History DisproportionateRetribution / Videogames

* One of the major quests in ''[[DragonAge Dragon Age: Origins]]'' involves an ancient curse that a vengeful elven leader inflicted on humans. After his son was tortured and murdered by humans and his daughter raped (and subsequently committed suicide), Zathrian was understandably enraged and sought justice. He [[spoiler: bound the spirit of the Brecilian forest to a wolf]], creating a savage creature that attacked and infected the responsible humans with lycanthropy. However, the curse lasted indefinitely and spread to many innocent humans, and the original criminals [[YourMileageMayVary probably]] didn't deserve two hundred years of unbearable suffering.

* While YMMV some argue "VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII" has this for some of the Nobodies, but with special emphasis on Demyx whose crime was... trying not to fight.

* ''{{Fallout 3}}'': Oh My God! The doctor just left the Vault! Oh! I know! I'll have his assistant killed, plunge the ENTIRE Vault into mayhem, cause many more deaths, forcefully interrogate my own daughter and sic my men to go shoot the doctor's [[PlayerCharacter child]] '''on sight'''! That'll show him!
** On the other hand, the Overseer is a massive control freak and has a Vault-sized ego. The sheer act of opening the vault doors to leave must have insulted him so much he simply lost his shit.

** Both games have examples of horribly disproportionate retribution by the AI. If you so much as take a TIN CAN from their property, some [=NPCs=] are prone to react with lethal force. And should you turn off the King's radio...a crime punishable by death by an entire gang.

* Played for laughs in the''TheNamelessMod.'' In a side mission for the World Corp storyline, you have the option of helping Zero Presence assassinate a priest later in the game. The reason for the hit is because the priest has attempted to steal Zero's pork chops multiple times.
* Luca Blight from ''SuikodenII'' thought that committing brutal and sadistic genocide to an entire nation would be proper retribution for [[spoiler:his mother getting raped, pregnant, and dying from the resulting childbirth.]]

*** Also, Jowston and Highland have been at war for years, and the current peace was as unlikely to last as the rest before it. Jowston basically stirred up war and were crazy enough to do something so heinous to one of the enemy's royals and were unlucky enough that the retaliation was headed by said royal's extremely traumatised, now crazy son.

* In the first disk of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', the rebel group AVALANCHE infiltrates and destroys two Mako Reactors. AVALANCHE consists of Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie. SIX PEOPLE. What does the Shinra Corporation do? Destroy an entire sector of the city. THEY DESTROYED AN ENTIRE SECTOR OF A CITY TO KILL A GROUP WITH SIX PEOPLE.

** Let's not forget Sephiroth himself. "I was born because of a Shinra experiment? Whelp, time to go on an omnicidal rampage, smash a meteor into the earth, and absorb millions of innocent souls to become a god."

** To be fair, that's only if you resist arrest rather than paying a fine or submitting to jail time. Then again this inverts it somewhat, since you can literally [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney buy your way out of murder]] when you're rich enough.

** And who could forget the Ordinators in Morrowind? Woe betide anyone who wears one of their helmets in their presence.

** Really, Ares' dickery only snowballs into a brutal battle that probably levels half of Athens, which was going to be destroyed anyway. Zeus killing Kratos results in the rest (which is still DisproportionateRetribution, mind you).
* ''TowerMadness'': TheGreys [[ExcusePlot are trying to abduct your sheep so they can make a new scarf for their emperor]]. Your response? [[ShockAndAwe Zapping them]], [[KillItWithFire frying them]], [[StuffBlowingUp blowing them up]], and even '''''[[NukeEm nuking]]''''' them, including the emperor himself! All because they wanted some wool without paying for it, but still...
* ''[[SaintsRow Saint's Row 2]]'''s Brotherhood missions, full stop. Worse, it's pure tit-for-tat DisproportionateRetribution. From peace talks where Maero, the Brotherhood leader, offers [[FanNickname Boss]] a 20/80 split out of respect for his accomplishments (as well as a realistic appraisal of the situation in light of Boss' fall from grace,) Boss basically spits in his face and declares war over the implied insult. Boss opens by injecting Maero's tattoo ink with radioactive waste, Maero escalates by dragging Boss' second-in-command to death behind his gang's trucks, Boss then ruins Maero's rocker friend's career by burning his hand with a pyrotechnics display ''and'' locking Maero's girl in the trunk of her own car, then putting it last in a line of cars Maero would later crush with his monster truck. He even stays to gloat, tossing Maero the keys to the car just as the ganglord recognizes it. And all of this only comprises about half of the Brotherhood missions.

