But Thou Must / Role-Playing Games

But Thou Must! in role-playing games.

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Examples where giving the "wrong" answer makes it impossible to proceed until you give the "right" answer (including giving Non-Standard Game Overs):

• Alpha Protocol was designed around avoiding this trope as much as possible, to the point where Obsidian Entertainment put on a presentation at PAX specifically named after the Dragon Quest example and discuss why and how developers should make choices matter. They then proceeded to make a drinking game out of the word "choice" and drink like fish, but that is neither here nor there.
  • ...And it's then played utterly straight when you meet Madison, even if you're playing an utterly paranoid character, you have to take her back to your safehouse to keep her...er, safe.
• Baldur's Gate:
  • Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn: Anything but accepting Gaelan's offer will result in you going in circle through the same dialogues. It is also a railroading of another railroading: for further details see also the below section with the examples where giving the "wrong" answer leads anyway to the same result.
  • Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal:
    • You can't ignore Sarevok. You get the ability to leave the pocket plane only after you restore him, even if you shouldn't have.
    • More or less the first person you meet in Saradush will do this, the conversation going in a circle until you agree to do what they want. Especially jarring since the sole reason you are supposed to trust the person is that they ask for pity on starving people. However, if you ask about them and their knowledge of you, they give a completely unconvincing and uninformative answer that would arouse immediate suspicion in anyone, let alone the constantly-betrayed child of Bhaal. There is also nothing the character offers in return for your services.
    • Lampshaded later with several dialogue options with a Solar about what they have to do because destiny give the player the choice of grumbling that they never get a choice in these sorts of matters.
  • Baldur's Gate III:
    • If the Player Character decides to be edgy and reject Shadowheart's pleas to team up (alongside the Clingy MacGuffin that drives the entire plot), she shows up again Brainwashed and Crazy, forcing the player to either let her tag along or claim the MacGuffin from her corpse.
    • Oskar Fevras is an arrogant Eccentric Artist held prisoner by the Zhentarim Thieves' Guild. Despite being a literal slave, if approached for a portrait he'll demand that they pay for his release first before reappearing in Act 3 and railroading them into That One Level.
    • Mysterious Protector Withers is intent on keeping the party alive whether they want him to or not; if the party skips his tomb he simply shows up with no context and invites himself along. If attacked, he'll No-Sell it and lightly mock your futile attempts at harming him before going right back to being helpful as always.
    • In Act 3, Tagalong Kid Yenna refuses to stop stalking the party regardless of how many times she's told off or even attacked and can't be killed because there has to be someone for Orin the Red to kidnap. Although you don't have to actually save her.
• In Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star, when you first start Ion/Earthes's (Avatar's) story, Ion will ask a series of questions to Avatar. The final one is a request and Avatar must accept it to continue, things will just be stuck if you just keep refusing it. As an added twist, however, you actually should refuse it the first time in order to receive a Trophy — "I Refuse." (Description: "Heartlessly refused Ion's request.")
• In the original Breath of Fire game, there is a part where you're in control of Nina and two soldiers from her kingdom will repeatedly insist upon escorting her. Granted, you might not make it without them, but it's still a non-choice.
  • Shortly after regaining control of Ryu after Nina is captured, the Winlan guards ask for Ryu's help rescuing the princess. If you tell them no, they'll explain that there is gas that weakens them and ask you for your help again. Saying no again does exactly the same thing, resulting in an endless loop until you say yes.
  • Equally, there is a part later in the game where one of your team asks to run off with a crazy amount of money from your stores (or just all of it) — an unreasonable request at the best of times — and he won't let you refuse.
  • In Breath of Fire II there is a part where you learn that a poisoned needle is going to be shot into the ring during a coliseum battle to kill the other competitor. Noble as you are, you cannot accept this. After discussing it with a friend, your friend says he has an idea and needs all of your money. Refusing this causes him to tell you that it's dangerous for you too, and it would be a real shame if you died trying to save a little money. He will not accept denial, so once you open the dialog, you're going to lose all your money. And you just got paid 1,000G, which is quite a bit for that part of the game. Amusingly, you can actually deposit your money in the bank, then come back and talk to your friend. He will But Thou Must your money — except that you won't lose anything.
  • If you say no when your father asks you to look for Yua at the beginning of Breath of Fire II he hits you on the head, says that you're supposed to be responsible for your sister and gives you the same yes/no choice.
• In Chrono Trigger, Marle will keep asking you to reconsider not accompanying her after running into her at the beginning of the game. The same thing happens when Frog shows up and Lucca asks if you want to join him. Furthermore, after witnessing Lavos destroy the world, your other two party members are all gung-ho about stopping it (or, in Lucca's case, about Crono looking cool in front of the other girl), and won't take no for an answer.
• Avoided in Chrono Cross. At no point in the game is any decision foregone, leading to what was a rather aimless game, according to some people.
  • In an interesting inversion, when Nikki the rock star joins you, he offers to play you a song, and you get to choose one of several ways to tell him "no".
  • When Kid tries to join up with you in what seems to be a But Thou Must sequence, repeated refusal will cause her to not join up with you and you to get a different party member instead. Because Kid will join your party shortly after anyway and because that party member is otherwise lost forever, you're actually better off refusing the first time it looks like thou must.
  • In another scene, Kid is injured and the player either charges off to her rescue or expresses doubt he can save her. Although it looks like a But Thou Must situation, being pessimistic turns out just as well and sets you on the path to pick up Glenn, one of the most powerful characters in the game.
  • The whole first half of the plot revolving around Kid can be interpreted as a double subversion of this trope. The game begins with you having a presumably prophetic vision/dream of Kid being in your party and having an unfortunate incident. You are then given multiple opportunities to try and prevent this from happening by not allowing Kid to join your party. You seem to be allowed to succeed. You are even rewarded (consistently you get to recruit better party members if you choose not to recruit/help Kid). But in the end Kid joins your party anyway and the unfortunate event occurs anyway (though not in precisely the way you think it would).
• Conception 2: Children Of The Seven Stars: During your first trip into the dungeon, you encounter the first boss early, and Ruby orders you to flee. Your options are "No", "I won't run from an enemy", and "To hell with that".
• Appears to be the theme of Deltarune; despite appearing to have a similar structure to Undertale in terms of choosing between pacifism or more violent methods, the game constantly forces you along only a single path. You are even told multiple times that "the choices you make don't matter", and many of the choices you are offered get rescinded immediately, in direct contrast to the extremely choice-driven experience of Undertale.
• Subverted in the obscure NES RPG Destiny of an Emperor (based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story). In one scene, a defeated enemy declares "I am the Emperor. Let me go!" and you are given the standard YES/NO choice. If you choose NO, he says it again and again. If you give up and choose YES, you fight him again as part of a later boss encounter, but if you choose NO enough times, the loop breaks, the enemy is executed, and the later fight becomes easier.
  • Early in the game, the dying Emperor Tao Qian asks Liu Bei to become his successor, and if you say no, he asks you to reconsider until you say yes. The justification is that Destiny of an Emperor is based (loosely) on actual history, and this is pretty much exactly what happened in real life. Liu Bei refused the crown the first two times Tao Qian asked him.
    • Just for the record, this is actually considered common courtesy in China. If someone offers you something valuable, you should refuse the first two times. Only if he offers it a third time may you accept it. If he does not offer it a third (or second) time, the offer is not serious and it is wrong to accept.
• The Japanese Famicom game Doraemon — Giga Zombie no Gyakushuu begins with Doraemon asking the player character to help him find the rest of his lost crew and save the world from the game's Big Bad in what seems like a standard But Thou Must. If you say no multiple times, however, Doraemon finally takes the hint, and walks off crying in a Nonstandard Game Over. We hope you're satisfied. Jerk.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest:
    • The Trope Namer: the princess asks you to let her accompany you on your travels, which inevitably leads to her marrying you, and if you answer no, she simply says "But thou must." and gives you the choices again. You can keep hitting "No" until the cows come home, but she just won't take it for an answer. (Telling the Dragon Lord "Yes" when he asks you to join him, however, is a Nonstandard Game Over.^note This is only true in the NES version. Agreeing to his offer in the Super Famicom and GBC remakes returns you to Rimuldar's inn.)
    • It is just possible to avoid this fate by never rescuing the princess in the first place, in which case the silent hero marches off on his own in the end for a much less dramatic ending. Technically, you're supposed to rescue her so that you can get directions to a Plot Coupon, but you can find it by yourself if you're willing to search blindly around a swamp for half an hour or if you're willing to go and look up the location on a guide. Essentially, this dooms the princess to rot starving to death in the bowels of a pitch black dungeon.
    • Alternately, YOU can be the clingy one, and never take her to her throne, and thus never put her down, taking her on adventures into the darkest dungeons. The Dragonlord is actually moved to comment if you do this.
  • Dragon Quest II: After the party have destroyed the Big Bad, the King of Midenhall asks the Prince if he will accept the throne. If you answer "No", he will reply "Don't be silly. Will you accept it?" until you take up his "offer", whereupon he will happily say "That is your decision."
  • Dragon Quest III:
    • After you reclaim the King of Romaly's crown, the king will offer his entire kingdom to you. You've got better things to do, but he will not take no for an answer (however, in the Game Boy version, he will give up after you say no enough).
    • Taking the throne amusingly leads to an inversion of the trope. Since you have no stats and can't leave town if you're King/Queen, the only way to proceed is to find the former King and then declare that he's the King again. He'll protest, but then realize that he must follow your orders, since you are the ruler of Romaly. (In fairness, all he wanted was to take a break from his duties and hang out in the gambling parlor for a while; he didn't really intend to give up the reins of power for good.)
    • You can't refuse to spare Kandar/Robin' 'Ood after beating him. Nor can you execute him after the second fight against him, though at least he doesn't wind up fighting you a third time afterwards.
  • Dragon Quest IV has a case where a princess needs to give up a bracelet to free a woman who got kidnapped because she was pretending to be said princess. If you'd played through the game already, you'll know this is also a case of Failure Is the Only Option; if you don't give up the bracelet it never gets into the hands of the main enemy, and the final act of the game never happens.
  • Dragon Quest V:
    • The game is chock-full of this. There is not a question to be found where you can actually say no and get away with it — this includes a situation where the evil spirit you are supposed to fight invites you to lunch, promptly making you fall down a trap door. Very much a case of Stupidity Is the Only Option, as well.
    • In fact, during the childhood section, Harry is meta as hell about this: the first time you talk to him, he'll ask you if you want to be his goon/lackey/etc. Refuse and he'll classically But Thou Must! you. Accept, and... he tells you to scram anyway.
    • The worst one of them all is right after the first boss. He's begging for his life and forgiveness, which he doesn't deserve, seeing of course that he kept spirits from moving on for personal entertainment, and tried to have you eaten. You say no...
      Haunted housekeeper: There's no need to be like that! Surely you can forgive us, boy!
    • The most hilarious among them is the Hero's wedding scene about halfway through the game. During the event, the priest who is doing the vows for the couple asks the player whether he will stick with his bride for the rest of his life as expected of wedding vows. As the wedding is absolutely mandatory for the progression of the story, Choosing 'No' will naturally do absolutely nothing. In fact, if you DO say 'No', the game will immediately bring up the YES/NO choices again, and it will do so without anyone (including the priest, your friends, and even your WIFE) responding to this at all.
  • Dragon Quest VIII does this in its neutral ending. If you refuse to spirit princess Medea away from her loveless (and possibly politically disastrous) marriage to Prince Charmless, she'll exclaim "How could you?!" and King Trode will glare at you. The game rewinds to before you said no, and you can't progress forward, see the ending, or save the game for a New Game Plus until you say "yes."
  • Dragon Quest XI continues the tradition. Almost, if not all, yes/no choices (and there are many) are rigged so that not being a stereotypical Hero sees either people berating your desire to NOT be a hero, or choosing to refuse being an illogical option; i.e. you WILL do what the plot wants you to do whether ya like it or not. Sometimes, choosing the non-heroic option results in a character reprimanding you for your attitude or even kicking you in the face, then the game continues on regardless of your choice.
• A strange version of this can be found towards the end of EarthBound Beginnings. After defeating Teddy in battle he will offer to join your party to Mt. Itoi. If you refuse him repeatedly Ninten's father will call and order you to let him join. Saying no again will cause the group to be teleported back to the game's starting point at Ninten's house. Apparently he really wanted his 12-year-old son hanging out with a known gangster.
• Shortly before EarthBound (1994)'s first real boss fight (against a local gang leader), the protagonist is asked if he wants to join the gang. Answering "Yes" results in being told to come back after finishing the game.
  • Before time travelling to the Big Bad's final lair, Dr. Andonuts gives a big inspirational speech about how Ness is The Chosen One and all, and by pressing the "go back in time" button with his own hand, he is fulfilling his ultimate destiny, and then asks a yes/no question as to whether you want to do it. Saying no prompts him to simply say "Oh. I see", and then ask his own son to do it instead. Saying no past that just loops back to Ness, then back to Jeff, and so on until you press the button.
  • When Jeff shows up in Threed, he'll give you a laundry list of his flaws and ask if you still want him to join. Say "no" and you'll be asked the same question again, after a lecture.
