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In short, '''Cutting Off the Branches''' is when one of the multiple possible endings in a game is considered the [[Canon]] one in a future adaption.
 
Contrast with [[Third Option Adaptation]], which ignores all the various plotlines and picks an outside choice. When the next work is also a video game instead of an extended universe entry, this can sometimes be averted with [[Old Save Bonus]] (which could mean that if the player wants to change the backstory for the second game, they have to beat the first one all over again) or [[SchrodingerSchrödinger's Question]]. If the branches were selected immediately from character selection, you're using [[SchrodingerSchrödinger's Player Character]]. See also [[Canon Name]], where a character who [[Hello, Insert Name Here|didn't have a given name]] at ''all'' in the first game, is given one in the next.
 
{{examples}}
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** The romance events in the game were fairly 2ndary plot-wise and did not change the main story much. Galaxy Angel 2 is a straight example of this trope since it made Tact/Milfeulle [[Official Couple|canon]]. In fact, the main reason why Tact starts out on another voyage is because he wants to free his fiancee Milfie from her fate. Naturally, being a partly dating sim game, this means there is a new protagonist since Tact is already taken.
* Any fighting game series will fit this trope. Examples include ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' and ''[[Guilty Gear]]''.
** On the other hand, there has been a recent trend to avert this. Examples include... the recent equivalents of both games listed above (the new [[Mortal Kombat]] has a "story mode" that tells a single, unified version of events through the eyes of a series of protagonists, while [[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]] builds its entire premise around deconstructing this).
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall|Daggerfall]]'' has six mutually-incompatible endings. The sequel, ''[[Morrowind]]'', deals with this in a unique manner: all six are the "real" ending, all possible outcomes melded together by an intervening god- or [[Mind Screw|time, which said god is, breaking]].
** ''[[Skyrim]]'' hints that the Champion of Cyrodiil {{spoiler|is Sheogorath, having gone through the Shivering Isle DLC and replaced the previous God of Madness}}. It also implies that he was a member of the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood as well.
* ''[[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 ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' and all following [[Real Time Strategy]] games, instead constructing the story so that one campaign flowed into the next... but ''[[StarcraftStarCraft 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]]''.
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*** 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.}}
** Similarly, Reversal and [[Super Robot Wars GC|GC/XO]] (and to an extent, Super Hero Sakusen) gave the player an option between a male and female version of the same character. Banpresto performed another [[Divergent Character Evolution]], bringing Ingram Plisken/Viletta Vadim from Super Hero Sakusen into Alpha as {{spoiler|[[Opposite SexGender Clone]]s}}, while [[Original Generation]] made Raul Gureden/Fiona Gureden from [[Super Robot Wars Reversal|Reversal]] into [[Half-Identical Twins]].
* ''[[Colony Wars]]'' was a Space Sim that had 5 possible endings, the best being one where [[The Empire]] was thoroughly defeated by [[La Résistance]] and peace was made throughout the 5 systems, too bad that doesn't make for a good sequel. So instead, the canonical ending was the ending where [[La Résistance]] beat [[The Empire]] back to the solar system but were unable to take Earth and instead had to settle on destroying the only star gate our of the system so that the Empire was trapped in the Solar System with scarce resources until they could build a new star gate generations later.
* 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.
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* 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 [[PlayStationPlay Station 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 [[PlayStationPlay Station 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]]es 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]]s 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.}}
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* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' has two possible endings - one where the {{spoiler|Kaileena is defeated}}, and the other where {{spoiler|The Prince manages to kill the Dahaka, saving himself and Kaileena}}. The latter is acknowledged as canon in the opening narration for the ''The Two Thrones''.
* ''[[Gothic]]'' handles the choices of the previous game by having almost everyone that would care dead (or outside the area in G3's case), or only talking about events common to all 3 paths. There are however a few dialogs that reference specific minor choices. One early conversation in 2 establishes that The Nameless Hero did not pay Bloodwyn protection money (as he will reference the consequence of not doing so). One interesting bit in the expansion for 2 suggests he killed Bloodwyn (Never required or recommended, but deserved), which occurs ''during a conversation with Bloodwyn'' (he notes [[Unexplained Recovery|he survived]]).
* In ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'', the "Temple of Ikov" quest has you choose whether to protect the Staff of Armadyl or steal it and give it to the bad guy. When the developers made the sequel quest, "While Guthix Sleeps", they realized the plot sort of hinged on the bad guy having the staff, so everyone who chose to protect it received a note from the guardians that it had been stolen by somebody else.
* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei I]] ''had 3 endings. The sequel takes place under the premise of the Neutral ending having occurred.
** Similarly, ''[[Persona 4]]'' operates as if (obviously) {{spoiler|[[Endofthe World As We Know It|The Fall]] had been prevented in ''[[Persona 3]]''}}.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' handled this weirdly - all three paths had similar endings, and regardless of events [[God Is Evil|everyone turns against God.]]
** According to [http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4373 some fans] and the fanbook for ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'', there are three different main timelines to the Shin Megami Tensei multiverse, and each branch assumes you got a different ending in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]''
* ''[[Harvest Moon]] DS'' and ''[[Harvest Moon]] Cute'' take place 100 years after ''[[Harvest Moon: aA Wonderful Life]]''. The protagonists tombstone, by default, is Mark's; the male protagonist.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has the campaign "The Sacrifice", which ends with one of the original Survivors doing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to allow the others to get to safety. In the game, any of the four characters can make the sacrifice, but the tie-in comic and the sequel campaign "The Passing" shows that Bill is officiall the one who did it.
** Notably, The Passing came out a full year before The Sacrifice, making Bill's death a forgone conclusion. All the more egregious as the only reason why he's dead in the former is due to his VA being unavailable during its production.
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