History MoodWhiplash / VideoGames

** The ''[[VideoGameRemake Recollection]]'' invokes this by essentially combining ''Two Memories'' and ''Journey into Lost Memories'' into a single game where the latter starts right after you complete the former. As a result, within minutes, the player goes from seeing an optimistic 14-year-old Ashley who is ecstatic to have her father back in her life to a moody 16-year-old who wishes he never bothered to come back [[WhenYouComingHomeDad since he's never around anyway]].

* In ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'' after you find out that [[spoiler:Ashley's mom is dead]], eat the candies you got at the start and she makes a joyful comment of "I love candy!"

* ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' has a complete 180 in both ''2'' and ''Future Perfect''. In 2, the foreboding, horror themed zombie level Notre Dame is immediately followed by the futuristic alien scifi war of Return To Planet X with impressive techno. In Future Perfect, following the James Bond spy parody batch of missions with disco inclined agent Harry Tipper, the next two missions take place inside a haunted mansion with an outbreak of undead, demons and monsters. Even though the series trademark humor is sprinkled in, Mansion of Madness and What Lies Below is by far the darkest and most grim setting in the series.

* ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' has a complete 180 in both ''2'' and ''Future Perfect''. In TimeSplitters 2, the foreboding, horror themed zombie level Notre Dame is immediately followed by the futuristic alien scifi war of Return To Planet X with impressive techno. In Future Perfect, following the James Bond spy parody batch of missions with disco inclined agent Harry Tipper, the next two missions take place inside a haunted mansion with an outbreak of undead, demons and monsters. Even though the series trademark humor is sprinkled in, Mansion of Madness and What Lies Below is by far the darkest and most grim setting in the game.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' Act 5. YES! We've WON! "Snake, hear me. Our country is an innocent child once more..." Still euphoric... [[spoiler:"The time has come... you've earned your rest." Snake huddles on the floor, choking and twitching.]]
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' is another example. The entire game is an AffectionateParody of spy movies from the 60s. Because of this, it's incredibly goofy. Yet it has a BittersweetEnding.

* ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' was by far the most serious Creator/{{Sierra}} adventure game series during the early years. The first game deals with a drug epidemic ravaging a burgeoning town in California, with a rapid escalation in violence as criminal elements vie for control of the drug market. To make the game a little less grim, writer Creator/AlLowe was brought in to create a few humorous segments. These often occur right between very brutal or depressing segments. The best example is when protagonist Sonny Bonds meets fellow officer Jack at a policeman's bar, when Jack says that he's just discovered that his teenage daughter has been buying heroin at her school. Moments later, the cops spring a surprise party on Jack, including a scantily-clad female dancer. Not long after that, Jack's daughter ends up in a hospital with an overdose, and eventually dies.

