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{{trope}}
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}
{{cleanup|Does the work listed under "Other examples" actually exist?}}
[[File:bioshock19592 7019.jpg|frame]]
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The last two episodes of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', with the ''narrative'' arriving late and {{spoiler|Instrumentality}} being the party.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'': The four are sent to C'hou, specifically the continent of Baravada, when its entire (dysfunctional anarchistic dystopian/utopian) way of life is dying out. There are hints of a much more orderly past to the planet, especially the magnificent [[Ghost City]] of Ehndris and the implied behavior of the [[Jerkass Gods]] some centuries in the past.▼
== [[Film]] ==
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** Perhaps in the novel - in the film version, he actually saves the fourth cardinal.
* In ''[[At the Mountains of Madness]]'', all of the dying happens before the viewpoint characters arrive.
* ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' includes this in each book. First book: "What happened to Dahak's crew?" Second book: "What happened to the Fourth Imperium?" Third book: "What happened to Pardal's techbase?"▼
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Shatterpoint]]'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[Retirony|what they will do " after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. {{spoiler|Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.}}▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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* ''[[Lost]]'' was partially inspired by games such as ''[[Myst]]'' in which the character finds himself in a strange place with little information, including the objectives of the game. As the characters have explored the island, they've found the abandoned Dharma stations, numerous skeletons, and what was once a large statue, which now has been reduced to a lone foot.
* ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' begins with our heroes-to-be late for training yet again... thus missing the [[Big Bad]]'s initial sacking of their training hall.
* In the pilot episode of ''[[Crusade]]'', [[The Captain|Gideon]] arrives to Earth days after the battle with the Drakh (see ''[[Babylon 5]]: [[A Call To Arms]]''). All the crew see are ship wreckage and infected Earth. Matheson comments that they were late for the party even before they jumped. Then again, there's not much they could've done with a research vessel with enough weapons to scare off an occasional [[Space Pirates|raider]] or two.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The [[Post Apocalyptic]] tabletop RPG ''[[The Morrow Project]]'' starts with this premise: elite troopers were equipped and put into [[Cryogenically Frozen|cryogenic suspension]], to be revived just after the coming nuclear war so they can help rebuild society -- except something went wrong and they don't awaken until ''centuries'' later.▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* Most of the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games. ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', where Leon and Claire show up to a zombie-infested Raccoon City, takes it the most literally: Partway through, you find the party favors and decorations for a welcome party the Raccoon City Police Department was going to throw for Leon.
* ''[[Dead Rising]]''. Frank West enters Willamette to investigate a story...which turns out to be a zombie outbreak. Somewhat of an oddball example, as Frank's mission from the start is to uncover the story.
* In ''[[Nosferatu: Wrath of the Malachi]]'' the protagonist is late for the wedding of his sister. He arrives the castle at 10 PM, and has time until midnight to find out what happened.
* ''[[Half Life]] 2'' has an overarching plotline of the player being Late to the Party for the subjugation of earth. There's a nested trope in the Ravenholm portion of the game, where the player is Late to the Party for the much more recent slaughter of an entire town.
** Averted, however, in the first game, in that the player character causes the resonance cascade, and all the expansions except ''Opposing Force'' put the player as other Black Mesa employees present as everything goes to <s>hell</s> Xen.
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* Also in Super Metroid where you arrive at the Ceres Space station post receiving a distress signal but finding all the scientists dead.
* Then there is Megaman Zero 2. Arriving at Neo Arcadia 2 only to find every soldier involved dead (with the exception of one)
* The Asimov-inspired ''[[Robot City]]''.{{context}}
* ''[[Star Control|Star Control 2]]''. The protagonist is sent to aid Earth and its allies in a war against hostile aliens, only to find that Earth was conquered twenty years earlier.
** Done again later, when you go looking for the Androsynth homeworld only to find out that the Androsynth were researching something they shouldn't have, and were seen by something when they really didn't want to be seen. [[Eldritch Abomination|There are no more Andryosynth, only Orz.]]
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** This trope is lampshaded, perhaps inadvertently, in Bioshock's Alternate Reality Game. In Quain's "Utropolis" manuscript, it details his arrival at Rapture and discovery of the aforementioned New Year's celebration—at which point he muses that he was "Late for the party."
** Averted in [[BioShock Infinite]], however. Both factions are still fighting, and Columbia hasn't been reduced to the horrific crumbling state of Rapture where everything seems to be hanging by a thread and ready to flood at the slightest provocation. It's still going to be very dangerous though.
** In
* In Bungie Software's ''[[Pathways into Darkness]]'' the player is part of an elite special forces team sent with only hours to stop the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] at the bottom of a nightmarish jungle pyramid dungeon from waking up. But your parachute malfunctions before you can land, and your team leaves you for dead. Since [[It's Up to You]], you awaken hours later (also finding that the barrel of the awesome M16 in your [[Bag of Spilling]] was bent in the landing, rendering all of your ammo useless) to discover that your team has failed.
* This occurs a number of times in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', usually involving a previous bloody massacre by Sephiroth or the shady dealings of the Shinra organization.
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* Taken to a ridiculous degree in ''[[8-Bit Theater]]'' where the protagonists were late to {{spoiler|''the final villain's defeat'' when they briefly fled from him and a group composed mostly of characters ''we've never seen before'' killed him}}.
== [[Web
* Jay in ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' begins his investigation nearly three years after the events recorded in the tapes. Most of the cast has scattered or disappeared and several locations trashed by the time Jay looks for them.
** Averted at the same time though: As Jay starts going through the tapes, it becomes apparent that {{spoiler|he had much more to do with the party [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|than he remembered]]}}
▲* ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' includes this in each book. First book: "What happened to Dahak's crew?" Second book: "What happened to the Fourth Imperium?" Third book: "What happened to Pardal's techbase?"
== Other examples ==
▲* In the pilot episode of ''[[Crusade]]'', [[The Captain|Gideon]] arrives to Earth days after the battle with the Drakh (see ''[[Babylon 5]]: [[A Call To Arms]]''). All the crew see are ship wreckage and infected Earth. Matheson comments that they were late for the party even before they jumped. Then again, there's not much they could've done with a research vessel with enough weapons to scare off an occasional [[Space Pirates|raider]] or two.
* In ''[[Hero's Chains]]'', Derek arrives several centuries late to a world gone from a sci-fi utopia to a fantasy hellhole.{{context|reason=MOD: Does this work exist? All I can find about it is a TVT page that says it's unpublished.}}
▲* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Shatterpoint]]'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[Retirony|what they will do " after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. {{spoiler|Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.}}
▲* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'': The four are sent to C'hou, specifically the continent of Baravada, when its entire (dysfunctional anarchistic dystopian/utopian) way of life is dying out. There are hints of a much more orderly past to the planet, especially the magnificent [[Ghost City]] of Ehndris and the implied behavior of the [[Jerkass Gods]] some centuries in the past.
▲* The [[Post Apocalyptic]] tabletop RPG ''[[The Morrow Project]]'' starts with this premise: elite troopers were equipped and put into [[Cryogenically Frozen|cryogenic suspension]], to be revived just after the coming nuclear war so they can help rebuild society -- except something went wrong and they don't awaken until ''centuries'' later.
----
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Late to the Party]]
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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