History DarkAndTroubledPast / VideoGames

** Yachiyo who made her wish to survive the stressful life of swinging back and forth between being a model and a student. Little did she know, the special ability she received from her wish allowed her to keep "surviving" at expense of the lives of those around her. Having lost many dear friends, Yachiyo develops severe Survivor's Guilt and starts to push away everyone she holds dear.
** Sana's father died early on and her mother remarried into a high-class family. Unable to match up with all the high academic expectations that were suddenly put on her, Sana studied as hard as possible and tried asking for help from her family members but to no avail. She became the symbol of embarrassment to the household and was disowned. This broke her so badly that the first thing that came to her mind when asked for a wish was to disappear from the world.
** Felicia is a walking pile of suppressed PTSD: she made a prank but accidentally started a fire that burned both her parents alive. In terror, she wished that this never happened, but due to the emotional wrecking state she was in, it resulted in her memories getting rewritten so that she wasn't at fault for killing her parents. However, a deep part inside her knows the suppressed trauma is always waiting for the right moment to come out.
** Mitama grew up in poverty and was discriminated against by people from the "upperclass" wards. However, she studied hard and tried her best to become the most excellent student, and eventually earned the scholarship to a prestigious school in an upper-class area. She kept pushing herself onwards with great results, but just when she thought she could finally be treated like a human, her supposedly best friend betrayed her and started making up ugly rumors about her. Mitama was expelled and had to go back to her former school, but everyone there turned their backs and started bullying her, even began to threaten her family.

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has this for both the Ur-Quan and the Kohr-Ah [[spoiler: The Ur-Quan were originally a single species before one of their explorers found the Dynarri, and after the latter used the former to conquer the Sentient Milieu -- the group of alien races in which the Ur-Quan were- the Ur-Quan were split in both races by the Dynarri.]]

** ''Nearly everyone'' in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. To name some quick examples: [[spoiler:Edelgard was subjected to deadly experiments by dark mages that killed her siblings. Dimitri's family was murdered. Claude is a biracial child born from an affair between two nobles from rival nations, and thus subject to FantasticRacism in both Almyra and the Alliance. Dorothea grew up in abject poverty before she was discovered by an Imperial opera company. Bernadetta was [[ParentalAbuse abused by her father]], who wanted to make her a "perfect, submissive wife" to wed off to nobles. Sylvain became the golden child of his family when he was born with a Crest, leading to his older brother being disowned. Felix's brother (who was also Ingrid's fiance) died at the same time as Dimitri's family. Mercedes had been adopted into an abusive Imperial family; she managed to escape, but her younger brother (who is also the [[BlackKnight Death Knight]]) wasn't as fortunate. Ashe grew up in poverty and was forced to commit theft to support himself and his family before he was adopted by a noble. Raphael's parents were murdered when he was young. Marianne was forced to isolate herself socially due to her "cursed" Crest. Lysithea and Hapi were both experimented on by the same dark mages that tortured Edelgard. Yuri was forced to act as a servant for a corrupt cardinal, and was also brutalized by Bernadetta's father for having the gall to trying to befriend her when he was of common birth.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series, one or two fighters crop up with these kinds of pasts, but extra points go to Rock Howard, who has this through virtually no fault of his own. He's the son of the notoriously death-retardant Geese Howard, who barely took any interest in the boy's well-being. Rock was rendered an orphan by one of Geese's nemeses, Terry Bogart (who tried to keep him from falling to his death, only for Geese to yank his hand out of Terry's grip and GoOutWithASmile as he fell), who took it upon himself to raise and train Rock himself...possibly out of penance. Rock is surprisingly well-adjusted, but it constantly [[InTheBlood at war with himself internally, given he has "evil blood"]].

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'':
** Olberic was the bodyguard of a king, only to fail to protect him and his land from his close friend and fellow equal in skill, Erhardt. It doesn't help that he murdered his king in front of him and defeated Olberic. Wandering the lands to find redemption, he also struggles with seeing himself as useful only in the heat of battle.
** Primrose was born into a wealthy family, only for her father to be murdered in front of her eyes as a child. She was rendered poor and had to turn to prostitution to survive.
** Primrose's friend Yusufa was sold to Helgenish as a child, having to spend her life dealing with both his abuse as well as the bullying of the other girls working for him, all without any friends to support her besides Primrose.
** Therion has never known any sort of family aside from a sort of brother figure in Darius. He scraped by, taking what he could, and in his banter in Olberic's Chapter 4, he hints that he was beaten up or similarly abused by people older and more powerful than he was. And even his partnership with Darius backfired on him when Darius betrayed him, almost literally stabbing him in the back and tossing him off a cliff simply because he was offered money and power to do so. The party members and Cordelia Ravus are quite possibly the first people to treat him with any sort of kindness or respect in years, if not his whole life.

* [[The Wasp King/Hoaxe]]'s backstory in ''VideoGame/BugFables'' is ''not'' a happy one. [[spoiler:He was abandoned by his own parents in the ''[[EldritchLocation Dead Lands]]'' as a ''baby''. When he finally found a place he felt like he belonged in the Wasp Kingdom, no one there cared about him.]] All of a sudden, his obsession with having absolute control over everyone makes a lot more sense.

*** Actually, Isabela was sold into marriage at an implied young age by her mother for a few silvers and a goat. Then Zevran was hired to kill him, and she inherited his ship and decided to become a pirate. Her stories about her past are the most fragmented of the party, and generally consists of {{noodle incident}}s. Also, that relic she's looking for? [[spoiler:She stole it from the ''Qunari''.]] This actually [[NiceJobBreakingItHero comes back to bite the party]] in a serious way in Act 2.
** Varric, the aforementioned storyteller and resident MetaGuy, lampshades this in a conversation with Blackwall in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', actually namechecking this trope: "Surely you have a dark and troubled past." He guesses someone he couldn't save, "bad judgment leading to too many deaths -- I have a couple of people like that in my past," or betrayal. Blackwall denies all of these [[spoiler:but it's later revealed that the second part is true]].

* ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'': Etna had a pretty crappy childhood even by series standards. She grew up as a lone orphan and was picked on mercilessly by other demons, and the only reason she was able to survive was because the Overlord was kind enough to take her in. Things don't get any better with what we learn about her past in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaD2'': [[spoiler:The rest of her family were killed for rebelling against the Overlord and she was born with a magical disease where she generates so much magic energy it's killing her, and her life was only saved by her brother embedding in himself an ArtifactOfDoom that drains magic not just from her, but from the Netherworld itself, and it's the reason why he wasn't there for her back then.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'': very few of your companions' past are exactly rosy, but Cait's life has been a living hell from the word "Go". She was raised by AbusiveParents before being sold off to slavers at the age of eighteen, enduring horrors under her owners for five years until she managed to scrounge up the money to buy her freedom, after which she got her revenge and murdered her parents. Her memories of her twenty-three years of abuse and torture drives her to drink and abuse [[FantasticDrug Psycho]] to help her forget, as well as fighting in raider-infested arenas, [[DeathSeeker in the hopes that if she isn't killed in combat, the drugs would do it for her]].

** Jakob, the Avatar Corrin's loyal butler in ''Fates,'' was raised by AbusiveParents who cared so little for him that they abandoned him at Nohr's Windmire Castle, where he was taken in as a castle servant, and never looked back. He was mistreated and disliked by the rest of the castle staff, with the exception of young Corrin him or herself, and in the present as a result of it, he's cold, distant and rude to most anyone who isn't the Avatar, while being [[UndyingLoyalty slavishly loyal and dedicated]] to the Avatar him or herself. He tells Mozu and Azura in their supports that the Avatar is ''literally'' the only person in the castle that treated him kindly.

* Quite a few of characters in ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' have tragic backstories, but [[https://gbf.wiki/images/8/8c/Npc_zoom_3030032000_01.png Ferry]] the [[CuteGhostGirl spirit maiden]] stands out due to how much it affects her. Her parents are dead, her beloved younger sister is missing and she spent 100 years in self-inflicted isolation and self-hatred, thinking that she was responsible for the calamity that befell her [[WorldInTheSky home island]] and resulted in her condition. Most of her character arc deals with Ferry trying to come to terms with her existence as an immortal spirit, as well as [[spoiler: her younger sister's death]]. The [[Anime/GranblueFantasy anime adaptation]] manages to make her past even more tragic: [[spoiler: She was invisible and without memories during those 100 years and it's eventually revealed that her condition was the result of being literally [[HumanSacrifice sacrificed]] by an amoral researcher who was trying to [[ImmortalitySeeker become immortal]]. She even had to helplessly watch her father die right in front of her]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series, one or two fighters crop up with these kinds of pasts, but extra points go to Rock Howard, who has this through virtually no fault of his own. He's the son of the notoriously death-retardant Geese Howard, who barely took any interest in the boy's well being. Rock was rendered an orphan by one of Geese's nemeses, Terry Bogart (who tried to keep him from falling to his death, only for Geese to yank his hand out of Terry's grip and GoOutWithASmile as he fell), who took it upon himself to raise and train Rock himself...possibly out of penance. Rock is surprisingly well-adjusted, but it constantly [[InTheBlood at war with himself internally, given he has "evil blood"]].

** Sana's father died early on and her mother remarried into a high-class family. Unable to match up with all the high academic expectations that was suddenly put on her, Sana studied as hard as possible and tried asking for help from her family members but to no avail. She became the symbol of embarrassment to the household and was disowned. This broke her so badly that the first thing that came to her mind when asked for a wish was to disappear from the world.
** Felicia is a walking pile of suppressed PTSD: she made a prank but accidentally started a fire that burned both her parents alive. In terror, she wished that this never happened, but due to the emotional wrecking state she was in, it resulted her memories getting rewritten so that she wasn't at fault for killing her parents. However a deep part inside her knows the suppressed trauma is always awaiting for the right moment to come out.
** Mitama grew up in poverty and was discriminated against by people from the "upperclass" wards. However she studied hard and tried her best to become the most excellent student, and eventually earned the scholarship to a prestigious school in an upperclass area. She kept pushing herself onwards with great results, but just when she thought she could finally be treated like a human, her supposedly best friend betrayed her and started making up ugly rumors about her. Mitama was expelled and had to go back to her former school, but everyone there turned their backs and started bullying her, even began to threaten her family.

* Devlin [=McCormack=] in ''The Orion Conspiracy'' definitely has this. Let us see. He fought as a soldier in the Corporation War, which apparently left him with issues. He admits that he was not a good father to his son, Danny, and that he, in fact, drove him away. Interestingly enough, Danny's death and the investigation of it is what drives Devlin for a portion of the game. Also, the local {{Jerkass}} claims that Devlin drove his wife to suicide, which would indicate that Devlin may not have been a good husband. Of course, it is hard to say that really is the case, or if there is more to that story than that.

** Ryuji had an abusive father who beats both on him and his mother. Kamoshida also broke his legs, causing his CareerEndingInjury, spreading rumors of his home life that provocated Ryuji into punching him, which in turn ended the Track Team and made the members hating and blaming Ryuji.

** Ikaruga, who was adopted from an impoverished family into a noble house. There's no love in this arrangement, purely the family wanting a worth heir to inherit the family sword and name, and her adoptive older brother has ''not'' [[AxCrazy taken this turn of events well]].

