History ReplacementScrappy / VideoGames

** Alleviated by ''Dual Destinies'' where Apollo works together with Phoenix and TookALevelInBadass.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' fans expected Saturos and Menardi, the villains of the first game, to return after their obvious DisneyVillainDeath for the second. But that miracle never happen; instead, ''The Lost Age'' introduced two new members of the same clan, Agatio and Karst, to be the antagonists. Karst [[InvertedTrope ended up even more popular than Menardi]] had been due to her stronger storyline, CharacterDevelopment, and [[MsFanservice fanservice]]... while [[TheBrute Agatio]] got all sorts of vitriol from the fandom for years because he was considered not to be as cool as [[MagnificentBastard Saturos]] was.

** Bowser Jr. was seen as the replacement for for the original seven Koopalings, with their distinctive appearances and (slight) personalities; at least for a while. Once he appeared alongside them in ''New Super Mario Bros Wii'', it tended to dissipate. But when WordOfGod confirmed the Koopalings were never Bowser's kids to begin with, earning Junior a ''ton'' of hate once again.

** The fifth arc introduces Erika, a little girl who floats to Rokkenjima practically out of nowhere, and proceeds to [[spoiler:solve the epitaph and possibly figure out the murderer for the arc she was introduced]], attracting some visceral reactions from fans who have been puzzling over this stuff for a bunch of arcs and have [[MindScrew scrambled brains]] to show for it. She then proceeds to [[spoiler:kill the previous antagonist and attempt to be the new protagonist of the story by turning Battler into a DecoyProtagonist]]. Fandom was... not happy. Played with, though, because [[spoiler:Battler is still the protagonist, just under a AndThenJohnWasAZombie situation. Erika is being set up as an ''an''tagonist,]] and so it's likely that the author was actually trying to get that reaction.

* The first non-expansion sequel to ''[[VideoGame/{{DawnOfWar}} Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War]]'' gave us the [[TheNameless Force Commander]], a fresh-faced and newly appointed superior officer whose characterization hinges almost entirely on being [[TheAce incredibly skilled despite his relative youth]] and thus in charge of the grizzled veterans. He was less than well received after the charismatic Captains Gabriel Angelos and Davian Thule of the initial DoW series, and Chaos Rising really didn't help much. Then came Dawn Of War II: Retribution, where the Space Marine campaign was headed by Apollo Diomodes, the [[TheDragon captain of Chapter Master Kyras' honor guard]], who unknowingly served as an antagonist during the prior expansion throughout Kyras' secret descent into Chaos worship. [[FanNickname Force Commander Vanilla Ice]] and about half of the less-popular members of the support cast are on the run, declared "renegades" by Kyras, and the fans [[InvertedTrope seemed much happier]] with Diomedes and his positive CharacterDevelopment than his predecessor.

** Speaking of the Mako, the vehicle itself was replaced by the Hammerhead with the ''Firewalker DLC'' for the ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', leaving the fandom split between whether the Mako or the Hammerhead was the more ''[[ScrappyMechanic infuriating]]'' to drive. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' lampshades this by having Vega and Cortez discuss both vehicles, with Vega dismissing the Hammerhead as being "[[GlassCannon made of tissue paper]]", while Cortez counters that the Mako handles "[[MightyGlacier like a drunk rhino]]".

** Speaking of the Mako, the vehicle itself was replaced by the Hammerhead with the ''Firewalker DLC'' for the ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', leaving the fandom split between whether the Mako or the Hammerhead was the more ''infuriating'' of the two to drive. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' lampshades this by having Vega and Cortez discuss both vehicles, with Vega dismissing the Hammerhead as being "[[GlassCannon made of tissue paper]]", while Cortez counters that the Mako handles "[[MightyGlacier like a drunk rhino]]".

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' intentionally does this with Raiden. Maybe he would have been more liked if he hadn't, to make his inherent not-Snake-ness worse, also been a distinctly {{Bishounen}} YouSuck character who spent a lot of time {{Narm}}ing at his girlfriend over the Codec.
** This is made even worse in that he remained practically hidden away by Kojima until the Prologue section of the game ended. The opening introduction even goes as far as to either show none of the Plant chapter, or when they had to, only show the villains, or to make sure Raiden isn't very visible.
** At least, this trope was the case til he [[TookALevelInBadass gave the fans something to talk about]] in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]''.

