History BagOfSpilling / VideoGames

* Justified in ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'', at least in the case of the party's combat abilities, which were stated to have been provided to them in part by the Lillium orbs. They've ceased working and were replaced by the new Arrowcell ([[DubNameChange Allium]]) orbs, which eventually allow them to surpass their previous potential. Still no explanation as to what they did with all of their fancy gear, though.

** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'', Soma Cruz, who has the power to absorb the souls of the monsters he slays (much like a Blue Mage from the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series), starts with none of the powers he gained from the first game. Genya Arikado [[HandWave handwaves]] it, explaining that since he wasn't in danger, Soma subconsciously released his acquired powers, though this doesn't explain what happened to the InfinityPlusOneSword. However, if you have the original GBA game in a Nintendo DS when the game starts, you are given an expensive item that increases rare drops.

* Averting this was part of the justification for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'''s infamous [[spoiler:player character swap of the legendary soldier Solid Snake in favor of the ''de facto'' rookie Raiden who could be plausibly lectured on the game world]]. This is also justified in the very introduction sequence of the Tanker chapter, where Snake infiltrates the tanker with the help of Otacon's stealth camouflage, but he breaks it when he makes his entrance. The lack of weapons (he only carries an M9 modified to shoot tranquilizer darts) is explained by Snake not wanting to accumulate a body count of Marines who are just doing their jobs, and is supposed to be sneaking in to gather information.

* In ''Videogame/Dishonored2'', Corvo gets his powers removed by Delilah during the intro of the game. If he's the chosen player character, if he chooses to get his powers back he once again starts off with [[FlashStep Blink]] in it's initial state and has to upgrade to get all his powers back.

** Every new game in the series gives legitimate excuses for the main characters losing all their abilities time and time again ** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', Sora and his friends literally forget every ability they ever knew as soon as they set foot in Castle Oblivion due to Namine's memory manipulation. Sora develops a new fighting style while being forced to play by the castle's rules, only to lose ''those'' after Namine fixes their memories by putting them to sleep for a whole year.

* ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' takes place a few months after the end of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', but for some odd reason, the Investigation Team can only use their base level personas.[[note]]Save for [[TheHero Narukami]], who's Insta-Kill makes use of his Ultimate Persona[[/note]] However, in both this game and its sequel ''VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax'', this is averted for the [[VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} SEES alumni]], who all retain their Ultimate Personas.

* Every new game in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series gives legitimate excuses for the main characters losing all their abilities time and time again. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', Sora and his friends literally forget every ability they ever knew as soon as they set foot in Castle Oblivion due to Namine's memory manipulation. Sora develops a new fighting style while being forced to play by the castle's rules, only to lose ''those'' after Namine fixes their memories by putting them to sleep for a whole year. By the time they wake up in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', they keep only a few of their old abilities from the original game. Sora develops a brand new fighting style all over again, which he uses until the start of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', where Yen Sid advises him and Riku to throw away their self-taught fighting styles and teach them the "right" way to wield a Keyblade from square one. ''Dream Drop Distance'' also ends with Sora [[spoiler:waking up from a coma and the near-destruction of his heart]], setting the stage for the inevitable spilling in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. As for other games such as ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', they include new protagonists starting out at the beginning of their adventures, while ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' takes place in the datascape, and the protagonist is only a digital representation of Sora, created out of data about him from the start of the first game, so he still has to grow. And even here, when it happens to [[spoiler:Roxas between ''358/2 Days'' and ''[=KHII=]'']], it's justified as [[spoiler:[=DiZ=] wiped his mind of his time in the Organization, so he forgot all the moves he learned. As for his strength, [=DiZ=] probably swiped all the power-up panels from his grid too.]] ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage'' even lampshades the tendency, with Sora saying that it "happens all the time" to him.\\
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While this covers the fighting styles, there is also {{justifi|edTrope}}cation for the loss of other gameplay elements such as HP. ''Chain of Memories'' reveals that memories have physical effects, not to mention that [[spoiler:Sora's memories are extremely interconnected with others]]. In ''Kingdom Hearts II'', Sora wakes up after a year-long sleep, so it's understandable that he'd be weak and out of practice after that.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a character imported from ''VideoGame/{{Mass Effect|1}}'' will retain little to none of their experience and resources. For example, a level 45 character with 1 million credits in the bank will start the second game at level 2 with only one hundred thousand bonus credits. This is due to the character [[spoiler:being dead for two years]]. However, certain decisions made in the first game will still carry over (both to the benefit and detriment of Shepard); this also applies to the third game.

