History Main / ProlongedPrologue

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV's'' technical tutorial lasts from level 1 to around level 15, when you finish off the first plot arc and gain the ability to travel between city states, but things still don't really get started until around level 22 when you kill Ifrit and join the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, kicking off the main plot you'll be following for the rest of the game. On a first playthrough, this could take several hours depending on which class you pick starting off.
*** Much of the ''A Realm Reborn'' portion of ''Final Fantasy XIV'' involves setting up lore, plotlines, enemies, and allegiances that are the focus of later expansions, as well as unlocking basic features and mechanics for the player, basically making it a prologue in its own right. Post-expansion quests also often act as long prologues for future expansions.

* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest:'' How can you tell that [[ManiacMonkeys Sun Wukong/Monkey]] is the real protagonist? Because the first seven chapters are about his life story, set centuries before the ostensible main character, [[NonActionGuy Tripitaka]], is even born. After that we set up the other main characters, ''then'' introduce Tripitaka...with his complex backstory and lineage. ''Then'' the main adventures actually start.

** Taken UpToEleven with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', which is the aforementioned Midgar section stretched out into a full-length 40-hour game, [[spoiler:although the WhamEpisode that is the TwistEnding sees to it that there's much more to the ''Remake'' than meets the eye]].

--> '''(On Film/BatmanBegins):''' It takes 56 minutes for Batman to begin (Ding!)
--> '''(On Film/TombRaider2018):''' This is not a drill, people! 80 freaking minutes into the movie and we have officially started raiding a tomb! All hands on-deck, it's go-time kids! (Ding!)
--> '''(On Film/Godzilla2014):''' Yeah, better cut over to the boring humans and see what they're up to. [[JustHereForGodzilla I sure didn't want to see the big monsters fighting]] after ''98 fightless minutes of movie have passed''! (Ding!)

* Due to the logistics of the production , the first season (Book 1: Air) of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is a version of this trope. The show was initially produced as a mini series but was turned into a full show when it was too late to change anything. Seasons 2-4 are their own stories with their own villains but are interconnected and build on each other without really touching on anything from Season 1. It is basically a prolonged introduction to the characters and the updated world that comes from 70 years passing InUniverse from the world of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.

* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest:'' You know how you can tell that [[ManiacMonkeys Sun Wukong/Monkey]] is the real protagonist? Because the first seven chapters are about his life story, set centuries before the ostensible main character, [[NonActionGuy Tripitaka]], is even born. After that we set up the other secondary characters, ''then'' introduce Tripitaka...with his complex backstory and lineage. ''Then'' the main adventures actually start.

* Wagner conceived of ''Das Rheingold'' as a "prelude" to the [[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ring Cycle]] proper. Although it's shorter than the other three operas of the Ring Cycle, it's still a full-length opera with a running time of over two and a half hours.

* The prologue of Creator/CliveBarker's "The Great and Secret Show" is over 100 pages long, takes place 20 years before the main story, and concerns characters who play small but important roles in the plot. This prologue actually ''ends'' with the birth of the book's main characters.

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Literature/It}}'' a (relatively) brief teaser chapter leads into the ''rest'' of the prologue, an over 100 pages long story about how the main characters start their return to Derry.
* ''Literature/KeepALidOnItPandora'' begins with the creation of man and the story of Prometheus. Because of this, Pandora doesn't show up until the seventh or eighth chapter. The fifth chapter actually bears the title, "Where is Pandora?", and begins with Hades, the narrator, telling impatient readers when she'll come. He then advises them to "[[TitleDrop Keep a lid on it!]]" until her entrance.

* ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' has what is called "The Customs House," an elaborate prologue detailing [[DirectLineToTheAuthor how the author discovered the manuscript.]] It's about a quarter-to-half the length of most printings of the book. Furthermore, the first actual chapter is called "The Prison Door," the entirety of which is spent [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin describing a prison door]] and a rosebush beside it.

* Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/HolyTerror'' doesn't get to its first plot point until halfway through the book.

* ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40k'' is an excellent example, in that it is both archetypal ''and'' well-received by the audience. The prologue alone is many thousands of words just of how HeroProtagonist Shinji's childhood has been changed by his exposure to the tabletop game ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''; the fic is novella-length before Shinji even arrives at NERV, and full of thrills and emotion. Then the work turns out to be a DoorStopper with SerialEscalation.
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5729693/18/Students_of_the_Snake This]] ''Naruto'' fanfic goes on ''18 chapters'' before the plot get rolling. It even says so in the [[WordOfGod author's note!]]
* ''Fanfic/ADelicateBalance'' is a {{Shipping}} Fic between [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle and Applejack]]. It isn't until six chapters and forty thousand words in that Twilight actually manages to [[LoveConfession tell Applejack how she feels.]] [[spoiler: It isn't until another twenty thousand words after ''that'' that they actually start going out.]] [[InvokedTrope Done intentionally]] with the intent of building up the relationship.
* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8123911/1/Brothers This]] ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' crossover with ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' follows the parental and later brotherly relationship between America and Steve Rogers over the years. The catch is that it the author ''means'' it, starting off with Steve's birth in 1920...and as of Chapter 13, the plot is ''still'' in TheRoaringTwenties (although it's heading into TheGreatDepression territory).

