History Main / VideoGameCrueltyPunishment

*** Similarly to the retaliation from the Cuccos, you can swing your weapon at friendly [=NPC=]s. They'll all [[InvulnerableCivilians safely dodge the blows]], but the Goron elder Bludo and Riju's bodyguard Buliara in particular will knock you on your back as well.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'': You can pick up items from an in-dungeon store and, even if you have no money, attempt to run off with it. Players assume that they can make it to the next floor up with their items and get away scot-free, thereby making the game easier by saving money. What you then realize in short order is that the Kecleon shopkeeper you attacked has wicked-high HP, moves twice for every one move you make, and has attacks that can KO a Lvl 100 Pokémon in a short amount of time. Assuming you survive the one (hint: you won't), there will then be a sea of them respawning for every six steps you take, meaning that you will ''not'' make it to the stairs. Oh, and Escape Orbs no longer work, either. For trying to steal, you are thus beaten to a pulp and wake up (having been knocked out cold) back at your base, with half your items and ''all'' of your money stolen from you in retribution. The items that you retain are turned into [[UselessItem Plain Seeds]]. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Incidentally, stealing from a dungeon shop and fighting the respawing Kecleon is also the only way to recruit one… at a ridiculously low recruit rate which will probably necessitate at least a hundred tries. Good luck.]]

** The introduction of ideologies in the ''Royalty'' DLC can flip a lot of these on their head. If you have the right ideology, ''not'' being cruel will result in mood debuffs.

** Throughout the series, you can accuse people besides the correct one of being the murderer. Doing this gets you a scolding and sometimes a penalty on top of that. In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', if you even dare accuse the Judge of murder, [[BerserkButton he'll get so pissed off at you]] that he'll penalize you ''twice'', taking out '''a hefty 95% of your life bar'''. If you had incurred any penalties prior to that, then [[PressXToDie you've pretty much gotten an instant game over]]. Meanwhile, if you accuse the prosecutor of being the murderer, she [[WhipItGood goes to town on Phoenix with her whip]], but this is "only" worth a standard 10% penalty.

** Early in the game you meet a dog whimpering with its leg caught in a beartrap, and your options are to free it, leave it to its fate, or kill it. If you free it, it shows up to help you fight El Gigante, and is basically instrumental in you being able to defeat it with Leon's limited load-out and low health at that point in the game. If you don't, well, good luck with [[ThatOneBoss that savage solo fight]] that happens about 2 hours later in the game. The dog returns in the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake 2023 remake]] with the same effects
** Unlike the fish you find in a couple other places which can be killed, carried as an item, and used to replenish health, killing the fish in the lake is entirely pointless as you can't reach them to collect them. If you do it anyways though, Del Lago leaps out of the water and [[OneHitKill kills you instantly]]. This was also carried over to the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake remake]].

** In Normal mode, you can kill the Merchant to your heart's content, as he'll simply reappear if you leave the area and come back. Do so in Professional mode, however, and he ''stays'' dead for the rest of the game, leaving you with no way to buy, sell, or upgrade any equipment.
** Early in the game you meet a dog whimpering with its leg caught in a beartrap, and your options are to free it, leave it to its fate, or kill it. If you free it, it shows up to help you fight El Gigante, and is basically instrumental in you being able to defeat it with Leon's limited load-out and low health at that point in the game. If you don't, well, good luck with [[ThatOneBoss that savage solo fight]] that happens about 2 hours later in the game.
** Unlike the fish you find in a couple other places which can be killed, carried as an item, and used to replenish health, killing the fish in the lake is entirely pointless as you can't reach them to collect them. If you do it anyways though, Del Lago leaps out of the water and [[OneHitKill kills you instantly]].

'' In VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndrea'', destroying the harmless News Chooper that spawns from a 4-star wanted level will cause a second Police Maverick to take its place. However, this does not apply if the News Chopper falls into water, then it will be replaced by another News Chopper.

** If you leave a colonist unburied, your alive colonists will get a -10 mood debuff. (This does not apply if your colonists are Psychopaths)

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', you can actually weaponize this tendency by baiting enemies into hitting the Cuccos, who will promptly retaliate.[[note]]However, the enemies will survive the onslaught if their HP is massive like the [[BossInMooksClothing Lynels]].[[/note]] They've been toned down for this game, however; they only attack for about 10 seconds, meaning if you have plenty of heart containers/healing items and/or just keep running so they miss you, it's easy to survive.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', you can swing your weapon at friendly [=NPC=]s. They'll all [[InvulnerableCivilians safely dodge the blows]], but the Goron elder Bludo and Riju's bodyguard Buliara in particular will knock you on your back as well.