-->'''Director''': Your father was a counter-revolutionary. When he was killed, you, your mother, and your sisters were transported to a North Siberian gulag. Paint me the picture.
-->'''Heavy''': No. This is my gun. I like to shoot this gun. Is all you need to know.
-->'''Director''': Your family only lived in that gulag for three months. In December 1941 it burned to the ground. All of the prisoners had escaped. All of the guards had been killed. Tortured to death.
-->'''Heavy''': I. Like. To shoot. This gun. Is all you need to know.

* All of the Warriors of Hope from VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls have one, [[spoiler:sans Monaca]]

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** Varric, the aforementioned storyteller and resident MetaGuy, lampshades this in a conversation with Blackwall in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', actually namechecking this trope: "Surely you have a dark and troubled past." He guesses someone he couldn't save, "bad judgment leading to too many deaths - I have a couple of people like that in my past," or betrayal. Blackwall denies all of these [[spoiler:but it's later revealed that the second part is true]].

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has this for both the Ur-Quan and the Kohr-Ah [[spoiler: The Ur-Quan were originally a single species before one of their explorers found the Dynarri, and after the latter used the former to conquer the Sentient Milieu -the group of alien races in which the Ur-Quan were- the Ur-Quan were split in both races by the Dynarri.]]

** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic.'' Carth Onasi? NiceGuy, but has a truckload of paranoia issues. Not surprising when you find out that his EvilMentor decided to defect to the Sith, and laid waste to Carth's homeworld. Carth was widowed in the attack, and he finds out later that while his son survived, the Sith are training him in the ways of the Force. Bastila? Well, it's a mild case, but the Jedi policy of child conscription and forcing them to cut all ties with their family and loved ones isn't pleasant. Mission may not [[SatisfiedStreetRat consider her past all that troubled]], but she is a teenager pretty much living on the streets of a WretchedHive. Zaalbar? Exiled from his homeworld for flying into a rage and attacking his brother. Said brother was colluding with slavers to sell his fellow Wookiees into slavery. In his anger, Zaalbar broke the taboo about not using claws in a fight, which makes you less than an animal in Wookiee society. Juhani? [[BrokenBird Oh, where to begin?]] Her people were subject to genocide by the Mandalorians. Her parents fled but ended up on a WretchedHive that hated "aliens" and openly discriminated against them. Her father became a drug addict and died in a BarBrawl. Her mother starved to death because she was trying to feed her cub at the expense of herself, but was in debt to a loan shark, meaning Juhani was MadeASlave to pay it off. The Jedi freed her from slavery, and Juhani latched onto their Code and ideals hard. She dedicated herself to training and the Jedi way...until her master decides a good idea of a final test is to goad her into rage and trick the poor girl into thinking she killed her own master! Canderous and HK-47 certainly have dark and troubled pasts, but they're actually proud of the carnage trail they've left. And then, there's what TheReveal has to say about your PlayerCharacter.
** The second game (by Obsidian) gets an even nastier bunch of people. Kreia? Well, she's been a Jedi Master and a Sith Lord. She was probably TheManBehindTheMan for Revan. As much as she protests that she's neutral, it's obvious she hasn't given up the "Sith" part, aside from trying to setter it more towards ManipulativeBastard than StupidEvil. You don't get much more dark and troubled than [[TheAtoner Atton Rand]], either. Former Republic deserter, Jedi hunter, Sith torturer, Sith deserter, turned to smuggling, and was likely the guy trying to sell your PlayerCharacter to the Exchange. Visas is of a rare species who can see through the Force, and Darth Nihilus ''ate'' her homeworld and all life on it, sparing only her. She became his "apprentice," but in practice is more his slave and punching bag. Handmaiden is the shunned, HeroicBastard daughter of an Echani general and a Jedi. Because her daddy cheated on his wife to produce her, her sisters treat her with contempt at best. Disciple? Well, under that naive persona, he's actually a spy for the Republic, enlisting in the Republic Navy because the Jedi shrugged and threw him away after the Mandalorian Wars didn't leave enough Jedi to train apprentices. Bao-Dur? Whew. [[ShellShockedVeteran Massive]] PTSD issues from [[ShootTheDog creating and using the Mass Shadow Generator]] at Malachor. He literally threw a switch and killed thousands of allies and enemies alike. Hanharr? Well, we're dealing with Wookiees and slavery, but Hanharr was insane to begin with and slaughtered his whole village to keep them out of slaver hands. Mira? Well, her family was killed by Mandalorians, and the Mandos took her as a slave. She doesn't speak of her captors with too much rancor as they taught her how to fight and handle explosives (in ExpandedUniverse material, it explains that Mandalorians tend to "adopt" children of fallen foes that have potential to join their ranks). And your PlayerCharacter? Well, s/he left the Order to fight the Mandalorians, was the teacher that abandoned Disciple, fought in two of the nastiest battles in the War, ordered the use of the Mass Shadow Generator that made Bao-Dur's issues, was the only one of Revan's followers to walk away and try to go back to the Order, only to get slapped in the face and a sentence of Exile, left with absolutely nothing to show for all the sacrifice.
** VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: By the time you meet Aribeth in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights Hordes of the Underdark'', she has a very troubled past (including being executed for something that wasn't technically her fault). The character you play in that one technically doesn't know about it, even though ''you'' almost certainly played the first campaign beforehand. Casavir in the sequel has a stormy history with Neverwinter.
** The module creating community has brought up several examples as well. Anera in the ''Shadowlords'' arc took a lot of crap from her family (the celestial side) for being too mortal and eventually entered into a relationship with a necromancer. It did not end well. Alex in ''VideoGame/TheBastardOfKosigan'' series has a very troubled one, dealing with the complications involved with being in love with the severely disfavored bastard, and her [[spoiler: abortive relationship with Vlad]]. Pia in ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'' has many regrets about her time as one of Vico's playthings.

