Escort Missions in Video Games
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- Опубліковано 3 гру 2023
- Today I wanted to talk about escort missions in video games.
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Credits:
Footage:
LongplayArchive - Resident Evil 4, RE4 Remaster, Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep,
Silent Hill 2, Dead Rising, Zelda A Link to the Past / @longplayarchive
Dartemar99 - New Super Mario Bros. Wii / @dartemar99
FCplaythroughs - Pokemon Platinum, Sonic 06 / @fcplaythroughs
Slashers - Resident Evil 4 / @slashers5022
Music:
TrackTribe - Smokey's Lounge • Smokey's Lounge - Ігри
1. NPC walks. And walks. And walks.
2. NPC does nothing to protect themselves.
3. NPC just sits there and face tanks damage.
4. NPC has shitty pathfinding.
5. Mobs target the NPC exclusively.
"if you make a mission where you have to follow an NPC that is SLOWER than my running speed, but FASTER than my walking speed, you are banned from making video games."
I think Ashley in RE4R has been of the best character reintroductions. She's charming and her exchanges with Leon are great which makes it fun and interesting to have her around. It really made me want to get her the hell out of there. Haha
To be honest I wouldn't really say Sonic's stages with Elise are escort missions? Elise isnt a seperate character you have to keep track of. Sonic's gameplay is pretty much the same, just a bit slower and has a shield. They're connected in gameplay. It's not like Sonic has to run and make a path for Elise to progress by herself, all while making sure she isn't attacked.
If anything, I'd say one of Shadow's missions in 06 where you have to protect Anna is more of an escort mission. Silver has one, too.
I mean, in story you do have to escort her, she does limit you range of movement while providing 0 meaningful enhancements herself, and she is pretty bland and doesn't provide much company. Close enough, she still stinks like the rest of these.
@@danyo5786it swaps the bound attack and spindash for a shield and walking on water. I'd say it's a fair trade
Tbf Elise's stages are more wide open than most other Sonic stages so I don't mind the limitations
I never had any problems with Ashley. I think people just rush into a hoard of enemies with her and are surprised when they get overwhelmed
I'm gonna watch this when I eat eggs for dinner it's tradition
Mission: Keep Bob Alive while avoiding the massive army of enemies
Bob- 1/1 HP
The Mario rabbids escort missions are pretty fun. The character works like the main characters but no weapons, special abilities, and it has shorter walking distance so you just have to get them to a certain spot of the battlefield while making sure they hide behind stuff and also while using your other characters to kill enemies. It adds another level of strategy to an already great strategy game.
I would imagine those fights being ALOT worse if Toad/Toadette was instead controlled by AI
“Come on! Follow me! Come on! Come on! Over there! Follow me! Go!”
*“sob”*
“What are we doing here?!”
“No way!” “What a jerk!”
“What’s… happened..?” “Not a chance!”
I could go on and on but you get the point.
But for real, one of my favorite examples of an escort mission is Ico, and the entire game is basically an escort mission. There is something so compelling about guiding someone through the castle, and protecting them. I WANT to defend Yorda from the monsters because… well, there is no one in else around. As well as that, the main protagonists Ico and Yorda are important to each other. One of them can open specific doors and another is able to fend for each other. The game has a nice atmosphere as well.
There's a game by name of Knight's Contract that is for a large part of the game a kind of escort mission as well. Gameplay is like a character action/hack-and-slash and follows an immortal executioner with a big folding scythe/warhammer, and a witch he once executed reborn in an artificial (homunculus) body.
Heinrich, the executioner, has a health bar but the game's not over if he dies. You need to ram the buttons quickly to make him reassemble himself.
Gretchen the witch also has a health bar. You can see where this is going.
But Gretchen's not superfluous to the gameplay. her AI is decent enough (or so i've heard) and she is the main way of performing magic attacks in the game. Magic like summoning thorns or giant bear traps to trap enemies, summoning spectral spears, etc.
(and the magic comes in three varieties of strength for each spell, with the strongest versions' cooldown being longer than the weaker versions)
Plus, if Heinrich picks Gretchen up, he can't attack but the life bar for the both of them regenerates.
Rough game, but had definite effort and interesting ideas going for it.
I've recently picked RE4 on PC after leaving it off on PS2 for a little over 12 years. I've also installed some mods to fix issues with the port, mostly missing graphical effects and more crucially the timing for QTEs.
I had a blast replaying the game after a long time, Ashley was not that big of a burden character as I remembered. The game design makes it very clear where you can safeguard her in tense situations. You can make her hide, she'll crouch to get out of your field of fire, she'll always stick as close to you as possible unless you make her stay put.
The developers knew the huge risk they were taking with the escort mission as a challenge, so they made the game way more idiot proof than some people would make you believe. Keep these things in mind and taking care of Ashley pretty much becomes second nature by the time you arrive at the castle.
Plus it's not like the entire game is an escort mission, and a second playthrough never hurts. I wholeheartedly say this game deserves your time.
Gotta hand it over Crash Twinsanity for having the best escort missions ever.
Both you and Cortex have different paths, making it easier. The only problem you need to worry is wait for the right time to making the path clear, you help him, he helps you. That easy.
*Also the fact Cortex is in constant pain and the "Flight of the bumblebee" remix are a 999/10-*
Another great example of escort missions is Bioshock Infinite. Like, the entire game has you running around with Elizabeth, pretty much like with Ellie in TLOU, except that Elizabeth doesn't really fight, but can give you salts, ammo, and health, as well as help with that ability of opening time rifts or whatever it was
Thanks for this video, I love thinking about game theory and this is a topic I hadn’t seen discussed yet, so I found your overview especially interesting!
this was a great watch,
i feel like discussing something as well,
okay, let's talk about missions where you basically have to play like a *tower defense* game.
you got a character or inanimate object to defend, if they die, the mission fails... how we feeling about this one? be it in platforming, open world, or RPGs.
personally, I've never found them to be *that* bad, but boy do they sure give me immense amounts of stress... like both of the [PROTOTYPE] games, they have quite a few of these missions, it gets a little bothersome to finish some of them but they're a walk in the park if you know exactly what to do.
