Disappeared Dad / Video Games

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• The Kid's father is nowhere to be seen in 198X, though he has fond memories of going to the video store with him on weekends. Judging by the names of the dragons (Pain, Grief, and Fear) in the Kill Screen game (which is implied to be a psychological mind game drawing on the Kid's interpretation of his mother), it's possible that he died recently.
• In AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, we learn that soon after adopting Player Character Mizuki at the end of the previous game six years ago, previous player character Kaname Date vanished in an explosion while they Never Found the Body with Mizuki resolving to find out the truth behind his disappearance.
• Going to meet the missing father is what kicks off the plot of Another Code. Then he goes and does it again in the sequel.
• In Assassin's Creed II, you get to see Ezio's father "disappear"... executed by hanging.
• The father of Beatrix from Battleborn is apparently one. Excerpts from her diary from the lore in Battleplan 32 reveal that her father apparently wasn't around much for her.
• The intro to The Binding of Isaac states that "Isaac and his mother lived alone, on a small house on a hill...". While Isaac's mother is a big part of the game - various items are linked to her, she's the first Final Boss, and two levels being set in her womb - Isaac's father is hardly mentioned. The photos in Ending 14 (the Chest ending) imply that Isaac's father left for untold reasons. The Dad's Key item, which opens all doors, supports this, and the Dad's Lost Coin item is an Alcoholics Anonymous chip, which gives an idea of why he left, and the Divorce Papers item in The Forgotten Update all but confirm it... and then Repentance reveals that another contributing factor which led to the deterioration of Dad's relationship with Mom was Mom's increasing religious insanity, which combined with his alcoholism ultimately left him with a feeling that he was doing more harm to the family than good.
• BioShock 2: We hear nothing about Eleanor Lamb's biological father and the circumstances of her conception and birth. This is odd because a woman like Dr. Lamb being a single parent in 1950s society is unlikely to have gone unremarked on. For her part, Eleanor looks upon Subject Delta as her replacement father figure, even going so far as calling him Father.
• In Car Battler Joe, Joe's father has been missing for years, and Joe sets out to find him.
• Chrono Trigger:
  • Crono's father.
  • Not only Crono's, but Magus's father never appears during the game, either. It is vaguely stated by an NPC that Queen Zeal (Janus's mother) hasn't been the same since the King died, at which point she started neglecting her children and unwittingly turned Janus's sister Schala into his mother figure.
  • The sequel, Chrono Cross, continues this with the noticeable absence of Serge's father, although we see Serge's mother at the beginning of (and various times throughout) the game.It is eventually revealed what happened to Serge's father; he's Lynx.
• In Clouded Heart, Marth's father went off to the city three years before the flashback prologue and never returned. His mother's fear of missing him when/if he did come back turned her into a recluse who eventually never left their home village.
• In Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, Lucas's father died of natural causes when he was in high school, and Lucas was surprised when he learned from his attorney the week after that his father passed down the house to his mother and siblings.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Judy Alvarez openly states that her dad was "never in the picture". Her mom died when she was young, leaving her to be Raised by Grandparents.
• Devil May Cry series:
  • Sparda is treated as gone and dead, but what exactly happened to him hasn't been elaborated on enough; the little backstory provided reveals that Sparda spent some time in raising and training his twins alongside Eva, but Dante and Vergil grew into adulthood without their father. Dante doesn't think much of his father, though.
  • Vergil is one to Nero. Justified in that he didn't know Nero existed and was trapped in hell until he came back after several years in Devil May Cry 5, only to disappear again later as he and Dante had an unfinished business in the Underworld.
• In Dishonored, there is no mention of Emily's father. It is however hinted and eventually confirmed via Word of God that Corvo himself might be her biological father.
• In Dot's Home, Dot's Grandpa Karl (the father of her father Hank) isn't seen with her Grandma Mavis in the present. It's because he long passed, and since he was the one who did the repairs, the family has struggled with maintaining the house over the years, among the consequences they got with the discrimination against their race.
• The Dragon Age franchise:
  • Dragon Age: Origins:
    • The Dwarf Commoner origin is sad. You're a lowlife thug, born as a Casteless, forever shunned by the rest of your kind, without almost any rights and stuck in the aptly-named Dust Town. Your sister is on her way to become a pseudo-prostitute and your mother is a bitter alcoholic. Your father? Left to find a new life on the surface. You should really feel sorry for yourself.
