Brutal Honesty / Video Games

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• Absented Age: Squarebound: Hayato doesn't mince words if he finds a flaw in a music score. He's also not afraid to call out the Brass Band Club leader, Rumi, for turning the club into her own personal posse rather than a place to pursue musical passions. This leads to him and Karen becoming friends, since this shows that he takes music as seriously as Karen does.
• ARMA 3's single-player campaign The East Wind has a brief exchange during the Adapt episode where Sgt. Ben Kerry had to go to ground as a guerrilla following the conclusion of the Survive episode, and at one point while heading up to a military checkpoint he's told by his passenger just why he's the driver:
  FIA Guerrilla: You are the one they will shoot first.
• Coffee Talk: Being bluntly honest with others is one of Hyde's main character traits. This is what gets him in a big argument with Lua when he starts offering his opinion on her problems with Baileys- Freya points out he wasn't necessarily wrong, but he was far too harsh. Baileys, on the other hand, takes his blunt relationship advice for him well in Episode 2, and Hyde jokingly muses to himself that he should take up a career on relationship counseling because he's bored with his job as a model.
• Many merchants of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are quite upfront about their wares being looted from dead bodies. Sometimes they'll even tell you that they're looking forward to your death, so they can take back what they just sold you and sell it to someone else!
• Most DJMAX games have the announcer telling you "You need more practice! Never give it up!" when you fail a song. DJMAX Technika 2 and 3 just coldly tell you that "YOU FAILED. GAME OVER."
• Dragon Age: Origins:
  • The game gives all six Wardens a brutally honest line upon meeting King Cailan, but grand prize has to go to the City Elf, who minces no words on what they and their people had to go through.
    King Cailan: Do you come from the Alienage? Tell me, how is it there? My guards all but forbid me going there.
    City Elf Grey Warden: I killed an arl's son for raping my friend.
    King Cailan (utterly shocked): You...what?
    Duncan: Your Majesty, I would not have put it so bluntly. There are events in Denerim you should be aware of.
  • During the quest where you must tell widows of their husband's deaths, letting characters like Morrigan, Oghren, or Sten tell the news results in them delivering the news bluntly or in some cases with a lot of Black Comedy.
    Oghren: Congratulations! You're single!
• This is one of the three personality options for Hawke in Dragon Age II, along with nice and silly.
  Hawke: (Handing in a fetch quest) "Your garbage, serah."
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest II: The Prince of Cannock is said to be good-hearted, even if lazy and absent-minded, but he does not mince his words at all. If you go back to Cannock and talk to his sister after recruiting him:
    Princess of Cannock: "Oh, older brother! Please, take me with you!"
    Prince of Cannock: "You're useless."
    Princess of Cannock: "What?! Why do you have to be like that all the time!"
  • Dragon Quest VII: Hadeed is brusque and cold, though not without reason, and always speaks his mind.
• In Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, Cu Chulainn gives Elizabeth a verbal beatdown about her singing. It was harsh enough to bring her to the brink of tears.
• In Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, Krile of Final Fantasy V tends to say exactly what her opinion is, regardless of how many people are there, or if the person she's expressing that opinion about is among them. This is true in both serious discussions and lighthearted ones; at one point she teases Zack by announcing that his supposed arguing with Seifer is really to make sure Seifer doesn't feel alone.
• Bannon in Final Fantasy VI pulls no punches reminding the amnesiac Terra what she did under the empire's influence and believes she needs to face the truth of her actions, mind controlled or not. Bannon is also brutally honest towards the people of Narshe by saying that yes, their blood will be spilled defending their town from the empire if they side with the Returners and much more will be spilt if they do not take the initiative and join the Returners to repel the empire. Several characters call Bannon out for being so blunt (especially with Terra), but he believes that being straight up honest is more effective than trying to sugar coat everything.
• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • Matoya rather flatly and a little harshly spells it out to the Scions that they're effectively fighting a war, which means being prepared to do whatever it takes to win, even die. This all came in response to learning about Minfilia's offering herself to Hydaelyn as her voice Conversely, Matoya's brusque and brutally honest personality also means that what little praise she does dole out is heartfelt and meaningful. She says as much to you should you visit her after clear the main story of Endwalker.
