Suikoden II almost fools you into thinking that it's over after the defeat of the initial Big Bad with an impending peace council. However, you quickly find out that it's not that easy.
The Los Ceros War is this. If you try to go for the negotiation route, Ida will shoot Wyatt in the head, starting the war anyways.
There are multiple segments during the main storyline that require you to murder Ambiguously Evil characters in order to proceed.
Abyss Crossing: Although the protagonists are able to come to an understanding with most of the Astras, they still have no choice but to kill the Astras in order to release the latters' accumulated magic power, or they'll go insane again. Fortunately, the Astras will eventually reincarnate without excess magic power.
Averted twice in Chrono Cross. In two battles (one the final boss, the other a bonus mission), it is possible to defeat the enemy by force, but more rewarding if a non-violent method is used.
And lampshaded in Chrono TriggerDS. The Optional Boss of the Dimensional Vortex is the Final Boss of Chrono Cross. Although the only way out of this battle is by force, Schala still returns the party to wherever they came from and berates them for using violence to solve their conflicts, suggesting to use an alternate solution to defeat their foe.
Averted in the Neverwinter Nights mod A Dance with Rogues, which gives you minimal XP from killing things, and most of the time ends up being a stealth-based puzzle game instead of a traditional hack-and-slash D&D game.
In the Baldur's Gate series, there are numerous confrontations that you can resolve without spilling blood, though there are plenty of encounters where you don't have any other options.
CHARNAME: Hi! I want to pass through your land!
Kuo-Toa Leader: Klodg do g'ith dal shaog gossath! Geetaaah!
CHARNAME: (sigh) This isn't going to end well, is it?
Neverwinter Nights 2 contains plenty of diplomatic options, sometimes allowing you to pacify entire factions. But if you side with the City Watch, any criminal you try to arrest will refuse, preferring to fight you to death — Suicidal Overconfidence at its finest. A particularly jarring example is an optional quest in Blacklake, when you need to pass as a merchant and convince some thieves to buy from you. If you botch the bluff and diplomacy checks, then they'll recognize you as a fake and fight you. If you successfully convince them you're genuine, then they'll make the deal and then will fight you when the Watchmen accompanying you try to arrest them. The only benefit from this outcome is some extra XP and gold.
Final Fantasy VI does this grandly, with an extensive sequence near the middle of the game that features you negotiating with The Empire. The Emperor will even reward you if you're particularly skilled with your diplomacy. However, this is all just bait.
In Final Fantasy VIII, the pacifist residents of Fisherman's Horizon criticize the main characters for solving problems with violence, arguing that all problems can be solved by talking them out. Atypically, the main character doesn't disagree with their outlook, but when the enemy's army shows up and the mayor of FH goes to try to reason with them, the main characters still end up having to rescue him and drive the enemy soldiers out by force.
The player can optionally choose to have Squall try to explain his stance after the battle, resulting in an explanation wherein Squall says that diplomacy is great, and he would prefer it, but that not everyone agrees, and as long as the threat of violence remains, it's impossible for everything to be resolved diplomatically. He then apologizes for fighting and walks away.
Done again in Final Fantasy IX where the queen attacks Clerya and the residents try to reason with the enemy, only to be killed. Zidane and some residents from Burmecia are fed up that the peace keepers can't fight and vow to slaughter every soldier that gets in the way.
Sometimes in Civilization, the only option given to you in diplomacy is to declare war. Even if you try to remain on friendly terms with everyone, some civilizations will inevitably declare war on you even if you have the military and/or technological advantage. They will then proceed to walk their spearmen into your cannon fire. Sometimes, they will win.
Played straight, then finally subverted in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Literally, the only interaction with non-player characters outside of flashbacks is combat, but at the end of the game, the only way to complete the last encounter is to let them beat you.
Star Control II often averts this with the non-evil races whom you can actually be diplomatic to... or you can choose to kill them and get RU. However, there are races that will attack you no matter what you say. Though they usually are willing to chat, often at great length, before they throw down.
A notable aversion in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Sure, you could just kill the Final BossIdunn, but the eponymous sword has a strange power that reflects its user's feelings, and it just so happens that Roy doesn't want to kill Idunn. If Roy lands the finishing blow on her using the Binding Blade, she survives and undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, leading to the Golden Ending.
Some chapters have an enemy that can be recruited by talking to them, averting this trope. This is an especially unexpected option with Oliver. Some recruits like Shinon (in Path of Radiance) are straight examples; you have to take them down before they'll join you.
