in the sequel after that, once the air quotes was disproven, he mellows down and is the first to offer his help to Shepard and genuinely grateful when Shepard saves him from being assassinated by Udina.
    • Of course, Renegade Shepard is one of the biggest jerks in the series. No matter how polite you are to him/her, s/he will always find a reason to berate and insult you, even if you meant no wrong. Also, many of his/her choices in both games show him/her acting like a jerk just for the fun of it. For example, from Mass Effect 1:

Shepard: (when asked why s/he ruined a businessman's life) You refused to testify. Obviously, you hate justice and deserve this.

      • Furthermore, s/he thinks the most measured and polite response to most people is to either punch them or shove a gun into their faces. Finally, in what culminates as one of Renegade Shepard's Crowning Moments of Jerkassery, this scene happens. Keep in mind, many people commenting on the video say that they don't even like Jack, and they still think Shepard is the asshole here. There's also the fact that, in the Renegade playthrough of Zaeed's loyalty mission, s/he thinks Zaeed's burning down of the factory was a good idea, and even says to him "If you say Vido dies, he dies."
      • Behold, Commander Shepard, Jerkass. And two years later, he's an even bigger jerk.
    • Zaal'Koris vas Quib-Quib, to an extent, from Tali's Loyalty Mission, does everything in his power to make Tali's life harder. He's actually the Only Sane Man among the admirals, as he genuinely wants to make peace with the Geth... but his position puts him in direct opposition to Tali's father, and, by extension, Tali herself, so he's actively antagonistic for most of the trial. He simmers down if Shepherd both successfully defends Tali and speaks in favor of peace with the Geth, though.
      • This carries over in the sequel whereas he lives up his Only Sane Man status and helps in brokering peace between Quarians and Geth. Han'Gerrel, on the other hand, becomes the Jerkass who is too hell bent on destroying the Geth, even risking on blowing Shepard and Tali along with the Geth Dreadnought they're in, and could possibly lead the Quarians to utter genocide just to destroy the Geth.
  • Myron from Fallout 2 is a smug, obnoxious teenager with grating voice who just won't shut up bragging about how smart he is for inventing the nastiest, most lethal drug around. The fact his invention kills tons of people daily doesn't concern him at all. Also, if the player's character is female, tries to rape her; also, cowardly and useless in combat. What's not to hate?
  • Lord Yuna from "Breath of Fire" 4; he's one of the most subtle and potent examples of jerkery in a videogame. He's an adviser and thaumaturge in the employ of the Fou Empire, but is of course behind the scenes the entire time, orchestrating pretty much every unpleasant event that occurs. His crowning moment of jerkery is when it's revealed that Princess Nina's disappeared sister had not only been captured and incarcerated by Yuna, but fused with parts from the panoply of magical creatures that inhabit his world and made into one of the Endless, an undying, immortal being usually worshiped as gods. There are several catches to this, of course. The bad news is that the poor girl is confined to her bed, as a pulsing umbilical connects her to the distorted, building-sized mass of organs that powers her immortality. The worse news is that Yuna intended to use her immortal body as a sort of perpetual sacrifice, ritualistically torturing her over and over in order to power a hex-firing supergun. The worst part? He's a pacifist, and hides behind his non-violence in order to avoid retribution. You never get the satisfaction of pounding his skinny ribs in.
  • Rosie from Valkyria Chronicles starts out as this, especially to Isara. She gets better, especially to Isara, most notably after Fauzen. Prince Maximillian and General Damon are practically incurable examples, Cezary also applies, who was such a jerk that it took a memory reseting brain injury to change his ways.
  • The crazy church guy from Left 4 Dead. Instead of letting the survivors into the safehouse with him, he declares as soon-to-be infected and rings the church bell to summon a horde of zombies. After the attack is over, the church guy changes into a random special infected, allowing you to open the door and extract karma on him. Before the change, Zoey describes him best:

Zoey: Hey, jerkass! Why don't you open the damn door!?

