Exact Words / Video Games

Exact Words in Video Games.

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• Advance Wars:
  • Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising: As pointed out on Easy Level Trick, you can't lose by 'being routed' if you never make any units to rout, and if the enemy clog their own path to capture your base then that's not your fault.
  • Late into Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, The Mayor gets his hands on some medicine for The Virus that's decimating the survivors... from Dr. Caulder, who assures him "he won't die from that terrible virus" after injecting it. Instead the medicine itself delivers a painful Karmic Death to the asshole once and for all, before the virus can do the job.
• Age of Empires
  • The wording of buffs in Age of Empires II can be very specific:
    • The Japanese unique unit is the Samurai, which does more damage to other unique units. The Battle Elephant, however, while only being trainable by four civilizations out of thirty-one, is simply considered a cavalry unit that most civs just don't have access to. This means they aren't 'unique units' in the game's eyes, and the Samurai can't cash in their bonus damage against them. Even worse in the case of the Indian Imperial Camel and the Vietnamese Imperial Skirmisher, which the game classifies as being upgrades of the Elite Camel and Skirmisher rather than a 'unique unit'. So Samurai don't get a bonus against them either. The Eagle Scouts/Warriors trained by the Mayincatec civs are also not considered unique, but Samurai have a specific stat staying that they do bonus damage to Eagle troops anyway so bad luck there.
    • The game distinguishes between, say, 'Archers' and 'Troops trained at the Archery Range'. This makes it important to check the wording of some civilisation's unique buffs to make sure it applies to units you think it does - especially since each civ's unique unit is trained at the Castle, regardless of its unit class.
  • In one of the Scenarios in Age of Mythology's "Fall of the Trident" campaign, Skult, who is actually Loki in disguise, tells you that if you show some battling armies Folstag's banner, they'll stop fighting and unite together. What he doesn't tell you is that they all hate Folstag, and will pull an Enemy Mine to fight you.
• In The Alliance Alive, a Noble Bigot lieutenant demands to know why daemons (members of the species oppressing his army) are in the player party, and doesn't accept the daemons' assertion that they just want to help. After some thought, Gene steps forward and says, "Think of them as proof of our victory." The lieutenant assumes this means that the daemons are war captives, and is satisfied. What it really means is that the party's ideals impressed the daemons so much that they willingly gave up their status and prejudices to join it. The daemons are proof of the Alliance's victory, but as voluntary defectors, not slaves.
• ANNO: Mutationem: After Ann learns Ryan's stolen ROM is located at The Walter Raleigh, Ayane warns her that the boss of that area T.R. is also in possession of large mecha arms. It's not actual robotic arms on his body, he does own enormous mecha-built arms that are controlled on the ship.
• Antichamber: "A choice may be as simple as going left or going right." Facing this sign on the wall, to the left are the two stairways, and to the right is where you came from.
• In Archimedean Dynasty, a NPC early in the game asks Flint to find out what happened to a crime boss named Zorn. If the player finds out Zorn was killed by his rivals, the questgiver will refuse to give the agreed-to reward, saying she asked to get the information from Zorn, not about him. Duh.
• Assassin's Creed: Altaïr is told "The answers you seek will be there when you no longer need to ask for them." Altaïr isn't asking for them. He's DEMANDING them.
• In a specific prompt in Asura's Wrath, you are required to "Extend your hand" in response to the villain's offer. It doesn't say anything about the hand being balled up in a fist.
• In At the Carnival, one of the rides at Hazard Park is a Ferris wheel that boasts that there hasn't been a single injury on the ride in twenty years. That's only because if someone falls off the ride, the injury only happens once they hit the ground, at which point they're no longer on the ride.
• In Balatro, card and blind effects are triggered to the description's letter, so any potential for Loophole Abuse for or against you should be kept in mind. Many examples include:
  • The Ox boss blind and the Wraith spectral card don't just deplete all your money, they set it to $0. Including if it's negative. Similarly, the Tooth continuously drains your money to the negatives because its description does not say that it stops at zero.
  • The Hex and Ankh spectral cards will destroy all other jokers along with their beneficial effects. However, they still work as long as you have one valid joker they can affect, so if you sell all your other jokers first, only have one to begin with, or if all your jokers are eternal…
  • Wild Cards work as any suit for both good and bad effects. They can activate any joker effect that works off a specific suit, and they count as any suit toward (Straight) Flushes. However, any boss blind that debuffs a given suit will also debuff all wild cards.
  • The Pareidolia joker makes every card count as a face card, meaning every card can activate every face card based joker. However, this also means when dealing with boss blinds, The Plant will debuff every card, and The Mark will cause every card to be drawn face down.
  • Some card effects refer to a card being "played" or "scored"; the former means that the card has been presented in a hand, the latter means that it was part of the scoring hand and thus contributed its chips/enhancement properties. This can be important for managing a few card effects; for example, Ride the Bus (adds +1 multiplier every hand but resets if any face cards are scored) won't reset if face cards are played but don't contribute to the scoring hand, unless you also have Splash (causes every played card to be scored).
  • Abilities that cause a card to retrigger when played also indirectly causes other things that trigger off of that card being played to trigger again. For example, playing a hand of five face cards while you have Sock and Buskin and Smiley Face causes Smiley Face to trigger ten times and add a total of 40 Mult.
  • The Oops! All 6s joker doubles all probabilities, which does indeed turn 1 in 2 chances into 2 in 2 chances, making them always trigger. However, because it doubles all probabilities, it also affects potentially negative ones. It causes glass cards to have a 2 in 4 chance of shattering, Gros Michel to have a 2 in 4 chance of destroying itself, and The Wheel blind to cause 2 in 7 cards to be drawn face down.
  • Some Jokers award a bonus if your hand contains a particular type, including if it's part of another, higher-priority hand. For example, Jolly Joker awards +8 Mult not only on a Pair proper, but also Two Pair, Three- and Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Five-of-a-Kind, Flush House and Flush Five, since those implicate a hand with at least two of the same rank.
  • The Smeared Joker makes Hearts and Diamonds the same suit, same with Clubs and Spades, making it easier to get Flushes and apply suit bonuses from Jokers. However, if a Boss Blind debuffs one suit, it also debuffs its counterpart aka half your standard deck.
  • Madness gains x0.5 Mult and destroys a random Joker when a blind is selected.^note To keep it from being unusable, it can't destroy itself. If you pay attention to the wording, you'll notice that the bonus is not dependent on destroying a Joker, which means its bonus still increases if you don't have any other Jokers — or better yet, if your other Jokers are Eternal, which can't be destroyed.
  • Burglar states that it adds +3 to playable hands and removes all discards only when the blind is selected, instead of directly altering either stat. On one hand, this makes sure that it negates any card effects that grant bonus discards, since those all work on a full-time basis. On the other hand, it being a specific effect means that joker-copying cards can sync with it without issue, and it also completely counters The Needle, which enforces its "clear in one hand" condition by setting hands to 1 but can't do anything about hands added afterwards.
  • Cards that gain chips or mult for certain actions only keep those gains even if sold or destroyed if they track how many times you performed those actions in the entire run. This means that the Runner^note gains 10 chips for every hand containing a Straight resets its chip count if you sell it and find it again in the shop later on, while the Fortune Teller^note gains 1 Mult for every tarot card used in the run so far can show up in the shop already buffed.
  • The Red Seal has the effect "Retrigger This Card 1 time". While this largely is used for scoring, it can also apply to any time the card is called by any effect, such as a Steel Card triggered on the hand being played, a gold card in hand after a blind is defeated, even more niche interactions such as Raised Fist reapplying the bonus if the Sealed card was the lowest.
  • The Psychic forces you to play hands of five cards each. However, it doesn't state that you need to play a hand where all five cards score, so you can get away with playing something like a Two Pair (four cards), then just tack on an extra card (ideally either a card you want to get rid of, or a Stone Card for the 50 chips) to make it a five-card hand.
• Baldur's Gate III:
  • Wyll is saddled with a Deal With A Devil, and while he was apparently too inattentive to the terms to notice even the obvious, non-exact words interpretation (he cites he was only supposed to be forced to fight other devils when even a surface reading shows other kinds of evil were fair play), the way it is likely to come up first is pure this: amidst mentions of fiendish foes the deal obligates him to fight anyone "heartless" his contractor asks him to fight, and nowhere in that does it specify it can't be someone literally heartless, for example by having had their heart replaced by a magical mechanism… such as his fellow Origin Companion Karlach.
  • Another victim of a Deal With a Devil is Yurgir, an orthon who made a deal with an old nemesis, and a devil even more devious than the one Wyll deals with. Said deal states that Yurgir is to remain in the old Sharran fortress in the Shadow-cursed Lands and kill any who set foot inside, and leaving the fortress means forfeiting his freedom. The contract was made in sing-song form, taking advantage of its Ear Worm characteristics to make it unforgettable, and also states anyone who hears the contract must also die. If the player passes an Insight check, they can take advantage of this particular part of the contract by convincing Yurgir that his mindless underlings heard it, and thus must also die. Afterwards, you can also convince him that his pet displacer beast heard it too, and thus it must also be put down. When both of these fail to get the contract out of Yurgir's mind, you can convince him that because he hears it in his mind, he, too, needs to die.
