History Main / OnlyIdiotsMayPass

-> ''"You'd think we could just leave this guy frozen solid, chisel off the [[PlotCoupon mask]], and call it a victory for the forces of good. But Link likes to do things the hard way, so [[DieChairDie get Arrows and Magic Pots from the pots]] if necessary, then let loose a [[ArrowsOnFire Fire Arrow]]."''

* ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' has not one but ''two'', interconnected ones:

* Taken to extremes in ''[[VideoGame/DarkSeed Dark Seed 2]]'': every time you try to open the protagonist's closet, he'll inform you it's locked. Until later on you get a flashback ''very'' late in the game via a fortune teller session to his childhood where his mother decided to placate her son's fears of the "monsters" in said closet by ''pretending'' to lock it. When you open the closet, it has a ''portal'' to the place where one of the three PlotCoupons is held. And yet you HAVE to go through this sequence of events just because the protagonist doesn't even try THE DOORKNOB. To add insult to injury, if he mentions this to his mother, she will ''mock him'' for having assumed the door was locked all these years.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'' has a quest where you must touch five cairn stones in a certain order. The correct order is given on a particular scroll. You don't need to ''read'' the scroll; brute-force guessing works fine, as long as you ''have'' the scroll. Without it, the cairns do nothing no matter how much you click them.

* Averted in the remake of ''NinjaGaiden'', where various number combinations and PlotCoupons can be used without having to activate the "informing" event.

* In universe example from {{Goblins}}. 4 keys to the chest are behind magic barriers and to pass the barrier person must have a specific stat [[DumpStat way below average]]. One party is unable to open it, since neither one is TheDitz.

* ''CallOfDuty: ModernWarfare 2'' has one in its third mission. [[spoiler:You have to follow the Russian agent Makarov through a crowded airport, killing civilians, before he shoots you at the end of it and leaves your American corpse for the Russians to find, sparking World War Three. If you try to shoot Makarov before he can kill you, however, you will immediately die from violating "friendly fire." Justified as [[AnthropicPrinciple the rest of the game revolves around the player character taking part in the massacre there.]]]]

* In universe example from {{Goblins}}. 4 keys to the chest are behind magic barriers and to pass the barrier person must have a specific stat [[DumpStat way bellow average]]. One party is unable to open it, since neither one is TheDitz.

* ''HotelDusk'' does this frequently. You have to do things in a very specific order, including learning how to do OTHER things you need to do. One particular room had several relatively straight forward puzzles to solve and [[TimeDelayedDeath an invisible timer]]. Solving the puzzles (using the game logic) is easy enough, but the game requires you to do things in a specific order and particularly read in an in-game book how to solve said puzzles. Simply 'knowing' isn't good enough.

* Played straight and averted in ''999''. In the first puzzle there are 2 briefcases that need a key and a code to open. The room you're in has 2 notes as a hint for the code. However if you know the code already you can just input the code after inserting the key and open it. Keep in mind the room you're in is being filled with water(though only in plot). Later in the kitchen, the key you need is in a cabinet door that needs a passcode, the game will not let you enter the passcode and one of the characters you are in the room with will say along the lines "Don't mess around with that if you don't even have a hint", however to get the hint you have to get yourself trapped in the freezer and almost freeze to death.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', after [[spoiler:Doopliss]] steals your identity, you have to go all the way back to Twilight Town with no partners, running into your foe along the way, who asks you to guess his real name before challenging you to an unwinnable fight (he'll take no damage). Oh, and you can't get the name right because there will be a letter missing from your input screen. You have to ignore what he says about you not being able to run away, continue on, get a new party member, run away from the identity thief again, and trek ''all the way back'' to go into the dungeon you just came from through a new entrance with your new party member, allowing you to pick up "The Letter P" from a chest, and also to listen to a parrot say the enemy's name. Note also that a capital P was available to you originally, but the lowercase wasn't. Next, make the long and annoying trip yet again, do your Rumplestiltskin thing, go all the way back to the dungeon again, and beat the (not-really all that hard) boss for good.
** Another in ''The Thousand-Year Door'' comes in early when someone loses their contact lens and tells you not to not to move or you'll step on it. Which WILL happen no matter how little you move, and they'll never find their contact in one piece no matter how long you wait.
** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' has one as well, in fact, if you continue to annoy the bad guy [[LampshadeHanging she explains flags for you]]...

* Late in ''NeverwinterNights2'', there are five statues in Arvahn that you must visit to complete the Ritual of Purification. One of them is actually located in the Swamp Ruins, the second area you get to visit in the beginning of the game (only in the early game, the door leading to it is blocked). However, by Act II, the ruins disappear from your global map, and going to the intact [[DoomedHometown West Harbor]] won't bring you there. Instead, you have to enter Arvahn, at which point West Harbor is instantly destroyed in your absence, visit the other four statues, and then enter a portal to the ruins of West Harbor. And if you decide to do this quest before recruiting Orlen for Crossroad Keep... well, bad luck, he's LostForever.

