Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ShellShockedVeteran / VideoGames

Go To

1%%%
2%%
3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4%%
5%%%
6
7----
8* Douglas "Doggy Doug" Potapis from ''VideoGame/TwoDark''. It is heavy implied that he fought in Vietnam.
9* It's one of the modifiers which can be acquired in ''VideoGame/BattleBrothers''. If one of your recruits is killed in battle but turns out to survive the encounter, they will receive a permanent injury which results in various permanent debuffs (depending on the injury). One of them, "Traumatized", is basically PTSD, and results in-game as low willpower/morale, worse than average attack dodge, and a late position in the order of turns.
10--> This character has been to the other side. Faced with his own mortality, the experience of dying and coming back has left him a broken man.
11* After [[spoiler:a nuclear explosion kills 30,000 American troops]] in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'', the sequel introduces General Shepherd, who turns out to be [[spoiler:TheChessmaster who essentially started World War III just so he could avenge his fallen troops and exploit the full military might of "the most powerful fighting force in the world" on anyone and everyone he wanted]].
12-->'''Shepherd:''' [[spoiler:Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye, and the world just [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] watched.]]
13* ''VideoGame/CliveBarkersUndying'': Patrick's former profession as a soldier left him with some psychological scars, the Gel'ziabar Stone, and a life debt owed to Jeremiah Covenant.
14* One of the [[BossBattle psychopaths]] in ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' is Cliff Hudson, a Vietnam vet caught in a war flashback. Wielding a machete and using his skills in guerilla warfare, he takes refuge in a hardware store, executing zombies and capturing "prisoners of war" who were actually other survivors of the zombie outbreak. When protagonist Frank West encounters him, Cliff accuses of being a member of the Viet Cong and attacks him. He spends a lot of the fight ambushing Frank from vents and between the store shelves, his ambush strategy implying he was a tunnel rat during the war. Once Frank take him down, he [[DyingAsYourself comes to his senses]], and [[AlasPoorVillain confesses as he dies]] that he went back to the war on [[TragicVillain hearing the dying screams of his granddaughter as she was mauled by zombies.]] He's the only one of the Psychopaths that Frank [[SympathyForTheDevil shows any sympathy towards]], realizing Cliff was a traumatized man trapped in one of his flashbacks.
15** Sgt. Dwight Boykin from [[VideoGame/DeadRising2 the sequel]]. When he and his men arrive in Fortune City, they're raring to kick some zombie ass and rescue any survivors. By the time ''you'' find him, [[SoleSurvivor he's the only one left]], he's barking orders to the mauled corpses of his men like they're still alive, and he thinks you're just another zombie.
16* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
17** Cullen winds up as one after the Circle he guards gets attacked by demons and he's given several straight hours of MindRape. He gets better... slowly. It takes until ''Inquisition'' (10 years later) for him to get back to normal.
18** If Connor doesn't die during his quest, he blames himself for being possessed by a demon and killing several people and has become one of these by the second game.
19** The Iron Bull of ''Inquisition'' was one. The reason why he's out leading a mercenary company (and later assigned to you as a spy and unofficial Qunari liason) is because he's a veteran of the fighting at Seheron (think Vietnam but worse and with magic) and suffers [=PTSD=].
20* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' your dwarfs can attain the personality trait "doesn't really care about anything anymore" if they witness too much violence. Players ''[[CruelPlayerCharacterGod actively try]]'' to make their dwarfs like this, because dwarfs who ''do'' care can be driven AxCrazy if too many of their friends die.
21* Slim of ''Videogame/{{Evolve}}'' is one of these, with good reason. The events of The Third Mutagen War killed all his friends, turned him into a HalfHumanHybrid, placed his homeworld under strict rule, put a massive bounty on his head, and apparently involved 'hurtling naked through deep space'. By the events of the game, he's hiding in the wilderness of [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Shear]] and suffers severe PTSD, repressing all memories before and of the war, including his own name.
22* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'': It's one thing to invade ''Hell.'' It's another to invade Hell and fail. It's yet another to invade Hell, fail, be kept there as a POW, with mind, body and soul intact, and at the tender mercies of the locals, only to come home only to find that your wife no longer loves you, or anything else, because she sold her soul for your release. That's what happened to the Regretful Soldier. It's no wonder he spends most of his time getting drunk and [[SuicideByCop hunting things that should, by rights, kill him.]]
23* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', if you read the medical files on board The Prydwen, you find that Paladin Danse is suspected to have post-traumatic stress disorder by the Brotherhood's doctors; his symptoms (or at least the ones he was willing to talk about) include insomnia and a persistent "dull throbbing" headache. They told him that he should take a break from duty for the sake of his mind and body, but he refuses to give himself any rest.
24* Levi from ''VideoGame/FearAndHungerTermina'' was enlisted as a {{child soldier|s}} when he was just 13, and was eventually sent on a SuicideMission, commanding soldiers even younger than him. By the time the game starts, he's [[AddledAddict dealing with a severe addiction to heroin]]. And this is ''before'' the titular DeadlyGame ropes him up as a participant.
25* ''VideoGame/FearEffect'': Glas, especially since he was a soldier, and has now taken to binge drinking and playing games of Russian Roulette.
26* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
27** Cyan Garamonde in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' is a rare example of having their HeroicBSOD happen in-game.
28*** Shadow from the same game is also implied to be of this trope. Just have him sleep at the inn while playing as him and you'll see dreams relating to his past.
29** Cloud from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is a prime [[TraumaCongaLine candidate]] for post-traumatic stress. He even spends a large portion of the game [[HeroicBSOD in a coma!]]
30*** Although he gets better by the end of the original game, ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'' shows that he's far from fully recovered from his traumatic experiences.
31** Auron in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', he's even [[GoodScarsEvilScars got the scars]] to prove it.
32** Most of the main cast of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', one way or another, though it seems to be played straightest with Basch.
33*** [[GenkiGirl Penelo]] lampshades how the party are a group of this trope, pointing towards the war between Rozarria and Archadia as the cause of it. Rightfully so actually.
34** Spoofed and PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. When asked about what Titan is like, the Warrior of Light can respond with, "The landslides... the landslides...", a nod toward his infamous RingOut mechanic. [[spoiler:Ryne]] then says that the Warrior sounds like they've gone through something traumatic.
35* In ''VideoGame/{{Firewatch}}'', it turns out that Ned was this. He served in the war and was discharged due to personal issues.
36* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'':
37** Marcus Fenix.
38--->'''Carmine:''' Hey, are you ''the'' Marcus Fenix? The one who fought at Aspho Fields?\
39'''Marcus:''' Yeah.\
40'''Carmine:''' Hey, ''cool''!\
41'''Marcus:''' Not really.
42** Dom, too.
43--->''[after encountering some grub holes]''\
44'''Carmine:''' I used to have nightmares about those things when I was a kid.\
45'''Dom:''' Shit, I still do...
46* Kratos from ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' displays traits of a Shell-Shocked Veteran. This may be one of the reasons why he is such a ruthless SociopathicHero.
47* Spoofed in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', where one of the guests on a radio talk show, ''Entertaining America'', is a washed up action movie hero who earnestly believes everything that happened in his movies, including his friend dying in Vietnam, happened for real. And the host gets shot and killed by him when he calls him out on it.
48** Also in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', the player is tasked with sneaking into Colonel Fuhberger's house to steal his stock of Cold War era weapons. Anytime the player makes a noise that slightly stirred the old soldier from his sleep, he can be hear yelling things like "GET OFF MY RIDGE, YOU VIET CONG BASTARDS!" In his dreams, he is back in the war.
49** Then turned around and played ''terrifyingly'' straight in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', with Nico Bellic. You don't need to come up with complex justifications for any crimes he's committed; fighting in Eastern European civil wars, he's seen the very worst a human being can do. It says something about how bad a place is when going to Liberty City ''is an improvement''.
50--->'''Niko Bellic:''' You remember, during the war... we did some bad things, and bad things happened to us. War, is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other. I was very young, and very angry. Maybe that is no excuse.
51* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': It's taken a very long time to surface thanks to both Chief's mental training and his sheer force of will (as well as his helmet disguising his facial expressions), but by the time of ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', some cracks are beginning to break through. The Chief has been pushing himself non-stop instead of taking some time off, and in Blue Team's intro cutscene, he can't stop his hands from shaking as he pilots his Pelican. Both are telling signs of PTSD. Considering that he's experienced the loss of nearly all his fellow Spartan-[=IIs=] and [[spoiler:Cortana]], his going AWOL to [[spoiler:follow a dream of Cortana]] is a relatively mild response. In ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'', Chief meets a Pelican pilot who is suffering from both PTSD and SurvivorGuilt.
52* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' 3 features a Sorceress named Gem, who suffers this quite badly, judging by her dialogue in the Shadow of Death campaign. Through the urgings of one of her friends, she moved to the continent of Antagarich to escape the horrors she had endured during the Succession Wars. In the very first mission we get treated to infrequent prompts between in-game weeks of Gem's nightmares, starring her Rampart forces being butchered by the undead.
53* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'': During one of the scenes in Hawaii, [[spoiler:the Colonel's alcoholism combined with the intense stress being put on his mind by the war causes him to throw a FreakOut, where he slices a panther's face off and begins to wear it like a mask while he goes on an extended rant about how, at this point, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters he (along with the rest of humanity) are no better than animals,]] so he had might as well look the part. Eventually, the Soldier manages to snap him out of it, prompting the Colonel to awkwardly explain that he has had "a bit too much to drink"]].
54** It is also revealed that Jacket (the protagonist of the first game) is one of these as well, which explains his unusual "talent" for violence and brutality.
55* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Leon occupies this role, having changed his name (from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall Leonhart]]) out of guilt over being unable to save his world from TheHeartless.
56* ''VideoGame/LANoire'' features two: Cole Phelps and Ira Hogeboom.
57** The player character and central protagonist of the story, Cole Phelps is one of the most realistic invocations of this trope in all of fiction. Between certain cases, you actually get to see flashbacks from his time fighting in the Battle of Okinawa, many of which are quite disturbing and give insight into the rigid personality that Phelps has developed by the start of the game. He often goes from 0 to 100 in interrogations, dislikes having the war brought up in conversation, and is reticent to a fault with his partners. [[spoiler:Turns out, much of his trauma stems from being directly responsible for getting many of the men under his command killed, and for mistakenly ordering Ira to set fire to a Japanese infirmary, killing innocent civilians]].
58** Ira Hogeboom is even more severely traumatized than Phelps, which is understandable when you consider that [[spoiler:he was the one who set fire to the Japanese infirmary that killed scores of civilians]]. His wartime friend Courtney Shelton got him in with [[PsychoPsychologist Harlan Fontaine]], whose brand of therapy includes getting Hogeboom addicted to morphine and [[spoiler:having him set fire to vacant houses. Unfortunately, at least two of the "empty" houses he had been set to burn down... ''weren't.'' It's no wonder that by the end of the game, Hogeboom has gone almost completely insane]].
59* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' Teemo's "Omega Squad" skin plays this trope straight, as a {{darker and edgier}} version of Teemo after so many fights.
60* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': In the Distant Future chapter, Corporal Darthe has bad memories of a RobotWar where he lost most of his friends. These experiences lead him to treat the newly-activated robot Cube with hostility and suspicion, to the point that he flips out and kicks Cube away when the robot first tries to approach him. [[spoiler:The events of the chapter eventually lead him to look past his prejudices and see that Cube is just trying to help, and he treats the robot much more kindly afterward.]]
61* Non-combat variant: In ''VideoGame/TheLostCrown'', the Station Master's account of the Apple Train derailment suggests his father became this after witnessing that terrible calamity. The fact that his father was the one who'd ''tried'' to shift the stuck tracks and to warn the train off with a lantern, but failed in both attempts, more than justified such a diagnosis.
62* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
63** Depending on dialogue choices, [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] from the series can fit this trope. If the right dialogue is chosen, [[KnightInSourArmor they're cynical and bitter with major emotional scars]] [[IronWoobie from their past experiences]]. And they're '''especially''' this in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' where [[NotSoStoic it becomes pretty clear]] how emotionally burned out they really are. Particularly since ''3'' really highlights the fact that Shepard never really dealt with the trauma of ''dying'' in the previous game and has been simply putting on a [[StepfordSmiler brave face]] for everyone's benefit. Joker once mentions his concern that Shepard's vitals recorded by their armour registered them as being presently under more stress than they were at [[MultipleChoicePast Elysium/Torfan/Akuze]], just in their normal ''[[HeroicWillpower resting]]'' state. They have a recurring nightmare of being in a forest full of shadowy figures/ghosts, and the whispers of all the teammates and crew members who have died over the course of the trilogy. Depending on your choices, that can be ''a lot'' of voices. Fortunately, though, after two games of playing WarriorTherapist to their party members, Shepard's friends return the favor this round. The next line after the page quote is:
64--->'''Garrus:''' ... Before your friend picks you up, dusts you off, and tells you you're the best soldier he's ever known.
65** Also a few of the background characters, most particularly Corporal Toombs, the only survivor of [[BugWar the Akuze incident]] (except possibly Sole Survivor Shepard). His appearance in the game consists of holding the man who engineered Akuze at gunpoint, and if you don't talk him down, he can't even find peace in death.
66** There's a volus in Noveria who exhibits a particularly bad case after [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Doing What He Had To Do]]: sealing an asari colleague in the hot labs with the rachni so they wouldn't escape and kill him and the others. Two years later in the sequel, you receive an email from him saying that he hopes this is his purgatory and that he "really" died trying to save her (but if not, thank you).
67** There are several side-quests and NPC's dealing directly with post-traumatic stress, with one NPC's name literally being "PTSD Soldier", an Asari commando who was forced to kill a young girl ([[spoiler:heavily implied to be Joker's sister]]), after her crying from a broken leg threatened to alert Reaper forces. If Shepard uses their Spectre authorisation to grant her request to carry a gun "for defense", upon returning to the Citadel she's revealed to have [[DrivenToSuicide turned the gun on herself]].
68** A few [=NPCs=] in ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' are vets of the Skyllian Blitz, who evidently signed up to go to another galaxy to get away from flashbacks and night terrors. Unfortunately for them, they wind up on the doorstep of another war, and it's mentioned in one e-mail that the bad guys in this fight use tactics that mash right on one veteran's TraumaButton.
69* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
70** If Mega Man X and Zero AREN'T Shell-Shocked War Veterans, they '''definitely''' qualify for this trope. For example, Zero literally [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 had his girlfriend die in his arms AFTER beating her ass, which was a result of her going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs due to him beating her brother's ass--who, by the way, was his good friend.]] After that, [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 Zero literally has his personal data used in an attempt to destroy the world.]] Also, Mega Man X himself at the end of [[VideoGame/MegaManZero1 Zero's first solo adventure]] states that due to a whole century's worth of fighting Mavericks, he reached the point where he [[Main/OOCIsSeriousBusiness stopped caring about the enemies he terminated.]]
71** ''VideoGame/MegaManZXAdvent'' has Atlas, one of the enemy Mega Men who grew up in a country that was annihilated by Mavericks. Her rationale for participating in The Game of Destiny is because she believes that through [[Main/ForeverWar perpetual war and strife]], humanity can evolve and thrive. She intends to perpetuate this conflict as the Mega Man King (Queen?).
72* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is made up of these characters. Solid Snake, in particular, was nearly completely emotionally crippled by war by the age of thirty and had to work his way out of it again. Big Boss's StartOfDarkness showed the beginning of his slide, but he didn't recover. [[spoiler:Even the young Raiden gets in on it, having been one of Africa's ChildSoldiers.]]
73-->'''Snake:''' (''laying a cloth over the face of a woman[[note]]Sniper Wolf[[/note]] he just killed''): I don't need a handkerchief.\
74'''Otacon:''' Why?\
75'''Snake:''' I don't have any more tears to shed.
76* It was hinted at in ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'''s manga although how much was actually Samus's PTSD is never elaborated, especially when the ending has her defeating and mocking Ridley. Another hint at it was in the ending of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3: Corruption'', where she sits in thought reflecting of the allies she was forced to kill.
77** This was supposed to be the source of Samus's [[DullSurprise uncomfortably emotionless behavior]] in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''.
78* The player characters of ''VideoGame/NAM1975'', as shown in the intro and the back cover.
