Secret Tests of Character in video games.
- In Animal Crossing: Wild World, one of the residents may tell you that they found an item, and ask if it's yours. If you say yes, you'll get the item, but everyone in town will avoid you until you get rid of it. If you say no, the resident will say that it actually is their item, and gives you the item as a reward for your honesty.
- Astra Hunter Zosma: In Ophiuchus Obelisk, Nadir doesn't tell Zosma that the latter can be revived until near the end of the stratum, since he wants to test if Zosma has the resolve to keep climing even while knowing he's dead and might never come back to life.
- In Asura's Wrath, EVERYTHING has been a ploy by Chakravartin to find a successor who will lead the world; yes, that includes the Gohma and the Gohma Vlitra. It's also a deconstruction by its amorality, as Chakravartin can easily revive Vlitra back to life should he wants to, and remarked that he has ended and restarted the world many times before. Asura wasn't happy when he found out, and he was rightly pissed that The Almighty would sacrifice countless human lives just for said test.
- In Baldur's Gate II, Token Evil Teammate Korgan Bloodaxe will attempt to chase The Cutie Aerie out of the party by verbally abusing her. When she retaliates, he explains he was testing her to see if she was strong enough to stand up for herself and expresses his respect.
- Deconstructed with some of the challenges the Big Bad posed on the main character during the saga: they were indeed aimed at testing his/her power, but only so that it could be seized.
- One of the trials in Hell has the main character being repeatedly told by the demon of pride to attack and kill some unspecified evil creature, as one of the explicit open tests he or she is facing. It's easy to understand that it turns out that the real test was whether you would yield or not to pride and engage in unsolicited battle against an alleged enemy that did nothing to you.
- In Baldur's Gate III, the party can attempt to forge an alliance with Lord Enver Gortash by killing his former ally Orin the Red and return to him with her Netherstone. Once you do, Gortash will have the party surrounded and demand they hand over the Netherstones. If you choose to stand your ground and refuse his order, Gortash will commend you for your backbone and count you as his equal, but if you cave in to his intimidation, he'll write you off as a failure and attack you.
- This trope is used in the amateur but popular RPG Maker game A Blurred Line. The protagonist, Talan, seeks refuge from an evil Agency in a town known as Paradise, but only those judged of sufficient moral strength are permitted to reside there. He is told he will be tested the next morning. However, that night he hears crying outside and sees a young woman about to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. His attempts to stop her ultimately fail and he dives off the cliff after her. The woman lands safely in a pool of water at the base of the cliff but Talan lands painfully on the rocks below. As a result of his heroism, the people of Paradise waive his trial and permit him to stay. It is eventually revealed that the woman who jumped was an actress and the entire event was in fact the trial itself. It is implied that Talan is the only person to join the town to actually pass it.
- In Book Of Travels Chapter 0 you may encounter Vastila the Post Warden who asks you to pass an item to a friend of hers, who'll then ask you to pass something of hers back. If you don't give in to the temptation of selling the item for a pretty penny or keeping it on your person forever (and it has really good stats), then Vastila will invite you to a meetup with friends which opens the path to complete the main story quest.
- In Breath of Fire II, there is a point where Ryu has to undergo a test to earn the Infinity/Anfini power to defeat the game's Big Bad. The one trial is that he must sacrifice just one of his "most faithful" companions for the power. To pass, he must pick "no one" and stick to it until the very end... despite the fact that it's intimated that you will bite it if one of your party members don't, as the Dragon Clan's vengeance on you for not living up to destiny. Your willingness to kill the universe rather than kill a friend is, in fact, the real test, which Ryu passes with flying colors.
