I’m surprised; Mono from Little Nightmares 2 wasn’t on this list. He’s a kid wanting to survive/escape the horrors of his world. Along the way, he found and rescued Six. Together, they navigated the pale city trying to flee it. Six saved Mono from the tv’s a few times, Mono saved her quite a bit too. Hell they even got the upper hand and slew a couple of the monsters. But then the Thin Man came, spiriting Six to the Signal Tower. Mono, not wanting to leave his friend behind, heads to the tower himself, killing the Thin Man with a power similar to theirs. He scales the tower, finding Six turned into a monster herself, trapped in a prison of her own making. Mono breaks the music box that kept her trapped, returning her to normal. The peace doesn’t last as the walls turn to flesh and eyes, chasing the two down. Only one portal remains open, on the other side of a crumbling bridge. Six makes it to the other side while Mono, exhausted from his fights, makes a final leap across the widening gap. Six, like many times before, catches him by the ledge. … … But she doesn’t pull him up; she drops him into the abyss. Mono survived the fall, landing on flesh that took the form of an empty room of smooth walls and a single chair in the center. It’s not clear how much time passed, but as he sat there, he turned into the Thin Man. He WAS the Thin Man. What sucks for Mono is that he did everything right. Never leaving his friend behind, barely surviving the horrors of the world, going above and beyond putting the needs of someone else before his own. And his reward? Being betrayed by his only friend and turning into the thing he destroyed, waiting to meet the same fate. Mono’s story is one of an unending cycle, an actual nightmare. It’s true what they say; no good deed ever goes unpunished.😞
I agree. His fate in game could have at least been in the honorable mentions. But maybe he will do another Video about betrayel, since the story fits more in that category
10. What makes Revali's death even more tragic is that there is a chance that he wasn't even a full adult when he died. Those spots on his cheeks? The only other Rito to have them are the children! Strong case for him being a juvenile trying to prove himself. 9. Your rant about this game, and this cutscene in particular, is what got me into this game. I love it so much! 6. Poor Wander. This is why you don't make deals with demons. At least, not without reading the fine print. 4. Poor Sigurd. Arvis really screwed the pooch with this move. 3. Lucas deserved better. 1. Well, that's one game I'm never playing.
Technically, Lucas isn't a failed hero considering that in Mother 3's true ending, everyone is still alive and they're going to rebuild the world w/ the Dragon's help. (It's been confirmed that if the Masked Man's nothingness had been passed onto the Dragon, then everyone would've died and the world would've ended)
@@shadowlinkbds Considering how the end credits go and the fact that he was able to make into Smash Bros w/ Kumatora and Boney supporting him, yeah I refuse to believe that everyone died
Another thing I feel that keeps the Champions of Hyrule at the bottom of the list is Age of Calamity. In that alternate timeline they survived thanks to Terrako sending warriors from the future to save them. It's a alternate timeline as they don't die but that's all the more that leads to them being at the bottom of the list. They get to achieve it but again, that's a alternate timeline where many things worked out instead of the normal things happening.
SPOILERS: The real tragic part about Kaede's death is that she didn't even kill anyone. The culprit in the first murder was the master mind. This is brought to light in the game's final trial and Shuichi uses this fact to expose the master mind and prove that the killing game is a sham because the master mind didn't play by the established rules.
It's even worse when you do Kaede's hotel scene and we would have had our first healthy DR couple if Kaede had lived! *Doesn't want to acknowledge a certain pair in DR3 anime Future Arc*
preach! seriously in my opinion tsumugi was the most obvious mastermind. like the moment you introduce a cosplayer, there are going to be people who go 'that cosplayer is the mastermind!'
@@macaylacayton2915 Not to mention among the first things she says in the game is about Doraemon, ya know, a character that shared voice actor with Monokuma. That ALONE shoulda given it away for many.
Well let's be honest... the fact she confessed... makes me wonder if the "master mind" was just fixing an error she made. After all physics are evil. Especially in space
Well not a countdown I expect for April fool's day but you could say when the heroes don't end up being successful after all they have done it is considered "a different joke". As in a cruel one.
It would definitely amount to a cruel joke if the hero is deemed The Chosen One or the one to expel evil from the world. Maybe honorable mention for the Link from Ocarina of Time that died thus his death led to the Fallen Hero Timeline.
Other Failed Heroes that I think should have been on this list: *•* Otus from Owlboy (everything he did to help, only ended up accomplishing nothing or backfiring on him and friends) *•* Detective Ayami Ito from Tokyo Dark (there is no happy ending for her) *•* Rean Schwarzer from Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2 and 3 (he gets the win in 4 but only after ultimately losing in the three games’ endings before) *•* Big Boss from the Metal Gear Franchise (his attempts to fight against the Patriots/US Governments sorta made things worse for everyone and everything) *•* Walker from Spec Ops: The Line (really surprised he didn’t make the list) *•* Mono from Little Nightmares 2 *•* Brad from LISA: The Painful RPG *•* Henry Stein from Bendy and the Ink Machine *•* and The Detective from Disco Elysium
Some of these endings seem more like heroes who lose and fail a lot but ultimately win or succeed by the end. Even if it's just in one of multiple endings.
What about artorias from dark souls, he was tasked to stop the abyss from spreading but was destroyed by Manus and succumbed to the abyssal corruption.
To me a good failed hero is one who's been making small wins and improvements throughout the game, a fighter who looks like he or she might actually win in the end, only to fail right when victory seemed to be in sight. Done right, that can be utterly heartbreaking.
May not fit here perfectly but... "There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They’ll never know if their sacrifice actually made any difference. They’ll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith. Aint that a bitch."
@@ArcCaravan well in my mind the quote, paraphrased as it is, is meant to show that the heroes who sacrifice themselves in a last ditch attempt to stop the bad guy(s) have no idea if they succeeded
*SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF THE BOOK* Here's the reason the book has this name. It's from the ending of the book: “I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet ... AM has won, simply ... he has taken his revenge ... I have no mouth. And I must scream.”
I can think of a true failed hero. The Hollow Knight from ... well, Hollow Knight. When the Pale King, a god like greater being who was both founder and ruler of the kingdom of Hallownest saw the return of the Goddess of Light (Radiance) and the terrible vengeance she would inflict upon the world for daring to forget her in the first place, he came up with a plan to try and prevent it from happening. Hundreds, if not thousands of his children were born and infused with the void in order to create a being that could work as a vessel to seal away a god; No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering. The logic being that without these things, there would be nothing for the Radiance to be able to corrupt and twist in order to break free of her prison. Thousands of 'Vessels' were born/created, but only one was deemed perfect for the Pale King's purposes who he called the Hollow Knight. The Pale King raised the Hollow Knight and viewed him as as his son (which... to be fair, he was). This... proved to be the mistake the undid the whole endeavor. Because of the time they spent together, the Hollow Knight formed a bond with the Pale King and viewed him as his father and wanted to make him proud by doing what needed to be done to protect the Kingdom of Hallownest... a flaw that allowed the Radiance to exert influence outside of the seal and physically corrupt the Hollow Knight in turn. By the time the player reaches Hollow Knight the Radiance has long corrupted him and he is largely it's puppet... but even then, during the boss fight, there was moments where the Hollow Knight will turn their weapon and start attacking themselves, inflicting damage to themself in the process. Suggesting that even after who knows how long, the Hollow Knight still wants to fulfill their duty... and make their father proud.
The Mother 3 ending is a complicated one but I think this fan theory should set the record straight. So, Like all Mother games. Mother 3 makes you use your own name, and you the player are as much a part of the game as Lucas is, and you are more or less seen as a god. Hence why you confirm your name for the rest of the game at a church or building of seemingly great religious significance. We are told that the dragon that hatches will take on the wishes and desires of the heart of the one who pulled the last needle. So what if the ending we see is not Lucas's wish but YOU the players hearts wish instead? This makes a ton of sense considering how every one in the black room in the ending thanks you specifically and tells you specifically that they are ok even if they could be all dead. So really it is up to you the player to determine if the ending was good or not. Lucas can't technically fail. He is only doing his job and acting out his part in the great play that is the game. Hence why when we are naming the characters track is called name the cast, and why the ending credit's theme is called curtain call. Only you the player can or make Lucas fail IMO.
Very interesting top ten, Josh. If I may, why not also do a top ten list of "Top Ten Fallen Heroes"? Cause I'm sure many would like to know which ones you think would fit in that list and how they started greatly or well as heroes but fell from grace.
This was a very intriguing top 10 list good job on it dude and it's sometimes to know that just because you're the hero in the story doesn't mean you always win sometimes you fail
You have no idea how surprised and happy I was to see I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream on this list. I loved the original short story, as bleak as it was, and while I haven't played the point-and-click game version yet, I've watched a playthrough. Such a dark game and it absolutely deserves that number 1 spot.
I’m glad that Kaede was put on the list. She tried everything she could to kill the Mastermind and put an end to the killing game. When she finds out she killed the wrong person she let the trial go on just so she can try and find the Mastermind during the trial. #KaedeDidNothingWrong!!!!
If anyone is upset with the FF14 entry, technically it CAN still work under the rules. (shadowbringers spoilers) Spoilers for Shadowbringers: Ardbert and his companions essentially failed in saving their world by being tricked into upsetting the balance of their world to badly, the majority of the world was engulfed in light, billions died, and it took 100 years, time and space travel, and yoinking of the warrior of light (Aka you) into their dimension to try and save the world.
And if you want to further add to it, Elidibus used Ardbert's body to keep the rejoining going, and pretended to be Ardbert himself to trick the people of Norvrandt
Yeah especially since those heroes killed the last boss mob and oops 95% of the world is uninhabitable for only Gaia literally knows how long(seriously you finish the raid series they basically go well be another few hundred years to get the eco systems back) and there's maybe a couple hundred people left and no crops except one tiny field in Crystarium going and a field for booze going back again in Khoulsia. No real animals that you can eat since oops most of those got turned one way or another as well and so the desert is living off nasty to normal people foods. Not to mention whole setup is well... you died and world went to anarchiac hell on an alt timeline with you being the whole reason anyone would start to hope again at all
This better not be an April Fools prank, Jasper already had his by getting a call from the MLP Legion of Doom when they're still statues (only to be tormented by Casper reading them his "autobiography"), and watching that whole Learning with Pibby broadcast on [adult swim]
@@ericb3157 yeah, I did, and it wasn't fully his fault, Voice forgot to write a script for this year's April Fools video, at least Jasper didn't rush LAST YEAR'S like he did this year, let's never forget the day The Blissy was BOOPED
Jasper Pie makes G2 Dainty Dove look the very picture of sanity by comparison, but when he opens his hay receptacle there's still a chance that something sensible will emerge (e.g. in "Witch Fairy W.I.T.C.H."). But Casper? He's got so much strudel in the noodle Jasper'd get horse colic just thinking about it.
Would Ragna the Bloodedge count? Despite being the main hero, he spent countless timeloops becoming the Black Beast that threatened the world, needed Noel's help to catch him to break the cycle, barely survived being curb stomped by Terumi only to find out that his sister was the big bad once he finally did beat him, almost lost complete control of the Azure Grimoire several times, and took a path to save the world that would brand him an enemy of the world, and his success in doing so wound up erasing himself from existence as well as the memories of everyone he knew. It's like even when he wins, he loses.
UGHHH DON'T REMIND ME! THAT MAN WHO WAS LABEL AS THE BIGGEST VILLAIN KNOWN TO MAN SAVED THE WORLD AND IN ORDER FOR EVERYONE TO EVEN HAVE A SIMPLE AND PEACEFUL LIFE HE ERASED HIS OWN EXISTENCE! WHY?!?😭😭😭😭
I have grievance about Mia's inclusion on this list, if only because Phoenix screwed up even worse. Multiple times. Yeah Mia died before she could bring Redd White to justice, but she also held on to the one clue that directly led to his comeuppance while she died, so I'd hardly call that a fail. On the other hand Phoenix has a bad ending in JFA where he gets the bad guy off the hook and he turns his back on law and justice forever, AND if you need something canon, he got desparate enough during the Gramarye trial that he ended up using forged evidence without really thinking about it enough to try and get his client off the hook, an action that not only resulted in his being disbarred and the crook going free, but also led to a downward spiral in the court system so bad that it was called "the dark age of the law".
