Gameplay and Story Segregation: Difference between revisions

Since large-scale [[Cutscene|cutscenes]] and extensive dialogue have only been present in games the last twenty years or so, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] is far more prevalent from the 16-bit era onwards, especially ones in which the storyline is a focal point of the game.

'''Forms of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] include:'''

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

** [[Lazy Backup]] <br />If you're only allowed three out of eighteen party members, and those three are killed, you get a Game Over even though the rest are still alive.

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.

----

== 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 ''[[LA Noire]]'', the huge twist of the level "Manifest Destiny" is that {{spoiler|Cole affair is splashed across the newspapers to distract the media from a LAPD corruption scandal, derailing his career and getting him demoted to arson.}} But the level itself is a completely chaotic bloodbath, with nearly Cole's entire Marine unit being massacred by the mafia in broad daylight with stolen US army guns, revealing a mob mole inside the LAPD. This makes the "twist" nonsensical, as those murders should have easily taken precedence.

* ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3'' starts with a [[Cutscene]] where the five characters decide to shake up the [[Mook|mooks]] for information. After a few levels of assaulting mooks by yourself, everyone else appears for another cutscene and says "This is useless. No-one told us anything." How could they? I just kicked the crap out of anyone who came close. And where the hell have you been, anyway?

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* In ''[[Drakengard]]'', you're only allowed to take one party member with you into battle, and he doesn't follow along with you on the battlefield, no; you transform into him for a predetermined amount of time. Contrast this to the [[Cutscene|cutscenes]], which show all the party members present in the battles when applicable. Dragonfire kills anything human in a single blow, but not so for some higher-end Mooks in-game. Caim wields a relatively smallish BFS as his default weapon in the cutscenes, but his default weapon in-game is realistically proportioned to be used by a human being. Manah can obliterate armies in cutscenes, but never displays this sort of power when fighting you in-game. And so on in that order.

* 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.

* This trope is pretty much universal and constantly active in [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] - typically in the "infinite-lives bosses", the "what do you mean, resurrect spell?", ''and'' the "we desperately need level 1 fighters even though we have level 70 shopkeepers" varieties.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is rife with this trope, but one of the more nonsensical examples is in the Caverns of Time dungeons, where PCs are sent back in time by the Bronze Dragonflight to various famous incidents in past ''[[Warcraft]]'' titles. In many cases, most of the current playable races could not have been present for various reasons (Horde characters in particular, but also Night Elves and Draenei). So in those dungeons, those characters get hit with a illusion buff that disguises them as a Human for the duration of the dungeon. You would think this would make it an inversion of the trope, except that it also applies to Blood Elves--who all would have been Alliance High Elves in those days, and so could have been present for all these events. Turning them Human is just odd, when a simple eye color change would suffice. It's especially nonsensical in the Culling of Stratholme instance, where you see a variety of Warcraft 3 units represented at the front gate of the city, one of which is a ''High Elf Priest''. It turns specially weird when you take into account that classes aren't disguised in any way, so you can have Warlocks and Death Knights helping Thrall escape from Durnholde, shapeshifted Druids running about, and Humans casting Shaman spells. But no High Elves.

{{quote|Sunlight doesn't hurt me, but it does make me really cussy!}}

* 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.

* The ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series has an odd case of this. From the very beginning, Princess Peach has been the [[Damsel in Distress]]... but on almost every occasion she's been playable, she's been quite capable, whether as a fighter, athlete, or go-kart driver, and largely a match for Mario... which raises the question of how she continues to be kidnapped and require Mario to save her when she's as good as him and more than capable of defeating swarms of angry Koopas or even Samus Aran when she needs to. At this point, Nintendo seems to simply have fun with its artifacts.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* In ''[[Airforce Delta]] Strike'' You pull several missions that supposedly deal heavy blows to the enemy's logistics network, but their ability to field aircraft, tanks, ships, and wildly powerful contraptions of all manner is unaffected.

