Video game lessons learned the hard way

Dark Souls III :

• If you've been following Anri's questline to help them kill Aldrich, you still have to kill him yourself. That said, its still a good idea to do that, as it's easier to beat Aldrich once you have seen his attacks not targeted at you.

• In general, do the Lords of Cinder alone. They're superb fights, and, again, you have paid money for this game.

• Don't worry about sidequests too much. You will miss most of them on your first run, but that's ok, that's what NG+ is for.

• Oceiros thrashes around a LOT, and his ice attacks can curse you. Watch out in phase 2 where he stops after charging if you're in his vicinity - he has maybe five frames of ramp-up before turning into a helicopter of limbs that can oneshot you if you've not put a lot of points into VIG.

• If there is a way for a spellcaster-focused build to beat the Evil Tree, I have not found it.

• You can lock-on to the princes. If you lose the lock-on, typically it means that they're about to charge the beam attack.

• Champion Gundyr is either really easy with a summon, or horrendously difficult solo. Phase 1 is typically fine, but Phase 2 is probably the only boss that comes close to being genuinely unfair.

• Midir is harder with a summon.

• Gael is fucking epic.

• Do the demons in Ringed City solo. Phase 2 becomes a slog with summons.

• You can cut the rope bridge in Ariandel.

• The ideal way to experience Friede is to beat phase 1 solo, beat phase 2 with Gael, and beat phase 3 solo. I honestly am not a fan of Ornstein-Smough style battles solo.

Furi:

• Fuck the Star on Furier.

• For a boss fight that is supposed to be easy on purpose, the Beat is fucking tough.

• If you're achievement hunting, the Edge is the easiest way to get the "no hits" achievement.

• The English voice-acting is fine, but the French and Japanese voices are great, especially the Japanese. You haven't lived until you've heard the Hand go "MODORE".

• The bullet-parrying achievement for the hand is bugged - you cannot get it on Furier. It's not a big deal, though - just open the Furi version in practice mode.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey:

• This game is astonishingly good. Even if Ubi have kinda tried to milk it a bit for micro money.

• Wood is your major bottleneck when it comes to upgrades, so explore to find everyt piece you can! Your biggest source is boats, so try to get to grips with ship combat asap - you'll have to maneuver very well to only have 1v1 fights.

• The healing skill is pretty much necessary to progress - there is no way to regen health in fights otherwise.

Edited by arcanephoenix on Dec 6th 2018 at 6:39:20 AM

eh you know what ? you've inspired me to replay furi.

-Bernard is the best boss in all history of video games, no fucking exceptions. But to the phase that mimic the edge, fuck you kindly, and to the phase that mimics the song and HER FUCKING SHOCKWAVE ON DASH, go burn in a fire.

-"You hesited, during that fight. I didn't expected that from you. beat I like that. It's full of hope."

Edited by Yumil on Dec 7th 2018 at 11:46:17 AM

Touhou Project:

-When the lasers start to bend and curve around, "Bomb early, bomb often" is the new motto. Even if you think you can dodge them, just do it.

-There is always a difficulty spike around but not necessarily at fourth stage. Always.

-In HSIFS, you can press 'C' to be granted a brief ability to help. If you have no bomb, USE IT.

-If you take an extended break from the series and come back, you will not be as good as you once were. You WILL need practice to do well again.

-It always looks easier than it is. Always.

Kirby 64 taught me at age 9 that what works on enemies doesn't always work on bosses.

Super Metroid:

• Sorry to break it to you dude, but you're not good enough to do mockball. Just give up.
  • Edit: I can now do mockball, a bit. Trying to get more reliable at it.
• You suck at Infinite Bomb Jump too.
  • Edit: I can now do single-bomb IBJ reliably enough.
• Playing it on a real controller is actually harder than the keyboard, because it's much easier to accidentally hit a diagonal that interrupts your spinjump (and with it, your Space Jump or Wall Jump streak).
• On the other hand, there are some things you can't do on keyboard because few keyboards like people who press three non-modifier keys at the same time. Perhaps it's time to think of a less impractical keyboard configuration.

