Submitted 23 hours ago by eru777@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
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We’ve all played them. Backtracking, not knowing where to go. Going back and forth. Name some of these games from your memory. I’ll start: Final Fantasy XIII-2, RE1
Head Over Heels. Somehow I eventually managed to complete it, after much trial and error.
Bro nothing will ever beat fucking metroid for the nes.
Main progression literally behind random wall tiles you have to bomb
I had tried a few times before, but the first time I actually completed Metroid 1 was just after its remake, Zero Mission. The original game was included (also as a bonus in one of the Metroid Prime).
The thing is, the map structure is the same (just with extra levels, more puzzles and ability gating). Power-ups and bosses that already existed in 1 are at the exact same spots. Helps a lot if you can just remember where important stuff is supposed to be.
I’m gonna have to go super old school on this, because I think gradually games have gotten gradually better about this as the art form advanced. The absolute worst for this that I know of for this has to be “Below The Root” which, despite this point of criticism was a mind-blowingly advanced game for its time, arguably the first real open world CRPG. I have no idea how anyone could’ve legitimately completed the game without either using a guide or playing it over and over for years to learn every possible route of progress. I think the confusing nature of the world was in fact simply because nothing of that scale had ever really been attempted before and there was absolutely no precedent for how to adequately guide players through it.
The world was, for its time, truly immense and sprawling with a multiple screen interiors for most buildings, a full cave system hidden underground, ladders and secret platforms aplenty. You could converse and trade with various NPCs in houses and wandering around on many of the screens. And when I say “screens” you have to keep in mind I’m talking about something this size. That is not a lot of context to work with for navigation.
It’s also full of secrets and hidden things, and like many games of the time you will need to find and use pretty much all of them, in pretty much a specific order, to actually complete the game. I can’t even describe how insane the sequence of events you need to do to actually complete the game is, this guy uses a guide and save states but I think it illustrates the general lack of clear guidance in almost all cases. Combine that with the fact that you “die” easily, your inventory is extremely limited capacity, and did I mention you’re on a time limit? Because the “goal” of the game is to rescue a guy and if you take too long, he dies and you can’t win anymore!
Many naive players (myself included) weren’t even convinced it HAD an ending and just kind of played it endlessly like it was some early version of The Sims.
Space Quest
Came here to say the King’s Quest games, but really it’s any of the ** Quest* titles.
Any FF if you set it down for a month or two.
Gonna add Kingdom Hearts to this (cause Sqenix), because I was playing 1 as a preteen, beat Cerebus, got in the Gummi ship, and promptly got lost on where to go after. Bonus for stopping the game for months, picking up again, and being lost so I just never beat it. I plan to finish KH1 this summer after beating Metaphor Re:Fantazio, but I probably will reset to get that full experience factor 😅
“Welp, I will just start it over, I guess.”
Done this FF9 sooo many times
Currently my situation with VI
Beavis & Butthead (SNES/Genesis)
The original Final Fantasy. If you don’t have a walk-through open next to you I have no idea how you would naturally beat the game in a respectable time frame.
Everytime this game got ported, I’d retry it. I’d get over the bridge, get into town, fight the pirates, earn the boat… and get completely lost.
I think I managed to get the Earth and Fire Crystals and couldn’t figure out how to get to where the Water Crystal was. All of THAT was from literal wandering.
I’ve just finished Turok for the first time. Some of these levels are absurd.
Turok 1? Cause IIRC there’s only a couple areas where I feel you can get stuck unless you really think about things. For the most part you just explore all parts of the map until you find the right place to go.
The one that first comes to mind is the level where you’ve got to find a bunch of switches to raises “stairs” over a pit of lava. Again, IIRC. The other one is a place where you’ve got to know that falling off the cliff won’t kill you. But IIRC you can see the tree tops in that area which you wouldn’t see in an area where falling will kill you.
Yeah, the maze with button platforms is catacombs, that was definitely the one that had me stuck the longest time. Partly because of the maze-like structure and partly because it relies on a few climbable walls that are a lot less obvious than the usual and a very missable teleport tile.
There’s also plenty of places especially in treetop village where I was like “how the fuck am I supposed to go there?”. Turns out none of them is really necessary (and some might just not be normally accessible, even though they have items?) but that’s still confusing.