** Happens a lot in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'', but the normal ending takes the cake by far. [[spoiler:Noel and Serah return from the end of time to be reunited with all their friends, having defeated [[BigBad Caius]] and restored the timeline. Hope's ark, a new home for mankind, ascends bravely into the sky. Fang and Vanille have been rescued from Cocoon's crystal pillar, presumably to awake soon from their centuries-long stasis. Lightning can finally rest after being locked in endless combat for an immeasurable length of time. There's even a soothing pop song playing behind all these events. And then Serah suddenly DIES.]] And then it goes FromBadToWorse...so much worse. [[spoiler:When Caius forced Noel to kill him, he also killed the goddess Etro, which is what Caius wanted. Because of this, Academia becomes Valhalla, and everyone's pretty much screwed.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStar2018 Hokuto ga Gotoku]]'', being a ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' game made by the same people behind (and in the same vein as) the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series, also does this to its source material. The game follows Kenshiro as he continues to stoically wander the nuclear wastes of the earth, searching for Yuria and dispensing justice to villains along the way; but this time, along the way, he'll also play baseball with bandits and a steel slab, work as a doctor to heal patients (and occasionally put bandits out of their misery), and moonlight as a bartender, using his SupernaturalMartialArts to mix drinks.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series is built on this trope. The game has a hard boiled, serious plotline lifted straight from the Yakuza genre... and then some of the most ridiculous sidequests in the history of gaming. So you have a scene where a character loses a family member to a betrayal by his closest friend, and then in between punishing those responsible, you can go ahead and help a flatulent man in a unitard who fights crime, but only when he eats curry.
** A specific quest which will leave your neck feeling like a corkscrew is found in ''Yakuza Zero'' and deals with Majima attempting to save a young woman from a cult. While the cult's rituals and practices are played for laughs, the extortion, brainwashing and sexual abuse the cultists are victims of are very emphatically ''not''.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', at the end of chapter 11 when you have [[spoiler: killed Gangrel and avenged the death of Emmeryn]], Chrom, Avatar, and the rest of the team celebrate their victory, and [[spoiler: Chrom gets married to whichever female unit he has the most support with, if he is not already married]], completely contrasting the sad and angry themes of the previous chapters.
** Supports between characters are unaffected, including conversations on event tiles in the actual level, as well as the level before. This means that characters could [[spoiler: potentially get married while still grieving the death of Emmeryn]] or have otherwise silly or happy conversations, despite the serious nature of the levels.
** Players can still go to DLC levels in between these levels, including the fanservice filled scramble pack, which involve the exact opposite of [[spoiler: grief and vengeance]].
** Even within the main game itself, you unlock Paralogue 4, a mostly comedic affair against the second of the incredibly silly BumblingHenchmenDuo (to give you an idea of how much, even his ''death quote'' is PlayedForLaughs)... right after Chapter 9, where [[spoiler: Emmeryn jumped off a cliff to her death in a HeroicSacrifice]]. Most players prefer to save that paralogue for later.
*** As if to further the mood whiplash, this also puts it just before Chapter 10, where the preparations screen and battle music fall victim to a BackgroundMusicOverride by the much more dramatic and somber tracks entitled "......" and "Don't Speak Her Name!", respectively.
* The [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade seventh game in the Fire Emblem series]] has the last few chapters before the final stretch. After [[spoiler: Eliwood accidently kills his love interest Ninian while she's in dragon form, and is called out on it by the BigBad]], you fight against a [[MemeticMutation memetic]] boss who was created solely to deliver a message, so [[BrokenRecord that message is literally all he can say.]] Then, if you're on Hector's story, you find out [[spoiler: Hector's brother died of the same illness that killed their parents, and Hector is incredibly angry that he never told him.]] ''Then'' you get a sidequest chapter that consists of nothing but a ton of shops to prepare yourself for the final battle.

* At the end of ''Gokujou VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'', you find a cartoon bomb that proceeds to blow up the place; nothing out of the ordinary, considering [[WidgetSeries every other bizarre thing you just witnessed]]... and then you are treated to a slow pan across the wreckage, and see your character's lifeless body float by, all accompanied with depressing music.

** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' is like a giant, continual mood-whiplash, including [[spoiler:Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser apparently getting killed. Yeah, that's right. Whereas Peach goes to heaven, Mario, Bowser and Luigi get chucked down to hell. It turns out none of them were really killed -- just sent to the afterlife realms alive, but still...]] And then there's TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, and the second to last chapter, in which [[spoiler: Bowser, Peach and Luigi [[strike: are all seemingly killed]] apparently have their [[NeverSayDie games ended]], one by one. After we watch the Luigi vs. Dimentio match go to [[UnusualEuphemism the Underwhere]], we reach the star block and are treated to the peppy "End of Chapter!" music.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' begins with the usual ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''-style humor, even amid the search for Flint's missing family in the first chapter, right up to the moment [[spoiler:when an NPC tells you he's got good news and bad news: the good news is that he found a Drago's tooth which could be used as a weapon. The bad news is that it was found ''pierced through the heart of Flint's wife.'']]
** The endgame could also count as well. You arrive in the bustling, amusement park-like [[spoiler:New Pork City]], go up the strange and whimsical [[spoiler:Empire Porky Building]] and are even shown a welcome bit of nostalgia from ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' in the form of a ''boat ride''. Then, suddenly you encounter the sinister [[spoiler: BigBad, Porky (who was TheDragon in the last game and abused time travel, causing him to age unnaturally until he became the bed-mech ridden {{manchild}} we see in this). After a battle with Porky's 'bots a trapdoor opens causing the party and Flint to fall, Tower of Terror-style, 100 stories down into an underground cave. Battles commence and eventually we see Claus, Flint's son and Lucas' twin, finally come to his senses after serving Porky for a long time, but committing suicide right after.]]
** ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' itself had its moments. The generally happy-go-lucky nature of the game made the abrupt switch to horror at the end all the more terrifying.

