Jerkass / Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Richard Wellington is a condescending jerk towards damn near everyone in the courtroom, and that's before he's revealed to be a con artist and a murderer.
  • In Trials and Tribulations, Phoenix discovers that someone is impersonating him. When he confronts the guy, not only is he a total jerkass, he's a downright bully who would rather kick everyone's ass for even looking at him funny. When a girl named Viola Cadaverini shows up, though, he goes from tiger to kitten, and for good reason: Several months before, he got into a traffic accident with Viola, whose granddad is a mob boss, and he was forced to pay $1 million for the surgery on poor Viola. Even jerkasses know better than to piss off a mob boss. Out of earshot, however, he outright insults Viola. Considering this happens right after the girl's tearful confession about the whole matter, this comes off as seriously nasty. All that aside, there's also the fact that he's the murderer in that case. As if it wasn't obvious.
  • Then there is Godot from the third game, who, instead of using a whip like Franziska, throws cups of coffee at Phoenix. Also his behaviour in the final case. When he gets wind of a plot to kill Maya, he puts her in danger so that he can save her himself, kills Maya's mother, and tries to pin the blame on Iris.
  • Also, Zak Gramarye. Perhaps worst of all, he disappears, abandoning his own daughter and leaving Phoenix to be disbarred. And then he comes back 7 years later with (for no explained reason) a plot to frame Phoenix (who now earns a living as an attraction at a restaurant with his reputation as an unbeatable poker player) for cheating at poker, destroying his reputation and livelihood, and, let's not forget, his only means of supporting Zak's own daughter, whom Phoenix adopted after Zak ran off.
  • Daryan Crescend is extremely temperamental, casually insults people and comes up with derogatory nicknames. One of his sprite animations is pointing and laughing. He gets even worse when Lamiroir accuses him of murder, and Apollo has him brought to the stand, having figured out that Daryan is the murderer.
• Shun and Soma, the two most prominent bad guys in Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword, are complete dicks to everyone. Shun is even a dick before he becomes a bad guy. The actual Big Bad and her Dragon are Cute and Psycho Worthy Opponents who are at least polite about trying to destroy the planet.
• Danganronpa:
  • Monokuma, full stop. He presides over a "killing game" in which only the person who commits murder and avoids being caught can escape, at which point everyone else gets executed. When the culprits are inevitably caught, Monokuma sentences them to being executed in a very painful manner and laughs about their reasons for committing the murder, ignoring his own responsibility. In the sequel, he also makes a habit of abusing his "little sister" Monomi and casually has her executed along with the "traitor" from the Future Foundation as an afterthought.
  • The Big Bad controlling Monokuma is actually an even bigger jerk as she, Junko Enoshima, openly embraces despair as a fetish and brutally insults and kills people who surround her for the pettiest and most self-centered of reasons. In 3, during Side:Despair, she does this while also trying to claim despair is the world's salvation while hope is its destruction, but in reality is only trying to spread despair for personal pleasure and cares nothing for the lives of other people.
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
    • Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. In addition to treating his classmates with contempt for being less talented than he is, he initially treats the killings as a game and even openly contemplates trying to kill someone and graduate. He also knows who the second murderer is, but withholds that knowledge and rearranges the crime scene in order to see who would be most likely to catch him. He gets a good dose of Break the Haughty thrown his way during chapters four and five, which leads to some Character Development, and by the end of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, it's clear that, although he still puts on airs and thinks he's all that, he Took a Level in Kindness.
    • Celestia Ludenberg, the Ultimate Gambler, is almost as callous as Byakuya, and even coldly suggests the second victim was to blame for not following her "night time" rule. She also manipulates another student into killing someone, and then kills her accomplice to commit the murder required to graduate.
    • Toko Fukawa manages to be a Shrinking Violet and The Bully at the same time, while she does have a Dark and Troubled Past she's still extremely abrasive and rude to everyone around her to the point of slut shaming and holding up trials so she can make weird comments. By the end of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, however, she significantly softens up thanks to her friendship with Komaru.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
    • Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, the Ultimate Yakuza, who refuses to associate with the group, and contemptuously describes cooperation and friendship as having no place in a killing game and spending most of his time threatening anyone who even breathes wrong in front of him. While he's responsible for the brutal murder of Mahiru Koizumi, he doesn't kill anyone himself although he came extremely close with Mahiru, and after losing his childhood friend Peko, and then losing an eye while trying to save her as well as realising he indirectly took Mahiru's life and ruined Hiyoko's, he develops into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who's still short-tempered and abrasive, but is willing to help and even sacrifice himself for the others.
    • Hiyoko Saionji, the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, who's first introduced crushing ants for fun and mercilessly bullies some of her classmates. She gets a little better after losing her best friend, but then gets killed by one of the people she bullied, albeit for reasons unrelated to the bullying and in a very undeserved way. Ultimately she is a Jerkass with a Heart of Gold who can be friendly and genuinely passionate about her talent.
