Selective Memory: Difference between revisions

'''Selective Memory''' is when the game denies the player knowledge his [[Player Character]] has, should logically have, or should be able to acquire effortlessly and instantly.

When used on background information, this can be a way of putting a certain distance between the player and the player's character. It can also be a storytelling device that allows the player to discover certain facts about the character. Coupled with [[SchrodingersSchrödinger's Gun]], it can be an interesting way for the player to ''choose'' what the player character did some time in the past.

See also [[Now Where Was I Going Again?]], for information that was given ''once'' and then can't be recalled. Compare [[Unreliable Narrator]] or [[Dramatic Irony]] when it's more about the plot itself.

[[I Thought It Meant|For people remembering only certain details pleasant to them]], see [[Self -Serving Memory]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Exceptionally [[Egregious]] example: In ''[[Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura|Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' the player begins the game on the site of a zeppelin crash of which he/she was the sole survivor. Initially, the world map consist of an outline of the continent on which the story takes place and the crash site and a nearby village being marked. Though the player boarded the zeppelin before the beginning of the game in the second largest city in the game world and it was supposed to go to the largest one, which is located at the mouth of a major river clearly marked on the world map, they are not marked on the map initially and you have to aquire the knowledge in-game.

* In one level in ''[[Super Mario Sunshine (Video Game)|Super Mario Sunshine]]'', Mario is tasked with locating a Yoshi egg, hatching it, and using the Yoshi to power up a merry-go-round. One expository [[NPC]] informs Mario that he has just seen an egg on the island, which is used to suggest to the player what to do next, but he leaves it at that. One wonders why Mario simply couldn't directly ask him where he found it.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'' featured a card game with vague rules which are not particularly explained to the player. Justified in that nobody you talk to know the rules either, and you can only pick up the rules from people's suppositions about them. These people are otherwise avid players, but they only know half of one rule each... Fortunately, none of the rules matter much. The outcome of each game is more or less random, and the few rewards with an actual use you can get out of it are easily gotten elsewhere...including one of the very few cards you can get outside of the treasure hunt sidequest that actually has an use beyond using it in the card game itself.

** A full explanation of the rules was eventually provided...in the manual for ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]''.

* Inverted to very great effect in ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]'', where at the beginning of the game the player must perform several actions that seem initially to stretch credibility (such as calmly sticking a massive and unfamiliar needle in his arm with no prompting whatsoever), because for someone with no knowledge of the city of Rapture they make little sense. In the {{spoiler|plot twist at the climax of the game's second act}}, though, it is revealed that {{spoiler|the character ''did'' know about these things, but that the memories had been suppressed, thereby using the player's own innocent actions to simulate unconscious behaviour choices}} on the character's part.

*** Example: In ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'', {{spoiler|Rydia}} shows up during a Boss Battle. After the battle, {{spoiler|she}} tells you what happened when {{spoiler|she was eaten by Leviathan--it actually took her to the land of Summoned Monsters}}. While this is good and all, not once will {{spoiler|Rydia}} tell you how {{spoiler|she}} got to where you are, leading one to wonder HOW {{spoiler|she}} got out, since as the player begins wandering around, they will find the passage leading there on a small island {{spoiler|in the underworld, surrounded by lava}}. It isn't until you've ventured into said cave that {{spoiler|Rydia}} mentions that this is where {{spoiler|she}} was.

* Both averted impressively and used shamelessly at the same time in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'': other characters will ask leading questions about the PC's past, allowing the player to learn the details by reading their own dialog options. In a few cases, the player gets to pick from mutually-exclusive options, and the answer [[SchrodingersSchrödinger's Gun|actually determines what happened]]. However, everyone still talks around the specifics of one important event in order to keep it a revelation to the player, even though the PC should know more about it than anyone else.

* Lampshaded, subverted, abused to no end, and inverted in the DS game ''[[Time Hollow]]'', in which Ethan (you) and a few other key characters are expected to have a "perfectly normal memory" immediately after any given alteration of the past, regardless of who changed the past, when it was, and how it was changed. (The inversion? [[New Game Plus+|load your clear data]] and {{spoiler|follow the new options in the prologue. This leads to a [[Multiple Endings|Secret Ending]]}})

* Averted and played with in ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', which helps set up one of the twists in the plot. In the game, you play not as the main character (Kalas), but as a spirit guide that helps the main character. At the beginning of the game, you of course start off knowing nothing--andnothing—and Kalas expresses concern over your amnesia. But why do you have amnesia? {{spoiler|Kalas is siding with the villain, and the spirit guide began to express concern over his plans and tried to argue against it. Worried that the spirit guide would leave if the disagreement continued, Kalas and the villain cast a spell to take away the spirit's memories.}}

* Used in ''[[Grand Theft Auto III (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto III]]'' to some extent. While the game is generally helpful in using an -in-game map with directions with places you need to go, there's no way to see the large map. This makes plotting routes of long distances extremely difficult, and makes any mission that ''doesn't'' give you markers very difficult to figure out. To wit, one mission involves stealing a Yardie car in Newport, without bothering to explain what a Yardie is, what a Yardie car looks like, or what the boundaries of Newport are aside from being "north".

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance]]''. Oh, the main character picked up the [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword]] a few chapters into the game? And he's had it all this time? And he still refuses to use it until much later? Sure, whatever.

* Cole, the player character of ''[[In FamousInfamous (Videovideo game Gameseries)|In Famous]]'' claims to know the Empire City sewers like the back of his hand. This does not mean the player gets a map or any other indicator of Cole's memory of them.

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