History Main / StoryBranchFavoritism

*** The first mission after the initial route split is being instructed by Jeritza to infiltrate a bandit base that results in the rescue of [[spoiler:the real]] Monica, with both characters only having prominent roles in the Scarlet Blaze route from that point on. Scarlet Blaze's climax also involves taking down both [[spoiler:Rhea]] and [[spoiler:Thales]], whereas the other two routes only focus on one of the two. Azure Gleam does have more exclusive playable characters than Scarlet Blaze, but it also demotes [[spoiler:Byleth and Jeralt]] to EleventhHourRanger.

* Happened in ''Videogame/WingCommander 4'' via over-promising in the advertising. Supposedly players would be allowed to choose whether to stay loyal to the Terran Confederation or jump ship and ally themselves with the Border Worlds. In practice, attempting to stick with the Confederation past a certain point will spawn a never-ending supply of Border World bombers, and an [[AWinnerIsYou insultingly short]] ending sequence once they inevitably kill you.

*** With Sumia, she has a steady amount of ShipTease throughout the first half of the game. She even appears alongside Chrom holding baby Lucina in the game's opening movie, as well as giving them an animated RescueRomance cutscene that was even titled "Lovebirds" in the English version. She also has the fastest support growth with him, and the highest priority for auto-marriage in the case of tied supports. Sumia and Chrom are also the only two characters who are artificially limited to five romantic options each[[note]]M!Robin, Chrom, Frederick, Gaius, and Henry for Sumia; F!Robin, Sumia, Maribelle, Olivia, and Sully for Chrom[[/note]], compared to every other NPC's selection of 10+ potential partners.

*** While each route has a reason to play it, the Azure Moon route looks to have gotten somewhat more love and attention from the developers. Gameplay-wise, it has the most exclusive characters, the most paralogues, and the most exclusive weapons; moreover, it's the only route where all of the Heroes' Relics can be obtained, plus it's the only route to include a support conversation that gives a usable weapon. Narratively, a significant amount of conflict in the first part of the game spins out of the Kingdom (rather than the Empire or Alliance) and has personal connections with Blue Lion students - Sylvain's brother leads a gang which introduces the player to Demonic Beasts, Ashe's adoptive father launches a rebellion, and Mercedes and Dimitri turn out to have complicated personal connections to the Death Knight and the Flame Emperor respectively. The Blue Lions also get an exclusive dialogue scene between Byleth and Dimitri at the ball, an extended version of the scene where the Flame Emperor meets with Thales and [[spoiler:Monica]], and flashbacks using character models and voice actors found nowhere else in the game. All the Blue Lions get exclusive, bespoke endings in their route, while all the other routes share a common pool of endings (with some minor rewrites for a few characters if the player sides with the Empire). It's also the only route that guarantees [[spoiler:Rhea's survival with less than a full Support, due to her being TheGhost of Azure Moon]]. That said, however, Verdant Wind is pretty light-hearted [[spoiler:and it's the only route where [[AncientEvil Nemesis]] can be beaten for good]].

*** In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor Overclocked'', Amane's route has you act far more moderately than the usual Law route. You consistently prefer to redeem sinners rather than execute them, and no indication is given that humanity has lost its free will. Additionally, while Naoya's evil route is typical Chaos fare, Naoya's good route has you rally all of Tokyo to stand up to God, leading to you going to Heaven to do battle with Him while all of your friends cheer you on and await your safe return.

** Invoked for the KillEmAll route. [[spoiler: The game becomes a monotonous grind, as you will spend much of your time searching for more enemies to kill. Keep in mind that the encounter rate goes down the more you kill, so you will be searching for a while. Many events after the Ruins, such as puzzles and almost all of Mettaton's appearances, are skipped as well. Additionally, most of the boss fights are essentially skipped too, as you will kill them in a single hit. The only thing that prevents the route from being a complete chore are the fights with Undyne the Undying and Sans. It is clear that the game itself is designed to discourage playing this way.]]

** ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa2'' has a lot of branches, such as who to support for the throne of an allied kingdom, or whether to gain a new type of magic over saving a unique race of possible allies. However, the remakes include a BonusBoss that can only be challenged if the player never took a branch that required sacrificing a potential unit type.

