History PlayerPunch / SurvivalHorror

* ''VideoGame/YomawariMidnightShadows'', sequel to ''VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone'' takes the PlayerPunch ''further.'' Much like ''VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone,'' the game begins with player walked through the controls. Moving, running, tip toeing, interacting with objects, using collected objects, the usual fare. Then, the game introduces pushing objects and even carrying them. Standing on top of a box, [[spoiler: the player's character, a 10-year-old girl named Yui, [[DrivenToSuicide ties a noose with her dog's leash]] [[HangingAround and hangs herself from a tree.]] Yes, that's right. The ''tutorial'' led a main character to '''''commit suicide''''' [[StartsWithASuicide in the first five minutes of the game]]]]!

* ''[[VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone Yomawari: Night Alone]]'' begins, like most games, walking the player through the controls. Moving, running, tip toeing, interacting with objects, the usual fare. Then, the game teaches you how to use the objects that you've collected, in this case a pebble. When prompted, the player's character, a little girl, tosses a pebble. [[spoiler:Her dog tries to fetch the pebble, only to be hit by a speeding truck, leaving the girl traumatized. Yes, that's right. The ''tutorial'' killed your dog]]!
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** The game's second season takes it UpToEleven by forcing the player to decide [[spoiler:[[SadisticChoice who to kill]] in the finale.]] There is no third option. You ''have to'' decide.

** And the biggest player punch of all: [[spoiler:The True Ending. It turns out that Viola and the Witch had ''already traded bodies'' before the game began! So, all this time, the player has been controlling the evil Witch, Ellen, in Viola's body. While Viola is trapped in the Witch's mutilated body. And you realize that Viola's father shot his own daughter, [[TheBadGuyWins while taking the Witch home.]]]]

** And the biggest player punch of all: [[spoiler:The True Ending. It turns out that Viola and the Witch had ''already traded bodies'' before the game began! So, all this time, the player has been controlling the evil Witch, Ellen, in Viola's body. While Viola is trapped in the Witch's mutilated body. And you realize that Viola's father shot his own daughter, while taking the Witch home.]]

** Viola can quickly gain a companion in the form of a frog that is clearly attached to her. And she has to sacrifice him to a snake in order to advance. And ''then'' she meets the frog's tadpoles, who blame her for what occured.

* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' the entire premise of the game is to rescue the protagonist's young children from the depths of the nightmarish machine which spends the game vomiting manpig abominations to tear you to shreds. Two thirds in you finally reach where your children are supposedly imprisoned...[[spoiler:only to find out they were never there, and were in fact murdered by the protagonist long beforehand to save them from dying in agony in World War I, and in getting to the machine you have merely helped it release an army of monsters to butcher London's population.]]

* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' the entire premise of the game is to rescue the protagonist's young children from the depths of the nightmarish machine which spends the game vomiting manpig abominations to tear you to shreds. Two thirds in you finally reach where your children are supposedly imprisoned...[[spoiler:only to find out they were never there, and were in fact murdered by the protagonist long beforehand to save them from dying in agony in World War I, and in getting to the machine you have merely helped it release an army of monsters to butcher London's population.]]

* In VideoGame/TheWalkingDead has the choice to either save Carely or Doug, they can only save one while the other dies. Then they have to choice of either letting Kenny kill Duck or do it themselves.

* ''[[VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone Yomawari: Night Alone]]'' begins, like most games, walking the player through the controls. Moving, running, tip toeing, interacting with objects, the usual fare. Then, the game teaches you how to use the objects that you've collected, in this case a pebble. When prompted, the player's character, a little girl, tosses a pebble. [[spoiler:Her dog tries to fetch the pebble, only to be hit by a speeding truck, leaving the girl traumatized. Yes, that's right. The ''tutorial'' killed your dog]]!

