Nonstandard Game Over: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"The house and everyone within a 5 mile radius have been destroyed in a massive nuclear meltdown. THE GAME IS OVER."''|''[[Maniac Mansion]]''}}

 

 

But, there are a few games that give special punishments to particularly noteworthy player screw-ups. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|These are]] [[Nonstandard Game Over|Nonstandard Game Overs]].

{{examples}}

* One of the ''[[Kirby]]'' games has a [[Boss Rush]] mini-game. When you lose all your lives, you [[Death Throws|fall down one last time as if there's a hole]]. And instead of "Try Again" and "Quit", you get "Accept Defeat".

* In ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Double Agent'', if you fail the final minigame-for-a-boss, you are treated to a very disturbingly realistic portrayal of emergency services and new helicopters flying over {{spoiler|Manhattan as a smoking ruin after a nuclear blast.}}

** And in the first ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' game, you are on a training facility, and in certain point you get a gun. If you turn back and kill an officer, you get fired.

* ''[[Army Men|Army Men: Sarge's Heroes]]'' has one in the ice level where you free prisoners. If you manage to get yourself locked in a cell, [[Big Bad|Plastro]] himself comes out of nowhere to mock you followed by a game over.

** ''[[Army Men|Army Men 2]]'' has a hilarious one. The tutorial has you follow orders from Colonel Grimm a.k.a. Vikki's father. You can choose to kill him and simply finish tutorial yourself, but at the end instead of Vikki's usual "Congratulations" when you open the last door, she will immediately shoot you with a bazooka as soon as the door opens. Even if you somehow dodge it you still fail.

** Likewise, in [[Final Fantasy X|the previous game]], if you take too long during {{spoiler|the final fight against Sin}}, it will unleash its Overdrive "Giga-Graviton," which will destroy the airship you're standing on, instantly killing your party. You can't even use an Aeon to take the hit for you.

* ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' has a case of a Nonstandard Game Over that's also a [[Multiple Endings|bad ending]]. A still screen depicting an army of demons taking over the world can be seen in one of two ways: either by choosing not to unseal the gate to the final dungeon, or failing to break out of the final boss's paralysis spell.

* The ''[[Disgaea]]'' series tends to give you often humorous [[Nonstandard Game Over|Non Standard Game Overs]] for being beaten by the games' [[Goldfish Poop Gang]], or one of the main team members before they've joined the group. Most of them are treated like endings (Particularly in 3 and 4, which add lengthy narratives to them), causing the credits to roll, and in some cases, allowing you to start a [[New Game+]] earlier then normal.

** In ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'', a multitude of characters propose bills to be the main character in the Dark Assembly. Should they be passed (and there's a very high chance they will without any intervention on your part), you immediately get a game over. Also, {{spoiler|''winning'' the [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] against Laharl, or the one against Etna, nets a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] as well.}}

* Signing a ceasefire with a major enemy group in ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Alpha 3'' results in a sequence of events over several missions in which the situation [[It Got Worse|degrades until your army dies a horrible death]]. In the same game, should a particular character be defeated in action, its defeat causes the end of all existence, complete with a special game over screen.

* RPG [[H-game|eroge]] made by Eushully tend to have this. Even losing in battles that should be somewhat easy will result in a slightly extended ending. For example, losing against an assassin in ''Reiki'' has you have the main character talk with said assassin before going to the game over screen.

* In ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'', in the fifth case, there is a piece of evidence that appears to point to one person, but the place where it was found points to the real murderer. If you present it too early, i.e. before the real murderer admits that he was hiding it, you're told that the trial was unwinnable from that point onward, and the word "Guilty" appears on a black background.

** Similarly, in the second ''Phoenix Wright'' game, right near the end of the 4th case, you're given a chance to show a particular piece of evidence to a particular person. Pick the wrong thing or person, and the villain goes free, an innocent person is convicted, and Phoenix up and quits being a lawyer. [[Good Bad Translation|"But the miracle never happen..."]]

