this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 contains data for a cut level called "Genocide City"
  • Obscure Wolfenstein clone Corridor 7 randomly jumpscares the player with a red demon face during regular gameplay
  • Dog Island, a Wii game in which all the characters are adorable chibi dogs, has a subplot about a doctor whose botched treatment caused the death of someone he loved many years ago. He still sees her in his dreams, unable to let go or move on.
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[–] Sasuke@hexbear.net 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

on the Computer, they made a game that is like solitaire, but it has spiders in it

[–] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago

there's a game with bombs in Computer

it was so scary and traumatizing, italy changed them into flowers. and a lobby group named after the icbl was made to advocate the banning of the minesweeper game. i am not fucking kidding

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 34 points 1 week ago

Tomb Raider (1996) the final levels set in Atlantis the walls are living flesh and use a gif of a real beating heart as textures.

[–] Bruja@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago

Genocide City was reused as Chrome Gadget Zone in a competition mode of Sonic 3.

[–] HiImThomasPynchon@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

1987 text adventure Jack the Ripper (along with a handful of other games) was developed by an organization that might have been a neo-nazi sex cult.

[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Speaking of video games with in-lore cults, Kanye Quest 3030

[–] HiImThomasPynchon@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

Nah, this cult wasn't in the game lore, this cult might have been real.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm playing ATOM RPG rn, every part of the game is the basis for a creepypasta

[–] spudnik@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

Oh I really enjoyed that game, was not anticipating how good it was going to be

[–] Dort_Owl@hexbear.net 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Literally every indie game: Here's a cute whimsical adventure that's actually about trauma

I mean that with love, it's just something I've noticed

[–] Outdoor_Catgirl@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

What game does this other than omori? Like the joke of indie games is "quirky earthbound inspired RPG that's actually about depression" isn't actually that prevalent.

[–] QuietCupcake@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Laika: Aged Through Blood (not necessarily billed as whimsical, it let's you know it deals with some harsh shit right away, but still it's cute lil furry protagonists living in a cute animal town, but a story rife with and revolving around seriously fucked up shit, like all the cw even csa, and is literally about trauma.)

Night in the Woods (more cute lil animal critters in a happy go lucky mining town but actually about deep social issues like economic collapse, systemic violence, capitalism, cw! [child murder] and of course trauma)

Sheepo(?) (Not sure but I thought this was about genocide too, could be wrong)

Unravel (more about loss than trauma)

Imp of the Sun (cute lil flame guy with little girl and grandma sidekick, actually about genocide and they're the only people left)

Celeste (classic example of a fun adventure mountain climbing but is a surprisingly poignant story about deep traumatic pain and learning to cope with/overcome it.)

Bastion (Also not sure about this one. Isn't it also about trauma and genocide?)

The Last Campfire (pretty much exactly Dort_Owl's description)

Arise: A Simple Story (Again, literally about trauma and loss)

Smoke and Sacrifice

Candle the Power of the Flame

And I know there are others that aren't coming to mind atm.

Edit: formatting

[–] QuietCupcake@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

A few more I just thought of, and in addition to the other list BeamBrain made:

Spiritfarer (Entirely about learning to accept mortality, mourning, aging and death, but VERY whimsical and playful on the surface. You are a sweet young girl who is actually the captain of the ferry of death, giving the dead their last wishes before leading them into oblivion... by farming and cooking and sight-seeing)

Gris (more dreamlike than whimsical, but again reveals through the game it is meant to be explicitly about trauma)

The next three I haven't played, but by what I know of them...

Farewell North (About healing after trauma, and admittedly as the name implies, saying the last goodbye, but on the surface about a dog making the world colorful by shepherding, freeing wildlife, etc.)

Beacon Pines (another story-book kind of adventure with furry animal characters on the surface but has some really dark twists about trauma and existential dread underneath).

Wanderstop (a tea shop in a magical forest! Oh wait it's dealing heavily with burnout and psychological pain/trauma.)

The list just goes on.