* After 42 chapters of the WorldOfHam that is ''Fanfic/TheOmegaChronicles'', the author [[WhamLine dropped the bombshell that all that has happened]] has just been the prologue.
* Act One of ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'' is nearly all WorldBuilding by stealth, giving the reader a bit of background on how far the [[TitleDrop Kerbal Space Program]] has come in the thirty-year TimeSkip after the end of the spiritual prequel ''First Flight'' and establishing that the core cast [[DentedIron aren't as young as they were]]. The actual plot doesn't really kick in until Act Two, and even then it's not until about the half-way mark that the reader gets to find out what the story is a crossover with.
* In a ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'', Will is [[FountainOfYouth rejuvenated]] and [[TrappedInThePast sent in the past]] Meridian decades before the start of the series and she becomes involved in the events and people leading to the canon series, including Prince Phobos. The story is half over before the actual plot begins by Will meeting young Phobos and becoming his {{only friend}}. In addition to that, the entire story serves as one big source material to its sequel ''Stirred'', which will be an AlternateUniverseFic of the canon series.
* ''Fanfic/CodeGeassColorlessMemories'' The first seventeen chapters of the Fic overall mainly serves to set up and establish the characters, plot and setting of Colorless Memories, all the while the MythArc and Subplots are built up or {{Foreshadowed}}. Chapter Eighteen is where the main story get's into gear with revelations of Rai's past, more hints of Geass and that [[spoiler: C.C]] was the one who took his memories and force him and the rest of the cast into starting the fic's storyline at Ashford and beyond.
* Similar to [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition the game which inspired it]], ''[[Fanfic/TwiceUponAnAge All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird]]'' subscribes to this trope. Not only is there a lengthy prologue explaining [[HowWeGotHere the world state]], but the Inquisition doesn't even get to Skyhold until chapter 15.

* ''Fanfic/NarutoTheGameOfLife'' starts several months before the canon storyline of Manga/{{Naruto}} begins and takes around eighteen chapters just getting to it.
* ''Fanfic/TowardsTheSun'' has a full eighteen chapters before "Book Zero" ends and the story truly begins.
* The first seventeen chapters of ''Fanfic/OneWorld'' take place before ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', and it takes until Chapter 23 for Harry to get to Hogwarts.

* The title for ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAPerfectChristmas'' doesn't appear until a full seven minutes in.

* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheOdyssey'''s first four books (out of 24) are sometimes called "the Telemachy," as they focus on Odysseus' son, Telemachus, as he deals with the suitors and learns about his father. Add that Odysseus' part starts InMediasRes and it takes a while before we get to the most famous parts of the story, where he and his crew sail around and encounter monsters.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series uses these from book 6 onwards to catch up on what the major players in the entire cast were doing. This would usually take upwards of 50 pages.
* Creator/MichaelCrichton:
** The prologue of ''Literature/StateOfFear'' is one third of the book.
** ''Literature/JurassicPark'' takes about half of its page count to get to the core element of dinosaurs running amok. The book has two actual prologues with characters who never return again. Once we meet our main characters, they take a short time to get to Jurassic Park and then spend a very long time on a guided tour before things finally start breaking down.
* Creator/DeanKoontz's book ''YourHeartBelongsToMe'' was terrible about this. The summary of the plot on the back of the book explains the second half of the book. The entire first half is the prologue.

* In ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', the Wife of Bath's "Prologue" (mostly a defense of remarriage) is ''longer'' than her actual story. The Friar, who is supposed to tell his tale after hers, gets rather fed up with the lengthy backstory.

* ''Literature/LifeOfPi'' takes around a hundred pages just to get to the point where the blurb begins.
* ''The Life and Opinions of Literature/TristramShandy, Gentleman'' is written as the autobiography of Tristram Shandy. It starts with Tristram developing as a young fetus, rapidly approaching his birth. While his mother is in labor, the book mentions Uncle Toby who is sitting in a chair. The book goes on to talk about Uncle Toby's life and character, and how he was a soldier until he was wounded in the groin by a cannonball, and then how he went insane and constructed a small replica of the battlefield he'd been wounded on, which he then blew to bits with small replica cannons. Tristram Shandy is ''born'' on page 92, when Uncle Toby suggests they ask someone to check and see if Tristram's mother is in labor. It's a incredibly funny and/or pointless book.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** In ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'', an unnecessarily large amount of time is spent on the SOS Brigade preparing for a Christmas party that [[spoiler: the audience doesn't even get to see]]. A few important plot points are established, but most of it can be seen as unnecessary padding. Kyon even lampshades it, observing that it was "too long for a prologue." The movie adaptation, despite mostly being very [[AdaptationDistillation well made]], makes it even worse, as very little actually happens until about an ''hour and a half'' into the film.
** ''The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya'' goes even further, with a prologue that takes up about a third of the book; half of it is spent recapping everything about the SOS Brigade and most of the side characters, while the other half consists of Koizumi walking Kyon through a {{Flashback}} and berating him for being [[SelectiveObliviousness Selectively]] ObliviousToLove.
* Most of the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' novels spend quite a bit of time setting up the story before it really gets going. ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'' doesn't even ''get'' to Hogwarts until halfway through the book. Then again, the beginning was absolutely necessary to set up the plot for the entire series. Compare with some of the other books that take even longer (page wise) such as ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' which doesn't see Harry arrive until page 171. The most egregious is ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' where Harry and co. don't get to Hogwarts until page 200, and that's in tinier print than the other books. Not surprising considering it's the biggest of the books.
* Most books of ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' take some time before even showing the main characters.
* ''Literature/TheIcelandicSagas'' generally tend to take quite a bit of time explaining the backstory and deriving the hero's genealogy before getting on with the main plot. This may explain a few things about both the Tolkien examples and ''Vinland Saga'' (see the Anime section), which derived considerable inspiration from them.
* ''Literature/KeepALidOnItPandora'' begins with the creation of man and the story of Prometheus. Because of this, Pandora doesn't show up until the seventh or eighth chapter. The fifth chapter actually bears the title, "Where is Pandora?", and begins with Hades, the narrator, telling impatient readers when she'll come. He then advises them to "[[TitleDrop Keep a lid on it!]]" until her entrance.
* ''Literature/BraveStory'' takes around a short novel's number of pages before [[spoiler:Wataru finds out about Vision and starts on his quest inside Vision. Administrivia/TropesAreTools - the prologue has plenty of foreshadowing, and it provides a ''highly'' appropriate context as to why exactly Wataru would want to go into Vision to change his fate anyways. It manages to give the reader plenty of time to get to know who Wataru is before he is thrust into another world with a task to accomplish.]]
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is relatively punchy in pacing, despite its large cast. Having said that, it takes until, literally, the last word of ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' for its main character to be positioned for their role in the MythArc ([[spoiler:specifically, Daenerys hatching her dragons, which will presumably be instrumental in the war against the Others]]). With that in mind, one could make the argument that ''the entire first book'' is an 806-page prologue, and a similar one about the 10-hour first season of ''Series/GameOfThrones''.

