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Taken For Granite / Video Games

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Petrification in video games.

  • Adventures of Lolo has Medusa and its cousin, Don Medusa. Both are capable of petrifying Lolo (and/or Lala in Lolo 3), and will zap on sight, even if Lolo/Lala isn't looking their way. Don Medusa is the more dangerous of the two, because it can move back and forth.
  • Happens to both Asura and Akuma in Asura's Wrath. Not that it stops them from still trying to fight.
  • Age of Mythology has two units that can petrify units: the myth unit Medusa can petrify anything that is not airborne, a human hero or a Titan, and the hero Perseus, who carries around Medusa's severed head, can petrify any myth unit. In both cases, the ability, once expended, needs to recharge, and in the meantime the unit has to use other means to attack — Perseus uses his sword, while Medusa uses a bow.
  • Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny features this trope as a Deus Exit Machina for the main character Felt, forcing Viese to follow his footsteps in order to find out what happened to him (and later restore him to normal). Several major characters are petrified the same way by the Big Bad, all of which can eventually be restored. In fact, the entire population of Eden is turned to stone near the end and an optional subquest is to run around "unstoning" every single one.
  • In Aura II: The Sacred Rings, the player Umang has to set up a "Stone Ritual" which the returning mage will unwittingly use and turn himself into stone.
  • In Awakening: Skyward Castle, it turns out everyone in the Skyward kingdom were turned into stone by the evil Dreadmyre. They're freed from their stone forms when reunited with an object important to them.
  • Baldur's Gate:
    • The Nashkel Carnaval has the warrior cleric Branwen as one of the attractions. If you decide to use a stone to flesh spell on it, she will turn back to herself, and offers to join your party.
    • Basilisks will also pop up in several areas, including one set controlled by an insane gnome. One of your dialogue choices when talking to him is funny, but when you think about it later, is truly callous - "Okay, Mr. psycho gnome, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but we're really not interested in your rock garden". Those are real, very unfortunate (or stupid) people, not just statues!
    • In the Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion, there is a quest to look for some missing people. They turn out to have been the victims of the Flesh to Stone spell of an Evil Sorcerer. In the ensuing battle, she will try this on the party too.
    • Boisterous Bruiser Minsc managed to survive a century later into Baldur's Gate III because he willingly allowed himself (and his hamster) to be petrified to Fling a Light into the Future.
  • Battle for Wesnoth has "petrify" status effect that render an unit unable to move, attack or be attacked. It's rarely seen in mainline content.
    • Prior to its removal in 1.1, "Valley of Statues" from Heir to the Throne has cockatrices whose gaze attack can turn enemies into stone. In the scenario, they're used by a pair of evil wizard to turn any enemies, be it the orcs or the heroes. The effect is removed and the cockatrices are gone when the wizards's mirror is smashed.
    • Under the Burning Suns: In "Blood is Thicker Than Water", Eloh turns Zhul into stone in response to Zhul pleading to her to stop the fighting. The spell wears out once "Eloh" is defeated, showing that's not really her.
  • Shows up as a status effect in Battlerite. Petrified characters are stunned for a long time (note that 3 seconds qualifies as a long time in this game), but are granted a shield that absorbs a certain amount of damage. Depleting the shield causes the effect to end prematurely, so this effect is best used to focus on other enemies, heal up, or wait for cooldowns to finish.
  • The Binding of Isaac:
  • Several areas in Black Tiger have petrified statues of lawful dwarves enslaved by the forces of darkness, where by approaching them you can revert them back to their original forms. They will give you gameplay hints or power-ups before leaving.
  • In Borderlands 3, certain enemies are Anointed by the antagonists, granting them supernatural powers. When they die, their entire body turns to a human-shaped Eridium deposit, which you can smash for valuable currency.
  • Inverted in Carmageddon. The Solid Granite Car powerup doesn't turn your car into a statue, it turns it into a Nigh Invulnerable deathmobile. Your car becomes capable of deflecting most attacks while being able to push even the heaviest vehicles aside and One-Hit Kill most of them. Even Joke Characters become very lethal with this powerup active. The fight against the Big Dump in II becomes a joke if you get it. The third game, TDR 2000, actually has your car's textures turn into granite as a nice visual eye candy.
  • Castlevania:
    • Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse's Sypha Belnades is first discovered as a petrified statue, as an effect of the Cyclops' Evil Eye. Strangely, you (Trevor) are never in danger of any petrifying Evil Eye.
    • Medusa makes an appearance in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, along with a shot of the many soldiers who've tried to kill her that she's turned to stone. Leon can only be petrified as a status ailment, though.
    • Many of the Post-SotN games add Gold Medusa Heads, which can petrify you on contact.
  • Longan Dragon Cookie from Cookie Run can petrify cookies with their longan eyeballs. What's worse is that the story suggests that the petrified cookies would be suffering from a Fate Worse than Death as their souls are trapped inside the giant orb in Dragon Eye Perch, which is why Lychee Dragon Cookie would suggest that the cookies are better crushed to death.
  • Happens during the battle with Cala Maria in Cuphead. In her gorgon form, she can fire out a huge beam that'll turn our heroes Cuphead and Mugman into stone (complete with their empty eye sockets), which will put them in danger of getting hit by a real bullet if they're not quick to break out of their stoned forms. This eventually gets turned on her in her second-to-third phase transition, where her whole body (sans her head) turns to stone and crumbles into the ocean, forcing her to detach her own head and continue battling the boys. In simple difficulty, her entire body becomes completely petrified after her defeat.
  • Elaine in The Curse of Monkey Island was turned into a gold statue by a cursed ring. And Guybrush set off to cure her while leaving the statue in the beach of an island inhabited by pirates. Obviously, it was promptly stolen and he had to go and search for them afterwards.
