History Main / DisconnectedSideArea

*** And the Spirit Temple, the first half of which you must enter as Child Link to obtain the item to access the Adult Link half of the dungeon.

* In ''VideoGame/FZero'', in addition to having two mixes of its theme music, White Land is unique in that its second track is not connected to the first track.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' has several of these, mostly because the game is a TwoAndAHalfD platformer. In order to get to many of them, you have to do a LeapOfFaith (usually into the foreground)- and if you're lucky, you'll land in the secret area.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'': Throughout the overworld, there are hidden pipes that take Mario and co. to a disconnected area in a new location where encounter Captain Toad who gives fifty flower coins to assist them.

* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' is rife with this, seemingly as an artifact of having all the maps being square-ish in shape. Often a thin row of fences or small river is all that stands between you and an objective, but getting there requires going halfway around the map.
** Sister series ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' actually takes advantage of this with its "ninja paths". The small handful of ninja characters can use their double jump to reach certain areas too high for most characters, allowing them to take significant shortcuts.

* Some levels of ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'' have one-way passages by way of respawning block floors that you can't destroy from above, forcing you to take a different route back.
** In ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZeroII'', there are multiple planetoids that require items to reveal its location and they consist of a few rooms which contain about half the game's collectables.

** In ''VideoGame/HiddenDuality'', there's a small part of Ganon's Tower that can only be reached by bombing open a secret part of the outside wall and going in an alternate way. It contains one of the 25 keys needed to climb the tower.
* ''Franchise/TombRaider'', especially the third game, has many of these.

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest II'', you can see the second floor walkway from the moment you enter Vohaul's asteroid fortress, but there's [[MissingFloor no elevator button for that floor]]. You'll be taking a long side path to it, solving many puzzles along the way.

* The NES version of ''Manga/{{Strider}}'', being a {{Metroidvania}}-type game, has a number of these, including some only accessible from other levels (e.g., a tube in Australia warps you to a previously inaccessible part of Africa).

* Pitfall II for the Atari 2600 is perhaps the earliest and most profound example of this trope. The game ends when Pitfall Harry rescues Quickclaw, but he can be seen by the player on the very first screen. If you go underground and try to backtrack to rescue him, a very aggressive rat pushes you back. The only way to reach him is to take an extremely circuitous and difficult route.
* ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'' likes to put Jiggies in these side areas, though other items are hidden here as well. The game isn't consistent about which Jiggies count for which levels: one of the Jiggies counting for Hailfire Peaks has to be reached from Terrydactyland, while another is in a side area of Grunty Industries. Yet another Hailfire Peaks Jiggy is in an ice cave that doesn't connect to anywhere else on the Icy Side.

* ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack'': Most levels were perfectly linear, but there were all sorts of level segments that were blatantly impossible to get to from their respective levels. You had to find secret elevators from other levels and eventually the secret sixth hub room in order to get to them, rendering HundredPercentCompletion for those levels (breaking all the boxes) impossible until very late in the game.

* VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Vexx}}'':

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart 7'', you can see the first bridge of Wuhu Loop (the first track of the Flower Cup) from the starting line of Maka Wuhu (the final track in the Star Cup), but you can't access the bridge and the rest of Wuhu Loop's track due to barriers blocking the way.
* VideoGame/NeedForSpeed:

* In ''VideoGame/DigimonWorld3'':

** VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}:

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', in Hollow Bastion, you must go through an underground part of the castle and flip a bunch of switches to maneuver a bunch of different in-room gates to reach the switch that opens the castle's main doors. In the room of many gates and switches, there are two corners that are gated off with switches behind the gates. There is no way to open those gates and reach the switches. Those particular switches are not needed to beat the game, luckily.

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure The Legend Of Heroes: Trails From Zero]]'', there's a few clearly visible treasure chests in Crossbell's back alley, but no obvious way to get to them. The only way to access them is through the Revache hideout, when you raid the place near the end of the game.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has this in spades. The areas are humongous, with fully visible side-areas which you only get to visit later in the game.
** Technically, because of the way the game is set up, every part of an area is accessible once you clear the plot events required to get there in the first place. The main blockade tends to be [[BeefGate overleveled enemies]] - say, aggressive level 70-ish monsters in a level 20-ish second area. Still a straight example, as some bluffs, overlooks, and other [[SceneryPorn ideal locations for a photo op]] require some much legwork and exploration the game awards a "hidden landmark" [[EasyExp bonus]].