There's even studies that have been done addressing how trauma in indie games is a thing.!

Trauma Representations in Video Games

Over the last few years, the videogame community has seen an increase in the visibility of indie games, particularly ones that focus on serious subjects. Given the name “empathy games” by Minority Media’s Vander Caballero in his 2014 GDC talk, this sub-genre is known for its intense and meaningful narratives that often bring to light traumatic experiences.

Also...

Trauma in Games: Narrativizing Denied Agency, Ludonarrative Dissonance and Empathy Play

[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Off the top of my head:

List inherently involves spoilers

  • Dreaming Mary
  • Yume Nikki
  • Lacey's Flash Games
  • Buddy Simulator 1984
  • Undertale/Deltarune
  • Shipwrecked 64
[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is Yume Nikki discernibly about anything at all?

[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There are some recurring nightmare motifs (car crashes, menacing imagery some fans have interpreted as phallic). We get several hints that Madotsuki is afraid to leave her room. Also at the end of the game, she

Endgame spoilers
spoiler CW: suicide jumps off of the roof in the real world. :::

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

There's also one of Omori's strongest influences, OFF, and a version of this describes really just a ton of games, e.g. Pony Island, Braid, etc.

[–] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

that one game with the anime girls that commit the CONTENT WARNING: SELF-HARM and the This game is not suitable for the easily disturbed. and the romanian news channel "digi24" talked about it and literally had the title "Un joc periculos" (a dangerous game) so you know it'll come to haunt you or eat your porridge or some shit

lets not talk about it ok

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are you talking about DDLC?

[–] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago

LETS NOT TALK ABOUT IT OK

[–] corvidenjoyer@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

So there's this ghost girl in pokemon-

spoilerYOU WERE EXPECTING THE LUMOISE CITY GHOST GIRL BUT IT WAS ME TRAGIC DARKRAI VICITIM. it-was-me

spoiler ...

"Oh.. The Lunar Wing. I can't take it now... but it'll be okay... Please return the wing to the Pokemon... I was waiting on the bridge so I could return it myself..."

thonk-cri :::

[–] ryepunk@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Pokemon has some fucked up pokemon lore, like a teapot pokemon that absorbs children's souls or something?

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

A lot of the ghosts have fucked up lore: Haunter spirits sad people away, Duskull spirits misbehaving children away, Driftloon grabs children and drags them to the afterlife, Gengar likes to hunt and kill people to create more ghosts, Yamask carries their death mask and cry when they see it, Phantump is a lost child that died in the woods, etc. etc.

Cubone wears its dead mother's skull as a mask

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

Don't forget Palossand or however you spell its name, which does the unthinkable and also eats children's souls, but as a pile of sand this time.

[–] corvidenjoyer@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Sinistea just steals the souls of whoever drinks it. Your probably confusing it with something like Drifloon who just straight up kidnaps children.

These Pokémon are called the "Signpost for Wandering Spirits." Children holding them sometimes vanish.

[–] ryepunk@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

Yeah that makes sense.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] WittyProfileName2@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the mannequins used to display armour are NPCs with a custom texture and script that makes behave like an object.

Under certain circumstances the script may not trigger immediately and the mannequins will silently move around whatever cell they're in.

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In dungeon keeper there's a hidden message from a developer about how working on the game has taken a toll on their health and social lives; there's another game with a far more haunting hidden developer message but for the life of me I can't remember the game.

In (thief 2?) there's a ship with a corpse in it; the corpse is seemingly alive as it bleeds when you attack it; it almost can't be killed, but if you carry it to the ship's edge and dump it overboard, you hear it die. It's most likely supposed to be a vampire, probably inspired by Dracula as Dracula in the novel also traveled at one point via boat (wherein he killed the crew).

[–] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Here's the Dungeon Keeper message, courtesy of The Cutting Room Floor:

spoiler

A long developer message from programmer Jonty Barnes can be seen by sacrificing more than 16 chickens in a Temple, then hovering your cursor over the Chicken spell.

