History Main / GeographicFlexibility

In JustForFun/{{egregious}} cases, the CityOfAdventure may gain or lose major geographic features like mountains, or may move to a different climate zone when no one's looking[[note]]apart from actual explanations such as MobileCity, TravellingLandmass, or InnBetweenTheWorlds[[/note]].

* The American localization of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' apparently takes place in Los Angeles, California (Pacific time zone, near a movie studio). The sequel introduces the extremely Japanese Kurain Village, which is two hours away by train. The 3rd game introduces a snow covered mountain expanse with another extremely Japanese Kurain Temple located not much further beyond that. The reason, of course, is that it was an extremely Japanese game series before being localized. FanWank would indicate that there was simply a lot more cultural exchange between Japan and California in the series' AlternateUniverse, which is why no one bats an eye at people in Japanese clothing walking around in LA.

[[folder:Commercials]]
* A Chevy Silverado commercial [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on this when a little boy who [[WeirdnessMagnet keeps getting stuck]] in precarious situations finds himself in a volcano. Dad says, "I didn't even know this town had a volcano", then the camera zooms to a very out-of-place looking volcano.
[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Duckburg is surrounded by desert, prairie, mountains, forest and ocean. It has a spaceport, a cathedral and several other unique buildings, most of which are only seen once.

''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

-->'''Riley:''' I've lived in Sunnydale a couple of years now. Know what I've never noticed before?\\

->''"I've lived in Sunnydale a couple of years now. You know what I've never noticed before? This big honkin' castle."''
-->-- '''Riley''', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Kansas, didn't do too badly; the titular town's geography remained stable, as did Metropolis. But it still cropped up from time to time; the Smallville Luthorcorp plant seemed to grow an entire research wing (on a waste treatment plant) and Metropolis was sometimes so close to Smallville you could see it from a not very tall windmill and sometimes far enough away even SuperSpeed took a while to get you there. Also, Metropolis had a waterfront, even though Kansas is completely landlocked.

* The hills visible in the background of 20th-Century '''Hill Valley''' in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' are completely absent in TheWildWest milieu of the [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII third]], which is ostensibly set in the same town some hundred-odd years in the past.

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', where the parts of the game that were featured in the NES prequel remain the same, but much of the geography had considerably changed. Also, while the entirety of the setting had an explosion in the first game, ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' lets you return and continue exploring long after this event, to which nothing has changed (you can even go back and visit the final area in its entirety, though the last few rooms of it are a charred, blown-out wasteland).

* ''Franchise/SilentHill''. Between [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 the first]] and [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 second]] games, the map of the town changes completely. [[VideoGame/SilentHill3 The third game]] keeps the map of the second game despite being a continuation of the plot of the first game. Pretty much every game after that has had its own version of the town, up to and including ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'''s inclusion of a SinisterSubway. Could be explained in-universe as the town itself being a semi-sentient EldritchAbomination, shifting its geography to suit its whims.

In JustForFun/{{egregious}} cases, the CityOfAdventure may gain or lose major geographic features like mountains, or may move to a different climate zone when no one's looking.

* As the ''[[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter]]'' series went on under new directors and better technology, brand-new landmarks and locales were added to the Hogwarts grounds that were never seen or hinted at before.

* Gensoukyou, the setting of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', has had many things added to it over the years that were apparently only discovered in the game in which they debut, including Misty Lake, the Garden of the Sun, Mayohiga, part of the Sanzu River, and both Koumakan and Eientei. More recent games have managed to avoid this though, with locations either mentioned before (Youkai Mountain) or explicitly stated to have recently arrived in Gensoukyou (a second lake, the Moriya Shrine, and even a [[SchizoTech nuclear fusion plant]]).

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'' mainly takes place in a small town that is close to the coast and an airport, and that has: a college, a bar where bands get noticed, a karaoke bar, an opera house, multiple fancy restaurants, a Japanese massage parlor, a museum for memorabilia of famous musical acts, and a record label.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Storybrooke from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' would be an in-universe example, as it popped up out of the blue thanks to the Dark Curse, with unsuspecting campers waking up to find the empty forest they were staying at becoming the outskirts of a town overnight. [[SubvertedTrope However]], its dimension remain fairly consistent for the duration of the show, with a realistic amount of amenities and shops for a town that size.

* Storybrooke from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' would be an in-universe example, as it popped up out of the blue thanks to the Dark Curse, with unsuspecting campers waking up to find the empty forest they were staying at becoming the outskirts of a town overnight. [[Subverted However]], its dimension remain fairly consistent for the duration of the show, with a realistic amount of amenities and shops for a town that size.

* In ''VideoGame/DiabloII's'' multiplayer, the wilderness areas outside of towns change shape everytime one plays.

* In ''VideoGame/CriminalCase'', it's never stated where exactly Grimsborough is supposed to be, but it's got all manner of elements that are just convenient for whatever the plot of a given case requires. For example, one case in the Maple Heights arc has a bridge as one of the scenes with hidden items to find; the bridge itself is a clear expy of the Golden Gate Bridge, which would mean Grimsborough is a stand-in for San Francisco, or is at least located somewhere in the state of California. On the other hand, Grimsborough has only one university to its name, whereas San Franciso proper has several such institutes of learning. As well, the design for Grimsborough's City Hall (seen only in cutscenes) is clearly based on the White House, which is located in Washington, DC, and Grimsborough has an Amish community that's introduced during Case 36, but California's not on the list of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Amish_population U.S. states with significant Amish populations]].

* As the ''[[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter]]'' series went on under new directors and better technology, brand-new landmarks and locales were added to the Hogwarts locales that were never seen or hinted at before.

* Riverdale from ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' sometimes spawns a beach or a mountain, and occasionally gives a hint of where it could be located, just to be able to contradict it later. Its size also seems to fluctuate. Depending on the story, Riverdale's a hick town in the middle of nowhere, or is big enough to support an airport and an international stock exchange.