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{{trope}}
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}
Even in video games, where heroes are controlled by the player 90% of the time, the good guys can still screw up and [[It Got Worse|make things worse]].
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* In the [[Trope Namer]] ''[[Portal (
{{quote|
** ''Portal'' may be one large
** Also implied in ''"Lab Rat"'', a tie-in comic that acts as a bridge between the game and its sequel: {{spoiler|1=GLaDOS may have been a nasty piece of work, but she kept the facility running. When you blew her up, you turned off the cryochambers, rendering the 10,000 subjects that were supposed to test after you dead. On the plus side, you did get to pass out in a parking-lot.}}▼
** Ironically, when GLaDOS actually says
▲** Also implied in ''"Lab Rat"'', a tie-in comic that acts as a bridge between the game and its sequel: {{spoiler|
** In ''[[
** GLaDOS begins the first game as a slightly insane testing computer whose homicidal tendencies are frustrated by [[Restraining Bolt
* [[Prototype (
** The sequel has him infecting [[Death Seeker]] James Heller, which it's not a good idea since he wants revenge on him for the murder of his family and ruining his death.
* ''[[
* ''[[Spider
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[Trauma Center|Trauma Team]]'', in the last chapter, we find out that Albert Sartre killed his own daughter to attempt to stop the spreading of the Rosalia virus. Turns out that this allowed the virus to spread from her blood to flowers, to butterflies, infecting a whole city and threatening to exterminate mankind. Nice job breaking it, Doc.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' is the king of this trope:
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
*** And then, at the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda sends Link back in time to his childhood to prevent Ganondorf's rise to power. This splits the timeline in two, and while Ganondorf ''is'' successfully thwarted in the "Child" timeline, Zelda ensures that the timeline she herself is in lacks a Hero, and as such dooms 90% of the population of her Hyrule to death by drowning in the Great Flood. Nice job protecting (your own) Hyrule, princess.
** And in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
*** In fact, most of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games featuring the Master Sword use this - the Master Sword is a "key" to the Sacred Realm/Golden Land where Ganondorf/Ganon is held captive, and in the process of collecting the sword to defeat the beginnings of his influence, the player releases him fully.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
*** More specifically, the Sages pulled a good one when they {{spoiler|failed to destroy Ganondorf and then exiled him to the Twilit Realm out of desperation. Of special note is the fact that ''two'' realms were put in imminent danger, instead of just Hyrule.}} Link just winds up having to clean up the mess. Again.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
***
*** IF you finish the game without dying once,
▲*** Except that almost all the warnings Link gets (which are not until the game is about 75% over) come from the Nightmares. So let's see: an evil, horrible, murderous entity that's polluting the world with monsters tells you something that would ''prevent'' you from killing it (which is otherwise your main goal). Are you likely to believe it? The only other warning he gets is an ancient tablet--which his guide/advisor immediately tells him may not be accurate.
** In ''[[Zelda II:
▲*** IF you finish the game without dying once, {{spoiler|one of the shots of seagulls flying during the end credits is replaced by a shot of Marin's Sprite flying around on wings, hinting that she got her wish of becoming a seagull and was able to leave the island.}}
▲** In ''[[Zelda II the Adventure of Link (Video Game)|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'', the game's story strongly suggests that life in Hyrule has become even worse since the (very) first game, because now, nobody is controlling Ganon's monsters. Blame Link.
*** It doesn't help that of all things, the one thing said monsters can focus on is that by killing Link, they can revive Ganon. So, assuming you fail in your quest (which you probably will, this '''is''' ''[[Nintendo Hard|Zelda II]]'' after all), you get to unleash Ganon BACK upon the world, this time with no Link to stop him. Nice Job.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|Oracle of Ages]]'', the first thing Link does is push away the barrier rock that keeps out all evil from Nayru's glade, and leads the villain, Veran (who is possessing Impa's body) in, trying to help her. The second thing that happens is that the Veran kidnaps Nayru, laughs at Link for being so stupid, and makes off with her.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
*** Not only does he allow the aforementioned to happen, but in the side quests, he literally breaks a chandelier just to obtain a heart piece, {{spoiler|makes a Kikwi become a Skyloft professor's science project}}, {{spoiler|tricks the elder Mogma into becoming the Lumpy Pumpkin's slave}}, and - worst of all - {{spoiler|forces Cawlin to endure humiliation and night terrors just so that he can get some gratitude crystals for Batreaux}}. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3SYa9NFr70&feature=related This LP sums it up perfectly], making us wonder if Link is more capable of breaking things than he is fixing them. [[What the Hell, Hero?]], indeed.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, thanks to the Queen no one ever knew about the mask.Two of the hero's companions are her friggin' son and one of the heroes who helped defeat Xiphos for the first time, and even they had no clue.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV
** This is more of a [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] due to the game's sandbox nature then an actual plot point though.
*** Although the reason that the situation had arisen in the first place was due to the hero from ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
** A more direct example in the main quest would be Jauffre, who takes the Amulet of Kings from you "for safekeeping" before sending you to find Martin. Of course by the time you bring Martin back the Mythic Dawn have stolen the Amulet from Jauffre. Considering the whole point was to get the Amulet TO Martin, Jauffre could have simply NOT taken the Amulet, at which point you would be able to give it to Martin straight away and finish the game in about 1% of the time. Nice job, idiot.
** Also used in the Benirus Manor quest. The undead former owner wishes to repent and can only do this if you put his severed hand back on his corpse - which is in fact a Batman Gambit, and releases a (semi-)powerful lich against you and the rest of the town/world etc.
** This Trope is also shown throughout the later Dark Brotherhood quests, as the player believes that they are killing targets, when in actual fact they are systematically killing off all the Higher-Ups of the Brotherhood. 'Well done Hero, Nice job killing our leader'.
** Hey, remember how, in ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
*** Well, it was either the unknown future disaster or the present disaster of a [[Mad God]] [[Physical God]] turning every living being on Tamriel into an ambulatory mound of magical cancer.
**** And the Tribunal was {{spoiler|corrupt}}, anyway.
* The ''[[
** What might count is the fact that by restoring the lighthouses, you are {{spoiler|playing into the [[Xanatos Gambit]] of the real villain who wants immortality and endless power.}} He may not gain exactly what he wants thanks to the Wise One, but it leaves a delightful potential time bomb around.
*** It basically let the world be destroyed slowly over time, or risk the world being destroyed immediately. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They'd break it either way.
** It's actually theorized by the charters that the whole struggle is one big [[Secret Test of Character]] by the [[Stealth Mentor|Wise One]]. After displaying the potential pros and cons of Alchemy, alongside the costs of the journey, the characters (and the player) are left to decide if its release is worth the risk.
* ''[[Golden Sun
** And in a more literal meaning of this, one of the main characters breaks the hard-to-make glider by trying to "test" it in the beginning of the game. The other two heroes and the two male kids' fathers have to save him.
** [[Big Bad|Al]][[The Chessmaster|ex]] also made the main characters play right into his hands AGAIN, as by using the Apollo lens, they have just helped to further his master plan.
* In ''[[
** To be fair, she was given the ''mission'' of exterminating them. She can't be blamed for her employers' [[Did Not Do the Research|Not Doing The Research]]... or for the Chozo failing to tell her what they apparently created Metroids ''for.''
*** The Chozo may have told her and she forgot, of course. Lectures on the genetic engineering of predator species to balance an ecosystem devastated by a superpredator tends to go over the heads of most young children, as do the component concepts of genetic engineering, ecosystem balance and dynamics, superpredators, and the delicate balance of wildlife management. Chances are, they told her, she responded "kay", and went off to play with a missile launcher and the Zebesian wildlife.
*** The ''Prime'' series manages to prevent this from really being considered breaking it. Certainly, the Metroids ''were'' integral to keeping the X in check... however, for the past couple of years the Space Pirates had been collecting, breeding, and mutating Metroids and using them as living weapons. During this time, it's made fairly clear that nobody can fight off Metroids except for Samus--[[Fridge Brilliance|possibly because the people who created the Metroids also built her powersuit.]] Eventually, the Federation probably just threw its hands up and told Samus to wipe them out so the Pirates couldn't use them anymore. That none of them knew about the X is irrelevant: the Space Pirates and the Metroids were presenting a deadly threat on their own. At least the X can't move between worlds without aid.
*** ''Metroid Fusion'' also cleverly '''averts''' this trope, with the same intent as the failed Metroids above. Samus attempts a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to destroy the remaining SA-X on the station. The AI "Adam" stops her, reminding her that there's still more X on the planet below. "How foolish. Even if you are successful in destroying the station, you'll only remove the one thing between the X and total universal domination: yourself."
* And in ''[[
** Subverted in ''Metroid Prime Hunters''. Upon finally finding the Ultimate Power, it is revealed to actually be the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Gorea. The hunters set it free, only for Samus to immediately kick its ass.
* Near the end of the old PC game ''[[
** Also in the ''[[Ultima]]'' series, the Avatar does end up being responsible for the eradication of (almost) all human life on both Serpent Isle and Pagan, in Ultima 7.5 and 8 respectively. Also, after the fourth game, the king Lord British has the Codex Of Ultimate Wisdom raised from the underworld, which is the direct cause for the gargoyle invasion in Ultima 6. The other games in the series are simply the revenge of some ally of the previous [[Big Bad]]. Ultima 9 does claim that the Avatar's quest for virtue in Ultima 4 was what created the Guardian (Big Bed of games 7-9), but U9 is generally considered [[Canon
* Happens twice in ''[[Drakengard]] 2''. First the destruction of the Knights and their seals unleash a red dragon that intends to destroy the world. And then, when you kill the red dragon, it turns out that ''it'' was a seal for the dark gods that control the world. And the sky explodes. Whoops indeed.
