Cutscene Incompetence: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The protagonist is amazing. He can defeat hordes of monsters, perform feats of superhuman strength, solve complex puzzles no one else can, answer the most baffling riddles, and is always [[Just in Time]] for the action... that is, as long as he's being controlled by the player.

Once the [[Cutscene]] starts or the player loses even the tiniest bit of control, things tend to go south quick. The hero is [[Idiot Ball|far more prone to do rather boneheaded things]], such as take on too many enemies at once (or just declare there are too many and [[Stupid Surrender|give up even if it's obvious the enemy would be quite defeatable in a normal battle]]), get ambushed and captured, let an ally get killed, or stand around [[Contemplate Our Navels|navel gazing]] while [[Villain Exit Stage Left|the bad guy escapes]]. Often, such things can only be resolved once the player takes command again. It's as if the main character would be [[Too Dumb to Live]] without the player's wise and guiding hand.

 

 

[[Tropes Are Tools|May potentially be a necessary evil]] - because if the gameplay represented a soldier who is shown being unable to draw a pistol when needed during a cutscene and he does this for almost ''every'' random [[Mook]], the game would be much harder.

 

{{examples}}

* The page quote refers to {{spoiler|Kat's}} [[Killed Mid-Sentence|sudden]] death in ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', which apparently occurs because the character in question {{spoiler|''forgot to raise their armor's [[Deflector Shields|shields]] before running into a combat zone''. This is, unfortunately, entirely in-character; Kat tends to focus on what's in front of her.}}

** {{spoiler|Emile's}} death qualifies as well. {{spoiler|He stands and gloats with his back turned to a dropship full of the enemy's best. However, he might have just stopped caring; he did just watch many people die, including his team.}}

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'', you are frozen in place for a number of cutscenes including the murder of the Emperor that happens right in front of your eyes. It's justified by the strength and swiftness of the assassins, but the fact that you are forced to stand there probably speaks to the creators' fear of you successfully intervening.

** Later, there's another quest where you have to rescue someone who got suckered into a deadly maze. Completing the quest requires clearing the maze to get the key, and it leads back to the starting area. Immediately on return you lose control and can't do anything at all until the person you want to rescue is killed. This example reaches absurd levels if the victim gets on a staircase. His would-be killer cannot reach him there, meaning the player can ''never'' move, and you'll have to reset.

** Don't forget surviving a mortar blast point-blank in game, then being knocked out by being stepped on in a cut-scene.

* ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' had an [[Egregious]] example as Bond, on finishing a level, is captured by two soldiers holding him up with rifles. As if he hadn't waltzed through several dozen of their comrades in the level before, as their machine gun fire repeatedly missed at short range and barely scratched his body armor.

** The [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' averts the trope in a similar scene in the beginning of the game. When Cassandra and two female bodyguards confront Joanna at the helipad, Joanna responds by simply shooting the guards and getting on the ship that had arrived to get her out of the building.

*** Played straight later on, though, when Joanna will inevitably get knocked out by an enemy and taken aboard their ship because "heavy fire" prevents her from getting aboard an escape vehicle. The mission even ends with a "missing in action" instead of "mission complete".

** Another instance happens in the Remote Island Human Ranch. After the [[Tear Jerker|heartwrenching scene]] of {{spoiler|Botta's sacrifice}} the party is ambushed by three dragons. After killing those, three more appear and they suddenly whine about there being too many and must resort to [[Cutscene Power to the Max|summoning Aska via a flute and requiring Mithos to save them]].

* Early in ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'', Cress gets knocked unconscious by a single snail, an enemy whose attacks can only merely hurt in encounters, just to wake up again in Trinicus' house (this was probably done so to avoid pinpointing the location of Mars' jail from which Cress and Mint just escaped).

** Same goes for the setup for Ayla's first appearance. The party is "hopelessly outnumbered" by a party of 8 Reptites, when they'd just been able to defeat 5 of them moments before.

** Also the brilliance when fighting King Dalton --- your characters parry his fireball, but blithely look behind them --- when King Dalton asks them to, in the middle of a fight. Cue being captured.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', close to the end of the game, Link is getting the final key to get into the Hyrule castle tower. Said key is guarded by all of two lizard men and two archers. The player could just kill them and be on his merry way, but the game takes over and has Link stand perfectly still so that his "[[We Are Team Cannon Fodder|friends]]" can "[[The Power of Friendship|save]]" him.