  • In the beginning of the game, Pokey will ask you to help him find his brother. If you say no, he will threaten to say something that will cut you like a knife. If you say no again, he will apologize. It loops.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Throughout much of the series, for virtually every quest, there is no option to actually say "no" to a quest giver. At best, you'll get a response option stating that you'll do it later. The Elder Scrolls series is remarkably open-ended with countless quests available, but the individual quests themselves are pretty linear and inflexible.
  • That said, you can turn down all quests in Daggerfall after reading the preamble to it. You can even turn down the main quests, and lock yourself out of the plot.
  • In Oblivion's Knights of the Nine expansion, several people will try to join the knightly order you are rebuilding. You can technically tell them "no," but if you do, they just stand around in your lodge waiting for you to change your mind.
  • Skyrim:
    • In order to progress with the Companions and Thieves Guild questline you have to become a werewolf and sign your soul away to Nocturnal and later return the Skeleton Key respectively, despite the former being worded to sound like it's optional.
    • The player will hear rumors that there's a serial killer on the loose around Windhelm. With a little detective work, it's possible to find some incredibly damning evidence incriminating a local citizen... but, you aren't allowed to do anything about it until the quest advances and the killer strikes again. You can't even take justice into your own hands — the man is tagged unkillable until a certain point in the quest. (However, when he does try to claim another victim, you can stop him and save the victim — if you know where he's going to strike in advance.)
• Etrian Odyssey: In the original game, the mayor gives you a mission to annihilate the forest people — that's right, an entire race of sapient beings — in order to protect the town's tourist industry. You cannot proceed until you accept it and carry it out. The remake changes the context to make it less objectionable (the forest people are now being driven mad by a disease instead of being innocents whose territory you're intruding on) but you still have no choice but to kill them.
• In Everhood, this is used when the player declines the offer the Voice gives them to enter Everhood at the start of the game, although the Voice very politely tells you that it will wait until you are ready.
• E.V.O.: Search for Eden features several of these that lead to Non-Standard Game Overs.
  • Probably the best-known is during the Dinosaur Era, near the ending, when "Tyrasaurus", the Big Bad of that chapter, asks you to join him in world domination; answering yes leads to being killed by a meteor shower. However, after viewing the outcome, you are returned to the world map, and forced to fight.
  • On the next stage you encounter a strange race of bird men who are manipulating the evolution powers to become more powerful. Again, they offer to let you join them. If you do, you become part of an advanced bird race that are eventually worshiped by humanity as gods. Then it dumps you back to the map and lets you play on, again not giving you the question when you confront the birdmen this time around.
  • There's also the sea creature in the sea in the final map who gives you the same proposal as the T-Rex and the bird chief where you can join him and rule the ocean or fight him. as with the other two, however, you rule the ocean with him through fear and might, but then he is caught by fishermen and left you to your own imminent doom without him. You're then forced to re-encounter him and fight him without the question. The fourth instance of this also includes a bonus if you are able to fly either as a bird or past-evolving into a flying creature, you can attack the aliens hiding in the skies. They will beg you to spare them. If you don't, the ship will explode, causing all the aliens to fly out of their ship and toward their deaths way down below. If you accept to spare them, however, they are grateful and take you with them to Mars. This is a rare subversion, however, because they promptly bring you back to Earth and you can then continue on the next level normally.
  • Its predecessor, E.V.O. The Theory of Evolution, gives you an evolution chart you can travel through by investing points into four attributes. At the end of each chapter, you can evolve one last time by maxing out one of them, which is usually Endurance or Wisdom and is pretty much spelled out by Gaia just before that moment. Pick any other attribute and you will get a Nonstandard Game Over where you either go extinct or become unfit to keep evolving until you gain sentience.
• Expeditions: Rome has a very branching structure depending on your choices. There are usually multiple ways to accomplish an objective, frequently ones which involve proudly explaining why a Roman would do it that way. Yet in the final act of the game you're faced with something that would be abhorrent to Roman sensibilities (Human Sacrifice) but it must be done for the story to proceed, your only choice being the exact details.
• Around the end of Fallout 3, the player is tasked with entering the irradiated chamber of Project Purity, exposing themself to a lethal blast of radiation while activating it. If the player has a companion that can withstand radiation (Fawkes the Super Mutant, Charon the Ghoul, or Sergeant RL-3 the robot), they will refuse and insist you enter the chamber and activate the machine, even though there's no actual reason you and Sarah Lyons should be the only options. This was retconned in the "Broken Steel" add-on, though naturally the ending narration still treats you like a huge prick, as if you'd chosen to send Lyons in and get her killed.
• In order to acquire the Guardian Force Bahamut in Final Fantasy VIII, Squall must answer a series of dialogue prompts. The first has only one answer available; the second has two, one which allows Squall to proceed and one which ends the dialogue, requiring the player to start it over again in order to continue the sidequest. The third prompt is where things really get tricky: when Bahamut asks Squall why he wishes to fight, the two visible options both result in a fight with a pair of dragons and a repetition of the question afterwards, and it takes picking a third, invisible dialogue option to proceed to the boss fight and complete the sidequest.
  • However, the question itself is a kind of Lampshade Hanging on the concept. The question is, pretty much:" "Why do you fight?" To protect/none of your business/It's our nature. We must.
• Lampshaded in an easter egg at the beginning of Final Fantasy IX. At the Tantalus mission briefing the Leader asks Zidane who they're kidnapping to see if he knows what's going on. The two responses are Garnet and Queen Brahne. If you choose Brahne 64 times another Tantalus member inexplicably bursts out of a closet and demands you stop being so stubborn.
• Final Fantasy X has one fairly blatant example: In one scene, Tidus and Yuna have a chat with one of the Fayth to discuss their battle plan to defeat Sin. If the player answers that they don't have a plan yet, the Fayth will tell you to go away and come back when you have a plan, and the scene fades to black...and then fades right back to the start of the conversation to let you try again.
• Another, particularly egregious Final Fantasy example appears in the ending of Final Fantasy XIII-2, where much is made of the following decision: whether Noel should go through with killing Caius or spare his life. The game even provides a button-press option to choose between the two. But this is frustratingly betrayed by the plot in an example of this trope, because even if you choose to "spare" Caius, he commits suicide anyway and the exact same events unfold; this is doubly frustrating because according to the plot, Caius has a death wish and only Noel can kill him, but suddenly he can commit suicide using Noel's sword without Noel's volition — a sword that was never at any point in the plot described as having special Caius-killing power — raising the obvious question: why didn't Caius just off himself years ago if he didn't need Noel to kill him? Argh!
• In Forspoken, there's an early game section where the main character's apartment is burning down, and she is forced to flee. The only two things that she needs to grab from her apartment are her pet cat, and a bag containing her entire life's savings in cash. Any attempt to interact with the bag (which is literally right next to you) will result in a line of dialogue from the main character about how she needs to go find her cat, and you will not be able to progress until you abandon the cash to go find the cat.
• In the demo for GLITCHED by En House studios, it is a major plot-point that you can interact with your player character. Refusing to speak to Gus at all when introduced, or even introducing yourself as "the player" will drive him insane, leading to a Game Over.
• Golden Sun has one of these at the beginning of the game (or at least, the beginning of the actual gameplay after going through an hour of interactive cutscenes), where you have to choose to own up to your mistake and go save the world, or... Not. And if you don't, the screen fades to black and explains that your inaction causes the world to wind to its inevitable doom. You then have to go back to the same choice and select yes. The first Djinni you encounter (in both games) gives you another, absolutely refusing to leave you alone until you let it join your party. Saying no enough times just makes them join you out of spite anyway.
  • There is a more straightforward example at the beginning of the game where Jenna will get pissed if you say no and will keep asking until you say yes.
  • Maybe the most hilarious example is when you meet Lord McCoy, and Garet forces you to agree that his calling you a child is irritating, only then to brush it off with a line about proving him wrong, and continue on as if nothing happened.
  • Golden Sun is full of these things. At most, any given Yes/No input changes the next two or three lines of dialogue, and then the story gets right back to where it was.
    • Played with in The Lost Age where if you say no to every single response and say no once more when you reach Lemuria for the first time, Kraden will completely flip out and yell at you for not taking your quest seriously, to which you can tell him no when prompted to just to annoy him even further.
  • Golden Sun: Dark Dawn adds emotion-based replies, which effectively work the same way, but also plays with and parodies the principle a lot more: having the Femme Fatale villain ask if she's tempted you and not accept "no" answers, or beginning a quest with this lovely dialogue:
    "Why are we doing this again?"
    "Because Matthew can be talked into anything."
  • Of course, Dark Dawn also takes this approach to baiting you with the option of skipping the tutorials, like you could in The Lost Age, and then going "juuuuuuust kidding! Here's the tutorial anyway!" And one wonders why the fans are peeved.
• Grandia:
  • Happens all the time in the original game. Sometimes they give you a "choice" about how to respond that doesn't lead to anything until a particular one is picked, or the character will ask repeatedly. For instance when Justin's mother asks him if he's been causing trouble, the player can go through three different ways to say "no" but it isn't until they pick the last one which causes Sue to blurt out the truth that the game continues. In another case Justin breaks the statue in the museum, the player is given the choice to either lie to the curator about it, in which case he says "are you sure?" and loops back to the choices or be honest, oddly in which case he laughs it off as a joke.
  • In Grandia II, when Ryudo is inside his own soul, he is forced to answer three questions about whether he desires power. However, if he says that he desires it, he is told that that is not his real opinion, and must answer again.This is kinda weird since after answering all the questions 'properly', the inner voice explains to you why your answers DO mean that you want the power, and you get punished accordingly. So why not let the player admit he wants power, and punish him for it like how it happens anyway?
• Great Greed has a scene in which a bad guy asks you to join their side. If you say "yes" you get a fake Nonstandard Game Over — your NPC ally blasts you with a lightning bolt, you see a Game Over screen for a moment, and then she says that it was a demonstration of what would have happened if you were serious. You are then returned to the game as it was just before you talked to the boss.
• .hack brings us the big hulking green freak Piros. The people who designed the first four games must like this guy. He drags you on two quests per game. Half of which are caused by his ineptitude and gullibility. This guy is seriously annoying but the story will NOT progress until you clean up his messes. Because Kite has nothing better to do... besides saving coma victims.
  • Piros makes FAR more sense when you realize that he's the Author Avatar of Hiroshi Matsuyama, the president of CyberConnect2 and the director of the .hack series. Not only is Piros literally Hiroshi in the game universe (i.e., the "graphics designer" who plays Piros' character is Hiroshi Matsuyama), but the real Hiroshi even sings his theme song in the GU games.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses
  • On the Golden Deer route of Part 1, after Jeralt's death in Chapter 9, Claude will come in and ask you to give him Jeralt's diary. You will not be allowed to proceed until you say yes to his request.
  • On the Silver Snow route, Byleth receives a letter from Claude asking the Resistance army to capture the Great Bridge of Myrddin. Byleth has two responses- "Let's do it" and "This sounds suspicious"- and if you choose the latter, Seteth will tell you that you have no choice, resulting in you being unable to proceed until you choose "Let's do it."
• Early in I am Setsuna, you have the "choice" of having Endir guard Setsuna on her journey to become the sacrifice, or just leaving her to her fate. The game doesn't let you refuse, giving you the options of either accepting or "taking more time to think about it." Yahtzee criticized the game for this in his review, pointing out that, no matter what Setsuna says, you only have the options of agreeing with her or agreeing with her in a slightly sarcastic manner.
  Setsuna: Let's all stick our privates in this hornets' nest

  Yes, let's
  —>Yes, "let's"
• Infinite Space has a rather humorous (albeit a little disturbing) example of this case. At one point during the Magellanic Stream chapter, Cico wants to spend some time with Kira, the main character's little sister, and to confess his love for her. He won't stop bugging you until you grant him permission give up and let him have his way.
• In King Colossus, this old guy in the main room of the house you start out in at the beginning of the game asks if you're grateful for his having raised you and if you say no, you cannot get out of the room.
• At the beginning of Legend of Legaia, Meta asks Vahn to join with him. If you say no, he apologises for forcing you but explains that you have no choice but to agree, and presents you with the choice again.
• Lunar: The Silver Star does it twice, both after having confronted a villain. Every time you say you won't forgive Dross, you'll hit him (which amounts to being treated to a series of <POW!> <BAM!> <BIFF!> OW!s), but you can't get him to give you any more money than he already has. The second time, your lack of options is directly lampshaded by the Medium Aware villain in question.
  "I'm tellin' ya, you're not going to make any progress until you forgive me. You might as well get it over with and get on with this game... I can wait a lot longer than you can, believe me..."
• In the opening of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam the player, as Luigi, is tasked by Toad with checking out a hole causing a draft. You can't actually say no (As Luigi only communicates by Speaking Simlish in this game. Or in this case, vaguely Italian.), but you can try to walk back out the door. Doing this, however, will prompt Toad to stop and berate Luigi. Trying again and again will yield the same results, with Toad getting more and more agitated until he decides to stop verbally chastising Luigi, and instead drop a cartoonish 1 ton weight on Luigi's head.
• Mass Effect:
  • The first Mass Effect was especially guilty of this when it came to certain dialogue options, where all choices wouldn't just have the same outcome, but have Shepard say the exact same line, or have the person you're talking to respond with the exact same thing. For example, at the end of Saren's hearing where you're asked if you have anything more to add, you can choose either "You won't see the truth", "No" or "What's the point?"; all of them will have Shepard say "You've made your decision, I won't waste my breath". This was partly a result of the player having to make a choice any time Shepard had to speak, and when the cutscenes were written a single way, this was the end result. Bioware wised up with the later games by having Shepard respond automatically in these cases and nixing redundant options, which made any choices you did make feel more meaningful.
