Video game lessons learned the hard way

NEO: The World Ends with You: At a certain point, you will have the opportunity to split your party of 4 into 2 teams of 2. As the player, you only need to do half the battles from that point until the end of the day as you would otherwise, as 2 of the characters progress on their own through the other half. However, you cannot choose which 2 you take, and not only can you not reallocate the attacks from the two that do their own mission, you cannot give the remaining controlled party members attacks mapped to the same button as the absent party members as the ban on multiple same-input pins in the party still counts the whole party.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

• Skills and classes purchasable with renown in New Game Plus only count the previous playthough. If you had completed the game once prior to your previous playthough and didn't purchase skills and classes on the next one, they won't transfer after.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin: Gold Rathian loves her party-wide attacks. Make sure you bring a Hunting Horn with the Evasion Riff skill to dodge those attacks and avoid losing hearts.

Sorry for the double-post.

Today I learned that Tsuchigumo in Nioh 2 is immune to Sloth Talismans. Trying to slow this bastard down is an exercise in frustration, so my advice for anyone having trouble is to summon three Scampusses, have a Kasha Soul Core attuned to your Guardian Spirit, and try not to die.

Tales of Vesperia

• While this is an action RPG it is not an action game. You can't turn on a dime and you can't freely attack when you're outside of the linear movement plane.
• Speaking of Free Run it's LZ that triggers it, not the shoulder. That makes your character slowly walk through the battlefield instead and it's not an Unflinching Walk.
• While the AI party members are fairly competent for the most part if left alone, they will guzzle through their resources and gobble down all your items if you let them. The AI settings are actually pretty robust and worth diving through.
• Use a guide to figure out if a character actually knows the appropriate arte for an arte-altering ability. Otherwise you're just wasting a skill slot.
• Don't stress out over getting the boss battle secret missions. If they're meant to happen they'll happen.
• If you're revisiting areas to trigger certain sidequests and optional scenes it's best to hold off if the plot has separated the party because they obviously won't trigger if a required member or two are absent.
• It's best to attempt the waitstaff mini-game with pen and paper in hand. Actually, it's best to just not attempt the waitstaff mini-game.

This game is a completionist's nightmare. Abyss was like that too...

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

• The game's lenient enough out the gate to let you build any deck you want if you know what you're doing, and that's partly from the Secret Pack and crafting mechanics. Which is to say, you should craft staples that aren't part of any Secret Packs and get the archetype-specific cards from their packs instead of crafting those.
• "Doomking Balerdroch" does not target with its chain effects. Normally a good thing since it ignores target immunity, until you run into a monster like "Underworld Goddess of the Closed World" which is immune to everything EXCEPT targeted effects.
• The "Zombie" line of Spell/Trap cards ("Zombie Necronize", "Return of the Zombies", etc.) all have GY effects that let you set them on the field again, where the next time they leave the field they get banished instead. This is helpful, but also means if you reset them you can't use them to Special Summon "Eldlich the Golden Lord" due to its effect needing the card to go to the GY. Make sure you don't accidentally lock yourself into destroying a more important card like "Solemn Judgement" when doing this, whoops!
• "Zombie World" and "Rivalry of Warlords" is a potent combo that can lock your opponent out of summoning from their hand, Main Deck, and Extra Deck. It also keeps "PSY-Framelord Omega" from returning to the field under its own effect, so be careful.

