| 1 | ->''"Dude, what the hell? This isn't multiplayer. I'm only in there for like three seconds!"'' |
| 2 | -->-- '''Elliot''' complaining about ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' hidden multiplayer mode during WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny's review |
| 3 | |
| 4 | This is when an extra, not necessarily unlockable, feature present in a game or other medium: |
| 5 | * Lacks functionality compared to other aspects of the game. |
| 6 | * Does not work properly in the context of gameplay, often struggling to complete basic tasks other characters easily do, in the case of an extra character, or not meshing well with the rest of the game (in the case of bonus levels or items). |
| 7 | * Is simply a PaletteSwap or UndergroundMonkey Clone of an existing object. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Note that in this case "bonus" and "extra" refer to something that may not be found in normal gameplay; if you're not sure, a good litmus test would be the question "Could I conceivably play through the entire main game from beginning to end, OneHundredPercentCompletion notwithstanding, and not once find or utilize this feature?" |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This most likely occurs due to a CosmicDeadline. With the Almighty Deadline looming inexorably in the near future, many sensible developers would probably do the logical thing and make sure the game as a whole works properly and the main playable characters and scenarios are as complete as possible before working on giving AwesomeMcCoolname The Unlockable AntiHero Bringer Of Death some toys to play with. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Compare DummiedOut, where the extra stuff was axed entirely. Contrast GameWithinAGame, where the extra content is a full-fledged game in and of itself. When the unlocked item or character seems clearly intended to be bad, it's likely a JokeItem or JokeCharacter. Characters afflicted with this tend to devolve into {{Quirky Bard}}s. And also compare BraggingRightsReward, where you obtain extra content but only past a certain point where you probably won't have much use for it. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ''Beware! Since the vast majority of examples deal with unlockable rewards and other goodies, spoilers ahoy!'' |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Examples: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[folder:ActionAdventure]] |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/{{Afterimage}}'': Much like how it was done with the "secret" additional playable characters of the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games (and even its successor ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight''), you could play as 42 or Karsa in the Trial of Soul mode after the ''Trio in the Sea'' update (though 42 is also playable in the ten "New Game Plus" chapters beforehand). However, 42 and Karsa have very limited movesets, no access to equipment, consumable items, Talent trees, or equippable Afterimages. [[DownplayedTrope At the very least]], they're already at [[LevelCap Level 99]], with sufficient HP, MP, and Primeval Glyph upgrades. |
| 23 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': |
| 24 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': |
| 25 | *** The final reward for the Gold Skulltula sidequest is an unlimited supply of money. By that point, [[MoneyForNothing you have almost no use for it]]. |
| 26 | *** The Ice Arrows serve no purpose except to freeze enemies (an action you can do with other items that don't require depleting your magic meter); even if they had a use, it's obtained very late because it requires items housed in end-game dungeons. The game even lampshades this via a Gossip Stone located in Desert Colossus. In ''Majora's Mask'', the Ice Arrows are legitimately useful, but only because they were upgraded to a progression-critical item, so they're no longer a bonus feature to begin with. |
| 27 | *** The Stone of Agony, which is obtained by collecting 20 gold Skulltula tokens. It causes the rumble pak to vibrate if you're near a hidden hole that can be revealed with a bomb. Naturally, the feature is completely useless if you don't own a rumble pak. The Platform/VirtualConsole version also doesn't make the item work since the emulator doesn't support the rumble feature at all. The Platform/Nintendo3DS [[VideoGameRemake remake]] redesigned the item (now called the Shard of Agony) so that it makes a sound and flashes its icon on screen when you're near a secret. |
| 28 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': |
| 29 | *** The final Great Fairy treasure is the AwesomeButImpractical Great Fairy Sword, and you may already have upgraded to the more practical Gilded Sword by this time. And its status as a C-equipped weapon makes it trickier to use than the B-equipped standard sword. |
| 30 | *** The Fierce Deity's Mask. You can only use it against the five main bosses ([[GoodBadBugs though some glitches give the possibility of extending its use in the overworld]], and you can [[MundaneUtility use it in the fishing holes in the 3DS remake]]), and it doesn't have as many features as the usual transformation masks, so [[SwordBeam shooting little energy discs from the sword]] against the few enemies you can use it against gets old in a hurry. Also, because you must have gotten all the masks in the game to get it, you ''already'' had to beat all but the FinalBoss. |
| 31 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'': The Bombchus are only acquired as a bonus after starting a NewGamePlus, are not particularly useful at any point in the game, and cannot be restocked through drops from defeated enemies. |
| 32 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The HD remake turns the Hero's Charm into this, since it's gotten there at the end of the Savage Labyrinth instead of Windfall Island. And the Labyrinth is where the Charm would be otherwise very useful to check the HP of the stronger enemies to know how much they have before they die. |
| 33 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': Getting all the Poe Souls rewards you a Silver Rupee (200 rupees) every time you ask... but by then, Link has already beaten seven dungeons and the Cave of Ordeals to get those souls, filling up his wallet along the way. By comparison, the earlier reward of getting a bottle full of Great Fairy's Tears seems much better. It's NotCompletelyUseless, though, since Rupees also serve as fuel for your Magic Armor. |
| 34 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': |
| 35 | *** The Tunic of the Wild set, aka ''[=BotW=]''[='=]s rendition of Link's classic green clothes. It's obtained by beating all 120 shrines in the game, at which point Link is completely overpowered. And even if he wasn't, this Tunic is ''not'' the best armor set of the game, stats-wise. That's still the [[DiskOneNuke Champion's Tunic]], and there are other two armor sets that have the exact same defense stats as the Tunic of the Wild that are infinitely easier to find, namely the Soldier's Armor and the Ancient Armor. You'll also probably have those armor sets fully upgraded at this point, and to get the Tunic of the Wild up to par with them you'll have to upgrade it as well, which requires tedious grinding to find dragon parts and Star Fragments. The fact that a lot of people find the clothes design [[WTHCostumingDepartment bafflingly underwhelming]] doesn't help either. |
| 36 | *** The costumes included in the DLC campaigns. While they add some fun MythologyGags, they cannot be upgraded at the Fairy Fountains and most of them have the same effects as equipment found in the regular game. This makes them useful early in the game, but leaves them soon outclassed by equipment found later. |
| 37 | *** The Master Cycle Zero, a magitech motorcyle that Link can summon almost anywhere in the world, making it a useful alternative to a horse. However, it can only be unlocked after clearing all four Divine Beasts, by which time most players will have unlocked fast travel points in every corner of the map, making any other means of transport redundant. |
| 38 | *** For players going for OneHundredPercentCompletion, the Amiibo-exclusive armour sets. The game is ''very'' generous when it comes to Link's armour inventory, but he still doesn't have enough space to own every piece of armour made available to him via Amiibo. |
| 39 | * ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': Downplayed with almost every game from the {{Metroidvania}} group, which have an unlockable mode where you play as another character. While playing through the game again as another completely different character is fun, it still counts for the trope to some people as the unlockable characters can't do most of what the main character can (e.g. can't collect or use items, can't level up sometimes, and doesn't have a pause menu, even for changing controls or sound options). |
| 40 | ** The first of these was Richter mode in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', which was the most straight example of the bonus modes in question being a way to make the Metroidvania games more like the more difficult/arcadey "Classicvania" style. Richter cannot level up or use items, has powerful special abilities activated by specific button combinations which are never explained to you in-game, and though he can collect life vessels and heart vessels, only the former have an actual effect on his max stats. He also can't fully explore the map without the use of glitches due to lacking some traversal abilities. Maria mode in the Saturn and PSP versions is similar, but much like in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood the game she and Richter originate from]], her gameplay style is much more agile and reliant on magic spells and she generally has an easier time. |
| 41 | ** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'': [[spoiler:Old Axe Armor]] is a solo character instead of a team of two, has only two special moves (one of which is used solely for navigation), and is simply a PaletteSwap of an existing enemy. However, [[JokeCharacter it is very likely this was intentional]]. |
| 42 | ** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness'': Trevor mode (probably the most thorough one out of all the bonus characters gameplaywise, as he improves his stats via collectible items, can equip different whips, has selectable subweapons as well as [[EvolvingAttack Item Crashes]], and a moveset almost as large as Leon but a lot flashier). |
| 43 | ** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'': Joachim mode (no item inventory, orbs have no effect, making the reward for defeating the OptionalBoss a CosmeticAward). There's also Pumpkin (uses the same moveset as Leon but has an unique subweapon which mixes and matches Leon's subweapons). |
| 44 | ** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLegacyOfDarkness'' rewards you with an admittedly cool scenario for beating the game once: you play as Henry, the child Cornell rescued and [[StealthMentor Stealth Mentored]], who has now [[FutureBadass grown up to be quite badass]] and out to save some captive children. Beat that mission, and you're rewarded with the option to play the original Castlevania 64. Whether or this is an example of this trope or a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] hangs on how much you like that game. |
| 45 | %%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'': Maxim mode. |
| 46 | %%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'': Julius mode. |
| 47 | %%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'': Julius mode (has its own cutscenes, and the characters can gain levels). |
| 48 | %%** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'': Albus mode. |
| 49 | * ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': |
| 50 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' had some unlockables, such as bumper stickers and a Mii bobblehead for Samus's gunship, that were only made available by trading friend vouchers over the internet. The limited-edition ''Trilogy'' version of the game also had friend vouchers, but ''Trilogy'' vouchers could only be sent to other copies of ''Trilogy''; you couldn't send vouchers to or from regular copies of ''Corruption''. Subsequently, since the servers shut down in June 2013 due to the Wii's production life ending, it's now impossible for ''anyone'' to unlock the friend-voucher features if they haven't yet done so. Fortunately, some people have uploaded new save files that have all the vouchers. |
