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Even NWN2:OC you didn't save the world. All you did was to save a city of smug assholes ruled by a mafia don asshole (who makes you several offers you can't refuse). The King of Shadows was only interested in his old territory of Illefarn, and it is explicitly stated that once the borders of his realm reaches the old borders, he would stop. Unfortunately, that included Neverwinter and so you were railroaded into fighting him instead of letting that shithole of a town die like any morally sane, ethical person would do. Sodom and Gomorrah indeed.
Yeah but that definitely qualifies as a pyrhhic victory. The world goes from being totally fine to worse off than most of the losing scenarios in your average 'save the world' game long before you save the bits that are left. If FF6 doesn't count because you 'saved' the world, then Chrono Trigger would count because Lavos left some people alive so you didn't need to kill him anyways. CT is actually kind of a weird one since the world ends multiple times before the game even starts, and you've got some rather weird endings you can access, like the dino-people one.
Edit: Just to be clear for people who are unfamiliar with the plot, the world isn't 'ruined' like it's all dark and gloomy and stuff, it's 'ruined' in what is essentially the fantasy version of a nuclear apocalypse with only a handful of devastated villages barely hanging on. Also, ending magic implies killing off all the espers that were still alive.
Oh it does qualify as that. One indisputable thing is the effect Kefka had on the world, but things were going to get worse afterwards unless Kefka was dealt with until all life was dead. With Lavros, outside of the time travelers opposing him, everything is over and done with and the survivors are simply lucky enough to have survived to keep going.
I think scale doesn't matter so much as, is the main quest ultimately about saving something other than yourself, for probably altruistic reasons? If you put your life on the line to save a city that surely counts. Link only saves Hyrule and not the whole world, but he's still definitely in the world-saving-hero category
In Dungeon Master, you save the world from Lord Chaos
and also from Lord Order, who sent you on your quest.
Most of the Gold Box games have the party saving the region from a dire threat. Although they're on a smaller scale than the entire world, they aren't fundamentally different. Otherwise, you could add, for example, TES III: Morrowind to the list.
Here are some games that come to mind, top of my head (editing to add more as I remember):
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Fallout 1/2/NV
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Pyre -- to the extent that it could be called an RPG.
...
Fallout and Fallout 2 similarly feature the PC saving the entire region from a dire threat. New Vegas is a different, in that player chooses a faction to support.
Although Transistor isn't an RPG, it's far closer to being one than either Pyre or Bastion, and it features a Pyrrhic victory without the world really being saved (not to mention what the "world" consists of...).
TES II: Daggerfall has a double political plotline, where the PC uncovers the story behind the assassination of King Lysandus and puts his spirit to rest, then obtains the Totem controlling Numidium and decides which of 7 factions should be granted it.
Both Legend of Grimrock games involve uncovering ancient secrets, but not saving the world.
In Rogue, you retrieve the Amulet of Yendor from a dungeon (and many other Rogue-likes are similar in plot).
Final Fantasy VI involves saving the world but also has a double Pyrrhic victory in which
first, the Empire is stopped but the world is devastated by Kefka who attains incredible power; second, Kefka is defeated, but at the cost of removing magic from the world.
Dragon's Dogma superficially concerns a simple plot about saving the world (or at least, one country) from the Dragon, but the plot turns out rather differently in the end.
Trails in the Sky trilogy I can’t remember as well - the ancient tech being activated could destroy civilisation I guess, but you are mainly trying to bring about political stability in the region. TitS 3, you and your friends are kidnapped and you need to escape.
Alpha Protocol shouldn't be on this list. Remember acquiring some data from Shaheed? In the aftermath of the Saudi Arabia missions there's a scene where Thornton looks at that data to discover Halbech's cold war plan. Both he and Mina are convinced Halbech have made a mistake and are going to end up sparking a real war instead. They drive the point home with an overly dramatic holographic map showing nuclear missiles hitting major cities across the world.
The man who concocted the plan is an analyst named Parker who specialises in trigger events and represents the American government's interests in an alliance with Halbech. If you go on to acquire every piece of the puzzle before the final mission, he can be convinced his calculations were flawed.
Most cRPG's couldn't actually feature an apocalyptic threat even if they wanted to simply for practical reasons, like scale (the game world is restricted to a country, province or city) or franchise longevity (e.g. TSR not wanting D&D RPGs to introduce massive changes to their settings).
Mask of the Betrayer is interesting in that it's very much possible to fail to accomplish anything, since you can't get rid of the Wall of the Faithless and unless you gather all the mask pieces and choose to cure Akachi, the spirit eater curse will continue to exist.
Alpha Protocol shouldn't be on this list. Remember acquiring some data from Shaheed? In the aftermath of the Saudi Arabia missions there's a scene where Thornton looks at that data to discover Halbech's cold war plan. Both he and Mina are convinced Halbech have made a mistake and are going to end up sparking a real war instead. They drive the point home with an overly dramatic holographic map showing nuclear missiles hitting major cities across the world.
The man who concocted the plan is an analyst named Parker who specialises in trigger events and represents the American government's interests in an alliance with Halbech. If you go on to acquire every piece of the puzzle before the final mission, he can be convinced his calculations were flawed.
Yeah, I think anything to do with saving the world/continent/country generally puts the stakes up such that it effectively feels like save the world scenario.
In BG1 you first save the city from devastating war, then you thwart Sarevok's ascension who could redraw the balance of power in the Heavens and the Realms.
Agree on RLs. In CataclysmDDA in fact the point is that you can't save the world and even the ruins you live in are doomed no matter what you do.
In DCSS the goal is to find the Orb of Zot and get back to the surface. That's all there is to it IIRC. I don't remember if any other main goal is mentioned at all.
As to not saving the World - sure there are many games that give you the choice to side with evil (or "evil") at the very end but I'd argue that the game in such case is still about saving the World. Instead of saving you simply chose to not-save it but it doesn't change the fact that such game is still "saving-the-world"-centred.
AoD might qualify - you don't save the world per se. Even if you chose to serve-you-know-who the World will continue under the "benevolent" rule of you-know-who IIRC. In other cases, you just chose who will rule it.
If you look at it, Spellforce: Order of Dawn is a sort of hybrid RPG/RTS where you couldn't save the world. No matter what you do, the Rohen cycle continued, and the world is screwed.
Mask of the Betrayer: 'You became the very monster that I had hoped you would destroy - a greater threat to order than Akachi had ever been. For you had mastered your hunger, and its power was no longer a threat to you.'
