History Main / PlotLock

It is not mandatory though: sometimes a Plot Lock is only for some special areas you can access after you defeated your strong opponent, with in-universe story details about your journey at this point, but no direct effect to the quest nor [[BraggingRightRewards items that could change your path]].

It is not mandatory though: sometimes a Plot Lock is only for some special areas you can access after you defeated your strong opponent, with in-universe story details about your journey at this point, but no direct effect to the quest nor [[BraggingRightsRewards items that could change your path]].

A Plot Lock is an in-game barrier that is immune to everything but the strongest force in the universe -- the needs of the plot. No matter how ingeniously you apply yourself, that door isn't opening until the script says it does. It is a form of {{Railroading}}, or better a tool to enforce it.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' highlights all player-usable doors with holographic symbols. Unlocked doors have green symbols and hackable doors have orange ones. Plot Locks have red. Every time you see that red symbol, you know you'll be back later, because cosmetic doors that cannot open at all don't have any symbols on them.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' several buildings and areas have doors that can't be unlocked until the plot or a side quest dictates so. You can recognize them because if you try to lockpick them, the game will give the feedback "the mechanism that operates this door does not have a conventional lock and may be warded against simple spells". But what is speechless is that, when you are tasked to go somewhere, while usually you are given a special key or granted permission by a guard, sometimes nothing of this will be necessary: the door will be now fully accessible without a reason.
** And this becomes even more egregious in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'': here you even have sewer manholes that don't have conventional locks and are sealed against simple spells, until you get the appropriate special keys to go down. Truly they must be divine sewers for having such wardings. Considering how rushed was the expansion, it is a cheap method to prevent going OffTheRails with limited areas available and scripted encounters. Still, you'd think that by the time you're a 40th level unstoppable killing machine with spells to stop time, summon powerful angels and demons, and wreck incredible destruction with a flick of your wrist, you would have learned a ''complicated'' spell to open doors, given how many are protected this way.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' doors often do not have an ordinary locking mechanism and may be warded against simple spells. You'd think that by the time you're a 40th level unstoppable killing machine with spells to stop time, summon powerful angels and demons, and wreck incredible destruction with a flick of your wrist, you would have learned a ''complicated'' spell to open doors, given how many are protected this way.

A Plot Lock is an in-game barrier that is immune to everything but the strongest force in the universe -- the needs of the plot. No matter how ingeniously you apply yourself, that door isn't opening until the script says it does. It is a form of [[Railroading Railroading]], or better a tool to enforce it.

A Plot Lock is an in-game barrier that is immune to everything but the strongest force in the universe -- the needs of the plot. No matter how ingeniously you apply yourself, that door isn't opening until the script says it does.

[[folder: Action Adventure ]]

[[folder: Adventure ]]

[[folder: Driving Game ]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter ]]

* The later mainline ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games generally don't have fall damage, but they do have arbitrary drops that kill you to prevent you from jumping down to where you need to go.
* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series has innumerable {{Locked Door}}s that require the player find another route to the required destination. This is reasonable for areas where the player is not intended to go, but not so for {{Space Filling Path}}s that loop back on themselves and create a DoorToBefore, when Gordon could simply blow up the flimsy wooden door or, in the second game, just ''punt'' the damn thing with the incredibly useful Gravity Gun. ''VideoGame/NightmareHouse'', among other Source mods, egregiously abuses this trope. It's not uncommon in Nightmare House 2 to find that a door is locked, be given the requisite plot exposition or orders to go through the door, and then find it magically unlocked. This is a common sight that can be seen in many of the [=LPs=] online. The player is also given a shotgun late in the game that had been seen blowing open locked doors, but finds it unable to take down anything tougher than an empty wooden crate.

