Fission Mailed: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

Fission Mailure is whenever it appears you have lost the game, sometimes so far as to present an apparent [[Game Over]] screen, but in fact you ''had'' to fail in order to advance the plot. The title comes from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', where there was a rare clue: what popped up was not the authentic "Mission Failed" screen, but rather a [[Spoonerism|spoonerized]] version.

 

 

[[I Thought It Meant|Not to be confused with]] any conjunction between [[Atomic Hate|nuclear weapons]] and [[Our Lawyers Advised This Trope|the postal service]]. Or between nukes and chainmail.

 

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* The [[Trope Namer]] occurs when Raiden and Snake are fighting through Arsenal Gear in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''. At one point, the screen flashes white, indicating that Raiden has been killed, but instead of "Mission Failed", the text reads "Fission Mailed", the options read "Emit/Continent" instead of "Exit/Continue", and the action continues in the corner box that normally shows Raiden's cause of death. A few seconds later, the game goes back to normal.

** The first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' had Psycho Mantis, a boss with an attack that pretended to turn off the console. There was the big green [[Hideo Kojima|"Hideo"]] in the top right corner as a giveaway, but this was another level of [[Interface Screw]]; it had a similar [[Useful Notes/Fonts|font]] and positioning as the "Video" input indicator on Sony Trinitron model televisions that were made at the time.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' has both a tribute to the Psycho Mantis encounter in the form of Screaming Mantis (and in the Codec conversations about how to beat her when the player can't properly control Snake) and {{spoiler|Psycho Mantis' reappearance}}, and the infamous {{spoiler|microwave hallway has Snake's Life bar drain out... but wait, his Psyche is still there!}} Snake can actually complete that part with {{spoiler|''both'' bars depleted, [[Tear Jerker|tragically]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|pulling himself the rest of the way with only his fingers]]}}.

 

* In ''[[Cave Story]]'', after defeating {{spoiler|the Core}}, you will be trapped in a flooded [[Boss Room]] and have no option but to let your [[Oxygen Meter]] run out. After it runs out, rather than the standard [[Game Over]] screen, the screen goes black, then you wake up to find that {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|your partner has given you her air tank and drowned in your place.]]}}

** {{spoiler|Worst of all is that her death is preventable [[Guide Dang It|but you have no way of knowing that.]]}}

** Happens ''twice'' in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'', first when {{spoiler|Ezio is shot by snipers on the rooftops on Monterriggioni and falls to the ground,}} then when {{spoiler|Ezio is on horseback heading for Roma after the siege, where he collapses and falls off the horse.}}

* ''[[Super Metroid]]'''s giant Metroid pops up, is unavoidable and quickly drains your life. When you're at 1 energy, it [[Androcles' Lion|remembers you're its mother]] and backs off. Health Refill station is in the next room, enjoy!

*** If you don't have at least 300 health when Mother Brain blasts you with her "hyper beam" (which happens automatically when you've dealt enough damage to her), the beam will actually kill you.

** Similar situation for the final battle in Metroid Fusion. {{spoiler|The Omega Metroid reduces Samus' health to 1 in just one swipe and cripples her. Before it strikes again, the SA-X [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|inadvertently saves Samus]] and when the Metroid kills it, Samus can absorb the parasite to fully restore her health and gain the Ice Beam.}}

 

* Very briefly appears in the original ''[[Tomb Raider]]''. At the completion of a level, Lara must jump into a well, which turns out to be much too deep for a survivable fall. Lara goes into her "death scream", then lands in the water. But the game goes on to the next level quickly enough not to worry players unduly.

** As long as you land in water that's deep enough to swim underwater in, [[Soft Water|you can fall from any height and survive]]. [[Did Not Do the Research|Whether or not this is a programmer oversight]] is left to the players to decide.

* In ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] Black'', during the cutscene after the second boss, Ryu is killed by Doku with the Dark Dragon Blade, but [[Disney Death|resurrected]] by the falcon spirit.

 

** The particular case in the first game, with the Game Over sequence, the ''only'' indication that you're supposed to let the Guilty verdict continue is that you weren't penalized. In fact, if you haven't been penalized at all, it will seem ''very'' weird, as the judge doesn't give you another chance, and you don't lose one of your markers. Also, the fact that you ''can't do anything to prevent the supposed Game Over''. For someone playing through the first time, these vague indications are ''very easily'' overlooked.

*** Unless you've failed before. One indicator is that, during the Judge's typical spiel, it cuts to Wright, who sweats and says something like "This doesn't look good... I'm sorry..."

