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3[[folder:''Dragon Age'']]
4* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Since it's a Bioware game, it should come as no surprise that ''all'' of your potential recruits (except the dog) have issues. These issues tie into their Personal Quests, affect whether they approve or disapprove of your various choices, and when they might believe you have crossed their MoralEventHorizon.
5** Alistair has dependency issues and lacks confidence in himself due to being a [[spoiler: royal]] bastard orphan who spent his formative years in the repressive Chantry.
6** Morrigan was raised by her mother alone in a swamp and was taught that she could never trust anyone but herself.
7** Sten went berserk and killed innocent people after losing his treasured sword (a ''huge'' deal in Qunari culture) which he considered to be part of his soul.
8** Leliana has a very DarkAndTroubledPast [[spoiler: and might actually be crazy if her "vision" is any indication]] that inevitably catches up to her in her Personal Quest.
9** Zevran is a [[spoiler: StepfordSmiler and DeathSeeker]] due to [[spoiler: killing the girl he loved when he mistakenly believed she was a traitor]].
10** Wynne became TheAtoner after [[MyGreatestFailure Her Greatest Failure]]: [[spoiler: she was so arrogant and harsh to her first student that he ran away from the Circle; she was told that the Templars hunted him down and killed him]].
11** Shale joins the Grey Warden due to having no memories of [[spoiler: her former life as a dwarf]] and having nowhere else to go.
12** Oghren became TheAlcoholic and an outcast of Dwarven society [[spoiler: after he killed someone in a bar brawl]] due to being a LoveMartyr to his missing wife Branka [[spoiler: who he later discovers has gone utterly batshit crazy, and a lesbian]]
13** [[spoiler: Teryn Loghain]] has...''issues'' with foreigners, [[spoiler: specifically Orlesians]], to put it lightly.
14** Even the dog just lost its master in battle and would have suffered a long and painful death from darkspawn poision had you not intervened! Unless you are a Human Noble, then it just shares your tragedies instead...
15** Depending on the Origin, the Grey Warden isn't exempt from it either:
16*** The Origin story with the least amount of personal trauma is the Mage Origin. That the Mage Origin starts off with you fighting for your soul in another dimension against a demon [[spoiler: in a battle of wits]] as a ''final exam'' and ends [[spoiler: with you being unwittingly complicit in helping a Blood Mage (who was your former ''best friend'') escape the Circle]] and can ''still'' be considered the least traumatic one says all you need to know about the others. But just for the sake of completeness:
17*** The Dwarf Commoner Origin: the PC and his/her sister Rica are casteless Dwarves (which are treated as garbage in Dwarven society) working for a crime boss who forces the PC to do his dirty work while forcing Rica to go [[GoldDigger "noble-hunting"]] [[spoiler: though that actually works out pretty well for her]]. In the end, the PC is forced to choose between exile, death, or the Grey Wardens. He/she chooses the Wardens.
18*** The Dwarf Noble Origin: The PC and his/her loyal retainer Gorim are [[spoiler: tricked into killing the PC's older brother Trian by his/her ''own younger brother'' Bhelen. Then Bhelen arranges for your father the king to witness the act. Don't kill him? Still get framed for it. Gorim gets banished to the surface and you get sent to the Deep Roads to die. You later find out that your father died of grief due to this incident]].
19*** The Human Noble Origin: Starts off happily enough; loving family, prosperous home, the works. [[spoiler: One betrayal by the ObviouslyEvil family "friend" later and nearly everyone you've ever known and loved is dead]]. The PC has to see such ''delightful things'' like [[spoiler: the dead bodies of his/her little nephew and sister-in-law, his/her father bleeding to death on the ground, and his/her mother staying behind to make a LastStand]].
20*** The City Elf Origin: Second-class citizen treatment and racism, mass kidnapping during a wedding, AttemptedRape if the PC is female, [[spoiler: actual rape]] of one of the PC's friends, etc.
21*** The Dalish Elf Origin: The PC and his/her Childhood Friend (an [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend unlucky]] one if the PC is female) encounter [[spoiler: an ArtifactOfDoom that infects them both with the darkspawn taint. The PC joins the Grey Wardens just to have a chance of surviving the taint. The friend isn't so lucky...something you find out much later]].
22** Lampshaded by a dialogue option when Oghren wants to join the party:
23--->'''Warden:''' Don't I have enough armed lunatics following me already?
24* Just to further prove that life in [[CrapsackWorld Thedas probably sucks]], ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' gives us its motley crew of adventurers:
25** Hawke him/herself [[spoiler: slowly loses what family they have left over the course of the game through various means, ends up inadvertently causing the Circle/Chantry civil war, and is forced to abandon most, if not all, of his/her traveling companions.]]
26** Aveline comes from proud line of chevaliers, only to fail to live up to the exacting standards of her father. She then loses her husband to the darkspawn taint in the game’s opening act.
27** Varric is the product of a disgraced Orzammar noble house exiled to the surface. While his brother Bartrand worked to repair the family name, Varric’s task was to care for his alcoholic and drug-addicted mother, who never recovered from losing both her husband five years after their exile and their family status.
28** Merrill first loses her friends Mahariel and Tamlen during the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' Dalish Elf origin story, and moves with her clan to the surrounds of Kirkwall. There, she discovers another Eluvian and makes a DealWithTheDevil to repair it, forcing her clan to exile her.
29** After the events of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'', Anders absorbs the Fade spirit Justice who is darkened and corrupted by Anders's hatred of the Chantry’s treatment of mages. He can just barely maintain control over the twisted spirit of Vengeance, who is all too eager to mete out violent retribution against its enemies both real and imagined.
30** Fenris is an ex-Tevinter slave hunting his former master. A forced infusion of lyrium [[CursedWithAwesome enabled him to phase through objects]] but erased all of his memories prior to the infusion, leaving him with a deep-seated and abiding hatred of magic.
31** When Isabela refused to convert to her mother's new religion, her mother practically sold her to a man who saw her in the market for a few gold coins and a goat; she was understandably not too upset when Zevran later killed her husband.
32** And from the ''Exiled Prince'' DLC, Sebastian Vael was exiled to the Chantry by his own parents, who saw him as a family disgrace and a threat to his elder brothers’ advancement. Though his initial relationship with the Chantry was rather strained, he served faithfully until his family was brutally murdered, leaving him as the only surviving heir.
33** Carver Hawke spends most of the game addressing some ''serious'' SiblingRivalry issues that get worse as the story progresses. His twin sister Bethany has some pretty horrific problems with self-loathing, on account of being a mage; however, she still appears the most well-adjusted person on the team, which may be part of the reason why she's the only one (besides Varric) who is liked by all of the others.
34* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' still has plenty of this trope, but it's a bit more toned down than before. To wit:
35** Cassandra has lost her mentor and the only man she ever loved to the attack on the Conclave and now finds herself having to establish the Inquisition without any official support. In addition, she has a crisis of faith over the [[DarkSecret hidden history of her order]].
36** Varric is still struggling with the same problems as in the second game, but in addition to that, he also considers himself partly responsible for unleashing [[spoiler: Corypheus]] upon the world and causing the Mage-Templar War by [[spoiler: introducing Hawke to Anders and bringing the Red Lyrium Idol that drove Meredith mad to the surface.]] He is also feeling responsible for constantly getting his closest friend, Hawke, into life-threatening situations, [[spoiler:something that is only upped if Hawke sacrifices him/herself in the Fade]].
37** Solas does not feel he belongs to either Dalish or City elves, and berates both groups for their complacency. That is, however, nothing compared to [[spoiler: his being the elven deity Fen'Harel, awakened after millennia of slumber to find himself in a [[FishOutOfTemporalWater completely changed, nightmarish Thedas]]]]. In addition to ''that'', he also appears to blame himself for causing at least some of the game's events.
38** Vivienne is an exception to the rule, being by all accounts remarkably well-adjusted; but unlike Bethany in the previous game, she doesn't have many fans in the group. It's actually a mask. Before she was sent to the Circle, her family lived in poverty, and though she excelled in the Circle's academic setting, she was terrified of doing anything that would give the Templars any reason to kill her. In the aftermath of the Mage Rebellion, she is desperate to restore the Circles and the political power she worked so hard to get.
39** Sera was abandoned by her parents and raised by a human lady she later came to detest for making her [[ItMakesSenseInContext think a baker hated elves over cookies]]. In addition to that, she has a pathological fear of magic and the arcane and is a member of a group halfway between LaResistance and actual terrorists.
40** Dorian was bred to be the very model of a Tevinter mage, and disappointed his family when he turned out to be gay and have some controversial views on the resident EvilEmpire. [[spoiler: His father, who taught him that blood magic was foolish, then proceeded to try and remold Dorian into the son he wanted using, you guessed it, blood magic. Ouch.]]
41** Cole is a spirit of Compassion who was nearly driven mad by being unable to help a mage starved to death by the Templars, then went on to embody him to help others. He still remember's the mage death, vividly. His only two friends abandoned and possibly forgot him when he was revealed to not be human. Cole can feel the pain, sorrow and regret of everyone around him (and is implied to be unable to block it off) and feels obliged to help them -- and making them forget he ever existed afterwards. Add to that all the usual confusions of being a [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Fade spirit]] stuck in the mortal world.
42** [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Iron Bull]] is a Qunari secret policeman and ShellShockedVeteran after trying to keep order in a rebellious Tevinter city. After a {{crisis of faith}}, he voluntarily turned himself over to the reeducators. Still not considered a "good" Qunari, he was sent off to Southern Thedas as a spy undercover as a mercenary leader. Fortunately for him, the Chargers are a band of TrueCompanions. Unfortunately, the Qun expects him to sacrifice them.
43** Blackwall is [[spoiler: a former soldier who betrayed his lord for money and ordered his men to slaughter a rival general and his retinue, discovering too late that the nobleman had his wife and four children with him. After that, he fled and let the soldiers take the fall for it. After an unsuccessful attempt to join the [[TheOrder Grey Wardens]] led to the death of the Warden who had recruited him to atone for his deeds, he stole the dead man's identity and has pretended to be him ever since, despite only knowing the fairy tale version of the Wardens.]]
44[[/folder]]
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46[[folder:''Final Fantasy'']]
47* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'''s main character, Cecil, spends most of the first half of the game angsting over the heinous crimes he committed at the behest of his king (who is also [[DaddyIssues his surrogate father]]), and wielding a weapon which is known to drive its users insane. His childhood friend Kain is an orphan [[spoiler: who hated his strict father]] and who is brainwashed into betraying his friends. Tellah and Edward both struggle with grief at the death of Anna, their daughter and fiancée, respectively, [[BreakTheCutie Rydia]] and Edge both saw their parents murdered in front of them, and not even [=FuSoYa=], [[spoiler: who resolved to guard his sleeping race completely alone for hundreds of years]], gets off lightly.
48* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' also has universal tragic past syndrome. All of the characters are a) being hunted by the Empire (even before the story begins), b) are imprisoned by the Empire, c) are harassed or misused by the Empire, d) have lost a loved one to the Empire, or e) some combination of the above.
49** No, not all your party members were wronged by TheEmpire. Gau[[spoiler:'s mother died in childbirth and his father was so grief-stricken that he went insane and abandoned Gau on the Veldt]], whereas Relm[[spoiler:'s father is (very) heavily implied to be Shadow, who walked out on her because of his career as an assassin]]; even Shadow [[spoiler:has had plenty of problems of his own, even before selling his skills to TheEmpire and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness nearly getting killed for his trouble]]]]. Setzer is reasonably unhappy with TheEmpire, yet is considerably more unhappy with [[spoiler:the time his LoveInterest died in an airship crash]]. Since a large theme of the game is hope, and keeping that hope strong even in the face of hardship, most characters get better, but it helps that most of them have a lot of getting better to do.
50** Consider the team's angst levels doubled after [[spoiler:Kefka damn near destroys the world and separates the party]], thus kicking off the [[spoiler:World of Ruin]] phase of the game.
51*** Celes is the one the player first controls in [[spoiler:the World of Ruin]], and she's [[spoiler:stuck on a tiny island with nobody around but her surrogate grandfather, Cid, who reveals that there used to be others on the island...until [[DrivenToSuicide they all flung themselves from the northern cliffs in despair]]]]. If [[spoiler:you don't feed the fastest fish to Cid constantly, he ''will'' die, and Celes will also try to end her life at the northern cliffs]]. [[EpilepticTrees it's possible that]] [[spoiler:the esper Quetzalli is the only thing that keeps her from dying then and there;]] her only hope comes from [[spoiler:the minute possibility that Locke is still alive as well]].
52*** Strago is so distraught with the reasonable possibility that [[spoiler:[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat his adopted granddaughter is dead]] that he's next seen as a member of the cult worshiping the guy [[MonsterClown that did it]].]] Relm has to slap him out of it, since the intervention of a loved one is said to be the only thing strong enough to do so.
53*** Even Mog, the cutesy moogle mascot of the game (and the whole series, some might argue), gets a ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean''-caliber level of tragedy tacked onto him when the party finds him [[spoiler:after the end of the world]]. Turns out [[spoiler:he's been in Narshe's moogle cave [[OffscreenInertia apparently for the whole year since the end of the world, alone, staring at the wall]];]] if you recruited him on your first chance, [[spoiler:he'll be amazed that you're even alive after all this time, and will re-enter the party on the assumption that he has nothing better to do.]] Searching the wall he was staring at yields an item that only Mog can equip that completely stops all random encounters, but FridgeHorror sets in when you realize that this "Molulu's Charm" [[spoiler:is likely all Mog has left of not just his girlfriend, [[LastOfHisKind but of his entire people]].]] And when the BigBad asks the party what it is they're fighting for, Mog's response is simply, "New friends, kupo!" [[TheWoobie D'aww...]]
