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openNPC Roundup Sidequest Videogame
It's a subtype of the Fetch Quest that's a close cousin to the Herding Mission, but doesn't hit the same beats: One NPC is waiting for a group of others, and you need to find them all, talk to them, and send them back home. Some might be hiding out of sight, or require solving a puzzle to reach. In some cases they'll need to be convinced to head back, which leads to smaller sidequests nested within this sidequest.
You'll commonly see it as a parent waiting for their children to return home, or a boss whose workers have gone missing (especially if a Broken Bridge needs a whole crew to repair).
Comparing it to the tropes I looked at:
- It's distinct from the standard Fetch Quest, because gathering up Plot Coupons is usually more straightforward than playing a whole game of NPC Hide-And-Seek. After all, we expect (or hope) that an NPC is smarter than your standard inventory item, and so finding each one is usually its own little challenge.
- However, it's different from a typical Herding Mission, where the challenge is the minigame of getting the animal back to where it belongs. In these sidequests, once you've found the NPC and interacted with them, they'll usually just head to the destination on their own.
- Ditto on the Escort Mission. Or, well, on that note... sometimes they will actually follow you around (gathering troops in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth comes to mind), but this won't be part of the challenge. It'll be more of an abstract progress meter, if anything.
- It actually has a lot in common with Putting the Band Back Together, especially if the missing NPCs have enough character development. However, that's a trope for a whole narrative genre, whereas this is more about the mechanics of a quest setup.
openPopular dip Videogame
Is there a trope for tabletop games or video games where a particular Character Class is considered rather subpar and advised against as a dedicated path, but on the other hand is rather popular as a "dip", i.e. taking just the first few levels of it for substantial advantages?
resolved Unlabeled Sequel Title Confusion Videogame
- Detective Grimoire: The series has had an inconsistent naming scheme that has caused some people to be unaware of the first and/or second games.
- The first game was simply titled Detective Grimoire. However, it is a Flash game; therefore, nowadays the easiest way to play it is on Newgrounds using the Newgrounds player.
- The second game was released on Steam, making it more accessible and mainstream. The game is officially titled Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp. However, the game is listed on Steam as Detective Grimoire, making it seem like this is the first game, when it actually isn't.
- The third game was also released on Steam. While its official title is Detective Grimoire: Tangle Tower, it is listed on Steam as Tangle Tower, which has led people to think it's a standalone product, unaware of the first two games.
EDIT: I just discovered Sequel Displacement, which I think fits this example best.
Edited by DrNoPumaopenRich girl with a decent money head looking into expenses and being stunned Videogame
Also called, as I jokingly put it 'Tsukuyo discovers adulting/gets sticker shock'
Basically the character involved, while raised rich, is also money minded. She understands hard work and budgeting, she is not the sort of girl who thinks money is endless. And for reasons she and her twin sister are looking to leave their families and live on their own somewhere because both of their lives suck.
However she starts doing some budgeting for how much rent and food would cost and she's incredibly stricken by it.
Looking for a trope that covers this without having Tsukuyo lack a concept of money's values.
It's like I'm in some kind of... TV Tropes...
openPlot revolves around character piecing together important event they forgot Videogame
A character, through some kind of incident, forgets about a critical event. The story revolves around them piecing together what that event was.
For example, in OMORI, the player slowly learns over time how Sunny accidentially murdered Mari in the real world and tried to hide his tracks.
Edited by c1beat7per9minuteopenOne character actually first met another earlier, but didn't really think about it that much Videogame
Like in Grand Theft Auto V where Michael actually first saw Franklin as he gave some directions, but I'm pretty sure that's all he cared at the time. I thought I had to ask because it looks like one trope entry mentioned the part where Franklin got snuck up on is when he got to know him. I put video games because that's where I first noticed this.
Edited by HotScorpionopenHealthbars Lowered Before Fight Videogame
When you fight an enemy but their healthbar has already been lowered when you meet them because they sustaiend wounds offscreen or something
openFan Jargon YMMV maybe? Videogame
From the page for Town of Salem:
- Acronym and Abbreviation Overload: Fans have abbreviated many of the roles and terms down in order to cut typing time in the chat, so much so that chatspeak can look like a foreign language to people who have never played the game before.
