OOC Is Serious Business / Visual Novels

aka: Visual Novel

O.O.C. Is Serious Business in visual novels.

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• Ace Attorney:
  • Phoenix is always flustered or worried about his cases in some way. But sometimes, he stands perfectly still and and speaks calmly and with absolute confidence. When this happens, not only will he find the killer, but they'll probably be convicted of half a dozen other crimes too. The first time is in game one case four. After Phoenix clears his client of one murder, they admit to another. Naturally, he doesn't believe they did it. In the ensuing recess, Maya freaks out and then asks Phoenix why he's looking at a photograph. Phoenix's response? "I'm preparing our case."
  • At one point in 2-4 he actually manages to intimidate the judge, something usually reserved for the prosecution or certain witnesses.
  • In Case 1-3, Edgeworth starts to morph from being a jerkass to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold when he helps prevent Dee Vasquez from escaping the court by demanding she testify about after finding the body (which Phoenix hadn't thought to ask her). The only reason Phoenix can think of for why he did this was because he agreed that the evidence was compelling enough that Vasquez was the real murderer, but this was the first time that he put finding the true criminal above maintaining his perfect trial record, which had been shattered in the previous case. (Incidentally, Phoenix is wrong. Edgeworth's real reason for this Enemy Mine behavior is he's a very big fan of the Steel Samurai show, and doesn't want to see its star actor convicted unless he's really guilty.)
  • Earlier in the same case (1-3), Wendy Oldbag, an old woman prone to outbursts of rage and rambling at length about all manner of subjects, both relevant and not... she goes silent and very calm the moment you irrevocably prove the victim (who she idolized) drugged the defendant shortly before he was murdered. She then proceeds to tell you VERY important information without ever raising her voice or spilling into a ramble. It is the only time in the entire series she acts this way.
  • Manfred von Karma has two moments in 1-4. It is revealed that after he got his first penalty 15 years ago, he took a vacation, which is unheard of for a borderline workaholic like him... but it turns out that he needed to recoup after being shot in his shoulder. Midway through the first trial day, von Karma barely reacts to Phoenix getting a Not Guilty verdict for Edgeworth in spite of the fact that Manfred is so much of The Perfectionist that he killed Gregory Edgeowrth for getting him a penalty. The reason why von Karma doesn't care about his first Not Guilty verdict is he's planning to frame Edgeworth for his father's murder.
  • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Klavier is typically laid-back in court, even when Apollo pokes holes in his arguments, and enjoys using Gratuitous German. When Vera Misham's testimony indicates that she was responsible for forging the page out of Magnifi's diary, which Klavier uncovered on a tip from his brother and got Phoenix disbarred, Klavier is visibly shocked, and calls her "Ms. Misham" rather than "Fraulein" or other variants thereof.
    
    Later, when Kristoph is on the stand, Klavier becomes much more hardcore in his prosecuting, blocking most of Apollo's arguments. Trucy speculates that he wants to impress his big brother.
  • In general, most of the witnesses will have a breakdown point where, if they're pretending to be sweet, naive, innocent, or any other personality type, they'll drop the act altogether. In the case of characters like April May or Dahlia Hawthorne, it can be pretty scary. In the case of Yanni Yogi, who completely drops the braindead routine he'd been using for the entire case, Maya even comments that he seems to be a different person entirely.
  • In Ace Attorney Investigations, after she and Edgeworth almost get shot by Calisto Yew, Franziska's confident front fades and she is visibly frightened.
  • In case of characters like Edgeworth and Franziska, as well as any other aloof prosecutors, any moment during a trial when they suddenly act flustered or look dumbfounded (promptly changing to their most funny courtroom sprites) can be considered this. Sometimes lampshaded by Phoenix's inner monologue along the lines of "I wonder what happened to that calm composure he had earlier..." or "Edgeworth stuttering...? This is not like him at all" in 2-4, when Edgeworth was to announce that the next witness is a qualified assassin who is willing to testify through a tranceiver.
