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So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: Difference between revisions

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In [[Video Games]], this is the annoying effect of having potentially great equipment stolen from you because the character wearing them is rendered inaccessible for some part of the game. If and when they come back, their equipment may already have fallen victim to the [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]]. Or they may have found new, better equipment and ditched what they had before, in which case you better hope they didn't have anything unique on them that you might need later. Kinder games will dump this swag back into your inventory.
 
Especially a risk with [[Guest Star Party Member|Guest Star Party Members]] who then [[Lost Forever|leave for good]]. A common tactic on a second playthrough, [[New Game Plus+]], or just after you've looked through a [[Strategy Guide]], is to remove all the neat swag of a [[Guest Star Party Member]] just before they leave the party/are [[Killed Off for Real]]. However, many games have an annoying habit of having the theft occur after a difficult [[Boss Battle]] but prior to being allowed to save, so stripping the [[Required Party Member]] puts you at a disadvantage in the fight. May induce [[Narm]] if they leave in a climactic cutscene and end up fighting in their underwear and with bare hands.
 
Some Meta-Humor is often used here; if you the player know the character is leaving, you'll unequip everything from them. Since "you" the character couldn't possible know the character is leaving, some people will comment that the reason they left is because you took all their stuff.
 
'''SPOILERS AHEAD.''' Read at your own risk.
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Action Adventure ==
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== First Person Shooter ==
 
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' gently pulls this stunt a couple times; twice, JC will be asked in dialogue to hand the best sidearm he's holding to an [[Non -Player Character|NPC]] in order to trigger marginally improved plot outcomes. These [[Non -Player Character|NPCs]] will have no interest in returning said weapons when they're done with them; this is made worse by the fact that most players will have used rare upgrades on these guns. Fortunately, this can be averted while achieving these plotlines' "good" endings by dropping the "good" weapons on the ground and grabbing an unmodified gun for the [[Non -Player Character|NPCs]] from the level.
** In ''[[Deus Ex Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'', you have the option to hand {{spoiler|van Bruggen}} one of your weapons to allow him to escape a Belltower ambush unscathed (he'll die if you don't). It doesn't have to be your ''best'' weapon, just any in your inventory, but if the only weapons you have are customised and upgraded...
*** ...then be ready to hear about your failure to save him repeatedly over half of the remaining game. It doesn't matter if you devote your every action to protecting him; it doesn't even matter if you clear out the area while he safely hides in this little alcove so that there's no one left to kill him; [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|if a gun is not physically in his hand]], you're a heartless bastard.
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** {{spoiler|[[Badass Longcoat|King Mickey]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|seemed to think]] they'd be crazy enough to do so.}}
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is rife with this.
** When you suddenly and without forewarning have to leave Bastila behind [[But Thou Must!|because the plot says so]], she leaves with whatever equipment she was wearing (except for her weapon, which is dumped back into your inventory). Worse still, when you end up finding her again ({{spoiler|if you follow Bastila to [[The Dark Side]]}}), she's wearing new equipment which will be inferior to her original stuff. This is also true of the Force Powers that you've taught her. They're replaced with average {{spoiler|Dark Side}} powers. This will piss you off if you are playing {{spoiler|Dark Side}} and leveled her up as a [[Foil]].
*** This works both ways. If you were particularly [[Genre Savvy]] on your second playthrough and give her all {{spoiler|Dark Side powers to help you immensely on the Star Forge with your evil character, she will majorly kick your ass in the mini-boss fight.}}
** {{spoiler|Jolee Bindo}} requires stripping down too if you are planning on turning to the Dark Side. It's particularly funny watching him {{spoiler|threaten to stop you wearing boxer shorts}}.
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** It's also possible to drive off Jaheira, though you have to mock her husband's death so you really have only yourself to blame.
* Both played straight and averted in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. {{spoiler|Killing Wrex}} will give you all his equipment as if it just dropped. However, any items equipped on {{spoiler|Ashley or Kaidan}} are [[Lost Forever]]. Which is kinda [[Justified Trope]], what with {{spoiler|the nuclear bomb}} and all. The weird thing is, though, that the cutscene which depicts {{spoiler|their deaths}} puts them in their starting armor, but you still lose the one you had actually equipped them with, even though they apparently weren't wearing it.
** You do get {{spoiler|Ashley/Kaidan's}} weapons and armor back on a [[New Game Plus+]].
* ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission (Video Game)|Mega Man X Command Mission]]'' inverts this: Someone leaves, their equipment goes to the [[Bag of Sharing]]. Whenever Zero leaves and re-joins, however, you'll wonder how he got new weapons after he left his old ones with you. You actually get FOUR Heat Haze weapons (which only Zero can equip) over the course of one playthrough.
* In ''[[Suikoden III]]'' when you return to Karaya, {{spoiler|Lulu is accidentally killed by Lady Chris}}, and you lose every piece of equipment that he had on him.
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== Stealth Based Game ==
 
