History LighterAndSofter / VideoGames

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':

** In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', you get a dog named Koromaru. He is cute, pretty intelligent, and does funny things sometimes, but otherwise he's just a normal dog who happens to be able to summon a Persona. In ''Persona 4'' however, you get Teddie, a sentient bear mascot suit who regularly makes bear puns in the English dub and is probably the biggest comic relief character in the game.
** 'VideoGame/Persona5'': The game starts with the protagonist being arrested for an assault he didn't commit and is promptly sentenced to probation, forcing him to change schools. Right from the start, the atmosphere at school is gloomy, due to the influence of the volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida, who spreads rumors about you, physically abuses his team and sexually harasses the female students, which everyone keeps quiet about due to the reputation his team brings to the school due to him being a former Olympic athlete. Once the protagonist and his friends dispatch his shadow in the Metaverse and take his palace's treasure, Kamoshida undergoes a change of heart, confesses his crimes and turns himself in. Once he leaves the story, the game's tone brightens considerably. [[spoiler:Then it's subverted on the later arcs, with child abuse and death galore.]] The UpdatedRerelease ''Persona 5 Royal'' then [[spoiler: plays this trope straight, as while Dr. Maruki's reality warping plans are unnerving, he's still a good person in his wish to genuinely see others free from pain, as opposed to the mad false God Yaldabaoth.]]

** Though the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' sub-series can get pretty dark itself, it is definitely lighter and softer when compared to mainline ''SMT''. While ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' involves various horrors like [[spoiler: the hero's party betraying each other and leading bloody campaigns of violence to seize control of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, the genocide of whatever side you don't align yourself with, and the murder of just about every unfortunate civilian you meet]], the ''Persona'' games generally involve a group of disparate individuals coming together to successfully save the day. [[spoiler: ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'''s ending is the exception, being undoubtedly the darkest point in the entire ''Persona'' series.]]
*** ''VideoGame/Persona4'', in particular, is a considerably more cheerful game compared to its predecessors.

*** In ''Persona 3'', you get a dog named Koromaru. He is cute, pretty intelligent, and does funny things sometimes, but otherwise he's just a normal dog who happens to be able to summon a Persona. In ''Persona 4'' however, you get Teddie, a sentient bear mascot suit who regularly makes bear puns in the English dub and is probably the biggest comic relief character in the game.
*** This trope occurs over the course of ''VideoGame/Persona5.'' The game starts with the protagonist being arrested for an assault he didn't commit and is promptly sentenced to probation, forcing him to change schools. Right from the start, the atmosphere at school is gloomy, due to the influence of the volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida, who spreads rumors about you, physically abuses his team and sexually harasses the female students, which everyone keeps quiet about due to the reputation his team brings to the school due to him being a former Olympic athlete. Once the protagonist and his friends dispatch his shadow in the Metaverse and take his palace's treasure, Kamoshida undergoes a change of heart, confesses his crimes and turns himself in. Once he leaves the story, the game's tone brightens considerably. [[spoiler:Then it's subverted on the later arcs, with child abuse and death galore.]] The UpdatedRerelease ''Persona 5 Royal'' then [[spoiler: plays this trope straight, as while Dr. Maruki's reality warping plans are unnerving, he's still a good person in his wish to genuinely see others free from pain, as opposed to the mad false God Yaldabaoth.]]

** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is a considerably more cheerful game compared to its predecessors.
*** While the story is about tracking down a serial murderer while being confronted with the party's darkest secrets and deepest fears, it has a fairly positive attitude about the whole thing. It makes for a nice change after the seriously {{Bittersweet Ending}}s of ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''VideoGame/Persona2'', and though it has a lighter feeling to it, it still contains some really dark subject matter.
*** The main cast's character arcs also tend to be lighter in ''Persona 4'' than in ''Persona 3''. Just to compare the first two party members you get in both games, Junpei's arc is he feels like he has no future ahead of him since he's mediocre at best in just about every thing he does, and everyone else he knows is headed to big things. He's also afraid of turning into his drunkard, waste-of-space father. Yosuke's main character arc in comparison is dealing with his feelings about both living in the country instead of the city and the death of the girl he was in love with. Yukari's arc is that she can't stand people who can't stand up for themselves, like her mother who throws herself at boyfriend after boyfriend. Later on she has to deal with the fact that [[spoiler: her father is probably partially responsible for the whole mess they are in]]. In comparison, Chie just feels jealousy towards her best friend and later just wants to be able to protect people.
*** In ''Persona 3'', you get a dog named Koromaru. He is cute, pretty intelligent, and does funny things sometimes, but otherwise he's just a normal dog who happens to be able to summon a Persona. In ''Persona 4'' however, you get Teddie, a sentient bear mascot suit who regularly makes bear puns in the English dub and is probably the biggest comic relief character in the game.
** This trope occurs over the course of ''VideoGame/Persona5.'' The game starts with the protagonist being arrested for an assault he didn't commit and is promptly sentenced to probation, forcing him to change schools. Right from the start, the atmosphere at school is gloomy, due to the influence of the volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida, who spreads rumors about you, physically abuses his team and sexually harasses the female students, which everyone keeps quiet about due to the reputation his team brings to the school due to him being a former Olympic athlete. Once the protagonist and his friends dispatch his shadow in the Metaverse and take his palace's treasure, Kamoshida undergoes a change of heart, confesses his crimes and turns himself in. Once he leaves the story, the game's tone brightens considerably. [[spoiler:Then it's subverted on the later arcs, with child abuse and death galore.]] The UpdatedRerelease ''Persona 5 Royal'' then [[spoiler: plays this trope straight, as while Dr. Maruki's reality warping plans are unnerving, he's still a good person in his wish to genuinely see others free from pain, as opposed to the mad false God Yaldabaoth.]]

