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** Heck, Misha's route in general is a long Broken Aesop, and so is most of Ar Tonelico 2. One of the themes in the Ar Tonelico series is how people and Reyvateils should learn to trust each other, and to treat each other decently. But Misha is treated by the other characters, except Lyner, as an unsympathetic whiner and a brat for not wanting to be locked up in a room to sing her whole life (and even Lyner has to get her used to the role to fix her mental issues). And in Ar Tonelico 2, both Luca and Cloche learn to understand each other's point of view...followed by both of them deciding they were wrong to protest the unfairness of their lives. So they don't actually empathize with each other, despite the game pushing this interpretation; rather, they learn not to bother each other with their pain, because each one of them had no right to protest. Luca was treated very badly because she was poor (in one incident, she was punished for not responding to a customer's advances), but Luca only manages to get along with Cloche when Luca decides she was wrong to try to put on a false face to make people happy, and thus avoid being treated badly. Cloche was also treated very badly as a child, but Cloche only manages to get along with Luca after Cloche decides that ''her tormentor wasn't so bad, having a noble vision''. And to drive the point home, Cloche is treated as in the wrong for disagreeing with her tormentor in the past, ''and'' for going ''along'' with him in the ''present'' and not exercising free will to avoid persecuting other Reyvateils. So much for Ar Tonelico being about understanding and trust...
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** And then sometimes the aesop gets broken in the other direction, making the monsters look worse than they really are for the sake of "balance". Sometimes, monster girls are treated as in the wrong for wanting to fight back against the human extremists. This is justified in the case of Lily and Erubertie, who go way too far in their responses to incidents in their pasts. But Luka also lectures the Queen Ant and Fairy Queen, both of whom reacted ''while under attack in the present''; and he lectures them both for taking advantage of their "victim" status. Does Monster Girl Quest wish to teach the player that it's never okay to defend yourself, or even to ''criticize your attacker''? Heck, even in Erubertie's case, the fans seem to dislike Erubertie not because she chose disproportionate retribution against the humans but because she had the temerity to feel negatively about humans at ''all''.
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This doesn\'t discuss what Personas are, just how the S.Link system is broken. Before deleting, please explain how it would constitute Fan Wank.
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* The Social Link system in ''Videogame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Persona 4}}''. '''Ideally''', it teaches players about the importance of building strong bonds of friendship with people from all walks of life, from the class clown to the stuffy class president to the depressed old lady to the nurse with the broken dreams. By connecting with these people and helping them overcome issues that they were unable to solve on their own (or give them the emotional support they need to do it themselves) the Protagonist him[=/=]herself is intended to grow as a person and develops from an awkward, solitary teen, into the beloved, selfless heart of the community, and is rewarded with the ability to create ever stronger Personas to assist in battle. '''In practice''', however, you usually get "closer" to your S.Links by telling them what they want to hear, what makes them happy, and basically all the change they go through comes from within instead of your responses. Indeed, "maxing out" an S.Link yields Ultimate Personas and valuable items, and there is no further reward to spending time with them afterwards (if you try, the game itself tells you that your relationship cannot grow any stronger, basically suggesting to go do something else) so most strategy guides revolve around min-maxing your "time" with them to max them out as efficiently as possible, reducing the Protagonist to a sociopath who only sweet-talks his[=/=]her "friends" to gain power and only deals with them for as long as they're useful.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs end up getting better results in battles, especially when it comes to the metagame. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and strength level, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs [=IVs=] end up getting better results in battles, especially when it comes to the metagame. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and strength level, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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So? The point stands, the game is designed in a way that players who are treat Pokémon so immorally are more effective, thus contradicting the aesop.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs end up getting better results in battles, especially when it comes to the metagame. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and strength level, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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players \"outside\" the game. Beyond this, the motive to Paul be treated as wrong is because this is immoral, not because this is not an effective strategy.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet, players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs end up getting better results in battles. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and level of strength, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet, players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs end up getting better results in battles. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and level of strength, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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** The game mechanisms themselves contradict this aesop, as the only way of standing a chance at competitive is using good and strong Pokémon. Another problem is that the games state that Pokémon must be treated like partners, not as tools or weapons. Yet, players who breed thousands of Pokémon in order to get good IVs end up getting better results in battles. Made more egregious by the fact that Paul from the anime treats Pokémon like this, choosing them based on their stats and level of strength, and is depicted as being wrong, yet the game mechanisms make it so that players must act like him if they want to be good at competitive.
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Winning the game doesn't seem like a matter of one's skill in negotiations, since there's generally only one highly improbable, incredibly specific situation that's considered successful that can usually only come from one or two conversation paths. Among others:
** The game seems to excuse Ted's atrocities just because he's the supposed victim of an immoral wife. Despite the fact he ''tried to blow up an office building and essentially commit a mass murder.'' Made worse by the fact he's canonically considered sane.
** Having a troublesome marriage? [[spoiler:Just give your wife expensive jewelry! She'll forget about all your problems because material wealth trumps working out your differences! To be fair, you will fail if you don't get them to agree on something, and the game itself remarks that they should probably break up in the victory screen... which only makes the whole thing seem even ''more'' ridiculous.]]
** The games often fail in their goal to teach you about negotiation, in the fact that nobody really comes to an agreement on anything, and you're mostly just telling people what they want to hear, or offering decisions that really make no sense. Episode 9 even allows you to sit back and let someone else do your work.
** Negotiating your way out of a speeding ticket requires being able to cry uncontrollably.
* Made by the same team as the Ambition series, "The Track Meet" is a simulation about teaching sports ethics, where the protagonist has fallen below the GPA requirements to stay on the team and the player's goal is to handle it ethically... and the game ''doesn't give you an option to do so'', instead requiring a player to spy on their teammates and engage in a lie of omission just so that they can confess to it later.
* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s [[AnAesop central thesis]] is that [[YourCheatingHeart Cheating is BAD]]. A good aesop, but a little hard to swallow when you realize that Catherine came onto him while he was [[DrowningMySorrows unhappily drunk]], and that the sex happened [[DateRape while he was unconscious]]. It's also not helped by how [[AManIsAlwaysEager everyone blames him entirely]], [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization even Vincent himself]]. (Which, sadly, is TruthInTelevision for [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale male rape victims]]).
** The game seems to excuse Ted's atrocities just because he's the supposed victim of an immoral wife. Despite the fact he ''tried to blow up an office building and essentially commit a mass murder.'' Made worse by the fact he's canonically considered sane.
** Having a troublesome marriage? [[spoiler:Just give your wife expensive jewelry! She'll forget about all your problems because material wealth trumps working out your differences! To be fair, you will fail if you don't get them to agree on something, and the game itself remarks that they should probably break up in the victory screen... which only makes the whole thing seem even ''more'' ridiculous.]]
** The games often fail in their goal to teach you about negotiation, in the fact that nobody really comes to an agreement on anything, and you're mostly just telling people what they want to hear, or offering decisions that really make no sense. Episode 9 even allows you to sit back and let someone else do your work.
** Negotiating your way out of a speeding ticket requires being able to cry uncontrollably.
* Made by the same team as the Ambition series, "The Track Meet" is a simulation about teaching sports ethics, where the protagonist has fallen below the GPA requirements to stay on the team and the player's goal is to handle it ethically... and the game ''doesn't give you an option to do so'', instead requiring a player to spy on their teammates and engage in a lie of omission just so that they can confess to it later.
* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s [[AnAesop central thesis]] is that [[YourCheatingHeart Cheating is BAD]]. A good aesop, but a little hard to swallow when you realize that Catherine came onto him while he was [[DrowningMySorrows unhappily drunk]], and that the sex happened [[DateRape while he was unconscious]]. It's also not helped by how [[AManIsAlwaysEager everyone blames him entirely]], [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization even Vincent himself]]. (Which, sadly, is TruthInTelevision for [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale male rape victims]]).
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is Creator/ZapDramatic[='=]s games are intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Winning the game doesn't seem like a matter of one's skill in negotiations, since there's generally only one highly improbable, incredibly specific situation that's considered successful that can usually only come from one or two conversation paths. Among others:
**The game ''Ambition'' in particular seems to excuse Ted's atrocities just because he's the supposed victim of an immoral wife. Despite the fact he ''tried to blow up an office building and essentially commit a mass murder.'' Made worse by the fact he's canonically considered sane.
