History DysfunctionJunction / VideoGames

** Not even the resident deities had it easy. [[spoiler:They're staring extinction in the face now that the [[GoldenAge Age of Fire]] is ending, and all attempts to delay the inevitable have backfired ''horribly''. Of the original Lords, one's become a [[MookMaker living source of demonic spawn]], one's [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity lost his mind]], one's [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere decided to give up on the whole mess entirely]], one's [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan had their sanity collapse]] [[BarrierMaiden keeping the Fire alive]], and [[TheChessmaster one's hatching a scheme to actually ignite the Age of Darkness]]. The lesser deities have all fled save for Gwyndolin, who [[WellDoneSonGuy probably has]] [[TheUnfavorite a few issues]], seeing as [[WholesomeCrossdresser his father ordered him raised as a daughter]] for being the only [[{{Lunacy}} Moon God]] in a family of [[ThePowerOfTheSun Sun Gods]].]]

** Like many of the other VideoGame/TalesSeries games, ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. From CloningBlues to [[MyGreatestFailure accidental murder]] to barely escaping genocide to being kept in wage slavery and blackmailed, pretty much everyone in the party has something ugly in their past for them to be unhappy about, and if not, they find something during the course of the story. Even the ''TeamPet'' is tagging along with the party because he was exiled from his clan for all the death he accidentally caused.

* The player's companions in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' are a spread of individuals with strange backstories and mental luggage, such that the only well-adjusted companion is Dogmeat, who's [[CanineCompanion a dog]].

[[folder: Dragon Age]]

[[folder: Final Fantasy]]

[[folder: Knights of the Old Republic]]

[[folder: Mass Effect]]

[[folder: Persona]]

[[folder: Tales of]]

* It's hard to find a single character in the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series that doesn't have a horrible past and/or at least one mental condition (usually caused by that past). As a matter of fact, it is rare to find a character with just a horrible past or just a mental condition.

*** In ''Innocent Sin'', the daddy issues include: Tatsuya and Katsuya's father could not solve a particular case, and Tatsuya in particular lost respect for him; Eikichi, a VisualKei enthusiast, is afraid of his sushi chef father and does not wish to inherit his store; Lisa, a [[TokenMinority Caucasian girl]], is the daughter of two extremely [[{{Otaku}} Japanophile]] parents, and her father wants her to [[YamatoNadeshiko behave like a supposedly "traditional" Japanese girl]]; Maya's father, a war reporter, has passed away, and Jun's father is a nut for UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories. Jun's own mother actually spread devastating rumors of her husband to the point that [[spoiler:he died in a clock tower]] and considers her looks to be more important than her son, but most of Jun's resentment is against his father.

* Since it's a Bioware game, it should come as no surprise that this appears in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. ''All'' of your potential recruits (except the dog) have issues. These issues tie into their Personal Quests, affect whether they approve or disapprove of your various choices, and when they might believe you have crossed their MoralEventHorizon. Alistair has dependency issues and lacks confidence in himself due to being a [[spoiler: royal]] bastard orphan who spent his formative years in the repressive Chantry, Morrigan was raised by her mother alone in a swamp and was taught that she could never trust anyone but herself, Sten went berserk and killed innocent people after losing his treasured sword (a ''huge'' deal in Qunari culture) which he considered to be part of his soul, Leliana has a very DarkAndTroubledPast [[spoiler: and might actually be crazy if her "vision" is any indication]] that inevitably catches up to her in her Personal Quest, Zevran is a [[spoiler: StepfordSmiler and DeathSeeker]] due to [[spoiler: killing the girl he loved when he mistakenly believed she was a traitor]], Wynne became TheAtoner after [[MyGreatestFailure Her Greatest Failure]]: [[spoiler: she was so arrogant and harsh to her first student that he ran away from the Circle; Wynne was told that the Templars hunted him down and killed him]], Shale joins the Grey Warden due to having no memories of [[spoiler: her former life as a dwarf]] and having nowhere else to go, Oghren became TheAlcoholic and an outcast of Dwarven society [[spoiler: after he killed someone in a bar brawl]] due to being a LoveMartyr to his missing wife Branka [[spoiler: who he later discovers has gone utterly batshit crazy, and a lesbian]], and [[spoiler: Teryn Loghain]] has...''issues'' with foreigners, [[spoiler: specifically Orlesians]], to put it lightly.
** Ah! But even the dog just lost its master in battle and would have suffered a long and painful death from darkspawn poision had you not intervened!
*** Not if you're a Human Noble. Then it just shares his/her tragedies instead. Wait...
** Depending on the Origin, the Grey Warden isn't exempt from this either. The Origin story with the least amount of personal trauma is the Mage Origin. That the Mage Origin starts off with you fighting for your soul in another dimension against a demon [[spoiler: in a battle of wits]] as a ''final exam'' and ends [[spoiler: with you being unwittingly complicit in helping a Blood Mage (who was your former ''best friend'') escape the Circle]] and can ''still'' be considered the least traumatic one says all you need to know about the others. But just for the sake of completeness:

** Shepard isn't necessarily free of past traumas either; of the possible options for his or her history, one involves growing up on the streets of Earth, one involves being orphaned in a brutal batarian slave raid, and one involves being the only person out of a platoon of fifty marines to survive an attack by monstrous, poison-spitting giant worms. Conversely, Shepard can also be the OnlySaneMan and borderline on MartyStu with the Spacer/War Hero background choices, wich essentially means s/he had an happy childhood and already made of pure raw badassery before the game starts.

** The crew in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' is better-developed and seems to be higher-functioning than usual for a Bioware game, but party banter, conversations, and [[CompanionSpecificSidequest Companion Specific Sidequests]] reveal otherwise. Your fighting fellowship can include the following: a [[VengefulWidow recent widow]] looking to finish off her husband's killer, a man who was [[WhatHappenedToMommy forced to kill his own mother]], a woman raised in an AlwaysChaoticEvil society who faces prejudice when she leaves it, another woman who was subject to [[FreakinessShame horrific abuse and abandonment]], a BloodKnight who gleefully tells you he'll kill you [[PsychoSupporter if you become too weak,]] a [[ThePaladin knight]] whose marriage is in shambles because of [[LovedINotHonorMore his devotion to duty]], the knight's {{Jerkass}} protege who has [[WellDoneSonGuy massive daddy issues]], an [[SmugSnake egotistical wizard]] scheming to TakeOverTheWorld (or at least the group), a possibly [[CloudCuckoolander brain-damaged man]] who relies on his [[ConsultingMisterPuppet hamster]] for moral guidance, a bard whose philosophy [[PerkyGoth embraces the eventual destruction of the universe]], a SpoiledSweet who loses her home and family in one blow, another knight who is barred by [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration race/class restrictions]] from becoming ThePaladin and lost her entire adventuring party, a druid who [[spoiler:unknowingly abandoned his unborn son]], a [[OurGnomesAreWeirder gnome]] whose beloved married (and is abused by) someone else, and [[spoiler: in ''Throne of Bhaal'', you can recruit Sarevok, who tried his level best to kill you and become the new murder god before you defeated him.]] Not to mention the protagonist, [[spoiler:the offspring of a murder god]], can be played as struggling against their dark side, fully embracing it, or some combination of both. The only exemption from this trope seems to be [[spoiler:Yoshimo]], and even he [[spoiler:is compelled by a geas to make sure the protagonist ends up dead]].

* ''Franchise/BlazBlue''. Did the world's therapists have their 2194 Christmas ball in [[KillEmAll Ibukido]] or something?

* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria''. [[TheHero Stocke]] keeps running into timelines where [[KillEmAll everyone dies horribly]] and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the entire continent is covered by desert]], Raynie has SurvivorGuilt issues, Rosch [[spoiler:sees his entire squad butchered around him]], and Eruca's family is RoyallyScrewedUp to an impressive degree. Even the more sane characters have a habit of going completely nuts in [[NonStandardGameOver bad ends]] - there's one where Aht [[spoiler:goes {{Yandere}} and traps Stocke in [[LotusEaterMachine an illusory world]] so that nothing can hurt him]], one where Gafka [[spoiler:turns into a bestial OneManArmy that the continent has to team up to take down]], and another where the [[BewareTheNiceOnes usually-inoffensive]] Marco [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy murders the rest of the party]] to get revenge on Stocke]].

