Psychological Projection in Video Games.
- Asura's Wrath: Augus projects his own Blood Knight nature on Asura. Asura, who is fighting to save his daughter and not for fun, is not amused and keeps telling Augus to shut up whenever he tries to claim they aren't so different during their boss battle. In the end, Asura's desire to protect his daughter gives him the strength to defeat Augus. As Augus lays dying, he finally acknowledges that he was wrong about Asura and encourages him to walk his own path.
- Baldur's Gate II: Anomen (who is a Holier Than Thou character) will state that Keldorn (really a Cool Old Guy and Humble Hero) is a "fine warrior... if somewhat arrogant and over-pious."
- Deltarune: When you meet Spamton in Chapter 2, he seems to be under the impression that Kris is in the same situation he is, a down-on-their luck salesman abandoned by their friends.LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE [[All Alone On A Late Night?]]
ALL YOUR FRIENDS, [[Abandoned you for the slime]] YOU ARE?
SALES, GONE DOWN THE [[Drain]] [[Drain]]??
LIVING IN A GODDAMN GARBAGE CAN???- If you go for the Weird Route, Spamton will fight you as the Final Boss. When you try to call your friends for help, Spamton starts mocking you, but just ends up projecting himself onto Kris yet again, giving away his downfall through his increasingly furious rant.WHAT!? YOU'RE CALLING FRIENDS!? YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME WITH YOUR FRIENDS' [Magic]!? GO AHEAD, [Kid]... CALL ALL YOU WANT! NO ONE WILL EVER PICK UP
GO AHEAD AND [Scream] INTO THE [Receiver]. THE [Voice] RUNS OUT EVENTUALLY. YOUR [Voice] THEIR [Voice]. UNTIL YOU REALIZE YOU ARE ALL ALONE
THERE WILL BE NO MORE [Miracles] NO MORE [Magic]. YOU LOST IT WHEN YOU TRIED TO SEE TOO FAR.... ... YOU LOST IT...
YOU MAKE ME [Sick]! MUTTERING YOUR [Lost Friends] NAMES AT THE BOTTOM OF A [Dumpster]! NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR [Beautiful Head], YOU LITTLE [Worm]!
- If you go for the Weird Route, Spamton will fight you as the Final Boss. When you try to call your friends for help, Spamton starts mocking you, but just ends up projecting himself onto Kris yet again, giving away his downfall through his increasingly furious rant.
- Destiny: Uldren Sov reacts to his sister Mara's continued enabling of the Guardian's quest to find the Black Garden with annoyance, eventually saying that if she wants the Guardian dead, he can just kill them now and be done with it. She answers that "Often when we guess at another's motives, we reveal only our own."
- Dragon Age: Origins: Marjolaine has this bad about her former pupil Leilana. Basically everything she does is because she assumes that 1) Leilana is just like her, and 2) she's the center of the universe.
- Betraying Leilana? Well, if Marjolaine was thinking of betrayal then clearly Leilana would've also been thinking the same way, so it's totally justified for Marjolaine to go through betraying Leilana before Leilana could betray Marjolaine for thinking of betraying Leilana. Marjolaine also never gets it through her head that Leilana was genuinely devout and loved her, because Marjolaine herself wouldn't enter any sort of relationship without selfish motives.
- She simply cannot comprehend that Leilana is prioritizing ending the blight over revenge on her because if somebody screwed her over, she'd gladly let Thedas burn to make sure whoever it was got theirs, so she obsesses over the possibility- which in turn convinces her even more deeply that Leilana is out to get her, because if Marjolaine would spend years obsessed with what Leilana was doing, then clearly Leilana would be obsessed with what Marjolaine was doing.
- In a more petty but also more squicky version, it's made clear that Leilana and Marjolaine's "relationship" on Marjolaine's end was Marjolaine projecting so hard on Leilana that she was basically banging herself the whole time. Any time Leilana demonstrated her own identity was either ignored or shut down hard, because Marjolaine was such a Narcissist that she was only ever attracted to herself.
- Fate/Grand Order: Boudica really hates the Romans because in life they invaded Britain, had her whipped, and her daughters raped. Her problem is that she tends to assume the other British Servants hate the Romans just as much as she does. In the "Dead Heat Summer Race", Altria Alter defends Nero from her. Boudica asks why; since Altria fought the Romans in life, she must hate them too. She is thrown for a loop when Altria says she doesn't hate the Romans.
- God of War: Kratos has a tendency to blame pretty much all of his problems on the gods or on others, when it's perfectly clear to everyone and especially himself that his own actions are largely to blame for why his life has been as awful as it is. Naturally, he can't forgive himself for the things he's done, because that would actually mean facing his failures head-on, so he ends up causing way more trouble to others than he's worth. Notably, some of his problems really are the fault of Jerkass Gods and not himself (he didn't turn his own mother into a monster, nor unjustly imprison his brother)... but Kratos uses those real grievances as an excuse to legitimize blaming the gods for things that were absolutely his fault and taking vengeance for the whole lot, and then blaming the gods again for the consequences of his latest rampage.
- inFAMOUS 2: Joseph Bertrand III views all Conduits as monsters and demons, deeming them not part of the "divine plan." In reality, he's a Conduit himself, and was more than happy to be one until he discovered his powers were Lovecraftian Superpowers in the form of transforming into an Eldritch Abomination and converting other people into the Corrupted. In Bertrand's mindset, since he became a monster by activating his powers, then that means all Conduits, active or otherwise, are monsters.
