< Heroic BSOD

Heroic BSOD/Video Games

Heroic BSOD - The one BSOD that's not Microsoft's fault. Usually.

  • In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years an interesting blend of this and Villainous BSOD happens to poor Cecil. First, the Maenad forces him be Brainwashed and Crazy, to the point that he, among other things, wreaks disaster on the world, attempts to have his friend Edward assassinated, and personally raises arms against his best friend, wife, and child. After this, her control over him is broken, and he realizes precisely what it is he has done. He goes completely catatonic as a result. Fortunately, he can be snapped out of that, too.
  • Terra has one of these in Final Fantasy VI when she realises that she's half-Esper. The player (along with the rest of her party) doesn't find this out until significantly later in the game, so the fact that she transforms, flies away, and becomes completely incoherent seems completely random when it first happens.
    • Terra also has another the end of the world. Terra eventually loses all her fighting spirit and is even nearly killed defending a group of orphans from a monster called Phunbaba until Sabin and Celes save her. When Phunbaba returns for a rematch and nearly kills her friends, the shock of this is enough to motivate her back into action...
    • Cyan, meanwhile, is introduced as a noble samurai... and then Kefka wipes out everyone in his home kingdom (including his wife and son). Cyan's first response? Charge into a nearby Imperial camp and challenge everyone present to battle. He manages to get a hold of himself, but if you revisit Doma in the World of Ruin, you'll have to engage in what amounts to hands-on psychotherapy.
    • If Cid dies, then Celes winds up losing herself to despair and hurls herself off a cliff. Her suicide attempt fails and she wakes up to discover Locke's bandana, which causes her to realize she isn't alone and leads her to search to reunite with the rest of the party.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth convinces the hero Cloud that he (Cloud) is not who he thinks he is; that he is in fact an attempt at "duplicating" the real Cloud, who had died several years earlier. The hero is so distraught at discovering he's the Tomato in the Mirror that he gives up the Weapon of Mass Destruction to his enemy. As all hell breaks loose, Cloud disappears, only to be found nearly comatose by his teammates a week later.
    • Cloud is really, really good at these in general. He has a spectacular one after Aeris dies, blaming himself for another BSOD during her murder at the hands of Sephiroth. '...But I just let her die.'
    • The prequel Crisis Core gives poor Cloud yet another BSOD during Zack's traumatic death scene.
      • Well, okay, it's more like 'Snaps and starts believing he IS Zack, or at least basing his entire personality on Zack's...(Thus leading into his intro in the original game.)
      • Really, it's more of an inversion of the BSOD - Cloud was comatose before this happened (due to having his nearly-lifeless body used as a science experiment rather than the traumatic encounter with Sephiroth that lead up to it), and actually snaps out of it and is in the most lucid state he's been in (or will be in) in a long time right after Zack's death. Of course, this doesn't last long, but that's at least as much the fault of the experiments as the trauma.
    • Surprisingly, Sephiroth's current nature was implied to be the direct result of this.
    • Though his BSODs may pale in comparison to Cloud's, Vincent Valentine deserves a mention. He convinced himself that it was his fault for not protecting his beloved one, Lucrecia. So he lay in a coffin. For three decades.
    • In the original game, Barrett has a good one in Midgar when one of the city's upper plates crashes into the slums bellow killing his friends and, seemingly, his adoptive daughter Marlene. All he could do is scream and shoot into the rubble.
  • Final Fantasy VIII has Squall suffer an interesting version of it beginning with the third disc. Up until then, he'd been the taciturn and reluctant hero, doing what he'd thought everyone wanted him to do as a good soldier. Then Rinoa ends up in a coma from which she might never wake up. Cue abandonment of his friends and his post to go on a long journey with a minimal chance of success just for her, something that would have been completely antithetical to his beliefs only a week or so before.
    • The end sequence of FFVIII also involves a more standard version when Squall tries and fails to make it out of Time Compression using The Power of Friendship, getting stranded alone outside of time and having an epic Heroic BSOD complete with hallucinations.
  • Final Fantasy IX. After her mother's death (suffered whilst trying to kill her, after finding out that she never loved her and just wanted her powers) closely followed by her witnessing the epic destruction of her new kingdom on the eve of her coronation, Garnet/Dagger spends a good chunk of the later game completely catatonic, unable to talk and just dragged around by her comrades. Oddly enough, she could still join you in battle, though her hit chance went right down, and occasionally, she just gave up, with the notice "Garnet can't concentrate".
    • Well, she doesn't become catatonic until her homeland is nearly wiped off the map by an invasion of undead monsters and an incredibly destructive magical attack that had been stolen from Garnet herself. You can hardly blame Garnet for developing post-traumatic stress disorder after a trauma like that.
      • Also, during her death scene, Brahne apologizes for it and claims that she did it out of overwhelming (and recently realized) greed, not that she never loved Garnet in the first place.