* In ''[[VideoGame/JetSetRadio Jet Set Radio Future]]'', the response for some errant graffiti is initially little more than police shakedown. Just a few levels later, though, the police [[spoiler:start sending tanks, mecha and later a private trenchcoat-wearing assassination force. When that doesn't work either, they decide they're going to burn an entire section of the city to the ground just to draw you out.]]

* One of the major quests in ''[[DragonAge Dragon Age: Origins]]'' involves an ancient curse that a vengeful elven leader inflicted on humans. After his son was tortured and murdered by humans and his daughter raped (and subsequently committed suicide), Zathrian was understandably enraged and sought justice. He [[spoiler: bound the spirit of the Brecilian forest to a wolf]], creating a savage creature that attacked and infected the responsible humans with lycanthropy. However, the curse lasted indefinitely and spread to many innocent humans, and even the original criminals [[YourMileageMayVary probably]] didn't deserve two hundred years of unbearable suffering.

** In the first game, one of the major quests involves a dispute over the dwarven crown between Lord Harrowmont and Prince Bhelen. If the player chooses to help Bhelen become king, then Harrowmont is executed. While a dick move, it is explainable in that Bhelen needed to solidify his power base...except that Bhelen didn't stop there. The sequel reveals that Bhelen ordered that Harrowmont's entire family be killed as well. Only one survived and fled the country, dodging Bhelen's assassins at every turn.
*** [[spoiler:It should be noted that if Harrowmont becomes king, even after Bhelen is killed, his supporters continue to rebel against him, undermining his rule and making his reign a failure]].

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games, pigs and chickens tend to overreact to Link hitting them: They suddenly become some sort of rampaging super farm animal and hunt you down. [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment And inevitably, kill you]].
** If you steal from the shopkeeper in ''Link's Awakening'', get ready to be hadoken'd to death if you dare re-enter the shop.
*** [[ShopliftAndDie If you steal from Trill's shop]] in ''TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', he will peck you to death if you come back.
*** [[TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames "You DARE bring LIGHT into my LAIR?!]] [[MemeticMutation YOU MUST DIE!"]]

* Played for laughs in the''TheNamelessMod.'' In a side mission for the World Corp storyline, you have the option of helping Zero Presence assassinate a priest later in the game. The reason for the hit is because the priest has attempted to steal Zero's pork chops multiple times.
* Luca Blight from ''SuikodenII'' thought that committing brutal and sadistic genocide to an entire nation would be proper retribution for [[spoiler:his mother getting raped, pregnant, and dying from the resulting childbirth.]]
** To be fair, such a thing would be extremely traumatic for a child, and the aftermath of that experience didn't help any: [[spoiler:finding out that his father did ''nothing'' to help them and practically pretended that nothing was wrong when he came back. Added to how [[MoralityPet his sister]] was being bullied and shunned by the rest of the Highland aristocracy for being illegitimate.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:the men that raped his mother? Hired by the mayor of Muse, the leader of the nation in question.]] Luca was less than pleased to learn this.
*** Actually, [[spoiler:Muse isn't the leader of the City-States of Jowston, rather just its central site.]] But still, this actually removes the retribution from being disproportionate. I mean, [[spoiler:the leader of the core city of the city-states being responsible for the abduction, rape and death of a ''queen'' of an enemy nation]] is ''not'' a small thing any person or their nation of responsibility can let go. Granted, Luca is an AxCrazy CompleteMonster, but what do you think caused him to be so?
*** Also, Jowston and Highland have been at war for years, and the current peace was as unlikely to last as the rest before it. Jowston basically stirred up war and were crazy enough to do something so heinous to one of the enemy's royals and were unlucky enough that the retaliation was headed by said royal's extremely traumatised, now crazy son.
** Something similar happened with Nakago from ''FushigiYuugi'' [[spoiler:though not only for his mother, but because ''he'' was also raped by his boss]].

