Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,483
edits
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:DarkerAndEdgier.VideoGames 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:DarkerAndEdgier.VideoGames, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
No edit summary |
||
(16 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}
* Id Software did this. Their earlier publication, ''[[Commander Keen (Video Game)|Commander Keen]]'', was a lighter hearted game that was quite intended for children and maybe relatively more innocent hearted adults. Id Software is famous for popularising the first person shooter in the form of ''[[Wolfenstein 3D (Video Game)|Wolfenstein 3D]]'' and ''[[Doom (Video Game)|Doom]]''.▼
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
▲* Id Software did this. Their earlier publication, ''[[
** Strangely enough the characters of all these games appear to be related, as discussed [http://www.cracked.com/article_19323_6-movie-tv-universes-that-overlap-in-mind-blowing-ways_p2.html here]
* Bioware games as a whole have been going through this. Their first few games (''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** Apparently some people thought it was [[Memetic Mutation|Victorious and Uplifting]].
** While ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* When the first ''[[Metal Gear]]'' came out, people saw it as a little fun and cheesy action game with a twist on stealth elements. Then starting with the second game and the Solid series, [[It Got Worse]]. By the time of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', you could expect the world to blow up at any moment and can't do a thing about it. {{spoiler|It's actually surprising that at the end of the series, that about 80% of all named characters died. For most of the time, it feels like there would be a lot fewer people to make it to the end alive.}}
* The idealistic ''[[Ultima IV]]: Quest of the Avatar'' was followed up with ''[[Ultima V]]'', which involved resisting an oppressive tyrant using twisted versions of the very virtues the previous game was founded on to keep power. THAT was followed up by ''[[Ultima VI]]: The False Prophet]]'', which STARTS OUT with the hero narrowly avoiding being sacrificed as part of a terrible and brutal interspecies war.
** And that trilogy was the Age of Enlightenment. Let's not get started on the Age of Armageddon...
* Although the ''[[Fallout]]'' series isn't exactly cheery to begin with (what with being set in a [[After the End|post apocalyptic wasteland]] and all), the first 2 games mainly focus on various towns and civilizations rising from the ashes and trying to rebuild, and contained a lot of dark humour and pop culture references, especially ''[[Fallout 2]]'', which is considered the silliest game in the series. ''[[
** ''[[Fallout
** In a wider sense, the canon itself is supposed to be [[Darker and Edgier]], with the developers stating they really don't like the comedic elements. However, since the comedic moments do draw a portion of their fanbase and the game is, in part, a dark satire of the 1950s, they have relegated some of the zanier comedy to noncanon status, never mentioning it in future games, glossed over it [[Broad Strokes]] style, or, in the rare case it is plot relevant, downplayed as much as possible
* The shift in style between ''[[Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy]]'' and its successor, ''[[Jak II Renegade]]'' took place during the opening cinematic. In the original, the tone was light, the hero was a [[Heroic Mime]], his rodential sidekick joked all the time, and the combat was minimal and hand-to-hand. At the beginning of ''Jak II'' the heroes [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|traveled forward in time]], released an extra-dimensional evil onto the world in the process, then skipped over two years of Jak being tortured under lab settings. After that, [[Suddenly Voiced|Jak got a voice]], a sardonic attitude, a [[BFG|gun]], and became a card-carrying [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]; Daxter got some dirtier jokes, and was dropped from the title. This [[Time Travel]] based change was a plausible way to change the world of the game drastically in one scene.
* The original ''[[Double Dragon]]'' was already a gritty game to begin with, but the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'' attempted to up the ante by [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome|killing off the girl from the first game]], changing the objective from [[Save the Princess|rescuing her]] to [[Stuffed in The Fridge|avenging her death.]] All the returning enemy characters were redesigned to look more punkish (Linda the female [[Mook]] for example, was given a mohawk and a chain whip) and the new bosses includes a masked wrestler who leaves behind his mask when he dies and an [[Andre the Giant]]-lookalike with [[Terminator (
* A much less successful video game example was ''[[
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] is overall somewhere between Mario and Zelda in terms of creepiness, but its tone is darker nowadays than it was when starting out.
