Its Personal / Video Games

Things getting personal in video games.

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• It's a common enough multiplayer game trick to have allies beat all the mooks on the way to some huge big bad monster, but that monster you must defeat alone (so you get to win a quest at a lower level than would be doable alone, get powerful and untradable monster drops, or make a memorable revenge video against some enemy gang). Bonus points if both gangs are into roleplaying enough to stand aside while 2 people duel it out without interference.
• Abyss Crossing: The Dark Astra Mona framed Mikoto and Inari for murder in their home village, and they have a personal grudge against him for that.
• American McGee's Alice: The Mad Hatter trampled your friend the White Rabbit into the ground, causing Alice to break down... and when the Queen of Hearts slaughtered the Cheshire Cat, you knew Alice was going to break her into pieces.
• Assassin's Creed. Every. Single. Game.
  • Assassin's Creed: Robert De Sable defeats Altaïr in combat and thus making him fail his task and lose his rank. Although Altaïr realises he was arrogant and he himself was the main reason for his failure. Still, it's VERY personal.
  • Assassin's Creed II: Templars kill half of Ezio's family which gives Ezio motivation for 3/4 of the game.
  • Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: Yet again, Templars strike against what is valuable to Ezio. This time it's his uncle Mario, and the whole town you spent the previous game in.
  • Assassin's Creed: Revelations: This is the first Assassin's Creed game that doesn't start with this trope. Ezio seeks knowledge and not revenge this time. Until he hooks up with Sofia, who the Big Bad is eager to exploit. He even realizes he is making things fully personal against one of the most dangerous killers of the world.
    • Same with Altaïr. He is wise enough to not let himself be consumed by anger, but you know Abbas is finished when he executes Altaïr's youngest son and indirectly kills his wife.
  • Assassin's Creed III: The destruction of Connor's village is what keeps him going.
    • Ironically, it's revealed that the Templars were trying to protect the village, having made allies with them before. Since Connor didn't give them directions, George Washington's troops were able to burn the village. But by that point, their leader personally wants him, his village, and his town dead anyway.
• In the Batman comics, Bane wants to break the Batman because he's the biggest challenge out there. In the Batman: Arkham Series, it first appears that this is the case, while also making him something of a dumb brute. Origins brings the character more in line with both the comics and The Dark Knight Trilogy, and also provides information that he's after Batman for revenge ("the Batman's death will bring him peace"), though revenge for what isn't stated.
• BattleTech (2018) makes the campaign very personal for the player. Kamea Arano recognizes that money might or altruism might've played a part in your decision to join her crusade against the Aurigan Directorate, but the opening prologue gives you plenty of reasons to want to take them down personally. Pick one:
  • They attack you and Kamea on the day of her coronation and try to kill you directly several times.
  • They sabotage your prized heirloom Battlemech and gloat at length about this cowardly act of subterfuge to your face.
  • They kill the (apparently quite amiable) former commander of the unit you end up running.
  • They kill the badass mentor figure you've been training with (which they also gloat about).
• In the "There's Something in the Sea" Alternate Reality Game for BioShock 2, Mark Meltzer was devoted to finding out more about the recent kidnappings of 6- and 7-year-old girls around the North Atlantic, namely, who, why and where to. He eventually estimated where the next kidnapping was due to be and went there with his family. His family included a 7-year-old girl. The kidnapper, a Big Sister, obviously recognized Mark as a threat and kidnapped his daughter. He then put his search into finding out where the girls had gone to in full motion after that, until eventually he found where the girls had been taken...Rapture. In the game he is caught by Sofia Lamb, the Big Bad who kidnapped the girls in the first place and is made into a Big Daddy for his daughter Cindy (now a Little Sister), something you discover only after you kill Mark.
• Invoked by Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2. He does what he can to stop you from getting in his way and he acts like a total douche about it until you kill his daughter, Angel (she asked you to kill her so that Jack can't power up the Vault Key). Jack becomes deadly serious after the event and vows to personally kill you after what you did.
  • Much of Krieg's motivation to fight Hyperion is because both sides of his personality are ripshit pissed off because of the experiments they put him through.
• Chrono Trigger has a couple instances of this:
  • Frog initially joins Crono’s crew so that he can wreak vengeance on Magus, a dark sorcerer who killed his best friend and cursed him to look like a frog. He remains on the team to prevent Lavos from destroying the world.
  • Magus summons Lavos in order to slay it, as the creature is responsible for destroying his family, his kingdom, his childhood…basically his entire life.
• City of Heroes’s late game Who Will Die arc does exactly what it sounds like and gives us a villain who succeeds in killing not one but two signature heroes of the game, to use their powers as catalysts to become a god and destroy the world. Now, unchecked cosmic god set on destroying the world was probably going to earn the attentions of the heroes and villains who live on that planet regardless, but the baddie that did it made the phenomenal mistake of killing the wife of one of the more radical heroes and the hate-interest of the game’s Big Bad. The loose cannon hero flies into a murderous rage, while the Big Bad proceeds to launch a nuke at the bastard, and then fly over to him and beat the crap out of him with the player. This is to say nothing of the player character’s reaction to see two beloved icons of the game killed for good.
• In Crysis 2, Commander Lockhart hates the Nanosuit programme because he lost a nephew to it.
• It pops up at the end of Cuphead. So you've kept your end of the Deal with the Devil and shown up with all the contracts as agreed. King Dice is thrilled and has no reason to not take you straight to the big guy himself... except he apparently bet that you would fail, and he doesn't exactly take losing bets well. Cue Nightmare Face and one of the hardest battles in the game (and that's saying a LOT).
  King Dice: Well, lookie here! You actually pulled it off... but you've made me lose a bet!! And for that, you ain't seeing the boss just yet. We're gonna play a little game first!
• Reversed in Dark Souls II. The Last Giant goes apeshit as soon as he sees you, which can be attributed to the hatred the Giants hold for humanity after they lost their war against Drangleic. But later you access the Memory of the Giants which really makes you travel to the past during the Giant War and defeat the Giant Lord, winning the war for the humans and leaving the Giant Lord the "last" of his species.
• The Forsaken campaign of Destiny 2 sees the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 being Killed Off for Real by Uldren Sov and the Scorn Barons. But when Commander Zavala refuses to bring Uldren to justice as the Vanguard's hands are too tied to go after him, the player character decides to take matters into their own hands and avenge their fallen comrade, with or without the Vanguard's aid.