JONTY HERE : ...I AM WRITING THIS AT 4AM ON KEEPERS LAST DAY. I LOOK AROUND THE OFFICE AND ALL I SEE ARE THE TIRED PALE FACES OF THE KEEPER TEAM. THIS PROJECT HAS DESTROYED THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL LIVES OF EACH MEMBER, SO I HOPE YOU LIKE THE GAME. AMAZINGLY AFTER SIXTEEN HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK, FOR NEARLY 5 MONTHS WE STILL DO. THIS GAME HAS BEEN WRITTEN WITH A PASSION I AM PROUD TO BE PART OF....

I DO NOT JUST HOPE YOU LIKE IT, I ALSO HOPE YOU ARE AWARE OF THE HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK WE HAVE ALL DONE. ENOUGH WAFFLE AND ON TO THE REASON FOR THIS TEXT...

THE ENDLESS GREETINGS... GREETINGS GO OUT TO IN RANDOM ORDER... RAB C, JACOON, BUCK, SI, BARRIE, KIK, CHRIS, PROC, RUSS, RIK, ALEX NEEDS, LARRY MOOR, EMMA TEUTON - AN ALE DUE TO EACH ONE OF YOU - THE LIST GOES ON....

LOUISE GEE, MY GOOD SIS NICOLA, GEMMA, JENNY, HALEY, JO EVANS... SARAH TELFORD.. PETER AND STEVEN, AMELIA, SARAH, ISY, SALLY, MARK, MATT WOODCOCK, PAUL NETTLETON, PETE BANFORD, TOM, DAVE BANHAM, DAVE KEENS, ALISON BOSSON, MIKE LINCOLN, KIRSTY, DARREN SAWYER...

AND ALL UEA NORWICH PAST AND PRESENT. NICK ARNOTT, BAVERSTOCK, SARAH BANKS, SEANY, MARK STACEY, GILEY MILEY COOKSON [WHERE ARE YOU?], STEVE CLARIDGE, DEUBERT, JAMES GREENGRASS, SIMON ONG, KEVIN RUSSELL, CLARE WRIGHTON, ELTON [GIB IS JUST A DAY AWAY], NICOLA GOULD, STEVE LAST, KEN MALCOLN, RICO, ANDY CAKEBREAD, ROBBO, CARR, AND THE LITTLE ONE, CROFTY, SCOOPER, JASON STANTON [A CUP OF COFFEE], AARON SENNA, MIKE DORELL, IAN HOWIE, HELEN THAIN, ALEX FOREST-HAY, LEE HAZELWOOD, VICKY ARNOLD, GUY SIMMONS, SHIN, VAL TAYLOR....

IF I FORGOT YOU I AM SORRY... BUT SLEEP IS DUE TO ME... AND I HAVE A DREAM TO LIVE... .

[–] CupcakeOfSpice@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago

I have an example of the opposite. In Cultist Simulator, a card game about summoning eldritch horrors and bringing about the next phase of the world, there are occult paintings you can make that represent a significant power in their principle. The Secret Histories painting is cut from the main game, but you can spawn it using the console. It depicts in a really silly art style two lovers significant to the principle kissing.

[–] M68040@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, saving in Frostcrag Spire, quitting, uninstalling the Wizard's Tower DLC, then loading the save dumps you in a debug cell the plugin overwrites which - among other things - connects to a completely unlit Oblivion tower. If you're in a part of the wizard's tower that doesn't overlap with a in-bounds part of the debug map, you fall out of bounds when loading the file.

(In a decidedly un-scary note, you can retrieve a severely broken debug weapon and one of each sigil stone with every single effect while you're in BrumaTests)

[–] Grebgreb@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

a mistreated freelance artist included a little shrine to his girlfriend in the halo 1 map boarding action

in the shrek 1 game if you fall out of bounds you get teleported into a small area where the escape menu is disabled, the only way to leave is to turn off the console. on the xbox version you get put into a weird, tiny chicken purgatory. on the gamecube version it's a little gamecube.