* The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series generally averts this between sequels in regards to {{Player Character}}s, since every new game has a different protagonist. There are exceptions however:

** This trope is largely in effect in regards to the PC's companions, however. For instance, Anders, who may have been a level 35 god of magic in ''Awakening'', returns in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' as a single-digit level slum doctor. Varric, who fought alongside Hawke in the many Battles of Kirkwall in ''[=DA2=]'', comes back in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' at level 1. Cassandra, who soloed high dragons in ''Anime/DawnOfTheSeeker'', also starts off at level 1 in ''Inquisition'' with no explanation (although she later implies that "soloing high dragons" was an [[ShroudedInMyth in-universe exaggeration of what really occurred]]). The only cases where this is explicitly justified is [[spoiler:Solas, a.k.a. the Dread Wolf Fen'Harel, who lost almost all of his power during his millenia-long slumber and has to start over as a lowly hedge mage]].

** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' goes with a different justification than the other games: Samus still has all the upgrades and weapons, [[HonorBeforeReason but chooses not to use them without permission from Adam]].

* Often in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, where unless the level is specifically designed to remember what you beat the previous one with (usually only for levels that take place immediately after the previous one, and even then not always), your character often manages to somehow completely misplace the useful enemy equipment he picked up in the last level and re-acquire the gun he came in with and dropped for something else five minutes in. The Chernobyl missions in the first ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' are probably the oddest: the sniper rifle you start with in the first one survives the transition to the second, minus its suppressor and ghillie camouflage, but the silenced USP you also start with and anything else you can pick up in the level will turn into an AK-47 during the transition -- ''except'' for an actual AK-47, which instead turns into a USP for some reason.

** ''3'' gives Kratos ATasteOfPower again until he falls into Hades again. At that point you lose the maxed out Blades of Athena and its magic, as well as any experience points obtained at that point. However, you keep the Golden Fleece and the Wings of Icarus.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' downplays the trope; Travis apparently ditched all of his gear except for his basic Beam Katana when he left the assassin life, but he starts with the skills the player could pick up by collecting Lovikov balls in the first game. Since this includes the mini-map, it's a very good thing. He can also get back the previous game's InfinityPlusOneSword as his first alternate beam katana, though it requires upgrades to bring it back to its former glory.
** Travis also still has Death Metal's mansion. He keeps his giant robot in it. No explanation is given as to why he still lives in a motel room. Unless he spent all the money on the giant robot.

** ''Sonic 3'' picks up directly after ''Sonic 2'' (with the canonical ending being that you got all the Chaos Emeralds in ''Sonic 2''). Hence, Sonic uses them in the opening cinematic to turn into Super Sonic, before Knuckles jumps up and startles him, losing the emeralds. Knuckles then picks them up, and presumably hides them all over the island, prompting the player to collect them again.
** Averted between ''Sonic 3'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAndKnuckles'' courtesy the lock-on cartridge of the latter. If you continue from a ''Sonic 3'' save file, you retain any and all emeralds that you've collected in that game.

** Between ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Sonic lost his Light Speed Shoes, and Light Speed Attack. Knuckles lost his Shovel Claws. All of them are replaced in the second game--however, there are also the missing Crystal Ring (Sonic), Jet Anklet, Rhythm Badge (Tails), and Fighting Gloves (Knuckles). Tails' lost items are slightly justified, due to the UnexpectedGameplayChange, but...

* Though it's the end of the series, depending on which ending you get to ''DemonsCrest'' Firebrand may either hide everything he's earned in the game or throw it haphazardly off a cliff, suddenly realizing he doesn't want it anymore.

* It's implied in the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games that X voluntarily disposes of his new armor and weapons after every game, in order to avoid the temptation to abuse his newfound power...or maybe because he [[IJustWantToBeNormal simply doesn't like fighting in the first place, really]].

