History Main / EventFlag

* ''VideoGame/OmertaCityOfGangsters'' uses event flags to LevelUp your gangsters. Usually, these happen after a significant battle between your gang and the enemy you're fighting. The stages of the game tell you beforehand if a Level Up event flag is coming.

* In ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'', the Forgotten Crossroads becomes the Infected Crossroads once you break one of the three seals holding the Infection back. If you take too long to do this, however, the game will get impatient and instead trigger it as soon as you get the Monarch Wings from fighting the Broken Vessel, with no explanation.

* Referenced in the BeachEpisode of ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', where [[UnluckyEverydude Mahiro]] tries to cheer [[FieryRedhead Cuko]] up following the depressing events of the previous episode[[note]]Wherein she had to destroy the next-gen gaming console of her dreams[[/note]]. Cuko thanks him, but says that he's wasting his time if he thinks he can raise any romance flags with her; Mahiro responds "Don't worry, if any flags like that pop up I'll tear them down myself."

-->-- '''''VideoGame/CaveStory''''''s entry for this trope

* On the Famicom Disk System version of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'', you can use one of these to infinitely acquire the heartpiece in Eastern Hyrule, the one out at sea that requires the bridge. The game delegates one event flag per screen for a heartpiece, which tells the game whether a heartpiece that has been placed by a developer has been acquired or not, and therefore whether or not it should still appear on that save file. By using the flute so the tornado carries you across that specific heartpiece you will grab it, but the game will set the heartpiece event flag ''on the screen you are teleporting to'' rather than the one on this screen. Thus, when you return, the heartpiece will still be there and you can regrab it via this method as many times as you like. When it came time to port the game to the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem, the developers had figured this one out and [[ObviousRulePatch tweaked the code so you can't grab a heartpiece while in the tornado]].

*** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' has the infamous Authorization system and how it directly leads to the first (and so far only) time an official entry in the series had what fans call a Hell Run.[[note]]Forced travel through extreme temperature areas without the Varia Suit. The first known Hell Run was a hack of ''Super Metroid'' called "Super Metroid Redesign" which hid the Ice Beam, required to get the Varia Suit, behind a gauntlet of heated rooms.[[/note]] It was mitigated somewhat by greatly reducing the rate of heat damage in those areas in comparison to the heated areas you're NOT supposed to be in yet, but the fans were still enraged that the developers did that.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'' has a ''[[GameBreakingBug debilitating]]'' [[GameBreakingBug bug]] caused by one of these, as shown off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGJtrqC5i2Y here]] by ''[=TetraBit=] Gaming''. The event flag in the security office that triggers the cutscene after you've been captured by Vanessa is never disabled, so if at ''any'' time you reenter that office after 2am it will abruptly snap back to 2am. This will cause a veritable potluck of event flags to flip on and off and cause ''all sorts'' of crazy things to start happening. Furthermore, it will bork save points and, since the security office is an autosaving checkpoint, you'll go right back there any time you're {{Jump Scare}}d.

* Partway through ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', you're asked to provide a password to get back inside Tetra's pirate ship. However, even if you solve the password riddle perfectly, capital letters and all, the game still won't let you into the ship until you view the correct cutscene where Link overhears the password from two pirates (thus triggering the event flag). It's {{Hand Wave}}d that there is a very specific and precise way the password needs to be pronounced for it to pass, and that even if Link guessed the word he wouldn't know how to pronounce it until he overheard it from the pirates.

* ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' references event flags in its original title: ''I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags''. Said villainess was programmed to die in every route of a [[VisualNovel visual novel]] the protagonist was dropped into.

* In ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'''s [[TheMovie Movie]], [[TheBigGuy Shun]] pulls a GoThroughMe moment for the rest of the heroes, which [[DeadpanSnarker JK]] outright labels an almost assured death flag. Shun responds that he can't die until he gets back to Earth and has one last date with [[TheChick Miu]]; JK quietly mutters "He just keeps raising that flag..."

