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Rescued From The Scrappy Heap / Video Games

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Hated characters who've subsequently been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. This includes characters who were hated due to play balance (High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown) as well as those who were unintentionally hated for narrative reasons (The Scrappy and its related tropes).

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. This is measured from the point when the character was introduced or became hated.

Games with their own pages:

  • Sometimes this can happen entirely without conscious effort on the creators' part. Take Nero from Devil May Cry 4 for example; When it was first revealed that he and not series lead Dante would be the protagonist for the installment in question, disgruntled fans decried him for aspiring to Dante's position. Then subsequent trailers came out, dropping Moments of Awesome for Nero, and hate gave way to... like? The additional cool feats he pulled off in the full game endeared him even more to fans (although Dante dramatically overshadows him in awesome). Nero was also accidentally rescued from the scrappy heap when DmC: Devil May Cry was released. In this example, the Gaming Brit took back every negative comment he said about Nero when seeing Dante's characterization in the reboot. Fully cemented by Devil May Cry 5 where fans expressed much delight upon the game's initial reveal at seeing him, with most of the marketing focusing on him over Dante. By the time of the ending, Nero has come completely into his own as a character and stepped out of Dante's shadow, enough for him and his father Vergil to pass the torch to him as the series' primary devil hunter.
  • The King of Fighters:
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Nightwolf, ever the Ethnic Scrappy. Prior to Deception, he had many detractors when he was introduced. After Deception and especially 9 with his status as Raiden's second-in-command, the tides began to change.
    • Armageddon took the first steps towards rescuing Shinnok, a joke of a boss in 4. Then came Mortal Kombat X, where he gets to display the hammiest personality of all characters, and is portrayed as the most brilliant schemer in the series.
    • Mortal Kombat 9 did this to almost everyone from the original trilogy who hadn't escaped this label by the time of Deception and Armageddon. It may just be the Nostalgia Filter speaking, but most fans were ecstatic to see the old cast return. It didn't hurt the improved storytelling fleshed out many an obscure character and several of them had been level grinding since we last saw them. The only exceptions would be Raiden (due to his idiotic moments throughout the story, though his immense Woobie label and the sheer callousness of the Elder Gods softens the blow somewhat, and he's severely underpowered gameplay wise this time), Sindel (for killing most of the heroes in the penultimate chapter; in her defense, she had no control of her actions - well, at least until Mortal Kombat 11 revealed that she was actually Evil All Along in this timeline) and Shao Kahn (for being an SNK Boss like no other).
      • Special mention goes to Kurtis Stryker, the original Scrappy in the MKverse. While Armageddon gave him a cool riot suit, the real rescuing for him came here, where he got a savvy personality, an even cooler outfit, an overall better design, better moves, a good VA, and his own episode and trailer to showcase how Stryker should have always been.
    • Mortal Kombat 11 helped Liu Kang a lot, going from a pretty boring Vanilla Protagonist to a hero who is a Reconstruction of The Chosen One whose past self was well aware of his dark fate as the ruler of the Neatherealms but still fought for the side of good, shows that he's just as human as the rest of the cast like snarking with Kung Lao and Johnny Cage and embraces his feelings for Kitana, and an awesome moment where he takes Raiden's place as the new Thunder God and Protector of Earthrealm.
  • Deekin, in Neverwinter Nights Shadows of Undrentide, was generally obnoxious. Hordes of the Underdark did a much better job with him by giving him some generally humorous dialogue ("Drows be fatty. Gots it") and his big Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in the endgame. Not to mention the fact that he becomes a red dragon disciple, which is considered to be one of the best prestige classes in the game.
  • City of Heroes does this at times. This is rather important, given that nearly every NPC ally you get tends to start out yelling "Puppy Power!" and diving headfirst into groups of powerful enemies. The most notable case is probably Penelope Yin, who starts as a combination of The Ditz and Creator's Pet with bits of Faux Action Girl for flavor, a psychic with vast but non-combat powers and the interest of several different major factions of the game. Thankfully, by the next time you run into her, she's a useful in-combat ally, with slightly more reasonable chat text. She still makes mistakes, but it's a bit more reasonable. Fusionette, on the other hand, has no such luck.
    • The game developers have gained a knack for doing this to Scrappy Levels. Faultline was once deserted, being insanely hard to navigate and having no point whatsoever, but was completely transformed into a far more tolerable zone with an engaging storyline (and featuring the aforementioned Penelope Yin, along with a few other Scrappy NPC 'helpers'...). The Rikti Crash Site's rescue was even more successful, turning another wasteland into the cross-faction, action-filled Rikti War Zone brimming with well-written storylines and features for high-level players. The Hollows received some minor touching-up as well, turning the brutal proving ground into something slightly more tolerable. The other Scrappy Levels such as Perez Park, Boomtown and especially the Shadow Shard are still in dire need of this treatment though.
    • Fusionette, in fact, is an interesting case of it being attempted but not working out as well as intended. Her boyfriend, Faultline, shows up as a combat NPC, but his Stone/Stone powerset means that he gets some of the best defensive powers in the game, essentially making his role as a Tank plausible and effective. Poor Fusionette, an Energy/Energy Squishy Wizard Blaster, draws lots of enemy fire that she's utterly incapable of dealing with, especially compared to PCs of the same level.
      • Fusionette comes into her own as an extra damage dealer in solo play or small teams, especially if a "support" PC keeps her healthy and buffed. Other NPCs that are useless to large competent teams and tend to die quickly unless an active effort is keep them alive and powered up include Daedalus and Imperious from the Imperious Task Horse, and (in a rather disconcerting example of Gameplay and Story Segregation) the entire Freedom Phalanx during the Mender Silos Task Horse. Which makes their "help" something of an Escort Mission.
      • General Aarons, the absolute squishiest and most hyper-aggressive alleged ally in the game. Not helped by the fact that he's mainly found in missions against the Sky Raiders and usually locks onto their teleporting minions and lieutenants and chases them through several rooms and spawns, usually getting himself killed and causing you to fail the mission because part of your objective is to keep him alive. He can be vastly more hated than even Fusionette. At least she can do some damage. The General? He fires one bullet and then rushes into melee to hit the enemies with the butt of his gun.
  • Several NPCs who were something of The Scrappy in the first Baldur's Gate become more tolerable or even acceptable in its sequel (for example, Quayle, rather than being a near-useless party member, turns out to have matured considerably in becoming an NPC). Other characters who were tolerable or acceptable become awesome (Jaheira's reaction to finding the butchered body of Khalid is notably heart-rending).
    • Also, in Baldur's Gate II you got Anomen. He starts with a self-righteous, Holier Than Thou attitude that makes him annoying at best and insufferable at worse. After you complete his personal quest in the right way he gets much better. If you finish the wrong way, however...
    • Another BG2 example: Aerie, the obscenely sweet and naive winged elf, is generally reviled throughout the game by most of the player base. However, in the expansion, she takes a level in badass and becomes much more likable in the process. In any event, if you can get past her needy personality and her having the lowest HP of any of your party members, her class combo (cleric/mage) makes her one of the most useful characters in the game.
    • Nalia, in the expansion pack, drops her endlessly harping about the downtrodden.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Waluigi, who was added to the series for the spin-off titles was not received well at first, no thanks to how the pun of his name was lost in translation, and he was generally seen as a lame carbon-copy wannabe of Wario who only existed to be a foil to Luigi and fill a slot in Mario Tennis. He began to gain a lot of recognition and love after some mad lad got away with giving him the "suck it" crotch chop straight from D-Generation X in Mario Strikers, and things only went up for him from there. He is also one of the strongest Assist Trophies in Super Smash Bros., and Brawl in the Family also helped Waluigi gain fans for his exaggerated personality to the point where he's both creepy, off-beat, and hilarious. The love for Waluigi grew stronger when fans discovered that he was not included in the character roster for Mario Kart 7, despite the fact he had been in every Mario Kart game since Double Dash!!. It certainly helps that Waluigi became more and more separated from his status as a foil to Luigi, becoming more charismatic and hammy as the series progressed. The explosion of his ironic fanbase has helped even further, due to how they enjoy playing up his status as a loser (one of the biggest factors to this being his continued exclusion from the playable roster in Super Smash Bros., when even Daisy and a Piranha Plant have become playable at this point). It has reached the point that he has become an outright Memetic Loser to the Mario fanbase, with many YouTube parodies turning his “waaa!” cry into full song covers and etc. At this point fans have so much fun making fun of him that actual hatred for the character is the furthest thing from their minds.
    • Bowser Jr. was the Replacement Scrappy for the Koopalings after Super Mario World (except for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga) and when Miyamoto revealed that he is Bowser's real son. However, some started to warm up to him after Junior and the Koopalings came together in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, meaning that there's room for the whole darn Quirky Miniboss Squad after all. So much room, in fact, that in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U the Koopalings are offered as variants of Bowser Jr. Their character trailer also helped; though their presence was already known by the time it was released, it made up for it in execution, where it made them look legitimately threatening. His appearance in the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls video didn't hurt as the interactions he had with Bowser (as well as the big Koopa himself showing on how good of a father he is) helps make the video adorable to watch, especially at the end when both of them are playing on the console together. It also helps that the video spawned a certain meme where Bowser runs up to shield Junior's eyes from... something that the innocent little turtle isn't old enough to experience.