[[folder: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game ]]

[[folder: Platform Game ]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game ]]

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', your characters have all demonstrated the ability to make flying leaps and large jumps, and one or two of them ''can literally fly,'' and does so in-game. However, when there's no context-sensitive action to do so, you can't go over the InsurmountableWaistHighFence that you will undoubtedly have to go through a complex series of events to make a little bridge to get there. Infamously, there's a sequence a few hours in where Colette uses her newly-acquired angel wings to fly up to an unreachable platform and get a necessary key... which she will never do again for the 40 hours left in the game, for literally no reason.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' doors often do not have an ordinary locking mechanism and may be warded against simple spells. You'd think that by the time you're a 40th level unstoppable killing machine with spells to stop time, summon powerful angels and demons, and wreck incredible destruction with a flick of your wrist, you would have learned a ''complicated'' spell to open doors, given how many are protected this way.

* In the later games of the ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' series, some locked doors are simply "too complicated to be picked" regardless of your Mechanics skill or how many lockpicks you have and can only be passed after finding the key.
* Though several entries in the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series have a Thief class, they're never able to pick any of the locked doors you encounter along the way.
* Franchise/{{Pokemon}}:
** The game uses {{NPC}}s and wild Pokemon to block your path in certain games until a plot point has been resolved. You can teach certain Pokemon the move Fly, which instantly flies you from one town to another (but only towns you've already been to). The FridgeLogic sets in when you can't fly ten feet over that guy's head.
** This is also the reason for the existence of [=HMs=] - in the Gen 1, for example, you were required to go to the S.S. Anne to get the HM for cut, which was needed to get to the Vermillion City Gym. However, by this point, the player likely had at least one Pokemon who could've either cut or burned the tree down. Starting in Gen 7, however, this example is averted, since [=HMs=] are replaced with Ride Pokemon, and in those cases, all instances that require Ride Pokemon are ones that clearly would not be accessible on foot.
** Similar to [=HMs=], there are certain Key Items that are required to pass by certain obstacles that seem like they should be passable without the item - for example, in Gold and Silver (and their remakes) with what seems like a tree blocking the player off from National Park[[note]]which leads to Goldenrod City, where the game's third gym is[[/note]] and Route 37[[note]]which connects to Ectuteak city, where the game's fourth gym is[[/note]], and players are required to have the Squirt Bottle - while not being able to take it out with Cut is justified[[note]]aside from the "Tree" being a Pokemon in this instance, by the time the player does obtain cut, it would be faster for them to just go forward as opposed to trekking backwards to the Violet City side of Route 36[[/note]], one can't help but feel frustrated if one has chosen the water-type Totodile as their starter.
* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has a handful of containers that are immune to such treatment: The Iron Clan Chest in [[spoiler:Tarant]] has infinite health and an infinite-strength lock, the Iron Clan Vault has a different opening mechanism, the doors in the First Panarii Temple are "magickally sealed" until you reach the right point in the plot, and [[spoiler:Qintarra and T'sen-Ang]] have "magick barriers" in place that require permission from the guards to open.
* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', you're tasked with climbing [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Tartarus]] as far as you can, and you must reach the top by the end of the game. But to prevent power-levelers and NewGamePlus players from blowing through it during the first night, there are arbitrary "barrier floors" every few dozen floors, preventing you from climbing further with an InsurmountableWaistHeightFence. These barriers tend to go away on their own after plot-driven events, for no reason at all other than some "mysterious force" is removing them.
* In ''Franchise/{{Dragon Age}}'' games, doors with these will pop up a "Key required" message when you click on them. This continues happening even if your rogue is the greatest lockpicker to ever live.

[[folder: Survival Horror ]]

[[folder: Third Person Shooter ]]

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'', a door that is "locked" can usually be either picked or hacked, depending on the particular locking mechanism in place. If the door is "jammed", however, it won't typically open until some specific plot event.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' have numerous doors that are marked as "INACCESSIBLE" or "REQUIRES KEY" rather than "Easy", "Medium", "Hard", or "Very Hard". The "INACCESSIBLE" ones don't count, as they are, well... inaccessible -- you never get to use them. Others do, as they are opened by plot events. Some "Requires Key" doors [[DummiedOut can only be opened via hacking]], and usually lead to empty rooms or a void of nothingness.

