History Main / Antepiece

* FallingDamage is an easy way to die, given Jason's jump height in ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZeroII'' can deal damage just from jumping one block above the ground. As such, Planetoid C-2 is a giant deathtrap requiring you to jump from ladder the ladder while avoiding anything that will cause Jason to drop to his immediate death. Some programmer must have realized how hard this could be, because you're given a small room of ladders with no obstacles and water (which stops you from taking fall damage when you land in it) where you can practice your ladder jumps with no danger while you prep for the real challenge.

An antepiece is a seemingly-innocuous task that precedes a great-big-difficult-challenge, and gives you subtle hints about how you should deal with the great-big-challenge that you're about to confront. It's present in the form of a challenge that is paired with a "version" of the same challenge that is in some way "easier". In architecture, a small room that acts as an entry point to a larger room is called an antechamber. An antepiece is an antechamber for a ''{{video game setpiece}}''. Crucially, all antepieces are VERY easy/nonthreatening, often things the player simply breezes past and may not give a second conscious thought to.

* FallingDamage is an easy way to die, given Jason's jump height in ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZero2'' can deal damage just from jumping one block above the ground. As such, Planetoid C-2 is a giant deathtrap requiring you to jump from ladder the ladder while avoiding anything that will cause Jason to drop to his immediate death. Some programmer must have realized how hard this could be, because you're given a small room of ladders with no obstacles and water (which stops you from taking fall damage when you land in it) where you can practice your ladder jumps with no danger while you prep for the real challenge.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' contains several of them in the Crazy Motorcycle sequence near the end of the game to prevent it from feeling like an UnexpectedGameplayChange. The first few enemies are easy to beat, allowing you to get the hang of the controls for the sequence while taking them out. Then, an armored truck pulls up which targets you with a machine gun, letting you know both that there will be enemies that take several hits to defeat as well as showing you that there will be things you need to dodge. Finally, just before reaching the tunnel, a helicopter fires warning shots to let you see how its shots work and how they're going to land. Red XIII fully heals you when you get to the tunnel, which is where the training wheels come off and multiple elements you just learned about get thrown at you all at once.
* This is how every major boss works in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. If a boss uses a new ability that isnt signed with one of the standard NoticeThis markers it uses for like attacks, then chances are the boss will use the attack by itself to allow you to come to grips with how it works, then later in the fight use the same ability in conjuction with another ability you have been shown or in a new way.

* The entire tutorial section of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' has plenty of these. In addition to teaching the controls, the station of awakening allows you to fight Shadows and Darkside without any worry of getting a game over. Once you're on Destiny Islands, the sparring matches you can do with the other kids don't penalize you for losing at all, and each fight gets you used to the timing and effects of different types of parries. In addition to that, the group fight helps you practice crowd control and dividing your focus on a group of enemies, while the Riku fight introduces the concept of Revenge Counters. Whenever you're done playing with them and you decide to advance the plot, all bets are off: you'll fight Darkside from the Station of Awakening again but he'll actually give you a Game Over this time if you die, and almost all later fights will do so too. [[spoiler:The Riku sparring match should also get you used to the fights against him later, which build off his moveset.]]
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The tutorial section with Roxas makes great pains to get you prepared for all sorts of situations later in the game by practicing on mundane tasks. Almost all the jobs and wonders of Twilight Town each introduce and let you practice a concept while you're currently in no danger of game over. Every one of these concepts become important in the later parts of the game, especially on higher difficulties.
** Cargo Climb only is about making sure you're attacking from the right position, but also introduces Revenge Counters and reacting properly to them- in this case, parrying, which clears the mini game faster and gets you more money.
** Grandstander is blatant in what it lets you practice: air combos. You get scored on how many hits you get before the ball touches the ground, getting you more money.
** Poster Duty is a platforming exercise- you have to jump around to all the poster spots in town without worrying about enemies or fights.
** Bumble Buster pits you against waves of enemies that spawn in groups but whose attacks don't do any damage, they merely slow you down, letting you practice efficient crowd control.
** Junk Sweep is similar, but since it scores you more for using fewer attacks, on targets that can only be destroyed with combo finishers, you're taught the importance of combo finishers in crowd control and repositioning your targets.
** Mail Delivery is a simple exercise in Reaction Commands; the window you have for delivering the mail is very short if you go by the target at full speed, but the only penalty for missing the window is having to backtrack and losing a couple seconds on the clock.
** The Friend Beyond The Wall not only teaches you about dodging attacks while closing in on a target without any worry of taking damage, it also teaches you the importance of the recently learned Aerial Recovery ability, which not only helps you regain control after getting launched, it also parries the balls.
** The Moan From The Tunnel is a slightly harder version of Bumble Buster. This time you have many more enemies with stronger attacks appearing faster, but since they all have 1 hp, you can keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by properly practicing your crowd control skills.
** The Doppelganger puts you in a one-on-one fight on an enemy with equal footing, but there still isn't any worry of game over, and his attack pattern makes it easy to land parries on him if you're aggressive, showing you how important parries are against individual enemies.
** The Animated Bag is another Reaction Command exercise. This time, the window to pull one off is smaller, but paying attention to the animation of the bag lets you know when a reaction command will come up, making it much easier to pull one off if you're paying attention.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky''. During the TournamentArc, you get to watch the other teams' matches play out as scripted battles, which give you an idea how their skills work before you have to deal with them yourself.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges'':

