History KnightOfCerebus / VideoGames

* The ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' has the Warden, real name [[Characters/HenryStickminSeriesDmitriJohannesPetrov Dmitri Johannes Petrov]]. Unlike every other villain, including [[BigBad Reginald Copperbottom]] and his [[NoNonsenseNemesis Right Hand Man]], this guy has no comedic moments or any chance of being on your side. At the end of the ''Presumed Dead'' ending in ''Fleeing the Complex'', Dmitri gives Henry an ultimatum: Return to [[TheAlcatraz The Wall]] (and stay in a maximum security confinement forever) or stay in the truck as Dmitri pushes it off the cliff. And then comes ''[[GrandFinale Completing the Mission]]''. Although appearing in one route, he goes as far as to send ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a couple of tanks]]'' after two people, because [[IdiotHero one]] ruined his reputation and [[ActionGirl another one]] broke his teeth by hitting him with a stop sign while driving a bike.

* The premise of ''VideoGame/{{Junkworld}}'' already made the game a DarkerAndEdgier title compared to ''VideoGame/KingdomRush'', but when it gets to BigBad [[spoiler: Hadron]], things get '''really''' dark. [[spoiler: To begin with, he is the dictator of the totalitarian Order who rules it with an iron fist and intends to spread it across the entire world. Both visually and in terms of behavior, he is not too dissimilar from an actual Nazi general, especially seeing how his organization is based on the First Order, who are already NazisByAnyOtherName. He built the regime from scratch, using mind control technology to brainwash survivors into becoming fanatical emotionless soldiers for his cause and then using surprisingly advanced technology from laser guns to walkers and robots to begin his conquest. He ordered the abduction of more survivors, including some Scavengers, to add to his ranks and then siccing his soldiers on them once they tried to rescue the kidnapped, resulting in Scavengers unknowingly killing thousands of BrainwashedAndCrazy, but innocent people. He also ordered his scientists to conduct atrocious experiments on both humans and animals to find new things to weaponise, resulting in creation of a great amount of mutants seen at the Swamp. He has absolutely no comedic moments whatsoever, no ShoutOut phrases or jokes to spout and when confronted personally shows no remorse for his actions, instead seeing arrived Scavengers as willing recruits to indoctrinate into his regime. Once his army fails at killing Scavengers, he steps into the fray himself to obliterate scores of them using his giant mecha. Needless to say, when he finally blows up in the mecha's destruction, everyone are more than happy that his reign is over. ]]

* The premise of ''VideoGame/{{Junkworld}}'' already made the game a DarkerAndEdgier title compared to "VideoGame/KingdomRush", but when it gets to BigBad [[spoiler: Hadron]], things get '''really''' dark. [[spoiler: To begin with, he is the dictator of the totalitarian Order who rules it with an iron fist and intends to spread it across the entire world. Both visually and in terms of behavior, he is not too dissimilar from an actual Nazi general, especially seeing how his organization is based on the First Order, who are already NazisByAnyOtherName. He built the regime from scratch, using mind control technology to brainwash survivors into becoming fanatical emotionless soldiers for his cause and then using surprisingly advanced technology from laser guns to walkers and robots to begin his conquest. He ordered the abduction of more survivors, including some Scavengers, to add to his ranks and then siccing his soldiers on them once they tried to rescue the kidnapped, resulting in Scavengers unknowingly killing thousands of BrainwashedAndCrazy, but innocent people. He also ordered his scientists to conduct atrocious experiments on both humans and animals to find new things to weaponise, resulting in creation of a great amount of mutants seen at the Swamp. He has absolutely no comedic moments whatsoever, no ShoutOut phrases or jokes to spout and when confronted personally shows no remorse for his actions, instead seeing arrived Scavengers as willing recruits to indoctrinate into his regime. Once his army fails at killing Scavengers, he steps into the fray himself to obliterate scores of them using his giant mecha. Needless to say, when he finally blows up in the mecha's destruction, everyone are more than happy that his reign is over. ]]

