History TraumaCongaLine / VideoGames

** Xion in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2''. It turns out Xion [[spoiler:is an [[ArtificialHuman artificial]] clone of Sora made to eventually [[FightingYourFriend kill Roxas]] and absorb his power, and if she's not up to the task then the Organization plans for Roxas to kill and absorb her instead. Furthermore, because she's a clone constructed out of stray fragments of Sora's memory, her existence is even more tenuous than that of a normal Nobody. As a result, when she dies everyone she ever knew forgets she ever existed]]. There's also the problem you go into the game knowing she's DoomedByCanon. Certainly the pinnacle of this comes [[spoiler:at the end of the game where she battles Roxas, the guy she's heavily implied to be in love with by this point, and dies in his arms while he's struggling to remember her name, his memories of her fading already]].

** By the time ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' rolls around, it’s safe to say that [[TheHero Sora]] has gone through one ''hell'' of ride of ''what couldn’t be more than a few days at most,'' which has to be some kind of record. He goes to fight only to watch half his friends get curb-stomped and is nearly swallowed by darkness himself. He decides to use his power to bring his friends hearts back and he goes on to fight the Organization XIII, but halfway through his kind-of-girlfriend gets kidnapped and he has to fight knowing she could be in serious danger. ''Then'' he watches her die. Then he goes to fight the BigBad and manages to defeat him, but it doesn’t bring Kairi back. So he sets out on a quest to use his power and bring her back from the dead essentially, and he has to go through everything mentioned above '''all over again.''' Except this time, he sees everything from the eyes of his friends and feels the pain in their hearts, and can’t do anything different this time. He fights his way through a bunch of enemies, manages to piece Kairi’s heart back together, and at least manages to [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending...]] except [[spoiler:He has to face the consequences of abusing the power of waking and ''fades away from existence.'' And judging by his reaction when he sees that his hand is fading away, he spends a few days with the love of his life ''''knowing that he will die very soon.'''' And if the BadEnding happens to be canon, it also means that he’s been essentially TakenForGranite and turned into a crystal statue.]] That’s not even getting into all the crap he went through during the previous games. It’s a wonder he manages to stay so positive, or even ''sane''.

** ''Yakuza Kiwami'' shows that Kiryu's best friend, Nishiki, went through the wringer, himself. [[spoiler:It starts with Nishiki, himself, killing his patriarch, Dojima, to protect his and Kiryu's childhood friend, Yumi. Kiryu takes the fall so Nishiki can be there to look after his sickly sister, whose medical costs are rising. Then Yumi goes missing afterwards. [[HopeSpot It seems he catches a break when his senior gives him the green light to found his own branch family]], only for his underlings to be insubordinate and constantly berating him. Then he learns his sister needs a heart transplant, and the only way to get one in a timely manner is on the black market, which doesn't come cheap, so he [[AintToProudToBeg begs one of his underlings to help him raise the money by whatever means necessary]]. Unfortunately, the means his underling chooses entails not only stealing from Nishiki's senior, earning his wrath, but also shaking down the surgeon who suggested the black market organ donation to begin with, chasing the doctor off and dooming Nishiki's sister to die. Throughout all of this, Nishiki is constantly berated by everyone around him for his failings and compared to Kiryu, whose reputation as a kin-killer actually earns him more respect, feeding into Nishiki's inferiority complex. After all this, it's little wonder Nishiki snapped, [[StartOfDarkness stabbed his underling, and decided "Fuck it, I'm gonna take over the Tojo Clan and kill anyone who gets in my way!"]]]]

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed''

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', depending on how s/he's played Shepard will have gone through this starting years before the games even take place, and that's only the backstory. In-game s/he suffers a continuous Conga Line from all sides, and it's particularly amazing that Shepard getting killed in [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 the second game]] is ''not'' his/her lowest point. Then ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' puts Shepard through the wringer, forced to flee Earth as it gets [[CurbStompBattle annihilated by the Reapers]], suffers from extreme SurvivorGuilt for those who have died in the series thus far aided by nightmares of a little boy s/he failed to save on Earth, [[TheWoobie and that's the most positive point in the game for him/her.]]

