History BreakTheCutie / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', if you're female, expect to get broken, reassembled by [[{{Troll}} Hazama/Terumi]] to his wishes and then possibly broken ''again'' [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement]], with the only exception being [[TooDumbToFool Taokaka]] who gets physically broken, unlike the others who were subject to MindRape.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'': The Phone Guy sounds so adorable and happy when he's talking about his admiration for the animatronics. He honestly just wants Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria to be a fun place for everyone. [[spoiler: Some time later, he witnesses the [[NoodleIncident Bite of '87]], the murder of five children (or is framed for the murder), and the scrapping of his beloved characters. Not only that, but he ends up getting killed by the animatronics.]]

** Laito, [[spoiler: often having sex with his own mom, who was into AnythingThatMoves. He grew up believing she loved him and got jealous of all the men she screwed. When Karl found out the relationship between Laito and Cordelia, he locks up Laito in the basement prison and when Cordelia came to see him, she has sex with Ritcher in front of him, traumatizing Laito and becoming a sexual deviant.]]

** [[GentleGiant Edgar]] [[spoiler: was his school's liked and respected wrestling team captain in his teens when he fell in love with a girl, [[strike: at once and a-most completely]]. They were boyfriend and girlfriend for a while until she very abruptly dumped him for a PrinceCharmless male cheerleader, which caused him to completely lose focus and cost him an important match. The whole school turned on him for it, and he made a shift in attitude from [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan apparent Manly Man to obvious Sensitive Guy]], became isolated, and switched hobbies to painting, also ruined when at some point he became obsessive-compulsive and couldn't make himself paint anything but bullfights as a metaphor for his high school blues]]. Conscious anger management issues possibly unrelated or part of the package.

* Princess Aurora from ''VideoGame/ChildOfLight'', an adorable and sweet little girl who wakes up in a strange MagicalLand, is left devastated when she finds out that [[spoiler:her stepsister Norah was EvilAllAlong. The two had formed a close sisterly bond, but Norah is later revealed to be the youngest daughter of the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen tyrannical queen]] terrorizing said land, and is herself a deceitful [[TheSociopath sociopath]]]]. Following this, a heartbroken Aurora resigns herself to death [[spoiler:in the prison tower she ends up imprisoned in]], but fortunately [[spoiler:Óengus]] is able to remind her of the many lives that will suffer if she gives up.

*** Some of the parents are/were pretty broken, too. It's all but stated that [[spoiler: Henry [[NotGoodWithPeople wasn't exactly stable to begin with]], but the death of his OnlyFriend sent him in a huge RoaringRampageOfRevenge ''[[CreepyChild when he was less than 12 years old]]'', and the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors (Western version)/OrphanageOfFear (original Japanese) that he was sent to did ''not'' help matters.]] Then we have [[spoiler: [[ReligiousBruiser Libra]], who was thought of being under DemonicPossession and then was abandoned by his parents and shunned by everyone]]. Also, [[spoiler: [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Nowi]] was captured and made a trick-performing slave before running away and joining up with the Shepherds, and is quite aware of [[WhoWantsToLiveForever how she will outlive almost everyone she loves]] [[ObfuscatingStupidity despite acting like a little girl]] to cope.]] And there's [[spoiler: [[BrokenAce Cordelia]], who not only suffers from UnrequitedLove but has a TREMENDOUS SurvivorsGuilt after her unit members die for her sake.]] And then [[spoiler: Chrom and Lissa]] get '''horribly''' broken when [[spoiler: Emmeryn, their beloved eldest sister, goes through a HeroicSuicide to stop the Plegian/Ylissean war…]]

* Misuzu from ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'', since a lot of time and effort is put into presenting her as a sweet, lovable, although somewhat peculiar girl -- only to [[spoiler: have her suffer enormous pain in the last few episodes and die in the arms of her adoptive mother, her aunt Haruko. Her final moments are still gruesomely beautiful, though]].

* This is the major plot point of [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion Luigi's Mansion]]. Luigi was just going to visit the mansion with his brother but was actually a set-up by King Boo to get rid of Mario forever. With the help of Elvin Gadd, Luigi has to save Mario equipped with a ghost-sucking vacuum cleaner, while dealing with ghosts he's scared to wits over all over the mansion.

