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The Berserker / Video Games

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General:

  • See also: "Berserk" under Status Effect, which generally forces characters under it to only use basic attacks, often with an offensive boost and/or defensive penalty. Sometimes it can be somewhat beneficial to characters who mainly attack physically to begin with, but crippling to spellcasters.
  • A fairly common class in RPGs, typically a variation on the Warrior that favors offense over defense, but may still be fully controllable.

  • In Age of Mythology, berserkers known as Ulfsarks are available to Norse players, along with a description about the origin of the term 'berserker'.
  • When Asura from Asura's Wrath gets angry no one, NO ONE, can stop him. Not even HIS creator. And those who try are, to put it simply, screwed. And then his Berserker form and Wrath form comes along and cranks the concept up to eleven, his Berserker form keeps going until he ends up destroying his own arms and his Wrath form causes more damage to himself than to the target in his relentless assaults.
  • In Battle for Wesnoth whenever a Dwarvish Ulfserker enters melee combat, the attack cycle will repeat until one of the units dies or if the battle lasts for thirty rounds (which is extremely rare). This makes them extremely good at slaughtering Squishy Wizards, especially the poor Dark Adept, which has no melee attacks at all. The game hangs a lampshade on this by having the Ulf and its upgrade, the Berserker laugh maniacally when they attack a unit without a melee retaliation.
  • Brick, one of the four playable characters from Borderlands, is classified as a Berserker, and can enter a "Berserker Rage" for his special skill, regenerating his health and allowing him to attack with his fists, beating the snot out of any mook, be it a bandit or a Skag.
  • Borderlands 2:
    • Salvador, the rough equivalent of Brick among the new playable characters. Salvador is a Gunzerker — when he gets mad he starts using Guns Akimbo, doing boosted gun damage and regenerating health all the while. Some of his lines hint that he loves pain and might even have a slight death wish.
    • The sequel also adds an enemy that fits the bill: Goliaths, the Bandits' Giant Mooks. Knocking a Goliath's helmet off will reveal his hideously mutated head, angering him so much he drops his guns and starts attacking anything nearby, friend or foe. Killing enemies in this state causes him to get bigger and stronger and regenerate all of his health.
    • There's also DLC character Krieg the Psycho, whose special skill has him go on a rampage with his buzz-axe, regenerating health for every kill he earns in this state. Two of his skill trees focus on fighting as crazed as possible, with the Mania tree focusing on melee combat and dealing as much damage as you take while the Bloodlust tree focusing on constantly doing damage to the enemy. When designing Krieg, they had the specific rule that none of Krieg's abilities should ever encourage stalling, taking cover, or otherwise delaying — Krieg players should, where possible, be running around murdering people, not waiting or hiding.
  • Bravely Default II has the Berserker as an Asterisk. Its wielder is Prince Castor.
  • The Brute and Tanker Archetypes, in City of Heroes basically were designed for this: Brute had the "fury" mechanic, in that doing damage pumped up their damage multiplier which quickly started to drop out of combat, leading them to tend to charge recklessly between groups of enemies; both Brutes and Tankers also have a "Defensive" power set along with the standard offensive one, these all have some variation of "As more enemies target you, your stats rise/their stats lower", so the best strategy was "jump into the middle of that group there while hitting taunt, and start smashing before other people pull aggro". Teamplay would usually just be "Ask to be buffed up by the team's Support Party Member, then jump into the middle of that group there while htting taunt, and start smashing before other people pull aggro". Scrappers and Stalkers, while also having most of these abilities, just can't survive well enough even with them to jump into entire groups, and have to settle for jumping an individual, mauling them, and getting to the next one.
  • In Close Combat, soldiers will occasionally become "Heroic," "Fanatic," or "Berzerk." They'll disregard suppressive fire, and sometimes charge across open ground to close with the enemy. They die just as easily as everyone else, though.
  • Conqueror's Blade features a literal unit of Viking Berserkers introduced during the Norse-themed Wolves of Ragnarok season. They fit this trope perfectly, charging into battle without regard for their own safety and literally leaping on top of enemies to attack them. One of their main gameplay mechanics is to build up Rage by using special abilities, at which point they can go into a Frenzy mode that heals them and boosts their damage but renders them temporarily uncontrollable.
  • The Hellion from Darkest Dungeon fits to a T, charging forward with a halberd and doing massive damage. Like everything else in the game, it's turned on its head. She can disturb her teammates, her violent tendencies come from a mixture of self-loathing, sadism and fear, and her relentless assaults tire her out (giving her a debuff) and make her vulnerable. It is further deconstructed in her background comic: The Hellion is seeking to atone for her own cowardice on the battlefield where she left her people to die, which is why she is so excessively aggressive and self-destructive.