@@CreativeWM_Personal yes, and because he did he was disbarred. To be fair, IIRC he was led by a leash right into the trap that required him to use that piece of evidence by the prosecution.
It's not just that Mia got killed trying to expose Redd White, she died without actually accomplishing what she set out to do, aka find out the truth of what happened with her mother. Phoenix has to do that for her. Phoenix might've gotten disbarred, but Zak still escaped being punished for something he didn't actually do and it wasn't like Valant was the actual culprit so at the end of the day the trial still had a better ending than 3-4, where Mia can do nothing about an innocent man being manipulated into killing himself in court. She did manage to eventually get Dahlia convicted, but it was also at the cost of her boyfriend. Mia's losses were a lot more significant than Phoenix's I feel. The worst consequence from his biggest canon failure is that he lost his job. He can't even be given full accountability for the dark age of the law because there were other factors at play for that.
Live A Live is a great example of this. In the medieval chapter, you play as Orsted, the standard knight character who's frankly overpowered for his world. He beats his best friend in a duel to marry the princess, only for the demon king to abduct her, standard stuff. Make friends and allies along the way, and take on the demon king in a pretty tough battle. Then, you have some cut scenes, square off with the demon king again in a pitifully easy battle, and discover you've been tricked into killing your own king. The result of this is your allies are captured and tortured to death, every knight in the kingdom is after your head, and all you can do is try to figure out what happened. It turns out that your best friend, a magician, was responsible for everything because he couldn't bear losing the princess at the beginning. Kill him in battle, and the princess appears and reveals that she was in love with him, killing herself in the process. Orsted then snaps, demands the power of the demon king at an alter to him, and becomes the villain behind the scenes, Odio, who every other protag in the game has been fighting throughout all of time. There's actually an option at this point to play as Orsted at this point and let him win, destroying literally everything in the process! How much greater of a failure can a hero be than to lose everything and become the ultimate villain?
"nothing... but demons..." it's incredible because Oersted had literally every single positive trait of every other hero of the game, but the world kept kicking him down until he finally simply... fell. he became exactly what the world accused him of being. in so many other stories, the "exiled demon" gains the trust back of the world by doing something grand and heroic... but he simply accepted it. that was who he was. the hatred he suffered, from his friend that loved the woman he was with and hated being lost to the hero's shadow, from his own supposed lover who secretly resented him and wished to give happiness to Straybow instead, from the kingdom that turned on him in the drop of a hat (although eventually they became justified in wanting him dead after he killed the king), to the world itself that told him that as long as one person still believed in him he had a reason to carry on, until *surgically killing off every single person that has ever worked with or cared for him* until he was truly, irrevocably alone. the beautiful quote that moved the arc was corrupted into what made him fall to ruin. there was nothing left. not a single person who was left walking on the soils of this earth was left that didn't wish him dead. True Odio was formed because everyone, EVERYONE, with not a single standing exception, hated Oersted. The power of every single horrible, negative emotion directed towards him at that moment, it was so immense that it formed a timeline destroying demon within his body. and the true moral of the story is in his words, anyone can become a demon if hatred remains existing. evil is born from hatred. evil is empowered by hatred. True Odio was too far gone to be forgiven for his sins, but if Oersted had someone left, it wouldn't even have existed. there certainly isn't a greater failure as a hero...
This was a great list and really insightful! In all honesty, I would've included Zack from Crisis Core FFVII as another entry. His life is much like Sigurd's as you mentioned, with being dealt a shit hand in life and doing what he can to fix things and persevere. In the end, he ultimately failed with his last goal of getting back to Midgar with Cloud and seeing Aerith again because Shinra screwed him over in the hardest way possible. It's absolutely sad and depressing as he's such a likeable guy and makes you root for him even with all of the terrible crap he goes through. But in the end, he even has to ask his best friend Cloud if he ever really became a hero like he wanted to be, and never really knew if he was. Just a hell of a way to go for such a beloved character, and you helped guide him through it all to end. Even if you knew of his eventual fate from OG FFVII, it's still a heartwrenching ending. In the end though, in the vein of you mentioning FFXIV in this list, a smile better suits a hero like Zack :) :(
Should there be a Fire Emblem 4 remake, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game was M-rated. To this day, that story is the darkest Fire Emblem has gotten.
I have an idea for a future list. Top 10 heroes who became villains. Heroes in a game who became a villain either along the way or in a sequel. Like Alex Mercer from Prototype.
Small correction about the Drakengard 3 segment: Zero is the only one among the intoners who *wasn't* created by the flower. Zero was originally a normal human whose mother hadn't even given her a name and sold her into prostitution when she was still young. Her colleagues later started to call her Rose. As she got older, she became more and more mentally unstable, started stealing and killing, eventually becoming a serial killer. The flower appeared when Zero was about to be executed for her crimes and revived her. Once Zero learned what the flower actually is, her attempt to destroy it led to the creation of her "sisters" as a safety measure.
Alister Azimuth from Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time is one of my favourites. Such a fallen character trying so hard to rise only to fall all the same. I'd say his story ultimately ends in failure, whether I consider him redeemed or not. He's one of my favourite video game characters of all time.
In Destiny 2: Forsaken, the Guardian (your character) fails big time, failing to save Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard, from being killed by Uldren Sov, who was under the influence of the Darkness, and the Scorn Barons, thus letting his murderers escape the Prison of Elders. This had massive consequences because it set Uldren and the Barons free, which caused a ton of problems, and left a gaping hole in the Vanguard that still hasn't been filled.
Some that come to mind: Zack - Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Nier - Nier Artorias - Dark Souls Tatsuya Suou - Persona 2 Roxas - Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Lynne - Ghost Trick
Great choice for an April fools video. 10. Yeah no surprise that this is at the bottom 9. Well this I didn't expect. But it does fit given the spectacle the original went out on. 8. Now here's a game I heard mention but didn't hear much about. Now I know plenty! 7. Heh... I've been playing Kirby and the forbidden land so I appreciate the starting joke 6. No surprises here. 5. Was someone influenced by WiiDude83? 4. Can we please get a remake of this game? Heroes ain't enough! 3. Spoiled in the title card 2. Thy rage has emerged from the worst ending in gaming 1. Dang. Some point and click adventures are scary! Wow. Some I knew about, some I didn't. A good mix if I may say so.
To be fair towards number 3, these lists have often used thumbnail, pre-list footage, and whatever's playing between entries whether they make the list or not.
Dayum, this has to he the least fitting video for April Fools lol. Anyways, one of my favorite failed heroes has to be The Protagonist/Nier from Nier Replicant. As we eventually learn, Nier’s actions throughout the entire game have been less heroic than you think. *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NIER REPLICANT BELOW* Being that even if he just wanted to save his sister/daughter, he unknowingly slaughters plenty of innocent Shades, the main enemies of the game which you eventually learn were actually former humans, and the current people living on earth are Replicants, basically human-like copies. Humans were originally meant to be transferred into these new bodies until Replicants gained sentience and rejected them. And so it turns out that the main antagonist of the game, the Shadowlord, is actually the original protagonist as well as the original Shade that the rest were derived from. And by killing him you essentially doom humanity for good by causing the remaining Shades to lose their minds as a result of his death. And if you think that’s bad, in ending D, the OG game’s true ending, Nier sacrifices himself to save Kainé and ends up erasing himself from existence as a result. So overall, Nier is the perfect example of a failed hero and proof of Yoko Taro’s writing genius, and I’d be mighty surprised if he wasn’t included in this list due to Josh talking about their Nier/Drakengard series multiple times in the past.
He included One from Drakengard 3 instead of the protag from NieR. One isn't the protagonist, she's one of the antagonists. Even though she is morally good she's still one of the antagonists. Also Josh got a few. things wrong with DG3. Zero was the original incarnation of the flower, the original goddess but when Zero learned of her fate to destroy the world and bring forth the watchers she attempted suicide by stabbing her heart. It failed and the flower parasite on her heart moved to her eye and her power was split into 6 fragments creating One through Six. Zero wants to kill all the fragments and then herself for good which only a dragon can do destroying her completely. But she fails due to her dragon refusing to kill her due to his innocent and her becoming the Queen from DF1 who dooms not one but two worlds. (at least in the true ending timelines) The world is actually fine in the DG1 ending A timeline which leads to DG2 which is a lot lighter in tone and more "anime" than the other games with all 3 endings having a overall happy ending. NieR Automata is the only REAL game (aka one written by Taro) in the series with a hopeful true ending, with the androids inheriting the earth and humanity's legacy free from the Yorha program's control and ready to fight the dark gods if they ever return.
Not only that, but the _other_ Nier could have just as well qualified for this list. Not only did you play as him first of all, but he too sacrificed everything in an attempt to save what mattered most to him, and failed in the end.
Hard to blame Nier for killing the Shades when the only person who knows they have humanity is Kaede, who isn't inclined to trust them thanks to the Shade in her body. Both Replicants and Shades killing each other so their kind can survive.
@@ArcCaravan Oh yeah, I’m not saying that Nier was necessarily in the wrong for his actions, but that he’s a failed hero since said actions only ended up doing more harm than good in the end. Years before Undertale even came along, it was a deconstruction of the age-old JRPG trope where you just see enemies as mindless monsters to cut down.
@@amirgarcia547 I understand what the game tried going for regarding moral ambiguity, but I don't think Nier qualifies as a failed hero since his only goal was saving his sister and then Kaede while protecting his fellow replicants along the way. He never cared about saving the shades and the replicants seem fine on their own afterwards. A hero can succeed while other people suffer without intentionally ruining lives.
A game I'm pretty sure Josh hasn't played, but one I'd put on the list is Solar Ash. The whole game is about you failing to save your world and coming to grips with that failure and its a huge failure. But it gives a good message, Instead of trying to constantly fix what is forever broken, rebuild with the pieces you have left. Really underrated game.
I feel from the point of view of philosophy of game-making, a failed hero provides an interesting issue: the "fate" of the player is to win the game. The player may try many times, but in the end, he's "fated" to win the game. So, if one wants to tackle this question, it can provide either a "is *this* victory?" kind of ending or an ending where you don't win - but, in both cases, from a gameplay point of view, you still "won" because you reached the ending. I feel the Wander approached most of an ending where this "fate" is possibly avoided because he fights until he's defeated by the NPCs. Is there any other game that does something like that? In which the NPCs "defeat" the player during the gameplay and it's not a game over bad ending?
As an alternate number 9 that's still from Final Fantasy XIV, may I recommend the humble Ardbert and his fellow Warriors of Darkness. Before getting into the nitty-gritty, let's sum things up as succinctly as possible without spoiling things TOO much. By Ardbert's own words, in reference to just how bad their situation got: "We did everything RIGHT, everything that was asked of us, and still - STILL it came to this!" So, to go down the list (Spoilers for late-Heavensward and Shadowbringers): The lot of them were adventurers, much like the player character, and they sought to save their world against whatever threats intended to cause trouble, including two Ascians. In doing so, they had unintentionally doomed their world - with no darkness to balance it, the light began to destroy everything in it's path. In order to even make it to Eorzea to potentially kill the Warrior of Light (read: you) to fix their world, Ardbert in particular had to kill his fellow Warriors - his friends - and then himself, burdened with the knowledge that if they failed, not only would their world be lost, Ardbert would have killed his closest friends for nothing. But after fighting the WoL, they get assistance from Hydaelyn - resident Top Goddess of the setting and all-around well-meaning lass - to stop the flood of light. All's fine and good, right? Come Shadowbringers... no. No it isn't. Upon returning to their homeland - known as The First from Shadowbringers onward - four of them effectively have to give up their souls to assist Hydaelyn in stopping the Flood. Ardbert attempts to aid as well, but Hydaelyn basically tells him he needs to survive. Ardbert's soul then spends the next 100 years (time dilation is a hell of a thing apparently) wandering what little remains of his homeland - unable to be seen, unable to aid people, all the while wondering just why Hydaelyn spared him. On top of that, his friend's bodies have all been taken over by the Light - emerging as powerful Sin Eaters (demons, but Light-themed) known as the Cardinal Virtues. And, while Ardbert by this point is effectively gone as an autonomous soul (the specifics of which I won't be getting into), his body ends up being hijacked down the line by an Ascian - who poses as him and tries to re-kickstart the end of his world.
i feel like after Endwalker, we can also include Hydaelyn herself as a failed hero. Despite gaining future knowledge of the Final Days from us (long story), she has to stay alone with this knowledge for an astoundingly large amount of time. The most she was able to do is delay the inevitable long enough for us to bring a real end to the Final Days, but even then the Final Days returned long enough to cause tragedy to the world (people's souls essentially being erased by dynamis and all). The saddest part is her soul doesn't return to the lifestream, she completely offers her aether as fuel to even reach Meteion. So she will never even come back in another life to the world that will eventually be saved. But she also knew she was gonna fail and never lost hope anyways
I would've thought one of the Dragon Quest games be on this list. DQ 8 and 5 in particular have amazing stories about everything going horribly wrong before the protagonists could stop the true villain from gaining/regaining their power.