* 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.

** 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.}}

* In the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' pencil-and-paper RPG, the character class known as the "Paladin" is granted divine powers by his patron god and will lose them if he commits acts contrary to his god's nature (this is new as of 4th Edition - previously all paladins had to be [[Lawful Good]] regardless of their deity). Some mechanism to represent this rule is usually present in computer games based on ''D&D''. Even so, one isn't necessarily allowed to bring it up in circumstances in which it would be useful to do so. To whit: In the computer [[RPG]] ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' (in which paladins can only be lawful good), there is a sequence in which the player stands falsely accused of slaughtering an entire village and must prove his innocence at a trial. Illogically enough, if the class of the player character is a paladin, one is not allowed to point out that if that if the player character had actually committed this heinous act, he would have lost his divine powers, but since he retains them, he must be innocent.

** 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 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.

* One of the most bizarre examples ever has to be the [[PlayStation 3]] game ''[[Mind Jack]]''. Basically, the premise is that you're a secret operative going around [[Insistent Terminology|hacking]] into people's minds and controlling them. After a few hours of this, in a cutscene, the female lead presents to the protagonist the concept of mindhacking... ''and he has no idea what that is''. Y'know, the thing you've been going around doing for the past four hours. {{spoiler|Actually an example of [[Fridge Brilliance]], as it's not that character that's doing the mindhacking.}}

* 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 ''[[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones|Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones]]'', a support conversation between Garcia and Dozla has the two talking about their failed attempt to practice archery, including Dozla trying to swing his bow like an axe, and Garcia putting the arrow in backwards. The two decide archery isn't for them. This is ignoring that it's very possible that Garcia promoted to a Warrior by this point, and can use a bow quite competently.

* 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.

== 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.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', the respawn system is canon (according to ''[[Poker Night At the Inventory]]'', Heavy recalls it as a series of nightmares). Also, each character's personality, weapons, tactics, and movement style are all closely related, and the relationships between characters in canon are related to how they interact in-game: gameplay nemeses [[Friendly Sniper|Sniper]] and [[French Jerk|Spy]] are bitter rivals (and [[Foe Yay]] targets) out-of-play, and popular in-game team-up Heavy and Medic are confirmed [[Heterosexual Life Partners]] and a [[Ship Tease|hinted]] [[Ho Yay|couple.]]

* ''[[Eve Online]]'''s completely player driven nature averts and/or outright deconstructs many of the things mentioned in the MMORPG examples above.

** Almost every MMO mechanic is superbly addressed and explained via some very elaborate and convincing-sounding tech lore. How can you constantly die? [http://www.eveonline.com/background/cloning/ Clones.] How are you singularly operating a ship with effectively no crew? [http://www.eveonline.com/background/eggers/ Capsules.] The backstory has become so in depth that it has sparked what you could describe as 'lore within the lore;' cloning has caused discussions about transferals of consciousness, and the fact that capsuleers can indefinitely clone has in-game, as well as outside consideration about the fact that since they have clones, can do anything, and cause large amounts of destruction, that capsuleers are effectively [[Mind Screw|immortal, sociopathic, all-powerful demigods.]]

* [[Runescape]] soundly averts this in most all cases. If your character is in a [[Cutscene]] everything about them is there when they are shown. They just place limits on what can be with you on a few.

* [[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]].

* The amateur game ''Sensible Erection RPG'' features quite a bit of [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] and parody of the cliches of Japanese [[RPG|RPGs]]. Before the final confrontation, a party member that had been killed in a cutscene returns as if nothing had happened, and his companion declares, "I used a 1up on him. What's the big deal?" To which the boss responds, "See? I told you, [we live in a] videogame."

* 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]].

* ''[[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.

* During ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'', the hero has his eye shot out. After that, if you go into first-person mode, the far-right of the screen is darkened and your depth perception is off, forcing you to relearn how to aim.

