History VideoGameCrueltyPotential / VisualNovel

* Half of the fun of playing ''VisualNovel/WinterShard'' is the freedom it gives the player to be the evilest, sickest bastard imaginable if they want to play Frederone like that. [[NoCanonForTheWicked It won't get you anywhere near the True ending, though.]]
* The game ''VisualNovel/{{Sprung}}'' gives the player character mace which has absolutely no purpose within the game except for the player to spray it in people's eyes and see them cry. Becky also gets the equipment necessary to set somebody on fire (this does result in a game over).
* Just ''playing'' ''VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen'' is cruel, because your cute little magical girl princess is [[NintendoHard going to die an awful lot of horrible deaths]]. However, you can also use her to commit acts of gleeful wickedness against other characters. Among other things, you can force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, execute people at random, and reduce a woman to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death. The game actually has, alongside the various in-game stat meters shown to you, a hidden Cruelty stat which, if sufficiently increased, allows you to do ''even more'' awful acts, up to and including sacrificing your thirteen-year-old cousin to a kraken[[note]]this can alternatively be done ''without'' already being a vicious bitch if you learned certain information during that playthrough, but if you don't have that information and you haven't made the protagonist sufficiently callous, ''she will refuse to do it''[[/note]] or [[spoiler:murdering your own father]].
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', there is an additional mode that works like a dating sim. At certain points during those modes, the students will end up talking to the main character about their pain, fears, frustrations, vulnerabilities, and insecurities all on display, while the only available command involves agreeing or disagreeing with these internal reflections. Depending on the context, it's possible to make the main character of both of those games say some incredibly mean things to the other students.

* ''VisualNovel/SyrupAndTheUltimateSweet'': Between eating the candy girl in your basement, handing that candy girl off to your rival who's slowly eating her into nothing and refusing to help, and telling your rival that you hate her, there's a lot of it. Although it all leads to various [[DownerEnding downer endings]].
* ''VisualNovel/PhantomThiefSilverCat'': The only choices the player can make are which types of torture Mineko uses on Ginka.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', there is an additional mode that works like a dating sim. At certain points during those modes, the students will end up talking to the main character about their pain, fears, frustrations, vulnerabilities, and insecurities all on display, while the only available command involves agreeing or disagreeing with these internal reflections. Depending on the context, it's possible to make the main character of both of those games say some incredibly mean things to the other students.

* Just ''playing'' ''VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen'' is cruel, because your cute little magical girl princess is [[NintendoHard going to die an awful lot of horrible deaths]]. However, you can also use her to commit acts of gleeful wickedness against other characters. Among other things, you can force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, execute people at random, reduce a woman to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death, and sacrifice your thirteen-year-old cousin to a kraken. The game actually has, alongside the various in-game stat meters shown to you, a hidden Cruelty stat which, if sufficiently increased, allows you to do ''even more'' awful acts, up to and including [[spoiler:murdering your own father]].
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', there is an additional mode that works like a dating sim. At certain points during those modes, the students ended up talking to the main character about their pain, fears, frustrations, vulnerabilities and insecurities all on display, while the only available command involves agreeing or disagreeing with these internal reflections. Depending on the context, it's possible to make the main character of both of those games say some incredibly mean things to the other students.

* ''VisualNovel/SyrupAndTheUltimateSweet'': Between eating the candy girl in your basement, handing that candy girl off to your rival who's slowly eating her into nothing and refusing to help, and telling your rival you hate her there's a lot of it. Although it all leads to various [[DownerEnding downer endings]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2'', there is an additional mode that works like a dating sim. At certain points during those modes, the students ended up talking to the main character about their pain, fears, frustrations, vulnerabilities and insecurities all on display, while the only available command involves agreeing or disagreeing with these internal reflections. Depending on the context, it's possible to make the main character of both of those games say some incredibly mean things to the other students.

* In VisualNovel/DanganRonpa and VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2, there is an additional mode that works like a dating sim. At certain points during those modes, the students ended up talking to the main character about their pain, fears, frustrations, vulnerabilities and insecurities all on display, while the only available command involves agreeing or disagreeing with these internal reflections. Depending on the context, it's possible to make the main character of both of those games say some incredibly mean things to the other students.

** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' Case 5, you run into the Steel Samurai, who reveals himself to be [[spoiler:[[TheDitz Larry Butz]].]] If you present the wrong evidence to him during the one investigation phase that lets you talk to him, [[spoiler:Larry refuses to look at your evidence because he's [[DistractedByTheSexy too busy staring at]] [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Franziska]]. Franziska promptly offers to "sear her image into his mind for eternity" by sending him on a [[WhipItGood "Whippity-Whip-Trip"]] into unconsciousness.]] This is probably the one time in which presenting wrong evidence in an investigation phase can be pretty satisfying... and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]].