    • Another prime case of Heroic BSOD occurs near the end of the game to Zidane. After finding out his true origins and the morbid purpose of his existence he goes temporarily insane, turning into a raging, foul-mouthed misanthrope who attacks everything in his path both verbally and physically.
  • In Final Fantasy X Auron has a rather spectacular one when he finds out that the religion he has devoted his life to is all false and Braska and Jecht died for nothing because Sin can never truly be vanquished. His BSOD leads him to his death as he gets so angry that he attacks a pseudo-God.
    • Tidus also has a major BSOD when Rikku and the Al Bhed tell him that Yuna will die if she finishes the pilgrimage., Valefor comforting him is probably one of the most touching scenes in the game.
    • Though not to the same degree as the other two, Tidus has another one earlier in the game when Auron reveals to him that Jecht, Tidus's father who he had believed to have died ten years earlier, is not only alive, but is the Big Bad that the party is on a mission to kill. This is made especially clear when you compare Tidus's extremely depressed mood during his interaction with Yuna in the subsequent cutscene to the much more cheerful mood he had shown during all his previous interactions with her up to that point.
    • Yuna gets a brief one of her own (combined with a very healthy dose of Oh Crap that she shares with the rest of the party and first time players) during the Operation Mi-ihen cutscene. She obviously knew well before this that Sin's destructive power was unmatched by anything else in Spira, but this was the first time that she had actually witnessed the full extent of it firsthand.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, Larsa has a brief one when Al-Cid reveals that his father passed away.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII, the Idiot Hero Snow has one of these when he learns that Hope, whom he previously though to be just an innocent Tagalong Kid, is actually son of the woman whom he let plummet to her death in the prologue and whose death has been gnawing at his conscience ever since. Not only that, but Hope actively hates his guts and really, really wants him dead (their previous lack of understanding is not helped any by Hope's inability to just spit it out and Snow living in his private happy-go-lucky world most of the time).
  • This occurs to Kratos from God of War after he unknowingly murdered his wife and child. He spends all of the first and second games in a constantly enraged state and on the brink of madness (although he may have had this personality even before his Heroic BSOD.
    • He has another one on II, during a Boss Battle, after accidentally killing the last survivng spartan (perhaps he should stop killing people in the dark...) He's so pissed off and distraught, shouting challenges to the gods and lamenting his fate that he completely ignores the giant monstrous Kraken climbing up the tower until it actually grabs him.
    • Even before that in Chains of Olympus when he discovers the harsh truth that if he helps the gods he will never be reunited with his family in death. Not being allowed even some redemption at the end of GOW 1 (which takes place a few years later and he has nightmares every night ever since) drives him to attempt suicide. He is not even allowed that.
  • In Fire Emblem, the half-human, half-Dragon bard Nils suffers a Heroic BSOD after his leader and protector, Eliwood, kills Nils' sister, the dancer Ninian, under the control of the powerful Durandal sword. He snaps out of it and returns two stages later.
    • Eliwood himself suffers one earlier on in the game, after seeing his father post-torture, and being powerless as he dies.
    • Averted in Path of Radiance. After his father's death, Ike seems afflicted with Heroic BSOD which manifests itself as insomnia. However, aside from appearing more tired than usual, the other characters do not notice. It doesn't affect his performance on the battlefield either. When he finally avenges Greil, the narration describes Ike as sleeping well past dawn the next day. A Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
      • Ike went through something similar, but more severe, when he learned about his mother's death. At least, his insomnia that night was more obvious.
    • Ephraim and Eirika both also suffer a minor one when Lyon, their childhood friend, takes their bracelets (which are the titular Sacred Stones of their country IIRC) and basically tells them that they HAVE to kill him to stop him. L'Arachel and Tana, depending on who's route you took, manage to snap them out of it by the next chapter.
  • Happens to the main character in Shadow Hearts 3, when he's killed by The Dragon. Effectively, it unleashes a Super-Powered Evil Side, and he nearly ends up killing his friends before being brought to his senses.
  • Suikoden likes to invoke this trope, usually when plotline death occurs. Examples below:
    • Suikoden I suggests this as the hero's reaction to Gremio's horrific death by spores.
    • Slightly subverted in Suikoden II to the little girl Pilika, whom after watching her parents Polk get murdered in front of her by Luca Blight, is emotionally scarred and mute for the majority of the game. She eventually regains her speech when she's reunited with Jowy.
      • Nanami's death shuts down the war temporarily so the hero can recover.
    • Suikoden III manages to have this happen with assumed antagonist, Sasarai, when Luc reveals that the two of them are nothing but clones that only exist to hold their True Runes.
      • Hugo when Lulu gets a sword through the belly.
  • Frank gets one in the best ending of Dead Rising when he sees the helicopter that was supposed to get him and the survivors out of the mall go down and explode. He's so out of it that he doesn't notice the zombie shambling up behind him.
    • Looked to me like he was completely aware of the horde of zombies behind him... he just didn't care anymore. Made the ending a lot better in my eyes, especially in a somewhat story-light game.
