History Main / BagOfSpilling

** The tie-in comic for The Sacrifice explained how in the original game the Survivors lost their weapons between some of the campaignsl: The Slaters stole their weapons and booted them off the boat in the aftermath of Death Toll, the airplane crashed after Dead Air, and the military that rescued them confiscated their weapons for security reasons. It's unknown why they lost their weapons after Crash Course though, as their armored truck had more than enough room to carry it and it was merely blocked by dead traffic (and a literal broken bridge).

* Creator/TerryPratchett said in an interview that the ''{{Discworld}}'' character of The Luggage was born out of early D&D roleplaying as a take on the Bag of Holding idea. In theory it was a handy depository for captured booty, of infinite capacity, and capable of carrying things on its hundreds of dear little legs so that the players did not need to bother about weight limitations. But players in the game sone learnt that unless they gave The Luggage ''really precise'' instructions and kept track of what direction it was walking in, it soon became a Bag of Losing. In the books, the evolved character of The Luggage will still carry things for you. But it acts as a portal to an unspecified Other (witness its ubiquity as a corpse-disposal system) and has a mind of its own. Putting something in there is no guarantee that you'll ever see it again. It certainly carries a massive amount of gold bullion, for instance: but this has only been seen ''once''.

* A mixed bag in ''[[RyuGaGotoku Yakuza 2]]''. Kazuma retains parts of his upgraded moveset, is much faster, and even has one or two new abilities, but must relearn others. And health bar reversion in the extreme, of course. Attempts to be justified between 2 - 3 - 4 by having him retire between games. He still retains a chunk of his new moveset, but loses most of his high level abilities through lack of practice.

* It's implied in the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games that X voluntarily disposes of his new armor and weapons after every game, in order to avoid the temptation to abuse his new found power...or maybe because he [[IJustWantToBeNormal simply doesn't like fighting in the first place, really]].

* Lampshaded in ''[[VideoGame/{{Trine}} Trine 2]]''.
-->'''Amadeus:''' Whatever happened to that magic talisman that allowed us to breathe underwater?
-->'''Zoya:''' I... um. I think someone hocked it.
* Done in a truly head-desk-worthy manner in ''{{Tomba}} 2''. Not only has Tomba lost everything except his grandfather's amulet (which is useless anyway), he's ''forgotten how to swim!''

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'' introduced naval combat, complete with ''offshore platforms'' for extracting oil, a resource necessary for constructing fleets. ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' effectively removed this element, having ships only in cut scenes, custom maps and certain campaign levels, with them not constructive in standard skirmish games.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' mostly averts this with hero levels.

* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends 2'', where Megs is confident he can handle the bad guys as soon as he gets his old gear out of storage... until the penny-pinching Roll sheepishly admits she sold off his equipment to cover repairs for the pounding the ship took near the end of the last game.

* A lengthy password given to you at the end of of the first ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' allows you to carry your weapons, armor, etc. to ''VideoGame/GoldenSun: The Lost Age'' when you get your original party back, averting the trope. Doing so is required to get into the BonusDungeon and get the final two summons. However, if you had another GameBoyAdvance (or a Gamecube with a Game Boy Player) and a link cable, you could transfer the data over without resorting to the lengthy passwords.

* ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' takes place a few months after the end of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', but for some odd reason, the Investigation Team can only use their base level personas[[note]]Save for [[TheHero Narukami]], who's Insta-Kill makes use of his Ultimate Persona[[/note]].
** However, in both this game and its sequel ''VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax'', this is averted for the [[VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} SEES alumni]], who all retain their Ultimate Personas.

** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and its various episodes avert this when you start a game from anywhere other than the first chapter. The game will give you every weapon you can have at that point and a reasonable amount of ammo for all of them.

** Played straight with an explaination in ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'', where it is revealed that Kyle Katarn gave up the Force for fear of falling to the Dark Side ([[spoiler:like he did in ''Mysteries of the Sith'']]), and is thus unable to use the Force powers he had in the previous game.
** For ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'', instead of reusing that trope yet again, the developers instead gave the player the role of Jaden, his apprentice with Kyle taking a supporting role. They were fully aware of this trope, and they have specifically stated that the decision for a new protagonist in ''Jedi Academy'' was because of how silly it would get if they had to depower Kyle again and again by some excuse after another.

