Video games are generally designed to be played from beginning to end, but that’s not always the case. You might find yourself working your way through a game, thinking that you’re on your way to the game’s epic conclusion, only to discover that something you did (or failed to do) hours earlier now blocks your path to completion. Accidentally softlocking yourself from completing a game used to be more common, but it’s still a known issue even as recently as the 2025The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remake.
Nothing compares to the frustration of thinking that you’re on the right path, then coming up against an invisible wall. At that point, there’s nothing left to do but restart your game and hope that you don’t make the same mistake twice—or find yet another way to block your progression. These gamespunished players for making mistakes they didn’t even know they were making until it was too lateand let them continue playing, even after they’d already lost.
10Quest for Glory Punished You For Playing A Lore-Accurate Character
Sometimes, Thieves Should Resist The Temptation To Steal
The classic Sierra adventure gameQuest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Herohad an innovative class system whereeach of the three classes could solve the same problems in different ways. The Fighter used brute strength to overcome most obstacles, the Magic User relied on their spells, and the Thief, well… stole.
It’s completely understandable, then, if you find yourself in the house of the friendly neighborhood witch while playing the Thief, you might be tempted to steal the potion vials when she has her back turned.Doing so will lock you out of her house for good, as witches are known to hold a grudge. Sadly, this renders you unable to seek the witch’s help when, hours later, you find yourself in need of a custom-made potion for a certain Mandrake plant, making you completely unable to continue the story.
Unknowingly Burning The Bridge The Whole Time
As you might surmise by now,pre-2000s adventure gameshave some of the most notorious cases of accidental softlocks. The most notable example is the bridge inKings Quest 2,released by Sierra Entertainment in 1985. At the center of this game was arun-down old bridge that the game tells you is “unstable and tottery,“with this description the first time you come across it:
“The bridge spanning the chasm seems to be unstable and tottery. Are you entertaining thoughts of crossing it?”
Crossing the bridge increases the score by one point, leading players to believe they’re doing the right thing. Unbeknownst to the player,the bridge can only withstand being crossed exactly eight times,after which it will break. Unfortunately, the bridge needs to be crossed eight times to complete the game, which means players can go through most of the game before the bridge collapses and makes it impossible to finish the story, in a twist that’s been called “cruel” by even the most hardcore retro adventure game fans.
8Fallout Has A Very Clear Time Limit
When “The World Is Ending Soon” Doesn’t Mean You Have Time For Side-Quests
In theoriginal 1997Fallout, the whole reason why the protagonist leaves the safety of Vault 13 is tofind and deliver a backup water chip to their home before the entire vault dies of thirst.The main quest comes with a strict time limit of 150 days (though this can be extended by taking some proactive steps).
Once players are above-ground, though, it can be so easy to get distracted by the many things to discover and places to explore, thatyou might forget your main task at hand—even if you do have a big reminder with a countdown every time you check your Pip-Boy. The game doesn’t end once you deliver the water, but it certainly does end if you fail to—even if you’re on the way back to the vault—forcing you to restart, and maybe this time focus on actually saving your friends and family.
7Resident Evil – Code: Veronica Needed Players To See The Future
The Redfield Siblings Never Learned How To Share
Resident Evil – Code: Veronicahad players switching betweenClaire and Chris Redfieldas the siblings tried to survive yet another viral outbreak. Like the previousResident Evilgames, this horror shooterrequired some clever inventory managementto make sure that Claire and Chris both had a shot at getting through the ordeal.
Part of this consisted ofplacing items into storage boxeslocated at various points around the stages, which could be accessed by either character. One fight in particular required a certain rare type of ammo, which you could pass from one sibling to the other. Without knowing this ahead of time, though, players wouldn’t know to put the ammo into storage or they might keep all the best weapons and ammunition on the other character,making it impossible to kill the bossand continue.
6The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Lets You Kill Essential Story NPCs
You Get A Warning, But Only After The Character Is Already Dead
The Elder Scrollsgames are known for being sprawling, wide-reaching fantasy RPGs that gave players an unprecedented amount of freedom. This meant that if players wanted togo around theMorrowindworld killing every NPC, they could certainly do that. Some NPCs were essential to the story, though, and killing them would make it impossible to continue the main questline.
