The World Is Always Doomed / Video Games

• Assassin's Creed: No matter the victories that the Assassin Brotherhood wins against the Templar Order, the latter will always rise again to try their Take Over the World plan. In this case, it is because they can be wiped out in one area but triumph in another. Altiar might kick their ass in the Holy Land, Ezio all over Italy, and Conner in the American Colonies, but there are other areas. In his codex, Altiar suggests that this is because the Templars (like the Assassins themselves) are the manifestation of a fundamental and abstract ideal, which can never be permanently killed.
• City of Heroes never seems to have any shortage of supervillains for any number of heroes to handle, but that's the least of it. Giant monsters roaming the streets, Zombie Apocalypses, Rikti invasions, and horrors penetrating the veil are COMMON OCCURRENCES (i.e. zone events that can be triggered or just happen randomly).
• In Dragon Age, Divine Faustine II was planning to name the ninth and current Age the Sun Age. When a bunch of previously thought extinct dragons appeared and devastated Orlais and Nevarra, she named the Age the Dragon Age and foretold that it would be a time of violence and upheaval. She had no idea how right she was that you might feel sorry for the stress our beloved protagonists experienced throughout his/her journey:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins: The Fifth Blight. Thedas will be overwhelmed by Archdemon-controlled darkspawns if The Warden (later Hero of Ferelden) won't gather the ancient order's allies. It's not easy though, as you're dealing with their internal conflicts even before you will get their full support to end the Blight.
  • In Dragon Age II: The Mage-Templar War. It started in Kirkwall, but later spread like wildfire across southern Thedas. Unlike the first game, Hawke barely managed to solve the problem due to circumstances and with the "help" of a lyrium idol that caused a mass deportation from the lands of rationality.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition: A barely averted apocalypse all occur within a few years alongside the rebellion mentioned in the second game. And your adversary sends his men to divide and conquer Thedas, aggravating the already existing problems and even made brand new problems. Not to mention the barbarian cult trying to Take Over the World with their dragon-god. And the Age isn't even half over yet!
  • And guess what? Even if you end two wars, seal the hole in the sky, kill two alleged "gods", and solve the earthquakes hurting the dwarves' lyrium industry, the world's still ungrateful to you. Even after you thwart an attempt by Qunari terrorists to Take Over the World.
  Inquisitor: Could one thing in this FUCKING world just stay fixed?!
  • And now, on the cusp of Dragon Age 4, a god is trying to destroy Thedas once again in order to restore the former glory of his people. And unlike those mentioned above, he can do it in just a single flick of his hand without fail due of being a god. And he's really hopeful that you will prove him wrong.
• There is a set of four seals in the world of Drakengard: the Forest Seal, the Desert Seal, the Island Seal, and "the Goddess", a human woman who is a living seal. If all of the seals are broken, untold calamity and catastrophe befalls the world. It is only in the sequel that it is revealed that The World Is Always Doomed; the seals at first seem to hold back a typical Sealed Evil in a Can, but it holds back the true form of the world where Eldritch Abominations render humanity into absurd playthings.
  • The world in Nier, kinda sequel to Drakengard is also this. In simplest possible terms: the Golden Ending of first Drakengard causes magic entering our world, which has a side-effect that simply put causes a disease that turns normal people into mindless creatures. The project to save humankind is established by separating souls and creating artificial bodies that the souls can inhabit once magic from the world is removed, while the whole process would be supervised by androids. This fails and humanity dies out. Then aliens attack that create machines that wage 14 wars with androids. In the meantime machines kill aliens, while androids pretend that humans still live and are hiding on the Moon. Both sides also perpetuate war indefinitely so they have reason to exist. Always Doomed, indeed.
• From Dungeons & Dragons Online, about a halfling adventurer, by the healer caring for him:
  Healer: He is all worked up about some threat to the city, as if Stormreach isn't threatened three times before breakfast everyday.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Welcome to Hydealyn, a vibrant and diverse world filled to the brim with magic and wonder! And also a violent technologically-superior empire trying to conquer the world. And beast tribes summoning deiform entities that lash out violently at perceived enemies while threatening to drain the planet of its very life force. And a dark conspiracy by a bunch of creepy people in black cloaks and masks to destroy the world. And all that is before you learn that there's a creepy bird-lady at the very edge of the observable universe that is trying to orchestrate a Class X-4 apocalypse.
• Gradius:
  • No matter how many times the Vic Viper beats back the Bacterians, it never seems to stick. It's implied the Bacterian Empire is so immense within subspace there is no conceivable way for Gradius to secure a lasting victory. The Bacterian Empire also doubling as a form of The Virus helps.
  • Lampshaded in Gradius V by the "Final Boss":
  "I am just a small part of what once was known as "Venom". Pieces of me are scattered throughout the cosmos. Eventually, another will become sentient and exact retribution. You will never escape the shadow of fear. My hatred for your kind...is eternal."
• The Hero 30 portion of Half-Minute Hero contains at least 30 different Evil Overlord wannabes who were granted the power to destroy the world in a single breath by an even more powerful Evil Sorcerer. As said hero, it's your job to travel from kingdom to kingdom to beat the snot out of them as quickly as possible before they can do so.
