Darker and Edgier/Video Games: Difference between revisions

** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD]]'' has [[Bad Future]] versions of each of its zones, and an overall higher concentration of [[Nightmare Fuel]] than the Sonic games before it.

** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball]]'' features a much darker aesthetic than the main series games. One of the bosses actually shows the animal robotization process in [[Sonic the Hedgehog/Nightmare Fuel|horrid detail]].

** ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', where [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic's]] [[Evil Twin]] [[Base Breaker|Shadow]] (introduced in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'') was given the chance to drive cars, shoot guns, and [[Contemplate Our Navels|brood over his purpose in life]]. Occasional cursing was added to the US version.

** ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' attempts to toss Sonic into a hyper-realistic world, where he protects a princess {{spoiler|who is the container of Iblis, one half of Solaris, a time god}} from Eggman. Along the way, he, Shadow, and Silver deal with a conspiracy where it is revealed in the final storyline {{spoiler|Sonic dies to upset Elise to release Iblis ancient monster from her body, allowing that and the other villain, Mephiles, to merge to form Solaris, slaughtering the entire space-time continuum in the process. And then Elise kisses Sonic, reviving him with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, and restoring the space-time continuum from the damage dealt by Solaris, in the process.}}

** ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' is [[Denser and Wackier|significantly more lighthearted in tone, almost having a saturday morning cartoon approach to it]], despite Robotnik's evil schemes getting [[Sequel Escalation|even more dangerous and threatening]].

** ''[[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]].

** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' continues that trend, as shown by a line from the Keyblade Graveyard:

{{quote|'''Ven''': I'm asking you, as a friend. Just... {{spoiler|put an end to me.}}}}

** 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 Mystery Dungeon 2]] [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Explorers of Time/Darkness]]''. While the first game's offered a character that simply tried to ruin your protagonists' lives and was a cosmic [[Jerkass]], the sequel goes further by {{spoiler|sending your protagonist duo to the literal End of Days, having to face down a legendary Pokémon that has become an evilly subverted primal force of nature, and a [[Big Bad]] who not only traps children in unending nightmares, but also poses as an "ally" who suggests that it's ''all your fault and the best way to fix things is to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|kill yourself]].}}''

** ''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''.

*** 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.

** ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' was hands down the darkest in the series, what with the hero being ''on the losing side of the war'' (at first), giving the players the "pleasure" to see countless allies die. Not to mention the horrible [[Backstory]] (bridging this series with ''X''), which later gets incorporated into the main plot, and a truly [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[Complete Monster]] as the main [[Big Bad]]...

** ''[[Mega Man ZX|ZX]]'' was lighter than ''Zero''...except for the backstories of the four protagonists, the general atrocities caused by the antagonists, and Giro falling victim to Zero's death curse. It was still done well.

** ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' was definitely darker than its predecessor, ''[[Mega Man Battle Network|Battle Network]]''...somewhat. Appearances can be deceiving. Geo Stelar starts out being understandably depressed about his dad to the point where he won't go to school... But his depression quickly lifts the longer [[The Power of Friendship]] thing hangs around (Then it hits a roadblock when {{spoiler|Pat betrays him and Geo goes into a short-lived fit of [[Wangst]]}}). Star Force actually lightens up quite a bit after this point. The anime and manga were more comedic in nature (The latter a lot more so, like the Zero manga).

*** 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'Em All|killed off]] thanks to the Precursor To Ruin.

** If anything, people complain because Niko wasn't dark ''enough''.

** The current generation of ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'' plays to a cynical darker tune. ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV the Lost And Damned|The Lost and Damned]]'' DLC turns the Grim Dark [[Up to Eleven]], with the protagonist Johnny partaking in a series of events which leads to {{spoiler|the death of his best friend Jim at the hands of Niko, being betrayed by childhood friend turned [[Big Bad]] Billy Grey who tries to have Johnny and Jim killed during a drug deal and later attempts to sellout everyone to save his own ass after said drug deal gets him arrested, and said arrest leading to a civil war that wipes out more than half of the Lost. Once everything is over with Billy dead, Johnny and the survivors of the whole ordeal (One of whom happens to be a paraplegic crippled in an accident caused by Billy's carelessness) decide to just burn down the clubhouse to put it out of its misery after it and the club have been ruined over the course of the game. This leaves the player with a single, run down safehouse that is in one of ''the'' most run down areas of the city and used to belong to one of the Lost members Johnny had to kill in the civil war.}} [[Wham! Episode|Damn.]]