- The Cave is one big Secret test; not just on the characters, but the player. The delvers are based on the Seven Deadly Sins note and find themselves at the cave seeking their "heart's desire". Each person comes from a different era and has some kind of moral conflict note , but in The Cave, Cruelty Is the Only Option; the party can only progress through by betraying, backstabbing, exploiting, or even outright killing the people they meet. At the game's end, the trio has the opportunity to leave the Cave with an object representing their wish, but only by stealing an NPC's item. This is when the test comes in: the player can instead return what they've quested for to allow the other person to get their own wish. This is the whole point: if you selfishly take what the characters want, a Bad Ending is shown wherein the characters are forced to live with the consequences of their actions note . However, giving up these short-sighted goals and being empathetic results in the Good Ending, where the seven characters become better people and end up much happier instead note . But one of the most important hints in the game is the party mechanic; the sinners achieve Karma Houdini status because they work as a team and help each other get through their worst moments, but the only way to exit the cave is alone. All told, it's a fascinating study in ethics.
- In Chrono Trigger, the player's actions at the Millennial Fair will be judged later in the game. The verdict does not matter in the end, though.
- The entirety of the Chzo Mythos is a test devised by the Big Bad Chzo to test his Dragon with an Agenda. He fails, and is disposed of –- replaced by the Player Character.
- Yuka Otowa from Crescendo (JP) can subject the main character Ryo to one of these. She leads him to a Love Hotel to see if she can trust him to see beyond her bad reputation as a Hooker with a Heart of Gold. If you make him have sex with her there, it leads to Yuka's Bad Ending. If you refuse the chance to sex her up in these moments, Ryo will later bed her anyway but in better circumstances.
- In Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2 in America), Max has been looking forward to the circus for a long time. He treasures his ticket and finishes all his chores at the workshop just to make it on time! But then a filthy, shoeless street urchin steals his ticket! After chasing the kid all over the town square, he finally catches up and gets his ticket back... only to give it back to the child, because he can see just how much that poor, homeless kid wants to see the circus too. Turns out, this was actually Monica Raybrandt, princess from 100 years into the future, testing Max's heart as the wielder of the Earth Atlamillia.
- The official fanbook pokes fun at this by having Max Take a Third Option... and photocopy the ticket. Monica sulks away, dejected at this turn of events.
- Dicey Dungeons: The entire game show was an (admittedly cruel) way for Lady Luck to give its contestants a lesson in giving up their selfish desires, and the real prize was learning a valuable lesson. She doesn't turn them back from dice, either.
- The ending in Disgaea actually turns out to be a Secret Test of Character. Seraph Lamington, ruler of Celestia, turns Love Freak Flonne into a flower as punishment for harming other angels in the process of defeating Archangel Vulcanus, in order to see how Demon Prince Laharl reacts. (The game has Multiple Endings, so whether Laharl "passes" depends on the player.)
- It's way too easy to fail that one, Guide Dang It!! If you get so much as a single teamkill during the game, even an accidental one you have to settle for second best.
- Sapphire pulls one of these on Almaz in Chapter 4 of the third game.
- Dragon Age: Origins:
- Duncan performs this on the City Elf Warden during their Origin story. After noticing his arrival, the City Elf goes to inform him that its not safe in the Alienage for humans at present, to which he refuses to leave. When they politely insist and Duncan once again politely refuses, the City Elf can offer to find an acceptable compromise. Duncan then congratulates them on keeping their composure, even when encountering an unknown and armed human. If the City Elf remains stubborn and continuously asks them to leave no matter what, even being willing to fight despite the odds, Duncan finds their bravery commendable.
- In the Mage Origin, Duncan can question the Mage Warden on their feelings about their powers and how they think they should be used.
- Dragon Quest:
- Dragon Quest III: To determine your hero's personality in the remakes, a mysterious voice asks a series of questions, then throws you into one of these based on your answers. Your reaction to whatever issue you face determines your personality. Said tests range from dealing with a greedy queen leading her country to war based on lies, to exploring a cavern, to deciding whether or not to take a leap of faith off a tower.
