Well I don't know what's gonna go on in the next few days. I've heard that a hurricane is gonna come by soon in two days along with something involving the EU, you know, real life stuff, that will prevent me from doing this blog or other things I'd rather be doing. Anyways, let's (at least try) look at some more of these things you see in every RPG ever, or not.
So the single parent rule, often in effect because of the whole "Good Morning Crono" also tying into it. Hey look, both Serge and Crono have a mother, how enticing. Usually, this means there's only one parent, and they decide to generalize it by giving a male lead only a mother and a female lead only a father, with the missing parent either dead before the story begins, or just not being mentioned at all. And to add more salt into the equation, the surviving parent may meet a rather grizzly end.
Of course, such generalizations aren't always present, but most examples tend to have one parent in their games. Vahn only has his father in Legend of Legaia, and I already mentioned the two mothers in the Crono games. It seems like Odin in Odin Sphere has two daughters, but doesn't seem to have a wife with him. Valery in Breath of Fire 2 is incapacitated (won't say dead because she is after all, the sealer of Infinity) before Ryu even knows of it, leaving Ganer, his father, as the eventual parent. Grandia's Justin seems to have only a mother, while Suikoden's Tir had his mother die apparently leaving him with only his father Teo. Both Chris and Hugo in Suikoden 3 have surviving parents, with Chris having her father Wyatt and Hugo having his mother Lucia, and due to the coincidences in Suikoden 4, Lino, who of course lost his wife to the Rune of Punishment, is this to Lazlo, along with Flare.
In some cases, the parent is only a grandparent, like Cornet has in Rhapsody (her mother's dead), Nanami and Riou in Suikoden 2 (although like others, Genkaku is another dead one by the story start), or Hiro has in Lunar 2. In other cases, the character in question is likely an orphan raised without the birth parents, like the protagonists in Final Fantasy 8, or just simply doesn't seem to have visible parents, like Platina in Valkyrie Profile, although it's likely she just snuck off at night instead.
And then you have those with BOTH parents, although usually something bad happens to them. This is true for Tales of Phantasia's Cless, Soul Nomad & The World Eaters' Danette, Final Fantasy IV's Edge, and to a very SMALL extent Dart from the Legend of Dragoon*. In that latter case, it's more like one parent was presumed dead but turned out to be evil. This lends in to the case of actually fighting potentially corrupted family members, and Legend of Dragoon obviously isn't the only case of this happening. This happens in Shining in the Darkness, Final Fantasy IV (in Edge's case), Odin Sphere (for Gwendolyn and Velvet, both of whom fight Odin as a boss), Suikoden I (Tir fighting Teo), Suikoden III (Chris fighting Jimba/Wyatt), and oh well I'm pretty sure there's more.
The other cases of surviving parents pretty much leave them alone. Alex's parents in Lunar 1 are usually alive and well, although they do get kidnapped along with the rest of Burg in the original game, they are okay at the end, and the remake practically leaves them alone. You don't see Usagi's father in Sailor Moon: Another Story but it's pretty much obvious that he's not dead or anything, especially since he's in the anime anyways. And Gen-3 Pokemon games do something interesting by not only giving your character a father, but make him a gym leader. One who you battle, yes, but it's a worthy challenge moreso than a death battle of sorts, because hey, it's Pokemon.
All in all though, the diversity of the heroes having parents is quite charming and nothing really overly cliche. You have your single parents, your both parents alive, your both parents dead, your no parent orphans, your parents you have to fight, and your parents you have to protect. How intriguing.
*Dart even has a surviving grandfather who actually ends up being one of his party members, yet neither knows about it.
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