9 Video Games Where You Lose No Matter What

The hero doesn't always come out on top.

By Richard C Shaffer /

The idea of most hero stories is that the good guys fight against the evil-doers and, ultimately, defeat evil and win. You know the drill - victory in the name of truth, justice, and the New Game+ way; or however it goes. But sometimes the hero doesn't rescue the princess in the eighth castle, sometimes the villain wins in the end, and sometimes... the hero was evil all along.

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So many different things can happen during the course of a hero's journey. So many things can go wrong. The old saying "the path to hell is paved with good intentions" can describe more games than you might realize. So here's a list of some choice games where, no matter what you - the player - may have intended to happen...the bad guys won out in the end.

And I don't just mean that EA made more money, though many gamers will likely agree that could count.

9. Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 is the fantastic prequel to the entire Yakuza series. In it you play as a young Kazuma Kiryu first starting out in his days as an enforcer for the Dojima clan.

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He gets caught up in a criminal plot involving real estate, assassination, and disco dancing. Or, well, something along those lines. In between the fist fights and karaoke the ultimate goal of the game is to have Kiryu, and his unknowing compatriot Majima Goro, survive and discover the truth behind the plot to frame Kiryu and murder a blind woman.

But in the end, no matter how much money you've acquired, how many women you've dated, how many games of darts you've won, or how much office space you've bought and rented out the storyline always progresses to the same ultimate outcome: The first Yakuza game.

In Zero you solve the property problem and the three jerkwad lieutenants fighting over your adoptive father's position as second-in-command to the Dojima clan all wind up either dead or in jail, and you save the girl. But the douche behind it all, Dojima, comes out and sexually assaults your sister, which you go to jail for in Yakuza 1.

Tough break, hero.

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