* Komaru Naegi of ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' is portrayed as a cute, bubbly girl throughout the whole game, despite the fact that everything around her is ''[[CrapsackWorld basically going to hell.]]'' However, despite her cheeriness, she has her moments where she is utterly broken. In the first chapter, [[spoiler:she witnesses Yuuta Asahina get blown up before her very eyes trying to escape Towa City. This causes her to go into a HeroicBSOD in which Fukawa yells at her to snap out of it]], and in the third chapter, [[spoiler:she actually gets molested by a machine, and has to wait some time for Genocide Jack to come save her!]] That's not even the worst of it, though. There are plenty of small examples throughout the whole game, but the biggest example is the endgame, where [[spoiler:Monaca reveals to Komaru that she killed her parents. Assuming Komaru saw the torture equipment in the room where Monaca would kill adults, she could notice worse implications than just them being dead. This causes her to fly into a rage, even screaming at Fukawa, who at that point the two considered each other to be best friends. She even almost destroys a controller that kills every single child in Towa City once broken, had it not been for Fukawa grabbing the controller from her. She then proceeds to suffer another HeroicBSOD throughout the rest of the scene, only snapping out of it when Fukawa slaps her across the face after pulling her away from the rogue Big Bang Monokuma.]]
** In a way, despite the Soldiers of Hope doing what they've done to everyone, they have stories that can be [[AlasPoorVillain real tear-jerkers.]] I mean, they're just kids, after all!

*** Kotoko Utsugi [[spoiler:was pimped out by her mother before she turned ten. Yes, you read that right.]]

*** Monaca [[spoiler:has several reasons to be broken (being the bastard daughter of a rich CEO and having a disgusting lolicon brother) but she defies this-- she practically worships Junko and her philosophy, so all of that, plus her friend's backstories and goals, are all a funny game to her.]]

** [[GentleGiant Edgar]] [[spoiler: was his school's liked and respected wrestling team captain in his teens when he fell in love with a girl, [[strike: at once and a-most completely]]. They were boyfriend and girlfriend for a while until she very abruptly dumped him for a PrinceCharmless male cheerleader, which caused him to completely lose focus and cost him an important match. The whole school turned on him for it, and he made a shift in attitude from [[SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan apparent Manly Man to obvious Sensitive Guy]], became isolated, and switched hobbies to painting, also ruined when at some point he became obsessive-compulsive and couldn't make himself paint anything but bullfights as a metaphor for his high school blues]]. [[BerserkButton Conscious anger management issues]] possibly unrelated or part of the package.

* Sergeant Lugo in ''Videogame/SpecOpsTheLine''. Lugo starts off as a fairly lighthearted comedic character but quickly becomes more and more disturbed as the story progresses. When the player unknowingly orders Lugo to use [[spoiler: [[KillItWithFire white]] [[BodyHorror phosphorus]] on a refugee camp]], Lugo goes through a HeroicBSOD. The player really gets a sense of how far his mind is gone when he [[spoiler:without flinching kills an unarmed man by shooting him point blank, a few seconds after having a casual conversation with him about radio tech]].

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia'' has pretty much every character getting broken at some point in the game. [[spoiler: Sans Grune]]. Most of this was done in the past but the character quests quest shows Moses having to say goodbye to his lovely pet Giet, Will's DeathByOriginStory wife and his attempts to bond with his daughter, Chloe [[DidNotGetTheGirl Did Not Get the Boy]]... and that's just the second half. The first half details Shirley getting the worst of it. [[spoiler: An IllGirl who is constantly kidnapped and has to be TheMessiah for Nerifes -- something she does not want nor is ready for. She watches her biological sister die right in front of her (herself having been broken way before.) and then is forced to watch Fenimore take the sword for her, and Fenimore's identical twin blames ''her'' for it. She was pretty much pushed beyond the DespairEventHorizon when Nerifes started controlling her, but is snapped out by Senel in the end.]] Someone really ''really'' hated Shirley.

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' gives us [[spoiler: Kula Diamond.]] A little girl raised as a test subject for a good part of her life [[spoiler: by the NESTS cartel]], in KOF 2000 she realises how terrible the group is, and decides to [[spoiler: fight back and destroy the Zero Cannon, saving the Earth.]] After that, she [[spoiler: plummets to Earth and is saved by RobotGirl Candy... who is destroyed so Kula can live.]] Her end has her [[spoiler:cradling Candy's robot head, which murmurs "friend... my friend..."]] From then on, however, she starts getting better.

