Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism/Video Games

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Examples of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism in Video Games include:

  • Mass Effect normally is a game that decides whether the player wants to be idealistic or not. The Paragon and Renegade system itself is a Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. Paragons have a idealistic view of the universe, putting moral code above all else. Renegades however are capable of doing nasty things to achieve the greater good and are much more cynical.
    • Ashley and Kaiden also exemplify this Trope. Kaiden is an idealist and Ashley is a cynic.
    • Arrival, the final DLC for Mass Effect 2, is pretty cynical as it leaves Shepard little choice in the matter of wiping out 304,914 (plus armed change) relatively innocent batarians because the Reapers have arrived and cannot be allowed to enter a mass relay.
    • Mass Effect 3 however has a more cynical tone. Renegade Shepard starts sliding down from 'pragmatic' to 'cold-blooded, ruthless killer', and Paragon Shepard starts to slowly break under the weight of a galaxy. However, there's still a faint thread of hope; if the Crucible comes together, then maybe, just maybe, the Reapers can be defeated. The whole game has, if you play a "perfect playthrough" slowly shifting the scale from cynical to idealistic and sets it self up for the ultimate Earn Your Happy Ending.....only to end cynically for Paragon Shepard and barely idealistically for a Renegade Shepard who had lost so many of their friends as they die knowing they ended a cycle.
  • The Witcher novels and games lean havily on the cynical side.
    • However it has moments of idealism...the "Beauty and The Beast" quest in the first game if Vincent is spared is one example. Saskia is a major idealist in the Witcher 2 (although it allows others to use her easily). Ves is also another when she helps an elven woman held captive and raped by Loredo give birth.
  • The Final Fantasy games vary surprisingly wildly.
    • Final Fantasy VI has Kefka as the side of cynicism/nihilism and the party as the side of idealism. This becomes really obvious at the end, when Kefka ask the party why they are fighting for and the answers are such as family, friends and so. (Although it could be argued that Kefka is not a cynic so much as just deliriously Ax Crazy and sadistic. If achieving one's hopes and dreams somehow caused people to suffer and die, Kefka'd be all over it.)
      • Then again, most villains in Final Fantasy games tend to be nihilistic, psychopaths, or Ax Crazy to begin with. Kefka was just the first to be all three at once.
    • Final Fantasy VII is very dark for an FF game, with a sort of fantasy-punk setting, a beloved party member dying, every member of the cast having Evangelion-esque psycho-trauma of some kind or another, and the Big Bad Sephiroth only being salvageable with a sword to the face. There's less of an Aesop about the power of friendship, as Cloud specifies he needs everyone to come with him to stop him doing something terrible. By the end though, it does settle into rather idealistic territory.
    • Final Fantasy VIII is more idealistic, probably as a backlash, but is still pretty dark and cynical if you know where to look. Though most of the cast is issue-free, Squall is seriously screwed-up in the head. The city of Timber never gets liberated because of the futility of the resistance's struggle against the superior Galbadian army. The whole ideal of pacifism is brutally shot down with the pacifist populace of Fisherman's Horizon, whose idealistic beliefs nearly get the entire town slaughtered. You're outright told by Laguna that you can save the world with The Power of Friendship, but when you travel to the future, you're dropped right into the middle of a Hopeless War with SeeD troops still uselessly dying generations down the line. The game leaves off with another Hopeless War between Esthar and the endless moon monsters called down by the Lunatic Pandora. The main character has made a transformation from cynicism to a more moderate mindset, due to the power of love, yet still retains some of his sarcasm and cynical beliefs. Sure, the setting looks more idealistic than that of Final Fantasy VII, but it sits firmly in the middle ground between true idealism and dark cynicism.
    • Final Fantasy IX, however, is firmly on the Idealism side. The main character starts as a cheery fellow, and one Heroic BSOD notwithstanding he stays that way (and he even gets out of the Heroic BSOD through The Power of Friendship played completely straight).
    • It could be said that the entire point of the party's quest in Final Fantasy X is to move the world from the grimly cynical end to a the more idealistic side. Although both the main character and the Badass Anti-Hero have to die (or die again) to do this, and they're only able to succeed because of very special circumstances on their side.
    • Final Fantasy XII has shades of both. On the Idealism side, it shows that really the 'bad guys' aren't evil, just look at the world from a different standpoint, and peace can be achieved by working together. On the Cynicism side however, it reveals the flaws of the 'find the MacGuffin to save the world' plot, presenting the heroine searching for the crystals as just as power-hungry as the villains.
    • Final Fantasy XIII turns out to be surprisingly on the idealistic side. Is fate a bit callous and unjust? The Power of Friendship and hope (no not that Hope) will make things turn out okay. Main character's love interest/kid crystalized and shattered by the Big Bad? They'll get better. Most of the party turned into Cie'th by an even bigger Big Bad? Not to worry, they'll just will themselves out of it in time to save the day. Final Fantasy Versus XIII on the other hand is far to the cynical side from everything we've heard about it.
    • For Final Fantasy II, although Firon, Maria, and Guy tend to be pretty positive people, wishing for a world without the threat of conflict, the rest of the world leans towards what the writers did with Final Fantasy VI. Pretty much everyone on the planet is dead, those who aren't have had their confidence massively shaken or are forced to give up the fight, the most idealistic member of the playable cast (Ming-Wu/Minwu) dies pathetically just to give you access to a Useless Useful Spell and some stat-ups, at the end of the game the party Nakama—doubling as the hero's own family—is still splintered due to one member's (The Hero's and The Chick's brother) ongoing guilt over his own evil actions prior to Heel Face Turn, and, unbeknownst to all of them, because they killed him, the Big Bad is still tearing ass through Heaven, wreaking havoc. Fortunately, all those party members he killed over the course of the game can school him, but daaaaaamn.
    • Dissidia Final Fantasy pits the two against each other. The Warriors of Cosmos lean idealistic with their emphasis on friendship and hope for a better world. In contrast, the Warriors of Chaos are mostly nihilistic or fatalistic, even the Token Good Teammates.
