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Gameplay and Story Segregation: Difference between revisions
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* [[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]].
* [[Separate but Identical]] <br />In strategy games, some sub-factions are said to be different in composition, outlook etc., but ultimately only differ [[Palette Swap|in their color palette]].
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=== [[Adventure Game]] ===
* In ''[[
=== [[Beat'Em Up]] ===
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** 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.
* In ''[[
** 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.
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* 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.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCifhDGY1K8 Kerrigan is NOT the Queen of Blades.] Late in ''[[
* 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.
=== [[Role
* 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.
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* ''[[Anachronox]]'' has the main character in trouble with a local mob boss who he owes a large amount of money to. However, being an RPG you can make huge amounts of money from fighting monsters. Alternately, the next locale you visit has trading robots which you can use to make a fortune with. Problem is, you cannot use this money to pay back the mob boss - the option simply doesn't exist and the debt comes back to bite you later on.
* 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.
* Magneto is one of the [[X-Men]]'s most powerful foes, who can control all metal at whim. Yet in games like ''[[X
** 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.
* At one point in the RPG ''Gorky [[17/Odium|Odium]]'', {{spoiler|your [[The Medic|team medic]] gets attacked and poisoned by an invisible monster, cannot be cured, and dies at the end of the battle (and states that the grotesquely deformed bodies you found earlier are, too, victims of this poison).}} Near the end of the game, you battle a group of these monsters, but their poison can be cured away and only does minor damage like any other monster's poison.
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=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* In the ''[[Dungeons
** 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).
** Capcom's ''[[Dungeons
** 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.
*** Technically, in the lore Elminster and others like him are somewhere between "character" and "fixture of the world". Like Cthulhu. Thus it's same old problem with characters that belong in mythology.
*** Even as mortal magic-users go, it's an eternal struggle to make tabletop rules suck less at reflecting certain features of the setting.
* [[Super Soldier|The Space Marines]] of ''[[Warhammer
** 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.
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* 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.)
* One of the most bizarre examples ever has to be the [[
=== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ===
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* 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.
* In ''[[
=== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ===
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*** ''[[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.
** In ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|San Andreas]]'', the player can willingly murder hundreds of cops (and get away without even being killed/arrested), yet all cutscenes still portray the player character as innocent. In fact, as the plot goes on CJ is shown in a more and more positive light and seems to be trying to "get away from" all of the illegal activity in order to start a good, honest life...And as soon as these cutscenes finish, the player can get back to [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|throwing hand grenades off a highway overpass to see how far cars can drive before they explode]].
*** And even though you can constantly murder police officers in cold blood and get away with it, much of the conflict of the story centers around a couple crooked cops threatening to frame CJ for the murder of a single police officer that he didn't commit. What about the dozens of cops he DID murder?
*** 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.
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* ''[[Mabinogi]]''. Player characters, aka ''Milletians'', are presented as spirits from outside the game world, who are temporarily incarnated within it. Because they are not normally part of the world, they do not "die", but simply lose the body they were using, which can be restored by a particular [[NPC]]. [[NPC]]s are aware of your status, and will casually mention it from time to time. This is actually made a significant story point for Elf and Giant characters.
** 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.}}
* [[
=== [[Platform Game]] ===
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* ''[[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]].
=== [[Role
* The amateur game ''Sensible Erection RPG'' features quite a bit of [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] and parody of the cliches of Japanese [[RPG]]s. 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]].
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* ''[[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''.}}
* ''[[Wild
** 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.
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=== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ===
* 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
** 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!
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* 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.
=== [[Role
* ''[[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).
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