      • Except that isn't the true ending.
      • Then he has another one after Isabella rescues him and he learns that he's infected.
  • Chuck has one in the worst ending for Dead Rising 2: With his daughter dead due to his failure to give her Zombrex, he loses all will to live, so when zombies come busting into the security room, he puts up no resistance as they pull him down and devour him.
  • Kyosuke Nanbu in Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden suffers this. Just when he thought he saved his Robot Girl companion Lamia Loveless, he got a bit distracted and that caused a cheap shot to get fired at him and promptly lose her, leading him to think that it's his fault she's dead. Heroic BSOD occurs for about 10 minutes, after the said killer was taken care of, and he vanished from the player's control for several missions. Shortly after he came back in action (or get controlled by the player again), he found out that Lamia is Not Quite Dead and Brainwashed and Crazy. Another Heroic BSOD occurs in Kyosuke for about 10 minutes again after the battle concludes. And in their next encounter, Kyosuke was about to suffer another Heroic BSOD recalling his failure to protect her, until his rival turned good Axel Almer proved otherwise and completely saved her. From thereafter, Kyosuke no longer suffers casual Heroic BSODs, but it's kinda worth noting that in one game he suffers this trope THREE TIMES.
    • Calvina Coulange from Super Robot Wars Judgment suffers this in the early portion of the game, though this is justified that she hasn't been piloting for years and fears her skills have deteriorated so it doesn't ensure survival for the imminent battle.
    • Ryusei in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 takes it very literally when Hazal destroyed his SRX and seemingly killed Aya. Took about a Time Skip (just several months) and several missions to get him back to fighting state. And since this hasn't happened in the OG Universe... He may get one later.
    • Kazuma Ardygun in Super Robot Wars W has one when Blessfield is apparently killed in a Boson Jump accident at the Bloody Valentine. A six-month timeskip later, his family finds him working with the Serpent Tail, seemingly amnesiac under the name of Kite.
  • In Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works when Shirou falls on the floor after seeing a vision of his future self as Archer impaled by swords on a hill of swords. Subverted when Shirou still fights back against Archer.
  • Flint from Mother 3 gets one halfway through chapter one. The good news? The Drago tooth his friend found would be an awesome weapon! The bad news? The tooth was found after it went through Flint's wife's heart! Flint literally has to be knocked unconscious after hearing the news and breaking down.
    • He gets another near the end of the game, when he finds out the Masked Man is Claus. He snaps out of it in time to take the bullet (well, PSI attack) for Lucas.
  • The PC for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness has one when they find out they have to die to save the world. Just when they're starting to snap out of it they have another one over Grovyle taking the hit from Dusknoir for them.
  • The rival in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (and Platinum) has one after he failed to defeat Commander Jupiter at Lake Acuity and Uxie got taken by Team Galactic.
  • Laharl from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness suffers his after Seraph Lamington kills Flonne. His only response, after a few seconds of silence, are a series of guttural growls followed by murderous rage. Afterwards, depending on what ending the player got, either Laharl spares Lamington and it's revealed that it was all a test, and Flonne is revived, Laharl spares Lamington... in the sense that he's still BREATHING... and Flonne is revived, though Laharl is so apalled by his actions that he departs, never to be seen again or, finally, flat out KILLS Lamington, only to go completely insane when the truth is revealed and kill himself.
    • Also happens to Adell in the Bad Ending of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories after he is forced to kill Rozalin. This being the Bad Ending, of course, things immediately go from bad to worse as it jumps right into a big bloody pool of Nightmare Fuel.
  • Lloyd Irving of Tales of Symphonia does this when he discovers that Colette is giving up her life to save the world and then gets a front row seat to watch her "die", the angel Remiel who had previously acted as a guardian angel for the group is actually evil, and Kratos, who had previously been traveling with them to protect Colette, turns out to be Remiel's boss. Poor boy practically needed a kernel reinstall to get over that, which hidden pseudo-ally Yuan neatly provides.
    • Doesn't Emil's realization from the sequel that he's actually Ratatosk, he murdered Aster, he was getting ready to destroy the entire human race, and to put the icing on the guilt cake, he used Marta as bait for his enemies count?
  • Fellow Idiot Hero and Tales (series) protagonist, Luke fon Fabre of Tales of the Abyss, also has an epic one when, after the first part of the game, he begins to realize the gravity of what he's done: killed thousands of people all at once, sunk a huge portion of the world, and refused to accept responsibility for it all until the entire party turns their backs and give up on him. Even his best friend and the love interest. Oh, and by the way, he's a clone, and the party seems to like the original better. He comes out of the BSOD with wide eyes and new resolution, deciding that he'll do whatever it takes to become a better person. Indeed, throughout the rest of the game he completes his transformation from Jerkass to The Messiah. And it's great.