79* When your Roman party ambushes a few goblins resting by a campfire in ''VideoGame/{{Nethergate}}'', they are surprised that the greenskins act like war-weary veterans instead of behaving like savage beasts they are supposed to be.
80* Bastion from ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' is a robot, and the LastOfHisKind from the Omnic War many years ago. His origin story, "The Last Bastion", reveals that he reverts to his original KillerRobot programming after hearing or seeing anything that reminds him of the Omnic Crisis. He reverts to his sentry mode and starts shooting everything in sight after mistaking a woodpecker for machine-gun fire, and downloading the memory of one of his fallen Bastion units shows him a vision of the war, with a Crusader clearing away many of his kind. After the vision, he reverts back to his programming, intent on hunting down humans, but his new bird friend Ganymede snaps him out of it.
81* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': All of the Psychic 6 have some form of PTSD that drove them to do certain things after Helmut Fullbear's death and the battle with [[spoiler:their EvilFormerFriend]] Maligula.
82** After the battle with Maligula, Sasha and Milla state that Ford's mind never recovered from it. And that is true... [[spoiler:because after their fight, Ford shattered his own mind so he wouldn't have to live with the guilt of {{brainwashing|ForTheGreaterGood}} Lucrecia Mux so that she would forget she was Maligula.]] This resulted in him becoming a crazy old man with multiple personas.
83** Compton Boole's anxieties and insecurities started to grow stronger after the battle, and it only got worse after his best friend Cassie O'Pia left the Motherlobe. After that, he began to believe his own friends were judging him for his failures, and he locked himself in Psychoisolation to get away from it all.
84** Cassie O'Pia couldn't adapt to the life of the Psychonauts, so she left to be on her own. However, a controlling part of her own mind took it over and tried to prevent her from leaving to see her friends so she could NeverBeHurtAgain.
85** Bob Zanotto had it probably the worst after Helmut (who was his husband) died in the battle of Grulovia, leading him to drown his sorrows in alcohol. This addiction got so severe that his own nephew Truman had to fire him as he was a danger to others. Bob then proceeded to sequester himself in Green Needle Gulch, drinking constantly to numb the pain over losing his job and his husband.
86** [[spoiler:After Raz finds Helmut's brain, it had been non-functioning for over 20 years. When Helmut fully regains his memories, the trauma of fighting Maligula shows up as well, still fresh.]]
87** Otto is the only one to avert this, as he doesn't seem to have any long-lasting trauma from the Maligula fight beyond some regrets of what he could have done with his inventions. If he has any PTSD, he doesn't let it show to Raz or anyone else.
88* In ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'' this trope applies to many of the characters from previous Id games, especially from the Slipgate and Stroggos wars. Wrack, Grunt and Major are [[AllThereInTheManual said to be this]].
89* By the end of the game in ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'' in the human path, [[spoiler:Jack leaves Radiata, too shell-shocked with what he's done after being reinstated as a Radiata Knight by killing a lot of nonhuman characters, Ganz leaving him after finding out that he killed his father while being semi aware that Gawain may not have killed his father, and finally Ridley dying on him]].
90* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' delves into this, particularly in the later games.
91** Chris Redfield is portrayed as such in the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' viral campaign, which focuses on him trying to put the traumatic events of the game behind him. The next entry, ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' doubles down on this, with Chris's campaign heavily focusing on the heavy toll his work has taken on his psyche. After losing his squad during a mission, he spends several months as an amnesic drunk until his NumberTwo, Piers, drags him back into action.
92** Jack Krauser is strongly implied to be this in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles''. To put it simply, he held a long, extensive, and distinguished service in the military as a SOCOM operative, and also underwent mercenary business whenever he had any days off from SOCOM, he has spent enough time on the battlefield to sense something is terribly wrong in an area due to it "smelling like a battlefield," and lastly is unable to function in regular society and thus needs the battlefield to function. This last part is ultimately what drives his FaceHeelTurn by the time of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', as [[spoiler:a serious injury to his arm that he received during his fight against Hilda Hidalgo essentially resulted in SOCOM firing him due to it never recovering]].
