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 You Know, That Thing Where.
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openSmall open-world missions Videogame
Sometimes in open-world games, you get an alert of a small mission happening nearby. Usually it’s an NPC in danger or a criminal escaping. If you help out and complete the mission, you’ll get a reward (small amount of money, common rank gear, or maybe the happy feeling of helping someone in need.). If you don’t, the bad guy gets away and anyone in danger is dead. However these randomly occur at any time, so you get multiple chances to do these.
They aren’t specific side quests, as they usually only take like 3 minutes to complete
openGame levels/groups of levels can be done in any order Videogame
Is there a trope for this? Typically, there is a true final level that can only be accessed when you've completed all the others, but the rest can be done in any order. For example: in Quake there are four episodes, each with a rune at the end. They can be done in any order, after you complete one you get send back to the Hub Level, and the entrances to the already completed episodes are blocked off. When you've beaten all four, a hole opens in the middle of the Hub Level leading to Shub-Niggurath's pit.
openIndirect Co-op Videogame
You don't play with other people directly, but something of yours is used to help other people.
openCostume/skins variants Videogame
The alternate costumes and/or skins you can equip on your character. They don’t provide any special stats, but purely a change in appearance. (Overwatch, The Avengers, Smash Bros.)
This also applies to the types of games where you can get a special edition of a character with a different appearance (gacha games, Skylanders, etc.)
Edited by BlueBlazesopenRemaining sliver of health Videogame
A boss fight ends not you when kill them, but when you ALMOST kill them
openYour level is too high, so you get no loot Videogame
A game mechanic which denies experience/loot for overleveled characters. It is meant to discourage grinding on monsters/areas inappropriate for your level and force you to move on to more difficult stages.
openLow Health, Screen Turns Red Videogame
A trope where if you are low on health, the screen turns red and/or blood gets on the screen. Usually it starts at the edges and gets more intense and closer to the center the lower on health you are.
Edited by DromeoopenThe game reacts to a certain name Videogame
Just generally is there a trope when the player enters a specfic name and the game will react to it?
openFrustrated by Player's Persistence Videogame
Is there a trope for when the game and/or characters get increasingly frustrated if the player keeps on trying to do something after having been told not to?
openWhen Video Game Developers try to prevent a trope Videogame
its like a defied trope, but by the developers of a game ex: Cenozoic Survival, there's a stress mechanic to keep different species of player characters from grouping up (like a rhino, elk, and smilodon herd) by blurring the screen and making you dehydrate faster if your close to a larger species and/or herbivore
Edited by DromeoopenAnti-Griefing features Videogame
A feature that prevents players from griefing or otherwise annoying other players. The particular example I am looking to attribute this to is a feature where if a herbivore (you play as either a herbivore or carnivore and its multiplayer) dies from another player, a sphere forms around it where carnivores cannot attack to prevent herbivores from "Corpseguarding" (protecting a fellow corpse, there's no in-game incentive to do this other than starving the carnivores) the carnivore's prey.
openYou Can't Die in the Finale Videogame
A video game trope where during the final battle or level it's impossible for the main character to die either due to invincibility or being revived whenever they die. Two examples I can think of are the final boss of Undertale's true pacifist run where whenever you die you revive due to determination or whatever and the final level of Guardians of the Galaxy (2021) where whenever Peter dies he's revived by Groot.
openUnusually hard easy thing Videogame
When something easy to make/do in real life requires a particularly high level of something to do. A quick example is how in Final Fantasy XIV, Lemonade is a level eighty culinarian recipe, which (both at the time of introduction and posting) is max level.
openRecycled mechanic Videogame
A game mechanic is reused in a setting it no longer fits thematically, just because it's more convenient than to introduce a new one.
resolved Cowardly Boss Videogame
Is there a trope for a videogame boss that's considered hard or annoying not because he's deadly, but because he runs/teleports so often it's almost impossible to land a hit on him? So the difficulty for the player isn't really to avoid dying, but to beat him before running out of time or resources?
I mean 'cowardly' not as a characteristic of the character, but as something perceived by players.
openIt's maxed out, now I can't use it Videogame
Do we have a trope for when, in a game with RPG Elements, you finally max out something, only to find that now you can't bring yourself to use it any more because that would be wasting xp you could be using to level up something else? Kind of like the inverse of Too Awesome to Use?
openThe upside is the downside Videogame
Sister trope to The Punishment Is the Crime and Good News, Bad News, though this particular example is definitely not either of those, an option has its pros and cons listed out for you, but they're the same.
- In Dungeonmans most perks have a benefit and a drawback. The World Champion perk has the benefit of causing more Champion-class monsters to spawn in the world (meaning more Champion-class loot). The drawback is also that it causes more Champion-class monsters to spawn (meaning more Champion-class fights).
openGaming Collectibles Videogame
Basically just collectibles in a game. They may serve a practical purpose in one way, while they're just simply rewards in another. The Trophies and Stickers from the Super Smash Bros. games for example. (Not to be confused with Collectathon Platformer, a specific genre of games with a specific focus on collectibles to progress.)
A NPC that follows the player.