* [[{{Pacifist}} Tikal]] from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfRebirth'' had this done to Hilda Rhambling. First off, she's been branded as an impure because she's a HalfHumanHybrid, so she went out of her way to hide that fact, with NiceHat and tearing up her horn. However, after a failure in her job, Tohma blew her cover away and gleefully boasted on how dirty she is. If that wasn't enough, later in the game, just when Hilda could have come to terms with her estranged mother, she made a HeroicSacrifice in front of her, killed by Tohma, and after she realized she never once called her "mother" and she's now dead, she broke down crying. Truly one of ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''' biggest [[TheWoobie woobies]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcaea}}'': It's a ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'' - like freemium RhythmGame with cute and colorful anime girls! What can possibly go wrong? If you can hit a DownerEnding where one of the main characters ''goes catatonic because she overdosed herself with happiness'' in the second chapter of the story, you know it's going to be bad news. And it only goes ''worse'' from here.

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcaea}}'': It's a ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'' - like freemium RhythmGame with cute and colorful anime girls! What can possibly go wrong? If you can hit a DownerEnding where one of the main characters ''goes catatonic because she overdosed herself with happiness'' in the second chapter of the story, you know something is very wrong. And it only goes ''worse'' from here.

* ''VideoGame/{{Arcaea}}'': It's a VideoGame/SoundVoltex - like freemium RhythmGame with cute and colorful anime girls! What can possibly go wrong? If you can hit a DownerEnding where one of the main characters ''goes catatonic because she overdosed herself with happiness'' in the second chapter of the story, you know something is very wrong. And it only goes ''worse'' from here.

** This has already happened to [[spoiler:Mr. Aishi. He was the reason why Ryoba went around killing people (no number is specified other than one confirmed death), was kidnapped, was implied to have been sexually assaulted by his captor, and eventually developed StockholmSyndrome. When you play one of the later Basement Tapes, you can hear the empty tone in his voice, signifying that he has been broken by his wife.]]

** [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Gloria]] [[spoiler:developed an abandonment complex after her mother sent her to a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors to turn her into a star -- her mother's BastardBoyfriend had promised to deliver letters between the two of them. [[BlatantLies Guess how that turned out]]. She could have gotten past that, since she did grow into a famous actress, but her mother became depressed, implied largely due to their estrangement, and killed herself, causing Gloria to snap and sending her to the asylum for severe bipolar disorder]].

** Hope Estheim. Over just the beginning of the game, he gets bundled up with the other people of Bodhum, where he was on vacation with his [[MommasBoy mother]], and is to be sent to Pulse, a world that is basically ''hell'' to the people on Cocoon. The train gets derailed, the civilians are riled up to fight back and his mother leaves as well, only for her to die as Hope watches in horror. Now the poor guy is left alone, in a situation that he can't handle and ends up a Pulse l'Cie. Meaning he needs to fulfill a vague focus and either become a nice, crystal statue or turn into a [[FateWorseThanDeath sentient]] EldritchAbomination. And then he's also forced to run away from the government, who now deem him a threat to the world and will kill on sight. And that's not even getting into his conflicted feelings of having to work alongside the guy he blames for his mother's death to begin with.

** She sure looks like a cute 6-year-old child in-game, right? Until you see her full art and realize [[spoiler:she's a grown-up teenager.]]
* Misuzu from ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'' arguably qualifies, since a lot of time and effort is put into presenting her as a sweet, lovable, although somewhat peculiar girl -- only to [[spoiler: have her suffer enormous pain in the last few episodes and die in the arms of her adoptive mother, her aunt Haruko. Her final moments are still gruesomely beautiful, though]].

** [[spoiler:But ''then'' she finds out she's one of the Bhaalspawn, and then has to deal with her newfound murderous impulses (she tells the protagonist at one point that during the last battle she suddenly had the urge to tear out the bad guy's throat with her bare hands.)]] Needless to say, she's not so chipper or upbeat anymore. Although given that it's Imoen, that's relative to herself, not anyone else. As one character notes well after she's found all this out, she "reminds [him] considerably of a squirrel on a sugar high with a death wish."
*** It is implied at several points that Imoen's continued cheer is partly an act meant to cheer the PC (who arguably suffered less than she did) up. Which just emphasizes how absurdly nice Imoen is -- it is noted at one point that not even having a fragment of the [[spoiler:God of Murder]] in her could stop her from being a nice person. Essentially, the plot tries very hard to break Imoen, but never fully succeeds -- even though she is badly traumatized (which she only admits in a few, often hard-to-trigger dialogues), her desire to help others and cheer people up never wavers.

** Visas in the sequel, and arguably Kriea (assuming she was ever cute to begin with) are revealed as having this trope as a prime ingredient in their DarkAndTroubledPast. Watching as her two "sons" fall into darkness and while one could probably get better, the other completely falls into the darkness. She tries to make things right by raising a "child" in the form of the Exile who could "fix" her by living up to her expectations and not make the mistakes her sons did.