** They actually ''knew'' that the first set of seals were protecting the world from destruction... but given that the seals [[Powered
** In ending four of the original ''Drakengard'', the heroes kill the [[Big Bad]], Manah, while she's still the instrument of the gods, killing the gods in the process. Turns out that even though the gods are evil [[Eldritch Abomination|Cosmic Horrors]] that want to destroy the world, they're also keeping the world in some semblance of order... And without them, giant, flying, plasma-breathing, man-eating babies descend from the sky. Really.
* In the end of ''[[
** It gets worse in ''[[Half-Life
** Prior to the announcement of the sequel, ''Half-Life 1'''s ending appeared to be that {{spoiler|the US government had deliberately engineered the resonance cascade to provoke an alien war that, judging by the army bodies seen on Xen during G-man's final speech, ended with a military conquest of the alien world}}. Which is still somewhat of a Nice Job.
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat
** Later, in ''[[
*** Don't forget that Argus and Delia created a safeguard against the coming Armageddon, a powerful chestpiece. Argus was going to make it kill everyone, but Delia didn't approve, so instead it was created to randomly either kill everyone or depower them, and you never know exactly what it will do, until it's finally used and {{spoiler|DOESN'T DO A DAMN THING.}} Nice job breaking it, saviors of humanity.
**** According to Taven's ending, {{spoiler|the firespawn's demise actually caused the kombatants to become even more powerful, thus ensuring Armageddon}}. [[What Were You Thinking?|What the bloody hell were the Elder Gods thinking?!]]
*** [[It Gets Worse]]. Rather than having Taven win, ''[[
**** Moreso in the actual ''[[
***** After [[A Nightmare
* ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** Plus, he probably wouldn't have upset the balance of the Statues, thus setting off [[The End of the World
** ''[[
*** You also kill Jenova so Holy can stop Meteor, but Holy ends up making things even worse until the Lifestream pops up to save the day. Sure, all this happens in the end cutscene without the player having any control, but unleashing Holy is still this trope, right?
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** [[Final Fantasy XIII-2
**** Still in [[
** ''[[
*** Ramza and company saving Algus and Elmdor, both of which come back to haunt you later.
*** Ramza leaving the Zodiac Stones he'd gathered with his defenseless, kidnap-prone sister. At first this seems like a minor oops that only nets the enemy a few stones. Then, during her inevitable captivity, she is found by the bad guys and identified as the perfect vessel to stuff their dead leader into, speeding up their plan by hundreds of years. Granted, there's no way Ramza could have seen this coming, but the act itself was stupid enough to warrant a 'nice job'.
*** Ramza insisting his sister stay in the monastery is another one. She tells him Ramza is a marked man, people know about him and her and will come after. Ramza insists she stay, and surprise surprise, she gets kidnapped by people Ramza could easily beat up. Oh and despite being weak, she has a ridiculously broken buff skill that would have been hugely useful. Nice job....
* The 'Destiny Odyssey' section of the primary storyline of ''[[
* An extremely common way of ensuring yourself a sequel. One example is ''[[Dungeon Siege]] 2''.
* In ''[[
** Paralleling the above events was how you essentially fumbled about with the Scepter of Orr throughout the game. First the Mantle located and rescued it from the grasp of the Lich Lord, which was good. Then you stole it from the Mantle, which was also good since who knows what they would have done with it. Then you give it ''back to the Lich'', though you [[Paper
** Not to mention when you free Palawa Joko, since he's going to conquer the place about half a century after Nightfall takes place (as revealed in [[All There in the Manual|The Movement of the World]], an article about GW2). And seeing as the first thing he does after honoring your bargain is to start rebuilding his armies, you ''know'' what he's going to do.
*** Technically, you didn't release him; he broke free himself due to the weakening of reality. You were going to do it anyway, but still...
**** Although Zhed pointed out that, even after your team-up, it would've been smarter to put the guy who almost destroyed Elona once back where you found him. Nice job honoring your bargain, hero.
** All of the events of Nightfall took place because Kormir, the greatest hero of the Sunspears, did everything she was supposed to ''[[Sealed Evil in
** There are a lot of smaller examples, too.
* After beating the [[Final Boss]] in ''[[
* In ''[[
** Not to mention releasing the Sands of Time in the first place. And causing {{spoiler|the creation of [[The Corruption|the Sands]] themselves}}. And then {{spoiler|undoing that, pushing the [[Reset Button]], and bringing back the original villain and ruining his home town}}.
*** And {{spoiler|saving Kaileena from death of his own hand to deliver her straight to the Dahaka}}. And then {{spoiler|saving Kaileena from the Dahaka to deliver her straight to the evil Vizier}}. ''Sands of Time'' trilogy is definitely built around this trope.
** In the 2008 game, (another) Prince spends his entire time sealing back up an [[Sealed Evil in
*** [[Subverted Trope]]: As explained in [[
* In ''[[
** There's an even crueler one in ''[[
* [[Command
*** Nice job killing Einstein after he killed Hitler, Cherdenko.
*** Nice job blowing up Temple Prime, Boyle.
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**** Since when was the Scrin a "good guy" with regards to Earth?
***** He isn't. He is, however, a "good guy" with regards to the Scrin. By aborting an invasion that was doomed to failure, the Foreman prevents massive loss of Scrin (and Human) lives. If anything, it's the Foreman's superiors who 'broke it' by ruining centuries of planning by falling for Kane's trick.
* The majority of ''[[
** The real fun part comes at the end, where {{spoiler|Al-Mualim turns out to be [[Batman Gambit|behind everything]], having Altaïr kill the Templars so that only he knew the secret to how to operate the Piece of Eden and thereby giving him absolute control of the Holy Land.}}
* In the flash game, ''Fishy'', you play as a fish with the goal of eating smaller fish, gradually becoming larger as you do so. If you go on long enough, the game abruptly ends, informing you that you've destroyed the pond's ecosystem by eating everything. Whoops.
* In ''[[Haven Call Of The King|Haven: Call of the King]]'', Haven spends most of the game trying to find a mystical golden bell that will summon the [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|warrior King Athelion]] to save Haven's people from the tyranny of alien overlord Vetch. Haven reaches the bell and rings it. Shortly thereafter, his friend Chess calls and says she's been captured by Vetch, so Haven, thinking [[But Now I Must Go|"My work here is done,"]] heads off to save her. Then we find out that {{spoiler|Chess is a spy working for Vetch, and Athelion doesn't come to the bell, but rather to the person who rang it. In this case, he'll come to Haven, who left Athelion's stronghold (where the King would've been unassailable) and is now trapped at the heart of Vetch's citadel.}} Nice Job, Haven.
* Done double duty in ''[[Boktai
* Played with in the ''[[
** Before that, there's Ciel, effectively the series' female lead, responsible for {{spoiler|creating the [[Big Bad]] of ''Z1'', the imperfect Copy-X}}.
* ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[Infinite Undiscovery]]''. Upon killing the final boss, Veros, {{spoiler|all existing [[Power Tattoo|"lunaglyphs"]] vanish from their owners and no more can be created}}. Subverted in that, despite granting awesome magic powers their owners, everyone who has one is {{spoiler|in constant danger of being [[Mark of the Beast|turned into superpowered, invisible, genocidal monsters]]}}.
* The ultimate focus of ''[[
** Well, in all fairness, Allucaneet Kingdom is the mostly at fault for this, due to not properly recording just how the last Brave Fencer sealed away the Dark Wizard. Saving the kingdom is one thing, but releasing a planet-ending threat is not a good trade off.
** Especially considering that Musashi never really had much interest in gathering the scrolls. If they'd just set him loose on the Empire itself, he probably would have curbstomped Flattski soon enough to avoid most of the woes that befell them during the game.
* The final boss of the ''[[
** Also in Shadowmoon
** Also the Shadow
** The entire Hakkar questline, starting in Tanaris and leading you around the world thrice and through three instances, has you resurrecting the blood god, revitalizing the evil troll empire, and finally re-defeating him with a raid.
** The first campaign in ''[[Warcraft III]]'''s expansion set is even worse. The player takes control of a group of night elves on their quest to stop the traitor Illidan from killing the Lich King and ending the undead threat once and for all.
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** This far and nobody's brought up the best gem in the gameworld? "Upon further analysis of the Gnomeregan situation, it would appear as though we not only failed to eradicate the troggs but we also happened to turn most of the gnomish race into horrific, mindless, evil-doing leper gnomes..."
** [[Magnificent Bastard|Drakuru]] plays you for a chump while locked in a cage, using you to take down the [[Our Trolls Are Different|Drakkari Empire]] and clear out their stronghold.
*** Whereupon Drakuru {{spoiler|calls up The Lich King to inform him of your success at restoring him to the place of power in Drak'Tharon, which in turn inspires the Lich King to transform Drakuru into one of the most powerful Death Knights in the scourge army. Hey, at least then he [[We Can Rule Together|offers you a job]] as a reward for your help instead of [[Rewarded
** Apparently when we killed C'thun, we risked destroying the planet because the Old Gods tied their existence to the survival of Azeroth. And now we're going after another one, fully aware of this possibility.
*** To be fair, the Titans made it kind of a lose-lose situation. Kill the Old Gods and destroy Azeroth...or let them break free, thus enacting Algalon to annihilate all life in order to keep them from destroying more than JUST Azeroth.