| 51 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'': At the end of the game, Samus can backtrack to previous areas [[spoiler:with the baby Metroid]], which can destroy blue crystals that are blocking off some bonus tank expansions. Some of these endgame-exclusive expansions are missiles... which are unfortunately useless at this point in the game. By now, Samus is equipped with the Screw Attack, Plasma Beam, Super Missiles, and Beam Burst that can make quick work of any common enemies, and she should not need more than the default 24 missiles for any puzzles that require her to shoot blocks that can only be destroyed by missiles. Further cementing this fact is that [[spoiler:Proteus Ridley]], the only remaining challenge of the game, is [[NoSell completely immune]] to standard missiles. The only real reason to collect these expansions is for HundredPercentCompletion (and therefore the Chozo Memories). |
| 52 | * ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': What do you unlock for beating the game? A hidden mansion! What happens in said mansion? Well, the ghosts and Poltergust are stronger... and that's it. [[RegionalBonus Averted in the European versions of the game]] and the Platform/Nintendo3DS remake in all regions, which feature more changes. It's impossible to get the best rank without playing the Hidden Mansion, for one thing, because the normal mansion doesn't have enough money. It also mirrors the entire game, ramps up the difficulty (ghosts deal more damage and there are fewer hearts), changes some of the puzzles a little, switches the money and gem locations all over the house, and retools some of the boss encounters, varying from mild variations in their attack pattern to an entirely different Boolossus fight, which has the whole floor covered in ice so that Luigi has to ride the Poltergust to "snowboard" across the arena. |
| 53 | * ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'': |
| 54 | ** The Gun Del Hel, which is obtained by beating the game twice on any difficulty and then one more time on hard, is statistically the most powerful weapon in the game, but in practice is less effective than your starting weapon. Since it is dark-element it's incapable of damaging or stunning the majority of enemies, and against enemies it can damage it's still less effective than lenses that exploit their elemental weaknesses and are obtained normally over the course of the game. |
| 55 | ** The infinite battery. It's obtained by defeating the Silver White Knight of the Azure Sky Tower, which is such a prohibitively difficult task it's for all intents and purposes impossible[[note]]You need to get your hands on all the emblems, take on 99 floors of DemonicSpiders, and then defeat the Knight. Three of the emblems can only be obtained via SocializationBonus, so you'd better hope you have three other friends who are doing this quest. The tower also only has 12 floors to start and every time you finish the tower a few extra floors are added, so you'll complete ''over one thousand floors'' before you finally get to 99. If all of that isn't enough, you can't [[SaveGameLimits save]] or [[CheckpointStarvation continue]] at any time in the tower, in a game meant to be played outside on battery no less, and the Silver White Knight is a brutally difficult {{Superboss}} to boot[[/note]]. Even as an easy unlockable the item would only be somewhat of a convenience at best, as item and ammo capacities are high and means of recharging are plentiful, and anyone who would cheat it into their inventory with a UsefulNotes/GameGenie could just as easily pop in an unlimited ammo code. |
| 56 | * What do you unlock in ''VideoGame/TheQuietMan'' for beating the game? ''Sound''. Your reward for getting through this dialogue-less, incomprehensible, nonsensical beat-em-up, is to play the exact same game again with the mute button off. And, while it does at least explain what is going on, the story and its characters aren't very interesting and it still doesn't explain [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment what the hell that spectral bird monster was]]. There's a reason this game appeared on most "[[https://screwattack.fandom.com/wiki/Top_10_Worst_Games_of_2018 Worst]] [[https://www.thegamer.com/video-games-2018-officially-ranked-least/ Games]] [[https://www.metacritic.com/pictures/worst-videogames-of-2018 of]] [[https://screenrant.com/best-worst-2018-video-games-metacritic/ 2018]]" lists. |
| 57 | * ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'': the Tomb of the Lost Adventurer DLC is short and lackluster, but above all it is fatally bugged and if you burn the trees in the wrong order you can't complete the quest. You either revert to a previous save (before ENTERING the tomb) or restart the playthrough altogether, if you want to complete this minor challenge. |
| 58 | * By getting all S-Ranks in the Cyber Space Challenges in ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', you unlock... Power Boost for the Cyber Space stages. While the extra speed boost can be useful in some cases (like getting the S-Rank for [[ThatOneLevel stage 1-2]]), it's more of a novelty, since you've already proven you can easily clear these stages without it. It can't be used in Arcade Mode either, which is the one mode where it would most likely see the most use rather than in the main story. |
| 59 | * ''VideoGame/WallaceAndGromitInProjectZoo'': Most of the unlockable rewards are video previews and short clips from various shorts from previous Wallace and Gromit entries. While it may've had value at the time, you could easily cut your losses and simply buy the Complete Collection and Curse of the Were Rabbit on DVD if you want to watch the shorts and the bonus ones respectively instead of going through tough bonus levels to unlock short clips. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:ActionGame]] |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'': |
| 64 | ** ''VideoGame/Shinobi2002'' on the [=PlayStation=] 2, Joe Musashi can be unlocked as a playable character, his bonus being that he has unlimited shurikens and no life draining tate bar. The pro to this is that you don't have to worry about getting huge combos to keep your life and damage enemies, and you can just continually chuck shurikens at some hard to kill enemies. The downside is that there are some bosses that pretty much require you to get huge combos in order to defeat them in a timely fashion; however, you can also chuck shurikens at them continually. A perfect beginner character... only you don't get him until you've gotten 40 Oboro coins, which is only possible if you had already beaten the game once on Normal and again on Hard. |
| 65 | ** He's improved upon in ''VideoGame/Nightshade2003''. His unlimited shurikens now have the ability to perform Tate combos and can break armor, which gives him a distinct advantage over Hotsuma (one of the two other hidden characters), who needs to get up close to do it with his superior slashing power. |
| 66 | * Unlocking all the options in ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'' essentially makes your character unbeatable, but most of them are acquired after clearing the game completely anyway. Especially useless is the option that gives your PKE meter a faster scanning ability, but only after you've already scanned 50% of the enemies anyway. Even worse is that the "Gozerian suit" is unlocked with 100% completion (scans AND art, plus beating the game) and it only serves to make you immune to slime. The actual invincibility upgrade is obtained much earlier, where being slimed is of little consequence. |
| 67 | * The US and EU versions of ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' had the 'bonus content' of letting Vincent DoubleJump... Which does ''absolutely nothing at all'', since the level design is the same as the JP version where Vincent couldn't, and isn't designed to take this new, truly awe-inspiring, ability into account. About the only thing it does is make the InsurmountableWaistHeightFence even ''more'' annoying, since you should now be able to clear enough distance to leap right over the sucker, but can't for some reason. |
| 68 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' has a two player mode that is utterly worthless. When Dante is using Doppelganger style, or fighting alongside Vergil during Mission 19, a second player can press start on a second controller to play as Shadow Dante or Vergil. However, they are then subjected to camera issues, because the camera only focuses on Dante, leaving P2 attacking only empty air off screen. |
| 69 | * Getting an S-Rank on every mission of ''VideoGame/UrbanReign'' nets you Bordin, the corrupt Mayor who is behind all of the game's events. As he's not a real fighter though, he has mediocre moves, awful stats and no assets to offset this. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:DrivingGame]] |
| 73 | * ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'': Completing the first four gem cups unlocks the first four bosses, so fans were incredibly incensed and let down when they beat the final cup, which was incidentally much harder to even gain access to in the first place, and were handed [[JokeCharacter Fake Crash]] instead of [[FinalBoss Nitros Oxide]]. Justified however, as the developers later explained they originally ''did'' intend to have Oxide unlocked in the purple gem cup but were forced to [[DummiedOut dummy him out]] when they were unable to adapt his unique kart and larger size for play without glitches or messing up the game: Oxide is almost fully functional if accessed via a cheat device, and you'll even hear unique lines from him when you control him, but he'll crash the game if used in multiplayer due to [[GameBreakingBug overflowing the game's memory]] and his huge hovering kart makes it difficult to see the track. The [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled remake]] rectifies this by scaling his kart down to roughly the same as everyone else's as well as [[PromotedToPlayable promoting him to playable]]. |
| 74 | * The final unlockable course of ''VideoGame/FZeroGX'' is Mute City: Sonic Oval, a beginner-level course that consists of a NASCAR-style oval. It's not even used in the AX Cup; you can only play it in Time Attack, Practice, and multiplayer. It's also on the wrong place in the AX Cup course listing; in ''F-Zero AX'', it's the ''first'' course in the list rather than the last. |
| 75 | * ''VideoGame/KnightRider'': The [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] version allows you to start with maxed out shields/gas/acceleration in Mission mode if you complete the Driving mode twice and play the Mission campaign. However, due to a GameBreakingBug, the game will crash at the upgrade screen before the UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} mission. |
| 76 | * ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': |
| 77 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'': The game introduced the ability to save Time Trial ghosts to race against later. However, you need the Nintendo 64 Controller Pak to use this feature, and it takes up ''all but two pages'' on the Pak for only two ghosts. In addition, you can't save your ghost if you crash into anything, fall off the track, take too long to complete the race, or even pause the game. Finally, the feature flat-out ''doesn't work'' in the Virtual Console version since it doesn't emulate the Controller Pak. |
| 78 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'': By getting a star rank in all 150cc Retro Cups, you unlock the Jetsetter/Aero Glider as a kart. Unfortunately, said kart also has terrible stats in everything except top speed and weight, meaning anyone who unlocks it will likely never find a use for it in the actual game. |
| 79 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' has a few unlockable gliders you can earn. However, some of them are just a copy of the Super Glider in terms of stats, basically giving no bonus, and the rest are just a copy of the Peach Parasol in its bonus stats. This also includes all the golden parts that take so long to get, even if used together. |