* The first ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'' has several potential ally commanders in the final battle depending on which path you took to get there, but having Eagle on your side (use Sami for all the Green Earth missions) is given a bit more weight than the others: it's the only option that unlocks a special BonusBoss mission afterwards, he overrides all other options for the 3rd CO and his route is the only one to give closure to the Eagle/Andy rivalry subplot. Gameplay wise it's also one that's very much in the player's favor, as the map in question has no naval combat but a few airports, rendering Eagle's weakness of bad warships meaningless. Future games would give Eagle ShipTease with Sami, which follows on from her branch of the Green Earth missions.

*** "The Big Score" gives you two methods of robbing the Union Depository. There is an Obvious method where you set up a distraction at the front door, drill into the gold reserve, and fly the stolen gold out of town. The other, Subtle, method involves stealing two armored vans via coercion, loading the gold into the vans under disguise, and having a hacker manipulate traffic lights to stall private security guards as you escape. [[spoiler:You are forced to pay two extra people (a van driver and a hacker) if you take the Subtle route, cutting into the player characters' profits. The Obvious route, on the other hand, cuts out these two payments and consequently leaves the player with more earnings.]] As a result, the game clearly favours the Obvious option.

** ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' has several endings, but a 10-Star end ranking requires either the Rebirth Ending, or, hilariously enough, the Dog Ending. (A joke GainaxEnding, for those who don' know) The four ritual items needed for the Rebirth ending are also required for a 10-Star rank, giving that ending slightly more weight than the others. Canonically, however, ''all'' endings are equally valid and there is no one "true" conclusion; the creators intend for the player to personalize the story and choose for themselves which ending provides the best closure.

*** While each route has a reason to play it, the Azure Moon route looks to have gotten somewhat more love and attention from the developers. Gameplay-wise, it has the most exclusive characters, the most paralogues, and the most exclusive weapons; moreover, it's the only route where all of the Heroes' Relics can be obtained, plus it's the only route to include a support conversation that gives a usable weapon. Narratively, a significant amount of conflict in the first part of the game spins out of the Kingdom (rather than the Empire or Alliance) and has personal connections with Blue Lion students - Sylvain's brother leads a gang which introduces the player to Demonic Beasts, Ashe's adoptive father launches a rebellion, and Mercedes and Dimitri turn out to have complicated personal connections to the Death Knight and the Flame Emperor respectively. The Blue Lions also get an exclusive dialogue scene between Byleth and Dimitri at the ball, an extended version of the scene where the Flame Emperor meets with Thales and [[spoiler:Monica]], and flashbacks using character models and voice actors found nowhere else in the game. All the Blue Lions get exclusive, bespoke endings in their route, while all the other routes share a common pool of endings (with some minor rewrites for a few characters if the player sides with the Empire). It's also the only route that guarantees [[spoiler:Rhea's survival with less than a full Support, due to her being TheGhost of Azure Moon]]. That said, however, Verdant Wind is pretty light-hearted [[spoiler: and it's the only route where [[AncientEvil Nemesis]] can be beaten for good.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'', all of the routes are fully fleshed out, but it feels like the most love was put into the Law route, aka the route where the protagonist Denam [[spoiler:chooses to commit a FalseFlagOperation against his own people to rally the rest of the country into rebellion]]. It leads to the most morally complicated character arc he can experience, and from a gameplay perspective, it has the most unique characters that can be recruited, particularly in the PSP version which adds the new character Ravness and the existing [[spoiler:Ozma]] as secret recruitable characters. It is also the only route in which Denam's childhood friend and rival Vyce can be recruited. The Chaos route is the second most fleshed out route with a few unique characters to be recruited, but the Neutral route (gotten by starting Chaos and then choosing to reconcile at the end of act 2) has the fewest recruitable characters, including having one particular knight that is recruitable in the other two routes become unavailable AND Allocer, the best archer in the game, likely abandoning your cause if you don't immediately improve her morale as soon as chapter 3 begins.