  • The beginning of case 4 in Dual Destinies has both Apollo and Blackquill acting weird. Apollo is wearing an eyepatch for some reason, but insists that he's fine and demands that the trial get started. The victim in this case is Apollo's close childhood friend, and the defendant is an acquaintance who Apollo trusts wouldn't hurt a fly. On top of that, he has more than a few reasons to believe his own co-worker and assistant in the case may have been the true culprit. Blackquill, who always wears shackles to court, usually breaks them when things start to get serious. In this case, not only he breaks them as soon as the trial begins, but he decides to give the case's opening statement himself, a task he usually leaves to the Judge. He believes the defendant is the phantom, the one who committed the murder he took the fall for. The judge notices that there's something up with both of them.
  • During Case 5 in Spirit of Justice, an astute player will notice Phoenix doesn't seem to be acting quite right. He won't even look at Apollo, the current playable character, once he starts talking about the case, and he's acting unusually serious and evasive. If you didn't figure out by then that something was up, Phoenix's desperation in court should be a clue. While Phoenix isn't a stranger to the Indy Ploy, most of the time he makes sure his arguments have some legal merit; the last time he started using such outright stupid arguments is when Maya was kidnapped and held hostage. And that's just what happened this time, too.
  • Also from Spirit of Justice, in the DLC case, Ellen Wyatt, Sorin Sprocket's bride and the defendant in head servant Dumas Gloomsbury's murder, is a Hysterical Woman who tends to fly off the handle over various things, such as the possibility of her or Sorin going to prison for the murder, resulting in her crying profusely or otherwise overreacting. When Sorin says he thinks Ellen might be the murderer on the second trial day, she merely goes quiet with shock, in stark contrast to her relatively comedic and over-the-top previous outbursts.
  • The Great Ace Attorney: Tobias Gregson is typically a cool-headed Inspector Lestrade with nerves of steel, and is happy to help out the investigations however he can. So in case 5 of Adventures, when he acts evasive about certain pieces of evidence, obstructs the investigation, and even gets into a fight with one of the witnesses over withholding a piece of evidence, Ryunosuke notes how odd this is. Turns out that the evidence is important government secrets, which he wanted to protect at all costs, so he made a deal with the culprit, who was blackmailing him with said secrets, to help cover for him, and the fight was so he could slip one piece of evidence into the pocket of the witness and avoid having it discovered in case a body search was conducted on him.
  • Herlock Sholmes is usually a rather lighthearted Manchild who is prone to fooling around and often doesn't seem to take the investigations or trials seriously. However, in Case 2 of Resolve (which is referenced in Case 5 of Adventures), after he discovers a bloody dog collar with a B engraved on it, he suddenly becomes dead serious and insists that Iris not publish anything about the case they just solved.
    • Sholmes is usually very lax and careless with his words but he treats Olive's attempted suicide very seriously.
    • The final Dance of Deduction has him specifically tell the player "no games" as they were under a considerable time crunch, and this is thus the only deduction sequence where he makes no outlandish theories and simply comes to the correct conclusions the first time around. Of course, since the player is playing as Sholmes' old partner Yujin Mikotoba and not Ryunosuke, this lends some credence to the theory that Sholmes was deliberately acting dumber than he was in order to be a Stealth Mentor to Ryunosuke.
  • Lord van Zieks is noted to be prosecuting cases that are not his usual MO after his brief retirement at the start of the first game, as if he was picking cases based on how likely Ryunosuke would take up as the defense counsel. He later admits to Ryunosuke that he is deliberately doing just that because Ryunosuke reminds him of his much beloved deceased brother ... as well as the man who had killed his brother.
    • In Case 2-3, he is noticeably less caustic and more subdued towards Ryunosuke since the defendant was an old university friend of his who Lord van Zieks secretly believes is innocent all along.
