History Main / PlotLock

** There's a similar [[strike:problem]] mechanic in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights''.
*** Especially irritating since many of these doors should be vulnerable to a peasant with a chisel and a hammer.

* {{Pokemon}} 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.

* Any "locked" door in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series eventually opens one way or another, but if the door is jammed, broken, or "shut tight", it stays shut for good.
** Starting with ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill3 3]]'', the protagonist will [[NoticeThis turn their head]] towards usable doors.

* 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.
** ''{{Concerned}}'' gleefully lampshades this.
--->'''Frohman:''' [...] [[HeroicMime He's]] using my Gravity Gun to punt a '''''car''''' out of our way. But a wooden door, '''''well'''''. Let's just run eight miles through soldier-infested, mine-littered streets to avoid it.
** 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.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' 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 Skyrim]]'' 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/{{Half-Life}}'' 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.

* In ''{{Persona 3}}'', 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.

* ''{{Okami}}'' does this a couple of times:

-->'''Frohman:''' [...] [[HeroicMime He's]] using my Gravity Gun to punt a '''''car''''' out of our way. But a wooden door, '''''well'''''. Let's just run eight miles through soldier-infested, mine-littered streets to avoid it.

* {{Arcanum}} 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.

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). On the other hand, not using Plot Locks can sometimes lead to massive SequenceBreaking.

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, break TheOneTrueSequence). On the other hand, not using Plot Locks can sometimes lead to massive SequenceBreaking.

* The later ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games 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.

* 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.

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, break TheOneTrueSequence). On the other hand, not using Plot Locks can sometimes lead to massive SequenceBreaking, which occasionally is even more of a DarthWiki/WallBanger than the Plot Lock itself.

* ''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, as could a master lockpick.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' gives us an In-Universe example 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.
** Bonus points because the character is often carrying a lightsaber.
** Possible FridgeBrilliance: There's a mineral in the Star Wars universe that shorts out lightsaber blades. You can still cut through a wall of it, but it takes hours.
*** Add to the FridgeBrilliance that higher canon (specifically the ''Literature/DarthBane'' novels) indicates that in Force-user-heavy times, said material, cortosis, is a very hot commodity.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', three of your characters (and possibly you, depending on your job) are able to defeat electronic locks, and ''everybody'' can simply force them open with enough [[AppliedPhlebotinum Omnigels]]. However, some doors are simply unopenable until you get to the mission where it's supposed to open.

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' loves this trope, as many of the games have a playable character who can pick locks, and yet is usually forced to find keys anyway. Many of the protagonists are also ex-cops or military, some of whom are wearing combat gear in their stories, yet they cannot even kick down doors explicitly labeled as "rickety."

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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, break TheOneTrueSequence). On the other hand, not using Plot Locks can sometimes lead to massive SequenceBreaking, which occasionally is even more of a DarthWiki/WallBanger than the Plot Lock itself.

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** 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.

* ''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.

* {{Pokemon}} 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.

Sometimes video games have to stop you from getting where you want to go. [[BrokenBridge We all know the routine.]]

But picture this. You're playing a thief [[PlayerCharacter character]], and you encounter a locked door. Your thief can [[AnAdventurerIsYou pick the locks on palace vaults]] with ease, so why is this wooden door impervious to your attempts?

You've been stopped by the PlotLock. 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, break TheOneTrueSequence). On the other hand, not using Plot Locks can sometimes lead to massive SequenceBreaking, which occasionally is even more of a DarthWiki/WallBanger than the Plot Lock itself.