History Main / ScriptBreaking

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has a visual example. The main villain of Part 2 takes Lucia hostage at one point and cuts off her hair to send to Elincia as proof that he has her. As such, she has two different models in her starting class, Swordmaster, one with long hair and one with short hair, but only a short-haired model for her third-tier class, Trueblade. The NA and PAL releases, however, added in the ability to promote by reaching Level 21 (the Japanese version only allowed units to promote using items that don't start appearing until Part 3), and if you're playing on Easy and allow Lucia to solo the one chapter in Part 2 that she's available for, it's ''just'' barely possible to promote her in Part 2, while her hair should still be long.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', Paralogues 2 and 4 involve a mini-arc with ThoseTwoBadGuys Vincent and Victor. You fight Vincent in 2, and Victor seeks to avenge his death in 4. Except Paralogues can be completed in any order, meaning it's possible to do the latter first. In a case of DevelopersForesight, the dialogue changes in accordance with the order they are completed.

** It was formerly possible to get the PacifistRun GoldenEnding despite having killed monsters. Due to a glitch, starting the "befriend Alphys" sidequest and going back to the Core let you still fight and kill monsters. This causes a PlotHole because [[spoiler:the BigBad ostensibly needs to steal the SOUL of ''literally'' every monster in the Underground to complete ThePlan on this route]], but the actual ending plays out normally. This is because, after starting the Golden Ending route, the game stops checking if you've killed anyone. A patch eventually got rid of this by removing all RandomEncounters except for the ones in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, [[spoiler:all of which are unkillable by design]].

* All boss encounters in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' follow a script that determines their attack patterns and said patterns change based on the target's remaining HP and/or after a certain amount of time passes. Parties that can pump out high amounts of damage very quickly can make the boss skip a phase and move onto the next one, which effectively makes the fight quicker to complete. In the early days of the game, script breaking (unintentionally or not) could cause the boss to completely break and not attack the party. While attacking a broken enemy would be a free win, it's a very quick way to get suspended or even banned for abusing the exploit.

** Similarly, at one point the player will come across two men, on a rock, one injured. A small little scene will take place and summon three Antlions at once. If the player is extremely lucky and skilled, they can kill the antlions when they pop up before they are able to do anything, but the injured man will die regardless. I guess one of "the greatest minds of our generation" can not be saved.
** Late in the game the player can carry a turret into a room where an NPC ally is being held captive. The turret is hostile to the ally, and will open fire. For some reason this NPC lacks GameplayAllyImmortality and can be killed by the turret, which prevents the game from advancing further.

** In the second-gen games, using a "Walk Through Walls" VideoGame/GameShark code and walking up to sprites you are not supposed to touch will either make the sprites say "object event" or crash the game. The same thing happens in the first gen games too, and you can encounter some [[TheMissingno pretty bizarre glitch trainer battles]] with it. You can also break sequence in both Game Boy titles and get into Pokémon battles without actually having any pokemon in your party, which also results in funky (and game-breaking) glitches.

->''"You used your [[WarpWhistle escapipe]]! Normally a smart move, [[GameBreakingBug but now I'm afraid]] [[UnwinnableByMistake the game can't be continued]]. [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits Please press the Reset Button]] and try again."''
-->-- '''The King''', ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'', after you escape from prison [[DevelopersForesight the unauthorized way.]]

** In first gen games, you're supposed to get a drink from the vending machine in Celadon before you can enter Saffron. However, if you have ''Pokémon Stadium 2'' and use a transfer pack, you can transfer a drink to one game from another and enter Saffron as soon as you reached Cerulean. When the Remakes came out, Pokémon could now hold items, so you could give a drink to a Pokémon and then trade it...[[ObviousRulePatch which is why you now need a key item to get past the guards.]]

->''"You used your [[WarpWhistle escapipe]]! Normally a smart move, [[GameBreakingBug but now I'm afraid]] [[UnwinnableByMistake the game can't be continued]]. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

->''"You used your escapipe! Normally a smart move, [[GameBreakingBug but now I'm afraid]] [[UnwinnableByMistake the game can't be continued]]. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

->''"You used your escapipe! Normally a smart move, [[GameBreakingBug but now I'm afraid the game can't be continued]]. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

->''"You used your escapipe! Normally a smart move, but now I'm afraid the game can't be continued. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

** Notably, the game actually [[DevelopersForesight gives you an achievement]] for doing this (and many other sequence breals).

** In ''Freespace 2'', there's a mission where you're supposed to destroy some of the Sathanas' main guns to give the Colossus a fighting chance. It's possible to destroy ''all'' guns, which makes the next mission hilarious: The Colossus sticks to it's script and delivers paniced damage reports even if it's receiving ''no'' damage.

