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

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** 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.
** 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.
*** Discussed again when Riku mortally wounds the Replica in self-defense. The entire next cutscene is Riku trying to comfort the dying Replica, even promising that his soul will go to the afterlife just like Riku's eventually will, while the Replica insists "I never had a real heart".
*** Discussed again when Riku mortally wounds the Replica in self-defense. The entire next cutscene is Riku trying to comfort the dying Replica, even promising that his soul will go to the afterlife just like Riku's eventually will, while the Replica insists "I never had a real heart".
** This is one of the main themes of [[Kingdom Heartscoded]]. The main character is a virtual Sora, born from the data of Jiminy's chronicle of the real Sora's adventures. However his story quickly diverges from that of the real Sora, and one begins to wonder if his heart is any less real than Sora's. "Can a heart be born in an existence of data?" Also, at the end of coded, and Birth by Sleep shows that Roxas, Namine and Axel, as well as the Replica, Xion, are among characters that the real Sora will be saving from their “hurt” in future games. What this entails is unclear, but there’s hope for them yet, it seems.
** This is one of the main themes of [[Kingdom Hearts coded]]. The main character is a virtual Sora, born from the data of Jiminy's chronicle of the real Sora's adventures. However his story quickly diverges from that of the real Sora, and one begins to wonder if his heart is any less real than Sora's. "Can a heart be born in an existence of data?" Also, at the end of coded, and Birth by Sleep shows that Roxas, Namine and Axel, as well as the Replica, Xion, are among characters that the real Sora will be saving from their “hurt” in future games. What this entails is unclear, but there’s hope for them yet, it seems.
*** And as of [[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'s Jump Festa 2012 trailer {{spoiler|Lea, Ienzo and Aeleus}} are apparently alive and well.
*** And as of [[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'s Jump Festa 2012 trailer {{spoiler|Lea, Ienzo and Aeleus}} are apparently alive and well.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' in a z-skit between Genis and Regal - because he's hurt and killed dozens, if not hundreds, of humans and half-elves in [[Random Encounters|self-defence]], Genis is unwilling to hate Regal purely for being an admitted murderer.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' in a z-skit between Genis and Regal - because he's hurt and killed dozens, if not hundreds, of humans and half-elves in [[Random Encounters|self-defence]], Genis is unwilling to hate Regal purely for being an admitted murderer.
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* This is the central theme of the ''[[Mega Man Zero]] series''. However, even it is guilty of using human aesthetics to garner sympathy for the key players. Like the X series before it, every reploid that isn't a mook looks almost indistinguishable from a human, with animal/more machine-like reploids attaining [[Mauve Shirt]] status at most.
* This is the central theme of the ''[[Mega Man Zero]] series''. However, even it is guilty of using human aesthetics to garner sympathy for the key players. Like the X series before it, every reploid that isn't a mook looks almost indistinguishable from a human, with animal/more machine-like reploids attaining [[Mauve Shirt]] status at most.
* 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}}.
* 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.}}
* 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.}}
* The ESRB itself plays this trope pretty straight; you can usually get a T rating no matter how messily you kill your enemies, as long as they're not human. ''[[Castlevania]]'' is a good example, as almost none of them are M-rated, yet in all of them since SOTN you'll happily behead, bisect, incinerate, impale, etc your enemies, with at least one enemy every game whose death animation will be an absolute ''shower'' of blood. On the flip side, if you want to make a game where humans are the main enemy, the only way to avoid the M is to make it ''completely'' bloodless, a la Medal of Honor. (and even that doesn't always work...I still can't figure out how God Hand got an M.)
* The ESRB itself plays this trope pretty straight; you can usually get a T rating no matter how messily you kill your enemies, as long as they're not human. ''[[Castlevania]]'' is a good example, as almost none of them are M-rated, yet in all of them since SOTN you'll happily behead, bisect, incinerate, impale, etc your enemies, with at least one enemy every game whose death animation will be an absolute ''shower'' of blood. On the flip side, if you want to make a game where humans are the main enemy, the only way to avoid the M is to make it ''completely'' bloodless, a la Medal of Honor. (and even that doesn't always work...I still can't figure out how God Hand got an M.)
