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Only Sane Man / Video Games

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Only Sane Men in Video Games.

  • Banjo from Banjo-Kazooie. He actually plans in advance or think about what’s going on.
  • BioShock:
  • BioWare likes to make your starting male party member the only really rational one of the bunch.
    • Carth Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic spends a lot of time pointing out just how insane it is that the Jedi Council is sending two (or possibly three) Padawans, a soldier, a Mandalorian, a teenage Twi'lek, a Wookie, and an astromech droid out on their critical mission to save the galaxy.
      • In the second game, Atton Rand takes up Carth's trait of being the only one to mention the weirdness of the rest of the group, and seems just like your typical spacer in those days; worldly, handy with a weapon and distrusting of Jedi (even more so, considering your party has three of them, and more if you're good with conversation). However, through conversation, we find that even he isn't as stable as he'd like you to think...
    • Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins is definitely the most well-adjusted of the group in a traditional human sense. Wynne is pretty close, but does have a secret which keeps her from taking the Only Sane Man role (specifically, that she's actually a Humanoid Abomination living on borrowed time). Leliana and Zevran are both assassins who tend to use sex to get to their targets and both were betrayed by people they trusted implicitly with all of the issues that implies; Oghren is an exaggeration of the stereotypical drunk dwarf who was kicked out of polite dwarven society for a large number of reasons; Sten is from a very alien culture and has a tendency to solve many problems with violence; Shale is a golem with decades worth of misanthropy built up whose stated favorite activity is smashing something's head and watching the blood gush; and Morrigan is a brutally pragmatic survivalist with severe empathy issues. Alistair, by comparison, is easily the sanest, being a Nice Guy whose major problem is that he has PTSD from losing almost all of his friends in a recent bloodbath.
    • Jacob Taylor in Mass Effect 2 is a sane, well-adjusted, non-angsty man in a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits par excellence and extreme Dysfunction Junction.
      • Kaidan Alenko had an element of this in the first Mass Effect, despite it being implied that by merit of his implant, he could take the fast train to Looneyville at any point. The character's role bears a strong resemblance to that of Carth, above.
      • Quarian Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib is dismissed as a "geth apologist", who could easily be perceived as either overly sentimental or even a coward for advocating against war with the geth, reasoning that the geth are the quarian's children whom the quarians themselves wronged. His position is largely disregarded or even ridiculed by his kin, who perceive the geth as their implacable enemies that drove them off their homeworld with no intention of giving it back or any interest in a truce. He is also in charge of the civilian fleet, which consists of noncombatants, so he has another reason not to throw the quarian people to war. Koris is right: the war started by the quarians themselves while the geth only retaliated in self-defense. Despite that, the geth hold no animosity toward their creators and if the quarians only asked nicely, the geth would almost certainly let them back onto their home planet which they taken care of for the three centuries in preparation for the quarians' return. Moreover, besides being unnecessary, war with the geth would certainly divert resources from both sides that would be better directed toward the Reapers, who are taking advantage of the geth's disarray over their uncertain situation after getting their freedom by converting some of its runtimes to becomes the heretic geth, the faction that Shepard and their crew are fighting against since the first game. He's finally vindicated in Mass Effect 3 — unarguably the best outcome for everyone is the one where the quarians and geth make peace in order to get the highest war assets.
    • Varric and Aveline switch off here in Dragon Age II, Aveline during most of the game and Varric near the end. Except for Hawke's sibling, who is absent for a large part of the game, nobody else is remotely well-adjusted.
      • By the end of a playthrough where she survives, Bethany is the only mage in the whole of Kirkwall who is confirmed to have never even once used Blood Magic or been possessed.
    • Varric remains arguably the most sane in Dragon Age: Inquisition as well, though Cassandra and Dorian are also pretty reasonable. Blackwall seems like this, until he's revealed to be a murderer faking his identity. The rest of the companions are made up of a foreign spy, a Cloud Cuckoo Lander rebel, a ruthless aristocrat, a spirit who's been human-infected, and an elf who spends most of his time in the Fade and is essentially Elf Loki. Two members of the advisory council are also reasonable and rational for the most part, although the third one has a tendency to get stabby.
    • Star Wars: The Old Republic:
      • Imperial Intelligence, the espionage arm of the Sith Empire, are by far the only sane members of the Imperial military. It's repeatedly made clear that the only reason that the Empire has survived as long as it has is because Imperial Intelligence acts with pragmatism and diplomacy while the Sith are busy killing people and stabbing each other in the back. One of the first examples when playing as an Imperial Agent happens during their prologue, where you're tasked with recruiting a Hutt's second in command for the Empire. Everything is going smoothly, the man considers you a a friend, even, you're poised to reveal your nature and claim the second as an asset, when suddenly your boss tells you that some random Sith killed the guy's sons, and there's no way he'll ever work with the Empire now, forcing an abrupt change of plans.
