Stating the Simple Solution in Video Games.
- Inverted in Baldur's Gate II. After having captured you and completed the evil plans he had in store for you, Big Bad Irenicus orders his sister, Psycho for Hire Bodhi, to have you "disposed of" immediately. Bodhi instead exhibits the Bond Villain Stupidity her role is usually set up to lampshade and decides it would be much funnier to have you thrown to the resident Malevolent Architecture in a game of cat and mouse — behind Irenicus's back. The protagonist is even allowed to point out that Irenicus won't be happy if he finds out. Of course, Irenicus could have avoided the mess if he just killed the party himself.
- Batman: Arkham Series:
- Batman: Arkham Origins: At the beginning of the game, Alfred points out that, since no one knows Batman's Secret Identity but Alfred and Batman himself, he could just stay inside for the night to avoid the assassins, since Black Mask's bounty is only good for one night. Batman shoots that down, pointing out that the assassins will just endanger innocent people to lure him out anyway. Batman turns out to be right, and as it turns out, one of the assassins (Bane) does in fact know his identity.
- Batman: Arkham City:
- Batman needs to Find the Cure! for the toxin that is slowly killing himself, the Joker, and dozens of citizens in hospitals. He is frequently sidetracked by having to fight mooks and villains. Joker calls him and orders him to stop wasting time fighting them and just kill them. Of course, Batman does not kill and doesn't listen.
- From an earlier point in Arkham City, Batman contacts Alfred for ways to get into the Joker's hideout in the Steel Mill. Alfred (sarcastically) suggests using the front door, prompting Batman to snark back with "why didn't I think of that?". He then mentions the chimney as a way in but says that it'd be suicide. Batman immediately enters through the chimney.
- Lampshaded in Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle when Keen is surprised that the Gnostic Elders weren't killed instead of just kidnapped. The council page immediately handwaves this by telling him that the elders are immortal.
- Double Switch: At the end of the game, Lyle has Eddie at his mercy, and he asks everyone what should be done with the guy. Brutus says "Just nail him!" However, Lyle ends up activating a trap that sends Eddie flying around a couple of times, and then through a Trap Door, supposedly sending him back to the basement.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- There's a moment when the Scions need to cross a stretch of water, but Urianger can't swim. But it's okay, because thanks to working with a tribe of incredibly dangerous fey, he's devised a spell that should allow him to walk on water. Not only is it pointed out that it would be far easier and less hazardous if he simply learned to swim, but after his spell fails and he has to get pulled back to shore, Y'shtola points out the boat docked just a few feet away.
- Moments later, upon reaching the island-sized whale Bismarck, Urianger is asked to remove some barnacles that had latched onto Bismarck's body. He hems and haws over it for a bit after telling the others what's required, which causes Alisaie to explode at him in frustration, reminding him that she and the Warrior of Light were both blessed with the ability to breathe underwater, and could simply get it done in less time than he would take thinking of another approach.
- Kingdom of Loathing: The obscenely difficult lava maze puzzle in the Nemesis quest has a Puzzle Reset of your character swimming through the lava back to the start, taking a buttload of damage on the way. After using it ten times, it will occur to your character that they could just as easily be swimming to the goal. Their adventurer's instinct notes that they won't get as good of rewards if they do it, though.
- At one point in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword you encounter a pair of Mogmas outside a locked door talking about how its key has been split into five pieces and buried about, and that one piece is nearby. After discussing finding it for some time, one of them then points out that, as a race of mole people, they could just dig under the door and save themselves the effort. The other admits that's a pretty good idea and they do exactly that, leaving the decidedly not mole-like Link to use their info to find the key and get inside.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater:
- Inverted during the fight with Volgin. After the battle stops going his way, Volgin looks up at Ocelot and orders him to shoot Snake. Ocelot replies, "I'm afraid I can't do that. Fight like a man, Volgin."
- In the remakes, the achievement for killing Ocelot and creating a time paradox is "Problem Solved, Series Over." Snake Eater is a prequel, and Ocelot is a major Wild Card with a hand in just about every problem in the series.
- In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, LeChuck captures Guybrush, ties him and Wally up into an extremely elaborate torture device, and explains his plan to have both of them killed. When Guybrush asks why LeChuck didn't shoot him as soon as he came in, he responds: "Because we had an extra disk."
- In Octopath Traveler II, Hikari gets locked in a jail cell at one point, and one of his captors proceeds to let him out so he can go talk to the person he was looking for. A travel banter available immediately afterwards has Osvald disappointed by this, because he'd been planning an overly-complex escape method using the salt in any food they might've gotten to wear out the cell's bars. After stating that would take too long, Hikari points out that Osvald could've just used magic to destroy the bars instead.