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** Most recently, by killing the corrupted Watcher Loken in the Halls of Lightning, the players accidentally set in motion a process to get the Titans to destroy and rebuild Azeroth. Oops.
*** And that's after you helped him imprison his uncorrupted brother, [[Batman Gambit|thinking all along that you were helping the brother]].
** In a "[[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At
*** As of ''Cataclysm'', Thrall has been forced into stepping down as Warchief in order to commit himself fully to finding a way to keep Deathwing from wiping out Azeroth. No prizes for guessing [[Oh Crap|who filled his position.]]
*** In the fourth expansion, ''Mists of Pandaria'', its been announced that Garrosh will go mad with power and become the expansion's [[Big Bad]].
** There are a number of quest lines in ''[[
** It's surprising that no one bothered to mention good old hermit Abercrombie from a certain Duskwood quest chain. While it seems you're just doing simple favors for a kindly old man, you eventually find out you've helped him build a Level 35 Elite abomination named "Stitches" who runs along the main road towards Darkshire killing any low-level players in his path. Do the same quest with another character, making sure to read the quest text this time, and you'll see how obvious this outcome was.
** The Horde quests in Tirisfal Glades and Hillsbrad revolve around making a plague supposedly to use against the Undead Scourge. It is later revealed in Northrend that this was not the case as the plague was unleashed on the living as well at Angrathar: The Wrath Gate.
*** To be fair, the [[NPC
*** In addition, a quest in Stonard has you putting together ingredients for a truth serum crafted by one of the Forsaken Apothecaries who's making this New Plague, so you can get information out of a captured human. Turns out the human wanted to give the orcs and other Horde leadership information on the Apothecaries' plan to create a new plague... and the truth serum you just fed him was actually just poison. Oops.
** An early Dragonblight quest chain has you attacking outposts of the Blue Dragonflight, beating up their human sympathizers one by one and trying to figure out what they're doing the local magical [[Ley Line|ley lines]]. On the body of one of their leaders (which one it is depends on your faction) you find a half-finished letter revealing that {{spoiler|they in particular were threatened into slavery with their family's lives on the line, and that they were actually working to sabotage the operation - leading to an implicit assumption that at least a sizable portion of the task force in general could be doing the same.}}
** The entire Wrath of the Lich King expansion is leading up to a massive, epic battle against the Lich King. When your raid group finally reaches the top of Icecrown Citadel and takes the Lich King down {{spoiler|to 10% of his health, he instantly kills you all and claims the whole Argent Tournament and Icecrown Citadel instance was exactly what the Lich King wanted--pitting the strongest champions of Azeroth against one another and Arthas's strongest subordinates, so that only the cream of the fighting crop would come to face him in battle... so he can kill them all and raise them to be his new Scourge commanders.}} However, {{spoiler|just when you think all is lost, Tirion Fordring breaks free of the ice block and shatters Frostmourne with the Ashbringer, releasing the contained souls, one of whom resurrects the raid, allowing you to finish off the Lich King.}} It turns around twice more, though, in the ending cutscene, when {{spoiler|Terenas Menethil confirms what Uther said in the Halls of Reflection: Arthas's death means the Scourge will rampage out of control and cause even more of a threat to the living. But that too is averted when first Tirion, then finally Bolvar Fordragon resolve to make the Heroic Sacrifice of becoming the Lich King themselves to be the "jailor of the damned".}} And {{spoiler|Bolvar}} even LOOKS a bit like {{spoiler|Tal Rasha}}.
** This trope comes into play in the quest chain that opens the Molten Front, although you're an [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]] instead of an [[Unwitting Pawn]]. Shortly before the attack begins, Hamuul asks you to investigate a Druid of the Flame nearby. The druid, Leyara, {{spoiler|binds you with roots and badly burns Hamuul}}, forcing you to delay the attack until you have enough Marks of the World Tree.
* Dhaos, the [[Big Bad]] sorcerer from ''[[
** Midway through the game a human army, desperate to fight off Dhaos, unleashes an [[Wave Motion Gun|enormous mana-sucking weapon]] which has the unintended (but totally predictable) effect of killing off ''our'' Tree of Life. It's a little uncertain whom the bigger "oops" is on here, since Dhaos' whole war was about ''preventing'' humanity from bleeding out all the mana with their excessive use of sorcery. Nice job on that one, eh?
*** The [[Magitek]] cannon backfired on its second firing and destroyed a good portion of Midgards. Dhaos was sure that Lyzen wouldn't be [[Knight Templar|a massive idiot]] and fire it before it was ready.
** In ''[[
*** Why people keep using the damn cannons if the technology has ''over 8000 years'' of history of causing death, destruction, and suffering to all (including its users) is never addressed.
** ''[[
** It's sort of subverted in that {{spoiler|the party never goes through with the regeneration because of the [["Friend or Idol?" Decision]] that results from it.}}
** On a more personal note, {{spoiler|the Key Crest that Lloyd gives Colette to save her soul ironically nearly kills her because while it restores Colette to normal, she is slowly being poisoned and crystalized by her Cruxis Crystal, as it lacks a few critical touches.}} This leads to your first Disc 2 quest.
** It even gets worse: having moved on to {{spoiler|that parallel universe, the heroes proceed to blindly assume that cutting off the exchange of mana between the two universes will save both worlds and proceed to do so. Naturally, this nearly destroys both worlds instead.}} And you know that something's even more wrong when you've almost finished your second world-saving quest and [[Spoiled
*** {{spoiler|In fact, this continues right on through the final battle in that killing the boss nearly destroys the world yet again, except that the requisite Final Cutscene Awesomeness allows the hero to finally go about saving the world.}}
**** Technically that's more Nice Job Not Fixing It Completely Hero, since {{spoiler|the final boss was planning on taking Derris-Kharlan away with the Great Seed and leaving the world to die}}. Their only mistake was believing that defeating him was all they needed to do to save the world, when it was only the first step.
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** In the sequel, reuniting the two worlds in the first game has the effect of the major kingdoms about to declare war on each other.
*** Averted in the sequel by meaningful relationship development, because if {{spoiler|Emil/Ratatosk had fully won the game, it would have ended with the world being overrun by demons.}} But there is a [[Heel Face Turn]] which neatly averts the trope.
* The villain-throwing-a-parting-shot version is used in ''[[
** Played for tragedy ''twice'' with poor {{spoiler|Ninian}}. First, the gang finds her adrift at sea with memory loss and takes her to Dread Isle... {{spoiler|which happens to be right where Nergal wants her. He forces her to summon a dragon which ultimately ends in the death of the man they were trying to save, oh shit!}} Later, Eliwood goes through a cave full of lava patches to get the legendary Durandal, a sword that kills dragons. {{spoiler|It lives up to its reputation just moments after they leave the cave... wait, you mean that dragon was Ninian?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!}} You really should have planned things better, heroes.
** And then there's this little kicker. If you, as the game's tactician, did exceedingly well when you finish the game (A-S rank), your legacy causes Bern and Etruria to go war because they desired your skilled mind so much. That's right, that S-Rank Hector Hard Mode you spent weeks over caused two of the most powerful military nations ''to go to war over you''. Opps!
* Early in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
** In ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
** In ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
* In both ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' games, the act of defeating the alien invasion leader activates a failsafe device that tries to destroy the entire planet.
** Also, in ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]]'', You fight the [[Gunbuster
* In the [[Neo Geo Pocket]] version of ''[[
* In ''[[
** Said Archipelago was part of the Earth in the past anyway.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* Two of the four possible endings of ''[[
* In
* ''[[
* ''[[
** In ''[[
** And in the true ending of ''Kirby: Squeak Squad'', in his quest to recover his cake from the titular thieving band of mice, he defeats every villain in his path, recovers all of their stolen treasures, and opens a sealed door in his path. In front of him is what seems to be the last of their chests, the one that ''must'' contain his cake. Oops, turns out it's not one of their chests at all, but a [[Sealed Evil in
*** This decision becomes even less intelligent by the fact that he continued to chase THAT PARTICULAR CHEST thinking there was cake in it even after Meta Knight stole it from him just before he could open it. After all, Meta Knight just LOVES stealing strawberry shortcakes from people.
** In ''[[
* In ''[[
** To be fair, the mere existence of that key on the same planet caused that acceleration. (Bringing the key closer just made it worse.)
** After you save at the final save point before Indalecio, ''do not'' initiate the Private Action with Filia unless you want to fight an [[Unstoppable Rage]] version of Indalecio that forces you to trap him. If you don't, he'll slaughter you.
* In ''[[Star Ocean:
* Subverted in the final battle of ''[[
** ...Then possibly un-subverted with the 100% ending. Playing the game 3 times, destroying the 3 different gods, was just a [[Batman Gambit]] by the 4th god so that he could destroy the gods he was supposed to prevent from running rampant, in order to enact ''some'' kind of plot. He's already been condemned to a slow, agonizing death, and it's not made clear whether the plot is actually something ''bad'' from the ending, so it's unclear if it's returned to being played straight or not.
* The RPG ''[[Enchanted Arms]]'' takes the "Way to Go, [[Chrono Cross
** Do be fair, Atsuma is an [[Idiot Hero]] of quite high degree. In fact, in one part you're given the option of saying the thief is small, light, and nimble, or that he/she trains mice. No joke.
* In ''[[
** In addition, the brothers went on this quest to recover Peach's voice... which was ''never stolen in the first place'', thanks to an early [[Batman Gambit]] on the part of the other protagonists. Unfortunately, they only got there due to an [[Enemy Mine]] from Bowser, and the villains take advantage of his presence to make things ''much'' worse... of all the times to try to be helpful...