  • In this animated short, not-Santa proclaims to the party that his sack will gift them with their 'truest heart's desire.' Since Karlach's heart was replaced with an Infernal Engine, she gets what it wants, not what she wants: engine oil.
• Baten Kaitos has a rather brilliant example that relies on the player being too Genre Savvy for their own good. After a rather climactic battle, Giacomo claims that Kalas' grandfather, Georg, is actually his father. The Genre Savvy will instantly assume that they know where this plot is going... and that's just what the game wants you to think. When The Reveal comes, it turns out that Giacomo was telling the truth but has no relation to Kalas at all. The boy is an Artificial Human and the game only made you think Giacomo was his father to throw off the player off the Foreshadowing surrounding the actual truth.
• Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. The titular villain has planted what Batman is led to believe is a large-scale bomb within a shipping crate. He takes it back to the Batcave in an attempt to disarm it safely and whilst it does explode, the explosion is fairly small, and only reveals the true contents of the crate.
  Batman: Bane?!
  Bane: He never said "bomb". He said "weapon of mass destruction". And that, is me.
• Battle Brothers: The Ancient Dead Crisis stems from a poorly worded pact that the last Emperor made with an entity known as the "Ugly Man". As his last chance at an heir resulted in a stillborn child and the fate of his line was sealed, he made a deal to ensure that "his empire would never die, and he and his wife would eternal". His wife became barren, and his empire and its legions became undead.
• In The Binding of Isaac, Devil Rooms work like this:
  • One of the ways to practically guarantee a Devil Room appearing is to take no damage on a floor. However, only Red Heart damage counts as Soul Hearts and Black Hearts aren't technically considered to be "damage." So long as you have these other hearts to serve as a shield, you can take as much damage as you like and still get a Devil Room.
  • Similarly, taking even one Deal with the Devil will permanently lock you out of getting Angel Rooms. If you can take the item without taking the deal, that is by having Mr. Me steal it for you or grabbing a freebie with Coupon, you can still get an Angel Room. After all, you only took the item; you didn't technically take the deal.
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift: Noel tells Ragna at the beginning that the next time they meet they will be enemies. In their next meeting, Noel has transformed into Mu-12 and ready to kick Ragna's ass.
• Brawlhalla has a couple of examples in the lore of their characters:
  • Cross is a gangster who made a Deal with the Devil, where he would wield the powers of said demon "until his last battle". However, now he's in Valhalla, where he gets to fight forever. Naturally, he doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.
  • Sir Roland managed great feats of glory during his life, but he finally grew old and was going to die peacefully in his death bed. Since dying in battle is the requirement to get into Valhalla, a Valkyre who fell in love with him descended upon his bed and pummeled him to death so he technically died in battle.
• Breath of Fire IV: Scias is a mercenary who's been hired by a minor antagonist to keep an eye on your party, but because he likes finding loopholes in the orders he's been given, he actually ends up assisting the party.
  Scias: (On breaking Cray out of prison) He said, if you do anything, I should let him know immediately. He never said I should stop you.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II: In Suffer With Me, after a few minutes of escorting Hudson orders Mason over the radio to give Noriega a weapon. Mason complies by pulling out his sidearm... but dropping the magazine and emptying the chamber before actually handing it over, pointing out that while he was ordered to give him a weapon, nobody specified that it had to be loaded.
• "Strawberries will impress your friends, but that's about it", one of the beginning-of-level tips in Celeste. At first, it only seems to be explaining that Strawberries are an optional collectible that only exists for bragging rights, but then the ending comes around, and Madeline bakes a strawberry pie for the rest of the cast, and how impressed they are with it depends on how many strawberries you collected.
• Clone Drone in the Danger Zone: Toward the end of Chapter 5, the Human and the Robot Emperor have reached a standoff. The Emperor's clone matrix has been disabled(good), and the harvesting fleet has begun its invasion of Earth (very bad). The emperor offers the player what appears to be a mutually beneficial compromise, in which the human disables the robots' core directive to harvest organic life. After the core command is silenced, the Emperor decides to simply annihilate Earth from orbit, having made no promises to simply leave Earth alone.
• In Cuphead, the Devil only promises to spare the young protagonists Cuphead and Mugman if they bring the Soul Contracts of all the other debtors back. So, of course, if the boys succeed and fulfill their half of the deal, he enslaves them to be his servants/enforcers.
• In Dark Souls, Kingseeker Frampt tells the chosen undead that by linking the fire, he or she will succeed Gwyn, the lord of Anor Londo. What he does not tell the player is that Gwyn has been burning alive for centuries. By succeeding him, the undead will face the same fate.
• An unintentional example occurs in Dead Rising 2, when Chuck makes a promise that one of the antagonists 'won't leave this city in one piece.' The antagonist in question later ends up as Half the Man He Used to Be.
• Deltarune:
  • The game sets out to be the Spiritual Antithesis of Undertale, repeatedly insisting that your choices don't matter. The second chapter turned out to have a hidden alternate route anyway, but it relies on pushing an in-game character into taking certain actions. In other words, your choices may not matter, but everyone else's will.
  • Also from Chapter 2, Susie scrambles to explain to Noelle what she and Kris are up to, and asks them for an excuse. One of your options is to say you're planning to "hang out in the closet alone", which is technically true since the closet Kris and Susie were about to walk into is actually a portal to Ralsei's castle in the Dark World.
  • In Chapter 2, the descriptions of the items at Spamton's shop are this incarnate. The first is an item labelled S.POTION, with the description "ITEM ITEM AFFECTS HP A LOT! THE SMOOTH TASTE OF". Purchasing it and checking it in your inventory reveals an item named S.POISON, with the description "A strange concoction made of colorful squares. Will poison you." The description said it affects HP, it didn't say it heals HP. The second is a weapon labelled "THE BIG ONE" (quotation marks included), with the description "CUT ANYTHING 2 PIECES! CRIMINAL!" Buy it and check your weapons, and you'll find yourself the proud owner of a weapon named BrokenSwd, with the description "A rejected sword cut into 2 pieces. Not even you can equip this...". Yes, it's literally "2 PIECES". Spamton is truly a master scam artist.
  • Starting in Chapter 2, Kris sometimes follows the player's choices while subverting their intent, either on impulse or as an act of rebellion.
    • If you tell Kris to open the door of Asriel's room of the mansion, they do so, but they keep their eyes closed without walking in.
    • If you have Kris say they're fine after fighting NEO Spamton, their body language will show to Susie that they are not.
    • Making Kris say they'd want to ride the Ferris wheel with anyone but Susie has them do so, but in a very confused tone of voice. Having them be silent instead makes them look very intently towards Susie.
• In the final boss battle of Devil May Cry 5, Dante admonishes Vergil for cutting his son Nero's arm off to obtain more power. Vergil responds with "My son means nothing to me!" — because he was honestly unaware that he even had a son to begin with.
• During the events of the original campaign of Destiny 2, Ghaul captures and interrogates the Speaker on what he knows of the Traveler, so that Ghaul can earn its favor. Over the course of several weeks, the Speaker tells him about what makes Guardians what and who they are and why the Traveler chose them, which gave Ghaul the impression that the Speaker (who is stated to speak on behalf of the Traveler) has a line of communication with the Traveler. Only later as his army is finally losing control of the City does the Speaker flat-out tell Ghaul that while he does speak for the Traveler, the Traveler doesn't actually speak to him, and with it comes the implicit addition that that the Speaker has essentially been leading Ghaul on a wild goose chase.
• In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Adell has his mother summon Overlord Zenon, so that Adell can kill him and break Zenon's curse. Instead, they end up with his teenage daughter, Princess Rozalin. They assume Adell's mother botched the ritual in some way. She didn't. The ritual did exactly what it was supposed to do. The problem was that the terms of the ritual were "summon Zenon". The person they were actually trying to summon was an impostor who has been raising the amnesiac Zenon as his daughter.
• Dishonored has the option to get rid of Laydy Boyle by Delivering her to a Stalker with a Crush waiting in the cellar, who takes off with her never to be seen again. In order to trick her into going to the cellar you can tell her there's an assassin in the party who was sent to kill her. This is completely true... it just so happens YOU are said assassin. The man also states that he wants to help her because he loves her, he never said that she loved him back.
  • It's not the only time this happens in this mission. Should you choose to go with the Hiding in Plain Sight method of the mission (that is, sneaking into the masquerade ball... as the escaped assassin of the Empress Corvo Attano) a staff member at the mansion will ask you to sign the guest book. Should you sign it, Corvo signs his real name. Other guests will consider it a horrible joke on your part, seeing as the assassin has murdered several of their associates.
• In Donkey Kong Country Returns, one of the Beach levels is called Peaceful Pier. True to its name, it is very quiet and peaceful, with only one enemy...and then you jump on a Rocket Barrel and spend the rest of the level dodging cannon fire from a pirate ship. That all takes place over the ocean, as in, off of the pier.