  • Mitsuru Kirijo, in Persona 3 gets this when the Chairman betrays the party and murders her father in cold blood, and then, wounded himself, falls off the edge of the tower. During the Kyoto trip, it's Yukari that brings her to her senses. After Mitsuru gains her resolution, her persona ascends from Penthesilea to Artemisia.
    • Everybody in the party kind of emotionally checks out for a couple of weeks in December after the revelation that their efforts to defeat the twelve shadows have brought about The End of the World as We Know It, there's no way to stop it, and the only options they have are to wait for it to happen or have their memories of the whole thing erased so that they can go about their lives in peace for the few months or so that they have left. They manage to rally themselves out of it in time for Christmas.
  • Happens to everyone in Persona 4 if Nanako dies after the fight with Namatame. Dojima has a major one, too, once he finally joins them. Teddie also gets hit particularly hard, getting a one-two punch from Nanako's death and finally remembering his true nature.
  • Sera in Digital Devil Saga 2 gets one of these when she watches Heat kill Serph, in a scene that mimicks the scene where other Serph killed other Heat five years ago and threw her into her original BSOD that kinda started the destruction of the world. Unfortunately, watching this reiteration of the previous BSOD causing trauma caused God to decide to finish the job. Whoops.
  • Jade from Beyond Good and Evil has one of these. When she returns home to her lighthouse, she discovers that it's been destroyed, and all of her adoptive children have most likely been killed. She breaks down and delivers a heart-wrenching soliloquy (It was once the quote at the top of this page.) about her uselessness. Said soliloquy was so impressive that they even included it on the official OST album under the trackname "Enfants Disparus".
  • Adrienne Delaney of the Sierra game Phantasmagoria is a shining example of this trope at game's end, walking away from her former home with an utterly blank expression on her face. Of course, by that point she had personally witnessed visions of Zoltan Carnovash brutally murdering his wives, been raped by her husband Don while he was possessed, lost her cat Spazz and her two new vagrant friends, murdered Don in order to keep him from killing her, and had successfully faced off against the demon who had possessed him, trapping it in a talisman. So yeah, it's easy to see why she'd be so messed up...
  • Higashizawa drives Shiki into one in The World Ends With You. The next day, she is quite silent, not even saying her usual run-away-from-battle quips.
    • The games end, where Neku realizes that Joshua actually DID kill him and is about to do it again and, subsequently, erase Shibuya. Seriously, to say it with Neku's words: WHAT THE HELL?!
  • Alien Syndrome had an early case of the Heroic BSOD when Aileen was searching for survivors on the Kronos, despite finding the survivors, they have all turned mad and tried to kill her (without much success) and when she got back, she entered a stage of Heroic BSOD before getting the pieces together in order to find her boyfriend. Needless to say, she hears of the fateful log where her boyfriend suffers something akin to Prey's second boss later on. It only gets worse as she learns of her roots and how the alien queen is really an young girl who is the sole sentient survivor of her people and she wants to die so she can finally rest in piece.
  • Wonderfully averted in Riviera: The Promised Land after Ein's memory block is released and he remembers that he's a Grim Angel who is supposed to destroy the world: instead of angsting about it, he immediately vows to find a better way to defeat the demons, because the Sprites really aren't so bad.
  • Jude from Wild ARMs 4 has one after witnessing the deaths of his mother and several of his former neighbors while escaping from the military's base. He snaps out of it after his teammates convince him to keep going and fulfill his mother's wish of seeing the Divine Weapon destroyed.
  • Lan Hikari has one of these in Mega Man Battle Network 3. Lan has just helped Mr. Match place fire data throughout Sci Lab, resulting in his father's injury. Lan misses school for about three days, even lashing out at Mayl and Yai, and it takes Chaud asking for his help after an "I didn't hear anything" to bring him out.
  • It takes three games, but Geo, the protagonist of Mega Man Star Force, finally gets one in the third game when his best friend is seemingly murdered in front of him. Just to rub it in, the villain immediately goes on to the Evil Laugh.
    • Geo was having BSODs waaaay before that. In the first game he had a BSOD for 3 years or so when his dad went missing. Then he has ANOTHER one when Pat betrays him. And then ANOTHER one in the second game when he only manages to save just one of his friends from falling in a non-lethal hole of doom. Also, in the same game, ANOTHER one when Sonia / Harp Note, Geo's first person which who has formed a brotherband, betrays him and breaks their brotherband, due to a deal with the enemy to ensure Geo would be safe. Geo's the king of this trope, no kidding.
  • In the course of fighting off an alien invasion, Iji is shaken by the death of her father and sister, and she suffers a Heroic BSOD if she fails to save her brother, which is particularly heartbreaking because she goes on talking to him as if he's still alive. Also note that failing is very probable in the first playthrough unless you've read about it in advance.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm. The entire Tau faction has a Heroic BSOD when their Ethereal is slain at the finale of their stronghold mission, and retreat from the Kaurava system thoroughly shamed by their inability to protect them. The Tau Commander even exclaims something along the lines of "NOOOOOO! Noble Ethereal! We have lost you! We have lost all!"