* This trope occurs throughout the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' series in spades. Some areas don't even appear on the map until later.
** The only way to get to the library area in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' is to take the elevator from the basement, unless you get the passcode from Barry as Jill. This [[DungeonBypass bypass]] is in fact required to get the best ending in that scenario. In the remake, the main library door is jammed, disconnecting it from the aforementioned elevator-accessed hallway, so the only entry to the library is via the mezzanine, which requires the Helmet Key from the guest house. In both versions, the fountain where you enter the Laboratory is in a disconnected area of the Courtyard, although accessed by different routes in each version. Ditto the Heliport, which would be directly connected to the fountain area, but the gate is welded shut.

** Most of the Depths in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom Tears of the Kingdom]]'' is connected, with it being possible to explore almost all of it without going to the surface. An exception is the part of the Depths under Eventide Island, which is completely enclosed by an impassable cave wall that stretches from the ground to the ceiling. World-wise, impassable walls in the Depths correspond to bodies of water on the surface, and with Eventide Island being an island as the name implies, its underground counterpart is entirely surrounded by such walls.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': During your initial pilgrimage through Spira, you may come across visible areas containing treasure chests and/or save points, but you can't access them just yet, even though it seems plausible that Tidus could just climb or jump down to get there. You eventually gain access to these areas...by unlocking secret GlobalAirship locations, either with passwords or just picking out the correct coordinates. In other words, you need to call upon an airship just to access some treasure chests on top of some ruins in Besaid -- and there's ''two separate destinations in the same area'' -- or to enter a ravine in Mushroom Rock Road that's maybe a 20-foot drop at best.

** In the [=PlayStation=] 2''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedHot Pursuit Hot Pursuit 2]]'', unlike the other maps, the two Alpine circuit tracks, "Fall Winds" and "Alpine Trail", never overlap or intersect each other, although an otherwise unused road connects them for "Autumn Crossing", the point-to-point variation.

* In ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: Hot Pursuit 2'', unlike the other maps, the two Alpine circuit tracks, "Fall Winds" and "Alpine Trail", never overlap or intersect each other, although an otherwise unused road connects them for "Autumn Crossing", the point-to-point variation.

*** The Bottom of the Well seems to be this to the Shadow Temple itself.

* In the 1998 FPS ''VideoGame/SiN'', the "preview" of later levels is played in a very interesting fashion. In certain levels, exploring long enough will yield access to rooms that can be seen (but not accessed) in later levels. In addition, most of these disconnected side areas have a feature that you can use (whether it's pulling a switch or disabling an object) that will benefit the player when they reach the later level. For instance, climbing through the ventilation system in the [=SinTEK=] Office level will net you access to a control panel located just above the building's main vents; destroying this panel makes the section where you have to climb down through spinning fans in an underground laboratory '''much''' easier.

[[folder:First Person Shooters]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' has many secret rooms that are visible behind a grate from the main level, but are only accessible via well-hidden doors halfway across the map.

* In ''VideoGame/BioShock1'''s Neptune's Bounty stage, the immediate path from the Upper Wharf to the Fighting [=McDonagh's/Jet=] Postal area is sealed with a locked gate (which later becomes a DoorToBefore), so you have to go upstairs, in a circle, and through the Wharfmaster's Office before jumping down on the other side.

** The only way to get to the library area in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' is to take the elevator from the basement, unless you get the passcode from Barry as Jill. This [[DungeonBypass bypass]] is in fact required to get the best ending in that scenario. In the remake, the main library door is jammed, disconnecting it from the aforementioned elevator-accessed hallway, so the only entry to the library is through the balcony, which requires the Helmet Key from the guest house. In both versions, the fountain where you enter the Laboratory is in a disconnected area of the Courtyard, although accessed by different routes in each version. Ditto the Heliport, which would be directly connected to the fountain area, but the gate is welded shut.