[–] Skye@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[–] lelkins@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

sonic gather battle drm/anticheat measure. enough said.

it also took your ip and shit and you had to contact the creator with a pleading email begging them to unban you from the database and promise you'll never search for cheats again... ALL THAT OVER EDITED SPRITES

let's not forget the

"ANd SoMETiMES...

JuST SOMETIMES...

I do"

easter egg

[–] juliebean@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week ago

i actually just learned this today, but apparently, in final fantasy tactics, there's a monster that under certain extremely specific and rare circumstances, can use an attack that permanently and irreversibly transforms the target into a copy of the monster.

[–] WittyProfileName2@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

The face on the burned corpse model used frequently in Half-life 2 is a slightly edited photo of a dead body.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
  • The game over screen of Hong Kong 97 has a photo of a real corpse, taken from a Japanese film called New Death File III, although I use the term ”film” loosely since it's really just a collection of people dying similar to Faces of Death. It's a man who died in the Yugoslavian wars.

  • There are a couple of creepy easter eggs in GTA: San Andreas like a hole with body bags and a truck parked nearby in the desert outside Las Venturas and a rusty wheelchair on a pier (which is really just a Texas Chain Saw Massacre reference). There are also references to a cult called the Epsilon Program found in the game.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Trails of Cold Steel

spoilers but not really critical to the plotIt's revealed that the Nosferatu enemies you face throughout the games are actually the souls of people who failed the trial to become Awakeners for Divine Knights, so every time you face one of them, it's a cursed soul and not some generic monster. This also means the area where you face the last boss of Cold Steel I where the ground is full of discarded weapons is basically a graveyard of people who died and had their souls become Nosferatus.

more plot critical Cold Steel III stuffAlso the part where you visit Hamel, a village where the Erebonian Empire basically murdered everyone and see a bunch of broken toys on the ground.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

Arcanum had a fucked up sideplot that spanned the entire game to explain why female half-ogres don't exist.

[–] dRLY@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

CW IRL self-harm, not sharing a link or images in the "spoiler," just a very general description. Feel free to delete if a mod, or just reply with "please remove" and I will delete it myself.

Not a "favorite" (due to being self-harm) but really fucked-up one that involved fans recreating a very morbid "scene" that mimics something a player could come across in Fallout New Vegas (or any of the games). Seems like a creepypasta, but 100% true. Again, CW for self-harm.

spoilerTwo men committed suicide, but they apparently really liked the Fallout games. They dressed-up like characters (I don't believe any specific named ones) from the game I believe one had a Vault-Tec coveralls and the other was either a generic wastelander or a raider, and left a note (with a small bag of a few shotgun shells and bottle caps like you might pickup) that read kind of like ones you might find in a spot where people got hit by raiders. Text of the note: "The raiders overtook Sanctuary. Food stores running low. Only have 6 caps left and a bit of ammo. I think I hear something in the distance."

[–] corvidenjoyer@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Test Screan Image

Since creepy sonic things got brought up I'll mention the "Fun is infinite with sega enterprises -Majin" thing.

First of all, its a test screen easter egg not an anti-piracy screen.

Second, its apparently supposed to be "Mazin" not Majin which is the landscape designer, Masato Nishimura's childhood nickname.

Third, as evidenced by the last two points it wasn't ment to to be a scary easter egg. The face is even a self insert of the landscape designer. (apperently he does a self insert in everything he works on.)

Now how on earth could that have ment to be a funni joke and not nightmare fuel? Well when you hear the Jp/Eu soundtrack... suddenly it makes way more sense compared to the apoclyaptic nightmare fuel the US version gave eggman for some ungodly reason. amerikkka-clap

Real The Eggman vs Dr. Robotnick hours.

[–] corvidenjoyer@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also listen to Collusion Chaos (present)'s Jp/eu version compared to the American version

Sound track went from Disco funk to Metroid Prime 2. tails-startled

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

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[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

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