History Main / GroundHogDayLoop

* In ''LittleBusters!'', if the player starts each route from the beginning as opposed to cleverly manipulating saves at critical points, they will quickly notice that Riki (the protagonist) and Rin (one of the heroines) comes with improved starting stats after each playthrough. [[spoiler:The reason for that is because everything is in an artificial world created by Kyousuke, Masato and Kengo, as a result of a bus crash in real life in which the two are the sole survivors, and the artificial world would constantly rewind itself in an attempt to make Riki and Rin strong enough to handle the accident.]]

* In ''LittleBusters!'', any increase in the protagonist's strength in one playthrough carries over to the next playthrough. It turns out that this is because [[spoiler:he is actually in a hospital recovering from a bus crash of which he was the only survivor, and the whole thing is a LotusEaterMachine replaying the same scenario over and over again until he's strong enough to deal with this fact]].
** Could that also fall under NewGamePlus?
*** In a very minor sense, considering it's still an integral part of the main game.
*** This trope was the underlying premise of the NewGamePlus feature in ''ChronoTrigger''.

* This trope is the arc connecting both acts of ''Waiting for Godot''.

*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R3vhUaWOMM Boy does it ever.]] For years, this was voted [[StargateSG1 SG-1]]'s best episode. Ever.

* Harkening back to ''FinalFantasyI'''s StableTimeLoop, ''FinalFantasyVIII'' also ends on this sort of note. After defeating [[spoiler:Ultimecia]] in the far future, Squall [[spoiler:is transported along side her back into the past where they both encounter Edea. Ultimecia passes her powers onto Edea as she dies and Squall explicitly tells Edea that because of this she's going to be BrainWashed by Ultimecia eventually and turn into the game's DiscOneFinalBoss. He also tells her how she and Cid need to set up [[=SeeD=] and train Squall and his friends to one day fight her and eventually Ultimecia, so that they can all return to this point in time again and continue the time loop]]. Things get aneurysm-inducingly weird when [[spoiler:Squall time-jumps again and somehow lands in back in the "present" and finds its turned into a HundredPercentCompletion ending where everything is fixed and perfect, and everyone's happily reunited, including Cid and Edea]].

* One episode of ''TheTwilightZone'' is about a man who has the same dream every night, about being convicted for a heinous murder and being executed for it. The TwilightZoneTwist is that it's told from the perspective of the * other* characters. They eventually grow to realize that if the man is put to death, he'll wake up and [[DreamApocalpyse they will cease to exist]].

* ''{{The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask}}'' is regarded as one of the strangest and darkest entries in the series because of how disturbingly it twists this trope. The game is set over the course of three days and on the final day the land and likely the world is destroyed by a falling moon. However the protagonist Link's Ocarina allows him to travel back in time to the first day - because of this the player is required to repeat the same three days over and over again, and only then is when you realise the absolutely horrific implications set upon the oblivious civilians; they spend most of the three-day cycle is blissful ignorance, confident that the problem with the moon is going to blow over - by the final day the bravest man in the town is huddled in a secret room saying he doesn't want to die.
** To make matters even more disturbing, the falling moon isn't the only problem the people have on their minds; most of the characters have very distressing troubles that will not go away by themselves - this includes a ranch facing terminal bankruptcy, an engaged couple who may never see each other again, a little girl whose father is on the brink of becoming an undead monster, an innocent victim about to be executed for crimes he didn't commit, a mother whose babies may not survive and a race of people facing extinction. The only way these problems can be fixed is if Link intervenes, and having to go back in time to the first day erases all of your efforts.

** But [[GeekReferencePools nobody mentions]] [[SciFiGhetto {{Groundhog Day}} itself.]]

** Don't you mean [[GodOfWar Kratos]]?

* ''{{Strange Days at Blake Holsey High}}'', aka ''BlackHoleHigh'' used this one with the twist that time will actively oppose any attempts to change the loop: if you decide to avoid bumping into someone by taking a different route, the other person will change their route to counteract this.

* ''{{Strange Days at Blake Holsey High}}'' used this one with the twist that time will actively oppose any attempts to change the loop: if you decide to avoid bumping into someone by taking a different route, the other person will change their route to counteract this.

** It is kind of the universe apology for you for causing you all that trouble.

** Something similar is happening in the sequel, ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', only this time, the cause of the loop is identified very early on: [[AWizardDidIt A Witch Did It.]] [[OrIsIt Or not.]] [[MindScrew Or something.]] SoYeah.

* The indie horror game [[spoiler:The White Chamber]] uses this as the plot, although it is not explained to the player until the very end. It turns out that [[spoiler:the main character is something of a bitch and went around slaughtering all of the other crew on the ship, one by one. She is forced to walk the horror and abomination filled wreckage of the ship until she shows enough remorse and compassion to warrant her "redemption". If you do not get enough good points, the game ends with her starting over, again and again and again and again....]]

* Disney's animated Christmas special featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy in three mini-stories centered around X-mas themes. The Donald Duck feature has the triplets Huey, Dewey and Louie wish that is was "Christmas every day"; it ended in a case of the aforementioned trope.

* ''UruseiYatsura: Beautiful Dreamer'' follows one for the early part of the film.