** *** Having a troublesome marriage? [[spoiler:Just give your wife expensive jewelry! She'll forget about all your problems because material wealth trumps working out your differences! To be fair, you will fail if you don't get them to agree on something, and the game itself remarks that they should probably break up in the victory screen... which only makes the whole thing seem even ''more'' ridiculous.]]
** *** The games often fail in their goal to teach you about negotiation, in the fact that nobody really comes to an agreement on anything, and you're mostly just telling people what they want to hear, or offering decisions that really make no sense. Episode 9 even allows you to sit back and let someone else do your work.
** *** From "The Negotiator" Negotiating your way out of a speeding ticket requires being able to cry uncontrollably.
* Made by the same team as the Ambition series, ** "The Track Meet" is a simulation about teaching sports ethics, where the protagonist has fallen below the GPA requirements to stay on the team and the player's goal is to handle it ethically... and the game ''doesn't give you an option to do so'', instead requiring a player to spy on their teammates and engage in a lie of omission just so that they can confess to it later.
** The Negotiator episode "The Raise" has a mouse spontaneously talking to you, and if you listen to the mouse, you get a game over. The game tells you that you shouldn't listen to mice, because mice ''don't talk''. Weird, but somewhat valid... But then this mouse appears once again in "Sir Basil Pike Public School", being the main dispenser of advice.
** In ''Sir Basil Pike Public School'' the author gives us [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjIIAdDJLg his take on stranger danger.]]
*** Also, the game was made to teach children about bullying... but there's not a lot of bullying in the game, and the player can even be ''rewarded'' for making fun of another kid's stutter.[[note]]To be fair, however, it only earns you Persuasion Power, and the [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext guidance mouse]] explicitly tells you that cheap victories can just as quickly become defeats, but still.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s [[AnAesop central thesis]] is that [[YourCheatingHeartCheating cheating is BAD]].bad]]. A good aesop, but a little hard to swallow when you realize that Catherine came onto him while he was [[DrowningMySorrows unhappily drunk]], and that the sex happened [[DateRape while he was unconscious]]. It's also not helped by how [[AManIsAlwaysEager everyone blames him entirely]], [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization even Vincent himself]]. (Which, sadly, is TruthInTelevision for [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale male rape victims]]).
**
** The Negotiator episode "The Raise" has a mouse spontaneously talking to you, and if you listen to the mouse, you get a game over. The game tells you that you shouldn't listen to mice, because mice ''don't talk''. Weird, but somewhat valid... But then this mouse appears once again in "Sir Basil Pike Public School", being the main dispenser of advice.
** In ''Sir Basil Pike Public School'' the author gives us [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjIIAdDJLg his take on stranger danger.]]
*** Also, the game was made to teach children about bullying... but there's not a lot of bullying in the game, and the player can even be ''rewarded'' for making fun of another kid's stutter.[[note]]To be fair, however, it only earns you Persuasion Power, and the [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext guidance mouse]] explicitly tells you that cheap victories can just as quickly become defeats, but still.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s [[AnAesop central thesis]] is that [[YourCheatingHeart
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** The entire ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' series paints a pretty bleak picture of the justice system, and among the many cases of noble people trying to ensure that proper justice is done, there are only two instances of a protagonist actually criticizing the system's flaws. The trouble is that both criticisms are misguided, even within their own cases' contexts. The first, as detailed above, is when Apollo rants near the end of his game's third case about how the system makes it impossible to convict guilty parties who have destroyed all evidence of their wrongdoing, no matter how clear the circumstantial evidence is. Certainly problematic, but far less relevant than how this is seemingly the only way to get their own innocent clients found not guilty, since the more obvious flaw is that someone must always be found guilty, even if they can't incriminate the right person. The second comes up in ''Ace Attorney Investigations 2'', after a murderer admits to the crime after the fifteen-year statute of limitations has run out. One of Edgeworth's partners bemoans the existence of the statute, while the more obvious concerns should be why the "confession" cannot at least be used to free the wrongfully imprisoned defendant, or how the defendant confessed to the crime back in the day because of an overzealous prosecutor's extreme interrogation methods. With so many problems in the game's court system, it's odd that the characters focus on some of the least problematic ones.
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Fanwank, and Completely Missing The Point in what a persona IS.
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* The Social Link system in ''Videogame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Persona 4}}''. '''Ideally''', it teaches players about the importance of building strong bonds of friendship with people from all walks of life, from the class clown to the stuffy class president to the depressed old lady to the nurse with the broken dreams. By connecting with these people and helping them overcome issues that they were unable to solve on their own (or give them the emotional support they need to do it themselves) the Protagonist him[=/=]herself is intended to grow as a person and develops from an awkward, solitary teen, into the beloved, selfless heart of the community, and is rewarded with the ability to create ever stronger Personas to assist in battle. '''In practice''', however, you usually get "closer" to your S.Links by telling them what they want to hear, what makes them happy, and basically all the change they go through comes from within instead of your responses. Indeed, "maxing out" an S.Link yields Ultimate Personas and valuable items, and there is no further reward to spending time with them afterwards (if you try, the game itself tells you that your relationship cannot grow any stronger, basically suggesting to go do something else) so most strategy guides revolve around min-maxing your "time" with them to max them out as efficiently as possible, reducing the Protagonist to a sociopath who only sweet-talks his[=/=]her "friends" to gain power and only deals with them for as long as they're useful.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
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Eikichi was never told that the pudgy girl was Hanakouji, and only learned of it when she was thin.
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* [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Eikichi]] in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' is one ''huge'' Broken Aesop. Abridging a lot, Eikichi got separated from his first love, Hanakouji, when he was a kid; since then he kept focusing on "becoming a true man" to be worthy of her. Problem is, Eikichi remembers Hanakouji to be a beautiful, slim girl, while she actually became overweight (though still pretty easy on the eyes) over the years. When he finds out, his reaction is pretty much that he doesn't care, since she is still herself, making the perfect Aesop of not judging people for their appearances. But then that goes to Hell when Hanakouji goes unmentioned for the next 3/4 of the game, only to reappear and become [[AWizardDidIt slim through magical powers]], and ''only'' after that is their relationship resolved. So, true beauty is on the inside, but being slim is still important.
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of the main Broken Aesop page: \"Important Note: As tempting it may be, please do not add meta-fictional examples (which are more along the lines of a Clueless Aesop). Only add examples where the aesop is broken within the narrative itself. \" Moving to the discussion page
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* [[BrokenBase Part of the debate on]] VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine's ultimate YouBastard message is the scene that the game uses to insult the player on: [[spoiler:a sequence where white phosphorous is deployed on enemies, and it turns out the player just killed a bunch of civilians. The game gets to the point where the loading screens directly insult the player for this.]] Critics say that the game forces you into that path, but fans and the developers say that shutting the game off was a choice.
** That's right, people: they expect you to buy a game just so you can ''not play it'', and if you don't, you're a monster.
** That's right, people: they expect you to buy a game just so you can ''not play it'', and if you don't, you're a monster.
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** That's right, people: they expect you to buy a game just so you can ''not play it'', and if you don't, you're a monster.
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* 4X TBS and Global Strategies show the greatness of Man, beauty of history, grand achievements of humanity. Games like ''EuropaUniversalis'' are more neutral about waging war and brutal colonizing, but the ''Civilization'' series is very shiny and optimistic. In Civilization 5, every scientific or industrial achievement is accompanied by motivational citation, you adopt various cultural advancements... But in the end, even Gandhi has to capture a city or two (which somehow significantly lowers population, if you know what I mean) or use nuclear strike on opposing civilization.
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** The anti-racism Aesop is driven with the Darcsen being a fantasy counterpart to European Jews in its World War II pastiche, but the most prominent Darcsen character is written and designed to appeal to its original Japanese audience [[spoiler: in order to maximize the impact of her death]]. Appreciating other cultures and not judging them for being different is a lot easier when [[YamatoNadeshiko they embody your own culture's ideals!]].
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* ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'''s [[AnAesop central thesis]] is that [[YourCheatingHeart Cheating is BAD]]. A good aesop, but a little hard to swallow when you realize that Catherine came onto him while he was [[DrowningMySorrows unhappily drunk]], and that the sex happened [[DateRape while he was unconscious]]. It's also not helped by how [[AManIsAlwaysEager everyone blames him entirely]], [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization even Vincent himself]]. (Which, sadly, is TruthInTelevision for [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale male rape victims]]).
