Gameplay and Story Segregation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]] <br />Arbitrary requirement that stops you from having too many characters in a party or unit.

* [[Canon Shadow]] <br />A character or item that seems to be in the party, but other than giving stats, doesn't affect the plot at all.

* [[Commonplace Rare]] <br />When a seemingly common item takes an excessive amount of effort to acquire.

* [[Fight Like a Card Player]]<br />The story has almost nothing to do with cards, but a lot of the gameplay revolves around them.

* [[Follow the Plotted Line]] <br />You somehow always end up where the plot says you should be, no matter how little sense it makes that you should be there.

* [[Menu Time Lockout]] <br />The inventory menu allows you to pause the game and change your armour and weaponry to immediate effect in the middle of a battle.

* [[Overrated and Underleveled]] <br />A character introduced as being really powerful ends up, statistics-wise, as being weaker than the main character.

* [[Plot Coupon That Does Something]] <br />A form of aversion of this trope, where a story important item also influences the gameplay.

* [[Plotline Death]] <br />All cutscene deaths are final; your "revive" spells and items won't work here. Nor will you be revived if you have [[Video Game Lives|extra lives left]].

* [[Selective Condemnation]] <br />The slaughter of a single NPC is a tragedy; the slaughter of [[What Measure Is a Mook?|one thousand]] [[Mooks]] is a [[A Million Is a Statistic|statistic]].

* [[Solve the Soup Cans]] <br />A puzzle with bizarre and disconnected elements included in a game purely to serve as an obstacle to the player.

** [[Alphabet Soup Cans]] <br />''Educational'' obstacles that are bizarre and disconnected.

* [[Story Overwrite]] <br />When the storyline ignores, overwrites or [[Retcon|RetCons]] one of the player's in-game accomplishments.

** [[Cutscene Drop]] <br />When a cutscene begins, a character may be "teleported" to where the plot says they should be, rather than where they really are.

** [[The Battle Didn't Count]] <br />After beating a boss, instead of dying, he pulls a [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]. Or worse....

*** [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]] <br />A boss battle where you get a [[Game Over]] if you lose, but if you win, the boss activates ''his'' [[Cutscene Power to the Max]] and overrides it.

There are three types listed here; straight examples, aversions (that you could term gameplay and story integration), and back-and-forth examples, where a game includes major straight examples and major aversions at the same time.

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== Straight Examples ==

* In ''[[Castlevania III]]'', you start off with one character and can get one of three partners to join you, or finish the game solo. If you have a partner and sign up a new one, the old one leaves. It is also impossible to encounter all three characters during a single playthrough (without a cheat code, anyway). Yet, according to canon, all four people were involved.

* In ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin|Portrait of Ruin]]'', for pretty much for the entire first half of the game, you get warned about how having Jonathan or any other non-Belmont use the true power of the Vampire Killer will drain their life force and eventually kill them if they overuse it. But when you do actually unlock its power in game, you can whip it all day long with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.

** Justified, it takes longer than the events of the game for the user's life force to be drained.

 

* In ''[[Captain Planet]]'', Gaia states that heart is the strongest power of them all. In the video game, heart does nothing. [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Not that this should be a surprise to anyone.]]

 

 

* In the arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'', there is a third Lee brother named Sonny, plus three different [[Sibling Team|sibling teams]] consisting of three brothers each (the Chin, Oyama, and Urquidez brothers). However, only Billy and Jimmy are shown in the opening and ending, and only a single member of each of the other sibling teams are shown in the ending.

 

* The special moves "Hadouken" (Surging Fist), "Shoryuken" (Rising Dragon Punch) and "Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku" (Hurricane Kick) in ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' are moves with the potential to severely injure opponents (Ryu's Shoryuken left Sagat heavily scarred, for example, although that particular incident was exceptional...) Those moves are toned-down versions of the original [[Charles Atlas Superpower|"murderous techniques"]] (which Gouki/Akuma uses and Gouken knows) that can actually kill an opponent (the "Gou Hadoken", "Gou Shoryuken", and the "Tatsumaki Zanku Kyaku"). Since it would obviously be unfair to make any move lethal, all of this is heavily toned down in the game itself. The canonical power of the moves limits their frequency in anime versions, promoting the Hadouken (for example) from "something Ryu routinely throws out fifty times in two minutes" to "final, fight-ending strike of destiny".

** Lampshaded by the "Shin (True) Shoryuken". It's a massive, destructive super, a good indication of the kind of damage the technique does when the gloves come off.

** It's worth noting that while they're fairly weak from ''SFII'' onwards, in the first game, the special moves were ''very'' powerful, with a successful hit knocking a third of an opponent's health off. Each hit was also rated from one to three stars, and this acted as a damage multiplier; it was entirely possible to one-shot someone with ridiculous lucky.

** Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu attack only seems to kill opponents in the story.

** This may actually reflect a lot of developments from the Attitude Era and subsequent years, and the popularity of superstars such as Eddie Guerrero, who would "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" but still be a fan-favorite because he was amazing in the ring and could convince the crowd to eat out of the palm of his hand.

** Another, more pernicious thing WWE career modes like to do is every now and then have you beat an opponent, and then have them get back up and pin your wrestler in the following cutscene, or some such thing. It should be a normal part of kayfabe, except that you're then stuck with a ''real'' loss that goes on your wrestler's statistics record, even though you put in the effort of winning the friggin' match. Grr.

** Also, no matter how hard you lay the [[Curb Stomp Battle|curbstomping]] on Hazama/Terumi in Arcade Mode, he is still just warming up.

* In ''[[Mortal Kombat]] vs [[DC Universe]]'' after a game of [[Let's You and Him Fight]] Superman and Raiden finally put aside their differences, realize there's a greater enemy to face, and turn, together, to fight Dark Khan in unison. You then proceed to fight him alone, your ally having mysteriously vanished without a word of explanation.

* In the cutscene before the final battle of ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', all ten of the heroes line up in front of Chaos to fight him. You then proceed into a three-round, one-on-one battle. Somewhat mitigated in the sequel/prequel, when you enter the battle with four more party members that can take your initial character's place if/when they die, plus one [[Assist Character]], who is chosen at random from the remaining five heroes.

* All fighting games fall under this trope to some degree. Due to balancing games, no character (except maybe a [[SNK Boss]]) is as powerful or weak as the storyline says he/she should be. Take [[Street Fighter]], for example. Dhalsim and Oro are very powerful according to the storyline. However, that power doesn't translate into gameplay unless a person REALLY knows how to control them.

 

* The 1998 PC game ''[[Sin]]'' has this in spades. A number of bizarre gameplay elements include: the main character (John Blade) being turned into a half-naked mutant late in the game, then being changed back to his original human self, weapons, armor and all; not being able to walk into a testing facility early on because you have police attire on, but the moment you switch into a work uniform, the few employees at the building won't recognize who you are; the opening two levels revolve around an unsuccessful heist to retrieve a document, but if the player finds the item wanted by the terrorist, it is simply an empty envelope that doesn't factor into the rest of the story; walking into a building and being captured, even if you have full health and enough ammunition to waste its entire group of occupants; falling into a trap door in a random room at a secret base that only serves to dump you into a meat cart for the final boss battle, and many other minor infractions.

