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8th Dec '13 5:07:43 PM Yuihime

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4th Dec '13 7:52:41 PM illeatyourself

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I literally made a song with the intention of creating a sort of Beautiful Void atmosphere with it before I even knew this trope existed. After all, music is considered to be the Universal Language partly because it can put images and emotions into one's mind with nothing more than sound. Why not introduce that fact into this trope, eh?

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26th Oct '13 2:32:47 PM AmbystomaMaculatum

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16th Oct '13 4:47:03 PM NTC3

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Added Coil and Unfinished Swan, put the page in Alphabetical order.

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* ''VideoGame/{{Aquaria}}'': Most of the sea life is either neutral or openly aggressive. The only real companions you meet are [[spoiler:SatelliteLoveInterest Li]] and any pets you get. Aside from that, most of the world is massive, empty, and [[SceneryPorn incredibly beautiful.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Cloud}}'', although it has a vague story, takes place in the sky, with only some clouds and the occasional view of an island.
* The world of the ''VideoGame/{{Coil}}'' is this.
* ''The Crystal Key'' has a partially known background--an alien empire is [[OmnicidalManiac annihilating everything in its path]], and you're trying to contact the only civilization known to have held out against it even temporarily. However, most of the game essentially fits this, as the people you're looking for have long since vanished except for their {{Apocalyptic Log}}s, and enemy soldiers only rarely show up. The aura is quite deliberately a mix of exoticism and [[NothingIsScarier quiet menace]].
* Lordran of DarkSouls, aside from all of the undead nasties, is all but devoid of actual life.
* The island in ''VideoGame/DearEsther''.
* The Xbox Live Indie game ''The Deep Cave''.

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* This is key to the horror of ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'', where the player has no idea what's going on or what has happened to the world. Since the first part of the game is set in a thick forest, it makes sense that you run into very few people (although the ones you do are murderous kids with spears or something, which makes less sense and is never explained) but then you progress into a factory and a hotel which are utterly abandoned.
* ''VideoGame/{{Looming}}''. The game consists entirely of exploring a quiet, lonely wasteland, uncovering the relics of civilizations that have moved on. Also, the player character is about ten pixels tall.
* ''{{Minecraft}}'', at least in single player Survival mode. For all the beautiful scenery and the wonderful monuments and castles you can build it still doesn't change the fact that you're alone, the only sentient being on a world eight times the size of the Earth. Oh, and there are horrible monsters that come out at night. 
** Two of the enemies are the zombies and the skeletons, which are both types of monsters that traditionally ''used to be people'', suggesting that there were once people, but they've all been killed or turned into horrible monsters and ''there are no other signs of civilized life ever having existed'', which is quite jarring [[FridgeHorror when you think about it for too long]].
** By ''Minecraft'''s release, updates had subverted this with [=NPCs=] and Villages. A lot of the fanbase had not been happy about it either...
* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'', with a quote from {{Douglas Adams}} about it as the trope namer
* The world of ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood''
* ''VideoGame/{{Noctis}}'' contains 70 billion stars, all [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]]. Precious few have life, and your character is the only sentient being. ([[AllThereInTheManual The website says]] that there are other exploration ships around, but it's "fantastically unlikely" that you'll ever meet one. For game purposes, you're the only person in the galaxy.) There's no win condition, and no way of losing except against existentialist angst--just exploration, and wonder at the sheer ''emptiness'' of it all. 
* Conspicuously the case in ''The Omega Stone'', in which you visit some of the world's most famed (and tourist-attracting) ancient monuments, yet there's not a living soul in sight. You only meet four people in the entire game, and only one of them is actually at a monument.
* ''ThePath'', wandering through a melancholy forest accompanied by sad and ambient music really defines this trope, but this Beautiful Void can quickly turn scary.

