History Main / TrialandErrorGameplay

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' (Known as Forbidden Siren in some regions). Your characters have extremely limited health, are rarely armed and are placed in near pitch dark surroundings with enemies who are much stronger, and crack shots with firearms. Oh - and they're immortal zombies. So if you do manage to beat one in combat, it'll revive after a few seconds and come looking for you. Add Godawful controls, a useless map that doesn't actually show the player's position and level objectives which are often stupidly obscure into the mix and hey presto! Welcome to gameplay that alternates between you dying again and again, often scant seconds after starting a level, and stumbling around in the dark for hours, trying to figure out the hypercryptic level objectives.

* ''VideoGame/ChipsChallenge'' has several of these, mostly involving FrictionlessIce. Level 140, [[MeaningfulName ICEDEATH]], relies on guessing which direction to take at every point on the ice of which typically only one of the three new directions leads to safe ground, while the other two lead to a [[SuperDrowningSkills watery grave]]. Usually. Sometimes there are even false paths that all lead to death. Of course, you can always map the stage out manually, which is pretty much a requirement since the solution consists of 60-some odd moves.
** The final (secret) level also hides the exit square underneath blocks. You need to push them out of the way to find it. However, most of the blocks on the level have fire underneath, and will kill you instantly if you push them.

* As displayed in the page quote, TabletopGames players have a term for a dungeon with particularly random ways to inflict instant death: [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Gygaxian]], though the term also implies heavy use of MalevolentArchitecture. One of the most famous modules of this type is the ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors''. People who survived that module largely did so by searching ''everything'' for traps, and sending {{Mooks}} to open every door in the dungeon. (It should be noted that it takes more effort to roll up a new character than to load a saved game.)

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': Some of the earlier installments can be like this, in large part because the settings are so big that it's easy for the player to get lost. Plus, you'll encounter many obstacles that [[AbilityRequiredToProceed usually require some sort of key item to proceed]], and there's a significant emphasis on resource management.

* The ''VideoGame/MissionImpossible1997'' video game (which predates [=MGS=] by a few months) was particularly bad about this, due to a combination of CheckpointStarvation, extreme linearity, and some rather vague mission objectives. For example, in one mission, one of your objectives is to eliminate an assassin at a tea party. The only problem? You're neither told who she is (other than her name) nor what she looks like. So the solution is arrived at purely by dumb luck.

* Your Kuva Lich in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' can be defeated for good only by equipping your [[BladeBelowTheShoulder parazon]] with proper "Requiem" mods in a correct sequence, otherwise performing a FinishingMove on them will make them kill ''you'', bypassing the [[CombatResuscitation bleed-out phase]] and forcing you to use a OneUp to continue, with the lich now stronger than before. You can run missions on their territories to find out what mods can defeat your lich, but the correct order you will have to find by trial and error. Your lich's profile page thankfully lists attempted combinations and how correct they were, which means you can defeat your lich in as little as 4 trials.

* ''VideoGame/SlouchingTowardsBedlam'' doesn't involve trial and error gameplay. However, it justifies the save/restore function as an ability, and writes the trial-and-error aspect into another character that also had that ability.

* While the FMV-heavy ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' did not make use of this trope (if you died, it was because you missed the visible signal), at least one computer version does. There were numerous sequences where Dirk had to react to dangers at the right time, and these were ''not'' telegraphed. Memorization was necessary in the end.
** Even more oddly, the ''cartoon'' invoked this trope. During a commercial break, the viewer was asked to choose Dirk's next move. When the show came back, it was revealed whether or not each choice resulted in his death. (Admittedly, this is a clever way of invoking the beautiful death animations from the game.)

* Fairly well-averted in ''VideoGame/AVampyreStory''. The game almost always gives you enough information to solve puzzles without a guide, although sometimes you need to be sharp to catch it. As a non-spoilerriffic example, you need to lube up some hinges early on in the game, and in your bedroom you pick up some body oil that'll do the trick-but there's only enough oil for one hinge. No fear- the game will, if you "look" at the body oil, tell you it was made from oils extracted from nuts and dried fruits, which coincidentally you can also collect from your room. In some of the later puzzles it gives you all the pieces (a cop who desperately wants to be recognized as a hero, a little girl's dress, and a bat about the right size to fit into it) and leaves you to figure it out for yourself.

