The hero saving the girl thing

[Crystal]

I thought about this when Ashley pissed me off when I played resident evil 4. And just had to do a rant about it.

There are games who have this thing but some of them are a bit annoying with it.

What are your thoughts about the hero saving the girl who got kidnapped? Is it good for a game? did it get unoriginal and what games were good and bad with this?

To me It didn't bother me in the Mario games at all, it's even fun, of course it's predictable where the princess is hidden but the stages are fun to do.

The legend of Zelda was okay too, it didn't feel like you only had to save the girl but your goal was more to complete the dungeons and getting stronger. You could do everything you wanted and wasn't forced to look for the girl.

Resident evil 4 and Devil may cry 4 however went too far. I loved these games but these girls annoyed me so much!

Ashley is the most annoying character from the game world. She just gets kidnapped 3 times! The whole game is just about saving this girl. The worst part is that you are game over when the girl dies. She doesn;t do anything yet she is with you all the time, she only sits on her knees trying to protect herself with her hands infront of her head and screams for Leon *rolls eyes* In one level it looks as if she was waiting to get grabbed by the huge troll. She didn't even run away but sat on her knees in front of it.

Devil may cry 4 gets a beautiful second place. Kyrie had a little dialogue, only in the beginning and in the end, in the rest of the game she only screamed for Nero. Just like Ashley she gets taken away a few times.
It didn't feel like the story was about chasing Dante and punishing the bad dude but just saving that ridiculous girl, at the credit roll she just stands there waiting for Nero to chase away the demons, she only jumps away a little when one comes too near. I always killed her there to please myself.

Having characters like this is just ridiculous, they could at least grab a rock or whatever and throw it at the monsters.

 

[Valvalis]

I never could stand the helpless damsel-in-distress type of character in stories either Granted, if there weren't guys out there who were crazy about them and wanted to rescue them (or just try to get hooked up with them or something), then these girls would have to learn to get tough on their own if they wanted to survive, so it's partly the heroes' fault. However, there are so many times when you sit there and go "Why, are they not doing anything?" >_> Even though I know games like Mario and Zelda are supposed to be familiar and predictable in that area to make them pleasing to wide audiences, I often wondered why those princesses couldn't do anything I mean ffs, Toadstool/Peach is like twice the size of Mario; and couldn't they--as princesses who likely had lots of free time since they didn't have to do backbreaking labor in the fields to scrape up every coin and rupee they could--have spent their time trying to learn at least some form of self-defense martial arts? I mean they are princesses, shouldn't they be aware that if an enemy force comes to the kingdom, they as royalty are going to be a prime target for violence? It's just irritating, people having brain lapses in dangerous situations rather than doing something practical And it's not always chicks either, sometimes little kids or guys will do it too--I don't know whether it happened in the game version, but like the part of the Jurassic Park movie where the little boy is watching the girl do the security program on the computer and he stands there banging his hand on the back of the chair rather than handing the gun to Dr. Grant as the velociraptor is breaking down the door, and the woman with him is screaming "I CAN'T GET IT UNLESS I MOVE!" *HINT HINT* (I know that's not a game example or about a chick but I always think about that when it comes to useless characters in stories also ) Very annoying.

 

[Ironman]

I's so unbelievable in RE4 how Ashley is completely useless, i mean COME ON all the Guns Leaon has on his person and she doesn't feel the need to grab one of them and help him out a little, yesh she isn't a combatant, but she could point a gun at a parasite infected A-hole and blow it's goddamn head off

 

[Rydia]

It depends really. If the girl is special or has something of special interest to the enemy. I'd imagine that the enemy would be after her. If she gets captured, then it's the heros fault for being an incompetent body guard and he better as hell save her. Unless, she was stupid and decided to go off on her own. Mario and Zelda is fine because that is what their stories are based on. A Mario game just wouldn't be the same if the ultimate goal wasn't to save Peach. The story premisis is ridiculous anyway. A giant turtle captures a helpless princess and a plumber from Brooklyn has to saver her by jumping on things and crushing them. Zelda I don't mind either because she often helps Link along the way.

