Parental Substitute / Video Games

• Advanced V.G.: Satomi part-times as a combat waitress to support herself and her Delicate and Sickly kid brother, Daisuke. But she barely makes enough for them to get by, since she also has to cover the costs of Daisuke's medical treatment. So she enters the VG Tournament to win the prize money.
• In Cave Story either Curly Brace or Quote the player character for Mimiga Colons in The Sand Zone.
• Deltarune has Rouxls Kaard to Lancer, who even calls him "Lesser Dad!" Although Rouxls complains that Lancer annoys him, and claims that their relationship "is none," he obviously cares about Lancer and is a much better parent than Lancer's real father.
• In Devil May Cry 5 and to lesser degree Devil May Cry 4, Dante becomes this to Nero who is his nephew. Despite being a Manchild Dante keeps a watchful eye on Nero, gives him advice, helps him escape The Savior, repeatedly orders him to leave the battlefield and is noticeably pissed when learns that Vergil ripped off his son's arm to regain his power. Dante even gives Nero physical affection such as patting him on the shoulder multiple times, it's telling that even when he discovers who his real father is, Nero still cares more for Dante.
• In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the late King Krichevskoy acted as one to the orphan Etna, taking pity and raising her as a daughter.
• Dishonored's Corvo Attano seems to be this to Emily Kaldwin. As of the sequel, it's since been confirmed that he is indeed her biological father.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, the Dalish Elf Warden is raised by Ashalle, a friend of their mother and father. The Warden's father was killed by humans, and not long afterward, their mother gave birth to them. However, she lost the will to live and "vanished into the forest," leaving her child in Ashalle's care.
    • Also in Origins, it's implied that Wynne becomes something like this for Alistair. He never knew his mother, and she had a son who was taken from her at birth (because Circle mages are not supposed to have children), so they gravitate toward each other. Having them in the party together frequently allows the banter to show how close they become. Depending on how the player responds to Wynne, she may have a similar relationship with the Warden.
    • Alistair also had Duncan, the Warden-Commander, for the first six months of his time as a Grey Warden. He was the closest thing to a father that Alistair really ever knew, and he spends much of the game in mourning.
  • In Dragon Age II, it's explained that Merrill was originally born to a different Dalish clan, but was given to Clan Sabrae when her magic manifested in childhood, as that clan was in need of mages. She was thereafter raised by Marethari, the childless Keeper of the clan, who loved Merrill like her own daughter.
  • Cassandra Pentaghast lost her parents early in her life due to the political intrigue in the Nevarran court. She and her brother were taken in by their uncle, a mortalitasi (essentially a mage undertaker — Nevarra takes funeral rites very seriously). Their relationship was rather strained since her uncle kept trying to make Cassandra into a 'proper' court lady while she would have none of it. Nonetheless, he still seems to care for her a great deal. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Cole will mention a letter that Cassandra received from her uncle, and that he can sense just how much her uncle misses her.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest V: Sancho took care of Parry and Madchen for eight years, during which they traveled across the world until they finally managed to find and de-petrify their parents. Although he is their family's loyal servant, he is treated by the twins as their "dear uncle".
  • Jade from Dragon Quest XI lost her biological mother soon after she was born, so she came to view Queen Eleanor as a mother figure. She even refers to their biological son the Luminary as her "little brother" when giving an abridged version of her backstory. She is kind of the Player Character's "God Sister"—if that was a thing that existed.
• In EarthBound Beginnings, the protagonist's grandmother, Maria, raised the Big Bad Giegue from infancy, and at the end of the game it's the memories of her, triggered by the lullaby that she used to sing him, that repels Giegue's Alien Invasion. The game's original Japanese title, MOTHER, refers to this specifically.
• In Fantasy Life, the player's sweet landlady Pam is quite motherly towards him/her. She encourages the player when (s)he is about to start his/her new job, sometimes gives him/her candy and worries when (s)he starts doing things that may be dangerous. Story chapters always end with the player and the Exposition Fairy telling her about their adventure. She also plays that role towards Yuelia, the mysterious girl who has taken to spend nights staring at stars from her roof and is implied to have lost her mother when she was young.
• Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury is this towards Geese's son Rock after he adopts him. To Rock, he's is a better father than his real one could have ever hoped to be. This case is especially complicated because Terry taking Rock in is a consequence of Geese's Thanatos Gambit — he chose to let himself die when Terry went Save the Villain on him, specifically to saddle him with the grief of having orphaned an innocent boy, like Geese himself did to him and Andy, and then make sure Terry would adopt and raise Rock well to atone.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy IV:
    • The Elder of Mysidia is the closest thing that Palom and Porom have to a parent. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years explores their family dynamic in more detail, and depicts the Elder as being a pretty good parent by Final Fantasy standards. He knows Palom and Porom well enough to intuit their feelings, offers helpful advice, and gives them space to decide what they want from life.
    • By the end of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Rydia has decided to raise Cuore as her own daughter.
  • It's pretty clear Gau from Final Fantasy VI sees Sabin and Cyan as his father figures in Gau's own father's absence. Heck, the only reason Gau joins to party in the first place is because he became attached to Sabin and Cyan.
  • Barret Wallace to Marlene in Final Fantasy VII after her own father Dyne seemly fell into a chasm and died, Barret is all around bruiser but becomes a gentle Family Man whenever Marlene is around. Tifa Lockhart is also a mother figure for Marlene and looks after her whenever Barret is off being a Rebel Leader, Marlene also begins to see Cloud Strife in a similar light to Barret especially in Advent Children or older brother figure at very least.
    • Elmyra Gainsborough to Aerith, to the extent that the latter gets her surname. Elmyra, having lost her husband, cherishes Aerith after her dying mother Ifalna hands her over at the train platform, and successfully protects her from Turks for years. That why it's all the more heartbreaking when Cloud and company have to come back to Midgar and inform Elmyra of Aerith's death at Sephiroth's hands. Strangely, Tseng of the Turks could be considered a father surrogate to Aerith, given their mutual care for each other, though he does slap Aerith at one point... so less than favorable parental substitute.
    • Bugenhagen to Nanaki aka Red XIII who even calls the village elder "grandfather" affectionately, surprisingly none of AVALANCHE question how a red lion/wolf beast could have an old dude for a grandfather since Red XIII doesn't explain that they are obviously not related.
  • Auron to Tidus in Final Fantasy X Auron is the one who looks after Tidus when his father Jecht vanishes aka becomes Sin and his mother becomes apathetic. Auron trains Tidus in swordplay and is the one to bring him into Spira, it also notable while Tidus frequently badmouths his father, he shows Auron the utmost respect. In return, while other adults (e.g. Lulu) get annoyed at Tidus's childish behavior, Auron lets it slide, as it amuses him over how similar Tidus is to Jecht - which, of course, pisses Tidus off whenever Auron points it out.
    • While Auron plays father surrogate to Yuna and even Rikku at times, it's Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri who are Yuna's primary guardians having looked after her throughout her childhood and when Yuna decides to go a Summoner's pilgrimage which will result in her death via sacrifice Lulu and Wakka begged her not to.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning is this for Hope. Although it could be seen as a Cool Big Sis relationship, they only act like this after Hope's mother's death, and she spends much of the story being his Resentful Guardian. Also inverted. While Lightning clearly becomes a stand-in for Hope's late mother, Nora, Hope is just as much a stand-in for Lightning's younger sister, Serah, who Lightning raised.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Minfilia, whose father was killed at the very start of 1.0 has two parental substitutes. F'lhaminn was actually responsible for her father's death (though accidentally) and took to raising her as penance for it. Minfilia despised her at first but eventually came to consider her as a mother. Her second parental substitute is Thancred, a member of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (and initially the Circle of Knowing) who helped take care of her when he was unable to save her father from the event that killed him. He and F'lhaminn aren't a couple, but he does clearly have a crush on her though it doesn't go anywhere. But they are both extremely dedicated to Minfilia and both are heartbroken when she is sent by Hydaelyn to the First Shard to save it, possibly never to return to their world.