• Don't Shit Your Pants has this as an alternate ending. Most people who play the game for the first time assume it's about having your character use the toilet properly given the restrictions of an adventure game parser and a time limit, and that does give a positive ending. But a second positive ending is given by just shitting on the floor - because the game never said you had to use the toilet, only that you had to not shit your pants.
• Doom ends its third episode, "Inferno", with the Doomguy killing the Spider Mastermind and making his way out of Hell and back to Earth, with the ending text saying "It's good that no Hellspawn could have come through that door with you." Come the fourth episode of The Ultimate Doom, "Thy Flesh Consumed", and Doom II, you discover why that is: no Hellspawn followed you through the gate, because while you were busy fighting your way through Hell, the demonic legion had commenced their invasion of Earth! By the time you return to Earth, it's already Hell on Earth!
• Dragon Quest Builders
  • This game takes place in an Alternate Continuity where, at the end of Dragon Quest, The Hero took the Dragonlord's offer to rule over half of the world. However, the Dragonlord never specified how big the Hero's half of the world would be. In the final chapter of the game, you discover that his share of the world consists only of a small castle labeled "Half of the World", with everything beyond the castle's walls being, by default, the Dragonlord's half.
  • This trope also extends to the Player Character, with the Goddess Rubriss telling the player, multiple times: "You are not a Hero". The Hero grows more powerful by slaying powerful monsters, but you don't: you can only get stronger by expanding your crafting skills to build and equip better armor and weapons. This comes to a head in the final chapter when your overall mission is finally revealed to be setting the stage for when a new Hero comes to defeat the Dragonlord and save the world. As to when this Hero is supposed to come and fulfill this destiny, there is no answer: thus does the player character decide to Screw Destiny and become the Hero to the Dragonlord themself, in spite of repeated warnings that they cannot win and defying Rubriss's will would cause them to die.
• In Dying Light, this is how the Big Bad is introduced. Rais is a ruthless gang leader who punishes a thief by slicing off his hand with a big knife, but he asks the thief which hand he is willing to lose. The terrified thief says "Left" and Rais chops off the right hand, quipping "I'm sorry, was that your left or my left?"
• The Elder Scrolls
  • This is extremely common when dealing with any of the series' various divine beings, especially the more malevolent ones, often crossing over with Deal with the Devil. To note:
    • Clavicus Vile, the Daedric Prince of Bargains and Wishes, combines this with being a Literal Genie (or Jackass Genie if his "external conscience", Barbas, isn't present). For example, when a group of vampires prayed to him for a cure to their affliction, he had a hero come along and Mercy Kill them all. Vampirism cured. Another example is a mage whose daughter worshipped Hircine, the Daedric Prince of the Hunt and Manbeasts. When she was turned into a werewolf, the mage asked for a way to cure her and end her suffering. Clavicus gave him an axe.
    • The Ideal Masters, a group of immortal beings who were once powerful mortal sorcerers during the Merethic Era. After finding their mortal forms to be too weak and limiting, they entered Oblivion as beings of pure energy and settled an area of "chaotic creatia", forming the Soul Cairn. They traffic in souls, especially "Black" sapient souls, and have a Horror Hunger that drives them to collect more. They accomplish this by making deals, often with mortal necromancers, exchanging great power for more souls. In one case, they struck a deal with the draconic necromancer Durnehviir. They granted him great power in exchange for him guarding Valerica "until she died". However, they failed to mention that Valerica, a vampire, was The Ageless and would effectively never die, trapping him in their service for eternity.
    • Song of Hrormir tells the story of Hrormir, an honorable warrior who swears the following oath to Nocturnal, the Daedric Prince of Darkness: "Shadowy Hag, to thee I pledge, To only honor thy black Words, To turn my back on Truth, To aid thy Dark Kings' Ambition, To divide their Inheritance fairly, To love thee, To think thee beautiful." When he later betrays her, Nocturnal realizes that the part of the oath "turn my back on truth" allows him to escape honoring the rest of his agreement. Annoyed but impressed by his cunning, she releases him from her service.
    • Y'ffre, the guardian spirit of the Bosmer, binds his people to the Green Pact, requiring them never to harm the plants and trees of Valenwood for their own benefit and only meat-based products may be consumed. This would normally be pretty difficult to deal with, even having an all-meat diet. But it has many loopholes due to the fact that the words of the Pact are literal. "Plants" are a specific thing: Fungi are not plants and since they grow from decomposing animals, they are meat-based. Fruit that falls naturally from trees is also free to be eaten because the Bosmer didn't harm it. Wood may also be used for anything as long as the wood came from outside Valenwood.
  • Morrowind has a minor example in the Boots of Blinding Speed. The boots increase your speed significantly, but also render you completely blind. However, a bit of Magicka resistance reduces or eliminates the Blinding effect while leaving the speed increase, allowing you to move around very, very quickly.
  • Skyrim:
    • During your initiation into the Dark Brotherhood you are required to choose one of three bound prisoners to kill. You are told by Astrid, the leader of the Brotherhood that "No one is leaving until someone dies". You can leave by killing a prisoner or Astrid herself. She even lampshades it with her last words, "Well... Done..."
    • Within the Dark Brotherhood quest line, you need to find an unknown target's identity by asking a known friend of the target. When you demand the person's identity, the friend replies "I'll take that person's identity to my grave!" Your response is "For the Dark Brotherhood, that can be arranged." And, in fact, killing that person's friend is a requirement for that quest.
    • In Ravenscar Hollow, a bandit was kidnapped by the Hagravens. He begs you to let him out of the cage. If you kill the Hagravens and release him, he immediately makes an attempt to mug you. Alternatively, you can do exactly what he asks for: release him... and let him deal with the Hagravens on his own.
• The goal of Escape From Lavender Town is to escape from Lavender Town. And to do so, you must press the escape key.
• In Fairy Fencer F, Tiara claims that the inn she's staying at has "a chef from a four-star restaurant", causing Fang to be overjoyed. Turns out the chef is just a regular cook whose name happens to be "Four Star".
• In Fallout: New Vegas, this is how Fantastic managed to get a job he's wholly unqualified for, without telling a single lie:
  Fantastic: They were going door to door asking if anyone knew any scientists. I said look no further. They asked me if I knew anything about power plants. I said as much as anyone I'd ever met. They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.
• Partway through Far Cry 3, Jason is forced to work a mercenary named Buck, who is holding his friend Keith hostage as his own personal sex slave. After getting Buck what he wants, he agrees to let Jason see Keith, but when they try to leave, Buck stops them. As he explains, he only said that Keith could leave with Jason, which suits him fine as he doesn't intend for Jason to leave either, forcing Jason to fight their way out.
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • Medea Lily promises Jason that he'll become invincible if he manages to touch the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark disintegrates anyone who touches it. You can't be harmed if you don't exist.
  • Hassan of Intoxicated Smoke offers to kill herself if Tristan agrees not to take a single step towards the refugees he was chasing or move his bow arm for a whole day. Hassan dies thinking she has bought the refugees time to escape, but Tristan reveals that all he has to do to fire his bow is to pluck the string and the arrows will chase their target. He promptly kills the refugees and remarks she should have told him not to move any of his fingers.
  • King Hassan says he'll only help the protagonists if he gets to kill Hassan of the Cursed Arm afterwards. When it is time to collect his payment, he instead kills the demon that is the source of Hassan of the Cursed Arm's powers. When questioned about this, King Hassan says Hassan of the Cursed Arm is dead, but Hanam the man is untouched and free to go his own way.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy XII, Vayne, after transforming into Vayne Novus, orders Gabranth to defend his brother (Lord Larsa) as he'll have much need in "the Hell to follow." Gabranth agrees that he should defend Larsa. Unfortunately for Vayne, he didn't specify who Gabranth was supposed to defend Larsa from, resulting in Gabranth's Heel–Face Turn and eventual Redemption Equals Death.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, the Anata broodmother's child is kidnapped by the Garleans and is then killed. The broodmother's anguish causes her to cry out to her god to bring her child back to her, Lakshmi, who then appears and grants the broodmother her desire to bring her child back to life. She got her wish granted, but her child is now a Soulless Shell since only their body was restored. When the broodmother asks why her child was brought back this way, Lakshmi says that she gave them exactly what they wanted and the child's soul was already long gone.
    • In the post-Stormblood Main Story Quest, Garlemald and the recently liberated Doma hold a truce so they can exchange prisoners, with the stipulation being that the Domans renounce summoning Primals, a stipulation they're more than happy to use. However, the ambassador for Garlemald, Asahi, is working behind the scenes with the Ascian Elidibus riding in Zenos' body with plans to perform a summoning... so Asahi forces his amnesic sister Yotsuyu to return to her normal self and has her summon the Primal. Never mind that Yotsuyu is working for the Garleans, Yotsuyu is a Doman, so it counts because Asahi wants his war.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the party is disgusted when they find the man who's hired them to destroy a monster stalking him is Luc Sardac and the "monster" is Frimelda, his lover who'd he'd turned into a zombie because he couldn't exceed her skill with the sword. Adelle then points out that since the bill hired them to ensure that he would "never look on this creature again", they can fulfill it by killing him.
• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the sugar obsessed thief named Gaius says he'll join the player's army if you "sweeten the deal". At first it's believed he wants gold, but he literally meant "sweeten": he saw Chrom drop a bag of candy a minute ago, and offers to join if Chrom will hand it over.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses
  • During the "Tales of the Red Canyon" paralogue, Byleth goes off to Zanado alone, and their students secretly follow them, resulting in the class being attacked by Demonic Beasts. After the battle, Byleth's house leader worries that they will get in trouble for going out without permission, but their retainer suggests that they call it a training exercise. On the Blue Lions route, Dedue ends up using this trope to justify the unauthorized expedition, conveniently omitting that Byleth didn't intend for the students to follow them or be caught up in a battle.
  Dedue: It is not untrue to assert that our professor led us here for battle experience...
  • While Flayn is a Bad Liar, she has a moment of this when after Linhardt notices she has the Crest of Cethleann and asks if she is a descendant of Saint Cethleann, she denies it. She is Cethleann herself.
• Ghost Recon
  • The ending of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has this. The main villain of the game is wounded and ready to be killed by the Ghosts, but sudden orders from command reveal that the American government wants to keep him alive and that he is "not to be touched." The Ghosts are understandably furious, considering the same person was responsible for the deaths of several of their comrades in the opening cutscene and is now taunting them about not being able to take revenge. Moments later a train happens to be coming his way and he pleads to the Ghosts to take him into American custody as per their orders. Their response? "Our orders were not to touch you." He gets splattered by the train and then the credits start immediately after he dies. Poor choice of words.
  • In the intro of Ghost Recon Wildlands, Bowman says there are rumors that the Ghosts were involved in the coup in Moscow, referencing the above mentioned Future Soldier, then asks the Ghosts she's with if the rumors are true. The Ghosts go quiet for a moment before Nomad says it wasn't them, which is true. It was a different Ghost Recon team.
• God of War
  • God of War: Athena promised Kratos that his past crimes would be forgiven if he killed Ares and saved Athens. She never said that he would be rid of his nightmares.
  • In God of War (PS4), Kratos and his son, Atreus, cremate his wife's body and take her ashes, her final wish being for them to scatter the ashes from the top of the highest mountain in all the realms. As they eventually learn from Mimir, the highest mountain in all the realms is in Jotunheim, not Midgard.
• Saturos uses this trope to his advantage in the end of Golden Sun. When Isaac's party confronts Saturos' party, Isaac's crew demands that Saturos hand Sheba over. Saturos says that if Isaac hands over the Shaman's Rod, Sheba won't be harmed. The rod is given over and Isaac's party complains that Saturos altered the deal. Menardi quips in by saying that they never actually said they would let Sheba go, but that they would not hurt her... which they weren't planning to do anyway, since they'll need her powers at Jupiter Lighthouse later.
• In Grand Theft Auto V, before the start of "Hood Safari", Trevor hands Franklin's Aunt Denise some money, telling her to buy something nice; however, he only gives her a minuscule amount of money.
  Trevor Philips: (hands Denise money) Here, darling. Why don't you go get yourself something nice, okay?
  Denise Clinton: Thank you! (counting the money) This... this is seven dollars!!
  Trevor: I said something nice, not expensive! You wanna be a greedy fucking cow, huh?! No...now get the fuck outta here, alright?!
  Denise: You men are all the same!
• Hades: When Zagreus gets the first of his prizes, he specifically said to the sculptor he wanted "something that would make me look good for my bosses". While in context, he obviously meant something good looking so his superiors would like his work, the sculptor seems to have taken this literally, and sculpts Skelly doing a pose.
  • Hades was told by the Fates that he'd never have a living heir, which he interpreted as never being able to father a child. When the son he has with Persephone is stillborn, Nyx argues with the Fates for his life, bringing him back to life and breaking the prophecy. After you beat him a few times, Hades speculates that they actually meant he'd never have a living heir, since Zagreus has little interest or skill in the administration of the Underworld and rejects his inheritance outright.
• On the A Hat in Time level "Queen Vanessa's Manor", your contract with the Snatcher specifies that you can not use any "hats" while in the manor. As a result, despite being part of the "Hat" game mechanic, the Dweller's Mask is usable since it isn't strictly a hat.
• The Heilwald Loophole: Dr. Randolph's creed states that nobody will die at Heilwald. Sure enough, you can put yourself through as much trauma as humanely possible and not once will you get killed.
• Henry Stickmin: All of his gadgets that Henry uses throughout the games work exactly as advertised (e.g. being turned into water)... just never the way that Henry needs them to work.
• Heroes of Might and Magic IV has a fairly simple one between Solymr and Gavin Magnus — after being rescued from imprisonment, Solymr swore to serve his rescuer, Magnus, for as long as he walked upon the world. This turns out to be a permanent proposition, as Magnus is immortal (it was Solymr that came up with the oath as repayment, so no fault fell on Magnus for this). In IV, Magnus has, unhinged by the destruction of the old world, gone off the deep end, and Solymr is unhappy but still feels bound by his oath to serve as long as Magnus lives... until, upon prompting, he thinks about exactly how he phrased it and realizes that since Magnus and he is now on another world and the old one is destroyed, Magnus is no longer walking upon the world in question...
• In Hewitt, Kathy promises to go to the dance with Hewitt if he does a favor for her. When he does it, she just gives him the lace from her hair. She never said exactly which part of her would go with him.
• Often crossing over with Pre-Mortem One-Liner, Agent 47 from the Hitman series is fond of this trope.
  Sierra Knox: So what's in this thing anyway, doc?
  Agent 47 (disguised as a doctor): Mostly floral extracts. Hemlock, belladonna, aconite. It's designed to be fast and efficient.
  Knox: Fast and efficient? I like that...wait, belladonna? Isn't that poisonous?
  47: Yes.
  Knox: Should I be concerned?
  47: I'm not. Just relax. It'll be over soon.
• The Horizon Forbidden West character Hernan was an engineer who dreamed of getting his life's work- a high-tech shielding device- somewhere it would really make a difference during humanity's darkest hour. Unbeknowst to him, he got exactly what he wished for- but the war that killed him was not humanity's darkest hour. That war was already being resolved. No, humanity's darkest hour would come millennia after that, in the even more one-sided and potentially apocalyptic war against HEPHAESTUS- a war during which The Chosen One would find Hernan's lost work and put it to good use.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: When Tammy gets pregnant, Sol can ask her whose baby it is, but since they didn't ask who the father is, she simply replies that it's hers.
• Justice League Heroes sees Darkseid promise Brainiac ultimate power and knowledge if Brainiac frees him. After Briainac disappears and Darkseid is released, he invokes this, revealing said "power" to be Darkseid himself and, when confronted by Zatanna about the "ultimate knowledge" bit, stated that the most important lesson of all is to never trust him.
• The experimental game Just More Doors and its prior build, Just A Few More Doors, tells you "Open the door to win". Every door you open, however, leads you to another room full of doors. The correct door is hidden behind a fake painting, and is labeled "The Door" - all the others are just "Door". Just More Doors tells you the same thing, but interprets it differently; to win, you have to open a door, then stand still for about a minute - the game said to open the door, not to walk through it.
• In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Chapter 9 of the story is titled "Medusa's Final Battle." You'd think it's meant to be the Final Battle and it is, but only for Medusa, who was just the pawn of The Man Behind the Man, Hades. For Pit, this isn't even the halfway point.
• Kingdom Hearts
  • Axel in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Marluxia tells him to "eliminate the traitor". He means Vexen, who is attempting to betray Marluxia's faction. However, Marluxia's faction is currently engaged in a betrayal against the greater Organization. "Can't take that back later."
  • After the Ursula's Revenge minigame in Kingdom Hearts II, Ursula demands that Prince Eric give her the trident. He does.
  • In II, Mickey stops Sora and co. before they can go help everybody else fight off an army of Heartless in Hollow Bastion. He tells Sora to leave immediately to search for Riku and Kairi despite his protests, and then orders Donald and Goofy that they need to stick together with him no matter what. They both agree and tell Sora that he's coming with them whether he likes it or not. So he's forced to follow them as they run off. Towards the war. Mickey being Mickey, he's amused by this loophole and rolls with it.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, during Ventus's Olympus Coliseum, Hercules and Zack both want to be trained by Phil, but Phil can only train one of them. So he tells them both to enter the Games, and says that he'll watch both of their matches and then decide whom he wants to train. Both fight their way through the Games and make it to the finals, where they face off against each other, but during their match, the town square gets attacked by Unversed. Ventus goes to fight the Unversed in order to let Hercules and Zack focus on their match, but is joined seconds later by Hercules, and the two fight off the Unversed together. After the battle, Zack arrives, disappointed that he was too late. Ventus asks who won their match, but then Phil clarifies:
    Phil: Hey! I never said I'd coach the winner. All I said was I'd see the match, then decide. Look, bein' a hero takes more than just muscle. Ya gotta have heart and care about people. And sure, you both get high marks for that. But this time, only one of you cared fast enough - and that makes all the difference.