* In ''[[Quest for Glory III]]'', leaving a campfire burning in the savanna will give you a [[Have a Nice Death]] message stating that you have gravely upset Smoky The Elephant, and you are provided with the usual options to restore, restart or quit. Picking any option will make the game admit that it was a joke and send you on your way.

* In ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'', wandering too close to the edge of a cliff cause Guybrush to fall off and a game over screen parodying [[Sierra]]'s [[Have a Nice Death]] tendencies to appear... and then Guybrush pops back up ("rubber tree").

* In ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam & Max Hit The Road]]'', if you use the wishing well at Bumpusland, Sam says "I wish this game was over." You get a "The End" message and the screen fades to black, then Sam says "Hold it! Get back here!" and the game continues.

* In ''[[Omikron: The Nomad Soul]]'', as the name would imply, dying at certain points (not a difficult feat) results in the player's soul merely transferring to a hapless passerby. In fact, {{spoiler|your first character ''cannot'' survive the game; offending the [[Big Bad]] early in the plot has him labeled as a wanted criminal, and he is unceremoniously shot dead attempting to reach the next zone.}}

* "Go West" from ''[[The IGF Pirate Kart]]'' is a text adventure which you win by repeatedly going west, with any other scenario resulting in your character dying '[[Take Our Word for It|a terrible, terrible death]]'. In the last room, if you try to go west, you get the same Game Over, only at the bottom it asks "Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command, or GO WEST?" Choosing to Go West wins the game.

 

* ''Maximum Carnage'' pulled exactly the same trick.

* The game ''[[X-Men]]'' for the Sega Genesis asks you to fission the mail; you need to hit the "Reset" button on the console to continue the game at one point. If you were playing the game on a Sega Nomad portable, [[Unwinnable|you got boned]] because the Nomad has no reset button. There is reputedly another way to get past this segment, but it's [[Guide Dang It|so obscure that, if it exists, almost no-one knows about it.]]

 

* During the last level of ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'', your squad is attacked by a Hind while escaping from an enemy base. You are given an RPG launcher and told to fire on the Hind, but {{spoiler|it [[Hopeless Boss Fight|ignores any hits you might manage to inflict on it.]] Eventually, the Hind is responsible for incapacitating most of your allies, who are then gunned down one by one when the [[Big Bad]] arrives. You cannot save your allies, and your only option is to kill the [[Big Bad]] before he and his bodyguards kill you.}}

** And then there's the {{spoiler|nuclear explosion in "Shock and Awe" that kills your character's entire unit, as well as your character.}}

** Another major example is the final [[Mind Screw]] battle at the end of ''Project Origin'', while Alma is {{spoiler|raping Beckett}}.

* Happens at the beginning of ''[[Half-Life]] 2''. You are beaten severely by Civil Protection officers, and the screen blacks out. Soon after, you hear [[Action Girl|Alyx Vance]] kicking the shit out of them, and you wake up to a cheery "Dr. Freeman, I presume?" Several Fission Mailed instances are set up later in the game and throughout its Episodes, displaying overwhelming odds which are actually easy to overwhelm or evade if you know what you're doing, and the {{spoiler|bits in the Citadel where you're being carried around through the Stalker Pod lines certainly seem like Freeman's death is inevitable}}. Similarly, {{spoiler|Episode One climaxes with the Citadel exploding, the speeding wave of energy quickly engulfing your train and Alyx shouting "Gordon!", at which point the credits roll. Freeman's survival is, of course, the starting point of Episode Two.}}

* In ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces|Jedi Outcast]]'', the player must 'die' during his first encounter with Desann.

 

* [[Infocom]]'s ''Enchanter'' a point where you have to "die" so that your "corpse" can be brought to another location, and then you get better and wake up there. While it's a bit of a [[Guide Dang It]] puzzle, it's not quite the usual for this trope, since it's something the player has to deliberately set up using an auto-revive effect.

** The sequel ''Sorcerer'' starts you off in an incredibly deadly landscape full of monsters. Then you wake up. Naturally you'll have to go to the same place in person later, this time inexplicably less deadly.

