What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* In The German version of ''[[Half-Life]]'', the Marines get replaced with robot grunts and the scientists shake their heads instead of dying. It isn't okay to show a human being die, but all those nasty aliens can be chopped up by the dozen.

** Chalk that up to German censorship laws forbidding depiction of violence against humans - and humans ''only''.

* In ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', it is against the "rules of war" to use nerve gas on your enemies; doing so will earn you the ire of all the other factions. But in the ''Alien Crossfire'' expansion, nobody bats an eyelash if you use the nerve gas on the Progenitor (non-human) factions (still, the Progenitor factions feel the same way toward humans, so this may explain things).

** The "rules of war" in SMAC are a mutually agreed upon set of regulations that can be disbanded by 67% majority vote. The Progenitors have never signed the treaty, and do therefore not fall under its protection. Additionally, most CPU factions will push to remove the regulations if they ever think it will benefit them.

** On the '''other''' hand, we see a number of more or less unique defeated enemies (only occasionally mini-bosses, like Biggs and Wedge) return to attack the players again (likewise with the Turks in FFVII, though they were all humans). So we can assume that defeated enemies are [[Only Mostly Dead|not quite as dead as they seem]]. This still doesn't make all the enemies you supposedly 'knock out' and leave behind when escaping the inevitable base on a self-destruct countdown any less dead though.

** Possibly purposefully used in Crisis Core ''[[Final Fantasy]] VII'' {{spoiler|by Zack's mentor Angeal, when he purposefully turns himself into a monstrous form in order to force Zack to kill him, after Zack proves reluctant to even fight back against him in his human form. However, he changes back before dying and Zack is completely devastated regardless, so it doesn't exactly suggest that he was worth less because of it}}.

* ''[[World Destruction]]'' (or ''[[Sands of Destruction]]''). You have good guys being humans and beastmen having bad guys. There are some beastmen who tags in your party (and are actually part of the bad team), but the problem is that they barely look like beasts at all.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has an odd relationship with this trope. Disney villains tend to retain their original fate, which often means that their deaths take place in a [[One-Winged Angel|less-human]] form - though the ones who remain human aren't any less likely to die. Series-exclusive villains, on the other hand, are rarely fully human, even when they look like they should be.

** Both Roxas and Namine are stated [[All There in the Manual|elsewhere]] to be exceptions to the rule, and the one who sacrificed them and justified it as them being Nobodies had a bad run-in with the Nobodies and carried a possibly justified hatred for them ever after. {{spoiler|After some Karma, he realizes what an ass he's been and is currently atoning for it}}.

** The Riku Replica starts questioning his own existence after he realizes that he's not the real Riku. He then goes on to attempt to kill the real Riku so he can become the real one.

* Another ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' example is the seventh game (first one released in North America.) Your major enemies are [[Beta Baddie|BetaBaddies]] who are pretty much human except for their eye & hair color. Your army has no problem destroying them by the hundreds, yet go out of their way to subdue and capture human opponents. The game justifies this, explaining that the non-human enemies are sins against nature. It also helps that most of the party are professional solders and mercenaries (in-fact, 7 is unique in that only 2 units able to attack don't fit that description), who ''should'' be fine with killing enemy combatants on a battlefield.

** Another issue involves the several side missions that deal with Kishuna, the first (and incomplete) artificial creature. During several flashbacks, the [[Big Bad]] contemplates on whether Kishuna was alive or not, eventually banishing it for not being good enough. The heroes never fully understand why Kishuna blocks their path with armed guards, though the game implies that Kishuna is a [[Death Seeker]] that [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|can't kill himself]].

** {{spoiler|Considering there are only three characters (four if you include the cute talking gunturrets) ''all'' of them are among the game's most popular characters.}}

*** Pfft: ''nobody'' gives a damn about [[Heroic Mime|Chell]].

* The early ''[[Contra]]'' games had the main player character and several enemy characters changed into robots when localized for Europe for this reason. Apparently in some countries, Germany supposedly, depiction of violence against humans in games is not suitable for kids. Despite this censorship, some thought the robots of Probotector, the new name of the series, were much better protagonists than the original Rambo/Predator inspired humans.

* Sergei Vladimir stays one step ahead of the undead, demonic, but humanoid Albert Wesker through most of ''Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles''. But when Sergei [[One-Winged Angel|turns himself into a "thing"]], it's all over.

*** That, and the fact that all attempts to try to set up a peaceful coexistence with the Geth are met with massed fire and/or sending the diplomats back impaled on spikes doesn't help much.

*** Then you later find out in ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'', {{spoiler|the geth you encounter were the minority, most geth are in fact peaceful, they never leave their space because they wish to develop free of outside influence, and are keeping the quarian homeworlds in good condition. In fact, they would gladly give them back if they just asked}}. Meanwhile the quarians are planning to wage war on them, even though Legion (your geth squadmate) not only states the above, but adds that the geth would easily beat the crap out of them anyway.

