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Trauma Conga Line / Visual Novels
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  • Ace Attorney:
    • Maya Fey certainly counts throughout the first three games. When she is first introduced, she has just discovered her sister's dead body and is being framed for her murder. Cue the next three years, during which time, between being Phoenix's sidekick/legal aide, she is framed for murder (again), is kidnapped and starved, goes missing, is almost killed, and witnesses her mother's murder. She's a type F in that she acts essentially the same throughout all this, although that's explained in-game as her putting on a brave face for either Phoenix or her little cousin Pearl.
    • The events of the first game are one for Miles Edgeworth. The first case you meet him, he loses the perfect win record he's been taught to believe is the most important thing for a prosecutor — which has the side effect of throwing his 'all defendants are guilty, so it's okay to use dirty tactics to convict everyone' ideals into question. Second case, he has to prosecute the star of his favorite TV show for murder. Third case, he gets framed for murder, prosecuted by his mentor Manfred von Karma, and then has his childhood trauma dragged to court as he's prosecuted for killing his own father as a child — and Phoenix only disproves this by proving that von Karma was the real killer and had manipulated Edgeworth into becoming a 'Demon Prosecutor' to get Revenge Through Corruption against Miles' father Gregory. Final case, he learns that his most famous win was illegitimate and the defendant had been framed by the police when they were unable to find enough real evidence to convict him as a spree killer. After this, he has to take a year's vacation to figure himself out, emerging as a Type A despite convincing everyone else that he'd committed suicide.
    • Phoenix is a type E in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. After being tricked into using fake evidence and framed for it, thus losing his badge and his reputation, also getting his disappeared client's little girl dumped in his arms but having no idea how to take care of her and not having a source of income any more, plus, of course, all the stuff that happened in the previous games, like losing his mentor... he just Took a Level in Badass and became a bit bitter and cynical, but he never seems to have broken down at all.
    • Klavier Gavin also goes through one in Apollo Justice. He keeps his composure, but it certainly can't have been good to realize that his older brother was a murderer and used him as an Unwitting Pawn to get Phoenix framed for forgery and disbarred, and then that one of his bandmates was a smuggler and murderer who was essentially using Klavier as a drug mule.
    • In Dual Destinies, Apollo Justice comes dangerously close to type B, but is basically a type E who eventually comes out a type A in the end. After his best friend is killed and another of his friends accused of the murder, he decides to go rogue, hoping to bring his friend's killer to justice in his own way. Unfortunately, this results in him conducting his own investigation, utilizing some controversial-at-best ideologies, eerily resembling his former mentor (who happens to be a convicted murderer), and ultimately accusing his friend/coworker/fellow protagonist Athena Cykes of this murder, making him something of an antagonist for a portion of the trial. However, once it's proven through logic and evidence that she couldn't have done it, he sheds the somewhat villainous persona and agrees to search for the truth in court, alongside Athena and Phoenix.
    • Dual Destinies also counts as one for Athena, as the final case involves her being accused of killing her mother and having someone she considered her surrogate brother take the fall for her. And in order to prove she didn't she has to recall memories so traumatic that she can't consciously remember they existed.
    • The events of Spirit of Justice are one for Rayfa, who has to contend with her major parental figures being revealed as evil bastards who indoctrinated her into their toxic ideals, and used her as a pawn to take over Khura'in by blackmailing her mother and brother.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Nagito Komaeda, and how. While he throws some shade on whether he's making it all up or not, game hints and additional materials indicate he's fully telling the truth about the hellish cycle of bad luck and good luck that's been his life. His family decides to go on vacation, only for the plane to be hijacked. Then a meteor kills the hijackers, saving most of the passengers, but also crushes his parents in front of him, which leaves him alone with a huge inheritance. Then he gets kidnapped by a serial killer, and is found hiding in the trash...which includes a winning lottery ticket. THEN he's diagnosed with malignant lymphoma and concurrent frontotemporal dementia, just before winning the lottery to be accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, where he becomes a patient of their SHSL Neurologist. And this is all before he ever even crosses paths with Junko Enoshima. Little wonder he's burnt out on life in general and a Stepford Smiler at best.
