History Main / BeefGate

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': A being known only as the Guardian guards a portal to the past from anyone who wishes to use it. The only exception would be for TheChosenOne who can defeat him in single combat. Jack, naturally, fights him in order to become that chosen one. [[spoiler:He fails, though the episodes' end implied that an OlderAndWiser Jack will succeed. However, with the return of Season 5 years later, SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome happens and it turns out the Guardian has long been slain by Aku and the portal destroyed.]]

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' -- The Guardian of Orion serves this purpose in the series. The system it guards (of the same name) is an incredibly fertile paradise and the best possible world you could settle, but the Guardian will utterly trash anything sent into the system with its top-tier weaponry, ensuring that Orion is denied to everybody until one player gets a significant fleet with enough of a technological edge.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'':

*** This game seemed to have some sort of unnatural hatred for cohesive world map design, and ended up combining a serious case of this trope with incredibly poor directions. The people in town A say that you should visit town B. Outside of town A lie featureless plains and forests in all directions and nothing preventing you from going anywhere, leaving you to have to take a wild guess which way town B is. If you guess wrong, you will be first-turn ''annihilated'' by the very first random encounter in the area surrounding towns M, N, and O that you just accidentally approached. It is absurdly difficult in the beginning when the party doesn't have a Map to help them navigate their way and
a Canoe to enable them crossing lakes and rivers (unlike in the first ''Final Fantasy'' game, this game has no encounter in the lakes and rivers). It is possible for a new player who, quite understandably, doesn't know which squares house which monsters, to have their ''very first encounter'' in the ''entire game'' be with boss-type monsters such as Chimera, Big Horn, or even ''Behemoth.'' [[NintendoHard On the other hand, maybe that's fitting for such a tough game.]]

*** This game seemed to have some sort of unnatural hatred for cohesive world map design, and ended up combining a serious case of this trope with incredibly poor directions. The people in town A say that you should visit town B. Outside of town A lie featureless plains and forests in all directions and nothing preventing you from going anywhere, leaving you to have to take a wild guess which way town B is. If you guess wrong, you will be first-turn ''annihilated'' by the very first random encounter in the area surrounding towns M, N, and O that you just accidentally approached. It is not at all unlikely for a new player who, quite understandably, doesn't know which squares house which monsters, to have their ''very first encounter'' in the ''entire game'' be with a ''Behemoth.'' [[NintendoHard On the other hand, maybe that's fitting for such a tough game.]]

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', going left initially is an easy way to get butchered by way-too-powerful enemies.

* Invoked by nearly every ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' game in [[NewGamePlus Challenge Mode]], where even the starting enemies will have enough health to shrug off the fully-upgraded Rocket Launcher you just used to take down the final boss. To get defeat them you need to purchase Mega versions of your old weapons, which are hugely expensive. These can only be afforded with the aid of the Bolt Multiplier you start Challenge Mode with, making this a combination Beef Gate and CashGate.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', the Durlag's Tower is a brilliant example of this in level design. Theorically, you could access this dungeon from chapter 1 if you stumble in it by chance, but if your level isn't good enough, you will be trashed instantly. To prevent unexperienced players with unleveled characters to get only frustration and unwinnable fights midway through the dungeon, two very hard to kill battle horrors guard the entrance. The narrow path also prevents players to simply run away and avoid the fight. If you kill those battle horrors, you are ready to challenge the tower. Otherwise, reload and return later. Better explained [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWgc20zbRXk here]].

* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' has three routes--'''five''' if you start with a Master Key--which you can take out of the HubLevel right after the tutorial, but only one is balanced for a starting player. The rest are full of enemies that are difficult to evade with knowledge of the areas, much less fight when you’re there for the first time, plus environmental obstacles that will take specialized gear and/or trial-and-error [[CheckpointStarvation with few checkpoints inbetween]].

* ''VideoGame/DigimonWorld'', the abudant [[BrokenBridge Broken Bridges]] are there for a reason. If you know what you're doing and fix one or two right away without training your partner at all, you will most likely get [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomped]] very fast. Most of the time the game is courteous enough to give you ''actual'' Beef Gates instead of just [[{{Mook}} Mooks]] that are way out of your league... at the price of you being incabable of running away from the battles, since they are against recruitable Digimon.

