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Games you beat but never really learned to play

R

retroman

Member
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the first and only game in the series I've tried to play. Put quite a few hours into it and unlocked all the characters, but I never had the feeling I was playing it the correct way. The controls felt really awkward to me as well.

Too bad, I really wanted to like that game :-(
 
E

Edzi

Member
This thread reminded me that I never really understood how your super/special attacks worked in FFXII.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
Arkham Asylum. I played that game with KBM and for some reason none of the Takedown attacks were bound to a button. I could rebind them all I wanted in the menu, Bats just wouldn't use them. So my playthrough consisted of punching fools until they didn't move anymore.
 
Q

QuixoticNeutral

Member
I cleared The Wonderful 101 on Normal difficulty using the touchscreen for every gesture other than Unite Sword, without ever learning how to chain combos, with no understanding of the scoring system, and with no clue what on earth the Team Attack button did.

Somehow I managed to hit Silver on most operations. Suffice to say the Vorkken fights were long.
 
G

galv

Unconfirmed Member
Apart from MGR (lol I can't parry), Dishonored.

I finished the game when it came out and liked it a lot. Found a few videos later on which showed off some insane stuff and combos I never thought of.

Played it again, and LOVED it. Story is forgettable but the world building and gameplay is amazing.
 
P

PBalfredo

Member
I brute forced my way through FF XIII and it's largely due to how the game displays damage. Whenever damage is shown on-screen, it doesn't just drop a solid number out of enemies like in older games. Instead, damage numbers quickly tally themselves up, as a stylistic flair. So when you have a bunch of characters attacking at the same time, the screen is awash with random numbers and it's hard to make heads or tails of how much damage you're doing because damage numbers disappear about as soon as they're done tallying up.

This is especially true during summons, where everything is a multi-hit attack so even more random numbers are popping up everywhere and the camera is doing its own thing to be more cinematic. I have absolutely no idea if I was handling summons right. Was it better to do as many attacks before the final transformation? Or was it better to pop it all off when the enemy was staggered? Did waiting longer before the final transformation effect how much damage the transformation did? I have no idea because this number tornado on the screen isn't going to tell me!
 
P

Poimandres

Member
PBalfredo said:
Parrying/Visceral Attacks in the Souls/Bloodborne games. Probably useful, but too much guesswork on the timing to risk eating an often-fatal attack to the face when shielding or dodging out of the way is a far far safer option. Never felt the need to master it since it rarely works on non-humanoid bosses (...right?)
Click to expand...

It's way more viable and almost essential in Bloodborne with the super aggro bosses and lack of shield... But I still didn't parry :p
 
B

big youth

Member
Apollo Cree said:
Metal Gear Rising.

I beat it twice before I realized parying was a thing.
Click to expand...

I wonder how you guys got past Blade Wolf. I had to read up on him and parrying, watch videos, play him 20x before I finally beat him. by then I had mastered parrying. But how is it possible to beat him without?
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
ditto with Platinum titles and the 'Souls' series (really just the parry system).

most recently Puzzles and Dragons. i understand how it works and how the elemental affinities work and all, but really i just end up playing it like Bejeweled most of the time (single 3-way matches) and just kind of luck out on doing combos/3+ matches.
 
R

Robert7lee

Neo Member
Red dead redemption I never fully understood how the shoot outs worked.

Also Witcher 2, I never got hang of that game or the crafting and potion mechanic.
 
H

Harshak

Neo Member
Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden 2.

I button-mashed my way through both of those. Ninja Gaiden twice, and I'm still terrible at the awesome looking combo stuff...
 
S

SunBroDave

Member
Super Smash Bros Melee. It wasn't until years later when I was in college that I truly understood what it means to play smash.
 
D

DeBurgo

Member
DMC3. I'm still not really sure how I beat that game. Sheer tenacity I guess. However I look at some of the things people do with that game on youtube and stuff and realize I don't know shit about it, and am basically just button mashing.
 
M

MetalDeer

Member
Tales of Vesperia.

