Not everyone gets lucky at the wheel of life. Rich or poor, one race or another, one gender or another (or neither), it can all feel like hell to a kid with bad parents. Neglect, abuse, and worse can sour them on life for as long as they live. But with hope and help, they can find something worth hanging on to, be it great company, new foster parents, and more.

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Parental hardships have inspired all sorts of media, from classical dramas to kids' TV shows. By comparison, some of the worst parents in video games can feel comparatively cartoony. However, the worst fathers in PlayStation games range from being comically evil to being nightmares that are all too familiar.

8 The King Of All Cosmos

Destroys Everything & Makes His Son Clean Up The Mess

For a goofy game about rolling things up into a giant ball, the Katamari Damacy series can get too real sometimes. When the King of All Cosmos goes on a drunken bender and destroys all the stars in the sky, he gives his son, the Prince, a katamari to roll up objects large enough to turn into new stars. If they’re not up to snuff, the King will give his son the guilt trip to end all guilt trips.

It would all be fun and games if his disappointment didn’t feel so serious with each entry. Though it's rich talk coming from him, as he's often the reason the Prince has to keep rolling his katamari around. To make matters worse, We Love Katamari would reveal this to be a generational issue, as the King’s Papa did the same thing until his perfectionism drove the King away. Clearly, the Prince needs to roll up a family therapist.

7 Jecht

Tough Love Done As Terribly As Possible

This discussion wouldn’t be complete without Jecht, though he often feels so obvious to some that it's become a cliché compared to his good deeds. He tried to stop Yu Yevon as Braska’s Final Aeon, and when this didn’t work, came up with the plan to bring his son Tidus into Spira. It's because of this that Sin was destroyed and Yevon's hold on Spira was broken.

Yet that didn’t stop Jecht from being a drunken jerk who bullied his young son throughout his childhood, before walking out on him altogether. He thought he was making Tidus more competitive. Instead, it gave Tidus a grudge he had trouble coming to terms with. It wasn't until he had to overcome him as an Aeon that the two got to make peace. Jecht is more than a deadbeat dad, but he still wasn't a good father.

6 Big Boss

Child Soldiers

Being fair to Big Boss, he didn’t ask to be a father. The other Patriots made that choice for him when they used his cells to create three babies without his permission. He was more interested in creating a world where soldiers wouldn't be obsolete, taking in war orphans with the purpose of turning them into troops of child soldiers for his goals. It took one of those clones, David (Solid Snake), to put a stop to his schemes.

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But he still had to deal with his father's 'legacy.' His twin brother Eli, aka Liquid Snake, tried to outdo their father at his own game by taking over Shadow Moses. While George, or Solidus Snake, attacked the Patriots with a terrorist attack on the Big Shell. The revived Big Boss never got to form any closure with Liquid or Solidus, but he at least got to make peace with Solid before his death.

5 William Birkin

Carried About Creating A Virus More Than His Own Daughter

If birth was a poker hand, Sherry Birkin got one of the worst ones. Both of her parents were more dedicated to their research than their domestic duties, with her father, William Birkin, being one of the cornerstones at Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. He was one of the people who helped develop the T-Virus, created the Hunters and Tyrants, and invented the G-Virus.

William was also responsible for infecting Raccoon City by sending T-Virus-contaminated subjects through the sewers. Then, once Umbrella turned on him, he staved off death with the G-Virus. It turned him into a monstrosity that wanted to use his daughter as a carrier for his parasitic larvae. He was horrible enough as a fleshy abomination, but even before his change, he saw his viruses as being more like his children than his actual daughter.

4 Heihachi Mishima

A Lifetime Dedicated To Trying To Kill His Children

Few characters in gaming hate their kids as much as Heihachi Mishima does. His bad parenting started Tekken off when he threw his son, Kazuya, off a cliff as a child. It set the boy on a dark path, leading him to chuck Heihachi off the same cliff. In revenge, Heihachi would come back and drop his son into a volcano for good measure. Kazuya would survive, and the feud would continue until Heihachi's death in Tekken 7.

But that’s just part of the story. Heihachi also played abusive mind games with Kazuya as he grew up. He adopted Lee Chaolan just to play favorites, then kicked Lee to the curb once he was done. Then he pointedly praised Paul Phoenix for fighting Kazuya to a draw just to get further under Kazuya's skin. It's no wonder his son became a literal Devil with parenting like this.

3 Professor Hojo

A Vile Scientist

While he was bad at being an actual parent, Jecht did love Tidus and accepted him as his son. Professor Hojo didn’t see his kin as anything but another subject for his experiments. He injected his son with Jenova cells, which turned him into the super SOLDIER Sephiroth. The kid never knew Hojo was his real father, but he did come to believe Jenova was his real mother, driving him in his quest to become a god.

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Hojo's other twisted acts, like trying to experiment with Red XIII and Aerith, driving Sephiroth’s real mother Lucrecia to freeze herself in a crystal, and screwing with Vincent, are horrible enough. Thanks to his experiments, however, he almost caused the end of his entire world when Sephiroth's delusions led him to summon Meteor. It's little wonder he's become one of Final Fantasy's vilest characters.

2 Zeus

God-Level Paranoia

Any incarnation of Zeus would fit his bill. The King of Olympus is infamous for producing a range of illegitimate children in both mythology and media. He’s no different in God of War, except the series focuses on one child in particular: Kratos. He initially presented himself as an ally to the Ghost of Sparta in GoW 2005, aiding him in his quest for revenge against his ‘half-brother’ Ares. But then paranoia got the better of him.

Possessed by fear, he tried to force Kratos to submit to his will or die. Then, when Kratos refused, he killed him, wiped out his army, and destroyed Sparta. Even before then, he cursed Kratos’ mother, Callisto, and ordered the abduction of his brother Deimos. Screwing with Kratos directly was just a bridge too far, as it cost him his home, his country, and his life.

1 Thomas Orosco

A Realistic Monster

Lastly, Thomas Orosco is a more obscure figure as he doesn’t appear directly in Silent Hill 2, but his actions play a big part in the game. He didn’t do any experiments, have godly powers, or chuck his children off cliffs either. His actions were more domestic, realistic, and horrifying, as he was an alcoholic who abused his daughter Angela.

Angela had no help from her other relatives, and she tried to run away, only to be driven back into the family home. With no options left, she stabbed her father to death and went on the run, but by then the damage was already done. Thomas left his daughter a suicidal wreck trapped in a nightmare that Silent Hill made real via horrors like the Abstract Daddy. No one helped her then, and there was no helping her in the game, either.

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