And even though I didn’t get lost too bad in it, Final confrontation surprised me. From the name I went into it expecting maybe a short level and the boss fight. That thing took forever to go through.
Unreal. I stopped playing when I couldn’t find the exit.
Zork. God forbid you forget to look mailbox
Chrono Trigger had me looking up guides as several points just to find a way to progress.
Uncharted 1
Shiet, I’m still having this problem with more recent Naughty Dog games. Getting the hint option that pops up when you’ve been stuck somewhere for a while in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered embarrasses me. Though I am thankful that it’s there.
Halo ce campaign.
I remember the newes jedi game feeling like this a lot, but it was also effectively immersive.
Lego Harry Potter
For fucks sake it was obtuse. I had to use a walkthrough to figure out what to do next multiple times just in the first episode
I’ve probably played a bunch, but the one that most comes to mind is Antechamber. Super weird FPS puzzle game ala portal but with a lot of mindbending illusions, non-Euclidean geometry, etc.
It’s got a metroidvania structure but without much guidance and a lot of stuff will just loop you back to where you’ve been if you’re not getting things right. At some point I was just completely lost. I couldn’t possibly think of where I haven’t tried to go or do. Worst part if I tried to look up a guide I don’t even know where I’d begin to look.
Uhg, I’m pretty sure I got 90% of the way through that game and then I took a break for some reason or another. Came back and was just completely lost. And just like you, cant even look up a guide because I don’t know where I’d begin to look.
Unlike the others here, I would argue that this is supposed to be this way - it’s a mind bending puzzle after all.
True to some extent, but I think there are limits to how enjoyable it can be to not even be able to find the puzzles in the first place. It also makes coming back to it super confusing.
Serious headfuck of a puzzle game.
Glad someone posted this game. It had no right be fucking good lol
Devil May Cry 4, but I was able to finish it. I couldn’t even complete Devil May Cry 3.
I was playing Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on Switch today because of the current free trial. At first, running around as Jango Fett in the Gamecube era was fun, but then shortly after getting my jetlack, I get completely turned around while chasing the bounty guy and spend over a half hour being lost. Called it quits after that.
Probably half life. It’s kinda intentionally tricky and meant to be some kind of puzzle
Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game Star Trek Judgement Rites Myst
I’ve installed Myst around 10 times and I haven’t gotten anywhere with it. I refuse to look at solutions because its a legendary puzzle game and I will not be beaten by it, but also I’m not at all sure what to do at all. I have never solved a single puzzle. I’m never even sure what’s interactive or not, or if I’m even looking at a puzzle or just seeing clues where there are none.
I should try it again soon…
Blue Prince for me right now.
Yeah it’s good in a lot of ways but especially early on you can just get stuck with no way to progress due to bad luck.
Can I say half life?
You certainly can say it, but I’m going to have to mostly disagree it’s a good example though because I felt Half-Life was very linear. What it did do a good job at was creating a convincing illusion of non-linearity, which I can certainly see some people getting lost in occasionally, but probably briefly (unless you have particularly poor navigation abilities which some people definitely do). It can be especially bad once you get to Xen, which felt deliberately confusing and not really the greatest section of the game for a lot of reasons.
My first playthrough of Half Life 2, I bailed from the boat when it got stuck on the wall in a section with lots of guns. I continued on foot through two more loading zones until I reached a section that required the boat to progress, so I walked all the way back to get it lol
Abiotic Factor, survival in a facility like Half-Life with crafting, survival and exploration. Really great game and it’s pretty hard understanding where to go
it looks like I get to be the one that mentions:
ET on Atari2600
Obviously, you go home.
Daggerfall
I got certainly the most lost I’ve ever been in a game in a Daggerfall dungeon, trying desperately to find the tiny wall tag that’s supposed to be the exit.
Those are torture.
Hard to recall them since I tend to drop them when I get stuck. If I look up a hint and find out it is something that never had any previous hints to figure out I also drop the game because nothing is more frustrating than guesswork.
Legend of dragoon
SNES Jurassic Park. NES Fester’s Quest
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
The Outer Worlds is a perfect example of this in the best way possible.