** ''[[
** ''[[
** The Sonic Adventure series goes beyond Sonic games prior to it in intensity; [[Sonic Adventure
** ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', where [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic's]] [[Evil Twin]] [[Base Breaker|Shadow]] (introduced in ''[[
** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
** ''[[Sonic Chronicles]]: The Dark Brotherhood''.
** In ''[[
*** And then, the game explicitly tells you that the only reason why Sonic isn't massacring everyone is because he's got a will of titanium laced with diamonds, and that's what's keeping his Werehog side from going on a total rampage. The Werehog is very much not harmless at all, it's only Sonic's willpower keeping it on a leash that manages to somehow defuse its threat factor.
** ''[[
** ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' is somewhat dark, with the whole concept that [[Nightmare Fuel|when Sonic's friends were turned into statues, their souls were left floating in a dark, endless void]].
* The teaser trailer in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' suggested that ''[[
** And then there's ''[[
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts
{{quote|
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' kind of inverts the usual use of [[Darker and Edgier]]. Aesthetically, it has stayed pretty even for the entire series. ''Thematically,'' it's changed from a nostalgic romp through Disney worlds in search of missing friends to a thorough exploration of what it means to care wholeheartedly about other people - which in itself tends to run the gamut from [[WAFF|impossibly cute fluff]] to [[Tear Jerker|emotional pain so unbearable that not having a heart seems preferable.]]
* While on the subject of [[Disney]] related games, ''[[
** ''Epic Mickey'' has a different kind of dark to it. Rather than dealing with [[Body Horror]] robotic chimeras of our favorite Disney characters like first expected, it's about the consequences of Mickey's irrationality and how he must make up for it.
* In the 90's, the space sim genre dominated by ''[[Star Wars: X-Wing]]'' and ''[[Wing Commander (
* ''[[Advance Wars]]: Days of Ruin'' is clearly Darker And Edgier than the other three ''[[Advance Wars]]'' games, which sometimes bordered on silly. It pulls it off just fine, thanks in part that it's a brand new continuity, plus the fact that it recognizes that adult themes don't necessarily mean throwing out all humor. It works because the setting is [[After the End]] but the survivors are trying to make the best of things. The doctor exemplifies this, saying that it's times like this you need to laugh. The last mission is called [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Sunrise]].
* The original ''[[Rayman]]'' was packed to the brim with cheery, bright colours, silly characters and all sorts of silly things that make its sequel, ''Rayman 2: The Great Escape'', look extremely grim in comparison. Fortunately, the latter also added an additional sense of mystery and wonder, not to mention consistency, to Rayman's world, so it all works out.
Line 42 ⟶ 45:
** Moreover, when ''[[Serious Sam]]'' was released, some reviewers thought that the game was a bit too bright, light-hearted and silly, which didn't exactly keep up with the game's old-school ''[[Doom]]'' and ''[[Quake]]'' influence, or in one reviewer's words, "too ''Braindead'' and not ''Aliens'' enough". With its significantly meaner attitude, it looks like ''[[Painkiller]]'' was the game these reviewers wanted ''[[Serious Sam]]'' to be.
** Considering ''[[Serious Sam]]'' not only recreated but also parodied the "gunning down masses of Mook" gameplay (and gleefully lampshades its parodies), it seems said reviewers [[Comically Missing the Point|completely missed the point]].
* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
** ''Pokémon Platinum''. In Diamond/Pearl, we get Dialga and Palkia, and the Team Galactic storyline ends at the Spear Pillar. In Platinum, we get [[Nightmare Fuel|Giratina's shadow interrupting the proceedings from another dimension]], and have to carry the chase onwards into [[Dark World|the Distortion World]]. ''Nothing'' lives in the Distortion World except for Giratina, making it a literal [[Ghost City|Ghost World]]. It's just...eerily calm. [[Gravity Screw|It also has some issues with proper gravity.]]