Honestly the biggest example of a failed hero that I know of is one that most people forget that even happened. Meet none other than the Doomguy the man that sacrificed everything all for his home, his people, his family all for not even to matter in the end. One thing that most people forget about is his earth was never saved it still got ravaged by demons. His family, his friends and everybody from his home world later on became the energy that flows through his body or the demons he fights. His home world assimilated by hell. I really do find it funny how much people don’t even know how tragic his story is. It wasn’t just his rabbit that died it was everybody that he knew before his life became perpetual torment and this fight became eternal.
I feel like most of these are tragic heroes or fallen heroes rather than failed heroes, since most of them accomplished their goals, even if it was later than they thought, or by trusting them to other person
When a hero fails, it's never a good sign. And do you want to know something? There are moments in a series history where the events of a bad ending *did* happen. For me, the biggest example is the Conquest Ending for HyperDimension Neptunia MkII/Re;Birth 2. Why do I mention that game? Well in HyperDimension Neptunia VII the same Cursed Blade from MkII/Re;Birth 2's bad ending makes a shocking re-appearance with even the description for the Cursed Blade wondering how the hell it even got here to begin with. Although the easiest answer is NG+ shenanigans affecting future games. (Which to some can be considered the laziest answer too.)
After reading this, it reminds me of another game, Shadow Hearts 2. This sequel is actually following the *bad ending* from the first game. And you know what is the weirdest part? SPOILERS At the ending of Shadow Hearts 2, Yuri the MC, travelled back in time to the first game's event, with all the knowledge fully intact, and from there, he went and earned his happy ending. It is even evident in Shadow Hearts 3, where it continues off from the 1st game's good ending.
Spoilers: I'm surprised that Oersted from Live-A-Live had no mention (though I suppose that means there's plenty of delicious options to choose from :3). Dude was a chivalrous knight that ended up giving up everything for his kingdom and betrothed princess, fighting demons and even being betrayed by his best friend. Such is his tragedy that the only little spark of hope left was the words of another friend, that as long as there's one single person who still believes in him, he couldn't give up. Sooooooo the princess that he was betrothed to ended up falling in love with the best friend that betrayed him and committed sudoku right in front of him, and this is AFTER all of the rest of the kingdom either died or turned their backs on him. So our valiant knight becomes the embodiment of hatred and in one ending *destroys the world in multiple timelines* Yikes.
Sigurd honestly breaks my heart so much, just, trying to hard and reaching the point where your death will not be even cared by the person you loved. I mean I know Deidre was brainwashed but, she never blamed Arvis for what happened. The guy killed her husband, essentially used her to bear children...and she doesn't have a pinch of hate for the guy I mean I get she is good but, honestly? That's just cruel towards Sigurd, I know it's cruel to say but...what an absolute bitch
The BBQ of Belhalla getting recognition as the tragedy of Sigurd unfolds... And the battle between Seliph and Julius takes stage as well... Two recent countdowns talking about FE 4, is it a coincidence? 😁
25:38-25:46 Spoliers Good news for Harlan Ellison, Germany took care of that for him by removing Nimdok's scenario.... but not any of his event flags, so the German version of that game really is Unwinnable.
@@jaylorts1608 dude you do know that I have no mouth and i must scream does not have jumpscares in them right also its ok if you don't like horror just don’t except everyone to stop consuming it just because you don’t like it
I feel like the Torna The Golden Country cast should have made the list I mean they did stop Malos but in the end he didn’t stay down and Torna fell and Team Lora especially deserves a mention
Another good example of a group of failed heroes is the Flame Chasers from Honkai Impact 3rd. From the ashes of one society, another one took its place.
Spellforce, let's see : As the Phoenix Bearer, you -fail to warn good guy #1 Rohen of his impending doom -let the order of world-saving knights be whiped out -hand over the mask of Belial to the master necromancer's spirit (that won't bite you in the ass later) -let the ultimate history book and the last piece of the time machine be stolen from you -fail to prevent the BBEG from jumping back in time. As the Carrier of the Shadow Blade, you -get duped into releasing the Devil -keep meeting this weird masked guy who's very helpful and into necromancy -take the Shadow Blade that will slowly turn you into a monster -lead your army into an unwinable siege (you get miraculous help and win) -Kill the devil, which doesn't stop the end of the world -you DO save the world (but someone else has to finish the job) -get duped by the necromancer into attempting to kill the last Dryad. As either in the third campaign, you put a final end to the Circle of Mages lead by the necromancer. In doing so you dispel the magic of the Rune that made you immortal... And eventually the magic of the portals that keeps the world connected... Oops
I really don’t like how each entry in this list just reveals that almost all these failed heroes accomplished their goals. It makes them more tragic than anything rather than someone who utterly failed. I feel only the top 4 really live up to it.
I'd say many of the player characters in Eternal Darkness qualify. They might have succeeded had their foes not been Eldritch Horror's, but those horror's wouldn't have even had a foothold in the material world if not for Pious Augustus, the Roman centurion we first play as, being seduced by the promises of power from the three gods, becaming their Lich servant for over millennium. He's directly responsible for the demise of a significant number of the other player characters. Confounding the matter is how the gameplay translates him being the only professional soldier in the cast by having Pious be the only one without a sanity meter. Meaning he wasn't mentally worn down into obeying one of the trio, he willingly submitted.
1:48 That Steven Universe analogy was deep. I mean seriously, the poor guy nearly died multiple times and witnessed many of his friends getting killed, one of which by his own hands.
Artorias the Abysswalker tried to fight against the Abyss, in direct solo combat (with his wolf), but failed at every turn. And then he was corrupted and kinda lost his mind. But hey, I guess he was able to protect his wolf, even if we had to save her.
Huh. I was expecting either Tetra, Aqua and Ventus (Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep), or the protagionist from NieR: Gestalt / Replicant to be on this list.
@@amirgarcia547 Technically they succeeded. The Shades were never their goal, just saving their sister. And the Shadowlord probably falls under the "no villains" rule.
Say Josh, have you played Neo: TWEWY yet? Without spoiling much about it, I can say the the hero team in that game fail quite a bit, but due to gameplay mechanics, they always fix it... I can consider them like an honorary 11th pick for this list. And technically, Crono from Chrono Trigger is a failed hero, for... Reasons.
@@thatdarnseel7052 But if it's canon that he's revived, it still counts as reviving them. Otherwise a bunch of heroes would be failed heroes for having at least 1 non-canon bad ending.
I've got a few, all of which vary in legitimacy. Asriel (and by extension, Chara) from Undertale. This is admittedly pretty borderline, but they had a plan to free all of monster kind, but Asriel's refusal to fight back cost them their lives, the marriage between Toriel and Asgore, and pretty much caused the events of the game. If it wasn't for Frisk's determination, Asriel wouldn't have been able to come back to life for a brief time and destroy the barrier. Monika from DDLC. This is a stretch since she's the closest thing the game has to an antagonist. However, I'm mainly talking about Acts 3 and 4. When you delete her, she sees the error of her ways and attempts to rebuild the world... Only for Sayori to take on her controlling ways. So she instead drops a nuke so no one will have to know the pain of self-awareness again. Mario from Mario The Music Box Arc. Yeah, this is a fan-game, but I still think it works. Mario has 2 goals: To escape Evangeline and to free himself from Alice, a spirit possessing him. Problem is, he never truly succeeds. Mario does become free from Alice, which also allows Riba to be free from her, but in the 3 endings where Mario lives, he either ends up stuck in limbo, giving in to power and becoming king of a fictional land that continues a cycle that has previous incarnation has been trying to escape, or [it was all a dream].
This is how I portray Karsus at my D&D games. Anchent archmage who tried to save his people. While not a hero or a good person necessarily, he was the only person to try and save the Netherese after his mentor and several other powerful wizards abandoned the empire. He took on the mantle of leadership when nobody else would, and while he was ill suited for it he was the only one left to do so. No matter his personal flaws, what happened to the Netherese was not a fate he or they deserved
Some great unexpected entries. And nice criteria as always. Here's some picks I have, though they may be a bit too anti-heroic. Fuka Kazamatsuri from Disgaea 4. While the main story heavily implies the protagonists and Earth will be destroyed by aliens and/or gods, Fuka in particular loses in her DLC campaign by getting barred from reincarnation (or "waking up from her nightmare") and is stuck in her predicament forever. Wario from Wario Land: Shake It. Saving the Shake Dimension so he can get a bag of infinite coins, it and all the gold from it are stolen by Captain Syrup leaving him with nothing to show for it. Kisuke from Muramasa Rebirth. A ninja who changed sides for his girlfriend, he is unable to be with her in any of the endings (either reincarnating after taking his own life, serving her sister hunting cursed swords in her memory, or going back in time to steal the demon sword that started his plot).
Since the Fate franchise started as a VN, I want to mention Shiro Emiya. Not the protagonist, but the Servant he becomes. Shiro spent his whole life with the goal of becoming a hero who would save everyone in front of him, no exceptions. And given that chance, it's no surprise he took it. Faced with the death of people due to a calamity, he made a contract with the Earth itself to save them, agreeing to become a hero who would serve even after his death. And what did he get? Branded a traitor to humanity and hung by a noose, and forced by his contract to continue his existence effectively as the Earth's assassin, slaughtering rather than saving the people who threatened humanity's survival. And that broke him inside, causing him to doubt himself to the point he decided on the twisted conclusion to kill his previous self, to never be given the chance to become a hero. Of course, by attempting to kill protag Shiro, he inadvertently caused his past self to become the hero he sought to destroy. Like the saying goes, "A person often meets his destiny on the path he took to avoid it." So it technically worked out alright for him, but the path that led him to becoming a hero was rigged against him the whole time. Ain't that a bitch?
And then there's nameless from the Extraverse-games. He literally comes from a world that doesn't even exist anymore because he failed to protect it. That's a big F.
Because they eat up memes and essays made by elitists with a one-sided view, and played along with the meme just to be cool instead of experiencing the story themselves and coming to their own conclusion.
Around #2: He's come with a glorious purpose ........................ to help ruin this game with the ending. I'm actually glad I rewatched Worst Endings to understand the number placement and Josh's frustration.
in the Breath of the Wild entry... remember, the 4 Divine Beasts themes hide an SOS withing their music, for all but Revalis, is at the start, for Revali, near the loop part thats a good top 10 too, 10 hidden easter eggs in music, things of that nature, or how the Prelude exist in many FF themes, as in withing other tracks other than the Prelude, for example, in FF XIV, the Collab event with Nier Automata, one part of the boss theme, is the Prelude
And now a list of the top 10 best pecs in gaming: 1: Zangief 2: Iron Bull 3: Reinhardt (overwatch) 4: Rock (soul calibur) 5: Barret Wallace 6: Kimahri Ronso 7: Thrall (warcraft) 8: Chris Redfield 9: Jax (mortal kombat) 10: King (tekken) DO THE LIST, RESPECT THE PEC! 🧰
Discovered your channel recently and I was like “YES!!” when I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was Number 1. Also cool to see someone talk about Mother 3 given that I have recently started playing it yesterday at the time I make this comment. Overall great video, looking forward to watching your other content
Fun fact: the beginning of the I Have No Mouth segment is a fan made animation by Sean the Artist. A book trailer basically but it looks a bit like a Peter Chung cartoon and was pretty good.
