History Main / UnwinnableByInsanity

[[folder:Web Games ]]

* In [[https://garfield.com/games/scary-scavenger-hunt Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt,]] if you've already picked up every available donut box and inventory item, but neglected to pick up the cheese in the TV room AND your scare meter is over 90%, it's game over. Trying to get the cheese will spring a trap that puts your scare meter over 100%, and Garfield will run out of the house in terror. But you have to be playing ''really'' stupidly to trigger this - the cheese is one of the first items you see, and you're unlikely to get your scare meter that high unless you're a complete beginner or just messing around.
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* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', normally TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything, has one sequence break that wasn't considered - if you wait all the way until the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon island fortress]] before examining the Ledger (an extremely early game item necessary to examine before you can ''see your character's stats on the in-game menus''), and read the letter in the hidden compartment, your PlayerCharacter will [[HeroicBSOD fall unconscious]]. He will wake up in front of the Whirling-in-Rags Hotel on the mainland. The boat used to take him to the island will still be docked on the island and all the plot flags have been tripped, so there is nothing to do.

** In the original Japanese release of the game, during the Opera event, if you skip one of the rats on the rafters and finish the event they'll still be in the Opera House in the World of Ruin, however the checkpoint if you die to them is specifically in the World of Balance map. At this point dying to them will take at least half an hour of being attacked and you can kill them in one hit, but if it happens you're back in the World of Balance with all the plot triggers already tripped, and can't get back to World of Ruin. This was fixed in every other version of the game.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'': Oh so many spots that you can access with a tall car and misplaced curiosity...and can't get out again (except maybe per SuicideByCop). Especially apt CosmicPlaything s manage to fall into the bridge fundaments under the billboard at the hairpin in Wichita Gardens. (As usual, trying to repeat this experience voluntarily doesn't work.)

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} VI'' has a strange example, in that it happens in the game setup. Under the advanced settings when creating a new game, you can disable any of the games multiple win conditions - you can even disable all of them, leaving only Score Victory (whoever has the most points when the turn limit runs out). You can also disable the turn limit. This means the game literally has no win conditions anymore and becomes a giant sandbox.

** In Vault, a woman gives you a bone every time you talk to her. You only need one (to give to a dog who shows you a secret dungeon), but it's possible to fill your inventory with undropable, unsellable, entirely useless bones.

** A specific method occurs in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' - if [[spoiler:Quan and Ethlyn]] survive Travant's ambush in Chapter 5 and if you let them conquer Phinora Castle, which is your next step at that point... Congratulations, now Phinora is an allied castle and you can't conquer it back, meaning that you're stuck in Yied Desert with no way to advance further in the game (since your progress is very linear, conquering a castle disables the InvisibleWall guarding the next one). You have to try [[http://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/hints-and-secrets/cuan-and-ethlins-survival/ really, really, REALLY hard]] to pull the whole thing off; every enemy present has a horseslayer, so one or two hits is all it takes for them to kill [[spoiler:Ethlyn]], due to their mechanics, they can get in a good dozen attacks per turn, and the two are stuck in a desert, meaning they will be enduring these attacks a lot.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'', you can recruit the enemy general Sheena, who will then un-recruit herself and become an enemy if you kill one of the soldiers of her nation. If you hand her the PlotCoupon items Starsphere and Lightsphere and then kill a Gra soldier and turn her back into an enemy, then they won't drop when she's killed, and they also won't go back to the convoy at the end of the chapter like they would if she were an ally unit. You are no longer able to defeat [[TheEmperor Hardin]], and since his defeat is required (He is invulnerable to damage by units not carrying the Lightsphere, is immobile and must be defeated to clear his chapter) for ''both the bad ending and the good ending'', you will never be able to complete the game.

* In ''VideoGame/SaGa2'', utilizing the "trashcan bug" can result in this if overused. Using the trashcan as an item at specific [[PlotCouponThatDoesSomething MAGI]] counts will give it the effect of other items. Most of the effects are those of pretty ordinary items that can easily be bought, but if used at exactly 67 or 68 MAGI, it will have the effect of free, normally very rare [[RareCandy permanent-stat raising potions]] (Power at 67, Speed at 68). However, overusing this glitch will screw up the MAGI counter after a certain number of uses (the exact number of uses depends on equipped MAGI) and [[LaserGuidedKarma leave the player unable to progress with the game.]]

* It is possible to do this right at the start of the Flash platformer ''Absorbed'', by simply not taking the absorbtion gun that is the game's primary mechanic (you take it automatically by touching it, so you have to deliberately avoid doing so). This doesn't stop you moving to the next area, which locks behind you. There is then no way to proceed from there.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'', you can recruit the enemy general Sheena, who will then un-recruit herself and become an enemy if you kill one of the soldiers of her nation. If you hand her the PlotCoupon items Starsphere and Lightsphere and then kill a Gra soldier and turn her back into an enemy, then they won't drop when she's killed, and they also won't go back to the convoy at the end of the chapter like they would if she were an ally unit. You can now no longer cash in your Plot Coupons, making the game unwinnable.

