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Brainwashed And Crazy / Video Games

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  • Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword: Eternity swords can be very difficult to handle properly. As evidence, Kyouko's mind is devoured by Void almost as soon as she gets it and at the end of the game the Shun that Yuuto once knew is dead, similarly devoured by The World.
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag provides the protagonist with a blowpipe that, among other things, can fire berserk darts, which cause the victim to go...berserk...and attack their own allies, then fall over dead when the effects wear off. The sequel, Assassin's Creed Rogue, ups the ante with berserk grenades, which release a gas that affects entire crowds, including civilians and even animals.
  • Battle for Wesnoth: In Under the Burning Suns, Kromph, a Flesh Golem that Kaleh's side unexpectedly gets control of, is mind-controlled by the Big Bad in the very next scenario into attacking the heroes.
  • Bayonetta: In the first game, it's revealed that Jeanne was brainwashed by the Big Bad, Father Balder, into being The Rival to Bayonetta in order to force her memories to return so that she would awaken the powers of the 'Left Eye of Darkness'. She's able to shake off the brainwashing, though, the moment before the big bad decided to dispose of her, and is able to escape her demise.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine: Alice "modifies" Boris, turning him into her brutish henchman and ordering him to kill Henry.
  • BioShock: Jack is programmed to find and kill his biological father. Is justified in that Atlas has manipulated him so well that his suggestions come across as reasonable, to the character and the player. Jack also hijacks and crashes a plane into the ocean, killing everyone else onboard, while brainwashed, although the programming appears to have made him forget this by the time the player gains control of him.
  • Black Desert Online: Chancellor Jordine goes out of his way to do this to himself (and combine it with Demonic Possession) in the interest of taking revenge against Calpheon. When you beat him up and snap him out of it, he's unapologetic.
  • BlazBlue has Tsubaki Yayoi, who performs a Face–Heel Turn after being mind-raped by Hazama and led to believe that her life and chance to be with her love are ruined by her best friend's very existence, so she sets out to remedy it. Thanks to said best friend, said love interest, and a mutual friend of all three, she returns to normal.
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: This is a risk for Shardbinders, as it's possible for their demonic power to overtake them, like what happens with the Big Bad Gebel who sides with the demon Gremory and leads the demonic attack on humanity. Miriam's whole reason for even getting involved is she and Gebel made a promise to each other that if one of them ever turned evil this way, the other would step in and stop them. It's later revealed Gremory is the reason Gebel turned, as she has the power to control Shardbinders. One of the bad endings in the game even involves Gebel dying, thanking Miriam for "doing the right thing", and then Gremory taking control of Miriam instead.
  • In Call of Duty: Black Ops, it is revealed that the player character, while interned in a labor camp, was mentally conditioned to seek out and kill the President of The United States when read a certain string of numbers. However, his unusual degree of willpower allowed him to resist... whereupon he was brainwashed into channeling the dying wishes of a Russian prisoner. Futhermore, he's one of hundreds of sleeper agents scattered across the United States, all of whom have similar programming. The icing on the cake is when, in the ending cutscene, it's implied that despite killing the man who imprisoned and hypnotized him, the player did end up succumbing to the conditioning and carrying out the assassination.
  • Happens a few times in Castlevania.
    • Richter Belmont in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It initially looks like a Face–Heel Turn since the character is known to be heroic, but later we learn that Shaft, thought to have perished in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, is able to return to life and brainwashes Richter to resurrect Dracula.
    • Hugh Baldwin in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Also a case of Rival Turned Evil: Hugh is resentful that his father chose his rival Nathan, the protagonist, as successor, and his pent-up jealousy makes him vulnerable to Dracula's influence, resulting in Nathan having to Beat the Curse Out of Him.
    • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: The boss Astarte can use charm magic to inflict this on Jonathan Morris (but the charm will pass harmlessly through Charlotte). There is also Stella and Loretta Lecarde, first thought to be a villain but turns out they were vampirized by Brauner who thought they were his daughters' reincarnations.
  • Crash Bandicoot:
    • In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Crunch is brainwashed by Cortex to work with the Elementals and try to kill Crash.
    • In Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Crunch, Coco and Fake Crash are brainwashed by N. Trance into trying to kill Crash.
    • In Crash Nitro Kart, N. Trance brainwashes Polar, Pura and Dingodile to form a race team to put against the Bandicoot.
    • In Crash of the Titans, Coco is brainwashed to work on the Doominator (thus trying to wipe out Wumpa Island...and kill Crash).
    • In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Crunch, Coco, and a lot of mutants are brainwashed with the NVs to turn evil...and try to kill Crash.