    • While presenting Ryunosuke's attorney badge usually invokes mockery or confusion from other characters, Lord van Zieks is the only one who responds with candid empathy and doesn't attempt to mock Ryunosuke for it. After all, Lord van Zieks' prosecutor badge once belonged to his brother.
• In Collar × Malice, Sasazuka is usually very blunt and always cuts straight to the point when speaking to others. If his words are vague and ambiguous, it's a good sign that that he is strongly upset or frustrated.
• Danganronpa
  • Kyoko Kirigiri is one of the least emotional characters in the series, due to placing a high value on self-control and rational thought. As such, it's rather surprising to see her get visibly angry whenever her father is mentioned in the first game. She admits that she came to Hope's Peak to cut him out of her life, but her subdued yet still emotional reaction to finding his remains near the end of the game implies she still loved him.
  • In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Mahiru Koizumi can be a bit temperamental and standoffish with the boys. However, in Chapter 2, Hajime spots her out at night, and she claims that she was taking pictures of the ocean at night. When Hajime Hinata expresses concern, he's surprised when she replies pleasantly and says goodbye, rather than telling him to mind his own business. It later turns out that Mahiru played Twilight Syndrome, and learned that in the past, she'd destroyed evidence to protect her friend after the girl in question killed Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu's sister for Mahiru's sake, as well as that Fuyuhiko had murdered that friend.
  • Hajime, as protagonist of the second game, is not immune to the stress of the killing game, but he's usually able to stay composed. This is not the case when he is forced to accuse Chiaki Nanami, his Implied Love Interest of being the killer in the fifth trial, during which he makes distressed facial expressions and speaks with a shaking voice.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!:
  • Sayori spends the last club meeting before the festival at her desk acting distant and lost in thought, before eventually leaving early. The player character notices, and visits her at her house to figure out what's up. Sayori has chronic depression that's been slowly getting worse more recently. Her perky behavior is actually a coping mechanism. It's not OOC because she's dejected, but because she's not at all bothering with the mask.
  • Yuri has a preference for large words and Purple Prose in her writing, to the point of getting into an argument with Natsuki on the subject. In Act 2 she has a poem that consists of a paragraph with random, vaguely occultic short and incomplete phrases. She tries to pass it off as her dealing with pent-up energy, but her Sanity Slippage is the focus of that particular act.
• In Fate/stay night, in the Heaven's Feel route, it is the first cue for the player who went through Unlimited Blade Works and witnessed firsthand the insane determination Archer puts into accomplishing his goal, killing his younger unwitting self Shirou, that some VERY SERIOUS shit is about to hit the fan when Archer witnesses the damage done, and at the drop of a hat, postpones his personal vendetta with Shirou, to switch back into full Counter Guardian mode, and deal with the more pressing, in the end literally world-threatening, issue of the Shadow.
• This is used to solve a mystery in Fleuret Blanc. One subplot involves everyone coming down with food poisoning after eating Grams' cooking, including Le Neuvieme... except that he previously did nothing but express ire and disgust at Grams' concoctions, to the point that he goes out to town to buy all his food. If Grams' food was unhealthy, he should be the last person to display any symptoms. Of course, he's faking it, and he poisoned the food himself to make Grams look irresponsible, in the hopes that she would be removed from cooking duty.
• Heart of the Woods
  • Tara is usually extremely energetic, especially when it comes to her Vlog Series Taranormal and the hunt for supernatural phenomena. Near the end of Chapter 1, she and her best friend Madison barely survive a snowstorm by taking shelter in a church, and see a giant forest spirit that's larger than the surrounding trees. When they get back to the cabin where they're staying, Tara is suffering a Heroic BSoD, and goes to bed almost immediately. Madison observes that Tara's not acting like she usually is, but adds that these are unusual circumstances.
