Line #53 Main/GetOnTheBoat


1	[[quoteright:240:[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GetOnTheBoat_3232.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:240:[[UnitsNotToScale Doesn't it look a bit small for two people?]]]]
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4	In many {{RPG}}s, especially [[EasternRPG JRPGs]], the time will eventually come when you've done all you can on the continent you start out on. Since you know that you're eventually going to have to visit every location on your FantasyWorldMap, there's nothing to be done for it except to head to the nearest PortTown and find someone to ferry you to the next continent so that you can continue with the adventure.
5
6	The game will usually require you to perform some sort of FetchQuest before it will let you get on the boat, and that's not all -- there's a high probability that the boat either doesn't get there or eventually gets sunk after the first successful attempt. The ocean is one of the most natural {{Broken Bridge}}s around, so game designers like to use it as one of the first [[PointOfNoReturn Points of No Return]] in the game.
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8	This is also sometimes a major mode of transport around the map, allowing you to travel across the world map much more quickly (possibly free of RandomEncounters!). In this case, it will inevitably become obsolete once you acquire your GlobalAirship later on (unless you can still navigate and dock the boat [[BubbleGloopSwamp in areas]] [[TheLostWoods too dense]] for the Airship to make a landing -- but these are few and far between). There are even a few cases where the boat ''is'' the GlobalAirship, but the player doesn't get the latter functionality until someone gives the boat a major upgrade near the end of the game.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
11
12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:Action Adventure]]
15	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
16	** The first game features the Raft item, which is used to reach a pair of island locations. Regardless of which quest you're playing, the next dungeon in the listed order after the one that holds the raft is located on one of those islands.
17	** In ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', a raft in the third dungeon lets players use a single dock to travel to a corresponding dock on the other half of Hyrule, granting access to the other four dungeons. Despite the difficulty of getting it, this is the item's only use.
18	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', which is set in a Hyrule that has long since been flooded and has turned into the Great Sea. Played straight at the beginning of the game, where the King of Red Lions won't let you board until circumstances are met (getting a sail, getting the pearls), but after that, you're free to go where ever you want ([[ButThouMust except where the King of Red Lions says you can't]]).
19	** Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfSeasons'': Finding a half-buried pirate ship in the desert, returning it to its crew of skeleton pirates, and fixing it is a major quest, but it's been so long since the pirates sailed that they all get seasick and have to get back to shore. In the end, the boat only serves as a glorified ''bridge'' not even a screen wide to let you access a dungeon.
20	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges'' has the Raft which is used to access an early dungeon, which is later made obsolete by Zora swimming gear that lets you dive underwater.
21	* In ''VideoGame/TakeshisChallenge'', you have to buy a ticket for a plane trip. If you don't get some things right before boarding the plane, the plane will explode in mid-air.
22	* In the ''VideoGame/DontStarve'''s ''Shipwrecked'' expansion you start on a small island with few resources and must build a raft or boat to escape, if you aren't playing the character that has a surfboard. In the ''Hamlet'' expansion, you also need to build a boat in order to gather certain materials, but you get to the other islands via underground tunnels.
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:Adventure Game]]
26	* The ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series uses this trope often, unsurprisingly as it is a pirate series set in the Caribbean. In each game the player has to look for a ship at some point in order to leave the first island.
27	* ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'' has a boat that the player character has to take over the sea. Naturally, it sinks before you reach your destination, but this time it's [[NiceJobBreakingItHero all because of you]] (and it turns out to be a good thing eventually, for you anyway).
28	* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry2LookingForLoveInSeveralWrongPlaces'', involves Larry winning an oodle of cash and a luxury cruise for two in the first ten minutes of gameplay, and the story proper continues as soon as Larry gets on the boat. Of course, getting on the boat serves as one of the first bottlenecks in the game, seeing as you need the Grotesque Gulp, the sunscreen and the swimsuit to progress later on, and you can't go back and get them after you get on the boat.