* In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'', Samus must ultimately find at least 7 Galactic Federation energy batteries in order to activate enough doors on a wrecked cruiser to get a code that unlocks the last area of the game. However, she's ''working for'' the Galactic Federation. And at the end of the game, they're ''waiting on her'' to do this. Surely, she could just let them know that she needs a few batteries. No, she must scour the landscape of four worlds for batteries from Federation installations, crashed ships, and the like.

*** Chief, and pretty much all the SPARTAN-IIs are a lot faster, stronger, and more durable in the books than ingame, where the Chief (regenerating shields notwithstanding), is only marginally superior to the basic soldiers surrounding him.

*** Although they are shown as being very powerful in the books, the SPARTAN-IIs are more tactical; the energy shields they have are only capable of take a handful of plasma fire, and it overall can only protect you for a short time (although that time could mean the difference between life and death). It's even more apparent with SPARTAN-IIIs, who have no shielding at all and rely on active camouflage for most of their protection. The SPARTAN-IIs demonstrate how incredibly powerful they are with the IIIs however; {{spoiler|Kelly}} managed to take out nearly two teams of them and punched one in the chest hard enough to dent the armour.

** This was averted in one section in ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''; during a cutscene Romeo fires three shots at an enemy, and when gameplay starts he's missing three rounds. Of course, at the end of that segment, the cutscene has him wielding a sniper rifle, regardless of what he was using instants earlier during gameplay. This is necessary for the Rookie to be able to find the rifle later. Throughout the game, cutscenes tend to show the squad with their signature suppressed SMG rather than whatever they had during gameplay.

** However, ''Bioshock'' also makes {{spoiler|the game's inherent linearity and lack of open-endedness}} a plot point: as it turns out, {{spoiler|you were under mind control the whole time, triggered by Atlas saying "would you kindly"}}.

** In the recorded messages for you to find in the second game, one character taking note of how powerful an addiction everybody has makes a reference EVE, saying "... and everybody is eager to suck on EVE's tit..." in reference that EVE is used to allow you to use your powers, and everybody wanted to use the powers as well as get more ADAM.

* It's a plot point in ''[[STALKER]]: Call of Pripiyat'' that anomalies move. In the game itself, however, none of them ever leave their positions.

 

 

* You'd think ''[[Retro Game Challenge]]'' averts this, because the story IS gameplay. However, the in-game games have some in-game cheats that don't work in free play mode, even though it's supposedly the same game both times. Most likely this is because in the story mode, you unlock new games by beating their challenges, and the makers didn't want players to miss out on the later games if they can't beat the challenges; but in free-play, you're just challenging your best performance, so cheats would make the scores inaccurate.

 

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has a rather glaring example of this in the Freedom Phalanx. The premier superheroes of the setting, akin to Superman, Batman, Captain America, and other A-listers....sit around waiting to give you quests, and generally do absolutely nothing else, with poor excuses for why they never fight at your side. In the few times you DO team up with them, they're generally as bad as any of the other NPC allies, and die in short order, while their villainous counterparts will kick your butt all over the surrounding environs, generally being some of the most dangerous bosses in the game. Even more confusingly, when you face the same heroes in ''City of Villains'', you can face the same heroes in single combat, and they're now, like their counterparts, the hardest bosses in the game. Apparently the only time the game can give these people the powers they're storyline-wise credited with is when they're beating on you instead of random [[Mooks]].

** This was mocked/played with on the games forums, when a player asked the developer that plays Positron why he never helps players during Rikti Invasions and they gather at that characters feet in Steel Canyon. He responded that the Rikti 'con grey, so I wouldn't get XP.'

** For those who don't play, when your character is 5 or more levels higher than an enemy, its name turns grey and you don't get any experience for kiling it.

*** There is another layer of humor to this statement - Rikti summoned during the invasion events always con even-level to whoever is fighting them, regardless of level. Positron's statement is that he's +5, minimum, to even-level enemies.

** If you carry actual weapons on your avatar, none of them can be used. This is [[Justified|explained]] in the prologue "manga" to the game; regular weapons just plain ''don't work'' on the Animated. You have to use the rings and their powers to fight them. In the "manga" a powerful and popular knight tried to kill an Animated with "My '''''ANCIENT KATANA!'''''"... and got torn to pieces because it failed to harm it; and yet there's a Ring that creates a katana, which ''does'' work.

** Here's some [[Fridge Logic]]: It's called "Ancient" For a reason, you know...

** One story from GAIA mentions vampires:

 

* Some games, such as the ''[[Wario Ware]]'' series, take this to such a blatant extreme that it starts making sense again by having the gameplay and the story literally have nothing to do with each other.

 

* In ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'', the entire goal of the game is to retrieve magical Shine Sprites which have scattered all over a tropical island. The Sprites are the source of the good weather that gives the island prosperity, and therefore vitally important to everyone on the island. However, most of the Sprites you'll find are being held by random inhabitants of the island who give them to you as rewards for trivial tasks like winning a squid race. One merchant in town happens to possess a full 20% of them. Not a single inhabitant seems to realize that it might be a good idea to return the sprites themselves.

* According to the instructions manual for the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'' game, Buzzy Beetles are enemies that act exactly like Koopa Troopas except that they can't be killed with fireballs (though you can stomp them and kick their shells, however). But despite this fact, only ''one'' Buzzy Beetle can be killed with fireballs: {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Gunman|the Fake Bowser at the end of World 3.]]}}

 

* In ''[[Puzzle Quest]]: Challenge of the Warlords'', players can siege and conquer any town of the map, which allows them to collect income once per month when passing them and using them as a base, but this is completely separate from the story. If they rebel, however, you can't continue with the story if the town in question has the next storyline quest.

** Since the cities count as mechanical creatures, you can even get the dwarf Kalkus to aid you in besieging his own homeland.

* Casual games can be even more prone to this trope than conventional video games. In the Hidden Object game ''Escape The Museum 2'', the protagonist has to find several plot-irrelevant items in order to acquire pieces for a homemade battering ram, then assemble them correctly, in order to bash through a wooden door. One of these superfluous items, which you're not allowed to use for anything? A ''chainsaw''.

 

* One of the cutscenes in ''[[Warcraft]] II'' depicts a human footman commandeering an orcish catapult and using it to destroy a goblin zeppelin. In gameplay, catapults can't even attack zeppelins, let alone strike them down in one hit.

** Another example occurs in the Human ending to the "Tides of Darkness" campaign: No matter how you destroy the Dark Portal to end the war against the Orcs, the cutscene will always show the Arch Mage Khadgar using his magic ritual to destroy the portal. This can be quite noticeable, if you decided to use a force of [[Death From Above|Gryphon Riders]] to get the job done for the mission, and no Land troops were present on the land mass where the portal resides.

* In ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' one of the areas (an industrial district) is protected by huge and seemingly impenetrable gates that ward off relentless hordes of both Orks and Tyranids. Yet, in the expansion ''Chaos Rising'' there is the option to destroy them and can be done with a single satchel charge. Huh.