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* [[BrokenBase Part of the debate on]] VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine's ultimate YouBastard message is the scene that the game uses to insult the player on: [[spoiler:a sequence where white phosphorous is deployed on enemies, and it turns out the player just killed a bunch of civilians. The game gets to the point where the loading screens directly insult the player for this.]] Critics say that the game forces you into that path, but fans and the developers say that shutting the game off was a choice.
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Among others:
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Winning the game doesn't seem like a matter of one's skill in negotiations, since there's generally only one highly improbable, incredibly specific situation that's considered successful that can usually only come from one or two conversation paths. Among others:
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Among others:
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Winning the game doesn't seem like a matter of one's skill in negotiations, since there's generally only one highly improbable, incredibly specific situation that's considered successful that can usually only come from one or two conversation paths. Among others:
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*** Faldio and Welkin had been friends for years, but when Faldio finally comes around to realizing that he was wrong (even if the events of the game prove he was right) and apologizes, [[spoiler: pointlessly kills himself]], Welkin and Alicia don't react to it any more than they reacted to Ghirlandaio. Friendship and unity, everybody!
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** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and saves the entire army single-handedly, and can complete several missions alone.
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** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. Even before that, the first time she uses those powers is when she stops Selvaria from mowing down what's left of the Gallian army; we're even explicitly told they would have lost without her intervention!
*** We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and saves the entire army single-handedly, and can complete several missions alone.
*** We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and saves the entire army single-handedly, and can complete several missions alone.
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** Varrot finally gets the chance to confront the Imperial officer who tortured and killed her lover back in the day, and Largo convinces her to let him go because IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. He ends up executed by his own superiors and so everything turned out all right in the end, because EvenEvilHasStandards. Except for the part where the Empire already knew Geld had been torturing and murdering people since the first war, and apparently didn't care until [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality one of the good guys had a problem with it.]]
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** Varrot finally gets the chance to confront the Imperial officer who tortured and killed her lover back in the day, and Largo convinces her to let him go because IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim.IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim, and sometimes you just need to let go because revenge won't solve your problems or soothe your pain. He ends up executed by his own superiors and so everything turned out all right in the end, because EvenEvilHasStandards. Except for the part where the Empire already knew Geld had been torturing and murdering people since the first war, and apparently didn't care until [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality one of the good guys had a problem with it.it]]! And, like all the others, the player is meant to feel good about it because Geld is a terrible human being... so, actually, revenge is ''awesome'', as long as [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork you let someone else do it for you.]]
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* ''VideoGame/{{Ambition}}'' is intended to teach players how to negotiate with people. In this regard, it fails ''spectacularly'', as its bizarre and improbable characters and events. Among others:
** The game seems to excuse Ted's atrocities just because he's the supposed victim of an immoral wife. Despite the fact he ''tried to blow up an office building and essentially commit a mass murder.'' Made worse by the fact he's canonically considered sane.
** Having a troublesome marriage? [[spoiler:Just give your wife expensive jewelry! She'll forget about all your problems because material wealth trumps working out your differences! To be fair, you will fail if you don't get them to agree on something, and the game itself remarks that they should probably break up in the victory screen... which only makes the whole thing seem even ''more'' ridiculous.]]
** The games often fail in their goal to teach you about negotiation, in the fact that nobody really comes to an agreement on anything, and you're mostly just telling people what they want to hear, or offering decisions that really make no sense. Episode 9 even allows you to sit back and let someone else do your work.
** Negotiating your way out of a speeding ticket requires being able to cry uncontrollably.
* Made by the same team as the Ambition series, "The Track Meet" is a simulation about teaching sports ethics, where the protagonist has fallen below the GPA requirements to stay on the team and the player's goal is to handle it ethically... and the game ''doesn't give you an option to do so'', instead requiring a player to spy on their teammates and engage in a lie of omission just so that they can confess to it later.
** The game seems to excuse Ted's atrocities just because he's the supposed victim of an immoral wife. Despite the fact he ''tried to blow up an office building and essentially commit a mass murder.'' Made worse by the fact he's canonically considered sane.
** Having a troublesome marriage? [[spoiler:Just give your wife expensive jewelry! She'll forget about all your problems because material wealth trumps working out your differences! To be fair, you will fail if you don't get them to agree on something, and the game itself remarks that they should probably break up in the victory screen... which only makes the whole thing seem even ''more'' ridiculous.]]
** The games often fail in their goal to teach you about negotiation, in the fact that nobody really comes to an agreement on anything, and you're mostly just telling people what they want to hear, or offering decisions that really make no sense. Episode 9 even allows you to sit back and let someone else do your work.
** Negotiating your way out of a speeding ticket requires being able to cry uncontrollably.
* Made by the same team as the Ambition series, "The Track Meet" is a simulation about teaching sports ethics, where the protagonist has fallen below the GPA requirements to stay on the team and the player's goal is to handle it ethically... and the game ''doesn't give you an option to do so'', instead requiring a player to spy on their teammates and engage in a lie of omission just so that they can confess to it later.
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* A common aesop in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is that the player shouldn't care about how strong a particular Pokemon is, and should try to use Pokemon they like. The aesop becomes broken, however, when you realize that not only can the games be made significantly easier by using stronger Mons, but ''most of the characters who tell you this use strong Mons themselves''. For example, Cynthia delivers such a speech before the battle against her in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Her signature Pokemon is Garchomp, a [[OlympusMons Pseudo-Legendary]] with a base stat total of 600 [[hottip:Note: By comparison, your starter, when fully evolved, will have a BST of 534 -Garchomp's is equal to that of a non-Uber legendary]]. Her entire team also has perfect [=IVs=], the Pokemon equivalent to genetic capabilities.
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* A common aesop in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is that the player shouldn't care about how strong a particular Pokemon is, and should try to use Pokemon they like. The aesop becomes broken, however, when you realize that not only can the games be made significantly easier by using stronger Mons, but ''most of the characters who tell you this use strong Mons themselves''. For example, Cynthia delivers such a speech before the battle against her in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Her signature Pokemon is Garchomp, a [[OlympusMons Pseudo-Legendary]] [[InfinityMinusOneSword Pseudo-]][[LightningBruiser Legendary]] with a base stat total of 600 [[hottip:Note: By comparison, your starter, when fully evolved, will have a BST of 534 -Garchomp's is equal to that of a non-Uber legendary]]. Her entire team also has perfect [=IVs=], the Pokemon equivalent to genetic capabilities.
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* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'' has a lengthy optional FetchQuest. Once you finish it, the NPC who gave it to you simply says "Thank You", giving the Aesop that you should not help people expecting a reward. Then, just as you are about to leave, the person gives you a scroll teaching the Hurricane Spin attack, thus smashing the lesson mere seconds after teaching it.
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*** General Damon is an asshole, and [[AristocratsAreEvil so is everyone else in the aristocracy]], [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses except Cordelia]], who [[spoiler: happens to be a Darcsen.]] It's implied that the army, much like Damon, are at least connected to the Gallian nobility, and therefore as worthless as he is. But they're faceless mooks, the player is expected to judge them according to Damon's example, and that's why we're not supposed to care that they've been ''mass-murdered''. Racism is bad, but classism is totally fine.
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**** Not necessarily. N's heart was pure, as was his quest for Truth/Ideals, as the respective OlympusMon chose him of its own will. The idea is that while Team Plasma's purpose for existing wasn't what he believed, he ''made'' it work for his truth/ideal - not only did many Team Plasma members start to develop attachment to their Pokémon as treasured partners, the ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 sequel games]] show that many of them turned to N's side. Furthermore, the presence of new characters like Hugh (who [[RevengeBeforeReason blames not only unrepentant Team Plasma members and those who weren't personally involved for what happened to his sister's Purloin]]) shows them accentuating the GreyAndGrayMorality further and with legitimate backing.
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**** Not necessarily. N's heart was pure, as was his quest for Truth/Ideals, as the respective OlympusMon chose him of its own will. The idea is that while Team Plasma's purpose for existing wasn't what he believed, he ''made'' it work for his truth/ideal - not only did many Team Plasma members start to develop attachment to their Pokémon as treasured partners, the ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 sequel games]] show that many of them turned to N's side. Furthermore, the presence of new characters like Hugh (who [[RevengeBeforeReason blames not only unrepentant Team Plasma members and those who weren't personally involved for what happened to his sister's Purloin]]) shows them accentuating the GreyAndGrayMorality further and with legitimate backing.
