10 Video Game Characters No One Liked Playing

Most games make their heroes obvious. You pick up the controller, and there’s your protagonist—clear-cut, well-developed, and crafted to carry the weight of an epic journey. It’s a tried-and-true formula, giving players time to grow attached to one character and enjoy a cohesive gameplay experience. But some games shake things up by forcing players to control other characters—often with wildly different mechanics and questionable narrative relevance.

Now, variety can be refreshing. When done right, switching protagonists can deepen the story or provide clever gameplay twists. But too often, these alternate characters feel shoehorned in—unrefined, frustrating, or straight-up boring. Whether it’s clunky controls, lackluster abilities, or just pure narrative nonsense, these extra characters end up feeling more like chores than choices.

Let’s look at ten of the most infamous characters players hated being forced to control—either because they disrupted the fun, broke the flow, or just weren’t nearly as cool as the main hero.

1. Ashley Graham – Resident Evil 4

Let’s start with the classic. Resident Evil 4 is an action-horror masterpiece—until you’re forced to play as Ashley Graham, the president’s kidnapped daughter. When Leon’s not escorting her like an awkward babysitter, you’re actually controlling her, and it’s as painful as it sounds.

Ashley can’t fight. She can’t defend herself. She has no weapons. She’s just… there. Her gameplay section is short, but it’s a slog of clunky stealth and helpless hiding. In a game full of intense action and empowering gunplay, suddenly being forced into a horror escape room as a defenseless civilian is jarring, to say the least.

2. Raiden – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

At launch, Metal Gear Solid 2 pulled the biggest bait-and-switch in gaming history. Players thought they’d be slicing through enemies as Solid Snake again—only to be handed control of a bleach-blond newbie named Raiden for 90% of the game.

It wasn’t just the deception that rubbed fans the wrong way. Raiden’s personality didn’t help either. He was inexperienced, whiny, and dramatically different from Snake’s grizzled badassery. Though Raiden was redeemed in later games, his debut left a sour taste in fans’ mouths for years.

3. Tails – Sonic Adventure 2

Tails is one of the most beloved sidekicks in gaming, but that love doesn’t translate to his gameplay in Sonic Adventure 2. While Sonic gets to zoom through vibrant 3D levels, Tails is stuck piloting a slow, clunky mech.

Fans expected to fly through the sky and race alongside Sonic. Instead, they got sluggish platforming and tedious shooting mechanics. It was a major letdown—especially since Tails had been playable in much more fun ways in earlier games.

4. Nero – Devil May Cry 4

In theory, Nero was supposed to be the fresh-faced new hero of the Devil May Cry franchise. In practice, fans just wanted Dante back.

Nero’s sword-and-arm mechanics weren’t bad—they just felt like a step backward. Where Dante could swap between multiple weapons and styles mid-combo, Nero felt limited and repetitive. His cocky attitude didn’t help either. Capcom tried to pass the torch, but many players would’ve gladly set it down and walked away.

5. Riku – Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories / Dream Drop Distance

Riku is a fan favorite… when he’s not being used as a secondary protagonist. In multiple Kingdom Hearts games, players are forced to split time between Sora and Riku, with Riku’s segments often being more confusing, less engaging, and mechanically clunkier.

In Chain of Memories, his card-based combat is even more frustrating than Sora’s, and the story makes less sense. In Dream Drop Distance, the constant flipping between both characters becomes exhausting, and Riku’s dream world levels just don’t hold up. He may be cool, but he’s not fun to play.

6. Atreus – God of War: Ragnarok

Now, this one’s a bit controversial. Atreus isn’t bad per se—his gameplay sections are technically polished, and narratively he’s integral. But when you’ve spent hours embodying Kratos, the god-slaying powerhouse, switching to a teenage boy with a bow feels… underwhelming.

His sections often interrupt the momentum of the main quest. Combat becomes more ranged and stealth-focused, which clashes with the brutal, in-your-face action fans love. While it adds depth to the story, many players groaned every time they were yanked out of Kratos’s boots.

7. Mary Jane Watson – Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4)

In a game about swinging through New York as the world’s most agile superhero, nothing feels more jarring than being forced into slow, stealthy segments as a powerless journalist. Mary Jane’s sequences in Spider-Man grind the action to a halt.

Sneaking past guards with no powers, gadgets, or real options for defense isn’t fun—it’s filler. While MJ’s character was written well, these segments dragged, and players dreaded every time the camera panned away from Spidey.

8. Cait Sith – Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith is a weird one. Visually, he’s a robotic cat riding a stuffed moogle, which already feels like a tone mismatch for a game that gets progressively darker. Gameplay-wise, his mechanics are mostly based on random chance. His Limit Break is literally a slot machine.

When you’re trying to strategize and carefully manage your party in tough battles, relying on RNG to decide your fate is annoying at best. Most players benched Cait Sith the first chance they got—and groaned whenever the story forced him back into the spotlight.

9. Trevor Philips – Grand Theft Auto V

Some players loved Trevor. Others… not so much.

Sure, Trevor added chaos and unpredictability to GTA V, but for many, he crossed the line from funny to straight-up uncomfortable. He’s violent, unhinged, and wildly unpredictable. That might make for good storytelling—but not necessarily fun gameplay.

Controlling Trevor meant participating in some truly disturbing missions. Compared to Franklin’s cool professionalism or Michael’s family-man criminality, Trevor felt like a wild card players didn’t always want to deal with.

10. Big the Cat – Sonic Adventure

Fishing. In a Sonic game. That’s Big the Cat.

In a title built around high-speed platforming, Big’s slow-paced, awkward fishing levels felt like a joke. The controls were bad. The gameplay was boring. And Big himself—an enormous, slow-witted feline with a goofy voice—didn’t help matters.

Worse yet, if you wanted to see the game’s true ending, you had to complete Big’s story. That meant every player was eventually forced to go frog-hunting in a lake… in a Sonic game. A truly baffling decision.