History ContinuityLockOut / VideoGames

** You'd have to read the ExpandedUniverse to understand how the Dominion are all-of-a-sudden the top dogs again despite being on the recieving end of many [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomp Battles]] in ''Brood War''. The player's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief really comes to question here as to how the Dominion achieved such a miraculous recovery; including how Korhal instantly turns into a planetwide megapolis come ''Wings of Liberty'' despite being a desert wasteland four years prior in ''Brood War''.

** The characters from '''VisualNovel/MostWanted'', one of the first books released, appear in many other books, so it's highly recommended to play it before any of the books which take place on contemporary times.

* Several books from ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'' have references to other books, so anyone playing the books not in chronological order of release or setting will miss out on them. The game now encourages players not to play the books in chronological order by giving limited-time book passes.
** The characters from ''VisualNovel/MostWanted", one of the first books released, appear in many other books, so it's highly recommended to play it before any of the books which take place on contemporary times.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'' is a sequel to and the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank Future'' trilogy (''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureQuestForBooty Quest for Booty]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'', plus ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Into the Nexus]]''), which are themselves follow-ups to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games. Up until 2022, the only way to play the ''Future'' Saga was on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 platform, which was two console generations before ''Rift Apart'' and so long ago by that point (''twelve years'' between ''A Crack in Time'' and ''Rift Apart'') that most casual ''Ratchet'' fans won't even remember the specifics of their plots. Fortunately, ''Rift Apart'' is written as a JumpingOnPoint, as it's been a long time for the characters as well, so any existing story elements are usually given a brief explainer, but that still leaves a fair amount of nuance and meaning on the table. It wasn't until 2022 that all the Platform/PlayStation3 ''Ratchet'' games were made available to stream on Platform/PlayStation5, finally averting this trope ([[HistoryRepeats until the next console comes out, of course]]).

* Several background elements and lore references in the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series suffer from this if you are not familiar with the already published Forgotten Realms and Dungeons & Dragons materials. For example, you can meet popular characters such as Drizzt, Volo, or Elminster, and either smile if you already know them from the novels, or shrug if you never heard of them before. While the first two are entirely optional and irrelevant to the story, Elminster acts as an external observer who watches and comments your progress, even giving you some hints. It is pretty much as if playing a game set in the universe of the Lord of the Rings and meeting Gandalf who gives you advice.
** ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' by Larian can be this also compared to the original games by Bioware, considering it was released 25 years after (but 10 after the enhanced editions). However, it generally deals pretty well with the issue and doesn't require you to know the original Bioware titles to enjoy the new campaign by itself. The game even lampshades when returning characters talk between them and you can ask how is it possible that they know each other.

* ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'', Episode 1 will, right up to the ending, actually make ''more'' sense to someone who's only played ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' than it will to someone who's only played ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''. Booker and Elizabeth's connection has no real importance until the end, and this is an alternate Booker, so the only real connection to ''Infinite'' is Elizabeth's ability to open Tears, and the basic gameplay controls. In a storyline sense, it's more like a DLC to the original Bioshock series. [[spoiler:Which the ''second'' episode of Burial at Sea capitalizes on.]]

''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction Central Fiction]]'' adds Naoto Kurogane, who was in the ''Bloodedge Experience'' light novels, Es from the ''VisualNovel/XBlaze'' games, and Mai Natsume from the aforementioned ''Remix Heart'' manga (with her appearance based on the then-concurrent ''[[Manga/BlazBlueVariableHeart Variable Heart]]'' manga, which is a midquel set between ''Remix Heart'' and ''Calamity Trigger''). If you haven't read Naoto or Mai's stories (most likely not, as they were Japan-only) or played both of the ''[=XBlaze=]'' light novel games, you won't realize why they're in the game, or even realize that Naoto and Es hail from separate {{Alternate Universe}}s--connected to the main ''[=BlazBlue=]'' world via [[EldritchLocation the Boundary]]--yet have direct ties to other members of the main roster (as versions/analogues of certain characters existed in their realities) and/or the [[spoiler:''[[HiddenVillain real]]'']] BigBad's plot.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' largely doesn't have this problem, provided you don't skip cutscenes or pay money to bypass large swathes of the story. What does is the collaborative ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' themed series of raids, co-written by ''Nier'' series creator Creator/YokoTaro, which provides very little context for any of the content presented to the player. Fans of ''XIV'' unfamiliar with the ''entirety'' of the ''Nier'' universe, including predecessor series ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', will be completely lost. Appropriately, an in-game NPC involved with the raids is equally confused and simply told not to question anything going on around them.