*** You don't need to go to the end of Videogame/EarthBound to see this. We come across the Happy Happyism cult, a goofy sect that want to make the entire world happy by painting it in blue. They also perform human sacrifices.

** Another common LevelBreaker in the series is the title system, where your characters collect descriptions that you can "equip." Usually, every character has a few titles gotten through plot events. The game will happily interrupt those plot events to tell you, with a little jingly ItemGet noise, that the character who just betrayed you earned the title "Traitor." Another particularly notorious one is "Luke earned the title [[spoiler:[[CloningBlues Replica Model]]]]!" from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. Probably the worst one in that game is immediately following one of the saddest scenes in the game and not too long after the aforementioned "Traitor" bit. [[spoiler: After Ion's death, Luke speaks with Anise in the Daath Cathedral. During the end of that scene, which itself is very heart-wrenching, Luke will give Anise an item, which sets the jingle off, ripping you right out of the emotion of the scene]]. The only thing that can be said is that at least it isn't the recipe jingle, which is actually a fanfare more victorious than even ''Final Fantasy's'' famous victory fanfare.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeBeforeTheStorm'': Chloe has another conversation in a dream with her late father, who died in a car wreck. It takes place on a stage and viewed by an assortment of people she knows. At the end of the dream, her father is hit by a real train, leaving her sobbing over a smear of blood on the stage. Just before this poignant and tragic scene fades to black, Chloe's AlphaBitch former schoolmate Victoria in the audience starts booing.

* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', the player character travels to a city in the sky from a launch pod in a lighthouse. Once there, the city is vibrant, bright, colourful and populated with friendly, well-dressed townsfolk and playful children. The player character travels through the streets and to a festive city fair, all the way to a free raffle which the player character wins. He is then presented with his prize: [[spoiler: first throw at the public stoning of an interracial couple, surrounded by blatantly racist imagery.]]

--> '''Snarky!Hawke''': I'm sorry to interrupt this ''[[SarcasmMode lovely]]'' student-teacher reunion but WHERE IS MY MOTHER?!

--> '''Snarky!Hawke''': I'm sorry to interrupt this ''[[SarcasmMode lovely]]'' student-teacher reunion but '''WHERE IS MY MOTHER?!'''

* ''VideoGame/MagicPengel'' is a bright and happy RPG {{Mons}} RPG, set in a world where color is used as currency and people keep magical monsters called Doodles for pets. Although the story has its sad moments, usually revolving around main character Zoe's DisappearedDad, it never strays too far from its cheerful tone. Then, you get to the final boss area... [[spoiler: The game's cheerful pastoral tone vanishes, and suddenly switches setting to a dark, CyberPunk castle wherein you fight a series of {{Tortured Monster}}s to horrifically SadBattleMusic. Your friend Kiba, who has been looking out for you and supporting you all game, '''pulls a gun on the young protagonist''' '''[[WhyDontYaJustShootHim and shoots her.]]''' Your friend Mono [[TragicMonster goes insane, becomes a horrific beast, and nearly destroys the world]] [[HeroicSacrifice before sacrificing himself to save it.]] And at the end, Zoe and her little brother leave for an indeterminate period of time.]]