    • Bowser started to become increasingly dopey and less of a threat with The Sixth Generation of Console Video Games, especially with Super Mario Sunshine, to the point where fans wanted him to be out of the series entirely. However, when games like Super Mario Galaxy were released, he became much more menacing thanks to his new voice actor and schemed to take over the universe twice. Although RPGs portray him like a Butt-Monkey like they used to, others like Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story provided a balance of goofiness and strength, as well as fleshing out his character more. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team took this even further as Bowser usurps the new antagonist to become the final boss, something that hadn't even been done before.
    • Princess Peach hadn't won over very many fans for quite some time, namely due to being the Damsel in Distress of gaming and having very little personality in most appearances (aside from Mario Party, but there she's hated for an entirely different reason). Then came the GameCube era which, Never Live It Down moment in Sunshine aside, started giving Peach more of an identity. She's a consistently-returning veteran for Super Smash Bros. since Melee where she is a fan-favorite because of her redesign, flirty and mischievous personality and strange but unique and powerful moveset, has gained countless useful roles in the Paper Mario series (the first two games has her as a playable Spanner in the Works who actively tried to foil the plans of her kidnappers behind their backs and helped during the Final Battles and Super Paper Mario made her a Deadpan Snarker and fully playable strong-willed Action Girl) and her various sports outfits and the other outfits she has worn across the series still have lot of fans to this day for "special reasons". It wasn't a massive boost, but she steadily became more and more of a competent character, receiving her first starring role where she beat Bowser and rescued the Mario Bros by herself, becoming playable in at least two main series titles (Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Run and even before that there was Super Mario Bros. 2), trying to escape from Bowser and taking down an army of Mooks by herself with her Parasol of Pain in Super Mario 3D Land (even if she failed in the end), showing the full extent of her powers in the Mario & Luigi series and Super Mario RPG, becoming a "badass princess" in the Mario + Rabbids games (with her Big Damn Heroes moment in the first game being particularly noteworthy) and even shooting Mario and Bowser down when they fight over proposing to her and going on her own adventure in the post-game in Super Mario Odyssey. Add this to all of her other playable appearances in the Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Strikers, Mario Golf, Mario Baseball, Mario Tennis, Dr. Mario and Mario and Sonic series etc as well as her other minor contributions in the main series and RPG series and she nowadays has much more of a following than she did initially.
    • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker did this with Toadette. Beforehand, Toadette was thought of as a pointless side character who only existed to fill out character rosters in Mario spin-off titles. This game puts her in a starring role alongside the titular Captain: In the first act, she's captured by the game's Big Bad and Captain Toad has to save her. In the game's second act, she's the one rescuing the Captain. Both Toads take several levels of badass in the process.
    • Princess Daisy was initially despised for her loud personality that came off as grating, especially her infamous "Hi, I'm Daisy!" line. Now she is looked upon a bit more favorably as a character thanks to her newfound status as a Memetic Loser, making her a lot more sympathetic and likeable to the point some found her trademark characteristics to become more endearing. Said characteristics also help her stand out as more than just a Peach clone, playing the tomboy to Peach's girly girl. The fact that she was playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as Peach's Echo Fighter didn't hurt either.
  • As a comic relief character in a fairly dark and serious game, Jansen Friedh of Lost Odyssey seemed doomed to The Scrappy heap at first glance. Fortunately, in the English dub, at least, his voice actor's naturalistic performance and improvisation managed to rescue him, transforming what could have been an irritating sidekick into a genuinely funny and sympathetic character. That he received quite a bit of Character Development along the way, particularly once he fell in love with an immortal queen, also helped.
  • Metal Gear:
    • People hated Raiden of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for replacing Snake as the protagonist and for his annoying tendencies. The fourth game, however, shows that, when you get right down to it, he is not someone you want to screw with.
    • Raiden's girlfriend, Rosemary, also became much more likeable to many fans in Guns of the Patriots. Most of this was due to her no longer constantly bringing up relationship drama with Raiden, and instead giving legitimately helpful tips and good insight, more along the lines of the usual “codec save” characters like Mei Ling and Para-Medic, who fans greatly preferred. Also the fact that in said game talking to her is almost entirely optional (as opposed to MGS2, when you had to put up with her every time you wanted to save, and often at least once between every semi-major plot event too) probably helped.
    • In the first Metal Gear Solid game, Nastasha was mainly a way for Hideo Kojima to blatantly tell you that nukes suck (that and give you background on your weapons and equipment), and as such most people who didn't even completely fail to realize she was there ignored her anyway. The second game gave us In The Darkness of Shadow Moses, a novel supposedly written by her showing the whole first game from her perspective. It gave her interesting Backstory, gave her motivations and a personality, and then threw her into the abyss.
    • Metal Gear Solid 4 started Raiden's climb out of the scrappy heap, but Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance definitely finished it. The game received near universal praise. Angry Joe felt that the union between Kojima Productions, who'd made all of the Metal Gear games up until that point and handled story and direction, and PlatinumGames, creators of hits such as Bayonetta and the ones responsible for level design and gameplay, was a "match made in heaven". Mat and Pat of Two Best Friends Play also had a lot to say on the matter, noting that a decade earlier they never would have believed that Raiden would one day be more awesome than Dante.note 
    • The Metal Gear Solid 4 novelisation is generally appreciated for making various characters far more sympathetic and likeable.
      • Instead of his Aesop Amnesia crying scenes, Strangled by the Red String romance subplot and terrible parenting of Sunny, Otacon is repeatedly portrayed as being able to hold back his tears until times when it is appropriate to release his emotions, at one point even admitting he feels revulsion at himself for being able to do it. The book also gives him deeply complicated and realistic feelings about Naomi and his own actions over the years that don't come across in the game and take full advantage of the prose format. (Plus, it establishes that he is still an otaku, and his claim that he "used to be" one was just him trying to look cool in front of Naomi...)
      • Naomi also comes across far better as her actions are related more to her backstory, and her death gets significantly more foreshadowing, as well as a better explanation of why she chose to do it (when in the game it comes across as a Stupid Sacrifice, or Rule of Symbolism at best). The scene of her mentioning Otacon's beauty post-mortem is moved to a scene before she's dead, eliminating the Fourth-Date Marriage issues which implied her feelings for him were timeless love, and also making it so Otacon's storyline with her doesn't end on such a cruel note.
      • Liquid is disliked for being an Evil Is Hammy stock villain with an idiotic plan, literally replacing the far more interesting The Dragon figure of Ocelot, and having a shallow motivation for his evil compared to the nuanced motivations of many Metal Gear villains. One chapter of the book goes into detail about Liquid's backstory, justifying his nihilism and desperation, while also portraying his actions as admirable, even forgivable responses to a life of being treated like dirt and intentionally driven mad. Otacon even comments that he can't see Liquid as being truly evil, and the book clearly states that Solid Snake found love and joy in fighting his brother by the end, something only implied in the original.
      • The BB Corps, hated by fandom for being poorly implemented, sexist fanservice who all have the same Narmful Trauma Conga Line backstory, simply don't show up in the novel at all apart from some of their cooler technology (like Laughing Octopus's bombs and Raging Raven's Sliders) ending up in the hands of regular soldiers. Which, er, is one way to deal with such hated characters.
  • Killzone: Some people began warming up to Rico after his Character Development in Killzone 3. Throughout the game, he constantly goes out of his way to rescue other major characters, including Jammer, Sev, and Narville (whom he saves twice). Not only that, but he also Takes a Level in Badass by becoming the leader of the Raiders, a squad of guerilla-style ISA soldiers who performed a hit-and-run attack on Stahl Arms Deep South. During gameplay, he can also revive the player using a defibrillator, but only when he's close enough, which, granted, can be a bit annoying at times. But still, Rico's not all bad, guys.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
  • Axl was utterly, completely loathed in Mega Man X7 for replacing X for the majority of the game, having a really annoying whiny kid voice (not that any of the other voice acting in the game was much better) and gameplay-wise being largely an inferior version of X. Mega Man X: Command Mission and Mega Man X8 worked hard to redeem him, giving him a deeper voice, no longer having him hog the spotlight from X, and differentiating his gameplay style from X (Command Mission made him the game's summoner, while X8 gave him Bass-style 8-directional fire and lots and lots of firepower.) His big moment in X8 where he interrupted Lumine's "Not So Different" Remark with a judicious amount of gunfire also endeared him to a lot of his former detractors.