* Even if you have already been spoiled on the truth about James in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' or picked up on the disturbing implications of the anvilicious foreshadowing, the inevitable reveal is still a kick in the gut. ([=L0rdVega=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_bjPakYti8&feature=PlayList&p=85F32E1CCBAF3343=33 Blind Playthrough]] is the perfect example of this. Listen to his muted "I knew it" at 3:12 and compare to how mercilessly he'd otherwise been mocking James' incompetence in other videos.)
** ''Silent Hill 2'' actually plays with this trope in several ways. In addition to what was described above, the game twists the knot on this trope with Maria, whose presence results in at least ''three'' {{Player Punch}}es -- and, in most cases a fourth, which you yourself must deliver. Alternatively, in the case of a particular ending, instead of Maria dying a fourth time, the player encounters his own wife, who is (sort of) alive and (completely) furious with you, and after you've spent the entire game ostensibly trying to find her, only to discover that you killed her yourself, ''you have to kill her again''.
*** And that's after you've had to kill Eddie. Though, granted, he wasn't very sympathetic, but Angela was, and you had to just watch as she walked away into hell. Having some actual people around just to make terrible things happen pretty much highlights what a twisted place Silent Hill is.
*** Then, of course, we have the "In Water" ending, where James commits suicide, and the full text of the letter from his wife (which was a posthumous note) was read by the VA... and we find out that ''[[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she wanted him to live his life]]''.
** In ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'', Harry is killed specifically to piss off Heather (and by extension the player). Vincent's death is also a pretty powerful PlayerPunch, the charming [[SmugSnake bastard]].
*** Agentjr discovering Harry's body [[https://www.youtube.com/user/agentjr#p/c/D53EF790C7EB3627/18/pj7yT34YN0s in his playthrough]] is pretty much how most ''Silent Hill'' fans felt. The [[https://www.youtube.com/user/agentjr#p/c/D53EF790C7EB3627/19/afKOm8TauCE aftermath]] to the player punch is also very bitter.
*** The original ''Silent Hill'' also has Harry pushing away and running from a desperate and horrified Lisa Garland.
** The Good ending of ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' delivers a huge PlayerPunch by [[spoiler:making you kill Cybil, only to later find out that the innocuous red liquid you picked up in the hospital and forgot about four hours ago could have saved her.]]
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akYdjHkleek Wicked and the Weak ending]] to ''Silent Hill: Shattered Memories''.
** The twist ending to ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' reveals that [[spoiler:Cheryl was the protagonist all along,]] and that [[spoiler:Harry has been dead throughout the entire game.]]
** The endings of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' -- [[MultipleEndings all of them]] [[spoiler:except for "21 Sacraments", which is [[DownerEnding an entirely]] [[TheBadGuyWins different flavor]] of PlayerPunch]]. Walter falls to the ground, and as a pool of blood begins to surround him, he reaches one arm up into the air and simply says "Mom...?". After that, you're treated to another cutscene of younger Walter knocking on 302's door, asking to be let in, and suddenly stops, stands motionless for a second, and then crumples to the ground and disappears.
** In ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'', the player has to decide as to whether or not [[spoiler: MercyKill Alex Shepherd's mother while she's being slowly tortured to death by a death machine or allow her to suffer a CruelAndUnusualDeath. Either way she ''will'' die.]]
** In ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'', Murphy Pendleton has the choice to either talk a man out of suicide or ''[[KickTheDog taunt him]]'' about doing it. [[spoiler: Either way, he dies.]]