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* In ''VideoGame/TheWitcherIIIWildHunt,'' "Locked. Key required." is a notification you'll see semi-regularly even on wooden doors in rickety houses, despite the fact that elsewhere Geralt can use the Aard sign to blast down doors, walls, rock piles, and stalagmites.

Compare InsurmountableWaistHighFence, CutsceneIncompetence, and PlotlineDeath. Also compare StatisticallySpeaking, where your character can ''never'' get past a particular kind of obstacle even if his statistics indicate he should be able to.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', with a high Security skill and a decent quality lockpick, you can unlock any door in the game. In most cases, however, you'll be told to leave the area if you aren't supposed to be there yet (such as when picking the lock to get into [[PhysicalGod Vivec]]'s temple).

A Plot Lock is any example of a BrokenBridge where, for whatever reason, the character ''should'' be able to overcome it, and yet they can't in this one arbitrary situation (where doing so would, of course, cause SequenceBreaking).

Note that it's only a Plot Lock if you're ''supposed'' to eventually get the key to the door. If it's just locked because there's nothing behind it, it might have been DummiedOut, but it's not a Plot Lock. It's also not a Plot Lock if there's no reason your character should be able to get around it - then it's just an ordinary BrokenBridge.

A funny subset of these is when it specifically states that a key is required. So all those other doors we opened before didn't require a key?

The MultiMookMelee provides an immediate version of this where the player enters the room, all ways out are locked, and enemies pour in. Defeating all the enemies unlocks all the doors. {{Boss Fight}}s are like this too.

* Although the BeefGate is the most common way to keep low-level players out of high-level areas in ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'', there are a few doors that are level-locked. Attempting to open them usually results in an ambiguous message, ("your level is too low") but the developers sometimes list specific levels when these doors are first installed. For example, a recent update introduced a door in Bree-town (one of the starting settlements) which restricted access to level 90. As the current level cap is 75, this might (or might not) indicate how high the cap will be raised in the upcoming ''Riders of Rohan'' expansion.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', this is played straight with the "Climbing" ability. The game otherwise allows you to scale almost any vertical surface, but some walls arbitrarily cannot be climbed. Further, your freedom of movement is crippled by the inability to climb ''down''.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' averts it with actual locked doors. With a high Security skill and a decent quality lockpick, you can unlock any door in the game (with one sole exception in the ''Tribunal'' expansion). There also exists the "Open" spell. With a strength of 100 (the maximum lock level), you can magically open any door as well. Unlike later games in the series, you can also [[SequenceBreaking Sequence Break]] by getting into quest-related areas this way. In most cases, however, you'll be told to leave the area if you aren't supposed to be there yet (such as when picking the lock to get into [[PhysicalGod Vivec]]'s temple).
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' plays it straight by adding locks which simply cannot be picked, even if you have a maxed out skill and the SkeletonKey. You ''must'' have the key in order to open these (usually quest related) locks.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' gives us a {{Deconstruction}} by having locked doors that can be opened by the PC if s/he has the skills or items needed, and then there are the ''sealed'' doors, which can only be opened by finding the right computer. The presence of lightsabers in the setting is what pushes this into deconstruction territory; not only is there a material that resists lightsabers, but higher canon (specifically the ''Literature/DarthBane'' novels) indicates that in Force-user-heavy times, said material, cortosis, is a very hot commodity.

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' averts this almost entirely; every lock can be picked, and if you don't have the skill (or if the status of the lock in question is Jammed or Magickally Held rather than Locked), you can always just bash it in. However, there are a handful of containers that are immune to such treatment: The Iron Clan Chest in [[spoiler:Tarant]] has infinite health and an infinite-strength lock, the Iron Clan Vault has a different opening mechanism, the doors in the First Panarii Temple are "magickally sealed" until you reach the right point in the plot, and [[spoiler:Qintarra and T'sen-Ang]] have "magick barriers" in place that require permission from the guards to open.

