Cutting Off the Branches: Difference between revisions

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* Averted with the first ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game. During the events of the game, either Barry survives and Wesker sets off the mansion's self-destruct sequence(if you used Jill as your player character), or Rebecca lives and Wesker's slaughtered by the Tyrant(if you used Chris instead). Future games show that BOTH endings are canon: both Barry and Rebecca survived and Wesker got slaughtered by the Tyrant(so we can assume it was Chris who blew the Tyrant up).

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' and its two expansion packs allow for quite a few possibilities between them, but ultimately hints towards one set of events for the Knight-Captain. The main character canonically has to have gotten the good ending for the original campaign in order for references {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}} made in Mask of the Betrayer to make any sense; likewise, the presence of {{spoiler|One of Many in Storms of Zehir and some of its allusions imply that the character then succumbed to the spirit eater and became evil, killing Okku and rampaging across Rasheman.}}

* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' allows the player to choose the gender and alignment of Revan from the first game. In either event, the changes are largely cosmetic, pretty much only affecting the gender Revan is referred to as and whether the Republic admiral appearing in certain cutscenes is Carth or not. It should be noted that, since both games are part of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' canon, only one ending for each game (light side male for the first, light side female for the second) is considered the version that "really" happened.

** However, the second game has hints of [[Take a Third Option]], as the canon scenario is light-side female, but with Handmaiden (who is only available to male PCs) as one of the Exile's companions.

** If the game had been finished, Handmaiden was supposed to have joined you if you were lightsided (then Visas Marr if you were darksided), meaning a female Exile could recruit Handmaiden.

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** Satsuki's route is promised in the remake, making this an inversion. But even before Nasu openly committed to it, he had been treating enough details as Canon to indicate a draft had been completed.

* ''[[School Days]]''. The original game allows for [[Handsome Lech|Makoto]] to end up with one (or more) of several very different girls. Both the anime and manga adaptation, however, focus on the love triangle between Makoto, [[The Ojou|Kotonoha]] and Sekai, though they ultimately play out rather differently. The anime is an interesting case study -- it's what happens when you're determined to avoid every Road Cone you can. Makoto hooks up with ''every'' girl he can end up with in the game and more besides. Trouble is, this by definition makes him an utter [[Jerkass]], and more or less demands his {{spoiler|eventual death}}.

* Most sequels in ''[[Command ~~and~~ Conquer]]'' assume the good guys won the previous game. The fact that the ''Firestorm'' expansion for ''Tiberian Sun'' has a story where [[Win Win Ending|both sides win]] may be an attempt to correct that.

* Most sequels in ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' assume the good guys won the previous game. The fact that the ''Firestorm'' expansion for ''Tiberian Sun'' has a story where [[Win Win Ending|both sides win]] may be an attempt to correct that.

* The original animation of ''[[Kanon]]'' leaves out large chunks of the Mai, Shiori and Makoto arcs, leaving them feeling rushed, contrived and [[All There in the Manual|confusing]]. The remake largely fixed this problem, even addressing the jilted haremettes' romantic advances toward the [[Unlucky Everydude|main character]] and having them [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends|get over it]] believably.

* With three very different storylines that diverge early on, the ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' anime and manga both had to Road Cone somebody. The default storyline (Fate) was the logical choice; fans of Archer and Sakura were inevitably going to be disappointed. Nonetheless, anime the producers gave those fans what they could, such as {{spoiler|a Matou Zouken cameo, a magical outfit meant to suggest Dark Sakura, and [[Bait and Switch Credits]] where Shirou fights Archer}}. The manga also features elements from "Unlimited Blade Works" (such as Caster taking an earlier front seat as antagonist and Archer's open attempts to kill Shirou). In the end, though, fans of the "Unlimited Blade Works" scenario get the movie, and fans of "Heaven's Feel" get extra material in ''Fate/hollow ataraxia'' and lots of [[Doujin]] works.

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* ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'' does this as well, but it's a lot more plausible (in a real world context) than Morrowind. {{spoiler|1=JC Denton melded with the AI Helios; however, with the merge failing, they destroy the Aquinas hub to preserve their sanity. During this time, he founded ApostleCorp, which the Illuminati took over in the power vacuum following the Collapse, publicly--and accurately--blaming Denton for it.}}

