But Thou Must / Action-Adventure Games

But Thou Must! in action-adventure video games.

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Examples where giving the "wrong" answer makes it impossible to proceed until you give the "right" answer (including giving Non-Standard Game Overs):

• The Big Bad of Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django gives you the option to join him before the battle, and choosing yes earns you a superimposed image of Django's vampire self across the screen along with a Nonstandard Game Over. There's also an Easter Egg late in the game where Lita offers to let you suck her blood, where choosing yes gets a similar ending.
• Brave Fencer Musashi did this at least twice.
  • When Steward asks you to rescue the princess, if you choose "No", he literally says, "But Thou Must".
  • After you agree to save the princess, Steward asks you to visit the library before leaving. If you say no, Steward hints you're either lazy or stupid, and asks you again. If you say "no" at least once, Musashi responds exasperatedly that he will go to the library, but if he says "yes" the first time, he remarks that it's actually a good idea.
• After you defeat Curly Brace in Cave Story, she asks if you're there to kill her and the Mimigas. The game does allow you to proceed for a bit afterward, regardless of your answer — but you eventually reach a point where you can't proceed without returning a dog to Jenka, and you can't take this dog from Curly's house until you tell her that you don't intend to kill her.
• Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora: Quoted directly by Frankie if the player tries to leave Jones's office before she answers the phone (thus starting off the story).
• If you are dating Amane in Judgment, you'll eventually get a scene where a Yakuza will attempt to bribe Yagami with two million yen to stop seeing her. Even if you planned on rejecting Amane's love confession, Yagami is not allowed to accept the bribe, and the question will be asked repeatedly until you choose to not take it.
• At the end of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, in a fit of rage against the Sarafan he once idolized, Raziel takes up the physical Reaver, mixing it with the wraith blade he's been using since and uses it to butcher the Sarafan. If the player attempts to drop the weapon for more of a challenge, Raziel can't since his hand seems to unconsciously grip the Reaver tighter. You've got no choice but to use the Reaver.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
    • Princess Zelda does it, among others. In her case, she actually reacts to your refusal, but then the conversation loops right back to the same question.
    • Also, in the same game if you say "No" when the Great Deku Tree asks if you're ready to enter him and fight the evils inside, he'll assume that you want to train some more and not open up until you talk to him again.
  • In the color version of Link's Awakening, if you say "no" enough times to the photographer, you get an alternate photo in which you're knocked out. Also inverted if you find Papahl lost in the mountains before you obtain the pineapple to give him, where your choices when he asks for food are "Nope" and "Can't".
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask:
    • In the Astral Observatory, you can look through the old man's telescope by talking to him. He asks you if you want to look through it first, and you can refuse. He'll take it well. However, speak to him as Deku Link and he won't take no for an answer.
    • If you say "No" when Kafei asks if you can keep a secret he'll say "Listen, when someone asks you that, you say yes."
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, whenever a character gives you a "secret" (a password to access something in the other game), if you say no to whether or not you'll accept it, they'll just ask the question again until you say yes. Also, in Oracle of Ages, if you refuse to give the Gorons the Bomb Flower to save the elder who's crushed under a pile of rocks, the Goron will say that the elder will die without it, and then repeat if you refuse again. Something similar happens if you refuse to save King Zora by giving him a Magic Potion.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Batreaux is fairly resolved that you will help him find Gratitude Crystals. If you refuse, he says "Please, gentle sir! I beg you. Do not make me bend my wings and grovel." Responding "No chance!" just repeats the dialogue.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Link wakes up to find a weird guy in a mask - Ravio - asking to stay with him. You can tell him to get lost, but it doesn't work; he'll beg, plead, and grovel until you give in.
• NieR:
  • At the end of part one, when Kainé is blocking the door in the library that holds a giant regenerating Shade, you are given the option of petrifying her, or not. The game will not continue until you choose to petrify her.
  • Also when meeting Grimoire Weiss, you gotta pick him up and agree to make a deal or else the Shades will never stop spawning.
• Ōkami does this a lot, played for some jokes as Issun, your sidekick, expects you to say "no" almost every time.
  • Amusingly, if you say 'No' to Queen Himiko about calming the Water Dragon down, she'll then say "But... you must!".
• Psychonauts:
  • Ford Cruller asks you if you want to be an agent for him. If you select the No option, he just smacks you and says "How 'bout now?".
  • In Sasha Nein's level, the latter tells you to shoot 1000 censors to get your Marksman license and leaves you alone with the adjustable Mook Maker. Even if you try to go the boring route and leave the machine alone, at one point it shuts down, giving you no other option than to turn it to the maximum setting marked with a skull, which naturally causes all hell to break loose. If you were to go back to Sasha's mind, this is revealed to be somewhat justified, as he expected you to overload the system.
• In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, after successfully completing your Roaring Rampage of Rescue through Ashina Castle, Kuro insists that he does not want to return and wants to sever the immortality of the Dragon's Heritage, and asks for your help. If you agree to help, Wolf has on his mind that he has to obey the Iron Code, so you're forced to pick the option to obey the Iron Code and bring Kuro back to progress, only for Kuro to plead harder and then Wolf agree to help him.
• If you want to finish The Sexy Brutale, you need to forgive yourself and let go. Choosing the other option just forces you to go through the final few scenes of the climax again and doesn't show either an ending or the credits.
• At the start of Chapter 2 of the NES game StarTropics, your submarine is hailed by a dolphin who asks you to find her missing son. Your little robotic navigator/dolphin-speak-translator asks if he can tell her you'll do it. Say no all you'd like — you're gonna find that damn dolphin.
• The king of Dotnia in 3D Dot Game Heroes will break the fourth wall to tell you "the story won't advance if you pick that option" when you chose the wrong dialogue choice.
  • Near the end of the game, the Big Bad gives you the option to rule beside him. Agreeing to this (twice, since he was sure you'd turn him down and is in disbelief after the first answer) leads to a Nonstandard Game Over. After beating the Final Boss, if you have found Princess Iris, then she will want to follow you on your next quest. Declining this request prompts a "But Thou Must!" until you finally concede.