** In a double whammy, aspects of ''XIV'' and ''XV'' are directly connected to Ash Crimson, the previous lead of the "Tales of Ash" StoryArc that spanned from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2003 2003]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIII XIII]]''. In particular, [[spoiler:Ash ends up causing a CosmicRetcon that [[RetGone erases himself from existence]] in the process at the end of ''XIII'' in order to defeat the ArcVillain (who happens to be his time-traveling ancestor), and the ensuing TemporalParadox is responsible for both the creation of Verse (the aforementioned FinalBoss) and introducing TheMultiverse to the ''KOF'' mythos]]. Then, [[spoiler:Ash himself mysteriously returns in ''XV'']], meaning new players won't quite understand how shocking a development this is unless they manage to go back and explore a part of the series that started nearly ''twenty'' years earlier.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'' is a sequel to and the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank Future'' trilogy (''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureQuestForBooty Quest for Booty]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'', plus ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Into the Nexus]]''), which are themselves follow-ups to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games. Up until 2022, the only way to play the ''Future'' Saga was on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 platform, which was two console generations before ''Rift Apart'' and so long ago by that point (''twelve years'' between ''A Crack in Time'' and ''Rift Apart'') that most casual ''Ratchet'' fans won't even remember the specifics of their plots. Fortunately, ''Rift Apart'' is written as a JumpingOnPoint, as it's been a long time for the characters as well, so any existing story elements are usually given a brief explainer, but that still leaves a fair amount of nuance and meaning on the table. 2022 is when all the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 ''Ratchet'' games were made available to stream on UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, finally averting this trope ([[HistoryRepeats until the next console comes out, of course]]).
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' has many missions and jokes that refer back to the previous games, especially ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2''. If you haven't played those earlier games, the significance of certain events is decidedly lost (especially since ''Videogame/SaintsRow1'' was exclusive to the Xbox 360, meaning a large section of the fanbase hasn't played it). Amusingly, ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' was supposed to be an aversion, barely bringing up the Stilwater adventures so as to not alienate new players.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' is an unusual case. The story and central plot twist make far more sense if you've played the first game (which this is a direct sequel to), but playing this game first helps to better make sense of the original, because it also back-fills a lot of [[CluelessMystery vague and insufficiently-explained details]] from the first game's plot.

** You'd have to read the ExpandedUniverse to understand how the Dominion are all-of-a-sudden the top dogs again despite being on the recieving end of many {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s in ''Brood War''. The player's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief really comes to question here as to how the Dominion achieved such a miraculous recovery; including how Korhal instantly turns into a planetwide megapolis come ''Wings of Liberty'' despite being a desert wasteland four years prior in ''Brood War''.

** Anyone playing ''[[VideoGame/EndlessFrontier Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED]]'' would be left confused if they didn't first play ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden]]'', as two characters in the roster who were supposedly KilledOffForReal in the [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration main series]] winds up in the [[VideoGame/EndlessFrontier spin-off]]. In fact, the developers make it a point players ''must play the previous games'' occurring in main {{Continuity}} to know what's remotely going on if they decide to start somewhere in the middle.
** ''Original Generation'' as a whole has this problem going forward so long as {{Sequel}}s are rolled out: the on-going narrative expects players to know of what has already occurred, since pre-existing characters don't bother giving {{Exposition}} to newcomers InUniverse (if there ''are'' any, chances are it's {{Downplayed}} to avoid the plot going off-rails). While ''The Moon Dwellers'' attempted to mitigate this for the audience with an "Archives" section by detailing major events that have happened, it doesn't fully explain the entire picture when there exists tie-ins to overall {{Continuity}}, such as obscure Creator/{{Banpresto}} video games like ''Hero Senki: Project Olympus'' and ''The Great Battle'' series, some of which are crucial when it comes to knowing the overall MythArc. That ''Original Generation'' has become an UltimateUniverse of former-Banpresto's, current-B.B. Studio's, video games by attempting to tie in their narrative elements is a reason why this trope exists only for this series (unlike the licensed-''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' installments that are mostly self-contained).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'' takes this trope to the extreme with one of its doors: You actually need to have played ''VideoGame/TokyoXanadu eX+'' to fully understand one of the doors' story -- namely [[spoiler:the ''Magical Alisa LS'' door, as the story picks up where the original ''Magical Alisa'' story in ''Tokyo Xanadu'' left off]]. Not playing ''Tokyo Xanadu eX+'' beforehand raises the questions of "[[spoiler:Why is Rean a demon prince?]]" and "[[spoiler:He's had a HeelFaceTurn before? And he's turned back evil now?]]"