  • Getting Cursed in Dark Souls will turn you into a stone statue, which the game treats as instant death... with a few extra penalties upon respawning like being stuck in hollow form and having your HP cut in half until you find a way to remove the curse. When playing online you can also occasionally find the statues of other unfortunate players who were cursed in that spot, which you can smash by rolling into them or hitting them with a weapon.
  • Dark Souls II splits curse and petrification into separate effects (curse now being nonlethal but reducing maximum HP slightly just as dying would in this game, and petrification being instant death), as well as adding various already-petrified individuals that can be revived using a Fragrant Branch of Yore. A couple of them turn out to be helpful characters; the rest are just enemies who will attack you once revived.
  • In Dimitri's ending in Darkstalkers Vampire Savior has him defeating Morrigan, and about to drink her blood. Cut to Dimitri's tower, him sitting on his throne, and a Statue of Morrigan. He states that she turned herself into stone to resist Dimitri's power. He goes on to state that resistence is futile and one day he'll reach into her closed mind, and wait forever, if need be. Giving us a rare example of self-imposed Taken For Granite. Given the ending, its doubtful she'll ever return to normal... at least in this ending.
  • In Chapter 2 of Deltarune, Lancer and Rouxls Kaard turn into statues late into Chapter 2. This is because the two Darkners are not in the Dark World they originated from. Because of this, they don't "belong" or "fit in". That said, the Castle Town Dark World can have all sorts of Darkners within it without them turning into stone, as its Dark Fountain is made of pure darkness. If the Roaring happens, all Darkners will turn into stone.
  • The Hippogriff boss in Demon's Crest starts the fight as a statue. When you headbutt it, it awakens and fights you. Throughout the fight, it sometimes turns back to stone and must be headbutted again. Once you defeat it, the Hippogriff turns to stone one last time... at which point you smash it to pieces with a final headbutt.
  • In Desktop Dungeons, the Gorgon have a Death Gaze ability, which causes instant petrification when a player's health is less than half (or, for the boss form, Medusa, anything less than full). You can also get a glyph that petrifies enemies, which has an added bonus of making your next kill give more XP. Once you unlock the playable Gorgon class, they do this to every enemy they kill, and if the monster you killed happens to be standing in a narrow hallway...
  • Dink Smallwood mods:
    • In The Basilisk Smile most of an entire village has been turned to stone.
    • In Crowns of Stone the villain turns King Daniel into a stone statue.
  • In Dishonored 2, either Emily or Corvo (depending on player choice) is turned to stone within the first 10 minutes of gameplay by Delilah. Later in the game, as the PC makes their way to Dunwall Tower, we see that the same fate has befallen many of the Overseers and City Guard who tried to oppose Delilah's rule.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II has the Petrifying Touch and Petrifying Visage abilities that, as the name implies, petrifies the target (if they don't have any Magic Armor). Petrified targets cannot move for a turn (two turns for Petrifying Visage), cannot dodge attacks and have an increased vulnerability to Earth damage. On the other hand, they are immune to almost all other status effects (and the target gets healed from them if they already have any of those statuses) and have an increased resistance to Fire and Air damage.
  • In Dota 2, Medusa's ultimate skill is (you guessed it) Stone Gaze. Previously, her gaze only removed buffs and dramatically slowed anyone who was staring at her. The current version of the skill petrifies anyone who stares at front of her for too long while her gaze is active, becoming stunned and taking much more physical damage.
  • This is a fairly common fate in the Dragon Age series, with the victims generally remaining conscious.
    • In Dragon Age: Origins, the Warden may encounter Eleni Zinovia, a soothsayer and consort to a Tevinter magister who was the mother of Archon Hessarian. She was turned to stone after she predicted his downfall.
    • In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, the Player Character can happen upon two Avvar barbarians who were turned to stone through the final act of a dying magister. You can help one barbarian exact revenge on the possessed corpse of the magister or convince him to sleep peacefully like his brother.
    • In Dragon Age II, this is the final fate of Meredith. Also, during the Mark of the Assassin DLC mission, you run into three pirates turned to stone by a curse. They need the help of a true sea captain to lift the curse - such as Pirate Girl party member Isabela.
    • In the Trespasser DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition, a number of Qunari are turned into statues by Solas, who reveals himself to be the Dread Wolf.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • In Dragon Quest V, the Hero and his wife are turned to stone by Bishop Ladja. During the Time Skip, the hero is sold off by treasure hunters and becomes a lawn ornament. He's eventually restored to normal by his children and begins searching for his wife.
    • In Dragon Quest VII, there is a town turned into stone by a strange purple rain. You use "Angels Tears" to restore the one inhabitant whose statue isn't too eroded to restore. You later visit another town and the same rain starts to fall, but you discover the monster responsible for it and stop him before serious mayhem occurs.
    • Manages to happen to the kingdom of Sniflheim in Dragon Quest XI twice. The first time, the witch Krystalinda placed a curse on it, turning everyone into ice. After the player resolves it, later on a different curse begins turning everyone to gold, requiring their intervention once more.
  • Dragon's Crown has the Petrify attack used by both the Sorceress and Medusa. When they use it, anyone looking at their eyes will temporarily be turned to stone if they're not immune to petrification. Anyone petrified could shake around to cancel the effects faster, which makes this less useful against Elite Mooks since they could shake the effects away quickly. Late in the game, the Sorceress could also get Massive staves that add a random chance of performing a One-Hit Kill on petrified enemies she attacks.
  • In Drakensang The River of Time one quest is to find four petrified dwarves in a dwarven mine and turn them back to flesh. As reward, each gives you a letter of the name of the guy who did it to them.
  • Franklin in Drawn: The Painted Tower is turned to stone by a curse. In the sequel, you can free him from the spell.
  • As expected, given the source material, the Gold Box series of Dungeons & Dragons games contain numerous enemies with the ability to petrify the heroes. Luckily, mirrors (and, later, polished silver shields) allow the heroes to reflect the creatures' horrid gaze and turn the enemy to stone.
  • EarthBound (1994) has the Diamondized status effect, forcing you to lug your party member's perma-paralyzed body until they're healed.