    • Final Fantasy Tactics is similar to VII in that it is one of the few entries in the series that are truly very cynical. The nobility fights a pointless war to gain the throne, the commoners are treated slightly better than dirt, and the church is very powerful in the world of politics and controlled by horrifying demons. Both nobles fighting for the crown do heinous acts to try and bring down the other and the Order of the Northern Sky who is supposed to be the "good" side that the hero originally fights for sends its junior brigade members to slaughter veterans of a war before who have turned to banditry because the nobles won't pay them for their service. Top it all off with the main hero being completely vilified by history and mostly forgotten while his friend who turns into a complete Machiavellian bastard to achieve his goals is awarded title of regent and considered the hero by everyone. Yeah, it's definitely one of the most cynical in the series.
      • And winds up suffering a karmic death and that it is somewhat ambiguous if the main survives or not. Regardless of the case it ends with a Hope Spot that the truth will be revealed
  • Xenogears is relentlessly cynical. Almost everything good in this game will, at some point, find itself broken. The happy-go-lucky protagonist harbors a hidden personality that is sadistic, immoral and almost godlike in power, and has died, along with his fated love, time after time in invariably tragic ways. Every major location in the game is, at some point, considered your task to save. Most are destroyed after you save them. It doesn't matter, because almost all of humanity is wiped out by the end, just one in a series of near-total apocalypses which have been visited on mankind deliberately throughout human history. Wicked, inhuman shadow masters control the world, ruling it from their invisible nation of scientifically-advanced fantasy Nazis. Everybody on earth has their lives controlled by these people so that they can one day be used as parts to revive the superweapon they all believe is their God. Almost all of the major antagonists are the antagonists because their idealism was shattered in some amazingly cruel fashion. Just ask Lacan and Krelian. The only thing you really accomplish by saving the world is that a few dozen people don't die.
    • Its Spiritual Successor Xenosaga is little better. Humanity is locked in a Hopeless War against intangible, hostile aliens known as the Gnosis, which are actually the spirits of humans who are so terrified of living humans, they're willing to kill us. Numerous orgaizations are after the same mysterious, powerful object for their own purposes, some more sinister than others. Many of the antagonists achieve their immediate goals (Albedo coaxing Jr. into killing him, Yuriev grabbing ahold of the Zohar for a short time, just to name a few), and several other protagonists are emotionally scarred in one way or another (Shion being the most prominent example). It Got Worse is more or less the name of the game here, especially in Episode III. In the end, all they can achieve is delaying the inevitable for a while longer.
  • Planescape: Torment actually allows the player to set the slider in the exact position desired, despite the gritty game setting. It's possible to treat the characters' life/lives as nasty, brutish, and short, or you can treat it as all part of the process of making things better - to the point where you can play through the entire game without killing a single person. You can even choose the ending that best fits your viewpoint. They're all Bittersweet Ending, but there's a small but non-zero difference between "bittersweet & depressing" and "bittersweet & rewarding."
  • Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a rather cynical game, what with the world having ended as we know it after a giant war that left cities completely reclaimed by nature and mechs and slavers killing or enslaving the surviving populations; communities can't go long without attracting unwanted attention to be of real safety, many people are completely unafraid of giving up others' lives to save their own, and everything just all-around sucks. The premise of the game has to do with Monkey being enslaved by Trip to take her home after they were both captured by slavers; when they finally reach Trip's community, they find that the town had been revisited by slavers, just as Monkey had predicted, killing or enslaving all remaining survivors. Trip then goes back on her promise to release Monkey, and she decides to get revenge on Pyramid, the one doing the enslaving. Things don't get much better when they add Pigsy to their group, who tries to get Monkey killed out of jealousy, and though he helps them get a weapon capable of defeating Pyramid, it looks like everything's over when they are swarmed by Pyramid's own mega-mechs. Pigsy then sacrifices his life to allow Monkey and Trip to destroy Pyramid, which results in the discovery of Pyramid as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who shared his memories of the world before the war with the slaves through the slave headbands, allowing them to "live" in his virtual reality instead of survive in the real world. Monkey sees the world the slaves see and remarks on its beauty before Trip kills Pyramid, pulling the slaves from their idealistic virtual life. She has to ask if she did the right thing.
  • Drakengard, as a game with Multiple Endings in which the best one is "sort of happy", falls into the cynical side. It is hard to be idealistic when the world is literally always doomed.
    • However Drakengard 2 soften this where one could actually Take a Third Option, breaking the vicious cycle. However Cavia's games are normally very, very, cynical.
      • NieR is certainly so. After beating the game once, you can play again, and now you can understand Shade language, after finding out Shades are actually materialised human souls. Well, the player can. Which means that you find out that all of the bosses you fight are either learning to be better people, getting revenge for a terrible crime humans committed, trying to save their daughter or not evil at all. And you kill them, no matter what. Oh, and while the first ending is good out of ignorance, and the second reveals that a character thought dead actually isn't, the third and fourth are agonising because one party member goes crazy because she thinks the other is dead. Which means either you or her die. No third option. And if you die, your daughter forgets everything about you. And the other party member is alive! No one needed to die at all!
    • Bullet Witch is quite Cynical as well, Alicia goes on quest to attempt to save a dying world from the countless armies of demons and geist who plague the world which have left the world into a nearly dying state thanks to their cleansing. And it turns she was the cause of the near extinction of humanity as her father sacrificed himself to bring her back to life which caused the forces of hell to rise and annihilate the world
  • Super Robot Wars is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of pretty much every Humongous Mecha anime at one point or another. Despite these varying all over the scale, the games almost invariably fall on the idealistic side of things. Courage, Friendship and Hotbloodedness (and in at least one game, Time Travel) overcome everything, even the tragedies of darkly cynical series like certain Mobile Suit Gundam iterations or even Neon Genesis Evangelion. Also, no one ever seems to stay dead.
    • On the contrary, the games *do* have a few deaths. Some of them, like Sleggar's in SRW3 and Musashi in Alpha 2 and Advanced/Advanced Portable are avoidable. Others, such as Lieutenant Colonel Daitetsu and Ouka, are completely unavoidable and will happen no matter what.
