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Lost Forever: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''...[[Averted Trope|we're not]] [[Killed Off for Real|killing off any of the companions]] because [[Player Preferred Pattern|everybody did]]. [[My God, What Have I Done?|And then everybody cried]]... People test as they're playing the system and they go... '[[Tempting Fate|I wonder if they're going to let me do this.]] [[Oh Crap|Oh no]]! My healer is gone forever'!''|[[Word of God|Daniel Erickson]] [http://darthhater.com/2011/09/24/egxp-interview-with-daniel-erickson/page/2 on] why ''[[Star Warsthe Old Republic]]'' is going to [[Averted Trope|Avert]] this.}}
Also frequently referred to as being "missable," the dreaded Lost Forever is a game play component (such as an item, weapon, [[Sidequest]], [[Secret Character|character]], or plot event) that can become permanently inaccessible after a certain point in the game, therefore being "lost forever" if you miss them during the period in which they are available. A close relative and often an example of [[Guide Dang It]]. The bane of gamers everywhere, especially those shooting for [[Hundred Percent Completion]], as it often forces them to start the entire game anew if they're not willing to accept a less-than-perfect run.
Lost Forevers frequently appear in areas that can only be accessed once, or are rendered unavailable after a certain plot event occurs. [[Doomed Hometown|The early town that is destroyed]], the mountainous area that caves in once you leave it, the village that you're banished from, the [[Load
More rarely, things are completely random and arbitrary. For example, perhaps once you finish disc two and [[Global Airship|acquire the airship]], the random shopkeeper you needed to talk to in order to acquire the [[Infinity
Forgiving developers will sometimes provide an alternative means to reach what would otherwise be Lost Forever. However, reaching it with this second-chance method is usually much more time-consuming or difficult than if you had just gotten it the first time around. If a player knows such an item is coming, a common tactic is to [[Save Scumming|save immediately beforehand, and restore repeatedly from that save]] [[Trial and Error Gameplay|until they manage to get it]]. This is often true when getting the Lost Forever is [[Luck Based Mission|based on luck]], such as when a [[Boss Battle|boss]] [[Randomly Drops]] a unique piece of equipment.
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Conversely, while most Lost Forevers are defined by the limited opportunity to ''acquire'' one, sometimes a particular item is acquired readily during a game's progress, but is irreplaceable once it is used up -- should it get lost, stolen, or destroyed, you cannot acquire another one.
This trope is not to be confused with [[Final Death]], where a character permanently dies and cannot be resurrected. If it's an item deliberately taken away from you, it may be [[Awesome but Temporary]]. If something vital to the plot becomes [[Lost Forever]], the game is [[Unwinnable]]. Lost Forever should also not be a [[Point of No Return]], where the game cuts off your access to prior areas. [[Chaos Emeralds]] can always be put in a Lost Forever situation since they are placed in [[Bonus Stage|Bonus Stages]]. Missable items tend to be found in a [[One
Not to be confused with [[Ruined FOREVER]]!!!, although it can generate degrees of it.
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* ''[[Return to Zork (Video Game)|Return to Zork]]''. Most notoriously, if you cut instead of dig up the bonding plant at the very beginning of the game, killing it, you're [[Failure Is the Only Option|screwed]]. Even worse, it's very late in the game when you find this out. Additionally, there are many ways of killing it by accident if you do dig it up.
** Likewise, the earlier text game ''Spellbreaker'' had a plant that you needed to dig up rather than cut to solve a puzzle. And just to make sure as many people as possible found that out too late, the game placed a [[Red Herring]] pair of shears near the plant.
* In ''[[Maniac Mansion]]'', pouring film developer on the [[Man
{{quote| "The plant's gone. I'm stuck up here!"}}
* ''[[Gabriel Knight (Video Game)|Gabriel Knight]]: The Beast Within'' is a huge point-and-click game, six discs large. If you forget to pick up a certain item in the chapter on disc two, you will [[Unwinnable|get stuck at the end of the chapter on disc four]].