I do hate however, when the female is constantly captured. Rinoa from VIII was just ridiculous. And I hate when the only purpose is to further the love story and not because capturing her will aid the enemy in their ultimate goal. And I've always hated rescue missions anyway.

But in the end, let's face it. Video games are still much more popular with guys and most games are geared towards them. A lot of guys like saving the hot girl. :/

 

[Toshiya]

I think it depends on the circumstances. If it's a really pathetic girl who gets captured and demands people come and save her because she can't possibly save herself, I think it's ridiculously cheesy. Also, as Rydia mentioned, when the get captured constantly, almost making the previous rescue missions redundant because it keeps happening again and again.

However, if she gets taken for a reason and she puts up a fight, that's better. Like in IX where Garnet is captured on her return to Alexandria, before her eidolons are extracted from her. She's a strong character who's done most things herself and she's captured by her mother for a reason, and she needs rescuing because she can't take on all of the Alexandrian forces by herself. That, and she's under a spell

 

[Crystal]

I's so unbelievable in RE4 how Ashley is completely useless, i mean COME ON all the Guns Leaon has on his person and she doesn't feel the need to grab one of them and help him out a little, yesh she isn't a combatant, but she could point a gun at a parasite infected A-hole and blow it's goddamn head off

Yeah what the hell is she thinking. She could indeed borrow one, who cares she never shot before, when you want to survive you'll learn fast and it doesn't help to wait for one man to handle everything. If Leon was surrounded and she yelled to toss a gun instead of hiding in a sort of garbage thing than that would have made the game so much better. Even if that was in the last mission, then she at least had done something useful. =.=

I do hate however, when the female is constantly captured. Rinoa from VIII was just ridiculous

Lol, I totally forgot about Rinoa. She CAN fight, why didn't she just do it. The mission heading for Edea was totally stupid, it really looked as if she did all this just to have Squall closer to her. She just lay on the floor hoping that Squall would have seen her up there or something.

I just don't get why the creators of some game think we have fun in rescuing the same character over and over again. were they out of ideas or something?

Like in IX where Garnet is captured on her return to Alexandria, before her eidolons are extracted from her. She's a strong character who's done most things herself and she's captured by her mother for a reason, and she needs rescuing because she can't take on all of the Alexandrian forces by herself. That, and she's under a spell

If a character is like that, then I'm cool with it. If a character is at his limits and need help then. They at least accomplished something in the game and won't look useless at all then.

 

[Rydia]

If the character is not a fighter, I don't become upset at them for being captured either. This is usually in the case of a healer. I mean, it makes the most sense to take out the healer first. Though I don't understand capturing them as opposed to just killing them.

In MMO's in battle grounds, if your are up against someone that has a healer, often the only way to win is to kill their healer.

Also, if the character is just a commoner or a political figure, I don't have a problem with them if they are captured. They are not fighters and if often makes sense for the enemy to capture the political figure. This character is strong in other ways than fighting.

 

[blakstang98]

Well, I grew up with a very popular video game that was solely based on a hero saving a girl. Admittedly, it was a ton of fun. Even to this day, I'd say it was one of my favorite series of games. This video game I speak of, is Super Mario Bros. Every Mario game, except the 2nd (which really wasn't a Mario game) was based on saving the Princess.

So as for do I like this scenerio? Of course, I have nothing against the Mario series.

 

[Espurr]

It depends on quite a few things for me but this has become so overused it doesn't really bother me much. Usually it depends on who the character is and why they were kidnapped.

I will admit I don't like Ashley much either but the times she was being kidnapped were the best parts about the game.

However in some cases, notably in Mario and LoZ games, if I am not saving Peach/Zelda at least once then the game won't feel the same to me.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I find the idea a bit stale, but it depends on the overall storyline really. If it's a really interesting storyline and interesting characters then chances are the whole setup of the hero saving the girl thing will probably flow quite nicely. If it's the opposite then it probably churns out as a horrible generic storyline. I think with games such as Mario it doesn't really matter, you could have the same type of storyline again and again and again but it's all about the "fun" and gameplay really.

