History Main / SaveTheWorldClimax

* ''Film/{{Star Wars}}'': Luke Skywalker is your average moisture farmer living in the dusty ass-end of nowhere when BAM! This random astromech droid starts playing back a message from a princess in need of saving from the BigBad. Being the impressionable young man he is, Luke embarks on a mission to rescue the {{Damsel in Distress}} and maybe discover something about himself aling the way. Simple, right? Wrong. Before Luke has time to say [[{{OnceperEpisode}} 'I've got a bad feeling about this']], he's undertaking a [[{{LaResistance}} pivotal role in the war to overthrow]] the [[{{TheEmpire}} evil Empire]] and confront his destiny to decide the final battle between Good and Evil.

* ''Radio/BleakExpectations'' starts out as a straightforward (if often surreal) parody of CharlesDickens' life stories such as ''GreatExpectations'' or ''DavidCopperfield''. Thanks to SerialEscalation, by series two the antagonist has [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons crossed the line from everyday villainy to cartoonish supervillainy]], and in the SeasonFinale the hero has to save the world from an AlienInvasion.

A common maifestation is that despite the all-encompassing nature of the threat, [[ItsUpToYou no one else]] in the world [[WithThisHerring will assist them]], or [[ApatheticCitizens even care]]. [[NoHeroDiscount Forget about receiving a " saving-the-world discount" from shops]], or a few armies to help them [[StormingTheCastle storm]] the BigBad's lair.

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' averts this: [[spoiler: Templars and mages ''will'' end up fighting one another]], but [[ForegoneConclusion how that]] [[FrameNarrative comes about]] is up to [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]].

* ''VideoGame/DragonAge'' plays with this trope. While ''technically'' you are saving the world by stopping the Blight (i.e. a vast horde of [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil]] [[TheLegionsOfHell monsters]] led by a corrupted Dragon-God), the game's codex makes it quite clear that failure on your part will not actually lead to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the world]]. Blights reoccur every few centuries in Thedas, so people who dedicate their lives to stopping them have created a military organization, the Grey Wardens, just for that purpose. If you do not succeed, then one of the other members of your organization, which is thousands strong, would finish it in your place. By stopping the Blight, all you really do is keep the country that you live in from being destroyed before the other Wardens could act. Your victory simply means that the threat ended before the rest of the world noticed the problem.

[[folder:Webcomic]]
* ''OrderOfTheStick'': The first arc of the story concerns the Order carrying out a standard dungeon crawl in order to defeat a lich. Then the next arc reveals that within the dungeon was a gate to a prison dimension where a world-destroying EldritchAbomination is kept, and the lich was planning to use the gate for nefarious ends. The rest of the story concerns the Order's efforts to keep the other gates from being used for evil, so that the abomination isn't set free to destroy the world.

A corollary is that despite the all-encompassing nature of the threat, [[ItsUpToYou no one else]] in the world [[WithThisHerring will assist them]], or [[ApatheticCitizens even care]]. [[NoHeroDiscount Forget about receiving a " saving-the-world discount" from shops]], or a few armies to help them [[StormingTheCastle storm]] the BigBad's lair.

* ''{{Babylon 5}}'' starts out with rather minor border skirmishes between the Centauri and Narn, some diplomatic tensions among other races, and an Earth Government moving slowly in a xenophobic direction. When [[BigBad the]] [[AbusivePrecursors Shadows]] reemerge into galactic affairs, they manipulate and cultivate these existing tensions into a galaxy-wide war among the younger races which escalates to an apocalyptic scale.

* ''{{Star Trek Deep Space Nine}}'' starts with the Federation taking over an old starbase from the Cardassians who'd recently withdrawn from a long brutal occupation of the planet Bajor which the starbase orbits. Episodes involve the rebuilding of Bajor and its various growing pangs of independence (and bitterness over its recent past), and some exploration through a wormhole recently discovered near the station. But a great power lay on the other side of that wormhole, which soon puts the whole Alpha Quadrant in jeopardy in the large-scale Dominion War.

* ''GunnerkriggCourt''. The bonus comic ''City Face'' parodies this. It starts off with a pigeon named City Face attempting and failing to woo an attractive female pigeon. A fairy shows up to help--and she tells him that the continued existence of the world depends on City Face successfully winning the female pigeon's heart.