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== [[First
* ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'' has the Rider, a fairly standard scopeless sniper rifle. The gun itself is a reference to ''[[A Christmas Story]]'', both in its similarity in appearance to the BB gun Ralphie wanted for Christmas, and to the spoiler text -- "Careful... you might put someone's eye out" -- [[Shout Out|which is a quote from the movie]]. It can be found in a hidden basement in New Haven, the entrance to which is only unlocked while a single mission -- {{spoiler|Another Piece of the Puzzle}} -- is active. Once the Vault Key piece is picked up, the door to the hidden basement locks again, and the Rider is lost {{spoiler|until you get back to New Haven in Playthrough 2}}.
** An interesting point of note is that the flavor text of the gun is a subtle hint regarding the giant Rakk Hive you have to kill in order to pick up the Vault Key piece. {{spoiler|Shoot it in the eyes for a critical hit.}}
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* In ''[[Red Faction]]: Guerrilla'', the most useful vehicles are the Walker mechs. Because they're so perfect for destroying things, you will almost never see them outside of the specific missions where you use one. There are a few places where you can find a Walker, unless you destroyed the building that was there. In the unlikely event that you either just happened not to destroy the building where one of the Walkers might spawn, or you knew beforehand not to destroy that building, you could very well see a Walker there. Most of these buildings are EDF property which you are encouraged to demolish, and if the building is gone, you can't get a Walker from there anymore.
* ''[[Killing Floor (Video Game)|Killing Floor]]'' has added a few promotional playermodels, only obtainable by preordering another game (such as the protagonist of ''The Ball'') or unlocking a specific number of achievements during an event (10 of 13 summer achievements to unlock a [[Steampunk]] version of [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Mr. Foster]]); when the game is released or the event ends, you can no longer get the models.
* In ''[[Strangers Wrath|Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath]]'', we have the Binoculars, which are ''only'' available at the General Store in Gizzard's Gulch (right at the ''start of the game''), and said General Store gets destroyed in the battle with Boilz Booty. Didn't buy the Binoculars? Well then, you won't be able to use the game's [[Sniper Rifle]] equivalent, the [[One
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** And of course, when you choose a reward for a non-repeatable quest the other possible rewards for that quest are Lost Forever for the character.
** After the expansion came out, a certain world boss moved to a new location, got a level upgrade, and dropped new loot. Unfortunately, this caused all of his old loot to disappear, save for one item that could also rarely be found on more common enemies.
*** And the next expansion did it again, relocating and retuning an old dungeon.. sans one [[Infinity
*** Players who acquired these items when available received the corresponding Feat of Strength achievement.
** Another of ''WoW'''s many examples of this are the classic PvP ranks. Originally, players could gain (and lose) one of 14 ranks, ranging from Private/Scout to Grand Marshall/High Warlord, based on their [[Pv P]] performance on a week to week basis. In addition to rewards which became available at each rank, players also received the associated title before their name. With the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, this ranking system was scrapped, and while the item rewards were made available through other means, the titles can no longer be gained by players. Those players who had earned a title before their removal are given the option to display it, and players who still have their title often wear it as a sign of veterancy and badge of honor.
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*** More [[Fridge Brilliance]]: the game's theme is about obsession and the dangers therein [[Mind Screw|(maybe)]]. The only way to recover that secret item? [[Completely Missing the Point|Start a completely new game to satisfy your obsession with]] [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]. Not only that, but the reward for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]] is the {{spoiler|[[Bad Ending]]}} [[Mind Screw|(probably)]].
**** Even MORE [[Fridge Brilliance]]: One of the levels in the world is named "irreversable".
*** You get the "Best" Ending on your first playthrough and the Bad Ending on the second playthrough. It's all [[Timey
* In ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'', there is a Mumbo Token in a waterlogged pyramid in Gobi's Valley, on the surface of the water. Collecting the Jiggy in the pyramid will drain the water, so if you don't get the Mumbo Token before you drain the water, it is Lost Forever and there will be no other way to get it.