  • In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Poor Shuichi. Got trapped in a Killing Game, saw Rantaro's corpse with the knowledge of who killed him, had to fight Kaede and watched her being executed in front of his face, had to fight against his closest friend, Kaito to prove Gonta killed Miu, had to deal with Kokichi who was being a Jerkass to everyone, had to fight Maki and lose Kaito in Chapter 5, faced the truth of being in a reality show where the role his past self wanted was "the detective who committed the best murder of all", and out of trauma, goes against K1-B0 while under the effects of Despair Event Horizon, and that's not even the full list.
  • In Daughter for Dessert, this is pretty much all of the protagonist's adult life. He got an expensive engineering degree with the promise of a good job only to find out that the company he was planning to work for would soon close the plant, got stuck working at a hot dog stand, which was supposed to be a temporary occupation until he finished college, lost his first love in a preventable death due to the demands of her family, opened a diner which consumed pretty much all of his time and energy while almost always operating at a loss, has to conceal his next loving romantic relationship due to its incestuous nature, and gets targeted for ruin by a wealthy relative of his late girlfriend’s who blames him for her death.
  • Fate/stay night:
    • Archer. Having once been an idealistic crusader with a credo to save everyone, Archer lost everything in the process of trying to save the people around him, while gaining nothing but scorn from his fellow humans and losing his friends, his lover and everything. In the end, after having sold his existence to Earth for a miracle that would save a few dozen people, he lost his life by being betrayed by someone he saved and ended up a Counter Guardian — one of Earth's "garbagemen", used to ruthlessly exterminate anyone who would threaten the safety of mankind by whatever means possible and no matter the collateral damage. By the time the game rolls around, Archer has become a broken, bitter person, consigned to his fate as one who saves people only at the cost of killing others.
    • Basically Sakura Matou has been a broken girl after her father gave her to the Matou family. She has only known cruelty from the Matou's like Shinji raping her or Zouken implanting worms to her body. She resented the Matou's, her father and her sister Rin but still she managed to keep her sanity. That is, until Heaven's Feel when Sakura finally snaps and becomes a type B as Dark Sakura.
  • The Fruit of Grisaia: Of the six main characters of Mihama Academy only Amane and Makina's past didn't look like this, only having one major traumatic event, which in themselves were pretty bad, the rest however:
    • Yuuji: He was not loved by his parents, in fact his father actively despised him. The only person who valued him, her sister, died in accident that caused his family to collapse ending with both of his parents dead. He was taken by a friend of his father who was "a bit of a bad guy" (terrorist, murderer and pedophile). After being rescued from there he was trained as a child soldier, to become a piece of disposable defense equipment, for a secret government organization.
    • Michiru: She was never a bright student, so when she under-preformed with her private tutors, her father always blamed and humiliated them. Out of petty revenge her tutors took out their frustration on her, abusing her both mentally and physically, forcing her to admit being completely useless, which left her with severe depression and cripplingly low self-esteem. Which then lead her parents growing distant with her. When she went to a normal school and finally managed to make a friend, her friend committed suicide. She had a bad hearth, which had to be replaced, however when the hearth donor girl's conscience awakened inside her even being capable of taking control of her body, she tried to commit suicide, which caused her to be locked in a psychiatry. From where she only got out by faking a different personality.
    • Sachi: She had a loving family, however once they started to get buried by work they grew distant with each other. Her best friend abruptly left her. On her birthday when her parents tried to throw a party, in a fit of anger at their previous neglecting behavior, she ran away. Just as her parents found her they were run over by a truck right in front of Sachi's eyes, something she convinced herself to be ultimately her fault. Leading to constant PTSD attacks, which she could only cope with by faking a new personality and developing a severe case of OCD. After getting back to a normal school, her OCD made her obey any and all kinds of requests, after getting an order to get rid of a school test, something she could not reasonably fulfill, she set fire to the school.
