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[terrible]

This one. I borrowed the cartridge as a kid, didn't have a manual with it at the time.

I didn't have that piece of paper either but luckily my friend had it. I will never forget that code.

Spoiler

what a dumb idea

 

[JimmyRustler]

The one and only. Legendary. Todays kids will never know the struggle.

 

[MarkMclovin]

Never had any problems with Sonic (lol) or MGS as you're told to look at the back of the case, not box.

The only time I got stuck is in Zelda games. I STILL get stuck at the same place everytime in OOT.

 

[The_Poet]

Pretty much all of Dota 2 can be summed up with "How was I meant to know that!?"

 

[Stallion Dan]

Playing through Broken Sword 5 right now and two puzzles stick out in it.

The first is a mild reference to a Disney movie, which despite having seen and knowing rather well I just didn't get and had to google for the answer because I wasn't expecting the game to throw a puzzle at me that required knowledge and references not found inside the game.

The second was the ability to read music, which I could just about remember enough of from school about 17 years ago, but for anyone who couldn't that is a game stopper right there until they hit google.


Dislike these sorts of puzzles.



Also I originally rented MGS, so had no box to reference for the codec. Had to go through each frequency 1 by 1 until found it.

 

[AbsolutBro]

The fish/suicide attempt is when Celes

Spoiler

is on the Solitary Island trying to keep Cid alive. You can save him by giving him fast moving fish. If he dies, Celes tries to kill herself, unsuccessfully

.

In CT,

Spoiler

you can go back in time during the "resurrect the forest" sidequest late in the game in order to save Lucca's mom from becoming crippled. You have to input a password (LARA) to stop the machine from mangling her

.

Huh. I guess I never noticed because in FFVI I

Spoiler

caught the right fish

. And despite playing CT multiple times I never

Spoiler

didn't save Lucca's mom.

Neat to know those things can end differently!

 

[RoninChaos]

yeah...totally.... :/

Do you usually skip all the cutscenes, mate ?





Wow, guys, seriously, what ?

What am I missing here?

 

[Chilli_Axe]

 

[mikeybass]

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I remember that being confusing. It's...Catfish's Maw, or something, right? How do you end up getting in there?

You just go where Link is on that screenshot and dive at that spot.

 

[5amshift]

Pretty much everything in Alien: Isolation.

 

[Elitist1945]

The keys in the first level of The Evil Within. Died maybe 10 times before I saw them.

 

[dex3108]

For me it was Fez Alphabet. As much as i tried to figure it out by myself i couldn't.

 

[thetrin]

I played through the story and the strikes, got to level 20, and am still baffled at how most of the game systems work. My items, the various reputations and vanguards and marks and whatever else. No idea how that stuff works. I know there are guides, including some good ones here on GAF. But very little is actually explained in the game. There's no in-game explanations for its own systems.

Huh. Maybe it's because I play a lot of MMOs, but I actually find Destiny's rep/currency system to be oversimplified. I wish it was more complex.

 

[Oemenia]

The only Zelda games I've played are ALTTP and LADX, and while I loved the dungeons the exploration parts in-between practically require a guide to find even the necessary stuff. Would love to play Minish Cap but can't be bothered to read and follow a guide after every dungeon.

Also P&C games.

 

[Dremark]

OH YEAH PALM TREES AND 8 YEAH NO THAT'S REALLY EASY TO FIGURE OUT YEAH GREAT HINT

MAYBE IF THE TREES WERE STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER?

Fucking horse shit is what this is.

This one was obvious to me for some reason. I was pretty surprised so many years later seeing that people on the Internet had trouble figuring it out.

 

[KarasuEXE]

I didn't have a problem with the barrel at Carnival Night.

I used to jump on it a few times, to gain momentum, than just tap the jump button twice and while Sonic was going Super, the barrel would just clip him and when the transformation was over, Sonic was already (luckly) under it and I could continue the level.

Yeah.


But my recent "How the fuck was I supposed to know that" moments came from earlier this year, on my first playthrough of The Secret of Monkey Island™. Modern games have spoiled me so much that I had to suffer to find where I had to go or what I had to do. Regardless of that, it's one of my favorite games now.

 

[KiraXD]

Its pretty obvious but the first time i played MGS4... i didnt move for like 5 min after the opening cutscene because i thought it was still a cutscene... wasnt until i bumped the stick and i moved that i realized it was time to play.