93** Even Leon S. Kennedy is not immune to this trope, particularly in the [=CGI=] film ''Vendetta''. Similar to Chris's situation in ''6'', Leon is traumatized by a botched mission that killed his entire team and forced him to put down their reanimated corpses. Chris and Rebecca find him making friends with an empty bottle of liquor and not in the mood to help. It takes Rebecca being kidnapped to bring him back to his senses.
94* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheThirdPower'': Gio, a member of the Great and Honorable Esteemed Veterans of the Great War club, stopped attending because he was traumatized by the horrors of the war and losing his comrades, and worries that he can't open up to the others about his trauma when they're all talking about their achievements in the war. At the end of the club's quest, the other members reveal that they were also hurt by the war and are willing to talk about it.
95* Implied to be the fate of [[spoiler:everyone]] in ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'', if they survive.
96* [[Characters/SonicTheHedgehogShadowTheHedgehog Shadow the Hedgehog]], especially as depicted in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', is heavily implied to be suffering from untreated PTSD after the [[DoomedHometown massacre of most of the ARK's civilian population]], including his friends and de facto family. Police and alarm sirens cause him to have flashbacks of [[spoiler:helplessly watching his childhood friend killed in front of him as she tried to eject him to safety in an escape pod]].
97* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' has John Konrad and quite a lot of his 33rd infantry battalion suffering from various stages of PTSD. [[spoiler:Your squad quickly picks it up as well -- Martin Walker is already implied to have initial stages of PTSD from his past in Afghanistan, which blossoms during the game into full-blown mental degradation. By the end, Walker is either dead by suicide or essentially catatonic.]]
98* The titular character of ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpScareMansion'' once tried really hard to scare a man who turned out to be a World War II veteran suffering from [=PTSD=]. [[spoiler:Not only did this man end up killing her in response, but as it turns out, this man was her ''father!'']]
99* Kent from ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' is a soldier, and comes home during year 2 with trauma from his service in the military. He has a hard time bonding with his sons, wanders around Pelican Town feeling lost and purposeless, and when you give him food he really hates it reminds him of his time stuck in a POW camp. He can't even tolerate hearing his wife make popcorn, his former favorite snack, because the sound of the corn popping triggers his PTSD. While you can intervene on his wife's behalf and befriend him, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome there's no way to completely help him overcome his trauma.]]
100* About a third of your party is this in ''VideoGame/StarWarsKnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', with the PlayerCharacter being a WarriorTherapist helping them through their traumas [[TheCorrupter (or making them worse)]] and subsequently themself.
101** TheExile was a general under [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels Darth Revan]] in the Mandalorian Wars, and was manipulated by him into using a DoomsdayDevice to end the war. The resulting trauma from the GenocideDilemma as well as having killed many of their own comrades and close friends in the process was so bad that they were cut off from the Force and BroughtDownToNormal. The game doesn't even allow them to recount any of their experiences in the war outside of a VisionQuest, or any other part of their life as every time it's brought up they reply with some variation of "I don't want to talk about it." If a male Exile tries to flirt with BountyHunter companion Mira, she gently shoots him down saying that he [[ThousandYardStare "looks like he's a hundred inside"]].
102** [[GeniusBruiser Bao-Dur]] was a member of Revan's engineering corps who [[GadgeteerGenius invented said doomsday device]] and was so horrified by what he had done he became TheAtoner, using his skills to assist with the Telos Restoration Project and isolating himself on the destroyed planet's surface. Despite the regret over his actions, he also had anger issues and maintained that the ProudWarriorRaceGuy Mandalorians deserved it after they slaughtered his people.
103** CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass [[TheLancer Atton Rand]] also served in the Mandalorian Wars, but unlike the others he stuck around after Revan's forces became [[TheEmpire the fourth Sith Empire]], becoming a Sith assassin who [[HeroKiller specialized in killing Jedi]]. After a female Jedi Knight showed him he was Force-sensitive, he panicked and killed her before deserting, living as a smuggler while [[BeingEvilSucks being haunted by his past]].
104* Kratos from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' exhibits tendencies of this trope from the very beginning. As you get further out in the game, the party learns that he has a very, ''very'' long and rocky history to explain it.
