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Idiot Plot/Video Games: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{trope}}Video Games really can't get away with [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]s, as they can cause brutal [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], but developers try anyway. If the player character is the idiot, see [[Stupidity Is the Only Option]].▼
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Plot-essential [[NPC]] stupidity includes:<ref>However; at the same time, doing something that's [[Too Dumb to Live]] is usually given a game-over scenario.</ref>
* The ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' series is ''really'' guilty of this. Most of the time your clients are in a pickle because they [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible|won't talk]].
** ''[[Apollo Justice]]'':
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*** It gets better. The case of the prosecution rests on the idea that a frail, fourteen-year-old pianist with no firearms training could fire a 45-caliber pistol without injury, ''despite'' the fact that it is constantly stated that the recoil would be enough to dislocate the arm of a grown man of average build.
** Gumshoe in ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]]'' Case 4 gives false testimony and implicates himself because {{spoiler|he refuses to admit that he shared a cookie with the young Kay Faraday, who broke her promise never to take anything from strangers}}. He only cracks when Edgeworth not only deduces the entire sequence, but also the reason he wouldn't spill.
** The thing is, all [[Ace Attorney]] examples are either [[Justified
* ''[[The Bard's Tale]]'':
** The modern version had an idiot plot, that only revealed itself to be an idiot plot at the end. It turns out the [[Damsel in Distress]] {{spoiler|is really an imprisoned demon queen}} and the Druids not only did not warn The Bard that {{spoiler|he was being manipulated to unleash a great evil (not that it would be the first time the Bard did it).}} If anyone stopped to explain anything, then well, there goes the whole game.
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** Shadow Mario looks like he's made of dark blue water, while Mario is Caucasian with a red shirt and hat (although the overalls are blue).
** Of course, even worse is the fact that Mario ''wasn't even on the island when the crimes he's accused of were committed'', and there were ''numerous witnesses '''right there''' who could attest to that''.
** Add in to ''Super Mario Sunshine'' that the point of the game is that the inhabitants of the Isle Delfino are in a panic because of the disappearance of their Shine
* A very, very good example is the entire plot of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* The plot of the original ''[[Sonic Riders]]'' begins with Dr. Eggman appearing on public TV screens worldwide, announcing he's holding some races where entrants need to give him a Chaos Emerald. In what can only be explained as this, Eggman manages to get all seven of these all-powerful jewels, one of them from Sonic himself, in this manner.
* Another really good example is ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''. A very large portion of the plot can be credited to most, if not everyone involved being either hypocritical, self-centered and short sighted, or astonishingly stupid.
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** In ''10'':
*** Many robots are {{spoiler|infected by a computer virus that makes robots violent.}} No one is able to make a cure because humanity doesn't have the support that robots provide. No one, not even Dr. friggin' Light himself, decides to either just cut their losses, back up as much data as possible, and reset the robots to factory settings to purge the virus. Hell, this game points out how stupid humanity is since they followed Dr. Light's example and made the robots that friggin' complicated in the first place.
*** ''10'' also gets a special notice in that it's the '''third''' time Dr. Wily has gotten something of his to Dr. Light's lab. The first was when Dark Man kidnapped Dr. Light in ''5's'' intro. The second time was Bass infiltrating Light's lab in 7 so he could steal Mega Man's Rush
** Every Mega Man game is full of idiots. In ''[[Mega Man X]]'', humans actually thought it was a good idea to build robots with free will, and then give them a massive amount of built in weapons, and then keep producing them till they outnumber humans. And later on, they make them godlike by giving them copychips, which allow them to transform into anyone else. And they put the thoughts of the main villain Sigma, into the chips.
* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'':
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** Lan doesn't really help his own case, as he not only [[Bag of Spilling|regularly throws away his godly chipsets and configurations altogether]], but also [[Forced Tutorial|seems to forget how to battle or use chips at all]] after every world-saving. It's part [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], but some fans offer some [[Fridge Brilliance]] <ref>Someone thought that maybe Lan received updates since his PET appears to have been updated and likewise the old chips probably wouldn't have been useful anymore</ref>...and in ''5'', he's actually acknowledged as the person who saved the world from the WWW.
* Many of the [[Story Arc]]s in ''[[City of Heroes]]'', especially when [[Villain Sue|Nemesis]] gets involved. A lot of it involves blatantly misplaced trust in blatantly villainous organizations with proven track records. None of it quite compares to the free comic books involving the Freedom Phalanx, however. They are depicted as total caricatures of their in-game selves, completely incompetent to a level that makes one wonder how they could have become the premier superhero group. They also get defeated by opponents that, in-game, would just go squish in a single attack from them. It has to be seen to be believed. It still bothers a majority of the players that these comics are, sadly, [[Canon]].
* The ''[[Dungeons
* ''[[Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks]]''
** Made especially [[Egregious]] when you realize it's an action-adventure remake of ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]'', where our heroes aren't nearly as moronic. Whereas our heroes' foolish actions in MK2 is forgivable due to their unfamiliarity with Outworld and distractions of other important things (like taking revenge for the death of an entire shrine or rescuing a fallen comrade), ''Shaolin Monks'' everyone are so brick-stupid as to fall for a [[Gambit Pileup]] that could've ''only'' succeeded if they weren't smart or perceptive enough to realize their "friends" are [[Not Himself|not themselves]]. Well...''Johnny Cage'' retained enough [[Genre Savvy]] to realize what was going on, but his keen insight unfortunately didn't rub off on anyone else.