- Dragon Quest VIII has this happen for Prince Charmles following his Rite of Passage. His father sends the heroes as bodyguards to help him retrieve an Argon Heart; Charmles shamelessly exploits this by forcing them to do all the work, then screws the rules even further by buying a bigger Heart at the marketplace. However, his father witnesses this, and after getting the full story from the heroes decides to test his son by seeing how far he'll take the charade while giving him every opportunity to confess. In the end, Charmles utterly fails, and the way he brazenly lies to everyone's face ultimately enrages his father so much that he publicly humiliates him and strips him of his status as heir. To twist the knife even further, in the secret ending his father points out that Charmles nonsense directly resulted in his long-lost cousin successfully completing the rite instead.
- The Elder Scrolls
- A recurring in-game book, A Game at Dinner, tells the story of Prince Hlaalu Helseth hosting a dinner party. After the meal, Helseth implies to his assembled dinner guests (among whom are several spies, including the narrator) that he put poison on the cutlery of someone spying against him, then invites any spies present to take a dose of the antidote, kept in a tureen at the center of the table. One of the spies loses his nerve and drinks, only for Helseth to reveal that no-one's cutlery was poisoned. The poison was, in fact, the "antidote" the spy was just bluffed into drinking. Ultimately, the story is a subversion — it's a test given by Helseth to find The Mole, but everyone at the table is guilty, including the narrator. The victim just panicked first.
- Oblivion:
- During the tutorial, the series' standard Player Personality Quiz is instead replaced with one of these in order to recommend a class for the Player Character. An NPC will recommend a class for you based on the skills you use during the tutorial. However, as there are a number of skills that you don't have the ability to use at that point, there are a number of classes it will never recommend.
- During the Knights of the Nine quest line, you have to speak to the Prophet. He gives you some basic information on an evil that's plaguing the lands, then when asked about seeking out the relics, he asks if you're worthy. If you say you are, he informs you that you clearly don't need his help finding the relics if you're such a renowned hero already. Only if you answer "no" (bonus points if you admit to being a member of a less-than-noble faction such as the Thieves' Guild or the Dark Brotherhood) does he let you continue the quest chain.
- Vulpes Inculta of Fallout: New Vegas enacts one of these on the town of Nipton in the form of a lottery. The winner lives, second place gets his legs broken, and everyone else is killed, enslaved or crucified. According to him, no one objects when he starts calling out names, but if you look around town you can see numerous signs of resistance (including the disintegrated corpse of one Legionnaire). Of course, he might have dismissed that one since the fighting likely happened before the lottery plan was offered — in which case, the citizens would be kind of stupid to protest.
- Then there's Vault 11, which after the door locks, its dwellers are informed that a dweller must be sacrificed once a year, or else the vault computer system will kill everyone in the vault. After a long history of heavily corrupt politics followed by a brief civil war, the original population of 1000 had been reduced to five. These five survivors tell the computer to just go ahead and finish the job because they refuse to send anymore sacrifices... only for the computer to congratulate them on their selflessness and unlock the vault door, telling them they are now free to come and go as they please. The entire purpose of the vault was to see when the people would stand up to the computer. Realizing that all the others died for nothing, four of the five commit suicide.
- In Fate/Grand Order's Shinjuku chapter, the unnamed Archer suggests a toast to welcome your new alliance with Hassan of the Cursed Arm. Since the water quality is dubious, the options to drink are light beer or strong whisky. Cursed Arm, a Muslim Hashashin, picks the whisky and gets roaring drunk, tipping off Archer that he's an impostor. Drinking alcohol for the sake of getting drunk is strictly forbidden in Islam.
- Final Fantasy
- Final Fantasy IV
- Cecil, the protagonist, must fight a dark version of himself in order to become a paladin. In actuality, winning the fight entails Cecil only standing still (or Guarding) whilst a series of messages pop up.
