Subverted Rhymes in video games.
- In World of Warcraft the Forsaken have completely subverted a traditional rhyme with,Roses are greyViolets are greyI'm deadAnd colorblind.
- In Banjo-Tooie, Jamjars, who teaches you moves, does so in a rhyming style (specifically he's singing to the tune of that "I don't know but I've been told" song, he is a drill sergeant after all). Sometimes, he ends up rhyming the button names, which, while always rhymed in the original version, often did not rhyme in the Xbox Live Arcade version. The original version also had this issue depending on the player; Jamjars rhymes the Z button with "red" and "head". Since Rare is based in Twycross, UK, the Z button is meant to be pronounced "Zed", but to Americans, who pronounce it "Zee", the pun doesn't work.
- Gruntilda, who spoke entirely in rhyming couplets all throughout Banjo-Kazooie, is told by her sisters near the beginning of Banjo-Tooie to knock off the annoying rhyming already, at which point she says "Oh, very well, then." and stops for the rest of the game.
- In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Shantotto always speaks in rhyme during her cutscene.
- Also happens with a Last-Second Word Swap for an amusing comment by Yuffie when explaining the game's Battlegen system:
Yuffie: That's the way things go, you know. Without luck, you're...Uh, okay, moving on! - In Left 4 Dead, there is a room full of graffiti which includesAlison,Roses are redViolets are blueYou suck
- Destroy All Humans!: I'm a poet and I know it not! Oh, Arkvoodle....
- In RuneScape, you can get a rune pouch repaired by Wizard Korvak, who already went mad from the revelation. When you get it repaired, he drops this little gem.Korvak: Magic makes me happy, magic makes me glad, magic makes the voices quiet, and nothing rhymes with purple.
- There's also Bard Roberts' shanty, recapping the "Great Brain Robbery" quest: "Mi-Gor tried to stop your heart's pace / Your foe's arm part anchor, part mace / Struck without delay / But him ye did slay / made him look a total...[beat]...moron."
- The Pac-Man ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.
- In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, a clue for one sidequest reads as follows:You are my hen, the mistress of my flock. You nourish my body, and tend to my...rooster.
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, there's a point where Guybrush Threepwood has to subvert the rhymes of his crew.Guybrush: We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange.
Haggis: And...! ...um...
Bill: Well...
Edward: ...err...
Bill: Door hinge?
Edward: No, no...
Bill: Guess the song's over, then.
Haggis: Guess so.
Edward: Okay, back to work.
Guybrush: Well, gee. I feel a little guilty, now. - In one part of SBCG4AP: Baddest of the Bands, the player has to help Homestar fill in the words to his song by directing him to food items. However, one of them doesn't pan out as expected:Homestar: Bleu cheese or ranch. We can dine in, or we can take it to go.Our food-related love makes me all tipsy, kinda queasy, like a...(Strong Bad points to the escargot; Record Needle Scratch)Homestar: Plate of snails?! That...doesn't rhyme...
- This is subverted (double subverted?) if you beat the scene: "go" is rhymed with "merlot", and "snails" ends up being rhymed with "fails".
- Subverted by GLaDOS in Portal 2. The way it's presented seems as though it's a subverted rhyme, but in the scheme of the song, it's actually no subverted rhyme at all.Goodbye my only friend.
Oh, did you think I meant you?
That would be funny,
If it weren't so sad.
Well you have been replaced
I don't need anyone now
When I delete you maybe
I'll stop feeling so bad. - Fawful in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story delivers this gem:Fawful sings a song of bad.Mushroom Kingdom is so sad.All of it is for Fawfuland the...rhyme with...that.
- In the 2011 edition of You Don't Know Jack, one of the commercials / sponsors is for a rhyming dictionary where the voice over consistently fails to rhyme any of his lines.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 provides us with the following gem, in a poem about the sheep of Gran Pulse titled "The Melancholy of the Lambs:"It's hard to be sheep
out here on the plain,
Avoiding the hunters
is such a terrible strain.
Oh, I wish that once
I could munch on some grass
Without a man coming to pull
a tuft from my...side. - In Are We There Yet? the puzzle for one of the Michigan tourist attractions, a red flannel factory, is a word search where a couplet is given after finding a piece of underwear; for example, "I see gallons, I see quarts; I see someone's BOXER SHORTS." Instead of a couplet, the response to a particular undergarment is "A BULLETPROOF VEST???" Another set of puzzles concerning the return of Hinckley, Ohio's buzzards consists of a cryptogram which translates to:Buzzard buzzard in the tree
I hate the way you stare at me
I wish you good I wish you well
I wish you'd fly straight to
Followed by a different kind of puzzle which gives the answer "Iowa." - In Child of Light, everyone speaks in rhyme, save for the jester Rubella. Aurora and Igniculus constantly correct her when she goes off-script.
- In Fairy Maids the Tall Tale Tribune contains rhyming ads for the houses you have to clean. The one for the Dark Knight's house is a little...different.The Dark Knight is as rotten within as the inside of his castle. He's really quite an awful man - in short, he's a big jerk.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a Korok sends you on quests with mostly rhyming riddles, until you get to...Its scales and tail will zap you, no doubt!
This shocking swimmer is called a...fish. - In Final Fantasy XIV, there are two instances meant to poke fun at the verse speaking Shantotto from Final Fantasy XI:
- There was a seasonal event where Shantotto herself briefly invaded the world of Hydaelyn. As she always speaks in rhyme and had a long monologue with the Warrior of Light and some Twin Adder soldiers, one of the soldiers catches himself mid rhyme to prevent a case of Got Me Doing It.
Vorsaile Heuloix: Better that she depart of her own volition, lest that appalling plot of hers come to fru-er, pass.- In the level 60-70 Job quest storyline for Black Mages, the Warrior of Light travels with Shatotto, an Expy of Shantotto. Unlike her XI counterpart, Shatotto doesn't speak in rhymes and even prevents herself from doing so accidentally.
Shatotto: Oh dear, you really aren't very smart. Very well, I shall begin from the very - er, beginning. Dear me, did I almost rhyme? Who does that, anyway?
