Press X to Not Die: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:re4 dodge rock 9059.jpg|link=Resident Evil 4|frame|[[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]], unless you act fast enough. ]]

 

Also known as a Quick Time Event.

 

{{examples}}

== Action Adventure ==

* ''[[The Bourne Series|The Bourne Conspiracy]]'' randomizes which buttons you need to press each time, to prevent you from just memorizing them. Get even one wrong, and you're usually sent straight to the Mission Failed screen.

** However, during the first playthrough, it's absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to see them coming, so a new player will have to continue many, many times. Not to mention the many instances where this overlaps with [[Action Commands]] during bossfights, where it's more like "Press X to avoid being hit [[For Massive Damage]]" - unfortunately, the reaction time on quite a few of them, such as Jeanne's missiles in {{spoiler|Chapter XIV}}, is equally unforgiving, so you will probably fail quite frequently on bosses until you have them all memorized.

** Incidentally, the second cutscene QTE requires you to time a press of the shoot button (under default assignments) to fling a part of a building at a boss. Mistiming or missing the press altogether results in the player being blown up and instant-killed. The shoot button on the Xbox 360? "X".

 

== Fighting ==

*** Rock's ending cleverly plays with this - arguably, the ending where you ''don't'' press the buttons is "better" than the one where you do.

*** In fact, many characters get a better ending by not inputting the command, making it more of a guessing game at times.

 

== First-Person Shooters ==

* ''[[Battlefield 3]]'''s single player campaign has tons of them, and in many cases are often in a series which requires you to press different buttons, and very often in unexpected places. You will soon learn to get ready to press something after opening a door. Unfortunately they're almost all a literal case of "Press <whatever> To Not Die," but succeeding frequently results in your player character returning the favor, especially if it's the end of the level:

** Dima's "first" level (chronologically second) has him fight with {{spoiler|a nuclear device carrier}} over who will throw the other in front of a speeding train, while his "second" level (chronologically first) has a QTE to decide whether he's kicked out of a helicopter to his death or manages to drag his target out with him into a water-filled pool.

* The final battle between Turok and Kane in 2008's ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' was like this. Somewhat justified in that it was an extension of the game's previous [[Action Commands]] gameplay, and not a last minute [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]] completely out of left field. Also, missing a Press X to Not Die prompt often didn't kill you, but merely changed the course of the fight to one less advantageous to you (you had to lose multiple prompts in a row to actually die).

* Shows up in ''[[Metro 2033 (video game)|Metro 2033]]'', both in-game and during the cutscenes. In-game, it happens when you're about to get mauled by a mutant and need to shove it away and carve it's face off with a big knife. During cutscenes, it's often needed to avoid falling to your death from flooring/ladders collapsing.

 

== Hack and Slash ==

* ''[[Ninja Blade]]'' has a few of these; a mini-boss as early as the second mission pulled out a cutscene that involved one of these about once a minute. In a surprisingly obvious move to reduce frustration, when you actually die in one of these sequences, it rewinds the sequence a bit and gives you an opportunity to retry from there rather than giving you a [[Game Over]].

* The 2012 ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] 3'' game has a lot of quick-time events.

 

== MMORPG ==

** It does give you some warning in advance so you know it's not just a cinematic, plus intentionally failing Action Time to get yourself moved is actually a viable strategy.

* <s>A ''lot''</s> The grand majority of ''[[Wario Ware]]'' microgames consist in essence of a single QTE.

 

== Platformers ==

 

== RPGS ==

* The first ''[[Dark Cloud]]'' employs a unique version in its mini-boss battles: It warns you ahead of time that you're about to enter a quick-time event, then the buttons you need to press scroll by the bottom of the screen in an interface reminiscent of ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' or ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]''.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' sometimes throws directional choices at you during what looks like a travel cutscene. Failing won't kill you, but it'll stick you with more battles.

* ''Mario And Luigi, Bowser's Inside Story'' has two QTEs as well. First is when you fight {{spoiler|the Dark Star}} in Bowser's body, defeating it causes it to do a [[Taking You with Me]] in which you have to Mash A and B so Mario and Luigi escape, {{spoiler|the aforementioned trope is averted because the Dark Star survives as well}}. Second, as your chasing {{spoiler|Dark Bowser up Peach's Castle}}, he pauses to get into a psudeo Beam War with Bowser, using their fire breath. The player has to Mash X to (assumingly) Not Die. Also happens again at the very end just before the final boss fight proper, although that one doesn't require the player's input as it is a stylized entrance to the battle.

* Considering that dungeon crawling in ''[[Riviera: The Promised Land]]'' is composed almost entirely of [[Quick Time Event]]s, it's not too surprising when a trap throws one of these at you.

 

== Shoot 'em Ups ==

*** Also in 4, several cutscenes had L1 or X pop up in the corners of the screen for an optional Snake's eye view or Flashback sequence. Not a QTE in the Press X to Not Die sense, but close enough.

*** Same in 3, pressing R1 on opportune moments switched to Snake's POV, which could then be moved around. This was used a few times to help advance gameplay ( {{spoiler|The Sorrow gives you the opening code for the cell during the torture scene R1 section}}) but it's best reserved to admiring [[Absolute Cleavage|EVA's]] physique as the default viewpoint in her introduction.

 

== Survival Horror ==

** It also has a literal example of this trope in the multiplayer. When incapacitated but not dead, a downed player must tap a button to keep themselves alive before the associated timer ends.

* ''[[Mercenaries]] 2'' does this every time you try to hijack an enemy vehicle, and [[Cutscene Boss|The final boss fight]] is a quick time event.

 

== Other ==

* ''[[xkcd]]'' presents [http://xkcd.com/788/ Press Y To Not Die].

* ''[[Sequential Art]]:'' Warned against in [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=428 this strip.]

=== Web Original ===

* This trope is referenced word for word in [[GameFAQs]]' [http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4605 Poll of the Day for January 21, 2012]

* The picture caption wasn't the only time [http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_the-7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey_p3.html Cracked.com addressed this issue.]