** [[VideoGame/Left4Dead2 The sequel]], which actually has a canonical chronological sequence to its campaigns, lampshades this in ''Hard Rain'' when the protagonists realize that they've left their weapons and the flares needed to signal their boat in a bag on said boat. The other campaigns play the trope straight, but there are some unsaid explanations. In The Passing/Dark Carnival, they arrive in a tight, cramped stock car that likely could barely hold 4 people, much less guns. Swamp Fever starts with a helicopter crash. Virgil likely wanted some payment for his services rendered, which would explain why they have nothing at the start of The Parish. Then there is The Sacrifice, wherein the old survivors arrive in a train and still don't carry anything but pistols - though we know from the tie-in comic that the US military confiscated the stronger guns.
* ''[[FrontlinesFuelOfWar Frontlines: Fuel of War]]'' has the missions divided into segments for each objective, separated by a short loading screen. The player often picks up many nifty toys to ensure that he's covered for all situations, such as carrying an assault rifle, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, pistol, sniper rifle, grenades, several UCAV drones with rocket launchers, and a pair of binoculars that drop airstrikes wherever he points them. This massive arsenal is lost in between loading screens, even if the next segment takes place mere minutes after and it would make no logical sense for him to take all of his equipment that could make the next mission a total breeze and toss them off a cliff, forcing him to find replacements.

** ''F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point'' starts Point Man off without weapons, ostensibly justified by having just survived a nuclear explosion.
** ''F.E.A.R. 3'' starts after Point Man has been captured and imprisoned by Armacham for an unspecified length of time.
*** Point Man and Fettel also lose any weapons/bodies/power armor when switching chapters. Sometimes justified by Point Man barely surviving a fall from the breaking environment, sometimes not. It's presumed he uses up guns between intervals. As for Fettel, he can't hold on to a body without constantly killing for psychic energy.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' downplays the trope; Travis apparently ditched all of his gear except for his basic Beam Katana when he left the assassin life, but he starts with the skills the player could pick up by collecting Lovikov balls in the first game. (Since this includes the mini-map, it's a very good thing.)

* At the end of every level of {{Cadaver}} your rucksack loses all items that are not potions or spells. This isn't so bad as those items are generally only useful on the level you've just finished.

* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' has Garret lose all of his equipment except for his sword, blackjack and bow in-between missions. Justified in that this is done to dissuade players from [[TooAwesomeToUse hoarding equipment.]] If you're gonna lose it all at the end of the mission, might as well make the most out of everything you have.

* ''VideoGame/Thief'' has Garret lose all of his equipment except for his sword, blackjack and bow in-between missions. Justified in that this is done to dissuade players from [[TooAwesomeToUse hoarding equipment.]] If you're gonna lose it all at the end of the mission, might as well make the most out of everything you have.

* The ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' franchise dealt with this by having the PC kidnapped by an evil wizard prior to the start of the second game, and naturally stripped of all equipment. One could retrieve some of the contents of one's inventory in the first chamber one comes upon when escaping his dungeon lair -- notably the Golden Pantaloons, necessary to forge the Big Metal Unit in the final expansion pack. Note that while equipment was lost, power was not, with characters leveling up to the point where two games, two expansion packs and over 8 million XP later, the PC goes from a level 1 weakling barely capable of defeating a rat to a level 40 demigod. There ''was'' some carryover; if you had the scimitars of Drizzt, he'd be royally pissed at you.

** ''Blood Money'' begins the game with Mr. 47 having freshly flown into the United States from his usual operating area of Europe and Asia. The loss of equipment then could be justified, since getting an arsenal past customs may be fairly difficult.
** ''Blood Money'' subverts this, too -- you don't have ''all'' your kickass weapons, but you do start with five basic weapons, one in each broad category, including the Custom Sniper/W2000 Sniper, which was the ultimate rare weapon in the (chronologically) previous game, and very hard to obtain outside that game's final mission. Since these five are generally the best or most generally-useful in their category, it makes sense that they'd be the five he'd choose to bring with him.
** ''Contracts'' is a special case, as the majority of the storyline of the game shows 47 fighting for his life after suffering a near fatal gunshot wound, the missions being mostly remakes of missions from previous games or flashbacks to, presumably, earlier missions in his life. The only mission taking place in reality is the final one. However, it's entirely possible to play the final mission after equipping yourself with weapons acquired during the hallucinations. Chronologically, ''Contracts'' also takes place after the Curtains Down mission of ''Blood Money'', meaning aside from his dream armory, he still has his hideaway.
** Also justified in Absolution - 47's gone rogue, so he wouldn't have access to any large arsenals. He even has to [[ATasteOfPower trade his Silverballers to another disgraced assassin]] for information early on, leaving him with just an unsilenced revolver and his garrote for a few levels. Less justified in the transition from ''Dexter Industries'' to ''Death Factory'', which is by entering an elevator, and from ''Death Factory'' to ''Fight Night'', which is by climbing a ladder.