{{quote|Or have you? No... this isn't quite the end. You see an intense blue-white light at the end of what seems a tunnel, and drift toward it until you realise that you are staring, dazed, into the light of the slide projector, and have not moved at all.}}

 

* ''[[Forum Warz]]'' Episode 2 ends with your character's (apparent?) death, then goes on to state that your character has been deleted, your account has been deleted, and that your IP address has been blocked so you can't make a new one. In fact, every IP address has been blocked so nobody else can play again, and the game servers are being physically destroyed.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' pulls one like these at Icecrown Citadel. In your fight with {{spoiler|Arthas, the Lich King}}, your whole raid will {{spoiler|be killed, once Arthas reaches 10% health}}. However, this is supposed to happen, and in a [[Deus Ex Machina]] moment, {{spoiler|Tirion Fordring shatters Frostmourne with Ashbringer, releasing the spirit of Terenas Menethil II, who will resurrect the players, who then just have to beat on Arthas until he falls over}}. The fight is basically won once this happens, as long as the players don't {{spoiler|set their spirits free}}

** There's yet another quest chain in Zul'Drak where you're transported into the ghost world, complete with you in ghost form. Of course, you're not ''completely'' dead, just separated from your body, and when you die there, your corpse will be at where you entered the area instead of where you died.

** You do this in Howling Fjord as well, as [http://www.wowwiki.com/Quest:The_Echo_of_Ymiron part of the prep chain] for Utgarde Keep. You end up confronting the Lich King while in spirit form, and he kills you while you're already a ghost. You have to corpse run and rez to hand in the quest afterward.

** One of the new quests in Azshara has you searching high and low for a missing blue dragon. It turns out he's off having an affair with one of the Spirit Healers (the creepy blue and white angels that preside over your spirit when you die in-game) which means that in order to meet him you have to... you guessed it... die.

** The boss Mandokir the Bloodlord will randomly decapitate party members (both in his original raid encounter and in the new heroic encounter), killing them and displaying the standard time to release. However, chained spirits will resurrect fallen players.

** Since the forsaken are zombies this happens to the character just before you start playing, in fact the very first npc you encounter as a forsaken tells you that they though you might not wake up after all.

* The year 2009 Crimbo event in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' did this. Don Crimbo was unbeatable, but losing to him was followed by a [[Talking Your Way Out]] scene.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'': If you play as a hobbit, you ''will'' get knocked out by bandits within the first few minutes of the tutorial.

* The free-to-play MMO ''[[Jade Dynasty]]'' contains a quest that requires you to "understand the secret of life and death". No other indication is given in the quest description of how to do this. The way to complete the quest is, of course, to die. {{spoiler|However, the game is set up so that certain quests fail if you die, and this quest is one of them. Dropping a quest counts as failing it. This means that you don't actually have to die to complete the quest; you can just drop it, and the game will think you have fulfilled the necessary conditions for completing it and move on to the next one.}}

 

** In a further use of this trope, it is possible to die after delivering the finishing blow to some bosses. The death animation and message will play, but if you wait, the boss will die in the background and you will appear unharmed on the next screen. Nefarious in that if you hit 'r' as the screen instructs you to, you will never know that you could have just waited and beaten the boss.

*** An example of this is {{spoiler|the Mecha-Birdo boss fight. Because this battle takes place in an area apart from the rest of the game, where you are teleported out when enemy is defeated, you can exploit a simple glitch. If you deliver the final blow to Birdo and then die shortly thereafter, just sit around and wait. The event of teleporting you out of there will still continue, same as everything else in the game continues after you die.}}

* The only way to get the Flame in ''[[Prince of Persia]] 2: The Shadow and the Flame'' is to be killed by the [[Mook]] on the same screen and ignore any indications to press keys to continue.

* In ''[[La-Mulana]]'', there is a gas-filled area of the Twin Labyrinths that you enter from the Temple of the Sun. You can survive in there for 30 seconds. If the time runs out, Lemeza goes through his death animation... and reappears back in the Temple of the Sun, just outside the Twin Labyrinths, alive as if nothing happened.

* In the comedic ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' fan game ''When Tails Gets Bored'', right before the final level, there is a cutscene that starts with a reproduction of the game's Game Over screen. As it turns out, this is because Sonic is frustrated with the game and refuses to continue.

* In ''[[Drawn to Life]]: The Next Chapter'', {{spoiler|when you first battle Wilfre, he is invincible, and [[Hopeless Boss Fight|you must deliberately die from his attacks to proceed]].}} Then a cutscene shows, and then the real battle begins.

 

* ''[[Hostile Waters]]'' has a example that narrowly avoids being annoying. The first time you see a helicopter with the scientist you were supposed to rescue take off, it means you failed the mission. When the same happens several missions later, it's just a scripted event.

* In ''[[Command & Conquer]]: Red Alert'' you have to capture the Chronosphere for Stalin, but it explodes the in the cutscene after you capture it. Then you are ordered to be shot. Then the blame is (accurately) pinned on someone else and you're reinstated.

