Point of No Return

Be thankful, Sora. Some games aren't this nice.

"Once you enter this portal, my analysis indicates a 0% chance that you will be able to return, unless you are able to vanquish your foe. Are you ready to proceed?"

— Fi, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Point of No Return is a place in the story of a video game where it permanently becomes impossible to revisit earlier areas. Any optional sidequests or items (e.g. the Infinity +1 Sword) are effectively lost permanently from here on out.

This often happens near the game's finale, such as before entering The Very Definitely Final Dungeon or just before challenging the Final Boss. You may even hear the narrator or another character warn you that "there is no going back" or "This Is the Final Battle".

There may or may not be Save Points, Trauma Inns, or item shops past the Point of No Return. If there aren't, crossing this point without sufficient resources (health, ammo, etc.) to survive the challenges ahead can result in the game becoming Unwinnable, especially if there's a Save Point beyond it, but no means to heal or restock supplies.

The point of no return comes in multiple flavors which basically correlate to points on Zarf's Cruelty Scale of Interactive Fiction (see Unwinnable by Design):

Merciful: The game has no concept of sidequests, hidden items, or leveling up, so there is no way to enter the point of no return until you have everything you need/want.
Strict: The game will prevent you from saving past the point of no return (by disabling the save-anywhere option, turning off auto saves, and/or denying save points from here on out), so that if you have to restart for any reason, it will be from a safe location where turning back is possible. Alternately, loading a save made after the point of no return will let you (or force you to) rewind to the moment before you passed it, or a special, clearly labeled auto-save will be generated for you just before passing the point.
Polite: The game explicitly warns you that the point of no return is ahead. You are encouraged to save the game before heading out, and to keep that slot preserved in case you need to go back. If you neglect this advice, you will put yourself in either a Tough or Nasty situation depending on the game.
Tough: You're playing through the game, and save your file as normal. Then you decide to go back to check something out, only to find that you've unwittingly passed the point of no return, possibly leaving your best items and equipment behind. However, there is a shop and the enemies here drop gold, so you can grind what you need to finish the game.
Nasty: Same as Tough, but there is no useful grinding opportunity and you have to win with whatever you brought with you. If you left your good stuff at home, then you'll either have to fight a much harder endgame than you should, or start all over again.
Cruel: Same as Nasty except there is no hint at all, even for veteran players (e.g. you don't appear to be heading toward the final battle at all), and/or the game only lets you save to one file, and perhaps even encourages you to save after you've passed the (hidden) point. Worse yet, the game could even Auto-Save after passing it!

Another dimension to this is whether there is a Playable Epilogue or Endgame+ that lets you go back to the rest of the world again after you finish the game. Even if you can, it's cold comfort if you're trapped in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon with no way to go back or finish it. Other games offer a New Game Plus so the player can restart their adventure (and eventually re-open the playable areas, one by one) with elements and stats carried over from the past playthrough.

Games that regularly prevent you from returning to earlier completed areas are another trope entirely, although freeform or ability-based level exploration may blur the line. See also Plot Tunnel, which occurs mid-game and cuts off all the plot-irrelevant levels temporarily, until the current story arc is cleared. Often the point is marked by a Door of Doom and/or announced by an Ominous Save Prompt.

This comes from the term used in air travel where after a certain point it becomes impossible to turn around and return to the point of origin (for example, not enough fuel); even if there is a sudden emergency, the plane must continue towards its destination. It's also a term used to describe an "event horizon," a point in spacetime (usually a black hole) where once crossed, gravity becomes so strong that it's physically impossible for anything (even light itself) to escape.

Compare Point of No Continues, You Can Turn Back, Last Chance to Quit and Inescapable Ambush. Often goes hand-in-hand with Door Jam, where there's an in-universe explanation for why the hero can't turn back and is forced to face a danger alone.

Supertrope to One-Time Dungeon: an area that can be accessed once, which of course has its point of no return - but limited to that area.

Compare Proof of Commitment for when an action commits someone to a cause.

Not to be confused with Moral Event Horizon, which is when a character does something so horrible that they've crossed the "point of no return" and are now Beyond Redemption.

Warning: Expect spoilers ahead! Once you read through these spoilers, you won't be able to experience these moments blind!

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Role-Playing Game

Video Game Examples:

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ANNO: Mutationem: Proceeding into the deepest level of The Consortium's underground facility will have a prompt upon reaching a certain door warning you that the final chapter will commence once you past through and visits to previous areas won't be possible. With a Teleport Spring nearby, it'll allow you to stock up on any needed items for the last chapter.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has a few points of no return regarding making a choice between two missions in certain sections of each chapter. Choose one, and the other mission will be locked off until you play it on a New Game Plus, after which you have full access to replay it. Meanwhile, three endgame points serve as the threshold to each ending.
- The first two endings are achieved through deciding between "Intercept the Corporate Forces" and "Eliminate 'Cinder' Carla" in the 5th and final chapter of the game. Completing either one of the two missions locks the player in to either the "Fires of Raven" ending (where you side with Overseer to destroy the Vascular Plant and detonate the Coral, causing another Fires of Ibis incident) or the "Liberator of Rubicon" ending (where you turn against Overseer to save Rubicon and the Coral, and disable the colony ship Xylem). Once either of the two missions are completed, each are followed by two missions unique to each plotline, with different bosses and a unique Final Boss (Ayre in "Fires of Raven", Handler Walter in "Liberator of Rubicon").
- The "Alea Iacta Est" route, achieved by completing both "Fires of Raven" and "Liberator of Rubicon", has its PONR in Chapter 4. Provided you completed several unique missions for ALLMIND, the mercenary support system, choosing the "Eliminate V.III" mission locks you into the route, causing the story to dramatically diverge once you "Reach The Coral Convergence". Afterwards, three preset missions remain in Chapter 5, which leads you into a final confrontation with ALLMIND itself.
Batman: Arkham Series:
- In Batman: Arkham City, your second trip to the Steel Mill to reclaim the cure for Batman's TITAN poisoning leads to Protocol 10's initiation once you beat the Joker in his boss fight. This renders world-exploration highly difficult (but not impossible). But returning to the base of Wonder Tower locks you into the story for the rest of the game. There is New Game Plus and the ability to do post-story side missions and collect Riddler trophies.
- Batman: Arkham Origins has an unmarked point where you go to investigate a corpse in the GCPD Morgue. Once you do this, Firefly attacks the Pioneer's Bridge in an attempt to draw Batman out. This bars off the bridge story-wise and leaves you unable to go there without initiating the climax, as going after Firefly locks you into the endgame. Straight after you've defeated him, you automatically go to the Batcave as Bane has learned Batman's identity and attacked Wayne Manor. After this, Batman heads straight to Blackgate Prison for the final part of the story, where the Joker has begun a prison riot alongside Bane. As always though, you stay in Gotham after the story is finished, allowing for side missions to be done and Enigma Data Packets to be collected. Again, there is also a New Game Plus.
- Batman: Arkham Knight:
  - Due to its non choice-based Multiple Endings, the game makes a variation. Like City, there is an event that renders exploration almost impossible (even more so in the case of Knight, as the Cloudburst covers the streets of Gotham, preventing you from entering buildings at all) acting as a Plot Tunnel. However, the game continues far beyond this event (with side missions and exploration capability resuming) and after the main story ends, like the previous games, one may explore the city as freely as they want in the main story and New Game Plus is unlocked. However, due to the ending of the game, the facts that Batman is no longer hallucinating Joker and the world knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman affect Enemy Chatter and indeed the sequences available when you defeat or hear from certain side mission villains, acting almost as Extended Gameplay.
  - The player must finish several more side missions before unlocking the second ending, where Batman and Alfred activate the Knightfall protocol and blow up Wayne Manor, with them seemingly inside. There is no Point Of No Return indication and would usually be a cruel example, but immediately after the credits, the game drops you right back into Gotham City. Characters do not react to the second ending, so it is assumed that this part of the game is a flashback to before the second ending.
  - Within the game itself, as soon as Batman turns himself in to Scarecrow, there's no getting out of the main story until the end. Unlike the other games, thanks to both the percentage markers you can view in the mission select screen and the fact that Batman has to take off his utility belt to activate the sequence, it's incredibly obvious that the end is coming.
God of War has a point near the end where the voice of Athena tells you that once you proceed, you will not be able to return until you have gotten what you came for. This is a Merciful rather than a Polite example though, as even once you come back to where you started, you cannot go back to get stuff you missed.
Grand Theft Auto V:
- Played With in Ending C: Deathwish. Once you complete the first phase of the final mission, The Third Way, at the foundry, the game autosaves within the mission, effectively locking you into the rest of the mission until it's completed and the credits have rolled. This is more likely a case of Anti-Frustration Features rather than a true point of no return, but should the game be closed after the autosave is carried out, loading up the game places you right where you left off, unable to do any of the other activities available outside of the missions.
- Some of the safehouses will no longer be accessible upon completing certain story events.
  - After completing the first assassination mission, Franklin moves to a mansion in the upper-class district of Los Santos and can no longer visit his aunt's house or use it as a safehouse - Denise will bar him from entering if he visits, having apparently turned it into a "center for women" during his absence.
  - Trevor can no longer enter Floyd's house after the mission "Hang Ten", since Floyd and his wife Debra are dead and the house is a crime scene. To compensate, Trevor instead moves into the Vanilla Unicorn and uses it as his new safehouse.
Gravity Rush: Gade warns Kat at the start of Episode 20 that, as a Creator, he senses that the end is near, and that she should take care of any remaining business before talking to him again and starting the mission.
The Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (EA) game has an example best described as Cruel. When you enter the Chamber of Secrets, there's no way to go back, and you'll need a lot of potions in order to make it through, which can only be brewed before you enter the chamber. What makes it Cruel? The game auto-saves after you enter.
Horizon Zero Dawn plays with the trope. The game itself is Merciful, as there is no missable content, even when it results in scenarios that don't make sense, such as picking up quests in Nora territory while that area is actively under attack. Despite this, there are two points in which the game falsely indicates a point of no return:
- When Aloy is about to enter the Zero Dawn facility, Sylens warns her that she should complete any unfinished tasks before proceeding, using the very words "point of no return". While significant plot developments occur as a result of proceeding, including some changes to the game world, none of it actually prevents the player from completing any side quests or other goals that they had been putting off.
- Aloy is warned again before starting the final quest, which leads directly into the endgame and credits. However, after this is completed, players can still "resume" their saved game, which puts them back before the quest begins and allows them to complete any unfinished business.
The General Ross boss battle in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is one, for you will be thrown immediately into the next two story missions with no chance to freeroam in-between until you complete them since they involve the Hulk breaking out of the Vault and escaping his captors.
Metal Gear:
- In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, retrieving the MSX cartridge from the locker in Dr. Marv's cell. Once Snake leaves the locker with cartridge in hand, a trap door will open up under him, and it's a one-way trip to the basement where Metal Gear D is being stored.
- In Metal Gear Solid, inputting the final PAL card. This activates Metal Gear REX, and after escaping the PAL control room, the player will run into Liquid Snake immediately, starting the endgame.
- In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, entering the holds for the Tanker chapter (which starts the speech about the target Snake is trying to get photos of). Rescuing Emma in the Plant chapter (upon finding her, Raiden is required to escort her back, and after this particular mission, a series of cut-scenes begins that destroys the Big Shell plant and takes Philanthropy deep into Arsenal Gear for the final stages of the story).
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Entering the final stage (corresponding to the Rank 1 Assassin) triggers this instantly. In the other games in the series, you can return to Santa Destroy and do anything at your leisure as well as complete any pending side content; and in the case of the first game, you can choose to play the epilogue battle after you've unlocked it. Since there's no epilogue in the second game, it won't be possible to return to the other places until the New Game Plus.
Red Dead Redemption has a couple of strict examples:
- "The Outlaw's Return" marks the end of the game's primary plot as John Marston finally reunites with his wife Abigail and his son Jack. Completing this mission locks John into his Rancher Outfit, preventing him from changing outfits and locking him out of other outfits' benefits in so doing. The player can still traverse the game's sandbox and pursue sidequests and activities to their heart's content, though.
- Starting "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed" hurtles the game to its climax. This marks the end of John Marston's story, as the mission ends with John performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save his family from the US Army. Afterwards, the Playable Epilogue begins, with players taking control of an adult Jack Marston.
Red Dead Redemption 2 can be pretty Polite sometimes. Toward the end of Chapter 6, you find that Dutch's camp is a little less crowded, so talking to Dutch can lock you into "Our Best Selves", which will then segue into the aptly-titled "Red Dead Redemption" upon completion. These are also the last two story missions you'll be able to play as Arthur Morgan, so the game warns you that it will be your last chance to go for the optional Honor missions and build up your Honor meter to maximum if you want the Golden Ending (and get a few more items while you're at it). Once the game is completed, you will head into Playable Epilogue as John Marston, which means that you can return to any place outside of the story missions, allowing you to complete many things you missed as Arthur.
Shadows of the Damned is Tough. If you miss a red gem anywhere — oops, you can't go back and get it. Red gems are your only source of upgrading your stats and the Points of no return are hard to determine. Most damning, there is no New Game Plus, so if you miss one, you miss it for the entire save file. However, the upgrades are not necessary and the shop usually has some if you need them.
Spider-Man (PS4) provides a Polite example. Right as you arrive at your destination for the final level, the game warns you this is your last chance to upgrade your abilities and find collectibles; otherwise, once you enter the building, you're locked into the climax where Spidey has to face Doctor Octopus. However, you return to the city after the game is complete, allowing you to complete anything you missed at your leisure.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales warns you that the endgame will begin if you choose to go to the Oscorp Science Center. But this time, upon returning to the game, it unlocks some Post-End Game Content that wasn't available before the final level, encouraging the player to keep going for 100% Completion.
Spider-Man 2 (PS5) provides another warning when you reach May's house at the climax of the game. Trying to enter May's house a second time locks you into the mission until the game is done.