* The original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'' was fairly light and soft, with a generic "save the princess" story, fairly comical villains, and overall cartoony style. ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' had more of a "[[Dreaming of Things to Come|seeing upon waking what you saw in a dream]]" story, and introduced a variety of spookier enemies, like the Sparks, the Albatosses, (no, that's not a typo) the mousers, the tryclydes, the fryguys, and let's not forget the [[Super Mario Bros./Nightmare Fuel|ESPECIALLY intimidating]] Phantos. Even {{spoiler|the hawkmouths}} eventually become enemies. It's also the first Mario game to involve the use of bombs. Of course, many of the introductions are due to it being a [[Dolled-Up Installment]] of [[Doki Doki Panic|another game]].

** ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' is darker and edgier than the first ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]''. The first example of many that this game will be darker than the last is probably the ''gallows'' in Rogueport's town square. This is also a game in which Mario does jobs for [[The Family for the Whole Family|the Mafia]]. Nonetheless, the whole thing is fairly cheery and innocuous.

** And let's ''definitely'' not even get us started on the times [[New Super Mario Bros|when Bowser unexpectedly comes back to life as a zombie]] and [[Super Mario Galaxy|when Bowser tries to]] [[Super Mario Galaxy 2|take over outer space.]]

** ''[[Mario Party|Mario Party 4]]'' can be seen as Darker and Edgier than the Nintendo 64 installments - with its psychedelic music, and its somewhat more serious tone - in fact, while the rest of the world gave it the same age rating as the earlier games, it got a G8+ rating in Australia. Strangely, the next three installments took on a more childish tone than the N64 installments.

** Ironically enough, the port for the Xbox was ''less'' offensive due to enforced censorship on swear words. [[Mis Blamed|That idiots blamed on Nintendo]]. (Never mind that Nintendo in fact ''did not'' censor the N64 version, except for F-bombs.)

* Not to pile on [[DC Comics]] again... but they did agree to make a crossover game called ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]''. ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' itself is the Darker and Edgier version of every other fighting game (ironically, the crossover was [[Lighter and Softer]] for the ''Kombat'' side. Or at least, its trademark violence).

** 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.

** 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.]]

* There is some of this between ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'' and ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'' where major plot points are concerned. Not only does the player character in Oblivion spend the main quest {{spoiler|helping the Empire's last heir sacrifice himself in order to provide a stopgap against demon invasion while simultaneously [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu|eliminating any possibility of such protection in the future]]}}, Oblivion also has the Dark Brotherhood series of quests wherein the player character can actually become an assassin with all that this entails. Further, many of Oblivion's NPC dialogues discuss events in ''Morrowind'' and involve events that overturn previous cheerful endings, such as {{spoiler|Vivec disappearing and Ald'Ruhn being burned down}}. At the same time though it also censors a few in game books, and makes the gameplay much softer (the only way to fail most quests is your death or bugs).

** Rather, ''Morrowind'' is lighter on the surface. ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall|Daggerfall]]'' featured nudity, graphic texts in books, ''insane'' dungeons, disease is instant death if not cured in time, etc..

* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (video game)|Donkey Kong Country]] 2'' was subtly darker than the previous, and [[Your Mileage May Vary|arguably]] a bit better.

* ''[[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

** 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|VI]], though [[Final Fantasy VII|VII]] and [[Final Fantasy Tactics|Tactics]] went the furthest.