* [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with the ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' franchise: players don't need to have experienced most of its installments to enjoy other titles and can play the games in any order they see fit, even though some like ''VideoGame/YsIAncientYsVanishedOmen'' and ''VideoGame/YsIIAncientYsVanishedTheFinalChapter'' should be played side-by-side when the latter is an ImmediateSequel, while ''VideoGame/YsOrigin'' is a distant {{prequel}} to ''Ys I'' and makes references to the first two titles, but other than that, {{Continuity}} is never a real issue. However, a major PlotPoint in ''VideoGame/YsIXMonstrumNox'' regarding [[spoiler:alchemy]] relies on knowledge from ''VideoGame/YsVLostKefinKingdomOfSand'' since it used this element first. Furthermore, the climactic scene in ''Ys IX'' [[spoiler:of the souls of Feena, Reah, Dark Fact, Eldeel, Tia and Dana Iclucia from the series protagonist's memories]] will make no sense to newcomers playing the franchise for the first time in ''Ys IX'', [[spoiler:as the souls are unnamed in the narrative -- only through WordOfGod were these souls identified as pre-existing characters from the franchise]].

** The series slowly rose from [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 humble]] [[VideoGame/MetalGear2 origins]], into the self-sequels ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' and ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'', had a brief blip for the standalone ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'', and then gunned the canon wholeheartedly into the massive {{continuity snarl}}-ups of ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]]'' and ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'', both of which only a very serious and dedicated fan would be able to [[ContinuityPorn understand]].

** The villainous nature of the Enclave in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' can seem odd without having played the previous game, ''Fallout 2''. To a new player, the Enclave is simply the remnants of the American government who provides patriotic music and occasional radio broadcasts on their radio station (at least until they [[spoiler:kill your father and take control of Project Purity]]). However, ''Fallout 2'' revealed that the Enclave is the descendants of an elite billionaire class secretly running the American government, incredibly human-supremacist, and wants to eradicate all radioactively mutated beings from the Wasteland, which in ''Fallout 2'' includes most of the people living in the Wastes, but is relegated to just Super Mutants and Ghouls in ''Fallout 3''. (Knowing this also explains the psychopathic experiments of the Vaults - Vault-Tec was run by members of the Enclave, and was intended as a proof of concept that humans could survive under various, often torturous conditions (including isolation, radiation, artificially created caste systems, and so on) to later be used for space flight. Without this knowledge, however, most Vaults and their experiments will seem more like mad science run rampant than for an actual, if not completely justified, cause.) However, this backfires, as it's never really explained how the Enclave could exist in D.C. if they'd all been evacuated to an oil rig off the coast of California soon before the bombs fell.

*** Similarly, Madison Li's side quest to rejoin the Brotherhood of Steel is rather nonsensical without playing ''Fallout 3''. In ''Fallout 3'', she works with the Brotherhood of Steel to finish Project Purity. However, in the 10 years between games, she makes her way to the Commonwealth and eventually joins the Institute, which is where the Sole Survivor finds her. The Brotherhood's motivations for wanting her back hinges on the player's knowledge of this - otherwise, it seems like they threw a dart at a board of Institute scientists and chose her.