Adventure

Another Code:
- Two Memories prevents you from backtracking after you enter the lab. This is a negligible Merciful example, where the most that could happen is accidentally missing out on getting a character portrait or two for the relationship chart... In the "Recollection" remake, that is. The original DS game has this as a Nasty example thanks to having Multiple Endings; if you hadn't found all of the optional items or D's memories, then you're locked into the bad ending where your companion is unable to past on to the afterlife.
- Journey Into Lost Memories prevents further backtracking after entering J.C. Valley, but no version of the game really locks you out of any important, making it Merciful.
Assassin's Creed:
- Assassin's Creed II: At the start of the final Sequence, you are given the option to go to Rome to hunt down Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexander VI. Once you accept, you cannot return to the rest of Italy until you complete it.
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: After a certain point in the first Memory of Sequence Eight, the game locks you into accepting Memory 8-2. You get one easily-overlooked chance to back out before accepting 8-3, which puts you on a roller-coaster ride straight to the end of Sequence Nine with no further option of declining missions and resuming free-roam. Then comes finding the Apple under the Colosseum and the... nasty fracas that ensues. When you finally get back to free-roaming, while other sidequests are still open, you cannot exit the Animus to Monteriggioni any more.
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations: While the Animus Island dismantles near the end, watching the credits will allow the Animus Island to rebuild itself, so you could play as Desmond in those platforming puzzles for as long as you like after you beat the game.
- Assassin's Creed III: Finding the key at the end of Sequence 12 kicks you back to the real world, where you are forced to activate the planet shield in return for Desmond's death and releasing Juno into the world. However, after the credits and Connor's epilogue, you can continue to roam the Frontier and the cities again, but you can't exit the Animus. In fact, at this point, you can play mini-games that require finding certain "pivot points" in the game world that are, essentially, cheats. Finding those is not easy and requires a lot of ground-pounding, especially since pivot points are placed by other players doing the same thing as you.
The Beekeeper's Picnic has two points of no return: one at the end of the prologue and one at the beginning of the final game sequence. Each is triggered by Holmes telling Watson he has something important to say, and in both cases, when the player instructs Holmes to tell Watson the thing, Holmes will hesitate and wonder if it's the right moment, giving the player a chance to back out and continue exploring the current phase of the game.
Beneath a Steel Sky: Entering the subway tunnels serves as this, after which the only way forward is towards LINC's core. If cutting through an air vent that's too high on the other side wasn't enough, a tunnel further down caves in and blocks the way back.
The mirror chamber in the final dungeon from Beyond Good & Evil is a fairly innocuous-looking Point Of No Return; although you theoretically could leave, Double H will refuse to help you do so "until you complete your mission." When you rescue Pey'j during the mission, your spaceship malfunctions and you're stuck on Selene forever; presumably so the programmers didn't have to program reactions for every possible scenario involving your sidekicks that would incorporate both of them.
Bugsnax can be interpreted as either Polite or as Merciful as an autosaving game can get depending on your outlook. It's impossible to miss any items necessary for the final mission (even if you Sequence Break, you'll automatically have the tools you should have by a given point) anyway, and the game invokes the trope word for word before you can take the mission that leads to endgame, warning you to get anything done you want to get done (catching all the Bugsnax or optional side missions for each character) before starting it. So what's the difference, especially in a game without any kind of Life Meter or Game Over condition? The other Grumpuses are not as invincible as you are, and this suddenly becomes very relevant. If you haven't completed a given Grumpus's sidequest chain, they won't learn that Bugsnax won't help them with their problems, and will hence fail to resist Bugsnax forcing their way into their mouths. If you only fed them what they needed for the game to continue, they can survive a few; but if you fully Snakified them (likely attempting to invoke Video Game Caring Potential, eating even one Snak will result in them fully and irreversably transforming into Snakmatter and falling apart, always coupled with some very harrowing dialogue. This locks you out of the Golden Ending. However, if this occurs, dialogue options with Filbo (the only one guaranteed to not die) will allow you a chance to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and re-trigger the final mission whenever you want. If you're very good at the final mission, it's totally possible to knock it out even if you completely Snakified all the townsfolk; but if you're not quite so skilled, you're best off heeding the warning, and lucky to have the option to try again.
Creatures of Ava is Polite. When you start the action which will finish one zone and start the next, the game tells you that the current area will become permanently unavailable, tells you what is left to do there, and then asks you if you want to continue.
The Dog Island: Once you decide to go to the Anc World, there's no turning back. Petasi is Polite enough to warn you that you won't be able to leave once you get there, though. Strangely enough, there are accessories that can only be found in the Anc World and the Very Definitely Final Dungeon after it, which might tempt some people to save there.
Eastward: Chapter 8 is particularly Nasty. The previous chapter is the last time any shop could be visited, meaning it's the only opportunity to purchase as much supplies and craft helpful food items before venturing into the Final Dungeon.
Gato Roboto has a Polite, very explicit point of no return halfway through the final section, with the Laboratory computer helpfully warning you of it.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys on the Nintendo 64 has a Nasty bordering on Cruel example. Once you go to Mount Olympus, you cannot return to the main world where you've spent the rest of the game. If you save on Mount Olympus, you're stuck. What pushes this example up the cruelty scale is that you cannot buy potions (the game's only power-ups) on Mount Olympus, so if the final boss whoops your ass (he probably will) and you don't have any potions, your only option is to practice until you defeat Ares on your own. You are given no warnings of any kind about any of this. And because Mount Olympus has several puzzles and a penultimate boss fight, only a masochist wouldn't save and trap themselves before facing Ares, even if you've played the game before and you know there's no going back.
Near the end of The Journeyman Project 2: Buried In Time, Agent 3 abducts you and takes away your Jump Biochip, the only thing that allows you to go anywhere in time. Even if you allow Arthur to mess up her plans, you can't get it back.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits: Toshi's boss fight is an example of this, as proceeding from that point will lock the player out of any collectibles, upgrades, or fast travel for the rest of the game. While Zajuro does warn the player to prepare ahead of time, starting the mission actually unlocks three additional mask missions and allows continued access to the game's world. What makes this a Nasty example rather than a Polite one, however, is that the game's warning is implied for the initial encounter with Toshi, not the next one that leads to the boss fight. Moreover, upon starting the boss fight against Toshi, the player is not warned that beating him will strip Kena of her Rot powers and thus lock the player into the endgame.
King's Quest:
- In King's Quest II, you can't return to the normal world after entering the island with the tower by going through the third door.
- In King's Quest V, you must ride a sled over an ice chasm. The sled is very old, so it shatters on impact. You're stuck on the far ledge, so if you forgot something, you're gonna have to revert to an older save file. That's hardly the only one, though. You also can't go back once you reach the final area of the game, Mordack's island.
- King's Quest VI has one of these when you sneak into the castle. Once you do this, you can't get out and have to finish the last leg of the game.
- In King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, once you travel to the final area, the Realm of the Sun, you can't go back to the previous areas.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain has a pretty cruel example, which happens after you give Elzevir the Dollmaker's head to King Ottmar, as well as the soul of Ottmar's daughter. Immediately afterwards, the game transitions to a battle sequence in which the Army of Hope and the Army of the Nemesis clash, with the Army of Hope losing badly. Kain then travels fifty years into the past to kill the Nemesis (then known as William the Just), and from this point onward, you cannot transform into bat form and return to the previous areas you visited, even after you travel back to the present, and have to go where the game takes you until the very end of it.
The Legend of Zelda games tend to use Strict points of no-return:
- The Legend of Zelda: In the final dungeon, you have to use the Silver Arrow to defeat Ganon. It is perfectly possible to blunder into the boss fight with him before you obtain this item, and the door locks behind you. All you can do at that point is let Ganon kill you so you can start the level over to find the arrow. If you're at full health, this can actually take at least half a minute of letting yourself get hit by fireballs.
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Once you've removed the barrier and descended down into the Great Palace, you're locked in until you either beat the game or get a Game Over. Trying to go back up again and leave the final dungeon reveals that the barrier has reappeared, and you cannot dispel it from the inside.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: The Ganondorf battle. If you save here, there's no going back, as it immediately restarts at the cutscene when you reload. Later releases of the game, from version 1.2 onwards,^note prevented that problem by restarting at the entrance of Ganon's Tower regardless of where and when you save.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: After the Puppet Ganon battle. If the player ascends up the rope and through the doorway on the upper area, they are locked into the game's finale.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: You're unable to return once you enter the boss room in Hyrule Castle. First, you deal with a gauntlet of rooms, in which you cannot go back and is timed. Second, once you defeat Vaati, you are given the option to escape, but various areas are blocked to trigger the final fight.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Happens once you enter the boss room in Hyrule Castle. Upon defeating the Dark Beast Ganon form, Midna teleports both you and Zelda back to Hyrule Field. You could try going elsewhere, except there are 2 problems here: Ganondorf defeated Midna, so you can no longer warp, and Ganondorf blocked the entrance ways to other locations via Twilight walls. Looks like you've got no choice but to defeat him.
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Subverted. After completing the 13 floors of the dungeon, you cross a bridge which crumbles behind you. Your fairy, Celia, says you can't go back now, and then a portal to the start of the dungeon opens up.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Link's companion will warn the player that there is a zero percent chance that they will return from the final boss arena unless they are able to vanquish said final boss. This game is also very nice about its usage of Point of No Return.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, after entering the Sanctum of Hyrule Castle, you can neither leave nor save. In any other game, being unable to leave the Final Boss room wouldn't be notable, but this one has established that you normally can use your Warp Whistle at any time, even during boss fights.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the precipice in the depths of Hyrule Castle where you first found Ganondorf serves as this. Once you jump off that and then another precipice, you fight an army of mooks, then a landslide blocks off the way back and you have to face the endgame and the Demon King, with no breaks in between and no ability to save or teleport.
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: Immediately before you hand over the replica weapons back to Link upon defeating Tekom near the entrance to Null's Body, Tri warns you sternly and clearly that you will not be able to return if you proceed here.