Edited by NesClassic on Jan 30th 2022 at 11:00:36 AM

Ghost of Tsushima:

• Mongol guard animals are vulnerable to well-placed kunai.
• Remember which outfit you're wearing. Otherwise you'll be unpleasantly surprised to have your Standoff Streak end on the third guard because you forgot you had the Traveler's Outfit on.
• You can parry attacks with blue glints, but they're still unblockable.
• Only go for one attack per successful parry or dodge against Straw Hat ronin. They'll dodge the second and you'll be open.
• Dismount when you start a Fox Den. Horses outrun foxes, so you risk overshooting the fox.
• Make sure you see the prompt for Assassination/Chain Assassination before you press a button. The Mongols aren't particularly forgiving when you blow your cover by inadvertently swinging your sword.
• Straw hats are considered helmets for the purposes of whether a headshot requires the Longbow.
• The upgrade that makes you immune to a bomb blast only applies to the Sticky Bomb, not the Black Powder Bomb. Don't throw a Black Powder Bomb at close range.
• Use Wind Chimes and Firecrackers. They make otherwise-impossible bonus tasks on liberation missions child's play if used properly.
• Unless you're using a specific charm, you come back from death using the revive skill with only the Last Chance Hit Point. Get away and heal. If you won't have enough Resolve to heal, consider just staying dead and starting over.
• The timing on follow-up kills after a Standoff is considerably more forgiving than the timing for the Standoff itself.
• When the area is clear enough for a hostage to be rescued, they'll shout a voiced line. Don't worry about not knowing when they're ready.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus: You can go through the door in Kamado's office to get to the roof of the Galaxy HQ building. Unown W hides there.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate:

Have you just upgraded your G Rank armor to the max, and now have 778 points of defense, and want to give another try to that horrid 2-Rajang quest that's from High Rank and which you couldn't beat before? Yeah, don't bother. The Rajangs wll still hit like a truck, and if anything you'll get the impression that they're hitting you harder than before with your new armor. And remember, this is a single-player quest, meaning you cannot bring anyone else with you for help.

That quest's gonna stay pending forever in my game file, because it's just not fun at all.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus:

• Up on the D-pad opens the main menu, not X like in the previous Pokemon games.

• If you black out on the field, you can't pick up your lost satchel and retrieve the items you dropped; you have to wait until someone on the internet does it for you, which takes who knows how long.

...And what, pray tell, happens the day Nintendo shuts the servers off, or you're in an area with poor internet?

It's not like you can lose anything irreplaceable. You'll just have to accept the loss.

I see. Still sucks as a gameplay mechanic though, especially since the game doesn't really need to be built around an online component.

Wasn't that thing requires to have NSO subscription to function or simply just connect online freely? Since many online features in most Switch games even requires subscription to work.

Edited by rouward on Jan 31st 2022 at 9:23:33 PM

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

• Mind where you play cards, because this actually matters nowadays! "Mekk-Knight" monsters and "Infinite Impermanence" all get a huge boost if you're careless.
• "Niburu, the Primal Being" is an infamous hand trap for a reason. If you're worried about being nuked by it, be careful and count how many times you summon during your turn- stop at four. (For my deck at least, the combo that gets "PSY-Framelord Omega" out only summons four times, so that works out nicely.)
• During the above-mentioned "Zombie World" and "Rivalry of Warlords" combo, opponents can still Set monsters since that isn't summoning them, and face-down monsters aren't treated as having a Type yet. With this in mind, use your card effects to banish or remove that facedown monster instead of blindly attacking into it and potentially triggering whatever effects it may have. In my case it was "Gren Maju Da Eiza" and I nearly KO'd myself from how high its DEF was at that point.

Digimon World 3:

Make sure you stock up on healing items before heading out to West Sector for the first time because when you get to Byakko City, it'll be overrun by military agents who're blocking off all of the facilities in the city, including the item shop.

Warsaw: When you get a non-combat event, sometimes the worst choice you can pick is the one that doesn't involve a skill check. RIP, Krzystoff.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons: You will never find the recipes you're searching for just from message bottles or your own villagers. Best to ask for help from others.

Ghost of Tsushima:

• Several of the game's optional objectives are tied into the last missions of the game. Don't be surprised when the Guiding Wind of Vanity cuts off and you're still a Haiku short.
• The hidden trophy "Dirge For A Fallen Forge" has a specific "friend" in mind.
• Sometimes the game doesn't realize a fight is over until well after the last enemy is dead.

Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp:

• Strong physical attacks and attack skills are vital when fighting against Monodragon Heads, since they're strong against magic attacks. Characters that know Defense Up and Fighting Spirit are also useful since Monodragon Heads attack with Mujin Cut, a move that has low accuracy but always crits when it does hit.
• When a character is affected by Despair, they can not recover influence at all. Unlike the other stat conditions, however, Despair doesn't heal naturally over time. Cure Condition is a must when fighting against enemies that can induce Despair.
• Sometimes, the game will freeze if you put your Switch in sleep mode during a Development Mode playthrough. Don't fret. Pick "Continue" from the main menu after closing out of the game and opening it again and you'll pick up where you left off, all your stats intact.

When you do the swimming and fishing games in Trails of Cold Steel 1, turn the turbo off unless you want the minigames to be unfairly difficult to a ludicrous degree.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus: If two wild Pokémon are close enough to one another when you're trying to initiate a battle, you'll have to fight them at the same time.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

• There's a reason the "Blue-Eyes" Trap Card "True Light" has a Memetic Loser reputation while the "Dark Magician" equivalent "Eternal Soul" does not. See, both are notorious for destroying every monster on their field if they go to the GY while face-up, but "True Light" only protects "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from targeted effects while "Eternal Soul" protects "Dark Magician" from all of your opponent's effects. That is to say, you NEED Spell/Trap removal to get around "Eternal Soul" and it's not a mechanically identical card to "True Light".
• While getting "Doomking Balerdroch" into the GY on turn 1 is a valid play that can usually hamper your opponent enough to win a Duel, this leaves it completely vulnerable to "Called By the Grave" if your opponent happens to either have it in their starting hand or draw into it. Be careful.
• The "Sky Striker" archetype can't activate any of their Spells if they have any monsters in their Main Monster Zones, so be careful when Link climbing with them lest you lock yourself out of all your cards.
• The point of the "Sky Striker Ace" Link Monsters is not a Stance System that lets you rapidly cycle through all their effects per turn, but to create a Stone Wall that is incredibly difficult to destroy and happens to trigger effects while defending your field. Summoning too many of them too fast can leave poor "Sky Striker Ace - Raye" without any mechs to defend herself with.

Edited by NesClassic on Feb 24th 2022 at 9:49:58 AM

Final Fantasy VIII

• Draw can fail.
• Double lets you cast the same spell twice, not two different spells.
• Card works like catching a Pokemon in that you have to weaken an enemy to have a decent chance at success.
• Remember which GF knows what, or else you'll be unpleasantly surprised when you switch your GF collection around and suddenly lose access to, say, elemental junctioning.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

• Lots of powerful searchers impose restrictions for the rest of the turn to keep them from being too generically useful, so don't get complacent and forget that those restrictions happen. For example, "Uni-Zombie" can keep your non-Zombies from attacking if you use its Foolish Burial effect, and "Glow-Up Bloom" outright prevents you from summoning non-Zombies for the turn if you use its search effect.
• "Sky Striker" Decks rely on you knowing how your opponent's Deck functions, you have to know what you're hitting and make the most of every decision to outgrind with them. If you aren't careful, blindly trying to destroy stuff can just cause your opponent's combos to go off...
• "Sky Striker Mecha Modules - Multirole" should always be activated ASAP, since that lets you reuse "Sky Striker" Spells and maintain your oppressive control of the board. Activating it later into the turn means you miss out on getting the most from its recursion effects!
• If the opponent wins the coin flip and chooses to go second, they're probably playing a "Numeron" Deck.
• On that note, while the primary strategy of a "Numeron" Deck is to OTK you, that doesn't mean you're out of the woods if you survive the attempt! "Number C1: Numeron Chaos Gate Sunya" acts as a contingency plan (and forces you to get rid of "Numeron Network" ASAP) while odds are high they'll run other burn cards like "D.D. Dynamite" to try and make up for the lost damage.