** A skilled player may reach Luma Pools without Kuro's Feather by use of the Triple Jump and Spirit Smash, but triggering the cutscene with Kwolok at this point will [[ScriptBreaking break the quest line]]. A similar situation occurs if you sequence-break into Weeping Ridge and reach the entrance to [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Willow's End]].

** A skilled player may reach Luma Pools without Kuro's Feather by use of the Triple Jump and Spirit Smash, but triggering the cutscene with Kwolok at this point will [[ScriptBreaking break the quest line]].

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':

Other times, it's a reasonable oversight. When the fruits of a few dozen programmers gets into the hands of thousands or even millions of players, odds are at least a few of them are going to be far more creatively insane than anyone could realistically account for. See DevelopersForesight for examples of where they actually ''do'', though.

** In ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', you need 6000 pieces of eight to buy a map piece from an antiques dealer. The intended path involves recovering the figurehead from a shipwreck, which requires devising a way to strengthen your spit to win a spitting contest to raise money to hire a ship. However, you can get 1 piece of eight at a time for polishing one of the Men of Low Moral Fiber's peg leg; this cuts off before you get to 6000, but if you've bought something else from the antiques dealer, you can sell it back to him to get enough. Later, when Guybrush is captured by [=LeChuck=], he needs to strengthen his spit to escape; if you skipped that path and didn't know about the drinks, you're stuck. The CD-ROM and remakes of the game cap the amount of times you can polish his leg at 19 pieces of eight, however.

* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', you could actually save ''while dead''. However, the game protected you from ill-timed ''quick'' saves, stating helpfully "[[AC:You cannot "quick save" when dead!]]"

** You can make ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' unwinnable by managing to get everyone except Lyn killed in Chapter 3. Then in Chapter 4 you'll be tasked with protecting a NPC with Lyn guarding the way, but [[ButThouMust the tutorial will force you to move her away to talk with an enemy]] [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption leaving the NPC completely defenseless]].

** Throughout the series, one can break everyone's weapons, then spend all your money on non-weapon items. Congratulations, you can no longer damage your enemies! ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' rectifies this by giving Chrom the Falchion to start with, which is unbreakable and unsellable, and if he dies it's GameOver anyway. Still possible, however, if you give the weapon to someone who isn't Chrom (which is stupid in itself unless you give it to the original Marth due to anyone else either being unable to use it or already having one), making it impossible to retrieve it anymore unless that person happens to be there. It's not possible in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', due to ditching the durability mechanic for all non-staff weapons.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon:'' If you spend too much of your money and don't have enough animals and/or things to sell to get some back, you can be put in a situation were you cannot buy more animals and things, and if you don't have enough animals because they all died or something, you cannot even slowly make more money because you won't get enough guests. The only solution other than restarting or loading a save file is to use a cheat code to make more money.
** This sort of situation, where you have no money and no way to make money, was what caused the original ''VideoGame/SimCity'' to add a lose condition. If you mess up too bad, you get a game over.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':

* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', [[SequenceBreaking it is possible to reach]] [[GiantSpider Mora the Spider]] in Mouldwood Depths without the [[LightEmUp Flash spell]] that guards against the [[DarknessEqualsDeath lethal darkness]] plaguing the dungeon, however, this results in the fight being unwinnable, as Mora will summon said darkness when she TurnsRed.

* Fairly early into ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', there is a level where Fei goes by himself into a cave piloting his gear. There is a service robot he encounters, which the game gives you the option to fight and kill. This robot also sells you gear parts, which you'll probably need to survive the wave of boss battles ahead. If you save your game after killing the robot, then the upcoming battles are nearly impossible without a gameshark. And no, you can't just grind to obscene levels, that's not how Xenogears works.

** Since [[ShopliftAndDie shoplifting is serious business]], shops are a good place to trap yourself. If you use or break some of the store's wares, the shopkeeper will block the exit until you pay them back. If you have insufficient gold and sellable items, can't sneak out (requires digging or teleportation), and aren't strong enough to kill the shopkeeper, you're stuck. A "liquor emporium" works well for this, since everything for sale is fragile glass bottles, and the shopkeeper only accepts gold and potions as (re)payment. Trying on a cursed cloak of invisibility with no means of uncursing it is a [[UnwinnableByMistake more plausible]] way to get trapped in a shop (you can't unequip cursed items, and shopkeepers will block the door when you're invisible, even if you're already inside).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'':

[[caption-width-right:255:Talk about {{digging yourself deeper}}...]]