** The beginning again comes across as crude yet hilarious, especially when you see Travis summon the [[CombiningMecha Glastonbury]]. But later on, starting with [[spoiler:Ryuji, the fights stop being funny entirely (except the last fight) with Travis respecting Ryuji's strength and sparing him, only to get unceremoniously gunned down by Sylvia. Then you come across Alice and Margaret, and Travis is '''not''' happy about killing either.]]
** The final battle zigzags drastically between serious and funny. The final confrontation starts before the level, with [[spoiler: Travis and Sylvia having sex in one of the most hilarious scenes in the series, then the actual level to the final boss is rather serious and sort of tough. Then you get to the final boss, who looks absolutely ridiculous, but presents Travis with the severed heads of Sylvia, Henry, and Shinobu on platters, and asking him how it feels to lose everything. Then the battle starts, and the boss is so laughably pathetic that you almost feel bad for him. Then he captures and nearly kills Travis, only for Henry to break in and stop him and tell him that the heads are fake. Then the boss turns into a ridiculous superhero looking thing and is absolutely monstrous to defeat. ''Then'' he turns into a colossal cartoon creature so ridiculous looking that Henry refused to fight it and left you to fight it alone. '''Then''' Travis jumps out the window of a 60 goddamn story building to cut him in half, only afterward realizing that he's about to fall to his death, only to be rescued by Sylvia, ending the game on a slow and sort of touching moment.....which then ends with Sylvia driving up to the Hotel NMH and flinging Travis off the back of a moving motorbike.]]

---->''"You became friends with Yosuke. >Yosuke will now '''DIE FOR YOU.'''"''

** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' is like a giant, continual mood-whiplash, including [[spoiler:Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser apparently getting '''''killed'''''. Yeah, that's right. Whereas Peach goes to heaven, Mario, Bowser and Luigi get chucked down to hell. It turns out none of them were really killed -- just sent to the afterlife realms alive, but still...]] And then there's TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, and the second to last chapter, in which [[spoiler: Bowser, Peach and Luigi [[strike: are all seemingly killed]] apparently have their [[NeverSayDie games ended]], one by one. After we watch the Luigi vs. Dimentio match go to [[UnusualEuphemism the Underwhere]], we reach the star block and are treated to the peppy "End of Chapter!" music.]]

* ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' has a pretty big swing. The game is ridiculously non serious and comical (bungled suicide due to lack of a neck, cows shitting, singing poo, and biting a giant caveman's ass off to name a few), and cranks it up from there. But when night falls in the overworld, the chapters get much darker and deal with sinister themes (the zombies and Count Batula in Spooky, the realistic deaths and cruelty in It's War, and robbing a bank in Heist), reaching its zenith just before the final battle, when [[spoiler:Conker's girlfriend Berri is fatally shot by The Panther King's right hand man. After Conker defeats the Alien, the game ends with him becoming the new king, surrounded by his new subjects (characters he met throughout the game). Instead of being happy, he's incredibly depressed because he's stuck in his new position ruling over people he doesn't like, and his girlfriend is dead. He goes back to the bar from the beginning of the game and [[DrowningMySorrows drinks himself into oblivion]]. The credits music adds to it by being incredibly somber]]. And the game was originally planned to have an even sadder
ending portraying Conker's ''suicide''.

* ''VideoGame/DeathTrips'': The game is quiet and builds up to the confrontation with Lady Death... only to turn hilarious when [[spoiler:she trips and promptly dies, ending the game.]] Cue the somber piano music as the credits roll.

