History GodzillaThreshold / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'': This is basically what you are tasked to do in order to have a chance to confront the BigBad during the TunnelDungeon in Chapter 4. The KarmaHoudini will tell you that to defeat him you need an army, and then pinpoint that you have one available: the insane (and dangerous) spellcasting inmates of the asylum. When you release them to confront the BigBad, he will admit that he was surprised by your audacity:
--> '''BigBad''': What is this? You have released all of my tests subjects? How wonderfully mad of you. I did not expect this in the least, so dangerously risk it is.

** In ''LetsPlay/{{Boatmurdered}}'', one of the leaders created a lever that would flood the entire entryway and fields near the fortress with lava. [[InventionalWisdom For some reason.]] It is used once as a last-ditch way to get rid of a combined elephant-goblin invasion, in project "Fuck the world". However, with a bit of refinement, [[SubvertedTrope it eventually becomes the standard method of dealing with any threat.]] The elves were not pleased. Nor was the human trading caravan that got caught up in it. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard This ended up biting Boatmurdered in the ass]] when the excessive, casual use of the lever resulted in a large [[HatePlague miasma]] forming from all the burned, decaying bodies; when the miasma found its way into the fortress, it caused several dwarves to go mad and attack everyone around them. The resulting bodies being left out caused more miasma, which only made more dwarves go mad...and thus began the gristly, final end of Boatmurdered.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the backstory of the Jedi Exile is that he/she confronted this at Malachor V. The situation became so dire he/she was forced to unleash a superweapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator, which ended up not only killing every single thing on the planet, but every entire '''fleet''' in orbit! The sheer scale of the destruction forced the Exile to severe themself from the Force just to survive and lead him/her to willingly accept exile on the Outer Rim for over ten years.

** It happened again in ''VideoGame/TouhouKanjudenLegacyOfLunaticKingdom'' — the Lunarians, a race of moon-based immortals, are functionally immortal, having fled from Earth's impurity and thus made themselves incapable of dying. Then large amounts of [[NatureSpirit fairies]] start spreading across their lifeless world, bringing lifeforce, and with it, death. Worse yet, their fantastic tech is worse than useless, since it's entirely based off the concept of purification, and the invading fairies are purified lifeforce, rendering them 100% immune to anything the Lunarians could throw at them. It reaches the point where their leadership begins desperate preparations to purify and invade Gensokyo, which at the time the Lunarians consider ''enemy territory''.
** And it happens ''again'' in ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSunkenFossilWorld'' — the instigator of the incident, Yuuma Toutetsu, proves impossible to stop by conventional means as her power allows her to absorb any attack thrown her way, meaning not only does fighting her not do anything it's actually counter productive, as she'll just consume them to make her stronger. With even some of Gensokyo's heaviest hitter left unable to do anything to stop her, Okina Matara decides to go for the nuclear option - unleash ''[[PersonOfMassDestruction Flandre Scarlet]]'' on her, as her Destruction power works by effectively blowing the target up from the inside out, thus making it impossible for Yuuma to absorb it. Sure enough, it works, but those who know who Flandre is are understandably terrified at the fact the vampire is out and about when they cross paths with her in her route.

** And if things get even worse, they'd deploy [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/ArknightsSnipersNToZ Rosmontis,]] a 15-year old HumanWeapon with a questionable grasp on sanity [[PowerIncontinence and psychic power.]] Telekinetically controlling 4 massive metal slabs, she can lay waste to an entire ''[[BaseOnWheels Mobile City.]]''

* The backstory of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' reveals that, after being defeated by the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Hero of Time]] and [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in the Sacred Realm]], the monstrous [[BigBad Ganon]] somehow managed to escape. He began to utterly destroy Hyrule, and the people hoped a new hero would arise...but none ever did. They prayed to the gods for help, but even they were powerless before Ganon, and ultimately decided that the only course of action was to sent torrential rain that drowned nearly ''everyone'', including the evil sorcerer. The only survivors were a few select people who fled to the mountaintops to begin life anew.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'':

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'':
** ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft|I}}'':

** The [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture Spear]] [[CoolStarship of Adun]] was one of these, made while the Protoss had their GoldenAge at their peak, when a few of their higher castes realized it wouldn't last forever and a situation that would qualify for this trope would arise. They sealed it away just to make sure they wouldn't break it out for something petty, too. And when the DarkestHour came, they had to go into a massive Zerg infestation in the ruins of Aiur, sustaining some awful casualties, just to retrieve it (its sister ships were destroyed in the fall, so they were not an option). The rest of the ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void]]'' campaign consists of the Protoss subsequently opening every single can of whoop-ass they can get their hands on, no matter how dangerous, because [[spoiler:Amon hijacking the Khala and subsequently brainwashing most of their people]] has put them way too far past the threshold to hold anything back. This includes things like unbanning the Dark Archons again, allying with the [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Tal'darim]], and unsealing the Purifiers (who were sealed away for starting a RobotWar).