Compare GrandFinale, where the scope of a serial work is [[SerialEscalation expanded]] for the final ([[StoryArc couple of]]) episode(s); BigDamnMovie, where an [[TheMovie cinematic adaptation]] of a smaller-scale work has a Save the World Climax plotline; and SequelEscalation.

Compare GrandFinale, where the scope of a serial work is expanded for the final ([[StoryArc couple of]]) episode(s); BigDamnMovie, where an [[TheMovie cinematic adaptation]] of a smaller-scale work has a Save the World Climax plotline; and SequelEscalation.

->''"In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', your ultimate objective is to save the world. [[BlatantLies This objective had never been used before in a video game, and will probably never be used again]]."''
-->--''Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}}'' on ''[[http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_I Final Fantasy I]]''

[[folder:Series]]
* ''{{Babylon 5}}'' starts out with rather minor border skirmishes between the Centauri and Narn, some diplomatic tensions among other races, and an Earth Government moving slowly in a xenophobic direction. When [[BigBad the]] [[AbusivePrecursors Shadows]] reemerge into galactic affairs, they manipulate and cultivate these existing tensions into a galaxy-wide war among the younger races which escalates to an apocalyptic scale.
* ''{{Star Trek Deep Space Nine}}'' starts with the Federation taking over an old starbase from the Cardassians who'd recently withdrawn from a long brutal occupation of the planet Bajor which the starbase orbits. Episodes involve the rebuilding of Bajor and its various growing pangs of independence (and bitterness over its recent past), and some exploration through a wormhole recently discovered near the station. But a great power lay on the other side of that wormhole, which soon puts the whole Alpha Quadrant in jeopardy in the large-scale Dominion War.
[[/folder]]

Sometimes, a story starts out with a small conflict, but then escalates to the point that the her's party has to save the entire world.

A corollary is that despite the all-encompassing nature of the threat, no one else in the world [[WithThisHerring will assist them]], or [[ApatheticCitizens even care]]. [[NoHeroDiscount Forget about receiving a " saving-the-world discount" from shops]], or a few armies to help them [[StormingTheCastle storm]] the BigBad's lair.

Standard issue final plot point to so many video games (particularly if it's an RPG) that it is more noticeable when it's ''absent''.

You might spend the first several hours of the game EasingIntoTheAdventure, wandering around the FirstTown and doing things like [[FetchQuest delivering a chicken]] to a neighbouring village or saving ChekhovsGunman from monsters. Ten hours in, however, your hometown will have become [[DoomedHometown doomed]], you'll be trying to SaveThePrincess, and the angst factor will have increased exponentially. Twenty hours in you'll GetOnTheBoat or discover the GlobalAirship, expanding your horizons and allowing you to [[GottaCatchThemAll chase down]] the [[PlotCoupon Seven Crystals of Destiny]]. Thirty hours in you'll be reforging the SwordOfPlotAdvancement, and fifty hours in you'll be on the AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield fighting the BigBad's [[OneWingedAngel seventh form]] with the entire ''world'' as the prize.

Did we mention that part? Somewhere along the line, you'll learn that the fate of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the entire world]] -- not just your DoomedHometown, not just TheKingdom, but ''the entire freakin' planet'' -- is your party's final burden. And, of course, it must therefore be the BigBad's ultimate goal -- be it [[WorldDomination domination]] or [[EarthShatteringKaboom annihilation]]. And it may not even be ''that'' mundane -- there seems to be some sort of arms race among designers to raise the stakes as high as they can go, with the ''entire universe'', or the space-time continuum, or reality as we know it, under attack.

It doesn't matter what the party's original goals were (or those of its members); they're going to end up SavingTheWorld from an unstoppable, inconceivable threat - and since YouCantThwartStageOne, they will only defeat said threat only when the world is right on the brink of doom. Due to this, the last hours of many such games tend to be pretty similar, ignoring windowdressing.

A corollary is that despite the all-encompassing nature of the threat, no one else in the world [[WithThisHerring will assist you]], or [[ApatheticCitizens even care]]. [[NoHeroDiscount Forget about receiving a " saving-the-world discount" from shops]], or a few armies to help you [[StormingTheCastle storm]] TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.

[[AC:Action Adventures]]
* Despite being rooted in the effort to SaveThePrincess, most games in the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series fit this trope. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', for example, you're trying to prevent the destruction of the world by keeping the moon from crashing into the realm of Termina. Several of the games involve preventing Hyrule from falling under the control of Ganondorf -- or, in the case of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', wresting it away from his control.

