And Your Reward Is Clothes: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Lousy T-shirt2 2163.jpg|link=Grand Theft Auto Vice City|frame|...but it was [[Worth It]]!]]

{{quote|''I found the Legendary Lost Treasure of Mêlée Island™ and all I got was this stupid T-shirt!''|'''''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'''''}}

{{examples}}

* Finishing ''[[Gungrave]]: Overdose'' with all three protagonists will allow you to turn on the option for "Alternate Character". Rocketbilly Redcadillac gets a Garino Corsione skin and Juji Kabane gets a Bunji Kugashira skin. Hilarious in that playing the game with these equipped has the characters yelling the lines they used during their respective boss battles when attacking. And as for the original hero Beyond the Grave, he will wear his badass purple cowboy suit (complete with his [[Nice Hat]]) from the original game.

* The ''[[Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge]]'' gives you extra outfits for Jack, depending on your overall completion rank, that do not alter his abilities or appear in most cutscenes. However, in Easy Mode, for collecting all the trophies in the game you no longer need red souls to use the fire abilities in his Pumpkin King costume.

* The Anniversary and Legend versions of ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' had various outfits for players who completed the time trials. Anniversary's was mostly a [[Shout-Out]] to past games, including one where you get to play as a remade version of Lara's old polygonal model from the very first game, pointy boobs and all.

* Beating ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'' unlocks the option to have Link keep the outfit he wears in the beginning of the game, rather than switching to his iconic green tunic early on.

* The ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'' games (and its [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual predecessors]], the ''[[X Men Legends]]'' games) reward characters for doing certain achievements (like defeating a set amount of enemies) with bonus costumes. Counting standard costumes, in the first game, every hero (except [[Moon Knight]]) has four costumes, but sadly, in the second game, there are only two costumes per hero.

** Subverted in that each costume grants different bonuses.

* In ''[[King's Quest VI]]'', after Alexander helps the [[Beauty and The Beast|Beast]] by finding him a hot servant chick who will love him, he gets two rewards: a silver-lined magic mirror which reflects the truth to the viewer, and... Beauty's old clothes. Granted, you need them to beat the game (whichever of the [[Multiple Endings]] you choose), but still. Magic mirror vs. rags. Let down.

* ''[[Endless Ocean]]'' likes to reward your hard work completing quests by giving you new gear. None of this has any effect on gameplay; the actual upgrades you have to buy. Oddly, the first game manages to send you a wetsuit through e-mail at one point...

* ''[[Monkey Island]]'': "I found the treasure of Melee Island and all I got was this stupid T-shirt."

* ''Bubble Symphony'' aka ''[[Bubble Bobble]] II'': gives a code after getting the Golden Ending—in [[New Game+|Super Mode]], [[Gotta Catch Them All|getting all plot coupons]] (some of which turn the characters into humans) and then defeating the [[True Final Boss]]—that lets the player '''start the game''' as [[Humans Are Special|humans]] instead of [[Involuntary Transformation|bubble dragons]]. Unfortunately, [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|wind-up toys can still kill them.]] Good thing [[Improbable Weapon User|they have straws to blow their bubbles through]]. Bub and Bob's human form animations (also as seen in the [[Attract Mode]] cutscene) are [[Shout-Out|very similar]] to their appearances in an earlier game, ''Rainbow Islands''.

* ''[[God Hand]]'' allows you to change your outfit to the ones used by the Devil Hand, Ryu from ''[[Street Fighter]]'' and the [[Camp Gay]] duo Q & A. You can also give Olivia a bunny outfit.

* ''[[The Warriors (video game)|The Warriors]]'' has an extra difficulty called [[Harder Than Hard|Unleash the Fury]] if you get 100% completion on Hard. Unleash the Fury is the hardest difficulty level and all of your Warriors are dressed up as the Baseball Furies. This leads to a hilarious and somewhat disturbing encounter on level 16 where you'd normally meet the Baseball Furies and instead, you fight mass armies of Warrior clones!

* The Wii adaptations of "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" offer clothes as a reward for winning mini-games.

* ''[[Excite Truck]]'' gives you another skin for each truck if you race with it 10 times or get an S rank three times.

* ''[[Mario Kart|Mario Kart Wii]]'' has Mii Outfit A and B, which changes the looks of your Mii when you race as one. Outfit A gives you a jumpsuit look while Outfit B gives you the Mario shirt and overalls combo if the Mii is male, or a dress in the style of Princess Peach if the Mii is female.

* The Whyt mini-games in the DS remake of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' reward you with new outfits for Whyt if you achieve 9,999 points on a particular game. Which outfit you get is dependent on whose game you beat (e.g. a Paladin outfit if you beat Cecil's game, etc).

* All three ''[[Xenosaga]]'' games give you alternate costumes. ''Episode III'' in particular gave you access to Shion and KOS-MOS's ''Episode I'' outfits. KOS-MOS is [[Badass]] no matter what her appearance, so her alternate costume is simply there for the nostalgia factor.