29	* Subverted in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIHeirTodayGoneTomorrow'': Due to the EvilChancellor's machinations, the ferry has ceased to operate. The reason for Alexander to board it anyway is to hear the unemployed ferryman tell him of a [[WarpWhistle magic map]] that can take him between the islands.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:First Person Shooter]]
33	* Every major mission in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' required to you take a boat or a helicopter to get to the next one. There is a point where if you don't do an event, [[spoiler:your helicopter blows up]]. However, it's a moot point by that time, as you're already at the final area. It really just depends on how much you like [[spoiler:the pilot, and how much you wanna hear some hilariously poorly acted dialog. Saying "A bomb." in a monotone voice was one of the ''Deus Ex'' fan favourites]].
34	** An interesting note about piracy: The way the boat/helicopter worked required to have a player finish saying a line of dialog before the trigger happened. However, pirated copies often had unimportant audio (and sometimes, all audio) removed from the game to lower the overall file size for the slower connections of the day, causing pirates to be in an {{unwinnable}} situation. Obviously, dialog that never started can never finish. With cheating, the game could be finished, but not very enjoyably, as this affected all the Infolink conversations, making it very hard to know what you're supposed to be doing.
35	* Despite being a straight-up FPS unlike the above, the elevators in ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' bear a striking resemblance to this trope. When any elevator is both powered up and not chock full of hostiles, it will inevitably be the only way to progress. In at least one instance the player must advance past and then backtrack to the elevators after accomplishing a poor excuse for a FetchQuest. The elevators never take you where you need to go. Most of them shut down partway through, much like a ship that sinks with the player on it. Another stops at each floor to let the Replica shoot at you, reminiscent of the VideoGame/GoldenSun example. The only elevator ride with no complications drops you off about 0.2 seconds too late to stop a very important civilian NPC from driving away without you.
36	* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'''s [[NoobCave introductory area]] is on an arctic island. One of your first major missions involves defeating the local bandits so you can gain access to a boat that takes you to the mainland.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Four X]]
40	* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' is a FourX example. On the standard maps, you'll meet some of the other civilizations on your continent; you'll need to learn how to build ocean crossing units to meet the rest (and take their land).
41	* The ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' also does this, as you'll need transport ships to ferry your armies to islands and other continents, as well as faraway countries (it's a lot faster and more convenient than having to slog it on foot through a bunch of foreign provinces).
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Interactive Fiction]]
45	* A lone boat can be found on a riverbank in the text-based ''Literature/TheHobbit'' game. As soon as Bilbo gets into it, it'll start moving, even if Thorin or Gandalf has used that turn to climb back out.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:[=MMORPG=]s]]
49	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has quite a few fixed boat routes: Al-Kharid or Taverley to Daemonheim. Port Sarim to Karamja, Entrana, or the Void Knight Outpost, with another boat ride for good measure if you actually want to participate in the Void Knight activity. Port Phasmatys to Braindeath Island, Dragontooth Island, or Mos Le'Harmless. And so on.
50	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has many boats for cross continental travel -- woe the traveller with low RAM or a shaky internet connection, though, because the loading screens that result often leave the player stuck on the boat, unable to get off at their destination.
51	** Another amusing bug would cause the character to spawn into the zone after the boat had moved on, either dumping into the ocean thousands of yards offshore or, with the Horde airships, dropping you from a perilous height.
52	** During a period in 2005 when bugs were causing the boats to spawn improperly, Blizzard removed them from the game and replaced them with "Captain Placeholder", an NPC who teleported players between continents on request.
53	** Right around launch time in 2004, there was yet another boat/zeppelin bug in which the transfer of player characters to the other world server (usually accomplished via boat or zeppelin) would fail due to overpopulation. When this happened, the boat or zep would just disappear out from under your character, plopping you down in some very hospitable fatigue-inducing waters.
54	** Although the expansion world of Outland goes by completely without ships. In fact, one can avoid the ships on the old world entirely with access to the capital city, which has teleporters to every of the eight capitals (you can't go to the capitals of the opposite faction, of course). ''Burning Crusade'' did see the addition of one new boat, which travels from the Draenei starting islands to the mainland of Kalimdor so Draenei players can get out into the rest of the world and off their conspicuously-separate world server.
55	** The second expansion, ''Wrath of the Lich King,'' adds new boats and zeppelins to transport players to the new continent of Northrend. An entire new harbor area was even added to Stormwind to facilitate this (the Horde just got new zeppelin towers). In addition, former boat routes were changed so Night Elf players could travel straight from Auberdine to Stormwind without having to trek through the Wetlands (finally).
