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Menu Time Lockout: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
In virtually every video game with a pause feature, time stands still, enemies and environments freeze in their tracks, etc., and while at first this, being the very definition of a pause, might not seem unusual, when [[Fridge Logic]] sets in you can't help thinking about the fact that in many cases the pause screen is the same as the inventory screen, allowing a character to rummage in his [[Bag of Holding]] or [[Hammerspace]] and use items, equip different weapons, consume food or recovery items, and even [[Changing Clothes Is a Free Action|completely change his wardrobe]] essentially instantaneously. Especially prominent in [[Role
Menus are the most common place for this to occur, but it often happens with certain other types of interactions. For instance, lock picking frequently gets done as a [[Hacking Minigame]]. In these cases, you may also be able to get this trope if you are able to play this to your advantage. You also very often get something similar with dialogue, but the player is normally locked into the dialogue and unable to do anything, See [[Talking Is a Free Action]] for details. Compare [[Real Time Weapon Change]] for a similar effect outside special screens.
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** This allows the games to avoid most of the [[Fridge Logic]] inherent in '''Menu Time Lockout'''. While not in battle, where time doesn't actually matter, you can go into the menu and use items from your stock. While in battle, you can't change weapons or armor and in order to get a restoring item, you need to go through a set of sub menus while still avoiding getting killed, much like searching through pockets.
*** The other games have assessed this. Searching through your pockets for the right item (or magic) lead to many a player get killed (Especially in the early-game before you get the Cure spell), and it was part of why the [[Bonus Boss|Phantom]] was difficult. (As it more or less forced you to constantly open up the magic tab unless you brought Donald and let him do it, which would make it ''harder'') In the other games, you can shortcut the items to a menu. This can be interpreted as the player character having these items ready ahead of time so they don't have to search in their pockets to find them.
* Averted again in the 2008 reboot of ''[[Alone in
* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' had this as well, which was important if you needed to pause the Deathclaw reaching for your face in order to pop some Stimpacks or Buffouts. Or change out of [[Power Armor]], repair something, then change back. Impressive.
** This is, sadly, a carryover from the first two games, which while they assessed a small penalty for accessing the inventory, allowed free reign once you had it open.
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