Fantastic list, thank you! I was wondering for a long time since when stealth sections started becoming a standard ingredient for all sorts of games and this is a great resource for tracking the evolution of this trend. I never realized that almost every Zelda game has one of these. The Minish Cap also has a brief stealth segment in Hyrule Castle.

Added Minish Cap, thanks!

I'm curious to see if Fire Emblem Path Of Radiance would count. It's only for one mission and isn't at all required, but trying to do the stealth route does give you a big bonus

Considering it's only for one mission, I'll allow it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Gravity Rush 2 (and it’s the worst thing about it imo)

path of radiance was already here :) Mega Man Battle Network 4 has a scenario with stealth

Added both Gravity Rush 2 and Mega Man Battle Network 4!

the sheer abundance of zelda games that fall under this is actually insane holy shit

Hmm, Oblivion I feel falls under "optional core strategy". I mean, you can sneak at anytime, sneaking is skill you level up, two major factions in the game are focused on stealth, you can pickpocket anyone in the game, etc. I mean, there are quests that permanently fail if you get caught, but I kind of feel that's fine when doing the quests designed around stealth, and it at least (if I remember right) never locks you out of the main ending from failing a stealth section.
Just noticed New Vegas too and I feel it's kind of the same situation, only I guess there aren't any stealth focused factions.

Binary Domain follows up its tutorial immediately with a swimming stealth segment, swimming and stealth are far from core mechanics and I don't like it.

which San Andreas mission are you thinking about here?

I originally compiled the list from my own knowledge + friends as well as selectively from some TVTropes lists like this and San Andreas was part of the latter. Looking this up, I think Home Invasion appears to be the "obligatory stealth" part, as making too much noise inside the house will alert the home owner and cause a mission failure, but feel free to correct me if you don't think this is obligatory or if you think the game wouldn't fall under the listed conditions.

nope absolutely right, home invasion cannot be finished without stealth, in fact there's also another mission in SA that has obligatory stealth which is "madd dogg's rhymes", not all of it is stealth but the first few objectives are obligatory to be used with stealth or else you'll fail

Good to know, thanks for confirming!

dirge of cerberus

just remembered nmh2 as well, mb for the double post

Added both, thanks Josh

Magic Knight Rayearth (Sega Saturn)

Bright Memory Infinite
and also Assault Spy

All three Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds World Championship games (2009-10-11) have a mandated stealth section

Astral Chain

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FIRE EMBLEM GAMES

Added all of the latest suggestions, thanks everyone.

Eastward also has one

Shadow Hearts Covenant has a funny stealth section and it's an RPG.

not feeling this max payne pick at all, sure the normal way is to do it by stealth but you can still do it normally, you can get some of the enemies at the door and kill them taking their guns and wiping out the entire level all without stealth and the game wont fail you for it, not like san andreas where you have to or else you'll fail

Fair point, I'll leave it off for now.

Yakuza 4 has one

Sports Story has one

Omg did anyone say the Family Guy game on PS2? FUCK the Brian stealth section 😵‍💫