Put On A Bus / Video Games

• In Angry Birds, most games that feature the art style of Angry Birds Toons tend to omit Hal, Bubbles and Stella in order to stay Truer to the Text since Hal and Stella were Adapted Out and Bubbles had an Adaptational Late Appearance. The most notorious case was Angry Birds 2, as the game was a Dolled-Up Installment, these birds where notoriously absent for 4 years until they all came back as Extra Birds as part of the 10th anniversary of the franchise.
• Tennenbaum in BioShock 2. However in the DLC "Minerva's Den, she makes a return, explaining her absence in the second game as her working to get the Thinker out of Rapture.
• Grant DaNasty from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and the DaNasty family line beside brief mentions and a doppelganger boss of him through out the series no one ever talks of him or his family before or after Dracula's Curse. No character has tried to take his place and in other games where Alucard and family members of the other two meet. One of the saddest video game examples as this is now over 30 years since the release of Dracula's Curse. He's not even present for the Castlevania Netflix series, which is an adaptation of Castlevania III ^note  Season 3 does have Trevor and Sypha mention a “Pirate of the Roads” which Warren Ellis confirmed was a throwaway reference to Grant, a gesture that did little to appease fans .
  • There's a fan divide, as while some would say he's a playable character in Castlevania Judgement for the Wii. Others would point out the game has a notable change in his design to the point he's unrecognizable and is treated as it's own isolated story from the main game, meaning at most its lip service to his existence.
  • This is only more notable due to the real history of the Danesti family, which Grant is based off, are cousins and rivals of the the Drăculești/Dracul family where Vlad Tepes III, the basis of Dracula, hails from.
• In Coffee Talk, Freya and Hendry, two of your regulars, are absent for most of Episode 2 to fulfill their dreams. They return towards the end of the game, however. In Freya's case, this is because Fahmi, who wrote her character arc in Episode 1, Died During Production, and half of Episode 2's story had to be rewritten to pay respect to him.
• In the Crash Bandicoot series, Crash's girlfriend Tawna never appeared in any of the main games after the first one, her only reappearance being in a side-game titled Crash Boom Bang. Her disappearance was never explained in-game, but in the now-defunct official website of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, as well as in the manual for the Japanese version of the same, Tawna left Crash to be with Pinstripe Potoroo. There were also rumors of Moral Guardians not liking Tawna's character design having an influence on children (mostly due to her cleavage and body type), thus the developers made a new character to be more kid friendly; Crash's sister, Coco, who is a genius with technology.
  • Eventually, Tawna would reappear in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Granted, this is a version of her from another timeline, but it still counts.
• In Dark Chronicle (aka Dark Cloud 2), Flotsam serves as an early villain, although he's quickly put on a bus early on, not to return until the post-game dungeon.
• Donkey Kong Country: EVERYONE who isn't Donkey Kong, Diddy, Cranky, Funky or Dixie (And almost all the animal friends besides Rambi). Candy, Swanky, Kiddy, Chunky, Lanky, Tiny, and Wrinkly ^note  though likely justified that she's a ghost now , even King K. Rool is long replaced. All just vanished. Contrary to popular belief, Nintendo still owns the characters; they just stopped appearing outside of collectible trophies in Super Smash Bros.. However, Tiny and Swanky have since appeared in Mario Superstar Baseball (the former as a playable character and the latter as a cameo appearance) and K. Rool eventually returned as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• The Hero of Ferelden from Dragon Age: Origins is revealed to disappeared completely by 9:40, explained through letters in Dragon Age: Inquisition as their quest to cure the Calling and grant themselves and fellow Wardens a longer life free of the taint and its negative effects. Subverted in Trespasser if the Warden is in a relationship with Divine Leliana: she allows open romantic relationships within the Chantry, meaning the Warden once again becomes a very public figure to the people of Thedas.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Eight^note Clavicus Vile, Hermaeus Mora, Meridia, Namira, Nocturnal, Peryite, Sanguine, and Vaermina of the 16 Daedric Princes introduced in Daggerfall do not appear in Morrowind. These missing Princes obviously still exist, several of their artifacts appear, and they are mentioned in dialogue and in in-game books, but they do not make an appearance themselves. All of them return for Oblivion.
  • Between Morrowind and Oblivion:
    • Imperial Spymaster of the Blades in Morrowind and the primary Quest Giver for the first act of the main quest, Caius Cosades, has this happen when he is recalled to the Imperial City about halfway through the main quest. To the disappointment of some players, he does not appear in Oblivion despite it taking place in Cyrodiil (the Imperial province) only a few years later. However, Obscure Texts written by designer/developer Ken Rolston seem to indicate that Caius is alive and well following the Oblivion Crisis.