      • A light-Side Imperial character in general takes this role. The Sith theocracy ruling the place are an Ax-Crazy, Stupid Evil bunch of Sorcerous Overlords led by (though no one knows it at the time) an omnicidal nutcase. The only qualification for advancement is "stab the other guy before he stabs you". The military gleefully emulates the Sith's example, and the Mandalorians are a Proud Warrior Race who are actually disdainful of the Empire and just want a chance to test themselves against the Republic (who they consider Worthy Opponents) A Light-Sided Warrior or Inquisitor is trying to curb the stupid excesses of their peers, a light-sided Agent is as described above (running after the idiots in the Sith and military with a broom and dustpan), and a light sided Bounty Hunter can gleefully sabotage the Empire right and left while getting paid for it.
  • Bug Fables: Leif is the only one of the party who never falls for any Paper-Thin Disguise presented, seeing right through any mimics. When Vi's Beemerang is upgraded to be able to spin in place on command and apparently generate infinite energy, Leif is also the one who points out that such a thing should be physically impossible. He gets ignored.
  • Dragon Quest IV:
    • Of three from Zamoksva, and most likely the rest of the party, Kyril comes off as the only completely rational person. Although his crush on Alena and status as Butt-Monkey still make him funny.
    • Meena is probably the least quirky and most focused member of the team, although even she has her crazy moments.
  • Ragna the Bloodedge is designated this role despite his reputation as a terrorist who possesses an Artifact of Doom that is known to erode people's sanity with continuous use or exposure (or his case, turn him into a rampaging monster of apocalyptic power). He is also a Deadpan Snarker.
  • Bomb Club: Ian is the only member of the club who seems to have any concern about the safety of their activities to avoid hurting other people and/or get arrested, and is constantly having to reprimand his clubmates for not understanding how their own bombs work, spreading misinformation, and generally being reckless with the explosives.
  • General Knoxx, leader of the Crimson Lance in Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is pretty much the only sane man in the Crimson Lance. The rank-and-file seem more concerned with ice-cream than their mission, the elites are Ax-Crazy (they were brainwashed as children then forced to murder their parents) and his boss is a freaking toddler. All while trapped on a desert planet loaded with crazies and vicious alien wildlife. He's so fed up with the situation that when the Vault Hunters find him, he's trying to kill himself to escape the madness.
    • Similarly, in Borderlands 2, you have Roland, one of the PCs from the first game, building a sanctuary city, rallying a resistance, and worrying about organization and infrastructure. That is while two of the other PCs literally lead or inspire bunches of madmen, the fourth spends his time sniping anything that moves while drunk with his pet bird, the computer narrator is techno-slave with some severe restrictions on how much truth she's allowed to tell, and the main villain spends as much time doing stuff like shopping for shows of opulence like ponies made out of diamonds and hiring you to kill yourself as he does actually trying to maintain his grip on the planet. To say nothing of Borderlands 2's PCs and their varying flavors of insanity.
    • Deputy Winger in Lynchwood was recruited at gunpoint into an organization where all the other employees are murderous bandits ("Marshals", for example, are just renamed Nomad enemies) and his boss is a tyrannical, bloodthirsty sadist who is amuses herself by shooting/hanging people. When you eventually take down the Sheriff, there's a bonus objective to spare the Deputy.
      Deputy Winger: The sheriff has asked me to read off the punishments for breaking each of her two-hundred and twenty-three laws, but I figured I'd save everyone some time and just say this: DEATH. The punishment for everything is death! So please, keep your head down and be cool!
  • In Bully, Lance Jackson is the only member of Bullsworth who isn't a bigot, a social malcontent or mean to others.
  • The titular character from Conker's Bad Fur Day, especially at the end when being crowned king doesn't mean much when you're Surrounded by Idiots.
  • Emily in Deadly Premonition, who is the only other character besides York who wasn't born and raised in Greenvale, and really has no other quirks or eccentricities that the entire rest of the cast has.
