10 Most Broken Escort Missions In Gaming History

A bad escort mission is truly one of the worst things in video games. These 10 absolutely suck...

sheva resident evil 5
Capcom

Plenty of people would argue that any escort mission qualifies for a ‘most broken escort mission’ list. They’re truly one of the worst things in video games, but I’ve really tried to whittle it down here.

There’s nothing that muddies the hero story quite like being followed by, holding the hand of, or in some cases literally carrying another person along with you. Especially one that the developers haven’t designed to be remotely self-sufficient or useful.

10. Princess Ruto In Jabu-Jabu’s Belly - The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

zelda belly
Nintendo

There’s a decent chance I’m about to unlock a memory here, because when I thought back to Ocarina of Time I couldn’t even remember an escort mission. Then the nightmare whale full of holes and the princess living its belly all came rushing back.

The reason Princess Ruto is just scraping in on this list is at least she straight up refuses to walk, so she can’t exactly get far if you drop her. On the other hand she straight up refuses to walk. For the uninitiated, Link’s job, and therefore your job, is to save Princess Ruto from inside Jabu-Jabu’s belly. Not only do you have to carry her around, she’s super rude about it, has a tendency to fall through holes, and if you leave her behind she’ll revert back to the original spot she fell to in the beginning and you have to go get her.

The pros are she can’t die and you can chuck her at enemies, the cons are, well, pretty much everything else.

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Contributor

Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.