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'''Maria:''' As friendly as ever I see. It's strange... this castle is different than I remember it.<br />
'''Alucard:''' [[Trope Namer|This castle is a creature of Chaos. It may take many incarnations.]]<br />
'''Maria:''' Then I can't rely on my memories, huh? Oh well, I'll do my best. Good luck.|''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]''}}
A TV show usually has a number of recurring locations: the protagonist's house, his workplace, the [[Local Hangout]], you name it. Soon enough, the appearance of these locations becomes very familiar to the viewer... until this trope happens.
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== Film ==
* When a new director took over on [[The Film of the Book]] of ''[[Harry Potter (
* The look of Gotham City in ''[[Batman (
* This also happens between ''[[Batman Begins]]'' and ''[[The Dark Knight]]''. In Begins, Gotham is much more Gothic/fantasy-looking. In ''TDK'', it looks like...Chicago. Justified, since the most surreal vistas belong to the Narrows, an area based on the slums of Hong Kong, which is effectively destroyed at the end of ''Begins''. Other than that there is no great change between the films.
* There are at least three irreconcilably different versions of Metropolis in the five ''[[Superman (
== Literature ==
* The geography of Arda (particularly Middle Earth) changes significantly several times between (and within) ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. The world is said to have suffered severe alterations during the struggle between Melkor and the Valar (including the catastrophic destruction of two mountains at both ends of the world, which in turn led to widespread destruction by fire, and the desolation of the original homeland of the Valar; the destruction of Melkor's first fortress also had severe consequences). The War of Wrath at the end of the First Age led to the continent of Beleriand being almost completely ruined and sunken (only a small portion of its eastern edge remained). And the most severe modification was towards the end of the Second Age, where not only was the island of Númenor sunk (which in turn caused severe seismic effects across Middle Earth), but the actual shape of the world was changed; the continent of Aman was removed from Arda, and the formerly [[Flat World]] was made into a sphere.
* In [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
** In Season Seven, the Sunnydale High School basement keeps shifting, rendering maps useless.
** Damn Hellmouth kept altering things, seeing as it was ''right there''. Must have made it heck for any janitors to find the broom closet.
** As a purer example of the trope the ''whole town'' changed radically from season to season, and no-one ever remarked on it. For example, it had a seaport in earlier seasons and is completely landlocked by the finale.
* Nearly every series of ''[[
** Starbug, while still rather claustrophobic, is far bigger in series 6 and 7 than earlier series, apparently growing a few new rooms; in 7, this is justified by the battle with the Future Dwarfers warping the structure of the Bug to TARDIS proportions. And let's not even get into the Blue Midget and its legs (though the latter was apparently justified by Nanomachines rebuilding Red Dwarf).
* [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Caprica City]] looked quite different in its [[Series Finale]] incarnation than it did in the 2003 Miniseries. Some of the building models remained but as a whole, the whole skyline was different.
* The hospital in ''[[Scrubs]]'' looked completely different between the pilot and second episode. Interestingly, the same building is used in a number of other shows, notably [[Childrens Hospital]] <ref>Yes, the punctuation is deliberately wrong.</ref> at the moment. They've remodeled the inside and avoid shooting rooms in the same way Scrubs did to avoid it feeling too similar.
* The Wolfram & Hart building in ''[[
* Ben's house on ''[[
* Both the model house and Lucille's place in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' have different layouts in the pilot.
* In ''[[
* The interior of the local high school changes completely between seasons 2 and 3 of ''[[8 Simple Rules]]''. Changes in layout are particularly noticeable during the scenes in the principal's office.
* ''[[Eureka]]'' had the inside of Global Dynamics change MASSIVELY between the pilot and the actual series.
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* The interior of the Millers' house in ''[[Still Standing]]'' is completely different in the pilot.
* The Hub in ''[[That 70s Show]]'' was just not the same place in the pilot.
* The living room and the kitchen of the Banks' house in ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel
* Maxwell Sheffield's house in ''[[The Nanny]]'' is different in the pilot.
* The sets for ''[[The Odd Couple]]'' and ''[[Happy Days]]'' were completely changed when they went from a [[Single Camera]] setup to Filmed Before A [[Studio Audience]], without the characters moving to a different apartment/house (also Arnold's Drive-In on ''[[Happy Days]]'' - the other permanent set). Oh, and one time [[Justified]] when Arnold's burned to the ground and they built a new Arnold's.