* While the player would not be punished with death for running out of allotted guesses, a couple ''VideoGame/TheClueFinders'' games used this trope and the entire ''point'' was to test hypothesis and try to find out the logically correct answers.
** ''Reading'': The final challenges were basically comparable to ''Series/{{Lingo}}'' or ''Mastermind'', in which you have to type in a word and are then told whether or not you got any correct letters in the right places, or correct letters in the wrong places. This can be a little frustrating, as one can eventually run out of guesses and have to start over. Especially painful if they ''just'' figured out the password but ran out of guesses because the player typoed or it was ''another'' word that has just one letter difference between another word.
** One of the games in ''Search And Solve'' had this. You had to get a certain number of "kinks" out of a vending machine robot's circuits, and in order to do that you had to pick a column and row (Represented by colours and shapes). In order to work the kinks out, you had to guess which colour and shape were which row and column, then get the right coloured shape to push the kink out, so fairly simple, right? Well, every time, it's randomized, and you only have a certain amount of guesses. (And you would be surprised how "hard" the puzzles you had to solve in nine or less turns were compared to just the ten-guess ones!) So not only was it a LuckBasedMission, but also pure Trial and Error...one could just be ''incredibly'' unlucky and have all the kinks clustered to one side of the field and your first couple guesses were ''all'' the shapes and colours that do ''not'' contain any Kinks so the minigame is {{Unwinnable}}. It wouldn't be that uncommon to be doing it ''much'' more than Four times (like the other minigames) simply because of the trial and error.

* Some of the earlier installments in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' franchise could be like this, in large part because the settings were so big that it was easy for the player to get lost. Plus, you'll encounter many obstacles that [[AbilityRequiredToProceed usually require some sort of key item to proceed]], and there's a significant emphasis on resource management.

* ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'' often had it so that the player character would have to do a bit of exploration in order to figure out where to go and how to complete the current objective. Not helping is the reliance on stealth, dark areas that make it impossible to see, and needing to be careful with maintaining your battery inventory. Its [[VideoGame/OutlastII sequel]] is [[UpToEleven even worse]] due to the more open-ended setting.
* The TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu-based adventure game ''Shadow of the Comet'' has a bit where your character visits a labyrinth-like crypt. After you meet a [[NightmareFuel giant slug-like]] monster, you have to escape from the crypt as it chases you. Unless you had the good sense to draw a map, the beast will tear you to pieces dozens of times as you try to find the right route. Actually, just ''reaching'' said slug monster invokes this trope, as the crypt features multiple doors that either kill you or warp you to the beginning of the maze, neither of which are distinguishable from the correct ones. That's not even touching on the insta-kill traps scattered about.

* Many ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' 2D games are like this. Try running full speed ahead, what many perceive to be the whole point of the series, only to run into an enemy as a result of having mere milliseconds to react to it once it appears. This is, however, by design as series creator, [[Creator/YujiNaka Yuji Naka]], had a fascination with memorizing levels to find the fastest route and this love of speedrunning was the inspiration for Sonic's mechanics and level design.

* ''VideoGame/RickDangerous'' suffered from a combination of this, OneHitPointWonder and EverythingTryingToKillYou. Literally every area was filled with dozens of hidden spikes, which would pop out of walls and floors, and you wouldn't even know they were there until you'd been hit (and sent right back to the start of the last scene). The only way to play through the game was to patiently wander into all the hidden traps on any given screen, remember where they all are, and avoid them all the next twenty or thirty times you replay it. May be considered an early PlatformHell.

* ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' had a section in Stage 6 of Dark Castle, where there was an AutoScrollingLevel with dead ends and no way to go back. There were 3 ways to go, and it happens several times. Technically there's a hint: [[spoiler:The entirety of Dark Castle is symmetrical and you go through the autoscroll in the opposite direction in stage 3]], but it's extremely easy to miss. Even if you suspect you missed something, it's ''much'' easier to just keep doing trial-and-error instead of going back to check.
* The original ''VideoGame/WonderBoy1'' had platforms floating on the screens alone. Jumping to the next one was a leap of faith based on a random guess that ended in death if you guessed wrong.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' had a motor-bike stage which is basically all trial and error. What makes this noteworthy, though, is that this stage and this stage alone requires the player to jump while the "Ready!" stage start animation is still playing. In all other stages, the player '''can't move''' while the animation is playing. The only way to realize that this stage is special is by dying once. The rest of the level is also an effort in trial and error, as you're often required to make decisions (upper path or lower path?) with no way of knowing what's ahead.

** ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan2 2]]'' had two bosses completely invulnerable to the Mega Buster and with only one weapon (each) that worked against them. If you used up too much [[{{Mana}} weapon energy]] for those weapons too early, the battles were {{Unwinnable}} until you either grinded for more weapon energy on the next life, or lost all your lives and used a continue.

** ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' also had its "you will die with no warning" moments. On passage in Plug Man's stage looks safe, until a block suddenly materializes in its entrance, sending anyone trying to jump into it to the SpikesOfDoom below. One set of spikes in Splash Woman's stage cannot be seen until you've take the jump, and if you're now aimed for them, the games JumpPhysics aren't enough to let you steer away in time.

* In ''VideoGame/EightEyes'', the first seven stages were theoretically playable in any order, but since each boss was vulnerable to only one weapon, and there would be a change of weapon after each boss, the game was nigh unwinnable to players who didn't know that the proper order was [[spoiler:Spain, Egypt, Italy, India, Africa, Germany, Arabia]]. The manual told players to figure this out for themselves.

* ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'' was described by its own creators as having "trial and [[TheManyDeathsOfYou death]]" gameplay. You will die, a lot, and you're expected to until you figure out what to do with each new obstacle.
* Featured in a couple of castle levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', including the final dungeon. You have to choose the correct routes through the dungeon to progress or you'll be forced back to the last checkpoint to choose another. Other than by memorizing the right and wrong ways there's no way of knowing the right paths without a guide. Castle 8 was even trickier because not only does the correct path involve locating and taking pipes, but some of the pipes go ''backwards'' back to the first chamber while some of the correct pipe choices are easy to overlook. At least the maze only goes as far as the underwater section.
** One of the last levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' has the same problem, and it's in fact even worse due to is labyrinth nature, resulting in many players running out of time trying the find the right path.

* ''VideoGame/SkyRoads'' often contronts the player with a choice of paths, not making it clear which one isn't fatal until too late. The worst are the tunnels which completely conceal deadly burning red squares from the player's view.

* ''Nauticrawl'' has you figure how to even control the vehicle you ended up on, which features absolutely zero labeling and no manual. Your first few deaths will probably happen even before you can properly start the engine. This is justified by the fact that you're a slave worker escaping with a machine that was purposefully designed without any button labeling specifically to prevent the scenario that you're pulling off. After all, if you're trained to operate it, labeling would be unnecessary.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and its sequel have certain particular boss fights which are basically puzzles where you have to find the right weapons or spells to bypass enemy defenses and immunities. You are not given any hint on how to face those challenges, nor advised about the enemy powers. For example, nobody tells you that a specific monster is immune to +3 and lesser weapons until you actively try to hurt it. The game implicitly encourages players to experiment with various combinations in order to find one that works. Sometimes, incredibly difficult fights become ridiculously easy once you accidentally discover the right solution. For example, [[spoiler:Kangaxx]] can be one of the most fearsome enemies, considering that it is immune to countless spells, weapons and types of damage, and can insta-imprison all party members without a warning if you don't have the right protection spells. Until you discover that [[spoiler: Minsc's berserk rage ability makes him immune to any of Kangaxx's attacks]], turning what was a difficult battle into a trivial buttkick.