  • In Dead Rising, most of the survivors of the zombie outbreak Frank encounters who aren't Too Dumb to Live turn out to either be up to something or completely insane. Two notable exceptions? First, Isabela Keyes, the sister of and co-conspirator with the Big Bad who, once confronted by Frank, cooperates with him and tries to reason with her brother only to be shot in the shoulder for it with him afterwards apologizing but encouraging her to carry on her part in their plan, not agreeing to cooperate with the protagonists whatsoever. Second, Thomas Hall, one of the three making up the trio-of-snipers miniboss fight — the other two are his father and brother, and a couple of Crazy Survivalists, but he actually seems pretty sane and is the only one of the three who objects to killing non-zombies, Some wonder why he doesn't do a Heel–Face Turn if you kill the other snipers. Then again, killing the other snipers would probably itself be a good reason he wouldn't.
  • In Disco Elysium, Volition is the only skill that doesn't try to deliberately misdirect or undermine the Player Character, as it represents his sanity and self-control. It will do its best to keep him from breaking down mentally and emotionally, and discourage him from the more irrational and self-destructive options. Making it too strong by investing points in it, can, however, be a disadvantage, as it will make the detective risk-adverse and completely unwilling to take some of the insane, humiliating, and at-times dangerous steps necessary to solve the case.
  • Samuel the Boatman of Dishonored probably qualifies, seeing as the bar and surrounding buildings are occupied with corrupt aristocrats trying to get the throne back, the heir who is one of the most wanted people in Dunwall post-escape and has taken to hiding from everyone for fun, not one but two genius (and probably a little crazy) inventors, the disgraced ex-bodyguard of the empress with magic powers and a skull mask, and a handful of servants, each with their own quirks. Samuel, on the other hand just takes you from point A to point B and back again. His role as only sane man is especially apparent in High Chaos endings, where Corvo is frighteningly brutal, Emily goes full Creepy Child, and the Loyalists eventually go mad and tear each other apart — especially Havelock.
  • By some weird twist of fate, the DoomGuy in Doom (2016) is one of these, compared to the other humans and the UAC as a whole. He doesn't buy any of the shit Hayden feeds him about why they started using Hell as an energy source and constantly destroys the equipment needed to extract Argent Energy to Hayden's anger and annoyance. Yes, he's effectively going to cause an energy crisis the likes have never been seen before on Earth... but considering what happened on Mars, it's definitely for the better.
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, Haskill is this within the Shivering Isles, the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. He does his best to serve as Sheogorath's Minder, but it is rather difficult to truly "mind" a god of madness. Additionally, being the only sane person there may make Haskill the maddest one of all... Haskill is instrumental in Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion.
  • Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code: Lamech, Kaisar, Nike, and Romeus are some of the few Idinites who want peace between the Jehudans and Attikans. Subverted with Lamech and Nike. The former is actually one of the Kosmokraters' fanatical servants and he plans on starting a civil war between the factions so that the Idinites won't be organized enough to explore Mount Sinai. Meanwhile, the latter is actually the Cainite sage Anat, who seeks revenge against the Kosmokraters while bearing hatred towards both Idinites and fellow Cainites.
  • In Ensemble Stars!, Midori is this both within Ryuuseitai (alongside a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, a Love Freak, a Ninja Chuunibyou, and a super Hot-Blooded kid) and to the cast as a whole, being the only student who didn't realise he was signing up for an idol school, and finding the way everything is run frankly bizarre and exhausting.
  • Fable II has an odd example. Nobody in the entire world seems to notice that you are in possession of the ONLY DOG IN THE WORLD, except for a single demon door, who notes that he has never seen a creature like this in the multiple millennia through which he's lived.
  • Colonel James Hsu in Fallout: New Vegas is the only one of the NCR top military brass in the region that seems to have his head on straight. Colonel Cassandra Moore and General Lee Oliver are both jingos and have a delusion that the NCR is invincible. Oliver has the added problem of being a General Failure trying extremely ineptly to walk into the history books over the bodies of hundreds of NCR troops. Ranger Chief Hanlon, while he may share Hsu's opinion that the NCR's in quite a predicament in the region, decides to solve the various problems by covertly sabotaging the NCR's efforts.
    • Veronica is the only member of the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel who is willing to make an effort to change their xenophobic and isolationist ways, which she sees as the group basically committing slow suicide. While Elder Nolan McNamara does have similar sentiments, he's both too afraid of the NCR and unwilling to break the Brotherhood Codex/commit outright heresy. Depending on how her personal quest ends, Veronica will either stay with the Brotherhood in order to help her family or try to join the Followers of the Apocalypse. Either choices sees her being attacked by fanatical Brotherhood Paladins for not being homicidally zealous enough.