'Average Investigator Will: N1 2 FR/JS/VM/HM (RBd) N2 4 DC/DIS/SK/PM (TP'd) N3 8 SP/BM/JA/GA N4 9 VI/VE/MA/PI/AM 3 has no cc
Doesn't seem to count for the trope since it's talking about how the fans talk and not anything in the game itself.
openA game/show's last mission/episode shares the same name as the game/show Videogame
Exactly as the title says. Usually made this way to show things have come full circle and you're in for one of the best endings of all time - Example: Red Dead Redemption 2's final main mission is titled 'Red Dead Redemption'
Edited by MyNameIsRonaldopenSliding Scale Of AI-Player Subordination Videogame
Do we have a trope for games where the in-game AI can receive commands, and carry them out if possible? Often overlaps with Artificial Insolence and Artificial Stupidity.
For instance, in strategy games:
- In Empire Earth, you can mark a spot on the map, and allied AI players will send troops there if they can (or tell you it's not happening).
- In 40K Gladius, putting down a marker causes allied AI to more or less send units there.
- In Red Alert 3, the entire campaign gives you an AI co-commander that can be issued orders but also shares resources. This mechanic is completely absent in the expansion, even in skirmish mode.
- In Warcraft 3, AI allies will inform players of where they're sending their next attack, but can't be given orders.
openDifferent play styles in fighting games Videogame
I can't find a trope for this and am wondering if there is one for when a fighting game has different selectable playstyles with their own pros and cons.
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 is one of the earliest examples with their -ISM system. X-ISM, which is based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, is the simplest, with a single super meter with only one level, a longer block meter, and additional damage output in exchange for taking more damage per hit. A-ISM, based on Alpha 2, has a three-part super meter giving players control over the strength of their supers, access to Alpha Counters for one super meter stock, and air blocking, but deals less damage than X-ISM and has a shorter block meter. V-ISM, introduced in Alpha 3, cannot use super combos, but instead has access to "Original Combos", a Super Mode that makes it easier to chain attacks into one another. Conversely, it deals the least average damage and has the shortest block meter of all the -ISMs.
- Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark Of The Millennium has its own version of this in the form of its six Grooves:
- C-Groove, based on A-ISM from Alpha 3, has a three-level super meter, and can cancel level-2 supers into level-1 supers. Its subsystems include dashing, rolling, air guarding, counter attacks, and tactical recoveries.
- A-Groove, based on V-ISM from Alpha 3, has a single-level meter that powers Custom Combos, which function in the same way as V-ISM. Its subsystems include dashing, rolling, counter attacks, and safe falling.
- P-Groove, based on Street Fighter III, has a single-level super meter and access to Parrying, providing perfect defense when used well. Its subsystems dashing, small-jumping, and tactical recoveries.
- S-Groove, based on The King of Fighters '94, has the Super Move system which, in addition to allowing the player to manually charge their meter, affords unlimited access to level-1 supers at critical health. Its subsystems include running, dodging, small-jumping, counter attacks, and tactical recoveries.
- N-Groove, based on Advanced Mode from The King of Fighters '98, allows the player to collect stocks from their meter to either execute level-one supers or gain a temporary attack boost. Its subsystems include running, rolling, small-jumping, counter attacks, counter movement, and safe falling.
- K-Groove, based on Samurai Shodown and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, replaces the super meter with a Rage gauge that only fills when taking damage, but provides a powerful temporary attack buff when filled; as well as Just Defend, which can restore health when used properly. Its subsystems include running, small-jumping, and safe falling.
openSequel of alien origin Videogame
The longer a work of fiction goes on, the more likely it becomes that the plot was started by aliens all along or converges to somehow involve aliens from the very beginning. The original installment starts as a standard fantasy settings or has no fictional elements at all and only in the sequels do we find out aliens were involved.
Some well known examples:
Warcraft (The Burning Legion is made up of alien species.)
Doom (Demons were from hell at first but some installments give them alien origin.)
Assassin's Creed (Aliens created modern humans.)
Dragon Ball (In the original series, Goku was just an unusual child in a world of unusual people, Z reveals Goku is an alien sent to Earth with a purpose. Same thing happens to Piccolo who goes from demon in the original series to alien in Z.)
The closest thing I found is Fantasy Aliens, but this doesn't necessary imply any genre shift towards harder science fiction or that the aliens had a deeper impact on the plot or that the aliens were at first described as something other than aliens.
Edited by TriassicSurvivoropenStalling the Fight to Recover Videogame
When the options to recover sources like mana or health are much more effective during a battle than outside it, and there's no real time limit to stop people from staying in a fight too long. This could be because regeneration doesn't happen outside a fight, someone has extremely strong lifesteal abilities, or simply because items can't regenerate while whatever resources used to cast a healing spell can.
