History Main / ArbitraryMissionRestriction

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is the first of the series to introduce optional secondary objectives on missions, usually as little more than bragging rights for the Rockstar Games Social Club, though of course required for 100% completion.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' (and [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV V]]) has restrictions on not letting a vehicle "get away" even when the target vehicle may be on a predictable road with nowhere else to go, usually because the developers wanted to force you to follow in close pursuit in a scripted sequence.

** Certain levels force additional restrictions: How many plants you can use, how many plants you can lose, how much sun you need to produce, how long you must last for without planting, how many zombies killed within a period of time, where you can or cannot plant (mould colonies), and how far the zombies can walk, which is marked by a row of flowers. If you fail any of these restrictions, the level is automatically lost.

* The ''Card Wars'' mobile game based on the card game of the same name from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' features a series of matches that can be repeated indefinitely. The player can earn up to three "quest stars" on each match. The first stra is earned by beating the match for the first time, but to earn the second and third stars, the player must fulfill conditions like "Beat the opponent without using any Building cards" or "Destroy at least 5 creatures before winning". Failing to meet these conditions doesn't result in a ''loss'', but they are necessary to earn all the quest stars.

* Yahtzee of ''WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation'' sardonically refers to this trope as the "sandbox paradox", referring to WideOpenSandbox games in which the player is given complete freedom to do what they like outside of missions, but within missions must precisely follow a linear series of instructions.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' plays this trope painfully straight with a paper-thin {{justifi|edTrope}}cation. In most ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, Samus finds new items throughout the game which she uses to power up her suit and then has for the rest of the game. In this game, Samus has ALL her powers from the beginning, but depending on the point in the story or section of the game, she can only use the power-ups her commanding officer Adam Malkovitch allows her to use. Most famously, Adam doesn't give her the go ahead to enable her Varia Suit at first upon entering a heated area, causing Samus' suit to take damage as she navigates it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borsaderlands 2}}'': One of the first quests Dr. Zed gives the player is to take out a MadScientist non-doctor. The player must use the E-Tech weapon that Zed gives, and must kill X number of bandits with it. As it's fairly early in the game, its ammo usage of 2 rounds per shot chews through the limited supply of ammo quite quickly--especially since the weapon isn't particularly powerful.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': One of the first quests Dr. Zed gives the player is to take out a MadScientist non-doctor. The player must use the E-Tech weapon that Zed gives, and must kill X number of bandits with it. As it's fairly early in the game, its ammo usage of 2 rounds per shot chews through the limited supply of ammo quite quickly--especially since the weapon isn't particularly powerful.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' has a mission in which you have to catch a bandit. You're not allowed to kill him even though no one tells you not to and it would be perfectly justified considering he's stealing from every shop nightly in your village which was just wrecked by a dragon and is full of dead people and dying people who badly need food and medicine. The only reason you can't kill him is because he inexplicably won't die in this instance.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' has a mission in which you have to catch a bandit. You're not allowed to kill him even though no one tells you not to & it would be perfectly justified considering he's stealing from every shop nightly in your village which was just wrecked by a dragon & is full of dead people & dying people who badly need food & medicine. The only reason you can't kill him is because he inexplicably won't die in this instance.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' has a mission in which you have to catch a bandit. You're not allowed to kill him even though no one tells you not to & it would be perfectly justified considering he's stealing from every shop nightly in a village that was just attacked by a dragon & is full of dead people & dying people who badly need food & medicine. The only reason you can't kill him is because he inexplicably won't die in this instance.

** Both games have "Hunting" and "Assassination" {{Side Quest}}s that require the player to track down specific animal or human enemies and kill them, but the deed must be done with a specific weapon. This is in stark contrast to most of the game, which encourages the player to use whatever tactics and equipment they see fit. Stealth-centric players aren't likely to ever ''touch'' a shotgun during the campaign, but some of these side missions require it.

** The "Save Our Seeds" missions start the player with several pre-placed plants that will fight like normal. The mission is, as always, to defend the left side of the screen, except that if any of the pre-placed plants die, that will also result in a loss.
** The second game has "Locked and Loaded" missions that require the player to complete the stage using specific plants.
** Also in the sequel, each level can be beaten with one, two, or three stars. To earn a single star the level just has to be beaten, but additional stars can be earned by meeting additional restrictions: How many plants you can use, how many plants you can lose, how much sun you need to produce, where you can or cannot plant (mould colonies), and how far the zombies can walk, which is marked by a row of flowers.

!!VideoGame Examples

!!Non-VideoGame Examples

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** In one mission, victory is tied to each side's kills, but only kills made by vehicles count.[note]The mission's premise concerns recovering vehicles abandoned in an offscreen battle.[/note]

** In one mission, victory is tied to each side's kills, but only kills made by vehicles count.[note]The mission's premise concerns recovering vehicles abandoned in an offscreen battle.[/battle]

* This trope is fairly common in RTS games in general. The campaign modes of many games often severely restrict the types of units the player has access to early on, slowly introducing new unit types in successive missions [[TropesAreNotBad so that the player isn't overwhelmed by having to learn so many units' strengths and weaknesses at once.]] Frequently, little, if any, in-universe justification is given for doing so.

** One mission features a number of abandoned vehicles on the map for the player to capture. While mission success is tied to each side's kills, only kills made by vehicles count towards victory.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' plays this trope painfully straight with a paper-thin {{justifi|edTrope}}cation. In most ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, Samus finds new items throughout the game which she uses to power up her suit and then has for the rest of the game. In this game, Samus has ALL her powers from the beginning, but depending on the point in the story or section of the game, she can only use the power-ups her commanding officer Adam Malkovitch allows her to use.

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' [[{{Parody}} Parodies]] this trope when the Knights Who Say "Ni" demand that Arthur cut down the mightiest tree in the forest--with a ''herring''. Of course, it overlaps with WithAHerring, since the tool is not only arbitrarily specific, but also totally inadequate to the task.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' plays this trope painfully straight with a paper-thin {{justifi|edTrope}}cation. In most ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, Samus finds new items throughout the game which she uses to power up her suit and then has for the rest of the game. In this game, Samus has ALL her powers from the beginning, but depending on the point in the story or section of the game, she can only use the power-ups her commanding officer Adam Malkovitch allows her to use.

** The first game has a NewGamePlus, in which Crazy Dave will force the player to use 3 random plants on every normal level.

* The ''Franchise/AceCombat'' games often include at least one mission where the player is required to fly through a trench, staying below the lip of the trench. It usually has one of two justifications: Either the mission is a stealth-recon mission, and flying above the trench will result in detection and immediate failure, or there is heavy anti-aircraft fire that can't reach the player in the trench, but will instantly kill them if they fly too high.

** ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' also features the "optional objectives" variant on some assassinaiton missions, where an extra cash bonus can be obtained by hiding the target's body in a specific location before fleeing the area afterward.