History VideoGame / EnslavedOdysseyToTheWest

''Enslaved: Odyssey to the West'' is an ActionAdventure VideoGame developed by Creator/NinjaTheory. The game is published by [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco Bandai]] and out for UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, and UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Not explicitly stated, but it is implied.

* ShoutOut: After using the decoy for the first time to get past a turret, Pigsy comments "my [[Franchise/MetalGear gear sure is solid]]."

* AdvancingBossOfDoom: The Dog, [[spoiler: for the first time you see one]].

* AndroclesLion: Averted. Monkey has to literally be collared into helping Trip make it to her community, and only willingly starts to help after getting to know her better, [[spoiler: and after she's dealing with the grief of seeing her home overrun by slavers.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid]] is dead, with the implication that his machines will no longer haunt the wasteland and take anymore slaves, [[HeroicSacrifice but so's Pigsy,]] [[WasItReallyWorthIt and it's left ambiguous]] if destroying Pyramid's LotusEaterMachine in the process was a genuinely good thing, or at least worth losing. The tale ends with Monkey and Trip discussing whether Trip did right in killing Pyramid, while slaves hooked onto the illusion come out of the dream invariably saddened, [[NoEnding before the screen cuts to black.]]]]

* CharacterDevelopment: [[ShowDontTell Subtle, but it's there.]] [[DamselInDistress Trip]] starts off both scared of, and [[WideEyedIdealist naively idealistic]] about the wasteland outside of her community. [[spoiler: [[TookALevelInBadass She becomes strong and bitter enough]] to take revenge on the BigBad for the death of her community, but in the aftermath, she wonders to Monkey whether she did the right thing, [[TookALevelInCynic betraying the loss of her previous confidence.]]]] [[LonersAreFreaks Monkey starts out angry and alone,]] but eventually comes to sympathise with Trip and Pigsy enough to [[spoiler: stick with them to the end of the story, [[UndyingLoyalty and support Trip in the aftermath of Pyramid and Pigsy's death.]]]] [[{{Jerkass}} Pigsy]] starts out obnoxious enough to [[CrazyJealousGuy try and run interference]] between Trip and monkey in order to get [[AbhorrentAdmirer Trip's attention,]] [[HeelRealisation but eventually comes to]] [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy accept and respect their relationship,]] [[spoiler: and when push comes to shove, [[HeroicSacrifice willfully sacrifices himself to save their lives.]]]]

* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler: Trip ends up getting to her home only to find that the slavers have burned it to the ground and killed the inhabitants.]]
* {{Escapism}}: [[spoiler: As it turns out, [[BigBad Pyramid]] is one of the few men of the wasteland who remembers what [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison a paradise the world used to be compared to the apocalypse,]] and decides to [[WellIntentionedExtremist create a slave empire to share those memories with his slaves,]] effectively distracting them from the [[CrapsackWorld reality of the world they live in.]] Trip pulls the plug on him and the plan in the ending.]]
* EmpathyDollShot: A burnt teddy bear is given a close up in front of an empty swing set in the [[spoiler: ruins of Trip's village.]]

** [[spoiler: Leviathan]] is possibly Sha Wujing, due to his links with water and sand, (key features of the levels featuring [[spoiler: Leviathan]] - an [[spoiler: underwater base]] and a [[spoiler: giant desert]]). It could also be a reference to the Dragon Prince/Horse, although the "dragonfly" that Trip uses as a scanning and scouting device may be a more direct nod to that role.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the game, Trip and Monkey witness a self sufficient aquarium in the midst of a jungle infested zoo, with [[WideEyedIdealist Trip]] using it as an example of how her own community is self-sufficient in the wasteland, only for [[KnightInSourArmour Monkey]] to point out it doesn't matter how secure a community is if it can't deal [[OutsideContextProblem with outside factors that threaten it.]] [[spoiler: Seconds later, a machine crashes through the aquarium, killing the fish inside. When Trip and Monkey eventually reach her home, they indeed find it destroyed by [[BigBad Pyramid's mechs]], the outside factor in this case.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Pigsy and the Leviathan vs 5 scorpion mechs.]]