** The entire mission is one huge example of this. [[Take Your Time|There is no time limit despite the apparent urgency]], it can be failed (all squads incapacitated) multiple times with no consequences, and while the wall is pretty huge not only are there two highly visible ''holes'' in it near the edges of the map, but Tyranid Carnifexes (of which there are plenty) are specifically designed to easily ram down such fortifications.

* According to the backstory of ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'', some of the heroes should be nearly invincible, and most of them should all already have tons (in some cases, literally eons) of battle experience. Yet they all start at level 1 with almost no spells available.

 

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' the Umbra Sword is described as an evil [[Empathic Weapon]] that slowly corrupts and drives mad the person who wields it. The player can use it for the entire game after earning it and suffer no ill effects.

** In ''Skyrim'', a big deal is made about how Khajit and Argonians are ''strictly'' forbidden from so much as setting foot in a Hold's capitol city. If the player is of either race, they can freely enter and exit even ''Windhelm'' without any trouble aside from the occasional rude comment.

** With regard to Super Nova, it's implied/theorised that the spell is actually an illusion, and the damage is caused by [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]. This explains why it can be cast multiple times during the fight, and why it only does percentage-based damage (as presumably, an illusion wouldn't be able to actually kill anyone).

* In ''[[Crisis Core]]: [[Final Fantasy VII]]'', much of the [[Level Grinding]] takes place through a menu-based 'SOLDIER Mission' system, where you undertake various missions for Shinra Inc at any save point. However, you're still able to use this system during the latter leg of the game, where Zack is on the run with Shinra Company hunting him down and gunning for his blood. In fact, it is completely impossible to avoid this segregation by finish all the side missions early. There are missions released only ''after'' the Nibelheim incident.

** You can even be demoted in the few areas where you only control Rinoa, the only member of the party who isn't working with SeeD, near the end of Disc 1.

** Anyone remember when {{spoiler|Rinoa was fused with Adel for [[That One Boss]] so you tried Junctioning Rinoa to absorb an element of your choice, then tried summoning the GF of that corresponding element? Yeah, it didn't work when I tried it either.}}

* During one cutscene of ''[[Atelier Iris]],'' [[The Stoic]] swordsman asks to talk with the main character while the cook is making dinner. They go out to the woods where the swordsman [[Hopeless Boss Fight|"tests"]] the main's progress by beating him within an inch of his life. They then return to have dinner, and the other characters calmly ask what the two were up to. They accept the response that they were "taking a walk", and no one seems to notice any distress or injury from the character. Given the [[Hyperactive Metabolism|various common ways]] one can heal in the game, and the fact that the main character is an alchemist who can produce [[Healing Potion|healing potions]], one might generously think that perhaps he healed himself to avoid worrying his friends... except that after the cutscene, he's still at 1 HP. Apparently in this world, no one bleeds when they get hit by swords.

* Generally, lots of things that the Pokédex in ''[[Pokémon]]'' says directly contradict gameplay:

** Abra is said to sleep through most of the day, teleporting away from danger in its sleep, yet [[Standard Status Ailments|the Sleep status]] affects it just like everything else.

** Cubone is said to lose its mother as it is born and wears its skull as a memento. Breeding for a Cubone, however, doesn't cause any ill effects for the mother, whether or not it is a Marowak.

** Regice is stated to be so cold that dipping it in magma would not harm it at all and instead freeze the magma solid. Just being near it exposes you to the intense aura of near-absolute zero air surrounding it. Yet its opponents suffer no ill effects from biting it, punching it, kicking it, wrapping their bodies around it, etc. And fire is still super-effective against it.

** Several Pokemon, such as Venomoth and Beedrill, can clearly fly but are not classified as flying types.

** The ''entire plot'' of ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' occurs because {{spoiler|Mithos wants to revive his dead sister Martel in a very complex way that takes about 4,000 years to get right (and is actually criticized by Martel for doing horrible things to revive her) when they could've easily just bought a Life Bottle for a couple hundred gald. Every merchant in the world sells them anyway.}}

*** Actually, {{spoiler|Life Bottles only cure what the manual refers to as being "knocked out" in battle. True, the name implies they can bring people back to life, but there's no evidence of that being the case.}}

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'': In Another Day, {{spoiler|the game takes place in an alternate timeline where Neku, Shiki, and Beat are not part of the Reapers' Game, and do not know each other, yet you can battle like it's any other day. Also, when you unlock the [[New Game+|chapter select feature]], you can use ANY character on ANY day, even if, in the chapter you select, the character has not met Neku yet or has vanished.}}

* ''[[Vampire Bloodlines]]'' is based on the tabletop RPG ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''. Of course, for gameplay reasons, disciplines work differently in the game than in the RPG... ''except in cutscenes.'' For example, in one scene, Beckett uses his Protean discipline to change into a wolf, which is a perfectly valid usage in the tabletop RPG but something you can't do even with maxed Protean in-game. Later on, a vampire uses Presence to seduce a mortal: Again, perfectly valid in the RPG, but in the game Presence is entirely useless to you outside of combat.

* Big one in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' after having taken Marberry Shore {{spoiler|During this and all other missions your troops can take an anti-tank round to the face at point blank range and be rescued by a medic, but in the cutscene Isara takes a shot in the back and neither the medic nor ragnaid is a benefit. It's all very FF 7}}

** It suffers from this in a lot of ways. There's the above example, of course, but there's also the mission where Alicia sprains her ankle and must hobble around the map to find a plant that Welkin can use to gradually heal it. The player can still use Ragnite to heal the wounds she gets during the mission, but it does nothing for the sprain. The teamwork themes occasionally suffer, since the game can't predict whether or not any of Squad 7 may die, so it's likely that many of the player's favorite squad members have no impact on the plot and don't appear in cutscenes. And then there's {{spoiler|Alicia after she becomes a Valkyria}}, when she has an existential crisis over her new ability to kill enemy soldiers and tanks... except she's a powerhouse on the field, and can easy rack up a higher body count than most of your shocktroopers because of her extremely high accuracy and headshot rate, which means she's apparently okay with taking Mooks down execution style, but not with a laser.

** For that matter, half the stores in the game sell an item that has the same effect (Chimaera wings,) so it wouldn't necessarily have to be the hero who could go alone. Heck, they could find a random guy who's been to the city and pay him to transport them there. If the game's plot considered this, though, then keeping borders secure would be nearly impossible.

* The opening scene of ''[[Phantom Dust]]'' has a team of espers scorch scores of monsters with single attacks when two of said monsters would be challenging to the player. This may be justified by the fact that some of the monsters look a little more sickly they do in the game proper. Another example is characters performing feats like telekinetically hurling what appears to be half a sky scraper at you when the player, who is easily the most powerful esper in the game, has no such abilities.

* Used very painfully in ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', where almost all the characters have wings and are shown to be fully capable of flight over reasonably short distances [depending on their wing shape] in cutscenes. There are still a lot of [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]] and [[Broken Bridge]] puzzles, at heights and distances that cutscenes and battle animations (and ladders in ''Origins'') show that the characters are perfectly capable of flying over. The series does have some good moments of [[Gameplay and Story Integration]], but not enough to balance out the wings problem.