* The premise of "VideoGame/{{Junkworld}}" already made the game a DarkerAndEdgier title compared to "VideoGame/KingdomRush", but when it gets to BigBad [[spoiler: Hadron]], things get '''really''' dark. [[spoiler: To begin with, he is the dictator of the totalitarian Order who rules it with an iron fist and intends to spread it across the entire world. Both visually and in terms of behavior, he is not too dissimilar from an actual Nazi general, especially seeing how his organization is based on the First Order, who are already NazisByAnyOtherName. He built the regime from scratch, using mind control technology to brainwash survivors into becoming fanatical emotionless soldiers for his cause and then using surprisingly advanced technology from laser guns to walkers and robots to begin his conquest. He ordered the abduction of more survivors, including some Scavengers, to add to his ranks and then siccing his soldiers on them once they tried to rescue the kidnapped, resulting in Scavengers unknowingly killing thousands of BrainwashedAndCrazy, but innocent people. He also ordered his scientists to conduct atrocious experiments on both humans and animals to find new things to weaponise, resulting in creation of a great amount of mutants seen at the Swamp. He has absolutely no comedic moments whatsoever, no ShoutOut phrases or jokes to spout and when confronted personally shows no remorse for his actions, instead seeing arrived Scavengers as willing recruits to indoctrinate into his regime. Once his army fails at killing Scavengers, he steps into the fray himself to obliterate scores of them using his giant mecha. Needless to say, when he finally blows up in the mecha's destruction, everyone are more than happy that his reign is over. ]]

* The premise of "VideoGame/Junkworld" already made the game a DarkerAndEdgier title compared to "VideoGame/KingdomRush", but when it gets to BigBad [[spoiler: Hadron]], things get '''really''' dark. [[spoiler: To begin with, he is the dictator of the totalitarian Order who rules it with an iron fist and intends to spread it across the entire world. Both visually and in terms of behavior, he is not too dissimilar from an actual Nazi general, especially seeing how his organization is based on the First Order, who are already NazisByAnyOtherName. He built the regime from scratch, using mind control technology to brainwash survivors into becoming fanatical emotionless soldiers for his cause and then using surprisingly advanced technology from laser guns to walkers and robots to begin his conquest. He ordered the abduction of more survivors, including some Scavengers, to add to his ranks and then siccing his soldiers on them once they tried to rescue the kidnapped, resulting in Scavengers unknowingly killing thousands of BrainwashedAndCrazy, but innocent people. He also ordered his scientists to conduct atrocious experiments on both humans and animals to find new things to weaponise, resulting in creation of a great amount of mutants seen at the Swamp. He has absolutely no comedic moments whatsoever, no ShoutOut phrases or jokes to spout and when confronted personally shows no remorse for his actions, instead seeing arrived Scavengers as willing recruits to indoctrinate into his regime. Once his army fails at killing Scavengers, he steps into the fray himself to obliterate scores of them using his giant mecha. Needless to say, when he finally blows up in the mecha's destruction, everyone are more than happy that his reign is over. ]]

** Maximilian Lionfang is even worse the moment he becomes a Chaos Lord. Killing off multitudes of innocent Darkblood is one thing, and Chaorrupting the Old Primarch and killing Logash is another, as is Chaorrupting his own pet lion and feeding Chaos energy to it to enlarge it[[spoiler:, but the moment he wastes the very last vial of the Tears of the Mother on Drakath makes it clear that there's no cure left for Chaorruption for a long time, which only makes things worse as it indirectly sets the stage for the tragic events in the twelfth Chaos Lord saga where Alteon succumbs to his own Chaorruption, unwillingly strikes down his own eldest daughter Brittany, ends up releasing a massive three-headed Chaos Dragon that unleashes horrible destruction upon Swordhaven before it's taken down, and ultimately having to be slain when the Chaos proves too much for him, not only leaving Lionfang to blame for such a tragedy but also Drakath as well since the players vowed to make him pay for every horrible thing that happened because of him at the end of said saga]].

** The other members of the Fiendish Five have personality quirks, {{Freudian Excuse}}s and other subtle elements lending a hint of comedy to them [[LaughablyEvil villains though they may be]]. ''Not Clockwerk.'' He's cold, ruthless, [[NearVillainVictory nearly kills Sly and Carmelita]] and generally comes across as much more genuinely threatening than the rest of the Fiendish Five... to say nothing of other villains in the series.