* [[spoiler: Kristoph Gavin]] in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' hatches a plan to destroy [[spoiler: Phoenix Wright]]'s life after [[spoiler: Shadi Enigmar, a.k.a. Zak Gramarye]], a high-profile client, snubs him after a game of cards in favor of the less-famous attorney. His nefarious scheme succeeds for the most part, but his failure to dispose of two vital witnesses (thanks to dumb luck) resulted in him having to keep a paranoiac eye on all the people involved for the next seven years, making this a DisproportionateRetribution not just for its effects on the intended victim (''Killing'' a client that snubbed you? Seriously?), but also in terms of how much time and effort he spent on it.

** In the 4th case of ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', [[spoiler: Manfred von Karma shoots Gregory Edgeworth and later adopts his son (Miles Edgeworth) to raise him with the complete opposite ideals from what his father had. And to top it off 15 years later frame him for murder and have Edgeworth believe he killed his own father. And this is because Gregory gave Manfred one, and yes just one, penalty in court once and messed up his perfect record...]]
*** [[spoiler: To his credit, he wasn't actually going to do all that, until he suddenly got shot in the shoulder while passing in front of the elevator, and when it opened he saw Gregory, his son and Yanni lying there with a pistol. Moreover in Investigations 2, while there are times he willingly used forged evidence, he had NO CLUE that the evidence (the autopsy report to be more specific) used in the very case where he got penalized was fake.]]
* In ''{{Snatcher}}'', [[spoiler: Gillian Seed's marriage to Jamie, the woman Elijah Modnar was in love with, causes him to cryogenically freeze Gillian with the intention of leaving him there forever, and to wipe out half of the world's population with a designer virus.]]
* In ''GrandTheftAutoIV'', Niko's responses are more or less proportionate to the wrongs inflicted, but one of the ''talk show hosts'' is not so discriminating.

** In the "Deconstruction" mission of ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', C.J. finds out that some construction workers have been calling his sister Kendl a hooker. C.J.'s response is to head over to the construction plant to "teach them some respect." How does he do this? He smashes up their portables with a bulldozer, and then traps the foreman in his own porta-potty, pushes it into a hole in the ground ''with the poor bastard still inside'', and then commandeers a cement mixer and uses it to ''[[BuriedAlive bury him alive]]''. And all the while he's doing that last bit, the poor guy is screaming "OH GOD, WHY?!" ''Woah,'' C.J., I know you care about your sis a great deal, but ''that was cold.''
*** The worse part? Kendl really does dress like a hooker.

* In ''Emily Enough'' the eponymous character has all rights to her story stolen in a scheme where she was promised release from the asylum she was held in as bait. [[spoiler:She decapitates the person responsible off-screen during the game's ending. To be fair, they were TooDumbToLive, as before the game starts, she killed her parents and servants for less.]]
* Arguably, the titular hero from ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' is guilty of this, though to be fair, he was really only after three people (four, if you include Gognitti), and everyone else just didn't have the sense to ''get out of the way''. [[spoiler: And B.B. was stupid enough to GET IN THE WAY ON PURPOSE.]]
* Karma really is a bitch in the darkside ending of ''TheForceUnleashed''. [[spoiler: Instead of helping Kota, Galen gives into his desire for revenge against Vader and after winning, still tries to help Kota, so really, he's not even evil, he just had a moment of weakness. The result? Palpatine kills everyone except Galen, whom he ''crushes'' with his own ship and then rebuilds into his apprentice, promising to discard him the moment he [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlives his usefulness]].]] Considering how you get away scot free in other morality ''StarWars'' games such as ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', it does seem like Starkiller is something of the universe's ''ButtMonkey''.
* In the first disk of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', the rebel group AVALANCHE infiltrates and destroys two Mako Reactors. AVALANCHE consists of Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie. SIX PEOPLE. What does the Shinra Corporation do? Destroy an entire sector of the city. THEY DESTROYED AN ENTIRE SECTOR OF A CITY TO KILL A GROUP WITH SIX PEOPLE.
** And they failed to kill half of the group. Indeed, at least 2 of the 3 were killed by Shin-Ra soldiers before the plate came down (As they tried to prevent Shin-Ra sabotaging the plate support).