** During one of the last battles in ''God of War II'', {{spoiler|Kratos is hurled back to the moment that he defeated Ares. The boss, Atropos, was going to destroy the giant sword you originally used in the first game to slay the god of war, which would lead to your retroactive death. If you failed to defeat Atropos before she could destroy the sword, you get a cutscene of past Kratos kneeling in defeat and getting stabbed by Ares, which causes present Kratos to wretch in pain and fall over, dead.}}

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', at the Missile Base, failure to alter the coordinates of several missiles results in a scene where your home is promptly obliterated by said missiles without even so much as a time limit.

** A pretty basic one in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' as well. If you don't get out of the reactor in the opening mission before it blows up, it simply blows up with you inside it.

* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' has two of these in the start of the Evil Forest section. Garnet, and then Vivi get abducted by a monster and you have to kill it to free them. During the fight, the monster sucks up Garnet and Vivi's HP and if their HP hits zero, they die and the game ends.

* Failure during the finale of any ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' installment from ''Trial by Fire'' through ''Dragon Fire'' will lead not only to the hero's death, but a scene of the resident [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] breaking free to lay waste to the world.

** This can happen several times in the second game, ''Trial by Fire''. The main city is beset by four elementals over the course of the story, and three days after they individually show up, if they haven't been defeated, then you get a cutscene of them destroying the city. In addition, the final portion of the game, after the [[Big Bad]] gets the sealed evil, but before it is released, ''any'' failure or waste of time will result in the above mentioned non-standard game over.

** In the final stage of the game after {{spoiler|The Panther King dies}}, they do away with the cutscene entirely, only showing you "GAME OVER" on a black screen.

* ''[[America's Army]]'' - If you shoot an instructor, the screen goes black and then transports your character to a prison cell in Leavenworth.

** In the English version of ''Magical Melody'', marrying your rival, Jamie, will cause the game to end.

** ''Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town'' and ''Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town'' have this as well. If you choose not to inherit the farm after the mayor asks you, the mayor will be sad and the ending credits will roll.

* A Japanese interactive movie ''Super Voice World'' has several [[Nonstandard Game Over|Nonstandard Game Overs]], the first of which you can get in the very first choice you make (choose wrong and you end up getting run over by a car). Most of them get you killed or [[Put on a Bus]]. Considering that the film is about you doing stuff aspiring seiyuu do in order to become one, it certainly has creative ways of getting rid of you - you can, for example, end up getting shot by [[Shinichiro Miki]] when trying to sneak out of a bar without paying, or ''get eaten'' by a vampiric [[Tessho Genda]].

* In the Atari game ''Kya: Dark Lineage'', standard Game Overs show a screen saying "Game Over". However, near the game's end, if you're hit by {{spoiler|traitor Aton}}'s Wolfen Gun, you can see a sequence where Kya [[Transformation Trauma|slowly transforms into a scary, female Wolfen]]. And that's The End.

** Losing to any of the final dungeon's bosses gives you a Nonstandard Game Over as well; each boss has a different one.

* There is exactly ''one'' of these in ''[[Rayman]] 2: the Great Escape'' <ref>also known as ''Rayman 2: Revolution'' for Playstation 2</ref>: there's a quest in which you have to locate a healing elixir in the Cave of Bad Dreams. After completing the cave's obstacle course, you are offered massive sums of cash. If you accept this, you will find yourself sitting on a luxury yacht with a pile of cash the size of a small building. Apparently if you're rich enough, the pirates threatening to enslave/destroy the world will just go away.

** After the standard [[Critical Existence Failure]], the gameover screen reads "You have died. Would you like to try again?" If your [[Oxygen Meter]] runs out underwater, the screen changes to "You have drowned." If you fall into either of the two [[Bottomless Pits]] in the game, it reads "You were never seen again..."

** The worst of the game's [[Multiple Endings]] borders on a non-standard game over. Notably, the music that plays ("Hero's End") is different from that in the better endings ("The Way Back Home"), and this is the only ending that lacks the ending credits.

