Broken Ace / Visual Novels

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• Ace Attorney has a few.
  • Adrian Andrews is a level-headed and professional career woman, but it's all a front to hide the fact that she's traumatized from her mentor Celeste Inpax's suicide. She acts like Celeste in an attempt to cope, but her actual personality is completely different — she's very anxious and has a rather severe codependency problem. When she shows up again in Trials and Tribulations after Phoenix and Edgeworth brought justice upon Matt Engarde (who drove Celeste to suicide) in the last game and helped her smile and feel hope for the first time in a long time, she finally acts like herself, which means that she clearly displays her nervous disposition, but she's much happier, and it's clear that a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders.
  • Franziska von Karma, Manfred von Karma's daughter, is a prosecuting prodigy who won her first case at thirteen, and takes immense pride in her legal skills. She's also completely consumed with the idea that she has to be absolutely perfect in everything she does as a result of her father's hellish education; she was taught that the defining trait of a von Karma was effortless, unflinching perfectionism. She's also obsessed with one-upping Edgeworth, her adoptive brother who was subjected to the same treatment ever since he was taken under her father's wing as a child, and it frustrates her to no end that after the first game, Edgeworth began his Character Development and is now no longer obsessed with winning cases at all costs like she is. Edgeworth is really the only one who understands that she has more of a heart than she lets on and she finally breaks down and cries in front of him at the end of the second game, telling him that she knows that she's not perfect but she feels like she at least has to try to be.
  • Edgeworth. He is undoubtedly an excellent prosecutor, known both as "The Demon Prosecutor" and "King of Prosecutors" in-universe and is apparently so handsome that almost every woman (and possibly some of the men) develop crushes on him, but not only is he so haunted by his father's murder and the fear that he was the one who accidentally killed him that he's had horrific nightmares about it for fifteen years until Phoenix and Maya solve the case, he's also petrified of small spaces, heights, and earthquakes because it took place in an elevator, to the point where he passes out when anything resembling a tremor occurs, including airplane turbulence, and even curled into a ball on the floor in the detention center when an earthquake hit. He's also so socially inept that he doesn't notice when he's intimidating or glaring at people, which leads to anyone who's not close with him to think that he hates them, and sarcasm often goes over his head.
  • Athena Cykes is a brilliant young lawyer and psychologist who earned a double bachelors in two of the hardest college-level courses by 18. In Europe, which is notably more difficult than in America. And she's no slouch as a defense attorney. But man, does that girl have issues. Between Blackquill and her guilt complex on one end, her own suppressed memories of potentially murdering her mother on the other (with Blackquill being in jail after he decided to go Taking the Heat for Athena), and her incredible PTSD from both, it's a wonder the poor girl is even able to function before the end of Dual Destinies.
• A recurring theme in Danganronpa is that talent comes with huge drawbacks and doesn't make anyone better than everyone else. The main protagonists tend to be average people among those who are the best in their given fields, but because they aren't burdened with their peers' eccentricity, Crippling Overspecialization, or dysfunction, they're more apt to be perseverant and optimistic. Makoto and Komaru even embrace the fact that they're average by other people's standards, and it doesn't bother them at all.
  • Perhaps showcased best with Izuru Kamukura (formerly Hajime Hinata), an Ordinary High-School Student who volunteered to be made into The Ace via surgical operation, done by Hope's Peak Academy itself. They also (without telling him) deliberately removed his original personality, memories, and emotions, so that they would not interfere with a being of pure talent. By doing so, they did indeed create a perfectly talented man... who has no emotions that allow him to actually enjoy any of this talent and feels nothing but complete and utter boredom 24/7. As such, he has absolutely no motivation to do anything unless it has a chance of lessening his boredom. Which is how Junko could easily manipulate him into kicking off The Tragedy.
  • Junko herself is an example, in much the same vein as Izuru above. Born with "Ultimate Analytical Ability", this character is known for their genius intelligence, to the point where they can essentially predict anything. Like fashion trends, for example. While this might help them in the public sphere, their uncanny prediction skills have left them bored with everything, and so this character is known for inducing despair in as many people as possible because it's the only thing she can't predict right away.
  • For some more minor examples:
    • Leon hates being the Ultimate Baseball Player, because he doesn't really like playing baseball. He'd much rather be a musician, but feels he has to play baseball because of everyone's expectations.
