Crapsack World/Video Games: Difference between revisions

** And then there's ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]''. Imagine a vast battlefield populated by soulless automatons. Each of the warring factions has to kill all others [[There Will Be Cake|to reach Nirvana]]. ''Then'' add human emotions and the [[Superpower Lottery]] into the mix. The rigidly imposed order breaks down into a [[Social Darwinist]] society, and ''then'' a Tribe ''succeeds'' in killing all major competitors and breaking the final rules. '''''Then''''' it's revealed it's all an AI simulator... and the real world's blasted beyond recognition, corrupted and twisted... due to a [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|human attempt to study God and harness his power]].

* Notch's upcoming [[Science Fiction]] game [[Zero X One Zero C|0x10c]] is set in the dying era of the universe.

* ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]] Gaiden'' sends the good guys to a crapsack alternate future, where mankind was really screwed three times over. First, a gigantic gravity wave devastated the planet, then the Dinosaur Empire from ''[[Getter Robo]]'' beat up on the survivors, and THEN a full fledged war broke out between the Earth bound [[Xabungle|Innocent faction]] and the Space bound [[Turn A Gundam (Anime)|Moon Race]] that totally set back civilization for a good, long while. By the time your heroes get there, the ocean level is about 45% what it used to be, over half the world is a wasteland, the politicians on all sides are scheming, technology hoarding assholes with power complexes, and did we mention the Dinosaur Empire wants to turn the planet into the Mezosic Era, killing us all off, or that some creepy mechanically mutated humans called the Ancestors also want to kill us and literally redefine the world by their terms? It should also be noted that it's implied all the space colonies are destroyed, and whats left of the planet is valiantly struggling to heal from centuries of nukes, biomechanical destructive nanomachines, and more than a few [[Colony Drop|Colony Drops]]s. In an interesting aversion of SRW's idealism, even if you do give the alternate future Earth the ability to have a second chance and change history, that does NOT activate the [[Reset Button]], and the Earth is still shown healing from all of the damage it has taken.

* ''[[Castlevania]] II: Simon's Quest'' shows what kind of world you saved in the previous game. The land is barren and lifeless, gravestones are everywhere, people are too poor to afford anything but unfurnished brick rooms, most will lie to you or tempt you with sin, expensive mansions once owned by the rich have signs of torture and enslavement, and creatures don't even bother to inhabit areas that people have long since abandoned and left to crumble. Blame this all on "Dracula's Curse" if you want, but there's a reason why most of the games take place inside Castlevania -- whoCastlevania—who's to say things are better on the outside?

*** Actually [[Air Ex]] (Air Exchange) was removed because they wanted to take the story in another direction, its removal had nothing to do with time constraints. It was actually cut 2 years before ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' was released, with the last [[Air Ex]] map having been modified in 2002.

* The world of ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'' doesn't look that bad at first -- therefirst—there's some intense [[Fantastic Racism]], but nothing too alarming. Then you start seeing what the world is ''actually'' like as you play. Plagues of natural disasters and hostile creatures. Humans who are literal or virtual slaves to Ferals -- beastmenFerals—beastmen who rule the world, and have so much political and physical power that they can literally get away with ''eating'' human children over trivial slights. The fact that the world appears to be headed for an inevitable decay into an uninhabitable desert. And that's just some of the ''first'' things you see or hear about. It's not too surprising that the ''heroes'' are the ones who said "screw it" and [[Omnicidal Maniac|want to destroy the world]] because whatever comes next will ''have'' to be better -- evenbetter—even if what's next is nothing at all.

* Holy crap, does the world in ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'' suck. After being ravaged by a being called the Black Beast, it then became governed by a totalitarian institution known as the Library. This totalitarianism resulted in the Ikaruga Civil War which, of course, left many, many people either dead or oppressed. Furthermore, the government imposes restrictions on anyone who uses a magic known as Armagus will be killed. To put things in perspective, when a man who kills every man and woman within a government institution is seen as the main [[Anti-Hero]], you know things are screwed up. There's also a angelic woman who's kind to everyone and possibly the only good soul out there in that world and to be taken seriously. Guess what? [[Token Good Teammate|She's siding that totalitarian institution now (albeit only to save someone and she's been broken quite a bit)]]. Aside of that there's also a hammy hero of justice who really swore to uphold justice. There's only one problem though: He's your [[Joke Character]]. That's right, the world made it so that if you ever try to be overly positive and unbroken, you'll not be taken seriously. Of course, there's another catch: The totalitarianism is rumored to be controlled by a [[Complete Monster]] [[Troll]]. And God help you if you got a vagina in your body while living in this world. That monster troll will have his delight in [[Break the Cutie|breaking you physically and mentally]] [[For the Evulz|for his own amusement.]] Have fun.