 

[Claire]

Eh it never really bothered me that much. As long as its not every 5 minutes like "omg help me, be my hero." That shit pisses me off when they are a capable fighter and still cry and moan for somebody to rescue them. But I will say that Sherry off of RE2 trumps Ashley tenfold. That little girl can eat shit, I hated having to wait for her slow ass to climb obstacles, run, anything. She was just plain and flat out annoying and useless as shit.

 

[ANGRYWOLF]

I prefer the hero saves the girl and the kingdom/planet and lives happily ever after.I prefer that..and most FF games have some variation of that....with the exception of FFXII.
It had the tepid poltical stuff that bored me to tears.
So what's worse..annoyance or boredom..?

 

[Claire]

I would have to say that boredom is much worse. Because even though the character may annoy you, you can atleast tolerate the game and tolerate having to deal with them. Boredom would just absolutly kill the game and make playing it seem like you had to force yourself to play the game, rather than playing it for fun.

 

[ANGRYWOLF]

Back when FFXII first came out I joined gamefaqs and that was an argument there.That certain fans said they were tired of romance in FF games.That FFXII was a "breathe of fresh air" to them.A quote one of the FFXII fans there made at the time.

So a lot of fans who were defenders of FXII cited that as a reason they liked the game.

Maybe saving the girl isn't so popular anymore. Maybe a relatively high percentage of FF fans are tired of that formula.

I believe there has to be some kind of emotional attachment between the characters in the party..Maybe not romance but some ties....if not any love..respect, admiration, brotherhood.....heritage...ethnics ties..something....
They have to at least like each other....

Maybe we'll see less romance in future FF games...but there has to be some kind of bond there or it won't feel genuine.It won't feel ligitimate and you will wonder why they should care about each other and why we fans should care about them.

 

[Rydia]

Back when FFXII first came out I joined gamefaqs and that was an argument there.That certain fans said they were tired of romance in FF games.That FFXII was a "breathe of fresh air" to them.A quote one of the FFXII fans there made at the time.

So a lot of fans who were defenders of FXII cited that as a reason they liked the game.

Maybe saving the girl isn't so popular anymore. Maybe a relatively high percentage of FF fans are tired of that formula.

I believe there has to be some kind of emotional attachment between the characters in the party..Maybe not romance but some ties....if not any love..respect, admiration, brotherhood.....heritage...ethnics ties..something....
They have to at least like each other....

Maybe we'll see less romance in future FF games...but there has to be some kind of bond there or it won't feel genuine.It won't feel ligitimate and you will wonder why they should care about each other and why we fans should care about them.

I don't quite understand that arguement because you do rescue Ashe on that Death Star thing at one point in the game.

 

[Rasputin]

How many female video game characters, with the possible exception of Princess Peach, would be willing to travel the ends of the earth and fight dangerous monsters just to rescue a potential boyfriend? Most would just dump them on the spot or cry about it in long dramatic cutscenes until they find someone else. Male characters are just looking to go on a quest, and saving a helpless damsel is a pretty good excuse for one. After you acknowledge their purpose and don't expect anything more from them, they really don't become that annoying.

 

[ANGRYWOLF]

It's an easy argument....

I don't quite understand that arguement because you do rescue Ashe on that Death Star thing at one point in the game.

Ashe certainly isn't a romantic interest in this game or even an object of affection.
She was a command presnece but I certainly didn't feel the warm and fuzzies from her.I felt some sympathy for her losing her fiancee and that's about it...

Couldn't you see that ?

shrugs...


FFXII fans I have discussed the game with felt the game didn't have any romance as a driving force with it and they liked that fact.
I felt the game lacked that special something romance brings to an rpg.

 

[Rydia]

Ashe certainly isn't a romantic interest in this game or even an object of affection.
She was a command presnece but I certainly didn't feel the warm and fuzzies from her.I felt some sympathy for her losing her fiancee and that's about it...

Couldn't you see that ?

shrugs...


FFXII fans I have discussed the game with felt the game didn't have any romance as a driving force with it and they liked that fact.
I felt the game lacked that special something romance brings to an rpg.

Yeah I get that she wasn't a romantic interest for anyone. (Though some argue that Ashe/Balthier is a possibility) But that still did not stop her from having to be rescued.