* In ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series, one or two fighters crop up with these kinds of pasts, but extra points go to Rock Howard, who has this through virtually no fault of his own. He's the son of the notoriously death-retardant Geese Howard, who barely took any interest in the boy's well being. Rock was rendered an orphan by one of Geese's nemeses, Terry Bogart (who tried to keep him from falling to his death, only for Geese to yank his hand out of Terry's grip and GoOutWithASmile as he fell), who took it upon himself to raise and train Rock himself...possibly out of penance. Rock is surprisingly well-adjusted, but it constantly [[InTheBlood at war with himself internally, given he has "evil blood"]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'', Erika [[spoiler:served as an assassin for her kingdom in the past. She feels guilt over the atrocities she committed then, and serves the Princess in an attempt to atone.]]
* In ''Franchise/SilentHill'', a dark and troubled past guarantees you a season ticket to the titular town.
* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series should probably get its own folder, judging by the number of examples there are. Seriously, we could be here all day.
* The ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' should probably get its own folder. The heroes, villains, supporting cast, and even random {{NPC}}s in pretty much any installment can be counted on to have ''serious'' issues. Even better, their pasts are usually plot-relevant, and since the franchise ''loves'' plots full of [[WhamEpisode Wham Episodes]], most characters' pasts are also spoilertastic.

* Kla in ''VideoGame/{{Warbears}}'' is implied to have one.

* Jennifer from ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''. There's a reason why the narrator never fails to refer to her as the "poor, unlucky girl".
* Many of the characters in the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series have them. [[AudienceSurrogate Raiden]], [[TheParagon The Boss]] (kind of), [[AxCrazy Psycho]] [[TragicVillain Mantis]], and [[HeartbrokenBadass Fortune]] (spoofed by Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}} above), to name a few. In fact, it's easier to mention the ones who didn't have it: [[MissionControl Mei]] [[TheCavalry Ling]], and.... Okay, maybe just Mei Ling.
* The Heavy from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' subverts this to hell and back.
-->'''Director''': Your father was a counter-revolutionary. When he was killed, you, your mother, and your sisters were transported to a North Siberian gulag. Paint me the picture.
-->'''Heavy''': No. This is my gun. I like to shoot this gun. Is all you need to know.
-->'''Director''': Your family only lived in that gulag for three months. In December 1941 it burned to the ground. All of the prisoners had escaped. All of the guards had been killed. Tortured to death.
-->'''Heavy''': I. Like. To shoot. This gun. Is all you need to know.
** Later played straight in the comic ''A Cold Day In Hell'', when some of the other mercs visit Heavy's home. It turns out that the events The Director described actually happened, but Heavy's BigBrotherInstinct caused him not to want to discuss his family with a total stranger.
* Devlin [=McCormack=] in ''The Orion Conspiracy'' definitely has this. Let us see. He fought as a soldier in the Corporation War, which apparently left him with issues. He admits that he was not a good father to his son, Danny, and that he, in fact, drove him away. Interestingly enough, Danny's death and the investigation of it is what drives Devlin for a portion of the game. Also, the local {{Jerkass}} claims that Devlin drove his wife to suicide, which would indicate that Devlin may not have been a good husband. Of course, it is hard to say that really is the case, or if there is more to that story than that.
* Shadow the Hedgehog probably has the darkest past of all the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' characters. He was created as the UltimateLifeform in an attempt to cure a [[LittlestCancerPatient terminally ill twelve-year-old girl]], had his home ambushed and said ill child die in front of him from a gunshot wound, was thrown into stasis and had his memories [[LaserGuidedAmnesia tampered by his creator]] to turn him into [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a ruthless killing machine]]. And all it took to turn his character around was a RousingSpeech by a ''different'' twelve-year-old girl, a HeroicSacrifice which resulted in him ''getting amnesia'', spending [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes not one]], [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog not two]], but ''[[VideoGame/SonicBattle three]]'' games trying to remember things properly again, and [[ToServeMan the near planetary takeover of an alien race]] to snap him out of his amnesia for good and to put his past behind him. ''Yikes.''

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has this for both the Ur-Quan and the Kohr-Ah [[spoiler: The Ur-Quan were originally a single species before one of their explorers found the Dynarri, and after the latter used the former to conquer the Sentient Milieu -the group of alien races in which the Ur-Quan were- the Ur-Quan were split in both races by the Dynarri.]]
* All of the Warriors of Hope from VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls have one, [[spoiler:sans Monaca]]

* Quite a few of the hunters in ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' have this.
** [[DeathSeeker Markov]] saw the population of his colony killed by corporate mercenaries mere days after they made a discovery that would have ensured their prosperity.
** [[SoleSurvivor Maggie's]] entire homeworld was razed and the inhabitants slaughtered by monsters, leaving her trapped on a burned-out husk of a world for years before she managed to escape.
** [[BountyHunter Abe]] was a petty thief before stealing a ship and killing an innocent man in cold blood, an act that still haunts him.
** [[{{Cyborg}} Torvald]] lost his ship, his crew, and most of his body when a monster broke free from containment, leaving him a ruined man in a ghost ship floating through space.
** [[HalfHumanHybrid Slim]] served in the Third Basilisk Rebellion, which resulted in him being mutated into a human-insect hybrid, the deaths of all his friends, and enough traumatic experiences that he's repressed every memory from before the end of the war, up to and including his own name.