    • Jiub, Morrowind's Ensemble Dark Horse who was a fellow prisoner of the Nerevarine's at the start of the game, is not officially seen or heard from after that in-game. He was popular enough with fans to spawn numerous Game Mods which add him back to the game and Fan Fics based on him. Bethesda got into the act in Oblivion, with rumors indicating that he eradicated the hated Cliff Racers in Morrowind and was made into a Saint as a result. Come Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC, Jiub himself makes an apperance as a spirit trapped in the Soul Cairn after having been soul-trapped during the Oblivion Crisis. He gives the player a quest to collect the scattered volumes of his opus, so that his legend may live on.
    • The Nerevarine, according to rumors in Oblivion, disappears in the years between the times when the games take place. He is said to have gone on an expedition to Akavir and hasn't been heard from since. Additionally, former Tribunal deity Vivec disappears as well, with conflicting reports of him having been taken by the Daedra, killed by the Nerevarine, or escaped into Aetherious, the realm of magic. Due in no small part to the disappearance of these former protectors, Morrowind ends up being particularly hard hit by the Daedric invasion.
• Fahrenheit has Tyler leaving to Florida with his fiancee, Sam. Even if you choose to let him stay in New York, he wouldn't appear in the next chapter.
• Dr. Madison Li in Fallout 3 gets this treatment in the Broken Steel expansion. Once you turn on the purifier, Dr. Li leaves the Capital Wasteland for the Commonwealth, even though she just witnessed a major breakthrough in her work. Fallout 4 sees her resurfacing as one of the head scientists of the Institute, with an option to have her defect back to the Brotherhood of Steel.
• Yugiri in Final Fantasy XIV was introduced as a new character in the main story in patch 2.3 and was supposed to be a bigger support character in the Heavensward scenario. However, Yugiri's voice actress was murdered and the developers put the character on hold out of respect for the voice actress' family. By patch 3.5, the murder case was resolved and a new voice actress was hired, which brought back Yugiri in the story.
• During the Time Skip between the first two Golden Sun games and the third, six of the original eight heroes mysteriously vanish from the plot. Ivan, Mia and Jenna are seemingly just offscreen, given that their children are the new protagonists, but Piers and Felix have gone travelling and Sheba's whereabouts are not even mentioned. Since the game ends with yet another Sequel Hook, we hopefully haven't heard the last of them.
  • Felix, at least, has a good reason for pulling a vanishing act.
• Guilty Gear: Starting with Guilty Gear XX, a good number of characters went missing from the roster for a while.
  • Everyone who's not Sol, Ky, That Man or, to a certain extent, Dizzy is completely absent from Guilty Gear 2: Overture, which is part of what made it such a Contested Sequel (along with the Genre Shift into a strategy game).
  • Testament, who was an important character in the first two Guilty Gear games as Justice's right-hand man, went out of the picture since Guilty Gear Xrd. Aside from a very brief cameo prior, it wasn't until Guilty Gear -STRIVE- where Testament returned as the last Season 1 DLC character.
  • Among Xrd's roster, while most of them would make a return in later releases or at least made minor appearances in the game's Story Mode, the most notable total absences were Bridget, whose sole post-XX appearance was in the Vastedge pachinko game, and A.B.A, who disappeared completely just after XX Accent Core Plus finally gave her her own Story Mode route. Bridget would eventually return to -STRIVE- as the first Season 2 DLC character, and likewise for A.B.A as the third Season 3 DLC character.
  • Dizzy, Johnny, Jam, and Slayer are put a bus for Guilty Gear -STRIVE- despite most of the other Xrd cast returning. Anji gets off the bus, and is playable for first time since Guilty Gear XX making this the first time he’s appeared without his partner Baiken (until she was added as DLC, at least). Johnny would return to -STRIVE- as the first Season 3 DLC character.
• In the first .Hack:// games for PS2, in volume 2 Mistral admits she is nearing the end of her pregnancy and can't do anything stressful so she has to log off for a while. She is not seen or heard from again until she magically reappears in the 4th volume. Aura pulls this as well, appearing frequently in volumes 1 and several times in 2, but seems to have forgotten to aid you in your quest in 3 and only appears a couple times in 4.
