History GuideDangIt / SurvivalHorror

** The 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 [[Main/}}Confessional}} 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 and match it with the context of the decision, you might be able to work out what the choice is actually about and why forgiving her is a bad idea: [[spoiler:while priests of varying denominations do hear confessions, actually granting absolution is the domain of God. By forgiving the woman within a church's confessional, Heather is accepting the mantle of God. This is ''not'' a good thing, since the God in question is the one that the Silent Hill cult worships.]]

* The earlier entries in the franchise can be hell without a proper guide, considering the open-ended nature of each of the games, the complex puzzles that needed to be solved, and the large amount of backtracking that's usually required. Though the games do provide hints on how to solve each individual puzzle, they're either too vague or there's a pretty good chance one might skip over it since there's often a lot of reading involved. This is especially frustrating if one would be attempting to complete a speedrun.

** Similarly, to get the good ending when playing as Chris, Chris has to save Rebecca from being killed by a Hunter. However, for this to even happen, Chris must refrain from entering the guard house, which ''this'' either requires saying no to her in the storeroom or fail to bring Richard the serum in time.

** Finding and destroying all fifteen of the Mr. Raccoon toys is quite a challenge without guidance. Though a select few are in plain sight, most of them are either hidden, exclusive to each campaign, or [[PermanentlyMissableContent appear in one-shot areas that would require having to start all over if you missed it]]. The only hint you are given to their presence is the a very faint rattling noise that they make.
** Specific weapons work best on certain enemies, and vice-versa (e.g. the lickers are hurt most by the acid rounds in Claire's grenade launcher). However, the game never tells you any of this.[[note]]This is softened somewhat by being a recurring mechanic in the series, as every appearance of the grenade launcher includes elemental weaknesses. These also generally follow video game logic as well; hairy enemies tend to be weak to fire, scaly to acid, etc., with the basic rounds being the neutral option.[[/note]]

** There are 30 BSAA emblems hidden throughout the game that you can shoot to unlock certain bonus features, but when we say hidden, we very much mean it. Especially noteworthy is the second-to-last emblem, which requires you to throw a grenade at one of the open crates due to being ''literally'' out-of-sight.
** The game does not tell you that you can perform specific melee attacks from the very start. Chapter 3-1 has a clipboard that introduces the player to such attacks, but only the basics of it. This is especially frustrating considering how useful melee would've been prior to this discovery.

** Attempting to get the good ending is achieved by switching to Moira in the middle of a QuickTimeEvent at the end of Claire's episode 3 when the boss [[spoiler:(Neil)]] lands on Claire and knocks the gun out of her hand, resulting it to slide to Moira. In the previous two episodes, the game often drilled it into the player that Moira would never use guns under any circumstances and it generally isn't possible to switch characters in the middle of said QTE's. Only by leaving the tutorial function on and waiting 3 seconds does the "Switch Character" command appear, hinting at the possibility.

The game hints at the methods by a self-help magazine in the first building of the apartments, on the second floor. However, it is only available on the second play through and beyond and even if it is noticed, the player may be puzzled and brush it off as a RedHerring there only to add atmosphere. However, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, and this ending award system has its fans due to how unusual it is, and this was the first Silent Hill game where play-style influences the ending.
** In the [=PS2=] version only, getting the Dog Ending unlocks [[spoiler:a minimap and a save-anywhere function]]. Don't remember this? That's because they're hidden behind convoluted button codes, which weren't found ''by anyone'' until 2018.

** [[http://everything2.com/title/Silent+Hill+3 This hideous puzzle]], involving a keypad, and a poem about mutilating a face from which you are supposed to deduce the code. Even if you manage to figure out that the face corresponds to the keypad, you also need to figure out what parts of the face correspond to which buttons, and even then you end up with five numbers instead of the four needed. If you want to know exactly how much effort it asks of you to solve it, see [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/914765/54297 here (search for "IV-b-3")]] for the solution. It doesn't help that a note from [[StalkerWithACrush Stanley]] about the puzzle mentions "4 numbers would've been good enough, but he kept on going", even though the code ''is'' only four numbers. Even worse, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWo_aivgxrs&t=9m53s it turns out the puzzle was made much, much harder due to a miscommunication during development.]] The writers assumed the first row of the keypad would be "7-8-9", and the artists assumed the first row would be "1-2-3", and then when someone tried to fix the puzzle to match the new keypad layout, they switched two of the numbers.

