Armor Piercing Question / Video Games

Armor-Piercing Question in Video Games.

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• Ace Combat:
  • In Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, in the mission Mayhem, PJ announces over the radio that he fights for peace, with Pixy telling him about how tons of blood are being shed on the ground, and when PJ says that he intends to put an end to it, Pixy asks him the following:
    Pixy: Do you think you can stop bloodshed, by shedding more blood?
  • In Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Ionela starts her "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Dr. Schroeder with one after finding out the truth about his work, which was to give Erusea advanced drone technology to use against Osea to avenge his homeland of Belka:
    Ionela: Is this for Belka? Or for Erusea?
• BioShock: Andrew Ryan asks the Player Character "what separates a man from a slave?" before reaching him. Ryan answers the question for him with "A man chooses. A slave obeys." It turns out the Player Character has been conditioned in his childhood so he really hasn't been choosing along the way. In fact, this is one for the player too. After all, you obeyed every instruction you were given since the game began without question.
• A rather heartwarming example comes from the BlazBlue: Continuum Shift story Heart to Heart.
  Noel: I've never seen a... beastkin, before, so I...
  Tsubaki: And, I've never seen a live squirrel, either...
  Makoto: That has nothing to do with it. I'm completely different from you guys.
  Noel: What's so different about you?
  Makoto: Different? Uh... The difference... [Beat] ...I'm not... [begins crying] I'm not different from anyone else! I'M NOT! I wanna be the same! I just wanted to be the same...
• The Caligula Effect:
  • During Kotaro's Character Episodes, he starts a profile to help people in need. However, his first client is a friend of Kotaro's abusive cousin Yuto, who ask him to help said cousin. Of course, after finding out, Kotaro is very reluctant to help him, which culminates later on, when he outright refuses to help Yuto when he's in danger. The protagonist then asks a question that makes him stagger.
    Protagonist: What would your dad have done?
  • In Overdose, during Shonen Doll's Character Episodes, he becomes convinced that Suzuna hates him because of an accident at the hot springs. μ then asks a couple of questions that make him hesitate.
    μ: How do you know? Even if that may be, you still haven't tried to resolve this misunderstanding, right?
• Contra: Master Contra from Neo Contra gives one of these to Bill Rizer during the former's Break Them by Talking speech.
  Master Contra: Oh? Then I'll ask you this: What do you remember from before they put in you could sleep, hmm? How much? You probably remember missions and battles fairly accurately. But beyond that, any personal memories? Disturbing how little you can recall, isn't it?
• In The Reaper ending in Cyberpunk 2077 in which V kills themself, a compilation of voice messages are shown. However, the most scathing one has to be from Kerry Eurodyne,^*Who himself had been implied to be contemplating suicide before V or Johnny intervened and helped turn his worldview around who looks visibly disappointed in their actions and soon questions the most armor-piercing question out of all the companions.
  Kerry: The only thing you proved is that you don't give a fuck about your friends. Am I right?
• Diablo IV: When Inarius confronts Lilith, he is utterly convinced that killing her will absolve his sins in the eyes of the Heavens and they would welcome him back from exile, at the same time confirming that he killed his and Lilith's son Rathma to "satisfy" the Heavens as well. On the topic of murdering their son, however, Lilith retorts, "Tell me, did [the Heavens] rejoice?", which stops Inarius in his tracks and confirms to Lilith that indeed, the Heavens did not answer, and confirming to Inarius that, to the Heavens, he is Beyond Redemption and that his efforts were All for Nothing since the beginning.
• Dragon Age: Origins:
  • A conversation between the Dalish Elf and a Chantry Priestess at Ostagar, where they call her on claiming that the Maker only desires peace and love when His Chantry branded the Dalish as heretics, lead an Exalted March against them and destroyed their homeland.
    Dalish Warden: You administer blessings to Elves?
    Priestess: Of course. The Maker accepts all those who would hear him.
    Dalish Warden: And does he steal the Homeland of those who don't?
  • Anora later poses one to Loghain:
    Anora: Did you kill Cailan?
    Loghain: ...Cailan's death was his own doing.
  • And much earlier, Bann Teagan delivers one to Anora once Loghain assumes regency.
    Anora: Bann Teagan, my father is doing what he thinks is best!
    Teagan: Did he also do what was best for your husband, Your Majesty?
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
  • Paarthurnax will respond to the Blades' demands that he be killed with dignity and admits that Dragons like himself aren't exactly trustworthy beings and that he is trustworthy only due to tremendous effort — he fights his tyrannical urges every day. He invites the Dragonborn to ponder one question, one that has actually made many players hesitate to kill him: "What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
  • In the Dragonborn DLC, Miraak may show up and steal the soul of the dragon that the Last Dragonborn just killed. At one point, he calls them out for casually slaying dragons just to gain more power.
    Miraak: Do you ever wonder if it hurts? To have one's soul ripped out like that?
• Fallout:
  • Fallout: New Vegas:
    • "Who are you, that do not know your history?" Notably, this question is never used to armor-pierce the Courier; Ulysses asked it of the Think Tank of Big MT, and it nearly led to disaster: pondering the question caused the Think Tank to come closer to breaking out of the Eternal Recurrence mental loop they'd been trapped in for decades and escape the Big Empty than ever before. Later, during Lonesome Road, the Courier turns this same question onto Ulysses during the story's climax (albeit requires them to carefully scour the Divide and find his personal logs beforehand), making him realize that in his quest to cleanse the wasteland by launching nukes at the NCR to destroy it and make a new nation, he would taking himself far past the Moral Event Horizon and repeating the same events that caused his Start of Darkness.
    • Another one comes directly from the player character while attempting to get Cass to sell what's left of her caravan to the Crimson Caravan, with a high enough Speech skill.
      Courier: If you made the caravan, you're responsible for killing it.
      Cass: (angry tone) What did you just say to me? Cause you sure as hell got my attention now.
  • Fallout 4 has a few, one of the most notable being when you're trying to spare Danse during the quest Blind Betrayal. You can ask Elder Maxson "You're comparing Danse to a nuclear bomb?" while it doesn't exactly change his Irrational Hatred of Danse, it does make him stumble over his words for a second.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Cloud (or rather, Zack) asks Sephiroth one of these in Final Fantasy VII in the Nibelheim incident when they encounter the monsters Hojo had been creating in the Nibel Reactor. It's all downhill from here. ^note In reality, normal Shinra troops have a mako infusion to bolster their power, while SOLDIERs have a Jenova cell injection; Sephiroth got his cells while Lucrezia was pregnant with him, again courtesy of Hojo.
    Sephiroth: Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered with mako. You're different from the others, but still human. [...] Mutated living organisms produced by mako energy. That's what these monsters really are.
    Cloud: Normal members of SOLDIER? You mean you're different?
    [cue Sephiroth's Freak Out as he starts attacking the chambers]
    Sephiroth: Was I created this way too? Am I the same as all of these monsters?! [...] You saw it! All of them... were humans...! [...] I've always felt since I was small... that I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this...
  • In Final Fantasy X, when Yuna explains that Sin is mankind's punishment for using machina (machines), Tidus asks "was that such a bad thing, really?" Yuna's response can be summed up as "now that you mention it, maybe not." It's the start of some much-needed character development for Yuna.
    • Tidus has this inverted onto him early on in the game. After finding out that Sin always comes back, Tidus asks what the point of a summoner's pilgrimage is if Sin just comes back every time. Yuna turns this around on Tidus by saying that what peace they get is worth it. However, that's before learning that Sin comes back because of the pilgrimage. Once Yuna finds that out, she decides to find another way.
  • Final Fantasy X-2 has this about burning the Besaid Village Temple:
    Beclem: Going to help him [Wakka]? I'm not going to wait much longer.
    Yuna: You want to see it burn that badly?
    Beclem: [gasps at her question, but tries to regain his composure] It's... for the safety of the village.
  • Final Fantasy XIII:
    • The scene in Chapter 7, when Hope finally musters up the guts to confront Snow about his mother's death (which he unwillingly contributed to) consists mainly of a barrage of armor-piercing questions that forces Snow to remember his past actions and renders the resident Idiot Hero speechless and near catatonic.
      Hope: And what if [fighting] gets people around you involved? What happens when your actions end up ruining someone's life? What if someone dies? What then Snow? How do you pay for what you've done?
    • A milder example occurs between Fang and Lightning earlier in the same chapter. Fang admits that all the events up to then, including Serah becoming a l'Cie, were because she and Vanille woke up. Lightning slaps Fang and questions her motives (as Fang admits she confessed so she'd feel better), only for Fang to respond with "How about you? Feel any better now that you hit me?". This causes Lightning to realize that hitting people doesn't change anything.