  • This happens at the end of the climactic fight between Martin Septim and Mehrunes Dagon in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
  • In Elite Beat Agents's last stage, the agents (or divas) are turned to stone by the Rhombulans. They are brought back thanks to the help of all the people they helped.
  • Eye of the Beholder:
    • The flesh to stone spell can turn monsters into statues, that can then be broken with just one hit. The visual effect for such isn't very polished, though, the affected monsters just becoming grey silhouettes with no details. (And flying monsters even keep floating in the air.)
    • Being turned to stone is also a possible status effect inflicted by monsters such as basiliks and medusas. A party member can be returned to normal with a stone to flesh spell, or with pouches of magical powder having the same effect (handy if the group isn't of high level enough to cast the spell).
  • The end of an early quest in Fallen London has this happen to a woman you've been tasked with tracking down. Her companion claims that she agreed to the transformation, but all the player can see are her "scared eyes", so they have no way of asking her. They can choose between leaving her to her supposedly chosen fate or performing a Mercy Kill that leads to Literally Shattered Lives. The correct choice is intentionally ambiguous
  • In Faria, the King gets turned into stone halfway through the game.
  • In Fate/stay night, Rider, being that she is Medusa, comes up with a pair of petrifying eyes. However, the one time she actually uses them nobody actually does get turned to stone. Except for Archer's legs. They got better.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • "Stone" is a status effect in nearly all the games in the series, most of which treat it similarly to Death; since it never wears off through time, if all party members are petrified, the fight's over. Later games in the series have it so that if a petrified character is struck with a physical attack, they shatter and can't be revived until the battle's over.
    • It's mentioned in Final Fantasy III that everyone on the Surface World was turned to stone after it was flooded, with the only exception being Aria Benett, whom the party meets when they first arrive.
    • Palom and Porom do it to themselves in Final Fantasy IV to stop a deathtrap.
    • Red XIII's father from Final Fantasy VII ended up as such defending his home. Much like how Phoenix Downs couldn't revive Aeris, Softs couldn't be used to fix this. Parodied here. And here.
      • It's further implied that the statue is still conscious and aware of his surroundings, as he cries when Red XIII acknowledges him.
    • Early on in Final Fantasy IX Blank is turned into stone to protect the heroes from the Evil Forest. He is eventually cured much later in the game.
    • The Fayth in Final Fantasy X are people who are turned into statues so that their souls can be used to summon large beasts. It's unclear if they become the summon themselves (all we know is that a summoning "draws energy from them"), but they are shown being able to manifest as spirits within the chambers that hold their statue.
    • Llednar Twem in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. What's worse? He crumbled shortly after that.
    • Final Fantasy XIII, a l'Cie that achieves his/her Focus will be turned into a cie'th, giving him/her an eternal life at least until a new mission is given or the subject is freed from the curse.
      • Also, a l'Cie who had transformed into a cie'th for long enough will eventually turn into a stone cie'th
    • This is the fate of any magic user that uses their powers too much in Final Fantasy XVI, be they Bearer or Dominant. Channeling aether through your body invokes "the Crystal Curse", turning parts of your body into pale crystal. It is an extremely painful and slow death, as seen in-game via its sufferers, and you witness many people either dead by it or in the process of dying from it. Notably, Cid is suffering from this and trying to hide it to the best of his ability.
    • In Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, most units in PVP don't have resistance against most of the Status Effects, so using an ability that can inflict stone on an entire party such as Dark Fina's distress (which randomly inflicts one of the Status Effects) is a good way to cripple another player's party because even if they have Stona (which rare enough on its own), it can only work on one target at a time and if the enemy team has an ability to remove Status Effects from the entire team (which is even rarer), as there's none specifically for stone, well... PVP enemies are controlled by the game's AI so they usually favor offensive abilities, spells and attacks, as well as abilities that can heal HP (which outside of Limit Bursts are always mutually exclusive from abilities that get rid of EVERY one of the Status Effects).
  • In Part IV of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the order goddess Ashera lets out bursts of energy which were intended to have this effect on the warring humans and laguz. Everybody who is not indoors, sufficiently strong, Branded, or fighting for Ashera is Taken for Granite, Part IV accordingly concerns itself with stopping her before she can do it again and reversing the effect.
    • In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, this is implied to be the final fate of some of the Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War first generation playable characters who survived or escaped the Belhalla massacre. Additionally, Lady Eyvel also gets turned to stone by Veld during the course of the game, and saving her from petrification becomes one of the primary motivations for Prince Leif, the game's protagonist as well as her adoptive son. Only the Kia Staff wielded by the recruitable Mysterious Waif Sara can do this, and if she's not saved... well, enjoy the Player Punch of having Eyvel turned into Draco, one of the Dread Lords that you must kill at the end.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, there are some Medusa-like monsters who can do this to your characters. It renders them completely immobile and defenseless for five turns, unless they either: get killed, are healed by someone with a Restore staff, or spend five turns like that without dying.
  • In The Flintstones Licensed Game for the Sega Genesis, the sixth and final level, Hard Rock involves the family of a dragon being turned to stone by a Cave Witch, who serves as the game's Final Boss. Once Fred defeats the Cave Witch, he must collect her hat to break the spell and save the dragon's family.
  • For the King: Creatures like Golems and cockatrices can petrify as a special attack. Petrified characters can't act, are immune to damage, and are restored after three turns or when they're attacked directly.
  • Garry's Mod has some weapon addons like Midas Cannon and Petrification Beam can turn NPC into inanimate object.
  • In Genshin Impact, Zhongli's Elemental Burst calls down a meteor that briefly turns most non-boss enemies struck by it to stone. Defeating them in this state will shatter them the same way they do when frozen by Cryo and Hydro.
  • God of War:
    • In God of War, Medusa can petrify Kratos, making him vulnerable and easily shattered. After defeating her, he can use her severed head to petrify enemies, who can be shattered and thus easily killed, aerial enemies shatter instantly upon hitting the ground. They can shake it off it not shattered though, and other gorgons are immune to the gaze.
