History NotMeThisTime / Videogames

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', whenever the human supremacist organization Cerberus is caught doing something particularly nasty, the Illusive Man will usually respond with the excuse that it was a rogue cell in the organization operating without his approval. Almost nobody ever believes this. However, in the third game, when a Cerberus force is found wantonly slaughtering human refugees, Hackett notes that the Alliance is, for once, inclined to believe him. The Illusive Man is very much a [[PragmaticVillainy Pragmatic Villain]]: he only does something if he thinks he will gain something from it, and killing off fleeing human refugees is of no benefit to him. Also, [[spoiler: while it's never brought up again, several plot points make likely that the Illusive Man is indeed responsible.]]

* At one point during the main quest of TheElderScrollsVSkyrim, [[spoiler:Delphine]] suspects the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Thal]][[ANaziByAnyOtherName mor]] are behind the recent reappearance of dragons. In search of information, the Dragonborn infiltrates a party being held by Thalmor diplomats, causes a good bit of havoc and death and finds that no, the Thalmor aren't responsible at all, and are in fact conducting their own investigation to see what's going on (and to find out if someone's trying to use the dragons against ''them'').

* In VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}, [[spoiler: Genocider Syo is both a SerialKiller ''and'' Touko Fukawa's SplitPersonality]]. However [[spoiler: she did '''not''' muder Chihiro Fujisaki and then creepily crucify their lifeless body, despite how the evidence ''does'' point out at her.]]

* In DanganRonpa, [[spoiler: Genocider Syo is both a SerialKiller ''and'' Touko Fukawa's SplitPersonality]]. However [[spoiler: she did '''not''' muder Chihiro Fujisaki and then creepily crucify their lifeless body, despite how the evidence ''does'' point out at her.]]

* In the fourth case of ''AceAttorneyInvestigations'', Edgeworth suspects that Manny Coachen was responsible for killing Byrne Faraday, as Byrne had prosecuted him for killing Cece Yew (and he was almost certainly guilty, but got off because the decisive evidence was missing), but Detective Badd says that while Coachen attended the day's trial, he was being watched by the police the entire time, giving him an alibi.

* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'':
** Peach is kidnapped at the beginning. Immediately, Mario and Luigi go to Bowser's castle to rescue her. However, it turns out that Bowser was in the middle of a rallying speech in preparation for invading Peach's castle and did not actually do anything yet.
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Rawk Hawk reveals that he was behind the guards locking Mario and his party up in an abandoned locker room, as well as a poisoned cake before fighting the party (in order to dissuade them from challenging him). However, when the party claims that he must have been the one emailing the threatening messages regarding the crystal star, he doesn't know what they are talking about, and reacts in such a way that he is genuinely unfamiliar with the concept of Crystal Stars, meaning he was not behind the threatening emails. [[spoiler:It was actually the emcee/promoter, Grubba, who was emailing the threatening messages, as he was using the Gold Star to retain his youth.]]
* In the opening FMV of the Nintendo64 version of ''MarioTennis'', when Bowser arrives at the court, the other participants are understandably worried when he arrives, as they think he's planning to attack the tennis arena. However, instead, Bowser just challenges Mario to the tournament in a friendly fashion when he actually approaches Mario.

* ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'':
** In the video game series, Kirby often goes after King Dedede for whatever evil plot is going on, whether or not he had anything to do with it.
** Indeed, in '''most''' games, Dedede either ''doesn't'' have anything to do with it, is trying to ''fix'' it, or is being controlled by another entity, bringing up the question of why Kirby is so insistent that everything is his fault.
** Dedede is the champion of this trope. Let's look at the list of times he's the actual villain:
*** ''Kirby's Dream Land'' (1992). Playing the role of EvilOverlord to the point where Kirby just naturally assumes he's behind every crisis forever. But he's not to blame again until...
*** ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' "Spring Breeze" (1996), a remake of Kirby's Dream Land. Okay, well he obviously has to be causing trouble again. And he does, eventually, in...
*** ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar Ultra'' "Revenge of the King" ('''2008'''), ''another'' remake of Kirby's Dream Land. And his defeat is unambiguously played as a tragedy.
*** And that's it. In twenty years, he was the BigBad effectively ''once'', and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mistaken for the Big Bad]] ''eight more times''.
** The worst example of this was in ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad''. Kirby's cake was stolen at the beginning of the game by the eponymous gang of thieving mice, and Kirby immediately comes to conclusion that Dedede is responsible with no evidence.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}: Portrait of Ruin''. When the main characters run into Death, they are already aware that the castle is being run by a vampire who isn't Dracula. Thus, while they accuse him of working with the new villain, ''Death'' is the one surprised to discover that his master isn't around.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', whenever the human supremacist organization Cerberus is caught doing something particularly nasty, the Illusive Man will usually respond with the excuse that it was a rogue cell in the organization operating without his approval. Almost nobody ever believes this. However, in the third game, when a Cerberus force is found wantonly slaughtering human refugees, Hackett notes that the Alliance is, for once, inclined to believe him. The Illusive Man is very much a [[PragmaticVillainy Pragmatic Villain]]: he only does something if he thinks he will gain something from it, and killing off fleeing human refugees is of no benefit to him.