** Played straight with Toon Link though, since there are still a lot of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' haters out there, who went berserk when Young Link was replaced by him. (Though ''replaced'' may not be as correct as "''given the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' Design in place of the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' Design and a new name''", since the two are absolutely identical otherwise. Canonically even in terms of age.)

* Half the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' fandom will declare any main character that is not Laharl to be a ReplacementScrappy. Adell from ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' got flak for being a HotBlooded HeManWomanHater, while Mao from ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' got flak for being ''too much'' like Laharl (he isn't, but makes a similar first impression). So far averted with Valvatorez from ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten''. According to WordOfGod, they tried to make Laharl and his cohorts the central characters again, but ran into a wall, eventually deciding that they'd already come up with everything they could with them. In turn, in order to attract more people, they had to come up with new faces, new locations, new everything.
** Luckily for those fans Laharl, Etna, and Flonne will reappear as main characters in the upcoming ''DisgaeaDimension2: A Brighter Darkness''

** Bowser Jr. was seen as the replacement for for the original seven Koopa Kids, with their distinctive appearances and (slight) personalities; at least for a while. Once he appeared alongside them in ''New Super Mario Bros Wii'', it tended to dissipate.
*** And then WordOfGod confirmed the Koopalings were never Bowser's kids to begin with, earning Junior a ''ton'' of hate once again.

*** To the credit of these sorts of games, though, they arguably saved Luigi and Diddy Kong from certain extinction, so they don't get it wrong all the time.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'', some fangirls see Linebeck III as a poor replacement for his Grandfather, Captain Linebeck from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass''. It doesn't really help that his clothes look an embarrassingly lot like a SailorFuku. Thankfully, he's only in a short part of the game.

* ''RedDeadRedemption'' suffers from this, and quite intensely. Fans are not hesitant in vocalizing their vehement hatred of the end of the game, wherein [[spoiler: the player gains control of Jack after his father, protagonist John Marston's, death.]] Fan either hate [[spoiler: Jack]] for not being John, or for being too ''much'' like John. Either way, finding fans who don't outright swear off the game after the twist is a difficult feat indeed.
* In ''SoldierOfFortune II'', Taylor is assigned to replace the late Hawk from the first game. However, she is obviously a poor substitute, never seen in combat, and is [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bumped off]] halfway through the game.

* ''MassEffect'' is an interesting case. In [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]], minerals were gotten by exploring unimportant planets with the Mako, a vehicle with shoddy controls and a tendency to get stuck in the terrain. In [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 the second game]] it gets replaced by a tedious and slow scanning minigame. So it's a case of [[ReplacementScrappy Replacement Scra]][[ScrappyMechanic ppy Mechanic]].

** The ''Cataclysm'' expansion features Garrosh Hellscream becoming this for Thrall. To clarify, Garrosh was already a {{Scrappy}} and TheWesley; making him replace Thrall as the Warchief just made things worse.

* Inverted, but then played straight in ''[[TheLegendOfDragoon The Legend of Dragoon]]''. The substitute for [[spoiler:Lavitz]] is often considered to be just as good if not better. Part of the reason is that [[spoiler:Albert]] came into the game and actually had some time to get development in. The substitute for Shana, meanwhile...didn't turn out so lucky. Sure, Miranda ''does'' have a small fanbase who adamantly believe she deserves from more love, but she also has a hatedom because she didn't make a good replacement for Shana. Miranda came in at a bad time and didn't have that much of a chance to be developed.

** At least, this trope was the case til he [[TookALevelInBadass gave the fans something to talk about]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4''. Now there are people bemoaning the fact that he's not properly playable. Bonus points if these are the same guys who bemoaned his main character status in [=MGS2=]!
*** And now it's come full circle: Raiden returned as the main character [[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance in the following Metal Gear game]]. (And now some fans are complaining because it's not Snake, even when they perfectly know Snake's story is over. UnpleasableFanbase all!)
* Inverted, but then played straight in ''LegendOfDragoon''. The substitute for [[spoiler:Lavitz]] is often considered to be just as good if not better. (Part of the reason is that [[spoiler:Albert]] came into the game and actually had some time to get development in.) The substitute for Shana, meanwhile...didn't turn out so lucky. Sure, Miranda ''does'' have a small fanbase who adamantly believe she deserves from more love, but she also has a hatedom because she didn't make a good replacement for Shana. Miranda came in at a bad time and didn't have that much of a chance to be developed.