*** The Crucible is this for the Alliance and every other military in the game. Admiral Hackett points out that there is no way in hell that a weapon as powerful as the Crucible would ever be seriously considered under normal circumstances, but the Reapers have forced humanity's hand, as defeating them conventionally is an absolute impossibility. Indeed, no one even knows what the Crucible even ''does'', [[BlackBox and how it works is a total mystery]]: all they know is that it can generate an immense amount of energy, and it scares the living hell out of Admiral Hackett. As stated by the Codex, "Staggering financial costs have been disregarded in the common effort to create something, anything, that can stop the Reapers". The other Citadel races disregard it, especially since it didn't help the Protheans, but the Alliance can see the inevitable from a mile away and begin construction as soon as possible. Eventually and gradually, other races start joining in construction of the project. It turns out that the Crucible was not the brainchild of the Protheans, and had been gradually improved on with each [[EternalRecurrence Reaping Cycle]] and the plans are hidden away for the next Cycle every time a cycle fails to stop the Reapers, with the next one finding it and improving on it even more. Potentially, it finally gets deployed and activated at the climax of the Cycle that Humanity is part of.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the backstory of the Jedi Exile is that he/she confronted this at Malachor V. The situation became so dire he/she was forced to unleash a superweapon, which ended up not only killing every single thing on the planet, but every entire '''fleet''' in orbit! The sheer scale of the destruction caused the Exile to become severed from the Force and lead him/her to willingly accept exile on the Outer Rim for over ten years.

** Ordering the creation of the SPARTAN-II program was considered this by ONI Command. The Insurrectionists on the colony worlds commonly used coordinated terrorist tactics in order to forcibly declare independence from the UEG. The UNSC military wasn't able to keep up, even though they had far greater numbers, due to the collateral damage that a large-scale military intervention would have caused. Thus, kidnapping and manipulating six-year-old children into sociopathic walking tanks was considered preferable to the potential loss of innocent life that a drawn-out civil war would have caused.

* In ''Videogame/EldenRing'', the shattering of the titular Elden Ring has left the world in ruin, and the Tarnished (banished warriors who died long ago) are brought back to life and called to the Lands Between to reforge the Elden Ring, claim the title of Elden Lord, and restore the world. One of the Tarnished revived and summoned is known as the Loathsome Dung Eater, a completely insane murderer who slaughters people and performs a defiling ritual on their corpses that prevents his victims from going to the afterlife. Dung Eater's endgoal is to spread this horrifying curse to everyone in the world... and the state of the world is ''so bad'' that summoning ''this guy'' is considered better than the alternative of leaving the world to rot.

** And it happens ''again'' in ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSuibotsuShitaChinshuuJigoku'' — the instigator of the incident, Yuuma Toutetsu, proves impossible to stop by conventional means as her power allows her to absorb any attack thrown her way, meaning not only does fighting her not do anything it's actually counter productive, as she'll just consume them to make her stronger. With even some of Gensokyo's heaviest hitter left unable to do anything to stop her, Okina Matara decides to go for the nuclear option - unleash ''[[PersonOfMassDestruction Flandre Scarlet]]'' on her, as her Destruction power works by effectively blowing the target up from the inside out, thus making it impossible for Yuuma to absorb it. Sure enough, it works, but those who know who Flandre is are understandably terrified at the fact the vampire is out and about when they cross paths with her in her route.

* The titular Metroids themselves from the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series are these essentially, since, while the Metroids themselves are '''incredibly dangerous''', they '''pale''' in comparison to the '''MUCH''' more horrific [[TheSymbiote X Parasites]], in which the [[PreCursors Chozo]] created and genetically engineered the Metroid race specifically to combat/absorb them completely and safely, proving very successful, despite the Metroids themselves gaining an equally-infamous reptutation as a galactic-level threat as well. [[spoiler:After the Metroids were quarantined in the depths of [=SR388=], the Thoha tribe wanted to destroy the planet to rid the universe of both the Metroids and the X; the only reason they failed is because Raven Beak and the Mawkin slaughtered them before they could.]]