[[AC:First Person Shooters]]
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' subverts this -- while your inevitable goal is to prevent Big Bad from taking over the world, you can't actually save the world. It's in ruins and your choice is who to hand the reconstruction contract to [[spoiler:a largely insane AI, a "compassionate conspiracy" leader that keeps his mentor in cryogenic almost-stasis in his basement, or global anarchy.]] If any of that counts as "saved" is largely a matter of opinion (or, as the game would put it, choice).
** The sequel goes one step further and allows you to pick any faction, even [[UnwittingPawn the until-then Bad Guys]], and hand the world over to them. Or [[OmnicidalNeutral kill them all]]. According to canon, none of these choices prevent ''Deus Ex 1'' from taking place, again reducing your choices to "smite the world," "rape the world," or "trash the world" rather than "save the world."
* Being epic [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] trilogies, ''{{Halo}}'' and ''MassEffect'' use the scaled-up version: the protagonists are out to save all sentient life in the galaxy.

[[AC:Hack And Slash]]
* ''{{Drakengard}}'' is notable here in that, while the first and fourth endings employ this, the second ending straight-up tells you that FailureIsTheOnlyOption, the third ending is mildly ambiguous as the world still needs saving, and the fifth ending...[[DroppedABridgeOnHim well, it's hard to tell really.]]
** According to WordOfGod, the fifth ending caused the downfall of [[{{Nier}} another world]]...
*** And in ''that'' world, [[spoiler:Nier ultimately destroys the last hope for humanity, driving them all to extinction within a generation.]]

[[AC:Platform Games]]
* In ''[[BanjoKazooie Banjo-Kazooie]]: Nuts & Bolts'', one of the characters, Klungo, creates a [[StylisticSuck horrendous]] 8-bit arcade platforming game (which he proclaims to be the best ever), titled ''Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World'', in which you save the world by ''holding it over your head''.
* JakAndDaxter: Jak does this every game. Not that he ever gets a "thank you" lasting more than 30 seconds into the next game...
** Actually, he does get ''some'' respect in the third game, mostly from your allies and commoners, but it's easy to miss because literally everyone (yourself included) is preoccupied with the [[MeleeATrois three-way war]] that's slowly reducing the city to rubble.
** Also, the fact that the upper class (reduced to consisting of [[EvilChancellor one guy]]) still hates you in the third game is a plot point.
* Many [[SuperMarioBros Mario]] games mostly focus on [[SaveThePrincess rescuing Princess Peach]], but a good handful of the RPG spinoffs have saving the world as the main plot. For example, in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' Mario is tasked with finding the [[MacGuffin Crystal Stars]] before [[BigBad Grodus]] does, otherwise he will use the Crystal Stars to unlock an ancient power to conquer the world with.

[[AC:Puzzle Games]]
* Despite appearances of a plotless pretty-looking PuzzleGame, ''VideoGame/WorldOfGoo'''s WhamEpisode sets you down this path when you have to journey down [[CyberSpace the Information Superhighway]] and discover you can thwart the enemy by [[spoiler:flooding all their inboxes with spam, and not just any spam, all and any messages deleted in the history of the internet.]].

[[AC:Role Playing Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' did this in different quantities at the end of each game. Since the setting of the game is universal, the first game, which merely threatens the existence of a planet, can't really be a "Save the World Climax" scenario. The second game is rather unclear in whether or not the characters are saving the world or just fighting some bad guys. The 3rd game is phenomenally epic in scale.
* One of the complaints against the plot of ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' is that you aren't saving the world, and the titular city isn't attacked in the BadEnding, because StatusQuoIsGod in the Forgotten Realms.
* Frequently the case in ''FinalFantasy'' games. The trope is played straight in I - V, VII, VIII and XII and [[InvokedTrope invoked]] in VI, IX and XIII by the villains and in X by the heroes.