  • .hack//G.U. does this with the majority of the characters in the game who are not Morganna factors or turned into Lost Ones. Although all of the characters are still selectable and can be adventured with at any time, none of the majority of them, for example Matsu, will ever have importance in the story again until the end of the 3rd game, and then it's optional.
• Half-Life
  • Gordon Freeman, the hero of the original Half-Life, is put away in the end, and in the end of Half-Life 2.
  • In the end of Half-Life: Opposing Force, G-Man stores the main character, Adrian Shephard away for an undisclosed period of time. This allows for reinstating the character in any future story, even if it is in a completely different era.
  • At the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Gordon's security guard-buddy Barney Calhoun is put on a train at the end of the game. He does not appear in Episode 2, nor is he mentioned.
• The King of Fighters:
  • Jhun Hoon gets run over by a car in-between 2000 and 2001, thus rendering him unable to participate in the latter. He recovers in time for 2003, but hasn't been playable since.
  • Both Ángel and K9999 cut their losses and abandon NESTS at the end of 2001. The former reappears in XIV, and the latter in turn in XV, although under the contrived identity of Krohnen to escape any chance of a repeat of what happened to him for 20 years.
  • Chizuru Kagura loses her powers during the climax of 2003, and having lost her capability for combat, spends the next few games on the sidelines. Once she regains her powers, she returns for XV.
  • Takuma Sakazaki gets beaten to unconsciousness in his own dojo at the end of 2003. As a result, he misses out on XI - and while he did become playable again in XIII, he has gone back to being an NPC since.
  • Likewise, Shingo Yabuki is assaulted by Orochi Iori in the end of XI and spends the entirety of XIII recuperating from his injuries. He comes back in XV as a DLC character.
  • Team Samurai's story in XV begins with both Mui Mui and Love Heart, who appeared in XIV, returning to their home dimensions. And with SNK selling off their pachinko assets, they are unlikely to come back.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Riku, who is constantly appearing and re-appearing throughout the series, and changes his outfit and role almost every time.
  • Aqua in regards to the rest of the series after prequel Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Eraqus and Vanitas are killed, and Braig is still around as Xigbar. Terra and Master Xehanort are still around as Xehanort/Xemnas (sort of, it's Terra's body and both their hearts, but amnesiac) and Ven is still sort of around as Roxas. However Aqua was trapped in the Dark Realm and has no alternate form so she's completely cut out of the story. Everything hints that she'll be making a return though once the series get back on track.
  • This also happened to Sora in 358/2 Days. It's justified due to the story, though.
  • All the Final Fantasy characters drop off the face of the earth in Kingdom Hearts III as Tetsuya Nomura elected to put his original characters over recurring ones. FF characters only cameo as toy boxes in Toy Story world.
• Love & Pies: Towards the end of Day 12, Joe tells Amelia that he'd be going on a two-day baker's retreat. She gets worried about how the café would do without him, but he tells her that he'll only go if she's alright with it. He reassures her that her friends and family will take care of her while he's out, and he hugs her before he leaves.
• Later MechWarrior games have left Clan mechs out; the creators probably don't want them to be gamebreakers to Inner Sphere mechs.
• Mega Man:
  • A number of characters have disappeared throughout the Mega Man X series. Dr. Cain vanished after the third game, with some implications that he retired and eventually died offscreen, and the Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X timeline retcons that he was killed before the game even started. Both Douglas and Dynamo disappear without explanation after the sixth game, and the Lifesaver Reploids only appear in the fifth.
  • Prairie and the Guardians from Mega Man ZX completely disappear in ZX Advent, though their airship is used by Vent/Aile to help shuttle the player and a few Hunters to Ouroboros.
  • Proto Man and Bass are completely absent from Mega Man 11, not even mentioned outside a single database entry. Duo's appeared in Mega Man 8 and a few other games released around the same time, only to fly off into space and never appear again outside of the occasional subtle cameo. King only appeared in Mega Man & Bass and last the player heard from him he was Walking the Earth after his defeat. Cossack and Kalinka more or less vanished after Mega Man 4, though Cossack was mentioned as one of the creators of OVER-1 in Rockman Xover, and more recently Tundra Man from 11 was created by Cossack Robot Laboratories.
  • The remaining Four Guardians completely disappear from the plot after Mega Man Zero 3, though it's later explained in supplementary material that they were all killed at the end of Zero 3 when Omega was destroyed. The Mother Elf similarly flies off at the end of Zero 3 and is completely absent from Zero 4.