*** Ozzy is a NeatFreak with medical conditions ranging from asthma to [[AmbiguousDisorder implied OCD or autism]] who hates the newly-transferred kids from the first game because his two best friends and his girlfriend had to be rezoned to make place for them. [[spoiler:This was actually just a cover for the principal kidnapping them and mutating them into monsters to use for her plot to take over every school in the area.]]

*** Margaret the lunch lady is the second principal's... [[AmbiguousDisorder let's just say mentally unstable]] sister, who only refers to people by descriptors, like "principal-sister-dear" or "unconfident wealthy child", and will kill children for crimes such as trying to sneak into the school early or not leaving her to her duties of keeping guard over the child stuck in the drain.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' takes this UpToEleven.

*** Emil was essentially robbed of his childhood and experimented on to serve as a weapon. He hates his eyes because of their petrification powers, and he is eventually cured, but at the cost of turning into a female skeleton (the game makes it very clear he hates himself even more after this). [[UpToEleven And that's just the tip of the iceberg of people's problems in this game.]]

* The crew of the Cogito Ergosum in ''VideoGame/LiveALive''. Captain Hol [[SurroundedByIdiots wanted a mulligan for his entire crew]] because of this trope, [[spoiler:and might have gotten one if he didn't die on the way home]].

** Colonel Darth hates machines and is needlessly antagonistic towards Cube [[spoiler:due to lingering trauma from a RobotWar he fought in]].

** By the time the chapter is done, [[spoiler:Kirk dies due to OD-10 crashing the life support system in his spacesuit (while repairing the Watanabe communication system, no less); Huey dies trying to keep the Behemoth from killing Rachel, who winds up dead anyway; Hol is discovered to have been DeadAllAlong; Kato and Darth are injured but still alive; and OD-10 is forcibly rolled back by Cube, deleting whatever memory and sentience it once had]]. [[spoiler:The ship was two badasses away from a TotalPartyKill.]]

** Jin, whose overall personality is either an aloof sociopath at ''best'', and a psychotic {{Yandere}} at his worst thanks to the mind-control his weapon places on him.

* Being developed by ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' veterans, ''VideoGame/{{Monark}}'' is ''rife'' with broken, hurting people, causing chaos, mayhem, and suffering to others and themselves because of how the pieces were never mended or poorly glued back together. This is most apparent with the antagonistic Pactbearers, people who have made [[DealWithTheDevil Deals With Devils]], gaining supernatural powers to fulfill vengeance plots, shift reality, or try to solve their grief, at the cost of warping the world through insanity-inducing Mist, causing untold amounts of innocent casualties and suffering, and potentially causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

*** [[spoiler: Javik's FantasticRacism towards the "Primitives" of this Cycle is also a prevalent aspect of his character. He often comes across as dismissive of various races, bemoans their lack of potential from what the Protheans had expected from them and occasionally indulges in light-hearted mockery. Naturally this characteristic has earned him EnsembleDarkHorse status among the Fandom and the sobriquet of [[FanNickname "The Oldest Troll in the Galaxy"]].]]

** Mordin is [[CrazyAwesome eccentric]] scientist and a former black-ops commando who atones his work on [[spoiler: the Genophage]] and who thinks that end justifies the means. Therefore he can be quite ruthless [[spoiler: (going so far as killing his student in cold blood during the loyalty mission)]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes even if he is a good person]].

** Commander Javik. [[spoiler: A ''Prothean'' and LastOfHisKind who was in stasis for 50,000 years. Born while the Reaper-War of his Cycle had been going on for Centuries, he was raised and molded into an "Avatar of Vengeance". He is best described as the [[NotSoDifferent Prothean version]] of Commander Shepard who ''failed'' in his mission to stop the Reapers, lost his entire crew to indoctrination, subsequently spent years hunted by his former comrades and [[TraumaCongaLine forced to kill them all.]] Depending on your interactions with him, he might go into full-on DeathSeeker mode.]]

* Although ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' doesn't explore it [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot nearly enough]], all the player characters have tragic pasts of some sort. Vaan's parents died of the plague when he was younger, and his only remaining family, his older brother Reks, was killed before the game started supposedly by his trusted commander Basch. Penelo's parents and ''eight'' brothers all died in the war. Fran was shunned by her village and her older sister for believing that there was a path for her outside the village, and slowly lost her ability to commune with the Wood, which to a Viera is like losing one of their senses. Balthier watched as his father was driven insane by the nethicite and neglected his family, until he couldn't take it anymore and ran away to become a sky pirate. Ashe's husband and father died at the age of 17, leaving her as the heir to a kingdom that was invaded soon after. Basch's original home country was invaded which lead to the death of his mother, and he failed to protect the lord of his adopted country and was then framed for killing the king and locked in solitary confinement for two years.