56	* ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' has airships that leave at specific times and travel around the world in a loop.
57	* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' has airships as well. One of them is occasionally attacked by a high level boss (that low level characters can avoid by simply staying inside the ship). The addition of the Aqua Road allows the especially cheap players to swim across the ocean[[note]]Yes, you read that right. ''Across the frikkin ocean''[[/note]] rather than take a specific airship.
58	* The main way to get around the [[ViceCity Rogue Isles]] in ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' is by ferry. A few zones in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' are accessed mainly by boat as well.
59	* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' has a few islands, nicknamed the "starter" because that's where the players would start after the tutorial, and they were unable to leave until they completed the island's main quest and were given the option to be ferried to the mainland. This was changed during beta due to players getting bored with being contained to such a small area for so long; they now start in the first main city on the mainland for each alliance, and now those islands can be accessed at any time, by speaking to a boatswain.
60	* Each class in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' obtains a ship of their own after completing their origin world and their faction's capital world. The Smuggler is especially notable in that they start the game on their ship -- only for it to be [[BrokenBridge stolen]] in the first class mission.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Platform Game]]
64	* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' games had transports that took you between worlds (and involved LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading) but you often couldn't get on them unless you'd done something (rescued a certain amount of Dragons/Dragon Eggs, had a certain amount of Gems, defeated a boss, etc.)
65	* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' uses Funky Kong's vehicles for this. Appropriately for this trope, you start with a motorboat that can only take you to the game's first continent. By beating various bosses you can gain parts that Funky can use to build the next vehicle that you need to progress, including a hovercraft, a jet ski, and when you're close to OneHundredPercentCompletion, [[GlobalAirship a helicopter]].
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
69	* "Island maps" are fairly common in RTS games that include sea and/or air travel. By forcing the player to [[TechTree tech up]] to the point of transports before finding and engaging each other, they serve as a barrier to early-game rushes and encourage longer, more expansive matches.
70	** One of the only ways to compete against the cheating AI in ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' is to set the map type to islands and surround it with towers. The AI only sends a transport or two at a time, severely restraining its ability to ZergRush.
71	* The demo campaign in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'' involves Thrall taking some orcs and getting on a boat, promptly crashing it on an island and recruiting a tribe of trolls there before being chased off the [[LoadBearingBoss sinking island]]. Thrall fixes his boats, and sails to the continent of Kalimdor, which he crashes into. Orcs don't seem to be big on sailing.
72	** The tutorial campaign in the released version of the game consists of Thrall breaking his allies out of a human prison and stealing their boats... which segues directly into the above.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Rhythm Game]]
76	* Early entries in the ''VideoGame/RockBand'' series made you complete special challenges for a van, a tour bus, and a [[GlobalAirship private jet]] in order to play venues further away from your hometown.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Role Playing Game]]
80	%%* You have control of the boat in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' as well.
81	* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' has ''four'' space ships with the player onboard end up being gunned down and crashing. One of them is the GlobalAirship, which actually crashes twice throughout the game.
82	* Some ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games give you control of the boat, and some don't. They all have one at one point or another, though.
83	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' gives us an example of the boat that never gets to its destination.
84	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has two as well: one is the pirate ship that Faris uses, which you lose fairly early on. Later there's the fire-powered ship, which is your main mode of transport until you get the GlobalAirship.
85	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has ferries that serve as boats. In the UpdatedRerelease for the GBA, you fight an OptionalBoss on the ferry route in the World of Ruin if certain conditions are met.
86	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
87	*** The first boat is an example of a boat that always gets there, doesn't represent a PointOfNoReturn because you can literally get back on it the second you get off it, and becomes entirely worthless but still present by the halfway point of the game. And actually getting back on the boat is ''necessary'' to get Aeris' last limit break, at least [[spoiler:while she's still alive.]]
88	*** The next, a broken-down seaplane called the Tiny Bronco, is sort of a midway point between the Boat and a GlobalAirship. Although you ''can'', with some difficulty, circumnavigate the globe with it, its flight capability is {{broken\|Bridge}} making it good for sea travel only, and it can only dock on beaches and thus grants access to only a handful of places you couldn't already go.