** ''Black'' and ''White'' definitely qualify, too - {{spoiler|the game does ''not'' in fact end with the Champion as in the previous four generations, the villainous team takes a ''much'' heavier role in the plot than before, the plot itself is much less of an [[Excuse Plot]], and on top of all that we also have the single most despicable villain in the series.}}
** Just look at the title screens. The first gen features the protagonist Red with the first stage of the version mascot. The second gen shows the version legendary flying above the clouds/swimming in the ocean while heroic music is playing. The third gen's theme tune is already a lot more eerie, with the title screen showing the version legendary in a volcano/the bottom of the ocean, with only its silhouette and glowing lines clearly visible (the actual games weren't too dark aside from the stuff involving said legendaries, though.) Then the fourth and fifth gens comes along and you get a creepy piano and ominous remix of the main theme (respectively), with the version legendary standing in a glowing void, and a [[Scare Chord]] playing upon hitting start, or in Platinum and Gen V's case, the version legendary ''screaming at you''.
Line 50 ⟶ 53:
*** In Silver/Gold/Crystal, Team Rocket comes back and seems to have [[Tooka Level In Evil|taken a level in evil]]: taking over government buildings, actively poaching pokemon and carrying out brutal experiments on pokemon evolution.
*** In Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, we have Teams Magma and Aqua [[Utopia Justifies the Means|who are both willing to cause extreme ecological damage for the betterment of pokemon and humans.]]
*** In Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, you have Team Galactic, who are trying to gain control of the [[Physical God|literal gods of the pokemon universe]] so their [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|leader can rewrite the fabric of existence.]]
*** The [[Darker and Edgier|darkness and edginess]] of the series seems to go down a bit, but not really, with Team Plasma in Black and White who claim to want to free pokemon from human slavery but [[Straw Hypocrite|actively use and abuse pokemon for their own goals.]]
**** Black and White also have arguably the single most evil villain, Ghetsis, who {{spoiler|abused his own son and brainwashed him into believing that humans are evil so he would help his father with his ambitions for world domination.}}
** ''[[
** Orre, by the way, is officially based off the American Southwest, Arizona in particular. Thinking of Arizona as a ''[[Mad Max]]'' wasteland is amusing.
* Done well for the nightmarish ''[[Twisted Metal]]: Black''. To put this in perspective, ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' began as a series about a burn victim inheriting genie like powers, and putting on a no holds barred kill or be killed destruction derby in densely populated areas between maniacs with heavily armed vehicles. They went darker from there.
* Rather than an adorable ''[[Astro Boy (
** ''[[
** ''[[Mega Man ZX
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** However, the sequel contains one of the darkest plotlines in the entire series. The Apollo Flames "second quest" involves an alternate universe [[After the End]] scenario where every human has been [[Kill
*** The third game has some decidedly un-cheery plot elements, such as {{spoiler|two war orphans trying to use an [[Eldritch Abomination]] to destroy the world's technology, a corrupting, quasi-[[Hate Plague]], and one character being killed before Geo's eyes (Luckily they turn out to be [[Only Mostly Dead]]).}}
* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'', the likable prince of the previous game had apparently given up both shaving and civility after years of [[Implacable Man|being chased by the Dahaka]]. The game also became more combat-heavy, and threw out the atmospheric Middle-Eastern soundtrack of the previous game for fist-pumping heavy metal. Oh, and the lesser antagonists are women in [[Stripperiffic]] outfits, one of whom is introduced with an extreme close-up aimed [[Male Gaze|directly at her thong-clad ass]]. Though the third game scaled back on the GRIM DARK while keeping the improved combat system.
** Meanwhile the Two Thrones is darker in the sense of storytelling, pitting the Prince against the darker and edgier persona of himself
* Not even an obscure series like ''[[Snowboard Kids]]'' can escape this trope, with the DS installment gutting nearly everything that gave the earlier games their quirky charm for the sake of appealing to teenagers. Neither the critics nor the small but dedicated fanbase were amused, which possibly spells doom for the franchise.