  • In the Fire Emblem franchise:
    • Beowulf from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War was once known as a universally hated character for lying and cheating on Lachesis, people think he's a big liar and philanderer. But suddenly, it's revealed that Lachesis was still in love with her brother Eldigan and got together with Finn in Thracia 776. Thus, fan reaction towards him has softened ever since (those who are pissed with him are probably going on his mediocre stats, and his 'stupid grin'). In turn, however, fans started ragging on Lachesis as "one slutty princess". Still, she has yet to be completely pushed to the Scrappy Heap thanks to her sympathetic Character Development and Game-Breaker status.
    • Serra from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, who was thought of as nothing more than an annoying Rich Bitch has also become rescued, specially once people actually bothered to get her A supports where not only she's showcased in a much more sympathetic light, but we get to learn about her Dark and Troubled Past.
    • Grima from Fire Emblem: Awakening used to be one of the least popular final bosses in the series for being a Generic Doomsday Villain with very little backstory, and being too similar to Medeus and Loptyr. Then the postgame of Echoes gave him a backstory, while his playable appearance in Fire Emblem Heroes (as Fell Robin) fleshed-out his personality. He's now a lot more popular. (His extreme usefulness in Heroes also helps.)
    • Fire Emblem Fates:
      • Odin, Selena and Laslow were originally hated for being blatantly obvious Expies of Owain, Severa and Inigo from Fire Emblem: Awakening (due to those three being voted the most popular child characters in Japan). Then the game came out and it turned out that they literally are Owain, Severa and Inigo and not just carbon-copies of them, and their Character Development and Older and Wiser nature since Awakening has been very well-received. They're now some of the more popular characters in the game.
      • Charlotte. Pre-release marketing painted her as a Cute and Psycho Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who dressed in extremely Stripperiffic clothing to seduce rich men, with seemingly few redeeming qualities. Once people got their hands on the actual game, however, it turned out Charlotte was quite different than anyone expected. Firstly, she's only a Gold Digger to support her poor family, and she's not actually a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: she just puts on a "cute damsel" act in frount of men because she feels no-one will accept her for her real personality (which is more like The Lad-ette), and her romantic supports with rich guys all fall into Not with Them for the Money by the end. She's also a total beast stat-wise and gives amazing pair-up bonuses to whoever she supports with, not to mention a highly-rated mother for any physical-based second-gen unit. She ended up being one of the most well-liked characters in the game.
      • Niles, the Sadist Psycho for Hire thief, became incredibly contentious once it was revealed he was the game's sole Gay Option for male player characters. Similar to Charlotte, he was found to have Hidden Depths beyond his questionable qualities once the game was released, and his same-sex Relationship Upgrade support with the Male Avatar was found to be genuinely heartwarming, to the point where the Gay Option with him became one of the biggest Fan Preferred Couples for the Male Avatar.
      • The General class was previously seen as a Mighty Glacier without enough Mighty, which would always be double attacked and chopped into little pieces before it could get in a word edgewise. Fates gave it the Wary Fighter skill, which prevents all double attacks and makes it much harder to kill. It also has two amazing reps in the powerhouse Effie and Stone Wall Benny, who hits like a truck and tanks better than anyone in the game even prior to getting Wary Fighter, respectively.
      • Speaking of classes, a mild case occurred with Swordmaster and Berserker. While they were still solid classes, they'd lost their Critical Hit Class status in Awakening, but got their innate crit rates back in Fates, causing much fan rejoicing.
      • The Archer and Sniper classes were often mocked for their locked 2 range and terrible time on the Enemy Phase, where most of the game's combat takes place, and most Sniper bosses were considered ridiculously easy. In this game, bows and yumi were given massive damage buffs (plus there are two bows and a yumi that can attack at range 1, two as 1-2 weapons and one at 1 range exclusively, interestingly enough), and a DLC skill was introduced that gives them 1-2 range at all times. Takumi in particular straddles the line between Disc-One Nuke and Game-Breaker as a playable character in Birthright and Revelation, and is considered to be That One Boss as an enemy in Conquest to the point where he is actually the route's incredibly challenging Final Boss.
    • Thieves are a utility class that's not supposed to see combat. The problem is, combat was the only way for them to actually get stronger - meaning that their stats would (in games where they cannot promote) not get much better than when you get them. Thus, they would be very tantalising targets for the Spiteful A.I. the series is known for and require babysitting whenever deployed. Unlike Dancers who could actually make up the difference by allowing a unit to act twice, Thieves didn't. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 allowed them to promote and actually let them have some ability to survive and even excel in combat. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade introduced the Assassin promotion, which gave the thieves some Magikarp Power potential with the skill "Silencer" (A One-Hit KO). Fire Emblem: Awakening gave thieves another buff in the form of replacing the Rogue (an upgraded Thief) with the Trickster, meaning they could also function as a healer.
    • Light Magic, previously a Scrappy Weapon (Sans the Purposefully Overpowered Book of Naga in Genealogy) received this in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
      • In The Blazing Blade, the "Monk" class was added. This was a base class that had access to light magic - when previously, it could only be used by your healers upon promotion. And since healers are typically the last of any characters to get promoted, it was very easy to just not bother training light magic in any of your characters. Additionally? The endgame Crutch Character Athos is able to use every light magic in the game and actually show it off.
      • The Sacred Stones made Light Magic even better - by not only giving you a dedicated light magic user even earlier than The Blazing Blade, letting Valkyries & Sages use it, but by giving Bishops the useful skill Slayer which triples its damage against monsters, the dominant enemy type in the late game.
    • Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: Several members of the original cast were disliked for having terrible growth rates and / or poor characterisation. The remake upgrades most of the growth rates and increases the plot importance of several characters as well, such as making Gray and Tobin and Mae and Boey the Those Two Guys of Alm and Celica's routes, respectively.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
      • The Archer class in general is finally pulled out of the rut it spent most of the franchise in, thanks to useful innate skills (Bowrange +1 and accuracy-increasing skills give them a niche for picking off mages from outside retaliation range) and no longer being helpless up close (most units with an affinity for bows quickly learn Close Counter, and any archer can be given a spare melee weapon, enabling them to fight back during the enemy phase). Additionally, the Bow Knight Prestige Class is considered a Game-Breaker.
      • While not outright hated, Byleth was considered by many to be a very boring character due to being presented as The Voiceless and having few oppotunities to display their personality, and their skill in the story being a largely Informed Attribute. Come Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and the shift of protagonist from Byleth to Shez allowed for the the existing character established in Three Houses to be developed further, showing them as The Quiet One with a great amount of compassion while also making them The Dreaded One-Man Army, improving the fans perception of them as a more fleshed out person rather than a self insert.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Big the Cat was disliked by many fans in Sonic Adventure for his fishing gameplay, his lack of importance to the story as well as him being insufferably dumb. Some started to warm up to him as his appearances in side-games progressed, with his personality, lines and voice refined to be funnier and more slow and laid back than overly stupid. It generally helps that he is rarely connected to a Scrappy Mechanic anymore either, in Sonic Heroes, he weaponises his bulk and fishing rod to become an effective power-tier character with the same speed and offensive capabilities as the others, while in Sonic Frontiers, they bring back his fishing, albeit optionally as a more brisk and tolerable minigame.
    • Chronicles toned back Amy Rose from Stalker with a Crush to a more tolerable Clingy Jealous Girl, and polished Rouge into a Deadpan Snarker par excellence.
    • In spite of its other flaws, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) managed to make Shadow the Hedgehog more bearable for some of his previous haters. Since the previous game saw him reach the end of his Quest for Identity and resolve to put the past behind him, this game saw Shadow greatly cut down on the angsting and replace it with stoic badassery.
    • Sonic Generations seems to be causing the fanbase to finally warm up to Silver the Hedgehog. Considering Sega gave him a new voice actor (who ironically happens to also be the voice of Raiden), made him less of a whiny Jerkass, and made his boss battle enjoyable, it's a big step up from "IT'S NO USE!" His role in the Sonic Archie Comics helps, where his character is given the full treatment with a new personality that makes him much less annoying and characterized as Skilled, but Naive, leaning heavily towards Adorkable levels. He now has become a popular character among the Sonic Archie fanbase and even has not just one, but two Sonic Universe arcs featuring him as the protagonist.
    • The whole main cast, which ballooned following Sonic Adventure, was considered one big collective Scrappy (with very few exceptions) and a major fault of the series, especially after Sonic 2006, since fans needed something tangible to blame for the franchise's sliding quality. After Sonic Unleashed bombed critically—and featured a record low number of Sonic's furry pals—fans realized that the characters weren't necessarily the problem, and the lack of characters in later games has led to some people wanting them to return. In return, Sonic Team has excessively Flanderized their characters, which may offset any gain.