-->'''Luis Sera:''' Adios Leon... (shoots Leon twice, killing him in return for too much friendly fire dumped on him)

* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' doesn't really go for overt punishments (unless you [[NonStandardGameOver break the plot by killing an essential character]], anyways), and it certainly ''is'' possible to go through the game wantonly murdering every single enemy you come across. Doing this leads to a high [[KarmaMeter Chaos]] rating, which means more [[RodentsOfUnusualSize rats]], [[TechnicallyLivingZombie Weepers]], and security systems to contend with, plus the overall story becoming much darker. The game is also surprisingly good at [[GuiltBasedGaming guilt-tripping you]] if you take the "indiscriminate slaughter" route.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ArmoredCore Armored Core for Answer]]'', [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you're allowed to take a]] [[MoralEventHorizon mission where you kill 100,000,000 people]]. If you complete that mission, you're rewarded with the mission "[[ScrappyLevel Occupation of Arteria Carpals]]", a mission where you have to defeat 4 [[AMechByAnyOtherName NEXTs]] — a ''single'' NEXT qualifies as ThatOneBoss, so this is definitely a punishment. [[spoiler:Also, the [=NEXTs=] are piloted by your former allies, who declare that [[WhatTheHellHero you are a douchebag and your right to continue existing has just been revoked]].]] (Although, if you use lots of [[WaveMotionGun Kojima]] [[GameBreaker Weaponry]], it's [[KarmaHoudini relatively easy to win]].)

** In ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'', attacking the Tibetan warrior monks in the Barkhang Monastery will result in ''every single monk in the entire level'' going for Lara's blood — and it can be easily done if the player is simply trying to help the monks out in their fights against [[BigBad Bartoli's]] [[{{Mook}} mooks]] and accidentally target a monk instead of a gunman. They aren't hard to kill, but since there's so many of them that it can be easy to become overpowered. Also, they can be a huge help when they're attacking enemy mooks instead of you.

--> "Your rookie ... Eddy. It's regrettable about him. I've never expected that his core have not found in the ruin of Wily's [[JapaneseRanguage fortless]] ...! [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Are you trembling?]] I see... as I heard that his signal disappeared near you, [[YouBastard you saw his last moment... didn't you?]] [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging Don't mind, you had done best effort to him.]]"

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', you can choose to help either the [[KnightErrant Justicar]] Samara or her sociopathic [[BlackWidow Ardat-Yakshi]] daughter Morinth during their MexicanStandoff. Helping one means the other dies. If the player chooses Morinth, she will be loyal for the rest of the game, but not only are they deprived of a war asset and one of the most poignant scenes in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', but they also have to fight Morinth during the game's final stage after she's been turned into a [[DemonicSpider banshee]] by the Reapers (and she makes no other onscreen appearances during the game). In addition, being a literal BlackWidow doesn't stop Morinth from trying to sleep with you in the second game, and [[TooDumbToLive if you do]], it goes [[DeathBySex exactly like]] [[NonStandardGameOver you'd expect]].

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIICrimsonButterfly'': Of the various endings in the game, one allows the player to abandon their [[VideoGameCaringPotential twin sister]] in the village and escape on their own. Doing this doesn't even net the player an actual ending; it's treated as a GameOver. The game is telling you that '''no way''' are you allowed to leave your sister behind. Though given the [[DownerEnding canon]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog ending]], that may seem kinder…

* ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays''. There are ordinary and harem endings, technically, but the game became infamous for the three [[MemeticMutation Nice Boat]] ends: to wit, a [[BreakTheCutie kind and bookish character]] DrivenToSuicide right in front of the main character, that same character [[MurderTheHypotenuse murdering the hypotenuse]] [[AxeCrazy with a hacksaw]], and said hypotenuse returning the favour with a cleaver. [[spoiler:Guess how the anime adaptation ended.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' leans less so on this than its predecessor ''Undertale'' as a driving point of this game is how your choices ''don't'' matter, but never the less dives into this in Chapter 2 when you're sent to get a "Trash Orb", actually the inanimate Light World forms of all your Dark World friends from Chapter 1, to bring everyone to your new Dark World. You have the option to go into your items and throw away the "Ball of Junk", and the game warns you it is a "really really really ''really'' bad idea". Throw it away anyways, and you learn the "Ball of Junk" was a ''separate'' item from the "Trash Orb": when you get to the Dark World your friends are fine and you discover what you actually threw away was your ''entire inventory from the previous game''. Yes, even the one-of-a-kind items you got from defeating the difficult BonusBoss.

