History Main / TutorialFailure

** The initial fight with Batta, the tutorial WarmUpBoss, demands that you attack him, therefore weathering one attack from him on your turn and opening yourself up to his next attack on his turn, when he can kill Lyn in two hits (he has mediocre accuracy, but that's still about a 10% chance of Lyn dying). Needless to say, without the RNG rigged in your favor as in the tutorial, this is a good way to start losing units. The smarter strategy would be to wait next to him, let him attack you, and then spend the next turn healing the damage from his attack.

* ''VideoGame/RockBand3'' has tutorials for Pro Keys that spend most of their time essentially telling you to just do it when they're not actively sabotaging you with terrible advice.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' starts off with an infamously bad, unskippable tutorial level. To begin with, you start off with only melee weapons and you can't acquire any firearms in the dungeon, So if you don't have a melee/unarmed based character, tough luck; you're either going to have to run from every encounter or resign yourself to missing a lot. Even worse, the game gives you ''absolutely no explanation'' on how to use any of the various game mechanics it requires you to use throughout the dungeon. This lack of communication to the player is especially bad at the end of the dungeon when you meet a person called Cameron who orders you to fight him to complete the trial, resulting in an extremely tough hand-to-hand fight. At no point does the game tell you that you also have the option to either talk him out of the fight or use your pickpocket or lockpicking skills to open the door behind him. Even if you manage to figure this out somehow, the chances are your stats in these skills are too low for you to succeed on your first attempt, forcing you to use SaveScumming to proceed, or if you forgot to save, start the game all over again.

** The adventure ''Red Hand Of Doom'' advises the DM to play one antagonist as a "masterful liar". This is pretty much impossible, as she has no ranks in bluff.

* The walker guts tutorial in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSaintsAndSinners'' is very frustrating. With absolutely no hint that anything special is coming and at least an hour into play, the player will arrive in a new area only to find all of the usually-wandering zombies [[TheAllSeeingAI making a beeline for them.]] Downing a zombie will then prompt the player to smear themselves in zombie guts so the rest will lose their scent... except the tooltip for this does NOT pause the game and only appears if the player looks down at the corpse of the freshly-slain zombie, which they have no reason to do. With an entire horde bearing down on them and the mechanic never having been hinted at before, it's extremely unlikely that they will notice before the swarm descends on them in full. By then, they won't have the opportunity to do so.

* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'''s tutorial has some bits where they apparently changed the game interface and forgot to update the instructions; the most obvious one is where it tells you to "click the crest" to return to the Hamlet, which has had many first-time players trying to click on either the big crest that appears in the middle of the screen or the crests you acquire as loot; you're actually supposed to click the "Quest Complete" seal in the upper left corner, which is ''not'' crest-shaped. The tutorial also has a bad habit of withholding information that would have been useful earlier - e.g. it won't tell you that you can flee from combats until after ''one of your heroes gets killed'', in a game where you can't just reload a save and try again.

* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'''s tutorial has some bits where they apparently changed the game interface and forgot to update the instructions; the most obvious one is where it tells you to "click the crest" to return to the Hamlet, which has had many first-time players trying to click on either the big crest that appears in the middle of the screen or the crests you acquire as loot; you're actually supposed to click the "Quest Complete" seal in the upper left corner, which is ''not'' crest-shaped. The tutorial also has a bad habit of withholding information that would have been useful earlier - e.g. it won't tell you that you can flee from combats until after ''one of your heroes gets killed''.

* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'''s tutorial has some bits where they apparently changed the game interface and forgot to update the instructions; the most obvious one is where it tells you to "click the crest" to return to the Hamlet, which has had many first-time players trying to click on either the big crest that appears in the middle of the screen or the crests you acquire as loot; you're actually supposed to click the "Quest Complete" seal in the upper left corner, which is ''not'' crest-shaped.

This trope is for those tutorials which do a completely inadequate job of what they're supposed to do--the kind that leave the player frustrated that they can't perform that seemingly-simple move, or wrap their heads around a gameplay system which seems straightforward. Either this tutorial contains misleading or false information or fails to mention some vital aspect of gameplay. Perhaps it's because of a BlindIdiotTranslation; perhaps it's because the game swamps the player with [[InfoDump mounds of text]] right out of the gate and expects them to remember everything immediately; or, maybe, the tutorial tries to simplify a complex game mechanic into a "rule of thumb" which ends up being more of a hindrance than a help. Perhaps the tutorial gives advice that is no longer valid after a game patch. Or maybe the tutorial is useful, but a GameBreakingBug exclusive to the tutorial itself prevents you from completing it. Whatever the case, this tutorial just doesn't work. Think of this as a tutorial-induced GuideDangIt. Related to ManualMisprint. If an important gameplay element ought to be in the tutorial but is not, that might result in a NoobBridge.