  • In Kingdom Hearts III, Even casts aside his heart to become Vexen again and rejoins Organization XIII for the express purpose of continuing the Replica Program, saying that he "must see it to fruition, no matter the cost". Sounds like a textbook case of the blind pursuit of science he exhibited in Chain of Memories... until he gets to meet Ansem the Wise again. The current stage of the Replica Program is to create perfect vessels for hearts that have no bodies of their own - such as Roxas, Xion, and Naminé, three people who have suffered dearly at the Organization's hands, are in desperate need of. His replicas do end up assisting the Organization by providing vessels for the time-travelling hearts of Ansem and Xemnas - and that is the cost he's willing to pay to see that the hearts connected to Sora get the same.
• League of Legends: In the lore, Ultimate Blacksmith forge god Ornn was tricked by a devious troll and found himself obligated to create a door that would keep the troll's treasure safe from thieves. Irritated at the troll's cheating, he created a door that would indeed keep it safe from thieves...including the troll who requested it in the first place, and it was so durable it would outlast the mountain it was built into.
• Leap Frog: In the game Counting on Zero, Professor Quigley tells Zero that he is worth nothing when he asks why he has no Quidgits^note An amount of anthropomorphic blocks that correspond to certain numbers. For example, One has one Quidgit, Two has two Quidgits, and so on.. This results in him becoming depressed and attempting to run away.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails
  • In Trails in the Sky, Kloe tells the protagonists that she has wealthy relatives in Grancel. She neglects to mention that they are royalty.
  • In Trails of Cold Steel, Rean tells the noble-hating Machias that he doesn't have a drop of noble blood in his body. He neglects to mention that he's the adopted son of a noble.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: One of the old ladies in the cave says "Pay me and I'll talk." So, you give her a good chunk of Rupees, hoping for some great information about what to do next... and she says "Boy, you're rich." Well, she did say that she would talk if you gave her money.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Upon being locked in the Sacred Realm, Ganon wished to rule the world. However, he failed to clarify which world he wanted to rule, resulting in him taking over the Sacred Realm and turning it into the Dark World, instead of taking over Hyrule.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Ingo tries to pull this on you when he promises to let you keep Epona if you beat him in a race. When you win he laughs about how he's going to keep his word but also locks the gate and refuses to let you leave the ranch, but the gate is way too small to stop Epona from hopping over it.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: At the very end of the game, Ganondorf succeeds in acquiring the complete Triforce, and speaks his wish. Until King Daphnes points out that the Triforce has to be touched for the power to be granted, which is what Ganondorf said earlier. And Ganondorf isn't touching it. But Daphnes is.
    Daphnes: He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted... That is what you said, is it not, Ganondorf?
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Choosing the supplicant response to The Old Man Moving the Goalposts causes him to point out that he originally only asked for "treasure", but never said whether there would be more than one treasure. Choose the more indignant response, and he'll just say that he changed his mind.
  • Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon: King Harkinian goes to Gamelon to fight Ganon. Zelda is worried for him, but Impa uses the Trifoce of Wisdom and sees him returning safely, which reassures Zelda... then the King ends up defeated by Ganon, forcing Zelda to go rescue him. So he does come back safe and sound, like the Triforce said... the vision didn't say anything about WHEN he'd return, or WHAT would lead to it happening.
  • Hyrule Warriors: The Legends and Definitive editions add the ability to issue a command to any playable warriors you're not presently using. This trope ensues if you don't take the exact mechanics into effect; the ability to command a warrior to, say, defend Zelda is parsed as "Go to this square and defend Zelda", ......In That Order, so if Zelda has moved to a different square before the commanded warriors gets there, they're still gonna go to that square before chasing after Zelda to defend her.
• Leisure Suit Larry 3: A meta example; after the game's release, Al Lowe, the creator of the games, stated that there was not going to be a fourth game. Some time later, he changed his mind and decided to make a new entry after all... which is when he skipped the fourth game altogether and released Leisure Suit Larry 5. The nonexistent "fourth entry" is jokingly referred to as a "lost episode", which actually becomes a major plot point in the fifth game.
• In Lies of P, the First Law of the Grand Covenant states that "a puppet must always obey its' Creator's commands". The keypoint being that "Creator" is capitalized, and so doesn't refer to "the person who built that puppet" but "The man who created the Grand Covenant"; Giuseppe Geppetto.
• Loopmancer goes for the classic "I'm not going to kill you" in the final level, after Dr. Song Boyong reveals his true colours, took over Tompson's robot security, and orders his Mecha-Mooks to massacre the board of directors, leaving behind the clerk which Song interrogates and promises not to kill after getting the information he needs. Song then leaves, but not before ordering a robot to give the guy a Boom, Headshot!
• Love of Magic:
  • Powers are not supposed to lie, so they are fond of this. Chloe, especially, is a master of this, and uses them to get Erec killed, promoting Emily to reigning Queen, and get Owyn almost-killed, leading to his ascension to Once and Future King. She says that Erec has called the Hunt, and that the Hunt is a great danger to Owyn...but never says that the Hunt is being called on Owyn.
  • Molly tells the previous owner of the King's Dragon pub that she will let him go. She does; Bella, on the other hand, doesn't.
• Mass Effect: The turians maintain their military might due to the Treaty of Farixen, which specifies that for every dreadnought that non-Council races get; the asari and salarians get three, and the turians get five. Where this trope comes in is that the treaty was written with the assumption that dreadnoughts were the ultimate in space military units. Humanity built carriers with equivalent military strength, which the treaty does nothing to stop. In fact, when humanity becomes a Council race in Mass Effect 2, they haven't really bothered building new dreadnoughts even though they are legally allowed to triple their number, as carriers are so effective.
  • In Mass Effect, a salarian named Schells is found being tossed out of the Flux casino by the owner, Doran. After he dusts himself off, he can be questioned, whereupon he reveals he'd been caught using a prototype cheating device he'd developed to win at quasar. He just needs to record a few more wins with the device in order to complete it. Shepard offers to "help him" (exact words on the dialogue wheel) and takes the device. They never say they'll help Schells by cheating with the device. They can also help Schells stay honest by giving the device to Doran and telling Schells to go get a job.
  Schells: You're no help at all!
  • In Mass Effect 2, Garrus hasn't told his family that he was fighting criminals on Omega as the vigilante Archangel, nor that he joined up with Commander Shepard again, instead carrying on a Upper-Class Twit deception. Specifically, he claims that he's on a cruise around the galaxy, which, given that being on the Normandy does mean that he is flying around the galaxy. He just fails to mention that he's fighting mercenaries and Collectors rather than sipping expensive drinks while watching the sun set over tropical beaches.
• In Max Payne 2, the Big Bad manages to trap The Mafia boss Vinnie Gognitti in an oversized costume of Captain BaseballBatBoy, which Gognitti is a huge fan of, wired with explosives. He proposes a game of trivia about the series to let Gognitti have a chance — get two questions right and the explosives are disarmed. The first one is about who the Big Bad of the series is, a softball question that Gognitti gets easily — Maxwell's Demon. The second question: "Who is the original creator of Maxwell's Demon?" Gognitti first answers with the in-universe scientist who created the Demon, then goes with the series' writer; the answer according to the Big Bad is James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th century British physicst whose thought experiment regarding entropy led to the creation of the hypothetical being which inspired the Captain BaseballBatBoy series villain. Gognitti is very displeased at the answer...briefly, as he gets blown up almost immediately after — Max was out of action at the time having taken a bullet to the head and Mona only finds the poor bastard's remains afterwards.
• The villain in Maze: Subject 360 promises at one point that if you can find the one real pigeon in a coop full of fakes she'll let it go. Unfortunately she says nothing about not killing it afterwards...
• In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden tells the Big Bad that his sword is a tool of justice, not used in anger or for revenge. But he's not using his sword right now.
• A clever little exploit in Minecraft involves the exact wording of the game's rules. Piglins are neutral so long as you wear gold armour... but will still attack you if they see you raid one of their chests. You can circumvent this by placing a hopper beneath the chest. Items will transfer from the chest to the hopper, and you can take items from the hopper right in front of Piglins without aggroing them. After all they are coded to attack if they see you take from their chest, not if they see you take from your own hopper.
• In Monark, one of the puzzles has an insane member of the Science Club block your path, insisting that only those who say "Password" can pass. After you decipher the clues and decrypt a cryptogram with it, you learn the code is literally the word "Password".
• The ritual to leave the Crossroads in Tales of Monkey Island requires an Anchor, something to Guide you, Courage, and a Sacrifice, all placed in a ring at the Center of the Crossroads. The first time around, Guybrush goes with the standard Monkey Island method of gathering an assortment of objects that fit the bill, but at the end of the game, he uses his wedding ring to escape, since it carries all four aspects needed to leave.
• In Mortal Kombat 9, Raiden sends visions of the events of the series to his past self with the message "He must win". He meant the person he was facing at the time he sent the message, Shao Kahn: by allowing him to invade Earthrealm after losing the previous Mortal Kombat tournaments, the Elder Gods would be forced to act and destroy Shao Kahn once and for all. Raiden doesn't realize this until his attempts to prevent the original Raiden's future from coming to be causes nearly all of Earthrealm's heroes to die.