    • It happens in any situation an Ethereal dies. And the commander didn't live, he joined the Ethereal in death
    • Another case is from the earlier Dark Crusade, when the objective in the Tau stronghold is to kill the Ethereal Aun'El. As Aun'El falls whispering "All is lost... all is lost...", a crisis commander begins to freak out before Shas'O Kais, barely keeping things together, announces "Fall back, now! All forces, fall back. Evacuate the city. We will return Aun'El to T'au for burial. There is nothing left for us here..."
      • Worth noting that about half the planet's population consists of Tau when they evacuate...
  • Link partially suffers one, collasping to his knees and breathing heavily, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, after he learns how the Fused Shadows came into existence.
  • By Episode 3 of Phantasy Star Universe, Laia Martinez has gone through one after a series of events near the end of Episode 2. First she failed to save the virus-infected young Beast boy who turned into a SEED form, thus having to be purified. Then during an Illuminus attack on the GUARDIANS colony by SEED-infected CASTs, President Dallgun, her adopted father, is forced to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save the residential area, leaving the rest of the colony (w/Dallgun still inside) to crash into Parum, destroying a city along with thousands of people. The fact that the GUARDIANS have lost the trust of the people for failing to prevent it from happening doesn't help. In the first chapter of Ep. 3, it's revealed that Laia had unceremoniously left the GUARDIANS and has no intention on returning. She gets better.
  • Oersted (Orsted in the first translation patch) from Live a Live has one following The Reveal. It doesn't end well.
  • Call of Duty: World at War, Sgt. Roebuck suffers this in the last American mission, when Pvt. Polonsky dies from a Japanese fake surrender ambush and they're forced to take on a massive wave of enemy forces. Alternatively Polonsky suffers this is it's Roebuck who dies in the ambush.
  • Silent Hill 2 has James do at least 3 (maybe 4) of these: when Maria is killed by Pyramid Head, when Maria is killed by Pyramid Head * again* , when he remembers that he killed his wife, and (arguably) a brief one when the Pyramid Heads kill Maria YET AGAIN.
    • Let's not beat around the bush, The entirety of the game is basically James having one massive BSOD. From getting out of the car...to the bitter end, it's all the awful truth catching up to a man in deep denial.
  • Mio in Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, right at the end of the game in the Bittersweet Ending. After all, she just murdered her twin sister Mayu via strangling to complete a ritual to keep demons away, resulting in Mio turning into a blubbering, disbelieving mess. She follows after the spirit of her sister, crying out that she's sorry and begging her to come back. And this is the canon ending!
  • Will has one in Advance Wars Days of Ruin after Cpt. Brenner is destroyed by Caulder's new weapon. He snaps out of it when Isabella tells him that his happiness is her happiness. He then goes on to become the new commander of Brenner's Wolves.
    • Isabella has one when Caulder tells everyone his daughters are clones and Isabella is one of them. Being kicked out by the civilians doesn't exactly help her condition. But after the battle on the Great Owl, Will tells her it doesn't matter what she is.
  • Zero from Mega Man X 4 gets an exceedingly narmtastic heroic BSOD after being forced to kill his girlfriend Iris. See it in all its glory here. He continues to Wangst about it even in his last breath in X5.
  • Kingdom Hearts II. When Sora learns that his killing Heartless is exactly what the Organization wants him to do. He recovers really quickly, after a pep talk from Goofy, which basically boils down to "The Heartless still need to be stopped, because they hurt people."
  • Mickey Mouse has one in the ending of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep over his failure to save any of the protagonists from their fates worse than death. Master Yen Sid rouses him out of it fairly quickly, although there are some hints that it still haunted him years later in the original Kingdom Hearts, just not cripplingly.
  • Shiki in Tsukihime when Arcueid disappears. Throughout the day he's in a state of total shock and numbness, merely going through the motions at school. He's only at school because it was less effort than dealing with Akiha if didn't. He gets better when after sitting alone waiting for a teacher for several hours, Roa and Arcueid show up and start fighting to the death.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden quite understandably suffers one hell of a BSOD when Olga is shot by Solidus. Her death was merely the spark which was fueled by previous knowledge that his role as a rookie was a lie... and that he was actually a child soldier with years of experience (and trauma). Add that to one secret after another revealed beforehand, and not knowing of the unbelievable mess that awaited him in the next scene...it's a wonder Raiden even recovered enough to duel Solidus in the end.
    • Also happens to Otacon in MGS2, after his younger stepsister dies in his arms. Even after a motivational manly handshake/hug from Snake, he still ends up collapsing into a sobbing mess after his sister's parrot begins mimicking her and saying "Hal. I miss you." multiple times. He manages to recover from it and escort the hostages out of Big Shell.
    • Solid Snake constantly wrestles against the BSOD throughout the series, suffering a literal barrage of conspiracies and mindbenders that could be named by the entire Gambit Index right to the bitter end. Yet somehow, Snake generally manages to keep it together and not crash (though he comes pretty damn close at times in four, when he's obviously reached his limit.). A true blue soldier he is!