*** While each route has a reason to play it, the Azure Moon route looks to have gotten somewhat more love and attention from the developers. Gameplay-wise, it has the most exclusive characters, the most paralogues, and the most exclusive weapons; moreover, it's the only route where all of the Heroes' Relics can be obtained, plus it's the only route to include a support conversation that gives a usable weapon. Narratively, a significant amount of conflict in the first part of the game spins out of the Kingdom (rather than the Empire or Alliance) and has personal connections with Blue Lion students - Sylvain's brother leads a gang which introduces the player to Demonic Beasts, Ashe's adoptive father launches a rebellion, and Mercedes and Dimitri turn out to have complicated personal connections to the Death Knight and the Flame Emperor respectively. The Blue Lions also get an exclusive dialogue scene between Byleth and Dimitri at the ball, an extended version of the scene where the Flame Emperor meets with Thales and [[spoiler:Monica]], and flashbacks using character models and voice actors found nowhere else in the game. All the Blue Lions get exclusive, bespoke endings in their route, while all the other routes share a common pool of endings (with some minor rewrites for a few characters if the player sides with the Empire). It's also the only route that guarantees [[spoiler:Rhea's survival with less than a full Support, due to her being TheGhost of Azure Moon]].

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' only has slight variations to certain cutscenes, but some of them are more fleshed out than others. In the town's pharmaceutical building, a dying mercenary is encountered and either Nicolai or Carlos kill him. If Nicolai kills him, Jill is left wondering why he'd kill a still conscious man while Nicolai justifies it by saying [[ZombieInfectee he was infected]] and killing him now would save him a few bullets later. if Carlos kills the man, he [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill unloads an entire magazine from his assault rifle]] into him ([[MercyKill though he did ask to be killed before turning]]) before running off. Depending on how you approach the hospital later on, you either encounter a mercenary that foreshadows Nicolai's betrayal or you run into Nicolai who shoots the man and is about to shoot Carlos before the mercenary unpins a grenade in a [[TakingYouWithMe last ditch attempt to get back at Nicolai]]. Nicolai's final cutscenes are more fleshed out if he gets to explain his motives, but in the scene where he shoots at Jill from his helicopter, he won't talk if you decide to shoot the chopper down.

** ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' has several endings, but a 10-Star end ranking requires either the Rebirth Ending, or, hilariously enough, the Dog Ending. (A joke GainaxEnding, for those who don' know) The four ritual items needed for the Rebirth ending are also required for a 10-Star rank, giving that ending slightly more weight than the others.

One common variation is the GoldenEnding, which is considered the best overall ending a player can achieve from the creators' perspective. Alternatively, some games employ RelationshipValues to let the PlayerCharacter pair off with any of the cast member they choose, but one particular LoveInterest seems [[DesignatedLoveInterest unfairly promoted over others]].

*** Most quests have hidden options that can be unlocked depending on the companions you brought. Of all the companions, Anders is the one with the most unique and story-changing scenes. For example, bringing him to the Deep Roads mission is the only way to [[spoiler:turn your sibling into a Grey Warden since his senses can detect another Grey Warden in the area to bring Hawke's sibling in]]. Others scenes include [[spoiler:temporarily curing Bartrand of his insanity]] (which throws that entire situation into a new light), becoming possessed by Justice while in the fade, and [[spoiler:almost falling under the influence of Corypheus]] in the ''Legacy'' DLC. To top it all off, as a mage, Anders also has almost every special option that Bethany and Merrill have. This is also a case of DevelopersForesight; Anders being the only healer in the group and is also a Grey Warden (so players might get an idea to bring him to the Deep Roads as well), most players bring him virtually everywhere, so he was a safe choice for these exclusive scenes.

*** Most quests have hidden options that can be unlocked depending on the companions you brought. Of all the companions, Anders is the one with the most unique and story-changing scenes. For example, bringing him to the Deep Roads mission is the only way to [[spoiler:turn your sibling into a Grey Warden]]. Others scenes include [[spoiler:temporarily curing Bartrand of his insanity]] (which throws that entire situation into a new light), becoming possessed by Justice while in the fade, and [[spoiler:almost falling under the influence of Corypheus]] in the ''Legacy'' DLC. To top it all off, as a mage, Anders also has almost every special option that Bethany and Merrill have. This is also a case of DevelopersForesight; Anders being the only healer in the group, most players bring him virtually everywhere, so he was a safe choice for these exclusive scenes.

