Save The Villain / Video Games

• Exaggerated in the Amateur Surgeon series, partly due to the gameplay: The Big Bad Dwayne Pipe undergoes surgery twice in the first game, once in the Christmas Edition and two more times in the second game, which is set five decades after the last installment. Alan's saved his life once about every ten years, and in retribution he became president of the United States so that he could shut his hospitals down.
• If you play through Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia properly, you'll find out that Big Bad Mir is trying to destroy the world because she is abused by humans too much as a Reyvateil, so the party change their objective from killing the Big Bad into saving her instead. You still have to destroy her killer barrier, though.
• In The Awakened Fate Ultimatum, if you get the true ending, Shin chooses to spare Letecia from the final blow because he knows that even though she wanted to destroy everyone in the world, deep down, what she really wanted was to make the world better. He discovered friends, but she never had anyone, and he wants to show her this.
• In the final stage of Bastion, The Kid comes across Zulf being nearly beaten to death by his fellow Ura. He then has the option of giving up his Infinity +1 Sword for Zulf's body, who he'll be forced to lug back while the Ura continually attack him. Eventually, however, they'll be so impressed by your courage and tenacity that they'll all stop, with the one who decides to attack you getting killed by his comrades.
• Batman: Arkham Series:
  • Batman: Arkham City ends with the Joker invoking this trope and demanding Batman give him the cure needed to save him from TITAN poisoning. This is after he's poisoned 2000 people and killed Talia al Ghul, on top of his comic-book track-record, and yet he points out Batman'll follow the trope and save him anyway. Batman hesitates, so Joker stabs him in the arm, causing him to drop and smash the cure. Turns out Batman would have saved him anyway.
  • Batman does, however, try to save Hugo Strange after he gets stabbed. He also actually manages to save Harley Quinn from an exploding building in the DLC. She's not grateful.
  • Even for a minor example, Batman encounters a surprisingly loyal Two-Face Mook who refuses to join the Joker's henchmen, who in turn decide to lower him into acid and watch him die. Batman swoops in, beats up the two, and saves Two-Face's henchman... who immediately attacks Batman from behind with not so much as a thanks. Ungrateful Bastard.
  • The prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins, shows that is what sparked the Joker's fascination with Batman in the first place, shifting him from a gangster with a clown theme to Batman's self-proclaimed Arch-Enemy.
• BioShock 2:
  • If Delta continually demonstrates mercy to others and saves little sisters, when Sofia Lamb is drowning in the end, Eleanor states that while her mother believes that people are beyond redemption, Eleanor has decided from the player's actions that anyone can be redeemed if given a chance, and saves Sofia's life.
  • In the ending where you harvest the little sisters but still show mercy, Eleanor still saves her, but cites Cruel Mercy as her reason for doing so.
• Attempted in Chrono Trigger after the party defeats Azala and her Black Tyrano. Ayla offers to rescue her, but being a supreme fatalist Azala refuses to be rescued as she's accepted it's the fate of her and her kind to die there.
• At the conclusion of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, Dante attempts the Take My Hand! version of this. A quick sword slash to the palm tells him what his would-be-rescuee thinks of the idea. However, it's more about the villain in question being his twin brother than being noble and just, and the rescue was refused as his brother specifically wanted to go to the demon dimension that the fall was taking him to.
  • The defeated Vergil also deliberately refused the offer because he had just urged Dante to escape from Demon World before the portal collapsed and stranded Dante there. This was perhaps the only way Vergil could show his concern for his younger brother.
• At the end of Digital Devil Saga, Gale runs back to save Angel, the Final Boss, when the entire world is being deleted. He even tries to save her before his leader, Serph The reason for the rescue is hinted at, and revealed in the sequel: Gale is the reincarnation of Angel's husband, and he has vague memories of her.
• Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten plays with this trope. After Nemo realizes that Artina was alive as an angel, he realizes the error of his ways and plans to disappear along with Fear the Great. Valvatorez goes off to stop that, but he argues that he's not saving Nemo, he says that just disappearing is too good for him and that he can only repent for his sins if he stays alive.
• In the backstory of Evolve, Parnell and his crew go to rescue the crew of an enemy warship that they drove into the gravity well of a sun. And then said ship explodes, destroying its would-be rescuers, killing its own crew, reducing Parnell's crew to a measly two, and putting him into a coma. And then to top it all off, he gets blamed for the whole thing.
• Geese Howard from Fatal Fury dies this way. Terry (the hero) tries to save him yet Geese simply smiles and lets go. It isn't until much later on that we figure out why: Geese knows that Terry will be racked with guilt for the rest of his life, because with Geese's death, Terry will have orphaned Geese's son Rock the same way Geese orphaned Terry and Andy.