* ''VideoGame/SuikodenTactics'' had an interesting twist on this trope: when you Game Over, you keep the Experience Points you earned during the failed battle. As such, you can LevelGrind ''and'' experience Trial-And-Error at the same time.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has one example of the delightful combination of Trial-and-Error Gameplay and CheckPointStarvation in the Cultists' Tower. Along with already having an unusual gameplay gimmick (in battle, most characters can only use the "magic" and "item" commands while there), there are no save points in the tower and the Warp spell doesn't work. The boss at the top of the tower, upon death, automatically casts Ultima, a ludicrously powerful unblockable spell that will kill your entire party unless you're obscenely overleveled. There is absolutely no indication that this is coming, and the only way to survive is to have Reraise cast on at least one party member so they auto-resurrect after this attack. Also, because Warp doesn't work, you have to get all the way down the tower as well after beating the boss, so it's very important to make sure you've kept up your MP one way or another. Effectively, if you aren't using a guide you are practically guaranteed to die to the boss the first time you attempt this dungeon and have to start all over again from the beginning.
** [[SubvertedTrope Unless you're savvy enough]] [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules your rules really are the computer's rules]], and just decide to get rid of all his MP to keep him from being able to use any magic. [[spoiler:Knowing that he can be berserked or that he will spend his MP casting Ultima as he dies, however, does fall under this trope.]]
** What makes the dungeon and boss so badly designed is their gimmicks are entirely recycled from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', only ridiculously drawn out and with all the hints removed. ''FFV'' had the Fork Tower, made of [[LetsSplitUpGang two very short towers]] each containing a powerful spell to earn. On one side you can only use physical attacks and the other, only magic. The physical side's boss attempts to cast its spell as it dies and [[BossArenaIdiocy fails due to its environment]], [[WarmUpBoss telegraphing]] what the other will try and succeed. Which means you also know what spell is coming. Being a single target, reflectable spell the game has shown you before, you have a lot more options on countering or surviving it, ''including'' breaking him as a boss. But who needs [[PuzzleBoss puzzle elements]] or strategy when you can remake it pointlessly cheap and frustrating?

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' is notorious for this. Although it's somewhat part of the design of the game it has very heavy instances of this. Many times newcomers to the series can be found exclaiming they don't understand what to do or are dying repeatedly to a monster and don't know how to beat it. The game gives very little useful information to the player about how to actually play the game well. The enemies are designed for the player to make mistakes and they will frequently be fatal mistakes. Sometimes the game also throws monsters that act as ThatOneBoss. The monster is often there to force players into using new strategies since old ones are outright punished. Barroth was this hurdle in "Monster Hunter Tri". Monsters before it were slower and hit for lower damage and had many openings. Barroth was fast and struck hard changing the pace of the fight from the previous fights while having much more difficult-to-discern openings.
** Sometimes the series uses this trope to the detriment of the game. As of 3rd generation (namely MH3U) monsters' AI has become noticeably more random in it's attack combinations leaving very few openings to get in reliable attacks causing frustration for players and turning some fights into a guessing game about when a good opportunity to attack is. Brachydios, for instance, can spam as few or as many as 1-4 fist slams at any moment after almost any attack while other attacks such as the "standing horn slam" causes random sets of fixed explosions in order from closest to furthest from him giving the player no good understanding of when to attack, but you have to attack at some point because you're on a time limit every quest. Therefore you must risk damage/death at a moments notice just to get simple damage in during certain parts of the fight. It isn't always a problem for all weapon classes on all monsters but for particular weapons it can come off as FakeBalance, where some weapons are clearly inferior to others in a fight due to this trope occurring.

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'', the first in the series, was notable for a few very problematic areas, above even the normal progression of the game.
*** The Hellkite Dragon/Bridge Wyvern/Red Drake at the cusp of Undead Parish, after defeating the Taurus Demon. At the level that it is encountered at, it can kill the player in a mere one or two attacks, and blocks the way into the Parish. And unless you [[RunOrDie make a break for]] [[CorridorCubbyholeRun the safe spot in the middle of the bridge]] before it gets a chance to roast the length of the bridge, chances are you'll die and have to go through the entire Upper Undead Burg all over again just to unlock the shortcut back to the bonfire. And this isn't even getting into actually fighting the creature itself.