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has four odd instances of buggered event flags, three of which are well known in the {{Speed Run}}ner community:

** Casting Warp ''immediately'' after regaining control after defeating Golbez allows you to walk up and "take" the crystal, which triggers the same event flag as taking the next crystal (this is because in the game's code, those two crystals are actually the same object with the same coded properties). With this event flag triggered the Sealed Cave completed event will happen the second you enter, letting you completely avoid one of the game's more annoying dungeons and the [[GoddamnedBoss infernal Trap Doors]] that are found throughout. Unsurprisingly, this is a favored tactic of {{Speedrun}}ners.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'' has a ''[[GameBreakingBug debilitating]]'' [[GameBreakingBug bug]] caused by one of these, as shown off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGJtrqC5i2Y here]] by ''[=TetraBit=] Gaming''. The event flag in the security office that triggers the cutscene after you've been captured by Vanessa is never disabled, so if at ''any'' time you reenter that office after 2am it will abruptly snap back to 2am. This will cause a veritable potluck of event flags to flip on and off and cause ''all sorts'' of crazy things to start happening. Furthermore, it will bork save points and, since the security office is an autosaving checkpoint, you'll go right back there any time you're {{Jump Scare}}d. In other words, without being intimately familiar with {{Speed Run}}ning exploits and without luck, it is ''impossible'' to continue the game after this unless you were prescient enough to make a back-up save.

* Souta Hatate from ''LightNovel/IfHerFlagBreaks'' has the ability to see flags over most people's heads, and alter them to change their fate, such as replacing a death flag with a romance one to keep Akane from dying after she falls through a second story floor in an old apartment complex he was using.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has a ''very'' obtuse tactic used by {{Speed Run}}ners to beat the game very quickly. How it exactly works would take far too long to explain, but to put it ''very'' simply it involves Power Bombing yourself into a wall in a certain area in Sector 5 and then pushing Samus outside of the game's collision data, which happens to push her into an area of the RAM for File C, and then laying Power Bombs to rewrite parts of it. This not only sets the progress event flag to a glitched state that basically allows you to just board your ship and trigger the end credits, but also moves Samus's spawn point for that file to the hallway right before it. Then all you have to do is die and ''you appear in the room before the absent final boss'', roughly 3 seconds away from your ship that's ready to leave. This tactic so thoroughly broke the speed run records that [[https://www.speedrun.com/fusion#Any_Memory_Corruption a new category was created just for it]].

** There's one that causes [[spoiler:the reflections in Waterfall's puddles to show the Fallen Child instead of Frisk]]. There was [[UrbanLegendOfZelda a rumor]] that this would happen after [[spoiler:completing the KillEmAll route and selling your SOUL]], but in reality, the flag is DummiedOut and can only be activated through DebugMode.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' uses event flags to an insane level. Random people you have to talk to to trigger events miles away, state changes that are never obvious...there are so many GuideDangIt event flags in the game, Nintendo decided to include a guide with the game. Thankfully, the sequel improves massively.

* Averted at one point in ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}''. You might expect an event flag preventing you from starting a new game, flipping a couple levers, snagging a book page and toddling off to the library to enter a code and thereby win the entire game in less than two minutes. You would be wrong. The final combination code to beat the game is the same every time. As long as you know what to do, you don't have to solve any other puzzles.

** In ''[[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus Return of Samus]]'' you have to clear a section of the game world of Metroids before the path forward is cleared of purple liquid, allowing you to advance. ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]'' changes this to collecting Metroid DNA that is automatically collected from among the drops during the Metroid's death scene.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', the large crashed ship is supposed to be entered from the west; a boss fight there triggers an event flag which turns the power on. Through heavy-duty SequenceBreaking, it can also be entered from the east, but it will be completely empty until this flag is triggered. Also, the method of reaching Tourian makes a comeback.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has a ''very'' obtuse tactic used by {{Speed Run}}ners to beat the game very quickly. How it exactly works would take far too long to explain, but to put it ''very'' simply it involves power-bombing yourself into a wall in a certain area in Sector 5 and then pushing Samus outside of the game's collision data which happens to push her into an area of the RAM for File C, and then laying power-bombs which rewrite parts of it. This not only sets the progress event flag to a glitched state that basically allows you to just board your ship and trigger the end credits but also moves Samus's spawn point for that file to the hallway right before it. Then all you have to do is die and ''you appear in the room before the absent final boss'', roughly 3 seconds away from your ship that's ready to leave. This tactic so thoroughly broke the speed run records that [[https://www.speedrun.com/fusion#Any_Memory_Corruption a new category was created just for it]].

