History VillainsOutShopping / VideoGames

* There's a superb, but all too brief, one of these in a high-speed chase in the ice level of ''MDK'' - at one point, the hero and his pursuers, busy in a firefight whilst iceboarding, crash right through a small guardhouse - which contains a mook sitting in an armchair, reading a paper, who gets briefly swept along with the rest of the fight for a few seconds (continuing to obliviously read the news) before being obliterated in the hail of bullets.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'': [[spoiler: Joachim Guenter]], who is revealed to be a member of [[spoiler: the devil-worshiping D∴G Cult]], spends most of his free time fishing.

* [[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]:

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the player can often find him or herself in situations where Sith soldiers or even Dark Jedi are "off duty" in a lounge, bar, or simply keeping to themselves. This is the entire point of the world of Manaan, where a neutrality treaty has forced enemies to work in close proximity to each other without fighting. The player can even accept sidequests from some of these characters to help them out.
** The sequel has a rather hilarious conversation tucked into Dantooine, where the player confronts one of the mercenaries plaguing the planet, while he's placidly (and helpfully) spelunking. As he says, even professional killers need hobbies.
* The Pigmask Army from ''VideoGame/Mother3'' may be soldiers of an evil regime, but they sure love rock concerts!
** Lucas and his party also encounter some pigmasks who are in the middle of a discussion about whether they hang up their masks when they use the bathroom.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperLesbianAnimalRPG'' Javis's four sons, magically created beings who were made to serve as commanding officers in the plan to take over the planet can be seen in their unfinished lair sitting on a couch playing video games together.
* In the "Heaven's Feel" scenario of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Shirou ends up having a rather cordial conversation with a major villain of the two other arcs in a Chinese restaurant while the other is busy eating mapo doufu. While the character has been mostly personable so far in the arc (and asks the protagonist if he wants some of his doufu), knowing what he is capable of in the other two scenarios makes this a major example of this trope.
** It's never certain if [[spoiler: Kirei]] isn't trying to kill Shirou through the doufu.
** This is the point of the "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fun disk]]" ''Hollow Ataraxia'', where every antagonist and protagonist are shown just trying to have a normal life in Fuyuki City. Including Caster's {{cosplay|OtakuGirl}} hobby, Caster sweeping up staircases by herself because she doesn't believe in wasting mana, Lancer attempting to hold down a job as a grocery boy, and the main antagonists Gilgamesh and Archer getting into a fishing contest because they both wanted to annoy Lancer after he insulted them while fishing. Also, football. And arguments over food. Everyone in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' show up except for [[AffablyEvil Kotomine]] (who is dead and therefore not causing any trouble. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Because he's dead]].), because he would attempt to be villainous even in these circumstances.
* And ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' has an extremely bizarre conversation during Kohaku's route, between Shiki and one personality of the game's BigBad, on a downtown sidewalk, as the two drink coffee and have a cordial chat on how society judges murderers like them. [[spoiler:It's notably the only path where Shiki doesn't fight -- or even make an enemy of -- either of the BigBad's personalities, due to that little chat and its end result of the BigBad recognizing Shiki as "the better killer".]]
* In the superhero MMORPG ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', instead of wandering monsters, you'll find groups of {{mooks}} standing around committing crimes like breaking and entering or purse-snatching...or sometimes you'll just find them standing around having {{Seinfeldian Conversation}}s. Though they'll still attack your hero on sight...
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has several occasions where you can overhear enemy {{mooks}} chatting about very mundane things. Examples include a blood elf mob (in Quel'Danas) wanting to get a house by the sea when the war is over, a human guard (in "Escape From Durnholde") chatting about his/her coming vacation, and the members of a demon-worshipping cult (in Terokkar) who talk about playing leatherball, going to a nearby town for some drinks, and having difficulties controlling an EldritchAbomination they summoned. Oh, and you usually end up killing all of them.
** Rival player territories can also have a similar effect. The first time you travel to the territory of the opposing faction, it feels like a dangerous mission deep behind the frontlines where only unknowns exist and the enemy lives in their wholly alien ways. Cue sneaking into Stormwind and finding level 1's running about and naked players dancing on mailboxes. Just like Orgrimmar. Or finding players who use emotes to break the language barrier.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'', Fawful at one point says to the heroes: "Now that out of the way I have made you, Fawful thinks he will go to the mall. Bye!"
** It's also worth noting that in the prior game, ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'', Fawful was a shopkeeper who exchanged beans for badges. Only Baby Mario and Luigi met him though, and he doesn't recognize them.
** Bowser is absent for most of ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'', being on vacation.
** Same with in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', where he's simply enjoying a hot bath with his son and Mama Peach when that pesky plumber shows up to [[MemeticMutation disturb his family vacation.]]