  • Many Assignments across the original trilogy will be added to your log even if you say no to the quest giver. Mass Effect: Andromeda would avert this, but it would often result in Permanently Missable Content as a result.
  • In Mass Effect 3, if you haven't managed to persuade him at each prior chance you get two chances to shoot the Illusive Man dead via Renegade Interrupts when you confront him at the end of the game. Refuse to take the second and he shoots Shepard, giving you a game over.
• If you talk to Yai at the beginning of Mega Man Battle Network 2, she'll assume you want to hear about her new fan collection. If you say "No", she'll keep saying, "Ahem...you WANT to HEAR, right?" until you say, "Yes". It turns out to be important for when Air Man gasses her house, but Mega Man reminds you about it anyway and tells you about it (who knows how he found out) if you never talked to Yai in the first place.
• In Metal Saga, the very first question asked of your character, "Do you want to be a mechanic?", can actually end the game about two minutes after it started.
• In Mother 3 when you refuse the Rope Snake's plead to aid you out of Saturn Valley enough times, the options become "Okay" and "I'm so moved".
  • Kumatora But Thou Must's you into taking a shower. Saying "No" repeatedly causes her to yell "JUST TAKE A DAMN SHOWER ALREADY!" and the screen is tinted red. It is hilarious.
  • Also, at the end of the game, when Flint asks if you want to pull the last needle; if you choose no, he essentially tells you to suck it up and then gives the same speech he'd give if you'd said yes. After that, when the game asks you if you want to pull the needle, Yes and No do the exact same thing. Unused dialogue would've had Lucas actively defy the player if they chose no.
  • At the beginning of the game, if you say no when Hinawa asks you to change your clothes, she says that you can stay inside in your pajamas for the rest of your life.
• From Neverwinter Nights:
  • After the first chapter of Hordes of the Underdark, the mage you freed in the final battle places you under a Geas that forces you to track down and kill the Valsharess, or die. Of course, the mage is the notoriously Ax-Crazy Halaster Blackcloak.
  • In the premium module Kingmaker, you're offered a chance to run for rulership of the town you end up in. You can try to refuse, but your intelligent weapon that revived you after you died in the beginning tells you that you were brought back for this specific purpose. If you lose the election, your weapon kills you.
  • In the Pirates of the Sword Coast module, you meet the ghost of Captain Allendry, your former employer. He'll ask you to swear an oath to avenge his death by slaying his killer, priestess Tasina. You can't refuse no matter what, otherwise you can't proceed further into the game. Later you meet the dragon Yxondralu. You can't pass her unless you make an oath to spare priestess Tatsina's life. At the end of the game, you'll have to break one of your oaths.
• Averted entirely by Canopus in the original Ogre Battle; when asked if they're fighting for a selfless cause, the Player Character is offered first one option with a yes/no dialogue, then (upon saying 'no') a second option, and finally a third, at which point, if the Player still says 'no,' Canopus erupts in fury, saying that you're just barbarians fighting with no cause, your Karma Meter takes a big hit, and you can't ever get either Canopus or his buddy Gilbert to fight for you.
• In Paper Mario it actually asks you if you want to take partners. You can choose the option to not take the partner, but, of course, you'll be But Thou Must'd into choosing the option to take them anyway. Which is a good thing, because, y'know, if they let you go without, you could end up making it Unwinnable. Koops from the second game is actually an example of this, as he will sadly accept your rejection but boasts a unique field ability vital to solving the next important puzzle.
  • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door you can get a Nonstandard Game Over by accepting the Shadow Queen's invitation to join her at the end of the game. This actually still allows for a conclusive ending if you're feeling really lazy.
    • You can get another Nonstandard Game Over by reading the diary of the ghost when you are travelling in the train. And that even though you were told not to do it several times.
  • Super Paper Mario subverts this. If you say "no" to Merlon enough times at the beginning, when he offers you the first Pure Heart, you'll eventually get a Nonstandard Game Over. Note that this occurs before the actual gameplay begins. The same happens if you repeatedly refuse an offer for a mission from Queen Jaydes. And also if you refuse to put on a helmet in outer space.
    • It also plays with it near the end of the game. At one point, the shapeshifting villainess Mimi disguises herself as Merlon and tells you to hit a box, in a way that's an obvious trap. If you try to avoid it by talking to her, instead of just repeating a single response, she has a variety of responses — including direct Lampshade Hanging in the form of mention of hypothetical flags that can prevent you from doing what you want unless you trigger them.
    • Inverted later on when Dimentio offers to team up with Mario and Luigi to take down Count Bleck. If you answer "no" a few times like you're supposed to the game continues, but if you answer "yes" a few times — as he'll continually sweeten the pot even though you're already accepting his offer, to throw up an even bigger red flag — then he'll slap a mind-control plant on your head and give you a Nonstandard Game Over.
• In Persona 3:
  • Annoyingly used for Social Links. Though you may be itching to spend time with a social link, your allies will occasionally pop up to ask you to do something with them or for them that will use up your "after school" hours. No matter how much you say "No" you'll be forced into the problem anyway. Made worse by the fact that each social link has a specific set of times when it's available, so if you're forced to skip Yuko on Wednesday, for example, you won't get another chance to spend time with her until Saturday.
  • In the Portable release, if you haven't visited Tartarus by 4/30, Mitsuru will force you to go that night and will not accept "no" for an answer or allow you to leave without making some progress in the dungeon.
  • Also used during the full moon event at a Love Hotel where you are "tempted" by the Boss. To many players' amusement and/or frustration, as much as the game gives you choices to give into temptation, you cannot move on in the game unless you resist in all three choices presented to you.
  • Another blatant example is when you do not join one of the athletic clubs when they are first available. On 5/27, your composition teacher will confront the protagonist and But Thou Must him into joining the club. This was implemented most likely so you would not miss your chance to open the Star social link, but most get pretty pissed when you have to waste an entire week for sports training, for a tournament you can't even win.
  • When playing as a girl in the PSP version, you MUST join both the athletic club and the library/medical committee (Chariot and Hermit, respectively). Putting it off too long will make Ms. Toriumi stop you on a specific day, and she will not budge until you agree to join them.
  • You're forced into the summer school program even if your Academics are just fine, and even if you'd do better by not going to summer school (such as if you've got plenty of yen to spend at the shrine), because the game needs to kill time.
  • Averted on New Year's eve, where you can choose to accept Ryoji's offer of killing him, something that the rest of the party decided to refuse, which gives a bad ending.
• Persona 4 is a little better about this — you're told about the culture and sports clubs but you are not forced into joining either. The game still has "plot interruption days" though. Some of the social links (like your allies) are forced but building them up gives them new tricks in battle and all social links no longer reverse or break if left alone for prolonged periods of time. You get forced into eating Curry made by Yukiko and Chie, resulting in you passing out.
• Persona 5: If you refuse to accept the opening This Is a Work of Fiction disclaimer, the narrator proceeds to say "Well, then you can't play this game" and returns you to the Start Screen.
  • In Chihaya's Confidant, the main character accompanies Chihaya as she does tarot readings for various people, in order to see whether fate can be overturned. At a few points, Chihaya will ask you to give the customers advice, and if you choose a wrong answer, Chihaya will tell you to choose your words more carefully before making you select another choice. This is highly unusual considering that in most Confidants, choosing the wrong answer results in players missing out on relationship points (and in many prompts, none of the choices offer any point) needed to progress in the Confidant.
• In Phantasy Star IV, when Chaz is given the choice of whether or not he wishes to learn Megid. If you say Yes, Re-Faze kills him; you have to say No to both stay alive and learn it.
• Pokémon:
  • A variation happens in Pokémon Red and Blue and their remakes: when Bill asks you to change him back to his human form, you will do it even if you refuse to, in which case he'll just beg you to do it for a little bit before proceeding with the dialogue that would've been shown immediately had you agreed to do it at first. Of course, refusing has no merit, as you are trapped in Cerulean City until you help him and he hands the player the next Plot Coupon (the ticket necessary to enter the S.S. Anne).
  • Pokémon Gold and Silver/Crystal:
    • In the beginning of the game, your in-game mom asks you whether or not you know how the PokéGear works. Regardless of whether you answer yes or no, she says pretty much the same thing anyway; they changed the first sentence of the explanation from a statement to a question, but the rest is unchanged.
    • This one is sort of lampshaded in the later Pokémon Black and White. When Professor Juniper gives them to you, Bianca, and Cheren, Cheren clearly doesn't need it explained. "That's the PokéGear, right?" he asks, possibly meant to point out the absurdity of having it explained in every previous game.
    • Subverted in the incident where one trainer in Cianwood City who gives you a Shuckle to hold onto temporarily will not keep on asking for it back if you refuse to give it back to him. He will, however, tell you that what you're doing is akin to stealing. Keep in mind, that if you want it badly enough, if its Friendship Level is high enough, he'll let you keep it.
    • A more subtle subversion happens in the Dragon's Den, where a sage asks a few questions to test your morality as a trainer. If you get any of them wrong, he claims he didn't hear you and asks again until you get it right, and you always get the Dratini reward at the end. However, if you get all the questions right the first time, the Dratini will know ExtremeSpeed, a move it can't learn otherwise. Any missteps will quietly overwrite that move with Leer. Seems he heard your mean comments after all.
    • In the Video Game Remake, the first house on the route to Mr. Pokémon belongs to a man who explains apricorns to you and gives you a bag for carrying them. If you walk past his house, he'll come out of the house to demand why you're passing by his house and then explain apricorns to you and give you a bag for carrying them.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
    • When you're asked to return the orb (red or blue depending on the version), the old lady will not stop asking you until you finally agree to hand it back over.
    • At the beginning of the game, Professor Birch asks if you want to meet his kid. If you answer no, he says "Oh, don't be that way. You should go meet my kid" until you answer yes.
    • There is an old lady who lives in a house in between Mauville City and Fallabor Town. She will offer to let you rest in her house and heal your Pokémon. If you say Yes, your Pokémon are healed, and she then goes on to say "Oh, dear, dear. Are your Pokémon still tired? You should take another rest here. That's a fine idea. You should do that." Saying Yes will cause her to heal your Pokémon again and loop this message until you refuse, making this a But Thou Mustn't. That lady or her twin also pops up in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum, just outside Stark Mountain, and the same scenario ensues.
    • In what can only be a Lampshade Hanging, there's someone in Pacifidlog Town that you can answer Yes or No to... when they ask where you're from. For the record, if you say Yes, the NPC remarks that he's never heard of "Yes Town", and if you say No, he says that you have to come from somewhere....
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum:
    • Spoofed at the start of the game if the player refuses enough when offered the Pokédex;. Professor Rowan will tell the player that he "can stand here all day without talking if I have to".
    • Before the player receives the Pokédex from Rowan, there are two occasions where the player's Rival asks them a question which he will continually pose should the player tell him "No." At the second occurrence of this, he even remarks how "That joke is getting old."
    • Spoofed in Platinum. Buck asks the player to investigate Stark Mountain because something funny is going on — if the player responds with "No", Buck says "I'll just keep asking until you say yes!" and then repeats the question.
    • This is spoofed is the Ribbon Society at the Resort Area. When you enter, you're stopped by a lady who tells you it's an exclusive club with very strict membership requirements. However, if you actually meet said requirements (your lead Pokémon must have at least ten Ribbons) she makes you a member, without even asking you if you want to join. The caption even says you weren't given a choice. Of course, whether you take advantage of the membership benefits is entirely optional.
    • After using the Secret Potion to make the Psyduck move, Cynthia asks you to deliver a charm to her grandmother. Selecting "No" will cause Cynthia to say that she really wants you to deliver the charm to her grandmother, so you must take the charm.
  • Pokémon Black and White:
    • In the original games, the only way you can defeat the Legendary Pokémon without capturing it before you fight N is if your PC Box does not have room for another Pokémon. Otherwise, defeating it by knocking it out will start the battle over. Fortunately, you have all the time in the world and the place you're in has rooms where you can heal your Pokémon, swap them for other Pokémon, and even get free Ultra Balls. (Once you do catch it, you can add it to your team right there before you fight N, but this is not mandatory.)
  • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2:
    • There's a fun one where your mom asks you at the beginning of the game if you want a Pokémon, you have the option of saying no, but she just states that its a shock, and asks you again, same thing applies to when she asks you if you want a Pokédex, and when Bianca asks you to help fill the Pokédex.
    • The only way to go to Nimbasa City is through Join Avenue, a new addition to the game. When you enter for the first time, the developer is going on a trip, and decides that you are the perfect person to manage the place while he is away. Any attempts to turn down the offer result in a dialogue loop until you accept.
  • Pokémon X and Y:
    • In Pokémon X and Y, you must have a battle in which Korrina gives you a Lucario to battle her own. This is meant to be a tutorial for Mega-Evolution. If you wanted to save beforehand or just don't want to do it, Korrina won't let you go until you battle her.
    • You can't 'pass' the battle without actually using the Mega Evolution. If you didn't activate it, Korrina will insist you do it again, and will keep doing so until you do it properly. It is possible to win without Mega Evolution, involving a fair bit of luck with the RNG, but the game still acts as though you have lost.