• The ending of Final Fantasy IX... except, not so much "save," as "don't let him die alone."
  • There's a similar situation in Advent Children.
• Deconstructed twice over in Steven Universe fangame Flawed Crystals.
  • Steven's attempt to argue for this in the opening is utterly rejected by the gems, leading to strife and divisions before they ultimately decide his naivete makes him too much of a liability to take with them.
  • The knowledge that Rose really shattered Pink Diamond, the final nail in the coffin against the possibility she could be saved, drove Steven into a Freak Out that led him to use Rose's room to create a wish-fulfillment fantasy where he could save everyone: the canon ending. The final arc of the game explains why this desire was selfish: He valued saving the diamonds more than he valued justice for their victims. When dealing with villains as evil as the diamonds, attempting to save them will only create more harm; there comes a point where you have to be willing to pull the trigger.
• In Grand Theft Auto IV, Niko is ordered by Vlad to kill Ivan. After following him up the rooftops, Ivan will slip and barely hang on to the edge. The player may choose to invoke this trope and allow him to go into hiding, or let him fall and finish the job.
• The indie Visual Novel Heal Hitler revolves around this; you play as the psychologist of Adolf Hitler in 1925 attempting to help him work through his traumas & insecurities and set him on a more hopeful path before it's too late.
• In one of Heavy Rain's possible finales, Jayden gets the opportunity to do this for Shelby, right down to the villain hanging off the edge of a tall building by his fingertips and continuing to attack the hero if he decides to save him.
• More "Save the Hero Antagonist", but, in Immortal Souls, John saves Desmond from being killed by a booby-trapped artifact, even though Desmond's been trying to kill him up to that point and though it potentially endangers John's Love Interest. When Desmond asks why, John explains that not all vampires are bad, which causes Desmond to Heroic BSoD with a Jerkass Realization, and take off without so much as a thank you. Which John then complains about.
• Justified in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: Aqua saves the life of Master Xehanort. The thing is, Xehanort was possessing the body of her friend Terra, and letting Xehanort die would kill Terra as well. Aqua was out to save Terra from the beginning, so this (combined with the fact that Terra is Fighting from the Inside) was the logical choice. Unfortunately, this turns into a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, as Terra can't break free, Xehanort's backup plan is in effect, and Aqua can't do anything to stop it.
  • In coded, Data-Riku saves Maleficent and Pete.
• In Knights of the Old Republic you get a chance to either see a young Sith college entrant and already a major jerk being tortured to death or save him at the expense of being tortured yourself. Here we face the better version of the trope as he repays his debt to you straight away by freeing you from the torture and siding with you in a battling the torturer.
• This happens in Last Scenario when Hilbert decides to save Big Bad Castor after the final boss fight of the game. He wouldn't have done it (he even says so) if he wasn't convinced by Ethan and Zawu.
• Mari and the Black Tower: If the player completes the Golden Essence sidequest, they can choose to revive Vera with the Golden Essence. This frees her from the miasma's influence and allows her to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
• In the Mass Effect series, a Paragon Shepard will attempt this several times before the final showdown with Saren in 1 and the Illusive Man in 3, before being forced to convince them they are heavily indoctrinated, which causes them to commit suicide. In the first game, a Renegade Shepard can also pull off this feat.
  • In the Citadel DLC, Paragon Shepard will attempt to Take My Hand! of her/his evil clone.
• Mega Man 10: After defeating him, Mega Man discovers that Dr. Wily has fallen dangerously ill and unhesitatingly decides to take him to a hospital to get treatment. It pays off, as Dr. Wily leaves behind a big stockpile of Roboenza antidotes when he makes his escape.
• Ni no Kuni does this combined with a plan that's way complicated. The Great Sage Alicia (Allie), after finding out that her savior became The Dragon Shadar, decides that she'll go to an alternate timeline, absorb one of Shadar's souls, and become his mom. Said son then becomes the protagonist Oliver.
• A variation occurs in SUDA 51's No More Heroes. In this case, our Anti-Hero, up-and-coming assassin Travis Touchdown, has already dealt a fatal wound to his opponent Destroyman by impaling him through the chest with his beam katana. Nevertheless, Destroyman begs Travis to help him. Travis, who has already fallen for Destroyman's tricks a couple of times before, rips the weapon violently out of his chest. As his final vindictive act, Destroyman whips around and opens fire on Travis with his nipple-mounted machine guns (yes, really); he suffers his Karmic Death immediately thereafter, however, as Travis simply cleaves Destroyman from crotch to skull while bullets whiz past on either side of him. The death is also subverted in that, for entirely unexplained reasons, each half of Destroyman was preserved and outfitted with a robotic other half, resulting in two Destroymen.