89	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has you get on a boat early on to do one dungeon, and then you get right back on it to go home. You actually travel internationally regularly via train.
90	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' has a boat where nothing extraordinary happens. It acts just like an airship, only confined to water. In fact it is retrofitted into the party's first GlobalAirship because of how reliable it is. From there it survives all the way to the end of the game (even after your party replaces it with another CoolShip). The trope is initially subverted when the party leaves the first continent originally using underground tunnels. They don't Get On The Boat itself until the 3rd disc.
91	*** The boat in question still cleverly provides {{broken bridge}}s even without sinking, because the party can only get off it on low, smooth coast areas, thus preventing the player from accessing the Forgotten continent at all. [[MindScrew The first airship is a boat too, in a sense]], as it can only land on grassy areas.
92	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' had two boats; both of them got to their destination, you explored the inside of the boats instead of having control over them, and while the first one was attacked by Sin, the second one was uneventful.
93	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' features boats that travel between the game's continents. These boats are sometimes attacked by powerful sea monsters. HilarityEnsues for low-level players who are just trying to get from point A to point B.
94	** One exception is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', which doesn't have the party boarding any sea-faring vessels at all because the game is contained entirely to a single body of land. There are a couple air-ships which fill a similar role plot-wise, but not exactly.
95	* ''VideoGame/VandalHeartsIIHeavensGate'' has this without the boat. [[spoiler: The last thing to happen before the TimeSkip is the hero, after being forced to kill a possessed [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Lord Kossimo]], having to jump through a closed window and fall into the river below to avoid being arrested and executed.]]
96	* ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa'' plays with this during [[spoiler: Albert's opening quest, you have to take the boat to go to Rosalia from the Bafal Empire but during the trip a storm hits the boat and throws Albert into Valhalland (Southern Frigid end of Mardias).]] The reason the ship was hit by the storm was because [[spoiler:the package a man was carrying on the ship was a Nymph statue stolen from one of Yucomb's temples, more or less saying, Yucomb was pissed off. This only comes into context if one does the Nymph statues quest, learned about the statue's origins and then plays Albert's scenario.]] Also later on [[spoiler: If you completed the First mummy quest, when you leave the port on the same boat with the merchant selling the corpse on to Melvir, the Mummy will come back to life that night and wreck havoc on the passengers of that boat, failing to inform them makes the fight with the mummy harder since every victim it attacks turns them into the undead, said merchant is the first to die though so you have to fight one other zombie regardless]]
97	* ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar'': Alex and his friends Get On The Boat to Meribia after acquiring a sea chart for a captain who lost it to a reclusive witch. In the original game, Luna doesn't join Alex on the boat, but she does in the [[UpdatedRerelease remake]] ''Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete.''
98	* Done in every game in the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series, starting with ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII''. In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'', the kingdom of Alefgard was [[LawOfCartographicalElegance completely surrounded by water]]. This subversion is [[HandWave transparently justified]] in that the [=DragonLord's=] castle is within seeing distance of your own. You just have to do a ''lot'' of traveling on foot to get there.
99	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' sees the protagonists take a cruise on the boat a few times, the first of which gets disrupted when Dhaos manages to turn one of the passengers into his minion.
100	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' had several boats, including normal sailboats, small tubs whose unreliability was a RunningGag, and a land vehicle that was converted to a ship via {{Magitek}}. The party's [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes aquaphobic member]] was none too happy with any of these.
101	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' has the party cross the ocean in a villain's ship the first time. It sinks half way across and you have to get rescued by Flynn. For the next trip they get their own boat, which is eventually upgraded to GlobalAirship by strapping it to a giant flying whale.
102	* In ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'', the party is required to get on the good ship ''50/50''. As the world is split by huge crevasses, the sea has a massive waterfall in the middle of it (don't ask how this didn't get filled in the 10,000 years since its creation) and the boat must ''fly'' over it. When stating that ''50/50'' is an odd name for a ship, the owner replies that "that's the odds, sink or swim".
103	* ''VideoGame/WildArms1'' had a lengthy FetchQuest required to convince the merchant ship ''Sweet Candy'' to carry you to where you needed to go. This included the female lead pretending to marry the ship's captain to appease the gods of the sea and fighting off the GoldfishPoopGang. It eventually gets destroyed by an OptionalBoss and is ironically fixed for your use by the Captain's rival.