* The first volume of ''LightNovel/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma'' is dedicated to introducing the titular invaders. In the eyes of some, ''the first seven volumes''(which includes the entirely of the TwelveEpisodeAnime) are this, as they serve to set up the Blue Knight arc where the plot really gets going.
* Parodied with the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide''. First there is a dedication, then a prologue, an introduction, a forward, introduction to the preface, the preface, acknowledgments, a special edition introduction, translation notes, and finally notes about the typeface.
* ''Literature/TheOverstory'': A good third of the book is spent on stand-alone short stories telling the backstory of each of the [[EnsembleCast nine protagonists]].
* The first three volumes of the ''LightNovel/SeireiGensoukiSpiritChronicles'' {{Light Novel}}s serve as an ExpositionDump that establishes the new world setting of the story, alongside who the major characters are. It's only the arrival of the "heroes" does the narrative change dramatically; even the {{Manga}} adaptation {{Lampshades}} this, where the narration states the story has reached "the end of the prologue".

* ''Series/{{Alias}}'''s prologues would frequently go ten to eleven minutes. The show is more radical in its first two seasons. Frequently episodes would end with the 3rd Act cliffhanger and the 4th Act would be knocked on to the next week where it would serve as an extended prologue pushing that episode's 1st Act into the 2nd Act's slot (roughly minute 11 to minute 22) the 2nd Act would then push the 3rd Act back so that the episode ended on the 3rd Act cliffhanger and so on...

* ''Series/TheGoodWife'' will routinely spend about ten minutes leading up to the title card in each episode.

* ''{{Series/Revenge}}'' takes about nine minutes to get to the title card.

* In season 2, episode 9 of ''Series/MarcoPolo'', the opening credits don't appear until almost halfway through.

* The 1919 musical ''Apple Blossoms'' had a first act sometimes listed as a prologue. The male lead did not appear until the middle of the next act.
* Wagner conceived of ''Das Rheingold'' as a "prelude" to the [[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Ring Cycle]] proper. Although it's shorter than the other three operas of the Ring Cycle, it's still a full-length opera with a running time of over two and a half hours.

* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' has this, and has it ''bad''. Immediately after character creation, you are placed in an introduction instance. Then you're placed in either Archet or Thorin's Gate -- another introductory instance. ''Then'' the game proper begins...and your epic quests are introduced in the form of a ''prologue''. Only when you finally finish said prologue at ~Level 15 (which will likely take several hours' worth of gameplay, at least) are you ''FINALLY'' put into Epic Volume 1, Book 1. [[spoiler:(It's actually possible to skip the prologue and go straight to Bree to begin Epic Book 1, but you miss valuable experience points by doing so.)]]

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** The term "Longest Prologue Ever" is popularly used to describe the first part of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', and was even a former TropeNamer. The game's prologue with Roxas takes between ''three to five hours'' to complete. Some of it is skippable, including the cutscenes, but even skipping all of the optional stuff still leaves at least two hours before reaching the title card. As for its importance and interest, it will depend exclusively on how many games the player has played so far. While the story presented in the prologue does little to set things up for the actual plot and main character Sora, it is quite important to conclude the first part of Roxas arc. Problem being Roxas' story was done in [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 a game released four years later]] (which is why many players didn't care for the prologue when ''II'' was released). If you know the story of ''358/2 Days'' before playing ''II'' (as creator Tetsuya Nomura strongly suggests to do nowadays), then you'll be much more attached and invested on what's happening in the prologue.
** [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI The first game]] isn't quite as bad, but there's still plenty of stuff you can do on the Destiny Islands that can take quite a bit of time. Most of it is optional, though.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX''. After '''400''' stages (about 3 months if you started at opening day), you get the opening title and the plot starts.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' has the first mission which can take a decent amount of grinding to accomplish (most [=FAQs=] recommend getting to level 5) and is implied to be the primary goal, but then you get the real start and a new opening scroll.
** The 3D remake of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' has a significantly longer prologue than the original game. In the Famicom version, the prologue concluded at the end of the first cave, when the four orphans defeated the Land Turtle and discovered the Wind Crystal. In the remake, only one of them is present for this section of the game. The prologue is extended to introduce the newly fleshed out heroes one at a time, and they don't get the Crystal's powers until they're all together and defeat the second boss, Djinn.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' really begins after completing the Wind Temple dungeon and unlocking the job system, usually about an hour or so into the game. Even then, the actual plot of trying to save the other Crystals doesn't start for another half an hour.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' doesn't start properly until you're out of Midgar, which can take anywhere between four to five hours, during which time the city is introduced, characters are met, vital exposition is dumped, and villains are introduced and killed off. Most players don't seem to mind, though, because even though the Midgar sequences are very linear, it's chock-full of action and intrigue relating to Shinra and AVALANCHE, to the point where some players feel that the opening is the high point of the entire game.
** Taken UpToEleven with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', which is the aforementioned Midgar section stretched out into a full-length 40-hour game, [[spoiler:although the WhamEpisode that is the TwistEnding sees to it that there's much more to the ''Remake'' than meets the eye]].
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is basically the same as ''VII'', but so, so much more. Instead of growing your characters during the absurdly slow paced opening city level, as you do in VII, you are [[SecondHourSuperpower restricted to only physical attacks and area effect stuff]] for the first few hours. It all plays like an extended cutscene until you finally get to the crystal lake, where you finally unlock the roles and the Paradigm Shift (and even then, some of your characters have to unlock their 3rd role through story progression). Most of the early hours maintain the use of InMediasRes. However, out of 13 chapters, it's not until the beginning of chapter 11 that you will be able to choose your leader, customize your party as you see fit (the remaining roles being finally unlocked for everyone during this chapter), and finally be able to explore areas which aren't just long corridors. Because of this, a lot of people considers the first eleven chapters as part of an extended prologue. First time players interested in understanding what the characters were just talking about can check a [[AllThereInTheManual reference guide]] on the main menu and find quick summaries of not only the plot (scene by scene), but relevant background information on locales, individuals, and organizations.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV's'' technical tutorial lasts from level 1 to around level 15, when you finish off the first plot arc and gain the ability to travel between city states, but things still don't really get started until around level 22 when you kill Ifrit and join the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, kicking off the main plot you'll be following for the rest of the game. On a first playthrough, this could take several hours depending on which class you pick starting off.
** ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'' has PlayerCharacter Jack Russell spend the beginning of the game in a RagtagBunchOfMisfits amongst the Radiata Knights. This takes up about 3-4 hours of the overall game, during which most of the plot gets set up. Until the prologue is over, you cannot change armor, take on side missions, or issue orders to any of your computer-controlled party members.