    • In Chapter 8, when Sazh is confronted with the fact that Vanille was at fault for causing his son to be turned into a Cocoon l'Cie. During this scene, Vanille tearfully apologizes for causing this and begs Sazh to kill her to make up for his son's apparent death. Sazh counters with his own words.
      Sazh: You think you die, and that's that? You think you die and everything'll be sugar and rainbows?!
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning tells Lumina her plans to betray and kill Bhunivelze at the end of the world, a plan that Lumina loves. As she's praising it, Lumina mentions how Lightning would also be betraying Hope and asks her if she even considered the situation. Something Lightning can't answer.
    Lumina: Are you really prepared to kill Hope?
    Lightning: [scoffs] You think I'm not?
    Lumina: You answered a question with a question. That's an evasion.
  • In the Endwalker expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, Jullus pyr Norbanus confronts Zenos yae Galvus over the crimes he committed against his fellow Garleans by murdering his father the emperor, sparking a bloody succession war, then brainwashing the survivors to bring about the Final Days alongside Fandaniel. Jullus demands to know what all the suffering was for, only for Zenos to nonchalantly admit it was All for Nothing, since none of it gave him what he wanted. In the face of Jullus's outrage over the complete disregard for life, Zenos asks if he'd feel better about the atrocities if Zenos had a "good" reason to do all of it. Jullus is still angry, but can't fault that in the end, motive doesn't change anything.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Mateus, the last of the Totema guarding the crystals that Marche needs to destroy in order to go home, briefly assumes Mewt's form and asks Marche if his life will get any better if he goes back home. It's especially poignant because it sounds very much like something the real Mewt would say.
    Mewt: What's so great about going back? Why go home at all?
    Marche: Mewt...
    Mewt: Will your dad come back, Marche?
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Genki Girl Cynthia's supports with her father are mostly a cute deal about a young teenager wanting to become a Daddy's Girl and cheerfully dragging her dad along. But almost at the end, the dynamics change completely when she asks him:
    "You... will remember me, won't you, Father? Even once the Cynthia of this world is born?"
  • Played for laughs and innuendo between Lon'qu and Maribelle:
    Maribelle: I could bring you to an establishment where a pack of lovely ladies wait on you.
    Lon'qu: Pass. ...Wait. How would you know about such a place?
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses after the Time Skip, Dimitri has gone insane from his desire for revenge for the Tragedy of Duscur, in which his father, stepmother, and many others were killed, and wants Edelgard, the supposed perpetrator dead. When Byleth becomes concerned about Dimitri's actions, he asks them this question about the person who killed Byleth's father, and the player can agree or disagree.
    "Five years ago... did you not deem the woman who killed Jeralt to be unforgivable?"
• Grand Theft Auto:
  • In one of the final Missions of Grand Theft Auto IV, Niko Bellic finally accomplishes his reason behind moving from "the Old Country" to Liberty City. He's finally tracked down his old war buddy (and the word "buddy" is used loosely) that sold out their troop and resulted in almost their entire squad being slaughtered like pigs, all so the traitor could get money to buy drugs with. Needless to say, in the conversation that follows as shown below), an armor piercer is shot at Niko, which actually affects him... for about five seconds.
    Niko Bellic: Strange choices?! How much?!
    Darko Brevic: [laughing] A thousand.
    Niko Bellic: [close to tears] You killed my friends for one thousand dollars?
    Darko Brevic: [laughing] How much do you charge to kill someone?
    Niko Bellic: [pauses] You ruined me, you fuck!
  • Grand Theft Auto V manages to combine this with a Wham Line.
    Trevor: Let me just ask you something, alright, something I've been thinking about. Up in North Yankton, exactly who was buried in your place?
• Guilty Gear Xrd has a string of these delivered to Sol Badguy. The receiver seems to be hit very hard by all that's said, but it's ultimately beneficial for Sol because it kicks off the start of some much-needed positive Character Development.
  Sin: It's almost like you're telling me I shouldn't trust anybody, or just go be a grumpy, lonely bounty hunter.
  Sol: ...!
  Sin: Your world must be real small. You could at least try and make some friends. I think you'd like it, honestly.
• Half-Life 2:
  • Delivered by Dr. Breen in the penultimate level, and repeated, posthumously, at the beginning of Half-Life 2: Episode One:
    "Tell me, Dr. Freeman, if you can. You have destroyed so much. What is it exactly that you have created? Can you name even one thing?"
  • Obviously Gordon doesn't react, so we don't know if it was armor-piercing for him, but it does potentially get the player thinking.
