| abstract
| - There's five seconds left on the clock and you're clinging onto a cliff edge over a pit full of spikes. The Invincible Minor Minions are at your front door, and they're charging straight to the NPC's you're required to Escort Mission. The Big Bad has just announced his Evil Plan to the world, and he's got his Kill Sat aimed at the entire planet. What are you gonna do? Why, you win, of course. No matter how bleak the situation, as long as you have enough Hit Points and enough time to stumble through the Level Goal, hit the superweapon's tiny Weak Spot, or set off some arcane victory condition, most video games will happily let all your troubles melt away with the victory screen. As the saying goes, he who loses with the most toys still loses. A form of No Ontological Inertia. Variations and related tropes include:
* Cosmic Keystone: If the objective can alter the very fabric of reality itself, so nothing else matters anyway.
* Decapitated Army: Defeating the enemy's leader results in an instant win.
* Keystone Army: If it also wipes out their entire army.
* Load-Bearing Boss: If it triggers a Collapsing Lair.
* Timed Mission: The kind where you win the game by surviving until the timer runs out, even if you're seconds away from death.
* Golden Snitch: If one objective nets you a disproportionate amount of points compared to all others, so it becomes the only one that matters.
* Kaizo Trap: A subversion where the victory sequence actually kills you, requiring you to take an extra step beforehand, or simply avoid it entirely.
* Nonstandard Game Over: An instant-lose condition that triggers an immediate Game Over.
* Schmuck Bait: If the condition was clearly obvious to the player and they triggered it anyway, with full anticipation of what would happen as a result.
* We Cannot Go on Without You: If the defeat of the player character or key party member results in an immediate Game Over. Examples of Instant Win Condition include:
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