Little Big Adventure 2: After landing on Zeelich for the second time, there's no way of going back to Twinsun.
In Level 9's text adventure Lords of Time, in the first eight eras it is usually possible to return to your time machine, either by retracing your path or by reaching the Door to Before at the end of the era. But in the second room of the last era is an archway complete with the inscription "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Once you pass the archway, there is no going back.
Luigi's Mansion 3 is strict: Before going through the door that leads to the rooftop in Hellen Gravely's office, Luigi receives a call from E. Gadd, who asks if he is ready to continue going. If the player says yes, Luigi won't be able to re-enter the previous areas — however, the game creates a secondary auto-save right before they do.
Maniac Mansion has a fairly soft one, which comes when you get past the Purple Tentacle and gain access to Dr. Fred's lab, causing him to activate the self-destruct sequence. Once this happens, either you defeat the Meteor, or the house explodes, leading to a Game Over. The "New Kid" command and the ability to save the game are disabled in the lab; trying results in the line, "The Meteor has control of your computer and he won't let you save the game". Fortunately, most of the game's completion paths do warn you that there'll be no going back when you gain access to the lab.
Metroid:
- Metroid II: Return of Samus requires you to return straight to your ship after defeating the Queen Metroid. No backtracking for power-ups.
- Metroid: Samus Returns: Breaking into the Queen Metroid's chamber is still this, but not for the same reasons. Unlike the original game, you can still backtrack through SR388 even after you've acquired the baby Metroid. In fact, you're required to for 100% completion, as the baby Metroid's ability to eat rock crystals is needed to access certain items. Instead, you can no longer use your gunship to heal/save as you could before, as going there triggers the final battle with Proteus Ridley; for this same reason, the original entrance you went through at the start of the game is sealed off.
- Super Metroid: Entering the area containing a Torizo husk which is the room right before the one with the baby Metroid will prevent you from returning to previous areas and utilizing the final savepoint will permanently lock the player from doing anything outside of fighting the final boss.
- Metroid Fusion has your ship's AI lock almost the entire space station down when it's time to fight the final boss. This is incredibly annoying for players trying to achieve 100% Completion, especially since you had little advance warning. Luckily, the game plays it fair by allowing you full access to the station again if you reload once you've defeated the boss.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption does this before The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Its method of forcing this on you is rather unique, though: ostensibly you could leave if you wanted, if not for the fact that mutagenic radiation on-site has corrupted your DNA so badly that your spaceship doesn't recognize you or even let you onboard anymore, so you're stuck until you take care of the problem.
  AU 242: Take heed, Samus. Once you join the fleet and the wormhole to Phaaze is opened, there is no turning back. Please be sure to prepare yourself. We wish you the best of luck.
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has a polite example; near the end of the game, once you have all the mech parts and the Legacy Suit, the Galactic Federation Troopers hanging out in the base camp area will decide that it's time to breach the barrier leading into Chrono Tower for the endgame. You'll be prompted several times while speaking to them about the mission that you want to continue, and informed that there is no coming back from this decision. This can veer into Nasty if you're careless however; Beyond features autosaving, and autosaves at the start of Chrono Tower. If you were negligent enough to not make a manual save before saying yes (and there's a save point one room away from the troopers), have fun fighting the final boss with whatever you collected.
Each entry in the Monkey Island series (barring Tales of Monkey Island, due to its episodic nature) has one of these; by the point you actually get to it, there's usually nothing of any real importance left to do in the game (or that part of it), but you can still usually interact with the world and characters in various ways:
- In The Secret of Monkey Island, the point comes when you collect the voodoo root in LeChuck's ship. After that, the game forces you into a strictly linear path, unless you let LeChuck punch you around Melee Island at the very end of the game.
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge actually has two. The main one comes when you ship yourself to LeChuck's fortress, which cuts off access to the three islands that make up most of the game. You do get some limited ability to explore Dinky Island in the final chapter, but once you blast open the hole leading to Big Whoop, you're forced into the final confrontation with LeChuck, with no turning back.
- The Curse of Monkey Island, this comes when you put the Goodsoup family ring on Elaine's finger, thus lifting the titular curse. There are two more chapters in the game, after this, but they're both short and linear.
- Escape from Monkey Island has the most generous example of this in the series; when you activate the giant monkey robot on Monkey Island, all that's left to do in the game is a fairly easy puzzle and then a short boss fight with LeChuck.
- In Return to Monkey Island, this comes when you collect the last of the five golden keys, after which you're automatically returned to Melee Island for a short sequence, and then return to Monkey Island once again for the finale.
Neverwinter Nights:
- The original game has one of these, and frustratingly doesn't let you know until after you've entered the door. The expansion Hordes of the Underdark has several. Among other things, in chapter 3, you're given five quests, but the Big Bad attacks after you've completed any four, with barely any forewarning. What, were you hoping to complete the fifth quest? Too bad.
- Neverwinter Nights 2 seals some, but not all, areas during the transition from Act I to Act II, and likewise from Act II to Act III. In Act III, speaking to Nevalle to trigger the siege of Crossroad Keep propels the player into the endgame sequence.
Nightmare Frames provides a Though example. The game's first act, where the Player Character, Alan Goldberg, is free around Los Angeles ends after ends after he enters the Luxury Theater to speak with Brian Kinnaman. Though the only real consquence is that makes certain achievements unvaliable in that playthrough.
Ōkami: Before entering the Ark of Yamato, Issun explicitly tells you you're about to step into "the point of no return". Once you proceed, all that's left is a Boss Rush and then the Final Boss. You'll still have access to merchants and a save point until the final battle, but everything else is cut off until New Game Plus.
Ōkamiden: The Point of No Return is falling through the trap door in the Moon Cave 100 years in the past. The worst part is that there's only one save file.
Primordia (2012):
- At the end of the first segment, once Horatio and Crispin enter the train station, the train to Metropol arrives immediately, and the Adventure Duo refuses to go back to the Dunes out of fear that they'll lose their only chance to reach the city. Fortunately, the only consequence is missing an opportunity to get a couple of achievements.
- At the very end of the game, after the confrontation with MetroMind at the Central Station, all of the robots in the streets are gone, and so are several character-related achievements. Once you re-enter the Council Chambers, you are not even allowed to go back to the city, so the only thing that is left is to choose one of the Multiple Endings. Potentially, you can miss a chance to restore Crispin if you haven't picked up the matrix back at the Central Station, but, notably, it's impossible to get locked out of the "good" ending, because Clarity — or what's left of her — is right there in the last room.
In Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender, the flooding of the city which you've been exploring is understandably a point of no return. Depending on the difficulty level, the game would warn you of this to varying degrees. On the easiest level, the game literally would not allow you to proceed if you didn't have all the necessary items. Ironically, this led to a Game-Breaking Bug, since it was possible to have lost one of the necessary items by having already used it for its intended purpose.
Almost all Telltale Sam & Max: Freelance Police episodes (with the sole exception of "Abe Lincoln Must Die") have a point where you're cut off from any further exploration and are locked into the final sequence of the game. While there's usually no indication of when this is about to happen (though as a rule, if you're entering the area you've spent most of the episode trying to get into, it's probably this) and it sometimes happens rather abruptly, the general lack of sidequests or Unwinnable situations and the short length of each episode very much place it into "Merciful" territory.
In Shadow of the Colossus, on the way to the last colossus, Wander's horse falls into a ravine, stranding you on one side of a gap.
The Eye of Eden in Sky: Children of the Light has what appears to be two of these, both Polite-class instances, since the game auto-saves by default; one at the beginning, warning of the dangers within, and one after a cave guarded by the final Dark Dragon. The latter essentially tells you you're inevitably going to kick the bucket, so it's just a matter of how far. Interestingly enough, the first point is just a disclaimer disguised as this, since you can still return Home as long as you haven't hit the second point. Once you hit number two, however, not even restarting the game will let you into any of the other realms until you clear Orbit, the zone that follows.
Your acquisition of the Krazoa Spirit in the Walled City shrine in Star Fox Adventures is a Nasty point of no return, as you only find this out when trying to go back to the planet takes you to Krazoa Palace, and the only thing left to do after that is beat the Final Boss. If you didn't know about that and saved after the point, you're boned.
In Super Bomberman 3, after beating the boss of the fifth planet, you are unable to return to any previous levels and forced to proceed into the final level. Justified since the Big Bad shows up and aims the five cannons of his huge space fortress into the planets.
Tick Tock Isle: The twins warn you that their fourth minigame is this. After you win it, their older brother with the Angry Guard Dog confronts the protagonist, the protagonist discovers how to set the year in the time machine and you reach the Playable Epilogue.
Tomb Raider (2013) and its sequels Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider warn you explicitly about their point of no returns. You can save and backtrack how much you want before engaging the ending.
Tombs & Treasure has a particularly cruel example inside of the Ball Court. Right inside of the front door, you see a stone pawl holding some gears in place, with no clear idea of its purpose. Taking the pawl causes a stone slab to drop down, blocking further exploration, so if you don't get everything inside that you needed to, you're screwed. Later on, you end up locked inside of the room with the final boss, and if you didn't bring a means of reviving the professor's daughter with you, all you can do is reset.
Zniw Adventure has three separate arcs, each with their own points of no return
- The first arc consists of the Scattered Woods and Rivenn-na River. The north side of Rivenn-na and the Scattered Woods become inaccessible once Zniw crosses over into the south side of Rivenn-na as the improvised log bridge she built with the help of Sam the snake will be swept away by the current once she reaches the riverbank. The south side of Rivenn-na becomes inaccessible once she tries to cross the bridge as as she ends up getting thrown in the river and getting sucked into the Undercave upon trying to free the Euoplocephalus stuck in the bridge. Both of these cases would be tough on the scale as there is no indication that the bridge will be swept away or that Zniw will be thrown into the river.
- The second arc is exploring the Undercave and finding the exit. The first half requires crossing a chasm with a ladder, which will break once you cross, rendering the first part of the Undercave inaccessible. This would be considered tough as there is no warning that the ladder will break upon crossing.
- The third arc starts with exploring the chief's apartment. Agu warns Zniw that once they enter, there's no turning back. This indicates to the player that they won't be able to leave the apartment, and that the end of the game is near. This is a polite example as you are explicitly warned about proceeding. However, the game will autosave at this point.