• Happens frequently in any Fire Emblem game:
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: Ayra takes her nephew Shannan out of Isaach on request of her older brother Crown Prince Mariccle, before their kingdom gets destroyed in the war. Later, Edain and Oifey take Shannan in as well as many other children that were the kids of the members of Sigurd's army, including Sigurd's infant son Seliph, who is a distant cousing of Oifey, and Edain's own children Lana and Lester. Travant is a darker example, as he killed Altena's parents before taking her in as his war spoil; at the same time, his retainer Hannibal takes care of a young boy named Coirpre (or his expy Charlot in case Coirpre's mother Silvia died childless).
  • In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Eyvel aka the amnesiac Brigid is this to Leif, Nanna, and Mareeta; Finn, who was a retainer to Leif and Altena's dead parents Quan and Ethlyn (and can be Nanna's father), was Leif and Nanna's guardia and Leif's father figure; additionally, Nanna's mother Lachesis is said to have been a mother figure to Leif for a while, before disappearing. Finn's old friend Selphina is said to have become this in the ending, taking care of war orphans; this would get her called "Mother of Thracia" after her death.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade: Douglas is this to the dancer Lalam. Lugh and Chad also mention a kindhearted priest who raised them until he died in the hand of Bernese troops and who may or may not have been Lucius. Twenty years earlier, during Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Pent and Louise are parental figures for the magician Erk, whose real parents are never mentioned, while his potential Love Interest Priscilla was raised by House Caerleon after her parents, the leads of House Cornwell, were falsely accused of corruption and could not clear their names, so they went the "Better to Die than Be Killed" way.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Pontifex Mansel from Rausten raises his niece L'Arachel as his heiress and daughter figure, after the death of her parents.
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn also provides Micaiah and Sothe, at least at the beginning of their relationship. In a variation, you can get them hitched if you want to.
    • Tanith and Segrun behave in a parental manner to Empress Sanaki, as she's still a kid and her parent are not mentioned.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Khan Basilio is this to Olivia, whom he adopted when she was a pre-teen and he saved her from a nobleman who wanted to force her be his mistress. This might also be his relationship to Lon'qu, who is stated to be a former Street Urchin. The nameless Hierarch was said to be this to Queen Emmeryn during her early years as ruler after the death of her father, but he secretly betrays her for unexplained reasons.
  • Fire Emblem Fates: Queen Mikoto was the second wife to King Sumeragi (and implied to have been his mistress), and when Sumeragi was murdered and the Avatar was taken away, she took charge of the kingdom and of Sumeragi's orphaned children aka the Royal Siblings of Hoshido, plus her niece Azura.
    • The knight Gunter was this not just to the young Avatar, but to his/her Battle Butler Jakob and to his/her ninja maids Felicia and Flora.
    • Hayato, the Child Mage from the Wind Tribe, was raised by the chieftain Fuga after the deaths of his parents.
• In Halo, Doctor Catherine Halsey acts as a mother to all the Spartan-IIs, probably due to guilt about tearing them away from their childhoods. Their trainer, Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, kind of acts as a father figure.
  • As a result, Cortana admitting in Halo: The Fall of Reach that she finds Master Chief (one of the aforementioned Spartans) attractive is very disconcerting for Halsey, since Cortana is an AI clone of Halsey (and takes after her personality.)
  • In Halo: Reach Spartan-II Gentle Giant Jorge becomes timorous when he meets Halsey again in Sword Base, saying to the player "she's half his life". Halsey responds very positively to seeing Jorge again, actually calling him by his name while she treats Jorge’s Spartan-III teammates like thugs in comparison.
• In Horizon Zero Dawn, the main heroine Aloy was cast out by the tribe at birth, the reason for which being the first major driving question. She was raised by another outcast named Rost, who becomes the only father she has ever known. When assassins attack Aloy during her rite of passage into the tribe, Rost sacrifices her life to save her. For the rest of the game, Aloy will mention him whenever confronted by someone who suffered loss, and the player can return to his grave at any point, in which case Aloy will talk to him.
