Obfuscating Stupidity/Video Games


 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has a number of these characters, to the point where your average ditz nearly always is smarter than they look.
 * In the original game,
 * Case 5, in the DS remake, has
 * In Justice For All,
 * In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney,
 * from Trials and Tribulations.
 * Done in Ace Attorney Investigations with  Since veteran players of the series will know to look for the trope, the game even plays with your head a little with
 * Most of the characters of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors do this in some way, shape, or form.
 * Zelos from Tales of Symphonia is highly intelligent, skilled at manipulation, . He hides all of this under a facade of being a happy-go-lucky Handsome Lech who seems to have made it his life's mission to hit on every female in existence and antagonise Sheena.
 * When Raven joins your party in Tales of Vesperia, he presents himself as a goofy but skilled middle-aged Handsome Lech who imparts nuggets of wisdom that no-one asked for and constantly complains about how he can't keep up with the other, much more youthful party members..
 * Arguably, the entire Team Fortress 2 team, all of whom the Announcer refers to as having "below average" intelligence, outside the attack classes, could count. Demoman seems like a friendly, reasonable guy when he's not drunk, based on the War update comic, and it's hard to be stupid and make five million dollars in one year. Heavy has a Ph.D. in Russian literature, and if the Russian "Meet The Heavy" is any clue, is much more eloquent in his native language. Engineer has 11 "hard science" Ph.D.'s, which speaks for itself. "Meet The Medic" revealed Medic is indeed a trained doctor, though he's barking mad and he lost his license for stealing a patient's skeleton. Sniper managed to rig a tribal shield to electrify its attackers, and while not as smart as the rest, doesn't seem "below average." Spy had the resources, intelligence, contacts, and capability to thoroughly research a "Your Mom" joke, in addition to being able to do a spot-on impression of the voice of all eight other team members, and seeming like a completely civil, intelligent gentleman off the battlefield. Below average, indeed.
 * Pyro could be too, as most of when he/she's trying to speak under the mask sounds somewhat condescending.
 * from Soul Nomad and The World Eaters appears to be a complete idiot...up to the point
 * Resident hungry ghost Yuyuko Saigyouji, of Touhou Project, definitely fits the bill during her appearance in Imperishable Night. Although that's arguably more a case of Obfuscating Gluttony...
 * Guildmaster Wigglytuff in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness: a Cloudcuckoolander who looks like a big pink bunny...and one who gives Team Skull a well-deserved beatdown.
 * In the Sinnoh region of the main Pokemon games, Dr. Footprint can essentially read Pokemon's minds. Some of the more slow or dumb Pokemon will express simple thoughts full of "hnurr" pauses - except when they suddenly share a complex and grammatically correct sentence or two about how people and other Pokemon assume that they don't think much because they don't speak up often. They don't seem annoyed or insulted though.
 * relies heavily on this to fool Persona 3's protagonists into A harmless character known for  becomes The Chessmaster in one fell swoop..
 * And in Persona 4, plays much the same role. People who have played Persona 3 will probably be instantly suspicious towards him because of it.
 * Actually, a video of in FES shows that he genuinely thought, so it's more of a subversion.
 * and  from Disgaea. The first appears to be a foppish Recurring Boss whose sole purpose in the story is to get his ass kicked by Laharl. The second appears to be a hands-off sort of boss content to just walk around his garden while his subordinate plans a coup to conquer reality. In the end, it turns out.
 * Asmodeus from Painkiller, an easy-going imp who followed Daniel around for most of the game only to reveal that.
 * A certain character in Devil May Cry 3:

"I even went so far as to dress up like a complete idiot!!"
 * And this little gem hammers it in:

"Sarcastic!Hawke: Oh I'd make a terrible slave. For one thing, I talk too much.
 * Flay from Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis has flunked the academy three times, yet he is the one who plans almost all the hijinks that the True Companions get into. And they work...sometimes...
 * He's smart enough to have at the very least.
 * in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines first appears as a vampire's excitable, none-too-bright servant who's gotten in over his head while following a target and needs the player character's help. Turns out with the right questions and mental stats (or Malkavian insight) that.
 * in Overlord II pulls this, acting like an Ineffectual Sympathetic Hero Antagonist when in truth . He states that
 * No One Lives Forever has a recurring character - a drunk who shows up in virtually every level, acting like an idiot. He even somehow shows up on an enemy space station, presumably just for the gag...but a post-credit sequence reveals
 * The main character of Devil Survivor has some decidedly ditzy dialogue options (especially: "What's 0+2?"), but generally seems to figure things out much faster than he lets on. He even gets called out on it in one of the Multiple Endings.
 * It gets Lampshaded earlier than that, too. In the game's prologue, during a brief meeting with Naoya, the main character has the option to guess that the Laplace Mail is predicting the future. Naoya is amazed -- not just because that's correct, but because it's a downright bizarre and even somewhat stupid conclusion to draw from the current evidence.
 * In The Force Unleashed, after losing his eyes, Rahm Kota becomes so depressed that he spends all his time binge-drinking and claims that he has lost his connection to The Force. It eventually proves that he is still a mighty Jedi Knight,
 * Though, then again, that happened AFTER his He's Back moment.
 * In Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2, Xigbar shows every sign of being basically a surfer dude Punch Clock Villain who just happens to be That One Boss in the former..
 * Played straight and averted in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. In the Museum of Oddities in Tarant there is an exhibition of Gar, "world's most intelligent Orc". It turns out that.
 * It's very debatable as to whether Space Quests Roger Wilco is a lucky Idiot Hero or brighter than he looks and just very unmotivated. The Big Bad of the sixth and final game muses about this and concludes it's some of both.
 * Gaston is Luminous Arc 2 is such a Large Ham his overacting gets questioned by other characters in the game on occasion, but has a very real, very sensible code of honor and duty to the Queen, and is a legitimately skilled Knight Commander, preferring to lead from the front line.
 * In Dragon Age II the Hawke's "sarcastic"-choice dialogue indicates that personality type uses this and Buffy-Speak seemingly as a tactic to lure enemies into a false sense of security, before revealing that their title of "Champion of Kirkwall" is very much deserved and they really are that dangerous. Cue many an Oh Crap moment from their enemy.

[pulls a knife out thin air and holds it to the slaver's throat]

Sarcastic!Hawke: Plus, I do that."


 * In the original Dragon Age, take a shot every time someone mentions the old saying that Mabari are clever enough to speak and wise enough not to.
 * Blaz Blue gives us Makoto Nanaya. On the surface, she's willing to Glomp whatever she finds cute, eat waaaaaay too much for an allegedly 49 kilo girl, climb trees for exercise (she's a squirrel, so it makes a bit of sense), and generally acts like Fun Personified and a typical Adult Child (one of Jin's victory quotes against her asks if she's going to grow up already). On the other hand, she got into the Military Academy on a scholarship when the rest were mostly of affluent families, managed to get directly enlisted under Hazama of the Intelligence division, and happens to be one of the few opponents in his chess game with Rachel and Jubei that he tried to kill on sight with no prior warning... because

"Atton: I haven't known who I am for years."
 * Liu Shan is implied to be this as of Dynasty Warriors 7
 * Atton Rand in the second Knights of the Old Republic game at first seems like your typical Han Solo-Expy, (Street Smart but completely out of his element when it comes to Jedi vs. Sith conflicts), but various characters drop hints that he is much more than he lets on. If the Exile confronts him on Nar Shaddaa, How much of his behavior is faked and how much is genuine is debatable.