- Quite a few of them pop up in Cecil's Paladin trials, like accidentally breaking a vase and being questioned for it (tell the truth), facing a monster who claims to be a human under a Forced Transformation, (spare him), or being asked to find someone's Golden Apple (give it to him). The more right answers the player has, the better the weapon at the end is, and if all of them are right, you get the Infinity +1 Sword.
- Kain's trial in the GBA/PSP version , centered around dealing with the darkness in his soul and coming to terms with his unrequited feelings for Rosa, also qualifies, especially the part at the end where he must decide whether to kill Cecil.
- One for the player in Final Fantasy VI, at the end of the World Of Balance segment. While escaping the floating continent, most players will reach their airship with time on the clock. At this point, they are given the option to either jump onto the ship and escape, or wait for ally Shadow, who stayed behind to stall the villain. If the player waits, Shadow will arrive with five seconds to spare and escape with you, and be available to recruit in the World of Ruin. If the player didn’t wait, Shadow dies.
- Final Fantasy VIII's SeeD ranking system is a test that lasts throughout the entire game. Most of the decisions over which one can gain or lose SeeD rank involve demonstrating appropriately high levels of skill and professionalism (complete the Train Job without any mistakes, don't try to violate curfew or cast magic carelessly in the halls), but others are more opaque matters of moral character (make sure to save the dog while running for your life from the nigh-indestructible spider tank). Though this is twisted big-time in a meta-sense in that it's very easy to gain SeeD rank by answering the SeeD exam questions from a menu via cheating through the use of a guide. Doing this, the player can easily reach the max rank of A. Maintaining it is another matter, since unless you do something else to maintain it, a rank of A will automatically be reduced to 30 if you don't win at least 20 battles before the next time you're paid.note
- Final Fantasy IV
- From Dust is one of these, implied by the last level and the resulting ending. Your tribe starts off as a few survivors, resisting disasters and threats thanks to your ability to adjust and alter the landscape. In the final level, though, you unlock powers greater than you had before, which you (naturally) play around with it to obscene levels. The spirits of nature don't take kindly to that, sinking your paradise into the ocean, causing your tribe to once again be a few survivors.
- In Granblue Fantasy, this is one of the reasons why a few of the named characters or creatures such as Bai Ze will suddenly provoke the party into a fight is to test if the crew is strong enough to face oncoming challenges.
- Trevor conducts one on the spot in The Third Way ending of Grand Theft Auto V. During a massive, basically suicidal shootout, he goes quiet over the radio no matter how many times Michael asks him to respond. This is in the context of Trevor having found out a while before that Michael turned traitor to their crew during a bank heist nine years ago in order to make off with the money, with Trevor having been relentlessly unforgiving and distrusting of Michael ever since. However, Michael displays genuine concern about Trevor this time and fights his way over to check on him, wherein he finds that he's perfectly fine. Trevor's finally able to reconcile with him shortly after.
- About three-quarters of the way through inFAMOUS, Cole is given a decision: save his girlfriend Trish, or six doctors. It's a secret test of character because no matter what you do, Trish dies. The only thing it affects is your Karma Meter. Kessler, the Big Bad of the first game orchestrated the whole thing so that Cole would be ready to fight the Beast, mainly so he wouldn't be burdened by having a family (and not meeting the challenge head-on) in the Bad Future Kessler comes from.
- While Trick or Treating in Kingdom of Loathing there's a 15% chance that a certain house
will spawn in your block. This house will have a huge bowl of candy and a sign reading: "No one's home, take one, BE HONEST." You can go ahead and take the entire bowl, causing the game to tell you you'll forever look behind your shoulder in guilt. You can alternatively "resist the temptation" and leave which gives you the candy anyways as there IS someone in the house who was testing your honesty. You then leave with your head high and the candy clenched to your pride-swollen chest. - In The King of Fighters Spin-Off game KOF:KYO, the main character Kyo Kusanagi is subjected to one of these. His girlfriend Yuki disappears few days before the KOF tournament, and the few leads that Kyo has point to a kidnapping so he goes searching for her through three countries with the help of his fellow fighters. It turns out that Yuki never was abducted, and wasn't even in any danger: Chizuru, the KOF hostess and Kyo's fellow God's Caliber Team member, had taken her in and arranged for her "disappearance", wanting to test Kyo's mental strength and his devotion to his loved ones — which is a good part of Kyo's driving force as a whole.
