History Main / GuiltBasedGaming

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' Matsuribayashi-Hen, the last episode of the saga, a character [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] near the beginning of the game and quite clearly speaks to you, the player, asking for your help to get them out of the GroundhogDayLoop. She says that, if you don't get them through the events of the game and to the [[EarnYourHappyEnding Good End]], they will never be able to save themselves. And also that, if you uninstall the game, [[FateWorseThanDeath you will seal their fate forever]].

---> Go ahead. Leave. When you come back, I'll be waiting with a bat.
---> You're lucky I don't smack you for thinking about leaving.
** At least one actually ''agrees'' to quit the game, saying: "[[KnowWhenToFoldEm Let's beat it, this is turning into a bloodbath!]]"

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIICrimsonButterfly'' has it in the form of Mio's twin sister, Mayu. The game makes it very clear that she ''is'' dependent on the player, because she's not as brave as Mio. And a limp from an old knee injury causes her to be slow, too, so she will often plead for you to not run too far ahead and not abandon her. And characters to tell you to watch out for her. And Mio's goal is to keep her sister safe. [[TheLoad What the player thinks of her can vary, though...]]
* Yet another reason why ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' fans obsess over individual characters. Some pairs of characters will have conversations revealing their [[{{Backstory}} backstories]] and interpersonal relationships. Some will have have paired endings ([[{{Shipping}} usually getting married.]]) Anyway if they die, you lose those conversations, lose the bonuses from relationships, and their ending is replaced with "Character died on Chapter 17."

* The museum Te Papa in Wellington (the capital of New Zealand) has a video game with AnAesop about how you shouldn't fish with nets or long lines. It teaches this message by encouraging the player to catch fish, but instead of there being a way to avoid the birds or dolphins you're not supposed to catch, the game just randomly says that you're killing them.

Compare ItsAWonderfulFailure (the results of a failure are shown), WhatTheHellPlayer (the game calls you out on being a jerk), YouBastard (the game doesn't stop you, but you're reminded that you shouldn't be enjoying whatever you're doing), AntiRageQuitting (the game penalizes you for quitting mid-game, often in multiplayer games where quitting creates a problematic experience for other players), AntiIdling (the game tries to stop you from lollygagging, sometimes overlapping with this trope), ContinueYourMissionDammit (the game acts like there's a time limit when there isn't one, sometimes invoking this trope but more often not) and ContinueCountdown (the game may combine these tropes to pressure a player to continue playing). Contrast AntiPoopSocking, when the game is encouraging you to take a break from playing.

** In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', after going through the toe-tapping animation four times, Sonic would eventually lie down, looking at the player with a very bored expression. In ''Sonic 2'' and ''Sonic 3'', Tails yawns, and in ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', Knuckles does some shadow-boxing.
** In most of the 3D Sonic games, idling for a long period of time will result in the characters talking to themselves or, in the case of ''Sonic Heroes'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', each other. This is normally more of an EasterEgg than anything, but in ''Shadow'', a few of the things they say when you do this are heartbreaking. Especially painful is Charmy Bee's comment about wanting to go home and watch cartoons in Shadow's Prison Island... an innocuous line, [[FridgeHorror until you consider]] that the planet is being invaded by aliens, who are shooting at 6-year-old Charmy as he looks for disks on an abandoned military base ''alone'' [[ParentalAbandonment on the orders of the closest thing to parents he has]], and the only one protecting Charmy is AntiHero Shadow.
** In Sonic's appearance in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'', after tapping his foot for a few moments, Sonic will recline on the ground a la ''Sonic 2''. After a few moments more, he will fall asleep and dream of running.

** In Sonic's appearance in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'', after tapping his foot for a few moments, Sonic will recline on the ground ala ''Sonic 2''. After a few moments more, he will fall asleep and dream of running.

* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Croc}}'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, selecting the "no" response after losing all your lives "treats" you to an image of a depressed looking Croc, lowering his head and sadly trudging away, his faithful bird companion following suit...

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has this trope all over the place, going with its theme of blurring the line between the player and the player character. Killing certain characters (most notably [[TeamMom Toriel]] and Papyrus) will result in you getting some heartrending last lines from them and/or being yelled at, and if you kill anyone ''at all'' you can't get the GoldenEnding (though InUniverse, killing only a few people will have your actions acknowledged as self-defense). The Genocide run is a massive gauntlet of ''all'' the guilt-tripping the game can throw at you- the only person who acts nice to you is the BigBad [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame who generally taunts you for being nice]]. [[spoiler: And reloading saves ''will not help''- Flowey and to an extent Sans have RippleEffectProofMemory, and they remember your actions in previous playthroughs. Get the GoldenEnding and then go back to see the others? You'll get guilt-tripped for undoing all the good you did. Get the Genocide ending and try again for the GoldenEnding? Nope, your game is ''permanently tainted'' by the results of the Genocide ending and any time you reach the True Pacifist ending, the final cutscenes will end with the implication of ''everyone dying''. The game even guilts those who watch Genocide Run [[LetsPlay Let's Plays]], mocking them for their cowardice in being unwilling to do the dirty work themselves. And Steam saves the data for it once you complete it. ''And it will always be there regardless of whether you're going to get the other endings, and the only way you'' can ''get rid of it is if you delete the folder responsible.'']]