    • Super Robot Wars Destiny is also known mainly for two things: making every Super Robot a Glass Cannon, and being downright depressing. It starts with The End of the World as We Know It a-la Getter Robo Armageddon, and it goes downhill from there, mainly because of the presence of Victory Gundam. It regains much of the franchise's idealism by the end, by it's a hard climb between the nature of the story, and Scrappy Level after Scrappy Level.
    • Also, Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden averts the idealism somewhat. Sure, by the end of the game, you've saved the world, but are left with a heavy Humans Are the Real Monsters (at least potentially) message, and thanks be to the time warp aspects of the plot (which resemble an Alternate Universe), the Reset Button is NOT pressed on the alternate Earth you saved, outside of eliminating the SOB's making it worse, in exchange for giving it a chance to heal and make the remains a potentially better place as a result. It should also be noted that Char's Face Heel Turn was born out of this game, adding some heavy drops of cynicism to the end of the game, which get realized in full with Alpha 2 (starring the events of Chars Counterattack).
    • Super Robot Wars Z however is in the cynical lot. Setsuko's route is often considered the most depressing Original Story compared to the lighter hearted Rand Route. She was forced to watch her comrades and mentor die at the hands of a dimension jumping Death Seeker who is Affably Evil in Rand's route and her situation gets worse by the chapter. Hakai-hen is also rather cynical due to how the stories all take place in the first season of a two season series where many members of the crossover are doomed to die without any way to save them, similar to Ouka and Daitetsu. Not that some of the series don't already end in a bad way in their second halves, surely to be at least somewhat averted, but it's very hard to read Heero wondering why Relena's friend Euphemia would go crazy and kill lots of people. Considering it's subtitle means "Destruction Chapter", it's not unexpected.
      • It's sequel Seisei-Hen is more idealistic through. It allowed you to fix the plot of Code Geass R2 and prevent Zero Requium from occurring should certain conditions be met, and unlocks a "IF" route providing an alternate ending. What's more is that in the IF route is that it is discovered that Euphemia is Not Quite Dead.
  • Fire Emblem is normally in the middle, with some games leaning farther to the side of cynicism than others. This allows for the use of both Grumpy Bear and Wide-Eyed Idealist characters.
    • Micaiah from Radiant Dawn is all over the scale. She's optimistic, detests violence, and would do anything to protect the innocent, even putting herself at risk. The best way to do this? Kill It with Fire. She's so dedicated in doing so she got a Heroic RROD. She even lampshades this.

Micaiah: I'm killing with no malice, because I don't want anyone to be killed...

    • Ike also has two tactical advisers, one on each end of the Sliding Scale (Titania on the Idealism side, Soren on the Cynicism side).
    • To be precise, The first Fire Emblem and Seisen No Keifu are the most cynical of the series where horrible things like rape, human sacrifice rituals and even an entire generation failing to stop the dark plot which would fit well in something like Ogre Battle. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was the most idealistic as before the events, Magvel has been, for all intents and purposes, a utopia who did not seen war without external influence. Telius and Elibe is somewhere is the middle.
  • Advance Wars: Days of Ruin has Wide-Eyed Idealist Brenner (and Will) clash with a lot of pragmatic characters on this topic, most of which call them out on their idealism in a world where everyone's struggling for survival. Their vision prevails, though, at the cost of Brenner's life.
  • The Command & Conquer series has problems deciding if it should be cynical or idealistic. Tiberium Dawn points out that there isn't a clear-cut difference between good and bad, but there are clear moral differences between the GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod. Tiberian Sun goes even further down the cynical lane and has corruptible GDI officers and General Solomon runs some morally ambiguous plots, as well as references to Death Camps and genocide by virtue of Nod. However, the game ends on a high note no matter which side you play, allowing each side's objectives to be accomplished. Tiberium Wars goes even further with it's inconclusive ending, downright incompetent GDI commanders and horrible state of the Earth. Tiberian Dawn ends the Tiberium Saga on a high note as followers of NOD went on a Higher Plane Of Existence while the Tiberium is effectively controlled.
    • Red Alert however, is quite possibly the most cynical and depressing of the games. It's starts with a time-travel plot Gone Horribly Right, and goes downwards from there. The first Soviet mission consists of burning a village to the ground, and pretty much every single Soviet character is a power-hungry sadist or voyeur, all of whom participate in a heinous political Battle Royale. Of particular note is when a drunk Stalin impulsively tells his favourite General to order the executions of all the other Generals because Stalin (very obviously delusionally) knows they are plotting against him. The Allied campaign has subtle hints to the death and mutilation of Allied soldiers during a successful experiment, characters being tortured and ends with one character committing murder.
    • Conversely, Red Alert 2 and Red Alert 3 are some of the most idealistic games around, no matter which side you're playing. Quite surprising to see a White and Grey Morality in those games when Red Alert itself was Black and Grey Morality.
    • Quite the contrary concerning Red Alert 3, which clearly still harbors on the cynical end, especially revealed in the Yuriko campaign where the Allies are merely using propaganda to demonize the Soviets and Japan while making themselves look good; Yuriko's bloody effort to save her alleged sister also turns out to be pointless as Izumi turns against her immediately after she is freed only for the power struggle.
      • Also, at one point of the story in the Allied campaign, the U.S. president breaks the alliance between the Allies and Soviet while they are fighting Japan together, and the player is forced to take his life to prevent the madness from continuing. Sadly, it later turns out that the president's cynicism is right, that Soviet betrays the Allies, still having in mind their plans to defeat the Allies and take over the world all along!
  • In the Heroes of Might and Magic series, Sandro is a delightful example of the Cynical side of the Trope. He is (mostly) evil, power-hungry, selfish and cold (also, he's a necromancer), still, his cynicism is so well played he is the most adored Hero of the entire series. His cynicism not only have saved him more than once, but played a role part in the Expansion Pack dedicated to himself where he manipulated two powerful and famous Heroes in doing his biding. The expansion campaign is an ode to Cynicism. Sandro manipulates easily the idealistic wise Hero Gem by pretty much promising Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice (like trying to lure bees with honey), while the Cynic Hero Crag Hack is manipulated easily only so because he is a Psycho for Hire not too bright on the head. Also, the other two Heroes in the campaign play at this. Gelu, the cynic elf, is the only one whose original campaign was actually directly involved in the role of thwarting Sandro's plan in the long term, while Yog, the idealistic Half-Genie, is tasked with disassembling the Angelic Alliance and scattering it around the continent (and he does so happily), which only thwarts the counter-offensive against Sandro later on.