  • In Horizon Forbidden West, despite Rost being dead, his influence on Aloy becomes a plot point. When Beta cannot understand why she isn't like Aloy (a strong, confident, and fearless warrior), Aloy suddenly realizes the difference. They may both have a common connection to Elsiabet, but Aloy had Rost to raise her, and this instilled in her things that Beta cannot learn just by observing her life from a recording.
  Beta: He raised you, trained you, but he was never warm or loving. The day he died - the day he gave you that charm - he was going to abandon you.
  Aloy: He wanted me to embrace the tribe, but then he gave his life for mine. He loved me in his own way. And that was enough.
  Beta: What did it feel like?
  Aloy: It was like... having a strength that was always there. That's still there. Even now, I hear him in my head when things get bad. 'When it looks impossible, look deeper. And then fight like you can win'."
• In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Chief Engineer Instance takes Tang (and to a lesser extent, Dys) under her care after their mother's death before the events of the game.
• Jak and Daxter doesn't have any parents to speak of (until the third game), and Samos is the one who raised them.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: Roxas and Xion are incredibly naive concerning anything that doesn't have to do with combat due to their lack of memories, so Axel takes it upon himself to teach them when prompted. He also tries to protect them from the truth behind their pasts to preserve their friendship.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Master Eraqus serves as a mentor and father figure to Aqua and Terra, who themselves can be seen as older siblings or parental figures in Ven's life (the Japanese version of Birth by Sleep has Scrooge give Ven three tickets and telling him to bring "his parents" along; he gives them to Aqua and Terra). Later on in-universe, Axel's extremely over-protective behavior towards his best friend Roxas is revealed to be the result of Axel basically raising him, once again blurring the line between a big brother and father figure in Roxas's life.
• Chin Gensai from The King of Fighters is this towards both Sie Kensou and Bao. Chin is actually explicitly said to be Bao's adopted father.
• Joel becoming this to Ellie in The Last of Us drives the crux of the plot but it's an interesting case in that it's Joel who needs her more than she needs him. In the prologue of the game, Joel's daughter Sarah gets shot and dies and he's never gotten over it. He needs her so much that he rips her off the operating table and slaughters everyone in the room while she's in the middle of a surgery that will kill her. In the sequel, one of Ellie's friend refers to him as her "old man".
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In the original game's manga adaptation, Link is raised by Impa.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Link's parents being nowhere to be found, Link's uncle took care of him.
  • Urbosa veers between this and Cool Big Sis for Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. After Zelda's kind and encouraging mother dies while her daughter is still a young child, Zelda's stern father King Rhoam is left to try and guide his daughter to unlock her Royalty Super Power needed to defeat Calamity Ganon. In their interactions with each other in the recovered memories, Urbosa fills a similar role for Zelda to her mother, gently encouraging the princess, sticking up for her (and her appointed knight Link) against badmouthing from people like Revali, and asking Link to convey how proud she is of Zelda.
• Like a Dragon
  • Shintaro Kazama is this to Kiryu and Nishiki, who look up to him and try to emulate him in every way they possibly can. Kiryu worships Kazama to the point that even after Kiryu discovers Kazama's Dark Secret, namely, that he was the assassin who killed Kiryu's biological parents the pedestal still doesn't break.
  • Kiryu becomes this for Haruka Sawamura, the orphaned daughter of his Love Interest Yumi, working hard to give her a normal childhood despite all the craziness that he keeps getting dragged into, just like how Kazama was with him. Haruka adores her "Uncle Kaz" and goes out of her way to try and project him as best she can (usually trying to talk him down in the event his Honor Before Reason mindset gets too one-track) and towards the end of his tenure as protagonist Kiryu admits he sees Haruka as the daughter he never had. In Yakuza 3, Kiryu owns an orphanage where he raises a group of other orphans. However, the sixth game reveals that despite being her adoptive parent in all but name Kiryu evidently never actually went through the process of becoming her legal guardian.