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* The first ''VideoGame/RollercoasterTycoon'' surprisingly falls into this category despite essentially giving all of the right information. The tutorial involves the computer playing through the first scenario. Clicking the mouse or making any keyboard input aborts the tutorial and dumps you into the game. There's no way to skip ahead or speed up the tutorial, so if you a accidentally hit a button five minutes in, prepare to wait through another five minutes restarting the tutorial...

* Feel free to completely ignore the on-screen instructions in the Star Destroyer level in ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' because you will get absolutely nowhere trying to follow them.

* One of the biggest complaints about ''VideoGame/TheWonderful101'' is that it inadequately teaches you how to play it. Combining with the fact that the game utilizes a very precise control scheme, this can lead many players to get frustrated with their experience.
** To elaborate a bit further, each main action button has multiple important functions and the game rarely tells you more than a brief summary about its main use, which should be obvious with a little experimentation (ie. in addition to allowing you to move faster, the dash button also works as an universal cancel button for your weapon forms and sets your team into a tighter formation when held, allowing you to avoid attacks easier, and in addition to making your team members latch on to enemies to deal minor damage and eventually stun them, team attacks also function as a way to lock onto that enemy, allowing you to automatically dash to them prior to attacking them with your weapon form and so forth). There's also the fact that a lot of the upgrades are extremely important but hard to get enough money for early in the game outside of an useful feature the game tells you nothing about (using a maximum amount of each crafting item creates a credit card item that makes the next shop purchase free regardless of its price), and that the ability to level up your permanent characters isn't even mentioned anywhere, let alone how to see their current level.

* The ForcedTutorial in ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}'' is legendary for being complete garbage. The car (or rather, the patience of the people inside) is fragile, and there's a list of varyingly obscure moves that must be completed before a strict time limit is exhausted - in fact, it'd be more accurate to call it a Skill Gate where you have to demonstrate near-superhuman skills to play the rest of the game. At least one gets to learn from a video of a valid performance in the tutorial.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''

*** The GBC ''Zelda'' games fix this by having music instruments damage Pols Voice, in addition to [[StuffBlowingUp bombs]]. ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'' returns to having the real-world microphone being the only way to defeat Pols Voice, however.

* ''JustForFun/PokemonVietnameseCrystal'' has a few of these, due to being a massive TranslationTrainWreck.

Related to FailedASpotCheck, as some tutorials big sin is that the gameplay aspect the programmers and playtesters have become so accustomed to that it is second nature they completely [[ForWantOfANail forget to add that one simple explanation]] that everything else is based on. Another common mistake is assuming the player is familiar with a move after they've executed it only once, even if it was by accident.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'', by the same developer, is worse. There's no bug here. There's just the issue that about all the game tells you is that you can throw balls to catch Pokemon. You have to look up an online guide to figure out pretty much ''the entire game''.

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** This game and all of its associated media insist that ghost types are the best choices against psychic types. One trainer in Sabrina's gym even says "Psychics only fear ghosts and bugs!", which is, at best, a HalfTruth in the original Pokemon generation. Not only are the only ghosts in these games weak to psychic attacks due to their secondary poison type, and not only are there no strong ghost attacks, but psychic-types are outright immune to ghost attacks thanks to a programming bug. Furthermore, there are also no strong bug attacks, and many bug Pokemon are also part poison. As such, the ghost and bug types that psychics are supposed to fear end up being the ''worst'' choice to use against them.
** A LostInTranslation example; one NPC in the international Red and Blue offers to trade his Electrode for your Raichu. After the trade, he comments that the Raichu you traded him "went and evolved". Raichu did not evolve ''at all'' in Gen 1 (and still doesn't, as of Gen 7) -- what happened was that in the Japanese ''Pokemon Blue'', from which international ''Red and Blue'' derive their scripts, this man traded a Haunter for a Graveler, both of which ''do'' evolve, and as this was ''intended'' to hint, they evolve after being traded. However, the ''trade'' was edited during localization to match the original ''Red and Green'', just like every other in-game trade, while his ''dialogue'' was not.
** The tutorial for catching Pokémon in ''Yellow'', the Old Man in Viridian City, is next to no help whatsoever. He throws a Poké Ball at a wild Rattata ''at full health'', the catch will always fail, he ''never even hints'' at the fact that weakened Pokémon are easier to catch, and then just walks away. The reason for this? [[GoodBadBugs To avert the Missingno. glitch.]] The Missingno. glitch relied on several things to create the conditions for Missingno. to spawn. The reason Missingno. worked as a glitch were because the strip of Cinnabar Island on which it would spawn had no encounter data, so the game engine would load data from the last "complete" encounter. A caught pokemon counted as a "complete" encounter, whereas a fled battle did not. The Viridian Weedle had zero data, which the Old Man would catch, and then the game would attempt to load that empty data once you surfed on that Cinnabar strip, and then your name would determine what variety of Missingno. would spawn. Thus, rather than patch around the condition that spawned Missingno. (for instance by giving the Weedle encounter data), the developers implemented a bad tutorial to avert it. And despite their work, there were still several other (more difficult) ways to spawn Missingno. in the game. [[ShaggyDogStory They did all that work for nothing.]]

