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{{trope}}
[[File:FissionMailed-1.jpg|link=Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
[[Phoenix Wright]] has lost, the trial has ended, and the judge has declared "Guilty". [[That One Boss]] smashed [[The Legend of Zelda
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.
A variety of [[But Thou Must!]]. If very few clues are given, this is often one type of [[Guide Dang It]]. Fission Mailure often occurs on a fake [[Final Boss]]. [[Hopeless Boss Fight
[[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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----
{{examples}}
* 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.▼
▲{{examples|Examples of Legend:}}
** You can mail your fission at any time in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' by taking the fake death pill, which sends you to a fake Game Over screen, except your inventory button still works, allowing you to take the revival pills. {{spoiler|The Sorrow sends you to the same Fission Mailed screen, and the same remedy works.}}▼
▲* The [[Trope Namer]] occurs when Raiden and Snake are fighting through Arsenal Gear in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2]]''. 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.
▲** You can mail your fission at any time in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3]]'' by taking the fake death pill, which sends you to a fake Game Over screen, except your inventory button still works, allowing you to take the revival pills. {{spoiler|The Sorrow sends you to the same Fission Mailed screen, and the same remedy works.}}
** 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]]}}.
=== [[Action Adventure]] ===
* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]: Blood Omen'' actually starts with a Fission
* In ''[[
** {{spoiler|Worst of all is that her death is preventable [[Guide Dang It|but you have no way of knowing that.]]}}
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle
* Halfway through ''[[Clash
* A common theme in the ''[[
** In ''[[Assassin's Creed
** In ''[[
** Happens ''twice'' in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
* ''[[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!
** Super Metroid does this ''again'' in the incredibly creepy final boss fight, just a few minutes after the Giant Metroid event. The boss is almost dead, and it uses its most powerful, unavoidable attack. You're left with hardly any energy
*** 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.}}
=== [[Action Game]] ===
* 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 ''Gunstar Super Heroes'', the GBA sequel to the Genesis game ''[[Gunstar Heroes]]'', Black's dice maze includes a new room. In the Japanese version of the game, upon entering this room through sheer (bad) luck, you are treated to a message that claims that failure to complete this challenge will cause your game file to be erased and if you think you can't do it, you should press Start+Select+A+B to reset the game and start the stage over from beginning. Next, you have to frantically blast through the floor of a seemingly endless vertical shaft while a literal representation of your game file crashes down from above. In the (extremely) likely chance it eventually catches up to you and crushes you, it turns out that the game was only kidding, but even if you survive, you still have to redo a large portion of the level. The US version has the same room, but the effect is lost because there's no message and the tombstone graphic has been altered so that the text in it refers to your character instead of your save file, although the location is still called File Crasher on the map.
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' has an example that will probably walk straight into legend. At a certain point, {{spoiler|the console or PC freezes. The effect is creepily realistic. The game "restarts"... but something's off. Then you're the Joker, escorting ''Batman'' into Arkham Asylum in a twisted parody of the opening sequence of the game. And he then shoots Batman in the ''face''. It even goes so far as to show the game over screen with the helpful message to "Use the ''middle'' thumbstick (or "tilt the mouse" in the PC version) to dodge Joker's bullet"- wait, what? Whichever option you choose in the game over screen segues into another battle with the Scarecrow.}}
** Furthermore, if you try to {{spoiler|skip the twisted version of the opening cutscene, the game will prompt you to press the J button to skip.}}
* In ''Wiz'n'Liz'', one of the available spells (which you have to try out to find the effect) does "Game over! ...Just kidding!"
* 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.
=== [[Adventure Game]] ===
* Many, many times in the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series. In one especially egregious case in the third game, winning the trial comes down to pressing a single statement in a particularly drawn-out testimony. Any selection you make leads to Godot informing you that you've failed to find anything
** 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..."
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** In general, if it looks like Wright/attorney says "I've got nothing..." and the screen starts to black out, expect someone to yell "Hold It!" or for the chime to ring in and Wright suddenly realizing a contradiction.
* 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 ''[[Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge]]'', there was a scene where Guybrush was suspended over a cauldron filled with acid. When you took too long to get out, you fell into the acid and
** In ''[[
* In ''[[The Adventures of Sam
* In ''[[
* In ''[[King's Quest VI]]'' in the Minotaur's lair, there are many rooms with deadly trap doors, and one with a not-so-deadly trap door. If you, like many, restored every time you ''started'' to fall, it took a long time to realize you '''had''' to fall into one of them.