  • In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ichiban Kasuga has not one, but two people he looks up to like a father. The first is Jiro Kasuga, the propreitor of the Shangri-La soapland in Kamurocho, who found Ichiban abandoned in a coin locker and took him in. After Jiro passed away, the next father figure was Masumi Arakawa, a famed yakuza who saved Kasuga from being killed by other mobsters, and to whom Kasuga indebted himself, ultimately joining the Arakawa Family. This becomes ironic when it comes to light that Arakawa is actually Kasuga's biological father, but wound up being found by Jiro Kasuga due to being accidentally Switched at Birth with the son of Jo Sawashiro, who, in turn, wound up being raised as Masato Arakawa.
• Love & Pies: Because Amelia never knew her father, she was raised by her uncle Sven besides her mother, and she's glad to have him in her life.
• Mass Effect 2 features a really bizarre version of this. Shepard recovers a "perfect" krogan that was created via cloning, but is essentially born in front of his/her eyes. While the creation process taught him things, and Grunt is fully grown, he obviously has no role model—krogan or otherwise—except for Shepard. After his loyalty mission, this relationship becomes clearer in that Shepard is Grunt's mentor.
  • Particularly noticeable in the Citadel DLC for 3, where Shepard has to bail Grunt out with C-Sec after Grunt and his krogan friends decided to celebrate his "birthday" with a wild night out on the Citadel. Much property damage and hilarity ensued.
    Shepard: Grunt, you apologize to the nice man for setting his car on fire.
    Grunt: Fine, I'm sorry for setting your car on fire...
    [notices Shepard's look]
    Grunt: ...and I won't do it again.
  • During the Time Skip between 2 and 3, Grunt picks up another parental substitute in the form of Urdnot Wrex, assuming Wrex survives the first game. Wrex is the king of Clan Urdnot, and is busting both his primary and secondary guts to reform krogan society, but he's literally older than the works of Shakespeare and (probably) can't last forever, so he seems to be grooming Grunt to take over for him. Of course, this means that Grunt's substitute parents are two of the biggest badasses in the Mass Effect universe; most of both those parents' friends are also huge badasses; and nearly all of those parents' love interests are huge badasses.
  • Captain Anderson is this to Shepard, even calling a male Shepard 'son' and female Shepard "child" at the end of the third game. This especially notable if Shepard's parents were killed when s/he was still a teenager, or s/he never knew his/her parents. Also, while Shepard can be abrasive, sarcastic or just plain rude to everyone, he/she is always respectful to Anderson.
  • If you don't choose her as Shepard's potential love interest, the same sort of dynamic appears with Tali, during her loyalty mission, especially with that hug. Mixed with Cool Big Sis if Shepard is a woman.
  • The right character choices in Mass Effect 3 can end up with Shepard being like this with EDI, complete with The Talk.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda has Nakmor Drack, also a krogan, being the closest thing Vetra Nyx, who is a turian, has to a loving father-figure (her actual dad went missing when Vetra and her sister were kids). It's especially pronounced if Ryder romances Vetra, since Drack gives them the If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... speech. Vetra even quips at one point Drack should've been her father. Drack just retorts she'd have turned out worse if he had (but she'd be a better shot). Drack also had to serve as dad to his granddaughter, Kesh, whose parents died when she was an infant. Raising her helped raise him out of crippling depression from losing several body parts.
• Metal Gear has several of these:
  • Naked Snake, in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, answers Eva's question about his relationship with the Boss by saying that she was like his mother, only making the inevitable end of the game an even bigger twist of the knife.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Otacon and Solid Snake are both this to Sunny Emmerich, the biological daughter of Olga Gurlukovich. After her mother's death, Otacon and Snake take over the role of being Sunny's parents, with the former acting as her legal guardian and adoptive father.
