History Main / Metapuzzle

* ''VideoGame/PandorasBox1999'': Across the playable cities, there are puzzles that contain the pieces of the BoxOfPandora the main character received at the start of the game. When gathering at least four pieces, you can make use of them to find the tricksters that escaped from the box prior to the events of the game; and to capture each trickster, you not only have to solve more puzzles along the way, but also complete a special trickster challenge that is considerably more difficult to solve.

** One of the secret stars is located in the house. It also requires you to collect two specific puzzle pieces beforehand.

* ''VideoGame/IWannaLockpick'': At one point, the player unlocks The Great Beyond. Levels in this area allow the player to store doors and collect omega keys to solve hub areas.

%%* ''VideoGame/IWannaLockpick'' developer has talked about having meta-areas in the game.

* The sculpture [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos Kryptos]] was revealed by its creator to contain a "riddle within a riddle" which could only be solved once the four encrypted passages it bore had been solved first (so far the 4th passage remains unsolved).

* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'': One of the secret stars is located in the house. It also requires you to collect two specific puzzle pieces beforehand.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt MIT Mystery Hunt]] is considered the biggest puzzle event in the world. The Hunt is divided into multiple rounds; each round has its own metapuzzle, with the individual puzzles in that round (called "feeders") providing clues or information about the meta's answer. At times, figuring out the connection between the feeder puzzles is itself a puzzle (for example, all of the answers might have something in common, or hint at another form of code like Morse or Braille). It's then taken even further with the aptly-dubbed "meta-metas," which combine the answers from each round's metapuzzle into an even ''bigger'' metapuzzle that provides the final answer. Some Mystery Hunts have even had multiple meta-meta puzzles!

The term was coined in TheEighties by game designer Creator/CliffJohnson (not to be confused with the baseball player with the same name), who has designed puzzles of this kind for various games he created. Etymologically, the name's prefix comes from the Greek: μετά, ''meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond", and contextually refers to something that is "more comprehensive" or "transcending". Metapuzzles were used as early as during the nascent years of the popular Jumble crossword game, making this trope OlderThanTheNES. The concept of Metapuzzles became more common in TheNewTens when its principles were extrapolated to puzzles in games of other genres. Due to its meta nature, it can be combined with several {{Stock Puzzle}}s.

* Completing levels in ''[[VideoGame/BitLock B.i.tLock]]'' unlocks puzzle pieces in the world map. Collecting enough of them allows the area puzzle to be completed, unlocking a new world.

* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'' has star sigils as bonus content. Many star sigils require the player to smuggle objects outside of a puzzle to another or manipulate camera angles and consider multiple puzzles at once in order to be collected.
* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple2'': Like the previous game, there are collectible Stars scattered in the overworld areas that unlock bonus content, in this case quotes from Prometheus, Pandora and the Sphinx and [[spoiler:a SequelHook revealing that Athena discovered an anomaly outside of the galaxy that's been around since ''before the Big Bang'' and is apparently ''sentient'' and waiting for humanity to come to it]]. Less subtly in this game, each area has two statues that grant a Star on the solution. Prometheus statues require finding then chasing the spark, Sphinx statues show a picture with a clue to either the location of a lever (or multiple levers) or another puzzle in the hub, and Pandora statues have a beam Receiver on them that requires using items from puzzle rooms and outside of puzzle rooms.

* ''Film/BatmanForever'': Shortly before the climax of the movie, Bruce discovers via BatDeduction that the seemingly-standalone riddles that were put to him by the Riddler were part of a greater-scope riddle whose solution reveals the identity of the Riddler himself. Namely, the hints given upon solving each riddle are numbers, which are associated with letters from the alphabet: 13 (from the first riddle) becomes M, 18 (from the second) becomes R, and 5 (from the third) becomes E. So, MRE, or Mr. E (as in ''Mr. Edward Nygma''). It also helps that Mr. E is pronounced identically to ''mystery'', which is synonymous with ''enigma'' and relates to ''riddle'', further connecting the Riddler and Edward.

