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  • In the Ace Attorney series almost no character is ever seen in a new outfit unless they change jobs.
    • Phoenix IS seen without his blue jacket once. While it's justified when he's actually in court (suits are expensive and judges really don't like people who dress sloppily in court), the fact that he has his attorney's badge at the ready even when he isn't actively investigating a case or standing in court implies he just wears it all the time. Same goes for his successor Apollo. Lampshaded when somebody impersonates him just by having a similar hairstyle and wearing a blue suit.
    • Averted for the first time by Dual Destinies defendant Juniper Woods, who ordinarily wears a dress and sunhat, but wears a Sailor Fuku when at school. Trucy even mentions in Case 2 in an offhand conversation that she doesn't always walk around dressed as a magician, such as at school.
  • The Backyard Kids wear the same clothes every game (except when their design is changed), so they wear the same clothes when they are playing football as they do when they are skateboarding. And even then, over multiple seasons.
  • Since, unlike most MMORPGs, the outfits in City of Heroes are unrelated to actual equipment (which exists in a more abstract form) and mostly determined at character creation, each hero is generally stuck with one outfit (possible with a Palette Swap if the character is in a supergroup). You can pay a hefty sum of money to change things around, but then you have to pay as much to change it back again. As you gain levels, you are rewarded with additional costume slots, which allow you to change outfits at will. In a sense, this makes it a kind of character defect that you eventually buy off.
  • Danganronpa: Nobody, not even Ultimate Cosplayer Tsumugi Shirogane, ever changes clothes. Celestia Ludenberg takes it to extremes as she's seen wearing the exact same dress even in photographs of the school years the class has forgotten where the others are wearing gym uniforms.
  • The Darkside Detective: Due to the sprite-based graphics, McQueen and Dooley almost invariably wear exactly the same outfits — detective trenchcoat for McQueen, police uniform for Dooley — regardless of where they are or what they're doing. In The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark, when they're on holiday in Ireland, there's a lampshade hanging of the fact that Dooley is still in uniform and depicted with his gun holster despite the different gun carry laws in Ireland. (He does end up spending most of the Irish adventure in a different outfit, though, for plot related reasons.)
  • Each character in Daughter for Dessert has a single outfit that he/she wears about 90 percent of the time, with a strong justification for wearing just about anything else (e.g. Amanda wears a bikini to the beach).
  • Deadly Premonition: Nearly all the NPCs wear only one outfit for the entire game regardless of time, location, or weather; the ones that do have different outfits change them only for plot reasons (Emily changing into a slinky black dress for dinner, the "goddesses of the forest" changing into red dresses, etc...). Averted with York, as you can have him wear any of a number of suits and have it reflected in the cutscenes; but played straight with Zach, who cannot change suits.
  • Everyone in the Delicious series has one day outfit, one set of pajamas, etc. Played for Laughs in Delicious 8: Emily's Wonder Wedding when Francois gives Emily an identical dress during her bridal shower and she thanks him and says that she didn't have that one yet.
  • Disgaea. Most of the female characters have more than one outfit, but for the guys, it's to the point where Laharl sleeps with shoes on.
  • Donkey Kong's sole article of clothing is always one big red tie.
  • The characters in Double Homework wear pretty much the same clothes all the time, with very few exceptions.
    • Invoked by Tamara. She indeed wears the same black clothes every day... but she insists that there are subtle differences that the protagonist can’t make out (because he’s a guy, of course).
      • Tamara also lampshades it with the boutique she opens after she graduates. The name? “Nothing But Black.”
    • The protagonist also lampshades this for the fake sea captain when he reappears as a bus driver, noting that the guy didn’t even change his uniform.
  • In contrast to the first game, every character in Dragon Age II sticks with their default outfit (the Codex explains that Hawke doesn't get to choose what his/her friends wear), except for generally one or two plot-relevant changes:
    • Most party members get at least a minor accessory (usually including a red scarf) if you complete their Romance Sidequest. Isabela gets a red scarf on her arm, added shoulder armor and a black corset over her top. Fenris wears the Amell crest on his belt and the red scarf on his wrist. Merrill, by contrast, switches outfits entirely to an odd white-and-silver construction.