** Another one in ''Banjo-Kazooie'' is often missed by fans. There is a grille connecting the chambers with the picture puzzles for Mad Monster Mansion and Rusty Bucket Bay, but many fans do not notice this link. After raising the water level once, it is possible to go to the chamber with the Mad Monster Mansion puzzle and break it, then go through to the Rusty Bucket Bay puzzle, but most fans don't realize this and raise the water level twice, making the grille Lost Forever. Some of them have spotted the grille in the chamber with the Rusty Bucket Bay puzzle, but mistake it for a dead end. If discovering this upsets you, the Rare Witch Project wiki has a list of cheat codes that can be entered on the sandcastle floor in Treasure Trove Cove to open parts of Grunty's Lair, and among the more useless codes to open various grates is ''CHEAT THE GRILLE GOES BOOM TO THE SHIP PICTURE ROOM'' to open the grille in question (although entering more than two codes will prompt Grunty to erase the game file, and in the XBLA version you will lose your leaderboard status).
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* In ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]'', when speaking to Goggles for the first time, she'll give you the Amaze-O-Gaze Glasses (and thus the ability to zoom in and out during a first-person view). That is, provided that you haven't won the Tower of Tragedy quiz yet, otherwise you'll be permanently locked out of Bottles' House and thus will never get another chance to get the Amaze-O-Gaze. Not that you'd need it, anyway, since it's entirely optional.
** The Jolly's Jukebox song "Sad Jinjo Houses" can only be unlocked by walking into a Jinjo house ''before'' the family is reunited. However, if you have saved all the Jinjos, the track is Lost Forever. Strangely, the tracks "In The Hall of the Zombie King" (heard in the Zombified Throne Room) and "Party at Bottles'" (heard by approaching Bottles' house after beating Tower of Tragedy but before beating the final boss) can be unlocked in the jukebox without even having to hear them.
* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' there are nine secret life upgrades. You must find all to get the [[Infinity
** All Sands ot Time trilogy games contain missable life upgrades; however, you're only penalized with a different kind of ending in ''Warrior Within'' for missing any. The upgrades have no bearing on the plot of the preceding ''Sands of time'', nor in the third instalment, ''The Two Thrones''. This last game also packs missable Sand Credits. Miss enough and you won't be able to pay for all the unlockable artwork. Not a big deal, unless you're after [[Hundred Percent Completion]].
* In ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'', if you miss one ribbon, the following ones will disappear. But the sector 7 ribbon fits the trope more: After the ship, there is a teleporter accessible by using the Nuke weapon's recoil. It's actually a shortcut, and using it causes the sector's ribbon to be [[Lost Forever]].
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== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* In ''[[Total War|Medieval 2]]'', generals can sometimes gain Ancillaries, technically characters following them around but essentially a stat boost. Most of them are gained through specific but generic actions like winning battles or being in a town/castle when a given building is completed. However, some of the most powerful ancillaries are historical ones like William Wallace or Machiavelli, and those can only be gained in very specific circumstances, not known to the player unless he has peered through the game files. Joan of Arc, for example, can only be gained during a 20ish year span (1 turn being 6 months in the game), only for French players, only if France and England are at war late in the game (which is unlikely, since both countries are in each other's way, and one usually destroys the other in the early game) and only if the given general wins a battle against the English ''in which the odds were against him, but not too much''.
* [[Enemy Exchange Program|Salvaging]] in ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]'' is [[Game Breaker|tremendously powerful]] because it allows you to exceed the arbitrary build limits for your fleet. For example, you can build only four heavy cruisers, so any that you fail to capture in the missions they appear are [[Lost Forever]]. Due to [[Cosmetically Different Sides]], heavy cruisers are arguably not a true example because you only miss out on ''extras''. A purer example occurs with the Gardens of Kadesh missions, where the enemy units are unique. [[Beam Spam|Multi-Beam Frigates]] pack a meaner punch and a [[
* The first [[Pikmin]] game had Libra, a piece of the Dolphin found in the Forest Navel that hangs on a high platform separated from the rest of a map on a cliff. Although it is possible to get Libra down off the very top of the cliff without problem, the cliff is narrow and there's very little room to meneuver, which makes it possible that your pikmin will miss-step coming down, [[Bottomless Pit|falling down the bottomless pit around them and taking Libra down with the troop]]. Once lost, it is lost for good and won't respawn unless you restart the game, and because Libra is one of the Dolphin's 25 vital parts, [[Unwinnable By Mistake|you shot down any chance of winning the game if you lose it]].
