You Are Better Than You Think You Are / Video Games

Times where somebody tells another that "You Are Better Than You Think You Are" in Video Games.

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• Absented Age: Squarebound:
  • Hayato wonders if his attempt to stand up for Karen only made things worse for her, since she ended up leaving the Brass Band Club and now has no official music club to join. However, Karen reassures him that it's for the best, since she would be unhappy if she continued staying in the club and stifled her passion for music.music.
  • In the Warehouse Driftworld, Karen wakes up from a nightmare where the Gangers stole every bit of her identity and her friends rejected her as a "fake." When she talks to the flower of her Heart's Core, the flower points out that even without her Heart Fragments, Karen is worthy of her identity and that she shouldn't fear rejection.
• Batman, of all people, gives one to Victor Fries/Dr. Freeze in Batman: Arkham City. It's made all the more surprising/touching by the fact that Batman has otherwise taken a level in jerkass since the last game.
  Batman: [to Fries] Fix [Nora] and quit this life. You're better than this.
• In Blaze Union, Garlot is often given this kind of encouragement by Siskier and Nessiah. As he's an abused kid with low self-confidence, he needs it desperately.
• Devil May Cry: "Devils never cry." A recurring phrase in the games, given to emphasize a character's humanity despite their demonic heritage or creation, and punctuating Trish's Heel–Face Turn in the first game and Lucia's Tomato in the Mirror moment from the second. Even Dante gets a slight variant in the third game when Vergil is trapped in the demon world.
  Dante: Devils never cry.
  Lady: I see. Maybe somewhere out there even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one. Don't you think?
• In one random dialogue, Lyndon the Scoundrel from Diablo III questions whether killing the Lords of Hell would be enough to make him a good person. The hero of the game says no. He already is.
  Lyndon: If I keep killing demons, I might actually become a good person, right?
  PC: I don't think so.
  Lyndon: Seriously?
  PC: You already are a good person.
• The player characters in Dragon Age also get moments like these with their party members, especially in Dragon Age II. They also have different ways to do it, depending on Hawke's dominant personality and whether you're a Friend or a Rival.
  • From Origins, we have this gem, should you choose not to Harden Leliana:
    Leliana: What we're doing... what we've done — hunted men down, killed them — part of me loves it. It invigorates me and this scares me. I... I feel myself slipping.
    The Warden: Evil doesn't worry about not being good.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Blackwall/Thom Rainier is this in spades. Once a well-respected but amoral Orlesian army captain, he accepted a bribe from a noble to assassinate one of the noble's rivals... and his entire family. When the truth came out, he ran, abandoning his men to be punished in his stead, and became a drifter until he was recruited by a Grey Warden named Blackwall. Plagued by guilt of what he did to the noble's family, and to his men, he joined up, only for Blackwall to be killed while escorting him to the Wardens for his joining. Since he was afraid that the other Wardens would think he'd murdered Blackwall, he took Blackwall's identity and became a "Grey Warden" himself, dedicating himself to the Wardens' cause of protecting the innocent as he finally realize that there is more than just fighting for fame and fortune. The trope comes into play when the truth is finally let out, as this is one of the things you can say to him after he turns himself in. If you have Blackwall released and pardon him for his crimes, he takes up the trope's banner and travels around Thedas using his story as inspiration for others who also found themselves in his position.
• The basic premise of Elite Beat Agents is that the titular characters help give people the self-confidence they need to power through a seemingly impossible situation...by dancing. Moments where this trope is most notable include "The Anthem", which revolves around a past-his-prime baseball star trying to regain his spark by fighting a fire-breathing golem in an amusement park. It's that kind of game.
• In Escape Velocity: Nova, the entire Mu'hari caste among the Polaris are this. They train for decades to gain aptitude in all forms of combat, commerce, sciences, engineering, diplomacy, espionage, and more; their chief jobs (beside all-round assistants) are as elite covert operatives and judges. However, they are culturally conditioned to feel great shame about their failure to specialize (with the Mu'hari acting as a sort of "caste-less" caste). This may be an intentional way to prevent them from rising above their peers.
• Finding Light: Mari is unconfident in her ability to go on an adventure without Abbie, but Vera points out that she saved the latter in the canon ending of Mari and the Black Tower, and that she can save Abbie too.
