Gaming Moments That Made You Feel Awkward or Uncomfortable

For discomfort, it has to be the Stroggification in Quake IV. Surgery freaks me out, especially not-surgery involving big-ass needles being rammed into chest cavities and sawblades cutting legs off.

@ Nintey On Asura's Wrath: Nope, Just felt more awesome.

Dante's Inferno, there's an early level where the enemies include scythe-armed babies.

Fucking human babies, man. I mean, babies creep me out, and I usually don't give the slightest damn about enemies in games I play, but come the fuck on. Goddamn babies, in HELL. I tried to redeem them for a bit, but that arguably made it worse. Eventually, I just said "fuck this" and took it back to the store.

The only other game I can think of that has actively made me uncomfortable to play is {{Final Fantasy X-2]], but that's for completely different reasons.

Oh god, reminds me of the Plague Babies◊ in Demon's Souls. (Don't click that if you're squeamish). Both the Valley of Defilement and the Tower of Latria levels made me feel queasy in a few spots, and contribute to why I have a hard time wanting to replay that game.

edited 4th Dec '13 1:54:37 PM by Ryuhza

Lurkers and the explodey Dead Space babies whose name I keep forgetting.

Kiling Phalanx in Shadow Of The Colossus. The ceature didn't even attempt to attack me during its slaughter.

edited 4th Dec '13 2:09:09 PM by Ukokira

Baldurs Gate 2. After Yoshimo dies, and you receive his journal. I read it, and it talked about his quest for vengeance over the death of his sister, and how he *thought* you killed her, but couldn't actually find evidence one way or another. This was a matter of great angst for him.

It was a matter of great angst for me, too, because I remembered the character, from when I played the first game ( I was using BGT ). . . but I could not for the life of me remember if I killed her or not. A man's life destroyed, by a deed that might have been done so casually as to leave no impression at all. I have very seldom been more disturbed by a game, ever.

edited 4th Dec '13 8:50:55 PM by metaphysician

The infamous makeout scene from the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game. It's like necrophilia and bestality at the same time.

Also the Necromorphs from Dead Space their like /Body Horror incarnate . And as of Dead Space 3 we know know why there aren't any aliens in the series the Necromorphs either killed them or used them to make more Necromorphs

edited 5th Dec '13 7:24:34 AM by Djanchorhead

One that always makes me feel awful is Amanda's death in Final Fantasy Adventure. She goes to kill a Medusa (and asks for your help) to uncurse her brother by using the Medusa's tears. Except when you beat the Medusa, no tears are found. And that's when Amanda finds out she was cursed during the battle to turn into a Medusa herself. So she makes sure she cries as she asks you to kill her so that she doesn't become a rampaging monster. And after she asks, that's when control is given back to you. No way out. Touching her causes you damage - the curse has already progressed that far. It only takes one hit to do the Mercy Kill, but it's not handled in a cutscene. You have to kill her with an attack.

Since No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle was brought up, I'll bring up a different example that gets to me - Ryuji's death. Until then, the fights made sense, even from an Anti-Hero standpoint - Travis was either fighting against a complete sociopath, fighting for revenge, or would try to show mercy to a worthy foe (Shinobu accepted it, Cloe couldn't). But Ryuji wasn't a terrible person or with a grudge against Travis at all - and yet, he was cut down mercilessly by the UAA. And unlike with Shinobu or Cloe, Travis didn't get a chance to offer him any mercy. It's the point in which the series finally slams home just how awful the proceedings are. Is it any coincidence that the next three ranking battles (i.e. outside of Mimmy, who Travis doesn't fight anyway) are against three rather sympathetic foes?

edited 5th Dec '13 12:09:31 PM by 32_Footsteps

Seconding that Final Fantasy Adventure example.

It's arguably even worse in Sword of Mana.

I never gave that game the chance after the cutscene spam turned me off. Should I give it another chance?

I liked it. Felt the mechanics were pretty good, and I liked the girl being a full-fledged hero charcter this time around. Your call.

On the subject of Virtue's Last Reward, I think I'd like to extend my uncomfortable-ness to any choice that is a form of betrayal or selfishness, because by god does the game have a way of making the characters act well and truly hurt by your actions.

Especially when the game gets a bit meta, and the main character chides himself for making choices flippantly, as though all he wanted to do was see how they would play out, becuase that's pretty much exactly directed at me.

edited 5th Dec '13 3:40:03 PM by Enlong

I prefer Final Fantasy Adventure overall, although some of the side plot elements make more sense in Sword of Mana. That said, I think many of the death scenes are better in the first game - I personally find Amanda's more difficult to bear, and Marcie's Heroic Sacrifice is much better than Marshall's nonchalance (they establish Marshall as doomed no matter what, while it really seems like, in better circumstances, that Marcie could have survived).

One more that hit me particularly hard back in the day - Cid's death in Final Fantasy VI. Not just that he died - tragic, but not totally surprising given the situation. The fact that it drove Celes to suicide? I was left speechless. And even moreso when she was initially angry at the seagull that woke her after she failed - she was all set to do it again until she saw proof that Locke still lived. Also, the cherry on top - it's the player's fault if he dies. Celes had already become one of my all-time favorite characters when I found that out. The idea of the fact that my actions sent her to the Despair Event Horizon? I had such a pit in my stomach after that.

It probably sounds weird, but the first example that came to my head is whenever I'm playing Skyrim and I run into an orphan put in the game by Hearthfire. The game practically holds you down and screams into your ear, "THIS IS A CHILD THAT NEEDS TENDER LOVE FROM YOU SO ADOPT IT AND GIVE IT A FAMILY," but the problem is that I'm out adventuring all the time. My home in the game is a pile of stuff with a cover on it. At best, the kid will be sitting around staring at a housecarl for months on end. It's safer than a life on the streets, sure, but... still doesn't feel right.

Mad World's Rose Bush tutorial.

It's probably intentional, so for me it did its job of selling your sponsor as a sociopath pretty well.