Final fantasy 6 basically. The world is doomed after what kefka did. Cloud could count if we take the prequel in account or the sequel movie as he can't do much right then. Tales of series Luke. He failed but kept on going where the biggest plot twist in other games or anime is just the start of his journey. Fire emblem technically Corrin as he gets his family killed a lot of the time. But Lucina works with chrom as they failed the first time against grima. That game Daisy I think was it. The main dude was a broken man who became the monster to save the girl he took care of. Sad as he did was he thought was right. Pokemon N as he was tricked his entire life and only turned in the sequel but the original story alone we see how far he went thinking he was the hero only to be a pawn to the villain. God of war kratos cutting people and gods down as well as letting go of his daughter and killing his family or not saving them like his brother and mother. Meta wise if the sequel is wokazied Kingdom hearts guess Terra as he fell to darkness and Roxas before kh3 happened Captain price from call of duty. Loses so many of his men especially soap who was us to take down the bad guys. Gacha game ones. Fgo us. The world goes to fire or salt immediately in the story.
I've been comparing Siggy and Dee to Prince Philip and Aurora for at least two years now, so while it was a different Disney couple I'm glad someone else sees it
Kaede being a failed hero also has a bit more to it. Spoilers for those who haven't played V3 or reached the final case, but...... Kaede wasn't the killer. The iron ball she used to kill Rantaro actually missed him. When in actuality the mastermind behind this killing game actually snuck up behind Rantaro, caved his skull in with another polo ball, killing him instantly, and the stole both polo ball Kaede used and Rantaro's Survival tablet to both start the Killing Game and to prevent anyone from knowing that Rantaro was a champion in the 52nd Danganronpa Killing Game. She then hid the evidence in the secret room, (but for some reason decided not to destroy the evidence,) and then framed Kaede for Rantaro's murder. And then to make matters worst, before Kaede was executed, she made everyone who was still alive to both end this killing game and for Shuichi to save everyone..... Too bad that when the Killing Game was finished, only 3 of the 16 students were still alive. This is especially tragic considering that, according to the rules that Monokuma created, when there are 2 remaining students in this Killing Game, the game is over, since it's virtually impossible for 2 people to have a trial. So knowing that, having one additional survivor, despite them suppose to end with only 2 winners, is both more tragic and inexcusable.
Man, it is a crime that Live A Live's Oersted isn't on this list. Goes on a whole adventure to save his fiancee, only to be met by the death of his comrades, tricked into murdering his king, animosity and hatred from his kingdom, betrayal from his best friend, and witnessing the suicide of his fiancee, after she reveals she had fallen in love with the best friend he had just struck down in self-defense. All culminating in him becoming the true final boss of the game, Odio. It's such a tragic tale of someone TRYING to do the right thing, only for everything to go wrong.
Tbh when I heaed FF be mentioned, my mind went to Freya Crescent from IX (note I haven't finished the vid yet). (MAJOR SPOILERS) While not totally a failed hero (she did help save the world from Kuja and Necron) she still failed to protect her home kingdom, Burmecia, and failed to protect Cleyra. And while she does succeed in finding Fratley, he sadly had amnesia. Even during the epilogue she laments amount Fratley not regaining his memories and has doubts about the future of Burmecia.
hearing that song, that one song, as you talk in the intro, i was like "ooh nononono not that song, anything but that heartrenching depressing tune!" it fits but still!
I think the reason most people are so quick to dismiss Wander as a foolish hunter who got duped so easily by a demon is because we don't know the significance Mono represents to him. Thus we don't know fully why he wants to bring her back to life so much.
The thing about the Seventh Umbral Calamity in FFXIV is that yeah, the world persevered, but the damage was still incredible, to the point many places were left in complete ruins (like the place in which the battle from the cutscene took place - Cartenau). Still, I believe the number nine is a good place for it. Ah, but there's another, much better example in FFXIV for this list - but it's in Shadowbringers.
Those jokes are honestly toxic as hell. Like yeah, it's to be expected that a community would make fun of events in a game, but with how FE4 is not known by a lot of people, they can get a pretty poor impression seeing fans of the game mock that scene rather than value it for what it is.
A couple of mine in no particular order: Liu Bei from Dynasty Warriors - Aimed to build a nation of BENEVOLENCE!!!! But ended up doing the opposite. It took his son to achieve that goal, but not many are happy with the outcome. Hideyoshi Toyotomi from Samurai Warriors - Same as Liu Bei, but difference is Hideyoshi actually succeeded in his goal, but his failure is sustaining that goal, and this all crumbles down after he died without a worthy successor. Sophitia and Cassandra Alexendria from Soul Calibur 4 - Wanted to protect their loved ones, but ended up with one dead and the other experiencing a lifetime of torture. Hopefully the rebooted timeline can have a better future for the both of them + their family. Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series - How many times does his actions made things from bad to worst, and to actually fix everything, the whole timeline need to be erased and rebuild again? Jr from the Xenosaga series - Jr was born combat U-DO, however due to fear, he chickened out, which led to many bad things happened, including turning his twin, Albedo, into a psychopath. Mythra/Hikari from Xenoblade 2, more specifically Torna the Golden Country - She manages to use her powers to defeat Malos, and save Alrest, but at what cost?
I feel like another thing that hurts The Champions of Hyrule’s case is that Age of Calamity exists. I know it’s an alternate timeline that isn’t properly canon. It still exists and shows a world where they did survive and succeed in beating Calamity Ganon. Also, I have no sympathy for Lucas because his case was avoidable through something as easy as not pulling that damn needle.
If Lucas didn’t pull the needle, then the Dark Dragon would’ve still awakened on its own and destroyed the world in the process. But by doing so himself, he at least still gave the chance to save the world.
@@amirgarcia547 No they wouldn’t. The Dragon only wakes up once all 8 needles are pulled. And the only ones who can pull it are those that know PK Love. A technique that is known only by the twins… And the brainwashed evil one got electrocuted to death less than a minute earlier.
Well…technically wander isn’t a failed hero. Fun fact connecting shadow and ico. Wander gets possessed and reverted back to a baby, ending up with all his memories when he grows up…and Mono waits for him to grow up to renew their relationship. Ico’s protag is their descendant
I think Cole Phelps from "LA Noire" is the prime example of this trope in writing, and he absolutly should've been on this list. Cole went into WW2 with the hope of earning glory, only to almost die and getting a recommondation for just sitting in a trench, frozen by fear after one of his friends gets literally blown to pieces right next to him. Then a squad led by him accidentally murders a hospital full of Japanese civilians, which led to one of his friends going insane due to the guilt (because Cole directly ordered him to go in there with a flamethrower) and another one just shooting Cole in a fit of rage afterwards which forced a man named Jack Kelso, who Cole villified the entire time he was in the military, to save him and force everyone involved to never talk about that incident. Jump ahead a few years later, and Cole, who was both happily married, got children and regarded as a war hero at this point, decided to become an police-officer in L.A. to make up for everything he did. And he became an amazing case man solving multiple murders, saving many lives and even finding out who the infamous Black Dahlia Killer is - Until all of this gets taken away from him within the blink of an eye. It turns out almost every person Cole brought behind bars was actually innocent because he fell for wrong evidences planted by the real killer, who he also cannot bring to justice because he gets protected by a high ranking politician. His private life gets turned inside and out when his partner, a corrput cop, airs his dirty laundry about having an affair with a German singer and known addict, Elsa Lichtmann, when he comes to close to a gigantic conspiracy about real estate. He gets divorced, and he potentially has to even go to prison for his affair while his career is in shambles. BUt, despite of it, Cole doesn't let up and still works on this conspiracy case in secret, which even makes it so he has to work with Jack Kelso again, who then worked as an investigator for an district atthorney. Ultimatly, him and Jack would stop the villains from succeeding, but it was all for naught. None of the conspirators gets prosecuted for their crimes, and Cole himself even has to sacrifice his life at the end to save both Elsa and Jack, leaving all of his final work for nothing. If this doesn't check the boxes for a failed hero, I don't know what does.
11:07 it also is kind of sad because...well, her mother channeled a dead man who didn't know who really killed him, so while Misty's technique WORKED It ultimately would come under scrutiny because the man accused was actually innocent of the crime.
FFXIV is my favorite game so thanks for including it. Also, just mentioning it, but the Warrior of Light becomes so powerful by the end of Endwalker that they are well above any other Final Fantasy protagonist in terms of strength. They could be considered on of the most powerful video game protagonists ever.
Speaking of Star Wars, I think an good of a failed hero is the protagonist in knight of the old republic. Spoilers: Even in the light side, the Jedi order is exhausted and near wipe out, also in the books they failed and become trap in frozen caspulte and become Revan again. There also there backstory in which as Revan they fought the mandorlian’s invasion, but got corrupt by the dark side and decide to all Sith Lord.
I hope you're not suggesting that Aerith failed when her death gave her access to the Lifestream. In the end, she couldn't have won if she hadn't died.
I know the lip-sync is off; seems to have been an error in uploading.
@@jaylorts1608 F E A R H I M
Come on man
You can do yknow the thing
What is the ost or soundtrack for the countdowns, I love it, can anyone tell me the what it's called.
I thought it was just me!
Huh. After the "a Danganronpa fan is editing this" text, I thought that was intentional to make you look silly.
I’m surprised; Mono from Little Nightmares 2 wasn’t on this list.
He’s a kid wanting to survive/escape the horrors of his world. Along the way, he found and rescued Six. Together, they navigated the pale city trying to flee it. Six saved Mono from the tv’s a few times, Mono saved her quite a bit too. Hell they even got the upper hand and slew a couple of the monsters.
But then the Thin Man came, spiriting Six to the Signal Tower.
Mono, not wanting to leave his friend behind, heads to the tower himself, killing the Thin Man with a power similar to theirs. He scales the tower, finding Six turned into a monster herself, trapped in a prison of her own making. Mono breaks the music box that kept her trapped, returning her to normal. The peace doesn’t last as the walls turn to flesh and eyes, chasing the two down. Only one portal remains open, on the other side of a crumbling bridge. Six makes it to the other side while Mono, exhausted from his fights, makes a final leap across the widening gap. Six, like many times before, catches him by the ledge.
…
…
But she doesn’t pull him up; she drops him into the abyss.
Mono survived the fall, landing on flesh that took the form of an empty room of smooth walls and a single chair in the center. It’s not clear how much time passed, but as he sat there, he turned into the Thin Man. He WAS the Thin Man.
What sucks for Mono is that he did everything right. Never leaving his friend behind, barely surviving the horrors of the world, going above and beyond putting the needs of someone else before his own. And his reward? Being betrayed by his only friend and turning into the thing he destroyed, waiting to meet the same fate. Mono’s story is one of an unending cycle, an actual nightmare.
It’s true what they say; no good deed ever goes unpunished.😞
time loops are a bitch
Little nightmares are great games overall and I do agree that mono would of been perfect for this with the endless cycle of fate he goes through.
Basically what I got from the ending of little nightmares 2 was don't trust anyone because they'll abandon you and leave you for dead
I agree. His fate in game could have at least been in the honorable mentions.
But maybe he will do another Video about betrayel, since the story fits more in that category
@@anyathepanther7977 yeah. Cuz technically he achieved his goal. Get to the end. Unfortunately, he was betrayed at the moment of freedom.
10. What makes Revali's death even more tragic is that there is a chance that he wasn't even a full adult when he died. Those spots on his cheeks? The only other Rito to have them are the children! Strong case for him being a juvenile trying to prove himself.
9. Your rant about this game, and this cutscene in particular, is what got me into this game. I love it so much!
6. Poor Wander. This is why you don't make deals with demons. At least, not without reading the fine print.
4. Poor Sigurd. Arvis really screwed the pooch with this move.
3. Lucas deserved better.
1. Well, that's one game I'm never playing.
Technically, Lucas isn't a failed hero considering that in Mother 3's true ending, everyone is still alive and they're going to rebuild the world w/ the Dragon's help. (It's been confirmed that if the Masked Man's nothingness had been passed onto the Dragon, then everyone would've died and the world would've ended)
That's debatable. It's basically a players point of view whether Lucas actually does succeed or not.
@@shadowlinkbds Considering how the end credits go and the fact that he was able to make into Smash Bros w/ Kumatora and Boney supporting him, yeah I refuse to believe that everyone died
@@jaylorts1608 I heard about it in a video once and I looked it up online
@@jaylorts1608 Yeah.
So this is confirmed
Another thing I feel that keeps the Champions of Hyrule at the bottom of the list is Age of Calamity. In that alternate timeline they survived thanks to Terrako sending warriors from the future to save them. It's a alternate timeline as they don't die but that's all the more that leads to them being at the bottom of the list. They get to achieve it but again, that's a alternate timeline where many things worked out instead of the normal things happening.
