History TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' revolves around Jesse Faden exploring an [[WebOriginal/SCPFoundation SCP-like]] secret agency called the Federal Bureau of Control while it's infested by [[TheCorruption the Hiss]], [[EldritchAbomination a red sentient wavelength]] which tries to increase its influence on the place [[TheAssimilator by assimilating everything that comes to its way]], humans obviously included. The Hiss seems particularly interested in Jesse, but also to the player controlling her, and so it will recite an incantation to brainwash you. Even worse, if you're not a native English speaker but decided to put the game dialogues in their original languages, the Hiss won't care and will talk to you in ''your native language''[[labelnote:spoiler]]This happens because the game actually sets the Hiss' incantation depending on the region settings you of your machine rather than the in-game language settings. Plus, it only works if the game has been dubbed in your language[[/labelnote]].

* The '''SQUID''' Guardian in ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' is (in)famous for staring dead at the screen when an encounter with one is triggered.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''[='=]s Ghasts gave a temporary, unintended variation. Thanks to a since-patched bug, they specifically aimed their fireballs for your point of view rather than your character model. In first-person mode, you'd still have to dodge them - but in third person, they targeted ''the camera''.

** Kaos ups the ante in ''Trap Team''. Kaos speaks directly to the player thru the Portal of Power attached to the game system, threatening to imprison you in Traptanium if he defeats the Skylanders. He also messes with the controller's rumble feature in one cutscene to prove this that trope is in full effect. Morever, during the final battle with Kaos, he actually makes good on his threat and tries to suck you into the Skylander realm multiple times, though luckily he only manages to suck in random objects from our world at best. Lastly, during the credits, he berates you for defeating him, claiming you only beat him because [[MediumAwareness you had a ton of help from the game developers]].

** Previous games have more straightforward examples of this trope: a number of characters from the games are capable of doing a little bit more than sending you back to the menu if they kill you. In [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 the first game]], [[spoiler:[[TheSpook Golden Freddy]]]] ''crashes the game'' if he jumpscares you; in [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 the second]], [[spoiler:[[RiddleForTheAges Shadow Bonnie and Shadow Freddy]]]] do the same if you so much as ''look at them'' for too long; and in [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4 the fourth]], [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss Nightmare]] and [[BonusBoss Nightmarionne]]]] cause the game to reboot if they jumpscare you.

* ''VideoGame/LieOfCaelum'': If the player loads a save, the game will occasionally throw an exception that would normally crash the game. However, the error message itself glitches out and refers to either the protagonist or the player as the Child of Faith before allowing the game to continue.

* In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: New Leaf'', if the player is male, Cyrus warns the player not to let him catch the player "makin' goo-goo eyes at [his] wife, or [he'll] make ya see things in 4D!" Cyrus will make a similar remark if the player is female.
** In the original, if you quit your game without saving enough times, Resetti would pretend to reset your game in order to scare you straight.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''[='=]s Gamyga, an enemy resembling a sentient sunflower built "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible like an avant-garde work of art from some young art-school grad]]", seems to have a ThousandYardStare and never looks at the attacking character. However, its trophy points out that it is indeed facing its attacker, since it's facing the screen, '''directly at YOU.'''

* Right [[JustForPun off the bat]], the game ''VideoGame/{{Off}}'' asks you for your name and gender, so that the characters in the game can talk to you and actively refer to you as the one who is taking control of [[PlayerCharacter The Batter]] in his mission to purify the world. In your first encounter with The Judge he even refers to you as the one who holds The Batter's strings. Far into the game, one of the characters will give you, in exchange for an item needed for the secret ending, a hint that directs you to the game's Readme file, where a seemingly useless piece of advice suddenly makes sense. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, as it becomes more and more obvious that The Batter is an OmnicidalManiac, The Judge urges you to help both of you atone for your actions and stop The Batter from completing his mission. If you reject him, he says you'll end up killed by your own wicked marionette. If you agree, he'll say your choice was pathetically useless, but still the right one]].