Luckily,Morrowindgave players a heads up when they killed a character that was central to the plot, with a popup that read:
“With this character’s death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.”
Unluckily,this message appeared only after the character’s death,at which point it was too late to rethink your trigger-happy rampage. You could continue to play without the story, or restart the game completely.
5Clock Tower 2 Asks Players To Interact With Absolutely Everything
Chances Are, You’re Already Dead
Clock Towerwas a groundbreaking 1995 title thatintroduced the concept of the “stalker”—the unkillable, ever-present monster that’s been implemented in games likeMetroid Dreadand theResident Evilseries. Its sequel,Clock Tower 2, wasbetter known for being game-breaking than ground-breaking.
In a now-legendary case of a game unfairly punishing the player for failing to complete an obscure action early in the game,Clock Tower 2cansoftlock you into a delayed game over within the very first chapter.As shown bytangomushion YouTube, failing to interact with a specific suit of samurai armor in the first chapter results in that armor falling through the ceiling many chapters later, killing the protagonist. The only way to get through this is to start the game over—or, more likely, simply ragequit and play a better game.
4Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Makes It Hard Not To Panic
Maybe Bringing A Towel Would Have Helped
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxywas a text-based adventure based on the humorous sci-fi space-faring adventures of the four-book trilogy by Douglas Adams. Though the guide famously tells readers “don’t panic,” it was hard to keep cool in the face of one of themost unforgiving adventure games of all time.
In just one example of many,it was possible to fail the game within the very first 10 moves of the game. If you didn’t pick up a pile of garbage from your home before it was destroyed (along with the entire planet Earth), you’d be unable to climb atop it and reach something you needed to continue the game—a fact players wouldn’t discover until they were hours into it.
3The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Could Miss Out On A Crucial Song
A Poorly Timed Save Could Break The Game
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Timeis thehighest-rated game on Metacritic, with a near-perfect 99 rating. And yet, even this beloved game has a way for players toaccidentally lock themselves out of completing it. At one point in the game, Link sneaks his way into Hyrule Castle, where he learns Zelda’s Lullaby.
If players save and quit while they’re in the castle but before they have the song, they’ll find themselves back at Link’s house when they next boot up the game. Getting back into the castle becomes impossible, and though the game can still be played,Link will be missing a crucial part of the solution for many of the game’s puzzles,breaking them and leaving the world in permanent danger from Ganon.
2Final Fantasy Tactics Battles Could Be Brutal Without The Right Setup
This Game Taught A Generation The Importance Of Backup Saves
Although adventure games are the worst offenders of accidentally relating punishments for incorrect choices,Final Fantasy Tacticsshows that no genre is safe from this fate. The tactical RPG let players level up and customize their characters however they wanted, buthaving the wrong character setup could make or break certain fights.
One late-game fight in particular was so difficult that it caused many players to quit. Their mistake was saving right before the battle and not having any backup saves to fall back on. While it was possible to make it through the fight, it wasvery difficult and relied a lot on sheer luck and RNG. For many, this was the point where they decided to start over, and this time, have several save files on hand—just in case.
1The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remake Shouldn’t Let You Leave NPCs Lying Around
Even A 2025 Game Isn’t Safe From Accidental Softlocks
It may seem like the days of the accidental softlock are long gone, and certainly they’re much rarer in modern games. But that doesn’t mean they’re completely impossible, asone unfortunate player found out. RedditorDifferent-Ticket2974had reached the part of the story where they had to travel to a certain location with Martin and Jauffre by their side. The player reports getting sidetracked along the way and, tired of having the two characters vocally decry their every morally ambiguous action, telling them tostand in a building and wait.
When that very same building was later destroyed, it took the two NPCs down with it. After many hours of playing, the player was now effectively locked out of completing the main storyline ofThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remake.It seems that sometimes, having too many options can lead to game-ending mistakes without players even realizing it.