    • Sayaka's status is mostly implied by necessity, but she seems to have been traumatized by some of the things she did to achieve her goal, and gets triggered whenever people make light of the music industry. This leads her to attempt to murder Leon, although to be fair she was already stressed out by the killing game and Monokuma implying he might have killed her bandmates.
    • Mondo Oowada acts tough, but it's a front for deeply entrenched feelings of inadequacy. The poor guy has Survivor's Guilt over his brother's death and is haunted by his belief that his leadership of the Crazy Diamonds was founded on a lie (that he beat his brother in a race, while in reality the race ended with his brother saving him at the cost of his own life). These emotional issues come to a head in chapter 2, resulting in him killing Chihiro.
    • Chihiro is an absolute sweetheart and a genius programmer, but good lord, the lack of self-confidence on that kid. Chihiro is a bundle of nerves who deeply believes that she's weak and useless without a computer to program. In fact, he was quite severely bullied for being In Touch with His Feminine Side, and decided to crossdress so no one could call him unmanly again. The fact that he was living a lie gnawed away at his self-confidence even more, and just when he'd decided to allow Monokuma to out his secret and just get stronger so he could be able to own his masculinity, he gets offed by Mondo due to his own issues.
    • Toko Fukawa is a famous novelist, but also a shut-in with severe emotional issues due to her abusive childhood. Including a Serial Killer split personality.
    • Celeste Ludenburg is an incredible gambler... with severe trust issues. She also spends all her time living a lie; she's a normal Japanese girl named Taeko Yasuhiro, but her desire to be special led to her creating a false identity as Celeste Ludenberg.
    • Aoi Asahina starts out fine, but that doesn't last long. By the game's end, her best friend is dead, many of her classmates are dead (one dying in her arms), and the poor girl really couldn't do much about it (what's 'swimming' worth against a killing game?). After the fourth trial, she is one deeply traumatized high schooler.
    • Nagito Komaeda from the second game has an insane amount of luck... both good and bad, which has severely screwed with his life. For example, as a kid he was nearly hit by a truck, and only saved at the cost of his beloved dog's life. This is one of the most minor tragedies that have occurred to him.
    • Mikan Tsumiki is the Ultimate Nurse... and also a victim of extreme bullying throughout her life, which didn't stop when she entered Hope's Peak.
    • Hiyoko Saionji is the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, being a popular rising star in the art, but most of her family resented her for her talent and abused her, and she in turn started bullying other people to get her sense of control back.
    • Shuichi Saihara is the Ultimate Detective, but he has serious self-image issues stemming from seeing everything he did as a result of luck, and constantly worries that he's just making things worse (i.e. in his first case, the culprit he exposed killed an Asshole Victim, and now he regrets ruining their life for killing a guy who'd driven a loved one to suicide). It's also implied that he's traumatized by some of the crime scenes he's seen as a young teen.
• Monika of Doki Doki Literature Club! is the president of the titular literature club who's described as the most popular girl in school who's so beautiful and talented that the male player character considers her to be way out of his league. She's also unfailingly polite and kind and always has thoughtful advice to give to the player character. So where exactly is the "broken" part of her? Well, she also happens to be aware that she's a video game character who doesn't have a romance route with the player like the other girls in the game do, and she resents this so much that she starts mind-raping the other girls to such extremes that two of them are Driven to Suicide and eventually deletes all of them from the game so that the player is forced to interact with only her.
• The protagonist of Double Homework is this after the Barbarossa incident. He is more lackadaisical about training and less self-assured after the incident than he was before.
• Kudzu from Echo is great at pretty much everything. He gardens, bakes, is in great shape, and even has a water bed. When the hysteria hits, he becomes a full-fledged badass by rescuing both Chase and Leo from Duke and Brian, who are armed, delusional, and, in Brian's case, a serial rapist. On top of this, Kudzu is able to care for and support Chase throughout the varying traumatic experiences that they face during the story while remaining comparatively unfazed himself. Despite all of this, Kudzu is initially presented as a self-isolating grump with somewhat of a grudge against people as a whole. He also has a tendency to freeze up in perilous situations and considers himself to be coward, all of which stems from the traumatic experience of witnessing his previous boyfriend's murder at the hands of an armed mugger.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Saber aka Artoria was this toward the end of her life: she suffered in her Masquerade out of duty, and became broken when it seemed to her that her country would've been better off if she hadn't tried, and someone else taken the role.
