History Main / SavingTheWorld

** ''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]].

* ''Film/TheFifthElement'': Leeloo saved the earth from [[BigBad Evil]] (the planet).

* Most of the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' films. And in the ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platinum'' games, replace "the world" with "all existence".

* 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.
* Particularly galling in ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia'', where your goal is generally exploring ancient ruins and collecting mystic statues.

* Being an epic SciFi trilogy, ''Franchise/MassEffect'' uses the scaled-up version: Shepard and friends are out to save all sentient life in the galaxy.
* The original ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' trilogy is primarily about Master Chief, Cortana, and friends trying to prevent the galaxy-killing Halos from firing. The other games have been a mix of world-saving and more small-scale stories.

* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie: 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''.
* ''VideoGame/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 ''[[Franchise/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.
* 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.]].
* ''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 "Saving the World" 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 ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. The trope is played straight in I - V, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII VII]], and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII VIII]] and {{invoked|Trope}} in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX IX]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII XIII]] by the villains and in X by the heroes.
** XII has the team of heroes trying to save the kingdom/city-state from becoming the battleground between two rival empires. Not the same scale, but played for just as much drama.
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII FFVII]] actually deconstructed this, [[DeconstructorFleet as it did with many other JRPG tropes.]] The line gets thrown around a lot, but as we learn more about the characters it becomes clear that there are more personal matters that drive them. Indeed, it almost becomes an excuse; an easy answer that people use because they don't want to admit to their real reasons, or can't explain. In the End, Cloud breaks RPG tradition and admits that the reason he's going after BigBad Sephiroth isn't due to some higher cause. For him it's a [[ItsPersonal Personal matter]], a fight that was started years ago that he intends to finish. Saving the Planet just happens to be a part of that.
* Crono from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' wants nothing more than to go to the Millennial Fair, but ends up roped into a {{time travel}}ing quest to save his planet from annihilation at the hands of an incomprehensible EldritchAbomination.
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' spends most of its time as a charming adventure revolving around exploration and piracy... until the final ten hours or so, when TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon is raised from the depths of the planet, a devastating superweapon is unleashed, a country is leveled, and {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s abound.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsCovenant'' 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.

* Every ''VideoGame/WildArms'' game.
* ''VideoGame/StarOcean''. All of them. ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' and ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' replace "world" with "universe".
* Most of the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' films. And in the ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platinum'' games, replace "the world" with "all existence".
** All of the games have this as a major subplot integrated with the main plot of ToBeAMaster since Gen III, barring the remakes of Gen I and Gen II. It started with May and Brendan in ''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', and ''Emerald'', and proceeded to escalate from there, up to the above situation.
* One of the (many) notable aspects of ''VideoGame/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!]]
* [[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. The title refers to the fact that Neku needs to expand his horizons and stop being a gloomy loner. That said, Shibuya does come close to being destroyed and the heroes do have to save ''that''. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been ''A Small District of Tokyo Ends With You'']].
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' 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.
** ''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/{{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 ''VideoGame/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'']].
* 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.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Every core game focuses on the eponymous hero's quest to save the world. Initially from [[TakeOverTheWorld would-be world conqueror]] [[BigBad Dr. Eggman]], later games upped the stakes by having humanity and the world get threatened by [[AncientEvil Ancient Evils]] and [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniacs]].

Extremely common in some genres, such as HighFantasy, soft SciFi, and TheEpic.

While villains want to TakeOverTheWorld or [[OmnicidalManiac cause]] TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, the {{heroes}} are most likely motivated by the polar opposite, saving the world. A fairly simple plot/motivation related to ForGreatJustice and what not, this trope is pretty broad and ''very'' common for many stories not focused on character interaction only. Frequently, this means the main character(s) preventing a preventable apocalypse, such as from the Undead or a natural disaster.

* ''LightNovel/SundayWithoutGod'': Ai's goal is to save the world God has abandoned, and part of her journey involves learning what exactly it means to save the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': One of its advertisement slogan is ''Saving the world before bedtime!''

* Most of the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' films. And in the ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platnium'' games, replace "the world" with "all existence".

'''Twilight:''' [[ShoutOut The same thing we do every time, Pinkie]]...[[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain Try to]] ''[[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain save]]'' [[WesternAnimation/PinkieAndTheBrain the world!]]

While villains love to TakeOverTheWorld or cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, the {{heroes}} are most likely motivated by the polar opposite, saving the world. A fairly simple plot/motivation related to ForGreatJustice and what not, this trope is pretty broad and ''very'' common for many stories not focused on character interaction only. Frequently, this means the main character(s) preventing a preventable apocalypse, such as from the Undead or a natural disaster.

** In ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'', Kara explains why worldwide genocide and planetary destruction are one of her {{Berserk Button}}s:

While villains love to TakeOverTheWorld or cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, the {{heroes}} are most likely motivated by the polar opposite, [[TitleDrop Saving The World]]. A fairly simple plot/motivation related to ForGreatJustice and what not, this trope is pretty broad and ''very'' common for many stories not focused on character interaction only. Frequently, this means the main character(s) preventing a preventable apocalypse, such as from the Undead or a natural disaster.

* The plot and motivation of nearly every single ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' series ''ever''. Be it from some evil witch or wizard, space pirates, warlords, demons, or mutants, boasting about saving the world means very little to any power ranger, as they've ''all'' done it.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Stated right at the beginning of the BraggingThemeTune: "I'm your basic average girl, and I'm here to save the world".

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim Invader Zim]]'', Zim saved the earth from the Planet Jackers. Furthermore, Dib and Zim saved the earth from Tak in the episode Tak the hideous new girl. Dib also saved the earth from the various [[EvilPlan schemes]] of Zim.

* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': The villains have to do this from the forces of so-called Good, no less.

* In SelfInsertFic ''Fanfic/{{Security}}'', Mike ''tells'' people straight-out what he's trying to do.

->'''Brain''': Come, we have work to do.\\
'''Pinky''': Oh, right, taking over the world, and all...\\
'''Brain''': No, Pinky -- tonight, we must ''save'' the world!\\
'''Pinky''': Egad, Brain -- ''save'' the world?!\\
'''Brain''': YES! So it is available to take over ''tomorrow'' night.

** In the GrandFinale, Drakken and Shego end up helping to save the world from an AlienInvasion, much to Drakken's embarrassment.

* A common plot thread in ''Series/{{The Middleman}}''.
* In ''Series/{{Invader Zim}}'', Zim saved the earth from the Planet Jackers. Furthermore, Dib and Zim saved the earth from Tak in the episode Tak the hideous new girl. Dib also saved the earth from the various [[EvilPlan schemes]] of Zim.

* So common in ''Series/{{Stargate}}'' it is even joked about.

* ''Film/X-MenApocalypse'': The X-men stop Apocalypse.

* ''Film/XmenApocalypse'': The X-men stop Apocalypse.

* 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.