Mercy Rewarded: Difference between revisions

Some games reward you for not killing your enemies.

 

 

 

 

* [[Jo Wood]]'s ''[[Cold Zero]]'' gives you more XP for enemies KO'd rather than killed and still more for enemies left unharmed at the end of a mission.

* ''[[Materia Magica]]'' features a samurai duck who wears a full set of ebony armor - valuable stuff at low levels. But if you pass him by without killing him, you earn the Mark of Truth.

** In the fight against The Sorrow you must dodge The Sorrow's attacks while wading through the ghosts of every character you have killed up to that point in the game. The fewer characters you have killed, the fewer there are to dodge and the easier the fight is.

*** ''Literally'' wading; the battle takes place knee-deep in a river of variable length.

** Nonlethally beating The End gives you his modified-to-fire-tranquilizers sniper rifle, making the rest of a [[Pacifist Run]] much easier. ([[Guide Dang It|You actually have to corner and hold him up for his special camo]]).

* ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' games (at least the later ones) deduct points for every person you kill on the mission, all of them if its a civilian or ally. However this applies in missions in which you are specifically told to kill someone, and the objective is fulfilled for "knocking them out" even if you only do it nonlethally, by all rights they should be alive.

* The ''[[Police Quest|SWAT]]'' series does this, however it still rewards you for breaking police procedure if you can knock out hostile criminals instead of opening fire. A bit of a [[Justified Trope]] in that minimal loss of life is part of their goals.

** The original ''The Suffering'' has a similar sequence in the [[Bedlam House|abandoned insane asylum]]. You come across a prison guard who's been mostly eaten alive by rats, in agony and incapable of much but twitching sickeningly. Killing him is counted as good act, rather than an evil one, by the game's [[Karma Meter]].

* The second ''[[Spider-Man]]'' game for the PS1 does this with one particular boss: if you defeat The Lizard [[Cherry Tapping|with nothing but antidote shots]] (which gets tough), you're rewarded with an insulated costume - making the latter parts of the game against Electro far, far easier.

** It seems to be the designer's way of saying "Good show" to players who decide not to kill everything in sight...because as it turns out, {{spoiler|the NSF are the good guys}}. The general also reacts better if you ask for nonlethal weapons, or nonweapon equipment.

*** Except for the fact that he has no problem giving you a rocket launcher, assuming that you'll used the anti-tank weapon against the robots.

** Expanded on in the sequel, where showing mercy to certain characters alters the ending. Sparing them is considered good, however sparing one character {{spoiler|means they'll remain a twisted, bloated foetus creature subjected to incredible pain and insanity for the rest of his life}}. It's considered a good act.

*** It's either that or ''{{spoiler|painfully electrocuting him with thousands of volts of electricity.}}'' Also, he's begging for his life.

** The original ''Medieval: Total War'' had a somewhat less altruistic reward for not executing captured enemy soldiers, since this allowed you to ransom them back to the original owner for a fair chunk of cash. Of course, this meant that you would have to face them on the field again at some point, so it was often a good idea to [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|put a few to the sword]] during the battle...

** It also worth noting that while good-aligned generals are useful for empire building, dreaded generals are more useful for long, outdrawn conflicts, like the crusade. And if you combine King Edward the Ridiculously Cruel, with some nasty anti-moral weapons, the enemy will be running before you know it.

* The first two games of the ''[[King's Quest]]'' series tends to give you more points for nonviolent solutions to problems. The later games, not so much. For instance, [[King's Quest IV|KQ4]], [[King's Quest V|KQ5]] and the remake of [[King's Quest II|KQ2]] all require you to deal violently with the antagonist.

* In some ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, you can on certain occasions earn a battle mastery or (much more practically and rarely) a new unit by reducing an enemy to critical damage without destroying them. Of course, most of the time, you're rewarded for finishing off boss units, who tend to [[Metal Slime|run away at low HP]].

* Used in ''[[Vectorman]]''. Go through a level without shooting once? Get a hefty point bonus. (This is doable on some levels thanks to the fact that your [[Double Jump]] can do damage at certain points.)

* The original Midway side-scrolling shooter ''[[NARC]]'' had this. You could gun down every crook you meet, but if you stayed in his space long enough, he'd be arrested, for a nice end-of-level bonus. You ''are'' a cop, so this makes sense.

** Unfortunately, this doesn't work on PCP addicts or serial killers (they have melee attacks and will slaughter you if you try to arrest them), and is suicide against drug dealers (who throw extremely powerful syringes). Nice in theory, fails in practice.

* ''[[Mercenaries]]: Playground of Destruction'' had this for the top-level bosses and minibosses, the Deck of 52. You could capture a card and drag his/her happy ass to an extraction point (hopefully the chopper doesn't get blown up on its way in) for the full bounty, or you could just level the place and snap a photo of the corpse for half. And for the sadistically antisocial, you could capture a card, load him/her in the chopper, get the full bounty..and then blow the chopper up for just the standard friendly-fire penalties.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Thracia 776'' allows you to Capture enemy units. There are a few rules to it, of course, but you get their equipment and won't have to lose your own units if you're clever.

** In ''Path of Radiance'' one particular chapter rewards you with the Ashera Staff if you refrain from killing any of the priests - and there are a hella lot of them clogging the chokepoints. What to do? Shove them out of the way. Then again, [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|you wouldn't kill a helpless priest anyways, would you?]] You CAN, however, steal their staves and sell them for cash, or keep some of them.