* The pilot of [[The Cosby Show]] used a very generic living room set, although the adjacent kitchen and other rooms are the same as used in the rest of the series, with a bit of redecorating.
* The architecture of CTU in ''[[
* A few sets have been changed radically on ''[[Neighbours]]'', most obviously Number 30 Ramsey St, which was rarely seen in 1985 and seemingly unoccupied until 1988. Another was Daphne's restaurant which was completely changed at the start of 1986. Both examples are the result of the sets being destroyed after Channel 7 cancelled the series, although the main three houses at the time were recreated more closely by Channel 10.
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'' the huge and mostly unseen TARDIS interior changes shape, as can be most clearly seen by comparing the various different appearances of the control room. The exterior, despite being stuck as a police box, also undergoes minor changes like altering the window size. The changing interior is eventually explained as The Doctor occasionally altering the TARDIS' desktop theme, as well as the destruction and repair of old rooms.
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== Video Games ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is ''[[Castlevania]]'', where it was explained that the castle itself was a "Creature of Chaos", constantly changing for different people. This also explained how [[NPC|NPCs]] [[Already Undone for You|got to areas]] it took the player special abilities to get to. Heck, that's how the castle changes every ''game''.
* ''[[
* ''[[Ultima]]'':
** Actually, it had three continents disappear after the first game, with the geography more or less stabilizing by the fourth game. Nevertheless, the mere passage of centuries does not explain how the individual towns do not resemble each other in the slightest. Castle Britannia, for example, is constantly adding and removing floors throughout the games.
** The disappearance of at least one of the continents, the Lands of Danger and Despair, is explained {{spoiler|when you visit it in ''Ultima VII Serpent's Isle''.}}
** Lord British says they rebuilt the castle in U7. Also, he's the sovereign, near-immortal and possess vast magic powers - who's to say that he doesn't just enjoy rebuilding the castle?
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' averted the trope by revisiting Dantooine, a key planet in the original game, and leaving the area almost identical to the way it was in the original game, though the Jedi Academy is now in ruins, and the colony's other buildings were repurposed by new colonists. The player's ship, the ''Ebon Hawk'', was also identical to its original appearance. Players complained about [[
** The re-purposed buildings are, however, much closer together then they were in the first game.
** Korriban
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** ''Wrath of the Lich King'' changed the geography of the Eastern Plaguelands, adding a coastline and the ruins of previously-unseen towns -- a non-instanced version of the death knight starting zone.
** ''Cataclysm'' explicitly justified a major reshaping of Azeroth's geography, as Deathwing's emergence caused [[World Sundering|devastation on a vast scale]]. The developers also used it as an opportunity to revamp quest flow, resolve/introduce storylines, and enable flying mounts in the original zones.
* ''[[
** Mostly averted, which used largely the same areas as ''[[
** Further, the one area from the first game that ''was'' completely made over had a perfectly logical reason: In the first game, you get there right as the place is wiped off the map, and by X-2, they've rebuilt it.
** Water Areas are removed however. You can't swim though the path Wakka takes Tidus to get to Besaid the first time or out at the beach. Justified as you only have one character with that sort of lung capacity from the first game in your party, and she can't go where her allies can't follow.
* Ditto with ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'' -- same towns and world map as the first game, but most of the dungeons from the first game are inaccessible and new ones can be found in areas that were empty or inaccessible in the first game.
* {{spoiler|Shadow Moses Island}} is largely the same in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'' {{spoiler|as it was in the original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', save for some cosmetic makeovers to fit the two-generation leap, some blocked paths, some expansions (the snowfield), and whole new areas (the casting facility and the shipping docks).}}
* In ''[[Creatures]] 2'', there has apparently been a massive volcanic eruption, accounting for the planetary facelift.
* The ''[[.hack|.hack//]]'' installments that occur after ''//tasogare no udewa densetsu'' make use of a second The World after the first crashed permanently -- with all new versions of old areas.
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** One particularly [[Egregious]] example where this trope fits is Vault 15. In the eighty years since The Vault Dweller came here, a mountain has inexplicably come into existence.
* In the first three ''[[Police Quest]]'' games, the layout of the Lytton police headquarters (and the city itself) changed considerably between each game.
* ''[[
** Thev game re-used many of the same "worlds" as the original, but with radically different layouts. Even specific locations within the worlds, such as the Bazaar in Agrabah, are redesigned.
