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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openDisguised(?) malware Videogame
A video game is directly messing with your data, especially those who don't belong to it. There was this horror game which tried instilling The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You by moving your personal files. In extreme cases, like the infamous Lose/Lose, it may even threaten your operating system (it puzzles me how modern OS would allow it to, with system files being locked out of even the administrator's access, but who'd take the risk?).
openDisliked plot contrivance for the sake of the game's tutorial at the beginning of the story Videogame
In this case rather than a trope, I'm looking for an audience reaction.
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, the second game in the series, the first case's culprit knocks out Phoenix by hitting him on the head with a fire extinguisher and causes him temporary amnesia, as narrative justification for the game's tutorial (namely, this makes Phoenix forget how to present evidence and cross-examine witnesses, so that another character can explain it to him and thus to the player).
Many fans disliked this for being such a blatantly forced way to shoehorn the tutorial by bending the plot over backwards. (Later games dodged the issue either because the player character is a newcomer, e.g. Apollo Justice in his own game; or by making it so the player character is the one explaining things to someone else, like in Spirit of Justice where there hasn't been a proper trial in Khura'in in years, so Phoenix can either remind the Judge how cross-examinations work, or simply demonstrate, thus also letting veteran fans skip the tutorial).
At first I was thinking this might count as an Ass Pull, but that audience reaction's page seems to indicate it's specifically about plot twists, reveals and such that have no proper setup, which isn't quite what's going on here.
So, is there an audience reaction for this example?
openEarth People Videogame
A race of people who are made out of rocks or dirt, or have rocks or dirt incorporated into their biology. I was thinking Rock Monster, but that mainly applies to golems and the like, which usually don't have sapience. I'm talking about a race of people who are as intelligent as regular humans, but are made out of rocks. An iconic example would be the Gorons, a race of rock-like people who live around mountains and volcanoes and even eat rocks as their diet. Their backs are even very clearly rocks. Another example would be the Urayans, who, while looking mostly like humans, have rocks protruding from their skin. Is there a trope for this? Thank you!
Edited by cwallace135openChecking a previously visited area for a reward Videogame
You've defeated a boss, you move on per the plot, and later (can be immediately after if you have the chance to go right back or after some other plot event) you return to the scene of the battle. If you check the spot where the boss was standing, you can pick up an item. There's no plot reason for your return, it's something you just have to choose to do. Often it's an item related to that boss, like a special dropped weapon/item that they used.
Do we have anything for this scenario? I looked through Video Game Rewards and Rewarded with an Index but didn't see anything that quite covered it. It's not an Easter Egg as it's a legitimate item not especially well hidden (in games that have invisible items, it might be one of those). It might be the general ballpark of something like Always Check Behind the Chair, but in this case, it's not a Pixel Hunt through mundane objects to find it, there's meaning to it's placement.
A prime example comes from the Pokémon games where you can often find items where Pre-existing Encounters Pokemon were battled (at least in the generations before pre-existing encounters became the standard) like Sacred Ash where Ho-oh stood or Leftovers where Snorlax was.
resolved Something from a series' later game/installment being used in a remake or interquel? Videogame
I was wondering if there was a trope for this, as something I did always think of is how Xenoblade Chronicles 1's Nintendo Switch remake did something like this.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 introduced a meter of how much longer an enemy would have a Break/Topple/etc status effect on it, showing the player how much time was left before it wore off. This wasn't present in the first game, but was added to the UI when it got remade.
- Similarly, I saw this used in a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fanfic, where a later installment started referring to Stand names in brackets, which was retained for an interquel that was made.
openA character who's only used to buff another character's stats Videogame
Example: In the gacha game "Eversoul", there's a character named Eve, who is classified as a Defender despite her skillset being in line with a Supporter. In battle, she takes on one of two states depending on whether she was the highest in ATK at the start of battle. For this query, I'll be talking about her support state "Bound Soul".
In this state, she links herself with the character with the highest ATK at certain points during combat, for a max duration of 24 seconds, at least until she recasts the skill that does the whole stat check again and the status quo remains the same. She then provides said character with two buffs:
- Bound Soul: Protect - this lets her receive up to 50% damage the character she's linked to receives, and
- Bound Soul: Amplify - this grants the character she's linked to with an ATK buff (up to 50%) and a crit rate buff (up to 30%)
This means that she is a very good character to bring whenever you have a character that can practically clean the battlefield quick, even at low rarity levels. This also means that she is both very vulnerable and that she is almost useless in battle outside of her buff, making a 5v5 match to more of a 4v5.
Are there any gameplay tropes that would fit this character archetype?
Edited by SimplyBartzopenVillain splits himself into separate beings,some of them Heel–Face Turn and don't want to go back Videogame
What is it called when an evil force splits itself for some goal but those parts are independent and might not be evil and fight to exist separately from the whole?
Edited by IndustriousTarsiine
Alleged Number1KirbyFan
openNo saving after the final boss Videogame
Is there a trope for when the game goes back to the last checkpoint after defeating the final boss? Endgame+ appears to be a sub-trope, so this might be a Missing Supertrope if it doesn't already exist.
openAmericans Hate Blazblue: Central Fiction? Videogame
This was brought up a while back, but it was ignored, so I'm submitting it here to see if it's okay. Does this apply to the YMMV page for BlazBlue: Central Fiction?
- Americans Hate Tingle: Many western fans swore against getting the game because of the lack of an English dub (seeing it as a betrayal of both the fans and the actors). That said, the news that the game will have post-launch DLC has some hoping that an English dub will be included.