** In both ''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'' sparing enemies is some level gave the player bonus experience that they could use to level up characters that didn't even get into fights. The biggest of these would be sparing the senators when you have to destroy the supplies in their camp at the cost of losing the valuable items they drop, [[Taking a Third Option|or if you have Harr and Heather at high enough levels to survive the inner parts of the camp alone you can have rob them before they escape and get both the items and the bonus experience]].

** There is a single Tasen in Sector 3 between the Komato pursuit party and Elite Krotera. Leave her alive and she'll reunite with her homies, and they will unlock Deep Sector in Sector 9 - giving you access to a Supercharge and a sizable ammo cache. Too bad the Assassins move in as well.

** If you manage to go through the game with a kill tally of zero, not only will Assassin Ansaksie assist you against Annihilator Iosa (and do her in for you to preserve your tally, though she's not doing it for you), but she'll also leave the Massacre for you to use on General Tor on all difficulties (except Ultimortal, where you're forced to kill a certain enemy, preventing full pacifist runs).

* The ''[[Virtua Cop]]'' series rewards disarming enemies (rather than hitting them directly) with a "Justice Shot" bonus.

** Also, you get to show off your [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] by [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]]. Always a crowd pleaser.

** You get this same choice and (mostly) the same results, even if Frog is not in the party.

* Minor one in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', as the team travel along the train tracks of Corel, a certain section of the tracks has a chirping sound. Cloud can travel up the slope to find a bird's nest with two treasure chests. If you choose not to attack the bird and give up the treasure, and either Aerith or Tifa is in the team, it can up their ''[[Relationship Values]]'' for the Golden Saucer Date sequence.

* ''Very'' subverted in ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]''. Setting your enemies free will merely cause them to come back to fight you; in contrast, [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|torturing them causes them to eventually join your side]].

** This becomes doubly subverted in the unofficial expansion ''Ancient Keeper'' - at times you actually need to capture enemies, heal and buff them, and release them - ''still'' as enemies - to win. It also adds another subversion, requiring you to play the [[Bad Boss]] and selectively turn your own minions against you at various points. (Certain creatures can do things while trying to hurt their master they can't do to an enemy Keeper.)

* In ''Yoshi Topsy Turvy'', starting in Chapter 5, you will get levels where the Spirit of Kindness challenges you to get through the level while killing few enemies as possible. Killing none at all yields the best medal.

* Arguably invoked in ''[[Riftwar|Return To Krondor]]''. There are many situations in ''[[Return to Krondor]]'' where you get XP for avoiding a fight with various groups, but generally the reward is less than what you get if just kill them.

* Horrifically inverted in ''[[Infinite Space]]''. {{spoiler|Letting a minor villain live will cause an innocent girl to die [[Cruel and Unusual Death|horribly]].}}

* In ''[[Summon Night]]: Swordcraft Story'' you can defeat human enemies by either beating them up or breaking their weapon. If you can manage the latter you'll learn the technique to [[Mega Manning|make an exact replica]] of their weapon for your own use.

* ''[[MARDEK]] 2'' has a choice to spare a character. Doing so gets you a very useful shop in ''Mardek 3''.

* The ''[[Mass Effect]]'' games occasionally use this. An excellent example: In ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'', you are given the choice to spare or kill {{spoiler|the rachni queen}}. If you spare her, you meet an asari in the [[Mass Effect 2|sequel]] carrying a message from her promising {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Army|an army of rachni]]}} to help you fight the Reapers.

** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' tries be more ambiguous on the issue in one quest on Illium. Sparing a begging mercenary recruit will come back to haunt you when it's revealed the recruit was an unrepentant [[Psycho for Hire]] who joined the mercenaries after murdering an innocent[[Asshole Victim|(ish)]] volus merchant and now walks free. Then again, you can give the evidence of her crime to the police, which can still be considered a better option than murdering her before the [[Player Character]] even knew she was evil.

** ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' takes this to the extreme. Throughout all three games, an obnoxious reporter hounds [[Player Character|Commander Shepard,]] hell-bent on digging up any kind of dirt she can find. In all three games, [[Comedic Sociopathy|you can spout a one-liner and then punch her out.]] However, if you import a save after both games, and in those games you non-violently managed to upstage her in her own interviews, {{spoiler|you can get her to support you for the coming war with [[Abusive Precursors|the Reapers.]]}} Well, didn't see ''that'' coming...

** Note that it's only the "Nurse" medics who do it. If you try with the "Doctor" class, which is an upgraded version of the Nurse, they'll only attack you like their non-medic counterpart.

* Violence is never the answer in the ''[[King's Quest]]'' series. If you have the choice between violence and non-violence, the peaceful method is always the "correct" one that gives you the most points and the [[Golden Ending]].

** You're also rewarded if you decide {{spoiler|to give van Bruggen a weapon to defend himself from Belltower despite the guy being a [[True Neutral]] mercenary whose previous employers were the people you are now fighting. He later contacts you and transfers a nice chunk of change to your bank account as thanks.}}

* ''[[Galaga]] '88'' has periodic bonus stages where sets of enemy ships flew by in preset formations without attacking. A large "perfect bonus" could be earned by hitting all the ships in the stage, but one could much more easily earn a "secret bonus" worth the same value as the perfect bonus simply by not firing at all during the stage.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Rewards]]

[[Category:Mercy Rewarded]]