    • Appropriately enough, the same voice actor who is the church guy does the voice of the Scout from Team Fortress 2, who is also quite the jerkass. Granted, most of the people he insults are actively trying to kill him, but the way he acts in his "Meet the Team" video sort of reveals that he would act that way to just about anyone.
    • Francis from L4D1 and Nick from L4D2 both have fairly hostile dialogue, and it is entirely up to the player at the keyboard if the fall under this trope or Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
      • Nick is quite the asshole to Coach and Ellis throughout the game. He insults their hero, Jimmy Gibbs Jr., by saying he looks like an asshole, insults Coach in the tunnel of love by saying "Bring back any memories, Coach? You, a cheeseburger, romance in the air," mocks Ellis' accent ("You can almost call this the CE-met river, Ellis!") and just loves to insult everyone living in the south.

Nick: Why couldn't I have been in Vegas when the zombie outbreak hit? Or Atlantic City? Instead, I'm trapped in some god damn hillbilly tunnel of love! Did you see the sign out front? Cousins only day!

    • Nick Took a Level in Jerkass in The Passing; throwing out multiple insults to the original survivors as well. Francis is characteristically hostile right back, but the calmer Zoey and the downright upbeat Louis also react negatively to him. Here's one example:

Zoey: I'm sorry, I can't lower the bridge!
Nick: That's terrific, cupcake. Look, is there a man up there that we can talk to?
Zoey: (in a mocking, helpless tone) Boo hoo! I don't know what to do! (angrily) Go to Hell, Colonel Sanders!
Rochelle: I can't believe you used to be a con artist!
Zoey: I can shoot you where you stand!
Nick: Would you lighten up? *mutters* No one can take a joke anymore.