** A variation of this in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' involves breaking a large group of lovable characters called the Gorons. A peaceful, friendly group, they just want to live in peace and harvest their crops, but are content to welcome outsiders as well. However, when Ganondorf shows up and demands they turn over their spiritual stone, they refuse to do it and he punishes them by sealing off their primary food source. Later in the game, when Ganondorf takes over, he has several Gorons locked up in cages in the Fire Temple and is going to feed them to a dragon as a warning to those who might oppose him. Once you get to the Fire Temple, you see the Gorons trembling in their cells, evidently terrified, begging for mercy, and not being given any. This is arguably the most likely candidate for MoralEventHorizon on Ganondorf's part in the entire game. And then you get to march in there, save each and every one of them, and smash the dragon's head in with a shiny new hammer.

* ''VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni'':
** Touka, arguably Sachi.
** The reader is told through flashbacks the events which caused Natsumi to become the reclusive girl she is in the present. [[spoiler:After being taken into custody for allegations of sexual manipulation, she was tortured by the prison guards into "confessing" her crime. At the end of three months, she had become completely broken and mistrusting of people, which was not helped by sexual harassment by her landlord.]]

** ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' is surprisingly tame to characters during the main path for a ''Creator/TaroYoko'' game, but makes their life and demise living and dying hell once you start to dwell into the territory of [[MultipleEndings alternative endings]]. Pascal, the friendly robot [[spoiler: whose machine village is wiped out by Logic Virus and the children ''commit mass suicide'' because they cannot bear the fear he taught them to, and who commits suicide should you [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential ignore his pleas to reset his memory or kill him]]]], and 9S [[spoiler: which is basically so much under the onslaught of bad things since the last two chapters of Route B until the end he basically turns into a [[SociopathicHero variant]] of ''[[Videogame/{{Drakengard}} Caim]]'' by then]] really stand out.

* The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Final Fantasy VII Compilation]] seems to be one long telling of how they broke the character Cloud, glued him back wrong, broke him again, then fixed him for real. [[TheWoobie Sort of]]. Specifically, [[spoiler:this included being blamed for an accident that injured his childhood crush Tifa, which results in him being forbidden from seeing her, failing at the only dream he ever had (joining SOLDIER), watching his mother die (oh, and knowing she was killed by his idol, aka Sephiroth), watching his other idol -- Zack -- get shanked by Seph, getting shanked himself, being experimented on for four years straight, and all of this culminates with watching his beloved Zack get gunned down after being dragged across the country by him for a year because the experimentation had left him nearly comatose. [[FromBadToWorse Then it gets worse]]. Unable to cope with all that has happened in the past, he recreates his memories so Zack never existed (well, he thinks he's Zack, but same thing). And then ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' happens (in which we see him actually break and go comatose again). After the game Cloud settles down with Tifa, only to contract the incurable disease Geo-Stigma, which leads you down a slow and painful death.]] Towards the end of ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'', his troubles are finally solved, however.
** Don't forget about Zack too. Sure he was already a SOLDIER that fought and killed, but he was still an adorable one that would help other lower-ranked SOLDIERS and unimportant Shinra staff. In fact, getting recommended for first class rank was enough to make him act sort-of-childish. Then the mission to Wutai happens where Angeal disappears, then he has to see that same person, who he idolized, kill his own mother, then he has to see Angeal's hometown get blown up. Then comes the part where [[spoiler: He has to kill him]] making the tough SOLDIER, who was promoted to first rank at that point cry. It's sort of heart-breaking to see the normally cheery person turn into a strict role model in the scene that follows.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' subverts this beautifully by having Selphie look at the graves of all her recently deceased friends at Trabia Gardens, and instead of teary mourning instead she talks to them saying how proud they would have been of her. Turning what would be a cliche TearJerker into a moment where you see her spirit will not be crushed. Many tears ensue.

** In [=EP6=], Lambda says that [[spoiler:Bern was originally a piece in a game that the Game Master made {{Unwinnable}}. (Lambda did not explicitly say whether the game was of the [[UnwinnablebyMistake Unwinnable by Mistake]] or the [[UnwinnablebyDesign Unwinnable by Design]] variety.) The Game Master then abandoned Bern as a piece and left her to fend for herself. Bern eventually [[BeyondTheImpossible ended up winning the game anyway]] and gained the title of Witch of Miracles. The manga implies that the game in question was ''[[{{VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry}} Higurashi]]'', which would make sense given her origins.]] While this explains her cruelty, it's no excuse for it.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'' is one long, horrific BreakTheCutie, with Klonoa himself as the unfortunate cutie.