Times where The Chosen One Missed the Call in Video Games.
- In the first .hack game, the Twilight Bracelet was supposed to go to Kite's friend Orca. In fact, it did, but a minion of the Big Bad took Orca out before he knew how to use it.
- There's an element of this (and possible subversion) in Final Fantasy VII's prequel Crisis Core: both Zack and Cloud want to be heroes, but Cloud fails to get into SOLDIER, while Zack is clearly 100% cut from Hero cloth and just the kind of guy who's gonna save the world and get the girl... until he's killed by a literal army of Mooks at the end of the game, clearing the way for Cloud to step up to the plate.
- Elden Ring has a variation. All Tarnished are potential Elden Lords and can see and make use of Grace (which points to plot-important locations and allows for resurrections at Sites of Grace), but if they stop seeking to become Elden Lord, the Guidance of Grace fades from their sight and they can never use it again. Currently, the only Tarnished confirmed to still see the Guidance of Grace are the player character, Sir Gideon Ofnir, Goldmask, and Hoarah Loux.
- Guardian's Crusade actually does this twice. First with the adventuring party of Kalkanor, who clad in white armor usually tends to defeat or at least weaken all major bosses before you arrive and generally act as the hero of the tale until he is betrayed. Second is Darkbeat, whom most everyone in the game assumes is the real hero after all and sends you off to gather the Holy Equipment in his place. He didn't know that gathering the equipment was the test after all.
- In Kingdom Hearts Riku was originally going to be the one to receive the Keyblade but succumbed to The Dark Side right beforehand, which weakened his heart, so it got passed to Sora instead.
- This is first seen when Sora finally catches up to Riku and shows him the Keyblade. Riku is able to take it from Sora effortlessly, and Sora can't call it back (though it's a humorous moment that doesn't seem important at the time). Riku is a good sport, so he gives it back. Later at the Hollow Bastion Riku takes it from Sora by force to aid Maleficent. Sora has to fight through the Bastion without the Keyblade and without Donald and Goofy until he duels with Riku.
- In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep we discover that this is all because Riku was formally promised Terra's keyblade when he was very young.
- Following the second game, there was no longer THE Keyblade, but rather, MANY Keyblades. By the time Dream Drop Distance happened, we had seen a grand total of 14 Keyblade wielders. Sora, Riku, Roxas, Xion, Yen Sid, Mickey, Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Eraqus, Master Xehanort, Vanitas, Kairi, and Lea (Axel's Other), and that the Call is not as easily missed as Riku's actions would have you think. When Kingdom Hearts χ came out to show the prelude to the Keyblade War, we found out that the number of Keyblade Masters (and thus, Keyblades) was nigh-uncountable due to the fact that Keyblades were once gifted to talented wielders en masse.
- This is first seen when Sora finally catches up to Riku and shows him the Keyblade. Riku is able to take it from Sora effortlessly, and Sora can't call it back (though it's a humorous moment that doesn't seem important at the time). Riku is a good sport, so he gives it back. Later at the Hollow Bastion Riku takes it from Sora by force to aid Maleficent. Sora has to fight through the Bastion without the Keyblade and without Donald and Goofy until he duels with Riku.
- The main character to The Longest Journey series April Ryan practically defines this trope. She spends the game begrudgingly sacrificing everything by fulfilling one prophecy after another to prove that she's next in line to be the Guardian who will watch over the universe for the next 1,000 years. She's even told so by several people who know what they're talking about. But it's revealed that she's not actually the Guardian at all. The true Guardian was the villain April just fixed. April ends the game having given up everything because destiny told her to and having no purpose to her life after all. Talk about a downer.
- In Magi-Nation, Tony Jones is originally hailed as the hero and the only one who can stop the Shadow Geysers, until it turns out that maybe it was his presence that caused them to appear in the first place. Oops.
- Nobody Saves the World: The note on Nostramagus's magic wand make it clear that Randy the Rad was supposed to get it, but Randy's so much of a Jerkass that Nobody decides to keep the wand for themself, beginning their journey. It works out pretty well since it eventually helps Randy grow considerably as a person and by the end Nobody and Randy team up to defeat the Calamity and save the world anyway.
- Roger Wilco from Space Quest seems to qualify, according to the Companion. Captain Quirk was intending to accomplish every single heroic task that Roger achieved himself since Space Quest 1 and now hates him for it. Near the end of Space Quest 5, he still fails and turns into the game's Big Bad.
- Dan from Street Fighter got a most literal taste of this. During the events of the Alpha Story Arc, Dan befriended Blanka, who was in the Street Fighter II games, while Dan was not. With his emergence in Street Fighter IV, Dan's absence from the II games was explained as such: Blanka did try to call him, but Dan had his phone cut after he hadn't paid his phone bill.