* Blizzard's early ''[[Warcraft]]'' games were like this. In order to have a sequel worth mentioning, they decided that the Humans (the "good guys" of the first game) had been defeated and sent packing, as refugees, to nations on the northern half of the continent...and then, five years later, the Orcs (the "bad guys") decide to follow them, lusting for more conquest. In ''[[Warcraft]] II'', the Alliance victory is considered canonical, as is their "successful" campaign in its expansion, ''[[Beyond the Dark Portal]]''. However, it should be noted that missions in ''both'' campaigns are considered canon. The only missions that ''aren't'' canon are the ones that end the campaign and don't allow for the canonical ending of the story. Blizzard mostly abandoned this method with ''[[Starcraft]]'' and all following [[Real Time Strategy]] games, instead constructing the story so that one campaign flowed into the next... but ''[[Starcraft II]]: Wings of Liberty'' does have two missions where a player must make a decision about whether to help an ally or not. {{spoiler|In both cases, the canonical storyline has you helping your ally--Ariel Hanson and Gabriel Tosh.}} A third mission, late in the game, requires a decision that affects how the final battle is fought, but is deliberately vague in terms of canonicity.

* The ''[[Diablo]]'' series contains a minor example of this. The first game allows you to choose one of three characters to play, a male Warrior, a female Rogue, and a male Sorcerer. After defeating Diablo, this character embeds his soulstone into his or her forehead in an attempt to contain Diablo forever. It doesn't work, and in the sequel the hero is possessed by Diablo, becoming the game's villain. Although never explicitly stated, it is pretty clear that the Warrior is canonically the one who did so, as the character is male (unlike the rogue) and Caucasian (so not the sorcerer). If you look very carefully you can find hints about what happened to the Rogue and Sorcerer, but they clearly didn't do as well as their meat shield buddy, if "possessed by Satan" can be considering doing well. It is implied that the rogue and sorcerer go on to become minor bosses for earlier quests (Blood Raven and The Summoner respectively).

* It was pretty obvious which ending of ''[[Drakengard]]'' was going to be used for the sequel. It was the only ending remotely considered [[Bittersweet Ending|good]], but the [[Mind Screw]] ending leads to ''[[Nie R]]''.

* At the end of ''[[Legacy of Kain|Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain]]'', the player has the option of making a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] for peace, or to rule over a broken land. Alas, peace doesn't make for good sequels... His choice turns the world into a blasted wasteland. {{spoiler|And it was the better choice for the world in the long run. It's complicated.}}

* Most of the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games allow you to pick and choose between a variety of main character combinations (usually a male and female) and a choice between a [[Real Robot]] or a [[Super Robot]] (4/F/F Final being the first of the lot), but the games that plays this trope straight are the Alpha series. In Alpha, players have four different male and female portraits, with four distinct personalities to choose. This is resolved in Alpha 2...''somewhat'', by making one of the characters, Kusuha Mizuha (and Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield, by extension), become the canon protagonist of the Alpha series, by giving her a Super Robot route in Alpha 2, while adding three more routes: a male [[Super Robot|Super Robot route, and male and female ["Real Robot]] routes. In Alpha 3, Kusuha retains her Super Robot"] route, and three more routes are also made, with the added bonus of having the characters from Alpha 2 ''reappear'' in the Alpha 3 routes. Example: Cobray Gordon, the male Real Robot pilot of Alpha 3, has Arado Balanga, the male [[Real Robot]] pilot from Alpha 2, appear ''only'' in his route, with the other pilots following suit. All well and good, right? But then Sanger Zonvolt (the male Super Robot pilot in Alpha 2, who first appeared in [[Gaiden Game|Alpha Gaiden]]) appears in ''all 4'' Alpha 3 routes, not just the Alpha 3 male Super Robot route.

** Fortunately, Banpresto handled this cleverly: in Alpha 2, Sanger's route begins {{spoiler|with him waking up when the Earth Cradle is destroyed}}. In the Kusuha/Kusuha, Arado/Cobray, and Ibis/Selena routes, {{spoiler|the Earth Cradle is never destroyed, thus Sanger has just woken up in Alpha 3}}, whereas in Touma Kanou's route, which follows Sanger's Alpha 2 route, EVERYONE has met him before from Alpha 2, and he has a lot more experience in piloting the DyGenGuar.