** But if said [[Complete Monster]] [[Troll]] is defeated, things will at least make it to a [[World Half Full]] status, right? Well, they might and, frankly speaking, that is probably your best bet here, but considering the fact that said Monster Troll is [[Evil Genius|highly cunning,]] [[Crazy Prepared|intelligent,]] [[Game Breaker|powerful to extreme]] ([[SNK Boss|it also seeps to gameplay]]), and frankly speaking, [[The Battle Didn't Count|unfair levels]], ''and'' [[Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness|is approaching Infinite levels of effectiveness]], [[Karma Houdini|no known weak spots for Karmic Hammer to hit]], making his opposition look inefficient even when "[[Xanatos Gambit|beating]]" him ,<ref>Can we say [[Villain Sue]] yet?</ref>, not to mention the fact that [[Big Bad Duumvirate|he's accompanied with a taciturn, but equally monstrous]] [[Mad Scientist]] whose powers are ''also'' off the scale... [[Running Gag|Good luck]] [[Rule of Three|with that, mate]].

** Exacerbating the matters is the fact that the cast, aside from the [[Big Bad Duumvirate]], is quite disorganized. Here's a rundown on why: <ref>The aforementioned [[Anti-Hero]] shuns company, though winds up tolerating a clearly [[Cloudcuckoolander|mentally underdeveloped]] [[Catgirl]]. The aforementioned angelic doctor is on the wrong side of the tracks, all for the sake of an amorphous [[Eldritch Abomination|aberration]] who she once knew, and said abberation, when human, was instead a glory-hound, self-serving, fame-seeking man with gigantic inferiority complex and constantly rejected her help and support (and he's not showing any signs of fixing that ego of his after what happened to him), and while she still cared on other people that do cared about her, a love from a hammy ninja of justice goes unrequited as said ninja of justice got designated into the role of [[Joke Character]] and [[Butt Monkey]] (though with some... things, he's working on that), while attempting to defend his country rather than saving her (granted, he's not aware). There's a werewolf butler who serves a vampire, but he's only as modest in attitude as she allows, and she is too haughty for good's sake ([[Character Development|she's working on that]]). The son of one of the major villains has a mechanical custodian who's actually his sister, who he was forced to service on his own due to daddy's abandonment of them, aaand he's got a knack on killing you with a polite smile on his face in case you're holding some information that he wants ([[Character Development|he's working on that]], thanks to said angelic doctor and hammy ninja of justice). The iron knight patrolling the land is quite aloof and easily driven to violence under the wrong circumstances, and his idea of 'justice' would be "This world is corrupt, I'm gonna cleanse EVERYTHING there, innocent or not!"... and does NOT trust humans at all. And then there's the [[Magical Girl]] who harbors three personalities, two of which are literally childish while the third is sealed away 99% of the time. Under the NOL banner, we have a determined, if psychotic, young man with ''severe'' brother-complex with the [[Anti-Hero]] ([[Character Development|he's working on that]]), a warm young lady who goes cold when she's on the battlefield ([[Dark Secret|don't ever ask why that is]]); and said psychotic young man just plain HATE HER for no reason; and another young lady dedicated to upholding justice ([[Knight Templar|most]] [[Brainwashed and Crazy|vigorously]]). There's a resistance movement, which are also no better than the totalitarian institute in general practice, its three members of note include a [[Mad Scientist]] whose nuclear arsenal vastly outweigh her temperament and is so hell bent in exacting vengeance on that [[Complete Monster]] [[Troll]] with her own hands; so much that nuclear arsenal is a viable option for her, and she would neglect on the pleas of help from that angelic doctor, who was once her student, thereby setting her off to the wrong road in the first place when she could've prevented that; a well-mannered and capable scientist/cyborg who is loyal to the aforementioned to a fault, programmed to do so and he's not fixing it for the moment, and a ([[Obfuscating Stupidity|normally]]) ditzy agent playing under the resistance banner while also paying lip service to NOL, but cares for the young lady with a [[Dark Secret]] to the point she's willing to betray ''just about anybody'' in the name of keeping her safe. Aside of that, there's also an actually wise badass cat who may actually be the candidate for goodness and unity, only to mostly fail to unite and be cryptic, not to mention having a grudge to said [[Complete Monster]] [[Troll]] for killing his human wife... which may be that dark, mysterious magician under the Troll's employment, who doesn't speak. EVER. Not to mention that if you walk somewhere wrong, you may meet up some robotic girl with tons of swords ready to cut you down, and if that [[Anti-Hero]] was nearby... God help you if you get between them because [[Yandere (disambiguation)|she'll get so jealous even on sight alone, and kill you for getting in between them]].</ref> TL;DR, rather than realizing the threat and working for a better future, everyone else is minding their own business. [[Overly Long Gag|Here's to unity, chap.]]