105* [[BrokenBird Lara]] is this at the end of ''VideoGame/{{Tomb Raider|2013}}''. A crewman of the fishing boat that picks up the ''Endurance'' survivors specifically mentions Lara's ThousandYardStare, and WordOfGod is that one reason for her drive to continue her adventures is to "keep running" and avoid having to come to terms with [[BreakTheCutie the things that happened to her]] and [[IDidWhatIHadToDo what she had to do]] to survive on the island.
106* The Veteran from ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' is described as "A paranoid war hero who will shoot anyone who visits him." by the game. His ability is to go on alert at night and to kill anyone visiting him, FriendOrFoe.
107* At the very end of the classic ''VideoGame/TrafficDepartment2192'', player character Velasques has become one of these. Particularly stands out since she starts the game as a full-on HotBlooded CowboyCop on a non-stop RoaringRampageOfRevenge -- seemingly determined to singlehandedly wipe out every last soldier of the Vulture Cult Army for killing her father in front of her when she was 11. But after several campaigns, seeing countless fellow officers and friends die during the course of her crusade, narrowly avoiding death numerous times (including being [[StuffBlowingUp blown up]] and [[WeCanRebuildHim patched back together again as a cyborg]] at one point) and more or less directly causing the [[ApocalypseHow destruction of her homeworld]] -- all for her vengeance... she's just so, so tired.
108* Quite a few characters in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' end up becoming this thanks to the events of the series that have ravaged the land.
109** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' has Loewe and Joshua, being the survivors of a DoomedHometown which started the Hundred Day War, ends up being shell shocked at the horrifying experience that Joshua, who was still a child at this point, was mentally catatonic and Loewe had nowhere else to go but to join with Ouroboros to judge humanity.
110** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' has [[TheHero Rean Schwarzer]] whose had to experience at least three wars (the CivilWar in ''II'', the war for Crossbell in ''Divertissment'' against Calvard, and the off-screen North Ambria campaign before ''III'') that by the third game, he'd rather prefer to stay as a military instructor. Unfortunately for him, the government still has his number and orders him to do their bidding with him just plain giving up and accepting his assignments because of his status as a [[FakeUltimateHero national hero]].
111* Ciel in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' claims to be one of these, but we only see her through the eyes of Shiki. From the reactions of others to her and some of what she does even to him, it's likely true. After all, she goes [[EvilLaugh fufufufu...]]. Oh, and she's actually in her mid twenties despite looking the same age as Shiki or younger, and unlike Arcueid has actually lived for most of that time.
112* in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', one of your [[TheGoodKingdom Gallian]] militia snipers, Catherine O'Hara, was also a sniper during the first Europan war. Despite her friendly demeanor, [[TheWoobie she clearly has a number of mental scars from her experiences]]. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that she once ran out of ammunition and was helpless to watch a friend of hers get killed; [[CrazyPrepared She always has more ammo than the other snipers]], but [[HeroicBSOD she panics if she ever runs out]]]].
113* The ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe has several. [[MemeticBadass Varok Saurfang]] and [[IronWoobie Farseer Nobundo]] come to mind. (Those two even qualified by being on opposite sides of the same conflict.)
114** Drek'Thar feels remorse for the atrocities he committed as part of the Old Horde, and because the Forsaken commit similar deeds without feeling anything, he refuses to help them.
115* [[RedBaron The Bloody Baron]] from ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' is one of the most WartsAndAll portrayals of this trope in gaming, as the horrors of what he'd seen on the battlefield [[DrowningMySorrows drove him to]] become TheAlcoholic. This, [[DisasterDominoes in turn]], [[spoiler:causes him to become distant from his wife, which causes her to cheat on him, causing ''him'' to kill her lover in a jealous rage before hitting her (as she was trying to kill him for this)]], and thus starts roughly 20 years of an absolutely ''wretched'' relationship for everyone involved.
116* In ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', your soldiers can become "shaken" after suffering severe injuries during a mission. This bottoms out their Will score to 0, making them more likely to panic in the field and also more susceptible to psi attacks. [[DownplayedTrope However]], performing well in a subsequent mission will remove this status and make their Will [[NervesOfSteel stronger than before]].
117* ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'': One of the victims to be saved as a soldier whose eyes will bug out should an enemy come near.
118

Top