    • The Dalish elf's father died while their mother was pregnant, having been killed by human hunters. Once the child was born and weaned, their mother gave the baby to her best friend to raise, then went off into the forest to die of a broken heart.
    • A male Dwarf Noble can become this during his origin story if he sleeps with one of the Gold Diggers in Dust Town; she does have his child, but circumstances being what they are, it didn't work out like she planned.
    • Alistair was raised by Arl Eamon of Redcliffe because his father was the King of Ferelden and he couldn't acknowledge his bastard son. It's not made clear at what point he learned the truth, but it's clearly affected him all his life.
    • Morrigan, Zevran, and Leliana all have Disappeared Dads as well, and have no idea who the men in question even are.
    • A male Warden can become this if he performs the dark ritual with Morrigan, who then takes off with his unborn child.
    • In the Awakening expansion pack, Oghren is revealed to have run off on his new family to join the Grey Wardens, because as a Blood Knight he simply could not accept peace. By raising his approval, it's possible for the player character to convince him to be a part of his child's life through letters.
  • Dragon Age II:
    • Hawke's father died a few years before the start of the game. Malcolm Hawke's absence from their lives clearly has a strong effect on all three of his children. Also, every single one of the companions suffers from this trope:
    • Varric's father died when he was still in diapers. This is the reason his mother became a Lady Drunk, and most of Varric's childhood was spent taking care of her and then nursing her through her final illness when the alcohol took its toll.
    • Aveline adored her father, but lost him to illness when she was a young woman. It's only touched on during the aftermath of the quest "All That Remains," though it gets more focus if she's brought as a companion for the Mark of the Assassin DLC.
    • Aside from being denied any contact with his parents when he was sent to the Circle, external materials reveal that Anders's father rejected him out of fear when his magic manifested.
    • It's heavily implied that Isabela has no idea who her father was; she only ever mentions her mother, whom she hates. Fenris also has no memory of his father, on account of his memories having been wiped, but even when he does remember anything he never mentions a father.
    • Merrill hasn't seen either of her parents since she was very young, because when her magic manifested she was given to Clan Sabrae (which had a lack of mages).
    • Sebastian's character arc is related to the murder of his entire family, including his father; even before that, however, his relations with both of his parents were severely strained, as he was the third child they didn't particularly want.
    • For a non-companion example, Feynriel's father Vincento walked out on his mother when he discovered she was pregnant, partly because his work as a trader couldn't allow family time, but mostly because he wasn't interested in having a son. It obviously had quite an effect on Feynriel, because in "Night Terrors", the Desire Demon's Lotus-Eater Machine scenario involves him being accepted by Vincento and taken along with him on his travels.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition:
    • Sera doesn't know who either of her birth parents actually were. She was eventually adopted by a human woman, but she was unmarried, so Sera has never had a father.
    • Both of Cullen's parents were killed during the Fifth Blight. He had been training as a Templar for six years at that point, meaning that he left home at the age of thirteen and never saw his parents again.
• Dragon Quest:
  • The prologue to Dragon Quest III shows the hero's father, Ortega, fighting a dragon on the rim of a pit. They both fall in, and are never seen again. Until you get to near the end of the game, where the dragon kills him, and then you finish it off for him.
  • An inversion of this trope occurs in Dragon Quest V. You are the Disappeared Dad to your son and daughter, having been turned to stone along with your wife by the villains shortly after they were born. Eight years later, however, they manage to find you and turn you back to normal.
• In EarthBound (1994), Ness's father is always away, and can only be contacted by telephone. In fact, in the ending credits his sprite is the telephone.
• In Evolution Worlds, Mag's father, Asroc Launcher, has been missing for three years when the game starts.
• The Fallout series:
  • Fallout 3:
    • This is a main plot hook of the game. Not long after, he pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Enclave from getting Project Purity. Unfortunately, Colonel Autumn recovers.
    • The missing father of Sydney the Relic Hunter was killed during a weapons trade off, along with her mom being killed by Raiders earlier. You can find an Apocalyptic Log from her dad on a bed in the Statesman Hotel; giving it to her earns you a unique 10mm SMG.
  • Fallout: New Vegas:
    • Rose of Sharon Cassidy states that her father John Cassidy left her and her mother not long after she was born, though she claims he was not the type to do something like that for selfish reasons.
    • Arcade Gannon's father was killed when he was an infant and he was essentially raised by the members of his father's squad in the Enclave, even until way after the Enclave was destroyed.
