Line #22 Main/MonstersEverywhere


1	->Monsters everywhere, hiding in the trees\
2	Just behind the rocks, blowing in the breeze\
3	Monsters everywhere, doing as they please\
4	They try. To. Scare. You!
5	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TaleOfTheBrave''
6
7	In normal stories, heroes often encounter enemies. They may be found guarding some important {{MacGuffin}} or perhaps sent to slow the heroes' progress. They are spread out in a few locations where they make sense. In video games however, and {{RPG}}s in particular, going from A to B is like carving your way through a thick jungle of flesh.
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9	This is because there are simply monsters '''everywhere'''. There are monsters on the road connecting two cozy peasant villages, in the carrot fields, behind every tree in the forest, underwater, in the air and in space. That abandoned tower? Full of monsters. Every single floor. The mine being excavated by poor workers? Inhabited by monsters that attack everything except poor miners, because after all [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything is trying to kill]] ''[[EverythingTryingToKillYou you]]'', not anyone else.
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11	It doesn't even matter if the EvilOverlord needs you to make your way to them to do a HostageForMacGuffin exchange -- their henchmen will spawn and brood like cancer everywhere the hero goes, because monsters are a force of nature in the RPG world, on par with grass and trees and sunlight.
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13	You will not find any monsters in small villages, however (except the DungeonTown). This is due to an existential dilemma in which monsters need people to terrorize (by standing right outside, roaring).
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15	When the hero can't step outside without facing mortal danger, it raises the question of how ordinary people survive in the setting. A common answer is NPCRandomEncounterImmunity.
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17	This trope is obviously for gameplay purposes; in virtually every case where it appears, fighting monsters ''[[RPGsEqualCombat is]]'' the gameplay, and stuffing the world full of them is one way for the developers to make sure that things stay interesting wherever you go.
18
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Interactive Fiction]]
24	* Since everything is being generated on the fly in ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'', monsters can pop up anywhere. ''Anywhere''. Up to and including ''[[ExaggeratedTrope having a goblin pop out of your sock drawer.]]''
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:MMORPG]]
28	* {{Hand Wave}}d by the ''Franchise/DotHack'' MMO The World and The World R:2 - there's just so many monsters that civilization has condensed itself into cities protected by energy fields or distance ("Root Towns"). Access to this vast wilderness of monsters ("fields") is provided via Chaos Gates which, supposedly, only the players can use. One wonders why it is even necessary since, in a typical moment of GameplayAndStorySegregation, players need to first ''approach'' enemy spawn points on fields before either can attack the other.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Roguelike]]
32	* ''VideoGame/{{Nethack}}''. Horses, bees, trolls, elves, snakes, demons - and everything in between - grow out of rock. Or perhaps they are spawned by the evil Wizard. But why then does he spawn a puny rat to defeat the hero that just killed five dragons without breaking a sweat? Maybe to maintain a certain ambiance? Kitten and Vampire Lord fight side by side!
33	* In ''VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery'', anyone is an enemy if you attack them (of course), but barring that, only (certain) towns and houses in the wilderness owned by reclusive men are safe areas with no monsters. Heck, even the cities with no random encounters still have monsters; Dwarf Town has the Demented Ratling, Terinyo has Blup the Water Dragon, and all other towns have enemies of some sort. Lawenilothehl and the High Mountain Village are particularly notable in that they have not only random encounters (even in the ''shop''), but also boss fights. And the (random!) boss fight in the latter can, if you're at a low level, kill you with one thrown rock.
34	* ''VideoGame/ForTheKing'': Even right next to the capital city, the overworld map is littered with an ever-refreshing assortment of PreexistingEncounters that ranges from hostile wildlife to {{Cult}}ists, liches, {{Golem}}s, and demons. Of course, the player characters appear to be the only people who need to ''cross'' the overworld rather than just [[TookAShortcut spawn at their destination point]]...
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:RPG]]
38	* The earlier ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games eschew {{Chest Monster}}s in favor of having giant enemies somehow living in the boxes. Later games attempt to justify it: ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has monsters continuously being born and brought to the planet via the moon, and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has monsters that are amalgams of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent vengeful spirits angry at the living]].