** Similar to the Goldeneye example above if Link is seen by Gerudo Guards in [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]] or [[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|Majora's Mask]] he gets captured. This is despite Link being a fully armed [[One-Man Army]] at this point and the guards themselves being [[The Guards Must Be Crazy|incompetent at best]]. If the player had control he/she could probably fight them all off without too much effort.

* In ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'', Nightcrawler appears for one [[Badass]] cutscene, before being easily swatted aside and rendered unplayable.

** If the player moves fast enough, they can kill Saemon twice. The first time on the ship, he can be killed. If the player has a fast enough spellcaster in the expansion, a finger of death can reach him before he teleports. His death save isn't all that high, so only one or two reloads are sufficient to make sure he dies. Quite possible the most satisfying kills in the game.

** Near the end of Baldur's Gate 2 there is a scene where the player character's romantic interest is captured by one of the two main villains in the game, a vampire. There is a very good chance that this romantic interest is a cleric. If by this point the player has already visited the Watcher's Keep dungeon added in the expansion, said cleric will likely be of epic level. For whom the very idea that they would be captured, or in any way threatened by anyone undead is patently absurd. They get captured just the same. Nor is any spell that would sensibly protect them effective.

*** Including Imprisonment (using that spell to protect someone is an... unusual use to say the least, but still). A spell that teleports the target into a transdimensional prison that is quite literally impossible to get out of unless a very specific, high-level spell whose only function is to counter Imprisonment is cast exactly where the person was standing when Imprisonned. And yet, despite counterspell obviously not being cast anywhere near the kidnapping, and not one storyline enemy being strong enough to cast it, ''somehow'' the love interest gets stolen anyways. Then again, if Bodhi is willing to infiltrate an alternate plane of existence only made to imprison people away from everything, even death, she really deserves her success.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'': During a cutscene, Snake is spotted by a security camera and is quickly captured by the guards. Had the player been in control at that point, Snake could have easily defeated the guards, or even snuck around the camera altogether. Another instance of this is that there's a camera that's completely unavoidable even with generous usage of Chaff Grenades that forces Snake to be chased by a group of guards up an annoying set of stairs. Both were fixed in the [[Updated Rerelease]].

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'', Darth Malak appears as a [[Duel Boss]] about two-thirds of the way through the game. He's easy enough to beat... until the game takes your controls away from you and cuts away to show your character being defeated.

** What makes it all the more jarring is that ''KOTOR'' is very deliberately paced with regard to level gaining. A reasonable guess can be made as to what level the player would be at that point, and thus the developers could have made Malak sufficiently powerful to defeat the player fairly.

** No matter if you have a piece of equipment that would render you immune to poison, if a cutscene says you're going to get poisoned, you're going to get poisoned. This is especially [[Egregious]] in the sequel, where your character gets poisoned twice in cutscenes in rapid succession, then can, with the proper equipment, proceed to fight through a bar with a toxic atmosphere with no trouble whatsoever.

** Likewise, the fights against {{spoiler|dark-side Bastila}}. Even when your comrades get stunned, you can probably win in one or two strikes, but she will push you back and restore health fully, all while talking all kinds of smack. Actually justified because she's clinging to the hope of being unbeatable thanks to the power of the {{spoiler|Star Forge}}, not her own abilities.

* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' has a slightly bizarre variant where the cutscenes make 90% of the characters totally indifferent to their comrade getting wasted right in front of them. The most [[Egregious]] case comes in the first game when the whole party stands around looking bored as Jr gets himself throttled from behind by a robot girl, about twenty inches from where they're standing at the time.

** The third game certainly gives it a run for its money though. Early on, the party comes across {{spoiler|T-Elos, an [[Evil Counterpart]] of KOS-MOS.}} After the obligatory boss fight, the cutscene commences. KOS-MOS states that {{spoiler|T-Elos}} is too powerful, and offers to hold her off, knowing she'll be beaten, in order for the party to escape an otherwise certain doom. Kosy charges in, and as promised, begins losing spectacularly. The party just ''STANDS THERE'' as KOS-MOS is treated like a rag doll. One would think that if they decided to stay, they would at least help out. Yet all they do is sit there and watch everyone's favorite [[Robot Girl]] is torn apart, with Shion occasionally shouting her name whenever a nasty blow is dealt. The result is KOS-MOS almost dying. Strangely enough, {{spoiler|later on in the game, after KOS-MOS has been rebuilt more uber than before, T-Elos shows up again and the party DOES try. Granted, they failed miserably, but one has to wonder where that team spirit was when KOS-MOS was being mutilated.}}