* In VideoGame/TheWalkingDead has the choice to either save Carely or Doug, they can only save one while the other dies. Then they have to choice of either letting Kenny kill Duck or do it themselves.
** But the classic form of this trope, with your adorable companion having to be killed, is [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. This is worse. It puts the final nail in the coffin of [[BrokenBird Clem]]'s innocence.
** By far the harshest punch to the player's balls is [[spoiler:Lee and Clem together before Lee's death. It would be painful enough to sit through, but not only do you ''pick Lee's final words to the heartbroken girl'', you're forced to choose if Lee becomes a walker or if '''Clem [[MercyKill spares him that fate]]'''.]]
** The game's second season takes it UpToEleven by forcing the player to decide [[spoiler:[[SadisticChoice who to kill]] in the finale.]] There is no third option. You ''have to'' decide.
* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' the entire premise of the game is to rescue the protagonist's young children from the depths of the nightmarish machine which spends the game vomiting manpig abominations to tear you to shreds. Two thirds in you finally reach where your children are supposedly imprisoned...[[spoiler:only to find out they were never there, and were in fact murdered by the protagonist long beforehand to save them from dying in agony in World War I, and in getting to the machine you have merely helped it release an army of monsters to butcher London's population.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone Yomawari: Night Alone]]'' begins, like most games, walking the player through the controls. Moving, running, tip toeing, interacting with objects, the usual fare. Then, the game teaches you how to use the objects that you've collected, in this case a pebble. When prompted, the player's character, a little girl, tosses a pebble. [[spoiler:Her dog tries to fetch the pebble, only to be hit by a speeding truck, leaving the girl traumatized. Yes, that's right. The ''tutorial'' killed your dog]]!
* ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'' has you stepping into the ring for twelve rounds against Mike Tyson. ''VideoGame/DeadIslandRiptide'' has you stepping into the Octagon for five rounds against Brock Lesnar. How? Here's how.
** Let's begin with the trailers. You know the ones. The ones with the little girl or couple killing themselves before they are torn apart.
** Then we get to see the dead girl's parents and one quest has you find that blown up boat.
** You see victims either falling to their death or are DrivenToSuicide, or that poor girl you saved in the first game, she captured by the very people responsible for the outbreak.
** Finding other survivors you see how emotionally distraught and traumatized they are, the quests they have for you horrific and likely to end in tragedy.
** Pretty much all the characters you meet die, if they are not tortured first like with Jin, Yerema, Ryder, Harlow, and it's implied even the characters you play as succumb to the virus. Now tend to that broken jaw.
* ''[[VideoGame/DeadRising2 Dead Rising: Off The Record]]'', a Non-Canon WhatIf version of ''Dead Rising 2'' starring Frank West instead of Chuck Greene, features Chuck reduced to a psychopath after the death of his daughter Katey. He's delusional, violent, rambling, you have to put him down, and it ''hurts''. Even the devs felt so bad about it they don't actually let you kill Chuck; he pulls a VillainExitStageLeft when you look away.

** Pretty much all the characters you meet die, if they are not tortured first like with Jin, Yerema, Ryder, Harlow, and it's implied even the characters you play as succumb to the virus. Now tend to that broken jaw.

** It gets worse in the sequel, ''Black Plague''. There, you befriend Amabel, a scientist that needs your help to escape and find a cure for a virus that's going around... which, incidentally, infects ''you'' and results in [[HearingVoices Clarence's snarky comments echoing in your head]] for the rest of the game. But the topper is when you finally reach Amabel, and are greeted with an Infected instead, which you then have to kill by dropping a crate atop it... only for Clarence to say "Gotcha" and reveal that it was Amabel the whole time. The exact phrasing used in that scene can be found under NiceJobBreakingItHero in ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'''s page.

*** Then, of course, we have the "In Water" ending, where James commits suicide, and the full text of the letter from his wife (which was a posthumous note) was read by the VA... and we find out that ''she wanted him to live his life''.

* In the case of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', maybe this could be called something along the lines of BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu [[PlayerPunch And Cthulhu Punched Back]], as eleven twelfths of the game take place within the chapters of a book of the fight against an EldritchAbomination God on the rise spanning history, each chapter focusing on a different character's efforts. Every one of these characters was a [[BadassNormal perfectly ordinary (essentially) and usually quite lovable person who just had to get mixed up in the whole thing]], often by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even though they usually strike a blow, it's at a dear cost. Say, life or sanity. Some of the hardest punches are when Ellia, a dancer seeking entertainment in a temple to Kali, finds out that the temple houses yet another EldritchAbomination God and is made to hold its essence -- which keeps her from dying even when she's killed for knowing too much, the last bit not something you know until another character over a thousand years later finds her remains and she passes it on to him and Anthony, a messenger for Charlemagne, gets blasted with a curse meant for Charlemagne that slowly turns him into a zombie and, long story short, by the time he gets to Charlemagne to tell him of impending treachery, he finds out he's too late and is left zombified, unable to die, and alone for centuries until the player, as yet another character, is forced to put him out of his misery themself. And he still whispers "Charlemaaagne!" and lets out this pathetic moan now and then, too. That Anthony is played by the wonderfully talented Cam Clark helps.

* ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}: Overture'' has the player crawling through a dark, crumbling mining complex filled to the (cracked) rafters with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and once-living creatures, all the while being led by a seemingly kindred spirit known as "Red" who is clearly insane from isolation. However, he befriends the player in a one-sided way, and you'll likely get attached to him as well. However, in the final moments of the game, to open the door and move on, the player must incinerate poor Red, who is laying in an oven, to get the key to move on, as Red had been suffering alone for so long, and had convinced himself, in his madness that he could not take his own life, as "That was against the rules". The second you get your guts up to start the machine, he screams bloody murder. Cue MyGodWhatHaveIDone, HeroicBSOD on the PLAYER end, and ending it all with a TearJerker from being {{Player Punch}}ed so hard.

** The game's second season takes it UpToEleven by forcing the player to decide [[spoiler: [[SadisticChoice who to kill]] in the finale.]] There is no third option. You ''have to'' decide.
* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' the entire premise of the game is to rescue the protagonist's young children from the depths of the nightmarish machine which spends the game vomiting manpig abominations to tear you to shreds. Two thirds in you finally reach where your children are supposedly imprisoned...[[spoiler: only to find out they were never there, and were in fact murdered by the protagonist long beforehand to save them from dying in agony in World War I, and in getting to the machine you have merely helped it release an army of monsters to butcher London's population.]]

*** Not to mention that any GenreSavvy player that kept their wits about them knew it was her, which only makes the PlayerPunch that much harder.

** But the classic form of this trope, with your adorable companion having to be killed, is [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. [[FromBadToWorse This]] [[DownerEnding is]] [[DespairEventHorizon worse]]. It puts the final nail in the coffin of [[BrokenBird Clem]]'s innocence.

* ''[[VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone Yomawari: Night Alone]]'' begins, like most games, walking the player through the controls. Moving, running, tip toeing, interacting with objects, the usual fare. Then, the game teaches you how to use the objects that you've collected, in this case a pebble. When prompted, the player's character, a little girl, tosses a pebble. [[spoiler:Her dog tries to fetch the pebble, only to be hit by a speeding truck, leaving the girl traumatized. Yes, that's right. The ''tutorial'' killed your dog]]!

* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' the entire premise of the game is to rescue the protagonist's young children from the depths of the nightmarish machine which spends the game vomiting manpig abominations to tear you to shreds. Two thirds in you finally reach where your children are supposedly imprisoned...[[spoiler: only to find out they were never there, and were in fact murdered by the protagonist long beforehand to save them from dying in agony in World War I, and in getting to the machine you have merely helped it release an army of monsters to butcher London's population.]]

* Franchise/FatalFrame
** ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'': Mafuyu remains behind with Kirie at the Hell Gate, so she will never have to suffer alone anymore. So all of the work that Miku, and the player, put into walking around in the mansion, fighting ghosts and trying to reunite with her brother? [[ShaggyDogStory Absolutely pointless]]. And this is the canon ending.
** ''VideoGame/FatalFrame II'': the main character chases her possessed sister into the caves under the village, but will find herself forced to undergo the barbaric ritual of the village that you've been (indirectly) suffering the consequences of all game: Mio chokes Mayu to death, turning her spirit into one of the Crimson Butterflies that have been fluttering around the village. And the worst part? ''This will always happen to you your first time through the game.'' The good end isn't even available unless you're playing on a higher, unlocked difficulty.
*** The real PlayerPunch? This is the canon ending, again. And the very fact that the deliberately brutal and emotionally cruel sacrifices are supposed to be the right thing to do in the games' setting was a pretty big PlayerPunch.
*** Even better? That's not even the worst ending. In that ending, you just [[WhatTheHellHero run and leave Mayu behind]], getting a creep''tastic'' promise from Mayu and Sae that they will always be waiting for their sisters... Though, if [[TakeThat you didn't like Mayu...]]