    • In God of War II, Kratos does it again with Medusa's sister Euryale. There is one game, and one more gorgon, left.
    • Despite this, in God of War III, Kratos doesn't fight Stheno. Instead, your main method of turning enemies to stone is to summon a Gorgon Serpent once you upgrade your Hades's Claws to level three. Also, doing the brutal kill on a gorgon will freeze every nearby enemy, much like if you block a Gorgon Flash on the second game.
    • In Mortal Kombat 9 one of Kratos's fatalities has him petrify his opponent with Medusa's head then shatter them.
  • On the backstory of Guild Wars Factions, when the Big Bad Shiro was defeated the first time his death released an explosive wave which turned both an inland sea into solid jade and the entire Echovald forest into stone, along with any living creature unfortunate enough to be caught in it, this event was called "The Jade Wind" in the game.
  • This is how the main character dies in Gylt, regardless of whether it was by monsters, electrocution or hot steam from a vent. It's also the fate of many of the townspeople, who can be found as statues. Still-breathing statues.
  • Archibald Ironfist, the Big Bad of Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars is sentenced to this in the canonical ending, "for some future generation to take mercy upon". The main characters of Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven frees him from that state a decade or so after the Succession War, but for very good reasons (they need to learn something from him to keep the world from blowing up when they save it). The main characters of the RPGs can also be turned to stone as a status effect, but that is more easily reversiblenote , while HoMM appears to take the stance that if you are turned to stone in the midst of battle, you are effectively dead.
  • Some weapons and enemies in the HeXen games can freeze their targets into ice statues. Unlike most cases, this is invariably fatal and the statue shatters soon after.
  • Hidden City features several cases that involve a Gorgon, with predictable results.
    • In the "Enchanted Ball Case", the player and the Detective finds a ballroom full of lifelike statues when investigating what seemed to be a haunting activity nearby. It is later discovered that they were attendees of a party called the Centennial Ball who got petrified when Medusa shows up.
    • In the "Petrified Mystery" case, the player finds a Gorgon Camera, an artifact that can turn anything it takes a picture of into stone, including people. The sculptress Olivia confesses that she had used the camera to petrify her friend Sophia after an argument, and later offers to reverse the effect on herself.
  • In Holy Umbrella, all the townspeople in Surelulla Village who didn't happen to be hiding when a certain lady comes to town get turned to stone. Reviving them requires a rare fruit from a mountaintop. Saki also gets petrified when Donderadusa launches a surprise attack.
  • In ICO, Yorda is turned stone late in the game. She gets better. Ico also suffers the same fate if Yorda is captured, and if he loses the final battle.
  • In Immortal Love 7: Stone Beauty sculptor Cesare turns people into stone in an attempt to bring life to a statue he created and fell in love with.
  • illWill (2023) has a Spike Shooter gun loaded with petrifying spikes as one of the later weapons. Enemies hit by said weapon can continue attacking (while sporting the spikes on them) until they suddenly turn grey and becomes solid.
  • Pechorsk Radius in Into the Radius is filled with coal-like statues of former residents and soldiers that tried to help them. These statues fall apart and their pieces float in the air at the lightest touch.
  • One area in Jade Empire features a guardian fox-spirit attacking the locals by petrifying them and smashing the statues because said locals are trying to free an imprisoned demon. It tries it on the PC as soon as it sees you, but the petrification doesn't take due to the PC's Spirit Monk powers.
  • King Thorn in Kameo: Elements of Power is sealed in stone fifteen years before the events of the game and at the end after his Final Boss fight. This also happens to Kalus, sacrificing herself with the same fate so she can imprison Thorn once again.
  • In Kid Icarus: Uprising the Medusa Head power-up turns enemies temporarily to stone, as do weapons with Petrification points and the Igniot enemy. Also, Palutena is turned to either stone or a similar substance after the Chaos Kin escapes into the Chaos realm with her soul after Pit forces it out of her. She is later revived after the Chaos Kin is defeated.
  • The King of Fighters villain Rugal Bernstein had a hobby of taking fighters he killed in combat and turning them into statues... by dipping their corpses in liquid bronze. And that's just the start of what he likes to get up to.
    • Also in The King of Fighters 2003, the final boss Mukai has the ability to petrify you for a few seconds either by grabbing you, or through a full-screen petrifying flash attack.
  • In King of the Castle, the story event "The Stone Maiden" sees the appearance of a Living Statue whose gaze petrifies all who meet it, including an unfortunate noble who is brought before the Council in their new stone form.
  • King's Heir: Rise to the Throne: The Queen turns to wood after putting on the crown of the first King, showing she isn't the rightful ruler.
  • King's Quest uses this trope a lot:
  • In Kingdom Hearts III, during the Secret Episode's bad ending Sora will turn into a crystal statue once Yozora defeats him.
  • Kirby can obtain a power that functions like the Mario-turns-self-into-statue variant.
  • League of Legends: Cassiopeia's ultimate deals a large amount of damage to enemies in a cone and, if they're looking at her, stuns them (by temporarily turning them to stone). If they're looking away it simply slows them.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky reserves this fate for the Big Bad, Georg Weissmann, who ultimately meets his end when Father Kevin shoots him with a crossbow bolt forged from an artifact that transmutates all it touches into pure salt. For added disrespect, another member of Weissmann's own organization callously shatters the resulting statue into a granular pile of salt while salvaging his weapon.
  • The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm, the evil jester in the original game, absolutely loves doing this to whoever crosses him, including Brandon at the end if the player isn't careful. In particular, Kallak, the royal wizard, is turned to stone at the beginning of the game, but his eyes are left alive so that he can watch his homeland being destroyed. At the end of the game, Malcolm himself is petrified, only to be revived and become the protagonist in the third installment.