** Likewise, in nearly every game in which he appears, you can make Juggernaut stop charging and fall over by hitting him enough. Nothing stops the Juggernaut... except a punch or two.

* In the [[Baldur's Gate]] series and other Infinity Engine games, there are a number of resurrection spells and items that can bring your group members back from the dead. However, when the plot calls for a character to die, they die... and the option of resurrection is never even brought up.

** Irritating example: The background fluff in [[Baldur's Gate]] claims that lots of people prefer carrying handy little gems instead of weighty gold coins. For the player, the utility is reversed: Gold is weightless and its value is precise, while gems' values are unknown and they clutter up your limited inventory space.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II: The Sith Lords'', Nar Shaddaa is home to the Jekk'Jekk Tarr, a bar that caters to aliens and sports a piped-in atmosphere toxic to humans. When the [[Player Character]] goes there as part of the game's overarching story, he/she is informed that a breathmask will be insufficient protection and a full-body containment suit is called for, as the poison can be absorbed through the skin. This will come as a surprise to any player who already completed an earlier sidequest by, yes, putting on a breathmask and just walking around as normal.

** In addition, the various Jedi Masters you're searching for will act as though your character is still cut off from the Force when you talk to them, totally ignoring something like the possibility that you were [[Jedi Mind Trick|mind-controlling mercenaries]] or [[Shock and Awe|blasting entire rooms of people with lightning from your hand]] right in front of them not five minutes prior. [[Fridge Brilliance|There's a very good reason for that, however.]]

* In ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'', when fighting the second boss, you can tazer her untill she collapses and...then bleeds to death in a cutscene. The third boss you can non-lethally knock out, whereupon he immediately dies for no reason in a cutscene.

 

* In ''[[Ace Combat]] 6'', it's possible to spend most of the mission running for your life, calling in Allied Attacks or Allied Cover against all the other planes, and yet reinforcement pilots can still claim that the protagonist was responsible for shooting down everyone.

* In ''[[Syndicate]] Wars'' you control your agents from an airship. The last levels are in a space station and on the Moon, but don't mention how you see them.

 

* EA's ''skate'' suffers from this trope. At the beginning of the game, your skater gets hit by a bus after skating out into the street, and needs surgery in order to skate again. Later on in the game, however, there is a mission for Thrasher Magazine which requires you to break four bones in order to proceed. This, along with any other time in the game where you break bones is briefly commented on, but your character can get right back up and keep skating right away.

 

* If the plot of the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games actually mattered where the gameplay was concerned, the playable characters would very quickly run into a big problem the first time they took damage - since one zombie bite is all it should take to turn one into the walking dead. Amusingly, in ''Resident Evil 3'', one of Nemesis's attacks finds its mark on Jill during a cutscene, which naturally does infect her.

** Also, one wonders why the characters don't just kick the doors in or shoot the locks.

** What about the puzzles? Fooling with the city's power grid ought to cause a few problems.

*** At that point in the story, the city's power is really the least of their problems.

* In [[Dead Rising]], but really in every game that involves zombies just about, the zombies can grapple with your character, and if you don't button mash to get way fast enough, they bite you, which has no effect other than lost health. and yet, in cutscenes, a bite is certain infection.

** Actually {{spoiler|It turns out Frank does get infected if you progress to Overtime mode. Though then Gameplay and Story Segregation kicks in in the opposite way: Even if you spend the entire game not getting injured once, you're still infected.}}

 

** Played with by ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' in a trial: the prosecution argues that the arresting officer didn't lose her powers, so the defendants must be guilty (though in this particular case, this is specious reasoning, as it would only mean the paladin acted in good faith).

** The rules book ''Elder Evils'' states that the elder evils are so powerful that even the gods would think twice before standing against them, but a comparison of the statistics of some of the elder evils in that book to the gods' statistics in ''Dieties and Demigods'' shows that the gods could [[Curb Stomp Battle|easily crush]] the elder evils. Likewise, the ''[[Epic Level Handbook]]'''s claim that even the gods can't stand up to a certain monster described in that book seems questionable when the statistics are compared.

** Character example from DnD: Elminster. In the novels, this guy is one of the most powerful wizards in the world, had an affair with the ''goddess of magic'' (and is one of her Chosen), and is functionally immortal. However, his character stats as presented in the [[Forgotten Realms]] campaign setting... well, let's just say anyone who has a passing familiarity with Dungeons and Dragons can make a better epic-level wizard.

** Not just the Space Marines, every faction has something like this. Daemons have Greater Daemons, which can often be overwhelmed by a few basic troop Hormagaunts, a basic Guard troop squad can kill a Carnifex with a little luck, and the Necron C'Tan (a [[Physical God]]) can fall to a couple shots from a Dark Eldar on a jetbike.

* The Saga Edition of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' RPG has far fewer guns on ships than has been previously established. However, this was made as a concession to the fact that if they did, rolling for each individual ship gun/battery would translate into hundreds of rolls, especially with bigger ships like the Super Star Destroyers. Besides, game mechanics are already of dubious canon.

 

* In ''[[Oddworld]]: Stranger's Wrath'' you play a bounty hunter saving up for a life saving operation. The surgery bid given to you by Doc in the first town says the price is roughly 20,000 moolah (the games currency). You collect this money by exchanging outlaws at the bounty store. However, gameplay wise Moolah is only used to purchase ammo and upgrades. You can collect hundreds of thousands of moolah, or use cheatcodes for infinte moolah, yet Stranger won't be able to afford his operation until he finishes the New Yolk City missions and take the ferry to Doc's Retreat. {{spoiler|Of course, you find out the [[Big Bad]]'s mooks have killed Doc, and you are overtaken by previously easily defeated outlaws. Your equipment is stolen, all of your moolah is taken away, you're hit with a [[Tomato Surprise]], and then Moolah isn't used or mentioned for the rest of the game.}}

* In the [[Dead Space: Downfall|animated prequel]] to ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'', the zombies cannot go near the [[Artifact of Doom]] that was dug up. But when it comes to be your turn to escort the thing, all manner of baddies can come right up to the thing with no issue. And by extension, you.

** The Valour. Sure, Pulse Rifles are weak against Necromorphs, and maybe the soldiers needed a while to grab their guns, but seriously. [[Conservation of Ninjitsu|One slasher]] - the weakest type of Necromorph - manages to kill and infect an entire ship stocked to the brim with trained soldiers wielding Pulse Rifles and wearing advanced body armour that is as good or better than Isaac's Level 5 suit. Let me repeat that. One Slasher. An entire freaking SHIP. (In fairness, some of the marine corpses clearly were killed by the crashing of the ship and not a necromorph, plus, according to one of the logs you can find on the ship, most of the marines actually survived until after the valour crashed into the Ishimura and were killed in a running battle against a horde of necromorphs that were attracted to the ship by the crash.)

