How was I meant to know THAT?!

[mooncalf]

Morrowind. Sanguine equipment. Good luck turning every stone. There are about 30 of them, but most of them aren't even mentioned in any way, so you don't even know they exist until you get them (or read a guide). The only way to get them is thus to stumble upon them through dumb luck or sheer persistence; or to pick them up with a guide.

I found and sold a bunch of them before I even got the quest and then couldn't for the life of me remember WHO I sold them to, I figured they were just boring magic items... No regrets though, my original playthrough morrowind save is that much more precious to me because of it's flaws.

Also, ANY boss fights that you are disallowed from winning, I hate having to struggle through a particularly ardous fight over and over only to discover that a loss was in fact the only option. It would be a spoiler to tell you in advance, so they just let you flounder against impossible odds.

 

[BoredWalker]

In COD: Black Ops, there's a part in the campaign where you have to activate a bunch of barrels to clear out a bunch of otherwise infinitely respawning Korean soldiers. These barrels are never mentioned in dialogue or objective markers, are in the direct line of enemy fire with no cover (meaning that you would never go up to them out of curiosity or necessity), and look nondescript, like all of the other environmental objects. It wasn't until after several deaths and one stand that, in any other situation, would have advanced the plot, that I took cover behind one of the barrels during a panic moment and saw the little "press X to durby durby durr" that I actually got any sort of hint.

Also, I really need to repeat another one that's been constantly mentioned: The Zodiac Spear in FFXII. I had a guidebook in front of me for almost the entire game, and I still got gypped out of it.

 

[lacktheknack]

Fun little story: I tried to introduce a friend to Myst Online. I always thought the interface puzzles were easy to figure out (it runs on "mystery meat" design on purpose, but I always figured them out immediately), but maybe I'm wrong.

Him: "How did you link over THERE instead of the start?"

Me: "You did realize that there's a second page in the linking book, right?"

Him: "You mean with the little cloth on it? What was I supposed to do with that?"

Me: "I suppose you could click on it and find out."

Him: "Or you could just tell me."

Me: "It links me over here at the last hand-cloth I touched."

Him: "What the hell?! how was I supposed to figure THAT out?!"

Me: "By clicking the things you haven't clicked, I imagine. And then make note of what they do. That's what I did."

Him: "That's STUPID and BADLY DESIGNED."

Me: "You seriously think the concept of touching a piece of cloth in a linking book and linking to the last large cloth you touched is unintuitive?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Wat."

I guess adventure games just aren't for everyone.

 

[crazyrabbits]

The one example I remember is saving Paul Denton in the original Deus Ex. Whenever I got to that part of the game where he tells me to go out the window, I just did it without questioning it, then learned later that he died. I then tried fighting all the MJ12 troops in the apartment, then assumed because they all died, everything was cool. He still died. It wasn't until I fought and cleared out the entire hotel and exited through the front door that he survived.

 

[lacktheknack]

A certain puzzle involving an inner tube in The Longest Journey. And another one involving candy, and another one involving a junction box, which require the protagonist to do things that are completely unintuitive and, in fact, actively dangerous.

It's even worse because the game generally avoids those "rub everything in your inventory on everything" puzzles.

That's good, because I just finished those puzzles, and it was starting to really annoy me.

 

[lacktheknack]

Fun little story: I tried to introduce a friend to Myst Online. I always thought the interface puzzles were easy to figure out (it runs on "mystery meat" design on purpose, but I always figured them out immediately), but maybe I'm wrong.

Him: "How did you link over THERE instead of the start?"

Me: "You did realize that there's a second page in the linking book, right?"

Him: "You mean with the little cloth on it? What was I supposed to do with that?"

Me: "I suppose you could click on it and find out."

Him: "Or you could just tell me."

Me: "It links me over here at the last hand-cloth I touched."

Him: "What the hell?! how was I supposed to figure THAT out?!"

Me: "By clicking the things you haven't clicked, I imagine. And then make note of what they do. That's what I did."

Him: "That's STUPID and BADLY DESIGNED."

Me: "You seriously think the concept of touching a piece of cloth in a linking book and linking to the last large cloth you touched is unintuitive?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Wat."

I guess adventure games just aren't for everyone.

Adventure games are for the people who designed them or those who have already beaten them.

The Myst series is a good damn series the first time you play it. BAD adventure games are for the designers and replayers.

 

[Hawk eye1466]

The final mission with brucie in gta 4 I thought you could shoot people because that was the first way I figured I could win the race, according to some rules that they'd forgotten to share with me I wasn't allowed to shoot anyone so I lost and lost a few times because of my awful driving skills but the point is they should have told me I wasn't allowed to kill the asshole drivers that kept ramming me off the road.

 

[Black Reaper]

The tales series comes to mind
I fucking love those games,being rpgs with all the rpg bits but none of the stupid turn based combat,but one thing i hate about all of them is that you need a guide if you are planning to play trough one

I remember a part like this in Symphonia,on one of the last dungeons of the game,at one point you cannot advance due to a locked door,i spent a few hours wandering around the dungeon,looking for a way to continue,eventually giving up,i had some fond memories of that game,so i picked it up again a few years later,the strange part is that i was using a walktrough when i got stuck,it mentioned activanting a switch to open the gate,but i couldnt find said switch,so i decided to use a video walktrough,normally the game have flashes a very noticeable A somewhere on the screen if you can use something,but not for this switch
How the FUCK was i supposed to figure out that to continue,you had to activate an object that looked like it was part of the scenery!?