* Quite a few in either ''[[Tomba]]'' game, but the most unpleasant is in the sequel. To complete "Hide and Seek", you have to get a girl out of a hole in a wall. To do this, you throw a snowball into the hole under her, which slingshots it into her and knocks her to you. Capture the Ice Evil Pig before you do this? The snow melts... and you can never get her out. Doing this prevents you from doing "Who's the Liar?", which prevents you from entering one of the Secret Towers, which keeps you from getting one of the best weapons in the game. A hat-trick of Lost Forevers from ''one'' misstep!
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** The Bahamut Esper can be missed entirely if you manage to use X-Zone on the boss Doomgaze. This can be achieved by using the Vanish spell on him first. The other "Instant death" combo, Vanish and Doom will work, but using X-Zone removes Bahamut from the game.
*** Actually, its not permanently missable in the original game. Vanish + X-zone just, for some really weird programming quirk, does the opposite and fully heals him, letting you still have a chance to refight him. Many just assume he's dead and figure they missed it for logical reasons. The GBA version, however, has it permenantly missable provided you have not defeated him on the Overworld but defeat him for the first time in the Soul Shrine.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'', the Wutai [[Sidequest]] must be started before disc three, as it suddenly becomes inaccessible after disc two [[Guide Dang It|due to a sudden plot development]]. Many types of materia, including Ifrit, Ramuh, W-Item, Phoenix, and Neo Bahamut, are one-shots (it might be possible to dig up some or all of these materia at Bone Village). You only have one chance to acquire Barret's [[Infinity
** Aeris's Level 4 [[Limit Break]] as well, to an extent. You can get it at any time, but after she [[It Was His Sled|dies]], what's the point of it?
** Ghost Hands, which drains MP from the enemy, are only obtainable before Shinra levels Sector 7.
** Some of the enemy skills can be lost forever. Trine can be only be learned by two bosses and one enemy in a [[One
** Subverted in all the stuff in Midgar. It's lost...for a really really long time.
** As far as i can tell Vincent's Level 4 Limit Break and [[Infinity
** While the Gelnika can be visited any time, the Turks are unavailable during disc three so the fight with them can potentially be missed. And speaking of the Turks, all of them carry unique pieces of equipment that must be stolen during the fights against them on disc two. Furthermore, if the player completed Wutai, they have the option of skipping the final showdown with them at Midgar, thus losing the aforementioned equipment.
* Many of the Guardian Forces in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' can only be drawn from bosses and secret bosses, which are by definition a one-shot deal. You get a second shot at many of these with a ''different'' batch of bosses, except in the Japanese version, for some reason.
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** The rare cards you can win by playing the in-game cardgame can also fall victim to this, since the rare cards are only held by one person, and you might very well lose the chance to speak to these people later.
*** Actually that isn't necessarily true. Whilst it's possible that Ellone is one of the cases where it can happen there is nevertheless hope for players that might have missed it. As long as the player completes the Card Quest then all of the Group Members will be available on the Ragnarok during Disc 4. One of the players actually plays virtually all the rare cards in the game meaning if the player missed out on any then it could be gotten there. The only card that is extremely rare and really fits this trope is the [[Pu Pu]] card.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'' has the Excalibur 2, Steiner's [[Infinity
** This game has more [[Lost Forever]] stuff than most of the rest of ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' combined, and that's saying something. Anyone who wants to get all of the little flavor awards has to completely re-explore each city at every plot point, including so many [[Guide Dang It]] moments that the official guide doesn't cover them all, instead referring to a website accompaniment that no longer exists.
*** Japanese players didn't even get the luxury of having a strategy guide at game launch to find all of said crap, due to Square's marketing approach ('hardcore' gamers who would find and reveal the secrets through word of mouth wouldn't need a jump start, apparently.)
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* ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'' has the Zodiac Spear, which, unless you ''avoid'' [[Guide Dang It|opening four arbitrary chests]] earlier in the game, can only be acquired from a chest that's only there 10% of the time and only has the dang spear 1% of the time. (That's nearly 700 reloads, on average.) Also, some items, such as Slime Oil, are only available en mass from spam-stealing from a certain gone-after-you-defeat-it-once enemy (Though you can obtain the only one that is actually required by completing 90 tiers of racing, much later in the game).