* The ''Videogame/MegaManClassic'' games have their share of antepieces. Creator/{{Egoraptor}} describes a bunch of them in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM this video]] - an obvious example is the flicky platforms in [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 Guts Man's stage]] that turn whenever they hit a gap in their line. The first flicky platform is an antepiece - when it doesn't do any flicking at all, so being on it is trivial. It's clear, when you see a nearby platform flick, that the flick is caused by a gap in the line.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' does this in levels for their individual gimmicks, with the SNES games in particular being a masterclass on the subject.
** The first level of ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' uses antepeices for all the new mechanics added to the game, some of which are also highlighted in the aforementioned video by Egoraptor. It uses Spiky, Crusher, and Gun Volt enemies early on to show the player how to avoid damage, and to give them an opportunity to learn how to use X's Buster in combat. If the player hasn't figured out how to charge the Buster by the time they get to Vile, Zero will demonstrate the mechanic for them in his EstablishingCharacterMoment. The stage also gives players a pit with no immediate danger present, giving them a safe place to discover and practice the new WallJump mechanic.
** The stages in ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'' are a series of antepiece mini-tutorials preparing the player for that stage's boss fight. Let's take Flame Mammoth as an example. Most of his stage is teaching the player how to stay alive against him, especially when he starts jumping around. The conveyor belt you'll be fighting Mammoth on is one of the first setpieces you encounter. The player has to jump over the junk and Scrap Robos and run/dash under the chutes dropping them to proceed, which establishes the importance of timing in avoiding Flame Mammoth's attacks. The Dig Labour enemies throwing pickaxes at you from all directions emphasize dodging and quick thinking; Flame Mammoth will be moving around the room near-constantly, so you need to be on your toes. The section of Rolling Gabyoalls teaches you to jump over oil puddles Mammoth will drop and try to ignite, with the lava drips enforcing the need to watch out for Mammoth himself trying to jump on your head. The Hoganmer enemy's reach with their mace is about how much distance you'll need to keep between yourself and Mammoth to give yourself room to dodge. And finally, as an added bonus, the Dig Labour part of the stage has a lot of low-hanging ledges and platforms that the player can jump up to, and then WallJump on top of. If you beat Mammoth before going after Chill Penguin, you'll find a similar ledge about halfway through his stage, where you'll find ice bunkers to practice using your new Fire Wave weapon on before using it on Chill himself (and you even get rewarded with a Heart Tank!).
** Magna Centipede's stage in ''VideoGame/MegaManX2'' has searchlights that trigger defense systems if they see X, dropping turrets from the ceiling and causing some floors to fall away, but the first area of the stage with these hazards has platforms over all of them, so players aren't in any real danger yet. Crystal Snail's level has large shards of crystal that break free and slide toward X when he gets close, and they can crush and kill him if they force him into a wall, but the first such crystal is encountered with a small pit in front of it, giving players a chance to observe how it works without any danger. Overdrive Ostrich's stage has a ramp in the first part that falls over when you shoot it, a necessary skill for the rest of the stage when riding the [[CoolBike Hover Chaser]].