- League of Legends has the League Judgement, a process in which the character being tested is forced to relive a major event or a nightmarish scenario in their life. This varies from Graves the Outlaw getting thrown into the underground prison of Aregor Priggs, to Rumble seeing his beloved mech get destroyed by his arch-rival Heimerdinger. This is always followed by the questions "Why do you want to join the League?" and "How does it feel, exposing your mind?" Of course this is not even remotely important to the game itself, but adds a lot of depth to the characters for those who choose to indulge in the lore.
- In Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, after you save the king's crown, you're offered one of several rewards. You're actually rewarded with money no matter what you choose, but you get the most money should you tell him to Keep the Reward.
- Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete has a tower contains a series of character tests. First the party stumbles upon a man who is injured and pretending not to be that needs to be healed. The next area has the main character asked to dismiss his weakest character (in which the answer is to refuse to in the first place). The final puzzle requires the characters to mold something "beautiful", in which the main character is the only one that passes because he makes a statue of the girl he loves.
- It's worth noting that the tester misunderstands the subject of the statue though... He doesn't think it's Luna but rather the Goddess Althena who supports the whole world and such. Of course Luna IS Althena, so he wasn't wrong.
- In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the heroes are judged by a magic door on their inner character before being allowed through. Mario passes, and the babies, as babies, are judged to be pure enough, but the door doesn't believe Luigi qualifies. It encourages the rest of the team to go on without Luigi, but Mario insists on bringing Luigi along, so the door says that Luigi's worthiness can be proved if he can reach a certain block. As they return after reaching the block, the block asks Luigi to tell him who was the one who did the work, with the options being "Mario", "the babies", or "Me!" Doesn't matter what you answer, the door yells at you, finally insisting that the proper answer (which wasn't even an option) was that everyone contributed. In response to this, Luigi breaks down, but Mario quickly comes to his defense and the babies start hitting the door with their hammers. Then the door settles down and reveals that Luigi's actually plenty worthy, but it wanted to test how they work as a team, so Mario and the babies insisting on staying with Luigi and coming to his defense was exactly what it wanted to see.
- Also from the Mario series, in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, during one Fetch Quest you are asked by the NPC to pay for the privilege of having his Plot Coupon. You can pay 10 coins, 50 coins, or 100 coins, or you can choose to give him all your money. Doing so leads to him asking to confirm that you're going to give him all your money, making it very difficult to do anything in the future. He'll give you the item, then tell you it was a test to see how much you wanted it, and give you your money back. Doubly subverted in that A) you can get by with paying less than 10 coins, or even no money at all, with this option; and B) he probably would have kept the money if his wife and son weren't standing right next to him.
- Mass Effect: Andromeda: One of the first missions Ryder can pick up on Aya is an angara merchant asking them to investigate supplies on Voeld for the merchant. Doing so, Ryder notes a few details not adding up, and comes to the conclusion the merchant is actually with La Résistance. Which he is. The head of the resistance had him give Ryder the mission to see if they were on the level (it doesn't mean he likes Ryder, just that he doesn't think they're likely to backstab the angara any time soon).
- Discussed early on in Master Detective Archives: Rain Code during the prologue chapter when Yuma's presence on the Amaterasu Express to meet with the other Master Detectives leads to a discrepancy where only five were invited to Kanai Ward, but Yuma makes the current party six, leading to suggestions there might be an impostor among them or it might simply be a test by an undercover WDO officer to test them. The test angle gets tragically subverted when a hitman kills everyone except Yuma in order to frame him for the murders.