104	* ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' introduced the sandship, a necessity given that the world's "oceans" were really vast expanses of oddly soft sand. It even had its own combat system.
105	* In the original ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'', Kalas and Xehla used commercial ferries to cross between continents until they saved Diadem, after which the King lent them the use of his personal cruiser as thanks. In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'', Verus gives you the high-tech ''Sfida'' ship after you begin working for him.
106	* The main characters of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' enlist the help of good-hearted {{pirate}}s to carry them to the Dread Isle of Valor.
107	* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun''
108	** The original game had a lengthy arc which consisted of you defending a ship as it crossed a monster-infested sea. Sailors were knocked out during the voyage, and the characters had to make various {{NPC}}s take up the oars. A certain combination of {{NPC}}s would send you off-course, to [[BonusDungeon Crossbone Isle]]. At the end of the game, your party finally gets on the Lemurian ship... and the game ends, and when the sequel came around, AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent happens.
109	** The sequel had two Get On The Boat arcs -- the first required you to save Piers, who'd been WronglyAccused of thievery, so you could use his boat. The second involved upgrading the boat into the GlobalAirship [[spoiler:once you're reunited with the first game's party. What happened to ''their'' ship is never explained]].
110	** Dark Dawn gives you a ship, but the explorable area is vastly reduced compared to ''The Lost Age''.
111	* Occurs late in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', where you run a series of quests to get a decommissioned oil tanker, the PMV Valdez, operational again so you can take it to the final area.
112	* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' DLC ''Point Lookout'' has the Duchess Gambit ferry that transports you to the titular location, which takes a month of game time. Unlike the other DLC's where you're locked in until you complete the main quest there, you can travel back anytime if you have the caps.
113	* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' does the same as its predecessor. Kenji Nakano lets the player use his automated fishing boat to travel to and from the town of Far Harbor from the DLC of the same name.
114	** The Nuka World DLC does pretty much the same thing, except it's a monorail instead of a boat.
115	* ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'' is one of the strongest aversions to this trope. Not only can you reach many of the important places in the game without ships, but once the ships appear, acquiring one is a matter of letting one come to shore and winning an easy battle against its crew. Since the pirates spawn continuously, you can keep stealing their ships and build your own private navy, and it is common to jack a ship just to cross a short distance with less hassle. The game essentially treats ocean-going vessels as quick, disposable transportation, the way ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' treats cars. The only requirement to get a ship is to reach level 4, which does not take much time.
116	* In ''VideoGame/UltimaIX'', you will travel between islands in a ship piloted by the story's love interest. Near the end of the game you also learn to sail the ship yourself.
117	* In the first two ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games. In first this is somewhat subverted as you travel on a [[strike: tuna]] ''whale'' rather than a boat, played more straight in the second [[spoiler: where the ship gets wrecked, but you get to come back on another one]].
118	* ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGate Baldur's Gate 2]]'' has the player take a ship to the magical asylum of Spellhold. On the way back, the player [[spoiler:has a choice between taking a portal to the Underdark or taking a ship back to the mainland; the ship, however, will be captured by Githyanki and sunk, resulting in the party getting captured by [[SharkMan Sahugin]] and having to do a few side quests before progressing on to the Underdark. This is the only way to get a few of the game's Artifact weapons.]]
119	* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', there's a ferry service between the first two continents, except you can travel between them by foot anyway. There are no RandomEncounters, either, so travel by foot is not nearly as time-consuming as it is in many other games of its time.
120	* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', you can take a ferry which gets ambushed by [[spoiler:the Kraken]].
121	* In the ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles'' RPG, you're frequently hustled onto the (space) ship and on to the next zone upon beating a boss, with the ship usually disabled immediately when you arrive.
122	* The first three islands in ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'' are left this way. Before you can do that you must solve a Murder Mystery, Fetch Quest and Racial Conflict fueled by a GovernmentConspiracy. The fourth island has a teleporter and a BarrierMaiden who can use it.
123	* Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind''. The game starts as the player is a prisoner on a boat headed to the titular province, once there you get off the boat and it goes away. Smaller boats offer some local transportation as well, but they're more of a WarpWhistle.
