History Main / DualWorldGameplay

* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'' does this. It's a bit of a reveal that the second castle exists though - then you warp back and forth between the two castles. This makes backtracking very annoying, especially before TheReveal of the two castles' natures. Near the end, you have to locate all six of Dracula's relics, hidden away in both castles. You'll have likely found two or three initially though. Where you fight at the end also determines the ending.

* ''VideoGame/MetalFatigue'' features an orbital layer and an underground layer in addition to the surface layer. Moving between them will start you off at the same point on the new layer that you left on the old layer. For instance, if a bomber does a bombing run on the orbital layer, any of its bombs that do not hit something will fall to the surface layer and impact there - and attacks from this distance can not be protected against via AA defenses on the surface.

* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' evokes a variation of this trope - instead of separate worlds, Stocke has to traverse two separate timelines, or "Histories". When you meet a road block in the "Standard History", you'll have to seek its solution in the "Alternate History", and vice versa.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has the normal world and [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Nether]], accessible through obsidian portals when lit on fire. (This creates an inconvenience in SMP - survival mode multi-player - where having two maps hosted on the same server can be a major memory strain.) The Nether is smaller than the normal world, as ten meters in the Nether is eighty meters outside. This makes it convenient for fast travel, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou assuming you can travel safely]]. Later on, at full release, ''Minecraft'' introduced a third world, called "The End". It's a floating landmass, full of Endermen and one of the game's bosses. To get there, you need to fix an enderportal, found in a Stronghold (found in the main world), with items obtained in the Nether. There's also a GameMod that introduces ''VideoGame/TheAether''. It's a world made of floating islands and clouds. If you fall, it brings you back to the normal world. If you don't have a parachute, the fall will most likely kill you.

* ''VideoGame/TormentedSouls:'' Magic mirrors and video tapes allow you to travel to different days in the past of the AbandonedHospital to solve puzzles.

* ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'' actually has more than one layer: there are 8 in total, but per level, you'll only be using 2 or 3 of them. At different layers, different objects may be obstacles or even enemies. In the lower levels, clouds can be platforms. In the highest levels bushes are obstacles, go lower and they are death traps, beyond that they are just dead and background art. Enemies are deadly to different degrees with different one optimised for different levels.

* ''TNT: Evilution'' does this in Map 4, which has a regular world and a [[DarkWorld Dark]] MirrorWorld. Subverted to an extent, as the latter ends up being superfluous to completing it.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link can travel [[TimeSkip seven years]] forwards and backwards in time by using the Temple of Time. Once you learn some [[MagicMusic songs]], you'll need to return to the past to get some items, and then go back to the future to use them as an adult. Link can also plant seeds in the past to gain access to items in the future, and [[GuideDangIt finish a few other fun sidequests]].
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'':
*** In ''Ages'', pictured above, Link learns [[MagicMusic songs that let him use time portals]] scattered across Labrynna to travel centuries into the past. It's very integral to the plot, because a sorceress has travelled to the past and is mucking up the timeline. Link has to [[PlotCoupon collect items from dungeons]] in the past and present in order to defeat her. Later he gains the ability to travel back and forth more freely.

** The concept in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' is different in theory, but the same in execution. The two worlds in this game are the Human World and the Minish World, which aren't different worlds at all. The Minish are [[{{Lilliputians}} about an inch tall]] and live alongside the humans, unnoticed. It's really the same thing gameplay-wise: Link can only shrink at certain places, changing things at normal size open up paths when shrunk and vice versa, and certain enemies are only encountered while shrunk. The game takes that last part a step further: you can encounter normal Zelda enemies in the Minish realm, but while they die in one or two hits at normal size, they become massive bosses once you're an inch tall.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' has the Depths, a deep underground world map seamlessly connected to the Hyrule overworld by gaping chasms that radiate Gloom. You have to bring (or make) your own light, food and ranged weapons are scarce, the terrain is broken up by massive cliffs, puddles of Gloom and Gloom-infused monsters will lower your maximum health, and there are lots of minibosses and bosses prowling around. Players who explore and map the Depths will quickly realize it is a mirror of the overworld. Bodies of water are replaced by solid walls. Elevation is also inverted from the overworld, with mountains replaced by valleys, and valleys replaced by massive cliffs. Also, most shrines in the game are visible as large glowing lightseeds, allowing clever players to deduce the location of hidden and underground shrines on the surface.
* ''VideoGame/TheMessenger2018:'' During the [[spoiler:part where the game becomes a {{Metroidvania}}]], the Ninja can swap between the 8-bit present and 16-bit future via blue portals in the game's levels.

* ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' features a novel variation. The three characters are trapped in the same house in three different time periods and have to work together, [[BagOfSharing using items from different time periods]] [[JustifiedTrope by passing them through]] a time-traveling toilet.

* A variation of the trope is present throughout ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed''. Not only do the "dual-worlds" in question (daytime/nighttime) have completely different level designs, but they also have [[PlatformGame different]] [[BeatEmUp gameplay]] styles between them.

* This is the entire concept of a variant of chess called Alice chess. A piece on Board A moves to a space on Board B.