* While ''VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory'' is generally considered to be lighter and happier than its original counterpart ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', it has quite a few examples. To list some relevant characters:
** Yachiyo who made her wish to survive the stressful life of swinging back and forth between being a model and a student. Little did she know, the special ability she received from her wish allowed her to keep "surviving" at expense of the lives of those around her. Having lost many dear friends, Yachiyo develops severe Survivor's Guilt and starts to push away everyone she holds dear.
** Sana's father died early on and her mother remarried into a high-class family. Unable to match up with all the high academic expectations that was suddenly put on her, Sana studied as hard as possible and tried asking for help from her family members but to no avail. She became the symbol of embarrassment to the household and was disowned. This broke her so badly that the first thing that came to her mind when asked for a wish was to disappear from the world.
** Felicia is a walking pile of suppressed PTSD: she made a prank but accidentally started a fire that burned both her parents alive. In terror, she wished that this never happened, but due to the emotional wrecking state she was in, it resulted her memories getting rewritten so that she wasn't at fault for killing her parents. However a deep part inside her knows the suppressed trauma is always awaiting for the right moment to come out.
** Mitama grew up in poverty and was discriminated against by people from the "upperclass" wards. However she studied hard and tried her best to become the most excellent student, and eventually earned the scholarship to a prestigious school in an upperclass area. She kept pushing herself onwards with great results, but just when she thought she could finally be treated like a human, her supposedly best friend betrayed her and started making up ugly rumors about her. Mitama was expelled and had to go back to her former school, but everyone there turned their backs and started bullying her, even began to threaten her family.
**
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'':
** The green [[{{Animorphism}} tiger laguz]] [[TheQuietOne Muarim]] of the ''Videogame/FireEmblemTellius'' subseries was a slave in the [[HumansByAnyOtherName beorc (human)]] nation of Begnion for some time, and had an apparently cruel master. In his supports with fellow laguz Lethe, Muarim recounts that his master would beat him if he did not have the materials with which to clean his master's weapons. It seems to have affected him psychologically, as he tells Lethe that he still has trouble thinking of himself as an equal to beorc, and feels anxious whenever he does not have the materials his master once demanded of him close at hand. He tells Lethe that he cannot imagine what it is like to live with the pride that she feels as a laguz from the race's native Gallia.
** The swordsman Lon'qu of ''Videogame/FireEmblemAwakening'' grew up in the slums of the Chon'sin, and at one point when Lon'qu was young, his good friend, the little girl Ke'ri, was killed by bandits, with Lon'qu only able to watch helplessly. He developed gynophobia as a result of the incident, believing that any woman close to him would meet the same fate.
** Henry the Dark Mage of ''Awakening'' started off with AbusiveParents who ignored him to the point that he spent most of his time wandering the woods outside of his village. When he became [[OnlyFriend close friends with a wolf that lived in the forest]], it was killed by villagers when it tried to visit him. His parents then sent him off to a [[OrphanageOfFear cruel, abusive orphanage]] (in the Japanese version) or a [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors cold and strict mage school]] (in the English version) where he was harshly punished and experimented on, and all of it seems to have...broken him mentally. In the present, he seems to be operating on BlueAndOrangeMorality, is fascinated by BodyHorror and zombies, and is at the point that he just doesn't ''understand'' human empathy and that threatening to kill and curse people is morally objectionable.
** [[TheTease Niles]] the archer of ''Videogame/FireEmblemFates'' was [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned by both of his parents at a very young age]], and grew up on the harsh and unforgiving streets of Nohr, falling in with a gang of thieves and other seedy types just to stay alive. At one point in his childhood, he had one of his ''eyes'' gouged out by another orphan, and when his gang of thieves threw him under the bus to escape when one of their heists went bad, he was close enough to the DespairEventHorizon that he begged his captor Prince Leo of Nohr to kill him and get it over with. He ended up becoming one of Leo's [[UndyingLoyalty loyal retainers]] instead. In the present, Niles' [[{{Sadist}} sadistic]] and cruel tendencies are explained by him as a result of jealousy; when he sees someone who "doesn't know what suffering is," he feels the need to mess with them.
** Jakob, the Avatar Corrin's loyal butler in ''Fates,'' was raised by AbusiveParents who cared so little for him that they abandoned him at Nohr's Windmire Castle, where he was taken in as a castle servant, and never looked back. He was mistreated and disliked by the rest of the castle staff, with the exception of young Corrin him or herself, and in the present as a result of it, he's cold, distant and rude to most anyone who isn't the Avatar, while being [[UndyingLoyalty slavishly loyal and dedicated]] to the Avatar him or herself. He tells Mozu and Azura in their supports that the Avatar is ''literally'' the only person in the castle that treated him kindly.
** The Hoshidan spearwoman Oboro of ''Fates'' witnessed her merchant parents being murdered by a Nohrian assassin when she was young, and only managed to escape the same fate herself by hiding in their cart. She developed a ''deep'' hatred for all things and people Nohrian as a result and reacts...''rather badly'' to them, to the point that her [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-battle skill makes her deal more damage to Nohrian units]].
** ''Nearly everyone'' in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. To name some quick examples: [[spoiler:Edelgard was subjected to deadly experiments by dark mages that killed her siblings. Dimitri's family was murdered. Claude is a biracial child born from an affair between two nobles from rival nations, and thus subject to FantasticRacism in both Almyra and the Alliance. Dorothea grew up in abject poverty before she was discovered by an Imperial opera company. Bernadetta was [[ParentalAbuse abused by her father]], who wanted to make her a "perfect, submissive wife" to wed off to nobles. Sylvain became the golden child of his family when he was born with a Crest, leading to his older brother being disowned. Felix's brother (who was also Ingrid's fiance) died at the same time as Dimitri's family. Mercedes had been adopted into an abusive Imperial family; she managed to escape, but her younger brother (who is also the [[BlackKnight Death Knight]]) wasn't as fortunate. Ashe grew up in poverty and was forced to commit theft to support himself and his family before he was adopted by a noble. Raphael's parents were murdered when he was young. Marianne was forced to isolate herself socially due to her "cursed" Crest. Lysithea and Hapi were both experimented on by the same dark mages that tortured Edelgard. Yuri was forced to act as a servant for a corrupt cardinal, and was also brutalized by Bernadetta's father for having the gall to trying to befriend her when he was of common birth.]]