• This is the basis of the ending of The Mystery of the Druids. The protagonist, Halligan, has failed to prevent the evil druid Serstan from obtaining the artefact he needs to complete his ritual in the past; but he has secured a vow from him that "nothing will happen to Halligan or Melanie after this". At the follow-up ritual in the present, Halligan stabs Melanie to death himself with a pair of gardening shears. Because Serstan vowed that nothing would happen to Halligan or Melanie - with nothing about why it happened, or how - this causes Serstan to break a sacred vow, and the ritual fails. (Though since the pact also didn't even mention what would need to happen, it would technically have been broken the moment anything, no matter how good or bad, no matter how trivial, happened to either of them — in other words, instantaneously. This is why you don't sign contracts without a lawyer.)
• The Terminals' purpose in NieR: Automata is to "defeat the enemy". Nothing was said about how long they had to defeat the enemy, or that they weren't allowed to manipulate both sides to ensure they never completely defeated their enemy, thus allowing them to turn the 14th Machine War into a Forever War both to fulfill their hardcoded purpose and use the war as a playground to satiate their curiosity.
• In Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones the title villain promises not to kill the main character if her teenage daughter signs a contract with him. When she does he replies "See, I never meant to kill your mother...it's the ocean that will!" and pushes the main character off the plank.
• In Octopath Traveler II, when Juvah says he "needs to rest" after the injuries he took from Ochette's first boss, she panics and thinks he meant he was dying. It turns out he really did need to sleep, and Ochette simply assumed otherwise. So Juvah was being completely honest about what he said, and Ochette merely exaggerated it herself.
• In Odin Sphere, the demon lord Odin asks the shadow knight Oswald to slay the dragon Wagner in exchange for a castle, a magic spear and the hand of Odin's daughter Gwendolyn. After Oswald slays Wagner, Odin demands Oswald give him the magic ring found in the dragon's belly, but Oswald, already planning to give the ring to his new wife as a wedding gift, refuses and points out that Odin only asked him to kill the dragon. When Odin insists, Oswald threatens to kill him and demands his reward, forcing Odin to back down.
• The first puzzle in Oedipus in my Inventory involves Queen Jocasta asking the shepherd to "Get baby Oedipus out of the castle." Apparently he interpreted this command to mean "huck the baby out of the nearest window, mission accomplished."
• Across the three One Night at Flumpty's games, the titular egg has never actually let the player leave even in spite of him having won several times in the past. As Flumpty puts it, you need to survive until 6 AM... which you never technically do until you get the Golden Ending in the third game. The first game ends on "HAM" (the 5 of 5AM rolls over to an H), the second game ends on "SPAM" (the : of 5:AM rolls over to a P), and the third game's normal mode ends on SALAMI (the clock spaces out and makes room for an AL and an I) after Flumpty rewinds the clock back to 12AM at the last possible second for "his turn"). After all, Flumpty never said the clock would go to 6AM, and notably in the Bad Ending of the third game the 6 is missing from the clock when he "lets you leave" in to a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Beat Hard-Boiled Night of the third game, however, and the clock finally rolls up to 6:AM, the clock on the wall finally reads 6, and he finally lets the player go into a pristine city before himself ascending into a light at the end of a tunnel.
• In the beginning of Pac 'n Roll, Pac-Master tries to fight the main villain, Golvis by eating a Power Pellet, only for it to not affect him at all. Golvis brags that "One or two measly Power Pellets won't do anything to me!" Later on, once Pac-Man gets his shot to fight Golvis, he discovers that three Power Pellets is the magic number that weakens Golvis enough to damage him.
• Pajama Sam
  • Pajama Sam in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside: When talked to, the Wishing Well may say Sam is allowed to call him a randomized gibberish name. When Sam asks about how he got the name, the Well states that he never said it was actually his name, just that he can be called that.
  • Pajama Sam: Life Is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff!: The dress code for Grubby Corners Mall mandates having a shirt, socks, and shoes. Key word being have, not wearing, as Sam only needs to present the articles of clothing to be allowed entry.
• Paper Mario:
  • In Super Paper Mario, the Dark Prognosticus stated that the man in green, Luigi, would use the Chaos Heart's power to destroy the world. That turned out to be completely true. What it didn't state, however, was whether Luigi would do so willingly, or rather, whether he would do it if he wasn't brainwashed by Dimentio by planting a floro sprout in his brain beforehand.
  • In Paper Mario: Color Splash, the level "Sunglow Ridge" has a sign tell you to "Try hitting this log with an Unfurl Hammer", after which point it makes a bridge. The level continues to show you that hitting logs with Unfurl Hammers is going to help you make progress, so when you hit the log in the last room, you may be confused when it instead droops over the side of the cliff and does nothing. At this point, you may take a look at the sign near the log and notice it reads "Now try hitting this with an Unfurl Hammer." Doesn't say a thing about logs; you're supposed to hit the sign with the hammer.
  • In Paper Mario: The Origami King: Bobby the Bob-Omb vows to travel alongside Mario and Olivia till the end...of his life.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Amiri was saddled with the Embarrassing Nickname "The Soft Chieftain" by her tribe and the neighbouring tribes for being a woman who tried to fill a man's role in her patriarchal society. This comes into effect when her personal quest sees her face a Sadistic Choice that requires the Heroic Sacrifice of a chieftain or leader in order to seal an evil spirit, which by default is her Childhood Friend Nilak. If the Player Character offers to be the sacrifice because Amiri had once referred to them as her 'chieftain', Amiri realizes that her old nickname means she is a 'chieftain' in her old tribe and promptly sacrifices herself.
• Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors has Impossible difficulty. In any other game, this would mean Harder Than Hard. In this game, it means it's literally impossible to win. After walking to the right for a few seconds, you encounter Lou Reed, who blasts you into Ludicrous Gibs with Eye Beams in a cutscene.
  Lou: This is the impossible level, boys. "Impossible" doesn't mean "very difficult". "Very difficult" is winning the Nobel Prize. "Impossible" is eating the sun.
• Persona
  • Eikichi, alias Captain Death, in Persona 2, is pitted against an enemy who has spread rumors saying he's stronger than Captain Death, which became true thanks to Sumaru City making rumors become reality. So Eikichi rescinds his title, meaning the idiot no longer has to deal with Captain Death, but Eikichi Mishina. Asskicking ensues, with Eikichi proving why he's his school's premier badass.
  • A heroic variation happens in Persona 4: Arena, at the end of the story. With the situation dealt with for the moment but the mastermind at large, Mitsuru insists that the civilians stay out of it, and let the Shadow Operatives deal with the rest. Yu tells his Investigation Team that they'll let the Shadow Operatives do their jobs of hunting Labrys' kidnapper. He didn't say anything about not doing their own work, however. Mitsuru still sees through it but decides not to stop them anymore.
  • In Persona 5, while most of what the traitor says turns out to be outright lies, there is a significant part of their dialogue that is completely true, such as when they give the Phantom Thieves their reason for becoming a detective due to having an extremely personal grudge against particularly rotten adults.
• Many a Professor Layton puzzle is predicated on the wording of its riddle.
  • In a puzzle from Diabolical Box, a man has two stinky cloves of garlic lodged in a series of tubes connected to three holes. Unfortunately, he only has two corks, so you need to work out which two holes you should plug to stop him from having to smell the stink. It's his two nostrils; all three of the holes are producing a stink, so there's no way to stop the smell plugging only two of them.
  • In a puzzle from Miracle Mask, a student is trying to help a small ant cross a bridge of colored pencils. The ant can only climb down pencils; it is too small to climb up again. The challenge is to move only one pencil to make it possible for the ant to cross. You move the pencil the ant is already sitting on, of course.
  • Also from Miracle Mask, one puzzle in a series involves swinging a hammer at totem pole heads so that they end up in a specific arrangement, but the catch is that you have only a limited number of hammer swings to solve the puzzle. While most of the puzzles are possible to do with the right moves, in one of them, you have too few moves to accomplish your task, so instead of hitting any of the heads, you have to swing it at the stone at the base of the totem poles, causing them to slide into position.
  • Unwound Future had a "Spot the Liar" puzzle that begins with, "Hey, somebody stole my cake! Who could it be?" Four people—A, B, C, and D—all give clues as to who did it, but one of the above people is lying. The narrator is the liar. Nobody stole his cake. He ate it himself.
• In Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary, Klug wishes to have his success written in a 16 page spread in the Monthly Kuromage, the town's local magazine. Popoi acknowledges how specific it is, but his hopes get shot down after Ms. Accord points out that he'll get his wish if he becomes successful, which he failed to mention. So much for that spread, eh?
• In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, most of the game takes place in an Alternate Universe where "Nefarious always wins". And true enough, in any scene where Ratchet and/or his Distaff Counterpart Rivet face Emperor Nefarious, the latter comes out on top one way or the other. However, the same is not true of Nefarious' army, which can be defeated, and Emperor Nefarious loses his Invincible Villain status the second he steps into Ratchet's universe, where the mere prospect of being defeated drives Emperor Nefarious into a Villainous Breakdown and causes him to throw a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.