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** ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' adds precisely ''one'' more major character to the cast, not counting the three personality spheres that show up only for the last chapter, and not counting the long-deceased Cave Johnson, who shows up only in pre-recorded messages. Plus there's the heavy implications that the game, set an unknown (but probably very long) time after its predecessor, takes place AfterTheEnd, which was really plausible in the first game, as Portal is set in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' universe and as such would be affected by the Combine invasion of Earth - however the ending of Portal 2 shows Earth with normal shorelines (The Combine drained the oceans) and [[spoiler:after exiting Aperture, Chell emerges into a crop field,]] so perhaps some civilization survived in the USA.
* ''VideoGame/{{Proteus}}''. You start off near the shore of a vibrantly coloured island that generates itself as you go. The only thing there is the wildlife, and the only sign of human life on the island is a cabin that [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels may or may not even appear in your playthrough]].
* ''Schizm'' emphasizes the "void" over the "beautiful," even more than ''The Crystal Key''. Civilization on the GhostPlanet you're exploring vanished quickly and mysteriously, as did the entire research team you were supposed to be delivering supplies to. The only remaining signs of life are the [[ApocalypticLog audio diaries]] left by the scientists. 
* ''{{Scratches}}'' is set in one of these.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' has a beautiful, massive world, but except for Colossi, stray shrines with shining lizards and fruit trees are just about the only other things. 
* ''[[VideoGame/{{SpyroTheDragon1998}} Spyro The Dragon]]'' is made of this trope. There's a lot of enemies, but once you clear them there's nothing but beautiful void left.

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* ''Schizm'' emphasizes the "void" over the "beautiful," even more than ''The Crystal Key''. Civilization on the GhostPlanet you're exploring vanished quickly and mysteriously, as did the entire research team you were supposed to be delivering supplies to. The only remaining signs of life are the [[ApocalypticLog audio diaries]] left by the scientists. 
* ''[[VideoGame/{{SpyroTheDragon1998}} Spyro The Dragon]]'' is made of this trope. There's a lot of enemies, but once you clear them there's nothing but beautiful void left.
* ''VideoGame/{{Noctis}}'' contains 70 billion stars, all [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]]. Precious few have life, and your character is the only sentient being. ([[AllThereInTheManual The website says]] that there are other exploration ships around, but it's "fantastically unlikely" that you'll ever meet one. For game purposes, you're the only person in the galaxy.) There's no win condition, and no way of losing except against existentialist angst--just exploration, and wonder at the sheer ''emptiness'' of it all. 
* On the whole, ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'''s quiet dreamscapes tend to be rather more bizarre and unsettling than beautiful, but they certainly capture the spirit of this trope.
* ''VideoGame/VagrantStory''

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* ''ThePath'', wandering through a melancholy forest accompanied by sad and ambient music really defines this trope, but this Beautiful Void can quickly turn scary.
* ''{{Minecraft}}'', at least in single player Survival mode. For all the beautiful scenery and the wonderful monuments and castles you can build it still doesn't change the fact that you're alone, the only sentient being on a world eight times the size of the Earth. Oh, and there're horrible monsters that come out at night. 
** Two of the enemies are the zombies and the skeletons, which are both types of monsters that traditionally ''used to be people'', suggesting that there were once people, but they've all been killed or turned into horrible monsters and ''there are no other signs of civilized life ever having existed'', which is quite jarring [[FridgeHorror when you think about it for too long]].
** By ''Minecraft'''s release, updates had subverted this with [=NPCs=] and Villages. A lot of the fanbase had not been happy about it either...
* ''{{Flywrench}}''. Glitch ambient music plays in the background and everything is dark and mysterious all around, yet somehow peaceful.
* ''VideoGame/{{Looming}}''. The game consists entirely of exploring a quiet, lonely wasteland, uncovering the relics of civilizations that have moved on. Also, the player character is about ten pixels tall.
* Conspicuously the case in ''The Omega Stone'', in which you visit some of the world's most famed (and tourist-attracting) ancient monuments, yet there's not a living soul in sight. You only meet four people in the entire game, and only one of them is actually at a monument.
* FragileDreams takes place in this.
* The island in ''VideoGame/DearEsther''.
* The Xbox Live Indie game ''The Deep Cave''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Cloud}}'', although it has a vague story, takes place in the sky, with only some clouds and the occasional view of an island.
* Lordran of DarkSouls, aside from all of the undead nasties, is all but devoid of actual life.
* The dungeons for the first [[FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles FFCC]] game. Gorgeous rivers, lakes, forests, and ruins. But the whole world is covered in poisonous gas so there really are just ''very'' few people outside of the sheltered towns.
* ''VideoGame/{{Proteus}}''. You start off near the shore of a vibrantly coloured island that generates itself as you go. The only thing there is the wildlife, and the only sign of human life on the island is a cabin that [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels may or may not even appear in your playthrough]].

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24th Sep '13 2:46:32 PM Abodos

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13th Sep '13 5:21:59 PM TheMorrison