History WhatHappenedToTheMouse / VideoGames

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** The fourth case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' revolves around a murder committed during the hostage exchange of [[spoiler:Dahlia Hawthorne]] for a two million dollar diamond. Much is made of the fact that [[spoiler: Dahlia Hawthorne]] disappeared along with the diamond after the murder, but while the former is found easily the latter is never recovered. One could assume [[spoiler: Dahlia]] sold it, but that doesn't explain why the thief doesn't have two million dollars sitting in their bank account somewhere and it's not brought up again. Another interpretation is that the thief lost the diamond when [[spoiler: she tried to escape via a river which she vastly underestimated the danger of.]]
** The first game caused an accidental disappearing mouse. In the fourth case Manfred von Karma makes a throwaway reference to having a child whose seven year old daughter has a dog named Phoenix. In the second game we meet his daughter Franziska, who does ''not'' have any children, nor is old enough to have a seven year old one. While this was probably not intended, many people are left wondering who the mysterious older von Karma sibling is. The creators have confirmed that Manfred ''does'' have an older daughter, who is the mother of the granddaughter he mentions, but that still doesn't explain why we never hear anything else about her.
** There is also the missing fourth clue from the final case in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll Justice For All]]'', that Franziska took with her abroad and promised to return to Wright when they meet again. She never did give it to him in the next game.
** In the third case of the first game, Sal Manella disappears after his testimony, and is never mentioned again after [[spoiler:Phoenix mentions that he helped Dee Vasquez move the body]]. He gets a brief cameo in the first ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' game, but it's still never mentioned what happened to him between case 1-3 and then.
** In case 2-4, Matt Engarde's cat, Shoe, only serves as a one-two plot device ([[spoiler:while talking to Maya's kidnapper, Phoenix hears him meowing in the background, revealing that the kidnapper is at Engarde's mansion]]), and is never mentioned again afterwards in the game. A [[SideStoryBonusArt promotional artwork]] shows that Gumshoe adopted Shoe, along with Polly the parrot.
** In the "Turnabout Revolution" case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', one of the royal guardsman is sent to bring Phoenix and Miles Edgeworth to see the queen. Usually such minor characters are not given names or sprites, but this one has (he's called Lah'kee). Under the LawOfConservationOfDetail one would expect he has something to do with the case, but not only is he uninvolved, he never shows up again after that one scene.
* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'':
** Davis disappears after ''Salvation''. Given he spent that mission's opening cutscene [[spoiler:panicking over having contracted the Creeper]], though, it's easy to guess what happened to him.
** [[TheNeidermeyer Captain Waylon]] just vanishes at the end of ''Waylon Flies Again''. What makes it such an odd example is he sets himself up ''perfectly'' for a good dose of {{Retirony}} '''and''' was [[spoiler:the man who offed General Forsythe]]. While it's possible he died during the battle like a few other characters have, you'd think he'd at least get a cutscene or a death rattle.
--->'''Waylon:''' [[{{Retirony}} One more mission and I can retire to my burned-out mansion!]]
** Tabitha's fate is also left ambiguous following the end of ''Lab Rats''. [[spoiler:Penny can [[HiveMind feel everything the rest of her family feels]], so she knows that Cyrus and Caulder are dead without being told, but even she doesn't know what happened to Tabitha.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}}'': It seems that Key doesn't like best friends hanging around when the protagonist is facing huge problems in his life, Sunohara was not seen in the later years of After Story, while the other girls obviously shouldn't have much importance as Tomoya already consumated with his choice, some of them actually get expanded appearances in the anime, whereas Sunohara does not in any way, the only information about him is given when the story is next to it's closure, said information is only about what's his current job and that's it, even his sister got to appear more than him.

* Played with in the third chapter of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': [[spoiler:Both Ibuki Mioda and Hiyoko Saionji are murdered by Mikan Tsumiki, and while both girls' deaths are solved during the class trial, the surviving students are more focused on Ibuki's death than Hiyoko's (Mainly because Ibuki's death has more clues leading to the murderer than Hiyoko's) causing her case to be OutOfFocus for most of the trial. What's worse, the murder weapon which was used to kill her (via slashing her throat) is never found during the investigation and no one seems concerned about the fact that they never found it nor does anyone ever bring it up while discussing the incidents.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', it is never revealed who stole the toaster, or why. Amazingly, it’s lampshaded by the protagonist at the very end of the story. Mortelli has solved the mystery, but declines to name the culprit.

