Seven achievements ruined by a point of no return By Luke Albigés, 04 May 2023 FollowtopicsData AnalysisArticleLuke Albigés Missable achievements are not uncommon, especially in games with levels that are self-contained and don't offer a chapter select option. But larger games are not safe from them, either — cower before the point of no return.Ah, the point of no return... a gaming trope like no other (thankfully) and responsible for many a missable item or achievement over the years. After seeing Redfall pull the rug from under players with a mid-game one-way map change — which, as we pointed out in our Redfall review, could make things pretty frustrating for achievement hunters — we got to thinking about similar gaming moments where major story beats or even fully acknowledged points of no return jump in, often unexpectedly, to turn seemingly manageable achievements into ones that can cause serious headaches... and even lead to entire fresh playthroughs just for those few things you might not have realised wouldn't be around forever. Pushing through the red mist and tears, we present a few choice cases where a point of no return of some kind or another has done us dirty, and where better to start than with the game that stoked the engine of this train of thought in the first place?RedfallThe Bob’s Final Hour achievement in Redfall worth 62 pointsKill Bob the Radio Host during Lost in the Fog after playing the PSA in Taking Back the Airwaves.With Redfall being broken up into two completely separate maps, there are all kinds of point of no return-related missables on the achievement list, but this is one of the best examples as it actually straddles both areas. The first part of the Bob's Final Hour achievement requires you to complete an optional mission in the starting Redfall Commons area, with the second part not coming until a late story mission in the second region. Miss out on completing that first side mission — or later finish the unrepeatable endgame story mission without unlocking this — and you're looking at another almost full playthrough to try again.Elden RingThe Legendary Armaments achievement in Elden Ring worth 57 pointsAcquired all legendary armamentsFromSoftware's hardcore action-RPGs often require multiple playthroughs for a full completion, and even though this missable can still be obtained by grabbing the offending item in NG+ (or having a co-op buddy drop it for you), it's still worth a shoutout here just because of how darn big Elden Ring is should you have to go for this on a follow-up run. You're looking for nine specific unique weapons for this achievement, and one of them can only be found in a location which gets completely changed up after progressing the story past a certain point, making the weapon no longer obtainable. This means if you do go too far and miss the Bolt of Gransax, your only options to finish the collection will be doing another run (and this isn't exactly found early in the game, either), or relying on the kindness of others to let you borrow theirs. Best of luck, brave Tarnished...Final Fantasy VIIThe See the Light achievement in Final Fantasy VII worth 96 pointsLearn Great Gospel—Aeris's last Limit BreakThis relates to perhaps one of gaming's most famous point of no return-style moments (if a somewhat unconventional one), but the chances of unlocking this achievement on a casual playthrough without knowing what is coming are pretty slim. The Xbox port of classic JRPG Final Fantasy VII includes achievements for obtaining the ultimate Limit Break abilities for every character, some of whom are optional and one of whom doesn't stick around for the full game. After you head to and complete the Temple of the Ancients, Aeris will no longer be able to join your party, so unless you manage to grind out all of her lower-level Limit Breaks and finish a typically convoluted side quest to unlock Great Gospel before that point, you're going to have to play through around half of the game again to grab this. Or revert to an earlier save, should you have been smart enough to be keeping multiple slots.Atomic HeartThe Clean-up achievement in Atomic Heart worth 304 pointsComplete all testing groundsCrispy critters, of course Atomic Heart was going to make the list! It was surprising enough to emerge from one of the sci-fi shooter's labyrinthine complexes into a pseudo-open-world map for the first time, but Atomic Heart giveth and it taketh away, some time later locking off this explorable section and anything you might have missed there without warning. This is just one of several achievements you can miss should you unwittingly progress to the point of the open section being out of your reach, and with all of the test chambers handily marked on your map, you might think you have plenty of time to visit them all as you explore. Spoilers: you don't. Leave it too long and and you'll be railroaded back into linear story action with no option to return... or at least that was the case at launch — after a recent update, you can now go back and explore after beating the game, but there will still be a whole bunch of other collectables that you can't go back for.Fallout 3: Mothership ZetaThe Alien Archivist achievement in Fallout 3 worth 42 pointsCollected all Alien Captive RecordingsEven in smaller DLC adventures, it's still possible to get locked out of things, and this retro-sci-fi expansion for post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3 has a fine example of just such a feat of rudeness. Alien Archivist requires you to track down 25 collectable recordings in the DLC, with the majority being missable thanks to a point of no return later in the alien adventure — one is even rendered missable prior to that point. You can only run this extra quest line once per character and need to be fairly levelled up to tackle it, so failing to find even one of these things will lock you out of the final DLC's only non-story-related achievement until you decide to dive back into the Capital Wasteland again on a fresh file (or apparently just deleting and re-downloading the DLC will also work), knowing that the truth is still out there.SpiritfarerThe Stoked achievement in Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition worth 204 pointsMake all spirits reach an ecstatic mood at least onceWhat's better than one point of no return? Why, a whole bunch of them, of course. The wonderful and heartbreaking Spiritfarer is all about taking care of the characters you meet as you ferry them through the last moments of their lives, naturally presenting many moments of solemn closure that can lock you out of certain things if you're not especially diligent. This achievement requires you to make sure everyone you pick up is able to know true happiness on their final voyage, although without a way of tracking this in-game, the onus is on you to make sure you've maxed out every character's happiness at least once before you drop them off. This now includes the extra passengers added in title updates, giving you even more ways to potentially fail to get it should you have to drop someone off before you get to show them the time of the end of their life.Persona 5 RoyalThe Awakening the Phantom Thieves achievement in Persona 5 Royal worth 30 pointsEvolved a party member's Persona.We had to close out with this, because it has the potential to be an absolute nightmare if you're not prepared for it. Persona 5 is far from a short game, but much of the new content added for the expanded Royal version is actually missable, and it's right at the very end of Atlus' epic JRPG. Fail to meet the conditions to unlock Persona 5 Royal's final Palace and you'll get either the bad ending or the vanilla version's good ending, missing out on the entire third semester and having to replay a 100-odd-hour RPG all over again to get back there. Even multiple saves might not help you here, with story progression tied to fixed calendar deadlines — depending how far back any potentially suitable old saves might be, you could find that you simply don't have enough spare time to fulfil the conditions to reach the new content. Still, thank your lucky stars that Royal's achievement list is considerably easier than the base game's trophies were on PS4...Been stung by any of these yourself, or got any more you'd like to vent about? Drop down in the comments and let us know!Data Analysis Written by Luke AlbigésLuke runs the TA news team, contributing where he can primarily with reviews and other long-form features — crafts he has honed across two decades of print and online gaming media experience, having worked with the likes of gamesTM, Eurogamer, Play, Retro Gamer, Edge, and many more. He loves all things Monster Hunter, enjoys a good D&D session, and has played way too much Destiny.