* Though ''[[Halo (
** The story goes that the original script for [[Halo 3]]'s ending had a much lighter tone, with all the main characters returning to Earth to a hero's welcome. Marty O'Donnel, Bungie's musical director, thought that this ending was too [[Lighter and Softer|light and soft]] and didn't portray the grim consequences of being a "hero" in a 30-year war. Subsequently the script was re-written to have a much Darker And Edgier ending in which several main characters die and Master Chief {{spoiler|is stranded in deep space with Cortana, presumed dead by the rest of humanity}}.
** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' is supposed to be the darkest depressing game thus far since you [[Doomed
* ''[[
** Dante in ''[[
** This appears to be what Ninja Theory is going for with DmC, which is a reboot featuring a younger, more rebellious Dante. Many fans complained that this "emo" kid wasn't the "real" Dante, ignoring the fact that the design isn't too far off from DMC 4's Nero, who wasn't the "real" Dante either, and completely eclipsed him in the promotion. He even has the a similar hoodie-and-trenchcoat look. Also, the new Dante seems to be more cocky and punk rock than emo.
* Done in ''[[
** If anything, people complain because Niko wasn't dark ''enough''.
** The current generation of ''[[
** Subverting the first two main stories of the IV generation, the last IV DLC ''[[Grand Theft Auto:
* The original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (
** ''[[Paper Mario:
*** ''[[
** ''[[Mario
*** Toad Town. Literally just pieces of rubble tossed around. Compare to Toad Town of ''Bowser's Inside Story''. Even Peach's Castle from the latter isn't so... Devastated and dangerous as Shroob Castle!
** ''[[Mario Strikers|Mario Strikers Charged]]'' did this in a tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top way.
** And let's ''definitely'' not even get us started on the times [[New Super Mario Bros
** ''[[Mario Party
* The original ''[[Super Smash Bros
* ''[[
** Ironically enough, the port for the Xbox was ''less'' offensive due to enforced censorship on swear words. [[
* Not to pile on [[DC Comics]] again... but they did agree to make a crossover game called ''[[
** The series itself seems to get darker every other installment.
* The unreleased Playstation game ''Thrill Kill'' is the Darker and Edgier form of ''Mortal Kombat''. Yes, that is possible. The game was never released because it got an AO (Adults Only) rating for being too gory and sexual (AO-rated games are not allowed on consoles, San Andreas being an exception), and because Virgin Interactive was bought up by EA Games, who refused to release something like this.
* As the ''[[Command
** Example: in the first game, the worst thing to happen was one faction slaughtering a village and blaming it on the other; Tiberium was a minor nuisance when it was growing in the wrong place. In the third, Tiberium growth had reached catastrophic levels, over half of the world is in a state of anarchy, another world war breaks out and all that is topped by an alien invasion. How's that for Darker and Edgier? Though [[Word of God]] said that the fourth game is even worse with an [[Enemy Mine]] going on and YET ANOTHER visit from the Scrin on the horizon.
** Thankfully the Tiberium growth was stopped in the 4th series, but by no means the war is over. All this means is that Tiberium will no longer threaten the world as now anti-Kane Seperatists have their own agenda. And the Scrin remains to be a problem... or rather, they would if [[Aborted Arc|EA hadn't forgotten about them.]]
** On the other hand, the ''[[Red Alert]]'' series has headed in the ''[[Lighter and Softer|opposite]]'' direction as that series progressed.
*** Actually, it's Darker and Softer. If not for the fact that the series got weirder and weirder with each game, it would be quite disturbing.
* ''[[
** It only gets really Darker And Edgier if you pick Setsuko's route. Rand's route has several [[Camp]] elements and mostly considered light hearted. But Setsuko's route is just throwing you lots and lots of [[Break the Cutie]] moments to the poor heroine, and in the end... she doesn't get completely better...
