Editor's Note: My Game Done Me Wrong

[warbaloon]

Star Ocean: The Second Story for the Playstation did this to me. After spending a good few hours in an RPG with a fun, action-heavy battle system that was innovative for its time, my party of mixed science-and-sorcery battlers were more than ready to kindly inform the final boss that he was standing on our ending credits.

Cue my disappointed face after losing after thirty seconds to a move that had no charge time, hit multiple times as it shoved you into a corner, and wiped out my party's front line in one casting. Like the article's author, I too was convinced that I simply needed a different strategy. After six failed attempts utilizing various different tactics, most of which basically amounted to hopping around like a maniac on a pogo stick and letting everyone save the main character die, I was getting a little frustrated. Thus, I did the one thing I never, ever do: I consulted the internet.

Five different guides advised the same thing, essentially. "Back him into a corner and hope. This battle is mostly luck." After fifteen attempts, my hard-earned, ex-WoW raider patience broke, and I hurled the controller with a scream. The rest of the game had been no problem! Why, programmers? WHY?!

That game was weird...if you had a magic user you were doing something wrong though
seeing as how Clawde can do as much damage in 1 swing as a magic user can do with a 10 second cast spell with a 30 SECOND ANIMATION THAT PAUSES COMBAT FOR NO REASON*...and my opera could heal for twice as much with an ability that didn't have a cast time than...rhena?

Still don't blame you though, that game has too much secret stuff to realize what you're missing if you don't use a guide to tell you whats available

never bothered to kill sephitroth...didn't feel like fighting the two bosses before him because I didnt know i was supposed to equip all of my characters a certain way

*Even if magic was twice as useful as melee I wouldn't have used it for that reason. Part of the reason why I don't want to even try to kill seph again is because I wouldn't be able to bear another supernova. If you want a jrpg with decent combat play tales of symphonia/xbox version

Actually Baten Katos had a version of this, when you fight the emperor he uses a spell (every 8ish turns sometimes as early as the second)that kills one of your three party members. There are resurrection items but since its a card based game its not likely that you'll be able to sue them right away. I've had him use it twice before I get 1 res item to use and then he just immediately kills someone after I use it. The last boss is also insanely overpowered, but not in an unfair way.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Never had this problem with a game, and you better be damn sure no jrpg has been hard enough to do this. Then again I have a tendency to grind until I one-shot the mobs in the area, especially in FFX where I thoroughly enjoyed combat.

 

[Vimbert]

That game was weird...if you had a magic user you were doing something wrong though
seeing as how Clawde can do as much damage in 1 swing as a magic user can do with a 10 second cast spell with a 30 SECOND ANIMATION THAT PAUSES COMBAT FOR NO REASON*...and my opera could heal for twice as much with an ability that didn't have a cast time than...rhena?

My party was Claude, Precis, Ashton, and Rena, for your information, so the only caster I had was Rena who was healing. I've heard Opera works wonders, but if I wind up needing an optional character to finish the game, odds are the game programmers were doing it wrong.

 

[Susan Arendt]

You're not alone when feeling this. Almost all of the RPGs I've played have moments like this. Whether it's the final boss of Phantasy Star Online Ep. I's impossible-to-miss kill spell (which I just needed to level up eight more times to barely survive), or the Ethereal Queen battle in Radiata Stories (with her ability to practically nuke the battle area, coupled with the fact that she only needs to kill you in the party), games I've played always seem to screw me over one way or another.

You know, for some reason in PSO, it didn't bother me at all. I think because it's not really story-based; you're really only playing to grind, so doing it repeatedly didn't bother me. (Plus, I always had a healthy stockpile of Scape Dolls.)

 

[Magnatek]

You're not alone when feeling this. Almost all of the RPGs I've played have moments like this. Whether it's the final boss of Phantasy Star Online Ep. I's impossible-to-miss kill spell (which I just needed to level up eight more times to barely survive), or the Ethereal Queen battle in Radiata Stories (with her ability to practically nuke the battle area, coupled with the fact that she only needs to kill you in the party), games I've played always seem to screw me over one way or another.

You know, for some reason in PSO, it didn't bother me at all. I think because it's not really story-based; you're really only playing to grind, so doing it repeatedly didn't bother me. (Plus, I always had a healthy stockpile of Scape Dolls.)

I suppose you're right on that (I could never really find any Scape Dolls. The most I had at one time was two, and I gave one of those to my brother so both of us could survive the attack). Of course, games affect people in different ways. People do different things in the game, and get different results. Such was my case, as was yours. Unfortunately, my character no longer exists due to file corruption.

 

[my_ledge_ends]

The final boss fight in Escape from Butcher Bay is the biggest cockblock I've seen.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

Nearly finished Enchanted Arms, been playing it this week. According to one faq, as long as Atsuma's over 7000 HP I'll be right. I'm more annoyed at the amount of fights you have to endure for the final battle than the level grinding.