Have you ever played through a game and completely missed a game play feature?

[Ryu-Kage]

Not sure if this counts as a feature (probably more like "I missed an entire level"), but I just remembered another good one from Kirby Super Star. In the sub-game "Milky Way Wishes", you can't eat enemies to gain their powers like you normally can; you have to find them within the seven levels you play through, and then you can switch to that power whenever you want (kinda like Mega Man's powers). I managed to get 18 of the abilities you can claim and use over and over. But when I looked at the menu for my powers, something bothered me. Next to the bar that listed controls for the menu (looking up the moveset or selecting it), there was one blue space left that looked like the size of the other images that represented your powers. I was, in fact, missing a power that I could get. I suspected it was the Copy Ability, but I looked everywhere in "Milky Way Wishes", and I couldn't find Copy anywhere.

I didn't know how to get that last 1% until I looked on GameFAQs years later (this was probably around the time the DS version was coming out). As it turns out, the Copy Ability IS in "Milky Way Wishes", but it's found in an EIGHTH level that you can visit. This eighth level (titled "?" when you visit it, but I think the walkthrough called it the "TAC Homeworld") can be accessed on the map screen for "Milky Way Wishes", but

Spoiler: it's somewhat hidden.

the TAC Homeworld is a tiny green planet on the map. It's a lot smaller than any of the other seven planets you visit, so it's easy to mistake it for just part of the background.

It's one of those things that you can easily overlook at first, but once it's revealed to you, it sticks out like a sore thumb and you feel stupid for not noticing that before.

 

[YuheJi]

Through my first Skyrim playthrough, I didn't realize that I learned spells by using the spell books. I never touched them because I thought they were one-time use like the scrolls...
Though I was playing a warrior, so it didn't really matter that much.

 

[The Pinray]

Snip

In Kingdom hearts i purposefully use the default weapon until i get a worse one (such as "Sweet Memories" in KH2)

and someone else made a similar comment about Finak Fantasy 10 and i still can't understand how you actually managed to get that far through the game. I can understand missing out on the sphere grid, its got a stupidly long and boring tutorial 20 minutes in that i remember blindly pressing 'x' to skip through. But i had difficulty with some of the bosses and I did use the sphere grid. I can't see how someone can get through the game with level 1 characters... Unless they were purposefully trying to? (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/197344-final-fantasy-x/faqs/16203). I suppose I am more congratulating you though for such persistence! some of those bosses must have been a right ***** and you'd have never realised why until you discovered the sphere grid.

Speaking of Ratchet and Clank, I've never actually gotten the RHINO weapons... -_- the shame

I've never gotten the RHINO weapons either! D:

I honestly don't know how I got so far. I got to the part where Sin is trying to get to the air ship and you have to stop him. I finally decided to go to the menu and look at everything. I eventually figured out the sphere grid and spent lord knows how long using up all my points.

The bosses up until that were so damn hard. Took me ages to beat any of them. I thought the game was supposed to be impossibly hard. Needless to say my facepalm shook the earth. I literally almost cried (I was very young!).

Still, I can pat myself on the back about it now. It was pretty impressive. I tried to replicate the magic on purpose and I couldn't get past that one part where Seymour joins the party.

I think I was a better gamer when I was younger . . . Or at least more patient and persistent.

 

[Smeggs]

Mass Effect 3 uses Select on the 360 pad to quicksave.

...WUT.


GOD DAMNIT, MASS EFFECT 3, ALL OF THOSE TIMES I COULDN'T SAVE IN THE MIDDLE OF A MISSION!

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

You can apparently aim down ironsights in Bioshock, something which would have come handy during some of the earlier parts of the game.

I played through Catherine . And didn't realise there was a "back" button go go backwards in moves in case i made a mistake . So many deaths could have been avoided . But i did manage to beat it so ...

There's two things I've learned today.

I logged about 20 or 30 hours of Touhou before I discovered slow movement.

 

[selfor]

finished no more heroes and got the bad ending.
looked online for details and found out you could shadowstep around enemies.
not a single mention of it anywhere in the game as far as i can tell.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Today I found out something by accident. In Castlevania Symphony of the Night, you can get a sword called "the Sword of Dawn" which has the description "a sword that can summon an invincible legion." Now if you know Castlevania, all items and monsters have very cryptic superficial descriptions that usually don't mean anything. You already can summon a few familiars (one at a time via the menu) and they don't do much other than minor assistance.

But in this case, while button mashing, I found that it is not lying. Using the right combination of buttons you can summon a portion of the legion and it is very effective.

hahahahahaha! this is a brilliant post! made me laugh a lot.

While I am usually unintentionally funny (and am perfectly happy to be), in this case I have no idea what is amusing. Can you explain?

 

[Scorekeeper]

The really long getting killed by a grapple animation in ME3 singleplayer were apparently quicktime events. I had no idea until I beat the game and played multiplayer.

Those are QTEs? Like when a Banshee kills you?

 

[Gennadios]

The really long getting killed by a grapple animation in ME3 singleplayer were apparently quicktime events. I had no idea until I beat the game and played multiplayer.

Those are QTEs? Like when a Banshee kills you?

Yeah. Im surprised how many other ppl had no idea, Bioware fucked up somewhere.

 

[Wayneguard]

I played through all of thief deadly shadows on xbox in 3rd person. Didn't realize there was a first person mode.

 

[Smithburg]

Republik. I dont know how to do ONE DAMN THING in that game. Its like Microsoft Excel if it were a communist rebel leader

 

[Sir CheezyPie]

Brutal Legend. Apparently one could upgrade units. I didn't learn this until a month after I had already beat the game. XD

 

[Jaeke]

I never had to issue any squad-orders in Mass Effect or 2 (outside of the mandatory tutorial ones)

I never played Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer either.

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

Good for you sir! That's some true will right there.

 

[Treblaine]

Played all through Halo 1 and never used the all-powerful pistol.

It never occurred to me that it would be so powerful, or that it would have a zooming scope, bloody hell.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Mass Effect 1....I was watching my mate play it, and he made the mako jump!! That blew my mind since I had already finished it and didnt know that....

 

[Okamipsychonaut]

I played the first Syberia game and walked the entire time....found out that in the second game you held down B on the X box controller to run....

 

[Xiroh86]

In Final Fantasy XIII I can honestly say that I never used the store

 

[Jfswift]

Yup! I played through final fantasy tactics advance without ever using a law card.

 

[The Good Doctor]

Quick healing in the first Dead Space. I finally found out about it when I was playing Dead Space 2, but only because of an in-game tutorial thing.
I should read game manuals more often...

 

[Pebblig]

Holding A in Fallout 3 & NV allows to drink continuously.

Did not know that at all =p

Mine is that it was only about 60 hours into "Oblivion" that I found I could wait using the back key. I assumed whenever I had to wait until a particular time I literally had to do so, so I would go and amuse myself in game so that the time would pass xD