With Tears of the Kingdom out and the realization of what originated Calamity Ganon.... I wonder how they would've had to handle it.
SPOILERS:
The real tragic part about Kaede's death is that she didn't even kill anyone. The culprit in the first murder was the master mind. This is brought to light in the game's final trial and Shuichi uses this fact to expose the master mind and prove that the killing game is a sham because the master mind didn't play by the established rules.
Stop reminding me!😭
It's even worse when you do Kaede's hotel scene and we would have had our first healthy DR couple if Kaede had lived! *Doesn't want to acknowledge a certain pair in DR3 anime Future Arc*
preach! seriously in my opinion tsumugi was the most obvious mastermind. like the moment you introduce a cosplayer, there are going to be people who go 'that cosplayer is the mastermind!'
@@macaylacayton2915 Not to mention among the first things she says in the game is about Doraemon, ya know, a character that shared voice actor with Monokuma. That ALONE shoulda given it away for many.
Well let's be honest... the fact she confessed... makes me wonder if the "master mind" was just fixing an error she made.
After all physics are evil. Especially in space
18:02 Sigurd's Father doesn't get executed, he dies in Sigurd's arms. Which honestly makes it worse.
That's only if you make it to him in time. He can die from his pursuers if you let them catch up to him.
Well not a countdown I expect for April fool's day but you could say when the heroes don't end up being successful after all they have done it is considered "a different joke". As in a cruel one.
It would definitely amount to a cruel joke if the hero is deemed The Chosen One or the one to expel evil from the world. Maybe honorable mention for the Link from Ocarina of Time that died thus his death led to the Fallen Hero Timeline.
Other Failed Heroes that I think should have been on this list:
*•* Otus from Owlboy (everything he did to help, only ended up accomplishing nothing or backfiring on him and friends)
*•* Detective Ayami Ito from Tokyo Dark (there is no happy ending for her)
*•* Rean Schwarzer from Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2 and 3 (he gets the win in 4 but only after ultimately losing in the three games’ endings before)
*•* Big Boss from the Metal Gear Franchise (his attempts to fight against the Patriots/US Governments sorta made things worse for everyone and everything)
*•* Walker from Spec Ops: The Line (really surprised he didn’t make the list)
*•* Mono from Little Nightmares 2
*•* Brad from LISA: The Painful RPG
*•* Henry Stein from Bendy and the Ink Machine
*•* and The Detective from Disco Elysium
Some of these endings seem more like heroes who lose and fail a lot but ultimately win or succeed by the end. Even if it's just in one of multiple endings.
What about artorias from dark souls, he was tasked to stop the abyss from spreading but was destroyed by Manus and succumbed to the abyssal corruption.
To me a good failed hero is one who's been making small wins and improvements throughout the game, a fighter who looks like he or she might actually win in the end, only to fail right when victory seemed to be in sight. Done right, that can be utterly heartbreaking.
The true meaning of despair. Something someone like Junko Enoshima could only ever dream of achieving
May not fit here perfectly but...
"There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending. They’ll never know if their sacrifice actually made any difference. They’ll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.
Aint that a bitch."
Great quote and ending there. Granted that isn't the hero actually failing, just not being able to enjoy whatever success happens in person.
@@ArcCaravan well in my mind the quote, paraphrased as it is, is meant to show that the heroes who sacrifice themselves in a last ditch attempt to stop the bad guy(s) have no idea if they succeeded
By the sound of that entry "I have no mouth and I must scream" should be changed and translated to "You have no hope and you must fail".
*SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF THE BOOK*
Here's the reason the book has this name. It's from the ending of the book:
“I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet ... AM has won, simply ... he has taken his revenge ... I have no mouth. And I must scream.”
I can think of a true failed hero. The Hollow Knight from ... well, Hollow Knight.
When the Pale King, a god like greater being who was both founder and ruler of the kingdom of Hallownest saw the return of the Goddess of Light (Radiance) and the terrible vengeance she would inflict upon the world for daring to forget her in the first place, he came up with a plan to try and prevent it from happening. Hundreds, if not thousands of his children were born and infused with the void in order to create a being that could work as a vessel to seal away a god; No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering. The logic being that without these things, there would be nothing for the Radiance to be able to corrupt and twist in order to break free of her prison. Thousands of 'Vessels' were born/created, but only one was deemed perfect for the Pale King's purposes who he called the Hollow Knight.
The Pale King raised the Hollow Knight and viewed him as as his son (which... to be fair, he was). This... proved to be the mistake the undid the whole endeavor. Because of the time they spent together, the Hollow Knight formed a bond with the Pale King and viewed him as his father and wanted to make him proud by doing what needed to be done to protect the Kingdom of Hallownest... a flaw that allowed the Radiance to exert influence outside of the seal and physically corrupt the Hollow Knight in turn.
By the time the player reaches Hollow Knight the Radiance has long corrupted him and he is largely it's puppet... but even then, during the boss fight, there was moments where the Hollow Knight will turn their weapon and start attacking themselves, inflicting damage to themself in the process. Suggesting that even after who knows how long, the Hollow Knight still wants to fulfill their duty... and make their father proud.
In a way, the Pale King himself fits the mould. He sacrificed *everything* to stop the radiance.
@@avatarofaiyel Maybe, but the Pale King did kind of put most of the sacrifices on other people, not himself.
True enough.
The Mother 3 ending is a complicated one but I think this fan theory should set the record straight. So, Like all Mother games. Mother 3 makes you use your own name, and you the player are as much a part of the game as Lucas is, and you are more or less seen as a god. Hence why you confirm your name for the rest of the game at a church or building of seemingly great religious significance.
We are told that the dragon that hatches will take on the wishes and desires of the heart of the one who pulled the last needle. So what if the ending we see is not Lucas's wish but YOU the players hearts wish instead?
This makes a ton of sense considering how every one in the black room in the ending thanks you specifically and tells you specifically that they are ok even if they could be all dead. So really it is up to you the player to determine if the ending was good or not. Lucas can't technically fail. He is only doing his job and acting out his part in the great play that is the game. Hence why when we are naming the characters track is called name the cast, and why the ending credit's theme is called curtain call. Only you the player can or make Lucas fail IMO.
What makes it worse about Sigurd's situation is that Arvis and Deirdre are half-siblings. So big oof there.
Very interesting top ten, Josh. If I may, why not also do a top ten list of "Top Ten Fallen Heroes"? Cause I'm sure many would like to know which ones you think would fit in that list and how they started greatly or well as heroes but fell from grace.
Would be an interesting list. I can already think of one that’ll be pretty relevant soon…
@@angel-of-light-kelly1355 I can bet Arthas would be on that one, just like the liked characters we're supposed to hate
@@davidtimmer596 true, he would be on there. There are lots of qualified characters, so there will probably be an honourable mentions.
Big Boss, definitely.
And maybe Xehanort, depending on how Dark Road goes.
Live a Live's Oersted is a good example of Fallen Hero.
This was a very intriguing top 10 list good job on it dude and it's sometimes to know that just because you're the hero in the story doesn't mean you always win sometimes you fail
You have no idea how surprised and happy I was to see I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream on this list. I loved the original short story, as bleak as it was, and while I haven't played the point-and-click game version yet, I've watched a playthrough. Such a dark game and it absolutely deserves that number 1 spot.
I’m glad that Kaede was put on the list. She tried everything she could to kill the Mastermind and put an end to the killing game. When she finds out she killed the wrong person she let the trial go on just so she can try and find the Mastermind during the trial. #KaedeDidNothingWrong!!!!
If anyone is upset with the FF14 entry, technically it CAN still work under the rules. (shadowbringers spoilers)
Spoilers for Shadowbringers:
Ardbert and his companions essentially failed in saving their world by being tricked into upsetting the balance of their world to badly, the majority of the world was engulfed in light, billions died, and it took 100 years, time and space travel, and yoinking of the warrior of light (Aka you) into their dimension to try and save the world.
And if you want to further add to it, Elidibus used Ardbert's body to keep the rejoining going, and pretended to be Ardbert himself to trick the people of Norvrandt
Yeah especially since those heroes killed the last boss mob and oops 95% of the world is uninhabitable for only Gaia literally knows how long(seriously you finish the raid series they basically go well be another few hundred years to get the eco systems back) and there's maybe a couple hundred people left and no crops except one tiny field in Crystarium going and a field for booze going back again in Khoulsia. No real animals that you can eat since oops most of those got turned one way or another as well and so the desert is living off nasty to normal people foods. Not to mention whole setup is well... you died and world went to anarchiac hell on an alt timeline with you being the whole reason anyone would start to hope again at all
Yeah I was genuinely shocked that he put XIV in the list but it wasn't Ardbert.
This better not be an April Fools prank, Jasper already had his by getting a call from the MLP Legion of Doom when they're still statues (only to be tormented by Casper reading them his "autobiography"), and watching that whole Learning with Pibby broadcast on [adult swim]
oh, did you see Jasper's OTHER april fools' joke?
th-cam.com/video/vE0VhCfhA6Q/w-d-xo.html
and Josh is part of it too!
@@ericb3157 yeah, I did, and it wasn't fully his fault, Voice forgot to write a script for this year's April Fools video, at least Jasper didn't rush LAST YEAR'S like he did this year, let's never forget the day The Blissy was BOOPED
Jasper Pie makes G2 Dainty Dove look the very picture of sanity by comparison, but when he opens his hay receptacle there's still a chance that something sensible will emerge (e.g. in "Witch Fairy W.I.T.C.H."). But Casper? He's got so much strudel in the noodle Jasper'd get horse colic just thinking about it.
I wonder if BOTW Link would count as a Failed Hero? Considering he lost against Calamity Ganon the first time.
Perhaps, but Link didn't die and he does eventually succeed in Calamity Ganon's defeat.
@@metal_gear_rayquaza8914 the Link you play as is pretty much a completely different person.
@@polocatfan A different person? How? He was in a 100 year healing coma
@@metal_gear_rayquaza8914 Did they, though? I wouldn't consider Hyrule being devastated for a whole century "a win".
@@XanderVJ And BOTW 2 seems to imply that Ganon wasn't defeated.
Would Ragna the Bloodedge count? Despite being the main hero, he spent countless timeloops becoming the Black Beast that threatened the world, needed Noel's help to catch him to break the cycle, barely survived being curb stomped by Terumi only to find out that his sister was the big bad once he finally did beat him, almost lost complete control of the Azure Grimoire several times, and took a path to save the world that would brand him an enemy of the world, and his success in doing so wound up erasing himself from existence as well as the memories of everyone he knew. It's like even when he wins, he loses.
UGHHH DON'T REMIND ME! THAT MAN WHO WAS LABEL AS THE BIGGEST VILLAIN KNOWN TO MAN SAVED THE WORLD AND IN ORDER FOR EVERYONE TO EVEN HAVE A SIMPLE AND PEACEFUL LIFE HE ERASED HIS OWN EXISTENCE! WHY?!?😭😭😭😭
Seems like the point is he won, even if he sacrificed himself.
I have grievance about Mia's inclusion on this list, if only because Phoenix screwed up even worse. Multiple times. Yeah Mia died before she could bring Redd White to justice, but she also held on to the one clue that directly led to his comeuppance while she died, so I'd hardly call that a fail. On the other hand Phoenix has a bad ending in JFA where he gets the bad guy off the hook and he turns his back on law and justice forever, AND if you need something canon, he got desparate enough during the Gramarye trial that he ended up using forged evidence without really thinking about it enough to try and get his client off the hook, an action that not only resulted in his being disbarred and the crook going free, but also led to a downward spiral in the court system so bad that it was called "the dark age of the law".
He was forced to use that piece of evidence before he even had it checked to see if it was even legit or not
@@CreativeWM_Personal yes, and because he did he was disbarred. To be fair, IIRC he was led by a leash right into the trap that required him to use that piece of evidence by the prosecution.
It's not just that Mia got killed trying to expose Redd White, she died without actually accomplishing what she set out to do, aka find out the truth of what happened with her mother. Phoenix has to do that for her. Phoenix might've gotten disbarred, but Zak still escaped being punished for something he didn't actually do and it wasn't like Valant was the actual culprit so at the end of the day the trial still had a better ending than 3-4, where Mia can do nothing about an innocent man being manipulated into killing himself in court. She did manage to eventually get Dahlia convicted, but it was also at the cost of her boyfriend.