Alternate Reality

PlayStation Home had a hub in the list called "Xi Museum", which was essentially the ending point of the "Xi Virtual Reality game" run back in 2009. Players were allowed to wander around, play games, talk with people, visit random areas, and try and solve the game's puzzles. When the player reached the monolith, however, they were given the choice to choose to break it or activate it, or not do anything. Choosing to break or activate it meant that you would never be allowed to do any of the listed actions ever again, forfeiting your world of Xi for awards and a cinematic involving Jesse. Not breaking it however led to the player never getting any awards, and when the virtual reality game was removed, the player was forced to leave anyway.

First-Person Shooter

Atomic Heart has several, most of which are explicitly marked with a dialogue prompt which allows you to put off moving to the next area and pick up any collectibles you missed. Going to meet with Filatova after leaving the Pavlov Complex, which forfeits your ability to explore the open world and Polygon testing grounds for the rest of your playthrough, is less obvious as it's marked solely by a one-way drop leading to the Dewdrop boss fight, but you can simply load an earlier save or select "Return to Facility 3826" in the main menu after completing the game if you want to go back.
The Little Sister Escort Mission in BioShock is a completely unmarked point of no return and you're not told this until after you're given health and ammo refills.
BioShock 2: Save for one special circumstance, whenever Delta enters/exits an underwater airlock, he can't come back the way he came. These not only mark points of no return between levels (unlike the first game, backtracking between levels is no longer possible at all), but within them.
Once the player reaches the prison in Dead Island, they are unable to leave, making any weapons and side quests they may have missed permanently inaccessible. The same thing happens in Riptide once you reach the boat. Thankfully, the game warns you about this on both occasions.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution:
- The main game is Merciful. It tells you whenever you are about to leave an area for good and informs you that any side quests will be cancelled. It also stores your last two auto-saves in the load menu. And save slots which the game orders from most recent to oldest. Amount of said slots varies on your system.
- The DLC, The Missing Link borders on cruel. There are about three spots that, when you pass, you can't return. It makes sense from a mechanical perspective, but there is very little to indicate that these areas are checkpoints. So, woe upon you if you wait to get some more augmentations before you try one of the achievements.
Doom Eternal has a polite example of this: right after raging your way through the fallen ruins of Argent D'Nur, your next stop is Urdak, the homeworld of the Makyr that no human nor Sentinel were ever able to access. Samuel Hayden, your Mission Control turned Sapient Ship warns you that you cannot return from the mission once you go to Nekravol and start the journey to Urdak, but allows you to get or do whatever you need first.
Far Cry:
- Far Cry 2 has a particularly evil point of no return. The final mission briefing requires you to enter a prison to get your objectives. After you accept the final mission and carry on with the game, it warns you that you can't turn back if you go any further and to make sure you have everything you need, however if you try to go back, you'll find you can't leave the prison.
- Far Cry 3 features a Polite one near the end of the story. Just before the mission to assassinate Hoyt while playing poker with him, your NPC buddy Sam informs you that this is the beginning of the end, and that you should do anything else before this. There is post-story freeroam, though.
Left 4 Dead has very few of these, which aren't really anything major unless you miss a health kit or the like. If someone gets incapacitated and everyone else has moved on beyond the point of no return, the helpless player can do nothing but bleed to death. The sequel adds many more points of no return, making catching a survivor on the wrong side of one a strategy for infected players to use in VS mode.
In Postal 2, the Postal Dude cannot explore the town further after completing the last chore of each day, as leaving the current area triggers a cutscene and the start of the next day. While it's generally not too big of an issue, there are certain hidden weapons and supplies that spawn only on certain days of the week, so you'd be best off exploring at the start of a day rather than trying to save it for the end.
Quake II allows you to move freely between levels in one of the several "units" (hubs) making up the bulk of the game, but once you pass through the exit of a unit, you cannot return (and the first time the game would warn you about this). Also, the teleporter in the Upper Palace is a more definitive Point Of No Return — once you pass through it, you go to the final boss arena on Stroggos' moon and can't come back. Unlike in earlier id Software shooters, this can be a problem because the hub-based level structure makes it easier to stockpile items for use later.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl: Polite. When you enter the final dungeon, a message pops up on screen, telling you to turn back now if you want to finish any side quests, or to keep on freely exploring the world.
System Shock 2's has two Points of No Return. The first appears when entering the cryo recovery area, meant to prevent the player from using the first recharge station and instead go through a combat area; knowledgeable players could drop an item to block the door as it closes. The second is when the player enters the Body of the Many, before then the player is free to backtrack to the starting areas for any final items to collect.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter has Level 8, The Final Confrontation. Once you get the keys to the level and you enter that portal, you cannot ever return to the Hub Ruins. If you did not collect all of the weapons at that point nor refill on ammo, you won't retrieve most of them until after you defeat Thunder T-Rex. If you have not collected the 7 Chronoscepter pieces per level, you will have missed out on the Chronoscepter, making the Final Boss fight against The Campaigner much, much more difficult.
In an interesting take, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, once you complete it, resets and transports you to the front of Level 6's portal. Because of the reset, the portal key doors are locked, meaning you are locked in Level 6 permanently. Of course, the game encourages you to use cheats at this point.
Wolfenstein (2009) places an arms dealer almost within sight of the point where you infiltrate the zeppelin, and helpfully informs you that this will be the last time you'll be able to buy upgrades or ammo.
In Red Faction, progressing to certain areas will prevent you from returning to previous ones.

Hack and Slash

Devil May Cry: Once you leave the castle, the drawbridge you lowered will automatically raise back up, meaning any secret missions or blue orb fragments you failed to find are now out of your reach, since the castle's layout changes completely after you return.
Gauntlet
- Gauntlet Legends does this twice:
  - When you have all 4 keys from bosses, you automatically go to the Temple of Skorne, not giving you a chance to select any of the 4 areas. The only way to go back to the stage select is to not accomplish the 12 rune stones after completion or game over.
  - When you defeat Skorne at his Alter and you have collected all 12 rune stones, you automatically continue to go the underworld. The only way to go back to the stage select is to complete or game over.
- Several levels in Gauntlet: Dark Legacy are divided into sublevels. Miss an item before you step on the transporter/go through the gate, and hopefully you didn't really need it. The game normally warns you, but misses the Polite subcategory thanks to no save points within a level (you can always replay the level, though).