** ''VideoGame/MegaManX4''-''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' play with this in so many ways. He starts 5 and 6 with the Fourth/Force Armour and Falcon Armour from the game preceding each, respectively. The only problem is that the armors are severely weakened compared to their original versions, with the implication that X did trash them, but Alia went and salvaged them as best she could. Whereas in the first three games, X started with a 16 unit life meter, and built it up to 32. From X4 onward until X8 redesigned the meters, X ''started'' with a 32 unit meter, and could build up to 48(X4), 64(X5-6), and 80(X7). Also, X7 and X8 made the airdash and charging his X-buster an extra level available in base form. Respectively. Also, in regards to heart tanks, in X1, X is obviously significantly weaker than Zero. By the time we actually ''see'' Zero's life bar, X is only eight heart tanks away from being equal to it, and then it's just a case of them being equal. However, Zero has no such qualms, which doesn't explain why he forgets ''learned techniques'' (i.e. NOT weapons), such as his Ice Stab maneuver in X4. It's not like he dies in that particular chapter, unlike X5. Interestingly, in the X vs. Zero fight, they both pull out weapons from X4, giving the suggestion that they keep them for emergencies.
** Had [[ExecutiveMeddling Capcom not stepped in,]] ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' would have shown what [[HeWhoFightsMonsters would have happened]] [[KnightTemplar if X kept his weapons]]. Zero had a convenient case of amnesia over the 100 years of deep sleep, so he forgot everything when the series started (but not between episodes).

* Kerrigan's deinfestation in ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' seems to have the same intent, while the first Starcraft didn't have RPG elements and she wasn't playable in "Wings" she starts out ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm]]'' substantially less powerful than she was in the previous games.

* A number of old-school first-person shooters (like ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'') were divided into three or more "episodes," each of which would start you off with only your most basic weaponry. ''Doom 3'' does something vaguely similar when you enter or leave hell (though not if you're just using the teleporters to get from one part of Mars to another).
** ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'' uses the excuse that your items have all been confiscated by HQ so that they can reverse engineer them for mass production.

** ''F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point'' starts Point Man off without weapons, ostensibly justified by having just survived a nuclear explosion. Less justifiably, he's also lost the effects of any health or reflex boosters he picked up over the course of the original game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'': Durandal, being [[{{Troll}} who he is]], gleefully lampshades this when the game begins:
-->'''Durandal:''' I know you have a lot of questions. [...] And most importantly, where's your rocket launcher and the fusion gun?
* Often in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, where unless the level is specifically designed to remember what you beat the previous one with (usually only for levels that take place immediately after the previous one, and even then not always), your character often manages to somehow completely misplace the useful enemy equipment he picked up in the last level and re-acquire the gun he came in with and dropped for something else five minutes in. The Chernobyl missions in the first ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' are probably the oddest: the sniper rifle you start with in the first one survives the transition to the second, minus its suppressor and ghillie camouflage, but the silenced USP you also start with and anything else you can pick up in the level turn into an AK-47 during the transition--''except'' for an actual AK-47, which instead turns into a USP for some reason.

* Every new game in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series gives legitimate excuses for the main characters losing all their abilities time and time again. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'', Sora and his friends literally forget every ability they ever knew as soon as they set foot in Castle Oblivion due to Namine's memory manipulation. Sora develops a new fighting style while being forced to play by the castle's rules, only to lose ''those'' after Namine fixes their memories by putting them to sleep for a whole year. By the time they wake up in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', they keep only a few of their old abilities from the original game. Sora develops a brand new fighting style all over again, which he uses until the start of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', where Yen Sid advises him and Riku to throw away their self-taught fighting styles and teach them the "right" way to wield a Keyblade from square one. ''Dream Drop Distance'' also ends with Sora [[spoiler:waking up from a coma and the near-destruction of his heart]], setting the stage for the inevitable spilling in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. As for other games such as ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', they include new protagonists starting out at the beginning of their adventures, while ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' takes place in the datascape, and the protagonist is only a digital representation of Sora, created out of data about him from the start of the first game, so he still has to grow. And even here, when it happens to [[spoiler:Roxas between ''358/2 Days'' and ''[=KHII=]'']], it's justified as [[spoiler:[=DiZ=] wiped his mind of his time in the Organization, so he forgot all the moves he learned. As for his strength, [=DiZ=] probably swiped all the power-up panels from his grid too.]]\\

** ''VideoGame/DisgaeaD2'' plays the trope completely straight, however, as the main characters are once again Laharl, Etna, and Flonne, back down to usual beginning-of-the-game levels and equipment.

** In ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'', [[spoiler:Etna (one of the main characters from the first game) initially shows up as a super powerful, [=Lv1000=] NPC. She eventually joins your party, but not before a summoning mishap drops her down to Lv1. She was not amused]].