    • A male Courier with the Lady Killer perk is this, or at least thinks he might be. When the Courier learns that the Lonesome Drifter is from Montana and that his dad took off when he was a young kid, the perk unlocks a dialog option where the Courier can nervously ask if the Drifter is 17 years old. ^*He's not, is actually 28 years old, and it's all but stated that his father is in fact the Mysterious Stranger, something greatly evidenced by the unique .44 revolver you can get from him with a Barter skill check that plays the Stranger's iconic guitar riff when holstered and unholstered.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Cecil Harvey and Kain Highwind have one each in Final Fantasy IV. Kain's was a valiant Dragoon who died in battle. Cecil's was a moon-man named Kluya. Who was also Golbez's dad!
  • Final Fantasy V:
    • King Tycoon's disappearance in the prologue becomes a plot point and one of Lenna's motives. And Faris's, it turns out.
    • Bartz's father passed away a few years before the game and asked his son to travel the world, which Bartz does.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, Relm's parents are only directly referred to in her equitable Orphan's Plot Trinket, whose description says "departed mother's love protects from instant death attacks". Shadow, the ninja, can also wear it and has nightmares of siring a daughter and abandoning her after the mother suffers Death by Childbirth, implying that Shadow is Relm's father
  • Even more in Final Fantasy VII:
    • Tifa's father was murdered by Sephiroth in his Nibelheim rampage. In front of young Tifa, to make it worse.
    • Then we have Dyne, Marlene's biological father and Barret's old friend, who passed the Despair Event Horizon after Shinra's destruction of Corel Village and unwillingly getting an Arm Cannon; after that, he's pretty much an Empty Shell of the man he once was. He becomes a full DD when Barret defeats him in combat; he then begs him to keep taking care of Marlene and throws himself off a cliff, despite Barret's pleas.
    • Aerith's father was Professor Gast Faremist, a scientist who was Hojo and Lucrecia's "partner" in the experiments that would lead to Sephiroth's birth. He left Shinra shortly afterwards and later lived with a Cetra woman, Ifalna, and fathered Aerith with her, but was gunned down by Hojo while trying to protect his wife and daughter; Ifalna dies some time later, but manages to entrust Elmyra with bitty Aerith before kicking it.
    • Cloud was raised by his Mother as Single Parent. The only thing we learn about his father is that Cloud never knew him, as he apparently died when Cloud was very young. Fans have their own theories on the matter.^note  A popular one is that Cloud was born out of wedlock 20 years later (in real life), in a tie-in novel for Final Fantasy VII Remake shed a bit more light on the subject. In the book, Tifa relates how an elderly gossip once told her that Cloud's father had been a wanderer, a "Man like the wind" who never stayed in one place for very long. He and Claudia (Cloud's Mother) had hooked up for a time, which led to Cloud's birth. However, around the time Cloud was learning to walk, his Father's wonderlust ways re-emerged and one day he walked off into the mountains and never came back. All that was ever found of him were a few of his belongings. Note: this is not the final word on the subject, at least for the original game, As Remake is a different continuality.
    • Sephiroth, on the other hand, appears to have known Hojo was his father, which means the man was entirely too present in his life — but emotionally, there was no father there. Meaning he invested a lot of emotion in the mother of whom he had only a name, "Jenova". Which wasn't even his actual mother, exactly, but it did make it easier for her to get into his head...
  • In Final Fantasy VII's prequel game Crisis Core, major character Director Lazard turns out to be motivated by this — he's President Shinra's illegitimate son, and resents the man fiercely. And presumably Rufus, too.
  • Jecht from Final Fantasy X messed up his kid by disappearing for ten years, then messes him up even more by not being quite the same upon resurfacing. It turns out that Jecht became the Final Aeon for the Final Summoning, resulting in him becoming the current Sin when he destroyed it and the spirit of Yu Yevon emerged to posses him and turn him into Sin and perpetuating the Vicious Cycle.
    • Also extends to Braska, Yuna's father who left her at his hometown when she was still a child after her mother died. He is the one who last defeated Sin by turning Jecht into an Aeon and then dying during the battle with Sin due to the strain of the Final Summoning ritual.
  • Ritz from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has mentioned her mother before, but never her father.
• This happens quite often in Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem:
    • Marth and Elice's dad Cornelius is killed in battle due to Gra's betrayal, prior to the start of Shadow Dragon. This results in him becoming the progenitor and namesake of the "parental figures of the main Lord or a key party member who dies to spur the Lord into action" archetype.
    • Linde's dad Miloah died at the hands of Gharnef.
