1y ago

What games had easy soft locks that prevented you from either progressing or getting a true ending?

The thought came to mind after reading a recent post about Baldurs Gate 3 here but it reminded me of the Japense only PSX game Mizzurna Falls where if you don't perform a certain action early in the game you are prevented from getting a true ending. While this might not be a traditional soft lock because you can still progress to a point it made me wonder none the less.

I understand BG3 might be a hard lock because the game abruptly comes to a close I am not going to get into the semantics. The only other soft locks I can think of are with Pokemon.

Shout out to the fan translation of Mizzurna Falls. An article on the ROMHacking.net website can be found here.

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Tes 3: Morrowind, every NPCs can be killed and of course if you kill some of them before they got usefull to progress the main quest you are locked.
At their death there is a notification message like "you fucked up, you can reload or continue to play in this world forever doomed". BUT, in my first playthrough some broken mod I installed was hiding this message ...
Also, in the same game you could lose quest item and be unable to finish the main quest. But that kind of require you to be stupid on purpose, because it's obvious what item are important.
EDIT: found the in game message: " With this character's death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created."
- I think that's the best way to handle it. Let me kill whoever I want as long as I know the consequences.
- Good news. You can still beat the game if the "thread of prophecy is severed", but it is fairly challenging and generally requires stumble-luck or at LEAST knowledge of how to normally beat the game. It helps to know the identity of another character you have to kill in cold blood to get "almost back on track". And then the location that serves no real purpose except to get back on track from that situation.
  
  Yes indeed, I know what you are talking about. But I would not really consider that the "normal" ending as described by OP. Even if the ending scene itself is exactly the same, it's a very different path and clearly a much harder one.
  
  Well... Yes. Not saying it doesn't fit the topic. Just a really cool way they handled it all.
  
  Sure ! And I discovered that only years later by reading a wiki page. But actually it make sense that it's also feasible this way.
- What kind of monster uses mods on a first playthru
  
  It was some small QoL changes in the UI and menus, recommended by my friend who recommended me the game. I don't remember exactly the changes but there was nothing big added or changed in the gameplay
  
  Me, more and more these days. Especially if the game has been out for a while.
- First time I played I had to load a save back in Seyda Neen because I killed some poor half naked dude in his shack in Balmora. Fuckin Caius Cosades.
  
  Isn't it like the first quest you get? 🫠
  
  Hey man, Morrowind quests don't hold your hand! It's not like there's a minimap and some big ass marker over his head saying "don't kill and rob this half naked dude who looks like a skooma addict in his tiny studio apartment because he's secretly the spy master for the main faction in the game"! I was young! I chose violence!
  
  I would even check whether he even speaks to you first 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠
  
  😰 You killed Daddy Caius
- Marvelous morrowind I should've put some "morrowind joke" but I don't remember any

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