History Main / SaveThePrincess

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'': [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]] at the start; your task is to ''kidnap'' Princess Garnet, but when you confront her, she actually requests the kidnapping - [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen making it clear this is more of a rescue mission]]. Later dialogue with Regent Cid reveals that he had commissioned the kidnapping as a cover for the rescue, as taking Garnet away openly would cause quite a political stink.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': At one point Yuna, daughter of High Summoner Braska - a princess in all but title - is kidnapped by the CorruptChurch and kept in the castle-like (and gigantic) Bevelle Temple. Oh, and she's [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe forced to marry Seymour]]. The party arrives to intervene. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Yuna reveals she was using the wedding to try and Send Seymour, already had an escape planned, and the party's intervention has royally screwed up her plan by giving the villains hostages.

[[caption-width-right:256:Just another [[HereWeGoAgain typical Wednesday]] for [[SuperMarioBros Princess Peach]].]]

OurPrincessIsInAnotherCastle can also be a part of these games.

Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days; while video games still feature the occasional DamselInDistress, rescuing them is only part of the overall plot; either that, or it's covered by the GrandfatherClause. In his book ''Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life'', Chris Kohler credits this progress to some [[GamerChick Girl Gamers]] who wrote to Creator/{{Nintendo}} in TheEighties to say they were tired of saving princesses; Nintendo eventually announced they'd stop using it as a final goal except in the ''SuperMario'' series.

This plot has become quite a popular target for [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] or [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] in indie games, and newer references to it in popular culture can be classed with PacManFever. For a similarly overused plot, see FakeKing.

* The original ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''3'' both have this plot, as does the Japanese version of ''2'' (''The Lost Levels''), ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', the first half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', the second half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games (excluding ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', where Peach is a playable character), ''and'' ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' Bowser must really dig Peach...

* To give an example of how this trope was so prevalent to the point of getting absurd, in the NES games ''TinyToonAdventures'' and ''[[TheMuppetShow Muppet Adventures]]'', you are charged with saving rather strong and self-sufficient characters Babs Bunny and Miss Piggy, respectively. The latter example in particular is rather egregious, since it's far, far, far more likely that Miss Piggy would have to save Kermit from a bad spot (And she did, in The Muppet Movie. She'd also have saved him in the episode where the pigs took over the show, except she got offered a star position).

* Done in an antiheroic way in ''[[VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt Wario Land: The Shake Dimension]]'', where saving the queen is only Wario's secondary goal, with him being promised treasure at the end. In fact, at the end where Queen Merelda congratulates Wario, he stops her in the middle by grabbing her and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome tossing her out of his way]].

* ''TowerOfTheSorcerer'', 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 ExcusePlot, as the princess is hardly mentioned thereafter and seen only once before the endgame. Then the trope is subverted in the game's TwistEnding: [[spoiler:it turns out that it really ''was'' an ExcusePlot. The "princess" is an inanimate statue. The [[BigBad Big Bad's]] real goal was to get a sufficiently-powerful hero to the top of the tower so as to help him AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.]]

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'' essentially has only two objectives: SaveThePrincess, and kill the Dragonlord. Unlike most SaveThePrincess games, however, you actually rescue the princess from a dragon (usually the first one you kill) in the Marsh Cave long before you beat the BigBad.

* One segment of the main plot in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' 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 [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Fort Drakon escape following it]] and the fact that [[KickTheSonOfABitch Howe finally gets what's coming to him]].
* Your first real goal in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is to rescue Bastila from the swoop gang that recovered her from a crashed escape pod and is now offering her as a prize in an upcoming swoop race. Then, two-thirds of the way through the game, Malak captures her... (Of course, [[StarWars the movie whose universe KotOR is set in]] had SaveThePrincess as a good chunk of its plot as well.)

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' for the GBA is a TurnBasedStrategy game with sci-fi themes and {{SuperRobot}}s. Your squadron ''still'' ends up needing to SaveThePrincess, 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 BadassPrincess capable of destroying anything that might kill a hero.