    • Yuliya and Jubelo's dad, Ludwik, is killed too.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
    • Arvis and Azelle's dad was Spurned into Suicide.
    • Sigurd and Ethlyn's dad Vylon, Deirdre's father Kurth, and Brigid and Edain's dad Ring were murdered in a conspiracy. And Ring was killed by his own son Andrey's hand.
    • Eldigan either gets executed by Chagall or falls in battle against Sigurd; Quan dies in the Aed Massacre; and Sigurd and what is implied to be all of the guys in his party who were paired up (with the exception of Finn, who was off in Leonster at the time, and Lewyn, who is another bag of cats) are killed in the Battle of Bellhalla.
  • Fire Emblem: Thracia 776:
    • Miranda's father, the King of Ulster, was murdered by the Grannvale Empire for sheltering Leif years ago; Miranda is very, very angry at Leif because of that.
    • Mareeta's father Galzus, but unlike the others he comes back as long as you don't get him killed off — and if he lives to the end of the game... he leaves her again in the care of her adoptive mother Eyvel, since he thinks he's too bloodstained to stay with his child, but promises to visit Mareeta regularly.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade:
    • Lilina's father Hector dies in Chapter 3, an event that proves very problematic for Roy and co.
    • Roy's father Eliwood, however, is a notable aversion; currently, he's the only father to a main protagonist in the series to appear onscreen and remains alive by the end of the game. Guess the badass points Eliwood got for being The Hero of The Blazing Blade twenty years prior did count for something, after all.
    • Combined with Missing Mom - in the background, both of Hugh's parents died young and left him to be raised by his grandmother, Niime.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
    • Eliwood's father Elbert sacrifices himself to save Nils and Ninian and screw over Nergal.
    • Ninian and Nils's father... who is all but outright confirmed to be none other than the local Archnemesis Dad, Nergal.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
    • The game starts with the death of Eirika and Ephraim's dad, King Fado.
    • The death of Lyon's father Vigarde is just as important since it triggers Lyon's fall into despair, as well as the start of his experiments with the Fire Emblem, and ultimately the whole plot of the game.
    • A background case is Franz and Forde's father, a famous knight of Renais who died in the line of duty years ago, when Forde was a teenager and Franz was a kid.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Ike and Mist's father Greil dies quite early on.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
    • The previous Exalt of Ylisse (the father of Emmeryn, Chrom, and Lissa) died when Emmeryn was only nine years old, prompting her ascension to the throne.
    • The Avatar was taken away from his/her father shortly after being born, as the father was intending to use him/her as a vessel for Grima. When said father (the Evil Sorcerer Validar) returns... uh, things start taking turns for the worst.
    • ALL the men who got married and fathered kids become this in the Bad Future. The case of Chrom and Lucina is especially... complicated.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • King Sumeragi of Hoshido is this to the Avatar and his other children, dying in the previous war against Nohr protecting his (adoptive) son/daughter, who is later taken by Garon and the Nohrians anyway.
    • The actual father of the Avatar is the sane half of Anankos, the Big Bad. He dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Lilith, the Madness of Anankos in human form and his daughter of sorts as well.
    • Kaze and Saizo's father was the previous Saizo and leader of their Ninja clan. He was murdered by Koutarou, the ruler of the Principality of Mokushu; Saizo attempted to avenge him, but barely survived and lost his eye in the process.
    • In the DLC stage Heirs of Fates, there's an Alternate Universe in which Anankos managed to take over several different Deeprealms and kill pretty much everyone there. The fathers of the children characters that manage to escape (or mother in the case of Male Kana) are specifically said to have died to make sure their kids would survive. In a subversion, Anankos revives said fathers (plus the royal grandparents, save for Garon) to force the kids fight them... and in another subversion, once this is done the kids return to their restored worlds, where their parents have been revived.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • Dimitri's father, Lambert, was assassinated four years prior in an event known as the Tragedy of Duscur. The trauma of this event haunts him throughout the game.
    • Byleth's father Jeralt is murdered midway through Part I.
    • Edelgard's father, Emperor Ionius IX, is already on his deathbed during Part I, and passes away during the timeskip.
    • Notably averted by Claude; he states that he doesn't know what it's like to lose a parent, and his father is mentioned in some of his paired endings as approving of his marriage. He remains one of two Lords whose father survives the game (besides the aforementioned Roy).
