For me it was Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3. In the intro cinematic he looked like a cool assassin that was sent after Shepard, but when you meet him he’s just a loser dweeb with insane plot armor and the power of anime on his side.
Another character for me is Alduin in Skyrim. The entire storyline hyped him up as The World Eater, that he will bring the apocalypse, but the when you do finally face him… I stg I’ve fought Draugr more fearsome.
Logan Thackeray was extremely hyped up in Guild Wars 2. His ancestors in GW1 (one of whom was a major character) had an entire questline setting this up. He was the main character of a prequel novel. He was THE human main character.
And then the game came out and people hated him. Actually they hated him in part because of the prequel novel. Lots of memes. “For sale, Logan’s sword, never used, only dropped once.” And now the game has relegated him to a faction leader/desk job role.
(I always liked him though. Unpopular opinion).
Tyr from GoW Ragnarok. He was heavily present in the marketing, hyped up all throughout GoW 2018, and he ended up being a very obvious fake-out. I wasn’t surprised at all by the time he killed Brok. And it was such a lame thing to do to the character. I wanted to see the real Tyr. Instead he feels like how Luke Skywalker felt in the new SW trilogy. There just to say he was there really. Ugh I get annoyed just thinking about how stupid I thought this plot point was.
The Gray Fox from TES Oblivion. You think he’s just this badass, all the npcs gossip and make rumors about him. He has his own wanted poster that looks really cool too!! Then you meet him and it’s just “Oh…you’re just some dude wearing a mask…damn…okay I’ll continue the thief’s guild quests I guess.”
The Spartans that where hunting Master Chief. More recently I would say Lady D from Resident Evil Village.
That Joel guy from TLOU2. The ads and then the intro to the game made it seem like he was this super important dude who has gonna be your partner through the whole thing, a real ride or die, and instead he gets chumped out early and then doesn’t even matter after that.
Arguably Vanny in FNAF: Security Breach. They try to give more weight and mystery to her and Vanessa but it really doesnt amount to much.
Fighting Raphael in Baldurs Gate 3 was really hyped up as the hardest thing ever, but we beat him twice without much issue. Hell, Yungir was the bigger problem, turning invisible and targeting Hope, but the second time around we got him on our side and he trivialised Raphael.
But it wasn’t as disappointing as fighting Orin and Gortash. I expected the God of Murder would put up a better fight, meanwhile Gortash without his Steel Watch is a complete pushover!!!
The biggest issue with this game is the lack of post-fight cutscenes. When they die, they just fall on the floor dead. It doesn’t matter how significant or built up they were before then. It’s just the most underwhelming thing, “oh, guess we won, that’s great”.
Alduin …