Saving the World Has Terrible Benefits
Video game heroes get all the weapons and romance options—heck, if they’re lucky enough, they might even score a statue after everything’s over. But their personal lives are a disaster. Plenty of protagonists have lost loved ones, survived wars, or discovered that huge portions of their memories weren't even real. Once you step away from the boss fights, some of gaming's biggest heroes have biographies you'd never trade for.
PlayStation Taiwan on Wikimedia
1. Amicia de Rune — A Plague Tale
Amicia begins her adventure as a teenager whose home is attacked. It’s bad enough already, but her parents are also seemingly killed while she escapes with Hugo (who’s sick, by the way). Their journey then involves thousands of rats, disease, and the constant possibility of violent death. All that to face an ending that makes all those sacrifices even crueler.
2. Senua — Hellblade
You don’t really want to grow up hearing voices, but it’s even worse if your abusive father says your condition is a curse. Dillion gives Senua some happiness, sure, but don’t get too attached; he’s later killed during a Viking raid. Oh, and Senua finds his body, a piece of which gruesomely appears in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
3. Isaac Clarke — Dead Space
Poor Isaac Clarke originally boards the USG Ishimura hoping to find his girlfriend Nicole, only to encounter an entire ship full of Necromorphs. He then learns Nicole actually croaked before he even arrived, and that the version of her he's been seeing is a mere hallucination. Subsequent games pile even more psychological breakdowns onto his already miserable existence.
Sergey Galyonkin from Raleigh, USA on Wikimedia
4. Max Payne — Max Payne
Max's defining tragedy occurs when attackers target his wife and their infant daughter inside their home. It seems like rock bottom, but years later, his friend and DEA partner Alex Balder is also shot dead, with Max framed for it. Even when he survives, he spends so much of the series battling alcoholism, depression, and guilt that you’re drained just watching it.
5. Ratonhnhaké — Assassin's Creed III
Before becoming an Assassin, Ratonhnhaké watches his Mohawk village burn and discovers his mother trapped beneath debris, unable to save her. His search for justice only pits him against his own father. Okay, he ultimately kills him, but the American Revolution he helps win doesn't prevent his people's land from being taken, so those victories are painfully limited.
Tim Bartel from Cologne, Germany on Wikimedia
6. Kiryu Kazuma — Yakuza
Kiryu grows up as an orphan before joining the yakuza…you know, the organization connected to the guy who murked his parents. He then willingly spends 10 years in prison for a murder committed by his best friend, returning to discover that nearly every relationship in his life has changed. Across the series, more and more people die around him while his efforts to leave organized crime are mostly in vain.
7. Velvet Crowe — Tales of Berseria
Velvet starts out as a caring older sister whose village is struck by a supernatural disaster. Fast-forward three years, and she watches her brother get sacrificed by a guy she once trusted, all before being transformed into a daemon and imprisoned. She gets her revenge, but at that point, we’re just bummed.
8. Corvo Attano — Dishonored
Ah, Corvo—the man who returns from an unsuccessful mission just in time to watch Empress Jessamine murdered in front of him. He's immediately framed, of course, tortured for months, and sentenced to execution. Even a successful revenge tour leaves him ruling over a city devastated by plague.
9. Kaim Argonar — Lost Odyssey
Being immortal is significantly less cool when you’ve been alive for roughly 1,000 years. Kaim's lost memories only reveal centuries filled with wars, dead companions, and grief that ordinary humans only have to suffer through once. One particularly painful storyline has him reunited with his elderly daughter shortly before her death, forcing him to outlive his own kids.
10. Bayek — Assassin's Creed Origins
Bayek's life collapses when members of the Order of the Ancients kidnap him and his young son. It’s as bad as it sounds, but during the confrontation, Bayek is then manipulated into accidentally driving a blade into Khemu himself. His subsequent campaign with Aya creates the Hidden Ones but destroys pretty much whatever remains of their marriage, leaving them united by purpose alone.
11. Cal Kestis — Star Wars Jedi
Cal only survives Order 66 as a child because his Jedi master sacrifices himself during their escape. Cal’s then forced into hiding and spends years working as a scrapper while suppressing his abilities and carrying enormous guilt. When the Empire discovers him, he’s immediately dragged back into a conflict filled with fallen friends and murdered allies. So, that’s fun.
12. Raziel — Legacy of Kain
Raziel's problems start when his master tears the bones from his wings and orders him thrown into the Lake of the Dead. After centuries of torment, he returns as a soul-devouring wraith and discovers his entire existence has been tangled in manipulation and ancient schemes. Even his supposed free will raises eyebrows, which makes losing your wings seem almost simple by comparison.
13. Samus Aran — Metroid
Samus loses her parents as a child, allowing the Chozo to raise and genetically enhance her, eventually preparing her for the dangerous life of a bounty hunter. She repeatedly encounters the alien responsible for her family's deaths, who keeps returning for kicks, it seems, and the whole thing is a lot to deal with.
Jaime Chapoy (jrchapoy) on Wikimedia
14. Geralt of Rivia — The Witcher
Geralt may be a household hero, but his life is far from peachy. First, he’s given to the witchers as a child and subjected to the Trial of the Grasses (if you haven’t played, that’s basically a mutation process that kills a lot of the boys who undergo it). Surviving doesn't exactly improve his circumstances, and his personal life only adds lost memories, endangered loved ones, and enough complicated history to fill several games.
15. Clementine — The Walking Dead
Clementine is only eight when zombies separate her from her parents...and you only get a few hours of gameplay before she discovers they’re part of the mindless horde. She then loses Lee and spends the following years watching new groups of friends repeatedly collapse through violence and betrayal. By adulthood, she’s not at all the adorable kid in a baseball hat.
16. Emil — NieR
Emil’s eyes can petrify anyone he looks at, so obviously, he’s squirreled away in isolation. However, he later discovers the horrifying experiments performed on him and his sister, then fuses with her monstrous form and loses his human body. His existence stretches far beyond the events of the first NieR, eventually leaving versions of him wandering a devastated Earth long after nearly everyone he knew is gone.
17. Solid Snake — Metal Gear
Solid Snake looks cool to the average gamer, but he was actually created through the Les Enfants Terribles cloning project. He spends years being manipulated by governments, and accelerated aging eventually leaves him in a weird limbo of being physically elderly while still relatively young. So, his final missions are battles against both enemies and his body.
18. Aloy — Horizon
Aloy grows up as an outcast who isn't even allowed to know why her tribe has rejected her. Her adoptive father raises her lovingly but dies saving her, immediately turning her greatest achievement into another loss. She later learns she wasn't even traditionally born, but created as a genetic clone.
Michael Ocampo from United States on Wikimedia
19. Jin Sakai — Ghost of Tsushima
At first glance, Jin has your typical sad origin story. He loses his father as a child and grows up under the guidance of his uncle. He’s also forced to watch his homeland devastated by the Mongol invasion. Protecting Tsushima gradually forces him to abandon the code that shaped his identity, effectively turning him into an outlaw the shogun declares a traitor. Shimura is then ordered to hunt the nephew he once hoped would become his heir.
20. Commander Shepard — Mass Effect
Shepard's background varies with your choices, but no version leads into a relaxing game. Regardless of origin, Shepard gets spaced during the attack in Mass Effect 2, dies, and is reconstructed over two years before immediately returning to his duties. Then the Reaper invasion arrives, forcing him to watch entire worlds fall while carrying responsibility for decisions affecting billions of lives.