    • The campaigns of Heroes of Might and Magic IV, although considered the worse in gameplay and balancing, it is also considered the one with the best story (barred expansions), and also falls here. The campaigns, as usual, are played through each of the factions. When you play with the good factions, you go with an idealistic Hero who is easily manipulated but in the end makes for a good ending of everyone lives happily ever after. When you go with the evil ones, you play with a cynical Hero who makes the best of a bad situation. The best part is that the cynical ones end up doing quite some good in the end. Gauldoth Half-Dead is particularly interesting as he does loads of inexcusable acts throughout his campaign, but in the end he makes quite an powerful state for both the living and the dead and is the only one capable of fighting off an immensely powerful Big Bad who wants to vanquish all life in the new world (quite literally, as the last one exploded).
  • Animal Crossing is not an "example" of the Idealism side of the scale. Animal Crossing is the Idealism side of the scale.
  • Phantom Brave is, despite several few depressing elements, an extremely idealistic game. Marona is a Pollyanna who gets the most ridiculous All of the Other Reindeer treatment you've ever seen, but she's still confident that the people who hate and fear her will one day come to accept her - and, by the end of the game, they do. Castille is an Ill Girl whose family can barely afford her medical bills. No problem; that Corrupt Corporate Executive running the pharmaceutical company isn't such a bad guy after all, really, and he'll help out once you save him from some monsters. Oh, and that guy who says money is everything and keeps trying to steal your rewards? He's got a good reason, honest!
  • The Mother series is firmly on the Idealistic side. Mother 3 gets darker than its predecessors, but The Power of Love still comes through in the end. There's a reason the unofficial series theme song is called "Pollyanna".
  • Kingdom Hearts: The Power of Friendship (and Love) can restore your humanity after a Heroic Sacrifice (even if your old body just joined an evil organisation), the embodiment of evil can be destroyed by calling out the word "LIGHT!" in front of a giant door, and thinking about your possible love interest can save you from a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere. Guess what you upgrade your weapon with? Keychains, that you get from friends. The stronger the friendship, the stronger the upgrade. And let's not forget Sora's mantra: "As long as our hearts are connected, the darkness can't defeat us."
    • See, Kingdom Hearts is what you get when a cynical director tries so hard to push a series so hard towards the Idealistic end of the scale that it simply falls off. Even though it's becoming increasingly clear that being an idealist in this setting does nothing to shield you from the consequences of your own actions or the machinations of others, being a cynic is far worse. Refusing to take advantage of The Power of Friendship doesn't make you a Grumpy Bear, it makes you dead. Strangely, while cynicism is likely to kill you, pragmatism is necessary for survival - more often than not, the real Power of Friendship is the willingness to do whatever it takes to save the ones you care about, regardless of the consequences to yourself or anyone else.
    • One case in point: Kingdom Hearts II. When you find out about how you've become an Unwitting Pawn in the machinations of Organization XIII, this leads to a Heroic BSOD, which is only solved by realizing that if you didn't keep fighting and doing what your enemies wanted, more people would get hurt. As soon as you get to Storming the Castle, then you won't have to worry about that anymore.
    • Another case in point: Birth By Sleep, which is the closest the series has gotten to the cynical end of the scale (though that's still not saying much). The Power of Friendship was barely enough to keep the villain from achieving total victory (and that's not counting all the crap the current heroes still had to go through afterward), and in some cases namely, Terra's, friendship and loyalty are just as likely to make you do something stupid as they are to give you superpowers.
  • Despite quite a few of their works being Low Fantasy, a genre often at the cynical end, anything made by Gust Incorporated (most known for making the Atelier) will be very, very idealistic. Half the villains (even the Big Bads) will eventually undergo Heel Face Turns, and those who don't will probably be egotistical Complete Monsters that deserve everything they get. None of the good guys will ever die or have anything truly bad happen to them, and if they do die they'll usually have an alternate ending where they get to survive and live Happily Ever After.
  • EVE Online falls on the cynical side. One of the four major powers is a slaveholding theocratic empire, while another is a corporate-run dictatorship. And every player is a Heroic Sociopath.
    • Though, to be fair, the other two powers are the freedom-loving descendants of the French (seriously) and a group previously enslaved by aforementioned theocracy and intent on righting that wrong.
      • The freedom lovers are also representations of logical extreme of decadence and the enslaved group also make up of the Wretched Hive group as criminals and other unpleasant parts of life.
  • Chrono Trigger firmly believes in the strength of the human spirit to overcome anything, and shows its heroes eventually surviving numerous trials to triumph over a Eldritch Abomination that was destined to doom their world, all by the aid of a mysterious Entity that allowed them to travel through time. The game ends with the three main characters happily looking forward to their futures.
    • Chrono Cross, however, is a bit more difficult to place on the scale. On the one hand, Humans Are the Real Monsters who pollute the planet and discriminate against demihumans, time travel dooms other timelines to non-existence, and several characters from Chrono Trigger are stated or implied to be dead. On the other hand, fate can still be fought against (literally), humans are still perfectly capable of living in peace with other beings, and the ending outright says that every being can create its own fate and none are worthless. All in all, it's still on the idealistic side, but much closer to the center.
  • Skies of Arcadia was notable in its time (and still is notable) for being an idealistic RPG with an optimistic hero during an era in which Darker and Edgier RPGs reigned supreme.
  • Spore itself is neutral, but the archetypes for space stage are definitely NOT. Warriors and Knights are Cynical, and Diplomats, Shamans and Ecologists are definitely Idealistic, to name a few. And then, of course, there are The Zealots who prove that a mixture of both is very, very bad, and The Grox who pretty much hate every empire's guts.