• Ravenloft: Stone Prophet includes a blind priestess named Min Deir, who escorts and unlocks a shrine so that the heroes may learn their destiny. Min Deir remarks that, as she's blind, she's not going to be of any further help, and leaves the party to return home. When the party protests, the Stone Prophet of the title tells them not to worry, as Min Deir will make her way safely home. If the player ever returns to Min Deir's home, they find her bones littering the floor, as she died once she made it back. Careful observation of Min Deir's sprite will show that she has the boils signifying the Wrath of Ankhtepot, so she was on borrowed time anyway.
• In Red Dead Redemption II, Arthur insists to Dutch to let John and his family go and leave the gang just before the final heist. Perhaps tying into Evil Is Petty, Dutch does let John go ... by abandoning them to the US Army after the latter was shot and falls off the train, telling everyone else that John had died.
• In Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs, Mr. Crucey and the Furtive Union are out to collect the massive debt House Loren racked up before their kingdom was destroyed, and are going after the main character, Kay, because he is the heir of House Loren (which he only found out recently). When they find out that Kay isn't actually the heir, or even a member of House Loren (in fact, Kay isn't even a noble, though his family thought they were the last members of House Loren, as their ancestor was a common servant that was forced to pose as the last ruler of House Loren while the actual ruler fled the kingdom before it was destroyed in a war), and the actual heir to House Loren shows up and loudly reveals this, Crucey immediately leaves Kay alone, as the debt is owed by House Loren, and Kay's family had absolutely nothing to do with it.
• Return Of The Obra Dinn:
  • The logbook can only record who killed someone without any room for motive. This ultimately causes kills in self defense, executions of innocent people, and accidents to go down in history as murders in the eyes of the insurance company. Captain Robert Witterel's many kills in self defense go down as murders, and his estate is posthumously fined severely for it. Bosun's mate Charles Miner, who causes friendly fire, is labeled as a murderer as well. And despite the fact that both of their victims directly caused the deaths of the rest of the crew, passengers It-Beng Sia and Chioh Tan are both labeled as murderers. Conversely, the inverse happens if no one directly kills someone- they get rewarded instead. As cook Thomas Sefton didn't technically murder seaman William Wasim, even though his actions caused Wasim's death, his estate receives payment.
  • When he returns the shell to the mermaids, the third mate asks that they see the ship safely to shore. Well, the ship made it...
  • There's an achievement for doing this by attributing all the deaths to Captain Witterel. As the captain of the ship, the safety of his crew and passengers is legally his responsibility, so in the eyes of the Crown their deaths are on his hands.
• River City Girls: In the flashback after getting the fake gold cat statue, Misako arrives to defend Kyoko from Hasebe and Mami.
  Mami: Beat it, new girl.
  Misako: Sure thing! [Beats up Hasabe and Mami]
• In Sacrifice, Eldred is revealed in his backstory to have summoned an extremely powerful demon called Marduk and charged him to 'destroy his rivals'. Marduk, being an Omnicidal Maniac, performed this task exactly to the letter by destroying the entire world, rivals included, and when they re-unite in the Sacrifice gameworld Marduk still refers to their bargain as being completed on his end.
  • In addition, it's later revealed that Stratos, one of the gods of the world summoned Marduk to the Sacrifice world and charged him to 'sow discord'. One guess as to how Marduk interpreted that order.
• In Scribblenauts, when making an Invisibility Cloak, be sure to specify that it is an invisible invisibility cloak, otherwise you'll just look silly.
• In Shadowrun Returns, the PC can ask Harlequin if Hans Brackhaus really works for Lofwyr. He winks and says "No". Because Brackhaus IS Lofwyr.
  • In Dragonfall, one of your missions is to retrieve a prototype known only as MKVI from a secure facility, with your employers being unusually cagey about what it is. The MKVI turns out to be a troll turned into a cyberzombie in terrible agony and even Glory begs you to put it out of its misery. If the PC decides to destroy (or rather, Mercy Kill) it, their employers will be furious and vow to never work with them again but still pay them because the contract was only for retreiving the MKVI. It never said anything about in which condition.
• When recruiting the four Shimazu brothers in Sengoku Rance, Rance states that he will allow them to serve as his subordinates on the condition that they don't make any moves on Kurohime, who all four brothers are infatuated with. Each brother immediately takes note of the fact that Rance only told them to not make any moves on Kurohime, and, sure enough, attempt to seduce a different woman in Rance's army after agreeing to his terms.
• In Skies of Arcadia the Nasran dancer Bellena convinces the heroes that she's on their side by telling them her tragic backstory about her soldier father dying in Nasr's war with Valua, her mother dying of grief and Bellena's resulting hatred of all war. When she betrays them and reveals herself to be Valuan Admiral Belleza, she is asked if she lied about her past and she replies that everything she said was true: she just didn't mention that 1) her father was a Valuan soldier, not Nasran and 2) she believes the best way to end all war is to unite the world under Valuan rule.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Mephiles told Silver that the Iblis Trigger (Sonic) was going to destroy the world. He never said exactly how it was going to destroy the world... by getting killed by Mephiles, the real Big Bad, so he can make Elise cry, thus releasing Iblis for him to fuse with and cause a Time Crash.
  • In Sonic Colors, one of Eggman's public announcements touts that "no animals were harmed in the creation of this park." Which we can believe... because within the same announcement, Eggman then states that the animals were harmed after it was created.
  • Sonic Frontiers begins with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy getting trapped in Cyber Space, and Sonic being told by a disembodied voice that he must "tear down the walls between dimensions". Sonic assumes this is so that his friends can escape. Turns out the voice belongs to the game's Greater-Scope Villain, A Sealed Evil in a Can responsible for destroying the Ancients' civilization. "Tearing down the walls between the dimensions" does indeed allow Sonic's friends to escape, but the true purpose of making him do so was to allow said evil to escape as well.
• Played for Laughs in Spider-Man 2 where one of the hint markers has Bruce Campbell advise the player if they find all of them, they'll all reset and now each say something different. Find them all, and Bruce keeps his word: every single one now just has Bruce say "something different".
• The Splatterhouse remake has the Terror Mask say to Rick, "Until Jen's back safe in your arms... You're mine.". As the game ends, he doesn't come off, because it's not Jen in Rick's arms.
• Played for Laughs in Spookys Jumpscare Mansion when the titular Cute Ghost Girl claims she'll reward you with unlimited stamina, but in reality takes away your ability to run. After all, your stamina won't run out if you're not able to use it... She's not lying, though - you can still swing your axe, and that no longer consumes stamina either.
• In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, the Exile makes a promise to Atris that they won't train the Handmaiden in "the ways of the Jedi", something that the Handmaiden's own vows prevent her from pursuing. The Exile later capitulates to the Handmaiden's request for training, pointing out that Atris never said they couldn't learn the ways of the Force, thus neither of them can be said to have broken their word. Atris is unhappy about this turn of events either way.
• In Super Mario RPG, Bowyer has the ability to prevent the use of normal attacks, special attacks, or items by shooting arrows at buttons on a controller. In the remake, he also disables the use of Toad Assist, so the - button is also useless. Once you've almost beaten him, he decides to just shoot arrows at the A, X, and Y buttons at the same time, which prevents Mario and Mallow from doing anything... until Geno arrives and teaches them Triple Moves, which, despite being used with the - button, are not Toad Assists, so Bowyer's rule doesn't apply to them.
• In Third Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-hen, Simon reveals that Sidereal managed to steal the Chouginga Daigurren which obviously couldn't land on Earth and had to wait around in space while Simon and the others fought down below. Barbiel used his venom to take a great number of hostages, and used them to blackmail Simon into handing over the ship. Nia's the one who convinced them to give it up, stating that "We can always take back our hope, but life cannot be recovered once lost". And Barbiel honored his end of the agreement by releasing the hostages... who, contaminated by his venom, were berserking lunatics.
• Tales of...
  • In Tales of the Abyss, the Score states that "The young scion of Lorelei's power shall bring his people to the miner's city." It said miner's city, not Akzeriuth. That part is actually subverted. Akzeriuth just wasn't possessed of a name two thousand years ago. The more accurate bit of Exact Words is the next part that says "There, the youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca, destroying himself and the city." It just says "destroys", and that is exactly what not only happens to Luke but would have happened to the original Luke since the "Light of the Sacred Flame" aka the "young scion of Lorelei's power" is mentioned on the Seventh Fonstone long after Akzeriuth's destruction. In all, the Score actually is very literal about everything it predicts, as Lorelei was attempting to be as precise as possible so humans wouldn't get confused. Unfortunately, the Score is taken as a mystical thing instead of just a long list of events in chronological order that has some Lost in Translation problems mixed in.
  • Tales of Destiny: Hugo never said he'd let Marian go, and he doesn't, even after Leon steals a dragon and the Eye of Atamoni, betrays his friends, and dies to buy him time.