    • Anders gets a Palette Swap from greys to black after his personal quest in chapter 3, symbolizing his final decision to go through with his suicidal plan.
    • Bethany or Carver each get some sort of costume switch if they don't die in the Deep Roads, either Circle mage robes or a Grey Warden uniform for Bethany, and either Templar plate or a Grey Warden uniform for Carver.
    • Aveline goes from her sleeveless prologue outfit to a Guardswoman's plate armor in act 1 and the Captain's uniform in Act 2.
  • Lampshaded in EarthBound, where an NPC says, "Every time I see you, you're wearing the same clothes. Do you wash them, or what?"
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Slightly lampshaded in Crisis Core. A Costa Del Sol Vacation has both Zack and Cissnei in new swim wear costumes. But Tseng comes in the same full Turk suit he has for the entire game. A DMW memory has Zack asking Cissnei later why Tseng wears the full suit in the tropical weather.
    • Final Fantasy X-2: it's been two years since Final Fantasy X, and the protagonists are the only people who have bought new outfits in that time.
    • This is Lampshaded in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia. It features many characters from across the series, some of whom are either lightly dressed or in downright tropical attire—which causes some complaints when they reach the Snowy Peaks of Crudelis. Later, Laguna asks how the Warrior of Light can stand walking around a blazing desert in full armor.
  • Fallout 4 allows you to dress your numerous companions in whatever you want, from head to toe body-armor to a simple tuxedo. Except Nick Valentine, who cannot have his easily identifiable trenchcoat and hat changed or removed.
  • Fate/stay night: Almost everyone has, at most, two sets of clothes (typically school, armor, armor/casual, or school uniform/casual, or in Illya's case, cold-weather/normal). Other, non-standard outfits are Illya's Dress of Heaven, Rin's bedclothes, and the occasional birthday suit.
  • Characters in Fire Emblem keep one outfit throughout the game (with the exception of lord class changes.) Defectors still wear the colors of the enemy after they join you, and there is really no reason for Ilyana to change only a cape over a four-year period.
    • Even worse with Sothe, who after growing a foot and a half and becoming lead Mr. Fanservice over that time period, is still wearing that tattered ascot, and for some reason still wears the same size shirt he did three years ago.
    • An interesting case of this occurs in Fire Emblem: Awakening: although changing the classes of your characters will change their outfits in their full 3D renders and in their overworld sprites, their portraits will still wear the same outfits as in their initial appearance.
  • Lampshaded in the first Gabriel Knight game: Gabe's character was designed to wear a bitchin' leather trenchcoat, which he wears whenever he goes outside. Not a problem, except it's June. In New Orleans. Per his assistant Grace: "I wish you wouldn't wear that coat in June. I can smell you from here."
    • If you look in Gabriel's wardrobe, you find a number of hangers, each holding an identical set of jeans and white t-shirt.
  • An honest-to-god plot point in God Eater Burst. Fabric is pretty hard to come by After the End when Aragami exist to absorb and break down pretty much all matter. This goes double for the titular God Eaters; it's revealed in side materials that their clothes have to be treated with Bias Factor, otherwise their own God Arc would consume it directly off their own bodies; this isn't an easy thing to do, so most only have one outfit, even if it's impractical or skimpy. Lampshaded in the sequel, where Alisa explains all this to justify why she's wearing a one-size-too-small top when she can't zip it down over her chest - there was a paperwork snafu when it was being requisitioned and it's the only top she has.
  • Half-Life:
    • Played straight for most of the recurring cast of Half-Life 2, especially with Alyx Vance, who not only wears the same jacket, pair of jeans, and Black Mesa sweater throughout the game and its Episodes, but is even shown wearing this exact outfit in promotional material for Half-Life: Alyx, set five years before Half-Life 2.
    • Downplayed with Alyx's father Eli, who swaps out his Harvard sweater for an argyle-patterned one in Episode Two and is seen wearing a completely different outfit in Alyx.
