Video game lessons learned the hard way

Shin Megami Tensei:

• If left unchecked, status effects will turn your party into demon fodder in short order. Heal them ASAP.
• Related to this, take advantage of status effects whenever you can. They hurt you, they hurt the enemy.
• Save like your life depends on it. Partly because it does. SAVESAVESAVESAVESAVE.
• Buffing and debuffing will save your life many times over. Take advantage of this fact.

Battle Moon Wars:

• If an attack has even the slightest chance of hitting a battle-critical character who isn't called Haruna, and killing them, it will. No exceptions.
• You may have the high ground, but the enemies have the dark powers that reach the high ground.

edited 21st Mar '11 3:00:28 PM by Saigyouji

Pokemon White:

Sending out Zoroark disguised as a Pokemon with a fighting or bug weakness isn't a good idea. A Pokemon with a Psychic weakness, on the other hand, works very well.

• Save the game. Right now. Turn it into a reflex. Do it at every opportunity. Quick save button? Use it as often as you can. See if you can save twice without actually doing anything in between. That's what it takes to not lose hours of progress.
  • Make backup saves if possible. You can and will end up saving in unwinnable positions.

Emulators:

• Learn what the key combinations are. It might be nice to assign something to CTRL to get around the 3 key limit on your laptop, but that doesn't help you if you keep opening up the cheats menu.
• Savestates are better than in-game saves. Use them.
  • Don't let the in-game save become corrupt. It's needed sometimes.

Fighting Games:

• Sometimes it's useful to block.

Roguelikes:

• Before doing anything, ask yourself if that is really a good idea. It probably isn't.

Bioshock: If you've hacked a turret, don't even think about trying to hack any other turrets with Turret 1's firing range. You'll only waste health and EVE.

• The Static Field tonic will drag a formerly-neutral Big Daddy into your splicer brawl if you don't keep your distance.

Pokemon: Mashing A to speed through dialogue is generally fine, but when your 'mon is trying to learn a new move, SLOW DOWN AND WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

Strange Journey: Starting with Sector Delphinus, Enemy Search becomes VERY dangerous. In addition to the usual Puzzle Bosses, you'll start encountering everyone's favorite Bosses In Mook Clothing: The Riders!

Dragon Age:

• After-Combat Recovery does not mean you can neglect the healing spells.
• Take Your Time sometimes applies, even when you think it won't.
• Tactical slots do not always know best.
• Lack of friendly fire doesn't make it a good idea to drop earthquakes and cones of cold in the middle of the party.
• Take out the revenant's minions first.
• Yes, managing enemy aggro is important.
• Some traps can be triggered multiple times.
• Zevran sucks.
• When summoning the High Dragon, don't stand out in the open, lest it land on you.

Disgaea - It's not stat whoring, it's being efficient with your time. Take every shortcut that presents itself in leveling your characters, or this is gonna take forever.

Any No Miss Run ever: Getting pissed off only makes you play worse.

Do not play online if you are a complete and utter newbie.

Dragon Age:

• Get the mod that lets you skip the Fade in the Mage Tower (PC only)
• For any tank: get Threaten and Taunt as soon as possible. At the expense of everything else.
• The Prima Strategy guide is garbage because it doesn't do the above in its recommended tank build. That and it says to go with the Shapeshifter specialization over Blood Mage as a DPS Mage. WTF?
• Wide area AO Es aren't worth the friendly fire and frame rate problems.
• Blood Wound is every bit as overpowered as people say.
• Don't ignore Archers, they'll kill your mages if you're not careful.

Pokemon:

• Walls can work in-game, but they're boring and inefficient.
• Don't underestimate Bug types.
• Remember the A.I (almost) never switches, take advantage of this. Use Dig and Fly with impunity but never use Pursuit.
• If a Pokemon can learn it, and has a half way decent Attack stat. It should damn well know Earthquake.
• When in doubt, slaughter Audinos.
• A Pokemon should be specialized, but be able to take on as many threats as possible within that specialization.
• Gimmick teams only work in multiplayer.
• EV training outside multiplayer is not worth the effort.
• Use your Master Ball on the game's runner. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Fighting Games

• An all-offense is not the best strategy and is an easy way to get your ass kicked.
• Blocking is your friend.
• Throwing out random Supers is not a smart idea.
• Be patient. Sometimes it's better to wait for your opponent to move first then counter.
• Rugal will be more than happy to kick your ass and take all your quarters.

edited 16th May '11 3:00:35 PM by MrPastry

After Final Fantasy VIII (my first), I learnt that in Final Fantasy X, grinding makes the game easier later on instead of harder.