* Creator/ElectronicArts' FirstPersonShooter games are the softer version of the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 generation of shooters. ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'', ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo'' and ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'' all have comparatively "lighter and fluffier" storylines and endings. No DownerEnding to create a SequelHook for instance. [[DarkerAndEdgier And then came the sequels...]] (though not so much ''Mercenaries 2'')

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'': The remake for UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance uses brighter colors and more cartoonish qualities. The ending is also slightly altered. In the original version, K. Rool falls from his ship after defeat [[spoiler:and gets eaten by piranhas]], but in the GBA remake, [[spoiler:he falls into the Lost World and vows for revenge, which hints at getting the GoldenEnding]]. The GoldenEnding is changed, too. In the original version, [[spoiler:K. Rool rides away in EvilLaughter as Crocodile Isle collapses]], whereas in the Game Boy Advance remake, additional dialogue is added [[spoiler:and Funky drops a bomb on K. Rool]].

** The port of ''VideoGame/{{Mortal Kombat|1992}}'' to the UsefulNotes/SuperNES [[Bowdlerise/VideoGames removes the blood and some of the more graphic fatalities]].

* The ''VideoGame/PowerStone'' series for UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast and UsefulNotes/{{P|layStationPortable}}SP is this for Creator/{{Capcom}} fighting games. While the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' and ''VideoGame/CapcomVs'' series are quite serious, ''Power Stone'' is humorous, comical, and reminiscent of a SaturdayMorningCartoon.

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', compared to [=RPGs=] ''in general'' at the time of its release (originally in 2000 on the Dreamcast, then [[UpdatedRerelease ported in 2003]] for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube), is lighter and softer in its impossibly optimistic and clean-cut protagonist [[{{Determinator}} Vyse]] (as opposed to the cynical brooding heroes such as [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall Leonhart]] who were more popular at the time), a fairly simple plot (it has its dark moments, but even so), and easy-to-learn battle system. Taken somewhat further in the U.S Dreamcast release, when situations involving drunkenness and a particular near-rape scene involving one of the female protagonists was edited out.

* UsefulNotes/WiiWare game ''VideoGame/WaterWarfare'' is a lighter and softer version of the entire "FPS Deathmatch" genre. While it plays much the same as other multiplayer [[FirstPersonShooter FPSes]], with multiple weapons and areas, deathmatches, CaptureTheFlag games, and the like, it's entirely nonviolent--all the weapons are squirt guns and water balloons, and the worst that ever happens to anyone is that they get wet.

* Depending on what angle you look at it from, ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' is both this and/or DarkerAndEdgier at the same time. Kratos is a bigger bastard and sociopath than any major Greek hero ever was. The Olympian pantheon is portrayed with a lot less of their positive traits present (while the Olympians of myth were pretty much the template for JerkassGods a lot of them, even Zeus, had their positive traits and PetTheDog moments) and the story is mostly told through this bleak, bloody lense that tends to forgo the more adventurous and and lighter moments spread throughout even a lot of the darker myths. On the other hand, the games also leave out a lot of sexual deviance, bed tricks, incest and the like also found in the myths.
** ''Videogame/GodOfWarPS4'' is a much straighter example, throwing away a lot of the gratuitous violence, cruelty, and sex of the previous games, and instead being an ComingOfAgeStory from the father's point of view.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', while not without dark content, was designed to be more comic-book like and "youthful" in order to contrast with the bleak and fatalistic ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' that preceded it. The art direction is colourful, there's no blood, the character in the position that would usually be the main villain is [[GoodVersusGood clearly a good person doing what she thinks is best]], there's cute kids, and the optional audio conversations put an unusual amount of emphasis on the characters just having fun partying together and organising concerts.