* All of the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' villains describe aspects of their lives in their journals. Sirrus writes about gardening and exploring Spire, Achenar writes about the local wildlife and the construction of his various outposts, Gehn writes about finding frogs for his pipe, and Saavedro writes about making plant hybirds. It helps humanize them as well as inform you about their antagonistic deeds.

* There's a superb, but all too brief, one of these in a high-speed chase in the ice level of ''MDK'' - at one point, the hero and his pursuers, busy in a firefight whilst iceboarding, crash right through a small guardhouse - which contains a mook sitting in an armchair, reading a paper, who gets briefly swept along with the rest of the fight for a few seconds (continuing to obliviously read the news) before being obliterated in the hail of bullets.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFight'', some of the gang members are just hanging out in the subway train and Bay Area before encountered. Bred was shopping inside the gas station while his car got mauled by the heroes.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', one of the more comedic MultipleEndings has [[spoiler:Dark Serge, Kid, and Harle]] visiting the bar in Termina.
* The very first scene in ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'' had a pair of guards talking about going to the bear fights later, one of them being disgusted at how soft and harmless the bears have become compared to [[BearsAreBadNews the killing machines they were in his youth.]]
* In the remakes of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', the player character can visit the Goldenrod City Department Store while disguised as a member of Team Rocket. The civilian [=NPCs=] [[LampshadeHanging make some amusing comments about you]].
* There are some Iron Crown Marksman and Warriors idly fishing in [[{{Mordor}} Angmar]] in ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline''.
* In the French RPG ''VideoGame/{{Off}}'', we see [[spoiler:[[VillainProtagonist The Batter]]]] have fun on a roller coaster and get his photo taken.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', Baby Bonnie Hood has a ten-part routine; nine of the ten parts are activities that would seem typical for her role as a deceptive and heartless ProfessionalKiller, such as training in marksmanship, maintaining weapons, and researching marks. (Plus some rather unethical ones, like gaining weapons by stealing them, so as to be untraceable.) Number 5 on the list, however, is innocent enough: "5. Going to town to buy food and clothing, and going to Grandmother's house to do errands."
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', the AlwaysChaoticEvil Raiders can sometimes be seen playing baseball.
** This returns in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', as Raiders can be heard arguing about what constitutes a sandwich if you sneak up on them.
** The protagonist can also be this: You may be an psychotic murderer or master thief, but doesn't mean you have to visit your local vendor to resupply and/or pawn all your stolen loot, and heck, you may even help the area out a bit when you got a second to listen.
* ''VideoGame/JitsuSquad'' have various areas where in the background, mooks are enjoying their break and completely ignoring your presence while you slice and dice through their colleagues in the foreground. From bathing themselves in a hot spring, to playing in an arcade, boating in a dinghy in the beach level, having picnics, and just chilling around.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Nefarious}}'', the VillainProtagonist Crow likes to sing karaoke in his spare time.
* In ''Videogame/LittleBigAdventure'', Twinsen can visit a tavern where the soldiers in Dr [=FunFrock's=] army go to unwind when they're off duty. Even though Twinsen a wanted criminal by this point in the story, [[PunchClockVillain none of the off-duty soliders try to attack him.]]
* In ''VideoGame/LittleNightmares'' and its [[VideoGame/LittleNightmaresII prequel]], all the monsters are usually seen doing mundane things such as collecting spoons, playing pianos, cooking or sleeping, until they notice the protagonist and begin chasing him. The sole expection is [[spoiler: the Thin Man]], whose occupations are unknown, it only makes him creepier than the rest.