      • Let's do some Maths; not counting the mutants, there have been TEN cases of brainwashing, SIX individuals involved, across FIVE games, with TWO of the individuals being brainwashed and crazy THREE times. This does not take into consideration all the mutants in the lattermost game, which could make the individuals and cases into the hundreds or thousands. Oh, and we haven't even mentioned the whole deal with the Cortex Vortex and Cortex Commandos. If Code Geass is "Brainwashed: the Anime", Crash Bandicoot is easily "Brainwashed and Crazy: the Game"
  • Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories: The sad thing about Shura and Serion is that the seal placed on them by Imposter Zenon caused them to forget the very promise they made to their son, Adell — the long-reaching psychological damage that caused him to be lifebound to every promise he makes, as well as the denial about his demon heritage. The few moments of lucidity they get to enjoy from then on out are used to help Adell carry on where they failed and ask for a Mercy Kill; otherwise they are completely bound to their new master's whims. To this day Adell still does not know that they are his parents; whether or not the others do is up to NIS to decide, but if the truth ever comes out, it won't be pretty.
  • It's hinted that this was Sergeant Kelly's fate in Doom³. Before you were sent to Hell, Kelly gave you the mission to use a card with a plead for reinforcement to Mars. After either you send the message or not, Kelly orders you to get yourself to the Delta Labs and meet him there, so that both he and you can take care of the portal. When you're there, he's nowhere to be seen and you have to take care of the portal yourself. Once you came back from Hell, you no longer have radio contact with him, and later, you find out that Kelly had become a monster named Sabaoth. Whether he was allied with the demons in the first place or was simply brainwashed is unknown, but it should be the latter, since he seemed bent on defeating the demons, and Dr. Betruger was shown to transform marines into elite demons.
  • Double Dragon III for the NES: Kidnapping Marian? Didn't work. Killing her? Again, didn't work. So, the Black Warriors' third plan involves kidnapping, brainwashing, and eventually siccing her on the titular heroes.
  • In the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series, the Time Breakers can subject others to brainwashing that makes them more powerful and more violent. So potent is their brainwashing that it can even turn Mr. Satan into a legitimate threat! In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, this can also happen to the players during Expert Missions, causing the player to lose control of their character as their bodies attack their allies. They can break free of the brainwashing by either beating the evil influence out of them, or having a teammate beat some sense back into them.
  • Happens by accident in Drakensang: the Dragon Carbuncle you give to the Dwarf King Arombolosch turns out to be infested by a Demon, which eventually takes over the dwarf king, forcing you to defeat him in battle.
  • Dynamite Headdy has four bosses that have keys on them. It turned out that Dark Demon/ Smiley brainwashed them into going after Headdy.
  • Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: One application of the Arcdra esper power is to mind control them. This is used in Chapter 2 when Clyde brainwashes Rosie into calling Runi and getting the location of the rebels. Unfortunately, this process leaves the target braindead.
  • The climax of Luminous Horizon, the final chapter of the Earth and Sky series, has Austin and Emily facing off against their parents, equipped with the prototypes of their super-suits, who are under the mind control of the alien antagonists.
  • Eternal Twilight: The Blood Magi have the ability to revive the dead into a seemingly living state, all while controlling them. Verona, Zaryte, and Devi are killed by the Blood Council and revived as bosses for the party to defeat. Miranda was revived so that the Blood Magi have a means of infiltrating the Enclave and stealing the COSMOS relic.
  • In Everlong, the main character (or rather, the character you started off as) was taken over by the evil spirits planted within him and ends up trying to kill his friends... four times.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Giant Fist: The mysterious bracelet does this to every animal in its range as well as to people descended from a certain ancient race.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy IV:
      • Three characters in qualify. Kain becomes mind-controlled by the villain Golbez. Although he later breaks free of Golbez's control and joins the party, still later in the game Golbez again takes control of him. This leads to Kain breaking free yet again at the time that Golbez is revealed to have been mind-controlled all along by the game's real villain, Zemus. Kain and Golbez were mind-controlled actually relied on their internal weaknesses. Golbez exploited Kain's jealousy, which led to his brainwashing, while Golbez's weakness was his own self-loathing, which was how Zemus brainwashed him. Also unlike other examples, they also feel regret because it WAS their own weaknesses that led to their mind control.
      • Though a case of mind control, at one point in the game Yang winds up with amnesia after being separated from the party and is recruited into Baron's guards. Being defeated by the party serves to cures him and he rejoins.
    • Final Fantasy VII: Cloud Strife, at the point in the game that the party has acquired the Black Materia needed to summon Meteor (Doomsday Spell), gets his mind broken by Sephiroth. Not only does he hand the Black Materia over to the original One-Winged Angel, but he also beats the tar out of Aerith, the one person who could stop Meteor once it was summoned. This happens again later on when Cloud nearly kills Aerith himself, only to snap himself out of it at the last second.
    • Final Fantasy XIV:
      • Primals, godlike beings made of aether, brainwash anyone they come in contact with known as tempering. Once someone is tempered, they completely lose their sense of self and do their primal's bidding. This can be extremely dangerous since a tempered person can attack innocents or steal crystals to give their primal more energy. Only death can sever the victim's link to the primal. In the later patches of Shadowbringers, the Scions discover a cure for tempering based on their experience with the sin eaters and the notes of an Allagan scientist, permitting hope to an end to primal summoning and allowing for peace talks with the beast tribes.
      • Near the climax of the Shadowbringers story, the citizens in Eulmore start acting strangely and then attack the protagonists. It's soon discovered that Vauthry was able to mind control his people by having them continuously eat a specific food that is made out of sin eater flesh.
