Animated Actors / Video Games

• Similar to Aki Ross in the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the game developer Kenji Eno had his recurring digital character Laura, a blond female who was the protagonist in each of his three games published by WARP: Laura Harris in D, Laura Lewis in Enemy Zero, and Laura Parton in D2. Unfortunately, like Aki, the commercial failure of her final game, followed by Eno's later passing in 2013, effectively put an end to her career since then.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance has a Hilarious Outtakes segment wherein it's revealed that the various characters apparently did their own voice acting. Even during evil ninja attacks!
• After Jade Empire ends, the characters Dawn Star and Sagacious Zu talk about their careers and how they landed their roles in the game. Dawn Star talks about her past in "the oldest profession in show business" ^note  it turns out she's talking about Vaudeville while Sagacious Zu talks about being typecast as the mysterious loner.
• The Hilarious Outtakes reveal this: the end credits of the '90s Sierra Adventure Game Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist were broken up into chunks, alternating between real credits, and then scenes where the actors got out of character and complained go the game's director. Interestingly enough, the "actors" playing the characters had different names than those of the characters' own voice actors.
• Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard's plot involves a corrupt CEO's plan to kill off a video game character that he can't simply fire because he has a lifetime contract.
• All but directly stated in the massive fourth wall break at the end of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. The characters start discussing the Cliffhanger ending and talk about the team that made the game; a not-so-subtle (but funny) way of hiding the credits.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II implies this with Sgt. Frank Woods and Raul Menendez, as they play "Carry On" alongside Avenged Sevenfold. Apparently, Menendez is a nervous wreck.
  Menendez: Sarge… I get nervous, right? M-m-m-my mind, it… it draws a blank, I feel like I want to throw up…
• The first Splinter Cell game had an extra with the computer generated "Sam Fisher" being interviewed in the game's live action production office, claiming that he'd originally been hired as a Special Forces consultant and Mo Cap artist ("all those splits... ow.").
• Rival Schools: United by Fate had an unlockable Hilarious Outtakes video featuring the fighters as actors.
• All arcs of Higurashi: When They Cry has a "wrap party" featuring all the characters except Keiichi (who absence Rika Lampshades is just because he doesn't have a character image), including Satoko wondering that the point of the ending was, and if it pissed the player off.
• Parodied and subverted, like everything else in the first after game Tea Party of Umineko: When They Cry, the spiritual sequel of the above. After the series of grisly murders and the bad ending, Battler finds himself completely confused and sitting around with the other murder victims, who are cheerfully having tea and snacks, complaining about how they died, and insisting on how the Witch killed them. Battler refuses to believe in this conclusion, all the victims rapidly revert back to their state of death, the witch Beatrice reveals herself, and whisks Battler away to Purgatorio, where the two begin their logic battles that sets off the remaining episodes.
  • This is in fact a Meta Twist to those who expected something similar to Higurashi.
• Meta example: The Japanese voice cast of the BlazBlue series host a radio show on Nico Nico Douga, in which they speak as themselves, but are represented in the videos as their respective characters.
  • Except for Daisuke Ishiwatari, who is represented by Sol Badguy.
• In Poker Night at the Inventory, Max and Strong Bad occasionally discuss Telltale Games, who made episodic adventure games for both franchises (as well as Poker Night); Max is happy with his games, Strong Bad is not. Also played with for the Heavy Weapons Guy, as Tycho recognizes him as a video game character while the Heavy himself seems to be unaware.
• While it doesn't occur in the actual game, Borderlands has the Claptrap web series of ads, depicting the characters as actors on a set with a Claptrap as the temperamental director.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • While not a direct example, according to this interview, this is actually how Shigeru Miyamoto explains the Go-Karting with Bowser phenomenon that's so prevalent in the Super Mario Bros. series and spinoffs.
  "It's more like [the characters are] one big family, or maybe a troupe of actors."
  • However, this trope is played straight and confirmed via Word of God specifically for Super Mario Bros. 3; the game's features and backgrounds are designed much like a stage play, and Miyamoto confirmed in a "Mario Myths" video that the game was a performance all along. The Super NES and Game Boy Advance remakes lack the stage-like elements, leading to theories that they represent the "real" version of the game's events while the NES version is a stage reproduction.
  • Mario Power Tennis had unlockable blooper reels in the vein of Pixar's outtakes based on the opening cutscene.
• In Jak 3: Wastelander there's an option to view the character models and listen to each character talking about their experiences making the game. Daxter was asked to lose weight for the role and did so by cutting off part of his tail, Baron Praxis wants to hook up with Ashelin, and Jak is hoping to do some dramatic work to show his sensitive side, plus he's working on his own sitcom. Also, when Jak dies Daxter will occasionally give you a little speech, either mocking you, or...
  Could we, ah... try that again? Alright, places everyone!
  I'm glad I'm not your stunt double!
  This is what happens when they drop my name from the title.
  Alright, cut! Where's the director? I can't work like this.
  • Also displayed in the credits of Jak II and 3'' as the characters talk about their work on the game.
• Kirby Super Star Ultra implies that the characters are this through the Special-Edition Blooper Reel, laugh track and all.
• Implied in the first cutscene of When Tails Gets Bored:
  Tails: Back to the script - Oh, I know!
• In Saints Row IV the "Enter the Dominatrix" DLC is presented this way, with the characters discussing things such as which parts were changed or cut entirely or which parts that made it in that they hated doing.
• Sid & Al's Incredible Toons loosely implies that the player is directing the titular cartoon characters, since the icons used to represent puzzles are film canisters and a clapperboard is used to describe the goal of each puzzle. Sid and Al also watch the game credits on a TV set while munching popcorn.
• In Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!, the game is mostly set as a movie with the characters following a script, and after beating the final level, a Star Wars parody, the characters are seen carrying the props away in the background.
• The VGA awards video series has several video game characters talking about the award they won as actors in the games they feature in. The Mass effect video has both versions of commander Shepard in.
• If you try to play a Turbografx 16 Super CD-ROM2^note Pronounced "Super CD-ROMROM". disc in an audio only player, you'll get a message on the first track telling you that the second track has computer data and that you shouldn't play it. Some of these are done in character, especially in the Japanese games. This is where this trope (sometimes) applies. This also extends to some of the games' "wrong system card"^note Playing Super CD-ROM2 games requires using the Super System Card (or using a Turbo Duo, which has the Super System Card's software built in). and "backup memory full" error screens. ^note Most just have a text-based error screen that tells the player to use the right system card or free up some of the backup memory.
  • This also happens on some games for the later 5th generation systems, such as the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. Even some Sega Dreamcast games do it.^note In these cases, the computer data is on the first track, but when played on either these systems, or later audio only players, the first track is skipped, and the second track plays which sometimes has a similar warning.
• In Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley, Captain Smiley and his enemies are fully aware that they're comic book characters. When there's no crime in progress, they treat each other like particularly annoying coworkers, and Smiley in particular is known to break character to complain about how the current issue is portraying him, like a prima donna actor.
• Altered Beast (1988) has this as its ending, where all the characters unmask and THE END is written on a clapperboard.
• RuneScape has a secret hidden bar that is full of characters from all over the game who are out of character, which is accessed during the the game's 15 year anniversary quest, "Gower Quest." It includes bosses who are enemies with each other hanging out as friends, several deceased characters, characters that were removed from the game entirely, and even older character models that got replaced.
• The Hex has almost all of the video game characters be aware of their existence and treat it like a job of sorts. The main characters in particular are treated as washed-up has-beens drowning their sorrows at a bar.

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