  • There are more than a few of these in World of Warcraft. One that springs immediately to mind without sparking a huge debate is Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm. He has a Freudian Excuse, but is rude, bossy and unappreciative to everyone, both players and NPCs.
    • Here's another one whom it's unlikely anyone will argue about: Garrosh Hellscream.
      • Debatable. The end of the Horde questline in Stonetalon Mountains pushes him a lot closer to Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory.
      • Then the Twilight Highlands happened, pushing him right back.
    • There's also Genn Greymane, a Dirty Coward who gave little support to The Alliance in the second war, hid when The Alliance needed him, believed Alterac belonged to him and refused to let in dying refugees in. It took till the latest expansion Cataclysm for him to show redeeming features.
      • Genn's withdrawal from the Alliance was equal parts his own hubris, political pressure from the Gilneans, and loyalty to his people. Gilneas was in essence fighting someone else's war, and the Alliance's various efforts (Nethergarde Keep and later the orc internment camps) were putting heavier taxes on the Gilneans than Genn's people were willing to put up with. Yes, he's a jackass, and arrogant, but him just being a giant douche was neither the only nor the biggest reason he left the Alliance and walled Gilneas off.
    • And let's not forget Marshal "I hate you, long-eared freak, now go and protect my country from the Undead" Garithos. He even insults the dreadlord he teams up with to retake Lordaeron, and his last words before Sylvanas has Varimathras kill him are insulting them and demanding that they get out of his city.
    • The two remaining Barov brothers, Alexi and Weldon are quite condescending to the player, and belittle them while sending them to kill the other sibling. As of Cataclysm, however, Alexi no longer has the quest for his inheritance, and treats the player with the same politeness that most questgivers do, while Weldon remains as arrogant as before.
  • York Neely, male main character of Cross Edge, is an outrageous dick to friend and foe alike (with the probable exception of childhood friend Miko[to] Aiba) for absolutely no reason.'
  • La-Mulana has Duracuets who plays one of the meanest joke on the player in the history of video games, using Reverse Psychology and meta-Schmuck Bait
  • Alundra features Giles, an overly religious man who, while at first is very friendly to the eponymous hero, suddenly starts having nothing but hatred to him, blames you for all misfortune happening and while he doesn't do anything, if you talk to him, he has NOTHING but mistrust and hate to you. Then, he proves to be an Ungrateful Bastard when after you save him from a nightmare, he is quick to go back to his mistrust and hate.
    • A lot this has to do with Alundra failing to save his sister on top of the whole Anvilicious God Is Evil theme that permeates the latter half of the story.
    • His sister is actually still alive and tried her damndest, bless her, to convince him that Alundra is not evil (those who died before he started his hate-run are mostly just other villagers not directly close to him). Giles is not listening.
  • Shinji Matou from Fate/stay night is a thoroughly unlikeable little weasel who treats others like dirt and acts as though the world is solely there for his own convenience. And this is before you find out what an utter, irredeemable bastard he really is. Gilgamesh is just as selfish and amoral, but unlike Shinji, he actually has the power to back it up.
    • Shinji actually descends into something much closer to Complete Monster levels when it is revealed throughout the various points of the game, particularly in the Heaven's Feel path, that he frequently raped Sakura, used a Command Seal in order to rape Rider, and is heavily insinuated to have also raped Mitsuzuri before having Rider drain her energy. The guy is a demented sicko, well beyond the levels of your common Jerkass.
  • Dirk "Stingray" Wright is this to you in Wing Commander II, even after you save his bacon. Admiral Tolwyn in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV isn't exactly a sweetheart, either.
  • Your rival in Pokémon Gold and Silver. He abuses his Pokemon, doesn't care about them, abuses you mentally and physically, and, in the remakes, takes off your Team Rocket disguise just when you were about to infiltrate the invaded Radio tower. He gets a Heel Face Turn, but still..
    • The Team Rocket disguise thing... Well, he's Giovanni's son. He should recognize any fakes immediately.
    • Of course, we can't forget the original jerk, Blue. And his anime counterpart, GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK.
    • Claire, the eighth Johto Gym Leader, is quite the arrogant bitch. She even refuses to give you the Eigth Badge after you beat her until you pass the Dragons' Den test... and in Crystal, even after you pass she STILL refuses to give it up until the shrine elder orders her to.
    • Gengar from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team. He's portrayed as an arrogant, self-centered bully who does nothing but cause trouble, and he actually puts the blame on the hero. It isn't until the end that it's he himself that got everyone into trouble, not the hero, and therefore had to apologize to him and his friends. And yes, like the hero, he too was once a human.