  • Another one, shortly after, that also serves as a Wham Line:
    Breen: Fortunately, the resistance has shown it is willing to accept a new leader. And this one has proven to be a fine pawn for those who control him.
    Alyx: Don't listen to him, Gordon!
    Breen: How about it, Dr. Freeman? Did you realize your contract was open to the highest bidder?
• In Halo 5: Guardians, when Master Chief finally gets to confront Cortana over their Utopia Justifies the Means destructive actions, he lays one out during their discussion:
  Cortana: I'm offering people a chance to be more than they are naturally.
  Master Chief: Like Doctor Halsey did for me.
• Illusions of Loyalty: "Ideals? A few flimsy ideals were worth all this? How many died, Brother?" The protagonist, Julius Logan, asks this to his brother, Bruce, the night before his execution, and he can only say that he's not afraid of death, which Logan scoffs at. In the end, Bruce's ghost asks the same question of Julius, after his actions in the service of the opposite ideal have also caused him to end up in the very same cell, on the eve of his execution. The reply is also the same.
• Iron Gaia: Virus reveals that the Big Bad of the original, GAIA, only went mad with the desire to "improve" and command humans after Dr. Cross had asked the following question to her:
  Cross: With all the historical knowledge stored in your data banks... Do you really believe, continuing as it has been, the human race can actually survive on its own?
  GAIA: The odds against that are astronomical. Very well, Doctor, I will allow you to conduct your experiments, but I will also start my own.
• Garcian attempts one in Killer7. Matsuken has been attempting to control the United States using Japanese ideals for the whole game, so Garcian challenges him: "what is United States? What is the purpose of the President?" Matsuken simply counters with "I'm Japanese, how the hell should I know? Figure it out for yourself." Not only does this tie into the recurring theme of two nations misunderstanding each other, Garcian's lack of an answer turns out to be significant: he's actually the assassin Emir Parkreiner, reincarnated, and Emir was an assassin for the Japanese government whose death coincided with the fall of Japan.
• In Kingdom Hearts II, the final boss, Xemnas, addresses both Sora and Riku during the battle: "Sora, are you certain you can trust Riku? Riku, are you sure you are not jealous of Sora?" Although Xemnas fails to undermine Sora's trust, his words have an effect on Riku; after the battle, Riku recants his earlier statement that he had always thought he was better than Sora, finally admitting that he had actually been jealous.
• In The Last of Us Part II, during a flashback just before the climax of the first game, Jerry, a surgeon for the Fireflies, is about to operate on Ellie in order to extract the fungus from her brain, an operation that would kill the patient but potentially lead to a vaccine for the Cordyceps virus. Marlene has reservations about it, since she's a Parental Substitute to Ellie, but Jerry insists that this is the best course of action. Marlene then asks Jerry if he would do the same thing if his daughter was the patient; while Jerry goes through with the operation, he's obviously shaken.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel:
  • The noble Patrick is irritated by Class VII, a mixed group of commoners and nobles who keeps doing better than Class I. He and his flunkies challenge the male members of the class to a battle and are trounced. Afterwards, Class VII leader and main playable character Rean offers Patrick a friendly handshake for a well-fought battle, but Patrick slaps his hand away and proceeds to insult Rean himself, his parentage, and the other members of Class VII. Everyone is disgusted, but it's Gaius, a foreign exchange student, who is still learning about the class system of Erebonia, who slaps Patrick down with a single piercing question.
    Gaius: I can understand the importance of tradition, lineage, dignity, pride — I get why those would matter... But where do you think they let you get off saying the kinds of things you did?!
  • Another example of this occurs later in the game when Elise runs off during a sour conversation with Rean. He runs around the campus checks with his classmates to see if they have come across her, with a few of them chastising him for his words that led to the event in question, and Laura and Fie in particular both ask him this kind of question. Laura states that she understands some of Rean's frustrations due to his status of someone adopted into nobility and is not technically recognized as such, but she asks Rean if he's willing to swear to his sister that he was not merely trying to run from that life. Fie, on the other hand, tells Rean that while she wasn't related by blood to any of the members of Zephyr, she still considered them her family, and never considered leaving them since that was the only place she knew she would always belong, then asks if Rean feels the same way about his family. Both questions leave Rean speechless, but the girls ultimately drop the subject, since they have their own issues to sort out (i.e. with each other).
  • Played for Laughs in Cold Steel III when Rean, while thanking his students for helping him gain information from Zephyr, asks why the students are at a casino unsupervised in the middle of the night and not at camp. Immediately, all of them either pull off an innocent whistle, fake that they're tired, or just plain give up at making any excuses.