** Mima back in ''Story of Eastern Wonderland'' has a pattern where she'll briefly charge... then ram the area below her. You're not fast enough to get out of the way after she's started moving.
** Yuuka was fond of this back in ''Lotus Land Story''. As a stage five boss, she'd stop and charge up... then hit 90% of the screen with an undodgeable laser (at least undodgeable if you didn't know that it was coming). In stage six, one of her patterns put a circle under the player. Following action-game instinct and moving away would kill you, since it was actually the safe spot.

* A particularly bad example can be found in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3: Uprising''. The final Allied mission has you going up against an Empire commander after choosing one of two locations to build your base on, no big deal. The northeast position looks far, far more defensible and has closer ore nodes, so most players will probably pick it on their first playthrough. However... [[spoiler:As soon as you kill off the Empire commander, the real Big Bad reveals himself and comes gunning for you. The map expands to accommodate his base and guess what - it's DIRECTLY north of the earlier mentioned starting position. Which before marked the edge of the map, so you probably have no defenses there whatsoever. And he starts out with a ridiculously huge and well-equipped strike force already rushing to attack you. Hell, there is a good chance his longer-ranged units will be shelling you before the cutscene even ends. If you didn't know this was coming you are basically GUARANTEED to die, and even when you're prepared it's a difficult battle.]]

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' and its standalone expansion, ''VideoGame/ForgedAlliance'', rely heavily on scripted events and changing objectives during the singleplayer campaign, often meaning you're screwed unless you took every possible precaution or knew what was coming. Huge enemy armies have a habit of popping up at the edge of the map when you least expect them, the map itself can expand in unexpected directions, you may suddenly receive objectives that are impossible to complete in your current state, and so on. The missions are actually fairly easy once you know what's about to happen, because you generally have unlimited time to prepare (despite the game [[ContinueYourMissionDammit nagging you to hurry up)]], but trying to pass a mission on the first try can be an exercise in frustration.
** The 4th Cybran mission is a perfect example of this. In the beginning, you're tasked with destroying an enemy base on an island and capturing a building. As soon as you finish this objective, the map expands and you see another base, far off to the west, which is already under attack by the enemy and asking for your help. Unless you have a large army prepared and ready to go (in transports, no less, and not sea units, as they won't get there fast enough), the mission is lost. There is no way to prepare for this unless you knew about it in advance.

** The worst of all of them is the [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption drink wine vs. don't drink wine choice]]. If you choose to drink wine, then [[spoiler:Durer claims you as a sex-slave and the game ends]]. If you don't drink the wine, then [[spoiler:you lose any hope of living and the game ends]]. The only choice that leads to the wine scene is [[UnwinnableByDesign choosing to prepare leather instead of the tools while making shoes in a totally unrelated scene]]. Fortunately, it is a Visual Novel, so the player is bound to have save states from before the leather scene, and the game gives enough hints at the player for it to deduce choosing leather before tools was the choice where things went downhill. After you make the choice.

* While few people try it, preferring to rely on walkthroughs, correctly mapping out how to find the various side routes and special endings in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo'' requires trying every option, writing down what happens, and then reloading to try the other ones. Most of the main plot can be reached through common sense deductions. Side routes require collecting every optional appearance of that particular character in order to unlock the final scenes, and there is literally NO way to know where and when those characters will appear other than visiting every place on the map and making notes of who was present on that date.

* Science is at its core trial and error. You observe a phenomenon, try to find an explanation, and then devise experiments to see if your explanation was right or not. You will get it wrong along the way. A '''lot''' of times. But each time you succeed, you have unlocked new possibilities to predict and manipulate natural phenomena in your favor.

* ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' had a section in world 7, where there was an AutoScrollingLevel with dead ends and no way to go back. There were 3 ways to go, and it happens several times. Technically there's a hint: [[spoiler:All of world 7 is symmetrical and you go through the autoscroll in the opposite direction much earlier]], but it's extremely easy to miss. Even if you suspect you missed something, it's ''much'' easier to just keep doing trial-and-error instead of going back to check.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' takes this to an extreme, especially in the mine cart and rocket barrel levels where a slightest mistake will cost you a life. It's even ''worse'' in the temple levels due to there being no checkpoints, so be prepared to be back at the start very often (and soon see the pig beckoning you to take the easy way out and use Super Guide).

** Their take on ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is particularly blatant, whether due to "follow the script" sequences that punish errors, or things as arbitrary as not giving a sandwich to a dog near the beginning of the game.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games can be this to a player trying to not lose any units, thanks to enemy reinforcements. Often, units will spawn behind where the player's main force is likely to be at a certain point in the battle, and one has healers, mages, and archers in the back. In some games or situations, reinforcements will announce themselves without warning, appear on the map in a spot pre-programmed but unknown to the player, move, and attack, all in a single enemy phase. Or it will just be one of those damn [[FogOfWar foggy levels]]. Newer games can disable FinalDeath via Casual Mode (or Phoenix Mode in ''Fates'', or the use of Mila's Turnwheel in ''Echoes''), but even then it'll be quite annoying to lose an unit even if just for one stage/turn.

* Many ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' 2D games are like this. Try running full speed ahead (the whole point of the series) only to run into an enemy as a result of having mere milliseconds to react to it once it appears. Better sections in the series will have a short wall or upward spikes to let you know when it's time to stop running.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and its sequel have a certain amount of boss fights which are basically puzzles where you have to find the right weapons or spells to bypass enemy defenses and immunities. Sometimes, you are not given any hint on how to face a challenge, nor advised about obstacles or enemy powers. For example, nobody tells you that a monster is immune to +3 and lesser weapons until you actively try to hurt it. The game implicitly encourages players to experiment with various combinations in order to find one that works. Sometimes, incredibly difficult fights become ridiculously easy once you accidentally discover the right solution. For example, [[spoiler:Kangaxx]] can be one of the most fearsome enemies, considering that it is immune to countless spells, weapons and types of damage, and can insta-imprison all party members without a warning. Until you discover that [[spoiler: Minsc's berserk rage ability makes him immune to any of Kangaxx's attacks]].

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' and its sequel have a certain amount of boss fights which are basically puzzles where you have to find the right weapons or spell to bypass enemy defenses or immunities. Sometimes, you are not given any hint on how to face a challenge, nor advised about obstacles or enemy powers. For example, nobody tells you that a monster is immune to +3 and lesser weapons until you actively try to hurt it. The game implicitly encourages players to experiment with various combinations in order to find one that works. Sometimes, incredibly difficult fights become ridiculously easy once you accidentally discoer the right solution. For example, [[spoiler:Kangaxx]] can be one of the most fearsome enemies, considering that it is immune to +3 and lower weapons, to countless spells and types of damage, and can insta-imprison all party members (and nobody tells you this). Until you discover that [[spoiler: Minsc's berserk rage ability makes him immune to any of Kangaxx's attacks]].

* These moments have popped up occasionally in the ''Mega Man'' series:

** The ''[[CompilationRerelease Mega Man Legacy Collection]]'' (a compilation of VideoGame/MegaMan 1-6) has "challenges", {{Time Trial}}s where you play through different parts of various stages from the games, with teleport orbs taking you from one part to the next. The problem is, you won't know beforehand which part of which stage you end up in when teleporting, and gameplay resumes immediately giving you no time to prepare. Most of these are fair, sending you to relatively safe areas, but one of them sends you ''smack in the middle of [[VideoGame/MegaMan2 Quick Man]]'s second [[ThatOneLevel laser pit]],'' where you have absolutely ''no'' time to react before a laser comes at you, so you have to start holding left ''before'' teleporting in. Good thing these challenges give you unlimited lives, and you respawn on the current stage when you die, but it still costs time.