    • There is also the Flagellant, added in the Crimson Court expansion, who is a masochistic berserker driven by religious fanaticism and blood rage. The Flagellant uses the suffering he takes while wildly assailing his enemies to fuel his abilities and let him endure wounds that would kill other heroes or even heal himself and his allies through his suffering. Should his stress reach too high, he will become "Rapturous," lashing out at everyone around him in berserk ecstasy.
    • From the Game Mod The Sunken City Collection there is the Thrall. Under normal circumstances he's a hulking brute who pounds enemies to mush with his bare hands. However, his psyche is fragile and he takes Stress damage every time he is hit. Once he reaches his stress threshold, he goes into a "Ferocious" state where he lashes out at everyone around him, dealing massive damage to friend and foe.
  • Devil May Cry 5: Hell Antenora, Empusa Queen and Behemoth can go on a rampage and attack not only you but their other fellow demons as well, albeit with varying methods. If at least two of these demon types spawn on the same fight, chaos ensues as they can end up attacking each other.
    • A Hell Antenora enters a berserk state if it's knocked back. When it stands up, it becomes Immune to Flinching while aggressively cleaving anything that gets in its way. This is indicated by the sounds of its roar and its hatchets sliding fast on the ground, and its body turning purple.
    • An Empusa Queen literally Turns Red after feeding enough blood, whether by grabbing and biting your playable character, by scything away its fellow demons (usually the lesser Empusa variants), or by drinking blood from certain environmental objects. In this state, it becomes more aggressive and almost Immune to Flinching.
    • A Behemoth goes berserk around the entire battlefield if the wooden restraint on its tail is destroyed, allowing its mouth to break free from its chains and attack anyone on its path.
  • Doomguy from the original Doom series primarily only becomes a berserker when he gets his hands on a Berserk pack or a Berserk artifact. In Doom (2016), however, Doomguy is filled with absolute rage at anything to do with demons and Hell in general, and is perfectly capable of tearing enemies apart with his bare hands once they take enough damage. And when he gets his hands on a Berserk artifact? NOTHING that Doomguy gets his hands on is coming out unscathed, alive or in one piece.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Oghren from Dragon Age: Origins is a Blood Knight dwarven berserker with a Texas drawl and a misguided idea that the ladies love him; you can also make other warrior characters berserkers if you get Oghren to teach them or you find the Berserker tome.
    • The codex reveals that the first Berserkers were the Dwarves of Orzammar, who learned to harness their battle-wrath and turn it against the encroaching Darkspawn horde. This technique would later be learned by Luthias Dwarfson, an Alamarri warrior, who adapted it to fight alongside Mabari hounds. Those he passed this knowledge onto would become the first Ash Warriors, the most feared mercenaries in Thedas.
    • Befitting the vice they embody, rage demons behave in this manner; the codex states that their tactics in battle consist entirely of lashing out at enemies with as much force as possible until they die.
  • The Amazon of Dragon's Crown was designed with this in mind. Her main passive skills are Berserk, which makes her stronger the more she attacks, and Adrenaline, which increase her damage the lower her HP gets. In fact, practically all of her skills are designed to encourage the player to jump into the thick of battle with spear swinging.
  • The Warrior Vocation from Dragon's Dogma is played like a berserker, with buffs that give them high damage resistance and powerful special attacks that's all about wrecking huge damage, all while not able to block (also there's a official Berserk camo in the shape of Guts armour and sword to help sell the idea).
  • Berserkers in Dungeon Crawl worship the rage-god Trog, who gives them the ability to, well, go berserk. Berserking boosts your HP, speed, and attack power considerably for a short time, during which you are pretty much restricted to beating on things. Once the rage wears off, you are slowed, exhausted (meaning you can't just go right back to raging), and may even pass out for a few turns, which is especially inconvenient if you didn't quite manage to kill everything you were fighting before your berserk ran out.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • The series in general has given this to Orcs as a racial ability ever since they were Promoted to Playable in Morrowind. Exactly how it functions varies from game to game, but it typically increases their ability to dish out and take damage at the cost of accuracy and dodging ability.
    • Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion has Berserker NPC enemies. They run around on the game's frozen island setting wearing very little clothing and attack on sight.
    • The Nords, the residents of Skyrim, are often characterized as barbarians and some of their greatest warriors were ferocious berserkers who used the power of the Thu'um in battle to crush their enemies. The more modern Nords in the Third and Fourth Era are less mindlessly aggressive, but they are still fearless warriors. One faction, the Companions, are secretly werewolves, and some of the members enjoy falling into the instinctual violence of the hunt.
