15 Most Offensive Gaming Characters Ever

By Jack Pooley / June 24, 2019

Though the advent of social media has proven above all else just how easily outraged people can be, sometimes the offense stems from something genuinely troubling, and in the case of video games, this is often a character who is racist, sexist or so staggeringly annoying that they almost ruin the rest of the game.

From female characters who are more boob than person to dubious ethnic portrayals, gimped sports icons and unpleasant retcons of iconic characters, these 15 portrayals all led to their fair share of righteous outrage, which the games themselves, whether new or decades old, have been unable to live down.

Sometimes the offense is intentional and sometimes it's produced through sheer laziness or inattention, but the end result is the same: a Twitter feed full of white-hot rage.

15. Ivy Valentine (Soulcalibur)

The Character: The preposterously-attired illegitimate daughter of Cervantes de Leon, and notoriously one of the most challenging characters to master in the entire Soul series. Why

They're Offensive: Though Ivy is one of the franchise's most powerful and intimidating fighters, her stature as a strong woman is undermined somewhat by Namco's insistence that she wear increasingly preposterous, skimpy clothing with each passing installment. It goes beyond merely presenting a physically attractive character to pandering far too much to horny teenagers, and in terms of sheer logic, the costume doesn't even make any sense for a fighter like Ivy.

Yes, she's still a great combatant, but she's massively compromised by how cynically she tries to sell the game "because boobs". She may not be the only character in the series that's rampantly objectified (just look at Taki), but she's certainly the most egregious.