I went through the whole game not knowing how the hell the combat system worked, specifically linking together attacks and stuff. I didn't feel like figuring it out, and half the time I had auto-battle on.

Probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if I had some patience for it. Instead, it's quite possibly one of the most boring games I've ever played, and that's probably my fault.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I distinctly remembering not understanding the junction system in FFVIII or the ability system in FFIX until basically the end of the game.

RPGs in general for the longest time. I always found battles tedious and I would often run from battles out of boredom. I think it took me until FFXII when I was 22 to really "get" the fun of levelling and building your character, and that's because the auto-battle of gambits made it tolerable to grind.

Now I go back and play ancient RPGs like FFIII and I get the systems from top to bottom.
 
I

itchyass86

Member
The F.E.A.R. games.

1) I've never even once used the slow-mo mechanic because I always forget to used it.

2) While playing F.E.A.R. 3, my buddy and I both picked up riot shields a quarter of the way through. We figured out that you can actually kill enemies by bopping em with a shield. So from then on, we quit using the guns and just blazed through the rest of the game using just shields to kill everyone (asides from the mech levels). It was the most epic and funniest gaming moment I've ever had. Never had I laughed so hard while playing a video game, and the best part was that I had a friend to share that great experience with. We were just total noobs messing around. And beat the game as tears poured out from our eyes from laughter.
 
D

Drinkel

Member
MGS3 - Outside of the bosses I was mostly running around with a shotgun like a crazy person. Snakes high health and the long alert phases made me stop caring after a while. I preferred MGS2 in that regard.
 
E

Earthpainting

Member
Apollo Cree said:
Metal Gear Rising.

I beat it twice before I realized parying was a thing.
Click to expand...
That's actually sort of impressive. I wasn't very good at it, and Blade Wolf pretty much forced me to do the VR mission until I had it down. That thing kept knocking me on my ass and comboing me into submission. Most bosses seem to place a high importance on the mechanic, so surely you had to have known something was wrong, right?
 
Z

Zank Frappa

Banned
Transistor for sure. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this one yet. Surely I can't be the only one who had no freakin' clue what the heck was going on all the time.
 
W

Wensih

Member
Probably Dark Souls? I've sped through it in 35 hours and got the platinum at 60 but I tanked my way through most of the game. Most people would say I didn't do something right, but that's souls fans for you. Platinuming the game and go through it 5 times isn't really learning how to play it.
 
F

FiraB

Banned
Dragon Dogma

Loved the game to bits but never fully grasped the class system. Saw gameplay of people with stupidly powerful builds but never got anywhere near some of them.
 
2

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
BlazBlue on vita and tekken on psp, i don't have the time and the will to memorize all the combos, modern fighting games love long combos and that's why i don't play fighting games anymore... Too bad :(
 
T

Tigersprite

Member
Count me in for never mastering TWEWY's second screen either. I also never fully understood Crisis Core's battle system, or for that matter the turn-based system of any of the Final Fantasy games. I just don't get it. CC is still one of my favourite games ever, though.
 
Z

Zeuanimals

Member
Jarnet87 said:
I never really put much time into the gambit system from XII.
Click to expand...

Holy shit. The game was impossible for me if it were not for the Gambit System.

I 'insert number here' DMC, especially 3 (haven't played 4). I love the games but I never really understood how the style system worked until having played it again, I still don't really get it. I pretty much just spammed the same attacks and I never really tried the weapons other than Beowulf and Rebellion. I also used the cheat and the infinite Devil Trigger "costume" to get through the game, using DT with it didn't heal you like it would on the other costumes but it was still infinite DT regardless. Also, once you get Quicksilver with the DT costume, you were pretty much invincible.
 
N

NinjamicWZ

Banned
When I was young, I squeaked by in Final Fantasy Tactics the first time without really understanding how to play other than brute forcing and over leveling, even though I was still being as strategic as I could. I'd only played Shining Force 2 before that and never got that far in it.