* Quite a few of characters in ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' have tragic backstories, but [[CuteGhostGirl Ferry]] stands out due to how much it affects her. Her parents are dead, her beloved younger sister is missing and she spent 100 years in self-inflicted isolation and self-hatred, thinking that she was responsible for the calamity that befell her [[WorldInTheSky home island]] and resulted in her condition. Most of her character arc deals with Ferry trying to come to terms with her existence as an immortal spirit, as well as [[spoiler: her younger sister's death]]. The [[Anime/GranblueFantasy anime adaptation]] manages to make her past even more tragic: [[spoiler: She was invisible and without memories during those 100 years and it's eventually revealed that her condition was the result of being literally [[HumanSacrifice sacrificed]] by an amoral researcher who was trying to [[ImmortalitySeeker become immortal]]. She even had to helplessly watch her father die right in front of her]].

** The second game (by Obsidian) gets an even nastier bunch of people. Kreia? Well, she's been a Jedi Master and a Sith Lord. She was probably TheManBehindTheMan for Revan. As much as she protests that she's neutral, it's obvious she hasn't given up the "Sith" part, aside from trying to setter it more towards ManipulativeBastard than StupidEvil. You don't get much more dark and troubled than [[TheAtoner Atton Rand]], either. Former Republic deserter, Jedi hunter, Sith torturer, Sith deserter, turned to smuggling, and was likely the guy trying to sell your PlayerCharacter to the Exchange. Visas is of a rare species who can see through the Force, and Darth Nihilus ''ate'' her homeworld and all life on it, sparing only her. She became his "apprentice," but in practice is more his slave and punching bag. Handmaiden is the shunned, HeroicBastard daughter of an Echani general and a Jedi. Because her daddy cheated on his wife to produce her, her sisters treat her with contempt at best. Disciple? Well, under that naive persona, he's actually a spy for the Republic, enlisting in the Republic Navy because the Jedi shrugged and threw him away after the Mandalorian Wars didn't leave enough Jedi to train apprentices. Bao-Dur? Whew. [[ShellShockedVeteran Massive]] PTSD issues from [[ShootTheDog creating and using the Mass Shadow Generator]] at Malachor. He literally threw a switch and killed thousands of ally and enemy alike. Hanharr? Well, we're dealing with Wookiees and slavery, but Hanharr was insane to begin with and slaughtered his whole village to keep them out of slaver hands. Mira? Well, her family was killed by Mandalorians, and the Mandos took her as a slave. She doesn't speak of her captors with too much rancor as they taught her how to fight and handle explosives (in ExpandedUniverse material, it explains that Mandalorians tend to "adopt" children of fallen foes that have potential to join their ranks). And your PlayerCharacter? Well, s/he left the Order to fight the Mandalorians, was the teacher that abandoned Disciple, fought in two of the nastiest battles in the War, ordered the use of the Mass Shadow Generator that made Bao-Dur's issues, was the only one of Revan's followers to walk away and try to go back to the Order, only to get slapped in the face and a sentence of Exile, left with absolutely nothing to show for all the sacrifice.

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series should probably get its own folder, judging by the amount of examples there are. Seriously, we could be here all day.
* The ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' should probably get its own folder. The heroes, villains, supporting cast and even random {{NPC}}s in pretty much any installment can be counted on to have ''serious'' issues. Even better, their pasts are usually plot-relevant, and since the franchise ''loves'' plots full of [[WhamEpisode Wham Episodes]], most characters' pasts are also spoilertastic.

** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic.'' Carth Onasi? NiceGuy, but has a truckload of paranoia issues. Not surprising when you find out that his EvilMentor decided to defect to the Sith, and laid waste to Carth's homeworld. Carth was widowed in the attack, and he finds out later that while his son survived, the Sith are training him in the ways of the Force. Bastila? Well, it's a mild case, but the Jedi policy of child conscription and forcing them to cut all ties with their family and loved ones isn't pleasant. Mission may not [[SatisfiedStreetRat consider her past all that troubled]], but she is a teenager pretty much living on the streets of a WretchedHive. Zaalbar? Exiled from his homeworld for flying into a rage and attacking his brother. Said brother was colluding with slavers to sell his fellow Wookiees into slavery. In his anger, Zaalbar broke the taboo about not using claws in a fight, which makes you less than an animal in Wookiee society. Juhani? [[BrokenBird Oh, where to begin?]] Her people were subject to genocide by the Mandalorians. Her parents fled, but ended up on a WretchedHive that hated "aliens" and openly discriminated against them. Her father became a drug addict and died in a BarBrawl. Her mother starved to death because she was trying to feed her cub at the expense of herself, but was in debt to a loan shark, meaning Juhani was MadeASlave to pay it off. The Jedi freed her from slavery, and Juhani latched onto their Code and ideals hard. She dedicated herself to training and the Jedi way...until her master decides a good idea of a final test is to goad her into rage and trick the poor girl into thinking she killed her own master! Canderous and HK-47 certainly have dark and troubled pasts, but they're actually proud of the carnage trail they've left. And then, there's what TheReveal has to say about your PlayerCharacter.
** The second game (by Obsidian) gets an even nastier bunch of people. Kreia? Well, she's been a Jedi Master and a Sith Lord. She was probably TheManBehindTheMan for Revan. As much as she protests that she's neutral, it's obvious she hasn't given up the "Sith" part, aside from trying to setter it more towards ManipulativeBastard than StupidEvil. You don't get much more dark and troubled than [[TheAtoner Atton Rand]], either. Former Republic deserter, Jedi hunter, Sith torturer, Sith deserter, turned to smuggling, and was likely the guy trying to sell your PlayerCharacter to the Exchange. Visas is of a rare species who can see through the Force, and Darth Nihilus ''ate'' her homeworld and all life on it, sparing only her. She became his "apprentice," but in practice is more his slave and punching bag. Handmaiden is the shunned, HeroicBastard daughter of a Echani general and a Jedi. Because her daddy cheated on his wife to produce her, her sisters treat her with contempt at best. Disciple? Well, under that naive persona, he's actually a spy for the Republic, enlisting in the Republic Navy because the Jedi shrugged and threw him away after the Mandalorian Wars didn't leave enough Jedi to train apprentices. Bao-Dur? Whew. [[ShellShockedVeteran Massive]] PTSD issues from [[ShootTheDog creating and using the Mass Shadow Generator]] at Malachor. He literally threw a switch and killed thousands of ally and enemy alike. Hanharr? Well, we're dealing with Wookiees and slavery, but Hanharr was insane to begin with and slaughtered his whole village to keep them out of slaver hands. Mira? Well, her family was killed by Mandalorians, and the Mandos took her as a slave. She doesn't speak of her captors with too much rancor as they taught her how to fight and handle explosives (in ExpandedUniverse material, it explains that Mandalorians tend to "adopt" children of fallen foes that have potential to join their ranks). And your PlayerCharacter? Well, s/he left the Order to fight the Mandalorians, was the teacher that abandoned Disciple, fought in two of the nastiest battles in the War, ordered the use of the Mass Shadow Generator that made Bao-Dur's issues, was the only one of Revan's followers to walk away and try to go back to the Order, only to get slapped in the face and a sentence of Exile, left with absolutely nothing to show for all the sacrifice.