* In ''BreathOfFire 2'', most of the early game is spent chasing after a bat-winged girl, so as to bring her to justice in your town. When you finally locate her, locked in plain view in the dungeon of a castle, the game acts as though nothing special has happened, since that is the location of an arbitrarily necessary quest. But the current state of affairs there is not urgent in the slightest, and the local ruler states that anything at all would be a perfectly fine reward for your troubles in getting there, like, oh! the extradition of a wanted thief? But no, you have to do the absurd castle quests first, and THEN your character will randomly remember what the heck he ACTUALLY came here for all of a sudden, and ask for the prisoner milling about in plain view (who's all too glad to come along, owing to the CoolAndUnusualPunishment she's been suffering the whole time.)

* ''{{Fatal Frame}}'' takes it to a whole new level. At one point in the second game you need to find a key to free your sister from a cell she's locked in. The game explicitly tells you which house to look in but doesn't allow you to find the key without talking to Itsuki first and letting him tell you where exactly the key is. The worst part? If you're replaying the game, you are still supposed to talk to him in order for the key to appear.
* ''Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf'' had one level where you have to use a flute to hypnotize Sam the sheepdog. In the next level, the flute is available again, and it seems that using it is the only way to get into Sam's area. However, attempting this reveals that Sam now wears earplugs and earns you a KO. Only after you recover is it possible to get to the sheep you're supposed to steal without using any items.

* At one point in ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' you have to talk to a guy to get information about finding The Tower. Only if you go to him directly (or more likely just wander around and find him first) he'll completely ignore you. The correct thing is to go to the bar, get drunk, and have a conversation about how Paet would be able to help; why don't you go talk to him?

* In ''ShadowOfDestiny'', one level requires you to look at a locked door before getting the idea to find a key. Fine, makes sense. If you die during this level, you will have to replay and, again, must look at the door before trying to get the key. Except that the premise of ShadowOfDestiny means that the main character is ''well aware'' he's tried this once already.
* The aversion in the original ''{{Myst}}'' demonstrates why this trope exists. Not only is it possible for anyone who's played the game before (and remembers the codes) to finish the game within minutes, but it's possible to enter the endgame (and even complete it!!) simply by brute forcing the [[spoiler: fireplace codes]]. The characters will then refer to plot points you haven't discovered yet, and attempt to take from you {{Plot Coupon}}s you haven't yet acquired. If you continue on through the endgame, you [[spoiler: get trapped in D'ni with Atrus.]] However, [[spoiler:if, instead of going through to the endgame, you listen to Atrus through the D'ni book, he will tell you how to get the game-winning PlotCoupon.]]

* In ''{{Terranigma}}'', the only way to reach the end of the end half of the Eklemata level (when you succeed in resurrecting humankind), is to first go into a cavern, slide several hundred feet down an ice-coated slope, and cause an avalanche, temporarily trapping you in (and opening the path from where you had previously been to the end of the level). A good-natured mountain-goat makes a way for you to escape and resume your quest, thankfully.

And let's not even imagine how pissed you'll get if you ''forgot'' what arbitrary condition triggers the EventFlag that makes the door open! it would become SolveTheSoupCans at its absolute worst.

* ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' enjoys doing this greatly. Across the series, there are too many to list.

* ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' has one in the penultimate Soviet mission; the primary objective is to capture the Allied Chronosphere with an Engineer. Because of a glitch in the original PC version of the game, actually doing this will cause the Chronosphere to explode and terminate the mission. The player has to deliberately fail by blowing up the Chronosphere without capturing it in order to advance.
** The Windows version may be even worse:
*** In the antepenultimate mission, your objective is capturing the Chronosphere, but if you do the mission immediately fails with no explanation (it doesn't even explode): What you really have to do is destroy the enemy base and the chronosphere with it.
*** In the penultimate mission, you have to capture three battle labs to disable the Chronosphere's self-destruct. Then it explodes anyway for plot reasons, mission accomplished.

* Taken to extremes in ''[[VideoGame/DarkSeed2 Dark Seed 2]]'': every time you try to open the protagonist's closet, he'll inform you it's locked. Until later on you get a flashback ''very'' late in the game via a fortune teller session to his childhood where his mother decided to placate her son's fears of the "monsters" in said closet by ''pretending'' to lock it. When you open the closet, it has a ''portal'' to the place where one of the three PlotCoupons is held. And yet you HAVE to go through this sequence of events just because the protagonist doesn't even try THE DOORKNOB. To add insult to injury, if he mentions this to his mother, she will ''mock him'' for having assumed the door was locked all these years.