Edited by Medinoc on May 28th 2019 at 3:53:03 PM

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

• Spirits
  • Using multiple Lava Floor Resist spirits seems like an intuitive idea, right? Well, uh, the result is you'll end up bouncing on the lava floor until around 40% due to the lessened knockback and not being able to jump out of it until then.
  • Run as far as possible from any Ganondorf spirits. They all seem to be giant and have permanent armor.
  • Don't be afraid to come back to Spirits later! Or, alternatively, to steamroll the extra frustrating ones.
• Don't let the hard light aesthetic fool you, Link's Remote Bomb Rune is still a bomb and (unlike the source material) fire or other explosions will set it off instantly.
• Bowser's Tough Guy attribute is not super armor. He is not Little Mac. Stop assuming he is.
• Inklings aren't very well-suited to fighting teams of multiple opponents, since it makes it harder to focus your ink on one target and gives you less breathing room to refill ink.
• Don't let the seemingly-normal hitboxes fool you, Simon's jab and grab aren't all that compared to other characters. Your best option up close is usually trying to run away.
• King K. Rool's armor is strong and abusable. Apparently it's also highly allergic to Yoshi's down aerial, which can shred his armor apart in one go.
• Pay close attention to Isabelle, it's easy to miss when she plants her Lloid Trap and even easier to lose track of it being on the stage at all.

Edited by NesClassic on Dec 9th 2018 at 7:01:52 AM

Red Dead Redemption 2

• While this applies to most games; keep a manual save on hand, in case a valuable horse dies or a massive bounty comes up, etc.

• Petty crime doesn't pay, stick to events.

• Honor does pay, via store discounts. On that note, losing Honor is a whole lot easier than gaining it, at higher levels along the Karma Meter.

• Watch out for contextual shifts. Triangle is used to mount your horse....and also to choke out hapless civilians.

• Alligators will destroy you and everything you love.

• Knives are goddamn dangerous, and can one-shot you if you aren't careful. Keep your distance, and gun the maniac down with your weapon of choice.

• Don't neglect leveling your health core. While stamina goes up naturally (due to spiriting), its very easy to ignore hunting, fist fights and fishing, turning Arthur into a Glass Cannon.

• On missions where you don't have your primary horse, grab your rifles beforehand if possible. Otherwise, you are stuck with sidearms for the duration.

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Dec 9th 2018 at 12:24:47 PM

Path of Exile:

The new Betrayal Bosses hurt, especially when promoted and/or geared.

Also, it's possible to just walk away once you've subdued them if none of the options appeal to you.

I was stuck on the final boss of Project X Zone 2 for a half hour until I noticed the ATK increasing skills. I used up tons of SP items and spammed Reiji/Xioamu's attack-buffing status about 10 times, and beat her in 1 combo right before I would've lost.

Katamari Damacy

• Different critters have different behaviors! For example, mice and rats will only bully you if you have cheese on your Katamari...
• For "Make Taurus" and "Make Ursa Major" keep in mind that hostile objects can knock your Katamari very far. And by "knock" I mean "roll." Roll it into a really small object.
• If your Katamari gets stuck somehow it'll start to rapidly shrink until you can move it again. Be wary of your surroundings!

Command & Conquer: Rivals:

• Make sure to complete those daily challenges as frequently as possible, and save a bit of fuel tanks to change them if they don't involve units you don't like or are underpowered.
• The meta game from Gold and beyond will frequently involve harvester rushes. Expect Jumpjet Troopers from GDI and Attack Bikes from Nod to frequently hunt down and attempt to destroy harvesters at all costs; this is because they probably sacrificed their first harvester in exchange for being able to rush out units faster than you. Thus, do everything you can to protect your harvester, or else they're gonna get a 100 Tiberium reward for it.
• GDI's Gold Rank seems oddly more difficult than Nod's. Granted it's probably due to my deck and GDI not having a flexible early game (something Nod excels at), but it feels far more difficult to advance than it ever did with Nod.
• Nod's Scarabs are a pain in the ass to counter against, especially the first time encountering them. They're basically flying drone beetles capable of suicidally ramming into both ground and air targets and detonating. Doubly so since they make for a nasty area-denial weapon, thanks to their drones leaving damaging flames on the tiles when they hit your units.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

• The damage boost from the Great Sword's Lion's Maw only applies to your next, singular, attack. Make it count!
• Lion's Maw also won't go into effect if you get hit out of the animation. Be careful timing the slash that starts the move off!
• If the main monster you're hunting is in an area with any of the usual Goddamned Bats (Rhenoplos, Konchu, Bullfango, etc.) you might want to take them out first so that they don't get in the way of big openings like toppling the monster and such.
• If the monster you're hunting can fly and you aren't familiar with its behavior yet, make sure to chuck Paintballs at it often! Better safe than wasting ten minutes trying to find it again while it moves from area to area.