** The [[Original Generation]] series also tends to run into a [[Road Cone]] when characters and storylines from the various games in the franchise appear. Sometimes, Banpresto chooses one over the other, but more often, they [[Take a Third Option]]:

*** OG1 retains Kusuha and Bullet's Alpha portraits and personalities, but used the other six of the eight possible Alpha protagonists by means of [[Divergent Character Evolution]]. Kusuha and Bullet are placed in their [[Super Robot]] Alpha roles (as a [[Foreshadowing]] of their Alpha story in OG), while another pair (Ryoto Hikawa and Rio Mei Long) are given the [[Real Robot]] Alpha route (which originally negates the [[Super Robot]] [[Road Cone]] in Alpha, concerning the fate of the Choukijin). The third pair (Tasuku Shinguji and Leona Garstein) are given all-new original robots never seen in SRW before, with the fourth and final pair (Yuuki Jaggar and Ricarla Borgnine) being introduced in OG2 using existing robots from [[Super Robot Wars Advance]]. OG1 itself possessed a very minor [[Road Cone]]: the choice to play as either Ryusei Date or Kyosuke Nanbu as the protagonist. The first halves of each story are completely separate, but canonical to each other. The second half is shared, with a few slight differences. Unfortunately, when OG2 is released, the second game carries on with Ryusei's version of the second half, making Kyosuke's OG1 latter half [[Canon Discontinuity]].

*** In Advance, the player has a choice of Lamia Loveless or Axel Almer. Whoever the player doesn't choose becomes [[The Rival]] throughout the game, minus whatever quirk they suffer when chosen ([[Speech Impediment]] for Lamia, [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] for Axel). In OG2, Lamia's chosen and much demand for the return of an amnesiac Axel ensued, due to a massive [[Flanderization]] of Axel by turning him into a much bigger [[Jerkass]] than he was in Lamia's Advance route. The [[Enhanced Remake]] of OG2 not only lightens his character considerably, forcing him into a [[Noble Demon]] status, but come OG Gaiden, {{spoiler|he pulls a stunning [[Heel Face Turn]] to the delight of fans. Then [[Endless Frontier]] EXCEED finishes the job, with Axel getting the Amnesia and taking up the personality he gets in Advance.}}

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* The original ''[[Secret of Monkey Island]]'' had two slightly different end paths, neither of which had a practical effect on the actual endgame: Either you sail back home from Monkey Island with your ship and crew, or you "accidentally" sink their ship and ride home with Herman Toothrot, the local hermit. Even though sinking your ship was an obscure action to begin with, that ending was made canon in the fourth game in the series, where Guybrush's former crewmates, now back home on Méleè island, go out of their way to avoid him because he left them stranded on Monkey Island.

** More subtly, dialogue choices in the first and second game make it possible to play Guybrush as a either a [[Genre Savvy]] [[Deadpan Snarker]] or a lovable [[Genius Ditz]], but the third game in the series prefers the latter characterization.

* The anime based on ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'', ''Star Ocean EX'', merged pretty much all the story of the first part of the game, changing it to make it all possible to happen together. For instance, they just encounter and recruit Ashton, instead of having to backtrack or miss him. Later on they meet Opera and Ernest, which doesn't happen if you recruit Ashton.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' brought [[Relationship Values]] to the series. It also made it into the [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] tactical-RPG ''Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3'', which lets the player set up custom parties of [[Tales (series)]] characters and awards parties bonus titles for certain team-ups. One of these titles is "Love-Love?", which goes to canon couples, such as Cless/Mint and Chester/Arche from ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'', Rid/Farah and Keele/Meredy from ''[[Tales of Eternia]]'', and Lloyd/Colette from ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]''. Ironically, the sequel actually allows you to ''avert'' this particular cone, with an optional cutscene that the player can choose to follow whichever relationship choice they want.

* ''[[Supreme Commander]]'''s expansion ''Forged Alliance'' doesn't explain which ending is actually canon, but simply, after a little expositionary cut scene, dumps the player directly into "1 year later", as the Big Bad overruns the galaxy. It can be deduced it's the Aeon one, because the other sides were wiped out in the UEF ending and space travel was prevented for years in the Cybran one. However, it is implied that whichever side you choose you are the same commander as you would have been in the first game for that faction.

* In one mission of ''[[BattleTech|Mechwarrior 4]]'', Ian Dresari, you, can either save your sister Joanna or secure a cache of weapons for the war effort. The game ends with either Joanna or Ian ascending the throne as Duchess or Duke. The ''Black Knight'' expansion pack assumes that no only did Ian fail to save his sister, but is now ruling as a tyrannical despot.

* The ''[[Muv-Luv]]'' games not only have multiple story paths for ''Extra'' and ''Unlimited'', but {{spoiler|multiple universes and Groundhog Day loops}} too. The final game, ''Alternative'', has a linear plot that explicitly references ''multiple'' paths from the previous games.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' goes with the [[Old Save Bonus]] approach. Unfortunately, if you don't have a save to import, the game gives you default choices that are not only mostly [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism|Renegade]] such as {{spoiler|killing the Rachni and the Council}}, but also some of the worst ones that very few players ever choose, such as {{spoiler|killing Wrex on Virmire and electing [[Jerkass|Udina]] to the council}}. Some fans speculate this is a sneaky way of encouraging players to play the first game instead of jumping into the sequel blind. The [[PlayStation 3]] version, due to the first game never being released for that system, includes an interactive comic book that allows the players to make decisions about major events. This feature was later released as DLC for the Xbox and PC versions.

** ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' requires that Shepard survived the suicide mission of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' (you can't import a save game where Shepard died). This should be fairly obvious, as Bioware said when the second game was released that the trilogy is less about the universe and more about Shepard's story and how it affects the galaxy. {{spoiler|[[The Stinger]] of the third game drives the point home.}}

** The [[Mass Effect Deception|''Deception'']] cut off some branches for 2 sets of players. The first set are players in the first game, chose any option that allowed the Asari flagship, the ''Destiny Ascension'', to be destroyed, killing the council members, leading to either a human-led council, or an all-human council. The second set of players are those of the following: PC and 360 players without the ''Mass Effect: Genesis'' graphic novel (which is included with the [[PlayStation 3]] version because the first game was never released on that platform, and subsequently available as paid DLC for the other 2 versions) who made complete fresh starts in the second game. Without the graphic novel, the game then assumed you made the worse choices in the first. ''Deception'' also cut off branches for players who saved the council and nominated Anderson as councilor, as during the events of the novel, Anderson re-linquishes his position, and Udina takes over.

** The [[Mass Effect: Deception|''Deception'']] cut off some branches for 2 sets of players. The first set are players in the first game, chose any option that allowed the Asari flagship, the ''Destiny Ascension'', to be destroyed, killing the council members, leading to either a human-led council, or an all-human council. The second set of players are those of the following: PC and 360 players without the ''Mass Effect: Genesis'' graphic novel (which is included with the [[PlayStation 3]] version because the first game was never released on that platform, and subsequently available as paid DLC for the other 2 versions) who made complete fresh starts in the second game. Without the graphic novel, the game then assumed you made the worse choices in the first. ''Deception'' also cut off branches for players who saved the council and nominated Anderson as councilor, as during the events of the novel, Anderson re-linquishes his position, and Udina takes over.

* [[Nippon Ichi]] has a history of throwing their game leads as cameos and [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]] of later works, which inevitably throws Road Cones into several of their works. ''[[Disgaea]]'' carries on from the good ending, as does its sequel, ''Disgaea 2''. ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' uses its normal ending with a female Revya {{spoiler|although Revya's appearance in ''Disgaea 3'' has a nod to the Demon Path in her description}}. ''[[La Pucelle Tactics]]'' uses the [[Nonstandard Game Over]], however. For the most part these choices are understandable, as the less good endings tend to involve character deaths, depression and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] all around, which would make for poor cameos -- {{spoiler|with the exception apparently being made for Prier, who was apparently deemed better as an Overlord}}.

** An exception, as far as [[Disgaea]] goes: ''[[Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?]]'' uses the normal ending of Disgaea in which {{spoiler|Laharl is dead. You later see him reincarnated as a Prinny, which also happened in that ending.}}

** And of course the greatest [[Road Cone]] -- [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Asagi]] has canonically been a [[Bonus Boss]] in every game since ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''. [[Butt Monkey|And she always loses.]]

* Done to a depressing extreme in ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate II]]''. The game dialogue and set-up tells you ''exactly'' who you travelled with by the end of the first game (Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir and Imoen) and tells you exactly how you behaved (heroically). Needless to say, rationalizing what you are shown and told in the intro level was very difficult if you're getting the [[Old Save Bonus]] from a [[Chaotic Evil]] [[Religion of Evil|Priest of Talos]].

* While left somewhat unclear, ''[[Overlord Two|Overlord II]]'' suggests that the previous [[Evil Overlord]] was something of a [[Noble Demon]] who at the very least saved the Elves from extinction. The game also goes on to say that {{spoiler|Rose}} was the canonical choice for Mistress.

** [[Fridge Brilliance|It makes sense from a practicality standpoint because, even if he felt nothing for her, a smart evil overlord would keep her seeing as though she's much smarter than her sister (being able to devise plans and such).]]