      • In the later patches of Shadowbringers, the rogue Ascian Fandaniel constructs towers across the Source that temper anyone in close proximity to them to become devoted to the Garlean Empire. Said towers also hold captive beastmen that summon “lunar” versions of previously-fought primals to fight for Garlemald, but unlike previous primals, they lack the ability to temper people.
    • Dissidia Final Fantasy:
      • has Jecht, and the prequel Duodecim has Tidus, Terra, and reveals that in the original, Kuja was this as well. One wonders if Chaos just has recruiting problems or something.
      • Averted, however, with Cloud, who is simply doing his job, until Sephiroth attacks Tifa in an attempt to get Cloud to fight him. He defects in time for the last cycle.
    • Final Fantasy Tactics A2 does this for Adelle in one of the late story missions and Luso has to talk to her several times in a battle to help her regain her senses.
  • This is a rather common plot device in a variety of Fire Emblem games.
    • The effect of the aptly named Berserk Staff is this. It's usually enemy-only, but in Genealogy of Holy War, if Sylvia didn't have children, you can get Sharlow, and if you also recruit his adoptive father, they can talk, and Sharlow will get the staff. (Time to have fun with the Demonic Spider. Enjoy.) Also, in the Jugdral games there is a sword that has the same effect as the Berserk Staff, but doesn't cause the insanity as much, and often times is pointless — enemies with or hit by the sword are still at range 1 when the effect kicks in, often attacking the sword wielder again.
  • Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem has four priestesses, Maria, Lena, Elice and Nyna brainwashed to serve as sacrifices to the Final Boss, Medeus the Shadow Dragon, however their loved ones manage to snap. them out. Also exclusively in the remake, ' Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem, Eremiya, is revealed to have been a brainwashed victim of Gharnef Evil Sorcerer without any foreshadowing.
    • In the last chapter of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Archbishop Manfroy kidnaps Julia and brainwashes her to attack your army. Since Julia is necessary for defeating the final boss, you must carefully distract her without killing her while sending the rest of your army to assassinate Manfroy and free her.
    • In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, a captured Mareeta was given a cursed sword that consumes her mind and turns her into a battle-crazed swordswoman that attacks even her own adoptive mother Eyvel. When she joins for good, she gains control over the sword, renames it "Mareeta's Sword" and breaks the game with it until she breaks it.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Ninian is brainwashed while in an Heroic BSoD into almost opening the Dragon's Gate, which would bring The End of the World as We Know It. Nils, her little brother, snaps her out of it.
    • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, it is revealed out of nowhere that Aversa, the sole female character in the Religion of Evil, was kidnapped victim of the cult, whom they subsequently brainwashed to use as a Honey Trap, similar to Eremiya.
    • This is a favorite tactic of Anankos, the Greater-Scope Villain of Fire Emblem Fates.
      • Before the game's events, Anankos had King Garon of Nohr killed and replaced with a monster loyal to him. He then had Garon kill King Sumeragi of Hoshido, and raised both him and Garon's second wife/Azura's mother Arete from the dead as his mindless servants.
      • In the Birthright route, Takumi falls into the Bottomless Canyon and is placed under Anankos' thrall. Fortunately for him, Azura gets to him quickly enough to snap him out of it. It flares up again towards the end, but Azura breaks him out permanently this time.
      • In the Conquest route, Anankos gets Takumi again. This time, however, there's no Azura to save him, and said brainwashing ultimately costs him his sanity and his life.
      • In the Revelation route, Sumeragi and Arete are both properly revealed to the heroes. In addition, Anankos brings back Mikoto and Scarlet to serve as his minions and possesses Gunter the same way he got Takumi in the other routes; this time, it's Corrin who brings him back to his senses.
    • In Fire Emblem Heroes, it's said that the members of the Royal House of the Emblian Empire are susceptible to fall victim to sort of evil influence that has plagued the royal family for generations. Two of the Emblian royals are seen, and they both manifest this brainwashing in different ways: the Dark Magical Girl Veronica says that she sometimes hears a voice that speaks to her and compels her to "kill", whereas the "Mysterious Man" (later revealed to be Veronica's missing older brother, Prince Bruno) seems to be fully aware of it and actively trying to fight it, and even warns the heroes to stay away from him.
  • In the "Rebirth" expansion for First Encounter Assault Recon this trope is applied to the Player Character. You end up losing contact with your squad and fighting ghosts, only to find that the "ghosts" were your squad, who're now trying to cure the crazy the only way they know how (i.e. euthanasia). The rest of the game consists of fighting past them so you can become the new Paxton Fettal.
  • In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn:
  • Hearts Like Clockwork: The Dominator miniboss will brainwash Rin's partner, requiring Rin to defeat the robot to free her friend. Weaker Dominators later show up as regular enemies that can inflict confusion.
