10 MORE Cruel Tricks Video Games Played On RPG Players
Scripted party wipes are never fun.
Role-playing games are in a league of their own where popularity is concerned, appealing to a huge swath of players across many demographics. After all, who doesn't love entrenching themselves in a living, breathing game world teeming with hundreds of hours of content?
But as much as most RPGs are focused on giving the player freedom to explore their lush worlds, sometimes, developers aren't strictly focused on catering to the player's desires, and will get a little more daring.
To that end, some RPGs tinker with player expectations in ways that aren't merely cheeky and mischievous, but generally ruthless, harsh, and even cruel.
From ambushing players with a brutal choice at the start of the game, to locking them out of content with pathetic ease, or punishing them for showing mercy, these RPGs all played nasty tricks on players for one reason or another.
Following up our original list on this subject, here are ten more video games that weren't satisfied to be exercises in wish fulfilment - they wanted you to feel despair, anger, and confusion too!
10. Make A Horrible Choice At The Start Of The Game - Fable III
Generally speaking, most video games save their agonising player choices for the very end of the story, but Fable III said "Screw that" and forced you to make a gut-wrenching decision in its opening 15 minutes.
Fable III's protagonist is the younger brother of Logan, the despotic king of Albion, and at the start of the game after intruding upon one of his war room meetings, Logan punishes you by forcing you to make a horrific choice.
Logan is either going to execute your love interest, or the leaders of the protest against his corrupt rule - and you have to pick who. It's a genuinely tough choice with no "right" answer, and to rub salt in the wound, if you take too long to choose, Logan will just execute them all.
Given that players rightly expect to be eased into the tricky decision-making in any video game, Fable III surprised players by instead kicking things off with a stomach-churning jolt. Whoever you picked, this was harsh as hell.