• Samus Aran of the Metroid franchise has the Chozo elder Old Bird as her adoptive parent and mentor after her biological parents are killed by Space Pirates. According to Metroid: Other M, she also views Adam Malkovich, her Galactic Federation CO, as a father figure.
• In Mother 3, Kumatora was raised by the Magypsies but views Ionia as her father (Or mother. It's all good). It's mostly Played for Laughs (and it's implied Kumatora's such a tomboy because of the Magypsies' overly feminine behavior), but some serious tears are shed when Ionia's needle is pulled and she ceases to exist.
• In NieR, Emil was essentially taken care of for thousands of years by his non-human butler Sebastian. Eventually in the Gestalt version of the game, the eponymous protagonist Nier becomes one to him as well, extending his general fatherly nature to help the boy cope with his numerous issues.
• In Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, Roland is this to Evan. Evan has recently lost his own father, and is still dealing with the loss and his own pending ascension to the throne when Roland becomes trapped in Ni no Kuni. The two forge a bond over the course of the game.
• In Octopath Traveler, Z'aanta serves as one to H'aanit. Her actual parents died when she was a baby, so Z'aanta took her in and taught her how to hunt. In spite of contantly scolding him for his gambling addiction and other quirky antics, H'aanit still admits that she cares about him and that Z'aanta's hunting skills are real.
• From Octopath Traveler II:
  • Lily becomes one to Melia after Rosa finally passes away from her terminal illness.
  • Clarissa briefly becomes one to Elena after Osvald's story is completed. She takes care of Elena due to her memory issues; Osvald doesn't want to push Elena to see him before she's fully recovered. Fortunately, the epilogue indicates that Elena does get her memories back eventually; presumably Osvald is able to be with her again after that.
• Paleo Pines: A sidequest reveals that Granny Agami raised Avery when he was a child.
• In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, it's revealed that Ghetsis is this to N, although he was really just using him for his own twisted means.
  • Some examples from Pokémon Sun and Moon: Team Skull leader Guzma acts as one toward Gladion, and Professor Kukui acts as one towards Lillie. It's later revealed that they were essentially disowned by their biological mother Lusamine for not wanting to follow her example. Other examples include Sophocles' older cousin Molayne and the trial captain Hala being Hau's grandfather raising him in the absence of his Disappeared Dad.
  • The same game has also this in case of SOS-call from Cubone, where sometimes Kangaskhan will appear instead of another Cubone.
  • In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Nuzleaf takes on this role to the player character. At first, he simply takes them in and lets them live in his house. While there, though, he minds them, acts as the first point of call, guides them on what is or isn't safe for someone their age and is portrayed in some scenes with the partner as the counterpart to the partner's dad, Carracosta.
• In Potion Permit, Sister Socellia is the guardian of Russo, an orphan boy. He lives with her in the monastery.
• In Puyo Puyo Tetris, Ess looks up to the S.S. Tetra's resident robot, Zed, who is considered her father. Zed, in return, gives Ess his affections as well. Ex, Ess's actual father, specifically built Zed to act as Ess's dad when Ex left to guard the Space-time Gate.
• The Protagonist of Red Dead Redemption II Arthur Morgan has two paternal substitutes in his mentors Dutch Van Der Linde and Hosea Matthews and a (lesser) mother figure in Susan Grimshaw who runs the camp. His biological parents are long dead by the time the game starts but Dutch and Hosea took him in his mid teens. He mentions in his journal that while he loves Dutch, Hosea is really more the person he sees as his father. As the game goes along, Hosea dies and Dutch loses his marbles, Arthur begins to grow disillusioned with Dutch. The protagonist of the first game in the series (Red Dead Redemption), John Marston also saw them both as father figures since he was taken in by them as a kid after being orphaned. John also grows disillusioned with Dutch as 2 goes along/after Hosea's death and grows closer to Arthur (about a decade older) whom he sees as a mix between a father and an older brother.