** At another point in the game, the heroes face {{spoiler|Aegis, who's been brainwashed and turned against them}}. Despite the fact that there's a 7 to 1 advantage for the heroes (4 to 1 even if we assume that in-game battle mechanics apply), and that each side's respective stats would suggest this is going to be a pretty quick and effortless (if somewhat regrettable) beatdown for the good guys, the scene suddenly fades to black as they're attacked, and one scene transition later, they're all bound and ready to hear the villain's [[My Brilliant Evil Plan|brilliant evil plan]].

* ''[[Terminator]]: Future Shock'' ended with a cutscene in the Skynet Core. Three Terminators enter the only door out. With nowhere else to go, [[No OSHA Compliance|you hang off the walkway]] and just as they take aim at you, [[Ripple Effect|time changes]] and you're saved. But by that stage of the game, you're so well-armed that three Terminators aren't that much of a problem.

** Also, Zelda has the ability to teleport ''within one of the cutscenes''

* Among its other annoyances, the game ''[[Daikatana]]'', once you finally capture the titular weapon, has the [[Big Bad]] appear in a cutscene and announce that you can't fight him, because it's the same sword in different parts of time, and it would destroy the universe...totally ignoring that not only does the PC have enough weapons to level a small country, he has two SIDEKICKS with similar amounts of weaponry. "Will someone shoot him, please? He's pissing me off."

* ''[[Tron 2.0]]'' does the "captured by [[Mooks]] in a [[Cutscene]]" thing.

* ''[[Tomb Raider]] 2'' has Lara being knocked out by a guy with a spanner in a cutscene despite you killing (and shrugging off the blows of) many near-identical enemies over the previous few levels.

** ''[[Tomb Raider]] 5'' has a cutscene in which Lara nearly falls off a ledge, grabs the edge of it in the nick of time, and... is somehow unable to pull herself up. This is the same Lara who can normally pull herself into a ''handstand'' while hanging off the side of a ledge.

* In ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'', whenever a player character's HP reaches 0, the player can, if there's a nearby ally, always call for the medic. In a cutscene around halfway through the game, {{spoiler|Isara gets shot, and ultimately dies}}... Even though all the rest of the main cast surrounding her never think to call Fina over. Granted, this scene was necessary for good tragedy, but...

** What makes it worse is that, in a later cutscene {{spoiler|this time, Alicia gets shot}}, the characters were quick to call for the medic.

* In ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' your character gets knocked out in a cutscene in a similar way to the ''[[Tomb Raider]] 2'' cutscene above (albeit by being punched in the face rather than with a spanner). Both ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' and ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]: Warhead'' have certain cutscenes with situations that are treated as being very dangerous, despite the fact your character could resolve them in all of ten seconds with the abilities and weapons they have available in-game.

** Later on they only take a gun-using enemy character seriously when he specifically shows his gun is strong ''out''side of cutscenes too.

** {{spoiler|The Broken Steel DLC retcons it so that you survive.}}

** ''The Pitt'' [[Expansion Pack|DLC]] forces you to follow its script by confronting the player character with three typical [[Mad Max]]-wannabe Raiders just inside the city gate. It doesn't matter if the character is incredibly stealthy (or using a [[Invisibility Cloak|Stealth Boy]]) or has the combat skills and weapons to take down these mooks with one or two hits each - they still beat the PC up and take all of his/her stuff. {{spoiler|You do get it back later.}}

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'' averts this with a number of "cutscenes" that allow the gameplay to keep continuing while an animation plays in the background, such as when Swann and Campbell try to warn Betruger over a phone to shut his project down, or when Swann and Campbell pass through {{spoiler|the Vagary's lair}} on the other side of a glass barrier, and when you see Bravo Team pass you by down a corridor on another side of a glass barrier. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to get to a certain point. Even if you take your sweet time, the cutscene won't trigger until you run over some invisible tripwire.

