History Main / YouShouldntKnowThisAlready

** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}'' when you CAN try to paint Sunrise before the game teaches you about it: if you do, Issun will blatantly ask if you're "trying to draw the sun or something".

If you were looking for the trope about spoilers that really shouldn't be spoilers, see YouShouldKnowThisAlready.

* Like World of Warcraft above, "Provisioners" (cooks) in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' have to have read a recipe (that is inexplicably destroyed upon reading it) to learn how to cook meals and brew drinks. Even stuff as basic as a baked potato.

** In Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword there's a point where you need to complete Farore's symbol by drawing a circle. You may well already know the symbol from previous plays or other games in the series, but drawing a circle won't work until Link checks a nearby carving.

* ''VideoGame/GarfieldBigFatHairyDeal'': Averted. It's possible to navigate the [[BlackoutBaseement dark sewers]] and kick Nermal to get his item even though you can't see where anything is, provided you know the layout.

** In Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword there's a point where you need to complete Farore's symbol by drawing a circle. You may well already know the symbol from or other games in the series, but drawing a circle won't work until Link checks a nearby carving.

* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' has RecurringBoss Asha set a trap for the main character at one point, [[spoiler:holding Dan hostage and eventually killing him.]] However, an observant player will notice a nearby spot to put a trapmine even though there aren't any enemies left [[spoiler: which is where a Komato soldier teleports in to attack Iji from behind so she can't stop Asha]], and if they save the one trapmine they got in that level and put it there instead, it'll foil Asha's plan (complete with a hilariously baffled reaction on his part) and lead to a better ending.

* ''{{Videogame/Paranoiac}}''. You will encounter a GameBreakingBug if you use the code for the computer before you learn it in-game, which makes you lock yourself out of several rooms.

* In ''Videogame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', if you type in the correct passcode to an electronic lock before you actually learn said passcode, [[DevelopersForesight Cartman will pop up in the corner of the screen to tell you to stop cheating]]. [[TakeThat He dresses like a New England Patriots football coach while doing so.]]

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', you can meld any command you have the base components for, but unless you have the recipes, which are found throughout the game, you wont have any idea what it is you're melding. Even once you've made a command once, it won't show you the results of its melding until you have the recipe. This can be amazing when you accidentally create a giga command fairly early, and amazingly frustrating when you end up creating three of the same crappy command in a row even though you used very different inputs.

* Some attacks in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' must be purchased before they can be used no matter what, even if the method to use them is as simple as holding the analog stick towards or away from a locked-on enemy. Replaying missions with abilities, items, and weapons [[NewGamePlus unlocked from later missions]] also results in this - for instance, if in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' you replay the mission that introduces the Grim Grips, even though you already have the item that allows you to take advantage of them, you still have to go into the building that housed it and interact with the now-empty pedestal you grabbed it from the first time before you can do so.

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'' parodies this. If you type the password on the keypad in the boss' office before the Narrator can reveal it, the Narrator punishes your impatience my making you wait, and on subsequent visits, just opens the door without waiting for the player to type the password.

* The dances in ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'', at least in games that require button sequences for the transformations. While you might be able to remember them from your last playthrough or a previous installment, said sequences don't actually do anything until you're formally taught.

** In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', several characters have a special power that allows them to get around this. [[spoiler:Namely, Sigma and Phi can remember, and make use of, events the player has seen on previous playthroughs of the game ''before'' they have occurred in the plot of a current playthrough, frequently baffling or scaring the other characters. In the final ending, the player takes control of an unknown character who baffles Phi in the same way.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Aquaria}}'' you have to have the experience (usually beating the right boss) that teaches you a song before you can sing it. This is because ''Aquaria'''s songs function like powerups in other MetroidVania games.