** For the longest time, [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney's California Adventure]] (due to construction on a new ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}''-themed area) had required you to walk through the [[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife Flik's Bug Land]] area to reach Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror. There was no other way to reach the tower, but construction has now progressed enough that you can reach it through the Hollywood Studios land on the other side.

* Point Roberts, WA is connected by land to Canada, but not the rest of the state mainland, and thus can only be traveled to either by driving into British Columbia and back, or by private boat. Other "exclaves" of the US include Hyder, AK, which is only drivable to by a road from Stewart, BC, and Estcourt Station, ME, which is only publicly accessible through Quebec.
* Likewise, near the Dutch/Belgian border there are a few small areas that are considered Belgian but are completely cut of from the rest of Belgium by Dutch territory, although given that both countries are EU member states within the borderless Schengen area, this is purely academic.
* West Berlin was separated from West Germany by a significant portion of East Germany. At one point in the Cold War Russia cut off all ground routes between the two, forcing NATO to airlift food into West Berlin.
* While they are in the process of being smoothed out now, for a long time, the Indo-Bangladesh Enclaves were a high-octane political version of this trope, and affecting the people who live in them adversely. Dahala Khagrabari takes the cake, being a piece of land owned by India, which is surrounded by a Bangladesh village, which in turn is surrounded by an Indian village, and ''that'' is surrounded by Bangladesh land.

* Following World War II, the northern half of East Prussia was resettled by the Russians and renamed Kaliningrad Oblast (after its main city, Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg); despite the Lithuanian SFSR being between it and the rest of the Russian SFSR, the territories were both under the central government of the USSR. However, when the USSR dissolved and Lithuania became an independent state in 1991, Kaliningrad Oblast was completely cut off from the rest of the Russian Federation.

*** In the [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Paramina Rift]], there's a frozen lake, which at one point has a huge gap in the ice; you can see the other side, but you have to go around to get to it.

*** And some places in the [[DownTheDrain Garamscythe Waterway]] can't be reached because there's some inch-deep water [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence separating two platforms which are, at best, a foot away from each other]]. It is sufficient to say that this occurs frequently.
*** There's also the section of the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea (or the Nam-Yensa Sandsea further to the west, near Raithwall's Tomb) that can only be reached via a specific path in the Zertinan Caverns. There's a very fun Mark Hunt that takes place in that area, but it can be a huge pain to figure out how to get there ({{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the hint they give you to the location of the Mark as being isolated and hard to find).

** The 2D ''Metroid'' titles have this sometimes too. The first ''VideoGame/Metroid1'' has a rather large hidden side area in Norfair only reachable through a bombable wall in the High Jump Boots room, which contains the Screw Attack and Wave Beam, and ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' has a few areas partially visible before you can fully access them.

*** There's a few in the Dalmasca Westersand, too; one of them is used to hide one of the keys to a BonusBoss.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' features large disconnected hidden paths back and forth through the levels. The Mazes in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIVLegendsOfTheTitan'' stand out in prticular because [[spoiler:they have large swaths of land you can't get to at first; you traverse them as part of the process of unlocking the final dungeon, and the enemies there are as strong as you'd expect endgame enemies to be.]]

* Variation in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'', also a {{Metroidvania}}. One of the "maps" you can acquire reveals all the rooms in the Wizardry Lab. Most of the rooms are accessible the first time through, or are clear [[DoorToBefore Doors to Before]]. But, wait... what's this one section marked out below everything else? Of course, you don't get to ''that'' part until much later, if you do at all.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' loves this trope, with large disconnected hidden paths back and forth through the levels. ''Etrian Odyssey IV''[='=]s Mazes in particular [[spoiler:have large swaths of land you can't get to at first; you traverse them as part of the process of unlocking the final dungeon, and the enemies there are as strong as you'd expect endgame enemies to be.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure The Legend Of Heroes: Trails From Zero]], there's a few clearly visible treasure chests in Crossbell's back alley, but no obvious way to get to them. The only way to access them is through the Revache hideout, when you raid the place near the end of the game.