* ''Infinity'' series:
** What was with the game of kick the can in ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}''? [[spoiler:Blick Winkel and time travel]] don't explain that at all. Despite the MindScrewdriver of the True End route it's ''still'' not clear what was going on there.
** The true identity of the bodies discovered on Mt. Akakura in ''VisualNovel/{{Remember11}}'' is never revealed. [[spoiler: They are initially presumed to be Kokoro, Lin, and Yomogi, as those three were the only unaccounted-for passengers of a plane that crashed in that area, but the true end reveals that the three of them survived.]]
*** Although Yuni implied that [[spoiler:the newspaper with the article itself was fabricated.]]

** In the remake of ''Resident Evil'' for UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube, you find a unique corpse slumped against the wall in the stairwell (where there are later crows on the lights). You can examine it to read "What the hell happened in this mansion?" Later on the corpse is just... gone, you never encounter a zombie that looks like it, and [[ParanoiaFuel nobody knows where it wandered off to]].

*** Depending on the ending that you choose there are many.
*** [[spoiler: If you choose to kill Trevor, the game ends without ever resolving problems with Devin Weston who owes Franklin money and wants Michael dead.]]
*** [[spoiler: If you choose to kill Michael, the game ends without ever tying up Trevor's story -- both Wei Cheng's Triads and the FIB want him dead but we never hear from them again.]]
*** [[spoiler: Both endings in which you choose to kill one of the main characters fail to resolve Franklin's plot line; Stretch is still alive and does not get any sort of retribution for betraying Lamar and Franklin.]]

** Bowser Jr. mentions that he got the Paintbrush from "a strange old man in a white coat" as the camera focuses on the [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion E. Gadd]] logo on F.L.U.D.D.'s side. We never find out if Bowser Jr. stole the Paintbrush from Professor Gadd or if Gadd gave it to Bowser Jr., especially because E. Gadd never makes a physical appearance.
** The ending of the game if you didn't get 100% shows Il Piantissimo finding the Magic Paintbrush, possibly setting up a SequelHook. He's never seen again, and Bowser Jr. has the paintbrush back in all subsequent games.

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'':
** In the backstory for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Solid Snake has taken up dog sledding in his retirement, and owns "fifty huskies" which he calls his family. Many a dog lover has been made very upset by the absence of dogs in every later game -- they are not [[ForgottenFallenFriend even mentioned]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', and in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' he has three pet chickens but no dogs. Where did they end up? Are they OK? (Some speculate that the dogs in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' are the descendants of Snake's huskies, explaining their affection for him, but it's not clear why Snake would dump his 'family' on a nuclear disposal cleanup facility on a remote Alaskan island. It's more likely they are the remnants/descendants of Sniper Wolf's wolfpack, as it's implied that one of them is Sniper Wolf reincarnated.) Given that Campbell's response to the line about the huskies is "[[ImpliedDeathThreat Don't worry about your dogs"]]...
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', there's a significant scene after Wolf's death where Otacon begs Snake "what are we fighting for?" and Snake responds, "if we make it out of this, I'll tell you". Snake never tells Otacon what he's fighting for (even in his big speech in the ending) and it never comes up in any of the later games. The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' novelisation allows Snake to answer the question during a part that, in the game, is a gameplay sequence.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** A comedic example in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''; you can take up a short treasure hunt, which culminates in lowering a treasure-hunting dwarf down a well to retrieve a bag of loot. It turns out to hold a fortune in bottlecaps, the now-worthless currency of the previous game. After cursing, kicking a bit of dirt and ultimately having a good laugh about it, you head off again, leaving the dwarf stuck down the well.
** Quite famously within the fandom, in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' you never do rescue Sulik's sister Kurisu, find Sulik's village, or any trace of the slaver group that kidnapped her as they were all DummiedOut from the final version. Kurisu was planned to appear as a companion in the cancelled ''VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren'', but she's yet to appear in a game since. The fan-made restoration mod finally lets you save her.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Riku warns Sora that "we may never see our parents again" if they leave the islands. This is the first and last time their parents are mentioned in the entire series.
** Kairi's grandmother appears in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' and in a brief flashback (of the very same scene) in the original Kingdom Hearts, but is never mentioned again.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Scar]] is one of two entities in the entire series to retain his body after falling to darkness and becoming a Heartless. The other one is ''the series BigBad''. This is an amazing amount of willpower, and it's been firmly established that when a person with sufficient willpower becomes a Heartless, a Nobody is also created. However, there has been no hint of any kind that Scar's hypothetical Nobody will even ''exist'', much less become plot-relevant.