** In the sequel, ''[[
*** Averted earlier in the game. The brothers rescue Princess Peach, only for Bowser to kidnap her again, prompting the brothers and babies to go after her again. Then it turns out that {{spoiler|the Peach the brothers rescued, Bowser kidnapped and the brothers rescued again was Princess Shroob in disguise}}.
* ''[[Warhammer
** From his words it seems that he destroyed the artifact knowing it, so he could destroy the demon completely later.
*** Apparently he wasn't in a hurry to do that, because the demon managed to corrupt the chapter master, plunge the whole sub-sector into meatgrinder and (in all but one campaign) murder Angelos himself before being killed by some other guy.
* In ''[[Warhammer
* In ''[[Star Control]] 2'', the Shofixti blew up their own star to take down a massive Ur-Quan fleet. That's great and all, considering they've been enslaving everyone up until that point. That is, until you find out that the Ur-Quan's genocidal cousins are coming to this section of the galaxy, and the Shofixti had crippled the enslaving Ur-Quan's fleet enough so that they'll lose the upcoming doctrinal conflict.
** Don't forget that in order to finish the game, you have to kill off two races. It would be an [[Inferred Holocaust]] if it wasn't for the fact that there's no inferring to it. Then again, both were on the villain's side, and both were [[
*** Well, you don't HAVE to. In both cases, getting the race to go get itself killed is only one of several ways to get what you need. Anyway, just because the race is no longer a galactic power doesn't mean every single individual is dead...
* Played ''very'' effectively in ''[[
** What you need is a scroll of Protection From Magic and some kind of insanely powerful weapon, like Crom Faer or [[Infinity
** And this pales in comparison to {{spoiler|releasing Demogorgon, the ''most powerful Demon Prince in the universe''.}} And somehow, even that isn't as bad as {{spoiler|defeating him. "Killing" a demon in the mortal realm merely banishes it back to the Abyss for a hundred years. That's right, all you did was ''give Demogorgon a ticket back home''.}}
*** Not as devastating as you think because {{spoiler|the hundred year banishment simply blocks them unless the one to defeat the daemon wills it back. After the banishment ends the daemon still needs to be summoned and anyone with that level of power is usually not inclined to summon a world destroying daemon they can't control.}}
* Another [[
* ''[[
{{quote|
'''Magus:''' No! I was summoning Lavos so I could kill it, and you only let me finish the summoning part!
'''Player:''' Oops! }}
** It was probably for the best. It's implied that in the original timeline (where no-one intervened), Magus only succeeded in getting himself killed by Lavos.
** There are two particular sidequests in Trigger worth mentioning. One is helping a woman grow a lush forest from a desolate wasteland, and the other is making a family drill into their descendants the importance of sharing. This sounds all good, but it turns out these actions made Guardia's neighboring kingdoms strong enough to take over, and in turn, kill the main character.
* ''[[
** To get across just how bad this is: by defeating Lynx at Fort Dragonia, Serge wounded him, at which point he swapped bodies with Serge, leaving Serge in a weakened form. The player then goes through hours and hours of [[Humans Are
*** ''It gets worse''. It turns out the Dragon God is (more or less) an extension of the Time Devourer, and defeating it hasn't fixed anything. Moreover, trying to kill the Time Devourer will just result in ''another'' NJBIH, thanks to its [[Eldritch Abomination|nature]].
** To be fair, it eventually turns out that these incessant [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job Breaking It Heroes]] are in fact a giant [[Gambit Roulette]] orchestrated by the [[The Chessmaster|Guru of Reason]], who predicted that all of these events had to take place in order for the heroes to obtain the trinket that would fix the [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] the ''[[
* ''[[Sly Cooper
* In ''[[
** Preventing this becomes one of the major plot points of SC 2, after it is revealed that the heroes must not kill the [[Big Bad]] Kerrigan, as she's ostensibly the only one who can stop the [[Bigger Bad]] from annihilating all life in the galaxy, like he does in the [[Bad Future]].
▲* In ''[[Starcraft]]'' after you help Arcturus Mengsk overthrow [[The Empire|the Confederacy]], he crowns himself the emperor of Terran space and becomes just as bad as they were.
* In ''[[Samurai Warriors
▲** Preventing this becomes one of the major plot points of SC 2, after it is revealed that the heroes must not kill the [[Big Bad]] Kerrigan, as she's ostensibly the only one who can stop the [[Bigger Bad]] from annihilating all life in the galaxy, like he does in the [[Bad Future]].
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid
▲* In ''[[Samurai Warriors]] 2'', in Saika Magoichi's story it's revealed that the bandit attacks are caused by Nobunaga's assassination (at Magoichi's hands), since he had kept order (and presumably bandit suppression) up while alive. Sure, Nobunaga massacred Magoichi's village for his unit being so dangerous, but...
▲* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]] 1'', when you finally insert the last keycard ([[Padding|after changing the shape of the card three times using different temperatures]]) into the last terminal in order to disarm Metal Gear REX you actually end up ARMING the machine. Nice job, Snake. But it's not all bad, because then you get to [[Final Boss|destroy it]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|manually]] (plus, the only reason he armed it was because of misinformation that was implied to have even most of his support staff fooled). In the fourth game, {{spoiler|destroying the Patriots AI system would also cause intense PTSD in every soldier in the world, thanks to the SOP system suppressing emotions, and damage basically every electronic service or infrastructure in the world. Sunny's FOXALIVE computer virus averts this trope narrowly.}}
** Many of the other negative effects are avoided, but the {{spoiler|PTSD}} is directly stated to have occurred. It is blatantly demonstrated in the FROGs.
** Plus, Drebin implies afterwards that {{spoiler|in addition to the aforementioned PTSD, most of the world ended up completely bankrupt and having to pay a monetary debt for PMC usage that was so huge that not even PMC regulation laws would be enough to get them out of the debt anytime soon, and that the outcome is either that the UN taking over what's left of the planet would result in an unofficial neo-Patriots group rising, or that the world still will end up going into a war apocalypse anyway.}}
** In the first and second game, Solid Snake's actions in regards to destroying Metal Gear resulted in a mushroom cloud as well as an earthquake in the aftermath of the explosion in the Galzburg region of South Africa are considered this. Even moreso when, according to Kyle Schneider, the aforementioned mushroom cloud was actually from NATO's air raid bombing of Outer Heaven that resulted from Snake destroying Metal Gear, and not its self destruct device going off, highly qualify as a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] moment. The fact that he also killed Big Boss in ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' as well as severely wounded Gray Fox to the point that he ended up experiment, resulting in him being targeted by a governmental bioweapon by Gray Fox's vengeful adoptive sister also qualifies as well.
* There's several layers of this in ''[[
** Midway through the game, the hero and Curly attack a huge spherical creature and nearly destroy it. Said creature is the core that keeps the floating island in the sky. A last-second save of the core by Misery and the Doctor keep this NJBIH moment from coming full circle.
** Later, after defeating the evil Doctor who had subjugated the floating island and its inhabitants as bearer of the Crown, the hero discovers he has merely freed him from his corporeal form, allowing him use the full power of the Red Crystal, ''and'' possess ''and'' corrupt his friends, and the island's core. Cue the ''real'' final battle with the Doctor.
** Defeating the Doctor at this point means destroying the core for
* In the finale of ''[[Diablo (
** To be fair to the hero, by that point Diablo had already long since managed to subtly corrupt and influence him to the point that shoving that shard into his head seemed like a good idea. It's even brought up as a plot point in the second game, that Diablo's powers were strong enough and woven throughout the whole labyrinth enough to corrupt all the strongest heroes that went into it.
** Also Tyrael destroys the worldstone in the final cinematic. He does realise this may make matters worse. ''Diablo III'', anyone?
*** Even before D3 has been released, one effect of the Worldstone's destruction is known, from the map on the D3 website. The Arreat Summit, tallest mountain in the world, container of the Worldstone, as well as all the people who live there, has been renamed the Arreat ''Crater''.
*** And that's not even Tyrael's first screw-up. Using the soulstones bound the Prime Evils, sealing them away... and making it possible for them to escape pretty easily a few centuries later. Who gave him the idea? Izual, an angel ''tainted by Diablo''.
* In ''[[
** This is justified for two very good reasons: 1) The U.S. expeditionary force ''does'' steamroll over Al-Asad's army easily, and it can be assumed they would have controlled the capital in a matter of ''hours'' after the initial invasion, gaining control of the nuke at the same time (given the Shock and Awe nature of the attack, this was most likely the objective), and 2) who's crazy enough to set off a nuclear bomb in their home turf, killing themselves in the process? Generals planning the attack probably assumed that Al-Asad had ''some'' sanity. They were, unfortunately, wrong.
** Al-Asad was never in the city when the nuke went off. That's the whole point of the Safehouse mission. He is, according to the informant Nikolai, a coward.
** Also, in ''[[
** Not to mention how the entirety of Task Force 141, the Ranger (Pvt. James Ramirez and his squad) you play as, and pretty much ''the entire American military'' are being [[Unwitting Pawn|manipulated]] by one {{spoiler|General Shepherd}}, who's planning to use the conflict to turn {{spoiler|America}} into heroes and obtain the biggest military force in history.
* About 3/4ths of the way through ''[[
** To be fair, the [[President Evil]] pretty much kills himself by forcing the hero to do it via the mind control phrase.