*** A particularly egregious example in the first game are the prevention measures to acquire the Plasma Beam early: A pile of Bendezium in front of the door in the Japanese and PAL versions, and the NTSC Player's Choice version locks the door in addition to the Bendezium pile until you have the Grapple Beam.

* The ''VideoGame/Hitman'' series is basically built around this trope development-wise, especially beginning with ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'' where part of the reason Instinct was even a feature is because it helped the developers to keep track of NPC movements, and where to set off the right event flags. Beginning from ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'', this takes on the form of "Opportunities", a set path with often more obvious event flags that change how NPC characters react to specific things (tampering with the virus in Sapienza will cause one of the targets; Francesca De Santis, to go and find out what's gone wrong).

[[folder:Survival Horror]]

* If you play ''[[VideoGame/SonicBoom Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric]]'' while using Knuckles' [[GoodBadBugs game-shattering infinite jump glitch]] it's actually hard to ''not'' avoid missing event flags. This can have mixed results: you can SpeedRun the game in under an hour, dodge entire sections of the game, render it UnwinnableByMistake, find yourself lost in a void that failed to load the level textures, or enter 2D or mach-speed sections with the normal camera and controls. Unsurprisingly a lot of the ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' GuideDangIt confusion during their play of the game came from missing event flags that triggered crucial elements or exposition.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' gives Samus upgrades merely for being in the right place with the right event flags triggered. Most noticeably, this happens with the Grapple Beam and the Wave Beam.

** Similarly averted in the sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}''. The code to the telescope is generated randomly every game this time. However, it's set at the start of the game and there's no actual event flag associated with the events where you learn the code, so there's nothing stopping you from creating a separate save for the game at the start, playing until you learn the code, then reloading that save and inputting the code prematurely. Alternately, if you're really, really bored, you could just sit there and try all 3000+ possible combinations until you brute-force it. [[DevelopersForesight The developers]] [[MultipleEndings accounted for this]] SequenceBreaking.

* One spot in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' can only be passed via [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption deliberate stupidity]]. If you try to delay doing what will trigger the bad event, the character you are conversing with will eventually [[BreakingTheFourthWall bring up event flags]].
* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'', one might expect that picking up the sword in the first level is an event flag (because you can't very well enter a sword fight without it). Turns out that it's not; through [[SequenceBreaking trickery]], you can enter the second level even without the sword, at which point you'll magically be able to swordfight anyway.
** One walkthrough, purporting to be a translation of the ancient tale of the protagonist, {{Hand Wave}}s this by explaining that the story splits into two different versions at this place, and speculating that the Prince might have (in the quick version) found the sword on the stairs.
* One point in ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has a pretty transparent event flag--there's only critters and bats outside when you first enter Grasstown, but once you've talked to Chaco and she mentions you need to kill a Giant Jelly, the entire place is now magically filled with flying Jellyfish (including several visible from her doorstep).
** And, of course, it takes an Event Flag to trigger this Event Flag. You need to have gotten the Fireball from Santa first or she asks if you met Santa yet.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' when you have to learn [[spoiler:Doopliss's]] name, which serves as his weakness. Unfortunately for anyone who already knows the name, you also need the ''lowercase letter P from his hideout'' to use in the name entry screen to fill it out properly. And in case you haven't noticed, in the previous appearances of the Name Entry screen, yes, [[InterfaceScrew you have been missing that one single letter]] [[DevelopersForesight since the beginning of the game]].

* [[ClosetGeek Makise Kurisu]] in ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' mentions a love flag to Okabe as he gets close to another girl. But [[{{Tsundere}} tellingly]] she'll only mention this if you've raised the flags for the TrueEnding, which also serves as ''her'' ending.