  • In Kingdom of Paradise, it is said that only the Ruthless Clans and the Kirin Lord can induce Chi Disruption on anyone, which is basically this trope. Sui Lin becomes victim to this... twice. The first time this happens is in the Old Mine in Southern Suzaku, where she displays Mind-Control Eyes, giggles madly and attacks Shinbu while "declaring" that she loves him. She ends up at the Suzaku throne room where Lord Xiuk Yu was able to suppress the Chi Disruption. However, this was only a temporary measure, as Sui Lin can only be freed from mind control if the user decides. If this keeps up, Sui Lin could die. The second time this happens ends up being a Hoist by His Own Petard: It turns out that Lord Jok Xiu was controlling Sui Lin to try to get the clan swords before the Kirin got their hands on them. Under the influence of Chi Disruption, Sui Lin ends up killing Jok Xiu with the Byakko Clan Sword. After the act was committed, Sui Lin breaks down before being taken away by the Kirin.
  • The King of Fighters:
    • This is the reason why Kyo's father Saisyu is seen as heDragon to Rugal Berstein in The King of Fighters '95. You have to fight and defeat to get him out of such a state.
    • In the KOF: KYO manga, this happens to Kyo Kusanagi himself, as during a fight with Iori he falls in a frenzied state that's actually Kyo's own version of the Riot of the Blood; Athena says he's "entranced by Orochi" and both Mature and Vice confirm this to Iori and Billy, though unlike Iori and Leona's completely savage states, Kyo is in an Orochi-empowered Tranquil Fury. Saisyu is the one who snaps him out of it via fighting Kyo on his own and reminding him of his purpose in life.
    • In the Tales of Ash saga, this happens to both Chizuru Kagura in 2003 and Rugal's daughter Rose in XI. More exactly, both are controlled as a sort of People Puppets by Botan from Those of the Past. Chizuru is recovering almost at the end of 2003, right before the fight against Mukai; Rose remains like this and is freed only at the end of XIII.
  • Edgar in King's Quest VII, though he's stalling as much as he can.
  • King Dedede tends to get brainwashed often by the Eldritch Abomination of the week in the Kirby series (or in another case, a spider-like being).
    • Meta Knight tends to suffer from this, but less commonly. The most notable example is when Meta Knight was brainwashed into becoming Mecha Knight. Kirby returns Meta Knight to his senses by breaking the Mecha Knight mask. In fact, Forgotten Land reveals that he outright managed to avoid being recruited onto the Beast Pack just by using sheer Heroic Willpower to overcome Fecto Forgo's mind control.
    • Taranza becomes a victim of this in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe via the Black Mirror, controlled by King D-Mind and Dark Taranza. It's not until Team Kirby defeats King D-Mind and destroys the Black Mirror that he returns to his senses. This is also heavily implied to be the case in Super Kirby Clash, most likely of Parallel Nightmare.
    • Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Aside from King Dedede as per usual (this time with the experience being darker than usual with us experiencing Dedede gradually go insane and devolve in a violent animal), there's also Leongar, the leader of the Beast Pack. He's the only member of the Beast Pack to speak English (all the other members make animalistic noises, which, according to one of Clawroline's Figures, is natural for them), which is a sign that he is not normal. It then turns out that he is brainwashed by Fecto Forgo; when he first discovered them, it caused him to speak English and made him form the Beast Pack. He's thankfully freed from their control for good in the post-game.
  • Knights of Ambrose: Even without the Vulcan Stone, Lilith's master Zamas can manipulate people by acting as a compelling voice in their head, driving them to insanity and making them believe they want to do his bidding. He corrupts Typhus, Morgoth, Phoenix, and Tiamat this way.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Cynder is the unfortunate victim of this by the Dark Master. He had her kidnapped and brainwashed her into his loyal and powerful (and also literal) Dragon. Spyro finally beats her and returns her to her normal self, but she's so guilty over what she did that it haunts her most of the series. Then in the Grand Finale, Malefor uses a Hannibal Lecture to confuse her enough for him to brainwash her again to turn her against Spyro. Thankfully, she's saved this time by the Power of Love.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Everyone (or at least, all of Bowser's troops and all the native wildlife). Fawful managed to hypnotise or mind control just about everyone in sight to worship him as some of celebrity/deity cross before physically altering their appearances to look exactly like himself, with the same creepy Slasher Smile and green colouring. You can even save the Chain Chomps from this fate by vacuuming away the parasites controlling them.
  • This is known as indoctrination in the Mass Effect universe. Spend enough time in the presence of a Reaper, and you will succumb to its will permanently. More horribly, it's implied that you are fully conscious of the effect, but can't do a thing about it. This is also known as "a sour note from space", with which Sovereign compelled the ancient rachni into fighting a Bug War until they became (almost) extinct.
    • Don't think of Reaper indoctrination as mind control; think of it as someone forcefully destroying your free will. The worst part is that Reapers usually have it happen slowly: most of the time, their victim doesn't even realize they're being manipulated, and think that these thoughts, which just happen to help the Reapers, are their own and are perfectly reasonable.
    • The Leviathan has a similar ability: the difference is that the Leviathan's mind control isn't permanent (it only lasts as long as the Leviathan is directly thinking about it), and it doesn't necessarily destroy a person's mental faculties (although it certainly can). Since the Reapers were built in the image of the Leviathans, their indoctrination is a more advanced and developed form of the Leviathan's control.