  • Frank West of Dead Rising comes across as incredibly insensitive, occasionally racist and sometimes rather sleazy.
    • There's also the obnoxious and egotistical Kent, and a few of the survivors, with Ronald taking the cake. Frank is at least trying to get as many still-surviving humans to safety as possible but all Ronald cares about is how much extra food you can provide him.
  • Touhou Project has a whole world of jerkasses with Gensokyo. Provoking others into fights with vicious insults is the most normal thing in the world for its youkai inhabitants, some will cause large-scale disasters - refered to as "incidents" - for selfish, petty or just plain silly reasons, and even the ones in charge of solving said incidents are weapons-grade assholes (Reimu Hakurei is terminally lazy, selfish and greedy and would likely sit on her ass if she wasn't affected by incidents or didn't have a duty to solve them, Marisa Kirisame has no respect for others' property and is very creative when it comes to banter and insults, and Sanae Kochiya is a violent Knight Templar). Even the regular human inhabitants aren't blameless either as Fantastic Racism runs rampant and the few peaceful and nice youkai who could - and want to - befriend and help them end up suffering for it.
  • Woden the Mighty of Medievil makes no secret of how he utterly despises Sir Dan Fortesque, demands that you call him "Mr. Woden the Mighty", and generally treats you like crap. A book about him in the Sleeping Village library notes that he was just this bad to everyone else when he was alive.
  • The Mayor from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is one of these. Brenner saved his town several times, and the Mayor once agreed to shelter Will and Isabella in exchange for the Wolves beating the raiders attacking the town. After the battle, he goes back on his deal. He suffers a Karmic Death, though, as the Big Bad gives him an "antidote" for The Virus that he created. Turns out, it's poison.
  • Warden Celia from Dungeon Siege 2 is a total bitch not just to you, but to everyone else. In fact, it's practically a Running Gag that the other Dryads chide her for being too harsh, and she responds by chiding them for being too soft. Unsurprisingly, she does a Face Heel Turn and becomes the Big Bad's dragon in Broken World.
    • From the same game, Finala is a whiny, obnoxiously self centered and arrogant bitch who constantly elevates herself above the rest of the party. In fact, at one point you literally have to grovel and suck up to her and tell her how much you suck compared to her to advance the plot.
  • Beneath all his aspiring freadom speaches and ruthless Nietzscheanic philosophy Andrew Ryan is just a greedy selfish prick. In his background he burned down an entire forest he'd personally planted rather then see it nationalised and opened to the public, dog-in-the-manger-style.
  • Morrigan in Dragon Age could be counted as this. She's sarcastic, condescending, and impolite no matter how you talk to her. Sure, you can make her nicer by giving her gifts and such, but if you do nothing this is exactly how she comes across.
    • She's at least more subdued about it than her Awakenings counterpart Velanna. Picture Morrigan's attitude and add in racism and some extra moodiness.
  • In Oblivion, directly after you decide what race and sex your character is, you find yourself in a prison cell. A dark elf prisoner across the hall gets your attention, then procedes to insult you and your entire race, then claims that the guards are going to kill you. Of course, in the event that you choose to become a dark elf, he doesn't insult you or your race... if you're male, he says that you probably have a wife or girlfriend back home, and then he says that he'll find her and "comfort" her about your death when he's freed. If you're female, he says that he'll get the guards to let you into his cell, to have some "fun." In both cases, he does tell you that you're going to be killed, though. Not a nice person. Ironically, in one of the Dark Brotherhood quests, you end up killing him. And his sentence was almost up, too.
    • The Dark Brotherhood quest ends up casting him in a new, sympathetic light, as they are prone to do before forcing you to kick the dog. He's only callous as a defense mechanism, a fact which everybody around him realizes, and nobody takes him seriously for. The guard even tries to comfort him or at least engage him in a conversation, although he ends up getting insulted for his troubles, with blatant lies that come off far more pathetic and depressing then enraging. Of course, you still have to kill him.
  • Lt. Carter Blake from Heavy Rain is this at best. He's the epitome of a Rabid Cop, cocky, prone to insulting others for practically nothing, doesn't hesitate to beat the living shit out of anyone he thinks might have information on the Origami Killer case, including especially when they've done nothing to deserve it, and is constantly hammering on poor involuntary partner Norman Jayden unless he goes along with him, partly for being a By-The-Book Cop, partly because he doesn't take profiling seriously, and, depending on who you ask, partly because he's been working on the Origami Killer case since the killings began but hasn't been turning anything up. By the time he starts trying to knock the living daylights out of Ethan Mars accusing him of kidnapping his own son (if Ethan is arrested), players will probably be feeling an urge to punch him out through the screen if they didn't already. Norman can do that for them, but it's less satisfactory when Blake returns it with threat at gunpoint. It's a miracle that man made it to police lieutenant. The game can end with him losing his job, but that requires him to kill Ethan in the finale.
