Video game lessons learned the hard way

More The Imperial Gatekeeper:

• It's not just "Pat Down" that gets restored by the restoration patch. The censored version of this game is outright Unintentionally Unwinnable.
• ID cards, passage tickets, and long-term passes all have the Imperial snake emblem on them. It's amazing how easy this is to miss.
• When you point out a problem with someone's papers, they may attempt to bribe you or beg you to reconsider. In the former case, it's never worth the pittance of gold they offer. In the latter case, they'll no longer leave when their Stress Gauge runs out; take of that as you will.
• When you're looking for criminals on wanted posters, don't get hung up in the regular checks and ignore that you're actually looking at one of them.
• If you don't have the Metal Detector by the time you unlock the fourth area, get it. You'll need it.
• The most common places to find concealed weapons are hanging around the neck, strapped to the right thigh, across the back, and around the waist.
• Like the brothel workers from Papers, Please, the fortune-teller always has her documents in order.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

No matter how good you think you are, if you're on a new game... Gleeoks WILL be a pain in the ass. Doable, but a pain.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: You can hover over the card icons in choices to see exactly what card you'll get, so you don't have to risk making a bad choice just to get it.

Always be extra careful if the 'New Game' screen is identical to the 'Load Game' screen.

Started a new save file over my 95% completed run of Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy that way.

My condolences.

Final Fantasy X:

• Petrification is an instant kill underwater.
• The first Mt. Gagazet puzzle has two rotating parts, not just one.
• Elemental affinity takes priority over damage.
• You can select enemies while healing and allies when attacking. Watch the cursor.

Not only is it an instant kill, but if a petrified character is shattered (whether underwater or because they were attacked while turned to stone), their slot in the party is locked out - you can't call a new character in to replace them. Not that this matters so much underwater, since you can only use three of your characters anyway, but it's worth noting.

Cult of the Lamb: Sins of the Flesh -

Special followers like Narinder are not immune to being damned if you make them sin too much, which can easily happen if you just want sin right away and don't pay attention to who's been sinning so much. On the flipside you're still able to resurrect a follower that dies this way.

Left 4 Dead 2:

• Gas Cans + Jockey + Ladder equals a swift restart even if the bots are competent to kill the infected before the incap.
• Sometimes, you're better off leaving the bots for dead and making a wild dash for it.
• Bleedout mutation is painful. Possibly even harder than Realism Expert (and that has its own quirk with the infected and witch. The only saving grace? Temporary health does not run out in safe-rooms.
• Do not attempt Four Samurai mutation with bots. Especially on Expert. They're too dumb to rescue you from Smokers, they can't juke a Tank or

Edited by Thartler on Jan 22nd 2024 at 11:43:19 AM

Palworld:

• The Pal spheres won't catch defeated enemies. You need to use the spheres on the target before their HP reaches zero. Oh, and you can't recover thrown balls that missed, either.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life:

• There is an ingredient that can apparently be only obtained via Lou, so she's among the people to bribe mercilessly during the first chapter.
• Don't plant all your good seeds when you get some, especially if one of the habits you picked up from the longer seasons in the other games of the series is being a little too relaxed about watering.

Edited by Nazetrime on Jan 24th 2024 at 9:09:19 PM

Not just that Doctor Zhar, you cant even use a Phoenix Down on them.

Rune Factory 4 : Yes, you've finally managed to unlock Rune Prana! Too bad it's an absolute bitch, and every new area is a big step up in difficulty. You'd better have done a lot of grinding (both combat and "everyday chores"-wise) if you want to stand a chance.

Unpacking:

• The hangers with clips on them cannot be used to hold shirts.
• You can stack things higher than you might think.
• Our heroine has no idea what "efficient packing" is, so you're going to find items in one room's boxes that need to be in another room entirely.

Palworld:

• Fire spreads on wood structures fast in this game... REALLY fast. Ended up losing a whole 2-story building to one after some random raid, and my water Mons- er, "Pals" - were nowhere near fast enough to extinguish the flames in time.

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (on the PS 4 collection):

some people refer to the Cavern of Remembrance as post-game content. They would be *VERY* correct in their assessment, because that white corridor where Nobodies keep popping up every couple of steps is expecting you to know how to *actually* fight in this game.

Bioshock 1:

• Electrified bodies of water damage anyone who comes in contact with them. Anyone.
• Failure to hack into a device in time will lead to it short circuiting, which will damage you.
• Catching objects with telekinesis is, like Dr. Suchong said, a matter of reaction time.
• Enemeies will retain the damage you dealt to them before you died.
• If you are not prepared to fuck with a Big Daddy, then do NOT fuck with a Big Daddy.

Dark Souls III:In the Ringed City, there is a optional boss the player can fight called Darkeater Midir. Being aggressive won't work on this massive dragon and he will punish you for it. Instead be patient and attack Midir's head when ever you get the opportunity to do so.

Edited by RichardBranagh on Jan 30th 2024 at 5:33:08 AM

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: If the game tells you to find or destroy a multiple of something as part of a side mission (IE eat 3 popcorns or find 2 secret passages) you have to do it all in one go.

More Exocolonist: You don't lose the extra Kudos you gain from having no Bio-Augmentation if you decide to get one later by maxing out your Biology skill to unlock genome remapping at the Engineering building.

Final Fantasy (at least in the Pixel Remaster version): Sleeping at an inn heals HP and MP, but not status effects like poison. I hope you remembered to stock up on antidotes!

Another one for Exo: The difficulty levels for skill checks are fixed. All this time, I thought they went down as I collected more powerful cards and increased my stats, but it wasn't until I got the scene where two Organization skill checks had different difficulty levels, regardless of my deck or stats.

Live A Live:

• In the Near-Future chapter, when Doc Tobei is about to modify something, once the music stops, he'll say "Hmm?" one to four times. The more times he says it, the higher the chance he'll succeed on the modification. One "Hmm" means it will always fail; four "Hmm"s mean it will always succeed.

Yet more Exo tips:

• Don't rely on the Autoplay Fairy too much because it while it'll give you a slightly higher hand in card challenges, it doesn't always give you the highest possible one.
• There is no confirmation screen if you press "Next Round" in a card challenge, so don't click on it too fast or you'll end up throwing the challenge and fail.

Edited by TroperNo9001 on Feb 10th 2024 at 1:18:48 AM

My Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life woes continue:

• Yes, I was serious about the seed thing. Carrots are suprisingly easy to lose during the flowering stage for something that has two growth seasons.
• Van only sells the goat during Spring. If you can afford it, grab it.
• The fact that the game doesn't bother telling the duck and chicken eggs apart can have quite interesting implications when a fertilized egg shows up in your coop that has only ever consisted of the duck pair and a couple hens. What in the world have you been up to, Donald? On a totally unrelated topic, I'd like to sell this newly adult hen, please.

Edited by Nazetrime on Feb 14th 2024 at 9:52:36 PM

The Last Faith:

• This is, in many ways, a modern Castlevania game wearing Bloodborne's clothes. There will be backtracking.
• The bomb-throwing pirates blow themselves up when they die.
• As years of video game experience should have taught you, red barrels blow up.
• Do not be afraid to indulge in Die, Chair, Die!. Breakable objects can drop Healing Injections.
• The robe-wearing Cold Ones? The ones that hulk out when they attack? They can jump between floors to chase after you once they're aggroed.
• Spikes can kill you, but this seems to be inconsistent. They may only kill you if your health's low.

Darkest Dungeon II:

• Know When to Fold 'Em.