Daddy issues go way back in human culture. It is something we all have seen in stories. It dates all the way back to Greek mythology when Zeus’ father ate his own children so that they would never rise up against him (and guess what? they did anyway!).
These days, video games take a lot of notes out of art, culture, and history. So of course there are a lot of bad dads in video games. There are those who manipulate, those who murder, and those who really don’t care about the consequences of their actions. Here are ten video game dads you would never want to be related to. Be aware that spoilers are ahead!
10 Kunikazu Okumura From Persona 5
The CEO of Okumura foods is Haru’s father in Persona 5. All he cared about was his career, which is not necessarily the bad thing about him. What made him so bad was that he was corrupt and used his own daughter as a political pawn for power. He sets her up in a marriage with an abusive man just so their already rich family and rake up more money.
What is sad is that according to Haru, he used to be a good father. However, people change, and he became greedy and cold.
9 Ghetsis From Pokémon Black And White
Even Pokémon has some bad dads. The worst of them is the leader of Team Plasma from the Black and White games. He adopted children such as N, Anthea, and Concordia. We know far less about his treatment of Anthea and Concordia, but the way he raised N was purely to groom a leader for his organization and nothing more.
Knowing N, this is even more tragic. N hates fighting more than anything. He is smart and timid and seems ultimately unhappy with his role and lack of real friends.
8 Comstock From Bioshock Infinite
While from a very different game, Comstock is similar to Ghetsis in many regards. While Elizabeth is his biological daughter, he actually took her from her real father, Booker, in another timeline.
The part that made him the worst dad was that Elizabeth, like N, was groomed as a symbol and as the next leader of Comstock’s world. Comstock also murdered his wife when she threatened to tell the truth about Elizabeth’s origins to the populace.
7 Henry Lawson From Mass Effect 2
Henry Lawson is a very minor character in Mass Effect, but he is the father of one of the main crew in the second game. He is the father of Miranda Lawson, and he was obsessed with creating a “genetic dynasty.” He created Miranda with science and purposefully selected certain aspects to make her perfect in every way.
He eventually was dissatisfied with how Miranda turned out so he created another daughter. Miranda kidnapped her and escaped from their overbearing and insane father.
6 Heihachi Mishima From Tekken
Heihachi is not just the worst father, but also the worst grandfather! If you find another bad dad list, then this guy is sure to be on it.
He threw his son Kazuya into a ravine when he was 10, and Kazuya only survived that by making a deal with the Devil. Then Heihachi adopted another son for the sole purpose of rivaling his first kid! Then he takes advantage of his grandchild in order to obtain power. With all that in mind, he is definitely one of those family members you would need to cut out of your life.
5 Harlan Wade From The F.E.A.R. Series
The father of Alma, Harlan Wade, is a very minor character. However, just knowing he is Alma’s father tells much about why he deserves to be on this list. When he learned about his daughters’ possible powers, he committed her to horrendous experiments that included electroshock.
Alma herself was scared of him, which shows that he was abusive. He even allowed scientists to put her in a coma and be impregnated with a baby to be used for warfare. Yikes.
4 Jedah From The Fire Emblem Series
Fire Emblem has a lot of bad dads, but Jedah stands out from the crowd. He has sacrificed his daughters to a god and turned them into witches. Besides being a terrible father, he is just plain evil. Being just plain evil often makes you bad parent material.
3 Solidus From The Metal Gear Series
A lot of other lists on the Internet have often put down Big Boss as a bad dad. However, Solidus is obviously the worse father of the series. He killed Raiden’s real parents in order to adopt him, raise him, and turn him into a child soldier with major trauma. He would kill others in front of Raiden as a kid just to prove a point.
If all of that wasn’t enough, he eventually tries to kill Raiden during his quest to find the true identities of the Patriots.
2 Gwyn From Dark Souls
Gwyn is the final boss of Dark Souls Remastered. He forced Gwyndolin to live as the opposite sex purely based on the fact that he was affiliated with a more “feminine” kind of magic. Then there is Filianore, who he sent to live in a foreign land. He said he would come back for her but instead killed himself. There are also theories that he was the one who banished his firstborn.
1 Manfred Von Karma From Ace Attorney
Like Solidus Snake from the Metal Gear series, Manfred Von Karma actually killed Miles’ father and adopted Miles afterward. Miles was groomed to be a prosecutor, despite originally wishing to follow his lawyer fathers’ footsteps. Poor Miles actually thought he accidentally killed his own dad the many years and Von Karma used him as the perfect scapegoat.
