10 Brutal Video Game Punishments For Breaking The Law

It's clear that very few games take kindly to stealing. In the real world, you'd be most likely fined or sentenced to a brief spell in prison if found guilty of shoplifting. But not in the Zelda universe, it seems, for shopkeepers are shown to take their work VERY seriously indeed.

In Link's Awakening, trying to take an item out of the shop in Mabe Village will cause the shopkeeper to sternly remind you to pay for it. For the craftier player, there's a way to exit the shop without him seeing you, involving you doing a few circles around him so that you can safely leave before he turns his head.

Doing this will prompt a message to show up, saying, "Guess what? You got it for free. Are you proud of yourself?"

It might spook you enough to see that your actions haven't gone unnoticed by the game, but then when you boot it up again the next time to see that your save file is now permanently named THIEF, you'll know you done screwed up.

For the rest of your playthrough, everyone will refer to you this way, making for a pretty humiliating punishment all in all. And if you try to re-enter the shop you originally stole from, the shopkeeper will instakill you each time with a bolt of lightning.

You can bet that at least <i>he</i> was feeling proud of himself.