* ''Hitman GO'' is considerably tamer than ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'', receiving an [=E10+=] rating compared to the M rating for all the main franchise's games. There are still weapons and acts of violence in the game, but due to the board game style it comes off as much tamer. There's also none of the sex or profanity present in the other games.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'' is oriented about this tone while still being just as violent and gory as its predecessors. The game's story takes place in a [[ContinuityReboot New Era]] created by Fire God Liu Kang after given the opportunity to [[RestartTheWorld reconstruct the timeline]], which he steered towards fostering peace and harmony. While conflict still exists (both of natural entropy and of outside machinations by evildoers), virtually all characters are given the opportunity to better themselves and not be forced into evil or their grim situations like in the previous timelines, resulting in [[AdaptationalHeroism many turning to the side of the righteous]] or at least not as malevolent and burdened as past incarnations. The game [[ArtEvolution is also very literally lighter and softer thanks to shifts in art direction and narrative aesthetic]] -- the realms of ''Mortal Kombat'' are nowhere near the levels of barren-to-hellish wastelands as before, and the worlds are allowed to finally appear much more lush, vibrant, and even tranquil.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': The [[VideoGame/Pikmin2001 first game]] had a lonlier and more alien atmosphere than any of its sequels on account of Olimar having no outside contact. The premise is that Olimar's life support would fail in one month if he does not get his ship repaired, giving the player a strong sense of urgency. The following games have multiple people around giving some form of companionship (whether it's the ship's AI and emails in ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'', the three protagonists of ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'' regularly speaking to each other, or ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'' having dozens of [=NPCs=] in its main area). They're less urgent, with ''2'' and ''4'' having no day limit at all and ''3'' having a much more lenient day limit than the first game. ''Pikmin 2'' in particular has the lowest stakes of the series as most of the game is spent on repaying a company debt, and it introduces goofier creatures like a beetle that [[ToiletHumor harms Pikmin by farting clouds of poison on them.]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': The game's story overall leans more towards this. Breath of the Wild was melancholic, built on themes of isolation and loss of identity, as well as being haunted by the impending horror of Calamity Ganon's return. The world felt broken and desolated, barely recovered from the tragedy 100 years earlier and horror and mystery lurking in every corner, covered in roaming monsters and the dangerous Guardians. Despite its more horrifying beginning with the reawakening of Ganondorf and Ganondorf himself being an utter monster of a man compared to his previous incarnation, Tears of the Kingdom is notably a bit more empowering and brighter, with much more goofy moments, a sense of the world rebuilding and being more united against the threat. Link in particular now has a beloved reputation and many actual allies and friends he can work with and fall back on instead of having to approach the entire adventure on his own.

** ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' is this to the first game in many ways. Aside from King Boo [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope becoming far more evil]] than he was in the first game, everything else was toned down. While the original was a genuinely scary experience (by Nintendo standards), Dark Moon is much more comedic, has separate missions and more puzzle-solving elements than survival, and the aesthetic is much more stylized and quirky, with Hollywood Darkness in contrast to the true darkness of the first game. The original also has descriptions of the portrait ghosts, how they lived and how they died; this game doesn't have the portrait ghosts anymore.