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Never trust moogles.

edited 16th May '11 3:07:42 PM by dmysta3000

Sometimes it's better to run than to stand and fight — in fact, sometimes the game forces you to, and doesn't tell you. (Phantasy Star IV did this; I didn't finish that game for several years because I didn't realize this was what had me stumped.)

Giga Wing:

• Time your reflection wisely.
• Loathe the Huge Battleship Boss on the Lava / Shipyard Stage.
• When you reach the Floating Continent Stage (4), at this point you should learn how to get close to enemies while your reflection shield is on.
• Isha is slow, but she packs a punch thanks to the missiles.
• Ruby is good for medal picking.

Mars Matrix

• Reflect quickly and tactically. the recharging times are a bit slow.
• Utilize every single weapon in your arsenal. You will need them.
• Stage 3 is the Difficulty Spike, so be on your guard.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

• Your team is comprised of bumbling morons. Guide their every step.
• Bring food on every outing. Chances are you'll be reduced to shoveling seeds and gummies down your throat if you don't.

• Badges are everything.
• For the love of god, SAVE before major battles.
• Defense piercing moves are good to have.

• Avoid enemies that can out-and-out kill you with ease.
• Ignore Zealots' demands for money.
• Don't run into objects when on a planetary mission. You will get stuck inside them.
• Get the Sneak ability in the Creature stage. Unlimited cloaking in the Space stage's planetary missions is just too good to pass up.

edited 16th May '11 7:02:28 PM by Jinjoman

Minecraft: If you don't need to use lava buckets, DON'T SELECT THEM. Or for that matter, have them in your weapon slots.

I damn near destroyed my indoor farm this way.

edited 17th May '11 4:43:56 AM by TsundeRay

Trying to relfect Ultima off myself in Final Fantasy VII. Wasn't happy afterward .

Dwarf Fortress:

If your butcher's is marked as being inside, then, for god's sake, designate a stockpile for body parts, or, failing that, a garbage dump so you can manually get rid of it; outside in either case. Miasma is NOT a good way to prevent your dwarfs from going insane.

edited 17th May '11 7:59:01 AM by TheHeroHartmut

Final Fantasy X

• Just because Tidus knows "Flee" doesn't mean use it every battle. Grinding is good when Seymour Flux is only two locales away.
• Make sure to use the damn Sphere Grid in the first place. Sphere Levels =/= conventional levels in other RPGs.
• Bio, Reflect, Slow, Haste: these spells are your friends.
• If you're fighting a magical-spamming enemy, have Auron Magic Break the **** outta 'em. To add insult to injury, use Delay Attack and Silence Attack as well.
• Be smart while using Mix.

Dragon Quest VIII:

• Make sure you have duplicates of items. Comes in handy with the alchemy pot and item crafting.
• Do not chase Rhapthorne until you've grinded on Neos and defeated enough Goldmans to make yourself richer than all the other kingdoms.

Fire Emblem

• Don't rely exclusively on Hector and Lyn to do all of your fighting for you.
• Always expect the unexpected. It sucks to have an archer come out of nowhere and snipe your Pegasus Knight when they're in need of medical attention.
• Use Orson as a meat shield. Don't let him killsteal and give his weapons to more deserving party members. It's ok, he ends up betraying you anyway.
• Supports are good, turning earnestly strong units into Game Breakers and buffing decent lesser characters as well.

Fighting games in general:

• Memorize patterns in regards to Bison, Gill, Rugal, Goenitz, Seth, etc. It's better to exploit loops in their A.I. then get flat out murdered.
• Train with a character at least once to get a good feel of what they can do, their strengths, and their weaknesses. This goes double for charge and hybrid characters.
• Jumping all the time spells instant death. So does Button Mashing.
• Always think two or more steps ahead. Catching a guy in midair with a Shoryuken feels really good when you lured him into jumping over your light Hadouken.

edited 17th May '11 9:02:00 AM by X2X

Hisoutensoku: Random Button Mashing works for Suwako. For everyone else, ehh not so much.

edited 17th May '11 9:08:06 AM by hnd03

DONT FIGHT SHAO KAHN HEAD ON.

Instead, exploit his inability to avoid taunting you from far away. Teleporting works too.

"You are nothi—!"(wham)

edited 17th May '11 9:11:39 AM by X2X

Unless you're fighting him in the challenge tower, in which case, you're probably screwed.

Yeah, pretty much.