    • The Forsworn, natives of western Skyrim, are even closer to the archetypical berserkers. They wear armor made from animal hides and furs, and their weapons are crude implements of bone, stone, and wood that look useless but aren't. They attack on sight, always dual-wield their weapons, and attack in a whirlwind style that can defeat even powerful enemies. A Forsworn Briarheart wields both magic and blade, and can defeat even a very high-level Dragonborn.
    • From the backstory, this was the preferred fighting style of Pelinal Whitestrake, the legendary 1st Era hero of mankind/racist berserker. Believed to have been a Shezarrine, physical incarnations of the spirit of the "dead" creator god Lorkhan (known to the Imperials as "Shezarr"), Pelinal came to St. Alessia to serve as her divine champion in the war against the Ayleids. Pelinal was outfitted in plate armor (which only the Dwemer could craft at the time) and wielded weapons blessed by the Divines themselves. Pelinal would fly into fits of Unstoppable Rage (mostly directed at the Ayleids) during which he would be stained with their blood and left so much carnage in his wake that Kyne, one of the Divines, would have to send in her rain to cleanse Ayleid forts and village before they could be used by Alessia's forces. It's implied that violent madness comes form his inherently conflicting nature: Pelinal was an Aedric being (the "original spirits" who sacrificed portions of their divine power to create Mundus, the mortal world, later referred to as the Divines) but was also a Shezarrine, an incarnation of Lorkhan who "tricked" the Aedra into their sacrifice and was "killed" by them as a result. This conflicting nature often had him Raging Against The Heavens, ranting and raving at the Divines (especially Akatosh) who sent him to aid Alessia. When he went too far in one of his fits of rage and damaged the very lands themselves, the Divines nearly left the world in disgust until they were appeased by Alessia's prayers and sacrifices.
  • In the Fallout series, "Berserker" is a perk you acquire after having killed a lot of good karma people.
  • The various Final Fantasy games have had several different types of Berserkers. The most common version being the Berserk status effect, typically applied with a spell, which typically increases attack power but at the expense of either making the target uncontrollable, or making them confused and liable to attacking their team mates, or making them receive more damage as a trade-off. Several games also have items or passive effects causing characters to start with the Berserk status.
    • Final Fantasy II had a Berserk spell that didn't make the characters uncontrollable, making it far more useful.
    • Final Fantasy III had the Advance skill for the Warrior playing on a similar idea, boosting offensive power at the cost of defense.
    • Final Fantasy V had the Berserker, who was permanently under the effect of above mentioned Berserk status effect, available in its Job system.
    • Final Fantasy VI has Gau, who could enter "Rages" that made him adopt the AI of enemies encountered on the Veldt, as well as the yeti Umaro who could not be controlled by the player but instead just continuously attacked the enemies whenever his turn came up in battle.
    • Cloud in Final Fantasy VII was conceptualised as being a Beserker, though due to changes of the system in the game's development virtually nothing of this remains in the game besides some aesthetic elements note . In the full game proper, Vincent Valentine ended up functioning much like a horror movie-inspired Berserker when entering his Limit Break forms.
    • Final Fantasy X-2, much like FFV, had the Berserker available in its Job system, though X-2's version allowed you to retain control of the Berserker.
    • Final Fantasy XI also has Berserk as a Warrior Job Ability. Upon use, the player retains full control of the character and receives a 25% increase to the Attack stat, but at the cost of a 25% penalty to defense.
    • Final Fantasy XIV again gives Marauders and Warriors Berserk, which boosts attack by 50% for 15 seconds, but makes it so you can't use weaponskills for five seconds afterwards. This doesn't involve loss of control either. The Warrior also has other abilities with outcomes similar to Berserk, such as consuming defensive buffs to boost their offense. Lancers also have the Blood for Blood ability to boost offense at the cost of defense.
  • Fire Emblem
    • The Berserker is an actual character class. Their identifying traits are incredibly high HP and strength stats, piss poor defense stats, can only use axes (which are the strongest weapons compared to swords and lances, but also the most inaccurate), and have an added critical hit bonus. This makes them stupidly heavy hitters, but also rather fragile at the same time... unless their Speed is high enough they can outright dodge most attacks, in which they become a full-on Lightning Bruiser.
    • Most games have the Berserk staff. If a character is hit by this, they cannot be controlled, and will automatically attack the nearest unit, be it on their side or not. This is rather irritating. Unless it hits a unit who cannot attack...
    • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance we have Largo, self titled "World Class Berserker". He claims that he allegedly pinned two tigers at once, and in his Support Chain with Muarim, he has a lifting competition with him, Muarim being from the Tiger Laguz who are known for their superhuman strength. It's a tie. Largo's general attitude is somewhat deconstructed as his reckless abandon costs him his arm, making him the only playable character to be demoted to NPC status come the sequel.
    • All units of the Berserker class qualify by default, but Charlotte from Fire Emblem Fates deserves a special mention. She deliberately holds back with men to keep up her 'dainty girl' image, and not having any guys in sight has her show her true colors as a rage-fueled warrior. She even has an Offscreen Moment of Awesome in her supports with Xander, when she bludgeons a Faceless to death with her own bare goddamned hands. Between that and the fact she's shown to be strong enough to punch down trees (though in all fairness, we aren't shown how thick the tree is, even if it's still a ridiculously impressive feat), she's definitely losing nothing by holding back with others in sight.
  • For Honor has two Viking heroes who fit this concept: the Raider and the appropriately-titled Berserker. The Raider is a fearless, aggressive warrior armed with a huge two-handed axe and wears no armor, because they know the day of their death is already decided by fate and so they fight without fear or regard for their own safety, fitting the ferocious, fearless brute element of this trope. The Berserker, on the other hand, is said to be a ferocious, wild animal spirit in human form, joining the other Vikings on the field of battle, and represents raw, aggressive offense with rapid, brutal attacks and high mobility but minimal armor and defensive options outside of pure evasion and killing the enemy first before they get a chance to swing back.
    • Interestingly, the Vikings also have two classes that avert this entirely: the Warlord and the Highlander. Both are described as rational and calm warriors, with the Warlord being a defensive powerhouse who leads his people in battle, and the Highlander being a calculating, stoic fighter who uses his massive claymore with calculated precision.
  • Gears of War has an enemy actually called "Berserkers" which are female Locust Drones. Unlike the males, they are 12 feet tall with bulletproof skin, and indiscriminately kill anything in their path, human or Locust. They are blind they track targets by smell and sound, and have enough muscle and mass to pound through solid stone walls. The only way to kill them easily is with the Hammer of Dawn, but in later games you can also Kill It with Fire, which has the secondary effect of temporarily making their skin soft enough to be harmed by regular bullets. Gears of War 3 introduces the Lambent Berserker, which is totally invincible except in one specific spot, is bigger, stronger, and meaner than the original, has Combat Tentacles, leaks a trail of harmful Imulsion when low on health, and like all Lambent creatures, explodes on death.
  • Kratos of the God of War series runs on a rage that has been the ruin of men, monsters, and gods alike. When he gets going, only a fool stands in his way. In the first game, his ultimate ability is called "Rage of the Gods". In the second, "Rage of the Titans". The third game has "Rage of Sparta", implying that his angry fury is empowered by outside factors. But by the time of the Norse games, he struggles to control his rage, only releasing it when his son Atreus is in danger. It is appropriately called the much-more-personal "Spartan Rage".
  • Grand Theft Auto:
    • Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV. Whenever sufficiently enraged enough to fight someone, he's frighteningly violent.
    • Trevor Phillips from Grand Theft Auto V. It's hard to imagine Trevor not being a combat maniac. He even has a Limit Break ability (lasting up to 30 seconds once the "Special" skill has been maxed out) that renders him invincible while boosting his damage output.
  • Halo:
    • In the first game, Elites, when wounded, would often let out a roar of rage and charge in aggressively, guns blazing, abandoning the caution and battle tactics they usually display. It's a nasty surprise for inattentive players, but since they stand still and roar angrily for a couple of seconds when it happens, it opens them up for an easy headshot.
    • The Brutes have a tendency in certain games to go into berserker rages when most of their squad is wiped out, in which they toss their weapons aside and just charge their enemy to try to rip them apart with their bare hands. The Brutes are physically tough enough that this is often enough to change the tide of battle.
  • The Stronghold creatures introduced in Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East. Most of the units (except the Wyverns) have the "Rage" property if lead by a Barbarian Hero. Said "Rage" absorbs a portion of damage and increases the damage done by the unit depending on Rage level. Fitting the trope, the units lose Rage points if they do anything except move, use their special abilities, or attack.
  • Asha the assassin in Iji is sort of like this, as he won't teleport away even if he's about to die. He does say that he would rather die than be defeated by her. If she doesn't show up to fight him, he skips the middle man and just blows himself up alone. So, it's doubtful he had many qualms about his safety at that point.