** There was also the bottle that shows up on the Isle of Wonder. Take a swig, and it appears as though Alex drops dead. Seeing as your typical KQ game had [[Everything Trying to Kill You
** Also, some of the places where you observe cutscenes of your demise (or failure) are visitable while you're alive later in the game, such as the underworld.
* In ''[[Myst|Riven]]'', you have to enter the trap book you're carrying to prove to Gehn that you're sincere. After you enter the book, the screen shows the view through the "link window", with Gehn deliberating if he should or shouldn't enter the book. Then, Gehn finally decides to enter the book, catapulting you out... on the opposite side of the prison bars.
** Apparently, the designers wanted to make the delay longer, but people thought the game had crashed and force quit it.
** If you enter the book at the wrong time, of course, you get a [[Downer Ending]] that's more like a disguised Game Over.
** When you first enter the Rebel Age, you are discovered and knocked out by the rebels. When you come to, you get to helplessly watch as you are transported by boat to the "Hive".
* Classic text adventure ''Heroine's Mantle'' has this. There's lots of foreshadowing (if you pay attention), and it fits well with the game's theme of sacrifice. {{spoiler|You still have to have your protagonist jump to her death, and pass the Heroine's Mantle on to the next Crusader. Which you then get to play for the grand finale.}}
* In the first levels of ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' (aka ''[[
* In ''[[The Adventures of Willy Beamish]]'', one of the puzzles near the end requires you to get captured by the villain {{spoiler|after rescuing several frogs from being boiled alive}} and nearly drown. The first several seconds appear exactly the same as the actual failure of the puzzle, but letting the game over screen play out {{spoiler|sees the rescued frogs come and rescue the protagonist}}.
* The flash game ''A Small Favor'' referenced this trope, in a way. There was a Mission Failed ending that was only possible by using the postal service to mail a nuclear bomb. Kongregate made it a 15 point badge, so in a way it's a success only through failure.
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* In ''[[Heavy Rain]]'', any of your main characters can die, but the story will go on regardless. One potential death sequence actual features the terrified death screams of your heroine.
** Then again, there are sections that ''look'' life-threatening but won't actually kill your character if you fail. And {{spoiler|Ethan and Scott}} can't die at all before the final showdown at the old warehouse.
* In ''[[Amnesia:
* In the final episode of ''[[Strong
* "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.
=== [[Beat
* ''Maximum Carnage'' pulled exactly the same trick.
* The game ''[[
=== [[First
* 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.}}
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** In ''Call of Duty 2'', at the beginning of the first mission in the American campaign, you are quickly and relentlessly thrown to the ground by your landing-craft exploding behind you, complete with the slow-motion movement, the sounds of the game dulling, being unable to move, and finally the slightly shrieky tone that usually signifies death... until your Sergeant grabs hold of you and screams soundlessly at your face.
*** The Prologue mission "Crew Expendable" of #4 has a similar scene with Captain Price.
** In ''World at War'', this happens to your character fairly often compared to earlier titles. It really only ''feels'' like it a couple of times, though; in most instances, it happens at such a point where your inevitable rescue seems very predictable.
*** It happens even more in [[Modern Warfare 2]]. Culminating in {{spoiler|it happening THREE TIMES in the final battle. First when Shepherd stabs you, then when he stomps on your face, and finally when Soap appears to die from his wounds after killing Shepherd}}
* In the first playable portion of ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' the story requires the player to be gunned down.
** However, if you escape, you collapse from the malaria and open your bottle of meds, [[Oh Crap|only to find that it's empty and collapse on the ground.]]
** After you finish half the game, {{spoiler|you need to make a brave last stand at either a Church (to protect refugees) or a Bar (to protect your fellow mercenary buddies)}}. Regardless of your decision, {{spoiler|you can't win, because the enemy has infinite reinforcements. You die, along with everyone else... or so it seems, because you recover after falling off a truck transporting your "corpse".}} Then, while stumbling through a sandstorm, you "die" again, but are saved by {{spoiler|the man you've been hunting all along}}.
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*** [[Bolivian Army Ending|Or so it seems.]]
* In a cutscene in the beginning of ''Project: Snowblind'', {{spoiler|where you are being rushed to the hospital after being bombed to death}}, the screen suddenly becomes filled with static for a few seconds, as if something had broken.