** The module creating community has brought up several examples as well. Anera in the ''Shadowlords'' arc took a lot of crap from her family (the celestial side) for being too mortal, and eventually entered into a relationship with a necromancer. It did not end well. Alex in ''VideoGame/TheBastardOfKosigan'' series has a very troubled one, dealing with the complications involved with being in love with the severely disfavored bastard, and her [[spoiler: abortive relationship with Vlad]]. Pia in ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'' has many regrets about her time as one of Vico's playthings.
** Every recruitable NPC in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. In the order you usually meet them, they are: a royal bastard left at the local church to become a mage-hunting KnightTemplar; mother is a legendary witch that intends to [[GrandTheftMe steal her body some time in the future]]; used to be [[ProfessionalKiller an assassin-bard]] whose favoured method was the HoneyTrap; killed all the inhabitants of a farmhouse [[ValuesDissonance after experiencing]] [[YouCantGoHomeAgain a big cultural no-no]]; turned into a golem some time ago and lost memories due to a very extensive AndIMustScream experience; old lady who's really dead but kept alive by an inhabiting spirit; another assassin whose past may suck just as bad, if not worse, than the first one's; drunk whose wife left him to become a monster. Even the ''dog'' has a troubled past; the dog's original master ended up dying, and it reached you only by managing to escape the mass slaughter at Ostagar. Sometimes, you think your party should form a Country & Western band.

** Considering the entire story takes place in the past, let's add ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' companions to the list: a healer who's possessed by a demon due to his own anger; an ex-slave who's hunted by his previous master; an Elven mage whose own clan views her as a walking liability; a prince whose family was murdered; and the story teller who witnesses it all. All of this is not including the main character, Hawke, who [[spoiler: witnesses their siblings and mother die, and is forced into war.]] The only one without a troubled past is Isabela, who seems to make light of even the worst situations.

** Varric, the aforementioned storyteller and resident MetaGuy, lampshades this in a conversation with Blackwall in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', actually namechecking this trope: "Surely you have a dark and troubled past." He guesses someone he couldn't save, "bad judgment leading to too many deaths - I have a couple of people like that in my past," or betrayal. Blackwall denies all of these.

* Shadow the Hedgehog probably has the darkest past of all the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' characters. He was created as the UltimateLifeform in an attempt to cure a [[LittlestCancerPatient terminally ill twelve-year-old girl]], had his home ambushed and said ill child die in front of him from a gunshot wound, was thrown into stasis and had his memories [[LaserGuidedAmnesia tampered by his creator]] to turn him into [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a ruthless killing machine]]. And all it took to turn his character around was a RousingSpeech by a ''different'' twelve year old girl, a HeroicSacrifice which resulted in him ''getting amnesia'', spending [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes not one]], [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog not two]], but ''[[VideoGame/SonicBattle three]]'' games trying to remember things properly again, and [[ToServeMan the near planetary takeover of an alien race]] to snap him out of his amnesia for good and to put his past behind him. ''Yikes.''

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has this for both the Ur-Quan and the Kohr-Ah [[spoiler: The Ur-Quan were originally a single species before one of their explorers found the Dynarri, and after the latter used the former to conquer the Sentient Milieu -the group of alien races in which the Ur-Quan were- the Ur-Quan were splitted in both races by the Dynarri.]]

** Futaba witnesses her own mother die in a car accident in front of her eyes, and was subsequently gaslit into believing she had driven her mother to suicide.

** [[SoleSurvivor Maggie's]] entire home world was razed and the inhabitants slaughtered by monsters, leaving her trapped on a burned out husk of a world for years before she managed to escape.

** The swordsman Lon'qu of ''Videogame/FireEmblemAwakening'' grew up in the slums of the Chon'sin, and at one point when Lon'qu was young, his good friend, the little girl Ke'ri, was killed by bandits, with Lon'qu only able to watch helplessly. He developed gynophobia as a result of the incident, believing that any women close to him would meet the same fate.