** The 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: [[spoiler:Granting absolution is the domain of God. By forgiving the woman, Heather accepts the mantle of God. This is ''not'' a good thing.]]

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'': The game has four endings, based on combinations of two factors that the game barely hints at. The first factor is what percentage of hauntings Henry exorcised in his apartment (threshold is <80% or 80%+). The second is how much damage Eileen takes while in Henry's care. As Eileen is damaged it is hinted that [[spoiler: Walter Sullivan begins to possess her.]] At the end of the game, [[spoiler: when you fight the Big Bad, Eileen will be possessed by Walter Sullivan and will walk to her death, unless the player kills the Big Bad and stops her. The faster she travels, the more damage she took over the course of the game (less damage = higher resistance to possession = slower speed). Note that even if Eileen took no damage throughout the course of the game, she can still die if you fail to save her in time.]]
** The player has candles that can be used to remove the hauntings in Henry's apartment. These candles have a second use: the player can use them ''to heal Eileen from all of her wounds'' [[spoiler:and this makes the final battle a little bit easier because her lack of injuries means she'll walk at the slowest pace]]. ''Nothing'' in the game ever indicates that this can be done.
* A frustrating inversion occurs with the joke UFO Endings, which in most ''Silent Hill'' games are intended as hidden bonuses for dedicated players and are therefore very hard to unlock, requiring the player to take a series of non-obvious actions at specific points in the game and are usually only accessible on a second playthrough. The exception to this is ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'', where the UFO ending is no more difficult to get than any of the "real" endings is therefore extremely easy to acquire on your first time playing the game, leading to a nonsensical and unsatisfying GainaxEnding. Particularly bad if the player isn't a Silent Hill fan and isn't aware that the UFO ending is meant to be a joke.

** ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' keeps track of 3 types of kills: melee, ranged and unarmed, and each has its own related Accolade. (Basically an Achievement) If you're going for the melee or ranged Accolades, bear in mind that stomping an enemy to finish it off ''counts as an unarmed kill'', something the game fails to tell you until you reach the end and wonder why you have such a massive number of unarmed kills compared to everything else. In order to acually register a melee or ranged kill, you have to have a weapon equipped at the time you deliver the finisher. Since the game uses BreakableWeapons, this is a lot harder than it sounds.

** Getting the InfinityPlusOneSword and InfinityPlusOneElement of the magick system, as can be expected, both take some effort. The former requires extensive backtracking through a ruin riddled with death traps, and the latter is easy to screw up because it's a multi-step process involving multiple chapters and one devious use of the Reveal Invisible spell which isn't hinted at, at all.[[note]]In context, the game seems to expect you to still be under the effects of the spell when you enter the right hallway, but if you dawdle so long that it wears off, you would never know to look for anything.[[/note]]

** ''Fatal Frame I'' has a moment in its beginning where a ghost suddenly appears on the floor below Mafuyu, with all the trademark signs of a spiritual appearance, and you'd think you need to take a picture of him for the Ghost List. That's not the case. Even if the player can turn around and take a picture of where the ghost is before he disappears, it doesn't count as an actual picture. So the player may spend hours looking up guides to see how this ghost is caught, until they learn that it isn't part of the Ghost List. Just the ''one instance'' of a ghost appearing for advancing the plot.

** Good luck figuring out how to get the various endings in ''Fatal Frame II: Deep Crimson Butterfly'' New Game Plus without a guide. Contrary to the first game and the original second game, where your ending was determined by finishing the game on Nightmare or Fatal difficulty, the Wii remake altered the conditions entirely. The ''difficulty'' played on didn't matter anymore. It was based on viewing -- or not viewing -- completely optional scenes in Chapter 8 between Mio and Mayu, and how fast the player has defeated [[TheDragon The Kusabi]] or even [[BigBad Sae]].
** Finding all the tiny dolls in the ''Fatal Frame IV'' is incredibly difficult without a guide handy or knowing where they are beforehand. Some are rather easy to find, like being very noticeable under a desk or upon entering a room. But then there are some stuck in plants or in a small space only visible if you stop in the middle of a staircase.

