Alright (insert game here), how the FUCK was I supposed to know that?!

[annoyinglizardvoice]

I think your Sonic 3 example is a good one. And no, you're not the only one who got held up at that point. Me, and all my friends, always had trouble with it too.

Well, I could spout the names of several different adventure games and call it a day (Riven, in particular, jumps out at me), but I've got another good one.

In one of the X-Men games for the Genesis (I forget exactly which one it is at the moment), when you get to the end of the game, you basically reach a dead end, with no way to proceed. The solution? Hit the reset button on your console. THAT will take you to the final screen.

What in the flying name of FUCK would lead you be believe that would work?

Some versions had the phrase "reset your machine" appear when you were both at the end and low on time, but I think it depends on which version you got (I know the UK version did, but judging by the comments I see here and on TV tropes, the US version didn't).

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Wow.
Dark Souls: Now, Demon's Souls was fair but harsh. Careful advancement made all traps visible, and if you died, it was your fault. Dark Souls was literally a cheap death generator. In the TUTORIAL AREA, there's a flight of stairs. It's very dark, you can't really see. BOOM, you`re bowled over by a rolling ball trap, with absolutely ZERO way of knowing. The Demon`s souls equivalent had daylight behind the ball, so you could see up the stairs and know it was coming. Dark Souls is just full of cheap ambushes and traps, and literally the only way to know how to advance is to learn through memorization.

This one actually isn't as bad as you are saying. The boulder can't possibly kill you unless you had taken a ridiculous amount of damage from the one armed enemy you have faced up till then, and you unlock the Estus Flask just after. Also, while it is obscured in darkness, you CAN hear it coming and roll out of the way. If anything, it's just Dark Souls reminding you to never rush ahead in it's own Dark Souls way.

However, Asylum Demon and his Titanite Slab. Now THAT is some crap. How anyone was supposed to figure out how to get back to the Undead Asylum on their own is beyond me. It doesn't help that it's the only "guaranteed" Titanite Slab in the game (the other being the reward for an extrememly covoluted, and somewhat buggy, questline involving Siegmeyer. No clues on how to finish it, of course). And Slabs are required for the highest level upgrade on two weapon types, which are required for achievements.

Damn you Dark Souls!

Also, Cavia games are absolutely full of this kind of shit, especially if you are going for 100% completetion. Some of the weapon unlock requirements in Drakengard were straight up ridiculous.

And the stars in Braid. I know people who've beaten the game multiple times and had no idea those things even existed, myself included.

 

[Avalanche91]

Funny you should mention Egorapter

In Metal Gear Solid (Twin Snakes), there is a bossfight with Vulcan Raven. A huge shirtles guy in a tank. I really had no idea how to progress against this guy. A few days later I saw his "Metal Gear Awesome" video.

"Just throw grenades at me"

Oh....Ok. How the fuck was I supposed to know that?

Also the 3 Regi's in the third gen of pokemon. So you found a super secret cavern. AND ALL THE TEXT IS IN BRAILLE! I can't read that.

 

[suitepee7]

I think your Sonic 3 example is a good one. And no, you're not the only one who got held up at that point. Me, and all my friends, always had trouble with it too.

Well, I could spout the names of several different adventure games and call it a day (Riven, in particular, jumps out at me), but I've got another good one.

In one of the X-Men games for the Genesis (I forget exactly which one it is at the moment), when you get to the end of the game, you basically reach a dead end, with no way to proceed. The solution? Hit the reset button on your console. THAT will take you to the final screen.

What in the flying name of FUCK would lead you be believe that would work?

that one reminds of one from Metal Gear Solid...specifically when you're fighting the psychic guy that cheats by knowing every button you press and reacts accordingly, making him invincible.......unless you plug your controller into the player 2 slot.

Now I've never played MGS (I played MGS 2, but by all accounts that's one that is best left forgotten ) so I don't know if there's any hints or tips that you have to plug your controller into the 2nd player slot. But if there isn't, I can't imagine how the hell you're supposed to think to do that.

I've actually never played MGS, but I do know about that boss fight. Apparently, if you call your commander or whatever enough times, he flat-out tells you to plug the controller into port 2. It is a bit ridiculous, though.

there is also a part where you have to make a codec call to Meryl. i can't remember the exact details but eventually the colonel says to call her, and that her number is on the back of the cd case... that game did a lot of interesting things to say the least.

OT: assassins creed 2 i think, where you play a chapter as altiar where you climb up a tower. that tower was an asshole. there was only 1 way up, but only 1 very specific way to grab the ledge. i feel no shame admitting to finding a walkthrough on how to climb that fucking tower

 

[Something Amyss]

Ha yes, I remember the MGS ones where you had to plug in your controller in the player 2 slot for that psychic bossfights. That was one great game.

I miss those kind of little things in the current gen. I'm not saying old games were better, just less obvious .

But they told you to do that. How is that less obvious?