** In particular is the fact that "Raiden" makes a big point of the fact that Shang Tsung grows more powerful the more people die and yet sends Liu Kang and Kung Lao to go kill a bunch of powerful warriors - that should have been a huge red flag on its own when dealing with a [[Shapeshifting|shapeshifter]], but it gets even dumber when you consider how often he got angry at the two for asking any questions whatsoever and actively worked to turn them against each other.
** Also ''Deception'', the plot of which basically happened because [[Unwitting Pawn|Shujinko was so gullible.]]
* ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica|Code Veronica]]''.
** In his spectacular [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/RECV/ Let's Play], The Dark Id takes colossal fuck-up Steve Burnside to task - noting that the game is significantly longer due solely to his screwing up...
** He refuses to hand over gold-plated guns needed to open a door unless you can give him "something fully automatic" - which sends you on a wholly unnecessary [[Fetch Quest]].
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** When he has an opportunity to shoot the unarmed villain, he completely freezes up because it turns out said villain is a transvestite (at least, that's what it looks like; he has a good thirty seconds to pump the guy full of lead and doesn't). This gives him time to set the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|self-destruct system]] and force you to go to ''Antarctica'' when you do escape.
** While trying to escape Antarctica, Steve screws up operating a crane and flooding the room you're in with poison gas. Because (ready for this?) he's too busy [[Male Gaze|staring at the player character's butt]].
* ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clock Tower]] 3''. Alyssa gets a message from her which amounts to "Whatever you do, don't come home for your fifteenth birthday." Go ahead and take a guess what she does. When she arrives, an obese cadaver-looking man hints that he's killed her mother and basically threatens to rape her. Her reaction? "I have to save Mum!" Later, when the [[Big Bad]] is revealed, things get ever more idiotic, such as Alyssa's grandfather's name apparently being Dick. Not Richard. Dick. Someone actually named their son Dick Brown. And this leads him to believe in a totally ridiculous set of myths which require him murdering his granddaughter with no real hope of reward. [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/ClockTower3/ The Dark Id] has quite a lot to say about this one too. Mostly
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]''. Almost every problem in the second half of the game that isn't strictly the war itself could have been easily solved by someone, ''anyone'', looking at {{spoiler|Alicia's Valkyria abilities and the effects they would have on her}} from an objective standpoint, instead of making assumptions based on the bad example set by [[The Dragon|Selvaria]] and her first traumatic power eruption. Welkin only manages to come close by {{spoiler|tying it in with his love confession}}, and of course this only happens at the most dramatic moment possible rather than taking her aside to reassure her when she first expressed how overwhelmed she was. {{spoiler|By the time she decided to attempt the [[Suicide Attack]] on the Marmotah, Alicia had clearly gained control over her new abilities, and could use them as much or as little as she chose. Everyone could have avoided a lot of trouble if someone had just pointed that out early on and attended to her emotional state for five minutes, instead of Welkin waiting until the last minute while everyone else ignored her repeated cries for help.}}
* In ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' the major town in the second act has a castle under generally heavy guard. The chapter would be SO much easier if the king in your party would just come right out and say, "I'm King Albert, here's my proof, and I can vouch for these people." But he never does. Oddly enough he even comes right out and says he will not bring up his royalty to get around, despite the rather massive stakes.
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* ''[[Saints Row]] The Third''.
** The prequels were intentionally over the top, but at least things made sense in the bizarre world where police reality shows involve chainsaws and gang conflicts are solved with radioactive waste. The third game does away with realism altogether and relies on every NPC being an idiot.
** {{spoiler|At one point the military get involved.}} They occupy the city, erecting roadblocks and conducting a large scale search of the city to find you. Where are you? Maybe at the wheel of the luxury car that is blatantly painted in Saints gang colours. Or maybe in one of the obvious strongholds with the obvious ''fleur de lis'' logo on them. The only anonymous stronghold {{spoiler|is the one that actually gets attacked}}.
*** Errr, the game specifically points out that STAG is leaving the Saints for last precisely because they're the toughest gang in town by that point, and so they're going to clear out all the other gangs before concentrating on you.
* The plot of ''[[Magna Carta 2]]'' is driven by the fact that everyone believes [[Villains Never Lie|everything that the villains say without question]], even after it becomes [[Devil in Plain Sight|bloody obvious how evil they are]].
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** Scott Shelby: His entire plotline involves going to the Origami Killer's previous victims' parents and collecting evidence that either the police never asked for, or the parents inexplicably didn't reveal. Later, he attacks a wealthy man's home, murders all his security guards (and potentially the man himself) and saunters away on foot without ever being questioned. And there is so much more.
* Literally the entire storyline of ''Spec Ops: The Line'' would not exist if the main character had not decided, in the first mission, that his four-man team was capable of taking on an entire renegade Army battalion all by themselves and that it thus made perfect sense for him to disobey every order he'd ever been given and charge off to try and do just that. Possibly subverted in the last act, when its revealed {{spoiler|that the main character had actually gone insane early in the game, it's just that none of the signs were visible to anyone else until it was far too late.}}
* The entire storyline of ''[[Watch Dogs]]'' wouldn't have taken place had Aiden Pearce not get himself into the seedy world of organised crime and put his own family at risk. This would be averted in the sequel where the plot is more about cybercrime and mass surveillance than a generic revenge plot framed in a hacker setting.
* In ''[[Super Mario Maker 2]]'', the crew has just finished building Peach's castle when Undodog steps on a Reset Rocket button. The workers have 5 seconds to get Undodog off the button from right next to them, yet they just panic around like a [[Deer in the Headlights]] and the castle disappears, forcing them to rebuild it.
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▲[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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