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Adult Fear/Video Games

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Examples of this trope in Video Games:

  • Cyberswine: The game is loaded with this. First, a mother loses her son to an Ebola-type plague before she dies of it shortly after. Cyberswine notices his partner Lieutenant Sarah Lee behaving oddly and she ends up betraying him. A teenage boy is murdered by killer robots calling themselves NetCops and then they extract his brain. A group of street people are trying to get into a locked hospital because some on them were wounded by the NetCops. A teenage boy named Zak is being targeted by a man who wants to extract the boy's brain for his own purposes. The list seems to go on.
  • In Heavy Rain, the very beginning of the game gives you the pleasure of playing as a parent who loses his child in a car crash. (JAAAAAAAAAAYSUN!)
    • To add to that, the entire game focuses around catching a serial killer who drowns children in rainwater, and the worst part is nobody really has a clue who he or she is.
  • Samhain: The game presents a scenario in which a child over 10 years old is searching for his father in a mansion that is filled with traps and monsters. Said child has to talk to monsters, creatures and people that can be friendly one minute and then try to kill him the next. Anyone who has to take care of a child will find that terrifying.
  • In the first Silent Hill, you get to play a parent who is desperately searching a dangerous city for his missing child. You get to spend a lot of time in the dark where monsters are lurking.
    • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the (very liberal) remake of the original game, takes this even further, as the game actually focuses on a veritable cornucopia of Adult Fears — loss of family, social alienation, substance addiction, deterioration of love, sexual insecurities, death, the works — even more than monsters, and the occult theme is axed entirely from the plot.
    • Silent Hill 2 is about a man who has been deeply changed by his wife's early death. The fact that James killed her is another Adult Fear: the fear of failing a loved one and of selfishness. James's guilt is overwhelming, hence his punishment. Due to his wife's long sickness James is also sexually frustrated, and angry and guilty enough about it that the town creates a physical manifestation of his dark impulses toward sexual violence.
    • Silent Hill: Downpour deals with Murphy Pendelton and the guilt he has over not being able to save his son from their neighbor, Napier, who kidnapped, raped, and murdered poor little Charlie.
  • Live a Live: One spoilered word: Oersted. By the end of the relevant chapter, everyone in the kingdom believes him to be an evil monster after he's manipulated into murdering his king, the only people who believed in him are dead, he's killed his own childhood friend after finding out that said friend had masterminded the above manipulation, simply out of sheer jealousy of Oersted's fame and success. To cap it all off, the woman he loved had just declared her love for said dead friend and given Oersted a rather misplaced bitching out for, basically, not being a better friend to the poor unappreciated guy, and then offs herself. After such an emotional roller coaster, he snaps, so very spectacularly. The Adult Fear sets in when you sympathize with him through the whole thing, and then realize that, if you went through the experience of having everyone you care about either die for your sake, or viciously turn against you and declare you to be a murderous monster like that, you could very well end up in the same boat.
    • His last words say it all: "With hatred, anyone can become a demon."
  • Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty's final act, if you get past the True Art Is Incomprehensible part. The US is pretty much controlled by AI programs and the entire point of the plot is revealed: They figured out they can make anyone into what they want, given the right set of circumstances. Oh and the main character's love interest? Set up by them. It even makes you question whether she actually exists. Let's see: Fear of loved ones having ulterior motives? Check. Fear of not knowing what's actually real? Check. Fear of having no control in your life? Big check.
    • Likewise, Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots. First: Snake facing his declining health and dealing with a terminal illness. Part of Otacon's emotional arc is about coping with the long-term illness of his close friend and partner. There is also the question of children growing up—and possibly outgrowing you. ("It's okay if you want to live outside now.") Hideo Kojima said in interviews prior to the game's release that he hoped the story and emotions would resonate with older players, ones who had been following the series for some time, and did they ever.
  • The adventure horror game Sanitarium has a strong theme running throughout it of child endangerment. One of the first chapters takes place in an abandoned town where all of the adults have disappeared and left the children alone, who are slowly being turned into deformed abominations. That same chapter features the story of a young girl who was killed by her abusive father while the townspeople turned a blind eye. Another chapter has you play as a young girl in a Circus of Fear, and other chapters feature things like alien babies being thrown into a furnace. As the game progresses and you learn more about the main character, you find out that he and his wife had been searching for a cure for their unborn child, who is suffering from a fatal disease. This is compounded by the fact that the protagonist was severely traumatized by the death of his little sister when he was a boy.
  • Killer 7, already a pretty disturbing game, has this scene (warning: NSFW), basically the sum of all Adult Fears wrapped up into just under two pants-crappingly horrific minutes.