* ''Mystery Quest'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem has a simple pit for unwary players to fall into. This pit is harmless, but requires {{Wall Jump}}ing skills to get out of. This prepares for a mandatory WallJump later on.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' was designed to have as many antepieces as possible. Test chamber ten is a three section chamber. The second and third sections are about throwing yourself down a pit into a portal at the bottom and flying out of a wall. But the FIRST section of chamber ten is barely a puzzle at all; it's just a panel and a staircase. All the player has to do to keep moving is make a portal anywhere and go into it. But it introduces a structure that is going to be immediately built upon [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/20/untold-riches-an-analysis-of-portals-expressive-level-design/ to get more thoughtful puzzles.]] As a side note, the developers felt it was a failure that they had to explicitly tell you how to use momentum, since there was no way to convey it through an Antepiece.
* In the developer commentary of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', they mention instructive level design about bombs. The final battle of the game requires creative use of taking the bombs the boss throws and [[PlayingTennisWithTheBoss portalling them back.]] However, the bombs show up one level before, ejected out of a pipe in a controlled repetitive fashion, so the player can get used to their trajectory.

* In one orc campaign mission in ''VideoGame/WarcraftII: Tides of Darkness'', you start with a few goblin sappers surrounded by rocks, which you have to detonate to free them. This teaches you that goblin sappers can detonate rocks, and this ability will be necessary to complete a later mission.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand3'': One recurring obstacle is a security door that Wario cannot pass through unless he is invisible. The first time you find one of these doors, there is conveniently a Mad Scienstein right next to it who can turn Wario invisible and immediately allow him to pass. Later challenges would require Wario to preemptively become invisible and try to reach the security door without losing his invisibility.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** The game has many trash mob/mook encounters in its dungeons and raids that often, but not always, have a toned-down version of the next boss's "mechanics" or set of skills, introducing the group of players to some of the more crucial things to watch out for in the coming battle.
** In one wing of Naxxramas, there exist several gargoyle enemies that spit out poison, and if you take too long to kill them once they've hit a certain percentage, they'll turn to stone and regenerate all their health. Because these mechanics combine to create a difficult encounter for the unprepared, the first gargoyle you encounter doesn't do the poison spit attack, so that you learn about the health regen move in a less strenuous situation.

** The same shaft is revisited in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' without the time limit. The first time through, you just fall down as you explore the ruins of the old Tourian. But when you backtrack after getting the Morph Ball, said ruins are swarming with Space Pirates. Your initial fall through that shaft was meant to let you get a feel for the layout before you have to face enemies at the same time as you jump up it.

*** The first Metroid has a vertical tunnel at the start of Tourian that requires you to drop down the numerous platforms; the final vertical tunnel during the timed escape sequence is nearly identical, except the platforms are narrower and require you to jump up them under a time limit. The latter tunnel is revisited near the start of Super Metroid and used in a similar fashion: you drop down the platforms on your way to collect the Morph Ball, and making your way back requires you to not only carefully jump up the platforms but also dispatch the Zebesians that are now jumping across the walls.

*** The area where you find the Morph Ball is right next to a high wall that you can jump over from one side, but traps you on the other--the only exit out is a small space that Samus can't crawl into. The only way out is to grab the power-up and then use the new power to go through it, a warm up for the next crawl space up ahead that's littered with enemies. This entire sequence also teaches the player that, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny while obvious in hindsight]], unlike near every other platformer at the time you won't always be able to proceed by going right and will need to head in all directions in order to make progress in the game.

*** At the end of the first level, players face their first encounter with the Pink Birdo. There are no items or even enemies to grab in her boss room. After being taught that enemies can be defeated by grabbing and throwing things at them, the player has to figure out how to defeat Birdo without nearby things to throw. They will discover that they can only defeat Birdo by [[TennisBoss grabbing the eggs she spits at them and throwing them back at her]], which showcases and teaches the very different and dynamic boss encounters the game offers compared to the original. And each level will gradually increase the complexity of the Birdo fights so the player needs to hone their combat skills: The fight in World 1-2 reduces the space of the battlefield (thus requiring quicker reflexes to grab the eggs), the fight in 2-1 takes place in a perilous area where both end sides have BottomlessPits, the fight in 2-2 pits you against Red Birdo (who is now red and will shoot both eggs and fireballs, hence why the use of Mushroom Blocks to attack her is advised), the fight in 3-1 has Birdo ''and'' a bottomless pit, 4-2 removes the Mushroom Blocks ''and'' brings back the pit while also adding slippery ice, 5-1 has Green Birdo (shoots fireballs only) and only one Mushroom Block, etc.

* One recurring obstacle in ''VideoGame/WarioLand3'' is a security door that Wario cannot pass through unless he is invisible. The first time you find one of these doors, there is conveniently a Mad Scienstein right next to it who can turn Wario invisible and immediately allow him to pass. Later challenges would require Wario to preemptively become invisible and try to reach the security door without losing his invisibility.

Contrast NoobBridge, where a newcomer to a game is forced to figure out a recurring, trivial design element of a game on their own without any obvious hints or instruction.