* HumongousMecha: [[spoiler: Leviathan and the scorpion mechs used by Pyramid.]] The game also mentions that "Titans" were giant mechs used in the war that lead the world into ruin, but no still active titans are ever seen.

* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler: Pyramid's plan is to to use one man's pre-war memories to put people in a simulation of the world then, free from the hellish wasteland.]]

* MinimalistCast: In contrast to the [[SceneryPorn expansive scenery]] and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou endless legions of killer robots,]] there turns out to be a total of four members in the main cast. Trip and Monkey spend much of the story LonelyTogether, Pigsky joins up in the second half of the game, and despite his importance to the story, [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid]]]] only makes his appearance and says his few lines at the ''very end'' of the odyssey.

* NostalgiaFilter: [[DeconstructedTrope Used more seriously]] [[JustifiedTrope than other examples.]] [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid]] lived during the period before the world went to hell, and is so obsessed with bringing it back that he forges a machine based slave empire that has the slaves plugged into his memories into what the period was like.]] While he nearly manages to convince Monkey of his righteousness, [[KirkSummation Monkey rightfully points out that he's destroying the present and the future over something that no longer exists.]]

* OutsideContextProblem: Trip and Monkey are survivors trying to reach Trip's community, with talks of how the world was and what it could be generally being used as polite banter and wishful thinking. [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid]] is a man stuck in the past who wants everyone else to join him there, justifying his efforts to enslave the populace as giving them hopes and dreams they wouldn't have otherwise.]] When the two sides eventually meet, it feels like people of different time periods and countries trying and failing to communicate.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid]]]] makes his appearance only at the end of the story, and in a cutscene no less, but the machines roaming the landscape, the slave ships, the headband that Trip uses on Monkey, [[spoiler: the destruction of Trip's community,]] can all be connected to him.

* TotalitarianUtilitarian: [[spoiler: [[BigBad Pyramid.]] His plan essentially revolves around forecfully hooking the people living in the wasteland on the drugs that are his memories, but he justifies it on the grounds that the wasteland is a hellhole that is unlikely to recover, so he's at least providing people with a dream of something better that will distract them from pain and infighting.]]

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: After Trip [[spoiler: kills WellIntentionedExtremist Pyramid]] she obviously doesn't feel any satisfaction, and asks Monkey if she did the right thing.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Pyramid.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Trip doesn't start her relation with Monkey on the best footing. [[spoiler: She ignores him as he tries to escape the airship they're on as it crashes from what looks very much like her sabotage, she ejects her escape pod from the airship without him even as he's pounding and howling in terror on its window, and finally, she attaches a slave headband to him while he's unconscious that forces him to protect her life and obey her orders. His threat -- and attempt -- to rip her head off is pretty understandable.]]

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: The game seems to be about Monkey getting Trip home, only for them to get about halfway through. [[spoiler: Then they discover Trip's village was destroyed, kicking off the second half of the game.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition. And for crying out loud look up what the ratings actually mean.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Monkey.

* RecycledINSPACE: A science fiction version of ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''.

* SimpleStaff: Monkey's power staff is a little less simple than most examples; it's collapsible, for one thing.
** Not to mention the fact that it also shoots plasma bolts. And EMP bolts.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The ''entire point'' of the campaign is that Pigsy is trying to build himself a sexy {{Fembot}} so he can have a lover. The game implies as much of this as it can without breaking its Teen rating.

* HairDecorations: After reprogramming the robotic dragonfly, Trip usually wears it in her hair where it looks like feathers.

* MrFanservice: Monkey. And ''how''. A tall, gruff, perpetually-shirtless man with six-pack abs, decorative scars, warpaint and acrobatic skills topped off with gorgeous, expressive blue eyes? Sign me up.

* SerkisFolk: The TropeNamer himself plays Monkey.

* SerkisFolk: Andy himself plays Monkey.

* CoveredWithScars: Monkey, of the decorative and generic kind. Although not explained in-game, Nina Kristenson of Ninja Theory elaborates that the swirling designs on his torso [[{{Every Scar Has A Story}} are war scars he drew on himself after major battles.]] Considering the sheer amount he has, your mileage may vary as to whether that's [[{{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} awesome]] [[{{Ax Crazy}} or]] [[{{Iron Woobie}} not.]]