* In ''Zelda'', you fight humanoid (but still ugly) goblins who communicate by grunting. In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', you discover they are capable of speech, and it astonishes both Link and Midna.
* In ''Zelda'', you fight humanoid (but still ugly) goblins who communicate by grunting. In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', you discover they are capable of speech, and it astonishes both Link and Midna.
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* ''[[Starship Titanic]]'''s robots, despite having uploaded human minds, can have their personalities 'tweaked' to make them more cooperative.
* ''[[Starship Titanic]]'''s robots, despite having uploaded human minds, can have their personalities 'tweaked' to make them more cooperative.
* The Space Pirates in the ''[[Metroid]]'' series were originally random space aliens with little backstory. The Prime trilogy, however, includes hundreds of pieces of flavor text on computers in their various research stations, explaining their hierarchy, society, and culture, and giving them a sense of purpose. In the third installment, Samus even {{spoiler|visits their homeworld}}.
* The Space Pirates in the ''[[Metroid]]'' series were originally random space aliens with little backstory. The Prime trilogy, however, includes hundreds of pieces of flavor text on computers in their various research stations, explaining their hierarchy, society, and culture, and giving them a sense of purpose. In the third installment, Samus even {{spoiler|visits their homeworld}}.
** Which may well have been relegated into [[Canon Dis Continuity]] after Other M, which specifically showed the Space Pirates as a mindless race that require a higher intellect (namely Mother Brain) to direct them, though this might only strictly apply to the Zebesian space pirates and not to others. Given that Sakamoto does not acknowledge the Prime series, this is a question that may never be resolved.
** Which may well have been relegated into [[Canon Discontinuity]] after Other M, which specifically showed the Space Pirates as a mindless race that require a higher intellect (namely Mother Brain) to direct them, though this might only strictly apply to the Zebesian space pirates and not to others. Given that Sakamoto does not acknowledge the Prime series, this is a question that may never be resolved.
* ''[[Puzzle Quest]]: Galactrix'' has a mission in which you must obtain a present for a member of the Jahrwoxi leadership. The Jahrwoxi, being a scavenger race, have something of a blood feud with the Keck, an avian merchant race. The present suggested by the Jahrwoxi member of your crew is a Keck egg. First, you request one at their home planet, which your crew member laughs at you for, then tells you to go look at the trade station. The quest ends with you abducting a Keck egg, since none were for sale, and then delivering it personally, meaning you either just orphaned a kid and sold him into slavery, or just destroyed an entire family and fed Jahrwoxi leadership some [[Soylent Green]]. The notable parts are that nobody on your crew bats an eyelash, and it's a required quest to get to ANY end of the game--good, bad, or morally ambiguous.
* ''[[Puzzle Quest]]: Galactrix'' has a mission in which you must obtain a present for a member of the Jahrwoxi leadership. The Jahrwoxi, being a scavenger race, have something of a blood feud with the Keck, an avian merchant race. The present suggested by the Jahrwoxi member of your crew is a Keck egg. First, you request one at their home planet, which your crew member laughs at you for, then tells you to go look at the trade station. The quest ends with you abducting a Keck egg, since none were for sale, and then delivering it personally, meaning you either just orphaned a kid and sold him into slavery, or just destroyed an entire family and fed Jahrwoxi leadership some [[Soylent Green]]. The notable parts are that nobody on your crew bats an eyelash, and it's a required quest to get to ANY end of the game--good, bad, or morally ambiguous.
* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' for Windows and Mac, you can go ahead and slaughter countless Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Half-Elves, Orcs, Goblins, and other races in their hundreds. And that's not just the community created modules.
* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' for Windows and Mac, you can go ahead and slaughter countless Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Half-Elves, Orcs, Goblins, and other races in their hundreds. And that's not just the community created modules.
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