54*** If one brings Cyan to Doma Castle in [[spoiler:the World of Ruin]], [[spoiler:a demon named Wrexsoul traps Cyan in an eternal nightmare, in order to feed off the despair Cyan still feels due to failing to save his family and his king from Kefka's poison]]. His grief is so great that not only is he the one that [[spoiler:Wrexsoul attacks]], but when he gets better, his confidence grows so much that he suddenly masters all of his Bushido skills.
55*** The only party member who doesn't get better is [[spoiler:Shadow]]. [[spoiler:Shadow]] ultimately decides that he can't let go of his past and [[spoiler:stays behind to die in Kefka's crumbling tower.]]
56* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
57** Cloud is a hopelessly deluded, mind-controlled TomatoInTheMirror with a borderline split personality recovering from a HeroicBSOD.
58** Tifa is too uncertain about whether or not she or Cloud was wrong about him being there when their [[DoomedHometown entire hometown]] was slaughtered to confront Cloud about the subject.
59** Barret is locked into hate and anger toward Shinra for destroying ''his'' hometown and family, which he disguises as a higher political moral when really he just wants revenge.
60** Aerith is an orphaned [[LastOfHisKind Last Of Her Kind]] chasing after the memories of her long-lost [[LovingAShadow first love]] in the man who is unconsciously emulating him, as well as struggling with her heritage and duty and her own personal desires.
61** Cid is so obsessed with his crushed dream that he berates the woman he thinks is responsible on a daily basis.
62** Vincent is sick with guilt over being unable to stop the woman he loved from marrying the wrong man, leading to Sephiroth being born.
63** Yuffie is highly rebellious against her father, believing him to be an impotent weakling who sold out their hometown's proud culture.
64** Red XIII believes his father to have been a coward who abandoned his mother during a battle long ago that resulted in her death.
65** Cait Sith is a robotic cat with programming, but his controller, [[spoiler: non-corrupt executive Reeve]], is actually a decent, well-adjusted guy (except for the fact he apparently believes Cait Sith is somehow ''useful''). As far as the bad guys are concerned.
66** Sephiroth discovers he's a genetic experiment, suffers a complete mental breakdown, and becomes convinced he's [[AGodAmI God]].
67** Rufus is a ruthless, Machiavellian bastard who sides with the winners and then screws them over.
68** And lastly, Hojo is an Evil Scientist who commits atrocities with little or no reason.
69** If you believe the Compilation, some of the heroes (or even the villains) get better later through ThePowerOfFriendship. Aww.
70* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' being set in a world where ''absolutely everyone'' has in some way been affected by a 1000-year-old EldritchAbomination roaming the earth and randomly snuffing out thousands (and perhaps millions) of lives, it's safe to say that the entirety of Spira is a DysfunctionJunction.
71** Among the main characters, Yuna lost both her parents at the age of seven and spends most of the game [[spoiler: on a suicide mission]], Tidus' [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] disappeared ten years before the events of the game and it's implied his mother [[spoiler: was thereafter DrivenToSuicide]], Wakka's entire family was wiped out by Sin, and Lulu is an orphan [[spoiler: whose lover Chappu was killed by Sin and who [[MyGreatestFailure is haunted by her failure to protect Lady Ginnem on the latter's pilgrimage]]]]. Rikku is a member of the despised Al Bhed race, Kimahri grew up shunned by his tribe and was eventually driven to a ten-year exile by fellow Ronso, and we haven't even mention [[TraumaCongaLine Auron]] yet...
72** Resident WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Seymour Guado takes the biscuit, however. Half-human, half-Guado, he was considered an abomination and banished as a child ''by his own father'' to Baaj, where he lived out his lonely childhood. Plus, depending on how you play the game, [[spoiler: his own mother helps to kill him]].
73* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', all the player characters have tragic pasts of some sort. Vaan's parents died of the plague when he was younger, and his only remaining family, his older brother Reks, was killed before the game started supposedly by his trusted commander Basch. Penelo's parents and ''eight'' brothers all died in the war. Fran was shunned by her village and her older sister for believing that there was a path for her outside the village, and slowly lost her ability to commune with the Wood, which to a Viera is like losing one of their senses. Balthier watched as his father was driven insane by the nethicite and neglected his family, until he couldn't take it anymore and ran away to become a sky pirate. Ashe's husband and father died at the age of 17, leaving her as the heir to a kingdom that was invaded soon after. Basch's original home country was invaded which lead to the death of his mother, and he failed to protect the lord of his adopted country and was then framed for killing the king and locked in solitary confinement for two years.
74* Every single party member in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' are struggling with some sort of psychological issues and hates each other for it.
75** Lightning is a distant woman who, after her parents' deaths, was forced to become the sole guardian of her younger sister, Serah. She became a soldier to become a better protector for her sister, but believing that emotions would make her weak and vulnerable, she shuts herself emotionally. This pushes Serah away from her -- and when Serah was turned into L'cie, she became consumed with guilt and frustration.
76** Snow may appear to be overconfident and easygoing. Later, it was revealed that he's struggling with a lot insecurities and lack of self-worth, especially when he failed to protect Serah from being captured by the government and allowed Hope's mother to die during his mission to rescue Serah.
77** Vanille, who constantly behaves in an upbeat and positive manner, is actually hiding the fact that [[spoiler:she's a former L'cie from 500 years before the present timeline, and had fulfilled her Focus by almost destroying Gran Pulse alongside Fang]]. She fakes amnesia to protect her friend from this painful fact, but is clearly burdened with guilt from said past.
78** Hope has a lot of angst due to his father being constantly busy at work and rarely has time for his family. Then, during the beginning of the game's story, he and his mother was sent to the Purge while they were supposed to be enjoying a vacation, which eventually led to his mother's death. The grief drove him to seek vengeance towards Snow, who was responsible for his mother's death.
79** Sazh was already dealing with a lot of sorrow long before the events of the game, presumably due to his wife's death. His son Dajh was his only source of joy, until the boy was branded as a L'cie and was subsequently captured by the government to bait him and his friends.
80** Fang, like Vanille, is [[spoiler:a former L'cie who had become Ragnarok and destroyed most of Gran Pulse]]. She lost her memories [[spoiler:after her awakening]], but this has left her lost and confused as she tried to deal with the new situation. When she found out that Vanille actually knew what happened, and lied to her about it, she was understandably upset by this perceived betrayal (though it didn't last).
81** Outside the party there's Cid Raines. Supposedly the party's most valuable ally, he was revealed [[spoiler:to be a puppet forced by the fal'Cie to guide the party to eventually destroy Cocoon]]. Later, he tried to [[spoiler:defy his focus by killing the party, and prevent them from destroying the world]]. He was eventually defeated, [[spoiler:and turned to crystal, only for Barthandaelus to revive him, reinstate him as Primarch and use him as a fal'Cie spokesperson. He finally requested his subordinates to kill him, so that he'd be free from their control]].
82[[/folder]]
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84[[folder:''Knights of the Old Republic'']]
85* This is so prevalent in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' that HK-47 lampshades it in one of the funniest pieces of dialogue in [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the sequel]], where everyone's favorite rusty psychopath mocks the group of companions the first game's protagonist picks up.
86--->'''HK-47''': Statement: Oh, yes. My master had quite the collection of tortured individuals that seemed unable to confront their basic personality conflicts. Let me cite some specific examples.
87--->'''HK-47''': Mockery: [mimicking Carth's voice] "Oh, master, I do not trust you! I cannot trust you or anyone ever again!"
88--->'''HK-47''': Mockery: [mimicking Bastila's voice] "Oh, master, I love you but I hate all you stand for, but I think we should go press our slimy, mucus-covered lips together in the cargo hold!"
89--->'''HK-47''': Conclusion: Such pheromone-driven responses never cease to decrease the charge in my capacitors and make me wish I [[DrivenToSuicide could put a blaster pistol to my behavior core and pull the trigger]].
90** While Bastila and Carth are the most prominent examples (possibly because they are the two possible [[LoveInterest love interests]] from the first game), the rest of the party is no slouch.
91** HK himself is indulging in some HypocriticalHumor here, since the first game sees him angsting (as much as a droid can, anyway) over the loss of his memories.
92** Mission is a fourteen-year-old Twi'lek who grew up as an orphan on Taris, a planet where class divisions and FantasticRacism are as much a part of the gestalt as towering skyscrapers. Her only guidance was her [[PromotionToParent brother]], who abandoned her before the game begins - meaning she suffered ParentalAbandonment ''twice.'' And the [[BigBrotherWorship older brother she idolized]], she later learns to be an unreliable ConMan.
93** Mission's best friend, Zaalbar, is a Wookiee at a time when [[MegaCorp Czerka Corporation]], with the collaboration of Zaalbar's [[ManipulativeBastard own brother]], is enslaving Wookies wholesale ''on their own home planet''. He's also a victim in what may be the single most reprehensible act of the game's dark side playthrough: [[spoiler:using the Force to brainwash him into killing Mission]].
94** Juhani believes that she [[AccidentalMurder killed]] her Jedi master in a fit of rage, and though she soon learns otherwise, she still spends most of the game struggling with TheDarkSide and its allure. (Of course, that's assuming you don't [[KickTheDog kill her the first time you meet her]], instead of trying to redeem her). Yes, the Jedi she idolizes and tries to live up to trick her, and send your player character out to either bring her home or kill her as a ''test,'' apparently indifferent to her life.
95** Jolee's senile, crazy old-man image is mostly, if not entirely, [[ObfuscatingStupidity an act]], and he stayed in the [[DeathWorld Shadowlands]] for ''two decades'' at least partly because he wanted to forget [[spoiler:his wife's fall to the Dark Side - after he trained her to use the Force, naturally]]. (He may have also been seeking something a [[DeathSeeker little more decisive]] than forgetfulness).
96** Canderous puts up a [[BoisterousBruiser brave front]] in order to hide his growing lack of confidence in his existence as a BloodKnight and ProudWarriorRaceGuy, as well as what are hinted to be ''massive'' (albeit suppressed) guilt feelings about all the civilians he's killed.
97** T3 seems to be the exception to the rule. Even so, however, he was commissioned by Davik Kang, the premiere crime lord on Taris, and his only plot-relevant act - the first significant thing he's ever done - is to break into a Sith base. Imagine if a KidHero were destined to live his life serving a crime lord, and the people who saved him only did so because they wanted him to risk his life by breaking into a heavily guarded military base, and it becomes clear that T3's character arc ([[FlatCharacter such as it is]]) only avoids seeming deeply screwed up because [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman it's happening to a droid]].
98** Oh, and the PlayerCharacter [[spoiler:used to be ''Darth Revan'']].
99** And all this is just character-specific material. The Dark Side route offers [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential multiple opportunities]] to agitate Light Side party members by committing random acts of cruelty - some [[EvilPaysBetter purposeful]], some [[ForTheEvulz senseless]] - and unlike the second game, which had an influence system, there's no mechanical penalty for doing so. Finally, by the end of the Dark Side route, [[spoiler:you've ''personally'' killed half the party - unless, of course, you took advantage of the aforementioned Force Persuade option to make Zaalbar kill Mission]].
100* The team in [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the sequel]] is even more screwed up than the one from the first game, with the added bonus that, unlike the first game's party, [[TeethClenchedTeamwork they mostly seem to hate one another]] and all the causes of their issues can be [[OneDegreeOfSeparation traced back to the PC's doorstep]].
101** Atton has ''severe'' guilt issues involving [[spoiler:his past as an assassin and torturer in the service of Revan]], which are exploited by Kreia. He can also get very jealous of Disciple if the Exile is female.
102** Bao-Dur has been dealing with the guilt of blowing up a lot of both sides at Malachor V for years now. He also has some ''deep'' anger issues related to the Mandalorians devastating his home planet.
103** Handmaiden has spent most of her life being belittled by her siblings as the "runt of the litter" and for having a different mother than the rest of them [[spoiler:who was definitely the Jedi Arren Kae. It's broadly hinted, but not confirmed, that Arren Kae didn't die in the Mandalorian Wars like everyone thought - see below]].
104** Visas went from having her planet completely eradicated to serving under a HumanoidAbomination, meaning she becomes incredibly loyal to anyone who is even a little nice to her.
105** Disciple resents the Jedi because when so many went off to war, he missed the chance to become a Padawan. He's still one of the nicer team members.
106** Canderous is now older and the leader of his people, trying to reunite them and give them something more than mercenary work to do, but he's still cranky and kind of a jerk.
107** [=G0-T0=] is the ruthless agent of a crime lord [[spoiler:actually he ''is'' the crime lord, because his programming turned out to be inconsistent and he went just a bit nuts.]]
108** Hanharr's backstory involves murdering his own clan to spare them becoming slaves, and he's enough of a DeathSeeker that he's warped his life debt into a passionate desire to kill the person it was sworn to so he can finally be free to die.
109** Mira, despite being one of the chirpier members, still deals with being an orphan, working as a bounty hunter, and the violently insane Wookiee who's been stalking her with intent to kill for quite some time now.
110** T3 is pretty much unchanged, except that he's better at keeping secrets.