Mia's losses were a lot more significant than Phoenix's I feel. The worst consequence from his biggest canon failure is that he lost his job. He can't even be given full accountability for the dark age of the law because there were other factors at play for that.
Doesn't all of Phoenix Write take place in the dark age of the law?
@@propheinx2250 Negative
Live A Live is a great example of this. In the medieval chapter, you play as Orsted, the standard knight character who's frankly overpowered for his world. He beats his best friend in a duel to marry the princess, only for the demon king to abduct her, standard stuff. Make friends and allies along the way, and take on the demon king in a pretty tough battle. Then, you have some cut scenes, square off with the demon king again in a pitifully easy battle, and discover you've been tricked into killing your own king. The result of this is your allies are captured and tortured to death, every knight in the kingdom is after your head, and all you can do is try to figure out what happened. It turns out that your best friend, a magician, was responsible for everything because he couldn't bear losing the princess at the beginning. Kill him in battle, and the princess appears and reveals that she was in love with him, killing herself in the process. Orsted then snaps, demands the power of the demon king at an alter to him, and becomes the villain behind the scenes, Odio, who every other protag in the game has been fighting throughout all of time. There's actually an option at this point to play as Orsted at this point and let him win, destroying literally everything in the process!
How much greater of a failure can a hero be than to lose everything and become the ultimate villain?
"nothing... but demons..."
it's incredible because Oersted had literally every single positive trait of every other hero of the game, but the world kept kicking him down until he finally simply... fell. he became exactly what the world accused him of being. in so many other stories, the "exiled demon" gains the trust back of the world by doing something grand and heroic... but he simply accepted it. that was who he was.
the hatred he suffered, from his friend that loved the woman he was with and hated being lost to the hero's shadow, from his own supposed lover who secretly resented him and wished to give happiness to Straybow instead, from the kingdom that turned on him in the drop of a hat (although eventually they became justified in wanting him dead after he killed the king), to the world itself that told him that as long as one person still believed in him he had a reason to carry on, until *surgically killing off every single person that has ever worked with or cared for him* until he was truly, irrevocably alone.
the beautiful quote that moved the arc was corrupted into what made him fall to ruin. there was nothing left. not a single person who was left walking on the soils of this earth was left that didn't wish him dead. True Odio was formed because everyone, EVERYONE, with not a single standing exception, hated Oersted. The power of every single horrible, negative emotion directed towards him at that moment, it was so immense that it formed a timeline destroying demon within his body.
and the true moral of the story is in his words, anyone can become a demon if hatred remains existing. evil is born from hatred. evil is empowered by hatred. True Odio was too far gone to be forgiven for his sins, but if Oersted had someone left, it wouldn't even have existed.
there certainly isn't a greater failure as a hero...
@@SereKabii And it culminates perfectly with the name Oersted took as a demon. Odio is Latin for Hate, and in Spanish directly translates to "I Hate"
If Sigurd's arc could go any further south we'd wind up hitting magic medieval Mexico
This was a great list and really insightful!
In all honesty, I would've included Zack from Crisis Core FFVII as another entry. His life is much like Sigurd's as you mentioned, with being dealt a shit hand in life and doing what he can to fix things and persevere. In the end, he ultimately failed with his last goal of getting back to Midgar with Cloud and seeing Aerith again because Shinra screwed him over in the hardest way possible. It's absolutely sad and depressing as he's such a likeable guy and makes you root for him even with all of the terrible crap he goes through. But in the end, he even has to ask his best friend Cloud if he ever really became a hero like he wanted to be, and never really knew if he was. Just a hell of a way to go for such a beloved character, and you helped guide him through it all to end. Even if you knew of his eventual fate from OG FFVII, it's still a heartwrenching ending.
In the end though, in the vein of you mentioning FFXIV in this list, a smile better suits a hero like Zack :) :(
Should there be a Fire Emblem 4 remake, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game was M-rated.
To this day, that story is the darkest Fire Emblem has gotten.
I have an idea for a future list. Top 10 heroes who became villains. Heroes in a game who became a villain either along the way or in a sequel. Like Alex Mercer from Prototype.
Small correction about the Drakengard 3 segment:
Zero is the only one among the intoners who *wasn't* created by the flower. Zero was originally a normal human whose mother hadn't even given her a name and sold her into prostitution when she was still young. Her colleagues later started to call her Rose. As she got older, she became more and more mentally unstable, started stealing and killing, eventually becoming a serial killer. The flower appeared when Zero was about to be executed for her crimes and revived her. Once Zero learned what the flower actually is, her attempt to destroy it led to the creation of her "sisters" as a safety measure.
"I'm not actually a hero at all, but I'm still on a quest to destroy the bigger oof."
IIRC, weren't the sisters based on fellow prisoners that Zero/Rose was imprisoned with?
Alister Azimuth from Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time is one of my favourites. Such a fallen character trying so hard to rise only to fall all the same. I'd say his story ultimately ends in failure, whether I consider him redeemed or not. He's one of my favourite video game characters of all time.
In Destiny 2: Forsaken, the Guardian (your character) fails big time, failing to save Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard, from being killed by Uldren Sov, who was under the influence of the Darkness, and the Scorn Barons, thus letting his murderers escape the Prison of Elders. This had massive consequences because it set Uldren and the Barons free, which caused a ton of problems, and left a gaping hole in the Vanguard that still hasn't been filled.
Some that come to mind:
Zack - Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Nier - Nier
Artorias - Dark Souls
Tatsuya Suou - Persona 2
Roxas - Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Lynne - Ghost Trick
Portal's protagonist in the first Portal
Modern Warfare/Warfare 2 had a couple failed protagonists
I have technically 3 however there from the same game sal Larry and ash from sally face
Great choice for an April fools video.
10. Yeah no surprise that this is at the bottom
9. Well this I didn't expect. But it does fit given the spectacle the original went out on.
8. Now here's a game I heard mention but didn't hear much about. Now I know plenty!
7. Heh... I've been playing Kirby and the forbidden land so I appreciate the starting joke
6. No surprises here.
5. Was someone influenced by WiiDude83?
4. Can we please get a remake of this game? Heroes ain't enough!
3. Spoiled in the title card
2. Thy rage has emerged from the worst ending in gaming
1. Dang. Some point and click adventures are scary!
Wow. Some I knew about, some I didn't. A good mix if I may say so.
@@jaylorts1608 Because not all stories are sunshine and rainbows where everything has a happy ending.
To be fair towards number 3, these lists have often used thumbnail, pre-list footage, and whatever's playing between entries whether they make the list or not.
Dayum, this has to he the least fitting video for April Fools lol.
Anyways, one of my favorite failed heroes has to be The Protagonist/Nier from Nier Replicant. As we eventually learn, Nier’s actions throughout the entire game have been less heroic than you think. *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NIER REPLICANT BELOW*
Being that even if he just wanted to save his sister/daughter, he unknowingly slaughters plenty of innocent Shades, the main enemies of the game which you eventually learn were actually former humans, and the current people living on earth are Replicants, basically human-like copies. Humans were originally meant to be transferred into these new bodies until Replicants gained sentience and rejected them. And so it turns out that the main antagonist of the game, the Shadowlord, is actually the original protagonist as well as the original Shade that the rest were derived from. And by killing him you essentially doom humanity for good by causing the remaining Shades to lose their minds as a result of his death.
And if you think that’s bad, in ending D, the OG game’s true ending, Nier sacrifices himself to save Kainé and ends up erasing himself from existence as a result. So overall, Nier is the perfect example of a failed hero and proof of Yoko Taro’s writing genius, and I’d be mighty surprised if he wasn’t included in this list due to Josh talking about their Nier/Drakengard series multiple times in the past.
He included One from Drakengard 3 instead of the protag from NieR. One isn't the protagonist, she's one of the antagonists. Even though she is morally good she's still one of the antagonists. Also Josh got a few. things wrong with DG3. Zero was the original incarnation of the flower, the original goddess but when Zero learned of her fate to destroy the world and bring forth the watchers she attempted suicide by stabbing her heart. It failed and the flower parasite on her heart moved to her eye and her power was split into 6 fragments creating One through Six. Zero wants to kill all the fragments and then herself for good which only a dragon can do destroying her completely. But she fails due to her dragon refusing to kill her due to his innocent and her becoming the Queen from DF1 who dooms not one but two worlds. (at least in the true ending timelines) The world is actually fine in the DG1 ending A timeline which leads to DG2 which is a lot lighter in tone and more "anime" than the other games with all 3 endings having a overall happy ending. NieR Automata is the only REAL game (aka one written by Taro) in the series with a hopeful true ending, with the androids inheriting the earth and humanity's legacy free from the Yorha program's control and ready to fight the dark gods if they ever return.
Not only that, but the _other_ Nier could have just as well qualified for this list.
Not only did you play as him first of all, but he too sacrificed everything in an attempt to save what mattered most to him, and failed in the end.
Hard to blame Nier for killing the Shades when the only person who knows they have humanity is Kaede, who isn't inclined to trust them thanks to the Shade in her body. Both Replicants and Shades killing each other so their kind can survive.
@@ArcCaravan Oh yeah, I’m not saying that Nier was necessarily in the wrong for his actions, but that he’s a failed hero since said actions only ended up doing more harm than good in the end. Years before Undertale even came along, it was a deconstruction of the age-old JRPG trope where you just see enemies as mindless monsters to cut down.
@@amirgarcia547 I understand what the game tried going for regarding moral ambiguity, but I don't think Nier qualifies as a failed hero since his only goal was saving his sister and then Kaede while protecting his fellow replicants along the way. He never cared about saving the shades and the replicants seem fine on their own afterwards. A hero can succeed while other people suffer without intentionally ruining lives.
A game I'm pretty sure Josh hasn't played, but one I'd put on the list is Solar Ash. The whole game is about you failing to save your world and coming to grips with that failure and its a huge failure. But it gives a good message, Instead of trying to constantly fix what is forever broken, rebuild with the pieces you have left. Really underrated game.
I feel from the point of view of philosophy of game-making, a failed hero provides an interesting issue: the "fate" of the player is to win the game. The player may try many times, but in the end, he's "fated" to win the game. So, if one wants to tackle this question, it can provide either a "is *this* victory?" kind of ending or an ending where you don't win - but, in both cases, from a gameplay point of view, you still "won" because you reached the ending. I feel the Wander approached most of an ending where this "fate" is possibly avoided because he fights until he's defeated by the NPCs. Is there any other game that does something like that? In which the NPCs "defeat" the player during the gameplay and it's not a game over bad ending?
As an alternate number 9 that's still from Final Fantasy XIV, may I recommend the humble Ardbert and his fellow Warriors of Darkness.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty, let's sum things up as succinctly as possible without spoiling things TOO much. By Ardbert's own words, in reference to just how bad their situation got: "We did everything RIGHT, everything that was asked of us, and still - STILL it came to this!"
So, to go down the list (Spoilers for late-Heavensward and Shadowbringers):
The lot of them were adventurers, much like the player character, and they sought to save their world against whatever threats intended to cause trouble, including two Ascians. In doing so, they had unintentionally doomed their world - with no darkness to balance it, the light began to destroy everything in it's path. In order to even make it to Eorzea to potentially kill the Warrior of Light (read: you) to fix their world, Ardbert in particular had to kill his fellow Warriors - his friends - and then himself, burdened with the knowledge that if they failed, not only would their world be lost, Ardbert would have killed his closest friends for nothing. But after fighting the WoL, they get assistance from Hydaelyn - resident Top Goddess of the setting and all-around well-meaning lass - to stop the flood of light. All's fine and good, right?
Come Shadowbringers... no. No it isn't. Upon returning to their homeland - known as The First from Shadowbringers onward - four of them effectively have to give up their souls to assist Hydaelyn in stopping the Flood. Ardbert attempts to aid as well, but Hydaelyn basically tells him he needs to survive. Ardbert's soul then spends the next 100 years (time dilation is a hell of a thing apparently) wandering what little remains of his homeland - unable to be seen, unable to aid people, all the while wondering just why Hydaelyn spared him. On top of that, his friend's bodies have all been taken over by the Light - emerging as powerful Sin Eaters (demons, but Light-themed) known as the Cardinal Virtues. And, while Ardbert by this point is effectively gone as an autonomous soul (the specifics of which I won't be getting into), his body ends up being hijacked down the line by an Ascian - who poses as him and tries to re-kickstart the end of his world.
i feel like after Endwalker, we can also include Hydaelyn herself as a failed hero. Despite gaining future knowledge of the Final Days from us (long story), she has to stay alone with this knowledge for an astoundingly large amount of time. The most she was able to do is delay the inevitable long enough for us to bring a real end to the Final Days, but even then the Final Days returned long enough to cause tragedy to the world (people's souls essentially being erased by dynamis and all). The saddest part is her soul doesn't return to the lifestream, she completely offers her aether as fuel to even reach Meteion. So she will never even come back in another life to the world that will eventually be saved. But she also knew she was gonna fail and never lost hope anyways
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a rather rare gem that I wish was talked about more, nice to see you talk about it on this channel!