** The Knightmons are even more ridiculous. No matter what you do, you can't defeat them, [[spoiler: unless you got the 4 colored ID cards.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012 ]]'', the BrutalBonusLevel Confessions of the Creator opens with the objective to go rescue a moogle in the Chasm in the Rotting Land. You ''could'' head there right away, only to find it a multi-level dungeon full of Level 40 enemies at best and Level 80 enemies at worst, and after you complete it you're sent to fight a Level 95 WarmUpBoss guarding new areas with level 90+ enemies. Uless you did some LevelGrinding outside story mode, your characters are probably in their 30s, maybe 40s, and you have nowhere near enough money to afford them proper equipment. On the other hand the rest of the world is full of gateways featuring enemies levels 40 through mid-60s, plenty of trade accessories and ShopFodder for trading, and a short distance from the Chasm in the Rotting Land is another multi-level gateway with Level 70-90 enemies.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' lets you explore any planet in any system that you have enough fuel to reach once your ship is repaired, but high-threat planets (which hold valuable ores and better loot) often house creatures which can kill you in a single hit, and traps capable of draining your Health very quickly. Radioactive, Fiery and Frozen star systems also can be accessed before you have the necessary suit, but environmental damage will drain your health and pile up to a deadly treshold within a minute.

** The Wall of Flesh serves as a beef gate to hardmode. Once the player is ready to take on new challenges, they can summon the boss, and if they succeed in defeating it, they will be treated to a new world of content containing greater challenges and greater rewards.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': A being known only as the Guardian guards a portal to the past from anyone who wishes to use it. The only exception would be for TheChosenOne who can defeat him in single combat. Jack, naturally, fights him in order to become that chosen one. [[spoiler: He fails, though the episodes' end implied that an OlderAndWiser Jack will succeed. However, with the return of Season 5 years later, SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome happens and it turns out the Guardian has long been slain by Aku and the portal destroyed.]]

*** A milder example: you can skip Nipton by passing through Crescent Canion, a passage with its western entrance near the Mojave Outpost. The problem is that it's populated by Golden Geckos and has several waste barrels that gives you a considerable level of radioactivity and, besides that, there's also the possibility of encountering one or two Nightstalkers from the nearby Morning Star Cavern on your way to it. All that can be quite the hassle for a low-level player.

** Caelid is adjacent to the starting area of Limgrave and is a huge difficulty jump. Most will want to clear Limgrave and Liurnia of the Lakes first to level up, but there's nothing stopping you from tackling Caelid right away. If you follow the Grace markers through the area, before long you'll run into the dragon Decaying Ekzykes. He's got over 23,000 HP compared to Flying Dragon Agheel's 3,200, several attacks that can one-shot you, and a Scarlet Rot-inflicting BreathWeapon that will very quickly chew through your health. Better have an upgraded weapon and plenty of health!

** The Wild Area in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' is where a trainer can run into higher-leveled Pokemon than they're ready to face if they venture too far away from their destination. This can get you destroyed if you're not prepared, and unlike the other Pokemon games, they cannot be caught for a DiscOneNuke with a lucky pokeball until you have enough Gym badges to catch their level range, such as 1 Gym badge being level 25 for the max they can be caught and 3 Gym badges being level 35.

*** Being the direct sequel of ''Breath of the Wild'', obviously retains this aspect of the gameplay, which once again gives you the opportunity to charge straight to the final boss battle under Hyrule Castle right after the tutorial. However, if anything, accomplishing it is even ''tougher'' than the previous one. Aside from the aforementioned issues about having the bare minimum of health, stamina, gear, and not having unlocked any special abilities, [[spoiler: Link will have to fight through a massive army of {{mooks}}, all five Temple Scourges, Phantom Ganon, and Demon King Ganondorf consecutively without the help of Mineru and the four Champions. This is along with the fact the battlefield constantly emits clouds of Gloom, which causes MaximumHPReduction, making fighting Ganondorf without significant health upgrades extremely difficult]].

* In VideoGame/RogueLegacy the player can freely explore the entire castle, from the starting area to the depths of the final zone, however the enemies located in the more advanced zones will make quick work of lesser geared characters.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', known as ''Dragon Warrior IV'' for its NES release outside of Japan:

* ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings''

*** Not only that, there were definite ways to get significantly out of your league even in places you ''were'' supposed to be. At one point, you have to sneak into an occupied town to rescue someone. The way the game handled the occupation is that it looked and acted like a normal town, except that talking to ''anyone'' led to their calling you [[YouRebelScum "Rebel Scum!"]] and triggering a normally impossible battle. This battle is key to the games many [[DiscOneNuke disc one nukes]] by defeating them for decent equipment to fuel your grinding (and after a bit, using its higher level to increase your stats faster).