111** Kreia is a cranky mentor who encourages [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic kinds of evil]]; [[spoiler:she was a Jedi whose students kept falling to the Dark Side, most notably Revan, then she became a Sith Lord, was betrayed by her students, and developed a hatred of the Force, perceiving it as a callous manipulator that causes mass death in the name of "balance". Ironically, her own callous manipulations frequently either cause mass death or risk it if anything goes wrong, and unlike her hatred of the Force not preventing her from being a Jedi Consular, this does not get a HypocrisyNod. Then, at the end, she becomes the BigBad. It's hinted, but never outright confirmed, that she's the same person as Arren Kae, meaning that she's [[LukeIAmYourFather the Handmaiden's birth mother]] and certainly [[AbusiveParent not winning "parent of the year"]] at any point.]]
112[[/folder]]
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114[[folder:''Mass Effect'']]
115* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Shepard has a tendency to collect crew members with... ''issues.'' Fortunately, not many of them actually get in the way of the mission [[spoiler: with the exception of Wrex.]]
116** Tali's father's position on her people's Admiralty Board puts her under enormous pressure to prove herself to other members of her culture, as well as causing her relationship with him to be somewhat distant and formal. In addition, she's a quarian, which means being brought up in a very paranoid society and subjected to a great deal of FantasticRacism.
117** Liara is subject to prejudice from her own species due to being a "pureblood" child of two asari. Her relationship with her mother is strained [[spoiler: even before her mother joins the BigBad]], and she knows nothing about her "father."
118** Garrus is a would-be CowboyCop who chafes at the red tape restrictions placed on him by the police force - which he joined in large part because of the expectations of his career cop father, turning down the opportunity to be considered for the Council's elite operatives in the process.
119** Ashley's military career is, up until the events of the game, a dead end because her grandfather surrendered a garrison to aliens during the pre-game First Contact War rather than allow civilians to keep dying. As a result, Ashley has a deep-seated suspicion of and prejudice toward aliens, making her the best example of FantasticRacism in the game.
120** Kaidan suffers periodic migraines as a side effect of the implants which enable him to use his [[PsychicPower biotic]] abilities, and got put through TrainingFromHell as a teenager by an alien DrillSergeantNasty in order to learn to use those abilities. His excessive degree of self-control is something he cultivated after he killed the aforementioned DrillSergeantNasty in self-defense trying to protect his girlfriend from his abuse - and the girl was terrified of him thereafter. Despite all of this, he manages to be one of the most open minded character you can meet.
121** And then there's Wrex, whose entire species was hit by a DepopulationBomb which makes it next to impossible for them to reproduce, and who at one point was an idealistic leader among his people trying to organize them into saving themselves, until his own father betrayed and attacked him, provoking him into committing patricide and then abandoning his species out of cynicism.
122** Shepard isn't necessarily free of past traumas either; of the possible options for his or her history, one involves growing up on the streets of Earth, one involves being orphaned in a brutal batarian slave raid, and one involves being the only person out of a platoon of fifty marines to survive an attack by monstrous, poison-spitting giant worms. Conversely, Shepard can also be the OnlySaneMan with the Spacer/War Hero background choices, which essentially means s/he had an happy childhood and already made of pure raw badassery before the game starts.
123*** It's up to the player to either solve some of those problems (Paragon Shepard) through specific side-quests (Tali, Wrex, and Garrus) or advancement in the main plot (Liara) or to finish completely screwing up those poor souls (Renegade Shepard), essentially by being a pure Jerk. VideoGameCrueltyPotential to its best.
124** And there is Joker, [[AcePilot brilliant pilot and navigator]] who suffers from Vrolik syndrome, which gives him brittle bones and makes him unable to exert himself in any way. He constantly tries to conceal his angst with [[DeadpanSnarker jokes]] and cocky attitude.
125* The squadmembers of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''... well, let's just say it goes way, [[SerialEscalation WAY above this trope's minimum.]]
126** Miranda is a ruthless, genetically engineered [[{{Ubermensch}} Uberbitch]] with some serious father issues.
127** Jacob, [[OnlySaneMan perhaps the most normal playable character in the game]], has a father who has been missing for the past ten years, and before said disappearance hadn't talked with him for years before that. He has also severe conscience issues as he is really good guy perfectly aware that he works for really shady organization (he hasn't quit only because he thinks that governments are no different).
128** Jack is an AxeCrazy convict who suffered horrific medical experiments as a child.
129** Grunt is a [[BornAsAnAdult newborn]] test-tube krogan SuperSoldier who loves nothing more than a great fight, but is also [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife searching for purpose and reason for it]].
130** Mordin is [[CrazyIsCool eccentric]] scientist and a former black-ops commando who atones his work on [[spoiler: the Genophage]] and who thinks that end justifies the means. Therefore he can be quite ruthless [[spoiler: (going so far as killing his student in cold blood during the loyalty mission)]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes even if he is a good person]].
131** Thane is an extremely religious terminally ill assassin, who hasn't spoken with his son since his wife was murdered by his enemies.
132** Samara is an eerily serene KnightTemplar on a quest to murder her own daughter.
133*** Alternately, you can get Morinth, a psychotic sex vampire serial killer with a bit of a god complex.
134** Garrus and Tali both return as playable characters, but both are significantly DarkerAndEdgier:
135*** Garrus has spent the last two years as a vigilante on the hellhole of [[WretchedHive Omega]], had his squad betrayed, gets part of his face blown off by a gunship missile, and his loyalty mission involves [[{{Revenge}} tracking down the turian who betrayed his squad on Omega]], all while [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he gets closer to going over the edge]]. He's also more cynical and pragmatic in general.
136*** Tali is leading quarian teams in retrieving geth parts. By the time you recruit her, she's already gotten her entire team massacred ''twice''. She gets in trouble with the Flotilla for supposedly sending active geth parts to her father for research, which then killed the team on the research ship. To top it off, [[spoiler:her own father actually activated the parts, to test new firewalls. And if [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you really want to drive her over the edge]], you can reveal that, exonerating her but ruining her father's name.]]
137** Zaeed devoted his life to kill a man he co-founded a mercenary group with, who betrayed him and left him for dead after shooting him [[EyeScream in the eye]] - to the point where he's willing to burn a refinery full of civilians to get to his target.
138** Kasumi ''seems'' fairly normal, but spends a lot of time living in her dead lover's memories, preserved in a "greybox".
139** Legion is [[OnlySaneMan the most well-adjusted member of the team]]... and he's a ''geth''. [[RobotBuddy A friendly, pleasant geth]], but still, the most [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alien]] member of the team also being the one with the least trouble with other people says something.
140* The Squad in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' introduces or reintroduces the following to our RagtagBunchOfMisfits.
141** James Vega. A marine who was [[SadisticChoice forced to choose]] to either save his squad or gather valuable intel that could be used to defeat the Collectors. He chose the latter and his squad perished... only for the information to be rendered useless, as by the time it could be used, Shepard had already stormed the Collector base and wiped them out.
142** Commander Javik. [[spoiler: A ''Prothean'' and LastOfHisKind who was in stasis for 50,000 years. Born while the Reaper-War of his Cycle had been going on for Centuries, he was raised and molded into an "Avatar of Vengeance". He is best described as the [[NotSoDifferentRemark Prothean version]] of Commander Shepard who ''failed'' in his mission to stop the Reapers, lost his entire crew to indoctrination, subsequently spent years hunted by his former comrades and [[TraumaCongaLine forced to kill them all.]] Depending on your interactions with him, he might go into full-on DeathSeeker mode.]]
143*** [[spoiler: Javik's FantasticRacism towards the "Primitives" of this Cycle is also a prevalent aspect of his character. He often comes across as dismissive of various races, bemoans their lack of potential from what the Protheans had expected from them and occasionally indulges in light-hearted mockery.]]
144** Ashley/Kaiden: The Virmire Survivor and possible former lover of Shepard's, promoted to the rank of Lt Commander/Major and later second human Spectre. The relationship with Shepard is [[WeUsedToBeFriends tenative at best]], with Kaidan/Ashley still unsure if the person in front of them is truly their old Commander and not some [[ManchurianAgent pawn of Cerberus.]]
145** Tali: She's been made an Admiral of the Fleet, and is under even more stress to prove herself, as well as her misgivings about the quarians going to war with the geth while the Reapers are tearing the galaxy a new one.
146** Garrus: After making a huge commotion about the Reapers, he was finally given a small task force to shut him up. Now, he's the only turian who knows anything about the Reapers, is being questioned by the Hierarchy on how to stop them, and is also worried about his father and sister, who may or may not have made it off Palaven.
147** EDI would be an aversion, being relatively sane, although at one point Shepard can ask if she has a programmer or designer who could be viewed as some kind of disappointing or subpar father figure, noting that with ''this'' crew, it's only prudent to ask if some kind of parental issues could come up at some point.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:''Persona'']]
151* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' is full of this, as befitting a franchise centered around Jungian psychology:
152** Both sets of party members in both parts of the ''VideoGame/Persona2'' duology have terrible issues; the ''Innocent Sin'' party all have issues with their fathers (to the point that the FinalBoss takes on a form resembling a writhing mass with their fathers serving as its limbs...), while the ''Eternal Punishment'' cast suffer from various issues that stem from adulthood in general.
153*** In ''Innocent Sin'', the daddy issues include: Tatsuya and Katsuya's father could not solve a particular case, and Tatsuya in particular lost respect for him; Eikichi, a VisualKei enthusiast, is afraid of his sushi chef father and does not wish to inherit his store; Lisa, a [[TokenMinority Caucasian girl]], is the daughter of two extremely [[{{Otaku}} Japanophile]] parents, and her father wants her to [[YamatoNadeshiko behave like a supposedly "traditional" Japanese girl]]; Maya's father, a war reporter, has passed away, and Jun's father is a nut for conspiracy theories. Jun's own mother actually spread devastating rumors of her husband to the point that [[spoiler:he died in a clock tower]] and considers her looks to be more important than her son, but most of Jun's resentment is against his father.
154*** In ''Eternal Punishment'', Ulala is highly resentful of her roommate Maya's successful career and good love life, Katsuya [[spoiler:secretly resents his career as a homicide cop (he wanted to be a pastry chef), and holds a grudge against Tatsuya for his aloof behavior towards him; [[AllLoveIsUnrequited unrequited love]] is also at work in regards to Maya]], and Baofu [[spoiler:is a former public prosecutor, presumed dead, who is living as an extortionist to avenge his partner and lover.]]
155** ''VideoGame/Persona3'':
156*** Every major character in the game you can interact and build social links with has ''some'' kind of mental or physical disorder, tragic past, neglectful or dead parent or similar that they angst over. And the one to reach to them with ThePowerOfFriendship or ThePowerOfLove and make them get over it? [[ThereAreNoTherapists It sure isn't the town psychologist]].
157*** Apathy Syndrome, a spreading mental condition that causes people to stop caring about anything. By the end of the game and its expansion the trope gets applied to [[spoiler: every human, as it's humanity's collective death wish that summons the coming apocalypse.]]
158** Every main character in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' (except the [[HeroicMime Protagonist]]) has some sort of secret fear, worry, or issue secretly eating them from the inside that eventually whisks them away to the shadow-possessed [[TrappedInTVLand Mayonaka TV]], where the problem is able to freely manifest and eventually cause their death if they don't admit to it. Said problems include [[spoiler:the ClassClown who [[IJustWantToBeSpecial wants something more out of life than simply living in the sticks]], the {{Tomboy}} who secretly revels in the fact that her prettier best friend relies on her, said best friend -- a prim and proper IceQueen -- wanting to be freed of her familial obligations, the weird bear-like entity who's worried he may have an empty soul, TheBully who is struggling with his idea of masculinity and his sexuality because of his artsy hobbies, the IdolSinger who fears that no one will ever know the "real" her (if there really is a "real" her), and the KidDetective who fears no one takes her seriously because of her youth or her gender.]]
159*** In the manga, the Protagonist's parents' line of work causes him to move constantly. As a result he is afraid to get close to others, lest he becomes too attached to them and is hurt when he has to leave. This causes him to be a secretly cynical StepfordSmiler. [[spoiler:From the final scenes of the game it can be deduced that he gets over it because all the people he formed social links with, while living with his uncle, were actually reaching out to him without either side realizing it (in contrast to P3's protagonist). He leaves Inaba with a smile and no regrets.]]
160*** In ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'', the protagonist (named Yu Narukami) also has a secret fear, though it's midway into the series before this is made clear. [[spoiler: Yu's biggest fear is that after the investigation is over, the group will go their separate ways and he'll be by himself again (possibly based on past experiences). When this is exploited by Mitsuo's shadow it causes him to have a tremendous HeroicBSOD.]]
161** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': All your party members have screwed up pasts and a strong mistrust towards society in general. Even the seemingly normal [[TeamMascot Morgana]] eventually develops [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex his own issues]] later on, but nothing beats these people below:
162*** Ryuji had his career as a track star destroyed when [[SadistTeacher Kamoshida]] broke his legs. He pretty much lashes out at any authority as a result and has become a bleach blond haired {{Delinquent}}.
163*** Ann faced bullying and harassment over her heritage [[spoiler: and witnesses one of her friends attempt suicide]], and tends to be distrustful and distant as a result.
164*** Yusuke lost his parents at a young age and his mentor exploited him. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that his mentor basically murdered Yusuke's mother via inaction.]]
165*** Makoto has a lot of repressed anger issues over being made to stand on a pedestal by adults who don't follow the same standards themselves and exploit her for her talent. She becomes a bit more even-tempered after her dungeon/episode is complete (even if she still fights like a hellion).
166*** Futaba is severely isolated socially [[spoiler: due to her SurvivorGuilt over her mother's death, stemming from a false suicide note planted by the people who killed her to make it seem like Wakaba killed herself from the stress of being a single mother]].
167*** Haru [[spoiler:has a CorruptCorporateExecutive for a father who tries to sell her in exchange for political power. When the heroes induce a change of heart in him, he's killed and the heroes are framed for it. Haru spends the rest of the game struggling with her guilt over the incident]].