* ''VideoGame/PoppyPlaytime'': CatNap, full stop. While Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs weren't exactly lighthearted or comedic, their chapters contained at least some forms of levity, such as the room full of rejected toys and Marcas using a deliberately exaggerated version of Jacksepticeye's natural Irish accent for his tape. CatNap, on the other hand, is the nightmarish villain that has used his nightmare-inducing gas to cause a player to hallucinate horrible things, consistently stalks him throughout the facility, killed the rest of Smiling Critters while leaving one to a FateWorseThanDeath and is the closest in hierarchy to BigBad himself. [[spoiler: His final encounter is also a more complex HoldTheLine BossBattle that involves a horrific skeletal form, ton of duplicates and intense electric charging. His death, where he first gets electrocuted, then burned by his own gas lit aflame and finally allows himself to be killed by Prototype, is also horrific. ]]

%%* ''VideoGame/ContraShatteredSoldier'' has [[spoiler: [[GovernmentConspiracy the Triumvirate]]]].

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''

* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'': While the game is hardly a lighthearted laugh-a-minute adventure, it still has a sense of humor about itself and clearly delights in being as pulpy as it is, and even the Nazis, for all their atrocities, are given some elements that make them a bit more laughable (see: Gruber and his milkshakes, Hitler becoming a senile old wreck, even Frau Engel is rather over-the-top and hammy). But everything revolving around [[ArchnemesisDad Rip Blazkowicz]] (his domestic abuse and extremely racist/homophobic views) is played dead seriously. In a broader, series-wide sense, we find out exactly what drove BJ to become a Nazi-hunting freedom fighter, and it's ''not'' pretty.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3FutureRedeemed'': Any lightness to the story of ''Future Redeemed'' goes out the window whenever [[BigBad Alpha]] shows up, due to him being a NoNonsenseNemesis that is effectively the {{God}} of Aionios and by far the oldest being to have resided inside it - not to mention that he's a [[FaceHeelTurn villainous]] incarnation of Alvis from ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' that lacks Alvis' compassion for humanity or sense of reason and proportion.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' is already a particularly dark series with its ominous atmosphere and alien abominations alike, but it doesn't give you much of a truly dangerous threat apart from boss battles. However, once [[ThatOneBoss Ridley]] appears, the lore not only takes a darker turn, but the tone of the gameplay switches from occasionally unnerving to utterly ''panic-inducing''.

* In ''VideoGame/BugFables'', the debut of [[EvilOverlord the Wasp King]] at the end of Chapter 4 marks the moment where the game's tone becomes a lot darker. In contrast to the other villains up to that point, the Wasp King is a cruel and sociopathic tyrant, intentioned [[TakeOverTheWorld to conquer all of Bugaria]] and find the Everlasting Sapling [[ImmortalImmorality to achieve immortality and become unstoppable.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BugFables'', the debut of [[EvilOverlord the Wasp King]] at the end of Chapter 4 marks the moment where the game's tone becomes a lot darker. In contrast to the other villains up to that point, the Wasp King is a cruel and sociopathic despot, intentioned to conquer all of Bugaria and find the Everlasting Sapling to achieve immortality and preserve his tyrannical rule.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' is, for the most of the time, a lighthearted platform with a good amount of humor that takes inspiration from the earlier Sonic the Hedgehog games. However, every time [[BigBad Lord Brevon]] appears on the screen, you can be sure that everything is about to take a darker tone. All of his actions, such as [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead beheading the King of Shuigang]] and then brainwashing his son, [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing Lilac]] and [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming Milla into a nightmarish monster]]]], are played dead serious.

* Each ArcVillain of ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' is one of these. While the chapters of the game usually start off as fairly lighthearted in tone, the moment the chapter's villain first appears usually coincides with the moment the chapter's story suddenly begins to take a more serious tone. The most notable of bunch by far is Odo, the villain of the Prehistory chapter. After going through the otherwise entirely comedic romp that is this chapter, Odo's sudden appearance near the end suddenly brings on a much darker tone to the story. Even more so if the player plays through the chapters in chronological order, as doing that will mark Odo's appearance as the first moment in which the serious storytelling that becomes more and more prevalent as the story progresses begins to rear its head.