* One of the bonuses added to the [[PlayStation 3]] version of ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' was alternate costumes for Polka, Allegretto and Beat, the three characters that you can control in the field at various points in the game. Polka gets two extra costumes, while Beat and Allegretto both get one.

* Played straight in ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'''s [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|Konquest]] mode. Many of the chests just contain...skins for your paper doll fighter. There are also plot-important clothes in the game.

** Also the 2011 Mortal Kombat game. By beating Arcade Mode, you get alternate clothes for your character. Some of them are plot related, such as human versions of Cyrax and Sektor. Completing the Challenge Tower will reward you with a [[Stripperific]] costume for Mileena.

* ''[[Halo 3]]'' gives you different pieces of armor for beating the game on normal, heroic and legendary, getting achievements, and getting all the skulls. The armor pieces have no effect on gameplay, and are only available in competitive multiplayer.

** The ultimate bragging rights armor for Halo 3 is Recon. Originally, recon was only attainable through impressing Bungie somehow (for instance, the first person to post on [[YouTube]] his character being killed by a traffic cone received it), and only a small amount were given out. With the September 2008 update to Halo 3, a new series of "Vidmaster" Achievements were added. Getting the four vidmaster achievements in ''Halo 3'' (and three more in ''Halo: ODST'') unlocks recon armor, though three of the achievements are very hard to get.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' gives you an extra T-shirt for completing the game plus unlocks more for you to buy if you play again.

** Inverted in the [[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle|sequel.]] Completing all the revenge missions allows you to ''not'' wear a jacket.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''[[City of Villains]]'' rewards a wide variety of successes, ranging from completing the original Task Forces to slaughtering a lot of Rikti with new clothes and different looks for weapons. These are considered the ''best'' rewards.

** This is mainly because, unlike [[World of Warcraft|a certain other popular MMO]] clothes have ''nothing'' to do with power levels and abilities and are on the rare side in-game. You do start with an ''enormous'' amount of costume pieces to choose from, so if you see someone running around with a cape or sword design you've never seen before, you just know for sure that he's accomplished something impressive.

* ''The Art of Theft'' by [[Zero Punctuation|Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]] contains new outfits that your character can unlock by accomplishing certain missions or secondary goals. Some of these are merely appearance, but others have significant game effects (making stealth easier or harder, allowing unlimited use of a stun gun.)

* ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'' gave you a tropical shirt for beating the game, to go with the sunglasses you unlock earlier. And the sunglasses actually ''darken'' the screen a little.

* Later games in the ''[[Diner Dash]]'' series gives you clothes after each level to dress Flo in.

* The rewards for completing levels in the original ''[[Rayman]]: [[Raving Rabbids]]'' alternate between new costumes (including the [[Elvis Presley]] look and a bunny suit), music (including very squeaky versions of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "La Bamba"), and - at one point - a golden pig.

* Completing an especially long setlist in ''[[Rock Band]]'' will earn a band millions of fans, but as far as material gains go, just $20 and a t-shirt.

** ''[[Rock Band|Rock Band 2]]'' has special outfits - four of them, one for each major genre - which are unlocked by completing the Impossible Instrument Challenges.

* The Pets expansion pack for ''[[The Sims]] 2'' featured various collars and fur patterns as unlockable rewards if your pet got a promotion.

* If you use the time machine in ''[[The Sims]] 3'' one of the random bonuses you can pick up is a set of 'future clothes'. We'll all look like Tron characters in the future, apparently.

* The ''[[SSX]]'' series of snowboarding games rewards the player with new board skins and outfits for winning events. The outfits are purely cosmetic but the boards do affect gameplay, with different board types geared towards racing or tricks and boards earned later in the game generally having higher stats. This was changed for ''SSX 3'', where the races reward the player with money and stat points which he can then ''spend'' on buying new outfits and reskinning or statting up his board, as well as various other treats like concept art and new background music tracks.

* Most of the ''[[WWE]] [[Smackdown vs. Raw]]'' games unlock alternate outfits for your wrestlers after you beat Season Mode or Road to [[Wrestlemania]] mode. Sometimes cheat codes can be used too.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' gives you a tuxedo for beating the game twice, not to mention the bandanna and optic camo depending on which of the [[Multiple Endings]] you get to (though they are useful).

** The Cyborg Ninja would also get a different colored exoskeleton under the same conditions. In the Japanese ''Integral'' re-release (and the GameCube's ''Twin Snakes'' version), Meryl would wear Snake's Sneaking Suit.

* All over the place in ''[[Pokémon Stadium|Pokémon Battle Revolution]]''; wins under various circumstances will give you new clothing articles, trainer titles, and other cosmetic rewards. And after clearing every Colosseum in the game, the trope becomes literal when you can win the species-themed outfits of some Colosseum leaders by defeating them again.

* In the flash game, ''Battlegrounds 2'', beating the game results in several new outfits (and the option to go bald) over the original boring three.

* A stable in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series, where the player is awarded alternate outfits for his or her character as the standard prize for completing the game. The [[Resident Evil 1|original game]] in particular allowed Chris and Jill to change from their default S.T.A.R.S. uniform into casual clothes.