** To be honest, that's pretty much how it works in ''all'' games with the exception of timed missions.

*** Even better example: One late-game mission features CJ meeting [[Big Bad|Tenpenny]] and [[The Dragon|Pulaski]] in the middle of the desert for another typically shady deal with no witnesses. {{spoiler|This takes place after you've rescued your brother from prison, moved the rest of your family into a comfortable new lifestyle in another state well beyond Tenpenny's reach, and can be toting not only enough firepower to level the entire tri-state area, but also a personal jetpack made with alien technology letting you jump skyscrapers in a single bound. So, naturally the opening cutscene involves CJ gunning down Tenpenny and Pulaski, and leaving them in an unmarked grave out in the desert while he rockets off into the sunset, right? No, CJ not only hands over all his weapons the moment Pulaski points a gun at him, but also digs graves for [[Team Pet|Hernandez]] (who was [[The Informant|executed]] in cold blood in front of him) and himself, so Pulaski doesn't have to get sweaty. If it wasn't for the fact that Hernandez [[Not Quite Dead|wasn't quite dead yet]], the cutscene very likely would have led to CJ letting himself be buried in an unmarked grave, neither he nor his snazzy jetpack to ever be seen again. Fortunately, Hernandez's [[Death Equals Redemption|sacrifice]] ends the cutscene, allowing the player to do what should have been done right from the beginning of the mission, though by then Tenpenny has already [[Villain Exit Stage Left|vanished back into the digitized ether]].}}

* Cate Archer of ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' is an elite government spy, stealthy and quite handy with a gun. And yet, during cutscenes, her idea of sneaking is carelessly clomping around, like Elmer Fudd trying to get the jump on the "wabbit." Inevitably, this leads to her capture. {{spoiler|''Twice.'' And by the same person both times.}}

* {{spoiler|"Dio"/Odie}} of ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' is presented as a bumbling, inept joke of a sorcerer. In actual gameplay, he's fairly powerful and a valuable addition to the team.

** The game tries to [[Justified Trope|justify]] this by having Alkaid during the gameplay part of the fight activate a hyper-mode, allowing her to wail on you while you sit there frozen in time. However, if you're grossly overleveled, our hero Haseo gets beaten by a flurry of attacks that each [[Death of a Thousand Cuts|do 1-2 damage.]]

* In ''[[Saints Row]]'', just before {{spoiler|you get to save Lyn}}, you get knocked out by a single hit from a baseball bat. Never mind that in game you would have just [[Improbable Aiming Skills|turned around and instantly shot him]] with your [[One-Hit Kill]] [[Revolvers Are Just Better|.44 Shepherd]].

** ''Saints Row 2'' averts this trope. The player character can absorb dozens of rifle bullets and grenades even while high and drunk at the same time, kill a hundred enforcers with body armor and rifles so advanced that the U.S. military doesn't even have them, and literally ignore explosions several feet away that send cars flipping through the air. And in one mission, he is captured by the Sons of Samedi after he's so busy shooting one of his unconscious attackers to finish him off, he doesn't notice the guy running up at him and whacking him in the chin with a baseball bat. This seems like this trope if you've never been hit by an in-game baseball bat, but knocking you out of the fight for a few seconds is exactly what a baseball bat ''does'' in the game, and if you've been hit by one before this moment it's far more acceptable.

* Can happen in any sports game that allows you to simulate parts of a game or season. You can be the God of Football, with a team made up of nigh-immortals, and lose to a series of scrubs because of the number generator. Of course, the [[Cutscene Power to the Max|opposite can happen]] as well, when your team of scrubs pulls off an impossible upset that you (the player) could not have done had you actually played.

* Not a video game, but in the old school book-based adventure ''Deathtrap Equalizer'' for the tabletop RPG ''[[Tunnels and Trolls]]'' a scenario exists where the player is faced with a sorceress wearing a [[Stripperific]] outfit and accompanied by two polar bears. If the player attempts to use offensive magic, the book tells the player that the magic doesn't work and the sorceress has noticed the attempt and she has ordered her bears to attack you. The player dies because "you have no magic to help you". However, if you attack the bears with weapons they prove tough, but not completely impossible for a competent character to defeat without magic.

* In ''[[Samurai Warriors]] 1'', during Yukimura Sanada's story mode, his lord Shingen Takeda will be assassinated in a cutscene by [[Hattori Hanzo]] no matter what until Shingen is unlocked; then it's possible to intercept Hanzo before the assassination takes place, unlocking Yukimura's [[Alternate Universe]] path.

* In the Teleporter Room in ''[[Cave Story]]'', you get [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomped]] by a [[Giant Mook]] that could have been defeatable if it wasn't an NPC.