| 80 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8Deluxe'': If you make the grueling effort to complete the [[HarderThanHard 200cc version]] of all cups, you get rewarded with... Gold Metal Mario. A number of players will admit that they were expecting something more than just a PaletteSwap of an existing character for completing the game's hardest mode. |
| 81 | * ''VideoGame/{{Sideswiped}}'': The Nerai minigame unlocked at the end of Mission Mode has absolutely no purpose outside of a minor distraction and offers zero additional functionality. In addition, the exceptionally difficult bonus events unlocked at the same time serve no purpose as, by the time you get there, you'll already have enough money to buy absolutely everything you could possibly want, making their massive cash prizes useless. |
| 82 | * ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'' has several cheats that are total misses (not counting the cheats that are ''intentionally'' screwy for fun, like "drunk driving mode"). "High acceleration" and "no top speed" make the car spin out of control almost constantly, and will actually make missions more difficult to complete. "Grid mode" turns on some sort of weird debug mode that puts gridlines ''everywhere'' which lag the game so badly it becomes nearly unplayable. |
| 83 | * Finding all wrecks in an area in ''VideoGame/TestDrive Unlimited 2'' grants you a free car if you have the garage space for it. The first wreck you assemble is a Volkswagen Beetle. A C4-class car (Which means you can actually enter it into some competitions, unlike the B2-class V8 Buggy you find next) with a top speed that can only exceed [=85mph=] with massive tuning or the much simpler method of ''driving it off a cliff''. At least the V8 Buggy you get from the next ten wrecks is useful for exploring. Another 10 gets you The Citroen 2CV (also C4 class), even worse than Beetle. It tops out at about 70 mph, even after tuning. Then again, what do you expect from a car with only 18 horsepower? |
| 84 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Wipeout}} Wipeout 64]]'' and ''VideoGame/Wip3out'' both had a challenge mode that went nowhere. The former unlocked all of its bonus content after completing the basic sets of challenges, but then presented you with "combo challenges" and then "gold challenges" which basically amounted to getting gold on the previous challenges. Your reward? A different menu screen. The latter unlocked tracks, ships and Phantom difficulty as rewards for winning in single race mode; the challenge, eliminator and championship modes were completely useless and unlocked nothing other than the next challenge, leaving you with nothing to show at the end. Bonus points because it wasn't explained anywhere how you were ''actually'' supposed to unlock content. And the very first ''Wipeout'' ended with a championship with no reward other than some scrolling text promising "Wipeout II, coming soon". |
| 85 | [[/folder]] |
| 86 | |
| 87 | [[folder:FightingGame]] |
| 88 | * ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'': |
| 89 | ** ''II'' had secret characters Berserker, Assassin, and Lizardman, unlockable only through special means in the Weapon Master Mode. The kicker is that they can't be used in most game modes (including Weapon Master itself), and their moveset lists are inaccessible from the start menu like every other character. Additionally, they only have one weapon each, but they all have six costumes when two or three is the standard. This is especially aggravating because to unlock Lizardman, you needed to beat every stage in Weapon Master Mode, including the ridiculously hard bonus stages, and the fact that he was a full-fledged character in the first ''Soulcalibur'' (alongside Hwang and Rock, whose movesets were adapted into Assassin's and Berserker's). This is slightly made up for due to the fact that Lizardman and Rock become full-fledged characters again in ''Soulcalibur III'' and ''IV'' (and ''V'' in Lizardman's case). |
| 90 | ** Li Long from ''Soul Blade'' reappears in ''Soulcalibur III''... as a bonus character using a moveset usually reserved for created characters. He's expanded in ''Soulcalibur III Arcade Edition'', but fans still felt cheated. In a similar manner, Hwang and Amy also appear as bonus characters who use generic movesets. Whilst Li Long and Hwang went from being unique characters to being generic, Amy went from being generic to being a unique character of her own in ''Soulcalibur IV'', meaning that this trope was reversed. |
| 91 | ** ''Soul Edge''/''Soul Blade'' has a ridiculous one: Go to all the trouble of beating Edge Master Mode (the game's notoriously hard Story Mode) with every character and you are rewarded with a bonus character called Sophitia!!, who is Sophitia without armor. |
| 92 | * ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'': |
| 93 | ** The first game has the game ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' remade for its loading screen. Beating all 8 levels simply rewards you with a differently suited version of Kazuya known as Devil Kazuya. Due to technical limitations, he really is just Kazuya in a purple suit, with none of the functionality of the Devil of later games (though the implication is that he is the same guy). Many players don't even bother. Many hadn't even seen him in action until Youtube came along. Interestingly, if you unlock Heihachi (who has to be unlocked by beating the game without losing), his matches will all be against Sub-Bosses, with the final boss being Devil Kazuya, but you don't unlock him this way. It's quite likely you were supposed to, but the game developers overlooked it. |
| 94 | ** Despite everyone else -- including DownloadableContent characters -- having a vast array of customization options and an ending in the home port of ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'', Tiger Jackson does not. |
| 95 | * In ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar 4'', there is Career Mode, in which you have to battle multitudes of rounds among the same characters over and over while gradually progressing through a very tedious and confusing map. As a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwSTY2ZGcQk certain]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8DggHZhlWc game reviewer]] points out, among the other flaws this game has that seems all the more clear [[SarcasmMode it's aimed to revive the series]], the map can be fully completed and yet still leaves you with well over 800 more fights you must do in order to unlock the Very Definitely Final Hidden Character (everyone else is mercifully much easier and sooner to unlock and you will get everyone else long before you complete the map). So you have to fight repeat battles to make up the difference, and, guess what? [[spoiler:The final unlockable character turns out to be [[SNKBoss Ryoho]]. No, not Ryoho & Mana, the Ice Climbers to the Bloody Roar series you get right from the get-go, but Ryoho-the- incredibly-cheap-guard-cutting-Gaia-pisser-offer-dragon. Not only is he an incredibly cheap character to fight against as a boss, but also just as cheap as he is under your command and otherwise not terribly different from Ryoho as a human from the Ryoho you get with Mana. And there are a few other characters that are already unlocked for you early on that are also just as cheap and overpowered. Of course, this is assuming anyone bothered to go ahead and fight those repeated battles just to get that far to see Dragon!Ryoho.]] |
| 96 | [[/folder]] |
| 97 | |
| 98 | [[folder:First-Person Shooter]] |
| 99 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' has "Spec Ops" mode, a series of brief co-op missions unrelated to the main plot or each other. Spec Ops itself isn't the Bonus Feature Failure, but rather its conspicuous lack of a matchmaking function, meaning it is the only multiplayer gametype in the entire series that can ''only'' be played split-screen or by specifically inviting another player. |
| 100 | * In ''VideoGame/Doom3: BFG Edition'', it has the first two classic ''Doom'' games (based on their Xbox 360 ports) bundled together. While a nostalgic novelty for its time, and on PC it gave players a legitimate way to access the previously Xbox LIVE Arcade exclusive ''No Rest for the Living'' expansion for ''Doom II''. After the turn of 2020, the ''BFG Edition''[='=]s version of these games on PC would be eclipsed by their newer and enhanced Unity ports after they became available on Steam, GOG.com, and Epic Games Store, which offers improved visuals and sounds, many quality-of-life improvements (e.g. the option for 16:9 presentation, support for higher frame-rates), has fewer censorship changes in order to make the game available in Germany[[labelnote:*]](the medikits uses a green cross instead of red and secret ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' levels in ''Doom II'' resemble is Super Nintendo version)[[/labelnote]], and the ability to download curated mods (including ''No Rest for the Living'', ''VideoGame/FinalDoom'', and ''VideoGame/{{Sigil}}'' among many others) plus sideload other vanilla-compatible [=WADs=] over the ''BFG Edition'', making their inclusions on PC redundant and quite inferior by comparison nowadays. This is not an issue for 8th generation console and PC re-releases of ''BFG Edition'' by Panic Button, which stripped them out entirely in favor of the Unity ports. |
| 101 | [[/folder]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | [[folder:Hack and Slash]] |
| 104 | * ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi 2'': |
| 105 | ** There's a HUGE roster of officers to unlock, and while several of them have suspiciously similar movesets, each of them is, at least, a BIT original. However, the hardest character to unlock, by an order of magnitude, is Orochi Z - his appearance in your roster basically signifies that you have achieved 100% Completion and then some. You have to spend DAYS just grinding levels, well after you have finished completing every scenario on every difficulty, to unlock the last Dream Scenario - and then beat that to unlock Orochi Z. |
| 106 | ** Orochi Z himself is the Final Boss, so that's awesome. He's not JUST a PaletteSwap of Orochi either, having different hair. However... firstly, he's doesn't have his own set of weapons, like everybody else does - he just uses the same set as Orochi. Second, his moveset is less than half the size of anybody else, and he never learns new moves - though, granted, those few moves he DOES have are pretty powerful. Finally, every other character has a series of artwork - various design-sketches, posed character-models, screenshots from cutscenes they're in and the like - that are unlocked as you use them. Orochi Z has none. So effectively, once you've taken him into combat ONCE to check out all 3 of his moves, there's literally no point in ever using him again - especially since, by that point, you've already done basically everything in the game. |
| 107 | * In the video game adaptation of ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', Isildur can be unlocked as a bonus character, after only being playable in the Prologue tutorial level. But the game will treat him as a re-skin of Aragorn, since he will play literally every role Aragorn played in the levels, and even the dialogue and voice files will be the same. Particularly egregious is the fact that Isildur's version of the "Tower of Orthanc" BonusStage has the same script as Aragorn's version, down to Saruman referring to him as a "ragtag Ranger". |
| 108 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'', completing the game unlocked Merry, Pippin, and Faramir as playable characters. However, Faramir was just a skin swap of Aragorn and all four Hobbits were essentially skin swaps of each other (with Pippin and Merry basically being clones of Sam).\ |
| 109 | Then when you finish all the levels in the game, you can play as any of the nine characters in all the levels, even where they weren't initially present. The problem? If they weren't originally meant for that level, the cutscenes won't even render them properly. The role the original character played in cutscenes will be taken by an invisible entity (though the original character's voice is still heard), while the player's character will just stand around somewhere in the background.\ |