  • Legend of Mana:
    • This happens temporarily during one of the three main plots. Here "temporarily" means about 5 seconds of cutscene.
    • Also, one of the questlines has this happen to Casanova Wannabe Gilbert, who got "hard" on a half-basilisk woman. When he pushed her too far, he got hard, indeed.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Lord of the Rings Online:
    • The introductory Dwarf adventure has you getting Dwarves out of the Silver Deep mine, ends with Gimli battling a cave troll, but before you can help him, both of you are hit with a stun effect. Before the troll can finish off Gimli though, Gandalf shows up with Gormr and blasts away part of the mine with his magic, letting in the sunlight and turning the troll to stone (see Literature above).
    • Quests in Monster Play often involve you looting pieces of stone from trolls petrified this way (called "Sun-Touched Trolls").
  • Lost Ark: Early in the game, this happens to most of an expedition that the Player Character was on after they disturb an artifact.
  • Lost Odyssey has a version of this. The King of Gohtza and many of Gohtza's citizens are frozen alive. Unusually, the recipients of this condition are considered dead by suffocation, clearly in violation of the existing trope, and definitely Darker and Edgier.
  • Mage Knight Apocalypse allows Sarus, a biped dragon, to turn himself to crystal, making himself completely immobile for ten seconds. See it here.
  • The Magic Candle II: The Four and Forty: One level of the Big Bad's fortress is decorated with members of a nomadic tribe who had this done to them.
  • Magi-Nation: The Licensed Game for the Game Boy Color had the Big Bad Agram turn anyone who opposed him into stone, including most people from The Underneath and Arderial, plus a few dozen magi from about a hundred years ago who fought him. Reversed after his death, but everyone who was petrified remained conscious for all those years. A short story from the website was from the point of view of one such magi who spent what felt like eternity staring at the same spot in the room because he couldn't move his petrified eyes.
  • Mega Twins: Riepohtmahn's demise is that he gets transformed into a stone statue. The moment his body breaks into pieces, there is no doubt we will not be coming back.
  • In Miitopia, the I, Medusa enemies can naturally induce this on Miis. Thank goodness it's only temporary.
  • Monster Hunter (PC) have Lagoon Creature enemies, who shrivels and petrifies after whiffing salt. There's also the game's Disc-One Final Boss, the Warlock, who turns into a statue after he's defeated.
  • The final boss of Monster World IV has an undodgeable attack that temporarily petrifies you. Your pet Pepelagoo then sacrifices himself to block the boss's petrifying gaze.
  • In Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, The titular Big Bad was turned to stone by Fyora for 1,000 years, 1,000 years before the main story. And in the end was turned to stone again for another 1,000 years.
  • The cockatrices in Nethack. Hearing their hiss produces a delayed action petrification which can be cured by eating a lizard or drinking something acidic. On the other hand, touching one with your bare flesh, will instantly petrify you. The statues of petrified monsters can be destroyed in order to retrieve the items they were wearing or carrying.
    • More interestingly, their corpse still turns anything it touches to stone. Meaning an adventurer (or monster) with a pair of gloves can wield it as a one-hit-killing weapon. With the right equipment, you can even turn yourself into a cockatrice, lay a few dozen eggs, and throw them at your enemies for instant petrification.
      • The problem remains that you turn to stone automatically if you are wielding a cockatrice/chickatrice and fall afoul of a trap, or down a flight of stairs. "Whatever you do, never move while wielding a cockatrice." See here for a more detailed list of ways you can be killed by a dead cockatrice.
    • Even more interestingly, with a bit of luck and magic, you can get your own pet cockatrice. Good, because you never have to worry about any living enemies — from Shopkeepers to Dragons, if it's flesh, your pet will kill it in one hit. Bad, because the game is balanced around the idea of you eating the corpses of your fallen enemies, and without them, you starve to death later in the dungeon. You do want to keep it away from flesh golems, though...
    • Nethack also contains Medusa as a unique monster. Just like the mythological version, she possesses a petrifying gaze attack. Nearby there are a conspicuous number of statues of monsters and humans, one of which is named Perseus, the hero who killed Medusa in the original myth and apparently failed this time around. She's generally a pushover because she can be petrified by her own reflected gaze, and most players will have the "reflection" ability by this point in the game.
  • In Neverwinter Nights, being derived from the D&D ruleset, caster characters can also use this effect offensively with the Flesh to Stone spell. This frequently leads to brutal ends to the fight.
    • The PC in the Shadows of Undrentide expansion is petrified by a medusa's gaze during the Interlude, for a blessedly short time. That medusa is Heurodis, the Big Bad. Chapter Two begins with the curse being lifted by the reptilian merchant Ashtara, but not before shackling the hero and their companion with a set of Slave Collars. You do get to see the effects of the other people/creatures who stood in the way of medusa, you can restore them, unfortunately all but one (a sphinx) will attack you the instant they are freed.
    • Poked fun at in the sequel: you can hear a tale about an elf whose stare can turn people into a stone. Not into stone, but into a stone.
  • Emil of NieR has the uncontrollable ability to cause this with his gaze, and so he spends hundreds of years cooped up in a mansion with a blindfold. He later gains the ability to control it after fusing with his sister into the ultimate weapon.
  • The 9-nine- Series features a Serial Killer who commits murders by turning their victims to stone.
  • In Ogre Battle, the way to recruit Saradin is to cure his petrification. The problem is, there's a statue of him in every town in the region, and only one has Saradin trapped inside of it. Fortunately, the sacred bell used to fix him will only be used up when you actually use it on the right statue.
  • Amaterasu from Ōkami was turned into a statue after her death fighting Orochi; at the start of the game she's reanimated to save the world.
  • Okiku, Star Apprentice: When Okiku is calling the Petrify skill, she says she's turning enemies to stone.
  • Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny: If you have a good relationship with Magoichi, there will be a bit where the PC is turned to stone and you'll play as Magoichi while searching for a cure, and to help various peasants who've also been petrified. It's an easy sidequest.