*** Then there's the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Cleft of Dimension]]. In theory, once you reacquire the airship (which is a short way into the third "part" of the game), there's nothing stopping you from going straight there. In practice, without getting [[spoiler:the [[InfinityPlusOneSword legendary weapons]]]], along with the experience you'll get in the process, you probably won't get far.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''

*** The same game also has a part with Locke in the occupied Town of Figaro, with his way constantly being blocked by the powerful [=HeavyArmr=] monsters. It is ''technically'' possible to beat them, but would need extensive grinding and loads of healing items.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' blocks most areas by requiring certain abilities to enter, but you can wander any part of central Beanbean Kingdom freely. If you don't mind dodging the enemies that can two-shot you and have more complex attack patterns. Successful evasion yields some rewards, such as uncovering the Warp Pipes that save legwork later.

** Both ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' have rooms with [[LethalLavaLand extremely hot temperatures]] that will deplete health quickly. [[{{Metroidvania}} While these are generally meant to be impassible without the Varia Suit,]] skilled players can navigate these rooms quickly enough to avoid death, allowing them to access some powerups early.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'', being the direct sequel of ''Breath of the Wild'', obviously retains this aspect of the gameplay, which once again gives you the opportunity to charge straight to the final boss battle under Hyrule Castle right after the tutorial. However, if anything, accomplishing it is even ''tougher'' than the previous one. Aside from the aforementioned issues about having the bare minimum of health, stamina, gear, and not having unlocked any special abilities, [[spoiler: Link will have to fight through a massive army of {{mooks}}, all five Temple Scourges, Phantom Ganon, and Demon King Ganondorf consecutively without the help of Mineru and the four Champions. This is along with the fact the battlefield constantly emits clouds of Gloom, which causes MaximumHPReduction, making fighting Ganondorf without significant health upgrades extremely difficult]].

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'', being the direct sequel of ''Breath of the Wild'', obviously retains this aspect of the gameplay, which once again gives you the opportunity to charge straight to the final boss battle under Hyrule Castle right after the tutorial. However, if anything, accomplishing it is even ''tougher'' than the previous one. Aside from the aforementioned issues about having the bare minimum of health, stamina, gear, and not having unlocked any special abilities, [[spoiler: Link will have to fight through a massive army of {{mooks}}, all five Temple Scourges, Phantom Ganon, and Demon King Ganondorf consecutively without the help of Mineru and the four Champions.]]

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'', being the direct sequel of ''Breath of the Wild'', obviously retains this aspect of the gameplay, which once again gives you the opportunity to charge straight to the final boss battle under Hyrule Castle right after the tutorial. However, if anything, accomplishing it is even ''tougher'' than the previous one. Aside from the aforementioned issues about having the bare minimum of health, stamina, gear, and not having unlocked any special abilities, [[spoiler: Link will have to fight through a massive army of {{mooks}}, all five Temple Scourges, and Demon King Ganondorf consecutively without the help of Mineru and the four Champions.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'': Going directly left of the FirstTown results in your being assaulted by a pack of nagas -- they move quickly, shoot homing [[MakeMeWannaShout screech attacks]], and they have huge amounts of health (moreso at night). You'll need powerful attack items, more health, and possibly one of the optional strong attacks to survive. [[spoiler: Or you can sneak by with Vanishing Cream, but you'll meet a BrokenBridge anyway.]]

** Caelid is adjacent to the starting area of Limgrave and is a huge difficulty jump. Most will want to clear Limgrave and Liurnia of the Lakes first to level up, but there's nothing stopping you from tackling Caelid right away. If you follow the Grace markers through the area, before long you'll run into the dragon Decaying Ekzykes. He's got over 23,000 HP compared to Flying Dragon Agheel's 3,200, several attacks that can one-shot you, and a Scarlet Rot-inflicting BreathWeapon that will very quickly chew through your health.

[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[https://twitter.com/Alzwards_Corner/status/1547551524754186240 Artwork]] by [[https://twitter.com/Alzwards_Corner Alzwards_Corner]]-]]]

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BEEFgate1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:280: Heheh, "[[StealthPun Beef]]" Gate!]]