Game Characters Who End Up Losing Everything

Life is never fair, and for some people, it’s particularly hard and demanding. Games portray this helpless feeling in many characters through their tragic lives and backstories. But despite all they go through, these characters keep sacrificing everything, even if it means that they’re left with nothing, sometimes not even their lives.

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As emotional as these characters are, they can often be a source of inspiration for players. They’re like a lamp that is willing to burn itself out just to light the path for others, and no motive is more ulterior than that. Everybody loves these characters, and sometimes, just mentioning them can even bring a tear or two to a gamer’s eyes.

6 Clementine - Telltale’s The Walking Dead Series

An Unfortunate Character Who Faces Tragedy More Often Than Not

• Playable character: Briefly playable in Season 1 and acts as the main protagonist in the following games.

Clementine’s story is one of hardship and loss at every turn. The very opening of the first season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead introduces Clementine as an 8-year-old girl who just lost her parents. Lee, the main protagonist in the first season, takes on the role of Clem’s father figure and holds her hand until the very end, where Clementine has to make the difficult decision to let Lee turn or kill him.

For the next three seasons, Clementine struggles to keep her humanity in the face of cruel and hostile humans, the constant threat of walkers, and losing companions she cares about again and again. The only thing that keeps her going is AJ, the child of her friend, Rebecca, who died giving birth to him. Though her story eventually ends on a somewhat happy note, there were several points throughout her journey where she truly had nothing.

5 Jin Sakai - Ghost Of Tsushima

Put Those He Cared For Before Himself And Lost Everything

• Playable character: Yes.

Set in feudal Japan in the year 1274 when the Mongols invaded the island of Tsushima, this open-world PlayStation title follows the story of Jin Sakai, a samurai with such a strong love for his country and people that he sacrifices everything he has for it.

The samurai face defeat against the Mongols, with Jin’s uncle getting captured by Khotun Khan, the Mongol’s leader, and Jin nearly getting killed trying to save him. What follows is a journey of character development for Jin, where he learns from his enemies and allies and gives up on his honor and teachings for the sake of saving Tsushima from the Mongol threat. But in the end, even after defeating Khotun Khan, he is left with nothing. His uncle disowns him, he is banished from his clan, and Jin is labeled a criminal by the Samurai.

4 Sculptor - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

A Story Of Redemption That Results In Failure

• Playable character: No.

FromSoftware is a master at creating powerful and deep backstories for NPCs, and in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there is no other character with a more tragic past than the Sculptor whom players meet at the very beginning of the game. Once a powerful shinobi and a master of swords, the sculptor went so deep down the dark path due to his bloodlust that he almost became a shura: someone who has lost all sense of morality. That’s when he meets Isshin Ashina, who takes the sculptor’s arm and, instead of killing him, leaves him to Dogen.

The sculptor devotes his life to sculpting Buddha statues. When he meets Wolf, he sees himself in this dishonored and amputated shinobi and tries everything in his power to help Wolf complete his mission. But in the end, the sculptor succumbs to his inner tendencies, becoming the Demon of Hatred.

3 Artorias And Sif - Dark Souls

A Sorrowful Tale Of Loyalty And Sacrifice

• Playable character: No.

For a game as depressing as Dark Souls, the lore of one particular duo stands out among everything else. Artorias was one of the four knights of Gwynn tasked with protecting and maintaining order in Lordran. Sif is Artorias’s dog and loyal companion who stands by his side in life and death. Artorius was given the insurmountable task of confronting the Abyss, a place that corrupts everyone, and that’s where he met his demise. Till his last breath, Artorius tried his best to overpower it, but before he got consumed by it, he sacrificed his great shield to protect Sif.

Artorius not only lost his sanity but also his legacy and honor, now roaming as a mindless and corrupted warrior who attacks anyone who approaches him. After Artorias’s fall, Sif dedicated his life to protecting his master’s grave and the ring of Abyss that allows one to travel to this dark realm from anyone who might try to steal it. In the end, he, too, is slain by the player, who needs to retrieve the ring to travel to the Abyss.

2 Emil - NieR Series

A Character Who Sacrifices Everything To Protect His Friends

• Playable character: No, but they join the party in NieR Replicant.

From a harmless human boy to one of the most powerful characters in the NieR games, Emil’s story is filled with loss, sacrifice, and pain at every turn. Even knowing his own strengths, Emil tries to remain good, protect the people and companions he loves, and not harm others even by accident. As a boy, Emil, along with his sister, Halua, was made the target of horrific experiments to create weapons of mass destruction. Emil gained the power to turn anyone who looked at him into stone, but in fear of hurting anyone, he chose to wear a blindfold and isolated himself from everyone.

Emil sacrificed his human form by merging with his sister and becoming a skeletal figure with an unsettling, ever-smiling face, just to save his friends. At this stage, Emil is so strong that he can pulverize entire villages with a single blast, and towards the game’s end, he sacrifices himself to defeat Devola and Popola to save Nier and his friends. He survives that battle, and thousands of years later, players meet him in NieR: Automata, a game in which he struggles to remember his past and is constantly faced with loneliness. Despite losing everything, he still harbors a strong sense of goodness and a desire to protect the world.

1 Messmer - Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree

A Tragic Villain Who Meets A Miserable End

• Playable character: No.

The critically acclaimed DLC for the open-world FromSoftware title introduced a brand-new demigod character in its trailers in the form of Messmer The Impaler. Ironically enough, he isn’t as ruthless as his name makes him seem; he has quite a tragic backstory that paints him in a more likable light than that of a one-dimensional villain.

Messmer was a child of Queen Marika, sent to the Land Of Shadow on a conquest against the Hornsent as an act of revenge for the atrocities they committed against his mother and her tribe. Messmer carried out his campaign at his mother's orders with dedication and the utmost loyalty, even though the world labeled him a cruel usurper. And yet, his mother never once reached out to him after sending him away. Messmer can be met in-game, quietly ruminating in a dark room beneath a statue of Marika. Upon his defeat, he finally accepts his abandonment and tragically curses his mother with his dying breath.

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