Replaying it when I got a little older made a world of difference, especially when you start trying to pursue stealing or item discovering one-chance items.

Shit, I'd say I didn't even understand Final Fantasy IV when I first played it on SNES either. I was always running from random battles to avoid the tedium, having to abuse potions and milking my money dry buying them (which also made me avoid battles, to avoid needing to recover), and never having enough money to outfit myself properly. I did go all the way, though, somehow. I understood all these great jrpgs by the end of the SNES gen, ofc, but it was a rough start.

Minishdriveby said:
Probably Dark Souls? I've sped through it in 35 hours and got the platinum at 60 but I tanked my way through most of the game. Most people would say I didn't do something right, but that's souls fans for you. Platinuming the game and go through it 5 times isn't really learning how to play it.
Click to expand...

No matter how you play, there's a fellow Souls fan to tell you that you did it wrong. I tanked the hell out of both Demon's and Dark Souls, with protection spells like iron skin on an agility build. I play them much differently now ofc, but then again I play them a lot of different ways when the mood strikes. Still, watching Kay play Demon's Souls blind put a ton of stuff in perspective about how much I failed my way through it. Didn't stop me from loving every minute of it.
 
S

Skrams

Member
MolochSigma said:
Bayonetta 1.

For some reason I never felt like I got the hang of the combat. It's not just a character action thing, I loved MG:R, Vanquish and Bayonetta 2.
Click to expand...

Bayonetta 1 and 2 are weird games for me. They're the most baseline character action thing and I feel like I should be able to get them easily. I just don't though. I feel like I have a good grip of DMC most of the time since it's just a tad slower or at least I play it slower. I also feel like I have a good grip on W101, Vanquish, MGR, and other things of that ilk. I just don't ever feel super confident playing Bayonetta. I can get pretty alright medals at times, but I don't think I ever feel super comfortable. I don't know if it's the amount of combos, weapons on hands or feet, wicked weaves, dodge offset, or just me being intimidated by it all. I'm not sure if it'll click eventually or if I'll just keep thinking I should be more comfortable with this by now.
 
Majukun

Majukun

Member
metal Gear rising.. mainly because my left stick was really bad when I played it, and so trying to parry consistently was impossible... also I always felt like I missed something while playing
 
W

WITHE1982

Member
Another vote for Persona 4 Golden. I still don't have a clue how to fuse personas, equip a skill card or even fish. I completed the game pretty much spamming the same 2 attacks. In fact that goes for any turn based RPG. I've just no idea what I'm doing. I just play on the lowest difficulty and spam attack.

Also MGS . I don't think I've ever completed any CQC moves/takedowns (other than tutorials) through the 6 games I've finished.
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
Legend of Mana

Why learn the crafting system when I can just hit every enemy hundreds of times and be forced to dodge every single attack, since they would all one-shot me?

I freaking hate crafting.
 
H

Hypron

Member
I finished Bayonetta 1 about 5 times (including NSIC) and I still don't feel like I know how to play it. I know how to dodge offset and I don't get hit that much but I still consistently feel like I play like shit. I don't get that feeling when playing other action games like the DMC series.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
Bayonetta 1, as many have said. I got through it for the crazy set piece, but couldn't get the hang of the combat. When I got to 2 it all gelled and I went back to 1 and enjoyed it way more.

Tales of Graces F also comes to mind. It was my first tales game. I don't think I really learned how to use the Tales combo system effectively until I played Xillia after that.
 
M

Malreyn

Member
Catherine...I never really mastered the puzzle solving, I just kept pulling blocks and dying over and over again until one of my umpteen attempts made it to the top of the pyramid
 
Lux R7

Lux R7

Member
Mortal Kombat 3.
Cyrax: green web + uppercut
Sub Zero: ice + uppercut
For the rest (and Motaro), jump and kick.
 
B

Banzai

Member
I got to the Beowolf boss in DMC3 on Dante Must Die Difficulty and I still felt like I had no idea what I was doing.
 
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