* Happens about two thirds of the way through ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'', wherein Snake recovers all of his equipment after a [[No -Gear Level]] sequence, except for all of his previously captured animals and collected food (including the pricelessly valuable Tsuchinoko, if you were lucky enough to find it - fortunately you can catch it again just after getting your gear back). Humorously, you can call EVA about this, and she will confess that she rifled through your pack for instant noodles, but the rest of Snake's pack was emptied by Ocelot because "[[Ho Yay|he wanted to eat the same things Snake did]]".
 
== Survival Horror ==
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* Cecille from ''[[Luminous Arc]]'' manages to pull this without leaving the party. She has a particularly unusual class change, which ends up changing all of her equipment except accessories, removing whatever she had equipped before from the game. If, as is quite likely, you had her equipped with the Tiara -- a special headgear that prevents all status effects, equippable only by a very limited number of characters -- you're out of luck, as there's only one per playthrough.
* Semi-averted and played straight at the same time with ''[[Disgaea]]''.
** When you start a [[New Game Plus+]], all of the equipment you had on the characters you had acquired through the story are lost until you get them back in their respective storylines, [[Justified Trope]] in that you technically haven't met them yet.
** Then there's the part in one of the later chapters where {{spoiler|Jennifer}} leaves the team {{spoiler|(and gets subsequently [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] by Kurtis)}} -- you lose any equipment you had on {{spoiler|her}} until {{spoiler|Kurtis does a [[Heel Face Turn]] [[Redemption Equals Death|and commits his]] [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}, bringing her back to the team (equipment intact, thankfully).
** Additionally, {{spoiler|[[Magikarp Power|Flonne]] }}is taken out of commission for the final boss fight via {{spoiler|getting turned into a flower}}. She'll come back with her stuff on a [[New Game Plus+]], of course, but the stuff on her, which is likely to be good stuff, since she's one of the best story characters in the game, is locked away from you until then.
** After beating the aforementioned final boss, if you choose to start in [[Another Side Another Story|Etna Mode]] instead of a traditional [[New Game Plus+]], {{spoiler|Laharl will die in the opening cutscene}}, leaving you without ''his'' equipment, as well. Etna Mode is significantly more difficult than the normal story, and you probably ''needed'' him fully equipped to handle the final boss without access to {{spoiler|Flonne}}, making it nothing short of annoying.
* Every single team member in ''[[Odium]]'', since they all leave without warning. Especially ridiculous when one of your teammates departs through {{spoiler|dying an unavoidable death on the street. You'd think you could just collect the stuff off the teammate's corpse, but no dice}}.
* Averted quite nicely in the ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' series: mercs whose contract is up will leave behind their equipment. In fact, one of the strategies in ''Jagged Alliance 2'' involves creating an IMP merc (widely considered to be your chance to make an [[Author Avatar]], and will stay on the party permanently), hiring one of the super-expensive mercs for one day with their equipment, taking the first two towns, and then--when the AIM merc's contract is up--equipping his assault rifle and expensive gear on your IMP merc.
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[[Category:Video Game Items and Inventory]]
[[Category:So Long And Thanks For All The Gear]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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