Sidequests in these game are also very annoying,basically you have to talk to someone,out of the dozens of people in the game,at specific times,which are often very short,so you have to see a guide every 5 minutes to avoid missing important parts of the game

Another Symphonia example is Hi-ougis(limit breaks),these are very flashy attacks which dish out damage quicly,they would be very useful,were it not for the fact that you have to do shit that is never hinted at before,and is completely unrelated to them,to do the main characters you have to see a cutscene where he gets a plot advancing sword,and gets a title,afterwards if you equip him with a weapon related to that sword you just got(you cant actually use it),get his health before 15%,and press B and A while blocking,you will do an attack that is very sweet and shiny,how the hell were you supposed to figure that out?,this is very annoying since the weapon you have to equip is usually worse than some other weapons you should have at this point

I could mention some metroidvanias guilty of this,but i am feeling lazy at the time

 

[Denamic]

Almost everything in the Disgaea games.
I swear, most of the games are more or less hidden.

 

[Denamic]

Most of the mechanics of Dark Souls. Seriously, they say 'At this bonfire you can perfom the rite of unhollowing' and give ZERO EXPLANATION OF WHAT THAT MEANS. I love the game's difficulty in general, but difficulty created by simply not explaining the basic concepts of the game at any point is just bad game design.

The game revolves around the player finding shit out themselves.
You're only given minimal information on purpose.
It is far from bad game design, as it is one of the best designed games to date.
Also, it does explain what unhollowing means, just not like a tutorial would.
Humanity is coveted, and hollow spirits will invade your world to steal it.
This is explained in the game, but not directly referenced as a game mechanic.
You're just supposed to connect the dots yourself once you've been murdered a few times.

 

[Michael Goepfert]

(Dark Souls)
Where the fuck is the second bell?!!

 

[BigOrteil]

There's a lot of them in Dragon's dogma. Ex : All the things you have to do to get a Gold Idol, no clue at all. Or the reward for defeating the ''last boss'' is having all your equipped gear upgraded to dragosis or something like that. Or, again, the fact that the father you need to talk to for a quest is only in town around noon, not before, not later. There's a lot more but I can't think of anymore right now.

 

[Lucian The Lugia]

This is going to sound stupid, but...Pokemon Battle Revolution, in the spot where you type in your own quotes for winning, losing, etc.

For probably 4 years I didn't know of the second page of symbols you could use, and I thought the game left out apostrophes.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

This is going to sound stupid, but...Pokemon Battle Revolution, in the spot where you type in your own quotes for winning, losing, etc.

For probably 4 years I didn't know of the second page of symbols you could use, and I thought the game left out apostrophes.

Hey, it's no worse than the public opinion on my example. But here's the thing - there are so many other ways that Dota 2 has tried to repulse me during a quarter of one match. It doesn't want me to play it, so I have no reason to be charitable towards it - a lot of that was just venting based on my other frustrations. That was the first one that came up.

I'm not even that much of a noob - I've played enough League to know how the genre works, but apparently that's not enough for the only game that's as much of an elitist dick as its community.

 

[Tjebbe]

I'm not even that much of a noob - I've played enough League to know how the genre works, but apparently that's not enough for the only game that's as much of an elitist dick as its community.

wow, and i had already stopped playing league because even in the 'casual' part there was too much cursing and complaining about other players.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Lamest example ever. It's like saying it's microsoft's fault that you don't know how to click up the start menu when you've never used a PC before. "Durr, how do I click? OH IT'S A LEFT-CLICK, WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME?!". Your example further fails on the fact that DOTA 2 isn't even out yet. It's still in beta...

1. It's right-click.
2. You're straw-manning.
3. With all that money Valve has been spending on tournaments for a game that's in beta, they could have already made a decent tutorial, or at least a pop-up box.
4. Windows XP at least said "Click here to begin." when you moused over the Start menu.
5. You're clearly a fanboy.

No, it's left click, genius. And cut out the high-horse snobbery, you sound like an epic condescending douche. I'm straw-manning? Maybe you're just bad? I didn't have any problems. My friends didn't have any problems. MAYBE, it's not the games' fault? Maybe you're just so used to something holding your hand all the time and pointing you in the right direction constantly? Your example was incredibly lame, I'm not alone to think that, just accept the potential possibility, that maybe, perhaps, potentially, it could actually BE lame. Fanboy? Please, I'm a grown man, why the hell would I be a fanboy of anything like some snotty little hipster?

1. Your straw-man was "Durr, how do I click?" Nobody is that stupid. Hence, strawman.
2. If it WAS left-click, I wouldn't have had any problems.
3. I'M a condescending douche? So saying "Maybe you're just bad" isn't being a condescending douche now?
4. There's a fine line between letting players work stuff out for themselves and forcing them to do so while also not giving a single hint as to how it works. Conveyance is the key. See Mega Man X's intro stage for how to do it right. Dota 2 did not do that.
5. As stated above, I have a lot more grievances with the game, and I wanted to vent - that was the first thing I found and the easiest to make a topic of.
6. Being an adult doesn't exclude you from being a fanboy. See also: Bob Chipman.
7. I'm not the only one giving bad examples. Zodiac Spear isn't necessary to beat Final Fantasy 12.