* Whatever you do, do ''not'' steal a slice of cake from {{Kirby}}. He will hunt you down and [[strike:kill]] ''devour you''.
* While YMMV some argue "KingdomHeartsII" has this for some of the Nobodies, but with special emphasis on Demyx whose crime was... trying not to fight.
* In ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games, pigs and chickens tend to overreact to Link hitting them: They suddenly become some sort of rampaging super farm animal and hunt you down. [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment And inevitably, kill you]].
** If you steal from the shopkeeper in ''Link's Awakening'', get ready to be hadoken'd to death if you dare re-enter the shop.

*** [[TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames "You DARE bring LIGHT into my LAIR?!]] [[MemeticMutation YOU MUST DIE!"]]

* ''VideoGame/FableII'' has assassination missions where the reasons for the assassinations include "He thinks he's so funny", "very overdue library book", "selling chocolates half-eaten", and "random draw for the week."

* ''DwarfFortress'' kobolds are considered by much of the fanbase to be [[TheWoobie woobies]], because their main reason for living is to wander into your fortress and pilfer a few things. The main response of your dwarves? Rip them in half. The imports/exports screen explains that they offer "petty annoyance" in return for "death". Someone here is getting shafted.
* ''VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni'': the opening of the game has the main character witness female trainee get shot through the head for ''arriving late to an exam'', and that's just the beginning.
** What's worse is that she really should have known that would happen. Everyone undergoing that training is supposed to have been living with that threat for years. [[spoiler:It's also implied in the endings that the shooter in question is egging Ken on since Special High Class Individuals or whatever is a pretty easily abused system.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' both have guards that react to all crimes by impaling or hacking the criminals into the small pieces, regardless of whether you [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking committed senseless mass murder or stole a clay pot barely worth one gold.]]
** What makes this even more aggravating is that if you even ~accidentally~ pick up said clay pot, they will hunt you down.
*** It's even worse since the guards are ridiculously {{psychic|Powers}}, any offense committed will have scores of Legion troopers from all over the city, and wilderness [[TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot suddenly alerted]] of your wrong doings and chasing you down. Then there's the fact you [[YouWillNotEvadeMe can't even evade them,]] they always know [[BigBrotherIsWatching exactly where you are,]] and [[GoddamnedBats they're everywhere.]]
** To be fair, that's only if you resist arrest rather than paying a fine or submitting to jail time. Then again this inverts it somewhat, since you can literally [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney buy your way out of murder]] when you're rich enough.

*** There is also a mod (Reener's Guard Overhaul) which fixes all issues with the Guards, and as such could turn this into an inversion/aversion.
** Committing any act of thievery, no matter how small, makes you little more than [[MemeticMutation a criminal scum.]] Champion of Cyrodiil? Hero of Kvatch? [[DudeWheresMyRespect Meaningless]] compared to that clay pot you just ''stole.''

* Ares tricking [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] into killing his family sort of snowballs into most of the gods being brutally murdered and [[InferredHolocaust essentially plunging the entire planet into an uninhabitable wasteland]].