    • Much like the examples from Black and White, it is impossible to continue the plot until you capture whichever legendary is the mascot for the version you own. If you defeat it, the battle will merely start over after a short cutscene. You cannot even bypass it using the full box trick this time; an additional PC Box is created right when you encounter the cover legendary to allow you to catch it.
    • This returns in Pokémon Sun and Moon: you must catch the cover legendary to continue the story, as its capture is tied to the plot. Unlike the past two games; however, there is no cutscene or dialog for knocking it out this time. The game will just quietly fade out back into the overworld and act as if you never fought it.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon:
    • Parodied in Kiawe's trial, which is a "spot the differences" game involving dancing Marowak. While the changes in the minigame become more blatant as you go on, this trope comes to a head in the third instance, as literally every choice about the "difference" in the picture revolves around the Totem Salazzle that interjected herself into the scene. As the entity that serves as the difference in every picture is your opponent in the coming battle...
    • In the post-game of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, once you meet Hau, Wicke, and the Ultra Recon Squad at Ancient Poni Path, and complete two encounters with Blacephalon or Stakataka, it sends you back home, where you are met by Sophocles. He takes you to Festival Plaza, which has been infiltrated by Team Rainbow Rocket. You have to help him beat them. He will not take no for an answer. The rest of the Team Rainbow Rocket arc after that can wait until you go to Aether Paradise.
  • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Professor Laventon asks you if you'd like to help him complete the Pokédex when you arrive in Hisui at the beginning of the game. You can turn his offer down, but since Pokédex completion is what the main gameplay loop revolves around, he'll just ask again if you do. You don't even get a new line of dialogue for it.
  • Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: After collecting the Yellow Gem, the third MacGuffin needed to stop the Big Bad's plans of world domination, a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad (who had been unconvincingly masquerading over voice transmissions as your rival) pops in and offers aforementioned rival in a Hostage for MacGuffin scenario which you are given a Yes/No option for. Now, despite the fact that it has been drilled into your head through most of the game that the titular Pokémon Rangers are focused on protecting people, Pokémon, AND nature, leading to a "needs of the many versus needs of the few" scenario... despite the fact that your rival is a Ranger easily as skilled as you and tells you to refuse... despite the fact that YOUR RIVAL IS IN NO IMMINENT HARM SHORT OF BEING BOUND, selecting "No" simply leads to you being mocked and asked again. Apparently, "Oh? You not care about Keith? Not a very good friend?" is the most compelling argument in all of history.
  • While more of a Turn-based Strategy title than an RPG, Pokémon Conquest continues the franchise's proud tradition of giving the player a choice and refusing to accept "No." After a tutorial battle, Oichi will introduce herself to the Player Character and ask to join your forces. Oichi's responses will become increasingly desperate as you tell her "No" over and over, eventually she will run out of character developing lines and repeat the same one until you give in and choose "Yes."
• Radiant Historia is just plain mean, though for what it's worth, you're told at the start that there's only one possible future where the world doesn't end. There's one real choice at the very beginning, explicitly marked as such, a few choices that initially don't mean anything, but result in a special quest if you get them all "right," and a whole bunch of choices that lead you off the path and result in an immediate Nonstandard Game Over. These endings range from the predictable (why the hell did you let a nine-year-old girl use a Dangerous Forbidden Technique?) to the absurd (did my healer just kill the rest of the party out of rage?).
• Secret of Mana does this quite a bit.
  • You can't refuse to bring Popoie/the Sprite along with you after clearing the underground cave. Saying "no" will just have the circus master say "oh, please!" and offer you the choices again until you say "yes."
  • You can't leave the area where the Mana Sword is until you remove it from its pedestal. Your progress is stopped by an Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence that can only be chopped down by the sword.
  • You have no choice but to recruit Primm/the Girl at some point. In one scenario, Randi/the Boy is nearly turned into soup by some goblins, but Primm quickly saves him when they are distracted; she can later be found bickering with her father at the castle. If you choose not to recruit her there, Randi will bump into her anyway in the Witch's Forest, where she forces her way into your party.
  • When Gesthar tries the whole hostage stunt with Luka for the Water Mana Seed, you can take Luka's advice and just run for it, but Gesthar will forcefully pull you back and call you an idiot for trying to escape.
  • The King of Matango asks you what you think of the name "Flammie" for your flying dragon mount. In an interesting twist, both of the choices you're offered have you say that you think the name is dumb. But the king interrupts you before you can even make a selection and say that of course you think the name is amazing.
• In the Shin Megami Tensei franchise:
  • In Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, a sidequest has two Manikins trying to summon a demon that will help them get revenge. However, Baphomet tells them summoning this demon takes some time. They ask you to convince him to hurry up, even though they've been warned it would be a bad idea. If you refuse, you're just kicked out of the building, stopping the sidequest until you return (which will just lead to the Manikins asking you again if Baphomet should hurry up). If you accept, Mara is summoned, but is turned into a phallic-looking Blob Monster due to the ritual not being done correctly, and goes berserk, leading to a battle.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse:
    • At the beginning of the game, after having been killed and sent to Yomotsu Hirasaka, Dagda offers to revive you in exchange for becoming his People Puppet. If you persist in refusing, you'll simply stay in the afterlife and the game will end, causing the events of Shin Megami Tensei IV to happen as usual. You can also refuse to let him revive you after you are defeated in battle, with the same result.
    • The Final Boss makes a We Can Rule Together offer to you midway through their fight, and you can actually accept it — Dagda will try to persuade you otherwise but you can turn him down. End result: the boss just kills you.
  • In Devil Survivor 2, the Septentrione and Triangulum Arcs both give a Nonstandard Game Over choice, if the player chooses to die when Tico asks whether you want to survive and fight demons or accept your fate of dying at the location the Death Video predetermined for you.
• A party member in Star Ocean: The Second Story demands to accompany the player character on a quest. If you tell her 'no', she claims not to have heard what you said. Justified in that it fits the character perfectly...
  • ...then turned on its head when you complete the quest and are given the option of dropping her like she's hot.
  • Done again in the PSP port, Second Evolution, with the new character Welch. You are given three options, two of which are "yes" and one of which is "something's not right". The last will lead to the main character lampshading the fact that the menu is stacked against them, and then the menu comes right back up again.
  • Averted with some characters where you can outright refuse to have them join (this is in fact the only way to have other characters join later instead). Lampshaded with Ashton, whom you can refuse to bring along with you and never see again. However, if you re-enter the room you find him in afterward, he will join anyway with the prompt "Ashton has joined the party whether you like it or not!"
• A short instance in Super Mario RPG: after rescuing Princess Toadstool from Booster and returning her to the Mushroom Kingdom, she'll say she is going to stay. She shortly contradicts this and sneaks out via parasol, and asks to join the party. If the player says no, one party member will come out, continuing on until they're all yelling at Mario, and Peach joins the group anyway.
  • Earlier, if you leave Marrymore after saving Peach through the north exit, the entire party But Thou Must's you into leaving through the south exit. Storyline-wise, this is likely because the north exit is more northwest, and thus visually leads to the next area, when you're supposed to go back to the game's first town at this point. Gameplay-wise, it doesn't matter, as any area exit just takes you back to the world map, which is why your party stopping you looks so ridiculous.
  • Earlier on the game, after you meet Mallow, he'll ask Mario to help him recover his coin from Croco. If you refuse, he'll ask again... refuse a third time and he'll say "I didn't think you'd be so mean, Mario" and start crying again (which will cause the rain to restart). You can talk to him and keep refusing, but you can't get anywhere until you accept.
  • Another example from this game: You return from the Sunken Ship with a brand new star. However, as you enter Seaside Town, the minions of Yaridovich demand the star or else they will harm the villagers. Say no and they'll send a minion to tickle the mayor. Say no again and they'll send two minions. Again and they'll send three. Then four. Then again four until you finally surrender your star.
    • This has the added effect of reducing the reward you receive later every time you choose no.
• Suikoden loves these, forcing you to pick the answer it wants again and again. Early on in one game, for example, you're asked if you want to carve a symbol on a rock, and if you answer that you don't, the other character just says "Sure you do! C'mon!" and you do it anyway. More frequently, the character asking something will give a verbose explanation of why you should say yes, then ask again, repeating a rotation of 3 or 4 explanations for as long as you keep refusing.
  • It's subverted in the sequel, Suikoden II, however — two of the 108 warriors can only be recruited by saying 'No' to the same question three times in a row...
  • Suikoden II features another subversion — at one point, your sister suggests that you give up on the war and run away with her. If you agree, you actually do it, for a while, and a brief optional plot arc in which you abandon your responsibilities follows; this ends with the hero confronted by his followers and forced to choose again. Insisting on abandoning them at this point causes a Nonstandard Game Over, and it's implied that you've lost their respect in any case.
  • There's also an example near the start of the game: after finding out that the local army wants you and your best friend dead, said friend suggests jumping down a waterfall to escape. Saying "No" four times will result in a battle against a group of soldiers, then you'll be given the exact same choices again. You can repeat the process infinitely, but the game won't continue until you agree to jump. HOWEVER, fighting 108 battles in this style will result in the flashback that follows your suicide jump changing from black-and-white to full color.
  • Subverted in a couple of cases in the original Suikoden. You are given the option of recruiting or executing Kwanda Rosman, Commander Kraze, and Milich Oppenheimer, the last in revenge for Gremio's murder. Ironically, executing Kwanda or Milich makes resurrecting Gremio at the end of the game impossible. You're free to off Kraze, though.
  • Suikoden IV has at least one Nonstandard Game Over and one Bad End you can get this way. In the case of the Bad End, you earn it by refusing to use the Rune of Punishment on the flaming ships about to ram your headquarters, even while your strategist, mentor and everyone else around you begs you to just use the damn Rune. It's pretty much a Too Dumb to Live moment, even though overusing the Rune can kill you... Damned if you do...
    • Also played straight most every other time the player character uses the Rune. In these cases a cutscene will play where the player character watches something terrible happening, he stares at the rune on the back of his hand, and then the player makes a choice whether or not to use it. If the player refuses the aforementioned scene is played again, and it will loop like this endlessly until the player agrees to use the rune.
  • Another Nonstandard Game Over in Suikoden IV comes with choosing the option to remain on the deserted island early in the game. Doing so traps you in the island and places you into a "Groundhog Day" Loop. Hope you saved...
  • The scene from the first game where you can't refuse to drink the poisoned tea? ("Come on, just a taste." "Not if it's bitter." "Come on, just a taste." "Not if it's bitter." "Come on, just a taste.")
  • In Suikoden V, early on you are given the option to fight as the loyal opposition in the name of the Queen or declare yourself King (an unheard of act in Falena). Choosing the latter results in a Nonstandard Game Over that tells you that you were assassinated some months later, complete with your little sister lamenting how damn stupid you were for letting yourself be manipulated into that choice.
  • Later in Suikoden V, an overwhelming enemy force marches on your castle. You have the option of either abandoning the castle and letting them take it, or drawing the line and taking a stand. If you choose to take a stand, several of your most experienced generals and advisers try to talk you out of it, one after another — but if you keep insisting, they actually all fall in line, and you face the enemy head-on. A very difficult battle ensues, in which at least one of your companions will die. Conversely, abandoning the castle instead will lead to a smashing victory for your side, as falling back turns out to have been part of your strategist's plan. Of course, it would have been nice if she'd told you that...
• Early on in Sword of Vermilion, you have to go on a Fetch Quest for the king of one of the cities in order to convince him to give you a MacGuffin. After you bring back the loot, he asks if you'd rather just give up on your quest and become a resident of the city instead, and won't take no for an answer. Once you eventually give in, you're not allowed to leave the city until you talk to everyone and then return to the king to find out that he's actually the first boss of the game in disguise, and no matter how insistent you were, the townspeople will still rub it in and ask you if you're really willing to give up that easily.
• In Tales of Xillia 2, Rideaux heals you after a train crash and demands you pay him 20 million gald for his services. Services you didn't ask for mind you. Your options are to take a loan for it (apparently banks in Elympios loan random unemployed dudes millions with no collateral, no wonder the country is in trouble) or to "think about it." Naturally, no amount of thinking will get you past that question until you agree to take the loan.
• An example that is actually Played for Horror in the first demo for TS!Underswap (a Fan Game for Undertale), in the spirit as the original's game's weird relationship with meta and video game tropes. After you make it to Asgore's house in a Neutral or Pacifist run, Asgore warmly welcomes Chara in, offers them food and their own bedroom like Toriel does with the protagonist in the original game, and he talks happily about the two of them living together as a family. You then get the dialogue options popping up, with the default text showing that Chara wants to ask to stay... but then when you go to choose it, it suddenly changes to ask him how to leave Ruined Home, upsetting both Asgore and Chara, who tries to say they didn't say that — except that too changes to keep asking him on how to leave, with poor Chara forced to keep asking him to leave as they get more and more scared. Ultimately they're forced to fight Asgore, leave the safety of his house and Ruined Home, and go deeper into the Underground. It's surprisingly unsettling.
• In Ultima Underworld II, you are offered the key to the sewers to investigate a plague of monsters. If you complain that you are 'loath to enter the sewers,' it is foisted on you anyway. Likewise, when you attend a meeting near the start and tell Lord British that you have some business to attend to first, the meeting continues regardless.
