History Main / SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration

* The first three endings in ''VideoGame/GargoylesQuest'' add generous amounts of LampshadeHanging. After finishing the first level, you can either fly to the second... or head right for the [[BigBad Phalanx's]] castle. In fact, you get there so quickly the final boss hasn't even finished setting up the final DeathCourse, hasn't figured out how to use his crest, and dies after one round. If you go to the last level after the fourth, the level will actually be ready, and Phalanx is stronger, but he still can't use the crest fully. If you go there after finishing all the levels, he'll finally have figured out how to REALLY use it, going OneWingedAngel at long last.

* ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden'': [[KnightInShiningArmor Duke]]'s code of honor means that he is the only character who is unable to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown attack enemies whilst they're on the floor]].

** The Archons themselves guide their lands with an even hand but have frightening power they bring to bear on those who disrupt their laws. Venti, Zhong-li and Ei have supportive Elemental skills and massively powerful Bursts, generally being far stronger than normal Vision bearers.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': The in-reason all the soldiers on Mother Base play exactly like Snake is that Ocelot trains them to fight in the exact same way, even giving one who was trying different firing techniques and an engraved gun a dressing down. [[spoiler:At the end it is revealed that the Snake we are playing as is a BodyDouble while the real Big Boss is building his forces. Venom Snake is using the exact same training that the other soldiers have.]]

* ''VideoGame/DanceCentral 3'' for the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 sees you playing as a dancer who works to foil a master plan to eliminate creativity from dancing. While most of the game is, ironically, based on learning and following premade choreography as closely as possible, certain sections (e.g. playing against dancers mind-controlled by the antagonist) depend on freestyle dancing, reinforcing that, while memorizing premade choreographies is necessary for creativity, creativity is more important in the end.
* ''Unison'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 sees you playing as the title dance troupe, tasked with learning and subsequently performing various routines set to licensed songs. In the Japanese version, the rehearsals are especially important, because they're the only time you're allowed to see the on-screen markers showing how to move the analog sticks throughout the song. Just like in real life, you have to do the actual performance from memory! The international version lets you keep the indicators on-screen the whole game.

* In ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoWii, you get special damage-reducing headgear after 100 losses. In Title Defense Mode, [[spoiler:Glass Joe, who starts the game with 99 losses before you beat him, gets the same headgear for the rematch fight, as he now has 100 losses himself. It's also explained that Glass Joe had a medical condition which made him easy to knock out with blows to the head. Now that he's wearing that headgear, he's less susceptible to blows to the head, thus harder to knock out and [[TookALevelInBadass starting to approach being a proper threat]].]]

* ''VisualNovel/HerTearsWereMyLight'' does this with UsefulNotes/RenPy's basic visual novel mechanics. You would normally only use the rewind button in other visual novels to re-read some text that you missed, but in this game, the character Time explicitly has the power to rewind. Going back and progressing through the same conversation again with new information can lead to a different outcome. The same goes for reloading from a save point or even restarting the game from the beginning.

*** Mission 3 for the ''Separate Ways'' DLC involves Wesker ordering Ada to [[KillTheOnesYouLove kill Leon]] and Ada deciding [[DefiedTrope not to do that]] by not letting Leon see her so that she can maintain some PlausibleDeniability with Wesker regarding her "failure". In rooms that both Leon and Ada are in, the is physically prevented from entering the area Leon is in, with a note that Ada will not enter that area because she would lose her plausible deniability and would have to kill him, which again, she does not want to do.

** Kromer's reason for targeting Sinclair most of all? [[spoiler:She's been obsessed with him ever since she saw a vision of an alternate universe where he fought at her side as a fellow Nagel und Hammer member. Taking Sinclair's The One Who Shall Grip Identity into the fight will cause her to ''instantly'' stagger on turn one, because she's overwhelmed with shock over her vision coming true.]]

** In Canto V, Ishmael undergoes massive SanitySlippage due to being out on [[TraumaButton the Great Lake]], which causes her to be more aggressive and less reasonable. If you select her for battle in the Canto, she starts the fight with a special status effect that increases her attack but drains her SP.

** Sinclair will do pretty badly in Canto III. Every time Kromer's whistle plays, he'll recieve a Sanity debuff [[spoiler:because she's the one who killed his parents and burned his hometown to ash]]. He will not do well in the fight with Kromer either, gaining a pretty nasty debuff when the time comes to face his former tormentor. [[spoiler:That is unless the player collects three copies of "A Sign", in which the debuff will turn into a buff as a symbol of Sinclair's determination to stand up to Kromer.]]

** In Canto V, Ishmael undergoes massive SanitySlippage due to being out on [[TraumaButton the Great Lake]], which causes her to be more aggressive and less reasonable. If you select her for battle in the Canto, she starts the fight with a special status effect that increases her attack but drains her sanity.

*** Access to the [[VoluntaryShapeshifter Manakete or Taguel]] classes is based on the unit's species, and as such, everyone capable of using the class is at least half-beast or half-dragon. This gives them the corresponding weakness to anti-beast/dragon weapons even if using a Second Seal to switch classes.

* ''VideoGame/Tekken4'' gives Jin Kazama a complete change of fighting style. His moves were nearly identical to Kazuya's in his debut game (''Tekken 3'' -- where Kazuya does not appear). When Kazuya reappears in ''Tekken 4'', the change in fighting style is explained by Jin becoming ashamed to learn who his father is -- and trains in a new style to differentiate himself from the Mishima clan.

** The games provide more subtle examples of deliberate gameplay and story integration, such as [[BadassNormal Batman's health not regenerating between consecutive fights]] and providing [[WorfHadTheFlu in-story justifications]] for individuals of different SuperWeight to fight on equal footing.

* ''VideoGame/MyFriendlyNeighborhood'': Most first person survival heroes are slow plodding people who can inexplicably wield multiple weapons like a pro. Protagonist Gordon has a backstory that actually accounts for those, [[spoiler:he is a veteran who has gained a much pudgier body and asthma from his soldier days.]] Also the fact that enemies don't change up their tactics is also accounted for, they are basically insane puppets who have learned violence from tv and consider pushing around Gordon violently playtime.

* Role-Playing Games have [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration/RolePlayingGames their own page]].