- Phantom, one of the Four Guardians in Mega Man Zero, dies in the first game trying to stop Zero, but failed. When he resurfaced in the third game, he fights Zero once again, this time as an Optional Boss. Turns out he didn't want to kill Zero outright, but only to see if Zero still has what it takes to be a hero, especially since Phantom learned that Zero's using a clone body.Phantom: You truly did... have the soul of a hero... Go... Cross blades with Omega, and show what that body can do! Will your blade flinch after you know the truth? Do you have what it takes...to be a hero? You must be the one to determine that!
- Phantasy Star IV has this in an optional dungeon near the end of the game. After a very strange but emotional battle, Chaz is confronted by a creature who asks him to consider the rage and hate he feels, and offers to teach him a technique to turn those feelings into power. The player is then given the choice to accept or refuse. Saying no causes him to reassure Chaz that those feelings are natural and part of the human experience, and he learns the technique; saying yes gets him smacked down like the unworthy bitch he is.
- Parodied in Portal. In one test, the character is given a companion to help her solve the puzzles, and is then ordered to incinerate it at the end. The companion? A large inanimate cube with a heart drawn on each side. If you explore the area fully, you can find evidence that several previous test subjects formed a significant bond with this "weighted companion cube"... Several real players apparently feel the same way. Mission Control will then smack you across the face with its words for being such a Yakoff.
- Also, earlier in the game, GLaDOS starts a test chamber by informing you that it is unsolvable. Then, when you do solve it, GLaDOS says it was all a test to see how you would handle a seemingly hopeless situation. "Fantastic. You remained resolute and resourceful in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism."
- Finally, in Test Chamber 19, GLaDOS pretends that her incinerator trap was one of these, and congratulates you for solving "the final test, where we pretended we were going to murder you". Naturally, it doesn't work.
- This is revealed to be the case for one of the levels in Psychonauts. In Sasha's mind, Raz (and likely the player) gets impatient with the very slow flow of censors and sets the flow of censors to crossed bones, causing the "world" to go into chaos. Upon revisiting the level, Sasha reveals that he expected Raz to overload his mind with censors from the very beginning, and wanted to see how he would stop it (though the mega-censor that stamped Sasha into incoherence was not part of the plan).
- Quest for Glory III had an interesting example. You engage in a series of contests with the chief's son, to see which one of you will get the title of a warrior. During the race, he easily outruns you regardless of your stats, and manages to fall into a trap. You can either gloat and keep racing, or help him out. The karma reward is swift and obvious. However, unlike other secret tests, you can win the title even if you fail in this particular instance.
- Subverted in the second game. If the character is a Fighter, they can join the Eternal Order of Fighters. The initiation ends with the player defeating one of the members, while the others order you to kill the now-helpless opponent. Turns out the EOF is really a bunch of Jerk Jocks, and you only pass if you try to flat-out murder the guy. A Double Subversion occurs in the ending; if you refused to kill the guy, he joins the choir praising the hero.
- This is just one of several Secret Tests of Character during the game, all pointing towards becoming a paladin by the end. Thieves will find it remarkably difficult to succeed, but it IS possible.
- Quest for Glory I had another possible Secret Test of Character, as the gargoyle guarding Erasmus' house sometimes asks you what the Thieves' Password is. Erasmus doesn't like Thieves very much, so the correct way to answer the question is to either admit or pretend that you don't know the password. If you do give him the correct password, he'll say "That's RIGHT, but it's also WRONG."
- In the RuneScape quest "Plague's End", the hermit in the Poison Waste who preaches about Seren asks you three questions to prove you paid attention. The third question, "How does Seren show her humility?" is a trick question, because the sermon never mentioned humility, so the correct answer is "I don't know", proving your humility and convincing the hermit Lady Hefin that you are trustworthy.
