Examples of this trope in Video games and Visual novels
Video Games[]
- In Disgaea Hour of Darkness, Etna's final episode preview does not focus on her and is actually an accurate portrayal of the final chapter. The other characters promptly freak out.
- Baldur's Gate II character Jan Jansen's reaction to virtually any situation is to regale the party with long, rambling and highly implausible stories about his supposed past adventures which have a (highly tenuous) connection to their current predicament. Except when everyone gets dragged down to The Abyss, where after much searching he admits to being stumped. Haer'Dalis immediately predicts the arrival of the apocalyse.
- In Final Fantasy X 2, whenever Rikku and Brother agree on something, the general reaction is "take cover."
- When Snake from Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors opens his eyes, you know not to fuck with him.
- In 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."
- In Final Fantasy VIII, Fujin's sole line of dialogue that isn't Hulk Speak is pleading with Seifer to reconsider his loyalty to Ultimecia.
- It's generally a bad sign whenever a member or former member of the Omega Team in Last Scenario changes expressions. Helios really takes the cake, though--no matter what you do to him, he never stops smirking, right up until the sequence in which he sacrifices his life to let Castor escape.
- In Final Fantasy X, Auron is the perpetually stoic Cool Old Guy par excellence. He loses his cool three times: when Seymour kills Kinoc, when he sees the sphere image of himself failing to save Jecht and Braska, and when the group confronts Yunalesca and it's never a good sign.
- In the Shivering Isles add-on for The Elder Scrolls IV, your biggest clue that things are about to go bad is when Sheogorath tells you you're out of time with an explaination of the concept of time, which is a bit too orderly and lucid for the usually chaotic and wacky Sheogorath, indicating that he's about to become Jyggalag and begin the destruction of the titular isles.
- In the Mass Effect games, the Motor Mouth salarian doctor Mordin Solus never uses personal pronouns. Except once, in the third game, if, when trying to talk him out of curing the genophage, you point out he was the one who previously helped strengthen it.
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Mordin: I MADE A MISTAKE! |
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- This is a double OOC moment, as Mordin normally never shouts. Makes the moment all the more poignant...
- On a lesser scale, he says "My mistake" on his loyalty mission when he finds out that Maelon was not kidnapped and instead was voluntarily helping to cure the genophage.
- The key word in both of these examples is "mistake." Mordin is never insensitive to the consequences of his actions, but his tremendous intelligence and pride make it difficult for him to acknowledge when he's made a bad decision, which means he'll defend the genophage modification as distasteful but necessary every time you confront him about it up until you reach the Shroud. His explanation for why he's participating in Mass Effect 3 isn't even that he feels guilty; it's the condescending, at best neutral, "Someone else might have gotten it wrong."
- In Tales of the Abyss, Jade says, after weighing the possible benefits of Luke sacrificing himself, tells Luke that "as (his) friend" he feels compelled to stop him, prompting Luke to point out that he never called him his friend before. Jade then apologizes, something that's equally uncharacteristic of him. Earlier, Jade gets visibly angry when he realizes that the villains are using fomicry.
- Princess Hinoka's retainer Setsuna in Fire Emblem Fates is an absent-minded klutz whose main trait is falling into traps, and her in-game stats and levels typically show this by having her several levels behind Hinoka and her fellow retainer Azama. In Conquest, however, not only does she behave more seriously, but her levels and stats are on par with Hinoka's and Azama's for the player's penultimate battle against the former. Seeing the emotional damage done to Hinoka by Corrin's choosing Nohr and going along with the invasion of Hoshido has drained the ditziness right out of her, all she wants is to protect her liege even if it means her own death.
Visual Novels[]
- In 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 throws Hisao out of her house, Rin becomes surprisingly direct and to-the-point.
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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. |
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- 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 Misha 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
- Back to OOC Is Serious Business