*** The first game's story went for a more cinematic approach compared to most other Mario games with both its intro and ending. While it did carry the usual stance of Bowser kidnapping Peach, it was played more seriously than usual and had significantly higher stakes with Bowser imprisoning Toads in crystals, lifting Peach's entire castle into space, and threatening to rule the entire universe. Bowser is even implied to have deliberately put Rosalina and her Lumas in danger when he stole all of the Comet Observatory's Power Stars and left it immobile and in darkness. The ending wasn't much better with the explosion of Bowser's Galaxy Reactor creating a supermassive blackhole, leading to an emotional scene where many Lumas, including the one in Mario's hat, sacrificed themselves to reset the universe, leading into a scene of Rosalina discussing with Mario the cycle of death and rebirth then bringing him into the new universe. ''Galaxy 2'' is significantly less dramatic. Bowser attacking Lubba's starship merely results in Lumas falling to Mario's planet in crystals unharmed, the intense GCI cutscenes are replaced with a picture book framing device with cutscenes of in-game models, and Bowser merely kidnaps Peach without causing any harm to the Toads or even touching the castle. His new transformation into a giant is even played for comedy. The ending lacks the bittersweetness the first game had with a more straightforward happy ending.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' is this compared to its [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy predecessor]] in both a literal and figurative sense.
*** The first game's story went for a more cinematic approach compared to most other Mario games with both its intro and ending. While it did carry the usual stance of Bowser kidnapping Peach, it was played more seriously than usual and had significantly higher stakes with Bowser imprisoning Toads in crystals, lifting Peach's entire castle into space, and threatening to rule the entire universe. Bowser is even implied to have deliberately put Rosalina and her Lumas in danger when he stole all of the Comet Observatory's Power Stars and left it immobile and in darkness. The ending wasn't much better with the explosion of Bowser's Galaxy Reactor creating a supermassive blackhole, leading to an emotional scene where many Lumas, including the one in Mario's hat, sacrificed themselves to reset the universe, leading into a scene of Rosalina discussing with Mario the cycle of death and rebirth then bringing him into the new universe. ''Galaxy 2'' is significantly less dramatic. Bowser attacking Lubba's starship merely results in Lumas falling to Mario's planet in crystals unharmed, the intense GCI cutscenes are replaced with a picture book framing device with cutscenes of in-game models, and Bowser merely kidnaps Peach without causing any harm to the Toads or even touching the castle. His new transformation into a giant is even played for comedy.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' has Donkey Kong being captured (again), while Diddy Kong has also been kidnapped. Despite this, however, ''[=DKC2=]'' was still the more aesthetically and audibly serious game of the three. Here, the levels are more colorful and based on nature like the first, the enemies and bosses have more comical and less intimidating designs, K. Rool is LuaghablyEvil (well... even more so than usual), and the secret ending is an outright farce. Even the GameOver screen is a lot more toned down; instead of showing the main characters beaten up or imprisoned, Dixie and Kiddy are just sitting in a crib.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' has Donkey Kong being captured (again), while Diddy Kong has also been kidnapped. Despite this, however, ''[=DKC2=]'' was still the more aesthetically and audibly serious game of the three. Here, the levels are more colorful and based on nature like the first and K. Rool is a complete joke of a villain (well... even moreso than usual), and the secret ending borderlines on a GainaxEnding. Even the GameOver screen is a lot more toned down where it shows Kiddy and Dixie sitting in a crib before someone closes the door.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'': The remake for UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance uses brighter colors and more cartoonish qualities (for example, in the GBA remake, K. Rool has fuzzy dice on the window of his ship, whereas in the original, he doesn't). The ending is also slightly altered. In the original version, K. Rool falls from his ship after defeat [[spoiler:and gets eaten by piranhas]], but in the GBA remake, [[spoiler:he falls into the Lost World and vows for revenge, which hints at getting the GoldenEnding]]. The GoldenEnding is changed, too. In the original version, [[spoiler:K. Rool rides away in EvilLaughter as Crocodile Isle collapses]], whereas in the Game Boy Advance remake, additional dialogue is added [[spoiler:and Funky drops a bomb on K. Rool]].

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Putrefaction}}'' is a dank, dark, creepy game set in a ZombieApocalypse where it's AlwaysNight and levels are confined to dark, creepy basements and tunnels full of undead and giant monsters. It's sequel, ''Void Walker'' is far more light-hearted, eschewing all horror elements and setting the game almost entirely outdoors at dawn, in a brighter and more colorful game world. The atmosphere is far less gloomy as well, the dreary music is gone, the monsters and mutants looks goofier than the zombie-like putrids and you even get to [[spoiler:shoot Hitler in the face]]!

* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'', compared to ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', the gameplay of which provides the basis for the former. You can run over people, but they can't die. You can take any car you want, but you're just hitchhiking, not stealing them. You can piss off the police, but all you get is a small fine, as you have no weapons for the cops to confiscate.

* The two campaigns of ''VideoGame/EasternExorcist''. The first and main storyline follows the titular Exorcist, Lu Yun-chuan, who lost his brothers after a betrayal, was expelled over a failed demon-hunting mission, and must redeem his failures in a series of increasingly difficult quests [[spoiler:culminating in a borderline DownerEnding where all his friends are dead, and he must eliminate his EvilFormerFriend after his last, surviving companion pulls a TakingTheBullet to save him]]. The second, follow-up story on the other hand follows Xiahou-zue, a half-human, half-''hulijing'' on a quest to save her brother, without any double-crossings or backstabbings, where her storyline is far more straightforward, easier, and with a far more optimistic ending [[spoiler:with Xiahou-xue finishing her mission and traveling across China with her quite-alive human LoveInterest]]. Case in point: The former storyline have Lu dealing with a VengefulGhost who used to be a child who starved to death, a highly-destructive water demon slaughtering a whole village who's revealed to be a rape ''victim'' sentenced to death by ApatheticCitizens; the darkest chapter in Xiahou-xue's quest is that of a lost-dog-turned-demon searching for it's missing master.