History Main / PlotTunnel

* ''VideoGame/{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}}'' contains a tunnel late in the game, when [[spoiler:Noel and Serah are intercepted in the Void Beyond by Caius and trapped in a LotusEaterMachine, locking them out of Historia Crux until they escape from their respective dreams]]. Thankfully, the game gives you ample warning beforehand.

At least, until you enter a PlotTunnel: A tightly linear, {{Plot}}-driven sequence within an RPG where your usual ability to freely explore areas and perform {{Side Quest}}s is denied you in favor of whatever plot-dictated events shall unfold. There are NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom within a PlotTunnel; your only objective is to proceed straight ahead while the plot develops (and possibly [[PlotTwist twists]]). You will be able to return to your usual, player-driven exploration routine only after you've exited out the other end.

** The ''MassEffect3'' {{DLC}}s "Omega" and "Citadel" operate like this; each is comprised of several distinct levels, but once the player begins, they have to finish the rest of the DLC before returning to the ''Normandy''.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Broken Steel'', ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests. In ''Dead Money'', you can't leave the Casino until your mission there is completed, but afterward, you can freely explore the Villa before returning to the Mojave Wasteland. Raven Rock from the former game also counts, as does the Project Purity battle if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, which is otherwise a normal PointOfNoReturn.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Broken Steel'', ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests. In ''Dead Money'', you can't leave the Casino until your mission there is completed, but afterward, you can freely explore the Villa before returning to the Wasteland. Raven Rock from the former game also counts, as does the Project Purity battle if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, which is otherwise a normal PointOfNoReturn.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests. In ''Dead Money'', you can't leave the Casino until your mission there is completed, but afterward, you can freely explore the Villa before returning to the Wasteland. Raven Rock from the former game also counts, as does the Project Purity battle if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, which is otherwise a normal PointOfNoReturn.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests. In ''Dead Money'', you can't leave the Casino until your mission is completed, but afterward, you can freely explore the Villa before returning to the Wasteland. Raven Rock from the former game also counts, as does the Project Purity battle if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, which is otherwise a normal PointOfNoReturn.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests. In ''Dead Money'', you can't leave the Casino until your mission is completed, but afterward, you can freely explore the Villa before returning to the Wasteland.

* Most of the DLC's to ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', with the exception of ''Point Lookout'' and ''Lonesome Road'', lock you in until you complete their quest line. ''Honest Hearts'' also disables fast-travelling for certain quests.

* There are a few sequences in the ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series where you must progress through multiple dungeons without access to the usual shops, the HubLevel, your mission list, or being allowed to recruit new team members.

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* ''VideoGame/Prototype'' has a variation: After completing one boss fight, your combat-transformation abilities are disabled. You can still free-roam, and you're not exactly helpless, but the (massive) restriction of your freedom for the next handful of story missions tends to have players make their own Plot Tunnel to get their hammerfists back.

* ''BaldursGate 2'' has a fairly long one once you GetOnTheBoat. There's a town with some {{Side Quest}}s, a fairly long dungeon that ends with a FinalBossPreview, optionally a MonsterTown, a trip to the Underdark which has two more towns, three more dungeons and several more side quests before you finally return to the surface and can access all other places again. Most of the Underdark section can actually be skipped if you know where to go, but the game doesn't tell you this. The whole sequence covers two of the seven chapters of the story.
* In ''BreathOfFireIV'', near the end of the first chapter you set foot on the Evil Empire's homeland for the first time to search for your missing princess. Although you do have access to the OverworldNotToScale, you have no WarpWhistle at this point, and the only location you may travel is a nearby town and [[DownTheDrain waterway]], which you use to sneak in to the Imperial base in search of the princess. This ends with the party being discovered, captured and deported as the game begins Chapter Two.

* The Horizon and the [[spoiler:Collector]] Ship mission of ''MassEffect2'' count, since both will block all exploration and side-quests after recruiting the fourth and the seventh squad member, respectively, until you complete them. In this case, the PlotTunnel begins in the respective previous mission, though you don't know that on your first play-through.
* SuikodenV contains a variant of this. During certain plot events, some allies cannot be sought and recruited.

* In ''BreathOfFireIV'', near the end of the first chapter you set foot on the Evil Empire's homeland for the first time to search for your missing princess. Although you do have access to the WorldMap, you have no WarpWhistle at this point, and the only location you may travel is a nearby town and [[DownTheDrain waterway]], which you use to sneak in to the Imperial base in search of the princess. This ends with the party being discovered, captured and deported as the game begins Chapter Two.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is rather infamous for putting the player through a PlotTunnel that starts with the LongestPrologueEver (two chapters long) and ends by OpeningTheSandbox... eight chapters after that. That's right, you spend ten chapters out of [[ArcNumber thirteen]] with NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom. The [[BrokenBase base was slightly broken]] about that, to say the least.

* Early on in ''FinalFantasyXII'', Vahn sneaks into the Dalmascan palace through the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Garamsythe Waterway]]. This leads to a series of events in which he meets up with sky pirate Balthier, the party is captured and imprisoned in Nalbina Fortress, escapes through the [[BlackoutBasement Barheim Passage]] and must head back to Rabanastre (the HubLevel) from the eastern desert.
* ''FinalFantasyXIII'' is rather infamous for putting the player through a PlotTunnel that starts with the LongestPrologueEver (two chapters long) and ends by OpeningTheSandbox... eight chapters after that. That's right, you spend ten chapters out of [[ArcNumber thirteen]] with NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom. The [[BrokenBase base was slightly broken]] about that, to say the least.

* ''BaldursGate 2'' has a fairly long one once you GetOnTheBoat. There's a town with some {{Side Quest}}s, a fairly long dungeon that ends with a FinalBossPreview, optionally a MonsterTown, a trip to the Underdark which has two more towns, three more dungeons and several more side quests before you finally return to the surface and can access all other places again. Most of the Underdark section can actually be skipped if you know where to go, but the game doesn't tell you this. The whole sequence covers two of the seven chapters of the story.
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