  The Young Wolf: You won't have to. Uldren Sov... is mine.
• The protagonist of Doom Eternal has a vendetta against the demons for destroying his homeworld, killing and/or corrupting his comrades and killing his pet bunny.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, you can fight Loghain yourself in a Duel Boss during the Landsmeet, or choose one of your companions (except your dog) to act as The Champion for you. However, picking Alistair ends with him automatically executing Loghain for being responsible for the deaths of the many Grey Wardens in Ostagar, including his father figure.
    Loghain: So, there is some Maric in you after all. Good.
    Alistair: Forget Maric, this is for Duncan!
  • Portrayed rather tragically in Dragon Age II, in which Varric wants revenge on his brother, Bartrand, who traps Varric, Hawke, and their other two companions in the Deep Roads just so he won't have to share profits from their expedition. They eventually find their way out and back home, but Varric is determined to revenge himself on his backstabbing brother; if Hawke's younger sibling dies as a result of Bartrand's betrayal (and particularly if it's Bethany, to whom Varric is very attached), his anger is that much more evident. He finally gets his chance during the second act of the game... only to find his Vengeance Denied by the fact that Bartrand has gone completely insane at the very moment he touched the red lyrium idol, and the revenge killing is more like putting down a rabid animal.
  • Parodied in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The player can ask The Bartender about current events. One of the things he might say in reply is this:
    Cabot: Thieves made off with our stores of cookie dough. Now it's personal.
• Dragon Quest V:
  • Ladja kidnapped the Hero's mother, killed his father and turned him and his wife into stone statues until their children managed to find them after eight years and turn them back to normal. Saying that the whole family is invested in Ladja's destruction is an understatement.
  • The demon Bjørn the Behemoose holds a huge grudge against Rodolfo Briscoletti, the man who managed to seal him away.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In Skyrim, when you confront Mercer Frey in the Thieves' Guild questline, you can claim this as the reason to kill Mercer for him stabbing you, although you can also claim your loyalty to Nocturnal as the reason to go after Mercer.
  • In the spin-off Dungeon Crawling game Battlespire, it's bad enough that Mehrunes Dagon has taken over the Battlespire, but he has also captured The Apprentice's partner.
  • In the spin-off Action-Adventure game Redguard, the protagonist is the Redguard pirate Cyrus. As a pirate, his primary modus operandi is the acquisition of wealth and treasures. Despite the rebellion going on in his homeland of Hammerfell, he only returns when his sister goes missing, making it personal. During his quest to rescue her, Cyrus unintentionally becomes the leader of the rebellion, leading them to great success. They would have named him King of the Redguards afterward, but he turned them down.
  • In the series' backstory, Pelinal Whitestrake was the legendary 1st Era hero of mankind/racist berserker. Believed to have been a Shezarrine, physical incarnations of the spirit of the "dead" creator god Lorkhan (known to the Imperials as "Shezarr"), Pelinal came to St. Alessia to serve as her divine champion in the war against the Ayleids. Pelinal would fly into fits of Unstoppable Rage (mostly directed at the Ayleids) during which he would be stained with their blood and left so much carnage in his wake that Kyne, one of the Divines, would have to send in her rain to cleanse Ayleid forts and village before they could be used by Alessia's forces. When Huna, a grain slave Pelinal had raised to hoplite, was killed by the arrow of an Ayleid king, Pelinal went so berserk that he not only slew the Ayleids in the kingdom responsible, but erased their lands from the world. The Divines were so disgusted with his actions that they nearly left the world if not for Alessia making sacrifices to regain their favor.
• In Fable: The Lost Chapters, the Big Bad Jack of Blades tells the Hero of Oakvale that they have a personal enmity because the Hero has destroyed Jack's prized Artifact of Doom. Rather rich, given that Jack has murdered both the Hero's parents and mutilated the Hero's sister by that point in the game.
• Fate/Grand Order uses this from time to time, both involving grudges from the original lore the game draws from and unique clashes in the game.
  • The First Singularity, Orleans, is personal for Jeanne because the villain is an Evil Knockoff of her, and it's causing her some existential worry.
  • Gilgamesh and Ishtar still harbor their very personal grudges against each other from The Epic of Gilgamesh, with Enkidu involved on Gil's side. That being said, they're forced into situations where they have to work together, so they have to put things on the back burner.
  • Also in the Babylonia singularity, Kingu takes the protagonists killing Gorgon personally because he had grown fond of her, despite her death being a necessary part of the plan to awaken Tiamat.
    • Babylonia also contains an aversion of the trope toward the end, where Gilgamesh explains that, despite all of the destruction she has caused, he and the rest of Uruk don't hate Tiamat and that their fight is purely out of self-defense.
  • The Final Singularity, Solomon, reveals that Goetia feels this way toward his creator, Solomon for doing nothing to correct what he saw were the flaws in humanity.
  • One half of the Big Bad Duumvirate in Shinjuku, Demon God Bael, is acting based primarily out of hatred toward the protagonist for defeating Goetia in the Final Singularity.
  • In the third Lostbelt, SIN, all poor Akuta (actually Yu Mei-ren) wanted was to be with her beloved husband, Xiang Yu, even if this version is not the same one she recalls from Proper Human History. So, when Xiang Yu dies in battle with the protagonists before her very eyes, she goes absolutely apeshit, wanting them to pay so badly that she fuses herself with her Lostbelt's Tree of Emptiness. It takes the Lostbelt King, Qin Shi Huang, joining forces with the protagonists to stop her, and Qin only manages to get her to stop by convincing her that she could be reunited with him through use of the Throne of Heroes. Only then does she relent and allow herself to enter the Throne, clinging to that slim hope. However, she's still unhappy with the protagonist, as can be seen in her lines after being summoned (though as you raise her bond level that becomes more of a front than anything).
  • The fourth Lostbelt, located in India, was originally a beautiful and peaceful place, and a world that its Crypter, Scandinavia Peperoncino, fell in love with immediately. However, by the time the protagonists reach it, it's been transformed into a living hell because Ashiya Douman, one of the servants of the Big Bad of the overall plot, goaded its god into speeding up the cycle of destruction and rebirth to the point that humanity was trapped in an endless cycle of fear and loss. This leads to Pepe developing a grudge toward Douman that persists even after his Lostbelt has been destroyed, and in the next Lostbelt he personally sees to it that Douman pays for his actions in India.