    • Also relating him to the trope is a logbook by another assassin that criticizes him for rushing straight in to battle like he was a One Woman Army like Iosa. He is physically weak and the one advantage he has over stronger adversaries (and walls, for that matter...) is technique, but he still acts like an idiot and disregards his own weaknesses.
    • Komato Annihilators are feared by the Tasen and the Komato alike, due to a previous incident where one became obsessed with the kill-counter in his helmet and began slaying everyone he encountered on the battlefield, friend and foe. They are now given drugs to control them in battle but they still have a tendency for friendly-fire. Also, Iji can find herself taking up this behaviour if the player is too trigger-happy.
  • The Black Whirlwind from Jade Empire fits this trope perfectly. The character he was based on, from the Water Margin, was exactly the same.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Saïx is normally cold, stoic, calm, and collected... Until it's time for battle. Then he turns into a Lunacy-fueled, Ax-Crazy, BFS-using Screaming Warrior with quotes like "BEGOOONE!" and a fair bit of incomprehensible screaming. It's actually a gameplay mechanic too. In his boss fights, he has a "Berserk" gauge that makes him enter his Berserk mode when full, and slowly drains over time, only for him to refuel it.
  • An update to Kingdom of Loathing in September 2013 gave Seal Clubbers a "Fury" mechanic as part of a skill revamp. Fury is used to improve and/or power other Seal Clubber skills.
  • Deconstructed in Of Orcs and Men. Arkail's tendency to fly into a rage tends to be nothing but a hindrance, both in battle (where, although he deals more damage, almost all of his special attacks are restricted and he leaves himself wide open to attack) and out of it. Managing his rage to prevent him from losing control too early in battle is a major aspect of gameplay.
  • Iori Yagami from The King of Fighters series. In KoF '95, when he was first introduced, he brutally beat his teammates Eiji Kasaragi and Billy Kane when losing their match prevented him from taking a shot at his nemesis Kyo. (Brutally enough to have them both enjoy a lengthy vacation at a hospital.) And that was before his tainted Orochi blood caused him to fling into the Riot of Blood and tear Vice and Mature to pieces on KoF '96. (And Orochi himself on KoF '97 with Kyo's and Chizuru's help.) Having his purple flames stolen by Ash Crimson didn't calm him down in the slightest - rather than burning opponents down to a violet crisp he claws the living shit out of them.
  • League of Legends:
  • The Tank in Left 4 Dead will go on a rampage once it sees the survivors and will not stop until everyone is dead. It'll actively chase the survivors, throw slabs of rock at them, and punt cars and other large objects at them for an instant incapacitation. Only explosives from canisters and pipe bombs can stagger it, but it only buys the survivors a few seconds before it resumes its attack. No matter how many bullets are pumped into it, the Tank will not care and keep coming. Even being set on fire won't deter it from continuing its assault. Simply put, either the Tank dies or the survivors die.
  • During the dinosaur stages in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Console), the game rewards the player for acting like this with an "Instinct Gauge" in the shape of an eye. Killing every enemy you come across in rapid succession will cause the eye to go from green with a round pupil to red with a slitted pupil and increase the damage done. However, if you stop fighting then the gauge will gradually decrease and the eye will go back to green.
  • Both Felicia Mitsuki and Miyuri Yukari in Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story fight without regard to their allies. In Felicia's case, this is due to anger against Witches, as any Witch could be the one that killed her parents, and it dies down as she becomes close to the Mikazuki girls and finds things to enjoy other than killing Witches. For Miyuri, it's a manifestation of her unique magic that makes her blank out and run on instinct whenever she gets nervous, and only her beloved mentor can get through to her in this state.
  • Mass Effect:
    • You run into the occasional krogan berserker, which isn't necessarily fun given their damage output. This is actually built in to the krogan body: they have backups for their vital organs, and if they're injured enough that a backup becomes necessary, the switch triggers a rush of adrenaline and other hormones, causing "blood rage". It's mentioned that krogan hospitals are built like bunkers due to the tendency for injured or sick krogan to suddenly enter blood rage and start attacking everything in sight. Inverted with pre-loyalty mission Grunt; he's a dangerous, vile-tempered, barely-controlled siege weapon outside combat, but while fighting, he's relatively stable and can be safely pointed at the enemy without needing to worry about stopping him from turning around. He's still crazy, but that stays the case more or less forever.
    • It's established in the lore that krogan blood rage was originally an uncommon trait viewed as a genetic defect. Unfortunately, it proved to offer survival advantages in a post-nuclear-war environment, which the krogan provided because even the ones who didn't have blood rage were still blood knights, meaning that following one somewhat radioactive population bottleneck everyone began inheriting it.
