History Main / MonstersEverywhere

* ''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 spawn at their destination point...

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', Tale of the Brave

* ''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. Most, at least, are stationary and avoidable.

* Sacred 2 Fallen angel 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.

** ''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.

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.

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.

* Since everything is being generated on the fly in ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'', monsters can pop up anywhere. ''Anywhere''. Up to including ''[[UpToEleven having a goblin pop out of your sock drawer.]]''

* {{Handwave}}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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nethack}}''. Horses, bees, trolls, elves, snakes, demons - and everything in between - grows 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 fights side by side!

* Standard in the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' games. 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.
** The sequels 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.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', Tale of the Brave

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 you]], not anyone else.

-->--''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', Tale of the Brave

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, under water, 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 mine workers, because after all [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything is trying to kill you]], not anyone else.

They try. To. Scare. You!\\
--''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'', Tale of the Brave

* 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/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona 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.

* 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.[[/folder]]

* By the time of ''Videogame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'', the second game in the series, monsters are out competing the natural fauna to such an extent its changing the diets of Gondowan's civilizations.

* ''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 ''worshipping'' the Primal Lords. Exactly how are the masses going to pay their respects when they get slaughtered two steps inside the door?

* 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; ''VideoGame/{{Persona3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona4}}'' 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.

You will not find any monsters in small villages however. This is due to an existential dilemma in which monsters need people to terrorize (by standing right outside, roaring).

This trope exists mainly because RPGsEqualCombat.

It doesn't even matter if the The EvilOverlord needs you to make your way to him to do a HostageForMacGuffin exchange -- his 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 the existence of sunlight.

This trope is obviously for gameplay purposes; in virtually every case where it appears, fighting monsters ''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.

* Standard in the ''Franchise/{{Fable}}'' games. 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.

This whole thing is obviously for gameplay reasons, to whit, there wouldn't ''be'' any otherwise.

* By the time of ''Videogame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'', the second game in the series, monsters have become so successful they are starting to replace the natural wildlife, to the annoyance of Gondowan's civilians.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' lampshades this during the [[spoiler: Grave Eclipse]] where 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.

* A staple of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series. If it's not monsters, then it is bandits, and typically every single roadside fortress that is not a spitting distance from a town is overtaken by them. This leads to unintentional hilarity when you realize just how many of the forts, mines, caves, and ruins, are located on the ring road surrounding the Imperial City compared to how many fewer are encountered by running straight through the wilderness despite NPC's warning you to stay on the roads.

* {{Handwave}}d by the ''[[Franchise/DotHack .hack]]'' 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.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'', especially in caves. It's even worse in [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=], where ''more'' appear if you run, because the noise attracts Pokemon.

Monsters everywhere, hiding in the trees\\

--''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine, Tale of the Brave''

* 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: ''VIII'' has monsters continuously being born and brought to the planet via the moon, and ''X'' has monsters that are amalgams of [[OurGhostsAreDifferent vengeful spirits angry at the living]].

* Standard in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} 2'', 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.
* ''GoldenSunDarkDawn'' lampshades this during the [[spoiler: Grave Eclipse]] where 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.

** The original ''Shin Megami Tensei'' 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.