History RedHerring / VideoGames

** ''VideoGame/Persona4'':

*** When it's time to figure out the true identity of the killer, it's noted that Ryotaro Dojima objectively fits all of the major points for the killer's profile (he had contact with Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi as a police detective, he would not have been considered suspicious at the scenes of the crimes, and he could have monitored and threatened the protagonist in his own home without raising suspicion)... but it's pointed out that he nearly ''died'' pursuing Namatame, and would never harm his own daughter.

** The main game is about figuring out why you're stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop that ends with your sun going supernova. Something you might notice, while studying your solar system map, is that [[CometOfDoom the Interloper]] disappears into the sun late into a loop, so maybe there's something about it that's detonating your star? But when you land on the comet and explore its interior, you'll learn that while it ''had'' a volatile core of dangerous "ghost matter" at one point, it has long since detonated (which is what wiped out [[{{Precursors}} the Nomai]] nearly 300,000 years ago). Then, as you research the Nomai's "Ash Twin Project," you'll learn that they needed so much energy to power a 22-minute time loop that they built a StellarStation to [[StarKilling blow up your sun]]. This paints the Sun Station as the VeryDefiniteFinalDungeon, but when you finally reach it, all it has for you are {{Wham Line}}s - the Nomai fired the Sun Station, but it didn't do anything. Your sun is going nova because it's at the end of its natural lifespan, and there is ''nothing'' you can do to save it.
** The ''Echoes of the Eye'' DLC concerns a mysterious alien vault that's been sealed away inside a {{ringworld|Planet}}, with three codes needed to open it. The codes have been [[BookBurning burnt]] in the real world, but copies of them were taken into the aliens' [[LotusEaterMachine VR simulation]], so it looks like you'll just have to track them down in there. Unfortunately, you soon find that the aliens were one step ahaed of you and deleted the digital copies of the codes as well - instead of collecting the codes to open the vault, you have to learn various glitches that let you [[SequenceBreaking sequence-break]] the simulation and gain access to the Vault that way.

* In the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' remake for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, there is one in the form of a videotape. At the beginning of the game, Chris or Jill is told to investigate the gunshots they heard after they entered the mansion. This leads to one of the characters first zombie encounter. After dealing with the Zombie, a S.T.A.R.S victim named Kenneth has a videotape you can collect to view later. One might think this is an important clue. Turns out the videotape [[ChekhovsGun doesn't come up]] again until the last area of the game. And if Chris or Jill decide to watch the tape, all they'll see is Kenneth getting attacked and killed by that same zombie in first person view. In other words, the tape has nothing to do with the many task needed to beat the game, or alter any of the endings. In fact, it's easy to miss the area where the tape can be viewed.

*** Every time you prevent a murder, it cuts to a mysterious figure in the fog who notes that "nothing's happened again"; it's got to be the murderer angry that his killings have been stopped right? It's actually Namatame, glad to see that he's "saved" another person. Although he actually ''is'' the person responsible for the person you just saved being thrown into the TV, but he has no idea he's endangering them and had nothing to do with the initial two deaths.
*** The party thinks they've caught the killer by catching Mitsuo Kubo... but he's JackTheRipoff.

*** There are a few of these in relation to the casino heist that [[InMediasRes opens the game]], which ends with the protagonist getting caught by the police due to the actions of [[TheMole a traitor within the Phantom Thieves]]. The identity of said traitor is Akechi, but the game briefly attempts to throw suspicion on Makoto instead - her sister is the target of the heist, and Makoto is clearly hesitant about stealing her heart. The BIGGER herring is actually the framing device itself. Not only did the Phantoms know Akechi planned to betray them from basically day one, but Joker's arrest and interrogation were all part of a plan to get Makoto's sister on their side (they don't steal her heart at all) and fake his death to throw Akechi and the conspiracy off their trail.

*** There is a very unnatural emphasis of her opposing stance with the Phantom Thieves, because she agrees that they were ultimately good, but people might be over-reliant on them. This can ''very easily'' lead you into believing that she might oppose the Thieves like Akechi. She ''doesn't'', she's a very loyal ally from start to end and that was merely brought out once when you hang out with her and Akechi in a cafe. Furthermore once she is exposed as Sumire, it turns out that she entrusted Dr. Maruki to cope with her crippling SurvivorGuilt by turning into a copy of Kasumi, and it's implied that this was Kasumi's mindset. In a seeming turn of {{Irony}}, even the real Kasumi doesn't follow this to Sumire; She helped Sumire throughout most of her life and manifested an inferiority complex on her which led to Sumire nearly being ran over by traffic when she tried to run away from Kasumi and not seeing incoming traffic, and in a seemingly ironic fashion, that was Kasumi's very own demise.
*** On the second day of the game, Sojiro would talk about a 15-year old girl who died from a traffic accident a month before you arrived during the mental shutdown-induced traffic jam; Kasumi is 15 years old when the game's events began. You may think that Kasumi is the ghost of a girl who died in the Mental Shutdown cases; in reality, although the real Kasumi was the victim of that accident, it had nothing to do with the mental shutdowns and the Kasumi you meet isn't a ghost.