    • Jack, aka Subject Zero, is a more direct version of this Trope in Mass Effect 2. She was injected with drugs as a kid to equate killing with pleasure.
    • In a strange twist, you can get this ability. If you side with Morinth, you can learn her loyalty ability, Dominate. It stuns enemies, gives them a biotic shield, and makes them attack their allies for a few seconds before they come to their senses. Essentially, it's AI hacking, but for organic opponents.
    • In Mass Effect 3, it's revealed that Cerberus troops are Indoctrinated and have been implanted with Reaper technology, making them appear semi-Huskified. The Illusive Man has also fallen under the spell of Indoctrination, which you can make him realise at the end of the game.
    • Somewhat subverted with Kai Leng. Despite being heavily Indoctrinated, it hasn't appeared to have altered his personality whatsoever.
  • Mega Man has the robot masters reprogrammed to fight alongside Wily, but Mega Man puts a stop to Wily's schemes.
    • In another case, Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch V 5 B onward has Wily using a device to reprogram the robot masters from the first and sixth games again so that Mega Man would not die. The device is used on the player as well, but before this can complete, Mega Man uses the last of his strength with the Super Arm to completely destroy the device, freeing the player from Wily's grasp.
    • In Mega Man Super Fighting Robot, Proto Man seems to be the main villain like Mega Man 5, but unlike Mega Man 5, Wily had brainwashed Proto Man into turning against the heroes. He comes to his senses after Mega Man defeats him.
  • Venus, from the non-canonical Metal Gear Ac!d 2, attempts to kill Snake 2.0 after recovering the Lucindia File because Wiseman ordered her to, and it is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that Wiseman removed her free will when creating her, meaning she really did not have any other choice but to comply.
    • In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, there is Null, the Perfect Soldier: He used to be a war orphan named Frank Jaeger, but he ended up taken by CIA agents from a relief center as a test subject. As he was the only surviving and successful test subject, Null had no emotions, doubts or even memories, and presumably no free will, as he had only one purpose: to complete the mission.
  • Metal Slug 6 has one mini boss fight where you have to fight one of the other playable characters who is brainwashed by aliens.
  • Monark has Kurama Hitotsubashi, the Pactbearer of Pride. His Deal with the Devil Superbia grants him biokinesis, the ability to manipulate the human body. It both gives him a Healing Factor and the ability to manipulate people's minds to be completely and slavishly subservient to him. He uses the latter to make almost all the 3rd year students in the Main Building obey him and praise him as the Student Council President.
  • Moshi Monsters has a downplayed example in one of the missions. The villain mesmerizes a university's students and they do go a bit insane, breaking items and making a mess, but they don't actually hurt or kill anyone.
  • Mother 3 combines this with Cybernetics Eat Your Soul for a truly tear-jerking example: Lucas's twin brother, Claus, goes missing early on in the game after leaving to avenge the death of their mother. Three years later, while Lucas is on his journey to save the world, they encounter a masked man on multiple occasions. This man is completely subject to Porky's control, commands the army of Pigmasks, and has the ability to pull the Seven Needles just like Lucas can. After six of them are pulled, Lucas and the Masked Man confront each other in front of the seventh. The Masked Man is revealed to be none other than a thoroughly brainwashed Claus.
    The Masked Man removed his mask
    His face looked just like Lucas's
    It was Claus.
    • In general, the humanoid and some of the animal enemies in the Mother series are suffering this, leading them to attack the party. Once defeated, they "turn back to normal" or "regain all senses."
  • In NieR: Automata, this is what happens to any android or robot afflicted with the Logic Virus. They go crazy and attack absolutely everyone, leaving their friends and allies in despair.
  • Ninja Battle Heroes: Most of the Boss Fights are against members of the Beast Brigade who were placed under Mind Control. Saizo needs to beat them to snap them out of it.
  • No Umbrellas Allowed: In 2037, the Corporate Republic of Bluebird invented attachable microchips called "Potato Chips", which they claimed that they improve the host's behavior and cognitive skills. Implanting a Potato Chip on a sentient being makes them obey any command without question, and countless humans were enslaved this way until 2060, when the Anti-Chippie Act made it illegal. Despite that, Bluebird releases a new chip called the New People Chip, which implants new personalities and memories into the person. In certain routes, Yeongmi Mo is also revealed to be the vice president of Good Fixies Inc., which supplies Bluebird with Fixies, or those who had their emotions suppressed by the Fixer drug, for its citizens to attach these new chips onto them.
  • Overwatch has Widowmaker, a cold-blooded and heartless assassin who was once known as Amélie Lacroix, a perfectly sweet innocent civilian. However, she was married to high-ranking Overwatch member Gérard Lacroix, who foiled the schemes of terrorist organization Talon at every turn. So instead of fighting him head-on, they instead kidnapped his wife, and subjected to her intense brainwashing, neural reconditioning, torture, and the complete obliteration of her original personality, and then returned her (seemingly) unchanged as a sleeper agent, who killed him in his sleep soon after. Afterwards, they completed the process and turned her into the perfect weapon for assassination through means of biological alteration. There is little to be left of the old Amélie at this point, making her one of the most tragic characters in a game that's not lacking in tragedy.