* Although ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' doesn't explore it [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot nearly enough]], all the player characters have tragic pasts of some sort. Vaan's parents died of the plague when he was younger, and his only remaining family, his older brother Reks, was killed before the game started supposedly by his trusted commander Basch. Penelo's parents and ''eight'' brothers all died in the war. Fran was shunned by her village and her older sister for believing that there was a path for her outside the village, and slowly lost her ability to commune with the Wood, which to a Viera is like losing one of their senses. Balthier watched as his father was driven insane by the nethicite and neglected his family, until he couldn't take it anymore and ran away to become a sky pirate. Ashe's husband and father died at the age of 17, leaving her as the heir to a kingdom that was invaded sooon after. Basch's original home country was invaded which lead to the death of his mother, and he failed to protect the lord of his adopted country and was then framed for killing the king and locked in solitary confinement for two years.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' also has universal tragic past syndrome. All of the characters are a) being hunted by the Empire (even before the story begins), b) are imprisoned by the Empire, c) are harassed or misused by the Empire, d) have lost a loved one to the Empire, or e) some combination of the above.
** No, not all your party members were wronged by TheEmpire. Gau[[spoiler:'s mother died in childbirth and his father was so grief-stricken that he went insane and abandoned Gau on the Veldt]], whereas Relm[[spoiler:'s father is (very) heavily implied to be Shadow, who walked out on her because of his career as an assassin]]; even Shadow [[spoiler:has had plenty of problems of his own, even before selling his skills to TheEmpire and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness nearly getting killed for his trouble]]]]. Setzer is reasonably unhappy with TheEmpire, yet is considerably more unhappy with [[spoiler:the time his LoveInterest died in an airship crash]]. Since a large theme of the game is hope, and keeping that hope strong even in the face of hardship, most characters get better, but it helps that most of them have a lot of getting better to do.
** Consider the team's angst levels doubled after [[spoiler:Kefka damn near destroys the world and separates the party]], thus kicking off the [[spoiler:World of Ruin]] phase of the game.
*** Celes is the one the player first controls in [[spoiler:the World of Ruin]], and she's [[spoiler:stuck on a tiny island with nobody around but her surrogate grandfather, Cid, who reveals that there used to be others on the island...until [[DrivenToSuicide they all flung themselves from the northern cliffs in despair]]]]. If [[spoiler:you don't feed the fastest fish to Cid constantly, he ''will'' die, and Celes will also try to end her life at the northern cliffs]]. [[EpilepticTrees it's possible that]] [[spoiler:the esper Quetzalli is the only thing that keeps her from dying then and there;]] her only hope comes from [[spoiler:the minute possibility that Locke is still alive as well]].
*** Strago is so distraught with the reasonable possibility that [[spoiler:[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat his adopted granddaughter is dead]] that he's next seen as a member of the cult worshiping the guy [[MonsterClown that did it]].]] Relm has to slap him out of it, since the intervention of a loved one is said to be the only thing strong enough to do so.
*** Even Mog, the cutesy moogle mascot of the game (and the whole series, some might argue), gets a ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean''-caliber level of tragedy tacked onto him when the party finds him [[spoiler:after the end of the world]]. Turns out [[spoiler:he's been in Narshe's moogle cave [[OffscreenInertia apparently for the whole year since the end of the world, alone, staring at the wall]];]] if you recruited him on your first chance, [[spoiler:he'll be amazed that you're even alive after all this time, and will re-enter the party on the assumption that he has nothing better to do.]] Searching the wall he was staring at yields an item that only Mog can equip that completely stops all random encounters, but FridgeHorror sets in when you realize that this "Molulu's Charm" [[spoiler:is likely all Mog has left of not just his girlfriend, [[LastOfHisKind but of his entire people]].]] And when the BigBad asks the party what it is they're fighting for, Mog's response is simply, "New friends, kupo!" [[TheWoobie D'aww...]]
*** If one brings Cyan to Doma Castle in [[spoiler:the World of Ruin]], [[spoiler:a demon named Wrexsoul traps Cyan in an eternal nightmare, in order to feed off the despair Cyan still feels due to failing to save his family and his king from Kefka's poison]]. His grief is so great that not only is he the one that [[spoiler:Wrexsoul attacks]], but when he gets better, his confidence grows so much that he suddenly masters all of his Bushido skills.
*** The only party member who doesn't get better is [[spoiler:Shadow]]. [[spoiler:Shadow]] ultimately decides that he can't let go of his past and [[spoiler:stays behind to die in Kefka's crumbling tower.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'''s main character, Cecil, spends most of the first half of the game angsting over the heinous crimes he committed at the behest of his king (who is also [[DaddyIssues his surrogate father]]), and wielding a weapon which is known to drive its users insane. His childhood friend Kain is an orphan [[spoiler: who hated his strict father]] and who is brainwashed into betraying his friends. Tellah and Edward both struggle with grief at the death of Anna, their daughter and fiancée, respectively, [[BreakTheCutie Rydia]] and Edge both saw their parents murdered in front of them, and not even [=FuSoYa=], [[spoiler: who resolved to guard his sleeping race completely alone for hundreds of years]], gets off lightly.