  • This seems to be part of the reason the Patapon empire falls again in Patapon 3 (as one of the side effects of opening the Pandora Box). Again, Hatapon is the only survivor, along with Ton, Chin, Kan, and the hero from the last game. The others aren't saved unless the player chooses ending C after defeating the final boss. This also explains why the player's army is reduced to just five members after the previous game.
  • Phantasy Star:
    • Odin has this happen when attempting to solo Medusa before he got the Mirror Shield. Luckily, there exists a special medicine called Alsulin that reverses the effect.
    • The medicine returns in Phantasy Star IV, this time to a bigger effect — it heals an entire town instead of just one guy. Pretty good for just a little vial of red liquid that's lasted for well over one thousand years!
  • Pikmin 2: The Ultra Bitter Spray can temporarily turn enemies into stone. Killing them while they are like this leaves no corpse to retrieve, but may drop nectars or sprays (possibly even more Bitter Spray). And if these benefits weren't enough, Ultra-Bitter Spray can even halt the rampaging Waterwraith temporarily, giving you precious extra time to reach the next floor.
  • Planescape: Torment: The Clerk's Ward contains a planar museum/art gallery that displays a statute of a very angry looking wizard, which a notice nearby explains is an actual wizard who was petrified mid-tirade by an enemy of his. You can pick up some petrification-curing salve at the nearby Vrischka's Curiousity Shoppe, and use it to restore him. Doing so, however causes him to complete said tirade, which is so amazingly profane that it kills you. Of course, Death Is a Slap on the Wrist in this game, and it provides a powerful boost to one of your companions, so it's still worth doing.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Azelf can petrify anyone who harms it for all eternity, unless it wishes to reverse it. There's no such move in the game capable of this, however.
    • The "Frozen" status effect in the main and Mystery Dungeon series is functionality this trope. The status in both series render the victim completely immobile, and in the Generation 1 games, lasted indefinitely — effectively fainting the victim. In the Mystery Dungeon games, a frozen Pokémon is unable to move, attack, or take damage for several turns until it thaws out.
    • Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: Pokémon all over the land are being turned to stone by an unknown force. After you return from being stone, you are greeted in Lively Town by almost the entire population frozen in place as eerie kalimba music plays in the background.
  • In Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, one of the spells a witch can know allows her to turn anything, living beings included, into gold statues. The entire third trial is set around Maya being accused of doing this to Layton. It also turns out that the reason Jean Earlgrey was Driven to Suicide was that she accidentally turned her (pet goat) best friend into gold while trying to do something to help her family out financially.
  • In Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, poor Prince Ferdinand gets petrified by the witch Marjoly when she was trying to teleport him forcibly to her castle. The Protagonist, Cornet, has to save him.
  • In The Quest of Ki, Druaga turns Ki into a rock on the 60th floor of the tower. After Druaga is defeated in The Tower of Druaga, Gil uses the Blue Crystal Rod to restore Ki to her original form.
  • The Dwarven Battle Hammer in Rune has a rune power that turns enemies into stone.
  • RuneScape features cockatrices and basilisks, but their gazes only significantly reduce stats of their target. Why are they on this list, then? Because of the Chocatrice, a magical hybrid created by the Easter Bunny to simultaneously deal with a pest problem in his workshop and make up a deficiency in his chocolate production quota. The Chocatrice's gaze actually does turn anything it hits into chocolatenote .
    • Also, the name of The Islands That Once Were Turtles comes from a legend that they were, once upon a time, giant turtles that were turned to stone by an unknown force.
  • The plot of Scribblenauts Unlimited is that Maxwell angers a wizard who in retaliation puts a curse on Lily that slowly turns her to stone, which can be broken with 60 Starites.
  • In Shadowgate, near the end, you have to pick up a staff. However, if you are stupid enough to ignore it and go into the room up ahead where the evil warlock, Belthzar is, he'll turn you to stone. Game Over.
  • Two cases in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse:
    • Early on, Shantae comes across a man whose bride-to-be was turned to stone by the Pirate Master. A bit later, she finds a tablet that appears to be able to reverse the spell... but it just turns him to stone, as well, and the petrified couple's combined weight causes the floor to give and opens up the way to the first labyrinth. All Shantae can say in response is "Whoopsies." However, the credits in the complete ending show that they were unpetrified following the Pirate Master's defeat.
    • Barracuda Joe gets turned to stone after accidentally cursing himself, requiring Shantae to retrieve his soul and return it to him.
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
    • Many game feature Stone as an ailment, which is very much like the Final Fantasy type - with the added caveat of every physical attack which hits a Petrified character having a chance to instantly kill the target and... well, there's no need to explain that, is there... and that chance becomes 100% if a Force or Earth-elemental attack hits a Petrified character! You'd be surprised by how many of the demons can do this. On the other hand, at least it reduces or nullifies most other forms of damage, barring the non-elemental Almighty.
    • In Megami Tensei II, the player can recruit Atlas by getting medicine to cure his petrification.
    • Sunlight does this to every normal human in Digital Devil Saga 2. This means that only a fraction of the Earth's population isn't petrified; the statues we do see are all very crumbled, so it is safe to assume that everyone turned to stone is also dead as a doornail.
    • Medusa is a boss in Shin Megami Tensei IV and its sequel. In both games, her lair is full of her victims, although the games lack the Stone status effect, so her attacks only cause normal paralysis instead.
  • Shounen Kininden Tsumuji, a Japanese ninja adventure game, starts with the Big Bad's forces attacking Tsumuji's village and turning everyone into stone.
  • Simon the Sorcerer: In the first game, Sordid has been doing this to his enemies.
  • Ringtail Slimes from Slime Rancher 2 turn themselves into inanimate statues that cannot be vacuumed at daytime.