• Morden, Allen, and the Rebel Army are nowhere to be found in Metal Slug 5, instead being replaced by a much different terrorist organization called the Ptolemaic Army. Also, Nadia and Trevor, who appeared in the fourth game, are left out of the series following the fifth game, before their reappearance in Defense.
• In Mitsumete Knight R : Daibouken Hen, all characters of the original Mitsumete Knight game save for Sophia, Raizze, Leslie, Hanna, Linda, and Carneau are reduced to mere cameos. Which is really baffling in Priscilla and Anne's cases, as both were poster girls in the original game and vital characters for its plot, as well as being well-liked by the fandom.
• Due to the number of contractors available in PAYDAY2 and the unbalanced distribution of new heists, several of them could be considered 'on the bus', though two have reappeared after long hiatuses already, and one came Back for the Dead.
• Persona 5 Strikers: Like most Persona spinoffs, Igor is absent for unexplained reasons, leaving Lavenza in charge of the Velvet Room. Most of the Confidants from the base game are also gone, but Iwai and Takemi leave signs explaining why they're gone.
• Pokémon:
  • Kanto Elite Four Lorelei is established in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen to have retired to her home in the Sevii Islands, explaining why she's absent from Pokémon Gold and Silver. She hasn't been seen or mentioned since in the mainline continuities.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield saw the removal of the National Dex, meaning that for the first time in series history there would be Pokémon that would not be able to be brought through from other games. Leaks before the release date for the games suggested that the number of bussed Pokémon was upwards of 400, meaning that more than half of existing Pokémon would not be appearing. To help soften the blow, about half of those 400 later came back via DLC updates. As of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Indigo Disk, Patrat, Watchog, Pansage, Simisage, Pansear, Simisear, Panpour, Simipour, and Furfrou are the only Pokémon who have not returned to a main series game since the National Dex removal.
• Many characters including Blackrose, Lady, Bahn, Tron Bonne, Toma and Cyrille, Batsu, Imca and even Kogoro and Mii did not return for Project X Zone 2.
  • In the case of Kogoro and Mii, however, the two are briefly mentioned at the end of Chapter 37 when the group stumbles upon the Koryuji Estate from the first game. It's revealed that Mii is now an intern at Shinra and Kogoro is working as an intelligence agent for Shinra.
• Randal's Monday: Kramer just disappears from the game after he sends you to prison.
• Meta-example - Super Robot Wars X is the first game since Super Robot Wars NEO to not feature any one of Macross Frontier, Dancougar Nova and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny; it also excludes Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and any form of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 for the first time since their respective debuts.
• Resident Evil has the winning distinction putting every single one of its protagonists on a bus at some point, though characters do tend to reappear in REmakes, Mercenary Mode, Crossovers and the light gun Wii games. The five characters who've chronically had the most games and appearances are Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield and Ada Wong thus all five are considered the series mainstays.
  • Rebecca Chambers story-wise is the first protagonist chronologically but despite being a main character of RE0 and RE1 she was never seen again after those game, 21 years later she appears in Resident Evil: Vendetta. Rebecca's lack of appearances can be attributed Shinji Mikami having disdain for her compared to the tougher RE heroines.
  • Billy Cohen, Rebecca's partner from 0, who unlike other examples has official status of "unknown" as he was a escaped convict. Billy's last appearance is Rebecca giving him a chance of freedom by taking his dogtags before he goes off into the wilderness never to be seen or mentioned again.
  • Carlos Oliveira from RE3 is Jill's partner who helped defeat the eponymous Nemesis, is one of the few people to survive the Raccoon City Incident and also seen in Jill's win screen. However post Raccoon City, Carlos is never seen again and Jill doesn't mention him.
  • Bruce McGivern from Resident Evil: Gun Survivor much like the game he starred in, was forgotten quickly. Though he did appear in Namco × Capcom which is something.
  • Although he's often considered the most popular character Leon S. Kennedy was Put on a Bus after RE2 (1998) and didn't appear in a mainline Resident Evil game until RE4 (2004).... since the game was actually released in 2005 Leon was technically absent from the franchise for a total of six years and only mentioned once by Claire in Code Veronica. Ironic since he's one of the most beloved characters nowadays. Leon’s prominence in the CG media has made up for his lack of appearances in the games after RE6 (barring the Resident Evil 2 (Remake) and Resident Evil 4 (Remake) of course)
  • Claire Redfield (Leon's partner) was lucky enough to get a game fairly soon after RE2... however she then vanished for 7 years until her appearance in Resident Evil: Degeneration then Claire was then put on a bus for another 6 years until Resident Evil: Revelations 2. What’s most painful is the knowledge that Claire was actually supposed to Leon’s partner in RE6 but she was pulled out late into development and replaced with Helena so she could be in the aforementioned Revelations 2 two years later meaning Claire’s bus trip got prolonged. Six years laters Claire returns in Netflix’s Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness alongside Leon, the last time they stared together being Degeneration which was 13 years ago, although In-Universe it’s only one year later.
