- In many games with a multiplayer feature, especially arcade games, player 1 will be colored red. In games featuring this where the player, in a single-player game, cannot switch to the other player slots, the player character becomes this trope.
- AMC Squad: Zaxtor Znort wears a red sleeveless shirt, and is The Big Guy of the AMC Squad. His deeds during the Oblivion Wars prior to the beginning of the game cement him as one of the more noble agents of the Squad, and he is much more passionate about his job compared to the rest of his ilk.
- To a lesser extent, Sang is this, as his primarily-black robe contains highlights of red, and while he may be more of an Anti-Hero than anything else, he still tries to do the right thing. He later switches to a red cleric's uniform after he and his fellow squadmates defeat Le Sang in Egypt, and he becomes a much more heroic character since then.
- Android Hunter A: A wears armor that's composed of black, white, and red.
- Red, the leader of the flock and first playable character in the mobile game Angry Birds.
- Armillo: The titular protagonist is a bright red armadillo.
- In Assassin's Creed, red is one of the primary colors of the Assassin Brotherhood alongside white.
- Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore wear red sashes on their Assassin uniforms as do Edward Kenway, Ratonhnhaké:ton/Connor Kenway, Aveline de Grandpré and Nikolai Orelov.
- Arno Dorian wears a red scarf on his blue robe.
- The Frye twins have hints of red in their costumes.
- Shao Jun has red highlights in her black Chinese Assassin robe in addition to the familiar sash.
- Bayek and Aya were the first members of the Hidden Ones to wear the red sash, a practice that would be later adopted by future Assassins.
- Although not an Assassin, the Eagle Bearer has a red cape with grey armor and a golden helmet.
- The 9th century era Hidden Ones have red sashes across their white-grey robes.
- In Assassin's Creed III however, the red is swapped out with blue, probably due to the British Redcoats being one of the primary enemies in the game.
- Bayonetta:
- The titular protagonist has a set of red guns called Scarborough Fair as her signature weapons.
- Inverted with Jeanne, who wears red. She's actually a hero but is on the villain side due to brainwashing. When she joins Bayonetta after having her mind restored, she is wearing white.
- Bot Gaiden: One of the two robot ninja Player Characters, Bytron, has a red chassis, and is on a mission to stop Giorquo from powering up his hench-bots with the golden power skulls.
- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has Juste Belmont, who wears a red coat.
- Cave Story, both the player Quote and Curly Brace are dressed in red which distinguishes them from the rest of the characters, including a red cap worn by the player character.
- On the covers of Cthulhu Saves the World, Cthulhu wears a red kilt.
- Devil May Cry:
- Dante wears a long, red trench coat. During development, Dante was becoming too anti-heroic for Japan's tastes and was given a red coat to make him more heroic.
- Lucia, the Deuteragonist of Devil May Cry 2, has red hair.
- The DMC2 prequel novel has Beryl, a red-haired demon hunter who serves as the deuteragonist of the story.
- Nero, the main protagonist of Devil May Cry 4, wears a blue coat with red inner lining and a red hoodie underneath. He also has a Red Right Hand and a sword with red accents appropriately named Red Queen.
- Force Edge, the sword which belonged to Dante's father Sparda, is red in its unsealed form. It has been used by both Dante and Trish who are heroes.
- In Digimon Survive, the justice-oriented "Moral" alignment on the Karma Meter is denoted by red.
- Diddy Kong from the Donkey Kong games, wears a red shirt and a red Nintendo hat and he's associated with the color red in Donkey Kong 64. Although the Sidekick, this may be an Invoked Trope since he dreams of becoming a hero like his uncle. He fits this trope fully in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Diddy Kong Racing though.
- Elliot and the Musical Journey: Aside from his blue scarf, Protagonist Title-guy Elliot wears a red robe and hat.
- Ensemble Stars! has this in a few places: the closest thing to a protagonist unit, Trickstar, is coloured red and blue; Valkyrie, the previous most powerful unit and the one most thoroughly hurt by the main antagonists, has a dark red theme; and of course, the leader of the Sentai themed unit Ryuuseitai wears red.
- Fatal Fury protagonist and regular competitor in The King of Fighters Terry Bogard's most iconic look features a bright red jacket.
- Feathery Ears: Misa Nikko has a mostly red outfit and is on a quest to return stars to the sky.
- The Fighter/Warrior class from Final Fantasy, which was probably intended for a main character role. He's even redheaded in the NES incarnation.
- Luso Clemens from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 was specifically designed with this in mind, according to Word of God.
- Final Fight:
- Guy wears a bright red outfit.
- Similarly, Maki in the second game. She is also the Fragile Speedster Ninja of the team, like Guy in the first one, taking it one step into Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
- In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Black Eagle house, along with the Adrestian Empire, are associated with the color red, with house head and imperial heir Edelgard wearing a red shoulder cape as part of her uniform at the officer's academy. Halfway through the game, however, Edelgard subverts this trope when she declares war against the Church of Seiros. Depending on your chosen faction, Edelgard will either become an anti-heroic ally or a vicious enemy.