    • In the multiplayer modes for both Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda, all of the krogan classes have a "rage" mechanic, where, after a certain number of melee kills, their damage and damage resistance is dramatically boosted. Unlike most berserkers, they don't so much fly into a howling rage as they just start laughing with glee as they crush all that stands before them.note 
    • Despite being an extreme Chessmaster who runs the galaxy's most powerful information network, The Shadow Broker, a member of a massive species known as Yahg, becomes this when his Berserk Button is pressed, losing any form of subtlety or strategy, and looking more like an enraged animal than the extremely intelligent individual that he is. This is actually noted as his Fatal Flaw.
    • The kett Behemoth — A krogan who'd been partially Exalted by the kett, only for the process to go slightly wrong. The poor bastard is locked into a permanent blood rage. Which is probably why it's locked up when Ryder first finds it.
  • The MechWarrior series typically features close-range "brawling" Humongous Mecha designed to hurl themselves at the enemy and then start slinging 18 ton autocannons in every direction. The BattleArmor of MechWarrior Living Legends are particularly potent berserkers; despite only having a sliver of health and puny weapons, they are tiny, extremely agile, and cost almost nothing. Battlearmor players will throw themselves into melees with reckless abandon, spraying anything that gets within their grasp with heavy laser fire while jumping onto enemy mechs and killing the pilots in their cockpits. The Elemental battlearmor warriors in the boardgame mix in berserker tendencies with Genius Bruiser in-and-out of combat.
  • Mega Man Zero brings us Omega, an Ax-Crazy Robotic Psychopath who takes this trope to blood thirsty new levels. Ironically, the best way to defeat his final form is to turn his berserker AI against him.
  • Monster Hunter:
    • Monster Hunter Freedom 2 introduces Tigrex. This monster is infamous for being rage fuelled and charges at you a lot, sometimes even changing its direction towards you while still charging. Instead of elemental attacks or well-calculated attacks, Tigrex relies on pure power. Even its roar can damage you if you get too close.
    • Nergigante, the new mascot monster introduced in Monster Hunter: World is this trope as an Elder Dragon. It dominates Teostra and Kushala Daora in a Turf War and fights like a maniac, because its body is covered in razor-sharp, rock-hard spines.
  • Beserkers are a special unit in Northgard that are only available to the Fenrir Clan.
  • Oswald from Odin Sphere could be seen as a deconstruction. Gameplay-wise, he has absolutely no defensive capabilities, merely a ton of attack power and a stamina-draining Super Mode, and his fighting style revolves around violently slamming into your opponent and killing them before they kill you. Story-wise, Oswald has absolutely no sense of self-preservation, verging on outright suicidal tendencies at times as his life gets worse.
  • An unused badge hidden within Paper Mario turns Mario into one of these. When worn, Mario gets stronger, but becomes uncontrollable during battles.
  • Black Mask from Persona 5 has the ability to inflict psychotic breakdowns on people, which causes them to go berserk in real life, usually resulting in the victims becoming aggressive and lashing out at those around them. Naturally, Black Mask uses this power on himself before he engages the Phantom Thieves in a last-ditch attempt to kill them aware doing so will likely lead to him dying. When he rejoins the party in Royal, his skill set consists of high-cost, hard hitting attacks with only one status skill that reduces all of a target's stats, and his Showtime attack with Joker has him berserking himself before charging at the enemy and hacking them to pieces.
  • Pillars of Dust: Helga is a viking mercenary who is constantly in a berserk state, meaning she'll use nothing but physical attacks. The main characters and some other mercenaries can apply temporary berserk statuses to themselves.
  • The Viking team of Pirates Vikings and Knights has the Berserker class, who is extremely fast, has no ranged weapons, and can enter an Unstoppable Rage, giving himself a speed and damage boost. Personality-wise, he is an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who talks in a strange, unidentifiable accent.
  • A few moves in Pokémon can inflict this. "Taunt" forces your opponent to only use damage-dealing moves, "Swagger" greatly raises your opponent's Attack stat, but also confuses them, and some attacks like Thrash and the aptly-named Outrage will have the user attack for two or three turns, then become confused after it ends.
    • Rage is another example, starting off pretty weak but boosting in power every time your opponent hits you. In fact, if it is used in the Generation I games, you're locked into Rage until one side falls.