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Played literally in the Ultimate Updated Re-release: Phoenix Wright's level-3 hyper combo has him grilling the opponent right in the middle of the battlefield, doing actual physical damage. It's also one of the most damaging hyper combos in the game: combined with X-Factor, it can One-Hit KO if it lands.
• Mass Effect:
  • In general, Shepard uses a lot of these when persuading people, and sometimes regularly in dialogue to keep events moving.
  • In the backstory, the question that spurred a centuries-long war that drove an entire species from their planet: "Does this unit have a soul?"
  • Mass Effect 2:
    • A Paragon Shepard has an absolutely brutal one to Erinya, a racist asari Corrupt Corporate Executive on Illium, after she describes her alien-loving, high-achieving daughters and bondmate; as she reveals, her bondmate was killed while studying on the Quarian homeworld during the Geth Uprising, and her daughters were both killed during the Battle of the Citadel. Simply describing them to Shepard causes her uptight, haughty facade to crack, but the next exchange, and the resulting question from Shepard, causes her to break down completely.
      Shepard: They sound like wonderful people. The galaxy is lesser for their loss.
      Erinya: [quietly] Yes, it is.
      Shepard: Do you think they'd want you to do this?
    • Shepard ends up on the receiving end of more than a few of these due to their affiliation with Cerberus. Even one of the game's minor villains gets to call bullshit on Shepard's holier-than-thou attitude because of this.
  • Mass Effect 3:
    • A Paragon Shepard can issue a rather massive one to The Illusive Man:
      The Illusive Man: We don't have to destroy them! I can end this war! I can control them, Shepard!
      Shepard: Are you willing to stake humanity's existence on it?
      The Illusive Man: I... I...
    • A particularly harrowing one can be asked of Mordin Solus, leading to O.O.C. Is Serious Business. Shepard reminds Mordin that he had defended the genophage and his role in modifying it whenever he was asked, and that he had to be talked into saving Maelon's data, before asking him why he changed his mind about it now. The question is answered, but...
      Mordin: I MADE A MISTAKE!
    • In the From Ashes DLC, Javik asks Shepard if they believe they have any hope of winning the war with the Reapers with their honor intact. Shepard answers that they do, but have no reply to Javik's rebuttal:
      Javik: Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if "honor" matters! [Beat] ...that silence is your answer.
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne:
  Mona Sax: What are you so afraid of? What do you want from me?
  Max Payne: [narrating] The things I want, by Max Payne. A whisky, a smoke, for the sun to shine. I want to sleep to forget, to rewrite the past, my wife and baby girl back, unlimited ammo, and a license to kill. More than anything at that moment, I wanted her.
• During the trial scene in Neverwinter Nights 2, most of your dialogue is composed of these. Your Diplomacy/Taunt/Bluff checks determine the reaction of the opposing lawyer; successes on Taunt checks get really silly angry responses.
• In PAYDAY 2, in the trailer for the Dentist's heists, just before Dallas leaves, the dentist asks "How did it feel, leaving him behind?" (referring to Hoxton, a captured partner in crime), causing Dallas to stop and turn around. The dentist then asks his assistant to show Dallas "the transfer plan for inmate Jim Hoxworth".
• Persona:
  • In Persona 4, During Nanako's Social Link, Nanako wonders if her father doesn't think of her as his "real" daughter, and so doesn't spend time with her. The best response is "Did he say that?"
    • In Persona 4: Arena, Kanji gets one from Chie during his story mode. Kanji assumes he's dreaming, and it later turns out that the Big Bad altered his senses so that he heard something different than what was actually said, but Kanji has to admit this question hits home.
      Chie: Kanji-kun, have you ever honestly told anyone that you hate being misunderstood?
  • In Persona 5, Futaba Sakura is given an armor-piercing quiz by her own Shadow to derive the exact nature of her self-loathing and the true face of her mother. Futaba is led to believe, prior to this, that her mother hated her and wished she would die; in reality, Wakaba Isshiki cared for Futaba as a mother should, and her "hateful" last words were a fabrication written by the legal team who tampered with the will at the Conspiracy's request. Unlike many examples of this trope, this is not intended to break Futaba further, but for her to finally investigate and second guess the inconsistencies that has been fed on her in regards of her being the one who was liable for her mother's death.