  • In Phantasy Star Online 2, there's the Absolute Order/Code ABYSS. When used by one of the Three Heroes (Regius, Casra II and Klariskrays III), it forces all ARKS agents to drop what they're doing and follow the order given by the three. Regius uses this to force all of ARKS to go after the Player Character and kill you after being given falsified evidence from Luther. Thankfully, there are a few failsafes in place in case of going power-mad... like the other half of the Council of Six and their hidden seven member.
  • A significant gameplay and story consideration in Phantom Doctrine: any agent you hire, and any agent that you "lose track of" for any reason, may be brainwashed by your enemies, which effects including informing on your activities (making them more dangerous), turning against you during combat or an infiltration, or even sabotaging your base of operations. Canonically, in the CIA storyline, Fender is this when you meet him. However, you get the opportunity to turn the tables by building the MKULTRA Facility, which allows you to interrogate and brainwash enemy agents to work for you in the same way (though you have to steal the enemy brainwashing technology to do so). Double and Triple Agents are possible, and killing captured agents quickly becomes a waste of resources.
  • ''Pokémon:
    • The main villain of Pokémon Sun and Moon, Lusamine, gets hit with this bad. She's infected with the toxin of UB-01 Symbiote, a.k.a. Nihilego, which causes those it infects to become aggressive towards those around them and protective towards the creature itself. The infection, combined with unresolved grief after her husband went missing, caused Lusamine became controlling and abusive towards her children, Lillie and Gladion, until they ran away from home; by the end of the game, her obsession has become so great that she willingly fuses with one of them, creating one of the most horrifying entities ever seen in the series. Oh, and the ending implies that she may have been at least partially conscious throughout all of this, and that she is horrified by what she did in this state. However, in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, this was removed, with Lusamine wanting to defeat Necrozma. Her Mother Beast form is never fought, and the battle is replaced with Necrozma, who subjects Solgaleo/Lunala under Necrozma's control to fuse into Necrozma's new forme. Solgaleo/Lunala comes to its senses after defeating Ultra Necrozma.
    • The Mythical Pokèmon Pecharunt has the ability to mind control anyone or anything that eats the poisoned mochi that it creates, although it is partially Played for Laughs since in addition to becoming violently aggressive, anyone controlled by Pecharunt has all of their speech replaced by the word "mochi" (except Nemona, who is so battle-crazy that she is able to talk somewhat normally but with some added mochi-fied flavor) and constantly perform a frenetic chicken dance. In the post-game of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the player and Kieran are forced to quell an outbreak of mochi madness when they accidentally reawaken Pecharunt with the Mythical Pecha Berry and it starts wreaking havoc across Kitakami.
  • Punky Skunk: On the last island, Punky learns that Nash has been controlled by a machine made by Badler and Nash uses his latest invention to try to defeat Punky. Once Nash has been defeated, the machine will be destroyed and Nash will go back to his old self.
  • RealityMinds: Kvena has the ability to brainwash people into acting violently, as shown when she brainwashes Silvana into attacking Arkeld village, Astrake, and Udir. Later, she tries to brainwash Astrake into attacking Silvana, and then sics a brainwashed Udir on them. This is distinct from her possession ability, since possessing someone doesn't override their will.
  • In Resident Evil 5, Jill Valentine is captured by Albert Wesker and brainwashed through a device attached to her chest that pumps some sort of mind-control drug into her. She is then set on Chris and Sheva and does her best to kill them. Among other things, the device/drug allows her to run up walls and do insane mid-air stunts. She also gets a vinyl body suit.
  • Ristar has the manual state that the leaders are brainwashed by Greedy to do his bidding. In reality, though, some of the bosses are sent by Greedy, for instance Riho, who controls the Elder who sent Ristar, and the only boss that Greedy does brainwash is Adahan, who gets an armor while he is brainwashed. According to the credits in the Genesis version, after Adahan's defeat, the other moles glare at Adahan.
  • In Sands of Destruction, Morte ends up this way briefly, under the mind control of a certain Beastlord. The ensuing fight will net you a Nonstandard Game Over if you accidentally kill your companion.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse: On the Anarchy route, Dagda resurrects and brainwashes two people to serve Nanashi; Flynn becomes his Godslayer, and a partner of Nanashi's choice becomes the Goddess to Nanashi's Top God. Flynn devotes his entire existence to slaying Nanashi's enemies, and the Goddess throws away whatever hopes, dreams, or ideals they had, all for Nanashi's sake. Best shown when the survivors of Tokyo rally to stop Nanashi; it is possible to have Flynn and the Goddess kill the people they previously swore to protect.
  • The "Story" mode of Sonic Pinball Party begins with Dr. Robotnik having kidnapped Sonic the Hedgehog's companions, Tails and Amy, and hypnotized them against him. This leads to Tails and Amy acting violent towards Sonic and having red eyes and a Slasher Smile. Knuckles is the only one not to fall under this, as he simply wants to beat Sonic. Sonic is able to snap Tails and Amy out of the trance by beating them.
