Save the Princess: Difference between revisions

[[File:princesspeachhostage.png|link=Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|frame|Just another typical Tuesday for [[Super Mario Bros|Princess Peach]].]]

'''Luigi:''' And [[Memetic Mutation|YOU]] gotta help us!|''[[Hotel Mario (Video Game)|Hotel Mario]]''}}

The defining [[Excuse Plot]] of the 8-bit era. A [[Damsel in Distress]] (whether it be the princess, your girlfriend, whatever) has been kidnapped and [[Girl in The Tower|put in a tower]], and you ([[It's Up to You|and you alone]], unless it's a 2-player game) must fight your way through a veritable army of evil minions, dodge horrific death traps, etc. to save her from the [[Big Bad]]. [[Bragging Rights Reward|Your only reward]] is probably going to be a [[Smooch of Victory]], unless, of course, you get the [[Standard Hero Reward]]. Hope she's worth it!

The trope derives from the [[The Oldest Ones in The Book|ancient]] concept of "Princess and Dragon," where [[The Hero]] must save a woman from an invading monster. This is usually used as a metaphor for real-life conflict.

Named because it's often a princess. [[Everything's Better With Princesses|You know why.]]

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' had Link trying to rescue Zelda from Ganon, and the [[Zelda II the Adventure of Link (Video Game)|second]] sees him trying to rescue another Zelda from a spell that causes her to sleep eternally. All the games after that, though they usually do have Zelda kidnapped at some point, do not make it the major driving force of the plot; those games which are an exception to this rule usually do not feature Zelda at all (e.g. ''[[The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'', ''[[The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'').

** Both ''[[The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'' and its sequel, ''[[The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass]]'', are kicked off with the kidnapping of a young lady -- your sister in the first, and the actual princess in the second; much of the story centers around their rescue. {{spoiler|In both games, though, the plot carries on well after you've saved the ladies in question.}} ''Four Swords'' also has very little plot beyond this.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' both averts and lampshades this. While Zelda's body is stolen, she, in spirit form, sticks with Link. When she realizes there's a Big Bad to be defeated, she promptly tasks Link with the entire task, claiming that sitting around and waiting for the hero to rescue her is a "family tradition". Soon after, though, they discover that Zelda can be useful in combat and they work as partners from then on.

* ''[[Princess Tomato in The Salad Kingdom]]''. The princess to be rescued (by a heroic cucumber) is the one in the title.

* ''[[Fantasy Quest (Video Game)|Fantasy Quest]]'' has this as its excuse plot, but a twist awaits players who make it to the end. In the sequel, you are tasked with rescuing ''dozens'' of princesses.

* Bringing back the classics (though in a hilarious, over the top way) through ''[[Castle Crashers (Video Game)|Castle Crashers]]''. This time there are four princesses, and an achievement for getting the [[Smooch of Victory]] from all four!

* In ''[[Vigilante (Video Game)|Vigilante]]'', you had to rescue your girlfriend Madonna (not [[Madonna (Music)|that Madonna]]).

* The original ''[[Super Mario Bros]]'' and ''3'' both have this plot, as does the Japanese version of ''2'' (''The Lost Levels''), ''[[Super Mario World (Video Game)|Super Mario World]]'', ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'', the first half of ''[[Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|Super Mario RPG]]'', the second half of ''[[Super Mario Sunshine (Video Game)|Super Mario Sunshine]]'', ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]'', the ''[[Paper Mario (Video Game)|Paper Mario]]'' games (excluding ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]'', where Peach is a playable character), ''and'' ''[[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros]]''. Bowser must really dig Peach...

** In fact, the plans of pretty much ''every villain in the Mario universe'' always involve kidnapping Peach at some point. In fact, in some games she's even somewhat of a [[Barrier Maiden]]. In ''Superstar Saga'', her voice can awaken the Beanstar (the [[MacGuffin]] of the game), while in ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]'' she is forced to wed Bowser in order to bring about [[The End of the World As We Know It]].

** At the very beginning of the Mario franchise, Pauline in ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', who gets kidnapped again in the [[Game Boy]] version and in most ''[[Mario VS Donkey Kong]]'' games.

** Also Daisy in ''[[Super Mario Land (Video Game)|Super Mario Land]]'', one of the few games where Bowser isn't present. Apparently he only got a license to kidnap Peach.

** ''[[Super Princess Peach (Video Game)|Super Princess Peach]]'' inverts the trope - Bowser jacked the Vibe Scepter and sends his minions in to use it to paralyze THE ENTIRE CASTLE in emotional distress, using the chaos to imprison THE MARIO BROTHERS (arguably one of his smartest moves in some time)! Peach was [[Late to The Party]], and thus puts it on her shoulders to bail the brothers out.

* ''[[Braid (Video Game)|Braid]]'' is ostensibly about this, but the truth behind Tim's pursuit of "the Princess" is [[Mind Screw|a bit more complicated]] and [[Downer Ending|considerably more depressing]].

* Done in an antiheroic way in ''[[Wario Land (Video Game)|Wario Land]]: The Shake Dimension'', where saving the princess is only Wario's secondary goal, with him being promised treasure at the end. In fact, at the end where Princess Merfle congratulates Wario, he stops her in the middle by grabbing her and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|tossing her out of his way]].