** Cyrus' story has Gideon, the villain of the second chapter. Cyrus' first chapter is relatively light-hearted and humorous, and its antagonist, [[spoiler:Russell]] is just a thief trying to pay their gambling debts and eventually [[HeelFaceTurn Heel-Face Turns]]. Gideon, on the other hand, is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]], cloaked [[MadScientist scientist]] who kills several innocents so that he can extract their blood to use in dark magic, and begins the transition to more serious threats for Cyrus to overcome.

** Cyrus' story has Gideon, the villain of the second chapter. Cyrus' first chapter is relatively light-hearted and humorous, and its antagonist, [[spoiler:Russell]], is just a thief trying to pay their gambling debts and eventually [[HeelFaceTurn Heel-Face Turns]]. Gideon, on the other hand, is a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]], cloaked [[MadScientist scientist]] who kills several innocents so that he can extract their blood to use in dark magic, and begins the transition to more serious threats for Cyrus to overcome.

* The ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' has the Warden, real name Dmitri Johannes Petrov. Unlike every other villain, including [[BigBad Reginald Copperbottom]] and his [[NoNonsenseNemesis Right Hand Man]], this guy has no comedic moments or any chance of being on your side. At the end of the ''Presumed Dead'' ending in ''Fleeing the Complex'', Dmitri gives Henry an ultimatum: Return to [[TheAlcatraz The Wall]] (and stay in a maximum security confinement forever) or stay in the truck as Dmitri pushes it off the cliff. And then comes ''[[GrandFinale Completing the Mission]]''. Although appearing in one route, he goes as far as to send ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a couple of tanks]]'' after two people, because [[IdiotHero one]] ruined his reputation and [[ActionGirl another one]] broke his teeth by hitting him with a stop sign while driving a bike.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' is, for the most of the time, a lighthearted platform with a good amount of humor that takes inspiration from the earlier Sonic The Hedgehog games. However, every time [[BigBad Lord Brevon]] appears on the screen, you can be sure that everything is about to take a darker tone. All of his actions, such as [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead beheading the King of Shuigang]] and then brainwashing his son, [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing Lilac]] and [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming Milla into a nightmarish monster]]]], are played dead seriously.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' is, for the most of the time, a lighthearted platform with a good amount of humor, based of the earlier Sonic The Hedgehog games. However, every time [[BigBad Lord Brevon]] appears on the screen, you can be sure that everything is about to take a darker tone. All of his actions, such as [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead beheading the King of Shuigang]] and then brainwashing his son, [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing Lilac]] and [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming Milla into a nightmarish monster]]]], are played dead seriously

* ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' is, for the most of the time, a lighthearted platform with a good amount of humor, based of the earlier [[Franchise/{{Sonic The Hedgehog}}]] games. However, every time [[BigBag Lord Brevon]] appears on the screen, you can be sure that everything is about to take a darker tone. All of his actions, such as [[spoiler: killing the King of Shuigang and then brainwashing his son, torturing Lilac and transforming [[TheCutie Milla]] into a nightmarish monster]], are played dead seriously

** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' gives us Chaos, a [[EldritchAbomination bizarre water monster]] that gets [[FromBadToWorse bigger and freakier]] every time he gets a Chaos Emerald. Unlike [[BigBad Eggman]] he has no comical traits -- his scenes are always accompanied by a tense music and drop all whimsiness. His backstory had him bringing about death en masse, and his introduction marked the point the series took [[CerebusSyndrome a significant dramatic shift]]. It all culminates in him reaching his [[OneWingedAngel ultimate form]], [[DarkestHour laying waste to an entire city (one of the game's main settings) and threatening to wipe out modern civilization.]]
** Shadow the Hedgehog's introduction into franchise took the series down a much darker and grimmer path. ''Sonic Adventure'' had a larger share of dark moments than any of the previous games but ultimately contained an upbeat tone. ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (Shadow's debut) is certifiably a point at which the series started experimenting with much heavier themes and Shadow was certainly a catalyst in the series' move in that direction (which continued all the way up to ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'').

* ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' doesn't start off too lighthearted to begin with as casualties are shown occurring frequently, but the unexpected appearance of a New Makron leader during a major operation already going wrong marks the point of the story when things go horribly wrong for the heroes, and the risk of losing the war becomes very high.