Idle Game

The Communitree: Happens a lot. Buy a next progress stage? You're not going back to see the previous one again unless you keep an exported save handy.
- Buying the "Simplify things a bit" upgrade in the Aarex layer makes most upgrades and features from the Jacorb layer inaccessible, in exchange for easily letting you claim phantom souls and providing an insane boost to point gain based on time spent in the Jacorb reset.
- Performing an Acamaeda reset renders the Aarex Dimensions minigame and all its upgrades inaccessible.
- Buying the Modding tree tab fully replaces the Candy tab in the Acamaeda layer.
- Finishing a modder's section will render their layer inaccessible, as it soon gets replaced with another one.
Grass Cutting Incremental: With supernova tier 5, you unlock a new building called the "Void obelisk", which permanently removes all curencies pre-supernova (excluding grass) once you have enough of that currency. By the time you get that much, however, the currency basically does nothing for you.
The Prestreestuck:
- After moving beyond the ring, you can no longer click on the nodes related to aspects or see the original Skaia node parts (you wouldn't really have a reason though, except maybe to see what the upgrade names were again).
- After buying the "INFLATE" upgrade, you can no longer click on the nodes related to the previous layers or the Skaia node, as the latter's now the Meta layer.

Party Game

Mario Party 2: After the first five boards are played in full for the first time, Toad will be kidnapped by Bowser and his minions, and subsequently replaced by a Koopa Kid. The latter won't let the player return to any of the boards, and will persuade them to go to Bowser Land. It is still possible to go to Mini-Game Land the settings lab, though. After Bowser Land is played in full (which ends with the Superstar defeating Bowser for good) and the game's credits roll, it'll be possible to choose any board in the next party session again.

Platform

The Blaster Master Zero trilogy has a hard point of no return right after defeating the Final Boss; this doesn't apply if you don't qualify for the True Ending, as the game ends shortly after that fight, but if you do, you get locked into the fight and the true final area. All of these are linked to the story.
- The first game is merciful in that you cannot qualify for the true ending unless you collected every item in the other eight areas. If you do that then beat the Area 8 boss, you're sent to Area 9 and aren't leaving until you beat the game and unlock New Game Plus. The other boss Invem are interfering in the search for the Mutant Core, which is in Earth's super-dimensional space, and Eve's plan to save Earth from it won't work out with SOPHIA III alone.
- The second game requires you to complete a few tasks to get the necessary items to qualify for the true ending. You get them from helping the other MA pilots with their personal obligations, and you need their help saving Jason from Drolrevo.
- The third game requires you to defy Kane's advice and spend a good amount of time in super-dimensional space (you're good if you check your inventory and see two rings instead of one) and hit the VRV command input during the ending. Eve's destiny of becoming the new Invem Queen cannot be averted, but Jason can go with her, which requires casting aside his humanity and acclimating to super-dimensional space.
Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters: A Cruel example occurs if you've reached 100%. If you have not collected all items for 100% completion by the time you face and defeat the Final Boss, Granny asks you if you'd like to return to the game to gather the missing items. If the player says no, the game ends with the Bad Ending, but if they say yes, then the player will have free run of the game up until they collect the final missing item. Once the player does, the game immediately ends with the True Ending and rolls the credits. You are able to save your file at 100%, but if you load it again, you will only be able to explore the area you found the last item in. If you try to leave, then the game immediately kicks you back to the True Ending, credits, and returns you to the main menu. This means entering the area containing the last level becomes the Point of No Return, as you will be unable to resume exploring the rest of the game or replaying levels and will have to choose to either start a new game or stop playing.
Cave Story has the Final Boss Bonanza on the Balcony; once this is started it must be finished, and once finished, you only have the option of going on to the Normal ending or (if you completed the two sidequests) trying your luck at the Brutal Bonus Level and fighting Ballos to get the Golden Ending. There's also a save point after this, which if you save there, you're completely stuck.
In Commander Keen Episode VI, although there is a portal in the last room, it only leads back to the second room; the first room is forever inaccessible once you leave it. Better make sure you grab the blue gem key before you do that.
Killing all guards in the entrance of the Federal Reserve Bank in Conker's Bad Fur Day during the final chapter (Heist) triggers this. The reason is because, once all of them die, Conker and Berri will take an elevator to go to an upper floor, and from there they will only be able to proceed forward.
In the final level of the DS version of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, once you reach Wilfre, you're unable to quit the level or do anything else on the pause menu (not even edit your hero or their weapons or forms) except resume the game.
When you go to Tomorrow City for the second time in Epic Mickey, you can't go back to Mean Street. Also, you only get to climb Mickeyjunk Mountain once; the next time you go there, it'll be a different part of it.
Impossamole (the TurboGrafx-16 version) is particularly egregious; in addition to physical barriers preventing you from backtracking to get a Scroll that you missed, there are also Checkpoints of No Return, so the level becomes Unwinnable until you lose all your lives and restart.
In Jak 3, you reach the Point of No Return when you meet up with Damas in the ruins, shortly before he dies. Though once you reach the final boss, you will be allowed to re-enter Spargus City, as well as take the nearby vessel back to Haven City. The game does not warn you when you cross it.
When you fight Zero Two at the very end of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, the option to leave the level is replaced with an option called "Tough it out!", which is functionally identical to the "Continue" option. This is a Merciful example, as 100% Completion ^note is required to fight the boss.
Mega Man (Classic) games typically make you go through the entire final gauntlet of stages in one sitting. 2, 3, and the first two Game Boy games take it a step further and do not let you replay levels you have already cleared; the third Game Boy game, meanwhile, locks you out of the first four Robot Master stages once you start the second. 7 and 8 are somewhat more generous, allowing you to return to the stage select and restock after each Wily stage, but your progress in Wily's castle is not saved if you return to the title screen.
- In a lesser example, clearing the boss rush in Mega Man X2 locks you out of Magna Centipede's stage due to it being reappropriated as the final level. Even selecting his icon in the stage select will take you to the final battles. While tough by technicality, his stage is required to be beaten to access the endgame anyways, so players likely will have already gotten everything they needed out of it long before it becomes inaccessible.
- Mega Man X5 has a polite example: launching the space shuttle will put the game in an endgame state regardless of the outcome. While the player can still visit the Maverick stages to collect anything they missed even after the final gauntlet unlocks, the parts for the Enigma cannon and space shuttle will become redundant at this point. More damningly, however, the shuttle failing will lock the player out of using Zero due to him being overtaken by the Sigma virus, as well as rail the player into the bad ending.
Ori and the Blind Forest has a Polite point of no return when entering Mount Horu, The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. The dungeon areas also have Tough points of no return once you begin their escape sequences, and you can't go back to get any items you missed afterwards. Both of these were removed in the Definitive Edition, and you are free to backtrack anywhere at any time, except during escape sequences.
Prince of Persia games are built around this design in order to be linear. Doors will close behind you and lock, walls will crumble and block a pathway behind you, or you descend slopes or walls that are too sleep to climb back up again. Make sure you don't miss anything! Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004) is a frustrating example, bordering on Cruel. It is impossible to access the Golden Ending to the game without getting all nine life upgrades for the Water Sword. These upgrades are hidden in obscure corners of the temple, all in the Past, so it is very difficult to find and obtain them. In addition, the player is never given any indication that these upgrades exist, and therefore doesn't know exactly how many there are. The player gets at least two opportunities to collect each one, but once you miss a single piece, there is no going back, and you must face the bad ending.
Psychonauts has what an in-game prompt labels an "Point of No Return" near the end of the game immediately after you free Lili. Luckily, it's saved as a separate file, just in case you weren't totally ready to sneeze your own brain out and enter a creepy mishmash of yours and the bad guy's childhood fears. Although real-world locations are no longer available for you to explore, and anything left behind there is lost, you can still go to other mental worlds via the Collective Unconscious. In the final mental realm, there's a booth that allows you to convert Cobwebs to Psi Cards and Psi Cards into Challenge Markers. In addition, loading said autosave will take you back to the point right before you free Lili, making this a Strict example rather than a Cruel one.
Psychonauts 2 has two, both of the Polite kind. The first is once you get to the final Ford Mental World, as completing it leads into the third act of the game, where Raz in the real world is confined to Green Needle Gulch, barring him from going back to the earlier hub areas (although, much like the first game, you can still re-visit earlier Mental Worlds using the Brain Tumbler). The second is after you repair the Astralathe; switching it on locks you into the final two (three if you count the Final Boss) Mental Worlds, broken up by two very linear real-world sections. On both occasions, a warning pops up explicitly telling the player that this is a Point of No Return. Fortunately, unlike the first game, you can keep playing after completing the story, allowing you to go back and collect anything you've missed (and it's actually impossible to collect everything before beating the story, as several collectibles in the earlier hub areas can only be found using a power you only get after passing the first Point of No Return).
Ratchet & Clank:
- The final level of Ratchet: Deadlocked involves a Point Of No Return when you attempt to infiltrate the heart of DreadZone Station to confront Gleeman Vox once and for all. Once you leave you won't be able to use DreadZone as your base of operations anymore, not to mention that pesky detail that the entire place explodes because Gleeman laced it with 'six gigatons of nitroglycerin'. This is the "No more save points" variety since you still get a weapons vendor right at the very start (and after you defeat Vox, you get to either start a New Game Plus or go right back to just before you left), but you can still get "stuck" here if you didn't grind enough earlier to max out your weapons/ammo/nano. The only other way is to reset the console.
- In Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, after going to Dr. Nefarious' base for the second time, entering the battle with him marks the start of the endgame, as after he is beaten, it is followed by the actual Final Boss fight against Alister. After beating the game, if you choose to go back in time and complete everything instead of starting the game over in Challenge Mode, it puts you back at the point before the Nefarious battle.
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart features a Polite example. Towards the end the game, at Zurkie's, approaching Captain Quantam and talking to him will trigger a warning prompt saying that "this is your last chance to acquire armor and collectibles" and giving you a button prompt asking if you're sure you want to start the endgame.
Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In the platforming games, getting close to the end of a level limits the camera scrolling to that area, making the player unable to backtrack. Sonic the Hedgehog CD used a sign before the goal posts to mark the point in which this happens.
- In Sonic Unleashed, Chip warns you that once you go into Eggmanland, the only level of the game that doesn't have a hub your first time going there, you aren't coming out for a while. He's right.
- Sonic Frontiers has a mildly Tough variant: once you collect the sixth Chaos Emerald on Ouranos Island, Dr. Eggman will give you the seventh and final Chaos Emerald needed to fight the boss. From there, you will proceed immediately to the final boss fights.
Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Maker 2: In Story Mode, once the rebuild of the castle is almost complete, Bowser (in his Meowser form) will kidnap Chief Toadette and the only level available in the job list is the one where she is held captive, and to rescue her it'll be necessary to win the Final Boss battle against Meowser himself. After the rescue, the castle's rebuild process is complete and the credits roll, after which all available levels are selectable again (and a few more can also be unlocked as part of the Playable Epilogue).
In Tomba! 2, once you enter the door with the final pig gate, time will freeze and you can only do the main story. Thankfully, Kainen warns you of this before you enter the door.