** The chest holding the Demonsbane sword, obtained from the Tomb of Raithwall, will only appear if you defeat the ''first'' Demon Wall, --[[Guide Dang It|the one you're]] ''[[Guide Dang It|supposed]]'' [[Guide Dang It|to run away from]], since its stats and abilities are far beyond what [[Level Grinding|normal progression]] would allow your party. Even if you do defeat it, prepare to run back and forth from the entrance to the chamber where the chest appears, as there's a random chance of the chest containing Knots of Rust instead... and that's if the chest even ''appears at all''.
** It is possible to miss the Omega Badge and therefore screw yourself out of the [[Infinity
* In ''[[MARDEK]]'' RPG, once you enter Moric's battle-saucer in chapter 2, you've permanently sealed off the catacombs, lost your chance to unlock Cambria, and boosted the [[Hitchhiker Heroes|hire price]] of Zach by 1000%. Also, when you go into the throne room in chapter 3, EVERYTHING is closed off until the chapter 4 release, and some stuff will probably remain lost even then.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', finding and using multicolored marks called Trinities was one of the requirements for [[Hundred Percent Completion]]. In [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Halloween Town]], a Red Trinity can be found in the base of Oogie's Manor, and you must use that Trinity before fighting Oogie Boogie for the first time. After you beat Oogie, he ''merges with his manor'', and beating him makes him collapse to the ground, thus rendering the Trinity Lost Forever. Another catch is that to use the Trinities, you ''have'' to have Donald and Goofy in your party for them to work. Many players who couldn't be bothered to switch Jack Skellington out of their party at the [[Save Point]] at the top of the manor and backtrack to the Trinity with Donald and Goofy ended up tearing their hair out in frustration.
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** Don't forget the Secret Missions: bonuses awarded for carrying out certain (unhinted) actions during certain (unhinted) boss battles. You have to complete them all for one of Yuri's Titles.
** Another fun example: the first two steps of a subquest that awards Judith's second-best weapon starts hours before you've even met her. Both steps involve immediately retracing your steps after you've been implictedly told to move forward, and ''must'' be done before entering Capua Nor. <ref>Step 1) After Rita joins your party the second time, go back into her hut and examine the tiny blastia in a corner of her room. Step 2) Immediately after completing and leaving Ehmead Hill (to the overworld), go back in and go straight back down the path so Rita can examine the broken barrier blastia. If you try examining the blastia ''before'' leaving Ehmead Hill, you won't get the correct cutscene.</ref>
* In yet another ''[[Tales Series]]'' example, ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'' is prone to a great deal of [[Sequence Breaking]] that will render many skits, titles, costumes, items, weapons and sidequests utterly [[Lost Forever]]. Events need to be triggered during a very small window and chained with secondary and tertiary events that happen well into the game. Miss one step or take the wrong one and it's goodbye [[Infinity
* ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]'' averts this for every collectible... except treasure chests. And finding all of them is part of getting Vyse's [[Infinity
* The king of this trope, however, is likely the first ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'' game. As if getting [[Hundred Percent Completion]] wasn't hard enough (there are 1,000 distinct items to collect), many of the items are one-shots, and some can only be acquired by letting other items age, in real time, over days or weeks, and you have to [[First Person Snapshooter|take a picture]] of every single enemy in the game, including one-shot bosses.
** Here's just one heinous example. To explain: in order to get 100% completion, you must take pictures of every character in your party. Every time you do so, there is a small chance that said character's photo will have a particular feature; this is called a rare shot, and naturally, you must also take rare shots of every character in your party. It so happens that in ONE particular boss battle, one character's appearance will notably change. Not only must you take a picture of that character in that state, but you must ALSO get the rare shot, and the only chance you have to get both of these pictures is in that one boss battle!
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* ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story (Video Game)|Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' seems to have a large Lost Forever when the player loses access to {{spoiler|the world of the entire first half of the game}}... but thorough investigation will reveal it is possible to return at the very end. Indeed, there is a [[Bonus Dungeon]] there.
** Both ''[[Star Ocean 1]]'' and ''Star Ocean: The Second Story'' ''do'' contain plenty of Lost Forevers, mostly in the form of optional characters. Both games only allow certain characters to join the party if other characters are not present - enforced either through specific scripted events, or through the party size limit of eight characters (opportunities to remove characters from the party are very limited). Additionally, ''Star Ocean'' has a specific point where you can permanently lose the chance to gain a specific party member by ''leaving the room'' - without any indication, before or after, that this has any significant side effects.