  • Gilgamesh was the greatest of all Heroic Spirits, the "King of Heroes", and wielder of some of the most powerful Noble Phantasms in existence...whose ego was left unchecked after the loss of his Only Friend Enkidu. The results were horrible.
  • Rin Tohsaka appears perfect on the surface; she's beautiful, popular, intelligent, and an enormously gifted Magus. However, she also has some really crippling self-esteem issues, feels abandoned and betrayed by her parents, and has some pretty severe (self-admitted) problems empathizing with others.
  • Shirou Emiya seems to be The Ace: he is considered the star of the archery club years after having left, is just as good a fencer and martial artist as he's with the bow, is technologically savvy, a Supreme Chef, incredibly handsome, and has at least 5 beautiful young women who are all madly in love with him. However, in reality, he's this: he's got some horrible self-worth issues, his beliefs and mindset are outdated and unrealistic and the game shouts this at him, has a borderline Friendless Background despite his school talents, is not that good of a Magus and specially at the start, and at some point he's so destroyed on the inside that his VERY badass and cynical future self, Archer, comes to show exactly what kind of person he will grow into — and intends to murder him. Even with all of his talents, there is something deeply wrong with Shirou.
• Yuuji in The Fruit of Grisaia is very intelligent and experienced with a wide range of skills, but beneath the surface are many hints of deep depression and self-loathing. The Labyrinth of Grisaia explains how those parts of himself got there. The Eden of Grisaia shows that his shattered psychological state was in fact much worse than it seemed at the end of the preceding story though he finally does find true peace at the end when he, the Mihama girls, Chizuru, JB and Kazuki all set up a new Mihama on a southern island granted to him by Asako.
• Keiichi Maebara in Higurashi: When They Cry. He's a perfectly kind fellow in Hinamizawa, bright in comparison to some of his peers, well known and respected by many in the village, and has a few females who have a crush on him. Oh, and in the past, he went on a (non-lethal) shooting rampage because all his peers had grown jealous of his talent and bullied him. Let's not even get started on other situations in the present times...
• Many of the men in Ikemen Sengoku are this. They're incredibly handsome and skilled men capable of mowing down rows of enemies without breaking a sweat and/or charming numerous women, but the harsh time period they grew up in has caused the majority of them to become jaded and/or learn how to hide their true emotions to prevent themselves from getting hurt.
  • Nobunaga, the most powerful warlord in Sengoku Japan who can convert enemies to his side through sheer charm and manipulation, killed his brother in self-defense as a child and ever since then has been unable to sleep well alone and learned to conceal any sign of compassion or emotion of his as a potential weakness that his enemies can take advantage of so well that he can no longer even recognize that he's still very much capable of empathy and love.
  • Masamune, the playful and flirty Spirited Competitor, had to kill his father to protect his clan and takes his duties as the leader of the Date clan so seriously that he's willing to die or kill a woman he's developing feelings for just to make sure that none of his enemies survive.
  • Hideyoshi, the kind and protective Team Mom of the Oda forces who has a fan club of women mooning over him, was born a vagabond who believed he was worthless due to his low-born status until he met Nobunaga — and even after finding a sense of worth and purpose as Nobunaga's right-hand man and gaining many friends and vassals who care for him, he still believes that his self-worth is entirely dependent on serving Nobunaga and becomes downright suicidal in his Dramatic route when he believes that Nobunaga has been killed.
  • Shingen, a gorgeous and confident man who has reportedly never failed to charm a woman, suffers from a chronic illness that's slowly claiming his life which he does his best to keep a secret from everyone except for his closest allies, and he's desperately working to reclaim his home province from Nobunaga for his people before his time runs out.
  • Kenshin, a beautiful man with godlike fighting and leadership skills, is so utterly psychologically broken from losing his first love when he was just fourteen years old that he avoids getting close to anyone else out of fear of bringing misfortune to them and responds to falling in love again with the main character by keeping her a prisoner in his castle and being constantly tormented by the noble side of him that genuinely wants her to be happy warring with the darker side of him that desperately wants to make sure he doesn't lose another loved one by any means necessary.