 

[cityfanchris]

I think your Sonic 3 example is a good one. And no, you're not the only one who got held up at that point. Me, and all my friends, always had trouble with it too.

Well, I could spout the names of several different adventure games and call it a day (Riven, in particular, jumps out at me), but I've got another good one.

In one of the X-Men games for the Genesis (I forget exactly which one it is at the moment), when you get to the end of the game, you basically reach a dead end, with no way to proceed. The solution? Hit the reset button on your console. THAT will take you to the final screen.

What in the flying name of FUCK would lead you be believe that would work?

Oh, the horrors, I do remember the horrors...
My one might sound cheesy, but f*ck it, it was an awesome game otherwise. Spyro 1, or Spyro the Dragon for those of us pedantic, for the PS1. 2 levels in that game angered my childhood for years...the first: Tree Tops, where you had to 'super' your 'super charge' to a point TOO DAMN FAR AWAY by taking a path which was practically made up...
Second: Haunted Castle (I think it was called), where you had to super charge around the ENTIRE level, jump up a ramp that doesn't look like a ramp, then glide blindly around the castle till you find ground...
My poor childhood...*sobs*...

 

[Rock Beefchest]

any game that has a section that MAKES you die no matter what to proceed, i quicksave/load like crazy in these games getting frustrated to death, then after 20+ tries I finally say "fuck it, Go ahead game, tell me game over" and the screen changes to me being locked in a cell or something.

Fuck you games, at least give some kind of damn hint. (not to mention, when i nearly WIN the battle I am in, there is a problem, if you want me to die so badly, don't make it an even slightly winnable scenario)

This and to add of course during the fight you use every potion, hi-potion. ether, and phoenix down in your inventory and exhaust all of your magic points as well thinking you are just not doing it right.

 

[Dragoon]

Phantom Hourglass. At some point in the Temple of the Ocean King, you come across one of the four maps you need to proceed in the game. Thing is, the map's mounted on the wall, upside down and mirrored. I tried everything to get it; frantically tapping it all over with the stylus, tapping every button combination, using all my items on the map. Nothing worked.

It wasn't until I'd shut my DS in exasperation to put it into sleep mode and gone and done something else that I solved the puzzle. Yes, that's right; you had to 'stamp' the map onto your own map by closing and opening the DS. What.

I did the exact same thing, have to admit it was a innovative puzzle but very difficult to get unless you had a guide or found it by accident.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Wow.
Dark Souls: Now, Demon's Souls was fair but harsh. Careful advancement made all traps visible, and if you died, it was your fault. Dark Souls was literally a cheap death generator. In the TUTORIAL AREA, there's a flight of stairs. It's very dark, you can't really see. BOOM, you`re bowled over by a rolling ball trap, with absolutely ZERO way of knowing. The Demon`s souls equivalent had daylight behind the ball, so you could see up the stairs and know it was coming. Dark Souls is just full of cheap ambushes and traps, and literally the only way to know how to advance is to learn through memorization.

This one actually isn't as bad as you are saying. The boulder can't possibly kill you unless you had taken a ridiculous amount of damage from the one armed enemy you have faced up till then, and you unlock the Estus Flask just after. Also, while it is obscured in darkness, you CAN hear it coming and roll out of the way. If anything, it's just Dark Souls reminding you to never rush ahead in it's own Dark Souls way.

However, Asylum Demon and his Titanite Slab. Now THAT is some crap. How anyone was supposed to figure out how to get back to the Undead Asylum on their own is beyond me. It doesn't help that it's the only "guaranteed" Titanite Slab in the game (the other being the reward for an extrememly covoluted, and somewhat buggy, questline involving Siegmeyer. No clues on how to finish it, of course). And Slabs are required for the highest level upgrade on two weapon types, which are required for achievements.

Damn you Dark Souls!

Also, Cavia games are absolutely full of this kind of shit, especially if you are going for 100% completetion. Some of the weapon unlock requirements in Drakengard were straight up ridiculous.

And the stars in Braid. I know people who've beaten the game multiple times and had no idea those things even existed, myself included.

Northern Undead Asylum, Painted World of Ariamis, Great Hollow/Ash Lake all of which are difficult to figure out how to reach. Although, there's a part where the Crestfallen Warrior mentions something about how he saw the crow fly off with someone in its claws. Hinting that you can get it to do that with you, you just gotta get up there. As for Great Hollow...I never knew that place existed until I was told about it. Smack a wall behind a chest in an obscure area with no hint you should smack that wall, only so you can smack the one BEHIND it and THEN you can access Great Hollow. Now that's a wtfmoment.

 

[Richardplex]

OT: assassins creed 2 i think, where you play a chapter as altiar where you climb up a tower. that tower was an asshole. there was only 1 way up, but only 1 very specific way to grab the ledge. i feel no shame admitting to finding a walkthrough on how to climb that fucking tower

You're clearly very foolish if you didn't know that if you held the jump button for 2 seconds and released directly under it you'd leap up and grab the ledge. It's not like it's literally the only ledge in the entire game you can do that in or anything.