/doesthiscount?

@ 4:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv-8Qobj92A

 

[maxcriden]

You just go where Link is on that screenshot and dive at that spot.

Oh, that's funny. I didn't remember it being so straightforward.

 

[oneida]

I beat links awakening when I was like 8 and I was dumb as rocks, come on guys

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

Silent Hill: Downpour. The puzzle with the 5 buttons of different colours labeled A,B,C,D, and E. Never figured out how to know which ones to press. I first played the game with puzzles set to hard and never figured it out, even though I'm damn certain the poem you get off the electrocuted body gives the hint to help you figure it out, but I went delusional trying to solve it. I ended up reading into the wording waaaaaaay too much. I eventually guessed the solution (which wasn't even remotely satisfying). Then I restarted the game with the puzzles on normal hoping I would be able to figure it out then, but nope. Different poem, but still succumbed to delusional reasoning trying to solve it. I still don't know how you figure it out.

 

[rtcn63]

Silent Hill: Downpour. The puzzle with the 5 buttons of different colours labeled A,B,C,D, and E. Never figured out how to know which ones to press. I first played the game with puzzles set to hard and never figured it out, even though I'm damn certain the poem you get off the electrocuted body gives the hint to help you figure it out, but I went delusional trying to solve it. I ended up reading into the wording waaaaaaay too much. I eventually guessed the solution (which wasn't even remotely satisfying). Then I restarted the game with the puzzles on normal hoping I would be able to figure it out then, but nope. Different poem, but still succumbed to delusional reasoning trying to solve it. I still don't know how you figure it out.

I was able to figure it out on normal, and I'm generally terrible at these things, so probably not too bad. The clues were there. The previous Silent Hill stuff posted earlier in the thread- Fuck that.

 

[Akuun]

Dark Souls 2: How the hell was I supposed to know the stat requirements for power stance? I could have gone through the entire game with a dual-wielding character without knowing about power stance if I didn't look it up.

 

[TheSlySoul]

A more recent example.

Because seriously, this puzzle is pure BS.

I really did not notice the tails at all. I was like "What the heck?"
Luckily you can use up all the hints and then reset.

To make an example of Sierra logic, I really hated this part in KQ6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwyebiyEj6I

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

I was able to figure it out on normal, and I'm generally terrible at these things, so probably not too bad. The clues were there. The previous Silent Hill stuff posted earlier in the thread- Fuck that.

That's what bothers me. I see all this this SH stuff posted in this thread that I had no trouble with, but I can't get this one.

It is with complete honesty that I can say I literally spent several hours trying to figure it out.

Oh well, it's halloween soon and I plan to revisit the game. Hopefully I can get it this time.

 

[jroc74]

I guess that's why games nowadays highlight relevant parts of in-game text. But to be fair the game did break the 4th wall on this and sort of did it again later on with Psychomantis.

Psychomantis - the thread

 

[Sacul64GC]

A more recent example.

Because seriously, this puzzle is pure BS.

I knew it had to do with the tails so I tried to match the shapes even though they did not match up well.

 

[Wenger'sBakedBaguettes]

Any Contra game. The only thing you know is that you're going to die.

hahaha yeah, this is so true. One of the things that makes the game good though. Going back to the most recent Contra game I played (Contra 4) one of those moments was the part with that rocket that would launch at the end of the stage.

 

[Hylian7]

1. It actually is

2. How wasn't your first reaction to it an insatiable urge to have an epic Skyward Strike duel?

To be fair, Fi tells you the Skyward Strike won't work there, leaving it up to you to figure out the lightning thing.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Dark Souls 2: How the hell was I supposed to know the stat requirements for power stance? I could have gone through the entire game with a dual-wielding character without knowing about power stance if I didn't look it up.

Very good point. It's a shame too, I wonder how many people are missing out on this, powerstancing is quite possibly the best new feature from DkS2.

 

[Veggy]

I was playing the Japanese version of the game a few days after release

I cannot speak or read Japanese

There was a lot of rage

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

I was playing the Japanese version of the game a few days after release

I cannot speak or read Japanese

There was a lot of rage

MGS seems almost impossible to play without knowing the language. Just about every important mechanic is communicated verbally.

 

[Veggy]

MGS seems almost impossible to play without knowing the language. Just about every important mechanic is communicated verbally.