    • The Courier becomes this in the Old World Blues DLC due to being stuck in a World of Ham research facility with various Mad Scientists, a base full of dysfunctional sentient home appliances who all hate each other, and a very long string of previous visitors, all of whom were lobotomised into drooling, ax-wielding maniacs.
      • Your only peer in functioning grasps upon reality is Dr. Moebius, as he realizes the extreme danger that his colleagues' reckless science would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, he is descending into by drug-induced senility.
  • In the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC of Fallout 4, it's shown that Vault-Tec corporate culture actively breeds amoral psychopaths with an obsession with torturous experimentation of dubious value. There are however those who stand out, such as the original Overseer of Vault 81, who notes that her sense of basic morality makes her an anomaly and quickly shut down her vault's experiments as well as Ted, a pre-war employee who created products that worked as intended (IE, soda machines that don't drug the users) which made him hated by his co-workers.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Bartz in Final Fantasy V is much more normal than his companions—an amnesiac old goofball, a cross-dressing pirate, and a recklessly altruistic princess. Granted, he has his moments too, but he's usually the one not involved in whatever high melodrama the others are engaging in.
      "Geez-oh-pete, every one of you guys is always going overboard!"
    • Invoked with Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII, who is a character who thinks he is the Only Sane Man. Considering his past and his views on relationships with others, not to mention that he is surrounded by a rather quirky mixture of people, and it's not hard to see why he feels this way. In reality, he has suffered from memory loss from Guardian Force usage and his personality is built around how a child believes an adult should act. The real Only Sane Man in the party is Irvine.
    • Sazh Katzroy from Final Fantasy XIII is very sane even if he does wear a chocobo on his head. He's just a civilian pilot dragged along with the vengeful, guilt-ridden, and actively delusional members of their little gang of the doomed.
    • Wol in Mobius Final Fantasy, due to being a Blank Slate, is the only person who appears to be aware of how weird Palamecia is and how he's being railroaded by the plot into doing stupid things. He mostly expresses this with good-natured brutal sarcasm.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Chrom fills this role in Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's especially noticeable in the Paralogue chapters dealing with the future children and in the various DLC episodes. It comes with having to be the leader of a group of borderline insane people.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
      • Of the four faction leaders you can ally with, Claude is undoubtedly the Token Sane Man. The other three have suffered more than enough trauma and loss to turn their sanity at least somewhat questionable, and as such are willing to resort to extreme methods to get back at those that hurt them, especially if the player character is not there to act as their Morality Chain. Claude's own past has been far less traumatic (though it certainly hasn't been the easiest either), and he simply wants to keep the Leicester Alliance safe and open up Fódlan to the outside world, making him the only faction leader who doesn't need the player character to rein in his worst impulses. In fact, he's the only faction leader who can survive every single route, as he has zero interest in fighting to the death and will willingly surrender the Leiscester Alliance to another faction leader if he decides he can trust them to continue keeping his people safe.
      • The Black Eagles have Petra and Linhardt, as despite the former's difficulties with the Fódlan language and the latter's laziness, they lack the "quirks" displayed by the rest of the house. The Blue Lions have Ingrid, who acts as the common sense for the team, as well as Felix, who post-timeskip on the Blue Lions route is the only person to openly question an increasingly unhinged Dimitri.
      • In a meta sense, the Golden Deer house collectively functions as this. With the exception of Marianne and Raphael, most of the house did not suffer serious trauma and tend to lack the "quirks" displayed by most members. They are also the only house willing to peacefully surrender as antagonists, and are the only house that can have a 100% survival rate regardless of route.
    • Fire Emblem Engage has the heroes consist of many colorful characters, to give some examples, a pair of siblings who are fans of the Divine Dragon, a thin-looking prince obsessed with muscles, a village boy training to be a doctor, a happy-go-lucky thief, a royal knight farm girl, a comedy writer, a wyvern knight who loves all things cute, a priest who's a party animal and so much more, but the most sane person of the bunch is in fact, the very same Divine Dragon who leads the heroes to begin with. It's also strange because the most sane character of the group also has the most outlandish design of the bunch.
  • The Galaxy Angel trilogy has Lester Coolduras, Tact's best friend and subcommander of the Elsior. He's essentially the character who's there to remind the player that the series takes place in a military setting, and between Tact's Brilliant, but Lazy attitude and the Angel Wing's quirky personalities, he's easily the most grounded person among the crew. His temporary leadership of the Angel Wing in Milfie's route also states that he'd gladly hand over the position to Tact.