| 110 | Also, the characters will ''very'' rarely have any specifically recorded dialogue for levels they weren't originally in (Gandalf's narrations not withstanding). Instead, the dialogue spoken by the character they replaced will be totally removed from gameplay, although lines of dialogue directly addressing the ''original'' character will still be used throughout the level. This can leave conversations completely one-sided, as well as confusing, in certain levels.\ |
| 111 | One notable moment is that both Éowyn ''and'' Merry have to be protected during the "Pelennor Fields" level, even when the player has selected Merry as their character. |
| 112 | * In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestHeroes'', defeating Atlas will grant the player the Elevating Orb. Said orb increases experienced earned by the wearer by 5%. The problem is that not only is Atlas the single hardest fight in the game by a long shot (meaning most players will be at level 99 anyway), but the Orb also only increases defense by 1 point, worse than any other armor in the game, including generic armor that can be bought the instant one unlocks the armor shop near the start of the game. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:PlatformGame]] |
| 116 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 117 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' lets you play as Tails, who is identical to Sonic in every way except he can't go into SuperMode, and unlike in later games he can't fly when controlled by the player (except in the HD mobile version). ''VideoGame/{{Sonic 3|AndKnuckles}}'' does the same with Knuckles. He was playable in its multiplayer but got no abilities while Tails could fly, putting the fox into GameBreaker status. Locking ''Sonic 3'' on ''Sonic & Knuckles'' ''still doesn't give Knuckles any abilities'' despite the fact that he has extra powers in singleplayer. This is especially bad because Knuckles [[DummiedOut actually has the proper chibi-sprites for gliding and climbing in Competition mode]], even in ''Sonic 3'' alone. |
| 118 | ** ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'': |
| 119 | *** There are hidden keys in every level that, once you get them all, unlock a secret door for that level. While most of the doors have powerful weapons or enable shortcuts, the door in Lost Impact gives you an armored car... in a close-walled, cramped space station level. And you can't even take it very far, as there are walls you have to spin dash under, and rail segments where the car can't go, almost immediately after you get the prize. In fact, most of the unlockable weapons/secret doors are like this in Shadow. Particularly egregious are the secret doors for Westopolis (similar to Lost Impact, it gives you a bad-controlling lowrider with no special weapon which you get 75% of the way through the level) and Lethal Highway (a minigun with 80 ammo, which is pathetic if you were hoping for a MoreDakka rampage). The worst is Mad Matrix, which only gives you an alternate path to the Goal Ring. This is only remotely useful if you're trying to save some time to A-rank the neutral mission, and even then it's far from necessary. |
| 120 | *** The weapons you unlock for completing certain endings are ''extremely'' {{Nerf}}ed [[InfinityMinusOneSword Infinity -1 Swords]], particularly the [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Omochao Gun]] and [[VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg Egg Vacuum]], which are powerful but have a laughable ammunition capacity (even when leveled up!) that hardly makes it worth the effort.[[note]]Unless you want to easily A-rank Lethal Highway's Hero mission, or Air Fleet's Dark mission.[[/note]] |
| 121 | *** Getting an A rank on every mission on every stage would unlock ''[[HarderThanHard Expert Mode]]'', supposedly like ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes''[='s=] Super Hard Mode, where the levels' layouts are changed to be a lot harder, and you go through every stage, one after the other, without stopping. But in ''Shadow'', they barely changed any of the layouts at all.[[note]]The biggest change was adding a [[ThatOneLevel really cheap part involving floating platforms, flaming rings, and depth perception over a bottomless pit]] in Circus Park.[[/note]] And by that point, you've probably played through all the levels so many times, there isn't any point to playing what's mostly the same ones all in a row. |
| 122 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure [[UpdatedRerelease DX]]'' has [[spoiler:Metal Sonic]] as the all-emblems reward. However, he is identical to Sonic in every way, and can only be used in Trial Mode. What's worse is that he only flies at medium speed, switching back to running at maximum speed, so you don't even get that. He also gets his own emblems to collect, but nothing happens if you collect them all. |
| 123 | ** In an odd example, ''VideoGame/SonicAdvance 2'' let you unlock the Tiny Chao Garden by meeting certain conditions in the game... Even though the first ''Sonic Advance'' had the exact same mode available from the start. Amy being the final unlockable isn't impressive either. In the first ''Advance'', her slow, non-rolling moveset greatly changed how you had to handle the game, but here she plays just like everyone else. |
| 124 | ** In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' Red Star Rings give new bonus stages and put Number Rings in the stages. Whilst not bad, this is still disappointing considering in previous games red star rings gave you things like concept art and new music. Once you collect enough they unlock a new type of item to collect; Silver Moon Rings, which are a much straighter example considering all you get for collecting them all is an achievement. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManX'': |
| 126 | ** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'', the navigators Alia, Palette, and Layer are unlockable as playable characters. They are basically clones of X, Axl, and Zero, respectively; however, Alia cannot get X's capsule upgrades and Palette cannot copy enemies. You also have to purchase all of X, Axl, and Zero's purchasable upgrades a second time in order to access them on Alia, Palette, and Layer. Additionally, using even one of them when running a stage will forbid you from choosing a navigator for that stage. |
| 127 | ** Vile's mode in ''VideoGame/MegaManX [[VideoGameRemake Maverick Hunter X]]'' is one of the "can't do the whole game" variety. Although you get to go through the first couple of fortress levels after the eight bosses and beat Bospider and Rangda Bangda, at the end of the third fortress stage, you fight X and Zero instead. After beating them, you get the ending for Vile's alternate story, so there's no D-Rex to fight, and no battle with Velgauder or Sigma. On the plus side, afterwards you can go through the game again with unlimited power to select any weapons you want. |
| 128 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManX3'' is the first game in the series that allows you to play as Zero. However, you can only call on him once per stage, and he automatically switches back to X when he reaches a boss door (with one exception). So you can only play as him for 1/3 of any given level, and he can't be used for bosses or mini-bosses. Oh, and he has only one life, so if you die once using him, he's [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]]. And he doesn't get any special weapons or upgrades. You do need him to access a special upgrade for X late in the game though (even if it is a bit of a GuideDangIt), and whether he's still alive or not at the end of the game affects the ending. |
| 129 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'' is the first game to include cheat codes for extra content, one code for X and one for Zero. X's code gives him access to the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ultimate Armor]], which doubles his defense and gives him the air dash, hovering ability, unlimited ammo (except for charged attacks), a plasma shot and a spammable [[LimitBreak Giga Attack]]. Zero's code gives him access to his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Black Armor]]... [[PaletteSwap which is black]]... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and that's all]]. At least it's fixed in later games, where it doubles his defense, raises his attack, makes him more agile and gives his saber the ability to destroy energy projectiles. |
| 130 | * Proto Man is unlockable via DLC in ''VideoGame/MegaMan9''. For the most part it was very well received, but there are three minor gripes: his mode has no story, and he cannot unlock achievements or access the item shop. |
| 131 | ** The higher difficulty levels, similarly, have achievements disabled. |
| 132 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'', however, fixed this by allowing achievements to be earned in different difficulty settings and giving Bass, the DLC character for the game, his own shop and story scenes. |
| 133 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryStarfy'' has a multiplayer mode that lets another player control Starly. This can only be used in a few specific areas of the game and [[spoiler:in a bonus world after you beat the final boss]] in her own mini-storyline. |
| 134 | * ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' has Cheat Tokens which do a few things when you drop them into the well in the maze under the Warpstone. Whilst some of them are amusing and even helpful, most are underwhelming. Two of these stand out: |
| 135 | ** The Dino subtitle, which allows you to see the subtitles in Dino, the game's substitution cipher. However, it doesn't replace "[Dino Talk]" with what is actually said, and the subtitles are actually significantly ''wrong'' in spots. And it's not even included in the European/Australian version, so there's a Cheat Token that does absolutely nothing. |
| 136 | ** Playing the game in [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]]. Yes, the player can unlock an option to do what one can accomplish by adjusting one's TV set/monitor without the extra effort (unless they completely lack tech savvy beyond dealing with game consoles). |
| 137 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': |
| 138 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'': As a reward for completing the game 100%, the cannon outside the castle will unlock, giving you access to the castle's roof. Up there, you meet Yoshi, who will give you 100 lives if you talk to him. 100 lives that you have no use for, since you have completed the game. Made especially obvious by the lives being delivered by Yoshi, who you can't ride and who disappears right after. You also get a special triple jump, which replaces the standard third jump with a [[EverythingsBetterWithSparkles sparkly]] somersault that makes you invincible while flipping and protects you from fall damage. This is also pretty useless, as there are very few instances in the game where being invincible during a high jump would come in handy, you already have several ways of stopping fall damage, and the new triple jump can't be chained into a WallJump, making it a ''down''grade from the default in some cases. According to an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Yoshi was originally planned to be part of a more elaborate event that was ultimately cut, but they didn't want the model to go to waste, so they added him to the end of the game as an afterthought. |
| 139 | *** ''[[VideoGameRemake Super Mario 64 DS]]'' is ''worse'' than the original in this regard: Since Yoshi is playable in this version, no one appears on the roof, there's no upgraded Triple Jump to be unlocked and only three extra lives to be found, and worst of all, the only thing of interest on the roof is Luigi's final rabbit... which gives you [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Slot a virtually unchanged version]] of [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Slot another mini-game you're most likely to have unlocked by that point]]. The Korean version slightly rectifies this by replacing the roof rabbit with a ! Block that generates infinite 1-Ups, but only because the Rec Room is completely removed (to comply with the country's anti-gambling laws). |