168*** Goro [[spoiler:is a sociopathic KnightTemplar obsessed with his belief in "justice" above all else as a result of his abusive childhood, leaving him being easily influenced by the BigBad, who happens to be his ArchnemesisDad.]]
169*** Ren Amamiya (the protagonist) [[spoiler:suffers from a nasty case of ChronicHeroSyndrome which gets him falsely arrested and leaves him with the label of a criminal. He gets most of his self-confidence back and eventually clears up his name, but not facing a yearlong struggle for him to finally do so.]]
170*** And the newest Thief in the re-release ''Royal'', Kasumi Yoshizawa, ends up being this. Seemingly have a perfect life ahead of her as a student and as a gymnast, [[spoiler:underneath them lies a mentally-unstable Sumire Yoshizawa, the twin sister of the ''real'' Kasumi Yoshizawa who died before the events of the game. Unable to face the fact that she can't measure up to her seemingly perfect twin sister and later living with the guilt of her sacrifice to save her from becoming a roadkill by taking her place, she impersonates her twin sister thanks to the newest AntiVillain BigBad. But no one is even fooled by her impersonation. While she thinks herself as Kasumi, everyone who sees her treats her like ''insane'' who doesn't deserve the scholarship she has in Shujin.]]
171[[/folder]]
172
173[[folder:''Tales of'']]
174* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
175** VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia: Everyone either starts out with issues, or gets them later.
176** Lloyd Irving: Our hero is the most well-adjusted of the group, having been HappilyAdopted by a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarf]] living outside of town after his mother [[spoiler:was turned into a monster, forcing his father to MercyKill her,]] and his father vanished afterward, believing Lloyd to be dead. Said father later turns up [[spoiler:as TheMole in the party, does a HeelFaceTurn into a StealthMentor when he finds out Lloyd is alive]], and ultimately turns out to be a DeathSeeker who wants his own son to be the one to kill him. Needless to say, Lloyd being the kind of hero who wants to never sacrifice anyone, he finds this pretty upsetting.
177** Genis Sage: [[spoiler:A HalfHumanHybrid who's spent all his life running from FantasticRacism along with his older sister, they've been pretending to be full-blooded elves so they can remain in the village.]] He befriends an elderly woman from the local Human Ranch against the laws of the village, only for the Desians to [[BodyHorror turn her into a monster]] and set her on the villagers, [[HarmfulToMinors forcing Lloyd and Genis to kill her]] (which causes a minor HeroicBSOD in Genis), and they are then exiled for the destruction caused. He has a lot of hidden resentment against humans [[spoiler:for their treatment of half-elves]], and in fact openly states that he hates humans...except for Lloyd and the friends he's made. It's also worth mentioning that Genis, while brilliant, is only ''twelve''.
178** Colette Brunel: As TheChosenOne, she's known since she was about six years old that she would be expected to sacrifice her life one day in the name of saving the world. This has given her severe self-esteem issues, as she believes that the only value her life ''has'' is as a sacrifice to save everyone else. Along the course of her journey, she survives an extremely PainfulTransformation into an angel, followed by AndIMustScream and BodyHorror...and she bears all of it with a [[StepfordSmiler cheerful smile]], not wanting to trouble anyone with her personal problems.
179** Raine Sage: Genis' older sister, she spent years on the run with her parents from researchers who wanted to imprison her in a lab and use her intelligence for their own ends, got a PromotionToParent of a newborn baby when she was ''eleven'' [[spoiler:when her parents sent her and her brother to the other world in hopes that Sylvarant would be better for them]], and has spent her years since then raising herself and her younger brother, [[spoiler:a pair of HalfHumanHybrids,]] in a world full of FantasticRacism. This has given her ''severe'' abandonment issues when it comes to her parents, and trust issues when it comes to ''everyone''. There was also an incident where she nearly drowned while they were on the run, giving her a phobia of water that she has yet to overcome.
180** Sheena Fujibayashi: She's a summoner, a skill so rare one hasn't been seen in generations. Her ninja village tried to get her to make a pact with a hostile [[PhysicalGod Summon Spirit]] when she was only seven, and her inability to communicate with it led to all those with her - about a fourth of the village - [[HarmfulToMinors being killed before her eyes]]. For the twelve years since that time, she's been considered an outcast and a disgrace, and she's now desperate to prove her worth by whatever means necessary.
181** Zelos Wilder: TheChosenOne of the flourishing world, he has most of the self-worth issues around his title that Colette does...except he's cynical and world-weary instead of a PuritySue, and therefore also believes that he has no value as a sacrifice. His father, the previous ChosenOne, committed suicide, and his mother was killed when he was eight, defending him from an assassination attempt [[spoiler:at the hands of his father's half-elven mistress, who thought that by killing Zelos, the position of chosen would pass to her own daughter, who Zelos was once very close to. Zelos' mother's last words to him were "You should never have been born",]] and he's well-aware that his parents' arranged marriage was keeping them from being with the people they truly loved. [[spoiler:Claiming he has no loyalty to anyone but himself, he acts as TheMole for both the BigBad and LaResistance when he's a part of the party, and if you don't manage to win him over with ThePowerOfFriendship, he turns out (rather unsurprisingly) to be a DeathSeeker.]]
182** Presea Combatir: When she was twelve, she volunteered to be a part of an experiment in order to pay for medicine for her sick father, and wound up implanted with a PowerCrystal that slowly drained away her soul. She remained in a [[AndIMustScream suppressed, emotionless, unaging state]] for ''sixteen years'', with the isolationist and prejudiced residents of her home village coming to fear and despise her throughout that time. When Lloyd and the party finally free her, she finds that her father is long-dead, and she herself has become a twenty-eight year old woman with the body of a twelve-year-old girl, and no idea how to be either one.
183** Regal Bryant: [[spoiler:The servant he fell in love with (Presea's younger sister) was taken away due to her unsuitability as a love interest for a noble, and sent to be a part of the same experiment Presea joined, but instead of losing her soul, she turned into a monster. When she was unleashed on the city of Altamira, she begged Regal to kill her, and he was forced to do so with his bare hands.]] He's overburdened with guilt regarding the entire incident, to the point of insisting that he be imprisoned for the crime of murder and point-blank refusing to remove the shackles around his wrists even after he's out of prison.
184** Kratos Aurion: [[spoiler:One of the BigBad's companions from four thousand years ago,]] he feels [[MyGreatestFailure intensely guilty]] for allowing his former student to descend so far into madness. The one time he did try to flee [[spoiler:Cruxis]], he fell in love and had a child with a human experiment, only for her to be turned into a monster and beg him to kill her. This he did and, believing their son lost in the same incident, stopped bothering to care about anything at all, [[spoiler:returning to Cruxis to follow the BigBad's plan once more.]] When he learns his son is alive, he quickly formulates a plan that involves [[DeathSeeker sacrificing his own life]] - at his son's hands - as a way of passing the torch and allowing his son to save the world, [[spoiler:and actually seems a bit disappointed when his best friend steps in to save his life at the last moment.]]
185** Like many of the other VideoGame/TalesSeries games, ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. From secret cloning to [[MyGreatestFailure accidental murder]] to barely escaping genocide to being kept in wage slavery and blackmailed, pretty much everyone in the party has something ugly in their past for them to be unhappy about, and if not, they find something during the course of the story. Even the ''TeamPet'' is tagging along with the party because he was exiled from his clan for all the death he accidentally caused.
186** ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'':
187** Reala [[spoiler: is an ArtificialHuman created by a mad goddess to make people into mindless sheep.]] The closest thing she has to a sibling [[spoiler: wants her dead,]] and the person she finally recognizes as her hero and falls in love with [[spoiler: must erase her from existence to kill her mother]].
188** Loni carries crippling guilt over [[spoiler: his adoptive father's death, believing it was his fault]] and goes out of his way (sometimes recklessly so) to keep Kyle safe as a result.
189** Judas [[spoiler: is Leon Magnus, a teen with a horrific past who endured years of emotional, physical, and perhaps sexual abuse (it's ambiguous) and is reviled for betraying his former friends (to protect one of the few people who was kind to him)]]. He's trying to [[TheAtoner atone for this]] by [[spoiler: helping his nephew in his quest.]]
190** Nanaly [[spoiler: let her little brother die rather than compromise her ideals, and feels horrible for it.]]
191** Harold [[spoiler: let her twin die rather than compromise her ideals]] and doesn't seem to understand basic morality. It's also implied in the manga she was [[KidsAreCruel bullied incessantly]] [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation as a child]].
192** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''. Yuri despises most authority and in the game's second part alienates his best friend by [[spoiler:[[VigilanteMan killing]] two villains]], Estelle is naive and caring to a fault, and [[spoiler:is causing the world to die simply by ''existing'']], Karol is extremely timid and cowardly to the point he's been discharged from multiple guilds, Judith is conflicted between her long-held desire to keep her life's mission a secret and her newfound loyalty to her new friends, Rita didn't have any friends before meeting the party, and in fact was treated like a freak and an outcast by the people of her town, and Raven [[spoiler:was brought BackFromTheDead against his will by one of the major villains and forced to serve him, becoming a DeathSeeker as a result]]. Whew.
193** In the [=PS3=] UpdatedRerelease, the party is joined by Flynn and Patty. The former struggles against becoming a KnightTemplar and the latter [[spoiler:is an amnesiac pirate whose crew died in a horrific manner.]]
194[[/folder]]
195----
196* Proving that Creator/BioWare has been doing this from the start, the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series has this trope in spades:
197** In the [[VideoGame/BaldursGate first game]], the character personalities are pretty one-dimensional sketches, and tend to range from quirky to weird to outright insane.
198** The crew in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' is better-developed and seems to be higher-functioning than usual for a Bioware game, but party banter, conversations, and [[CompanionSpecificSidequest Companion Specific Sidequests]] reveal otherwise. Your fighting fellowship can include the following: a [[CrusadingWidow recent widow]] looking to finish off her husband's killer, a man who was [[WhatHappenedToMommy forced to kill his own mother]], a woman raised in an AlwaysChaoticEvil society who faces prejudice when she leaves it, another woman who was subject to [[FreakinessShame horrific abuse and abandonment]], a BloodKnight who gleefully tells you he'll kill you [[PsychoSupporter if you become too weak,]] a [[ThePaladin knight]] whose marriage is in shambles because of [[LovedINotHonorMore his devotion to duty]], the knight's {{Jerkass}} protege who has [[WellDoneSonGuy massive daddy issues]], an [[SmugSnake egotistical wizard]] scheming to TakeOverTheWorld (or at least the group), a possibly [[CloudCuckoolander brain-damaged man]] who relies on his [[ConsultingMisterPuppet hamster]] for moral guidance, a bard whose philosophy [[PerkyGoth embraces the eventual destruction of the universe]], a SpoiledSweet who loses her home and family in one blow, another knight who is barred by [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration race/class restrictions]] from becoming ThePaladin and lost her entire adventuring party, a druid who [[spoiler:unknowingly abandoned his unborn son]], a [[OurGnomesAreWeirder gnome]] whose beloved married (and is abused by) someone else, and [[spoiler: in ''Throne of Bhaal'', you can recruit Sarevok, who tried his level best to kill you and become the new murder god before you defeated him.]] Not to mention the protagonist, [[spoiler:the offspring of a murder god]], can be played as struggling against their dark side, fully embracing it, or some combination of both. The only exemption from this trope seems to be [[spoiler:Yoshimo]], and even he [[spoiler:is compelled by a geas to make sure the protagonist ends up dead]].
199** ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' has a an [[AffablyEvil amoral escaped vampire spawn]], a [[ProudWarriorRaceGirl bloodthirsty githyanki girl]], a GoodBadGirl cleric of [[GodOfEvil Shar]], a tiefling warrior with an artificial demonic heart, a GentlemanWizard with an unstable FantasticNuke in his chest, a folk hero HunterOfMonsters who struggles to reconcile his heroism with the decidedly ''[[DealWithTheDevil un]]''[[DealWithTheDevil heroic source of his powers]], and [[PlayerCharacter you]] (potentially an AmnesiacHero with murderous compulsions). [[spoiler:There's also a GentleGiant druid, [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers or]] a [[TokenEvilTeammate drow paladin of Lolth]], in addition to an OldSoldier druid who is too old for this shit, and a kind-hearted yet [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} scatterbrained]] ranger with his space hamster companion.]]
200* ''Franchise/BlazBlue''. Did the world's therapists have their 2194 Christmas ball in Ibukido or something?
201** Firstly, there's Ragna, who's got a DarkAndTroubledPast of the highest order and is all too willing to slaughter his way through soldiers just doing their job to get a chance at killing the guy who ruined his life. That's before getting into his RedRightHand, which used to be part of an EldritchAbomination that devoured a majority of mankind, that's slowly eating away at him.
202** Jin, whose overall personality is either an aloof sociopath at ''best'', and a psychotic {{Yandere}} at his worst thanks to the mind-control his weapon places on him, to say nothing of his other issues he has without it.
203** Noel, who's a clone of the sister of the above two and is bumped up to a position that she's ''waaaaay'' too emotionally fragile and unstable to properly handle. Did we mention that she's also a living weapon designed to bring about the end of the world and that her "sisters" include 1.) an EmotionlessGirl who is sadly the most stable of the three and 2.) an incestuous yandere obsessed with Ragna?
204** For the record, the above are just the ''main characters''! Are the characters outside the main three more stable? ''Weeeeellll...''