    • Rollout would be a prime example. Once commanded, the Pokémon continues attacking for five turns, unless they miss or are KOed. The first hit is pretty weak, but each one after that doubles in power, making the fifth hit almost as powerful as Explosion (BEFORE the nerf to the latter move in Pokémon Black and White). Use Defense Curl first, which doubles Rollout's power yet again, and Rollout's fifth hit is the most powerful attack in the game.
  • Resident Evil 4's monster cast is rife with these. A blind zombie with ridiculously long steel claws that hunts you down by hearing alone and Plagas-infested, chainsaw-wielding villagers are just a few.
  • In Rome: Total War, the Germans can have berserkers (that for some reason are dedicated to Thor instead of Odin). These soldiers can reave a bloody mess through enemy units many times their size. In Barbarian Invasions, the berserkers belong to the celts, and are based off of Cuchulain.
    • The sequel, Total War: Rome II, has the Berserker unit available to the Suebi faction. Said unit is adorned with a wolf's head and pelt, unarmored aside from a shield, and armed with a sword. It has the Berserk attribute which may mean the unit will randomly (and probably, even considering how delicate the unit is) run around attacking enemies heedless of any orders...though their morale cannot break while this is happening. The Berserker unit also appears in other campaigns aside from the Hannibal at the Gates and Wrath of Sparta campaigns. A similar "Frenzy" activatable ability also exists among many melee units to a lesser extent, improving their attack for a duration at the cost of greatly tiring them out after it ends.
    • In Total War: Attila, units with the Berserk attribute exist to a much greater quantity among the Celtic, Germanic and Norse factions and with far more titles to these units than just "Berserker", as well as the Frenzy ability. The generally "best" ones are the Langobards' Godansmen and Godan's Chosen (or even their Godan's Warlord for all of your Rank Scales with Asskicking needs) which, along with generally high stats, are also decently armored which helps a lot considering how liable they are to inadvertently expose their flanks.
    • Funnily enough, it's the warrior monks in Total War: Shogun 2 who are the berzerkers. They have poor armour, but extremely high melee attack and morale, making it very unlikely that they'll rout due to casualties or the loss of their general. No-dachi samurai are this to an extent as well, being the infantry unit most suited to all-out offence at the cost of their own safety and can be upgraded to use a Banzai ability which will temporarily give them bonuses to their speed, attack and charge while also setting their morale so high as to essentially being unbreakable.
  • Samurai of Hyuga: The Jigoku Itto-Ryo kenjutsu style involves the user losing themselves to rage and bloodlust, becoming a feral berserker capable of superhuman feats of violence.
  • Shadow Era seems to portray its Warrior-Class heroes as these. This is furthered by the equitable weapons they can use: both gain damage as deaths occur; one for your allies and one for your foes.
  • Painwheel from Skullgirls is this. Her ability, Hatred Guard, makes her angrier if attacked during many of her moves, increasing defence and offensive power as well as not interrupting her attack. Her "Hatred Install" Super enhances this, and also she doesn't die unless the opponent lands multiple hits.
  • Luca Blight, the main antagonist of Suikoden II, is an Ax-Crazy royal who lives for violence and bloodshed above all else. When the player finally gets to fight him, he's so strong that it takes three separate battles with three separate parties and a one-on-one duel just to slow him down. All the while, Luca is screaming at the top of his lungs:
    Luca: Pig!!!! Die!!!!!!!!!
  • The Berserk perk from Sundered grants the player a temporary stacking buff to their melee damage every time they kill an enemy. In exchange it imposes a constant and significant penalty to your armour, making you more vulnerable to attack.
  • Barbatos Goetia from Tales of Destiny 2 has become this in all of his appearances following the first, abandoning his magic and most of his savvy counterattacks in favor of simply chasing your characters around and trying to brutalize them with a wide variety of physical attacks and a few downright deadly ranged ones, yelling his head off all the while.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal has a class called the Berserker, who uses massive two-handed weapons, can learn to gain life and energy regeneration from hitting things, and has a signature ability that provides increased physical power and accuracy at the expense of losing hit points each turn. Their abilities that aren't focused on hitting things are based around debuffing the enemy to make them easier to smash. Conversely, they lack defensive skills, and will need to depend on a combination of high damage and healing equipment to stay alive.
    • The Cursed class is also mechanically a great fit. The Cursed's resource, Hate, is gained only through combat instead of resting like with other characters: things like killing something, taking hits while low on health, or moving to attack powerful enemies all increase Hate. If you don't spend your Hate on your active abilities, the stored Hate will instead increase the power of your passive abilities; either way, the more danger you're in and the more you're riding your battle rage, the better you are at killing things. Cursed abilities emphasize closing with enemies quickly and slicing them up in melee. Finally, Hate slowly drops when not in combat. Taken together, this creates a class that emphasizes zipping around the map without rest, trying to find the next thing to kill before their Hate fades and they have to start the next fight with weak abilities and no resources to fuel them with.
