10 Video Game Heroes Who Made Everything Worse

8. Nier - Nier

Resident Evil village chris redfield
Square Enix

At the start of Nier, all the eponymous Nier wanted was to find a cure for the disease known as the black scrawl. Every decision he makes throughout the game, from forming a pact with a snarky magic book to teaming up with the most foul-mouthed anime girl on the face of the Earth, Kaine, is informed by this larger goal.

This goal, for multiple reasons, is believed to be achievable by slaying the main villain, the evil Shadowlord. Just one problem, though, and unfortunately, this problem isn't revealed until the bastard is dead.

See, the game starts off on Nier and his daughter living in the post-apocalypse. Now, how did this happen? Well, for reasons I am not getting into because this game is long as hell and we'd be here all day if I did, killing the Shadowlord sets in motion a domino effect that culminates in the end of the world.

And it's all on Nier. The tragic thing is that he didn't know going in that this would happen, the dude was just trying to get a cure for a horrible illness. And, well, he got it. Just a shame that humanity being wiped out low-key makes the cure useless. Whoops.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?