** Among the main characters, Yuna lost both her parents at the age of seven and spends most of the game [[spoiler: on a suicide mission]], Tidus' [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] disappeared ten years before the events of the game and it's implied his mother [[spoiler: was thereafter DrivenToSuicide]], Wakka's entire family was wiped out by Sin, and Lulu is an orphan [[spoiler: whose lover Chappu was killed by Sin and who [[MyGreatestFailure is haunted by her failure to protect Lady Ginnem on the latter's pilgrimage]]]]. Rikku is a member of the despised Al Bhed race, Kimahri grew up shunned by his tribe and was eventually driven to a ten year exile by fellow Ronso, and we haven't even mention [[TraumaCongaLine Auron]] yet...

* Although ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' doesn't explore it [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot nearly enough]], all the player characters have tragic pasts of some sort. Vaan's parents died of the plague when he was younger, and his only remaining family, his older brother Reks, was killed before the game started supposedly by his trusted commander Basch. Penelo's parents and ''eight'' brothers all died in the war. Fran was shunned by her village and her older sister for believing that there was a path for her outside the village, and slowly lost her ability to commune with the Wood, which to a viera is like losing one of their senses. Balthier watched as his father was driven insane by the nethicite and neglected his family, until he couldn't take it anymore and ran away to become a sky pirate. Ashe's husband and father died at the age of 17, leaving her as the heir to a kingdom that was invaded sooon after. Basch's original home country was invaded which lead to the death of his mother, and he failed to protect the lord of his adopted country and was then framed for killing the king and locked in solitary confinement for two years.

* This is so prevalent in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' that HK-47 lampshades it in one of the funniest pieces of dialogue in [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the sequel]], where everyone's favourite rusty psychopath mocks the group of companions the first game's protagonist picks up.

*** Khelgar is an arrogant BloodKnight who left his clan to go on a quest to become a Monk [[CompletelyMissingThePoint while having no idea what they're about and just assuming that all they do is punch things]], and much of his clan resent his decision to leave, claiming (perhaps truthfully) that he did it solely for personal glory.

*** We didn't even get to the damn [[VideoGame/NierAutomata sequel]] yet. [[UpToEleven oh dear...]]

** Spectre's driver, "Bloody Mary", was jealous of other women who was jealous of her friends getting married, her envy eventually driving her to murder one of her friends. [[spoiler:In her ending, Calypso provides her with a groom of her own, lobotomized to make him more malleable. When he still spurned her, however, she snapped and killed him on the spot.]]

*** Bernadetta suffered from abuse at the hands of her father to mold her into a "perfect, submissive wife," she is almost always in her room, and interprets/twists any praise at her into a scheme to humiliate her.

*** While Sylvain is friendly and outgoing, he has serious trust issues, stemming from being viewed as a Crest-bearer instead of a person.

*** Yuri was a common street thief and leader of a gang of cutpurses until he came to Abyss and was taken under the wing of the underground city's patron cardinal. [[spoiler:He is also an old friend of Bernadetta, until her abusive father beat him bloody to chase him away.]] Compared to the other members of the house, he is fairly well-adjusted.