Yune repeatedly mentions that diplomacy will not work on Ashera. Given that the latter is an Ax-CrazyKnight Templar goddess, this more or less makes sense.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Flame Emperor a.k.a. Edelgard von Hresvelg believes that the only way to deal with Fódlan's severe societal ills is to violently remove the Church of Seiros and its archbishop Rhea from power. This being a story that runs on Grey-and-Gray Morality, it's unclear whether they could ever have come to a peaceful understanding or if a war was inevitable, and if the latter is true it's still up in the air whether this is actually Rhea or the Flame Emperor's fault (the Greater-Scope Villain Agarthans are unambiguously meddling in Fódlan's affairs and manipulating events to ensure a war, and they are responsible for turning the Flame Emperor into what they are today).
SWAT 2, a real-time tactics game, features a decent interface for diplomacy, wherein you can make or grant demands, depending on your side. Good negotiations can provide a few extra points (and in the terrorist campaign, is once required for mission completion), but the missions can never be properly resolved by negotiations alone. A successful SWAT mission still ends with busting in and killing/arresting the suspects, and the terrorists likewise need to kill all of their attackers or make their escape off-map.
For that matter, the ability to arrest suspects rather than just killing them in it and the next two games is an aversion of this, more so in SWAT 4 where there's the "unauthorized use of deadly force" penalty if you kill someone before they shoot at you.
God of War: Kratos by the time of God of War (PS4) has mellowed out a lot and doesn't want to start fights... but unfortunately, he's decided to settle in the realm of the very violence-prone Norse pantheon. Several Aesir simply refuse his attempts to avoid combat or to spare them, most notably Baldur and Heimdall, occasionally forcing the matter by threatening to go after his son, thus forcing Kratos to beat the tar out of them.
Subverted in many of the Shin Megami Tensei games, where you can negotiate with the Wandering Monsters as a vital way to gain new mons/spell cards/info. Different species have different requirements for helping or joining you, such as the player being of a certain alignment or simply giving them an item they want.
Beating the hell out of something is the usual solution to the problems that come up in Lost Odyssey, but when the Big Baduses magic to turn one of your party members into a People Puppet, the best solution is to do anything but attack, since killing your friend results in an immediate Game Over.
This can be averted in Fallout — you can play the entire game as a pacifist and convince the Master that his plan is doomed, causing him to kill himself.
Frank Horrigan of Fallout 2 is the only sapient Final Boss in the Fallout series that can't be talked out of fighting or to do himself in. However, if you play your cards right, you can convince Horrigan's bodyguards to turn against him and reprogram the automated turrets in his chamber to attack him.
First Citizen Lynette of Vault City is a firm believer in this trope. It's easy to break the gameif you annoy her, and this is guaranteed if you let her know you helped a settlement of peaceful ghouls fix their nuclear reactor to prevent it from contaminating her city's groundwater, instead of murdering them all and shutting it down. And if you tell her you can regain your citizenship from the one person who can overrule her, she infinity-plus-one overrules that to prevent you from accessing the Vault you need to enter to know what your next destination is. At this point you will have no other option left than to fight your way inside, slaughtering the population of Vault City in your way just to access a computer.
The Tenpenny Tower side-quest in Fallout 3. Either kill Roy Phillips and lose karma, turn his fellow Feral Ghouls on the tower and lose karma, or arrange for them to live in the tower only to have them back-stab the residents later.
The Caesar's Legion and Mr. House story branches in Fallout: New Vegas require you to blow up the Brotherhood of Steel. Conversely, the non-House quest lines require you to either immediately kill House, or disconnect him from the mainframe and have him die a slow, horrible death from infection. For Birds of a Feather, you have to either kill Cass yourself or have her executed by Jean-Baptiste, precluding the completion of Heartache by the Number.
The confrontation with Conrad Kellogg, has him asking the Sole Survivor to talk with him to see if they cannot find a diplomatic solution to their conflict. But there is no possible peaceful outcome of the conversation. It can only ever end in the Sole Survivor declaring their intent to murder Kellogg for what he did, and a boss battle ensues.
The endgame requires you to wipe out two of the Commonwealth's four major factions regardless of which route you choose. Supporting the Minutemen or Railroad requires wiping out the Institute and Brotherhood of Steel. Supporting the Brotherhood or Institute requires you to wipe out the other along with the Railroad. There is a way to stay on good terms with both the Railroad and Brotherhood by siding with the Minutemen, but the Institute will still need to be taken down.