  • Shin Megami Tensei games generally fall on the cynical side. Usually your actions lead to rather grim resolutions in this series. Persona 3 is one of the idealistic ones just because the main character's Heroic Sacrifice really does save everyone he cares about. Unfortunately, it also leaves him Deader Than Dead - his soul has to keep providing a barrier around the planet to protect humanity from itself until such a time that humanity stops wishing for its own demise. FES and Persona 4 both imply that it may not be entirely hopeless - the two people trying to help are ageless after all.
      • The fact that Elizabeth is absent in Persona 4 because she's looking for a means to free the main character without breaking the seal--and given the sort of power she can crunch out when you break her rules of engagement in your duel--may edge Persona 3 even further towards the idealistic end, because the way it's spoken of, it sounds like Igor and his assistant give Elizabeth rather good odds for success.
    • Persona 4 slams right into the idealistic side because it heavily implies that things are getting better.
      • Or for worse since now with the truth at all it's glory, it means the ugly side of the truth is also revealed and there is nothing anyone can do to escape it when said truth of the hopeless variety. When you are dealing with an Eldritch Abomination, ignorant bliss is a useful thing to have.
      • Continuing on the Shin Megami Tensei, there is moments where the heroes truly earn their Happy Ending, namely Digital Devil Saga, other are cautious about the neutral endings with various flavors of idealism.
    • Devil Survivor draws from both sides and takes a hard look at them. It's got some very pointed and nasty comments on human nature, most of the police are corrupt thugs with badges, guns and COMPs, the Magical Girl is completely out of touch with reality, and the heroic Bully Hunter becomes no better than the thugs he kills. But the Aesop, as shown in the Downer Ending and an early Nonstandard Game Over, utterly subverts this and takes a Shonen Jump over to idealistic: "Running from your problems won't solve anything. If the world sucks, then do something about it!" The endings are all over the spectrum: purely idealistic ( Gin's ending), esoterically idealistic: ( Amane's), nuanced but mostly idealistic: Atsuro's ruthlessly cynical ( Naoya's), and Yuzu's, which is a cynical Downer Ending used to drive home the game's idealistic Aesop.
    • Of course Overclocked fixes Yuzu's story while making Amane's slightly more idealistic but Naoya have the potential to become even more cynical.
      • Devil Survivor 2 is similar to it's predecessor, however changes the situation around. Rather than forces of law controlling some sort of powerful entity. Yamato who wants a society reigned by Chaos pretty much calls all of the big shots. Meanwhile Ronaldo who follows the path of Law represents the downtrodden. Like before the endings are all over the spectrum
  • The Nasuverse is in the middle of the scale, pointing towards the idealistic side. While the world is filled to the brim with dangerous things and a bunch Cosmic Horror Story elements, The Power of Love is an important part and the good guys, in the end, come out on top.
    • It should be noted that the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate Stay/Night is quite literally this trope made flesh. Shirou is painfully idealistic, and Archer is a hero so cynical that the mere sight of Shirou pisses him off. They decide to settle their differences with swords. Lots of swords.
    • This also makes Unlimited Blade Works definitive proof of the setting's slant towards idealism as Archer is Shirou's future self who has already seen the result of all his youthful idealism turn to ash and hopes to kill Shirou to prevent any of it from happening. And, despite Archer being older, more experienced and just MORE GODDAMN POWERFUL than Shirou, Shirou not only defeats him but persuades him that his idealism is right after all! One of the greatest triumphs of idealism in the history of fiction.
  • Fallout plays with this trope, usually landing squarely on the cynical side but still providing a small amount of hope for the future regardless of how bad things are in the post-apocalyptic world.
    • Interestingly, Fallout 3 has a story arc in which you get a bad end no matter what you do. (If you decide to work for Tenpenny at his tower, you'll kill a group of homeless ghouls who're just looking for a place to live. Tenpenny hates the ghouls, and won't let them live in his luxurious tower. However, if you negotiate with Tenpenny and get him to allow the ghouls to live there, they'll move in and work alongside the humans. Then slaughter them all when you're not there, taking over the tower for themselves. If you try to kill them for their lying actions, you lose Karma.)
    • You can, however, kill the ghoul ringleader, in which case only the very evil Tenpenny will be killed by the ghouls, and both sides will settle into an uneasy truce. It's still far from Idealistic.
      • Ultimately though, Fallout 3 is actually much more idealistic than its predecessors. If you do things right, you can destroy the Enclave once and for all, and meet the Lamplighters who have discovered a new breed of moss that negates radiation, find a mutant who is able to grow plantlife in the irradiated Wasteland and complete a means for creating clean, radiation-free water on a large scale, all signs that the people of Fallout can Earn Their Happy Ending. Also, in earlier games idealistic actions or ideas got you nothing but scorn, while in the new game Three Dog will cheer you on over your radio as 'The Last, Best Hope of Humanity'.
        • Rather ironic as the DC wasteland is the crappiest of all the wastelands.
          • And the home of the constitution which has seen its final years as a legitimate being stepped on by the Red Scare and Corporate Corruption during the great war; and the surviving Vaults (which were not destroyed) are dystopian to several degrees (Vault City and New Vegas). Here you got good to honest men and women who truly believe in freedom and equality for all and likewise people who want to crush that last hope.
      • Fallout: New Vegas doesn't have an unequivocal "Happily Ever After"; someone is going to get undeserved screwage. Most endings leave the game world better than it began, though a few firmly plant a crapsack in every lot (YMMV on whether anyone in the Legion actually wins).
      • Should note however that canon in Fallout is always the good end meaning Idealism wins as long as not nice or Dumb
  • Cannon Fodder and its Sequel are about the most cynical - and, sadly, accurate - interpretations of war you will ever see.
  • The first part of Warcraft III is an interesting case. In order to fight the undead threat and save his people, Prince Arthas gives up the idealistic tenets of paladins and does whatever he feels is necessary to achieve his goal. While this cynical behaviour makes him successful, it eventually results in him being corrupted by the Big Bad, killing his own father and dooming his kingdom.