* Taken to extremes in ''[[VideoGame/DarkSeed 2 Dark Seed 2]]'': every time you try to open the protagonist's closet, he'll inform you it's locked. Until later on you get a flashback ''very'' late in the game via a fortune teller session to his childhood where his mother decided to placate her son's fears of the "monsters" in said closet by ''pretending'' to lock it. When you open the closet, it has a ''portal'' to the place where one of the three PlotCoupons is held. And yet you HAVE to go through this sequence of events just because the protagonist doesn't even try THE DOORKNOB. To add insult to injury, if he mentions this to his mother, she will ''mock him'' for having assumed the door was locked all these years.

** [[ZeroContextExample Care to list just a few examples, then?]]

* Taken to extremes in ''DarkSeed 2'': every time you try to open the protagonist's closet, he'll inform you it's locked. Until later on you get a flashback ''very'' late in the game via a fortune teller session to his childhood where his mother decided to placate her son's fears of the "monsters" in said closet by ''pretending'' to lock it. When you open the closet, it has a ''portal'' to the place where one of the three PlotCoupons is held. And yet you HAVE to go through this sequence of events just because the protagonist doesn't even try THE DOORKNOB. To add insult to injury, if he mentions this to his mother, she will ''mock him'' for having assumed the door was locked all these years.

* An infuriatingly stupid example in ''DarkSeed 2'': every time you try to open the protagonist's closet, he'll inform you it's locked. Until later on you get a flashback ''very'' late in the game via a fortune teller session to his childhood where his mother decided to placate her son's fears of the "monsters" in said closet by ''pretending'' to lock it. When you open the closet, it has a ''portal'' to the place where one of the three PlotCoupons is held. And yet you HAVE to go through this sequence of events just because the protagonist doesn't even try THE DOORKNOB. To add insult to injury, if he mentions this to his mother, she will ''mock him'' for having assumed the door was locked all these years.

* In ''Futurama: The Video Game'', you are asked to obtain an hammer at the beginning of the game, the only hammer around is under a dangerously lethal amount of crates and heavy objects. Of course taking the hammer would mean being crushed. So players would often find a way to get the hammer without grabbing it. After running around one would decide to take the hammer, the boxes fall and Fry is dead, along a game over. This however, was just a way of introducing the lives/game over mechanic, as Fry is brought back to life by the Professor with his new invention.

** In ''MetroidPrime 3: Corruption'', there was an energy generator which you needed to call your ship in to destroy - which was guarded by two glaringly obvious anti-air cannons. The forward path would not open until you foolishly called your ship in for a bombing run, getting it damaged and having your advisor inform you that you first need to disable the cannons.

* In ''MetroidPrime 3: Corruption'', there was an energy generator which you needed to call your ship in to destroy - which was guarded by two glaringly obvious anti-air cannons. The forward path would not open until you foolishly called your ship in for a bombing run, getting it damaged and having your advisor inform you that you first need to disable the cannons.
** That same sequence provides a second example, in that the doors which quite obviously lead to the two cannons you have just been told to destroy are locked. Nothing the player does will unlock them, and they can't be opened until the player gives up and tries to leave; at that point, the doors open up so that enemies can come through and attack you.
* Sequence breaking in ''{{Metroid}}: Zero Mission''? After pulling off a series of bomb jumps to bypass getting the power grip, a barrier that can only be destroyed by bugs not found in the area is put in front of the door.

* ''{{Fatal Frame}}'' takes it to a whole new level. At one point in the second game you need to find a key to free your sister from a cell she's locked in. The game explicitly tells you which house to look in but doesn't allow you to find the key without talking to [[WhiteHairedPrettyBoy Itsuki]] first and letting him tell you where exactly the key is. The worst part? If you're replaying the game, you are still supposed to talk to him in order for the key to appear.

* In one of the side episodes of ''PokemonMysteryDungeon: Explorers of Sky'', [[ADayInTheLimelight Team Charm]] explores a famously impenetrable dungeon. At one point they face a branching area with a path on each side. There's a third path in the room, requiring the explorers to walk through an illusionary wall, but it'll be nothing more than a standard wall until you've already taken both other paths.

* The ''Left4Dead'' series is full of these. The survivors know that certain things like emergency exit doors, rusty elevators, etc will make ton of noise and attract hordes of zombies, but they activate the things anyway to proceed.

This might not seem like such a bad idea at first, especially if the game is exploration-based. [[SarcasmMode Maybe it's your first time looking at ice cubes]], or maybe the game wants to make sure you mark that blocked passage on your map. A worse variant is if the door down path B is locked with a seemingly solvable combination lock puzzle, causing you to fruitlessly try and unlock it for ages, ignorant of the fact that only visiting the dead end will cause the puzzle to actually unlock the door.