History Main / MultipleGameOpenings

* At the start of ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'', you're given the choice of whether to follow the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' protagonist or the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' protagonist. Each has a totally different opening explaining how they got into the game's world, and while the first dungeon itself is the same for both, you start with a very different party in each.

Compare AnotherSideAnotherStory, where the player unlocks an alternative level progression by completing the game, and BigFirstChoice, where all new games start the same but branch out heavily early on. See also SchrodingersPlayerCharacter, where picking a player character effectively erases all other playable characters from the game.

* Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', whose personal story, though it [[StoryBranching branches frequently]], generally converges to a single story thread -- apart from the first twenty levels, where choice of race and [[BigFirstChoice answers to biography questions during character creation]] result in one of ''forty-five'' unique scenarios.

* At the start of ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'', you're given the choice of whether to follow the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' protagonist or the ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' protagonist. Each has a totally different opening explaining how they got into the game's world, and while the first dungeon itself is the same for both you start with a very different party in each.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', you choose your home nation and but inevitably begin traveling along the same path as players who chose either of the other two cities.

*** Circle Mages (elven or human mage) pass their Harrowing but immediately get embroiled in a conspiracy that results in a {{Blood Mag|ic}}e's escape, so only the Wardens can protect them from execution by the Templars.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Depending on which background (nomad, streetwise, or corporate) you choose for the protagonist V, the prologue starts you off in completely different locations. The Nomad V, for instance, starts out on the outskirts of the Night City, while the Corporate V begins in the [[MegaCorp Arasaka]] headquarters.

*** Human Nobles (human warrior or rogue) start the game in their parents' castle, just before it falls to an unscrupulous vassal's treachery and everyone inside save the PC is butchered.

*** Dalish Elves (ditto) explore some ancient ruins when they stumble upon an ancient ArtifactOfDoom that infects them with TheCorruption--and the only cure is to become a Warden.

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', the player character is always human. However, selecting the character's class determines which of their younger twin siblings will be killed during the prologue. If Hawke is a mage, their sister Bethany (who is also a mage) dies; if Hawke is a warrior or rogue, their warrior brother Carver is the one to go. The only hint of this prior to the character's death comes in the exaggerated scene described by TheNarrator Varric, in which the twin who will survive is shown fighting at Hawke's side.

*** City Elves (elven warrior or rogue) attend their own wedding at their FantasticGhetto when it is crashed by a jerkass human noble, who kidnaps several young women, including the female PC. The PC either gives chase and murders him or fights their way out from the inside.

--> ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail''

* ''Videogame/{{Wizardry}}'' ''8'' did this by virtue of possibility of importing saves from previous game, where if you had an alliance with Umpani or T'Rang, you would start in their respective camps and higher level instead of in a NoobCave, but the objectives were the same. Some earlier games did this too.

* ''Videogame/Wizardry'' ''8'' did this by virtue of possibility of importing saves from previous game, where if you had an alliance with Umpani or T'Rang, you would start in their respective camps and higher level instead of in a NoobCave, but the objectives were the same. Some earlier games did this too.

* ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}burst Another Chronicle'' begins by having you pick one of three starting stages in the stage tree. The branches expand with each successive stage, with the final stage out of three having a breadth of five stages; only the easiest starting stage lets you play the topmost stage (Zone H) and only the hardest starting stage lets you play the bottommost stage (Zone L) to fight [[TrueFinalBoss Great Thing]].

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', the choice of race and class for the player character impacts a number of dialogue options and conversations throughout the prologue. In particular, a mage character can point out to Cassandra that putting down a weapon doesn't actually mean they're disarming, and an early conversation with Varric will have him perform a SherlockScan on the character in which he correctly pinpoints their origin (unless they're a Dalish elf, who discusses it with Solas instead).

* In ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3'', depending on which of the six characters you select as your primary party member, you see six separate opening sequences. These paths converge at Castle City Jad, shortly after the opening credits.

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' largely averts this, the choice of race and class for the player character impacts a number of dialogue options and conversations throughout the prologue. In particular, a mage character can point out to Cassandra that putting down a weapon doesn't actually mean they're disarming, and an early conversation with Varric will have him perform a SherlockScan on the character in which he correctly pinpoints their origin (unless they're a Dalish elf, who discusses it with Solas instead).

* The six playable PlayerCharacter origins were the main gimmick of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. The first mission-slash-tutorial leading up to the PC's recruitment into TheOrder of the [[ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction Grey Wardens]] depends on the combination of their race and class:
** Human Nobles (human warrior or rogue) start the game in their parents' castle, just before it falls to an unscrupulous vassal's treachery and everyone inside save the PC is butchered.
** City Elves (elven warrior or rogue) attend their own wedding at their FantasticGhetto when it is crashed by a jerkass human noble, who kidnaps several young women, including the female PC. The PC either gives chase and murders him or fights their way out from the inside.
** Dalish Elves (ditto) explore some ancient ruins when they stumble upon an ancient ArtifactOfDoom that infects them with TheCorruption--and the only cure is to become a Warden.
** Circle Mages (elven or human mage) pass their Harrowing but immediately get embroiled in a conspiracy that results in a {{Blood Mag|ic}}e's escape, so only the Wardens can protect them from execution by the Templars.
** Dwarven Nobles (dwarf warrior or rogue) fall victim to a courtly intrigue when their younger sibling, TheEvilPrince, frames them for the murder of their eldest brother, the heir apparent to the Orzammar throne.
** Dwarven Commoners (ditto) break pretty much every law in Orzammar to make ends meet and join the Wardens basically as a GetOutOfJailFreeCard.

Multiple Game Openings is a form of StoryBranching opposite of MultipleEndings, where each available PlayerCharacter (or CharacterClass) starts the game in a different level, but all such prologues soon converge into a single common plot (which can coincide with OpeningTheSandbox).