The term was coined in TheEighties by game designer Creator/CliffJohnson (not to be confused with the baseball player with the same name), who has designed puzzles of this kind for various games he created. Etymologically, the name's prefix comes from the Greek: μετά, ''meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond", and contextually refers to something that is "more comprehensive" or "transcending". Metapuzzles were used as early as during the nascent years of the popular Jumble crossword game, making this trope OlderThanTheNES. The concept of Metapuzzles became more common in TheNewTens when its principles were extrapolated to puzzles in games of other genres. Due to its meta nature, it can be combined with several StockPuzzles.

* The HubLevel turns out to have puzzles in its own that require levels in it to be completed.
* The puzzle requires you to manipulate several levels (whether the levels have been previously solved or only count as fully solved when the metapuzzle is completed depends on the case).
* An individual level features individual puzzles, and rewards the player who solves them with items or clues that are part of a larger puzzle whose solution is necessary to conquer the level as a whole.
* Among the seemingly-conventional puzzles tackled to clear a level, there is one that requires figuring out a step that cannot be derived by only accounting for the constraints of the level itself.

The term was coined in TheEighties by game designer Creator/CliffJohnson (not to be confused with the baseball player with the same name), who has designed puzzles of this kind for various games he created. Etymologically, the name's prefix comes from the Greek: μετά, ''meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond", and contextually refers to something that is "more comprehensive" or "transcending". Metapuzzles were used as early as during the nascent years of the popular Jumble crossword game, making this trope OlderThanTheNES. The concept of Metapuzzles became more common in the 2010s, when its principles were extrapolated to puzzles in games of other genres. Due to its meta nature, it can be combined with several puzzle-based tropes, such as FifteenPuzzle, CrosswordPuzzle, ControlRoomPuzzle, TogglingSetpiecePuzzle, or StockLateralThinkingPuzzle, among many others.

The metapuzzle may be presented as a form of EnterSolutionHere, if its interface or format requires it

Also, '''Administrivia/SpoilersOff''' apply for this page, as most of the examples below will contain heavy spoilers!

'''NOTE:''' In the context of this trope, the prefix ''meta'' in the name refers to how the central puzzle connects to the gameplay and/or solution of all the puzzles that relate to it. For examples of puzzles that are called "meta" in the sense that they apply a nonstandard aspect of the game's UI or supplementary material, see ParadiegeticGameplay. It has no relation to MetaGame either, since that pertains to how a competitive community exploits the mechanics of a sports or fighting game, and more generally how people play the game(s) in question when competing (often with out-of-game rules and considerations).

* The crosswords in ''VideoGame/JumpStartAdventures5thGradeJoHammetKidDetective'' all have marked squares. Once you fully solve the crossword, the letters in the marked squares then have to be unscrambled to determine Dr. X's next target. However, the player only needs to solve the crossword. Jo will unscramble the name of the target by herself.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': Sky Keep, the game's final dungeon, not only features puzzles (or, in two cases, MiniBoss gauntlets) in its individual rooms but also presents a metapuzzle involving the entire layout that is built upon said rooms. In some of them (including the lobby), there are lecterns from which Link can alter the rooms' placements by way of a FifteenPuzzle. Since their respective entrances and exits are each placed at specific sides, Link has to work out the way from the room where he's currently changing the placements to another room with a lectern, so he can go there and continue adjusting the room's placements and ultimately get access to the rooms holding the fragments of the Triforce. The room themselves are thematically tied to all previous dungeons in the game, so there's also an AllTheWorldsAreAStage component in the whole dungeon.

** ''VideoGame/LaytonsMysteryJourneyKatrielleAndTheMillionairesConspiracy'': The special minigame Ideal Meal operates in a similar manner to Dress Up from ''Azran Legacy''. Over the course of the game, Katrielle and her friends obtain culinary dishes by solving puzzles. Then, in the minigame, she has to make use of these dishes to give the customers their ideal dinners. And since all dishes are usable for each of the eight customers and each dish can only be assigned to one customer at a time, the player has top work around the clues and lore provided by the customers and their acquaintances in order to ultimately satisfy all of them. It's the only way to fully win the minigame and unlock additional content in the postgame.

* ''Website/{{Wikipedia}}'' provides the page image, using a set of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumble Jumble puzzles]] which, when solved, give the letters necessary to solve a fifth.