  • The first half of the fifth Lostbelt, Atlantis, has Orion (after a brief stint of Achilles in His Tent) take this attitude toward stopping the Lostbelt version of Artemis. Due to being Grand Archer, he's the only one with the ability to do it, and he's determined to be the one to shoot her down because of his history with her in Proper Human History, and regarding it as a Mercy Kill.
    • It's also seen with Lostbelt Poseidon, who, despite having been demoted to a glorified attack dog protecting the Tree of Emptiness, is said to have been rather sane prior to Chaldea's arrival — that is, until Francis Drake stole a fragment of Poseidon's multiple energy cores. Not only did he retaliate with a curse that would kill Drake if she ever set sail again in the Lostbelt, it also turned him into a raving lunatic that treats all threats to himself as if they were the legendary privateer, as Chaldea finds out when they attack him.
  • Olympus, the chapter following Atlantis, puts a prominent focus on the Dioscuri, a pair of twins from Greek mythology who utterly loathe humans. This earns them the ire of Macarios and Adele, two citizens of Olympus and members of the God Destroyer Alliance, when they kill the rest of the humans in said Alliance. When the Dioscuri are finally defeated, Adele gets to deliver a short "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Pollux, and she and her brother get to strike the final blow against the twins.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Supplementary materials reveal that while Big Bad Sephiroth had grand ambitions of godhood, it was his very personal hatred of Cloud that gave him the strength to maintain his identity in the Lifestream. Being killed by an unremarkable grunt was apparently too much for Sephiroth's ego.
    • Within the actual game, Cloud addresses this towards the end — he urges his party to find something important that will make them want to fight, instead of fighting under the more impersonal notion to "protect the Planet."
  • Final Fantasy X's Auron is the stoic, quiet, all-knowing, Badass Longcoat of the group, never losing his cool or raising his voice. He doesn't have to — his reputation and obvious awesomeness compel everyone else to fear and respect him. The one and only time he shows any passion is when he and the heroes confront Yunalesca... who, when he last saw her, calmly explained how his friends' deaths were meaningless, then killed him. Yes, he has a bit of a grudge there.
  • Final Fantasy X-2 carries the Tagline of "Last time she saved the world. This time it's personal." "She" being the High Summoner Yuna, of course.
• The Fire Emblem series has several instances of this trope:
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the fight with Greith is this for Catria, Palla, and Atlas, since he'd kidnapped their younger sibling(s). While there's no special dialogue for it, it's still incredibly satisfying to let any of them deliver the killing blow.
  • In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Seliph, Leif, Ares, and Tine all have antagonists they have very personal issues with, all for similar reasons. Ares' case is a bit more complicated, though, as he blames his father's death on Seliph's father and plans to exact vengeance via Sins of Our Fathers. It also gets derailed quickly. The other three are all given chances to seek vengeance, and in Seliph's case, it slides straight into Gameplay and Story Integration.^note Arvis's Valflame hits incredibly hard so that most playable units can't take two hits without dying. Seliph's Infinity +1 Sword gives him a hefty Resistance buff, which enables him to go toe-to-toe with him without getting roasted. Additionally, dealing the killing blow with Seliph enables a secret cutscene that nets him a Renewal Ring.
    • And while it doesn't start this way, Seliph's battle with Manfroy turns into this very quickly when he discovers that Manfroy was the mastermind behind everything, including his mother's brainwashing and his father's death. Seliph immediately declares him beyond redemption and swears to make him pay.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, if the player sends Nino, Jaffar, or Renault against Nergal, the fight will be this for them. Nino because Nergal ordered Sonia to kill her birth family, Jaffar because Nergal is responsible for raising him into a remorseless killer, and Renault because Nergal turned his dead friend into an Empty Shell.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, fighting the Demon King is very personal for Ephraim and Eirika, since Fomortiis is responsible for eating their best friend's soul.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the game is ostensibly about saving a princess and freeing a country, but to Ike, it's also a story of revenge against the Black Knight, who's serving Daein. In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, vengeance has taken more of a back seat, though it's still there and has been tempered to a Tranquil Fury.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom has his fair share of issues with Plegia and its king Gangrel, but when his elder sister and Ylisse's ruler Emmeryn dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to try and end the war between Plegia and Ylisse, Chrom decides the time for diplomacy is over and commits to full-scale war with Plegia and Gangrel.
  • There are a few cases of this in Fire Emblem Fates as well.
    • Letting Corrin fight Hans in Birthright, since he'd killed Lilith just a few minutes prior.
    • Also in Birthright, letting Takumi fight Iago is some much-deserved penance, because Iago had been using Takumi as an inadvertent spy against the Hoshidan army.
    • Having Corrin fight Garon in either Birthright or Conquest counts, albeit for slightly different reasons depending on the route, and slightly more so in Birthright. In Birthright, Corrin is fighting the man who kidnapped and then neglected them for their entire life. In Conquest, they're more getting revenge on the evil entity who made Garon do that to them.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has several, though you'll need to play multiple routes to see them all:
    • The opening cutscene shows that a thousand years prior to the game, Seiros — the woman who would go on to found the region's primary religion — wanted to end the life of Nemesis, the King of Liberation, because he had massacred her entire hometown, including her mother.
    • In three of the four routes, Rhea takes it very badly when the Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard, princess of the Adrestian Empire. This is because Rhea actually was Seiros herself, and was good personal friends with Wilhelm von Hresvelg, the first Adrestian emperor and Edelgard's direct ancestor. To have a descendent of Hresvelg turn her blade on Rhea is something she sees as tantamount to betrayal. It's even worse on Crimson Flower, because immediately after, the Player Character also turns on Rhea to protect Edelgard. Not only had Rhea given the protagonist preferential treatment since their arrival at the monastery, but they also contained within their body a Crest Stone containing the soul of Sothis, the progenitor god and Rhea's mother. This causes Rhea to undergo a massive Freak Out, setting her up to be the Big Bad of the route as she progresses further and further into insanity.
    • The fourth route highlights Rhea's reaction significantly less to the Flame Emperor's unmasking because Dimitri makes up for it in spades. He's convinced that the Flame Emperor was involved in an atrocity from his Dark and Troubled Past, and he completely and utterly snaps in spectacular fashion when he sees they're his First Love and later his stepsister, yelling that he'll rip off her head and hang it on the gates of Enbarr, the Imperial capital. During the Time Skip, his obsessive desire for revenge on Edelgard is practically all that keeps him going until his reunion with the protagonist. The Azure Moon route involves getting Dimitri to develop out of this mental state, but the war remains personal for him and Edelgard, whether they want it to or not. Edelgard even reciprocates the personal nature in this route, as she goes further for the sake of victory here than she does in any other route by going One-Winged Angel for her Last Stand.