205*** There's Carl, whose a relatively decent kid... that walks around with his sister's corpse trapped in a robot weapon... which was placed there by his father after he scarred him for life by killing his sister and mother... um. Yay?
206*** Tsubaki is the sole surviving child of an incest-plagued family and, in some ways, is too affixed to the aforementioned Jin for her own good. Not to mention that she's got a pretty severe case of BlackAndWhiteInsanity, ESPECIALLY after she gets brutally {{Mind Rape}}d by the bad guys.
207*** Beneath the bright and bubbly Makoto's surface is a literal Pandora's Box of racism issues she's trying to keep shut.
208*** Litchi is a doctor who has a MASSIVE GuiltComplex thanks to her previous work in Sector 7 alongside failing to save her friend from turning into a monster.
209*** Bang is walking, talking TestosteronePoisoning and thinks he's TheHero of a shonen anime.
210*** Platinum the Trinity has DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder - and only one of those three personalities is relatively stable. The other two include a complete jackass of a little girl who insults damn near everyone around her and a much older war-veteran from the Dark War who has a guilt-complex that puts Litchi's to shame.
211*** Rachel is a centuries old vampire who is utterly bored out of her mind with the world and is a total {{Jerkass}} to almost everyone except her butler.
212*** Kokonoe is just as vengeful as Ragna, but with her own personal cyborg and the world's ''entire nuclear stockpile at her disposal''. We'd like to point out that both she and Rachel constitute the {{Big Good}}s of this series. Said cyborg is a war veteran Kokonoe reassembled after a run-in with [[BloodKnight Azrael]], who got caught up in one of Carl's dad's experiments and looked into the abyss too long.
213*** Making a long, ''long'', '''long''' list much shorter, Kagura Mutsuki is split between a HandsomeLech and a Fratbro in his mindset of least resistance, and has stigma left over as a veteran of the Ikaruga Civil War. It says a lot about ''literally everyone else'' when this horndog is the ''most'' stable member of the entire cast.
214* Some of the mercenary groups in ''VideoGame/DaemonXMachina'' are filled with characters that can be described generously as "colorful".
215** Western VII is a merc outfit consisting of BoxedCrook[=s=] working off their LongerThanLifeSentence[=s=]. Reaper , Rouge Cinderella, and Nameless are the most normal-seeming members of the bunch (although Nameless has a habit of being vaguely threatening), but the rest are pretty bonkers: Red Dog is a murderous BloodKnight who doesn't care if his actions extend his sentence, his brother Klondike is a CardCarryingVillain with a love of card game motifs, Sif has a love of blowing stuff up and suffers from a SplitPersonality in the form of the more timid Ayer, and Gargantua is a dumb-as-rocks fight-happy imbecile.
216** The Five Hells have modeled themselves after a noble family, with Savior, a valiant knight (who is also quite full of himself) at the head of the household. His sisters are an ecclectic bunch: Heaven is a GenkiGirl with BloodKnight tendencies, Abyss is a gloomy and dour DeathSeeker, and Nemesis has a {{Yandere}}-esque devotion to her lord brother. The most normal-seeming member of the group is Knight, the family butler.
217* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': The cast by and large is more messed up than they appear, even if they are nice people overall.
218** Just for example, Laurentius of the Swamp is one of the [[NiceGuy nicest characters]] in the game. Even then, his dialog implies he has probably never had anyone close to him aside from his pyromancy teacher, meaning the player is quite possibly his first real friend.
219** Not even the resident deities had it easy. [[spoiler:They're staring extinction in the face now that the Age of Fire is ending, and all attempts to delay the inevitable have backfired ''horribly''. Of the original Lords, one's become a [[MookMaker living source of demonic spawn]], one's [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity lost his mind]], one's [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere decided to give up on the whole mess entirely]], one's [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan had their sanity collapse]] [[BarrierMaiden keeping the Fire alive]], and [[TheChessmaster one's hatching a scheme to actually ignite the Age of Darkness]]. The lesser deities have all fled save for Gwyndolin, who [[WellDoneSonGuy probably has]] [[TheUnfavorite a few issues]], seeing as [[WholesomeCrossdresser his father ordered him raised as a daughter]] for being the only [[{{Lunacy}} Moon God]] in a family of [[ThePowerOfTheSun Sun Gods]].]]
220* The ''Franchise/{{Drakengard}}'' franchise:
221** If someone doesn't have a problem in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', they're probably going to be dead soon.
222*** The protagonist Caim is filled with UnstoppableRage, [[{{Determinator}} determined]] to kill all of his enemies because his parents were murdered when he was younger.
223*** Leonard [[DrivenToSuicide wanted to commit suicide]] because he failed to protect his family from TheEmpire, and really doesn't have the will to live anymore (he's a pedophile in the Japanese version, and said "family" were his victims).
224*** Arioch is AxCrazy because TheEmpire killed her children, so now ''she eats babies''.
225*** Seere is the closest thing to normal, but he's got issues concerning [[CreepyChild his twin sister]], who happens to be the BigBad.
226*** Furiae [[BrotherSisterIncest has a huge thing for Caim]], which in turn [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide causes her to kill herself once the secret is exposed]]]] by...
227*** [[CreepyChild Manah]], who was [[AbusiveParents abused by her mother]] when...
228*** Her brother received all of the attention, was handed over to the ReligionOfEvil and became the leader of it, and became [[DemonicPossession possessed by the gods of the Drakengard world]]!
229*** Inuart gets MindRaped by said ReligionOfEvil, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad from the Revelation]] that Furiae doesn't love him, gets into a pact, loses the only thing that he's good for, singing, and proceeds to kidnap said woman he's hopelessly in love with.
230*** Finally there's Verdelet, the resident HolierThanThou priest who constantly complains about the state of the world, and later on develops into a JerkAss and says that he can't be a good priest anymore after feeling angry about Inuart attacking him.
231** Drakengard's spiritual successor ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' is in much the same vein. To say that the main characters are psychologically scarred for life is a gross understatement.
232*** The protagonist (depending on the version of the game) is either an already jaded man or a young optimistic orphaned boy whose entire world falls apart [[spoiler:when his daughter is kidnapped by the BigBad. It's also revealed in Brother Nier's [[AllThereinTheManual backstory]] that he prostituted himself to buy medicine for Yonah, which made him develop a fear of people touching his hair.]] This has a pretty negative effect on his psyche, making him more pessimistic and murderous.
233*** Kainé had a horrible childhood in the Aerie [[spoiler:due to being a hermaphrodite, and her kindly grandmother being killed by a Shade]]. Things didn't get any better when she was possessed by a Shade.
234*** Emil was essentially robbed of his childhood and experimented on to serve as a weapon. He hates his eyes because of their petrification powers, and he is eventually cured, but at the cost of turning into a female skeleton (the game makes it very clear he hates himself even more after this). And that's just the tip of the iceberg of people's problems in this game.
235** ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' does not relent with its junctioning of dysfunction: it seems at first that [=2B=] and [=9S=] are relatively well-adjusted androids, but it is revealed late in the game that [[spoiler:[=2B=] is a special android tasked with killing [=9S=] whenever he gets close to discovering that [=YoRHa=]'s war with the machine lifeforms is, for all intents and purposes, a sham. [=2B=] had to carry out her grim task many times over, which has weighed heavily on her. When [=9S=] finally discovers the truth, [[SanitySlippage his mind snaps like a twig]].]] [=A2=], meanwhile, is a bitter old android who has turned her back on [=YoRHa=] after the events of [[Theatre/{{Yorha}} the stage play]]. The machine lifeforms are written off by [=YoRHa=] as unfeeling killing machines, but in truth, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman they are also an eclectic spread of differing personalities, psychological complexes, and varying -- and ever increasing -- levels of humanity]]. Pascal is a kindhearted machine lifeform who only wants peace between his kind and androids. [[spoiler:That, sadly, never comes to pass, and he becomes a DeathSeeker after the child machines he was taking care of are DrivenToSuicide.]] In the end, the only characters that are relatively psychologically fine are the Pods.
236** ''VideoGame/Drakengard3'' has its share of Dysfunction Junction from our "heroes" and villains.
237*** Zero is an AxCrazy bitch who plans to kill her five Intoner sisters and will kill anyone who gets in her way. Her disciples practically live in an apartment on the corner.
238*** Dito is a sadistic psychopath who loves inflicting pain and hearing the cries of Zero's victims.
239*** Decadus, while being TheSmartGuy, is a masochist who relishes any opportunity to be hurt.
240*** Octa is an old pervert who loves to fuck anything that's walking upright, male or female.
241*** Cent is a KnowNothingKnowItAll.
242*** The only person who has the lightest bit of dysfunction is Mikhail who's pretty much a child. The only spot on his resume is a hatred of wyverns.
243* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': Where to begin? Where to end? Just for the companions:
244** Beast: A dwarven prince who tried to overthrow his sister after she started going power mad. When that failed he was left on a small, isolated island for several years which...changed him. He now seeks to get back at her.
245** Fane: A recently awoken undead who missed out on millennia of developments, and is thus a FishOutOfTemporalWater.
246** Ifan: A human raised by elves. During the war against The Black Ring, he brought what he thought was a portal to the elven homeland, hoping to help them escape. As it turned out, it was a deathfog bomb and wiped out the only family he knew. He now passes his days as an assassin.
247** Lohse: Has a frigging demon in her head. An extremely powerful one besides. And it's trying to take over.
248** The Red Prince: A powerful lizard prince exiled for consorting with demons (which he only did because he was ''bored''), and now seeking to take his throne back.
249** Sebille: Possibly the worst of the bunch. After the elven homelands were destroyed in the aforementioned deathfog incident, she was taken as a slave by the lizards, and forced to kill her own kind for years on end. Having broken free of his control, she now hunts him and the years of being an assassin under his control haven't done her sanity any favors.
250* ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'' has a giant ensemble cast, and over time the characters' backstories have become impressively troubled, boasting suicide attempts, more dead family members than you can shake a stick at, and no less than ''three'' cults, one of which dominates the lives of three separate characters totally unrelated by blood. And this is all just what happened before The War the previous year, when the Student Council tried to fix the school's problems and instead screwed up so badly they gave half the cast PTSD. (And a third of the cast was only even present for the very tail end!) The first years are ''generally'' pretty well-adjusted, but the second and third years are riddled with depression, abuse, and emotional dysregulation. We'd ask where all the therapists are but, well, that total lack of consideration for its students is kind of what the student council was trying to correct in the first place, and that sure didn't turn out well...
251* Saying that the player's companions in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' are all messed up one way or another is an understatement to say the least. The only companions who doesn't have serious issue the player needs to help them with are Rex and ED-E who are a cyborg dog and a robot respectively.
252** Arcade Israel Gannon is a WideEyedIdealist living in a CrapsackWorld with a trouble history.
253** Cass is an alcoholic and former caravan merchant with serious heart issues whose caravan was wiped out by raiders.
254** Craig Boone is a former NCR Sniper who has become a DeathSeeker following [[spoiler:taking part of the massacre at Bitter Springs]] and having to MercyKill his pregnant wife.
255** Lily Bowen is a sweet old lady who was turned into a Nightkin who served in the Master's army. She has developed schizophrenia but avoids taking her medicine because it makes her forget her dead grandchildren.
256** Raul is a Mexican ghoul who lived when the bombs fell whose little sister and only family was killed by raiders. He is also troubled by his age and has started to doubt his abilities.
257** Veronica is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel who was separated from her girlfriend and has to watch her friends and family dwindle away in a bunker because of their refusal to end their own ways.
258* The player's companions in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' are a spread of individuals with strange backstories and mental luggage, such that the only truly well-adjusted companion who isn't a robot is Dogmeat, who's [[CanineCompanion a dog]].
259** The PlayerCharacter, themself, was present when the bombs fell on America. They were then placed into cryogenic stasis in Vault 111, briefly awoken to watch in horror as their spouse was murdered and their son was kidnapped, and emerged over 200 years after the war into a Boston that was radically changed by nuclear devastation.
260** Piper's father was a member of Diamond City's militia who turned up dead under mysterious circumstances. This pushed her to take up journalism as a means to get to the truth of her father's death, as well as to keep the citizenry apprised of the dangers of synths. Unfortunately for her, Diamond City is populated by ApatheticCitizens.
261** Nick Valentine is a prototype Synth who awoke to find himself discarded by the Institute. He since took up work as a PrivateEye in Diamond City (as well as being the ''only'' Synth allowed in the city, due mainly to the fact that his decrepit appearance outs him as a Synth, and he never tried to hide it). He also holds memories of a pre-war detective named Nick Valentine, and he struggles with a feeling that he is not a "real" person as a result.
262** Preston Garvey is one of the last remaining members of the Minutemen. He is dedicated to protecting the people of the Commonwealth, but it's always been an uphill battle, and he was close to crossing the DespairEventHorizon before the player intervenes.
263** Codsworth was the player's trusty RobotButler before the war. Afterwards, he's an emotional wreck due to [[GoMadFromTheIsolation spending the last 200-plus years without human contact]].
264** John Hancock (no relation to the historical figure of the same name) is the Mayor of Goodneighbor, though he functions more like TheDon. He's also a FunctionalAddict and a ghoul [[spoiler:as well as the disowned brother of the mayor of Diamond City, himself a [[FantasticRacism ghoul-hating racist]].]]
265** Cait was sold into slavery as a child, escaped, murdered her parents in retaliation, and has since descended headlong into self-destructive behavior, working as a pit fighter and hopelessly addicted to alcohol and chems. [[spoiler:Her addiction to Psycho, in particular, is threatening to kill her.]]
