Plot Coupon That Does Something: Difference between revisions

*** ''[[Final Fantasy X 2]]'': Dress Spheres.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'': Nethicite and the Espers.

** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and its sequel: Judges.

* Games from the Phantasy Star series are riddled with these. In P-Star 2, there is an item called a "Mogic Cap" which appears to be useless as it is found in a labyrinth which also contains a "Magic Cap", which in turn allows the player to communicate with the cats that are running around the labyrinth, but its uselessness for talking to the cats is a red herring, for the plot is stuck until the "Mogic Cap" is worn into a village on the Ice Planet Dezo, and serves as a translation device with the people. In P-Star 4 (also on the same ''[[Single Biome Planet|Ice Planet]]'' whose name has been lengthened to Dezolis now that it's not limited to a 4-character slot), the plot is completely frozen at a certain point until the party visits the second floor in one particular building in one particular town, where one of the characters in the party will suddenly fall ill and the plot can finally continue.

** Similarly, the hero has a pet mouse named Munchie, which spends the entire game in his pocket and can eat various types of cheese during combat to produce magical effects, as well as passing through conveniently placed mouseholes to retrieve small items a few times. After completing the game and starting the [[Bonus Dungeon]] content, Munchie is {{spoiler|revealed to be the hero's grandfather, a shapeshifting dragon, who finally explains the hero's mysterious backstory and indirectly the curse immunity mentioned above.}}

* The ''[[Resident Evil]]: Outbreak'' series integrates [[The Virus]] into the gameplay for the first time in the series. All of the players are infected, and the infection (represented by a %) ticks up to force the players to keep moving, and increases very fast if they are grievously wounded.

** In ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'', collecting a Pure Heart doesn't give you any extra abilities in gameplay, it just opens a door to the world where you can find the next one. However, at the end, the whole set is needed to give the main characters the [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]] required to defeat the [[Final Boss]] and save the multiverse.

* ''[[Astro Boy]]: Omega Factor'' integrates its stage select system into the plot, in the form of time travel. {{spoiler|The majority of the game is spent going from stage to stage, fixing all the disasters which happened in the first playthrough.}}

* The path to [[ADOM]]'s ending involves collecting all the [[Artifact of Doom|Orbs Of Chaos]] and inserting them into a keyhole on the final boss's front door. You can actually ''equip'' these orbs for stat boosts. Although [[Evil Is Not a Toy|it's not a good idea]] to use their special powers.

* Played with in [[Planescape: Torment]]. The player is forced to seek out a small, bronze sphere to get information from a stubborn old man who collects cadavers. The item seems completely useless, and yet the servants of the opposition are seen immediately killing the old man. The player doesn't need to get the [[MacGuffin]] at all, not even to get the [[Golden Ending]], but if he goes back for it, it lets him talk the Big Bad to death and makes achieving the [[Golden Ending]] even easier. {{spoiler|The protagonist is immortal but forgets himself; he gave the [[MacGuffin]] to the old man in one of his past incarnations, claiming it granted immortality, so that the old man would keep it safe when the protagonist's corpse turned up. Sure enough, the current incarnation of the protagonist doesn't know that, and the sphere contains the protagonist's memories of his name. And 2M experience points.}} So it seems to be a [[Plot Coupon]] which anchors a [[Batman Gambit]], only to turn out to bestow [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]].

* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Forgotten Sands'', the experience points system is explained as the Prince drawing the souls of defeated sand monsters into his amulet. This becomes a plot point when it is revealed that the Prince's brother also has the same ability, and is being driven mad by the amount of levelling he has done.