  • The Harvest Moon/Video Game//Story Of Seasons games are particularly egregious examples of this trope. In multiple early games, the player character and the townspeople around them wear the exact same outfits for the course of the game... and several of the games' storylines can span for many years. In newer games the player character began to be able to freely change clothing (which started around Another Wonderful Life with outfits that had different designs, and in Harvest Moon DS Cute, the different outfits are a Palette Swap), but the townspeople still almost always dress the same for the length of the game.
  • Heart of the Woods takes place over the course of a month-long trip to Eysenfeld, and except for three occasions- Madison becoming Fairy Queen, Abigail borrowing Madison's clothes after returning to life and the cast going to the beach in the good ending- everyone's clothes stay the same. Lampshaded in the demo version, when one scene involving a chibified Tara and Madison has Tara asking Madison why she's wearing a winter coat indoors; Madison says that they didn't feel the need to make a sprite of her dressed less warmly for a scene that won't appear in the final version of the game.
  • Hidden Expedition: Continuing character Sam (from the Eipix-created games in the series) always wears a green plaid shirt.
    • Lampshaded in the bonus chapter of Hidden Expedition 12: The Eternal Emperor when going through Sam's bag reveals half a dozen identical shirts.
  • Highway Blossoms takes over a few weeks, and the Next Exit DLC takes place over a few days, but everyone wears the same clothes all the time, except for Amber and Marina changing into night time clothes around bedtime. In Marina's case, this is justified, since she didn't have any changes of clothes with her when her car broke down, and borrowed Amber's old gym clothes to wear at night. In Next Exit, Cassi has two outfits- her work uniform and casual clothes.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry has every single character only have one causal outfit throughout the course of an eight chapter game series. This could possibly be explained away by Hinamizawa being a small Japanese town in the boonies.
  • In most of the Hitman series, 47 seems to have only a black suit with pants, black shoes, white shirt, and a red tie. When he does change his outfit to disguise himself, he doesn't take those clothes back home and is seen in the next mission with the same default black suit over and over. On one occasion in the game where he actually doesn't wear it is in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin when he's working for a church as a janitor/gardener and starts the game with a worker overall and a white shirt underneath. Finally averted in Absolution, where he starts switching up the actual outfit while staying on the theme of "black suit, white shirt."
  • In Homescapes, Austin complains about getting his white shirt dirty while cleaning the upstairs living room, then comments that it's a good thing he has a dozen more just like it. Later on he comments about not wanting to get his best shirt dirty and his mother Olivia asks how he can tell it apart from the others.
  • Hugo's House of Horrors: Averted in Jungle of Doom, when Penelope tells Hugo to change his clothes, as they clash with the jungle scenery. He changes into a dark red outfit and straw hat.
  • I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Everyone only ever wears one outfit, with those of Sol and their peers only changing as they get portraits that look older. While the colony's emphasis on saving resources means that some people may genuinely have only one daytime outfit, some, such as Marz, are implied or stated to have more than that by the narrative. Marz herself has a generic line on the tail end of her early teens in which she's thinking of renewing her wardrobe because she feels like she's been wearing the same clothes for several years.
  • In Katawa Shoujo, the girls typically have one casual outfit each, which they often wear for days on end. Lilly is possibly the best example, as she changes into her casual outfit of a peach off-the-shoulder sweater and a long tan skirt the most often, and the outfit is the first thing he notices about her when she visits him in the hospital in the Good Ending. Hisao himself seems to only have one outfit- of a blue argyle sweater vest, a button down shirt and khaki pants.
  • Averted with one character in The King of Fighters games: Athena receives new costumes with every sequel, likely due to her status as a J-pop idol. This also holds true to the crossover games and the Maximum Impact games (but not the other Alternate Continuity, The King of Fighters EX note ). Other characters such as Kyo, Terry, Robert, and Kensou also have gotten new duds as the series has progressed, but not at the same frequency as Athena (usually only at the start of a new Story Arc and sometimes not even then). The rest of the cast either falls squarely into this trope or gradually undergoes Costume Evolution over the years, with some of the most notable design shakeups coming in XII, XIII, and XIV.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Except for a few cases, characters change clothes only in different games, and there's plenty of examples where they don't even bother with that.