* In ''Videogame/Dishonored2'', Corvo gets his powers removed by Delilah during the intro of the game. While he can get them back after the first level, he only has [[FlashStep Blink]] in it's initial state and has to upgrade to get all his powers back.

* Very noticeable in ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'', as Lan loses everything; his [[GameBreaker broken]] Gater folder, all his HP memory, his power ups, the ability to preset chips, etc. He eventually gets everything backed up (except the gater folder). Not only that, but it seems like the Navi Customizer gets uninstalled after every game, and in ''[=BN4=]'', the Style Change is replaced outright with the Soul Unison ability.

** Averted in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. Once Bruce Wayne manages to gear up as Batman, he starts with most of the gadgets he acquired in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''. The only major piece of equipment he doesn't carry over (the Line Launcher) is given to him roughly halfway through the game. It's even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Alfred when Batman calls in the Line Launcher. He asks Batman if he's ever considered taking up a bigger UtilityBelt. Batman's response? Tried it, too heavy, weighted him down (no doubt a reference to the No Man's Land comic run where, as he was out in costume roughly 20 hours a day, he built a larger belt to handle a larger variety of crime fighting gear). Some upgrades that he had in Asylum do need to be purchased again, even though they would be massively useful in every-day Bat-manning (Critical Strikes and Combo boost come into mind).

** ''Sonic 3'' picks up directly after ''Sonic 2'' (with the canonical ending being that you got all the Chaos Emeralds in ''Sonic 2''). Hence, Sonic uses them in the opening cinematic to turn into Super Sonic, before Knuckles jumps up and startles him, losing the emeralds. Knuckles then picks them up. Granted, this doesn't explain how they end up randomly scattered throughout the levels.

* Happens in ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, often with some justification such as Samus's equipment becoming infected or damaged. ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' goes with a different justification than the other games: Samus still has all the upgrades and weapons, [[HonorBeforeReason but chooses not to use them without permission from Adam]].

*** It's Knuckles' island. He probably hid the emeralds all over the place to prevent Sonic from getting them.

* Happens in ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, often with some justification such as Samus's equipment becoming infected or damaged. ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' goes with a different justification than the other games: Samus still has all the upgrades and weapons, [[HonorBeforeReason but chooses to not to use them without permission from Adam]].
** Justified in the first two games of the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'', where an explosion disables Samus's equipment and the Ing steal it, respectively. You get [[ATasteOfPower about fifteen minutes to enjoy having mid-game abilities]] before they're gone. It's subverted in ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' as well, where both Samus and the Power Suit's organic components are infected by an alien organism and the suit must be surgically removed. All of Samus's weapons and abilities stay in the suit, but the parasite within it mutates into the main villain. ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has Samus retain a few of the past game's items, such as Bombs and the Double Jump, but many of the upgrades are still gone with nary a word about them.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' continues the fine tradition, with Lan and [=MegaMan=] losing all their super-powerful battlechips, all their upgrades to [=MegaMan=]'s HP and the like, the Navi Customizer - even any and all recognition from their previous exploits. It's only by ''Battle Network 5'' that the duo's prior accomplishments are finally recognized as justification for recruiting them into an anti-Nebula task force; there's only about a 40% chance that an operator and Navi pair will return from a previous game and even remember Lan and [=MegaMan=], much less that they already lost to them before. There are, however, a rare few exceptions (starting from ''3'', [=MegaMan=] will keep the ability to charge his buster) and actual justifications (''4'' has Lan's dad give him back the Navi Customizer, noting that his mom took it away after ''3'' to keep him out of trouble).

** Also, in ''Zero 3'' and ''Zero 4'', when Zero has been lounging at the Resistance Base in between games instead of fighting in the desert for a year, he keeps all of his weapon upgrades (the ones you get by simply using the weapons repeatedly), so you start the game with your weapons at full power. Zero still forgets all of his learned techniques, though.
** Averted in the Wily Tower level of ''The Wily Wars'' (a.k.a. ''Rockman Megaworld''), as once you've beaten the first three games and unlocked Wily Tower, you can select 8 out of 22 available weapons and 3 out of 7 items to equip. Played straight, though, within the first three games.

** At the beginning of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'', as he is about to make port, the Prince throws the Medallion of Time overboard, thinking he doesn't need it anymore. Cue his ship being sunk by a catapult while the Water and Light Swords you worked so hard for in ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin Warrior Within]]'' are below decks. Fortunately, he retains all of his melee combat abilities.