124	** The expansions (and some mods) move closer to this. ''Tribunal'' is a non-literal boat (a teleporting service to and from Mournhold) but is the only way there, ''Bloodmoon'' suggests you take a ship to the isle of Solstheim but you ''can'' swim there if you're patient enough. ''Province: Cyrodiil''[[note]]a project making Cyrodiil as it was represented in ''Morrowind''[[/note]] has the player travelling by ship as the way to get to (and from) the covered area, ''Skyrim: Home of the Nords''[[note]]as Project Cyrodiil but for the province of Skyrim[[/note]] has the player go there by teleportation but get back by boat, and while it is ''theoretically'' possible to go there by swimming, the currently covered areas are on the far side from Morrowind, with the unimplemented areas between being miles and miles of water.
125	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
126	** While the boat in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' does get to its destination eventually, you have to fight several trainers and find a gentleman's missing daughter before it will arrive.
127	** And Mr. Briney's boat serves as Ye Boat for the [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Hoenn region games]] (requiring first one FetchQuest to access the boat at all, and another to get to what should ostensibly be the ''first'' destination you could reach had it not railroaded you to the plot). Another boat takes you to the island with the battle Tower/Frontier/Resort after you beat the Champion.
128	** After beating the Elite 4 and the Champion in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', you use a boat to get from Snowpoint City in northern Sinnoh to the Battle Zone in the northeast.
129	** Subverted in the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue original games]]. You board the S.S. Anne to obtain [[PlotCoupon HM01 (Cut)]] to [[BrokenBridge clear trees that impede further progress]], but the boat doesn't go anywhere until you get off.
130	*** The remakes add the Seagallop ferries as transportation among the Sevii Islands.
131	** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' have the optional Royal Unova, where you can take an evening cruise and battle trainers. It doesn't actually take you anywhere, though.
132	** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', you have to take the boat run by Roxie's dad to get to Castelia City the first time.
133	** The first main-sequence games in which this is {{averted}} are ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', which has no boats to board or populated islands to visit.
134	** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', travel by boat is required to get from one island to another in Alola.
135	* Common in the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'' series, although given the sci-fi fantasy setting the "boat" is as likely to be a hovercraft, ground-based tank or sandcrawler that serves effectively the same purpose, although you still get RandomEncounters. In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'', your [[TransformingMecha cyborg party member Wren]] becomes this when you find the right parts. He can also turn into a submarine, which is only needed to access one undersea dungeon.
136	* ''VideoGame/ShiningForceII'' uses a boat fairly early as a point of no return, but the whole town goes with you and resettles on the new continent. After that, you'll have to acquire a raft, a "caravan", and a fancy precursor airship to access the more advanced areas.
137	* This happens very early in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'', as the NoobCave (and JustifiedTutorial) is an island, and you don't learn teleportation magic until quite a bit later in the game. So, once you've won the scavenger and possibly done the sidequests, you step on the boat and get teleported to the mainland, right in front of your new castle.
138	* Partially averted in ''VideoGame/TitanQuest''; you do have to get on a boat to reach Egypt, and another to reach China, but once you get there, you can still travel back to the towns on previous continents via the portal system. Not that you'll have much reason to.
139	* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' plays this the straightest at the end of Act II, where you have to take a ship to travel from Lut Gholein to Kurast -- but not until you've reached Tal Rasha's tomb. In a similar fashion, you have to take the caravan from the Rogue Encampment to Lut Gholein itself after killing Andariel in Act I. In both cases, however, you can return if you wish via Waypoints. ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' does the same thing for the first three acts, taking the caravans from New Tristram to Caldeum (Act II) and then to Bastion's Keep (Act III). [[spoiler:The fourth act has you using the portal Diablo opened up to the High Heavens to go after him]]. And much like the other game, you also have waypoints from place to place.
140	* Most mission locations in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' are reached via Samuel Beechworth's riverboat, the ''Amaranth''.
141	* In ''VideoGame/TheLastStory'', Zael, Calista, Yurick and Mirania get on a Gurak boat after fleeing from an invaded Lazulis City.
142	* In ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}'', your first voyage from Europe to North America is scripted, but a later quest gives you a ship with which to explore most of the world. After [[UsefulNotes/TheWrightBrothers Will]] invents an airplane, airfields also start popping up in various places, including one previously inaccessible but afterwards important region.