• Most Kirby games start off with some Eldritch Abomination or otherwise powerful opponent taking over Pop Star (or threatening to do so). If it doesn't, you can safely expect it to happen later, probably from Kirby accidentally unleashing it. So far, these enemies include an evil wizard, a body-possessing being of pure darkness (again, again and yet again), a morally ambiguous knight with an army and a battleship, a manipulative jester ^note From Kirby Super Star, a mind possessor, an evil sorceress painter, a weird guy made out of yarn, the "god of death" itself, a manipulative alien ^note From Kirby's Return to Dream Land, an insect guy kidnapping Dream Land's king under command of an evil queen wasp, a pair of floating hands controlled by another possessing force of darkness, and a giant spaceship sending down robot invaders. The only main series game that doesn't fall under this pattern is Kirby's Dream Land, but even that game's plot puts Dream Land at risk because all its food has been stolen.
• Thanks to the events from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword where Demise curses Zelda and Link's descendants to fighting his reincarnations forever, the land of Hyrule will always be in danger from a great evil. However, in at least two of the multiple timelines the curse has apparently been broken, and Ganon Killed Off for Real, but changes nothing about the constant demonic attacks.
• Lusternia. It'd be easier to mention the times that all of reality isn't in imminent danger of being devoured by a monster, and scarcely a week goes by without something breaking out of an ancient prison intent on ruling/corrupting/destroying the earth.
• Metal Gear is a major practitioner of this trope, as part of the series-long Anvilicious message about the threat of nuclear weapons. Every single game has some sort of menace that threatens to unravel the global world order or start a nuclear war, and Snake and Big Boss are the only people who are able to stop it from happening. Metal Gear Solid has a nuke aimed at Washington DC; Metal Gear Solid 2 has an EMP aimed at Manhattan and actually has a huge portion of the city destroyed by an aircraft carrier crashing into it and it lands at Federal Hall (causing billions in property damage and thousands dead); Metal Gear Solid 3 has a rogue Russian Colonel threaten to start World War III if he isn't stopped; Metal Gear Solid 4 has a hostile takeover of America's military defense grid and the antagonist comes really close to gaining control over the nuclear arsenal by destroying their AI and replacing it with his; Metal Gear Solid V has a madman attempt to use vocal chord parasites to kill everyone in the world that speaks English and supply every nation, PMC, and terrorist cell with the means to create nuclear weapons. And if you wanna count the other two prequels then Portable Ops and Peace Walker have nuclear launches that Big Boss only manages to stop at the absolute last second.
• This is the basic premise of the On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series. It's so bad that an evil organization has been founded around making sure the world ends in the correct fashion.
• Pokémon runs into these kinds of problems with a disturbing frequency despite its target audience of kids. The only games to lack a potential doomsday scenario are the original pair, and even then you fight the mafia mucking up the region. Even better: according to official lore, some of those doomsday scenarios are occurring at the same time. Thank goodness for meddling kids sticking their faces in other people's business.
  • Pokémon Gold and Silver: Team Rocket is broadcasting a signal that will allow them to control all Pokemon!
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: The ancient forces who shaped the continents and oceans have re-awoken and are battling each other for dominance! ^note And in the remakes, a meteor's on a collision course with the planet as well.
  • Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness: A crime syndicate's ungodly experiments have inflicted Pokemon with The Corruption!
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: The local Omnicidal Maniac is going to remake the world and annihilate human emotion while he's at it!
  • Pokémon Black and White: Humans and Pokemon are going to be permanently separated!
  • Pokémon Black and White 2: The evil team from the previous games now want to freeze the region and steal all the Pokemon!
  • Pokémon X and Y: Another local Omnicidal Maniac is going to destroy all life with his Doomsday Device!
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon: Eldritch Abominations from another dimension are spilling out into our world and threaten to destroy everything!
  • And to top it all off, in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon all the villains responsible for the previous scenarios come together to form a Legion of Doom. And a couple of them imply they'd like to try again in your universe.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield: An otherwise well-meaning individual is unleashing the local Sealed Evil in a Can in an attempt to resolve an energy crisis, but is in way over their head and now giant Pokemon are going to rampage across the Galar region like they did thousands of years ago!
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: A scientist has created an out-of-control time machine that keeps spewing dangerous Pokemon from distant timelines, and they will utterly overrun Paldea if no one shuts it off!
  • The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games also have this. Super Mystery Dungeon reveals that all the games take place in the same universe, meaning that the Mystery Dungeon world has suffered at least four near-apocalypses (a meteor, the planet's paralysis, an unending nightmare, and an ice-themed cosmic force resetting the world) in the span of a few years and is undergoing a fifth (Pokemon being turned to stone and the planet being hurled into the sun).
• Ratchet: Deadlocked, the fourth game in the Ratchet & Clank series, lampshades this in the manual: "Anyone can save the universe once, but three times?"