Puzzle Game

The 7th Guest: Once you enter the Attic, there's no going back down.
DROD RPG: The first chapter of A Courageous Rescue doesn't allow backtracking to previous levels. Just before the end of each level is a very clear point of no return, together with an NPC who will (if asked) give hints on whether you are leaving the level with good enough stats to continue.
Once you assemble the gear in Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, you cannot return to any other areas and do their optional puzzles. Although completing the game lets you play any puzzles you missed in a "free play" mode, so it's not a big deal.
Chroma Zero: Once you reach the Light Gate with the Energy of all three Rings, Zero will give you the last of their Energy, thereby ending the Light Phase of the game and starting the Dark Phase. You get no warning that this will happen until you meet Zero there with the Energy of the Rings, but completing the Dark Phase will restore the world to how it was during the Light Phase, and then a code can be learned that allows switching between Light and Dark Phases.
In Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, the point of no return is Bronev's office at the top of Targent's HQ. However, the game is polite about it, as it explicitly warns you that you won't be able to travel wherever you want anymore after that point. After you beat the game you can exit the last room of the Azran Sanctuary and explore the world at your own leisure again, complete with Emmy, Sycamore and Aurora in your party.
Near the end of Riven, once you release Catherine, she Links to Gehn's Age and sabotages 4 of the 5 books leading to Riven's islands, railroading you towards Temple Island at the start. Similarly, all the bridges and trams leading off the island are disabled when you get there.
In The Séance of Blake Manor, the game warns you explicitly before you enter the Blake private residence that this will be the point of no return.

Real-Time Strategy

A mild example of a "tough" Point of No Return in Evil Genius. One of the secondary objectives involves gathering four pieces of a totem, each of which has a a negative effect on nearby minions. However, if you get them all and put them near each other, they will combine into one totem with a strong positive effect. The problem (or a bug) is that the pieces will combine only on your first island. While the game doesn't force you to move to the second island until you're ready (although you still have to do it to continue the main storyline), it doesn't warn you about the totem thing either, which means you get stuck with four negative loots that can only be negated by putting them into a freezer (or if you get them stolen by burglars).
The invasion of Char in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a Polite version, with both in-character and out-of-character warnings from the game that once you begin the invasion, you will not be able to return to other missions. However, all of your secondary options (upgrading your troops in the Armory, conducting research, hiring mercenaries) continue to be available while on Char. In the expansion, Heart of the Swarm, the campaign is Merciful; the same rules apply, except that you can't start the invasion of Korhal without completing each of the previous mission worlds.
A Polite type that quickly becomes Nasty in most of the games made by Paradox Interactive: If you want the achievements, you'll have to set the game to 'ironman-mode,' which disables manual saves. In the initial settings it's polite enough to tell you this, but then you have to go and play the game with no ability to save before making game changing decisions, correct any mistakes or use the console controls. Or in essence, the point of no return is hitting the 'start game' button.

Sandbox

Hitman 3 has a few. Some in-universe, some on our side.
- Completing "Death in the Family", the Dartmoor/Alexa Carlisle level, has the Constant send CICADA assassins after Lucas Grey. In retaliation, he commits suicide, rendering him gone for the rest of the game.
- There is an in-universe example concerning both the Berlin/ICA Agents level "Apex Predator", and the Chongqing/Hush and Imogen Royce level "End Of An Era". Completing both of these missions will destroy the ICA. Olivia Hall even laments this. 47's only possible response? Kill the ICA, which then sets the facility both into lockdown mode, but also ablaze.
  Olivia: When you press that button, it's up there and the whole world will know. There's no undo, 47. This will shut the ICA down for good. You really okay with this? It's who you've been for so long.
- The entire mission of Untouchable/Arthur Edwards ("The Constant") is this. Not only does the game specifically tell you that only for this mission that killing civilians is not only allowed but ENCOURAGED, there's also an actual point of no return, as when you detach the rest of the train from the Constant's carriage, the only thing between you and the end of the series is his assassination.
The Like a Dragon series divides each game into 'Chapters' that gate your access to side-content and locations. It is usual for your ability to freely move between locations and interact with certain characters to be restricted until near the end of each game, so the story moments that end each chapter typically give you a polite text popup that warns the player that they should finish everything they want to do before moving on.
- Yakuza 0: The point of no return is in the final chapter, when each of the two characters decide to go on their respective raids, towards the Nikkyo Consortium for Kiryu and the Dojima Family HQ for Majima. The game makes it crystal clear that you won't be able to return after you've crossed that point, but interestingly, you can choose to cross the point of no return with one of them and continue playing with the other; the game doesn't proceed with the main quest until you cross the point with both Kiryu and Majima.
- Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name: The point of no return lies between the raid on the Kijin Clan base and meeting with Watase. The game warns you twice. First, just before you are given control of Kiryu in Sotenbori, stating that this is the last time you will be able to freely explore the city before the finale, while also suggesting making a save before committing to the end. The second is when you approach the sofa in Akame's office, where the game states that you will be thrown into several consecutive battles, so you may want to stock up on supplies beforehand. There are also several cutscenes, so the game suggests putting time aside to watch them.
Minecraft:
- The game falls under the Nasty bit when it comes to visiting The End. Once you go in, there's no way to leave other than to jump off the world and into the void, killing yourself and losing all items on your person. OR, you can hope that what you have with you is sufficient to defeat the Enderdragon so you can find the exit portal. This is especially true on Hardcore mode, as defeating the Ender Dragon is the only way to get out of the End.
- Similarly, if a Ghast's explosive fireball hits your portal in The Nether, it shuts it off, trapping you in the hell world unless you were smart enough to bring Flint and Steel with you so you can relight the portal. If you don't have it, you can hope the Ghast will shoot the portal again to turn it on or you have to kill yourself to leave.
Star Control II doesn't lock you out completely — but once you've broken the slave shield on Procyon, the Chmmr re-engineer your starship into a giant bomb to take out the Final Boss, leaving you virtually helpless and completely dependent on your escorts for the last stretch of the game. Given that your starship previously outclassed the best escorts available by a country mile and that most of the better escorts are useless in the last fight, you'd better have done everything you intended to do elsewhere in the quadrant.
Terraria:
- Once the Wall of Flesh is defeated, Hardmode is activated for that world and two strips of either the Corruption or Crimson and the Hallow spawn along with the Overworld spawning newer and tougher enemies. Without restarting on a new world, there is no way to return to Pre-Hardmode after activating Hardmode.
- After Plantera is defeated in the Underground Jungle, the Dungeon begins to spawn its Hardmode enemies which are some of the most dangerous enemies in the entire game.
- For Hardcore characters, once the Lunatic Cultist in front of the Dungeon is defeated, the Lunar Events begin and the only way to stop them and return the world to normal is to destroy the Celestial Towers and defeat the Moon Lord.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is very polite. As you embark on the final stage of the main quest, the game pauses and displays a warning box which literally informs you that you have reached the point of return, suggests you make a manual save, and reminds you that some side quests will no longer be available upon completion of the main quest. You also have the option of simply turning around and working on other quests until you're ready to tackle the final quest.
Horizon Zero Dawn has a Polite example, right before the final battle. Not only does Aloy mutter if she's finished everything as you approach the objective, the dialogue choice outright tells you there's no turning back.
Horizon Forbidden West has a Polite Point of No Return at the campfire before going through with "Singularity." It tells you that until you complete the mission, you're locked into the endgame.
To enter the endgame in .flow, the player must permanently discard Sabitsuki's effects. The only warning you're given is "Do you want to throw it all away?" Thankfully, if you haven't saved past the point of no return you can just reload your file.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has a Polite example, which warns you that once you enter the tournament in the Buu saga, you won't be able to access certain features until you beat the game.

Shoot 'em Up

After assembling the Golden Warpship in Solar Jetman, you can't go back and pick up any treasures that you missed on the last planet. You now have to fly the super-cruiser off the planet in one shot, and colliding with the planet's surface will kill you and end your game, since that warpship is the only one of its kind.

Simulation Game

Hacknet has three:
- In base game, it is the mission "Bit: Termination". The game hypes this up to be the deletion of all Hacknet copies stored by the game's villains, EnTech have. This includes, as is implied, your own copy. Thus, once you read Valour's J-Mail, you are barred from future contracts until it is done. Averted in the sense that after you destroy Bit's porthack, the tool you've been using on the ONE copy that has it, you are brought back to the normal game, porthack and all, and are allowed to finish contracts as normal.
- The last two are in the DLC.
  - The DLC literally begins with one. As soon as you complete all of Kaguya's trials, he obliterates all of your IP adressess, including access to the servers for Entropy, Naix and CSEC if you've unlocked them, AND your email so you can't accept any remaining story missions.
  - The DLC also ends with one after Kaguya sends the planes into freefall. One you've picked your allegiance, you can't back away from it. Then, once the planes have either crashed, Kaguya's ending or been saved, Coel's ending, you are no longer able to access Kaguya's network, and are booted back to usual Hacknet. You are allowed to keep the IP addresses you picked up along the way, however.
In Tomodachi Life:
- There is no way to back out of a Mii's love problem once you've tapped that bubble. The only options you have are to either help them out, or tell them not to do it, which will make the Mii sad. But at least love problems are obvious, and you can save the game before solving them.
- There are also the breakup/divorce prompts, but these aren't nearly as merciful as the love problems. Unlike the love problems, these aren't obvious, instead looking like a regular friendship problem. The only way you might be able to guess if this is the problem is if you check their relationship panel and their relationship with their sweetheart/spouse is "getting along OK" or below. Should this be the case, be sure to save the game before you help the Mii with their problem, because if you don't, there is no backing out. The only options available to you are to have the Mii try and work things out or move on.
Yes, Your Grace: If Eryk enters his bedroom after being informed Aurelea wants to talk to him on the last week before the wedding, he's not allowed to leave until he has chosen a wedding dress. All other mandatory family conversations allow Eryk to leave the room as long as they are taken care of before the end of the turn.