* In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'', [[GreaterScopeVillain Purple]] [[SerialKiller Guy]] appears in the background, doing his day job ([[NotMeThisTime and for once not being in any way responsible for the events of the game]]).
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', you may get invited by a man named [[LouisCypher Sam Guevenne]] to a drinking contest at a random bar (typically the first one you enter after hitting level 14). You get blackout drunk and wake up while getting yelled at by a priestess of [[LoveGoddess Dibella]] for desecrating the [[SaintlyChurch local temple]]. After [[WhatDidIDoLastNight tracing your way through your misadventures the previous night]], you discover that your buddy Sam is really [[spoiler:Sanguine, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[FunPersonified Debauchery]] and [[TheHedonist Hedonism]]]], who was out [[ItAmusedMe looking for a good time]]. After you finally track him down, you find him [[spoiler:in the middle of hosting a party with some of his followers]]. Essentially, you joined him while he was "out shopping" and now he's back to work. At least he gives you an artifact staff for your troubles...
* Bokoblins in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' can occasionally be found hunting animals for meat out in the wild or dancing in their camps.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' features this from quite a few villainous characters - but given the game's MoralityKitchenSink, chances are you might just end up allied with them from time to time.
** Amoral [[TheIlluminati Illuminati]] [[MissionControl manager]] [[MeanBoss Kirsten Geary]] gets up to quite a bit of this. Among other things, some of her after-mission text messages are just notifications from the sysadmin explaining that Geary's taking time off work at an office party with an open bar. During the "Mayan Apocalypse" event, thanks to you missing a memo, you end up contacting Geary during a Christmas party - and judging by the deteriorated spelling, [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl she's completely shitfaced]].
** When not keeping a condescending eye on Sarge and deciding whether or not to have Solomon Island nuked, [[IceQueen Karen Olsen]] apparently shares lattes with Kirsten Geary.
** [[FatBastard Abdel Daoud]], head of the [[ReligionOfEvil Atenists]], spends most of his time away from cult ceremonies lounging around in a coffee house - a fact that his supplier gives him no end of grief over.
** The dreaded {{Oni}} mercenary Inbeda of the House-In-Exile spends his time off at a bathhouse, usually while wearing his tiger-print bathrobe and fluffy slippers. Plus, in one mission intro, you catch him dancing with a mannequin to hip-hop music. Also, lore entries claim he's in the habit of using the pool as a means of scrying into Hell - not for espionage, but just because he's homesick.
** One mission intro features you walking in on demented {{Yakuza}} [[TheDon boss]] [[DiabolicalMastermind Daimon Kiyota]] doing cartwheels around his office as part of some bizarre dance move. Later in the same mission, Daimon also cheekily admits to stealing CCTV camera footage of you [[MoonwalkDance moonwalking]] across pressure plates - and then putting it up on Website/YouTube!
** When he's not trying to convert you to the worship of [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] [[spoiler: or plotting to kill Lilith]], the [[MouthOfSauron Black Signal]] actually spends his off-hours chatting with [[PlayfulHacker Harumi]] online, and occasionally trolling unsuspecting people around Kaidan for little more than cheap laughs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hiveswap}}'''s crew released some art of supporting character Chahut Maenad, showing that the amazonian AxCrazy MonsterClown enjoys making scrapbooks. Admittedly ''of'' photos of her victims, but still.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'':
** If you leave your radio scanner on, you can overhear some members of the fascist Grineer empire, an organization dedicated to the enslavement and eradication of all other races, going through basic docking and customs procedures in a bored tone. Even their discussion of the [[OneManArmy player characters]] is pretty much just "yeah, everybody's dead, this is gonna be a lot of paperwork."
** A literal example can be seen at Cetus, where Corpus Crewman, resident {{Mooks}} of the local MegaCorp, can be seen shopping and trying to sell their own wares. Hardly surprising - they can't be a MegaCorp unless they actually ''sell things''.
* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'''s BossRush happens when you interrupt the Order of No Quarter as they're having dinner together.
* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'': In all the main games, it's downright common for members of the player's chosen team to run into other during story segments, doing everything from shopping to grabbing a bite to eat to indulging in their hobbies. These generally don't end in a fight either, with even Good and Evil Shinobi being downright cordial to one another without a mission putting them at loggerheads. This is part of the games' [[GrayAndGreyMorality deconstruction of those concepts]], showing just how shallow those labels are and how hard it is to apply them to real people with their own priorities. Also counts are {{Foreshadowing}} in ''Shinovi Versus'', as [[spoiler:the other teams realize they've never seen the new Hebijo squad out and about on downtime and start to wonder why that is.]]
* [[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]:
** They had some fun with the alternate costumes for [=COs=] in this regard. Flak is dressed like he's either headed to the gym or to a skate park, Hawke wears the most generic civilian clothing imaginable and looks like a middle-aged dad going shopping, Jugger has modest human clothing draped over his robot body like he's ''trying'' to fit in with humans, and Kindle is dressed like she's ready to go to the club after the battle.
** Speaking of, Kindle is the queen of this. She's downright chuffed that the Allies showed up to attack in Mission 10 as she was planning on catching up on some reading while they finished their repairs, and in the end when Black Hole is defeated she tells Koal that, rather than planning their next campaign, she'd rather just find "a quiet little city with fine restaurants and good shopping" and relax for a while.
* In ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTheRighteous'' the player comes across the village of Wintersun, whose inhabitants have been ensorcelled to see mortals as demons and vice versa. This has very little to do with the demons' overall goals (beyond the cruel joke of tricking them into killing mortals they see as demons), and it's clear that some of them just really enjoy roleplaying as mortals. Some demons have lived there peacefully for years.
* ''VideoGame/TurtleHead: Unmasked'': If his profile pic is anything to go by, the titular maniacal {{Yandere}} and SerialKiller of humans and animals alike is a fan of a MagicalGirlWarrior in-universe ShowWithinAShow.
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': As stated by the [[AllThereInTheManual Squid Sister Stories]], [[BigBad DJ Octavio]] ended up genuinely accepting Callie's company when she was feeling lonely due to drifting apart from Marie, because he, too, was feeling lonely after breaking free before the events of the game. The only reason why he [[spoiler:placed hypnoshades on her]] is because [[TheParanoiac he was afraid]] she would either rat him out to the Squidbeak Splatoon, or worse, make him undergo a HeelFaceTurn [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because she was nice to him]].
* ''VideoGame/FancyIsland'': Bizarrely, two sets of [[https://lomando.fandom.com/wiki/LINE LINE stickers]] featuring many of the game's monsters with {{Nightmare Face}}s were released, showing them doing mundane everyday things like dressing up for Halloween or enjoying an ice tea.

* Happens occasionally in ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank''. In ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'', most of the flying missions end with the pirates running off to yoga class or some other weird thing, and leaving a [[LetsYouAndHimFight boss]] behind.

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': As stated by the [[AllThereInTheManual Squid Sister]] Stories, [[BigBad DJ Octavio]] ended up genuinely accepting Callie's company when she was feeling lonely due to drifting apart from Marie, because he, too, was feeling lonely after breaking free before the events of the game. The only reason why he [[spoiler:placed hypnoshades on her]] is because [[TheParanoiac he was afraid]] she would either rat him out to the Squidbeak Splatoon, or worse, make him undergo a HeelFaceTurn [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because she was nice to him]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': In a ''literal'' example of this trope, a pair [[MegaCorp Corpus]] [[{{Mooks}} crewman]] can be observed in Cetus trying to buy rugs from an Ostron woman, while another pair can be seen trying to sell their wares.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': In a ''literal'' example of this trope, a pair [[MegaCorp Corpus]] [[{{Mooks}} crewman]] can be observed in Cetus trying to buy rugs from an Ostron woman.