** It is darker compared to past games. There are personality issues and infighting with nearly all the members or your team for most of the game, you are duped and betrayed several times throughout the game. All the original villains are more or less [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]], with the guy who does the worst things arguably the kindest since he isn't a psychotic bastard in it for the evil. Also your team at one point literally splits into factions and tries to kill each other with no Brainwashing involved. And the ending is bittersweet as some people are lost. It's pretty dark.
** You actually can save both crazy Gundam girls if you [[Guide Dang It|plan carefully]]. Compare it to SRW A, where you are forced to choose between {{spoiler|Master Asia and Gai Daigoji}} and can't save both no matter how hard you try. The storyline of Z is still dark as far as SRW games go, though.
** ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]] 2'' continues the dark trend with some [[Doomed
* ''[[Final Fight]]: Streetwise'' is a good example why you don't make it so damn Grim Dark. And they forgot our favorite [[
** To expand: Guy, the series [[Lawful Good]] [[Knight Errant]], becomes a mob boss. Cody? He does drugs. [[Broken Aesop|And they heal his permanent injuries.]]
* The ''[[
* The ''[[
** ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' tops that off with you getting to {{spoiler|witness your character being burned alive FROM FIRST PERSON.}}
** ''[[Modern Warfare]] 3'' is also quite dark, simply put the moment the cover went from men heroically attempting to break past the enemy lines to a silhoutte of a soldier with a gun was when the series became dark to the point of no possible return. {{spoiler|Oh, and everyone except Price dies as usual}}.
** ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops
*** And then there is the upcoming ''Call of Duty: Black Ops 2''. The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqOjoYRgnHs reveal trailer] literally states that ''the future is black''.
* ''Elevator Action'' featured an agent named Otto and was more spy themed, shooting down agents. Elevator Action Returns, however...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwqIBYvAofA did that].
* ''[[Ratchet: Deadlocked]]'' (and, arguably, ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'') was obviously targeted towards a more mature audience:
** Ratchet's new outfit hides his tail (and head throughout most gameplay) and makes him look suspiciously like Samus or Master Chief. (Likely intended to be the latter, considering the era it was released in.)
** Clank, although still having a major role, had his name removed from the western titles, likely to make the game seem less friendship-themed.
Line 117 ⟶ 120:
* ''[[Star Wars]] [[Republic Commando]]'' is dark to the point where some people complained it wasn't very Star Wars-like. For starters, no Opening Crawl is present, and there is blood and gore in heavy levels for a T-rated game. It's a first-person shooter in which you play as a clone trooper, and the scale, far from epic, is outright tiny. Not actually a bad game, but definitely darker. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] is veering towards this fast these days.
* Massive, massive change in mood between ''R:1'' and ''R:2'' in ''[[.hack]]''. The good AI are dead or apathetic, and players have gone from dealing well with depression to psychosis. It's possible that the third "season" ''R:X'' is trying to regain the innocence.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** And ''[[Alice
* There is some of this between ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** Rather, ''Morrowind'' is lighter on the surface. ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
** If you include the spinoffs, ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' constantly went through two phases of going [[Darker and Edgier]]. ''Arena'' was pretty light, ''Daggerfall'' was darker, ''Battlespire'' pushed the darkness as far as it could go. Then ''Redguard'' went back to square one, followed by ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion'' being progressively darker.''Skyrim'' meanwhile goes...in a bit of a zigzag. The world in ''Morrowind'' was pretty Crapsack, but you make it better. ''Oblivion'' is in a Crap-saccharine world. ''Skyrim'' goes ''right'' back to a crapsack world...even ''worse'' than the world in the previous games! Yet the story ends on a pretty idealistic side.
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (
* ''[[Blood Storm]]'' for all its [[Black and Grey Morality]] (only 2 were actual good guys, everyone else was either an [[Ax Crazy]] sociopath or a bastard) and [[Bloodier and Gorier]] worth compared to ''[[Time Killers]]'' failed miserably to compare to ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' since even in ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' morality wasn't that grey. This caused the company to go bankrupt as a result
** They now exclusively make Golden Tee games, learning their lessons from [[Follow the Leader|following the leader]] too closely.