 

 

* ''[[Ultima IV]]''. Many players [[Rage Quit]] and reloaded when their boat was sucked into the whirlpool, since the game went black and you got the same initial text that you got when you died. Except - it's actually a ''portal'' to another world under Britannia. D'oh!

* ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' ends the tutorial with a boss fight that will result in your death (if you defeat the boss, you'll be able to get a few things before a later boss punches you in the face via cutscene). Thus setting up the gameplay mechanic of recovering your body after you die.

* In ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 3'', your first fight against Bass cannot be won, because he is surrounded by an impenetrable aura. He eventually defeats you, but instead of a game over, the next cutscene appears with Bass standing over Megaman in victory.

** Notably, if you [[Socialization Bonus|bring over items from another game]], [[One Game for the Price of Two|which would have to have already gone far past this point in the plot]], [[Disc One Nuke|you can remove Bass's barrier and take out his HP]]. [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|Bass will keep going.]]

* ''[[Mother 3]]''. Let's just say that [[The End]] isn't the end.

** Also, the fight against the mechanical lion in the chimera factory.

* ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'': The first battle is extremely one-sided, and ends with [[Total Party Kill|the entire party being killed]]... then revived in a nearby castle, which kickstarts the plot.

* ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'': When you first get to fight the Darkness, there's no way to keep her from vaporizing you and cutting your HP to zero. Don't waste a shuriken - you're not going to win, as she's too powerful at the time and it's pretty important to the plot.

** Note, however, that this fight comes immediately after a rather difficult [[Puzzle Boss]] fight. If Cecil is dead at the end of that fight, you won't have time to resurrect him before Golbez paralyzes and kills your entire party, causing a ''genuine'' Game Over.

*** That was just a [[Game Breaking Bug|particularly buggy]] fight all around. Golbez might kill every party member except Kain (rare), every party member except Yang (even rarer), or just simply kill everybody outright (regardless of whether or not Cecil was actually alive at the beginning of the fight), resulting in one of the most surreal [[Game Over|game overs]] in video game history. Depending on how difficult the previous fight was - or whether or not you had remembered to save before [[Kleptomaniac Hero|looting the place senseless]] - it's also probably one of the most aggravating.

** Also played with earlier on with Shadow Rise. When she uses Supreme Insight, none of your attacks will hit her. The battle will still continue for a few more turns until you're treated to a cutscene of you and your team about to die {{spoiler|until Teddie/Kuma goes [[A Worldwide Punomenon|bearserk]] and kicks Shadow Rise's multicoloured ass.}}

 

* Done similarly in the ''Trouble Shooters'' (''Battle Mania'' in Japan) game for the Sega Genesis, where the credits begin to roll and a boss interrupts them; the game doesn't actually end until the stage after that.

* In the Azdagari string of missions in ''[[Escape Velocity]]: Override'', at one point, a Zidagar photographer takes pictures of a secret base and attempts to escape the system in a ship. The mission you're given is to destroy it before it escapes. If you succeed, you get congratulated and you eventually get the mission again. You need to fail the mission, however, for the story line and mission string to advance.

 

* In ''[[Animal Crossing]]'', once you piss off Mr. Resetti enough by abusing the reset button, he says he will erase all your data and will cause the screen to go black. A few seconds later, the screen returns to normal, and Resetti says "Gotcha!".

* In the ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' series, most of the games since ''Back To Nature'' (PS) will trigger the credits sequence once you get married. But the game starts right back up as normal once they finish. Exceptions include ''For Girl'' (BTN's [[Distaff Counterpart]]) and if you're playing as Tina in the PAL version of ''Magical Melody''. In those cases, the game actually does end there.

** Hilariously, {{spoiler|it will still say "operation successful", even if you've let Adel bleed out}}.

 

* In ''[[Hitman]]: Blood Money'', {{spoiler|the final sequence appears to be Agent 47's funeral after Diana betrays him. However, as the credits are rolling, the player can twiddle the thumbsticks to bring him out of his induced coma and take out everyone present.}}

 

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' has not only a fake "game over", but a fake "stay turned for the sequel" screen, a fake BSOD, and a fake "Game Deleted Successfully" screen, with a blank saved game list.

** As well as the infamous "Controller unplugged" fake error message.

* [[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]] App has one in Chapter 11: After killing the brute and walking around, the battery low icon appears and then another brute appears out of nowhere before the screen goes thwip - nightmare sequence in a marker-desert comes back on. Excessively scary if you haven't charged your iTouch for a while.