    • For what the Sonic Boom spin-off is worth, the devs did everything in their power to fix Amy Rose as thoroughly as possible. Not only was her choice of attire far less prone to panty shots and more befitting someone in the thick of the action, and not only did Cindy Robinson get the freedom to voice Amy more appropriately (and ditch the much-maligned Minnie Mouse-esque voice to boot), but Amy's personality was completely retooled; her crush on Sonic was strongly dialed down (though it's clearly not entirely gone, just far more subdued), her Team Mom and Genki Girl traits were brought to the fore, and she was made more prone to taking matters into her own hands and allowed to join in the Deadpan Snarker fun normally reserved for Sonic himself. She was much better received as a result, with even some haters of her Modern version welcoming the Boom version, and the fans hope the changes to her character carry back over to the Modern series. Which they eventually did: Amy in Sonic Frontiers and the IDW comic acts much like her Boom self while still making Call Backs to her past adventures, making her escape from Flanderization feel like natural Character Development.
    • The Boom design for Knuckles was initially harshly criticized for being a huge departure from the main series' smaller, slimmer look, and the failure of Rise of Lyric didn't help matters. However, in that alotted time, Boom!Knuckles proved to be a fan favorite by being a Kindhearted Simpleton and Cloudcuckoolander with rare moments of genius in the cartoon. Even in Rise of Lyric itself, his popularity skyrocketed with the discovery of the pre-patch Infinite Jump Glitch, which allowed for Sequence Breaking not possible with the other three characters.
    • "Sister Sonic" (not to be confused with Sonia from Sonic Underground) is a more esoteric example of this trope, as she never actually manifested as a character: no biographical information, concept art, or even an official name have ever been released to the public. Her sole existence lies in announcements that she would have been The Protagonist of a Sonic-themed Dolled-Up Installment for Popful Mail, which alone made her a Replacement Scrappy to that game's titular character. Popful fans were furious about this, and sent letters to Sega Falcom demanding a faithful translation of the game; they were ultimately successful, and Electronic Gaming Monthly regarded this as a case study in how consumers can influence the creative decisions of a company. Decades later, Sonic fans would treat her with curiosity, pondering not only what she would have looked and acted like, but how different the series would have been with another major female character alongside Amy Rose, and the Worldbuilding that would have come from her game.
  • The World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm's entire raison d'etre is to rescue the most hated zones in the game from the Scrappy heap, by nuking them and building new quests around picking up the wreckage. As this is World of Warcraft, at least one quest will actually be about picking up wreckage.
    • In a more conventional sense, Varian Wrynn gains a bit more sympathy after he allows the grieving Varok Saurfang to cradle the body of his dead son in Icecrown Citadel, showing that despite his earlier rage against the Horde, he remains an honorable, empathetic man. However, some have a problem with how established characters such as Jaina and Tyrande were dumbed down to try and make Varian look better.
    • Happens to Garrosh in Cataclysm. He publicly executes a Horde general that bombed an Alliance village full of innocent people (by dropping him off a cliff), and tells Sylvanas off for using the val'kyr to raise more Forsaken, saying she is going against nature and is no better than the Lich King. Sadly, while it may have shifted the opinion of casual Warcraft fans in his favor it did little to improve his reputation with the most die-hard haters. And as a result Blizzard dropped whatever plans they had for him as a character and set him up as the Big Bad for the next expansion.
  • Heroes of the Storm:
    • Hanzo brought a lot of baggage with him, carried by his status as a High-Tier Scrappy in his home game as well as the over-saturation Overwatch had been getting throughout 2017. It only got worse after his release, since he was a buggy, underpowered mess. Then it got so much worse when he received buffs, becoming one of the most reviled Game Breakers in a long time. Eventually though, Blizzard managed to tone down his kit*, crafting him into a skill-intensive assassin. While he can still do some gross things, his monstrous skill floor makes good Hanzo players more impressive than anything, and scares off the infamous "Hanzo main" crowd. It also helps that all of 2018 had no new Overwatch heroes, calming that group as well.
    • Orphea had a massive hatedom when she first appeared in the comics, and was derided as a boring 'almost' Mary Sue with a weak backstory. There were also a lot of detractors (correctly) predicting she'd end up as the new hero for Blizzcon and lamenting Blizz for putting such a nobody in the spotlight. Her eventual reveal actually managed to win over most of the audience though, mostly thanks to her awesome visual design (which was showcased rather poorly in the comics) and balanced, creative skillset. It also helps that she got a bit of actual personality and had a strong Deadpan Snarker streak and just enough Leaning on the Fourth Wall to be likeable.
  • Resident Evil:
    • A non-character example is the knife. In the PS1 era, it had next to no range compared to the usual firearms and did minimal damage, even in games where they attempted to make up for that by letting it hit multiple times per swing. Even if you had a rare position of attacking a zombie from an elevated position, it would take many slashes to take it down - upwards of fifty in Resident Evil 2. So players would consign it to the nearest chest to free up an inventory space for something far more useful ASAP. But in Resident Evil 4, it no longer takes up a space in your inventory, it can be switched to and put back away instantly by holding and releasing a button, it does a lot more damage (on par with the starting pistol), and could be aimed just like the other weapons to hit specific spots and stagger enemies (since they're not made-of-muscle bioweapons that don't react to pain in this game) for a finishing move. Suddenly, the knife is one of the most valuable weapons. If it guaranteed a stun with every slash to the face, some players wouldn't even use guns (except for when they had no choice).
    • In the second fight against Krauser, the knife is one of the best weapons. The guy is kinda Made of Iron, but goes down very, very fast with the knife, faster than any other weapon you'd have available at the time. This strategy seems to work entirely on Rule of Cool, as the way to figure out by yourself it is a good strategy (other than taking the earlier Press X to Not Die knife-fight as a hint) would be to be Badass enough to take on Krauser in a knife fight. A reason for the knife working better than guns here is that he moves towards you while dodging bullets moving left or right pretty damn fast, but the knife, having a horizontal sweep, manages to hit him pretty well when close enough.
    • The knife, while still generally weak, is quite effective in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, especially since it does multiple hits per slash as mentioned above. It's good for saving ammunition, as that is somewhat scarce in the early game, and a downward hit can inflict major damage on a zombie. It doesn't make Wesker's Battle Game any easier, though.note 
    • As for characters from the Resident Evil series, there's Steve Burnside's appearance in The Darkside Chronicles, which did away with most, if not necessarily all, of his irritating traits from Code Veronica and made him much more likable. Rebecca Chambers of Resident Evil was seen by many fans as an annoyingly chirpy idiot until her characterization was changed in the remake and Resident Evil 0, turning her into a more relatable and sympathetic character overall.
    • Ashley Graham was rendered much more likable in the remake of Resident Evil 4, being much less screechy than in the original and having a far more nuanced and relatable personality. She also comes off as smarter than the original incarnation, as now she'll provide the player with hints about puzzles.
    • Sherry Birkin might as well be the poster girl for this. In Resident Evil 2 she was considered an absolute pain in the ass throughout Claire’s scenario for constantly running off and falling into danger, not to mention her playable section being arduous due to fact she can die extremely easily and unlike the other characters cannot protect herself. Come Resident Evil 6 however and fans were shocked to see Sherry had Took a Level in Badass in the years since 2 and become an Action Girl which greatly shifted opinions about her, in fact as far as 6 is concerned she’s accepted as one of the unambiguous positives of the game. RE2make achieved something even more shocking by making Sherry’s 12 year self actually likeable and compelling with her playable segment being a massive high point of the game.
  • Super Robot Wars Z:
    • They manage this with most of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny characters and story. Shinn Asuka is less whiny and mean (and his relationship with Luna is kinda more believably done), Stellar Lousier is less of a Psychopathic Womanchild, Neo Roanoke doesn't just turn into Mu La Flaga out of whim and forget his past life and actually does show genuine regret for the Neo stint, and Gilbert Durandal becomes a respectable villain and still makes sense.
    • Its sequel, Hakai-hen managed to rescue a gameplay mechanic; in previous games, using a consumable item results in that item being gone forever. Not so in Hakai-hen and later SRW games where you could use an item once per stage.
    • Tengoku-hen manages to rescue the usage of the Twin Satellite Cannon. In previous games, there was no way to tell whether the cannon can be fired or not because of the presence or absence of the moon and can't be fired right away due to needing to wait for four turns before firing the weapon. Tengoku-hen revamps the cannon to where the cannon is already preloaded, can be fired either in one turn if the moon is out or two if it isn't. And finally, post-stage 33 where Tiffa Adill comes back as Garrod's sub-pilot, the weapon can be fired once per turn regardless of the presence of the moon or not.
  • While virtually no fans of Mega Man games ever hated Roll, due to her being seen as the cute, benevolent face of what robotics could have been, and thus, part of what you're fighting for as the hero, in the Marvel vs. Capcom games she was something of a Low-Tier Letdown—in fact fans jokingly gave her her own tier because none of the other tiers were thought to be bad enough. In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, she definitely Took a Level in Badass with some rather devastating combos, many of which end with her ferociously slamming her mop into downed opponents' groins.
  • Castlevania: Judgment received all kinds of flak ever since it was announced, from reports of terrible controls to heavy bashing of the new art style. Now that the game is out, the general consensus is that it's a pretty good Wii fighting game with awesome music... among some of the fans, anyway. The game critics still don't like it.
