RPGs That Start as Simple Adventures, But Become Incredibly Dark by the Final Act

RPGs often start out as simple adventures where the first few hours involve killing rats, solving a mystery, tracking down a lost loved one, or simply getting to a destination. Sometimes these simple stories remain so, but other times they get a cruel twist, a truth is revealed, or events are triggered that make the rest of the game so dark that you wonder how things escalated so quickly.

Some of the most highly-acclaimed RPGs follow this simple but effective formula. While it's most often seen in JRPGs, there are plenty of Western games that excel in delivering this experience. Here are just ten of them.

This article includes spoilers for several games. Proceed with care if you haven't finished the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

10 Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidian's Take on Fallout

Fallout: New Vegas is a standalone game in the Fallout franchise. It follows the story of the Courier, who is traversing the Mojave Wasteland to deliver a package. They're shot during the delivery and the package is stolen, leading you to find the thief and retrieve the package.

The factions vying for control of New Vegas and its surrounds are nothing more than background noise for the early parts of the game, but everything changes once you arrive in Nipton.

The massacre of Nipton and the brutality of the Legion was one of the defining moments of Fallout: New Vegas for me. Walking through Nipton's main street lined with crucified members of the Powder Gangers, who had been the biggest threat so far, was genuinely harrowing, and marked a turning point for the game's stakes and tone.

9 Pillars of Eternity

Taking Down a Cult Leads to Existential Questions of Faith

Pillars of Eternity is a classic RPG adventure in a similar style to Dragon Age Origins. The game opens with you in a caravan on the road travelling to the town of Gilded Vale, where you unwittingly stumble across a cult who are performing a ritual. Backlash from the ritual awakens a power in you, and the story centres on your efforts to get the cult to reverse the ritual and stop their aims.

You're met with a grim sight once you finally arrive in Gilded Vale. A massive tree hangs with bodies, the result of a purge of animancers and an introduction to the Hollowborn plague.

Tracking down the cult and ending the Hollowborn plague are all bad enough, but the events of the game lead to uncovering secrets about the gods themselves. Discovering that the gods weren't at all what was believed, and yet still wielded so much power, was a major blow to my character's morale. Especially as she was a godlike.

8 Baldur's Gate

The One That Started It All

Baldur's Gate was not only the start of a new series, but its compelling story, lore, and characters have made it a game that many still look fondly on today. The story starts out in the library-fort Candlekeep, where you and your childhood best friend Imoen are left stranded after your mentor was murdered and decide to look into the Iron Crisis.

Political machinations are the darkest part of this part of the story, but a prophecy provides a dark twist by introducing the Bhaalspawn, the children of the god of murder. When you finally discover that you are a Bhaalspawn, you can choose to embrace your heritage or reject it in favour of something more heroic.

Dark themes are an expected part of the Baldur's Gate series, just as much as challenging battles. However, this turn in the original is the one that went a long way in establishing the series' tone, making it all the more dark than the reveals that came in its sequels.

7 Cyberpunk 2077

A Heist Gone Wrong

CD Projekt RED's open-world Cyberpunk 2077 starts out with you earning money as a mercenary in Night City, taking on some gruesome jobs but ones that V is ultimately detached from on a personal and emotional level.

The goal of earning a living is a simple objective, as is the heist you're eventually assigned. The heist takes a tragically dark turn as you witness a murder, your friend is killed, and you get Johnny Silverhand stuck in your head.

This event throws V into a dire situation that involves people from across Night City's society, and becomes increasingly darker as Johnny begins to take over V's head. As I got closer to the ending, I struggled with progressing the main storyline, knowing that one of them probably wasn't going to make it at the end of the line. CD Projekt RED did a great job in upping the emotional stakes here, and every ending in Cyberpunk 2077 had a dark edge to it without feeling cheap

6 Divinity: Original Sin 2

Saving the World Takes an Unexpected Turn

Larian's Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a deceptively bright colour scheme, which belies its story that becomes more tragic as it goes. Being a Godwoken is simple at first, but as the different forces play their hand and secrets are uncovered, it becomes clear that the most powerful beings and leaders do not have the common folk in mind.