• Resident Evil:
  • Aside from Chris Redfield being Promoted to Parent for his sister Claire after their parents died, Barry Burton being a Family Man extends his fatherliness to the Redfield siblings and acts as their mentor and guide. This is best shown on in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 where he cares as much for Claire as he would his own daughter despite Claire being a grown woman at that point. Also in the same game Barry easily takes care of the young Natalia, acting her Papa Wolf surrogate dad for her whilst also searching for his actual daughter Moria.
  • Sherry Birkin unabashedly sees Claire and Leon Kennedy, as her surrogate parents due to Sherry's actual parents William and Annette Birkin dying in RE2 resulting in Claire and Leon looking after Sherry. Claire's bond with Claire is certainly a reference to Newt and Ripley’s bond from Aliens so it's upsetting for long-time fans that Sherry and Claire never reunite in later games with Sherry only keeping Claire's jacket as a keepsake, though RE6 confirms Claire became Sherry's part time guardian off-screen. Speaking of RE6 Sherry's affection for Leon is shown as she became a Government Agent like him, and Sherry is overjoyed to meet Leon again in Lanshiang though being with Jake Muller at the time it becomes a sort-of "introducing your boyfriend to your dad" scenario. Further lampshaded in the REmake 2 ending where Sherry furtively asks if Leon and Claire are a couple then happily goes right out and says it:
    Sherry: Hey you guys can adopt me.
    Leon: Ah...
    Claire: Adopt you?
    Sherry: We can get a puppy.
  • Repeated again in Resident Evil: Degeneration as Claire and Leon take care of a little Rani and protect her from zombies.
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has a truly screwed up variation as Big Bad Eveline's entire motivation is to have a surrogate family of her own despite being a biological nightmare and so turns the Baker family into her puppets. Specifically, Eveline wants Mia to be her mother and Mia's husband Ethan (the Player Character) to be her father and starts her Villainous Breakdown when she is rejected. Jack and Marguerite Baker also become murderously jealous of Ethan and Mia when Eveline chooses them to be her surrogate parents while they are demoted to surrogate grandparents... weird.
  • The ending of Resident Evil Village has Chris cradling the infant Rosemary in his arms after her father Ethan dies, signifying he has become her surrogate father. It’s clear the Redfields have a big penchant for this trope.
• Silent Hill:
  • The reveal of the original Silent Hill is that Harry isn’t Cheryl’s biological daughter having found on the side of the road and adopted her with his wife Jodie. Harry admits to Cybil he never told Cheryl she was adopted and was planning to before they were sucked into the Ghost Town that is Silent Hill. Regardless Harry loves Cheryl as his own and is willingly to go to hell and back to save her and raise her reincarnation (it’s complicated) and protect her from the town’s cult that wants her back.
  • In Silent Hill 2, Mary was apparently Laura’s surrogate mother at the hospital and cared her so much she hoped she could adopt her if she had gotten better. Interestingly Maria (Mary’s Identical Stranger created by the town for James), shares Mary’s maternal feelings and memories concerning Laura at one point her scenario before she even meets James sees a teddy bear and comments that Laura would love it... then she immediately questions herself who Laura is.
• Skullgirls:
  • 25-year-old Princess Parasoul is this to her little sister Umbrella, who would have been very young when both of their parents died.
  • Big Band and Ileum serve as the father and mother figures, respectively, for the orphans of Lab 8.
• South Park: The Fractured but Whole has Liane Cartman (Eric Cartman's mom) treating the New Kid like her second child.
• In Super Mario Bros., the Magikoopa Kamek serves as Bowser's Parental Substitute, having raised Bowser from when he was a baby.