- Overwatch: In the A Great Day cinematic, Mauga spends the first half of the mission to retrieve the power core data from a crashed Null Sector ship trying to ask them something. They keep trying to blow him off, only for Mauga to go off and start fighting the Omnics, which leads to a chain of events ending in the ship exploding and Talon missing some of the data. At the end of the cinematic, Mauga reveals that he'd been trying to ask if they could just take the core itself (it fits comfortably into the average person's hands) and sink the ship to cover up the theft. He then parachutes out of the dropship while leaving Sombra with the core.
- In a side conversation in Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the main characters discuss a few potential "simple solutions" to the current mess and decide they probably won't work; tracking down Joker by summoning him again won't work because he could simply choose not to appear, and trying to take advantage of the fact that rumors are coming true by starting a rumor that Joker is easy to defeat won't work because people wouldn't spread a rumor like that.
- In Persona 5, after Black Mask reveals their identity as The Mole in the Phantom Thieves, they also go into a Motive Rant. Black Mask, in essence, is willing to ruin their own life in the name of vengeance against their own personal target, even if it means killing the rest of the Thieves, causing mental shutdowns in dozens of innocent people, causing widespread accidents and destruction, and potentially sending all of Japan into chaos. The rest of the Thieves point out that they were already going to cause a change of heart on Black Mask's target; Black Mask could have just kept helping the Thieves in order to get their revenge, and that Black Mask is betraying the Thieves for nothing. However, Black Mask decides that they've gone too far to turn back now, and attacks the Phantom Thieves.
- Portal 2: In the end, GLaDOS states that she's been ignoring the simple solution of how to get rid of Chell: let her go. Killing Chell has proven itself to be very difficult, has caused GLaDOS no end of problems and Chell's ultimate goal throughout both games has been to leave the testing grounds. So why not just give Chell what she wants and let her go? It's not like a gesture of gratitude or anything.
- Sig's storyline in Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary is about him wondering how to catch bugs if he can't do it with his demonic left hand, and if he can even make his left hand normal. After encounters with other characters who wonder about his red arm and eye, Sig runs into Amitie, who helps him to find a solution to his problem. The two eventually find Ms. Accord, who gives a ridiculously simple solution Sig somehow never thought of - just catch bugs with his right hand instead. An Anti-Climax indeed, but Sig doesn't seem to mind.
- In the first Ronin mission in Saints Row 2, the Saints want to rob a casino controlled and guarded by a rival gang. Pierce comes up with an elaborate multi-stage heist plan reminiscent of Ocean's Eleven. Johnny Gat suggests just walking in, murdering all the guards, and taking whatever they want. Since the Saints are violent sociopaths and not cunning thieves, The Boss picks Option 2.
- In Silent Hill: Downpour you meet the local DJ Bobby Ricks who asks you to find a key for a boat to escape town. Murphy suggests it'd be a lot easier and safer to just hotwire the boat rather than search the town for a key that may not even exist, but Ricks rebukes him almost immediately: The town wants you to play its game and find the key and it doesn't like "cheating" one bit. Cue anonymous caller dedicating a song to Bobby Ricks himself...
- In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Murray is perfectly happy to follow Bentley's overly complicated and convoluted plans as they almost always work without a hitch. However, this is his solution on the rare times said plans go awry: just wreck up the place until the mission succeeds.Murray: Penelope, I've been doing this a long time. If there's one thing I learned, it's that when the plan gets messed up, always fall back on the golden rule.Penelope: Yeah, what's that?Murray: Break stuff!
- Star Trek Online:
- In "Capture the Flag" Gaius Selan and Narrel propose venting plasma onto a Vaadwaur who seems invincible in order to create a vulnerability. Since you're standing in the transporter room at the time your character suggests just beaming him out into space, but Selan says he tried that already.
- In Dust to Dust it's possible to suggest using transporters to bypass the Kobali temple's security measures in your hunt for Keten/Ensign Kim. Captain Kim remarks that it's a good idea... and then, when trying to set it up, realizes that he can't contact his ship (prompting you to remark that the same seems to be true for you and your ship).
- In Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom, if you play as Marisa, she will wonder about how to get the gate to the Netherworld to open up. The Prismriver Sisters then point out that they only need to fly over it.
- Undertale: The game takes place in a kingdom of monsters that is sealed underground by a magical barrier, which can only be crossed by a monster that has a human soul, or broken by the power of seven human souls. In the True Pacifist ending, Toriel chastises Asgore for waiting until seven humans fell into the underground, instead of crossing the barrier with the first soul he got and collecting the other six from above ground. It's implied that Asgore was doing this because he was stalling; he really didn't want to kill anyone (or face another war with humanity), but he didn't have the heart to tell his subjects this because of how the idea of breaking the Barrier gave them hope.
- A minor version in World of Warcraft when a paladin gets upset that the caravan he's in keeps making stops instead of continuing to Light's Hope Chapel. Eventually, the senior paladin Argus remarks that they aren't far from the chapel and suggests he simply walk there.