  • Sonic Generations: This is what the Time Eater did to Sonic's friends after kidnapping them
  • Spartan: Total Warrior: The Romans have a superweapon that uses a Medusa to fire a paralyzing beam. After you beat the boss you can use the Medusa Shield, based on Athena's Aegis shield from Greek mythology after Perseus slew Medusa, to petrify groups of enemies.
  • Spyro the Dragon:
    • The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night: At the end of the final boss fight, Gaul dies when Spyro temporarily loses himself to the corruption caused by the lunar eclipse, petrifies him, and blasts him to pieces.
    • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: The level Fracture Hills has the Earthshapers encasing the satyrs and the castle in stone. Spyro has to free the satyrs so they can use the power of their bagpipes to break the castle free.
  • String Tyrant: Happens a lot. Mary can be turned into a statue by the blue light. Mary can be turned into glass if caught by the Stranger. Mary can be turned be turned into ice if she takes too long in the Ice halls. Etc. Unlike other examples she isn't rooted in place immediately, she normally turns her friends and then gets rooted in place.
  • A variation occurs in Super Smash Bros. Brawl: characters are turned into trophies when they are defeated in battle or through machines used by the Nintendo villains. They can usually be revived just by touching the trophy stand that appears beneath them.
  • Sunless Skies: The hateful radiations of the Clockwork Sun will slowly turn anyone directly exposed into jagged glass, with no rhyme or reason as to what goes first. The parts even remain somewhat functional in this glassy, horrible state, even as they pulverize and grind up the flesh that remains. Give it more time, and inanimate objects can be affected too; the Sun's surroundings are littered with abodes and asteroids whose sunward side is nothing but a ragged chunk of crystal, and closer even there's just glassbergs in the void, not to mention Deranged Dreadnoughts have their inner workings and part of their hull entirely glassed. Stained, worked glass helps protect from these radiations, but it's best not to be exposed for too long anyways because it sets in quickly (even if the process itself is slow) and is completely irreversible, not to mention bad for the mind if you like thinking for yourself.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • In the initial Super Mario Bros. Bowser turned all of Peach's subjects into brick blocks. The manual actually said Peach's subjects were the ? boxes that look like bricks, and they're rewarding you for freeing them.
    • Voluntary for the protagonists in Super Mario Bros. 3 (using the Tanooki Suit), Paper Mario 64 (using the Stone Cap), Super Mario 3D Land (also with the Tanooki Suit, but a Statue Leaf must be obtained) and Super Mario 3D World and its spinoff, Bowser's Fury (using a Lucky Bell). Obtaining the Tanooki Suit (Super Mario Bros. 3) and/or Statue Leaf (3D Land, with a Scarf of Asskicking added to it) turns Mario into Tanooki Mario and gives the player the ability to turn into a stone statue; Paper Mario's Stone Cap has this same ability, although it's only used in battle and using it prevents him from attacking for three turns. With the latter two games introducing the cat bell power-up, voluntary petrification requires the use of the Lucky Bell, a stronger version of the Super Bell, which turns them into a gold lucky cat statue and, at the same time, earns coins when performing a ground pound (the player is given a bronze bell collar resembling the power-up). Likewise, voluntary petrification makes you invincible, and when you come in contact with enemies, including Roto-Discs in SMB3's fortresses, they are automatically defeated, but on some occasions, when you turn into a statue, enemies can ignore you.
    • In the Nintendo Power Super Mario World comic, Bowser gave Peach the ultimatum that if she didn't marry him, he'd turn all her subjects into stone. To prove he was serious, he turned all her subjects at the castle to stone. Mario was hit with the blast. Fortunately, Luigi and Toad found the world's greatest masseuse who manages to - after 3 hours of chiropracticy - loosen Mario's tension back to flesh.
    • This also happens in New Super Mario Bros. 2 in both final castles, the Koopalings appear and use some type of dark magic to turn Mario or Luigi into stone if they're not behind one of the decorative walls in the area. The effect is marked by a bright flashing light.
    • This happens to the Pi'illos in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, when the Dark Stone was broken by Antasma and the shards rained down across the island. About half the game's goal is to save them from this fate.
    • Mario Party 8: The Thwomp Candy, when eaten, turns its consumer into a stone head, making each player they pass by lose half their coins.
    • Mario Party DS: Donkey Kong is turned to stone by Dry Bones. After Dry Bones is beaten, the curse is undone.
  • Philia of Tales of Destiny is first discovered by the heroes in a petrified state.
  • In Tales of Graces, the effect is temporary and curable by taking damage, but the hit that frees you from it will deal a lot more damage.
  • In Tales of Phantasia, Arche suffers this fate at the behest of a lovestruck elf, to serve as collateral in ensuring the remaining heroes would do as she demanded.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, this exists as a Status Effect as well as a plot device- When someone is using a Cruxis Crystal, there is a one-in-a-million chance that it could cause the rare disease called Chronic Angeleus Crystallius Inofficium, which would cause the victim's body to turn into a huge mass of the aforementioned crystal. Colette is quick to be afflicted with it. And disc 2 hits, it comes into light due to a shot from Forcystus's Arm Cannon, and curing it leads to a couple Scrappy Levels.
    • Near the end of the sequel, the entire Guest Star Cast minus Lloyd ('cuz he's special) get turned to stone due to a trap set by Ratatosk for the holder of the Derris Emblem. Though the charm was meant to protect you in the original game, it serves the reverse purpose because Ratatosk originally gave it to Mithos, who betrayed him. Of note is the fact that according to everyone when you free them, they were all still conscious. Ugh....
  • In Tales of Vesperia, it shows up a status effect that immobilizes the affected characters until cured, and results in a game over if everyone is affected by it.
    • It shows up in the same form in Tales of Xillia, but the sequel changes it to simply make you incapable of taking action for a few seconds.
  • In Team Fortress 2, the Engineer has a weapon called the Golden Wrench that was given to 100 users during the Engineer update. The only difference between it and his regular wrench is that when you kill someone with it, they turn into a gold Australium statue instead of a ragdoll.