** ''358/2 Days'' is entirely made of recurring worlds, often with somewhat different layouts (read: smaller, but with more platforming), though Twilight Town is near identical to the original, and [[Peter Pan|Neverland]] is entirely different (because it actually takes place ''in'' Neverland this time, instead of Hook's Ship and London).
** The world for the page quote, however, is partially justified. Hollow Bastion was a [[Doomed Hometown]], and the past residents had spent the year in between games moving back in and renovating.
** In ''[[
** One of the gates (the one opposite the Coliseum itself) in Olympus Coliseum leads somewhere different [[Kingdom Hearts (
** [[Aladdin (Disney film)|The Cave of Wonders]] ''never'' looks the same way twice. Kinda [[Justified Trope|justified]] seeing as how, y'know, a ''Genie'' used to live there. Who KNOWS what kind of crazy magic that place has?
* The eponymous city in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' looks nothing like it did in the first game; this is largely justified by the near-total destruction of the city at the end of the first game, though even buildings that were left intact have changed noticeably.
* ''[[
** Averted in the RPG games, where the first opus only takes place on one and a half continents, while the second one takes place [[Expansion Pack World|all over the world]] ''except'' those one and a half continents.
** There is one small strip of coast on the original continent accessible in the second game, but the dungeon involved wasn't accessible in the original.
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** Happens in the third game, Dark Dawn. The geography of Angara and presumably all of Weyard is radically altered by [[World Sundering|the events]] at the end of The Lost Age. This conveniently solves the problem of the entire world being more or less explored out by the end of the GBA games. How come we didn't see all these ancient kingdoms in the previous games? [[A Wizard Did It|The Golden Sun did it.]]
*** It's a bit more justified than that. The ''Golden Sun'' effectively overdosed the world on [[Functional Magic|magic]]. When that happened, ''everything'' changed. Mountain ranges shot up, an active volcano was bulldozed by its power, waterfalls between ''different levels of the same ocean'' sprung up... and a good portion of the eroded world was restored. It's implied that all of the old technology was excavated from the restored lands following the Golden Sun's rise.
* Seen in any ''[[
** This was actually done fairly well between ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
** One exception: ''[[Zelda II:
* [[Justified Trope]] in season two of the ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police|Sam and Max]]'' adventure game from Telltale Games. The neighborhood was rearranged violently by a giant robot in the opening scene of episode 1.
* Mostly [[Justified Trope]] in the ''[[Exile]]''/''[[Avernum]]'' series.
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* In ''[[Dreamfall]]'', the sequel to ''[[The Longest Journey]]'', the Zoe goes to the starting area of the first game and it is very similar in layout to the old game except with a bit more details that would supposedly have been between the area transitions of the first game. Most other changes were justified by the fact that the neighborhood since the first game also went from being a bohemian artsy neighborhood to a run down slum in the 15 years between ''Dreamfall'' and ''The Longest Journey'' and what made that area interesting was seeing how it changed. We also go to see the upper floors of the border house, April Ryan's home in the first game.
* ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' 1, 2 and 4 fall under this trope with regards to Motavia and Dezolis. Motavia, though, has a logical explanation: {{spoiler|the introduction and destruction of Mother Brain.}} Subtly averted in ''PS IV'', where {{spoiler|the inner Air Castle is identical in layout to the one in PS I, although it's hard to tell because the dungeon exploration in the first game took place in first person view.}}
* ''[[
** The player can go to Kanto from the first generation (''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]''). Most of the changes are at least somewhat feasible: lots and lots of [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence|Insurmountable Waist Height Fences]] are destroyed, for example, as well as a family relocated due to the construction of a bullet train ([[wikipedia:Shinkansen|Shinkansen]]) system. Others, such as Mt. Moon changing from a labyrinth to a path with a single fork and Viridian Forest becoming a ''hedge maze'', are just a little impossible. The most memorable change is perfectly possible, but hilariously crass: Pokémon Tower gets changed from a solemn, haunted graveyard for Pokémon to a ''radio tower''. Apparently the three floors or so of graves were relocated to Mr. Fuji's tiny basement.
** There's also Cinnabar Island. Everything was destroyed in a volcanic eruption; all that's left is a rebuilt Pokémon Center, with the gym relocated to the Seafoam Islands. Cerulean Cave is also entirely inaccessible, though since it's likely the work of the Mewtwo that had been there in Gen I, if you look around where the entrance should be you can find a special item.