      • Although...between Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (second game) and Metal Gear Solid it's said that a certain event shook him up a bit to the point he disappeared into Alaska for a while. This may be an off screen slight BSOD he suffered. Said incident was in fact learning that Big Boss was his father minutes before Snake killed him in a particularly horrific way. Evidently, this disillusioned him so heavily that he couldn't deal with people anymore.
        • Snake can have an on-screen BSOD in Guns of the Patriots; kill around fifty enemies (kill, not just knock out) and he'll have a flashback to his brother Liquid accusing him of enjoying all the killing he does before vomiting right then and there.
    • At the end of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Big Boss turns his quiet little BSOD at the revelation of his master, the Boss' many sacrifices into one of the most remembered examples of Manly Tears to ever appear on a gaming console.
      • Big Boss's Heroic BSOD was also implied to have worsened quite a bit in Peace Walker, as he was starting to sweat profusely when hearing people or The Boss's AI refer to him as Jack, as well as experience flashbacks to Operation Snake Eater. It's likely that Gene's revelation in Portable Ops may have affected him a lot more than in Metal Gear Solid 3.
    • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots relies heavily on this. With the Sons of the Patriot system, soldiers no longer experience fear or pain and are able to keep fighting effectively for much longer. But when the system is shut down, the emotion suppression immediately ends and everything comes crashing down on the soldiers, who never had to deal with their past or recieved any kind of counseling at all, sending every single one of them into a massive BSOD. When Ocelot does just that, the only unit that is still in any shape to fight are the fresh recruits on a training vessel. Also Johnny always managed to evade getting integrated with the system and while it seriously hampered him in combat, he never relied on the emotion supression and was the only one unaffected when the system was gone, giving him the chance for several Big Damn Heroes moments.
  • Steve Burnside in Resident Evil Code: Veronica gets a short one when he discovers that his father has been zombified, and he becomes unable to "kill" it. Only when Claire is threatened by the zombie does he finally turn his submachine guns on it, proceeding to drain his entire supply of bullets into the corpse, and his fingers remain locked into the triggers despite the clicking from the drained guns.
  • Edge Maverick from Star Ocean: The Last Hope gets a BSOD after he introduced futuristic technology to a 1950's Earth that will bypass that of the nuclear age, therefore avoiding the nuclear war that would eventually nearly cause massive destruction to Earth in the future. However, the scientist he gives it to immediately puts it into a technologically inept reactor, causing the destruction of the entire Earth. While this is an understandable case of BSOD, it has received fan criticism for the shear length and overreaction of his BSOD, refusing to even speak for the subsequent chapter of the game, despite being the main character. Also, his actions create an alternate timeline fate of the Earth, the Earth of his dimension was NOT destroyed when he and his crew returned.
  • In La-Mulana, YOU, that's right, YOU, after discovering the skimpy swimsuit.
  • Much of the entertainment value of the Let's Play videos of I Wanna Be the Guy comes from watching the LP'ers experiencing heroic BSOD's.
    • One particular epic heroic BSOD comes from a user who had a complete mental breakdown after MANY failed attempts to kill Mecha Birdo. In fact, he uploaded the attempted fights as a completely separate video in the LP he was doing of the game just to show how crazy he had went.
    • In the same vein, pokecapn has a major one during the five-part finale of the Sonic 2006 Let's Play. What follows is the most painful silence imaginable.
  • Ratchet gets one during the first Ratchet and Clank 2002 game after Qwark's betrayal. At this point, the only thing keeping him from dumping Clank and packing it all in is a need for mutual cooperation. He does become determined to get back at Qwark though.
  • In Mass Effect, Wrex's race, the Krogan are dying out due to a specially designed bioweapon used on them during a Krogan Uprising. On Virmire, he learns that on the base you intend to blow up Saren is developing a cure. He storms off; you either have to convince him that extinction would be preferable to his race being the indoctrinated servants of Seran, or you have to kill him.
    • Shepard has one too, after the Council grounds him/her. His/her love-interest (or Anderson if no-one romanced) turns up and pulls him/her out of it.
    • Mordin in Mass Effect 2. During loyalty mission, learns that student conducting live experiments and torture. Trying to figure cure Genophage, Mordin's greatest work... Kills student for barbarity, if Paragon option not taken. Clearly sad. Over it quickly. Salarians deal with emotions faster. Shorter life cycles.
    • Joker gets one of this after the Normandy Crew gotten captured and chews Shepard out for what happened there before quickly calming down.
    • Some of your squadmates in Mass Effect 2 if you fail their loyalty mission. Tali, Thane and Samara will be brooding for the rest of the mission if you for some reason fail their loyalty
    • Shepard is on the edge of one for ALL of Mass Effect 3, as the decisions that s/he's forced to make in the Reaper War and all the people who have died in the fight against the Reapers takes it's physical and mental toll on him/her. This is most evident after the fall of Thessia.