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* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'' features a tutorial that only teaches the most basic components of an FPS - shooting, moving, driving, et cetera - and how to capture a command console. It fails to explain how to join squads, find good fights bar the suicidal "Instant Action" that often dumps the player right in front of enemy tanks, or how base capture ''really'' works beyond capturing a console that is often locked behind shields or cannot be captured period without an adjacent friendly base. The Playstation 4 version of the game (and an upcoming update for the PC) features Koltyr, a basic continent for low level players to learn to play the game without being mauled by the more experienced players on the other continents.

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* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' has a tutorial failure regarding the mood matrix. You are initially told to look for any emotions in a witness' testimony that stands out or one that is being displayed with high intensity. However, one witness testimony has an emotion you're supposed to point out because it's ''not'' showing up (meaning he should feel that emotion, but he is not). While Athena does give you hints on what to do during a mood matrix sequence, she doesn't tell you about pointing out missing emotions until ''after'' you do a sequence where you have to point it out yourself. Thankfully there's no penalty for pointing out the wrong emotions during the matrix segments and you'll eventually find the right one if you go through all of them.

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** You can, technically use Gems to revive yourself, but [[BribingYourWayToVictory They cost PSN credits,]] and you only start out with 50 free gems.'

* ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and all of its associated media insist that ghost types are the best choices against psychic types. One trainer in Sabrina's gym even says "Psychics only fear ghosts and bugs!", which is, at best, a HalfTruth in the original Pokemon generation. Not only are the only ghosts in these games weak to psychic attacks due to their secondary poison type, and not only are there no strong ghost attacks, but psychic-types are outright immune to ghost attacks thanks to a programming bug. Furthermore, there are also no strong bug attacks, and many bug Pokemon are also part poison. As such, the ghost and bug types that psychics are supposed to fear end up being the ''worst'' choice to use against them.

* Most Creator/ParadoxInteractive titles are incredibly complex games with lots of mechanics that aren't really intuitive and user interfaces that hide the information. Their tutorials require you to click through walls of text, every few tutorials interrupted by one or two interactions with the actual game.

* The ForcedTutorial in ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}'' is legendary for being complete garbage. The car (or rather, the patience of the people inside) is fragile, and there's a list of varyingly obscure moves that must be completed before a strict time limit is exhausted. At least one gets to learn from a video of a valid performance in the tutorial.

* VideoGame/Fallout2 starts off with an infamously bad, unskippable tutorial level. To begin with, you start off with only melee weapons and you can't acquire any firearms in the dungeon, So if you don't have a melee/unarmed based character, tough luck. Even worse, the game gives you ''absolutely no explanation'' on how to use any of the various game mechanics it requires you to use throughout the dungeon. This lack of communication to the player is especially bad at the end of the dungeon when you meet a person called Cameron who orders you to fight him to complete the trial, resulting in an extremely tough hand-to-hand fight. At no point does the game tell you that you also have the option to either talk him out of the fight or use your pickpocket or lockpicking skills to open the door behind him. Even if you manage to figure this out somehow, the chances are your stats in these skills are too low for you to succeed on your first attempt, forcing you to use SaveScumming to proceed, or if you forgot to save, start the game all over again.

* Good luck figuring out ''anything'' in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' from the utterly incomprehensible in-game tutorial. A shining example of BlindIdiotTranslation. Fixed in the PSP [[VideoGameRemake remake]], which retranslated all the dialogue.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidTheTwinSnakes'' was fairly light on {{Forced Tutorial}}s. Thankfully so because all the tutorials were absolutely worthless. Rather than tell you which buttons to actually press to perform actions, Snake would simply be told things like "to shoot, press the shoot button" or "to use the codec press the codec button". In other words, "[[BuffySpeak to do a thing, do the thing]]". Of course you could pop open the manual to find out which button was which, but if you were referencing the manual you [[Catch22Dilemma wouldn't need the tutorials]]. Note that this only applied to the GameCube remaster; the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' would tell you "press square to shoot" or "press select for the codec".