266** [=MacReady=] hailed from the [[VideoGame/Fallout3 Capital Wasteland]], where he was the "mayor" of Little Lamplight and a snot-nosed little shit. Now OlderAndWiser, he's a widower who's trying to care for his sickly son by any means he can. He is so dedicated to his son's happiness that he even promised to try to stop swearing.
267** Deacon is a ConsummateLiar. The one time he ''does'' tell the truth is when he [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness trusts the player enough to tell them about his life before the Railroad]]: [[spoiler:he was a member of a gang that harassed Synths. One day, after the gang murdered a Synth, he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone reconsidered his affiliation]] and left, eventually settling down with the love of his life...who was later murdered by his old gang when they found out she was a Synth. He slaughtered the gang in retribution.]]
268** Paladin Danse seems fairly well-adjusted, and is a model soldier of the Brotherhood of Steel. [[spoiler:Then it is discovered that he's actually a Synth. Discovering that he is the very target of the Brotherhood's anti-Synth crusade is an immense shock.]]
269** Strong is a Super Mutant. Unlike others of his ilk, he is much more thoughtful, introspective, and harbors respect for humans. At the same time, however, he is ''incredibly'' stupid, revels in violence, and enjoys the taste of human flesh.
270** [=X6-88=] is an Institute courser. His demeanor is overall very calm and stoic, but [[BlueAndOrangeMorality his sense of morality is skewed]].
271** Downplayed with Curie, who is a Miss Nanny robot [[spoiler:and later, a Synth]] who is overall pleasant and friendly.
272** Downplayed with Ada from the ''Automatron'' DLC, who is a RobotBuddy and, save for some mild guilt over the demise of her caravan, is reasonably well-adjusted.
273** Old Longfellow, from ''Far Harbor'', was a HappilyMarried man until the Children of Atom abducted his wife and brainwashed her.
274** Porter Gaige, from ''Nuka-World'', is a raider. In defiance of TokenHeroicOrc, however, [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster he revels in being a raider]], and [[CardCarryingVillain he is not the least bit sorry about it.]]
275* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has the Black Eagle and Blue Lion houses.
276** Black Eagles:
277*** Hubert, while one of the least-angsty characters in the game, is a major JerkAss to anyone except Edelgard, Petra, or to a lesser extent Bernadetta. He also has the disturbingly casual habit of [[MurderIsTheBestSolution considering assassination]] if his classmates will be of no use to Edelgard's plans.
278*** Dorothea is a serial flirt, but has self-worth issues (to the point that "herself" is one of her dislikes) and fears going back on the streets again when she loses her voice and beauty. After the timeskip, she's a straight-up BrokenBird.
279*** There are hints that Ferdinand suffers from some form of ADHD and/or autism, and after the timeskip, he begins to doubt himself.
280*** Bernadetta suffered from abuse at the hands of her father to mold her into a "perfect, submissive wife," she is almost always in her room, and interprets/twists any praise at her into a scheme to humiliate her. It says something that after the timeskip, she's actually getting ''better'' at social interaction.
281*** While Caspar is mostly well-adjusted, he effectively lives to fight things.
282*** Averted by Petra and Linhardt, as despite the former's difficulty with the local language and the latter being a LazyBum, they are ultimately well-adjusted.
283*** In the Crimson Flower route, [[spoiler:Edelgard is revealed to have been the subject of dangerous experimentation that granted her two crests: a minor Crest of Seiros, with which she had been born; and the Crest of Flames, the acquisition of which [[DiseaseBleach turned her hair stark white]] and reduced her lifespan. These experiments had been carried out by dark forces with the blessings of the Empire's less scrupulous nobles, her father, the Emperor, powerless to stop them as her siblings all died. As a result, she has become obsessed with exacting revenge and tearing down Fodlan's society. Her BlackKnight, Jeritza, is also the younger half-brother of the Blue Lions' Mercedes. He was raised in an abusive Imperial household and, [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes to protect his sister]], killed his father, suffering from a psychotic break that gave rise to the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide "Skull Knight" persona]].]]
284** Blue Lions:
285*** Dimitri has a DarkAndTroubledPast, leading to a number of mental issues, and suffers a FreakOut that he never fully recovers from, even on his own route.
286*** While Dedue is mostly adjusted for a survivor of a massacre, Dimitri is effectively his only reason to live, [[spoiler: and he can go down a dark path if Dimitri is not pulled back.]]
287*** Felix has an obsession with becoming stronger and a strained relationship with his father due to his brother's death during the Tragedy of Duscur and the resulting fallout. [[spoiler: On any route save Dimitri's, if recruited, he becomes the very thing he criticized Dimitri for being, and while he's at least aware of it on Crimson Flower, he's not even aware of it on Verdant Wind.]]
288*** While Sylvain is friendly and outgoing, he has serious trust issues, stemming from being viewed as a Crest-bearer instead of a person, and most of his serial flirting is ultimately empty.
289*** Annette struggles with clumsiness, and issues stemming from her father abandoning her and her mother after the Tragedy of Duscur. She also feels less useful at times because of her lack of raw power compared to her classmates.
290*** Averted by Ashe, Mercedes, and Ingrid, as while they have had less-than-pleasant pasts, they are mostly-adjusted.
291** This is also averted by the Golden Deer house, as while some of the house has had unpleasant experiences, they come to handle their issues better, whether from the start (Raphael, Lysithea, and Claude), and the others in time (Ignatz and Marianne), and the others did not suffer a DarkAndTroubledPast (Lorenz, Hilda, Leonie).
292** The Ashen Wolves, small as they are compared to the "official" houses, has enough dysfunction among its members to make up for being only four people strong.
293*** Yuri was a common street thief and leader of a gang of cutpurses until he came to Abyss and was taken under the wing of the underground city's patron cardinal. [[spoiler:He is also an old friend of Bernadetta, until her abusive father beat him bloody to chase him away after he was caught failing to assassinate her due to hesitation.]] Compared to the other members of the house, he is fairly well-adjusted.
294*** Balthus von Adalbrecht is a former Leicester noble, until his perchance for losing big on bets and falling into serious debt caused him to flee to Abyss.
295*** Constance von Nuvelle hails from a fallen noble clan from Adrestria and has an extreme case of SplitPersonality: when indoors or out at night, she is a LargeHam with a very haughty streak. If exposed to daylight, however, she becomes a sullen, nigh-suicidal ShrinkingViolet.
296*** Hapi was subject to dangerous experimentation as a child that have granted her the ability to summon monsters by sighing. Sadly, [[BlessedWithSuck she cannot control the monsters she summons]], so [[TheStoic she is forced to keep her emotions restrained]], making her dour and pessimistic.
297* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', the Commander (that is, the player character) seems pathologically unable to make friends with normal people. Their entire guild is full of people with various traumas and issues, and it's highly implied that the Commander both has PTSD and considers themselves to be a DoomMagnet who gets people killed.
298* The cast of the ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' series has always been an eclectic bunch, to say the least, but the DarkerAndEdgier entry ''Twisted Metal Black'' stands out, as every character was interred in an insane asylum before participating in Calypso's tournament:
299** Junkyard Dog's driver, Billy Ray Stillwell, is obsessed over an airplane pilot that he claims ruined his life and [[FacialHorror messed up his face with chemicals.]] [[spoiler:His ending reveals that he caught his wife cheating on the pilot in question, and arranged to have him killed so they could collect on his life insurance. Stillwell was institutionalized after killing his wife, and with Calypso's help, takes his revenge against the pilot and develops a bloodlust.]]
300** Brimstone's driver, known as "Preacher", is obsessed over a demon that he believes possessed him while performing an exorcism on a baby and caused him to kill a church full of people. [[spoiler:His ending reveals that there was no demon at all: he simply had a psychotic break. This revelation [[DrivenToSuicide drives him to suicide.]]]]
301** Outlaw's driver, Agent Stone, was institutionalized after attempting suicide for unwittingly killing an innocent mother and child while taking out a terrorist cell when he let his rage consume him. [[spoiler:His ending has him travel back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, only to be killed by a terrorist for his trouble.]]
302** Mr. Grimm is a Vietnam War veteran who was captured, along with a wounded war buddy, by the Vietcong and subject to ColdBloodedTorture wherein he was starved and [[ImAHumanitarian forced to eat his friend's cadaver to survive]], the experience driving him insane. [[spoiler:In his ending, Calypso helps him exact revenge against his tormentor as he comes to term with his newfound taste for human flesh.]]
303** The driver of Roadkill is an amnesiac with no memory of his past, enticed into participating in Calypso's tournament with the promise of helping him unearth the answers to who he was. [[spoiler:After defeating Minion, he has a vision of his past, running with a gang who carried out a terrorist bombing. In his ending, it is revealed he was actually a deep-undercover FBI agent who was sent to dismantle a doomsday cult. While he prevented the bombing, he was a wanted man, and Calypso murders him just as he was beginning to remember his family...]]
304** Crazy 8's driver, "No-Face", was a small-time boxer and the victim of an unscrupulous BackAlleyDoctor who, infuriated at losing a bet on his last fight, [[FacialHorror cut out his eyes and tongue, then sewed his eyelids and mouth shut.]] He was institutionalized after killing six innocents while trying to find the doctor. [[spoiler:In his ending, Calypso produces the doctor, tied to a punching bag, and provides a special boxing glove outfitted with the doctor's instruments...]]
305** Spectre's driver, "Bloody Mary", was jealous of other women getting married, her envy eventually driving her to murder one of her friends. [[spoiler:In her ending, Calypso provides her with a groom of her own, lobotomized to make him more malleable. When he still spurned her, however, she snapped and killed him on the spot.]]
306** Darkside's driver, "Dollface", had the misfortune of working for an abusive boss who, one day, responded to a minor slight by nailing a doll mask into her face and placing a lock on it to make sure it could never be removed, driving her insane with guilt. [[spoiler:In her ending, Calypso offers the key to her in exchange for killing the man who put the mask on her. While Dollface takes the key and lets her boss die, she decides against taking off her mask in the end and instead travels out in search of other bad people to punish.]]
307** Shadow's driver, "Raven", witnessed her best friend Kelly be murdered by a pair of JerkJock[=s=] who threw her off a pier into the ocean and let her drown. Kelly's dying wish was to "get them". [[spoiler:In her ending, Calypso lets her have her revenge via voodoo dolls for Kelly's murderers.]]
308** Sweet Tooth's driver, Needles Kane, is a serial-killing MonsterClown who, on the day of his execution, was cursed by "Preacher" to suffer the pain of burning hellfire on his head. [[spoiler:In his ending, Calypso offers him a phial of blood from "Preacher", explaining that drinking it would remove the curse, but it would return if he killed anyone. Kane decides to kill Calypso instead and continue his murderous ways.]]
309** Yellow Jacket's driver, Charlie Kane, is dead. His son (the younger brother of the aforementioned Needles Kane) reanimated him with a special remote control device, to the shock and horror of those around him. He enters Calypso's tournament in the hopes that he can make things right for his father. [[spoiler:In his ending, Calypso destroys the controller, killing Charlie, and abducts the young boy to groom into his successor, with the suggestion that the young Kane would become the next "Sweet Tooth".]]
310** Axel's wife was murdered, and he became obsessed with revenge. [[spoiler:In his ending, he gets his revenge on her killer, "Sweet Tooth". Unfortunately, VengeanceFeelsEmpty...]]
311** Warthog's driver, "Cage", is a serial murderer who wants to remove his feelings of guilt towards his killings. [[spoiler:In his ending, Calypso not only grants his wish, but also replaces his hands with blades.]]
312** Manslaughter's driver, "Black", is simply obsessed with killing Calypso.
313* Many, many of the players of ''The World'' in ''Franchise/DotHack'' are very, very disturbed people. It doesn't help that the game ''uses this against them''. To be fair, most players are just fine. It's the screwed-up ones that get the malevolent forces' attention.
314* Both the students and the faculty from ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten|2017}}'' and [[VideoGame/Kindergarten2 its sequel]], though it's played for black comedy rather than drama. While reading, keep in mind that all of the students are [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior kindergarteners]].
315** The students:
316*** Cindy is an AlphaBitch extraordinaire who goes through boyfriends like tissues, henpecking said boyfriends into bullying other girls for her by methods ranging from putting gum in their hair to [[spoiler:dropping buckets of blood on them]].
317*** Jerome is well adjusted enough in the first game, but in the second he's grieving [[spoiler:his father the principal]]'s death and has developed a murderous vendetta against the person he (wrongfully) thinks is responsible.
318*** Buggs is a violent bully to cope with his AlcoholicDad [[DisappearedDad leaving him]].
319*** Nugget is... [[CloudCuckooLander odd to say the least]], and obsessed with [[TrademarkFavoriteFood chicken nuggets]], [[TunnelKing digging holes]], and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs putting said chicken nuggets in said holes]]. He also thinks poisoning Buggs to death is a perfectly reasonable reaction to Buggs throwing slop at him every day at lunch, and he'll pull a PoisonAndCureGambit on the player character, AKA his prospective new OnlyFriend, to get him to do the deed. Finally, in the Monstermon endings to both games, he [[spoiler:uses the divine power granted by collecting all of the Monstermon cards in the game to kill off the game's entire cast, in the first via BoltOfDivineRetribution and in the second via [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar dusting]] ''and'' BoltOfDivineRetribution]].
320*** Monty is willing to do some pretty illegal things in order to make money, such as synthesising the pills Ms. Applegate is addicted to. When Jerome asks him to distract the janitor in one mission, he obliges by blowing the janitor up, as he felt the old man had it coming.