    • For those of you that can't watch it: Curtis Blackburn confronts his former partner Pedro (who has turned against him) and reveals that he killed (and probably raped) Pedro's wife — in front of his son — before killing his son as well. At the same time he mocks them, commenting on his wife's "unique" mole and calling his son a "sissy" for not trying to save his mother. When Pedro babbles his daughter's name, Curtis tosses him his daughter's head. Curtis then kills Pedro, but by that point the man probably welcomed it.
    • Not to mention it's later shown that Curtis kidnaps and rapes young girls. And then makes hauntingly creepy taxidermy dolls out of them.
    • And Susie, who seemed to have had a decent life but killed her own mother just because she wanted her to go to school. A reminder than no matter how good a parent you are, sometimes your kid can turn into a Complete Monster.
  • The introduction scene to Bioshock 2. Super effective against anyone immersing themselves in the perspective. Double that for male parents.
  • For those who are lonely and/or prone to depression, there's probably nothing scarier than the ending of Yume Nikki. In a nutshell, Madotsuki finally kills herself, and the only ones who mourn her are the monsters from her dreams.
  • Modern Warfare 2's mission "Of Their Own Accord" opens with an automated public service broadcast as the Ultranationalists invade the United States. That single PSA broadcast is enough to scare the piss out of anyone viewing it, because it indicates just how far along the "To Shit" meter everything has gone.
    • "No Russian"
    • Also, Modern Warfare had a wonderful Fridge Horror scene that qualifies as Adult Fear: "Death From Above". You play as an AC-130 gunner, and it becomes terrifying as you begin to feel the detachment from killing that such a one-sided conflict presents.
  • Planescape: Torment runs on nearly every dark trope ever, and this one is no exception. Listing every character that plays on an adult fear would take a page of its own, so sticking to party members:
    • In a very long fantasy metaphor for abusive personalities, the Nameless One destroys everything he touches and hurts everyone he cares about. No matter how much some of his incarnations might want to, he will never be able to stop. He finally does stop...by committing suicide.
    • Dak'kon has sworn a vow of absolute obedience to someone who is frequently a complete monster, resulting in plentiful on-screen psychological abuse if the player has the stomach for it. And that's not even touching on lost faith or having lived through a genocide. Ignus and Vhailor have lost their basic humanity to traumatic experiences and zealotry. Annah's relationship with her father figure isn't exactly a healthy one, and she promptly finds herself drawn towards an equally unhealthy relationship with a much (much, much) older man. Fall-From-Grace was sold into slavery by her mother. Morte was physically abused but stuck around out of the conviction that it was somehow his fault and he deserved it, and Nordom is the very picture of childlike innocence lost.
      • Deionarra is a literal Love Martyr, but what sends this into Adult Fear territory is that her relationship isn't some Fantastic Aesop—she's simply so enthralled with romance she doesn't realize her lover's true nature until it's too late... rather like many real world people in abusive relationships.
  • A recent trailer for the upcoming game Dead Island, has a man desperately trying to save his wife and young daughter from the zombies. None of them survive. Watch it here.
  • Persona 4: The last victim of the kidnapper is your little cousin Nanako. Needless to say, her father Ryotaro Dojima goes through absolute hell, alongside you.
    • You know how in Real Life, serial killers tend to be people the victims know, right? Well, the guy pulling the strings here is none other than Tooru Adachi, Dojima's partner. He's visited the Dojima residence on at least two occasions as a seemingly-trustworthy guy, and knows Nanako very well...
      • Adult, nothing. That bit is meant to set up Adult Fears in the gamer playing a high-school student — and it does. Nanako is set up brilliantly as a constant, pleasant, cheerful part of the game. Not hearing her voice when you get home from school is first scary (when she's lost) and then extremely sad (when she's laid up in the hospital). No teenager should have to deal with that — and it would be a cold-hearted person (or one not paying that much attention to the story) that didn't feel some of the fear and loss in those scenes.
    • Even more so: if you want to give in and punish her kidnapper? You will get the Bad Ending and Nanako will die. It's a really easy option and one that many newbies are likely to take, and then BAM. Kid is 100% dead, and you'll lose the chance to get her "fixed".
    • What, just the Protagonist? It may be less spectacular, but the interaction with Mrs. Hisako Kuroda touches pretty close on how awful it is to watch your spouse die before you, as well as the pain of old age and having a loved one suffer from memory loss. Yeah, Mr. Kuroda had Alzheimers, thank you. (Even if it's not treated by name).
  • Rule of Rose arguably does a reversal of this trope, showing how serious and poignant child's fears can be: abandonment, loss of parents, rejection, bullying, betrayal...Notably the game only implies, but refuses to show the genuine adult fears, like child abuse and murder.
  • Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice For All, Case 4. So I heard you like defending a client who is clearly a Complete Monster and having your dear partner's life depend on his acquittal.
