History Main / MergingTheBranches

* In the update to ''DevilSurvivor2'', ''Record Breaker'', the Triangulum are follows a merger of the Kingmaker and Triumphant Restorer endings of the original narrative. In the original game and in the Septentrione arc of ''Record Breaker'', it was impossible to have every character remain alive in any route, since at least one will die canonically in each one. In the recap of the Septentrione arc at the beginning of the Triangulum arc, it's revealed that everyone lives due to the merged endings.

* In the update to ''DevilSurvivor2'' ''Record Breaker'', the Triangulum are follows a merger of the Kingmaker and Triumphant Restorer endings of the original narrative. In the original game and in the Septentrione arc of ''Record Breaker'', it was impossible to have every character remain alive in any route, since at least one will die canonically in each one. In the recap of the Septentrione arc at the beginning of the Triangulum arc, it's revealed that everyone lives due to the merged endings.

* ''Recap/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' reference books established that the Exile, the PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', was female but also had the Handmaiden on her team, which in-game is only possible for a male Exile.[[note]]Had the game not been ChristmasRushed, recruiting Handmaiden would have depended on the player character's alignment rather than gender, much like with Mira (light siders) and Hanharr (dark siders), and with Visas Marr (who normally joins regardless of alignment or gender) being the dark side alternative; presumably, this would mean the Disciple, who is the alternative to Handmaiden for female characters, would have also joined regardless of gender or alignment in the finished game.[[/note]]

** Its prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' inverts the trope by having all of the possible endings plausibly lead to the events of the first game.

* ''Recap/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' reference books established that the Exile, the PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', was female but also had the Handmaiden on her team, which in-game is only possible for a male Exile.

** In ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', Cipher fights five out of eleven elite Belkan squadrons in any given playthrough (which ones depends on your KarmaMeter). However, the in-game Assault Records and later lore implies that at the branching points, Cipher faced all three respective bosses ''at the same time''.

* TYPE-MOON did a similar thing with its sequel to ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': ''FateHollowAtaraxia'', which has a bizarre conglomeration of events from mutually contradictory routes making up its backstory. This is actually a plot point though, and part of the story's progression is figuring out just what the hell is going on.

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', Cipher fights five out of eleven elite Belkan squadrons in any given playthrough (which ones depends on your KarmaMeter). However, the in-game Assault Records and later lore implies that at the branching points, Cipher faced all three respective bosses ''at the same time''.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' reference books established that the Exile, the PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'', was female but also had the Handmaiden on the team, which in-game is only possible for a male Exile.

* The ''{{Videogame/Warcraft}}'' series did this for everything up to Warcraft 3. The second game took the first's Orc campaign as canon but with several Human story missions as still having happened instead of their Orc variants. The second game was treated the same way but with the sides reversed by it's expansion. The second game's expansion is later treated as two sides of the same story, with the canon result of the final battle combining the endings.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', you are asked to choose either Donnell Udina or David Anderson to occupy the newly-created Systems Alliance seat on the Citadel Council. Regardless of your choice, Udina ultimately ends up in the seat by [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the third game]], as Anderson ends up leaving the Citadel after Mass Effect 2, disgusted by the other Council members' refusal to do anything about the Collectors attacking human colonies and their continued denial of the Reaper threat.

* The ''{{Videogame/Warcraft}}'' series did this for everything up to Warcraft 3. The second game took the Orc campaign as canon but with several Human story missions as still having happened instead of their Orc variants. The second game was treated the same way but with the sides reversed. The second game's expansion is treated as two sides of the same story, with the canon result of the final battle combining the endings.

* The ''Videogame/Warcraft'' series did this for everything up to Warcraft 3. The second game took the Orc campaign as canon but with several Human story missions as still having happened instead of their Orc variants. The second game was treated the same way but with the sides reversed. The second game's expansion is treated as two sides of the same story, with the canon result of the final battle combining the endings.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' had seven mutually exclusive endings, but ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' revealed that all of them took place at the same time [[JustifiedTrope due to a rare cosmic event called]] [[TimeCrash The Warp In The West]].

* In ''VideoGame/TalesofSymphonia'', the manga adaptation merges the Kratos, Zelos and Colette endings and has each of them give Lloyd the special item that he receives only from their ending in the game. This is also apparently the canonical ending according to the sequel. Overlaps a bit with ThirdOptionAdaptation in that another change, [[spoiler:Yuan coming with them to the final battle,]] actually ''isn't'' possible in any of the endings.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' had seven mutually exclusive endings, but ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' revealed that all of them took place at the same time [[JustifiedTrope due to a rare cosmic event called]] [[TimeCrash Dragon Break]].

[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
* Installments of the ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' series set after ''Winter Assault'' imply that the latter's true ending contains elements of both Ork and Eldar campaigns (Taldeer survives the Orks, Chaos and Necrons on Lorn V but is taken out by the Blood Ravens on Kronus in ''Dark Crusade''), while Crull is defeated and his skull taken by Gorgutz 'Ead'unter (the Chaos faction takes it back from him in ''Dark Crusade'').

** ''Tsukihime''s other sequel, ''Kagetsu Tohya'', justifies ''all'' the routes being canon at once by having the story take place in a dream, where real-world logic is of course out to lunch. Those parts of it that take place outside the dream seem to suggest either Ciel's or Arcueid's ending, however. It also includes a number of side stories that explicitly take place in some of the other endings.

** Its prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' inverts the trope by having all the the possible endings plausibly lead to the events of the first game.