321*** Lily had her brother Billy disappear a few days ago, and she's convinced the principal of the school is responsible. [[spoiler:She's absolutely correct.]] She's also very gloomy to say the least due to the disappearance of her brother, as well as her being Cindy's most prominent bullying victim, and will [[spoiler:kill herself in Cindy's route after it all becomes too much]].
322*** Billy [[spoiler:was kidnapped by the principal because [[HeKnowsTooMuch he knew too much]] and mutated into a monster so he would produce the chemicals used for making the pills Ms. Applegate is addicted to]].
323*** Ozzy is a NeatFreak with medical conditions ranging from asthma to implied OCD or autism who hates the newly-transferred kids from the first game because his two best friends and his girlfriend had to be rezoned to make place for them. [[spoiler:This was actually just a cover for the principal kidnapping them and mutating them into monsters to use for her plot to take over every school in the area.]]
324*** The Huxley twins consist of Felix, an arrogant snob who looks down on everyone else for being poorer than him, and Ted, a meek ExtremeDoormat whom Felix constantly orders around, belittles, and [[TheUnfavorite reminds how their father considers him a disgrace to the family name]]. He's so desperate to prove his worth to them that he's even willing to murder Ozzy without even knowing why other than Felix says it needs to happen. [[spoiler:Little does he know that it's actually part of a plot by Felix to kill ''[[CainAndAbel him]]'' in order to gain full control of their inheritance, because Felix thinks Ted is too naïve to be trusted with the family company.]]
325*** Penny is a [[IJustWantToHaveFriends very lonely]] little girl who [[spoiler:was mauled by one of her mother the principal's mutants and rebuilt as a {{Cyborg}}. She's now unknowingly being used against the other students by the principal and teachers, who control her via remote control.]]
326*** [[spoiler:Madison, Ron, and Alice were kidnapped, Alice from an entirely different school, to be turned into mutant monsters by the principal as part of her evil plan.]]
327** The faculty:
328*** Ms. Applegate is a pill addict who is [[ApatheticTeacher apathetic]] towards her students at best and [[EvilTeacher outright murderous]] at worst.
329*** Dr. Danner is a more low-key version of a MadScientist, who prioritises scientific discovery ''far'' above the health and safety of his students and has no problem with [[spoiler:taking the corpse of a student who died just seconds ago to use for next day's anatomy class]].
330*** The janitor is just plain AxCrazy and will beat you to death with his mop for offences such as being in the janitor's closet, correcting his spelling, or simply annoying him for too long.
331*** Margaret the lunch lady is the second principal's... let's just say mentally unstable sister, who only refers to people by descriptors, like "principal-sister-dear" or "unconfident wealthy child", and will kill children for crimes such as trying to sneak into the school early or not leaving her to her duties of keeping guard over the child stuck in the drain.
332*** The principal of the first game will solve almost any problem that comes his way with his trusty HandCannon, including [[WouldHurtAChild if said problem is a child]]. If he doesn't shoot them, he instead gives them pills to make them forget about anything he may not want them to think about or bombs to hold onto that he detonates if he thinks they might be getting too close to the truth about the school. [[spoiler:Said truth is that he's using a chemical secreted by mutants living under the school to make drugs, and he kidnapped one of the students to be used as a human guinea pig for whether or not humans can create the same chemical.]]
333*** The principal of the second game [[spoiler:also kidnaps children to turn them into monsters, but in her case the motivation is that she wants to use them to take control of every school in the area. She's also an AbusiveParent who sees her daughter solely as a tool to further her own plans, killing her without hesitation when she realises that Penny [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness is no longer useful to her]]. She's later dropped into her own pool of mutagenic goo, transforming her into a monster that is eventually killed via jackhammer-induced EyeScream.]]
334* The crew of the Cogito Ergosum in ''VideoGame/LiveALive''. Captain Hor [[SurroundedByIdiots wanted a mulligan for his entire crew]] because of this trope, [[spoiler:and might have gotten one if he didn't die on the way home]].
335** Cube was newly programmed and [[HeroicMime doesn't talk much]].
336** Kato is a nerdy and nebbish mechanic who programmed Cube; he's also the OnlySaneMan.
337** Colonel Darthe hates machines and is needlessly antagonistic towards Cube [[spoiler:due to lingering trauma from a RobotWar he fought in]].
338** Huey is the cargo loader who [[ShrinkingViolet bends over backwards]] for Rachel.
339** Kirk is the JerkJock pilot who cucked Huey because he could.
340** Rachel [[BitchInSheepsClothing helped Kirk cuck Huey]] and is obsessed with the former [[spoiler:too much for her own good]].
341** The Master Computer [[spoiler:OD-10]] was programmed to maintain harmony amongst the crew members [[spoiler:and gets the idea to induce lethal infighting and release the Behemoth to kill them all thanks to runtime errors induced by [[GreaterScopeVillain Odio]]]].
342** By the time the chapter is done, [[spoiler:Kirk dies due to OD-10 crashing the life support system in his spacesuit (while repairing the Watanabe communication system, no less); Huey dies trying to keep the Behemoth from killing Rachel, who winds up dead anyway; Hor is discovered to have been DeadAllAlong; Kato and Darthe are injured but still alive; and OD-10 is forcibly rolled back by Cube, deleting whatever memory and sentience it once had]]. [[spoiler:The ship was two badasses away from a TotalPartyKill.]]
343* ''Videogame/{{MARDEK}}'', especially in the third chapter. It's much easier to list the major characters who AREN'T screwed up in some way.
344** The main evil force, the Governance De Magi, includes:
345*** An extremely creepy necromancer called Moric, who volunteered first to hunt down Rohoph simply for the pleasure of killing him and was allowed to go first because the rest of the GDM wanted to be rid of him for a while.
346*** An utterly insane member called Melchior, who at one point complains of him saying "The galaxy will soon be mine", since it would be "theirs", not "his" specifically, and when it is pointed out that he did say "ours" and Melchior is asked if he was even listening, his response is "No, I had a nice little tune going in my head. It go da da daaa da da da daaa da daaaaa da."
347*** Gaspar, who always talks in what he probably thinks are swear words, but are actually more of gibberish.
348*** Balthazar and Qualna are both quite annoying in no particular way.
349** Mardek's a CloudCuckooLander who dwells on [[spoiler:his best friend's supposed death]].
350** Deugan is a self-depreciating man [[HeroicSelfDeprecation who can't accept himself as a hero]] [[spoiler:even after he takes a HeroicSacrifice and lives]].
351** Emela [[spoiler:is the Water Guardian, a position that is doomed to keep her alone for life, and can't hold a relationship with Deugan (though to be fair, it was equally his fault for that)]].
352** Vehrn [[spoiler:was an abandoned child]].
353** Zach [[spoiler:is a ProudWarriorRaceGuy who dishonored his clan and was forced to become a mercenary to people who consider him as a weapon only]].
354** Donovan [[spoiler:is the King of Goznor's son, who is forced to become king after his father's death at the end of the chapter]].
355** Sslen'ck [[spoiler:is another ProudWarriorRaceGuy whose parents were killed by undead]].
356** Solaar [[spoiler:is an alien who was supposed to keep the Dark Crystal safe from some evil, and failed to do so]].
357** Elwyen's parents are [[TakenForGranite crystallized]] in the second chapter.
358** Gloria [[spoiler:had a half-brother named Steele (more on that later)]].
359** Meraeador [[spoiler:accidentally killed his parents in an accident, causing him to nearly commit suicide if it weren't for Mardek and Deugan]].
360** Of the four souls of Legion, [[spoiler:one was a Shaman killed by her husband, another was once the evil ruler of the world, a fourth went insane in the Lost Monastery, and one is TheEeyore]].
361** Even the villains aren't exempt from this.
362*** [[spoiler:Steele is Gloria's half-brother and takes a FaceHeelTurn after being shot in the face by Emela]].
363*** Muriance [[spoiler:is implied to be the evil Solaar was sent to stop, and is being forced by a previous incarnation of his soul to seek the elemental crystals when he really doesn't want to]].
364** Rohoph [[spoiler:is quickly becoming a KnightTemplar due to the Violet Crystal]].
365** Qualna [[spoiler:really wants Rohoph's help to destroy the Violet Crystal, but is then killed by Rohoph because of his KnightTemplar attitude]].
366** And finally there's [[spoiler:Enki, Mardek's DisappearedDad, who is implied to actually be the captain of a ship from another planet]].
367* It's hard to find a single character in the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series that doesn't have a horrible past and/or at least one mental condition (usually caused by that past). As a matter of fact, it is rare to find a character with just a horrible past or just a mental condition.
368* Being developed by ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' veterans, ''VideoGame/{{Monark}}'' is ''rife'' with broken, hurting people, causing chaos, mayhem, and suffering to others and themselves because of how the pieces were never mended or poorly glued back together. This is most apparent with the antagonistic Pactbearers, people who have made [[DealWithTheDevil Deals With Devils]], gaining supernatural powers to fulfill vengeance plots, shift reality, or try to solve their grief, at the cost of warping the world through insanity-inducing Mist, causing untold amounts of innocent casualties and suffering, and potentially causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
369* ''VideoGame/NamcoHigh'': Eighteen options and most of them have issues, at the very least. Some of them have full-on subscriptions.
370** The ship from ''Galaga'' has a legitimate SoBeautifulItsACurse thing, causing serious self-doubt.
371** Donko has a similar problem, only with "cute and popular" instead of "beautiful".
372** [[VideoGame/{{Klonoa}} Lolo]] is a StrawNihilist with body image issues.
373** Hiromi is ''worryingly'' into her motorbike. [[CargoShip She recites a love poem to it at one point.]]
374** Anti-Bravoman has some ''deep'' self-consciousness issues.
375** Richard Miller is ''incredibly'' paranoid and does everything at around 300% intensity.
376** Aki is a colossal perfectionist who has never quite figured out that work-life balance does not mean "cross out the life section".
377** Nobody even wants to ''speculate'' on Al B. Tross.
378** Taira is prone to berserker "revenge rages" and isn't really all that smart.
379** Valkyrie has no real grasp of self-control.
380** Blue Max is an ExtremeDoormat [[spoiler:and a ''literal'' AcrophobicBird.]]
381** Mr Driller has some heavy-duty issues with his father.
382** Jane is extremely wrapped up in her own worldview.
383** Terezi is...[[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Terezi]].
384** Meowkie has ''major'' repressed anger issues.
385** Tomari is a MadScientist who thinks the entire world depends on his personal obsessions.
386** Davesprite has some serious insecurities that he carried over from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', ''plus'' meta-related issues.
387** Nidia is beginning to seriously lose it under the burden of her quest.
388* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'':
389** Your allies in ''NeverwinterNights/HordesOfTheUnderdark'' consist of a drow [[TheAtoner out to redeem herself from past crimes]] and suffering from a severe case of guilt, a tiefling with rage issues who feels he has to bury his emotions as deep as possible to avoid exploding, an unjustly executed dead paladin, and a kobold who spent most of his life as the ButtMonkey of a kobold clan ruled by a dragon. It should perhaps be clarified that that last one actually joins you in ''Undrentide'' as well, and is arguably even more dysfunctional there (your character has an... inspirational effect on him).
390** The companions in the Shadowlords arc have some serious issues. Anera was thrown out of Celestia for daring to try to do good in the mortal realm, and Teira was betrayed by the man who had raised her and forced to use a magical effect that is currently consuming her life force to escape.
391** The companions in ''VideoGame/TalesOfArterra'' also have lots of issues: Evanine is a FallenPrincess with trust issues because everyone who was ever kind to her (except for the player) has been killed; Persey has no concept of self-worth and honestly believes she is an object to be bought, sold, and used; and Montador comes from a society in which strength is valued above all and despises his own parents for weakness. The PlayerCharacter, meanwhile, is an orphaned [[FarmBoy Farm Boy/Girl]] with a heavy dose of SurvivorsGuilt for escaping their DoomedHometown when no one else did.
392** ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'', especially in the second module. Vico is a psychopath who has fallen in love with the player character and is trying to work out how to deal with it, Pia has had most of her friends slain in the Dhorn purge of the Betancuria thieves' guild, Anden has thrown away his home and his life to follow a woman whom he loves yet believes he is unworthy of, Bran and Norah had their entire clan killed and are on a quest to find the killer (and are the most well-adjusted characters in the party, no less), and Rizzen is on the run from his own family after inadvertently witnessing his mother's embarrassment and is a realistically-played runaway drow besides.
393** In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', the only party members without a traumatic past, a mental disorder, or both are Grobnar and Zhjaeve. As for the others...
394*** Khelgar is an arrogant BloodKnight who left his clan to go on a quest to become a Monk [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint while having no idea what they're about and just assuming that all they do is punch things]], and much of his clan resent his decision to leave, claiming (perhaps truthfully) that he did it solely for personal glory.
395*** Neeshka has been oppressed her entire life due to being a Tiefling.
396*** Elanee had to watch her beloved Mere slowly become a twisted, barren wasteland due to [[BigBad the King of Shadows's]] influence, believing her beloved Druid Circle to be dead. [[spoiler:She later learns that they're still alive, but is horrified to learn that they, with a single exception, have been driven mad by the King's influence, and is forced to kill them.]]
397*** Casavir abandoned his Paladin order due to frustration over their inaction over the many plights of the common folk, and has difficulty recognizing the value of friends and teamwork.
398*** Bishop is a sarcastic SocialDarwinist with a bad case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and an equally DarkAndTroubledPast.
399*** Sand was originally a member of [[WretchedHive Luskan's]] Hosttower (essentially a wizard mafia), but was forced to flee for his life after refusing to continue performing their atrocities.
400*** Qara is an egotistical, sociopathic pyromaniac who thinks she's the center of the universe.