** In particular, living World season one was a big offender since much of it was actually ''unavailable'' until it was remade during ''End of Dragons''. Unfortunately, ''End of Dragons'''s storyline begins with a big ''big'' CallBack to the first season - and the remake didn't begin until ''after'' the expansion was already released. This resulted in many a newcomer and even veterans being confused - as many people had no way other than out-of-game resources to get themselves caught up on just who these SkyPirates are, who this first mate they mention is, who Scarlet Briar was, and why an achievment is "For Lion's Arch". The last time they featured in the story was as much as ''nine years'' before "End of Dragons".
* The ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series requires not only playing the preceding games to understand where the story has gone (which only gets more complicated in ''Halo 4'' due to a timeskip after the end of the war), the games often require the player to read the books as well. In particular, the first game ends with the Master Chief and Cortana as the only survivors of Installation 04's destruction with seemingly no way back to Earth. ''Halo 2'' picks up with him not only already back on Earth for an award ceremony, but with Sgt. Johnson back from the dead with no explanation! It's necessary to read the ''First Contact'' novel, which explains exactly how the Chief got back to Earth and how Johnson and several others survived.

** In a double whammy, aspects of ''XIV'' and ''XV'' are directly connected to Ash Crimson, the previous lead of the "Tales of Ash" StoryArc that spanned from ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2003 2003]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIII XIII]]''. In particular, [[spoiler:Ash ends up causing a CosmicRetcon that [[RetGone erases himself from existence]] in the process at the end of ''XIII'' in order to defeat the ArcVillain (who happens to be his time traveling ancestor), and the ensuing TemporalParadox is responsible for both the creation of Verse (the aforementioned FinalBoss) and introducing TheMultiverse to the ''KOF'' mythos]]. Then, [[spoiler:Ash himself mysteriously returns in ''XV'']], meaning new players won't quite understand how shocking a development this is unless they manage to go back and explore a part of the series that started nearly ''twenty'' years earlier.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' broadly assumes that the player has familiarity with the ''Compilation of Final Fantasy VII'', the collective name for a number of tie-in works associated with the original game. This includes ''Before Crisis'' (a mobile game that never got a release outside Japan), ''The Kids Are Alright'' (a novella released in the runup to ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'') and other associated tie-in games. Moments and characters from the aforementioned titles and others are mentioned liberally in the remake, with a scene in the final chapter that is contingent on the player being aware of the protagonist and climactic final fight from ''VideoGame/CrisisCore''. And that's not even getting into the main antagonist, [[spoiler:Sephiroth, who is implied to be from an AlternateUniverse, post-''Advent Children'' timeline, who manipulates the main characters by showing visions of a BadFuture that are actually some of the key story moments from the original game]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes'' is a spinoff[=/=]AlternateContinuity of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' that elaborates upon many plot points brought up in the latter. Unfortunately, the story's pacing doesn't allow for proper re-introduction of those, so the game fully relies on the player being familiar with its source material. This is further complicated by the fact that both games have multiple routes and plenty of optional content, so even if one ''has'' played ''Three Houses'' before, there's a chance they haven't seen the specific piece of information being referenced.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. Starting from any game from ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' and onward will get confusing. And no, despite what the marketing says, the series is a devout adherent of OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo. ''No'' game in the series is unimportant, as the player is supposed to play the games in chronological order; playing just the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI three]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII numbered]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII games]] will [[NonIndicativeName get them absolutely ''nowhere'']]. For example, ''Chain of Memories'' despite the radically different gameplay, is actually a direct sequel of ''I'' and serves as the stepping stone between it and ''II''; without it, the player will not catch even 10% of the latter game's plot (case in point: ''II'' opens with a set of characters the player doesn't know about, living in a place they don't know about and talking about things they don't know about but are probably related to ''I'' because there are flashbacks...or something). ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', by virtue of being a {{prequel}}, is probably the only sequel that newbies can pick up relatively mindfuck-free, but it contains many CallForward references that will fly over their collective heads unless they have played the preceding games. Thankfully, by the release of ''Kingdom Hearts III'', every relevant game had been remade for various {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, or at least had an abridged film version of its events in its place. Which is good, since by then, the series had been spread out over eight different home and handheld consoles, plus mobile phones and browser games.
** To be exact, Creator/SquareEnix released ''[[CompilationRerelease I.5 [=ReMIX=]]]'' for the [=PS3=], containing ''KHI Final Mix'', ''Re:Chain of Memories'', and an abridged, cutscene-only version of ''358/2 Days''. Then they released ''II.5 [=ReMIX=]'', containing ''KHII Final Mix'', ''Birth by Sleep Final Mix'', and an abridged version of ''Re:coded''. Eventually, they released [=PS4=] versions of both collections, after a third collection, ''II.8 Final Chapter Prologue'', containing ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' along with the new ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage'' and an original movie covering the major lore of the mobile game ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX'', before the release of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' on [=PS4=], ensuring that the entire series, absent playable versions of the DS games, is playable on one console.