** Picking up from where the first game left off regarding the [[KillEmAll Right of Annulment]] and [[FateWorseThanDeath Rite of]] [[{{Lobotomy}} Tranquility]], the Mage/Templar War ends up starting over the concerns brought about by the Threshold for the aforementioned Rites of Annulment and Tranquility being gradually lowered over the centuries, to the point where it was being abused quite blatantly in many cases. Flavor text reveals that the threshold for the Right of Annulment was lowered much more quickly than anyone thought, but the Seekers covered it up. Dialogue with another Seeker reveals that the Rite of Tranquility was discovered ''by complete accident'' and it was only through the involvement of the Chantry that it became a Threshold, who saw it as a way to protect weak-minded mages from being possessed by demons. Both of these Rites started out as true Godzilla Thresholds, but as the centuries wore on, the restrictions against them gradually fell off one by one to the point that the "current" standards for their use are ''liberal'' compared to their original standards. Many mages took note of this, especially when corrupt Templars began using the mere mention of the Rites as ''threats'' to keep them in line, causing tensions to rise on both sides as the Mages responded by pushing back harder, with many turning to the forbidden [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Blood Magic]] to bolster their strength, which only edged the Templars closer to the Threshold; the Chantry, on their part, worked to keep peace between the two factions, but would not (or could not) take a side, meaning that their placation actions were merely delaying the inevitable war. [[TheExtremistWasRight The war triggered when Anders prevented the Chantry from repeating that in Kirkwall.]]

*** Shepard's collective War Assets are this, with a great example being the triumvirate of mercenary gangs from ''Mass Effect 2'': the Eclipse, Blue Suns and the Blood Pack. By the end of the game, your coalition can include several of the biggest threats in galactic history.

*** The Crucible is this for the Alliance and every other military in the game. Admiral Hackett points out that there is no way in hell that a weapon as powerful as the Crucible would ever be seriously considered under normal circumstances, but the Reapers have forced humanity's hand, as defeating them conventionally is an absolute impossibility. Indeed, no one even knows what the Crucible even ''does'', [[BlackBox and how it works is a total mystery]]: all they know is that it can generate an immense amount of energy, and it scares the living hell out of Admiral Hackett. As stated by the Codex, "Staggering financial costs have been disregarded in the common effort to create something, anything, that can stop the Reapers". The other Citadel races disregard it, especially since it didn't help the Protheans, but the Alliance can see the inevitable from a mile away and begin construction as soon as possible. Eventually and gradually, other races start joining in construction of the project. It turns out that the Crucible was not the brainchild of the Protheans, and had been gradually improved on with each [[EternalRecurrence Reaping Cycle]] and the plans are hidden away for the next Cycle every time a cycle fails to stop the Reapers, with the next one finding it and improving on it even more. Potentially, it finally gets deployed at the climax of the Cycle that Humanity is part of.

*** The Crucible is this for the Alliance and every other military in the game. Admiral Hackett points out that there is no way in hell that a weapon as powerful as the Crucible would ever be seriously considered under normal circumstances, but the Reapers have forced humanity's hand, as defeating them conventionally is an absolute impossibility. Indeed, no one even knows what the Crucible even ''does'', [[BlackBox and how it works is a total mystery]]: all they know is that it can generate an immense amount of energy, and it scares the living hell out of Admiral Hackett. As stated by the Codex, "Staggering financial costs have been disregarded in the common effort to create something, anything, that can stop the Reapers". The other Citadel races disregard it, especially since it didn't help the Protheans, but the Alliance can see the inevitable from a mile away and begin construction as soon as possible. Eventually and gradually, other races start joining in construction of the project.

*** The Crucible is this for the Alliance and every other military in the game. Admiral Hackett points out that there is no way in hell that a weapon as powerful as the Crucible would ever be seriously considered under normal circumstances, but the Reapers have forced humanity's hand, as defeating them conventionally is an absolute impossibility. Indeed, no one even knows what the Crucible even ''does'', [[BlackBox and how it works is a total mystery]]: all they know is that it can generate an immense amount of energy, and it scares the living hell out of Admiral Hackett. As stated by the Codex, "Staggering financial costs have been disregarded in the common effort to create something, anything, that can stop the Reapers". The other Citadel races disregard it, especially since it didn't help the Protheans, but the Alliance can see the inevitable from a mile away and begin construction as soon as possible.