On one hand, there have been Americans Hate Tingle listings (as well as listings of it's opposite) that applied to entire games. On the other hand, it was removed because the person who removed it felt that it felt too protesty to apply. What do you doods think?. should it be restored?
openWritable books \ Taking notes in videogames Videogame
Cannot find a page, though think it should exist already... Game feature where players can modify text in items such as books, bits of paper, datapads, whatever. Or just have some kind of a journal-screen where they can manage notes and write stuff down.
Examples of book-type thing: -Minecraft has Book and Quill item, in which you can type stuff. You can also name, put the authorship on it and "seal" the book, making it read-only, unmodifiable. It also has signs that you can write 5-6 lines on. -Ultima Online had books that worked pretty much in the same way as Minecraft ones did, sans the "sealing bit". -Mortal Online has this whole book-publishing thing, where you can get your written book to a NPC that would then sell copies of it to other players. It also has this neat thing where you turn book's pages by dragging them with your mouse, and you can even rip the pages out and have them as separate items in your inventory. There also is drawing canvas for drawing things.
Games with journals: -Deus Ex had Notes page where important stuff go to, notes from datapads, passwords, logins, etc., but you can also create and delete notes yourself. -Exanima has similar thing with notes screen. -EVE Online also had this kind of feature. -Pretty sure there is a lot of old RP Gs that had some kind of this.
openSebastian EXE: Gunshot's Awakening Videogame
Sebastian EXE: Gunshot's Awakening is an upcoming Castlevania like fan game by Komiteka Games. It sprite, sound, music player, background rips and more rips using Game Maker 5.3a.
open(Do we have this?) Reboot does the research Videogame
Do we have a trope that refers to the situation where a long running franchise gets a reboot and prominent aspects of the original are less exoticisized or sensationalist while still trying to keep the original spirit? All the examples I can think of are in the video game medium but I'm sure there are others? Examples would be like how Thunder from Killer Instinct goes from an "Injun" caricature to a more specific representation of the Nez Perce people or how the Nazis in Wolfenstein: the New Order went from visual shorthand of "okay to kill because their uniform says so" to a frighteningly accurate depiction of the Third Reich if they had sci-fi weapons.
Edited by Eaglelander_91openIS THERE A TROPE FOR EXPLAINING THE SOURCE OF ALL TECH/MAGIC IN A SETTING? Videogame
I have two examples: Power Stones in Star Ocean TTEOT. If you read the in-game glossary, everything eventually links back to Power Stones, a source of infinite or high efficiency fuel humans discovered. This makes it so the writers can explain all the tech in the universe. See also: The Warp in Warhammer 40K. All mysterious power leads back to the warp, which is written to be unknowable and have no laws, meaning it can be used as whatever macguffin the writers need at the time as well as a source any writer can pull from. If this doesn't exist, how can I make a new trope?
openHuman antagonists who you don't fight AS humans Videogame
This one comes up a lot and it bothers me: when you have a human antagonist but when you finally get to fight them, they turn into a monster of some sort. This is different from a Bait-and-switch boss because for that trope it's generally a different person/creature replacing the boss in question. Similar to Make My Monster Grow, except in this case the person's size doesn't have to change, just their shape. Typically this is done with human antagonists who aren't viable threats to the hero(s), but can often be done with people who would legitimately stand a chance in human form. Example that springs to mind is Credo from Devil May Cry 4, who is shown to be a highly skilled warrior and captain of the holy knights, yet still feels the need to turn into an angel monster to fight you...
Is that a thing already? Because if so I can't find it for the life of me.
openVideo games resetting/uninstalling or worse due to in game actions/inactions. Videogame
Do we have this one? It's where your in game actions or lack thereof means the game literally resets itself/your console/your computer/exits to desktop etc. or the games uninstalls itself/deletes all your saves/both and possibly prevents itself from being reinstalled or in worst case bricks your device.
openDifferening backstories for the same work? Videogame
The manual for the Amiga version
of Turrican describes the main villain, MORGUL, as an ancient creature that spreads nightmares, and it makes it sound like the game is in a fantasy setting. However, the Genesis version's manual
talks about space colonies and mutants and describes MORGUL as a computer. (This one is more in keeping with the actual game.) Do we have a trope for when two versions of something, in this case specifically a manual, have totally different stories?
openUnique Health Bar Videogame
A character's health bar is a nod towards their personality/traits.
For instance, An Always Second Best character with a Inferiority Superiority Complex has only 490HP while all their companions have 500HP.
Edited by SentinelMajoropenThe change ruined the point Videogame
So this is a bit of a specific example but I'm sure there are more like this
There are cases in some pieces of media where they find themselves in a sticky situation story-wise, only to add a change which ruins an aspect of a part of said work when they didn't have to, only for them to then introduce another plot element that still lands them in that sticky situation that they tried to avoid in the first place?
So for example; Fire Emblem Fates. The main selling point of the story is whether or not Corrin sides with their supposed blood family, or their adoptive family. However, as Corrin can romance pretty much everyone, to avoid any form of incestuous implications they made it so the "blood family" isn't actually blood-related. Not only does this defeat the point of siding with them in the first place, but they then made it so the Developers' Desired Date - Azura - IS blood-related, making the whole incest-avoidance aspect pointless. Granted, Azura and Corrin are cousins, which isn't AS bad as siblings, but it's still pretty bad!
Edited by Toffolusopenwater lightning Videogame
Sorry, 1st time I'm actually using this.
Does anyone if there's a trope where a hydro kinetic user uses lightning in their repertoire?
Kinda like Starmie from Pokemon being able to used Thunderbolt or Poseidon/Neptune using lightning from his trident?
Edited by agent-trunks

Any game where you can technically roll credits very quickly, but this is usually considered the "wrong" way to play.