Instead of finding joy in learning more about the world, Divinity: Original Sin 2's revelations make the world a darker place. There are very few options to fix it, and none without a significant payoff. While this does make it somewhat bittersweet, the nihilistic tone of the ending compared to where it began can alienate some.

Uncover a Centuries-Long Prophecy

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind begins as a less-chaotic version of any other The Elder Scrolls experience. You start out as a prisoner, who has been granted amnesty and dropped off in a prisoner ship in the Empire's province of Morrowind. The story has a slow start, but around midway through events quickly progress in an unexpected and dark direction, given the Nerevarine's humble origins and simple start to their journey.

The question of your character's identity in Morrowind is one that it asks you throughout the game. Does your character believe they are truly the Nerevarine, or do they decide their own fate? Do they have any connection to the Tribunal or Dagoth Ur, Nerevar's former friends, or are they simply greater powers whose time has come to fall?

These questions turn Morrowind into something of a tragedy no matter your interpretation of the events, and go a long way in setting it apart from the other The Elder Scrolls titles.

4 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Experience The True Nature of the Dark Side

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic opens in classic Star Wars tradition, with a starship under attack in space. You start out as a simple Republic soldier and are tasked with tracking down the Jedi prodigy Bastila. Along the way, KotOR develops as many such adventures do, with Jedi training and a task given by the Jedi Council that takes you across the galaxy.

KotOR's final act depends on a late-game decision you make. I've always been a Light Side player, but out of a completionist compulsion I decided I had to do the Dark Side one just once.

I made the pivot in the Starforge Temple, and what followed was a very dark and harrowing sequence of events. Many of my companions were killed, mostly by my hand. You can also force a companion to kill their friend, who is also a teenager. I then went on to cause the deaths of thousands of Republic soldiers and brought about the end of the Jedi.

3 Mass Effect

Retrieving an Artifact Leads to the End of the Galaxy

I've spent over a thousand hours playing the Mass Effect Trilogy, and nothing hits harder than the turning point on Virmire in the first one. While chasing Saren was an important job, the truth of the Reapers and the extermination they brought marked a change in Mass Effect's tone for the rest of the series, unable to return to the somewhat hopeful tone from before Virmire.

Virmire was also more than a big lore revelation, it had personal stakes. I know I wasn't the only player who sat on the decision of whether to save Ashley or Kaidan, a decision that marked a failure for Shepard because they not only had a teammate die under their command, but left them to die. This choice is compounded by their portrait on the squad selection screen remaining but tinted red, leaving a reminder of the cost of victory and the first casualties of the war with the Reapers.

Leaving behind a squadmate and facing a new grim threat to the galaxy was a turning point for Mass Effect, and I still feel like some part of Shepard's humanity was lost at that moment.

2 Undertale

A Deceivingly Simple Old-School RPG

Undertale is a quirky little adventure developed by a single developer. You play as a child who has fallen into the underground realm where the monsters of the world have been trapped. This is a simple formula, but Undertale stands out for being a story that is shaped by your actions rather than being given a list of choices to choose from. Killing monsters is the norm for most games, but doing so in Undertale shapes how the monsters and NPCs see you and has a massive impact on the ending.

It's this mechanic that makes Undertale become darker as it goes. Killing all the monsters you encounter results in the game's most devastating ending. Realising that the mechanics shaped how NPCs saw my character was one of the few times in a game I took a step back to really consider my approach.

I generally avoid playing "evil" characters, but will do at least one evil run in every game that offers it, and Undertale really made me feel the consequences of my actions. Especially after booting the game up just after this run to find that my subsequent Undertale playthroughs would be forever changed by it.

1 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

A Tale Of Grief

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's starts out in a world torn apart by the Paintress, where its people watch their loved ones die as the Paintress counts down the years. This year is 33, and a new expedition sets out to destroy her and save the lives of those in Lumiere.

While the world itself is dark, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 starts out with a clear goal: defeat the Paintress. This is all turned on its head in Act 3, which reveals truths about the world and its people that made many players question their decisions and desired outcome for the game.

The ending of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gives us a world and characters who are unrecognisable from the opening act. Both endings are incredibly dark, existential, and so controversial that debate about the endings is still a popular topic on game forums. I sat on this choice for hours, having to leave my computer to walk around and think about it, and my choice still devastated me.