* The ''VideoGame/WildArms'' games have a tradition of giving each character an individual prologue before joining the core party.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' is the first example in the series, with its Tanker Chapter. Reportedly, director Hideo Kojima intended the ship to be the setting for the whole game before concluding it was too small. There's even an option, after completing the game, to play just the Tanker section, and it has its own set of post-game titles.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has the Virtuous Mission, which sees the player visiting multiple areas of the game and introduces most of the cast along the way, all before the titular Snake Eater mission which comprises the bulk of the game's runtime (and plot).
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' takes this to an extreme, to the point where the game ''in its entirety'', including the extra missions, is a prologue for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. ''Ground Zeroes'' was just large and ambitious enough that it was initially sold separately (albeit at half the usual retail price) from ''The Phantom Pain''. Later re-issues of ''Metal Gear Solid V'' contain both parts together.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' itself has a prolonged prologue that features the main character awakening maimed and in a weakened state after a long coma, trying to escape from a hospital. The game walks the player up to new mechanics as the situation demands, and as the character regains the requisite strength.
* ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' takes five to six hours before you are dumped on an actual planet most of the remaining game takes place on and start real fights.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' has a little over an hour of cutscenes (and one battle sequence) between the start of the game and your first opportunity to save.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4''. It takes between two to four hours before the game takes [[{{Railroading}} off the rails]] and lets you choose what to do with your day (the real meat of the game). In terms of the DungeonCrawling gameplay, the first battle is a brief HopelessBossFight, the next two (including the first boss) are entirely tutorials, an hour or so later and you get to the first real dungeon... which throws you into a boss fight and boots you out after the first floor. After all that, you're ''finally'' allowed to explore dungeons freely.
** ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth''. They game doesn't become a Crossover between the above two games until after completing the first dungeon. (If this doesn't sound like much, this is an ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' inspired game, so the dungeons are ''huge''.)
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' takes about an hour before you reach the first palace, another half-hour to get through all of the tutorial sections, and another half-hour after that before you can start managing what to do with your time freely.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'':
** In ''Nightfall'', what is more or less the prologue of the story takes you most of, if not all the way, to the max level. In fact, you figure that when you catch up to the BigBad, you're going to stop her from releasing the SealedEvilInACan, or maybe just fight it as the really FinalBoss. [[spoiler:No, you fail to prevent her from causing the Nightfall, which you spend the rest of the game dealing with.]]
** In other campaigns. Prophecies begins in an idyllic map of decent size with several zones, hours of gameplay (if you do everything), and enemies up to level 10 (of 20). Many were entirely surprised when this turned out to be [[spoiler: set 2 years before the ACTUAL game, which begins after that idyllic land is destroyed by magical crystal meteors, and maybe the size of 10% of the real game's map.]] Factions was similar to Nightfall in that it brought characters to near-maximum level before the prologue ended, though story-wise it was clear that you had only begun to uncover the real threat.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has the very long section on Taris, exploring three levels of the city, dealing with Sith oppressors, swoop gangs, outcasts and slavers, before [[spoiler:the planet is destroyed]] and the plot starts. What makes it worse is that you still have a non-Jedi class before you get to Dantooine, and you'll probably want to hold off leveling until then, to get more Jedi levels.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' gives you Peragus. Big, almost depopulated mining station. That's ''really'' big (it takes almost three hours to get through) and ''really'' depopulated (save for two people and two droids, everyone and everything you meet is [[ApocalypticLog a holographic recording of a dead guy]] or a berserk mining droid). If it wasn't bad enough already, half the time you're running in your underwear, with little more than a mining laser for defense. And except for Kreia's voice in your head and Atton over a com link, you're entirely on your own for the vast majority of it. To make things worse, it's immediately followed by Telos, where you lose your ship and (temporarily) all your equipment, and have to jump through a lot of hoops to get off the boring-looking space station and onto the actual planet. Just so you can recover your ship and actually explore the rest of the galaxy. [[SarcasmMode Yay]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' finishing the Prologue gets you though 15 levels (out of vanilla 50) and two full planets of the game. The class stories about evenly divided between the planets being separate prologues (with the first having a self-contained plot arc) or stages of the same one.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': You can't explore the overworld in the game until the tutorial (obtain sword/shield) and first dungeon (Deku Tree) are finished.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. The opening sequence requires you to play through 3 in-game days (roughly 2 hours) in which you are essentially item-less and aren't allowed to leave the central hub town, and until you do so, [[CheckPointStarvation you can't even save]].[[note]]Unless you're playing the 3DS remake, and even there, everything else about it still applies[[/note]] By the way, if you fail to do all of the required tasks within the 3 in-game days, you have to start over from the first day, when you arrive at the town. At least you still can talk to a scarecrow to fast-forward the remaining time until the last hours after you've done everything it takes to reach the conclusion of this prologue.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The beginning of the game is quite different from the rest of it: you start on a tiny island with no weapons, hang out with a cast of pirates and are carted around on their ship, lose your equipment and have to spend about an hour doing a StealthBasedMission (the only one in the entire game), and then have to do several fetch quests for various townspeople. It's only about 3 and a half hours into the game when you finally have your equipment and your own boat that the game catches its stride.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': You spend the first few hours learning your controls as Link and Wolf Link. You don't have any idea of what's going on until the end of the segment, and you're not free to explore the overworld until after the first major dungeon. Even then, the amount of places you can explore is limited since most of the world is still covered in Twilight, which isn't fully dealt with until after the third dungeon.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' was apparently intent on averting this, though there was difficulty concerning a scene where Zelda saves Link, as this was important to show their relationship. So they cut out ''many'' scenes.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' meets you halfway: You're limited to the great plateau until you complete all four shrines and get the parasail from the Old Man, but you're free to explore the whole plateau and do the shrines in any order you please.
* The story mode of ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront 2'', ''Rise of the Empire'', involves various missions centred around a group of clone troopers liberating various planets from the droids [[spoiler: and eventually taking part in Order 66]]. A cutscene after that event shows Vader's armour and an ominous image of the Death Star while the central character explains what the squadron did after the battle, which could be a perfectly valid ending to a game that's already full enough to be a game itself. Then the second opening crawl starts, finally introducing the actual ''Rise of the Empire'' storyline.
* The beginning of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' has you going about your ordinary life for several hours before the actual plot starts.