 

* Ridiculously silly in the [[Nippon Ichi]] game ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' is how the sweet, kind and innocent Marona who is [[The Messiah]], gains powers for herself and her equipment. She does this by "fusing" her party members (admittedly they're phantoms, so already dead, but still) into herself and her equipment. This results in them having [[Final Death]] as far as the game is concerned. The plot completely ignores this.

* While ''[[Advance Wars]]'' in general can be bothersome about it, Dual Strike has one case that takes the cake. SEVEN Aircraft Carriers, each loaded with a Stealth, and near a somehow important Black Hole fortress no less. Bear in mind that Aircraft Carriers and Stealths are among the most expensive units in the game AND the Aircraft Carriers are support units, not to mention that (because the units were top secret before) ''Black Hole does not recognize the ordinance in the first place'', so it's a wonder how they got trapped. Then again, because of this suggestion that the Allied Nations is absurdly rich to the point that these units could even be around, let alone top secret, when they have been lucky to have had only ONE Megatank (a unit that isn't as expensive as any of the Aircraft Carriers) in the next mission, never mind that they have been having troubles with having reasonable forces, it's a wonder how {{spoiler|the Bolt Guard trashes most of the Allied Nations' facilities in a massive ambush before they could even respond}}. Most likely they had to contend with the fact that Black Hole [[Cutscene Power to the Max|was drunk on ridiculous story power]]. Oh, and guess what? ''The mission in question is ridiculously easy for the point it is at.''

* In ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', it is possible in gameplay to completely wipe out the native flora and fauna. But when the story calls for it, suddenly the fungus stands poised to wipe out your massively powerful post-singularity civilization and only a dose of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] can save it.

** The flora and fauna is said to also live deep underground. It is effectively unkillable, except for the [[Applied Phlebotinum]] version and {{spoiler|the fact that it is so massive it cannot energitically sustain itself, just like it already happened several times before. And yeah, it also is a [[Hive Mind]]}}.

* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]: Radiant Dawn'', it turns out that two characters acted the way they did because they were bound by magical contracts that would kill everyone in their respective countries if they disobeyed. The only way to render such a contract null and void is for the physical contract to be destroyed and one of the signers to be killed by a third party. In the endgame, the player gets to kill the man who forced the other characters to sign the contracts; however, it is entirely possible to have him killed by one of the signees which should render the contracts unvoidable, but if this happens, it plays out the same as if he was killed by anyone else.

** Two characters out of a massive cast of seventy three, mind you.

 

* None of the protagonists in the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series can technically be killed. If one's health bar runs out, he is said to be "Wasted!", and will return to the gameworld outside the nearest hospital. The implication being that the player character can ''always'' recover swiftly from any injury, including being trapped inside an exploding vehicle. Furthermore, when pedestrians are killed, they can always be revived by paramedics. Of course, [[Plotline Death|when the plot calls for it]], any character can be [[Killed Off for Real]].

** Pedestrians can't be revived if you kill 'em ''right''. A high-caliber headshot or katana decapitation is just one of several ways of preempting the unquiet dead.

*** ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City|Vice City]]'' at least implies that the police force and legal system are so corrupt that your [[Mafia]] ties and crooked lawyer companion get you off. Other games tend not to have a similar excuse.

*** In ''GTA 2'', when you got arrested, you respawned riding in the back of a cop car, and you had to jump out and run away from the cops.

*** Hell, what about the guy who worked at the pizza place? There's at least a dozen witnesses if you decide to kill him and take his shotgun.

*** There's also the money issue: cutscenes show CJ being poor, dead broke actually after 'Green Sabre', yet you can actually have millions of dollars and a lot of property even at this early point of the game (and without cheating).

** ''[[Saints Row: The Third|Saints Row the Third]]'' also has a bit of this, most notably in the final act, where {{spoiler|zombies continue to inhabit one of the Luchadore-controlled islands even after you do the mission wherein you remove the source of the virus}}, and {{spoiler|the ability to call in Shaundi, Viola, and Burt Reynolds as homies even if you [[Multiple Endings|skip rescuing them from the bomb at the statue to chase after Killbane]] in the final mission}}.

* In ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]: The Game'', after {{spoiler|Sonny's death}} Don Vito calls a truce with the other four families, saying that unless pushed he will not be the one to break it. This doesn't stop you as Aldo Trapani from continuing your quest to take over businesses for the Corleones and kill enemy mobsters.

** Averted in the sequel, however, where Alex has done a [[Face Heel Turn]] and the new main character is aparently not too good either.

 

 

== Aversions ==

* Surprising [[Aversion]] in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. The tools gained in the game allow Batman to perform every awesome move he performs in the cutscenes easily in-game {{spoiler|except for Batman's explosive gel-powered punch.}}

** Of course, {{spoiler|Batman's explosive gel-powered punch does break his arm, so it's not an ability you'd expect to be able to use multiple times..}}

* ''[[Iji]]'' almost entirely averts this. Nearly ''everything'' the player does, from how many enemies they kill to which logbooks are read, has at least some influence on how the story unfolds, how dialogues proceed, and even how characters react to Iji's presence. Indeed, the ending of one subplot (which can only be followed by reading a series of seemingly unrelated logbooks) relies entirely on how the player treats a single specific enemy they have no way of knowing is at all significant at that point in the game.

 

* The ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' series and its long love affair with [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]] is a major element of the plot, representing Gordon's complete lack of control, whether it's because of the GMan, the Vortigaunts, or the player.

** ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' and its Episodes begin with Gordon not at full health, due to him being injured from a scene in the previous game.

 

*** To put it shortly, it's pretty much the most effective, in depth, and descriptive [[Hand Wave]] ever.

** In the semi-prequel ''Vindictus'', The fact that the Giant Polar Bear is such a popular target is referenced in a quest, where it is suddenly attacking more areas than before and you are the prime suspect because you bother, I.E. use it to grind, so much, and are thus demanded to either calm it down or prove that you weren't the one that caused it to get even more angry. {{spoiler|you weren't the one who made it mad.}}

 

* [[Hand Wave|Sort-of aversion]]: In the original ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', fireballs and thrown shells wouldn't affect enemies that had just walked offscreen, due to technical limits. The manual suggested this was because they were doing something sneaky where you couldn't see.

** Another [[Hand Wave]] aversion: In the manual for ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]] 3'', a gameplay hint suggested that Robotnik had outfitted the environments themselves with inescapable traps that would require you to reset your MegaDrive/Genesis. It then suggested that, to avoid these <s>flaws in the collision engine</s> traps, to not run too fast when under the effect of [[Mercy Invincibility]].

* [[Egoraptor]] goes into extensive detail in [http://youtu.be/8FpigqfcvlM this video] as to why ''[[Mega Man X]]'' pulls this off so well. [[Running Gag|It's gonna blow your fuckin mind.]]

 

* [[The Corruption]] level of your team in ''[[Dawn of War|Dawn Of War 2:Chaos Rising]]'' affects both the abilities and equipment they can use and some major plot points, like {{spoiler|which of them turned out to be a traitor}} and the ending.