  • Cosette suffers a heroic bsod when she gets her first true taste of warplace casualties as she could not tend to the dying due to her hematophobia in effect. She basically is frozen in complete terror when she saw the wounded and dying.
  • Happens to Holmes himself in Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack The Ripper, when he sees Mary Jane Kelly's dead body. He doesn't actually pass out, but is so shaken that Watson has to shepherd him home. Justified, as the last of the Whitechapel murders was by far the most gruesome and perverse of the killings.
  • In the game Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge if you do not succeed in the chapter Saving Sandy, Jack will limply fall to his hands and knees followed by the death screen. Meaning the shock killed him or Jack was too tramitized to defend himself and was killed by Oogie because of it.
  • Ellis from Left 4 Dead will go silent if a teammate dies, and refuses to talk until they are revived. This is in sharp contrast with his otherwise chatty nature.
    • Supposedly, this is due to a bug. At least, that's what TV Tropes said.
  • In Planescape: Torment, a good-aligned Nameless One will, throughout his journey, hear and learn of the actions of one of his past selves, the Practical Incarnation. As he learns more and more of the Incarnation's various atrocities, he is clearly disturbed. This ultimately reaches a head when he recalls how the Practical Incarnation played Dionarra's feelings for him like a fiddle, emotionally manipulated/tortured her, and ultimately deliberately sent her to her death, all without the slightest hint of feeling or remorse. Even worse, it turns out that Practical never actually loved her, and regarded her as nothing but a tool for him to use, just like everyone else. The sheer horror at what he once was and what he did causes the Nameless One to break down, complete with Tears of Blood.
  • Somewhat surprisingly, Garrosh Hellscream in Cataclysm. The short version: Cairne opposes his ascension to Warchief and challenges him to a non-lethal duel; however, Cairne has been severely weakened from the Grimtotems secretly poisoning him, and Garrosh accidentally kills him. He locks himself in his throne room and only comes out when Baine explains what happened and absolves him of his guilt.
    • Jaina Proudmoore at Icecrown Citadel. Realizing that your ex-fiancé really is pure evil and really does need to die is quite traumatic.
  • In Metroid: Other M, Samus spends a good portion of the game struggling to come to terms with the brutal death of the Baby Metroid in Super Metroid, which this game takes place almost immediately after. At one point, she is attacked by Ridley who, in case you forgot, butchered Samus' parents right in front of her and tortured her in the manga. It's made perfectly clear that this encounter is not helping her.
  • Soma Cruz experiences a Heroic BSOD in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow when he witnesses a doppelganger of Mina Hakuba being executed by Celia's cult, provided he's not holding Mina's Talisman when it occurs. This causes Soma to lose control of his identity as Dracula, and allows the Dark Lord to be fully resurrected through his body. With no other choice, Julius Belmont confronts him in the newly-freed Castlevania. This acts as one of the game's Multiple Endings.
  • Capell from Infinite Undiscovery has one when he sees vermiforms killing Faina and Leif. He starts resenting lunaglyphs and the people who use them because he believes that the Unblessed would have been protected if they had lunaglyphs of their own.
  • Phoenix Wright has one in the final case of the second Ace Attorney game when he finds out that Maya has been kidnapped by Shelly de Killer in exchange for a Not Guilty verdict for Matt Engarde. He basically spends the entire case desperately trying to obtain said verdict at any cost, even when he knows that his client is guilty as sin. It takes Edgeworth reminding him of his duty as a defense attorney to snap him out of it.
    • Notably, he's unable to tell anyone about the circumstances he's in, which results in the court audience angrily shouting that he's a scumbag as his tactics become ever more desperate. When he finds himself backed into a hole, he experiences his only Freak-Out in the series, in a creepily similar manner to the Villainous Breakdown his opponents usually suffer from. And no one knows why.
  • Judging by this cinematic from Star Craft 2, Kerrigan's last act as a human is to have one, after realising that her allies have abandoned her and she has no ammo or energy. Then she sees a swarm of Zerg coming towards her.
    • The nameless marine in the Brood War opening cinematic has one as he sees the UED Battlecruiser pull away, leaving him to die at the hands of the zerg.
  • One of the girls of Tokimeki Memorial 2, Kaori Yae, starts the game in the middle of one. Once a Genki Girl, she has been horribly betrayed one year before by her friends of her former school, who ostracized her after she Took The Heat for them, and as a result, she has lost confidence in both herself and the others, has shut herself off from everyone in fear of being hurt again, and is in a depressive state. It'll take the player 2 years of patient care and love to finally give her the courage to confess her past and allow her to recover from her emotional wounds. And if the player fails to have her enough in love with him by that time, she'll resign from school and her fate will be unknown.