- Typing "call cousin vinnie" in SimCity 3000's cheat console will trigger an event where a shady woman called Vinnie will offer you a large sum of money acquired through dubiously legal means. If you accept, you will get $100,000 with no strings attached. If you refuse, she will ask you to type "zyxwvu" on the cheat console to get the SimCity Castle on your reward buildings, which will crank up its surrounding land value to Astronomical and put your local approval rating all the way to maximum.
- In Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic comes across a crying little girl. The girl explains that she's crying because her parents have been captured by a dragon. The problem is, Sonic comes across this kid while on a strict time limit by Nimue, the Lady of the Lake (who looks like Amy Rose); Nimue has promised to help Sonic out only if Sonic can complete a task within three days. If Sonic helps this kid look for her parents, he'll go over the time limit. Sonic chooses to help the kid, of course. And it turns out the kid is none other than Nimue in disguise, who wanted to see what sort of hero Sonic was. So time limit or no time limit, Nimue still decides to help Sonic because Sonic passed her secret test.
- Parodied in the Soulcalibur 4 omake manga, Cassandra (who has been "teaching" Hilde about the game mechanics) talks like a typical instance with lines that wouldn't be out of place in the "kill the mentor" variant like "The time has come to say goodbye" "I don't have regrets for my life" "Now finish me with the secret technique critical finish!!!"◊ and Hilde does so (in tears!), throwing her into the sky and weeps about how she will never forget her. Cassandra then comes out of nowhere◊, to Hilde's shock.
- This seems to be popular in Star Trek games. The final puzzles of Judgment Rites and A Final Unity, in particular, hinge on these.
- The Ultima games from IV onward had a test that was unique in that there were no wrong answers. The purpose was to decide what class the player would get.
- Although there are game mechanic reasons to steer away from picking Humility. The humble shepherd has no magic and very poor equipment options, and Humility is the only virtue that doesn't offer any stat boosts.
- Mastering the Virtues in the fourth game actually required you to actively abide by them in your play, and would often go against typical RPG play style. For instance, killing everything you encountered for experience points would drop your compassion, striking a fleeing enemy would damage your honor, and lying for your own benefit would be bad for your honesty. Of course, there were exploits (since virtues never go below zero, you could just play merry hell until you were max level and had tons of stuff, and then become a living saint) but the game made it clear that you were supposed to play a genuinely virtuous person, not just pretend to be one.
- Undertale: After leading you through the dungeon and (literally) holding your hand through the puzzles, Toriel requests that you walk through the following room alone, before running ahead out of sight. When you reach the exit, she reappears and reveals that she never left you, and was in fact testing your independence, as she has to go ahead for real this time to run errands.
- Wolfenstein: The New Order discusses this in a scene set in a Nazi concentration camp. Set Roth remarks on the horror he's seen and says that sometimes it makes him doubt that God even exists. B.J. Blazkowitz suggests "Maybe He's testing us", and Set grimly responds that if He is, then we're failing miserably.
- World of Warcraft featured a layered test in Vol'jin's backstory. While being tested by a loa, he was shown two images: One where he was free and battling for his life, and one where he had everything he could desire but was chained to his throne. Vol'jin laughingly dismissed it as an easy choice of freedom... only for the loa to explain the real test was if he would hesitate in choosing. This is ultimately inverted when Vol'jin leads the Darkspear Revolution and pushes Garrosh Hellscream out of the position of Warchief, only to have the other racial leaders of the Horde immediately select him as the best replacement.
- In Yakuza 4, tests of character are at the heart of Shun Akiyama's loan shark business: he will lend any amount of money to anyone without interest or the need for collateral, but only if they can pass his tests. Said tests appear to be random and can vary in length and intensity depending on how much money the person asks for (a character notes Akiyama once asked someone to pick up litter from an entire city block for a week), and no one is really sure why he does this in the first place. It's because Akiyama was a penniless hobo before the events of Yakuza 1 literally dropped a million yen in his lap, and he wants to make sure he's lending to worthy people who will appreciate the money in the same way he did all those years ago.