* By using a collision detection error, it is possible to get a few Pearls earlier than you're supposed to in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil.'' This isn't script-breaking in and of itself... But if you hunt for all the Pearls possible at that point in the game, it ends up giving you ''just enough'' Pearls to purchase the next hovercraft upgrade, the Jump Booster, which you aren't supposed to be able to do until after you've been to the Factory area. If you attempt to go to the next area, the Slaughterhouse, without visiting the Factory, the game gets rather confused--dialogue for Double H appears, even though he's technically still trapped in the Factory, referencing events in cutscenes you haven't seen, and Pey'j mysteriously vanishes. If you make it through Slaughterhouse Road and attempt to dock at the other side, the game freezes up--presumably because it has no idea just who the heck is your partner anymore. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEoHrHOGXkw&feature=PlayList&p=BEBF60EB7C4160A9&index=0 A video demonstration.]]

** Notably, the game actually [[DeveloperForesight gives you an achievement]] for doing this (and many other sequence breals).

* ''VideoGame/{{Maelstrom}}'' had at least 2 moments where {{terraforming}} (raising or lowering terrain) could be used to screw with the game. In one mission the player had to move a group of units through a half flooded ruined city. The usual way was to use terraforming to create bridges between the small island in this area to go around and end up on top of a small cliff. Or, since the player had lots of energy resource, you could just raise a gigantic ramp to the top of the cliff from one of the first islands, bypassing a few event triggers and confusing this missions objective system. In another mission the player had to destroy a few alien bases in a mountainous region. The map was divided by a few mountain ranges with several valleys in them for ground units. Since the aliens have no terraforming or flying transports, the player could just raise walls in the valleys to cut of his part of the map from alien ground units.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight II]]'' if you kill Tavion not the usual way, by accumulating damage, but by tossing her off a cliff (ridiculously hard to do, because they were almost always immune to Force Push) the cutscene that plays afterwards, where Kyle is supposed to threaten Tavion, playFs out as normal, except without Tavion. At one point, Kyle is suspending Tavion in mid-air with the Force Choke ability, thinks better of it, and drops her. At which point Tavion fell out of midair, back into the scene.

** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', you can have supports refer to events that haven't yet happened, most notably in Matthew and Serra's level A support, in which [[spoiler: Matthew is still grieving over Leila's death]], but the conversation can be triggered before [[spoiler: Leila dies]].

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', on a Light Side run through the Star Forge you encounter Bastilla a second time, which is supposed to be your opportunity to save her. You can choose instead to kill her, and the game will confirm her death in the usual manner... though it won't change the fact that she somehow shows up alive and well in the ending sequence.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'' checks to see if you've beaten a section by crossing a trigger. However, it checks for ''any'' trigger. One those rare occasions where you can go backwards through the level, it is possible to advance by retreating.

->''"You used your escapipe! Normally a smart move, but now [[UnWinnable I'm afraid the game can't be continued]]. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

** Killing such people as Joe Greene and the caretaker before you're asked to results in JC Denton telling them he offed them already - Dowd and Philbin will remark that you're ProperlyParanoid.

* In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'', buying an [[EscapeRope escapipe]] (which requires selling your starting gear) and using it after you get thrown in the dungeons will return you to the first town, but prevent you from advancing the plot any further as it requires you to fight your way out. Talk to the King afterward and he gives the page quote at the top, indicating that [[DevelopersForesight the developers predicted some wiseguy would try it]].

* This happens in ''Phantasy Star 2'' if you kill the security bots coming to arrest you by cheating, after which you can no longer progress through the plot.

->''"You used your escapipe! Normally a smart move, but now I'm afraid the game can't be continued. Please press the Reset Button and try again."''

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' is (in)famous for its many bugs. Being a sandbox game, the player can kill pretty much everyone. Inevitably, a main quest-critical NPC could be inadvertently killed by the player. Usually, killing an important NPC will display a small message indicating that the main quest is now unbeatable. However, many lesser [=NPCs=] do not display that message when eliminated (try killing members of the three houses, such as Dren).
** Averted in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''. Important [=NPCs=] cannot be killed, only temporarily knocked unconscious. While the game cannot be rendered unwinnable, it also lost much in immersion.

** User-created mods are sometimes plagued with "talk triggers" not activating. When the player is meant to be able to advance conversation with an NPC, they are given a "talk trigger" to ask something new. These can break -- by no fault of the player -- rendering the quest impossible to continue.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', it's possible for this trope to occur when first entering Solitude. [[spoiler:A public execution will be happening, and while it's possible to kill the executioner, the man to be executed still dies regardless. Most notable is that the man to be executed can get up and run away, only to drop dead with his head cut off moments later.]]