| 140 | ** ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' has a special World e that lets you play brand new levels not present in the original ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. To access these levels, you need to scan them in with the appropriate Nintendo e-Reader cards, which required two Game Boy Advances, a Link Cable, an e-Reader, and a copy of the game in addition to the cards themselves, which is a lot of trouble and money to go through in it of itself. However, there is one big problem: the cards were released in packs as part of a set, with there being four series in all, but [[BadExportForYou only two series made it to America]] while [[NoExportForYou Europe didn't get any]] (with World e being out-right blocked off in that version) due to the failure of the e-Reader outside of Japan, locking most players out of half or all of the bonus content. The cards themselves also became [[CrackIsCheaper prohibitively expensive on the used market.]] Thankfully, the Platform/WiiU Virtual Console re-release includes all of the levels by default in all regions, marking the first time half of the World e levels left Japan, and fan patches have since emerged for the original ROM that have patched in all of the World e levels. |
| 141 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': The Grand Finale Galaxy. You'd think this would be a [[BrutalBonusLevel tough bonus stage]] designed to reward players for getting HundredPercentCompletion like [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 Grandmaster Galaxy]] or [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand World S8 Crown]], right? It's not, it's just the game's intro scene, with purple coins added and all the characters present. The atmosphere is nice enough, but it's not really much of a level nor a decent true finale. |
| 142 | ** In ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', collecting all the Star Medals and getting all golden flags as Mario and Luigi unlocks [[BrutalBonusLevel Special 8-Crown]]. This by itself isn't a bad thing. What ''is'' bad, however, is that you lose the convenient warp pipe between Special 8 and World 8 (the Warp Pipes are the only way to switch between the normal and special worlds), as Special 8-Crown replaces the pipe to World 8, and the pipe in World 8's map disappears. In other words, you are now forced to use a Warp Pipe in a different world in order to travel between World 8 and Special 8. A more logical solution would have been to give Special 8 an extension that houses Special 8-Crown, serving as a parallel to World 8's map extension featuring World 8-6 and TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'' had a mode called Extra that enabled alternate, stronger versions of enemies and made bosses tougher. In ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' and its remake, all it does is make things harder by cutting your life meter in half. Thankfully, the remake makes up for this by introducing a new mode where you can play as Meta Knight, and the extra modes in ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'' and later games have further unique content (including tougher bosses). |
| 144 | * ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'': |
| 145 | ** In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', the Clank Zapper, a weapon that lets Clank shock nearby enemies with his antennae which was cut from normal play but included as a [[NewGamePlus Challenge Mode]] weapon. The problem? First, despite being available in Challenge Mode, its damage output is still set to Normal Mode levels, so it's woefully ineffective against even the weakest of Challenge Mode enemies. Second, it was cut for a reason: the enemy detection, fire rate and the time it lasts is not conveyed at all, so you're never really sure whether its ended or just taking a long time between shocks. Third, the Clank Shocker ([[LevelGrinding which takes a while to level up to]]), adds laser eyes, which are just as weak and only fire behind Ratchet. And fourth, it costs a million bolts to buy. Eventually that becomes chump change, but if you first start Challenge Mode and buy it, you just wasted money you could have spent on a few Mega Weapons, the RYNO II, or the Carbonox Armor instead. |
| 146 | ** For more than a few fans, the Insomniac Museum in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2016''. Its Museum houses a collection of assets, models, and promo art from across the franchise, which is certainly neat in its own way, but unlike the previous Insomniac Museums and the High Impact Treehouses from past titles, it offers no insight into the development of the game itself. |
| 147 | * In the Rehydrated version of ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'', the Movie Theater. In the 2003 original it contained a wide selection of enemy and level concept art. In the 2020 version, it's four or five poorly-compressed level thumbnails from the pause menu. ''It still costs 40,000 Shiny Objects to unlock''. [[AuthorsSavingThrow Ver. 1.0.3]] remedied this, with the Movie Theater displaying new, original concept art made for the remake. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:PuzzleGame]] |
| 151 | * ''[[VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster Tetris: The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 PLUS]]'' offers the TGM+ and T.A. Death modes, neither of which have high score rankings. While Death mode is very popular and offers its own grading scale (M for completing the first half of the game in under 3'25", GM for that and completing the whole thing), TGM+ has no grading scale whatsoever. |
| 152 | [[/folder]] |
| 153 | |
| 154 | [[folder:RhythmGame]] |
| 155 | * The TrueFinalBoss of ''VideoGame/{{DJMAX}} Technika''[='s=] Heartbeat Set, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I4iCbUBqW8 "Area 7"]], obtained by finishing the first 3 stages with at least 95% of your notes being "MAX"es (you get the normal FinalBoss, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYBq3tO5jRc "Colours of Sorrow"]], if you don't). Not only does it have an [[ThatOneLevel awkward chart]], but it has a lower max combo, meaning that getting this song instead of [=CoS=] is actually ''harmful'' to your score. So to get an optimal score on this course, you will need to DoWellButNotPerfect on the first 3 stages. |
| 156 | [[/folder]] |
| 157 | |
| 158 | [[folder:Role-Playing Game]] |
| 159 | * ''Chrono'' series: |
| 160 | ** ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The DS version has a BonusDungeon (the Lost Sanctum) that consists of almost nothing but FetchQuest after FetchQuest (most requiring time travel), forcing you to trek back and forth across the entire dungeon with an unskippable battle every time. Along the way, you can fight an unbelievably annoying MetalSlime (with nearly impervious armor that counters every attack with a meteor swarm) that requires several NewGamePlus' worth of stat grinding, but when it finally dies you can get an armor that renders the wearer 100% immune to magic! Except only one character can wear it, and it has little application outside of a single optional boss fight. The other three [[BonusDungeon Bonus Dungeons]], the Dimensional Vortexes, are not much better. There's no backtracking, but the areas are purposelessly labyrinthian, composed mostly of pieces of areas you have already been, and capped by uninteresting boss fights. |
| 161 | ** ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': The NewGamePlus mode, among other features, allows you to replace the main character with another party member for battles. This allows you to experiment with more diverse party combinations... a feature that might mean something if your party wasn't already strong enough to take down the bosses in the first half of the game in a round of basic attacks. |
| 162 | * ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' allows the player to export their player character (with their gear, stats, and skills) from the original campaign into the ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening Awakening]]'' major DLC sequel, but none of the unique items added by the ''Warden's Keep'' DLC (an additional short quest inside the original campaign, with new items) will be transferred. It's especially infuriating because one of its rewards is [[InfinityPlusOneSword Starfang, the best longsword/greatsword available]]. Also, playing the ''Awakening'' campaign while ''Warden's Keep'' is activated causes a bug where Starfang's asset replaces the model of ''Awakening'' own Infinity +1 Sword. |
| 163 | * ''Franchise/DragonQuest'': |
| 164 | ** The BonusDungeon in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' is just several levels from normal dungeons stuck onto each other with no rhyme or reason (but with stronger enemies), and no justification. Same for ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'', but at least at the end, you get to [[strike:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out Cthulhu]]]] fight God. |
| 165 | ** In the [=GBC=] VideoGameRemake of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'', ''every'' monster in the game RandomlyDrops Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals. Get enough of them, and you can go to Divine Dragon's Castle and gain wishes. Get more, and and you unlock the ultimate BonusDungeon with the Grand Dragon of Everything. Get ''every medal in the game'' and the Grand Dragon...falls asleep. You also get the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Rubiss Sword]] if you beat him in a time limit, which is the strongest sword in the game and casts the strongest spell in the game if used as an item. However, given that you've at this point ''done everything there is to do in the game'', it's totally [[BraggingRightsReward useless]]. |
| 166 | ** In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', you can get the Gospel Ring, an accessory that prevents ''all'' random encounters, as a reward for completely filling out the monster list. The problem with that? You have to beat all 8 forms of the OptionalBoss in a row to get their entries on the list. By the time you're tough enough to do that, you don't need the ring at all; not only will any random encounter cease to be any sort of challenge, but the other methods of reducing encounters, Holy Water or the hero's Holy Protection spell, will also prevent all encounters while they last, for the low cost of a very cheap item or a couple MP. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyVBeyondTheMyth'': The game has DLC that offers new portrait options. Unfortunately, these DLC portraits, like the ones that are part of the base game, can only be used on new characters and "apprentice" characters that replace retired characters. This can come off as a screw-you to those who downloaded the demo and worked hard to get their characters to the demo's level cap of 10. This was corrected in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'', in which you can change your characters' portraits at any time. |
| 168 | * ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' had a problem with the pre-order bonus/''Courier's Stash'' DLC items. Most of them were lackluster to begin with, but were made worse by lack of compatibility with Perks and other DLC. The way the game's engine is written, any given DLC cannot directly act on another -- the end result was that most of the pre-order equipment was counter-intuitively excluded from Perks added by main DLC. For example, the pre-order shotgun is the ''only shotgun in the game'' that doesn't benefit from the ''And Stay Back'' (10% chance to knock enemies over when they are hit with a shotgun) Perk added in ''Dead Money''. Some of the weapons would accept mods, albeit with glitchy results. The only truly unique item was the Vault 13 canteen, an item that would automatically drop the player's dehydration level in Hardcore Mode, but not enough to subsist upon it alone. In Normal mode, it provided a slight automatic healing effect every time you sipped from it (once every few minutes), making it useful only for saving healing items when outside of combat if you were fast-traveling or had some time to kill in a safe area where you didn't have to worry about an attack, and given how many stimpaks you'd be carrying by the midpoint of the game, that wasn't terribly useful either. |
| 169 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 170 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': |