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[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* The various routes of ''VisualNovel/MyHaremHeavenIsYandereHell'' must be played in a certain arbitrary order, for no reason other than the writers not wanting to reveal certain plot points too early. Each route is not so much a self-contained story as it is one piece of the bigger puzzle (for example, Sayuri's route explains why Detective Kudou is pursuing Yuuya, Kanna's route concludes the book subplot, etc).
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!! Examples from other media:

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has the deadlock seal, which the sonic screwdriver can't unlock, appearing on various locks from all places and times for no apparent reason. In less technologically advanced settings, wooden doors thwart the sonic screwdriver just as easily.

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** Similar to HMs, there are certain Key Items that are required to pass by certain obstacles that seem like they should be passable without the item - for example, in Gold and Silver (and their remakes) with what seems like a tree blocking the player off from National Park[[note]]which leads to Goldenrod City, where the game's third gym is[[/note]] and Route 37[[note]]which connects to Ectuteak city, where the game's fourth gym is[[/note]], and players are required to have the Squirt Bottle - while not being able to take it out with Cut is justified[[note]]aside from the "Tree" being a Pokemon in this instance, by the time the player does obtain cut, it would be faster for them to just go forward as opposed to trekking backwards to the Violet City side of Route 36[[/note]], one can't help but feel frustrated if one has chosen the water-type Totodile as their starter.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has locks that can't be picked. ''Morrowind'' averted it: An Open spell with a strength of 100 (which is the maximum lock strength) could open any door - bar one in one of the expansions - as could a master lockpick.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' also suffered from this, although you could expect as much from a game that allows you to scale almost any vertical surface. Some walls can't be climbed, arbitrarily. Also, your freedom of movement is crippled by the inability to climb ''down''.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' has quite a few dungeons that are involved in faction quests which are locked until you receive the key for the relevant quest. Snow Veil Sanctum deserves a special mention, since there's no claw to open the Nordic puzzle lock and Mercer Frey unlocks it [[spoiler:using the power of the Skeleton Key]].

* The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series has innumerable {{Locked Door}}s that require the player find another route to the required destination. This is reasonable for areas where the player is not intended to go, but not so for {{Space Filling Path}}s that loop back on themselves and create a DoorToBefore, when Gordon could simply blow up the flimsy wooden door or, in the second game, just ''punt'' the damn thing with the incredibly useful Gravity Gun. NightmareHouse, among other Source mods, egregiously abuses this trope. It's not uncommon in Nightmare House 2 to find that a door is locked, be given the requisite plot exposition or orders to go through the door, and then find it magically unlocked. This is a common sight that can be seen in many of the [=LPs=] online. The player is also given a shotgun late in the game that had been seen blowing open locked doors, but finds it unable to take down anything tougher than an empty wooden crate.

* {{Pokemon}}:

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Many ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-based games give Thief/Rogue characters the ability to pick locks. This will generally let them open treasure chests or inconsequential doors. But any plot advancing doors must be unlocked with a specific key/lever that you must fight the right bad guys to get.
** Then again, certain doors that don't advance the plot can just be kicked open by a monk... Or hacked at by a barbarian... or blasted into oblivion by a sorceror...
** You would not ''believe'' how many [[GameBreaker Disintegration]]-immune doors there are out there.
** Note that usually none of this is, strictly speaking, supported (let alone demanded) anywhere in the actual ''rules'' of the game in question -- and that part of the GameMaster's responsibility is exactly dealing with any player input not originally anticipated by the plot. So if {{Plot Lock}}s do in fact show up without a convincing in-game reason, it's usually a sign of [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem lazy GMing and/or scenario design]].

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