  • Gene from God Hand qualifies as well, noting the unusual antics and oddities of the world as all other people seem to simply ignore them. Among these oddities, a succubus fleeing battle in a teleporting bus, a Monkey Luchadore, who turns out to be a man in a costume, and his epic line "You're all a bunch of freaking idiots!" when his longstanding enemies flee from him after being defeated.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the mock-public radio station hosts a debate program moderated by Maurice Chavez. Chavez is an egocentric fool, but he still nonetheless comes across as being reasonable and rational compared to the fanatical, deranged and downright insane guests he is forced to deal with.
  • CJ, protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, wants to be one of these, but he has a crippling weakness: he can be made to go along with any crazy scheme by calling him a "buster" for pointing out why said scheme is likely to get him killed.
  • Grand Theft Auto III's Lazlow Jones, the long-suffering host of the call-in radio show Chatterbox. The show consists entirely of Lazlow taking calls from random (and eccentric) listeners, often setting up Brick Jokes for the prequel Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. He suffers from some Flanderization in later games and becomes more of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but still manages to play this trope to his guests, who are even more insane.
  • Grand Theft Auto V has Michael discuss this with Franklin, pondering if it's San Andreas that's making people around them crazy or are they just born that way. Of all the playable characters Franklin typically has to play this role, either to bail Lamar out of trouble or to mediate between Michael and Trevor when the two get into arguments.
  • Sol Badguy of Guilty Gear, given the kind of people who he has to deal with on a regular basis, his adamant refusal to get involved in the crazy bullshit conflicts raging around him, and his Xrd theme song being entitled "Give Me A Break". That said, Sol has his own emotional baggage.
  • Steve from Harvester is the only sane person in an entire town full of creepy nutbars, and is constantly pointing out how bizarre everyone's acting. He doesn't stay that way for long.
    • Don't forget Stephanie, who's just as creeped out by the people in Harvest, and will call out Steve on doing favors for the Lodge.
    • Them being the only relatively sane people in the town is justified: They are the only real people in it. Steve's sanity slippage is also justified, since the entire point of the simulation is to drive him crazy.
  • Heavy Rain has Norman Jayden, who is the only sane cop in his department who actually does something in trying to bring in the Origami Killer and uses positive reinforcement, whereas his partner Carter Blake and the rest being incompetent or have commited many felonies with their actions being rather cruel and reckless and should be considered Police Brutality.
  • Takeru Shiratori in Inyouchuu is quite often the counterweight to Mikoto's headstrong aggressiveness, Sui's cute helplessness, Yoru's perversions, and Yamato's general stupidity.
  • The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match: The Asian Triple Alliance team consists of Japanese Hero-Worshipper Shingo Yabuki, South Korean Loony Fan Jhun Hoon... and Chinese no-nonsense Professional Killer Lin. Naturally, their ending reveals that the former two had essentially set the latter up to be the butt of a practical joke.
  • Zach Mitchell fills this role in LEGO Jurassic World. The world runs on LEGO rules which passes every character without comment except for Zach, who will sarcastically point out how odd it is to have gotten a popsicle from a fridge by building a fuse out of dinosaur bones to complete a circuit (how else do you heal a sick compsognathus?), or how dumb of an idea it is to fetch a can of gas with a lit torch in your hand.
  • Kazuma Kiryu of the Like a Dragon series gets a lot of mileage out of being the only character in the franchise who isn't warped in some bizarre fashion. (Well, Haruka's pretty normal. Then again, guess who raised her?) Half the substories wouldn't be as funny if it weren't for Kiryu's quiet air of "What the fuck is wrong with this world?"
  • Vayne from Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis, aside from being The Hero of the story, has only one other role: to lampshade the weirdness of the fellow members of his workshop. Like the absurd amount of items Jess' bag can hold, or Flay's 'butterfly mask' that can fool anyone, among others. Yet it was amusingly subverted where he's not the Only Sane Man (ironically, Nikki played the role) when the party recruited a slug-like alien masquerading as an exchange student.
  • And in the sequel, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, we have two examples: Raze in his workshop and Enna in Ulrika's workshop (or three, if Yun from the former's workshop also counts). At one point in the game, Lily even commented how staying in Ulrika's workshop for so long had ruined Enna, or something along that line.