* ''ShadowHearts Covenant'' shows why it's important to save the SaveTheWorld element for last. Being told that the end boss is going to destroy the world loses a lot of kick when you've already saved the world twice; even once before the halfway point of the game.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games have actually managed to avoid this trope for a long time. The closest they've come is the last two games, ignoring the fact that Mehrunes Dagon's forces don't understand the concept of invasion too well, and Dagoth Ur was in no rush to do anything (his racist religion powered by the heart of god might not have even done anything in another thousand years ...).
** Dagoth Ur was preparing to seize control of Morrowind from the Tribunal and the Empire. Although he operated on a long time-scale, he was getting his forces into position for the all-out conflict. This makes ''Morrowind'''s objective saving a small part of the world. ''Oblivion'', however, plays this trope straight, with the entire world of Nirn being threatened by the encroachment of Mehrunes Dagon's plane of Oblivion.
** Played straight in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]. Alduin The World-Eater's purpose is to destroy Mundus, and [[PlayerCharacter the Dragonborn]] is destined to defeat him.
* Every ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' game.
* ''StarOcean''. All of them. ''[[StarOcean3 3]]'' and ''[[StarOcean4 4]]'' replace "world" with "universe".
* Most of the ''{{Pokemon}}'' films. And in the Diamond, Pearl, and Platnium games, replace "the world" with "all existence".
* One of the (many) notable aspects of ''PlanescapeTorment'' was that the plot had nothing to do with saving ''anything'', be it city, world, plane etc. Rather, your main quest involved an amnesiac immortal trying to figure out who he is, who took his mortality, and eventually ''die''.
** On one occasion you do have to save a town that had literally gone straight to hell. Or, more strictly speaking, it restores itself to its rightful place once you defeat the local villain.
** Similarly, ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Mask of The Betrayer''. While there is a (in the grand scheme, rather small) danger to the world involved if you fail, but the majority of your motivation is that solving [[spoiler:the spirit eater curse]] prevents you from dying, the fact that it no longer terrorizes the world at large is only casually mentioned. This is due to many shared developers.
*** Averted by the ''real'' evil ending which has [[spoiler:the player devouring the curse thus ''becoming'' the curse itself, getting him/herself expelled from the City of the Dead, then cleansed countless githyanki cities by devouring the souls of all the adults and then delivering their children to their mortal enemies, the ''brain-sucking'', ''mind-raping'' mind flayers aka Illithids. If that's not enough, he/she devours the spirits/souls inhabiting the land where he/she once helped (or screwed depending on your playing preference), turning it into a wasteland filled with the walking dead. As if that is still not enough, the player then travels to the planes of existence where the souls of his/her dead former treacherous companions are now resting...and eats them. Whoa. Understandably, the gods get so pissed off, they assembled a humongous army to kill the player and guess what? He/she eats some of the gods too!]] Now ''that'' is what this troper calls an evil ending.
* [[NonIndicativeName Ironically]] [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''. The world never even comes close to being destroyed. The plot of the game is about getting [[spoiler: BackFromTheDead. A more appropriate title would have been ''A Small District of Tokyo Ends With You'']].
** [[spoiler:Except for the fact that the title refers to the fact that Neku needs to expand his horizons and stop being a gloomy loner]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'''s WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld plot really only involves saving random people in your city, but the heroes act as if they've saved the world. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that the entire world really is at stake, the heroes' lives included]], and they ''[[HeroicBSOD freak out]]''.
* One of the driving plot points for ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' and ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2''. The other point is trying to figure out why a bunch of animals are mutating and attacking people.
* In the RPG parts of ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero'', saving the world is so mundane task that while the hero is busy killing the boss to prevent it from catching world destruction spell, he will do other things like put out forest fires in the meantime.
* The ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games twist this around: the world is [[AfterTheEnd already destroyed]], and you get to "save" it by choosing how the pieces are put back together.
* UltimaIV averts this entirely, as there is no threat to the world whatsoever. UltimaVIII kind of subverts it, as you wind up doing a great deal of damage to one world in order to have the opportunity to try to save another. The rest of the main Ultimas play this trope varying degrees of straight.
* In ''BlackSigil'', your ultimate goal is prevent the world from being [[spoiler: destroyed by The Forbidden]].
* The entire plot of the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' franchise is stopping the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] from wiping out every spacefaring species in the galaxy, [[spoiler:as they have done every 50,000 years for, according to the "Leviathan" DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', at least ''ten billion years'']].

[[AC:Simulation Games]]
* The plots of three of the first four ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games revolved around stopping two separate {{Alien Invasion}}s from destroying the [[TheAlliance Community of Planets]]. ''X: Beyond the Frontier'' saw [[YouCantGoHomeAgain fish-out-of-water]] Major Kyle William Brennan join up with the Argon Federation to stop a [[AIIsACrapshoot Xenon]] planet-killer. ''X2: The Threat'' had his son Julian Gardna working to destroy a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Kha'ak]] planet-killer before it could be used a second time. ''X3: Reunion'' continued this storyline with Gardna working to stop the Kha'ak warfleet itself.