** And also the fate of Dynamo from the same game. He shows up two times to fight X and Zero, once after defeating two Mavericks needed to obtain parts for the Enigma, and the second time after defeating two Mavericks needed to obtain parts for the Space Shuttle to destroy [[ColonyDrop Eurasia]]. After those two battles, however, Dynamo doesn't die, and just disappears from the plot, not showing up as a sub-boss in the Zero Space stages, and nobody even mentions him again. Even though Dynamo shows up in [[VideoGame/MegaManX6 in the next game]], he only does so as a BonusBoss in the alternate pathways after defeating all 8 Mavericks, defeating High Max or collecting 3000 Nightmare Souls. And he doesn't die at the end of the battle either, just teleports out as soon as X or Zero defeat him. None of the games that followed ''X6'' explained Dynamo's fate.

** This is not surprising if you have played as a Death Knight. During the starter quests, a Val'kyr will typically help you once or twice after you die in battle and not be seen again. However, Annhylde's fate is revealed in Sylvanas's short story; she is one of a few surviving Val'kyr and [[spoiler:gives her life to revive Sylvanas after her suicide]].
** In ''Burning Crusade'', we meet Sabellian, a black dragon who helps the player defeat a Gronn. He survives the battle and disappears afterward. Two expansions later, the Fangs of the Father questline is centered around helping the uncorrupted black dragon Wrathion eliminate the rest of the Black Dragonflight. Despite Wrathion claiming to be the LastOfHisKind at the end of the questline, Sabellian is neither killed nor mentioned to be dead, leading some to believe he may have survived. Of course, it's also possible he died offscreen and the player just doesn't find out.
*** An [[WordOfGod Ask CDev]] briefly addressed this, saying that Wrathion is the LastOfHisKind ''as far as he knows'', but also points out that Wrathion is not all-knowing, implying Sabellian did indeed survive.
*** Fifteen years after his appearance in ''Burning Crusade'', Sabellian would finally return in ''Dragonflight'', confirming he did indeed survive the extermination of the original black dragons and that Wrathion missed him due to his exodus to Outland. While he and Wrathion are not actively trying to kill each other, they have a tense relationship as political rivals, both vying for control of the now-uncorrupted Black Dragonflight.

** The leaders of the non-playable factions in [=WoW=] often suffer this fate. Even when there is a specific gathering of the major leaders, these guys often remain absent. Notable examples are Roanuk Icemist (leader of the taunka), Danath Trollbane (leader of stromgarde), Rexxar (champion of the horde), elder torntusk (leader of the revantusk trolls), Velog Icebellow (leader of the frostborn), Arechron (leader of the kurenai) and greatmother Geyah (leader of the mag'har).
*** Even the playable Draenei have been largely sidelined. At one point, they weren't invited to a major Alliance meeting because the member calling it ''forgot about them.''
** As far as worgen players are concerned, the worgen storyline drops off the face of the Earth after the worgen player completes the starter zone and is shipped off to Darkshore to become a night elf with fur. The continuation of the worgen story only appears in quests that are ''exclusive to the other faction''; to see the whole story, the worgen player would have to reroll a Horde character. The Alliance version of Shadowfang Keep references the events of the Horde-exclusive storyline, causing many an Alliance player to wonder who Ivar Bloodfang is, why he thinks Crowley is a coward, and why he wants the suddenly back from the dead trio of Godfrey, Walden, and Ashbury killed so bad.

* For a ''long'' time, ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' had this in form of Raba ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS or pick your preferred romanization]]). Appearing in the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of the original game and playing a decently major role in clearing it, the last we see of him he's wounded, but not mortally so, and he could easily have survived or died. He doesn't appear nor is mentioned in ''Ys II'', and ''Ys III'' ends up taking place in a distant land. What happened to him was ''finally'' addressed in ''Ys VI''... five games and '''16 years''' after his first appearance.

*** White and purple pikmin were also no shows in Pikmin 3's main story (though they do appear in mission mode and bingo battle), instead being functionally replaced by the flying and rock pikmin. The fate of the white and purple pikmin remains ambiguous at best.