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** In ''Homecoming'', Alchemilla Hospital looks vastly different and is a mental hospital as opposed to a normal hospital, probably because the game was made by a completely different developer.
** One of the crazier examples would be ''Shattered Memories'', where whenever you enter the nightmare world, everything freezes over and the architecture goes completely insane. It's most obvious during the mall and pawn shop levels, the former of which features the buildings on the street doubling on top of each other, and the framework for further building on top of that, such as the hardware store and cafe becoming veritable towers of ice. In the latter, what was once a small pawn shop, about the size of a two-story, two bedroom house is now the most ridiculous Escher-esque [[Magical Mystery Doors]] [[Mind Screw]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsftWwYSe8E&feature=related you're likely to see.]
* In the [[
* ''[[Pikmin]]'':
** The main setting of the games, the "Distant Planet," changes rapidly and radically between the two games... which is rather conspicuous, considering that Olimar apparently departed for the planet again ''immediately'' upon returning back to his home planet of Hocotate. He makes mention of this a handful of times in his journal entries about the treasures and creatures he encounters.
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** Also of note is that in ''[[Pikmin]] 2'', it's made far more blatant that the "Distant Planet" is Earth than it was in the first game. Accordingly, many of the changes seem to be clear signs of human development encroaching on the former wilds. As for the time scale, it's somewhat implied that the Distant Planet is distant enough for the trip to take quite a while.'
* When you go back to Tristram in ''[[Diablo]] II'', it's mostly the same, though the bridge is ruined so you can't get across the river. Even {{spoiler|Wirt's body}} and Cain's cage are in roughly the same place the characters were in the original game. Hell looks different, but hey, it's Hell, and once you get to the River of Flame, things start looking a bit more familiar.
* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series has ''three'' Liberty Cities: the one from the original game, the one from ''[[
** For that matter, ''Vice City'' was also a level in the original GTA, it's ''nothing'' like in the [[Grand Theft Auto Vice City
** It's completely justified in the fact that they all take place in different canons.
* Played realistically straight in ''[[
* Mostly justified in ''[[City of Heroes]]'', where zone overhauls are either works in progress (Faultline) security countermeasures (Rikti Warzone), or were there all along (universities).
** The exception is door missions, which are assigned a random map each visit. You can exit part one of a two-door mission, turn around, and enter THE SAME DOOR to access a completely different map.
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* The 'underground Church', a notorious location in the television show ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is far, far different in the video game. Of course, video games don't have a special effects budget but... it's canon earthquakes screw with the place all the time (it is in California).
* ''[[Resident Evil]]''. Many of the games criss-cross the same territory covered in previous missions and or games. Different branching paths are explained by the after-effects of previous zombie battles or the puzzle-mad craziness of the city's founders.
* ''[[
** While it's perfectly understandable that the world map itself would've changed between and its sequel, ''Dawn of the New World'', individual cities have also changed.
** The Chaos Landscape between ''Dawn of the New World'' and ''[[
** Also averted at the same time. Most of the dungeons you visit in both games have near-identical layouts, right down to the puzzles used. The only differences occurring for the most part are those required due to changes in the gameplay mechanics.
* The second ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' game established the layout of [[Wretched Hive|Haven City]] and the location and layout of Haven Forest. The third game left the dock the same, radically redesigned the rest of the city in ways you can't justify with the massive destruction going on (come on, a relatively pleasant area with canals suddenly materialising?), and moved Haven Forest right up next to the city with significant redesign. Although it may simply be a different area of the forest, this doesn't explain how the center of the city was given a massive urban beautification program in the middle of a three-way war, while chunks of the palace were ''still falling''.
* Mostly averted in ''[[Banjo
* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'':
** Nearly every single game in ''[[Super Mario Bros.]], [[Paper Mario (
** There -are- a few things that carry over between games. Peach's Castle typically has a town of some sort around it where all the Toads seem to live, though it's layout and what it's actually called vary. Bowser typically resides in a place with a ton of Lava, and Luigi's Mansion can rebuild itself... It doesn't explain ''anything'' else though. Many newer Mario Games avoid this by moving to new locations, like [[Recycled in Space|SPACE]].