* The game ''[[Jet Force Gemini]]'' garnered a Teen rating from the ESRB, in spite of the fact that most enemies (and, er, friends) can be shot, blown up, set on fire, horribly dismembered, electrocuted, etc. etc. and always in a horrifically overdone shower of blood and gore by the player. This is entirely because the antagonists are all hideous insectoid aliens, and therefore acceptable for slaughtering.

** Likely the innate human fear of creepy crawly things is why bugs are # 1 bad guys in games.

* The [[First-Person Shooter]] ''F.E.A.R.'' has both clone supersoldiers and the occasional normal security guard as enemies. Despite the latter being realistically much weaker and easier to kill... they're inexplicably much harder to [[Ludicrous Gibs|gib]]—though not impossible.

** Played with in the sequel, ''Project Origin'', where the disturbing nature of the Replica and the logistics and mentality of them comes into play. The Replica themselves are specifically stated as "disposable" and "easily replaced," and spend most of their lives sealed inside stasis tubes until activated - at which point they emerge, ready for combat, instantly. They are utterly and completely loyal to their missions and won't break even when flat-out terrified, which makes their existence disturbing and, in a way, almost ''sad.''

* ''[[Professor Layton and the Curious Village]]'' brings up this trope a small bit, right near the very end. {{spoiler|If the Golden Apple - the treasure, that is - is taken out of the village, all of the villagers will stop working and, effectively, die. Of course, Luke, Flora, and Layton don't lay a hand on it}}.

* In the [[Roguelike]] [[Nethack]], you as the player character can play a human, dwarf, gnome, elf, or orc, which also show up as monsters in the dungeon, and cannibalism is penalized accordingly - however, only the killing of a peaceful human will ever be considered murder by the game, allowing for the senseless slaughter of peaceful dwarfs, gnomes, elves, or orcs with (relative) impunity.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'' uses it twice, with {{spoiler|Aegis and once with Ryoji.}} In the first example, it's an inversion, since {{spoiler|Aegis is questioning her life's worth as it compares to the humans on the team, who all consider her to be just as important as they are. This is driven home when she's repaired near the end of the game, and it's clear that the other members of the team wanted her back not just for her power in combat, but so that she would be back.}} The second may also be an inversion, {{spoiler|as it's a non-human character begging to be killed in order to spare the rest of the main characters from suffering. Doing so nets you a Nonstandard Game Over.}}

* A bizarre application of this occurs in ''[[Avalon Code]]''. You can use the Judgment Link on mook-level monster enemies to juggle them in the air—if you max out the combo count, or they hit the ground after running out of health, they'll explode like fireworks, granting you some combination of the game's currency, MP restoration, and HP restoration, depending. You ''can't'' do this with mook-level human enemies—apparently, even if they're your enemies, making humans explode isn't okay.

* In the Good ending of ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' Portable, {{spoiler|the only reason Vivienne isn't scrapped is because nobody knows what to label her as.}}

* Subverted in ''Crusader of Centy''. At the beginning of the game you're told to kill the monsters outside cities because they're dangerous or a pest. Later {{spoiler|when you become (literally) one of the monsters the plot starts revolving about the morality of killing sentient and mostly benign monsters}}.

* A potential theme in ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' after [[The Reveal]]. {{spoiler|the entire universe as we know it pre-[[Reveal]] is actually a network of complex [[A Is]] being wiped out by a company who thinks of them as nothing more then computer programs. The main characters, themselves programs under this threat, are tasked with showing this group just how human they are.}}

* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', during the raid on the Orc base camp near Old Owl Well you encounter a band of professional torturers; your paladin henchman rants about them torturing humans, and one of your options for a response is essentially "Oh, so if they were torturing gnomes or goblins it would be okay, would it?" Casavir gets kind of mad if you say that, though, and it prevents you from getting any influence with him out of the conversation.

* ''[[Grandia II]]'': Shortly after you recruit Killer [[FemBot]] With A Heart Of Gold Tio you find a factory full identical models of her. The first response from any of your party members? Roan says that the entire factory has to be razed, because ''the robots are too evil to continue existing.'' Uh, but what about your newest party member, the one that could potentially drop a tornado on your head if someone flips her [[Personality Chip]] to "evil"? Does she get to live because she's cuter or something?

* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] III'': {{spoiler|Pandora was created by Hespheastus as the key to Pandora's Box. However, the [[Applied Phlebotinum|Flames of Olympus]] used to forge the two turned her into a sentient little girl. Hesphaestus sees her as a daughter, while Kratos later takes her as a [[Morality Pet]]. The other gods, however, simply call her "it," lock her in the middle of a [[Death Trap]], and apparently Zeus lays down some physical abuse a few times. Needless to say, all it accomplishes is getting themselves killed faster.}}

* ''[[Digimon World 2]]'' takes ''[[Digimon Tamers]]''' stance on this issue. The good guys are the people who recognize digimon as sentient beings, our equals and our partners. They knock out other digimon, they don't kill them. The Blood Knights are the bad guys by virtue of massacring digimon, treating them like slaves and tools to be used, and killing them when they've outlived their usefulness. Even the Black Swords, who are more self absorbed and closer to [[Anti-Hero]] territory than the other factions, still find their treatment of digimon disgusting.

* This is brought up in ''[[Iji]]'' as most of the characters are non human. At first, Iji is very hesitant and apologetic about killing the [[Humanoid Aliens|Tasen]], especially given their resemblance to humans. The Tasen also have to face this dilemma when dealing with the humans, and the Komoto have a huge case of [[Fantastic Racism]] towards the Tasen that means they have no problem {{spoiler|[[Earthshattering Kaboom|decimating entire planets]] just to get rid of them. The Tasen had also done the same to at least one civilian Komoto planet already, so the feeling is definitely not one-sided.}}

* Inverted in ''[[Cadillacs and Dinosaurs]]'' the arcade game. Humans can be blown up violently and gorily and the death of the one innocent human shown in the game doesn't get the same dramatic reaction from the hero(es) as does the death and imprisonment of several dinosaurs, who, for unknown reasons, will always simply return to their previous calm colors and walk away from any and all punishment you throw their way, up to and including firing an RPG directly at them. It's almost as if PETA had a hand in the game....

** On the one hand, you have the Shades: roughly humanoid (for the most part) creatures that look like darkness made solid, whose [[Black Speech]] sounds venomous and demonic, and which tend to attack travelers and are one of the many causes of the dwindling population of the world. However, {{spoiler|Shades are, in reality, the fragmented souls of the ''true'' humans that once inhabited Earth, and are actually called "Gestalts." They're sentient, they bleed and cry and feel pain and grief like any other person, and are human in every way except for their appearance and the abilities they possess due to their disembodied state. In fact, only "relapsed" Shades --those whose Gestalt process failed and ended up losing their sentience and memories-- turn hostile at all, and are pitied by both intelligent Gestalts as well as their caretakers. The only reason most Shades attack Nier and his party is because of ''self defense'' or the defense ''of their loved ones''}}. The player doesn't find any of this out until {{spoiler|[[New Game+]], where the ability to understand Shade-speech turns many "heroic" moments of the game into vicious [[Player Punch]]es committed by ''[[You Bastard|the player]]''}}.

** And on the other, we have the people of Nier's world, who {{spoiler|are actually mere replicas (actually named Replicants) of the bodies of those same humans that underwent the Gestalt process. In ancient times (read: our modern age) humans created Replicants as soulless vessels to be inhabited by Gestalts in the future, once the disease ravaging Earth had disappeared. Conveniently, since they were mindless ''things'', humans used Replicants as footsoldiers to exterminate their own enemies. And even long after all true humans had vanished or perished, specialized caretakers would continue to create Replicants to take care of menial tasks. Eventually, Replicants started developing their ''own'' sentience, and with it, culture and civilization. None of which matters to the caretakers, because when matters come to a head, they plan to forcefully reunite Gestalts and Replicants so the former take over the latter, which would either erase the Replicant's personality or "just" [[And I Must Scream|imprison it deep in their subconscious, with no chance of release]]}}.

* If you play [[Thief]] on the Expert level, you are forbidden to kill humans at all. Everything non-human is still fair game. Admittedly the restriction has nothing to do with Garret's moral grounds for the want of such, but rather with professional pride and reluctance to raise unnecessary ire in the authorities.

** In ''Thief Gold'' wizards appear in ''The Lost City'' and are fair game as per all other opponents in the wilds (anywhere not in the city), driving further home that it is a matter of professional pride that Garret avoids [[Deadly Euphemism|leaving a mess]].

* The result of this trope is touched upon in some of the enemy entries of [[Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]]. For example, you know Goblins? Those little rascally monsters you kill en masse in other action, adventure and rpg games? According to their entry, they are on the verge of extinction and will, in only a few decades, have passed on to become the stuff of myths and legends, all thanks to human expansion and adventurers... You kill them en masse in this game, too, you bastard.

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', where most of the cast is human, but the lives and well-being of the two Valkyria are considered vastly more important than just about anyone else in the game. The [[Mooks|regular soldiers]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|deserve to]] [[A Million Is a Statistic|die in droves]] [[Anvilicious|because they're soldiers]] [[An Aesop|in a story about how war is bad.]]