History YouCantGoHomeAgain / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Tidus spends most of the game looking forward to returning to [[DoomedHometown Zanarkand]], which he discovers is pretty impossible seeing that it's been in ruins for the past thousand years and [[spoiler:wasn't even really ''his'' Zanarkand anyway because he had been living in a literal dreamworld.]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has it too. Cloud and Tifa can never have their home town back because it was [[DoomedHometown burned to the ground]] by Sephiroth. Although [[spoiler:the town is rebuilt by Shinra and stocked with actors to cover up the event later in the game, the implication is still the same.]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}: After 210 years in experimental cryo, your house is still standing, and even a few of your family members survived. But the house isn't the same after centuries of aging, and you lose your family (sans butler) in the end.

** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas: Lonesome Road'', the Courier finds out that they [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed destroyed their implied hometown]] by delivering a mysterious package from Navarro that detonated the Divide's nuclear missiles.

* In ''VideoGame/ThreeInThree'', the main character spends most of the plot trying to get back to the spreadsheet she lived in, only to discover in the end that she doesn't really belong there anymore.

* ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' for the SNES kicked off the plot with this, when TheHero is kicked out of his home village for removing a rusty sword from a stone, thus drawing monsters to it. In order to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, he has to find a way to unlock the sword's true potential.
** With a little glitching, he can go home again, [[GameBreakingBug but he can't get out.]]
** Also, in ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3'', if you have Duran in your party and try to enter his house in Forcena, he will say that he can't return home until he has killed Koren, and the party will be unable to enter the house. Even after you kill Koren you still can't enter his house!

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* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1: Opposing Force'''s Adrian Shephard can't go home again because he [[spoiler:was trapped by the G-man in an alternate dimension to ''preserve him''. All in the name of "discretion". Which ultimately is made more depressing by the fact that Earth is now a CrapSackWorld under the jackboots of the Combine.]]

* Rath from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Fire Emblem 7]]'' was outcast from the Kutolah tribe at a very young age, due to a prophecy that said he'd have a great future if he saw the world on his own. In his solo ending, he returns to the tribe after the end and his tribesmen welcome him back warmly; in his paired ending with Lyn, Rath comes back alone but some time later Lyn joins him and they have a daughter, [[spoiler:Sue]].

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout1}}'' ends with the Vault Dweller being banished from his Vault, due to having been radically changed by his experiences in the wastes and possible hero worship amongst the Vault's younger dwellers causing them to leave en masse. They left anyway.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'': Saving the tribe means The Chosen One gets to STAY with the tribe, wherever they're forced to go.
* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', [[PlayerCharacter the Lone Wanderer]] is living with their father, James, in the underground shelter Vault 101. However, when James leaves the Vault, the paranoid Vault Overseer tries to have the Wanderer killed, forcing them to flee into the Wasteland to find their father. Later, the Wanderer returns to the Vault to find that its inhabitants are embroiled in a civil war over whether or not to keep the Vault locked down. If the Wanderer finds a peaceful solution, their childhood friend Amata becomes the new Overseer. However, as she explains, a lot of people still blame them for everything that went wrong. For the sake of peace in the Vault, the Wanderer is forced to leave again, this time for good. And of course, if the Wanderer kills innocents or outright sabotages the life support systems, everyone in the Vault yells at you to leave.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}: After 210 years in experimental cryo, your house is still standing, and even a few of your family members survived. But the house isn't the same after centuries of aging, and you lose your family (sans butler) in the end.

* ''You'' if you're a player character in ''[[NexusWar Nexus Clash]]''. Just being pulled into the titular Clash means that the entire universe you came from has been destroyed and no longer exists to go home ''to''. The best you can do is help win the war in the name of a [[PowersThatBe Power]] who will shape a new world more in line with your ideals, but even then you're stuck in the war and can't go live there.

** Recent developments in ''WorldOfWarcraft'': [[spoiler:The blood elves of formerly-neutral Dalaran have all been arrested, kicked out, or killed as the city-state joins the Alliance. Also, Vol'jin, leader of the Horde's trolls, lived through an assassination attempt from one of Garrosh's soldiers and is now hiding out in Pandaria while the Horde believes him dead.]]

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' ends with the Vault Dweller being banished from his Vault, due to having been radically changed by his experiences in the wastes and possible hero worship amongst the Vault's younger dwellers causing them to leave en masse. They left anyway.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', [[PlayerCharacter the Lone Wanderer]] is living with their father, James, in the underground shelter Vault 101. However, when James leaves the Vault, the paranoid Vault Overseer tries to have the Wanderer killed, forcing them to flee into the Wasteland to find their father. Later, the Wanderer returns to the Vault to find that its inhabitants are embroiled in a civil war over whether or not to keep the Vault locked down. If the Wanderer finds a peaceful solution, their childhood friend Amata becomes the new Overseer. However, as she explains, a lot of people still blame them for everything that went wrong. For the sake of peace in the Vault, the Wanderer is forced to leave again, this time for good.

** The original ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' ends with the Vault Dweller being banished from his Vault, due to having been radically changed by his experiences in the wastes and possible hero worship amongst the Vault's younger dwellers causing them to leave en masse.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', the [[OurElvesAreBetter Maormer (Sea Elves)]] were banished from Aldmeris, the ancient homeland of the {{Precursors}} of the races of Mer (Elves), after attempting a rebellion. There is said to be a literal veil of mist that they cannot penetrate surrounding their former home.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' follows a group of explorers as they go beyond the Milky Way Galaxy and make the journey to Andromeda. Since it takes 600 years to reach it, this is a strictly one-way trip.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', all three of Shepard's backgrounds ensure that they can never go home again: if you choose Earthborn, Shepard is an orphan who grew up on the streets; if you choose Colonist, Shepard's parents were killed and the colony razed in a batarian raid; if you choose Spaceborn, Shepard has a family, but grew up on multiple space stations and colonies as they moved around with the military.

* Might be the fate of the crew of the ''Spirit of Fire'' from ''VideoGame/HaloWars''.

* In the first TheSims game, if a child fails school, s/he will be sent to military school and will never be seen or heard from again.
** Same thing for couples who break up. One of them will leave the house and will never be seen or heard from again.

* For most of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', Lloyd is exiled from his hometown due to a petulant proclamation by an arrogant mayor who scapegoats him for the town's problems.

** Averted toward the end of the first disc when [[spoiler:The characters must decide which side they stay on when they separate the worlds. Ultimately, this is ruled out as a solution]].

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', [[PlayerCharacter the Lone Wanderer]] is living with his father, James, in the underground shelter Vault 101. However, when James leaves the Vault, the paranoid Vault Overseer tries to have the Wanderer killed, forcing him to flee into the Wasteland to find his father. Later, the Wanderer returns to the Vault to find that it's inhabitants are embroiled in a civil war over whether or not to keep the Vault locked down. If the Wanderer finds a peaceful solution, his childhood friend Amata becomes the new Overseer. However, as she explains, a lot of people still blame him for everything that went wrong. For the sake of peace in the Vault, the Wanderer is forced to leave again, this time for good.

* In ''JadeEmpire'', the village where the Spirit Monk and Dawn Star grew up is [[DoomedHometown burned to the ground at the end of the prologue]]. Subverted in that [[spoiler: the Spirit Monk actually gets to go to Dirge, their real home, later in the game]].

* In ''{{Otherspace}}'', the universe that houses our solar system began to break apart due to a massive war between titanic forces, forcing the players to make the journey to a new universe and start over there.

* ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' had a subplot which demonstrated that remaining in space too long will result in you finding all of your friends on Earth now long dead.