  • Most Castlevania games render the time-stopping pocketwatch Awesome, but Impractical, as it uses five hearts instead of one and some enemies, including many bosses, are immune to it. In Haunted Castle, however, it becomes one of the most useful subweapons, due to working on bosses and costing only two hearts.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes included Onslaught, from the X-Men comics, as the Final Boss. While Onslaught was near-universally reviled among comic fans due to how he was shoehorned into the stories from Executive Meddling, he is nigh-universally beloved among MVC fans for being an incredibly fun boss fight.
  • Thanos in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was one of the lowest ranking characters in the game. Eventually, more players started experimenting with him and finding some useful combos.
  • Thor of all people from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is ranked pretty low on the tier list, but many fans can forgive this because of his incredible Large Ham tendencies and his Mighty Speech, a taunt so powerful that thine hyper meter rechargeth with every syllable of its divine power!
  • In Jak II: Renegade the Hellcat was clunky, slow, and generally a piece of crap. Jak 3: Wastelander fixed it, upping its firepower, and making it essential for taking down the KG War Factory.
  • Rochelle in Left 4 Dead 2 was once widely hated for simply not being Zoey, not having many funny lines of dialogue compared to the other survivors, and having a very loud and obnoxious laugh. When The Passing DLC came out, Rochelle was given more witty and snarky lines for the campaign as well as having some Ship Tease with Francis, to which Zoey reacts with confusion and disgust. The Last Stand update restored most of Rochelle's unused dialogue, which elevated her character into a mix of Sassy Black Woman and Deadpan Snarker where she'll make fun of the weird things that Coach, Ellis, and southerners in general go crazy over, while sprinkling in a number of lines where she shows her feminine side, reinforcing her Cool Big Sis attitude towards Ellis. Rochelle's transformation from bland to her new persona had many haters quickly warming up to her.
  • Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures had the ambition of becoming the next king of MMORPGS (as evidenced by the sumptuous launch party) but, after a good start upon release in 2008, it failed to deliver the promise and fell on a host of problems that quickly reduced the number of players; high system specs required to play didn't help. Some of the people involved with the game resigned, and many started to compare it with the equally ambitious and failing Warhammer Online. Funcom, however, didn't give up and, shedding the original ambitions of going head-to-head with World of Warcraft, worked hard to fix the problems and took several initiatives to attract old and new players. Today, Age of Conan has a solid userbase of some hundred-thousands, and has happily entered 2010 with the release of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion.
  • When Punch-Out!! for the Wii was in development, the revelation of many members of the lineup announced made classic (read: NES) gamers Squee. Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, King Hippo, Bald Bull, Don Flamenco... old-school favorites brought to glorious 3D. Then the developers revealed Aran Ryan, and those few who remembered him from Super Punch Out had to ask 'Why?', especially when they'd even included the more colorful Bear Hugger. Then players realized that Ryan had gone from a bland, straightforward boxer with no personality to speak of to a complete and utter maniac who cackled madly with every punch... yours or his. The fact that his new moves could only be described as "blatant and insane cheating" certainly didn't hurt either. Complaints faded quickly after that and Ryan has gone on to become a surprising favorite in certain fan circles.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • This managed to happen to Link himself. The Wind Waker incarnation of Link was, upon the reveal of the style, to put it kindly, less than appreciated. This was quickly followed by some nasty Broken Base that has mostly healed since then. However, those who stuck it out to the end; watched the little hero prove his worth (as opposed to being chosen outright), and eventually turn GANONDORF into the Master Sword's new pedestal, spread the word that the Hero of the Winds was just as awesome as his predecessors.
    • Hyrule Warriors managed to give three of its returning playable characters this treatment.
      • Fi. In Skyward Sword she was nigh-universally reviled by the fanbase due to her bland, robotic personality as well as being a Captain Obvious with excessive amounts of Annoying Video Game Helper moments. The game removed those aspects of her character and fleshed her out by giving some Not So Stoic moments, thus she has been much more well received. It also helps that her playstyle makes her great at fighting groups of enemies.
      • Zant to an extent. While he was a popular character in Twilight Princess, the main criticism from fans was that the reveal of his Psychopathic Manchild nature came completely out of nowhere and undermined his previous badassery. This game fleshes him out by having said traits apparent from the start, but shown mostly through his Confusion Fu moveset while in the game proper, he's portrayed as a slightly eccentric, but threatening villain. Thus, he is far less polarizing. It helps that his moveset makes him great at fighting large groups of enemies, especially after a much needed update.
      • Tingle, the poster child for all characters hated in certain regions took a long time to get his redemption. To many Western fans, Tingle was loathed not just because of his creepy design and greed, but that he's 35-year-old man who believes he's a fairy, which didn't sit well with players because he's essentially a Manchild. His reputation was so bad that the Tingle related spin-offs were never released in America. When he showed up as one of the last DLC characters in Hyrule Warriors, people were livid that they chose him over the much more beloved Skull Kid. For the players that decided to give Tingle a shot, they found that he's very useful when clearing out groups of enemies with his very bizarre fighting tactics. When later versions included both characters in the base game, it helped to alleviate the salt even more. While it's not a huge save, people are starting to appreciate Tingle a little more after that.
      • An exceptionally minor example, but it still counts- the fairy who makes a cameo at Death Mountain is Navi, one of the most hated characters in the franchise due to her constant cries of "HEY, LISTEN!" Here, making only one appearance prevents her from becoming too annoying.
    • Fi in Breath of the Wild. Her single appearance in this game is when her signature chime can be heard after Link has fallen from fighting so much he is on the brink of death. This chime alerts Zelda to the fact Link can be saved with the Shrine of Resurrection. In other words, she ended up saving Link's life. The lack of her Captain Obvious and bland characterisation really helps.
  • Zeke in the first inFAMOUS game was a bit of a Jerkass who would not stop calling and insulting you and constantly put himself in danger because he was jealous of Cole's super powers. His betrayal in the game's last quarter didn't help either. In inFAMOUS 2, though, he undergoes some serious Character Development and becomes much more helpful and sympathetic, building various devices for Cole and being essential to progressing through the game.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Carver Hawke in Dragon Age II spent the entire first act constantly bitter of their older sibling being before being Put on a Bus after joining the Templars or the Grey Wardens. Even the companions in-universe found Hawke's little brother to be an annoying presence for his constant complaining. After the release of the DLC Legacy, fans were pleasantly surprised that suddenly Carver returned with a ton of character development, newfound maturity and self-depreciation (particularly if he became a Warden).
    • Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins received plenty of hate for her rudeness and Stupid Evil tendencies to the point where Bioware even started selling a Morrigan Disapproved shirt from their store. Once Dragon Age: Inquisition was released, she has Took a Level in Kindness by helping out the Inquisition, having a more amicable relationship with former party members Alistair and Leliana, and unconditionally loving her son to the point of being willing to make a badass sacrifice to prevent Flemeth from taking Kieran. To put it in perspective on how much she was rescued, she was voted best mage party member in an official character poll alongside Mr. Fanservice Alistair as best warrior and fan favorite Varric as best rogue.
  • In Halo, this eventually happened to the infamously annoying 343 Guilty Spark thanks to the Halo: Combat Evolved: Anniversary terminals and The Forerunner Saga novels.
  • Mass Effect 3 did this for a lot of its cast, particularly some returnees from previous Mass Effect games:
    • When James Vega was first revealed, many people complained about him because of his design, the desire of old characters as party members, and being a human. Nowadays, people actually find him likable thanks to a well rounded personality and being more than he seems. There is even a small group of people wishing he was a love interest, leading to some rejoicing when this option was added in the Citadel DLC.
    • Khalisah Bint Sinan Al-Jilani, once the butt of many jokes about being punched in the face. In Mass Effect 3 however, many people found a new level of respect for her provided if you do either the Paragon interrupt or only the first Renegade interrupt.
    • Javik got Tainted by the Preview for being day-one DLC and worries that a Prothean would be unable to relate to other characters. Then everyone discovered his snarky personality, interesting backstory, and general badassery. He quickly became one of the most beloved characters.
    • The Turian Councilor, if not completely rescued, has been respected for being the only councilor offering to help the humans while the other councilors are busy fending for themselves without any help. Suddenly all those "Reaper" gestures at him have dropped significantly.
    • Miranda Lawson has been criticized by a fair number of people for her complete loyalty to Cerberus and for her many Kick the Dog moments in Mass Effect 2. Come Mass Effect 3 and she has not only focus on protecting her sister but also helps out the Alliance behind the scenes as well as feeling very guilty about many of her Kick the Dog moments, especially when she apologized to Shepard for saying that she wanted to plant a control chip in his/her brain to ensure his/her loyalty to Cerberus. She's also the only person in the galaxy who tells Shepard she'll fix her own problems, instead of asking/begging/guilt-tripping/manipulating/threatening Shepard for help.