    • While it's much less than the previous examples, this is how Ashe feels towards the Western Church's bishop in his Paralogue, Falling Short of Heaven. This is because he blames the Western Church for his adoptive father Lonato's death, as they pushed him into rebelling against the Central Church, a crime punishable by death.
• In Game of Thrones (Telltale), Gared Tuttle returns from The Twins to find that his father and sister have been murdered by Britt Warrick and his men. Needless to say, when they meet again it is very personal indeed.
  • Another example of this is Rodrik or Asher's potential revenge on Gryff Whitehill, as he killed either Rodrik or Asher in the previous episode.
• In Giants: Citizen Kabuto, the Meccaryn are alien visitors to the world of the Sea Reapers and Smarties, and largely indifferent to the struggle between them... until the Reapers kill Timmy. The idea that this is personal is made particularly clear by the attitudes of Baz and Reg; the former was Timmy's friend, and the latter clearly feels guilty that rescuing him may have been what delayed the Meccs and prevented them from saving Timmy's life.
• In The Godfather game, you as Aldo Trapani already had a personal stake in attacking the other families as the Don of the Barzinis killed your father Johnny. After Tattaglia goons abduct and kill Frankie Malone, though, you'll definitely have it in for them. The game Hangs a Lampshade by naming this particular mission "Now It's Personal".
• Just like in the film, James Bond aims to stop Alec Trevelyan's plans in GoldenEye (1997) which also doubles as revenge since Alec used to be a 00 agent before turning traitor. When Bond finally catches up to and kills Alec, he tells him he's not doing it for England, but for himself. Even M on the mission briefing screen says that while she normally does not endorse her agents making personal vendettas, she is willing to overlook this one.
• CJ's reasoning behind taking on Big Smoke alone at the end of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
  CJ: Smoke played me. Tenpenny played me.
• Guild Wars warrior Devona has this battle quote:
  Forget duty! This is personal!
• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns: In the final battle, Mordremoth creates Blighted illusions of your allies. Most of the time, the Commander simply recognizes they're illusions. But the final illusion is of your Order mentor, who died so you could escape the attack on Claw Island, and the Commander is ticked.
  Commander: <Mentor Name> ? You'll pay for this, Mordremoth!
• In A Hat in Time, Hat Kid is basically strong-armed into joining the Nyakuza by The Empress. The moment you attempt to take back your Time Pieces from The Empress without her knowing, she spots you as you walk out and considers this a serious betrayal of her kindness up to this point (not to mention she feels she is deserving of the Time Pieces by default), and rather than just kill you right then and there, she decides to terrify you by sicking her minions after you with a 1 million (and then 2 million) bounty while firing a rocket launcher at you. She still almost gets you when you run to the escape elevator... only for her to be inside. If it weren't for the cops that got on the elevator, she likely would have gotten away with the whole thing in an unnecessary elaborate revenge plan.
• From the same family, you also get a couple of these in Jade Empire. Sky's got a "thing" about slavers... having your 5-year-old daughter run through by a group of them would kinda do that. There's also "The Serpent" running the Imperial City arena that Black Whirlwind has an axe to grind with... literally. And it certainly goes there with your PC and "Master" Sun Li — he killed your people, spent your entire life grooming you as an Unwitting Pawn, then killed you after all.
• Journey On: If the Dark Sanctuary is expanded enough, Shirley can duel the corrupted King Valimur who killed her father and nearly killed Selena. The dialogue choices make it clear that she still holds a grudge against him.
• Mickey Mouse, of all people, has this briefly in Kingdom Hearts II when Goofy pushes him out of the way when a Heartless was about to attack him and gets hit instead. And was thought to be dead.
• Super Kirby Clash: Over the course of the game, Parallel Nightmare grows more and more resentful of Team Kirby and their attempts to save the Team Kingdom. Once they reach him at the Dreamscape, he's become consumed with rage and now wants Team Kirby dead.
  • Bandana Waddle Dee in Kirby and the Forgotten Land clearly takes the news of the Beast Pack capturing his species very personally - especially since they're using them to power Lab Discovera.
• The Knights of the Old Republic duology has a luggage shuttle of these. Carth going after Saul Karath for the destruction of Carth's homeworld, the death of his wife, and letting his son fall into the hands of the Sith. Juhani and Xor getting into a scrap because Xor killed Juhani's dad, then later tried to buy her as a sex slave (for a T-rated game, they sure got a lot of crap to sail under the radar...). Canderous wanting to kill Jagi for insulting his honor in the first game, then being tricked by Kreia in the second because he needed to find out why Revan abandoned him. In the second game, Bao-Dur also joined the Republic forces and created the horrific Mass Shadow Generator to make the Mandalorians pay for what they did to his homeworld. Atris's hostility towards the Exile has shades of it. You can also state this as a motive for either PC. Strangely, most of these revenge motives get inverted or subverted in some way.
• Left 4 Dead 2:
  • Ellis is pissed that the Zombie Apocalypse made him miss Jimmy Gibbs's appearance at the mall.
    Ellis: Aw, shit, we missed him? You know what, that's the last straw. These zombies have just made themselves an enemy.
  • Also played for laughs concerning Jimmy's car:
    Ellis: Aw, c'mon Coach, that biker guy seemed nice.
    Coach: He's probably stolen the Jimmy Gibbs Jr. by now.
    Ellis: He is a dead man.
  • Of course, whenever one of the survivors ends up dead, some of the remarks the others make lean more towards this.
    Bill: [concerning Zoey's death] One of those sick sons of bitches just sealed all of their death warrants.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nabooru is originally Ganondorf's second-in-command as the leader of the Gerudo, but she despises him for his cruelty to innocents and willingness to murder (the Gerudo are a thieving people, but murder crosses a line). When she initially tries to interfere with Ganondorf's plans, his surrogate mothers Twinrova capture and brainwash her to become a loyal slave. After Link defeats Twinrova, Nabooru awakens as the Sage of Spirit and says that her fight with Ganondorf is now a personal mission.