    • Made more interesting by the fact that the Paladins who object to Arthas's actions had no problem committing far worse atrocities against the Orcs (and Alterac) in the second war, and have no plan to deal with the Undead besides the one Arthas advocates. For that matter, his fall has less to do with cynicism, and more to do with turning into a raging revenge centric sociopath. The moral for Warcraft 3 is more "Don't forget why you're doing what you're doing in the first place" and "Poor Communication Kills" than pro-idealistic, and stayed that way up until World of Warcraft when everyone from TFT was smacked with the character-undevelopment stick repeatedly.
  • City of Heroes/City of Villains is an interesting case. While the games take on the expected roles on both sides of the fence (Heroes being very Idealistic and Villains being very Cynical), in the Metagame it is reverse. You are more likely to find "Stop Having Fun!" Guys who will drop from the team once they reach the mission's boss (sometimes, they do this en masse, leaving the person who set the mission up to deal with finding replacements so that they can advance while they leave with the spoils of war, or most of them anyway) on Heroes rather than Villains, which is a tightly knit community of people out to enjoy a game. This is in all likelihood due to the idea that the "devs hate red" and the people who end up playing Villains are generally doing it to have fun, while the people who want to win go to Heroes.
    • The morality system allows heroes and villains to run the gamut with four stops: Hero (fully idealistic)-> Vigilante (A cynical Anti-Hero falling to the Dark Side)-> Villain (fully cynical)-> Rogue (A still cynical, but becoming idealistic Anti-Villain)-> Hero.
  • There's a web game called The Life Ark where you create a new world out of place in space where there is nothing but dust and emptiness. Nice, huh? However, there's a sequel which takes place years later where you have to evacuate the people after they've ruined the world that you created in the first game.
    • The next installment has the ship you so painstakingly evacuated crash. into a moon. Things get worse in the next part as your efforts to stop the black hole from swallowing your ship have turned it into a super black hole which will destroy the universe. Your only chance is to escape into another universe, which is done through cooperation with another alien race which requires a Heroic Sacrifice on their part. Finally, in the fifth installment you land on Earth, accidentally destroying a few states. By the end of that game you repair the damage you caused and set up a colony on the moon, hoping not to screw up anything else.
  • Grand Theft Auto games generally lie heavily on the cynical side. As an example, in San Andreas, the only two police officers that seem non-corrupt are both killed by the corrupt ones that drive the plot. Even generic cutscene cops often care more about taking bribes or eating snacks than actual justice.
    • Mocked in Vice City. On Maurice Chavez's section during VCPR, there is a Pollyanna who is heavily implied to be taking drugs and moments away from wringing Maurice's throat, and on the other side, a goth/emo manchild who throws his cynicism (read: the world is bad and you should feel bad but I won't give any reasons because that's the world) over everything for idiotic, petty reasons.
    • Even then San Andreas was more optimistic than the other Grand Theft Auto games in the franchise. Carl and Sweet managed to defeat the corrupt cops and their traitors without losing anyone close to them, especially after Cesar pulled a Retirony moment out. Compared to what happens to the later Grand Theft Auto Protagonists, San Andreas is by far the most optimistic of the franchise as the sequels will not be so kind to the other protagonists who loses everything close to them.

The Truth: You know, I mean, you beat the system! I tried for thirty years to cross over, but you've maaaanaged it, man! I mean, man, you're an icon, man!"

    • The fourth installment couldn't be more cynical if it tried; upon nearing the end of the game, the player is given the choice between siding with either Niko's girlfriend, Kate Mcreary, or his cousin, Roman (on whether or not to get Revenge or make a Deal respectively). The decision appears to have minimal repercussions, but later ends in whomever you sided with getting shot and killed at Roman and Mallorie's wedding. This then eventually leads on to Niko murdering his way to the Big Bad, killing the villain under the Statue of Liberty and discussing that he feels no different despite getting vengeance. And then it rubs salt in the wound by treating you to a phone call where Mallorie poignantly discusses how she will struggle raising a child she just discovered she is carrying or Packie sobs about how he can't cope with two dead siblings and an incarcerated brother in a month, and how his elderly mother is heartbroken at only having two children left.
      • Follwed up by Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, in The Lost and Damned, Johnny's gang war lead to the slow but eventual fall of his gang and all of the tragedy that goes along with it and in the end just wants the club be put out of it's own misery, In Chinatown Wars Huang gets caught in a power struggles that leaves everyone in his Triads gang, from his traitorous uncle, to the men he recruited for the Triads to protect them from trouble and to the girl who he met and later see die in his eyes. All of them are killed in some way...
  • SimCity, despite being just a simple city-building game, resides heavily in the cynical scale, especially with SimCity 2000 and later titles, in which your advisers seem to only focus on their department, without caring much about the other city services (a good portion of the time, you financial adviser is total Jerkass and finds that even a few dollars that could be saved going into funding for education and health to be a bad thing). Likewise, considering all the horrible natural disasters and general poor mayoring that can be done to your citizens, it's surprising that they would want to even stick around and still keep you in office.
    • And if that isn't bad enough, just watching cute little houses, gas stations, mom & pop stores, farms, and little banks get kicked out of your cities to be replaced with apartments, Mega Corp travel stops, superstores, factories, and massive skyscrapers in nearly the blink of an eye, you'd bet that the most idealistic people who feel that big business really doesn't care would freak but yet your Sims still just go about their lives as if nothing bad happened.
    • SimCity Societies however can be either idealistic or cynical. You could make a fun loving society where barely anything goes wrong or a crime ridden crapsack world which is run by oppressive dictators.
    • Do Sims feel pain??
  • The Jak and Daxter games go Pure Idealism -> Harsh, Darker and Edgier Idealism. In the first game, everything is bright and shiny; the only casualties are rats and villains, and everything is solved without trouble. While in the later games Jak does summon up his Hero mojo and save the day, he usually starts out trying to evade it or wants to do it for all the wrong reasons, the main cities include a police state and a Wretched Hive...but it seems that only Erol and Mizo are full-on evil, and the other villains - Veger and Praxis - seem to mean well on some level.