    • Most of the Organization XIII members are exclusively seen with their signature Black Cloak. To be fair, the cloak has an important function for their line of work (it prevents darkness from affecting its wearers when they are using the Corridors of Darkness) and is not just for show. Roxas is a notable exception, since he is prominently seen in his civilian outfit in II. Birth by Sleep has Braig (Xigbar), Even (Vexen), Aeleus (Lexaeus), Ienzo (Zexion), Lea (Axel), and Isa (Saïx) wearing civilian clothing, though they are all technically different characters. In III, Lea is given a casual wear by Yen Sid, but chooses to keep wearing the black cloak. He only begins to wear the new outfit during the epilogue, where we also first sees Xion outside of her cloak.
    • Throughout the series, Naminé's only costume is a plain white-colored sundress and matching shoes.
    • Terra, Ventus, and Aqua are also seen with only one outfit throughout the series. Apparently, they didn't bother to change clothes as they grew up: a flashback four years prior to Birth by Sleep shows them in the exact same clothes.
  • The Legend of Zelda is notable for having all the various Links ending up in the traditional green tunic and hat for some reason, if he doesn't already wear it from the start. The 3D games have mixed it up a bit, such as having different colors tunics or being able to change back into what Link was wearing before. In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Link's limited wardrobe is taken even further: Link is actually shown going to sleep and waking up in the same clothing he wears all day. He does change to a different outfit early in the game — his traditional green ensemble — but this only serves to make it more ridiculous, since he is thereafter shown sleeping in his chain mail.
  • The characters in The Letter always wear the same clothes, due to not having varying sprites. Egregious in one scene where Isabella is supposed to be in her pajamas, but her portrait still shows her in her regular outfit.
  • Kiryu of the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise. Gray suit, red shirt, white shoes. Even after getting out of prison, he seems in no rush to update his wardrobe from what he's been wearing since the 80s. Even when he gets a set of new civilian clothes to wear, he will always wear that suit for the climax of the story or when he adventures out to Kamurocho.
    • This trope is averted for Kiryu in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, due to the game's customization system; this allows Kiryu to wear various suits, pants, and even hats, though he always wears a black suit and pair of sunglasses when he's working as a Daidoji agent.
  • Everyone in Love & Pies wears the same clothes all throughout the game, and Kate notably wears her detective outfit on top of her dino costume. Esme has also been wearing the same head feather, glasses, and purple-and-blue outfit since her nephew Sven was a kid.
  • Love of Magic: Played straight and lampshaded for MC, who wears a black T-shirt and jeans whenever possible. Most of his companions have at least two outfits, their normal wear around Edinburgh and whatever they wear to fight in Elsewhere.
  • In Mass Effect 2 all your squadmates only have one outfit that gets a colour variation or some small addition after you do their loyalty quest (there's also the Appearance Pack DLC). Most of them only add a minimalistic breathing apparatus in hostile environments, leading sometimes to slightly comical, or even plot-damaging scenes. For example, Jack wears only a thin piece of leather covering her nipples, pants, boots, and a tiny breathing apparatus over her face when visiting the quarian Migrant Fleet, where everybody is supposed to wear hermetically sealed encounter suits to avoid spreading infectious diseases or allergens.
  • Lampshaded in Medieval Cop 3: The Princess and the Grump. If you examine the right-hand dresser in Dregg's room he states "I don't know why I even bother buying clothes. I just wear these everyday."
  • NieR: The title character will wear the same outfit the entire game, the only difference being a jockstrap eyepatch after the time skip. Kaine will eventually call him out on this. Then gets subverted when he tries using the same attack on her. She reveals she has an outfit for every day of the week, and that she washes them every night.
  • Persona: Most non-party characters have only a few outfits, and a handful don't change their clothes at all.
    • Persona 4:
      • Daisuke Nagase in always wears his soccer uniform, even if he's not in school. He even wears it while playing a basketball game to try and cheer up Kou.
      • In one of Marie's social link scenes, she points out that Chie and Yukiko are both wearing the same green and red outfits that they were when she first met them, even referring to them by the names "Green" and "Red." This results in an extended gag in which all go out shopping for new clothes, only for them to keep picking outfits of the same colors, or Chie in instance picking blue and yellow clothing, which is pointed out would mix to make green.