  • In Fire Emblem Warriors, Rowan and Lianna's father died of illness prior to the game. This actually factors into Rowan's obsession with becoming a knight and desire to put Lianna on the Aytolisian throne; he believes that the stress of ruling the kingdom hastened his death and that a king cannot properly protect his people.
  • In Fire Emblem Heroes Book III, Alfonse and Sharena's father Gustav sacrifices himself to stop Arc Villain Hel from killing his son.
• In Guild Wars Queen Salma was the illegitimate child of the Krytan king and a priestess. While he was kind to her and considerate enough to pay for her upbringing, he fled the country when Charr invaded. Salma was understandably torn over her father abandoning both her and Kryta, but resolved to become ruler in his place.
• Harvest Moon:
  • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life starts with your father having recently passed and you taking over his farm.
  • Elli and her little brother Stu from Harvest Moon: Back to Nature have both their parents mentioned to have died. This also applies to Harvest Moon 64.
• In Kindergarten, Buggs's father left him. You can exploit this to make him fight you, or find him an alcohol-related memento at his most vulnerable moment to cheer him up and get a Monstermon card for it.
• La-Mulana's Kosugi family has at least two instances of this. Shawn dumped his son on his own father to go looking for the ruins of La-Mulana, and Lemeza himself had to go into hiding during the gap between La-Mulana and La-Mulana 2, leaving his daughter Lumisa alone at some point.
• This trope is a major plot point in The Legend of Dragoon. Dart undertakes his quest in hopes that he will find and kill the "black monster", who supposedly killed both of his parents several years before the start of the game. While his mom really is dead, it turns out his father Zieg was, upon attempting to activate his Dragoon spirit, possessed by the spirit of the Wingly leader Melbu Frahma, who disguised himself as the long dead Emperor Diaz, where he proceeded to manipulate the likes of Lloyd to acquire the power to destroy the signet spheres so he could call down The Moon That Never Sets. Any questions?
• In The Legend of Zelda series, Princess Zelda's father is ostensibly the King of Hyrule, but he's missing from almost every game in the entire series, leaving his underaged daughter to run the kingdom. And in two of the only games where he is seen, he's murdered by the Big Bad. (These would be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time^note He isn't even seen, but present offscreen when Link first gets a glimpse of Ganondorf while he's pretending loyalty to the king. and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past^note In this case, he's murdered before the game begins, and the end of the game brings him back..)
  • Link himself is even worse off. His mother is only mentioned in one game (Ocarina of Time, again) as is his father (Breath of the Wild). The closest relatives he ever lived with were an uncle, a grandfather, a grandma and a little sister. He even played Knight Templar Big Brother to the latter.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Anju lives with her mother and grandmother, but her father has died (a fact you'd learn if you speak to Anju while she is making lunch on the First Day). In an obscure cutscene, she and her mother talk about fleeing to the ranch, and it's revealed that Anju's father mysteriously left years before and was never seen again. This is part of the reason Anju's mother is so angry at Kafei and is skeptical that he'll return.
  • This seems to be universally the case with the Gerudo in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as none of the women ever mention their fathers. Granted, the prohibition on men entering Gerudo Town is a factor, but it appears that the little Gerudo girls are never brought out abroad to meet their dads. Made weirder by the fact that of the handful of depicted relationships between Gerudo women and Hylian men, none of them have kids. This is most prominently the case with the Gerudo Chief, Riju: her mother's untimely death is what resulted in her getting that position at such a young age, and the other Gerudo mourn her mother as well, yet there is no mention of her father whatsoever despite the likelihood that he would be more well-known among them compared to other Gerudo dads.
• Love & Pies:
  • Amelia divorced her husband (Kate's father) prior to the events of the game because he cheated on her more than once, and he remains unseen. He also wasn't present for Kate's birth, and Amelia's uncles Sven and Angus visited her instead.
  • Amelia herself knows that her mother is alive because the latter called her a week after she ran away, but she doesn't know who her dad is. All she knows is that Freya never told her about him because people wouldn't be approving of their marriage, and that all that mattered to her was that she had Amelia. Subverted when Sebastian finally shows up at the café to tell Amelia personally that he is her father.
• There are many missing parents in the Lunar series, but one of particular note is Mia's father, the husband of Lemia Ausa... or any male in the Ausa line, for that matter. While he's simply never mentioned in the game, bonus materials turn this into a Justified Trope: the heiresses of the Ausa family keep their romances and marriages a secret from the public to separate their family life and their responsibilities to the Magic Guild as much as possible. Suddenly, it makes sense why there's no mention of Lemia's husband, and why the series makes a point of avoiding confirmation on whether or not Mia and Nash got together.
