Video Game Tutorial - TV Tropes

At least as far back as the first Final Fantasy on the NES, developers have reckoned that players might actually not read the manual for all the controls and general know-how of playing the game. As games grew more complicated, it also appeared that some actions were simply really hard to get across with just words, at least without a 12-page essay on the single function. By the seventh generation of gaming and the rise of digital distribution, few games even came with manuals at all, meaning that the game itself is the only place to learn how to play it.

Thusly, in-game tutorials have been in games with increasing regularity, to the point where it's more likely that games have at least one sort of tutorial than none at all.

The basic formula is thus: A game mechanic or element is brought to the players attention, and the player is informed about it, possibly with a demonstration of some sort.

Of course, it's not always that simple. Tutorials themselves have Tropes of their own, each adding another layer of complexity and making game manuals even more redundant here.

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Sub-tropes:

• Antepiece: A more subtle version, where an easier version of an obstacle precedes the real thing.
• Auto-Pilot Tutorial: The tutorial that you can look at, but not touch.
• Forced Tutorial: No matter what you do, you have to do this tutorial. Not so fun when it's something you already know from previous games or you're starting a New Game Plus.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: Some tutorials try to at least keep some semblance of being in-universe and not break the fourth wall. Games under this particular trope don't really try in that department.
• Justified Tutorial: Tutorials that are part of the setting. The instructor says shoot, text in the HUD says to press R1 to fire. As close to canon as a tutorial can get.
• Signpost Tutorial: Tutorials that appear on signs and scenery.
• Training Boss: Tutorials may end with a bang... caused by you, as now you've got the chance to test your new skills in a Boss Battle.
• Training Dummy: The standard punching bag for combat tutorials. Hey, someone needs to get hit.
• Tutorial Failure: The tutorial fails to teach you vital things about the gameplay.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: Doing actions, before a tutorial tells you about them, will have no result.

Examples that don't fit any of the sub-tropes:

Fan Works

• Hermione Granger: The Witching Hour: Hermione's New Game Plus second chance at life doesn't have a separate tutorial section proper but rather keeps explaining the Sudden Game Interface's features by way of text boxes that pop up as she interacts with it or encounters new situations.
• Hope on a Distant Mountain: The trial has one, despite the fact that it isn't a video game. It takes the form of a separate narrator who gives instructions to allow readers to play along with the trial at certain points, which are framed as if it was a video game (along with several mentions of having to cut features that would be difficult to present in text format due to budgetary reasons) but also talks about past events from the game as if he were an actual character, and in the Logical Dive explanation even references Hinata's version of the minigame, despite the events of that game never happening.

Visual Novels

• My Candy Love: Each season has a mandatory tutorial, during which ChiNoMimi or Agatha explains the game's mechanics. LL's tutorial has an option to skip the tutorial and go straight to picking the route you want.
• Slow Damage: Upon the first time playing the game, the player is given a tutorial to tell them how the choice system works this time since it is different and more convoluted compared to the choice system used in Nitro+CHiRAL's previous games. Later on, they're given another tutorial telling them how Explorations work, and whether the goal of an Interrogation is to maintain the character's Madness or Euphoria level.
• Sweet Elite: Chapter 0 follows Scholar as they're taught the ropes by Serena, one of the senior students. She breaks down the main mechanics of the game before introducing them to Lady Arlington, the school's headmaster.

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