  • Speaking of Revelations 2, that was first time Barry Burton was seen seen since RE1, a whooping 19 years later and it's his only canonically playable appearance.
  • Sherry Birkin first appeared in RE2 as a little girl taken in by Leon and Claire, only to be taken away by The Government after the events of RE2. Sherry only reappeared in RE6 as a grown woman 13 years later, she reunites with Leon (who’s horrified that she's been raised by Simmons all this time). Sherry hasn't appeared with Claire in the games canonically since 1998, which considering their relationship is upsetting. RE6 has some files reveal that Claire got to see Sherry in the between years, but fans unmoved had the Show, Don't Tell response.
  • Technically Chris was put a bus after Code Veronica since (not counting the light gun Wii Game Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles) Chris didn't star in a mainline game for 9 years until RE5. Chris was also absent in both RE2 and RE3 holding out in Paris while his friends and family were in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse. Though after RE5 Chris subsequently appears in RE6, RE7, Vendetta and in Resident Evil Village which more than makes up for his hiatus in which Leon ruled the Resident Evil games and CG movies.
  • Jill is considered the franchise's main Action Girl appearing in more games than Claire, Ada and Rebecca combined so it's quite disconcerting that chronically after RE5 (where she spent most of the game Brainwashed and Crazy and her role taken by Sheva) Jill drops off the face of the earth for the rest of the games. The last we hear of her whereabouts is when Barry in Revelations 2 gets a email from Jill where she says she's bored being stuck in a BSAA lab undergoing treatment and observation for all Bio-Augmentation she went through under Wesker's hand. Fans were quite upset that Jill is still missing in both Village and Infinite Darkness while her costars are returning (although the latter at least has the excuse of being a prequel). Finally averted with Resident Evil: Death Island which after 11 years brings Jill back to star alongside Chris and Rebecca as well as Leon and Claire whom she's never met once or appeared with in canon until now. In-Universe with the film set in 2015, it’s only a 6 year bus trip for Jill since RE5.
  • Even Ada ended up Put on a Bus, as despite being an integral character in RE6, she vanishes completely in the following titles. Even in Resident Evil: Vendetta Leon (who’s smitten with her) makes no mention of her, despite Ada's prominence in the previous CG movie. Ada doesn’t return to join Leon and Claire for the Infinite Darkness series either, with newcomer Shen May seemly filling her role. Ada’s fans might be further miffed to learn she was originally going to appear in Resident Evil Village, but was cut due to “conflicting scenarios”.
  • Being Put on a Bus is the fate of multiple partners in the more recent games e.g Ashley Graham, Sheva Alomar, Parker Luciani, Jessica Sherawat and Helena Harper and Jake Muller. Sheva was meant to appear in Vendetta but Rebecca took her place. Ashley does at the very least make a Precious Photo cameo in Infinite Darkness though.
• Angela Cross from the Ratchet & Clank series. She only appears in Going Commando and is briefly mentioned on a radio broadcast in A Crack In Time. As the only female Lombax in the series, some fans have wondered why she was written out, especially considering the series' focus on Ratchet trying to find out what happened to the rest of his race.
• Sakura Wars: after the fourth game, Sumire Kanzaki would be retired from active duty as a result of her voice actress, Michie Tomizawa, going into semi-retirement following her marriage. An OVA, Sakura Wars: ~Sumire~, would depict Sumire's final mission with the Imperial Combat Revue before her retirement, and she would not appear in the main series again until her return as the Revue's new commander in Sakura Wars (2019).
• Bosco doesn't appear in Sam and Max season 3 due to being on a road trip to Las Vegas. It is later revealed he has a large gambling debt, and is forced to be a male stripper.