** Another big one in ''Star Ocean: The Second Story'' is the Sharp Edge. It's a rather weak weapon for Claude that you can only get if you take second place in the fighting tournament, then speak to a specific NPC. Oh, wait, after the tournament was over, you left town BEFORE you spoke to that NPC? Guess what, the sword's [[Lost Forever]]. And did you know that Claude can customize it a few times and end up creating his [[Infinity
** Another interesting variance from ''Star Ocean: The Second Story''. There is a particular hidden witch you may talk to in an early town, which promptly becomes uninhabitable a few minutes of game play later, and then much later in another town. If spoken to in both locations, she unlocks Indalacio Limiter Off, an alternate form of the last boss. It's a variance due to the fact that most players ''don't'' want this to happen, as [[That One Boss|he will destroy you]].
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV|The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'' made great effort to keep any quest from being Lost Forever, through completing other quests -- although this does cause some confusion, such as a thieves' guild quest where you steal from the Archmage. No big oddity there, until you realize that {{spoiler|at this point, a decent number of player characters already ''are'' the Archmage}}.
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** Also, upon completion of the game, {{spoiler|all of the random Oblivion gates in the world disappear, forever.}} To be fair, this makes perfect sense, but since the items you receive from in game drops and the enchantments you get from the Sigil Stones are based on player level, anyone who runs through the main quest quickly before doing any side quests will lose the best enchantments in the game.
** The player can invoke this trope deliberately with the Dark Brotherhood initiation quest. If you murder someone ingame (whether deliberately or not), the next time you sleep you'll be visited by Lucien Lachance of the game's assassins guild. He'll give you a dagger called the Blade of Woe and instruct you to kill a man named Rufio to be welcomed to the Dark Brotherhood. You don't have to do it, but the dagger he gives you counts as a quest item - meaning it's stuck in your inventory - until the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline. If you have no intention of joining the Brotherhood, and you don't want to carry the Blade of Woe around indefinitely, you can kill Lucien as soon as he gives you the quest. On the plus side, you can now drop the Blade. On the negative side, you can NEVER join the Dark Brotherhood at any point in the game, making the guild and all its related quests lost forever.
** Trope invoked in another offshoot Daedric prince quest where, in a realized case of having one's cake or eating it, [[Consummate Liar|Clavicus Vile]] offers to give you his amazing [[Vendor Trash|Masque of Clavicus Vile]] -- headgear that increases social prowess (very) slightly -- in exchange for the Umbra Sword, one of the game's (two?) optional [[Infinity
** Most of the better quest rewards are levelled to your character (as well as gold rewards, but [[Money for Nothing|this isn't much of a problem]]), unfortunately these reward items ''do not scale'' with you as you level; the item you get is the one you're stuck with throughout the game. Higher-level versions of these items are completely unobtainable if you complete them at lower levels.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: [[Morrowind]]'', the unique artifact Spell Breaker can ''only'' be obtained if the player is a vampire, meaning that if the player was a vampire but has been cured OR has become immune to disease via the Main Quest, and has not yet obtained Spell Breaker, it's gone. You don't lose it just by getting cured of corprus in the main quest and being therefore immune to common disease, because you can make a custom spell with "weakness to common disease on self" effect and cast it.
** The [[Expansion Pack|expansion]] ''Tribunal'' forces the player to do this for the main quest. You see, the head of the museum has part of an [[Infinity
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] [[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Video Game)|V: Skyrim]]''
** Prior to the 1.4 patch, the Thalmor embassy was home to a rare gemstone called a Stone of Barenziah, and visiting the embassy without claiming the stone prevented you from completing a quest which required you to find all 24 of them. The 1.4 patch remedied this by moving the stone into the cave you use to escape the embassy, which can be revisited.
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* The ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' series mostly avoided this in full; despite that you couldn't actually return to most areas after having visited them, there was an Environmental Simulator where you could pick up things. However, this only worked (for the most part) with combat areas; in the third game, for example, there's a small sidequest that can be missed. In addition, the first two games have extremely useful items that either have an extremely low drop rate or have to be stolen from bosses.
