Dead end in my new game? Yea or Nay?

[Radiant]

Should I go ahead and include the dead-end in the game, or does it irritate you as a player to have to go back and restore a prior saved game to continue?  I can personally go either way with it.

Here's a thought: barring all progress for the player because he forgot something earlier is strongly frowned upon these days; however, barring the best ending for a player, or the maximum score, because he forgot something earlier is fair game.

[Invalid]

I hate dead ends... what you should do is have a side quest of some sort where you can obtain the items

[Snarky]

Here's a thought: barring all progress for the player because he forgot something earlier is strongly frowned upon these days; however, barring the best ending for a player, or the maximum score, because he forgot something earlier is fair game.

On the other hand, GarageGothic's comment just now has more or less guaranteed that I will never play A Tale of Two Kingdoms, so this may not be something you'd want to do. If optional items are going to determine the ending, that had better be pretty damn clear as you play the game, not something you discover to your surprise and disappointment when you finish it.

I say build in some constraints so that the player has to pick up the two items before they become unavailable. There's some good discussion of this approach here.

[GarageGothic]

Oh, I didn't mean to scare anybody away from A Tale of Two Kingdoms, it's definitely worth playing. Just remember...

Spoiler

... to steal a rope from the castle at the very beginning.

[close]

Edit: I was just reminded of a horrible dead end in The Black Mirror (crap game, but many people seem to rate it very high):

Spoiler

You are trapped in a mine and finally have found your way to the surface, but there's a padlocked gate at the exit. In your inventory you have a revolver with two bullets left. You do the obvious thing and shoot at the lock, but unless you've looked at it first, you miss. So you spend your final bullet to finally break the lock, save your game and exit the mine only to find... a huge friggin' wolf that rips your throat out - unless you have a bullet left to shoot it with!

[close]

That's plainly sadistic game design.

[DutchMarco]

I find dead ends frustrating, especially if they occur near the end of the game. You've spent all the time and effort to finish it, then you have to start all over/from a saved game, and if there is only a small amount of game left, that makes me feel as if I've done the replaying for nothing/for a small amount of extra game time. I remember in SQ4, you needed an adapter plug or something to plug into a computer near the end of the game, You'd buy the adapter in the Galaxy Galleria somewhere along the middle of the game, but I didn't kno w which one I'd need to buy. So I'd have to load an old save game (if I still had it!) and replay from there on, or replay from the beginning. Boy, have I played the beginning of SQ4 often! Perhaps I've missed a clue somewhere, very likely of course. In part because even though I did pick up the item it turned out to be the wrong one.
But I'd prefer if the player were guided/led in some (not necessarily stealthy) way. (Obvious ways are permitted and not frowned upon too heavily) Would an auto-save at a place where you had accidentally forgotten to get the item be an option? ManicMatt, you'd need a file handy to sharpen your teeth, and also an anaesthetic (for obvious reasons while doing this). Maybe also a dentist at hand/in your inventory?
So I'd go for 'nay'.