** ''Nearly everyone'' in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''. To name some quick examples: [[spoiler:Edelgard was subjected to deadly experiments by dark mages that killed her siblings. Dimitri's family was murdered. Claude is a biracial child born from an affair between two nobles from rival nations, and thus subject to FantasticRacism in both Almyra and the Alliance. Dorothea grew up in abject poverty before she was discovered by an Imperial opera company. Bernadetta was [[ParentalAbuse abused by her father]], who wanted to make her a "perfect, submissive wife" to wed off to nobles. Sylvain became the golden child of his family when he was born with a Crest, leading to his older brother being disowned. Felix's brother (who was also Ingrid's fiance) died at the same time as Dimitri's family. Mercedes had been adopted into an abusive Imperial family; she managed to escape, but her younger brother (who is also the [[BlackKnight Death Knight]]) wasn't as fortunate. Ashe grew up in poverty and was forced to commit theft to support himself and his family before he was adopted by a noble. Raphael's parents were murdered when he was young. Marianne was forced to isolate herself socially due to her "cursed" Crest. Lysithea and Hapi were both experimented on by the same dark mages that tortured Edelgard. Yuri was forced to act as a servant for a corrupt cardinal, and was also brutalized by Bernadetta's father for having the gall to trying to befriend her when he was of common birth.]]

** Futaba witnesses her own mother die in a car accident in front of her eyes.

** The Hoshidan spearwoman Oboro of ''Fates'' witnessed her merchant parents being murdered by a Nohrian assassin when she was young, and only managed to escape the same fate herself by hiding in their cart. She developed a ''deep'' hatred for all things and people Nohrian as a result and reacts...''rather badly'' to them, to the point that her [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-battle skill makes her deal more damage to Nohrian units]].

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Shadow the Hedgehog probably has the darkest past of all the Sonic characters. He was created as the UltimateLifeform in an attempt to cure a [[LittlestCancerPatient terminally ill twelve-year-old girl]], had his home ambushed and said ill child die in front of him from a gunshot wound, was thrown into stasis and had his memories [[LaserGuidedAmnesia tampered by his creator]] to turn him into [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a ruthless killing machine]]. And all it took to turn his character around was a RousingSpeech by a ''different'' twelve year old girl, a HeroicSacrifice which resulted in him ''getting amnesia'', spending [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes not one]], [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog not two]], but ''[[VideoGame/SonicBattle three]]'' games trying to remember things properly again, and [[ToServeMan the near planetary takeover of an alien race]] to snap him out of his amnesia for good and to put his past behind him. ''Yikes.''

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series ''loves'' this trope. Seriously, we could be here all day.

** ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic.'' Carth Onasi? NiceGuy, but has a truckload of paranoia issues. Not surprising when you find out that his EvilMentor decided to defect to the Sith, and laid waste to Carth's homeworld. Carth was widowed in the attack, and he finds out later that while his son survived, the Sith are training him in the ways of the Force. Bastila? Well, it's a mild case, but the Jedi policy of child conscription and forcing them to cut all ties with their family and loved ones isn't pleasant. Mission may not [[SatisfiedStreetRat consider her past all that troubled]], but she is a teenager pretty much living on the streets of a WretchedHive. Zaalbar? Exiled from his homeworld for flying into a rage and attacking his brother. Said brother was colluding with slavers to sell his fellow Wookiees into slavery. In his anger, Zaalbar broke the taboo about not using claws in a fight, which makes you less than an animal in Wookiee society. Juhani? [[BrokenBird Oh, where to begin?]] Her people were subject to genocide by the Mandalorians. Her parents fled, but ended up on a WretchedHive that hated "aliens" and openly discriminated against them. Her father became a drug addict and died in a BarBrawl. Her mother starved to death because she was trying to feed her cub at the expense of herself, but was in debt to a loan shark, meaning Juhani was MadeASlave to pay it off. The Jedi freed her from slavery, and Juhani latched onto their Code and ideals hard. She dedicated herself to training and the Jedi way...until her master decides a good idea of a final test is to goad her into rage and trick the poor girl into thinking she killed her own master! Canderous and HK-47 certainly have dark and troubled pasts, but they're actually proud of the carnage trail they've left. And then, there's what TheReveal has to say about your PlayerCharacter.

** The Hoshidan spearwoman Oboro of ''Fates'' witnessed her merchant parents being murdered by a Nohrian assassin when she was young, and only managed to escape the same fate herself by hiding in their cart. She developed a ''deep'' hatred for all things and people Nohrian as a result and reacts...''rather badly'' to them, to the point that her [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-battle skill makes her deal more damage to Nohrian units]].
** The swordsman Lon'qu of ''Videogame/FireEmblemAwakening'' grew up in the slums of the Chon'sin, and at one point when Lon'qu was young, his good friend, the little girl Ke'ri, was killed by bandits, with Lon'qu only able to watch helplessly. He developed gynophobia as a result of the incident, believing that any women close to him would meet the same fate.
** Henry the Dark Mage of ''Awakening'' started off with AbusiveParents who ignored him to the point that he spent most of his time wandering the woods outside of his village. When he became [[OnlyFriend close friends with a wolf that lived in the forest]], it was killed by villagers when it tried to visit him. His parents then sent him off to a [[OrphanageOfFear cruel, abusive orphanage]] (in the Japanese version) or a [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors cold and strict mage school]] (in the English version) where he was harshly punished and experimented on, and all of it seems to have...broken him mentally. In the present, he seems to be operating on BlueAndOrangeMorality, is fascinated by BodyHorror and zombies, and is at the point that he just doesn't ''understand'' human empathy and that threatening to kill and curse people is morally objectionable.

* All of the Warriors of Hope from VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls have one, [[spoiler:sans Monaca]]