Disclaimer: the first example shown is actually outdated as when I bought this game the developers listened to the feedback and made the final level accessible to all difficulties.

I'm not talking about locking cutscenes, achievements and other non-gameplay content. I'm talking about games not allowing the player to progress unless they choose a specific difficulty.

I'm not against games mocking the player for choosing low difficulty. That can be pretty funny sometimes, assuming the game is still playable.

I feel like the worst part about this trope is how deceptive it actually is. When I pick the difficulty for a game, I want to play a game at that difficulty. And the game wastes the players time by forcing them to play higher difficulty after finishing.

**Platypus Reclayed** \- due to community feedback, this feature was removed, and the final level is now accessible to everyone. Considering that the game substantially increased in difficullty this was especially painful. I'm glad devs realised that though.

**Cuphead** \- not only simple mode prevents your progressing and is not accessible on final bosses, it also straight up doesn't allow you to experience some phases. Which means it cannot even be used to practice the bossfights, unlike some other incarnations of this trope.

**The Binding Of Isaac: Fiend Folio** \- calling "Super Easy mode" a "difficulty" is a little bit of a stretch as it plays more like a minigame than a variation of the base game. And it's so short you can't even complain about your time being wasted.

**Undertale** \- reverse trope: the "hard difficulty" ends prematurely. This one works because it's: a) the mode is very quick, b) is NOT treatet like a hard mode for the base game c) the reversal of this trope is actually pretty unique IMHO.

[Hated Trope] Games gatekeeping low difficulty players