  • There's an even better example in the first game. At the end, when you're talking to Garamon, he'll ask for you to sacrifice the Talismans so that he can complete the spell which will trap the Slasher of Veils and free you from the Abyss. You can either agree to it (while acknowledging that it's gonna hurt) or refuse. If you do the latter, he reminds you of what's at stake, and you can either agree now or say you have to think about it. However this conversation ends, you don't have any choice but to sacrifice those goldanged Talismans.
• A minor variation on this pops up in Ultima: Exodus for NES. There's an NPC in the starter town that asks "I am Sherry. Think me beautiful?" Initially, saying Yes will generate "Thank you. Next time bring some flowers" (a big hint for later) and saying No will... repeat the question. You can keep this up indefinitely, saying No. However, when you then say Yes, she responds with "Flattery will get you nowhere".
• Done in a pretty heartbreaking way in the beginning of Undertale where Toriel saves you from a homicidal flower, solves puzzles for you, and takes you into her home with a room prepared for you to live in. Talking to her afterwards has her asking if you'd like to hear a story and you can choose whether or not you want to listen or tell her that you want to go back home with the humans on the surface. Choosing to listen to her will have her give a brief snippet of the book she's reading, but this option won't get you anywhere, so you have to insist three times that you want to go home. She excuses herself and following her causes her to fight you to see if you are really strong enough to make it on your own. If you decide to run away from the fight, you're sent back to your room and go to bed, but you're then told by a mysterious voice that the future depends on you and thus you have to get past Toriel to continue with the game.
• The article (written for the Unlimited Adventures community, but readable to everyone) is mostly critical of these "illusionary choices", but acknowledges that they are useful if the "wrong" choices are there to make the situation clearer (by providing a suitable reason as to why a particular choice doesn't work) and increase tension. The author is especially critical of questions where one of the answers causes a Nonstandard Game Over.
• White Sky will not advance its plot, unless the player enters the pink house and encounters Toby. If the player chooses to ignore the house and go to school, then go home, it simply starts another day, until they finally enter the house.
• Wild ARMs has one at the beginning of the game, where after the elder politely asks Rudy to return to the village for trial, saying "no" only makes him politely demand you do so, repeating until you say "yes". Afterwards you get exiled from the village for using forbidden weaponry and thereby forcing you to roam and begin your adventure.
• Before The World Ends with You's Final Boss, Kitaniji asks Neku to join him. There is little to no change in dialogue even if you choose the 'no' option — Neku will just briefly say that, three weeks ago, he would have said yes, and then say no anyway.
• At the end of the first mission in Xenoblade Chronicles X, you're ostensibly given the choice to join BLADE. Refuse, and BLADE's leader will launch into a lengthy spiel that can be interpreted as either a guilt trip or a veiled threat. Refuse again, and he'll rephrase the question in such a way that either answer can be interpreted as "yes".
  • However, should you refuse, he simply repeats his last question until you accept.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards does this when you finally collect all three god cards, making it impossible to ever use the third card.
  Ishizu Ishtar: The god cards must be sealed away, this time forever.
  Ishizu Ishtar: So that this crisis is never again repeated...
  Ishizu Ishtar: Now, may I ask for the return of the god cards?
  "No"
  Ishizu Ishtar: The god cards must be sealed away, this time forever.
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon: An inversion occurs if you try to walk down one of several streets that lead to the center of Koreatown before you've progressed to a certain point in the game. Ichiban will simply say "I don't have any reason to go this way" and turn around, without any in-game explanation for why he refuses to go down that street specifically.

Examples where giving the "wrong" answer has little or no effect:

• Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear:
  • Wanna ignore the crusade and go away? Tired of being involved in troubles you don't want to be stirred in? No way sir, you will accept to lead the expedition against the Shining Lady and you will like it.
  • During the parlay in Chapter 10 you can propose to go with Caelar to end the siege, but Torsin de Lancie will say that the decision is not yours and he will not sacrifice his greatest asset. More blatant because immediately before he said that compromises can be done for a greater cause and Caelar's offer was a possibility to explore (then, he will argue that "I sincerely hope that you're worth what you just cost us").
• Baldur's Gate II had a particularly annoying example. Immediately when reaching the slums of Athkatla at the and of chapter 1, a mysterious man greets you (even with a sound effect that can make you think of him as a lunatic), and then offers you to follow him into his home to discuss how he can help you. There is no reason whatsoever why you would trust him, but if you keep refusing his assistance, the game just picks you up and warps you where he was trying to take you.
  • If at the end of chapter 4 in Shadows of Amn you accept Saemon Havarian's offer, he will give you his silver sword. You can try to refuse, but he will give you regardless and you can't reject at all the "gift". The game will forcefully put it inside your inventory, triggering the next cutscene where there is an unfortunate event.
• The Baten Kaitos series is similar — your answers do not affect the plot (with one exception), but picking the correct ones will give you bonuses in battle.
  • Special mention goes to the first game's ending, where it's Played for Drama. You have to aid in another character's Heroic Sacrifice. The dialogue prompts only have one option for you to select.
• Blue Dragon is full of these. You'll be asked "Do (plot required action)?" The correct answer is "yes". The characters will always just do it anyway or ask again until you answer yes.
• Breath of Fire II has an instance where you are asked to cough up 900K Zenny or an Uparupa (an exceedingly rare creature) in exchange for releasing the Grass Man, Spar. After encountering and subduing the Uparupa (releasing it gives some good booty in exchange for your kindness), you can choose to give the Uparupa, the obscene sum of money, or you can valiantly refuse. MC Tusk (the guy who made the offer in the first place) chooses to kill you regardless of your answer. Cue boss fight.
  • The MC Tusk situation is actually a slight inversion, in that you can actually skip the entire Uparupa sequence if you have that ridiculous sum of money. In most RPGs, such monetary offers usually exceed the player's maximum gold-carrying capacity, forcing you to follow the alternative path (in this case, catching the Uparupa), thus creating a financially-driven But Thou Must. However, through cheats or ridiculous diligence, it's entirely possible to have 900,000 Zenny to give to MC Tusk, so that you can avoid the Uparupa cave altogether.
• Chrono Trigger:
  • Early in the game, the protagonist is arrested and tried for allegedly kidnapping the princess. Based on your actions at the Millennial Fair, there are two outcomes: If you're found guilty, you're sentenced to death. If innocent, the judge gives you a lighter sentence of a few days' confinement... but the crooked chancellor lies and says you were sentenced to death anyway. (Of course, you're not executed either way.)
  • You can freely explain to Azala the purpose of the Gate Key, but she'll just retort that no one breaks under interrogation that quickly and sic Nizbel on you anyway.
• Digital Devil Saga gives the player several opportunities to veto a fake alliance with the Maribel against the Solids, but even if you try to do so there's almost no change in the dialogue, although in the end the Maribel's lieutenant betrays them and you leading to the wholesale massacre of the Maribel before you can betray them anyway.
• In Dragon Age: Origins, the Player Character is approached for recruitment into the Grey Wardens. Although dialogue options allow the character to express either enthusiasm or reluctance, rejection simply means that the recruiting Warden will invoke the Right of Conscription and force the character to join.
  • There are many different choices in the end, but the expansion assumes that the main character is still a Grey Warden. Alternatively, a new character replaces her or him. Justified in that whatever a Grey Warden does with their life while there's no Darkspawn threat, they always remain Wardens and must always be ready to fight as one again.
  • Mage Wardens have to deal with a number of these. At the beginning of the game, you are told that all circle mages have two choices; to be tested against a demon in the Harrowing, or give up their magic and emotions by being made Tranquil. Even merely asking about Tranquility causes Irving to cut you off, say that is no option at all, and put you into the Harrowing barely letting you get a word in edgewise.
  • Later in the game, when the tower is overrun by Abominations, Uldred offers your mage the chance to join him. The options are (roughly): no, I don't think so, and hell no.
  • If you choose to send Morrigan, Wynne, Irving, or Jowan into the Fade to confront the Desire Demon (either because you're not playing a mage or just because you don't feel like going yourself), when the Desire Demon attempts to bargain, the dialog options all become variations on "shut up and die already."
  • Justified at the very end if you romanced Alistair, take him with you to the final battle, and did not take Morrigan's third option. He will not accept you making the decision to make the ultimate sacrifice yourself and will lay down his life to make sure you live.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In Oblivion, the Dark Brotherhood quest line always offers three options in dialogue when talking with an involved NPC, yet all three options mysteriously give the same result. There is a single exception where you can taunt your target into attacking you using one of the responses. Quite useful, as an Imperial Legion guardsman is stationed inside that very room, and will actually help you out as long as your target attacks first.
  • In Skyrim, a side quest can result in a conversation with the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon that works like this. Apparently Dagon doesn't care much for mortals since whether you chose to defy him or join him he always says exactly the same thing (and then summons some minions which immediately attack you).
• At the end of the game in Fable II, Lucien, the Big Bad, will go off on a monologue. You have the option to shoot him, but if you don't, Reaver will shoot him for you and say, "Oh, I thought he'd never shut up. I'm sorry, did you want to kill him?"
• Fallout 3 forces a choice on the player at the conclusion of the main quest that ends the game either way — see its entry under Stupidity Is the Only Option. Bethesda fortunately fixed it in the DLC Broken Steel. They still tell you that whoever enters the chamber will die, but even if you choose to sacrifice yourself they manage to miraculously pull you out before you die.
  • In a smaller, funnier example, Sierra Petroveda asks if you want a tour of her Nuka-Cola merchandise collection. Of the three answers, two amount to "I'd love to" and "If I have to" which she takes as "yes", while the third is "I'd rather beat myself over the head with a blunt instrument." She replies "What a strange way to make music," and gives you the tour anyway.
• This is one of the most common criticisms in Fallout 4. Due to the removal of the karma system and the way the new dialogue system works, you only have four options to any request: accept the quest, sarcastically accept the quest, say no (which only means putting it off until later), or ask about it (which loops back to the initial choice anyway).
  • One of the most common examples are the Minuteman radiant quests. Preston Garvey will tell you of any settlements in trouble, and no matter how many Minutemen you have at your disposal, you have to deal with it personally.
  • Much of the plot dealing with Shaun involves this. At no point can the main character point out that they don't know how long Shaun has been missing, or ask around to try and figure out how long it's been. At several points, they meet people who have been in the Institute, but have no option to ask about whether Shaun is safe (his true fate wasn't a secret among them). When they makes contact with Shaun, they can explore the Institute and find that the place's utopian exterior is just that, and the whole enterprise is a trainwreck. At no point can they confront him with this information. Particularly irritating for those who either figured out the plot twist beforehand, or wanted to convince Shaun without resorting to murder.
  • The final story line quest counts if you side with the Railroad, Minutemen, or the Brotherhood of Steel. All of them require you to blow up the Institute base, despite it being detrimental to the first two as the technologies available will greatly assist the search and protection of synths for the former, and the general proliferation of scientific progress for both, while completely contradicting the philosophies of the latter since the Brotherhood does not destroy technology, but confiscate it to keep it falling into the wrong hands. Their scribes would also make much use of all the equipment lying around. All of this so that your character can witness a nuclear explosion and make a speech about how "war never changes."
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • The game as a whole seems to have an odd love of this, to the point that it's less "dialogue choices" and more "what you want to chime in with." Most of them fall into the "say yes/say yes, but in a snarky tone" format, at most changing the next one or two lines of dialogue from other characters before moving on. In fact, when the Babylonia arc featured cases where your choices actually do matter (namely, saying the wrong thing to certain characters makes the upcoming boss fights harder), the fandom as a whole treated it as a big twist.
  • This was parodied in Learning with Manga! FGO, where Rider attempts to make Mash join her by saying she has to choose whether she wants Director Olga Marie or Gudako. Predictably, the choices are between saying she prefers being together with Olga Marie, and saying she's fine with being together with Olga Marie. Mash, as it turns out, is smitten with both, and makes a break for it rather than answer.
• Final Fantasy games, all of them.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, Terra is asked to help the Returners defeat the Empire. If she says yes, she is given a Gauntlet, a nice Relic that lets you increase your attack power. If she says no, the Returners will attempt to convince her, but she can continue to refuse up to three times. After the third time, the Empire attacks the Returner hideout anyway (though you miss out on the scene where the Returners discuss their plan to get Terra to talk to the Frozen Esper in Narshe), and she is given a Genji Glove Relic, which normally can't be found until much, much later in the story^note The first one is found in the Cave to the Esper World, towards the end of the first half of the game, making it far more valuable to refuse to assist. From there, however, the game continues exactly as it did if you said yes, as Terra is swept up in the attack and forced to flee with the Returners, who are heading to Narshe anyway.
  • In the Timber section of Final Fantasy VIII, incorrectly giving the password to the resistance only has a tiny impact on the game: you don't get a SeeD promotion, but the resistance contact knows you're the mercenaries that were hired and brings you to the hideout anyway. Likewise, when coordinating Garden's defense at the beginning of the Battle Between the Gardens, your decisions don't change the way the battle goes, just your SeeD rating: if you give the correct orders and don't give any useless orders, you get promoted. If you forget an important order or give an extraneous order, one of your adult mentors will just interrupt you to give the correct orders anyway (and you don't get a promotion).