11:56 Whoa whoa whoa! You can't just drop a scene from the greatest show of all time on me without warning!
I would've thought one of the Dragon Quest games be on this list. DQ 8 and 5 in particular have amazing stories about everything going horribly wrong before the protagonists could stop the true villain from gaining/regaining their power.
Honestly the biggest example of a failed hero that I know of is one that most people forget that even happened.
Meet none other than the Doomguy the man that sacrificed everything all for his home, his people, his family all for not even to matter in the end.
One thing that most people forget about is his earth was never saved it still got ravaged by demons. His family, his friends and everybody from his home world later on became the energy that flows through his body or the demons he fights. His home world assimilated by hell. I really do find it funny how much people don’t even know how tragic his story is. It wasn’t just his rabbit that died it was everybody that he knew before his life became perpetual torment and this fight became eternal.
13:55 Oh let me guess . . .
14:23 Yup
I'm suprised that he didn't bring up the fact that Kaede was [REDACTED].
27:18 Oh that explains it.
I feel like most of these are tragic heroes or fallen heroes rather than failed heroes, since most of them accomplished their goals, even if it was later than they thought, or by trusting them to other person
When a hero fails, it's never a good sign. And do you want to know something? There are moments in a series history where the events of a bad ending *did* happen.
For me, the biggest example is the Conquest Ending for HyperDimension Neptunia MkII/Re;Birth 2. Why do I mention that game? Well in HyperDimension Neptunia VII the same Cursed Blade from MkII/Re;Birth 2's bad ending makes a shocking re-appearance with even the description for the Cursed Blade wondering how the hell it even got here to begin with.
Although the easiest answer is NG+ shenanigans affecting future games. (Which to some can be considered the laziest answer too.)
After reading this, it reminds me of another game, Shadow Hearts 2. This sequel is actually following the *bad ending* from the first game. And you know what is the weirdest part? SPOILERS
At the ending of Shadow Hearts 2, Yuri the MC, travelled back in time to the first game's event, with all the knowledge fully intact, and from there, he went and earned his happy ending. It is even evident in Shadow Hearts 3, where it continues off from the 1st game's good ending.
Spoilers:
I'm surprised that Oersted from Live-A-Live had no mention (though I suppose that means there's plenty of delicious options to choose from :3). Dude was a chivalrous knight that ended up giving up everything for his kingdom and betrothed princess, fighting demons and even being betrayed by his best friend. Such is his tragedy that the only little spark of hope left was the words of another friend, that as long as there's one single person who still believes in him, he couldn't give up. Sooooooo the princess that he was betrothed to ended up falling in love with the best friend that betrayed him and committed sudoku right in front of him, and this is AFTER all of the rest of the kingdom either died or turned their backs on him. So our valiant knight becomes the embodiment of hatred and in one ending *destroys the world in multiple timelines*
Yikes.
Oersted is not out of the picture yet.
I think the reason he wasn't on the list was the "no villains" rule at the start. Plus he sounds more like a fallen hero than a failed one.
@@ArcCaravan Very true!
In the End by Linkin Park is a clear description of Sigurd's arc.
Sigurd honestly breaks my heart so much, just, trying to hard and reaching the point where your death will not be even cared by the person you loved. I mean I know Deidre was brainwashed but, she never blamed Arvis for what happened. The guy killed her husband, essentially used her to bear children...and she doesn't have a pinch of hate for the guy
I mean I get she is good but, honestly? That's just cruel towards Sigurd, I know it's cruel to say but...what an absolute bitch
The BBQ of Belhalla getting recognition as the tragedy of Sigurd unfolds...
And the battle between Seliph and Julius takes stage as well...
Two recent countdowns talking about FE 4, is it a coincidence?
😁
25:38-25:46 Spoliers
Good news for Harlan Ellison, Germany took care of that for him by removing Nimdok's scenario.... but not any of his event flags, so the German version of that game really is Unwinnable.
Very astute observation!
Arvis still did everything wrong.
@@jaylorts1608So you would delete an entire genre of media from existence just because you wetted your pants.
@@jaylorts1608 dude you do know that I have no mouth and i must scream does not have jumpscares in them right also its ok if you don't like horror just don’t except everyone to stop consuming it just because you don’t like it
I feel like the Torna The Golden Country cast should have made the list I mean they did stop Malos but in the end he didn’t stay down and Torna fell and Team Lora especially deserves a mention
Another good example of a group of failed heroes is the Flame Chasers from Honkai Impact 3rd. From the ashes of one society, another one took its place.
Spellforce, let's see :
As the Phoenix Bearer, you -fail to warn good guy #1 Rohen of his impending doom -let the order of world-saving knights be whiped out -hand over the mask of Belial to the master necromancer's spirit (that won't bite you in the ass later) -let the ultimate history book and the last piece of the time machine be stolen from you -fail to prevent the BBEG from jumping back in time.
As the Carrier of the Shadow Blade, you -get duped into releasing the Devil -keep meeting this weird masked guy who's very helpful and into necromancy -take the Shadow Blade that will slowly turn you into a monster -lead your army into an unwinable siege (you get miraculous help and win) -Kill the devil, which doesn't stop the end of the world -you DO save the world (but someone else has to finish the job) -get duped by the necromancer into attempting to kill the last Dryad.
As either in the third campaign, you put a final end to the Circle of Mages lead by the necromancer. In doing so you dispel the magic of the Rune that made you immortal... And eventually the magic of the portals that keeps the world connected... Oops
I really don’t like how each entry in this list just reveals that almost all these failed heroes accomplished their goals. It makes them more tragic than anything rather than someone who utterly failed. I feel only the top 4 really live up to it.
I see your point, but it could count more as failing while helping the next guy succeed compared to succeeding themselves.
I'd say many of the player characters in Eternal Darkness qualify. They might have succeeded had their foes not been Eldritch Horror's, but those horror's wouldn't have even had a foothold in the material world if not for Pious Augustus, the Roman centurion we first play as, being seduced by the promises of power from the three gods, becaming their Lich servant for over millennium. He's directly responsible for the demise of a significant number of the other player characters.
Confounding the matter is how the gameplay translates him being the only professional soldier in the cast by having Pious be the only one without a sanity meter. Meaning he wasn't mentally worn down into obeying one of the trio, he willingly submitted.
1:48 That Steven Universe analogy was deep. I mean seriously, the poor guy nearly died multiple times and witnessed many of his friends getting killed, one of which by his own hands.
Nice shirt, Josh.
God Bless you and your family!
Also, another great list!
Artorias the Abysswalker tried to fight against the Abyss, in direct solo combat (with his wolf), but failed at every turn. And then he was corrupted and kinda lost his mind.
But hey, I guess he was able to protect his wolf, even if we had to save her.
Huh. I was expecting either Tetra, Aqua and Ventus (Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep), or the protagionist from NieR: Gestalt / Replicant to be on this list.
Yeah, I’m certainly surprised that the latter didn’t end up being included since Nier is the perfect example of a failed hero.
@@amirgarcia547 Technically they succeeded. The Shades were never their goal, just saving their sister. And the Shadowlord probably falls under the "no villains" rule.
Say Josh, have you played Neo: TWEWY yet? Without spoiling much about it, I can say the the hero team in that game fail quite a bit, but due to gameplay mechanics, they always fix it... I can consider them like an honorary 11th pick for this list. And technically, Crono from Chrono Trigger is a failed hero, for... Reasons.
It doesn't seem like this list counts heroes who temporarily fail.
It doesn't count if your team revives you and then you succeed.
@@ArcCaravan you dont have to revive him
@@thatdarnseel7052 But if it's canon that he's revived, it still counts as reviving them. Otherwise a bunch of heroes would be failed heroes for having at least 1 non-canon bad ending.
I've got a few, all of which vary in legitimacy.
Asriel (and by extension, Chara) from Undertale. This is admittedly pretty borderline, but they had a plan to free all of monster kind, but Asriel's refusal to fight back cost them their lives, the marriage between Toriel and Asgore, and pretty much caused the events of the game. If it wasn't for Frisk's determination, Asriel wouldn't have been able to come back to life for a brief time and destroy the barrier.
Monika from DDLC. This is a stretch since she's the closest thing the game has to an antagonist. However, I'm mainly talking about Acts 3 and 4. When you delete her, she sees the error of her ways and attempts to rebuild the world... Only for Sayori to take on her controlling ways. So she instead drops a nuke so no one will have to know the pain of self-awareness again.
Mario from Mario The Music Box Arc. Yeah, this is a fan-game, but I still think it works. Mario has 2 goals: To escape Evangeline and to free himself from Alice, a spirit possessing him. Problem is, he never truly succeeds. Mario does become free from Alice, which also allows Riba to be free from her, but in the 3 endings where Mario lives, he either ends up stuck in limbo, giving in to power and becoming king of a fictional land that continues a cycle that has previous incarnation has been trying to escape, or [it was all a dream].
You should have included Rose from legend of dragoon, she walked the earth for 11,000 years trying to keep the apocalypse at bay.
Seeing Kaede on this list makes this a birthday gift for me! Best girl in the franchise!
This is how I portray Karsus at my D&D games. Anchent archmage who tried to save his people. While not a hero or a good person necessarily, he was the only person to try and save the Netherese after his mentor and several other powerful wizards abandoned the empire. He took on the mantle of leadership when nobody else would, and while he was ill suited for it he was the only one left to do so. No matter his personal flaws, what happened to the Netherese was not a fate he or they deserved
I'm honestly glad that this is a serious video I was getting genuinely sick of all the April fool's Day videos
Never mind Mexico, I think he would’ve reached the equator had his arc gone on far enough!
I was honestly Suprised Kyle Crane wasn’t on the list, He ended up actually spreading the virus, and becoming the thing he tried to stop
Some great unexpected entries. And nice criteria as always. Here's some picks I have, though they may be a bit too anti-heroic.
Fuka Kazamatsuri from Disgaea 4. While the main story heavily implies the protagonists and Earth will be destroyed by aliens and/or gods, Fuka in particular loses in her DLC campaign by getting barred from reincarnation (or "waking up from her nightmare") and is stuck in her predicament forever.
Wario from Wario Land: Shake It. Saving the Shake Dimension so he can get a bag of infinite coins, it and all the gold from it are stolen by Captain Syrup leaving him with nothing to show for it.
Kisuke from Muramasa Rebirth. A ninja who changed sides for his girlfriend, he is unable to be with her in any of the endings (either reincarnating after taking his own life, serving her sister hunting cursed swords in her memory, or going back in time to steal the demon sword that started his plot).
Since the Fate franchise started as a VN, I want to mention Shiro Emiya. Not the protagonist, but the Servant he becomes. Shiro spent his whole life with the goal of becoming a hero who would save everyone in front of him, no exceptions. And given that chance, it's no surprise he took it. Faced with the death of people due to a calamity, he made a contract with the Earth itself to save them, agreeing to become a hero who would serve even after his death. And what did he get? Branded a traitor to humanity and hung by a noose, and forced by his contract to continue his existence effectively as the Earth's assassin, slaughtering rather than saving the people who threatened humanity's survival. And that broke him inside, causing him to doubt himself to the point he decided on the twisted conclusion to kill his previous self, to never be given the chance to become a hero. Of course, by attempting to kill protag Shiro, he inadvertently caused his past self to become the hero he sought to destroy. Like the saying goes, "A person often meets his destiny on the path he took to avoid it." So it technically worked out alright for him, but the path that led him to becoming a hero was rigged against him the whole time. Ain't that a bitch?
And then there's nameless from the Extraverse-games. He literally comes from a world that doesn't even exist anymore because he failed to protect it.
That's a big F.
Ironically, the only interesting thing about Kaede (IMO) is exactly what caused her to be executed and not be the game’s protagonist.