Digimon World -next 0rder-: apparently using the gym is actually the worst way to train your stats, as opposed to Level Grinding on certain enemies in battle.

Pokemon Diamond: The moveset Arceus comes with is not great for catching other Arceus. ^Context This glitch is repeatable. Attempt #1 was successful. Attempts #2 and #3, not so much. #4 went better, using Seismic Toss and a Spooky Plate.

Brawlhalla: Note to Self: Always use your controller to change the settings of a private room. If you do it with the keyboard by accident, you can't enter that room with your controller if you change your mind later.

Terraria:

• Don't try to drain lava with nothing but buckets. It takes forever.

• Don't challenge Skeletron without any sort of flying ability.

• Don't even bother getting a Web Slinger. The Slime Hook is far better.

Kitty Powers' Love Life: You really can't win the aspirin bottle opening minigame if you're not listening for the clicks. The audio feed isn't reliable.

Edited by TroperNo9001 on Feb 20th 2019 at 4:51:51 AM

Pokémon X and Y: Always make sure you have a type advantage and a level advantage. Nearly whited out against Grant thanks to this.

Tetris 99: Don't try to rack up a whole bunch of KO's early on in the game. All you'll get for your efforts is a nice big target on your back for everyone to aim at.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

• Always bring Nulberries to hunts that take place in desert areas, even if the monster itself can't inflict Blights. Trust me, the Cephalos will make life hell otherwise.
• HR will randomize your spawn location... sometimes planting you right next to the monster without warning.
• Always pack pickaxes and bug nets if you roll Felyne Explorer at the bistro! Secret areas contain a bounty of gathering points, which often includes ore deposits and insects.
• Don't fight Najarala with Guild Hammer. It's not fun at all.
• Primal Forest has pits of poison that can... well, poison you. Mind your step!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:

• When you're doing some freestyle exploration, save often. Especially if you're exploring a big-ass cave or dungeon. When you're doing a mission, save often but not TOO often. Though the Switch version fixes several of the bugs present in the 2011 Multi-Platform versions, some of them are still there, and you'll want to have an old checkpoint at hand just in case (luckily, so far I have only faced two: One from "Blood in the Ice" about not being able to enter Calixto's shop and the priest from Dawnstar not managing to open the starting barrier in the "Living Nightmare" dungeon; I was able to circumvent the former by selling Calixto his necklace while he was outside his shop and, after killing him and completing the quest, taking the key from the corpse to enter the shop. For the latter... thank Dibella for the Fus shout — any attack to him, however weak, will make him resume his AI after one attempt or two).
• If two dragons start appearing at the same time (or a second dragon appears while you're fighting the first), don't panic — this is where the Storm Call shout becomes handy.

Dragon Quest Builders: Using all your wrecking balls willy-nilly on the Golem is a good way to get blown up. Also, the Cantlin shields exist for a reason.

Terraria:

• No matter how good of gear you have, you will not be prepared for the Moon Lord on your first attempt.

• Despite being a complete pushover, Golem can still kill you if you're careless.

• In expert mode, Plantera becomes enormous once she reaches half health. You need a tall arena to avoid her, and the best strategy is simply "be where she isn't".

Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown

Air To Ground Missiles are great, but have limitations. They can't target landed or taxiing aircraft, and they are extraordinarily inefficient against ships or anything else with targetable turrets and the like.

Missile speed upgrades are a trap, and they often cause the attack to overshoot the target. Stick with tracking and flight distance instead.

It may sound obvious, but don't forget where the ground is or confuse it with the sky, especially on darker maps.

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Mar 7th 2019 at 2:48:07 PM

LAG Ms and the Cruise missiles are sometimes better choices than the AG Ms. They have excellent range, do enormous damage, and have a decent blast radius. Only flaw is the lack of ammo you can carry, but you can partially get around that issue by using the Special Weapon ammo load limit upgrade, which will typically boost their amount to around 20-ish, depending on your plane.

Oh, and the cruise missiles have the ability to guide themselves around obstacles, such as terrain, AND can easily penetrate the sea platforms hull and reach the strut cores in mission 11, something none of the other weapons are capable of.

Edited by SgtRicko on Mar 7th 2019 at 9:49:12 PM