** Specific weapons work best on certain enemies, and vice-versa (e.g. the lickers are hurt most by the acid rounds in Claire's grenade launcher). However, the game never tells you any of this.

** 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 [[ChekhovsGun Aglaophotis 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.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' has a fire extinguisher that must be used early in the game, but it runs empty after use leading players to store it. However, it's best to keep it in the item box rather than the security deposit box on the Prison because the fire extinguisher can be refilled once you get to Antarctica. Doing so can help put the fire out that's blocking access to the [[InfinityPlusOneSword magnum]]. The security deposit boxes aren't linked to the item boxes, so if you happen to store the fire extinguisher there instead, it becomes a PermanentlyMissableContent because you [[PointOfNoReturn won't be able to return to the Prison after going to Antarctica]]. Because of the large gap in-between each segments, there's no exact hint that the fire extinguisher will be needed again. Though the fact that you can still hold on to the fire extinguisher after it's been used up could be a clue that it can be refilled.

** The fountain that appears late in the game requires placing medals of a wolf and eagle into hollow slots in order to open up the staircase underneath the fountain. By this point, you'd have obtained the Last Book Vol.1 and Vol.2 but there is seemingly nothing of value to them. However, the medals are located ''inside'' these books, which requires examining them and rotating to the opening side of the book. No other puzzle in the game requires doing such, making it an example of this troop. The remake is gives an early hint at this since examining a book is required to get the sword key.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', clickers kill you in one hit & you're told that they use echolocation & can't see. You're not told that if any part of your body (other than your fist) touches any part of their body, they'll instantly kill you even if they're stunned or looking the other way. Good luck not touching an enemy you're supposed to beat to death with a brick.

* ''VideoGame/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]].
** 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.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'':
** Attempting to get the good ending is achieved by switching to Moira in the middle of a QuickTimeEvent at the end of Claire's episode 3 when the boss [[spoiler:(Neil)]] lands on Claire and knocks the gun out of her hand, resulting it to slide to Moira. In the previous two episodes, the game often drilled it into the player that Moira would never use guns under any circumstances and it generally isn't possible to switch characters in the middle of said QTE's. Only by leaving the tutorial function on and waiting 3 seconds does the "Switch Character" command appear, hinting at the possibility.
** Slightly less irritating are the traps in the first factory area in the same episode arc. You'll often find writings on the wall which are meant to guide you, but aren't always clear enough. Examples include the spiked ceiling to put the eye back on after it breaks a taller statue holding a key then a room full of lasers where you have to follow a set of blue footprints made visible by Moira's [[{{SeeTheInvisible}} flashlight]] then using the glass eye found there in the first trap area.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'':
** Finding and destroying all fifteen of the Mr. Raccoon toys is quite a challenge without guidance. Though a select few are in plain sight, most of them are either hidden, exclusive to each campaign, or [[PermanentlyMissableContent appear in one-shot areas that would require having to start all over if you missed it]]. The only hint you are given to their presence is the a very faint rattling noise that they make.
** Specific weapons work best on certain enemies, and vice-versa (e.g. the lickers are hurt most by the acid rounds in Claire's grenade launcher). However, the game never tells you any of this.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', clickers kill you in one hit & you're told that they use echolocation & can't see. You're not told that if any part of your body (other than your fist) touches any part of their body, they'll instantly kill you even if they're stunned or looking the other way. Good luck not touching an enemy you're supposed to beat to death with a brick.
** There are also achievements/trophies for unlocking all of the shiv doors, which can be easy to miss in the gorgeous sprawling, semi-linear levels with little backtracking as well as collecting all of the comic books, Fireflies pendants, artifacts, and training manuals, some of which are behind the aforementioned shiv doors and those that aren't are in corners of rooms you may not notice you can get to, or past ledges that may not immediately seem traversable. All in all getting all 141 collectibles without consulting a guide is very difficult, especially on higher difficulties where resources are significantly scarcer and more precious.