*** The Bomber's Hideout requires a pass code that's randomly generated when a save file is created. You're supposed to go through a hide-and-seek quest in order to learn the pass code from the leader, but if you reload the save file to the beginning and try the same code, they'll let you in. While this seems kind of pointless since you have to do the quest anyway, it's essentially the {{Metagame}} for [[{{Speedrun}} speedrunners]] who use the in-game timer. On the second cycle, the leader of the Bombers, Jim, is surpised at how you knew the code without having a notebook and giving it to you, saving you from having to do the hunt a second time.
*** And it's slightly [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the 3DS version, where you instead get the Notebook from the Happy Mask Salesman in addition to the Deku Mask and the Song Of Healing, and the Bombers' entry, complete with the code, is already added. You do still have to learn the code in the first cycle, though.

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterBoyAndTheCursedKingdom'', a guard asks you for a password, which renders as a multiple-choice question for you. If you haven't yet unveiled the clues about the password, you get a different set of choices, all obviously wrong.
* The celestial brush strokes in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', along with some combat moves. At the beginning, you can't access the brush screen until Issun tells you you can, and you can't use Sunrise (which Ammy supposedly had all along) until you've jumped through the appropriate plot hoops.
** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}'' when you CAN try to paint Sunrise before the game teaches you about it: if you do, Issun will blatantly ask if you're "trying to draw the sun or something".
* The dances in ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'', at least in games that require button sequences for the transformations. While you might be able to remember them from your last playthrough or a previous installment, said sequences don't actually do anything until you're formally taught.

* In ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' you can only open the password-protected doors in the enemy base by scanning the door and receiving the password; and you only receive the password after finishing the associated mission. The passwords are determined from the beginning of the game; but if you reload the game and try to enter the password before receiving it, it won't work.

* ''VideoGame/TheBlackwellSeries'': In ''The Blackwell Convergence'', there is a number of topics you can look up on the protagonist's computer. If you try searching any key topics before they come up during the game, the data will still appear, but Joey will yell at you for looking up "random irrevelant things".

* In ''Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur'', attempting to speak the magic word for shapeshifting ''before'' Merlin teaches it to you results in "Nothing happens. (Playing from a saved game, are we?)"
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' requires you to learn insults and comebacks by fighting the pirates who wander the island. Since you can't type in free text, only select from a list of things you've heard before, even if you happen to know the right responses you can't use them until Guybrush has learned them.
* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'' parodies this. If you type the password on the keypad in the boss' office before the Narrator can reveal it, the Narrator punishes your impatience my making you wait, and on subsequent visits, just opens the door without waiting for the player to type the password.
* ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest: Open Season'' says this if you search for "Walker" on the Parker Center office computer before the story prompts you to do so.
* ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject 3'' has Arthur respond with bewilderment before slyly asking if you've been reading the hint guide if you complete a puzzle without learning the reason behind it first.
* ''VideoGame/ColossalCave'': if you go where the Pirate's treasure chest is before encountering the Pirate, you just reach a dead end. The chest isn't there.

* ''VideoGame/SecretFiles'': In the second game, in Bishop Perry's chapter, if you try to hide the Parchment in the Book on the Desk without first finding out that William Patterson requested it, he stops the action because he doesn't know who the book is going to.
* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIHeirTodayGoneTomorrow'' doesn't just avert this, you ''have'' to use outside knowledge in order to win. In order to deal with [[TreacherousAdvisor Alhazred]]'s genie, Prince Alexander can get an identical copy of the genie's lamp and have Jollo the court jester [[FakinMacGuffin swap it for the real deal]]. The only way to know ''what'' the lamp looks like is via a cutscene, which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Jollo asks Alexander how he knew what the lamp looked like, and Alex says that he just "got a feeling".
** The alternative solution to this problem involves getting the genie [[DrunkOnMilk drunk on peppermint]] during the final confrontation, which causes him to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blast himself with a misdirected spell]]. However, this isn't quite to the same level as the lamp, since while it's spelled out in a cutscene there's also a scene immediately beforehand where Alexander witnesses the genie (in the guise of an old man) eat a mint and stumble off drunkenly, and the character is certainly clever enough to put two and two together.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Unavowed}}'', typing a password you shouldn't know about will give you an electric shock. Similarly, solving another puzzle without first finding its solution will cause the other characters to reprimand you.
* In ''VideoGame/WoodruffAndTheSchnibbleOfAzimuth'', you cannot call plot-important tobozon numbers until you learn about them in-game.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' won't let you use the Capacity Core menu (and thus set Luke a core) untill a small tutorial in the Cheagle Woods, even on your second playthrough, when you brought Tutti and just thought things were going smoothly. That's why it's strongly recommended that you don't level up until then which is a pain with monsters jumping at you. It gets worse if you also picked the "10x experience" option.