• As Bright Noa deliberates during Scenario 20 of the Space Route in Shin Super Robot Wars, Bright gets an unexpected transmission from someone he's never met before: Chief Oka of the Federation Far East Base. He asks if Bright is planning to heed the order he just got to return, and Bright says that he doesn't see any alternative. Oka is adamant that Bright do no such thing, saying that as Bright is well aware, Staff HQ is anything but sane these days. There's no call for Bright to be punished for the whims of a few lunatics, especially since he and his men are one of the few glimmers of hope mankind has left. Bright briefly protests that disobeying would get all his men branded as traitors, but Oka firmly points out that fighting the aliens comes first. He tells Bright to leave things to him and his friends at Staff HQ, though the Reinforce Jr. itself will have to be relinquished.
  
  Amuro is impressed with Oka, and after all the transfer is complete, Londo Bell decides to go to the Moon. This will fulfill the League Militare's needs and let Amuro pick up the Nu Gundam from its commissioned builders at Anaheim Electronics. Usso Evin is a little sad to see Gomez go, but most of the rest of the crew are still with the Londo Bell.
• A good majority of the characters who had appeared since before Soulcalibur IV have suddenly either vanished without a trace or have successors put in their stead come Soulcalibur V. What drives the knife even further here is that most of the characters that even did make it back get shafted in the story department, and play little to no role in the Story Mode. As one can see, SCV has become something of a Contested Sequel because of this.
  • Some of the disappearances are justifiable though. For example the two Korean characters, Yunseong and Mi-na, have no more reason to seek the Soul Swords (Yunseong's wanted Soul Edge to help win the war against Japan, Mi-na knew the sword was evil and went after him to stop him) - it can be safely assumed that they found out that the war was coming to an end and went home to live out the rest of their lives peacefully. Others however like Talim, Zasalamel and Amy, are just absent from the story with zero explanation as to what happened to them (given Talim and Amy would both be in their early thirties by the events of IV and Zasalamel is immortal, their absence is a real missed opportunity).
    • However it is strongly hinted that Viola is an adult Amy with no memory of her past identity. VI confirms this is indeed the case.
• Splatoon 3: Off the Hook is almost completely missing from the base game^*outside of an in-universe collab with the new band Damp Socks, one Sunken Scroll related to same, and a handful of locker decorations despite being major characters in the previous entry, with the new idol trio Deep Cut taking their place. This is explained in-universe by saying that they're on a world tour, which makes since because they're musicians, but doesn't explain why nobody ever mentions them or seems to care that they're gone. Reassuringly, it was confirmed early on that their bus would come back for the Downloadable Content.
• Elora was an important character in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!. She's missing for most of the third game, despite other characters from her game getting larger roles then before, and only appears in an ending cutscene. She hasn't appeared in any other games since the original trilogy, especially odd since she was Spyro's love interest.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The Koopalings were gone for nearly 10 years before they reappeared in the first Mario & Luigi game. They then disappeared another six years before their next role in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
  • R.O.B. shares the trope in the Mario Kart series (so far).
  • In Toadette's case it seems worse. She hasn't been seen since Mario Super Sluggers... And that's from 2008! Giving the fact that after her introduction in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!!! she appeared in almost every Mario game until Super Sluggers, it seems a little odd. Six years later, and she's back for Mario Kart 8 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.
• Super Robot Wars UX:
  • Unlike the other cases where Gundam SEED Destiny was included, Lacus Clyne is conspicuously absent for the majority of UX's plot, though she appears past chapter 40 (and she did help Arthun behind the scenes as shown in Scenario 22). Justified as she's now PLANT's chairlady.
  • Grandma Virginia and Teacher Collins also never appear after chapter 2.
  • Also Captain Shinobu Igarashi from Linebarrels of Iron only makes one appearance in chapter 40 against Rouri and Kanamoto.
  • Rouri and Kanamoto also, we can presume Rouri died when Asap shot him down, and it's not certain did Kanamoto return to Byston Well too with his Shinden after The Wings of Rean finale.
• A rare literal example occurs in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Charlie Cutter, established as a ass-kicking Brit, has his last scene on a tour guide bus; Chloe Frazer gets put on the same bus. Neither of them appear again in the game; Cutter has never appeared at all. Chloe ends up replaced with Elena Fischer (just like in the second game). This is an example of Real Life Writes the Plot, as Cutter's actor, Graham McTavish, was to be cast in The Hobbit, meaning that he couldn't be around to voice Cutter for the last third of the game, since he was intended to be a part of the whole game. Chloe did, however, return to the series (as a playable character, no less) in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
• At the end of Uncle Albert's Mysterious Island, Tom is brought back to his birth island and doesn't come back in future games, nor is he mentioned again.

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