* Just ''playing'' ''VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen'' is cruel, because your cute little magical girl princess is [[NintendoHard going to die an awful lot of horrible deaths]]. However, you can also use her to commit acts of gleeful wickedness against other characters. Among other things, you can force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, execute people at random, reduce a woman to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death, and sacrifice your thirteen-year-old cousin to a kraken. The game actually has, alongside the various in-game stat meters shown to you, a hidden Cruelty stat which, if sufficiently increased, allows you to do ''even more'' awful acts, up to and including [[spoiler:murdering your own father]].

* Just ''playing'' ''[[VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen Long Live The Queen]]'' is cruel, because your cute little magical girl princess is [[NintendoHard going to die an awful lot of horrible deaths]]. However, you can also use her to commit acts of gleeful wickedness against other characters. Among other things, you can force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, execute people at random, reduce a woman to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death, and sacrifice your thirteen-year-old cousin to a kraken.

** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' Case 5, you run into the Steel Samurai, who reveals himself to be [[spoiler:[[TheDitz Larry Butz]].]] If you present the wrong evidence to him during the one investigation phase that lets you talk to him, [[spoiler:Larry refuses to look at your evidence because he's [[DistractedByTheSexy too busy staring at Franziska]]. Franziska promptly offers to "sear her image into his mind for eternity" by sending him on a [[WhipItGood "Whippity-Whip-Trip"]] into unconsciousness.]] This is probably the one time in which presenting wrong evidence in an investigation phase can be pretty satisfying... and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]].

** VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2 has the logic chess battles, which give you the opportunity to say needlessly cruel things to your adversaries. In particular, you can tell a broken down [[spoiler: Sebastian]] that he's a failure as a human being. [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Fapr2XNN8]] ]]

** Another minor example from the same case: When you first start the case, Edgeworth refuses to let you defend him. After running around and gathering evidence for a while, Phoenix and Maya return to the Detention Center to speak with Edgeworth again. At this point, Edgeworth relents and asks Phoenix to defend him. The game continues regardless of your choice, but you can always choose to troll Edgeworth and tell him "Sorry, you missed your chance!", scaring him half to death and prompting both him and Maya to yell at you for your cruel sense of humour.

* Just ''playing'' ''[[VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen Long Live The Queen]]'' is cruel, because your cute little magical girl princess is [[NintendoHard going to die an awful lot of horrible deaths]]. However, you can also use her to commit acts of gleeful wickedness against other characters. Among other things, you can force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, execute people at random, reduce a woman to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death, and sacrifice your thirteen-year-old cousin to a kraken.

** In the third case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice For All'' [[spoiler:Acro turns out to have killed Russell Berry accidentally while trying to kill Russell's daughter Regina because she accidentally put Acro's brother Bat in a coma and is so naïve that she doesn't even understand what she's done. At the end of the case, Regina asks if Acro is going to come after her. The "correct" answer is to say "No," and to show her some evidence, but's there's no real reason you can't say "Of course he is!" and send her off in tears.]]

** VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2 has the logic chess battles, which give you the opportunity to say needlessly cruel things to your adversaries. In particular, you can tell a broken down [[spoiler: Sebastian]] that he's a failure as a human being.

** VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2 has the logic chess battles, which give you the opportunity to say needlessly cruel things to your adversaries. In particular, you can tell a broken down [[Sebastian]] that he's a failure as a human being.

* VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2 has the logic chess battles, which give you the opportunity to say needlessly cruel things to your adversaries. In particular, you can tell a broken down [[Sebastian]] that he's a failure as a human being.

** In the third case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice For All'' [[spoiler:Acro turns out to have killed Russell Berry accidentally while trying to kill Russell's daughter Regina because she accidentally put Acro's brother Bat in a coma. At the end of the case, Regina asks if Acro is going to come after her. The "correct" answer is to say "No," and to show her some evidence, but's there's no real reason you can't say "Of course he is!" and send her off in tears.]]

* In the third case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' [[spoiler:Acro turns out to have killed Russell Berry accidentally while trying to kill Russell's daughter Regina because she accidentally put Acro's brother Bat in a coma. At the end of the case, Regina asks if Acro is going to come after her. The "correct" answer is to say "No," and to show her some evidence, but's there's no real reason you can't say "Of course he is!" and send her off in tears.]]

** In [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations the third game's]] second case, examining the ceremonial sword will prompt Maya to strike Phoenix on the head with it. You can keep examining it, letting Maya repeatedly strike Phoenix on the head with it. One can only wonder how hard that head is...

