History Main / ChangingGameplayPriorities

* VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis has this in regards to combat. Early game your troops will break before they are all killed, which causes Morale to be very important. Later game, the combat skill of your units (Drill) is much better, because you can kill off almost an entire army before they break. Calvary dominates the early to midgame, while artilery such becomes a priority towards the end (with a few exceptions for strong Calvary nations, such as the Commonwealth or the Golden Horde).

* In ''{{VideoGame/Klonoa}}'' the early game is a kind of easygoing, simple platformer with a few little wrinkles and hidden areas. By the end of the game, however, the focus is almost entirely on tricky timing puzzles and multi-jumps that require snagging new enemies in midair and using them as fuel for jump combos. Comparing the flow of the first and final levels, they almost look like different games. And this isn't even to bring up the hidden bonus level, where you spend more time with your feet off the ground than on it.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'': Early on, your priorities with gear are Armor Class (to avoid enemy hits) and Attacks Per Round (to maximize damage dealt). Later on, relevant enemies such as bosses or the occasional EliteMook all have the ability to bypass your Armor Class, therefore "inferior" armor with magical resistance to certain types of damage becomes preferable, while at the same time the strongest enemies are immune to any weapon that isn't at least +3 or in some cases even +4, and most weapons with such attributes are two-handed and allows for a smaller number of attacks compared to one-handed weapons that can be dual-wielded.
** Remember the pure damage spells such as Fireball and Cloudkill that you started to love in the first game against the toughest opponents? Now they are for the most time primarily useful against the ZergSwarm of minor enemies, while bosses often have magical immunities or are high level wizards protected by layers of defensive spells. Your new priorities will be spells that can pierce defenses or lower magic resistance. Furthermore, the two abovementioned spells have an area of effect, and the claustrophobic dungeons of the game leave little room for their optimal use unless you are ok with friendly fire against your party members in melee. Oh, and forget low level spells such as Sleep: any mook that is effected by them at this point can be one-hit smashed by your warriors set in auto-attack mode, without bothering to open the wizard panel.

** Thieves should prioritize skills such as trap detection and open locks until they are both at 100, a value which should allow you to defy any lock and trap in the game. It is very quick to reach that though (if you don't stary with an already maxed thief character), and then your focus shifts anyway to the ability to hide in the shadow for backstabbing or to deploy traps for ambushes.

** Healers such as clerics and druids zigzag the trope during the whole series. Initially they are unvaluable as your party is vulnerable and any hit point lost during a fight might be enough for the following hit to kill your party member, and you will often heal during battles when needed. However, as your characters level up, they will become stronger and you will start to accumulate healing potions found abroad, so your focus might shift on buffing or control spells, that can earn the same result by avoiding getting damaged altogether. There are also offensive spells by clerics that can be really powerful, netting more utility than Cure Critical Wounds. Any injury can be safely cured between battles. Still, certain enemies can net so much damage that you might still need occasional healing spells during a fight.
** The whole VancianMagic system of the game is this, as you can unmemorize spells and learn new ones depending on the situation and your necessities.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' players treat the king this way. In the opening and the middlegame, it's important to keep the king in the corner of the board, protected by other pieces, because otherwise it's easy for one's opponent to simply checkmate the king, or use the threat of checkmate to accomplish something else. However, in the endgame, when there aren't enough pieces on the board for the players to be able to checkmate each other, it suddenly becomes very important to use the king as an attacking piece, to chase down opposing pawns and escort one's own pawns up the board (getting your pawn to the opposite end turns it into a queen which can be used to deliver checkmate).

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' and all of its various sequels and remakes go about this in the same way. Early in the game you are fragile and lack the tools to overcome challenges. The entire game world tantalizes you by presenting you with doors you can't open, chasms you can't cross, and enemies you can't reasonably defeat. As you progress through the game and find heart containers and magical tools, more of the world becomes open to you, until you can go wherever you want at whim.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', the big change comes when you learn Cure magic. The game can be easily divided into "pre-Cure" and "post-Cure" sections. Healing magic is so overpoweringly useful that it single-handedly makes Magic Points the most important stat in the game. This is true of [[Franchise/KingdomHearts most of the series]], but only in the first game is the difference so large and Cure learned so late.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': Prior to obtaining Reflect it's much more difficult to protect yourself against a swarm of enemies or attacks that come at unexpected angles. While Guard is better than it was in its previous game it's not enough to cover everything. This makes the early game in Critical Mode particularly tense, especially with Cure's massive nerf. Post-Reflect you can become much more aggressive as it's far easier to defend yourself from most attacks and Reflect will deal great chunks of damage on its own as well. On top of that Cure goes from emergency button to all but outright useless since it drains your entire MP Bar upon usage and it takes multiple Ethers to get you out of MP Charge (Elixirs do it instantly but at that point the Cure is unnecessary). As you need MP to use Reflect, using Cure becomes a massive waste.