39	* ''VideoGame/Sacred2FallenAngel'' has monsters and bandits on every road, in every forest, and right outside every village. Exacerbated by them respawning almost as quickly as you can kill them. One wonders how any settlements got built in the first place, let alone how anybody manages to travel anywhere with the apparent apocalyptic horde hounding anybody who ventures outside the cities. Kind of gets old when your LV 25 mage is still being attacked by endless waves of rats and kobolds.
40	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', especially in caves. It's even worse in [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=], where ''more'' appear if you run, because the noise attracts Pokemon.
41	* Standard in ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', where anywhere other than the towns will be absolutely swarming with monsters, including the sewers under the town. Justified, since literally all Hell is flooding into the mortal realm and the world is nearing its destruction.
42	* By the time of ''Videogame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'', the second game in the series, monsters are out competing with the natural fauna to such an extent that it's changing the diets of Gondowan's civilizations.
43	* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' lampshades this during the [[spoiler: Grave Eclipse]] where [[FromBadToWorse stronger monsters start appearing]]. Your party has to escape to a boat and when they arrive, one of your party members will say how they couldn't go five steps without being attacked by monsters.
44	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' actually explains in the backstory that the world is overrun with monsters and most people never leave their hometown because of it. Towns are protected by giant DeflectorShields.
45	* Justified in several of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games because the world is experiencing an apocalypse or its immediate fallout caused by the [[ApocalypseHow sudden emergence of demons into the human world]]. Specific sub-series follow or occasionally avert this trope with their own justifications; the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games from ''{{VideoGame/Persona 3}}'' onwards are the most widely known aversions, confining enemy encounters to magical otherworlds where the monsters exist naturally, allowing events in the normal world to carry on largely without issue. ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' also averts this by confining encounters to either specific plot-important fights, or "free" battles found only at specific locations to help grind and prepare for plot fights.
46	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' goes even further with this trope than most [=RPGs=], even the old school ones. There are very few safe zones, less so as the apocalypse worsens. You'll get attacked by demons even just walking around a bar.
47	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
48	** Played straight throughout the series, where it is a staple of gameplay. Simply attempting to travel from one town to the next will see you leaving a trail of monster (or bandit, or necromancer, or vampire, or...) corpses along the way.
49	** Leads to unintentional hilarity in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' when you realize just how many of the forts, mines, caves, and ruins that are overrun with enemies are located on the ring road surrounding the Imperial City. Despite [=NPCs=] warning you to stay on the roads, you'll encounter far ''fewer'' enemies by running straight through the wilderness.
50	* ZigZagged in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. On the one hand, there are no RandomEncounters on the overworld, and the zones that do have monsters tend to be wilderness areas or else have thematically appropriate ones (guards in castle dungeons, etc.). On the other hand, the forest which is ''the only route'' between Guardia Castle and the rest of the kingdom is infested with monsters. This is a well-traveled route that you will have to traverse [[PunctuatedForEmphasis over. And over. AND OVER,]] and the king has access to an army that should be able to wipe the floor with these pests, and yet in four hundred years nobody has bothered to clean them out.
51	* ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'' is somewhat infamous for its high encounter rate, thanks in no small part to this trope. A lot of times, it tries to justify the encounters - there are bandits on the roads, wild animals in the forests, and guards in enemy fortresses - but sometimes they simply make no sense: there are no monsters in towns, of course, but the towers which house [[ElementalEmbodiment the Primal Lords]] are ''crawling'' with enemies, despite being located in the middle of town, ''and'' despite the fact that it's possible people built these towers for the purpose of ''worshiping'' the Primal Lords. Exactly how are the masses going to pay their respects when they get slaughtered two steps inside the door?
52	* Standard in the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' games:
53	** In ''VideoGame/FableI'', for example, the road between Albion's two mainland settlements passes through two flavours of TheLostWoods teeming with bandits, BigCreepyCrawlies, TheFairFolk, colossal trolls, undead, and highly infectious [[WasOnceAMan feral werewolves]]. Despite this, the path is still frequented by {{Intrepid Merchant}}s who lack NPCRandomEncounterImmunity.
54	** ''VideoGame/FableII'' and ''VideoGame/FableIII'' take place after firearms are invented, so some of the more annoying monsters and bandits have been culled... only to be replaced by gangsters and mercenaries ''with guns''. Aaand all the adventuring guilds are dead.
55	* ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'' handwaves the problem by stating the plague has made the monsters more aggressive, hence why they're inclined to start attacking you in the first place. They also tend to stick to forests, mountains and the like where there's little civilization.
56	[[/folder]]

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