** Actually this has all been resolved as of the latest Expansion pack to Dawn of War II, Retribution set a decade after the events in Chaos Rising [[spoiler: Long story short, the now corrupted Chapter Master/Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras makes an Epic FaceHeelTurn and turns half of the Chapter to Chaos, in the Space Marine campaign it's revealed that although Ulkair was responsible for allowing Kyras to GoMadFromTheRevelation it's the Maledictum Deamon -- the same one that Gabriel released in the first game -- that turns him to Khorne and leads him to slaughter millions for the Blood God so he can ascend to Daemon Princehood, in the last mission Gabriel goes one on one with the Daemon Price and promptly get's his ass kicked, though thanks to the Player Character he survives and in an AwesomeMomentOfCrowning is named Chapter Master in the final cutscene of the Space Marine Campaign]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'': What was with Kamyu's blood drinking, spirit talking and... other nighttime activities, anyway? Presumably they were supposed to be foreshadowing for Mutsumi but... she didn't do any of that stuff either. And it's not like the original her even ''could'' have done anything like that. Plus, [[spoiler:isn't Mutsumi Hakuoro's surrogate daughter?]] It seems doubtful that she would do anything like she did if she's supposed to be being influenced or something.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfileCovenantOfThePlume'', there's the question of Natalia's lost children. They're strongly implied to be [[spoiler: [[EnfantTerrible Enfants Terrible]] Mischka and Mirielle]], but the matter is never direct addressed, nor does it have much apparent bearing on the plot. Even though they meet on two of the game's story paths, and [[spoiler: Mischka and Mirielle kill Natalia in one of them.]]

** James himself in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''. The game has no canon ending and the only thing that we know for sure is that he went to Silent Hill and never returned. Later games just makes passing mention to his current whereabouts i.e Douglas Cartman from ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' saying that he was once involved in a missing person case in the Silent Hill and James' father Frank saying that he hasn't hear anything about his son since his trip to the cursed town in ''VideoGame/SilentHill4TheRoom''.

** In both ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'', [[TheNapoleon Ramón Salazar]] has a pair of Verdugos as his henchmen. In the original, he sends the red one to kill Leon in the sewers, and merges with the black one and the Queen Plaga to form the boss of the castle segment of the game. In the remake the red one still attacks you in the sewers, while the Queen Plaga was cut altogether and Salazar goes OneWingedAngel on you all on hos own -- the black Verdugo just vanishes and is never seen again. Furthermore, in both games it's possible to escape the sewers without killing the red Verdugo -- if you do ''this'', again it just vanishes from the story and is never seen again.

** There is also the missing fouth clue from the final case in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll Justice For All]]'', that Franziska took with her abroad and promised to return to Wright when they meet again. She never did give it to him in the next game.

** One was also ''very narrowly averted'' thanks to a HandWave in Golden Sun 2. Remember Babi, the old man who's life was a major plot point in the first game, and who needed you to go to Lemuria to prolong his life? Yep, he died. That's it. You hear just once in an offhand comment that he died, and nothing more is ever said about him at any other part of the game.

** As far as worgen players are concerned, the worgen storyline drops off the face of the Earth after the worgen player completes the starter zone and is shipped off to Darkshore to become a night elf with fur. This also overlaps with ObviousBeta in that the continuation of the worgen story only appears in quests that are ''exclusive to the other faction''; to see the whole story, the worgen player would have to reroll a Horde character. The Alliance version of Shadowfang Keep references the events of the Horde-exclusive storyline, causing many an Alliance player to wonder who Ivar Bloodfang is, why he thinks Crowley is a coward, and why he wants the suddenly back from the dead trio of Godfrey, Walden, and Ashbury killed so bad.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'':

--> '''Waylon:''' [[{{Retirony}} One more mission and I can retire to my burned-out mansion!]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'': In ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', if you got all the Chaos Emeralds (from the Sonic 3 part) you could, in addition to turning into Super Sonic, start upgrading them into the larger "Super Emeralds" in the Sonic & Knuckles part, allowing you to become Hyper Sonic, who was like Super Sonic only even more powerful. After this one appearance, the Emeralds are only seen in their standard small form, with no mention of the Super Emeralds or Hyper Sonic, although ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' referenced the former by having powerless stone replicas take their place in Hidden Palace.

*** [[spoiler: If you choose to kill Trevor, the game ends without ever resolving problems with Devon Weston who owes Franklin money and wants Michael dead.]]

*** In the new DS game, Magus, [[spoiler:upon the realization that he could never be strong enough to deal with the Time Devourer, casts aside his memories and winds up in a forest. What happens to him from ''there'' on the other hand...]]
** In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross,'' the scene where Kid declares that Terra Tower has assumed its true form, after which nothing is ever mentioned of it again. It just floats there menacingly for the rest of the game.