* Astral Heats in ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' - if you haven't cleared Arcade mode with the appropriate character (except for Rachel, Ragna, and Nu-13), the input for them will do nothing, even if the other conditions required for use are in play.

* Like World of Warcraft above, "Provisioners" (cooks) in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' have to have read a recipe (that is inexplicably destroyed upon reading it) to learn how to cook meals and brew drinks. Even stuff as basic as a baked potato.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' is a notable offender of this trope. It does not matter if you figured out who the real culprit is, or which evidence or piece of testimony points it out. If your character did not figure it out, then you cannot point it out.
** Early in the first ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' game's second case, you find a small piece of paper that says "Maya", written in blood. It's actually [[spoiler:a receipt for a (now broken) glass stand Mia bought a day before being killed]]. Later in the case, [[spoiler:the killer's final testimony involves him stating he saw the glass stand in one piece a week before the murder]]. Even if you already know presenting that piece of paper is necessary to point out the contradiction, you cannot do that until [[spoiler: Mia tells you how it proves he's lying]].

** ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' brings back manual code entry, and that element of metagaming returns with it. This seems to be intentional, too - the game ''does'' recognize whether or not Adam would know the code; when accessing a keypad or computer whose password he knows, a little popup will appear in one corner of the screen with the code written out for your convenience.

** Earlier ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' games avert this. In Ultima 4, 5, and 6, you need to learn the proper mantra for each Virtue; but they are the same in every game, and if you remember them from the previous installment, it'll still work.

* ''Amulets & Armor'' does it both ways: Picking a character class from one of the two magical families (Arcane or Holy) will give you a set of runes to cast spells with, and each spell is recorded as a note page in your inventory. You can pick up more as you play through the levels, but you're free to cast any spell at any time, the notes are just a reference for the player. You need the right runes, however, so even if you memorize an Arcane spell, a Cleric (who has holy runes) can't cast it. (In theory you could pick up the runes, as they're just items, but in reality there isn't a full set in the levels)
* In ''Videogame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', if you type in the correct passcode to an electronic lock before you actually learn said passcode, [[DevelopersForesight Cartman will pop up in the corner of the screen to tell you to stop cheating]]. [[TakeThat He dresses like a New England Patriots football coach while doing so.]]
* Overlapping with NoFairCheating, the original ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' has six clues leading to the [[FryingPanOfDoom Frying Pan]], which starts off as weak, but can receive up to five augmentations. However, if you dig it up without finding all six clues, it deals zero damage and has no augmentation slots.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth''. Early in the comic, Problem Sleuth comes across a piece of paper with three symbols - a star, a heart, and a horseshoe. [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000444 Later]], without the paper, he comes across a rotary phone with symbols instead of numbers. However, the 'game' doesn't let him dial the right combination unless he returns with the piece of paper:

-->-- '''Dongolev''', ''[[VideoGame/PeasantsQuest Peasant's Quest]]''

* ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'' parodies this. If you type the password on the keypad in the boss' office before the Narrator can reveal it, the Narrator reprimands you for interfering with the story, and on subsequent visits, just opens the door without waiting for the player to type the password.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}''. Finishing the game involves opening the Star Fissure, which requires a password that is randomized each playthrough. It's possible to play through the game, obtain the password, then reload a save made at the very start and open the Star Fissure, [[spoiler: which gets you an ending that cuts straight to you falling through and going home, without any appearance by Atrus, Catherine, ''or'' Gehn]].