401*** Shandra Jerro lost her farm to desperate Lizardfolk, which she blames the PC for, and later [[spoiler:becomes a target of the Githyanki due to their history with her bloodline. Oh, and she's killed by her own grandfather, Ammon Jerro.]]
402*** [[spoiler:Ammon Jerro was originally a kind, eccentric mage who fell to increasingly extreme and flatout evil acts to combat the King of Shadows, not realizing what he's becoming until ''after'' he kills Shandra. Oh, and he's wracked with guilt over not just her death, but everything else he did before opening his eyes.]]
403*** The PlayerCharacter themselves is an orphan raised in a swamp by an emotionally abusive half-elf [[spoiler:and has a piece of the MacGuffin embedded in his/her chest]]. And this is just the ''original campaign''.
404** ''NeverwinterNights2/MaskOfTheBetrayer'' gives us...
405*** Gannayev, a hagspawn [[TheCasanova casanova]] searching for "a dream that truly touched him" and suffering from a more severe case of ParentalAbandonment than is normal.
406*** Safiya is obeying the last orders of her now-deceased and somewhat distant mother after her contact in Rashemen was murdered.
407*** Okku has failed in his oath to destroy the spirit-eater twice now after nearly destroying the spirits of his clan in order to entrap the spirit-eater the first time and has been reluctantly roped into a wild goose chase.
408*** Kaelyn has some pretty severe parental issues along with a major crisis of faith that has her banned from her home.
409* A few members of ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' are like this. Naming a few examples, Soldier: 76 is a cynical, jaded, ruthless AntiHero convinced that his prior idealism is a farce, Winston was a survivor of a KillerSpaceMonkey uprising having to resist his primal instincts every day, Cassidy [[WithholdingTheirName went by a criminal alias]] for numerous years to run away from his past, and Torbjörn, due to his involvement in kickstarting the [[RobotWar Omnic Crisis]], has extremely racist views towards Omnics.
410* Most, if not all, of the major characters of the computer RPG ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' possess some manner of dysfunction, tragic past, or similar torment. The player character, The Nameless One, is an amnesiac immortal with [[IdentityAmnesia a large number of dark pasts]], and his party members range from an orphaned part-demon to an insane fire wizard who was turned into a living conduit to the elemental plane of fire. Most of the major [=NPCs=] are similarly tormented - many of them, it turns out, as a result of interactions with The Nameless One at some point. This turns out to be a major plot point - [[spoiler: one of the "powers" possessed by The Nameless One as a result of his immortality is an unconscious dominion over torment, symbolized by a tattoo on his shoulder. Whether he likes it or no, his power draws troubled and dysfunctional souls to him like moths to a flame and binds their destinies to his]]. Furthermore, in several cases (notably [[spoiler: Ignus, Vhailor, Dak'kon, Morte, and ''especially'' Deionarra]]), the Nameless One is the direct and intentional ''cause'' of this horrid past, in one of his ChessMaster incarnations.
411* Practically everybody in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. This is to be expected, as the game is about going into people's minds, but even characters whose minds you don't explore are usually pretty messed up, too. Even the ones who seem outright normal [[spoiler:like Milla]] have hidden traumas, usually found by exploring their memory vaults. Also the preteen [[StepfordSmiler Stepford Smilers]] who are trying to [[spoiler:kill themselves so they can pull an Obi-Wan Kenobi and come back more powerful than you could ever imagine]]. And no, there is nothing in the game that implies this would actually work.
412* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria''. [[TheHero Stocke]] keeps running into timelines where everyone dies horribly and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the entire continent is covered by desert]], Raynie has SurvivorGuilt issues, Rosch [[spoiler:sees his entire squad butchered around him]], and Eruca's family is RoyallyScrewedUp to an impressive degree. Even the more sane characters have a habit of going completely nuts in [[NonStandardGameOver bad ends]] - there's one where Aht [[spoiler:goes {{Yandere}} and traps Stocke in [[LotusEaterMachine an illusory world]] so that nothing can hurt him]], one where Gafka [[spoiler:turns into a bestial OneManArmy that the continent has to team up to take down]], and another where the [[BewareTheNiceOnes usually-inoffensive]] Marco [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy murders the rest of the party]] to get revenge on Stocke]].
413* ''VideoGame/ReKuroi'': All the party members have issues.
414** Kaito seems like a typical NiceGuy protagonist, but due to being bullied for so long, he's very desperate to hold on to his current friendships. [[spoiler:In the ending, he admits that he wants to confirm Noelle's current status not because he wants to save her, but because he fears that if people discover he turned her into a monster, [[SecretlySelfish he'll lose all his friends]]. However, he ultimately sacrifices his memories in order to save Noelle.]]
415** Marie can act friendly, but it becomes clear that she doesn't have much empathy for others and is quick to lose her patience if people ask her too many questions.
416** Nina suffers from the trauma of the Black Snow incident, [[spoiler:where she had to kill her family and Kaito's parents after they transformed into monsters.]] She also has trust issues when it comes to strangers, though in the case of Asha and Marie, she's [[ProperlyParanoid actually correct]] to be suspicious of their ulterior motives.
417** Asha is a shady information dealer who is willing to work with criminals. [[spoiler:She is also addicted to ether drugs and feels that she has no identity without her drug-induced magic, leading to her betraying Kaito in order to obtain the Black Pearl shard.]]
418** Remy wants to be a good ruler to the people of the third district, but the trauma of being on the battlefield [[NoSocialSkills stunted her social skills]], so she has a hard time understanding the intentions of other people.
419* A pretty boy experiment gone wrong who lost it completely and killed dozens of innocent people - mostly children - [[spoiler:including his own sister]], a very sheltered girl who was supposed to have her life and death predetermined and yet somehow was saved, and the sole survivor of a vicious massacre of his entire military troop, brought to you via ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate''. And these are just your playable characters.
420* ''VideoGame/{{Rule Of Rose}}'': Each of the main characters gets this, to the point of being ''named'' in narration after their attitude problems. And they're all under 15 years old. Because, in 1930s rural England, ThereAreNoTherapists!
421** Diana the Strong-Willed Princess: Caught in the middle of puberty, Diana is simultaneously afraid of growing up (hence her childish speech and position in the Aristocrat Club) and is desperate to become a woman (hence her vanity and patronizing demeanor). [[spoiler:This is implied to stem from Hoffman's abuse of her.]] She's an apathetic smart-ass to boot.
422** Meg the Wise-Looking Princess: As the title suggests, she isn't as wise as she likes to believe. She has book-smarts, but is madly in love with Diana, and is apparently unaware that she laughs about it behind her back. She also designs torture devices. She is ranked as TheBaroness for a reason.
423** Eleanor the Cold Princess: An emotionless young girl, who holds a high rank in the Aristocrats but is too indifferent to care. She carries around a red bird in a cage, a symbol of her desire to fly away from her life in the orphanage. The end of her personal chapter implies that she is actually incapable of showing any kind of emotion.
424** Amanda the Small-Hearted Princess: The lowest ranked of the girls, relentlessly bullied for (among other things) her weight. She is ''desperate'' to prove herself and move up the social ladder. [[GreenEyedMonster Changes her opinion of Jennifer the second she surpasses her in social ranking.]] [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy She also makes an effigy of Jennifer and beats it with a stick when she's angry.]]]]
425** Wendy [[spoiler:the Princess of the Rose: An eternally lonely young girl who fell head over heels in love with Jennifer, but didn't... [[{{Yandere}} handle it well...]] when she brought Brown home. She leads the Aristocrats against Jennifer, and eventually orders Brown's death.]] WalkingSpoiler, beware.
426** Jennifer/Poor Unfortunate Girl/[[spoiler:Prince Joshua]]: She endures a massive TraumaCongaLine throughout the game, and as an older woman [[spoiler:has repressed the memories of her time at the orphanage to the point that the entire game - a confused spiel of her memories - happens]].
427* Every character in Story Mode of ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'' is experiencing despair in one form or another.
428** [[spoiler:Rowen cannot go back home to his family because of the dragon's curse.]]
429** [[spoiler:Isabelle's fiance is killed by Rowen.]]
430** [[spoiler:Luna's parents died in front of her very eyes.]]
431** [[spoiler:Urias attempts to seek a worthy opponent now that his rival Balthazar is dead.]]
432** [[spoiler:Erika goes after Urias after seeing him as a threat against her princess.]]
433** [[spoiler:Arisa had a friend who was abducted by Shades.]]
434** [[spoiler:Eris attempts to ''end despair'' for the other characters by siding with Nexus and letting them sleep in Serenity... that is, until she breaks down shortly after a HeelFaceTurn.]]
435* This is the ''point'' of ''Franchise/SilentHill''. If you don't have a tragic past, you're either a hallucination or in the wrong town.
436** Even the [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 first game]], with its relatively bland protagonist, had Dahlia Gillespie, who traumatized her daughter so badly that the trauma took ''three lifetimes'' to sort itself out.
437** [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 The second game]], meanwhile, set the standard that the later games followed, turning the town into an attraction for the mentally warped.
438** The protagonist of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'', Henry Townsend, appears even more dysfunctional by not having a tragic past to explain his deadpan acceptance of the surreal and sinister. For a while, by far the longest entry on that game's WildMassGuessing page was devoted to a theory that Henry is the real killer, and "Walter Sullivan's ghost" his delusion. It's frighteningly convincing, but was eventually surpassed in length... by an entry theorizing that ''Eileen'' is the real killer.
439* Your parties in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' range from reasonably well-adjusted with a few oddities (Consular, Trooper) to a full-blown CastFullOfCrazy. The Imperial Agent probably ends up with the oddest bunch; a BombThrowingAnarchist, a diplomat who [[GoingNative went native]] with an insectoid species, a MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate who [[ProfessorGuineaPig experimented on himself]] with [[PlagueZombie rakghoul DNA]] (and can transform into one at will) and has a [[NoodleIncident long and bizarre career]] as an operative, a low-level Force Sensitive who was sent to the Chiss to avoid being killed by the Sith, and a RoboticPsychopath built by a race of AbusivePrecursors.
440* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''s R.E.D. and B.L.U.: [[DrillSergeantNasty Sol]][[PatrioticFervor dier]], [[JerkAss Sco]][[AttentionWhore ut]], [[PyroManiac Py]][[PsychopathicManchild ro]], [[MadBomber Demo]][[DrunkenMaster man]], [[ColdSniper Sni]][[{{Hypocrite}} per]], [[LargeHam Hea]][[CompanionCube vy]], [[MadScientist Engi]][[MachineEmpathy neer]], [[DrJerk Me]][[MadScientist dic]], and [[MagnificentBastard The]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Spy]]. And it's all overseen by the Administrator (the announcer), a middle-aged woman who seems to have an almost-sexual desire to watch the two opposing sides hate and kill each other. She and the above are every single character in the game itself. All ten of them. This is funnier than it sounds.
441--> '''The Administrator:''' The bomb has ''almost reached the final terminus!'' [[EvilLaugh WA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]]
442* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. When half the cast have world-wrecking power, this trope can't be helped. Special mention goes to the Scarlet Mansion: the mistress of the house has delusions of grandeur, her maid is blindly loyal to her, her best friend is extremely apathetic, and her little sister is crazy. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and their gate guard is incompetent.]]
443* ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' has a team of six playable characters, all with their own unique quirks and flaws.
444** CR-S01, the general surgeon, is a convicted mass-murderer with LaserGuidedAmnesia performing operations to atone for his [[spoiler:supposed]] crimes and to shorten his sentence.
445** Gabriel Cunningham, the diagnostician, has lost the ability to care about his patients and is dealing with his mediocre parenting skills.
446** Maria Torres, the paramedic, is a headstrong {{Jerkass}} who always tries to do things herself and has trouble cooperating with others.
447** Hank Freebird, the orthopedic surgeon, leads a double life as a HeroWithBadPublicity and has trouble getting other people to understand his views on humanitarianism.
448** Tomoe Tachibana, the endoscopic surgeon, is the heiress of a powerful Japanese ninja clan who moved to America and became a doctor because she was tired of living in luxury.
449** Naomi Kimishima, the forensic examiner and a returning character from ''Trauma Center: Second Opinion'', has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is patiently waiting for her life to end.
450* Pretty much every character in ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'' has issues to some degree, but this is especially prominent with the {{Arc Villain}}s of each chapter. Riddle is a rules-obsessed tyrant [[spoiler:who only turned out like that because of his abusive EducationMama]], Leona is a massive defeatist [[spoiler:because he's always been treated as AlwaysSecondBest to his brother]], Azul is a power-hungry ManipulativeBastard [[spoiler:who was heavily bullied when he was younger]], Jamil is a spiteful BitchInSheepsClothing [[spoiler:who resents being forced to be Kalim's HypercompetentSidekick]], Vil is a beauty-obsessed perfectionist [[spoiler:who gets constantly typecast as villains to the point of getting harassed in real life over it]], Idia is a shy {{Hikikomori}} [[spoiler:who accidentally killed his brother when they were young]], and Malleus is considered TheDreaded by most of the school [[spoiler:and turns out to be suffering from ''massive'' abandonment and isolation issues]].
451* Every non-Valkyrie character in ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has some sort of personal tragedy that ends in a convenient KarmicDeath. Even the Valkyrie [[spoiler: was once a mortal girl who was raised by an abusive mother that was going to sell her into slavery. Her self-esteem was so low that she allowed herself to die in a field of poisonous flowers.]]
452* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. Be it main, secondary, or side character, if they have a name, they have a tragic past. And most probably a tragic present and future too. The villains are no exception.

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