** In the first case, it is ZigZagged. [[spoiler:On one hand, deliberately allowing Reko to die in order to save Alice's life grants more plot-relevant information in the long term, including {{Foreshadowing}} about [[PoisonousFriend Midori]], and has Reko be TogetherInDeath with Nao, whereas Alice doesn't. On the other hand, Alice's potential death is treated with much more fanfare than that of Reko's, and helping Alice retrieve his sister's bongos only gives a bonus scene should he be the one to die]].

* In the ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series, you can choose your gender, but promotional material and even some in-game lore always suggests that the female Inkling/Octoling was the canon heroine of any given story campaign.

* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood'' has two endings. The good ending is a 5-minute long cutscene, and the bad ending is less than half a minute long and ends very abruptly. [[VideoGame/{{Skullmonkeys}} the sequel]] continues where the good ending left off, just in case if you were wondering if there's any more ending favoritism.

** ''Completing the Mission'' has the secret base of the Toppat Clan as its title screen, and all of its routes either deal with it, the train leading to it, or the satellite that's launched from it... Well, [[spoiler:with the exception of''Toppat Civil Warfare'', which doesn't involve it at all, and also ends on a {{Cliffhanger}}.]]

*** While each route has a reason to play it, the Azure Moon route looks to have gotten somewhat more love and attention from the developers. Gameplay-wise, it has the most exclusive characters, the most paralogues, and the most exclusive weapons; moreover, it's the only route where all of the Heroes' Relics can be obtained, plus it's the only route to include a support conversation that gives a usable weapon. Narratively, a significant amount of conflict in the first part of the game spins out of the Kingdom (rather than the Empire or Alliance) and has personal connections with Blue Lion students - Sylvain's brother leads a gang which introduces the player to Demonic Beasts, Ashe's adoptive father launches a rebellion, and Mercedes and Dimitri turn out to have complicated personal connections to the Death Knight and the Flame Emperor respectively. The Blue Lions also get an exclusive dialogue scene between Byleth and Dimitri at the ball, an extended version of the scene where the Flame Emperor meets with Thales and [[spoiler:Monica]], and flashbacks using character models and voice actors found nowhere else in the game. All the Blue Lions get exclusive, bespoke endings in their route, while all the other routes share a common pool of endings (with some minor rewrites for a few characters if the player sides with the Empire). Finally it's also the only route where more than one of the game's lords survive, as [[spoiler:Claude gives his relic and the Leicester Alliance to Dimitri with the implication that he's going back Almyra]]. It's also the only route that guarantees [[spoiler:Rhea's survival with less than a full Support, due to her being TheGhost of Azure Moon]].

*** With Sumia, she has a steady amount of ShipTease throughout the first half of the game. She even appears alongside Chrom holding baby Lucina in the game's opening movie, as well as giving them an animated RescueRomance cutscene that was even titled "Lovebirds" in the English version. She also has the fastest support growth with him, and the highest priority for auto-marriage in the case of tied supports. Sumia and Chrom are also the only two characters who are artificially limited to five romantic options each[[note]]M!Robin, Chrom, Frederick, Gaius, and Henry for Sumia; F!Robin, Sumia, Maribelle, Olivia, and Sully for Chrom[[/note]], compared to every other NPC's selection of 10+ potential partners: while limiting either of them like this would not mean much on its own, the combination of both has the net effect of [[StrangledByTheRedString pulling Chrom and Sumia stronger towards each other]] than towards anyone else except maybe Robin.

* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' presents the choice to the player of either [[SavingTheOrphanage restoring the Community Center]] by fulfilling the requested bundles from the [[NatureSpirit forest spirits]] that had taken residence there, or siding with the [[MegaCorp Joja Corporation]] who will turn it into a warehouse and paying in cash to them for the town's upgrades. The later option only rewards the player with a soda vending machine, in contrast with the former which gives more rewards and friendship with the rest of the villagers; in addition it doesn't make a lot of sense for the player character to join with Joja Corp, considering that [[DefectorFromDecadence he was already a white-collared employee of them who grew disillusioned with their life and their job]] and thus [[CallToAgriculture choose to live on a Farm]].

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series, you can choose your gender, but promotional material and even some in-game lore always suggests that the female Inkling/Octoling was the canon heroine of any given story campaign.