History DamselInDistress / VideoGames

* ''Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama'': The six goddesses of the beach have been captured by alien invaders and taken to different to time periods to serve the villains' evil purposes.[[note]]Ogg the Caveman wants Moon-unit, the Goddess of Waves, to test his new invention, the surfboard, Princess Cuffy wants Persephone, the Goddess of Sunshine, to help her work on her tan, Shlomo, King of the apes, wants Daphne, the Goddess of Surf Music, to perform at his night club, Professor Warhol wants Thalaia, the Goddess of Warm Sand, to make silicon chips for his new invention, video games, Grxplrt wants Valerie, the Goddess of Clean Air, to provide an atmosphere for his evil planet, and Lucifer wants Bambi, the Goddess of Snow Cones, to make ice for his lemonade.[[/note]] Normy's goal is to defeat the villains and rescue all six of the goddesses.

* ''VideoGame/MissionImpossibleKonami'': [=IMF=] Agent Shannon Reed was assigned to be Dr. O's secretary to provide protection from any abduction attempts. When the doctor is kidnapped by The Sinister Seven, she gets taken as well, but is able to send out a coded message to the [=IMF=] that starts the plot. She ends up being used as a HumanShield by the boss of the fourth level.

** When Zero first wakes up at the beginning of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series, he has to protect the girl who revived him, Ciel, throughout the entire first level, though {{justified}} in that 1) Ciel is a scientist, not a warrior; and 2) the soldiers who were protecting her all got killed by the enemy by the time they finally got to where he was and she was the SoleSurvivor.

** Babs Bunny is this in both [[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventures the 1991 NES game of the same name]] and ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure Buster's Hidden Treasure]]'' for the Platform/SegaGenesis, as she is captured by [[RichBastard Montana Max]] in both games. Buster's goal in both games is to rescue her.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBabsBigBreak Babs' Big Break]]'' for the Platform/GameBoy, [[SmellySkunk Fifi La Fume]] is captured by the Forest Ghost in Level 3. In order to rescue her, you'll need to find the switch that opens her cage. Once you rescue her, she will return the favor by using her stench to knock down the trees blocking the path.

* ''VideoGame/MagicalTetrisChallenge: Minnie is hypnotized and kidnapped by Pete, who intends to [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe marry her]].

* Kairi gets kidnapped no less than three times in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, one per each number game. The last is particularly infuriating as it happened just after the game promised that she becomes a capable combatant, only for her to get kidnapped once again before getting StuffedInTheFridge by Xehanort (but was justified in the [=ReMind=] DLC).

* Several girls in the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' franchise are quite capable of protecting themselves from demons, but Kyrie's role in the story of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' boils down to getting saved by Nero. Agnus and Sanctus exploited this by kidnapping her to [[LuredIntoATrap lure out Nero]] and steal the Yamato from him.

* Being a very popular long-standing franchise, ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' has many examples: ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Rosa]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Aerith]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Rinoa]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Garnet]]'' etc. The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI very first game]] begins with a "SaveThePrincess from rogue knight" plot, before switching to saving the crystals. Subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' with Yuna who, while kidnapped three times, managed to escape on her own the first time and actually made a plan to defeat one of the BigBad's the third time (which the heroes, while pulling off an impressive BigDamnHeroes, messed up); she still eventually escaped on her own. The second time, she was actually being "kidnapped" by [[spoiler:Rikku]], so there wasn't any real danger (other than being forced to end her pilgrimage and being held captive in Home), though the other characters think there is at the time.