• In the Team Fortress 2 short cartoon "Expiration Date", Engineer, thinking they're all going to die soon, tells Soldier he can teleport all the bread he wants since what they do doesn't matter anymore. Cue Soldier taking this as an instruction and spending three days doing nothing but running bread through the teleporter.
• Councilman Deane from Technobabylon is a politician with a neural governor installed in his head that prevents him from lying. It doesn't, however, prevent him from obfuscating the truth with very careful wording. For example, he technically didn't hire the suicide bomber who tried to assassinate Jeong and her conspiratorial circle. His secretary did.
• Telltale Games seems to like using this to make things more difficult for their protagonists.
  • In The Walking Dead (Telltale) Season 1, Lee will make hints about his past. If you don't tell the group you were sent to prison, Lilly will take advantage to turn them against you. In Season 2, failing to be direct and vague will cause the cabin group to mistrust you more. Subverted in A New Frontier: if you shoot Conrad in Episode 2, telling Tripp about it will cause him to think that Conrad was mobbed by zombies, based on his reaction, when in reality Javi shoots him, even though he makes it clear that Conrad was shot in self defence. This seems to be a case of story segregation for the point of drama.
  • Pulled by the Joker in the final episode of Batman: The Telltale Series Season 2 when he convinces Alfred to hand himself over as a hostage or else people will be hurt. When Alfred arrives and discovers that Joker has hurt and even killed people regardless:
    Alfred: You assured me no one would get hurt!
    Joker: Uh, no. I said that people would get hurt if you didn't come. Not the same.
  • Partway through Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, the Narrator throws a series of portraits onto the wall behind him with the promise that one of them will betray you before the story ends. The final episode reveals that the culprit behind the entire game is... the Narrator himself. He didn't say that one of the characters on the wall would betray us, he said one of the characters we saw before us would.
• In Titanfall 2, Kuben Blisk is contracted by the IMC to deliver them the Ark, a piece of alien technology to power a doomsday weapon they're constructing. The contract doesn't specify what Blisk has to do after delivering it, and Blisk pointedly chooses to spare Cooper even when the latter is in the process of destroying said weapon and is completely at his mercy, though this is also due to the fact that Blisk respects Cooper's skills.
  Marder: Blisk. That Vanguard-class Titan is still in there!
  Blisk: Not my problem Marder. Should have put it in my contract.
• Titan Quest: King Gylfi was approached by Loki and asked if he wanted a statue of himself. King Gylfi said yes and got turned to stone.
• In Tomb Raider Chronicles, Lara winds up slipping on a slope and nearly falls into a deep pit, but manages to grab onto a ledge and hang on. Her rival, Pierre, arrives and uses this moment to make an exchange; if he pulls Lara up, she will not lay a finger on him. Lara agrees and is helped up, but when Pierre demands the MacGuffin, Lara just gets in Pierre's face and screams "BOO!", startling Pierre and making him slip off the ledge and hangs on for dear life. When he asks Lara to pull him up, Lara replies in a snark manner that they agreed she wouldn't touch him. Lara cheerfully walks away and Pierre falls.
• In the flash game Tower of Heaven, one of the rules added is "Thou shalt not **WALK** left." Failure to comply results in instant death, and there's nowhere to go right but into a giant sawblade you can't jump over. The solution: jump, then move left while still in the air.
• Calypso from Twisted Metal takes this and Literal Genie to the extreme.
  • In one example he does this without being outright evil. Hammerhead's ending in TM2 has the two drivers wish to fly; Calypso says "Wish granted", and the pair immediately runs off the nearest cliff... while a dumbfounded Calypso looks on, plane tickets in hand.
  • Used in a tragic way in Brimstone's ending in Black. Calypso promises to reveal the truth about Jebediah's Demonic Possession if he wins. When he does, Jebediah demands that Calypso clear his name for the murders the demon committed. Calypso reminds him that he'd only said he would tell him the truth - and he does: Jebediah isn't possessed at all. He murdered those people himself during a psychotic break.
• Tyranny: You play as a Fatebinder, one of The Empire's commissars who has the grim task of casting magical orders that will force unnatural disasters to plague the land until the Evil Overlord' orders are followed to the letter. The EXACT letter. Throughout the campaign, your character notices A Glitch in the Matrix in the form of Loophole Abuse on what should be absolute control over the archmage-dominating orders. You can effectively compromise on certain Evil Virtues by finding a technicality that allows you to resolve matters in ways that go against the intent of your orders; examples include waiting until the deadline to cast an edict so that the NEW deadline for the warhead-on-your-own-incompetent-army is scheduled for NEXT year, having the legal representatives of a princess forcefully revoke her claim to the throne so that The Purge spares her, confiscating illegal texts instead of burning them so that they are not under the possession of the library that is about to be melted by lava, etc. Of course, this angers your boss and if you do enough of these things you'll be put on trial for insubordination - but if you make an impressive speech about how you have followed every (known) order to the letter and resolved matters in ways that do not hypocritically contradict the intent of preservation of life, law, and the empire, then your boss will freak out in realization that as a Lawful Stupid being who is bound to serve the law but has just found you not guilty of the greatest accusation the Overlord has ever given in a century, he must logically defect to you as you represent the law more than them. Even if you decided to work for the rebels or throw the entire region into a state of anarchy.
• Tyrant's Blessing refers to the Big Bad's promise that he will free Tyberia from war, suffering, and death- because he's warped most of its inhabitants into a mindless zombie army.
• Undertale:
  • The Tag Line of the game is "The Friendly RPG Where Nobody Has To Die", the operative word being "has to".
  • If you check the stats of the Final Boss of the Genocide route, it tells you "1 ATK, 1 DEF. The easiest enemy." While that latter part is a complete lie, those stats are technically true. It's just that his weak defense doesn't matter because he dodges every single attack, while his own attacks ignore Mercy Invincibility and deal one point of damage per frame for as long as you're in contact with his projectiles, as well as adding a status effect that depletes even more of your health.
  • The same boss, for their final attack, prefaces it by saying "here goes nothing". And then it turns out his final attack literally is nothing: He refuses to end his turn, therefore denying you yours, even if he has to stand there for eternity, hoping to bore you into ragequitting.
  • The game also starts out by telling the player to "Name the fallen human." However, it never tells you which fallen human. It's eventually revealed that the player character is actually named Frisk, and that the character you were naming is the very first fallen human, AKA the one who committed suicide in an attempt to save the monsters. While their real name is never revealed, fans generally agree that their name is "Chara"; typing this name in at the naming screen gives the text "The true name".
  • One of the songs in the official soundtrack is called Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans. Emphasis on "might": the song doesn't play at any point in the actual game. While you can fight Sans, his theme is MEGALOVANIA.
  • Papyrus' house has a sock on the floor with a bunch of sticky notes on it.
  SANS! PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SOCK!
  ok.
  DON'T PUT IT BACK DOWN! MOVE IT!
  ok.
  YOU MOVED IT TWO INCHES! MOVE IT TO YOUR ROOM!
  ok.
  AND DON'T BRING IT BACK!
  ok.
  IT'S STILL HERE!
  didn't you just say not to bring it back to my room?
  FORGET IT!
  • At one point, Mettaton asks you to defuse a number of bombs, with the promise that if you fail, a big bomb will blow you up in two minutes. If you succeed, he informs you that the big bomb is not going to blow up in two minutes. It's going to blow up in two seconds.
  • One NPC tells you that Greater Dog writes some of "the most beautiful letters." He then shows you one of them, which is just the word "Bark" in a very fancy script. Well, they're four letters that look beautiful.
  • Early into Snowdin, Sans warns you that Papyrus has a "blue attack", and tells you how to deal with light blue projectiles. It turns out that’s just part of Papyrus’ blue attack. The other part involves turning your soul dark blue and subjecting it to the rules of gravity.
    Papyrus: YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK!
• The Witch's House: Early on, you find a sign that reads "LEND A HAND". If you talk to the invisible chef in the next room, you get the chance to "Lend a hand". Choosing to do so leads the chef to grab your wrist... move you to the chopping board and... you get the picture. To actually solve the puzzle, you have to offer the dismembered hands of a teddy bear. That you cut up earlier.
• A horrifically cruel example in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus that borders on I Lied; having captured Caroline, the resistance leader, Frau Engel promises to spare her life if B.J. and the other resistance members surrender. When they do, she has one of her men hand her an axe, intending to kill her anyway. When she's called out on this, she says she does intend to "free" Caroline - free her head from her soulders, that is.
• In week 3 of The World Ends with You, the game master challenges the players to a game of hide and seek. The game master will choose one place to hide, and challenges the players to find that spot before time runs out. Despite these terms, Neku keeps hearing the game master's laughter wherever he goes, as he searches all over Shibuya. It's eventually revealed that the "one place" the game master chose was the shadow of Neku's partner. She never said the hiding place had to itself be stationary!
  • Near the start of the game, Uzuki promises to "let (Neku) out of the Reaper's Game" if he kills Shiki. Not only is the mission unauthorized (due to players only getting one mission per day), but players who lose their partners get erased themselves, barring outside intervention. Neku calls Uzuki out on this after Hanekoma intervenes, but Uzuki protests that "If I erased you, that's still letting you out of the Game!"

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