** ''Xenosaga Episode I'' also had the e-mails, some of which were very unlikely to be found by playing the game normally, [[Guide Dang It]]!. Not only were many of them Lost Forever once you'd gone past them, but missing one would often make it impossible to get later e-mails, as well.
* In ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|Earthbound]]'', an enemy in the Stonehenge base [[Randomly Drops]] a character's [[Infinity
** Likewise, Ness's [[Infinity
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' contains a fairly egregious example: as you progress through the game, {{spoiler|two visitable planets/cities are destroyed by the Sith}} with [[Guide Dang It|little to no forewarning]], and all items and sidequests therein are rendered [[Lost Forever]].
** There are also smaller and more numerous examples such as a runaway girl found on your ship, that will eventually run away again and be left to her own fate if you don't finish the 'side-quest' within the time limit.
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** Also in ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 1]]'', there are Achievements you gain from having certain party members in your party for a certain percentage of the game. However, since you only get Liara once you leave the Citadel for the first time, and the planet she's on is only one of many you can visit, it's possible for there to not be enough game left to complete once you get her, locking you out of the achievement until the next playthrough.
*** Liara's Achivement is nearly a ''[[Guide Dang It]]'' in the way you're better off beelining to recruit her, avoiding any optional quests until she's part of your team. The precise amount of main and side quests completions required for the achievement is different for each party member, depending on which point of the game you can recruit them, but the margin of error is less for later characters.
** The {{spoiler|Feros colony}} also offers several sidequests which can be [[Lost Forever]] if the hero ends up killing the characters associated with them - [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|nice job, Shepard.]]
** Several side quests and subplots are potentially continued on in the next two games. Lost Forever times three. Oh, and the skip dialogue button can also choose dialogue, so it's possible to accidentally choose something you didn't want by accident.
** In ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', most weapon and armor upgrades can only be found during missions. Thanks to the game's rigid mission structure, there's no way to revisit the locations of missions you've already completed. Complete the mission without getting the upgrade, and you're outta luck. [[New Game Plus]] mitigates this somewhat.
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* Thanks to a glitch, the Mock species in ''[[Monster Rancher]] 2'' can become lost forever. You get the Mock by randomly receiving some seeds from the item store after getting a monster to Rank B. There's no guarantee of when you'll get the seeds; you have to keep visiting the store. However, if you get a monster to Rank A without getting the seeds, you'll never be able to get the Mock.
* Obscure Game Boy Color RPG ''[[Lil Monster]]'' has the Dowser and Dragonscale ability gems, and their associated monsters, Gyro and Argon. These two monsters are fought as bosses. However, the bosses will only appear once, and if you lose to them, they'll vanish. You'll never be able to get their ability gems. Frustratingly, missing Gyro/Dowser ''also'' means you miss the [[Disc One Nuke]], Minhand, which doubles your attack power, as the monster that holds that particular gem only appears when you use the Dowser gem to summon a monster to fight.
* Near the beginning of ''[[Infinite Undiscovery]]'', Sigmund gives you his sword. It's nothing special and the [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]] makes it useless fast. As a further temptation, it does sell for a pretty high price for such an early item. If you sold it, say goodbye to the [[Infinity
* In ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]] Tale of the Forsaken Land'' there is an NPC on level 1 of the dungeon who you can play various minigames with, most of which give you very rare and useful items upon completion. Each game is harder and more rewarding than the last and you can replay them as often as you want... until you beat the main quest, at which point the NPC, and for that matter any uncompleted quests in the game become completely inaccessible. However you can now access the secret bonus dungeon, which was right behind the minigame NPC all this time.
* Averted in ''[[Phantasy Star II]]'', if you accidently put the visiphone in{{spoiler|Nei's inventory when she dies}}, you can simply have Shir steal another one.
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** ''[[Resident Evil Outbreak]]'' had an online mode hosted on Capcom servers. Because the game was a commercial flop, Capcom closed the servers and much of the game's features are [[Lost Forever]].