    • Just ask real attorneys, who will most likely find themselves defending a guy like Matt. The scary and sad part comes when the miracle most likely won't ever happen for them.
    • The first game has Dee Vasquez, who has ties to The Mafia. Towards the end of the last investigation day, when Phoenix and Maya uncover some critical evidence, Vasquez summons her Mafia goons and orders them "erased"--a cruel reminder of how terrifying organized crime can be. Only a Big Damn Heroes moment by Gumshoe prevents a premature end to Phoenix's and Maya's lives.
      • The third game has Furio Tigre who is also a gangster and also, almost erased Phoenix (again saved only by an opportunistic entrance of Gumshoe).
  • Apollo Justice has Kristoph Gavin trying to kill a 12-year-old girl, Vera. The method? So utterly sneaky and "innocent": since the girl has the bad habit of biting on her nails, he'll just put poison in her nail polish bottles, so she'll ingest it while seeking solace for her Shrinking Violet nature. Not only it's sneaky, but like a punch in the gut since it involves attacking a shy little girl when she's at her most vulnerable — and not exactly easy to discover.
  • The Ace Attorney games also can raise fears about, "what if the person you either love or are starting to love is actually a much worse person than you think they are?" It obviously gets taken to ridiculous extremes in a series of murder mysteries.
    • In Justice for All, Celeste Inpax gets burned by two different people because of this, and Juan would have found out that Adrian was just using him if he hadn't gotten killed (though plenty would argue that he was worse than her). It's sort of averted when you find out that Regina getting Bat "killed" was an accident.
    • In Trials and Tribulations, Doug, Phoenix, and Terry all suffer when they fail to spot the major Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Viola is far from a saint, but she also has to go through the pain of realizing that all the bad things done to help {{[spoiler| Furio Tigre}} were for a very sincere, yet fully unrequited love. Video Games has to find out that Video Games. Family members of Video Games also have to go through this for a different sort of love, with the biggest example being Video Games.
    • In Apollo Justice, Video Games
    • In Ace Attorney Investigations, Video Games
  • Mother 3. Imagine your spouse being killed by a creature acting against its own will. Frightening enough. Now imagine your child, only about 7–9 years old, going to avenge their parent's death, and going missing. Imagine never finding him. It Gets Worse — imagine Video Games
    • They don't call it "heartrending" for nothing.
  • The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask does this intentionally, since it's a deconstructed coming-of-age story made to contrast with The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Link takes the role of a young adult who deals with adult problems, yet is still given the perspective of a child. It's mixed in with more fantastic problems too, but most of the problems have to do with adult relationships.
    • Lots of the NPCs are dealing with very adult issues, and Link gets to see both sides of these things from different NPCs. A father is grieving for the loss of a son who is missing and presumed dead, while a toddler is raging because of the death of his father. A newlywed is about to die and laments that he will never be able to see the his children born, while a child is about to lose her father to a illness. One man can't show his face to his fiancee because he broke a promise, while another has been imprisoned because his lover's family thinks he is responsible for her disappearance. A woman about to be wed fears that her fiancee left because he no longer loves her, while a wife can't work and can barely function because of her husband's disappearance and the deteriorating health of her children (and there is nothing she can do about it.) Guards are torn between doing their job and fleeing for their lives, while soldiers obey orders for a war that has already ended.
      • Link himself is searching for a childhood friend that he may never see again.
    • Wind Waker and Twilight Princess have this too. In the former, Ganondorf has various young girls kidnapped because they share a couple physical similarities to Princess Zelda, among these is Link's child sister. The parents of these lost kids are appropriately freaked out. In the latter, the children of Link's hometown are stolen by Bulblins and much of the first half of the game is about Link tracking down and rescuing all of them.
  • Nie R is all about a father desperately trying to save his terminally ill daughter while facing impossible odds.
  • An old one for video games, but has to be said. King's Quest III has Graham paralyzed by grief. His son was kidnapped from his cradle and enslaved by his enemies somewhere, his kingdom has been burnt to cinders by a dragon that his best efforts cannot defeat with innocents suffering and dying on his watch...and then his only remaining child offers herself up as a Human Sacrifice. The canonical game doesn't play it up, but the Fan Remake games and Fan Sequel The Silver Lining don't make an attempt to downplay it.
  • Fire Emblem Akaneia has a main villain, Lang, who not only massacres whole villages if one person rebels, but kills boys and rapes girls. You can imagine how well that was taken by Marth and his group. It's also invoked in the backstory of Lena's pupil Maillesia (which involved her going into hiding and having to pretend she's much younger than she truly is to avoid him or his troops) and in Yubello and Yumina's (as the fallen heirs of Ludvick, Lang and others kill their guardian and then use them as pawns)
    • There's also Princess Maria, whose own brother Michalis uses as a hostage to force their sister Minerva to fight for him. As a result, Maria spends a long part of her life as a hostage, and Minerva can't do anything but fight on the evil Michalis's orders to ensure she won't die.