    • Yumiko: Her father never loved her or her mother, which led her both mentally and physically weak mother to be hospitalized, and her to be shipped to her mother's parents. Her grandparents only saw her as an asset, as only her extremely wealthy father kept their business afloat. It was always bemoaned for her not to be born as a boy, because then she would have been able to become a proper heir to her father. When her mother started to get better and they started to get their relationship normalised, first since her birth, her father had conceived a bastard, and planned to divorce her mother, of which the mere news of it completely broke her. Then her father took back Yumiko, acting resentful of his actions, only to turn out, that his bastard died and he needed an heir again. Even in school she had to find out that her classmate only pretended to be her friend to screw with her, which led her to attack said classmate with a box cutter.
  • The Bad Boys Love route of Hatoful Boyfriend is one giant Trauma Conga Line for all characters in general, but its main victim is Ryouta. Ryouta, the sweet and adorable childhood friend of the female protagonist, who finds her severed head in a box, is constantly harassed by a terrifying scarecrow mecha as he tries to find out who killed her, only to learn that he is the one who unintentionally killed her after being infected with a human-killing virus by the resident evil doctor who plans to use him as a weapon to exterminate the entire human race, all due to a well-intentioned wish that Ryouta made when he was a fledgling that the doctor proceeded to twist and warp beyond recognition. Oh, and that scarecrow mecha that Ryouta managed to kill with a stungun? Its head contained the brain of his supposedly dead childhood friend, which is now effectively damaged beyond medical repair thanks to being fried with Ryouta's stungun. Is it any wonder why he comes this close to crossing the Despair Event Horizon after all of this?
  • Houjou Satoko, of Higurashi: When They Cry, is pretty much the ultimate Woobie. Not only did she lose both of her parents by pushing them off a cliff in a fit of Hinamizawa Syndrome-induced madness, have her brother Satoshi vanish without warning, and become hated by almost the entire town for supposedly being "cursed," but depending on the scenario, also goes through several other traumatic events:
    • In Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, she is tortured to death by Sonozaki Shion, who is now under the Hate Plague effects as well, after finding out that Shion has also killed both leaders of the village, Satoko's best friend Rika, and is going to torture Satoko's other friends to death (including Shion's twin sister Mion).
    • In Tatarigoroshi-hen, she is brutally abused by her uncle Teppei, and is too scared of the very-real threat of him killing her to call child services. She also sees her best friend Rika's bloody, mutilated corpse being eaten by crows and finally cracks, pushing Keiichi off a bridge.
    • In Minagoroshi-hen, she is again abused by her uncle, but is also shot in the face by the Big Bad after nearly overcoming all the hardships in her life. The same Big Bad makes sure she watches the murder all her friends in quick succession, with the knowledge that Rika will be tortured to death afterwards.
    • In Yoigoshi-hen, the Alternate Universe plotline, she is killed along with the rest of her classmates when Rena goes insane and blows up the school.
    • In Yakusamashi-hen and Tsumihoroboshi-hen, she is killed along with the rest of the town when the Big Bad sets off the gas and murders the entire village.
      • Actually, in Yakusamashi-hen, Satoko suspects for the whole arc that there is something wrong with Rika, and eventually she sees her being taken away and sees her gutted corpse again. Then she is chased away, and eventually falls from the same bridge she pushed Keiichi from, ending up catatonic. Then she is assassinated in hospital before Ooishi can help her. Oh, and the reason why she was catatonic? She saw all of her friends' corpses (except Rena's) after the gas killed them all.
    • It is revealed in Satoko's backstory that she was knocked down and then thrown books at by Shion disguised as Mion, with Rena, Rika and Satoshi managing to stop Shion and then made her apologize to Satoko. Since this happened before the main plot and thus Shion was potentially having a NOT Hate Plague induced anger fit, although she was susceptible to it due to having left Hinamizawa and being in emotional turmoil which are the conditions for the mental disease to manifest, it means this may have happened in multiple arcs besides the ones where Shion loves Satoko and treats her like her younger sister, willing to sacrifice herself for her. In Saikoroshi-hen, another Alternate Universe, the one who beats her (with a chair no less) is Rika, who as mentioned above is her best friend in the normal universe.
    • It is no surprise that most of the Tear Jerker moments in the series come from Satoko.