| 171 | *** Defeating optional boss Kaiser Dragon in the Advance release rewards you with the Diabolos Magicite. It's summon and the spells it teaches can easily hit the damage limit... but so can lots of other things, all of which are available ''before'' fighting the game's optional super boss. Likewise, the HP+100% level bonus would be nice, but if you can beat Kaiser, any further leveling is entirely superfluous. |
| 172 | *** Averted with the other three optional Magicite shards - Leviathan teaches Flood, which is a water-elemental spell, so you can exploit that elemental weakness in enemies more easily (prior to the Advance release, there were no water-elemental spells at all except for Strago's Aqua Rake and Clean Sweep), Cactuar gives a speed boost on level up and is one of only two Espers to do so (and the other one doesn't give as good a boost anyway ''and'' can be given away and {{Permanently Missable|Content}}), and Gilgamesh teaches the Quick spell, letting you teach it to two characters at once -- definitely a boon since it only has a learn rate of 1% and thus takes forever to learn. And ''those'' three are obtainable much earlier on, if you know where to look. |
| 173 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': Defeating Ruby Weapon gave you a gold chocobo. However, it's NintendoHard to defeat it ''without'' breeding one in the first place, and this new gold chocobo sucks at races. Averted with Emerald Weapon, where the reward is a set of "Master" Materia. The only other way to get them is to master ''every'' Materia of each type, which will take hours upon hours of training. |
| 174 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 175 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'': [[spoiler:DualWielding Roxas]] in mission mode. Sure, in story mode he's awesome (though you only get him for an extremely short time), but in mission mode he's worse than Roxas. This is for two reasons: Mission Mode's enemies are stronger than normal, [[spoiler:and the final mission's enemies have their levels programmed to be ridiculously low for the end of the game, so that Roxas feels as badass as he is in KHI's Secret Ending.]] |
| 176 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': Unbeknownst to most players, pressing the Select button activates a First-Person mode. It works fine, except the game is forced back into third-person whenever a [[PressXToNotDie Reaction Command]] is activated, making playing only in first-person practically impossible. |
| 177 | * ''VideoGame/MagicalStarsign's'' Glissini Caves, a BonusDungeon unlocked after beating the FinalBoss [[spoiler:Shadra]], stands out as not just incredibly hard, but also [[FakeLongevity incredibly tedious.]] Every floor of the 20-floor-deep dungeon is connected by a 100-tile-long ladder — and in this game, you can't run on ladders, forcing you to go down at your slow normal walking speed. With a few exceptions, enemies in the dungeon — even the {{Optional Boss}}es — are nothing more than UndergroundMonkey clones of earlier enemies and bosses. However, their stats are inflated to the point that lots of ForcedLevelGrinding is required just to stand a chance; a level 60 or so party that can take on the afore-mentioned [[spoiler:Shadra]] will be ripped to shreds by the Ant Nobles and Clockwork Goats on the very first floor, and even a party at [[{{Cap}} level 99]] will struggle with the last few floors. And what's your reward for getting to the very end? [[spoiler:One Putty Pea, which does nothing other than give you another fragment of the game's backstory.]] |
| 178 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series, following the release of ''VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII'', its newest protagonist Uzume was added as DLC to the Platform/{{Steam}} versions of the earlier-released ''[=Re;Birth=]'' trilogy. In ''[=Re;Birth1=]'', she serves as a CrutchCharacter at best, able to join early and build up EXE meter quickly but with skills that are quickly outclassed[[note]]Uzume's most powerful skill is a single-target with 180 Power, while Neptune's is an [=AoE=] with 492 Power[[/note]]. But in ''[=Re;Birth3=]'', she's also stuck with her default weapon, quickly making it near-impossible for her to deal any damage at all. |
| 179 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'': Placing a copy of ''every'' sticker in the game (including Things) in the museum unlocks a SoundTest... that only contains 29 out of the game's 78 songs, none of which are the game's awesome battle themes, and an enemy model viewer that costs 1 coin per use. |
| 180 | * ''VideoGame/Persona4'': |
| 181 | ** For maxing out all Social Links in a single playthrough you get the Mandara Robe armour. Which has pathetic defense but boosts Exp gain by 50%. There's several issues with this. First is by the time you max all the Social Links, you only have the final dungeon left to complete, so you probably won't need to grind anymore. Second is it's protagonist-exclusive, and due to CantDropTheHero it's likely the protagonist is overlevelled already. Third, it's outclassed by the Haikara Shirt, which not only has the same effect, better defense and can be equipped by anyone, but is also ''far easier to obtain''. By contrast, completing all Social Links in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' unlocked a unique Persona for fusion. |
| 182 | ** The protagonist's ultimate Persona, Izanagi-no-Okami, can be fused on a NewGamePlus. [[BraggingRightsReward Except you need to be Lv 91 to summon him and he can't be registered to the Compendium.]] So all you can use him for are the FinalBoss and the OptionalBoss, and at Lv 91 it's very likely you don't even need him. |
| 183 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' is infamous for this trope, particularly after the Platform/NintendoDS' Wi-Fi service was shut down in 2014. While the games boast a ''very'' impressive repertoire of bonus features, many of them rely heavily on said WFC or inter-game communication, making them much more difficult to access and much less functional years after the games came out. A particularly notorious example is how the games' difficulty modes are tied to the Key System; Challenge Mode, a much-coveted and -desired feature in a Pokémon game, is finally available, but can only be accessed in ''Black 2'' after beating the main storyline (i.e. long after it's actually needed), and can only be ''applied'' to either of the two games by communicating with another game that has Challenge Mode unlocked. |
| 184 | * ''VideoGame/{{Recettear}}'' lets you unlock [[RobotGirl Arma]] as a playable adventurer after completing Lapis Ruins, the first postgame dungeon. As a boss, she's extremely fast-paced and vicious, uses nearly her entire arsenal of weapons, and most of them will demolish you in just a few hits. As a player character, she starts at level 1, moves very slowly, has no useful specials (the WaveMotionGun eats your entire SP bar and you'll usually take more damage charging it than if you just attacked normally), her weapons are all prohibitively unwieldy and/or do anemic damage -- generally both -- even after leveling up to par with everyone else, and very slow recovery after firing any of them leaves her wide open to counterattack. Even the Omega Cannon, her ultimate fused weapon, fires at such an awkwardly high and slow (backward!) arc and has such a pitifully short homing radius that it's more likely to hit empty space behind your targets when the shots bother curving forward toward them at all. By the time you unlock her, literally any other character in the game save maybe Elan will be able to tackle long dungeons and thick bosses alike much more easily and safely. |
| 185 | * ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'': |
| 186 | ** The two bonus characters in the ''Director's Cut''/overseas versions. Adray is really just a less capable wizard, a spot already filled by Sophia, with a weapon set nearly identical to Albel's, while Mirage uses effectively the same attack set and play-style as Cliff, but is 40-50 levels lower. The player has the option to gain Adray early into the game when he would be at a similar level to the party, but if you opt to gain him at the next opportunity, much later near the end of the game, he'll still be at that level (lv 19 when the party is roughly 55-70). |
| 187 | ** In the original, buggy, Japanese version of the game, the four "optional" characters, Albel, Nel, Peppita, Roger, were required. In the ''Director's Cut''/overseas versions, only two of them can be chosen while Mirage and Adray are necessary, however. |
| 188 | * The main reason most people don't ever bother to completely finish the {{Bonus Dungeon}}s in any of the ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' games: your reward for doing so is a weapon with a huge attack stat, but the catch is that not only is it obtained at a point you can most likely already kill everything else easily, but it can also inflict random damage, with it rarely being able to do as much damage as its attack stat would suggest. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/WhiteKnightChronicles II'' made a pretty big deal out of the fact that one of its features was that [[AnAdventurerIsYou your avatar character]] would gain the ability to transform into a ([[DesignItYourselfEquipment fully customizable]]!) Knight like the other main characters could. But when do you unlock the Arc Knight? Right before heading off for the final dungeon. Oh, and you need to complete an easily-missable sidequest to unlock it. And that whole "fully customizable" part? You need to spend ''months'' LevelGrinding your Guild Rank and ItemFarming [[DoubleUnlock the right amounts of the right arbitrary items in order to make and equip the parts that change the Knight's appearance]]. It got so ridiculous that Creator/Level5 went and released DLC that replicated all the Knight parts and billed them as being "cheaper" to manufacture than their in-game counterparts... [[YankTheDogsChain but not by much]]. |
| 190 | [[/folder]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | [[folder:Shoot 'em Up]] |
| 193 | * ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'' has, as unlockables, solo versions of each team (Reimu only and Yukari only for instance, as opposed to Reimu and Yukari). However, this works by essentially locking your shottype to focused or unfocused. Human characters still can't shoot through familiars, making stages much worse, and youkai characters can't shoot familiars, causing problems with a number of bosses. In addition to this, Remilia's options have a bit of lag when you try to move them when she's solo, and you can't focus to center Youmu's ghost half anymore. Just to make things worse, most solo characters are missing a large portion of their phantom gauge, making them difficult to score with. Except Youmu, whose shortened gauge makes her the best character to score with, even if she's awkward to use. |
| 194 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Gradius V]]'' and ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' have continues that increase for each hour of play, culminating in "free play" (unlimited continues) after a set number of continues obtained. But if you improve yourself at either game, by the time you unlock free play, you most likely won't need it anymore. ''Gradius Gaiden'' is a similar case, save for the increasing credits; you start with 9 instead of 3, and they never go up save for when you unlock free play. |
| 195 | * ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu]]'' for mobile devices (''[=DoDonPachi=] Resurrection'' outside of Japan) has [[TrueFinalBoss Hibachi]] as a '''playable character''' in ArrangeMode, unlocked by [[DefeatMeansPlayable reaching and defeating him on one credit]] or inputting a cheat code ([[NoFairCheating which wears off when your game ends]]). However, his special shot requires that you tilt your device to aim, making it tough to use in a moving vehicle and outright useless on a tablet. |
| 196 | [[/folder]] |
| 197 | |
| 198 | [[folder:SportsGame]] |
| 199 | * By beating ''[[VideoGame/BackyardSports Backyard Skateboarding]]'', you unlock Old School Andy. Who is a PaletteSwap of Andy [=MacDonald=], a character available from the start. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | [[folder:Stealth-Based Game]] |