After spending hours trying to figure out what to do, I ended up manually going through every codec frequency until I finally hit Meryl's

I can't remember how I got past Psycho Mantis though, gonna have to ask my cousin on that one. He was watching me play most of the time

 

[Rats Off To Ya]

After spending hours trying to figure out what to do, I ended up manually going through every codec frequency until I finally hit Meryl's

I can't remember how I got past Psycho Mantis though, gonna have to ask my cousin on that one. He was watching me play most of the time

How'd you figure out the card keys?

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

the thread.

Should have been first post.

 

[Veggy]

How'd you figure out the card keys?

I think I just fluked it by taking a bathroom or food break while in the cold room then coming back and noticing the card was blue

 

[cacophony]

 

[Mexican Sting]

MGS seems almost impossible to play without knowing the language. Just about every important mechanic is communicated verbally.

Furreal. I've contemplated importing them all, but I know all of those games (and all of the dialogue) in and out like the back of my hand.

I think I just fluked it by taking a bathroom or food break while in the cold room then coming back and noticing the card was blue

Dude. This is legendary. Like, my brother beating OoT with a flight-stick, legendary. How did you even know that you needed to call someone at all?! Just guessing?? Why exactly were you playing the Japanese version?

 

[Cutter Jones]

Mario RPG. The very first hidden treasure chest is in a spot you can only get to in the beginning of the game, and before you even knew that hidden treasure chests were a thing.

 

[urfe]

Mario RPG. The very first hidden treasure chest is in a spot you can only get to in the beginning of the game, and before you even knew that hidden treasure chests were a thing.

Which forced you (and me) to play it again!

 

[Grampasso]

OH YEAH PALM TREES AND 8 YEAH NO THAT'S REALLY EASY TO FIGURE OUT YEAH GREAT HINT

MAYBE IF THE TREES WERE STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER?

Fucking horse shit is what this is.

When I was young I solved this and the game was in german, a language I don't know

 

[DryvBy]

Did they change this section on PC? I remember actually beating this without any hints.

 

[UncleO]

Metal Gear Solid PS1
Fighting this guy...

 

[someguyinahat]

To make an example of Sierra logic, I really hated this part in KQ6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwyebiyEj6I

The answers to those were in the manual. It wasn't a "puzzle" so much as "copy protection." Some games front-loaded it so you couldn't play at all without it (Colonel's Bequest,) some were like this where they let you get through some of the game before you hit it, and some were nearly entirely manual-based (Freddy Pharkas.)

Anyway, my answer would be the Quadrilineal Synthesis in Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Some of the best monsters require fusing two monsters with specific parents. Only nowhere in the game do they tell you which ones, so you either spend your time fusing otherwise-good monsters into not-so-good ones, then fusing THOSE for thousands of combinations, or you use a guide. I think the only one they hinted at was Mumboh-jumboe but that was sort of obvious because it's made of "mum"&"boh" & "jum"&"boe". I have no idea how anyone figured the others out. It was either super-exhaustive searching or hacking.

 

[Zephyrus]

I had 8 years when I played the game. I never noticed that screenshot like many...

instead I went through every radio signal to talk to her... I couldn't have been the only one.

 

[iapetus]

Simon the Sorceror 2.

How do you get past the mutant pig with 47 ears? It's so stunningly obvious. You wear the two dogs you've been carrying around with you for no reason. How did I not think of that?

 

[shem935]

One of the first battle network games when you had to solve a riddle to get through a door on a stupid ship. Pretty sure something was lost in translation because I remember the solution being completely contrary to everything the riddle said.

 

[KillerDark]

FFXII - the zodiac spear... There are 3 or 4 random chests in the game that you can't open if you want to get one of the best weapons in the game. There's no indication of this at all, the chests look completely normal. I still don't understand why they would do that haha.

 

[Santiako]

FFXII - the zodiac spear... There are 3 or 4 random chests in the game that you can't open if you want to get one of the best weapons in the game. There's no indication of this at all, the chests look completely normal. I still don't understand why they would do that haha.

It was clearly to sell you the strategy guide. Really crappy move by them.

 

[Sammyzuko]

Dark Souls 2: How the hell was I supposed to know the stat requirements for power stance? I could have gone through the entire game with a dual-wielding character without knowing about power stance if I didn't look it up.

I'm NG+2 and this is the first I've heard of a power stance.