RPG Tropes that Feel Like Home: Found Family

It's no secret that I'm extremely passionate about video games as a storytelling medium. I love seeing a ragtag group of adventurers overcome all odds to save the world, and that's such a common theme across most RPGs. I don't get to see that in real life, so it feels empowering to witness it within games.

The concept of a found family hits so close to home for me. I didn't have a great childhood. I was raised in an extremely large extended family that didn't provide a nurturing or uplifting environment. I was often neglected and was forced to help raise my younger siblings and cousins even though I was still a child myself. By the time I turned 18, I very easily made the decision to separate myself from them and put more of an emphasis on spending time with friends, who were already like my family anway.

It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I was made to feel weird not being close to my biological family. But I grew up playing RPGs in the late 90s and early 2000s. I saw the importance of friendship. I saw how the strangers you meet throughout your life could become your support system and your lifeline. Seeing so many RPGs showcase these tight-knit relationships made me feel less strange about not having close relationships with my own family. I felt a little validated!

Fina, Vyse, and Aika from Skies of Arcadia

By the time Sega Dreamcast launched in 1999, I had already played my fair share of RPGs. And while their stories all affected me in some way, no game hit as hard as Skies of Arcadia did. We had a subscription to Dreamcast Magazine, a monthly publication that came packaged with a disc of trailers and demos for upcoming games. My sister and I spent every day after school playing through the Skies of Arcadia demo. Every. Day. Until the day the disc stopped reading properly. I remember the panic we both felt, our little crumb of a game taken from us! We begged my mom to buy the game for weeks, and then it landed under the Christmas tree about a month later. It continued to be a game we spent all of our free time on.

I really loved the dynamic between Vyse, Aika, and Fina. It was nice to see three characters with very distinct personalities fit so well together in a supportive and caring group. They would make friends throughout their journey that would come and go, but the core three were so closely bonded. They complemented each other in a way only a tight-knit friend group could. And their bond rippled out to everyone else they met along the way. It was interesting to see other characters openly acknowledging and admiring their bond. Skies of Arcadia remains my favorite game of all time. that wholesome friendship brings me back year after year.

Atlus's Persona 4 cover

The other game that struck me was released several years later. Persona 4 really laid into the found family trope. I had played Persona 3 previously, but something about this cast of characters felt so much more rooted in realism. We had a group of kids that really didn't have much in common other than attending the same school. But through one freak accident after the next, they became a little family. They spoke fairly casually with one another, told jokes, and laughed a lot.

As much as I loved dungeon crawling and the story as a whole, the social aspects of the game really grabbed me. You got the chance to learn a bit more about each of your companions as you spent one-on-one time with them. Your bonds literally grew stronger in the game! It's such a compelling part of the series and is something I've always spent a lot of time on. When I find a character I relate to, I want to know everything about them! And we're even rewarded in battle for doing this! I'm happy the series is still so popular and I'm looking forward to the eventual (hopefully?) next game of the series.

I'm happy that found family is still a common trope in recent games as well, even in games that aren't traditional RPGs. Seeing Joel become the father Ellie never had in the Last of Us, witnessing Aloy go from outcast to friend and hero in Horizon Zero Dawn, watching Clementine grow up amongst adults in a zombie apocalypse throughout The Walking Dead. Seeing this trope in games over and over again solidifies the idea that family is who you choose to let into your life. And it may seem a little silly to say it, but I'm thankful I've always had video games to remind me that you can accomplish so much more with the power of friendship.