  • Persona 5 Strikers:
    • In the fourth Jail, the Monarch, Zenkichi's daughter Akane's Shadow, calls out Zenkichi on being forced to abandon his investigation into his wife Aoi's death in a drunk driving accident to protect his daughter, even though an innocent person was used as a scapegoat and killed.
      Shadow Akane: But what about the secretary who died? Did you ever stop to think what his family is going through?! ...Not only did they lose a loved one, they have mom's death over their heads! Did you forget that!? Or did you choose to forget on purpose!?
    • When the Phantom Thieves try to pull their standard Shut Up, Hannibal! moment against the Big Bad, he simply asks if they could have saved him from his father. At no point before or after his boss battle can anybody come up with a rebuttal.
• Planescape: Torment:
  • "What can change the nature of a man?", a riddle asked by the Night Hag Ravel Puzzlewell. Ravel killed all those who couldn't give the right answer. As it turns out, her right answer wasn't a 'what' but a 'who': She only wants The Nameless One's answer because the first incarnation was the one who gave her the question in the first place and she still hasn't found an answer herself. The question essentially drove Ravel to mull over it for an unknown number of millennia and slowly drove her mad.
  • Furthermore, The Nameless One's final answer can be used in part of a speech to defeat the the Transcendent One. Note that, when asked this question personally, the Big Bad simply shrugs it off. However, the trope can still be played straight: the Nameless can ask him a series of Armor-Piercing Questions (starting, funnily enough, by asking after his actual armor), finally forcing him to admit two things: one, that he suffers as much as you do even though he's too stubborn to admit it, and two, that despite everything you've heard and done over the course of the game, neither of you are immortal. There's another way to do this, as well, if you opened the bronze sphere. The question that's been following you around since before you heard the Arc Words, since the beginning of the game: "What is my name?" The Transcendent One doesn't remember. Unfortunately for him, you do.
  • There is a very clear straight example, however, which when asked manages to mentally unbalance a Fallen Angel:
    The Nameless One: Have you forgotten the face of your father, Trias?
• On Poptropica's Virus Hunter Island, you see a shady "Pizza Delivery Company" van in a back alley, with a sign obviously taped over it. When you ask what the driver is doing, he says he's delivering pizzas. "At breakfast time?" He quickly exclaims that they've been found out and drives off, dropping a bag of shredded documents. You later find out that the "Pizza Delivery Company" is actually a cover-up for the Poptropica Disease Center.
• In Resonance of Fate, this happens to several people at various points, actually, but perhaps the harshest of which is the bridge scene, posed by Lagerfield to Zephyr.
  "Tell me! Why did you live while they died? Is your life worth more then theirs?"
• Runescape has one from the finale of the goblin quests. The god of war has possessed your friend, Zanik. During the fight, she can regenerate indefinitely thanks to said god's power. At one point, she says she has to kill you because humans are the enemy. The player asks her: "But am I your enemy?" She is forced to admit that she still thinks of you as a friend and breaks free of Bandos's control.
• In Sands of Destruction, Morte is out to destroy the world and Kyrie has agreed to help her because he fell for her within five minutes of meeting her. Elephas Rex eventually points out to Kyrie that if Morte succeeds in destroying the world, they won't be able to be together. He then leaves Kyrie to figure out for himself exactly what he should do and whether he should continue assisting the World Annihilation Front. Kyrie eventually decides Morte's safety is more important to him than their being together and asks Naja to kill him so his power couldn't be used to destroy the world.
• In Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, Motonari ends up asking Misanthrope Supreme Yoshitsugu about whether his stated goal of bringing misery to all humans includes bringing misery to Yoshitsugu's Morality Pet, Mitsunari. Yoshitsugu, who hadn't even considered the thought of having a human he does not hate up to that point, gets completely stumped.
• Mithra sets a barrage of these when you encounter him in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, intending to draw you to the Reason of Shijima. No matter how you answer, Mithra will lose his composure and decides that the Demi-Fiend and his demons need to die.
• This is Rabbi Stone's primary rhetorical tool and weapon in The Shivah.
• Silent Hill:
  • Silent Hill 2 features the Leave ending where James converses with his dead wife Mary for the final time. Buried under an ocean of self-inflicted guilt, James apologies for allowing Mary to die, but then backtracks by ashamedly "admitting" aloud that he himself was responsible for allowing it to happen, claiming that him putting her out of her misery was born out of a selfish desire to have his life back. Mary responds with a heart-wrenchingly honest remark that unveils the facade.