| 203 | * One of the most hyped features of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid: [[MissionPackSequel VR Missions]]'' was the fact that players could finally control Solid Snake's old war buddy Gray Fox, aka the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Ninja]]. This feature was so much of a selling point that Gray Fox's face is not only used on the packaging illustration, but also on the actual title screen itself. Despite all the effort required to unlock him (which is even more complicated in the Japanese ''Integral'' version, since it required the player to complete the main game and trade data using the [=PocketStation=] memory card), he only has three missions out of the 300 actually featured in the game (that's literally 1% of the game) and they're ''all'' set in the same stage with only slightly different objectives between each: the first mission involves destroying a set number of stationary dummy targets, the second mission involves killing a set number of Genome Soldiers, and the final mission involves assassinating Solid Snake, who appears as a head-swapped Genome Soldier patrolling the area. |
| 204 | * Some of the unlockable bonus camouflage from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' wouldn't be worth picking up for free, let alone actually going to the effort to obtain: |
| 205 | ** Both The Pain and The Fury's camouflage. The former's makes bees follow you harmlessly and attack guards instead, and the latter reduces explosion damage and grants immunity to catching flame. The problem isn't that neither of these abilities are so esoteric you'll never bother to use them (why attack with bees when you have ''guns'' and there are few opportunities to benefit from the fire resistances), but that they tend to give poor camouflage indexes, often ''negative'' values, which will greatly hinder you. Ironically The Fury's camo is actually quite useful against The Fury himself, but that means you'll still have to beat him once without it and carry it over into a NewGamePlus. |
| 206 | ** The ''Nine National Facepaints'', rewarded to the player for getting all 27 ranks in ''Snake Eater 3D''. Not only do they all grant poor camouflage indexes, but they grant absolutely no abilities whatsoever. Compared to the much easier to acquire green and brown facepaints that grant unlimited grip or oxygen (respectively), such a difficult to acquire prize being only a CosmeticAward is a fantastic fail. |
| 207 | [[/folder]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[folder:SurvivalHorror]] |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' has two of these: |
| 211 | ** You can unlock Leech Hunter on Easy but if you unlock the E rank reward from said mode (sub-machinegun ammo), it won't be useful at all there since you can't obtain the sub-machinegun in that difficulty level. |
| 212 | ** Besides gameplay differences, Wesker Mode in the HD versions is pretty much the same deal as the main game, only with Wesker's model instead of Billy's and nothing else was done to acknowledge the change (besides a few written lines). |
| 213 | * The Samurai Edge handgun from the 2002 ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' remake. It fires three rounds at a time in quick succession and has infinite ammo, but it's only marginally more powerful than the default handgun and its probability of blowing off zombie heads isn't much higher, either. It's certainly useful early in the game, but it'll get tossed in the item box at the exact same time the regular handgun normally is since your shotgun, magnum and grenade launchers still outclass it by a mile. |
| 214 | * ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica Resident Evil Code: Veronica]]'' lets you play as Albert Wesker in the Battle Game. You remember, the same guy who runs across ''walls'' in bullet time and bitch slaps Claire Redfield effortlessly? Yeah, in Battle Game he can't do any of that and gets only a knife to play with. While it carries on the usual thing of villains having tougher inventory sets to play with in minigames, it's still a bitter pill to swallow. You can get a Colt Python with which to fight Alexia. However, not only does it ''not'' have infinite ammo like everyone else's guns, but whether you get it or not ''depends on luck.'' |
| 215 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' is big on this trope: |
| 216 | ** There's the Hand Cannon, a souped-up Magnum with massive stopping power and the ability to go through multiple enemies per shot. You get it by getting maximum rankings with every character in ''[=RE4=]''[='=]s Mercenaries mode, which can be remarkably hard for certain characters... But by this point, chances are you've already beaten the game once and probably bought the Chicago Typewriter, Infinite Rocket Launcher, or even just fully upgraded another regular Magnum, which makes the Hand Cannon look pretty pointless in comparison. |
| 217 | ** The Platform/PlayStation2 and {{Platform/Wii}} versions introduce the PRL-412, a futuristic anti-Plagas weapon that is only obtained after beating Professional (hard) Mode, which means there isn't much of any reason to use it, since the player's probably finished everything by then anyway. It's not even particularly great, being a slow charging laser that serves mostly as an unlimited supply of flash grenades unless you spend the time charging it to full power, in which case it kills Plagas villagers instantly, but not much else. Even worse, a weak flash can kill the final boss immediately. The HD re-releases tweak it to have a much faster charge and a screen-clearing effect that kills or destroys everything in front of you, which [[GameBreaker dashes the challenge factor into a million pieces]]. |
| 218 | ** Because using the Raccoon Police Department/"pop starlet" outfits for Leon and Ashley is also supposed to enable Ada's "Assignment Ada" tactical outfit during the main game (who only appears during cutscenes in the main game), the original PC version and the [=PS2=] version miss out on seeing this because of their use of pre-rendered cutscenes (which were only derived from a playthrough with the normal outfits and no secondary versions of these scenes were ever recorded for an alternate outfit playthrough). However, the original [=GameCube=] version of the game and all releases after the original PC port use in-engine cutscenes, meaning characters stay dressed however they appear during gameplay and thus Ada will show up wearing her tactical gear during cutscenes. |
| 219 | * Finishing ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' unlocks the NewGamePlus where you play the exact same campaign over again, except as Sheva instead of Chris. [[SarcasmMode Um... yay.]] It boils down to getting to do about six or seven slightly different things in the otherwise identical campaign, making it look monumentally lame when compared to Separate Ways of the previous game or even the Game B modes of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''. Even that wouldn't be so bad if they didn't foist an InterfaceScrew on you: Sheva's entire screen is mirrored, which [[DamnYouMuscleMemory takes a lot of getting used to]] and which most people won't bother doing for the sole purpose of playing as Sheva. The following game learned their lesson from this one, letting you toggle the screen at will and choose which of the two characters you want to play as right at the start, and rewarding you with an entire fourth campaign starring [[EnsembleDarkHorse Ada Wong]] for beating the game. |
| 220 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' has Ada's campaign which used to be single player only. Fans complained about it since it meant they couldn't play Ada's campaign with a friend. Capcom later added a generic Umbrella soldier named Agent to be Ada's co-op partner. Almost no effort was made in making Agent actually work like a proper player character; Agent does not possess the grappling hook, thus an Agent player has to wait for the Ada player to move ahead and get teleported next to her. Agent also cannot solve any of the puzzles nor open any briefcases since only Ada can do that. On top of all the above, Agent can't even open doors. Overall, Agent is just being strung along since they can't do anything besides kill things and they don't even appear in cutscenes either. |
| 221 | * ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' has the Heather Beam and Sexy Beam, two movesets that you can unlock for NewGamePlus. While being able to shoot eye lasers sounds like the coolest thing to have in this game, it's surprisingly underwhelming. The raw damage is worse than some of the weapons found in the normal game, the attack takes a while to start up, and it uses Heather's stamina as ammo, which runs out quick and leaves her exhausted. They also take a really long time to unlock - you have to kill 333 enemies in total, which will take at least 2 playthroughs to accomplish, but likely more if you weren't specifically aiming for it from the start. By comparison, the infinite ammo SMG is another bonus weapon you can unlock after just 1 playthrough, and it's far more effective in every way. The only reason you actually need to use the beams is to see the UFO ending, which requires getting kills with them. However, some unlockables require you to beat the game as much as ''ten times'', and since the UFO ending stops the game at the halfway point, this indirectly makes the beams very useful for cutting down the amount of grinding you'll have to do. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Third-Person Shooter]] |
| 225 | * Most of the higher-up skins unlocked in ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar3'' are simple reskins of existing characters. For example, "Civilian Anya" is the same character as "Anya Stroud," albeit minus her armor and with a different hairstyle. Anya's basic form is available by default--"Civilian Anya" isn't unlocked until level 45. |
| 226 | [[/folder]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | [[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]] |
| 229 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' is a two-in-one combo. It has several unlockable characters; some of these are unique characters that cannot change classes or learn new abilities, while others are merely normal units with special sprites. One, notoriously, doesn't unlock until after you have nothing you can possibly do with him. Some of the special characters can't even enter the water, all because they don't have sprites drawn of them being in the water. Feather Boots can fix this since it makes the wearer walk on the water rather than in it. |
| 230 | ** Especially bad with Ezel Berbier, who is locked into a class with high magic attack growth and low physical attack growth, and has no ability to learn any skills that use his magic attack stat. |
| 231 | * The original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has the Byblos. He joins you as a GuestStarPartyMember when you fight the OptionalBoss, and if he survives, he joins your team afterward. Is he any good? Well... he's a monster unit, which means he can't use equipment or change classes. He's nowhere near as strong as the other special monster unit you get, Worker 8, and doesn't have Worker 8's innate magic immunity. His skills are thoroughly mediocre, and (being a monster unit) he'll never learn more. The best thing you can really say about him is that he has innate Poach, but teaching that to human units is easy. Waste of a character, to be honest. |
| 232 | ** Bonus character Cloud Strife can also fall into this category. You get him at the end of a fairly long sidequest...and he's level 1. In addition, to use his unique abilities, you need his special weapon, which is only obtained by having someone with Move-Find Item step on a particular tile in a particular place (though at least, unlike all other Move-Find Item spaces, there's only one possible item to get), and is only so-so in strength. Even worse, his skills target ''panels'' instead of characters, meaning that unless you go out of your way to prevent it, his target will likely end up moving out of harm's way before it goes off. If you have the patience to get his sword and level him up though, he's a decent party member, and doing the sidequest also nets you several other party members and good rewards, so it's not really a waste. |
| 233 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': |