  • As a common trope in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, this is incorporated into games based on his works, such as the PC/console game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and the iPhone game Necronomicon. Co C:D Cot E emphasizes this with a system that causes a player to lose physical control of a character whose sanity dips too low. Hallucinations are an early warning sign.
  • Much of the challenge of the videogame adaptation of The Thing is in keeping NPCs from falling into this, in the face of both horrifying events and rampant paranoia. If they snap, they may start firing on friendly characters (including the player); and it may trigger a transformation if they are already infected.
  • There is a point in Dragon Age II where Hawke arrives home to discover that his/her mother has been abducted by a serial killer. Unfortunately, no matter what you do, there is no way to arrive in time to save her. The following two scenes with Gamlen and Hawke's love interest respectively depict Hawke completely shut off from reality.
    • If Bethany is still alive and Hawke sides with the Templars, after killing Orsino, she will, in despair, accept her fate as Meredith goes to execute her. Hawke can prevent her from doing this or allow it to happen.
    • At the conclusion of Merrill's final Companion Quest "A New Path", Merrill goes through one after she is forced to kill her mother figure Marethari who had made herself into an abomination to save Merrill. She collapses to her knees and begs her gods to let this all just be a terrible dream.

Merrill: (falls to her knees) I didn't want this. I never wanted this! Please, Creators, let this all be a bad dream. I'll wake up, and she'll scold me for being an idiot...

  • In Dragon Age: Origins, Alistair has one after the battle at Ostagar that lasts until you reach Lothering.
  • In the ending of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, present-day protagonist Desmond Miles was possessed upon touching the Apple of Eden and forced to stab his friend Lucy Stillman, after which he BSODs so hard that he went into shock, and despite being put back into the Animus in an attempt to keep his mind busy he ended up going into a coma, which he remains in as of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
    • If one starts the da Vinci Disappearance DLC after after one has already cleared the game's memory Sequences as opposed to before that, the opening dialogue changes to reflect the above BSOD, although either way the ending dialogue is set after the BSOD.
  • In Rosenkreuzstilette, Tia gets this when Iris kills her father for having outlived his usefulness to her and then attacks and fatally injures her. Tia desperately demands to know WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON and Iris happily complies telling her a long story about the whole truth behind the war - the fact that she arranged for her father to have Karl imprisoned because He Knows Too Much, the fact that she started the war just for kicks, why she was at the training hall when the war started, why she killed her own father, the fact that she used her so-called innocent demeanor as a mask to fool and manipulate everyone, and the fact that she observed her every move through her pendant that Tia picked up and pitted everyone from RKS against her ideals, and not to mention the fact that she decided to make Zorne suffer by destroying he who she constantly yearned to someday accept her as his real daughter because she always hated her. Tia receives such a big shock from finding out the Complete Monster within Iris that she snaps in disbelief that Iris is the kind of kid who would cross the Moral Event Horizon, and is even more shocked and grief-stricken when she realizes that she was suckered by the mask Iris wore. Iris, no longer having a need for Tia, attempts to finish her off and kill her with one last attack but Freu stops the attack with a room-freezing attack of her own that freezes the attack dead in its tracks to Tia's joy. After Iris leaves, Freu reveals to Tia's surprise that she overused the attack but would be fine, and tells her to go after Iris. At first, Tia refuses to abandon Freu and Karl while Freu's wounded and Karl's imprisoned, but Freu convinces her that she will be alright and will release Karl for her and take care of every problem left behind by Iris, and lets her know that she can rest assured. Knowing that only Tia has a chance of defeating Iris, Freu provides her with a special pick-me-up item she made for her and Tia, calming down and therefore ending her own Heroic BSOD, takes it and leaves to settle the score with Iris once and for all.
  • Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon has the Player-Cheracter go through one extremely late-game when his brother Kane dies. The PC is so shocked by this that he is unable to speak for the rest of the game, and as a result the player can no longer use the escape-spell Egress.
  • In Heavy Rain, many of the parents who lost children to the Origami Killer are suffering from this, in particular Lauren, who seems to have fallen into a pit of despair and remains genuinely stoic throughout the entire game.
    • In one of the worst endings Ethan, commits suicide after learning of Shaun's death.
  • In Baten Kaitos Origins, the Heart-to-Heart scene is Sagi going through a brief one after learning who and what his guardian spirit really is.
  • Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai:
    • Wanko after losing via double KO in the tournament, thus having to give up on her dream.
    • Miyako when Yamato decides to temporarily put their relationship on hold. In both this and the above example Cooldown Hugs are eventually involved.
    • In the anime, Momoyo in episode 8 when during her heated battle against a cyborg opponent, one of the missiles fired by the opponent and deflected by her ends up hitting Yamato and putting him in a coma. She even lets out a Skyward Scream after seeing him in the ICU.
  • In Asura's Wrath, Asura experiences this in the aftermath of the unnamed girl being killed when Olga's fleet bombarded her village to try to take him out. Of course, this being Asura, when he hits his BSOD, he defaults to one state. And his wrath is awe-inspiring to behold.
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