• Mass Effect has a tradition of characters who have issues with their Fathers to the point it's become a common joke within the fandom:
  • All of Commander Shepard's backgrounds have this in some form or another. Both of Shepard's parents were killed by Batarian slavers in the "Colonist" background, and in the "Earthborn" background, Shepard is an orphan who never had parents to begin with. The "Spacer" background is the most straight example, as Shepard's father is only mentioned once in the very beginning, when it's established that Shepard's parents were both Military Officers, and then he is never spoken of again, even though Shepard's mother appears or is mentioned in some way throughout the trilogy.
  • Jacob Taylor learns that his father, who has been presumed dead for ten years, might still be alive. He admits that they hadn't spoken for ages even before the man vanished, but he naturally wants to investigate. He doesn't like what he finds.
  • Thane Krios is the absent father trying to reunite with his son Kolyat. Primarily so he can stop Kolyat from following in his footsteps as an assassin. It's even called "Cat's in the Cradle".
  • Tali'Zorah's father (as mentioned in the first Mass Effect) was a "Well Done Daughter" Gal type, and as we find out come Mass Effect 2, he was also a "going through the motions" type in day-to-day, because he was so focused on reclaiming the Quarian homeworld as a "gift" to her. He wound up being killed by an experiment gone wrong.
  • There's also Liara's "Father" (Asari are an all female race) who Liara never met. She only knows it's another Asari, and received the typical backlash about being a "Pureblood". You meet her father, Matriarch Aethyta, in the second game, and can even reunite the two in the third.
  • The only thing known about the father of Samara's three children is that she was an Asari. Lair of the Shadow Broker mentions a memorial sphere of her among the belongings that Samara gave up when she became a Justicar, implying that Samara's bondmate died some time before their daughters were diagnosed as Ardat-Yakshi.
  • What little James Vega mentions about his father doesn't paint their relationship in a good light. As the Reaper invasion means Shepard has a lot less time to sort out their teammates' personal issues, whatever caused the falling-out remains a mystery the whole game. The Homeworlds comic shows what happened; Joshua Sanders became a red sand addict after his wife died, and tried to blackmail James into acting as his courier.
• It's widely accepted that Dr. Light thinks of Rock, Roll and Blues (Proto Man) like children. However, Mega Man X got stowed in a capsule for a hundred years, and his "father" died before X was "born" (activated). Poor X has nothing but holochambers to remember Light by.
• This is the main plot hook in Mega Man Star Force. Geo's father, Kelvin Stelar, vanished while on a First Contact mission to Planet FM, and Geo wants to learn what happened to him and if he's still safe.
• In Neverwinter Nights 2, the protagonist's father is mentioned exactly once, to establish that nobody in West Harbor has ever met him. Of course, seeing as their mother is only mentioned a handful of times and they are raised by a friend of their mother that is understandable.
• The plot of Net:Zone is kicked off by Newton Winters trying to find out what happened to his missing father Zel, whom the police couldn't locate. Upon cracking into Zel's laptop, an urgent email left by him explains that Zel had been trapped in Cycorp's Genecys Zone, asking whoever received it to enter the Genecys Zone to help him. When Newton does, Zel leaves him instructions on how to use his personal databank to resurrect him as a CY-11 artificial life form. Late in the game, Zel's colleague, Walter Sayle reveals that Zel really is dead, by overloading his neural interface, and a recording explaining this also triggers the same process to happen to you within a time limit.
• In The Night of the Rabbit, Jerry Hazelnut's father is nowhere to be seen in the opening sequences of the game. But late in the game we find out that his father was trapped in the space between worlds and the memories about him were erased from other people. Fortunately he is restored back to normal.
• The disappearance of the main character's father during the prologue is what kickstarts the plot of Nostalgia (Red Entertainment).
• In No Umbrellas Allowed, Nari's father Bukgu left her town for Haga City when she was young, but he was arrested and turned into a Fixie by AVAC.
• OMORI: While his mom still occasionally leaves voicemails for him, Sunny has completely ceased contact with his father. It's implied that Sunny's dad walked out on his wife and son after figuring out the Awful Truth about his daughter's death.