** While many of the Disney worlds tend to retell the events of the previous movie, they're easy to follow up for players that has not watched the original movie. However in ''III'' where [[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} Corona]], [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Arendelle]] and [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd Caribbean]] were retold, Sora, Donald and Goofy were dropped midway into the plot, interact with the cast before being sidelined leaving them to experience the moments in the background which often leaves several plot points unexplained for those who did not watch the original movie. Arendelle especially got it worst though particularly cutting out Hans' role, yet his Heartless still attacks you at the end for no apparent reason.

* ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'' assumes you already know all the characters and their relationships to each other. If you're completely unfamiliar with ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'', it feels like a massive InJoke. This was taken further with 2021's ''Type Lumina'', a ContinuityReboot set during a WhatIf [[StoryBranching route]] from the ''Tsukihime'' remake, meaning you might still be a bit out of the loop even if you're familiar with the original VN.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' is a direct sequel to the original ''VideoGame/Persona5''[[note]]With some hints that it is specifically a sequel to the UpdatedRerelease ''Persona 5 Royal'', but not enough to keep people who have only played the original version from jumping into this game without losing any important context[[/note]], and generally assumes you have beaten that game or watched a full LetsPlay of it before playing it. The plot only briefly touches upon the major developments and twists of the original and how they influence the character's present actions (including new party member Zenkichi, since [[spoiler:he was directly screwed over by TheConspiracy who were the main villainous force in the original game]]), and Lavenza, whose existence was a major twist in the original, [[LateArrivalSpoiler is the Velvet Room attendant from the start]] in this game. This is in stark contrast with other [[VideoGame/DynastyWarriors Musou]] crossovers which can mostly be enjoyed by people who are otherwise not to familiar with the original franchise and whose plots are non-canon to those franchises.

* Unlike its predecessor (and most of the older ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' titles), ''VideoGame/AtelierRyza2LostLegendsAndTheSecretFairy'' is a terrible JumpingOnPoint. Returning characters are introduced with very little explanation of who they are and how they relate to each other, which might leave new players confused. At one point, the game drops the word "Philuscha" in a sentence without explaining what it means; those who have finished the previous game will undoubtedly understand what's being talked about, but new players won't get any kind of explanation until several hours and dungeons later. Overall, you'll probably have a much better experience if you've played the first ''Atelier Ryza'' beforehand.

** Although ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' is intended to be a JumpingOnPoint for the franchise at large, and therefore has [[ExcusePlot a rather simple premise]], quite a few tidbits surrounding it will be completely Byzantine to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of Creator/{{SNK}}, such as the FinalBoss being said to have been foretold by the Jin Scrolls that were most prominent in the plot of 1995's ''VideoGame/FatalFury 3''. For the record, ''KOF XIV'' released in 2016, over two ''decades'' after ''[=FF3=]''.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. Starting from any game from ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'' and onward will get confusing. And no, despite what the marketing says, the series is a devout adherent of OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo. ''No'' game in the series is unimportant, as the player is supposed to play the games in chronological order; playing just the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI three]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII numbered]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII games]] will get them absolutely ''nowhere''. For example, ''Chain of Memories'' despite the radically different gameplay, is actually a direct sequel of ''I'' and serves as the stepping stone between it and ''II''; without it, the player will not catch even 10% of the latter game's plot (case in point: ''II'' opens with a set of characters the player doesn't know about, living in a place they don't know about and talking about things they don't know about but are probably related to ''I'' because there are flashbacks...or something). ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', by virtue of being a {{prequel}}, is probably the only sequel that newbies can pick up relatively mindfuck-free, but it contains many CallForward references that will fly over their collective heads unless they have played the preceding games. Thankfully, by the release of ''Kingdom Hearts III'', every relevant game had been remade for various {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, or at least had an abridged film version of its events in its place. Which is good, since by then, the series had been spread out over eight different home and handheld consoles, plus mobile phones and browser games.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'' takes this trope to the extreme with one of its doors: You actually need to have played ''VideoGame/TokyoXanadu eX+'' to fully understand one of the doors' story -- namely [[spoiler:the ''Magical Alisa RS'' door, as the story picks up where the original ''Magical Alisa'' story in ''Tokyo Xanadu'' left off]]. Not playing ''Tokyo Xanadu eX+'' beforehand raises the questions of "[[spoiler:Why is Rean a demon prince?]]" and "[[spoiler:He's had a HeelFaceTurn before? And he's turned back evil now?]]"