** There's also Lucia from ''Devil May Cry 2'', who many saw as a poor replacement for Trish (who was present in the game as a SecretCharacter; the irony of it all is that Lucia was most likely created ''because'' Trish wasn't playable in the original). Then again, that whole game can be considered a replacement scrappy of the first game.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soulcalibur]]'' series, rabid Hwang fanboys (and [=HwangxMina=] fangirls) won't stop bashing Yun-seong for replacing Hwang in ''Soulcalibur II''.
** Which is pretty weird, since Hwang ''himself'' was a originally a replacement for Heishiro Mitsurugi in the Korean localization of ''Soul Edge'' (where depictions of samurais are banned for historical reasons). On top of that, he's an unlockable bonus character in nearly every game since.

* One Gamespy Daily Victim character complained about the disappointment he felt when, as a child, Clyde was replaced by Sue in ''Ms. {{Pac-Man}}''.
* ''MassEffect'' is an interesting case. In [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the first game]], minerals were gotten by exploring unimportant planets with the Mako, a vehicle with shoddy controls and a tendency to get stuck in the terrain. In [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 the second game]] it gets replaced by a tedious and slow scanning minigame about as fun as watching paint dry. So it's a case of [[ReplacementScrappy Replacement Scra]][[ScrappyMechanic ppy Mechanic]].
** A character aversion would be Wrex's replacement, Grunt. Wrex was a BloodKnight, DeadpanSnarker, and pretty much a fan favorite. At first, the trailers for ''Mass Effect 2'' show Grunt as a simple BloodKnight, the krogan [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. However, Grunt was [[DesignerBabies grown in a tank]] to be the ultimate krogan, leading to some [[CloningBlues existentialist angst]] (not {{Wangst}}) that helps flesh him out, and goes away as part of his loyalty mission. Additional CharacterDevelopment led to fans accepting him as a good character in his own right. Ironically, the reveal that James Vega is a Soldier who's skillset focuses on defense at first led to him becoming a proper replacement scrappy for Grunt. Like Grunt however, he has since become an aversion once the game was released.
*** Another aversion comes in VideoGame/MassEffect3: if Mordin dies in the second game, he is replaced by Padok Wiks. [[GenreSavvy Bioware was clearly aware of this trope]], and many comparisons are made in-universe [[LampshadeHanging (Joker even calls him "Not-Mordin")]], but talking to Wiks shows that he is a well-developed character in his own right, who, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute despite many similarities]], [[SubvertedTrope acts as a foil to Mordin in some areas]]. Following the [[spoiler: curing (or not) of the [[SterilityPlague Genophage]], which requires the real or faked death of Padok]], Bioware shows how confident they are in Padok as a character by having Joker and Shepard retract the "Not-Mordin" moniker and use his real name. Most players will agree with them.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' gives us the option to have a reporter on the Normandy. Many were hoping for the popular [[EnsembleDarkhorse Emily]] [[IntrepidReporter Wong]], but instead we got [[MsFanservice Diana Allers]], while [[DroppedABridgeOnHer Wong got killed offscreen]] [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse and never even mentioned in-game]]. In addition, Allers is voiced by Jessica Chobot of IGN, which prompted accusations of Bioware pandering to the media, and is a very underdeveloped character with a weak romance.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox'' shows an example of a single character - [[MsFanservice Krystal]] - being a Replacement Scrappy for not one, but ''two'' others: [[BadassGrandpa Peppy Hare]], whose role she took from ''[[VideoGame/StarFoxAssault Assault]]'' onwards and [[BadassDamsel Fara Phoenix]] [[note]]from the Magazine/NintendoPower comics from ''over ten years earlier''[[/note]], who [[MisBlamed coincidentally]] was first to play the role as [[TheHero Fox]] [[AudienceSurrogate McCloud's]] SatelliteLoveInterest. Krystal mostly gets [[DieForOurShip hate]] from [[FanDumb fans]] of the latter, as they maintain she ''stole'' Fox from Fara.