** The first game's fourth case had two examples of this with the ButtMonkeys of choice being Lotta and/or Larry. At some point, Gumshoe will offer you either a dog (Missile), a fishing rod or a metal detector to fish for Gourdy to find key evidence for your case. The ''correct'' choice would be [[spoiler:the metal detector]], but the two other options can lead to this. For Lotta, the player can take the fishing pole [[spoiler:which Maya will use in the lake to fish for Gourdy, only to trip and fall, causing Lotta's cameras to react and waste ''more'' (very expensive) rolls of film than you already wasted earlier in the case]]. For Larry, the player can take Missile [[spoiler:who will react automatically to the aroma of Larry's Samurai dogs the minute you get into the park, let alone the crime scene, causing the aptly-named poochy to run like a missile and chow down on all of Larry's hotdogs, making him lose his (at this point, already doomed) business. For added butthurt, you can also show Missile to Larry after the puppy ate his entire revenue]].

** In the third game's second case, examining the ceremonial sword will prompt Maya to strike Phoenix on the head with it. You can keep examining it, letting Maya repeatedly strike Phoenix on the head with it. One can only wonder how hard that head is...

* In case 2-3 of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' (Justice for All) [[spoiler:Acro turns out to have killed Russell Berry accidentally while trying to kill Russell's daughter Regina because she accidentally put Acro's brother Bat in a coma. At the end of the case, Regina asks if Acro is going to come after her. The "correct" answer is to say "No," and to show her some evidence, but's there's no real reason you can't say "Of course he is!" and send her off in tears.]]
*** Halfway through the case, you'll run into Franziska during the second investigation phase. For every irrelevant piece of evidence you present to her, she whips [[GenkiGirl Maya]]. You can do this as many times as you like without any repercussion.
** In ''Investigations'' Case 5, you run into the Steel Samurai, who reveals himself to be [[spoiler:[[TheDitz Larry Butz]].]] If you present the wrong evidence to him during the one invesigation phase that lets you talk to him, [[spoiler:Larry refuses to look at your evidence because he's [[DistractedByTheSexy too busy staring at Franziska]]. Franziska promptly offers to "sear her image into his mind for eternity" by sending him on a [[WhipItGood "Whippity-Whip-Trip"]] into unconsciousness.]] This is probably the one time in which presenting wrong evidence in an investigation phase can be pretty satisfying...and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]].
** Case 1-4 had two examples of this with the buttmonkeys of choice being Lotta and/or Larry. At some point Gumshoe will offer you either a dog (Missile), a fishing rod or a metal detector to fish for Gourdy to find key evidence for your case. The ''correct'' choice would be [[spoiler:the metal detector]], but the two other options can lead to this. For Lotta the player can take the fishing pole [[spoiler:which Maya will use in the lake to fish for Gourdy, only to trip and fall, causing Lotta's cameras to react and waste ''more'' (very expensive) rolls of film than you already wasted earlier in the case]]. For Larry the player can take Missile [[spoiler:who will react automatically to the aroma of Larry's Samurai dogs the minute you get into the park, let alone the crime scene, causing the aptly-named poochy to run like a missile and chow down on all of Larry's hotdogs, making him lose his (at this point, already doomed) business. For added butthurt, you can also show Missile to Larry after the puppy ate his entire revenue]].
*** Lotta's the ButtMonkey even if you don't get the fishing rod. If you don't Maya sneezes setting off the camera anyways.
** In case 3-2, examining the ceremonial sword will prompt Maya to strike Phoenix on the head with it. You can keep examining it, letting Maya repeatedly strike Phoenix on the head with it. One can only wonder how hard that head is...

* The game ''{{Sprung}}'' gives the player character mace which has absolutely no purpose within the game except for the player to spray it in people's eyes and see them cry. Becky also gets the equipment necessary to set somebody on fire (this does result in a game over).

* In case 2-3 of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' (Justice for All) [[spoiler:Acro turns out to have killed Berry accidentally while trying to kill Regina because she accidentally killed his brother Aero. At the end of the case, Regina asks is Acro is going to come after her. The "correct" answer is to say "No," and to show her some evidence, but's there's no real reason you can't say "Of course he is!" and send her off in tears.]]
*** Halfway throughout the case, you'll run into Franziska during the second investigation phase. For every irrelevant piece of evidence you present to her, she whips [[GenkiGirl Maya]]. You can do this for as many times as you like without any repercussion.

** Case 1-4 had two examples of this with the buttmonkeys of choice being Lotta and/or Butz. At some point Gumshoe will offer you either a dog (Missile), a fishing rod or a metal detector to fish for Gourdy to find key evidence for your case. The ''correct'' choice would be [[spoiler:the metal detector]], but the two other options can lead to this. For Lotta the player can take the fishing pole [[spoiler:which Maya will use in the lake to fish for Gourdy, only to trip and fall, causing Lotta's cameras to react and waste ''more'' (very expensive) rolls of film than you already wasted earlier in the case]]. For Larry the player can take Missile [[spoiler:who will react automatically to the aroma of Larry's Samurai dogs the minute you get into the park, let alone the crime scene, causing the aptly-named poochy to run like a missile and chow down on all of Larry's hotdogs, making him lose his (at this point, already doomed) business. For added butthurt, you can also show Missile to Larry after the puppy ate his entire revenue]].