 

* The first boss battle in ''[[Disgaea]] 3'' ends in a Fission Mailed''/''[[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]] situation, as Mao and Almaz have defeated the Overlord's hand, but it sprouts new fingers and wipes the floor with them, inducing a "Game Over (?)", while proceeding to the next chapter anyway. Because Mao [[No Fourth Wall|refuses to let the game end like that]].

 

* In ''[[Transformers]] G1 Awakening'', the player is facing the [[Big Bad]] with the only controllable unit being Optimus Prime. This appears to be the [[Final Boss]] fight, except there's no way for Optimus to beat Shockwave on his own. [[But Thou Must!|He has to lose]]. This appears to be a loss, until reinforcements arrive that revive Prime and help him end the war.

* The original ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' has an assortment of randomly picked exit messages, one of which is an error message explaining the game failed writing the player's quick save (to avoid [[Save Scumming]], the only way to save the game during battle is to exit the game) followed by "just kidding".

 

* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' has a hilarious false [[Bad End]], complete with false Tiger Dojo. Tell [[Big Eater|Saber]] there'll be no food today if you want to see it.

** ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]'' continues the tradition when Shirou and Shinji sneak into Sakura's room to read her diary. But on a more serious note, due to the looping gameplay it's okay to get killed. In fact, you're going to get killed because you can't progress otherwise. Just ignore the Dead Bad End screen that pops up and continue playing.

* In ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'', the good ending to Lilly's path does it's best to make you think you've gotten a bad end, up until the very last scene. In fact, the bad end is exactly the same as the good end except that it ends earlier.

 

* In ''[[Die Anstalt]]'', a patient's progress bar going red usually means that you screwed up their treatment and need to reset their mental state with electroshock therapy. For Dub, however, this is actually a required part of his therapy; many players, not knowing this, kept on trying other methods until they realized that letting his progress bar shoot way down and then shocking him was the ''only'' way to continue his therapy.

* ''[[Fisher-Diver]]'' has a nightmare sequence after the first day. There' player has got no fishing tools, will move slower and slower as the time goes on and is eventually bitten death by wireframe fish.

 

* Not a videogame, but ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' had a [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v16/c140/5.html Bad End] screen after {{spoiler|the party failed to stop Chao from making the existence of mages known to the world and Negi is captured by the teachers}}.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' in season four. Yami goes through ''three'' would-be-losses near the end. One is when, against Rafael, he apparently loses for the second time. However, this is just a recall in animation to the first time he lost, and instead, survives an attack with 10 life points left. The other two are against Dartz. When the Seal of Orichalcos starts to enclose around Yami, he manages to repel it twice.

* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', in the Fall Tournament semi-final, the Deimon Devilbats lose the game and everyone believes their dream of going to the Christmas Bowl is over ... Until Hiruma reveals that they can still go there if they win their consolation match.

 

** Likewise, in the adventure ''Death Triumphant'', the conclusion of the ''Grim Harvest'' trilogy, the party of heroes manage to infiltrate Azalin's castle with the intention of stopping him from using the energy of thousands of souls harvested throughout the trilogy to [[Sealed Evil in a Can|unseal the can he was stuck in]]. As it turns out, they don't quite make it in time. The flavor text is meant to suggest that [[Total Party Kill|everybody's dead]]. However, it turns out that the unleashed energy has turned the party, along with everybody else in a twenty-mile radius, into various forms of the undead. Which ''does'' technically make them dead, mind you, but...

 

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' webcomic ''[[Touhou Nekokayou]]'' parodies this with an pun in [http://dizzy.pestermom.com/?p=thcomic37 this comic].

 

* The season 2 finale of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' was set up as one of these.

* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition]]'' has a few examples of this, contributing to the [[Mind Screw]].

** In the final video, Docfuture beats the [[Unexpected Shmup Level|Unexpected Shmup Finale]] and the ending cutscene starts playing... then Sonic falls out of the sky and lands in an underwater level. An underwater level with no air bubbles, and no choice but to drown. This case was ''definitely'' caused by Tails screwing with Docfuture. It's followed by a cutscene where the boss of a prior level returns and explain that Tails turned against Docfuture because of mind control, and that he's now been cured, so the game can be completed.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Daria]]'', Daria and Quinn are driving out to the middle of nowhere to bail Jane and her brother's band out of jail. At one point they pick up a cute drifter who flirts with Quinn before they drop him back off. A little while later, Daria panics when she realizes he stole their bail money. Cue the "We'll be right back" scene...which suddenly cuts back to the show as Quinn explains what ''really'' happened: ''she'' spent the money to buy him things.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]