• When Hiveswap protagonist Joey Claire travels to the troll planet Alternia and meets Xefros Tritoh, the latter constantly puts himself and his blood caste down due to the low expectations of their end of the Hemospectrum. Regardless, Joey regards him as a brave if humble companion who put himself at considerable risk throughout Act 1 to help her out of her predicament. She then vows to show him what true friendship is and assure him that she's with him in his fight to end the blood caste discrimination.
• Injustice 2: Despite realizing the crimes her cousin did as the High Councilor and what drove him to villainy in the last game, Supergirl refuses to give up entirely on Superman, making frequent pleas and appeals to his better nature, but they fall on deaf ears as Superman is still too-grief stricken and cynical to accept maybe he was right the first time, combined with thinking traditional superheroics is fundamentally flawed. He also clings on to I Let Gwen Stacy Die, telling her that heroes' loved ones die if they hold back, but his ongoing disillusionment from losing Lois prevents him from moving on. Even when she sees him sent to the Phantom Zone in the Absolute Justice ending, Supergirl tells him they're still family and she hopes he realizes that someday.
• In Kathy Rain, when the titular character meets the ghost of her grandfather, Joseph, in the otherworldly place, she is reluctant to say goodbye to him, telling him that she is not ready to lose him so soon after having just found him again and that she isn't not sure what she will do without him. In response, Joseph offers her some warm encouragement.
  Joseph: You don't need me, Kathy. You never did. You're stronger than you'll ever know. I'm so proud of the woman you've become.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora gives this to Riku's replica after slaying Marluxia when he calls himself a fake.
  Sora: Wait! Who cares if someone created you? You are you and nobody else. You have your own heart inside you! Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone! They're special!
  Riku Replica: Sora, you're a good guy. I don't have to be real to see how real your feelings are.
  • Kingdom Hearts III: When Sora breaks down in tears after all the heroes die except for him and Riku, Riku gives Sora one of these.
  Sora: What do I do? All my power... came from them. Without them... I'm nothing.
  Riku: Sora. You don't believe that. I know you don't.
• The Jedi Exile can say this to Visas in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. And near the end, after being told by the Jedi Council that they're actually a living "Force wound" leeching power off of their friends who are only there because of the Exile's unusual ability to Force-bond, either Visas or the Disciple (depending on the Exile's gender) will tell them that the Council is full of it and their friends there because they believe in the Exile.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has the protagonist Estelle say this to the main antagonist of the first game in the trilogy. Commander Alan Richard believed that without the nation's greatest hero, Estelle's father Cassius Bright, there was no way Liberl could protect itself from another war with the larger nations around it. He believed himself too weak on his own, so he resorted to finding a dangerous ancient artifact to intimidate the rest of the world into submission, to be the miracle the country needed. Estelle rejects this motive, pointing out that it wasn't just her dad who saved the country, but people from all across the nation doing their part to contribute to the war effort, and Richard himself was one of those people. She concluded that it was people working together that was the real miracle, and if another war broke out, she believed in everyone to make it through, which included Richard. He acknowledges her words, but insists not everyone is as strong as her, and he's come too far to abandon his plans now.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Rean Schwarzer has been on the giving and the receiving ends of this trope on several separate occasions:
  • On the giving end, he did this to Jusis and Emma when reuniting with them in Cold Steel II when they're both clouded by self-doubt for keeping secrets of their identities, and connections to the rebels respectively. A good chunk of his supports with Altina in Cold Steel III involve him doing this to the latter in regards to her insecurities.
  • His lack of self-worth has resulted in him being on the receiving end of this on numerous occasions. Whether its due to his angst at being adopted into a noble family and thinking he's a burden to them, his fears of his powers, failing to bring back Crow alive, his actions as the Ashen Chevalier  and especially after bringing out the Great Twilight at the end of Cold Steel III. How well he takes them to heart is instrumental to whether or not he'll survive or lose his life in a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Cold Steel IV.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Old Woman initially tells off Groose, who has just reached the surface for the first time, for thinking he is the one who will save the day by rescuing Zelda instead of Link. Soon afterward, the Imprisoned breaks from its seal and must be resealed by Link, all of which leaves Groose paralyzed with fear as he watches it all happen. He then bitterly concedes that he is a useless coward while Link really is the one who will make things right. As he walks off to mope, the Old Woman states that he will still undoubtedly have some important role to play later.