 

[WanderingFool]

Anyone remember MGS1 for the PS1? Where you had to contact "whats-her-name" by checking the code on the back of the disk case? Did anyone else look at that and go, "how the fuck do you look at the disk's back?

Specially painful when, after getting fed up and looking online, find out the frequency number is on the back of the disk case... the game's disk case that is!

Kojima... I know you did that to fuck with me... and I am not amused.

*Edit*

there is also a part where you have to make a codec call to Meryl. i can't remember the exact details but eventually the colonel says to call her, and that her number is on the back of the cd case... that game did a lot of interesting things to say the least.

Not happy about being ninja'd, but glad im not the only one to remember that here...

 

[AD-Stu]

Ultima V. Lord British's sandalwood box. CHECK AND MATE, IMO

For the young/lucky/uninitiated: Lord British's sandalwood box was an item that was absolutely 100% essential to completing Ultima V - giving it to Lord British when you rescue him from the underworld is what triggers the endgame sequence.

All well and good, you say? Here's the rub: this box was something you were supposed to pick up way back early in the game. It was hidden behind a secret door in a castle, a door which you could only open by playing a specific tune on a nearby harpsichord. By the time you reach the end of the game, there's no way you can go back to get it. And there's nothing that tells you that you need to have this box to complete the game. You could play it and not even know it existed.

Old PC adventure games were guilty of a lot of this stuff too, particularly before Lucasarts came along. I still remember being game-overed in the origina Police Quest because I failed to walk all around my police cruiser to "inspect" it before taking off, though at least with those you could just reload and you'd only have lost a few minutes. The Ultima one would have required weeks of replaying...

 

[lRookiel]

In Baldurs gate the final boss has 90% magic resistance and half of my party use magic, it makes it fucking impossible! I still got him after like 40 attempts...

 

[Fractral]

Most Final Fantasy games I won't play without access to a walkthrough or the internet, because I normally simply cannot work out what to do. That and I am always paranoid about missing stuff. Recently, when playing through FF7, the guide said that I could get 'Great Gospel' by doing something stupid, and I went and did it. Would I have known how to do that otherwise? Nope. You have to get some metal from a guy in a hidden cave (which you can only access by driving a buggy for freaking ages across a continent) and talk to him when you have done a number of battles that ends in an 11, 33, 55, 77, or 99. He's asleep otherwise and doesn't give you any hints as to what do do to get the metal.
Also because I'm really bad at FF games and I need walkthroughs to know how to complete boss fights. Like every boss fight after Chapter 10 in FF13, or the Final Boss of Final Fantasy 13-2, who uses moves that can hit for ~9000 health unless you're in Defensive Paradigms.

 

[archvile93]

A lot of people had that problem with the cylinder. It would have been a bit more obvious if it wasn't for the fact that using the d-pad takes several repetions to notice the movement, and jumping on it (the first thing you'll do) gives a very obvious response. This caused people to think they had to time their jump to push it low enough (near impossible but doable), and when they failed, they thought they just weren't doing it well enough, and so never occurred to them to try something else. This pissed off so many people, the designer publicly apologized for it

 

[wooty]

Hailing back to the days of the dinosaurs, Castlevania 2 on NES with that bullshit mini tornado you have to "summon" and wait for, but you dont know that unless you read up on it.

I seriously still question that to this day

 

[Aarowbeatsdragon]

its gotta be mgs1 for me. When the armstech president tells you to look at the back of the case...took me ages to realise he meant back of the game case...it was brilliant! but it had me stumped xD also and this is only cuz i was about 5 when i played the game, pokemon yellow. Where you had to go into the pokemart to get the poke ball for professor oak...i never went in there...fast forward an entire YEAR later i randomly picked it up again and i was grand...wow i could have missed out on such an amazing game!

EDIT: DAMNIT NINJAD MORE THAN ONCE

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

I empathise with a lot of these. Personal favourite, Shadow Hearts 1, You can't get the main characters ultimate ability, where he becomes as powerful as a Cthulu-esque mega-god, unless you pick up a porno magazine in Shanghai.

It was awesome, I DID get the magazine, but how the blue hell were you supposed to work that one out?

 

[Naeras]

Baldur's Gate.
"Go too far into this forest and you can't go back and realistically hope to survive, because you'll be stalked by wyverns and toxic bears".

Way to go to ruin my attempts at exploring and forcing me to either restart or stop playing <.<

 

[BlindWorg]

I rarely find myself in those kind of situations, although i tend to be an information, detail and analytical sponge. I can usually make an effective strategy or remember some obscure hint that is essential to advancing the game.

So my main weakness is when there really is no previous hints or strategy you can use. Hardware damage to my keyboard from my forehead usually follows. Im looking at you Monkey Island 2...


Obligatory creepy captcha: I'm blessed

Sorry mate, i dont believe in blessings >.>