• While the Resident Evil series didn't start off with the world being in danger, the games eventually did fall into a pattern where when one threat against the world was put down, another one would pop up in their place. Justified since said threats are usually bio-terrorism and there's always someone who wants to destroy or rule the world with their B.O.W.s Chris Redfield, who had fought B.O.W.s since the first game, eventually gets tired and jaded from it all but does his best to press on.
• The Bydo of R-Type are a similar case. While they were apparently beaten for good in Final, it's hard to say for sure when your enemy aren't just The Virus, but also exist outside of time.
• Every game in Shin Megami Tensei has at least one plot involving some catastrophic global disaster. Apparently, plenty of gods hate humans, not just YHVH.
• Skullgirls takes place in a setting where cosmic horrors not only rule supreme but are actively trying to destroy the world. The tool that they use to this end, the Skull Heart, will turn any woman who wishes on it into a Skullgirl- an entity powerful enough to carry out the task all on her own. Destroying it only causes it to regenerate seven years later, and simply leaving it be allows the current Skullgirl to return to life and continue her rampage. And again, a Skullgirl, or at least the Skull Heart, resurfaces every seven years, which is hardly enough time to grant the world a reprieve after the previous attack from a Skullgirl. To wrap everything up in a nice bow, it's essentially confirmed that the Skull Heart will continue to return and produce more Skullgirls until one of them succeeds in destroying the world... unless, of course, people decide to stop wishing on the damn thing and simply opt to destroy it every time it appears- and even then, it's doubtful that'll really happen when you have an opportunity to make your wildest dreams a reality, even if only for a short time before the Skull Heart twists it into a nightmare.
• Crisis City (and most likely the rest of the world) in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) is always doomed due to Iblis running around destroying everything long after he was released and wrecked most of the world. Silver and Blaze fight Iblis every time he appears in order to prevent him from completely destroying the world, but it is only a temporary solution since Iblis gets revived after a while, therefore, the world is always on the brink of destruction. It isn't until Solaris is defeated and Princess Elise blows out the flame representing Solaris' earliest form to paradox him out of existence that the trope is finally broken.
• Most Super Mario Bros. games have someone wanting to take over the world or destroy it. By this point, the inhabitants are just assuming Mario and co will fix whatever goes wrong this week. Usually that Bowser's kidnapping Peach and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom, though we've also seen:
  • Super Mario RPG: Evil weapons trying to take over the world.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: An ancient demon trying to destroy the world.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: A Wicked Witch stealing Peach's voice, then trying to take over the world.
  • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: An Alien Invasion courtesy of the Shroobs.
  • Super Paper Mario: An Omnicidal Maniac trying to destroy all worlds.
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Fawful taking over the world, and the Dark Star trying to destroy it.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: King Boo trying to destroy it in revenge.
• In any given Super Robot Wars game, the earth is usually dealing with world-wide threats of a dozen or so different series more or less all at the same time.
  • Justified in Second Original Generation when Shu Shirakawa reveals that a literal Weirdness Magnet had been at work. His own super-mech, the Granzon, was the magnet. Turns out its black hole engine had been generating a singularity without his knowledge; not only acting as a beacon for the alien race that gave him tech in the first place, but also altering probability so that OG-verse would be targeted by other factions (even other dimensions). Shu had already found a way to cancel the effect beforehand, but acknowledges that it's probably too late to stop what's been set in motion.
• Touhou. Seemingly every other week Gensokyo has some problem occurring, varying from "annoying" to "seemingly dooming everyone to horrible death". Sometimes they aren't as bad as they first appear, other times they're worse. This comes to a head in Hopeless Masquerade: Gensokyo is in a state of near-collapse due to having had too many successive states of near-collapse. After so many disasters, most of which are beyond their control, humanity decided to forgo inhibitions and live for the moment: an anarchy. Enter the figureheads of religions —Shintoism, Taoism, Buddhism— to save the people... provided they don't tear Gensokyo apart with their fighting.
• Wild ARMs falls into this heavily. Filgaia is so often hit with disasters that leave it a wasteland and so often menaced by demons or evil organizations that one's first inclination is to believe that they're a bunch of different planets that coincidentally share the same name... but it's All There in the Manual that they're really all the same unlucky place — although it's apparently All There in the Manual elsewhere that they really aren't. Though, a small difference is that the catastrophe tends to have happened before each installment, and apparently the people before weren't able to prevent it (or caused it). The protagonists are generally trying to prevent another cataclysm from wiping out the last vestiges of civilisation that survived the previous one.
• Almost every major patch of World of Warcraft introduces a new threat to the world. The Lich King expansion started with a zombie plague, set up 3 separate world-ending threats, and tossed in a world war on top of that. Slightly justified in that most, if not all, of the world-ending threats are caused, directly or indirectly, by one or the other of two Omnicidal Maniac factions, the Burning Legion and the Old Gods. It's not that there are dozens of threats, all of which want to try to destroy the world; there are only two, but they try one scheme after another and their abandoned projects continue with a momentum of their own. This makes early Dragonflight somewhat unique, as the world, for once, is not doomed, and the player heads for the recently revealed Dragon Isles just for the hell of it.

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