  • Splatoon
    • Splatoon 2:
      • Callie is brainwashed by DJ Octavio and his "hypnoshades", complete with an Evil Costume Switch. She comes to her senses after Marie shoots the shades off with her Hero Charger.
      • Agent 3 also shares a similar fate in the Octo Expansion DLC when they are partially sanitized by Commander Tartar, and forced to fight Agent 8.
    • Splatoon 3: In the Side Order DLC, Marina ends up brainwashed by Order in hopes of using her as a host to better warp the Memverse for its own ends. Once the player defeats her, she comes back to her senses.
  • Strictly speaking, the Zerg in the original StarCraft are this, as the Xel'Naga specifically, Amon instilled them with an overriding biological imperative to absorb the genetic potential of other species into their own, whereas they were previously peaceful and harmless worms low on the food chain of their homeworld — no, this isn't a spoiler, it's All There in the Manual. Kerrigan in another example, for she was forcibly infested and transformed into a Zerg agent of Amon against her will. StarCraft II reveals that the Overmind actually orchestrated his own death and groomed Kerrigan as his successor in order to finally grant the Zerg true free will, as she was not hampered by the same imperative.
  • In Star Ocean, Erys was kidnapped, had her memories repressed, and brainwashed into becoming an assassin.
  • This happens to the Romulan player character in Star Trek Online, who due to bad luck with an Iconian portal ends up falling into the Tal Shiar's hands and ends up a test-subject for brainwashing into a loyal agent. Fortunately, you get broken out of it before they do any real damage — a deep-cover agent of the Republic manipulates the intricacies of what the brainwashing does to trick you into letting him un-brainwash you while you're still in the 'testing out how well the brainwashing took' stage of the process, and while you did some seriously bad stuff, they were bad stuff that would have happened (and just as easily) anyway — the only reason why you specifically is tapped to help put together a Thalaron weapon and implant Borg devices into a captive until she becomes a drone is to test how well the brainwashing took.
  • A strange example in Star Wars: The Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic. It's revealed in Revan, the prequel novel to the latter that the real reason that Revan and Malak originally fell to the Dark Side was the result of torture and mind-control at the hands of the Sith Emperor, being sent back as vanguards for the Sith Empire's invasion, but with no memory of the event. In Revan's case, this ironically ended up being broken when the Jedi also tried to brainwash him, causing the latter brainwashing not to entirely stick.
    • In the Foundry Flashpoint for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Revan is (possibly) implied to have undergone this again in the three centuries they've been held in stasis and tortured by the Emperor. His plan was to use the Foundry to create an army of Droids that will wipe out all those with Sith DNA, accounting for 98% of the Sith Empire (and a large amount of individuals in the Republic as well). It's left vague whether Revan's plan is due to Sanity Slippage or if he might not be entirely correct about resisting the Emperor's control.
  • The pyramid in Stationfall slowly turns all machinery, intelligent or not, against their creators. And that includes your Robot Buddy, Floyd.
  • In Street Fighter Alpha, this happens to many characters. More exactly, there are two big cases:
    • The whole deal with Bison's Bodyguard Babes the Dolls relays on a group of teenage girls from all over the world being kidnapped and subjected to this treatment to end up as an Amazon Brigade. Only when one of them (Cammy, Bison's Opposite-Sex Clone) starts breaking through, and the survival instincts of two Dolls (Juni and Juli) prove to be stronger than the brainwashing, the whole plan begins to crumble down. However, it takes much more than mere defusing to get them back to something similar to normalcy, as in the Street Fighter IV Juri OVA we see that the girls must receive extensive medical treatment in Shadaloo capsules. Later, T. Hawk and Cammy's paths reveal that Juli has become an Empty Shell Emotionless Girl and Juni is amnesiac in a British hospital; while it's not certain that the first will ever get better, the second is in her path to a slow but sure recovery.
    • Midway through Alpha 3, several story paths intersect thanks to this trope. Ryu is captured by Bison to become his "host body", then is infused forcibly with the Psycho Drive's energy and ends up like this. Sagat is horrified when he finds out, has a Heel Realization and tries to snap Ryu out of his state; meanwhile, Ryu's friends Ken and Sakura fight Bison off. It takes both Sagat's prodding and Sakura being seriously injured by Bison to fully get Ryu defused.
    • To a smaller degree, there's also Ken being caught and brainwashed by Bison in Ryu's path, in a Shout-Out to the animated movie.
  • The majority of Count Bleck's direct army in Super Paper Mario are minions of Bowser's, working under Bleck courtesy of Nastasia and her mind-controlling powers. The most notable use of her powers is using them on Luigi and giving him a Paper-Thin Disguise, resulting in Mr. L.
    • During Chapter 5, the Floro Sapiens are using "Floro Sprouts" to enslave the Cragnons into working for them and their. A rare non-malevolent example (or at least not entirely), since their primary reason for doing this is to stop the Cragnons from polluting the river the Floro Sapiens need to survive. Dimentio also employs one to use on O'Chunks near the end of the Chapter, resulting in "O'Cabbage", and he later uses another on Luigi in order to fuse with him and the Chaos Heart to turn into Super Dimentio.