    • A similar effect occurs when getting a kill with the Saxxy, another limited edition item for all classes awarded to people who got into the finals of the "annual" Saxxy Awards of 2011.
    • The exceedingly rare Australium Frying Pan can turn things it kills into gold.
    • The 2011 Smissmas update introduced the Spy-cicle, a weapon for the Spy that turns people into ice when they are killed by it.
  • Terraria:
    • The Medusa enemy does what you pretty much expect; she petrifies you if you're in her line of sight. If you happen to be flying or grappling onto the ceiling when petrified, you will fall and gain damage regardless of any accessories that negate fall damage.
    • The Gnome is an uncommon enemy found underground inside of Living Tree systems. They're really fast and can cause a lot of trouble early game, but if you can lure it out to the sunlight they will petrify and become mere garden gnomes for your base decor.
  • In Titan Quest, the first encounter with Gorgons, the Gorgon Queens in the Pythian Caves. Medusa have a petrifying gaze as her special attack that can petrify the player for a few seconds, rendering you helpless against any attacks.
    • Inside the Gorgon's lair and the ruin nearby is cluttered with statues of people/monster (one Cyclops). Unfortunately, you cannot restore them, and after you defeat the gorgon queens, only one victim was freed.
  • In Tomb Raider I, Lara can be turned to gold by standing on the hand of a giant statue of King Midas. Accidentally doing this, and it will happen to first-time players as that hand is a conveniently-positioned platform in an otherwise empty room, is the only clue you get that you need to turn the lead bars into gold ones before they are usable.
    • This also happens in the remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and in this edition Lara is also encased in stone in a boss battle (which she can somehow break out of). In turn, Lara must defeat the boss(es) in question by turning them to stone with their own attacks and then shattering them.
  • Total Annihilation: Kingdoms features the Basilisk and the Acolyte's Turn To Stone spell. The expansion pack introduced the Creonite freeze weapons, which have a similar visual effect but are supposedly turning the target into frozen ice statues.
  • The Medusa role in Town of Salem can choose to gaze at night. This will cause anyone who visits them that night to have their role and will hidden, and unable to be revived by a Retributionist. The Medusa themselves however, have no defense, so they can still be killed. After obtaining the Necronomicon, they can single out one target to petrify.
  • In Tweety and the Magic Gems for the Game Boy Advance, Tweety opens a box filled with bad forest magic that slowly turns him to stone, and the only way to reverse the curse is if one of his Looney Tunes co-stars (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, or Marc Antony) collects the power of the five magic gems before Tweety is completely turned to stone.
  • Gorgons in Wildermyth naturally have the ability to turn living creatures to stone. Heroes defeated in battle by a gorgon may escape with one of their limbs petrified. At the end of the second chapter of the "age of Ulstryx" storyline, the playable characters discover that the gorgon leader Ulstryx has managed to petrify a god, causing worldwide flooding as the balance of nature goes out of control - the third chapter involves making a last-ditch effort to undo the petrification before everything drowns.
  • The Medusa Gun from Will Rock. The name speaks for itself.
  • Witch Hunter Izana: One of the infection types enemies can inflict. One of the most dangerous as it takes 5 infection ticks instead of five infection ticks and another hit. There is a course a bad end if the entire party is petrified.
  • Edward in Witches' Legacy is turned into a puppet for a while but is revived enough to help Carrie save Lynn. Two soldiers outside Morgana's Palace have actually been turned to stone. They're still conscious and one has been rendered blind and the other mute. Thankfully, one of your tasks is to set them free.
  • Etiins in Wizard101 turn to stone when they gets exposed to sunlight. The player encounters Billy the Brute after he was tricked by a leprechaun so that his left side was turned to stone and he requires the player's help to reverse it.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • In the Deepholm area, there is a group of basilisks that petrify their enemies. Their work is scattered around them. It's worth noting that their targets were already made of stone, but now they're made of stone and can't move.
    • In the Jade Forest, there's a pandaren woman whose house is decorated with pandaren cubs encased in jade. As part of a quest you have to defeat her, which undoes the effect.
    • In Val'sharah, there is a group of harpies that inflict a curse that turn any victim into stone. Their handiwork is scattered around their nests or at the area they invaded. You can restore those victims to life as it's a part of the quest. One particular harpy, Seersei, has kept various petrified creatures as her collection, and she has an ability to petrify the player for a brief moment as well.
    • In other area on the Broken Isles, particularly an area where basilisks inhabit. Few petrified victims can be found as well.
    • It's noteworthy to mention that there's several toy items such as Kang's Bindstone, Odd Polished Stone that grant you a chance to to encase your opponent in stone after killing them. Leaving their petrified remains behind.
    • King Magni Bronzebeard attempted a ritual that would save the Dwarves from the Cataclysm when it came. He succeeded, but a side effect was that he turned to diamond in the process. He was apparently still alive during this time, but stuck and more or less comatose by all appearances, he would be succeeded as king. Four years later, he would wake up, still made of diamond, but his mobility and ability to speak still preserved.
  • Xenosaga Episode III had a medicine called "Seven Moons", which, aside from reviving your characters, also has a slow-acting Petrification effect - apparently an effect of an "inert" virus which has a chance every so often of mutating into an active form. Completing a certain sidequest unlocks an enhanced version of the medicine, without the petrification side effect. Oddly, this effect can be easily countered by applying anti-Crystallization shots to the main characters. Gnosis do not have petrification abilities per se, but they had the ability to turn any human they touched to a pillar of salt.
  • In Yandere Simulator, the Medusa Mode easter egg turns the player into a Medusa Expy who is capable of petrifying every student who looks at her. They don't even need to look at Ayano directly in the eyes to be petrified.
  • In Ys, Dares from Ys I and II and Ys Origin loves this trope, to the point that it's his signature spell. He uses it on Elena in Origin, on everyone in II and its OVA adaption (save for Lillia in the adaptation and Ys II Special), and on Sara in I and its OVA adaption.

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