* This is the entire concept of a [[HouseRules variant]] of chess called Alice chess. A piece on Board A moves to a space on Board B.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'' has Indra exploring the planet Kiengir, and she can also explore a parallel, [[{{Retraux}} 8-bit]] version of it with the use of her drone. At first, you're limited to entering and exiting the parallel world through static portals, but later on you find an item that lets you to exit from anywhere, and even later an item[[spoiler:-sized version of the Breach Attractor used by the [[VideoGame/AxiomVerge first game]]'s BigBad]] that pulls portals towards you.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'' has Indra exploring the planet Kiengir, and she can also explore a parallel, [[{{Retraux}} 8-bit]] version of it with the use of her drone. At first, you're limited to entering and exiting the parallel world through portals, but a late-game upgrade allows you to exit from anywhere.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' started this trend in the series. Link stumbles across a portal to the DarkWorld just before [[DiscOneFinalDungeon what seems to be the final dungeon]]. This is one of many portals in Hyrule which trap people in the Dark World and [[BalefulPolymorph warp their bodies]]. Luckily, Link gets the Magic Mirror right before he enters, and uses it to return to Hyrule. The mirror is used extensively in the second half of the game as Link finds more portals and collects crystals from the Dark World dungeons.

* ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'' features a stage where Jack and BT investigate a ruined IMC facility to determine it's cause. As Jack explores the base, he finds time becoming unstable. Eventually, he gains a device that allows him to shift back and forth to the past, where it eventually becomes clear that [[PredestinationParadox he was at least partially responsible]]. The stage itself features several moments where Jack often has to time-shift between {{Parkour}} jumps and in and out of battles, culminating in a protracted firefight against a squad of soldiers in the past ''and'' a pack of hungry alien wolves in the present.

* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' cosmology.
** Classical version expanded and expounded in ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' has Ethereal and Astral planes to connect everything else to the Prime (worlds of mortals) and consequently have corresponding areas. Ethereal has Borders, contacting Prime and Inner planes and separated from Deep Ethereal by curtains. Also, shadow mages discern Shadow Fringe -- less dark and dangerous part of Demiplane of Shadow connecting to the shadows in Prime. So, ghosts dwell in the Border Ethereal, invisible but able to see everything in reality within a few feet. When they want to haunt someone or something, they can "manifest" by moving halfway between the planes. Magic users can become ethereal to float through walls, "make a short cut" via Shadow Fringe or move to another plane entirely.

** Adventure I10 ''Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill''. If the [=DM=] had module I6 ''Ravenloft'', the {{PC}}s could switch back and forth between modules, fighting Strahd in both. It's possible for the {{PC}}s to find items or information in one world that could help them in the other.
** ''Birthright'' campaign setting. Halflings originally came from the Shadow World but fled to Cerilia when a force of evil corrupted their homeland. They and other Cerilian races can travel there if necessary.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has the Underworld, which is a dark reflection of Creation; some necromantic spells allow you to instantly step between corresponding points on the two, and the dark Labyrinth beneath the Underworld also allows it to be used for fast travel. There's also Yu-Shan, which is a celestial copy of the Blessed Isle that links to Creation at several points, and is covered with canals for high-speed travel. There's many other worlds, like Autochthonia and Malfeas, but the Underworld and Yu-Shan are the only ones that explicitly map to Creation.
* Several of the monster types in White Wolf's ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' have access to the Umbra, a spirit world containing a duplicate of the entire world. The Garou in particular are known for jumping into the Umbra to study or fix problems popping up in the physical world. From their enemies' perspectives, they are also known for jumping ''out'' of the Umbra, resulting in a [[LightningBruiser ten-foot-wolfman suddenly appearing from thin air to tear your head off with little to no warning sign at all.]]
* Creator/WhiteWolf loves this trope as an explanation for the creepy crawlies of the gamelines in ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':
** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'': The player characters are part-human, part-wolf-spirit that can easily sidestep between this world and the Spirit World (called 'Shadow'). Any permanent-ish solution to the world's [[CrapsackWorld many]] woes usually need things to be done on both side of the Gauntlet.
** ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'': The same, but replace Werewolf with Sin-Eaters and Spirit World with The Underworld.
** ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': Changelings have Arcadia and the Hedge, but they do not map onto the real world as much. And Arcadia is the realm of the fae which Changelings are not too keen on getting to.

[[folder:Board Games]]
* This is the entire concept of a [[HouseRules variant]] of chess called Alice chess. A piece on Board A moves to a space on Board B.

See LayeredWorld for the more general concept. Likely to feature an AlternateWorldMap. When the other world is an afterlife, this overlaps with DeathAsGameMechanic.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' has a few boards that change state. All of the boards in ''VideoGame/MarioParty6'' undergo a day/night cycle.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'': Happens in ''The Lake'' stage in The Subspace Emissary. Reused in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The Great Maze]] as well.

See LayeredWorld for the more general concept. Likely to feature an AlternateWorldMap.

* ''VideoGame/TheMessenger:'' During the [[spoiler:part where the game becomes a {{Metroidvania}}]], the Ninja can swap between the 8-bit present and 16-bit future via blue portals in the game's levels.

* The first stage in the "Milky Way Wishes" part of ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar ([[UpdatedRerelease Ultra]])'' Is a stage with doors leading to the same area, only in a different season. The object was to traverse the stage in the right seasons to bypass obstacles.

* ''VideoGame/{{Guacamelee}}'' shifts between the worlds of the living and the dead, and several platforms and enemies only exist in one or the other.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' has a few boards that change state. All of the boards in ''VideoGame/MarioParty 6'' undergo a day/night cycle.

* ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge2'' has Indra exploring the planet Kiengir, and she can also explore a parallel, [[{{Retraux}} 8-bit]] version of it with the use of her drone. At first, you're limited to entering and exiting the the parallel world through portals, but a late-game upgrade allows you to exit from anywhere.