  • The entire reason Link goes out on the Great Sea in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is because his little sister was mistaken for Tetra, revealed later in the game to be Princess Zelda, and kidnapped by the Helmaroc King, a minion of Ganon. Which makes his fight against the bird nearly half-way through the game, as well as Ganon himself at the end, all the more epic.
  • Likewise, Link in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword — Link is motivated through his Dungeon Crawling by the chance to find his lifelong friend and Implied Love Interest again after she'd been spirited away from Skyloft, which is exactly why Hylia had her taken to begin with.
  • Link freaks out when Ilia is kidnapped in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Later, Midna has to use the chance to rescue Ilia and the other children from Ordon to manipulate Link into helping her.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
    • Urbosa, the Gerudo Champion, thinks that the fact that Calamity Ganon, the Eldritch Abomination that has caused so much misery for Hyrule, originally manifested as a Gerudo man is a deep stain upon the honor of her people. It doesn't help that Calamity Ganon successfully killed her and the other Champions during their initial fight. When she returns as a spirit, Urbosa laughs as she prepares to battle the Calamity, because she can take the fight personally.
    • The Yiga Clan initially only set roadside traps for Link that are only initiated by talking to one of them in disguise. Once Link raids their hideout and defeats Master Kohga, they considerably step up their game: they also begin ambushing at random by appearing out of puffs of smoke, appear far more frequently, arm themselves with higher-tier weaponry, and their Blademasters also begin appearing in the wild. Some even declare they are there to avenge their master.
  • In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, defeating and sealing away Calamity Ganon is simply a duty — albeit an important one that is wholeheartedly embraced — on the part of Zelda. That is, until Terrako is corrupted by Malice and has to be taken down. Only then does the Princess of Hyrule personally desire to have Ganon's head on a platter. Her anger increases when it turns out Terrako was alright... only to immediately pull a Heroic Sacrifice in Zelda's stead, using itself as a bomb to weaken Ganon's defenses.
• Mass Effect:
  • In the first game, Saren makes it personal for Shepard and the Normandy crew when Shepard is forced to leave Ashley or Kaidan behind on Virmire.
  • In Mass Effect 2, things get personal right from the get-go: the Collectors attack and destroy the Normandy, kill twenty-one crewmembers, including First Officer Pressley, and kill Shepard. Later on they attack the Normandy SR-2 and kidnap the entire crew, save for Joker and the squad members. And of course, it gets even more personal if Shepard loses squad members during the suicide mission.
  • Used word-for-word in Garrus' recruitment mission. The three top mercenary gangs on Omega all want him dead for disrupting their business, but it's personal for the leader of the Eclipse chapter. Why? Garrus killed two of his best operatives, one of whom was his brother.
  • In Mass Effect 3, it's personal from the very beginning when Earth is attacked, but even more so when Shepard finally gets to kill Kai Leng, who had previously killed Thane / Kirrahe and / or Miranda.
    Shepard: That was for Thane/Kirrahe/Miranda, you son of a bitch!
  • The Reapers themselves, normally very stoic and uncaring for the affairs of the species that they're harvesting, are very specifically targeting Earth... because Shepard has ruined all of their well-laid plans that have worked for eons.
  • Played for Laughs in the Citadel DLC, where Shepard's evil clone intends to have Shepard's space hamster destroyed, among other items of value in his/her cabin. S/he is so rattled s/he asks his/her teammates why they're not saying anything, before thinking they don't have the words for it. As opposed to, y'know, questioning Shepard's sanity.
    Shepard: They messed with my hamster guys. Now it's personal.
• Max Payne is ALL about this, which gets lampshaded by Max in more than one Private Eye Monologue.
• The events of MechWarrior 4: Vengeance are deeply personal for the protagonist Ian Dresari. His homeworld of Kentares IV is overthrown, his family is killed, and his toadying cousin William is put in place as a quisling puppet. He's fighting to reclaim Kentares IV, but he's really there to avenge his fallen kin first and foremost. Best summed up by the exchange between the cowardly Steiner liason Marcus Roland trying to bargaing for his life as Ian shoots his command ship to pieces around him.
  Roland: Mister Dresari, end your attack! You can have William’s place on the throne.
  Ian: Sorry, Roland, pass.
  Roland: Mister Dresari, let me leave, and I promise you can rule without my intervention.
  Ian: You still don’t get it. This isn’t about the throne, Roland.
  Roland: Mister Dresari, stop! If you don’t want to rule, what do you want?
  Ian: My family back.
• Vent and Aile of Mega Man ZX lost their mother to a Maverick raid on Area H ten years ago, and the lack of intervention on Slither Inc's part gave them a reason to hate the company. The truth behind it gives them a reason to search for Model W...and that's to destroy it.
  • While we are on the subject of Mega Man, this is why Omega-Xis steals the Andromeda Key in the first Mega Man Star Force game. His reason behind stealing the item is so that King Cepheus can't use it to blow up any more planets, like he did to Omega-Xis's home planet.
• In the first Mercenaries, the player character was going after General Song for the One Hundred Million Dollar bounty on his head. In the sequel, Ramon Solano hires you to rescue General Carmona, a friend of his. Carmona then launches a coup, and Solano is installed as the President of Venezuela. Rather than pay the merc and let them be on their way, Solano tries to have them executed. People trying to kill them? That's something Jennifer, Chris, and Mattias are used to. Getting screwed out of a paycheck? It's Personal, now.
  • You forgot the part where the merc you're controlling got shot in the ass. To quote Chris:
    "Yeah! No one shoots him in the ass and gets away with it!"
• Metal Gear:
  • Happens on both sides in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater:
    • Volgin already intended to kill the CIA operative who had infiltrated his base. But after he found out what Snake did to Major Raikov...
      The Boss: Are you going to kill him?
      Volgin: Of course. But first, I will make him pay for hurting Ivan.
    • Snake's mission had always been to kill Volgin but after the torture he went through by his hand, Snake becomes motivated to get a little payback which he succeeds in doing by humiliating Volgin in hand to hand combat. Then after a long battle with Volgin in the Shagohod, Snake witnesses Volgin have a Villainous Breakdown over how Snake has ruined his plans and dies a karmic death by lightning before he can attack Snake again.
  • In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the final boss has this to say when you drop him to about a third of his health:
    Senator Armstrong: You know what?! Fuck this war! I just want you dead!
• In Metroid, Samus hunts the Space Pirates not only because it's her job, but because they attacked the colony where she lived & massacred everyone there, with their commander, Ridley, killing her mother before her very eyes, and later eating her corpse. Samus was three.