• Mystic Messenger:
  • Zen is a handsome and popular actor who receives piles of fan letters and constantly brags about his looks, but his vanity is actually overcompensation for how his parents convinced him that he was ugly as a child. His older brother helped him realize that he wasn't ugly but became more like their parents as he got older, causing Zen to run away from home and become a delinquent. Even after becoming popular through his acting, he works himself to the point of risking injury to prove that his looks aren't the sole reason for his success as an actor. Compared to the game's other examples listed below, though, he's a fairly mild example of this trope.
  • Jumin is an obscenely wealthy CEO good-looking enough to model for photo shoots and appears to be one of the most mature and level-headed members of the RFA, remaining completely unflappable during situations that have the other RFA members running around in panic. However, a combination of a childhood surrounded by people who only cared about his wealth and the few people he formed a genuine emotional connection with falling out of contact (V), dying (Rika), or paying more attention to his parade of girlfriends than him (his father) have left him emotionally stunted to the point where he has frequent difficulty in empathizing with others and next to no idea of what being in a relationship entails, leading to him becoming a borderline Yandere towards the player character in his route (and a full-blown Yandere, if she makes the wrong choices).
  • 707/Luciel is a genius hacker rich enough to afford multiple racing cars and smart enough to build robots in his spare time when he's feeling bored. He also, unlike Jumin, appears to have no difficulty in joking around and connecting with others. But all of his good cheer conceals how he had to give up his identity to escape his abusive mother by working for an intelligence agency and how the constant danger of his job causes him to be afraid of forming a real connection to anyone in case the agency forces him to "disappear" one day. Furthermore, the main reason he went through with all this in the first place was to save his twin brother Saeran from their mother too — a decision that backfired horribly when one of the people he trusted the most betrayed him. When he learns on his own route about what he unknowingly let Saeran suffer through, he has a complete emotional shutdown that reveals the bitter, cynical side of himself. Even on other routes, he usually still has a Heroic BSoD when his "genius hacker" security measures fail to prevent the player character's life from being placed in jeopardy.
  • By far the biggest example in this game, however, is Rika, a beautiful, intelligent and kind woman who hosted grand parties for charity, inspired many members of the RFA to become better people, and genuinely wanted nothing more than to see everyone happy. Underneath her bright smile, however, was a woman suffering from such severe depression and paranoia that she came to believe that the best way to make everyone free from pain was to brainwash them into joining her religious cult and also that the best way to protect sensitive information in her apartment was to install a bomb in it. Her DLC shows that she was horrifically abused as a child at the hands of her adoptive parents and was regularly sexually abused by her family's pastor, and playing V's route shows that she's hyper-critical of herself and horribly insecure, believing herself to be nothing but an irredeemable monster with no positive qualities.
• Nameless — The One Thing You Must Recall: — Tei. He's the most handsome, most popular, and most mature of the dolls, but it's a front he's viciously maintaining to mask the fact that his self-loathing has reached the level of dangerous unbalance.
• Amusingly, Ace from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is this. He's smart, noble, self-sacrificing, and the sole culprit of the deaths that take place, as well as the ruthless and antisocial owner of the evil pharmaceutical company. He also suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition that contributed to his inability to care about people and one he was desperate to find a way to cure through the Nonary Game even if it meant kidnapping children and putting them into mortal danger.
• Lucan from (P)lanets - the life of normalcy has ended!. He's as handsome as a prince, just as kind as one, and is so popular and loved by everyone that he has an Instant Fanclub of two hundred girls. Except that he really doesn't want the attention and the main reason he's so popular in the first place is that he brainwashed them with his Mind Control psych into loving him due to his loneliness and belief that he's so pathetic that they couldn't possibly love his true self. The brainwashing was largely unintentional on his part and he's meant to be a sympathetic version of this trope, but that's still one hell of a warped facade to live with. Lucan is so Broken that he is the only choice that can lead to a Bad Ending. If Marin rejects him after learning his dark secret, he takes it so badly that he intentionally brainwashes Marin into loving him.
• Souji in Suika is good at essentially everything: handsome, popular, and a complete chick magnet, but has been using these as part of a fake persona out of trauma for eight years.
• Jupiter of We Know the Devil is described as excelling at sports and schoolwork, albeit with a tendency to mess up crucial moments. However, she has serious issues with self-hatred, in part because she is put on a pedestal by others and expected to live up to unrealistic standards.

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