** Quite possibly the most bizarre example of this is in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'', where one defeats a yeti by... [[spoiler: throwing a pie at it]]. And there are many more outrageous puzzles of this nature to be found in the game.
*** This is made even worse by Graham having the option to [[spoiler: eat the pie when he's about to starve]] instead of [[spoiler: eating (part) of a leg of lamb (which you may not have)]] so you ''can't'' defeat the yeti. This makes the game UnwinnableByDesign, with your only recourse to ''restart the game''. To top it off, the game never tells you that it's a lost cause to continue, either.

*** At one point, you are given a serious moral choice to make. It's fairly clear to most players what the "good" thing to do is. However, doing so involves getting through several dialogue choices. Picking the wrong one even once gives you a [[spoiler: bad ending]]. Oh, and this occurs right after some lengthy cutscenes.

** Well, FridgeLogic can help after the first playthrough. Hint: the character in danger of being killed needs the help of three white-magic casters, all of whom should be related to him. Oh, I'll just say it: [[spoiler: the required party is Cecil, Golbez, Rosa and Ceodore.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''[='=]s [[spoiler:Yunalesca]] is ThatOneBoss for a number of reasons, but one of them is just a classic case of this on the part of the developers. The second phase of the battle randomly casts Zombie on party members, and then heals them (which damages party members affected with Zombie). Because there is no way of restoring the hit points of any character with Zombie, the natural impulse of the player will thus naturally be to de-Zombify any character afflicted with the status. So what happens at the third phase of the battle? Naturally, she casts an instant death move that automatically kills any party member not afflicted with Zombie, even if they have Deathproof armour. There is absolutely no way of knowing that she will do this ahead of time. Oh, and there's an unskippable cutscene before the battle. This verges on FakeDifficulty and the fight is almost universally despised even by people who otherwise praise the game.

* ''Franchise/MonsterHunter'' is notorious for this. Although it's somewhat part of the design of the game it has very heavy instances of this. Many times newcomers to the series can be found exclaiming they don't understand what to do or are dying repeatedly to a monster and don't know how to beat it. The game gives very little useful information to the player about how to actually play the game well. The enemies are designed for the player to make mistakes and they will frequently be fatal mistakes. Sometimes the game also throws monsters that act as ThatOneBoss. The monster is often there to force players into using new strategies since old ones are outright punished. Barroth was this hurdle in "Monster Hunter Tri". Monsters before it were slower and hit for lower damage and had many openings. Barroth was fast and struck hard changing the pace of the fight from the previous fights while having much more difficult-to-discern openings.

* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' in precisely one instance: [[spoiler: Sans' boss battle. While not technically unwinnable on the first try, many of his attacks come so fast and thick you pretty much have to start moving before they appear.]] It is a deliberate instance of FakeDifficulty in order to make [[spoiler: [[WhatTheHellPlayer the player themselves to give up on playing the game]], thus leaving [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the survivors of your own bloody swath, necessary to even reach this point of the game]], in peace.]]

** Chapter 14 is particularly bad about this: The briefing says your mission is to capture the enemy camp, but ''nothing'' even remotely hints that, when you ''do'' capture it [[spoiler: two giant tanks appear from the top and bottom of the map, and your objective now is to destroy both of them]]. If you left your [[spoiler: Anti-Tank]] units behind, you're screwed. There's also Chapter 13, where the only path to the enemy camp [[spoiler: is blocked off by a minefield]]. If you forgot to bring [[spoiler: an Engineer, who can disarm mines]], you're pretty much forced to restart. There's absolutely no way you can know about that [[spoiler: minefield]] until it's already too late.