  • Although it's only briefly mentioned in a scan log, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption says that Admiral Dane is also rumored to have been orphaned by the Space Pirates.
  • In Super Metroid, Samus becomes a Parental Substitute to an adorable baby Metroid and gradually comes to care for the child as her own. When Mother Brain nearly defeats Samus, the Metroid intervenes to save her, and Mother Brain retaliates by killing the baby. Cue Samus going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and utterly kicking Mother Brain's ass.
• Nintendo Wars:
  • In Battalion Wars II, Marshall Nova comes to have this attitude when Ubel takes command and invades his country. To recap: Ubel killed his father, wired the national monument he was buried at to explode, and in general devastated the Tundran Territories in a way unprecedented throughout history. The Alliance of Nations reformed solely to say "AW HELL NAW" to that behavior, because goddamn.
  • Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising has this in spades, mostly for Blue Moon:
    • This is Olaf's reaction when he makes it to his home town and finds that Lash has utterly decimated the place for no good reason other than It Amused Her. Olaf demands that Grit and Colin back off so he can take revenge on her, and this grudge lasts well into the next game where he and Lash have a -20% attack penalty if paired together.
      Olaf: This is it. This is where my house used to be.
      Colin: Commander...
      Olaf: And over there, that was the town square. I played here all day with all the other kids in the neighborhood. It didn't matter how much snow was on the ground. It didn't bother us at all. Look, right here... Can you see the outlines of the square?
      Grit: Olaf...
      Olaf: Black Hole! For this, there can be no forgiveness!
    • Speaking of Grit, this is his reaction to learning that Adder sacked some Blue Moon cities on his way to offer him a position in the Black Hole Army. Grit admits he really doesn't care all that much about what land belongs to what country, and even seems a bit tempted by the offer, but learning they're destroying cities for the hell of it? That's not passing without consequence:
      Grit: Well now... You got one thing right. I never did care much which territory belonged to which country. I couldn't have cared less if y'all decided to set up shop here. However... You've got no call to be treating the folks who live here any way you please. You destroyed whole cities? You did just say that, right? Well, listen here, I don't care how powerful you say you are... You, Adder, are now my number-one enemy.
  • Played for Laughs in Advance Wars: Dual Strike, where the lowest tag break in the game is Rachel and Koal, who get an abysmal 65% attack when paired together: less than pairing Olaf and Lash, less than pairing anyone with Von Bolt, and why? One mission has Koal insult Rachel's looks. Hilariously, this happens after Rachel scolds Max and Jake for taking things personally.
    Koal: Heh heh heh... I'm not ready to spill that juicy secret just yet. You'll find out soon enough. This land will be as devoid of beauty as your face.
• At the start of No More Heroes III, Travis Touchdown is just concerned with taking down the alien fleet that's assaulting Santa Destroy. However, after the boss fight with Mr. Black Hole, their leader FU shows himself to Travis and his allies, then crushes them utterly. The end result? Travis is unconscious, Shinobu's arms are ripped off, Bad Man is killed, and Bad Girl is left traumatized for most of the game. When Travis gets back to, he wants FU dead and gone.
• Persona 4 is filled with them.
  • Yosuke is the hardest hit by the murder of Saki, his crush; he gets rather flared up when he finds the murderer.
  • Chie went Leeroy Jenkins when they first encountered Yukiko's dungeon.
  • Grandest of all goes to Nanako's abduction. Though you will get punished if you take it too far.
• Persona 5: There are personal motives behind almost all of the heroes' heists.
  • Kamoshida, your high school's coach, broke Ryuji's leg, ending his promising track career and causing him to become an uncaring delinquent, tormented the student body with impunity, sexually harassed Ann and many others, and molested Ann's friend Shiho, driving her to attempt suicide.
  • Madarame, Yusuke's adopted father, emotionally abused Yusuke, stole his work, and indirectly killed his mother by purposefully letting her die.
  • Kaneshiro blackmailed students from your high school, causing the principal to force Student Council President Makoto to get on the case. He also manages to blackmail her and the Thieves. His Shadow, representative of his inner thoughts, threatens her sister as well.
  • Okumura, Haru's father, started putting his company before his family. He failed to realize how much he was neglecting her and put his needs before hers by forcing her into an Arranged Marriage with a guy whose ties would improve his business.
  • Sae's ambition and cynicism got so bad that it was straining her relationship with Makoto, who could tell how unhappy she was and really wanted for Sae to be able to live meaningfully rather than slave endlessly after promotions.
  • Masayoshi Shido personally screwed over Futaba, Haru, and the Protagonist, had The Conspiracy mess with Sae on the job so much that she became disillusioned enough to have her own Palace, and had his aide push Ryuji out of the way so he could steal Ryuji's elevator ride. Pretty much only Ann and Yusuke have no real beef with the guy, though in Yusuke's case it turns out Madarame was supporting Shido monetarily with forgeries of what turned out to be his mother's painting: Sayuri. And let's not even talk about how he's also practically responsible for everything that went wrong with Goro's life.
• This occurs in the Endgame to Quest for Glory IV: When Katrina is killed through the machinations of Ad Avis, the game makes it clear that the Hero is partly driven by the realization that Katrina truly did love him when he finally puts his nemesis down for good. Shadows of Darkness allows the player to take dialog options earlier in the game that indicates the Hero was in love with her as well, and her death is stated to weigh heavily on him during the victory celebration. It's not that the Hero needed any more motivation than saving the world and stopping the Dark One from escaping imprisonment, but killing the woman he loved was probably not the best idea.
• Red Dead:
  • Averted in Red Dead Redemption in regard to John and his former gang members. John makes it clear that he takes no enjoyment hunting down Bill, Javier and Dutch, only doing so because the government is holding his wife and son hostage. He even tells Javier that much when he captures him.
  • Played straight in Red Dead Redemption II when John develops this towards Micah to avenge Arthur.
  • In RDR I, Luisa was always dedicated in overthrowing Allende, but she becomes even more determined after he ordered his men to kill her father.
  • The feud between Dutch and Colm O'Driscoll is an odd one. For Colm, he did not appear to take it personally when Dutch kills his brother. However, when Colm kills Dutch's lover Annabelle, it wasn't done out of spite but because Colm is a sadist. On Dutch's end, it's incredibly personal but for Colm, it's not an emotional one.
