History StepfordSmiler / VideoGames

* Cornelia from ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' is a sweet-natured, caring girl who always acts cheerful and tries her best to make others smile. But deep inside, she carries an immense GuiltComplex over her creation as a LivingWeapon, hates herself for existing, and feels unworthy of being friends with the same people she was created to kill. The scene where she finally opens up about all this to Catie is one of the biggest [[{{Tearkerker}} Tearjerkers]] in the game.

** Luxanna 'Lux' Crownguard is a seemingly chipper girl-next-door prodigious mage in service of Demacia and seems content in serving the nation (considering it also has her brother Garen). During 'League Judgment', a test to see if a candidate's worthy of being a champion for the League of Legends, it's revealed that Lux actually joins the League because she feels empty, being dragged into military service against her will, dragged away from home in tears, completely exhausted Lux's mentality and at this point, joining the League is all she had in life. This creates an eerie dissonance with her usually AnnoyingLaugh that players tends to abuse, because it can be easily misinterpreted with Lux snapping and LaughingMad.

* ''Main/TheRing: Terror's Realm:'' Meg wears a smile throughout the SurvivalHorror game.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': This trope is in play for all of the party members to a degree, but it affects [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] the most. [[spoiler:His facade - handsome, charismatic, charming, and an ace detective - hides ''a lot'' of misery, loneliness, and anger stemmed from being a friendless bastard child who has been abused by the system for years. How did he get there? His father abandoned him and his mother, who was said father's mistress, and said mother eventually committed suicide out of shame because she gave birth to Goro. The abuse eventually makes him unstable and misanthropic, reaching to the point that he becomes his father's (a prominent, power-hungry politician) ''personal assassin,'' solely for the purpose of eventually revealing the truth about his parentage and causing societal upheaval. Yikes.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'': Empty. Koishi Komeiji is a cheerful child outside, but she's as hollow as possible inside- she's close to the state of "no-mind" according to Buddhism. Confirmed by the local Buddhist nun Byakuren.

* The humanoid [[TheSoulless Nobodies]] from ''KingdomHearts'' are the {{EmptyShell}} variation; their supposed emotions are an act, based on their human memories. Behind this facade, however, they're this trope. Supposedly. [[spoiler: Really, they were effectively brainwashed into this trope by their leader Xemnas as a way of trying to separate them from their sense of self. They ''can'' feel emotion and form connections with people, and in doing so, can regain their hearts. However, Xemnas, and Xehanort's, plan requires them to remain empty shells that he can use for living {{Soul Jar}}s]].

** Prompto in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'''s affectedly optimistic attitude masks his secret about who and what he really is. He admits to Noctis that he knows he is an endlessly generous and cheerful 'giver' to his friends because he is convinced that he's faking being worth something. No matter how much the others reassure him that they like him for who he is, and even though he believes them, he can't make himself feel it.

* Hope is implied to be Depressed in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2''. When Serah and Noel first meet him, he mentions that everyone he was friends with disappeared from his life immediately after the fall of Cocoon. [[spoiler: Becomes more explicit in Academia 4XX - Hope sends himself on a one-way trip 400 years into the future because his father had died and there was nothing left for him in his own time]].

* In DokiDokiLiteratureClub, [[spoiler:Sayori looks like a typical GenkiGirl childhood friend.]] She has many character traits that look harmless -[[TheKlutz clumsiness,]] [[BigEater overeating,]] oversleeping, and being TheDitz. [[spoiler:But these are actually symptoms of depression.]] [[spoiler:Monika]] also counts as one. Even though she's hiding instability and [[spoiler:a huge existential crisis over the fact that she's in a video game,]] she never stops smiling.

** When you first meet your RobotButler Codsworth after re-emerging from the Vault following the war, he seems to be as chipper and optimistic as ever, offering you his services while asking about the whereabouts of your spouse and son. With some light prodding, however, he reveals that he's been beside himself with grief having spent the last two hundred years and change isolated from everyone and trying to carry on as usual, even as the bombs fell and the town you lived in is blasted to hell and back.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''
** When you first meet your RobotButler Codsworth after re-emerging from the Vault following the war, he seems to be as chipper and optimistic as ever, offering you his services while asking about the whereabouts of your spouse and son. With some light prodding, however, he reveals that he's been beside himself with grief having spent the last two hundred years and change isolated from everyone and trying to carry on as usual, even as the bombs fell and the town you lived in is blasted to hell and back.
** Preston Garvey appears to have a can-do attitude, having an optimistic outlook as you help rebuild the Minutemen and make the Commonwealth a better place. When you max out his affinity, however, he reveals to you that he had been struggling with depression following the series of unfortunate events that befell the Minutemen before meeting you. In fact, if you had never met him, he likely would've given into his depression and abandoned all hope!

* Ayano Aishi, or {{Yandere}}-Chan of the indie game "VideoGame/{{Yandere Simulator}}": LoveSick is an Empty Stepford Smiler. At first sight, you see [[BrokenSmile a normal, albeit introverted schoolgirl]]- that is, until you touch her [[SempaiKohai Senpai]], and find yourself on the [[SerialKiller wrong end of her knife]]...