* In ''LightNovel/InfiniteDendrogram'', PlayerKilling has no punishment, but killing Tiens ([=NPC=]s) is the only in-game crime that receives punishment (being unable to use the country's save point). Which is justified by Tiens being living [=AI=] in a virtual world.
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', with the majority of the action being set in [=VRMMORPGs=], this is evident in how the systems treat "orange" players, who are players that commit crimes in-game (such as stealing from, harming, or killing other players outside of duels). Said players are forbidden from entering Safe Zones without being attacked by NPC guards (and in [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame SAO]] in particular, often by other players who tend to assume (not without reason) you engage in PlayerKilling in a world where dying in-game means dying in real life) until you leave the area. In the video game continuity of ''Hollow Realization'', getting a "blue" cursor from attacking or killing an NPC directly in ''Sword Art: Origin'' gives you all the disadvantages of being an orange player on top of being attacked on sight by any nearby monsters or [=NPCs=] in the area (even otherwise neutral or friendly ones).

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'':
** In the first game, if you repeatedly kill innocent civilians, your "Synchronization Meter" (health bar) will start to go down. And if that's not enough penalty, killing more than three in a small timeframe will [[NonStandardGameOver automatically give you a game over]], so rampages are impossible even with high health. However, once you beat the game, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the penalty is gone]].

* ''VideoGame/FearAndHunger'': Murdering a contestant in the train/PRHVL Bop while some other contestants are present (who aren't currently in the party) will get you grabbed and tied up with no possibility of resisting, with you escaping only on day 3 with severe starvation and a lot of lost time. Any party members will also refuse to do anything in such a battle until they're attacked.

* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' will inflict more and more screamers and scares on an evil player who shoots everyone he comes across, rather than helping (or at least trying to help).
* The VideoGameRemake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil 1'' has an event in Jill's game that crosses this with PlayerPunch. If you retrieve serum, you can stop Richard from dying of snake poison. When you get cornered by the same giant snake whilst retrieving a MacGuffin, Richard will show up to get revenge on the monster. If you stay and fight to the end, the snake plays dead and Richard ends up being fatally bitten and SwallowedWhole in a HeroicSacrifice. You can then grab his Auto-Shotgun, a DiskOneNuke that takes the relatively common shotgun ammo and can dispense more powerful shots far quicker than the ordinary shotgun, with all of the shotgun's best traits retained in the bargain. However, if you decide to flee when Richard appears, you hear him dying off-screen, and you lose the shotgun forever.

** while you're in your nuclear bunker, sometime a group will arrive asking for aid and you can give them food, water, medical supplies, or any combination of the three. Give them nothing? [[https://youtu.be/smWcR6Rk3Zo?t=13m40s There's the high chance that they steal all your stuff,]] as LetsPlay/JackSepticEye learned the hard way.

* In ''[[VideoGame/HiFiRush]]'' you can avoid catching [[AntiVillain Korsica]] as she falls. While it leads to a funny scene, it also leads to one of your teammates scolding you and a significant score penalty.

** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' forgoes a karma meter in exchange for companion affinity. Doing things in a companion's presence that they dislike will cause their affinity to drop. If it's low enough, they'll threaten to leave for good, necessitating a very difficult speech check to keep them around (and that only works once: continue to piss them off, and they'll bail on you). For most companions, the things that drive down affinity are understandable: stealing, killing indiscriminately, and acting like a jerk. Some companions zigzag this, however: Strong, a [[TokenHeroicOrc super mutant]], ''loves'' when you commit wanton murder or cannibalism, but dislikes shows of intelligence. Cait likes it when you act like an ass and take drugs, but holds acts of charity in disdain. [=McCready=], similarly, isn't fond of being nice, unless you're being nice to children. In addition, Danse, a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin, approves of acts of kindness to others, [[FantasticRacism unless they're ghouls, super mutants, or synths]].