* At the end of ''[[Earthworm Jim (Video Game)|Earthworm Jim]] 2'', it appears that "having defeated the nefarious Psy-Crow, our hero, Earthworm Jim, has won back the heart of the lovely Princess What's Her Name." Except {{spoiler|she's a cow wearing a costume. So is the villain. So is Jim}}.

* The main plot of the first ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Video Game)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' game on the NES is to rescue Gadget. This notably doesn't start till after you've beaten the first level where the goal is to find a lost kitten (which it turns out was [[Hijacked By Ganon|Fat Cat's way of distracting you]]), and the game goes on for three more levels after you rescue Gadget.

* You have to rescue your love interest in ''[[Meat Boy (Video Game)|Meat Boy]]''.

* The ''[[Clonk (Video Game)|Clonk]]'' level "Dragon Rock" plays this [[Excuse Plot|unashamedly straight]], right down to the evil mage-with-a-dragon doing the kidnapping. In "Tower of Despair" it's the king, and the dragon itself is the capturer, but otherwise it's pretty much the same.

* ''[[Ghosts N Goblins (Video Game)|Ghosts N Goblins]]'' and its sequels begin by showing Princess Prin-Prin getting kidnapped by some horrible demon.

* In ''[[Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu (Video Game)|Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu]]'', Jackie has to rescue Josephine, who is either his twin sister or his girlfriend, from an [[Evil Sorcerer]] who abducts her in a ''[[Ghosts N Goblins (Video Game)|Ghosts N Goblins]]''-like opening scene.

* In ''[[A Boy and His Blob (Video Game)|A Boy and His Blob]] in: The Rescue of Princess Blobette'', you [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|have to rescue Princess Blobette]].

* ''[[Tower Of The Sorcerer]]'', an indie puzzle game masquerading as a dungeon-crawl RPG, plays this straight, complete with the opening line [[Engrish|"A brave man is walking for to save the princess"]]. The plot from there is actually not too bad, but it's clearly an [[Excuse Plot]], as the princess is hardly mentioned thereafter and seen only once before the endgame. Then the trope is subverted in the game's [[Twist Ending]]: {{spoiler|it turns out that it really ''was'' an [[Excuse Plot]]. The "princess" is an inanimate statue. The [[Big Bad|Big Bad's]] real goal was to get a sufficiently-powerful hero to the top of the tower so as to help him [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence]].}}

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Supreme Commander (Video Game)|Supreme Commander]]: Forged Alliance'', in one mission you must fend off the alien attackers from Princess Rhianne Burke's personal palace, [[Mission Control]] tells you that "You have a Princess to save, Commander."

* Your ''very first'' objective in ''[[Final Fantasy I (Video Game)|Final Fantasy I]]'' is to rescue Princess Sara of Coneria/[[Spell My Name With an "S"|Cornelia]]/[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Corneria]], who has been taken by good-knight-gone-bad Garland.

* One segment of the main plot in [[Dragon Age]]: Origins has the Warden breaking into Arl Howe's estate to rescue Queen Anora, who is kept there by her father against her will. The Rescue the Princess aspect is really overshadowed by the [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Fort Drakon escape following it]] and the fact that [[Kick the Son of A Bitch|Howe finally gets what's coming to him]].

* Oh, so very, ''very'' much subverted in ''[[Live a Live]]'': Orsted sets out to rescue his princess bride-to-be in an opening obviously [[Homage|inspired by]] ''[[Ghosts N Goblins (Video Game)|Ghosts N Goblins]]''. By the end of the chapter, {{spoiler|she thinks that his friend was the only one who truly deserved her, even though he's [[Face Heel Turn|turned evil]], and commits suicide so that the two of them can be together forever. This leads to Orsted becoming [[The Heartless|a demon of pure hatred]] and the [[Final Boss]].}}

* Your first real objective in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' is to retrieve the girl who has fallen through a time warp; and sure enough she turns out to be a princess. Subverted in that when you get back, you're put on trial for kidnapping her in the first place. You end up having to dive through another time warp in order to evade the guards, and that's where the ''real'' adventure begins.

* One mission in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' will have Shepard saving a {{spoiler|krogan}} princess.

== [[Turn Based Strategy]] ==

* ''[[Super Robot Wars|Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation]]'' for the GBA is a [[Turn Based Strategy]] game with sci-fi themes and [[Super Robot|SuperRobots]]. Your squadron ''still'' ends up needing to [[Save the Princess]], but at least it's only a subplot that's introduced and then resolved rather quickly.

** ''[[Disgaea 3]]'' also looks at it more seriously with the reasoning behind its [[Inverted|Inversion]]: Princess Sapphire has seen far too many people go off and die all in the name of protecting her. So she became a [[Badass Princess]] capable of destroying anything that might kill a hero.

* Swap out "Princess" with "CEO and former [[Magical Girl Warrior]]", and we've got the main plot for ''[[Last Res 0 rt]]''. Of course, both halves of the rescuer/rescuee equation are female (and said Rescuee is reasonably capable of saving herself), so...