Examples where giving the "wrong" answer has little or no effect:

• Subverted in Cave Story; early in the game, a Recurring Boss, Balrog (no relation), asks if you really want to fight with him. It looks like a But Thou Must situation, but if you choose no, he accepts your answer and leaves.
  • At one point, you are asked if you want to escape (and view the worst ending). You can say "yes", but you can still move on and pursue the best ending anyway.
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles offers only these in its Echoes of Time spin-off. Your choice of response typically only changes the very next sentence in the conversion, if that. One conversation is especially bad, and gives you the following options: "Let's hear a song", "Let's hear a song", "Let's hear a song", and "Let's hear a song".
• Most of the Zelda games use it:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
    • The Great Deku Tree asking for Link's help at the beginning of the game will ignore him if he refuses.
      NintendoCapriSun: If you say no, it's a "But Thou Must".
    • When talking to Zelda the first time, she will make a comment if you say "no." Like when she asks you to not tell anyone, if you say no, she says "Don't be a blabbermouth" and asks again.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: At one point, you have to transport a basin of water to Eldin Volcano and pour it into the mouth of a large frog statue in order to proceed. Since the container is rather large, Fi suggests to call for Scrapper the flying Jerkass robot to carry it. If you reply "Not that guy...", Fi delivers this: "Master...unless you plan to carry the tub on your back, now is not the time to be picky about who will help you. I will call for the robot." as Scrapper's silly Leitmotif starts playing.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Prince Sidon requests Link's help with saving Zora's Domain from Divine Beast Vah Ruta. If you respond "I'll think on it," Sidon simply pauses for a moment and says "Was that sufficient time to think? Surely. So let's get to work!"
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: At the end, you're asked to trade the three MacGuffins you've collected in order to save Uncle Mimic. If you refuse, Shantae will say that she doesn't have a choice and hand them over anyway.