** While each series has a more or less self-contained plot taking place in different countries across Zemuria, there are many, many side characters from other parts of the franchise that make extensive cameos and references to other events. Each of these games is a 60-100 hour RPG with ''tons'' of dialogue, making catching up a daunting task. The games set in Crossbell were an enforced example thanks to [[NoExportForYou not being localized yet]], it not helping that several characters from Zero/Azure are referenced, and the protagonists from those games are even briefly playable, not to mention some other Crossbell casts making their appearances in the third ''Cold Steel'' game, making players wonder who the hell these people are. As of March 2023, this isn't quite the issue that it once was, thanks to the games finally being released in the English language, though it still doesn't change the fact that most fans of the series already played the ''Cold Steel'' games without the benefit of reference to them.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'' is not only based on the PSP game (with a [=PS3=]/[=X360=] HD rerelease) ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', but on a PlayableEpilogue ending that many people missed.

** You'd have to read the ExpandedUniverse to understand how the Dominion are all-of-a-sudden the top dogs again despite being on the recieving end of many {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s in ''Brood War''. The player's WillingSuspensionofDisbelief really comes to question here as to how the Dominion achieved such a miraculous recovery; including how Korhal instantly turns into a planetwide megapolis come ''Wings of Liberty'' despite being a desert wasteland four years prior in ''Brood War''.

* It is possible to understand and enjoy the plot of ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'' without playing [[VideoGame/SuikodenI the first]] [[VideoGame/SuikodenII two games]] in [[VideoGame/Suikoden the series]], but the reveal of the Masked Bishop's identity (a pivotal moment in the story) will not make any sense.

** Although ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV'' is intended to be a JumpingOnPoint for the franchise at large, and therefore has [[ExcusePlot a rather simple premise]], quite a few tidbits surrounding it will be completely Byzantine to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of Creator/{{SNK}}, such as the FinalBoss being said to have been foretold by the Jin Scrolls that were most prominent in the plot of 1995's ''VideoGame/FatalFury 3''.
** Its immediate successor ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV XV]]'' is also prone to requiring knowledge of SNK history to understand fully. For instance, [[CanonCharacterAllAlong the big revelation concerning newcomer Krohnen in his ending]] won't be as impactful to a player who either hasn't played ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2001 2001]]'' and/or vanilla ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2002 2002]]'', or not heard from other sources about the [[BuryYourArt debacle surrounding K9999]].

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear''

** ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' has two instances. The first being another case of it requiring knowledge of Samus Aran's backstory, and the second requiring the player to have completed ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion''. The former surrounds the twist that [[spoiler:Raven Beak is one of her Chozo DNA donors, and thus considers himself her father]]. Except to a casual fan, that Samus even has Chozo DNA was a reveal on its own. Combined with the fact that [[spoiler:her ''actual'' adoptive fathers, Old Bird and Grey Voice -- the latter being the other blood donor -- are hidden in the shadows during the scene in question]], and you have [[NewbieBoom many newcomers]] to the franchise that take Raven Beak's statement at face value. The latter involves the game's final cutscene, which loses some of its meaning if the player didn't know that [[spoiler:the sacrificial actions of Quiet Robe-X directly contradicts our heroine's own stated beliefs about the X being nothing but soulless killing machines.]]

* It is possible to understand and enjoy the plot of ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'' without playing the first two games in the series, but the reveal of the Masked Bishop's identity (a pivotal moment in the story) will not make any sense.

* ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'': Downplayed. While you can definitely play and enjoy the game without knowing a thing about [[VideoGame/LikeADragon the series]], you will be left very confused about why certain characters, such as [[spoiler: Goro Majima, Taiga Saejima, Kazuma Kiryu, Daigo Dojima and the bartender at "Survive" who is all but stated to be Osamu Kashiwagi,]] are such a big deal.