      • Most Social Links wear the same outfit all the time, and school Social Links tend to have one outfit apart from their uniforms, which they wear year-round. For example, Yumi wears the same white turtleneck sweater and long blue plaid skirt outside of school, and forgoes a kimono if chosen for the shrine visit due to being in mourning.
    • Persona 5: Most of the party has 4 outfits: A summer school uniform, a winter school uniform, a casual summer outfit, and a casual winter outfit. Just about everyone else has one outfit. For instance, Sae Niijima wears the exact same clothes in April as every other time you see her, including half a year later when she interrogates you. She wears the same clothes at work, at home, when she goes out for coffee, and so on.
  • The protagonist of Phantasmagoria and its sequel never changes his outfit, despite the action taking place over the course of several days. Especially apparent since this is an FMV adventure game.
  • Subverted in [PROTOTYPE] where although you can only have one other disguise aside from the default Alex, you can consume a different human image to replace your previous alternate ready-to-wear outfit, of which the Manhattan you're in has much to offer.
  • Arle Nadja from Puyo Puyo. She always wears the same outfit, and in Puyo Puyo 2, when meeting the Banshee Trio in easy mode in their new outfits, she tells them that she "just wears the same clothes 365 days a year".
  • Raguna's limited choice of clothes is Lampshaded/exaggerated in Rune Factory Frontier:
    Bianca: You're always wearing the same clothes. You smell.
    Raguna: Wh-what?! But aren't you always wearing the same thing, too?
    Bianca: I NEVER wear the same thing twice. I like the design of this outfit, so I had HUNDREDS of it made for me.
    Raguna:...Oh.
  • The Sims:
    • In The Sims 2 and 3, Sims only normally wear one each of a preset number of outfits (one set of "Everyday" clothes, one set of "Underwear", etc.) The player can make them change one of these outfits, but even if the Sim in question owns every piece of clothing available to him/her, he/she will never wear a different outfit of a given type unless the player explicitly tells him/her to. In the first Sims game, however, Sims only had one outfit that they could wear.
    • In The Sims 4, Sims are allowed up to 5 outfits in each category, which means 40 outfits in total. Most players rarely bother with filling up most of these slots, though.
  • Hero John R. Blade from SiN wears the exact same gear throughout the game, but can don a worker suit when infiltrating a chemical plant. He goes loincloth when mutated, but magically regrows his uniform again when de-mutated.
  • Most of the playable characters in the Sly Cooper games have this; having outfits that change very little between games.
    • Sly wears the same blue cap, black mask, and blue shirt during all games (he's even seen wearing it as a kid when growing up in an orphanage), the only difference being a red backpack worn in the first game. About the only time he changes clothes is when in disguise and even then it's usually only for one mission or so per level.
    • Carmelita Fox often wears a blue halter top & pants, boots, and a leather jacket and gloves. About the only variation to this is when she adds a knit cap during one of the Canadian levels in the second game. She does have a Little Black Dress she wears during formal occasions, but it's rarely seen.
  • Street Fighter does this a bit. Ryu is only ever seen in a karate gi (apparently, it's all he has to wear), Sakura still wears a schoolgirl uniform even when she's supposed to be 20, Dan only ever wears a pink gi, and even when M. Bison changes bodies, he's always got the same getup. Not to mention Zangief running around in a Speedo... in the cold Russian north... at playgrounds full of children...
    • 6 having a general theme of Breaking Old Trends means the returning cast finally gets all new looks to avert this trope.
  • In Super Mario Bros., Mario and crew all wear the same outfit all the time — even when swimming. There are a few exceptions, such as Dr. Mario having his white lab coat. Peach, Daisy and Rosalina also have a shorts/skirt and T-shirt ensemble for sports (or a mini-dress depending on the game), a jumpsuit for riding motorcycles, a leotard for swimming and doing gymnastics, AND a set of Strikers armor (because soccer in the Mushroom Kingdom is just that vicious). The eighth generation finally gave all the characters appropriate gear for the different sports.