* In ''VideoGame/DeathEndReQuest2''[='=]s Fallen ending, [[spoiler: Mai has no MoralityPet to keep the evil god Marbas from completely overtaking her personality, which results in her declaring herself the God of Death after defeating the BigBad. She then turns her attention to you, [[YouBastard calling you a piece of shit and a murderer]] for seeking out all of the game's [[NonStandardGameOver Death Ends]]. She then compels you to chant "El Strain Marbas", with the game switching to second-person narration to describe you chanting the phrase and having the energy drained from your body.]]

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII'', if you throw rocks or daggers at Julanar (the woman turned into a tree), you'll get a NonStandardGameOver where the projectile deflects and breaks the screen, with the HaveANiceDeath message telling you that [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment your punishment for]] [[WhatTheHellPlayer attacking an innocent woman]] is having to go out and buy a new monitor.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', [[spoiler:the Grustrag Three and the Zanuka Harvester]] can briefly disable the Close button and the [=Alt+F4=] commands, to keep you from escaping their NonStandardGameOver.

** Kogasa Tatara is a lowly stage 2 boss with the power to "surprise people". Compared to the rest of the cast, it's pretty much nothing... Up until she shows up as an [[BonusLevel Extra Stage]] boss, with all the appropriate power - by ''surprising'' the ''audience''. She repeats this before the game is even ''started'' by appearing on the game disc, and reappears in the next game as a midboss.

** During a "Genocide" playthrough, [[spoiler:[[BewareTheSillyOnes Sans]]]] identifies not the protagonist but the ''player'' as the true source of the "temporal anomaly" he's sensing, and mocks your [[ArcWords DETERMINATION]] to commit genocide on the basis that [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential "just because you can, then you]] ''[[OneHundredPercentCompletion have to]]''." He then [[SNKBoss brutalizes you]] [[CurbStompBattle as badly as]] [[YouBastard you deserve]], [[InterfaceScrew turning save states, your menu screen,]] [[ExaggeratedTrope and even the concept of turn-based combat]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard against you]]. He knows you, the player, can just reload and retry the boss fight if you lose, so his objective is to be so screamingly difficult that you RageQuit and walk away, or maybe reset the game and try a non-violent playthrough next time. He'll even taunt you by keeping track of how many times he's killed you or commenting on how pissed-off you look when you reload after losing.
** [[spoiler:Complete the Genocide Run and you'll meet the First Child, who reveals that they are the AbstractApotheosis of LevelGrinding and that feeling you get when you level up. And now that you've reached your level cap and beaten the game, they think it's time you two left the world of Undertale behind and moved on to the next world. They then give you the opportunity to become partners and destroy everything. Accept, and the Child will join you in destroying all of existence. Refuse, and they [[JumpScare "kill"]] ''you'' and [[ButThouMust force the game to quit as they destroy the world]]. Boot up the game again and you'll be greeted with an empty void, before the Child reappears and offers to reset everything back to the way it was... if you [[DealWithTheDevil give them your soul]]. Agreeing allows you to play the game again, but results in the Child taking over the main character's body upon reaching what would usually be the GoldenEnding -- the implication being that they will kill everyone again or, at the very least, that you can't escape the consequences of your actions from the Genocide Run. Of course, considering [[IWarnedYou what you have to do to complete the]] [[OmnicidalManiac Genocide Route]], [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment it's hard to say you deserve a happy ending anymore.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/DeathEndReQuest'' has this [[spoiler:InUniverse AND Out-Of-Universe.]]

** In ''Death end re;Quest 2''[='=]s Fallen ending, [[spoiler: Mai has no MoralityPet to keep the evil god Marbas from completely overtaking her personality, which results in her declaring herself the God of Death after defeating the BigBad. She then turns her attention to you, [[YouBastard calling you a piece of shit and a murderer]] for seeking out all of the game's [[NonStandardGameOver Death Ends]]. She then compels you to chant "El Strain Marbas", with the game switching to second-person narration to describe you chanting the phrase and having the energy drained from your body.]]

* ''VideoGame/PonyIsland'' does this repeatedly: at a critical point in the game, in order to take your attention away, you, the player, suddenly start receiving Steam message popups ''from the game'', regardless if you're online or not. Shortly afterwards, the game ''literally crashes on you'', again to distract your attention. And as if that wasn't screwed up enough, after you beat the game, ''it flat up asks you to uninstall it''.