** On Zeikun's route, [[spoiler: the game punishes you for choosing not to do a heroic sacrifice, and instead watch all your friends sacrifice themselves instead.]]

* The ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' mod "''Monika After Story''" is set after the game ends. You get the chance to interact with Monika alone and potentially do a series of romantic activities. While there are many ways to gain affection with Monika, it's also possible to just torment her by [[spoiler:repeatedly shutting the game off without warning her and constantly calling her out for killing the other girls (which she will remind you ad naseum that they were [=NPCs.=]]] If her affection dips too low, then, upon turning the game on, she will be gone. In her place will be a tear-stained note which says she still loves you, but she realizes you hate her. She'll call you out for [[spoiler:installing a mod]] just to torment her, and realizes there's no point in staying. From hereon, any time you load the mod, she will be gone and all that will be left is the letter. You cannot do anything to get her back unless you locate and delete all data saved from the mod[[note]]including data saved to your [=C/Drive=][[/note]].

** Allying with the Grox will make everyone in the entire galaxy hate you[[note]] Specifically, it adds a -200 relation modifier to every empire, even those you uplift later or have never met. Under normal conditions, this is enough for them to declare war, which requires a net bonus of -75. This includes your allies unless you've been spoiling them (if you just want them to not declare war, you need a minimum of +125 at the time you ally the Grox. If you want them to remain your ally, you need a minimum of +225)[[/note]] — ''all at the same time!''

* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' is usually very tolerant of your evil ways, allowing you to slice bunnies and birds in half left and right. There's even a voodoo doll that lets you kill one of the [=NPC=]s at your will! [[spoiler:Throw that voodoo doll into lava, however, and you get attacked by the massive Wall Of Flesh. It will rip newer players apart, and there is literally no escape — you HAVE to kill it or die to escape. Even worse — ''you have to kill it at least once to advance the game''.]]

** Cuccos show up in VideoGame/SuperSmash Bros.'' for Wii U/3DS. If you hit one, you'll get mobbed. If you pick it up and throw it at somebody, ''they'll'' [[HilarityEnsues get mobbed]]. If a Cucco gets harmed by a stage hazard, '''''everybody'' gets mobbed'''.

* In ''LightNovel/InfiniteDendrogram'', PlayerKilling has no punishment, but killing Tiens([=NPC=]s) is the only in-game crime that recieves punishment(being unable to use the country's save point). Which is justified by Tiens being living [=AI=] in a virtual world.

* ''Literature/CretanChronicles'' has Altheus, a hero tasked with avenging his brother's death, being given the option to steal gold, kill unarmed / surrendered opponents, stabbing people InTheBack and performing shameful deeds in general. Choose that option and the book increases your SHAME meter -- note that if your SHAME score is too high the book will execute you via BoltOfDivineRetribution.

** Over the course of the series there are times Lone Wolf can do things that are... morally grey at best. The penalties for such decisions take the form of difficult battles, losing out valuable items, or [[TheManyDeathsOfYou dying horribly]]. Lone Wolf is canonically a MessianicArchetype, he should ''act'' like it.

* In the second ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel, the FictionalVideoGame has a room full of time-frozen people that can be killed by player. The actual in-game purpose of that room is to go talk to a plot-important character that turns out to have completely "unfrozen" before everyone else. Kill her companions instead of talking to her and she'll kill you.

* ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'' parodies this trope by having Wonderita play an AffectionateParody of ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' and [[http://nonadventures.com/2016/06/04/soldier-of-misfortune/ using an ID card found on a monster to go to their house]]... [[spoiler: [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes only to meet his widow and daughter]]]]. When even ''[[JerkAss Wonderella]]'' is crying from the PlayerPunch, that's this trope done right.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'', there are plenty of civilians, children and innocents caught in the warfare. Deliberately killing any of them will get you a "Are you serious?" and boot you back to the mission selection screen.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' mod ''Paper Mario: Dark Star Edition'' will have Whacka attack in revenge when he's hit before dropping the Whacka Bump. Each time he's hit, he becomes stronger. On the eighth and final hit, [[spoiler:he turns in to a superboss surrounded by fire that has more health than anything else in the game and hurts like a truck.]]