** Deconstructed by the answers you can give in dialogues regarding the hurry you have to go save Imoen. Which is totally virtual, since you can go questing all around Amn for the whole time and nothing will happen until you effectively go to rescue her. There is no real urgency despite [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the plot saying so]].

** One of your companions needs help of a particular kind, and neglecting their needs will lead to them seeking alternate means of help that will cost them, and you. [[spoiler:Gale has a FantasticNuke embedded in his body, and he needs to absorb magical energy from enchanted artifacts to defuse it temporarily. If you take too long to help him with his condition, he will eventually announce to you that he found a better solution. Peering into his mind reveals that said solution was [[DealWithTheDevil selling his soul to Raphael to defuse the nuke permanently]]. Either way, he doesn't need your help -- or you -- anymore, and he will leave your camp, never to return.]]

* Notably averted in ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite''. If you stand still for a while, Elizabeth will wander away and start admiring the scenery, calling to you if she spots any items you missed. The developers have stated that they didn't feel the need to [[ContinueYourMissionDammit yell at the player for taking their time]].

** The ''Animal Crossing'' series has guilt-based town deletion confirmations. When you select the option to rebuild a town, the game will remind you that the town on your current save file will be erased, as will all the inhabitants. In most games, one of the town's inhabitants will panic when you first select the option, and will tell you what rebuilding a town entails with the fear and anxiety of someone who believes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is nigh. In the Gamecube game, the inhabitant will even flat-out say that ''no one in the town will survive''. This is downplayed in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'', where deletion options are limited to deleting a resident's registration: the island and the inhabitants will remain, but not only will the player's home and belongings be deleted, but [[RetGone all of the inhabitants' memories of the player will also be erased]], as Tom Nook spells out matter-of-factly. There is no way to delete the "Resident Representative", the main player for the game; nor are there options in the game for actually deleting the island, which can only be done by deleting the game's save data from the Switch's storage.

Especially when [[WhatTheHellHero it's the ''game itself'' that's trying to make you feel]] like the biggest {{Jerkass}} in the world.

Especially when it's the ''game itself'' that's trying to make you feel like the biggest {{Jerkass}} in the world.

-->'''Girl:''' やっと来てくれた。待っていたんだからね。(''Yatto kitekureta. Matte ita ndakara ne.'')
** Which roughly translates to: "You finally came. I was waiting for you."

* ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'' can chastise you for [[WarpWhistle taking the flying bus to work and back]] if you use it to skip the demonstration at Elevator Bridge. Customers will then call you out for it, threatening that your ignorance to the economic inequality between Junuk and Singsing makes you no different from an Avarice Criminal, and that it'll become your downfall. If you continue ignoring the protests and accumulating wealth, you'll be tagged with a Pre-Avarice Criminal Badge, increasing your risk of getting arrested unless you can pay for a lawyer to bail you out. [[spoiler:If you earn more than 50k [[FictionalCurrency Vana]], a cyberattack steals half of your money from you [[JustLikeRobinHood as part of a relief scheme for the impoverished]], although AVAC pays it back to you towards the end of the day.]]

* In ''VideoGame/3DCustomGirl'', your virtual avatar will berate you for not visiting her if the game hasn’t been opened in a while. She cheers up quickly afterwards though.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ThreeDCustomGirl 3D Custom Girl]]'', your virtual dress-up girl will bid the player goodbye when they quit the game. Depending on how long the game’s been running, this ranges from sadly bidding you goodbye to cheerfully waving you off, all before she gets pulled back into her virtual world and the game exits.

* In ''[[VirtualPaperDoll 3D]] [[HGame Custom Girl]]'', your virtual avatar will berate you for not visiting her if the game hasn’t been opened in a while. She cheers up quickly afterwards though.
--->'''Girl:''' やっと来てくれた。待っていたんだからね。(''Yatto kitekureta. Matte ita ndakara ne.'')

* ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'' can chastise you for [[WarpWhistle taking the flying bus to work and back]] if you use it to skip the demonstration at Elevator Bridge. Customers will then call you out for it, threatening that your ignorance to the economic inequality between Junuk and Singsing makes you no different from an Avarice Criminal, and that it'll become your downfall. If you continue ignoring the protests and accumulating wealth, you'll be tagged with a Pre-Avarice Criminal Badge, increasing your risk of getting arrested unless you can pay for a lawyer to bail you out.

* ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest SWAT'' (the first one that was a live-action Full Motion Video game) does this extensively.

* ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'' can chastise you for [[WarpWhistle taking the flying bus to work and back]] if you use it to skip [[spoiler:the demonstration at Elevator Bridge]]. Customers will then call you out for it, threatening that [[spoiler:your ignorance to the economic inequality between Junuk and Singsing makes you no different from an Avarice Criminal, and that it'll become your downfall]]. If you continue ignoring [[spoiler:the protests]], you'll be tagged with a Pre-Avarice Criminal Badge, increasing your risk of getting arrested unless you can pay for a lawyer to bail you out.

* ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'' can chastise you for [[WarpWhistle taking the flying bus to work and back]] if you use it to skip [[spoiler:the demonstration at Elevator Bridge]]. Customers will then call you out for it, threatening that [[spoiler:your ignorance to the economic inequality between Junuk and Singsing makes you no different from an Avarice Criminal, and that it'll become your downfall.]]

* One of the routes in the visual novel ''Yume Miru Kusuri'' involves saving a girl from being bullied. Midway through the other two routes you are told that she attempted suicide.