    • Udina, of all people, actually gets some degree of rescuing. Where in previous games he seemed like an unrepentant Jerkass, his behavior is toned down quite a bit and he becomes more helpful in his desperate desire to get aid for Earth. Even the attempted coup has a legitimate reason behind it, and he comes across as almost sympathetic, since it's left ambiguous whether he was indoctrinated, greedy, or just plain desperate?
    • Kaidan originally received flak for being a Master of None and coming off as The Generic Guy compared to the rest of the crew. With many people choosing to save Ashley over him on Virmire. As many felt she was the more interesting and useful member. Then came Mass Effect 3 where thanks to the revamped power system he developed into an extremely useful Jack of All Stats. Being made a bisexual romance option and his characterization being fleshed out helped as well.
  • The Batman: Arkham Series, especially Batman: Arkham City, has done wonders for many of the Caped Crusader's foes, primarily for non-comic readers. Villains who were seldom taken seriously or not well-known have had their popularity boosted by these games. The Penguin as a Fat Bastard and dangerous psychopath who tortures cops with glee, the Riddler using Saw-style traps that are horror incarnate, Calendar Man telling creepy stories on different holidays about murders he committed on said holiday, and the list goes on.
  • After many years of being disliked, Golden Sun fandom finally seems to be warming up to Agatio and his savvy attitude, and respecting him as his own character instead of unjustly blasting him for being a shitty Saturos replacement. Part of this may be the influence of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn making fans go back to the first few games and actually pay attention to the dialogue this time around.
  • Yo-Yo was immensely hated in the first Jet Set Radio due to the race he challenges you to being absurdly difficult for the wrong reasons (unless you use an exploit to make the race easier to win). When Jet Set Radio Future came out, not only the game did away with what made Yo-Yo so disliked, but he got a complete redesign and ended up being the main character. While hatred for Classic Yoyo is still immense even to this very day, hatred for Future Yo-Yo is very rare to come by.
  • Most reviewers couldn't stand Ratchet in the first Ratchet & Clank, getting irked at how unlikable he was compared to Clank. Insomniac took notice and dialed down his attitude and selfish tendencies in later games, and the duo have been much more equally beloved since.
  • RuneScape:
    • Crystal Bow was always kinda cool, but not useful. It is made of magic crystal and fires energy shots, but it also degrades with use, and there were better weapons. Crossbows, for example, were one handed, which allowed use of shields, and had higher accuracy and their ammo could hit harder. That's not even mentioning the effects that could be added to crossbows by adding enchanted gems to the bolts, all of which rendered pretty much any regular bow useless. After Evolution of Combat, however, most one handed weapons are noticeably weaker, albeit faster, than two handed weapons of the same tier. The Crystal Bow has been rescued by virtue of being faster than most two handed weapons and being reasonably affordable.
    • Many two handed weapons which previously went unused have become more popular as a result of this update. Blisterwood weapons, which were created solely to be the more effective Kryptonite Factor to vampyres, are now cheap, easy to produce high level weapons, which makes them popular among player killers.
    • As Runescape's storyline became Darker and Edgier, the Big Good god Saradomin gradually became more and more of a self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant Knight Templar who has led entire races to their doom in the God Wars. The quest "The Death of Chivalry" turns this into Character Development, as Saradomin's failure to use the Wand of Resurrection forces him to confront his crimes and hypocrisies, and he resolves to overcome his pride and become the good god people see him as.
  • MechWarrior Living Legends was plagued by many of its assets being nigh-useless for months or years on end. The Osiris light mech, for example, was infamous for being a complete death trap - almost no armor, pitiful weaponry, a huge chassis that was next to impossible to miss, and with a mediocre (for a light) top speed. Or the Atlas, which was too expensive, lacked the armor that a slow mech needs, and didn't carry sufficient firepower, being outgunned by many mechs 20+ tons lighter. The tragic final update note , 0.7.1, included a complete balance overhaul and balance pass on effectively every asset, buffing assets that were in desperate need of help (and nerfing those that were too powerful). The Osiris had its armor buffed, better jump jets, and way more firepower, the Atlas became cheaper, better armored, and better at killing things up close, among hundreds of other changes to the other assets.
  • In the Ace Attorney series: Apollo Justice was a toss up between a Base-Breaking Character and a Replacement Scrappy. The reason being is that Phoenix Wright is no longer a lawyer at this point in the series, even though there was a story reason behind it. Then came Dual Destinies where it not only it brought back Phoenix to his old profession, but it also developed Apollo's character more by throwing him in the core case of the game dealing with astronauts who were friends from his childhood, one being the victim and the other being the accused. Spirit of Justice helped even further by having him successfully dethrone Ga'ran, the Big Bad who was responsible for the DC Act and the murder for both his biological and foster father in the final case, making Apollo to be just as an outstanding lawyer as Phoenix himself.
  • For the Dawn of War series, Relic Studios created an entire new chapter, the Blood Ravens. At first they were your typical bad-ass Space Marines with a special note for having a large amount of Librarians and suspiciously missing information about their origins. What dragged them down into the Scrappy heap wasn't the fact that they were Relic's go-to army, but the fact that they were so gosh darn good at being Space Marines that they threatened to overcome the Ultramarines' status. It got to the point that every other piece of wargear in the sequel series was a relic "gifted" from some other Chapter, something that is virtually unheard of except in THE most astounding circumstances and earned them the epithet of "Magpie Marines" under the joke-assumption that all those relics were stolen. What saved them was a near-apocalyptic battle through the aptly named Retribution expansion where they quite literally battled and tore out the corrupted heart of their own chapter. By the time they show up as your backup during the push towards The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in Space Marine most players were right alongside Captain Titus in wanting to see them display the fury they showed in Auralia.
    • Speaking of the Ultramarines, Captain Titus of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is credited by 1d4chan as the driving force behind making them respect the Ultramarines again, striking the best balance between Matt Ward's Lawful Stupid Spiritual Liege Codex wank, and Graham McNeill's "the Codex Astartes is a load of crap and cool marines don't follow it" Chaotic Stupid Special Snowflake, and also being majorly badass while never once coming across as over-the-top.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
  • In the original Borderlands, Claptrap robots were widely maligned for being annoying, omnipresent, and an obvious attempt at merchandising. In response to this, the game's final DLC revolved around Pandora's Claptrap units revolting, meaning that the players spent most of the DLC gunning the irritating little bastards down. For the sequel, it's revealed that only one Claptrap survived the "New Robot Revolution", and his role in the plot is greatly diminished, compared to the original game. There's also the fact that the characters in the second game consider him just as annoying in-universe, to the point where nobody except the player shows up for his birthday party...which turns him right around into The Woobie.
  • In the Sly Cooper series, Murray was nothing more than a lumbering useless lummox in the first game who couldn't even defend himself and was thus always part of the much maligned racing and escort levels, and firmly cemented himself as The Scrappy in the second game with his obnoxiously loud THE MURRAY persona. It wasn't until the third game when his persona was dialed back considerably, he settled into the role of the Boisterous Bruiser Dumb (But Lovable) Muscle of the team, was given his new (and useful) rolling and bouncing abilities, and got some extra depth in his guilt over Bentley's crippling and his relationship with The Guru that players finally warmed up to him.
  • Star Trek Online:
    • Enterprise-F captain Va'Kel Shon, a Hot-Blooded Andorian, was not well-liked at first because of this attitude. Players felt that he didn't stand up to those like Kirk and Picard before him and felt that the KDF's counterpart, Koren, would be a better choice, notably for being an Action Girl. However, the mission "Surface Tension" changed that as Shon forced the Federation to admit that they were wrong about the Undine, then later saves Qo'noS from the Undine nearly at the cost of his life.
    • In the same vein, Chancellor J'mpok was hated for killing off the more beloved Chancellor Martok in the backstory and beginning the war with the Federation that kicks off the game due to the fact he warned the Federation over the Undine and they refused to listen. "Surface Tension" helps him gain some credibility over the previously mentioned admission.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Skyrim:
      • Through Oblivion, the Bosmer (Wood Elves) comprise some of the most annoying characters in the series, drawing significant hatred from the fandom. Male Bosmer in particular are diminutive, ugly, and, from a gameplay perspective, are best used in Forest Ranger-type builds but are even outclassed there by much "cooler" races who can function just as well in that role, such as the Dunmer (Dark Elves) and Cat Folk Khajiit. Fargoth, Gaenor, Glarthir, Maglir, the Adoring Fan...the list of Scrappy Bosmer goes on. That changed significantly in Skyrim, where the entire race takes a level in badass and become a Woobie Species due to their genocidally racist Altmer cousins occupying their homeland (Valenwood), and Bosmer go from being hands-down the least popular race to one of the fandom's favorites.