*** It's more than that. [[President Evil]] {{spoiler|Andrew Ryan WAS trying to kill the protagonist, and he knew that Jack was his biological son but didn't care.}} The [[Thanatos Gambit]] plot of the [[Big Bad]] aside, if the protagonist didn't kill the [[President Evil]], he would not have made it out of Rapture alive.
**** No, {{spoiler|he didn't know you were his son until you got into the area outside his office. At that point he says over the intercom that he just found out who you are and can't kill you. After he said that, you walk into the "would you kindly" room. }} So he locks the door and tells you to go away. Of course, then you go through the vents.
***** Actually, he had to have known some time beforehand. He hints at this through the PA once you get out of Arcadia. Basically, he sums it up as just too much coincidence. 1) A plane explodes at the ''exact'' spot where Rapture lays hidden beneath the sea, ''and you survive it''. 2) You are able to use bathyspheres, Vita-Chambers, and other systems ''keyed to his DNA''. 3) Guess who killed Jasmine Jolene and why? {{spoiler|''He'' did when he learned that not only did she end up pregnant, but she ''sold it'', so Ryan ''knew'' he had a progeny somewhere.}}
* In ''[[
** It gets worse. {{spoiler|Once you defeat Kitaniji, you learn that he and Joshua were playing a game. The prize was Shibuya. If Kitaniji couldn't pull off his Instrumentality in one month, Joshua would erase it entirely}}. And guess what you just messed up? Thank heavens for the [[Gainax Ending]], huh?
*** More like thank heavens for {{spoiler|[[Ambiguously Gay|Joshua taking an obsessive liking to Neku's ass.]]}}
* In the ''[[Halo (
** In ''[[
*** And then later in the game, capturing Sgt. Johnson and Commander Keyes, {{spoiler|since only Humans can activate the Rings, thus giving the Covenant exactly what they needed to trigger the Halo rings and cause the destruction of all life.}}
*** To be fair, ''not'' deactivating it would have activated the entire Halo network anyway.
** Master Chief almost has his own [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] moment in the first game - helping 343 Guilty Spark retrieve the Index and prep Halo 04 for firing, assuming it would kill the Flood rather than ''everything else''. Luckily, Cortana is on hand to stop the process and clue the Chief in.
** The novel ''Cryptum'' reveals that {{spoiler|the Flood originated when humanity's ancient, more advanced predecessors found automated supply ships full of an unknown powder, which turned out to be genetic material. They injected this genetic material into their domestic animals, including a specias called the Pheru, and it seemed harmless. A few generations later, the Flood as we know them started to appear. And since humans ate Pheru, they were infected as well. Attempts to contain the Flood bought them into contact with the Forerunner, who smacked them down back to the pre-tech level humans think they started at. And, it's implied, they destroyed all knowledge of the Flood cure they had developed just to spit in the eye of the Forerunner. The Flood proceed to nearly destroy the galaxy.}}
* ''[[
* In the first ''[[
** And in the second game, you help SHODAN against The Many in an [[Enemy Mine]]... Only to discover too late that The Many were the ''gray'' in the game's [[Black and Gray Morality]], not the black you were led to believe... and with their lesser evil gone, there's no longer anything stopping SHODAN from conquering the universe. Whoops, '''''again'''''.
** The gardens in the first game aren't really an example of this trope, though (since as dangerous as they were jettisoned randomly off into space, they were much much more dangerous orbiting around earth.) That's less an example of 'nice job breaking it, hero' and more 'nice job not fixing it completely, hero'.
** Another example that also results in a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] is, early in the first game, it's possible to activate the mining laser, which you need to do to blow it up. Except, you know, without getting it ready to blow up in the first place. Well, you've just helped SHODAN raze the Earth of life. ''Nice job breaking it, Hero''.
* In ''[[Shantae]]'', suddenly, a genie, which were supposed to leave the earth, leaving behind only their half-breed kids like you, [[Clark Kenting|who looks like the game's villain sans pirate hat]] and suggests you cut your hair, which is your [[Prehensile Hair|only means of offense]], sends you into a dungeon to get the last [[MacGuffin]], which the villain is hunting to power a tank to make herself ruler of the world, but leaves you to go in alone, despite the fact genies have great power. When you show her what you have received, she puts on the pirate hat and laughs. Suddenly, you see yourself on the ground, [[MacGuffin
* After you complete the last quest in ''[[
** On the other hand, the Council's offhanded way of 'researching' the 'problem', and the fact that they weren't in any rush at all for the Naughty Sourceress to be defeated (They pretty much tell you they love being in power) could mean that this was a complete lie to make you reset the continuity and bring them back into power. (See WMG)
* After the first level of ''[[Star Wars]] [[Knights of the Old Republic (
** And again, later on, for Light Side players. After the Exile gathers all the Jedi Masters together on Dantooine, {{spoiler|they tell her they need to cut her off from the Force, so she will no longer be a risk factor in the war against the Sith. In walks Kreia, who then reveals that she is
*** She's not really a Sith. Well, maybe she is. Who the hell knows? But the game doesn't depict the death of the Jedi as a bad thing; the Exile's crew members go on to build a new order that isn't as corrupt as the old one was (until the movie era, but whatever). The dark side version is really a better example; the player kills the Jedi - which arguably is a good thing - but because they fell to the dark side to do it, they've unwittingly caused a chain of events that will lead to the DEATH OF ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. But of course the Exile is forced to undo the damage, leading to more or less the same conclusion as the light side version: Jedi and Sith dead, with the Exile and company left to rebuild.
** On a much smaller end of the scale, you can at one point give money to a beggar. If you do so, Kreia berates you for your naivety, and shows you a vision of the poor guy getting mugged. Of course, if you ''don't'' give him the money, he goes out and mugs some ''other'' poor guy, so there's really no way to not break things.
** Back on the larger scale, way back when, the Exile destroyed Malachor in order to stop the Mandalorians. But all the deaths there lead to the events of both games, and the death of all the Jedi. That's why Vrook's such a [[Jerkass]]. Mostly. To be fair a lot of it was Revan's fault. Exile's just there to blame.
** Arguably the entire ending is this, since all the player manages to do is preserve a cycle of brutal, wasteful war between two ancient religious orders with childishly simplistic moral codes who are both pawns of the same self-destructive or just-plain dickish cosmic force.
* ''[[
** But it's never permanent. Just as the first problem was fixable, the new one that cropped up is as well, until it reaches a point where everything is finally stabilized. That was one of the best things about the game (and the whole concept of the Hollow Pen), that it acknowledged that all actions have consequences and there are very few simple solutions, but no hole is ever too deep. I mean, c'mon, if all you had to do was prevent what started the whole mess in the first place, the game would be over in two minutes! {{spoiler|I know that because you actually get a chance to do that. Finish a normal game, start a new one, and go outside and meet up with your bitter foe, then let him know that you're onto him and convince him to give you a little time (real easy). The rest is, as they say, strictly boilerplate. You even a special ending.}}
* ''[[Soul Series|SoulCalibur IV]]'' borders on this in Siegfried's ending- destroying the evil weapon which corrupted his soul, he creates a 'utopia'...but it's unclear if he knew this would mean {{spoiler|turning the entire world into crystal, wiping out all life.}} Nice going there, Siegfried.
* ''[[
** It's also played straight when Estelle {{spoiler|uses her healing artes on Belius, which unexpectedly drives her insane, forcing the party to put her down and raising tensions among the major guilds, enough for many more people to die undeserved deaths}}.
** And then there's another variation with {{spoiler|Alexei, whose plan to obtain enough power to rule the world ''accidentally'' releases the [[Sealed Evil in
* In the background for ''[[
* In the [[
* ''[[
** Pretty much everything the party does for the whole game is an example of breaking something and desperately trying to fix it. The death toll they rack up [[Moral Dissonance|far exceeds that caused by the villains]].
*** Only because they stop the villains from committing ''genocide''.
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]].'' First invoked when Starkiller, {{spoiler|having rounded up discontents within the Empire and founding the Rebel Alliance, is suddenly attacked at the first meeting of said Alliance by [[Treacherous Advisor|his own master, Darth Vader]], who reveals the whole plan to form the Alliance was a [[Xanatos Gambit]] by him and the Emperor to weed out their last remaining foes}}. Canonically, this is then [[Inverted Trope]] when Starkiller {{spoiler|, or Galen by now, valiantly sacrifices himself against the Emperor to buy time for the Alliance leaders to escape...thus providing the Alliance with a martyr to rally around, inspiring them. The Emperor and Vader realize this...which means that, yes, ''the entire original trilogy'' was a direct result of a failed [[Xanatos Gambit]] by the [[Big Bad]]! [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]!}}
* ''[[
* The spinoff ''[[Fallout Tactics Brotherhood of Steel]]'' has every enemy faction's leader bemoaning that your aggression is dooming everyone, that you can't possibly stop the Menace from the West. Not that they explain what it is, or refrain from opening fire on you just the same.
* How about the "Tenpenny Tower" quest of ''[[
** It becomes even more ridiculous when if you kill the ghouls afterwards you lose Karma. This Troper had [[Manly Tears]] due to being betrayed and obliterated the lot of the stinking zombies. Losing karma especially with the leader that practically gloated over the fact that all the humans had died horribly seems to be a bit much...
*** Actually, if you shoot said leader in the head the instant the ghouls start moving in, you avoid the slaughter of the humans. Still [[Black and Grey Morality]], but it becomes a case of 'murder one guy to spare dozens' instead of 'tolerance leads only to death'.