• In Love & Pies, Yuka feels insecure of herself after finding out that Eve is already planning to propose to her partner and tells herself that she's "nosey, secretive, and [she] should never have fallen for her". Amelia cheers her up by telling her that she's "spontaneous, inquisitive, and fun to be with", and that she and Kate love her as a friend. This helps Yuka move on from her crush the next day.
• Ryan gives a memorable version of this lecture to Princess Carranya, who feels oppressed by her responsibilities as royalty, in Act II of Love & War, ending with:
  Ryan: "And for what it's worth, I think you make a great Princess. I'd be proud to be your subject when you become Queen."
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable, Arf suggests that Fate might have turned out like her Evil Counterpart, the Ax-Crazy Material-L, if Nanoha and the others had not been there for her. Nanoha disagrees, saying that because Fate has Arf, she is not alone, and she is a stronger person than Material-L. Arf and Fate are touched by hearing that.
• A fair bit of the Paragon choices in Mass Effect revolve around this concept:
  • Jack in the second game, to whom Shepard repeatedly tries to convince there is more than just anger and violence.
  • Wrex is the best example: in the first game, some of the conversations and a critical decision on Virmire revolve around his despair about the future of his people and attempting to rekindle his (once-held) belief their society could be reborn through the krogan's own efforts. Assuming he lives at Virmire, you meet him again in the second game and discover that your efforts succeeded; he's become the most powerful leader on the planet and will drag his people out of the darkness kicking and screaming.
  • Garrus is another example. When he lets his quest for revenge begin to get in the way of his morals, Shepard continuously tries to pull him back, even standing in between Garrus' sniper scope and his target, essentially implying that he'll have to shoot him/her in order to get his revenge.
  • In the third game, Paragon Shepard invokes this about the geth's decision to ally with the Reapers and go to war with the Quarians.
    Shepard: How did we get here? The geth are better than this.
    Legion: No. Based on empirical evidence, they are not.
    Shepard: [sighs] Yeah.
  • Again in the third game, many of Shepard's conversations with EDI revolve around supporting her goal to find her own version of humanity by convincing her she's more than just circuits and software.
  • Ironically, in the third game conversations with others, especially near the endgame, are people trying to help Shepard believe that s/he deserves the faith being placed in him/her to keep him/her from going completely past the Despair Event Horizon. Liara and Garrus in particular really try to keep Shepard's spirits up.
    Shepard: There's only so much death and destruction you can take before...
    Garrus: Before your friend picks you up, dusts you off, and reminds you that you're the best damn soldier he's ever served with.
• Memoria Freese: In the Aedes Vesta event, the final confrontation between Bell Cranel and Epimetheus has the former try to beat this into the latter. He's been mocked as failure for 3000 years even though he did so much that he fell to despair. But Bell points out that he planted the seed for future heroes, including Argonaut and Bell himself, who were inspired by him. To cement the point, the Heroic Strike that Bell uses is empowered by the very tale of Epimetheus' heroic journey.
• Minecraft: In the ending, the two Entities tell the player "Everything you need is already within you. You are never alone. You are stronger than you know"
• Toward the end of My Friendly Neighborhood, Ricky gives a depressing inkling into how he believes their show was cancelled because so many people are deep-down not friendly, that all they care about is themselves, and that they prefer being left in the dark because showing them how to be friendly only shows them just how messed up they are. He then makes it very clear he thinks Gordon isn't like that.
  Ricky: C'mon, Gordon. We both know, deep down, you want to be friendly.
• Turning Aribeth back from the dark side in Neverwinter Nights revolves around this trope.
  • There even is a fan-made expansion giving some closure to Aribeth's story in which the first chapter consists almost entirely of this trope.
• Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners: If you manage to prevent poor Yoko from being killed by their judgment, they lament how they committed a crime that was considered worthy of such a severe punishment in the first place. Kyosuke then jumps in and reassures them, declaring that one Moment of Weakness and shoplifting a pendant doesn't make them a horrible, irredeemable person.
