Basic Trope: A secret (item, character, location, etc.) implied by a video game which doesn't actually exist.
- Straight: In Tales of Troperia XIV, the inventory screen for the Elemental Stars has 12 slots. However, there are only 11 Elemental Stars in the game.
- Exaggerated:
- There are 100 slots.
- There is only one Elemental Star.
- Downplayed: There are only 11 slots, but they way they are arranged makes it look like there are three rows of four, making it easy to believe there is a 12th slot.
- Justified:
- There were 12 stars, but the Big Bad used one to obtain his power and it is no longer available. The inventory screen represents a case forged by the ancients that was made with a slot for every star.
- The 12th slot is meant only as a swap buffer/slot.
- Inverted: In order to avert Interface Spoiler, there are more stars than there are inventory slots.
- Subverted: There are only 11 stars available through the end of the main quest, but a 12th can be obtained in the Playable Epilogue.
- Double-Subverted: ...but after starting the Playable Epilogue, a 13th slot is added to the inventory.
- Parodied: The inventory represents the player character's backpack. This includes a sticky note that reads "what's this about!?" and an arrow pointing to the empty slot.
- Zig-Zagged: The inventory screen from the Elemental Stars has 12 slots, but only 11 can be obtained in the game. However, the Playable Epilogue adds a 12th, but also adds a 13th slot the inventory. In the game's first Expansion Pack, a 13th star is added.
- Averted: Every inventory slot in the game can be filled, all party members can be recruited, and all land masses can be visited if the player is thorough.
- Enforced: The game is based on a book in which the container for the stars explicitly has 12 slots even though the heroes defeat the Big Bad after collecting only 11. Wanting to stay true to the source material, the developers program the game to match.
- Lampshaded: Party member Quirby comments upon getting the 11th star "so is there a 12th or not? Did someone forget to program it in?"
- Exploited: The villain lies that the hero needs four artifacts to defeat him, when there are only three, in hopes that they'll waste time looking for the last one.
- Defied: After realizing the inventory screen has a 12th slot, the dev team programs a free DLC pack with a short quest where you can pick up a 12th star.
- Discussed:
- Conversed: "I can't seem to fill this last inventory slot." "Do you think the developers just forgot to put something there?"
- Deconstructed: It turns out that the last elemental star was "erased from the universe" by nightmarish means.
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
Back to Missing Secret.
