Times where somebody shares a disguised anecdote about themselves in Video Games.
- The Barbarossa campaign in Age of Empires II the story is narrated by an old man in a pub. At the campaign's conclusion he reveals himself to be one of the important figures of the events portrayed: Henry the Lion.
- In Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, as part of your job training, Lottie takes you to a client's house as a practice room, which is completely bare except for an unopened package. Lottie tells you, "The client who lives here is a girl who is a fan of all things cute. She's requested a room with a lovely atmosphere." After teaching you the core mechanics of the gameplay, Lottie leaves you to design the room however you like, claiming she'll play the part of the client. After you finish up and receive her impression of the room, Lottie admits that she really is the client, and she hadn't had time to decorate due to work, having to use a sleeping bag during the night.
- At one point in Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, the Player Character must to visit a penal colony. One of the inmates offers to tell them a story about the nation of Cumbria, which has fallen on hard times in recent years. He ends the story with the revelation that the rightful heir to Cumbria's throne was shipped off to a penal colony, never to be heard from again, at which point they realise they've spent the past few minutes chatting with a member of the Cumbrian royal family.
- As the final part of the True Ending reveals. Mithra from Asura's Wrath was telling the story of his and Yasha's adventures the whole time while she was younger to a bunch of children gathered around her (which is hinted in the episode previews at the end of each one with a small narration of her English and Japanese voice actors).
- Comes as a Tomato Surprise in Broken Age when Shay's mother tells him a story about a young girl that resembles Vella's story and ends it by revealing it was her, which Shay already knew. The player, however, did not.
- Jeremy tells a story about his childhood like this in Double Down.
- In Final Fantasy IX, during their stay at the Black Mage Village, Zidane tells Garnet a story about a young adopted boy who went in search of his real parents, thus revealing some of Zidane's Back Story.
- In Grand Theft Auto V, Trevor tells Wade his life story during the drive to Los Santos. The characters are obviously him and Michael, to the point that Trevor almost uses their real names before stopping himself midway (he uses "Trisha" for himself and "Michele" for Michael). Fortunately for him, Wade isn't smart enough to catch on, even when he loses his temper and starts using their real names.Trevor: This story's about a boy called Tr... Tre... Trisha.
Wade: Is Trisha a boy's name?
Trevor: It doesn't matter. - Subverted in Jade Empire. When Sagacious Zu mentions that he saved Master Li's infant daughter, who was born around the time Dirge was attacked, a female spirit monk can ask whether Zu is talking about her, and Zu will tell her not to assume that everything is about her.
- It is, however, actually Dawn Star.
- A similar approach was taken in this
Wind Waker commercial. - In Might and Magic X, the narrator is really the grown daughter of the governor, Ann Morgan, who is haunted by the events she lived through and telling the story as a way of dealing with it.
- In Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse, the traveling storyteller Renate tells Nancy how a girl she knew had been told never to enter the forest near the castle. One day the wind blew her beautiful scarf into the woods, and when she went to retrieve it, her older sister ran after her. "Two girls went out into the woods. One came back. There were monsters in the woods that night." Later, Nancy finds the scarf and returns it to Renate.Nancy: "That story you told me, about the girls. That was you, wasn't it? You chased your sister into the woods—but couldn't save her."
Renate: "You're half right."
Nancy: "How so?"
Renate: "I was the little girl. It was my older sister who chased me into the woods. My sister died trying to protect me." - In one of the promotional comics for Nier, Kaine tells a story about a warrior who protected a young boy from Shades. Weiss doesn't buy it. Kaine refers to the warrior (herself) as a man, adding some foreshadowing to her own dilemma.
- The Nintendo 3DS advice bird uses this in a way in one of its pieces of advice on the system's use of 2D and 3D photo formats. "The other day, a friend of mine accidentally deleted an MPO file. The 3D data was lost, so the photo could be viewed only in 2D. He was pretty upset about it. Learn from my...I mean, my friend's...mistake!"
- Subverted with Shu, the Tower Social Link from Persona 4, will occasionally talk to the protagonist about a transfer student at his school. As the link progresses it seems increasingly obvious that Shu is talking about himself. Finishing that Social Link though, would reveal that it's a real different person and Shu eventually befriended him.
- Played straight with Teddie who reveals He’s a shadow this way.
- In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, this happens in one of Hassel's side stories. After the player walks in on one of his relatives trying to pressure him into coming home and taking up the family mantel, he tells them about a young man who ran away from home to become a musician, and then an artist and teacher. He then explains that he was that young man.
- In their second encounter in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the Second Sister tells Cal Kestis that his new Jedi Master, Cere Junda was captured during Order 66 and tortured until she gave up the location of her Padawan and several Jedi younglings they'd been protecting. When Cal dismisses the story as a lie, the Second Sister removes her helmet, revealing herself to be Trilla Suduri, Cere's former Padawan, who was tortured, mutilated and ultimately corrupted into becoming one of the Empire's Jedi-hunting Inquisitor's because of her master's actions.
- Rosalina in the storybook from Super Mario Galaxy.
- Tales of Berseria: Upon returning to Titania Island and finding the old dungeon, Velvet tells the group about a daemon that was locked down there, feeding upon other daemons that exorcists from the Abbey would toss down there, which led to her revealing that she was that very daemon.
- Team Fortress 2 short Meet the Medic combines this with Orphaned Punchline and Noodle Incident:Medic: Vait! It gets better! Vhen ze patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and ze doctor was never heard from again! [laughs before the Heavy starts to laugh] Anyway, zat's how I lost my medical license. Heh.
- Later on in Wolfenstein: The New Order, Anya sends B.J. recordings of her reading through her cousin Ramona's journal, which chronicles Ramona's methodical Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Nazis. As the story goes on, the story clearly references moments such as a stint in University and how a heavily-scarred man suffering horrible head trauma was brought into her family's hospital and how she finds a kindred spirit within him. The final entry has her admitting that some of these things might have happened to her.