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** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and can complete several missions alone.
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** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and saves the entire army single-handedly, and can complete several missions alone.
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** In fact, ''all'' of the memories that Nilin remixes involve [[spoiler: altering them to make them worse than they were before, which results in the deaths of at least two people: a man who commits suicide because he wrongly remembers accidentally killing his girlfriend, and a man who is going to die without the expensive medical treatment that his wife is no longer trying to procure for him because she thinks he's dead.]]
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** In fact, ''all'' of the memories that Nilin remixes involve [[spoiler: altering them to make them worse than they were before, which results in the deaths of at least two people: a man who commits suicide because he wrongly remembers accidentally killing his girlfriend, and a man who is going to die without the expensive medical treatment that his wife is no longer trying to procure for him because she thinks he's dead.]]dead, assuming she didn't kill him when she attacked the hospital she thinks he died in.]]
* The CaptainAmerica game for the Playstation 3 is about Cap punching and shield-smashing his way through a Bavarian castle on his way to rescue his teammates and drive Hydra out. This tends to get accompanied by bold statements about how the whole "Master Race" thing is crap, because the Invaders prove that no man is any less valuable to the war effort than any other.. except this is coming from ''Captain-freaking-America'' after an entire game of handling almost all the direct combat by himself.
* The CaptainAmerica game for the Playstation 3 is about Cap punching and shield-smashing his way through a Bavarian castle on his way to rescue his teammates and drive Hydra out. This tends to get accompanied by bold statements about how the whole "Master Race" thing is crap, because the Invaders prove that no man is any less valuable to the war effort than any other.. except this is coming from ''Captain-freaking-America'' after an entire game of handling almost all the direct combat by himself.
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* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', the overarching moral of the story: that humanity should be able to create its own future, rather than be coddled and manipulated by higher forces. [[spoiler:FATE's only goal, in summation, was to protect humankind, although it believed UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. This is painted as wrong, but come the end of the game, we learn that all of FATE's actions (and the actions of ''many millennia's worth of events during and preceding the game'') were all orchestrated by [[TheChessmaster ONE MAN]] in order to save the universe. Sure, it all worked out in the end, but so much for manipulating destiny being a "bad" thing.]] The game is, however, ambiguous enough that whether or not said Chessmaster is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation meant to be sympathetic]] is open to interpretation.
** The game's attempt at HumansAreBastards GreenAesop is also this to the point of being one thing that can make one like or dislike the whole story. The game is VERY Anvilicious about how horrible humans are and that they destroy the planet, but doesn't do much to back it up. This made even worse by the fact that the player is meant to be sympathetic to some dwarfs that [[{{Hypocrite}} do every single thing that the game says is wrong about humans but think that it's okay for them to act that]] and the game doesn't just acknowledge them as the hypocrites they are. It doesn't help that the message really has no effect on the game's characters either.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Sudeki}}'' working together seems to be the moral of the story: the BigBad exists purely because the resident God split himself in half. Therefore, it's odd that you get to use your full party for four notable story sessions and in only one boss fight, about a third of the way through the game. Generally your party is split in half, and oddly enough (and unfortunately enough. Tal and Elco don't have healing skills) it's men in one group, women in the other.
* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'', the Aesop is apparently that you shouldn't help anyone or let anyone help you or you'll be helping the AlwaysChaoticEvil [[BigBad Grigori]]. Somehow. Of course, this is contradicted not only by the fact that you previously saved the universe by meddling in one planet's affairs, but also by the plot of ''every other game in the series.''
* Broken by economic concerns: The message of the ''OddWorld'' series is that corporations are evil, world-destroying entities... [[ProductPlacement except for delicious, life-restoring Sobe!]]
* ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'' breaks its FamilyUnfriendlyAesop of "freedom is the highest ideal, therefore be true to yourself even at the cost of everything else" by calling on the player character to deal with the aftermath ''every time''. (A case, perhaps, of the AccidentalAesop of: "It's okay if you screw up, because the ChosenOne [[HoldingOutForAHero will fix everything!]]")
* [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Eikichi]] in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' is one ''huge'' Broken Aesop. Abridging a lot, Eikichi got separated from his first love, Hanakouji, when he was a kid; since then he kept focusing on "becoming a true man" to be worthy of her. Problem is, Eikichi remembers Hanakouji to be a beautiful, slim girl, while she actually became overweight (though still pretty easy on the eyes) over the years. When he finds out, his reaction is pretty much that he doesn't care, since she is still herself, making the perfect Aesop of not judging people for their appearances. But then that goes to Hell when Hanakouji goes unmentioned for the next 3/4 of the game, only to reappear and become [[AWizardDidIt slim through magical powers]], and ''only'' after that is their relationship resolved. So, true beauty is on the inside, but being slim is still important.
* The moral of the original NES ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'' is, basically, an anti-junk food one: Don't eat lots of candy, and healthy foods [[CaptainObvious are better for you.]] The bad guy is even a blob of what you could call sapient fat. The problem is that your main weapons to stop him? Are ''jelly beans.'' Which give your blob friend ''magical powers.'' And extra lives are peppermints. Whose side is that game on, anyway?
** The player's. The aforementioned blob friend and sapient fat are creatures from the same planet and candy does give them powers (which is why the villain is king, he's a glutton), but it doesn't do anything for the titular Boy, and the player progresses through the game by solving puzzles ''one'' jellybean at a time and the extra-life peppermints are rare. Assuming [[NintendoHard you don't count all the times you have to try again to get your stupid friend to eat the jellybean in the right place]], you can get through the entire game on roughly a couple handfuls of jellybeans and a few mints, so it's more of a message of applied moderation.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' finds a way to break most of its own Aesops because it's trying to cram too many into one game:
** Squad 7 is full of personality and color in an effort to create VideoGameCaringPotential and a scene is devoted to the main characters learning that the enemy is human too, but the entire Gallian main army is blown up at Ghirlandaio and no one cares. The game does make a brief attempt to make the Imperial Soldiers sympathetic, but they do it by having a single young Imperial soldier die in Alicia's lap while his commanding officer walks away peaceably out of respect for his demise. The rest of the Imperial Army runs concentration camps and generally acts like unsympathetic assholes for the entire remainder of the story.
** Everyone learns a lesson about how racism is bad and judging people for their ethnicity is wrong, but because Valkyria powers are a metaphor for nuclear weapons and the game is strongly anti-WMD's, the end result paints the Valkyrur as manipulative, bloodthirsty, [[UnfortunateImplications all-female]] monsters [[FridgeLogic in retrospect]]. As an added bonus, the two ''living'' Valkyria are genuinely good people who are in full control of their powers, which breaks ''both'' Aesops.
*** Which is made worse at the end of the game, when [[spoiler:Alicia]] chooses to completely abandon her Valkyria powers, solely because of the stress the InternalizedCategorism was putting on her. So, racism is bad, but if you're from a bad race, it's better to just pretend you're not and act like everyone else. [[ValuesDissonance Can you tell this game was made in Japan?]]
** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and can complete several missions alone.
** [[DesignatedEvil Faldio]] is imprisoned for committing treason by awakening [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers because doing so required her to have a near-death experience, so he shot her. Later, he apologizes for believing that power is the key to victory [[spoiler:and dies in order to [[DeathEqualsRedemption to prove his sincerity]]]], driving home any of the game's anti-war aesops. But if he ''hadn't'' done it, Selvaria would have completely obliterated the army ''and'' the militia, and conquered Gallia in time for tea and ''thusly achieved victory for her side''-- he openly lampshades this at one point.
** While it is pay for DLC, they actually portray one of the Gallian commanders as a heartless bastard. Having him use a poison forbidden by their "Geneva convention" against his enemies, and after he loses the commander tells his higher ups that his squad had the poison used against them.
** War is bad and only horrible people (or good people with horrible reasons) pursue military careers in peacetime, except Welkin's father Belgan Gunther, a tank commander in the Gallian Army, is considered a great hero and referenced often in relation to Welkin's potential as an officer.
** Varrot finally gets the chance to confront the Imperial officer who tortured and killed her lover back in the day, and Largo convinces her to let him go because IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. He ends up executed by his own superiors and so everything turned out all right in the end, because EvenEvilHasStandards. Except for the part where the Empire already knew Geld had been torturing and murdering people since the first war, and apparently didn't care until [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality one of the good guys had a problem with it.]]