The campaign's maps in the Total War series of games pretend to feature political machinations and allegiances, but in the end, everything will either be allied against you or allied to you and in your way (and no-one else's). In Medieval: Total War, this includes rebellions, automatic battle outcomes, and whatever political maneuvering has not yet been tossed aside in favor of constant war. No matter how much cunning you use, the AI (and sometimes the random number generator) will all conspire against you; the only real answer is fighting. Lots of fighting.
This is institutionalized in Total War: Shogun 2, in which conquering territory makes the other clans more wary of you (a penalty to diplomatic relations). This penalty slowly resets over time if you enter periods of peace. After conquering 18 regions or taking Kyoto, however, an event called 'Realm Divide' kicks in that automatically lowers all clans' opinions of you by 5 for every turn that passes, more or less ensuring that within the next year or so every other clan in Japan will be at your throat and canceling all their trade agreements with you, including your vassals and old friends.
Golden Sun The Lost Age subverts this when you're able to recover the gem stolen from the town of Madra by the warring Kibombo tribe without engaging any of the Kibombo warriors you encounter in combat.
At the end of Atelier Iris 3, the heroes try to talk things out with Uroborus, the Eldritch Abomination that threatens their world, to no avail. They fight it but lose anyway; they are only saved by Iris' Heroic Sacrifice.
Inverted in A Force More Powerful, if you want to win. Smart nonviolent action is the only way to succeed against your foes, who all have far more military power.
Lampshaded and many jokes cracked about it in Endless Frontier. Many people question the morality of your party due to how quick they are to violence.
This can be averted in most battles in Final Fantasy Tactics with the Mediator. In fact, running through the game with a party made purely of Mediators will often lead to convincing the ENTIRE enemy force to defect to your side! When playing such a Pacifist Run, the only enemies which cannot be defeated in this fashion are, of course, the Story-relevant characters opposed to the hero.
Played with a LOT in Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Saga where the villains usually don't want to fight but say something to insult one of the heroes, which pisses them off and causes a chain reaction. This has led to the more sane party members commenting on how they feel like they're the villains.
Used in an extremely annoying way in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. In almost every quest for the vast majority of the game, you have the options of diplomacy, stealth, intimidation, or using your vampire magic before you have to get into a physical fight, so the two sections where you don't have those options can be... irritating, especially if you don't have a combat-focused character build. There's the Nosferatu Warrens plotline, where you have to navigate a long set of mazes while killing some fairly nasty monsters and one tricky miniboss, and the endgame, where you have to kill at least one and usually two pain in the ass bosses. And just to make it worse, choosing an option to skip one of these two bosses will prevent you from getting a good ending.
Ditto Alpha Protocol, by the same developers. Though most of the game is tremendously open-ended in allowing for all sorts of different approaches, there are a number of mandatory boss battles that will stymie Player Characters not tuned for direct combat.
Deus Ex comes close to averting this, since you can get through most of the game without killing or even attacking anyone. Only a handful of characters have to be attacked and players have found ways of going Off the Rails to avoid killing any.
In the prequel Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you do not have to kill any of the mooks. As in the first game, the game gives you a spectrum to work on, either going Technical Pacifist with stun guns or Actual Pacifist by stealthing it up. You only have to kill the four bosses. It just gets harder to resist the urge to start killing once you find out what kind of people the mooks are.
This actually brought the game under some criticism. Many people did not like that you have to kill someone. So, when the "Missing Link" DLC was released, they gave players the option of sparing the final boss.
Subverted in The Godfather game. While you will have to punch out or gun down a lot of enemy mobsters, as well as use violence on the owners of most of their fronts in order to "persuade" them to give the Corleones control, gaining enough Respect to talk said owners into peacefully giving up actually results in you earning more money. Bribing cops and running from them is preferable to killing them outright if you have a choice. In ending a Mob War, it's easier to run to a FBI agent on the take and drop him $3000 than brave an enemy business to bomb it.
Nobody's suggesting that the violence solves much of anything.
It's implied and speculated in supplementary material that the youkai in Touhou are, by their very definition, the opposite of humans, and if they defy their own definition by not opposing mankind, they cease to be. This could make danmaku duels a relatively peaceful solution that's been erected for the sake of youkai: By being able to fight non-lethally, weaker youkai can antagonize humanity without having to fear being Killed Off for Real by the local Miko, and stronger youkai can indulge their nefarious schemes without having to fear wiping out Gensoukyou should they be forced to fight the Barrier Maiden who keeps the place existing. If the speculation is true, then a degree of violence indeed is the only option for humans and youkai to live in (relative) peace and harmony together.