* In ''SlyCooper 2'', Carmelita believes that Sly is responsible for the theft of the Klockwerk parts. While Sly had been planning to steal them, the Klaww Gang stole them first.
-->'''Sly''':Crime? I haven't stolen anything... yet.
* In VideoGame/DragonQuestII, you get to meet the Dragonlord's grandson, and he's even sitting on his grandpa's throne. However, the fact Charlock Castle looks like crap kinda disabuses you of the notion he had anything to do with the plot, and he's outright confirms it. In fact, not only does consider his and your families' pasts water under the bridge, he even [[EnemyMine considers Hargon a pretentious upstart]] and gives you some info on how to kick his ass.
* RatchetAndClankAll4One starts with Dr. Nefarious siccing a huge monster onto Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Qwark. After the monster is beaten, a massive spaceship appears in the sky, and as the four are staring up in wonder, Nefarious remarks, "That's not one of mine." just before they get abducted.

* In the last episode of the third season of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', TheDevil himself shows up to refute any claims that the [[DoomsdayDevice Devil's Toybox]] is in any way related to him. In fact, the Toybox predates the Devil by an order of magnitude and the object was named this way by mistake. yes, the ''Devil'' thinks that what [[spoiler:Junior]] is doing is a bit [[EvenEvilHasStandards too evil]].

** The worst example of this was in ''Kirby Squeak Squad''. Kirby's cake was stolen at the beginning of the game by the eponymous gang of thieving mice, and Kirby immediately comes to conclusion that Dedede is responsible with no evidence.

** In PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor, Rawk Hawk reveals that he was behind the guards locking Mario and his party up in an abandoned locker room, as well as a poisoned cake before fighting the party (in order to dissuade them from challenging him). However, when the party claims that he must have been the one emailing the threatening messages regarding the crystal star, he doesn't know what they are talking about, and reacts in such a way that he is genuinely unfamiliar with the concept of Crystal Stars, meaning he was not behind the threatening emails. [[spoiler:It was actually the emcee/promoter, Grubba, who was emailing the threatening messages, as he was using the Gold Star to retain his youth.]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' is another case of this. The villains are all running around turning heroes into trophies. Dedede captures several, and keeps them in his castle, placing badges on them. He runs out of badges, and reluctantly takes his own off to attach it to the final hero trophy. After the real villain, Tabuu, uses his ability to turn every single character into a trophy, the purpose of the badges is revealed: they restore a trophy to life after a time delay.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', whenever the human supremacist organization Cerberus is caught doing something particularly nasty, the Illusive Man will usually respond with the excuse that it was a rogue cell in the organization operating without his approval. Almost nobody ever believes this. However, in the third game, when a Cerberus force is found wantonly slaughtering human refugees, Hackett notes that the Alliance is, for once, inclined to believe him. The Illusive Man is very much a [[PragmaticVilliany Pragmatic Villain]]: he only does something if he thinks he will gain something from it, and killing off fleeing human refugees is of no benefit to him.

** If [[spoiler: Loghain is recruited]] in VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins he will mock Wynn's belief that he was behind the problems in the Chantry Tower, which worked purely against him.

'''Arf:''' Err... well...\\

'''Arf:''' You don't have to put it that way... \\

* Happens in the Multiplayer ''SpaceStation13''. People assume that if you're the chemist, you're responsible for the the roiling cloud of thermite-napalm-superfoamsmoke that is destroying the station.

** If [[spoiler: Loghain is recruited]] in DragonAgeOrigins he will mock Wynn's belief that he was behind the problems in the Chantry Tower, which worked purely against him.

** He does it again in ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'' when he claims that the TheVirus wasn't his doing, except Mega Man and co. actually believe him. [[spoiler:This shouldn't really be spoilers, but he's still lying.]]

* In ''DragonAgeII'', we have an heroic example, when a member of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Qunari]] suspects Hawke of being responsible for the deaths of a heavily armed patrol sent to scout the Wounded Coast. Hawke remarks that they actually ''weren't'' involved for once, but are mildly flattered they're at the top of the suspect list.

* ''BatmanArkhamCity'' invokes it for all its worth. Batman learns Hugo Strange is planning something called Protocol Ten, and assumes SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker is involved, partly because he's one of the top gang leaders in Arkham City, partly because he tried to kill Catwoman, but mostly because, well, he's the Joker. After learning of Joker's EvilPlan, we have this exchange: