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Only Idiots May Pass: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"You'd think we could just leave this guy frozen solid, chisel off the [[Plot Coupon|mask]], and call it a victory for the forces of good. But Link likes to do things the hard way, so [[Die, Chair, Die!|get Arrows and Magic Pots from the pots]] if necessary, then let loose a [[Arrows
Sometimes, you have to go down the wrong path before going down the right path. Literally, you ''have'' to, even though you may already know which way is the right way.
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** That same sequence provides a second example, in that the doors which quite obviously lead to the two cannons you have just been told to destroy are locked. Nothing the player does will unlock them, and they can't be opened until the player gives up and tries to leave; at that point, the doors open up so that enemies can come through and attack you.
* Sequence breaking in ''[[Metroid]]: Zero Mission''? After pulling off a series of bomb jumps to bypass getting the power grip, a barrier that can only be destroyed by bugs not found in the area is put in front of the door.
* ''[[
* ''[[Call of Duty]]: [[Modern Warfare]] 2'' has one in its third mission. {{spoiler|You have to follow the Russian agent Makarov through a crowded airport, killing civilians, before he shoots you at the end of it and leaves your American corpse for the Russians to find, sparking World War Three. If you try to shoot Makarov before he can kill you, however, you will immediately die from violating "friendly fire." Justified as [[Anthropic Principle|the rest of the game revolves around these events.]]}}
** Even worse, however, is in the end of that level. {{spoiler|you'll see an in-game cutscene, where you can still move about. And, of course, the objective point(a van) is where the cutscene is. So the game assumes that you'll be standing at the back of the van when it's over. ''And then Makarov shoots you.'' But of course, like I said earlier, you can move during this. so once you trigger it, you can start running. And get to pretty early in the level. But, since the game thinks you're hanging out by Makarov, it doesn't actually check that you are there. So you can be 200 meters away from him, through a ton of concrete, and he'll still shoot you. ''with a pistol.''}}
** A more annoying example occurs in the Gulag level: You have to fight all the way around the cell blocks and survive the ambush in the armory rather than just rappelling down the wall to the ground floor.
* When you find the pirate ship docked at Windfall Island in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** Not ''quite'' as bad as it sounds, since Tetra is supposed to notice you sneaking around (and thus deliberately set up Link's "theft" of the much-needed bombs).
** Once you first reach Kakariko Village in ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', the leader of the village tells you that the path up Death Mountain is guarded by Gorons and tells you to stay away until the situation is resolved. ''Zelda'' games in recent years have used the (possibly warped) Aesop "it's better to be courageous than to listen to the sound advice of others" more frequently, but this is a particularly noticeable example. After all, the only way to advance the plot is to head up Death Mountain anyway, get stopped by the Gorons, get knocked off the mountain, and ''give up on trying to climb it.'' It also doesn't help that the next step to bypassing this obstacle is for your horse to show up in town [[Contrived Coincidence|completely by chance]] after your failure.
* Averted in the remake of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', where various number combinations and [[Plot Coupons]] can be used without having to activate the "informing" event.
* In the original ''[[
* Replaying ''[[Okami]]''? Don't attempt to skip anything. You have to do EXACTLY what Issun tells you to at the beginning or you won't progress. You can't just go up on the deck and draw the sun, you have to walk DOWN and look around until Issun says to go up on the deck and get a good look.
* ''Vivisector: Beast Inside'' has a very straightforward example of this: to progress, you have to activate a series of checkpoints. Your radar can only pick up on the next checkpoint by activating the previous one. Almost every checkpoint in the first half of the game is situated in a clearing usually lined with hidden fences or other barriers, obviously setting you up for a trap. Therefore, you ''have to trigger the trap'' to progress.
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* The aversion in the original ''[[Myst]]'' demonstrates why this trope exists. Not only is it possible for anyone who's played the game before (and remembers the codes, I guess) to finish the game within minutes, but it's possible to enter the endgame (and even complete it!!) simply by brute forcing the {{spoiler|fireplace codes}}. The characters will then refer to plot points you haven't discovered yet, and attempt to take from you [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]] you haven't yet acquired. If you continue on through the endgame, you {{spoiler|get trapped in D'ni with Atrus.}} However, {{spoiler|if, instead of going through to the endgame, you listen to Atrus through the D'ni book, he will tell you how to get the game-winning [[Plot Coupon]].}}
** Myst didn't learn from ''Alpine Encounter''. You could short-circuit the entire plot by {{spoiler|waiting at a location, getting the backpack, and calling the inspector}} and I have a feeling that's not the first game either.
* ''[[Hotel Dusk: Room 215]]'' does this frequently. You have to do things in a very specific order, including learning how to do OTHER things you need to do. One particular room had several relatively straight forward puzzles to solve and [[Time-Delayed Death|an invisible timer]]. Solving the puzzles (using the game logic) is easy enough, but the game requires you to do things in a specific order and particularly read in an in-game book how to solve said puzzles. Simply 'knowing' isn't good enough.
* In the [[Infocom]] game ''Wishbringer'', you must get past a guard [[Hell Hound]] to enter a house containing a few key items. The trick is to read a note from the house's owner to your boss, telling him to say "Heel, Alexis" to the hound. If you try the line without having read the note, the hellhound apparently decides you were just guessing and doesn't stand down.
