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| - Also frequently referred to as being "missable," the dreaded Lost Forever is a game play component (such as an item, weapon, Sidequest, character, or plot event) that can become permanently inaccessible after a certain point in the game, therefore being "lost forever" if you miss them during the period in which they are available. A close relative and often an example of Guide Dang It. The bane of gamers everywhere, especially those shooting for Hundred-Percent Completion, as it often forces them to start the entire game anew if they're not willing to accept a less-than-perfect run.
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| abstract
| - Also frequently referred to as being "missable," the dreaded Lost Forever is a game play component (such as an item, weapon, Sidequest, character, or plot event) that can become permanently inaccessible after a certain point in the game, therefore being "lost forever" if you miss them during the period in which they are available. A close relative and often an example of Guide Dang It. The bane of gamers everywhere, especially those shooting for Hundred-Percent Completion, as it often forces them to start the entire game anew if they're not willing to accept a less-than-perfect run. Lost Forevers frequently appear in areas that can only be accessed once, or are rendered unavailable after a certain plot event occurs. The early town that is destroyed, the mountainous area that caves in once you leave it, the village that you're banished from, the Load-Bearing Boss's hideout that goes boom after you beat it, the one-shot place that you're never given the option to return to, and so forth. More rarely, things are completely random and arbitrary. For example, perhaps once you finish disc two and acquire the airship, the random shopkeeper you needed to talk to in order to acquire the Infinity+1 Sword suddenly closes up shop and disappears without explanation. Surprise! Guide Dang It. Forgiving developers will sometimes provide an alternative means to reach what would otherwise be Lost Forever. However, reaching it with this second-chance method is usually much more time-consuming or difficult than if you had just gotten it the first time around. If a player knows such an item is coming, a common tactic is to save immediately beforehand, and restore repeatedly from that save until they manage to get it. This is often true when getting the Lost Forever is based on luck, such as when a boss Randomly Drops a unique piece of equipment. This is infamously present in MMORPG's or any other game with online connectivity, due to one-time events, irreplaceable quest reward items (such as consumables that become Too Awesome to Use) distributed from an online source. While you can simply restart an offline game for another shot at the content, online Lost Forevers really can be lost forever. (When it comes to patch updates, however, players who still have the old items are usually allowed to keep them, and the items are often displayed as a badge of honor.) Due to their tendency to induce great frustration, smart developers tend to avoid implementing these, and allow players to collect items or do sidequests at their leisure, whenever and in any order they want. Sometimes, this can result in silly situations where the player is presented with the option of returning to a location where there would be no logical reason to return to, such as, say, the site of a nuclear explosion. But, really, it's the lesser of the two evils. Occasionally, a Lost Forever is intended to be just that: you get a one-shot item or spell that would completely unbalance the game if used elsewhere. You're not supposed to hang on to it, and the game either takes it away immediately or kills you if you try to run away with it. For some, the challenge then becomes cheating or glitching your way out of this restriction. Also see Guest Star Party Member. Conversely, while most Lost Forevers are defined by the limited opportunity to acquire one, sometimes a particular item is acquired readily during a game's progress, but is irreplaceable once it is used up -- should it get lost, stolen, or destroyed, you cannot acquire another one. This trope is not to be confused with Final Death, where a character permanently dies and cannot be resurrected. If it's an item deliberately taken away from you, it may be Awesome but Temporary. If something vital to the plot becomes Lost Forever, the game is Unwinnable. Lost Forever should also not be a Point of No Return, where the game cuts off your access to prior areas. Chaos Emeralds can always be put in a Lost Forever situation since they are placed in Bonus Stages. Missable items tend to be found in a One-Time Dungeon. Not to be confused with Ruined FOREVER!!!, although it can generate degrees of it.
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