* In ''VideoGame/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 boss fight: [[spoiler:give the first and only firearm that you have to the Stray Dog. He will shoot himself dead.]]
* ''VideoGame/AoOni'': 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.

* In ''VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame'', it ''is'' possible to kill Jason, but only if specific steps are taken. First and foremost, Tommy Jarvis must be summoned, which can only happen once the CB radio is used and after at least two players either escape or die. Aside from Tommy, at least two counselors must still be alive, one of them female. The female counselor must find Jason's shack and retrieve Pamela's sweater, but upon entering his shack, Jason will be alerted. Jason's mask must also be removed, which requires attacking him repeatedly: a very risky objective that can lead to counselors' death in the attempt. Once Jason's mask is off, the counselor with Pamela's sweater must stun him, after which the other counselors must attack him until he falls to his knees, after which Tommy must finish him off before the stun wears off. The sweater stun only works once per game, so this requires a great deal of coordination between the counselors to succeed.
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'': Too many to count in the original trilogy, as well as ''The New Nightmare'', but some examples:
** Pregzt, the final boss. What in the game hints at [[KillItWithFire burning him with the lamp]]? Nothing in the game, but the [[AllThereInTheManual instruction manual]] has specific directions for what to do, only written backwards, i.e. ''eert eht fo retnec eht ta ti worht dna pmal eht thgiL''. Guide Dang It, indeed, because most people ignore PC game instruction manuals outright, if they got one with the game at all. There's only a painting in the gallery that hints this.
** In the third game, you find a shotgun... but there are no shotgun shells in the entire game. The only ammo is the gold coins that Jim "Lone Miner" Burris carries, which can only be obtained by hitting him with the whip.
* ''Many'' of the conditions necessary to unlock secondary objectives in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' are... unintuitive, at best, and the hints given if you're to replay a mission are typically pretty vague. It's only exacerbated by the fact that these objectives are unlocked for missions that will take place quite a bit later in the game, so it's not like one can make an educated guess on their first playthrough. Some examples include "wetting and freezing a towel so you can later create a distraction by laying it over a gap, putting a ceramic object on it, and waiting for the towel to melt," "knocking over a series of unobtrusive stone markers for no clear reason," and "telling a [[EscortMission character you're escorting]] to hide in a specific place so that she'll find a key which ''you can't see yourself,'' because if the character ''you're controlling'' were to pick up the key instead of her, the secondary objective wouldn't make sense."

*** The very first puzzle in the game, the bookstore puzzle, is practically impossible on Hard without a functioning knowledge of the Complete Works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare. And even then, some of the clues are counterintuitive (e.g. The clue about "a game of turning white to black and black to white"? ''It isn't referring to Theatre/{{Othello}}''.).
*** The keypad puzzle in the hospital, where the solution is cryptically explained in a poem about [[EyeScream mutilating someone's face]].
*** 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. 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 ''[[RedHerring 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.

The game hints at the methods by a self-help magazine in the first building of the apartments, on the second floor. However, it is only available on the second play through and beyond and even if it is noticed, the player may be puzzled and brush it off as a RedHerring there only to add atmosphere. However, TropesAreNotBad, and this ending award system has its fans due to how unusual it is, and this was the first Silent Hill game where play-style influences the ending.

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame''

* Getting the Golden Apple in VideoGame/HelloNeighbor Alpha 4. It's not necessary to progress in the game (it just unlocks a cutscene), but the steps to get it are difficult to figure out and there's no in-game hint towards it. The steps are these:

** 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]]

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'': The final version of the "Beginning Hour" demo gives a purpose for the Dummy Finger item, as it's attached to a dummy hand, then used in conjunction with several clues to point out the location of murders that took place in the house. The clues themselves aren't too hard to decipher, but the processes for obtaining them can be very unintuitive and oblique. The final clue, in particular, is not only ''absurdly'' hard to discover through experimentation alone, but every walkthrough for the demo lists different prerequisites for making it appear!

* The earlier entries in the franchise can be hell without a proper guide, considering the open-ended nature of each of the games and the complex puzzles that needed to be solved.