  • Sadie is out for any O'Driscoll as they murdered her husband and brutalized her. Later on, similar to John, she goes after Micah — both for his betrayal of the gang and for Arthur.
• Resident Evil has several cases of this.
  • Chris in Resident Evil 5, when he pretty much abandons his original mission to search for Jill Valentine instead, who he had earlier thought was dead, but turned out to be alive. And then of course, when he kills Wesker in the end, this is not only his job as a BSAA member, but it's personal considering Wesker kidnapped/brainwashed Jill, and Chris used to work with Wesker before he went all evil and tried to infect the whole world with the Uroboros.
  • Resident Evil 6:
    • Chris' campaign turns into a personal vendetta against Ada Wong, or so he thinks (it's really Carla Radames) after she kills his entire team, save Piers.
    • Helena has this with Simmons because he basically killed her sister.
    • Ada's entire motivation in the game stems down to getting back at Simmons, who cloned her, and Carla, who stole her identity and framed her for all the bioterrorist attacks committed in the game. It's telling that the end of her campaign is one of the few moments Ada is visibly upset.
• Saints Row 2 has a double dose of this:
  • Makes up a good portion of the Brotherhood plotline: after getting his face scarred, a pissed-off Maero kidnaps Carlos, a Saints lieutenant who helped the Boss escape prison, and has his goons chain him to the back of a truck and drag him through the street. The Boss retaliates by having Maero's girlfriend Jessica crushed by a monster truck.
  • In the Ronin plotline: After his girlfriend Aisha is killed by a Ronin lieutenant, Johnny Gat takes Shogo Akuji, who ordered her death and tried to crash her funeral, and beats the living shit out of him before burying him alive.
• Saints Row: The Third: Discussed by Cyrus Temple at the end of "Gang Bang" when he mentions Jessica's death in the previous game and asks the gathered reporters if she were their daughter, how far would they want STAG to go in fighting the gang menace?
• Saints Row IV:
  • Cyrus Temple, ironically, takes his failures in the previous game personally. How personally? Try "found a terrorist cell and fire a nuke at Washington DC" personal.
  • And, of course, Boss is sore at Zinyak for destroying almost his entire constituency and for imprisoning him and his gang, telling Zinyak that his retaliation is less about pride and more about wrath. Keith David too.
    Keith David: I was twelve hours into Dead Island when the Zin attacked. Now I'll never finish. I won't forgive them for that.
• In Shadow Hearts: From The New World, Ricardo signs on with Johnny after his lover, Edna, is given the Kiss of Malice by Lady and turned into a conduit for monsters. He's forced to kill Edna himself to free her, and follows Johnny to make sure the one who turned his beloved into a monster dies.
• StarCraft:
  • In the original StarCraft, Raynor, Zeratul, Mengsk and Artanis have all sworn revenge against Kerrigan for her general Not-So-Magnificent Bastardry.
  • By StarCraft II, Raynor seems to have softened a bit, partially at the guilt he feels about going along with Mengsk so long that he feels complicit in what Kerrigan has become.
  • Once the Heart of the Swarm expansion rolls around, Kerrigan herself has been partially de-infested and is only now aware of the atrocities she has committed. As such, she now wants personal revenge against Mengsk for delivering her to the Zerg in the first place.
  • In Legacy of the Void, Artanis and Alarak both develop very personal grudges toward the Big Bad, Amon. On top of preventing Amon from bringing about The End of the World as We Know It, Artanis wants Amon to pay for corrupting the Khala and forcing Zeratul to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to break Artanis from it, and Alarak wants Amon dead for how he had deceived the Tal'darim for generations.
  • In the epilogue portion of Legacy of the Void, the one who finally gets to kill Narud is none other than Stukov, who wants him dead for betraying and killing him back when he was part of the UED.
• Sword of Paladin:
  • Curtis Drake, a ruthless naval officer from the Armadias Empire, slaughters all of Captain Eagle's crewmates and was responsible for killing Will's father, which is why Eagle wants to settle things with him at the end of Nade's Chapter 2 episode, but this leads to his death.
  • The Wolfpack Boss in Ginnungagap is set up so that all the members of the boss team have a personal grudge against the party, or vice-versa. Nade can't forgive Lancelot for manipulating Chris and sacrificing her for the sake of testing out a Royal Gem, who in turn envies Nade for becoming the Paladin. Sophie despises Berienstahl for all the transgression he committed against her family, as well as kidnapping her. Rashid holds a grudge against Lena for killing him in the pyramids. Will wants to kill Curtis Drake for killing Captain Eagle and his father. Anastasia wants to get back at Miguel for killing her in the academy, and likewise, Miguel notes that she is his aunt who betrayed the Sandras family.
• In Sword of the Stars: The Pit some characters have this sort of reason for getting involved. The Marine is looking for his Love Interest, who was working in the mountains near the facility. Said Love Interest is the twin sister of the Scout. The Engineer is out to avenge a friend killed by enemies he tracked to the Pit. The Warrior is seeking help for his afflicted friends and neighbours.
• Done in Thor: God of Thunder (2011), a game set before the events of Thor itself. Sif is impaled, after pushing a fellow Asgardian out of danger, and becomes temporarily dead. Although it wasn't planned or caused by a Big Bad, her death enrages Thor and causes him to seek vengeance, to the point where Odin worries that "Thor will slaughter and bring holocaust" if he doesn't do anything.
  Odin: [discussing bringing Sif back to life and interfering with fate] If I do not, I fear that Thor will...
  Loki: Thor will defy you and wage war against the Jotuns from now until Ragnarok.
• All six playable heroes in Trials of Mana have quite a bone to pick with their respective villains even though all three were just the dragons to their respective Big Bads.
  • It was bad enough that the Crimson Wizard would injure Duran's fellow soldiers, but the latter's pride was wounded when he lost to the wizard himself. The wizard also developed the nerve to insult the Hero King, Richard, in front of him, no less, and all that is what motivates Duran to set out to become strong enough to defeat the Crimson Wizard as revenge.
  • Angela's mother, Valda the True Queen of Altena, was brainwashed by the Crimson Wizard into wanting her own daughter sacrificed, which forced Angela to flee and got her branded not only as a traitor to her own kingdom but also as a wanted criminal with a heavy price on her head. After getting the Sword of Mana, the wizard kidnaps the Queen intending to use her as a sacrifice to the reborn Dragon Lord. Understandably, both Angela and the Crimson Wizard soon come to fatal blows with her refusing to forgive him for all that he's done up to that point.