* While the first ''[[Killzone]]'' wasn't sunshine and roses, it didn't have the feel or atmosphere of a dark game. ''Killzone 2'' plunged right through that and made everything dark and gritty, with dark and oppressive vistas of muted colors, increased character death rate, blood ''everywhere'' and a general feel of hopelessness in the fight. Quite like with ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'', [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel|going dark and edgy was a good choice here.]]
** Ditto for Resistance series which is completely bleak from the get go and only gets worse with sequel for humanity.
* ''[[Contra|Contra: Shattered Soldier]]'' went a long way to undo the optimistic ending of ''Contra III: The Alien Wars''. Bill Rizer, the hero of the original games, is now a wrongly accused war criminal convicted for causing [[After the End|the destruction of 80% of the world's population]], while his former partner Lance Bean is now a [[Well
** ''Neo Contra'' inverts this by essentially being a self parody of the series.
* [[Koumajou Densetsu]], fulfills this trope by putting the characters from ''[[Touhou
** Ironically just played with in the end, as only the designs and settings are truly Darker and Edgier - now that the game has dialogue (and in English, at that!) the story and characterizations are every bit as nutty as its mainstream counterpart.
** The sequel however plays this much straighter.
* ''[[
* Inverted with ''[[
* [[Square Enix]] has announced that ''[[
** Proven correct as it's cousin ''[[
** For 13-2, it was true with the ending. {{spoiler|Serah is dead, her sister is [[Taken for Granite]], the villain's [[Time Crash]] plan pulled through, Valhalla consumes the living world, the Goddess of Valhalla is dead, and the villain got off scot-free. Frankly speaking, it was a real [[Downer Ending]].}}
* The entire FF series went this direction after (or, one could say, starting with) [[Final Fantasy VI
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** If one would branch the 3D Zelda games into two categories, ''Toon-style'' and ''Real-style'', the "darkest" entry in the generally more cheerfully ''Toon-style'' category would be ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
* One could argue that ''[[Wild
* While not to the extent as other examples in this page, ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Homeworld
* ''Army of Two - The 40th Day'' was a much darker compared to ''[[Army of Two]]'', Morality decisions that is in the [[Black and Grey Morality]] section. A much darker plot and quite the number of people killed off.
* ''[[Max Payne 3]]'', as if the series wasn't already dark enough. There may be [[Creator Breakdown]] involved.
* ''[[
* ''[[Doom (
* ''Zork: Nemesis'' was a black sheep in the series, largely eschewing the light-hearted, satirical nature of the rest of the series for a dark, grim story set in an abandoned and ruined temple, where the only characters to interact with are four [[And I Must Scream|self-aware corpses]] and the [[Eldritch Abomination]] who killed them, [[It Got Worse|and that's just the first area.]]
* For a while the third sequel to [[Kid Icarus]] seemed to be heading this way, looking more like Nintendo's answer to ''[[God of War (
* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity
{{quote|
** Quite a few Sierra adventure game series turned Darker And Edgier around the fourth installment: ''[[King's Quest IV]]'', ''[[Space Quest]] IV'', and ''[[Quest for Glory IV]]'', for example, had more [[Nightmare Fuel]] than their respective predecessors.
* The Mother series falls under this somewhat. Mother 1 and 2 were relatively cheerful and funny, then comes Mother 3 where {{spoiler|Your mother dies (in the first 30 minutes of the game, no less), your brother goes missing after trying to avenge your mother's death (although its implied the main character thinks he's dead), your father dedicates his life to finding him, your brother is used by the big bad to pull the seven needles which if he gets more than half the WORLD ENDS, the big bad is an insane person who is thousands of years old and has the mind and body of a kid, and in the end your brother kills himself.}} Amazingly it does retain the humor of the previous games though.
** ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The [[Star Fox (
** If you count it, the unreleased ''Star Fox 2'' is dark by the fact that ''interplanetary ballistic missiles are used to destroy Corneria.'' To top it off, the ''entire game'' is on a time limit of sorts. Don't take out the missiles, ''and Corneria is '''hopelessly destroyed'''''.