** The vanilla campaign has an aversion with Tarkus: his introduction on a loading screen image mentions he was awarded Terminator honors for his performance during the prequel's campaign. {{spoiler|This explains how he can pull his [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment in terminator armor without the Termintor Honors perk other squads need to level up and unlock first.}} <ref>Space Marines are big on [[Honor Before Reason]] and wouldn't use said armor without being awarded the privilege first.</ref>

* In ''[[Red Alert]] 2'' The Allies use their Chronosphere to send a strike team directly to Moscow, bypassing the Soviet defences. You can then use it during the attack itself to bypass the local defences.

 

* ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' averts this in that the gameplay IS the story. How well the Agents perform determines how each story's protagonist behaves in the screen above, and how the plot twists until the end of the song. More specifically, {{spoiler|music and dance are the only effective weapon against the alien invaders in the last mission.}}

* ''[[Loco Roco]]'' often attempts to integrate cutscenes to be as close to gameplay as possible. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofHQtLFxFRE& In this cutscene,] even the 2D world is [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]].

 

* Crushingly averted in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', where the party members attempt to use the strongest healing items and spells at their disposal on a character who has been [[Killed Off for Real]] to no avail. Fighting at 0 HP rendered him [[Deader Than Dead]].

** On the other hand, it's possible for characters in that cutscene to try to use Curaga and Raise on {{spoiler|Galuf}} even if they haven't gained a single level in any White Magic-related jobs. Or to use Pheonix Downs even if you don't currently have any in your inventory. As for how they got that far out without white magic...[[Unwinnable by Insanity|who'd actually try that?]]

* Similar to ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', ''[[Fallout]] 3'' gives you a few occasions where a sufficiently high Strength stat allows you to intimidate certain NPCs into submitting to your will.

** There is also the Terrifying Presence perk, which gives you the option to frighten NPCs in dialog by reminding them how tough you are.

** ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' gives a good explanation for the world's [[Ghibli Hills]] and all their [[Random Encounters]]; all the towns in the world are shielded underneath giant energy shields that keep monsters out, and only highly trained professionals (like the party members) are allowed outside.

** In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', when you use [[Waif Prophet|Ion's]] extension of Luke's first mystic arte, he'll waver and collapse instead of just disappearing. If Anise is in the party, [[Guilt Based Gaming|she calls for him, and he stutters "I-I'm... fine..."]].

*** Additionally, if you don't have Luke and Jade in your party, when Anise uses Final Fury, she yells "I'll kill you bastards!" Instead of the usual "O ravaging tragedy!"

** A minor but rather powerful aversion in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'': When Colette loses her voice for plot reasons, she stops [[Calling Your Attacks|Calling Her Attacks]] in battle as well, and the victory quotes for her aren't shown.

* The influence system in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' is the gameplay manifestation of an ability that the main character is revealed to have. That is, the main character has the ability to subtly manipulate people that they're close to. As a consequence, the more influence you have with a party member, the more their alignment mirrors your own. And vice-versa.

** However, all situations where you can gain/lose influence do not take that into the considerance - so, during such checkpoint, good party member turned evil by the high influence of the evil player is still going to be displeased when said player commits an evil act.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' opens with a play: the fight scenes are done using the battle system, and the characters have the battle command "SFX" with the help menu description of "uses powerful, deadly magic", a damage output of zero and no mana point cost. Of course the party leader gets to cause the biggest blast.

** Further averted with all of the character's classes being highly integrated into the plot. Vivi's ability to shoot stuff with fireballs with black magic becomes very important, the hidden Summons inside Garnet are a [[MacGuffin]] unto themselves, and Freya, a dragoon, is able to leap to the tops of roofs effortlessly in cutscenes as easily as she can leap into the sky to use her "Jump" ability. Sometimes even their ''personality traits'' become gameplay mechanics; Zidane, the [[Chivalrous Pervert]], has a "Protect Girls" skill that lets him jump in front of a female party member to protect her.

** Also when Dagger loses her voice in the plot. During game-play, her ability to cast spells is impaired: every couple of turns will fail with a "Can't concentrate." [[It Gets Better|She gets better.]]

*** Most characters will also skip their post-battle victory poses during plot circumstances that concern them in some negative way, including Garnet losing her voice described above.

** And then there's her mana supply - or rather, the "lack" of it. Lucia is a pure spellcaster, and doesn't possess a physical attack - at the worst she'll chain-cast a single-target damage spell on an enemy. However, her MP supply reads "null", just like any pure physical-damage warrior. And then you realize... oh yeah, she's a [[Physical God]], ''her mana supply is'' '''''infinite'''''. The game doesn't bother tracking it ''because she'll never run out''.

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: [[Morrowind]]'', Dagoth Ur's rising power doubles as [[Anti-Grinding]], with stronger ash creatures and blighted fauna appearing more and more as you keep leveling up.

* Setting aside the scene where it cleaves a cliff face in two, never to display that kind of power again, there are two battles in ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' where the Masamune displays power that it was said to have in cutscenes and dialogue. In the battle against Magus, the sword, which was said to be one of the few weapons that would allow them to defeat Magus, bypasses Magus's [[Barrier Shift Boss|Barrier Shift]] trick ''and'' drops his magic defense stat. Later on, the team uses a red knife to drain Lavos' power out of the Mammon Machine. The red knife then turns into the Masamune. If you use the Masamune on the Mammon Machine when you fight it later, the sword bypasses its defense boost trick ''and'' heals Frog, by way of draining the energy from it, just like it did before.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' as a whole is an interesting example: even though Travis imagines his life as an assassin to be awesome and glamorous, nearly every portion of gameplay outside of the ranked battles shows just how much of a loser he is. Some examples: Santa Destroy is a frustratingly boring place with nearly nothing to do; Travis has to drive everywhere himself; he barely bothers people he runs over on his motorcycle and goes flying if it even so much as touches any solid object; he has to do repetitive, boring and irrelevant jobs in order to earn money; he saves the game on the ''toilet''; he rummages through dumpsters for collectables (including clothes!); and at the end of the day he ends up right back at the same stinking motel he's always lived at.

** In the second game, during one of the boss fights you find out {{spoiler|he still owns the mansion the first boss from the first game lived in. He keeps his ''giant robot'' in it. No explanation is given as to why he still lives in ''the same crappy motel''.}}

** Similarly, Lani in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' will exclusively attack Garnet, whom she's targeting in order to get her pendant on a mission for Queen Brahne.

* In ''[[.hack GU]]'', it is told in-universe that the class that Haseo takes, the Adept Rogue (or Multi-Weapon in original Japanese) levels the slowest and is generally all-around master of none, despite being potentially flexible like hax. If you play normally, without crazy grinding, by the beginning of the third game, there's a very good chance that all of your party members have gained access to the final skills of their job, and you haven't. Not only that gaining proficiency for each weapon is slower than ordinary classes, Haseo has three (later four) weapons, so this definitely increases the time required gaining skills.

** To even further emphasize this, a [[Bonus Boss]] that you can defeat to unlock the second ending has a sort of a "Seal" attack that he starts with. It will not affect anyone ''except the Hero'' {{spoiler|because he is the one that placed the original curse that the Hero lives with}}.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', Rude of the Turks confesses to his partner (and the player, and the party hiding nearby) that he has a crush on Tifa, one of the heroes. In fights against the Turks, Rude will never attack Tifa, and if she is the only one standing, he'll give up and walk away.

