Video game lessons learned the hard way

Pocket Card Jockey

• Forcing your horse to go runaway isn't a viable strategy. At all.
• The most important deciding factor in a race is how much energy you end with... though that doesn't mean you can afford to be in a bad position.
• This game does not have miraculous comebacks. A bad start guarantees you'll barely make third at best.
• On the subject of starting, you do NOT have any time to think. Either you have a bad start because you couldn't get the good starting cards, or you have a bad start from taking too long.

Persona Q

• Skills cost more in this game. Be stingy.
• Just because you think you can take the FOE doesn't mean you can take the FOE.
• Money may be scarce, but that's not an excuse not to upgrade your gear.
• Rotate the party to avoid having half your roster be dramatically underleveled.
• Can't Drop the Hero is in effect. One of your front-row slots is thus locked.

Wait, you can't put Narukami at the back line?

Elona Shooter - Watch your ammo and time your reloads when there's a lull in the action. Always hit the weakspots so you can take down enemies faster.

You can, actually, but the P4 Hero is set up for melee-type attacks, so he really should go on the front line.

Minato, on the other hand, should definitely go on the back line

I'm playing the P3 side, and this is before the two sides unite, so right now having Minato up front makes a certain amount of sense (especially since I'm trying to build up some of the team I neglected earlier - squishy or not, a Lv. 7 is going to tank a hit better than a Lv. 1).

Star Fox Zero

• For sharper aiming, use your motion controls!
• Seriously, you have a gamepad for a reason. Use it.
• Don't just fire wildly into the void. Place your shots, and especially make your bombs count.
• In general, quit your whining, boy, this is war!

Fire Emblem Fates: Just because your Kinshi Knight can shoot down flying units doesn't mean you should put them within range of enemy Kinshi Knights. Remember, they have bows, too.

Air Superiority tho

Fire Emblem Fates (Conquest):

• When you kill a Paired Up unit, its partner jumps out. Be ready to kill that one, too. (Learned during Chapter 6 when Hinoka died... and then Takumi jumped out and one-shotted Corrin.)
• The game likes piling squishy units on you early. Take great caution.

Persona Q

• Never take Zen/Rei out of the party. As I mentioned, SP costs in this game are higher than usual, so Serene Journey is invaluable.

Eh, that can cause issues late game; Zen and Rei are good, but their static moveset and inability to use a sub-persona will be a problem later on.

Meanwhile, the "free" HP and SP a sub-persona grants, combined with the Boost system, means that careful move selection (in both what to learn and what to use) can get you through a lot of battles without losing any "real" HP or SP.

Also, Light and Dark are more useful than ever, Incubus's Impure Reach boosts their success rate, and most non-bosses have a weakness to one of the two. So packing Ken and Koromaru (or just Naoto) can make fairly short work of most random encounters.

I just got to the Group Date Cafe. Most of my party has less than 70 SP, and the enemies here love multi-target attacks that make Boost impossible to hold onto long enough for it to matter. I need the SP regeneration.

Like I said, use Naoto. Once she gets Mahama and Mamudo and you give her a persona with Impure Reach, you'll be one-shotting entire groups if you check their weaknesses first. And if you want more coverage, not only is Group Date Cafe around the point that equippable persona start gaining Hama and Mudo spells in large numbers, you also have Ken and Koromaru.

Really, the trick is using sub-personas that give enough SP that you get a free use of Mahama or Mamudo no matter what, then wiping the enemy party in one shot or layering enough attacks that the survivors fall in that first turn. It is not perfect, however: if you need special drops, or if the enemy manages to incapacitate your caster(s), it will cause trouble.

@4909: Seconded. I made that exact same mistake earlier today when I did chapter 10 of Birthright for the first time.

For the record, I'm using Naoto. And my habits of rushing through games and forgetting that "grinding" is sometimes a necessity may be kicking me in the crotch here.

Oh yeah, that may be getting you. Despite appearances, Persona Q is gameplay-wise very much an Etrian Odyssey game, and that series often has minimum level expectations for bosses.

Shinobido

• When going through a particular route towards the objective is proving difficult, consider if it might not be better to use another route. Having a map of Utakata might be beneficial here.

Persona Q:

• Picking fights with a FOE is bad enough. It's worse if you're underleveled.
• Tapping a map icon will reveal more options for symbols and colors.

Persona 3 Portable:

• The PSP wasn't the most powerful of devices, so the images are badly compressed. Make sure to take frequent breaks or you'll start seeing everything with that fuzz around it.

Kirby's Dream Land 2:

• Kirby doesn't get healed at all when you join up with an Animal Friend. If you dismount or it gets defeated, you will be left at whatever health you had before you found the Animal Friend.

Sleeping Dogs:

• This is Hong Kong. The driver's seat is on the right.
• This is not Saint's Row. R2+Triangle is not going to let you hijack cars via a flying kick.
• Trying to steal a moving vehicle will get you run over.
• Have a light touch on the gas. The HKPD is pretty strict about damage to property.
• The game warns you up-front that you can only heal to the halfway mark after fights. Remember that.
  • That said, you don't need to worry too much about health, since maxing out the Face meter gives you a good amount of health back via regeneration.
• Health Shrines aren't one-use health refills, they're what you pray at to get health extensions. Good luck finding that one you skipped earlier before you figured that out.

Elemental Story: Cho Hakkai, while more or less a pushover when Hatia activates her second skill, the placement of members are vital to determine when her skill activates. Any mistakes in this means the support effect cancellation cannot be capitalized offensively.

Overwatch:

If you're stuck on a team with three Widowmakers vs an enemy team with a more balanced loadout, you're gonna be having a really bad day. Might want to consider just switching lobbies once the match is done.

Zelda: Twilight Princess (HD):

• Zora Armor looks cool
• Zora Armor is weak to fire
• Little goblin things shoot fire arrows

Off screen fire arrow one hit kills me because I wanted to look cool.

In Hero Mode.

With Ganondorf amiibo active.

Jesus fuck that single arrow just shaved through, I dunno, 8 whole Hearts!