  • Zigzagged by Shinto from the Blacksmith questline. He doesn't sugarcoat his opinions of anyone, not even his daughter Sekka. He calls her a mediocre and talentless swordsmith and tells her to hang up her hammer for good after watching her work. But these verbal tongue lashings do nothing to address what she's actually missing and he refuses to be frank with her about why he won't take her on as an apprentice.
• Many characters in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade will berate you if your tactician rank is low, but Canas cuts straight to the point and tells you that "You seem to lack even basic skills."
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:
  • One of Soren's biggest character traits. Ike admits that he appreciates Soren for being able to bring up issues the others have difficulty doing.
  • Ike himself as well, though more out of lack of social skills initially. He really is never one to mince his words, whether it be sarcastically bursting someone's bubble, or telling off the senators of Benignon out loud in front of all of them to hear.
• Forget Me Not: My Organic Garden: When the doctor Man tells Irene about his upcoming proposal after his Self-Surgery, and she wants to stop him from likely hurting himself:
  Irene: ... I'll just say this bluntly. There's no chance I'd go out with you.
• God of War Ragnarök: The Norns' general modus operandi is to confront their visitors with their own flaws and bluntly tell them why they suck and won't be able to defy prophecies (namely, that they're all too wrapped up in the idea that You Can't Fight Fate or that they have to Screw Destiny and never realize that everything is their own damn fault, and so make the Norns' predictions accurate by refusing to change), which comes with a side of illusions illustrating their worst traits before the poor saps actually even meet the Norns.
• You get a few of these in Knights of the Old Republic from your party members. Carth has absolutely no filter when it comes to expressing how much of a decaying rat he smells in the setup. Mission is a teenager with even less of a filter between her mind and her mouth. Jolee and Canderous? Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!. In the Obsidian made second game, most of Kreia's words are positively dripping with poison as she treats everyone with contempt.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: You can make Link as this. At one point in a sidequest, Kafei asks Link if he can keep a secret, and Link can answer "No." That aside, Kafei rejects that answer, tells Link that "yes" is the socially acceptable answer, and proceeds to tell Link his secret anyway.
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: Halara Nightmare is a master of saying exactly what is on their mind, even going so far as saying that they don't want to hold hands with the protagonist because they wholly despise absolutely everyone in humanity with little provocation, and, in Chapter 4, even telling off Lazy Bum Vivia for being lazy right to his face after having to deal with him over the course of the story, though in a more eloquent fashion than it otherwise could've been.
• Marvel's Avengers: Natasha doesn't mince words when discussing sensitive topics. Bruce comments on this when, after he asks about her experience with Monica in recent years, Natasha bluntly tells him that she doesn't believe that Monica ever had feelings for him — but that if she's wrong then he needs to exploit them.
  Banner: Always appreciated your brutal honesty, Nat.
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Beep-0 has shades of this that are Playedfor Laughs. He's usually like this towards Toad and Toadette.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Daeran is a gadfly who refuses to sugarcoat anything, mostly out of a love for flaunting social conventions. He's no hypocrite and can take it as well as dish it out; he will actually approve of you more if you call out questionable behaviour on his part, rather than ignoring or justifying it.
• Persona 4: All of the guys are guilty of this to varying degrees when it comes to the girls' cooking, but Teddie flat out says, "Wow, this tastes awful!" when taste-testing a dish. You have the choice of doing this to Yukiko on her social link, but she responds better to encouragement.
  • When a guy confesses to Ai, she bluntly shoots him down and says that he's not good-looking enough for her, and justifies her response by saying that there's no point in getting his hopes up, simply because she's convinced herself that looks are all that matter (having invested so much of her self-worth in her beauty). If, however, you tell her that's "downright cruel," you reverse the social link.
  • Naoto sometimes engages in it herself, such as coldly telling some girls who are interested in her that she has no desire to hang out with them.
• Potion Permit: When Helene asks Reyner about the new furniture design she ordered, he dances around the fact that he requested it from Forrest instead but the delivery was delayed. Nova bluntly tells him that downplaying the problem doesn't make it go away and that the quality of the designs he's actually making speaks a lot about his character, to Reyner's embarrassment.
• Rave Heart: In an scenario viewer cutscene, Sola asks Ellemine to act as a translator for Zazir's thoughts. However, Zazir answers Sola's questions with harsh truths, and Ellemine attempts to paraphrase these thoughts into something nicer sounding, such as translating Zazir's criticism of Sola's apple pies to a recommendation to use healthier ingredients.
• Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins: In a conversation with Allson, Theresia tells him that his idealistic platitudes about joining forces for justice lack substance, and that he's mainly saying these lines because they sound cool. This rings true in that he's naïve about the political situation of Kness Dukedom, where not all factions want to explore the ruins for altruistic reasons and some like Teor are willing to betray others for the sake of their ambitions.
• Sonic Colors usually has Eggman being in a polite tone for his PA announcements, but one Aquarium Park announcement has him warning visitors to avoid touching the aquarium glass, as it's what separates them from "TEN MILLION GALLONS OF FREEZING WET DEATH!"
• Suikoden Tactics has Wendel, who asks Kyril why he didn't help out during the last war. When he tells her why (Heroic BSOD lasting three years), she calls him weak, then adds that at least he's strong now.
• Tales of the Abyss:
  • Jade Curtiss flips regularly between this and Deadpan Snarker. What frustrates the rest of the cast so much about him is that it's very nearly impossible to tell which is which.
  • Luke tends to do this too, though this is the result of the fact that he's actually a 7-year-old kid too young and naive to have anything resembling tact.
• Tales of Vesperia Yuri Lowell (almost) doesn't have tact. At all. This includes when talking to incredibly important people like the future Emperor. When he needs to avoid being honest, he tends to rely on Exact Words and You Didn't Ask. Judith leans in this regard too, as does Rita, for different reasons; Judith because she's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander who self admits to being bad at lying, Rita because she has No Social Skills.
• Touhou:
  • Reimu Hakurei is, quite simply, a very honest person. To such an extent, in fact, that the option of lying often never even occurs to her. In addition to this, she also treats everyone the same, be they humans, saints, youkai or gods; with vague disrespect. As a result, she'll bluntly and unabashedly say exactly what she thinks no matter who she's talking to or what the situation may be, and only a rudimentary sense of social etiquette, her responsibility and duties as Gensoukyou's warden and the fact that she's a Slave to PR occasionally makes her opt to keep her mouth shut.
  • Marisa Kirisame, being Reimu's foil, is an unabashed mythomaniac, but whenever she's not lying, she's, in fact, even more outspoken in her honesty than Reimu is. According to ZUN himself, this makes Marisa a very bothersome character to write for since her lack of concern for common social etiquette and readiness to just plain say things outright makes her very "un-Touhou like."
  • Suika Ibuki is an oni, a race that hates lies and is known to do nasty things to liars. As such, she won't lie to you. No matter how harsh the truth is going to be. This makes some of her conversations rather... vicious. Doesn't help she's drunk off her ass at all times.
• Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea: The Post-Gull Nekoyama employs this in his casual conversation, particularly when he gets Samekichi to admit that he loves Wadanohara; Nekoyama proceeds to declare his crush "appallingly obvious", and then says everyone in the ocean knows. Except the girl herself.
• The Walking Dead:
  • Lee can do this with Clementine. Since she will know when he's lying and reality will not be cushioning its blows for her, it's possibly one of the better options for Lee to take.
  • Carley is definitely not afraid to speak what's on her mind. Unfortunately, doing this to Lilly in Season 1, Episode 3 gets her rewarded with a bullet to the head.
  • In Season 1, Episode 3, Chuck lays out to Lee why he thinks Clementine will die if Lee doesn't change the way the group is acting.
  • Since Alvin Junior never grew up around anyone but Clem, when he interacts with Ericson's group, the others are often shocked by what comes out of his mouth, while AJ doesn't think of the consequences of his words.
  • Aasim outright tells Willy in Season 4, Episode 2 that his swinging log trap is "idiotic" and "something only a child would think up". He's at least half-right because Willy is the youngest member of the group sans Tenn and AJ.
• Though it varies somewhat depending on the player, Geralt of the The Witcher tends to be a pretty straight shooter, even when it involves nightmarish monsters pillaging the countryside. Especially when it involves nightmarish monsters pillaging the countryside. Other Witchers, particularly Lambert, often display this, too. Sugarcoating things isn't going to make anyone more likely to survive horrible circumstances they've naturally found themselves in, nor will it make killing the Ancient Leshen causing it any easier.

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