**** You can also kill the leader of the ghouls and two of his followers (this completes the quest) without incurring a karma hit if you basically [[The Dog Shot First|taunt them into attacking you first]] ("Anything you want to say before you meet your maker?"). You basically take an extremely unorthodox path to a best-of-both-worlds ending: {{spoiler|Gustavo and everyone in Tenpenny Tower love you, jerks and otherwise "bigots" as they are, and they're indeed no longer in any danger. It's a shame that most of the truly nice ghouls are all the way on the other side of the game map.}}
* The hardest ending to get in ''[[Ghosts
** To be fair, Firebrand didn't really care one way or the other about anyone else's circumstances, so this is really just the result of an [[Evil Versus Evil]] rivalry.
*** Since it's a world full of demons, how is them killing eachother a bad thing?
* ''[[Exmortis]] 2'' has you free the Earth from the reign of the Exmortis horde... {{spoiler|only for their leader, who set you up for this mission to begin with, to take their place as ruler.}} And, to rub it in, he says this:
{{quote|
* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' is the story of five different heroes who ''completely and royally screw everything up''. Cornelius escapes from the Underworld {{spoiler|alongside an evil now-undead king who wants to cause the apocalypse}}, Gwendolyn brings back her dead love by killing the Queen of the Dead {{spoiler|and allowing an also-now-undead monster to take control of the Underworld and attack the world of the living}}, Mercedes saves her kingdom by destroying the Demon King's most powerful weapon {{spoiler|that was made specifically to fight against the forces of the apocalypse}}, Oswald kills anyone else who might be able to help, and pretty much everybody fails to keep safe the ring that can control a machine capable of draining the life force from the planet. To add insult to injury, this was apparently foreseen, as there is a prophecy involved that you have to follow during the final boss fight to get {{spoiler|the ending where [[Adam and Eve Plot|two people (and the pooka) actually survive]]}}.
* ''[[
** Raziel eventually discovers this for himself, {{spoiler|when he finally defeats Kain, recovers the Heart of Darkness and uses it to restore Janos Audron...only to hand Janos on a silver platter to the Hylden as an incorruptible vessel, and getting rid of Kain in the process.}}
** Even getting to {{spoiler|Janos Audron means allowing the Sarafan vampire hunters passage to the sanctuary}}.
** In fact, just about any [[Time Paradox]] invoked in the series invokes this trope. This stretches back all the way to the first game, where Kain travels back in time to murder King William the Just before he can become the threatening Nemesis, only to cause vampires to be persecuted and hunted down to extinction when he returns to the present.
* ''[[
** You retrieve the terrorist's stolen medicines against a deadly plague, and their leader is dead, possibly by your very hand. But wait, they were the good guys, and you just stopped the medicine from getting to a guy who could use it to make more.
** You blow up the machine the Big Bad uses to make the plague. The same machine you needed to make the cure.
Line 323 ⟶ 321:
*** Well, for one, you didn't have to fight through half the US army just to get to him...
* In ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', the PC gathers the Chaos Emeralds... which the [[Big Bad]] uses to start stealing the earth's energy. Oops.
** Hell, Shadow's entire backstory is one big [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]. Professor Gerald attempts to create the Ultimate Life Form by allying himself with the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' to cure [[Ill Girl|Maria]], then decides to double cross him by building the Eclipse Cannon. Unfortunately, the UN realized that what Gerald was doing was wrong and sought to stop him. The end result saw [[Dead Little Sister|Maria killed by GUN soldiers]], leading Shadow and Gerald to proclaim vengeance on the world. How do they do that? Gerald rigs the Eclipse Cannon (and thus the Space Station ARK) to initiate a [[Colony Drop]] once the weapon is armed with all seven Chaos Emeralds. And who's the wonderful person who does this? Why, Gerald's own grandson, Dr. Eggman, of course!
* In ''[[
** {{spoiler|[[Unexplained Recovery|He got better.]]}}
* ''[[
** In Act 3, Niles' AI advises Marcus and Dom not to mess with the main computer. They do, which wakes up the Sires, causing you to have to <s>flamethrower</s> [[Chainsaw Good|CHANESORR]] your way out of the place.
* ''[[Fate/stay
** On a related note, nice job giving {{spoiler|Sakura}} a [[Hope Spot]] and then finally tipping her into total craziness by selective obliviousness, {{spoiler|Shirou}}.
* In ''[[
* Used again in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Lunar:
{{quote|
It of course turns out the Magic Emperor was only half right, because there was one dragon left in the form of Alex's talking cat Nall. }}
* ''[[
** Oh no, that's not how it went down. You knew this place was forbidden, you knew you were making a deal with the devil, you knew you were being told to kill 16 defenseless and majestic creatures to release a demon. You knew it all, and you kept playing, kept doing this evil.....because videogames had trained you to do it. [[You Bastard|You evil bastard]].
** {{spoiler|The "evil demon" was actually a god of both life and death, and was technically neutral. He was just pissed that these guys with a new religion had sealed him away for however many years, and decided to kick some ass now that he was free.}}
* In ''[[
** Though everything's turns out fine, in the end.
* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]''. Having bested {{spoiler|Gol and Maia's [[Humongous Mecha]]}}, Jak moves a huge warp gate back to Sandover Village. When opened, it ''releases a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]'', {{spoiler|leading directly to the reign of Baron Praxis, the betrayal of Damas, every game after that}}... And this happened in ''the first two minutes'' of ''[[Jak II Renegade]]''. {{spoiler|And it's always happened, thanks to a [[Stable Time Loop]]}}.
** {{spoiler|Let's not forget his role in revealing the location of the Tomb of Mar, and opening the main chamber, letting Baron Praxis steal the Precursor Stone, which if broken open will destroy the entire universe. And then there's the end of ''Jak X'', when his victory in the races permits Rayn to become the biggest crime lord in the world}}. Yeah, Jak does this sort of thing a ''lot''.
* The ''[[
* In ''[[
* The goal of ''[
* Sora's mission in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' is pretty simple: Reunite with his friends Riku and Kairi, stop the Big Bad, and smash up any Heartless that may be standing between him and these goals. Except later in the game, the Big Bad Ansem {{spoiler|takes control of Riku's body}} and uses it for the rest of the game. Which means when Sora defeats the Big Bad, well, he pretty much {{spoiler|kills one of his two best friends}} at the same time. Whoops. In the sequel, {{spoiler|he gets better,}} but Sora encounters another problem. All the Heartless he'd been smashing up in the first game? {{spoiler|He was helping the ''real'' Big Bad accomplish his [[Xanatos Gambit]] master plan.}} Also, those two Big Bads were {{spoiler|two halves of the same person, who has recoalesced thanks to Sora killing both halves}}. Yeah. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
** To be fair, though, the situation in the second game was also a [[Sadistic Choice]]. Sora's options were essentially a) let the Heartless consume the worlds and everyone in them or b) kill them and {{spoiler|enable Xemnas to summon Kingdom Hearts}}.
** In the second game, Sora is tricked into removing the lock that Zeus placed on the Underdrome. Hades is pleased.
*** In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
**** Turns out she {{spoiler|also made another blunder by deciding against making a young Sora her apprentice in the hopes that he wouldn't have to fight his friend as she had. While this is sensible, as a result only one Keyblade was sent for two potential users and both Sora and Riku came into conflict over it anyway. Had she marked him they both would have gotten blades and Sora and Riku could have allied from the start.}}
*** The other two weren't much better. {{spoiler|Ven learns that due to his connection with Vanitas them fighting or coming into to contact with each other will create the X-blade which is so horrible his own master is willing to tearfully kill him rather than risk it's creation. Ven's response? Hide himself away and let his more experienced friends deal with it? Nope he charges right off to fight Vanitas anyway, which of course creates the X-blade. He manages to destroy it but only by causing massive damage to his own soul forcing him into a 12 year coma. Meanwhile Terra learns that his mentor is evil and was prodding him into using darkness based powers to further his evil plan. Does Terra prompt stop using darkness because that's what Xenahort obviously wants him to do? Nope he tries to fight Xenahort with the darkness instead, which leads to Xenahort taking his body from him. Like Ven Terra manages to salvage a total disaster at the last minute by having his armor and keyblade move on their own and KO Xenahort stopping his current plan, but Terra's still short one body now.}}
* In ''[[
** And in the quest 'Enakhra's Lament', you get enlisted to build a statue and end up solving the puzzle in a temple, ending with you liberating an entrapped spirit and attempting to capture his nemesis, who breaks out and they both flee. Then the guide throughout, Lazim, is furious at you because he wanted to learn from the Mahjarrat spirits, but you freed them, effectively ruining his chances.
*** This troper considers wanting to learn from two Mahjarrat makes Lazim [[Too Dumb to Live]]- wanting to learn is fine, but actually believing that they wouldn't kill him in a second was stupid.
** ''[[
*** [[Plot Induced Stupidity]] is used A LOT. It's bloody obvious that the Fairy Godfather is the bad guy if you're at all [[Genre Savvy]], but you have to screw up so there's a proper sequel.
** Another one: the quest 'Shadow of the Storm', where you are told to help summon the demon Agrith-Naar so you can kill it for good (being in its own dimension gave it more power), only to find out that the demon was already in the world, and trapped in a much weaker human form, and you actually sent it back to its own dimension and freed it of being trapped in human form. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job Breaking it, Player.]]
** And see, in the end of Summer's End, you've destroyed the Spirit Beast... and now it's in the physical realm and even MORE dangerous. [[Oh Crap]].
*** Although it can't get any stronger and can be killed in the physical realm. It's still the most powerful known thing in the world, but it isn't invincible.