  • In Tales of Symphonia:
    • Certain titles (which impact the characters' stats) will change the characters' outfits, but this is generally a bad idea for actual gameplay purposes as these titles convey no benefit. Most titles, including the ones your average player will actually want to use for practical purposes, show them in their "regular" outfits.
    • The sequel, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World takes place 2 years after the previous game, but every single character from before look and dress exactly the same.
  • Lampshaded by Riannon in Tears to Tiara, when she tells Arawn that, despite appearances, she changes clothes every day and all of her dresses are slightly different (we don't see the closet, though). When she finds out that Arawn has been wearing the same clothes day in and day out for the past ten days, she, Octavia, and Limwris force him into the bath and give him a good scrubbing.
  • Thousand Arms had quite a bit of Lampshade Hanging of this trope. For example, one question in the Dating Sim portion of the game had an answer of "I've been wearing the same clothes the whole game!"
  • Downplayed in Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE without quite going into the opposite trope. Since the playable cast are all performing artists of some sort, they naturally get new stage costumes as they advance in their careers. However each character also has multiple sets of casual clothing as well that they rotate between across chapters.
  • Touhou Project is kind of weird about this; characters generally wear slightly different outfits in every appearance. Sometimes characters will wear the same thing in more than one game, and there's been a couple of overhauls, but the overall impression is that most people in Gensoukyou have closets full of not-quite-identical clothes.
    • Rika of the second game is notable in that she averts this despite appearing in exactly one game, changing from a red-dominant to a purple dominant outfit in the extra stage. This is reflected to a large extent in her fanart, where she has dozens of different outfits, and no less than four different hats.
  • Yes, Your Grace: The entire cast wears the same outfit throughout the year during which the game takes place.
    • The only characters with a second outfit are Lorsulia when she gets married, Asalia after her makeover, and Cedani after her own makeover. While Asalia retailors her usual dress, Cedani has the presence of mind to retailor her other dress, which gives every indication of having originally been a Palette Swap of her usual one.
    • There are a couple of thieves who are identified by their clothing because the graphics are way too pixelated for anyone to have a distinct face, and even hair is tricky for anyone with a hat. The Player Character catching them relies entirely on them not changing clothes after scamming the people who warned him about them.

Lampshaded Closet Gag Examples

  • Desmond's closet in the first Assassin's Creed game contains nothing but the same kinds of blue jeans and white hoodies he wears throughout the game. He even comments on it. The lack of variation is somewhat justified by the fact that he's being held prisoner at the time; although it doesn't explain why his captors saw fit to supply him with duplicates of the outfit he's implied to have been wearing when he was kidnapped, or why he continues wearing it after being broken out at the start of the second game.
  • Catherine: Protagonist Vincent has a hanger with drying laundry on it in his apartment. All pink-spotted boxers.
  • In the first Gabriel Knight game we see the inside of Gabriel's closet, which is all identical white t-shirts and blue jeans.
  • In Hades, when Zagreus confronts Hades, he wonders how they could have so many capes to burn during their confrontation. When Zagreus gets permission to enter Hades' room, he inspects the closet and confirms his suspicion that there is nothing but red capes inside.
  • Larry Laffer and his leisure suit. At least in Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! he indeed has a whole wardrobe of such identical suits in his room.
  • Peach, in Paper Mario, is revealed to have a wardrobe of identical dresses. When Twink points this out, Peach explains that they're actually all different. (When Mario enters the castle, it's possible to enter her room and have him check out her attire: he comes to the same conclusion as Twink.) The only times she's out of her dress are in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: when she's in disguise, hidden by a shower curtain, or invisible.
  • Persona 3: A look into Aegis's room reveals that contains little else besides innumerable boxes of ammo, her extraordinarily highly-advanced computerized "bed," and a closet with nothing but dozens of school uniforms in it.
  • In the trailer for Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, Crazy Dave's closet contains multiple identical sets of clothing, including several saucepans on the top shelf.
  • In Shenmue, if you look in Ryo's wardrobe you'll find nothing but white T-shirts and blue jeans, just like the ones he's wearing. His jacket, however, is one of a kind. (Then again, nobody else ever changes their clothes either.)

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