  • Huey Emmerich in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain considers himself this. In true Metal Gear fashion, this turns out to be a horrible, horrible subversion. It's revealed that after the events of Peace Walker, he became a megalomaniacal Mad Scientist who deluded himself into thinking that he was the voice of reason, believing he could do no wrong. So he ends up becoming The Mole for Cipher, who send their XOF team to destroy Mother Base (for leniency and a position of power), attempts to use his own infant son Hal (Otacon) as a test subject for a Metal Gear (not caring if an accident killed him), kills his own wife Strangelove by locking her inside a pod with no air or sustenance (because she defied his will and took Hal somewhere safe), repairs Sahelanthropus for Eli and the child soldiers, who eventually steal it and run off (because his ego couldn't handle the fact that Skull Face managed to get it working without him), and created a mutated form of the vocal cord parasites to use on Diamond Dogs staff as test subjects (because he wanted more money and power from Cipher to continue his inhumane research and experiments). And what does he say when called out for all of this? "I'm innocent!" "Strangelove's death was suicide!" "You're all psychopaths!" Ocelot even tells him straight to his face that he's The Sociopath, but he refuses to believe it.
  • Mother 3 has its main characters, most especially Lucas. He is one of the few persons in all of Tazmily for the duration of the time skip who doesn't own a Happy Box and, more importantly, knows what kind of person Fassad is. (Of course, Flint doesn't either, but considering that he's been out every day for three years looking for Claus, he doesn't really qualifies as "sane" at that point).
  • Nintendo Wars: Will/Ed during the War Room segments of Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, due to being the only one who doesn't readily accept that the room ignores the world outside (thus allowing your current enemy to turn up to give tactical advice, or the War Room to show up in a mission on the wing of a giant plane).
  • Common Nippon Ichi trope. Thursday and Etna comes closest in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness , Adell plays the role straight in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, as does Almaz in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice and Revya (and to a lesser degree Gig) in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters (Revya does not point it out, though obviously Gig does). Culotte from La Pucelle also qualifies (although Alouette is generally sane, Culotte is the one who usually has to deal with Prier's antics), and Pram is the closest you get to this trope in Makai Kingdom (which features an extremely eccentric cast, even by Nippon Ichi standards). This is not to say that Nippon Ichi games only possess insane people apart from these, but the only sane man is usually the one fated with having to present the sensible point of view to the more lunatic members of the cast.
  • In Persona 3, various members of SEES serve as this depending on the situation, and it's generally played seriously.
    • In The Journey, Yukari is the only member who openly questions why Mitsuru, the leader of SEES, is having the party risk their lives to fight Shadows, since Junpei just wants to be a hero, Akihiko wants to fight, and depending on the version, the main character may not care about anything at all. Yukari becomes increasingly troubled when she believes that Fuuka, whom they saved in June, was press-ganged into joining the group due to having a special ability they need. In July, Yukari demands answers from SEES' leadership at a team meeting, resulting in Mitsuru telling the others the truth about the Dark Hour's origins.
    • In The Answer, Junpei, of all people, becomes this, alongside Koromaru. The group splits into factions over whether to use the Keys of Time to return to the present or try to change the past, but Junpei believes that any decision they make is doomed to failure unless they make it as a group.
  • The protagonist of Persona 4 leans towards this in his dialogue options, especially since one of the most common options for him in "Calm down." Comes to a head when the party is fighting over what to do with Namatame and the correct sequences of options leads to "Calm the hell down!"
  • In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, out of the student friends, Penny is the most level-headed. This becomes far more apparent when the player has to traverse Area Zero with Nemona, Arven, and Penny. Given Nemona is way too much of a thrill-seeking Genki Girl and Arven is too Hot-Blooded and rather rude, she herself points out that she's the only sane person of the team and is also the only source of being The Comically Serious.
  • A large part of the Portal series' humor is known for this. Throughout the first game, Chell (who, even if she doesn't speak, seems pretty cognisant - if only because she always solves the puzzles. The devs say she can speak, but doesn't think responding to the lunacy spouted by the robots is worth the effort) has to traverse through Aperture Science, a giant laboratory filled with nothing but machines that only want to be your friend whilst trying to kill you and a master AI system that constantly speaks of a cube as if it is alive, insisting that it won't stab you in the back. It also obsesses over cake.
    • There's also the never seen in-game character, Doug Rattmann, who has taken the time to write "the cake is a lie" at least 40 times in small dens throughout the game. Not to mention he covered the calendars' pictures of people with a companion cube. It is thus even sadder to note that he's also the only sane man among the scientists who created GlaDOS, as he thought that perhaps giving the crazy AI access to deadly gas wasn't a good idea. He was the only one.
      • Given what was later revealed about Doug Rattman heading into Portal 2 (namely, the fact that he's a paranoid schizophrenic), the irony of his having been the sane one speaks volumes of just how bad it must have been at Aperture around the time GlaDOS made her move.