* The ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' franchise dealt with this by having the PC kidnapped by an evil wizard prior to the start of the second game, and naturally stripped of all equipment. One could retrieve some of the contents of one's inventory in the first chamber one comes upon when escaping his dungeon lair -- notably the Golden Pantaloons, necessary to forge the Big Metal Unit in the final expansion pack. Note that while equipment was lost, power was not, with characters leveling up to the point where two games, two expansion packs and over 8 million XP later, the PC goes from a level 1 weakling barely capable of defeating a rat to a level 40 demigod. There ''was'' some carryover; if you had the scimitars of Drizzt, he'd be royally pissed at you.
** It was also claimed by the loading screens in ''Baldur's Gate II'' that you would be able to import your characters into ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights''. This turned out to be completely impossible due to differences like running on 3.0 ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' instead of Advanced, and in any case would have required a truly epic Bag of Spilling to cope with unleashing a 40th level demigod onto the Weak Goblins you start fighting.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry2'' starts Dante with none of the weapons or powers from the first game except for the "Air Hike" double jump; it doesn't explain why, either. The third game is a prequel to the first two, and thus it is only natural he has none of the gear from the second one, except for a weaker version of his "Rebellion" sword... but then it leaves the gaping question of where all the weapons he picked up in ''that'' game went before the first ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''. There must be a closet somewhere in his office stuffed with demonic weaponry. Then there's the Force Edge sword, which loses all the special abilities it had in the transition from 3 to 1 (and the loss is permanent - Dante can't buy them back); there, however, it's forgivable, since writers aren't psychic and the people writing ''[=DMC1=]'' had no idea what would happen in the third game.
** ''Devil May Cry 4'' continues this trend. It comes between 1 and 2 chronologically, and it features a new main character altogether (Nero) who obviously has none of the weapons Dante had. However, Dante becomes the lead halfway through the game, which becomes a partial subversion: you can use the points you earned as Nero to purchase abilities as Dante. Also in ''Devil May Cry 4'', Dante is able to use all of the "style" moves from ''Devil May Cry 3'', although at Level 1. You can upgrade them at the beginning of missions and at Divinity Statues, and doing so unlocks many new moves.

* Usually in full force in the ''JaggedAlliance'' series. You don't keep any weapons or money, and neither do your mercenaries keep their increased levels and skills between games. At least between ''[=JA1=]'' and 2, it's not clear if you're even the same commander. Averted with the ''[=JA2=]'' expansion ''Unfinished Business'', which had a feature allowing you to import your mercenaries and their stats from the previous game, though not their equipment. Doing so, though, made the game ramp up the difficulty due to your powerful mercenaries.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series justified Snake going in unarmed so he would acquire enemy gear and thus be unidentifiable (shell casings or magazines left behind would match enemy gear, thus not providing evidence that he was there). ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' makes a point of pointing out how important this is: since it's during the ColdWar, finding evidence of American soldiers tramping around on Russian soil could trigger WorldWarIII.

* Jak of ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' always loses his equipment when things go wrong at the beginning of each game. Justified in several cases: his Power Cells are spent opening a portal to ''Jak II''; the Precursor Orbs were likely taken by the Krimson Guard; his gun and hoverboard are taken away when he's exiled to the Wasteland. Several other things are not, though: he loses multiple Dark abilities at the start of ''Jak 3''; you have to save up orbs to buy back the car he was driving at the start of the ''Jak X''; and he doesn't bring his armor or morph gun when he travels to the Brink in ''TLF''.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManX4''-''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' play with this in so many ways. He starts 5 and 6 with the Fourth/Force Armour and Falcon Armour from the game preceding each, respectively. The only problem is that the armors are severely weakened compared to their original versions, with the implication that X did trash them, but Alia went and salvaged them as best she could. Whereas in the first three games, X started with a 16 unit life meter, and built it up to 32. From X4 onward until X8 redesigned the meters, X ''started'' with a 32 unit meter, and could build up to 48(X4), 64(X5-6), and 80(X7). Also, X7 and X8 made the airdash and charging his X-buster an extra level available in base form. Respectively. Also, in regards to heart tanks, in X1, X is obviously significantly weaker than Zero. By the time we actually ''see'' Zero's life bar, X is only eight heart tanks away from being equal to it, and then it's just a case of them being pretty much equal. However, Zero has no such qualms, which doesn't explain why he forgets ''learned techniques'' (i.e. NOT weapons), such as his Ice Stab maneuver in X4. It's not like he dies in that particular chapter, unlike X5. Interestingly, in the X vs. Zero fight, they both pull out weapons from X4, giving the suggestion that they keep them for emergencies.

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', since Mario keeps his hammer and remembers pretty much all of the stuff from the previous game. Played straight when he has to get new partners, but justified because his old ones all went back to their own lives at the end of the first game and there was no reason to suspect he'd need them when he set out. However, he still loses all the badges he had before and the Ultra Hammer/Boots.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series justified Snake going in pretty much unarmed so he would acquire enemy gear and thus be unidentifiable (shell casings or magazines left behind would match enemy gear, thus not providing evidence that he was there). ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' makes a point of pointing out how important this is: since it's during the ColdWar, finding evidence of American soldiers tramping around on Russian soil could trigger WorldWarIII.