  • The Fire Emblem Jugdral games bring up the Video Games An horrifying project in which boys and girls from all the Jugdral continent are Video Games The parents are more often than not killed when they try to oppose to this. The heroes, several of them being very young teenagers not much older than these kids, have to fight themselves to save these poor kids (and in Thracia, more than one chara who joins the troupe actually does so specifically either to thanks them for saving the children, or to make up for having been in the side of the Empire); meanwhile, more than one villain in the game is troubled by the existence of such deals, and those who aren't are pretty much Complete Monsters.
  • Pokémon Black and White gives us Video Games. To rub salt in that, Video Games.
    • Preceded in Pokemon Platinum by a post-game encounter with an elderly man who laments that he knew his grandson was living in an emotionally unhealthy home (whether it was abusive or just that severely neglectful is left to speculation), but didn't do anything to help until it was already too late to save him. It's heavily implied that his grandson is Cyrus, the Big Bad of the game. Imagine living with the guilt of knowing you could have prevented that and didn't.
  • In Deus Ex the player has the option to read the emails of a cyborg government agent. In one email he expresses fears about new innovation's in cybernetics that will render him obsolete and useless thus forcing the government to fire him and leaving him without specialist care he requires to function.
  • Trying to protect your son by training him only to find out he's run away because you pushed him too hard.
  • From the romance horror that is Catherine:
    • On day 3, Vincent unexpectedly finding out that Video Games. This sort of revelation hits him like a truck, and it would with any other couple if they weren't Video Games.
    • Picture this: You've been going out with your girlfriend for the past five years, and she's been talking about getting married and making things permanent. It hasn't been the most exciting of relationships, but for the most part you're content with it. One day, you hit up the local bar, and the next thing you remember, aside from a nightmare that you barely even remember, is that you've woken up next to a random beautiful woman, and it's implied that the two of you did...things the night before. Still not freaking out? Not only does this woman not know you already have a girlfriend, but she threatens to kill you if she finds out you're seeing someone else. It certainly doesn't help that this Yandere girl does have everything you could ever want in a girlfriend, which now throws you into deciding between your longtime lover and this new girl. And just when you're contemplating how to get yourself out of this mess, you find yourself in several situations where these two women nearly find out about each other. Welcome to the life of Vincent Brooks!
  • The entire premise of the Max Payne series, which not only has his wife and baby daughter killed, but later leads to him being framed for getting too close to the truth, leaving him all alone in a Crapsack World with no-one to trust. Despite seemingly tying up all loose ends in the first game, It Gets Worse (hence the sequel).
  • For all the Narm you might expect in a JRPG, Final Fantasy XIII does explore the feelings of a single father whose only son is taken away from him by The Government, as well as those of a woman who loses her younger sister and of a man who loses his fiancee (same person) to a fate even worse.
  • Katawa Shoujo. Think about this... how horrifying would it be if you can hear one of your friends in distress... but you can't see them, have no way of finding them, and don't know how serious the problem is? Congratulations, you now know Video Games feels when Video Games And it happens in Video Games's own route, so it takes place Video Games
  • Kingdom Hearts. Imagine this: It's stormy outside — really stormy. Your child has been in his room all evening. You go upstairs to call him in for dinner... the window's open, he's gone, and so are his two friends and their boats. He doesn't come back for years — during which you have no idea where he is, or if he's safe, or if he can ever come back. (Of course, the parents of the main characters never get more than a shadow in a doorway...) On the other hand, Word of God states that a world remains frozen in time once it is swallowed by the darkness. Also, due to events of Chain of Memories, the parents forget about their son until Namine restored Sora's memories, which means that they only started worrying at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II.
  • Very little of World of Warcraft is particularly scary for most people, because it's not that kind of game, but amidst all the Money Spiders and Eldritch Abomination Loot Pinatas, there's at least one storyline where one questgiver is the ghost of a little girl who doesn't understand that she's dead and her hometown is in ruins. You wind up helping her find her doll, among other things, because she's lonely.
  • Super Street Fighter IV: Crimson Viper's win quote against Oni, Akuma at his strongest form, in the process becoming, or at least close to a Physical God interprets how she barely survived the battle and worry about her daughter Lauren's future. The real kicker? What's the point of fighting a god (or a being of pure evil) trying to kill you? Yet, your chances of survival are uncertain given that you are also a mother raising a daughter...
"Lauren... Don't worry, I'll be home to tuck you in tonight."
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