* Examples from the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series:
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has Lyn's Tale, a prologue + 10 chapters that deals with a plot completely unrelated to the main story (save some EarlyBirdCameo and {{Foreshadowing}}), which takes place one year later and stars a different character (either Eliwood or Hector). Like many examples, you can skip it on a second or subsequent playthrough... but doing that is a ''very bad idea'', as characters from Lyn's Tale retain their level-ups when they rejoin in the main game. By skipping it you're effectively robbing around a third of the cast of up to 10 chapters worth of Exp gain. At least playing it on Hard Mode cuts out all the tutorials.
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]]'' has a prologue that lasts 4 chapters that, to the shock of many players, actually requires you to sacrifice one of your party members to progress. The entire prologue is skipped on any of the Hard Modes, in which case CanonForeigner Frey will be assumed to have been the sacrifice. ([[CuttingOffTheBranches The next game went with this as canon.]])
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' has a prologue lasting 8 chapters, unskippable this time though most of them are very short. It serves to introduce your [[HelloInsertNameHere player-created character]] to the world of the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Microcosm}}'' had an OpeningScroll that explained the star system the game was set in, the {{Megacorp}}s that ran them, the struggles between them and the current covert shenanigans, ''and'' a short movie panning over the {{cyberpunk}} city, showing aircraft landing and setting up the plot at length. All told, [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory ten or twenty minutes of prologue]] for a RailShooter that would hardly pass muster as a free [[WebGames web game]].
* The exposition for ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'' takes about eight-to-twelve hours.
* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'':
** The opening to ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonSaveTheHomeland'' drags on for quite a while, which doesn't help the game's status as one of the least popular in the series (that and removing the [[DatingSim marriage and family]] aspects). Add to that the fact that the game has MultipleEndings, and you can't skip the cutscenes on your NewGamePlus, and that intro ''really'' gets old.
** ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonTreeOfTranquility'' has a very long one as well, taking up multiple in game days before the set up is done being explained and they let you play on your own.
* The unskippable intro to ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' last for thirty minutes if you don't bother reading any of the text. If you want the ''complete'' intro, you have option of watching it on the main title with that being twenty minutes.
* ''VideoGame/Mother3'' is divided up into eight chapters. The first three happen over the course of three days, and cover the perspective of three different characters. Story-wise, they're important, but the gameplay suffers somewhat. [[SlowPacedBeginning It improves after the]] TimeSkip.
* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'', the first few missions take place in a very small portion of the map with very limited access to shops, fishing spots or masters, and after raiding [=McNeil=] Mansion, your two alliesaren't seen again until the second half, and any LevelGrinding you did with them is wasted. After that, you're sent on a very linear mission that only allows you access to one part of the map at a time while you assemble your team, and it isn't until you defeat Balio and Sunder that you have full access to the majority of the continent and can start properly building your team.
* ''VideoGame/AdventRising'' lets you witness the destruction of Gideon's [[DoomedHometown Doomed Homeplanet]] through his eyes. It takes pretty long.
* ''[[VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom Lufia]]'', the prologue was so amazing, it became a [[VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals prequel]]!
* The first chapter of ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'' concerns several of the main characters as children. Chapter 2 takes place after a TimeSkip and mostly revolves around setting the scene and getting the group back together now that everyone's grown up. Nothing that could possibly be construed as the main plot kicks off until roughly the end of the second chapter and start of the third. Thankfully, you can skip the first chapter in a NewGamePlus. It costs 10 [=GRADE=] to do so, but a full playthrough can easily rack up over 1000 [=GRADE=], so the cost is barely a factor.
* ''VisualNovel/AseliaTheEternalTheSpiritOfEternitySword'' is billed as a visual novel / RPG. For the first ''three to five hours'' of the game you are reading straight dialog with no branching and no battles.
* ''VideoGame/VampiresDawn II: Ancient Blood'' is right up there with Kingdom Hearts II in terms of prologue length. Watching Valnar and Alaine starting a new life, Jaina's and Nyria's backstory, Asgar's reappearance, the WorldSundering spell, the heroes reclaiming the castle and getting acquainted with the new situation takes a while. It's even worse if you follow the traditional RPG routine of talking to everyone and searching everything, which a completionist will inevitably have to do given that all the prologue locations are [[PermanentlyMissableContent inaccessible]] upon moving on.
* Occurs in all three parts of the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' begins with a fairly long introduction on the ''Normandy'', then the Eden Prime mission, then you have to go to the Citadel attending a Council meeting and having discussions with Anderson and Udina, running around doing a bunch of required missions (and a fair number of optional side missions). It's only after you meet Tali and attend the second Council meeting that Shepard becomes a Spectre, is given command of the ''Normandy'', and is finally free to go out into the galaxy and do things.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', there's the extended prologue where the ''Normandy'' is destroyed and Shepard killed, then fighting to escape the Project Lazarus station, then meeting the Illusive Man and agreeing to work with Cerberus, then the Freedom's Progress mission. It's only after Freedom's Progress that Shepard is given the SR-2 version of the ''Normandy'' and finally, like the first game, has freedom to go out into the galaxy.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' starts with a really long, unskippable cutscene of Shepard and Anderson attending an Alliance military meeting, then escaping the Reapers invading Earth. Then you're given control of your character, and you play a short tutorial level, with lots of autodialogue, lengthy cutscenes and minimal dialogue choices. Things get better on Mars, but the game will render the ''[[CoolStarship Normandy]]'' as a cutscene only location. After this you're taken to the Citadel, but much like the ''Normandy'' there are large parts of it that are locked off in order to railroad you along the story. It isn't until after you leave the Citadel, a good hour and a half into the game[[note]]or more on harder difficulties![[/note]] that the game truly opens up and you can do what you want.