      • A character example in the series would be Master Neloth. In Morrowind, he is a hugely ungrateful Jerkass whose Disposition is very difficult to raise and, if you complete his quest in the House Telvanni storyline, he rewards you with a paltry 10 gold. Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC rectifies this by, ironically enough, making him an even bigger Jerkass with a dash of Mad Scientist and Black Comedy, as well as actually rewarding the Dragonborn properly on his quests this time and helping them during the DLC's main storyline. His popularity since then has shot to the level of characters like Sheogorath.
    • While Skyrim did an admirable job at rescuing series' Scrappys, it also made the Altmer (High Elves) into one. Between the events of Oblivion and Skyrim, under the fascistic and genocidally racist leadership of the Thalmor, the Altmer broke away from the Cyrodiilic Empire and re-formed the Aldmeri Dominion of old. As mentioned, they forcefully annexed Valenwood and got the Khajiit of Elsweyr to join as vassals using some Blatant Lies. They launched the Great War with the vestigial Empire and, though the Empire fended them off, were able to secure a peace treaty (the White-Gold Concordat) with exceptionally favorable terms to the Dominion. Throughout Skyrim, everyone comes to hate the Thalmor, even Altmer players, with "Screw You, Elves!" practically becoming a rallying cry for the fandom. The developers, perhaps realizing that players were associating all Altmer with the Thalmor, acted quickly to rescue them in The Elder Scrolls Online. The Altmer win back a great deal of their respect from many fans by credit of the sheer lengths they go to win the trust of their allies (including one quest where they pull a race-wide Big Damn Heroes on a besieged city) and counting a good number of likable and badass NPCs on their side.
  • Danganronpa series.
    • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Yasuhiro Hagakure was initially seen as overly bland, but over the course of the game, developed into a Deadpan Snarker and Cloud Cuckoo Lander
    • Some of the hatred toward Byakuya Togami for being a callous, selfish Jerkass softened when, after the fourth case, he started working alongside the other students to find and defeat the Mastermind. In his appearances in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (that is, the real Togami, not the Ultimate Imposter) and Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, he, while still a Jerkass, shows more respect to those who pulled through at crucial moments, and is devoted to nobler causes than pure self-interest.
    • Toko Fukawa, while not overly hated, became much more popular in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. In the original, she was quite abrasive to most people, tended to assume the worst of others, and had a one-sided and unhealthy crush on Togami, albeit with a Freudian Excuse (it's revealed that she was bullied quite a bit in the past). In the course of Absolute Despair Girls, she undergoes a great deal of Character Development, becoming friends with the protagonist Komaru, showing a kinder side from time to time, and going from having somewhat selfish ulterior motives (saving Togami and becoming a full member of the Future Foundation) to staying behind with Komaru while Togami returns to the Future Foundation.
    • Shuichi became incredibly divisive the second where it was revealed that he ended replacing Kaede as the main protagonist. While he is still divisive due to how big of an Ensemble Dark Horse Kaede is, and how some people don't think he measures up to her or the other protagonists, some fans ended up liking him for his character arc and how he is not the driving force to the motivating everyone in the ending as he needed to be brought back from the Despair Event Horizon from his friends thus proving that he was not a rehash of the other past protagonists. The official character poll for the game even has him as the most popular character in that game, proving that while he still has detractors, he also has many fans.
  • Basically, every game that involves Persona 3 slowly does this to Ken Amada, to the point where currently, he's more of a normal Base-Breaking Character since some people will never let October 4th down. The Answer of FES shows how Ken got his Persona after his mother's death was ignored by the police. Portable adds him in as a social link, somewhat alleviating his Out of Focus nature in the base game. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax shows Ken moving on with his life and allowing himself to be a normal kid, though he still jumps into battle if his friends are in danger. Persona Q has him get along well with Kanji and reconsider revenge against Shinjiro (even though it's a moot point thanks to his memories being erased) and is a decent support character when he used to be a Low-Tier Letdown. The film adaptation allows Ken to be friends with Shinjiro before finding out he is the reason his mother died and therefore make the entire situation seem more tragic, as opposed to being seen as Unintentionally Unsympathetic. And in Reload, he gains access to the Kouha spell line introduced in Persona 5, which does wonders for his overall utility (and that's not even mentioning his Theurgies).
  • The Shin Megami Tensei IV incarnation of Lucifer got a lot of dislike from fans for lacking his usual Magnificent Bastard and Noble Demon qualities and instead acting like a Generic Doomsday Villain, in addition to a divisive visual design. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse reveals that this Lucifer was created by YHVH to make his Law faction look better via a False Flag Operation, and that he's actually half of Satan, whose characterization is past games is more in line with IV's take on Lucifer.
  • In Fallout 3, Mayor MacCready of Little Lamplight is notorious for being one of the most aggravating kid characters to appear in the series (well, besides Myron of course, but he qualifies as another trope entirely). He returns as a character in Fallout 4 as a flawed but likable young fella who doesn't really like talking about his time in Little Lamplight, and is pretty handy with a rifle.
  • When Hunter first appeared in the Spyro the Dragon games he wasn't well-liked due to being mean to Spyro. Future installments have them as best friends. The games also emphasise his coolness while lowering his more undesirable traits like being lazy or being a jerk.
  • Raiden's Spread Shot is seen by many as one of the worst weapons at low power due to its weak damage and lack of rapid-fire. Raiden III makes it a rapid-fire weapon alongside the other three weapons and makes it a 3-way spread to begin with, making it somewhat more useful.
  • In the first two Tetris: The Grand Master games, the I piece, the sole piece that can make Tetrises, is regarded as one of the worst pieces to deal with at maximum gravity, as it requires specific conditions for an I piece on its long sides to rotate. Tetris: The Grand Master 3 — Terror-Instinct fixes this by allowing a horizontally-laid I to "floor kick" off of the stack or the floor, but only once per piece.
  • Terraria: Surprisingly enough, the Terra Blade. Even though it had extremely high power and Sword Beams, many people considered it a letdown for the effort needed to create it and consider it inferior to the Death Sickle, Paladin's Hammer, Horseman's Blade and Vampire Knives due to its lack of auto-swing. Cue Version 1.2.4, it got the auto-swing it deserved, and it's now back as a member of the list of "must get" weapons. Even though 1.3 introduced stronger weapons, it's still a good weapon for the middle part of Hardmode.
  • Splatoon 2: The Stingray was widely considered a Scrappy Weapon due to being by far the least useful special due to its lack of power and slow movement speed. Then people began to realize that while it's not very well suited for multiplayer, it's extremely useful in Salmon Run for several reasons:
    • Most salmonids move slowly enough that the Stingray can blow right through them if they're caught in a bottleneck.
    • It can pierce the armor of nearly every Boss Salmonid. Most notably, it's the only weapon that directly damage Flyfish.
    • In Mothership levels, using it on the Mothership will destroy all of the Chinooks that spawn from it, basically causing a rain of Golden Eggs.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Riki was quite divisive because of him being used as comic relief even in too serious situations for it and not having any Character Arc that is resolved through the Myth Arc, unlike the rest of the cast. He became much more well received when the following game, Xenoblade Chronicles X, introduced another Nopon party member, Tatsu, that was even more annoying, had less Hidden Depths and none of Riki's usefulness in battle.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Mythra was initially considered a lesser character than her sister Pyra due to her Tsundere characterization compared to Pyra's Nice Girl, not helped by her first scenes involving her berating Rex for making her unseal herself, making her abrasive personality unappealing to the fanbase. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country showed her development from a cold and bratty young woman into someone that was harsh but kind, as well as justifying her anger at being unsealed by showing first hand just how traumatizing the Aegis war was for her, making her more sympathetic in the eyes of the fans and allowing them to see her softer redeeming qualities in the main game.
  • Yoshi's Woolly World managed to redeem Poochy after his status as a Scrappy Mechanic in Yoshi's Island. He follows Yoshi more closely and does so at slower speeds, so he's much easier to hop on and off. He also gained the helpful ability to pick up collectibles for Yoshi. Also, he was made much cuter, being given behaviors like a real dog (for example, grabbing collectibles like a dog playing fetch) and being usable in any stage just for cuteness' sake.
  • Tom Nook from the Animal Crossing series. In the first game, he was known for his money driven personality, his forced part-time job and his insistence on upgrading your house to send you thousands of Bells into debt. This was made even worse with his joke comments that he'll "send his goons after you" if you don't pay your debt, even though he never punishes you for not paying. This didn't sit well with fans that at one point, Nintendo Power had a poll of user voted villains, in which Tom Nook was high up on there. Later games starting with Wild World and City Folk would start to soften his character and explore more into his generous side. Starting in New Leaf, he became a real estate manager, meaning no part-time job and a nifty new sweater-vest. He also no longer forces you to upgrade if you don't want to. In Happy Home Designer, Tom Nook revealed that he donates 90% of his earnings to orphanages in nearby towns, which made it more heartwarming when you consider that the Nooklings were orphans that he himself adopted. Tom also acknowledges that people think he's a cold-hearted businessman, but he ultimately doesn't mind if people use him as a scapegoat, as long as he can enforce the importance of paying one's dues. In New Horizons, he's given a Hawaiian shirt and shorts and now has an attitude much more akin to a charming uncle than a ruthless loan shark. These days, Tom Nook has far more fans than haters.