    • While not as apparent as the other two, due to seeming like a relatively nice guy, by the end of the first trial, Nagito Komaeda becomes this. First, it's revealed he willingly tried to kill someone (or be killed himself) by starting a blackout and hiding a knife under a table for little more reason than "he wanted everyone to shine as beacons of Hope in pure despair". When confronted by the would-be killer, he claims he will cooperate with them, despite them trying to murder him instead. Then, there's his trolling nature of constantly accusing Hajime of being the culprit, casually claiming he's the Future Foundation "traitor" in Chapter 4, and yes, people actually believe him. He also berates Hajime (and later Komaru) for being reserve course students, which in his eyes means they have no talent, then proceeds to commit a murder-suicide of himself just to expose the Future Foundation "traitor" despite the fact that said traitor was Good All Along. And like Kokichi below and Byakuya above, he loves to lie.
• The inaugural group of love interests in Diabolik Lovers, the Sakamaki brothers, rarely manage to treat the heroine like an actual person with feelings and barely treat one another any more kindly. That said, they are all vampires who come from a Big, Screwed-Up Family, and the heroine is a second-to-none vampire delicacy who turned up at their doorstep almost like a surprise grocery delivery. However, this is not some mere misunderstanding - they really are all jerks who torment the heroine for their own sadistic pleasure and it's played for fetish appeal. Dangerous pretty boys sexily whispering mean things in Audience Surrogate protagonist's ear is fanservice here.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Shinji Matou is a thoroughly unlikeable little weasel who treats others like dirt and acts as though the world is solely there for his own convenience. And this is before you find out what an utter, irredeemable bastard he really is. It is revealed at various points of the game, particularly in the Heaven's Feel path, that Shinji frequently raped his adoptive sister Sakura, used a Command Seal in order to do the same thing to Rider, and is heavily insinuated to have also raped Mitsuzuri before having Rider drain her energy. The guy is a demented sicko, well beyond the levels of your common Jerkass.
  • Gilgamesh is just as selfish and amoral, but unlike Shinji, he actually has the power to back it up.
• Judge Grams of Fleuret Blanc, also a Grumpy Old Woman. She constantly insults everyone around her and has a massively overinflated ego. She also seems to relish the fact that she's a Lethal Chef; either she does it on purpose just to watch the FOIL members squirm, or she legitimately thinks her cooking is excellent and that anyone who objects needs to be put in their place. For bonus Politically Incorrect Villain points, she particularly delights in torturing Roland over his vegetarianism.
• Heart of the Woods: Evelyn Fischer, the mayor of Eysenfeld, is a cold and unpleasant person who acts in a condescending and intimidating manner toward Tara and Madison, two outsiders who investigate Eysenfeld, and even treats her own daughter the same way. She turns out to be much worse over the course of the game, as she's an ancient fairy who has stolen several people's bodies(resulting in the death of the host's soul, with Abigail being the only exception) and is intending to do so to Morgan. She's also responsible for Madison's death in a snowstorm by using illusion magic to trick her into thinking that Tara was in danger, endangers the entire forest by destroying the ancestral tree, and tries to kill Morgan and the resurrected Madison when they show up to stop her from taking Tara's body.
• Highway Blossoms: Mariah Pastorius is the leader of "The Trio", a motley crew consisting of herself, her much younger sister Tess, and their mutual friend Joe. Mariah is short-tempered, rude, hard-drinking, refuses to call people by name, and overall unpleasant to be around. Even at the end of the game, when she brings Amber out of her funk, she does so in a rather abrasive manner that shows her overall cynical worldview, so she doesn't quite shake off this status.
• A few characters in Katawa Shoujo:
  • Shinichi Nomiya in Rin's route, who pushes Rin to work harder and put her art on display, even if she ends up missing classes, isolating herself, and engaging in self-destructive behavior as a result. When she runs away from the exhibit, he gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech while shouting at her.
  • Shizune's father, Jigoro Hakamichi, from Shizune's route. He repeatedly insults Shizune's friends, her efforts on the student council, and the youth of today, and responds to being contradicted with anything from a "Shut up" to threats of violence. It also turns out that he has been trying to get Shizune to speak for twelve years, and believes that she is only unable to talk because she chooses not to do so.
  • One nameless girl in Hanako's route comes out when Hisao is trying to bring schoolwork to Hanako in her room. If he asks her about Hanako, she will talk about her contemptuously before leaving, and if he decides not to, she will rudely walk off.
• In the visual novel Yandere, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the protagonist Subaru Oda is quite unpleasant. He acts like a complete pervert to his Childhood Friend, teacher, and underclassman and uses them for his own purposes. He's arguably a lot worse than Makoto since Subaru starts off like a complete Jerkass and Makoto is an optional Jerkass. Some people think that he deserves the worst ending available.

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