* ''TowerMadness'': TheGreys [[ExcusePlot are trying to abduct your sheep so they can make a new scarf for their emperor]]. Your response? [[ShockAndAwe Zapping them]], [[KillItWithFire frying them]], [[StuffBlowingUp blowing them up]], and even '''''[[NukeEm nuking]]''''' them, including the emperor himself! All because they wanted some wool without paying for it, but still...
* ''[[SaintsRow Saint's Row 2]]'''s Brotherhood missions, full stop. Worse, it's pure tit-for-tat DisproportionateRetribution. From peace talks where Maero, the Brotherhood leader, offers [[FanNickname Boss]] a 20/80 split out of respect for his accomplishments (as well as a realistic appraisal of the situation in light of Boss' fall from grace,) Boss basically spits in his face and declares war over the implied insult. Boss opens by injecting Maero's tattoo ink with radioactive waste, Maero escalates by dragging Boss' second-in-command to death behind his gang's trucks, Boss then ruins Maero's rocker friend's career by burning his hand with a pyrotechnics display ''and'' locking Maero's girl in the trunk of her own car, then putting it last in a line of cars Maero would later crush with his monster truck. He even stays to gloat, tossing Maero the keys to the car just as the ganglord recognizes it. And all of this only comprises about half of the Brotherhood missions.
* ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has a mission involving this. The Lang Bros. (back when they were with the Arbiters of Death) were enjoying drinks at a bar when something causes the drink to spill. One of the brothers ganked the guy responsible, and when others came to restrain them, they subsequently got slashed. Then the Arbiters of Death themselves got involved, and were shanked for their efforts. All of this gone over in detail to Clan Gully. There's SeriousBusiness and then there's ''this''.

* In ''[[VideoGame/JetSetRadio Jet Set Radio Future]]'', the response for some errant graffiti is initially little more than police shakedown. Just a few levels later, though, the police [[spoiler:start sending tanks, mecha and later a private trenchcoat-wearing assassination force. When that doesn't work either, they decide they're going to burn an entire section of the city to the ground just to draw you out.]]

* In SaintsRowTheThird, Zimo's [[spoiler: apparent forgetting which of the two DeWynter sisters he slept with was enough for him to spend who knows how long saddled up in a human poney show.]]

* Ares tricking [[GodOfWar Kratos]] into killing his family sort of snowballs into most of the gods being brutally murdered and [[InferredHolocaust essentially plunging the entire planet into an uninhabitable wasteland]].

** Theres also the fact if you steal from the Dalish (and fail), suddenly everyone hates you and you get attacked by one of their patrols. Which is really harsh and stupid.
*** YourMileageMayVary on that one. Dalish already dislike outsiders, for good reason, and one of them comes into their camp and tries to steal from them? Responding with violence may be harsh, but understandable, given their social circumstances.

* The Codex in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' teaches the player some things about in-game space battle tactics. Along the way, it states that the Alliance (human) approach to defending colonies is to arrive LateToTheParty with all manner of techno-hellfire to completely annihilate the aggressors instead of stationing a defense force. It seems to work reasonably well, in a statistical sort of way. Unfortunately, the main enemy doesn't care about inciting disproportionate response.
** [[spoiler: According to Javik, games of chance were punishable by death in the Prothean Empire. However, Javik is a confirmed {{Troll}}, so take it with a grain of salt.]]

** And that most of the time the people attacking the colony gets the hell out long before the Alliance Fleet shows up.
*** If you're talking about the colonies which are attacked in ''Mass Effect 2'' then you should realise that, though they are human colonies, they were in the Terminus Systems - technically not in Systems Alliance space. And those planets are heavily implied to have been colonised specifically by people who don't want Alliance interference. The Alliance fleets weren't slow to show; only the relief fleets and investigators who were sent when the colonies disappeared.
** And then there is the turians' response to humans violating one of the strictest intergalactic laws: Sneak up on the offending vessel, open fire without warning, then start a war. Please note that humans ''had no idea'' that aliens even ''existed'', let alone that there might be laws regarding what you can and can't poke at in space, and the turians were well aware of humanity's ignorance. One character tries to justify the turians' response by saying, "If you saw a child about to touch a loaded gun, wouldn't you stop him?" To which another character responds, "Yes, but I wouldn't stop him by ''shooting him in the head''."

