History GuideDangIt / SurvivalHorror

** ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'': To get the Good+ ending, you must save Kaufman from a monster in an optional (an easy to miss)building, and you must collect the red liquid (later revealed to be Aglaophotis, a form of AppliedPhlebotinum) from the broken vial in a plastic bottle, then, during the fight with the Puppet Cybil, throw it on her to exorcise the demonic parasite from her. The few in-game hints only remotely reference this substance's power, but scenario writer Hiroyuki Owaku stated that Cybil's fate after SH1 is left to players' imaginations.
*** This is not really a GuideDangIt, because you're not supposed to know how to use it until you get the Good ending, which is the only instance in the game which informs you of its purpose. The Plus endings are intended to be earned in replays.
** And that's not forget the Crematorium puzzle, also on Silent Hill 3's hard mode. Which requires you to know the real life habits of a particular, obscure bird most people don't know of, let alone know the real life habits of. Oh, and that's not to mention the part of the poem applied to this bird seems to identify an entirely different bird based on the poems provided in game.

**** To be fair, the poem is a nursery rhyme.

* ''ParasiteEve2'' is well-known for this. It has a lot of items and puzzles that can be easily missed.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Unturned}}'', a guide is often necessary when attempting to figure out the in-game crafting system. Made all the more difficult due to a [[InventoryManagementPuzzle limited inventory]].

* In ''TheDarkMeadow'', you have to find 10 gems in order to gain additional stats points that will help you beat the White Witch. Good luck trying to find them all without referring to the internet forums.

** [[spoiler: Failing to save another character in the game]] will also prevent you from getting the best ending.

** ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'': To get the Good+ ending, you must collect the red liquid (later revealed to be Aglaophotis, a form of AppliedPhlebotinum) from the broken vial in a plastic bottle, then, during the fight with the Puppet Cybil, throw it on her to exorcise the demonic parasite from her. The few in-game hints only remotely reference this substance's power, but scenario writer Hiroyuki Owaku stated that Cybil's fate after SH1 is left to players' imaginations.

*** In all Silent Hill games you can stomp on enemies to [[FinishingMove finish them off for good]], something you'll generally want to do since they can get back up again and keep attacking otherwise. But in ''VideoGames/SilentHillDownpour'' doing this makes it more likely you'll get a bad ending, even though it's been standard practice for the previous seven games. At no point is it ever hinted that the game is going to judge you for doing this.

*** ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'''s ending is determined by a hidden KarmaMeter that tracks how many good or evil points you accumulate through the game. Like in Silent Hill 2 the player isn't aware this is happening, but which actions contribute to which meter are fairly understandable (taking a lot of damage makes it more likely you'll get the bad ending, for example). However, at one point the player speaks to a woman in a confession booth who begs for forgiveness. Forgiving her gives you a massive number of dark points even though it seems like it would be the morally correct choice. If you've been paying very close attention to the game's convoluted lore you might be able to work out what the choice is actually about and why forgiving her is a bad idea, but even then it's extremely counter-intuitive.

*** And the clogged garbage chute in SH 2, which you have to drop a case of soda down to dislodge a critical puzzle item (see SoupCans).

** An entirely optional puzzle in the first level, the Akropolis Tower, allows you to enter an armory in a later level.

*** This is made even worse by a string of subtle clues that have been scattered throughout the hospital. The mysterious telephone voice you encounter in the locker room tells you that the psycho who's been leaving you love letters through the whole level so far is dead, and that his new name is number 7. Lo and behold, 7 is the number of the gurney he's lying on, and the accompanying poem very clearly refers to him. And yet, as noted above, the corresponding clue has ''nothing to do with any of this'', instead giving the aforementioned vague bird clue. Apparently you have to be a member of the Audobon Society to survive in Silent Hill.

** A Guide Dang It on all difficulties: the scene where Heather holds Claudia at gunpoint. If you shoot her, the God will possess Heather, resulting in a NonStandardGameOver. The solution is [[spoiler: to ingest the [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum Held Back Phlebotinum pill]] inside the pendant she's been carrying since the beginning of the game]]. You only know of its existence by examining the pendant, and like in [=SH1=], the in-game hints only vaguely reference its use.

** Beating a certain boss in under three minutes (not easy to do, at least not on your first game) [[spoiler: prevents an NPC's loyal pet dog from dying), which also affects the ending. Fail to save the dog, fail to get the best ending]].
** [[spoiler: Failing to save another character in the game]] will also prevent you from getting the best ending.

** Beating a certain boss in under three minutes (not easy to do, at least not on your first game) [[spoiler: prevents an NPC's loyal pet dog from dying), which also affects the ending. [[spoiler: Fail to save the dog, fail to get the best ending]].

** An entirely optional puzzle in the first level, the Akropolis Tower, allows you to enter an armory in a later level.

* Several unintentional examples in the first ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' game. One puzzle is focused around the children's game "Kagome-Kagome", which most Western players have never heard of (fortunately, it isn't too tough to solve by trial-and-error). Another came from the number combination locks on some doors. Even if you knew the combination, the lock had the numbers arranged counterclockwise with "zero" in the top position... and written in archaic kanji. Not a big problem for Japanese players, perhaps, but most Western players get totally stumped by what was intended as a very simple puzzle. Remakes of the game address this by replacing the kanji with numerals.

* ''{{Ao Oni}}'': Version 5.2 has a puzzle that requires knowledge of counting using a Soroban. This is no trouble for Japanese players, but this isn't the case for western audiences (however, downloading the game provides you with a Readme that tells you to look up a way of deciphering the answer). This puzzle (along with several others) were removed for Version 6.

* ''ResidentEvilOutbreak''. Try figuring out how to get all the SP items without a guide, much less try figuring out that they're even there in the first place since it's entirely possible to complete the whole game many times over without ever realising that they're there. And the "set" of items spawned on the map is determined by a [[{{LuckBasedMission}} random variable]] and further confusing people, some can only be obtained on certain difficulties and by certain characters. Have fun. Your reward for all of this? [[{{AndYourRewardIsClothes}} Costumes and alternate character models that play identically to existing characters]]

* In ''RuleOfRose'' many important plot-points are hidden out of the beaten path, and you can miss the introduction of one of the most important characters in the story if you don't know where to look in the first chapter. Also, you can't get the best ending unless you do the most unintuitive thing imaginable in the final bossfight: [[spoiler:give the first and only firearm that you have to the Stray Dog. He will shoot himself dead.]]

* ''SilentHill 3''. Let's put it this way: when the game gives you the option to set puzzles to "Hard", it is ''not'' joking around. You're either spending five minutes with a guide or five hours with the Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

** Same goes with ''SilentHill 2'' on the higher riddle difficulties.

** ''SilentHill 1'': To get the Good+ ending, you must collect the red liquid (later revealed to be Aglaophotis, a form of AppliedPhlebotinum) from the broken vial in a plastic bottle, then, during the fight with the Puppet Cybil, throw it on her to exorcise the demonic parasite from her. The few in-game hints only remotely reference this substance's power, but scenario writer Hiroyuki Owaku stated that Cybil's fate after SH1 is left to players' imaginations.

** A less annoying example but still valid, is that in order to complete the Event Checklist for each scenario and therefore unlock an extra mode, you are required to ''kill yourself'' in a specific way on ''two separate occasions''. One isn't so bad to figure out and might be accomplished by the player for [[{{VideoGameCrueltyPotential}} laughs or just out of curiosity]] but the other requires the player to stand around for close to ''two minutes'' while nothing happens with no indication that anything even ''will'' happen there.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZEqrPoma5c Pretty much what happens in the games.]]