The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
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openFictional written language Videogame
So apparently the new trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV shows a new world with its own version of a written language: https://twitter.com/ifitaintmybeard/status/1513231142555684869?s=21&t=nGCG2G_KXF4sZskC0aoY8g
What is that? An in-universe written language? If you need another example, think the alien symbols in Futurama.
openFreeze Immunity Videogame
Where a character is immune to being frozen. (context: hit by freeze ray but no effect)
openAccidentally Gay/Queer/Trans Videogame
When a character (usually in a video game, but can also appear in other media) isn't intended to be LGBTQ+, but something accidental happens (such as a glitch) for fans to interpret them as such- and then the creators go one step further and make it canon.
Example: In Borderlands 2, Axton was initially programmed to occasionally flirt with Maya when reviving her ("Wow. Do you work out, or..."), but the voice clip ended up triggering regardless of which character he was reviving. According to Anthony Burch, the writers took this glitch and ran with it in the DLCs, making Axton canonically bisexual.
I know there's Word of Gay, but I'm specifically thinking of it being accidental, and the creators deciding to roll with it.
Edited by viva_la_pastaopenMetagaming equivalent of Damn You Muscle Memory Videogame
Do we have a trope for when a game in a series slightly changes its internal mechanics in a way that screws with metagamers? The example that inspired this question is Pokémon Colosseum, which changes some of the Pokemon's catch rates so that they make more sense from a narrative and difficulty perspective. One of the side effects of this is that players familiar with their normal catch rates tend to assume The Dragon's shadow Pokemon is harder to catch than the Final Boss's despite this not being the case.
openFalling for the girl helping you win your crush? Videogame
Okay, so, in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, there is a side quest in which you help a poor farmer woman catch the eye of a much richer woman. The rich woman sarcastically tells you that she will hear her out when a polka dotted goblin starts reading love poetry to her. So the farmer girl finds a goblin, paints her polka dotted and magically gifts her poetic abilities… and then falls for the goblin girl, to the rich woman’s disgust.
What trope(s) am I thinking of with this, aside from Interspecies Romance?
Edited by BigBadShadow22openarmor is meaningless Videogame
A character's armor doesn't seem to protect them any. For example: in the now-defunct Asheron's Call the tuskers often wear armor made by their Virindi, ranging from leather to platemail. Said armor didn't seem to do much, as they had a pretty low armor level, and, bizarrely, the tusker guards had lower armor than the tusker slaves even though they wore plate instead of metal. This was notable averted with the aptly-named armored and plated tuskers, however.
openWould this count as Variable Mix, or is this something else completely? Videogame
the latest installment of SOUND VOLTEX introduced a game mode called "Megamix Battle", where two players pick five songs each and the game strings them together randomly using generic samples that speed up or slow down to match the next song. i'm not sure if there's a "variable" at play here other than the next song though.
openMission Mode Videogame
A Mode in a game where the Player is required to perform specific tasks based around the Games Mechanics.
openA character who likes having rules and structure. Videogame
https://youtu.be/A45er1rlGDk Okay so the robot character in this clip enjoys an activity with rigid rules because the real world is so chaotic and unpredictable. What is the trope for that?
openCombat as in Quest for Glory or The Immortal? Videogame
Do we have a trope that covers video-game combat such as is found in Quest for Glory 1 through 3, or in The Immortal?
To be specific, such combat generally involves the following:
- A third-person view, often at an angle (so that the line between the fighters is diagonal on the screen)
- All action taking place on a single, non-scrolling screen
- Little to no movement
- There may be dodging—but it's of the sort that has the character lean, duck, or jump in place: their final position doesn't change.
- In some cases there may be movement backwards and forwards
- Single combat: fights often involve one protagonist against one antagonist (or a swarm of antagonists treated as one antagonist).
- When multiple antagonists are present, they engage one at a time.
- Fights take place at melee range
- (Or near to, when forward and backward movement is available)
- Combat at least in part involves identifying opponent actions (e.g. via telegraphed animations) and reacting to them
- e.g. Spotting an attack towards one's left, and so dodge-leaning to the right
- There may be elements of managing stamina, or of dealing with opponent AI (such as avoiding over-use of a single attack)
You should find an example from Quest for Glory II (the fan-remake, to be specific) in the video below: https://youtu.be/emKGWzYm1g4?t=379
(I gather that Punch Out may have the same sort of combat, but I don't know that game well enough to be confident.)
Edited by ArsThaumaturgisopenRPG spells that reduce the target's stats Videogame
I've been editing Characters.Temtem Species a lot recently, and realised that I can't find a trope for that.
openApparent purple prose turns out to be literal Videogame
I've been thinking about the trick that Katawa Shoujo's opening pulls on an unspoiled reader. At first it seems like it's just using typical romance writing clichés when it describes the protagonist's heart racing uncontrollably and so forth, but then it turns out that he's actually having a heart attack. I thought of Fake-Out Opening, but that doesn't feel like a perfect match.
openLong-Range Bonus Videogame
I think I remember there being a trope where the bullets you fire are discernably stronger if your target is far enough from you and/or the bullets travel far enough. Any clue what it is?
Edited by dynamicDiscoveryopenA specific kind of Gameplay And Story Segregation? Videogame
I'm creating a trope page for YouTuber Alasdair Beckett-King, and in this video he makes fun of how the gameplay of early 2000s-era games often don't match up with the high-quality cutscenes used to market them. There's Gameplay and Story Segregation, but none of the tropes I've seen seem to fit this kind of dissonance.
Edit: Sorry, had the wrong video link. It's been corrected.
Edited by harryhenryopen"Mid-Range Master"/Footsies Character Videogame
Characters who excel in mid-range combat. Not quite Close-Range Combatants, but also not Long-Range Fighters. A lot of their strategy is focused baiting and poking opponents with strong basic attacks. Their attacks tend to have a bit of end lag.
Examples:
- Fighting Games:
- Nagoriyuki from Guilty Gear
- Karin from Street Fighter
- Pyra from Smash Ultimate
- Action Games:
- Vergil from Devil May Cry
- Greatsword wielders from Dark Souls/other Fromsoft titles
openSpell effects end when the caster dies Videogame
A role-playing game trope. When a spellcaster is killed, all their lingering spells are dispelled. Can be justified that the caster needs to actively maintain the spell, but mainly sees use as an Anti Frustration Feature to free the player from debuffs/summons/whatever once they are done with the real baddies. Such as when all those summoned spectral dire boars go poof when you finish off their summoner.
open"Around the Room" Menu Videogame
After playing through Jet Set Radio, I've been thinking: is there a trope for the general concept of a menu being a physical location with the options taking the form of objects within the building, where you generally either scroll through the options or walk around to access them? I've seen this in a few places, such as:
- Most of the menus in Mario Party 1
- The GG's hideout in Jet Set Radio
- The safehouses in Sly Cooper, particularly Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
- The hub in Ape Escape 2
openAn item that the best item in its class by far (whether or not it's a game breaker). Videogame
The title is self-explanatory, though this is YMMV.
A creature that takes damage from a given damage type becomes resistant to it. If they take damage from another type, they become resistant to that instead. This is usually a video game trope, but sometimes happens in Tabletop Games as well.