** And when Sue gets curbstomped and dragged off by Igor in the Egg Corridor, the hero just stands there and watches. Admittedly she did say she could handle him and don't need any help, but the hero [[What the Hell, Hero?|can't be that spiteful, right?]]

* An early plot point in ''[[Phantasy Star II]]'' is that you need to stop Darum, a criminal, from causing trouble by rescuing his daughter Teim. So you rescue her and offer to bring her to Darum to defuse the whole situation. But since he's got enemies who might be gunning for her too, she dons a veil so they won't recognize her. Okay, fine, let's go have a loving reunion. But when you find Darum, she just walks up to him, veil ''still on,'' and since he doesn't recognize her, he demands money. She refuses ''instead of taking off the veil.'' So he gets pissed and kills her. ''Then'' he takes off her veil, realizes he's killed his own daughter, and commits suicide by explosives. In other words, two people just killed themselves over a tragic mistake while your party just ''stood'' there, not saying or doing anything that might've cleared the confusion.

** It may have been her plan all along to commit [[Suicide by Cop|suicide by proxy]] out of the shame she felt for his actions. That doesn't excuse the party for standing there and letting her, though.

* At one point in ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of Underdark'', you have the option to take out a large number of drow holding a formian hive in slavery, or just sneak by. If you agree to save the formians, you're treated to a cutscene of your character storming through the gates and shouting to call the enemies' attention to themselves. Not very fun if you're playing say a rogue or some other character who was hoping to rely on stealth, tactics, and maybe not taking on every enemy in the area at once.

* After completing the Mystech tunnels early in ''[[Anachronox]]'', you are assaulted by a cutscene with the gangster boss Detta and a couple of thugs, who proceed to demand you hand over your primary find. Your boss Grumpos insist on fighting since he really, REALLY wants to keep the rare find, but our hero Sly folds like a wet blanket, even knocking Grumpos down on his own. This of course comes back to bite everyone in the end.

** to be fair you fight a similar brand of mook as the bodyguards Detta has with him as somewhat-competent (for mooks) opponents in the last dungeon of the game. At the point you face Detta you just beat the very first boss in the game, your very low level and only have one ally. Assuming that the bodygaurds are as strong as their mook counterparts run into later Sly and Grumpos were no where close to strong enough to beat them at this point. So in reality Sly probably made the right choice. A bigger question is why Detta claimed to need Sly and Grumpos to clear out all the monsters in the cave when his overpowered mook bodyguards could have done it easily.

* ''[[Dragon Quest III]]'' has a fairly [[Egregious]] example. The Hero comes across his long-lost father Ortega in the depths of [[Big Bad|Zoma]]'s Castle. Ortega is fighting a battle against a powerful monster, and seems to be holding his own, but finally runs out of MP for healing and dies. Neither the Hero nor his party considers joining the battle, providing the needed healing, or using one of their spells or items to bring Ortega back to life after he dies.

** In fact, the fire extinguisher doesn't do ''any'' damage, it just has the game check if the target has less than 1 HP. (This is why guards don't shoot some of your possessed characters even if you spray them, because they're not suffering a health loss.) The imps are literally [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|Zero Hit Point Wonders]].

* [http://www.dailymotion.com/Static_Fiend/video/5496130 This] video of a [[Let's Play]] for ''[[Quake 4|Quake IV]]'' points out that the big spider-tank takes out your fellow marines' tanks effortlessly - but you, of course, can take it out. ...Of course, the element of surprise probably had something to do with it.

* ''[[Age of Mythology]]''. At the beginning of "Isis, Hear My Plea", two of the main heroes are taken prisoner by 6 axemen, which could have easily been taken down during gameplay.

** Also during the campaign, you have to stop the [[Big Bad]] from opening up a gate in the Norse lands that will set free an even bigger bad. After destroying the enemies defending the battering ram, a cut scene begins and about 10 fire giants appear, chase you away, and kill one of the heroes. In game however, 3-4 heroes could easily take them down, and that isn't even counting all the soldiers you used to destroy the ram in the first place.

* In ''[[Impossible Creatures]]'', enemies become completely immune to damage during cutscenes. Very frustrating in mission 8, when La Pette hovers near your anti-aircraft towers for about a minute and then you spend the rest of the mission trying to kill her.

** When confronted by enemies in a cutscene, Shepard & co rarely [[Take Cover]]. The player has to do that ''after'' the shooting starts. This is doubly annoying when you see a baddy coming, take cover for the obvious fight, and then the pre-fight parley cutscene ''takes you back out'' into the open, often far enough from cover that surviving the first few moments of the fight gets chancy on harder difficulty.

