Support NeoGAF

[Rodney McKay]

I played through the entirety of Fallout 3 without realizing I could take 1 hour naps in random beds to heal myself all the way.

I spent a LOT of my money that playthrough on Stimpaks.

 

[TheExodu5]

World Tendency in Demon's Souls. I still have no idea what it does.

 

[Frankenstrat]

Metal gear rising. The game mechanic were you can pinpoint your strikes using the right stick. The last couple bosses this becomes a crucial part in beating them. For some reason I was horrible with lining up my attacks so I ignored it.

It's funny, I was the opposite. I played the entire game lining up strikes with the right stick and didn't realize you could use the attack buttons in blade mode until the final boss.

 

[nailbombxx]

World Tendency in Demon's Souls. I still have no idea what it does.

Makes the game harder/easier and changes some events.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Please tell me you mean a medical kit. Because if not, I think I missed it too.

Supplements. They can be used to increase skills.

 

[Currygan]

most recently, that I could select all the items to sell in my inventory in AC NL


I kept wondering why it would took ages to sell stuff

 

[Ninjimbo]

I didn't know you could fast travel in Red Dead Redemption, so I spent the majority of the game on horseback going to places. Kind of annoying, but I still liked the game. Of course I felt like an idiot when somebody showed me how to fast travel.

 

[zruben]

Final Fantasy 8... junction system...

I almost finished the game without junctioning anything.

 

[Continuity]

Dark Souls press B/Circle to slide down ladders thread

 

[Regiruler]

Not a major one, but I didn't know you could select multiple pokemon at a time in a box until someone mentioned it over on Bulbagarden forums once.

 

[fargofallout]

I didn't realize vigors could combine effects in BioShock Infinite.

 

[mattp]

d-pad stalking in mgs3...

 

[zruben]

d-pad stalking in mgs3...

what?..

*checks youtube*

WHAT?!?!?!
that would have made the game SO much easier!

 

[Mr. Poolman]

It took me a lot of time to figure out Vagrant's Story weapons system.
It was frustrating how hard it was until then.

 

[Off-Kilter]

d-pad stalking in mgs3...

Heh this is a good one. Didn't know about this at all until my friend told me during my 2nd playthrough.

I'm sure the majority of people that played GTA IV don't know about these two.

- While aiming a gun on foot, press the back button or the button that changes the driving camera. It'll zoom out each time to a different distance, gives you more vision around the main character while aiming.

- Press the key or click and hold the right analog stick while on foot, you'll get a camera angle behind the player character. If you have a weapon out, press/click in the button, hold it, and press the aim button. You'll do a 180 degree turn instantly and be facing where you were aiming behind the main character.

What the fuck.

 

[Radius]

I beat the entirety of Tales of Graces not knowing it was the titles that gave you new artes, rather than leveling up. Wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't somehow set the titles to be "mastered" automatically (which takes longer than normal), so I had hardly any artes by the final boss.

I'm halfway through the game and I realised just yesterday that you can also attack with the circle button...

 

[squall211]

I played 99% of Resonance of Fate without doing any of the super attacks (I forget what they were called).

I also played through Rogue Galaxy without using the weapon creating system. I also never even attempted the Insectron.

 

[How About No]

Fucking dpad in MGS3, I swear to god it wasn't anywhere in the manual or help files.

Half Life 2, pretty sure i didn't know about the Combine Rifle`s secondary fire, the plasma ball, for a couple of playthroughs.

 

[SymbolicGamer]

Blocking in Mortal Kombat

 

[billsmugs]

I didn't know that Ys 7 had some sort of block/dodge move (I can't remember which it is) until well after completing it. I only found out about it from people talking in threads about Ys Celceta, it sounds like it would have been very handy for the final boss.

Also, when we were younger, me, my brother and a friend played through Dark Cloud on PS2 without using the synthesis or build up systems for weapons. We'd somehow got it into our heads that making a synth sphere had a chance of breaking the weapon and for some reason it never occurred to us to save the game and try, or even to check online (despite the fact that we were looking up all the Georama solutions on GameFAQs, because we were too thick to understand the painfully obvious instructions the villagers gave you). In the end we did use the synth sphere system once out of desperation (on our best weapon, a "Thorn Ring +29" that had probably maxed out its stats without us ever realising at about +12) for the final boss and my friend actually managed to beat it.

When we played Dark Cloud again recently we were all rather embarrassed about how idiotic we'd been as kids (we were bad at preventing weapons breaking too and spent all the money we got from selling "useless" wind gems etc on auto repair powder) and by the second or third dungeon our weapons were better than the ones we had in the final dungeon during our first play through. It's a miracle we ever finished it the first time!

 

[Chief Icaroc]

Rainslick Precipice of Darkness - The first one. Played the entire game without ever blocking. ever. To beat the final boss you pretty much MUST block one of his attacks, beat my head up against that forever and just quit..... looked it up online way later and just never went back. It is like a timed block and so since I never learned it, I just couldn't get the hang of it.

 

[Cizeta-Moroder]

Fast reload in just about any GTA by switching weapons

 

[Mareg]

FF8. I remember abusing some part of the battle system only to get utterly crushed at some boss where you couldn't use said battle system mechanic. I dropped the game never to touch it again.
Too bad I had such a great time before that boss. I think it was a witch of some kind.

 

[Woorloog]

Obligatory hold E to continuously drink in Fallout 3/NV

Wat wat wat.
This is possible?
EDIT does this apply to 360 version as well?

