History ForegoneConclusion / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak'' takes place during the period of time visited in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' and ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis 3]]''. Raccoon City got nuked at the end of ''3''. So the odds are ''greatly'' stacked against the playable survivors, with {{canon}} [[GaidenGame doing nothing]] to establish anybody's survival.

*** The DLC ones, the Huntress and the Doppelgänger, are the only ones who subvert this trope because they weren't even supposed to be in the middle of this mayhem at all, so details about them are foggy. [[spoiler:Aurelia, the Huntress and Sir Hammerlock's sister, gets simply way too disgusted with Jack's newfound, growing ruthlessness, [[TokenEvilTeammate despise her being kin to all this violence and status stamping]], [[EvenEvilHasStandards and cut all ties after one too many lines crossed]]. And Timothy Lawrence, the Doppelgänger, being a body double to Jack himself, not only feels the same way as the former (despise only being evil, technically, [[PunchClockVillain by mortgage]]), but also is forever carrying the visage of the new Public Enemy #1, which puts ''his'' neck in the line of quite a few assassins. The game hints that he is constantly on the run because of this, and in so far his fate is the only unclear one of the whole cast.]]

* ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'': [[spoiler:Lilia eventually successfully hatched the egg containing Malleus, even after the latter's mother died and was unable to incubate the egg with her magic.]] How else will [[spoiler:Malleus]] hang around in the present? Even within this story arc, [[spoiler:Malleus's childhood upbringing by Lilia]] is [[AnachronicOrder shown before]] [[spoiler:his hatching.]]

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarI'': "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me. Now there is no hope left." The game begins three weeks before Kratos crosses the DespairEventHorizon.

* Done in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' in which the opening narration is by a novelist who wrote about the war described in the game and talks about how Gallia would come to withstand the invasion and would challenge one of the continent's great powers. The fun in the game, is of course in finding out exactly how, and the price of victory. And soon you realize that it will be very high. The question is not who will win, but what will be left once the war is over.

* If players have played ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure'' and ''Trails to Azure'' before playing ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel I and II'', players will already know that [[spoiler:[[EvilChancellor Osborne's faction]]]] wins the CivilWar ''before'' the latter games come out.

* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', the protagonist is a guy named John Marston who’s on a suicide mission to hunt down the members of his former gang after its dissolution about a decade before when their leader Dutch went mad. Since the [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption second]] game in the series is a prequel taking place during John’s time in the gang, the gang was going to fall apart and Dutch was going to go crazy. Since the protagonist of ''II'', Arthur, wasn’t mentioned ever in ''I'', something was always going to happen to him. [[spoiler:He dies at the end of the main story. ]]

* Since ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'' is a prequel to ''VideoGame/TalesOfZestiria'', if you've played the latter you know certain things will happen: Malakim will become known as Seraphim, humans will stop being able to see them except with strong enough resonance, and the daemonblight will become malevolence and remain to plague the world. Exactly what happens to lead to this, and what happens to the main characters, however, isn't known except in specific cases such as Eizen, who will become a dragon by the time of ''Zestiria and thus will outlive ''Berseria''.

* ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail2021'': The various Native American tribes that you can come across worry that the white settlers are killing off too many bison and how they fear they will eventually be pushed further and further west out of their homelands. [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans Yeah.]]

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'', despite being a prequel, goes both ways with this trope. You know Rebecca will end up in the Spencer mansion and you know her entire team dies, but since Billy isn't even so much as mentioned in any other games you have no clue whether he'll die, be handed over to the authorities by Rebecca, or make his escape. The Nintendo 64 re-release of Resident Evil 2 has a file in the RPD that states he died, [[spoiler:but was written by Rebecca who at then end of Zero declares "Officially Billy Coen died in the crash" before letting Coen escape[[note]]Though released far before Zero, Zero was penned ''before'' the N64 re-release[[/note]].]]

* ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'' is a prequel telling the story of the Belkan War, which occurred years before the events of ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar''. Due to events specific to ''Zero'', [[spoiler: Mission 12]] is still a WhamEpisode, but it occurs on [[spoiler: June 6th, 1995.]] If you've played the previous game, you already know how that ends.
* ''VideoGame/{{Record Of Agarest War Zero}}'' Sieghart and his son Leonis. Both of them are Leonhardt's ancestors so, of course, Leonis cannot die [[spoiler: so it's obvious the normal ending is non-canon.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' subverts this: You know that Cyrus Pikney died. What you don't know is how he was murdered, and why. Then it turns out that [[spoiler: Cobblepot Senior FAILED: Cobblepot needed to silence Pikney to take over Gotham's economy, and used the classic poison and a social invitation that Pikney couldn't refuse. Pikney died, but used a serum (thanks to a young Arkham, no less) to resurrect himself. Unfortunately, it drove him a little insane. He then killed Cobblepot for real]].

*** The DLC ones, the Huntress and the Doppelgänger, are the only ones who subvert this trope because they weren't even supposed to be in the middle of this mayhem at all, so details about them are foggy. [[spoiler: Aurelia, the Huntress and Sir Hammerlock's sister, gets simply way too disgusted with Jack's newfound, growing ruthlessness, [[TokenEvilTeammate despise her being kin to all this violence and status stamping]], [[EvenEvilHasStandards and cut all ties after one too many lines crossed]]. And Timothy Lawrence, the Doppelgänger, being a body double to Jack himself, not only feels the same way as the former (despise only being evil, technically, [[PunchClockVillain by mortgage]]), but also is forever carrying the visage of the new Public Enemy #1, which puts ''his'' neck in the line of quite a few assassins. The game hints that he is constantly on the run because of this, and in so far his fate is the only unclear one of the whole cast.]]