** Note that these games don't actually have any continuity. This is [[Word of God|official]].
** One thing that seems to be becoming consistent in the Mushroom Kingdom is the front garden of Peach's Castle. ''[[
** And house of the Mario Bros. stays mostly consistent through all the [[Role Playing Game|RPGs]], starting with [[Super Mario RPG
* A rather weird example appears in the game ''Hitman: Contracts'': several of the missions are re-hashed versions of missions which originally appeared in an earlier game in the series, ''Hitman: Codename 47''. The layout of individual buildings and overall levels is of varying difference to the original missions. However, it's not the case that the protagonist is re-visiting these locales: they merely appear to him in flashback as he sleeps. It also helps that he's remembering them [[Unreliable Narrator|incorrectly]].
* Largely averted in ''[[
* Similarly, in [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
* ''[[Halo]]''
** The series makes you go through the control tower on Installation 04 ''three'' times. The first time you're ascending it to place Cortana there, two levels later you back to rescue Cortana (and your own ass). The level is gone never to be seen again...Or is it? {{spoiler|The very last level of ''Halo 3'' has you returning to the control room where you intentionally activate the ring to stop the Flood.}} In the first game, the tower and the surrounding area is pretty much the same both times, albeit in a state of decay after the Flood hits it. {{spoiler|In the third game the tower and control room are identical to how it was in the first game, but the surrounding area has changed quite a bit. For example, that walkway on the mountains wasn't there the first time. Justified though, since this technically isn't the same place, but a rebuild of the old place, since Master Chief obliterated the original structure in the first game.}}
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* Very, very, '''very''' much so in ''The Godfather: The Game'' and its sequel. The first game had a distinctive [[Wide Open Sandbox]] layout that covers all five boroughs, with the Corleone compound set in a very secluded section of Little Italy, surrounded by trees on prime real estate. The sequel, on the other hand, completely does away with the first game's layout, totally redesigning the New York area, limiting you to only a small section of the inner city and adding an airport connecting you to the similarly limited Miami and Havana areas. The compound itself, previously set apart, is also heavily redesigned and positioned a stone's throw away from the downtown/Manhattan/Brooklyn(?) buildings.
* So many places in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' between the original game and the Compilation. Kalm town. The Shinra Mansion, especially the basement... there are probably more.
* Justified in ''[[
* Donkey Kong Island went through some minor changes between [[Donkey Kong Country]] and [[Donkey Kong 64]], being a bit scaled down and empty due to technical limitations but still clearly the same island. Then [[Donkey Kong Country Returns]] made a huge change to the place, removing [[Our Founder|the likeness of DK's face]] from the mountain, melting the [[Patchwork Map|icy summits]] and adding a huge volcano and prehistoric world.
* Can be seen in a variety of areas between the original ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' game and [[Video Game Remake|Tomb Raider Anniversary]]. One of the most striking is a fire puzzle in Midas' Palace: what was little more than a sewer with a few flaming pillars that were laughably easy to hop across in the original, became a gigantic room filled with ornate rotating platforms spewing jets of flame in all directions. A more jarring example: Lara's mansion looks quite different in every game, ending up looking something like [[The Movie]] version in Tomb Raider Legend.
* [[Maniac Mansion]] and its sequel, [[Day of the Tentacle]], both take place in the same mansion. However, the mansion (which has been owned by the Edisons for at least 200 years) has less floors in the sequel than it does in the original. Even stranger, [[Day of the Tentacle]] has you going back 200 years and forward 200 in time, and the mansion is laid out roughly the same in both of those time periods, too!
* ''[[
* [[Harry Potter (
* ''[[Dragon Age]] Origins'' and ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'' more-or-less avert this; the sequel takes place in an entirely separate part of the world, pretty much a kingdom and a half away. ''[[
* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' and ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'' take place in the same world, with lots of locations shared between the two. Landscapes have changed and some small villages (notably Beetletun) have prospered between games. Changes are largely justified though - 250 years have passed between games, and the rise of the Elder Dragons have caused shifts to the layout of different regions. Lots of newly-named areas exist, but when comparing the maps from the two games, many are found in areas that weren't accessible in the first game.
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'':
** Once in a while the Griffins' house experiences an architecture shift for no reason. For example, when Peter catches a bullfrog to make Chris feel better, but then has to throw it out because he accidently killed it, the door which he came from disappears and reappears as a window where he throws out the frog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[[DX Ha C Eh Oi WU]]
** Averted in one episode with Peter's "Thinking Grenades". [[Seth
* Spongebob's pineapple, Squidward's Easter Island home, and Patrick's rock are constantly subject to change depending on the episode. Patrick's rock is justified on account of Patrick making most of the furniture out of sand.
** The interior of the Krusty Krab is rather consistent, though.
* [[
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