    "James... If that were true, then why do you look so sad?"
  • It's really unfortunate that this isn't a straight example, because the question isn't directly aimed at the person it's meant for. However, in Silent Hill 3, Heather gives an utterly cutting question when she finds and reads Leonard Wolf's journal, in which he rants that "the world is teeming with unnecessary people."
    Heather: So you think you're one of the necessary ones?
• Spec Ops: The Line: "Do you feel like a hero yet?" This question is asked of main character Walker after he keeps going further and further, committing greater and greater atrocities and war crimes, all out of the vain belief that there's some kind of Final Boss or Big Bad he can kill that will justify everything. There's not one. Indeed, this question gets asked of Walker multiple times, but he engages in the Sunk Cost Fallacy by saying that he's come too far to turn back. While the game has Multiple Endings, Walker only comes out alive in one of them, and it makes it clear that his grand crusade to feel like a hero just made everything worse.
• In Star Control II, there is only one question that can get any meaningful response out of the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah. While this won't let you avoid fighting them in the game, the first time it was posed to them in the backstory (by the Mael-Num), it locked them up long enough to allow for an escape. 'The Words' are a simple plea: "Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?". Both sides come to a total stop when they hear it, ceasing combat to justify their actions. The Kzer-Za more quickly explain themselves, while the Kohr-Ah will give the prey who asks substantially more time.
• StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has Kerrigan asking Raynor one while making him hold a pistol to her forehead, inviting him to kill her.
  Kerrigan: You were the only one who ever believed in me. Do you still believe in me?
• Star Wars Legends:
  • In The Force Unleashed, Juno Eclipse asks Starkiller why he defied his master Darth Vader and saved her. Starkiller awkwardly answers that he needed her to fly his ship, but she retorts that they both know that isn't true. This foreshadows that Starkiller has feelings for Juno and that he is slowly becoming a hero instead of Darth Vader's servant.
  • In Knights of the Old Republic, you infiltrate the Sith Academy and meet a woman with a tragic past that made her receptive to the Sith philosophy. She was enslaved and abused. She finally escaped and originally trained as a Jedi. However, she wanted revenge for all that was done to her and other slaves. Here is part of the dialogue tree that leads to her beginning to question the ways of the Sith...
    Yuthura: I wanted to use the Force to free the other slaves I knew, to fight for what I knew was right. The Jedi restrained me until I couldn't stand it anymore. They claim the dark side is evil, but that isn't so. Sometimes anger and hatred are deserved and right. Sometimes things change because of it.
    Player Character: But not always. Mostly it makes things worse.
    Yuthura: Any failure to get the results I want is due to a lack of power on my part. That can change, in time. As a Sith, my mettle is tested far more than when I was a Padawan. I know this may sound strange, but only my compassion stands in my way, now. Once that is gone, let the slavers beware.
    Player Character: But... if you lose your compassion, will you still care about those slaves?
    Yuthura: [sounding unsure] I... yes, of course. I—I mean... losing my compassion as in... holding back...
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has a question that can be delivered as the punch line to a series of speeches to erode the will of The Dragon:
    The Exile: Sion... Your life... Was it worth living?
    Darth Sion: ...It was not. No matter how many Jedi I killed... No matter how many lay broken at my feet... The pain would not end. I am glad to be rid of this place.
• Tales Series
  • In Tales of Graces, Asbel's biggest Moment of Awesome comes when he asks "And Then What?" to the villain. The Final Boss is ranting about how humans are evil, and how he's going to kill them all. Asbel promptly turns this into an Armor-Piercing Question by asking "Okay, then what? If you kill everybody, you'll be totally alone, and you and everything in the entire world will die. You really want that?" The Big Bad is silent for a Beat, then basically throws a tantrum and begins the final boss battle proper. After defeating him, Asbel shows Lambda that there's another way by proving that Humans Are Special.
  • Tales of Symphonia:
    • Lloyd and the party confront Remiel on what it really means for Colette to become an angel, and Sheena reveals that she comes from another world parallel to Sylvarant. When Lloyd protests about the angel transformation, Remiel has this to say (to which Lloyd doesn't have an answer):
      Remiel: The sacrifice of one single person, the Chosen, will bring salvation to world. Are you saying you would choose one soul over the entire world?
    • The Big Bad also drops one on the party after The Reveal of who he really is, Lloyd gives a speech about how everyone who has been born should be allowed to live and nobody should be made into a sacrifice. The Big Bad, however, has a response to that which points out that Lloyd is a Hypocrite.