* ''[[
** Only {{spoiler|Gunther}} ignores damage, seeing as he's somewhat important to the plot. You can kill all the other mooks and even the mechs if you're packing enough heat.
* In ''[[Doom]]'', at the end of the first episode, you go into a teleporter and are "killed" by a group of monsters.<ref>It's not the monsters that are supposed to do you in, it's the room's setup - it disables any invulnerability you previously had, gives you ONE hit point you cannot lose, and then damages you until you reach a certain health.</ref> Then you find yourself on the lost moon of Deimos, which happens to have been transported into the Hell dimension.
** A quirk in the ACS used in Hexen (and, through porting, ZDOOM) allows for a level transition while the player is dead. Normal behavior for that situation is to "respawn" the player on the new level. With enough delicate scripting, it is possible in ZDOOM to note the entire inventory of a player before instant-killing them with a scripted death and then force a level transition to the next level, which would then give them their entire inventory back. Fission Mailed indeed.
* The ''[[
** 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.}}
** This is a callback to the first game, where one segment ends with you walking through a
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces
=== [[Interactive Fiction]] ===
* [[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.
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* In the interactive movie Star Trek: Borg, your character had to be assimilated by the Borg in order to get past a certain point in the story.
* In ''Curses'', putting something of the right size into the slide projector transforms it into a [[Portal Picture]]. Entering the pictures projected by the Grim Reaper, Drowned Sailor or Fool tarot cards gives the standard '''***You have died***''' message, followed by:
{{quote|
=== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s ===
* ''[[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}}
** When the fight was first available, the game actually DID let you release. Whether it was intended or not, it got hotfixed fairly quickly, in creepy [[Leaning
** There's a quest where you need to kill yourself to talk to the ghost of the architect of Blackrock Depths. He'll tell you how to craft a master key to the doors in the dungeon. Made somewhat more obvious since Cataclysm as the game drops you off right next to him so long as you're in the general area of Blackrock Mountain.
** The first time you come face to face with Akama, you discover that instead of being [[The Dragon]], he is actually a deep cover mole. In order to preserve his cover, as soon as he hears one of the demons coming he kills you. You then have to lie there dead and listen to their conversation; he brings you back to life once the demon leaves.
** 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, if inevitable eventual deaths count, then the fight with Sambrog in the barrow of Othrongroth is a
* 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.}}
=== [[Platform Game]] ===
* ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' is so nefarious as to fake a Windows operating system error message... {{spoiler|and then it drops down and squashes the Kid if you hadn't wised up to it.}} What makes it worse is that the error ''actually happens'' sometimes while playing the game; it's a known bug, and the game made the absolute best of it. Of course, since the window is clearly from Windows XP, a person using a newer or older version of Windows or another OS or selected the classic theme entirely won't be fooled.
** 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 ''[[Futurama]] the Game'', the first level has a forced Fission
* In ''[[La
* 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 ''[[Eversion]]'''s later worlds, {{spoiler|one of the screens that occasionally replaces the "READY!" screen is a false Game Over screen.}}
* ''[[
** Earlier in the game Faith is forced to fall about three stories through a [[Soft Glass|glass roof]], landing on her back. At first it looks like Faith died, but then in the [[Cutscene Power to
* Not a straight example, as it's not a requirement, but something similar to this can happen in the ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' games. Player characters' hitboxes remain active throughout their defeat animations, meaning that it's entirely possible to take a fatal hit on your last life, but fall onto a [[Law of One Hundred|hundredth banana]] during this animation, [[
** The final boss [[Turns Red]] during the Fake Kredits.
* In ''[[Super Scribblenauts]]'', after {{spoiler|you shoot down your Doppleganger's UFO}} a message appears onscreen saying "Try again. The [[MacGuffin|Starite]] has been destroyed". The only button there says "No way". After pressing it {{spoiler|A new puzzle opens: "Write the answer!"}}.
* 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.
=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* ''[[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 ''[[Warhammer 40
* In ''[[Command
=== [[Rhythm Game]] ===
* An ''[[In
=== [[Role
* ''[[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!
* ''[[
** And prepares you for the many, many, many, hopeless battles ahead.
** Some particularly skilled players found that it is possible to beat the tutorial's boss. Then a ''dragon'' shows up to finish the job.