* Solid Snake of the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series. Ohhh god. A few of the more memorable events that happen to him -- getting PTSD from the get-go; having to bloodily murder his best friend, twice; having to murder Big Boss, his father figure and commanding officer, twice; finding out that Big Boss was his father; having the worst family in the history of ever; and then the ever-increasing spiral of horrible that starts with him suddenly being a sickly old man and gets progressively worse. And that's skimping out all the layers of detail which really add color to the events of his life. It's dreadful enough that he goes through Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D, depending on [[CreatorBreakdown how optimistic Kojima was feeling about life at the time]] (First C, then B, then A, then an attempted D, and then, finally, A again).

* Pretty much everything that happens to the Princess -- the protagonist of the ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' fanmade module ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues''. Even the very beginning of the game has her whole family and everyone she's ever known killed by an invading army, her rescuer rapes her and leaves her no choice but to hide with a criminal guild. Then the criminal guild teaches her how to be a rogue, but will force her out of her hometown if she doesn't want to join them, or kill her if she betrays them. Then there's all the other things that regularly happen throughout the whole game -- just when the Princess thinks she's found a new home with the Family criminal guild, most of them are killed or taken away; she's regularly lusted after by men and some even try to [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty molest or outright rape her]]; some of her companions may [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere turn on her]] or [[KilledOffForReal get killed]]; she's [[MadeASlave made a slave and has to escape]], and so on, and so forth. Really, pretty much the entire game cements her as a {{Woobie}} due to all the trauma and humiliation she lives through and has to struggle with to repair her broken life. Fortunately, at least ''some'' of the endings make things work out for her...but it requires [[GoldenEnding some hard work and good decision making]].
* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' doesn't really play fair with their characters do they?

* ''VideoGame/RondoOfSwords'' has a type E in one of the playthroughs. After all Serdic goes through, he finally breaks after a FriendOrIdol decision that ends up in favor of the idol. Now while Serdic does lose a lot of his of warmth and idealism, [[KnightInSourArmor his ethics and morals don't really change]]. At the end of the game he does rediscover love again and has a peaceful, prosperous reign as king.

** There's Otacon as well. His mother wanted him to become the next Boss, his father used him as a ''test-pilot'' for a Metal Gear. Aside from unwittingly designing a nuclear weapon, he ended being seduced by his stepmother and when his father found out, he committed suicide by drowning - nearly taking his step-sister as well. That resulted in a falling out between the two, and when he meets her again, she's dying from blood loss. Aside from that, the only person he really trusts, Solid Snake, is aging rapidly and doesn't have much time left. Not to mention that almost everyone Otacon loves ends up dying in front of him. Sniper wolf gets shot dead by Snake, Emma bleeds to death in his arms, Naomi commits suicide, and by the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', Snake only has a few months left to live. It's a miracle Sunny survived.

* Solid Snake of the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series. Ohhh god. A few of the more memorable events that happen to him -- getting PTSD from the get-go; having to bloodily murder his best friend, twice; having to murder Big Boss, his father figure and commanding officer, twice; finding out that Big Boss was his father; having the worst family in the history of ever; and then the ever-increasing spiral of horrible that starts with him suddenly being a sickly old man and gets progressively worse. And that's skimping out all the layers of detail which really add color to the events of his life. It's dreadful enough that he goes through Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D, depending on [[CreatorBreakdown how optimistic Kojima was feeling about life at the time]] (First C, then B, then A, then an attempted D, and then, finally, A again).

** By the time ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' rolls around, it’s safe to say that [[TheHero Sora]] has gone through one ''hell'' of ride of ''what couldn’t be more than a few days at most,'' which has to be some kind of record. He goes to fight only to watch half his friends get curb-stomped and is nearly swallowed by darkness himself. He decides to use his power to bring his friends hearts back and he goes on to fight the Organization XIII, but halfway through his [[WillTheyOrWontThey kind-of-girlfriend]] gets kidnapped and he has to fight knowing she could be in serious danger. ''Then'' he watches her die. Then he goes to fight the BigBad and manages to defeat him, but it doesn’t bring Kairi back. So he sets out on a quest to use his power and bring her back from the dead essentially, and he has to go through everything mentioned above '''all over again.''' Except this time, he sees everything from the eyes of his friends and feels the pain in their hearts, and can’t do anything different this time. He fights his way through a bunch of enemies, manages to piece Kairi’s heart back together, and at least manages to [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending...]] except [[spoiler:He has to face the consequences of abusing the power of waking and ''fades away from existence.'' And judging by his reaction when he sees that his hand is fading away, he spends a few days with the love of his life ''''knowing that he will die very soon.'''' And if the BadEnding happens to be canon, it also means that he’s been essentially TakenForGranite and turned into a crystal statue.]] That’s not even getting into all the crap he went through during the previous games. It’s a wonder he manages to stay so positive, or even ''sane''.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': Before the game even '''''starts''''', Cloud Strife has already: (1) endured a lonely, alienated childhood; (2) been wrongfully held responsible for putting his childhood crush, the mayor's daughter, in a coma by the mayor and everyone in the town (3) been told he's not good enough to become a SOLDIER and gets stuck as a humble grunt trooper; (4) watched his hero Sephiroth destroy his hometown, kill his mother and nearly murder both his childhood crush Tifa and his good friend Zack; (5) suffered over four years of sadistic experimentation by a MadScientist which reduces him to a catatonic vegetable; and finally (6) helplessly watched Zack die in a gut-wrenching [[BolivianArmyEnding heroic last stand]] to protect him. All this results in Cloud suffering his first HeroicBSOD, a very understandable case of TraumaInducedAmnesia, and identity confusion.

