Basic Trope: A message that displays on the game screen but still counts as a game over message or screen, triggered by unusual conditions such as failing any objectives that are specific on that mode or level or through glitches. It also carries plot-relevant significance.
- Straight: Overuse of the Sword of Wrath results in Hiro becoming corrupted and becoming far worse than Emperor Evulz would ever consider.
- Exaggerated:
- Every chapter has at least two non-standard game over variants. These range from simply consequences of failing and horrible deaths to dramatic divergences.
- It's a Wonderful Failure
- Losing to Evulz not only has a different outcome than the others, it has different consequences, as well. Such as Hiro's soul being devoured, which keeps him from being revived and forces the player to begin a new playthrough.
- Press Start to Game Over
- Every possible way of dying has its own ending, to the point where it isn't even "Non-Standard" anymore.
- Downplayed: Dying to Emperor Evulz has the same game over montage as usual, except that Hiro's head appears on the spikes as well.
- Justified:
- Dying there would count as the last sacrifice of a hero needed to break the ward.
- You just Ret-Goned yourself, please wait while the timeline stabilizes from your newly acquired nonexistence.
- Inverted:
- For every possible death, there is a long Have a Nice Death-text. Then you die in the hands of Emperor Evulz... and the screen just shows "Game Over".
- Hiro does a bunch of unintuitive actions that would require supernatural foreknowledge of the plot causing him to thwart stage one and get a non-standard victory.
- Instant-Win Condition
- Subverted:
- Fission Mailed.
- Instead of a Game Over, it results in the game switching the player's POV and until Hiro is defeated, you now play as Evulz.
- Double Subverted:
- Spending too long at the fake Game Over scene or failing to take a specific action causes the game to end for real.
- Evulz failing to defeat Hiro results in a Game Over scene instead.
- Parodied: Dying to the weakest mook in the game results in a joke montage of them uniting, usurping Evulz, and taking over the world. Alice cuts off the scene with "No, that is bullshit, but still, how did you lose to them?! Evulz didn't even make them for labor, much less combat!"
- Zig Zagged: Evulz doesn't kill Hiro... instead, he beats Hiro within an inch of his life and throws him into a monster-infested dungeon, without any weapons. There's absolutely no way to recover from that, so the game's over for all intents and purposes, and all the player can do is delay the inevitable. However, it's not until Hiro actually dies to one of the monsters that a Game Over screen plays.
- Averted: A very unusual failure condition (such as gambling into a state of crippling debt) still yields the same Game Over screen as running out of Hit Points, without even a cutscene to lampshade it.
- Enforced:
- "We wanted to prevent the Artifact of Doom's overuse, because it makes the game way too easy. Let's have it turn Hiro into a colossal douchebag who makes even Evulz flinch through the sheer magnitude of his deubachery, and then end the game early!"
- The Game-Breaking Bug called up the Game Over overlay before crashing the game. note
- Lampshaded: "Yes, I know I screwed up. How much are you going to rub it in?!?"
- Invoked: "...I cannot believe you just did that. You lose! Good day, sir!"
- Exploited: The main writers spent much time putting details into the game world, so the ones that don't fit into the main story can be hinted at through the game overs.
- Defied: The developers program one single game over screen in, because they don't want to sidetrack the more morbid players by making them want to kill the player character in spectacular ways.
- Discussed: In a game that is aware of its true nature:
- Conversed:Gamer 1: What on earth did Hiro just do? Did he just turn into the villain?!Gamer 2: Relax. It's not a canon plot twist, it's a game over that incorporates a plot twist never to be mentioned elsewhere. Want to see another, even better event like that? Hand me the controller for a sec...
- Played For Laughs: Hiro suffers a Defeat by Modesty.
- Played For Drama: The aftermath of the story if Hiro dies to Evulz is even worse than it would be elsewhere.
Back to Nonstandard Game Over