  • Kevin was forced to fight and put Karl down the moment the latter was turned into a monster that couldn't be reasoned with no matter how hard he tried, which led him to be forced to awaken his werewolf powers as the beastman he was. It turns out that it was Goremand who used an illusion spell to make Karl that way and that Gauser had him do it so that it could invoke his transformation. When Goremand tricks Kevin by lying to him that the Priest of Light could bring him back from the dead and the latter finds out the hard way, he only comes to hate the former even more.
  • While she's more focused on saving Heath than anything else, Charlotte also hates Goremand for kidnapping him in front of her and would never disdain an opportunity to smack him around as revenge.
  • Hawkeye has hated Belladonna ever since she turned Nevarl from a noble guild of honorable thieves and raiders into a warmongering kingdom bent on conquering the world, murdered Eagle in front of his eyes and framed him for that murder, and placed a curse on Jessica that would kill her should he reveal the truth to anyone. Since escaping Nevarl, he's been looking to find a way to remove that curse and get revenge on Belladonna for the crimes she committed against him and his beloved guild.
  • Riesz understandably swears to make Belladonna pay as well for the crimes she committed against her beloved kingdom of Laurent, such as the ruinous conquest she launched against it, the kidnapping of her brother Elliot, and her atrocity of arranging for the assassination of her father King Joster. When the time comes for their final confrontation in her story, she angrily reminds her of the role she played in her beloved father's death.
• Vermintide II: By the time the heroes hunt down The Warlord Bödvarr Ribspreader, they've repeatedly defied and humiliated him, and he's spent a lot of effort trying to hunt them down for payback. He opens the Boss Battle with a rant about how he'll make them pay for everything they've done.
• This is what motivates Lu Bu's relentless pursuit of Nezha in Warriors Orochi 3. After soundly thrashing Lu Bu by himself, the Mystic turns and casually kills Diao Chan right in front of him.
• In The World Ends with You, Neku starts to distrust Joshua after he finds out that Joshua shot him. At the end of the chapter, Neku goes totally berserk on Sho Minamimoto after it's revealed that the image Neku discovered was incomplete and Minamimoto shot him instead of Joshua. Although, even THAT image was incomplete. Joshua really did kill him. Neku gets another "It's Personal" moment while facing Kitaniji, who possesses Shiki and the rest of Shibuya.
• In World of Warcraft the Burning Legion's attitude towards Azeroth has become this. Having wiped out and corrupted hundreds of worlds in the past, their efforts to do so to Azeroth have thus far led to their leader Sargeras having his body slain and spirit banished to the Twisting Nether with no clear notion on how to get him back, their chief tactician Tichondrius being permanently killed (which is very difficult to do to a dreadlord), the greatest of the pit lords Mannoroth also being slain, one of Sargeras' two seconds in command Archimonde being Zerg Rushed to death by wisps and the other, Kil'jaeden, being defeated and banished. Naturally as demons, this long list of failures makes them all the more determined to wipe Azeroth out rather than acknowledging they should probably leave its inhabitants to fight each other. Not helping is that Azeroth now plays host to the draenei, the race Kil'jaeden was once part of and whose leader Kil'jaeden is obsessed with killing for rejecting the "gift" of the Legion.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Let's get counting:
  • Shulk hates the Mechon anyway, since, you know, they're ravaging mechanical monsters, but really loses his cool when Metal Face kills Fiora.
  • Reyn has the same reasons as Shulk, since he was friends with Fiora as well, but also wants to avenge his fallen friends in the defense force.
  • Sharla finds out that the Mechon completely destroyed her home, and ate most of its inhabitants, while the one responsible laughs at her. And then, of course, Metal Face didn't win any points with her either.
  • Dunban is calmer than the others, but the party repeatedly assumes he must hate the Mechon the most out of them all. Not surprising, considering what they did to his sister. Then when the first big reveal comes along, and Dunban finds out who Metal Face is, that he didn't die in the battle of Sword Valley, and that he ravaged Colony 9 For the Evulz, Dunban shows how much hate he has against Mumkhar and tries to kill him then and there. Luckily, Shulk stops him.
  • Melia already had a personal fight against the Telethia, since it killed her four most trusted guards. When you help her kill it, she agrees to help the party. And then, guess who, Metal Face shows up and kills her father. So if you're keeping count, Metal Face invokes this in five out of seven party members.
  • Even still, when The Reveal comes out and the party discovers Fiora is alive, and is piloting a Face Mechon, the focus seems to shift away from a revenge plot, and more on trying to stop the people of the two Titans from fighting.
  • This isn't even getting into Egil's motivations, who harbors so much hatred towards Zanza, and what he and the Bionis did to him and his people. He vows to wipe out all life on Bionis, setting up a Mirror Character moment with Shulk that Shulk himself notices. Though to be fair, Egil's hatred is only towards Zanza; he had no enmity for Shulk or any of the others, but killing the life on Bionis was to ensure that Zanza could never rise again.
  • And then we get the second big reveal: Shulk had been dead, possessed by Zanza, since the day he found the Monado, and was reduced to nothing more than a shell just so that Zanza could return. And who is it that delivers this news? Dickson, Dunban's other friend, Shulk's father figure, and one of Zanza's immortal Co-Dragons. And to top it all off, Zanza not only taunts them about Shulk while adopting his appearance, but plans to kill everyone to preserve his immortality.
  • Can it get any more personal after that? YES, actually, with the reveal of one of the other Co-Dragons: Lorithia of the High Entia. Now, granted, that particular reveal doesn't make it personal. What the Co-Dragon does makes it personal: forcibly converting all of the pureblooded High Entia, including Melia's older brother, her only remaining family, into Telethia, Zanza's draconian servants, to carry out the genocide on Bionis.
  • But wait, there's more! Yes, even after all of that, it can still become more personal. Fiora's reconstructed body was the vessel for Lady Meyneth, deity of Mechonis. Zanza attacks the group, forcing Meyneth to sacrifice herself for them. He steals her Monado, mocking her even after she's dead. Is that it? Of course not: now that Meyneth has left Fiora, her body is dying. Seriously, six of the party members had it horribly personal at this point; the only way that it could have been more personal at this point is if Riki's family was targeted.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum, Yami Yugi is infuriated with Bandit Keith and his cheating ways. The entirety of their battle banter is them trash-talking each other the entire way.

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