* Half the ''{{Disgaea}}'' fandom will declare any main character that is not Laharl to be a ReplacementScrappy. Adell from ''{{Disgaea 2}}'' got flak for being a HotBlooded HeManWomanHater, while Mao from ''{{Disgaea 3}}'' got flak for being ''too much'' like Laharl (he isn't, but makes a similar first impression). So far averted with Valvatorez from ''{{Disgaea 4|A Promise Unforgotten}}''. According to WordOfGod, they tried to make Laharl and his cohorts the central characters again, but ran into a wall, eventually deciding that they'd already come up with everything they could with them. In turn, in order to attract more people, they had to come up with new faces, new locations, new everything.
** Luckily for those fans Laharl, Etna, and Flonne will reappear as main characters in the upcoming ''[[DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness]]''

** Applies to some of the Pokémon themselves, albeit mostly in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' due to its reboot-ish nature. Examples include the hideous Timburr/Conkeldurr line for the Machop/Machamp line, and the fairly weak Pidove/Unfezant line for the much more versatile Starly/Staraptor line. [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in many cases, however; fans were happy to see the [[GoddamnBats Zubat and Geodude lines]] replaced with the Woobat and Roggenrola lines, respectively (with the latter also getting an unusually {{Badass}}-looking final evolution, Gigalith).

* Happily averted in ''HaloReach'' with Noble Six, who was basically as {{Badass}} as Master Chief and enjoyed customizable armor. His only flaw? He was unlucky.

* Half the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' fandom will declare any main character that is not Laharl to be a ReplacementScrappy. Adell from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2}}'' got flak for being a HotBlooded HeManWomanHater, while Mao from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3}}'' got flak for being ''too much'' like Laharl (he isn't, but makes a similar first impression). So far averted with Valvatorez from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|A Promise Unforgotten}}''. According to WordOfGod, they tried to make Laharl and his cohorts the central characters again, but ran into a wall, eventually deciding that they'd already come up with everything they could with them. In turn, in order to attract more people, they had to come up with new faces, new locations, new everything.
** Luckily for those fans Laharl, Etna, and Flonne will reappear as main characters in the upcoming ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness]]''

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has the BadassGrandpa Galuf die and be replaced (at his insistence) by his TokenMiniMoe granddaughter Krile. Many players felt the switch to be a downgrade since this makes the player party three-fourths princesses (and alongside the [[{{Bishonen}} kind of girly-looking]] Bartz making it the girliest RPG party ever), or because they simply preferred Galuf over Krile. She does, however, get all of his skills, jobs and stats, so it doesn't affect gameplay much (Krile's base stats are SLIGHTLY different than Galuf's, but it's just a few points here and there).
** Because having a higher female-to-male ratio is ''such'' [[SarcasmMode a horrible thing]], [[UnfortunateImplications right]]? Especially since the games immediately before and after had a much higher male-to-female ratio.

* The new Prince in the ''PrinceOfPersia'' series is getting this already. Never mind that there were Princes ''[[OlderThanTheyThink before]]'' the ''Sands of Time'' Prince; the FanDumb is disinclined to budge on that aspect.
** There is some legitimacy to these complaints, however, as some fans dislike the 2008 Prince's cocky, Han Solo-esque, one-liner spewing personality compared to the charismatic yet somewhat naive Prince from ''Sands of Time''.

* Half the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' fandom will declare any main character that is not Laharl to be a ReplacementScrappy. Adell from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2}}'' got flak for being a HotBlooded IdiotHero HeManWomanHater, while Mao from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3}}'' got flak for being ''too much'' like Laharl (he isn't, but makes a similar first impression). So far averted with Valvatorez from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|A Promise Unforgotten}}''. According to WordOfGod, they tried to make Laharl and his cohorts the central characters again, but ran into a wall, eventually deciding that they'd already come up with everything they could with them. In turn, in order to attract more people, they had to come up with new faces, new locations, new everything.
** Thankfully for thos fans Laharl, Etna, and Flonne will reappear as main characters in the upcoming ''[[VideoGame/DisgaeaDimension2 Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness]]''

** The ''Cataclysm'' expansion features Garrosh Hellscream becoming this for Thrall. To clarify, Garrosh was already a {{Scrappy}} and a {{Weasly}}, making him replace Thrall as the Warchief just made things worse.

* Inverted in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' with the Exile. While fans of the game don't outright hate the character, the characters in the game certainly seem to! Just being ''present'' at the site of a major catastrophe will cause everyone to blame you for it and even doing good deeds (incidentally, one includes fixing the problem that you didn't cause but were still blamed for) still fails to earn more than a smidgen of respect. Instead every character in the game seems to want the protagonist from the original back.
** Also inverted in that while most fans don't resent the character for replacing her predecessor, they DO loathe the (incoherent and just-outright-unfinished game) for how badly ''it'' fails to meet its legacy.
*** So in a sense, the ReplacementScrappy of the series is Obsidian, who replaced [=BioWare=] as the developer and ended up hated by fans for not being as good.