I love that kind of gameplay. That's what draws me to many J-RPGs.
Didn't do X? Can't get Y, no matter how bad you want it.
Most especially so when the game warns you in obscure ways. Plays which reward the player for being investigatory.
Example : A placed readable book on the shelf warns player not to do X if they want Y far before the decision comes about. Or the player has a bad premonition or dream about it. Foreboding which has obvious intent once that player has passed the threshold of no return.
It was stated earlier in the thread, but I think there is real value to setting an atmosphere in a game which rewards the player for being cautious, but curious. For example, the pie you're talking about had no real obvious use until the mob which requires it, right? Unless inventory space becomes an issue, a cautious player would likely hold on to that pie until faced with a challenge where they've tried other avenues. The type of player which tries every item in their inventory to succeed definitely isn't the target for this mechanics.
Reminds me of the colored potion system in nethack.
When well-crafted, it's a great thing to have such irreversible decision points. The fundamental flaw with the pie is it wasn't well-crafted (both in-game and in the larger ecosystem of adventure games at the time; players were encouraged to try everything when stuck, so they might eat the pie even if it wasn't an obvious solution to the current problem. "Can't climb this cliff. Maybe eating the pie will give me wings? That magic stick gives you wings in that other game...").
Didn't do X? Can't get Y, no matter how bad you want it.
Most especially so when the game warns you in obscure ways. Plays which reward the player for being investigatory.
Example : A placed readable book on the shelf warns player not to do X if they want Y far before the decision comes about. Or the player has a bad premonition or dream about it. Foreboding which has obvious intent once that player has passed the threshold of no return.
It was stated earlier in the thread, but I think there is real value to setting an atmosphere in a game which rewards the player for being cautious, but curious. For example, the pie you're talking about had no real obvious use until the mob which requires it, right? Unless inventory space becomes an issue, a cautious player would likely hold on to that pie until faced with a challenge where they've tried other avenues. The type of player which tries every item in their inventory to succeed definitely isn't the target for this mechanics.
Reminds me of the colored potion system in nethack.