* According to the [[WordOfGod developers]] of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'', the risk of a Broken Aesop was why one of the MultipleEndings for the town of Junktown was changed. The player has to decide between aiding a sherrif or a sleazy casino owner. Originally, the ending for assisting the Sheriff reveals that he [[spoiler:becomes a low-grade KnightTemplar]], and Junktown [[spoiler:stays small because people avoid the hassle]]. Assist the sleazy casino owner, though, and Junktown [[spoiler:thrives, because [[EvenEvilHasStandards the sleazy casino owner understands that slavers, drug users, and actively immoral people are bad for his business, and wipes them out]] ]]. In the game proper, though, the Sheriff is the 'good' choice.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' catches considerable flak for its message of independence being constantly subverted, as your characters repeatedly do exactly what the bad guys tell them to do over and over again right up until the ending.
** Speaking of the ending, the predictably apocalyptic scenario that comes from [[NearVillainVictory the villains]] ''[[NearVillainVictory winning]]'' is stopped by what might be a literal DeusExMachina. What makes it even worse is the game says "you can't wait around for a miracle to happen", but a miracle is clearly what solves the problem!
* One of the recurring themes in the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series is that fighting for its own sake or for others makes you stronger than if you were just fighting for revenge or hatred. The poster child for this is Sagat, who originally hated Ryu for scarring him, but eventually realized that his hatred was weakening him, moved on, and became a stronger fighter for it. The problem and the Broken Aesop comes in the way this is related to Dan, especially in [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha SFA3]]: many people, Sagat included, comment on how Dan's hatred has made him weak and silly. Sagat even comments that he used to be just like Dan. To be fair, Dan has a little more to be pissed about than Sagat: Sagat just had his chest scarred in a fight that he voluntarily participated in. Dan had his father KILLED by Sagat. That's not something that you can put a shirt over or get plastic surgery for. The messed up thing is that Chun Li is basically fighting for the same reason, and her motivation makes her arguably the strongest woman in the series. So fighting because someone scarred you in a fight is OK, fighting because you just like beating people up is OK, but fighting to stop someone who has killed before and may kill again is wrong if you aren't one of the main protagonists? The lesson becomes that hatred and a desire for revenge will make you strong like Chun Li or Cammy, but ''only if you are a woman.''
* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime'' gives the aesop that the past can't be changed, and you should take responsibility for your actions and move on instead. However, at several points in the game, you ''have'' to go back in time to try and fix things to progress, resulting in none of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the space-time continuum as we know it]] problems you're warned would happen if you try it, making it a case of "You can't change the past, but only when GameplayAndStorySegregation disallows it."
* In ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', after winning the Hercules Cup, the player is treated to a heartwarming scene in which the hero realizes that anything is possible with the help of his friends. This scene is immediately preceded by said hero demanding that he face the final boss of the tournament by himself.
* The Dreamcast game ''Death Crimson OX'' puts a lengthy one in at the ending. [[spoiler:After defeating the final boss, it's spirit goes on a long rant about the evils of the gun and how we would all do better if we just got rid of the darned things. Did I forget to mention that this is a ''light-gun game''?]]
* ''VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld'' has the Taper of Sacrifice, a candle and part of a set of virtue-themed artifacts. It teaches self-sacrifice, because a candle only brings light through its own destruction. And since the artifacts are necessary for the plot, it never burns down. In fact the player can leave it alight and never worry about light sources again.
* After the battle for Area Zero in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 4'', Neige shoots a WhatTheHellHero speech at Zero, blaming him for all the damage caused in the fight. The anti-violence message is undercut by the fact that there's no indication that, if it wasn't for Zero, she and the other refugees wouldn't have been slaughtered. Nice job, sister.
* ''VideoGame/MarioTennis: Power Tour'' talks a lot about how doubles are about team work (thus using each members strengths) and strategy and how it differs from singles and only at low levels can one player win a game, except you have no way to control the AI on your partner and he plays almost entirely as though you didn't exist, ruining game winning shots by running in front in front of you ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation one of the opponents apologizes to their doubles partner for doing exactly that and commends you on your team work despite the opposite being true in-match]]) and being ignorant of even basic play tactics, forcing you to, you guessed it, win each match mostly by yourself. Additionally, almost all the the singles players have their doubles teams rated EXACTLY THE SAME, so much for the two being different games then.
* Misha's route in ''VideoGame/ArTonelico'' has an event where Aurica's best friend, Claire, is being harassed by a couple of bigoted thugs. Things are escalating, and it looks like its about to turn physically violent in a few seconds. The protagonist, Lyner, steps in tells them to knock it off. This angers the thugs, who attack him. Lyner, a highly trained and gifted member of an elite knighthood, kicks the crap out of them with ease, and they scuttle off, terrified. His thanks? Getting scolded by everyone in his party, because "violence is never the answer". Never mind that his intervention probably saved both Claire and her bar from a beating, and the thugs attacked him. I guess that the solution is to just stand there and let them send you to the hospital and possibly kill you? Apparently so, because that's exactly what Lyner does later in response to this valuable lesson.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The final battle of the ''Cataclysm'' expansion, and the associated storyline and many similar events throughout canon, could be read as "[[HumansAreSpecial mortals are badass]] who can protect the world just fine." Never mind that the final battle of the ''Cataclysm'' expansion and numerous other encounters throughout the game (e.g. Illidan, Arthas) can only be completed with the help of powerful and generally immortal [=NPCs=]. In some other fights, no such characters are apparent in the game itself, but the enemy has a DramaPreservingHandicap or according to the lore the player is only FightingAShadow... because of the ''previous'' intervention of immortal beings.
** At the end of the progression through the Isle of Thunder, Taran Zhu gives a WhatTheHellHero to the Alliance and Horde, saying that their fighting perpetuates a vicious cycle of retaliation, convincing the two sides to stand down, especially considering that they both have a common enemy in Garrosh. At this point, Nalak the Storm Lord is unlocked as a world boss, thus leading to players sabotaging efforts from groups from the rival faction so that they get to kill Nalak, a common enemy for both factions, and collect his loot.
* A common aesop in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is that the player shouldn't care about how strong a particular Pokemon is, and should try to use Pokemon they like. The aesop becomes broken, however, when you realize that not only can the games be made significantly easier by using stronger Mons, but ''most of the characters who tell you this use strong Mons themselves''. For example, Cynthia delivers such a speech before the battle against her in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Her signature Pokemon is Garchomp, a [[OlympusMons Pseudo-Legendary]] with a base stat total of 600 [[hottip:Note: By comparison, your starter, when fully evolved, will have a BST of 534 -Garchomp's is equal to that of a non-Uber legendary]]. Her entire team also has perfect [=IVs=], the Pokemon equivalent to genetic capabilities.
** A plot point in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', with Team Plasma's vendetta against Pokemon husbandry and abuse undermined by their own use and abuse of Pokemon.
*** However, N's conclusion at the end of Black and White, that the player matched his power because [[GrayAndGrayMorality their opposing causes are equally valid]], is totally ruined when Ghetsis reveals that N's cause was false all along.
* The Social Link system in ''Videogame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Persona 4}}''. '''Ideally''', it teaches players about the importance of building strong bonds of friendship with people from all walks of life, from the class clown to the stuffy class president to the depressed old lady to the nurse with the broken dreams. By connecting with these people and helping them overcome issues that they were unable to solve on their own (or give them the emotional support they need to do it themselves) the Protagonist him[=/=]herself is intended to grow as a person and develops from an awkward, solitary teen, into the beloved, selfless heart of the community, and is rewarded with the ability to create ever stronger Personas to assist in battle. '''In practice''', however, you usually get "closer" to your S.Links by telling them what they want to hear, what makes them happy, and basically all the change they go through comes from within instead of your responses. Indeed, "maxing out" an S.Link yields Ultimate Personas and valuable items, and there is no further reward to spending time with them afterwards (if you try, the game itself tells you that your relationship cannot grow any stronger, basically suggesting to go do something else) so most strategy guides revolve around min-maxing your "time" with them to max them out as efficiently as possible, reducing the Protagonist to a sociopath who only sweet-talks his[=/=]her "friends" to gain power and only deals with them for as long as they're useful.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'': ThePowerOfFriendship will grant you incredible might... except that the alien beings who allow you to actually ''use'' said power are originally drawn by feelings of utter loneliness, so the best way to become powerful is in fact to ''reject'' ThePowerOfFriendship until the universe hands you power on a platter, ''then'' start playing nicely with others.
* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': The main lesson learned is that the law is ever-changing and not absolute- if it's not just, then change it. This is demonstrated by changing the legal system from a traditional system (only the Judge decides the outcome ) to a Jurist System (think jurors and juries) on the grounds that it is fairer. The problem is the particular case that this system is introduced in is quite possibly the most biased case in the whole series. For ''starters'' the reason why [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright]] chose to introduce the system in the first place was to engineer a specific outcome and this outcome is very closely related to his own interests. In other words, this "fair" system is ultimately little more than a means to an end for the very person that created it...
* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' has a horrible one for a side quest. Wei goes after a street racer to get him arrested for deliberately forcing his opponents to crash during races and Wei is clearly disgusted with him for this. The problem? To even get access to this side quest you have to do street racing missions and you've almost definitely had to deliberately force your opponents to crash (especially on the first one where you have to race with an awful car) and most of those crashes looked pretty fatal...
* In ''[[Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl Monster Girl Quest]]'', it attempts to deliver the message that humans are the real monsters for hating and fearing the titular monster girls, who are made out to be misunderstood victims. The main character repeatedly preaches this, and has devoted his life to creating a world where humans and monsters can coexist. However, every single monster you meet attacks you completely unprovoked, and if you lose, [[spoiler:rapes and then either enslaves you for life or outright murders you, as the main character literally ''pleads for mercy''.]] Suddenly, the "extremist" humans who see all monster girls as heartless murderers don't seem so extreme.
** Bonus points that the extremists in the game are viewed with complete animosity from the main character, who doesn't even consider what sort of horrible things may have been done to them to make them extremists to begin with.
* {{Lunar}} has the theme running through it that 'humans don't need gods, they can take care of themselves.' This is broken in the second game as the threat of [[spoiler:Zophar and the fake Althena]] is only noticed by [[PhysicalGod Lucia]], and everyone else being completely fooled. The plot wouldn't even had gotten started without her warning the main protagonists about this.
** If you don't take GameplayAndStorySegregation into account, there's all the level grinding needed to actually beat the final boss, humans would been woefully unwarned and unprepared.
* EdutainmentGame ''VideoGame/JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade'' has a very slight anti-cheating Aesop (i.e. when Frankie says "We'll show Jimmy we don't need to cheat to win"). However, the game centers around using gadgets to improve the characters' scooters, and [[http://www.amazon.com/review/R1YUNY805NIPNA/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm one reviewer]] interpreted this as cheating...which would break the Aesop pretty badly, to say the least (especially since the villain Jimmy apparently doesn't add gadgets to his scooter).
* There is a subplot in TalesOfVesperia where Flynn expressed his disapproval of Yuri's VigilanteMan actions in [[spoiler:executing Ragou and Cumore.]] The problem was that both were too powerful and well-connected, one of them had *already* been tried in a court of law and was given a slap on the wrist for feeding his own people to his pets ForTheEvulz. The latter is [[spoiler:one of the most high-ranking member of the knights, a combination of military and law enforcement.]] Its pretty obvious the justice system is corrupt and ineffectual; Flynn does not propose any immediate solution to allowing powerful mass murderers walk free to continue their crimes. Remember kids, killing people for the sake of justice is wrong, its better to let them callously kill tons of people for the sake of their own amusement. Since the justice system can't really touch them, get used to it until an idealistic young hotshot can gain enough power and influence to single-handedly reform the corrupt courts.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' makes a big deal early on about how one has to atone for their sins, and can't expect to be forgiven easily, if at all. Later in the game the party discovers that [[spoiler:Anise]] had been betraying them pretty much the whole time because her family was held hostage. Naturally, they all forgive her instantly.
* ''VideoGame/RememberMe'' tells us that bad memories, though painful, are an unfortunately necessary part of life. Nilin's primary skill as a memory hunter is to "remix" people's memories, and she openly declares she can make anyone believe whatever she wants. [[spoiler: Nilin edits her parents' traumatic memories to heal the emotional rifts in her family, which just happens to require shifting the blame for a car accident from herself to her mother.]] All the events of the game and the foundation of the Memorize corporation itself were all caused by people [[spoiler:and machines]] who couldn't ''forget'' their painful memories, and took their pain out on others.
** In fact, ''all'' of the memories that Nilin remixes involve [[spoiler: altering them to make them worse than they were before, which results in the deaths of at least two people: a man who commits suicide because he wrongly remembers accidentally killing his girlfriend, and a man who is going to die without the expensive medical treatment that his wife is no longer trying to procure for him because she thinks he's dead.]]
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** The game's attempt at HumansAreBastards GreenAesop is also this to the point of being one thing that can make one like or dislike the whole story. The game is VERY Anvilicious about how horrible humans are and that they destroy the planet, but doesn't do much to back it up. This made even worse by the fact that the player is meant to be sympathetic to some dwarfs that [[{{Hypocrite}} do every single thing that the game says is wrong about humans but think that it's okay for them to act that]] and the game doesn't just acknowledge them as the hypocrites they are. It doesn't help that the message really has no effect on the game's characters either.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Sudeki}}'' working together seems to be the moral of the story: the BigBad exists purely because the resident God split himself in half. Therefore, it's odd that you get to use your full party for four notable story sessions and in only one boss fight, about a third of the way through the game. Generally your party is split in half, and oddly enough (and unfortunately enough. Tal and Elco don't have healing skills) it's men in one group, women in the other.
* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'', the Aesop is apparently that you shouldn't help anyone or let anyone help you or you'll be helping the AlwaysChaoticEvil [[BigBad Grigori]]. Somehow. Of course, this is contradicted not only by the fact that you previously saved the universe by meddling in one planet's affairs, but also by the plot of ''every other game in the series.''
* Broken by economic concerns: The message of the ''OddWorld'' series is that corporations are evil, world-destroying entities... [[ProductPlacement except for delicious, life-restoring Sobe!]]
* ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana'' breaks its FamilyUnfriendlyAesop of "freedom is the highest ideal, therefore be true to yourself even at the cost of everything else" by calling on the player character to deal with the aftermath ''every time''. (A case, perhaps, of the AccidentalAesop of: "It's okay if you screw up, because the ChosenOne [[HoldingOutForAHero will fix everything!]]")
* [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Eikichi]] in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' is one ''huge'' Broken Aesop. Abridging a lot, Eikichi got separated from his first love, Hanakouji, when he was a kid; since then he kept focusing on "becoming a true man" to be worthy of her. Problem is, Eikichi remembers Hanakouji to be a beautiful, slim girl, while she actually became overweight (though still pretty easy on the eyes) over the years. When he finds out, his reaction is pretty much that he doesn't care, since she is still herself, making the perfect Aesop of not judging people for their appearances. But then that goes to Hell when Hanakouji goes unmentioned for the next 3/4 of the game, only to reappear and become [[AWizardDidIt slim through magical powers]], and ''only'' after that is their relationship resolved. So, true beauty is on the inside, but being slim is still important.
* The moral of the original NES ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'' is, basically, an anti-junk food one: Don't eat lots of candy, and healthy foods [[CaptainObvious are better for you.]] The bad guy is even a blob of what you could call sapient fat. The problem is that your main weapons to stop him? Are ''jelly beans.'' Which give your blob friend ''magical powers.'' And extra lives are peppermints. Whose side is that game on, anyway?
** The player's. The aforementioned blob friend and sapient fat are creatures from the same planet and candy does give them powers (which is why the villain is king, he's a glutton), but it doesn't do anything for the titular Boy, and the player progresses through the game by solving puzzles ''one'' jellybean at a time and the extra-life peppermints are rare. Assuming [[NintendoHard you don't count all the times you have to try again to get your stupid friend to eat the jellybean in the right place]], you can get through the entire game on roughly a couple handfuls of jellybeans and a few mints, so it's more of a message of applied moderation.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' finds a way to break most of its own Aesops because it's trying to cram too many into one game:
** Squad 7 is full of personality and color in an effort to create VideoGameCaringPotential and a scene is devoted to the main characters learning that the enemy is human too, but the entire Gallian main army is blown up at Ghirlandaio and no one cares. The game does make a brief attempt to make the Imperial Soldiers sympathetic, but they do it by having a single young Imperial soldier die in Alicia's lap while his commanding officer walks away peaceably out of respect for his demise. The rest of the Imperial Army runs concentration camps and generally acts like unsympathetic assholes for the entire remainder of the story.