** During the quest Temple of Ikov, you a given the choice to follow this trope. A frail hooded man named Lucien will ask you to retrieve an artifact know as the Staff of Armadyl. After running through a few trials, and finally reaching it, you are now forced to kill several guardians of the staff (who are dressed in a way that almost obviously makes them good guys), and then, upon gaining the staff and bringing it to Lucien, he thanks you by taking it and then laughing maniacally. It's probably worth noting that this is the same staff that Lucien will later use to kill a lot of your friends and mentors. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice Job Delivering it, Player.]]
* Happens at least twice in ''[[
* For most of ''[[
** Nice job throwing that Aglaophotis, [[Silent Hill 1
* Nice job destroying {{spoiler|SHIKI}} in a way that makes you swallow his {{spoiler|and more importantly Roa's}} persona, {{spoiler|Akiha.}} Made you a totally crazed [[Yandere]] with emotional restraint issues. Plus essentially turned [[Tsukihime
** Even earlier:
{{quote|
Upper right arm, lower right arm, right ring finger, left elbow, left thumb,
Middle finger, left breast, from the rib bones to the heart, two places of the stomach to the abdomen,
Left crotch, left leg thigh, left leg shin, all of left foot toes.
As I went past her.
Without even taking a second.
Literally at a blink of an eye.
I "dissected" her into 17 pieces of meat. }}
* In ''[[Crackdown]]'', you, the Agent, end up being a massive [[Unwitting Pawn]] who {{spoiler|took down all crime syndicates so the Agency could roll in over their former territory and control the city without complaints. Keep in mind the Agency had bankrolled the gangs in the first place to cause a bigger panic. Nice job creating permanent martial law, hero}}. Although since you can play the game as a [[Sociopathic Hero]] who [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|mows down pedestrians without much trouble]], you just might not care.
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* Happens twice in ''[[Killzone]] 2''. {{spoiler|The first time, Rico ignores Sev's plan to rescue the rest of their squad and the scientist, resulting in Garza's death. The second time, Rico ignores their orders to arrest Scolar Visari and Visari's warnings of what would happen if he died, resulting in a large Helghast fleet arriving to what's left of the ISA invasion force.}}
** ''[[Killzone]] 3'' as well. {{spoiler|The protagonists attempt to destroy the Big Bad's doomsday-device toting space cruiser utilizing stolen fighters. The crippled ship attempts to power down it's destabilized warp drive and land, and Sevchenko destroys the ship with a nuclear missile... Setting off it's warp drive and payload of unstable missiles, setting off a chain-reaction that eradicated all life on Helghan. Made worse by the fact that the missiles that triggered this kill by causing living things to explode violently. Yeah. Nice job.}}
*** {{spoiler|That last one is debatable given that the entire Second Extrasolar War was decisively ended with that single nuke. Sure the outcome might have been morally dubious at best but when you look at it objectively it's a total victory for the ISA. It only falls under the category of "breaking it" if you support the Helghast. }}
* ''[[
* This happens in ''[[
** Though it should probably be pointed out that only one of the possible characters is actively trying to be a hero, the others are in it for personal gain. Hell, one of them is a demon who wants the power to rule supreme.
* The three factions of ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* Sort of an example, although it still helps your cause: beating the Milkman Conspiracy level in ''[[
* Prior to the events of [[Shoot
* Guybrush Threepwood of the ''[[Monkey Island (
** Speaking of ''Tales'', this spreading of the Pox of LeChuck is followed by {{spoiler|1=Guybrush's use of the [[MacGuffin]] Esponja Grande to absorb and remove the pox from everyone in Chapter 4, curing them completely, so that LeChuck can obtain it for himself, killing Guybrush in the process. Nice job [[Stupid Sacrifice|curing everyone and getting yourself killed]], Guybrush.}}
*** {{spoiler|1=And in Chapter 5, when Guybrush (as a [[Ghost Pirate]]) finds a spell so he can escape the Crossroads and return to the living world, he opens up the rip in the Crossroads and inadvertently (along with LeChuck's hypnotized monkeys) lets the villain use La Esponja Grande to harness the voodoo power from the Crossroads, creating other rips and becoming the Demon Pirate God of the Caribbean who turns a willing Elaine into his demon bride. Nice job making LeChuck more evil, Guybrush! However, creating other rips lets Guybrush find a way to [[Inhuman Human|repossess his own corpse]] and shrink the sponge in order to free Elaine from LeChuck's influence. So nice job negating your breaking it and averting the destruction, Guybrush.}}
** This has been the premise for the other classic [[
* In ''[[Quest for Glory]]'', this happens at least once each in ''Trial by Fire'', ''Wages of War'' and ''Shadows of Darkness''. In these cases, the [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]] trope is averted as the Hero is either being magically forced to help villains, or could not possibly be expected to foresee the results of his actions.
** In ''Trial by Fire'', you are mind-controlled into helping the [[Big Bad]] find and retrieve the artifact he plans to use to conquer the world. Failure to fix this will in some cases lead to a 'Game Over' message concerning the look of surprise on Big Bad's face when he realizes he bit off more than he can chew.
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** In ''Shadows of Darkness'' our hero is once again dominated into helping the villain, this time through the use of a geas, a magical means of forcing certain behavior. By the time the terms of the geas are complete, the Hero must [[Start X to Stop X|initiate the Apocalypse in order to avert it]].
*** ''Shadows of Darkness'' has a more minor one as well; the innkeeper's daughter is missing and assumed dead, and (being a hero) you have to rescue her. Unfortunately, the child is currently a vampire in the service of "Aunt Trina," the above-mentioned villain, and they actually like each other; resurrecting Tanya and bringing her back to her parents is what pushes Trina's [[Berserk Button]] and ultimately leads to her geasing you. Oops.
* Regardless of your actions in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei:
* ''[[Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception]]'' offers you a few opportunities to "break it". You can ignore the Miller Unit poised to take over Port Patterson, forcing you to have to backtrack to save it. You can ignore the Hamlet Unit and whatever they're planning, forcing another backtrack when they take over Santa Elva and the dealing with [[That One Level]]. You can let Leasath transport planes get to Griswall by going after jammers first, allowing the enemy superweapon to get a nasty upgrade. At the final crosspath the game forces a [[Sadistic Choice]] on you that will strengthen the Fenrirs in the final missions one way or the other.
* ''[[
** ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Mercenaries]] 2'', the player character is originally hired by Ramon Solano to break a friend of his, General Carmona, out of captivity; so Carmona can launch a coup and install Solano as the new President of Venezuela. The merc successfully does this, which causes immense suffering, sparks a war between the United States and China, [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|and Solano screws the merc out of their paycheck]]. [[Sociopathic Hero|Guess which reason]] [[Private Military Contractors|the merc]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|decides to take out Solano for]]. Hint; [[Money, Dear Boy|it's the paycheck]].
* In ''[[
* This shows up a few times in ''[[
** Due to the [[Grey and Grey Morality]] and tricky politics in Orzammar it's all too easy to make things worse in the long run. {{spoiler|Picking the "honorable" Lord Harrowmont to be the new king leads to Dwarven society being even more isolationist and bound to its caste system (screwing over the casteless). Picking [[Magnificent Bastard]] Bhelen (emphasis on "Bastard" especially if you picked the Dwarven Noble Origin) OTOH, will end isolationism and the abolishment of the unfair caste system}}. Also, {{spoiler|helping one dwarf to open a Chantry branch in Orzammar}} may seem like the right thing to do at the time. In the epilogue {{spoiler|this leads to him being murdered by other dwarves who don't approve of his efforts, which leads to the Chantry seriously considering launching an ''Exalted March'' (read: Crusade) against Orzammar}}.
* In ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', in order to learn the whereabouts of your mortality, you must free the angel Trias from his imprisonment beneath Curst, a town populated entirely by liars and betrayers. Sounds good, right? After all, freeing an angel is a good deed, right? {{spoiler|Wrong. When you get back to Curst from your next destination, you discover that Trias has turned the entire town into one big human sacrifice, causing it to slide into the [[Hell|prison plane Carceri]], where all of the inhabitants are being slaughtered by demons. Why? Because the lives of the townsfolk are a payoff that will allow him to raise [[The Legions of Hell]] and invade and conquer [[Heaven|Mount Celestia]]. Wow, did you ever screw up.}}
* In ''[[
** Even the Gigolo ({{spoiler|a.k.a. the Norse god Loki}}) chews you out for taking this route, and he was only involved [[It Amused Me|for the lulz]].
* ''[[Super Smash Bros
** Also, in Melee, the player turns Bowser into a trophy, unleashing Giga Bowser as the final boss of Adventure Mode.
* In ''[[God of War (
** To be fair, the gods are the ones who gave you this mission and told you to seek Pandora's Box in the first place. It's a happy coincidence that the guy they want you to kill is someone you already hate.
* At the end of ''[[
* In the first ''[[
* In ''[[Splinter Cell]] Conviction'' (not too sure about earlier games) destroying a light, if noticed by enemies, will result in them using their flashlights. Subverted as, depending on the situation, it may be a worthwhile tradeoff.
** Conviction also has a stereotypical [[Gonk]] [[Hollywood Nerd]] and Sam Fisher fanboy who gives him his goggles, which are needed to bypass all the security tripwires he designed the algorithms for. Nice job being a huge [[Metal Gear]]/[[Resident Evil]] fan, Poindexter.
* In ''[[Wild
* In the obscure Xbox action rpg ''Dungeons & Dragons Heroes'', you spend the bulk of the game unlocking and traveling through several rift portals in order to combat the [[Big Bad]]'s minions in various worlds. {{spoiler|However, when you finally face the [[Big Bad]], he reveals that because you unlocked all the rifts, he was able to regain his full power.}} Whoops.