*** Fortunately fixed for the most part in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', where Shepard and team move to cover right before a cutscene ends, if a fight breaks out during the scene.

** An instance occurs in the Arrival DLC, when Shepard {{spoiler|fails to shoot an injured woman limping six feet away from him/her with a machine gun.}}

** If Shepard is a Vanguard, she always forgets during cutscenes that she's able to teleport, even when it'd be really helpful. Of course, often it'd be so helpful that it'd derail the story from the other classes.

*** Earlier in the game, you stand by and watch, gun drawn, while an enemy boss ({{spoiler|Dr. Eva Core}}) kicks the ass of one of your team mates, even though you have a clear shot (and an assortment of powers that should drop that boss any day of the week, but [[Contractual Boss Immunity]] also seems to be in effect).

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]''. During gameplay, your character can take shotgun blasts at point blank and not even be slowed down, particularly if you've been investing heavily in Stamina and Fortitude. In a cutscene, one cheap shot with a baseball bat is enough to knock you unconscious, and presumably would have left you incapacitated while three Sabbat vampires tortured you to death were it not for the intervention of another character.

** To be fair, the main character will instant-kill pretty much any non-boss character in the game with a '[[Back Stab|cheap shot with a baseball bat]]' -- including vampires. Your character was probably lucky he/she didn't get dusted right there.

*** The point for the Kuei-Jin ending is you are abandoning Kindred philosophy for theirs (purpose and all that) so while it doesn't give you a choice in the matter its reasonable you would give up voluntarily to serve a greater good.

*** Besides, you're a vampire. You don't need to breathe. After you're pushed off the pier, what's to stop you from eventually breaking free? (They may have staked you, which paralyzes a vampire, but there's nothing to indicate this.)

* Rebecca Chambers in the original ''[[Resident Evil]]'' and ''Resident Evil Zero'', who seems to be capable of taking care of herself when the player controls her, but is reduced to a [[Damsel Scrappy]] who needs to be saved by Chris or Billy whenever the plot requires it. This is even more glaring in ''Zero'', which takes place a day before the first ''Resident Evil'', where she is more competent than she was in the original game.

** Rebecca's [[Badass Decay]] is sometimes fan-justified because, by the point Chris meets her in ''[[Resident Evil]]'', she has been awake for several days and her team is found dead over the course of the game. But the ''Resident Evil'' series is effectively this trope incarnate, as probably half the boss fights could be avoided if the idiot characters would just shoot the bad guys during their monologues '''before''' they inject themselves with whatever they're holding.

** ''[[Resident Evil]]'' is an absolute god-king of this trope. Main characters being knocked out in one hit? Check. Main characters outright refusing to kill the resident [[Big Bad]] in a single shot even when there is nothing logically stopping them from doing so? Check. Main characters (often police officer) not retaliating with deadly force to bit-characters who opened fire on them ''first'' (and then often asking if they're a zombie or reasoning that they're not)? Checkmate.

* Happens a lot in ''[[Dead to Rights]]'': Jack Slate, who can consistently gun down literal armies of well-armed and armored mooks during gameplay, will suddenly become helpless against a reluctant novice with a pistol.

** And helpless to save Eve from being stabbed to death (or was it shot in the head?).

* ''[[Summon Night]]: Tears Crown'' (Phara's story) has a rather entertaining boss fight against {{spoiler|your [[Brainwashed and Crazy|brainwashed-to-be-evil]] brother Noin}}. You and your little summon beast rather handily wipe the floor with him, only to have him {{spoiler|knock you down in cutscene, walk forwards, and kill the King/your father}}. All this while there are guards at the door supposedly running to your aid.

* ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'': This occurs several times throughout the game. The first major time is near the beginning when trying to escape Alfard, Sagi and Guillo find themselves at the sword-points of soldiers that they were (under player control) soundly and easily defeating so that Milly can come save them. It also happens every time you fight a machina arma; sometimes it would be impossible to beat, but other times you could easily have trashed the enemy.

* During the intro level of the first ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|FEAR]]'' game, the player is ambushed by Paxton Fettel, who simply pops out from behind an obstacle and swings a wooden board at your head. He moves so slowly that, had the game not taken bodily control away from you, you could easily have ducked or, better yet, started spraying him with a submachine gun. Instead, you're knocked out cold.

