Radiata Stories - Jack Russell’s dad Cairn Russell is dead; raised by his sister
Final Fantasy 7 - Zack dies trying to save Cloud
Chrono Cross - Well, actually Serge’s father becomes the bad guy
More as I think of them…
FF X
FF XII, although it’s not an important plot element
Chrono Trigger, not a plot element though
Secret of Mana
Dirt, you’re not planning on starting a thread for every item in The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés, are you?
Is there even a Japanese RPG that the main character has a healthy relation with their father?
Great list, think of the trouble it saves game designers.
Maybe you just want to list the games where the father is alive. It’ll save you a lot of time.
Your dad is alive and well in Eternal Arcadia. Actually IIRC you have a whole family unit. Weird.
Xenosaga
Grandia
Suikoden I - the protagonist kills his father (IIRC)
Suikoden II - the protagonist’s father figure is killed in the beginning
Suikoden V - the protagonist’s father is killed by the protagonist’s mother
Dragon Quest VIII - the protagonist grew up without parents
That’s actually a rather hard question to answer.
First you have to take away all the games where this even a defined main character. That gets rid of quite a few.
Then you have to filter out the ones where the parents aren’t even an issue and don’t even appear as NPCs, i.e. because the protagonist is older or transported to another realm or so on.
Then all the ones where they appear as backstory NPCs but aren’t important to the plot.
Finally, you have to make a decision in all the games where the actual main character remains debatable, such as Phantasy Star III, Suikoden III, Wild Arms 3, multiple SaGa games or Final Fantasy VI.
What you’re left with is that there isn’t any kind of consistency or pattern and games where there’s a good relationship with a living father or father figure are about as common as the opposite when the relationship is at all relevant.
-Kitsune
Skies of Arcadia.
Shame on you all for forgetting it.
See post #8.
I used the Japanese name to be tricky.
Spoilerish if you didn’t play it, but Fire Emblem: PoR
Dragon Quest VII. That’s a nice relationship with your father.
You are right, especially because I liked that game. :-(
Man, I wish there were more RPGs with ship to ship combat like that one.
I’m sorry. From reading SA, I can only think of the premise for ecchi PC games.
How about Mother/Earthbound? Don’t the parents get kidnapped? I forget how that one ends…
Yes, Earthbound. Ness’s dad is a phone. He saves your game and wires money to Ness’s bank account (thousands upon thousands of the dollars through the course of the game). He also sometimes calls and tells you to stop playing the game if you’ve been playing for too long.
I’m not sure if seeing your father as an ATM machine is healthy, but at least he’s alive and telling you to stop vegging out on games like shut-in (otaku).