History Main / SoNearYetSoFar

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'':
** Unlike the other worlds in the game, the entrance to the palace of Deep Magma Bog can be found almost as soon as you can enter the world. Just like the other worlds, however, you still need to collect [[PlotCoupon Wonder Seeds]] in order to unlock the level to play, requiring you to complete the other levels in Deep Magma Bog.
** The final levels of the game are located within [[GeniusLoci Bowser being a Castle]], which is located within the [[HubWorld Petal Isles]] unlocked after beating the first world, Pipe Rock Plateau. You can only access the final levels after you've collected the Royal Wonder Seeds to remove the Cloud Piranhas acting as a barrier around Bowser as a castle.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': The Breach, closing which is set up as your main objective for the game in its opening sequence, is a short walk away from Haven, where you set up your PlayerHeadquarters. In fact, you can see the Breach from pretty much anywhere in the village, but you have to secure an alliance with either the mages or the Templars before you can actually seal it for good. The subversion comes from the fact that despite being set up as the ultimate goal, closing the Breach turns out to be just the start of a much larger, game-spanning conflict.

* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': During the Alfheim Online Arc, Kirito must rescue Asuna. However, she is in a hospital room in a coma pledged to be married to a much older company worker unless Kirito can interfere. He has to enter the game and find Asuna to set her free from being locked within the game stuck in a coma, but she never actually leaves her hospital bed the entire time.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'': Unlike the other worlds in the game, the entrance to the palace of Deep Magma Bog can be found almost as soon as you can enter the world. Just like the other worlds, however, you still need to collect [[PlotCoupon Wonder Seeds]] in order to unlock the level to play, requiring you to complete the other levels in Deep Magma Bog.

** The final levels of the game are located within [[GenisLoci Bowser being a Castle]], which is located within the [[HubWorld Petal Isles]] unlocked after beating the first world, Pipe Rock Plateau. You can only access the final levels after you've collected the Royal Wonder Seeds to remove the Cloud Piranhas acting as a barrier around Bowser as a castle.

*** A single dungeon version happens in the Fire Temple where the boss key and door are in rooms right off the entrance of the Temple, but you can't access the boss key until you get the [[DropTheHammer Megaton Hammer]] later on in the temple.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'': When you reach the second town, Viridian City, you can find the road to the Indigo Plateau right next to it, which is where the biggest championship of the game takes place. Just, they won't allow you through without all the badges. This happens again multiple times in the series: ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', where the route to the Indigo Plateau is to the east of your hometown, but you need the Surf and Waterfall HMs, ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', where the gate to the Pokemon League is to the east of the third town and first gym, but requires all eight badges, and ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', where the Pokemon League is connected to [[HubCity Mesagoza]] and the player can even access it without any issues, but getting passed the lobby requires all eight badges.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'': When you reach the second town, Viridian City, you can find the road to the Indigo Plateau right next to it, which is where the biggest championship of the game takes place. Just, they won't allow you through without all the badges.

[[quoteright:255:[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sleeping_zelda.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:255:That's right, Link! [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Your princess IS in this castle!]] ...For all the good ''that'' does.]]

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': During the Alfheim Online Arc, Kirito must rescue Asuna. However, she is in a hospital room in a coma pledged to be married to a much older, company worker unless Kirito can interfere. He has to enter the game and find Asuna to set her free from being locked within the game stuck in a coma but she never actually leaves her hospital bed the entire time.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'': Zelda is turned to stone in the opening portion of the game and subsequently kept right next to her father's throne, itself in Hyrule Castle that you first visit early on, while Link goes on his quest to free her.
** A single dungeon version happens in the Temple of Droplets, where the Boss Door is one of the first unlocked, but the Element of Water is frozen, forcing Link and Ezlo to traverse the dungeon to melt it out. Happens again at the end, when the now unfrozen Big Octorok sucks the Element inside itself, forcing Link to defeat the boss.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'' episode "Den". Den knows where Katherine Wells is - she's sleeping inside a glass case in Ard's palace. Unfortunately, Ard will only allow her to wake after Den has stolen the Loc-Nar from the Queen and returned it to him. Things don't turn out quite as planned.