| 234 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', you can earn several special party members by going through the two bonus dungeons, the Tower of Valni and the Lagdou Ruins. These characters are all characters who existed in the main story as [[NonPlayerCharacter Non-Player Characters]], some of whom were even bosses. Sounds cool, right? Unfortunately, you can only unlock these characters after playing through the entire main campaign, meaning all you really can use them in are the dungeons in which they are unlocked and random battles on the world map. Worse still, the vast majority of them are some of the worst units in the game, due to coming with high levels, poor base stats, terrible growth rates, and being unable to support other units; even the best among them are easily outmatched by units you recruited in the main campaign. The only ones with any useful equipment or skills are Ismaire (who comes with a unique weapon), Valter (who has an exceptionally rare item), Caellach (likewise) and Lyon (who has a unique class capable of summoning phantoms, as well as a unique infinite-durability tome and a rare staff); the others come with various generic weapons and ShopFodder. Even for completionists, recruiting Lyon may be more trouble than it's worth, because getting him requires you to fight through the [[BrutalBonusLevel Lagdou Ruins]] ''three times''. Just to rub salt in the wound, they are, for whatever reason, unable to be used against other players in the Link Arena. |
| 235 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' is similar, featuring enemy characters that can be played post-campaign. Unlike ''Sacred Stones'' though, there is no post-campaign, so instead you can only play with them in six bland "trial" chapters (three of which require an OldSaveBonus, and are just copies of levels found in the main game), which have no story or named enemies in them. Also, it requires a downright silly number of playthroughs to unlock them; you don't get the first until finishing the lengthy game three times, and the BigBad requires ''fifteen'' full passes of the game to unlock. It doesn't help that most of them, barring the last one recruited, are rather lackluster and only worth looking at due to their rare equipment. |
| 236 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', like ''Path of Radiance'', also has characters unlockable for use in a series of dull trial maps (though ''Binding Blade'' only has ''five'' unless you were lucky enough to win more in promotional events), and has similarly silly requirements for unlocking them (the last one, Guinevere, requires a full nine passes through the game to unlock). To make it worse, most of them are markedly inferior to your normal units anyway; in particular, the first one recruited, Narshen, is too weak to survive much of anything in the trial maps. Only Guinevere is really notable, and then, mostly because of her unique gimmick of having access to both Light magic and Anima magic at the same time. |
| 237 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon'' has the Elysian Whip item in the game's online shop. When used on a female unit in the Pegasus Knight class, it promotes them and causes their Dracoknight promotion to be replaced with Falcoknight, its promotion from other games in the series. The trouble is, Falcoknight is ''worse'' than Dracoknight; it trades off Strength and Defense (both highly useful stats its users very much want) for Resistance (situational and easy to increase), and trades off axes as a secondary weapon (best base damage and a TacticalRockPaperScissors advantage against half the enemy roster) with swords (worst base damage and disadvantage against that same half). The only thing Falcoknight has going for it is a slightly higher Speed cap, which only comes into play against a handful of enemies on the highest difficulties of the endgame; even then, said Speed cap matches the Paladin, which does everything the Falcoknight does bar flight without any special trouble. ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' buffed the class to make it more of an actual tradeoff, but also made the Whips available in the main game, making them no longer a bonus. |
| 238 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' continues the trend with its six Spotpass characters, available as free DLC and recruited in six special downloaded chapters. Unlike previous examples, most of them range from decent but underleveled to surprisingly powerful, and two even have completely unique skills that no one else naturally has access to. However, they're only able to be recruited right before the final chapter, and some of their recruitment chapters are [[ThatOneLevel harder than the final chapter itself]]. Worse still, their support pool is extremely limited, as all six of them can ''only'' support the Avatar; in a game where two units achieving an S-Support can make them [[GameBreaker obscenely powerful when paired up]], this is a harsh drawback. While the existence of other DLC chapters prevents them from becoming truly useless like previous examples in the series, the final one, [[BrutalBonusLevel Apotheosis]], basically requires an army consisting of nothing but S-ranked units paired together with maximum stats and the absolute best skills available, meaning at most exactly ''one'' of them will get a chance to participate. They're not as bad as previous examples, but are still generally underwhelming all the same. |
| 239 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' featured the recurring shopkeeper Anna as part of the game's paid DLC season pass. While Anna does get her own paralogue, she doesn't have any support conversations, not even with the player character. This is a sharp contrast to the game's other DLC characters, who all have multiple supports. In particular, Jeritza was released at the same time as a free update for all players, and he has multiple supports and paired endings. |
| 240 | [[/folder]] |
| 241 | |
| 242 | [[folder:MMORPG]] |
| 243 | * In ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline'' there are three crafting schools, Weapons, Mysticism, and Science. Each of these used to have a single SPECIAL BONUS "crafted travel power" the player could claim/build. For instance, in Weapons the travel power was called the "R.A.D. Sphere." It required leveling your character's crafting ability up to the 300-400 range, buying the blueprints, crafting a few dozen items, which were each in turn crafted from a dozen other items apiece which you ALSO had to buy the blueprints for, then gathering another dozen or so increasingly rare dropped artifacts, then assembling them all together...with another blueprint. The result for all this running back and forth to the crafting table, spending a fortune in points, and scouring the countryside pummeling various monsters to get them to drop rare items? Your character got the power to crouch down, wrap his arms around his knees, and roll forward. At about running pace. It looks stupid, is ridiculously slow, and if you should actually wish to level this power up, you had to go through the above hunt-and-gather grinding rigamarole all over again to BUILD the next iteration.\ |
| 244 | The Mysticism and Science crafted travel powers were actually worse, being nothing more than bog-standard flight power with, respectively, some purple glowy dots and some electrical sparks tacked on. And with the April 2012 complete overhaul, these are now purchaseable outright with in-game resources, at which point they become available as normal powers to any toon you have. The epic grind for them no longer exists. |
| 245 | * ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has several "accolade" powers that can be earned by accomplishing various tasks in the game. These powers are either small but significant passive boosts to hit points or endurance, or powers that need to be actively used. These latter active powers have extremely long, double-digit cooldown times, but can provide powerful effects for the short time they're up. The exception is the Crey CBX-9 Pistol (and its equivalent for villain characters, the Stolen Immobilizer Ray); this power is functionally identical to a weak level 1 power that most characters with access to don't even want, except slightly slower because the character first needs to draw the weapon to fire it. It also shares the same massive cooldown as the other active accolade powers, despite the power it's a clone of recharging in only 4 seconds. |
| 246 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' had an event that makes you play Bingo using a Roulette from an NPC who says he's [[BlatantLies always lucky]]. The Main reward for completing the Bingo board is a unique Bag that gives you more inventory spaces. Unfortunately, the Bag requires a Premium service in order to open, and as ''Mabinogi'' being made a Free MMO, this reward will go unused and will be gone by the time the event is over. Said NPC lost his lucky status after reappearing in another event. They've given out similar bags as a reward during their spring 2013 Vocaloid event. Same issue, although for people who ''do'' subscribe the bags are an improvement over what's normally available, and they're entirely up front in the description of the event what the limitation on the bags is. In general, the combination of EverythingFades (though bags actually don't), continual introduction of new things to the game which PermanentlyMissableContent applies to, and limited storage space for players can easily lead to feelings of this. |
| 247 | [[/folder]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[folder:Misc.]] |
| 250 | * In ''VideoGame/WarioWareTwisted'', unlocking every microgame and clearing each of them will unlock the final souvenir; what is it, you may ask? ''[=WarioWare=]: Twisted''. Selecting it restarts the game with a modified intro. Doing all that work for a glorified restart button. |
| 251 | * The Platform/NintendoGameCube can output supported games in 480p. The caveat? Due to the way the signal is processed, you need a proprietary component cable to actually get 480p video. Said cables were produced in ''very'' small quantities, were bought by a ''very'' small number of [=GameCube=] owners, and were ''very'' quickly discontinued. For a while, the cables were ''very'' expensive (topping off at $300 on eBay), though cheaper third-party cables have eventually entered the market. However, even if you do have the component cables, it occupies a special "Digital A/V Out" port on the console, which was removed in a 2004 console revision due to the low sales of the component cable. You're better off getting the first model of the Platform/{{Wii}}, which can not only play [=GameCube=] games in 480p but is overall cheaper, with the component cables not being as rare and expensive. |
| 252 | * Platform/PlayStation2: ''Any'' games that required the [=i.LINK=] port for LAN play is this, as the port was removed on later revisions of the [=PS2=]. So if you had a game that required [=i.LINK=] for LAN play and not the Network Adapter and planned on linking more consoles together for multiplayer, you were out of luck. |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | |
| 255 | [[folder:Non-Game Related]] |
| 256 | * Music/DepecheMode's remastered CD/DVD-A sets had a good selection of B Sides...but moved all that material to the DVD, for no apparent reason but to preserve the albums as intended. That means if you want to hear them you always have to play the [=DVDs=], which of course, cannot be played or copied like normal [=CDs=] can. You wonder why they didn't just give the B Sides a bonus CD to themselves. Luckily you can get them elsewhere thanks to the band's extensive singles collection, and many were on earlier [=CDs=] of the albums, but still. |
| 257 | * Lampshaded in ''[[WebAnimation/WelcomeTo Welcome To Youtube]]'' when he gleefully mentions Youtube has a 3D feature, only to abruptly change the topic and never mention it again: |
| 258 | --> Did you know Youtube has a 3D feature? [[TakeThat Me neither]]! |
| 259 | * The LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition of Music/JeanMichelJarre's ''Music/{{Oxygene}} [[CompilationRerelease Trilogy]]'' is supposed to include clear vinyl LP's of all three albums, but many sellers short-change audiophiles by leaving out the vinyl of the middle installment, which is especially shameful as the standalone vinyl pressing of ''Oxygene 7-13'' is [[CrackIsCheaper quite scarce and expensive]]. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
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