** An even more blatant example. In one of the expansion packs you have taken a man prisoner. A large explosion distracts you long enough for him to make a break for it during the cutscene, while you have a gun pointed directly at him. It gets even worse, though. You regain control so quickly after the cutscene that he is still running away. There is time to empty ''five'' full clips of SMG ammo into him with no effect. Then he locks you out of a hallway with glass doors.

** FEAR 3 has the player hit in head again, as both the Point man and Fettel.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'': Every class has the ability to prevent enemy movement, with friendly fire very possible. Despite this, your character conveniently forgets to use it if a {{spoiler|romanced Alistair is about to sacrifice himself to slay the Archdemon. Most offensive as a mage, as a specific power you might have--Force Field--allows you to stop him, disable his templar powers, and prevent any damage from coming to him all at once.}}

** In "Leliana's Song" DLC the main character who is a badass [[Action Girl]], is taken down with a single treacherous stab in a cutscene after having taken maybe a hundred non-treacherous stabs with swords in normal gameplay.

** In 'Awakening', no matter how good your rogue may be, s/he'll fail to notice the [[Schmuck Bait|giant and ominous-looking circular disc in the middle of an otherwise empty room]]. The whole party will walk into the room even if they're supposed to be holding their position and be put to sleep. The next time the PC wakes up there is a [[Anti-Villain|calm and apologetic monster]] [[Nightmare Fuel|experimenting on him/her and stealing his/her blood]].

** Certain classes have magical powers that make resurrection from the dead even more trivial. However, if a character, no matter how powerful, needs to die for story reasons, their death will be considered permanent (assuming you're not [[Fighting a Shadow]] and the character isn't [[Faking the Dead]]). For example, Garrosh Hellscream's father, Grom, was killed during the events of ''Warcraft III''. Lore dictates that he will never show up in Orgrimmar, alive, and say "What? I got a rez." Even though there are in-game events in which someone is brought back to life by NPCs and players alike, everyone just forgets about it when it would be convenient. There is no [[Word of God]] explanation for this discrepancy.

*** Similarly there are a countless number of quests that involve healing a wounded,poisoned, or sick NPC. The player may have a dedicated healer that can bring the most powerful of heroic tanks from 1% health to full power in seconds, and yet they can't heal the orphan kid that tripped and sprained his ankle without a long quest chain. An argument may be made that the NPCs who suffer from sickness or poison are affected by obscure poisons the PC doesn't know how to heal, but this doesn't justify the countless wounded NPCs that either need to be saved by someone else or die after speaking to you while you don't lift a finger to heal them.

** Perhaps one of the most aggravating ([[Tear Jerker|and most tragic]]) for some players in the original game was the difficult escort of Taelen Fordring out of Hearthglen. After fighting through dense clusters of elite mobs and nearing safety, the players have no choice but to watch him be killed at the climax of the quest.

** And speaking of ''Cataclysm'', let's not forget Uldum and the Harrison Jones questlines. The most implausible would be Schnottz, our World of Warcraft parody of a Nazi leader, getting ready to kill you with a rocket gun. Now this troper completed Mount Hyjal and Deepholm before going to Uldum. So is the game telling me that my Priestess can help Cenarius banish Ragnaros back to the Firelands and earn the trust of the stone giants of Deepholm while helping restore the World Pillar to its rightful place to seal the rift between Deepholm and Azeroth, yet she can't stand up to one little goblin with his gun and has to cower like a wimp until Harrison Jones swoops in and saves her?

*** While that is mildly annoying, it's supposed to be funny. The reverse of an escort quest, where ''you'' are the useless one who has to be saved by the escorter. All the quests involving Harrison are like that.

*** Basically, everyone in Kingdom Hearts seems a lot weaker in cutscenes. About the only real exception I can think of is when Mickey shows up and knocks out everything he attacks in one hit each, so I guess the rule could be "everyone but Mickey seems weaker in cutscenes."