* ''[[Syphon Filter]]'' was already rather dark to begin with, but ''Logan's Shadow'' especially [[Up to Eleven|turns up]] [[True Art Is Angsty|the angst factor]], with the IPCA shut down, Logan sent on a botched mission by corrupt bureaucrat Robert Cordell, Lian accused of treason by Cordell, and Logan's and Teresa's possible death at the end. Ironically, it has a T rating, as opposed to the M rating of previous games.
* ''[[Patapon]] 3'' is a rather mild example. The art style is much darker in this one and music has lots of heavy guitar riffs in it.
** The sequel is notably darker, instead of leading an army of Patapon, the Patapon are left to 4 survivors who are tossed into a dimension filled with dark demons and must fight them off with masks that can corrupt them.
* EA released a game that plays like ''[[Diablo (
** Just like ''[[
* While ''[[Transformers]]'' has had darker and lighter reboots multiple times, ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'' seems to be one of the darkest takes yet. For once it focuses on the fighting on Cybertron and how absolutely ''brutal'' it was, and we see [[Scenery Gorn|cities getting torn apart]], a nightmarish Decepticon war prison, and it's not just the Decepticons who have [[We Have Reserves|large numbers of unnamed expendable soldiers]].
* The "Wonderful Life" subseries of ''[[
** For the second, characters age in real time, which means the end of ''A Wonderful Life'' is {{spoiler|a wonderful death.}}
* ''[[
* The general direction of ''[[
** DF2010 gave made the [[Dug Too Deep|Hidden Fun Stuff]] go from {{spoiler|a handful of demons}} to {{spoiler|hell itself, spewing [[Zerg Rush|legions]] of demons}}, the [[Our Monsters Are Weird|randomly generated Titans and Forgotten Beasts]], and the strange, bizarre [[Beneath the Earth|underworld]].
** The recent .17 version of DF2010 came with the introduction of [[Things That Go Bump in
* Compare ''[[Robot Unicorn Attack (Sugar Wiki)|Robot Unicorn Attack]]'' to [[Robot Unicorn Attack (Darth Wiki)|the sequel]]. The original is [[Camp|fabulous]], while the sequel is [[Darker and Edgier]].
* ''[[Castlevania
* Telltale's ''[[The Adventures of Sam
** ''[[
* ''Hard Truck'' series started out as a trucking simulation game. Then ''Hard Truck Apocalypse'' spinoff was released where events take place in post-apocalyptic Europe.
* Would you believe ''[[
* According to [[Kevin Conroy]], ''[[Batman
** ''[[Batman
* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' went this direction. [[Tomb Raider (
** Especially with a new reboot of the series recently announced, this E3 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFBrgeSjj-0 trailer] definitely contains a much darker and emotional-scarring experience for our young heroine. Can't shake the feeling of [[Survival Horror]] on this one.
*** If you didn't feel [[Tear Jerker|anything]] [[Break the Cutie|at]] [[Darkest Hour|all]] watching the goddamn trailer, you are a horrible, horrible person.
* ''[[Tenchu]]'' isn't exactly a family friendly game but its prequel, ''Birth of the Stealth Assassins'', got rid of the supernatural elements and the soothing music and elaborated on Rikimaru and Ayame's tragic back story.
* ''[[Golden Sun
* ''[[Portal (
* While ''[[Mabinogi (
** It doesn't help that the cutscene where he's killed is right before the boss fight in a mission. And it's unskippable. Given the luck-factor in finishing quests, it's not uncommon to see him murdered over and over and over again.
* ''[[Rocket Knight Adventures]]'' was a cute game about a silly opossum who wears knight armor and a jet pack, and fights an army of pigs, who, when defeated, run around in their underwear after their armor is knocked off. There were two sequels released shortly after, both named ''Sparkster'', one for the SNES and one for the Genesis. The music is no longer as upbeat, the enemies are replaced with wolves or lizards (depending on which sequel), the humor and silliness are gone, Rocket Knight (now Sparkster) himself is no longer chubby and happy looking but instead slim and grim, and a lot of the original charm is gone.