• Both of Aya's parents in Parasite Eve are gone. Aya's mother died in a car accident, leaving her father to raise Aya alone as a single parent. Aya brings him up in one conversation with Daniel to remind him that he's a great father to his kid, Ben, and how she was grateful for everything her father did for her. Daniel brings up that unlike Aya, Ben's mother is still alive (she does die later off screen), which explains why he feels like he's not a good parent (he and his wife had divorced and Daniel got custody of Ben). It is not known what exactly happened to Aya's father, but it's somewhat implied that he might've passed away at some point.
• In the game Persona 4, Kanji Tatsumi's father is implied by his mother to have collapsed while Kanji was somewhere else. He was proclaimed dead at the hospital.
• Pokémon:
  • Every game in the main series, with the exception of Gen III's Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes, has the protagonist suffer from this, with the father rarely mentioned (if at all). The aforementioned games where your character's father does appear is because your family moved to the region specifically because he got a job as gym leader there. Otherwise, if the character's father is mentioned, then it is usually something minor: for example, an offhand mention of how "dad would like this" about a sports video game back in Pokémon Red and Blue. Your father is touched upon in the post-game for Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon when Rotom mentions your mother received a letter from him. Since you recently moved from Kanto, it can be assumed he's still in Kanto for one reason or another but is in his family's life.
  • Rivals occasionally suffer from this as well: Blue's father is never seen or mentioned, as is the same with most of your rivals in Pokémon X and Y, and Hau's father is only mentioned post-game as working overseas.
  • We don't talk about Arven's dad.
  • As far as spin-offs go, the player character of XD's dad is explicitly said to have died a few years prior.
  • Lillie and Gladion's father Mohn disappeared years ago. This caused their mother Lusamine to undergo Sanity Slippage as time went on. Mohn is alive but amnesiac.
• Potion Permit:
  • Osman's father Oswald died before the events of the game, and Osman keeps one of his documents in his office since he plans to share his legacy in trying to clear Dr. Lewis's name regarding the accident at Glaze Iceberg to prove to Moonbury that the Medical Association can be trusted.
  • Myer's father, the previous mayor of Moonbury, is long dead by the start of the game.
• Prayer of the Faithless: Serra thinks that her dad was "a deadbeat drunk who ditched her before she was even born".
• In the Purple Moon games, Sharla's father walked out on her and refuses to take her to a father-daughter function previous to her teenage rebellion, which is implied to be partially caused by this. Nobody knows where Dana's father is, either, but she certainly doesn't like her stepfather much.
• In Quilts & Cats of Calico, the protagonist's father Albert left for the Free City of Tomkitty five years before the events of the game to help the Kingdom of Scratchington at war against its neighbors. He was never heard from again, but he passed down his sewing tools to his child so they can continue his legacy as a quilter. To the Quilter's surprise, it turns out that he's alive and well, secretly working as the Head Engineer of the Factory to mass-produce fabrics for the army using the Iron Loom. He had to leave the Quilter behind for the latter's safety.
• Recettear opens with a fairy arriving and asking Recette where her father is. Recette recalls he said "I'm gonna be an adventurer!" before running off and hasn't been seen since. The fairy, Tear, then reveals she's a debt collector, Recette's father took out a massive loan with the house as collateral and hasn't paid a penny since, and the finance company is a week away from foreclosing on the house unless payments are made in his stead. Recette seems to promptly forget about him in favor of running a shop to keep herself fed and housed. When she eventually does stumble onto her lost and delirious father in one of the dungeons, she pretends he doesn't exist and moves on. (Dungeons are supervised so he's in no danger, but Tear notes that's cold, coming from Recette.)
• Red Dead Redemption II: Before John Marston was the textbook example of a Papa Wolf, he straight up abandoned his family for an entire year since he believed Jack wasn't his son. And even when he did come back, he was a godawful deadbeat dad for about 15 more years.
• In Resident Evil 6, Jake is revealed early on to be the son of Albert Wesker. He does not take it well when he learns how batshit insane his father was. He also flips out when he finds out Chris killed Wesker, and the only thing that keeps him from shooting Chris right then and there is the desire to not be like his father^note Chris is one of the few people left standing in the way of NEO Umbrella's plan that will infect the world, and killing him would almost guarantee an outcome similar to Weskers COMPLETE GLOBAL SATURATION.
• Reverse: 1999 is a dark game that often deals with terrible tragedies upfront, and missing and absent fathers are no exception.
  • Eagle lost her father in WWI at a young age. Much of her motivations involve trying to become as great of a man as he was to her, though unfortunately, the rampant sexism of the age constantly tries to put her down.
  • Pavia's father was absent from his life from a young age, his mother dying or being permanently committed to a mental health instution meant he was shunted to his Evil Aunt's care.