* ''VideoGame/BountyOfOne'': A few minutes before you face off a [[BossBattle Sheriff]], you'll come across that particular Sheriff's minions so that the player gets a feel of the upcoming boss' attacks. Skeletal Hounds attack by shooting their head out before it returns to them, and their sheriff Rex, Cupcake and Brutus can launch his three heads out in succession. MoleMen attack by throwing dynamite that explodes a circular area after a few seconds, and their sheriff Crazy Denzel throws out similar dynamite, but with bigger explosions and in far greater quantities.

** Series-wide: This is a recurring style of InstructiveLevelDesign used across the series, particularly involving FOE puzzles. Often upon encountering a new FOE, it is alone and in a spacious room, giving the player enough breathing space to fully understand its behaviour before the game starts using the FOE in conjunction with other stratum elements, like complex terrain or other FOEs. Only rarely does it draw the player's attention to the FOE via cutscene.

** Not too long after in "Route Kanal" is an AirventPassageway necessary to progress further in the level. Said airvent is also blocked by a supply crate. It's necessary to demolish the crate with the crowbar to continue, which will drop some goodies, showing that those special crates [[note]]They're smaller, and have a golden sticker[[/note]] can be a useful source of supplies.

** During the [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene Quiet Drama Scene]] in Black Mesa East, Gordon is given the [[WreakingHavok Gravity Gun]] and instructed in its use in a variety of methods of varying levels of subtlety. One that fits firmly in this category is the game of "fetch" with Dog. Dog's "ball" is actually a Rollermine, a type of enemy that recurs later and can only be manipulated with the Gravity Gun.

* Most ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games ease the player into the [[TacticalRockPaperScissors Weapon Triangle]] by pitting them against axe-wielding bandits in the early chapters. Since most early-game units wield swords, they automatically have advantage over these bandits. Afterwards, when it's time to go up against more organized forces, lance units are introduced, which sword-wielders are disadvantaged against, forcing them to break out their few axe units.

** In ''VideoGame/GodOfWar2018'', the Valkyries are this to [[spoiler:their leader, Sigrun. While the preceding Valkyries have their own behvaiours and movesets, Sigrun has all of them, is unpredictable, and performs them faster. But if you've been paying attention, you'll already have learned the proper countermeasures when encountering them with the earlier Valkyries]].

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity'': There's a unique case regarding how gameplay influences the story progression. During the first two dungeons, the game's idea of changing the course of the story due to the player's actions and decisions is showcased with the misadventures of a guild whose two characters will see their lives affected depending on how the player's party attempts to help them (namely ''who'' survives after a certain tragic outcome, though it's possible to TakeAThirdOption and try to ignore them altogether to avoid employing any sort of influence[[note]]in this case, due to the lack of interaction with those characters, it's up to the player to interpret if this means both of them survive, either character still dies for a different reason, or if ''neither'' survives[[/note]]). This idea is revisited after the completion of the third stratum, where a series of events occur and a player can choose to [[spoiler:remain loyal to the Senatus of Armoroad and confront the faction of the Deep City, ''or'' side with the latter faction and betray Armoroad]]; and once again there's an obscure method to TakeAThirdOption and look for a neutral path. In any case, the decisions taken will affect how the rest of the game will continue, and the stakes will be raised accordingly. For those interested in seeing all possible outcomes (both for the antepiece and for the real deal), the game offers a NewGamePlus option available once the story is cleared.

* This is how pretty much every major boss works in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''. If a boss uses a new ability that isnt signed with one of the standard NoticeThis markers it uses for like attacks, then chances are the boss will use the attack by itself to allow you to come to grips with how it works, then later in the fight use the same ability in conjuction with another ability you have been shown or in a new way.

*** For Vah Medoh, Link's Bullet Time skill is also needed to shoot Bomb Arrows into Medoh's cannons. The Flight Range can be used as a means of [[JustForPun target practice.]]

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' does this as well. The tutorial section with Roxas makes great pains to get you prepared for all sorts of situations later in the game by practicing on mundane tasks. Almost all the jobs and wonders of Twilight Town each introduce and let you practice a concept while you're currently in no danger of game over. Every one of these concepts become important in the later parts of the game, especially on higher difficulties.
** Cargo Climb works similarly to the ''VideoGame/GodHand'' example above, but not only is it about making sure you're attacking from the right position, it also introduces Revenge Counters and reacting properly to them- in this case, parrying, which clears the mini game faster and gets you more money.