* In a SaveTheWorld climax of MahouSenseiNegima main objective was to free Asuna (revealed at this point as a princess of a fallen magical kingdom). Anya even lampshades that for Negi rescuing her is most important, and saving the world is just a bonus. Through zigzaged in that there seems to be more familial than romantic feelings between them (and he is even related to her)

* Done in an antiheroic way in ''[[VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt Wario Land: The Shake Dimension'', where saving the queen is only Wario's secondary goal, with him being promised treasure at the end. In fact, at the end where Queen Merelda congratulates Wario, he stops her in the middle by grabbing her and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome tossing her out of his way]].

* Done in an antiheroic way in ''VideoGame/WarioLand: 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 [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome tossing her out of his way]].

* In ''VideoGame/SonicCD'', Sonic's mission is to save Amy from Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic. Many feminist writers like Anita Sarkeesian have lumped Amy in with other well-known gaming damsels-in-distress, not realizing (or choosing to ignore) that she actually hasn't needed to be saved in any other games in the series, besides one part of ''VideoGame/SonicRiders: ZeroGravity''. In fact, she's much more often been a playable character, sometimes saving others.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicCD'', Sonic's mission is to save Amy from Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic. Many feminist writers like Anita Sarkeesian have lumped Amy in with other well-known gaming damsels-in-distress, not realizing (or choosing to ignore) that she actually hasn't needed to be saved in any other games in the series, besides one part of ''VideoGame/SonicRidersZeroGravity''. In fact, she's much more often been a playable character, sometimes saving others.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicCD'', Sonic's mission is to save Amy from Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic. Many feminist writers like Anita Sarkeesian have lumped Amy in with other well-known gaming damsels-in-distress, not realizing (or choosing to ignore) that she actually hasn't needed saving very often. In fact, she's more often been a playable character, sometimes saving others.

:* ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' further averts this trope by introducing an actual princess character, Blaze, but having Sonic team up with her. In fact, Sonic and Blaze rescue Cream together in that same game.

* While technically not a princess (unless you count her as one for being the daughter of the Fey clan's leaderess), poor Maya Fey in the ''AceAttorney'' series has to be saved from death ''four times''! The first two involve Maya being accused of murder and you have to get a not guilty verdict to save her. The third occasion has Maya kidnapped by an individual who uses this as leverage to force Phoenix into taking a case. The last case has Maya being trapped on a freezing mountain. And things just get worse from there...

* ''{{Disgaea}}'' plays with this.

** Similarly, ''FinalFantasyTactics'' starts off with you needing to rescue Princess Ovelia. Then it [[GambitPileup gets complicated.]]
** ''{{Final Fantasy XII}}'': To recruit Ashe - your fifth permanent party member, and you guessed it; a princess - you have to cross an enemy's heavily-guarded airship to reach her cell after she'd been taken into custody a good 3-4 game-play hours ago.

* The original ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''3'' both have this plot, as does the Japanese version of ''2'' (''The Lost Levels''), ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', the first half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', the second half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games (excluding ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', where Peach is a playable character), ''and'' ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' Bowser must really dig Peach...

* The original ''SuperMarioBros'' and ''3'' both have this plot, as does the Japanese version of ''2'' (''The Lost Levels''), ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', the first half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', the second half of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games (excluding ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', where Peach is a playable character), ''and'' ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros''. 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 BarrierMaiden. In ''Superstar Saga'', her voice can awaken the Beanstar (the MacGuffin of the game), while in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' she is forced to wed Bowser in order to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

** Recently averted in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' where Peach is now a playable character alongside Mario, Luigi and a Blue Toad

* ''Chuck Rock'' begins with the villain hitting Chuck's wife Ophelia over the head with a club and dragging her off ByTheHair.

* ''[[SuperRobotWars Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation]]'' for the GBA is a TurnBasedStrategy game with sci-fi themes and {{SuperRobot}}s. Your squadron ''still'' ends up needing to SaveThePrincess, but at least it's only a subplot that's introduced and then resolved rather quickly.

** ''Absence of Justice'' take...
--> Almaz: I must save the princess!
--> Sapphire: * GroinAttack*
--> Almaz: The princess! She touched me! I can die happy now...
** ''{{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 BadassPrincess capable of destroying anything that might kill a hero.

!!Examples:

* In ''FinalFight'', your goal is to rescue Jessica, who is both Cody's girlfriend and Haggar's daughter.

->''Link! He come to town,\\
Come to save, the Princess Zelda!''
-->-- '''Joe Pleiman''', "The Legend of Zelda", from ''The Rabbit Joint''.