I love how sarcastic he was talking about Arvis from FE4.
Ps: Seriously, why do some fans think Arvis’ did nothing wrong or he’s better than Sigurd?
Because they eat up memes and essays made by elitists with a one-sided view, and played along with the meme just to be cool instead of experiencing the story themselves and coming to their own conclusion.
@@CountShaman that applies to so many things it's sad
Around #2: He's come with a glorious purpose ........................ to help ruin this game with the ending.
I'm actually glad I rewatched Worst Endings to understand the number placement and Josh's frustration.
Lots of meaty choices on this one. Each one felt like it was given enough screen time to convey the point at hand :D
in the Breath of the Wild entry... remember, the 4 Divine Beasts themes hide an SOS withing their music, for all but Revalis, is at the start, for Revali, near the loop part
thats a good top 10 too, 10 hidden easter eggs in music, things of that nature, or how the Prelude exist in many FF themes, as in withing other tracks other than the Prelude, for example, in FF XIV, the Collab event with Nier Automata, one part of the boss theme, is the Prelude
Next: Top 10 Successful Villains
And now a list of the top 10 best pecs in gaming:
1: Zangief
2: Iron Bull
3: Reinhardt (overwatch)
4: Rock (soul calibur)
5: Barret Wallace
6: Kimahri Ronso
7: Thrall (warcraft)
8: Chris Redfield
9: Jax (mortal kombat)
10: King (tekken)
DO THE LIST, RESPECT THE PEC! 🧰
Discovered your channel recently and I was like “YES!!” when I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was Number 1. Also cool to see someone talk about Mother 3 given that I have recently started playing it yesterday at the time I make this comment. Overall great video, looking forward to watching your other content
Fun fact: the beginning of the I Have No Mouth segment is a fan made animation by Sean the Artist. A book trailer basically but it looks a bit like a Peter Chung cartoon and was pretty good.
Final fantasy 6 basically. The world is doomed after what kefka did. Cloud could count if we take the prequel in account or the sequel movie as he can't do much right then.
Tales of series Luke. He failed but kept on going where the biggest plot twist in other games or anime is just the start of his journey.
Fire emblem technically Corrin as he gets his family killed a lot of the time. But Lucina works with chrom as they failed the first time against grima.
That game Daisy I think was it. The main dude was a broken man who became the monster to save the girl he took care of. Sad as he did was he thought was right.
Pokemon N as he was tricked his entire life and only turned in the sequel but the original story alone we see how far he went thinking he was the hero only to be a pawn to the villain.
God of war kratos cutting people and gods down as well as letting go of his daughter and killing his family or not saving them like his brother and mother. Meta wise if the sequel is wokazied
Kingdom hearts guess Terra as he fell to darkness and Roxas before kh3 happened
Captain price from call of duty. Loses so many of his men especially soap who was us to take down the bad guys.
Gacha game ones. Fgo us. The world goes to fire or salt immediately in the story.
The "Daisy" thing you're thinking of might be LISA the Painful. And the protag is Brad.
@@MrAuthor3DS oh thanks for reminding me. Been a while since I've seen it. Didn't like the sequel honestly
*SPOILERS FOR THIS LIST BELOW*
Thanks for giving "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" more recognition, Josh. :)
@@jaylorts1608 Just because you can't handle how dark it is dosen't mean it should not exist.
@@jaylorts1608 Uhh, how old are you, five? Life ain't just cookies and rainbows, kiddo.
@@jaylorts1608 Aren't you a little old to be acting this immaturely?
@@jaylorts1608 Sounds like someone could say that about a lot of dark series that other people like.
@@jaylorts1608 Nope, just stating a fact. Someone can indeed say the same thing about something else other people like.
I've been comparing Siggy and Dee to Prince Philip and Aurora for at least two years now, so while it was a different Disney couple I'm glad someone else sees it
Kaede being a failed hero also has a bit more to it. Spoilers for those who haven't played V3 or reached the final case, but......
Kaede wasn't the killer. The iron ball she used to kill Rantaro actually missed him. When in actuality the mastermind behind this killing game actually snuck up behind Rantaro, caved his skull in with another polo ball, killing him instantly, and the stole both polo ball Kaede used and Rantaro's Survival tablet to both start the Killing Game and to prevent anyone from knowing that Rantaro was a champion in the 52nd Danganronpa Killing Game. She then hid the evidence in the secret room, (but for some reason decided not to destroy the evidence,) and then framed Kaede for Rantaro's murder.
And then to make matters worst, before Kaede was executed, she made everyone who was still alive to both end this killing game and for Shuichi to save everyone..... Too bad that when the Killing Game was finished, only 3 of the 16 students were still alive. This is especially tragic considering that, according to the rules that Monokuma created, when there are 2 remaining students in this Killing Game, the game is over, since it's virtually impossible for 2 people to have a trial. So knowing that, having one additional survivor, despite them suppose to end with only 2 winners, is both more tragic and inexcusable.
Man, it is a crime that Live A Live's Oersted isn't on this list. Goes on a whole adventure to save his fiancee, only to be met by the death of his comrades, tricked into murdering his king, animosity and hatred from his kingdom, betrayal from his best friend, and witnessing the suicide of his fiancee, after she reveals she had fallen in love with the best friend he had just struck down in self-defense. All culminating in him becoming the true final boss of the game, Odio.
It's such a tragic tale of someone TRYING to do the right thing, only for everything to go wrong.
Tbh when I heaed FF be mentioned, my mind went to Freya Crescent from IX (note I haven't finished the vid yet).
(MAJOR SPOILERS)
While not totally a failed hero (she did help save the world from Kuja and Necron) she still failed to protect her home kingdom, Burmecia, and failed to protect Cleyra. And while she does succeed in finding Fratley, he sadly had amnesia. Even during the epilogue she laments amount Fratley not regaining his memories and has doubts about the future of Burmecia.
top 10 villains we are suppose to hate but love?
hearing that song, that one song, as you talk in the intro, i was like "ooh nononono not that song, anything but that heartrenching depressing tune!" it fits but still!
I think the reason most people are so quick to dismiss Wander as a foolish hunter who got duped so easily by a demon is because we don't know the significance Mono represents to him. Thus we don't know fully why he wants to bring her back to life so much.
"I swear I'm not a shill"
No but hearing you do the meme shill made my heart soar as I'm literally playing FFXIV as I watch this video.
You're right! Mipha was screwed! It's just Not Fair! XO
And on top of not living her long life, she didn't even get to marry Link!
The thing about the Seventh Umbral Calamity in FFXIV is that yeah, the world persevered, but the damage was still incredible, to the point many places were left in complete ruins (like the place in which the battle from the cutscene took place - Cartenau). Still, I believe the number nine is a good place for it. Ah, but there's another, much better example in FFXIV for this list - but it's in Shadowbringers.
Nothing makes me happier than to see a bit about FE4 and Sigurd's death, and there's no barbecue jokes to be seen.
Those jokes are honestly toxic as hell. Like yeah, it's to be expected that a community would make fun of events in a game, but with how FE4 is not known by a lot of people, they can get a pretty poor impression seeing fans of the game mock that scene rather than value it for what it is.
A couple of mine in no particular order:
Liu Bei from Dynasty Warriors - Aimed to build a nation of BENEVOLENCE!!!! But ended up doing the opposite. It took his son to achieve that goal, but not many are happy with the outcome.
Hideyoshi Toyotomi from Samurai Warriors - Same as Liu Bei, but difference is Hideyoshi actually succeeded in his goal, but his failure is sustaining that goal, and this all crumbles down after he died without a worthy successor.
Sophitia and Cassandra Alexendria from Soul Calibur 4 - Wanted to protect their loved ones, but ended up with one dead and the other experiencing a lifetime of torture. Hopefully the rebooted timeline can have a better future for the both of them + their family.
Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series - How many times does his actions made things from bad to worst, and to actually fix everything, the whole timeline need to be erased and rebuild again?
Jr from the Xenosaga series - Jr was born combat U-DO, however due to fear, he chickened out, which led to many bad things happened, including turning his twin, Albedo, into a psychopath.
Mythra/Hikari from Xenoblade 2, more specifically Torna the Golden Country - She manages to use her powers to defeat Malos, and save Alrest, but at what cost?
Mortal Kombat could count all the heroes failing. It's not like Raiden is the only one not succeeding.
@@ArcCaravan Fair point.
I feel like another thing that hurts The Champions of Hyrule’s case is that Age of Calamity exists. I know it’s an alternate timeline that isn’t properly canon. It still exists and shows a world where they did survive and succeed in beating Calamity Ganon.
Also, I have no sympathy for Lucas because his case was avoidable through something as easy as not pulling that damn needle.
If Lucas didn’t pull the needle, then the Dark Dragon would’ve still awakened on its own and destroyed the world in the process. But by doing so himself, he at least still gave the chance to save the world.
@@amirgarcia547
No they wouldn’t. The Dragon only wakes up once all 8 needles are pulled. And the only ones who can pull it are those that know PK Love. A technique that is known only by the twins… And the brainwashed evil one got electrocuted to death less than a minute earlier.
Well…technically wander isn’t a failed hero. Fun fact connecting shadow and ico. Wander gets possessed and reverted back to a baby, ending up with all his memories when he grows up…and Mono waits for him to grow up to renew their relationship. Ico’s protag is their descendant
I think Cole Phelps from "LA Noire" is the prime example of this trope in writing, and he absolutly should've been on this list.
Cole went into WW2 with the hope of earning glory, only to almost die and getting a recommondation for just sitting in a trench, frozen by fear after one of his friends gets literally blown to pieces right next to him. Then a squad led by him accidentally murders a hospital full of Japanese civilians, which led to one of his friends going insane due to the guilt (because Cole directly ordered him to go in there with a flamethrower) and another one just shooting Cole in a fit of rage afterwards which forced a man named Jack Kelso, who Cole villified the entire time he was in the military, to save him and force everyone involved to never talk about that incident.
Jump ahead a few years later, and Cole, who was both happily married, got children and regarded as a war hero at this point, decided to become an police-officer in L.A. to make up for everything he did. And he became an amazing case man solving multiple murders, saving many lives and even finding out who the infamous Black Dahlia Killer is - Until all of this gets taken away from him within the blink of an eye.
It turns out almost every person Cole brought behind bars was actually innocent because he fell for wrong evidences planted by the real killer, who he also cannot bring to justice because he gets protected by a high ranking politician. His private life gets turned inside and out when his partner, a corrput cop, airs his dirty laundry about having an affair with a German singer and known addict, Elsa Lichtmann, when he comes to close to a gigantic conspiracy about real estate.
He gets divorced, and he potentially has to even go to prison for his affair while his career is in shambles. BUt, despite of it, Cole doesn't let up and still works on this conspiracy case in secret, which even makes it so he has to work with Jack Kelso again, who then worked as an investigator for an district atthorney. Ultimatly, him and Jack would stop the villains from succeeding, but it was all for naught. None of the conspirators gets prosecuted for their crimes, and Cole himself even has to sacrifice his life at the end to save both Elsa and Jack, leaving all of his final work for nothing.
If this doesn't check the boxes for a failed hero, I don't know what does.
11:07 it also is kind of sad because...well, her mother channeled a dead man who didn't know who really killed him, so while Misty's technique WORKED It ultimately would come under scrutiny because the man accused was actually innocent of the crime.
Can't wait until this guy learns of Live-A-Live
FFXIV is my favorite game so thanks for including it. Also, just mentioning it, but the Warrior of Light becomes so powerful by the end of Endwalker that they are well above any other Final Fantasy protagonist in terms of strength. They could be considered on of the most powerful video game protagonists ever.
If number one isn't Obi Wan Kenobi (Episode III) from Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga, I'm rioting.
"I have failed you Anakin. I have failed you."
Speaking of Star Wars, I think an good of a failed hero is the protagonist in knight of the old republic. Spoilers:
Even in the light side, the Jedi order is exhausted and near wipe out, also in the books they failed and become trap in frozen caspulte and become Revan again. There also there backstory in which as Revan they fought the mandorlian’s invasion, but got corrupt by the dark side and decide to all Sith Lord.
I hope you're not suggesting that Aerith failed when her death gave her access to the Lifestream. In the end, she couldn't have won if she hadn't died.
Probably just representation. The most famous/infamous imagery in gaming of the hero canonically losing in some form.