History DespairEventHorizon / VisualNovels

* ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'''s Monokuma is all about bringing DESPAIR to the world, and pushes the buttons of his victims in order to try and drive them over this and to murdering one another. (And personally executing them if they ''do'' kill and are caught.) He succeeds in the case of [[spoiler: Sayaka Maizono, an IdolSinger with hidden insecurities who freaks out massively after she's shown a video where she's told that, if she doesn't "graduate" of Hope's Peak via killing others, she'll be abandoned and forgotten]]; and is ''this'' close to success with [[spoiler: Aoi Asahina, a sweet sportswoman whom he manipulates into framing herself for the murder of her best friend Sakura, hoping to get everyone killed. The other students manage to bring her back.]]
** [[spoiler:Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] crosses the DEH and becomes a mute EmptyShell after [[spoiler:the execution of Mondo Owada, his best friend.]] After [[spoiler:Alter Ego's simulation of Mondo gives him a pep talk]], he is [[spoiler:[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane apparently]] possessed by Mondo's spirit and their personalities merge, but he's murdered shortly afterwards.]]
** [[spoiler:The Good Ending of the first game is all about Makoto picking up his MessianicArchetype ID and actually keeping the remaining students (Aoi, Kyoko, Byakuya, Touko and Yasuhiro) from reaching the DEH at the hands of Monokuma... or better said, Junko Enoshima, who is the one behind him. He actually screams "DON'T LOSE HOPE NOW!" at them while Junko eggs them to cross the DEH.]] Alternatively, [[spoiler:in the Bad Ending, after Kyoko's execution, the five remaining kids (or four, since Touko has died) have crossed it, but they're now living peacefully in the GildedCage that Hope's Peak is for them, alone in the world save for themselves and their children...]]
** [[spoiler: Junko]] claims to have been ''born'' across the [=DEH=], as is fitting for the Ultimate Despair. However, they're a NightmareFetishist and TooKinkyToTorture, and ended up loving the experience of despair and determined to spread that wonderful despair to everyone else...

** ''LightNovel/DanganRonpaZero'': Yasuke Matsuda crosses it [[spoiler: as he's dying]]. He was probably already on the way to crossing it when he realizes [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima was just using him as an UnwittingPawn]], in spite of his efforts to [[spoiler: bring her back as the girl who supported him after his mother died.]] But [[spoiler: Junko]] fully pushes him over the DEH simply by [[spoiler: [[BreakThemByTalking suggesting that she may have had something to do with his mother's death, and then refusing to say anything more than that]], leaving him to die in total despair.]]

* ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'''s Monokuma is all about bringing DESPAIR to the world, and pushes the buttons of his victims in order to try and drive them over this and to murdering one another. (And personally executing them if they ''do'' kill and are caught.) He succeeds in the case of [[spoiler: Sayaka Maizono, an IdolSinger with hidden insecurities who freaks out massively after she's shown a video where she's told that, if she doesn't "graduate" of Hope's Peak via killing others, she'll be abandoned and forgotten]]; and is ''this'' close to succeed too with [[spoiler: Aoi Asahina, a sweet sportswoman whom he manipulates into getting everyone framed for the murder of her best friend Sakura. The other students manage to bring her back.]]

*** Junpei goes through this in most of the [[MultipleEndings Bad Endings]], but none more so than in the "Submarine Ending", where '''[[KillEmAll all]]''' [[KillEmAll of his friends get murdered]] including [[TheLostLenore his love interest]]... And then [[spoiler:he himself gets killed]].

*** A brief crossing, and therapy (and a timely revelation) helps him cross back, but at the end of the DLC case [[spoiler:Marlon Rimes has been utterly broken by the revelation the orca he was trying to kill (because blamed it for the death of his girlfriend a year ago) was different from the one actually involved in the incident, and thus he had been trying to kill an entirely innocent animal the entire time. And not only that; in the attempt, his best friend's attempt at stopping him ended in the lethal accident that was mistaken for murder at the start of the whole case; Jack Shipley came running to stop Marlon, but slipped and fell over sixty feet into the empty pool, with Marlon unable to [[TakeMyHand catch him in time]]. Unable to avenge his girlfriend, unable to save his friend and employer from an incident he himself caused, and all to try and kill an innocent orca, he stopped caring about what happened to him and concealed the "accident" part so he could [[DeathSeeker get the death penalty he thought he deserved]]]].