    • There's also the interrogation scene at the D-District Prison, during which Squall has a choice between lying in order to stay alive and taunting the angry guy controlling the lever to electrocute you. Despite the Violation of Common Sense implicit in the latter, it is the "correct" choice and results shortly thereafter in a reward^note The taunting is intended to get the interrogator to make a mistake and kill you so that you don't break under torture and give away secrets, but since the point of the interrogation is to extract information Squall doesn't have so that the torturer can confirm information they already know, the lie doesn't do anything significant.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, you can have Cloud refuse to bodyguard Aerith in the Sector 5 church, but it doesn't matter, he'll end up doing it anyway. It does affect Relationship Values though.
• In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Flame Emperor will approach you at the end of Chapter 8 and ask for your assistance. If you say yes, the Flame Emperor will accuse you of lying and withdraw. Granted, it is possible to later join the Flame Emperor if you meet certain conditions.
• The Golden Sun series is the king of this trope. The main character gets asked for his opinion every ten seconds, and his answers are completely irrelevant...
  • ...Except for one of the first times in the game, where you are asked to embark on the quest or not. You can refuse, but the game then immediately ends. (The CRPG The Magic Candle does this too.)
  • ...and after finishing one of the sidequests, at which point the main character is offered a lift back to the city from which the plothook originated. It takes five or six tries, but the well-meaning NPCs can be convinced to let the party walk back.
  • Also, when the first Djinni Flint comes to add his powers to yours, he asks if you will take him with you. You can of course say no, which makes the But Thou Must start. But after answering no sufficient times, he'll suddenly say "But I'll come with you anyway" and join.
  • The second game parodies this with an additional scene if you answer "no" to every such question at least once up until you reach Lemuria, the resident ancient civilization, in form of The Philosopher Kraden going into a longwinded rant about you not taking your quest seriously and entering Lemuria on his own if he has to regardless of what you think about it.
• There are several of these in The Legend of Dragoon, which appear as a Secret (or not so secret) Test of Character. However, if you pick the wrong option the game will generally just lightly scold you and tell you to give it more thought, before asking you again. Generally you always want to go with whatever option will ultimately make you the most altruistic and forgiving.
• In Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Lang is given the choice of joining the Dark Side early on by a pair of villains. Your possible answers change depending on Lang's personality (which is molded by your dialogue choices throughout the game, between brash or cowardly). You can rudely refuse, respectfully refuse, or agree. They kick your ass and drag you back to the castle regardless, even if you agree...
• In Legend of Mana, you can refuse any of the NPCs who want to join your party, and if you don't bother to correct the Onion Kid when he calls you "Chumpy" you are stuck with the nickname for that game cycle, but you are compelled to "buy" some fairly bad gear from Honest John's Dealership on your first quest with him every single time (there's not even a dialogue box for you to choose a response), and in one arc you're not even given the option to refuse the quest to defeat the Big Bad (justified in that you were blackmailed into working for him through most of the quest).
• During the endgame of LISA:The Painful RPG, Brad runs into Marty, who is apparently taking care of Buddy after she was shipwrecked on his abandoned island. Marty tries to apologize to Brad for his abusive childhood, but Brad doesn’t want to hear it, even throwing Buddy aside to get to Marty. The player is then given a choice to either let Marty live or to kill him, but regardless of your choice Brad attacks Marty, even beating up Buddy as she tries protecting Marty, and proceeds to turn Marty into a red smear on the cave wall. Granted, Marty absolutely deserved it, but Brad going through Buddy solidifies the hold Joy had him in, to a degree even Brad can’t stop.
• In Mass Effect, particularly the first installment, you direct the conversation by selecting some generic type conversation "seeds". In many cases, Shepard will say the exact same thing with several different seeds.
  • Also even when Shepard does say something different it doesn't really matter, especially when choosing to take new party members, specifically Tali, Ashley, and Liara. If you try to kick Ashley off the crew, Anderson will pull rank on you and force you to keep her; if you reject Tali's help, then Udina will do the same. For Liara, you can also tell her no, to which Garrus will force you to keep her even though you outrank him; there is no further options to challenge him and you are forced to take her into your group. Though Liara does end up helping you find where the Big Bad is headed, there is no storyline-imperative reason for you to have to take Ashley and Tali with you. Averted with Garrus and Wrex on the other hand, as you can reject either of their (but not both of their) help.
  • Although many conversations do play this completely straight, it is averted just as often. Especially with the Charm and Intimidate options which can completely change the outcome of an event, even to the point of preventing a party member from being Killed Off for Real or skipping the fight with the first form of the Final Boss. However, these options are only available if you have enough Paragon/Renegade skill points. If you don't, these special options are disabled, and the enabled "regular" options usually all have the same effect.
  • That said, the Charm/Intimidate options are this trope in isolation from the others, which is notable because Intimidate will rarely have a different outcome than Charm. In reality Charm and Intimidate are two methods towards the same exact outcome, one using charm and logic, and the other a convincing threat on Shepard's part.
• In Mega Man Legends 2, when you get to the island where Glyde's base is, you're immediately confronted by Appo and Dah, who want you to rescue their sister Shu. No matter how many times you say no they will not stop asking unless you say yes.
  • Similarly, after you return from the Forbidden Island at the beginning of the game, Barrel asks you for your help with finding the keys to the Mother Load. You can refuse, only for Barrel's friend Von Bluecher to ask you as well. No matter how many times you say no, he keeps asking for your help.
• Miitopia:
  • When you try to suck the Jackass Genie back into its bottle, he will beg you to let him go and promise he won't be a bother to the Neksdor citizens anymore, and you have the choice to listen to him or to continue sucking him. However, in the end, you are compelled to let him go as each time you select the "suck him" option, nothing will happen.
  • In the Updated Re Release for Switch, saying no when the horse asks to join your party will cause it to become sad, at which point the game will give a new dialogue, asking if you want to have the horse join your party after all. Pressing no at this dialogue box merely makes the dialogue repeat itself continually until the player says yes.
• In Monark, the game will oftentimes give the player different options about how the Player Character, the Vice-President of the True Student Council, will react to a situation or what they'll say. Sometimes, you're given choices that are dead-ends if you want to continue the game or 3 different ways to say "No".
• Mother 3 has an example that combines this with the Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration. When playing as Salsa the monkey, Fassad will just zap you into submission if you try to refuse his orders.
  • Special mention goes to the final choice of the game. If you decide not to pull out the last needle, causes Lucas to do it anyway, actively defying the player to do what he knows is right. There was even special Unused text that was supposed to show if you chose No, which was "No one can stop Lucas from pulling the needle. No one.
• Okage: Shadow King offers three responses to every question in the game, each of which falls under a different type of personality (which basically boil down to agreeable, disbelieving and sarcastic) which don't impact the plot, but cause different responses from whoever is talking to you. Answering most questions sarcastically will also net you a rare item late in the game.
  • While in most instances it's just a case of the other party completely bulldozing your objections and going on ahead, Marlene actually traps you in a dialogue loop that won't end until you make the correct choices: yes, you have a music box. No, you're not giving it to Stan.
  • One of the central jokes is that Ari, the main character, is overshadowed by everyone around him. The player is frequently given dialogue options, however, because Ari is so easily overshadowed, nobody actually listens to your opinion.
• The Paper Mario series plays this trope for laughs — knowing full well that whatever choices you make are irrelevant, the games are packed with outrageous answers and willfully ignorant NPCs (and ones that aren't ignorant at all and actually respond to said outrageous comments, notably your party members), such as an elderly town mayor who pretends to be hard of hearing so that he can browbeat you into solving his town's Fetch Quest.
  • In the first game, after defeating Lakilester, his girlfriend Lakilulu will ask you to spare his life. Refusing will cause her to get mad, throw an attack at you, and ask you again. There's also the "Let there be hot dogs!" option in the second game.
• In Persona 4, during the school camping trip, Chie and Yukiko attempt to make curry, and are met with disastrous results. Yosuke tries it, expecting a brilliant dish, and not only is the curry horrible, but Yosuke flies into a rage. You then are asked by Chie and Yukiko to try the curry, and even if you pick the options in which you refuse, you'll be successfully pressured into eating it anyway, with predictable results.
  • In Persona 4: Golden, they take it a step up. Nanako makes you a dish which appears to be blue and has a shape most resembling the Slime Persona. She says it's supposed to be chocolate and that the girls taught her how to make it. Expectantly, she looks to you to eat it. The game literally says you have no options.
  • Justified with the School Festival; the player can vote for whatever stall they want, but the class will always do a Group Date Café because most of their classmates voted for it.
  • A variation on this trope happens in the Rank 9 event of the Tower Social Link. You realize that it's Shu's birthday, and you decide to throw a party. Regardless of whether you choose a grand or modest celebration, the game will ask you what you need- cake, presents or guests. If you choose the former two, you know that local department store Junes is the place to get them, resulting in you calling Yosuke(a party member and the son of the manager), while the latter leads to you calling Yosuke. Basically, no matter what you choose, the protagonist invites the entire Investigation Team to celebrate Shu's birthday.
• Several conversations in Persona 5 can have Joker/the protagonist refuse to go through with an idea or express doubt about an upcoming plan, and yet the game continues as if he hadn't said it. At one point, he can even refuse to be the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and the other characters basically browbeat him into it.
• Pokémon:
  • In Pokémon Gold and Silver, after you receive the Pokégear your mother will ask you if you know how to call people over it, and then explain it regardless of your answer, only changing the first line of dialogue. The remakes fix this.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire has Birch ask you if you want to go meet up with your rival, but if you say no, he'll say "Aww, don't be that way. Go see my kid" on endless loop until you say yes.
  • Pokémon Black and White:
    • There's a scene where N tells you that you're The Chosen One, then asks if that surprises you. The "right" answer is yes. If you say no (which is probably the truth, unless you're really new to RPGs), he'll get annoyed with you for one or two lines, then go on as if nothing happened.
    • When Champion Alder tries to give you the Light Stone or Dark Stone, you are given a Yes or No option. If you refuse, he worries about you letting N fulfill his plans for a new world. If you still refuse, he'll say, "Still, I must ask you... Sincerely, I must ask you... Take this stone. Just in case it's needed!" until you say "Yes". In that case, what he says is a bit different from what he says if you just say yes the first or second time.
    • If you go in the Pokémon Theater in Nimbasa City with Bianca, the Musical director will give you a prop case and force you to pick a Pokémon to dress up. No matter how many times you try to exit out without choosing a Pokémon, he'll keep saying something along the lines of "No, don't be like that, I won't take no for an answer!"
    • Reshiram and Zekrom are required to be caught. That is, if you don't have a full Party and full PC Boxes.
    • After you first encounter with Looker, he asks you to help find the Seven Sages. Selecting "No" will cause Looker to say that he will ask you again, and he does so until you choose "Yes."
    • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 has this when you first battle Kyurem. Unlike Black and White, which require you to catch the version mascot, defeating Black Kyurem/White Kyurem is required to make the story advance this time; you cannot catch Kyurem until you beat the game and catch N's Zekrom/Reshiram.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, after defeating Xerosic inside Lysandre Labs, he presents you with two buttons linked to the Ultimate Weapon of Kalos, one of which will activate it, the other which will shut it down. If you press the red button, the Ultimate Weapon activates. If you press the blue button, Xerosic activates it via remote control anyway. This also happens in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield has an inversion in the Fairy-type Gym. During battles, you are given quiz questions; "fairy magic" increases or decreases your stats depending on whether you answer correctly. The first few questions are genuine, but during the battle with the leader herself, she weasels her way out of granting you the stat boost regardless of which answer you pick, so every answer offered is incorrect. A particularly silly one asks you her age; the only options are 16 and 88. She obviously isn't 16, but if you pick 88 she says you're technically correct but also insensitive, and you get debuffed.
    • Correct answers do lead to receiving a buff (rather than a debuff for incorrect answers) to your stats as intended. However, unlike the previous questions, during the leader battle with her, she starts asking questions you can't actually know the answer to ("What did I eat for breakfast this morning?", etc.), making it in essence a Luck-Based Mission.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (plus Teal Mask and Indigo Disk):
    • You cannot deny Nemona's repeated attempts for a battle or even turn down her wish to be rivals. She only gets annoyed, but she will get what she wants out of you. This is also used on Bede in the "We Should Battle" event in Pokémon Masters, where Nemona refuses to back down until Bede says "yes" to her request to form a team with her after Bede says "no" the first two times.
    • In the first half of The Teal Mask, losing (or throwing) the final battle against Kieran doesn't mean that he can keep Ogerpon, despite the pre-battle text explicitly stating that this was at stake - similarly to the Sun and Moon example, you get a standard white-out and, upon reaching him again, the dialogue progresses as though the battle never happened.
    • Invoked during the climax of Indigo Disk: after you and Kieran (fresh off a Jerkass Realization kickstarted by him inadvertently causing Terapagos to go on a rampage after losing his temper and capturing it in a Master Ball against its will when it started to approach you) finally wear down Terapagos, the standard Catch-Don't Catch prompt that shows up at the end of a Tera Raid battle appears. Nothing stops you from choosing "Don't Catch" to let Keiran catch Terapagos, but if you do, Kieran will shake his head and tell you that you need to be the one to catch Terapagos, not him, as feels that he forfeited the right to catch Terapagos after the inciting incident. You then go directly to the Pokéball selection screen to choose a ball to catch Terapagos with.