** This trope's opposite, [[Cutscene Power to the Max]], shows up in [[Kingdom Hearts]] a lot as well, however.

* This appears in ''both'' possible endings for ''[[The Force Unleashed|Star Wars: The Force Unleashed]]''. In the good ending, {{spoiler|Starkiller allows himself to be convinced by his ally Rahm Kota to spare The Emperor's life after he's beaten him in a boss battle, despite Starkiller himself initially predicting (correctly) that The Emperor was only pretending to be completely defeated; then The Emperor attacks and Starkiller [[You Shall Not Pass|holds him off while the others escape,]] getting killed in an explosion that somehow leaves The Emperor unharmed, and against an opponent that you just beat a minute ago.}} In the evil ending, {{spoiler|The Emperor commands Starkiller to kill a helpless Kota as a final test before becoming a Sith Lord; and, despite the fact that you've already chosen the evil ending and that Starkiller was raised by Darth Vader and has [[Redshirt Army|cut through swathes of enemies]] to get this far, many of them good guys, he rejects the opportunity to seize power and attacks the Emperor; after which he proceeds to get horribly maimed, despite, again, the Emperor's manageable difficulty as an in-game boss fight.}}

* ''Enter [[The Matrix]]'': Niobe is ambushed by Vlad from behind, knocked unconscious and taken to use in a ritualistic sacrifice, only to escape and proceed to give him a good beating in-game.

* ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'': While not the player character, a really noteworthy example. [[Old Master|Eagun's]] lv. 50 Pikachu goes up against a Cipher Peon's lv. 35 Hitmontop. The cutscene plays out like an actual battle... with the Pikachu using only Quick Attack. At that level, easily roasted even a Shadow Pokemon using a move like Thunder.

* In the first few chapters of ''[[Mirror's Edge]]'', the player becomes accustomed to out-running armed policemen, throwing themselves off buildings and even {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|jumping between two crane arms on parallel skyscrapers]] }}; however, upon reaching Ropeburn, the player finds themselves in a cutscene involving being grabbed and thrown of a small drop by him. This is then continued [[Nintendo Hard|unless the player knows a surprise attack is coming (or has unbelievable reflexes)]], as Ropebrun proceeds to hit you once and throw you to your death; whilst Ropeburn is introduced as an ex-wrestler hired [[The Dragon|as muscle]], the fact that he's settling into corrupt politics and taking on [[Action Girl|a bad-ass female in peak physical health]] doesn't really justify the cutscene.

* Happens early on in ''[[Suikoden]]''. You are confronted by a large amount of guards. After fighting a couple of squads of them, your character decides there's just too many of them. Worth noting is that if the high-magic party member has the fire rune, she can usually end both fights with a single spell.

* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'', somewhat. Kratos, despite killing the Hydra and retrieving Pandora's Box, is killed by a pillar thrown by Ares (though to be fair, he does escape from the Underworld).

* In the original ''[[Breath of Fire I]]'', you get stranded on an island. Gobi shows up and extorts you into a huge debt in return for him getting the Gills that will allow you to breathe underwater and leave the island. Nina has the [[Warp Whistle|warp spell]] that will teleport you instantly to any town you've visited, but since the game [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|switches you to Gobi]] until you finish the Gills quest, you never get the opportunity to cast it.

** Then again, your destination is somewhere you've never reached before and considering the trouble you went to getting a ship, only for it to get attacked by the Dark Dragons and sink, it's reasonable to take Gobi up on his offer.

** Unfortunately, the cutscene immediately preceding that has the player character standing still and doing nothing while the villain kills his dog, kidnaps his allies, and shoots him in the face. The hero has a gun.

* In ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade]]'', when you encounter an enemy who can be a friend during gameplay, you can select the talk option. In Eliwood's game, however, the dragon {{spoiler|Ninian}} appears to you in a cutscene, leading to a quick slice followed by a [[Hannibal Lecture]] from Nergal once Eliwood discovers what he did.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', the final confrontation with [[The Joker]] begins with Batman walking into what is ''obviously'' a trap, spotting a bomb, and ''just standing there like a damned moron while it explodes''. All because the story requires Batman, who is capable of disarming bombs in his sleep and knows when to get the hell out of the area when he sees one in any case, to be disabled by a bomb at this point.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', most of Batman's problems would have been solved by giving the player the control and letting them do absolutely nothing. Batman is just so damned stubborn on this game that every word that comes out of his mouth seems to make everything worse.

* In the Sierra Entertainment videogame of [[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]], there's one instance where Bilbo Baggins must sneak his way through goblin guards to rescue a Dwarf slave. He states in the cutscene that they are too strong for him to fight - even though he has been fighting goblins all the way through this level, and will fight goblins this tough later on. He is also captured all too easily if spotted during gameplay.

 

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[[Category:Gameplay and Story Segregation]]

[[Category:Show, Don't Tell]]