The premise of Total Annihilation is a millennia-old war over a fundamental difference in philosophy, and all diplomatic alternatives have presumably been extinguished long ago.
Averted in Wild ARMs 2: Diplomacy is actually pretty effective, bringing the three kingdoms together to help you fight the Big Bad. Of course, Figalia being somewhat of a Crapsack World, banding together is pretty much necessary for survival. It still feels really good to be able to make the world a better place, instead of the standard RPG trope of the world getting steadily WORSE throughout the game.
This is actually averted in Knights of the Old Republic if you're light side or a clever dark side. Unfortunately, you rarely get XP for avoiding fights. On the other hand, some of the best fun in the game is in finding ways to trick people into attacking you, netting you XP for killing them while staying light side.
Averted in In Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, with the power Force Grab, which allows Kyle Katarn to snatch weapons from the hands of his enemies with the odd effect of leaving stormtroopers running around shouting "Stand at your post! Stand at your post!", hence one can follow the Jedi principle of conflict avoidance through much of the game, leaving a wake of living but disarmed opponents in Kyle's path. Interestingly, grans disarmed would approach Katarn and try to beat him up.
Played straight in Dark Forces: Mysteries of the Sith, where stormtroopers learned to attack Katarn by hand when disarmed. Fisticuff troopers are generally ineffective, but they warrant neutralization, all methods of which are lethal. Most other characters will also suicide-rush Kyle (or Mara) throughout the game, once disarmed.
Averted through most of the latter half of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, though Raven Software intended this trope to be played straight: Kyle relearns Force Pullnote level 2, all basic powers are barely useful at level one, which can disarm many of the locals, and only the occasional unarmed Gran will try to strongarm a lightsaber-wielding Kyle. Stormtroopers will alternate between surrender (throwing their hands up) and running around looking for a dropped weapon.note A bug that was never fixed prevents a stormtrooper from actually re-arming once he picked up a weapon, with the humorous effect of stormtroopers running around cleaning up stray blasters. An event starting a duel with a mini-Sith during the Bespin levels requires all the previous enemies to be killed off; if Kyle had been handling foes the Jedi way, he'll have to massacre all the lives he previously spared in order to continue.
Averted and played straight depending on each level in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Some levels have Destroy All Enemies as a mission parameter. At the same time, one can very quickly achieve Force Grip level three (ironically a dark-side power) which has the incidental effect of disarming most opponentsnote though not all, and not anyTusken Raiders So it is possible to minimize conflict Jedi-style though much of the game.note Even the blaster-gathering bug was corrected, requiring Jaden to collect stray weapons himself / herself, lest anyone disarmed get any ideas. This requires Jaden to regularly emptying his / her blaster clip to do so. Again, though, Raven intended this trope to be played straight.
Played straight in No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way despite itself. The game includes a number of ways to knock opponents out, such as the CT-180 utility launcher and tranquilizer darts. Sadly, knocked out bad guys will not only wake up in short time, but will also magically manifest weapons. The pragmatic response is to stealth-kill by tranq-ing targets from afar, and then finishing them off at point blank with a suppressed handgun.note Tranq darts work with any hit, not just headshots while non-headshots with a firearm, even a sound-suppressed one, give away your position to your target. While this process makes for excellent grim spy action, it is rather dissonant with the otherwise lighthearted feel of the rest of the game.
Until the A Murder of Crows expansions, victory in Sword of the Stars could only be achieved through annihilation of the enemy. Even with diplomacy options being available from then on, you still need violent power on tap if the target refuses to surrender.
It is actually possible to win the game without firing a shot. If the Random Number God on a small map pits your Liir faction against mostly other Liir opponents, there's a good chance they'll try to ally right after meeting them. A single not-too warlike race will likely research Liir language quickly, and be able to join in, instantly winning the game. It feels a bit like a Non-Standard Game Over though.
In NieR, the world is doomed because everyone thinks this trope is true when it really isn't.
Subverted in TaskMaker, a Fetch Quest RPG for the Mac. One of the quests given to you by the title character is to bring him the head of a rebel. A player can indeed kill the Rebel and take his head (although this drains a lot of points and some Spirit due to his Good alignment, which is not revealed until after you kill him), but the saner option is to Bestow a gift to the Rebel, who will then give you a slave's head to pass off as his own. The TaskMaker never suspects a thing.