** The plot of the game is a report of the events of the last years given by LoveableRogue Varric to an Inqusitor who needs to know what really happened to find a way to contain the major crisis that is currently sweeping the world. Also being a successful novelist who wrote several adventure novels based on his own experiences, he occasionally tries to get around the darker parts of the report by just [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae6jhX-4G0w#2m10s making up over the top hilarious scenes]], which then suddenly cut back to the interrogation room where the Inquisitor tells him to stop the silliness and tell her what actually happened. Then you get to start the level again, but that time it is a lot darker and creepy.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', especially ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. In some worlds, serious conversations are interrupted by some humorous moments between the heroes' party. They're not out-of-place (this ''is'' a Disney game, after all), but some of them don't make sense. For example, there is a moment in [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Port Royal]] where Sora and Goofy comment that they are surprised that Donald didn't give up on the treasure's curse (implying that Donald is greedy, although Donald never was in that world.) And then there's [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Atlantica]] ([[UnexpectedGameplayChange "Let's forget about our mission and... SING!!"]]).
** The best example (and most likely an [[InvokedTrope intentional one]]) from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is the scene where [[spoiler: the game switches control from Roxas to Sora.]] One minute, [[spoiler: you're watching Roxas grapple with losing his sense of identity, as the LotusEaterMachine he's been living in for a week forgets he ever existed, and being told he has to give up his life to bring Sora back.]] The next, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are dancing in a circle after being woken up, and deciding on what to do next, completely oblivious to the drama that it took to get them there. To help get an idea, compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U5eFvBKvGE this theme]], which plays in the first part, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX2FW_-JINo this theme]], which plays in the second.

** Used to bewildering effect in the Great Bay area of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. You've pushed poor Mikau to the shore, but you've come too late, and he's dying! His last words will surely be dramatic and plot-important, right? If by dramatic, you mean "Hopping up and pulling out a guitar and singing about how his girlfriend got pregnant and won't talk anymore, before collapsing and asking you to 'heal his soul'" then yes. It is very "dramatic".
*** What makes Mikau's death scene even more bizarre is the fact that, after pushing him to shore, you get a short cutscene of him staggering around and collapsing. Since it's ''before'' he whips out the guitar, it makes you wonder even more where he got that sudden burst of energy from...
*** Also, the cutscene right before the final dungeon, which goes from nice to creepy to nice and back again once you get to the dungeon. The day is seemingly saved, and Tatl and Tael are reunited. But then [[spoiler: the mask separates from Skull Kid and starts talking, the moon opens its mouth, talks, and starts forcing itself downward, and you get swallowed up inside it. What's inside of the moon? A beautiful, peaceful field with birds chirping and children frolicking around a large tree. Of course, then you notice that [[CreepyChild the children are all wearing masks of the bosses you have killed]], and the one wearing Majora's Mask is sitting all alone and staring, and it becomes scary again.]]

** There is then ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword's'' Silent Realms, which are nice and relaxing, until [[DemonicSpiders the guardians]] [[PsychoStrings wake up]] and come after you.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'': After defeating the [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Giant Bipolar Medieval Knight From Nowhere]] Boomer, you're treated to an [[LargeHam overly dramatic]], somewhat depressing cutscene featuring Boomer effectively committing suicide, accompanied by the game's "Mallow is sad" theme. The ''next second'', your party is doing a goofy dance to the happy, bouncy Midas River music as you ride a Shy Guy-powered chandelier up to the roof of Bowser's Castle, to fight [[ClimaxBoss Exor]].
** It's Mario, the same guy who was (much later) overjoyed at the sight of Bowser being [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath horrifically burned]] into Dry Bowser in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros.'' He couldn't care less about traumatic deaths (especially [[DeathIsCheap when they never stick, anyway]]).

** And what about its sequel ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''? It's like a giant, continual mood-whiplash, including [[spoiler:Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser apparently getting '''''killed'''''. Yeah, that's right. Whereas Peach goes to heaven, Mario, Bowser and Luigi get chucked down to hell. It turns out none of them were really killed -- just sent to the afterlife realms alive, but still...]] Great.
*** And then there's TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, and the second to last chapter, in which [[spoiler: Bowser, Peach and Luigi [[strike: are all seemingly killed]] apparently have their [[NeverSayDie games ended]], one by one. After we watch the Luigi vs. Dimentio match go to [[UnusualEuphemism the Underwhere]], we reach the star block and are treated to the peppy "End of Chapter!" music.]]