Markup View

Author: krimsh

Jul 4th 2011 at 12:17:33 PM

It's That One Anything, combined with absolutely zero consequences for failure. Bonus points for UnexpectedGameplayChange or forced use of a ScrappyMechanic.
Aielyn's got the idea.
Where the Tomb of Amenti example from ValkyrieProfile can be expanded: the reason that the whole dungeon (which would be ThatOneLevel in some cases, especially walking in unprepared) isn't a frustration puzzle is because the majority of it is exactly what you would expect - dungeon platforming, navigating traps, some basic puzzle-solving, and a modified RPG-style combat system. At the end, you reach a segment of several screens where you have to navigate around traps, you have little flying B*@#&rds hunting you that, when they touch you, send you back to the beginning of the section with no consequences, and no cost other than time and frustration (even in universe) - and while you can leave any time you like, you can't complete the dungeon without going through that nonsense. Frustration puzzles deliberately screw with the ''player'' and generally have no impact whatsoever on the characters. It's the latter part that's key - the character(s) suffer no consequences for failure (failure tends to result in some form of ResetButton), while you sit there fuming and trying to break your controller in pieces.