* The ''[[Star Ocean]]'' series has a tendency to break the fourth wall once in a while. Edge even speaks the words "Item creation" out loud at one point during ''[[Star Ocean: The Last Hope]]''. Of course {{spoiler|''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' reveals that the entire series' continuity takes place in a giant MMORPG called the Eternal Sphere}} and while the characters are mostly oblivious to this, having access to status menus and being able to make a cake by purchasing a single egg at the shop and invoking a Cooking ability learned by beating up some monsters probably seems perfectly normal to them.

** The "low luck" stat quirk mentioned also applies to Ashton in the [[Star Ocean the Second Story|second game]], who has abyssmal luck and somehow manages to get the 2-headed dragon he was trying to kill fused on his back: his natural luck stat is a mere 17 regardless of how high his level is, and this is in a game where most endgame stats easily break quadruple digits.

* In the ''[[Touhou]]'' fangame ''[[Touhou Mother]]'', Yuuka is described as hating high speeds. During a cutscene, you have to fly very fast to reach a certain location, and during the trip, Yuuka is described to have taken "mortal damage." Sure enough, if you check your stats after the cutscene ends, Yuuka will have just 1 HP remaining.

* ''[[Black Sigil]]'' actually lets you use white magic to heal all the fallen soldiers during a siege. It costs you MP, of course, but saving them all gets you a reward.

 

* ''[[Touhou]]'''s use of [[Bullet Hell]] is not only the reason everyone in Gensoukyou can be so belligerent without plunging the region into all out war, but also why some of the [[Superpower Lottery|more ludicrously powerful characters]] don't simply press the "I win" button all the time, as it is literally not allowed, the Spell Card rules (which manifest as clouds of colourful bullets and lasers and such) turning fighting into a game and responsible for all of the [[Non-Lethal KO|Non Lethal KOs]].

* ''[[Seihou]]'' has an interesting example: In the Comiket 67 version of ''Banshiryuu'' bosses would occasionally pull of a special attack which they were invincible for the duration of. These are SE attacks, and they're also the player's bombs, which work the same way. In the C74 remake, boss SE attacks are closer to ''[[Touhou]]'' style spellcards, generally not conferring invincibility... but the player versions don't make them invincible either. Though neither game explains why player SE attacks clear enemy bullets.

 

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' takes place in a video simulation, created to allow the protagonist to re-live his ancestor's memories, called the Animus. As such, all the artifices of the video game interface were specifically programmed by the villains to make the simulation intuitive.

** And in the sequel, the heroes fixed "that water bug" in the first game.

** A recurring element in the series, Eagle Vision (or Eagle Sense) allows the player to recognize important characters and distinguish friends from enemies. It was originally explained to be a feature of the Animus, but later it's revealed to be an ability of those with sufficient [[Precursor]] heritage.

* In the Famicom version of ''[[Contra]]'' (not the NES version, which had no cut-scenes at all), the cut-scenes will show Bill or Lance depending on the character the player is using. If both players are present, then the cut-scenes will alternate between either character.

 

 

* This trope is averted during Ada's scenario in ''[[Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles]]'', as it deals with her escape after the events of ''[[Resident Evil 2]]''. The heavily wounded Ada begins the level in critical condition.

 

* Micaiah in ''[[Fire Emblem]] 10'' (Radiant Dawn) has "Sacrifice", which is a miraculous healing ability in the storyline, and can also be used in-game, though in-game it doesn't have any abilities beyond a simple heal staff, and as the name implies it hurts to use it. It's seen as a miracle because she can heal without being a member of the clergy.

** In game, Sacrifice also allows Micaiah to heal status effects. Whether or not she can do this for a character at full HP, though... She's never been shown using Sacrifice in this manner in the story, however.

*** She can. In-game Sacrifice can heal status ailments regardless of the fact that the target may not need to recover HP. It's a free Recover staff!

* In a few support conversations, L'Arachel of Fire Emblem 8 is shown to be [[Born Lucky]]; ingame, she will often naturally max out her luck stat. On the converse, Knoll (who, when rescued from the Grado dungeons in Ephraim's route, assumes that his execution date was moved up) starts out with '''zero''' luck.

* In ''[[Disgaea]]'', Laharl is allergic to large breasts and optimistic sayings. After a cutscene featuring an excess of both, his stats are cut in half for the next battle.

*** In an odd meta example Etna claims she [[Medium Awareness|hacked her title]] so it says "Beauty Queen" instead of "Demon Lord". Titles are programed in such a way that you can indeed make custom titles (rather than give a character another existing title) with a [[Game Shark|Cheating Device]].

*** The game has a feature called "Reincarnate to Atone for Sins", which will remove your felony records. {{spoiler|Turns out Overlord Zenon did this, setting the plot in motion}}.

* The Potentials in [[Valkyria Chronicles]] tie in directly with the characters' stories, and more are opened as you learn more about the character. For example, Freesia starts out with one Potential called 'Desert Bred', marked by how she was raised and has lived in the desert areas for some time. After you learn a little more about her - that she's not used to living for anybody else and doesn't work well when people are counting on her - she gains the 'Under Pressure' Potential, cutting her defence and accuracy is she uses the last CP of your Phase.

 

* Many examples in [[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel]]. Forgetting the [[Cutscene Power to the Max]] in the first game, Eternal Lovers gives you missions where you need to destroy the enemy flagship before reinforcements arrive, thus reducing your time limit to 10 minutes instead of the usual 15. Another is after the Elsior was hit by {{spoiler|the Chrono Break Cannon from the stolen Unit #7}}, and thrown into an ambush position immediately afterwards. In this battle, the Elsior starts with 60% HP unlike other battles. Then there's the conditions of your Angels; if the plot demands them to be depressed, expect them to fight poorly and vice versa.

 

* In ''Demonophobia'', a game with [[The Many Deaths of You|a lot of]] [[Gorn|interesting ways]] [[Trial and Error Gameplay|to die]], {{spoiler|you don't 'die and respawn' in the usual way; instead, the protagonist is revived some time later, with no memories of her deaths. This becomes important at the end of the game, where these memories are [[Despair Event Horizon|returned to her]].}}

* In most ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games, enemies that are said to be wearing armor just have their health super high so you need to put in a ton of bullets in them (this is usually on boss characters). In ''[[Grand Theft Auto Sand Andreas]]'', {{spoiler|Big Smoke}} is shown to be wearing body armor in the cut scene before the fight (yet the armor never physically appears on CJ's model if he has armor on). Like with real life body armor, the boss' torso is protected so shooting it does less damage, but shooting him in the head or anywhere else that is not protected will damage him a lot faster.

 

* Too many webcomics to list, see [[RPG Mechanics Verse]] for examples

 

 

== Back-and-forth Examples ==

* In the NES version of ''[[Double Dragon|Double Dragon II: The Revenge]]'', almost all the cut-scenes shows Billy Lee, regardless if there's two people playing instead of one or if the player is using Jimmy instead. The sole exception to this is the cut-scene before the final boss battle: if only Billy is present, then it will show him as usual; but if both Lee brothers are present, then Jimmy will be shown as well; and if Billy died before the final stage, then Jimmy will appear in his brother's place. However, the ending is still the same regardless of who you beat the game with.