*** A brief crossing, and therapy (and a timely revelation) helps him cross back, but at the end of the DLC case [[spoiler:Marlon Rimes has been utterly broken by the revelation the orca he was trying to kill (because it had supposedly murdered his girlfriend a year ago) was different from the one actually involved in the incident, and thus he had been trying to kill an entirely innocent animal the entire time. And not only that; in the attempt, his best friend's attempt at stopping him ended in the lethal accident that was mistaken for murder at the start of the whole case; Jack Shipley came running to stop Marlon, but slipped and fell over sixty feet into the empty pool, with Marlon unable to [[TakeMyHand catch him in time]]. Unable to avenge his girlfriend, unable to save his friend and employer from an incident he himself caused, and all to try and kill an innocent orca, he stopped caring about what happened to him and concealed the "accident" part so he could [[DeathSeeker get the death penalty he thought he deserved]]]].

** Taken UpToEleven in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''. [[spoiler: It's revealed that 15 of the students (Chiaki is excluded because she was an AI and the real one didn't fall into it) had all crossed both the DEH and the MoralEventHorizon before the events of the first game when they joined Ultimate Despair, all thanks to [[BreakThemByTalking Junko Enoshima]], who murdered the real Chiaki in front of them. In fact, the students were ''so far beyond'' the DEH and MEH that they all had to be placed inside a virtual reality program in order to overwrite their memories of Ultimate Despair. Unfortunately, Junko is still able to spread her despair inside the program, and temporarily pushes the surviving students past the DEH again in the climax. She's only thwarted when Hajime overcomes his after a RousingSpeech from Chiaki encourages him to overcome their terrible past and write their own futures.]]

** Taken to the [[UpToEleven highest]] degree in the whole franchise to date with the final twist of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony''. [[spoiler: Despite being led to believe the events of the previous franchise installments happened and everyone outside the Ultimate School for Gifted Juveniles is dead after them (itself already one of these), ALL of them are actually fiction in the world of V3 ([[UnreliableNarrator possibly]]), and all of them were actually a TV show for the masses of the world to watch to escape the boredom of modern everyday life (again, maybe), to the point it goes on for 53 seasons. This revelation crushes Shuichi's spirit to the point where he sees both Hope and Despair as portrayed by the rest of the series as complete bullshit, going against Kiibo, the Ultimate Hope Robot, and disputing him that hope will not stop the killing games of their world.]]

** [[spoiler:Sakura]] also crosses this line somewhere in the final battle [[spoiler: against Rin]], most likely around the time when she [[spoiler: gives Rin her speech about how much her life had sucked. Rin then responds with, essentially, [[WhatAnIdiot "tough shit"]], sending her nuts.]] Depending on the player's choices, she either follows this up by [[spoiler:[[MoralEventHorizon capturing and torturing Rin via making her experience the HELL she went through]], or by [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone being saved by her utter despair at (seemingly) killing her sister]] immediately after Rin finally realised that she couldn't bring herself to kill Sakura after all]], and instead [[CooldownHug hugged]] her.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'':
** In [=EP7=] it's revealed that Kinzo crossed this line some time after [[spoiler:his secret lover Beatrice Castiglioni's DeathByChildbirth]]. As for how he crossed it, it turns out that [[spoiler:he eventually raped their illegitimate daughter Beatrice Ushiromiya, since she grew to look so much like Beatrice Castiglioni that Kinzo deluded himself into thinking that she was her mother's reincarnation]].
** This is hinted to have occurred to [[spoiler:Sayo Yasuda, alias Shannon, Beatrice and Kanon]] after realizing that [[spoiler:Battler]] would come back to the island exactly the same year [[spoiler:George was going to propose to Shannon. S/he instigates the murders that occur on the island and throws away everything for a chance of a miracle and make Battler realize his sin.]]
* [[spoiler:Kohaku]] of ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' also crosses the Despair Event Horizon after being raped several times by [[spoiler:SHIKI and his father in order to stop their inversion impulses]] and becomes [[BreakTheCutie utterly broken]], as revealed in the Far Side routes.
* [[spoiler: Keisuke]]'s death in ''VisualNovel/TogainuNoChi'' is this for Akira on Shiki's route. Even though he still puts up a bit of a fight against Shiki, it's nowhere near the same defiance he had before. He also doesn't care whether he lives or dies and decides that whatever happens to him is punishment for [[spoiler: killing Keisuke.]]

* ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'''s Monokuma is all about bringing DESPAIR to the world, and pushes the buttons of his victims in order to try and drive them over this and to murdering one another. (And personally executing them if they ''do'' kill and are caught.) He succeeds in the case of [[spoiler: Sayaka Maizono, an IdolSinger with hidden insecurities who freaks out massively after she's shown a video where she's told that, if she doesn't "graduate" of Hope's Peak via killing others, she'll be abandoned and forgotten]]; and is ''this'' close to succeed too with [[spoiler: Aoi Asahina, a sweet sportswoman whom he manipulates into getting everyone framed for the murder of her best friend Sakura. The other students manage to bring her back.]]
** [[spoiler:Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] crosses the DEH and becomes a mute EmptyShell after [[spoiler:the execution of Mondo Owada, his best friend.]] After [[spoiler:Alter Ego's simulation of Mondo gives him a pep talk]], he is [[spoiler:[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane apparently]] possessed by Mondo's spirit and their personalities merge, but he's murdered shortly afterwards.]]
** [[spoiler:The Good Ending of the first game is all about Makoto picking up his MessianicArchetype ID and actually keeping the remaining students (Aoi, Kyoko, Byakuya, Touko and Yasuhiro) from reaching the DEH at the hands of Monokuma... or better said, Junko Enoshima, who is the one behind him. He actually screams "DON'T LOSE HOPE NOW!" at them while Junko eggs them to cross the DEH.]] Alternatively, [[spoiler:in the Bad Ending, after Kyoko's execution, the five remaining kids (or four, since Touko has died) have crossed it, but they're now living peacefully in the GildedCage that Hope's Peak is for them, alone in the world save for themselves and their children...]]
** Taken UpToEleven in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''. [[spoiler: It's revealed that 15 of the students (Chiaki is excluded because she was an AI and the real one didn't fall into it) had all crossed both the DEH and the MoralEventHorizon before the events of the first game when they joined Ultimate Despair, all thanks to [[BreakThemByTalking Junko Enoshima]], who murdered the real Chiaki in front of them. In fact, the students were ''so far beyond'' the DEH and MEH that they all had to be placed inside a virtual reality program in order to overwrite their memories of Ultimate Despair. Unfortunately, Junko is still able to spread her despair inside the program, and temporarily pushes the surviving students past the DEH again in the climax. She's only thwarted when Hajime overcomes his after a RousingSpeech from Chiaki encourages him to overcome their terrible past and write their own futures.]]
** ''LightNovel/DanganRonpaZero'': Yasuke Matsuda crosses it [[spoiler: as he's dying]]. He was probably already on the way to crossing it when he realizes [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima was just using him as an UnwittingPawn]], in spite of his efforts to [[spoiler: bring her back as the girl who supported him after his mother died.]] But [[spoiler: Junko]] fully pushes him over the DEH simply by [[spoiler: [[BreakThemByTalking suggesting that she may have had something to do with his mother's death, and then refusing to say anything more than that]], leaving him to die in total despair.]]
** Taken to the [[UpToEleven highest]] degree in the whole franchise to date with the final twist of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony''. [[spoiler: Despite being led to believe the events of the previous franchise installments happened and everyone outside the Ultimate School for Gifted Juveniles is dead after them (itself already one of these), ALL of them are actually fiction in the world of V3 ([[UnreliableNarrator possibly]]), and all of them were actually a TV show for the masses of the world to watch to escape the boredom of modern everyday life (again, maybe), to the point it goes on for 53 seasons. This revelation crushes Shuichi's spirit to the point where he sees both Hope and Despair as portrayed by the rest of the series as complete bullshit, going against Kiibo, the Ultimate Hope Robot, and disputing him that hope will not stop the killing games of their world.]]
* ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'': Riki passes this [[spoiler:at the end of Rin's route in the timeline where he and she run away together. Rin's been taken away from him forever, passing a Despair Event Horizon herself offscreen, and his best friends and only family - especially Kyousuke, whom he used to look up to more than anyone else - have proven themselves untrustworthy. Thankfully, Kyousuke is able to reset this timeline, though the consequences were so extreme that it has much a much bigger effect on later timelines than any other.]]
** Not to mention that [[spoiler:the whole plotline happened because Kyousuke was convinced that the bus crash killing him and the others would push Riki and Rin over it, such that he was willing to do anything at all that might make them strong enough to withstand it and not give in to despair.]]
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': Rena crossed this in her backstory, after [[spoiler:her mother revealed she was leaving her father for another man (whose child she was carrying), and after a subsequent (heavily implied) rape attempt by three of her male friends, leading to a berserk rampage.]] This leads to an attempted suicide.
** She also appears to cross one in the Atonement Arc, around the time [[spoiler:she starts believing her friends - specifically Mion - are working against her]]. Unfortunately, it serves to fuel her growing madness.
** Rika and [[spoiler:Hanyuu]] are revealed to have spent the majority of the story this way; [[spoiler:after centuries of failure, Rika eventually gave in to her fate of dying in June 1983, and stopped trying to fight it.]]
* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** Any time [[ItsAWonderfulFailure you get one of the more detailed bad endings in any of the games]], there's usually someone crossing the horizon, usually Phoenix or Apollo.
** ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' uses this as a game mechanic: Since there's no judge to be penalized by and to automatically hand out a guilty verdict if you make too many mistakes, instead the LifeMeter is a "Truth Meter" that indicates Edgeworth's motivation to continue pursuing the truth of the current case. If it runs out at any point, Edgeworth decides that "the truth is lost for all eternity" and gives up.
** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies''
*** A brief crossing, and therapy (and a timely revelation) helps him cross back, but at the end of the DLC case [[spoiler:Marlon Rimes has been utterly broken by the revelation the orca he was trying to kill (because it had supposedly murdered his girlfriend a year ago) was different from the one actually involved in the incident, and thus he had been trying to kill an entirely innocent animal the entire time. And not only that; in the attempt, his best friend's attempt at stopping him ended in the lethal accident that was mistaken for murder at the start of the whole case; Jack Shipley came running to stop Marlon, but slipped and fell over sixty feet into the empty pool, with Marlon unable to [[TakeMyHand catch him in time]]. Unable to avenge his girlfriend, unable to save his friend and employer from an incident he himself caused, and all to try and kill an innocent orca, he stopped caring about what happened to him and concealed the "accident" part so he could [[DeathSeeker get the death penalty he thought he deserved]]]].
*** Athena Cykes enters into one after believing that [[spoiler:she killed her mother and tried to "take her apart" with a robot-fixing machine, therefore mutilating her corpse on top of already committing matricide]]. However, Phoenix uses evidence and logic to prove this to not be the case.
** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' gives one to Apollo Justice after [[spoiler:his adoptive father, Dhurke, is found dead. When Apollo finds this out in court, he realizes that the Dhurke he was talking to was DeadAllAlong, channeled by Maya. The revelation causes Apollo to slam his head down and let out a BigNo before he can snap out of it]].
*** In Case 4, [[spoiler:Geiru Toneido]] ended up crossing this one as a motivation for the case's murder. [[spoiler:She had put up with harsh lessons and a balloon artist job she absolutely ''despised'' to try and follow in her father's Rakugo tradition, and become a storyteller herself. But then her teacher snubbed her in what he ''thought'' was an attempt at letting her choose her own destiny rather than be constrained by the family tradition, and thus passed her dad's "name" on to another disciple entirely. This broke her so thoroughly she murdered him shortly after by suffocating him with the udon dough he was preparing later on. Remarkably, if he had been preparing soba dough (more likely), which she was deathly allergic to, she would have died on the spot as well, but she was so mentally shattered she never stopped to think about that]].
* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'':
** In her bad ending [[spoiler: Makina goes through this after watching Yuuji die right in front of her. She [[SanitySlippage snaps]] and proceeds to keep his rotting body in a trash bag talking to him, believing he is still alive.]]
** On her route [[spoiler: Michiru crosses this when her cat Meowmell dies, worsening her depression to the point that she attempts suicide, and only at the climax of her route does she finally gets better.]]