  • Portal 2 almost has it worse. Including the Aperture Turrets from Portal, Portal 2 has a personality core that dispenses ridiculous ideas (justified in that he was created to be a moron), a for-real friendly turret that speaks nothing but seemingly nonsense, a CEO whose entire philosophy of science is to invent and then test bizarre things to see if they work or not without ever selling them (as well as making an entire speech about burning down life's house when it give you lemons), a core that talks constantly about space and going to space and his favorite part of space (which is space), a core devoted to ADVENTURE, and a core that spews random "facts" that range from being slightly correct to...not.
  • Professor Layton: As Layton can be a bit of an Eccentric Mentor occasionally, being always a step ahead and obsessed with puzzles, this role is more fitting of his apprentice, Luke, whom most players can relate to admist of all the absurdities. At times when Layton suggests a puzzle, he will lampshade this and point out that maybe it isn't the time for that (when it truly isn't).
  • Puyo Puyo often invokes this in the cutscenes, officially called "manzai" as a nod to the straight man and funny man style of comedy in Japan. In particular, Arle in early games was the most prominent example, being pretty much the only character who doesn't have problems and often loses her patience when characters like Satan act stupid. Later she would be surpassed by Ringo, who is pretty much the only character in the entire franchise that questions why Puyo Puyo matches are such a big deal.
  • The Hero in Sierra's Quest for Glory series often falls into this. The supporting cast of characters is rather...colorful.
  • Randal's Monday: Randal, the majority of the time. Kramer and his men also fall under this.
  • Clank in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One; at one point Qwark considers using the area they're in as a vacation spot, Nefarious tries to cajole Ratchet into letting him kill Qwark, with Ratchet considering. Clank has his hands full trying to keep the group together.
  • Red Flood presents an alternate 1936 World Gone Mad after World War I ended in a stalemate. When nearly every other major power in Europe is either communist or accelerationist, the United Kingdom remains a moderate constitutional monarchy.
  • Resident Evil has a huge cast of characters across more than a dozen games. Out of all of these, Linda from the second Outbreak game, and Edward Ashford from Code Veronica, are the only Umbrella scientists who isn't shown to be corrupt, insane, or a complete Jerkass.
    • Lupo from Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is looking like this too. While her squad mostly consists of various sociopathic/psychopathic mercenaries with violent criminal pasts, the worst she ever did was kill her abusive husband to keep him from hitting the kids. The trailers still show her murdering RPD officers, though.
    • In Resident Evil 6, Leon is clearly the most level-headed of the heroes. Helena, Jake, and Chris all have fairly serious issues, Sherry and Piers are too inexperienced and caught up in their partners' problems, and Ada is her usual secretive self and almost too calm about everything. Leon, meanwhile, handles the crap he's dealt fairly well and even manages to help get the other survivors pointed in the right direction.
  • Venus Jones of Space Colony, is one of the few crew members without serious mental issues.
  • Sarutobi Sasuke from Sengoku Basara. Pity him, for he has to put up with these two on a daily basis.
  • Shadow Hearts series:
    • Yuri Hyuga, protagonist of the first two games, moreso in Covenant. He laments the fact that he only ever seems to attract the strangest weirdos around in both allies and enemies. He overlooks the fact that, being a Harmonixer, he isn't so normal himself.
    • Johnny Garland, the protagonist of the third game, has the same problem. Even pointed out in one instance where he meets Mao, the talking cat that runs Al Capone's mob and specializes in drunken fist as he realizes that he is the only one out of the party who thinks that a talking cat is strange. This then makes Jonny wonder if he's the strange one.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei as a whole, the only two members of the Celestial Paragons and Archangels who are not completely obsessed with The Evils of Free Will and hopelessly devoted to the will of YHVH are the Archangel Gabriel and Remiel. Remiel, particularly, gets a lot of flak from other angels for being so damn devoted to this "strange, impossible idea" of salvation for all, not just some of the Chosen, up to and including people who are generally considered irredeemable. Gabriel, while still very much a Knight Templar, distinguishes herself from the other three classical Archangels (Uriel, Michael and Raphael) for being significantly more interested in the quality of human life and generally having a firmer grasp on the Smart Ball.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Espio the Chameleon is often depicted as the only sane member of the Chaotix, especially in Sonic X.
  • In comparison to the rest of the House of Duras, whose members had serially attempted to overthrow the Klingon Empire's leadership, Captain Ja'rod of Star Trek Online is actually a fairly decent guy and loyal to the Empire (although it helps that by 2409 the Empire's leader is a political ally).