  • Dragon Quest II: The Prince of Cannock was generally disliked due to his low power attack and mediocre defense. The GBC remake expands his equipment pool and slightly buffs his stats to make him less fragile and generally more formidable as a Magic Knight.
  • Tekken:
    • Christie was initially disliked as a replacement for Eddy in 4, but reception to her became much warmer when she and Eddy appeared together in 5 - as well as the story amping up her sympathetic qualities. It just meant that players gained a new Capoeira fighter (and Christie's moves were differentiated from Eddy so they weren't just palette swaps of each other). She also became popular both for sex appeal and her fashion choices.
    • While it was more of indifferent than hate, Kunimitsu was seen as an downgraded and boring version of Yoshi in her earlier appearances. Kuni’s low popularity got her cut from the series for quite a while and she didn’t even get a successor to her fighting style for the longest time. Since coming back with a huge redesign in the second Tag game, she has become a minor fan favorite due to now having her own flashy fighting style and cool outfits. Her newfound popularity resulted in her return in the main games with T7.
  • Monster Hunter: Rise has a downplayed example in the Hunting Horn: while never considered a bad weapon, it was one of the more difficult-to-master weapons due to the micromanagement involved in playing the right note combinations. Rise streamlines the Hunting Horn's fighting style so that all that is required to perform a melody is to perform two of the same notes in succession, making it a popular weapon in the game's January 2021 demo. The introduction of breakdancing-style attacks also helped it win more fans.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has Rufus Albarea, older brother of Jusis who is one of the playable characters of the game. He was a decent character in the first two games till the climax of II where it's revealed that he's actually a Mole in Charge of the Noble Alliance for Giliath Osborne. He was still a decent character in III, dropping shocking revelations, but by IV is where the fans hated him when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by back stabbing Arianrhod while Rean was trying to save her by reversing the flow of Valimar absorbing the essence of Argreion. When Rufus was finally defeated, he was defeated so pathetically despite having all of the advantages he could have for the Rivalry of the Seven because his own Super Robot was supposed to be the 2nd strongest and with him absorbing the third strongest robot, he should be able to defeat Rean in the rivalries, only for him to epically fail that for two years in real life, Rufus was the butt of many jokes of him losing in the most pathetic way possible. The trailer of the next game of the Trails Series, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie did him no favors as he ends up attacking the Special Support Section while they're defending Crossbell's independence. Then the game came out and it turns out that he is the third protagonist of the game, disguising himself as "C" and that the "Rufus" that attacked Crossbell is actually a fake robot of himself, who also has his worst qualities dialed up to eleven. Throughout Rufus' route, he ends up undergoing a massive Character Development while also sharing the spotlight to his new companions, Lapis, Swin, and Nadia and many fans actually liked their interactions. The fact that unlike Rean and Lloyd, Rufus doesn't feel like a Spotlight-Stealing Squad certainly helped. After he does one awesome moment with another, he ends up pulling off the greatest awesome moment of the series: pulling off a Zero-Approval Gambit that would make Lelouch proud (though he survives this although that wasn't his plan). When the polls for the "best character" in the game came out, Rufus went from being the worst character in the series to becoming the third most popular character in Reverie, only behind both Rean and Crow.
  • Soul Series: Cassandra was slated to be Sophitia's Suspiciously Similar Substitute in the Arcade versions of Soulcalibur II, with the lore reason being Sophitia hung up her sword (and shield) to raise a family at the end of Soulcalibur. This idea went down like a plate of cold sick, and Cassandra got a cold reception early on. Project Soul took notice and decided to add Sophitia back into console versions of the game as an unlockable character, and keeping both sisters for all future entries of the series, except for V where Sophitia is Killed Off for Real and Cassandra goes missing with no word on her whereabouts or fate. Cassandra hung on to her initial crowd of fans who actually liked a peppy Boisterous Bruiser Alexandria sister, and won over the people who didn't like her now that she was presented as a different option rather than an outright replacement for a beloved female icon of the series and wider gaming generally. Cassandra nowadays is a firm fan favourite, she is the protagonist of Broken Destiny besides Hilde, and a crucial plot character of VI. In fact, many people who like Sophitia also like Cassandra too, and vice versa.
  • Doom
  • Five Nights at Freddy's has has an interesting case of this with Balloon Boy. In the second game, he was widely hated because his mechanic to permanently disable your flashlight leaves you open to Withered Foxy's attack, all while he's laughing at the player. While the creator has poked fun of the character's unpopularity in some teasers, it only made the character even more of a punching bag. When Chica's Magic Rainbow and the Minireenas were introduced in FNaF World and Sister Location respectively, the fandom grew to hate on those characters for somehow being worse than Balloon Boy, especially with the former being an even more obnoxious character than BB could ever hope to be (with this being the first time the series had voice acting to boot) who’s in charge of a Platform Hell game and is That One Boss to boot, and the latter due to Night 4 being almost impossible to beat. When Balloon Boy appeared in later entries, no one minded him this time around. In Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, he appears in one of the minigames where you shoot down hordes of them. Ultimate Custom Night has his mechanic from the second game return, except he doesn't stick around for the entire night. Help Wanted gave him some adorable walk animations, making him more endearing than creepy. Finally, Fazbear Frights gave him a prominent role in one of the stories, which actually succeeded into making him scary. While BB won't be getting a huge fanbase anytime soon, the hatedom that he once had is pretty much non-existent.
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us helped rescue Aquaman from the Memetic Loser reputation he'd cultivated since the Superfriends cartoon. Not only is he a badass in the story mode, he's also a top-tier pick in competitive play. His Limit Break even shows that talking to fish can be a cool power by having him flood the arena, then summon a Threatening Shark (or a dinosaur-like Sea Monster in the sequel) to maul the opponent, which is one of the cooler-looking super moves in the game.
  • Nintendo Wars: Near the end of the first Advance Wars, it’s revealed that there’s an evil clone of Andy running around. Said clone’s existence was considered to be a ridiculous plot point, even by the standards of the very light story the game had, and it didn’t help that despite the evil nature of the clone, he still had the exact same cheery appearance and theme music as the real deal. Re-Boot Camp gave Clone Andy some Divergent Character Evolution, which allowed him to gain a lot of popularity with the fanbase. While he’s still a Moveset Clone, his appearance is different, making him look darker than the original, he has a unique electronic remix of Andy’s theme, and his troops were given a unique look with teal skin, as a Call-Forward to the clone commanders that appeared in Dual Strike.
  • F-Zero 99: The Golden Fox was always viewed as the weakest machine in the original F-Zero because it had pretty much nothing going for it besides high acceleration, to the point clearing the Grand Prix in higher difficulties with that vehicle was considered a miraculous feat. This game, however, plays to the Golden Fox's strengths as the better acceleration allows it to lose less speed in case of collisions (which is an inevitability when you have 98 other racers in the same track). It also has single-handedly the best boost reward and regeneration in the game, meaning its usually poor top speed ends up not being that much of a deterrent.
  • Dead Space (Remake): The former Scrappy Weapon, the Flamethrower, went from the undisputed worst weapon in the game to one of its best weapons thanks to the remake. Not only does the new Peeling system mean it makes a great "softening" weapon, and it can even kill Necromorphs quite quickly on its own, whereas in the original trilogy it lacked the ability to take advantage of the dismemberment system, but it has relatively plentiful ammo, its damage output has been massively boosted, and it has a new secondary-fire that creates a patch of flames that stun-locks and continually damages any enemy (except Brutes) that is hit by it or even walks into it — which can make an absolutely devastating combination attack with the Stasis Module. Add to it that it can provide some much-needed light in the very dark halls of the Ishimura, and the wider encounter rate of the Swarmers, which the Flamethrower is tailored to kill, and it's an extremely useful weapon.
  • Wappa Charlotte was considered a Base-Breaking Character for the original Fuga: Melodies of Steel— while some players found her energetic personality refreshing and her role as Plucky Comic Relief as a good compliment to a somewhat melancholic story, others found her Leader Wannabe routine and generally self-absorbed personality obnoxious due to her not having many traits to balance it out. Thankfully, Wappa's portrayal in Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 has been very well-received by both camps: while she retains the energy and ego that made her popular among her fans in the first place, she balances it out with her newfound desire to spread love and peace, and is also the one to help the other kids get through their grief following Hanna's death and their concern over Malt's current mental state, highlighting her importance to the crew as a source of positivity.
  • Palworld had Digtoise, which was considered one of worst miners to use at a base due to its combination of low damage to ore deposits and it consuming large amounts of food. The 0.1.5.0 patch tripled/quadrupled its ore damage as a base miner, turning it into one of the best base miners especially once fully condensed, even surpassing a fully condensed Astegon and Blazamut.

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