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The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.

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Daefaroth Since: Jan, 2014
2016-08-30 10:28:45

If the water is solely there the protect you from getting hurt or killed in a tough platforming sequence that would fall under Anti-Frustration Features

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Unsung Since: Jun, 2016
2016-08-30 10:58:42

What the OP is talking about is probably common enough to deserve its own trope if it doesn't already have one. It's not necessarily water, but rather any such walk of shame where you fail the platforming challenge. Rather than just kill you, you're dropped into a little closed-off area that funnels you back to the beginning of the platform puzzle and forces you to try again. If anything, this even more common in non-platforming games. FPS and 3PS games in particular do this a lot— Tomb Raider and Portal come to mind. It's less frustrating than starting the whole level over again, I suppose. Then again, they could just set a checkpoint at the beginning of the platforming area and kill you, like an actual platforming game would do.

I suppose it's to give you time to cool down and think, which is fine for games where those elements are done relatively well. When they're not, however...

This usually shows up earlier on, so you can get used to the idea of platforming, before they take away the training wheels and start filling the space below with acid, lava, Grimy Water, bottomless drops into the distance fog, etc.

TLP it?

Edited by Unsung
HeraldAlberich (Before Recorded History)
2016-08-30 19:19:33

^ When used as an easier version of a later hard challenge, it's an Antepiece.

Edited by HeraldAlberich
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