    • His boss, Captain Perry, is also this, evidenced when he admits to Norman in their first meeting that he doesn't need his help, which he'll be acting Jerkass on him when he tells him that Blake is beating Ethan up and accusing Blake to be the Origami Killer.
  • Alan Wake, from the game of the same name, is a slightly milder case of this than usual. He and his wife Alice travel to Bright Falls for a vacation, but when Alice reveals that she brought a typewriter along to try and end his two-year writer's block, he immediately flips out, yelling at her and storming out of their cabin into the night, knowing full well that Alice is afraid of the dark. He punches out a psychologist who also tries to help him with the writer's block (although the pyschologist is a Smug Snake). In an interview seen via flashback, he's mentioned as having a temper, and is strongly implied to have punched a member of the paparazzi. His tendency to be a jerk is basically limited to these incidents, though.
    • A more traditional case is Agent Nightingale, being a Deconstruction of Cowboy Cop. He endangers the townsfolk in his pursuit of Alan, mocks Alan by always calling him by another author's name, and locks him up with little to no evidence, among other things.
  • At the start of Dragon Quest VII, Maribel is an obnoxious, spoiled, selfish, elitist Rich Bitch. In the first world (Rexwood), when the party discovers that the town is being attacked by monsters who kidnapped its women and children, her response is essentially "Oh boo hoo hoo. When do we leave this dump?" Not to mention how she constantly mocks, insults and puts down the rest of the party, especially Hero. Over the course of the game though, she gradually develops into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and eventually after that loses the "jerk" part altogether.
  • Rico in Killzone 2 , He get's a teammate killed, and the at the end of the game he, in universe, ruined things FOREVER for all of his allies.It also falls into Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
  • Shie in Canvas 2. She's genuinely protective of Hagino, but seems not to realize what a horrible bitch she is.
  • In God of War the fact that he's an utter asshole is probably one of Kratos' least bad qualities, but it bears pointing out. He throws a tantrum whenever things don't go his way, snarls and sneers his way through every conversation, and is self-centered, hypocritical, impatient, and petty. It's just that all this is combined with the power to wreck the world, so it seems much grander.
    • Hermes counts too. The way he taunts you all the time about how slow you are makes the player really want to catch him and kill him. You get to hack his legs off, because you wanted his shoes.
  • Fahrenheit (2005 video game) has Captain Jones in the chapter, "Captain Jones is Really Upset", where he berates Carla and Tyler for Lucas' escape.
  • The Suikoden' series has Luc who is one of the most powerful wizards in the entire series to be a petty dick.
    • In Suikoden2, his only Combo attack is with two warrior-types. They rush forward to attack the enemy... and he blasts them and the enemy with a massive air attack, damaging both of them. That's right: He's such a petty dick that it actually affects the game mechanics.
  • At the beginning of the first Shivers game, the first thing you see is you being locked in a haunted museum by your friends. Never mind the fact that two kids went missing in there before and were never seen again, they just laugh and joke about it. Then they have the gall to go see a movie together while you fight for your life.
  • Crypto, the Villain Protagonist of Destroy All Humans!. Occasionally, a side mission is listed under "Ruin Lives". In said missions, you do things like wreck someone's car just to be a dick.
  • In Famous has Dallas, a reporter who held Cole McGrath to be the prepetrator of causing the blast with the Ray Sphere. However, he is forced by Kessler into being this.
  • Alex Mercer, the Anti-Hero/borderline Villain Protagonist of Prototype. He threatens to leave a middle-aged scientist to be torn apart by zombies, at one point, just for not moving fast enough for his liking (and that guy's one of his very few allies). Not everyone has super parkour powers, Alex! About the only person he doesn't act like a total dick towards is his younger sister. It doesn't help that the real Alex was even worse, and didn't give two shits about her.
  • Roy Earle in L.A. Noire. At first, he is willing to help Cole in the vice cases until he sells him out by revealing his affair with Elsa to the media.
  • Shun and Soma, the two most prominent bad guys in Eien no Aselia, are complete dicks to everyone. Shun is even a dick before he becomes a badguy. The actual big bad and her dragon are Cute Psycho and Worthy Opponent who are at least polite about trying to destroy the planet.
  • Murase and Yaginuma in Kara no Shoujo.
  • The Orion Conspiracy has a security guy named Ward, who establishes himself as this at the beginning of the game. One of the captains says that he is the most racist, sexist, bigoted guy that the Company could hire for security. In fact, when Devlin asks Ward what he does on the space stations, Ward gives this as the answer...