* Stages 3-63–6 in ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]'' take place in an inhabitable post-apocalyptic world where there's absolutely no signs of life, only ruins which are partly transformed into a factory for Stone-Like to produce ships and weapons against the remaining battleship crew.

** [[It Got Worse]] in the second game, where the realm of the first games have been wiped out by a magical Cataclysm that apparently destroyed the haflings and dwarves, there's a massive anti-magic [[The Empire|Empire]] wiping out as much as they can and the only real [[Hero Antagonist|Hero Antagonists]]s are the Elves that the previous Overlord apparently saved, but now they're all a bunch of whiny hippies concerned with the protection of fluffy creatures.

* ''[[Baroque (video game)|Baroque]]'' starts--andstarts—and ends--inends—in a barren wasteland, the world having been destroyed some time ago in a massive cataclysm known as The Blaze. Which is somehow [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|your fault]]. And [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|you don't remember anything about it]].

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' - 12,000BC and 2300AD. In the former, the majority of humanity is left cowering in caves on a frozen planet (it being the Ice Age); the lucky few with magical powers live on a [[Floating Continent]] cluster... which is being held up by the stolen power of an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that slumbers within the planet. Their ruler has gone mad from this power, and the only decent person among them is doomed to a terrible fate. The latter is 301 years after the [[Eldritch Abomination]] emerged and laid waste to the world. What's left of the human race survives in a constant state of starvation, the machines that maintain their lives on the verge of breaking down, and many are left to think they're alone because the landscapes between their domes are inhabited by horrible mutants. And down south, a [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|mad AI]] is turning humans into energy for her robot army. You cannot fix 12,000 BC, only survive its collapse; fortunately, preventing the horrors of 2300 AD is the goal of the game.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' takes place in one. The opening cutscene introduces you to a world where Heaven has been destroyed, the world is threatened by a near-unstoppable army of monsters, and the only people who could possibly stop them are nearly extinct and are forgotten and ignored by the world at large, to the point that it might be too late to save the world. It gets worse. Let's see... there's the [[Knight Templar|Knight Templars]]s who go around killing anyone who shows magical ability and didn't submit to be stolen from their family and allow themselves to be turned into a soulless husk or subjected to an oppressive training regimen that possibly ends with their death -- anddeath—and <s> might actually be</s> justified in doing so (mages are the ones who blew up heaven and created the Blight, ''and'' their very existence attracts Demons to the world); the fact that elves only exist as virtual or literal slaves to humanity or exiled tribes in the wilderness; the dwarves have been waging a losing war against aforementioned army of monsters for generations and only have two remaining cities; the fact that government and nobility seem to be corrupt and laden with treachery almost by nature... well, from here, let's just mention that the developers specifically mentioned ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' as inspiration and leave it be, shall we?

* ''[[EveEVE Online]]'' is a crapsack world for anyone who isn't a capsuleer or safely tucked away in a station, as most of the game consists of going out and blowing up everyone else.

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' has this for the afterlife. You can have a normal life and then die, and what's waiting for you after death? A seven-day game run by the Composer. You do tasks, but you're hunted down by Noise, things that can erase your existence, Reapers, that can erase your existence... and if you make it to the end, you can either choose erasure or reaper-- notreaper—not many people win the ultimate prize {{spoiler|being reborn}} The game is also fixed. Good luck!

* ''[[Nie RNieR]]'' has magic infecting an unsuspecting world via the inverted [[Golden Ending]] of ''[[Drakengard]]''. As a result, seasons and even the daylight cycle have been utterly broken. Wildlife is disappearing, and contact between the few remaining human settlements is being eroded by the ever-increasing hordes of monsters known as Shades literally lurking in every shadow. The few humans that survived are slowly succumbing to a disease known as the [[The Corruption|Black Scrawl]]. Humanity as a whole is slowly facing extinction. The titular [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|Chronic Hero]] is doing [[Sidequest|whatever he can]] to brighten people's days, but even he can only offer bittersweet closure, not any actual good news.

* [[Earth 2150]]. The never-ending war between the [[The Empire|Eurasian Dynasty]] and the [[America Takes Over the World|United Civilized States]] comes to a head when the UCS' [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|military AI]] shoots a nuke into the North Pole, screwing up Earth's orbit and hurtling it into the sun. The conflict escalates because both sides are trying to harvest what's left of the planet's resources. Not even the independent lunar colony is safe so they are pulled into the conflict. The sequels showed they all escaped Earth's destruction but their conflict continues.

* The [[StarcraftStarCraft]] universe. Earth exiles it's convicts to the far reaches of the galaxy. Said convicts found the [[The Empire|Confederacy]] which proceeds to oppress its inhabitants. The Sons of Liberty overthrow the Confederacy and found the Terran Dominion in its place (Different name, same M.O.). [[It Gets Worse|Then the humans get caught in the war between the Protoss and the Zerg]].