* ''VideoGame/RivieraThePromisedLand'''s tutorial is somewhere between an hour or two in length, depending on how fast you go through it. This includes when you replay the game, despite already knowing what to do. Fortunately, you're given a very powered CrutchCharacter that allows you to get through battles easily.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'''s prologue is greatly extended from the film's, with several original stories in the nine-year gap between the Dam operation and the film's present day, such as visiting the incomplete Severnaya bunker, and an EarlyBirdCameo by Ouromov in a nuclear silo.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' take their sweet time in setting up their plots. In both cases, it can easily take upwards of 15 minutes to complete the tutorial level, including cutscenes. Notable in that most main-series ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have little more than an ExcusePlot at best.
* You do have some room to wander and explore Densel Town during Chapters 0 and 2 of ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'', but it takes until Chapter 3 to get into the meat of the game and be able to do things like recruit party members, freely explore and take side quests. If you speed read and known what to do, the prologue and Chapter 1 aren't too bad, but the near ForcedLevelGrinding in Chapter 2 can hamper your speed.
* Unlike most other [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars SRW]] titles, where the player faction forms early on in the story, Earth Fleet Tenku doesn't form officially until Scenario 40 in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'' (the entire game is ''52 scenarios long''), so the "prologue" takes up nearly '''eighty percent''' of the entire story.
* One of the most common complaints leveled against ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is just how much the game holds your hand in the beginning. It doesn't really start to back off until you've reached the second island of four. It also takes you much longer to get your starter in this game than in previous titles, which means you spend a fair amount of time running around without any Pokémon whatsoever. This was a particular pain for people who wanted starters of certain genders or natures, as the average time to getting your Pokemon was ''half an hour'' and you would have to restart entirely to get a different loadout. The remakes ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' toned this down by having you rescued by the starters and choosing yours much earlier--while you still have the rest of the prologue, you did already have a Pokémon with you.
* The GaidenGame ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' continues the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' tradition of long prologues. After the introductory cutscene, a Monokuma chases Komaru Naegi out of her apartment, and she's given a Hacking Gun to use against the Monokumas and fights them in a restaurant across the street before getting captured while trying to escape via helicopter. Then there's a brief sneaking section on the villains' airship, and they introduce themselves before dropping Komaru onto a hospital roof, where Chapter 1 finally begins.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The actual tutorial only takes a few hours, but the fact that you don't get to [[spoiler:customize your actual character]] until the end of the "the Second Dream," hundreds of hours into the game, has led to players joking that the game has the longest tutorial in history. Even from a story perspective, that's not quite wrong; the story is noticeably light until that quest, where some of the most basic details of the story and setting are revealed.
* ''VideoGame/ClockTowerTheFirstFear'' has a slow narrative of the girls being walked to the Barrows Mansion, and then forces you to walk around and talk to the girls repeatedly to get an understanding of the game's controls before letting you leave the foyer and having shit hit the fan. [[SubvertedTrope However]], the game also has [[AntiFrustrationFeatures the best feature ever]] in the form of "Quick Start" which skips the entire narrative and puts you in the foyer, after the entire prologue when the girls have gone missing. ''Very'' helpful in a game that banks on its replay value with MultipleEndings and [[RogueLike some randomly-generated events and layouts]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' was in a really awkward state of this, beginning with the titular team, long ago disbanded, starting to come together... then taking 4 real-world years to properly depict them together on their first mission for [[MissionPackSequel the semi-sequel]] ''Overwatch 2'', with pretty much all the comics, cinematics, and Events in and around the first game have all being character origins, worldbuilding, and history. This was greatly based around the fact that ''Overwatch'' was created strictly as a [=PvP=] HeroShooter where [[ExcusePlot canon and stories are largely just context to set up gameplay]], and the potential of tying them together into a proper [=PvE=] experience wasn't considered as a viable endeavor until Blizzard experimented with short ''Archives'' campaigns (which as suggested by the title, take place during the backstory), which were well-received, but weren't the story-driving events fans wanted. This would end up making the game's case of this trope a very meta one, as with ''Overwatch 2'' being developed as an overhaul/attached expansion with proper story campaigns as a main feature, additional prolonging of the prologue was required to actually get the rest of the story made. Then ''Overwatch 2'' [[ScheduleSlip got delayed]] without any new release window, meaning that 2021's biggest plot beat was one of said former team members [[MeaningfulRename reclaiming his birth name]].