* In [[Punch-Out!!|Punch-Out!!!]] for the [[Nintendo Wii]], you get special damage-reducing headgear after 100 losses. In Title Defense Mode, {{spoiler|Glass Joe, who starts the game with 99 losses before you beat him, gets the same headgear for the rematch fight, as he now has 100 losses himself.}}

* 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 essence, it ''does'' have power potentially superior to that of a staff, since {{spoiler|she manages to save [[Optional Party Member|Leh]][[The Chessmaster|ran]] [[Guide Dang It|(If you managed to get him)]], who was literally an instant away from dying.}}; Whereas staves appear to function primarily on healing flesh wounds, [[Healing Hands|Sacrifice]] uses [[Cast From Hit Points|''Micaiah's own life force,'']] whih implicitly, has stronger effects on living beings.

* 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]].}}

* Part of being a good GM for almost any [[Table Top Role Playing Game]] is realizing there is no such thing as Gameplay and Story Segregation. Players should have the opportunity to feel that their choices matter within the story, and you should be ready for canny players to save the prince who was supposed to die, steal the data that was supposed to be given to the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], or kill the villain you expected to survive a bit longer. A good GM will recycle the work he did on antagonists, introduce a new plot twist or element, and let the fun continue while still allowing the players a moment of feeling awesome. The same holds true when the players ''fail'' spectacularly. There's no [[Nonstandard Game Over]], only the players trying to carry on as best they can now that the prince is dead, the data is in the hands of the [[Big Bad]], and so on.

* 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).

** Later installments are a bit better about this then the first game. The first game's expansion pack avoids the problem entirely by having the entire party become Grey Wardens. The sequel still has the problem, but you fight darkspawn much less often and therefore there's less oppurtunities for the party to become infected. Also, depending on your choices, one of your party members may get infected, and will die if you can't get help.

* 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.

** That said, ''[[Dead Rising]]'' does subvert this trope handily if you go off the rails of the main story. If someone critical to the story gets killed or Frank doesn't perform actions fast enough, a screen comes up saying "The truth has fallen into darkness" and gives you the option to start the story over ''or'' keep playing until your chopper comes back. {{spoiler|And due to Brad, Jessie, and chopper pilot Ed succumbing to [[Plotline Death]] if you follow the story all the way through, this is actually the best way to rescue the most survivors and get the "Saint" achivement.}}

* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', it's possible to summon storyline characters as Legendary creatures or Planeswalkers. Certain characters actually have multiple cards, depicting themselves at different times of their life, and they can be played at the same time. Early ''Magic'' stories explained that the character itself isn't being summoned - it's actually the caster's mental image of that character, made real with magic. ([[Plato|Platonic]] ideals are heavily referenced). However, this doesn't explain why there can't be two Legendary creatures with the same name in play.

** 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]]: [[Fire Emblem Tellius|Path of Radiance]]'' introduces a skill called "Daunt", which lowers the hit and critical hit chances for any opposed units within three spaces of a unit that has it, and appears to work based on making the opponents fear you. In ''Path of Radiance'', it's exclusive to two enemies, both of whom are indeed quite fearsome. {{spoiler|And one of them happens to be a Branded, which means that laguz would be uneasy around her even if they didn't know ''why'' they're uneasy around her.}} In ''Radiant Dawn'', however, the player gets a scroll for giving this skill to a unit, and although the conversation that leads to your acquisition of this scroll again suggests that it works through being intimidating, the skill itself can be equipped on any unit, even [[White Magician Girl|Rhys,]] who is considered frail in-story as well as being a priest, or Leanne or Rafiel, who are [[Actual Pacifist|Actual Pacifists]] and are generally calm-tempered. <ref>Reyson is also an [[Actual Pacifist]], as all herons are, but it's noted many times in-game that having spent so much time living with the hawks, he's become far more [[Hot-Blooded]] than most herons.</ref>

* ''[[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.