  • Tara has a habit of going on one-night stands, as well as acting cheerful when she's not actually happy. Madison notices that Tara is willing to show emotional vulnerability around Morgan, which shows how much Madison's death in the snowstorm affected Tara, as well as the fact that Tara really is in love with Morgan.
• Katawa Shoujo
  • Lilly letting out something that sounds like a swear word? She's PISSED.
  • Similarly, the single time when Kenji calms down enough to speak reasonably and offer Hisao emotional support, you know it's gonna bring up a Tear Jerker.
  • In Emi's route, when Emi and Hisao meet after she throws Hisao out of her house, Rin becomes surprisingly direct and to-the-point.
  Rin: Hisao is kind of worried about you, Emi. I don't think he can decide, or maybe I don't believe him, but I think I'm going to go somewhere less awkward now.
  Hisao Narrates: I'm so surprised by Rin's being so suddenly forward about well, anything at all, that I merely watch her head through the door.
  • Hanako exploding at Hisao in her bad ending. She also tells him to "...Go away" when he tries to check on her in Lilly's route, surprising him.
  • In Lilly's route, Shizune, a typically blunt girl who has a rivalry with Lilly, responds to Hisao telling her that he's going out with Lilly by saying that it's his business who he dates, and she hopes they go well together, which Hisao implies is her not saying what's on her mind. She then is about to say something more, but has Misha not translate her signing, which makes Hisao wonder why Shizune would pull a punch or speak without forethought.
• Kindred Spirits on the Roof
  • Nena's usually sleepy and seemingly apathetic, but whenUmi contemplates ending her relationship with Sasa because she thinks she's neglecting her friendship with Nena, something that Sasa reluctantly goes along with, Nena confronts them directly with a level of anger that neither of them had ever seen from her before.
  • Maki is normally a sweet and friendly girl... which makes that one moment where she practically explodes at a group of third years making fun of Miki all the more shocking.
  • The normally reliable and outwardly cool Yuna starts spacing out and appearing distressed to everyone who knows her after Hina confesses to her, since she's too busy either agonizing over what her response should be or throwing herself into something else in order to avoid thinking about it.
• When Snake from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors opens his eyes, you know not to fuck with him.
  • When Carlos randomly hits on Akane then sexually assaults her, then goads Junpei into a fight despite spending the entire game as a wingman for the both of them you should take clear notice. He's acting for the cameras so that Zero doesn't notice he's telling them how to stop the injections from their bracelets.
• Princess Evangile: Ruriko Kamiyagi is established as a shy, well-meaning, if a bit innocent Nice Girl. However, during Chapter 10, when her friend Masaya and her father are beaten up by her crazy fiancee Eitaro, she decides to stand up for herself by giving "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him in a cold, uncaring voice that Masaya himself notes would never think of coming from a person like her. Needless to say, Eitaro ends up in a Villainous BSoD because of it.
• Starry Flowers: Periwinkle, who is used to casual relationships and sleeping around, comes to realize something is seriously wrong with him when he goes on a date with Pastille and completely neglects to have sex with him in the end, which is something that has never happened before with any of his dates.
• In Steins;Gate, Okabe only drops his Mad Scientist persona when things are at their most serious. When he Mental Time Travels a few days back to prevent Mayuri's death, the other characters pick up on his sudden sincerity and are appropriately worried, even if they don't know what's troubling him.
• SOON: The friendly Fang from the timeline where Atlas and Fang were fellow members of La Résistance seriously gives Atlas the creeps.
• VA-11 HALL-A: Jill Stingray usually giggles uncontrollably whenever someone orders a Bad Touch. The one time she doesn't is the day after she finds out her ex-girlfriend died, showing just how badly it affected her.
• Your Turn to Die: Sou Hiyori's inherent selfishness and desire to survive the Deadly Game means that when the time comes for a majority vote, he'll always gun for somebody else. When the choice boils down to either him or his Morality Chain Kanna Kizuchi though, Sou shows his willingness to sacrifice his own life for her sake by voting for himself.

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