** In ''Double Dragon Advance'', most of the dialogue will be spoken by Jimmy if you're using him instead of Billy, but the art in the cut-scenes will remain the same. Alternate art showing Jimmy instead of Billy were drawn for all the cut-scenes, but they were not inserted into the game.

 

* Bug in ''[[Bug!]]!'' has a pair of [[Justified Trope|tiny, vestigial wings]], so he is [[Wings Do Nothing|unable to fly in-game]]. Until you land on the [[Level Goal|Bug Stop]]- in which he says a cheesy annoying quote, then ''flies away'' offscreen. Then again, the game is part of a movie he's acting out, so it makes some sort of sense.

 

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' gets bonus points for having the aversion and the straight example occur simultaneously. When Sora enters a Drive Form in battle and then a cut scene comes up after the fight, Sora will still be in the Drive Form.(Assuming the Form Gauge didn't run out while he was fighting.) That's the aversion. However, it's also played straight because the characters that you supposedly merged with in order to enter the Drive Form are still visible during the cut scene.

** It's actually played straight in gameplay when you have to fuse with Donald/Goofy to use Drive, which didn't happen the first time Sora tried it (in a cutscene).

** Another aversion is the techniques the various playable characters use. Sora, the main character and the first introduced, possesses a large moveset somewhat limited to combos and combo-finishers (and takes [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]). Come the prequel, where Terra, Ven, and Aqua have an extremely diverse set of moves based on it's new combat system utilizing separate special attacks and combos, and extremely customizable. At first, it looks like their techniques are improvements on Sora's in every manner, even though Sora should be similarly skilled. However, [[Fridge Brilliance|closer inspection]] shows that Sora's been using streamlined and enhanced versions of his predecessor's skills the whole time! So even if Sora wasn't customizable to the extent they were, his practical experience and the obstacles he faced (obstacles which are just as or more dangerous than the prequel trio's, which he took on at a younger age) prove that he is just about on their level.

** [[Kingdom Hearts II]] also brought with it the "[[Press X to Not Die|Press Triangle to Massacre]]'' button, where Sora will inevitably do something over the top. Roughly half of the of the things he'll do are pretty much cutscenes initiated by the Triangle button that do automatic damage. Some of said cutscenes portray his actions up to and including [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|slicing skyscrapers in half]] and/or using said [[Cutscene Power to the Max|skyscrapers as barrier breaking attacks]] (in a low gravity environment, granted) . The other half are neat little auxiliary actions preformed without interrupting gameplay, like a super jump that'll take you up to a Chandelier, a dodge roll, or taking a swing with a stolen enemy sword. The Kicker is, everything the triangle button initiates is something Sora can (currently) canonically accomplish. In fact, some of his regular combo's do in fact rival the things he does with the Action Commands, and [[Kingdom Hearts 3D]] is going to top [[Kingdom Hearts II]]'s ridiculous factor with a similar mechanic, but make it more seamless with gameplay.

* This trope is THE argument on ''[[Mitadake High]]''. If you play normally, you will be called a terrible rper and shunned. If you play well and properly in the character of an [[Ordinary High School Student]] then you WILL be killed off fast and laughed at as a noob. The two sides of this argument are [[Broken Base|rabid.]]

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has the infamous scene in which {{spoiler|nobody thinks to try using a Phoenix Down to revive Aeris despite the presence of "Death" spells that can be reversed with the very same item.}} However, you later discover that when Zangan rescued Tifa during the Nibelheim incident, he kept casting Cure spells on her to stop her from bleeding to death. Even later on in the game, however, Cloud's seething hatred of Sephiroth causes his Limit gauge (something that normally represents the character being annoyed at taking gameplay damage) to gradually fill at the beginning of a short battle just quickly enough that the player doesn't have enough time to select anything but his Limit Break command, and if he hadn't learned Omnislash yet... well he has now.

* ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' averts it multiple times and plays it straight twice: Averted near the start of the game, where Cless is betrayed and captured by a group of soldiers; you are quite weak and have low-powered equipment at the time, so it's very reasonable that you can't fight back as you probably would get slaughtered. Played straight when Cless is poisoned (and knocked unconscious) by an attack from a creature that you killed tons of as fodder just five minutes ago, and they were incapable of poisoning you then. Later, you get captured again, except this time you are much more powerful, as well as having a party, and could probably take them just fine (although they are actually the good guys, so you could assume that the characters just didn't want to cause a fuss). Averted by your encounters with the [[Big Bad]]; when you first meet him he is shown literally vaporising people in cutscenes with some sort of [[Death Ray|laser beam]] attack and a [[Sphere of Destruction|shockwave explosion]], and you are sent away to become more powerful so you can beat him. When you finally do get around to fighting him and are much MUCH more powerful than you were before, he casually throws these attacks around in battle and you can shrug them off just fine (and the storyline gives them no further prominence), although they are still his most powerful attacks and kill you in a few hits. Also averted in various small instances where characters use things like healing spells outside of battle.

* In ''[[Lost Odyssey]]'', the main character and several other party members are immortal, and revive within a few turns of being KOed. However, cutscenes and background material depict them as completely indestructible, which is ''not'' the case in gameplay, and the active party being KOed still results in a Game Over regardless of circumstances.

* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', the [[Our Orcs Are Different|Darkspawn]] carry a highly-contagious virus in their blood that can easily kill and/or [[The Virus|corrupt]] anyone who contracts it, with the only cure being to become a Grey Warden, who are immune. Despite the fact that your non-Grey Warden party members can get waist deep in darkspawn blood, this is never really a problem for them. In fairness, [[What Could Have Been|there were plans to integrate story and gameplay by having the entire party contract the disease and become Grey Wardens for the endgame, but these plans were cut for a number of reasons.]]

 

* In ''[[Dead Rising]]'', during the second boss fight an [[NPC]] ally can withstand dozens of hits from a rifle that, in real life, is known to be able to tear a man in half with one shot, without dying. In the cutscene immediately after said fight he is shot in the leg with a pistol and unable to walk, and the very next task set for the player is to acquire a first aid kit to treat him - for a ''fever''. Which becomes '''lethal''' if you don't find the first aid kit in time.

 

** Gerrard Capashen manages to defeat Tsabo Tavoc in the storyline, despite three problems: one, Gerrard's card isn't powerful to harm Tsabo's; two, Tsabo can kill Gerrard with ease, both in and out of combat; and three, Tsabo's card is ''totally invulnerable'' to legendary creatures, like, say, Gerrard.

 

* ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe]]: Binding Blade'' has this. In Chapter 11A, Klein will shoot at his sister and seconds later say "Thank goodness you're okay!" But then in Chapter 16, General Douglass will not attack his adopted daughter Lalum, which makes her very useful for blocking him into a closed room with only one entrance/exit so that he can't get himself killed by your automatic counterattacks.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]

[[Category:Consistency]]

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