** Everyone learns a lesson about how racism is bad and judging people for their ethnicity is wrong, but because Valkyria powers are a metaphor for nuclear weapons and the game is strongly anti-WMD's, the end result paints the Valkyrur as manipulative, bloodthirsty, [[UnfortunateImplications all-female]] monsters [[FridgeLogic in retrospect]]. As an added bonus, the two ''living'' Valkyria are genuinely good people who are in full control of their powers, which breaks ''both'' Aesops.
*** Which is made worse at the end of the game, when [[spoiler:Alicia]] chooses to completely abandon her Valkyria powers, solely because of the stress the InternalizedCategorism was putting on her. So, racism is bad, but if you're from a bad race, it's better to just pretend you're not and act like everyone else. [[ValuesDissonance Can you tell this game was made in Japan?]]
** Welkin makes a dramatic speech about how Squad 7 doesn't need to rely on [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers to win the day and beat the Marmotah, continuing the game's thematic Aesop of "teamwork always beats individual excellence", but the only way Squad 7 is able to even get onto the thing is after ''those exact powers'' have been used to blow a hole in its armor plating; before that happens, it's completely hopeless. We're also shown that the villains are strongly individualized and none of the generals work together or have any mutual bonds to each other, and that's why they can be beaten one at a time by a unified RagtagBunchOfMisfits like Squad 7. But Squad 7 has Alicia, who is [[GameBreaker Mary-Sue levels of powerful]] even before [[spoiler:she gets her Valkyria powers]] and can complete several missions alone.
** [[DesignatedEvil Faldio]] is imprisoned for committing treason by awakening [[spoiler:Alicia]]'s Valkyria powers because doing so required her to have a near-death experience, so he shot her. Later, he apologizes for believing that power is the key to victory [[spoiler:and dies in order to [[DeathEqualsRedemption to prove his sincerity]]]], driving home any of the game's anti-war aesops. But if he ''hadn't'' done it, Selvaria would have completely obliterated the army ''and'' the militia, and conquered Gallia in time for tea and ''thusly achieved victory for her side''-- he openly lampshades this at one point.
** While it is pay for DLC, they actually portray one of the Gallian commanders as a heartless bastard. Having him use a poison forbidden by their "Geneva convention" against his enemies, and after he loses the commander tells his higher ups that his squad had the poison used against them.
** War is bad and only horrible people (or good people with horrible reasons) pursue military careers in peacetime, except Welkin's father Belgan Gunther, a tank commander in the Gallian Army, is considered a great hero and referenced often in relation to Welkin's potential as an officer.
** Varrot finally gets the chance to confront the Imperial officer who tortured and killed her lover back in the day, and Largo convinces her to let him go because IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. He ends up executed by his own superiors and so everything turned out all right in the end, because EvenEvilHasStandards. Except for the part where the Empire already knew Geld had been torturing and murdering people since the first war, and apparently didn't care until [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality one of the good guys had a problem with it.]]
* According to the [[WordOfGod developers]] of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'', the risk of a Broken Aesop was why one of the MultipleEndings for the town of Junktown was changed. The player has to decide between aiding a sherrif or a sleazy casino owner. Originally, the ending for assisting the Sheriff reveals that he [[spoiler:becomes a low-grade KnightTemplar]], and Junktown [[spoiler:stays small because people avoid the hassle]]. Assist the sleazy casino owner, though, and Junktown [[spoiler:thrives, because [[EvenEvilHasStandards the sleazy casino owner understands that slavers, drug users, and actively immoral people are bad for his business, and wipes them out]] ]]. In the game proper, though, the Sheriff is the 'good' choice.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' catches considerable flak for its message of independence being constantly subverted, as your characters repeatedly do exactly what the bad guys tell them to do over and over again right up until the ending.
** Speaking of the ending, the predictably apocalyptic scenario that comes from [[NearVillainVictory the villains]] ''[[NearVillainVictory winning]]'' is stopped by what might be a literal DeusExMachina. What makes it even worse is the game says "you can't wait around for a miracle to happen", but a miracle is clearly what solves the problem!
* One of the recurring themes in the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series is that fighting for its own sake or for others makes you stronger than if you were just fighting for revenge or hatred. The poster child for this is Sagat, who originally hated Ryu for scarring him, but eventually realized that his hatred was weakening him, moved on, and became a stronger fighter for it. The problem and the Broken Aesop comes in the way this is related to Dan, especially in [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha SFA3]]: many people, Sagat included, comment on how Dan's hatred has made him weak and silly. Sagat even comments that he used to be just like Dan. To be fair, Dan has a little more to be pissed about than Sagat: Sagat just had his chest scarred in a fight that he voluntarily participated in. Dan had his father KILLED by Sagat. That's not something that you can put a shirt over or get plastic surgery for. The messed up thing is that Chun Li is basically fighting for the same reason, and her motivation makes her arguably the strongest woman in the series. So fighting because someone scarred you in a fight is OK, fighting because you just like beating people up is OK, but fighting to stop someone who has killed before and may kill again is wrong if you aren't one of the main protagonists? The lesson becomes that hatred and a desire for revenge will make you strong like Chun Li or Cammy, but ''only if you are a woman.''
* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime'' gives the aesop that the past can't be changed, and you should take responsibility for your actions and move on instead. However, at several points in the game, you ''have'' to go back in time to try and fix things to progress, resulting in none of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the space-time continuum as we know it]] problems you're warned would happen if you try it, making it a case of "You can't change the past, but only when GameplayAndStorySegregation disallows it."
* In ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', after winning the Hercules Cup, the player is treated to a heartwarming scene in which the hero realizes that anything is possible with the help of his friends. This scene is immediately preceded by said hero demanding that he face the final boss of the tournament by himself.
* The Dreamcast game ''Death Crimson OX'' puts a lengthy one in at the ending. [[spoiler:After defeating the final boss, it's spirit goes on a long rant about the evils of the gun and how we would all do better if we just got rid of the darned things. Did I forget to mention that this is a ''light-gun game''?]]
* ''VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld'' has the Taper of Sacrifice, a candle and part of a set of virtue-themed artifacts. It teaches self-sacrifice, because a candle only brings light through its own destruction. And since the artifacts are necessary for the plot, it never burns down. In fact the player can leave it alight and never worry about light sources again.
* After the battle for Area Zero in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 4'', Neige shoots a WhatTheHellHero speech at Zero, blaming him for all the damage caused in the fight. The anti-violence message is undercut by the fact that there's no indication that, if it wasn't for Zero, she and the other refugees wouldn't have been slaughtered. Nice job, sister.
* ''VideoGame/MarioTennis: Power Tour'' talks a lot about how doubles are about team work (thus using each members strengths) and strategy and how it differs from singles and only at low levels can one player win a game, except you have no way to control the AI on your partner and he plays almost entirely as though you didn't exist, ruining game winning shots by running in front in front of you ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation one of the opponents apologizes to their doubles partner for doing exactly that and commends you on your team work despite the opposite being true in-match]]) and being ignorant of even basic play tactics, forcing you to, you guessed it, win each match mostly by yourself. Additionally, almost all the the singles players have their doubles teams rated EXACTLY THE SAME, so much for the two being different games then.
* Misha's route in ''VideoGame/ArTonelico'' has an event where Aurica's best friend, Claire, is being harassed by a couple of bigoted thugs. Things are escalating, and it looks like its about to turn physically violent in a few seconds. The protagonist, Lyner, steps in tells them to knock it off. This angers the thugs, who attack him. Lyner, a highly trained and gifted member of an elite knighthood, kicks the crap out of them with ease, and they scuttle off, terrified. His thanks? Getting scolded by everyone in his party, because "violence is never the answer". Never mind that his intervention probably saved both Claire and her bar from a beating, and the thugs attacked him. I guess that the solution is to just stand there and let them send you to the hospital and possibly kill you? Apparently so, because that's exactly what Lyner does later in response to this valuable lesson.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The final battle of the ''Cataclysm'' expansion, and the associated storyline and many similar events throughout canon, could be read as "[[HumansAreSpecial mortals are badass]] who can protect the world just fine." Never mind that the final battle of the ''Cataclysm'' expansion and numerous other encounters throughout the game (e.g. Illidan, Arthas) can only be completed with the help of powerful and generally immortal [=NPCs=]. In some other fights, no such characters are apparent in the game itself, but the enemy has a DramaPreservingHandicap or according to the lore the player is only FightingAShadow... because of the ''previous'' intervention of immortal beings.