Survival Horror

In Camp Sunshine there is a point of no return just before area leading to the final confrontation with the killer. It's a variation of the polite variety. Not only does the game warn you, there are no save points after that point, so you couldn't mess yourself up by saving after it even if you tried.
In Dead Island, once you entered the Prison, there's no turning back, all your side quests on the island would be immediately ended, though there's a warning beforehand, the Prison contains its own sidequests including Deathstalker Zed's Demise, and New Game Plus is available once you killed the Final Boss.
Fatal Frame switches between being polite enough to warn the player and other times just letting them walk into their misery. Particularly, the second game has a save point right outside the room of the penultimate boss and opening the door to proceed prompts the game to warn you that this is the last opportunity to save and you should. The first game did not give you any warning.
Fear & Hunger: Both endgame areas lock you out of backtracking: the entrance to the Gauntlet closes after you enter, whilst the Void involves a one-way teleportation trip.
Fear & Hunger: Termina: Enter the White Bunker and the vault door shuts behind you to prevent you from going back. Similarly, entering the Hollow Tower's interior causes it to elevate upwards, with no way of getting it to reverse course.
The Five Nights at Freddy's series has a few, depending on the game in question.
- In Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, this can be triggered in a few ways, including having nothing in your restaurant by the end of the week, going bankrupt, or viewing the Egg Baby Data blueprints. But one of the more notable ones is in the game's true ending. To do this, you need to salvage all of the available animatronics (Molten Freddy, Scrap Baby, Afton, Lefty) or have them enter your pizzeria by other means (most easily done by buying an item that is marked down). Salvaging one of these is a point of no return in on itself, because doing so means that an animatronic is now loose around your vents. Permanently. This stacks and makes the game harder each night. Salvaging all three, and then doing so to or letting Lefty inside prematurely locks you into the game's true ending with the Henry speech.
- In Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, there are two.
  - After you reach 6AM, you are given the opportunity to either leave the Pizzaplex or stay. Choose to leave, and you are locked into the game's bad ending, where it is implied that Gregory is killed by Vanny. All other endings are locked past staying in the Pizzaplex. However, the 'STAY' and 'VANNY' options will lock you into the Pizzaplex for the rest of your game, with the game disabling most of the Save Stations throughout the 'plex (it used to be all of them, but a patch added one in Roxy Raceway that still works past this point).
  - Upon finding the elevator that leads to the True Ending, Freddy warns you that it is likely one-way. Sure enough, once you take the elevator, not only can you not take it back up, but your autosave file has you kept down there.
The Hanged Man has two moments that each count as a point of no return and both are of the Tough variant.
- After entering the Dining Room in Building 2 and watching the long cutscene, the player can choose to follow Sophie or to not do that. Depending on what the player does, they are now stuck on a path leading to two Bad Endings or a path that leads to a Bad Ending and the Good Ending. The tricky part is that this choice can only happen within 8 seconds after the scene is over. Sophie's footsteps can be heard for that amount of time. Once they go silent, the player has lost the choice to follow her.
- After a very important cutscene in Building 4, Will realizes he has something important to tell Keith and needs to follow him. Talking to Keith means the player is locked into their final ending, based on the abovementioned decision. The tricky part comes from the fact that what makes the difference between those endings is based on a very minor thing the player may or may not have remembered to do. ^note
Haunting Ground: Once you enter the next antagonist's section of the game, the previous area will become inaccessible for one reason or another. The only exception is between Daniella and Riccardo's area, since they each take place in one half of the Mansion.
Look Outside: The game explicitly warns the player there is no way to go back before you enter the apartment's roof, the area where most of the game's endings take place.
In the Super Mario Bros. fan-game (Mario) The Music Box, the game gives you two informed instances of this after Luigi is reunited with Mario. Another less obvious one is when Mario and Luigi pull a lever and have to make it into the deeper parts of the mines before the time limit is up.
*WARNING* THIS DECISION WILL AFFECT YOUR ENDING
Engaging the stardrive in The Persistence causes a power surge than knocks out several key systems... including the Recovery clone printer responsible for all your extra lives. From here, you either back up both Zimri ''and'' Serena's engrams to the auxiliary or die, with the only survivor being the backed up engram.
The Resident Evil games always has at least one and they never tell you about them until it's too late:
- The first game creates a point of no return once the self destruct sequence starts (which happens when you reach the final basement floor with your player character's partner and encounter Wesker and the Tyrant). Trying to use the elevator leading back to the courtyard has your character refusing to use it. Any items you left behind from that point will be lost for good, including important key items needed to rescue the other player character.
- Resident Evil 2 will have you stuck at Umbrella's laboratory once you take the lift down to it due to plot; Ada is critically wounded (Leon scenario A), Sherry is succumbing to the G-virus infection (Claire scenario A), the elevator restarts itself while you were away from it (either character in scenario B). The Remake has the same point of no return, for the A Scenario reasons, but the game is polite about it; Leon/Claire will point blank say "There's no going back once I start this trolley, better make sure I'm ready."
- Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has a few points of no return. Once you get the trolley moving, you won't be able to return to the city. Entering the Dead Factory later on will prevent you from returning to the Clock Tower due to the only way back being cut off. At the very end, the threat of nuclear missiles heading towards the city locks the door behind you in the control room, leaving you no choice but to go forward.
- In Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, the point of no return is after leaving Rockfort Island. There's a metal detector deposit box on the island that isn't connected to the item boxes, so any items left here are lost forever once that part of the island is destroyed by the Self-Destruct Mechanism. Also, don't leave any important weapons in Claire's possession when you switch back to her for the last time.
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard doesn't let you return to the Baker Estate after getting on the boat with Zoe.
- Entering Heisenberg's factory in Resident Evil Village locks you out of ever going back into the village or other areas, and earlier on Castle Dimitrescu is also permanently inaccessible once you leave. In both cases, any missed items are gone for good for that playthrough.
SIGNALIS counts as Cruel. Throughout the game you collect hexagonal "plates," which are not used until near the end, and after you leave an area of the game you usually can't go back, for a variety of reasons. If you somehow miss a plate, then your only hope is that you have a save in the appropriate level.
The Silent Hill games have this at numerous points, such as entering or leaving the Dark World, one-way trips via car, train or boat, or if the path behind you becomes blocked by a Broken Bridge. Games 1-4 are particularly worrisome because of this: Since you only get specific weapons for your inventory and cannot go back to collect them once an area is left, you can miss out on very important items such as powerful melee weapons or firearms. In the first game, this can keep you from obtaining a vital Plot Coupon that you can't get the best ending without; even though the door it's hidden behind is still accessible in the hospital lobby, the door itself becomes permanently jammed after you shift into the Dark World and then return. Additionally, many of the optional rooms in the games tend to contain multiple monsters and lots of first-aid items, and while not grabbing them isn't a huge loss, you can't come back when you're more prepared, so get them now. Origins has so many weapons that this isn't an issue, Shattered Memories doesn't allow you to even have an inventory anyways so all you can miss is optional lore, and Downpour has several Bag of Spilling areas and only allows you to carry two items at a time while littering the grounds with various weapons from rocks to broken pieces of wood.

Third-Person Shooter

In Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion, once you choose to visit the Promised Land, you will not be able to return to the Deepsea Metro until you've completed the expansion. The game warns you of this by asking you to confirm three times that you really want to proceed.
In Splatoon 3, once you have all the parts that Deep Cut were after, you're given a three-prompt query if you really wish to proceed; confirm and you're off to the rocket launch site with no way back.
Warframe has two examples, each relating to a main story quest. Both are Polite examples, as they directly warn you that you must see the mission through before you make the decision.
- During The War Within, you're warned that once you enter the Kuva Fortress (the capital of the Grineer Empire), you won't be able to go back to other in-game functions until the quest is completed, and will be stuck with the loadout you currently have.
- The New War takes this even further — starting the quest outright warns the player that they won't be able to go back to normal in-game activities until the entirety of the the quest is completed. Completion of the quest sees permanent alterations to Fortuna and Cetus, while giving their landscape maps new enemies to fight and new bounties to complete, kills off Teshin (who is now replaced with a hologram), and fills the Star Chart with destroyed Murex ships (which are just cosmetic).