* ''Franchise/AloneInTheDark'': Too many to count in the original trilogy, as well as ''The New Nightmare'', but some examples:

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

* A frustrating inversion occurs with the joke UFO Endings, which in most ''Silent Hill'' games are intended as hidden bonuses for dedicated players and are therefore very hard to unlock, requiring the player to take a series of non-obvious actions at specific points in the game and are usually only accessible on a second playthrough. The exception to this is ''VideoGames/SilentHillHomecoming'', where the UFO ending is no more difficult to get than any of the "real" endings is therefore extremely easy to acquire on your first time playing the game, leading to a nonsensical and unsatisfying GainaxEnding. Particularly bad if the player isn't a Silent Hill fan and isn't aware that the UFO ending is meant to be a joke.

** How to get any of the endings. Yuuri and Miu have two Endings each -- with Ren having four -- that are separated into Good or Bad Ending. Yuuri's Endings are still simple enough, since the only factor is during which phase the player uses Glance on [[BigBad Ouse]]. Miu's becomes a bit more complicated because hers is based on taking one step too far and starting a cutscene or waiting in time to take a picture of her mother, though the player does get a prompt to use the Camera Obscura in time. Ren has his endings separated into two pairs of Bad and Good, depending on which item the player picks before entering the final room in the House of Joining -- the Photo of Bride (Ose) or the White Pigtail (Shiragiku) -- and the difficulty then comes in getting the Good or Bad ending for those. Getting the Bad one for Shiragiku requires the player to [[ViolationOfCommonSense let her drag Ren into the Black Box]], meaning the player must not actually fight. The Good one for Ose is similar, as she is immediately visible and [[DamnMuscleMemory a player is wont to lift the camera immediately]] because she ''is'' the BigBad of the game. However, lifting the camera means you locked yourself into the Bad Ending here, as you cannot lower the camera anymore. And getting the Good Ending requires the player to also approach her, unarmed.

The game hints at the methods by a self-help magazine in the first building of the apartments, on the second floor. However, it is only available on the second play through and beyond and even if it is noticed, the player may be puzzled and brush it off as a RedHerring there only to add atmosphere. However, TropesAreNotBad, and this ending award system has it's fans due to how unusual it is, and this was the first Silent Hill game where play-style influences the ending.

** Several unintentional examples in the [[VideoGame/FatalFrame1 first 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.
** Good luck figuring out how to get the various endings in ''VideoGame/{{Fatal Frame II|Crimson Butterfly}}'' New Game Plus without a guide. Contrary to the first game, where you got a different ending by playing on Nightmare difficulty, ''Fatal Frame II'' determines your ending by two aspects. Whether you have viewed all three completely optional scenes with Mayu in Chapter 8, which are in locations that nobody would have any reason to enter except for those scenes. And how fast the player defeats the [[TheDragon Kusabi]] or, for some endings, [[BigBad Sae]].
** Finding all the tiny dolls in the [[VideoGame/FatalFrameIVMaskOfLunarEclipse fourth game]] is incredibly difficult without a guide handy or knowing where they are beforehand. Some are rather easy to find, like being very noticeable under a desk or upon entering a room. But then there are some stuck in plants or in a small space only visible if you stop in the middle of a staircase.

** Somehow knock the apple to the ground, and

** The clogged garbage chute, which you have to drop a case of soda down to dislodge a critical puzzle item (see SolveTheSoupCans).

* ''Franchise/FatalFrame''

** Several unintentional examples in the first 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.
** Good luck figuring out how to get the various endings in ''Fatal Frame II'' New Game Plus without a guide. Contrary to the first game, where you got a different ending by playing on Nightmare difficulty, ''Fatal Frame II'' determines your ending by two aspects. Whether you have viewed all three completely optional scenes with Mayu in Chapter 8, which are in locations that nobody would have any reason to enter except for those scenes. And how fast the player defeats the [[TheDragon Kusabi]] or, for some endings, [[BigBad Sae]].
** Finding all the tiny dolls in the fourth game is incredibly difficult without a guide handy or knowing where they are beforehand. Some are rather easy to find, like being very noticeable under a desk or upon entering a room. But then there are some stuck in plants or in a small space only visible if you stop in the middle of a staircase.