* In ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'', if the Tiger's Claw is destroyed, you get a message saying "With your carrier destroyed, you drift endlessly through the void..."

** In ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] IV'', if you repeatedly screw up your early missions, say, by immediately ejecting on launch for every mission you get, Tolwyn hands you your pink slip in a hysterically dark cut scene.

* In the final mission of ''[[Ace Combat]] 5'', if you fail to destroy the SOLG (loaded with a nuke) in time, you're treated to a short cutscene of it detonating over Oured.

* In the computer version of ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]?'', if, on the fastest finger portion of the game no one gets it right after several attempts, Regis Philbin comes on, mocks you for being stupid, says [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|"That's it, I'm out of here."]] And the game quits.

* [[Suikoden II|The]] [[Suikoden IV|Suikoden]] [[Suikoden V|series]] uses this trope often.

** In the [[Suikoden II|second game]] of the series, Tinto City gets overrun by zombies, and it can be [[Despair Event Horizon|at this point]] that the [[The Woobie|poor kid]] just decides that [[Break the Cutie|he can't handle it anymore]]. This can result in him (and his adopted sister) deciding to cut their losses and make a mad dash for safety. Of course, the core of your several-dozen-strong entourage comes after you once they realize you're gone. If you persist in leaving, {{spoiler|one of the leaders of your army will die. From here, if you change your mind and [[Ten-Minute Retirement|decide to go back]], said dead person will be replaced by [[Generation Xerox|his son.]]}} The hero's second-in-command will [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!|Bright Slap]] him and ask him to come back one last time. If you leave the town to the south, the screen will fade slowly and be replaced by a still picture of a log cabin, indicating that the hero and his sister have chosen to live away from society, in order to have a so-called 'normal life' without wars or fighting.

*** Also on the scene if you don't use the Rune of Punishment and let your flagship get rammed by the enemy.

** In ''[[Suikoden V]]'', if you accept Salum Barows' suggestion of taking the throne for yourself instead rescuing the rightful heir, you'll get a cutscene where said heir is informed that you were assassinated.

* In ''F/A-18 Hornet'', if you land or eject in enemy territory, you get captured and are listed as "Missing in Action". If you cause any collateral damage, you are "Court Martialed".

* In ''Paperboy'', [[You Lose At Zero Trust|if you lose all your customers]], the game over screen says "Paperboy Fired" instead of the usual "Paperboy Calls It Quits".

* In ''[[Drawn to Life]]'', you can choose not to help the Raposas. Mari, the only one hearing from "you" at that point, loses hope, and the game ends.

* Waerjak in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] IV'' can trigger one of these when he meets the Boar's Hoof tribe. Waerjak is given the option of attacking them and claiming their garrison; if he does so, his followers will turn on him, proclaiming his philosophy of community to be a lie.

* In ''Getter Love!!'', the game normally ends when you or one of your opponents declares your love to one of the girls. If someone other than you wins the game, you're treated to a word from everyone involved, [[No Ending|and that's it]]. If two game-weeks pass by and no one wins, you'll be treated to a scene where Reika, fucking, MARRIES YOU, as her [[Gonk|equally butt-ugly]] family attends her wedding ceremony.

* The old MS-DOS [[Real Time Strategy]] game [[Command HQ]] features a NSGO by nuclear winter. Normally, allowing your capital to be overrun results in the status bar stating "We captured the enemy's capital!" or "The enemy captured our capital!", along with a catchy tune and a bit of flashing. However, if you use too many nuclear strikes in a scenario, it exits straight to DOS with the message "SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI".

** What, you booted this game up and you weren't ready? [[The Spoony Experiment|Get the fuck out!]]

* In the NES game ''[[The Magic of Scheherazade]]'', you'll come across a part where a new ally will ask you if you're afraid of the monsters. Answering 'no' twice is the only way to recruit him, while saying 'yes' at any point of the conversation will result in an automatic game over... regardless of how many lives you have!