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has this happen to [[spoiler:Oersted, a KnightInShiningArmor who is sent out to SaveThePrincess with his intrepid party. First one of his teammates gets killed by a monster, then his best friend gets flattened by falling rocks, then when he comes home (without the princess), a vision tricks him into committing regicide and gets him labeled the Lord of Dark and thrown into a dungeon, then his last friend sacrifices himself so he can escape, then he drags himself back to the mountain in a last-ditch effort to save the princess (and himself), then he finds out his best friend faked his own death and set the whole thing up to ruin his life because of [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]], then when he kills him, the princess shows up, declares her love for the best friend who just betrayed him, and promptly [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]]. Oersted reacts in the same way any normal guy who just lost everything from sheer human cruelty would - he [[SanitySlippage goes completely batshit crazy]], [[FaceHeelTurn proclaims himself to be the next Lord of Dark]], and [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds declares war on all of humanity]]]].

** Xion in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2''. It turns out Xion [[spoiler:is an [[ArtificialHuman artificial]] [[CloningBlues clone]] of Sora made to eventually [[FightingYourFriend kill Roxas]] and absorb his power, and if she's not up to the task then the Organization plans for Roxas to kill and absorb her instead. Furthermore, because she's a clone constructed out of stray fragments of Sora's memory, her existence is even more tenuous than that of a normal Nobody. As a result, when she dies everyone she ever knew forgets she ever existed]]. There's also the problem you go into the game knowing she's DoomedByCanon. Certainly the pinnacle of this comes [[spoiler:at the end of the game where she battles Roxas, the guy she's heavily implied to be in love with by this point, and dies in his arms while he's struggling to remember her name, his memories of her fading already]].

** Repliku's entire life is one. He's a clone of Riku, who is used as the Organization's tool and lives only about two or three days. In those few days, he is defeated in every single fight he gets into, has his memories erased and rewritten against his will (Larxene beats him up and knocks him out when he tries to resist, taunting him the entire time) so he believes he is the real Riku, has his heart shattered by Namine to stop him from killing Sora, then finds out he is a clone and everything he believed was a lie. [[CloningBlues He does not take it well]], and spends what is left of his life trying to find something that makes him ''not'' just a copy of Riku, and is manipulated by Axel into killing Zexion to do so. In the end, he confronts Riku and tries to kill him ("As long as you're around... I'll never be anything more than a shadow!"), and ends up killed himself, in his last moments fearing what will happen when he -- a fake -- dies.

** To put it simply, almost every named character in the series has gone through some kind of trauma, [[TragicVillain even ones that are outright bastards]], and it would be easier to list the characters that haven't undergone some sort of traumatic event. Justified, considering [[CrapsackWorld the world]] of ''Metal Gear'' involves [[ChildSoldier child soldiers]], CloningBlues, the constant threat of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt nuclear annihilation]], [[ShellShockedVeteran post-war trauma]], [[AncientConspiracy ancient conspiracies]], and many other horrors.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}''
** Happened to Stukov. In his own words: Let's recap—I was betrayed and killed, shot into space, captured by the zerg, resurrected and infested, cured, given to Moebius to research the protoss cure, and was instead experimented on as the cure slowly failed. Everyone up to speed? Good.

* ''VideoGame/Starcraft''

Happened to Stukov. In his own words: Let's recap—I was betrayed and killed, shot into space, captured by the zerg, resurrected and infested, cured, given to Moebius to research the protoss cure, and was instead experimented on as the cure slowly failed. Everyone up to speed? Good.