** Jill Valentine the series's primary [[TheHero female protagonist]] is not free from this, in her debut she nearly gets killed by zombie hounds before Chis and Wesker save her. In Spencer Estate proper she still needs her male colleagues to pull her put trouble, Barry saves from becoming a [[RunningGag ''Jill Sandwich'']] when she gets trapped by a DescendingCeiling and in Chris's play through she has to be saved from Wesker's prison ensuring a RescueHug. The majority of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' subverts this greatly with Jill being the main protagonist, though she is saved by Carlos when the Nemesis manages to infect her. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'' also subverts this as Jill is the one trying to find and rescue Chris for half of the game, also the prologue to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' "''Lost in Nightmares''" she's the one who saves Chris from Wesker by performing a HeroicSacrifice spearing Wesker out of a window. Unfortunately the damsel comes backs as Jill is dying and Wesker decides to strip her down and put her in a test tube and experiment on her as the [[BestServedCold ultimate]] revenge against Chris.
** Jill's role in Resident Evil 5 as whole is hybrid of Damsel and DarkActionGirl as she's Wesker's [[TheDragon Dragon]] and Nina William's esque [[ProfessionalKiller super assassin]] however she's also BrainwashedAndCrazy and in need of rescuing, Chris manages to snap her out of Wesker's control and she even provides firepower against Wesker in the final battle though she doesn't get to fight Wesker herself which disappointed a good chunk of fans. To make matters worse the last we hear of Jill she's hospitalized and bored.
** Claire Redfield who was trained by her brother Chris in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 RE2]]'' still has ''these'' moments. In her very first scene she is saved from the zombies by Leon the '''rookie''' cop but for the rest of the game she subverts this trope playing MamaBear to Cherry, and she manages to avoid damsel status in the final cutscene against the [[EldritchAbomination G-Creature]] (despite screaming for Leon) by finding a opening in the train. In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' Claire subverts this majorly like Jill in 3, Claire in Code Veronica is an BulletTime-happy action girl pulling some big [[Film/TheMatrix Matrix moments]] in the opening cutscene and remains competent for most of the game despite being imprisoned in the first level. But Claire's winning streak doesn't last the whole game especially when's captured by Alexiaplus there was some painfully forced RescueRomance with [[TheScrappy Steve Burnside]] that happens earlier.
*** Claire's role in CG movie ''Anime/ResidentEvilDegeneration'' can ''sort of'' considered this, she along with some other survivors are trapped by zombies in a airport and she needs to be saved by Leon again the exact same way he does in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''. However when Claire and little girl Rani are surrounded by zombies, Leon tosses her his handgun and Claire takes out all of them in seconds so she's still the action girl underneath, Claire is just committed to looking after Rani like she was with Cherry.
** Rebecca Chambers got this heavily but ironically enough they actually made her a damsel ''in reverse'', by giving her a badass upgrade in the prequel, where she's a player character and therefore pretty competent. In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' she's the only survivor of the Star's Bravo Team and while she has to be saved by her partner Billy Cohen from Leaches and falling down a hole at one point, Rebecca still kicks a lot of ass by herself even defeating the goddamn Proto-Tyrant. But since ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil RE1]]'' takes places after 0, some time between then and running into Chris (who has to save her) in the original game, she apparently [[FreakOut snapped]] from the sheer horror around her and lost all her zombie-killing skills. In CGI movie ''Anime/ResidentEvilVendetta'' she's an absolute Damsel In Distress having be to be saved by Leon and Chris from the BigBad Arias who of course has VillainousCrush on her and plans to to make her his bride since she looks like his dead wife.
*** Rebecca's damsel status was even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the series creator Shinji Mikami who dislikes Rebecca considering her TheScrappy in comparison to Jill and Claire saying he [[AmazonChaser prefers strong women]].
** Ashley Graham from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. Made all the more hilarious by how she was shown to want ''very'' much to give [[MrFanservice Leon]] a SmoochOfVictory (and a lot more than just a smooch) for rescuing her at the end... only for Leon to reject her and make sure she knows that he is ''not'' interested.

** Babs Bunny is this in both [[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventures the 1991 NES game of the same name]] and ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure Buster's Hidden Treasure]]'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, as she is captured by [[RichBastard Montana Max]] in both games. Buster's goal in both games is to rescue her.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBabsBigBreak Babs' Big Break]]'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy, [[SmellySkunk Fifi La Fume]] is captured by the Forest Ghost in Level 3. In order to rescue her, you'll need to find the switch that opens her cage. Once you rescue her, she will return the favor by using her stench to knock down the trees blocking the path.

* Bastila, a trained Jedi, is kept as a hostage during the first part of ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. She'd just crawled out of a crashed escape pod's wreckage when she was captured, and her captors were intelligent enough to fasten a neural disruptor to her head (and she didn't have time to determine where her lightsaber was). She does manage to free herself the instant your rescue attempt manages to thin out the guards enough that she can finally get the disruptor off. However, she is quite offended if you comment that you "rescued the damsel in distress" later on, almost as badly as when Carth starts joking about losing her lightsaber being against the Jedi code.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsChess'' every other good character in the good team is either male or a robot. Princess Leia being the only female [[https://i.imgur.com/DJBbpiP.mp4 is the only one who seemingly gets kidnapped]] in one of their "defeated" cutscenes.

* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'': Both times, Natalie has been kidnapped by Lance:
** ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy5'': She's being held in one location behind bars.
** ''VideoGame/AdventureStory'': Natalie has been kidnapped by Lance and it's up to Matt to rescue her, after fighting multiple bosses.
* The MC's love interest, Elly, in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Xenogears Xenogears]] gets kidnapped by the antagonists near the end of the game. Fei and his friends worked together in the climax final battle to rescue her. The ending shows Fei finally succeeded in rescuing his lover after going through three past lives of losing her to tragedy.
* ''VideoGame/KlonoaDoorToPhantomile'': The Songstress Lephise is kidnapped by Ghadius in his plan to destroy Phantomile, and Klonoa has to save her.

** In the Edo Japan chapter, you'll come across a young woman about to be killed by some intruding guards. You can choose to rush in to save her, but you gotta leave her if you're going for a Pacifist run. Don't feel too bad about it though, cause she's actually a demon who was planning to kill you anyway.