The Hero’s Journey and Video Games: What is it Like to be the Hero?

On the remote Spanish island of Valdelobos, government agent Leon S. Kennedy, escorted by two local police officers, begins his mission of rescuing the president’s daughter. His journey is as follows:

Act	Campbell (1949)
I. Departure	The Call to Adventure The president’s daughter is kidnapped and brought to the remote Spanish island Valdelobos. Leon is dispatched there to rescue her. Refusal of the Call The police escort taking Leon to the village goes pee in the forest. He stays in the car as he had just been told about missing people in the area.  Supernatural Aid He steps out of the car after hearing screams, guided to the village by a trail of blood. The Crossing of the First Threshold After being attacked by a random man, Leon comes to a village square where the ritualistic burning of the police officer is taking place. Belly of the Whale The zombie-like villagers make their way into the church after the bell toil allowing Leon to explore the area. Eventually he comes across the village chief who injects him with the parasite, Las Plagas.
II. Initiation	The Road of Trials The road of trials can be summersized in this order: Gets kidnapped alongside a sketchy,  local scientist named Luis Almost gets killed by the village chief while his abandoned manor After his path to the supposed church where the president’s daughter is held becomes blocked, he finds a boat and fuels it up to cross the lake instead.  He spears the lake monster to death while crossing He crosses the river but upon arrival battles a large bioweapon named El Gigante. He enters the church where the president’s daughter is held The Meeting with the Goddess He rescues Ashley, the president’s daughter, and learns more about the plaga they are infected with as well as how to rid themselves of it. Woman as the Temptress During a cutscene, the player sees that Luis is in kahoots with known temptress Ada Wong (past love interest of Leon’s) and they are on a mission to acquire a special crystal on the island. Leon later is tempted to leave with Ada and abbadon his mission. Atonement with the Father Leon successfully kills the village chief who has been following him throughout his entire journey (a call back to resident evil 2 where a giant man named the Tyrant followed and traumatized him.) Apotheosis  Asheley, overtaken by the parasite, attacks Leon while they await rescue in an abandoned castle. She runs away, returning to her normal self and realizing what she has done.  He, after a lot of game play and meeting Ada, finds and comforts her. Their bond is solidified.  The Ultimate Boon After a road of trials part 2 that takes place in the castle setting, Leon has to battle his former commanding officer who after faking his death went to work for the darkside of bioweaponry. During this battle, Leon faces his past and is able to kill Krauser, a symbol of his trauma. Krauser uses his dying breath to declare that he is proud of Leon.
III. Return	Refusal of the Return A weak Leon, considers joining the cult as his virus spreads and the cult leader nearly defeats him. The Magic Flight Leon stumbles to Luis’ laboratory after escaping the cult leader Saddler where he and Ashley undergo a machine surgery to remove las plagas.  Rescue from Without Saddler comes back in his ultimate form to try and kill Leon and company. Ada comes back to save him and throws him a rocket launcher, the key to killing him. The Crossing of the Return Threshold He is offered a ride back home in Ada’s helicopter, which he refuses knowing she is involved in some sketchy business. He has regained confidence in his ability to navigate the world. Master of the Two Worlds Leon and Asheley escape the island, about to explode, on a jet ski, cracking jokes along the way. Freedom to Live They jetski safely away as the island blows up in the background.

The plot of Resident Evil 4 fits into Joseph Campbell’s concept of the hero’s journey. However, with all the action-packed fight scenes and user freedom, do players feel like the hero?

It was a warm summer night in mid-June, and I sat in front of my TV with the PS4 shock remote in hand, battling Saddler’s ultimate form. Soon, I jet skied into freedom, the president’s daughter finally safe. It may have taken me a month to beat the game, but I had done it. As Leon Kennedy, I went through a drastic transformation over the course of the game's plot, and yet I did not find myself reflecting on the completed circle that was his journey. Instead, I opened the display menu, went to the concept art, and looked at the character designs. In James Plyler’s 2013 essay titled “Video Games and the Hero’s Journey,” he argues that the interactive aspects of games provide players with a more intimate connection to the hero’s journey and should be considered a valid form of media to study within English classes. I will use my experience with Resident Evil 4 to argue against Plyler and provide reasoning for why video games should not be used as tools for critical thinking.

One does not need to do much thinking to play Resident Evil 4; simple mastery of about 6 buttons on a plastic controller is enough. Plyler argues that because one plays as the main character, the formation of “a bond that translates to a full encapsulation of the player’s interests and motives” forms. This is simply not the case. While Campbell would view Ada Wong’s arrival as the “Women as a Temptress” step, and thus Plyler implies that characters would feel similarly to Leon in that moment, I felt something of the sort while playing. Instead, I was excited to see my favorite character from the franchise and raved to my brother about how cool her design looks in the new graphics. I thought it was stupid that I, Leon Kennedy, let her escape, as I wanted to see her new combat skills. Due to the geek-like nature of most video game characters, most players focus more on superficial aspects of playing, like character, setting, and combat design, rather than becoming fully immersed within the narrative as Plyler argues.

Another aspect that Plyler doesn’t consider is the skip cutscene function of many games like Resident Evil 4. Key steps at the beginning and end of the hero’s journey can be skipped over by a click of a button within the game, such as "Freedom to Live," where players may feel inclined not to watch Ashley and Leon ski away with their newfound freedom. Instead, due to the competitive and almost sport-like nature of gaming, players, especially those replaying games, want to immediately go to the results screen to see how many hours they played and how well the game scored them. This numbers game further encourages players to skip cutscenes, focus on combat, and ignore any nuanced aspects of the narrative. In games like The Sims, where players focus solely on their characters' lives, Plyler’s argument holds truer. Yet when examining survival games, I believe that only the rare English-nerd players will examine the deeper meaning of these skippable cutscenes. So while, yes, Campbell’s monomyth has its presence, video games themselves do not encourage players to view them in any sort of critical way.

Sources:

https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Resident_Evil_4_(2023_game)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

https://cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/Stylus_5_1_Plyler.pdf