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' has Laughing Octopus. She's got a ''really'' good reason, though.

* Yuna from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' plays with this trope in a very interesting way: it's made very clear that she deliberately takes on the role of 'heroic savior of Spira' so as to inspire hope in the rest of the world even though she's much more scared and sad than she lets on, but it's not just a simple matter of her putting on a totally fake mask. In the infamous laughing scene, Yuna admits that she tries to smile even when she's feeling sad, and the more she does it the less sad she feels. Sure enough, as she encourages a reluctant Tidus to force himself to laugh with her, they end up actually falling over each other laughing at how ridiculous the whole thing is. So Yuna definitely does pretend to be much more happy, confident, and perfect than she actually feels, but to her it's less about putting on a mask as deliberately ''turning into'' that kind of person inside and out.
* [[spoiler:Vanille]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is a perfect Depressed example. [[spoiler:Her unnaturally happy and positive attitude was just a way of running away from her past failures. She has an authentic death wish and blames herself for everything that has happened]].

* Laughing Octopus isn't the first StepfordSmiler in the ''MetalGear'' series. Chronologically, the first would be the Sorrow, who is '''''always''''' shown smiling whenever the player sees him, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin but...]]

* In the second game of ''ArTonelico'', this is Luca's defining feature. BecomingTheMask is the goal of her path, but she is [[TheScrappy very unpopular]] among many players who feel she hit a MoralEventHorizon somewhere along the line.

** Eve from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonSNES'' and ''Magical Melody'' is a depressed type. She looks like the content local bartender however she has emotional issues due to the untimely death of her parents.
** Karen from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon64'' is a HardDrinkingPartyGirl who covers up her BrokenBird personality by [[DrowningMySorrows drinking]]. Unsurprisingly, she is Eve's granddaughter.

** Rupin in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''. He even lampshades this habit when you talk to him during nightime.

* ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'':

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has the Happy Mask Salesman: He seems to be generally happy, but come back to him without the money you owe (or without his stolen mask) and his broad smile turns into a furious grimace as he starts threatening you.
* Rupin in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword''. He even lampshades this habit when you talk to him during nightime.

* ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'':
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' is full of this, as befitting its central theme of facing the truth:
*** Most of the game's examples would fit in the Depressed category; Kou keeps up a cheery facade to hide his fear that his adopted family doesn't love him, Yosuke acts the clown to hide his insecurities, Rise's bubbly "Risette" stage persona [[spoiler:was originally constructed as a way to make friends due to her past as a bully magnet]], and Nanako tries to be a CheerfulChild but is clearly struggling to cope with her mother's death and her father's prolonged work-related absences.
*** The true culprit, [[spoiler:Adachi]], is an Unstable example who hides his sociopathy under a mask of cheerful idiocy.
*** [[spoiler:Teddie]] starts off as an Empty example who's hiding his fears about living a hollow and meaninglessness existence [[spoiler:as a Shadow]]. He gets better, with his flirty cheerfulness become genuine.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': This trope is in play for all of the party members to a degree, but it affects [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] the most. [[spoiler:His facade - handsome, charismatic, charming, and an ace detective - hides ''a lot'' of misery, loneliness, and anger stemmed from being a friendless bastard child who has been abused by the system for years. How did he get there? His father abandoned him and his mother, who was said father's mistress, and said mother eventually committed suicide out of shame because she gave birth to Goro. The abuse eventually makes him unstable and misanthropic, reaching to the point that he becomes his father's (a prominent, power-hungry politician) ''personal assassin,'' solely for the purpose of eventually revealing the truth about his parentage and causing societal upheaval. Yikes.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' Space Stage, empires of the fun-loving Bard archetype turn out to be this when you look at the despairing nihilism in the synopses given of the Blocks of Chance, the ancient writings that outline their philosophy.

* [[spoiler: Shorty]] in VideoGame/NancyDrew and the Secret of Shadow Ranch acts like a pleasant, cheery person right up until the end, where it turns out that [[spoiler: he's the ringleader of a gang of criminals responsible for several acts of robbery and sabotage, and is perfectly willing to kill and deceive to get what he wants]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' has [[spoiler: Adachi who is an Unstable example]].
** Also Kou, one of the social link characters, fits Depressed. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Teddie]] is Empty. He gets better.
** Yosuke could also be seen as Depressed, according to his Shadow.
** It also has Nanako, the protagonist's cousin, and Rise who are both Depressed.
** The protagonist himself can come off as one as well, if one opts to max out all Social Links in the same playthrough.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': This trope is in play for all of the party members to a degree, but it affects [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] the most. [[spoiler:His facade - handsome, charismatic, charming, and an ace detective - hides ''a lot'' of misery, loneliness, and anger stemmed from being a friendless bastard child who has been abused by the system for years. How did he get there? His father abandoned him and his mother, who was said father's mistress, and said mother eventually committed suicide out of shame because she gave birth to Goro. The abuse eventually makes him unstable and misanthropic, reaching to the point that he becomes his father's (a prominent, power-hungry politician) ''personal assassin,'' solely for the purpose of eventually revealing the truth about his parentage and causing societal upheaval. Yikes.]]