What have you done in a video game that you shouldn't have been able to?

[King Billi]

There are a lot of ways to exploit mechanics in the Dark Souls games that can make them significantly less challenging. The simplest being just retreating from a tough enemy till it reaches its leash boundary and get in easy hits when it starts heading back to its start location.

There are also a lot of exploits that can make many boss fights ridiculously easy, one example being the Hydra in darkroot basin, when you get close enough that it stops using its ranged attack there is a place in the watervin front if it hear the corpse with the Knight armor where you can stand and it will never hit you. You can either hit it with arrows or spells without worry or head out to attack its heads after each attack, so long as you make it back to the safe zone before it's next attack you'll never be in any danger.

 

[Kyrian007]

Almost all Skyrim players experienced having a dragon attack them in or near a populated area. It was the only time it was really harrowing because you had to make sure it didn't kill any of the villagers (or at least halfway useful ones... dammit Alvor you MAKE armor, why not USE it when you charge a dragon.) Once I was heading into Riften. My game had recently bugged out, I shot and killed a bandit who's game ID was screwed up and I couldn't loot the corpse. Then I left the cave he was in and triggered several random encounters all at once. So a courier showed up at the same time I was approached by a thief, and three cultists and then I was attacked by wolves...

The wolf attack lit the fuse, everyone attacked everyone else. I paused it, and drank down an invisibility potion... let them sort it out amongst themselves. The cultists won the day, and then politely hand delivered me a note before becoming violent again.

So, back to Riften. Just as I was opening the door (as I was pressing the button) I heard the cry of an incoming dragon. And when the game loaded, there it was... flying around in Riften. I didn't even draw my bow. Didn't have to. Guards in the city were just nailing that poor dragon from every side with a hail of arrows. The invisible walls of Riften had trapped it in a small area and the guards were blasting it with arrow after arrow. Soon they brought it down in front of the orphanage. Where Mjoll was waiting for the poor bastard, and she just starting whaling on it. I've never before or since seen a dragon so totally overpowered by npc's. I'm pretty sure no one but the dragon even even took any damage.

Which made it something I shouldn't have been able to do, easiest dragon soul I ever absorbed. And the guards reactions were great. "you killed it." no, I didn't. "You took its very soul" yeah, I suppose I did after you robbed it of all dignity.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Quake - Rocket Jumping wasn't something which was intended by the developers, but became a vital skill.

Neither was Strafe Jumping/Bunny Hopping and by extension Air Control. I suppose both are bugs that became features.

Oddly enough, a form of horizontal rocket jumping existed in Doom where it was one of the ways to reach the secret exit in E3M6, and according to John Romero it is actually the intended method.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I managed to not only enjoy the controls for Skyward Sword...I preferred them!

*Drops mic*

*Picks it up and throws at passing *****

 

[The White Hunter]

Slaughtering everything in one hit in Morrowind really early, including the physical deities, because the game stacks the effects of buffs with no restrictions, enjoy downing 30 bottles of Whiskey and stabbing Almalexia to death with a rusty dagger.

Final Fantasy VIII, refining items from cards, and in turn, refining those items into magic and rare synthesis material, making each character have 3000+ health and each of em doing ridiculous damage, as well as most of em having high tier (or in Squalls case, penultimate) weapons before the game even sent me on my first actual mission.

Kingdom Hearts, getting super rare synthesis material early, normally you would need glide to get them, but Sora's default attack in the air nudges him forward, so jumping for a higher elevation and spamming it allowed me to get them before, not especially helpful, but definitely getting those treasures earlier than intended.

Oblivion, if you have 100% chameleon, you are pretty much unstoppable, nothing can see or reliably attack you, I don't think this was particularly what the devs had in mind, I put 20% chameleon on all my shit and the game basically gave up.

How about that Frontlines match on wednesday? xD Shouldn't have been able to pull that out the fire.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I've managed to teleport my horse to death in Skyrim. Not quite sure how I did it either, but managed several times.
Sorry for shaky cam:

Spoiler

Ehhhh.... Not sure if it counts but in RE4 in the fight against Krauser I'd cheese the boss in the early fight with a hilarious trick of jumping over a window only for him to follow me and then I'd jump back and we'd just do that for a while. I think I was able to just pop a shot at him once every time I jumped over the window and just did that over and over til I triggered the next stage of the fight.

Pretty sure that counts! I don't think playing window parkour was the idea of that epic boss fight. I managed to cheese him as well by luring him into backflipping into a corner of the roof platform, and just standing there and knife slashing him to death where he had nowhere to escape.

 

[darkcalling]

I'll admit to beating several bosses on FF12 via chaining quickenings. Those things were soooo broken.

And not me but my brother was playing Xenosaga back when it was still pretty new and pulled off something we still think is ridiculous. He's about a third, maybe halfway through the game and reaches a boss fight against Margulis (thank you Google) and the party he has now (due to either being split up or this just being the first dungeon area they appeared in I can't remember) consists of Ziggy the cyborg and Momo the nearly useless at this point mage.

That fight took him the better part of an hour and nearly ALL his healing items. Then douchebag beats the snot out of him in the following cutscene. No one like that. Why do developers do that?

Found out later while checking gamefaqs about something else (think he got stuck on a puzzle or maybe just couldn't figure out how to get to a particular chest) I spotted the section that dealt with that boss fight and skimmed over it to see if maybe bro had neglected to notice something that would have made the fight any easier.

Turns out he had.

Let Margulis win. You're supposed to lose that fight.

He didn't even get anything for beating him.

 

[God'sFist]

So I think we know about the Paint brush bug in oblivion. well I make it a point to collect those magical items. There was this one char I was working on and I was doing the knights of the nine dlc and it was time to get the helmet. I was starting to get tired of hunting for all the crap so I made me a set of stairs so I could just grab the helmet and be on my way. It's still my favorite way of retrieving the helm.

 

[Tanis]

Looking under Kidd's skirt in Chrono Cross was one of those 'urban legends' I'd heard about when I'd had the game for awhile.

One of those things nobody believed, until I managed to do it.

Not really that heard either, I just messed with the camera until I could see her panties.

Ahh...the mind of a kid in puberty.
Such a wondrous, hideous, thing.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

On the bug side of things, Invading players during boss fights in Dark Souls III - an annoying as hell bug since I'd just be trying to invade in an area and suddenly I'm fighting a dude trying his best not to get squished by the Twin Princes, but I found out that if you did it as a Sunbro/Mad Spirit then the game would freak the fuck out and you'd summon in as a friendly on occasions and I could actually help out on the boss kill. Led to a really fun moment where I helped 5-man Aldritch. Poor bastard didn't know what was happening.

Non-bug things -
Taking advantage of the atrocious AI in Pokemon Red and Blue to beat Gym Leaders and Elite Four at hilariously low levels (why, yes, my level 6 Bellsprout can defeat your level 62 Dragonite, why do you ask?); the AI would try to use super effective attacks even if they were non-damaging attacks while you were free to use status conditions to gradually grind them to death. Was swiftly fixed with Pokemon Yellow, namely by making it so most of the Elite Four pokemon had nothing BUT damaging moves.

Using the Infiltrator's Tactical Invisibility to skip groups of enemies in Mass Effect 2 or make major threats not spawn. Was incredibly helpful on Insanity difficulty, that's for sure.

And, since a few people have mentioned Final Fantasy XII - speed-running to the Nechrol of Nabudis to get the Zodiac Spear. Was stupidly easy to do since all you needed was the Nihopaloa and a butt-load of Pheonix Downs, since the Nihopaloa reverses item effects (i.e. Pheonix downs cause instant-death) and the enemies in the area were vulnerable to insta-death OR the regular pheonix downs. Blast anything that moves with delicious healing items, grab your spear and suddenly you're packing the most powerful weapon in the game before you've even reached the mid-way point.

 

[Yoshi178]

I beat Minesweeper.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Was playing the Assassin's Creed game with the borgia watchtowers and the crossbow. Was going to eliminate a guard captain and these suckers are notorious for running. I found a nice spot on a nearby building and start silently picking off the minor guards around him since I can't get a clean shot at him. This dude comes out from under his shelter and climbs a ladder in front of me to investigate what's going on. Shot him once, he fell back off the building to his death and I laughed for a good long time.

 

[Remus]

I beat Minesweeper.

WOAH!

Funny thing, I figured out the window trick in RE4 by mistake just because I kept getting swarmed by enemies with no ammunition. Using it on bosses was simply the next step.

And then it practically became a necessity in RE5 every time a guy with a chainsaw ran at you. WINDOW! *crash* PARKOUR, ROUNDHOUSE! WINDOW

 

[spartandude]

I jumped from Vvardenfell to Solstheim in Morrowind.

 

[Aerosteam]

I didn't do it, but I watched my friend beat a duel you were supposed to lose in Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. I think it was the main antagonist who had a stupidly unfair deck for the early game. It was fun to watch, because the game designers didn't include a special scenario where he reacts to you beating him, no matter what after the duel ends the game thinks you lost and the story continues as normal.

Once I was helping in battling the Iron Giant boss in Dark Souls, when we made it stagger near the edge of the platform. I gave it a couple of good hits on its knee, it fell backwards, past the edge of the platform, down into the abyss, and died instantly (saving us of doing half of the battle). Never felt like we had outsmarted the game more than then.

Maybe we're understanding the thread's question differently but you know that knocking the Iron Giant off the area is a well-known, viable strategy to beating him, right?

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Was playing Strider remake earlier today, after a lengthy break away from it. Though it never previously shown any sign of glitchy potential; Within the first minute I had somehow managed to clip through a ceiling and get stuck in the anti-world. Could still run about and climb up the anti-walls and anti-ceilings. Even managed to initiate some boss fight. What boss though, I have no idea...Apart from its' disembodied voice, all textures had buggered off leaving just the empty skybox, my strider standing on nothing, and a curious floating capsule I had never seen before that did nothing but taunt me with broken promises of interaction.

I did try to slash vigorously at the nothingness in the vain hope that I could glitch my way to victory, but alas it was not so. My invisible prison was infallible and eternal.

 

[CaitSeith]

I didn't do it, but I watched my friend beat a duel you were supposed to lose in Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. I think it was the main antagonist who had a stupidly unfair deck for the early game. It was fun to watch, because the game designers didn't include a special scenario where he reacts to you beating him, no matter what after the duel ends the game thinks you lost and the story continues as normal.

Once I was helping in battling the Iron Giant boss in Dark Souls, when we made it stagger near the edge of the platform. I gave it a couple of good hits on its knee, it fell backwards, past the edge of the platform, down into the abyss, and died instantly (saving us of doing half of the battle). Never felt like we had outsmarted the game more than then.

Maybe we're understanding the thread's question differently but you know that knocking the Iron Giant off the area is a well-known, viable strategy to beating him, right?

Obviously, no. I didn't know that. Satisfied?

 

[sXeth]

Oblivion, if you have 100% chameleon, you are pretty much unstoppable, nothing can see or reliably attack you, I don't think this was particularly what the devs had in mind, I put 20% chameleon on all my shit and the game basically gave up.

Weirdly, I never got that to work. Though speaking of Oblivion, they had a spell/weapon effect called "Drain", which was a temporary debuff to a stat. As such a minor thing, it was really really cheap to create in custom spells and enchantments. The kicker of this, is you could make Drain Health 10,000 or some similar ridiculous amount relatively easily. With such a weapon or spell in hand, you could one shot any enemy in the game, as being dead negated the "temporary" part of the effect.

 

[Kyrian007]

I managed to not only enjoy the controls for Skyward Sword...I preferred them!

*Drops mic*

*Picks it up and throws at passing *****

I think a lot of people just didn't know how to properly set up a room for Wii. I never once had a problem with controls before or after the plus upgrade. Mine worked perfectly until... well mine still works. I saw all the Wii control complaints and always thought to myself, "weird, I'm not having those issues."