- Lilina from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade wears mostly red costumes in her game and Fire Emblem Heroes (the exception is her blue Sage costume). Add the blue hair, and makes a good contrast to the game's hero Roy, a redhead in blue armor.
- Ginger Beyond The Crystal: Protagonist Title-guy Ginger wears a red scarf and gloves.
- In the Golden Axe series, Tyris wears red in I and II, as does Sarah in III
- Kat in Gravity Rush has bright red eyes (which make her look rather cute) and glows red when she uses her powers (which makes her look like some sort of terrifying, radioactive zombie).
- In Halo 5: Guardians, the Swords of Sanghelios, who are the Good Counterparts to the Covenant, paint their armor and vehicles crimson. Their equipment also tends to be tougher and more survivable than standard Covenant technology.
- In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Kom's red jersey and cape signify his heroics in assisting Rhett in leading the defense against Glow attacks.
- The main character of the NES Platform Game Kabuki Quantum Fighter is a notable example as a military agent whose computer avatar is a kabuki actor with long red hair that they use as a whip.
- Kingdom Hearts: Sora, The Hero of the series, almost always wears some form of red.
- Kuri Kinton: The Player Character wears a red karategi, and is on a rescue mission to save a senior police officer and his daughter.
- Dart in The Legend of Dragoon. This overlaps with his element.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has Class VII wearing a red uniform instead of wearing a white uniform which is usually worn by nobles and a green uniform which is worn by commoners. Cold Steel II has Rean, Alisa, and Gaius wearing red in their attire but by Cold Steel III, Rean and Alisa ditch the red with Gaius only the one in Class VII to wear red clothes.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild features two heroic Zora siblings, Mipha and Sidon, who have predominantly red skin. Mipha was chosen as the Zora Champion who would pilot Divine Beast Vah Ruta in the fight against Ganon, and she was also skilled with healing magic and spear combat. Her younger brother Sidon is also skilled with the spear, has a reputation for helping both Zora and Hylian alike against monsters, and helps Link neutralize and board the corrupted Vah Ruta.
- In Luxaren Allure, Karuna wears red.
- Mass Effect:
- Commander Shepard's iconic N7 armor has a red stripe running down the right arm.
- Wrex, the most heroic Krogan we meet, wears red armor, has red flairs on his headcrest, and possesses blood-red eyes. It all helps to build a fearsome and distinctive appearance that stands out from the general browns of your standard Krogan.
- MechRunner: The XP-41's primary colour is red, and it was created by Jesper Teterev to fight of Petrakoff and the O.S.O. if they ever launched an attack.
- Mega Man X's Zero might have been designed with this in mind, as he was intended to be the protagonist. They decided to go with an expy of the original Mega Man however, and Zero ended up being the Heel–Face Revolving Door, Deuteragonist instead. He fits this trope in the Mega Man Zero series, however, and his Expy Giro and Vent/Aile as the titular Mega Man ZX fit the bill too.
- Saizo Kirigakure, The Protagonist from Ninja Battle Heroes, wears a red scarf.
- Mortal Kombat: Starting with the second game, Liu Kang has always worn a red headband, and his pants have red trim. In Mortal Kombat 4, Liu Kang also wears a red tank top.
- The main character's army in most Nintendo Wars games. Even if said army is called "Orange Star" in most Advance Wars Games (it was called "Red Star" in Famicom Wars, however).
- Any Nippon Ichi main character will have some sort of red on them whether it's the color of their hair or an article of clothing.
- The main protagonists of the Disgaea games wears some form of red Scarf of Asskicking.
- Amongst the main characters, Plume easily takes the cake. Her entire character design is made up of various tints of red whether it be her hair, her dress, or even her sword.
- Eddie of Nostalgia (Red Entertainment) wears a long red coat.
- Pankapu: Pankapu's knight armour when he's equipped The Bravery Aegis is primarily red, though there's some yellow on it as well.
- Persona 4 has this with three of the main protagonists. Yukiko Amagi wears a red sweater and hairband, Rise Kujikawa is a redhead, and Teddie's bear costume is predominantly red from the neck down.
- While in its predecessor, Mitsuru has red hair, Akihiko always wears red (A red vest most of the year, a red shirt in the summer, and a red scarf in the winter), and Koromaru has red eyes.
- Most of the Phantom Thieves of Persona 5 often work red into their thief outfits in some noticeable way, usually as accents; Joker has his gloves, Skull wears a scarf, Panther's catsuit is bright red, and Fox has kabuki-style highlights on his mask and markings on his tail accessory. Queen's costume has no red, but her mask and her All-Out Attack animations instead highlight her red eyes. Noir's pantaloons are a darker red, and Crow's tengu mask and short cape are also both red.