  • Happens with disturbing regularity in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, with Kusuha, Excellen, and Seolla. Along with Ouka, Ingram, Tenzan (Even though he starts crazy), Tenzan again. And let's not get into the times it happens in a Humongous Mecha series, and is replayed in one of the other SRW games...
    • Original Generation Gaiden adds more people in this trope: Shouko, Lamia and Fernando (Though Fernando has actually fallen into this trope since his debut in Compact 3)
    • Happens to Touma in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, though it's not like he's subjected into brainwashing by the enemy. Using his mecha's system too much caused him to gain an Ax-Crazy version of Mind-Control Eyes, and he went really berserk as if the system brainwashes him... all because he's pumped with too much hot blood essences.
    • And apparently, the first Banpresto Original to receive this treatment was Tytti Noorbuck in Super Robot Wars Gaiden.
    • Also happens to Brooklyn Luckfield (aka: Bullet) in Alpha 2.
  • The concept is referenced in Mewtwo's Classic Mode route in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, fittingly titled 'Psychic Control'. In each round, Mewtwo fights alongside an ally fighter who was an opponent in the previous match, each of whom has a history with being manipulated in some form in their home franchises (such as Richter Belmont, Cloud and Pit).
  • Sword of the Stars II reveals that the Screamers are actually Morrigi who were turned against their own by Suul'ka.
  • Taiko no Tatsujin: Alumi from Dodon~! to Nidaime! is brainwashed by her creator, Dr. Waruru, into wreaking havoc on the festival and fighting her friends. Don manages to bring her back to her senses, but she stops functioning as a result of her defeat.
  • Early on in Tales of the Abyss, Guy gets stuck with a Curse Slot that allows the bad guys to control his actions. Later on they activate it, causing Guy to get Mind-Control Eyes and attack Luke. However, this is revealed to be a subversion of this trope's usual modus operandi: the Curse Slot cannot control a person's actions; rather it manipulates the person by stirring up certain memories. Long story short, Guy would never have attacked Luke unless, at some point in time, he wanted to kill Luke.
  • In Vanguard Bandits, this is the special power of the Zulwarn ATAC. Falkner uses it in three of the endings: in the main "good" ending, he uses it on several of the minor heroes, forcing the heroes to sacrifice their friends for freedom; in the main "bad" ending, he hits Bastion with it, forcing him to attack his allies; and in the Cecelia ending, he attempts to use it on Cecelia as punishment for her Heel–Face Turn = which torques off Bastion and causes his ATAC, Ultragunner, to blast Falkner with a counterattack.
  • In the Virtua Fighter anime and games, Sarah Bryant is kidnapped and brainwashed by the Judgment 6 organization into attacking her brother Jacky and (in the anime) their friends Pai and Akira.
  • Warframe: An accident in the Void drove all the adults on the Zariman 10-0 insane, while the children gained incredible Void powers and eventually became the Tenno. Rell, an autistic boy, seems to believe that the adults have been possessed by a Void entity that he later names the Man in the Wall. Whether he's right or not is unclear.
    Rell's Mother: [wielding a knife] Mama's here.
    Rell: Mmm. Not mama... not anymore. Mmm. Something... else. Haven't figured it out yet...
  • In The World Ends with You, multiple characters are brainwashed into attacking the main character; some of them, admittedly, already had done that once, but this time it was against their will. To list a few: Shiki, Uzuki, and Kariya.
  • World of Warcraft has been big on this ever since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, filling much of Northrend with mysterious whispers in certain locations; turns out the uniting element is the Saronite Ore being mined in all these locations provides a direct link to its creator, the Old God Yogg-Saron. He's managed to Mind Screw everyone from newly-arrived homesteaders from the rest of Azeroth all the way up to his own Titan-appointed jail keepers through his years-long mental barrages.
    • This is a major fight mechanic in the Yogg-Saron encounter. You start with a sanity meter at 100, depleting when you suffer from Yogg-Saron's various maddening abilities or stare directly at the laughing skulls within the hallucinations inside his mind. If it goes to zero or you remain trapped inside his head when the hallucination sequences end, you go mad for the remainder of the battle, attacking your allies. The players who suffer from this even perceive their allies as faceless horrors while Yogg-Saron whispers his insane drivel to them! This insanity persists even if they die and get resurrection during the fight by their allies, only destroying Yogg-Saron or a complete raid wipe removes this madness.
    • The Sha in Mists of Pandaria use this. They feed on and exploit specific dark emotions, allowing them to drive a mortal mad and eventually controlling their actions through the emotion. The Sha of Fear was perhaps the most successful, managing to take control of nearly the entire Mantid swarm.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, after being kidnapped, the next time you see Mokuba, he's been brainwashed by Reshef. Kaiba won't duel him, so your character does instead.
    • The ending reveals Pegasus was under Reshef's control the entire time.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule GB, Seto Kaiba and his subordinates have been brainwashed by the Millennium Ring.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour, Para, Dox, and Pegasus were mind-controlled by Noah. After the brainwashing wears off, they become friendly to the player.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM has an unusual example for a Yu-Gi-Oh game in that you get brainwashed and are forced to attack your friends, along with the usual plot of your friends being brainwashed to attack you.

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