History UsedToBeASweetKid / VideoGames

* An almost heroic example in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. During the intro, you can see a rather brawny but cheerful child playing around with his puppy. Would you believe that child grows up the be the surly, hulking BloodKnight berserker mercenary known as Brick? [[spoiler: Or that the reason for this change is a RoaringRampageOfRevenge at the death of that puppy?]]

* The ''VideoGame/DeptHeaven'' series spends ''[[VideoGame/BlazeUnion a game]]'' showing us firsthand what a sweet person Gulcasa, the HeroAntagonist of ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'', used to be before [[TraumaCongaLine his life caved in on him]] [[DiabolusExMachina just when it had started to go right]]. Granted, side materials and ''VideoGame/YggdraUnison'', the GaidenGame where he's one of the main characters, go to show that he's ''still'' an incredibly nice guy off the battlefield, but given that the SympatheticPOV is kept away from him for most of the main game, you'd never know it.

-->'''Vergil''': Don't you dare say it!
-->'''Dante''': JACKPOT!
--> [both have a AsskickingPose while being BackToBackBadasses]
-->'''Dante''': Why you gotta leave me hanging? We used to love saying that.
-->'''Vergil''': I have no recollection [slashes a demon coming at him].
-->'''Dante''': Let me jog your memory. A little Vergil [stabs two attacking demons] crying in the corner because mommy got mad [kicks the second demon flying at Vergil].
-->'''Vergil''': [dicing the demon and rest around him] I seem to recall YOU crying every time father raised his voice [bats several demons at Dante]
-->'''Dante''': [knocking them away] Hah! How would they feel if they saw us now?
-->'''Vergil''': What does it matter? [thrusting past each other wrecking more demons] We're still here aren't we?
-->'''Dante''': [back to back again] Yeah, you're probably right.
* Wirt, the unfortunate peg-legged boy from the game ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''. He wasn't always the {{Jerkass}} he is in the game: he was a normal kid from the city of Tristam until he was abducted by demons and pulled inside the Cathedral. Griswold managed to save him, but not before he lost both his leg and a big part of his sanity.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV''; Harry is a vile, abusive spoiled brat as a boy, but years of hardship and suffering turn him into a kind, honorable and selfless young man.
* Played straight with Terry in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' and ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI''. Life between the two was rather harsh between two games (highlights include an evil king forcing his beloved sister into prostitution), turning him from an adorable heroic figure into a darker antihero.

** There's also Giygas himself, [[VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings in the first game]], according to Maria. Ultimately it's the lullaby Maria sang to him as a child that forces him to retreat.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' there was a shy boy from Nibelheim who optimistically dreamed of being an adored hero like his idol the 1st Class SOLDIER Sephiroth as well as winning the heart of his crush Tifa whom he was too nervous to talk or hang out with. Unfortunately the boy became anti-social and lashed out at people after Tifa's injury when crossing a bridge on Mt. Nibel, which her father blamed him for. But after leaving his village to become a SOLDIER while making ThePromise with Tifa, said boy grew up to become someone shy, upbeat, brave, and supportive seen in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', though he had really bad self-esteem due to failing to achieve his dream, as he couldn't make it any further than being a simple infantryman, and upon returning to Nibelheim he didn't dare show his face out of embarrassment. Then his hero Sephiroth went crazy and set fire to Nibelheim, killing his mother and cutting up Tifa and his best friend Zack. If that wasn't enough he and Zack got experimented on by a MadScientist and infused with mako and [[spoiler:Jenova cells, the latter of which proves '''way worse''' further down the line...]] He attained FalseMemories as a result. Even after escaping, Zack was then shot down leaving the boy as a cynical and headstrong shell of his former self. Said boy [[spoiler: being Cloud Strife TheHero, it takes Tifa going on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to restore his former self.]]
** [[spoiler: Lampshaded in the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake remake]] when Cloud acts the part of a cold-blooded merc i.e trying to kill LooseLips Johnny Tifa is terrified and upset at how much Cloud has changed from the sweet boy whom she knew and fell for as a teenager. He does get better over the course of the story though.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' there was a shy boy from Nibelheim who optimistically dreamed of being an adored hero like his idol the 1st Class SOLDIER Sephiroth as well as winning the heart of his crush Tifa whom he was too nervous to talk or hang out with. Unfortunately the boy became anti-social and lashed out at people after Tifa's injury when crossing a bridge on Mt. Nibel, which her father blamed him for. But after leaving his village to become a SOLDIER while making ThePromise with Tifa, said boy grew up to become someone shy, upbeat, brave, and supportive seen in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', though he had really bad self-esteem due to failing to achieve his dream, as he couldn’t make it any further than being a simple infantryman, and upon returning to Nibelheim he didn’t dare show his face out of embarrassment. Then his hero Sephiroth went crazy and set fire to Nibelheim, killing his mother and cutting up Tifa and his best friend Zack. If that wasn’t enough he and Zack got experimented on by a MadScientist and infused with MAKO he got FalseMemories as a result. Even after escaping, Zack was then shot down leaving the boy as a cynical and headstrong shell of his former self. Said boy [[spoiler: being Cloud Strife TheHero, it takes Tifa going on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to restore his former self.]]

** An example of this trope played much more straight appears in the sixth Lostbelt, Avalon Le Fae. Upon arrival, they learn about [[MythArthurianLegend Morgan]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the queen of Faerie Britain]] [[WorldsStrongestMan and king of the British Lostbelt]]. She's a cruel tyrant who demands a yearly tax of mana from every faerie in Britain, kills those who are unable to pay, has knights who are able and willing (and, in one case, eager) to do her dirty work, keeps the faerie clans at odds with one another, is willing to ignore calamities that will kill a great many of her subjects if it serves her endgoals, is willing to implement a plan that will [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the entire planet]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and severely restricts methods of transporation]]. Then, at the end of Act I, [[spoiler:Mash gets sent back in time to before Morgan's reign began, and meets and befriends [[MessianicArchetype Aesc the Savior]], a bright, kind, caring, and overall adorable girl. Despite her nature and her heroic actions, including ending two separate wars, every time Aesc helped the faeries, [[UngratefulBastard they turned around and betrayed her]], often attempting to murder her outright. Eventually, at the end of the Autumn War, when faeries destroyed the peace Aesc had worked so hard to attain and poisoned the new human king, Aesc broke down, resolving to save only Britain, faeries be damned. She then reveals to Mash shortly before bidding her farewell that she, in fact, ''is Morgan herself.'' Morgan's tyranny in Faerie Britain is due to [[PureIsNotGood the faeries' capricious nature]] [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy causing her to abandon any and all sympathy she used to have for them]], and opt to preserve Britain itself, to the point that she would sacrifice her subjects to do so.]]

** Shawn, if [[spoiler:his Synth replacement]] is anything to go off of, was a clever and intelligent boy who liked to work with his hands and invent things. [[spoiler:Sixty years later and he's the head of [[BigBad the Institute]] and will willingly trade in morality ForScience He shows courtesy to you, [[LukeYouAreMyFather his father/mother]], not out of any lost love for you but because he thinks that it's what a child should do for their parent.]]

* Dark Choco Cookie from the ''VideoGame/CookieRun''franchise was, if pre-canon pictures and his Young Prince costume are anything to go off, originally a happy and confident person.