- The protagonist of Pokémon Red and Blue is canonically named "Red" (the player has the option of other names or entering their own) and dresses accordingly. In addition, out of the three Kanto starters, his modern incarnation is most commonly associated the Charmander line, as seen in Pokémon Origins and Pokémon Masters.
- In fact, almost all of the player characters from the core games have red somewhere on their person.
- In the Enhanced Remake of Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero the main character and latest graduate of the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School who answers a newspaper ad from the valley of Spielburg, which is in dire need for a hero, wears a red cape (it's black in the original EGA game).
- Stocke, the hero of Radiant Historia, wears a signature red coat.
- RefleX has the player ship, the Phoenix, which is red. Subverted when it becomes the ZODIAC Ophiuchus and its collateral destruction of the planet turns it into a Nominal Hero.
- Resident Evil:
- Barry Burton in Resident Evil has a red vest, while the rest of Alpha Team have different colors representing them (Chris-Green Jill-Blue etc). In Revelations 2 Barry returns and has a huge red sweater.
- Claire Redfield's color is red from her red/dark pink motorcycle outfit in Resident Evil 2, a red top in Code: Veronica and a red leather jacket in Revelations 2; in all three games, she's a primary protagonist. If that weren't enough Resident Evil: Degeneration changed her previously previously brown hair to dark red auburn.
- Ada Wong serves as an Anti-Hero in the series and often wears red shirts or dresses.
- Helena Harper, Leon's partner in Resident Evil 6 wears a red vest when she and Leon head to China.
- Red Okonogi, the superhero Player Character from the first Sa Ga Frontier RPG.
- The same game also has a PC sorcerer named Blue whose twin brother is named Rouge (French for Red)- and he's actually nicer than Blue!
- In Shadow Warrior 3, Lo Wang gets a red leather jacket after wearing all-black in the previous installments.
- Shantae wears a mostly red bedlah and is not only the hero of her game but also one of the nicest people in the cast.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- While Sonic is primarily blue, his red shoes are one of his most iconic items. Same goes for Tails, who is yellow but also has red shoes. In a similar vein, Amy is pink but her entire wardrobe post-redesign is red.
- Knuckles plays with this in his debut game, where he was a Hero Antagonist until the Internal Reveal in Hidden Palace Zone. He's a straighter example when he's the protagonist or a co-protagonist, such as in Knuckles Chaotix or Sonic Riders, and has since become a foil and friendly rival to Sonic.
- When Blaze enters her Burning Blaze form, her coat and tail tip go from purple to red and she is surrounded by a red aura. She also has a red jewel on her forehead in both normal and super mode.
- Averted with Dr. Eggman, who always wears red but is the primary antagonist.
- Similar to the previous example, Ryu from Street Fighter wears a red headband as one of his iconic items. Also when he was younger, he wore red gloves and had reddish hair (not to mention the red kung fu shoes he wore in the first game). Even though Ken wears a red gi, it's Ryu who is The Hero, while Ken is The Lancer.
- Sunman: Sunman's costume is entirely red.
- Mario of the Super Mario Bros. series has worn red in some form since Donkey Kong, usually a red shirt and cap.
- Katharine in Sword of Rapier is a redhead who wears a red dress and stilettos in the original Xbox 360 release; later ports of the game give her a similarly colored battle dress after the opening act.
- Lloyd Irving of Tales of Symphonia wears a distinctive double-breasted red jacket (distinctive enough that it's used to identify him when he becomes wanted by the Desians.)
- Luke in Tales of the Abyss is a redhead, but he gets into this when the party wears their Super Sentai parodying Abyssman costumes and he gets the red ranger costume.Luke: Agent of Justice-Abyss Red!
- Although "heroic" isn't that accurate a description, this trope is likely why for Team Fortress 2 the "Meet the Team" video, cover art (both standalone and as part of the Orange Box), and numerous promotional art all feature the RED team much more heavily than the BLU team.
- The Fairyland Story has Ptolemy's outfit be almost completely red.
- Time Gal: Reika wears a red bikini bottom, a red bikini top, red stockings, and red armbands.
- Touhou Project has Reimu Hakurei, the central protagonist of the series, who wears a red uniform and head accessories. This is downplayed in the PC-98 games, where only her skirt and bow are prominently red; her top is white instead.
- Ironically, TRON in the Intellivision version of TRON Deadly Discs, since it was in development before the movie was released.
- Viewtiful Joe, as a reference to the trope's prevalence in Tokusatsu.
- The main character and assigned team leader in The Wonderful 101 is Wonder-Red, in homage to tokusatsu and sentai shows.
- Ys: Adol Christin is also known as "Adol the Red" — and they don't mean blood. Instead of clothes or equipment, however, they're referring to his hair. In Ys IX: Monstrum Nox he gets another alias, based on his Monstrum form - "Crimson King".