Block Tales: The Ice Dagger is an party-wide percentage HP and SP recovery tool that is only usable during a battle, and resources used for it reset every battle, meaning you can't slowly build up resources for it over the course of many battles. There is also no way to heal outside of battle excluding items, which you can only carry 10 of. As a result, it is a viable strategy to leave a single enemy alive just to charge up the Ice Dagger to keep everyone's HP and SP full.
Edited by OffAndSphereopenHUD element where a character observes your gameplay Videogame
This is something I most remember from Peggle, Nubby's Number Factory, and I think techincally Pizza Tower. On the screen, there is a character present, whether it be the main character or a different character, who watches you playing the game in some way, sometimes even reacting to certain events like clearing a level, getting rewards, or losing. Maybe it might be loosely Expressive Health Bar, though it's not exclusively tied to health bars and related progress stuff if I'm interpreting my listed examples right.
Edited by N64HylianopenThing in video game can't actually kill you, just hurt you Videogame
What's the trope for when some dangerous thing in a video game hurts you, but once you have only one hit point left it just stops, and it can't actually kill you? Example: in Star Fox 64 on Solar the ambient heat damages you constantly, but it cant outright kill you, although you're obviously a sitting duck once you're at 1 hp, and actually touching the lava can kill you.
openSubtitles mirroring speech patterns/registers of the original language. Videogame
I first noticed this in Yakuza 0. The Chinese underground doctor speaks Japanese with a thick Mandarin accent
, and the subs for his dialogue are written in an Asian Speekee Engrish-adjacent form*.
The Nikkyo Consortium goon in chapter 12 uses a very formal register of Japanese, including keigo. e.g. "聞く耳を持って下さい。これ以上奥へ進もうとすれば、生きて帰すことは出来ません。"
◊ (notice how "kudasai" is written with kanji for added formalness**) gets translated into English as "Please be rational. If you insist on pressing further, I’m afraid we can’t allow you to live."
Scott Strichart and the localization team could have gone with a one-to-one translation, but went the extra mile to match the speech register in the English subtitles.
Characters who speak in the Kansai dialect, like Majima and Shimano, also have their speech transliterated into a southern U.S. twang for the subs. That specifically is Accent Adaptation, thanks to jormis29 for pointing that out.
Would the other examples be Translation Convention?
*-Long Hua's dialogue in 0 gets the same treatment despite a lack of heavy accent because...reasons? And then in the chronological sequel, Lau Ka Long speaks heavily Canto-accented Japanese, but his English subs get no special treatment.
**-Even though it's supposed to be written as ください after the te form of a verb
, but whatever.
openYMMV trope (I presume) for fan reactions to a ship age that ignores a more serious problem Videogame
So TLDR, because there's context in it, but in the Madoka spin-off Magia Record, you have a fairly visible amount of fans in the west that get up in arms over some specific age gap ships.
Yachiyo and Iroha, and Mifuyu and Alina being the main ones.
Now Japanese versus Western age differences and all that's very much off topic, but I am curious if there's a (I presume YMMV) trope for noting that this reaction is focusing on the age and ignoring some context that makes the ship of Mifuyu and Alina have very different problems. Where it's less 'the older character being paired with someone too young' and more the in-game issue of 'the younger character is not only the older one's boss, but several in-game events show her bullying her older subordinate, insulting her if she gains weight, and otherwise comes off as a abusive partner but the western fanbase can only see that said subordinate is older'.
Feel like there's a solid YMMV point to be made there about that, and curious if there's a trope that fits that.
openEarly Access Videogame
Do we have a trope about the phenomena of Early Access, Open Beta, and things like that? I know we have Beta Test, which describes the development process, but I wasn't able to find early access/open beta as a trope. There's also Perpetual Beta, when the developers never really finish the game, but that's (ideally) not the same thing. However, it's a very popular way of launching PC games in the last 5-10 years, has a lot of success stories and controversy and probably deserves description. I'd be willing to take it to the launchpad.
resolved Weak Unit Niche Videogame
Is there a trope for when a weak unit is used in competitive games because it fills a niche role in the team/meta?
Edited by Awel

My specific examples comes from the FPS/firefighting simulation "Real Heroes: Firefighter" which currently lacks an article here.
At the end of each level there are usual stats displayed like water sprayed, extinguishers used, lowest health reached, etc. But one of these stats named "Dragons Defeated" this is always zero except for the very final story level. Which takes place at an amusement park. The final section of this level has the player character, Probie, "defeat" a malfunctioning animatronic fire-breathing dragon. After finishing off the dragon with your hose the level ends and finally, the end-of-level stats lists: "Dragons Defeated: 1"
Is this statistic trope a thing?