** The soundtrack has a track called "Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans", a ''VideoGame/MegaManX''-styled remix of Sans's theme "sans.". [[CutSong It is never used at any point in the game]] -- the use of "Might" in the title was very deliberate.

** There are two for Neku's murderer. First, a cutscene shows Joshua apparently shooting Neku, but then an extended version of the scene shows he was actually shooting at Minamimoto, behind Neku. Then it appears that Minamimoto shot Neku. However, the cutscene is later extended a second time, showing that Minamimoto was shooting at Joshua, and it really WAS Joshua who killed Neku.

* In ''VideoGame/NeoTheWorldEndsWithYou'', a major mystery of the story is the identity of new protagonist Rindo's online friend Swallow, since the only clue he has is that they're in the U.G. with him, but Tsugumi Matsunae, a member of the Ruinbringers, seems to fit the bill on a few regards. Her Social Network profile hints that she has a connection to Rindo, she turns into a bird Noise during her boss fight(albeit a crane rather than a swallow), and after said boss fight, Swallow stops replying to Rindo. Swallow's real identity is Shoka Sakurane.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'':

*** First, there is a very unnatural emphasis of her opposing stance with the Phantom Thieves, because she agrees that they were ultimately good, but people might be over-reliant on them. This can ''very easily'' lead you into believing that she might oppose the Thieves like Akechi. She ''doesn't'', she's a very loyal ally from start to end and that was merely brought out once when you hang out with her and Akechi in a cafe. Furthermore once she is exposed to be not Kasumi but is actually her depressed and inferior sister Sumire Yoshizawa, it turns out that she entrusted Takuto to cope with her crippling SurvivorGuilt by turning into a copy of Kasumi, and it's implied that this was Kasumi's mindset. In a seeming turn of {{Irony}}, even the real Kasumi doesn't follow this to Sumire; She helped Sumire throughout most of her life and manifested an inferiority complex on her which led to Sumire nearly being ran over by traffic when she tried to run away from Kasumi and not seeing incoming traffic, and in a seemingly ironic fashion, that was Kasumi's very own demise.
*** On the second day of the game, Sojiro would talk about a 15-year old girl who died from a traffic accident a month before you arrived during the mental shutdown-induced traffic jam; Kasumi is 15 years old when the game's events began. You may think that Kasumi is the ghost of a girl who died in the Mental Shutdown cases; the accident itself ''literally'' has nothing to do with mental shutdowns.
*** And then there's also Kasumi talking about her dead sister when you hang out with her after going to Odaiba. According to her, she had a sister that she wished to go to internationals with as a sisters duo but she died of a car crash. It turns out that the "Kasumi" you see here is actually her sister Sumire brainwashed into thinking that she was Kasumi, and the real Kasumi was the one who died.
*** Kasumi also talks about her overprotective father who directed the talk show where Akechi was often interviewed. That talk show belongs to the TV Station President who is defintely a loyal crony of Shido; You might think that he's evil. He's not and he's actually a really competent parent.

* Quite literally in the Game Boy game ''VideoGame/JamesBond007''. There is a man in a market place who offers to help you in exchange for a "small {{rouge|AnglesOfSatin}} fish." Alas, the fish is nowhere to be found.

*** The Nazi's, as bad as they can be while being run by Hitler who supposedly survived the end of the war, having hid in Antarctica this entire time. The BigBad right? Nope, just another diversion. The true purpose of the rumors summoning them was due to how interlocked they had become with the myth of the Spear of Longinus which would provide a weapon that could ensure that the end of the world would not be preventable.

*** Every time you prevent a murder, it cuts to a mysterious figure in the fog who notes that "nothing's happened again"; it's got to be the murderer angry that his killings have been stopped right? It's actually Namatame, glad to see that he's "saved" another person. Although he actually ''is'' the one who endangered the people you saved, he just isn't the one who murdered the people who actually died and has no idea that he's doing anything harmful.
*** The party thinks they've caught the killer by catching Mitsuo Kubo... but it's JackTheRipoff.

* In ''The Cruise'' there's a small fish at the very bottom of the diving tank. If you examine it, the text states that it's red and probably a herring.

** Similarly, a red container in ''Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock'' contains an [[LiteralMetaphor actual red herring]]. The description says that it'll probably distract you more and more as it starts to stink.

* The interactive fiction puzzle ''Final Selection'' has several red herring clues, including a crossword puzzle clue of "[[RedScare Marxist]] found in shoals provides a clue of doubtful value" and a hard-to-find and even-harder-to-decode clue in the fireplace that translates to "FOOLISH NO HOPE".