* In ''JetSetRadioFuture'', the response for some errant graffiti is initially little more than police shakedown. Just a few levels later, though, the police [[spoiler:start sending tanks, mecha and later a private trenchcoat-wearing assassination force. When that doesn't work either, they decide they're going to burn an entire section of the city to the ground just to draw you out.]]

* Arguably, the titular hero from ''MaxPayne'' is guilty of this, though to be fair, he was really only after three people (four, if you include Gognitti), and everyone else just didn't have the sense to ''get out of the way''. [[spoiler: And B.B. was stupid enough to GET IN THE WAY ON PURPOSE.]]

**** In fact, one of the first time you see Kendl in a cutscene, shes arguing with her other brother who tells her that she "dresses like a God damn hooker"

* Remember [[spoiler:Future Luke, a.k.a Clive]], the adorable kid from ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture''? Yes, I'm talking about the one [[spoiler:who created a gigantic underground futuristic version of London, built a giant robot, put up a great farce, and tried to blow up the real London only because his parents died in an unfortunate accident.]]

* In ''SonicGenerations'', Time Eater absolutely hates Sonic and wants to kill him. To do this, it sets out to destroy time from 1991 to the present, leaving this 20-year stretch as a sterile void.

* In ''{{Homeworld}}'', the protagonist race builds a mothership, takes it on a test drive, and comes home to find their planet incinerated and 300,000,000 people dead. Why? They violated a 4000 year old ban on interstellar travel, which they weren't even aware of.

* In one of the scenarios in ''Wargame: European Escalation'', an East German Border Guard defects to West Germany. He kills two of his fellow border guards in the escape. East Germany wants him back. West Germany says no. [[WorldWarIII Enter World War 3, stage East]].

* [[spoiler: Kristoph Gavin]] in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' hatches a plan to destroy [[spoiler: Phoenix Wright]]'s life after [[spoiler: Shadi Enigmar, a.k.a. Zak Gramarye]], a high-profile client, snubs him after a game of cards in favor of the less-famous attorney. His nefarious scheme succeeds for the most part, but his failure to dispose of two vital witnesses (thanks to dumb luck) resulted in him having to keep a paranoiac eye on all the people involved for the next seven years, making this a DisproportionateRetribution less in its effects on its intended victim and more one in terms of how much time and effort he spent on it.
** In ''Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney'', there is a ValuesDissonance where the inhabitants of Apollo's country think that it's disproportionate that [[spoiler: cocoon smuggling is a capital offense]] in Borginia.

* While "YMMV" some argue "KingdomHeartsII" has this for some of the Nobodies, but with special emphasis on Demyx whose crime was... trying not to fight.

* In ''Wargame: European Escalation'', an East German Border Guard defects to West Germany. He kills two of his fellow border guards in the escape. East Germany wants him back. West Germany says no. [[WorldWarIII Enter World War 3, stage East]].

* In ''SonicGenerations'', Time Eater absolutely hates Sonic and wants to kill him. To do this, it sets out to destroy time from 1991 to the present, leaving this 20-year stretch as a sterile void.

* In ''LiberalCrimeSquad'', when death penalty laws goes Arch-Conservative, [[AllCrimesAreEqual any crime is punished by death penalty]]. Murder. Arson. Kidnapping. Assault. Vandalism. Disturbing the peace. [[BeyondTheImpossible Loitering]]. And if you add Arch-Conservative police regulations law, the death penalty is no longer applied, because the Death Squads will execute any criminal caught on the spot. Without trial.

*** [[spoiler: To his credit, he wasn't actually going to do all that, until he suddenly got shot in the shoulder while passing in front of the elevator, and when it opened he saw Gregory, his son and Yanni lying there with a pistol. Moreover in Investigations 2, while there are times he willingly used forged evidence, he had NO CLUE that the evidence used in the very case where he got penalized was forged.]]