In this trope, the hero needs something or someone else to truly save the day. If their job is to save a person, they're not so much kidnapped as they are bound, bewitched, enchanted, enfeebled, {{curse}}d, [[BalefulPolymorph polymorphed]] or in other dire straits. If the task is to defeat a person, they can be challenged at any time--at the challenger's own risk. But other than that, same rules apply--TheHero needs to go on an adventure to finish things.

* In ''Videogame/ChronoTrigger'', you can defeat [[BigBad Lavos]] at any time after you visit the End of Time (roughly a quarter through the main story). But, until you get through the plot proper, expect to get [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped.]] In a NewGamePlus, this is taken UpToEleven: you can fight Lavos from the very start, and defeating him at different points in the story gives you the various MultipleEndings.

** While the entrance to the final dungeon in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' can be tough to find without looking carefully for it, you ''can'' enter the dungeon from very early in the game. But you can't make it more than a few rooms unless you have found all the Triforce shards.
** In ''Videogame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', the sleeping Princess Zelda is the ''first thing you see'' when you start the game. Every time you run out of lives and continue, you start back at the same palace where she's been sleeping for hundreds of years. This is a stark contrast to the original game, where all of the characters named in the backstory were unseen and mysterious until the very last fight of the game.

*** Even earlier, when you first go into the Dark World en route to the Tower of Hera, you can see the base of Ganon's Tower atop the Dark World version of Death Mountain. The only thing separating you from the final dungeon in the game is a single, unclimbable wall.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' plays out similarly, except that your first foray into Lorule actually brings you to the chamber where the FinalBoss is fought and which you cannot revisit until you rescue all the Sages.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': You can go to the outside of the final dungeon, Ganon's Castle, as soon as you set foot in the BadFuture halfway through the game, though in order to get inside you need to rescue the sages who then build a magic bridge to allow you to enter the castle.

** In ''[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', the Skull Kid is confronted at the very beginning of the game at the end of the Final Day on top of the Clock Tower from which you first emerged into Termina, but you quickly find out that there's no way to stop him from crashing the moon into the land. All you can do there is retrieve the Ocarina of Time and use it to reset the three day cycle. You must instead follow Tael's entreaty to find the Four Giants at the four corners of Termina before you can once again confront the Skull Kid at the Clock Tower and stop the moon.
** In ''[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'':

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'', Zelda is turned to stone in the opening portion of the game and subsequently kept right next to her father's throne, itself in Hyrule Castle that you first visit early on, while Link goes on his quest to free her.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' takes this UpToEleven; the very first area you visit upon completing the tutorial and reaching the surface is not only [[SealedEvilInACan the prison for the big bad]], but also [[spoiler: right next to the place where [[LivingMacguffin Zelda]] has been sleeping for thousands of years waiting for you to defeat him]]. Unfortunately for you, to claim the MacGuffin you'll use to defeat the BigBad and [[spoiler: make it safe for Zelda to wake up]], you must first travel across the surface and undergo numerous trials to strengthen yourself and prove yourself worthy to use it, with this location serving as a frequent destination. ''Then,'' your success triggers [[spoiler: a KaizoTrap when TheDragon comes BackForTheFinale and the location is revealed as the site of one more boss battle before becoming the gateway to the FinalBoss (albeit in the distant past).]]
*** In addition, [[spoiler: the Triforce is hidden on the HubCity of Skyloft, directly beneath the area where you retrieve the [[CoolSword Goddess Sword,]] your main weapon, at the very beginning of the game.]] And numerous other areas have plot-relevant subsections that will have you making repeat visits. Though, again, you won't get the PlotCoupons you need to access them until you've proven yourself.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': Zigzagged, in that the final dungeon and nest of the GreaterScopeVillain is Mementos, the central dungeon that you've been exploring throughout the game. You still have to traverse to the very bottom to find it, though, which isn't accessible until the end of the game.

[[quoteright:256:[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sleeping_zelda.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:256:That's right, Link! [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Your princess IS in this castle!]] ...For all the good ''that'' does.]]