** The ports of the original game for the [[Sega Saturn]], PC and Nintendo DS featured different alternate outfits that were not in the original PlayStation release. In turn, the ''Director's Cut'' version of the game featured new default outfits for Chris and Jill (as well as Rebecca), with the option to change back to their original defaults.

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' has a large number of costumes which are unlocked piece by piece by doing various tasks, finding scraps of clothing hidden throughout the world map, etc. However, each has a gameplay benefit; gang outfits make it so members of the gang in question won't attack you, the Fancy Suit lets you cheat at Poker, and the [[100% Completion]] reward is a Government Agent Suit, which lets you do whatever the hell you want without affecting your Honor.

* In ''[[Metal Gear]]'': Online the points you earn at the end of matches, not during, can only be used to buy clothes that don't alter your abilities at all. Justified because the game is supposed to be fair, having the only out of combat bonus being what skills you equip, but also clothes affect the game in a different way. Instead of a direct "50% disguised" bonus, like in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', you just reduce the amount you stick out to other players. If you have a giant red afro wig you will stand out more than if you went with a headband or helmet.

* In ''[[Nintendo Wars|Advance Wars Dual Strike]]'', leveling a character high enough will unlock an alternate costume for that character.

* ''[[Gadget Trial]]'' had 2 extra outfits for each of the girls, and they give certain strengths and weaknesses. Getting them, however, varies between ridiculously easy to quite difficult.

* The second ''[[Penny Arcade Adventures]]'' game offered outfits to wear after completing certain tasks within the game or unlocking achievements.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. Gaining loyalty of crew members brings a new power... and an alternate outfit. In a nice twist, the unlocked outfits are all in the same black, silver and gold color scheme. The result is that gaining your crew's loyalty also has the effect of visually transforming them from a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] to a unified team of commandos. One of the more drastic examples is Jack. She usually wears [[Stripperific|pants, leather straps and nothing else]]. After the loyalty quest, she also uses a leather jacket. Standard Geth are grey and elite Geth are white, so Legion's plating color shift is a visual cue for him getting more badass. Gaining the loyalty of a squad member also increases the chances that that person will {{spoiler|stay alive during the suicide mission,}} so there's that, too.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'' has this as well; upon getting 100% completion, you gain a t-shirt which proclaims ''I got 100% completion on Vice City and all I got was this shirt'' (see the page pic). Admittedly, you also get infinite ammo and 3 bodyguards, but still...

* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', if you {{spoiler|kill Playboy X}}, you get his {{spoiler|rooftop studio pad}}. If you change clothes there, you'll discover that at that location and at that location only, you can switch to the outfit of Claude from ''[[Grand Theft Auto III]]''.

== Non-Video Game Examples ==

* ''[[.hack]]'' did this in the manga. You solve a puzzle, beat a monster... and are rewarded with schoolgirl and maid outfits.

* The [[Stylistic Suck|god-awful]] [[Eroge]] the protagonist and his friend make in ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' includes a end-choice where you can choose which outfit the lead girl wears next time around, including a skimpy sea-shell bikini.

* The ''[[Bone]]'' prequel ''Tall Tales'' contains a story in which Fone Bone and Phoney Bone follow a treasure map to a chest containing...Phoney Bone's dirty clothes, buried as a reminder for the two of them to do the laundry.

* ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'' was once forced to [[Run the Gauntlet|fight his way through a warehouse of the Mist's henchmen]]. The Mist had drugged him and stripped him beforehand, and left an article of clothing at each stage of the fight.

{{quote|'''Jack''': At least she left my shorts first and not my goggles or my jacket or something. That would've been too kinky even for me.}}

* ''[[The Game (film)|The Game]]'': "I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico - and all I got was this stupid T-shirt."

* In the world of ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' house elves are freed if their owners give them a reward of clothes (so you could say the reward is freedom, via clothes). Cue Harry tricking Lucius Malfoy to give Dobby a sock and Hermione leaving piles of clothes all over Hogwarts.

* This seems to be Adam's primary trophy on ''[[Man v. Food]]'', despite whatever inhuman amount of food he consumes during a challenge.

* In ''[[Have Gun Will Travel]]'', Paladin once did a job for a high-class tailor, and for payment would only accept two custom suits a year for the rest of his life. He noted it was actually more expensive than his standard charge; he intended to live for a very long time.

* Parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' where the [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] "Years of Yarncraft" has ''underwear'' as the reward for completing the first quest. {{spoiler|This actually becomes an important (in-game) plot point during a later, high-level raid.}} To be fair, as Torg notes, he could really use underwear.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' after goblin archers killed the (illusion) heroes, the goblins changed to t-shirt that says: "I killed a PC and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"

* The ''[[Mac Hall]]'' picture above denotes the female character's delight of finding actual pants that actually cover the legs; it's a reference to a previous strip that showed how [[Stripperiffic]] all other "pants" were.

* ''[[Re Boot]]''. During Enzo's birthday party the only gift that sticks to the next episode is a new shirt.

* The immortal ''I went to X and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.'' Or ''My parents went to...''

* It's pretty much universally disappointing for children to be given clothes for their birthday or for whatever winter holiday they celebrate.