Ward: Listen, Irish, we got niggers, kikes, slant-eyes, spics and asians all cooped up within spittin' distance of each other. If it wasn't for me, we'd have all sorts of racial shit breakin' out.

    • Also, at least one character refers to Ward as a redneck. The interesting (and ironic) part is when you find out that Ward's first name is Malachi, a name used mostly in Ireland as an anglicization of two Gaelic names.
  • The entire cast of Comic Jumper can be seen as this, with main character Captain Smiley being the mildest example, because while egotistical, self-centered, and petty, he at least has concern for innocent human life. Not so much the rest of the cast, particularly his chest emblem/sidekick Star.
  • Waka in Okami comes off this way, given that he goes out of his way to come to blows with Amaterasu every time the player encounters him, and although he's not That One Boss, his fights are tough for someone that the player shouldn't be fighting in the first place...
  • In the snowboarding game Stoked, fail a trick and hurt yourself going off a thirty foot drop and the instructor will mock, taunt and laugh at you. As you hurt yourself going off a thirty foot drop.
  • Fear Effect. Arguably every single playable character.
    • Arguably every playable character? Try Deke. In his profile for both games he's described as a "borderline psychopath". Hana and Glas get several Pet the Dog moments, with Rain being a borderline Woobie.
  • Pigma in the Star Fox games, particularly Star Fox 64, with lines like "Daddy screamed reeeal good before he DIED!"
  • Kingdom Hearts gives us Xigbar, Xaldin and Larxene. Xigbar is by definition a Troll. Xaldin tormented Beast using psychological warfare. And Larxene? She is just plain unpleasant.
  • Kalas from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean starts out as one of these, big time. After he saves Xelha from the Saber Dragon, he loots the bodies of her friends and insults her for calling him out on it. When she's captured later, if you suggest rescuing her, Kalas will say she's Somebody Else's Problem, and only free her when it becomes apparent he needs her help to open a door. Later, he mocks her for doing what she believes is right, and almost abandons her to the Empire. Post-Heel Face Turn, however, he becomes quite a bit more heroic.
  • Edgar Ross from Red Dead Redemption has spent most of his time annoying the hell of John.
  • Mike Thorton from Alpha Protocol. He's the protagonist, by the way. You *can* play Mike as a personable guy by calculatingly picking all your responses to tell everyone exactly what they want to hear so they'll like you... But the game treats it as Mike essentially manipulating people (which, to be fair, is what you are). On the other hand, Alpha Protocol allows for a simply staggering array of blunt rudeness, snarking, threats, and other quite genuine-sounding acts of verbal and physical asshattery, and comments Mike makes when you're not directly in control suggests that being a Deadpan Snarker is his natural state of being. There is a reason Yatzee described Mike as "the ponciest ponce who ponced past a poncing parlor".
  • A few characters in Katawa Shoujo
    • Shinichi Nomiya in Rin's route, who pushes Rin to work harder and put her art on display, even if she ends up missing classes, isolating herself and engaging in self-destructive behavior as a result. When she runs away from the exhibit, he gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech while shouting at her
    • Shizune's father, Jigoro Hakamichi, from Shizune's route. He repeatedly insults Shizune's friends, her efforts on the student council and the youth of today, and responds to being contradicted with anything from a "Shut up" to threats of violence. It also turns out that he has been trying to get Shizune to speak for twelve years, and believes that she is only unable to talk because she chooses not to do so.
    • One nameless girl in Hanako's route comes out when Hisao is trying to bring schoolwork to Hanako in her room. If he asks her about Hanako, she will talk about her contemptuously before leaving, and if he decides not to, she will rudely walk off.
  • President Takao Kuroi from The Idolmaster series. Used to be a colleague of your President Takagi until a falling out... then he spends his entire life trying to upstage Takagi in every way, either with sabotaging the 765 Pro idols or giving nasty rumors about the 765 Pro idols to his idols. He also speaks callously to anything 765 Pro, referring them as Pitiful Worms. All to feel superior over Takagi. He crosses the Moral Event Horizon big time in the anime version.
  • Dark Souls has Lautrec, a wandering knight who tends to murder those who have outlived their usefulness to him. The Crestfallen Warrior and the Crestfallen Merchant have absolutely nothing nice to say about anyone or anything. The Darkwraith, Forest Hunter, Blade of the Darkmoon and Gravelord covenants are all about being JerkAsses to other players online by killing and griefing them.
  • Altair, the Player Character of Assassin's Creed, is such a pain-in-the-ass arrogant screw-up at the start of the game that his fellowship's leader stabs him in full view of the rest of the organization. When Altair awakens he has no weapons, little armor or health and has to earn them all back.
  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time gives us its version of N. Tropy. He is so much of a pompous prick that even Neo Cortex himself absolutely cannot stand him, and his big evil plan is "rebuild my entire universe and become its new god just to stroke my own ego while also marrying my own female self that somehow is even more sadistic and despicable than I am in the process". Just to make him even more obnoxious, the game's creators also decided to make him a pathetically weak joke boss.
  • Trader Rekt, one of the traders in 7 Days to Die is an unpleasant clerk, often calling you a scumbag, laughing that if you want a guarantee to try Shamways and even threatens to kill you if you fail a job. This is all dialogue though and he often has higher quantities of food and seed than the other traders. Thankfully as you rise in levels and perks and can grow your own food, you won't have to go anywhere near him.

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