143	* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}''. There are three boats in the game, and even though two of them open up new continents to the player, all of them travel fixed routes.
144	* Each of the ''VideoGame/{{Lufia}} games makes you work for your first boat ride, though you usually get one of your own in time.
145	** ''VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom'' requires you to return a lost ship to its owner to get a ride to Lorbenia, after Aguro's ship gets destroyed by monsters.
146	** ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'' has you retrieve a special wood for ship-making before you can get a ride to the next continent—and the BonusDungeon.
147	** The ship to the Lidal Continent in ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'' only resumes its schedule once you beat [[DiscOneFinalBoss Gades]].
148	** In ''VideoGame/LufiaTheRuinsOfLore'', the heroes have to chase down the captain of a crew of pirates to cross the ocean.
149	* After Cthulhu in ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'' finds the cure for the plague in Kingsport, he gets to hitch a ride to Alhazred, a town plagued by a dragon dwelling in the volcano.
150	* ''VideoGame/HolyUmbrella'' has the Pickle Express, technically not a boat but a CoolTrain. It first gets attacked by {{pirates}} and then swallowed by a whale.
151	* This happens thrice in ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm''. The first time is right after you leave the starting town, and ends in a shipwreck. The next is between Chapters 3 and 4, and features the cheekily-named “Obligatory Kraken Boss.” The last is when you take an airship to reach the Wayback Machine, which doubles as the game’s PointOfNoReturn. Unlike in the prequel, you don’t actually get to control the boats, (except the last one, technically, via a minigame).
152	* ''VideoGame/FableI'': The ''Lost Chapters'' expansion [[ExpansionPackWorld introduces]] the Northern Wastes, which were cut off from Albion when their PortalNetwork gates collapsed long ago. The Hero has to summon up a legendary GhostShip in order to reach the Wastes and reactivate the gates.
153	* In ''VideoGame/IcewindDale 2'', you'll eventually be told to take the airship belonging to a gnome who lives in the first town so you can reach another important location. No points for guessing that it crashes due to enemy activity and you have to walk the rest of the way through monster-filled country.
154	* One of the first main story quests in ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' involves fixing up a space-ship so you can leave the starting planet of Terra 2 and travel the rest of the Halcyon system.
155	* This is a staple of the ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' games, though they tend to ''start'' with Adol getting on the boat rather than making it a mid-game rite of passage.
156	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': Act I ends with your allies capturing the LivingShip the Lady Vengeance to escape [[TheAlcatraz Fort Joy]]. She transports you to the location of each new Act (including via an ExtradimensionalEmergencyExit after Act III), marking a PointOfNoReturn each time. She can also be freely visited throughout each Act but the first and contains several useful features.
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Sandbox]]
160	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories'' features a ferry system between Portland and Staunton Island, since the Callahan Bridge and Porter Tunnel depicted in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' aren't finished yet.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	!!Non-video game examples:
164
165	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
166	* Being based on an {{RPG}}, ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' uses boats for inter-region transport quite a bit, though there's only been one sinking (the episode "Pokémon Shipwreck", naturally). Notably, during most of the Orange Islands arc, the heroes use Ash's young Lapras to travel between destinations.
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:Literature]]
170	* Literature/SinbadTheSailor was famous for having a shipwreck almost every time he sailed, but each wreck led to a huge adventure before he could return home.
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Theatre]]
174	* Music/PDQBach's ''The Abduction of Figaro'': At the end of first act of the opera, the protagonists set sail, and immediately their ship is seen sinking in the mother-loving sea.
175	* The entire plot of ''Theatre/PericlesPrinceOfTyre'' revolves around an improbable number of shipwrecks as characters travel from place to place. While not directly related to Get On The Boat as a [[VideogameTropes Videogame Trope]], it shows that the device is still OlderThanSteam.
176	[[/folder]]
177
178	[[folder:Web Comics]]
179	%%* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' parodied this, as with every other RPG trope.
180	* Played straight in ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure''. The first Magicant piece is not on the island Julie and her friends were on, so they went back to Huckleton and jumped on a ship to one of the main continents.
181	[[/folder]]

Context Main / GetOnTheBoat