That's you as a man. Which you won't be in a few minutes...
- The Destruction Power of Rage held deep inside is not something easily hidden.
The things that hound you, everything that constraints you...
Destroy them!
Hakaiou: King of Crusher is a 1998 Japan-exclusive kaiju (because "Japan" and "kaiju" goes so well hand-in-hand, don't they?) action game made by Dentsu Inc. and Disc Garage for the PlayStation 1.
You play as an unnamed, blue-collared office worker in 1990s Tokyo working a boring, 9-5 job, dealing with office politics while simultaneously spending time with your wife and baby child. But as you deal with frustration of everyday life, and wishing for "something exciting" to happen for once, an alien bug unexpectedly arrives on earth and stings you.
Before you knew it, you are suddenly consumed by rage. And fury. And an urge to destroy everything in sight. With superhuman strength and power raging through your veins as you start wrecking everything in the way. And the more you destroy, the larger you grow - in both your size and appetite for destruction - as you take on multiple monstrous features, starting as a werewolf-life beastman form to a giant humanoid the size of a house to becoming a Godzilla-esque monster. And as your destructive tendencies grows out of control, you proceed on an unstoppable rampage from Tokyo to New York.
And no, there is no turning back for you now. Not ever...
Destroy the World. You know you want to.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Depending on your definition of "bad guy"... the game have you transforming into a monster and destroying the world, and even succeeds in the final level when you turned New York, the last city on earth, into a wasteland. But then you revert back to human, and are congratulated by the alien bug who bit you and turned you into a monster in the first place. Who then infects your baby before the credits roll.
- Beast Man: The first monstrous form you obtain, as a reptilian-Wolf Man hybrid creature who's at least human-sized, but strong enough to rip apart vehicles and shrug off rounds fired by policemen.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: You wished for an escape from your boring, mundane office life. The alien bug grants your wish by injecting you with some kind of monstrous venom, turning you into a city-destroying super-monster.
- Big Applesauce: The game's last few levels are set in New York, the very last city on earth you'll destroy.
- Big Bad: While your unnamed protagonist isn't intentionally hostile, the game does have a main villain, in the form of the alien bug who injects you with a monstrous venom. Because said bug is a highly-manipulative alien creature who wants to destroy entire worlds, and it's using you as it's pawn. The bug even screws you over in the final cutscene - by infecting your baby with another dose of it's venom, turning your child into another monster to start the cycle of destruction anew.
- The Corruptor: The unnamed alien bug. Not only does it discreetly begins your transformation into a monster, in-between cutscenes it also fuels your rage and desire for destruction by telepathically telling you, "Destroy everything. You know you want to..."
- Death of a Thousand Cuts:
- In your first monstrous form (where you're still human-sized, albeit with enhanced strength), if your rage meter is depleted, you can still destroy entire buildings by punching them repeatedly. It's pretty tedious, but gets the job done.
- This trope can apply to you in the New York stages, when you're a giant kaiju at that point. Gunfire from helicopters and armored vehicles does Scratch Damage to your health, but when fired in concentrated bursts your life meter then visibly depletes until you clear the level.
- Die, Chair, Die!: The first few stages when you're still human have you destroying furnitures, shelves, water-coolers and assorted structures in your house and office. You must destroy everything to clear a level.
- Downer Ending: The alien bug successfully manipulates you into destroying the earth. And as a final "screw you", it then decide to infect your child into becoming a new monster…
- Dramatic Shattering: In the opening cinematics, after the alien bug bit you, you then drop your cup of milk. Including a close-up of the cup landing on the floor and shattering in slow-mo.
- Giant Flyer: Your final form have you sprouting wings, as well as granted the ability of breathing fire, turning into a draconic monster as you swoop above Manhattan and rain destruction from the skies.
- Helicopter Flyswatter: In your first form as a kaiju, this is how you deal with military helicopters attacking you - by jumping and swatting them out of the skies.
- Hulking Out: How your first transformation out of your human shell is depicted. After destroying your office (as a human), you then escape into the city outskirts, only for you to burst out your clothes into a reptilian-wolf beast-man form (Magic Pants included).
- Humanity Ensues: In the final stage, after you destroyed New York, your appetite for destruction is quenched completely. At which point you revert back to a human and suddenly have a My God, What Have I Done? moment. And then the alien bug appears to congratulate you.
- Make My Monster Grow: From a Beast Man who's at least human-sized, to a freakin' kaiju. And then grow some more.
- Monumental Damage: The oldest one in the book; but the game ends with you destroying the Statue of Liberty. Which has been converted into a mecha to fight you.
- Nameless Narrative: No names are given to anyone for the entirety of the game.
- Not Zilla: The first kaiju form you obtain as soon as you reach New York, resembling the classic Godzilla-esque dinosaur kaiju, albeit one with horns. And you keep on growing and growing.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The alien bug's sole MO is by infecting life-forms and having them destroy everything, because it wants to. And you're it's Unwitting Pawn.
- Salaryman: You start off as one working a dull, mundane job, and in fact after gaining superhuman strength one of the first levels have you destroying your office.
- Telepathy: How the alien bug controls you in-between levels, by urging you with mental messages to "destroy, destroy, destroy everything... you know you want to..."
- Tokyo Fireball: Tokyo is the first location you destroy as a monster, and New York is the last. The game also implies you probably wiped out various cities in-between, though none of these are shown.
- Unstoppable Rage: The Rage Level above your Health at the bottom of the screen, which grants you enhanced strength and destruction capability as well as increased durability.
- Urban Ruins: The cutscenes at the end of levels, depicting you in the ruins of what used to be Tokyo and New York.
- Was Once a Man: You used to be a boring ol' salaryman, with a family of your own. Now you're a world-destroying monster. The ending cutscene have you turning back to a man, but now the alien bug infects your baby instead.
- Weaponized Landmark: The game's Final Boss is the Statue of Liberty, converted into a mech in a last-ditch attempt to fight you. Her torch can fire electricity, for starters.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Your family appears in the opening cinematics, but shortly after you get injected with the alien bug's venom and starts destroying your own house, your wife suddenly disappears. Subverted with your baby - in the final cutscene, after you destroyed New York and reverts to human, you then unexpectedly finds your baby in the city's ruins - and possessed by a new alien strain.
