Video game lessons learned the hard way

People who played vanilla KHII and/or BBS should think/know that Leaf Bracer is pretty damn important, and in 1's Final Mix that is STILL an accurate statement.

Seriously. Leaf Bracer. Super-important.

Level 1 runs go without it. I cannot wrap my head around how people manage that.

Tales of Symphonia:

• Make sure to have as much supplies as you need when you're fighting a boss.

• The mechanics of the games are not as polished as the later Tales games, so expect some weirdness.

I can only assume that the players in question have achieved some form of video game-applicable Charles Atlas Superpower.

• Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage: Using the "Free Mode" mechanic, you can use one character to play another character's Dream Mode missions — such as using Toki for a bit of Thouzer's story. This is useful for getting the discipline-based killcount trophies (5000 kills a piece with Hokuto Shinken, any variant of Nanto Seiken, and Hokuto Ujoken).

The "lesson learned the hard way", is that if you clear someone's storyline using a different character in this manner, you don't get to see the ending cutscene. You do get the trophy for clearing that character's storyline, but not the ending. To get the ending scene, you have to beat the final mission again with the intended character.

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones

• Don't just worry about whether an enemy you're baiting will kill your unit if you're trying to steal an item they don't drop normally, worry about whether your unit will kill them too.
• Chapter 17 will give your lord (or Eirika, at least) items directly and not let you send them to the convoy. Clear the inventory out or feel the distress of having to toss away items.

Space Station 13: The Goonstation Adventures Continue

• You can't lay down after buckling into a chair, i.e. if you get lit on fire you can't stop drop and roll without unbuckling, i.e. if you're on fire for long enough to lose the ability to use your arms then you'll just burn to death strapped to a chair.
• This game's very VERY liberal in applying Schmuck Bait. If something says "pick me up" or "touch me!" then don't do either of those things.
  • Related: if someone uses the hand labeler to label an artifact that looks conspicuously like a cyborg docking station as giving you "metal skin," it'll proooooooooobably convert you into a cyborg in an incredibly bloody fashion.
• Don't take on-the-house drinks from the Barman that they offered you in the first place, because chances are it's some really f**king weird recipe involving spider eggs, hallucinogens, and mercury or something.

• Fire Emblem Heroes
  • It doesn't play nice with rooted and/or custom ROM'd devices, courtesy of Google's SafetyNet API. There goes half a GB off my data-capped home WiFi. Bleh.

Dark Souls II, and by all accounts the rest of the series as well:

(only a few hours in)

• Losing all your souls and having to go re-collect them when you die is a setback, but not that major of a concern in the grand scheme of things. The greater problem is that when you die, YOUR MAX HP GOES DOWN.
• Expect an enemy to be around every corner. If you find a corner and there isn't an enemy there, dodge roll away just in case. There may have been one sneaking up behind you while you were looking at the corner.
• It's not paranoia when basically everything really is trying to kill you.

Deus Ex:Human Revolution

• Always try to find different ways to complete the mission.

• Sometimes, going in guns blazing isn't the best way.

• Always try to upgrade your Augments as much as possible.

Factorio: Set an alarm to go off every hour or so, or you will lose track of time. (Even as a lifelong gamer, I always assumed reports of such issues in this game were exaggerated, as they have been in my experience with other games, even stuff like Civ. Now I know better.)

Dark Souls II:

• When — not if, when — you die, you're probably better off just quitting the game and moving on to something else for a while. The absolute WORST thing you can do while playing this game is let yourself get frustrated, because that is the moment when things go From Bad to Worse.

Lost 30k souls in DS 1 to the fucking Bonewheel Skeletons, I know how that feels.

That is why you do not hoard souls unless there is something specific you're trying to acquire with them.

I'm at the point where that's what a level costs, I didn't have much of a choice.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix

• I'm assuming this is true of all Summons that aren't Tinker Bell (since most of them use ▵ for other things) but Bambi in particular disables access to your attack abilities such as Ragnarok.
• On that note, attack abilities are more important than you think. Summons that aren't Tinker Bell are exactly as important as you think.
• Using your ▵ attacks against the Pink Agaricus prompts Donald and Goofy to attack it, which ultimately reduces your score and hurts the chances of getting its rare drop.

edited 18th Aug '17 4:26:53 PM by NesClassic

Mario Kart 7:

The Difficulty Spike doesn't start with 150cc as in previous games. It starts with 100cc.

edited 18th Aug '17 5:06:14 PM by MyFinalEdits

Not that I've done it myself yet, but apparently a popular strategy for maxing out the Pink Agaricus hitcount involves at least two applications of Ragnarok on it.

Eyup, and Aeroga as well.

The part of the strategy I'm missing is getting Dolan and Gooby stuck behind a wall somewhere, which I'm still not sure on how to do. If you don't do that then Ragnarok will prompt them into attacking the Agaricus.

I'm sure there are videos of how to do it on youtube.

There are videos of how to do basically everything on youtube.

Including, I'm sure, on how to beat the freaking giant boss in Dark Souls II that rips his own freaking arm off to use as a bludgeon on me.

And on that note....

Dark Souls II:

• The boss in the forest area, once you have him to about half health or so, will rip off his own freaking arm to use it as a bludgeon on you. This increases his reach by A WHOLE LOT MORE than you'd think it does.

edited 21st Aug '17 12:44:39 AM by EvaUnit01

• Might and Magic VI is absolutely evil about its surprise enemy ambushes out of nowhere.

edited 21st Aug '17 10:56:25 AM by ZuTheSkunk

The entire point of the first Temple of Baa (the first non-abandoned one, to be precise) is to drill that lesson into your skull.

BOOONG!

Final Fantasy X HD: the "Chocobo Master" trophy (win the race at Remiem Temple while getting five chests in the process) is GODDAMN BULLSHIT.

As far as I can tell, there is exactly one course you can take that has any kind of chance at giving you five chests and still having half a chance in hell of you actually winning the race, and you have to run it basically completely perfectly because the margin of error is maybe half a second.

What makes it even more annoying is that winning the race with only one or two chests is easy enough as to be insulting in comparison.

Mario Kart 7

The Glider uses inverse controls and when to use it comes up fast. Also running into the finish line sign of Neo Bowser City like an idiot doesn't mean you passed the finish line.

Unlike previously 100cc doesn't seem that bad but 150cc is outright cutthroat. The NPC's at least screw each other over more than previous games.

There are way more shortcuts than usual. Learn the course and take advantage.

Game balance can be used to justify all sorts of stupid shit.

Sid Meier's Civilization V (probably the rest of the series)

Gun troops should not have half the range of a fucking crossbow. Hell, you might be able to justify it if your troops were wielding pistols or shotguns, but even a high powered shotgun can hit 150 yards away with a spread ONLY as big as a fist. The weird short ranged wide spread nature of a shotgun is heavily exaggerated. Unfortunately, without mods (I haven't looked yet for any to fix this) your gun troops have to step right next to their targets, rather than building a no-man's land of Hell like they did in the World Wars.

Sadly, you need to upgrade to them. I refused to because of the range, but my enemies certainly haven't, and I've begun losing wars.

Final Fantasy X (and X-2 for that matter) both get incredibly nasty with optional content. The trophies are just continuing that tradition.