* The missions "All Ghillied Up" and "One Shot, One Kill" in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'' involve you attempting to assassinate [[RenegadeRussian Russian Ultranationalist leader]] Imran Zakhaev in 1996. [[spoiler: Of course, since the mission just before ended with Zakhaev attempting to call [[RebelLeader Khaled al-Asad]] in the present day, you can figure out how this will end...]]

* The story in the video game adaptation of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' is being told by the protagonist, Jackie Estacado, so the assumption is that he's around after the fact to tell you his story. In an unusual subversion, there ''are'' totally unexpected twists in the story which present further examples: [[spoiler: "That... well, that was the ''first'' time I died."]]

* The beginning of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' starts ten years after gameplay actually begins, so it reveals that Hawke will become the Champion of Kirkwall and will be involved in events that will severely cripple the Chantry. However, exactly what Hawke does is up to the player. The trailer also gives us [[spoiler: the Qunari uprising, the Viscount's death, and the possible duel against the Arishok.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', you already know how the game is going to end in the introduction (the main character, Ramza, being branded a heretic and erased from history, while his childhood best friend, Delita, is revered as a hero and became king) due to the fact that it's narrated by a historian looking back into the past. Although in this case, it's not a matter of [[OhAndXDies how things end]], but rather [[spoiler: an attempt to uncover the massive church conspiracy that damned Ramza as an evil heretic instead of the hero he is]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' has Hector [[spoiler:dying within the first few chapters]] - in the prequel game ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', Hector is one of the protagonists.
** ''Binding Blade'' and ''Blazing Blade'' have several of these. [[spoiler:by playing ''Binding Blade'', you already know that Canas will die, Eliwood's wife (and Hector's) will become a MissingMom, not to mention that Karla will die of an illness and that Rath (as well as possibly Lyn) will die in a Bern uprising.]]

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', a prequel to the first game, does not [[DownerEnding end happily]]. Given that all three protagonists are MIA as of the aforementioned first game just ten years later in-universe, it was only a matter of ''how'' they all met their untimely ends. [[spoiler: By the end, they're either in stasis, possessed or trapped in another dimension, with present-day hero Sora their only hope of rescue.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' fangame midquel ''[[VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance]]'', you already know that Giegue will descend into madness if you've played the series before, no matter what you do. [[spoiler: Not even PK Harmony, the ability equivalent to [[VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings Sing]] and [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Pray]], can save him, only momentarily holding off his insanity]].
** [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Nightmare Empower, however, allows to sever his still more-or-less intact core personality (Giegue) from the insane part (Giygas) and safely extract it from the Magicant to the reality,]] giving him a new chance at life.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' plays with this, mixing it with ProphecyTwist here and there. The prologue of the game as well as the cutscenes of Alex recounting the events so far occurs at the 18th Day of the infection. From the looks of New York and the background images of desperate fighting the player gets the impression that TheVirus has all but taken over Manhattan. So, as the game progresses, it is of no surprise as hives and infected are popping out left and right. It is not until about midway through the game that the player learns that [[spoiler: Alex killed Elizabeth Greene and the Blacklight lost its momentum]] and another couple more missions before [[spoiler: she actually dies]]. Likewise, Alex mentions very early on that he [[spoiler: killed [=McMullen=]]]. What he doesn't say is that when he finally got to [[spoiler: [=McMullen=], he shot himself in the head, depriving Alex and the player a treasure trove of information, most importantly, about the Pariah]]. In a similar vein, the Web of Intrigue videos clue the player on [[spoiler: Alex's role in the creation and spread of the Blacklight virus before the actual reveal occurs]].

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/SecondSight'': half the game is set in the present, with the rest being told as flashbacks roughly six months earlier. However, the ending reveals that [[spoiler: what the protagonist believes to be the past is in fact the present and what he believes to be the present is in fact a hypothetical future, which he is experiencing because of his precognitive abilities]].

* By virtue of being a prequel, it's pretty easy to tell who in ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza 0}}'' has PlotArmor (such as [[spoiler: Dojima, Sera, Shimano, Nishiki, Kashiwagi and Reika]]) and who AnyoneCanDie actually applies to if you've played the first game. It's also safe to assume that [[spoiler: both Dojima and Shimano fail in their bid for the Empty Lot, which would give them enough money and power to seize control of the entire Tojo Clan, because Sera is in charge of the clan instead in the first game. Or that Kiryu, despite leaving the Dojima family, somehow ends up right back in it again at some point so that he can take the fall for Dojima's murder in-between this game and the first.]]
* If players have played ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure'' and ''Trails to Azure'' before playing ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel I and II'', players will already know that [[spoiler: [[EvilChancellor Osborne's faction]]]] wins the CivilWar ''before'' the latter games come out.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' begins with the main party sitting at a campfire outside of a [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon ruined Zanarkand]], with the protagonist, Tidus, asking the player to "listen to [his] story" because "it may be the last chance [they] have left." [[ProlongedPrologue Cue extended flashback]]. [[spoiler:Seymour]] never really stood a chance. Funnily enough, the only thing ''not'' absolutely certain is whether or you and Wakka manage to win a [[FictionalSport Blitzball]] tournament or not.