    • In all versions of Natsumi's story, Natsumi gets dealt a really rough hand. She finds out that her hometown was exterminated in a giant gas disaster, her grandmother starts going crazy and drowning puppies in the bathtub (no, literally), people start suspecting everyone from her hometown is secretly an Ax-Crazy murderer (potentially including her if anyone finds out she's from there), her new boyfriend sees some of her grandmother's crazy antics, her grandmother is killed by her mother (who then forces Natsumi to take part and help her hide the remains), and her mother then kills her father and attempts to kill her and Akira. Granted, Natsumi is actually the guilty party for some of the last items on this list. The visual novel, however, evidently decided that she didn't go through enough in the previous manga version and throws in her finding out that all of her classmates are going to one college, but due to her middling grades, she will go to another, as well as her making friends with a fellow Hinamizawan at a retirement center, only for him to go on a murderous rampage throughout the nursing home after the gas disaster. You know, because she just wasn't quite traumatized enough in the previous version.
  • In Muv-Luv Alternative, Takeru is on one for the entire course of the game. But between all the suffering he goes through thanks to the game gleefully deploying Kill 'em All, the most notable part is from the XM3 Trials until he meets the 00-unit. He loses it fighting BETA thanks to his deaths in his previous loops giving him PTSD, and after getting his ass kicked, his mentor, Marimo gives him a pep-talk, only to have her head CHOMP'd off by a Soldier-class. He promptly loses it even worse, and attempts to rape Meiya. Afterward, he attempts to flee back to his peaceful former world, which he does — he meets Marimo, who's notably Alive, and all of his friends, including Sumika... only for Marimo to die again — by having her head shoved into a meat grinder. But it doesn't stop there. Takeru comes to the realization that HE'S responsible for her dying in his world — as he brought the information for her death with him when he fled. Done? Nope. Next he finds that his friends and loved ones are forgetting him, because their memories are being sucked into the world of Alternative. Realizing he'll have to spend his life alone forever, he attempts suicide by sleeping unprotected in the snow — doesn't work because Sumika warms him up. Resolved that Sumika won't forget him, he goes to school for one last day — only for Sumika to have completely forgotten him in the morning. Then she's crushed by a falling basketball hoop, which, once again, is his fault for bringing the information from the world of Alternative. When this occurs, he is seriously Driven to Suicide, only to be stopped by Yuuko, and later returned to the world of Alternative.
  • The Terra route of Rewrite has Kotarou. After joining Guardian, he goes into the battlefield and becomes one of the few surviving members of his group. Later, he tries helping Kagari in saving the world because he is sick of how Guardian works. This forces him to betray and kill his own comrades along with his mentor to protect her. He tries to prevent the ritual in Gaia's headquarters, but people still die in the process. Finally, after all his efforts, he is the one who personally delivers the fatal blow to his love Kagari because it is the only option left. It is no wonder that he mentally breaks down and asks if he is cursed.
  • Umineko: When They Cry:
    • Battler gets all of the garbage that both the real world and the meta-world can possibly heap on him. From the real world, we have entire family murdered (with his father and stepmom, depending on the arc, having faces torn off, or intestines stuffed with candy), watching younger cousin turn from a cute little girl into a Cute and Psycho Creepy Child overnight, shot by his own aunt in one arc, figuring out that three people banished under suspicion of being the murderer were sent to their own deaths by having THEIR faces torn off, and that's just the beginning. The meta-world does everything to him from melting his cousins into unrecognizable piles of flesh to feeding him alive to goat-headed butlers. And then he finds out his late mother wasn't his real mom, putting him in such a bad Heroic BSoD that his brain shuts down and he physically vanishes for awhile. Only to be brought back by his sister! Yay! ...Who he finds out is his sister only as the universe is turning her into a delicious hamburger. Then EP6 he is one of the first six victims of the FIRST TWILIGHT. Sure he survived but how LONG he was STUCK in that room is horrifying. And the crazy part about it? HE PLANNED IT!
    • Natsuhi seems to have a day from hell in the 5th game.
    • And then we get Beatrice/Shannon/Kanon/Yasu, whose trauma conga line is the whole reason for the events on Rokkenjima.


Alternative Title(s): Visual Novel

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