* The entire premise of ''[[
* In the old NES game ''The Adventures of Rad Gravity'', you spend the entire game trying to defeat the wizard Agathos, who is trying to prevent you from linking up the benevolent supercomputer network. Then when you finally beat him, you learn that he was a good guy, that linking up the supercomputer network will be catastrophic to the galaxy, and that the evil mastermind has been your ship's helpful onboard computer, Kakos, the whole time.
* Averted in ''[[
** Just how does Shepard rescue Liara from the security system she gets trapped in? Use a mining laser to destroy the entire dig site, being saved from sinking into lava by the slimmest of margins.
** Taking down Saren and Sovereign at the end of [[Mass Effect
*** Shepherd really had no other choice. He was the only one who could stop Saren. The entire mess with the Reaper abductions was unavoidable. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
** This might go without justification as Shepard deliberately releases all prisoners of a maximum security space station just to recruit a [[Psycho for Hire|peculiar]] squad member. Mind you, every single of the prisoners were [[Serial Killer|mentally unstable]] [[Complete Monster|bloodthirsty psychopaths]] of which the most innocent [[Sarcasm Mode|just killed 20 people and destroyed a mere habitat]]. After the prison riot, the station tore apart killing everyone inside, guards included.
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** In the Arrival DLC, you {{spoiler|stop the impending Reaper invasion by destroying the Alpha Relay, causing a supernova-power explosion and destroying a star system with 300,000 innocent Batarians. Now the Reapers will arrive anyway ''and'' the Hegemony has an excuse to launch war on the Alliance.}}
*** {{spoiler|The thing is, you can wait for the timer to run out and see what happens if the Reapers come through without blowing up the 300,000 Batarians in the process. Long story short: [[Nonstandard Game Over|it]] [[Nightmare Fuel|ain't]] pretty.}}
** ''[[
* ''[[
** To be fair, the effort wasn't completely
* It turns out that by running from the zombie outbreak and preserving their own lives, the survivors of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Poor [[Spyro the Dragon]] from the reboot trilogy just wanted to save the girl he loved from getting turned evil and the [[Ultimate Evil]] from being unleashed. Then, after killing that games [[Big Bad]], he freezes them in time to protect them from a collapsing mountain. {{spoiler|Turns out that Cynder was being unknowingly used by the Dark Master to lure Spyro to the Well of Souls because he needed Spyro there to get free. And by freezing himself and Cynder in time, it let Malefor run rampant for 3 years unchecked and awaken a planet destroying monster.}} Though in Spyro and Cynder's defense, Malefor may have just lied to screw with their heads.
* [[
** It's actually even worse than this. {{spoiler|Every single one of your actions basically ensured that humanity will die out, and all the sacrifices made to stop this are now worthless. The only exceptions are some random odd jobs that are completely optional. Nier is actually "Nice Job breaking it, Hero"-the Game.}}
* In ''[[
** Thankfully, there is little consequence either way. It's just a [[Bonus Boss]]: a pretty tough one given that you don't have the same set of moves the other game's hero had.
* [[.hack|Kite just wants to save his friend and everyone else who's being put into comas by Phases.]] Destroying Phases actually results in The World (where the comatose people's minds are currently located) becoming more and more unstable, followed by the entire Internet nearly getting wiped out.
** [[.hack GU Games|Haseo wants to save Shino from her coma caused by AIDA.]] Eliminating AIDA doesn't bring her back from her coma ''and'' creates Cubia, which will wipe out the entire Internet via sheer size.
* The protagonist Lazarus Jones from ''[[Ghost Hunter]]'' basically couldn't keep his hands to himself and pressed a switch which freed all the captured ghosts in the ghost array (kinda like the original ''[[
* The [[
* [[Ecco the Dolphin (
* In the very beginning of ''[[Singularity]]'', the protagonist is dragged back in time and saves a Soviet scientist from a burning building. Not only does this advance a dangerous project far beyond where it would have gone, but {{spoiler|the man becomes the game's primary antagonist and the ruthless dictator of the world}}.
** Even his attempt to fix what he'd broken breaks the world. If the player chooses the good ending and {{spoiler|goes back in time to kill himself as he saves Demichev, he reawakens at the beginning of the game with his memories intact, and multiple clues indicate that the good scientist used his Time Manipulation Device to unite the world...under Soviet rule.}}
* Rather, "Nice Job Breaking it, God" in Jericho. His first creation, before Adam and Eve, was a terrifying nightmare that was neither dark nor light, male nor female; embodying everything and nothing. So he decides he doesn't like it and throws it in the Abyss like an unwanted puppy. Naturally it is unhappy with this and spends all of its existence trying to escape and wreak havoc.
* In ''[[Strife]]'' you are given a choice of missions early on by the corrupt governor. One is to investigate and destroy a tap connected to the local power main. What you aren't told is that {{spoiler|it's your [[La Résistance]] power tap which prevents the rebel base from being discovered. Blackbird, your [[Voice
* ''[[
* Near the end of ''[[
** Hawke and company also broke it earlier when they {{spoiler|discovered the Primeval Thaig and the cursed lyrium idol. And Isabella broke it before the game even started when she stole a sacred Qunari relic.}} And in the end, no matter which side Hawke takes, his/her actions {{spoiler|inspire one side of the Templar-Mage war.}}
** It is only this trope if you don't agree with Anders. If you do, however, this is just a rather extreme way to start a much-needed revolution.
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** A variant is attempted about two-thirds of the way through the game. It succeeds, but only afterward does the instigator realize this has [[It Got Worse|released]] the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|who starts going after the planet she had been trying to return to all along}}. She is not happy [[Heroic BSOD|about this]].
** And then there's the main character's [[Be Careful What You Wish For]], which is both smaller ({{spoiler|a child's angry wish}}) and larger ({{spoiler|motivates the [[Big Bad]] to destroy all sentient life}}).
* In ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Albion]]''. While looking for a guide to lead you to the passage that takes you to the Toronto, you have the option to break out a dangerous serial killer with a ridiculously bogus excuse for why she was locked up, from prison. The first thing you find when returning to the city is a crying little girl who's mother was killed by an evil lady. There's a reason walkthroughs will ignore the prison.
* Mizuhara steals Toko's medicine in ''[[
* The first half of ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' is spent chasing down a thief who stole an experiment from [[Mega Corp]]. Then, after that mission's accomplished, they then learn that {{spoiler|the "experiment" is a blue, furry ball of ferocious death that Megacorp (which is unknowingly under the control of a comeback-obsessed Captain Qwark) plans on mass-selling across the galaxy.}} Oops, indeed.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Tomb Raider]]: The Last Revelation'', it is Lara Croft herself who unwittingly releases the Egyptian god Set from his sarcophagus. Needless to say, he's not happy and bent on [[The End of the World
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, {{spoiler|Tezkhra}} accidentally makes the final boss go [[One
** Dehl broke it ''before the game even started''; {{spoiler|he brought the Blue Plague to the mainland via Moke, though it did abruptly end the revolt, saving some lives...which were probably then taken by the Plague anyway.}}
*** And Father Sikohlon broke it ''even before that'' by {{spoiler|creating the Plague in the first place}}.
* ''[[
** Even more dramatically. {{spoiler|His actions in World War II have started two things. Courtney getting jealous of his success that he is going to rob the US Coolridge for morphine, and Ira going crazy after he is ordered by Cole into burning the civilians in a cave}}.
* In the 2007 [[Conan the Barbarian]] game, the title character broke the seal statue that imprisons the [[Big Bad]] Graven at the beginning of the game and the hero has to stop him throughout the whole game.
* Red from ''[[Solatorobo]]'' tries to stop a gang of sky pirates stealing a warehouse in a sidequest (not the cargo of a warehouse but literally the entire building), but he [[Idiot Hero|completely forgets]] that destroying the air ship using [[Stuff Blowing Up|explosives would be counter productive]].
* You release a girl from a dungeon in ''[[
* In ''[[Fable (
** Given that unless he is killed he will still be free to screw the world up through his mask, even if you didn't free him, he would still be out there causing suffering to everyone.
* In ''[[Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi]] 2'' you can toss around huge explosive effects that, in the series the game is based off of, are capable of destroying the planet. Consequently, if you hit your opponent with one while they are standing on the ground (or if you miss them entirely) you are treated to a lovely cut scene of the Earth (or Namek, if that's where you are fighting) getting hit by your planet-killer attack and the rest of the battle is fought on the surface of your dying world complete with fire and earthquakes. Nice job breaking it. Although, as this is an on-the-rails fighting game, the planet will be back to normal in the next stage.
* In ''[[Titanic: Adventure Out of
* In [[Adventure Quest]], your character unknowingly sets the tyrant King Awethur free from his imprisonment in one quest. One of the NPCs even says "Nice job fixing it, hero."
* In [[The Last Stand]] Union City, the Game ends with you {{spoiler|And Jack and Co. blasting open the wall into the last uninfected area in the city. A unstoppable horde follows quickly. To make matters worse you actually have to kill some of the defenders on the way in, basically ensuring the entire base will be killed.}}
* After Mario defeats Count Bleck in [[Super Paper Mario]], it's revealed that [[The Sociopath|Dimentio]] was using everyone as [[Unwitting Pawns]] in his own grab for the Chaos Heart, which is in the process of destroying the multiverse. After taking advantage of the Count's defeat to take it for himself, he manages to speed up the process, destroying all dimensions in the process. Oops.
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