** In ''[[Resident Evil 2|RE 2]]'', any optional item before the Laboratory is missable, such as the Sparkshot(Claire) and Shotgun Parts (Leon), which are found on a corpse in an easily-missed dead end, the Weapon Box Key found by lighting an easily-ignored flare gun (with the Lighter that Claire doesn't automatically carry), and finally, the Sidepack and Submachine Gun(which you either find in the Weapons Room, or the Culture Experiment Room that you have to unlock with both characters).
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' had runes et cetera that would not be necessary in one level, but would be needed in another, the [[Lost Forever]] rune made the game [[Unwinnable]]. Most notably, the game has three different colors of magick - red, green and blue, which beat each other in a [[Rock
* ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'' has sidequests and collectible items that appear and disappear throughout the game, sometimes for what seems to be very little reason. It's extremely easy to check too early or late and thus miss out on a sidequest, which then never shows up again.
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* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' generally averts this trope, since many unique weapons and items that appear early on in the game can be acquired later through poaching, or by catching thrown items. However, there are items that can only be obtained by having a character with the Move-Find item skill land on a certain space. Depending on your character's Bravery level you may either find a rare item or a common item. Since an item can only be searched for once, finding the wrong item in battle may result in the item becoming lost forever. Also, since some maps can not be revisited, you may have the chance to miss the item altogether.
* One of the most insidious [[Lost Forever]] items is the Snakish sword in ''[[Phantom Brave]]''. It can only be accessed once: during the tutorial. And, thanks to the game system, you can't just pick it up and leave with it. You have to confine a spirit to it and wait until the spirit is removed from the board, and even then you're not guaranteed to get it. There is a more sure-fire way to get it, but it's by getting a hidden character, and the opportunity to get that character is all but impossible after that section, making ''that'' a [[Lost Forever]] too.
* In every game of the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series, while most of the [[
** One particular example in ''[[Suikoden II]]'' is the Clive subquest. He's chasing after a woman. Easy enough, let's help him out. If your ''total play time'' is too high, then he loses the trail and will never find it again, giving him the "bad" ending for his character (he chases her for pretty much the rest of his life). The problem with this is two fold: first, there's no indication that this will happen at any point, meaning if you lose the trail, you'll have no idea why without a guide. Second, in order to fully complete his quest, you have to reach the last possible village in the game (which is, itself, optional) in less than twenty hours play time (not the easiest accomplishment even if you know from the start to try for it). For most gamers without a specific guide for recruiting characters and level building, this is all but impossible.
*** Thus, most players either don't bother with Clive's subquest (as it's immaterial to whether you get the best ending for the game as a whole), or they [[Game Shark|cheat]].
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*** In the same vein as the above "Friendship Cards", certain enemies have to be finished off by certain characters. A particularly Egregrious example is Balzack, who has to be defeated by a knight named Earnest (who, it should be noted, you just recieved prior to the Balzack battle. Granted, this makes sense, since Earnest pretty much exists to Wangst over his beef with Balzack; on the other hand, [[Guide Dang It|the mission immediately before that asks you to eliminate a random Hellhound with Guntz.]] <s>God</s> Light help you if you didn't even recruit Guntz...
*** Well, at least you had as many [[New Game Plus]]-es as you needed and could keep your cards for every playthrough. Only problem is that the difficulty was raised each time.
** Several of the best (or [[Rule of Cool|coolest]]) characters (and one [[Joke Character]]) could be missed without ever being seen if you took the direct route over the [[Sidequest|scenic route]]. These included the [[Ninja]], [[Samurai]], [[Prestige Class|magic-wielding centaur]], [[Bare
* In ''[[Advance Wars]] 2'' and ''Advance Wars Dual Strike'', certain levels have cities that, when captured, unlock a bonus mission. If you clear said certain levels without capturing said certain cities, the bonus mission - and the prize for completing it - is [[Lost Forever]]...until your next playthrough at least. While the game hints at which levels have these cities, [[Guide Dang It|you don't know which city out of several is the one you need to capture.]] Although...it's up to the player whether or not the prize for completing the bonus missions (The ability to deploy Neotanks) is actually worth the work.
* Since you cannot replay missions in the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series, this goes for everything and almost everyone that is not automatically given to you. Often in ways of ''[[Guide Dang It]]''. Watch out for items hidden in deserts or for chests in stages with enemy thieves.
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