    • Hilariously, not only is Ja'rod this to the Duras family, he is this to his allies as well — with the exception of the Chancellor (who of course already is in charge of the Empire) Ja'rod's allies has a remarkable tendency to end up revealed as traitors (the family that raised him turned out to be collaborating with the Tal Shiar) or madmen (his mentor turned out to be plotting to unleash Doomsday Machines on the Federation solely for the reason of ensuring that there would never again be peace between the Federation and the Klingons).
  • SimCity 4: Neil Fairbanks - your City Planning advisor - is the only advisor who is actually remotely neutral. Every other advisor myopically focuses on their own aspect of the city.
  • Luigi of Super Mario Bros. falls into this role sometimes, especially in the cartoons. Fanon states this is part of why he's the Cowardly Lion: whereas the others jump into the face of danger with a smile on their faces, Luigi is the only one to even think about what could happen if anything goes wrong. Some gamers use the analogy of Mario (Player 1) as the person who heads out first, trying to find all the secrets and sometimes rushes ahead to beat the game, while Luigi (Player 2) is the person who learns from Player 1's mistakes and navigates their way a little more cautiously.
    • Super Mario Sunshine: The owner of Hotel Delfino is one of the few people who can tell that Shadow Mario is an imposter and not the real Mario.
  • In Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night, Reisen is the Only Sane Woman in Eientei among silly rabbits, lunatic princesses and Mad Scientists. Even more confusing because she is the Master of Lunacy and can drive people insane with her eyes. Life for her is quite literally Through the Eyes of Madness, yet she's sane, at least as sane as anyone can be in Gensokyo.
  • In Twisted Metal, if you win the Car Fu tournament, you are granted one wish by Calypso; however, Calypso is a Literal Genie, so most people who win get screwed over, either way. Agent Shepard, a character in Twisted Metal: Head-On, is smart enough to outright refuse to wish for anything, and just arrest Calypso when he won.
    • In Twisted Metal 2, Jamie Roberts is smart enough to trick Calypso, allowing her to save her brother.
  • The Malkavian Player Character in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is probably the only character with full awareness of what's actually happening and what the consequences might be. Yes, that's right: the totally, unquestionably delusional vampire-for-hire is one of the sanest characters in the game. Well, them and Smiling Jack, aka "that guy who gives the tutorial and you occasionally see in the bar" who orchestrated it all.
  • Vindictus has Shayla as the closest thing to a sane person (the player character doesn't really count). She's essentially the only one who fully realizes and admits what is actually going on with the Fomor Wars, and how thoroughly messed up the situation is. All of the other NPCs are far too obsessed with politics and religion (the Royal Guard and Crimson Blade Mercenaries particularly), behind-the-scenes conspiracies ( Brynn and Nyle), and/or personal issues (Kirstie especially, but just about everyone else as well); when they're not simply drunk (Fergus). That doesn't stop her from profiteering and otherwise using the situation to her advantage, however; making her a clear Type 3.
  • Lee, the protagonist of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, depending on the player's choices of course. Molly, the badass survivalist girl who briefly joins the group for Chapter 4, also notably acts like a normal human being or even as a sort of surrogate for many of the players, doing things like calling out the party's chronic infighting and refusing to tolerate Kenny's abrasive personality.
  • In the bonus chapter of The World Ends with You, an alternate Neku Sakuraba finds himself (forced into) joining a group of "Kindred Spirits" consisting of; Shooter (Red), the leader and INCREDIBLY passionate about a children's game involving pins banging against each other; Shiki (Green), a Eiji Oji fangirl; Beat (Yellow), who is just there for the food; and Joshua (Pink/Rainbow), who is apparently connected to individuals as high-class as the flipping MAYOR while also spouting lines that push the fourth wall just a tad. Neku, who has "Blue" tacked onto him, often spends the whole time just weirded out by his companions' antics.
  • In World of Warcraft Jaina Proudmoore has to take this role for the vast majority of Alliance/Horde interactions, since she's apparently the only one to have truly grasped the concept that when your quarrel with one group comes down to history and cultural differences less extensive than exist within your own faction, while your opposition to the other is based on them wanting to wipe out all life, stop fighting the first group for five minutes.
    • Jaina tends to view herself as the Only Sane Man, but given that the group she so adamantly protected from her allies just destroyed her home city Theramore, it seems she was just a Wide-Eyed Idealist while Varian was Properly Paranoid.
    • Jaina got a major shift in character in Tides of War, turning her away from this trope. The position has been taken up by Wrathion, Anduin, and — far more aggressively — Taran Zhu.

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