** The worst of all of them is the [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption drink wine vs. don't drink wine choice]]. If you choose to drink wine, then [[spoiler: Durer claims you as a sex-slave and the game ends]]. If you don't drink the wine, then [[spoiler: you lose any hope of living and the game ends]]. The only choice that leads to the wine scene is [[UnwinnableByDesign choosing to prepare leather instead of the tools while making shoes in a totally unrelated scene]]. Fortunately, it is a Visual Novel, so the player is bound to have save states from before the leather scene, and the game gives enough hints at the player for it to deduce choosing leather before tools was the choice where things went downhill. After you make the choice.

Creator/RonGilbert of Creator/LucasArts fame rants about this trend [[http://grumpygamer.com/2152210 here,]] and intentionally designed his games to avoid this trope (co-worker David Fox added that, unlike adventure games, "I know that in the real world I can successfully pick up a broken piece of mirror without dying"). Others who've decried the trend include [[http://blogs.ign.com/MarkRyan-IGN/2007/03/15/49320/ this IGN blogger]] and [[http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=336 Shamus Young]] (of ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'' fame).

** In ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', there's a decision game in Team C's route that requires them to roll 3 dice and have them all end in 1, them being excecuted if even one of the die ends up in a different number. There's no trick or alternate solution at all; the game does expect you to roll three dice and have them all land in 1 in one try. Probablity is not in your favour, and you'll more than likely die in your first tries. [[spoiler:Subverted in two different ways: first, you have a roughly 1/3 chance to get the roll right as opposed to the actual probability, and you're basically guaranteed to get all dice land in 1 on your third or fourth try. Secondly, the timeline where Team C loses the roll is fundamental to get the GoldenEnding.]]

* The infamously NintendoHard [[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls 'N Ghosts]] has an area a short ways into level 2 where you must jump onto rickety rope bridges to get over some sucking quicksand pits. What nobody tells you, of course, is that these rope bridges are programmed to break in a few specific, unmarked locations, usually over the center of the pit, so as to send you plummeting to your death with no recourse.

* ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' is much, much easier once you've memorized every obstacle instead of needing to react to everything as it comes.
** Up to avoid the the lower barrier, down to avoid the upper barrier, jump the low wall, up, up, down, down, jump, down, up, down, crash into the lower wall for the warp point!

* ''VideoGame/WaxWorks'' and the ''VideoGame/{{Elvira}}'' games are notorious for this kind of game play. The players are often given little clue as to how to solve some of the puzzles, with all sorts of deathtraps from nowhere, and too many ways to render the games unwinnable.

[[folder:SurvivalHorror]]
* In ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'', it is ''extremely'' easy to get lost due to the maze-like structure of the Sevastopol. While you do have a map to help pinpoint your location and where you need to go, you sometimes have to be on a certain floor or certain level of the station for the pinpoints to be exact. Not helping are how unpredictable the enemies in the game are, making it difficult to tell where they are going to and where they are even at.
* Much of the gameplay in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' revolves around avoiding hard-to-see traps, locating enemy weaknesses, solving certain puzzles that can result in instant death, and relying on stealth. Its [[VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2 2017 sequel]] fortunately downplays this in spite of the more open-world setting, since you now have a map that helps players pinpoint where they need to go.
* ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'' often had it so that the player character would have to do a bit of exploration in order to figure out where to go and how to complete the current objective. Not helping is the reliance on stealth, dark areas that make it impossible to see, and needing to be careful with maintaining your battery inventory. Its [[VideoGame/OutlastII sequel]] is [[UpToEleven even worse]] due to the more open-ended setting.
* Some of the earlier installments in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' franchise could be like this, in large part because the settings were so big that it was easy for the player to get lost. Plus, you'll encounter many obstacles that [[AbilityRequiredToProceed usually require some sort of key item to proceed]], and there's a significant emphasis on resource management.
[[/folder]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' in precisely one instance: [[spoiler: Sans' boss battle. While not technically unwinnable on the first try, many of his attacks come so fast and thick you pretty much have to start moving before they appear.]] It is a deliberate instance of FakeDifficulty in order to make [[spoiler: [[PlayingThePlayer the player themselves to give up on playing the game]], thus leaving [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential the survivors of your own bloody swath, necessary to even reach this point of the game]], in peace.]]