Turn-Based Strategy

Battle for Wesnoth user-made campaign The Altaz Mariners: Once Fort Liberty is entered, there is no way to go back to the world map and do exploration; everything is now all about taking down King Tylon in a Final Battle. Appropriately, the player is given a choice to reconsider when moving to the location in the world map.
Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy Tactics is nasty about it. Anywhere that feature successive battles - including the final battles that start at Orbonne Monastery - locks you into that sequence with no way to return to the world map until they're all completed... and it gives you a save prompt between each battle. If you overwrote your only save file, and you find yourself outclassed - or just want to do sidequests you might not have known existed before now - your only option is to start a new game. Fortunately, The Ivalice Chronicles addresses this and bumps the point of no return down to a polite example: not only does the game spell out these are the final battles, but it adds the option to flee sequential battles, alllowing you to return to the world map so you can train and/or do any sidequests you missed. And when you complete the game, loading the cleared save file puts you back before the point of no return, new Chronicle entries in tow.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance plays with this a lot. The game offers you a save at Ambervale - and you can't take on the final boss unless you save. Then when you do save, initially nothing happens, but then as soon as you try to do anything, the final boss fight starts (and you will get wiped if you're underleveled). A nasty example? Luckily, the game has your back; should you reload the save you just made, you can walk out of Ambervale just fine (and will in fact have to walk out and back in to make another attempt at the final boss). So, despite appearances (and what the game wants you to think), this is actually strict.
Fire Emblem:
- Fire Emblem Gaiden has two of these. Its Video Game Remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, allows you to return to both of them in the Playable Epilogue.
  - There's a point in Act 2 where Celica's route meets with Alm's. You can actually explore Alm's half of the map so far with Celica before going to the top of Zofia Castle — but once you do, a rockslide will bar her from it for the rest of the game.
  - In Act 5, you can't go back when you enter Duma Temple. In the remake, Mycen does warn you about this, saying it's a place "not easily returned from".
- In Fire Emblem Fates, reaching the penultimate chapter on any route prevents you from saving after defeating the boss (although you can still use the one-time saves in the middle of battle) or returning to My Castle to stock up for the Endgame chapter. If the player loses to the Final Boss, they have to complete the previous chapter all over again.
- In Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  - The end of Part I. Completing Chapter 11's story mission locks all Part I sidequests, and if you are a Black Eagle and defect to the Empire in the Holy Tomb, you lose the ability to recruit characters from outside your house. Completing Chapter 12 ends Part I completely, and you lose recruitment if you didn't meet the previous requirement.
  - On the Azure Moon and Crimson Flower routes, starting the second-to-last story battle permanently removes access to Garreg Mach Monastery, so once you make the final trip to Enbarr or the Tailtean Plains respectively, you're in it to win it.
Heroes of Might and Magic has a minor example in the form of one-way portals: if you go through one, you either have to find some other route back (often involving lots of fighting, as a one-way can often lead right into an enemy's zone), or disband and re-hire your hero.
Pendragon has the Battle of Camlann. Escaping the battle by fleeing is impossible, and the only way out is to reach the exit after fighting through an endless wave of enemy soldiers. The game is polite enough to warn you about this, but there's a Nasty surprise up ahead when you face Mordred - any move you make from that point onward can't be cancelled.
X-COM:
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
  - Entering the Gollop Chamber with your top psychic soldier will start the final sequence. However, the game is pretty polite and warns you several times that you won't be able to do anything but attack the Temple Ship from that point on. Any ongoing R&D will stop, and no more UFOs will show up. In fact, the first time you try to do this, one of the characters will outright tell you that she feels that activating the Chamber will mark the beginning of the end.
  - A soft point of no return (that you might not even notice depending on how high your soldier turnover is) also occurs after building the Gollop Chamber: You will not be able to train any more psychic soldiers. The game still lets you evaluate your new soldiers for psychic potential (removing them from the mission rotation for 10 days), but they will have a 100% fail rate after the Gollop Chamber is built.
  - A more nasty variant of this trope comes into play in the expansion pack Enemy Within: after you complete your assault on the alien base, you will have about a couple of weeks before the aliens launch an attack on XCOM HQ. There is no warning before the aliens come, you won't have any control over which soldiers sortie for the base's defense, and if you fail, the game ends automatically.
- In XCOM 2, once you hijack the ADVENT Network Tower and expose their crimes to the world, you have to attack the Alien's underwater base. Like the previous game, it will be polite and warn you beforehand that you'll be headed straight to the endgame. However, what triggers the penultimate mission in the first place is a research that gives no such warning.
- XCOM: Chimera Squad has another Nasty situation in store for the endgame; defeating the third enemy faction opens up two critical missions that, like the endgames of the previous two games, you will have no choice but to engage in when they appear. Unlike those endgames, there isn't a warning before taking down the last faction that doing so will commit you to the finale. This means that any scars on your soldiers and research projects that aren't completed will stay that way to the end.

Turn-Based Tactics

Miasma Chronicles: A Polite example. You get a warning that some content will become unavailable when you enter the First Factory (which is the Final Dungeon).

Visual Novel

C14 Dating: On the sixth week's Wednesday, Melissa will realize she made a major mistake, have a huge moment of self-doubt about her chances in passing the class and retreat to her tent. The love interest who comes to check on her when it happens is the only person with whom a best friend or romance ending will be possible for the rest of the playthrough, no matter who the player was aiming for.
Doki Doki Literature Club! features an unusual nasty version on the day of the festival. After the protagonist discovers Sayori's body, the game deletes all of the player's saves and starts over (with significant changes). This prevents the player from getting the best ending if they didn't see all of the girls' CGs before the reset. There's no warning that this will happen, only minor Foreshadowing from Monika when she advises the player to save at important decisions, which even then doesn't help without prior knowledge of what's to come. The game has similar points of no return at the end of acts 2 and 3.
A Little Lily Princess: Act 1 allows the player to follow several routes and the resources are sufficient to complete the first half of up to three of them during a single run. Act 2, which covers the part of the story in which Sara has lost her fortune, will only allow the player to watch a free event from each still-available route before they need to commit to one of them, which locks the other available route(s).
WILL: A Wonderful World has two, depending on player actions. Late into the game, a timer will start signifying the amount of time before the WILLs (Will and Myth) run out of power and die. The two endings depend on what the player does with said timer.
- If the player completes all of the remaining letters, and goes and gets the Z Rank on Chang Gyeong-Min's letter "Soap Opera" in order to fully beat Spottie's story, they are locked onto the true ending.
  - If the timer runs out, they are locked onto the bad ending. Both endings have no way to revert to the other. Although, given the timer runs for an hour and a half in real-time, you'd have to go out of your way to do this.

Webgames

Fallen London has a few, some signposted, some not. Most famously, "Seeking Mr Eaten's Name" has a very clearly marked one that, if passed, prevents you from returning to the entire rest of the game. Forever. Quite a few people have done this.
Lucky Tower: all over the place in the first game, where it is impossible to go back up the tower once you selected the right door and went to the next level. Also shows up in the second game; once you set out towards the town of Brazendorn, it is impossible to go back to the first town, rendering some sidequests (like finding the bart's trumpet) impossible to complete if you haven't done so already.

Non-Video Game Examples

Anime & Manga

Bleach: Yhwach creates a metaphorical one after he defeats Ichigo and Orihime, destroys Ichigo's Bankai, steals Ichigo's Quincy and Hollow powers, and leaves for Soul Society to complete the merger of the realms, by leaving the portal open. He invites Ichigo to follow him and attempt to stop him if he dares, but warns him that, if he does, Yhwach will make sure that his future will be brought to absolute ruin in the exact moment of Ichigo's life where he's the happiest. And considering that at this point Yhwach can alter the future into any timeline that he can see, this is not an empty threat.
Made in Abyss has the "Curse of the Abyss", which causes injury and Body Horror for those who attempt to return to the surface, with the general nastiness of the symptoms increasing the further down you go. At the 6th Layer of the Abyss (approximately 13,000 meters), attempting to return to the surface is fatal at best and causes a Fate Worse than Death at worst. In addition, the 2nd Layer of the Abyss is considered a point of no return for fledgling Red Whistle Delvers, with any such Delvers reaching this Layer being written off as having chosen to die and search parties explicitly instructed not to waste time and resources trying to rescue them.

Films — Animation

In Turning Red, once Mei gives up the chance to seal her red panda spirit away after the first red moon, she's stuck with it forever.

Films — Live-Action

Called the "Point of SAFE Return" in Alien vs. Predator (2004), which is really just the same point when viewed from the OTHER side.
Helicopter pilot: Just passed the P.S.R.
Graeme: Oh, damn! I wish I got a picture.
Lex: Of what?
Graeme: Uh, th-the P.S.R. I wish he'd call it out before we passed it.
Lex: [laughing] The P.S.R. is the "Point of Safe Return". It means we've used up half our fuel so we can't turn back.
Graeme: Right, but if something went wrong, we could uh... land presumably.
Lex: We could ditch.
Graeme: Yeah, ditch.
Lex: But the temperature of the water would kill us in three minutes.
Back to the Future Part III: Stranded in the old west with no gasoline to power the time machine, the only way Doc and Marty can find to reach the activation speed is to hijack a train and overload its boiler to push the DeLorean to 88mph. Which would be dangerous enough on its own, but their route dead-ends at a ravine. On the model Doc makes for their plan, he labels a windmill along the track with this trope's name:
Marty: What does this mean, "Point of No Return"?
Doc: That's our failsafe point. Up until there, we still have enough time to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine. But once we pass this windmill, it's the future or bust.
Falling Down: D-Fens mentions this trope by name a little over halfway through the movie when he calls up his ex-wife to explain that he's officially gone too far in his journey across LA to turn back, both in a literal and a figurative sense, and also compares where he's currently at to the Apollo 13 astronauts when they were behind the moon and out of contact with Earth while everyone held their breath to see if they would re-emerge alive.
The Matrix (1999):
- The trope namer for the Red Pill, Blue Pill choice is this either way: either lose your ignorance to the Awful Truth, or lose the ability to ever confirm it.
  Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
- When Neo spots the trope-naming glitch in the Matrix, the movie's status quo changes permanently, as it marks the moment when the Matrix begins hunting them down by sending Agents at him and the remaining characters inside the system and, in the real world, sentinels are given the order to find and destroy the Nebuchadnezzar.

Literature

In The Coming Race, the narrator and an engineer descend into the chasm in a cage, then climb the last fifty feet using ropes and grappling hooks. The narrator climbs down first, but as the engineer follows him, the rock suddenly crumbles, killing the engineer and destroying the narrator's chances of climbing back up.

Live Action TV

Star Trek: The Original Series: In "The Menagerie", after Spock commandeers the Enterprise, Kirk and Mendez pursue in a shuttlecraft. Spock originally ignores the pursuit, but relents and beams Kirk and Mendez aboard after the shuttlecraft reaches the point when it no longer has enough fuel to return to Starbase 11.

Theatre

In Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Bluebeard gives Judith several chances to stop, including at the very start and after the sixth door, but once the seventh door is opened her fate is sealed.
Hamilton's "Ten Duel Commandments" establishes Number Eight as the last chance for an impending duel to be called off by the duelists' seconds if they can find some way to negotiate a way for both sides to back down, after both sides have made the necessary preparations with their personal matters and have a doctor who just so happens to be nearby to be able to render medical assistance while not really knowing beforehand there was a duel going on. If neither side backs down here, honor demands that the duel proceed and that they fire at each other.

Podcasts

A self-aware homage to the trope in Roleplay Retcon. In the finale episode of their remake of Pixels, the main characters' Artificial Intelligence friend Dongle warns the party that this may be the last chance to purchase power-ups before entering the main antagonists' lair.

Western Animation

Troll Hunters: In the second half of Part 3, Merlin offers Jim a choice: to use a potion that would turn him into a half-human, half-troll hybrid permanently to have a fighting chance against Gunmar and a newly resurrected Morgana at cost of his own humanity (and by extension his old life), or to stay human and risk everything. After some thinking, Jim decides to go through with Merlin’s plan. He regains his human form at the end of Wizards.

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Point of No Return
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