* ''[[Radical Dreamers]]'' and subsequently ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' shifted dramatically in tone from the relatively lighthearted adventurous spirit of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. The fact that the idealistic heroes from the previous game are strongly implied to have been [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|unceremoniously offed]] is a pretty good indicator of the general tone of the games.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' is pretty dark for a Zelda game, especially in comparison to [[Ocarina of Time|the previous title]]. Although not to the same extent, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]'' is also pretty dark, suggesting that the "realistic" games are permanently taking a turn for the dark and edgy.

** 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|Spirit Tracks]]'', which is one of the only two Zelda games to not receive a regular E rating (''Spirit Tracks'' was rated E10+ ; ''Twilight Princess'' was rated T). It even features one of the shortest, but creepiest plot points of ''Twilight Princess'' as framework for a huge junk of the story: {{spoiler|Princess Zelda's empty body being possessed by a male [[Sealed Evil in a Can]].}}

* While not to the extent as other examples in this page, ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'' is probably the darkest entry of the ''[[Tales (series)]]''. Overall, the game has a more grim atmosphere and serious story than its predecessors and successors (doesn't mean that the game ''doesn't'' have humor, mind you, it's just in smaller amounts). The game isn't universally considered ''the best'' of the franchise, but it's pretty high up there; so, an example of the trope working.

* ''[[Homeworld|Homeworld Cataclysm]]''. Although we don't witness it directly, the Beast easily trumps the Taiidan in terms of brutality; at least the Taiidan stopped at annihilating a planet, the Beast only cares about making more of itself in a gruesome and (by the sound of it), '''REALLY F***ING PAINFUL''' way.

* ''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.

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'' is pretty much this compared to its predecessors. [[Who Forgot the Lights?|Especially ''darker'']].

* ''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.]]

* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity|King's Quest Mask of Eternity]]'' took the series in a direction that embarrassed [[Sierra]]'s designers. Among them were [[Gabriel Knight|Jane Jensen]], who wrote:

{{quote|"Me and my poor befuddled brain, trying to fathom a Sierra where... the most recent King's Quest involves killing things? Whatever happened to saving the cute little bee queen? HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?"[http://www.justadventure.com/articles/Love_Letter/Jane_Jensen%27s_Love_Letter_to_Sierra.shtm\]}}

* ''[[No More Heroes]] 2'' is a slightly darker version of the first game. While it still retains the quirky, paradoxal, [[No Fourth Wall|fourth wall-breaking]], Tarantino-esque qualities of the first game, it continues the series’ theme of revenge that was only brought up at the end of the first game, a noticeably angrier Travis, and the brutal murder of Travis' friend Bishop, with his severed head in a paper bag being thrown through Travis' window at the beginning of the game. Interestingly, the second game also features some actual [[Character Development]], with Travis {{spoiler|starting to get sick of mindless killing and eventually deciding to quit the UAA because it disgusts him}}, as opposed to the first game, where he was just a violent, foul-mouthed [[Blood Knight]].

* ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' is a game series that's known for being ridiculously over-the-top with all its character designs, [[Engrish]], attacks, plotlines, ham, silly humour, cheese and the tendency to ignore actual history. Basically, everything was turned [[Up to Eleven]], and it was awesome in its own way. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Kind of]]. Then along came ''Sengoku Basara 3'', kicking the previous poster boys out of the way and taking over with new serious plotline. Capcom also decided to be more history-accurate, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|making them NPC]]/killing off important characters along the way. Result? Previously "LET'S PARTY!" -characters overrun with angst.

** 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.

** For the second, characters age in real time, which means the end of ''A Wonderful Life'' is {{spoiler|a wonderful death.}}

* ''[[Arc the Lad]] 2'': the game takes every trope and cliche found in [[Eastern RPG|Japanese RPGs]], then apply with bullheaded consistency [[Murphy's Law]], turning the sequel of a generic RPG into one of the most [[Player Punch|sadistic]] game on the first Playstation.

** 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 the Night|bogeymen]] that kill anyone who wanders alone at night, the [[All Trolls Are Different|Night Creatures]] who abduct innocent people to [[The Corruption|transform]] and [[Mars Needs Women|breed with]], and {{spoiler|the spirits of improperly memorialized dwarves haunting, and sometimes murdering, the living}}.