  • Valkyria Chronicles somehow manages to be an Idealist war story, where the power of love is the only thing that can truly stop a walking hydrogen bomb, togetherness and unity is the true source of military strength (even if you're a walking hydrogen bomb), it's totally obvious who's outright evil and who's just got a tragic past based on their appearance, and people who disagree with this mindset are obligated to kill themselves to drive the point home.
    • Valkyria Chronicles III on the other hand, isn't so heavy on Idealism. The characters are in a penal legion[1] and they have serious issues. Most of the enemies you fight are basically fighting for their freedom. You can't avoid shooting A LOT of dogs including fellow Gallians and ultimately, your former war buddy Gusurg while the enemy wants to become the living nightmare incarnate for the sake of independance over being a race of victims and cowards . Your good deeds, most of which are controversial in nature, shall never be recorded. But at least Kurt gets to settle down with the woman he loves.
  • Go ahead and try to figure out where Midnight Serenade fits on this scale.
  • Pathologic plants itself firmly on the cynical side. The plague you fight is killing hundreds each day, the townsfolk at best distrust your character and at worst want them dead, it is doubtful that a cure for the plague is even possible, and you find yourself wondering if the hell hole is actually worth saving.
  • In the wii flight game Innocent Aces your wingman Kaida falls on the idealistic side while Ukumori (another wingman) falls on the cynical side, leading to arguments, which in turn escalate into a "friendly fight".
  • Dragon Age attempts to be a Darker and Edgier take on classic fantasy settings like Dungeons & Dragons, but the Idealism sometimes shines through by allowing you to Earn Your Happy Ending in the way of being able to Take a Third Option. The player should be careful though if s/he attempts to do a "Messiah Run" since not all choices that appear to be good at first also end up good in the epilogue, especially anything concerning the dwarves.
    • Dragon Age II takes a dive into the cynical, such that every achievement in the game could be seen as an extended Hope Spot. At the very best, you can be left in charge of a broken and battered city, waiting for two hammers to fall from internal and external war, and in order to get this ending you have to slaughter a lot of innocents yourself. Subverted: you end up having to abandon your post anyway, making any gains effectively nil. On the other hand, if you decide to protect said innocents, most of them will die in the conflict, but your name becomes a rallying cry for freedom fighters across Thedas and for moderates on the other side. Let's just say things get worse before they have any chance of getting better.
  • Syphon Filter was never idealistic to begin with, but definitely got Darker and Edgier as the series progressed. The storyline combines the plots of The Bourne Series with Mission: Impossible with betrayal and being too late to save the day combined.
  • Red Dead Redemption is definitely on the cynical end. Despite the romantic image the West may present, free of law, order and restraint, it is a dangerous, dark place of Black and Gray Morality, happy endings are rare and both the incoming world of technology and federalism and the outgoing world of cowboys and anarchy are utter-shite.
  • BioShock (series) gives an interesting variation of this sliding scale that the player himself decides if the story is idealistic or cynical. It has 3 endings in the first game and 4 in the second, all but one in each game are cynical, obtained by players who choose to commit the sin of harvesting even just one little sister; the only good ending in each of the two games is an idealistic one, earned by players who manage to remain pure-hearted protectors of the little sisters throughout the entire game.
    • It is recently discovered that Bioshock 2 actually has a total of 7 combinations of endings, with 2 of them both idealistic even though in a contrasting way, and the rest of the 5 entirely cynical.
  • Valkyrie Profile is pretty much on the Cynical side of the coin, you are a Valkyrie who collects the souls of the dead to give to Odin who views them as pawns and the allies you recruit goes through rather dark storylines before their mortal misery is ended. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is no better as you are a jaded mortal servant driven by revenge.
  • Armored Core is generally on the cynical side of things (As well as the plots), a common theme is the Last Raven standing and how when you become the last raven. This sums it up:

But this revelation is not one of " I am the strongest" but its implications , falling in line with the rest of the Armored Core series canon endings, are in themselves asking a question of the player. What does it mean to be the strongest? I'm standing at the top, alone. Was it worth it? Is this all life is worth? What have I really done?

  • BlazBlue is much more cynical than Guilty Gear, especially if you are human girl. Expect plenty of Break the Cutie moments and also the general nature of the storyline as the main plot shows how badly broken some of them are by the end of that game.
    • That's not how it's more cynical though. What makes it cynical is that whenever you want to be treated seriously, you had better drop whatever idealism you had. As of current, the one who had their optimism and idealism high are just Bang and Taokaka... and they're the story's Joke Characters.[2]
    • Guilty Gear also tends to be rather cynical side as well, considering that the politics are just as screwed up at the BlazBlue verse. And the cast are also mostly broken by things. The only thing that makes BlazBlue seems more cynical is that the villains are more open in their evilness, and DAMN EFFECTIVE in what they do.
  • Many 6th or 7th Generation shooters bend heavily to the cynical side. Resistance, Modern Warfare, Halo, F.E.A.R., and Gears of War all falling into a generally Hopeless War for the main character despite your best efforts thanks to cutscenes. Even Electronic Arts First Person shooters went to a darker side with Army of Two and Battlefield: Bad Company (which were in the first games were more on the Idealist side before their Darker and Edgier paint). Due to the Trilogy Effect however, it is more about having to seriously earning their good endings.
  • The newest Castlevania game, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, is unrelentingly cynical and morally ambiguous. In spite of every single effort Gabriel has made to Screw Destiny, it is later revealed that You Can't Fight Fate, as not only did he fail to revive his childhood sweetheart, but he also turned into Dracula and suffered a lonely life of immortality. The prophecy that a pure-hearted warrior will return the world to the light turns out to be a lie, too, and the entire tragedy has been the result of Satan's work of manipulation. Every single action a misguided Gabriel has done to achieve his selfish goal has been questionable as well, making him no different from the villains at the end.

Brotherhood Knight Scroll: Where is this brother who is the supposed savior? Where is this warrior of light? More lies dreamt up by the Church to keep us subservient to their will, no doubt. How is it possible that God exists when he allows the murder and killing of so many of our brethren?