** ...Which leads to [[spoiler: the PlayerCharacter]] blaming himself for it and falling into such despair that [[spoiler: he gives up on everything and the game ends right there and then. Technically, anyway... the story's only getting started.]]

** ...Which leads to [[spoiler: the PlayerCharacter]] to blame himself for it and fall into such despair that [[spoiler: the game ends right there and then. Technically, anyway... the story's only getting started.]]

* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'': [[StepfordSmiler Sayori]] crossed this [[spoiler:either after you friendzone her or the morning after you confess to her, leading her to [[DrivenToSuicide hang herself]].]]

** The path to Rin's Good Ending requires Rin to hit this point. [[spoiler: After spending so much time and energy destroying herself to become a real artist and do her exhibition at the local gallery, Rin ends up leaving partway through it because she gets overwhelmed by all the questions. This earns her a WhatTheHellHero from the art teacher later on (including an AtomicFBomb), and she breaks down into tears because she doesn't know what's wrong with her to deserve it (bear in mind Hisao has [[NotSoDifferent also lost his temper]] with her twice). Luckily, she gets better after realizing it's okay to be herself after all, even if that means never becoming a real artist.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Grisaia No Kajitsu}}'':

** [[spoiler:Kiyotaka Ishimaru]] crosses the DEH and becomes a mute EmptyShell after [[spoiler:the execution of Mondo Owada, his best friend.]] He is then [[spoiler:[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane apparently]] possessed by Mondo's spirit and their personalities merge, and he is murdered shortly afterwards.]]
** [[spoiler: The Good Ending of the first game is all about Makoto picking up his MessianicArchetype ID and actually keeping the remaining students (Aoi, Kyoko, Byakuya, Touko and Yasuhiro) from reaching the DEH at the hands of Monokuma... or better said, Junko Enoshima, who is the one behind him. He actually screams "DON'T LOSE HOPE NOW!" at them while Junko eggs them to cross the DEH.]] Alternatively, [[spoiler: in the Bad Ending, after Kyoko's execution, the five remaining kids (or four, since Touko has died) have crossed it, but they're now living peacefully in the GildedCage that Hope's Peak is for them, alone in the world save for themselves and their children...]]