Examples where there is no "wrong" answer available to choose:

• ANNO: Mutationem: For several sidequests, some of them end with having to make a choice; i.e. having to identified who committed an Appliance Defenestration or deciding to reveal the location of someone. Regardless of the choice selected, the side-mission will marked complete and the rewards will be given.
• In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, at one point, there's a dialogue where Norschtalen comments that it's odd that Sherlotta has a tail when most people don't, and when she asks your opinion, the only response possible is "Not really". Norschtalen immediately breaks the fourth wall to complain that you only had one option to choose from, and demands you try again with at least three. This time, the three are "Why?", "Nope", and "Seems normal to me".
• When entering the final boss room in Hotline Miami, Jackett will throw away any weapon he's currently holding, even if you are wearing a mask like Dennis or Richter that gives you a weapon from the start. You're forced to use the trophy to fight the boss.
• In early versions of Iji, you have to kill two of the bosses, even if you're playing pacifically. From version 1.3 onwards, you can affect plot events that result in their deaths by other means, making it possible to complete the game with zero kills.
• In Zelda games:
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, when sage Sahasrahla asks Link if he really wants to find the Master Sword, the player's choices for a response are "Yeah!" and "Of Course!"
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass does this a lot. There's some things Link can't say no to. Even if it's a Creepy Child on a ghost ship asking you to "rescue" her equally creepy sisters.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker generally avoids this by not asking the player for input - instead, Link just nods his head automatically when he's asked to perform the next mission.
  • Happens a few times in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. One is just before battling Byrne:
    Byrne: I can't let you cause any more harm.
    Zelda: Hey, that's what we were going to say! Well... Maybe WE won't let YOU cause any more harm!
    ''(At this point, Link can choose between "Yeah!" and "Right!".
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the player can meet up with Papahl in Tal Tal Heights before obtaining the pineapple that he wants as part of the Chain of Deals. If the pineapple is not in the player's inventory, the only answer choices available in response to his question of whether you can offer him anything to eat are "Nope" and "Can't."
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
    • When Zelda asks you to wake her up thousands of years later, you have the option to answer "Of Course!", "I promise" and "I will".
    • Skyward Sword does this a couple of other places too, and tends to make the answer more about personality than choice, making the above a demonstration that no interpretation of Link could possibly refuse to help Zelda.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds has Ravio asking Link for free room and board. You can say "no", prompting him to beg you. You can say "no" a second time, prompting him to beg further, and this time both of your options amount to "yes".
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes involves Samus crash-landing on Aether, and stumbling into the middle of a war between the Luminoth of Aether, and their trans-dimensional foes the Ing from the planet's evil version, Dark Aether. The Ing have been stealing the energy from Aether, and since Samus accidentally picked up the MacGuffin that allows her to steal it back, she's tasked to return it. Upon having the situation explained to her by U-Mos, the last active Luminoth, he adds that Samus should help because the Ing will soon spread out into the galaxy. You never see anything indicating that they've been researching space travel, and you can't refuse. If you say "screw it" and just hang out by your ship, your suit's "sensors" will occasionally bug you to get to your next objective. And the ship's auto-repair won't make progress until the correct Event Flags are tripped.
• In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, after taking your first fort in the game with your orc army, you have the option of rewarding any of your followers as the new Overlord - except for your lieutenant Brûz the Chopper (who really wants to become the new Overlord). The game doesn't give you the option of selecting him despite him being on the table among all your followers. This results in Brûz betraying Talion and kidnapping his other followers. At the end of the questline, the player is forced to shame Brûz and there is no option out of this.
• Nobody Saves the World: Most of the dialogue options are between two different ways of saying the same thing. For example, upon finding Nostramagus' wand, the game asks if you'd like to give it to Randy; your options are "No" and "Hell no, he's a jerk." A later choice to let Randy apprehend you after acquiring a Plot Coupon is between "No" and "Haha...no," and someone asking if you're allied with Randy lets you say "No" or "A thousand times no."

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