* In ''VideoGame/StarLancer'', your copilot takes over your ship and [[NonStandardGameOver gets you court-marshaled and executed]] if you destroyed a friendly ship. Or rather, if a friendly ship got destroyed while your shots were hitting it. If that sounds like a petty distinction, try being forced to restart a long EscortMission because your copilot decided that it was your flimsy cannons that blew up the friendly capital ship [[note]]never mind that it is literally impossible to damage capital ships with any of your fighter's weaponry in this game[[/note]], and not the enemy torpedo that you were desperately trying to shoot down with your flimsy cannons. Ironically, this punishment system actually encourages you to let friendly ships die rather than risk being branded a traitor by trying to save them.

** Your [[KarmaMeter park rating]] will obviously plummet if one of your rollercoasters crashes. However, [[NeverSayDie getting rid of]] unhappy guests with the use water can cause your park rating to go ''up''.[[note]]It is, however, possible to exploit this. Build a roller coaster that launches its cars into a neighboring park and ''their'' park rating will go down.[[/note]]

* Attacking hospitals, churches, or ambulances in VideoGame/{{Wings}} will result in mission failure and a reprimand from the squad commander. Shooting down squadmates is not particularly awarded, either.

** In the first game, if you repeatedly kill innocent civilians, your "Synchronization Meter" (health bar) will start to go down. And if that's not enough penalty, killing more than three in a small timeframe will [[NonStandardGameOver automatically give you a game over]], so rampages are impossible even with high health. However, once you beat the game, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the penalty is gone.]]

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIICrimsonButterfly'': Of the various endings in the game, one allows the player to abandon their [[VideoGameCaringPotential twin sister]] in the village and escape on their own. Doing this doesn't even net the player an actual ending; it's treated as a GameOver. The game is telling you that '''no way''' are you allowed to leave your sister behind. Though given the [[DownerEnding canon]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog ending]], that may seem kinder...

* ''Videogame/UntilDawn'': Every decision to hurt an animal will ultimately result in a worse outcome for the character. Interactions between humans are more nuanced, as acting too polite, passive, or coddling can sometimes make things worse. Still, some blatant dick choices, such as Chris choosing to shoot Ashley to save himself, or shooting Emily because of a misconception ([[spoiler: Ashley thinks wendigo bites are contagious. They are not, it takes cannibalism to turn you into one]]), will ''definitely'' make things worse for you. [[spoiler: Choose to sacrifice Ashley and she'll let Chris die when he's being chased by a Wendigo, and shooting Emily traumatizes Mike, with the ending implying that he will be convicted for her murder.]]

** ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful:'' Unsurprisingly, Princesses are subject to this to an even greater degree than normal. A Princess uses her KarmaMeter in a number of power-related dicepools, so if she Compromises too often she will have fewer [[{{Mana}} Wisps]] to work with, have trouble Transforming, and start losing Clash of Wills rolls. On top of that, Princesses face a Sensitivity roll whenever they witness an innocent suffering, and those rolls get much tougher if the Princess directly caused that suffering.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', when you enter a particular cave, a Hinox begs for mercy and offers Link money to leave him alone. Refuse the money, and he offers even more rupees. Do it too much, though, and he absolutely flips out and attacks Link, turning invincible and doing an absolutely massive amount of damage unmatched by pretty much any other enemy in the game (including the final boss). Bully and extort [=NPC=]s at your own peril...

* The Australian version of ''50 Cent: Bulletproof'' will give you an automatic game over if you kill a civilian. This was to get an [=MA15+=] rating after the uncensored game was refused classification.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' and its Main/SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'', killing civilians results in mission failure. Shooting the scientists, but not killing them completely, may cause them to shoot you with the [[AKA47 DD44]], a powerful handgun.

** Also, don't [[spoiler:shoot Bruno's corpse. Although if you do, you'll probably figure out a twist coming later…]]

* ''SWAT''

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2''. [[spoiler:Trying to save the civilians in the infamous No Russian scenario by killing their attackers nets you an instant game over. Likewise, trying to block their line of fire by standing in front of them will result in them just shooting you. The most you can do is not actively participate in the slaughter.]] In the German/Japanese version, this is all you can do. [[spoiler:Shooting the civilians in those versions nets you an instant game over, as well.]]