* ''[[Paper Mario (
** The first battle in the original ''[[Paper Mario (
** In ''[[Paper Mario:
** Also in that game, Mario fights a Duplighost named "???" who turns into a purple Mario. Upon "winning" the fight, we see that Mario and "???" have switched bodies. You can only set things right by finding out "???"'s real name, {{spoiler|Doopliss, and the letter "p" to spell it with}}.
** In ''[[
*** {{spoiler|Actually Mario and Co. are sent to the [[Punny Name|Underwhere]] still alive, but the player doesn't know that until Mario and Luigi are able to return.}}
* In ''[[
* Reaching 100% on the d-counter in ''[[Breath of Fire]]: Dragon Quarter'' normally means Game Over. However, [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|the attack necessary to defeat the final boss]] will fill it to 100%, and this is in fact the only way to win the game.
** Pretty much all of the ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' games except the first one require a Fission Mailed at some point. Some of them more obvious than others. And if you need a list:
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*** In ''[[Breath of Fire IV]]'', at some point in the middle where the player must lose to a general. Also sort of subverted in that the one of the final decisions in the game {{spoiler|allows the player to be the final boss to wipe out their teammates}}.
* The final and only boss in the Playstation version of ''Azure Dreams'' must bring you down to zero hit points in order for you to win the game. This is a particularly nerve-wracking example, since normally being defeated in battle causes you to lose all your precious equipment and have your save overwritten, and the player is actually capable of escaping the battle.
* In ''[[
** Notably, if you [[Socialization Bonus|bring over items from another game]], [[One Game for
* The [[Amiga]] classic ''Captive'' had an occasional blinking "''Droid link failure - Guru Meditation''" message pop up on the screen of the "briefcase computer" the player was using to control the Battle
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, the fight against the mechanical lion in the chimera factory.
*** Subverted. You can kill it, it's just really, really hard.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'': The first real boss fight with Golbez starts with him paralyzing the entire party and summoning a dragon that proceeds to use a Death attack on each of your party members. Just as he is about to finish off Cecil, the Mist Dragon appears out of nowhere to defeat him and cure Cecil. Right after, Rydia (who summoned the Mist Dragon) rejoins the party mid-fight and the battle continues. Of course, the game also has it's fair share of [[Hopeless Boss Fight
** 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.
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** In the fight against the Dark Elf where you can't use any weapons and armor made of metal, you have to lose so Edward plays on his harp weakening the Elf.
*** If you're not playing the DS version and reequip all your metal equipment before the battle (since you know it's throwaway), you're all paralyzed, so it's a Game Over. (The DS version goes directly to the weaken cutscene if this happens.)
* At one point in ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story
* At one point in ''[[
* ''[[
** Happens again with the Arrival DLC if {{spoiler|Shepard gets "killed" in the Object Rho fight, instead to be knocked out and sedated. If you survive your [[Last Stand]], then the artifact simply knocks you out for the same thing to happen}}
* ''[[
* '' [[
** In the SFC version, you just lost hitpoints.
** The fight against {{spoiler|Dozo and Okiyo in the Euclid Arena}} qualifies, but it is possible to win with some extra grinding/Infinity Plus X swords available elsewhere (It goes up to Infinity Plus 5!)
* In ''[[
** [
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: [[Morrowind]]'', one of the side quests requires you to {{spoiler|go to a specific canal in Vivec and allow yourself to drown to death in order to find a hidden shrine.}}
** Similarly in ''[[The Elder Scrolls Four|Oblivion]]'', there's a quest where you have to let a NPC kill you. This time though the game explicitly tells you what you must do.
* In ''[[
** You can actually defeat Lavos there, either with a [[New Game
** You can also {{spoiler|get an item, the titular "Chrono Trigger", and go back, freeze the instant of time Crono was supposed to die, and replace him with a clone. Surprising, this part is actually '''optional'''. You can choose not to do it, leaving Crono to his fate}}.
*** {{spoiler|Well, you as the player can. Beating the game with Crono dead shows the party reviving him.}}
* Inverted in ''[[
** Actually, it's the leader of the group of NPCs that reloads the game.
* [[Played With]] in ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' as the player avatar always comes back to life after dying and occasionally ''must'' die to advance the plot, but you aren't always told when this is what's going on, and dying, while not permanent, is still fairly annoying from a gameplay standpoint, so it's to be avoided most of the time.