BioShock Infinite and Last of Us are the only escorts I didn't mind because the games are built around them.
RE4 Remake definitely made Ashley a lot better; Gameplay wise, she wasn’t horrible in the original, but QoL improvements in the remake (not having to worry about her health, helping you in certain encounters, etc) as well as her being way more fun and endearing help her a ton
Yeah, but she also acted like a real bitch towards Luis because he called her "señorita."
Like most people you have the brainlet meme opinion that has nothing to do with game mechanics of the og re4, if you think for 2 seconds to breakdown the gameplay, youd have an actual opinion. Re4 remake is a modern movie game and barely functions as a game, it cant be compared to the original re4.
my favorite escort "mission" is in katana zero when they make you think you have to escort a guy out of the first level by giving him a health bar but then he just immediately explodes
it's so hilarious but just a little bit sad
Ok but ashley in re4 good actually
(Especially in the remake imo because even though i like her in the original because of the funny camp, she’s way more endearing in the new one and also a lot more relatable)
I had star wars apprentice of the force has a kid, seeing mentioned in a positive light in a video makes me feel validated!
Hearing about the Star Wars game made my day, that's a gem right there
Yeah it's definitely pretty simple to just make the NPCs you have to protect me at least useful. I get what you mean by including baby Mario and Yoshi's Island but I don't really consider that an escort mission because the entire time of the game you're playing as the ocean end Mario only is set loose when you take damage. Plus when you get a star you're controlling Mario at that point anyway
If you design a quest where I need to follow an NPC and they move SLOWER than my running speed but FASTER than my walking speed you are banned from making video games for one year
I love the skate series but oh my god the follow missions are hot garbage
Well when i saw the title. I immediately thought about ICO. It's a ps2 game where the core gameplay is based about carrying a lady. And if you haven't played it. Damn you should, everyone.
That game is good because it specifically makes it a mechanic, and it's flushed out.
I was looking for someone to mention Ico in the comments!
I like escort missions in space games. The ship you're protecting takes all the aggro and you rack up the kills.
The most problematic is when the AI makes them act STUPID like run headfirst into a swarm of enemies or getting stuck.
Let me tell you, when I saw the disclaimer in Bioshock Infinite that Elizabeth didn't need protection, I thanked God himself.
If an escortee is unarmed (and not a martial artist nor UFC fighter), make up for it by having them be decently evasive, to show us they're trying to survive too. Like things that will get them easily have to be understandably fast or stealthy. Maybe even have the escortee alert to a sneak attack directed towards the player character. Even in a voiceless game this can work, have a 🗣️❗️ icon.
The problem with escort missions is that it puts the player in the backseat.
Because AI wasn't there yet where the character I am escorting would move through the game world realistically (within the game world rules). That's why I hated them, some games pulled it off good though back in the day but most did not.
Everything you said here is how I felt about Dragon Xenoverse! The mission where you switch bodies with another character (giving you a shitty move-set) and have to protect Krillen and Gohan! These two characters are worthless and can't defend themselves for shit! I kid you not I lost 57 times! Not because I died but because Krillen (that bald headed mf) kept dying and when he dies you lose! Worst part is that there is no difficulty option so you're shit out of luck. Wasted my mf money
Perfect🤗 😀🤘🏼
The thing about escort missions that I hate is that you have to always stay on edge because it could be a random experience every time. In Assasains Creed 2, the escort missions were simple for me but could've been hard for someone else. On the other hand in Dead Rising EVERYONE who played has some hate in their heart for taking a character back to the Safe Room because of the zombie swarm. I remember playing "Out of Control" and taking Greg back is painful asf. It depends, but its always either a fucking sigh of relief or a breath of pain when you finally finish missions like that.
I love escort missions there are so fun
They take away player agency. You can't play how you want, you can't go the speed you want, you can't go the path you want, you can't fight how you want to and you can't run ahead. Basically, what's there to like?
you must talk of parry in video game
The most annoying part about it is how slow whatever you're escorting is moving
I can say escorting minnie was not that bad and it was fun for me
1:00 terrible people hate being selfless who would have thought
Also Pokémon has good escort sections
Hey guy, you forgot your outro.
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Play Knight's Contract and your hate boner for escort missions will intensify.
I still think people just sucked at escorting Ashley in the original RE4 because, let's be real, it's not hard at all given the options the game gives you.
I personally didn't have any issues with her aside from some dumb mistakes.
But you can tell Capcom was aiming to pander to the people who wouldn't stop bitching about it with the Remake because they basically babyfied Ashley as an escort mission and made it way too easy.
I don't like babysitting my own family let alone the president's daughter
That being said I enjoyed escorting the president's daughter in RE4
Re4 is a position based game(you cant compare it with the generic shooter mechanics of the remake), ashley is just another position to take care of, and its handled perfectly for the game .some people are so braindead, they cant even play a game properly, they dont know whats going on.
The underwear that I’ve worn for 5 days in a row smells about how you’d expect.
You sound like a gamer lol
Princess Ruto in ocarina of time.
It’s easy once you know what to do but my god is she annoying.
people who hate on escort missions are weak and will never survive the winter
you notice how the best subweapon introductions in zone of the enders 2 are the escort missions
Escort missions are the most annoying thing in video game tropes. Its never been fun, and never will be.
0:52 average American when taking care of others 💀