• Tales of the Abyss: In various ways Luke fon Fabre holds the current Parental Substitute record for the entire franchise, with five surrogate parental figures in total. First, there's Guy, who basically raises Luke after his traumatic kidnapping experience at age ten leaves him with complete amnesia. Then there's Van, who is Luke's mentor and combat instructor. He also happens to be the one who created Luke, as he's the one who cloned him from the original Luke fon Fabre and, unfortunately, exploited this for the sake of his plans as an Evil Mentor and resident Big Bad. He also did the same to the original Asch and fighting his father figure is implied to be hard on him thus. Jade also counts, thanks to a scene in Keterburg where Luke calls him a "teacher and mentor". Since he created fomicry, he's also Luke's unofficial scientific father, in a way. Jade, Guy, and Van are all explicitly pointed to as Luke's father figures in skits. Then, of course, we must include the Duke and Duchess fon Fabre, who are not actually Luke's parents, again, because he's a clone, but accept him anyways as their son. And there is one more possible option in Lorelei himself as he flat out calls Luke his "other self" and, by the rules of the verse, Luke is another Lorelei, and Lorelei makes it pretty clear he thinks Luke is wonderful.
• Tales of Graces: As lampshaded by the resident Genki Girl, Cheria and Asbel function as this to Sophie while Malik is this to the group.
• Tales of Symphonia: Lloyd has no shortage of these. He was adopted by the dwarf Dirk and sees Regal as a brother or father figure. Kratos also starts to fit this until it's revealed that he's not a substitute but the real thing.
  • Though they're not blood relatives, Sheena calls the Chief of Mizuho 'Grandpa', as he adopted her after finding her abandoned as a baby.
• This also comes up in Tales of Vesperia, and mainly serves to make The Reveal that Raven is Schwann and has been working for Alexei the whole time sadder. Luckily, he gets better.
  Karol: Damn it, I really liked you, Raven. I couldn't tell you before, but if my dad were—
  Schwann: How unfortunate, "Raven" isn't here.
• Artemus of Thief was Garrett's mentor and father figure when he was still with the Keepers, and apparently still keeps tabs on him.
• Sully is this for Nate in Uncharted. He accompanies him on most of his adventures, is constantly giving him advice or berating him for his hasty decisions, and always calls him "kid". It seemed more like an Intergenerational Friendship until Drake's Deception, where it was revealed that Nate's father gave him and his brother up for adoption after his mother committed suicide. Years later, Sully saved Nate's life when the latter was only 15 and, seeing how lost and alone the kid was, Sully took him under his wing and raised him from then on—basically becoming his father.
  Sully: Kid, I've had your back for 20 years. I'm not going anywhere, obviously. I just want to make sure we're doing this for the right reasons. You've got your pride all caught up in this thing, it's making you reckless. I taught you better than that.
• The Walking Dead (Telltale):
  • Lee Everett becomes this to Clementine in Season 1. While he never gets officially Promoted to Parent, several characters think Lee is Clementine's father when they first meet them, and at the end of the game, it's Lee who's going to find Clementine, no matter what. And God help anyone who tries to hurt her.
  • A New Frontier has main character Javier taking over as a father figure for his niece and nephew Mariana and Gabriel, and after we find Clementine, we get flashbacks of her raising AJ as a baby/young toddler.
  • In Season 4 we play as a teenage Clementine, raising a more grown AJ (around five years old) and being his role model, for better or worse depending on how you play.
• In Witches' Legacy, following the deaths of Lynn's parents and brother, Carrie finds herself the sole guardian of the young relative she didn't know she had. She steps up admirably - as Elisabeth is about to find out.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Dickson found Shulk orphaned at the age of four, and adopted him as his own. Didn't stop him from shooting him in the back and reveling in being Evil All Along, and it turns out he adopted Shulk because the kid was now hosting his master. Dickson does seem proud of Shulk when the latter leaves him to die after his boss battle, but it's hard to know for sure.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, protagonist Rex has Aunt Corrine and Azurda. Corrine is a Leftherian woman who takes care of many orphaned children who find themselves in Fonsett Village, and it's clear when we meet her in person about halfway through the story that she's the reason Rex is such a Nice Guy. Azurda is a dragon-like Titan who has watched over Fonsett Village for centuries and is especially close to Rex, to the point that Rex has lived in a hut on Azurda's back for some years when the story first starts. Rex always calls Azurda "Gramps," and he makes clear in an early Heart-to-Heart that this isn't just some Affectionate Nickname based on Azurda's age but because he really thinks of Azurda as his grandfather.