* ''[[
* ''[[League of Legends]]''' newer skins as of August 9th, all of them felt a lot darker and grittier.
* ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'' was a fun light-hearted [[Console Wars]] game filled with a fun cast and a happy game overall. The [[Hyperdimension Neptunia
* ''[[Need for Speed]]'' is seemingly heading into this territory with [[Need for Speed]] The Run.
* Compared to the rest of the series, ''[[Hitman]]: Contracts'' is probably the darkest. All of the missions take place at night and it's usually raining. The game also has really haunting background music, and at least 4 of the missions have already dead bodies, one who was horribly butchered.
* ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[NHL Hockey|NHL '99]]'', where the menus had a grittier feel to them. However, this didn't change the content of the game.
* Although ''[[
* Playing the first few games of the ''[[Soul Series]]'', you think that the Soul Calibur is the "good" sword to the evil of Soul Edge, right? Not as of IV - Calibur is [[Knight Templar]], just as evil as Edge. Previously-sympathetic characters like Taki become major bitches. Justified as Soul Calibur was made from a purified shard of Soul Edge.
* ''[[
* ''[[X (
** Add to it a [[Broken Aesop]]. We're apparently supposed to think [[Designated Hero|the Argon are the good guys]] and [[Designated Villain|the Terrans are the bad guys]], even though the Argon committed the 30th century equivalent of [[War On Terror|9/11]] and are now trying to wipe the Terrans out, while the Terrans are acting in self-defense.
* ''[[
* ''[[Ghost Recon]]'' and ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' shifted to a darker direction as the newer soldiers are more like [[Military Maverick|Military Mavericks]] than by the orders soldiers and [[Spec Ops]], ''[[Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas]]'' exemplified the notable shift.
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' was the first M-rated game published by Nintendo, followed by ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' and ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' (contrary to public belief, ''Eternal Darkness'' was the ''third'' one, not the first).
* The ''Splatoon'' series took a really dark turn with ''Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion'': its campaign takes place in a dark underground subway network, dialogues heavily imply that no one there ever made it out of the underground, let alone to the surface of the planet, the [[Player Character]] is an Octoling [[Amnesiac Hero|with no memory of their past]] who was promised by a robotic voice speaking through a telephone a way out to the surface after completing a series of dealdy tests that were tried by 10,007 people before our Octoling protagonist (some players compare this expansion to ''[[Portal]]'' for the many similarities between the two), and we're not to the worst part: {{spoiler|turns out the telephone was actually controlled by an insane AI who brutally killed all other "test subjects" who made it through its trials, [[Cruel and Unusual Death|by mashing them to a pulp in a blender, no less,]] and plans to destroy every life on the planet to replace them by a better life form that will emerge from the DNA it gathered from its previous victims, because [[Villain Has a Point|it didn't like the war between Inkling and Octolings over their minor differences and their obscession over fashion choices.]]}}
* ''Fuga: Melodies of Steel'' marks a noticeable tone shift in the ''Little Tail Bronx'' series: it doesn't go as far as adding bloody violence and swearing (Kyle has a bit of a potty mouth but that's about it), but it clearly has a more dreary general atmosphere compared to the colorful ''[[Tail Concerto]]'' and ''[[Solatorobo]]'', the villains are [[Complete Monster|horribly cruel and heartless]] and the usual idea of the [[Kid Hero]] is [[Deconstruction|turned on its head]] by having you play as a group of regular children who thought it would be a good idea to fight back a military invasion by themselves aboard a big tank to save their families, and quickly learn the cruel reality of war (even the game mechanics include fear, depression and injuries as status effects they can suffer in battle). Oh, and said big tank has a superweapon that [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|requires you to sacrifice one of them to activate]]. If it weren't for the periodic intermissions that allow for a few light-hearted moments, this game would become depressing.
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
|