  • In Pokémon Colosseum, when Wes confronts Gonzap, his former boss from Team Snagem. When he asks you to rejoin the Team, you can say "Yes", but if you do that, he doesn't believe you, and gets angry. Whether you accept his offer or decline it, the result is the same: You have to battle him.
  • In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Miror B (a Pokémon thief, neutral to the main battle) asks you if you want to 'join my posse'. If you say 'Yes', he says he can tell you're not serious and asks again. This continues until you say 'No', at which point he gets mad at you for refusing!
  • The fangame Pokémon Infinite Fusion (whose story is a retelling of the Gen I games but with Pokémon fusion added) does this with the Team Rocket Grunt at the end of Nugget Bridge when he asks you if you'll join Team Rocket. This time you have a "Yes" and "No" option to choose from, but if you select "Yes", he then recognizes you as the one who messed up their plans at Mt. Moon, takes back the offer to join, and battles you anyway.
• Robopon 2 has this when Cody is about to destroy Dr. Zero's Battleship.
  Game: And so, the Pandora's Box that is the Battleship has been opened... Metaphors aside, will you press the red button?
  Player: No.
  Game: Umm... you should really think about pressing the button soon.
• In the Shin Megami Tensei franchise:
  • Shin Megami Tensei II has Beth force you to let Daleth live so he can flee. It still impacts your Karma Meter, though.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse justifies this if you attempt to do something that runs directly counter to Dagda's plans after making your deal with him, such as refusing to unseal the Ark where Krishna is imprisoned or attempting to take Krishna's hand during his boss fight; he hijacks your body and forces you to do what he wants.
  • Devil Survivor:
    • A sidequest allows you to recover Miss Mari's bag, which has an item that she (actually Kresnik, who is inside her) needs to fight Kudlak. If on the next day you talk to Mari while you still have the bag, you are given two options: Give her the bag or hold on to it. If you choose the latter, Yuzu and Atsuro will punch you and you'll have to pick an option again. Unless you hand Mari the bag, the dialogue won't advance. Kinda ironic, when you consider that if you want to save both Miss Mari and Keisuke you have to give the bag to Kaido, NOT Miss Mari. If you give her the bag either Kaido will not come to help you save Mari and will kill Keisuke before you can rescue him or if you save Keisuke, Mari will have to fight Kudlak alone, and will die just when the party reaches her. Thus you shouldn't even TALK with Miss Mari if you want to avoid both player punches. However, this game usually averts this trope quite well, although the results are usually not pretty.
    • Whenever a plot-important concept comes up, you're usually asked if you understand. In some instances, however, it doesn't matter how you respond — Yuzu will protest and insist they repeat the information, simplifying it even further if possible.
  • In Devil Survivor 2, the game will refuse to have certain dialogue options count, mostly because it's trying to tell you to stop joking around during some of the more intense, serious moments of the game.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei V:
    • During the cutscene leading up to the second fight with Lahmu, you will have two choices as to what takes priority- killing Lahmu or saving Sahori, whom Lahmu is possessing. No matter what you choose, the Nahobino will motion Tao to stay back as Lahmu absorbs Sahori and then attack him once he's done. The ultimate outcome- Lahmu is killed, but at the cost of Tao and Sahori's lives- is the same regardless of your choice.
    • In a late-game quest involving Amanozako, a Kurama Tengu will demand that you hand Amanozako over to him. If you say yes, Amanozako will protest that she should have some say in it. The Kurama Tengu will interpret this as you refusing and respond the same way as he would to a no answer— attacking you alongside Zaou-Gongen.
• Skies of Arcadia is one of the few games that utilizes both this trope and the Karma Meter. While picking the most heroic answer will raise your "Swashbuckling Rating", which is relevant for a few sidequests (for example, a certain crewmember needs a Vyse the Daring or higher before he'll join), the plot itself is never changed.
• Played for Laughs in South Park: The Stick of Truth. When you first name your character, no matter what you write Cartman will insist that you chose "Douchebag" and that becomes your new name.
• A humorous scene from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has a female NPC start flirting with the main character, only for his Clingy Jealous Not!Cousin to show up. When the NPC asks if she's your sister, your choices of response are basically "She's my girlfriend," "Yeah, something like that," and "Her? Never seen her before." Regardless of choice, she'll end up leaving by herself, with no way to go with her. (Note: the second option, which sounds like the neutral one, actually causes a shouting match that has to be censored.)
• This actually happens in the fourth Star Ocean, which is odd considering the series is known for its multiple endings. Not in The Last Hope. You could drive her affection into the ground and have max affection with someone else. It doesn't matter what you do. Edge will still end up with Reimi in the end.
  • The same happened in the first game. No matter how hard you tried to arrange it otherwise, Roddick and Millie were going to end up together.
• Suikoden Tierkreis uses this over and over, typically as a choice between "Yes, I know what to do" and "No, please tell me what to do" with you doing the same thing either way. Then, very far into the game, it subverts this with a default answer that kills the entire cast if chosen, with no indication this choice is any different from the others. Here's hoping you were roleplaying rather than just skipping through the conversations to get to the combat.
• Tales of Symphonia uses a form of this trope — your selections affect your relationship with party members, but (with two exceptions) do not affect the plot. One determines something at the very end of the game, and one much earlier can allow you to take a faster route through an annoying plot arc. (Speedrunners can tell you, Releasing the Seals comes first, makes the game faster.)
  • In one of the first decisions, Lloyd, upon being told to stay behind when Kratos offers to accompany Colette into the Martel Temple, can either say "What did you say?", which prompts an argument with Kratos until Colette intercedes on his behalf, or "Gotcha", which seemingly implies agreement with Kratos, but leads to Lloyd promising to follow Kratos in on his own, at which point Kratos reluctantly allows him to follow. In most other cases, Lloyd's choices are not as diametrically opposed (such as deciding to let Regal and Presea stay, or consulting the others), or result in other party members overruling him.
  • This trope also applies to certain unwinnable boss fights — you theoretically shouldn't be able to win these fights, though if you are sufficiently leveled to beat the Big Bad early on, the fight will simply fade to black somewhere in the middle. You can't beat Yggdrasil until the end!
• Symphonia's sequel, Dawn of the New World, also does this when the player must choose which of two Lloyds is the real one. Despite it being patently obvious, choosing the wrong Lloyd has Zelos unmask the traitor anyway.
• In Undertale, the dates you can go on with Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys in the Pacifist route all function like this. With Papyrus, you can ignore or outright insult him, and he'll interpret it as you being shy or so honest with your feelings that it overwhelms his passions. (Before this, if you try to call Papyrus a loser after sparing him, he interprets it as self-deprecation and decides to be your friend anyway.) Undyne requires you select some tea to proceed with her, which the game blatantly tells you is the correct choice, and picking anything else has her refuse or make a snide comment. Finally, Alphys will always come to the same conclusions no matter which choices you make, and the final choice made after the date doesn't affect the game at all.
  • Also, at the end of a No Mercy run Chara asks you to erase the entire game world. If you refuse, they rhetorically ask "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?" and just go ahead anyway on their own, with a bonus Jump Scare (the game switches to windowed mode and shakes violently as a loud noise plays and Chara heads towards you laughing maniacally as the background flashes red, before killing you, at which point the game window fills up with 9's and moves in the same way monsters do when killed, then closes) for defying them.
• Early in Xenogears, Fei is helping his friends Alice and Timothy prepare for their wedding. Alice's brother Dan asks to talk to Fei privately, and if you go talk to him, he suggests that Fei should stop the wedding and marry Alice himself. If you choose the "wrong" answer and agree to run off with Alice, Dan suddenly changes his mind and says that there's no point in trying because Alice would never go for it. No matter which choice you make, it doesn't affect any of your future interactions with Dan, Alice, or Timothy.

Examples where there is no "wrong" answer available to choose:

• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey: The "Fields of Elysium" DLC is lousy with this. The Eagle Bearer cannot turn down any quest given in it, regardless of the player's feelings on them, nor can they put them off. They have to be taken to move the story forward (except for one quest, which is only skipped by pissing off Hermes).
• At the end of Breath of Death VII, your undead post-apocalyptic survivors encounter a scientist, who asks you to hand over the MacGuffin which will retroactively prevent the apocalypse, thereby erasing the world as you know it from existence. Your options are "Yes" and "Sure."
• When you prematurely encounter the first boss in Conception 2: Children Of The Seven Stars, your Mission Control immediately tells you to back off. The three alternatives given all amount to merrily ignoring this instruction. It works because Wake has more personality that your average Dating Sim hybrid protagonist and highlights his It's Personal approach to monsters.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition allows the player character to be ambivalent or even hostile about acting as the Herald of Andraste, but they still have to accept. When being recruited into the Inquisition, they can even ask if they're allowed to refuse the position, and Leliana tells them they're free to go if they choose. Except then following conversation options are: "join the Inquisition enthusiastically," "join the Inquisition and make a joke about it," and "join the Inquisition, but remain skeptical." It happens again when the PC is named Inquisitor — they can flat-out say they don't want the job and intend to refuse, but the actual options for the choice don't offer more than being grumpy about it.
• Dragon Quest VI inverts this with Somnia's Chancellor's question to the hero to prove he's the real prince: The game gives you four choices, but all of them are wrong.
  • Weaponized in Dragon Quest IX. It is a plot point that Celestrians cannot disobey their superiors, even if that means forcing them against their will. The main antagonist of the game is Corvus, a fallen Celestrian who went insane due to being betrayed and tortured, and then chained alone in his cage for 300+ years. By eating all of the Fyggs, he becomes the most powerful Celestrian in history, and is thus at the absolute highest of their hierarchy, even though they really don't want him to be. He abuses this by commanding any Celestrian they encounter, including the player, to not attack him, rendering them unable to harm him in any way. The only way for the player character to get out of this is to forsake their angelic nature and become mortal, thus freeing them from the Celestrian hierarchy. Your mortal allies who could harm him, he just knocks out when you encounter him.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In the main quest of Morrowind, Big Bad Dagoth Ur and his minions repeatedly offer the Nerevarine to join him. However, crossing over with No Campaign for the Wicked, you don't even get an option to say yes. (As it turns out, siding with him was going to be an option, but had to be Dummied Out before release due to time constraints.)
  • In Oblivion, one quest involves investigating a series of robberies for the town watch. A group of women have been luring men to a remote cabin with promises of a good time, only to take all their possessions once the men have removed their gear. If you go to a local inn soon afterwards, you will meet the women. If the player character is male, they will attempt to lure him to the cabin with the aforementioned promises. If the PC is female, however, they will offer her a place in their gang. That evening, the quest calls for you to join them at the cabin. No matter whether the PC is male or female, your only dialogue options involve revealing your status as a mole, then taking out the whole gang by yourself in combat. As a female character (who may even be a member of the Thieves Guild and/or Dark Brotherhood and whose railroaded behavior therefore makes little sense), this seems like a waste of a good plot.
    • Another, non-dialogue based example occurs in the Dark Brotherhood quest line. After you've reached the level of Silencer (the personal assassins for the members of the Black Hand, the Brotherhood's ruling council), you begin receiving your murderous orders via "dead drops," or contracts hidden in secret locations. After the first two missions, the style, handwriting, and length of the contracts abruptly change, and it becomes painfully clear that something suspicious is happening. To make matters worse, if you investigate the homes and belongings of the people you're killing, you find evidence that they too are members of the Dark Brotherhood. AND rumors of a traitor among the group have been circling since your first mission with the assassins. Despite all of these incredibly obvious clues, though, the plotline can't advance unless you keep wiping out important people in your own organization.
• Fallout 3 asks this◊ tough question. This is at the end of a series of questions in a school-exam, most of the others determining the skills your character will be good at. The teacher administering the test reads this last question in an extremely sarcastic tone. The entire exam has no real bearing on the game, anyway. You can choose to not take it and manually assign your upgrades, or switch the upgrades after seeing which it recommends.
• Fallout 4 became infamous for making the same four responses to anyone trying to give the player a quest: Yes, Yes (But Sarcastically), Not Right Now, Tell Me More.
  • For example, you can say no to helping Preston Garvey in Concord, but the game will assign you the quest anyway.
  • Also, say "No" to the Vault-Tec guy at the beginning of the game enough times, and then your spouse will step in and force you to accept and fill out the form. Justified, in that it's where you enter your name and starting stats.
• In Fate/EXTRA, you fight against another Master who looks like a little girl, called Alice. During the lead-up to the fight, she insists on playing "games" with you around the school and arenas. You have no choice but to go along with her, as it's implied she's magically compelling you — at one point she asks you to play a game of tag and "Sure, why not," is the only possible answer you can make. It's actually pretty unsettling to have even the illusion of control so nakedly stripped away.
• One of the funniest of these in Final Fantasy IX involves Steiner. When he's with Garnet and they're trying to cross back to Lindbum, Steiner encounters a guy who's been slacking off on his work, which is the reason why South Gate has been messed up.
  Steiner: (thinking) You were the reason we couldn't come in through this gate! (Choice: Kill! / Don't kill.)
  Kill!: (Garnet kicks Steiner from inside the bag she's stuffed in) I almost lost control of myself!
  Don't kill: I must tolerate him for the sake of the princess!
• In Dissidia Final Fantasy, during the "Distant Glory: Heroes" segment, the third map opens with Shantotto offering the player a job. You can see two opposing choices, (which basically amount to "yes" and "no, shorty") but you literally can't move the cursor to the "No" option, so it may as well not be there.