• In Robopon, Cody's dad leaves on a business trip at the very beginning of the first game and is never seen again, even in the sequel.
• An interesting take on this trope occurs in Rune Factory 2 where the missing dad is the main character. Instead of the game following him when he leaves his family, player control switches over to his son/daughter who embarks on a quest to find out what happened to his/her father.
• In Sam & Max: Freelance Police Season 2, it is revealed that Bosco was a test tube baby (courtesy of an instant-baby-generating contraption that extracts DNA from saliva samples), due to the fact that his mother was a feminist who wanted total independence from men. The source of Bosco's paternal DNA (and thus his biological father) is revealed to be then-president John F. Kennedy, who his mother met (but apparently did not recognize) about two and a half months before his death.
• Scaler's dad left when he was little. It later turns out that Leon is his father — and had been stuck in a different world.
• Silent Hill:
  • Alessa's father was completely absent in the backstory of the original Silent Hill.
  • Harry Mason is revealed to have been this to Cheryl in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories:
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog games, Cream's mother Vanilla is a recurring character, but her father has never been shown or mentioned in any official material.
• Star Fox: James McCloud, Fox's father, disappears in the backstory. He has been on-screen a few times, but likely as a hallucination every time.
• In Suikoden III Chris' father has been missing since she was little. She meets up with him again as he is dying.
• Tales of Symphonia: True to the trope, Lloyd's father isn't really gone. He's one of three millennia-old beings running counteracting plans. His having a family was the major reason he broke off his alliance with the Big Bad.
• Team Fortress 2: Supplemental material reveals that this trope hits several of the mercs pretty hard:
  • Demoman: Father is dead of unknown causes. His parents were also demolitions experts, though, so this may have led to his death.
  • Heavy: Father was murdered trying to protest the Communist uprising. His sisters were much younger than him when this happened, so he pretty much had to help his mother raise them for their entire lives. This resulted in him becoming incredibly overprotective of them (and in his own words, bossy), although he backed off when his sisters proved they were strong enough to take care of themselves.
  • Sniper: His adoptive father, Jonathan Mundy, is dead of unknown causes, while his biological father, Bil-Bel, is negligent, only seeming to bother Sniper to borrow money.
  • Scout: Claims his father is dead, but seems to have repressed memories of Spy from his childhood. Heavy seems to believe Spy is Scout's biological father, but Scout actively denies this. Spy really is Scout's dad... though as of now Scout believes it to be Tom Jones.
• Tomb Raider:
  • Lara's parents never appear in the first series, but according to the manual both her parents disowned her after she refused to take part in an Arranged Marriage.
  • Lara's Disappeared Dad has a big role in the reboot trilogy, starting with Legend. Richard Croft died/disappeared during an expedition in Cambodia searching for Lara's Missing Mom. Underworld reveals the details of what happened; Lara's mother became a zombie upon being transported to the Norse underworld and Lara's father was killed by the Big Bad for not co-operating with her plans.
• In Trials of Mana, Duran's father died while on a quest to defeat the Dragon Emperor. This becomes an important plot point for Duran's story later on, as a setup for a Luke, I Am Your Father scene with the Darkshine Knight.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Genevieve's history lesson on The Long Conflict implies that Yvette's dad is King Heron, since her mom:
  Queen Claire had only recently taken office after the death of King Heron
• In Welcome To Primrose Lake, Jessica states that she and her mother left Primrose Lake when she was little because her father had disappeared. Ox replies that he was actually murdered and according to his mother, it's the "Carlyle curse" to die young and rough.
• This seems to be a pretty common trope for Wild ARMs protagonists:
  • Wild ARMs 4: Jude lost his father before he was even born. He later finds out what happened to him when he fights him to save the world, and later convinces him to finally let his spirit rest after the battle.
  • Virginia from Wild ARMs 3 was abandoned by the father who taught her to use her ARMs. This is doubled when we later find out that her absent father was also a substitute father figure for fellow playable character Jet. Then, after he seemingly comes back, it's revealed that he's actually a "recording" of sorts of her real father made by a electronic library, a mere projection. Virginia then has to "kill" him when she destroys the library. Abandoned again.
• Julian Gardna-Brennan, the Player Character of X2: The Threat and X3: Reunion, is the son of the previous game's Player Character Kyle Brennan. His parents divorced when he was two, his mother got custody, and they moved halfway across the galaxy which resulted in him growing up without ever knowing his father.