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"How the fuck was I supposed to know that" moments in video games

P

Phediuk

Member
In Blaster Master, after getting the hover ability from the 3rd boss, I never knew where the fuck to go afterward. You'd think the entrance to area 4 would be somewhere in area 3, but no, instead you have to go all the way back to the start of area 1--the very beginning of the game--with a fully-powered hover gauge, and then jump up and use all your hover energy to just barely reach a hidden platform, and then jump up to several more hidden platforms above it until you find a door way above the starting point that contains the entrance to area 4.

There is not a single hint in the game that you have to do that, so the game effectively ended for me after area 3.

Post more.
 
T

taybul

Member
1rhPwpF.jpg

the thread.
 
E

Eggbok

Member
Although it's not a full game, this thread has P.T. all over it. Like seriously, without the internet how would most people figure out that a clue is hidden in the pause menu lol!
 
S

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
Kinda relevant, but I have vivid memories of running around that derelict train station in FFVII trying to find out where to go. Turns out I had to walk under a disused carriage that was balancing on two others, totally invisible from the standard perspective.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
I was literally stuck in the Fire Temple of OOT for years as a child because I didn't realize how to swing the hammer horizontally to knock the totem poles out of the way.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Damn, I know I've gone through this many of times. I just can't think of a single one.
 
S

SuperChoco

Member
Last Boss in Other M

You are supposed to use Super Bombs when inside the Metroid Queen, which the game explicitly tells you that you can't use them for the remainder of the game.
 
H

HP_Wuvcraft

Banned
Because I just finished it, Costume Quest 2.

It's easy enough to find what you need once you realize what you need to do, but the game offers you very little to go on.
 
M

Magnus

Member
A lot of MMO stuff, even in the most accessible ones like WoW. But then, the social nature of the game means that you're meant to discover more esoteric or obtuse things by virtue of socializing and communicating. Then, the 1 person who discovers it spreads the word and chats about it, etc.

(I'm not counting the resources practically every WoW player uses to find things out, like WoWhead, or back in the day, thottbot, because those are effectively outside the game, just like any online resource or guide for other games)

fwpx said:
Finishing PT, the thread.
Click to expand...

It's still not conclusively 'solvable', right? There's still no definitive way to reach the end as far as I know.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Crescent Pale Mist. There's this rather large map full of keyed gates, you activate the keys and a pillar disappears letting you pass. But there's one pillar thing that never disappears. Ever. You search and search and search.

Well. Turns out there's a feature to teleport to the location where you threw a dagger if it hit an enemy. You are shown this once in the tutorial, and it is never remotely useful until three full levels later where it is suddenly required, with no prompt.Why would I remember this totally useless ability? Why wouldn't you teach me when I NEEDED it? Why would I assume it teleports me through evil death walls? Why is there only ONE place I need it in a whole long level? UGH.

Progressive tutorials you can turn off are a FAR better solution than the ridiculous "teach the player everything at once" because you are going to forget things, especially if the actual use of the ability is totally unclear.

Also every point and click adventure game I've ever played, more or less.
 
U

UnlovedJew

Member
Like 90% of the BS you have to do outside the dungeons in the 3D Zelda games. Like literally every single thing you have to do.
 
T

Talax

Member
"Don't open this, this and that treasure chest in the first 10 minutes of the game if you want the best weapon at the end of the game."

...............WTF FFXII....
 
H

Hanzou

Member
Getting the fire arrows in oot by shooting into the sun. Was there a hint I missed because my 13 year old self had no idea what was happening.
 
G

Grady

Member
Lol at blaster master. I remember the satisfaction of finally beating the final boss. What a bitch of a game. The biggest mind fuck for me was zork nemesis. Bravo to anyone who could beat that without a guide, those puzzles were beyond illogical to my young mind.
 
Megatron

Megatron

Member
I owned the first mega man game on the nes for over a year before realizing I could use the enemy boss powers. I found out at school and could not wait to get home and finally beat elecman and ice man.
 
S

Seiniyta

Member
Fighting games, almost all of them do a terrible job learning you how to actualliy properly play the game without button mashing .
 
M

MuddyDonut

Member
Talax said:
"Don't open this, this and that treasure chest in the first 10 minutes of the game if you want the best weapon at the end of the game."

...............WTF FFXII....
Click to expand...
Yup this annoyed me to no end, actually still have a lot of areas in FF12 I didn't get to yet. HD remake pls
 
B

Broder Salsa

Banned
The silent hill 3 shakespeare puzzle was quite something. I can't be bothered to explain it, so will just quote google

In order to decipher one key riddle, you had to intimately know your Shakespeare. It all starts when you find this in a bookstore:

J5zKMly.jpg



Each stanza represents a play, and you have to order them appropriately. The above quote, for instance, is an obscure reference to King Lear. What's that? You don't have an intimate, encyclopedic knowledge of King Lear? "Haha, what are you doing playing video games" the developers of Silent Hill ask, "when you could be discovering the wonder of literature?"



If you do happen to be a professor of Shakespeareology, you eventually end up with a five-digit number. Puzzle solv- wait, shit, the door you're trying to open only takes a four-digit code. That's what the last stanza is for:
ikgwM7E.jpg


Now, obviously we don't have to decipher this one for you. But for all the *snicker* little Snugs out there, we'll hold your hand: It's telling you to double the number for Hamlet, triple the number for Romeo and Juliet and remove the number for Macbeth. Clearly!
Click to expand...
 
V

VeryGooster

Banned
Eggbok said:
Although it's not a full game, this thread has P.T. all over it. Like seriously, without the internet how would most people figure out that a clue is hidden in the pause menu lol!
Click to expand...

I must have read at least five different "solutions" for the final room. "YOU NEED THE HEADSET!" "NO TAKE 10 STEPS"
 
A

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Ganondorfo said:
Metal_Gear_Solid_ntsc-back.jpg
Click to expand...

They tell you this in the game. If you call Campbell or Naomi over and over again they will explicitly tell you to look on the back of the game box. And I think if you STILL keep calling them, they will tell you the actual code itself.

... Now what to do if you were renting this game? I guess this was their attempt at anti-piracy or anti-rental. I think we all had dial up internet at the time, it would've been a pain in the ass to look this up online.


My vote would be Super Metroid. I never played that game as a kid, just as an adult. It seems like the strategy for that game is "put bombs everywhere, scan everything, shoot missiles at everything". I did not enjoy wandering around too much in that game.
 
Z

zephervack

Member
Hyunkel6 said:
Dark Souls - How the hell was I supposed to know where and how to enter the Abyss?
Click to expand...

So many things in Dark/Demon Souls

Demon's world tendency.

Entrance to Darks Souls DLC area, I want to say its almost impossible without reading about it or at least knowing thats its hidden in item descriptions.

And so many more.
 
C

Cabal

Member
Ganondorfo said:
Metal_Gear_Solid_ntsc-back.jpg
Click to expand...

To be fair, I'm pretty sure the game tells you to look there. It was annoying that you had to have the jewel case. I haven't played this since I had a ps1 but how does the digital version work with that 'puzzle?' Internet I guess?

Simon's Quest was the one I thought of and the first reply got that. Really though there were a ton of Atari/NES era games that have this issue. Games like ET and Raider of the Lost Ark are really hard to figure out.
 
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