    • Two of Konami's popular game franchise, Castlevania and Metal Gear, contrast strongly with each other in their positions on the scale. While Castlevania lands on the idealistic side, Metal Gear lies heavily on the cynical end of the scale. Mix the two together, and we get Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - no, Metal Gear Solid Lords Of Shadow. While Lords of Shadow does have a cynical tongue in its narration of a hero's fate, it still contains an optimistic view toward human nature.
    • Amidst the horribly depressing atmosphere of the Metal Gear franchise, we have the idealistic Johnny "Akiba" Sasaki, who is the only character not infested by the nanomachines and serves as a new hope for the purely cynical war-torn world.
  • On the topic of Konami franchises, the Tokimeki Memorial series is at the far end of the idealistic side. This is a series with no villains (the only antagonists of sorts are the local Delinquents, and they are portrayed as nice and Graceful Losers Worthy Opponents), and where the Power of Love is so strong, it makes Long Distance Relationships work without fail and help the rare depressive characters out of their Heroic BSOD. It's also a series where comedy and fun are kings alongside romance, where drama is scarcely used (and only to make hope and romance shine brighter and triumph in the end), and where any pairing that's strongly implied (notably the ones with the main heroine Childhood Friend Romance), is considered as good as canon.
  • On the other hand, Tokimemo 's Spiritual Successor Mitsumete Knight is firmly set on the cynical side. This is a Crap Saccharine World where war and politics are dominant, with evil aristocrats effectively ruling the country you're fighting for as a foreign mercenary, using the King as a puppet: they are masters of the Screw the Rules, I Have Money and We Have Reserves tropes, and deeply racists to boot. Grey and Grey Morality is the story's mood thanks to this and the fact the enemy country has valid motives to fight and is composed of mostly decent guys. Even most the girls you can woo during the game (i.e. the softiest part of the game) have heartwrenching storylines full of Break the Cutie moments, and even Anyone Can Die moments depending on your choices. And as far endings go, they are bittersweet at best, since, even if you get the confession of love of one of the girls, you'll be thrown off the country like an old rag after you win the war for the country due to the aforementioned aristocrats' racist stance, and have to leave the girls behind in some cases (others will leave the country with you).
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day shifts firmly to the cynical end of the scale after Rare's previous idealistic games.
  • Cave Shumps Do Don Pachi series is extremely dark and cynical, the only one that isn't cynical was Death Smiles.
  • Don't let the cute chibi characters in Dept. Heaven series fool you. The series is pretty much outright cynical from the get go.
  • StarCraft is firmly on the cynical side of the scale, particularly in the first game. Every known government in the game, from the United Earth Directorate to the Protoss Conclave is either totalitarian or ineffectual, sometimes both. While the ending of the first game is Bittersweet Ending, the expansion throws this out the window, going for an outright Downer Ending, with the zerg victorious, and nearly every good hearted character in the series dead or otherwise out of the fight. The first act of the second game is much more idealistic, but not nearly enough to make up for all that grimdark.
    • In StarCraft II, Matt Horner is an idealist fighting Mengsk's government because it's the right thing to do. Almost everyone else is doing it for revenge. This is also essentially the mood for the cinematic A Better Tomorrow. After breaking open New Folsom prison, Matt Horner believes that their real victory was releasing everyone who ever spoke out against Mengsk. That the point of their revolution is to build a better tomorrow. Tosh scoffs at this and calls it naive; claiming that tyranny can only be succeeded by tyranny, and that one can only fight the present enemy. Raynor is in the middle, believing that Matt's better future will arrive; but those fighting out of hatred and revenge, like him and Tosh, will have no place in it.
  • The Metroid games all tend cynically, given that the basic scenario is "things are bad. Stop them from getting worse," and then Samus inevitably has to destroy things to stop things from getting worse. There are a few idealistically redeeming bright spots, but they always have a bittersweet tinge.
  • Red Faction is pretty much an optimistic series of a revolution that is rarely vilified against an absolutely evil authoritarian group.
  • All of the main series Pokémon games are definitely on the idealism end of the scale—however, the dynamic is played with in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, in which the Big Bad is arguably an extreme idealist himself. Instead of "Idealism vs. Cynicism", it's "Idealism A vs. Idealism B".
    • Far more obvious in the newest pair, Pokémon Black and White. The "King" of the obligatory villainous team this time around is an outright Anti-Villain who has spent his life under the belief that Trainers make Pokemon suffer by using them for their own purposes and forcing them to battle. He is set up as the direct counterpart to the main protagonist, and the game even states that one side fights for "truth" while the other fights for "ideals". In fact, the whole game is basically built around the moral that, in most situations, there IS no right/wrong and people should learn to accept each other despite their differences in ideas/beliefs, because that's what makes the world so diverse and creative. Not only that—just in case it wasn't idealistic ENOUGH—it attaches another moral that, whatever your dream or vision for the world, you should strive to make it come true... and just by doing that you become The Hero.
    • Keep in mind that above statement said the main games are mostly idealistic. The Ranger games stick close to idealism and the Mystery Dungeon games strike a reasonable balance, but the Orre games lean heavily towards cynicism, though still not without it's idealistic spots.
  • Rez is somewhat on the cyncical side, having you fight a network AI with an existential crisis. Then comes its sequel Child of Eden, which just might be the happiest Rail Shooter ever developed. Those bosses you fight? They're not even enemies so much as infected by The Virus, and you purify them into lovely One-Winged Angel forms instead of destroying them.
  • Most indie flash games these days are completely cynical, often a grim dead baby tragicomedy where the story is as brutal as the game sometimes with absolutely no hope for the hero.
  • Compare Tomb Raider With Uncharted, Tomb Raider being the cynical one and Uncharted being the idealistic one.
  • The first two games in the Arc the Lad series lie far on the cynical end, while the third game tries to be a little more idealistic, the fourth is again more cynical (but not as much as the second), and the fifth tries again to be more idealistic than its predecessors. As a whole, the series remains mostly on the cynical side of the scale.
  1. ↑ They are there because of some crime they committed in the past. Not because of... pen.
  2. ↑ Ironically, both of their seiyuu had previous roles in extremely cynical anime/games
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