* In the prologue to ''[[
* Happens three times in ''[[Terranigma]]'', the first two being optional. The first time you go into a poisoned room that has Ark doing his fainting animation but he is thrown out. The second happens the first time you try to cross a certain desert, giving the standard game over text (however the town music is playing all the time). The only obligatory time is when you meet {{spoiler|Light World Ark}}, which plays the fanfare with the text and it's implied it actually kills Ark.
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has a mission in which after finding 50 Sunset Sasparilla Star Caps, upon telling Festus that you've won the contest, he proceeds to give you the prize: {{spoiler|Telling you the story of the origins of Sunset Sasparilla}}. After which, you immediately fail the mission. If you complain about your crappy "prize" however, Festus will direct you to a better prize: {{spoiler|A bunch of stickers, amongst which is the asphyxiated corpse of a raider who was also suckered into all of this who happens to be holding a powerful laser pistol, as well as a whole lot of bottlecaps which went from being trash in pre-war times to being the most versatile currency in the land.}}
* In ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'', the first boss fights against Ignacy, and much later {{spoiler|Luze}}, play out like this. It's impossible to win both fights, so you have to let them kill you to advance the plot. The two fights against {{spoiler|Alf, Adele, and Leslie/Clyde}} ''would'' count; except in the first fight, you CAN defeat them, but it is very difficult to do so, and the plot continues on whether you win or lose (though you lose out on getting a [[Mons|Rogress]] if you lose). In the second fight, while it's impossible to win, if you lose you get the standard Game Over; the key is to stall out the fight until it ends on its own after enough turns have passed.
* In ''[[Persona 4]]'', during the final battle with {{spoiler|Izanami}}, it's impossible to kill her. Even if you knock down her health bar all the way, she'll wipe you out with an instant kill spell, at which point [[Mission Control|Rise]] will freak out, just as she does when you lose normally. However, [[The Power of Friendship|the power of the Social Links you've built]] will kick in and give you the [[Eleventh
** 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.}}
=== [[Shoot
* 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.
=== [[Simulation Game]] ===
* 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.
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** Hilariously, {{spoiler|it will still say "operation successful", even if you've let Adel bleed out}}.
=== [[Stealth Based Game]] ===
* 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.}}
=== [[Survival Horror]] ===
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Ghost Hunter]]'', on [[
* The dark dead-end alley sequence in ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'', where Harry has to be "killed" by the demon children to proceed. Then he wakes up in the cafe, not much worse for wear. {{spoiler|In the [[New Game
** ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'': Maria's {{spoiler|many deaths}} serve as a sort of Fission Mailed as well, as triggering them outside of scripted events causes a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
** The Nightmare Amusement Park in the beginning of ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'', where Heather gets run over by the roller coaster at the end. Heather can also "mail the fission" at any time during the nightmare by being killed by the enemies or jumping into a [[Bottomless Pit]].
** The interactive nightmare at the beginning of ''[[Silent Hill 4]]'', where [[The All
** And the beginning of ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]''.
** And once more, with Harry ''again'' in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]''.
* [[Dead Space (
=== [[Turn
* 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]].
=== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ===
* 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".
=== [[Visual Novel]] ===
* ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Princess Waltz]]'' gives you a "Bad End" halfway through the game, at which point you need to go back to the title screen and choose to play its second half.
* It is impossible to get the True Ending of ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'' on the first playthrough. {{spoiler|For plot reasons. Akane has to send Junpei through the Safe Ending to obtain a password so that she can give it to him on the next run through. Otherwise, the game ends with the Coffin Ending.}}
* 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.
=== Other ===
* 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.
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* 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.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* A ''[[Dungeons
** 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
* The ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' adventure "A More Perfect Union" uses this to great effect. The players are given generic police officer characters and told to investigate reports of shouting coming from a house in the suburbs {{spoiler|this is actually because the residents have been infected with a sort of mind-control virus and have slowly assimilated everyone inside into a hive mind. Next on their list? The police that come to investigate. Once the players have lost all of the police to [[The Virus]], play picks up again with their own characters.}}
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* The ''[[Touhou]]'' webcomic ''[[
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The season 2 finale of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition]]'' has a few examples of this, contributing to the [[Mind Screw]].
** First, in Hill Top Zone, Docfuture successfully defeats Metal Sonic but gets a Game Over screen anyway. After getting three such Game Overs, he suddenly advances to the next level with no explanation. It's suggested that Tails was deliberately causing these, just to screw with Docfuture.
** 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.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* 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.
* In the two-part Season 2 finale of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship
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[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
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