** At the end of the progression through the Isle of Thunder, Taran Zhu gives a WhatTheHellHero to the Alliance and Horde, saying that their fighting perpetuates a vicious cycle of retaliation, convincing the two sides to stand down, especially considering that they both have a common enemy in Garrosh. At this point, Nalak the Storm Lord is unlocked as a world boss, thus leading to players sabotaging efforts from groups from the rival faction so that they get to kill Nalak, a common enemy for both factions, and collect his loot.
* A common aesop in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games is that the player shouldn't care about how strong a particular Pokemon is, and should try to use Pokemon they like. The aesop becomes broken, however, when you realize that not only can the games be made significantly easier by using stronger Mons, but ''most of the characters who tell you this use strong Mons themselves''. For example, Cynthia delivers such a speech before the battle against her in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Her signature Pokemon is Garchomp, a [[OlympusMons Pseudo-Legendary]] with a base stat total of 600 [[hottip:Note: By comparison, your starter, when fully evolved, will have a BST of 534 -Garchomp's is equal to that of a non-Uber legendary]]. Her entire team also has perfect [=IVs=], the Pokemon equivalent to genetic capabilities.
** A plot point in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', with Team Plasma's vendetta against Pokemon husbandry and abuse undermined by their own use and abuse of Pokemon.
*** However, N's conclusion at the end of Black and White, that the player matched his power because [[GrayAndGrayMorality their opposing causes are equally valid]], is totally ruined when Ghetsis reveals that N's cause was false all along.
* The Social Link system in ''Videogame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Persona 4}}''. '''Ideally''', it teaches players about the importance of building strong bonds of friendship with people from all walks of life, from the class clown to the stuffy class president to the depressed old lady to the nurse with the broken dreams. By connecting with these people and helping them overcome issues that they were unable to solve on their own (or give them the emotional support they need to do it themselves) the Protagonist him[=/=]herself is intended to grow as a person and develops from an awkward, solitary teen, into the beloved, selfless heart of the community, and is rewarded with the ability to create ever stronger Personas to assist in battle. '''In practice''', however, you usually get "closer" to your S.Links by telling them what they want to hear, what makes them happy, and basically all the change they go through comes from within instead of your responses. Indeed, "maxing out" an S.Link yields Ultimate Personas and valuable items, and there is no further reward to spending time with them afterwards (if you try, the game itself tells you that your relationship cannot grow any stronger, basically suggesting to go do something else) so most strategy guides revolve around min-maxing your "time" with them to max them out as efficiently as possible, reducing the Protagonist to a sociopath who only sweet-talks his[=/=]her "friends" to gain power and only deals with them for as long as they're useful.
** Made WORSE in ''Persona 3'' FES. If the player maxes all the possible social links before a certain date, Igor rewards the player with an item that lets them make the best Persona possible in the game. The item is called the "Colorless Mask". Igor accidentally drives the Broken Aesop home when he describes the mask as a representation of all the different personalities and types of persons you had to become to make it possible to earn the Mask in the first place, which makes it painfully obvious what you had to do to earn this power.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'': ThePowerOfFriendship will grant you incredible might... except that the alien beings who allow you to actually ''use'' said power are originally drawn by feelings of utter loneliness, so the best way to become powerful is in fact to ''reject'' ThePowerOfFriendship until the universe hands you power on a platter, ''then'' start playing nicely with others.
* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': The main lesson learned is that the law is ever-changing and not absolute- if it's not just, then change it. This is demonstrated by changing the legal system from a traditional system (only the Judge decides the outcome ) to a Jurist System (think jurors and juries) on the grounds that it is fairer. The problem is the particular case that this system is introduced in is quite possibly the most biased case in the whole series. For ''starters'' the reason why [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright]] chose to introduce the system in the first place was to engineer a specific outcome and this outcome is very closely related to his own interests. In other words, this "fair" system is ultimately little more than a means to an end for the very person that created it...
* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' has a horrible one for a side quest. Wei goes after a street racer to get him arrested for deliberately forcing his opponents to crash during races and Wei is clearly disgusted with him for this. The problem? To even get access to this side quest you have to do street racing missions and you've almost definitely had to deliberately force your opponents to crash (especially on the first one where you have to race with an awful car) and most of those crashes looked pretty fatal...
* In ''[[Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl Monster Girl Quest]]'', it attempts to deliver the message that humans are the real monsters for hating and fearing the titular monster girls, who are made out to be misunderstood victims. The main character repeatedly preaches this, and has devoted his life to creating a world where humans and monsters can coexist. However, every single monster you meet attacks you completely unprovoked, and if you lose, [[spoiler:rapes and then either enslaves you for life or outright murders you, as the main character literally ''pleads for mercy''.]] Suddenly, the "extremist" humans who see all monster girls as heartless murderers don't seem so extreme.
** Bonus points that the extremists in the game are viewed with complete animosity from the main character, who doesn't even consider what sort of horrible things may have been done to them to make them extremists to begin with.
* {{Lunar}} has the theme running through it that 'humans don't need gods, they can take care of themselves.' This is broken in the second game as the threat of [[spoiler:Zophar and the fake Althena]] is only noticed by [[PhysicalGod Lucia]], and everyone else being completely fooled. The plot wouldn't even had gotten started without her warning the main protagonists about this.
** If you don't take GameplayAndStorySegregation into account, there's all the level grinding needed to actually beat the final boss, humans would been woefully unwarned and unprepared.
* EdutainmentGame ''VideoGame/JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade'' has a very slight anti-cheating Aesop (i.e. when Frankie says "We'll show Jimmy we don't need to cheat to win"). However, the game centers around using gadgets to improve the characters' scooters, and [[http://www.amazon.com/review/R1YUNY805NIPNA/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm one reviewer]] interpreted this as cheating...which would break the Aesop pretty badly, to say the least (especially since the villain Jimmy apparently doesn't add gadgets to his scooter).
* There is a subplot in TalesOfVesperia where Flynn expressed his disapproval of Yuri's VigilanteMan actions in [[spoiler:executing Ragou and Cumore.]] The problem was that both were too powerful and well-connected, one of them had *already* been tried in a court of law and was given a slap on the wrist for feeding his own people to his pets ForTheEvulz. The latter is [[spoiler:one of the most high-ranking member of the knights, a combination of military and law enforcement.]] Its pretty obvious the justice system is corrupt and ineffectual; Flynn does not propose any immediate solution to allowing powerful mass murderers walk free to continue their crimes. Remember kids, killing people for the sake of justice is wrong, its better to let them callously kill tons of people for the sake of their own amusement. Since the justice system can't really touch them, get used to it until an idealistic young hotshot can gain enough power and influence to single-handedly reform the corrupt courts.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' makes a big deal early on about how one has to atone for their sins, and can't expect to be forgiven easily, if at all. Later in the game the party discovers that [[spoiler:Anise]] had been betraying them pretty much the whole time because her family was held hostage. Naturally, they all forgive her instantly.
* ''VideoGame/RememberMe'' tells us that bad memories, though painful, are an unfortunately necessary part of life. Nilin's primary skill as a memory hunter is to "remix" people's memories, and she openly declares she can make anyone believe whatever she wants. [[spoiler: Nilin edits her parents' traumatic memories to heal the emotional rifts in her family, which just happens to require shifting the blame for a car accident from herself to her mother.]] All the events of the game and the foundation of the Memorize corporation itself were all caused by people [[spoiler:and machines]] who couldn't ''forget'' their painful memories, and took their pain out on others.
** In fact, ''all'' of the memories that Nilin remixes involve [[spoiler: altering them to make them worse than they were before, which results in the deaths of at least two people: a man who commits suicide because he wrongly remembers accidentally killing his girlfriend, and a man who is going to die without the expensive medical treatment that his wife is no longer trying to procure for him because she thinks he's dead.]]
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%% Please keep this at the end of the Video Games folder so it is visible.
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%% Do not add Mass Effect 3 here. The issue of whether it contains a Broken Aesop is contested and leads to flame wars.
%% The subject matter is too controversial. Anyone who adds it again will be suspended from editing.
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