• Persona 5: The heroes attempt to save The Heavy for the villains, "Black Mask" after the Shadows turn against him in the Big Bad's Mental World. Black Mask instead shoots out a bulkhead door, trapping him with the monsters so the heroes can escape.
  • In the Updated Re-release Persona 5 Royal, at the end after defeating the True Final Boss, a part of the platform under him collapses and Joker desperately grabs his hand to prevent him from falling to his death. Helicopter Morgana shortly arrives just in time to save them both.
• In the final level of Pizza Tower, where Peppino must escape from the tower itself, he not only rescues his allies, such as Gustavo and Mr. Stick, but also the various bosses, such as Pepperman and the Noise, who all follow him as he makes his final mad dash to the exit.
• Prayer of the Faithless: In the Tower of Sinners, the win condition is to heal the boss, Vanessa, to full health. This is because the party wants her to live so they can convince her of the philosophical conclusion they came to, which varies depending on the ending.
• Subverted in Primal after the defeat of Iblis.
  Iblis: Please, help me.
  Jen: Well, my head says no, but my heart... says also no! Sorry, buddy, but this is not your day.
  • It ends up a bit different, though.
• Quantum Protocol: After Queen defeats Omega's puzzle level, his brain computer malfunctions and nearly kills him. Queen is willing to let him die, but Idol convinces her to save him. This leads to Omega joining Quantum in the postgame.
• Re:Kuroi: Justified with the Anti-wizard Coalition. The party can't afford to kill them without drawing ire towards all wizards, so they settle for non-lethally defeating the coalition members. Later, they exterminate the monsters near the coalition members' homes in order to make peace with them.
• Rise of the Third Power:
  • After the party defeats Corrina's old rival, Sabir, Taku shows up and tries to kill Sabir for her bounty. Corrina wants to convince Sabir to go legit instead, so the party ends up fighting Taku.
  • After Gage joins the party, he insists that the party spares all his former Arkadyan comrades. Unfortunately, this includes Viktoriya, who is the most fanatical about serving Noraskov and therefore won't repay their mercy.
• Shantae: Shantae has saved her nemesis Risky Boots twice.
  • Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: The Pirate Master forces Shantae into a Sadistic Choice, either give up the Dark Magic she has been collecting, which he will then use to destroy her, or he kills Risky. Despite the fact the Risky has been nothing but trouble to her and is the reason she lost her magic in the first place, Shantae chooses to save Risky.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Despite Risky announcing her intent to destroy Arena Town and everyone on it, Shantae saved her anyways after she was backstabbed by the Siren Empress, much to Sky's chagrin.
• In Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time Le Paradox get's knocked over the edge of his blimp when fighting Sly and is holding on for dear life. He asks Sly to help him to which he responds "Why should I?". He then says "I do not wish to die!" Sly decides to help him thinking he'll be sent to jail all secure when he tricks him by stealing his parachute, shoving him away, and flying off only to get knocked down by an airplane into the water and arrested by Interpol.
• In Sonic Generations, right after Classic Sonic defeats the Death Egg Robot, a time portal opens up behind the Death Egg Robot and starts pulling it in with Dr. Eggman still inside. Eggman immediately begs for Sonic to save him, and Sonic makes an attempt but is too late, backing out before he gets sucked in too. This was part of Eggman's plan from the start—or rather, Modern Eggman's plan with Classic Eggman in the know, getting taken into the portal on purpose so the two could join up in person.
• In Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Miles goes out of his way to stop The Tinkerer from killing Rhino. This immediately backfires, as not only does this ruin their chance to get dirt on Roxxon but it also causes Tinkerer to turn on him completely and ignore his attempts to explain her plan would inadvertently destroy Harlem.
• StarCraft II is broken into three main campaigns (and an unrelated DLC campaign focusing on Nova). The main goal of Jim Raynor in Wings of Liberty (the first campaign) is to somehow rescue Sarah Kerrigan aka "The Queen of Blades", who, at this point, has been on a planet-destroying spree causing the deaths of billions (although this isn't entirely her fault as most of her actions are being controlled by Amon. Jim succeeds, and in the final mission of Legacy of the Void, Kerrigan becomes a Xel'naga and destroys Amon, effectively saving the entirety of the universe from absolute destruction.
• Time Hollow. It fails, and the villain's hand slips out of our protagonist's and he falls down a cliff. However, he survives and comes back to try and kill the protagonist and his parents later - he only manages to stab Kori.
• Undertale features this during the True Ending. After Flowey absorbs the souls of all the monsters in the underground and reveals his true identity as Asriel Dreemurr, the player eventually manages to get the souls of all of their friends to come to their senses from within Asriel, only to realize that there's still one last soul that needs saving: Asriel himself.
• In the ending of Zone of the Enders, Leo and Aida consider rescuing Viola, only for Viola to interrupt, saying that rescuing her would be adding insult to injury.