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* The original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' has two endings; a "good" one where {{spoiler|Meryl lives}} and a "bad" one where {{spoiler|Snake finds her dead}}. ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' doesn't mention Meryl, but Snake is wearing his bandana of ''[[Bottomless Magazines|unlimited ammo]]'', a gift he got from Meryl in the "good" ending. While the book "In The Shadow of Shadow Moses" (Nastasha's [[Fictional Document|account of the events in the previous game from her perspective]]) suggests Meryl survived, the book "The Shocking Conspiracy Behind Shadow Moses" explains the main character found the bandanna on the beach and Snake took it from him (implying Meryl was never there to find it). Being deliberately confusing was one of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'''s main themes. Not being deliberately confusing was one of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4''`s, which had Meryl return in an awkward-ex-girlfriend role.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Thracia 776'', the midquel to ''Geneaology of the Holy War'' canonizes Levin/Fury, whereas in the first game you could choose between her and two other girls. (Well, technically six other girls but since only Fury, Sylvia and Tiltyu's sons can use Holsety there's no point in the other four.)

** On the other hand, they averted this with Lachesis by implying [[Really Gets Around|BOTH]] her predistined pairings were canon. (i.e. Nanna's father is Fin and Delmud's father is Beowulf)

* [[Silent Hill 3]] road cones [[Silent Hill 1]] into either the Good or the Good+ Ending, but its UFO Ending has a [[Mythology Gag]] to the UFO Endings of both its predecessor and [[Silent Hill 2]].

** [[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]], on the other hand, can be seen as {{spoiler|a road cone for the worst ending of the game, in which Harry was [[Dead All Along]]}}.

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* All [[Chrono Cross]] says about its predecessor ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' is that {{spoiler|all of the main characters died in various horrible ways}}. Also, the game has at least ten endings, and the one that's considered canon wasn't actually put in the game until the [[Updated Rerelease]] for the [[PlayStation]]. In that ending, {{spoiler|Dalton takes over Guardia, and the heroes set up the long chain of events that leads into ''Cross''}}.

* Averted in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' where [[Previous Player Character Cameo|Red]] has all three starters ([[Third Option Adaptation|four if you include Yellow's Pikachu]]) and Blue didn't use his. It was however invoked in ''[[Video Game Remake|HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', cutting off the branch of the female [[Player Character]] from ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue|FireRed and LeafGreen]]''.

** ''[[Pokémon Ranger]]'' also cuts off the branch for Kate in the third game.

* The film ''[[Clue (film)|Clue]]'' is a rare example of this being done for an adaptation of a board game. They don't cover all the possible killers - and, in fact, one of the endings is utterly impossible to achieve within the game - but the multiple endings get the basic point across.

* In the original ''[[Final Fight]]'', any of the three heroes (Guy, Cody, or Haggar) could throw Belger off his building at the end of the game. In ''Final Fight 2'', it is Cody who is shown delivering the finishing blow to Belger in the opening intro and this actually becomes an important plot point in ''Final Fight: Streetwise'' ({{spoiler|in which Father Bella is seeking revenge on Cody for killing Belger}}).

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** ''Dark Crusade'''s endings were pruned by ''Dawn of War II'' ([[All There in the Manual|and its novelizations]]) mentioning that {{spoiler|the Blood Ravens beat, at the very least, the Necrons, the Chaos Marines, the Imperial Guard, and as of ''Retribution'', definitely the Eldar.}}

** ''Soulstorm'' didn't confirm a victor (probably because it was {{spoiler|the Sisters of Battle}}, one of the least-popular 'good human' races, to say nothing of [[Canon Discontinuity|how unpopular Soulstorm itself was]]), but it did confirm that {{spoiler|the Blood Ravens}} lost horribly.

*** Surprisingly, after Winter Assault, Gorgutz managed to avert this with each of his appearances, with a cutscene showing him deliberately escaping the conflict if he's defeated. This opens him up to appearing in any sequel should he be needed, and he's fairly popular.

** ''Chaos Rising'' was confirmed by ''Retribution'' that {{spoiler|Avitus}} was the traitor through process of elimination: {{spoiler|the traitor had to have fought on Kronus (rules out Thaddeus and the Force Commander), while Tarkus, Cyrus and Martellus appear as playable characters.}}

** An odd case was the return of {{spoiler|Eliphas the Inheritor}}. Not only does the Dawn of War II game invalidate his existence, but he somehow switched sides for unknown reasons.

** ''Retribution'' ended, predictably enough, with a {{spoiler|Blood Ravens}} victory, which is confirmed in ''Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine'' when {{spoiler|Titus encounters a handful of Blood Ravens marines who reference the "Aurelia Campaign".}}

* The ''[[Code Geass]]'' RPG for the [[Nintendo DS]] is an interesting example; the "One True Path" is the anime canon, which you're forced to follow on your first playthrough. The [[New Game+]] allows one to explore better (or worse) paths, all of which involve [[Original Generation]] villains Castor and Pollux.