 

[Leunam]

FF8. I remember abusing some part of the battle system only to get utterly crushed at some boss where you couldn't use said battle system mechanic. I dropped the game never to touch it again.
Too bad I had such a great time before that boss. I think it was a witch of some kind.

Sounds like you were using GF's up until you fought Adel.

 

[Arkos]

I recall beating the water temple in OOT without the Zora Tunic the first time I went through it. I didn't even know it was a thing. It was by far the hardest temple in the game and I could never understand why the rest of the game was much easier. The puzzles in the water temple weren't even that hard by comparison.

I call bs :|
No but if you're serious that's incredible (literally. I don't believe it )
Seriously though, awesome.

Took me halfway through Bioshock Infinite to realize i could buy gun upgrades.

Not a fun thing to not realize when youre doing 1999 mode for the first run

Aww lame, were you at least stacked with cash when you found out, or stacked with plasmids? Or did you use everything on health kits and ammo

Edit: lol I meant "vigors." right?

 

[Silvawuff]

Skies of Arcadia. I never used any of those items that upgrade your ship, and wondered why all the ship boss battles were hard mode. I only figured it out by the time I got to the last boss.

 

[Syril]

I made it all the way to the number 2 fight in No More Heroes before I figured out how the Dark Step move worked.

 

[Vigilant Gambit]

Obligatory hold E to continuously drink in Fallout 3/NV

This one got me.

But seriously, does nobody read manuals anymore?

 

[Dark Octave]

I never cook or craft items in RPGs.

 

[GolazoDan]

I'm the opposite to people who played Revengeance and didn't know about precision slices. I'd watched some stuff beforehand and I thought that was how you did it. About halfway through the game I realised I could just jam on X and Y.

 

[Celegus]

Most "Defend" actions in RPGs. They might not seem like it, but they're really vital to surviving.

The only RPG I can think of where defending was ever useful was 7th Saga (other than wasting turns or making sure a squishy unit doesn't get killed).

 

[Brandon F]

I knew about it but never used the exceed gauge mechanic in DMC4.

Always tried this shit, but never got cohesive results and stopped bothering myself. Kind of hated the game a bit for that, seems I was missing out by not timing two button presses with every strike...but then I also just thought it obnoxious and stupid.

 

[funkystudent]

I got all the way through the first SSX in both race and trick without knowing you could pre wind your tricks. I had to exploit the hell out of half pipes and stuff to get through it but I did it in the end.

Felt like a idiot when I realised how the game was meant to be played.

 

[zoodoo]

I finished the original ninja gaiden on xbox without realizing I could walk on water.

Also finished Mortal kombat special forces without knowing Jax had special moves

 

[balohna]

Please tell me you mean a medical kit. Because if not, I think I missed it too.

You use pills to level up. Did you not ever wonder why you were collecting them?

 

[McLovin]

I didn't know that in Assassins Creed 3 you can zoom out and into other locations for fast travel. I would fast travel to the edge(load), cross over (long load) then fast travel again (another load). Just thinking about it pisses me off.

 

[JumpJeff84]

I've played through Ninja Gaiden multiple times on Xbox, PS3 and Vita, and consider it one of my all-time faves. Still have never used the 'Izuna Drop' move successfully in combat- this is the move that's like a spinning pile driver. It's a series of button presses that I never really mastered.

I also remember playing about 10 hours of GTA3 when it came out before realizing you could mash the X button to make the main character sprint.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

I didn't know Mario could run in SMB until I had to make that huge jump in 8-1. I was like 6 or 7 though...

Another game mechanic I intentionally ignored was the baby switching in the DS yoshi game. Literally zero fucks were given about which baby to pick and where to use it.

 

[HyperCubed4]

Fallout 3. Fast traveling, naps in beds (as previously mentioned), not picking up random junk... I'm sure if I paid attention to the mechanics got used to them, I would have enjoyed the game more.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

Ammo types in Mass Effect. Had I known earlier... Had I only known...

 

[Booshka]

The amount of players in Dark Souls I have seen that never 2 hand their weapon blows my mind.

 

[Dalauz]

finished Megaman 1 and 2 for Gameboy without using "Start" menu.

I was like 9 or 10. GAME MASTER

 

[Dysun]

I didn't pair up my Fire Emblem Awakening units for like 20 hours

 

[Artorias]

I put Ni No Kuni down for about 6 months, and forgot there was a fast travel spell. When I came back I was farming mats and it was taking forever to fly everywhere individually.

In The Last of Us, I was too scared to try to hit clickers with a bottle/brick because I thought it would alert everyone. I beat the game on Hard before I saw somebody in a video take out a clicker with a brick and melee. "I've..made a huge mistake."

 

[ominator]

On my second playthrough of resident evil 4 I figured out that I can hide Ashley in containers. Made it a lot easier....

 

[Shiggy]

Shield in Skyward Sword. Didn't work too well and then I just ignored it immediately. It was never needed anyway.

 

[Teggy]

I played all of Pandora Tomorrow on XBOX not realizing it had save anywhere. I got pretty damn good at that game.

 

[brandnew]

In Deadly Premonition, I unlocked the walkie talkie pretty early on and did almost every sidequest and finished the game without realizing what it did (it allows fast travel). I must have spent hours driving from place to place. Didn't even need the map to get around.

 

[Shrike_Priest]

I didn't know you could pick up dropped weapons in Mirror's Edge until the sniper-scene.
I guess I'd walked up and tried pressing triangle but having missed once or twice, so I assumed you had to earn them through disarms. Made the rest of the game a lot easier when I could pick them up…