      Big Bad: "No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying?" What do you think those exspheres are that you're using?
  • Tales of Xillia:
    • King Gaius proves that one should not try to ask one of these questions to him by attempting to point out a hypocritical aspect of his actions. He will retort with one himself and it will work much better.
      Gaius: Yes, to try and live a satisfying life. How do you think one can achieve that? Do you even know?
      Jude: W-well...
    • Milla briefly gets Gaius to falter with such a question, suggesting that Gaius is Not So Stoic. During a Motive Rant, Gaius reveals that his plan is to gather all the world's superweapons to protect the weak and to keep the weapons out of the hands of those who would abuse them. Milla's response is "You're mortal. Which means one day, you're going to die, and the throne will be taken by someone else. How are you so sure the next guy who takes the throne will have the same ideals that you do?" Gaius has no response.
  • Tales of Vesperia.
    • Early on, Flynn asks Yuri if him quitting the knights changed anything. Yuri can't respond, simply leaving and admitting when he's alone that Flynn knows how to get to him, and that he's exactly right.
    • After witnessing Yuri kill Cumore, Flynn and him get into an argument over whether or not Yuri was justified in killing him. Near the end of the argument, Flynn tries asking him a question, but Yuri quickly defies this by giving him an answer that momentarily leaves him speechless.
      Flynn: So I'm supposed to sit by while you intend to dirty your hands?
      Yuri: Intend to? I already have!
    • Later on, at Nordipolica, as Yuri and Brave Vesperia flee the city after accidentally killing Belius, they get cornered by Flynn, who demands that they hand over Estelle, and Belius’ Cyano Ceil Crystal. Yuri calls him out on it, pointing out how he’s doing exactly what he was trying to prevent, by taking what they wanted by force, and asks him a question that Flynn is unable to answer.
      Yuri: How is this any different from what I’ve come to expect from the Empire?!
• ULTRAKILL: According to the secret level terminals, one of these was asked of God himself, by Lucifer no less; this mentally unbalanced the former so badly he cast the latter into Hell in an outburst he deeply regretted afterwards.
  Lucifer: FATHER, WHY ETERNAL TORMENT? IS IT NOT CRUEL? IS TORTURE UNENDING TRULY A FATE FIT FOR A FOOL?
• Undertale:
  • During Sans' judgement, if you've played through more than once and killed Papyrus he notices that you sometimes seem to know what will happen in advance and asks if you should use that power responsibly. If you answer "yes," he then asks "Then why'd you kill my brother?".
  • One is delivered by Chara at the end of the genocide route. While it sounds like more of a statement than a question, there's also a yes or no prompt.
    Chara: You want to go back. You want to go back to the world, you destroyed. It was you who pushed everything to its edge. It was you who led the world to its destruction... You think you are above consequences.
• Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider: During the dialogue before Moonrider fights Stormdiver, the latter calls out the former for staining his hands with the blood of patriots. Moonrider questions her if it's a good revolution when she has to oppress those who oppose her, and that her hands are even more soiled because of this. This causes her to hesitate in her response and internally question her motives to the point where she hightails it out of the fight instead of dying when beaten and later decides to save Moonrider after his Heroic Sacrifice in the ending.
  Stormdiver: You are trying to sully the Golden Revolution with your hands bloodied with patriots' blood.
  Moonrider: Is it that great a revolution if you must continuously oppress those who oppose you? Your hands are dirtier than mine.
  Stormdiver: It is... a small price to pay for order and peace.
• In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one possible encounter in Novigrad has a priest giving an anti-Witcher speech to an assembled crowd. One possible option is to ask the priest how many people he has saved from monsters. The priest is reduced to a stammering mess and, just to pile on the humiliation, his own crowd insults him and disperse. This causes him to send assassins after you later, but they're no real challenge so it's still worth it.
• World of Warcraft:
  • During the legendary quest chain in Mists of Pandaria, after you head off with Wrathion to use the Thunder Forge as part of your plan, he will ask you if you, by blindly trusting a black dragon in pursuit of power, are any different from Garrosh, who is the enemy of the Alliance and is quickly becoming the enemy to the Horde through his increasingly corrupt and immoral actions.
  • In the trailer for the Siege of Orgrimar patch, Taran Zhu confronts Garrosh, who tells him that he confronts a force beyond reckoning. Taran Zhu's answer visibly upsets the Warchief.
    "Your father dabbled in powers beyond reckoning. Where is he... now?"

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