  • An unlockable melee weapon for The Soldier in Team Fortress 2 called "The Equalizer" is designed to be used in this fashion. It's a pickax that, originally, buffed the player's speed and damage output inversely proportional to their amount of remaining HP but also prevented them from being healed while they have it out. Since the Pyromania Update (June 27, 2012), the speed boost has been removed and given to a new, similar weapon: The Escape Plan. It can be very useful in offensive pushes where combat is confined to close quarters. However, a common tactic is for the player to rocket jump a couple times to the enemy position which both takes out a considerable chunk of health and can take them by surprise if done right. Once landed, they can immediately start slaughtering with the now powered up pickax. Valve actually had to nerf the weapon due to entire teams being ripped apart by Equalized Soldiers just as the round had barely started.
    • So-called Demoknights are often played in this fashion, with the charging mechanic and special melee weapons coming into play. Also there's the fact that they're essentially bringing a sword and shield into a gun fight!
  • In Templar Battleforce you have the option to unlock a Templar who wields a giant axe and deals more damage the lower their health. They are called, appropriately enough, Berserkers.
  • Grom Hellscream from Warcraft II and III. His rage leads to him actually doing a Leeroy Jenkins attack in WC3 (several years before the Trope Namer did his stuff).
    • Trolls have had Berserkers since their first appearance in Warcraft II. Unlike most depictions of Berserkers, they're ranged attackers that throw spears or axes at their opponents. They have an improved regeneration and have an ability that makes them attack faster but take more damage. Troll Berserkers are incredibly buff and larger then Orc Grunts! This state is achieved through goblin or troll alchemy experimentation and you actually see the trolls hulk out when upgraded to berserkers. An interesting tidbit was that in Warcraft II, Troll Berserkers were the only trolls seen with tusks.
  • Valkyr of Warframe is a melee-centric frame with a broken, tortured appearance thanks to Alad V's experiments. Her Warcry ability boosts her and nearby allies' melee speed while slowing nearby enemies, her Paralysis ability discharges her shield to stun enemies and her Hysteria ability lets her go into a rampage where she becomes invulnerable and unleashes her claws for as long as she has energy.
  • Leeeerooooy Jenkins! from World of Warcraft.
    • The Fury specialization for Warriors is described as "showing up to the fight drunk and half naked, wielding two weapons in a berserker's fury and leaving a trail of bodies in their wake". In-game, they can dual wield two handed weapons and have several attacks that enrage them, letting them deal more damage. Warriors also used to have a Berserker stance.
    • Tanks that are overgeared for the content they are running will often fall into this, forging on ahead with seemingly little regard for the state of the rest of the party, or even their own remaining health, believing themselves to have little to fear from what they're facing. While they're often correct, they do sometimes go too far, doing things like pulling opponents either numerous or powerful enough to drop their health faster than their healer can replenish it, or jumping into a fight when their healer doesn't have the resources to keep them going long enough to finish it.
    • One of the troll racial abilities is called Berserk. Originally when used, it raised the character's attack speed based on how much health the character was missing. It now raises it by a flat amount.
    • All of the Horde races are described as being susceptible to fits of fury in battle (it's just that Orcs and Trolls are the only ones where it is Gameplay and Story Integration). Tauren for example may be Gentle Giants but they are also Mighty Glaciers; do NOT provoke one or it will never stop charging, and they've been seen fighting armoured opponents with just their hooves and horns. Forsaken are undead and thus do not feel pain so they can push themselves beyond the limits of living beings, and their fanaticism and faith in Sylvanas can cause them to enter zealous rages as they do anything they can to destroy the enemies of the Undercity. Goblins also tend to be very explosive-happy when they fight, cackling and grinning with a lit grenade in each hand, in fact they even use suicide bombers. Although Blood Elves are more composed in battle, they are still Addicted To Magic and it's not unreasonable to think they would resort to very violent outbursts to get their next fix if left too long without it.
  • The appropriately named Berserkers from XCOM: Enemy Unknown. They are Mutons who carry no weapons besides claws that can tear through a man with ease, and unlike other units cannot use cover. However, they have some of the most health among the aliens, and sometimes get a free move towards their attacker if they are shot. They are also notable for their Bull Rush ability, meant to punish a soldier hiding behind cover by charging in a straight line and busting down his cover, giving the Berserker a clear hit. They can do this even if the soldier is hiding behind a wall.

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