* ''EPISODE 1'' in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'', which contributes to complaints that the story drags until late into ''EPISODE 2''. From the start of the story through Chapter 8, the game introduces you to a large bevy of allies and supporting cast members and fleshes out the planets that the game takes place in. This is done through ''hours and hours of cutscenes''; there are very few playable portions, and most of the playable portions are egregiously short. Of the hours and hours of cutscenes that the game presents to you, approximately 10% of them have anything to do with the actual plot that kicks off at the end of Chapter 7 when a SwordOfPlotAdvancement gets stolen by the antagonists.
* ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' takes about an hour or two to get to its first chapter. Mario battles Bowser and gets knocked into Goomba Village, gets his hammer and fights a tutorial boss, meets his first partner, is introduced to badges, fights the Goomba King, makes it to Toad Town and Shooting Star Summit, finally learns {{Action Command}}s, fights another tutorial boss, and ''then'' he can finally start the first chapter.

* The ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' is rather infamous for this, with the first game in each arc serving as essentially a prologue for the rest of the arc. This is the most obvious in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'', where the entire first game acts as a prologue for the rest of the series.

* The second demo of ''VisualNovel/StarswirlAcademy'' covers the prologue in its entirety. It takes about two hours to get through the entire thing, during which there's very few story branches. It's mostly a massive InfoDump on the school, what you can expect to see, and a brief introduction to every character.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. The airport. Unlike previous (or later) installments of the "When They Cry" series, which introduce us to the characters within the context of the overall story, thus keeping the plot moving, Umineko's first episode has Battler, the main character, meet two thirds of the entire cast in an airport, where you get huge infodumps about them.
* The prologue of each ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' game is used to introduce the setting, premise, and each character ''individually'', which takes a considerable amount of time considering the number of characters each game has. Throw in some odd events which foreshadow late game reveals, and you have a long prologue to get through before the killing game begins. [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc The first game's]] prologue isn't quite so long since all of the students are introduced in one room, but later games have the the main character going around the entire starting area introducing themseves to everyone. ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa 2|GoodbyeDespair}}'' goes so far as to have a ''[[FakeOutOpening fake title sequence]]'' in the middle of the prologue, and ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa V3|KillingHarmony}}'' outright lampshades the prologue length.
* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' wins the crown for the VisualNovel category: the ''entire game'' is an extended prologue until you complete all the dating routes. Then a new route with the ''actual'' story opens up, and that's where things get ''[[MindScrew weird]]'' (which is saying something when you consider this is a game about ''dating birds'').

* ''VisualNovel/MinotaurHotel'': The part where you are able to decide what you can do with your time and where most of the story branching happens? That won't come until after Chapter ''13''. Until then, your time is spent deciding on how you'll treat Asterion (which will decide what route you'll be locked into), understanding the mechanics of the game, and getting the hotel back to action. It avoids the trapping of this trope, however, by making the first 13 chapters entertaining with how it sets up the story.

* ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', being a murder mystery visual novel with some horror elements, takes some time to get going. Much of the prologue and first chapter are spent introducing the cast, and the first murder [[spoiler:or what the cast thinks is a murder]], takes place near the end of Chapter 2 (out of 5).
* ''VisualNovel/{{Narcissu}} Side 2nd'' spends the first four chapters (out of 19) introducing the main characters, before the opening movie plays.

* ''Roleplay/TheGunganCouncil'' typically has roleplays to introduce new characters. They are are supposed to be simple in order to get a new character instantly acquainted to two or more established characters. Roughly 200 words is enough per post. Some have start with ''1,000'', and keep this amount up through over 15 posts and essentially almost writing enough to create a novella off the bat.

* {{Discussed}} by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick in her first episode, where she comments on how it takes seven minutes for ''{{WesternAnimation/Pocahontas}}'' to introduce the title character (which she notes is about 10% of the average Disney film's run time).

* Most of the ''[[Franchise/HarryPotter Harry Potter]]'' novels spend quite a bit of time setting up the story before it really gets going. ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'' doesn't even ''get'' to Hogwarts until halfway through the book. Then again, the beginning was absolutely necessary to set up the plot for the entire series. Compare with some of the other books that take even longer (page wise) such as ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' which doesn't see Harry arrive until page 171. The most egregious is ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' where Harry and co. don't get to Hogwarts until page 200, and that's in tinier print than the other books. Not surprising considering it's the biggest of the books.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Narcissu}} Side 2nd'' spends the first four chapters (out of 19) introducing the main characters, before the opening movie plays.

* In contrast to ''VisualNovel/DeathMark'', which drops the player immediately into the supernatural and has them tackle the first chapter within the first hour or so, ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'' takes longer to establish Akira's relationships and mundane life. It's only after he does so, faces a tutorial spirit, and meets [[BigBad Kakuya]] that the plot really gets rolling.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series uses these from book 6 onwards to catch up on what the major players in the entire cast were doing. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters This would usually take upwards of 50 pages.]]

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is relatively punchy in pacing, despite its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. Having said that, it takes until, literally, the last word of ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' for its main character to be positioned for their role in the MythArc ([[spoiler:specifically, Daenerys hatching her dragons, which will presumably be instrumental in the war against the Others]]). With that in mind, one could make the argument that ''the entire first book'' is an 806-page prologue, and a similar one about the 10-hour first season of ''Series/GameOfThrones''.

* The prologue of each ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' game is used to introduce the setting, premise, and each character ''individually'', which takes a considerable amount of time considering [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters the number of characters]] each game has. Throw in some odd events which foreshadow late game reveals, and you have a long prologue to get through before the killing game begins. [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc The first game's]] prologue isn't quite so long since all of the students are introduced in one room, but later games have the the main character going around the entire starting area introducing themseves to everyone. ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa 2|GoodbyeDespair}}'' goes so far as to have a ''[[FakeOutOpening fake title sequence]]'' in the middle of the prologue, and ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa V3|KillingHarmony}}'' outright lampshades the prologue length.

While {{Literature}} and [[ComicBooks sequential]] [[MangaAndAnime art]] readers may feel less worried if they know the length and structure of the work in advance (they can do so merely by glancing at the index), this does not hold true if the work is serialized, and experienced at the rate of its release. In that case, they may feel they have been cheated into emotionally investing themselves in a story whose apparent structure made them expect it to be much shorter than it really is; this is a [[NotWhatISignedOnFor violation of tacit consent]] in a fashion not unlike that of TheChrisCarterEffect.

** You can't explore the overworld in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' until the tutorial (obtain sword/shield) and first dungeon (Deku Tree) are finished.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]''. The opening sequence requires you to play through 3 in-game days (roughly 2 hours) in which you are essentially item-less and aren't allowed to leave the central hub town, and until you do so, [[CheckPointStarvation you can't even save]].[[note]]Unless you're playing the 3DS remake, and even there, everything else about it still applies[[/note]] By the way, if you fail to do all of the required tasks within the 3 in-game days, you have to start over from the first day, when you arrive at the town. At least you still can talk to a scarecrow to fast-forward the remaining time until the last hours after you've done everything it takes to reach the conclusion of this prologue.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' railroads you until you get a boat (and sail) several hours into the game.
** You spend the first few hours of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' learning your controls as Link and Wolf Link. You don't have any idea of what's going on until the end of the segment, and you're not free to explore the overworld until after the first major dungeon. Even then, the amount of places you can explore is limited since most of the world is still covered in Twilight, which isn't fully dealt with until after the third dungeon.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' was apparently intent on averting this, though there was difficulty concerning a scene where Zelda saves Link, as this was important to show their relationship. So they cut out ''many'' scenes.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' meets you halfway: You're limited to the great plateau until you complete all four shrines and get the parasail from the Old Man, but you're free to explore the whole plateau and do the shrines in any order you please.