* In the (unfinished) Amiga game ''Muscarine or Erica's Trip'' a sage asks you to bring him green snow, which at first seems an easy task as you can see three differently colored snow-clad peaks from outside his hut. However, when you get up in the mountains it turns out there is no path leading to the green peak. Only after you have tried cheating the sage with a mix of blue and yellow snow, does he give you a hint about the real solution {{spoiler|which turns out to be dead simple - standing outside the hut you "take what you see" by clicking the distant peak. And you thought Escher's art was weird.}}
* Played straight and averted in ''999''. In the first puzzle there are 2 briefcases that need a key and a code to open. The room you're in has 2 notes as a hint for the code. However if you know the code already you can just input the code after inserting the key and open it. Keep in mind the room you're in is being filled with water(though only in plot). Later in the kitchen, the key you need is in a cabinet door that needs a passcode, the game will not let you enter the passcode and one of the characters you are in the room with will say along the lines "Don't mess around with that if you don't even have a hint", however to get the hint you have to get yourself trapped in the freezer and almost freeze to death.
* ''[[Escape From St.
== [[Role Playing Game|Role Playing]] ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' uses and abuses so many [[Event Flag|event flags]] that it's hard to tell if it is lampshading the practice or if it is one of the most notable victims.
** The most blatant example occurs early in Threed, home of the game's designated [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. Exploring the town, you may find that zombies are guarding part of the cemetery after fighting your way through it. Scratch that. You ''have'' to find them, and allow them to notice your presence, in order to advance the plot. (Said plot advancement consists of {{spoiler|a suspicious girl who leads you into a trap. Naturally, [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|you have to fall for it]]. And to make the situation more annoying, there is no reason why your capture and assisted escape should cause the plot to advance, either.}})
** Apple Kid's very existence is built on these. In his first appearance, he will not build the device necessary to bypass an early barrier until you have already traversed a cave and reached the area where you cannot proceed any further. Later examples are just as arbitrary, but not as pointless.
** After successfully completing a sidequest involving the Runaway Five, you are informed that a department store has opened in Fourside. To advance the plot, you must enter and leave the establishment, at which point {{spoiler|your female party member is kidnapped. To get the plot to advance any further from there, you have to kill the monster responsible, even though he does not have her anymore and there is no reward for defeating him.}} At that point, you will be able to visit a café that you may have visited earlier. But now, talking to people inside triggers a sequence where {{spoiler|a friend of yours winds up half-dead in a nearby alley.}} ''Then'' you can go back inside and look at a seemingly blank wall you couldn't reach before to... you know what? Let's just call ''[[Earthbound]]'' an [[Event Flag]] [[Idiot Plot|Plot]] and be done with it.
* Subverted in ''[[Lunar:
* ''[[Diablo]] II'' has a quest where you must touch five cairn stones in a certain order. The correct order is given on a particular scroll. You don't need to ''read'' the scroll; brute-force guessing works fine, as long as you ''have'' the scroll. Without it, the cairns do nothing no matter how much you click them.
** I interpreted this as having the scroll tell you ''how'' the cairn stones are activated, with the order just being a bonus.
* Late in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', there are five statues in Arvahn that you must visit to complete the Ritual of Purification. One of them is actually located in the Swamp Ruins, the second area you get to visit in the beginning of the game (only in the early game, the door leading to it is blocked). However, by Act II, the ruins disappear from your global map, and going to the intact [[Doomed Hometown|West Harbor]] won't bring you there. Instead, you have to enter Arvahn, at which point West Harbor is instantly destroyed in your absence, visit the other four statues, and then enter a portal to the ruins of West Harbor. And if you decide to do this quest before recruiting Orlen for Crossroad Keep... well, bad luck, he's [[Lost Forever]].
* ''[[
* In ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'', most of the early game is spent chasing after a bat-winged girl, so as to bring her to justice in your town. When you finally locate her, locked in plain view in the dungeon of a castle, the game acts as though nothing special has happened, since that is the location of an arbitrarily necessary quest. But the current state of affairs there is not urgent in the slightest, and the local ruler states that anything at all would be a perfectly fine reward for your troubles in getting there, like, oh! the extradition of a wanted thief? But no, you have to do the absurd castle quests first, and THEN your character will randomly remember what the heck he ACTUALLY came here for all of a sudden, and ask for the prisoner milling about in plain view (who's all too glad to come along, owing to the [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] she's been suffering the whole time.)
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
** Another in ''The Thousand-Year Door'' comes in early when someone loses their contact lens and tells you not to not to move or you'll step on it. Which WILL happen no matter how little you move, and they'll never find their contact in one piece no matter how long you wait.
** ''[[
* In ''[[Terranigma]]'', the only way to reach the end of the end half of the Eklemata level (when you succeed in resurrecting humankind), is to first go into a cavern, slide several hundred feet down an ice-coated slope, and cause an avalanche, temporarily trapping you in (and opening the path from where you had previously been to the end of the level). A good-natured mountain-goat makes a way for you to escape and resume your quest, thankfully.
* In one of the side episodes of ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Sky'', [[A Day in
* A glitch in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' resembles this trope. In the questline to recruit Isabela, at one point you're ambushed and you need to kill all the enemies. You need to wait for combat to end for a few seconds for Isabela to tell you that it was trap and that you should search the leader's body, but by this point, looting enemies immediately is probably second nature. If you loot the body before she tells you to, this can cause the game to not register the fact that you already looted the item you need, preventing you from entering the Chantry to continue with her quest. At this point, you're either forced to reload your game (which is particularly bad if you haven't saved it in a while), or continue without Isabela, making her [[Lost Forever]]. So in this case, you have to wait for her to bring it up before looting, or else you get this trope, albeit unintentional from the developers.
* In ''[[
== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0264.html Parodied] (inevitably) in ''[[
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