In Warlock: Master of the Arcane, the AI will within two dozen turns of meeting you send you a demand for half your money or mana. Your options are ´accept´ or ´declare war´. Accepting several times may let them offer an alliance, but it won´t stop them from demanding half your stuff at regular intervals. In short, when meeting an AI opponent, get ready to rumble.
In Wasteland 2, General Vargas examines the idea and rejects it. A quick bullet to the head is a viable solution to most problems, but never a good one, never the first one, and never the only one. Sadly, gameplay doesn't quite support this.
In The Wonderful 101, it gets to the point where "Diplomacy has failed!" becomes something of a Catchphrase for Wonder Red. Not that the team ever tries very hard to make diplomacy work.
Averted in Epyx's Dungeon CrawlingTemple of Apshai — it is possible to converse with some monsters and get safe passage if you leave them alone. However, subsequently attacking them or attempting to steal their treasure will get you in trouble.
Averted in Far Cry 4. If you choose to listen to Pagan Min when he tells you to stay put and eat dinner at the beginning of the game instead of choosing to wander off, he will return after several minutes and take you to his daughter Lakshmana, explain several revelations about your family that would have come very late in the game otherwise, and allow you to spread your mother's ashes, completing the game without having to fire a single bullet.
In A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky, a few villains (Oliver and Darius) seem to attack you for no other reason than because the game needed a boss battle; logically it should have been possible to negotiate with them. This is especially grating in the endgame, where the party's entire goal is to avoid violence and save Raccoon. Of course, once they actually reach him, they're railroaded into fighting, and once the battle starts the heroes have no qualms about turning him into chunky salsa.
Due to the trope's near-omnipresence in video games at one point or another, it's specifically averted in Undertale.
For the most part. All monsters you encounter can be spared without dealing a single point of damage, but you still have to fight in the normal final battles against Asgore and Flowey. The former destroys the Mercy button as soon as battle starts, while the latter takes over the entire interface. This is also Played for Laughs in the optional rematch against Undyne, in which you deal a single point of damage before the battle is called off.
Trying to spare the final boss of the genocide route, Sans, will get you killed. Your only choice is to...well, fight him. Justified in that, because you're on the genocide route, you've killed almost everybody, showing no mercy to anyone or anything and for the most part killing people just because you can. Sans is simply showing the same amount of mercy you did to all of his friends - absolutely zero. Also subverted; after Sans has killed you after you've tried to spare him, he begs you to pick another option available to you aside from resorting to violence: aborting your genocide run.
In Undertale's Spiritual SuccessorDeltarune, this idea comes up again. Ralsei insists that there's always a peaceful solution if you work for it, and as before the player is given the option to take various actions (such as complimenting the enemy or lecturing them on why violence is bad) to end the battle without fighting. However, in some cases all you can do is make them tired so that Ralsei can cast a pacifying spell. And then in the final boss fight, the Spades King cannot be reasoned with at all, and instead plays on Ralsei's idealism to pull an I Surrender, Suckers. You still resolve the fight without killing him, but it makes the point that in some situations, some level of violence is necessary to survive.
In Chapter 2, Giga Queen can't be defeated through Mercy (ACTing only improves your fighting, dodging, and health), so the only solution is to fight in a Punch-Out!!-style minigame.
In Persona 4, every character rejects their Shadow Self, driving it berserk and forcing a boss fight in order to calm it down. By the time you get to Shadow Naoto, Kanji has become resigned to the fact that a fight is going to have to happen if they want the person in question to overcome their issues.
In Persona 5, it's theoretically possible to steal a Treasure without confronting the Palace ruler, but every time you try you are inevitably dragged into a fight anyway. Shadow Futaba is a double subversion, as she turns out to be completely benevolent, but you still have to beat up the living manifestation of her self-loathing as a result of her mother's death.
The Like a Dragon series fully embraces this to the point it's their signature style. A typical situation for example has the protagonist convince the person about the situation either to stand down, or ask for aid/info, only for said person to stubbornly refuse and fight, or have the protagonist conclude that only through fisticuffs and scuffle will make them listen. It's uncommon for a situation to be resolved without violence.
batshit insane and the entirely non-lethal combat viewed mostly as a game.
disarmed would approach Katarn and try to beat him up.