- In The Magic Circle, this is perhaps the crux of a character's "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed at the player. Ishmael angrily declares that gamers are obsessed with control because they feel they have none in their real lives. He himself is an unquenchable Control Freak driven by inadequacy and overwhelming fear of failure provoked by his personal issues.
- Mugen Souls Z:
- The tired and relaxed Syrma assumes everyone will take the relocation of their planet calmly and Nao lampshades her projection: "You seriously think everyone is as dopey as you? You are in for a big surprise!".
- Ryuto assumes everyone loves lady Chou Chou, but the others are quick to point out that is only him.
- Outer Wilds: In Echoes of the Eye this is a Central Theme and the Fatal Flaw of the inhabitants of The Stranger. They seem to believe the Eye of the Universe is destructive, blame it for leading them to a terrible fate, and decide to block its signal to protect other people from its evil influence. However, the Awful Truth is that they are the ones who are destructive: they pillaged and killed their world. They are responsible for their own fate. Their influence is evil. And they seem to overlook the possibility that others would not go to the same awful extremes. This becomes a Visual Pun as you discover their favorite medium for art and communication: slide reels viewed through projectors. They also have "vision torches" that can project directly from one psyche to another. Sometimes, you must darken or turn off a projection to reveal the truth it was concealing, something they seem unwilling to do themselves.
- Persona 4: The Investigation Team project all of their feelings of grief and guilt over Nanako's death onto to Namatame, who they assume to be the killer throwing victims into the TV World at that point. Depending on the player's choices, they could either kill him by throwing him back into the TV World, or they can calm down and realize their mistake, which leads to Nanako miraculously coming back to life, and leading them on the right track to finding the true killer.
- Persona 5: When she finds out that Makoto had suspected Kamoshida's abuse of his female students for some time, but never said or did anything about it, Ann furiously lashes out at her and chews her out for it. When Makoto later apologizes and acknowledges it was most likely her fault that Kamoshida got away with his actions for as long as he did, Ann acknowledges that the same could be said of herself and confesses she'd been projecting her own feelings of guilt onto Makoto.
- Pokémon Black and White: Ghetsis Harmonia seems to believe that Humans Are Bastards and that everybody in the world must secretly be just as bad as he is. He honestly can't wrap his brain around the fact that most people treat their Pokémon and each other pretty well, and very few people are anything like him. The fact that he's wrong is a big reason why his Evil Plan fails, as he honestly never expected N to start questioning the beliefs he was raised with.
- Project Wingman: Crimson 1. Holy Hannah on a pogostick, Crimson 1. After bathing Cascadia in cordium fire, he turn around and blames Monarch for the event because they fight against The Federation, "the only order that can guarantee the safety of [Cascadia's] people", in spite of the fact that he was acting in direct defiance of orders. He then tries to shame Monarch for fighting a pointless battle he initiated, and accusing Monarch of being a warmonger when it's abundantly clear Crimson 1 is the only one with any interest in still fighting. He also tries to guilt trip Monarch over the deaths of Crimson squadron when he was the one who pushed them into fighting, and they were actively trying to kill Monarch. Let's just say that by this stage, Crimson 1's guilt and obsession with Monarch have driven him well and truly insane.
- In Red Dead Redemption II:
- Dutch calls the gang members who left traitors, ignoring that he himself willingly abandoned John and Arthur multiple times in their time of need.
- In the finale, he accuses John of shooting at him, betraying him and only looking after himself. John did none of those things and was looking after his family while Dutch did everything he was accusing John of doing.
- Shadowrun Returns: The Dragon of the main campaign projected her Sanity Slippage onto her step-brother, who cut up his mother to sell her organs for booze money (and a new liver), by claiming he was a ruthless junkie who infested everything he touched, and that the organ donors he helped were diseased and had to be erased. When she starts ranting about her newfound addiction to the all-consuming hive, you can call her out for having the same self-destructive tendencies as her brother but to an extreme, claiming that she used her brother and the organ donors as scapegoats to blame for her own repulsive behavior, and then ordered their assassinations to vindicate herself. This gives her a single moment of clarity to realize what a monster she has become, but she shrugs it off.
- Undertale: When you fight Papyrus on a route that you've tried to befriend him, he'll open up to you in his pre-battle speech, talking about the complex feelings you must be having — the joy of finding another pasta-lover, admiration for a Worthy Opponent in solving puzzles, the desire to have a cool, smart person think you're cool... He then quickly says how much he pities you for that sort of loneliness."I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT. I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE."
- Illidan Stormrage and Maiev Shadowsong in Warcraft III and World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade. They hate each other precisely because they are so similar: they are both self-centered, self-aggrandizing, obsessive Knight Templars. Although they spent 10,000 years literally locked up together, neither seems to realize how hypocritical they are. Their relationship is quite mutually destructive, as both of them end up hurting people they care about and absolutely bring out the worst in each other. Illidan manages to estrange his twin brother AND his crush, while Maiev almost kills her younger brother Jared when he had the temerity to point out that The Extremist Was Right. Only because Jared refuses to fight her does she realize that she almost crossed the line. Maiev does become less hypocritical, to the point where she grudgingly releases Illidan from prison during Legion. She still despises him, but realizes that he is in fact well-intentioned. Illidan though, is just as hypocritical as ever when he's released: killing the Prime Naaru X'era for basically the same reasons he always hated Maiev.