• In Persona 5 Royal, well-accomplished gymnast Kasumi Yoshizawa is actually Kasumi's younger sister Sumire, who'd thrown herself onto traffic by accident when she was having a fit. This was because Sumire couldn't stand that Kasumi was consistently a better gymnast than she was, and is only alive because Kasumi sacrificed herself in place of Sumire. The catch is that Sumire is still good at the sport, having placed third or fourth while Kasumi was placing first or second. But because Sumire felt like she Can't Catch Up, she underwent psychological manipulation by Maruki to think she was Kasumi, in order to get past the feeling that she killed her own sister. Part of the rebellion that she learns is this trope, with the help of Joker and the other Phantom Thieves telling her that she's better than she thinks she is, and that she needs to accept what happened as part of her.
• Pokémon Black and White: After N has his Heel Realization, he takes it pretty badly. However, he is soon reminded that Reshiram/Zekrom still recognized him as a hero by allowing itself to be caught by him.
  • Even better since Ghetsis's plan was banking on the first realization to break his spirit completely.
• In Portal 2, Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson spends several scenes telling his secretary, Caroline, that she shouldn't be so modest, and means it when he says that, without Caroline, Aperture would have sunk long ago. This later becomes tragic as, when it becomes clear to Cave that his illness is going to kill him before the completion of the GLADOS project, which would allow him to store his body in a computer and continue to run Aperture after his death. Believing Caroline to be the only other person who could run the company, he orders the scientists to put her in the GLADOS mainframe instead, after his death. Cave, unfortunately, had lived with Caroline's modesty for so long that he believed that anything Caroline may have said about not wanting to be sealed inside a computer forever was just more modesty.
• In Red Dead Redemption 2, a high-honor Arthur Morgan will be told this by Reverend Swanson or Sister Calderón before they leave, telling him that he still has time to do good in the world and that he should; this inspires Arthur to go and help John Marston and spurs his Heel–Face Turn right before he dies.
  • By the end of the main story, just about every other character will tell this to Arthur who has high honor. On his final ride to camp, Arthur reflects on each time another character has called him a good man.
• Shining Resonance: The bulk of Yuma's character development hinges on the rest of the party helping him to overcome his fear of the Shining Dragon's power, due to a childhood tragedy where he briefly lost control of it and nearly wiped out a village. Agnum, in particular, appoints himself as Yuma's 'big brother' figure and leads him on two training missions to build up his confidence. By mid-game, their efforts pay off, which inspires Yuma to do the same for Marion.
• In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Navarre delivers one of these to Asahi, who constantly feels like she's just bringing her friends down in her efforts as a Hunter. He especially brings up that there are many who say they would die for a friend, but that there are few who actually mean it, including Asahi, who willingly put herself between Nanashi and Shesha to protect the former from a gruesome death at the hands of the latter and died as a result (though she later got better). Given that Navarre seems to be selectively nonexistent to others, he thinks that she won't hear him at all, as usual. But it's at this moment that she finally notices, and thanks him for his kindness.
• In one of the endings of Silent Hill 2 (the "Leave" ending), James is having a conversation with his dead wife, Mary, for the last time. During the course of his conversation, he first states he killed her to end the pain for her... then buries himself deeper in his guilt-filled psyche and "admits" that he also did so because on some level he hated her for making him have to watch her suffer, and tries to frame his murder as him selfishly wanting his life back. But then the reply comes:
  James... if that were true, then why do you look so sad?
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Subspace Emissary, King Dedede grabs Ness and Peach or Zelda as a matter of convenience due to them already being trophified. However, the one character he specifically seeks out to be his ace in the hole, his last chance backup for when everything goes to crud... is Luigi.
• Everybody does this for Luke in Tales of the Abyss, mostly because after finding out he's Asch's clone, he spends the rest of the game with a massive inferiority complex. Jade admits he's learned a lot about humanity by watching Luke grow. Guy declares, dozens of times, his Undying Loyalty to Luke, damn the fact that Luke's a replica. Asch, of all people, yells at him for putting himself down all the time.
• Should you do a Genocide run in Undertale, Papyrus will try to stave you off your destructive path by assuring you that you're a great person at heart and, if you just try, no matter how little effort you put into it, the great person you are will shine through. Should you kill him anyway, despite his speech, he'll even use his last breath to promise you that he knows you can do better, even if you don't think so yourself. The faith he puts in you has proven to be just as effective as Undyne's and Sans' beatdowns when it comes to making people abort their Genocide runs.

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