Talk:Point of no return

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Necessity[edit]

Is this article necessary? The opening phrase, "in many Mario games", is an outright lie - points of no return are hardly common in this franchise, and only two examples are listed, both from the Mario & Luigi series (three before I removed an incorrect one, which was also from an M&L game). The article is supposedly under construction, but the article's been around for a year and no other examples have been added. I found this discussion, which at least proves that there was some, if very little, discussion before creating the article, but it also contains some false information: the first Luigi's Mansion does not have a PONR, only the third does. As for the Paper Mario games, I can't remember if Color Splash has one, but I guess kinda sorta maybe you could make a case for the first game since it has that playable ending cutscene, but I don't think that counts.

In conclusion, unlike missable content or unrevisitable area, points of no return are too rare and not notable enough in the Mario franchise to warrant a full article on them. Unless someone can think of more examples that are simply escaping me, this is glossary material. Dark BonesSig.png 17:49, April 23, 2021 (EDT)

Color Splash doesn't really have that, and I agree this article doesn't seem fully necessary. There aren't enough games that have this sort of thing since most of the time you can backtrack as far as you want right before facing the final boss. Even in Partners in Time, you can still use the warpulator thing to get out of the "point of no return" when you want. Bowser Nightwicked Bowser Bowser emblem from Mario Kart 8 17:54, April 23, 2021 (EDT)
I would agree to remove this and redirect to MarioWiki:Glossary, though I do ask if there is anything valuable to take from this article and move to somewhere else. -- PanchamBro (talkcontributions) 17:16, April 25, 2021 (EDT)

The point of no return refers to any moment in any game in which the player becomes incapable of saving before the game is completed. The name is a bit off-putting, yes. The actual definition, however, appears to be any moment in which an item or location becomes unavailable, which is more convenient for List of missable content and Unrevisitable area respectively. Basically, the article itself would mostly just list moments in games immediately before the final boss. If this wouldn’t be necessary, there’s no reason for this article. Lady Bow from Paper Mario. Green Star Lady Bow from Paper Mario. 19:02, April 25, 2021 (EDT)

Your definition of a point of no return is wrong. A PONR refers to a point where you can no longer backtrack; i.e. you can't return to other areas or do sidequests and are forced to make a beeline for the final boss and ending. It has nothing to do with saving, and some games even let you save past the PONR (Star Fox Adventures comes to mind), which screws you out of ever exploring on that save file again if you don't copy it first (unless the game has a new game+ feature). And no, an article that "would mostly just list moments in games immediately before the final boss" is not necessary. Dark BonesSig.png 19:25, April 25, 2021 (EDT)
Well then, I guess we can delete this. If the creator doesn't mind, and if the definition on which the article itself was created is incorrect, this article could be deleted immediately. Lady Bow from Paper Mario. Green Star Lady Bow from Paper Mario. 20:17, April 25, 2021 (EDT)
(Most likely moved to the glossary, that is, as this is still worth noting.) Lady Bow from Paper Mario. Green Star Lady Bow from Paper Mario. 20:18, April 25, 2021 (EDT)