** The term "[[FanNickname Longest Prologue Ever]]" is popularly used to describe the first part of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', and was even a former TropeNamer. The game's prologue with Roxas takes between ''three to five hours'' to complete. Some of it is skippable, including the cutscenes, but even skipping all of the optional stuff still leaves at least two hours before reaching the title card. As for its importance and interest, it will depend exclusively on how many games the player has played so far. While the story presented in the prologue does little to set things up for the actual plot and main character Sora, it is quite important to conclude the first part of Roxas arc. Problem being Roxas' story was done in [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 a game released four years later]] (which is why many players didn't care for the prologue when ''II'' was released). If you know the story of ''358/2 Days'' before playing ''II'' (as creator Tetsuya Nomura strongly suggests to do nowadays), then you'll be much more attached and invested on what's happening in the prologue.

** According to Camelot, the story shared by the first game and ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' is the prologue to the ''Golden Sun'' series and ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkMoon'' is the first part of what they planned as the main story of the series. So the Prolonged Prologue is 2 whole games around 40 hours each. This is especially bad since it took 8 years for the first "main" game to be released after the two "prequels", and it's been 10 years since then with no word of another title.

* The first seventeen chapters of ''Fanfic/OneWorld'' take place before ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheSorcerersStone'', and it takes until Chapter 23 for Harry to get to Hogwarts.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheKillingJoke'' begins with a 30-minute prologue before showing the events of [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke the comic]], both to make the film feature-length and to give Batgirl a role beyond [[StuffedIntoTheFridge getting crippled by the Joker in his attempt to break Commissioner Gordon in order to motivate Batman]]. It's considered far weaker than the main portion, and many feel that it actually creates ''more'' UnfortunateImplications due to it mischaracterizing Batgirl as [[spoiler:an emotionally needy girl who admits she only became a superhero to gain Batman's love]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' was in a really awkward state of this, beginning with the titular team, long ago disbanded, starting to come together... then taking 4 real-world years to properly depict them together on their first mission for [[MissionPackSequel the semi-sequel]] ''Overwatch 2'', with pretty much all the comics, cinematics, and Events in and around the first game have all being character origins, worldbuilding, and history. This was greatly based around the fact that ''Overwatch'' was created strictly as a [=PvP=] HeroShooter where [[ExcusePlot canon and stories are largely just context to set up gameplay]], and the potential of tying them together into a proper [=PvE=] experience wasn't considered as a viable endeavor until Blizzard experimented with short ''Archives'' campaigns (which as suggested by the title, take place during the backstory), which were well-received, but weren't the story-driving events fans wanted. This would end up making the game's case of this trope a very meta one, as with ''Overwatch 2'' being developed as an overhaul/attached expansion with proper story campaigns as a main feature, additional prolonging of the prologue was required to actually get the rest of the story made.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. The airport. Unlike previous (or later) installments of the "When They Cry" series, which introduce us to the characters within the context of the overall story, thus keeping the plot moving, Umineko's first episode has Battler, the main character, meet two thirds of the ENTIRE CAST in an airport, where you get huge infodumps about them, and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS.

** Most pre-title sequences in the series clock in at a few minutes. The one for ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' is nearly ''fifteen minutes'' long, and actually has a fairly clear cutoff point between its two scenes that could've been the act break. This is because that was originally going to be the end of the pre-title sequence, but test audiences felt that it was lackluster compared to recent Bond movies, so they stretched it out to include the next scene as well, which involved a lengthy, exciting boat chase.

** The term "[[FanNickname Longest Prologue Ever]]" is popularly used to describe the first part of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', and was even a former TropeNamer. The game's prologue with Roxas takes between ''three to five hours'' to complete. Some of it is skippable, including the cutscenes, but even skipping all of the optional stuff still leaves at least two hours before reaching the title card. As for its importance and interest, it will depend exclusively on how many games the player has played so far. While the story presented in the prologue does little to set things up for the actual plot and main character Sora, it is quite important to conclude the first part of Roxas arc. Problem being Roxas' story was done in a game released years after II launched (which is why many players didn't care for the prologue when II was released). If you know the story of 358/2 Days before playing II (as creator Tetsuya Nomura strongly suggests to do nowadays), then you'll be much more attached and invested on what's happening in the prologue.

* The ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' is rather infamous for this, with the first game in each arc serving as essentially a prologue for the rest of the arc. This is the most obvious with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'', where the entire first game acts as a prologue for the series as a whole.

* The prologue in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' could be considered the game's actual first chapter, containing multiple tasks to accomplish and dungeons to explore, with the events before the TimeSkip being a much more reasonable length to consider a prologue.

* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFire3'', the first few missions take place in a very small portion of the map with very limited access to shops, fishing spots or masters, and after [[spoiler: raiding [=McNeil=] Mansion]], your two allies pull a WutaiTheft and aren't seen again until the second half, and any LevelGrinding you did with them is wasted. After that, you're sent on a very linear mission that only allows you access to one part of the map at a time while you assemble your team, and it isn't until you defeat [[spoiler: Stallion]] that you have full access to the majority of the continent and can start properly building your team.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' began with the titular team, long ago disbanded, starting to come together. It's not until the cinematics and trailers that introduced ''[[VideoGame/Overwatch2 Overwatch]] '''[[VideoGame/Overwatch2 2]]'''''. That we see the reformed team take on its first missions. Pretty much all the comics, cinematics, and Events in and around the first game have all been character origins, worldbuilding, and history.