• An interesting variation occurs in Fire Emblem: Awakening: when faced with the option of either turning the Fire Emblem over to the enemy in exchange for Emmeryn's life or refusing and fighting for her life... it won't matter anyway because Emmeryn will Take a Third Option and jump off the cliff herself to end the fighting.
  • This happens again at a later point. Lucina realizes that the Avatar under Demonic Possession is the one who killed her father in the Bad Future and decides to kill them to prevent it from happening again. You're given the choice of either accepting her judgement or refusing and fighting back, but Chrom interrupts and stops her no matter which one you choose. If you're Lucina's mother or husband, she'll be unable to go through with killing you.
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has an odd case of this, where the player will be asked a question yes/no and can only respond with one of four emoticons — essentially :), :D, >:| or :(. The player and the game will inevitably have different opinions on what any of these are supposed to mean in any given situation, and every face will generally mean "yes", just with different intonations (which is meaningless).
• Grand Kingdom: You're about to kill the enemy's princess, stop the summoning ritual, and save the world, when Weiss butts in and orders you to spare her life so she can defect to his unit. Your only "option" is [Yes] — you don't even get a second 'yes'. He does it again later when he orders you to fight him, again, just so you can thoroughly wipe the ground with his face, again. It's unclear why he can take your free will away when your healer has enough power to knock him out with one jar.
• GreedFall:
  • During Aphra's initial quest, Síora will argue against sneaking after the Native leaders to learn their secrets, but the player doesn't get the option to agree with her and must carry on.
  • The player is not given the option not to interfere during the election of the new islander king. Even if De Sardet has already earned the trust of all three contenders, thus it wouldn't really matter who gets chosen since none will refuse a meeting with the island god, it is still mandatory to get involved and obtain the ancient crown.
• Happens a lot in The Halloween Hack. Radiation said this was one of the major themes of the game. Even the Interface Screw choice isn't really a choice because the outcome is the same. Dr. Andonuts still dies. But hey, at least Varik doesn't!
• In Jade Empire, midway through the Arena questline, Kai Lan the Serpent will ask you to help him take over the Guild. Unlike other quests that feature an evil route, you cannot say yes to him; Black Whirlwind will barge into the meeting and pull you aside for a private discussion. Kai Lan's lackey Lucky Cho will then attack you, forcing you to kill him and resulting in Kai Lan planning to have you killed.
• In Knights of the Old Republic, there is no possible way to refuse the Dantooine Jedi Council's surprising (and rather insane) idea to train (technically, retrain) you as a Jedi. Of course, the fact you're Force Sensitive, they're really freaking desperate for recruits, you just helped bail out their star Padawan, Darth Malak's hunting you anyway, and you don't know it yet, but you're a mind-wiped Sith Lord means you're pretty much screwed anyway.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
  • Want to refuse allowing the Disciple/Handmaiden from joining you? Too bad. No matter what choices you make when encountering either at their respective join-up events, they force their way into your party member's ranks.
  • After you defeat Visas, even though she was obviously a Sith and just fought you with a lightsaber, there is no option to kill her. No matter what you say, you must take her to the medical bay and then let her join your party.
  • You encounter a Force vision of Kreia where she is accosted by several other members of your party, and you supposedly have to choose a side. There's also an option to stay out of what appears to be turning into a violent dispute involving lightsabers, but doing so causes everybody to turn against you while muttering "Apathy is death!". However, it turns out that all of the other non-apathy options just cause the scene to recycle again, and so the only way forward is to fail Kreia's little morality lesson.
• Loser Reborn: When Nya tells you to kill Gla'aki, you can choose to say no several times before Nya replaces all choices with "Kill Gla'aki."
• At one point in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, you're instead provided no right answer. To pass a gate, Luigi has to pick the correct answer out of three provided... except, none of them are the right answer — the correct answer is a fourth option that doesn't exist. The gate claims Luigi is lying when he points this out.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect: In your first attempt to convince the Council that Saren is behind the attack on the human colony on Eden Prime, they blow you off, saying you've got no proof. You can only storm off, calling them unreasonable, and the only difference between the Renegade and Paragon options is whether you call them assholes while at it.
    • Many conversations in the series play out like this, with minimal dialogue adjustments after Shepard's initial response, and often having the first reply to them written to fit all three. However most players don't notice this, because even if they do decide to replay the game, it'll have been at minimum 50 hours since they were last in the conversation.
  • Mass Effect 2:
    • At the beginning of the game you are forced to join the supremacist, terrorist group that (depending on what background story you chose) may have been responsible for deaths of your former comrades, with not even a scene of Shepard being on the fence before reluctantly saying yes. This wouldn't be too noticeable if every returning character didn't call Shepard out on it.
    • In the "Arrival" DLC, Shepard can ask Admiral Hackett why s/he can't take squadmates (up to and including a master thief that can hide in broad daylight and an expert assassin with supposedly incredible speed and silent movement) on the covert mission to rescue Amanda Kenson, but Hackett simply responds with a statement that "if the batarians notice a squad of soldiers, they'll kill her". Shepard has no choice but to comply, setting up his/her eventual capture on the asteroid.
  • Mass Effect 3:
    • A large portion of what made the Catalyst so disliked is that Shepard has no option in the original ending but to take one of the three given choices for how to reformat most of existence, rather than, say, tell the Catalyst that its plan is incredibly stupid and horrible and makes no sense, or better yet, attack it. The Extended Cut DLC gave the ability to refuse the Catalyst's offer, but while Shepard does make a big to-do about the importance of choosing one's fate, this is generally treated as the worst possible answer because literally every character in the game dies. And while the Extended Cut does have more focus on Shepard questioning the Catalyst's logic (especially if you played the Leviathan DLC earlier in the game), they're unable to intellectually spar with them and convince them they're wrong.
    • If your EMS is too low when you reach the Crucible, you are forced into one specific ending depending on whether or not you destroyed the Collector base at the end of 2 (Destroy if you destroyed the base, Control if you saved it).
• Want to prevent a companion from joining your party in Neverwinter Nights 2? Sorry, that's not an option. Not even for Grobnar.
• Octopath Traveler: In Olberic's third chapter, he has to "Challenge" a certain ten-star NPC(namely his former friend Erhardt, whom he's been looking for all this time) to a fight. The usual Challenge prompt comes up, but you can only pick "Yes" to accept the challenge, and the game won't progress until you do.
• A minor example from Persona 3 Portable: in the fourth rank of Akihiko's S.Link, he tells the female protagonist that rumor has it she is going out with Junpei (who cannot be romanced), and asks her if it's true. All three of the responses the player can choose from amount to "No" (although only one of them translates into "I'd rather go out with you").
• Persona 5:
  • In the original game, or if you did not unlock the third term in Royal, just after you defeat the Final Boss, Sae meets with you and reveals that in order to ensure that Shido is brought to justice and prevent his cronies from coming after your friends and allies, you must turn yourself in to the police. You then have two choices — one says you'll do it to change society, and another says you'll do it to protect your friends.
  • Right before The Reveal, Sae asks you if Goro Akechi is a Phantom Thief, and all the options amount to "No."(Admittedly, she had given you a chance to sell out your party members and Confidants for a lighter sentence, and saying yes to either would have gotten you the bad ending.) Guess who The Mole turns out to be?
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Red and Blue has a random grunt, impressed by your skills, ask you if you would like to join the evil Team Rocket. Apparently, your Heroic Mime character refuses, at which point the grunt responds to his unheard refusal, gets angry and attacks you.
  • In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the player can happen upon Nanu offering a choice of starters to a boy. The boy, unable to decide, asks the player to choose for them. All three starters are Meowth.
  • In the Teal Mask expansion of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the player and Carmine catch a glimpse of the elusive Ogerpon, a mysterious Pokémon who the people of Kitakami are afraid of. Carmine worries that if her younger brother Kieran, who is fascinated by Ogerpon, finds out they saw Ogerpon that he'll trek into Oni Mountain to see Ogerpon for himself and get hurt, so she asks you to contribute to a white lie about not seeing Ogerpon to Kieran for his own safety. The player is not given the option to disagree to Carmine's white lie, and every time the player has the opportunity to come clean to Kieran about it, the only dialogue options given to the player uphold the ruse and naturally Kieran is upset and outraged when he finds out the truth on his own.
• Secret of Mana played with this trope at one point. The leader of the mushroom people asks you if you like the name he chose for your dragon. However, before you get a chance to respond, he interrupts your bubble, realizing that no matter what you really think you'd say you like it because he's the king. So he decides to keep the name. The rest of the game mostly avoids this trope, by the revolutionary and edgy means of giving your character a voice and a personality.
  • Doubly subverted, since both your answers are telling him that you don't like the name.
• An early funny moment in Shadow Hearts: Covenant is when you arrive at Le Havre for the first time. On the way to the mayor's house, a character claiming to be a Lottery Member stops Yuri and But Thou Must's him into participating in the Lottery game. All three choices Yuri can make all equal "Yes."
• In the Shin Megami Tensei franchise:
  • Shin Megami Tensei I is on railroad tracks when it comes to Yuriko. At the beginning of the game, the latter states that she'll be your "eternal partner," but never gives you the chance to say yes to her. Instead, she just kidnaps your other female partner, and later allies with the Chaos Hero, all the while hoping to snare your character but never actually giving you the option to make your own feelings known. It can be somewhat jarring.
  • Played for Laughs sometimes when negotiating with demons in Shin Megami Tensei IV. Occasionally, a demon will ask you who's stronger, humans or demons. Your options? >Demons, >Demons, and >Demons. You can also run across demons who order you to start digging or tell you to submit to them, with similar response options.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey:
    • In the Neutral ending, Arthur asks if you will grant him the knowledge imparted to you by Commander Gore, and a dialogue box pops up. It features only one option: Yes.
    • If you are too devoutly devoted to Law or Chaos when you reach the alignment lock, Commander Gore won't even bother asking for your choice; he'll just attack you. Then again, if your character is far gone enough to trigger this, you're probably not going to turn back at the last second.
• SoulBlazer does this to you at the end; when the Love Interest asks if you'll come back to see her, you can literally only say yes.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fangame Super Lesbian Horse RPG has multiple instances of this.
  • The first one, very early on, is when Fluttershy says she was hoping Rainbow "had something in mind for the two of [us] to do together". Rainbow Dash asks if Fluttershy meant kissing, and the available answers are "heck yeah" and "heck yeah".
  • Later on, there's an NPC who asks if you like bees. The only possible answers to their question are "yes" and "yes".
• Super Paper Mario plays with it in a different fashion when Peach encounters the uber-nerd Francis. Francis treats the encounter as a Dating Sim and attempts to woo Peach in a variety of ways. After each attempt, the player is given three potential responses for Peach, ranging from calm acceptance to outright yelling at Francis. Regardless of the response chosen, Francis only finds her more attractive by the minute. Finally he mentions the possibility of marriage. The player's three responses now range from accepting the proposal to merely considering the proposal. After starting to say the chosen response, however, Peach demands to know who's choosing the answers, insists she'll never marry someone like Francis, and declares the whole thing a waste of her time.
  • Also, when Mario first meets Squirps, Squirps tells him, "Your only responses should be 'Yes, sir!' and 'Gotcha!' Understand, squirkle?" It goes without saying what the available responses to that question are. (They are "Yes, sir!" and "Gotcha!")
  • Additionally, when meeting Boomer, he tests your compatibility by asking you a bunch of questions. You're only given variations on "yes" for each question. Carrie asks questions in a similar manner, but your answers vary somewhat there; she just happens to agree with you whatever you say... making the following line of dialogue possible.
  Carrie: So you think Francis is an awesome irresistible guy? Basically, a stallion? Well... imagine that! You and I feel the same way about him!
• Super PSTW Action RPG is a parody of RPG clichés, so it's no surprise it includes this, with a "press space to accept the quest" option. No alternative is given. Of course, space is the only button in the game, so there are no options in the whole game.
• While Tyranny offers many possible paths to take, it only allows choosing them at jarringly arbitrary times. For the most part, you can break off your current allegiance near the start of any quest line, but if you pass that point you're committed, and the game will flat out not offer any dialogue options that would disobey your current superior. Even if it would be sensible or dramatically appropriate to do so. For example, you cannot prevent the Voices of Nerat from gaining access to the forbidden Silent Archive once you get a hold of it, or stop the same Archon from taking a terrified mother and her infant into his "custody", even though the woman and possibly some of your party members outright beg you to intervene.
• Played for Laughs in Undertale during Mettaton's^note Who turns out to be a ghost possessing a robot body quiz show. One of the questions asks if you would smooch a ghost. Your choices?
  A. Heck Yeah
  B. Heck Yeah
  C. Heck Yeah
  D. Heck Yeah
  • And the timer on this question counts upwards instead of counting down to 0, meaning that sitting still until the timer runs out isn't an option.
  • During the Pacifist route, Alphys will need help finding a way to gain the confidence she needs to confess to Undyne. Your options are "Let's roleplay it." and "Obviously let's roleplay it."
• In the third battle of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume the game won't let you move or do any commands until you use the Destiny Plume on Ancel. Even if you manage to get through the battle without it (only really possible on a New Game Plus using counter attacks), the game continues on as if you used it anyway.

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